A/N: Sorry this took so long! Hopefully the longer chapter makes up for it!

The speeders jerked to a stop as the avalanche of rocks fell behind them, blocking the end of the valley. Hunter watched as Sparx leaped from his speeder and ran to the wall of stone, his fist pounding on one of the larger boulders.

"Lena!" he shouted, fear and worry lacing his voice.

Hunter activated his comm as he watched Sparx pace back and forth in front of him, looking for an opening in the pile of stone.

"Crosshair, do you see her? Is she alright?"

"I saw her fly off when the bolt hit her, but now I can't," he answered. "There's a bunch of droids heading towards where she likely landed."

Hunter cursed under his breath and turned his attention back to the anxious ARC trooper.

"We have to go. The Admiral needs medical attention. She wouldn't want us to delay that to try and rescue her."

Sparx whirled around to face him, pointing his finger accusingly.

"You've only known her for a day," he shouted. "How could you possibly know that is what she would want?"

"She risked her own life to go in and rescue the two of you," Hunter said, standing his ground. "Should we undermine that choice by allowing him to get worse or even die?"

Hunter could see that his words had struck a chord when Sparx's posture relaxed.

"You're right. We should go," Sparx said with one final glance to the pile of rocks behind them.

Hunter nodded before heading back to his speeder. Then, switching to the Batch's comm channel, he contacted Crosshair again.

"Cross?"

A moment of silence passed before the sniper answered.

"I'll get her. Go."


Lena groaned as she rolled over on the ground, pain shooting through her right arm. She wasn't sure what hurt more, the blaster graze or the impact with the ground. Pushing herself up onto her knees, Lena glanced to her left where the opening to the valley had been. There was now a giant pile of rocks blocking the entrance, having fallen from her grasp when she had been shot.

Concern shot through her, and she reached out in the force, searching for the familiar life signs of Sparx and Admiral Yung. Though his injuries had weakened his signature, she could feel the Admiral's life force next to one she recognized as Tech's once she touched it. Searching further, she could feel Sparx, Hunter, and Wrecker as well. Relieved that they were all alive, Lena let out a loud sigh of relief.

Lena placed one of her feet on the ground and pushed herself to a standing position. She hissed in pain as her arm shifted with the movement. The sound of clanking footsteps not far from her position prompted her to turn back in the direction of the Separatist base. She could see the shiny metallic heads of several B1 battle droids heading in her direction. Lena groaned again, this time in annoyance. As she reached for the saber at her belt, a deep robotic voice sounded behind her.

"Put up your hands and surrender, Jedi."

Lena did as she was told, glancing over her shoulder to see the larger B2 droid standing behind her. She had been so focused on the well-being of the others that she hadn't even noticed the approaching droids from the opposite direction. She counted the droids surrounding her, trying to think of a plan that would get her out of her current situation, preferably without being shot again. A beeping noise from the comm on her wrist drew her attention away from the droids. Moving as subtly as she could so as not to alert the droids to her movement, Lena pressed the button to acknowledge the message.

"Prepare yourself, Sunshine," Crosshair's voice said from her wrist.

"For what?" Lena asked.

As soon as the question left her lips, several droids around her dropped to the ground. A cloud of dust billowed up behind a rapidly approaching speeder bike. Before Lena or the other droids could react, the speeder passed between their ranks. Lena felt a thin armored arm wrap around her waist, yanking her feet off the ground. She let out an undignified squeak as she felt herself hauled onto Crosshair's lap, the speeder carrying them quickly through the forest away from the droids.

"That," Crosshair said with an amused chuckle.

Lena wrapped her uninjured arm around his waist, holding on as tightly as she could as Crosshair maneuvered through the trees.

"You could have warned me!" Lena shouted over the wind.

"I did," Crosshair stated, amusement still present in his voice.

He steered the speeder in the direction of the coordinates that Lena had agreed on with Keebo and Blaze the night before as the rendezvous point. Following a path that led up the side of a plateau, the pair soon reached the small group stationed there. Crosshair brought the speeder to a stop as several troopers ran in their direction.

Lena's gaze passed over the approaching faces, a variety of emotions flowing from each man. She could sense relief tinged with pride coming from Hunter, joy and an almost overwhelming sense of relief from Sparx, and finally concern and suspicion from Chip. The suspicion caused her to raise an eyebrow, but she filed her questions away to deal with later.

