Chapter Ten

Malastare is a strange planet, Ella thought as she stood in the tower with Jedi Masters Skywalker and Windu, Doctor Boll, and Doge Urus, the leader of the Malastarian people, the Dugs.

"I will not allow my people to become Separatist slaves!" the Dug exclaimed, rounding on a hologram of the Republic's Supreme Chancellor.

"I assure you, Doge Urus, that will not happen. Doctor Boll has stated that only the droids will be affected by the bomb's electron field."

"Yes," the doctor agreed tiredly. Ella was sure that she'd been asked the same questions multiple times in the last few days. "The clones and your people will be quite safe. We have accounted for every probable outcome."

"It's the improbable that concerns me," Master Windu said, speaking into Ella's fears.

Her friends were down there. Her love was down there. She wasn't allowed to be with them, to her great annoyance and their relief.

'You can only do so much, Ella. It's not likely we'll have much of a problem anyway, given that the bomb will drop and it will all be over,' Jesse had tried to soothe.

'But why are you down there and I'm not permitted? What's so special about me that deems me worthy of a place in the tower while the people I care about are being wounded and killed down there?' she'd protested.

She felt the same way now. Why was she given the privilege of surveying the battle she should be helping with?

The bomb dropped. Ella held her breath.

Please, God, keep them safe. Please keep them safe. Please, please, please!

The waves of electricity shot through the multitude of droids, sending them all snapping and sparking to the ground.

"Here it comes!" Skywalker warned just before a jolt of electrical power surged through the building, knocking the transmission with Palpatine offline and temporarily shutting off the power.

Both generals grabbed Ella, steadying her as she watched.

And all was silent.

The droids were decimated.

"Well, doc, looks like it worked," Skywalker complimented.

Ella let out the breath she was holding.

Only to draw it back in the next second as a huge piece of the rocky ground dropped.

"The ground is sinking!" Windu cried in alarm.

Ella gasped and ran towards the steps.

"Ella! No!" Skywalker called after her.

"Stop! It's too dangerous!" Windu warned.

She deafened her ears to their caution and sprinted down the long flight of stairs, stumbling as the earth rumbled under her feet.

Dust was flying and everyone was running for their lives when she made it outside. Someone grabbed her wrist as she tried to take off into the crowd.

"Let go!" she shrieked.

"Ella, don't!"

"Wander?" she gasped.

He nodded. "You can't! They're all coming back here. You could fall!"

She shook him off, "I have to help the ones who can't run!"

"Ella!"

She took off into the swarm, running as fast as she could towards the edge of buckling earth.

The dirt and dust thickened as she ran ahead.

I wish I had a helmet. I can barely see in this stuff!

She heard screams and followed them. Where there were screams there were wounded.

Suddenly her foot caught in something and she fell on her stomach. She looked back to see what she'd tripped over and there was a clone, desperately trying to pull himself back from the nearing drop off.

"Trooper!" she cried.

"Ella?" a familiar voice questioned, surprise evident. "What are you doing down here?"

"Charge?"

He nodded. "Yes!"

"Are you injured?"

He moaned, "Yes. Clanker got my leg."

She scrambled to her feet and looked at the ever-widening perimeter of death, still crumbling towards them. "Come on," she said, grabbing his arm. "Lean on me. We have to get out of here."

Charge grabbed her hand and pulled himself to his feet, crying out as he was forced to put weight on his injured leg.

"Come on!" she pleaded.

He hobbled along next to her, moving as fast as he could. She didn't want to hurt him, but she was terrified they were going too slow.

"Help!"

Ella stopped, looking around to try to hear where that desperate entreaty had come from.

"HELP!"

"Ella!"

Fives was suddenly there, Echo at his side. The latter was favoring his arm, but seemed alright besides that.

"What are you doing here?" he cried through the frenzied calls.

"There's no time!" she screamed back. "Take Charge to safety. I have to help someone."

She shoved Charge at him and Fives caught him and slipped his arm under his wounded brother's shoulder. "What about you?"

She shook her head and pushed him, "Go!" Then she turned and ran off in the direction of the pleas.

Through the debris, she could just make out a walker collapsed on its side. In the cockpit was a clone, beating frantically on the glass.

"Help! Please! I'm stuck!"

Ella sprinted to him and surveyed the situation. The glass was able to withstand a lot. It survived the pressure of space. Nothing short of a cannon blast or a lightsaber could really penetrate it.

God, I wish I was a jedi.

The poor boy trapped inside continued beating frantically, ramming himself into it with everything he had in him. His chest was heaving raggedly as he hyperventilated.

