A/N: This song is dedicated to anyone who has lost someone or is even just going through a hard time. My heart is with all of you and I hope my stories can bring back a little joy to your life.

Connection:

Meanwhile, somewhere in the British Columbia Coastal Mountains…

"When your tears are spent on your last pretense

and your tired eyes refuse to close and sleep in your defence.

When it's in your spine like you've walked for miles

and the only thing you want is just to be still for a while."

Tezza Stranik paused the movement of the soft bristled brush over her horse's shiny red coat as the haunting lyrics playing over the speakers struck a chord deep in her chest. The male singer's heartfelt words felt like they'd been ripped from her very soul. She resumed the smooth movements of her arm, stroking with the direction of the short fur. It's like he's singing about my life. Some days, all I want to do is go to sleep and never wake up.

As the chorus filled with gorgeous harmonies rang through the empty stable alleyway, the young woman touched a button on the watch sized mini computer strapped around her wrist, remotely turning up the volume on the barn radio. CeCe's ears perked forward as the music caught his attention from the drowsy half nap he'd settled into at the familiar grooming routine.

"Oh way oh way oh oooo. Oh way oh way oh oooo.

And if your heart wears thin I will hold you up

and I will hide you when it gets too much.

I'll be right beside you,

I'll be right beside you."

"You like the song too, hunh?" the girl murmured to the tall, Warmblood horse that had been given to her by her parents as an eighteenth birthday present only two days before they and her little brother had fallen ill from the super virus that had swept around the globe in only three days and wiped out more than half of the planet's population.

That had been almost one year ago exactly, since today was her birthday again.

Earth's systems had survived, just, and everything was basically back to normal again, but Tezza had been left without a family and very very broke since her parents had been self employed as horse trainers, which made just enough to pay the bills for their family, and they'd used all of their spare cash to purchase CeCe for her, a promising young show jumping prospect, from the breeding farm they worked for.

After finishing high school, she'd abandoned her dream of becoming a professional singer, and had taken up the job of training the young horses at Never Too High Stables in replace of her father and to pay for CeCe's board. Another trainer from Germany had been hired to ride and compete the older horses, which is where almost everyone was right now, two full trailers full of talented horses having left just that morning for a show in Langley.

Tears stung her eyes at the words of the song. No one is beside me anymore. No one.

"Well, except for you, CeCe," she whispered, and one of his ears flicked back, showing that the bay gelding had heard her.

The next verse hit her even harder.

"When you're overwhelmed and you've lost your breath

and the space between the things you know is blurry nonetheless.

When you try to speak but you make no sound

and the words you want are out of reach but they've never been so loud."

That is sooooo me. So me. I'm so alone on a planet of billions.

Swallowing back the urge to cry, and with no one around to hear her but the barn cats and her beloved horse, the orphan girl sang along with the chorus that she'd already memorized after just one hearing, her clear soprano voice harmonizing seamlessly with the all male band. And she continued to sing whenever the words repeated themselves as she finished up making her horse sparkle, brushing out his black mane and tail.

That was beautiful, she thought when the last note trailed away into silence, still a little misty eyed. I'm definitely adding that to my playlist. I wonder who…

The radio D.J. cut off her thought as he answered it.

"That was Beside You by Vancouver's own Marianas Trench from all the way back in 2009, folks!"

Wow, that's OLD!

"What a tearjerker, eh?"

Understatement.

"Let's all thank Samantha from Fernie, B.C. for that one. Just another example of lost gems from so long ago and why we started the 'You Name It We Play It' hour dedicated to forgotten Canadian music here on 99.9 The Coast FM. Up next, from 2097, a song by the Grammy winning artist, Double Dawn, called The End of Dreams."

The radio started playing another haunting melody which Tezza was already familiar with, the song already on her playlist. She sang along as she efficiently tacked up CeCe, and by the time it was over, she was doing up the chinstrap on her helmet as she led her horse down the hallway and towards the outside world, CeCe's big, shod feet clip-clopping rhythmically down the cement floor behind her.

Just before they reached the circle of sunshine on the floor, the D.J. came back on, sounding a little breathless and very much excited. Curious, Tezza stopped to listen.

