Hey guys... Sorry for the wait... I know these are quicker updates than what fans usually get on fanfiction, but I still don't update enough... Even if I could update every day, it's just not enough... Well, I wish to say that I'm going through some nostalgia since I'm becoming excited for the Rebels series... It feels like I was a little preteen, getting excited for the Clone Wars, and look where that has taken all of us. In the end, I don't think the Clone Wars will ever die, even if there isn't a single story or fanfic continuing that masterpiece because one things for sure... We have the memory of the series and even if it died, and we grieved and sobbed (and many of us are still grieving) it will never die... Like Yoda said in the last episode of the series, "Through this path, victory we may find; not victory in the Clone Wars, but victory in all times."

What do I mean by that, I don't know! But it's a darn good quote, that is.

Guest: Thank you... Anakin will have an interesting character arc coming up... *shrugs* Just something to tease.

TripleThreat123: Glad you love it... Seems like it can't be more motivational than that. No, it is... Your reviews are important to me, so never stop and always keep it up.

Lux's POV

Running took a lot out of me... The soft dirt muffled the footsteps as the rebels continued to race away from every flare we would fire up... Every couple of klicks and another flare would fire into the twilight sky... It was foolish to think of victory in regaining Onderon, but 'even the most foolish of plans carry hope to succeed'... Or was it, 'even with foolish plans, one must hope they could succeed'? I couldn't remember. All I cared about was running, even with the sore under my ribs from the constant work of my lung's diaphragm.

Huff-huff, huff-huff, huff-huff.

I kept on breathing at a rapid pace, still not fully used to the aerobic exercise of a plan I had made; the one regarding leaving a breadcrumb trail of flares to lead the droids away from the Ruping's Nest. It was a foolish plan but I kept on puffing for Ahsoka, not because I wanted to impress her but to prove that I can fight hard under pressure... Wait, wouldn't that mean 'wanting to impress'?

My mind was dizzy, but I still shook away the unnecessary thoughts I carried that gave way to even a larger headache. My brain had a heartbeat of its own and I swear it had twice the heat as the rest of my body. I opened my hands to see dirt, not only clogged inside my fingernails, but also inside the slits of my palms. I tried brushing it out, but then I noticed dust from the battlefield caked my hands like flour that it became frivolous to persist cleansing my hands

Ahsoka kept to the back, making sure everyone, or me, was running fast enough to avoid droid detection.

I didn't want to appear weak, but that always seems to go without saying.

"Are you, huff-huff, feeling alive, 'Soka, huff-huff?"

I kept running into mud, unexpectedly sinking deeper into the ground than I hoped most my steps would take. It didn't matter anymore. The bottom of my boots had a lace of mud, like it was part of the sole... I just had to keep running through the jungle, sometimes snagged into sharp, wild plants, but always pushing my way out of the holdup... I was becoming more used to all these natural obstacles every second. It may be my home, but I usually explored the jungles of Onderon by air, mainly to keep away from the "Great Beasts" (as folklore says) that lie, breeding, in the swamps and tropics.

"Never better." Ahsoka gasped for breath. "You seem optimistic, huff-huff, while we're in retreat."

"Yep." I kept breathing in-between sentences. "This my home... Nothing can bring me down."

Ahsoka turned on her lightsaber, however, right when there was a blaster that shot from behind... Ahsoka, without thinking, lunged behind (everyone else tucked their heads and scrambled so they weren't immaculate target) and tore through a droid... I heard bush rustling, then another slash for I also heard sparks shooting out of the droid, along with a spill of Manpha oil out of its skeleton.

Looking back, I saw Ahsoka standing over a commando droid.

"GO!" She yelled, "I'll see if I can sense other scouts coming our way!"

I wondered if a droid was harder to sense in the Force because it was a machine... I don't know why, but I always thought Jedi could only sense other Jedi because they had a strong connection in the Force. Who am I to judge? Clearly, I didn't know the aspects and limitations of a Jedi's 'superpower'.

Eventually, Ahsoka caught back up to us... From all the panting I heard behind me, I could tell it was wrong to disturb her with more conversation.

When we found the River of Idin, we stopped to catch our breath.

"It's too bad that the Great Beasts of our tales don't stipulate 'Animals of the Wild' eating curious droids... Always in the stories, it was curious people." One rebel said, the same one who tried to make a joke earlier... At least, now, he was veering away from black humor, though barely... No one laughed... They just nodded their heads...