"Trooper!" she cried. "I need you to calm down. Come on, breathe."

He froze, his hand coming up to rest on the glass where her hand was pressed.

"It's gonna be okay. I'm gonna get you out of there, just hold on." Ella began inspecting the walker, looking for anything she could find to crack the glass or pry it away. Maybe there was a weak spot.

There was one of the Dug's electro staffs, the end shorn off by something to create a sharp point.

She grabbed it and climbed on top of the death trap, lifted the staff over her head, and began driving it down with all her might. A crack's spidery tendrils started to spread across the entire surface. Hope rose.

Then the man inside screamed. She looked behind her. The perimeter was only about fifty yards away.

I'm not gonna get him out in time.

"Go," he said. "Go. Leave me. You'll just get killed too."

"No," she shot back. "Either I get you out or we both go down. I'm not leaving you here."

"Please, Miss! You're not a clone. You're a civvie. Go!"

"You aren't expendable to me. You aren't expendable period! And I refuse to leave you here to die!" she screamed, bringing the rod down harder.

"Ella!"

She whipped her head around.

Echo.

There was her friend, panting heavily. He'd obviously chased after her and had been searching for her for some time.

"Echo, I can't get him out!" she cried.

He nodded. "Here, give it here."

She gave him the rod and backed up.

Echo backed up and smashed the rod into the glass, once, twice, three times. Once more.

Finally, it shattered.

Ella and Echo grabbed the clone who was curled into a ball on the inside and yanked him out, running towards the tower.

The ground shook, crumbling beneath their feet even as they ran. Ella scrabbled for a foothold, leaping across the breaking pieces. A strong arm grabbed hers and pulled her to relative safety.

"Run, Ella!" Echo urged, pulling her and his brother along with him.

A few seconds later, it was all over.

Jesse and Hardcase were right in front of them, and grabbed them, pulling them even further back.

Ella collapsed into her friend's arms, staring at the gaping hole the bomb had wrought.

She heard someone crying beside her and looked to see the clone she'd pulled out of the walker clinging to Rex.

"Udesii, vod'ika, haalur. Gar cuyir morut'yc," Rex soothed. "What happened?" he addressed Ella.

"And what the kriff are you doing down here?"

Ella stiffened. "The ground was crumbling."

"So you decided it was a good idea to get closer to it?" he queried, his voice stern.

Ella swallowed but stood her ground. "This is what I decided. You all mean more to me than you can ever imagine, and I was up there. I was safe, and you weren't, because of some stupid thing that was decided about me because I was a civvie and you're soldiers. You aren't expendable. Your lives are just as valuable as mine. And I wasn't going to stand by and watch them be taken away if I could do something - anything - about it. So yes, I came out here."

They were all stunned into silence.

Then Echo spoke up, "Don't be hard on her sir. If it weren't for her, he'd be dead, as would Charge."

"How is he?" Ella asked.

He shook his head, "He's gonna be okay. One of the tinnies shot his thigh pretty bad. I'm surprised he was able to put any weight on it at all."

Ella sighed.

The youngest member of the bunch was still clinging to his captain, his body jerking with the terrified remnants of his sobs.

"You're safe," Ella whispered, guiding his helmet off and wiping his tears away. "I promise. You're safe now. What's your name, honey?"

He shook his head and shrugged, "Don't have one."

Ella frowned. "That's gotta change. You deserve a good name."

Rex nodded. "What about Vaughn? It kinda sounds like the crux of the word 'chance' in Mando'a."

The boy mulled over this, then nodded his head, raising his gloved hand to swipe viciously at his tearfilled eyes.

"I… yes. Thank you," he said, his voice still shaking. "I-I'm sorry… I'm—"

His apologies were cut off as they all wrapped him in a hug.

"You're safe now, Vaughn," Jesse comforted.

Vaughn curled in a little ball in the middle of them and let his brothers assure him that he really was safe, then, when he'd regained his composure, he began telling about what had nearly happened to him and his rescue.

"It sounds like Ella and Echo really saved your neck, vod'ika," Hardcase said.

Vaughn nodded. "Yes." He turned to them and smiled gratefully. "Thank you. Thank you both."

Ella caressed his sweaty hair, smothering a look of adoration when his eyes fluttered shut and he leaned into her gentle fingers. "It really was my honor, Vaughn. I'm so glad." Then she gasped and rounded on Echo. "You're injured!"

His eyes widened and he raised both his hands as if in surrender, then winced. A blaster burn stood out on the right side of his chest near his armpit and collarbone.