"Breaking news! A wormhole just appeared in space above Earth! Yes. I said wormhole. It's not much further away from Earth than the moon is and is already creating havoc with the satellites on our side of the planet, so don't be alarmed if you temporarily lose your internet service. Fortunately, the International Space Station was in orbit away from the spacial anomaly when it appeared, so it hasn't been affected. Authorities say there's no need to be alarmed yet, so you should continue on with your life as usual."

Tezza snorted at that. As if humans aren't going to go out of their minds with panic. The meteorite scare of '39 and the pandemic last year was proof enough of that. Fortunately, she was out in the middle of nowhere (the nearest town a good five minute flight away) and had just made her weekly shopping trip yesterday, so she didn't have to worry about the inevitable mad hoarding and screaming that was undoubtedly taking over the big cities like Vancouver already.

"You may be thinking this is a hoax, but it's the honest truth, folks. I saw a video taken by the Space Station just minutes ago and this is the real deal. NASA is posting the video on various social medias, so you should be able to see it for yourself any second now. Authorities want me to remind you again that there is no need to panic. The anomaly is far enough away from Earth that it won't affect us in any drastic fashion, so stay calm out there, people, and try to remember how to be the civilized race we claim to be. I'll keep you posted on any updates that may arise, so stay tuned."

Tezza shook her head in amused disbelief as she walked on and commercials starting playing like normal. The rest of the world could basically fall apart and she'd still be doing the exact same thing; because someone had to take care of the horses, no matter what was happening elsewhere. She thought about looking up the wormhole video on her wrist comp, but decided to leave it for later while she ate lunch. For now, she just wanted to enjoy the peace and quiet of the practically abandoned barn, the birds chirping merrily in the pine trees, and the warm sunshine beating down on her from above.

Leading CeCe over to the mounting block in front of the barn, she tightened the girth and pulled down the stirrups, then tossed the reins over his head. He'd perked up from napping mode to frisky mode now that they were outside, but he stood obediently still as she climbed up the two steps and then swung up on to his back. Patting him on the neck, she murmured, "Good boy."

Squeezing slightly with her calves she sent him off in a brisk walk down the driveway. "What do you think, boo? Shall we go for a little hack around the pasture first before doing some ring work?"

He didn't answer her, of course, but his ears pricked even further forward and his pace picked up when she pointed him towards the trail that led through the trees that covered more than half of the hundred acre horse farm. Tezza took that as a yes, and a small smile curved her lips as the steady rhythm of his walk soothed her distraught emotions from earlier.

After working with horses fulltime for the better part of a year, Tezza didn't regret giving up her dream of becoming a singer. The gentle animals were exactly what she needed to fill the empty chasm in her soul and she couldn't see giving them up now even if she were to magically be 'discovered' out here in the middle of nowhere.

Tezza raised her face to the sun as it dappled through the trees, enjoying the spring sunshine after four straight days of showers.

Under her, CeCe walked enthusiastically, ears flicking all over the place as the gelding checked out the forest around them, occasionally snorting at a bird or squirrel is they walked past. Tezza laughed as the four year old horse spotted a particularly suspicious looking tree stump and gave it a good eyeball as he sidled past it. She gave him a reassuring pat on the neck. "It's just a stump, buddy. Just like a hundred other stumps that you've seen."

He flicked an ear back at the sound of her voice and relaxed again into a smooth walk.

The first thing that made her realize that something was wrong the sudden tension running through every muscle in the horse under her and the sudden pounding of his heart, that she could literally feel through his thick hide and her leather riding boots. And then came the far off sound of galloping horses coming from the pasture to the right.

Tezza immediately tensed as well and stopped CeCe, trying to see through the trees. He bounced under her, prancing on his toes, determined to be excited if the other horses were. He whirled around, tracking the running herd, and snorting like a raptor from one of her favourite old movies, Jurassic Park.

Tezza held him in place with a firm hand on the reins and by keeping her legs clamped around him, not letting him run back down the path like he was inclined to do, to follow the galloping herd.

And then the sound of a whining engine registered, with some background crackles that didn't sound good at all.

Peering up through the tops of the tall evergreen trees, Tezza could just make out a flash of yellow and what might be flames go streaking by, over the young horse pasture.

"Oh, shit," she muttered as she let CeCe power trot back down the path towards the barn. Someone was crashing their plane and she had a bad feeling they were doing it on the stable's property. Please, just don't let it be in one of the pastures, she thought, because the horses were obviously freaked out enough as is.

Ten seconds later, Tezza winced at the sound of something hitting the ground hard echoed through the trees.

