The download took about as long as Ahsoka suspected it would, and with each passing moment Ahsoka was waiting for someone to walk back through the doorway and into the room. If that were the case she had two options.

Hide or fight.

She still possessed the force, but that wasn't a power to be used as a weapon. Instead it merely acted as an omniscient presence that permeated around her.

Sure, she could use it offensively, but even that would only save her for a short amount of time.

So that only left her the option of hiding, not that there was much to hide behind in the room she was in. The glass tube, whilst full of green liquid, was still partially see through.

There were tables to hide behind either, and there was no way she would be able to flee back to the vents in time.

Instead, she would just have to get lucky, and pray that no one walked in.

And if they did…

A small beep from the console drew her attention back to the download. Glancing down she saw the files were transferred, though still encrypted.

'It will have to do for now,' Ahsoka thought as she removed the dataspike, storing it away in her backpack, before turning her attention to her escape route.

Getting in was hard, getting out, as expected, would now be a challenge.

Opting to use the vents again, at least to remain undetected for now, Ahsoka approached the opening she had used earlier and prepared to vault backup into the crawl space.

It was then that a sound hit her montrals, one that was indicative of metal feet on a metal floor. And it was coming from outside of the doorway.

Grievous.

"Ah kriff!" Ahsoka muttered under her breath, delving into the force and vaulting back up into the vents, shuffling around and closing the hatch behind her, before beginning to crawl away in the direction she had come.

General Grievous wasted no time entering the room. He wasn't one for surprise and stealth, but rather brute force. By barging into the room and making his presence immediately known, he was hopefully instilling pure terror on his poor unsuspecting Jedi opponent. Fear that would in turn be their downfall.

But upon entry, Grievous found himself face to face with an empty room. There was no Jedi in sight! No republic minion for the slaughter.

No challenge for him.

Growling, Grievous slammed one of his metal claws against the doorframe in rage, allowing his anger to take control.

Either the information had been wrong, or the Jedi had escaped.

The question was how had they escaped? There was no way in or out of the room, minus the door that he had entered through. Surely he would have encountered them outside in the hallway if they had escaped.

Taking another step into the room, a sound hit his audio receptors. It was distant and quiet, as if someone was sneaking away. The sound itself was an odd one. In a way it sounded almost as if it was a material of some kind, cloth maybe, gently brushing against a metal surface.

In that moment Grievous' eyes widen in surprise as he understood, his gaze instantly shooting upwards to the ceiling. His golden eyes focused, locking onto a hatch that led to the ventilation ducts that ran the length of the base.

That was how the Jedi had escaped. They must have been a small one to fit inside though. Briefly, Grievous wondered if it was some stray padawan learner, hoping to impress their master.

If only they knew.

Lifting his hand to his faceplate, Grievous activated his comm link and began to speak.

"Commander, the Jedi is loose in the ventilation system. Purge the ducts now!"

It was times like these that Ahsoka cursed the fact that she was getting older. For years she had been the small one of the group, dwarfed by her comrades and superiors, by her masters and friends.

At times, her diminutive stature had given them a great advantage. She could slip into places Anakin and the others could not. She could move undetected, despite the vast array of colours that made up her body.

In truth, she didn't really noticed her height all that much in the past. She had had other things to worry about.

But now, crawling through an incredibly tight space she realised something. She had most certainly grown.

Her montrals had gotten taller, the tips of them brushing up against the roof of the ventilation ducts, sending an uncomfortable feeling through her body as her senses were disrupted in the process.

Grumbling lightly, Ahsoka pushed forward, a memory coming to the forefront of her mind.

She and Anakin had been out of a routine scouting mission, accompanied only by each other and R2. It had been early in her apprenticeship, from a time when she was unsure of both herself and of Anakin.

It had been on this mission that he had put her at ease. A gentle teasing of her height, followed by her swearing that one day she would be taller than him, followed by a series of sad beeps from R2, who was upset that he couldn't get taller, and any sense of authority between them was gone.

