Present Day
Aurora's POV
We all gathered around an activated destroyer we brought along with us, and I sighed in annoyance as we continued the next part of the Rebels training. I stood off to the side next to Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, and Alex while Rex and Anakin began the demonstration.
"Sometimes, I wonder if they are listening to us." I began as Anakin started to speak on how the destroyer worked.
"I highly doubt they are considering what you put them through a few moments ago." Ahsoka explained.
I shrugged. "Please, we all know I went easy on them."
"Did you though?" Alex began. "Did you really?"
I glared at him. "You and I both know the answer to that question."
"I'm just saying, you could've been nicer." Ahsoka continued.
"I was nice…to some extent." I explained. "It's not my fault they are unprepared."
"And that is precisely why we are here." Obi-Wan cut in. "We are here to instruct them on how to be prepared for Separatist attacks. That doesn't mean that you can use them as your personal punching bag."
I rolled my eyes. "If I wanted to do that, I would've thrown them into the field. When I was at this stage in my career, I was already completing assassin jobs around the galaxy."
Alex nodded. "Yeah, those were the days. Do you remember that job where we had to take out that Senator from Jeddha?"
I laughed. "That was such a fun job. Do you remember how much manual labor and physical assaults we got from your father and my aunt, when they found out we killed the wrong one?"
This time he laughed. "Of course, I still have the scars."
"Me too!" I nodded as we both continued to laugh.
Eventually, our quiet laughter died down, letting Obi-Wan and Ahsoka look at us in shock and disbelief.
"I'm going to say this once." Ahsoka began. "You both are crazy and need therapy for your psychologic and physical trauma."
Alex and I both stared at her for a moment before we busted out laughing at her again. This time, the two of us were laughing hysterically, practically holding onto each other to make us not fall. Thankfully the Rebels were distracted by Anakin and Rex to notice the two of us acting like a bunch of morons. Eventually, once our laughter died down, Ahsoka walked forward and gently threw a deactivator onto the ground so it could roll under the Destroyer's shield generators, once it was past the defense shield, the Destroyer deactivated and went back into its primary position.
"Destroyers are blind from behind." Ahsoka explained. "A distraction combined with a rear assault, will give you a kill. The trick is to get the right speed on the deactivator."
Rex then pushed a few buttons on his datapad setting the three Destroyers into attack position. He then explained that the deactivators were unarmed, but it would be good practice for the Rebels to learn how to use them.
Saw stepped up with his usual confident smirk.
"Watch and learn." He confidently said as he grabbed a deactivator and threw it at the Destroyer, but it was too hard to penetrate the shield.
"Depressing." I murmured and got hit in the shoulder by Anakin.
"Quite brilliant." Lux said with a small smirk before Ahsoka threw him a deactivator to practice with. Unlike Saw, Lux was quite good at it, considering he was the first one to penetrate the Destroyers shield.
"Shocking." Alex said and I nodded.
"Nice touch." Ahsoka said with a small smile.
"Thank you." Lux smiled back.
My head tilted to the side slightly, when I noticed that Steela, who was standing behind Lux had a cranky look on her face. I smiled to myself as I understood what was occurring…kind of.
"Not bad." Steela smirked at Lux, before Ahsoka threw her a deactivator, and just like her brother, she didn't have the delicacy for the deactivator to penetrate the ray shields.
"Be mindful of your frustration, it'll only hold you back." Obi-Wan explained as he saw her frustrated appearance.
As Lux was demonstrating to Steela how to throw the deactivator, I saw Ahsoka's eyes widen in sadness…sort of how my brother's eyes do whenever he watches a sad holodrama. Almost as if they are on the verge of crying, but are trying too hard to hold it in. Rex then called for everyone to pair up to practice on the destroyers, with Lux and Steela being paired up, and Ahsoka's visual sadness showing, Saw grabbed her before I could talk to her, which in the back of my mind was a good thing, as it would allow for Ahsoka to keep her mind distracted.
