Chapter Fifteen: Spring the Trap

"Wake up, ad'ika. It's not yet your time."

I opened my eyes with a start, met with a pounding in my head and a weight on my back. Turning my head slightly revealed the debris I was trapped beneath, as well as the dark robes of the equally as trapped jedi beside me. He hadn't come to yet.

"Skywalker," I tried, groaning under the pressure on my chest. "Skywalker, wake up." I couldn't reach out and hit him, my arms pinned by the debris. "Anakin!"

His eyes opened, his fist immediately clenching in a surge of power. The weight lifted from me as he stood, casually throwing the heavy debris away with the force. Kriff, was he powerful.

"You alright?" he asked, looking around quickly before offering me his hand.

I accepted it, giving him a non committal nod and groaning. "Peachy."

"General Skywalker!" Both of our heads turned to Rex's voice, somewhere past a wall of debris and scattered cannon shells. "Can you hear me? Kida? Are you alright in there?" My chest fluttered when he said my name with such worry. Did he mean to sound like that? Or was it just the buzzing in my head?

I tossed up the chest fluttering to after-effects of the bone-crushing debris I'd been stuck under.

"Yeah, we're alright," Anakin called back as he hurried to the wall, pulling a piece away to give us a line of sight. Rex stood a good distance away, surrounded by his own piles of debris, but looking unharmed. "Get back to the hangar," Skywalker ordered. "Find a transport but wait for us as long as you can."

"We're on it, sir," came the captain's muffled reply.

"Ahsoka." I watched Anakin's face contort with worry as he attempted to contact her with the comms. "Do you copy?"

"He's set his trap," I voiced when the padawan didn't respond. He looked at me, struggling to hide his concern. I chose to ease it. "She's alive," I assured him. "This wouldn't work if she wasn't." A series of explosions shook the ship, both of us tensing as the ceiling shuddered again. "We should get moving."

Right on cue, Admiral Yularen's voice sounded through the comms. "There's a power surge heading toward the bridge. If you're there, get out immediately. You must abandon your mission."

I sighed, glancing up as Skywalker lifted his wrist comm to his mouth. "I...don't have the holocron memory. And...I seemed to have misplaced my padawan."

"The ship is tearing itself apart!"

"Move off to a safe distance, Admiral," Anakin advised, casting me a mildly amused expression. "And await my signal for evacuation." The jedi signed off as I failed to suppress a pained chuckle. "What?" he asked as he returned to cutting through the door.

"Your admiral is going to get an ulcer because of you."

"Maybe he should stop worrying so much and trust me," he returned, smirking as he successfully cut a way through the door. I followed him through, wiping the blood from my cheek again. "Are you alright for this?"

"I'm always alright to kick Bane's ass."

Anakin chuckled, casting me a look as we hurried down the halls. "What should I be expecting?" he asked finally, his tone darker.

"A trap, for starters." We rounded a corner, eyes scanning for droids. "He's going to use Ahsoka against you. Use your bond to force you to open the holocron for him."

"Or I could just kill him and walk away with both Ahsoka and the memory crystal."

I rolled my eyes. "He's smarter than that." The jedi slowed for a moment, his expression darkening as he closed his eyes. "Hey," I started, concerned. "We're going to get Ahsoka out…"

"She's in pain," he growled, not trying to hide his anger and fear. "He's torturing her."

I pressed my lips into a line. "Then let's spring the trap."

I followed after the jedi as we neared where Bane was camping out, Ahsoka's pain clear through the force now that I was looking for it. I did my best to push it away and focus, but it turns out, I didn't really need it.

We rounded the last corner to find three battle droids outside of Bane's hideaway. Anakin walked forward casually, igniting his saber as the droids panicked.

"You said we'd be safe back here!" one accused the other, racing to the door.

"Come on," another encouraged. "There's three of us and only two of them."

"It won't matter," the third groaned before Anakin sliced them both up.

"Sir," the first said into the comms unit. "A jedi is coming. He looks very unhappy." Anakin took him out too as I rolled my eyes behind him, not even having drawn my guns.

