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Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars: The Clone Wars. I only own the OC Jayden Shan.


As the gunship flew over to the main city and started descending for landing, Anakin and Ahsoka spotted both Obi-Wan and Master Yoda. The gunship landed and Anakin turned to the General. "Thanks for the ride, Rex."

"Anytime sir." Rex nodded as Anakin and Ahsoka stepped off the ship and walked towards Obi-Wan and Yoda, who fixed Anakin with a critical stare as he approached.

"Master Obi-Wan. Master Yoda." Anakin bowed.

"Hmm, trouble you have with your new Padawan, I hear." Yoda mused. Anakin blinked before he shot Obi-Wan a look, knowing he had to have been the one who told the Jedi grandmaster.

"I was explaining the situation to Master Yoda." The bearded Master explained.

"If not ready for the responsibility of a Padawan you are," Yoda continued, "then perhaps to Obi-Wan she should go…" Yoda started.

"Now, wait a minute." Anakin cut in. "I admit Ahsoka is a little rough around the edges. But with a great deal of training, and patience, she might amount to something."

"Then go with you she will, to the Teth system." Yoda declared.

"Teth?" Anakin frowned. "That's Wild Space. The droid army isn't even in that sector."

"Kidnapped, Jabba the Hutt's son has been." Yoda explained as if that was the reason they needed to go to Teth.

Upon hearing of Jabba the Hutt, Anakin's expression briefly formed into a scowl as he asked bitterly. "You want me to rescue Jabba's son?"

Obi-Wan, knowing of Anakin's past as a slave, having bee sold into slavery along with his mother by the Hutts, knew that Anakin wasn't going to like this but they had reason to get Jabba's allegiance in the war. "Anakin, we'll need the Hutts' allegiance to give us an advantage over Dooku."

"Hmm." Yoda nodded. "Negotiate the treaty with Jabba, Obi-Wan will. Skywalker, find the renegades that hold Jabba's son, your mission will be."

Ahsoka on the other hand felt that this would be a piece of cake. It doesn't sound that hard, rescuing a Hutt. "Come on, Master, it doesn't sound that hard. I'll find Rex and get the troops organized." She walked away to do as she said, Anakin and Obi-Wan watching her go.

Obi-Wan glanced at Anakin, sensing a slight worry at teaching a Padawan. "Don't worry, Anakin. Just teach her what I taught you and she'll turn out fine." The Jedi Master assured him.

Anakin shot him a look over his shoulder. "Sometime tells me this was your idea from the start."

Obi-Wan just gave a smirk and Anakin huffed before walking off after his Padawan.

"Let's just hope Anakin is ready for this responsibility." Obi-Wan said with a sighed as he and Yoda watched him leave.

"Ready, he is, to teach an Apprentice. To let go of his pupil, a greater challenge it will be. Master this, Skywalker must." Yoda said.

The two Jedi watched Anakin and Ahsoka get on a gunship before it flew off. Obi-Wan then turned to Yoda. "If I've got to make a deal with Jabba the Hutt, I best be on my way."

That said, Obi-Wan walked towards his personal Jedi Starfighter, got in as R4 beeped at him in greeting. Obi-Wan got into the cockpit and the starfighter soon took off for Tatooine.


Teth

Somewhere in the abandoned monastery, Jayden sat in a meditation position. His mask laid at his side, his eyes shut in relaxed concentration as he meditated. It was a calming method for him, especially when needing to control that quiet, simmering rage before it could control him. He had anger, but Dooku had always told him that anger can be a weapon if controlled.

And Jayden's anger was directed at many things, the Jedi being one of them.

Jayden's meditation broke as he sensed something coming out of Hyperspace, a Republic ship most likely, and he sensed two Force signatures with it. The Jedi have arrived.

Grabbing his mask and putting it on, he contacted Ahsoka via comlink. "Asajj, the Republic have arrived."

"Just as our Master planned..."


