Chapter 6

Hope

Full circle. That was the thought that kept running through Carter's brain as he circled around his opponent, dancing around her in a dance of death. His blue lightsaber was upraised in an offensive stance in front of him, just barely an inch away from the twin blades that were, at the moment, his biggest threats.

His stance was a cross between Ataru and Shien, as was hers. As they had grown together, so had they mirrored each others' every aspect. Carter flashed a grin, and, upon receiving one in return from Ahsoka, plunged his blade toward her. She instantly spun away, dancing around his blade with the grace of Ataru before striking back with the aggressiveness of Shien. He ducked under one green blade before meeting the yellow one with his own, the lightsabers hissing on impact.

"You did turn down the blade intensity, right?" he asked, cocking a dark eyebrow at her through the blue and yellow lights.

"Oh, shut up," Ahsoka replied with a roll of her sapphire eyes, pulling back one blade to strike with the other. Carter leapt over and out of reach easily before striking backwards, subsequently and unintentionally flipping his lightsaber hilt around in his hand. The reverse grip.

"Look what you're doing to my form," he said with a tsk.

She shrugged. "Not my fault you can't handle it."

"Oh, I can handle it, it's just sloppy."

"Remember who won the first time we did this," she replied. "Who was sloppy then?"

Carter pretended to think for a moment, causing a brief pause in combat before Ahsoka attempted to take advantage. He simply jumped out of the way before sending her a little farther off with a Force push. "Still you, because you didn't turn down the intensity."

"Relax . It's turned down, as you'll feel in a few minutes when I beat you."

"Nah, that thing ain't gonna touch me." At that moment, he felt a sharp jab at his thigh, and saw that in his focus on the green blade, the yellow one had slipped through his defenses and hit his leg. The green one was now at his neck, and he embarrassedly let his lightsaber drop.

"You were saying?"

"Okay, okay... not fair. It was two lightsabers against one."

"It was your overconfidence at the end that screwed you over, hotshot."

He smiled at her then, memories flooding his mind. When he had walked into this exact room two years prior, he'd had no idea he was about to meet the most amazing person of his life.

"What?" she asked quietly. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

He took her hand gently in his, entwining their fingers and pulling her over to a doorway hidden in the shadows. "This is where it all started."

She grinned. "Who woulda known, huh?"

He raised his arm to cup a dark cheek in his hand, tracing over full lips with one thumb. "I knew, from the moment I first looked into those eyes, that you were something special."

Her fingers threaded through dark hair, pulling him downward gently to touch his forehead with hers. "I love you," she whispered, closing her eyes. "Force, Carter... You don't know how much you mean to me."

His hands found her waist, and her bare skin tingled at his touch as it never failed to do. "Trust me, I do," he whispered back, pressing his lips to hers. He pulled back at that moment, pulling her with him until they were both leaning against the wall behind him. "The galaxy's going insane, Ahsoka. You're the one thing that I can count on to never change," he smiled down at her. "Unless you're PMS-ing. "

"Funny," Ahsoka said, rolling her eyes again and punching him lightheartedly.

He shrugged. "Exactly what I mean. You smile, you say you love me, and you hit me."

"Only when you deserve it," she explained.

He pulled away from the wall, taking her hand in his. "Come with me. I wanna show you something."

Kento didn't regret his decision to send Carter back to Coruscant. Now that Master Yoda had arrived, he knew that his Padawan's feelings would have been read like an open book. However, Kento was now afraid for his own feelings. Yoda had brought Mallie along, and it was all Kento could do not to take her into his arms and hold her, especially after her long absence from his life.

When she'd strode down the ramp of the landing ship ahead of a large company of Clone troopers, he was shocked to say the least. She had just smiled sweetly at him as if nothing was wrong; she'd always been good at that. He'd felt her touch him through their mental bond, telling him to shut his mouth, which had fallen open upon seeing her.

But now that Yoda had finished talking with him, Kento was ready for his reunion with her after an agonizing two months. He ducked under a branch, heading for the secret place that they'd planned to meet after all the discussions had taken place. She had beaten him there, and as soon as he was within range, she pounced on him with a crushing embrace. Kento picked her up, spinning her around and pressing his lips to her cheek. "Force, I've missed you."

She smiled, kissing him sweetly on the mouth before touching their foreheads. "I've missed you more," she replied with a playful grin. "And I have something to tell you."

