Dear Reader, Thank you to my reviewers: The Unnamed Guest, Shadow Wanderer, and CT7567Rules. This chapter is kind of short, but I wanted to end it right at the "big event." Aftermath will follow in the next couple chapters until they get off the Citadel. Again, a little license with additional conversation and internal thoughts of the characters. And for those of you who have seen the "Bad Batch" episodes, you'll appreciate Echo's "show-off" comments with regard to General Skywalker, since that is where I got the idea from. And a special reply to the Unnamed Guest who asked a couple questions about my view of the Jedi in his/her last review: I guess I am a bit hard on some Jedi, but sometimes I honestly don't understand the decisions they make in the series. At any rate, Ki'weya (from the last arc started off as a jerk, but he turned out to be a good guy (and Top's new commander!). Master Shyfa (also the last arc) was a good guy, too! I just like to try and give them different personalities, strengths and weaknesses. And I actually love Ahsoka and Obi-wan, though there are times I don't understand how they act in the series. I admit that I cannot stand Master Piell, so he will not fare well at my hands. And Krell . . . well, we all know about him! lol! I hope that explains a little bit of where I'm coming from! Bis bald! CS

Chapter 90 A Glimpse of Courage

"With a kind of wry envy, Hazel realized that Bigwig was actually looking forward to meeting the Efrafan assault. He knew he could fight and he meant to show it. He was not thinking of anything else. The hopelessness of their chances had no important place in his thoughts. Even the sound of digging, clearer already, only set him thinking of the best way to sell his life as dearly as possible."

Watership Down
Richard Adams

"How much longer are we going to wander through this tunnel in the dark?" Captain Tarkin asked with more than a hint of exasperation in his voice.

Anakin kept walking but looked back over his shoulder as he spoke. "Captain Tarkin, haven't you learned to trust me by now?"

"You may have earned my trust, General Skywalker; but my faith in your comrades is still lacking," came the direct, honest reply, and it brought with it a certain sting.

"You lack faith in the Jedi," Anakin concluded, his voice low and bordering on accusation.

Tarkin did not beat around the bush. "I find their tactics ineffective. The Jedi Code prevents them from going far enough to achieve victory, to do whatever it takes to win – the very reason why peacekeepers should not be leading a war."

Anakin turned to face him with an unusual expression.

"Have I offended you?" Tarkin asked, and he sounded almost as if he were hoping such was the case.

Anakin was surprised to find himself in the strange position of agreeing with a man whom, moments earlier, he had found to be one of the most objectionable persons he'd ever met.

"No," he admitted. "I've also found that we sometimes fall short of victory because of our methods."

"Well, I see we agree on something."

The two men had not exactly been keeping their conversation a secret, and trailing behind them, Rex had listened with perhaps more interest than was seemly for an honor-bound officer like himself. Still, overhearing such talk went a long way towards keeping the captain informed of his general's mindset and opinions – good things to know over the course of a mission. And certainly, one item of note from what he'd just overheard was the clear turn in General Skywalker's manner as Captain Tarkin had expressed his dissatisfaction over the Jedi's involvement in the war.

It might have been too subtle for anyone else to notice, but Rex had been tucked in so close to his general's side for the past thirteen months that he could detect even the slightest change in his commanding officer's temperament. And what he had just discerned in the brief exchange between General Skywalker and Captain Tarkin was the burgeoning of a modicum of respect that the two men felt towards each other. Both were headstrong – that much was indisputable. Both were brilliant – Rex knew from seeing Skywalker in action, and he could tell Tarkin was a cut above simply by listening to him speak. Looking at him, there was something calculating and precise behind the man's eyes; something Rex might not have trusted had not General Skywalker appeared to be building a bridge in that direction. Both men were certain of themselves and not in the least bit lacking in confidence.

In an odd way, Rex considered that they actually seemed to be in sync with each other; that, despite the initial animus between them, they also had a chemistry that gave those around them a certain sense of security. Maybe a false sense of security.

Ahsoka's voice drew Rex's attention up to the top of the fuel pipe.

"I think I've found a way out."

"Well, it's about time," Tarkin stated. "I feared we would be overcome by the fumes before finding a way out." He began climbing up the rungs to the hatch Ahsoka had discovered, but Anakin held him back.

"Just a minute, Captain. Let Ahsoka go first and make sure it's safe."

Ahsoka was at the top of the ladder in a single leap. Opening the hatch just enough to see out, she found herself looking across a broad plain, interspersed with outcroppings of jagged rock; and approximately two kilometers away were the gleaming lights of the Citadel power facilities.

"What do you see, Snips?" Anakin asked.

"The coast is clear."

