Can Jedi Wear Orange?

by dextron11

At the start of their trip, a mysterious power pulls Naruto and Jiraiya into the distant future. With no way back home, and no idea what's going on, what will they do? Join the Jedi, naturally. But there are other, more sinister forces after them as well. With the Force to wield and a new group of friends, can Naruto change the future of a galaxy threatened by darkness?

47. Chapter 47

This is a long one. Despite that, I'm actually proud of how this chapter turned out. Normally, when I publish a chapter, I'm left feeling there was more I could have done to improve it. This time, though, I'm pretty satisfied. This chapter isn't perfect, but there's no part of it I'm unhappy with.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. The reception was very positive, and that means a lot to me.

Sadly, for the 25th time, I'm going to ask all my readers to donate whatever they can to help Ukraine.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Chapter 47

'Make a hole. Open the door. Disable the guard. Free the Jedi.'

Padmé gritted her teeth as the rough stone tore another bloody scrape in her fingers. It wouldn't do to ruin all her work by giving herself away with a girlish yelp. She'd suffered far worse pain in the last day alone than a few torn knuckles. That was what she told herself. Her fingers insisted on stinging as if she'd set them on fire, but they'd have to sort themselves out. She wasn't finished yet. Not until she saw Dooku and Jango Fett in chains. They would pay for Sabé's and Cordé's death. For that, and a great deal more besides.

'They're dead. Both of them. And what if Anakin-' She cut herself off with a sharp shake of her head. 'No! Just focus on escaping. One step at a time.'

It has to be one step at a time. If she gave herself any time to think, any time to imagine the future, she would shut down. Sabé and Cordé's deaths loomed at the edges of her mind; cold, implacable, and overwhelming. Just the thought of them threatened to bring the tears she had buried back up, and she couldn't afford that. Anakin and Obi-Wan couldn't afford that. She doubted the Geonosians had been as sloppy restraining two Jedi as they had been with her.

'Make a hole. Open the door. Disable the guard. Free the Jedi.'

Sloppy was the right word for it. They hadn't even searched her properly. If they had, they might have noticed her belt buckle was rather more than it appeared. The decorative inlay around the edge was beautiful, with its whorls and waves. It was also made of phrik alloy. At the press of a hidden latch, the back fell away, leaving her with a razor sharp, near-indestructible knife. It was small and awkward to hold, but it would do.

Careful observation had revealed her cell was very poorly designed. When she'd looked through the tiny window in her cell door, she'd caught a dull reflection in the door opposite hers. It showed hers was the last cell before the corridor met at a junction. The faint glow of electric lights told her where the access panel for the door lay. From there, it was a simple matter of using her hidden knife as a makeshift rasp and scoring a hole in the wall behind the panel.

'Make a hole. Open the door. Disable the guard. Free the Jedi.'

Simple didn't mean easy. Whatever the walls were made of, it was fiendishly hard. Even with a phrik edge on her knife, it had taken her all night and into the next just to carve a hole the size of her head. She had nothing but time, though, and the endless scrape, scrape, scrape of the blade helped drown out her grief filled thoughts. She could have done without the bloodied fingers, but they'd mostly gone numb hours ago. Mostly.

'Make a hole. Open the door. Disable the guard. Free the Jedi.' She repeated the words in her head like a mantra. Over and over and over and over until they lost all meaning or connection to reality. They were just another noise in her mind, drowning out what she couldn't afford to feel right now. 'Make a hole. Open the door. Disable the guard. Free the Jedi.'

Finally, the hole was big enough. With the back of the control panel exposed, and its tangle of wires visible, she could move on to step two of her hasty escape plan. A quick glance at the door confirmed no one was watching. Not that she expected anyone to peer in, but she wanted to be sure. Satisfied she was unobserved, she stripped out of her shirt and removed her bra. Turning the undergarment in her hands, she worked at it until a few strands of wire poked out from below each cup.

"Abandon dignity, modesty, ego, and illusion," she whispered to herself. It was something Panaka had drilled into her and her handmaidens during their training. "Abandon everything but your need to win. Let nothing be a barrier to victory. Use what your enemy will never suspect and let them hand you their defeat."

It was finicky work, especially with her battered hands, but eventually she extracted a dozen strands of thin wire, each as long as her hand from wrist to fingertip. No scan would have picked up anything strange, but they were the key to her escape. Each one was strong, light, and, most importantly, highly conductive. Perfect for bypassing an electronic door control.

'Thank the Force for Naboo diplomatic clothing,' she thought. Centuries of backstabbing politics had given her people a healthy respect for concealed tools, and she and her handmaidens had refined the practice to an art form during her reign. There was still a set of basic tools in the soles of her shoes, and a wire saw in the waistband of her pants, but she wouldn't need them yet.

'Make a hole. Open the door. Disable the guard. Free the Jedi.'

She slipped the bra back on, but took a moment to tear the sleeves off her shirt and wrap them around her hands before she donned that as well. She was in enough pain as it was, and electrical shocks didn't sound appealing at the moment.

"Now, time to get out of here."

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Boss looked around at the cramped tunnels and wished, not for the first time, that their al'verde could teleport them all to the prison cells. He'd take a firefight with a bunch of prison guards over these claustrophobic tunnels any day.

'If things keep going like this, I'll probably get both,' he mused. 'Seems Skirata was right. Jetii really are magnets for trouble. This Naruto certainly is, the dini'la Jetii.'

Getting into the tunnels had turned out to be easier than he'd expected. The little blue astromech had scanned the walls of the corridor he'd come from and told Naruto where the tunnel ran closest to the surface. He'd expected the blonde commander to cut them an entrance with his jetii'kad, but once again, Naruto proved as unpredictable as a dry day on Kamino. Rather than cut a hole in the wall, he'd made a few strange shapes with his fingers, taken each of them by the shoulder, and somehow stepped through the solid stone and into the cramped hollow beyond. When Fixer had demanded to know how he'd done it, Naruto had said something about an earth jutsu, whatever that was, and acted as if that explained everything. The droid had proven more troublesome, insisting on coming along to rescue the Senator, but Naruto had just opened a scroll and made it disappear into a puff of smoke. Apparently, it was inside the scribbles he'd glimpsed on the scroll, but by that point, Boss had decided not to ask questions lest he get answers.

That wasn't the end of the weirdness, either. Oh no, would that he was so lucky. Every few minutes, Naruto somehow created copies of himself out of nothing. He called them shadow clones or kage bunshin, whatever that meant, and claimed they could act as scouts. The copies darted off down every fork in the tunnels, completely silent and fast as the wind. A thousand questions filled his mind. How did they work? Why not use them for the whole mission? Did Naruto see through their eyes? Hear their thoughts? Had the entire kriffing galaxy gone totally mad when he wasn't looking? But he didn't ask any of them. No, better to focus on what he knew, such as holding security while the others turned a corner behind him.

The tunnels weren't just dark, cramped, and confusing. They were also full of sleeping Geonosians. Well, maybe not full, but even one was more than he liked. They slept curled into little niches in the wall, barely visible in the murky twilight of his night-vision. Their wings trembled as they breathed, filling the air with a faint rustle that set his teeth on edge. They didn't encounter many large groups, probably thanks to those shadow thingies, but each one was a study in terror. His finger rested on the trigger guard of his blaster, ready to twitch at the first sound of trouble. Their best hope lay in making as little noise as possible, though. He could only thank whatever powers there were that Geonosians slept like the dead.

"Last man," came a whisper over his helmet's internal comms, and he turned to rejoin the others until the next turn in the tunnel.

They wandered, seemingly at random, for what felt like days. Naruto claimed to sense the Jedi who'd been taken prisoner, but Boss and the others could only trust him when he pointed which way to go. They did trust him, though. He'd led them this far, and he was their commander. You followed your commander. You followed orders. That was just the way life was.

Twisted after twist, turn after turn, they crept through the dark, discovery and death a careless noise away. Sometimes, the tunnel walls were covered in sleeping bugs, crammed so tight he wondered how they could breathe. Other times, the walls were barren rock, and the air was silent as the depths of space. He didn't know which was more unnerving.

It was in one of the empty sections that the worst happened. It was his turn to hold security down the length of shadowed cave behind them as they took another turn. The call of "last man" came once more, and he turned to rejoin his squad. It wasn't Sev's armor he saw when he turned, though. It was the red-brown carapace of a Geonosian. A wide awake Geonosian, staring at him just as he stared at it.

Time stopped. His heart somehow skipped three beats and jumped into his throat. Ice formed in his stomach, and his muscles were immovable bits of mush. For a frozen eternity, he and the bug stared at each other, each as stunned as the other. Even in the dim, monochrome light of IR night-vision, he could see every detail of its long, gnarled face. The flecks of spittle at the corners of its mouth gleamed like tiny stars, and its eyes glowed hideously under his helmet's IR lamps.

