Sunrise came all-too-soon for Anakin's liking. He found himself making the ridiculous wish that he could use the Force to keep things dark, to keep the suns from rising. He knew immediately that this was a foolish wish. Even if he could, who knew what kind of chaos that would bring to the planet?. Still, he couldn't help looking at the rising sun and wishing it would rise a little slower, giving The Clone just a bit more time.

Something else happened when the sun rose. Anakin had been hearing creatures shuffling around all night long. Now that the heat was returning to the land, they were all looking for shady spots to spend the day waiting for the relative cool of night.

Ha. Cool. That's a laugh. Anakin thought.

Anakin knew there was no real cause for alarm. Even predator creatures didn't hunt during the heat of the day. Even if one did happen upon him, it would probably rather share the space than put up a fight. It was just survival instinct. Fighting would cost energy, especially when combined with the effects of heat. Even so, Anakin couldn't help tensing up when an enormous brown lizard-thing crawled into the shade and dropped onto its belly with a hiss.

The reptile's slitted, palely green right eye rolled in Anakin's direction, and the beast lifted its head off the ground, then turned toward Anakin, flicking out its forked tongue. The twin tips of the black tongue brushed the air near Anakin's face, then rapidly retreated and disappeared into the creature's mouth. It parted its jaws and emitted a high-pitched sound which seemed to be a cross between a hiss and a growl. When Anakin didn't move, the beast lowered its head to rest on its front foot and sighed, still keeping a sharp eye on Anakin to ensure that he didn't sneak up on it.

But, after some time, that eye became unfocused, as the animal drifted into a heat-induced trance, similar to a doze, remaining utterly motionless as it endeavored to keep its body cool as the second sun found the horizon and began its daily crawl skyward.

Nevertheless, Anakin decided that he might be better off putting a bit of distance between himself and the giant lizard before it woke up hungry. Trouble was, moving was almost more trouble than it was worth. Anakin eventually resigned himself to crawling around the side of a large boulder, to a point where he could keep the creature in sight, but not be the most noticeable thing around himself.

He could fight it, certainly, probably even kill it if he wanted to. But he was wiser than that. Aside from not wanting to cause an unnecessary casualty, even of a non-sentient creature, the smell of it would probably be very bad. In addition to becoming a bio-hazard, it would likely attract many other carnivorous species, more than Anakin had any desire to fight at the moment.

On the other side of the boulder, Anakin found himself in the company of lizards which were a more agreeable size, along with a googly-eyed, feathered snake with bird wings which seemed momentarily alarmed by his presence, but its fear of the sun was greater than its fear of him.

It wasn't long before all the creatures settled into ignoring Anakin. He didn't move much and his inactivity made him seem far less dangerous than the sun. One lizard experimented with crawling onto his boot, to see if that was cooler. As it wasn't, the disappointed creature slid back to the ground.

The third sun appeared in the sky not long after the first reached its peak. Anakin wondered where The Clone was now, if he was still alive, and what he was doing.

The Clone was still on the move, though slower than before, his march had become more of a trudge really, not that it had been much of a march in the first place, more like a steady limp. Now it had become an unsteady limp which was becoming ever slower as The Clone wilted in the intense heat.

Suddenly he heard something up ahead in a cluster of rocks. He'd been hoping to rest there, but the sound was that of droids conversing. His heart sank. Had the Republic lost the battle after all?. Victory had seemed so likely, even with only two Jedi on the scene. One of whom, The Clone remembered dismally, had never arrived. So that was it. But what were the droids doing here?. Were they lost?. Did droids get lost?. The Clone had never put too much thought into what droids were truly capable of. He had always been under the impression that most droids were immensely stupid. Surely getting lost was not beyond their powers of incompetence.

But that wasn't the biggest problem he had. The Clone could theoretically get past them, he supposed, but they might see him after that, and shoot him in the back. No good. He'd have to take them out here and now. But he was outnumbered, and in no shape for a fight.

The Clone had learned a few tricks in his time. Droids were easily fooled, confused or otherwise bewildered. Once out of their depth, they sank quickly. In other words, it was easy to kill a confounded robot. One of the tried and true methods was to lure them with a "mysterious sound". One, or maybe a handful, would go check it out, while the rest remained behind or, better still, spread out to look for the source of the noise in other directions. Divide and Conquer.

