Hero: So we reached the end of our first arc. We haven't quite hit our stride, so look forward to improvements.

Santo: Or, well…"Improvements". ,

Hero: We're experimenting with stuff like tone and mood, depending on the world and some other fun tools. It's been rather entertaining.

Santo: I mean…there's only so much you can do with a dumpster on fire. Tools or no tools. ,

Hero: Yes, but we make it an aesthetically pleasing fire, at the very least.

Santo: Touché. Anyways, hope you lot like the thing. We worked…not exactly hard on it, but we tried.

…Ish.


Chapter 3 - Star Wars: The Clones Wars 3

Santo P.O.V.

The defense had gone well, if I were to say so myself.

Yes. As the main architect of said defense, it could be that my view was slightly biased. But one man along with two and a half clones holding off wave after wave of differently armed battle droids for what the chrono at the edge of my HUD told me was the better part of five minutes? Not bad.

Time was a funny thing in a fight. Seconds stretched into an eternity while minutes became an eyeblink. The human body was frankly not built for long conflicts like that. Most fights were over in a matter of seconds, with all participants being for the most part exhausted by the intensity of their movements.

A fight to the death? Doubly so.

So a five-minute continuous close range firefight? It felt like the last time I sat down was sometime several days ago, and it would not be unfair to say that I had made great strides toward finding God as Blaster Bolts sizzled far too close to my head or shrapnel punched me in the gut.

The defense had gone quite well, thank you very much.

"I'm out!" Random shouted and ducked, a blaster bolt smashing the concrete where his head had been a moment before.

Shit. That's the last of the clones that had any ammo.

I took a peek over the pockmarked piece of half-slagged scrap metal I'd been using as the cornerstone of my defense in depth, and beheld the craters, puddles of cherry-red half-melted asphalt, what had to be at the very least a couple hundred droids in various stages of disassembly, and at least four puddles of faintly glowing green ooze.

I looked forlornly at the corpse of my DC-17m, blasted into at least four separate pieces after I used it to block a rocket fired by a B2. Surprisingly enough it had still been able to shoot, it only really broke broke after I used it to cave that same B2's head in.

I pulled out my pistol and shot the last three B1s that had been keeping Random pinned down. And finally, there was quiet.

I knelt back down and checked the power pack. Three shots, more than enough. Now, all we needed was for nobody to tempt Murphy an—

"Looks like that was all of them," Locket muttered.

I turned my head slowly to send Locket a withering glare. He didn't seem all that affected by my glare, probably because of my helmet. Could I maybe change the slight glow of my visor to another color?

The sound of scraping metal made me snap my head forward again, just in time to see a pair of Droidekas roll in, stand up, and activate their bubble shields.

"Force-dammit Locket!" I hissed.

Okay. I can deal. I leaned out of cover and took a potshot at one of them. The bolt bounced harmlessly off their shield. I was forced to duck back under the withering staccato plasma fire they shot back at me.

"Okay, their shields are working perfectly fine," I muttered and reached for my grenade pouch.

The utterly empty grenade pouch, right. Looking around, there weren't any conveniently placed explosive barrels, I'd used up all of them collapsing the east hallway and taking out conveniently clumped together droids.

Passing a hand through my numerous ammo pouches got me the same result as the last time I did it. Mainly, I had my very last charged power pack in my pistol right this second, and checking the ammo readout revealed that while it had changed since the last time I checked it, it had certainly not changed for the better.

"Okay…I can still do this," I lied to myself and peeked out from cover. The two Droidekas continued their (distressingly successful) attempt to melt through my cover, and the one remaining crane holding crates suspended in the air was in the entirely wrong location at the east end of the hangar, all the others having been shot to flatten four different firing lines of Super Battle Droids.

Clearly, there was only one thing to do. "Hey, Locket!"

"Yeah!?"

"Shout insults at them!"

All three of the clones turned to look at me.

"Why!?"

I shrugged. "You might hurt their feelings!"

