Things take a turn for the better over the next few chapters, but that's all that I can tell you. Hope this one isn't too dark.


Three days.

It had been three days that the group was trapped inside the half-collapsed room.

Kiki had put herself into a Force trance where she was able to heal her wounds and save her child. She lay motionless by the left wall of the small space, her breathing deep and even.

Jax watched from the back wall, one hand over his side as he massaged a bruise. The upper half of his armor lay in a pile on the ground, as did everyone else's. The rock wall pressed uncomfortably into his back, but Kanari needed him to have his armor off in order to regularly check his bandaged wounds. He was subconsciously glad his regular shyness around females hadn't reappeared.

Jax made note of the speed at which Kiki's surface injuries were healing and could only imagine what was happening internally. To his right, Kanari was fussing over a concussed trooper, pressing a half-empty bottle of water to his lips and forcing him to drink. Empty sharps lay scattered on the dusty ground.

Jax had long since stopped counting how many were being used each hour, instead focusing his attention on the still form of Kiki. After hours of running and fighting, adrenaline being the sole thing to keep him on his feet, Jax was tired. He wanted to sleep, but couldn't find a position comfortable enough that wouldn't upset his wounds. He eyed Kanari as she moved on to Captain Rex. She tapped his face lightly to wake him up, whispering something Jax couldn't hear from where he was, but the Captain seemed to be paying attention. Rex's leg was bandaged and propped up on a rock, one arm held out as Kanari pushed another sharp into him. His shin was fractured, the bone split when the grenade had gone off and caused a rock to fall onto his leg. Rex had periods of numbness interspersed with bursts of pain due to the injury.

Jax cast his eyes back to Kiki, still in the same position she was in before. It was unnerving, the Force trance she'd put herself into. The lack of physical instruments to show that she was actually healing didn't sit well with him.

One last time, Jax made sure Kanari's back was turned as she tended to Marik's fever. Rolling onto his stomach and sucking in his gasp, Jax dragged himself to the left wall where Kiki lay.

"What are you doing?" Kanari demanded, abandoning her attention on Marik. "You're not supposed to be—"

"I'm fine, Kanari," Jax ground out, propping himself against the left wall. "Nothing's broken."

Kanari stared for a moment before turning back to Marik and pressing a hand against his forehead. The injury to his arm got infected the second day they were trapped despite Kanari and Cord's best efforts.

Jax studied Kiki, his eyes moving from her face, over the yellow-green bruises, down her form. He stopped at her stomach, at the obvious curve in her skin that only eradicated Jax's doubts.

Pregnant.

Every time he thought of it, his gut curled in way that made him sick, although he wasn't sure why. Since Kiki had started her Force trance, her abdomen had expanded and gained curvature in a matter of hours. He realized that she'd been using the force to keep her stomach relatively flat and that now the baby was allowed space to move.

No one had said anything. What was there to say? It was apparent some of them had previous knowledge of her pregnancy, and those who didn't were too afraid to ask.

The hem of Kiki's top exposed the underside of her belly, the creamy blue skin a sharp contrast to the black fabric and dark browns of the room.

Thousands upon thousands of questions rushed through Jax, each one fighting for space in his mind and temporarily taking position as most important before another forced its way in.

What would happen to the child once it was born? Would she keep it and leave the Order? What gender was the baby anyway?

Who was the father?

Every question proved too difficult for Jax to answer on his own, and each possible answer terrified him. He didn't know what he would do if he found out, even with something as simple as what gender the baby would be when it was born.

From across the space, Marik moaned and turned his head away from Kanari. Sweat glistened on his forehead, his face pale and drawn. Jax felt an out-of-place guilt; he wished he could have helped Marik, but Kanari was the only one fit enough to take care of him seeing as Cord was unconscious and Edger as no medic.

Jax shifted until he was facing Kiki, still staring at her stomach. Without any knowledge of what he was doing, his left hand was reaching out to her, gently resting on it. Jax didn't move, waiting for Kanari to spin around and tell him off for his actions.

There was no sound other than his own breathing.

Jax felt the smooth skin and dirty shirt under his bare fingers. His curiosity took over as he moved his hand over the dome of her stomach.

Something shifted under his fingertips.

Jax yelped and pulled his hand back, clutching it to his chest. Kanari spun and almost leapt to her feet. "What's wrong?" Already, a hypo was in her hand.

"Pulled something," Jax answered quickly, hoping his lie wasn't visible. "I'm fine, I swear."

She narrowed her eyes at him, but didn't respond. After a few moments of staring, she turned back around and continued to tend to Marik.

Jax looked at Kiki's stomach, not seeing anything that would have shifted the way it did. Hesitantly, he placed his hand on her stomach again.

He felt it. A small flutter under his palm before it disappeared again.

Kicking.

Jax held in another gasp and kept his hand still. The small flutter was there again, but stronger this time. He'd never realized just how far along Kiki was.

The baby was almost due.

Jax sat in stunned silence, even after the baby had stopped kicking. Kiki would be having her baby soon—sooner than he'd thought. She'd been hiding this for months.

"What are you doing?" Kanari was staring—no, glaring—at him, her eyes shifting from him to his hand on Kiki's stomach, and back. She stood with the sole intention of dragging him to a different part of the room ringing in her steps.

"I-I wasn't…" Jax yanked his hand away from Kiki as if she were on fire.

"What makes you think you can—"

"The baby's kicking."