"Are you alright?" Chip asked once he had reached them.

Lena felt Crosshair's arms move from around her, freeing her from the cage they had formed. Sparx held out his hand, helping her back onto her feet. Before she had a chance to give Chip an answer, he turned her and gently grabbed her arm to look at it.

"It shouldn't be too hard to deal with, but it needs attention," he said before releasing her.

Lena glanced past the men, where she could see Admiral Yung laying on a cot. The top of his uniform had been removed, and she could see large bruises covering his torso. She walked away from the other men, crossing the space to where he was before kneeling at his side. She could feel several pairs of eyes on her as she lifted her left hand. Placing it on the Admiral's shoulder, Lena closed her eyes and focused on his unique signature, blocking out everything else around her. She tried to focus the energy surrounding the pair of them, attempting to pull it towards him to help heal his wounds.

It didn't take long for Lena to lose her grip on the energy she was trying to wrangle, and it quickly slipped through her metaphorical fingers. Her eyes flew open as she let out a frustrated grunt, removing her hand from the Admiral's skin. A light touch on her shoulder brought her attention to someone behind her. Lena looked up to see Chip standing behind her with a pitying look on his face.

"Come on, Lena," he said, "I know you want to help, but you need to be taken care of."

Lena moved away from his touch and got to her feet again.

"Forget about me," she said. "I want you to focus all of your energy on helping him and then prepare for incoming casualties from the battle."

Chip's expression hardened, and Lena could tell he was about to argue with her orders.

"Please, Chip. Whoever is in charge down there was after me. The Admiral suffered for that."

She saw his gaze shift down to her injured arm.

"But you're injured! You need to be cared for too."

"I got shot," she stated simply. "It's happened before, and I'm sure it will happen again before this war is over."

Before he could argue any further, Lena walked back in the direction of Sparx and the two other troopers. They seemed to be discussing something amongst themselves.

"Sparx, I want you to go down and join the battle. I'm sure Blaze and Keebo could use your assistance."

Sparx nodded in confirmation before placing his helmet on his head and walking away. Lena turned to face Hunter.

"How you choose to proceed with your squad is up to you, Sergeant."

"Wrecker, Tech, and I will head down with Sparx to help out where we can. Crosshair will stay up here and help from above. That also gives you another advantage as you'll have a lookout and more manpower should someone get the idea into their heads to come up here and attack."

"Good luck down there," Lena said. "Let's not prolong our presence here any longer than we have to. We've already been on this planet for too long."

Crosshair watched the rest of his squad follow the reg down the plateau's edge to join the battle on the ground below. Glancing over at Lena, he could see the worry etched on her face as she watched the medic work on Admiral Yung. He could also see the droplets of blood on the ground next to where she was standing. Deciding that the people down on the field could do without him for a few minutes longer, Crosshair walked over to where the speeder bikes had been parked. He rummaged in the bag attached to the bike Lena had initially been using until he found the medpack he had seen her stash there before they left. He pulled it out of the bag and walked over to Lena. Gently grabbing her uninjured arm, he dragged her to a rock large enough for them to both sit on.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Tending to your arm," he answered. "You're dripping blood onto the ground."

Lena glanced over to where she had been standing.

"I didn't even notice. It doesn't hurt that much."

"That would be the adrenaline," he said. "That will wear off."

Crosshair placed his helmet on the ground beside his feet and removed his gloves. He grabbed the knife off his belt and used it to cut away the torn parts of Lena's sleeve, pulling the charred bits away from the wound. He returned his knife to its home and pulled the bacta spray out of the medpack, spraying the mist over Lena's arm. Lena flinched slightly as the mist hit her skin. Once the mist had dried, Crosshair looked closely at her arm.

"This is going to leave a scar," he said. "You don't need stitches, but the burn from the shot will leave a mark."

"As long as my arm still works, I don't care," she replied.

"You'll be fine. He was overreacting a bit," Crosshair said, gesturing in the medic's direction.

"He does that," Lena said with a small laugh. "Chip thinks I'm made of porcelain."

"Is that why you're so pale?" Crosshair asked.