"What am I? Bantha fodder?" I joked at the droid not mentioning me.

Anakin cast me a glance before the door opened before him. "You have nowhere left to run, bounty hunter." The way he spit Bane's profession made me look at him out of the corner of my eye.

"Easy," I said lowly, drawing my own blasters. Beside Bane, two super battle droids turned and raised their arm cannons. Behind the three of them, trapped within a ray shield, was Ahsoka. She was bound with cuffs made for force-users, an airlock door behind her.

Uh oh.

"Let me worry about that, jedi," Bane gloated, lifting his gauntlet to show the room. "If I activate this control, the outside airlock will open and she will be sucked out into oblivion. Do you think you can kill me and then save her before she's pulled out into space?"

"Probably," I growled, lifting my pistols to aim at the Duros.

Bane ignored me. "It's a horrible way to die," he pushed. "Besides, isn't negotiation the jedi way?"

"I'm not a jedi, and neither are you. You won't let her go at the end of this," I tried again, Anakin taking a confident step forward with me.

Bane growled at me. "Right. So what use are you to me?" A nod of his head and one of the super battle droids fired at me. I didn't even have time to dodge, the blast hitting me square in the chest and rocketing me backwards into the wall. My Mandalorian armor took the brunt, only my skin burning at the edges of the metal, but kriff, did it hurt.

Skywalker made a move to attack, but stopped immediately as Bane lifted his gauntlet again. "Careful," the Duros warned. "My patience is wearing thin."

"What do you want?" Skywalker asked finally, sheathing his lightsaber.

"This holocron carries information I've been paid to collect. I can't unlock it," Bane smiled. "But you can. The last jedi who had it, wouldn't open it." I watched carefully from where I leaned against the wall as the droids took steps towards the jedi. "I hope you don't make the same mistake."

Anakin looked past the bounty hunter to see Ahsoka's fearful face. He turned to me, but I gave him no sign of which side I weighed on. We both knew what he'd do. He shook his head at me, signalling to not leap up and fire off my weapons like a madwoman.

That was a wise call of course, but I was certainly disappointed.

"We don't have much time," Bane pressed, irritated. "Hurry it up, jedi, or she dies!"

"No, Master," Ahsoka argued from behind the ray shield. "Don't do it!"

Anakin sighed, closing his eyes. "I can't let you die, Ahsoka."

"Master, no!"

Anakin rolled his lightsaber to the Duros' feet. "We'll deal with the holocron later."

"How touching," Bane mocked. Anakin's gaze glanced my way, the bounty hunter noticing that I was still very much awake and very much armed. "I thought I mentioned not having a use for you." He lifted his blaster, but Anakin protested.

"I'm doing what you asked. Leave her alone."

Bane smiled at the jedi. "You think I have no reason to kill her? She's tried to kill me before," he chuckled darkly. "I have respect for her, but she's my highest risk on this mission. Can't have that, can we?"

He fired, the blaster letting off its high-pitched screech as it sent a bolt my way. I took it in the chest again, the power of it rolling me over to my side. Yeah, it hurt like hell itself, but I didn't cry out or move.

"No!" Ahsoka cried from behind the shield.

I would have turned and shot Bane right back, but I felt Anakin pressing on my mind quietly. He could feel that I was alive. Hurting, but alive. He wanted me to stay that way. Don't move, I felt his mind press to mine. Time this right.

I listened, staying still and turned away from the group on the ground, watching with my feelings rather than my eyes. Bane seemed satisfied with my supposed death, Ahsoka's sorrow practically blinding me from the proceedings of the room.

Skywalker knelt in the center, the holocron before him. The entire force signature of the room rippled as he concentrated, the holocron lifting easily and separating in an elaborate ritual I couldn't begin to understand.

"Now I will combine this holocron with the memory crystal I acquired from your dead jedi friend," Bane spoke allowed, dropping the crystal into the mechanism. Despite my eyes being closed, I rolled them. He just had to gloat and rub it in, didn't he? That was one of the reasons Jango always thought he was unprofessional. A good hunter, sure. Spectacular, even. But a real shabuir.