I pulled out my Vibroax and thumbed it on. The blade blurring as the sonic field activated and made the edge very, very deadly.

Thankfully, the three clones were quick on the uptake, and started hurling insults and spent power packs at the two droids, unfortunately, only one of them turned away and shot at them, the other keeping fire in my general direction.

Well…never said it would be easy. I took several deep breaths as my heart started to slam faster and harder in my chest. It would not be pretty, but thanks to my armor's shields I should be able to reach at least one of them before I was incapacitated, with any luck the other would not react in time to stop me taking it down.

With a lot of luck, I'd still be alive enough for one of the clones to drag me behind cover once I was done.

With a final, lung-stretching breath, I jumped out of cover into a full on sprint.

Only to see Hero and Ahsoka cut the two Droidekas in two after they'd snuck through their shields.

I narrowed my eyes at him, largely useless, but he could probably feel my annoyance through the Force. "For the record," I said, pointing at the bifurcated droid. "I was about to do that. It was going to be epic, super brave—ballads would have been written about it."

Hero placed a hand on his cocked hip, raised one eyebrow, and spoke in the most condescending, 'mom is disappointed in you' tone—the one that any man, no matter how old and manly, instinctively shrivels up at, because we've all been there dammit!—"Well, ballads of your grand death will now have to be postponed." He looked around at the…carnage is the wrong word, but if there was such a word for droids? It'd be that. "I presume this is Hallway East Bay Five?"

I caught the computer spike he tossed underhanded at me, and opened and closed my mouth a few times before asking, "...Hallway East Bay Five?"

Hero looked a little bemused. "That's what Ahsoka told me."

I could feel Seven's indignant look at Ahsoka. That was an achievement, wearing a full-face helmet does not lend itself well to facial expression, but the man managed.

Ahsoka had the grace to look sheepish. "I mean, we got here. And just in time too!"

I thumbed the activation switch of the Vibroax and nodded at the ship. "Alright everyone hustle up! In the ship!" I turned around and started running for the two shuttles I had Sevens fuel up and program. "Get her warmed up and I'll fly us out of here! I'll just do the finishing touches on the plan!"

The minimap on my HUD let me know that my instructions were being followed. I sprinted through the shuttles, punched in coordinates and the ident codes that my computer spike uploaded to my suit's computer. Repeating the process with the second shuttle, I sprinted to our own and signaled Random to slap the ramp controls.

"Alright, we're good, gogogo!" I shouted as I bulldozed past Ahsoka, nearly knocking the girl over as I slipped into the pilot's seat and immediately gunned it. Judging by the girlish grunt I heard behind me, I finished the job of knocking the padawan over.

Not two seconds after I had us in the air, an alarm began to inform us quite shrilly of a puncture in the hull. "And there's the droids."

Still, we left them behind quickly enough, the city falling away into the distance behind us. I scrolled through the list of ident codes, settled on one, and began to broadcast it.

"Okay," I said, leaning back into the seat with a sigh, "we should be home-free."

That is, of course, when the ship informed me with a beep, that the nearest Separatist battleship was hailing us.

"Fuck!"

"Of course!" Hero threw up his arms. "'You're overestimating the droid's intelligence, Hero.' Because it's not like they'll follow basic protocol that's probably in their code!"

"Alright alright, don't get yer panties in a bunch," I grumbled and reached for the commline. "Just shut up and let me do the talking."

Hero just started angrily punching buttons on the console in front of him. For my peace of mind, I decided to assume he knew what he was doing.

"Providence class ship, this is Botajef Shuttle TT-824B, ready to receive instruction."

[Botajef Shuttle TT-824B,] said a B1's high pitched, squeaky voice, [you are attempting to leave the Botajef gravity well.]

"Indeed we are, transmitting clearance code now." I punched the long code into the comm system and sent it off via tight-beam communication to the ship that outmassed us fifty to one and had enough firepower to turn us into cosmic dust.

There was a beep in the commline. [Clearance code received. You are authorized to depart. Have a profitable trip.]