Then training took over. Without conscious thought, he clamped one hand over its mouth just as it tried to scream. His other hand dropped to his belt, drew his vibroknife, and stabbed it under the chin in one smooth motion. The softly humming blade slid through carapace and flesh with barely a tug of resistance. The bug's eyes bulged, maybe in pain, maybe in anger. He didn't know. It didn't matter at that point. He twisted the blade and cut out of the thing's neck to widen the wound. The bug spasmed twice and then fell still. Blood, shiny black under the IR light, coated his knife and glove. He wiped the blade off on the exposed cloth at his elbow and slid it back into its sheath. How was he moving so calmly? His heart was racing. He could hear it pounding a beat fit to dance to, yet his hands were rock steady. When he looked up, Sev and Naruto were both less than two meters away, looking at him. Scorch and Fixer were right behind them, holding security down the tunnel.

"It just came out of nowhere," he said, gesturing to the body at his feet. Some part of him felt the need to defend himself, but he ignored it. They had a mission to accomplish, and nothing could stand in the way of that.

"Not nowhere," Naruto said and pointed to the ceiling. When he looked up, he saw a hole right above him and almost swore. Of course it had come through that way. He'd passed through half a dozen holes like that himself already. "Are you alright? I'm sorry. I should have sensed it before it got this close."

"I'm fine," he said, and was proud his voice didn't shake. "I got him before he got me."

"That's rule one, sir," Scorch said, though his eyes never left his sights.

Boss grunted his agreement and glanced at the bleeding lump on the ground. "The body might be an issue."

Naruto grunted and kneeled next to the corpse. It looked smaller now. With some shock, Boss realized the bug must have stood a head shorter than him or more. He'd have sworn it loomed over him just a second ago. Strange how adrenaline twisted the senses. He took a breath and ran through one of the focusing drills Skirata had pounded into his skull. His heartbeat slowed from a sprint to a jog, and then down to a brisk walk. When he opened his eyes again, Sev was standing right in front of him. He didn't say a word, but gave a single nod. Boss returned the gesture, recognizing it for what it was. They didn't need to say anything else.

Commander Uzumaki must have finished with his examination of the corpse, because he produced a brush and ink pot of all things from somewhere and began painting a design with rapid, confident strokes. They were too fast to make out clearly, and Boss wondered how long he'd had to practice to achieve such speed and precision. Despite the complexity of the design, it took him only a minute. When he had finished, he pressed a finger down on the center of the doodle, and the Geonosian's corpse wavered and apparently dissolved into nothingness. No trace remained to suggest it had ever been there at all. Even the blood was gone.

'Don't ask questions,' Boss told himself. 'Just chalk it up to jetii osik and move on.'

"That should keep anyone from raising the alarm, at least for now," Naruto said. "But we have to hurry. We're almost there, and then things are really going to get exciting."

"Oh, is that when they're going to get exciting?" Boss muttered under his breath. If jumping from orbit into a pit without using a jet pack and then sneaking about in enemy infested tunnels didn't count as exciting to the commander, a part of him didn't want to find out what did. Then again, another part of him, one that sounded a lot like Scorch, wanted to find out very badly indeed.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Naruto had to fight the urge to redouble their pace as they got closer and closer to Anakin and Obi-Wan. At least, he thought they were getting closer. The Force was his only guide in the maze of tunnels he'd led them into. Even so, Anakin was pretty easy to find when he wasn't trying to be stealthy, much the same way he could find the sun even with his eyes closed. Still, the twisting labyrinth he'd led them into strained even his abilities to navigate. Four times now, he'd had to backtrack after a wrong turn led them to a dead end. He could have just cut a direct path through the walls with his lightsaber, but then he may as well have announced their presence with music and dancers. No, it was the slower, surer way, for now. There'd be time enough for being noisy. More than enough, he suspected, if Ahsoka's vision held true.

It was maybe half an hour after Boss had his encounter with the lone Geonosian that they reached their destination. Or, rather, the Force told him they were as close as they could get in the tunnels. The walls were still a solid stretch of brown stone, thankfully free of any sleeping enemies. He doubted there were any exits close to the detention area, but that was fine. He had plenty of options for making doors wherever the architects hadn't seen fit to provide one.

"We're here," he said. "Below us."

Fixer pressed something to the floor and cocked his head. Naruto recognized the device as an audio amplifier. It would pick up even the faintest sounds from behind the wall and transfer them to Fixer's helmet.

"There are sounds of fighting on the other side," he said. "I hear multiple blasters and other weapons I don't recognize."

"Fierfek," Naruto swore. Of course one of them would have escaped before he got to them, and of course they'd gotten into a firefight. Why wouldn't that happen?

Abruptly, Anakin's Force signature twisted in on itself and vanished. For a moment, Naruto's heart lurched. Then reason reasserted itself and he realized what had happened. His brother was channeling chakra. For what, he didn't know, and he wasn't about to sit around pondering. Not when his friends needed help.

"Get ready," he said and formed a rasengan in one hand. The Deltas affixed cables to the ceiling and hooked them to their belts. Once the rasengan grew to the size of two clenched fists, he stopped feeding it and smashed it into the floor. With a grinding boom, the stone disintegrated and blew apart, leaving a hole large enough for two men to walk abreast. Before the last bit of debris had hit the ground he was through the hole, lightsaber ignited and swinging. The clones were right behind him, and he heard the staccato whine of their blasters as they joined the fray.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Padmé had to admit, this hadn't been one of her better plans. Of course, it hadn't really been a plan at all. More of a desperate, grief fueled notion she'd made real by sheer force of will. As such things typically did, it had gone wrong at the first opportunity.

Rewiring the door panel had gone well enough. She'd only shocked herself once before getting the door open. The Geonosian guarding her door hadn't been expecting his prisoner to come hurtling out of her cell like a clawfish. His strange blaster did little good at close quarters, and she'd gotten it away from him in short order. Unfortunately, he'd managed one piercing shriek before she'd bludgeoned him unconscious with the bulky weapon. That single cry had been enough to bring what felt like an entire garrison down on her head. A dozen or more battle droids had come around the corner, accompanied by three Geonosians, and that was just what she'd seen before she ducked behind a pillar for cover. A good thing she had, too. Chunks of stone whizzed past her face as the first volley slammed into the pillar.

"You idiots. Shoot her, not the pillar," one droid said in that squeaky, childish voice she knew so well. How many of her people had died with that voice in their ears?

She returned fire with the weapon she'd taken from her guard. It was shaped for an insectoid species, and awkward in her hands, but she managed. When she squeezed the trigger, though, instead of the familiar streak of a blaster bolt, it fired a rippling green sphere of unfamiliar energy. The strange projectile sailed through the air, leaving a visible wake, and caught one droid in the arm. The whole limb juddered and exploded into metal fragments, and the force of the blow spun the droid around and knocked it off its feet. She couldn't help but smirk, even though it wasn't even close to the droid she'd aimed at, and the recoil made her wrist ache.

She chanced another glance round the pillar, and squeezed off another shot, but had to duck back quickly before a similar shimmering green orb took her head off. The battle droids shot almost at random, or so it seemed by their accuracy, but those Geonosians were more competent. Worse, the droid's numbers looked to have doubled, and she could hear more in the distance.

She cursed and let her head knock against the rough stone of the pillar. She could see what had to be Anakin and Obi-Wan's cell. Two droids stood outside, guarding it. Not run-of-the-mill B1s, either, nor the larger B2s. These wore gray cloaks and wielded sturdy electrostaffs. Their skull-like faces barely turned to glance in her direction before they dismissed her. It rankled, but they weren't wrong. The cell was twenty meters away, across the hall and down an open corridor. She'd never make it three paces, pinned down as she was.

"Kriff," she swore as she fired another few shots into the approaching horde of droids and bugs. A sharp crack and some clicking squeals told her at least one of her shots had connected. "Should have thought this through, Padmé."

Her mind raced as she tried to find a way out. A way to win. She needed to win. Failure didn't exist, only victory now or victory later. Telling herself that, over and over, was the only thing keeping her courage together at this point. There was a way. Otherwise, what had been the point?

"Could really use some help right about now," she muttered. Frustrated tears pricked at her eyes, but she wiped them away with the back of one hand. She would not give in to despair. Sabé and Cordé would kick her ass if they thought she was feeling sorry for herself. The thought of her friends set a grim smile on her face, even as more tears spilled down her cheeks.

Boom!

