I'll be adding a little bit of everything for this chapter.


Space battles normally didn't last for days.

The Second Battle for Verocia was an exception.

Obi-wan's scratched, battered, and severely damaged Jedi Starfighter grumbled as it sped past burning ship part after burning ship part. He was tired, hungry, and lucky that he could take the short naps he did in between the shifts he, Sunlaou, Aayla, and Master Ki Adi Mundi were able to create amidst the chaos of the battles.

Sunlaou's own space craft had been severely damaged, getting caught between two other enemy droids and the issue of the destroyed left engine having finally caught up with him. Obi-wan had tried multiple times to contact the Republic war ship that was holding the critically injured Sunlaou, but the Separatists had kept all signals outside the immediate battle area jammed. Off to his left, Obi-wan could see Sunlaou's Republic cruiser, burning and missing chunks of metal, but still hovering strongly on the west side of the planet, away from the battle. Clone starfighters poured out of hatches and hangar bays, obviously hastily patched as some streamed small trails of smoke.

For five days, they had been fighting.

For five days, both Separatist and Republic forces had received numerous reinforcements, and each side was reaching the end of its rope. While the Republic put up a brave fight with the two extra war ships they had received, both destroyers fell and were now floating masses of burning metal.

And with those ships, they lost two Jedi.

Obi-wan could feel fatigue setting in on his body, and he swerved a bit, very nearly hitting a floating chunk of debris.

"—anyone know how Sunlaou is doing?" Aayla said to no one in particular. He voice crackled over Obi-wan's half-broken communications system, the beginning of her sentence getting lobbed off.

"I'm sure he is fine, General Secura," Master Mundi said. "Let's not worry about how he is faring at this moment. Once we complete this battle, you can check on your comrade."

Obi-wan heard Aayla sigh. R4 chirped in concern, his dome head swinging around to look at Obi-wan before he returned to his original position. "I'm worried too, R4…" Obi-wan said. He spared another glance at the ship hovering in neutral space, small fires burning throughout its hull as it drifted.

Inside, Sunlaou hung suspended in a bacta tank, his fingers twitching as he sensed every death in the battle outside. His eyes were open, but his vision was blurry, and his entire body stung a bit.

Sunlaou hated bacta.

His eyes trailed the movements of the clone troopers who happened to cross his vision; men on stretchers with blood pooling around their torsos, heads, or legs.

Beneath the breathing mask around his mouth, Sunlaou scowled. He didn't like what he was seeing; from his point of view, they were losing the battle. Swimming for a bit, Sunlaou tapped the glass to get someone's attention, his displeased face easily read.

One of the nearby clones started, not expecting the Jedi to be fully awake for another few hours. "Sir, you should be resting!" the clone hissed, sounding more annoyed than surprised. It wasn't the first time Sunlaou had successfully fought off the sedatives.

Sunlaou glared, his look fully demanding to know what was going on outside the ship. His displeasure would have been felt to anyone who wasn't Force sensitive.

"Sir, I can't let you out of the tank just yet, you know that." The clone medic said, crossing his arms.

Sunlaou groaned and sank back into his original position, letting the belt around his waist keep him suspended in the tank. He reached out into the Force to try and locate Kiki—which was what had gotten him into the tank in the first place.

Almost immediately, a dull pain flooded his chest as he felt what Kiki was going through; she was unconscious, which explained the lack of severity of her feelings in the Force.

He could also feel the baby through the Force.

Sunlaou had known for a while that Kiki was pregnant; Verocian females' pregnancy hormones give the males allergy-like reactions. Every single time he was around her, he would get a runny nose and scratchy throat. Sunlaou knew exactly how long she'd been pregnant, and when the baby would be due. He also knew the gender.

I'm going to be an uncle, he thought with some enthusiasm. That elation didn't last long when he realized that Kiki wouldn't be having her baby unless she was rescued. Sunlaou refocused his attention on the surrounding area of Kiki's position, trying to see what the dungeons looked like from the outside. He couldn't see it.

Sunlaou grew more and more frustrated as he floated in the tank while the battle took place outside. He wanted to be out there, fighting beside his men, not cooped up in a glass tank waiting to be healed.

And this is why you got hurt in the first place, Soni, no patience. Sunlaou sighed beneath his mask, watching the passing injured troopers on their stretchers.


Alick looked up at the tall shadow-of-a-building looming before them. They still had a ways to go, but the old temple/safe haven was where Aella would be staying till the fighting cleared up.

Alick sighed. It meant they'd be saying goodbye soon.

Aella's slight sadness was almost tangible. "I'm going to miss you, Alick…" Aella whispered so only he could hear. Briefly, she gripped his hand, squeezing tightly before she let go again.

Alick felt his heart ache a bit, knowing full well that they might never see each other again. "I'll miss you too, Aella," he sighed. That small phrase was the most painful truth he'd ever spoken. Alick never "missed" anybody; one couldn't afford to do that when there were battles to be fought. Distractions would get the entire group killed and cause casualties they couldn't afford.

With every step, the temple loomed closer and closer.

And with each step, Alick's heart stung more and more.


Rex was slowly beginning to catch his bearings, although a part of him still refused to believe that they were actually escaping. Every once in a while, he would cast a side-long glance at Kanari, silently musing at how much stronger she was than she appeared. It was something to admire, considering everything they'd been through.

His helmet's HUD, unfortunately, was almost completely scrambled. The data feed was interrupted by spurts of uneven notifications about the temperature in the tunnels; one second, it was negative twelve degrees Celsius, then thirty degrees.