Just then, I heard something come from the bushes. Almost like a communication signal. I snapped my head around, and scanned the wooded area around us, but saw nothing.
I felt a hand on my shoulder.
"You ok?" Alex asked.
Without taking my eyes off the jungle, I nodded.
"Yeah." I replied. "Must be hearing things."
I slowly walked toward Ahsoka, who was still helping Saw out. Once Saw finally got the hang of the technique we were trying to show him, I pulled Ahsoka away.
"Is everything ok?" She asked as we walked toward an area far away from the group.
"Everything is fine with me." I explained. "Is everything fine with you?"
"Yes." She replied all too quickly before sitting down on a crate. "I'm fine."
I stood in front of her with my arms crossed and a slow smirk became plastered on my face.
"I know you're lying…and I can't even read your mind…yet…Obi-Wan said I'm not ready to learn that yet." I explained.
She sighed. "How did you know something was wrong?"
"Well for starters, I've known you long enough to know that you and my brother have almost and identical sad facial expression." I continued as I sat down on the crate next to her. "But, it also doesn't take a Jedi to understand what you are going through…what happened between the two of you on Carlac…before I got there?"
She sighed. "He kissed me…it was an act, but it felt real."
"Your first?" I asked with a small smile.
She nodded.
"Listen, I don't know if he is your boyfriend…"I began.
"He's not my boyfriend!" She protested.
"I'm referencing him as that as part of the situation…and also to get back at you for what you said to me a few weeks ago." I retorted.
She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.
"Listen. He may not be your boyfriend, but it is obvious that you have feelings for him, if you do, go for it, if he doesn't then it's his loss." I explained putting my right hand on her shoulder.
"Jedi aren't supposed to form attachments." She explained.
"You aren't like any other Jedi I met." I responded making her look at me. "Since when do you follow the rules?"
"True." She said with a small nod.
We were silent a few moments before she turned to me.
"Who was yours with?" She asked in curiosity.
"My what?" I asked in confusion.
"Your first kiss." She pushed, wanting to know the answer.
I shook my head. "It's not important to this situation."
"Was it with him?" Ahsoka asked pointing to Alex who was teaching the Rebels how to properly hold a riffle.
I shook my head. "No way. He was my competition as a child, until his father made us partners."
"He cares a lot about you." She explained.
I shrugged. "I highly doubt it."
"Unlike you, I can read his mind, and I think you should know, that you are on his mind all the time. And looking into your mind, you think about him just as much." She continued.
"It doesn't matter Ahsoka, I can't be with him…no matter how much I care for him and no matter how much he cares for me. I have a system to run, and he carries the name of a war-criminal. My mother's people will not accept it…especially not my mother, or his father…it won't work in any means necessary." I explained with a sigh.
"But…" She began.
"No!" I practically snapped at her. "I am done talking about this. I came here to talk to you how to handle emotions like this. You handle your emotions your way, and I handle mine a different way."
Ahsoka looked at me with wide eyes in shock.
I sighed. "Sorry, that was…harsh. I just don't like talking about this, ok? It's not easy for me. I don't exactly have the best track-record with relationships…my last boyfriend tried to kill me."
Ahsoka looked at me in disbelief and I put a hand up.
"Long story." I explained. "But my point is, if you ever need someone to talk to, let me know. I highly doubt Anakin had conversations about relationships with you…you probably didn't even have 'the talk' yet."
"The talk?" Ahsoka asked in confusion.
I looked at her in disbelief. "You're the same age as my brother…and you never had the sex talk?"
"That's the talk?" She asked in disbelief.
"If you want me to explain it, I'll be gladly to, I'll just need a data pad, in case your more of a visual learner than an auditory learner." I explained.
She blinked at me in disbelief before I stood up.
"Let me know." I explained before I started walking towards the group. "So, I can take a shot of alcohol before I explain it."
"Thanks Ro!" She called after me.
I waved her off. "No problem!"