Yep, they crashed all right.

After what felt like too long, but unwilling to let CeCe run home because that set a bad precedent that was dangerous to deal with, they finally emerged from the forest and Tezza got her first clear view of the plane that had crashed.

It was sitting at the end of the sand ring, smoking, a trail of ruined jumps and a deep gouge in the expensive white sand footing behind it. In the pasture that abutted the ring, a group of twenty young horses were staring at the wreckage with big eyes, curious ears, snorting nostrils, and raised tails.

CeCe wasn't much better, prancing forward only at her encouragement.

And then a man in white and yellowish orange streaked... armour? emerged from the cockpit of what she realized was something more like a fighter plane than a personal vehicle. She'd never seen anything like it in real life, so her first thought was that it must be from one of the overseas air forces.

The man climbed over the top of his fighter and popped another cockpit bubble, soon emerging with another man in white and blue armour. That one looked rather wobbly on his feet, wasn't wearing the full helmet the other one was, and was definitely bleeding from a head wound. That's not good.

By this point, Tezza and CeCe had made it to the fenceline of the jumping ring. "Hey!" she called. "Just give me a second and I can help you!"

Cody and Rex's heads turned towards the female voice. Rex squinted, trying to get the blurry image that wobbled around from afar to focus as he tried to make sense of the words. "What did she say?" he asked his brother, sitting on the edge of the opening into the gunner's seat.

Cody shook his head as he studied the female via the zoom function in his helmet. She was on one of the handsome four legged creatures, wearing a black helmet that covered the top of her head. Her face was pretty in a soft way, with big eyes he couldn't quite make the colour of yet, a cute little nose, bow shaped lips, and a medium skin tone that was neither light nor dark, but holding a rich tan, much like his. "Don't know, vod. Never heard that language before. But I have to assume it's an offer of help or maybe a 'what the kriff are you doing, crashing your fighter into my land?'"

Rex chuckled and then winced, putting a hand up to hold his pounding head together.

Cody glanced at Artoo, who was watching them with his version of concern, making soft trilling sounds. (He always found it funny that a droid with no face could be so expressive.) "Hey, you ever hear that language before?"

Artoo shook his dome, beeping out a, "Nope."

"Great." Cody waved at the female, acknowledging that they heard her, but not calling anything back, because it was obvious they'd never understand each other anyway. Gripping Rex's helmet that he was still holding, he jumped down to the ground. "Come on, vod, Artoo. No point staying up there. This wreck isn't flying again anytime soon."

Rex groaned exaggeratedly but slid over to the edge of the Y-Wing as Artoo flew up and out of his spot.

Tezza was in the process of trotting CeCe around the edge of the ring so she could get to the gate of the arena when he startled, leaping forward. She settled him back down and looked back at the ship, just catching sight of a robot flying out of the ship and landing on the ground beside the men.

Whoa. That was new tech she hadn't seen before. Robots were quite common now, doing housework etc., but this was a new design that seemed kind of chunky, but she assumed it had some purpose. And then, a memory from years ago clicked and she gawked at the robot. That looks like R2-D2 from Star Wars! They must have copied the design and made it work. That is so awesome!

Tezza rode through the gate, and then jumped off of CeCe, pulling the reins over his head as she led him, his feet reluctantly moving forward. (He wasn't a fan of the armour covered men or the rolling robot, if his snorts were anything to go by.) "Chillax, chickenhead," she muttered to her horse. "They're not going to eat you."

She met the little group of strangers about halfway between the gate and the still smoking ship. One man was helping the injured one walk, their arms slung over each other's shoulders, and a second helmet tucked under his arm that matched the other guy's armour. They were basically covered from head to toe in the white stuff, with only strips of black cloth showing through between the plating. Looking from them, to the robot, to the ship they'd crashed, more memories from her childhood resurfaced and Tezza nearly squealed with excitement. They're like a whole cosplay of the Clone Wars show! They look like Cody and Rex and Artoo! This is the coolest thing ever!

And they crashed in MY sand ring!

Okay. Not my ring. But whatever. Close enough.

She peeked at the man in white and orange, wondering what he looked like under that helmet. Commander Cody always was her favourite, as CeCe's name would attest. The man playing Rex seemed handsome enough, but with all the blood on the side of his face, and the grimace of pain scrunching it up, it was hard to tell for sure.