He was still her master, and it was her duty to listen and learn from him, but that still didn't mean they couldn't be friends.

The memory was a bittersweet one, but one that pushed Ahsoka through nonetheless.

Turning a sharp tight corner in the ducts, Ahsoka continued to crawl through, hoping to find a way out that was unguarded.

And preferably one that was away from General Grievous.

She had faced him before, and both times she had gotten lucky.

She doubted she would a third time.

Continuing to crawl, Ahsoka found that perhaps her luck was holding. There, just a few meters ahead of her was another hatch, one that hopefully led down into an area where she would be safe. All she had to do was sneak out of the base. After all, it was not like that were alerted to her presence yet was it?

Moments later, Ahsoka ate her words.

A harsh hissing sound flooded her senses as a thick noxious gas began to flood into the ducts, clouding her vision.

Ahsoka knew what was happening. They were purging the ducts.

Lifting one hand to cover her mouth and nose, Ahsoka pushed forward, her goal straight ahead. She had no choice now. It was either drop out of the ducts and into a possible group of hostiles, or stay and choke in the ducts.

At least she had a fighting chance against some battledroids.

Reaching out, Ahsoka opened the hatch and dropped out of the ducts, landing with a slight stumble as she recovered from the noxious gas currently flowing through the ducts. Despite only being exposed to the gas for a few seconds, Ahsoka could feel the effects it was having on her body. Her lungs ached and throbbed, her body desperately wanting to begin violently coughing, and possibly even vomiting in order to expel the gas.

However, if she did, Ahsoka was almost certain that it would alert someone of her presence. Instead, she began to take several large gulps of breath, hoping to balance out her breathing as she surveyed her surroundings.

Once again, she had gotten extremely lucky. There were no droids around, and no sign of Grievous.

When her rate of breathing had eventually returned to normal, Ahsoka rose back to her feet.

The room around her resembled another disposal room, similar to the one she had encountered earlier. This one however was devoid of any rotting carcassing of the lizards that the Separatists were clearly experimenting on. Ahsoka still had no clear idea of what was going on, or what this mystery bioweapon was, but she had a very bad feeling about it.

All that mattered at the moment was finding a way out and back to her ship.

She had to get the information back to the Chancellor.

General Grievous stood before a holomap of the facility, his golden eyes surveying each and every aspect of it. Purging the vents would no doubt force the Jedi out into the open, eliminating their primary method of movement through the facility. Now they would be forced to move through the corridors, exposed to battledroid patrols.

It was just a case of catching the Jedi himself now. Battledroids were useless against a Jedi. They would be cut down in seconds. In truth, they were nothing more than cannon fodder, same as the clones, meant to distract and delay. The droids would find the Jedi, and then Grievous would follow suite.

It was just a case of predicting how this Jedi would act. If only he had an identity of some kind.

It had to be a smaller Jedi, or else they wouldn't have fitted inside the vents in the first place. Briefly, Grievous entertained the idea of it being Kenobi, sneaking through the vents, his ever present smirk present on his face as he reviled in attempting to ruin Grievous' plans.

Shaking the thought from his mind, Grievous continued his mental study of the possible identity of the Jedi intruder. If they were small enough to crawl through the vents, then they were more than likely very agile and fast, and thus possibly quite young.

Yoda briefly came to mind, but Grievous was quick to pass the idea off. Why would the Jedi Grandmaster leave the sanctity of his temple? He was no fighter.

It was then that another individual appeared in his mind. The young Togruta runt that belonged to Skywalker. She was known for this sort of behaviour, and would no doubt relish the opportunity to impress her precious master.

In the end, Grievous came to no real conclusion, not that it mattered. He would find out the Jedi's identity soon, and then he would destroy them.

But for now, he had a plan.

Turning away from the holomap, Grievous began to stomp out of the room, fully intending on returning to his shuttle.

He would wait for the Jedi there. After all, that was the only way out of the facility.

