A/N: I said I was returning. That wasn't just hot air, baby. To those of you who read Heart like Fire probably know, yes, autocorrect screwed me on the name of a character, and I missed it when going and reading it back. It's fixed, for your enjoyment. Speaking of which, I hope you enjoy this chapter! And here...we...GO!

To call General Skywalker furious was to call Kamino 'a little damp.'

"He hung up on me."

"Yes, I noticed Anakin."

"He Hung Up on me."

"So you've said."

"He kidnapped my Apprentice, and then he hung up on me!"

"You know, Anakin," General Kenobi drawled, and Rex might only be seven, but he knew Sarcasm when he heard it, "This tale you're spinning would be a lot more riveting if I wasn't there, witnessing it, with you."

"I don't understand," Cody said with a sigh, Helmet under one arm, the other arm propped on his hip. "Why would he kidnap The Commander, and then just leave? If he wanted out he could have just left her in the Hanger bay, and the worst we would be mad at him for is a missing Lightsaber. The only reason for keeping her would be getting something inside the station."

Now it was Rex's turn to sigh, tugging his own bucket off and stepping closer to the Medical Stations central command post, the same post that Ashoka and their ex-prisoner had just fizzled out from a little over a minute ago. "You'd think so, but then, you know this facility has no real weapons, and it's main defensive options are currently still unloading wounded Clones or making sure no Clankers survived the crash of that Super-Capital. He knew that he woke up here with the General's staring at him and an armed guard. He had, and likely has, no idea that we couldn't blow him into space dust if he left without his hostage." Rex explained. Cody hummed and nodded a little.

"Makes sense, but I don't think so." All eyes turned to Cody anew. "If he just needed The Commander to escape alive, he'd have dumped her out the airlock as soon as he left average range, or just before he jumped to hyperspace. He wants something that doesn't involve this station..."

A nearby console officer whipped around in his chair. "Sirs! I've got their jump path coordinated!" A swift handful of button prompts from Cody and a map appeared on the central console, a white line steadily extending away from the blue blip of their location, the planets hit by the line turning a vibrant red.

"By now they could have stopped at three planets…" General Skywalker murmured, arms crossed over his chest, brow pinched in focused frustration.

"Not so," Cody cut in, "These three are all under our jurisdiction, and we put out the word as soon as we confirmed he had stolen the Twilight. Even if they got there before the word did, by now the Twilight is very lightly considered a wanted vessel, so they'll have checked recent logs for incoming ships to check for it."

"Well that makes things harder," Rex grumbled, gesturing to the steadily growing line, "Because they're currently heading deeper into friendly space…"

"Where do you think-Master?" Rex's eyes darted to General Kenobi, who was staring into the middle-distance, stroking his beard in thought. "Master?" The General snapped out of it, blinking twice and refocusing.

"Sorry, what was that Anakin?"

"You alright, Master?"

"Thank you, Anakin, I'm fine, now what were you saying?" Everyone glanced at each other for a moment.

"We were saying that their jump line doesn't make sense, because they've only hit planets under our control."

"Not anymore they haven't," Rex cut in, zooming in on the most recent ping, "look, this one is a neutral system, Morriband."

The temperature plummeted, and it was hard to look away from General Kenobi's stern expression if you were looking and even harder to meet it if you weren't. "Plot an immediate course."

Nobody argued, not even General Skywalker.

The word that Ashoka had landed on Ryloth, alone, came through a handful of minutes before they hit this 'Morriband' planet. General Kenobi wanted them to drop out of hyperspace immediately, but the risks were too great because the paths between systems were often lightly charted, at best, and most of the things Rex could find on this particular rock ball-he may have slipped off to a console to look into what the Kriff this planet had done to tick of General Kenobi so much-was censored, deleted, or censored and deleted.

So only good things really.

Cody slid up beside him, nearly a minute and a half before they were due to come out of Hyperspace. "Anything?"

Rex twitched.

"You checked too?"

"Of course I did, now did-"

"No."

"Really?"

"Name, size, coordinates, and that it orbits a yellow star and has a partly sandy, mostly rocky surface."

"I couldn't find the star type, but I did find that the Chancellery is who censored most of it."

"When?"

"About five hundred and twelve years ago."

"Karrabast..."

"No kidding. And the rest has been gone for almost double that."

That had Rex turning to look at Cody, instead of pretending they were just stood next to each other looking forward as two clones on guard duty might.

"Double?! By who?"

"Classified."