Lena rolled her eyes and gave him a small smile in response to his bad joke. Crosshair felt his heart skip a beat at her actions. He gave his head a small shake, focusing back on his task. He placed a bandage over the treated wound, pressing the sticky edges down to adhere to the uninjured skin surrounding the wound. Crosshair felt a shiver go down his spine as his bare fingers touched Lena's skin. His hands stilled, letting his fingers linger on her arm.

"Crosshair?"

His eyes shifted upwards to meet Lena's gaze. She stared at him with a questioning gaze. He quickly removed his hands from their position on her arm. Grabbing the last thing he needed out of the medpack, he shut it. Before she could react, he stabbed the stim injector into her shoulder above the wound. Lena grimaced at the action, catching her bottom lip between her teeth.

"Again, you could have warned me," she said once she had recovered.

"Then you would have tensed up, and it would have hurt even more."

"Thank you," she said, moving her arm around and wiggling her fingers.

"My pleasure, Sunshine."

Crosshair pulled his gloves back on and grabbed his helmet from the ground before getting to his feet. He turned and held the medpack out to Lena. She took it from his hand and stood as well. She gave him another smile before turning and walking away towards the busy medic. Crosshair watched her walk away, his gaze following her long braid that swayed as she walked. Once he realized that his gaze was traveling a bit too low and he had caught himself checking her out, he shook his head and looked away, slamming his helmet back onto his head. He needed to focus and do the job Hunter had assigned him.


Lena approached Chip as he left the Admiral's side to grab something from his kit.

"How is he?" she asked.

"I've done as much as I can here. I'll give him a stim to help him stay stable for now, but what he really needs is some time in a bacta tank."

Lena rubbed her chin as she considered everything that had led to the current situation. What had started as simply a battle against a chunk of the Separatist army had evolved into something much more. It made her wonder if it had always been more from the start.

"You know, you look like General Kenobi when you do that," Chip said to try and lighten the mood a bit. "All you're missing is the beard."

Lena pulled her hand away from her face, giving him a dirty look. The corner of Chip's mouth quirked up in a tiny smile at her expression. Despite the smile, Lena could feel his anxiety about the Admiral's condition. She needed to do something to speed up their return to the Monitor, which was waiting above the planet. The last ship that had been sent through had been the Admiral's, which the Separatists' forces had shot down. Lena was surprised that Clone Force 99 had made it to them unharmed.

"This battle needs to end quickly," she said to Chip. "I need to go down there and figure out what's going on."

Chip turned and grabbed her wrist, preventing her from walking away. His smile had faded entirely and had been replaced with a look of concern.

"Lena, you can't. Your arm…"

"My arm is fine," Lena said, pulling her wrist from his grasp. "Crosshair patched it up and gave me a stim. It barely even hurts."

Chip crossed his arms over his chest, raising his eyebrows at her.

"What about the rest of you?" he asked. "Sparx said you flew off the speeder and hit the ground pretty hard. You could have other injuries that aren't visible."

Lena spread her arms out wide and moved them around in all directions, making a show of bending at the waist and lifting her legs one at a time to prove to him that she was fine. She felt a bit sore from hitting the ground, but she could tell that nothing besides her arm had been injured.

"I'm fine, Chip. The worst thing is probably a few bruises."

"That could just be your adrenaline talking. I can't, in good conscience, approve you as battle-ready."

Before Lena could argue with him further, he grabbed the stim canister out of his kit and made his way back over to the Admiral. She sighed in frustration at his stubborn need to protect her from every little thing. She walked over to her speeder with an indignant huff and retrieved her binocs from the bag attached to her seat. She then made her way over to the edge of the plateau where Crosshair was lying on the ground, watching over the battle below.

Lena took a seat on the edge at his side and lifted the binocs to her eyes. She searched the battlefield below, trying to ascertain what was happening. Her eyes quickly found the glow of Keebo's lightsaber, following her padawan's quick movements. Blaze was fighting not far from Keebo, taking down one droid after another. Things seemed to be going well, but it almost seemed like there was no progress. More droids kept coming from various parts of the surrounding forest, a never-ending torrent of blaster fire upon her troops. Lena could see no sign of any living being on the side of the Separatists, which meant the man that had assaulted Admiral Yung must still be at the base.

"You're hovering," Crosshair said between his infrequent shots. "It's distracting."

Lena pulled the binocs away from her eyes and glanced over at him.

"Sorry, I just feel like I need to do something."

"Then do something."