Which reminded her that gawking over their costumes wasn't really a priority right now; taking care of the injured one was.

"Hi," She said with a friendly smile, looking from one man to the other before focusing on the unhelmeted one who had a very military hair cut with only a bit of white blond fuzz covering the top of his head, just like Captain Rex. "Come with me to the barn and we can get you cleaned up," she said, pointing towards the building in question.

Rex shook his head at the woman. "I have no idea what you just said, but a place to sit would sure be nice."

"Oh dear," Tezza said after she listened to the words that sounded like no language she'd ever heard. "That's going to be a problem." Where in the world are they from? It almost sounds like Latin, but no one actually talks in that language anymore, as far as I know.

So she settled on exaggerated hand gestures, pointing towards the barn and then the injured one's head.

Fortunately, the men nodded, at least seeming to get the point she was trying to make.

So Tezza turned and led the way to the barn, walking slowly so they could keep up with her and CeCe. (Who was still giving them a suspicious eye, but he wasn't trying to run away from them anymore, so that was an improvement.)

Cody, Rex, and Artoo followed the woman into a stable that wasn't that much different from any other animal stable that they'd seen on countless worlds across the galaxy. The only real difference was that these animals were actually quite beautiful instead of butt ugly like most riding animals, and the stable itself was kept meticulously clean. She pointed them to an open door that turned out to be a refresher room, toilets and sinks being more or less recognizable no matter what precise shape they came in.

"You'll find first aid supplies in the cabinet under the sink," Tezza said automatically before remembering they wouldn't get any of it. Sighing, she simply gestured at the space and waited a second to make sure they got the idea, nodding when the injured one settled himself on the closed lid of the toilet. "I'll be right back," she said just before leading CeCe to the crossties to untack him as fast as possible.

Cody looked around the small refresher for a moment, studying the space. Beige painted walls, duracrete floor, white porcelain sink and loo. Cupboards. Pretty standard, all things considered. He put Rex's helmet on the counter beside the sink and then added his own, rubbing a quick hand over his short hair.

Then he dug into his utility belt and held up a couple of stim shots for Rex to see. "You want a pain killer and an anti nausea?"

"Please," Rex groaned. "Shabla, this sucks," he muttered, not quite willing to admit just how much his head hurt. He'd been hurt much worse, of course, but not being able to focus properly was the most annoying injury. He winced as Cody stabbed him in the neck with the stims, and then relaxed as they immediately kicked in, helping his situation drastically. That's one thing I'll never complain about in regards to the Republic army; they know how to keep their soldiers going.

Cody found a roll of soft white towels and tore a couple off. Then he took a second to figure out how the faucet on the sink worked, smiling when it turned on as his hand moved under it. Efficient. He liked that. Pulling off his gloves so they didn't get wet, Cody ran the towels under the water and then turned back to Rex. "Kay, vod, let's see what's under all that blood you're leaking."

Rex smirked at his brother. "Hopefully more than just air."

Cody grinned as he started dabbing at the blood slowly dripping down the side of Rex's head. "You're definitely feeling better if you can make a joke."

Tezza switched CeCe's bridle for a halter, tying him up in the tack up stall, and then undid his girth and pulled his saddle and breastplate off in one minute flat. She hung the tack up on holders on the wall, undid her helmet and hung that up too, and then rushed back to the bathroom.

She found the Artoo lookalike hovering just outside the doorway, watching her. It beeped at her in a curious tone that sounded just like he did in the TV shows and movies, making her smile, and giving her the impression that the robot was possibly smarter than she'd expect. "Someone put a lot of work into you," she told the silver and blue painted robot as she walked past it and into the bathroom, making the space seem even smaller. (The two large men took up most of it.)

"How's it going in here?" she said conversationally, just because.

The men looked at her with identical smiles, making her blink in surprise as she saw the second man's face for the first time.

They're twins! Or at the very least brothers of a similar age. Except for the difference in hair colour (the other had dark brown hair cut military short as well), and a wicked scar, that she assumed was painted on, traversing around the darker one's left eye just like Cody's, they looked nearly identical. They had tan skin over handsome bone structure and lovely golden brown eyes that smiled along with their mouths and both bore a striking resemblance to the clones from the cartoon show. Which meant that they also didn't look much like the one man who played all of the clones in the movies, but that was okay; the cartoon clones were much more drool-worthy in her opinion.