The commline cut off and there was an uncomfortable silence as we all waited to see if they would blow us up. I absently punched the buttons needed to release epoxy foam on the small blaster-caused breach in the shuttle's cargo bay.

We all held our collective breaths as I put in coordinates for a short hyperspace jump, and the very instant we were out of the planet's gravity shadow, I pulled the hyperspace ignition and the shuttle jumped us into the obnoxiously bright blue dimension.

There was a long beat of silence. I slowly turned to my friend, who gave me a withering glare. "Don't~"

"Well, General," I began.

"Santo."

"I would just like to state for the record."

"Please don't."

"I. Told you so." I said with utterly vindictive glee.

Even if Hero could not see my self-satisfied utterly shit-eating grin, I was certain by his grimace that he could feel it through the Force.

Hero took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Okay, we're in… some sort of clear. Let's just, I don't know, plan our next move."

I shrugged. "Not much to plan bubba. When we get there, I'll tinker with the shuttle, cut out the ident beacon, and…uhhh…" I looked over my shoulder at Ahsoka who was looking at us weird. I looked back to Hero. "I…don't actually know the coordinates for the fallback point."

"You know, that might have been in the mission parameters on the tablet…"

"The one you…dropped," I stated, "without giving me a chance to read through it in detail."

"To be fair, we were getting chased by droids," he said sheepishly.

I gave him a thoroughly unimpressed glare, which he definitely felt, because he glared right back.

"Uhh…Major," Locket said, "would you happen to know the fallback coordinates?"

Ahsoka sighed. "Yeah…I know the coordinates."

I hummed. "The Force provides," I said with as much sarcasm as I could put into the words.

"As it will." Hero sighed deeply. "I'm just gonna… go meditate or something."

"Have a nice nap~!" I sing-sang.

"Not a nap! Centering myself!" Hero raised his fist, hesitated with a glance at Ahsoka, then turned the motion into an awkward Jedi hand-wave. He really should not grit his teeth so hard, he might break one.

I turned forward, the unreal vortex of hyperspace bathing me in its glorious light as I let myself relax for the first time in…too long. "Well…I'm gonna take a nap. Oi, Random! Wake me up when we drop out of Hyperspace!"


Interlude: The Gentlemanly General

"Anakin, calm down."

There was a part of Obi-Wan Kenobi that empathized with his former padawan. There was nothing more worrying than when your own Padawan was out of sight, especially when they were prone to getting into 'interesting' situations. Obi-Wan would know, having taught Anakin.

There may have been his own rather episodic adventures as a Padawan, but that was neither here nor there.

But he had also learned, from experience, that worry could quickly turn the mind against its owner. If a Jedi could not master their emotions, they would be prone to making rash judgments, which lead to rash decisions and suddenly the Master needed to be bailed out by their Padawan.

Also something Obi-Wan learned from experience… from both sides of that equation.

Rather than verbally answer and get pulled into a discussion—something Anakin probably knew he would lose—the Jedi Knight angrily punched a command into the console, pulling up the communication message that they had already watched thoroughly.

The message opened with a close-up of Ahsoka, thankfully alive and seemingly in no immediate danger.

"Master, I'm fine." The Padawan looked exhausted, her skin far too pale an orange to look healthy, she was covered in soot and dust and a few smudges of oil. "I…am ashamed to say that most of my platoon…didn't make it. The only survivors were Random, Locket, and Sevens. Sevens is hurt but stable. I was able to meet up with…Republic assets?"

The young Padawan looked over her shoulder before turning back to the camera. "A man wearing the robes of a Jedi Knight, he said his name was 'Hero'. He was accompanied by a man claiming to be a Clone Commando by the name of 'Santo.' He said something about a special dispensation to General Hero? He…doesn't really act like a Trooper, but none of my men seem to doubt his word." She shook her head. "Sorry for rambling. We're off Botajef. Hero and Santo were both very helpful in the extraction. We have some information they hacked from the Separatist mainframe and are in an ore hauler we stole—Santo kept saying we 'commandeered' it; he made it sound like the distinction was important? Anyways, here are some images that my men were able to take of them."