Rex was about ready to spit fire at that when Reality slammed back into place, and something Cold washed over him.

It was a dustball. It was a basic, nothing special dustball that looked like half a dozen other planets he had been to, and at least triple that which he'd read about or seen.

And yet he was terrified. His armor clacked lightly as his elbow pieces rattled against his gauntlets from the shake in his hand. He wasn't alone.

Cody's blaster spilled from his hands, and the other Clones on duty either followed suit or squeezed them so hard Rex could hear them creaking.

Naval officers choked or spilled from their seats, dropping datapads and abandoning stations.

The generals were demanding a jump to hyperspace, Rex realized, even though he could barely hear them. Were they down the hall? Must be. No other reason for them to be so quiet.

He stared at the Planet, and it stared back. He could almost hear a whisper, someone, saying something.

He had a headache, pulsing from the middle back of his head.

The planet was still, and the voice was getting louder. His hand shook harder and twitched for his pistol-

The stars blurred and hyperspace cannoned into view.

Rex tumbled back with a gasp, and the rest of his Brothers' yelped or cursed as they snapped from the reverie, many rubbing the back of their heads.

Which was about the time the Generals demanded what the hell that was, and Rex flinched under the sharp tone in Kenobi's voice.

Nobody had an answer, obviously, but it was still a rattling experience to be glared at by the Generals' like naughty children who'd punted the family pet.

-A Few minutes later, Ryloth-

Skyguy was pissed.

Ashoka knew this because he had shouted her name before slamming into her from behind in a hug, sagged in relief, then stiffened, all but shoved her back down so her feet were on the floor, spun her around before she could process any of the previous, and proceeded to demand what she was thinking.

Master Kenobi, blessed, kind, so incredibly sassy Master Kenobi stepped in at that point to remind Anakin that the kidnapped didn't often get a choice in what was happening if they were being held at Saber point. Skyguy's anger abated at that, but he hovered over her until she dismissed herself to go to bed. It was endearing, in a mildly annoying way.

She wasn't a baby. But she appreciated the show of him caring.

She was still processing Red's...ship, technically, and the implications such a device brought. She could tell Skyguy about it. She should tell Skyguy about it. But...but Red had trusted her with its existence.

Red Trusted her.

So did Skyguy…

"Force," she groaned, flopping into bed, hands pressed over her eyes, "Why does this have to be so complicated…" She knew why, of course.

Red was a Sith, in training or not. The Council would want him dead or captured, already did, in fact. The Jedi had missed him, where their enemy had not. He was too old to be rehabilitated, The Jedi hadn't bent their rules on recruitment in Millennia, other than for Skyguy. Why would they do it for someone who had killed a Master?

And wasn't that a capital-class bombardment on her brain. Red had stolen his lightsaber. Had killed a Jedi Master in order to do so. She remembered it, with some time to think. An explosion in the dead of night waking up her whole wing, and the tension in the weeks to follow.

It had been explained as a malfunction in wiring igniting a section of piping, which led to a gas-line detonation. More damage was spared because the Master-kull? Kell? She couldn't remember-was in a more isolated area, and the line had burst in the ceiling, the force of the blast blowing out his window instead of blowing down the walls into nearby rooms.

Now, she knew the truth. It wasn't luck, or the Force, it was Red. He set whatever charges he used to avoid collateral. He could've struck a blow against the Jedi, could have turned half the temple to ash if he was able to slip explosives into their walls in a way that fooled even the Council. But he hadn't.

Why? She knew he wasn't pure evil like most Sith were described, but he still had made his feelings on the Jedi clear as crystal.

Crystal.

Kyber Crystals.

Ashoka shot up in her bed, eyes blown wide.

Red had targeted a Master with multiple sabers. He said as much to her when he commented on taking the second one. Didn't that mean…

She laid back down slowly, mulling that train of thought over.

Red used one saber, single sided.

How many crystals went unused?


Not too far from her, hidden behind one of Ryloth's moons, The Nighthold entered hyperspace, its master laying down to sleep off an exciting day.

Not far from him, three crimson gems lay on a workbench, housed in metal, glowing with malice.

A/N: Tadaaaa. Ashoka finally gets hit with a Hard Choice. Not telling your peers about a long-distance friend of yours? Easy. Not telling them when that friend owns a Tank that occasionally goes invisible, and he might be forced to attack them with? Less easy. Buuut anyways, I do hope you enjoyed! Please, let me know what you thought, criticism is welcome! Have a lovely day, and may the Force be with you.