A small team of advanced scouts had been keeping tabs on several bounty hunters Jabba had hired to find his son. When they failed to return, the Republic had a pretty good idea where to look for Rotta the Hutt. Having been in hiding while scoping out the scene, the moment Republic reinforcements arrived in the system, they returned to the cruiser to give their report. Anakin stood in the hangar bay of the designated Acclamator-class cruiser that had taken him and the 501st Legion from Christophsis to Teth, watching the arrival of an attack shuttle from which a pair of ARF troopers emerged. "Lieutenant, did the kidnappers see you?" He inquired of the leading trooper.

"No, sir. We're the best scouts in the regiment." The trooper proudly replied.

"What about the bounty hunters? Are they still down there?" Anakin queried.

"I don't think so. We haven't seen them in a while." The second trooper answered.

"Well, what are we up against?" The trooper lieutenant pulled out a holocom and projected a terrain map of the monastery they had scouted.

"Looks like at least two droid battalions protecting the monastery." He reported. "It's heavily fortified, sir, you won't be able to land there." Anakin nodded in understanding while Artoo quickly copied down the map intel with his own recording systems.

"Good work. Go get some rest." Anakin ordered. The troopers snapped to attention as he moved off. The Jedi strode past crew teams prepping LAAT gunships and AT-TE walkers for the impending assault, the Republic's well-built war machines that were being put to good use, of all things, to rescue Rotta the Hutt. It still didn't sit well with him and he doubted he would ever get over his feelings. He knew he would remain unchanged in his views even long after this mission was over.

A partial commotion drew his attention, several troopers and hangar crew gathered around a figure so small she was hidden by their bodies. Anakin strode over with Artoo twittering behind him, curious what was going on. Ahsoka stood in front of a group of Clone troopers, making expressive arm movements, head-tails bobbing as she talked. They sat on the ammo crates, helmets stacked on the deck, watching her with studied concentration. He spied several he knew among their midst; Rex, Ged, Nax Coric, Oz, Del, Attie, all of them had survived the very close call that was Christophsis.

Anakin caught only the words wall and droids as he approached. The troopers burst out laughing. "You never, ma'am!" One of them chortled. "That must have made the General's day!" The others shared his lightheartedness and Anakin knew exactly what was going on. He sighed, the exhale alerting Rex to his presence. He turned, still grinning somewhat.

"Is that true sir?" He wondered.

"Well… most of it." Anakin relented. "I'm never going to live that down, am I?"

"Ah, give her a moment to enjoy it, sir." Rex responded. "It's all part of winding down after you've been scared witless and survived to tell the tale. The boys know that. She did pretty well, you have to admit." Ahsoka paused as he approached, questioning the look on his face. The Clone troopers saw him and stood to attention.

"Would this be a good time to teach you that humility is a requirement for a Jedi, Padawan?" Anakin said quietly. She looked stricken.

"I was..."

One of the troopers interrupted. "Apologies, sir, but we asked questions. Padawan Tano was debriefing, not bragging." There was a telling second as Anakin saw Ahsoka's eye movement to her impromptu audience, a kind of surprised gratitude. Rex slapped his gloves together with a clap that made her flinch.

"Come on, you lot!" He barked at the troopers. "You haven't got time to warm those crates with your backsides. What are you trying to do, hatch something? Get back to work!" They scattered. Face was saved; Rex was good at that kind of thing. Anakin seized the respite and steered Ahsoka to one side, while Rex stood a tactful five paces from the conversation, both there and not there.

"I was just keeping up their morale, you know, trying to keep the boys inspired," Ahsoka explained. "They need to know we take the same risks that they do. That we'll sit down and talk to them, and know their names, instead of just snapping our fingers and calling them Clone. Nobody likes being treated as if they don't matter." For all her bluster, she had her very adult, perceptive moments. Anakin knew how it felt not to matter.

"Well… they seem to like you. That's good." He commented. A solid first step in ingratiating a new commander was on a relational level.

"They've lost so many of their friends. Can't you feel their pain?" She wondered softly.

"They're soldiers," Anakin flatly responded, "it's in the job description."