"Well, aren't you two a couple of tall glasses of water on a hot day," she murmured, smiling back, confident that they didn't understand a word she was saying. (She'd never have had the guts to say it otherwise.) After looking back and forth between the men again, seeing that the blood was now cleaned up from the blond one's head and the wound had stopped bleeding, she found herself focusing on the brunette, eyes drawn to him.

In his armour, he looked massive, and he loomed over her without being intimidating, which she found very exhilarating. The top of her head only came up to his collarbone, which she thought was perfect and would make for a very comfortable hug, so she could rest her cheek on his pec. (She had no doubt he had strong pecs under that armour; he exuded strength and virility.)

Her lips parted on a breath as a mental image of her being held in his arms flooded her mind, sending a tingle of awareness through her. Holy smokes, that's new! Tezza had never met a man that did that to her that wasn't a fantasy from a movie or something like that.

Now blushing lightly, Tezza looked up at his eyes again and found that he was checking her out every bit as much as she was checking him out. Holy fire alarm, Batman! Someone throw some water on me, because I'm getting hotter by the moment!

Cody focused on the woman, getting his first good look at her now that she wasn't wearing a helmet and he wasn't as worried about Rex. As he'd thought before, she had a young looking round face that was softly feminine. And now he could see that she had a great deal of curly dark gold and bronze hair twisted into a sloppy bun at the back of her neck, and captivating blue eyes with gold flecks around the edges, making them nearly hazel. Her upper body was covered in a loose fitting, short sleeved, royal blue t-shirt, exposing soft looking arms that had a definition of muscle under the tanned skin. The shirt gave him a good idea of the size of her chest, despite the looseness, and he found it quite satisfactory indeed. Her lower body was adorned in some sort of tight fitting faded blue material that hugged her shapely hips and thighs in a mouth-watering fashion, and she was wearing tight black boots that came up to the knee, giving him a fairly good idea about the size of her small feet and her calves as well.

Cody found her utterly captivating and he wanted to pick her up and kiss her, and then see if she was as snugly as she looked, wishing he could wrap his hard body around her soft one.

What the frag?! Cody gave himself a mental smack, wondering where such thoughts had come from. In all of his thirteen years, he'd never been more than vaguely interested in females, certain that the Kaminoans had genetically engineered him and his brothers so that the urge to mate like most beings experienced was essentially missing.

There were exceptions, of course; Rex being one of them. But thanks to working with Skywalker, Rex was already so far beyond his original conditioning that Cody wasn't surprised at all that he'd learned to love the little togrutan Commander. Not that Rex had ever confessed to such a thing, but Cody had eyes, and he'd often caught Rex gazing after Tano with a look of such longing that it nearly physically hurt to see.

Cody knew his own conditioning was getting sketchier by the year as the war dragged on and he spent more and more time with the impulsive and emotional Generals, but he never would have guessed that he'd so instantly fall for a woman like this.

His eyes met hers and they shared some sort of endless magical acknowledgement of their awareness of each other before she flushed becomingly and looked down at the floor, mumbling more words he didn't know. Cody was determined to fix that as fast as possible, since he had a gift for languages, like many of his brothers.

He wanted to know what she was saying, and his primal instincts were clamouring at him to tell her she was beautiful and ask her if she was perhaps looking for a mate.

Thank the stars he wasn't ruled by his instincts, right?

A/N: Yes, this is a shameless plug for my favourite band, Marianas Trench. Please check them out, they deserve so much more recognition than they get. They're amazing singers with wonderful harmonies and inventive music. If you like Bohemian Rhapsody, try their new song, 'The Killing Kind' or the classic 'Masterpiece Theatre III'. If you like emotional pop ballads, try 'Who Do You Love' or 'Glimmer'. If you like fun rock, try 'All To Myself' or 'Shake Tramp'. And if you like funny music videos, try 'Celebrity Status' or 'Here's to the Zeros'. Or if you like a beautiful video with a bit of a story inspired by the Goonies, try, 'Astoria.'

And if you're up for a bit of a marathon with an amazing storyline, watch the following videos in this order: 'Fallout', 'Desperate Measures', 'Stutter', 'Haven't Had Enough', and finally the one that explains all the craziness you just watched, 'By Now'.

If you actually read through all that, then actually watched them all as a great way to kill time whilst locked in your house because of Covid or something else entirely, then, YAY!