Ahsoka's POV

The following days after my meeting with Master Yoda, I had been very distant from Anakin: only making friendly conversation with him, every now and then. I had managed to give him a brief overview of Shmi's condition, leaving out the donor possibilities.

I could never talk to Anakin about something like that. He would be risking his life for Shmi, which is a debt that can't be repaid. I know eventually I would have to tell him, but not anytime soon.

My afternoons I spent with Shmi in the nursery. She was in a much better condition than she was when I came back, but still was attached to a blood supplier: a temporary blood supplier that is.

I sat bouncing the laughing baby on my lap, making funny faces at her as well. Obi-Wan was getting a warm bottle for her before her nap back at the medical wing. Yes, they kept her under close observation when she had slept.

Obi-Wan came out of the hallway with a steaming bottle in his hand. He had begun to feel better since the ambush, still having non-permanent scars across his chest. Every time I look at his collar bone, I cringe thinking back to Grievous's ambush back on Nilban. Still, he kept a bubbly attitude in front of Shmi, since I had filled him in on the situation at hand.

"Whoa, someone has gotten into my coffee." Obi-Wan joked, tapping the Shmi's ecstatic nose. I chuckle, taking the bottle to Shmi's mouth.

I lull her back into my arms, as she sucks greedily on the bottle. She still looked as beautiful as the day she was born, even with the clear tubes encasing her arms.

"Ahsoka, I don't know how you can do it. Master Qui-Gon never trained me for nursing." Obi-Wan said. I couldn't help but agree. Even though I had not been formally trained in childcare, I was quite good at it.

"Well, it's not like she doesn't like you." I say, patting his shoulder. He spreads a soft smile as Shmi coos, signalling the end of her bottle.

"Have you spoken to Anakin yet?" Obi-Wan asks. I am sort of taken back by his bluntness, but can't help but answer.

"No, but I know I have to. Sometime."

"Well that sometime better be soon, Ahsoka. I know he'd be more than willing to do it if you just asked him." Obi-Wan reasons. I start to see his true intentions: each time I delay my conversation with Anakin, another day off of Shmi's life.

I hold back warm tears in the sides of my eyes. "I know, Master. He is her only hope."

I had spoken to Master Yoda about other possible candidates for a donor, but my assumptions were un-creditable. Obi-Wan had suggested himself, but the council refused. He is still very ill, which eliminates his eligibility. It had been a tough time picking and choosing, with only one possible donor: Anakin.

I walk silently with Anakin the next day to the hangar. Shmi was still in a stable condition, so the council decided to dispatch me with him to a mission on Serreno. It was still up to me to ask him for the eminent favour. I would say that I was looking for the best time, but I'd be lying.

Anakin lifted me by the hands up to the hovering gunship. I shared a meaningless smile with him and he kindly returned it. The pilot starts the engines, and we are soon lifted out of the hangar, towards a hopefully more-fighting, less-talking mission.

The stony streets of Serreno are similar to that of Nilban, minus the snow. Citizens walk silently through alleys, talking to various street vendors. It seems so lively and busy, which is quite the opposite of where I'm standing now: Rex, his squad, Anakin and I crouch through moist foliage in the brush of Serreno. My feet are pruning up as my boot soles flex on the marsh. Anakin keeps a close eye on the square ahead of us- I suppose that's where we're going.

I can't keep my eyes off the large black cube, erected in the town square. It is steaming from the top, with blue lights pulsating around the sides. I continue through the marsh, carefully watching my step.

The group of clones huddle attentively around Rex, as he whispers orders Anakin presumably told him. My Master comes to crouch with me in hollow in the ground. I don't look at him, but for a reason he understands:

A young mother waddles around gracefully, cradling a newborn baby in her arms. A tall, slender man accompanies the two, probably the father. He looks like a much better one than Kayril would ever be. Anakin pats me on the back and whispers in my ear. "Soon, you'll see her soon."

I nod. "Yeah, I know. It's just difficult." I answer back, watching the family walk by a pair of droids. Oh, yeah, this is a Seperatist planet.