"It's yours, too, but you hurt all the time." Ahsoka pointedly remarked. Anakin didn't look at Rex, and Rex didn't look at him, but the Captain took a few slow paces and put a little more distance between them, appearing engrossed in something via his helmet comlink. He was obviously anxious to avoid hanging around for what threatened to be a very personal exchange.

"You're right, Padawan," Anakin relented after a time. She was, and he didn't want to discuss it; agreeing with her served both purposes. "We all handle our loss in our own way. Thank you for thinking of the men's welfare."


"Alright Anakin, here's the story." The hologram of Obi-Wan said as several gunships flew to the abandoned monastery. Anakin tood in the crew bay of the gunship, surrounded by armored Clones and Ahsoka with a holocom in hand and the render of his master flickering before him. "Jabba has given us only one planetary rotation to find his son, safe and sound."

"Won't take us that long, Master." Anakin said confidently, though he was annoyed at Jabba giving them this ultimatum. Leave it to that slug to make things a little more hard and pressuring on them.

"Well take extreme care." Obi-Wan said pointedly. "We still have no idea who is holding Jabba's son. When I've finished negotiations with him, I'll join you."

"Don't worry about us, Master." Anakin added as the hologram vanished. He turned to the team. "This won't be an unopposed insertion, but then I think we expected that. Everyone ready?"

"Ready, sir." The Clones chorused.

"Ready, Master." Ahsoka added in affirmation.

Their leading gunship streaked low over an ocean, three or four meters above the waves, giving Anakin the impression of moving above an undulating runway when he glanced out of the open hatch. Behind the LAAT, more gunships flew line astern, hugging the same contours and occasionally tracking diagonally in case an enemy was trying to get a lock on them. Other LAATC's flew with their formation, bringing the heaviest of firepower in the form of two AT-Te walkers. But they were alone on a remote planet for the time being, and they probably wouldn't encounter resistance in the form of anti-air cannon until they reached the coast. Anakin checked the rear and then leaned into the cockpit.

"Picking up anything, Lieutenant Hawk?" He queried. The pilot indicated the console. His screen showed red and green icons. "Long range shows a heavily defended target, sir. Laser-cannon emplacements, at the very least. We won't be undetected now, you do know that, don't you, sir? I'll drop below the tree canopy as soon as I get a clear run." The Clone answered.

"Good, then bang out as soon as we're down. I need you standing by for extraction." Anakin ordered.

"Will do, sir." The sea gave way to glittering turquoise shallows speckled with dark masses of weed and then dense emerald jungle. The trees were wreathed in mist. It looked like a nice, ordinary day in a pleasant, unspoiled place. Anakin knew the illusion wouldn't last long.

"Buckets on." Rex commanded and snapped his helmet into place. The squad followed suit. Then all of them went through the ritual of checking charge levels on their rifles and sidearms, tugging at carabiners on their rappel kit, and flexing their hands. Without the complex helmet the Clones wore, Anakin was shut out of their data-laden world. He couldn't see what they saw, or receive the welter of information-images, text, sensor readings, let alone hear the constant comm chatter from a dozen frequencies. He took a guess that Rex was now transmitting last-minute orders to the other gunships in the squadron. He'd never know for sure.

Some things had to be known and quantified rather than felt in the Force.

The audio system in the crew bay crackled into life. "Sir, estimated time on target-five standard minutes. Better assume they've seen us. I'm sealing the blast hatches now."

"Copy that, Hawk." Anakin replied. The crew bay dimmed and the sunlight was replaced by red emergency illumination. He looked down at Ahsoka. He'd almost grown used to her being so small, but in the crowded compartment, dwarfed by troopers hanging on to overhead rails, she looked as if she'd boarded the wrong flight. "Stay close to me… if you can." He ordered with a slight smirk.

"It won't be a problem, Master." Ahsoka replied.

"This isn't practice, Ahsoka." He gently chided.

"I know." She replied in that pitched, vaguely-whiny tone most children put on. "I'll try not to get you killed." Even with the hatches sealed, Anakin heard the first stuttering rounds of laser cannon.

"Taking fire, sir." Hawk reported. "I'll drop below their range, but stand by for a bumpy ride when we hit the forest."