It was almost completely useless.

Rex desperately wanted to take off the helmet, the constant flurry of words and blurred numbers making him dizzy, but he knew that was a foolish and potentially lethal mistake. He forced himself to focus something other than the messed up screen directly in front of him.

Kiki.

The slightest twinge of guilt twisted in Rex's gut. She was unconscious, her shirt pulling up ever so slightly to reveal flashes of pale blue skin. Despite the lack of sufficient nutrients, she still managed to accumulate baby fat over the days, and her pregnancy was becoming more and more obvious as time wore on.

Rex sighed within his helmet, a barely audible noise. The fact that a Jedi General was pregnant didn't sit well with him at all. Kiki had never seemed to be the type to break those sorts of rules—yes, she had voiced her disagreement on multiple occasions whenever it came to discussion of the 'no attachment' clause of the Jedi Code, but had otherwise made no physical move to prove just how much she was against it.

And I promised I wouldn't tell… That small fact gnawed uncomfortably at Rex's brain as he hobbled along, Kanari bearing the majority of his weight. When he'd found out in the medbay the day they received their assignment that Kiki was expecting, he was sure he'd misheard, or that there was something up with his helmet's air filters.

But the med droid showed that all the pregnancy tests—from hormone levels to weight gain to blood tests—showed that she was in fact due to have a baby.

And just as that truth had been revealed, Kiki almost broke the med droid and made sure Rex didn't mention it to anyone.

And here I've gone and told our enemies.

Rex wasn't about to have this battle with himself. Had he not said anything, Kiki could have miscarried within that very minute, and he knew that losing a child would have destroyed her inside; she was so emotionally unstable as it was. He wouldn't be likely to get any forgiveness from her anytime soon.

Too bad. It was in the best interest of the baby at that moment.

For the barest of seconds, Rex wondered as to who the father might be. It was strange, the path his mind was taking.

Rex thought—hoped—it was most likely another member of the Jedi. He wasn't sure how far along she was, but he'd heard stories of Jedi who couldn't be contained by the Order's strict celibacy rules.

It's technically not attachment if you only tried it once, Rex thought, snorting mentally to himself.

The father could be any one of her men.

It could be Marik, or Cord (although that was very hard to believe), or Edger or Jax or Ratchet.

It could have been Bliz.

Something cold and hard formed inside Rex's chest, squeezing his lungs for a moment. Although Bliz was the type to chase after women, talk about them, dream about them, and his…debauchery…had gotten him into trouble on more than one occasion (several, if memory served correctly), he wasn't the type of Commander to fraternize with higher-ups.

No, he valued his reputation too much for that.

The father could be any brother, from anywhere, and no test would be able to prove who it was because they all shared the same DNA.

A small spark of anger flared up in Rex. It'd better not have been a brother, he thought. He wouldn't believe it if a Jedi had manipulated a trooper just to suit her needs. He knew how the eager-to-please attitude the shinies took on would leave them vulnerable.

The short-lived anger quickly died down, however. A small noise from up ahead pulled him out of his thoughts. Kiki was waking up, her head moving slightly as she struggled to gain a sense of the passing walls. Rex watched in mild interest, but from beside him, on his left, he heard a slight chuckle.

"Yali, that's certainly a thought process you've got going there," Kanari said softly, so only Rex could hear. Rex jerked in surprise. "I could feel your emotions running through you."

So Kanari wasn't Force-sensitive. That was a relief. Rex had almost forgotten that that was a general skill Verocians possessed; reading and "feeling" emotions. It was dangerous to get into fights with them.

"Don't worry so much. That's bad for your health." Kanari smiled a bit as she checked another door, and, finding that the room was empty, continued on. "But this will present a problem…"

Rex didn't respond, instead choosing to continue forward and try to force himself to take more of his own weight. A moment later, however, he answered. "I don't like this." It could have meant anything from Kiki's pregnancy, to their current dilemma, to the over abundance of dirt in the dim tunnels. Kanari seemed to understand, however.

"It is troubling. With the current stage she's at, she could miscarry…" she let her voice trail off as she reached for a door. Before she could fully push it open, however, Anakin lunged forward and shoved it wide open, revealing the two stick-thin forms within.

"Ahsoka!" Anakin was already inside, trying to rouse his Padawan from her half-sleep.

"M-Master?" She cracked her eyes open, staring at Anakin in disbelief. "Master!"

Danda also woke up, searching around for Kiki. She pulled against her restraints, the chains rattling loudly against the stone wall. "Where's my Master?" She craned her neck around to see where Kiki was. "Master?"

"Commander, you have to keep your voice low," the trooper carrying Kiki said. "I have her right here, don't worry about—"

"Master!" Danda pulled on her chains again, harder this time. "What happened to her? Is she—?"

"Commander!" the trooper hissed. "Keep your voice down!"

"Hold on, I have the key." Kanari propped Rex up against the wall and rushed forward to undo the bindings. "Hold still, lieve." Kanari inserted the key in the lock ad twisted.

Danda's arms fell by her sides as she leaned against the wall for a moment. "Thank you…" she said quietly.

Ahsoka was released next. "Did you find everybody else?"

Kanari looked about her, then nodded. Salis answered before she could, however. "Yes sir. Now we've just got to find our way out of here."

They had the entire team.

Now all that was left was escape.


Sorry for the late update! I lost the muse to right this, and then I had to study for exams. If all goes as planned, I will be updating my other fics relatively shortly as well.

~AAx