Lena got to her feet and glanced back in Chip's direction.

"I'm not supposed to. Doctor's orders."

Crosshair shrugged and turned his attention back to the battlefield.

"Guess I was right about you being a coward then."


As soon as the words left his mouth, Crosshair regretted them. He could feel Lena's eyes boring holes into his helmet.

"Coward?" she said, her voice laced with offense.

Crosshair ignored her indignant reaction and let his eyes move over the battle below. He had screwed things up big time with that comment. Though Lena hadn't said anything else, he could tell she was angry. Focusing on the action below, his gaze was drawn by a large explosion. He could see an orange figure flying through the air, the bright green glow of a lightsaber flying even further as it let the person's hand.

Before it had seemed like a second had passed, Crosshair heard Lena's binocs hitting the ground. A gust of air hit him as she leaped off the side of the plateau, her braid streaming behind her. His eyes widened under his helmet as he watched her land gracefully at the base of the hill and run towards the battle at an inhuman speed. Holding his scope back up to his eye, Crosshair watched as Lena ran past Hunter in the direction of her fallen padawan. He saw Hunter flinch slightly at her presence before he turned to gaze in Crosshair's general direction.

"What is she doing?" he asked over comms.

"Good question," Crosshair replied.

Crosshair watched as Lena reached her right hand out, the metal tube that was Keebo's lightsaber flying through the air into her grasp. Shifting his gaze towards the Twi'lek, he could see that a group of commando droids had surrounded her. He aimed his firepuncher at one, but before he could take the shot, Lena came back into his field of vision.

With both lightsabers ignited, she leaped over the group, rotating in the air so she was upside down. She spun in a circle in a blur, both sabers pinwheeling around her, slicing the heads off all the droids in the circle. She turned in the air again before landing lightly on her feet. The whole move had only taken about 3 seconds.

Crosshair was impressed, which took a lot. It appeared that he had underestimated her. Satisfied that she had things under control, he returned to his task of picking off droids with his firepuncher.


Lena glanced around the area surrounding her, assuring herself that she had taken care of all the droids in the immediate vicinity. Turning to Keebo, she handed her back her lightsaber.

"Thank you, master. I'm afraid the explosion caught me by surprise."

"Just make sure you hold onto that," Lena said, preventing herself from repeating the line she so frequently heard Obi-Wan recite to Anakin about his lightsaber being his life.

Lena turned away from her padawan to look at the surrounding battle. Reigniting her saber, she entered the fray, slashing down every droid she came across. Before long, she met up with Blaze.

"What are you doing here?" he shouted over the noise of blaster fire. "Sparx said you were injured and out of commission."

"Something is going on, and I couldn't just sit up there doing nothing."

"What's going on?" he asked.

"That's what I intend to find out."

A nearby blast brought their conversation to an end, driving the two of them apart as they moved to avoid debris. Lena ducked and ran across the field, dodging and reflecting blaster fire as she went. A group of B2 battle droids to her right caught her attention. She moved to intercept them but stopped when she heard a deep voice from beside her.

"So, the lovely General decided to finally show her face," the voice said.

Lena turned to see a tall man standing a few feet from her. Before she could react, the man took a large stride forward and grabbed her left wrist. He bent her hand backward, causing Lena to cry out in pain as her saber fell from her grasp. His other hand shot out and grasped her around the throat, lifting her into the air. Lena flailed in his grasp, smacking at his arm with her hands, trying to push his arm away from her throat. But, with her feet dangling in the air rather than on solid ground, she had nothing to brace herself against.

"Count Dooku sends his regards," the man said, tightening his grip on her throat.

Lena choked from a lack of air, her hands still desperately trying to push him away. Just as her vision was starting to blur, she heard something hit the arm holding her aloft, followed by a loud bellow. The man released her, and she fell in a heap on the ground. A loud shout came from the left, and she saw a glimpse of white and purple armor plow into the man, tackling him to the ground.

Lena lifted her hand to feel her throat, coughing as she tried to get air into her lungs. Finally, her vision cleared, and she was able to see that it was Sparx that had knocked down her assailant and was now kneeling on the man's back, twisting his arms behind him. The man howled in pain as his injured arm was pulled behind him. Lena could see a blaster wound on the forearm that had been holding her in the air moments before.

"That's twice I've saved your skin, Sunshine," Crosshair's voice said from her wrist comm.