Anakin finished, Bane lifting the combined mechanism in the air happily. "My employers will be most pleased."

I felt Skywalker's gentle push of 'now.' He reached out, force pulling both his and Ahsoka's lightsabers from Bane's pack. He ignited them and fought the battle droids as they opened fire. I rolled painfully, turning over to fire at both them and Bane. The airlock opened at Bane's command, Ahsoka letting out a yell as she grabbed frantically at the walling to keep herself from being sucked out.

Without warning, Anakin force pushed a piece of the droids into the control panel, disengaging the ray shield, sucking us all towards it.

"Kriff," I yelled, holding the wall beside me as Anakin leapt towards Ahsoka. Bane's rocket boots engaged, the bounty hunter turning to escape. I lifted my blaster against the pull of the airlock, shooting out one of his boots. He stuttered in the air, making it through the closing door, but smacking a wall damned hard. Good.

"Kida!" Anakin's voice made me turn as Ahsoka fell from where she held the wall, her master catching her desperately. I let go, letting myself fall straight to the control panel and close the airlock.

We fell to the ground, my body officially hurting. The jedi were up in a moment, Anakin freeing his padawan of her binders.

"Are you alright?" she asked as I pulled myself up from the ground.

"I'll be fine," I groaned, holding an arm around my throbbing chest. Again, no bolts actually hit my body, but the burns on my skin would smart for a while, not to mention the distributed force likely bruised, or even cracked, a few ribs. One thing was for certain, my job was never a dull endeavor.

"Come on," Skywalker said, leading us racing from the room and after Bane. "Rex," he yelled into his comm. "I hope you found us a ride off this bucket."

"We've got to leave now," came the captain's response. "The reactor's gonna blow. We cannot wait!"

"You'll have to," Skywalker responded, much to my dismay. "I'm going after that bounty hunter. I'd have argued, since I would have just really liked to sit down, but I was literally hired to help stop Bane.

Thankfully, Ahsoka did it for me.

"Master, wait!" she called, stopping in her tracks. I slowed beside her, breathing heavily through the soreness of my body. "Stop! This is the way to the hangar. We must get off the ship now!" Her tone was surprisingly stern.

"I can't let Bane get away," her master responded, determined.

"Patience!" she yelled before quieting. "Master...patience."

He thought for a moment before offering her a half-smile. Pride, maybe. "You're right." He turned back, joining us as we made our way towards our escape. We raced into the hangar as the clones were boarding a shuttle, Rex waving from the gangway. We ran towards it, my eyes lifting as Denal grappled with Bane on a catwalk before finally shooting the bounty hunter, his body toppling over the railing and to the ground of the hangar.

"Come on, come on!" Rex yelled, spurring me back into boarding the ship. We lifted off the ground, Anakin helping Denal board.

"Trooper," the jedi said, guiding the clone in. "Did you get the holocron?"

"No, sir."

"I'll get it, Master," Ahsoka offered, but Anakin waved her off.

"No time. Rex, get us out of here."

The gangway lifted, my back slumping against the wall in pain as we raced away from the exploding frigate. Ahsoka sighed at losing the holocron, but my eyes were focused on Denal. He was gripping his arm painfully. But that wasn't my concern.

"You alright there, bud?" I tried.

He didn't respond, only giving me a silent nod.

"Well," Ahsoka lamented. "It looks like the holocron was destroyed. But at least the Separatists didn't get it."

Anakin hummed. "Bane's dead, but I can still feel him."

So could I. And I couldn't feel Denal, who was supposedly sitting right across from me. Still, I couldn't focus my mind, the blows to my head leaving my thoughts whirling and scattered. I wiped away the blood from my cheek again, examining it as the shuttle landed on the Republic Star Destroyer.

"How many made it off this time?" a clone asked, the jedi exiting the shuttle to talk with the admiral.

"Just us," another responded before turning as Denal stood. "Hey, Denal," he said, clapping his brother on the shoulder. "Good job fighting that bounty hunter."