Eventually Ahsoka joined the group and watched as the Rebels shot at the droid heads. Ahsoka then decided to use the force and make them move, which would be more realistic, and surprisingly they did rather well, especially Steela, who excelled at the task beautifully. Just as everything was going well, it all went to shit. Just as Steela was about to go again at shooting droid heads, she noticed on the horizon hundreds if not thousands of droids began to shoot at us. It all caught us by surprise, especially the one with a rocket launcher who aimed it right at all of us. We all quickly took cover to avoid getting hit by the rocket launcher, which was a success, but in response to the attack, we all drew our weapons and began to attack back. Alex, being the protector he was, jumped on top of me, to protect me from the explosion.
"Sorry." He said looking at me as he hovered over me. "You alright."
I nodded. "Yeah."
We quickly got up and took cover next to Anakin and Obi-Wan.
"I'll take the left flank, you take the right, Ro and Alex can take the center." Anakin explained to Obi-Wan and I as we hid behind a crate.
"No Anakin!" Obi-Wan shouted over the blaster fire. "We are here to teach them; we cannot fight their war for them."
"Well, that complicates things!" I shouted at him.
Obi-Wan turned to Steela. "There are too many! Anakin, Ahsoka, Aurora, Alex, and I can hold them off, while you get your people out of here."
"You didn't teach us to run!" Steela replied before activating her wrist com. "Saw, use the disrupters to take out the droids!"
Within a few seconds a set of explosions went off.
"Not bad." Anakin said with a proud smirk.
"Impressive." I said with a smirk.
Obi-Wan looked to the two of us. "That was only the first wave."
That's when the tanks rolled in and started to fire even harder at us.
"We'll handle this." Obi-Wan explained.
Steela stood up from her hiding place. "No, I will."
She aimed her riffle at the various animal pens and began to fire at the pens to allow for the animals to become free, which allowed for them to take out most of the droids on the ground…but not all of them. Another explosion went off, this time, taking out the tank, which destroyed the remaining droids.
I sighed in relief seeing that almost everyone survived, indicating that our teaching was a success.
"Take confidence from this victory." Obi-Wan began. "But rest assure, there will be more droids coming, especially now that they know your position."
"It doesn't matter." Anakin explained. "You're ready now. We are going to take the fight to the droids. You don't have to hide in the jungle any longer."
"Droids are easy." Saw began. "More so than I thought."
"They make up for it in numbers." Ahsoka explained.
"They were designed to overwhelm, but they were not designed to deal with our approach." I explained.
"We hit them where they least expect it, and before they realize it was us…"Lux began.
"We fade in with the rest of the population." Steela continued.
"Exactly." Anakin and I replied.
"We need a plan to get into the city." Alex began.
"I have an idea." Lux began.
Some of us decided to pose as merchants, entering the city after hunting during the week to sell what we caught. Others, like Anakin and Obi-Wan decided to pose as traders, collecting anything they could from the droid battle to sell for parts. Alex and I however, were put together as the married couple who went to gather natural resources to sell in Iziz. How we decided that…that deserves its own movie.
Flashback
1 hour ago
Third Person's POV
"Alright, we have a role for everyone…except you two." Steela explained looking at Alex and Aurora.
"I got that perfect idea." Anakin began. "You two are going to play a married couple."
"WHAT!" Aurora and Alex screamed.
"Decide now which of you is wearing the pants." Anakin explained.
Aurora turned to Alex with a smirk. "It's me."
"Whatever you say Sweetheart." Alex replied with a smirk making Aurora glare at him…as she knew that this was going to be a long mission.
Present Day
Aurora's POV
As we arrived to the gates of the capital Iziz, the gates were guarded with droids with tanks. Lux's transport was at the front of the lineup as he was explaining what was occurring with all of us so we would be let into the city. I was riding a Dalgo, and sitting right next to me on another Dalgo, was Alex. I had a cowl over the lower half of my face, so the only things exposed of my head were my hair and my eyes. Sure enough, we got let into town by the droids as the droids are clueless. That's when we all decided to split up and meet back by nightfall. And it almost felt that in the back of all of our minds, for the first time in a long time, there was some sort of hope for the future.
