From a distance The Twilight seemed like a tiny glittering speck of dust exiting the open bowels and moving its way through the debris field surrounding Ryloth. Once it made its way into this debris it looked almost indistinguishable from the rest of the wreckage, but it was moving with definite purpose. Twin beams of powerful light were scanning through the wreckage to find a safe route through.

Taking a look inside the cockpit of this old and battered ship would reveal two Jedi, a master and an apprentice. The master, a surprisingly young, twenty-year-old human male, sat slightly to the side, constantly shifting his concentration for watching the nav-monitor for nearby objects to watching and scrutinising his apprentice, who was in charge of flying the ship. This apprentice, an even younger fourteen-year-old Togrutan female was, in her own opinion anyway, doing a fine job of navigating through a field of wreckage. And to her, peripherally seeing her master constantly scrutinise everything she did was getting a bit trying. So much so that she decided to pipe up.

"Do you trust me not to crash the ship Master?"

Anakin took a quick glance upward out of the front of the transparisteel cockpit before replying quite calmly,

"Of course Snips. Why ask?"

Ahsoka gritted her teeth at her master's nonchalanceness and replied,

"Then why are you watching me so closely?"

Anakin grinned and swivelled his chair back to the nav-monitor and again calmly replied,

"I'm not trying to get in your grill Snips, I'm just watching your flying style. You'd be surprised how many pilots crash in a debris field, even Jedi. It's all training."

Ahsoka's over-tightened grip on the controls loosened a little and she let out a soft, relieved sigh.

"Oh… Well, how am I doing Master?"

She asked timidly. Anakin mused on this for a moment while reaching out carefully in the Force. Ahsoka was currently a very slowly whirling pool of emotions. She was tapping on a centre of confidence and skill she knew she had, but there were occasional waves of uncertainty lapping at the edges. He could also sense in her the sudden need to be acknowledged and recognised. She was partly like him at that age, she knew and did have the skill, but always needed people to acknowledge it. In a way, Anakin mused to himself, he was still like that himself now. Seeing this younger self in his own Padawan was bringing some interesting realisations to light. Perhaps having this nuisance around was indeed teaching him something, though he would loathe to admit it. After this long pause he decided not to keep his eager Padawan holding her breath any longer.

"You're doing great Snips. I can feel you have a core of confidence, that's good. But I also sense uncertainty, that's not a good thing to have… It can eat at you, and if it overwhelms you at a stressful time can paralyse your action. That's dangerous Snips, let go of your uncertainty, I know you can do it."

Anakin's words had been as comforting as he could make them sound. All in all, he thought he'd done a good job with that. He was really quite pleased and thought it had come out rather sage-like. He smirked proudly to himself and kept watching his Padawan for a reaction. After a tense second of two she relaxed considerably and grinned slightly, before lightly chuckling a response,

"Who are you? Or better yet, where did you read that speech from?"

Anakin deflated slightly. Not about to let his ego get any bruising he quickly quipped back,

"Hey, that was all me Snips! You can't hang around Obi-Wan all your life without picking up something of his teaching style, as hard as I tried not to."

Ahsoka smiled softly, but Anakin could still sense some doubt and uncertainty in her as she quietly replied,

"Well I'm glad you have it in you somewhere Master."

It was becoming increasingly clear to Anakin that he couldn't cajole the old determined, curious and sometimes annoying Ahsoka out of her shell unless he addressed the loss of her squad. Anakin stayed silent for the next few minutes, while his Padawan carefully picked her way through the wreckage before clearing it completely and setting a course for the surface of the plant. Anakin was just about to bring up the topic of her lost squad when, without looking away from the controls and front viewport Ahsoka curiously asked.

"Where will I set a course for Master?"

Anakin thought about it for the moment, landing near the capitol would be counterproductive. The recent battles there gave the GAR a strong presence and crime would likely be at an all-time low. To blend in with the seedy underbelly it would probably be better to land in an equally large city, but one unaffected by the recent battle.

"Not sure Snips… I'll go through the options now."

Anakin opened a map of Ryloth on one of the monitors on the panel in front of him and began cycling through some options. Deciding not to procrastinate any longer he slowly and deliberately put the question to Ahsoka,

"Ahsoka, do you want to talk about what happened during the blockade?"

Anakin both watched his Padawan from the corner of his eye and reached out slightly in the Force to gauge her reaction. It came across to him as sad and dejected, almost resigned. Her shoulders slumped, her brow furrowed and the corners of her lips turned down.