Anakin explains the mission to me after my obvious daydream: He and I are supposed to charge into the capital building, while Rex and the squad cut off main communications. And there is another jedi here too. Master Neemo Dell went to the temple around the same time as Obi-Wan did. From what I have heard they were friends.

After Rex destroys the communications dock, Master Dell will charge in with his men to obtain certain documents even Anakin does not know about. I suspect they are plans, but who knows what could be inscribed on them.

"_okay men, the right flank of the capital building is ours." Rex finishes, giving a quick, affirming nod to Anakin and I before jogging through the bush into obscurity.

"Ready Snips?" Anakin jokes, looking down at my bouncing feet. I laugh as we sprint right through the front doors of the building. We get odd stares from citizens, and droids. It takes them a while to understand, but they eventually start firing.

We enter the elevator doors in perfect condition. Anakin smashes the camera in the top right corner, and hop through the ceiling tiles to the elevator hatch.

The cool coils of air speed by me as we are lifted upward. Anakin hold his blue blade up in the air, illuminating the shaft in a brilliant blue. The gunfire below stops, only for it to start again from above us: Rex hadn't got the communications destroyed yet.

I ignore Anakin's effort to simply deflect from the top of the hatch, so I start to grapple up the walls to the top floor. Anakin follows suit and prances up the shaft behind me. The gunfire above is excruciatingly painful to the ears when you get to close the droids, so I prefer to the slice the gun first, so they don't have a chance to shoot if I miss at first.

Anakin skips around the room in a circle. His eyebrows are furrowed as he spars with a few assassin droids. I hop around landing on droids and stabbing through the head, before I hear flustered droid near an electronic pod.

"_H-hello? Is anyone there? The communications are down! I repeat sir, the communications are down!"

Finally! I stop myself in mid sprint, planting my hands on a pillar for brakes. All of a sudden, I feel a sharp grasp around my wrist. At first I believe it's a droid, but a pair of metal cuffs emit from the pillar closing tight on my wrists.

I push my soaked boots off the pillar to loosen them, but to no avail. The cuffs just emit an electric shock and I collapse under the strain, unable to utilize the force.

"Master!" I yelp numerous times over the seizing gunfire until Anakin finally sprints over to me. He tries to fumble with the hinges, but he gets nowhere.

"Enough!"

A loud booming voice echoes off the rounded walls. Anakin is tossed like a doll backward off the platform, crashing against the opposite wall. The aging Dooku struts onto the floor, illuminating his lightsaber. He picks Anakin- who is brandishing a large stream of blood from his temple- up in a firm grasp around the throat.

I tug on the cuffs over and over as Dooku taunts my Master, calling him a child and a bastard. As Anakin gets tossed around even more, I feel a tear start to drip down my eye.

Anakin has given up more for me than anyone else his whole life. And I know he would do anything for Shmi without question. Why was I hesitating to ask him to be a donor? If I did ask him earlier, we would be at the temple, done with donation, just sitting around with a happy, healthy Shmi. Instead I am watching him get beaten brutally by lord no less. I was being selfish now look where it's got us.

"Stop! Please, you'll kill him! Please!" I bark at Dooku. He pauses in mid conversation with the bloody Anakin, turning his crushing grip to me.

"Oh, Miss Tano! I hardly saw you there. Excuse me, I was just teaching your Master a lesson or two in fact. I hope you don't mind, but I find if I shine light on a situation, it may reveal a different perspective!"

Dooku crushes his open palm, to which I fly across the room like Anakin, relinquishing the cuffs from my hands. I land atop a wooded crate, which implodes from the inside. I lay silent on the pile of toppled wood, glaring to Anakin, who is speechless as well.

The Sith spins his sword around to me, pointing it directly at my throat. I feel the damp puddle of blood under my head slowly grow in size. The tears flow freely from my eyes now. I can't deny I feel scared, thinking everything would be different if I'd spoken up.

"Looks like the council will lose two jedi tonight- a bastard and his pet!"

Shards of glass jet across the room. Dooku glares through the now open view: a tall, muscular man in jedi robes walks towards Dooku, towering over him.

"And you are?" Dooku asks grimly.

The man spits onto the lord's shoes, whipping a green saber from his belt.

"Neemo Dell. I would ask who you are, but every old man looks the same to me."