The Clone checked his weapon. He didn't want to get into a fight and then realize he was missing a vital part of the plan. The blaster seemed fine. The Clone crept closer for a head count of the droids. If there were few enough, he could just take them all at once.

Five droids were standing around, looking baffled.

"Are you sure it was this way?. I don't recognize these rocks," one droid said to another.

"Are you missing a few components?. We passed these rocks an hour ago. We're going in circles," argued a third droid.

"I say we should return to base and see what they want us to do," the fourth suggested.

"Is your head on wrong?. They'd blast us," the fifth protested.

"Lemme solve your problem," The Clone said, stepping from the shadows.

"That's not good," the second droid addressed this to its companions, right before losing its head.

The Clone dispatched the five droids quickly, but the battle took its toll. He wasn't hit, but he'd had to quickly dodge fire, which had aggravated his wounds. The unwonted exercise had left him breathless and severely overheated. He sank to his knees as a shot hit the last of the droids, and there he stayed, wheezing, coughing now and then.

That's it, he thought, I'm done.

He figured he might as well go to the battlefield to die. There was as good as any place. And maybe there were a few droids standing that he could blast before he went down. He turned towards the direction he'd been ordered in, and shook his head. He couldn't get that far. He'd be lucky if he could make it another ten feet without collapsing. It didn't matter which way he fell. He turned away, and felt a heavy weight on him, guilt or perhaps shame. Disobeying an order was a decidedly unpleasant experience, even when it was solely because he was unable to fulfill his assigned directive.

Sure enough, he'd barely gotten beyond the shadow of the rocks when he fell. He didn't try to get up. He couldn't, and he knew it. He'd gone as far as he was able. He closed his eyes, and sent a silent apology to the Jedi whom he had failed.

"This one's still alive,"

Commander Cody looked over at the trooper who'd spoken. He tilted his head slightly at seeing the fallen clone. One look at him told Cody that The Clone hadn't been part of the battle. He was a clone from the ship that had been shot down. The one carrying General Skywalker.

"Leave him to me," Cody ordered, staying the trooper who had been about to move the wounded clone out for medical attention "search for other survivors,"

When the trooper was gone, Cody knelt beside the clone and carefully slid off the scuffed helmet. The Clone was most assuredly alive, breathing shallow but regular. Cody took some water and splashed it on the unconscious clone's face. Perhaps not the kindest act, but he had to wake The Clone up and get information out of him.

The Clone was quick to revive, and to relinquish all information he had about the crash and General Skywalker's location. He offered to lead them back, but Cody told him that wasn't necessary. At this point, The Clone insisted, saying that the he had promised the Jedi he would return. Naturally, Cody assumed that this had been an order. He wasn't about to get in the way of a clone doing his duty.

Cody called a trooper over.

"Patch him up as best you can. I'm going to rally a rescue party. We're going to locate General Skywalker," Cody had been left in charge of the ground while General Kenobi dealt with other issues which the Commander was not privy to.

"Sir?," the trooper queried "this clone appears half dead to me,"

"Do what you can," Cody repeated firmly, then strode away.

Five minutes later, he had gathered six clones and a ground vehicle. The injured clone didn't look much better, but he seemed slightly more alert.

"Nothin' a good rest and some water won't cure," he assured Cody.

"It'll have to wait," Cody replied neutrally.

What had taken the wounded clone hours took Cody's transport about ten minutes. They found Skywalker near where The Clone had indicated, dazed and a little out of it, but still very much alive. He told them to give the giant lizard a wide berth, but all they saw were some small lizards and a snake-bird. They looked at each other, shrugged, and figured it must be heatstroke. They never went around the other side of the boulder, otherwise they'd have known exactly what Skywalker was talking about.

"Jac," Anakin smiled at sight of The Clone.

"I told you I'd be back, Sir," Jac said, then averted his gaze.

"What's wrong?,"

"Well, Sir... I... I deviated from course, Sir,"

"You still found help, didn't you?,"

"That's one way of lookin' at it," The Clone sighed wearily.

"I don't see any other way," Anakin returned.