"Yeah," the first chimed in. "Let's get some grub. You hungry?" he called back to Rex and another clone who sat beside me.

"I'll catch up," he said, glancing at the back of my armored hand.

"What?" I asked, gesturing to my cheek, where the red bloodstains were from. He didn't respond, his eyes leading me to his suspicions.

"General!" Rex called from the gangway. "There's something I think you should see." As Anakin made his way over, I glanced over the green colored blood. That was Duros blood. Skywalker entered, but my focus was already on finding Denal. Or...the person wearing Denal's armor. "It's blood, sir," Rex explained as Anakin examined it. "But it sure isn't from any of our men."

"Denal," I said as I reached the gangway, scanning the hangar. They all turned to me, understanding. "Skywalker," I called, seeing Ahsoka stopping the disguised bounty hunter with concern over his injury. "Your padawan!"

Anakin leapt past me, yelling to her. "Ahsoka!" Bane wrenched the Togruta forward, kneeing her hard in the chest before rushing past her. He took out two more clones before stealing a ship, Skywalker doing his best to stop him. Still, no one would be stupid enough to ride on the outside of a ship as it passed the ray shields. Well...without a space-walk suit, at least.

"Admiral," I heard him yell into his comms as Rex and I caught up. "Lock down the hyperspace rings. Hurry!"

"What could possibly have happened since I last spoke with you?"

"It's Bane. Lock those rings. Now!"

"It's too late," I breathed, watching Bane escape me, yet again. He entered hyperspace, disappearing from sight.

Anakin sighed lowly. "We'll have to inform the council." The jedi turned and walked past me, my own sigh pushing through my nose. "You wouldn't have any idea where he's gone?"

I shook my head. "Bane, like a lot of us, has a lot of hideaways. I know a few, but he wouldn't be stupid enough to go to one of those with the knowledge that I'm helping you." The jedi hummed thoughtfully in response, his mood dark.

I wiped the back of my hand across my face again, eyeing the red blood that smeared on my armor. "You should make your way to the medbay," Skywalker called back to me as he left.

It didn't take long for the Star Destroyer to enter hyperspace, hurtling back towards Coruscant. I wandered my way back towards my own shuttle, electing against using a Republic medbay again. I felt like I was always going there when I worked for the Republic. I sighed to myself as the gangway lowered. Jobs with the Republic just simply weren't healthy for me.

Apex activated a bench for me as I sat heavily just inside my ship, drawing forth a medi-pack. I slowly pulled at my armor, my head swirling and my chest on fire. I torqued my back slightly, trying to pry off the latches of my chest plate, but they were rather fried from two hard, close-range blaster shots being distributed across their surfaces.

"Kriff," I cursed, my fingers straining pointlessly.

"Need some help?" My eyes lifted immediately, recognizing Rex's force signature. Not only that, he had a particular connotation to his words. How weird was it that I was beginning to tell them apart from their voices? Which they...shared?

I let out a frustrated huff of air before nodding, defeated. Despite his stoic demeanor and the obvious irritated vibes rippling off of him, he chuckled. His helmet came off, my gaze following the Jaig eyes as he set it down beside me. His gloved fingers worked quickly at the latches, prying the contorted metal apart. It detached finally, a quick glance of question sent my way.

I nodded slowly, letting him pull my chest plates off of me. It hurt, pulling at the burned skin, but it was a breath of relief when the cool air of the hangar hit me again.

"Mar'e," I breathed out, sighing as I let myself fall back against the wall of my ship again.

"Kriff," Rex cursed, looking over the burns in my blacks that revealed my marred skin.

I waved my hand dismissively. "Its nothing."

"You should go see Kix." His voice was stern. It was the voice he used when ordering his troops.

I lifted my eyebrow at him, fixing him with a look. "I'm fine. Just...hand me my medi-pack," I demanded, gesturing to the pack only a foot from me.

He returned my expression before complying, even opening it for me and pulling out cleaning rag and bacta-patches. "What happened?" he asked lowly as I struggled to work my shirt off. He sighed as I grumbled from within the shirt, standing to help lift if off my arms.