The one upside to moving through the hallways as opposed to the ventilation ducts was that Ahsoka actually had room to move around. She was no longer bashing her montrals on the roof, or scraping her knees as she crawled slowly through the harsh metal ducts themselves.

Of course, the biggest problem was the fact that she was now exposed to any patrols of battledroids. She had already been forced to backtrack several times to avoid the patrolling security, as well as enter yet another side room to ensure she wasn't spotted by a pair of magna guards.

Still, despite the issues she had encountered so far, she had remained undetected. That itself was a borderline miracle.

Slowly shifting her form around another corner, Ahsoka broke into a dash down the deserted hallway before her. The facility itself was a maze of corridors, with no clear sense of direction. Ahsoka could have sworn she had been down the same hallway several times now, though that might have been due to every hallway being the same drab grey in colour.

Coming to another junction, Ahsoka halted briefly and listened, hoping that something would give away her path.

Then she heard voices.

"This missions sucks. Why were we deployed here again?"

"I don't know. Something about a mystery weapon being developed. I don't have clearance for it."

"None of us do your idiot."

The distinct high pitched voices of battledroids echoed in her senses from the path on the right. Ahsoka had no idea how many there were, and she didn't want to risk exposing herself and being drawn into a fight.

So she went left.

Advancing down another corridor, Ahsoka found the endless hallways mercifully quite. That meant that she was unlikely to be detected.

Turning another pair of corners, Ahsoka recognized a familiar sight. The hallway before her was the same one she had entered through, evident by the small room off to the side of her that contained the various decomposing limbs.

That meant that she was on the right track.

Another minute later, and yet another familiar sight appeared in her vision.

The exit!

A wide smile came to her face as she began to approach the way out. She knew that realistically, there would be security on the other side of the door. But she could handle that, and she would disappear into the foliage around the facility before anyone even knew what had happened.

Bracing herself, Ahsoka opened the door. The bright light of the sun shone through the trees and hit her eyes, forcing her to shield them with her hands. Stepping forward, out of the darkness of the Separatist base and into the light of day, Ahsoka spotted a new sight on the landing pad. A single Sheathipede class shuttle sat in the centre of the landing platform, guarded by several Magna Guard.

And then Ahsoka saw him, standing in front of the shuttle, facing towards her, and felt her blood run cold.

And then he spoke.

"Well well, if it isn't Skywalker's pet Togruta. On another mission to impress your precious master?" General Grievous mocked, taking one step towards her, draped in his heavy cloak that contained the trophies he used as weapons. Behind him, the Magna Guard advanced, flanking their general, electro-staffs bristling with energy.

Ahsoka knew she was in trouble. She had no feasible way of defending herself, minus her connection to the force, and even that would only buy her some time, and not enough to escape from Grievous or his minions.

She was stuck, and in dire circumstances.

Still, that wasn't going to stop her from being herself.

"Oh, hey General, been a while. Lost anymore hands to Master Kenobi as of late?"

Ahsoka didn't miss the way Grievous seemed to shudder with rage at the evident mocking. Sure, Anakin had taught her to fight, but it had been Obi-Wan that had taught her to taunt, in a way that only he could.

Admittedly she wasn't as charming, or dare she say as outright flirty as Obi-Wan could be, not that he would ever admit it, but she her own way of taunting, one that relied on her natural snippiness that Anakin had nicknamed her after.

And clearly the taunt had worked, judging by Grievous' reaction.

"Jedi slime!"

Ahsoka couldn't help the sad smile that came to her face. She was no longer a Jedi, not that Grievous needed to know that.

"Yep, that's me. Slimy Jedi and proud of it. Now, are you going to surrender to me or not?" Ahsoka snipped, her eyes darting around the trees as she spoke, searching for a possible way out.

There had to be a way out.

There was always a way out, even if it wasn't obvious at first.

It was just a case of finding it.

