"Hold still now, and...done. You're good to go, Rose," the clone medic said.
Ruby pushes her shirt down to cover her torso. "Thank you, Coric."
"Just doing my duty, Cadet," Coric replied. "Now be off. I've got other duties to do." He bluntly said before walking off.
The redhead sighed at the clone's frank manner. Out of all the medical clone staff on board, Coric was a by the books clone. He was committed to the job, much like how it reminded her of Weiss is to her studies. But she could feel that he cared for the well being of his fellow clones and made sure everyone under his care was properly looked after.
Ruby left the med bay and made way for her room to relax and slowly die of boredom.
It had now been a week since they took down Grievous' listening Outpost. Every other day since then, Ruby has gotten the bacta wraps around her chest replaced with new ones to speed up the healing process. Aura helped a bunch but couldn't set ribs back into place without help. Another few days, Ruby could have these off, and another week she would be back participating in missions.
At this moment, they were returning to Coruscant for resupply and repairs. For the last week since the destruction of the listening post, the battle group and the Resolute had been two more engagements with the Separatists. They were running low on armaments and taken damage after the last fight. During both space battles, the young Huntress was on the Resolute's bridge with Admiral Yularen assisting in relaying battlefield information. She was even allowed to order a few reserve air squadrons to help others with their objectives. That alone made her feel helpful, despite not physically doing anything. It also gave her training in how to give commands to others and the pressure of combat.
So now they were on their way to the Galactic Core and would stay there for a week. Plenty of time to restock on supplies for the ship and relax.
She entered her room and sat at her workbench. In front of her was Ruby's sweetheart, the broken and disassembled sniper-scythe, Crescent Rose.
It was a hit close to home. One of the few things Ruby had left from Remnant. Looking it over, she could catch herself lucky at only the blade was sliced. If Grievous had gone down on the shaft, then it would be completely useless. As she demonstrated back at The Listening Post, its sniper mode was still useful, but she would need to make a new blade. Making one would be simple. Making one that could stand up against a lightsaber was another story. Her biggest problem she now faced was could she find materials? The redhead wouldn't know where to start looking.
Ruby asked the galactic natives for information on how to acquire lightsaber resistant metals. That hit a dead end. They explained that some worlds do have metals resistant to weapons like lightsabers but were not for sale in the open market. Governments that have them, restrict them heavily.
Anakin told her that there were only three ways you get them. One is to know the right people to acquire it legally. The second the criminal underground, Ruby turned that idea down but kept that thought. Lastly was to find and mine it yourself, which Ruby had no idea how to mine rocks or a lot of them apart. Even then, it would be unlikely to get a handful of the stuff for what she had planned. Some of the Clone Engineers offered to fabricate a new blade out of materials they had on the ship. They were asking for Crescent Rose's measurements so they could get started. Ruby wanted to remake the blade herself but agreed and gave the engineers the exact dimensions of her scythe blade. A day later, they came back with a new blade to outfit her scythe that fitted perfectly in place of the old one.
The teen pushes that project aside for the time being to focus on the next big project.
Her ship, Beacon of Hope, was finished and ready for space flight.
Julia had told her the other day they checked everything twice and came back green for take off. Ruby was so excited she couldn't wait to get back and see how her ship looked.
Then her communicator beeped. "Ruby here." The voice of Captain Rex answered her.
"Rose, we're nearing Coruscant. Head to the hanger. General Skywalker wants to see you before we arrive."
"On my way, Captain," Ruby replied before cutting the link.
She then reassembled Crescent Rose and put on her gear. Even if she wasn't going on a mission, the Galactic Core world was just as dangerous. Holstering her DC-17's, she made her way towards the hanger. Along the way, many of the clones greeted her. Word of mouth had spread among the clones of her and Ahsoka's run-in with Grievous, made them both popular among the clone ranks within the 501st.
It made Ruby feel embarrassed and often made her shy away from the attention.
Entering the hanger, the Huntress spotted the Twilight a few bays down and headed there.
Whiles Ruby walked to the freighter. She couldn't help but glance at the activity around her. Pilots and their crews were maintaining the gunships and fighters. Scout troopers were working on speeder bikes and AT-TEs. Short astro-mechs milling about, performing whatever duties pertain to them.