Ahsoka seemed to hesitate, looking around again before leaning forward and whispering into the console. "They…they do not act like they should, if that makes sense? Hero is very skilled with a Lightsaber, he reminds me of Master Drallig, but…he had very sloppy control over the Force, to the point where I suspect I have finer control than he does. And Santo…I don't know how Clone Commandos are supposed to act, but he is…flippant? Uncaring of protocol? But that's wrong…he acts properly, but does not seem to view Hero as most Troopers view us. And…well he doesn't feel like the Troopers either; he feels very different through the Force." The Padawan seemed to debate with herself before shaking her head. "It's probably nothing.

"We'll be there soon, and umm…sorry for…getting in trouble, Master Anakin. Ahsoka out."

"She's out of Separatist space and safely on her way back to us," Obi-Wan soothed. However, he could feel that his words had no effect as Anakin restarted his pacing.

"You're sure, you've never heard of a Jedi Knight named Hero?" Anakin demanded.

Obi-Wan lifted a hand to stroke his beard. "While I do not recall the name of every Jedi Knight in the Order, if there was a Knight that was on par with Master Drallig, I am sure it would have been brought up, especially now."

Unsaid was the Order's recent change in priorities. Whereas before they elevated healers, negotiators, and explorers, now the most prominent skills sought in a Jedi were their ability with a lightsaber and their ability to lead troops.

"Then she's out there with some stranger, masquerading as a Jedi Knight, who could do anything to her while all we can do is wait!"

"Anakin," Obi-Wan called out to his friend and was pleased to see that his words seemed to finally reach him.

Anakin caught himself and took a deep breath to center himself. "I'm sorry, Obi-Wan. This entire situation is bothering me. I can't help but feel that we're missing something about this entire situation."

"Then we'll find the missing pieces. I've already sent a message back to the Order about any Jedi Knight named Hero as well as asked Cody to look up any Clone Commandos in 'Special Dispensation' to a Jedi." They had done all they could, now all that was left was to wait, both for the information as well as for Ahsoka to return, though Obi-Wan knew that the sentiment was probably lost on Anakin.

"By the way, why haven't I heard of having Clone Commandos personally assigned to Jedi Knights?" Anakin finally found something to distract himself from worrying about Ahsoka. "Cause that sounds very useful."

"Well, the Council did discuss having Commandos that lost their Pods assigned to Jedi, both to shuffle them back into the field as well as test to see if they're able to regain their former competency. I'm told that new Commando units made up of survivors of other units…are considered significantly less effective than desired."

"Well, I guess we can call this a success?" Anakin suddenly frowned. "That's if this Hero and Santo are who they say they are."

And with that statement, Anakin resumed his pacing.

Obi-Wan sighed.


While it had been a close thing, Obi-Wan had managed to stop Anakin from turning the ship's landing ramp into a multi-layered death trap for Ahsoka's 'rescuers.' It had become progressively more difficult, the more information they'd received on their soon-to-be guests.

It had gotten to the point where Obi-Wan was thankful for their arrival. Not only because it meant Anakin would stop worrying, but it also meant that the Jedi Council and the Grand Army would not have more time to send them concerning information on the duo.

"Masters!" a svelte orange missile exclaimed happily as she flew out of the shuttle's descending ramp. Once she reached them, she hesitated, coughed into her hand, visibly composed herself, and gave an exceedingly proper bow. "I have returned."

Obi-Wan watched bemused as Anakin wrapped Ahsoka in a tight hug and lifted her off the ground in his relief. He took a moment to bask in the loop of relief and happiness coming from the duo, before resolving himself to cut off their exuberance in order to deal with their guests.

Obi-Wan cleared his throat audibly, catching his former Padawan and Grand Padawan's attention, "While I do enjoy the heartfelt reunion and it is a relief to see you safe and sound, Ahsoka, we do have to greet our mysterious 'comrades.'"

