Like promised, the new chapter on Wednesday! Thanks to all new followers, favs and reviews!

For Ia Aira: I have overlooked the second chapter another time and hope I have corrected some of the mistakes, except for my spelling of C3PO, as I don't think it will hinder you too much on reading and it is how I'd write the name.

For the guest, who has noticed my missing post: I have still problems with the internet and can barely post this, but you watched out great, I like it! For everybody else, I'm sorry, I know I should have posted sooner… But it took me quite long to trick the Internet for this chapter...

This chapter could possibly not suit everyone (more at the end), but please read till the end where there's further information!

Follow and review!

Relieved, Anakin exhaled the air out of his lungs. Her heart was still beating; he could fill her low pulse under his fingers. "Look out for other injured and get me a medical team, now!" Anakin shouted at one of the men standing around, Tiger was the name or something like that. Damn, he just couldn't concentrate right now on anything. But he had to. He was a Jedi; he had to get control over his emotions.

Heavily breathing and still trembling, he turned to Rex, who was still kneeling beside Ahsoka. "How did it happen, Rex?"

"We were lured into a trap, General." Rex reported, his formal military voice as always. "As we were following Fil-Sen inside this house, we were suddenly surrounded by battle droids. As we were looking for cover in here, the commander told us to stay in the colonnades while she was dealing with the droids."

"So you let her go?"

"In my opinion Commander Tano was quite capable of the situations. And there didn't seem to be a problem, she was as good as ever, she slaughtered nearly all droids by herself. Besides, we were still covering her. I think one of my men hit the Himil leader by accident in the attack."

Anakin wasn't quite interested in Fil-Sen, just in the fact how Ahsoka got injured. "When was she shot, Rex?"

"Just after we had won. She turned back to us to get a grenade, as there were still some of them marching through an arch at the end of the yard." Rex pointed at a cluster of stones. As she just had thrown the explosive, a sniper got her. Luckily, I push her aside, but she had already been wounded. As I dragged her into shelter, she had lost consciousness."

"Where is the sniper?" Son of a bitch, if Anakin got him, he would make him pay for hurting Ahsoka, his little 'Soka.

"We don't know, Sir, he just stopped shooting."

"What? How could you lose him?"

"Just as I turned around to look for him, he had already disappeared, General."

"Not completely, Rex. We'll get him."

Suddenly the Med team of HT-units got next to them and placed Ahsoka onto one of the med bars. As they were getting her to the cannon boats, Anakin turned to Rex one more time. "Rex, count the dead and wounded, and then get up to the Resolute with your unit. I'm going to search for this sniper."

"But Sir…"

"Please Rex, stay with Ahsoka, she'll want to see a familiar face."

"Yes, Sir."

"Okay… Where did the shot of the sniper came from?"

"From one of the balconies of the mansion, I think, but I wasn't able to see the sniper, he was too fast. He could also have shot from somewhere else."

"Thanks." With a jump, Anakin landed on one of the rooftops on the colonnades and with a second, he was on the balcony. Rex had been right… indeed, there was a sniper rifle lying on the floor, like it had been left with hurry. Anakin took a short look at the weapon on the floor. It wasn't an ordinary sniper rifle like from any droid, but a quite expensive model. Who would have left one of them behind by purpose? The Sniper had really been in hurry.

Anakin paused in surprise and shock at once: This wasn't a droid's rifle. It was a republic's model. A republic's?

The expensive republic model, the running away, all this made Anakin wonder, who the Sniper could have been. If the Sniper had been another trap for the clones, Ahsoka would not have remained the only target, he knew.

There was no doubt for Anakin that Ahsoka had been the target of this attack, it just was the only logical conclusion to the facts. So, what mission had the Sniper accomplished? Should he kill Ahsoka, or maybe just wound her?

Anakin took a look inside of the house, but realized the room behind the balcony was covered in stones. There was no way a sniper would have escaped through that. So the sniper had to be someone, who was quite fast and could jump quite high.

Anakin's first guess was a bounty hunter. They'd do anything just for profit, and were also quite skilled. They could have been on the roof.

With a second jump, Anakin was on the roof of the mansion. No sign of anybody, but he just had to mediate on the force signatures around him, then he should be able to find a trace.

Anakin kneeled down and concentrated on the Force. There had to be something he could get a clue from, a broken tile, a footprint, some crushed roses in Flowerpots. But the Force should have left the best mark…

Anakin swam in the Force, searched for clues about the sniper, for his mark that was as recognizable as a fingerprint.

Only there was none.

And then, there was a terrible thought within Anakin. What if the attacker… What if he had been a Jedi?

A Jedi.

A Jedi had attacked Ahsoka…

Maybe as well a Sith, but surely a force-sensitive being. This would have also explained how Ahsoka could have been unaware of the danger until she was hit, and her unconsciousness, which could have been caused by a Force-Hit.

A force-sensitive being had attacked Ahsoka, not a Jedi, he told himself. Only that the rifle seemed to show otherwise.

As Ahsoka awoke, she had to take her left hand in front of her face, so bright was the light in the medical room. Then she began to recognize the forms around her. "Oh… Hey, Rex."

"Good to see you're with us again, Commander." The Captain was leaning on the wall opposite to her bed.

Ahsoka wanted to sit up, but fell back onto her bed immediately. Pain, beginning in her shoulder, stroke through her right side. Her eyes were wandering to its source and went big as she saw the bloody white cloth around it. "O my God! What happened?"

Blood, so much blood. She swallowed. Was it all hers? She began to shake. Red, red all over. Blood.