He shrugged. "Well? I'm right here."

Mallie sighed, tightening her grip around his shoulders. "You're going to be a father, Kento."

He blinked. "W- What?"

"I'm pregnant."

Kento struggled to take a breath, a disbelieving look coming across his features. "Really?"

She nodded, smiling encouragingly, hoping for a positive response. She received what she was looking for.

A grin split Kento's face as he pressed his lips tenderly against hers, a few hot tears stinging his eyes. "This is incredible."

"I was afraid you'd freak out," Mallie admitted.

"Freak out?" he repeated incredulously. "No. You just made me the happiest man in the galaxy."

Ahsoka quirked one eyebrow upward, confused. "What are we doing?" She glanced out at the Coruscant skyline, filled with air traffic even at the late hour.

"Well, I think we're standing on a roof, but I'm not so sure," Carter winked, and Ahsoka rolled her eyes with a smile.

"What's so special about this rooftop?" she asked.

"Nothing yet," Carter said. "But it will be."

"Enough with the whole 'mystic situation' crap, Carter. What's going on?"

He ran a hand through his own hair anxiously. "Wow, this is a lot harder than the vids make it look."

She frowned. "What?"

He started pacing back and forth without answering, before finally spinning around. "Screw it," he said. "I'll just do it." Before Ahsoka could ask just how hard he'd hit his head to bring on such behavior, he had dropped to the ground. Alarmed, Ahsoka first bent down to see if he was okay, before she realized he had gone down intentionally. Before she realized that he was holding a tiny black box in his hands. Before she realized that the opened box displayed a plain yet beautiful silver ring. Her breath caught in her throat.

"Oh Force... Carter..." she trailed off, speechless.

He smiled nervously. "Ahsoka Tano, will you marry me?"

Crash and Niner dove behind the cover provided by a fallen tree, barely dodging the blaster-fire that peppered the beach head. The droids were pushing even stronger than before, and confidence was slipping for most of the troops. Crash glanced at his comrade, holding out a fist. Niner let a smile slip onto his face as he stacked his own fist atop Crash's, remembering the times the two, along with Edge, had stacked fists before tough missions.

"For Edge, then, eh?" Niner asked.

"For Edge," Crash confirmed. He emptied his DC-14 of a burned out cartridge, replaced it, and vaulted over the fallen tree trunk. He took a grenade from his belt, pulled the pin with his teeth, and launched it at a squad of droids, smiling when the explosion tore them apart, metallic body parts flying in all directions. He barrel-rolled through the destroyed droids, grabbing an unsuspecting super battle droid from behind and tackling it to the ground. The droid began to mumble confusedly, but Crash ignored it. He took out a hydrospanner and opened the control panel on the SBD's back. Pulling a detpack from his belt, Crash worked it into the wires of the droid before screwing the panel back on. The droid stood, heading back to hold the line with his fellow droids. As soon as he reached them, Crash pressed the detonator button. The resulting explosion lit up the separatist ranks in orange and yellow.

Meanwhile, Niner had scaled a tree up to the first branch, where he now perched with his sniper rifle in hand. He picked off droids with an expert aim, watching each one fall with satisfaction. "This one's for Edge, you bastards," he would growl with every squeeze of the trigger. Triumphantly, the two clones felled over a hundred droids before the battle was wearily halted, and the droids retreated to the opposite beach head.

"So we held out today," one clone said back at base camp that night. "They're just gonna come back tomorrow. What's the point?"

"The Wookiees won't stop fighting until their planet is liberated," Crash said. "We stand a fighting chance."

"We've lost too many men," the clone continued. "Why should we sit here and continue to waste-"

"Don't talk to either of us about losing men!" Niner said angrily. "We lost our squadmate in that refinery explosion. I'm not letting my brother's sacrifice go to waste, and neither should you."

Crash held out a fist, and Niner stacked his on top. "It gives us something to hope for," the demolitions expert said quietly. He nodded towards the two stacked fists, and the dubious clone placed his own balled up hand atop theirs. One by one, the other clones joined in, until an entire platoon had their fists atop one another's.

"For Edge?" Crash whispered.

"For Edge," Niner replied.

Then, miraculously, the entire platoon echoed, "For Edge!"

And Crash and Niner just knew that Edge, wherever he was, could hear them.