"You're not going to let this one drop are you Master?"

Ahsoka asked, in an almost pleading voice. Anakin made to verbal response and kept a serious look on his face for some time until Ahsoka continued.

"Thought not… What do you want me to say Master? That I've gotten over it like you told me I should have? Well that's just not true… Clones… People died because of me. Not because of some tinnies, because of me!"

She paused for a moment and sighed. Looking over at her master she found him looking straight back at her. Anakin gave her a little nod as if to motion for her to continue.

"… I don't quite know how to feel Master. I miss my friends, yes. But I've lost some before, it's hard, but I always coped. This time, it's different. Every time I close my eyes I see their deaths, every time I sleep the whole thing is played out in my dreams and every time I meditate I notice their absence, and it's like they're blaming me, calling me unfit for command… I don't want this anymore Master… I don't mind fighting, but I don't want to be in charge of others lives"

Anakin's forehead creased as he realised just exactly how hard this war was affecting the minds of those in it. It was all wrong, it shouldn't be happening and most of all it shouldn't be dragging young people into roles that they weren't mentally ready to handle. He vowed to himself for the hundredth time that he would do his beat to end it as quickly as possible, finding those responsible and stopping them for good. But right now the most important thing was to get his Padawan back on track and out of this cell of self doubt and self deprecation that she was in before it ended up killing her.

"It's tough Snips, I know! Loosing men is hard, loosing men because of your own actions is even harder, but right now I need you back in the game… This war is unfair, and putting you into a position of power over trooper's lives is even more unfair, but it will happen again, it does to me all the time. Every man I loose is a blow. I try to remember them all, their names and what they were like, and I carry a part of that with me. But I do my very best to use that, I funnel that, I try to carry the best of my men with me, their hopes, their dreams and most of all their determination and dedication to get the job done. That's how I honour them… I'd like you to do your best to try that Ahsoka, honour their memory and their memory won't be as negative. Because if you don't get back that feisty spirit back I know it will kill you, and the last thing I want is to have to add your name to the list of dead to be honoured, even if you are nosey and annoying, though very skilled and determined, and all in all… I couldn't have asked for a better Padawan, and I am proud of you…"

Silence filled the cockpit of the Twilight as Anakin finished his last sentence. He waited a little nervously to see his Padawan's reaction; he hoped that would be enough to get her back on the right path. Ahsoka remained in silence for quite some time, Anakin sensed the whirl of emotions in her, what seemed like several minutes passed before she hesitantly broke a smile and gratefully replied,

"Thank you Master… I think… I think I can work with that."

Anakin breathed an internal sigh of relief as he sensed the flicker of her old determination inside of her. Despite this Anakin tread carefully and asked her,

"You'll be okay Ahsoka?"

Ahsoka smiled a little nervously and replied,

"I'll be okay Master, a little time and I think I'll be fine…"

There was a momentary pause before Ahsoka piped up again in her more usual cheery voice and asked,

"So do we have a target yet or do you want me to keep flying 'till our fuel runs out?"

Glad that his Padawan seemed to be getting back on track with a job well done by him Anakin smiled a little smugly and replied,

"Of course. Here, Tsa'vin. It's a small spaceport just on the Nightlands side of Ryloth. It was too small and too far away from any of the major cities to be attacked during the battle. The separatists never bothered with it, so neither did we, GAR presence there is non-existent. And from what these databases tell me, several smuggling groups are known to frequent it from time to time."

He showed Ahsoka a mapped readout of the surrounding area as well as the coordinates. She nodded curtly and remarked,

"Sounds perfect for a seedy place to go undercover."

Anakin grinned at his Padawan's powers of observation,

"My thoughts exactly!"

With that Ahsoka plotted her descent course down to Ryloth and the Twilight sped off towards to ever growing, dark shape of the surface of Ryloth's night side.

` ***

Captain Rex made an exasperated noise as he strode through the bowels of The Resolute. Inactivity didn't sit well with the clone captain and now the smallest things were getting to him. Rex never imagined that something about the new off-duty GAR fatigues would annoy him when he first heard about them. He looked forward to not having to wear the ridiculously tight bodysuit when not on patrol, or being able to sit down in the mess without his armour crimping his most sensitive of places. But now that he wore them it was the smallest of things that got to him. For the first time in his life he was wearing a different type of boots. The GAR procurement had supplied very standard, but fine pairs of tough, hardened Nerfhide boots. Rex had no problem with the shoes themselves. What irked him was that they made a completely different sound while walking, a distinctly non-metallic noise. The sound of them was so different from his normal Mark I armour boots that he often had moments where he thought he was being followed, and then have the embarrassing realisation that he was jumping at his own footsteps.