Dust and bits of rubble exploded from the ceiling just to the right of her pillar. She gasped in shock and had to cover her face to keep the grit out of her eyes and mouth. The blast caught the droids and Geonosians off guard, too, if the way they stopped firing was any sign. None of them had a chance to even ask what had happened before they heard a sound famous the galaxy over.

Snap-hiss.

Orange light painted the walls and cast a warm glow through the dust in the air as a familiar figure dropped from the ceiling, lightsaber in hand. Behind him, four armored men descended on cables. Even as they dangled in the air, their blasters spat death at the mass of stunned enemies. In the second it took them to reach the ground, six droids and two Geonosians fell. That seemed to snap the rest out of their stupor.

'Naruto?' Her brain had frozen in shock. 'How can he be here? And who are those others?'

"Look, it's a Jedi," one droid said. "Blast hi- aaahhhh!"

The droid flew through the air towards Naruto's outstretched hand. There was a blur of motion and then it clattered behind him in two pieces, the cut marks glowing red. Its blaster skidded to a stop at Padmé's feet. The rest of the droids followed orders, though, and the hallway lit up with a barrage of fire.

Padmé hadn't seen Naruto fight since his first mission to Naboo, over three years ago, but at the time she'd thought his skills impressive. Time and training had taken them to another level. Not a blaster bolt came within a meter of him but it bounced off an orange blade and, often as not, sped right back into the face of whoever had sent it in the first place. He dodged the strange weapons the Geonosians used, though, and promptly yanked them forward with the Force to meet swift ends at his blade. An awful, burned stench filled the dusty air. The droids shifted most of their fire to him, but he kept up his defense without a hitch.

She didn't recognize the soldiers with him. Their armor gave no clue as to their features or allegiance. For one heart stopping moment, she'd thought them droids, but no droid had ever moved with the effortless grace these men displayed. The moment their feet hit the ground, they disconnected their descent cables and fanned out to take cover in niches in the wall, all without once pausing in their fire. It was as impressive a display of close combat tactics as she'd ever seen. Whoever these helmeted soldiers were, Naruto had clearly brought the best.

For her own part, she gladly exchanged the strange Geonosian weapon for the more familiar blaster lying at her feet. With that in hand, she lent her own fire to the armored men. Her shots didn't quite match theirs for accuracy or speed, but they were far from useless. Between the six of them, they soon reduced the droid numbers by half. Padmé felt genuine hope enter her heart for the first time in days.

From the corner of her eye, she spotted a flicker of movement. Nothing much, but it made every instinct she had scream "danger". She glanced around just in time to see the two cloaked droids that had been guarding Anakin and Obi-Wan's cell sprinting from their posts, staffs held ready and blazing with purple energy. It didn't take a genius to figure out their target. Droids like this would head straight for the biggest threat in the area, and that could only be one person. They were fast, too. Already they had halved the distance between them and their target's unguarded back, and then halved it again. Desperately, she tried to make herself heard over the din.

"Naruto, look-"

That was all she managed before the two struck. One kept running straight on. The other jumped onto the wall, legs coiled for a rebounding strike. She watched in horror as those deadly staves closed in on Naruto.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

"Crap baskets," Naruto muttered. This was not what he needed right now. He could feel two more threats closing in from behind. Closing, which could only mean they meant to fight him close in. Not ideal when he already had a mass of blaster fire to deal with. He heard Padmé's warning at the same time as he prepped to move.

'One from behind, one from high left. Easy enough.'

He danced around the attack from behind, sticking as close as he could to his would-be killer. Some small part of him saw the electrostaff and threw up warning bells, but the rest of him was too focused on the moment to notice. Halfway through a spin that would have taken him behind his attacker, he collapsed into a roll and felt the second electrostaff pass just over his head. A gray cloak flapped in his face and obscured the droid's features, but not its quick pivot and reverse thrust.

'These two are good,' he thought as he batted the attack away. 'Coordinated and fast. Got to take this out of the field of fire.'

In the split second before the two new droids recovered, he made a dozen Kage Bunshin and sent them back into the main fight.

"Hold them," he shouted, to both his own bunshin and the commandos. "Keep Padmé safe."

"Copy," he heard Boss yell. "Protect the Senator, men."

He didn't bother looking to see what the clones or the bunshin did. They were more than capable of handling the remaining droids. Whatever orders Boss gave would be the right ones, he had no doubt. At the moment, his fight was with these two newcomers. He ducked under a crackling electrostaff, deflected a few blaster bolts into the ceiling, and made his way around the corner and out of sight of the battle droids.

The two new droids followed him, as he knew the way would, and he got his first clear look at them under their cloaks. Recognition sparked immediately. A few details had changed; their limbs were a bit longer and their bodies more streamlined, but there was no mistaking them. They were the same droids Grants Omega had set on him back on Naboo. MagnaGuards, as Granta had called them after his arrest. Jedi killers. Clearly, the prototypes had performed well enough to warrant further production. But if they were here…

'So Dooku was working with Black Sun even back then. Or was he just working with Omega?' Naruto had no time to ponder the implications. As deadly as the ones he'd fought on Naboo had been, these seemed even more so. Then again, so was he.

The MagnaGuards worked together well, coming at him from divergent angles and timing their strikes to force holes in his defenses. One would open with a flurry of rapid blows, meant to keep him occupied, while the other would leap at him from above or try to dart around behind. Each time they tried, though, he flowed around one and blocked the other. They couldn't land a decisive blow, but then again, neither could he. Where one left a gap in its defense, the other stepped in to cover. A blow that would have taken one of them in the head found a sparking electrostaff instead, and then he was dodging an attack himself. The insect buzz of their weapons grated almost as much as their stubborn refusal to die. Back in the main hallway, he heard an explosion, but ignored it. It was probably just Scorch having fun.

An outside observer may have thought the fight a stalemate, but in truth, it was not so close as that. Naruto gave ground, but not without purpose. He'd rushed in against these things in the past and paid for it. This time, he wanted to learn what he could before he went on the offense. Mace wouldn't be coming to his rescue this time. After a minute of blocking and dodging, though, he'd had enough.

'Time to see if all that training has paid off.'

He let the droids box him in, one at his front and one at his back. It was a terrible place to be, perhaps the very worst position in a fight. There was no way the MagnaGuards wouldn't take advantage of it. Sure enough, they struck like Garollian ghost vipers. The one in front of him came in with a jab to his chest, meant to pin him in place while the one behind crushed his skull from above. He couldn't move back, or the one in front would chase him. He couldn't dodge to either side, or the one dropping down would just adjust its aim. It was a perfect trap, and the jaws were closed around his neck. Or rather, that's what he wanted them to think. As the thrust came in towards his heart, he moved towards it, his lightsaber still down at his side. At the last possible moment, he reached out with the Force, and ever so gently nudged the electrified staff up and to the left. Momentum and gravity did the rest.

The MagnaGuard coming to kill him from above found itself with a face full of its comrade's weapon, instead. Electrostaff met faceplate with a sharp crack, sparks flew, metal limbs jerked, and those red eyes burst into a shower of transparisteel. Before the other one could retract its staff, Naruto brought his lightsaber up in one quick sweep, and then back down again as he stepped behind the droid. Its head fell one way, its torso another, and its legs collapsed in place. He didn't pause to inspect his work, but melted a hole through the head of the other with his blade, just to make sure. The ones on Naboo had proven far too resilient to take chances. In the sudden quiet, he registered the sounds of battle from the main hall had died down. It seemed he wasn't the only one to deal with his foes in short order.

A pulse in the Force accompanied the shriek of metal crumpling and had him pivoting around, blade raised to defend himself. There was no need, though. Far from heralding an approaching enemy, the sound was from a cell door being ripped from its mounting and crushed, revealing two familiar, if rather bedraggled looking Jedi. Obi-Wan, in particular sported a magnificent collection of bruises, and, from his posture, some rather battered ribs. Anakin looked to be in somewhat better shape, save for the look of pure, flabbergasted shock on his face.

"Hey there," Naruto said as he gave a lazy salute. "I heard you needed a rescue. This totally counts, by the way."

Anakin's mouth moved soundlessly for a moment, but even complete surprise couldn't dampen the brotherly need to fire back. "It does not. We escaped on our own."

Naruto snorted. "If you wanted credit for escaping, you should have done it before the fight was over. At least Padmé had the decency to help out."

Anakin snorted right back. "You keep telling yourself that, little brother." The emphasis on "little" didn't bite quite like it once might have. Naruto doubted he'd ever match Anakin's absurd height, but he stood almost eye to eye with the clones, and no one could call them short. "Speaking of Padmé, you saw her? Is she okay? Where is-"

"Anakin!" The shout came from over Naruto's shoulder, and he just caught a glimpse of white cloth and brown hair before she was past him and in front of Anakin, examining him head to toe. Worry and relief mixed in her like oil and water. "I didn't see- I didn't know if you two were…"

Anakin seized her shoulders. "We're alright, Padmé. We're alright."