Stepping into the large river, I dipped my hands in the surprisingly warm water (surprising because most rivers near the Eastern Highlands were cold).

I looked at Ahsoka as she too dipped her toes into the riverbank to wash her face. She would scoop water up and splash it against her face... I chose to sit on a nearby rock, putting the pressure of one arm on my right knee. "Finally decided to feel the water..." I chuckled, reminding her of the Great Lake of Ondari. She refused to touch the icy water but not the creepy crystals. Pfft, typical woman.

I had fun as I splashed her, in which Ahsoka jerked her hand to the side, sending a wave of water to drench me... Well, playing with a Jedi wasn't fair for a non-Force-user!

"Say, that wasn't nice." I grumbled in clown-like way.

"Stay chirpy, Lux." Ahsoka groaned... "You're in a deep predicament, as you should know."

I closed my eyes, with them throbbing with longing. "Obviously, yes."

"Yes, but it isn't obvious, Lux."

I just nodded...

Once everyone washed up and filtered some drinking water from the river, we headed out... We were only there for three minutes, but that's the time it takes when one is on the run... The hard part was crossing a tile of neatly placed rocks (though, it HAD to be next to a precarious waterfall) to get to the other side.

"Alright," Steela called out. "Children of Onderon! My brothers and sisters! Move out!"

What we didn't know that to head North meant hitting a cliff ridge that went five-hundred standard feet up and was almost a hundred klicks long...

Though the River of Idin stopped the droid advance, that didn't stop the movement of a certain assassin that lurked from abaft.

A few hours into the night and we will be trapped!

We trudged on, through mud and sand, through overbearing sunshine to pounding rain. It was a nightmare to get away from the Droid Army.

I looked around to see the foliage that surrounded me... "The jungle is like you, Ahsoka..." I took a gamble by patting her shoulder... "It's beautiful and deadly..., deadly to your enemies, I mean."

Ahsoka smiled in feint... "Why don't you stop complimenting me, Lux...? You just want me to put my guard down and then take advantage with our relationship, if it exists... What is that you want from me?"

I gulped, not wanting so little to spawn into an inertial problem. "Sorry, I shouldn't- Well, since you ask," I answered my question hastily so she didn't feel like pausing would give time for me to lie... I wasn't lying either... I just wanted to stay on her good side. "Your love..., and your acceptance that comes with that."

Ahsoka didn't nod, she held saddened eyes, like a part of her wanted to give in to me and another part said to stay away. "Well, from what I've seen in men thus far, you're all the same... You have a surplus on charm and shortage on proving there's anything else... You're charming, but you prove that you would go to whatever end to have me... Own me, is that it?"

I was holding out my arms in self-defense. "No, never... Why? What would make you think that...? Oh, I'm so clumsy on showing that I care... I'm doing it the wrong way; I get it... But why are you so unsure on what I really want?"

A blast shot through Ahsoka's montrals, grazing them... At first, the sudden shot threw me off of what was going on, but when more shots came, I knew it must have been another scout!

"Everyone down, weapons out!" Steela shouted, with some rebels already firing at where the shot came from. Steela grabbed her electrobinoculars to gaze at the bush, to see where it came from... I took cover behind a tree, and fired pistols at that same direction.

Then, everyone froze, blasters at the ready... There was silence, angling at where the assassin may have gone, but there was no rustling in the bushes to signal footsteps. Nor was there crackle of leaves where he may step... There was silence as they pointed blasters in the trajectory that the elusive shot came from.

Wasn't a very good shot, though. It ludicrously went between the horns on Ahsoka's head. Who could miss like that? Not a droid... An amateur...

"It's him." Ahsoka nearly growled when she said that.

"Who?" I lifted an eyebrow as we whispered.

"Someone from my past... An old friend..., who's now trying to kill me."

"Kill you?"

"Or just hurt me!" She snarled in whisper. I backed down from asking pointless questions while a killer was on the prowl.

But in the talk, Ahsoka was still avoiding a key ingredient on the person's identity... Conversely, Ahsoka also seemed to understand the person and his tactics.

"He's above us, I can sense it."

"But you couldn't sense a shot incoming?"

"Not now, Lux." Oh, yeah. Don't ask stupid questions now.