"Thirty seconds." Rex said quietly. Once they hit the ground… if they hit the ground, if they made it in one piece… then their task had only just started. Their objective was a monastery on top of a plateau surrounded by dense jungle.

They'd tackled worse.

Anakin tightened his belt and felt for his lightsaber. They had to pull this off. His feelings about Hutts didn't matter. It wasn't about the kid; it was about his men, the Grand Army, about getting the war won and over with. He focused on that. The troopers were now lined up at both hatches. The gunship shook as it took a direct hit, but the armor plating held. Anakin closed his eyes for a moment. Then the deck seemed to fall beneath his boots, random thuds echoed through the airframe-the gunship was hitting something on its descent, not taking fire now, and then there was a distinct lurch as Hawk set the gunship down. "Welcome to paradise, rockjumpers!" Their pilot called out. The jump lights showed green and both hatches lifted. Moist, hot, tree-scented air flooded into the crew bay.

How Hawk had found a landing area in this dense forest without shearing off a gun pod, Anakin had no idea.

"Go!" Rex shouted, slapping the first trooper in line on the shoulder. "Go, go, go!" Anakin reached out and grabbed Ahsoka's wrist to make sure she was right next to him. Then, watching the white outline of a trooper vanish into a sea of branches and glossy green foliage, he jumped clear.

A heavy mist greeted them, the jungle floor barely visible due to the atmospheric conditions. Yet the Clones moved, the top of the monastery prominent from the ground and giving them the ideal target to run towards. Shaking off some momentary blindness as her eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight, Ahsoka kept pace with Rex as Anakin led the charge, both Jedi igniting their sabers to deflect back rounds from gun emplacements and mobile spider droids. They couldn't seem to get a visual on the GAR forces through the thick foliage, but that didn't stop them pouring down fire. "Something tells me the residents have given up a contemplative life of prayer." Rex joked. A burst of laserfire crashed through the tree canopy, bringing down branches and vines. He wiped something wet, sticky, and dismembered from his forearm plate. "There goes their tax-exempt status." Beside him, Ahsoka spun and deflected a stray bolt with her lightsaber.

"I don't even want to think what happened to the monks. What do you know about tax, anyway?" She wondered.

"Everything HNE bulletins taught me." It was his window on a world he wasn't part of, but he was used to absorbing information that way. Flash-training had formed a large part of his early life, and it often diverged from the real world, but he could fill in the gaps… most of the time, anyway. "Now, it's at times like this that I wish all we had to do was blow that castle to pieces from orbit." Rex stared up the sheer cliff of the granite plateau that rose from the jungle floor like an island covered in a frozen waterfall of fleshy vines. There was only one way to insert: the hard way. He calculated the height precisely with his visor's inbuilt telemetry system.

"Got enough cable?" Ahsoka asked.

"Just about." He replied. With the rest of his men, they darted beneath an overhang that provided them with sufficient cover to avoid getting shot. The droids couldn't shoot straight down, which was a plus, and the fact they now had cover was an added bonus. The grinding sound of machinery lurching to its own shrill beat as an AT-TE walker picked its way between the trees on sturdy mechanical legs filled their collective audio receptors. Anakin came jogging ahead of it, gesturing to stand clear. The machine slowed to a halt, and its cannon turrets elevated. "Here's our covering fire." Rex switched to the AT-TE crew's comm circuit. They were getting a sensor fix on a parapet running the length of the castle wall so they could fire through the canopy unseen. He prodded Ahsoka's shoulder. "Stick close to General Skywalker."

"That's what he keeps saying, too." She responded.

"Smart advice, obviously." Rex mused. He tapped the top of his helmet to get his squad to form up on him, and reinforced the command with a quick comm burst. "Stand by. We'll ascend behind the fire line." The AT-TE had a firing solution. He could see it on one of his HUD icons. But as he waited for the barrage to start, something heavy came crashing down through the branches overhead, dislodging chunks of stone and vine.