"Any sign of Obi-wan and the shuttle?"

"No. I don't see him or Artoo anywhere," she frowned, pushing the hatch fully open.

In the next instant, weapons were trained on her, and she realized her carelessness. She'd not bothered to do a 360-degree check before emerging, and the enemy had been hiding behind the hatch. She sprang into action, igniting her light saber and quickly dispatching two of the droids. "We've got to go!"

The sudden sounds of battle came as a surprise to those still in the pipeline. "There could a whole battalion of droids out there!" Tarkin protested.

Anakin, cool as ever, replied, "Better than hiding in a fuel line."

The firefight that ensued was short-lived. Anakin and Ahsoka covered the retreat of their group to the safety of one of the rocky spires, and Anakin's final tossing of a charge into the fuel line put an explosive end to the droids' pursuit.

Even as the droid parts were still raining down in twisted, smoking chunks, Anakin turned with characteristic easiness. "Let's go. Time for Plan B."

Tarkin, internally marveling at his companion's lackadaisical manner, replied incredulously, "There's a Plan B?"

"There's always a backup plan. We'll meet Artoo at Obi-wan's position."

"And . . . General Kenobi's position is the landing platform? Do you honestly believe that will be a safer location to meet up? The platform will be heavily guarded."

"You said you trusted me earlier, Captain Tarkin. I suggest you trust me now," Anakin replied. "Rex, get up there with Ahsoka and take point. They were able to track us through the fuel line. They'll probably be able to track us out here, too. Keep an eye open."

"Yes, Sir," Rex replied sharply, but before taking his position, he queried, "General, if you believe they might be tracking us even now, how do we expect to get to the airfield unnoticed?"

Anakin's answer was simple. "I don't expect us to get there unnoticed. What I expect . . . is a fight."

It just might work. Battle droids were notoriously stupid.

Stay calm. Key on General Kenobi for indications of any action to take.

Cody's faith still was not shaken. This part of the plan might be a bit on the crazy side, more the type of thing General Skywalker would think of; but it was as likely to succeed as not, and they were already committed. His group, still feigning to be prisoners and under the escort of Artoo's battle droids, approached the shuttle. Looking around him, he noticed what he had expected to see: the landing platform was well-protected with gun emplacements on raised platforms and a number of battle droids patrolling the area.

Several of those droids were now approaching the group. Cody braced for action.

"Hold it. Where are you going with these prisoners?" One of the droids asked.

"We're transferring them aboard the shuttle from Citadel to Point Terran," Artoo's droid commander replied smoothly. For a droid, he was impressive in his quickness with the lie. He actually sounded convincing. Except for the fact that the outpost on Point Terran had been overrun months ago . . .

"Point Terran? That fell into Republic hands a long time ago," the other droid pushed back.

"Uhhhh, it's back in Separatist hands now." The smoothness was gone.

It was at this point that Artoo interrupted with authority in a series of beeps and whistles. The droid picked up on the assist from his leader. "We have orders. We're coming aboard."

And that was all it took for the detail guarding the shuttle to step aside and allow passage.

It looked like it might work, after all.

And then, the tide turned. An internal alarm sounded in the droids' cranial unit, followed by an audible warning. "The prisoners are escaping with reprogrammed battle droids. Let no one onboard that shuttle."

The hapless droid turned its gaze towards the prisoners as the warning came through. General Kenobi smiled wickedly—a confirmation of the report—before igniting his light saber and slashing the droid in two.

Chaos erupted. The droids on the upper emplacements began firing their weapons, scattering Kenobi's group as they all ran to find cover.

Cody, finding himself with Bounce, one of the reprogrammed battle droids, and one of Tarkin's men, ended up behind a stack of conexes – hardly the sort of thing that offered good protection against laser cannons, but good enough in a pinch. He directed his small group around the back of the conexes to the other side where he'd hoped to at least get an angle on a shot towards the turrets. But as Bounce leaned out to squeeze off a shot, it became clear that the concentration of fire was too dense. The situation was not good. And to make things worse, more Separatist forces—Spider droids and commandoes—were arriving on the scene.

"Rex, we could sure use you and General Skywalker right about now," Cody muttered under his breath. Even as he spoke, it was as if Bounce had read his mind.

"Where's General Skywalker's group?! Do you think they're still at the pipeline?!"

"They should have switched to Plan B," Cody replied. "I hope they switched to Plan B," he added silently. But hopes were nothing to pin his current strategy on. Turning to the battle droid, he said, "Do you have grenades in that pack?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Let's have them."

The droid was carrying four grenades and two droid poppers. Cody intended to make use of all of them. Turning to Bounce and the other trooper, he handed them each a grenade. "Be precise."