And they were certainly a mystery. Ahsoka's description had been short due to her circumstances, but also most likely due to her own inexperience.

The self proclaimed Jedi, Hero, was a young human male of about standard height with a stern expression on his face. It would be easy at first glance to dismiss his composed expression as Jedi Stoicism, but it was the small details that stood out like a beacon to Obi-Wan.

The quick glances that his eyes would take around the ship as if seeking out all the information he could glean safely, told him that Hero was not familiar with a Grand Republic Star Destroyer. The small uncontrolled twitches his body would make, normal for a civilian but unusual for a Jedi Knight, spoke of suppressed emotions rather than control over them, and finally his Force signature was wild and uncontrolled. He did not project his emotions like the younglings did, but neither did he shield others from them.

Santo on the other hand was a bit easier to parse. His armor, on the most part, did match a Clone Commando's, but it was highly modified and his helmet was so different he was sure that Cody would have a conniption when he finally saw it. Everything about him, from his gait, to his emotions, to the way he assessed his fellow clones as a possible threat rather than allies, told Obi-Wan clearly, this was not a Clone Trooper.

"Hello there, you must be Hero and Santo," Obi-Wan greeted the duo amiably. Even if he had his own suspicions, there was no point in being rude to them when they've only been helpful so far. "I must express my gratitude for rescuing Ahsoka."

There was a brief crackle as Santo cleared his throat to say something, before a loud crack interrupted him. Obi-Wan just barely managed to catch the swift elbow strike that slammed into the Commando's side and even lifted him off the ground for an instant before he bent over and wheezed.

"General Kenobi," Hero nodded his greeting back, completely ignoring the fact that he had struck his Commando to prevent him from speaking. "It was our… duty."

"Hate you," Santo emitted a growling wheeze as he regained his balance, "hate you so much."

Hero gave the man a withering glare. "Imitating Grievous is in bad taste."

"But it woulda been funny," Santo growled back. "He set it up perfectly!"

Obi-Wan only watched, bemused, as the duo completely seemed to break any sense of protocol or cover.

"Well, gentlemen, while as amusing as this interplay is to watch," Obi-Wan said with amusement, before sobering. "I will need to ask you to give up your weapons and come along quietly. We have plenty of questions on why a pair of men are masquerading as a Jedi Knight and Clone Commando."

It was rather interesting to feel the Force thrash briefly before sharpening to a knifepoint around the half-trained Force sensitive. Still, Obi-Wan was sure that the dozen Clone Troopers as well as Anakin and himself were more than enough to force them to comply.

"Well, about that…" Hero took a deep breath, the Force condensing as the young man assessed his options, "I think—"

With a movement so quick it was a blur even to Obi-Wan's eyes, Santo drew his pistol and fired into Hero's back in one single, liquid motion.

A twin snap-hiss resounded in the landing bay as Obi-Wan and Anakin both ignited their lightsabers, the dozen clones a mere heartbeat behind them as they all aimed their blasters at the treasonous 'Commando.'

Obi-Wan felt some relief at the pained, heartfelt "Why!?" that resounded from Hero's prone form.

"My betrayal, while sudden, was inevitable," Santo stated in a monotone voice, making every Clone tense and a few fingers to tighten momentarily on triggers.

"Really? Just for the joke?" Hero groaned. He sounded quite healthy for a dying man.

"Oh!" Ahsoka exclaimed, "he used the stun setting!"

Obi-Wan gave the prone 'Jedi' a quick look over and the lack of any blaster burn on the man's back confirmed Ahsoka's point. Which brought up the question.

"And why did Mr. Santo feel the need to stun his partner in the back?" Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow at the 'Commando.'

Rather than answer the question, Santo looked down at his pistol. "...Say, if I shoot him again, will you guys shoot me? I kinda have one charge left and feel it'd be kind of a waste to go to the brig without having shot it, you know? But at the same time, I don't wanna get shot?"

