Anakin regained consciousness. But he only to find himself wheezing and at gunpoint from the clone that had just knocked him out. He slowly stood up on his foot, but the laser carbine stayed targeted on the bridge of his nose. He observed his surroundings. They were in what seemed to be a repair room for droids. He couldn't see their eyes through the dark lenses of the helmet, but there was something different about this unit.

"You're not a clone."

The person behind the armor put the gun back in its holster, then proceeded to whack Anakin on his bruised nose with an armored fist. "If I wasn't, you have no proof of such a conclusion." said a monotone voice of a clone through the helmet.

"Then why did you spare my life?" Anakin knew this 'clone' couldn't answer this. No response was given. "A true official among this army would show no mercy. If you were a true clone you would have killed me on the spot to keep word from spreading it was you that exposed this base." Something else came to Anakin's mind. "You're a spy, aren't you?"

In return, he received a punch to his right cheek. "If I was, how would I know you wouldn't turn me in and watch him give me the death any traitor deserves?"

"Ah, that's the thing," Anakin paused to take a deep breath. "You're not a traitor. You wear the armor of a clone, but you sure as hell don't act like one. If you were defective, you would have been dead a long time ago. I know you're a spy."

The person in the armor hesitated to say anything. Instead, they fixed the gun towards Anakin again.

''Relax," Anakin revealed the data chip to the spy. "I'm a Republic spy, too." He groaned as his temple throbbed and he put the chip back. "How long was I out?"

The disguised person lowered their defenses and removed their helmet. It was a woman, exactly the same age as him. She had pale skin and short, messy brown hair that barely touched her shoulders. Her piercing lavender eyes were a dead giveaway that she was from Naboo. Her stern expression told him she didn't trust him completely. Anakin may have figured out she was a spy, but she still kept her true identity from him. "Two hours. Why are you here?" she asked, finally talking in her normal, unaltered voice.

"I was sent to acquire information," Anakin paused to take a deep breath. "Anything that might reveal a weakness."

"Where are you reporting this to?" she asked cautiously.

"Corusant." She had to believe him now. Corusant was the capital planet of the Republic senate.

"I was ordered to get information, too," she confessed. "Instead of weaknesses , my purpose is a map and the coordinates of the base. The beacon you destroyed doubled as an extractor for digital information, so we'll have to use yours." She said as she put her helmet back on. "If we can find a primary computer somewhere in this place, we should be able to find what we both want," she said in her modulated clone voice. "Can you walk?"

"I don't know, if we need to make dash out of here, I think I could manage."

"Fine, hold on." She grabbed Anakin by the arm and supported his weight on her shoulders. He put his weight on her. She stood up with all of her strength to support him. Both of them know made their way out of the hidden control room and into the main corridors.

"Wouldn't a computer be in the room we were just in?" Anakin whispered.

She scoffed. "Those computers are useless. All they contain are some blueprints and inventory for droid parts. Nothing we need. Besides, there are at least thirty of those labs in here."

The pair made their way down the hall a little ways when another unforgiving voice came behind them.

"Comrade! Trooper! Where are you going?" This person seemed less harsh and slightly more approachable than the last man Anakin encountered. She wore a red and black uniform identical to Anakin's except for the numerous badges showing her rank and accomplishments that were sorely lacking on Anakin's.

"Uh, to find a medical droid. I encountered the traitor. They attempted to shoot me and knocked me unconscious. Hadn't this soldier found me, things could have been much worse," lied Anakin.

The woman seemed interested. "Really? Did you catch the unit's designation?"

Anakin briefly stuttered. "N-No. But the clone was a third class air gunner." He was breathing silently and rapidly.

"Great work, Comrade. You go on and patch yourself up in sickbay, I will report this to Maul." Her long ponytail whisked around her shoulders as she turned around and walked off.

"Third class air gunner? How did you know that would work?" the spy asked in her modulated voice.

"You'd be surprised how much you take in during a time of war. The several years of training help a lot, too." said Anakin.