Things seemed so surreal that Ruby attended classes at one of Remnant's famous academies a little over a month ago. Now she was on the other side of the galaxy traveling in large space ships, helping to end a galactic war. Fighting alongside clones and smashing an army of robots.
Getting closer to Anakin's ship, Ruby spotted the Jedi in question talking with Captain Rex. As she neared them, they stopped their current conversation and faced her.
"And here she is," Anakin said as Ruby walked up to them. "How are you feeling, Ruby?"
"Feeling better, the medics say I'll be back to normal in a week at the rate I'm recovering," she answered.
The clone Captain just shook his head. "This Aura stuff is crazy, sir. Grievous gave me a black eye back on the listing post. An hour after we got back, it cleared up." Ruby nodded to confirm this.
"Aura can do great things, even a weak one like Rex's."
"Could we start giving unlocking the Aura to the clones then?" Anakin asked.
The thought made the scythe wielder ponder the implications. "It would be challenging to do so by myself. It's not easy bringing one Aura out. Even Rex's Aura was a bit difficult bringing it out because I had to look for it. Doing it for hundreds of clones. I'm not sure it would be possible for me to unlock them all."
"I understand, Ruby," Anakin said, a bit put down by it, but he understood. "I imagine something like that has never been done before?"
Ruby shook her head. "Never. People of my world always had ways of unlocking Aura. For me to open up everyone's Aura by myself? I'd likely burn myself up."
"That we don't need." Anakin nodded his head in agreement. "You're too important only to be tossed aside like a tool. You've got loved ones waiting for you back home and your people to find out in the galaxy."
"That's right. I'll find a way home one day."
"Anyway, we should be close to Coruscant. When we land, there is someone that wants to meet you. After you meet her, Rex can take you to your ship." He said, gaining the Huntress's attention.
"Who?" Ruby asked.
"A senator within the Republic Senate. You'd like her," Anakin didn't say anymore as the three went into the Twilight's cockpit to find Ahsoka waiting for them.
When the Padawan saw Ruby, she was by her side, starting up a conversation. Anakin saw that before taking the pilot's seat. For the last week, the two had been spending a lot of time together. Whether it was training or off time, they were almost always near each other.
Jedi were not supposed to form attachments. As Ahsoka's teacher, he may have just failed her in that area and make another version of him inside his Padawan. The thought amused him a bit but also frightened him. The galaxy wouldn't know how to handle two Skywalkers.
"By the way, Ruby." Anakin began. "Rex tells me that some of the clones want to volunteer to join your crew onboard your cruiser. Know anything about this?"
That made Ruby think before speaking. "Kinda. I told Domino about how understaff my ship is, and they wanted to help me. Saying they want to repay me for saving them when we first met." She rubbed the back of her head, feeling slightly embarrassed.
Anakin raised an amused eyebrow. Captain Rex spoke next. "They aren't the only ones. Word spread within the 501st, and I've got a platoon's worth of Troopers wanting to get on board with you." That shocked Ruby. "I'll be going with and taking you to your ship to look it over. See if it's up to Republic standards. If it's not, I will deny their transfer request," he stated.
Ruby stayed silent after that. She was thinking about how to respond to that.
They soon exited out of hyperspace and got clearance to disembark. The Twilight flew out of the Resolute's hanger and into Coruscant's atmosphere and areal traffic. It wasn't long before they landed at the Republic ship yards. As Anakin, Ahsoka, and Ruby disembarked, they found a couple of people waiting for them.
Ruby instantly spotted Obi-wan but didn't recognize the two women with him.
One looked to be Ruby's height, her face looked human, but she had blue skin pigment instead. Her hair reminded her of Wiess with how white is stood out. The other was human and stood slightly taller than Ahsoka, wearing some strange aqua green dress with chestnut hair tied up in a bun. When she turned to them, revealing her brown eyes, she smiles brightly.
"Anakin!"
"Padme! It is good to see you," he greeted his secret wife.
"You as well, you too, Ahsoka," Padme said to the Padawan.
"And to you, Senator Amendola," Ahsoka greeted.