Obi-Wan felt a concerning amount of agreement coming from the Clones through the Force.

Ahsoka sighed and force-pulled the blaster out of Santo's hand.

"Awww," Santo whined and visibly slumped.

Obi-Wan sighed. Wonderful, he was dealing with heavily armed children.


"Well, it seems that despite all the information, all we have are more questions for these two." Obi-Wan sighed after Ahsoka's debrief. "Let's go over what we do know."

"Hero has some training in how to harness the Force," Ahsona began, "he used it to enhance his movements with little issue. However, his ability to control The Force in any other fashion is…severely lacking."

"Even I was never that bad," Anakin chimed in.

Obi-Wan gave Anakin a long look, just long enough for Anakin to start squirming before he nodded in agreement.

"The Council responded to my message. While there is a Jedi on the records matching Hero's name and appearance, none of the Council can recall a Jedi by that name. Even Master Yoda does not recall him."

"That's possible, right? Master Yoda can't recall every youngling that passes through the Temple, right?" Ahsoka asked, clearly playing Sith's advocate for the duo.

"It's possible, but unlikely." Obi-Wan shook his head. "Master Yoda makes it a point to be a part of the training of every youngling that is in the Temple. We're still not sure how he finds the time."

"So that means, what? That Hero is some sort of Sith Infiltrator?" Ahsoka asked, her voice heavy with betrayal.

"Also possible, though highly unlikely," Obi-Wan said with a shrug. "I feel that Dooku of all people would not tolerate the sheer irreverence those two displayed, both to each other and the stations they were meant to emulate."

"Well…Santo seemed to know what to do to get on the Clone's good side. Not two minutes after he started talking, they were proverbially wrapped around his fingers," Ahsoka said while tapping her chin in thought.

Obi-Wan hummed thoughtfully. "And that is worrying, considering that his equipment and general disposition clearly separates him from any Clone Trooper, irregular or not."

"Looking back on it, he was really weird," Ahsoka said while blushing. There was clearly a story there and Obi-Wan would be sure to needle it out of Ahsoka later. For intelligence purposes, and not at all to embarrass his Grand Padawan.

"But what about the most obvious thing!?" Anakin's belligerent slam of his palms against the table made Ahsoka jump.

Obi-Wan blinked and turned to his former Padawan. "What would that be Anakin?"

Anakin proceeded to bring up an image of Santo in the display and zoomed in excessively on his face. "He's not a clone of Jango Fett!"

Both Obi-Wan and Ahsoka stared at Anakin.

"Anakin," Obi-wan said with a sigh. "I did not think that needed to be stated."

Yes. Once his weapons were removed (a process that took a surprisingly long time, and made a substantial pile, all things considered), Santo quite casually removed his helmet showing that he was not in fact a Clone Trooper and rather was some sort of mercenary instead. The Clones were quite unhappy to find out about the suspicious imposter in their midst.

"What we should be worried about is the fact that there is a Clone Commando on record matching Santo's number and appearance. But somehow, nobody noticed that, among the millions of identical faces of the Clones, there was one that was very much not a match." Obi-wan expressed his concern.

"What about the archives in Kamino? They keep a close record of all their clones from birth to the moment they're deployed, right?" Ahsoka asked.

"Good catch, but there is an issue there as well," Obi-Wan said, giving her a smile and a nod. "The archive that should have his information is corrupted. It's the only corrupted datacard in the stack."

"It says here that he had a Kaminoan caretaker," Anakin said, thumbing through the information on a datapad. "But apparently they died a year before the Clone Wars broke out, of natural causes."

The doors swished open, and Cody walked in and stood stiffly at attention, proffering a datapad and Hero's lightsaber. "General, we have the breakdown of their equipment, as you suggested."

Obi-Wan reached out and took them. "Thank you Cody, think you could give us the highlights?"

"Well, 'Santo' certainly had the equipment of a Clone Commando," Cody said with a growl and a slight furrowing of his brows, a pulsing core of fury burning within him. "The armor was fitted for him specifically, heavily modified as Commandos are wont to. But the real question comes in the attachments for his DC-17m.