Ahsoka jutted her eyes upward, but kept her head from moving... She saw no rustling. No sound... She could only sense the assassin's Force presence like he had a trace on him.

"He's up on the branch... He's done this move before... In the restaurant, remember...?" Ahsoka growled again. "He's going to regret his incompetence... When I knock the branch down, he'll fall, you'll stun him... Got it?"

I nodded. Ready.

In a split second, many things happened. Without looking in the upwards direction of where the assassin squatted, Ahsoka broke the branch he was standing on... Droids appeared from in front, which the rebels blasted in unison. Along with that, I swiveled around and sent a couple stun charges up above me, as the body of a blue Twi'lek fell flat, face forward...

It was a hit!

I kept my gun on him..., but still perplexed with the efficiency of Ahsoka's plan. "Darling, why did you ask me to stun him? The fall from that height would have knocked him out cold." I muttered.

With most of the droids down, the rebels looked nearly as confused as I was with the body (and branch) that fell from the treetops.

Ahsoka frowned, having a little bit of tears in her eyes... "This, Lux, is a loose end of the Droid Army; their assassin here... He used to have a free-spirited heart, before he convinced himself to joined the Separatists, namely to punish me."

"For what?" I looked up to her, finding it slightly difficult not to look away from the body in case it were to jump out at us. But Ahsoka looked so pitted with grief that I had to ask what this person did to upset her. "Ahsoka?"

"It was because there was an 'us'. He wishes to punish me because he thinks I left it out... Now, he's terrorizing me. Us... Lux..., this is my old boyfriend, Kidd Kareen."

Third Person's POV

Durge snapped the last rebel's neck after scratching him with a razor fifty times... He liked seeing the light in their eye before they died... Truly, it was inspirational to see their fear, like it was telling the gruesome Gen'dai 'yes, you're a powerful person... With that power, you have nothing more to fear in life.'

It was a cruel point-of-view, but Durge had a thousand years to let his mind become ensnared with corruption. Outside influence, inside fear, they were all 'positive' motives to continue showing the galaxy that he has the power to control life... And end it... Inspirational was only a cornerstone word for how much of an impact it was to witness death at such a horrid degree.

Durge turned on his handheld holoprojector, (still ten times smaller than his palm). "Ah, Commander." Durge welcomed the BX-series commando droid. "How is Rash faring this precise manhunt? Or the battle that we've irrevocably won in these nice lands...?" He monologue again. "Beautiful planet... There clearly must be something to exploit out of such a place. After all, that's the inner psyche of every sentient I met in this bloody galaxy... Oh, it seems my poetic side has taken control over me...!" He gurgled a laugh. "What news, then?"

The commando didn't bow but just delivered his message as programmed. To the droids, there wasn't anything more important than that.

"My Lord, we have followed the rebels, but it seems like a diversion."

"How, expressively, so?" Durge hummed.

The commando pointed, even though Durge couldn't see what it was narrowing down. "It appears they are leaving flares up in the nighttime sky. We believe this is a diversion..."

"My assassin should have called in for following those flares. The kid is as clumsy as he is stupid... He'll follow their obvious breadcrumb trail down to their trap, then he'll be forgotten... I have no tears for him since none more can be shed... That old, droid. I'm that ancient... Anyways-"

A beeping sound came from his wrist gauntlet, signaling a coordinate readout and a small message from the assassin, Kidd Kareen: "I've found-" And it stopped right there.

"Hmmm..." Durge gave a sound of thought that sounded so very fake. "He's gone down the trail... I believe he has located our slippery quarry." Durge rubbed the durasteel dreadlocks of his armor... "Have the gunships spotted them along their trail of flares."

The commando shook. "Life detectors cannot pinpoint them along their trajectory since there is a mass of organic matter on this planet... Though, from the trail of flares, they are heading for the Northern Wall, a rock cliff that will jut a klick up vertically for a thousand more in every horizontal direction. If they go west, they head for one of our staging outposts, right into our hands... East, and they go into the Wilds, a dangerous, bestiary part of Onderon. They will eventually be trapped... Your orders, My Lord?"

Durge thought for a while... He didn't trust Kidd to get the job done, but he also didn't trust that the rebels would make a foolhardy decision in their own land... They are going to scale the cliff.

"Send the gunships, connect the dots in the sky, and blow the cliff with their missiles this time, not EMP... With patrols there, the concussive explosions should scare them away to take a more dangerous road. And if the rabble HAPPEN to be underneath the cliff ledge, then that will be even more influential to their planning."