"Funny padawan, I was about to ask the same as you. Surrender and I promise I will make your ed swift and painless." The cyborg general boasted, removing a single lightsaber hilt from his cloak and gripping it tightly in his hands before activating the blade. The bright green saber glowed ominously, further reminding Ahsoka that she no longer possessed her lightsabers. She couldn't fight him, not conventionally.

And even if she did, he had a whole group of bodyguards behind him ready to assist.

"I'm afraid I'm gonna have to refuse tinny. Thanks for the kind offer anyway." Ahsoka replied, keeping her voice light and teasing, knowing that it aggravated the supreme commander of the droid army.

Grievous seemed to snarl viciously, the sound coming through his modulated voice, making it harsher than it could ever have been without his cybernet body. To most that instilled fear.

Sadly, she was used to it by now.

Grievous began to advance, twirling the green blade in his hand in gentle arcs, clearly preparing. No doubt he was wondering why she hadn't armed herself yet.

Truth be told, so was she. She really should have acquired a weapon earlier.

Grievous continued to close in, his clawed feet clanging loudly against the metal floor of the landing pad. Behind him the Magna Guard moved in unison, waiting.

Ahsoka's eyes began to dart, looking for a way out. She could jump over them, or push them back with the force, but that would only buy her a small amount of time.

She needed something bigger than that.

And then she heard a sound.

'Hoot hoot'

It was far louder than she expected, and came from directly above her head. Glancing upwards, Ahsoka spied the small green avian creature from before, hovering above her, glaring down at the advancing threat.

Grievous clearly spotted the creature too, as he golden eyes widen as he began to chuckle.

"What is this? Relying on animals to help you are we now? The Jedi really must be desperate."

Ahsoka had no response. Her focus was on this bird. There was something about it. Something familiar.

Through the force, Ahsoka felt something. A signature of some kind, one embezzled with the lightside of the force.

And it emanated solely from the avian itself.

And then the creature screeched aloud, descending towards the General and his escort at frightening speed.

What happened next happened in the blink of an eye. The avian flew directly towards Grievous, wings spread and claws out. For a moment Ahsoka thought the bird intended or gauging Grievous' eyes out with it's claws.

It turned out that Ahsoka couldn't have been more wrong.

Rather than land and attack, the avian speed towards Grievous, crashing headfirst into his chestplate.

The force exploded suddenly, and Grievous was sent spiraling backwards at at terrifying velocity, before colliding with the shuttle on the landing pad, sending that onto its side as well.

Ahsoka couldn't help the gasp that escaped her as she watched the avian take back to the skies, before coming down and doing the same to each Magna Guard that had flanked Grievous, eviscerating them from the resulting impacts in the process.

This was beyond anything Ahsoka had ever seen before. What was this creature?!

It was then that Ahsoka heard a soft voice in her head, one that was comforting, yet commanding and powerful at the same time.

And one she could have sworn she heard before.

The voice didn't saw much, but what it said was sound advice.

"Run!"

So she did, taking off into the trees around her and away from the facility.

Author's thoughts

See... I told you they'd be action eventually. Maybe not the action you expected, but action nonetheless.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, as well as seeing Grievous be somewhat competent. Sufficed to say you have not yet seen the last of him in this story.

Also, I hope you all enjoyed super snippy snips with her snippy snipping. XD

So, not much really to say about this chapter, other than the certain thing a certain creature did at the end there huh? I wonder what that was about?

Next time round Ahsoka returns to Palpatine, and the Chancellor gives her his reward.

As usual, comment and speculate at will. Speaking of which:

TerminatorJedi1995: Glad you enjoyed the chapter. It's fun to write a bit of mystery with the bioweapon, especially since I recently came off of those Kallus Bond one shots.
Also, you might be onto something with your speculation. Guess you'll see in the future.

Mysterious Guest one: Poor Snips indeed. Things just weren't going her way.
Glad you are liking the direction. Hopefully you like where it ends up. :)

Mysterious Guest two: Glad you are enjoying my use of EU stuff. More to come I promise.

jojobinks01: Ahsoka will have to find out the truth soon... before its too late.