Bounce gave a wry, unseen grin. Easy for the commander to order precision. Everyone in the 212th knew that Cody had the perfect touch when it came to delivering grenades or droid poppers. They were going to need every bit of that perfection if they were to have a chance of getting to the shuttle.

But as more and more droids arrived, it became clear that even Cody's expertise with the hand-tossed munitions was not going to be nearly enough. They were being overwhelmed by the sheer numbers and the constant rain of fire from the emplacements.

On the other side of the platform, Obi-wan and Piell were crouched down behind a wall of shipping containers. Obi-wan was coming to the same conclusion as his commander: the onslaught of enemy fire was too intense. Not even the combined mastery of two light saber-wielding Jedi was enough to deflect all the incoming bolts.

Then, as he was contemplating retreat, Obi-wan made out—with relief—the figures of Anakin and his team dropping down over the lip of the platform and running in his direction, firing as they came.

Crouching down beside him, Anakin quipped, "Sorry I'm late."

"How nice of you to join us," Obi-wan replied in kind.

It was not infrequent that the two engaged in this sort of sarcastic humor whenever a desperate situation befell them. On one hand, it presented a way of keeping hopelessness and defeat at bay. But it also showed, to their troops, the face of courage and determination. It was their way of saying that things were never as bad as they seemed; even if the truth was quite the opposite. Keeping the men's spirits up was paramount, for their lives might depend upon it. The moment a man gave up the fight, the battle was lost.

But with Anakin, there was another component to his somewhat quixotic humor. So confident was he in his abilities that the idea of his own demise never entered his head. Even if every other member of his team were killed, he could not envision that he himself would not be able to escape. Death, to Anakin, was a fate reserved for others. His own death, he could not fathom. And it was that vision of himself as indestructible that allowed him to move through danger without fear. In fact, it would not be amiss to say that danger did more to engender anger in Anakin than it did fear.

And anger, Anakin well knew, was not something a Jedi courted. Anger was to be spurned, quelled, dissipated. Whenever it reared its head, it was to be fought with all a Jedi's power; for anger was one step along the way towards the dark side of the Force. And anger combined with fear . . . ah, but Anakin feared nothing.

Nothing except loss. And he had already seen enough losses on this mission.

"The ship is surrounded!" Ahsoka stated.

"We need to launch a full forward assault and take that vessel!" Tarkin barked.

Obi-wan deferred. "We may have a bigger problem: those turrets. If we don't take them out, they will use them to destroy the shuttle and prevent our escape."

"Which is precisely why we should get aboard that shuttle and use the weapons systems to decimate those droids!" Tarkin persisted.

It was a strange moment for Anakin in that he wasn't sure whose idea was the most reasonable. Take the shuttle first or destroy the turrets first. However, in a split-second, he decided to let that dilemma brew before him, for a more immediate concern caught his attention: airborne speeder platforms approaching from the southwest.

"Whatever we're going to do, we'd better do it fast." He pointed towards the incoming attack.

Hunkered down at the far end of the containers behind which they were hiding, Rex spared only a glance to see what General Skywalker was referring to. Seeing the speeders, he made the instantaneous decision that those would be left to the Jedi to handle. There was more than enough action on the ground to occupy the rest of the team.

"Fives, Echo! Hold this position and keep drawing fire," he ordered. "I'm going to try and get an angle on the controls for that door. If we can shut it, that will slow down their reinforcements."

"Are you sure you don't want us to go with you?" Fives asked.

"I need you to keep their attention focused elsewhere," Rex replied. "All we need is a break in the firing so we can make it to the shuttle."

"What about the turrets, Captain?" Echo asked.

"If we can get to the shuttle, its cannons will be able to take out the turrets quickly," Rex replied, only remotely surprised to hear himself echoing Captain Tarkin's sentiments. He quickly added, "But for now, leave them to General Kenobi and Commander Cody."

"Yes, Sir!"

As their captain dashed off from the cover of the containers to the somewhat more flimsy protection of a row of light stands, Fives, between bursts of fire, inquired of his squad mate, "How many more grenades do we have?"

"Four," Echo replied. "And two droid poppers."

"I'm down to forty percent charge," Fives grunted, referring to the power level of his blaster.

"Not to worry."

Five recognized the hint of self-congratulation in Echo's voice.

"I brought along two spare charge packs."

Ah, that explained it.

"You're always thinking ahead, brother," Fives grinned. "Let's just hope it's enough to get us out of here."

"We just need to do as the captain says," Echo replied with certainty and trust.