"Please, Ahsoka, we're friends, call me Padme," Padme responded before turning to the last girl in the group. "Anakin, is this who you've been telling me about?" Anakin nodded.
Ruby stayed silent through the greeting when the Padme walked up to her. She was about to greet her but was quickly enveloped in a hug. Ruby blinked owlishly before looking up at the sad expression the Senator had.
"Anakin told me your story, Ruby. I've already decided to help provide whatever support I can to help you find your homeworld and your missing people."
"What?!" Was everyone's response.
"Umm, not to sound rude to you, but I don't even know you for a minute, and already you want to help," said Ruby as the hug was broken off. "How do you know me, and who are you?"
The Senator looked a bit embarrassed at her actions and stood up straight and gave a slight bow. "Apologies for that. Anakin has told me much about your story, Ruby Rose. Where you come from, what you've been through, and what you've done to help others." The more the Senator talked, the more embarrassed Ruby felt before looking over where the Jedi stood. Anakin, with his arms crossed over one another, looking unbothered, Obi-wan once again with his hand covering his face, and Ahsoka looking at her Master with a raised eyebrow.
"As for who I am," the woman continued. "My name is Padme Amendola. I'm a member of the Galactic Senate and Senator of Naboo." Padme bowed in greeting.
"Hello, I'm Ruby, Ruby Rose. I'm a Huntress in training from the Kingdom of Vale, of the Planet Remnant." Ruby bowed in returned.
The blue girl walked next to Padme. "Ruby, this my friend and fellow Senator within the Senate, Riyo." The Blue woman bowed in greetings.
"Greetings Ruby, I'm Riyo Chuchi. I'm the recently appointed Senator of Pantora and its people," the now-named Riyo greeted.
"Nice to meet you, Riyo," Ruby responded before turning to Padme. "You say you wanted to help me, how?"
"As a Senator of my world, I can provide resources to help in looking into the location of your world and contribute to adding supplies you may need on your journey."
That shocked Ruby that this person, who represents an entire planet, would do something like this for her.
"And can you do that, Padme?" Anakin asked his secret wife.
"I've already discussed this with the Queen, and she's in favor of this. She wants to find and establish diplomatic relations with Ruby's people and open a new hyperspace route for future trade. Along with other important topics."
The Naboo Senator looked back at Ruby. "As young as you are, Anakin explained your involvement with assisting the Republic in a manner similar to that of a Jedi and a mercenary. The Huntsman, you call them?" Ruby nodded.
"Don't call us mercenaries, please," Ruby replied. "Yes, we do take jobs we are provided, but we don't come off as killers for higher." Huntsman is supposed to be the kingdomes shield. Making them out to compare them to thugs for hire is an insult.
"Of course, I'm sorry." Padme apology quickly. "With the Huntsman, we're hoping that we can call on their aid and possibly bring a quicker end to this war."
The idea of enlisting help from her homeworld did sound appealing to Ruby. She wanted to get her team back and see her family. But would the Republic provide aid to her people during a time of war? Especially with how Vale and Beacon looked at the Vytal Festival.
It was then Obi-wan stepped into the conversation. "Apologies, senators, as much this topic is fascinating to hear, but we must move along. The Council has requested Anakin and Ahsoka back at the Temple for their next assignment. Ruby, the Council, has nothing for you at this moment but wishes your presence at a later time."
"I was going to head to my ship and see how things are going. If you guys need me, I'll be there." Ruby jerked her thump behind her.
"Then we shall be off, farewell, Miss Rose."
Obi-wan walked with Anakin walking beside him, but not without him giving her one last winning smile he usually gives out. Ahsoka waved at Ruby, to which she returned.
The Senators watched the Jedi leave before turning back to Ruby. "So Ruby, will it be possible to see your ship?" Asked Padme.
"Sure," Ruby shrugged, seeing no problem with them seeing the Hammerhead. "Captain Rex is flying me over. You can join us," she offered.
"Could we?" Riyo inquired, looking a little excited.
"As my sister would say, 'The more, the merrier.'" The red Huntress replied.
The three boarded the Twilight and informed Rex of the plan. It wasn't long before the ship was in the air and headed for the planet's industrial district.