"Glad you're keeping score," Lena rasped in reply.

Lena got to her feet, brushing dirt off her pants. Reaching out, she pulled her saber back into her hand. She scolded herself for losing her saber minutes after telling Keebo to hold onto hers. Her padawan suddenly appeared at her side, touching her shoulder.

"Master, are you alright?" she asked.

Lena nodded before coughing again. As she started to say something to Keebo, a loud boom sounded in the distance. They both turned in the direction of the sound. A large cloud of dust erupted from the forest with another, even louder boom.

"What was that?" Keebo asked.

"I think Wrecker just set off his bombs," Lena replied.

The remaining droids around them fell to the ground as their signal was interrupted by the base's destruction. The clones let out a chorus of victory shouts. Loudest of all of them was Wrecker's booming laugh and cheering. Lena looked over to where he was helping Tech to his feet. Lena walked over to the pair, giving them a wave.

"Impressive explosion, Wrecker. Why'd you wait so long?"

"Hunter told me to wait until that guy showed up," he said, pointing at the man Sparx had hauled to his feet.

"A warning would have been nice, though, before you set it off," Tech muttered, brushing dirt off himself. "I was nearly hit by flying debris."

Wrecker smacked his brother on the shoulder, nearly knocking him over again, his booming laugh emerging again.

"Oh, you're fine. Quit whining."

Lena laughed at the brothers. She looked around the battlefield, scanning for any remaining enemies. Confirming that either blaster fire or electronic interference had taken out all the droids, she relaxed. Now that the battle was over, she could feel her adrenaline wearing out. She hurt everywhere, her throat and arm especially bad.

Her wrist comm beeped, and when she acknowledged it, she heard the voice of a clone trooper speaking to her.

"General, the scans indicate that the Separatist air patrols have failed with the destruction of the base. We can now safely send ships down to your position."

"That's good news. We need an immediate evac team to bring Admiral Yung back to the Monitor. He's been severely injured and needs more intense medical attention."

"Right away, ma'am."

As she finished speaking with the officer, Lena noticed a small group of troopers walking towards her. To be more accurate, two of the three were walking. Chip's gait was more of a stomping motion. He reached her side in record time, lifting her chin with his hand to get a good look at her throat.

"What happened to staying out of the battle?" he asked, anger tinging his question.

"Things changed."

The medic whirled around to face Crosshair, who had reached them along with Hunter.

"Why didn't you stop her from coming down here?" he asked.

Crosshair raised an eyebrow at his question.

"What did you want me to do? Tackle her?"

Chip glared at him before turning back to Lena.

"Had no problem putting your hands on her before," he grumbled as he moved to examine her arm.

Lena looked at him with surprise.

"Problem?" she asked.

"No," came his bitter reply.

Lena rolled her eyes at Chip's attitude. Her gaze shifted to Crosshair, who met her eyes without reserve.

"Impressive display," he said. "Knew you had it in you."

Lena had a feeling he was trying to backtrack and make up for calling her a coward earlier. She was almost tempted to let him get away with it.

"Nice shooting," she complimented back.

A smirk twisted his lips, but Lena could feel something coming from him that was anything but confident. Regret and concern hid behind that smirk. Sudden pain in her arm pulled her focus away from his gaze. She let out a yelp at the sensation.

"You bled through your bandage," Chip observed. "We'll have to patch you up again once we return to the Monitor. And check you for other injuries."

"After you get Admiral Yung taken care of."

"Yes, of course."

He released her arm and walked over to check on Keebo. Lena turned to look back at Crosshair, but he was conversing with Hunter, his back turned to her. She then looked to where Sparx was standing with the man that had attacked her. She walked over to the pair, looking up at the man.

"If Dooku wanted to get rid of me that badly, he should have just come himself."

The man sneered at her and spit at her feet.

"He said you weren't worth the trouble."

He didn't get much of a chance to say anything else as Sparx squeezed his injured arm, causing him to nearly double over in pain.

"Funny thing to say for a man that's going to spend a long time in prison and never had full use of one of his arms ever again," the ARC trooper said.

The sound of gunships over their heads brought all conversation to a halt as the evac team arrived. Lena left the man in Sparx's capable hands and walked away to help load injured troops onto the transports.

A/N: Please review and let me know what you think!