"Mainly…he has access to weapon systems that are still in development. The SAW attachment in particular is in the prototype stages, and the rail system for the sniper attachment is a new model that just went into production for the next generation of Commandos. The DMR attachment is, as far as I know, still in the troubleshooting stage. Whoever outfitted him has access to some very influential people." He looked at the lightsaber in Obi-Wan's hand. "Well, you Jedi would know more about the lightsaber. All we can tell you is that…well…it's a lightsaber."

Anakin reached over and plucked the lightsaber from Obi-Wan's hand. "Well, let me take that over and you can take notes."

"Yes, General," Cody said, switching out the datacard on his datapad.

Anakin rolled the lightsaber around in his hands for a moment to get a feel for the weapon. "Well, first thing is that this weapon is a pile of junk."

Obi-Wan gave a disappointed sigh as Cody diligently noted that the lightsaber was a pile of junk. "Anakin, please elaborate, if not for the record, then my own understanding."

"I mean, this thing is a hodgepodge of parts. It's like someone went dumpster diving near a factory and made due with what they could find." Anakin lifted the weapon up and squinted at it for a moment. "I think the power cell is from a blaster rifle, the reflector cup looks to have been carved from a shuttle's transparasteel canopy and the focusing lenses are… I'm not even sure where they're from."

Obi-Wan gestured towards Anakin who handed the weapon over. Hero's lightsaber was at its core a weapon, plain and simple. As Anakin stated, the weapon was created from whatever parts the creator could get their hands on. There were no personal touches to the weapon, not even an option to adjust the blade for training purposes. And finally…

"This lightsaber is not using a natural Kyber Crystal," Obi-Wan stated in confusion.

"What?" Anakin squawked before snatching the lightsaber out of Obi-Wan's hands and without ceremony began to disassemble the weapon on the table.

"Anakin/Master!?" Obi-Wan and Ahsoka exclaimed at the same time, Obi-Wan in resigned chastisement and Ahsoka in mild horror at the sacrilege.

"It is a Synthcrystal." Anakin held the oddly flawless crystal up to the light, uncaring of the fact that he was holding a highly unstable and explosive material in his bare hands.

"Anakin!" Obi-Wan yelled.

Thankfully, Anakin seemed to realize what he'd done and sheepishly began to reassemble the lightsaber, carefully.

Obi-Wan sighed and let his annoyance and stress into the Force and decided that if they wanted a clear answer, they would need to simply ask the duo.

Obi-Wan stood up and straightened his robes. "It seems that at this point, the only way we are going to get answers is by interrogating our guests."

"Finally." Anakin jumped out of his seat and gave the mostly assembled lightsaber a quick glance before carelessly stuffing it into a pocket to finish later.

Ahsoka made to follow them, until Anakin stopped her with a raised eyebrow. "And where do you think you're going, snips?"

Ahsoka looked to Cody, who studiously did not meet her eye. "To the brig with you two?"

"You are checking into medical," Anakin said with finality, "we'll take care of our…guests."

"Bu—!"

"No buts, snips."

Ahsoka did not pout and stomp her way to the medical wing, but it was exceedingly clear she wanted to.

Their journey to the brig was a quiet one. When they arrived, they saw the Trooper outside who felt…too relaxed. He stood more stiffly at attention when he spotted Cody.

They entered with a nod and looked around at the empty brig.

"Cody, were our guests moved while we were conferring?"

"No, General."

Anakin cursed and ran out, calling for a shipwide lockdown as Obi-Wan sighed. "Really, I should have seen this coming."

They searched the ship, stem to stern, but found no trace of the mysterious duo. Their stolen ship still rested in the landing bay, untouched and under guard. None of the ship's fighters were missing, nor had any escape pods been launched. For all intents and purposes, Hero and Santo had disappeared into the Force, leaving only their equipment and a broken camera in their cell.