Rex ducked instinctively, thinking it was an explosive device; if he'd been up there defending that position, he'd have been rolling lateral-blast ordnance down the cliff to detonate a meter above ground level and disintegrate everything-and everyone-in a five-hundred-meter radius. But they weren't him. And what had fallen from the plateau wasn't ordinance, but a battle droid commander.

It hit the ground with a crash. Rex pulled his sidearm and put a burst of fire through its head without thinking. It wasn't armed, but he ran a hand sensor over it to make sure it wasn't booby-trapped. "They don't bounce much, do they?" He looked up the cliff wall again, then glanced back at Skywalker. Ahsoka stood at his side as if bolted there. "Ready when you are, sir." Anakin had a distracted look on his face that Rex had seen before. It was like a brief trance; maybe it was Jedi meditation of some kind. Whatever it was, Rex read it as the moment when Skywalker tussled with himself, trying to overcome something within, or psyching himself up, or something where two elements of him pulled in different directions; because whatever it achieved, he came out of it in what Rex thought of as his killing-machine mode. He was unstoppable, all lethal movement, cutting down everything he came into contact with.

"So, this is where the fun begins." Ahsoka mused.

"Race you to the top?" Anakin wondered, trying to bring some levity.

"I'll give you a head start." Ahsoka retorted teasingly.

"Your mistake. Walker Two," Skywalker stated, lifting his wrist comm close to his lips, "return fire." He started climbing the vine.

A stream of blue-white bolts seared upward through the trees, vaporizing branches. From that moment, the forest was all deafening mechanical noise and Rex's helmet activated buffers to protect his hearing. He could have switched off the audio completely and fought in soundproofed peace, but he needed to hear something of the battle environment around him to get a gut feel for what was happening. The shapes and icons in his HUD were just detail now. AT-TEs thundered and wheezed as they moved up to scale the cliff face, firing as they went as the trilithium spikes on their heavy ground-crushing footpads dug into the cliffside.

The armored walkers, tanks with six heavy, jointed legs, were built for horizontal terrain, no matter how uneven, and perfect for it. They could climb, but it limited their effectiveness and made them very vulnerable. Using them to scale a vertical cliff was as near to a last-resort deployment as he'd seen so far in this war.

But they didn't have time to do it by the book. They had one day. Because some jumped-up gangster of a Hutt says so.

He put it out of his mind. All flesh and blood could do was concentrate on what was immediately in front. Rex fired his rappel line almost vertically through the tree canopy, feeling the grappling hook bite into something solid. Then he let the powered winch lift him. He became one man in a curtain of white-armored troopers ascending the steep rock face. He could see himself as a sitting target hanging in midair, or as a fast-moving weapons platform conserving his energy for the battle that was certain to be waiting at the top of the ascent. He chose the latter.

Rocks, burning fragments of droid casing, and chunks of vine as thick as a man's waist fell past him. He batted away what he could, but there was little room for maneuver on the end of a winch line.

He glanced down to see where Ahsoka was. She'd been scrambling up a vine, face set in grim, wide-eyed determination. No sign of her: his gut lurched, fearing the worst. But then he looked to his side, spotting one of the AT-TE walkers lurching its way up the vertical face like a manakur climbing a fruit tree, and there was Ahsoka, clinging to the deckhead plate of the armored walker with her gaze fixed firmly above her, the emerald light of her blade flashing back and forth to ward off incoming fire.

She was a smart kid. But then so were his boys, and plenty of them wouldn't be returning to barracks after this assault. War didn't care much about smart or nice or deserving to survive.

Rex stopped thinking about it. Another droid plummeted past him trailing smoke, and struck a trooper on one shoulder. The man swung helpless on his line for a moment, but hung on. If he was lucky, his armor would have dissipated the impact and he wouldn't have a fracture.

The next falling object, though, was an AT-TE.

Rex felt the shockwave from a blast above him as half a dozen spider droids attacked the tank with their heavy cannons, detonating the front of the cockpit with multiple explosive rounds. Plasma! Damn clankers are playing for keeps. He realized. The next impression he had was of falling from a building and watching the walls streak by. But it was the armored walker: he hung relatively motionless to its rapid fall, senses telling him he was the moving object. He managed to swing to one side by kicking out from the cliff wall. The stricken AT-TE tumbled. It had no other route down than through the troopers ascending the cliff.