Her hands went to his on her shoulders, and then suddenly, she had yanked his head down to her height and pressed a kiss to his lips. Naruto just about swallowed his tongue in shock. Obi-Wan coughed and tried to look anywhere but at the two of them. Anakin's hands waved in the air for a moment before resting nervously on Padmé's back. His emotions were all over the place, as were hers. Fear, excitement, grief, shock, love, lust, all blended in a cocktail so potent Naruto couldn't tell who was feeling what.

Just when he thought they'd both forgotten where they were, Padmé pulled back. "That… was a long time coming."

Anakin looked as if someone had just uninstalled his brain. His lips moved as if testing out sounds before he spoke. "That was- You- I don't-"

"Later," was all Padmé said, and he seemed to accept it, thankfully. Naruto was not about to have his rescue mission sidelined for… that.

Sympathy colored Anakin's voice, then. "I saw Sabé and Cordé. I'm so sorry."

She shook her head violently, and grief threatened to swamp her before anger and cold resolve took its place. "No right now. I can't let myself think of them right now, or I'll-" She cut off with a jerk and finally seemed to remember she and Anakin weren't alone in the corridor. Her gaze turned to Naruto and the four commandos behind him. "Not that I'm not grateful for the rescue, Naruto, but what is going on? Who are these men? How are you here?"

"Yes, I think I'd like answers to those questions as well, Padawan," Obi-Wan chimed in. "I assume this has something to do with your mission to Kamino."

"Quick version, this is Delta squad're part of a secret clone army we found on Kamino, and I was here to rescue you. Not that you needed it, apparently." He shot a significant glance at the cell doors lining the hall. "How did you get out, anyway?"

She gave him a tight smile. "These cells weren't designed with a former Queen of Naboo in mind. They didn't search me nearly as well as they should have. But what do you mean, a secret clone army? What has been happening since Dooku captured us?"

Naruto winced. This was not going to be fun. He glanced at Boss before answering.

"Is our position secure?"

"For the moment. Fixer sealed the doors, and those copies of yours said they're holding a barrier, whatever that means. We shouldn't stay too long, though. I'll set security."

Naruto nodded and turned back to Padmé. "Alright. I'm gonna make this quick."

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

The Aspiration. That was the name of the Venator-class Star Destroyer Yoda had commandeered as a makeshift flagship for the Chancellor's strike force. Jiraiya thought it a cruel irony. Aspiration? Who would name a warship such? People should aspire to peace. To freedom. To life and happiness and everything this ship wasn't. Aspiration? He snorted.

The rest of their fleet comprised thirty Acclamator-class assault ships. Those ships had already been on Kamino, ready for use, when Mace and Naruto had arrived. Not just those, either. Starfighters, bombers, those LAAT gunships, various types of tanks, speeders, and more. It made him uneasy that so much military equipment had made its way to a planet the Jedi hadn't even known existed. There was more to that than met the eye, but then, there was more to everything these days. More to find and less time to find it.

30 ships, over 300,000 clones, five bomber squadrons, fighter escort wings for the bombers, 10 armored battalions, 10 artillery squadrons, and he couldn't even remember what else. The numbers were staggering to a man who'd once thought 1,000 men a sizeable army. And 327 Jedi to lead it all, with him and Yoda at the top. It was insane. Aspiration? He'd never aspired to this. But it had come to him and he would make the best he could of it.

Jiraiya glanced up from the report he was reading when an armored clone approached him. His green pauldron and the green stripes on his armor made him easy to identify compared to the unbroken white of his brothers. Alpha-09 was one of the highest ranking clones in the strike force Master Windu had assembled, and Yoda had assigned him as third in overall command, after himself and Jiraiya. He snapped off a salute, which Jiraiya returned.

"General, I have word from the other ships. All units are organized and ready. ETA is less than an hour."

The rank sounded strange to his ears, even though he'd served as the equivalent for decades back on Tython. He'd grown accustomed, even fond of the more relaxed structure of the Jedi Order. For a while, he'd actually let himself believe he was done with war. So much for that dream.

He killed that train of thought before it could go any further. There was enough going on in the present without adding problems in his mind. "Thank you, commander. Say, if you don't mind my asking, do you have a name? Calling you Alpha-09 seems a little impersonal."

The Alpha shook his helmeted head. "No, sir. I never chose one. Suppose I never really saw the point. We're all supposed to be identical. Interchangeable. It helps teamwork."

Jiraiya nodded slowly. "That's one way to do it, but not the best way. Not in my experience. No, in my experience, a team should consist of true individuals. Every member should be unique. A complete person unto themselves. When you have that, every member can complement the others. They can cover their weaknesses and enhance each other's strengths. That's what it means to be a team. You win together. You lose together. You celebrate and you mourn together. Your defeats are softer and your victories sweeter because you did them together." He smiled as he felt the Alpha consider his suggestion. "Everyone should have a name. That way, no one can ever say you aren't a person. Because you and your brothers are people. Similar, maybe, but also unique."

"I'll… give it some thought. Maybe I'll find my name in this battle."

Jiraiya smiled at him. "Maybe. Speaking of which, what do you think of our plan?"

The Alpha might have been surprised at the sudden question, but it was impossible to say for sure with that helmet. Not for the first time, Jiraiya wished he had Naruto's empathic abilities.

"It's… scant, sir. More a series of tactical goals with vague outlines of possible methods of execution." His voice was clipped, professional, and devoid of any judgment. He was just stating facts as he saw them, nothing more.

"Mmm. Too little intelligence we have for better planning." Yoda's voice drifted to them from his place near the observation window. Most beings would have thought him too far to hear their conversation, but those ears of his weren't for show. "Too rigid a detailed plan would be. Better to be flexible it is. Adapt to conditions as we find them, we will."

"We chose the Jedi in command of each battalion for their ability to improvise," Jiraiya said. "But if you've got any suggestions, we'd be glad to hear them."

Alpha-09 paused before he gave an answer. Jiraiya got the feeling he was evaluating them, though for what he didn't know. Whatever it was, he must have found it, because when he answered, there was just a touch of genuine warmth amongst the professionalism in his voice.

"We should focus more on getting the artillery down as fast as possible. We don't have the ships to set up a blockade, so if we want to keep the targets from escaping, we'll need to shoot them down before they leave the atmosphere. Scrapping droids won't do us a lot of good if our quarry gets away." He highlighted the areas on the map they had of the Geonosian hive-city. They didn't know the distribution or number of the Separatist forces they would face, but the local terrain gave only one option for any considerable force to position itself. The holomap had been expensive, and Maz had blistered his ears for making her work so fast, but she'd gotten it for him, and that was more important than any number of credits.

"A great many lives it may cost to set up the cannons before the area is secure," Yoda mused. Not condemning, but considering.

"Yes sir. But the mission comes first."

A well of infinite sadness opened in Yoda's soul, though not a hint of it showed on his face. "Hhrrrm. So it does."

They spent the next ten minutes hammering out the details, or as many details as they could with such paltry intelligence, of the artillery deployment. Alpha-09 lived up to the Alpha ARC reputation for tactical brilliance, at least as far as Jiraiya could tell. The battle would be the true judge of it. The battle Chancellor Palpatine thought could end the war before it began. The battle he and Yoda knew would do no such thing. Whatever Separatist leadership was there surely would have left by now. There would be only one target of any significance. Dooku.

If they could take Dooku, alive if possible, dead if necessary, and destroy this factory, that would certainly put a crimp in whatever plans the Sith had brewing. How much of a crimp they couldn't know, but maybe, just maybe, enough to force the Master to reveal themself. Something told him it wouldn't though. Some instinct, perhaps even the Force, told him he'd be fighting this war for a while.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

"An invasion? War? So Dooku's trap worked." Padmé's voice was hollow. Her face didn't hold a hint of expression. All Naruto could feel from her was a leaden emptiness as she squared herself with what was coming. Anakin and Obi-Wan weren't much better. Neither was he, for that matter, but now his impatience worked in his favor. They couldn't afford to stay put any longer, and he said so emphatically.

"Quite right, Padawan," Obi-Wan said. "Did you have a plan to get us out of here?"

"We need to-"

"We're not leaving yet," Padmé interrupted. Her tone could have brought winter to Tatooine. "This invasion- thousands could die. Tens of thousands. We can do something to save a lot of those people. If we disable the city defenses, we can at least make their landing easier."