She sighed and stood on jelly legs. "Ok. Who else has an injury they're hiding."

No one spoke.

She crossed her arms. "Fine. Either you tell me, or I figure it out on my own."

Five sets of eyes widened.

"Uh… uhm, you mean…?" Hardcase stammered.

"Uh, Ella… you're not meaning to… take things into your own hands, are you?" Jesse squeaked.

Rex chuckled nervously, "Of-Of course she's not! She wouldn't actually take our clothes off… she wouldn't."

Ella stepped towards him and took off his left shoulder pad. "Oh wouldn't I?" And she reached for his pauldron.

Immediately they leapt to their feet, some with difficulty.

"I was shot three times in the back!" Hardcase confessed frantically.

"I think I broke my leg," Jesse pleaded, and she could see he wasn't putting any pressure on it.

"I may have gotten some glass in me. I'm not sure though," Vaughn offered, as if hoping it would be enough.

Rex spoke quickly, "I hit my head, sprained my ankle, dislocated my arm, and was shot in the stomach."

Ella looked back and forth between the troopers, eyes wide. This was… a lot of information. Lots of guilt in this party. She turned to Echo, waiting expectantly.

He shook his head, "Other than my shoulder, I have bruises. I promise, vheh a'oatr."

She sighed and nodded. "Okay. Hardcase, you're able to walk?"

He nodded.

"Support Jesse please. I don't want him putting any weight on that leg. Vaughn, how hard is it to walk?"

He nodded, "I'm not sure, but I think that I got glass in my inner leg when the windshield broke. Either that or my armor broke into it. It's bleeding, not too heavily. I only just noticed it now."

She nodded. "Help the Captain with his ankle. Rex, you either take his help or I'll stun you with your own pistol and drag you. Clear?"

He gulped, knowing she would. "Clear." He meekly accepted his brother's assistance and hobbled towards shelter.

Echo sighed and walked with her toward the temporary infirmary. "I want to say I wish you hadn't risked yourself. But then… I don't know. If you hadn't, two of my brothers would've died."

Ella smiled and slipped her hand into his. "I meant what I said, you know."

He smiled, squeezing the little hand in his own, "I know, Ella."

•~§~•

"Ah… Kriff!"

"I'm sorry," she murmured apologetically, dabbing the disinfectant on the burn.

Echo groaned and clenched his fists around the edge of the cot. "Not your fault," he ground out.

"This should feel better though," she avowed, gently laying a bacta patch across his wound.

Echo tensed and hissed. Bacta always stung initially. But then the miracle goo began to calm the pain away, and he relaxed.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, taking his hand.

He just chuckled and shook his head. "I'm okay. I've had a lot worse."

"That really doesn't make me feel better," she stated. "Come on. Let's get you laid down."

"What about that Zillo Beast thing? Don't you wanna go rescue it from the Dugs?" Echo jabbed as he complied, lying down and letting her cover him with the threadbare blanket.

He hadn't really forgiven her for running out of the tower. It had put her in danger. Terrible danger. She almost died today.

Ella rolled her eyes. "Unlike you, I don't think the big teddy bear would enjoy my rescues."

Teddy bear? Have you seen the thing? What screams teddy bear like a creature with mile-long claws and a set of teeth big enough to devour the whole 501st in one bite?

But then something happened that he would never forget as long as he lived.

She'd been smoothing his hair, running her fingers through it. And then, for just a few seconds, her lips had pecked his cheek, only a few inches away from where he had dreamed of her kissing.

Echo froze.

Every little upset he'd felt towards her was forgiven in an instant. All he could think about was how he loved her.

The world was lights and colors and sounds. He was sure he heard angels singing along with his soul. That teeny little kiss on the cheek had sent him to heaven and back.

Ella kissed me! he thought, trying to accept that it was real. Well, technically my cheek, but she still kissed me! Me! Did that really happen? Am I delirious and I just hoped it did? No there's a little of that gloss she wears on my cheek. She really kissed me!

But Ella's eyes had filled with tears, and she stood and hurried out of the shelter, her head ducked to keep others from seeing her distress.

Echo tried to shake himself off as he watched her go, her shoulders hunched protectively.

Why was she so devastated? What had he done?

Mando'a Translations

Udesii - take it easy. Chill out. Calm down.

vod'ika - little brother.

haalur - breathe.

Gar cuyir morut'yc - You're safe.

Vaughn's name - Pavarnr: chance. I looked at the part in the middle, 'varn'.

Kriff - it's a cuss word. Not gonna type it. Take a guess, you're probably right.

Vheh A'oatr. - Earth Angel.