When I was free, I casually pushed my hair back before examining the burns. They were speckled, but hot, ridging around the edges of where my armor had lain. The worst was just above my collar bones and the sides of my ribcage below my arms, where the blasts deflected to the fastest.

"Bane shot me," I said slowly, thinking. "Right after a super battle droid shot me." I shrugged, wincing as my muscles and ribs pulled. "Oh and let's not forget the ceiling that was dropped on us."

Rex's golden eyes paused in the examination of my wounds, flicking up to meet mine. "Wayii," he muttered under his breath, making me smile. He saw me, his eyebrow lifting. "What?"

"Nothing," I responded, dabbing at my burns with a sanitized rag. "It's just nice to hear other people talk Mando'a. No one ever really does...except Merl."

"Merl speaks Mando'a?"

I lifted my hand, tilting it in the air. "Eh, he tries. He does it for me, but I don't tell him that he usually slaughters the words."

Rex chuckled, watching me wince as I tried to apply a bacta-patch. He stepped in, his hands gently taking the patch away and applying it himself. He touch was feather-soft. How did a seasoned warrior manage to do that? He didn't speak again as he took over my medical needs, gently pushing my shoulder back to make me lean against the wall. I let him, surprisingly, my eyes scanning his face.

I wasn't sure what I was doing until I realized I was trying to take him in. Memorize each sharp edges of his cheeks. The squareness of his jaw. The small crinkle between his eyebrows as he concentrated.

It occured to me that despite having Jango's genetics, I didn't see his face anymore. I saw Rex. Only Rex, with his golden gaze.

"I'm sorry." I surprised myself with my own words.

"For making me pretend to be a medic?" He was teasing, but I shook my head anyways.

"I wouldn't apologize for that. Everyone should broaden their horizons." He chuckled, but I pushed against his shoulders, forcing him to look at me. "I mean that I'm sorry for how I left last time."

I felt his mind reel with thoughts before he composed himself. He shrugged. "You were ending a job. What's wrong with that?" I regarded him for a moment, hesitating. Finally, I gave him, quietly prodding at his mind.

He didn't know anything about my heritage. The jedi had kept the clones in the dark, after all. Figures.

"You didn't seem okay with it on the medical ship," I pushed, giving him a look.

Rex hesitated, thinking. "I...was sad I didn't get to say a proper goodbye. I, and many of my men, had grown fond of having you around."

I smiled, but my face fell. "I'm sorry about Denal."

Rex gave me a sad smile in return. "He liked you. He used to tell all of or shinies stories about you."

I lifted my eyebrows. "I wasn't gone for that long. Or actually with you guys for long, either."

The captain shrugged, finishing placing the bacta-patches, carefully moving around my exposed skin. It was rather endearing, how nervous he seemed. "Well it was enough time for you to...form attachments."

I hummed, risking a glance at the still crouched soldier. "And you?" I asked, daring to test the waters. "Did you form attachments?"

"Attachments are dangerous in a war," he answered immediately, like it was built into him. Hell...it probably was.

"I know."

"But I'd be lying if I claimed I didn't have them anyways," he added softly, finally meeting my gaze. A low beeping sounded three times in the hangar, clones moving past the opening of my gangway. "We'll be on Coruscant soon. I should make sure everything is ready."

"Right," I said gently. "So I guess this is goodbye, then?"

He grabbed his helmet from beside me, still kneeling as he brushed at the Jaig eyes. Rex cast me a small grin. "You never know." He breathed slowly before leaning up, his lips grazing my cheek gently. They were soft, like his touch, but pressed tightly together from the fear coursing through his veins-what he was doing was forbidden. "But I hope not," he said as he pulled away, standing abruptly and donning his helmet to hide the blush of color to his face.

I smiled genuinely, my own cheeks heating. "Me too."

MANDO'A

Ad'ika- little one

Shabuir - extreme insult; 'jerk' but much stronger

Mar'e- At last! (expression of relief)

Wayii- Good grief! (general exclamation of surprise)