Anakin and Obi-Wan stared at her for a moment, and Naruto could feel the objections rising in their minds. He didn't need to use the Force to know how that argument would go, and they really didn't have time for Padmé to browbeat the two older Jedi into doing what she said.

"She's right," he broke in. "We need to take down the AA defenses, and not just for the strike force. I have a shuttle in orbit right now. It can get us out of here, but only if those defenses are down. That was always part of the plan."

Padmé glanced at him gratefully when the two slumped, objections dying unvoiced. Anakin glared mutinously at nothing, but a touch on his elbow from her softened his expression. "How are we going to do that?" He asked. "We can't possibly disable every gun individually."

Fixer stepped forward. "We don't have to. The best way to disable an air defense system is to disable its targeting setup. I don't know where those scanners are, but that droid could probably tell us."

Padmé frowned. "What droid?"

R2 was not best pleased Naruto had left him in the scroll during the fight, and expressed his displeasure colorfully. Very colorfully. Naruto actually learned a few new phrases he'd have to remember for later, and Padme's ears turned red at the torrent of profanity and abuse the droid hurled his way. Eventually, though, she calmed him down, and they got him scomped into the city's computer network. It was a testament to the benefits of not memory-wiping droids that he sliced into the secure database in even less time than Anakin or Naruto could have. The good news ended there, though. According to the astromech, both the sensor dish itself and the control systems were extremely well defended. Multiple platoons of battle droids, ray shields, and more made for grim reading. Even if they could survive to shut down the system, they'd never manage it in time. Padmé and Obi-Wan visibly drooped, but Anakin wasn't so easily dissuaded.

"What about the power grid?" He asked. "If we destroy that, it won't matter if the sensors and guns are intact. They'll be completely disabled."

"Not completely," Fixer pointed out. "But the guns have to rely on their own internal sensors for targeting. It will limit their range and effectiveness considerably."

R2 warbled his agreement and projected a map of the city. The main reactor, highlighted orange, was two levels below them; well within reach if they hurried. Naruto itched to move in a way that went beyond his normal impatience. The Force was urging him on. This was the right path, it said.

"Perfect," he said. "Let's go."

"Just a moment, Padawan," Obi-Wan said. "There's one thing Anakin and I have to do first."

They both turned as one and marched off down the corridor. By the time Naruto caught up, they'd stopped in front of a door and Anakin was forcing it open with the Force. Before anyone could ask questions, two silver blurs flew out of the gap and landed in Obi-Wan's hands. Two lightsabers, which went straight on the belts of two very happy Jedi.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Obi-Wan asked. "We're in a hurry, aren't we?" Anakin and Naruto rolled their eyes in unison, but the whole group took off down the twisting halls towards the generator.

Getting to the reactor was surprisingly easy. At least, surprisingly easy for sneaking around a hostile city flush with battle droids and enemy natives, which meant they were only in a firefight half the time. Not that any of those fights proved much trouble. Three Jedi, four clone commandos, and a Senator with elite military training made harsh opponents for the small groups they encountered. None of them numbered more than a dozen, and most numbered far fewer. Often Boss and his men took the enemies down, be they droids or Geonosians, before any of the others could do more than rest their weapons. Naruto felt a strange mix of revulsion and awe when he saw their work; corpses and scraped droids lying in heaps, smoking holes in head and chest. The one time they got bogged down in a proper firefight, Scorch snapped an attachment onto his rifle barrel and launched a grenade into the clustered enemies as smoothly as he might have changed a power cell.

"You know, with all this shooting, you'd almost think we weren't welcome," he quipped. Bits of droid scrap and other, more organic remains squelched underfoot as they ran through the blast zone. Naruto shuddered in revulsion, but pressed on.

'Complete the mission,' he told himself when his stomach threatened rebellion. 'Do your duty. Protect your friends. You can be sick later.'

He allowed something like Jedi serenity to take hold of him, and with it came a cool, distant clarity. His disgust and regret became remote. Not gone, but far off and unimportant. Cold logic took their place, and he analyzed the situation dispassionately. In a way, he supposed it made sense the city was so lightly populated. Nearly all the battle droids were no doubt massed outside in that army he'd spotted, ready to defend against the coming invasion. Most of the Geonosians were probably there too, or else evacuated to safety. He hoped they were. War was bad enough without civilians involved. Then again, he wasn't sure to what extent they could consider any Geonosian a civilian. Insectoid species tended not to draw such distinctions.

The reactor room itself was far better defended than even the detention cells had been. Hulking B2 battle droids stood guard outside the wide doors, and a dozen more waited within, alongside an equal number of Geonosian warriors. It was a formidable force, but it fared no better against them than any of the other groups had. If there had been any alarm so far, it hadn't reached here, and they took the guards by surprise. Naruto gave himself over to Juyo and slammed into the Geonosians like a falling star. His lightsaber traced rapid patterns through the air, and beings died behind it. It was horrible, bloody work, made worse by their apparent lack of self-preservation instincts, but he did it. It had to be done. Even so, those inhuman howls echoed in his ears long after the last of them fell, its torso and legs tumbling in different directions.

The others dealt with the droids just even faster. B2s were tough, well armed, and slightly smarter than their smaller cousins, but they had no chance to display those traits now. Their armor may as well have been flimsiplast before lightsabers, and their wrist mounted cannons just gave more ammunition for the Jedi to send back their way. The Deltas and Padmé took care of any the Jedi didn't, coordinating their fire to overwhelm a target's armor with multiple shots in rapid succession. It was a slaughter.

By the time Naruto had finished with the Geonosians, the last droid had fallen and Scorch was already passing out demolition charges and pointing out where to place them. Raucous glee suffused his emotions at the chance to finally put his demolition skills to good use. The reactor itself was a hulking mass of gray metal. It hummed, loud enough to make conversation difficult and deep enough Naruto felt it in his bones.

"You're sure you can control this explosion?" Obi-Wan was asking. "We don't want to level the city."

"Well, I wouldn't want to be in this room when they go off, but yes, I'm sure," Scorch said in a somewhat affronted tone. "They should spark a chain reaction and blow out every power relay in a hundred kilometers. Even if these bugs have backup generators, they won't have a grid to hook them up to."

"Careful, vod. You keep talking like that and people might actually think you're smart." Sev delivered his insult without breaking stride. Scorch brandished one of the charges at him like a sword.

"You can go shove this-"

Where, exactly, Sev could have shoved the bomb, Naruto would never know. As Scorch was speaking, his ears picked up the distant clanging of metal on stone. Distant, but closing fast. Then Force sent prickles of warning down the back of his neck. Anakin and Obi-Wan both sat up straight and looked in the same direction his own eyes had darted.

"More droids," Naruto said. "A lot more, by the sound of it."

He glanced at the reactor, where only half the charges were set, and then back at the hall where the sound of droid footsteps was growing louder. Padmé and the others had heard him and were already scrambling to finish, but it wouldn't be fast enough.

"How long?"

Scorch eyed the reactor for only a second. "Five minutes. Maybe six."

"We will keep the droids off your backs," Obi-Wan said. Just like that, he was in command. Nothing was said, no sign given, but Naruto wouldn't have questioned it for money. "Padawans, with me. Scorch, give us a signal when you have finished and gather in one spot."

Scorch gave an acknowledgment, but they were already taking up positions by the doorway. Naruto stuck himself to the wall, above and to the side of the door, while Obi-Wan and Anakin stood in the center, ready to face the coming assault full on. Naruto could hear the droids clearly, now. They'd rounded the last corner before the doorway to the reactor room, and the first few blaster shots flew past Obi-Wan's head. They were hasty, inaccurate shots, probably from the dumbest of the droids, and he didn't flinch as they went wide by over two meters. Naruto felt Obi-Wan channel chakra and twist it into a jutsu. He didn't see the hand seals, but he recognized the name.

"Doton: Doryūheki."

A wall of the same reddish-brown stone as the rest of the city rose and blocked the doorway with a rumble. The muffled thud of blaster fire made it through the new barrier, but the wall didn't so much as shake. Another, smaller wall rose directly in front of Obi-Wan and Anakin, up to chest level. They crouched behind it so that no part of them was exposed.

"That should buy us some time," Obi-Wan said. "Be ready, though. They'll blast through that wall before-"

BOOM!

The wall exploded inward in a cloud of dust and rubble. Naruto's ears rang from the sound, and dust stung his eyes and lungs. Those were minor concerns compared to what came through the obscuring cloud. Alongside a storm of blaster fire came a figure armored in silver and blue. Twin jets of flame propelled him into the air, and the twin blaster pistols in his hands were already coming to bear on the two Jedi below him.

'A Mandalorian,' Naruto thought bitterly. 'What is it with me and Mandalorians?'