Rex pushed himself off the wall and approached to Ahsoka. "How much do you remember?"

Still in shock she couldn't take her stare from what happened to be a healthy shoulder moments ago. Moments? "How long am I here? How did I get here? Haven't we just destroyed the droid factory?" This was the second it hit her.

They had followed Fil-Sen into the mansion. Battle Droids had already awaited them. She had fought them back, but so many of her troopers had been hit by their blasters.

Even though he'd never say it, Rex had noticed her sudden memory flashback. So many of his troopers had woken up like her, without memory for the first moments, until all caught them at once.

Especially the dead. But he couldn't do anything to help the young Togruta-commander now.

How could she have possibly not noticed the trap? A tear ran over Ahsoka's cheek. She had lost many good men already, friends of her. But this time… "It was my fault", she tried to say strong, but it more or less turned out to be a sob. "I didn't sense the trap, but I should have. If I had concentrated on the force, maybe more of them would be alive right now. Tracker, Droidkiller, Mike… all dead.

Fearful, she turned to Rex. "How… how many?"

She hadn't had to make it clearer; he knew what she wanted to hear. Could he tell her? Unfortunately, as she was his superior (technically), he had to. "We lost seventeen of thirty men, commander. Seven are wounded, three of them badly."

Ahsoka tried to nod bravely without having her emotions overwhelming her another time. More than half were dead, even though she had tried everything. Everything until… "Rex, what happened to my shoulder?"

"You don't know anymore?"

She shook her head.

"You came back for us to get the explosive." As Rex was recounting the developments, Ahsoka began indeed to remember them. "As you turned around, you were hit by a sniper."

Ahsoka sat up, this time only using the left arm. Her memory had been brought back. She had called for Jesse to hand the grenade over to her, but suddenly, there had been darkness in her mind. She had fought against it, but then something pulled her down and an explosion of pain spread through her shoulder. In this second, she must have lost consciousness.

But there was something else she knew for sure now. "You saved me, haven't you?"

"Yes, sir. You seemed to be troubled by something else."

"I was." She smiled at him. "Thank you." After another second of silence she asked: "Did you get the sniper?"

"General Skywalker is searching for him; he won't be able to hide for long." Ah, she had already wondered why Skyguy wasn't here as well. She was certain he cared, but there was only a chance of finding the sniper if he started his search in time, otherwise there wouldn't be any traces.

Ahsoka fell back on her pillow. How had she missed the man, woman or droid who hit her? How could she have actually missed the whole trap? All these seventeen men were dead because of her. She had lost men, maybe because of her actions as well… But couldn't their deaths been prohibited by her? She trembled, and nearly fainted again.

Rex went beside her and sat down on her bed, maybe feeling her inner conflict. "It wasn't your fault, Kid." He hadn't called her like this for a long time. Even though an Outsider would have thought of Rex' nickname for her as a little insult, it actually gave Ahsoka the strength in this moment. A lot of memories were connected with this name…

"Excuse me." A medal-droid entered the sick bay. "But we will have to prepare Commander Tano for her operation."

Ahsoka nearly jumped out of her bed out of shock. "Operation…" She stumbled. "Isn't this a bit harsh? Wouldn't a good night in the bacta tank do as well?" Rex tried to calm her down, but Ahsoka was furious now. Operations were performed so rarely. Why did she need one?

What was wrong with her shoulder?

"I'm sorry ma'am, but a bacta tank can only repair your flesh injuries, while in your case…"

"Yes…?" Ahsoka's voice was trembling, like the rest of her body.

"Your right shoulder joint was damaged too much during battle; we will have to replace it."

"Replace it?" Ahsoka panicked. Her body began to shake. Would she still be able to fight? Was her career as Jedi over now?

Tears nearly flood her eyes. She couldn't cry, not now. She was a strong young Togruta Woman - more: she was a Jedi. At least till now.

"Sch…" She felt Rex gently touching her Lekkus. "It's going to be alright, okay, Kid?"

Ahsoka only nodded silently, try to stop herself from crying. She was glad he was here, here with her. Cause she could not stand this alone.

"Okay, I'll see you when you wake up again."

"Rex!" She grabbed his hand. "I'm afraid."

"Ahsoka…"

She totally lost in this moment, nothing could stop her now. "I don't want to die, Rex."

"Ahsoka, look at me. Look at me."

Her blue eyes fixed on his brown.

"You're not going to die, you understand me. You're going to be alright, everything will be fine." As she didn't answer, he repeated. "You understand me?"

She slowly nodded and leant back.

"Good… Take deep breaths…"

Slowly, Ahsoka began to take deep breaths, while her hand slowly slipped out of his.

As the medic-droid with the anesthesia-mask was getting nearer, Ahsoka couldn't stop her mind from spinning around. If Skyguy would only be here… But he wasn't. She needed him to be here, what if she died and… No, she wasn't supposed to think like this, she had to listen what Rex had said.

She grabbed for Rex' hand again, and comfortably he was smiling at her. "Stay with me", she whispered. "Rex…Promise."

"I promise."

Then the mask was put on her face. One, two… With four she felt into deep sleep.

Her hand fell out of Rex' hand and she was brought away in the OR. With sad eyes, he was looking after her.

He had already broken his promise.

End of chapter 3…

Okay, for all of you who might hate Rexsoka and would prefer me to do Luxsoka: Don't stop reading this story! I will have some Luxsoka in this story as well, because I think Lux is the better match for Ahsoka at the moment, but I will keep all options open and will ask by time for your final decision who suits Ahsoka best!

See you soon!