"Yeah, tell me about it."

They took several turns to a hallway with many doors. They were all identical. Anakin knew none of these were the the main control center, but he still played dumb. "Where are we going?"

"Somewhere heavily guarded."

After about ten more minutes of walking, they came upon a dead end. There no guards, and all that was there was a large black door with a complex keypad next to it. She picked up Anakin's hand and removed it from her shoulder. She walked over to the keypad while simultaneously removing some tools from the utility belt that hung around her waist. She took out a smaller hand blaster from another holster. "Catch."

Anakin was caught a little off guard by this and almost dropped the blaster, but managed to catch it moments before it clattered to the floor. "Watch my back, will ya?" she said.

Not long after Anakin turned around, there were several clicks and then a satisfying beeping noise. The security was successfully bypassed. The door opened with a soft whirring and they entered the control room. The door closed behind them when they entered. The room was smaller than Anakin envisioned, but the main computer stuck out like a sore thumb. A large entanglement of wires seemed to go in every direction from the device. Both searched for an outlet that the chip could fit into, but neither of them were having the best luck. The spy took off her helmet. Anakin put his gun in the pocket in place of the chip.

"Hey, who that person that woman was referring to? Um, Maul? Who's that?" asked Anakin.

"You saw what he did to that clone. That clone was innocent. It disgusts me to someone die at another's expense."

"How exactly did you evade that? I mean, you were posing as one of the escorts, wouldn't that have been the most vulnerable position to get caught?"

"That clone was an escort, too." She paused to take a deep breath as if she was on the brink of crying. "Once I new Maul saw the beacon on him, I took it off and put it on myself in hopes the Republic would track the signal. Clearly they did. I mean, you're here, so..."

"Yeah, I got it." Anakin said. "Any luck with the outlets?"

"No. Not on any of the secondary computers here either."

Something was wrong. About this base, about it being influenced by the dark side, how there was absolutely no protection for the main computer.

"Wait, I thought you said this place would be heavily guarded?" Anakin said.

A blaring sound echoed through the room. The spy came to a realization. "Oh, crap!" but it was too late. The large door opened revealing a large squad of clone troopers with their defenses raised. The clone who stood out the most bore a thick blue stripe painted down the armor for his arms and a blue shoulder ornament with one blaster in each hand. He shot the chip out of Anakin's right hand rendering it useless as it clattered to the floor. Anakin shot the internal control panel with his handgun and the doors closed, separating them for the time being.

"Great work, genius. How are we supposed to get out of here, now?" The spy snapped. "Both of our missions are failures."

"Not completely. I think I can still extract the data."

"How? Even if we do get the information, how are we supposed to get passed them?" she asked.

Anakin took notice of a door on the opposite end of the room from the door. Inside was a string of surveillance equipment of the base being controlled by a tactical droid. It kept repeating "Door lock malfunction, resetting program; door lock malfunction, resetting program".

Both of them had the same idea. He pinned down the droid where he was sitting, and she ripped off the headpiece. As this was done, the head gave of a small amount of sparks and the droid made a sound as if it was shutting off. With help from her armor, she broke one of the arms in two to give a sharp edge to cut through the head. Anakin rummaged through the wires and the motherboard until he found and removed the hard drive. With success, it fit into one of the outlets in the previous room and managed a partial data upload. Anakin replaced the handgun with the hard drive in his pocket. "I'll try to get the door open, you try to shut this alarm off!" He yelled over the deafening noise.

When the spy turned around to attempt to shut off the noise Anakin outstretched his hands and ripped the door out of its frame with the Force, killing all of the clones that it hit before crashing into a wall just as the alarm finally stopped.

They silently exited the room, but both stayed vigilant. Another blockade of soldiers could be lurking behind anywhere and attack at any moment. Any means of escape was uncertain at this point. Their goal was to make it back safely into Republic space. They had what they came for, now a new question loomed above both of their heads: What now?

Who is the spy? Will they get out alive? Did you catch te references? Review your thoughts and find out in the next chapter!