No doubt this was the same Jango Fett who'd killed Padme's handmaidens and captured her, Anakin, and Obi-Wan. The same Jango Fett who'd killed six Jedi with his bare hands on Galidraan over twenty years before. The same Jango Fett who had served as both template and teacher to the clones. And now he was working for Dooku. Naruto didn't even want to think about what that could imply. Luckily, he didn't have to. There were more important things to worry about, such as the deadly Mandalorian mercenary about to shoot his brother and friend.

With no more sound than a soft breeze, Naruto sprang off the wall, flipped once, and slammed a kick into Fett's jetpack. The shock of hitting solid metal numbed his foot, but chakra reinforced his body and lent him supernatural strength. Metal buckled, plastoid shattered, and Fett went tumbling to the ground as smoke sputtered from his ruined jetpack. His armor struck sparks as he rolled across the stone floor for half a dozen meters, but he was back on his feet the moment he stopped. Naruto landed only to face a flurry of the fastest, most accurate blaster fire he'd ever seen. Even with his years of training in Soresu and Shien, he felt like a rookie Padawan again, facing real blasters for the first time.

He wasn't a rookie, though, and he'd learned a few tricks since then. Jango was good, almost unbelievably so, but he was still just one man and his shots only came from one direction. It would take more than that to overwhelm Naruto. He angled his blade just so, and two of the shots rebounded to slam into Fett's helmet and breastplate. The armor held, of course, but the impact still knocked him on his ass. The blasters slid out of sight across the floor. Naruto rushed in to disable him before he could recover.

Jango Fett had earned every centimeter of his reputation and more, though. He turned his fall into a backward roll and came up swinging. Naruto had never seen anyone move so fast without the Force. His first blow slammed into Naruto's wrist and sent his lightsaber falling from numb fingers. The next two landed against his head and short ribs. Only a desperate twist saved him from a concussion and a possible punctured lung. Naruto wasn't about to let anyone beat him so easily, though. A kunai appeared in his hand too fast to see, and he set to work.

They traded blows back and forth at speeds most humans would have found impossible to match. Naruto was faster and more agile, but Fett had the advantage of skill and his armor. More than once the kunai skidded off that polished, unbreakable mail. Naruto could feel his lightsaber just a few meters away on the floor. He longed to go for it, but didn't dare. It would only take a moment, but even that was too much. Fett would have him gutted on the floor in that moment. So he fought with a kunai and tried to find a way around that damned impenetrable armor. It was quite the advantage, and he was beginning to see how the Mandalorians had almost conquered the galaxy 4,000 years ago. Aside from that, though, they were evenly matched. Fett blocked or redirected each blow that risked slipping past his armor and took advantage of those that didn't to land a few quick strikes of his own. For his part, Naruto sent him to the ground once, twice, three times, but he never stayed down more than a second. Both of them took their licks. Naruto felt a rib break under a sidekick that snuck under his guard, and an uppercut to his chin left him dazed and staggering. His kunai snuck past Jango's own defenses a few times, though. He channeled wind chakra through the blade to give it a few extra centimeters of reach, and that proved enough to slip through a few of the Mandalorian's blocks. Thin, bloody lines appeared on his palm, his thigh, the inside of one arm, and even a shallow scratch across his throat, just underneath his helmet. Soon, they were both panting slightly and moving to avoid straining fresh injuries. Neither had a decisive edge. One of them would have to change the rules if they wanted to win. It was just a matter of who managed it first.

As it turned out, Fett was just a hair quicker on the uptake than he was. The next time the bounty hunter twisted away from the kunai, rather than follow up with a punch or a kick, he raised a clenched fist and pressed a button on the side of his vambrace. Naruto had no time to dodge the translucent ripple of energy that burst out, and it was his turn to go rolling across the floor.

The repulsor blast felt as if it had scrambled his insides. His stomach pitched and rolled with every tiny movement. Muscles like wet wool tried to move joints frozen into stone. A high-pitched ringing filled his ears like broken glass. Everything was blurred and doubled and swimming around as if in a dream. A silvery man-shape walked towards him. Or was it walking away from him? No, it was definitely getting closer. That didn't feel right. There was danger in that man-shape. They'd been… something, just now. Arguing? No, that wasn't it. It was so hard to think without his head splitting open. What had they been doing?

Fighting? That was it. They'd been fighting. Fighting to the death. And now he was about to lose. He thought he was about to lose. He'd won fights before, and he didn't remember it feeling like this. But losing would mean death, and he wasn't allowed to die. Someone had forbidden him from dying. Someone important. Someone he dared not disobey. An image of orange skin, sharp teeth, and flashing, clever eyes drifted through his muddled brain and resolved into Ahsoka. That was right. Ahsoka had forbidden him from dying, and that was final. If he died here, she'd kill him.

Clarity returned like a punch in the nose, and with it came the Force. Fett was barely a meter away, vibroknife in hand and humming its deadly song. He had a second. Less than a second. No time for anything fancy or subtle, but that was fine. Subtlety wasn't his thing. He thrust a palm out and sent a wave of power against the man about to slit his throat.

"G' aw'y," he slurred. Okay, maybe he wasn't as clearheaded as he'd thought. It didn't matter, though. Fett vanished. He reappeared a dozen meters away, and then only because a wall impeded any further travel. Man met stone with a crack he could hear even over the din of battle in the background, and it was tough to say who won. The stone shattered around him like glass, leaving a spiderweb crater, and he slid to the floor and lay there unmoving. Naruto staggered to his feet and took a stumbling step towards the unconscious bounty hunter. His head still rang like a bell, but he was determined to see the man pay for his crimes.

"Naruto, now! Get over here!"

Or maybe not. His brother's voice penetrated the fog still clinging to him. It was urgent, even desperate, and the reason was obvious as soon as he looked round. All the others had clustered in a tight group near Obi-Wan. The two Jedi were blocking fire furiously, while Padmé and the Deltas took down the B1s as fast as they could work their triggers. The charges were set. He was out of time.

"Fucking fierfek," he whispered as he took one last look at Jango. There would be other chances, he told himself. For now, he had to not die. He summoned his lightsaber back to him and took a running leap for the others. It wasn't his most graceful jump ever. He crossed the room well enough, but his knees gave out on landing and sent him sprawling in a heap at Padmé's feet. Whatever state he was in, he was there, though, and that was apparently all that mattered to Obi-Wan. The older Jedi once again channeled the chakra for an earth jutsu.

"Earth style: Rock Shelter."

Stone flowed like water and rose into a dome around them. The light above became a single spotlight as the dome closed, growing narrower and narrower until it vanished and plunged them into darkness.

"Now, Scorch."

A button clicked, and for a brief eternity, nothing happened. Then the world ended. That's what it felt like to Naruto, anyway. Even through more than a meter of solid, chakra infused rock, the sound was enough to set his ears ringing anew. Waves of bass pain flowed through his eardrums and lodged themselves in his cranium. He might have screamed. There was no way to know. The ground shook, and then kept on shaking. Dust filled the lightless air, and if he hadn't already been lying down, he was sure he'd have fallen. As it was, someone fell on top of him. By the weight, it wasn't Padmé. That quickly became unimportant as the ground went from shaking to splitting underneath them. The floor tilted, crumbled, and fell away. Naruto's last thought as he plummeted into empty darkness was they'd accidentally brought the entire hive-city down on top of them. Then nothing.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

"Realspace in 3… 2… 1."

The Aspiration left the blue void of hyperspace with a soft whump. Jiraiya fancied he could hear the other ships in this hastily assembled fleet revert to realspace right behind them, even though he knew it was impossible. Geonosis hung in the void in front of them like a drop of blood. He had no time to admire the planet's majesty and splendor, though. He had to get busy invading it. Beside him, Yoda was already on the comm with Mace, Plo Koon, and the other senior Jedi leaders, coordinating last minute strategy. Alpha-09 was barking orders into his helmet almost too fast to hear, and clones rushed back and forth in a sudden frenzy of activity. Jiraiya moved to his own comm station and got to work.

"Get me sensor data from the surface and put it on the map. I want to know exactly what we're walking into. As soon as you find their fighter squadrons, deploy the bombers. I want air superiority before we hit atmosphere, understood?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Signal Master Tiin. Tell him to follow the bombers in. He'll know what to do. And start final preparations for the LAATs. Let's get down there before they come up here."

"Right away, sir!"

He slipped back into the role of commanding officer so smoothly it was like he'd never left. If not for the uniforms and the language, he could have been tasking out ANBU squads back in the Third Great War. The clones carried out his orders as if they'd been doing it for years. No questions. No hesitation. Just calm, professional efficiency. He'd give that to the Kaminoans, at least. They knew how to produce good soldiers.

"Sir, the sensor data is coming up now."