Rex couldn't divert his eyes from horror any more than the next human being could. There was always that one terrible moment when a death in all its unexpected detail grabbed his attention, and wouldn't let go for what felt like hours until he jerked his eyes away the next second. Then there was the desperate relief at not being dead, followed rapidly by equally desperate scenarios about how the guys below could have survived if… if only…

Rex couldn't let himself dwell on it. He could hear something else, a sound his helmet systems recognized and identified as a droid STAP fighter.

And another. And another.

They were fragile aerial platforms just big enough to carry a battle droid, not proper airframes, with narrow profiles that made them hard moving targets to hit. Their blasterfire punched into the cliff face, shredding helpless Clones in a brutal strafing run. White blurs fell in his peripheral vision.

If any of his 501st company reached the top of this plateau, it would be a miracle. And then they still had to fight their way into the monastery.


Anakin turned to watch the approach of the STAPs, the droids targeting anything and anyone on rappelling up the cliff. Clones were chewed to molten pieces by staccato blaster rounds, and the sole-surviving AT-TE took the brunt of the fly-by, explosions rocking the side of it. One of the forward feet came off the cliff, losing its grip as multiple concussive waves wreaked havoc on the machinery. It lurched and so did Ahsoka, the little Togruta tumbling backwards until she clung to the armor plate for dear life. The droids banked around, ready to make another pass.

Anakin had no choice; he jumped.

Plummeting down a cliff face now infested with spider droids, he landed briefly on the AT-TE below, narrowly missing Ahsoka, and then launched himself at the first STAP fighter in the formation.

It was mainly blind instinct that made him do it. He could get killed like anyone else, and he knew it. But once his body had taken control like this, his brain was just along for the ride, unable to step in. As he hit the tiny platform, barely big enough to take a droid's metal feet, he smashed the battle droid pilot squarely in the chest, sending it tumbling hundreds of meters into a blurred green sea of treetops, then leaped again, onto the next STAP. The sheer inertia of his body sent the droid plummeting. He didn't even need to draw his lightsaber. Now he was fully mobile in a way that not even his Force powers could match: he could fly, not just glide.

And that meant he could stand off from the vertical rock face far enough to make a difference. The other droid STAP pilots were now in disarray, seeming not to know how to deal with an organic that could leap from fighter to fighter, and that confusion gave Anakin the edge he needed.

He checked the cliff below, felt where there were fewest of his men, where he might safely bring down tons of droid and debris, and opened up with the STAP's laser cannon. A path of pluming, flame-filled smoke ripped up the cliff face to the top, blazing a clear path. Anakin dived closer. Now he could see exactly where to place fire to clear the way for individual troopers or provide suppressing fire for an AT-TE to get a better foothold.

One simple STAP platform shouldn't have been enough to make that much difference, but he was Anakin Skywalker, and he knew without even thinking how to hit an enemy where it hurt most, and strike fear into them.

Droids did feel fear. He could see it now. They reacted to threats like a living being. They avoided damage and destruction wherever they could. That was all fear was; a safety mechanism, whether it was organic adrenaline or a computer program. The battle droids on the top of the plateau, peering down onto the GAR assault, seemed to be in chaos. Anakin swept a dozen of them aside with a raw surge of Force power. Could Rex see the path? Could any of the troopers, clinging so close to the cliff? They had no overview.

Yes, Rex could see it.

Anakin picked him out by his traditional kama, the leather half kilt worn over his armor. He was waving troops toward the smoking line. It was almost as good as a beacon. And they were close enough to the top now to use the vines rather than hang passively on the rappel winches. Anakin could do no more here. He swooped for the line of droids forming up on the plateau. He jumped off the STAP onto the parapet, leaving the fighter to crash into the droid line. As he regained his balance, a battle droid commander stepped forward and raised its rifle, as did a dozen others plus a dozen B2's beside that primed their arm cannons.