Fives never failed to be impressed with Echo's confidence and the fact that his friend had never lost his penchant for being a stickler for rules. And while Echo never deviated from his steadfast embrace of order and regulation, Fives sometimes wondered if a bit of Hevy had somehow found its way into Echo's soul. Hevy had never lacked faith in his own abilities, never backed down from a fight, never accepted the idea that defeat was also a possibility. Echo had taken that certitude and turned it into an optimism that often seemed out-of-place coming from a man whose sole purpose in being created was to fight wars.

"Well, make sure your aim is good when you toss those things," Fives warned. "Everything counts from here on out." As he spoke, the two of them saw General Skywalker leaped into the air and take over one of the speeder platforms. "Show off," Fives quipped.

"You know the general," Echo replied, adding, "But you won't hear me complaining. He can show off as much as he likes."

With that, he stepped out from behind cover long enough to rifle a grenade at the approaching droids.

The detonation sent droid parts flying, drawing Rex's attention.

"That's the stuff," he said silently, then adding to himself, "Good decision to bring those two. They're fearless." He sprang out from the wall behind which he was hiding, taking advantage of the explosion, and speeding across the twenty meters to his next cover, a buttressing wall less than thirty meters from the door's control panel.

From this distance, he could draw a bead on the control panel; yet, he hesitated. Getting a better look at the controls, he could see they were of a type where there was no guarantee that the door would shut simply because he blasted the panel. He might end up doing more harm than good if he destroyed the controls, locking the door in the open position. Somehow, he had to close the doors first.

And that would mean getting a lot closer; only, there was little in the way of protection between his current cover and the door. Other than a small maintenance cart, the platform was open. Still, it was his only option. He was about to take a run for it when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"What are you doing?!"

He turned to see Ahsoka hunkered down behind him.

"You're heading right for them!" the padawan said, as if her captain had not realized where he was going and the danger that awaited.

"We have to close the door, stop more from coming," Rex replied, sounding much calmer than his companion.

"So, fire already!"

"I need to close the doors first," Rex replied. "If I blast the controls now, the doors may end up stuck in the open position."

With characteristic impatience, Ahsoka lowered her head and stretched out her hands, reaching out with the Force to depress the close button just as a group of commandoes cleared the opening. No sooner was the door down than Rex fired off one precise shot, frying the controls.

"Good shot, Rex," Ahsoka commended him. "Now, let's find some better cover."

From his cover behind the containers, Fives nodded with appreciative determination. "The captain got the door closed! Let's finish these bastards off!"

Echo leaped out and lobbed another grenade into the midst of the commandoes, taking out half; but among those that had survived the blast, one, instead of advancing, turned and began to leap up towards one of the gun turrets. Lowering his range finder, Echo zoomed in for a better look. What he saw was not promising.

"General Skywalker, the droid is manning one of those turrets," he reported. "They're going to blow up the shuttle, Sir."

On the speeder platform, with General Piell riding behind him, Anakin immediately changed tactics from chasing and shooting down other speeders to attacking the turret. But the droid manning the gun saw his enemy approaching and turned the weapon's firepower against the speeder platform. Anakin managed to get off one shot before his own speeder was shot down and he and Piell leaped from the stricken vehicle an instant before it crashed.

The droid turned the canon towards the two Jedi, chasing them across the platform as they raced for cover.

Behind the containers and now out of grenades and droid poppers, Echo saw an opening as the droid concentrated its attention on Skywalker and Piell. This might be the best chance any of them got to make it to the shuttle and turn its weapons against the turrets and their assailants.

"This is our only chance. We've got to stop him!"

Fives followed his squad mate out from behind their cover, assuming that they would be making a beeline for the next closest form of protection—another stack of conexes. It didn't even surprised him when Echo went a bit wide to pick up one of the fallen commando's shields; it seemed like a good idea.

What Fives had not expected was that Echo would continue running, not towards cover, but towards the shuttle.

Perhaps he should have expected it. He knew what kind of man his squad mate was.

Out of the corner of his vision, he saw the turret moving, rotating towards the shuttle.

"Echo! Look out!"

For a brief moment, as Echo sprang up onto the shuttle's ramp, the thought came into Fives' mind that his friend might actually succeed. It appeared that sometimes courage paid off.

Sometimes.

In a flash of red-orange light, the shuttle blew to pieces, sending schrapnel rocketing in all directions, the force of the explosion knocking everyone flat, stunned and in disbelief.

Fives got to his feet. "Echo!" he shouted, but he knew his cry was in vain. Where the shuttle had stood only seconds earlier—where Echo had stood—now, there was only a scorched platform and flaming pieces of debris.

In that moment, the universe, as Fives knew it, changed forever.