He turned to the map and watched as details popped in. It wasn't just the Aspiration feeding in data. Every ship with a clear view of their target area was taking scans and transmitting them to every other ship, letting them build a comprehensive picture of the situation on the surface in a fraction of the time. It was an old survey technique Naruto and Anakin had adapted for use in disaster relief and humanitarian missions. And now he was using it to fight a war. What had the galaxy come to?

He nodded to himself as the map filled in. Most of it matched their predictions, not that that was a surprise. The terrain really only offered a few ways of arraying a large force, and the Force had given them the insight into which was most likely. Even so, the size of the droid army outside the city was daunting. A few dozen kilometers further west, he saw a blank plain turn into a mass of ships. Trade Federation Core ships, by the look of it. There was no sign of the rest of the Lucrehulks in orbit, but they could easily be hidden behind one of the other local planets, or even in another system altogether. Next to the Core ships lay what were obviously airfields, all covered in starfighters. That was the last piece of the puzzle they'd needed. Next to him, he felt Yoda stiffen his resolve.

"Signal the fleet," the aged Grandmaster croaked. "Plan two it will be. When finish their mission the bombers do, our assault we will begin. May the Force be with us all."

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Jango Fett woke up in darkness. Everything hurt. Everything. Even his toenails ached. Osi'kyr, even his hair ached. That was a new one. He'd thought he was familiar with every type of pain, but aching hair was definitely new. He hoped it didn't stick around long enough to get old.

Standing felt beyond him for the moment, but it would probably be necessary soon. He pulled a glowing, blue-green stim pack from his belt with thick, clumsy fingers. Just lifting his arm up to his neck sent fresh waves of agony rolling across his chest and back, but he didn't even grunt. Pain was just something that happened. It could be informative or extraneous, but never disabling. Never controlling. A Mandalorian controlled his pain, not the other way around. He wasn't a very good Mandalorian, all things considered, but he still kept that lesson, at least, close to his heart.

Once he'd finally found the gap under his helmet and injected the stim into his neck (which stung like a hot coal), he clicked on his helmet lights and looked around to see if he recognized where he was. At first, he thought he was just looking at some random pile of rubble. Shattered chunks of stone lay everywhere. The walls were cracked and crumbling. The distant ceiling looked precarious. It wasn't until he saw the remnants of some familiar machinery that he realized where he was. He was still in the reactor room. Or rather, what was left of the reactor room. Clearly, the Jetii had blown the reactor while he'd been unconscious. Not only that, but it looked like the whole room had collapsed. Most of the floor was just gone, along with much of the ceiling. He's only escaped falling himself by the furthest extremes of luck. The collapse had stopped just short of where he'd been lying. His boots dangled over the edge of shattered stone. If that blonde Jetii had been just an ounce gentler, or sent him flying in any other direction…

The Jetii kid had been good. Very, very good. Few Jedi could block a volley from his blasters, and fewer still could send even one of the bolts back at him. And his hand-to-hand. It had been beautiful. No one had pushed him like that in years. At least twice, he'd thought for sure the kid had him, and only chance and desperate ploys had saved him. One hand traced the scratch across his throat. A centimeter deeper, and that would have been it. He ached to find the boy and finish their fight, but he also ached in general. He was in no condition to be fighting anyone, let alone Jetii. The only consolation was that the boy, if he'd survived, was likely in no better shape than him. He hoped the boy was alive, and that he lived through this. He hoped they met again one day so they could finish what they'd started. For now, though, he had to focus on living through the day himself. The stim wouldn't kick in fully for another few minutes, but there was one thing he could do that didn't require much movement. He keyed his helmet comm and waited for the voice on the other end.

… …

"Yes, sir. I wasn't able to stop them from destroying the generator, though. I'm stuck for now, but once I'm back on my feet I'll-"

… … …

"Yes, sir. I understand. I'll meet you there."

The other line went dead, and he spent a second staring into the darkness in contemplation. Strange instructions, those, but then, a lot of his employers gave him strange instructions. He didn't ask questions unless absolutely necessary. It wasn't his business, so long as he got paid, and he always got paid. No one left was stupid enough to try cheating him.

Once he was sure he could keep the pain out of his voice completely, he keyed in a different comm number. This one picked up almost immediately, and a soft, youthful voice sounded in his ear.

"Buir, how's your job going?"

"Well enough, Boba." It sounded like a perfectly innocent exchange, but in reality, Boba had told him he was safe, unwatched, and free to carry out instructions. In turn he'd just told his son they were alone on a secure line and that his job had gone poorly, but he wasn't in need of immediate medical assistance. No one but the two of them knew the code phrases they used. It was the only way he could be sure his son was safe. In a galaxy full of Jetii, one could never be too careful.

"Ad, I need you to get to the ship. Prep it to fly, calculate a course for Serreno, and stay there. You'll be safe there."

"What about you?" Boba did a good job of hiding his worry, but Jango knew his son too well.

"Bearing, Boba," he reminded the boy. "I have another job to do. I'll be with you in two hours at most. If I'm not there in three, go to Zam. She'll know what to do. Do you understand me?"

There was a pause before Boba answered sulkily. "Yes, buir."

The line clicked off before Jango could respond. He shook his head at the breach of procedure. Boba knew better than to leave a call before he gave him permission. The boy still had a ways to go before he was ready for the galaxy. He made remarkable progress the last few years, but he was still just a child in so many ways. It was irritating at times, but even so, Jango wouldn't have changed it even if he could. Boba deserved at least the dregs of a real childhood. Jaster had given that much to him. He could and would do the same for his son.

With a muffled groan, he pushed himself to his feet. He had to use the wall for support, but already he could feel the stim, working. It wouldn't do much for any broken bones, but it would keep him upright and alive long enough to find more comprehensive treatment. For now, he had some schematics to retrieve.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Omake 2: Take Two 3

Patience had never been one of Ahsoka Tano's strongest qualities. She was too eager, too focused on the future, too dismissive of the now. At least, that was what her teachers in the Temple had always said. She liked to think she'd gotten better over the years. Now, though, even she would acknowledge she wasn't acting with much patience. Or any, really. But she had a good reason. Really. She did.

It was just so damn frustrating. She was a huntress, but her prey was proving elusive. She didn't have a chrono, and wouldn't have trusted one in the crystal cave if she did, but she knew time had to be running out. That ice would close over the door soon, and then she'd be stuck. Stuck in these awful, cramped, frozen caves until the sun rose again, and who the kriff knew when that would be. Stuck alone. That would be the worst part. She could take the cold and the dark and the mind bending visions and whatever else the caves might throw at her, but not solitude. Not that. The cold clutched at her bones a little tighter just thinking about it. She hadn't been alone since Master Plo had rescued her from that fake Jedi who'd tried to kidnap her, and she barely remembered that at all. She remembered the feel of being alone, though. Really, properly alone for the first time in her young life. It had felt like someone had scooped out all her organs and left her hollow. She didn't think she could face that feeling again.

"And I won't have to if I could just, Find. My. Kriffing. Crystal!" She growled. There was no reason to speak aloud, but it comforted her. At least she had her echoes for company. Her voice hadn't yet finished bouncing off the walls when the ground beneath her feet cracked. She just had time to see the rock split before the whole floor of the tunnel gave way.

"Aaaaahhhh," she shrieked. Even for a Jedi, suddenly plunging into pitch black nothingness was unnerving. Fortunately, the fall didn't last too long. Unfortunately, it ended with a splash when she landed in frigid water. All the air left her body in an instant. She tried to scream from the sudden cold, but all that came out was bubbles. Her montrals shuddered from the sudden thermal shock, and the beginnings of a killer headache started up behind her eyes. Desperately, she swam for the surface. Her montrals may not have liked the sudden dip, but they still gave her excellent spatial awareness, so she wasn't at risk of losing track of which way was up. The water was moving fast, though. Very fast. Too fast for her to walk on. She had to swim to the bank and haul herself up onto the rock like some sort of marine mammal. For once, she was grateful no one else was with her. There was no way that had looked anything but ridiculous.

The cold was already seeping into her core, but a basic Force cantrip warmed her up. She wasn't exactly toasty, or even comfortable, but she wasn't in the danger zone either.

"Fuck you, cave," she said once her teeth had stopped chattering. "You can't get rid of me that easily."

Predictably, the cave didn't answer. She might not have noticed if it had, though, because just at that moment, she felt her crystal. It was close. The song in her head was louder than ever. Cold and wet forgotten, she lurched to her feet and followed that ethereal music. It led her along the subterranean river, over ice bridges and around bubbling hot springs, until she reached a dead end. The water rushed out from under a rock wall, but there was no path further.