Kanari stopped in her tracks, her face caught in a half-stare half-gape. Her bright green eyes kept shifting from Kiki's belly to Jax practically cowering against the wall.

"Kicking?" She flew into a flurry of motion and Verinese swear words. Jax couldn't tell if most of the words were aimed at him or the situation. "She's so far along already…" she muttered, paying no mind to Jax.

Jax did nothing but watch as Kanari took Kiki's blood pressure and other measurements either by hand or with what little tools they had.

"How…" he didn't know how to phrase the question. Part of him didn't even want to hear the answer, knowing that some piece of him would either ignore the information or take it the wrong way.

Jax could very well regret asking any questions altogether.

Kanari watched him expectantly, her hand resting upon Kiki's stomach and occasionally shifting positions.

"How far along is she?" Jax avoided eye contact, focusing his gaze on his filthy boots.

Kanari was silent, folding her lips in and then pursing them.

It was quiet for a long time.

"Seven months, at least."

Jax felt his heart stop, all feeling leaving his body other than cold numbness.

Seven months.

If he was correct, she only had two months left.

Jax barely heard Kanari exhale as she stood and went to sit on his left side, nearest the stubborn pile of rocks that blocked their only exit. A hand pressed firmly into his shoulder, warmth seeping through the thin cloth of his undershirt.

"Jax—"

"I'm fine, just…shocked," Jax said mumbled quietly. "I didn't think that…"

The heavy concern Jax felt from Kanari made him trail off. He didn't even know if she would continue to serve after her child was born. She could leave the army and the Jedi Order and have a normal life in the palace.

Pains attacked Jax's chest, his first reaction to pull his knees up to his chest and curl into himself. She probably had a lover if she'd been expecting for this long.

Kanari sighed softly and stood to walk back to the other side of the space. Cord was waking up and looking about, struggling to shift from his position against the wall. Dice was still sleeping, propped up against a boulder with his arms across his lap.

Ratchet was also waking up, turning his head until his eyes caught on Kiki. His eyes, narrowed in confusion, took in the sight before him. He rolled onto his stomach, pulling himself forward in a belly crawl until he was at Kiki's feet. Uncertainty clouded his eyes when he got a full look at her stomach. "W-When did…happen?" he stuttered, the proper words tangling in his mouth.

Jax remembered that Kanari said his speech impediment was likely due to a preexisting condition, and that trauma only would have made it worse. Ratchet wasn't concussed.

Ratchet crawled forward another meter until he was parallel to Kiki. A hand reached out and pressed against her round stomach as if to determine its actuality. His face grew more worried and almost stressed as he pressed more firmly against her skin. Horror grew on his face. "What…happened?"

Jax sensed Ratchet's thoughts and rushed to correct them. "She's been pregnant for a while now." Even saying the word "pregnant" made him feel odd. "Seven months."

"S-Sev…?" Ratchet fell silent, moving onto his knees and supporting himself with one hand on the wall. "B-But her…never was…" Ratchet made a frustrated noise in the back of his throat and motioned to her large stomach. He bit out his words. "Stomach. Wasn't. Big. Before."

Jax had no clue how she'd managed to hide her condition for so long, and that was another question added to his ever-growing list of things he didn't want to know.

After Jax didn't answer his broken statement, Ratchet settled down next to Kiki with the steely determination to protect her written in his eyes. He shot Jax an almost sympathetic look as he refocused his gaze on Kiki's stomach. Ratchet was still struggling to get past her condition.

Rumble, rumble.

Jax stiffened, prepared to protect Kiki from anymore rocks that fell from the ceiling. For the past few hours, there had been more and more rumbling noises, most likely due to rocks still settling after the blast; the tunnels were located under a mountain.

The rumbling steadily grew louder and more frequent, the noise of crashing rocks ringing through the small space and waking a few clones up.

"Think this place has finally decided to shut us in…" Rex mumbled, sitting up straighter against the wall.

Something heavy fell against the metal door as more thudding noises surrounded it.

From where Jax sat, he could see part of the black door as rocks struck it, but the sound was all wrong.

Things were moving away from the door. Boulders tumbled, their sound receding instead of growing louder.

Kanari straightened from her crouch, eyeing the area where all the sound was coming from. "What the—"

Metal screeched as it was torn and bent, muffling everything else and making Jax's teeth vibrate. His heart jumped with too many emotions to count, but fear was the dominant feeling. He thought that maybe the Lizards were digging them out to take them back as prisoners.

And after all the running we've done…Jax thought, moving closer to Kiki. Ratchet had also taken up a defensive position, however shaky his balance was.

They were both prepared to fight whatever it was—until he heard the voices.

Voices they recognized.

The door was completely torn away, stones and boulders caving inward through the new opening created. Light flooded the room, burning Jax's eyes after being in the dark for so long.

Boots thudded on the now small pile of rocks, white and made of plastoid and altogether reassuring. Voices exploded from the doorway, all overlapping and frantic.

"Sir!"

A clone's voice.

Jax almost whooped with joy.

"I've found them!"


Thus concludes our little journey in the tunnels.

In the beginning, I was going to have Marik lose and arm, Cord had a popped/torn lung, Jax almost bleed to death, and Anakin and Kiki get stabbed by two Lizards that somehow survive the blast. It's a good thing I didn't put all that in there; there is no way they would have survived all that.

At this rate, the next chapter should be out just as soon as this one.