Durge knew what he was doing even if it was far-fetched. What he didn't plan for was what Kidd would do if he was captured by the rebels. And, indeed, a couple minutes ago, he was.

Lux's POV

As we carried Kidd Kareen's body for another couple of klicks into the night, I sullened up, skulking in the sidelines for a little bit... Though I couldn't tell Ahsoka that I recognize his identity as her former love interest, I could still pretend to be amazed... I was just up in jealousy.

"Why didn't you tell me about him? That he was the assassin?" I had my eyebrows in a tight wad on my forehead.

"Lux..." Ahsoka sighed. "Don't act like this... He knows now that I'll never return to him... If he kept the ruse, that would be one thing... But no... He's fodder now."

"Expendable, eh?" I kept make a grin.

"Not yet..." Ahsoka stared at two rebels, including Saw, who was carrying the gurney (basically made up of two thick sticks and a towel wrapped around the two). "He has information we may need."

I just shrugged. "Why not take another droid head?" I mumbled.

"Because," Ahsoka wrapped her left arm around my back. "This info may be more lucrative than architectural layout... He might know the tactics of the droids... And more."

I stared at the body of the traitor... His skin color was an azure blue with darker dots on his lekku. His head had a large wound in it, now drying up in a purple scab. His cama clothes were tarnished, ripped, teared; altogether looking a lot different from the black cloak he once wore when he attacked in Iziz; three times... His third time wasn't in his favor due to the fact that Ahsoka revealed his identity. But he escaped under a passing speeder... Ahsoka told me that shortened portion of the story; how his sick obsession with punishing Ahsoka over me was realized.

And yet, he might be fooling himself to assault someone he claims to love. That didn't make sense, but he tried to give credibility with revenge... He tried to prove that kidding oneself can lead someone down any dark path. Boy, did he try.

Clearly, I didn't enjoy the sight of him around us, but Ahsoka was right... We can still get something out of him.

"STOP!" Steela called out... I looked up and saw a gigantic cliff, appearing now in the trees... The cliff was hiding our moon, Dxun, behind it, so it felt like we kept walking in darkness with nothing but our headlights in a forest that was out to get us, not because of the 'Great Beasts', no... I mean, the forest was dangerous ever since assassins like Kidd kept popping up.

But either way, the great wall was blocking our path... Luckily, we didn't set up any flares anytime recently... The only light we were able to see the cliff in was the stars. There were so many in the sky that they could rival Dxun. But despite its beauty, the way North appeared all but shut.

"Did we make a wrong turn?" I asked...

"No, we've been going the right way all this time." Tandin had a holocompass out, but no map. We just wanted to head north, but now this cliff was here to stop us.

I looked up... After a couple minutes, I realized that the jungle met the cliff-face perfectly for cover. The trees brushed against the rock like there was nothing in the galaxy that could prevent the flow of plantlife. Moss and foliage dotted the rock, heading up, up, up into the starry sky, appearing in just one big, black void.

"We're climbing it now?" Saw asked.

"No." Steela answered. "Take rest... We'll travel up at morning's first light."

"What about the droids..." Saw muttered. "On the exception of those gunships, we can easily lose them up the cliff wall."

"Some of us will be stationed in the night... At least we have to just protect three directions for potential attack."

And that was that... We walked right up to the base of the cliff and, for the moment, there was nowhere else we could wish to go. Rebels immediately fell to the ground asleep, exhausted from the trudging hike they been doing all day and nearly all night.

I was the last one to hit the warm ground, but briefly stopped when I witnessed two people were still up and waiting patiently... Ahsoka and Steela were staring at Kidd Kareen all through the night... As if he may lunge out on us any second we had the audacity to be sound in bed..., whatever that could be considered 'bed' on this hard and muddy ground.

It took the definite darkness, but eventually I ignored the roots that clawed my head and back. And somehow somehow, whether it was out of sheer exhaustion or self-preservation, my mind convinced my body to fall asleep.

I got news recently... Apparently, Seasons 7 and 8, with season 8 being the planned last season were already written out for Clone Wars before cancellation and some of the arcs that weren't created will transfer into comic book or novel form... HURRAY HURRAH! Yeah, I shouldn't hold my breath, but at least there is a New Hope in these Dark Times. That's all I have to say, A New Hope!