"Guess I'm in for another swim," she muttered. There were several billion things she would rather have done than jump back into that glacial water, but it was the only path to her kyber crystal. She'd have swum through boiling sewage for her crystal. A little cold water wasn't about to stop her.

The moment she jumped in, she knew she was on the right path. She could see her crystal ahead of her. It glowed bright green in the dim water, like a star in an evening sky. The rush of water against her montrals did nothing to muffle its song. With strong, rapid kicks, she fought against the current, pushing closer and closer to her crystal.

Ten meters.

Eight.

Five.

Three.

Abruptly, she lost her battle against the current. It flipped her around and sent her tumbling along the bottom of the river. Instinctively, she curled into a ball and tried to hold on to the scraps of air left in her lungs. Her chest burned, and every muscle wanted to inhale, but she resisted. Her consciousness was dimming when, at last, she sensed air above her instead of rock. With the last of her strength, she kicked off the bottom and pushed her head above the surface. Air, sweeter than candy and more precious than a fast speeder, poured into her lungs. For a long minute, she didn't even bother trying to swim back to the bank. She just let the current carry her while she relished in the simple joy of breathing. It was only when her head bumped against one of the ice bridges she'd crossed earlier that she made her way back to the rocky ground and hoisted herself ashore.

"Fuck."

It was a long walk back to where the river emerged from underground. Long enough to get her breath back. As soon as she reached the wall, she jumped in again. This time, she tried to use the Force to push back against the current. It didn't work. She got a little closer to her crystal, but the current still sent her tumbling back. Once again, she curled herself into a ball and went bouncing along the riverbed until she could make it to the surface. Once again, she lay on the ground, panting, until she felt strong enough to make the walk back. Once again, she jumped in, this time using the Force to propel her through the current directly. She used all of her strength, every scrap of power and energy she possessed, but again, the river beat her. She didn't even make it within five meters of the green glow that time.

A fourth time she tried, and a fifth, and a sixth. On the seventh, no sooner had she dived in than the current hurled her back. When she finally pulled herself, bruised, bloodied, and limp with exhaustion, onto solid ground, she pounded the rock with her fist.

"Ggrrrraaaaahhh," she howled. "Why? What do you want? I'm giving everything! What. Do. You. Want?!"

As ever, there was no reply but her own frustrated screams. The edges of despair crept into her mind. Surely she was almost out of time. Perhaps it was already too late. That ice wall might have already closed. She could already be trapped. Alone.

"No," she spat. "I am Ahsoka Tano. I don't give up. Not ever. You hear that? You can't beat me!"

Just like all the times before, she trudged back along the riverbank until she came to where the racing water burst out of the wall. This time, though, just before she dove into the river, she hesitated.

'This isn't going to work,' she thought. 'Something's screwy here. I should have been able to make it with the Force. I know I should have. This has to be the cave testing me.'

Her crystal still called to her. It was almost painful not to race after that call, but she did it. Slowly, reluctantly, she backed away from the edge and sat down. Her feet itched to stand back up, to run and jump into the water so she could finally lay hands on her crystal, but she forced herself to slow her breathing, pause, and actually think. Rushing in hadn't worked. Sheer determination, what she would have said was her greatest strength, had gotten her nowhere. There had to be another way. Time slipped by, each second a precious gem falling out of reach. She refused to let it bother her, though. There was just her and the river and her crystal. If it took until she was old and wrinkled, she would pass this test.

Eventually, contemplation turned to meditation. The roar of the river combined with the harmony of her crystal made for very relaxing white noise. Before she noticed what was happening, she'd surrendered to the pull of the Force. It was strong on Ilum, and strongest of all in the cave. Time ceased flying by. In fact, time ceased altogether. There was no time, no cave, no galaxy. Nothing. Just the Force and the problem. She didn't bother poking at it or grinding her teeth. She just… waited. And just like that, the solution emerged. Her eyes flew open and a smile to rival any of Naruto's spread across her face. There was no more hesitation. She stood up, took three steps, and dove into the frigid water.

The cold couldn't touch her this time. The water was no longer dim, no longer an enemy to fight and defeat. It was just there. For the first time, she appreciated how crystal clear the river was. She could see for dozens of meters ahead of her. Sparkling ice, smooth stone, and the distant glow of some strange algae turned what had been a grim and forbidding tunnel into a scene of heart-wrenching beauty. For a moment, she let herself appreciate the sight before she set to work.

Fighting the water was impossible. It was a force of nature; literally. She would never defeat it head on. But head on wasn't the only way. Instead, she swam to the bottom of the riverbed. The same stones that had bruised her before, when she went tumbling back, were the key to her success now. They offered cover from the relentless push of the current. She hid behind the first one, spotted her next bit of cover, and hooked her hands around the immovable boulder. With it providing a solid foundation, she pushed herself back into the current, towards the next boulder. The river tried to push her back, but she was going too fast. By the time it had a hold on her, she was already safely behind the next rock. Then she did the whole process again.

Sometimes she had to claw her way along the bottom, using handholds worn by the current and tiny bits of cover to make her way, centimeter by centimeter, until she was safe behind a larger rock. Her lungs ached and her muscles burned, but she was doing it. Already she was closer to her crystal than she'd ever gotten. She could see it clearly now; a glowing green gem embedded in the ceiling of the underwater tunnel. She couldn't reach it, though. Not yet. She had to be clever about this. One false move as she got to her goal, and she'd be right back where she started. She made her way past the crystal. It stung to be so close and unable to just reach out and take it, but it would sting more to fumble at the very end, so she made herself push forward. A meter. Three. Five.

That was far enough. With the last of her strength, she colored her legs and pushed herself upwards. Instantly, the current slammed her back, but that was fine. She'd planned for that. That last push had brought her right up to the stone ceiling where her crystal lay waiting. She reached out. The Force guided her hand, and she felt her fingers close around warm, smooth perfection. The song in her head swelled to a crescendo, and something that was utterly, inescapably hers settled into her palm.

She'd done it. If she'd had even a puff of air left in her lungs, she would have hollered for joy. As it was, all she could do was fight off unconsciousness until the current forced her head above water. If she'd thought the air had tasted sweet before, it was nothing compared to now. She floated on her back and held the precious, hard won kyber shard up so she could see it… and nearly dropped it in surprise. Not a kyber crystal. Two kyber crystals, bound together within a base of rock. With infinite care, she teased them apart so she could get a better look at them. The larger of the two was a perfect heptagonal prism the size of her thumb, capped on either end with sharp, seven-sided pyramids. It pulsed with a pure green light.

The other was, at first glance, nowhere near as perfect. Smaller than its sister, it lacked that perfect symmetry and pure color. Instead, it looked like a tiny starburst, with countless shards all fanning out into a cone. She couldn't count how many individual shards there were. Every time she looked closer, she saw more, each one finer than the last. Its color was just as complex. It had the same green shade as the other, but shot through with complex whorls of yellow. The swirling colors shifted before her eyes, impossible to track. No, it may not have had the simple perfection of the larger crystal, but it had something just as wonderful and all its own. A complex mystery it dared her to explore, dared her to tease out and revel in.

Their songs were distinct as well. What she had at first taken for a single, harmonizing melody was actually two separate tunes, winding around each other. They fought and worked together in turns to create a symphony of ecstatic beauty. The larger crystal hummed with a strong melody. Simple, but she could have hummed along for hours. The smaller crystal flitted back and forth between tunes like an insect. It whistled and burbled and giggled in turns, threading in and out of the larger song. There was something… joyful about it. Mischievous, even. They were nothing alike, but they complimented each other perfectly. She floated on the river, staring at her crystals, and laughed.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Like I said, a long one. And pretty action packed, which will continue for the next few chapters. I don't necessarily want to make every arc of the Clone war period this long, but I feel Geonosis was such a major event, with so many moving parts, the length is justified here. There are so many characters I have to do justice, it really is unavoidable. At least, I'm not good enough at concision to avoid it.

Before I go, I want to preemptively clear something up. Naruto could have beaten Jango I he'd had his lightsaber. It wouldn't have been easy, but he could have done it. That's why Jango disarmed him as soon as he got close. Remember, Mandalorian gear was specifically made to fight Jedi, and Jango is a master of the art. Yes, there were ways for Naruto to win the fight anyway, but Jango didn't give him time to think. Naruto is great at planning on his feet, but no one can do that while an armored assassin is doing his best to murder you.

As for the omake, I've decided to have Ahsoka find both crystals at once. I didn't think it would be practical to have her make a return trip to Ilum in the middle of the war. She won't be building both sabers quite yet, but she will do so earlier than in canon.

As always, please leave a review with any comments, criticism, or questions you want answered. Just remember to log in and enable PMs so I can respond.