His current journey took him to the mess hall, in search of something better tasting than ration cubes to fill his almost constant ravenous hunger, the price of having a very fast metabolism. The mess hall itself wasn't a very glorious affair, not for the regular crew anyway. It was a very simple, large, grey-walled hall, with rows of long tables fastened to the floor and a steamy canteen at one end. The higher-ups in the fleet had their own dining room near the bridge of the ship. Commander Cody, having had been invited to a few on Obi-Wan's ship had once told Rex of the types of feasts that were served up there. Anakin had never invited Rex himself. Rex knew, however, that the General ate mostly in his own quarters, occasionally he came down to the mess to sit with the troopers and his Padawan, who seemed to completely ignore her privilege and always ate in the canteen.

Rex quickly served himself up a stew that he could only hope was made of Soba and made for the large seating area. Taking a quick glance around he tried to identify troopers from Torrent Company. By all means this was no mean feat to do this through the hustle and bustle of at least a hundred clones making their way through whatever was being passed off as a meal on this day. His eyes stopped at a table near the centre of the room that seemed to possess familiar faces. Subtle differences in mannerisms and facial expressions, as well as different hair cuts and tattoo markings told Rex that this table was populated by friends.

Weaving his way through the crowd of soldiers Rex quickly made it to the table. One of the troopers, Jax, saw him coming and stood up to attention. In almost one motion the rest of the table dropped their cutlery, pushed their chairs back and stood to similar attention. A noticeable exception was Sergeant Coric, who simple leaned back and smiled in a knowing way at Rex. Rex nodded and smiled back at his old friend before dropping his tray onto the table and gesturing at his red fatigues before saying,

"Out of uniform boys, no captain's at this table."

Sheepish realisation crossed most of their faces as they quietly sat down to continue their meals. The fatigues were relatively new, thus most troopers still hadn't gotten used to the concept of being "out of uniform". After a few quiet moments conversation started up again between most of the troopers. Rex listened in silently as he ate. It was mostly trivial things, recalling moments from past battles, wondering how injured brothers were, wondering where the next posting would be or current theories on where Grievous and Dooku were hiding. Once Rex was finished with the more edible parts of the meal he too joined in and chatted away with his brothers. Most of them had been serving together long enough for conversation to flow easily, but some soldiers were relatively new to the tightly knit band of brothers. Rex made extra effort to include them and get to know these soldiers.

He was just in the middle of talking to one of these new recruits, Jax, a slightly fidgety, but highly skilled sniper, who was telling him all about his first posting that led to him being chosen for the 501st when his wristcom began to beep. He apologised for having to interrupt the trooper's story and proceeded to open the link, before checking in,

"Captain Rex here."

Rex looked up to see Coric and Jax pretending to not pay attention, but clearly listening in, just as Admiral Yularen's voice was projected through the wristcom.

"Captain, good that you're there. This is Admiral Yularen. Since General Skywalker left me no orders to give you, I'd like to give you a mission of my own. Gather together a team of no more than ten, suit-up and meet me in the briefing room in no more than fifteen."

Rex noticed that the entire table had forgone any semblance of being discreet, had stopped talking and was now attentively listening in. Finding their enthusiasm heartening he replied to the Admiral,

"We'll be there in ten. Rex out…"

Before closing the link and standing up. He looked down at the expectant faces of his troopers and smiled before saying,

"Well I can't leave you all behind after hearing that. Up, the lot of you."

With an excited and anxious buzz, the seven troopers rose as one and made their way straight out of the mess hall. Rex caught Coric's attention with a quick jerk of the head and asked him,

"Coric, get Echo and Fives to meet us in the briefing room too. Should make a nice rounded team."

Sergeant Coric gave Rex an instant salute and replied in military style,

"Sir, right away sir."

Rex grinned and pulled at the shoulder of his fatigues to emphasise that he was out of uniform.

"Still wearing them Coric."

Coric cracked a grin, knowing Rex had gotten him, before turning and heading after the other troopers.

Rex took one last look down at his still half full plate before giving up and following his men.