"Surrender, Jedi."

"Bad time to ask me." Anakin growled, more to himself than anything, and plunged into the droid ranks with his lightsaber. "Bad time."

There was nothing in his mind beyond his troops and that only he could save them. Save; he did so much saving now but it would never be enough to make him whole. He felt his lightsaber blade slice through metal. There was always a slight kick on contact, like a drill hitting a hard spot, but he craved more. He craved destruction, not to prove to himself that he had such huge power, but simply to hold the chaos at bay.

I didn't save my mother.

He had the strength and skill to wipe out legions of droids, but he hadn't used it for the person who mattered most.

Anakin tore into droid after droid, killing on upstroke and downstroke, spinning to take out droids rushing him from behind, rolling to scythe his way through their legs. Hot hydraulic fluid spattered on his face like blood. The sensation fueled him, driving him into a dark frenzy of motion that no Jedi should ever embrace.

Why didn't I go back for my mother, when I could have done this, and this, and this?

But embrace it he did. As the surge of Force power almost squeezed the air from his lungs in his all-out effort to crush the next rank of droids, he felt suddenly light-headed, and in that second's pause he became aware of troopers fighting furiously to his right; smashing metal skulls with butts of rifles, ramming vibroblades into weak points.

But he couldn't see Ahsoka.

She'd been clinging to an AT-TE. He didn't know where she was. He couldn't even sense her in the maelstrom of Force disturbances churned up by desperate combat, and when the last battle droid crashed to its knees, he steadied himself to look for her. "Blast it, Ahsoka, I told you to stay close to me." He muttered, venting his turbulent feelings out of care despite it sounding like a grievance. He was never going to lose someone he cared about again. If anyone so much as looked at Padme the wrong way, he'd make them regret the day they were born.

You can't think those things. You're a Jedi.

But I can. And I do.

Then three destroyer droids rolled through the battle debris, unfurled themselves and raised their shields. Anakin, exhausted by jungle heat and a hard ascent, raised his lightsaber two-handed, muscles screaming for rest. One droid rocked back a fraction on its gyros to fire.

I promised Obi-Wan we'd wrap this up inside a day. I promised Ahsoka I'd look out for her.

Anakin steadied himself for a split second that lasted forever, choosing between lunging forward or waiting to block the cannon round, and then the lead droid exploded in a white-hot shower of shrapnel that made him duck to shield himself with the Force. The plateau echoed as the blast bounced back off the monastery's high walls.

When he jumped up, ready to fight to the death, he was staring at an AT-TE as it clunked its way forward from the monastery walls. One cannon was still trained on the smoking spot where the destroyer droids had paused.

"Did you get hit?" Ahsoka called. She was standing on top of the armored walker, looking breathless. "Sorry. Just keeping up my quota of always being in time to save your life."

"No, I'm fine." His legs shook with fading adrenaline. It was always like this for a few moments when the fighting stopped. "I told you to stay close, so I can't complain, can I?" He wondered with a tired grin.

"Just watching your back, Master." Ahsoka commented as she returned it.

The plateau was silent now, and the remnant of 501st Torrent Company were spread out, securing a perimeter. Anakin did a quick head count. He'd lost nearly half his men. All for a kriffing Hutt. This had better be worth my men's lives.

Rex jogged over to them, lifting off his helmet. He obviously thought the situation was under control to do that. Anakin could sense no immediate danger. Rex's HUD sensors must have given him similar reassurance. "Fifteen wounded, sir. Gunships are holding at a safe distance." He didn't mention the KIAs. He wiped the palm of his gauntlet across his shaven head, looking oddly exhilarated… odd, because while his face was flushed and he was breathing harder than usual, his eyes looked distant and anguished. "I've called in one larty to casevac the injured. I didn't wait for your order, sir…"

"Fine by me, Rex. I don't want to spend one more life on this Hutt than I have to." Anakin didn't look at Ahsoka, but he could feel her gaze boring into him, tinged with a dismay that was tangible in the Force. A Jedi was entitled to be less than saintly sometimes; sooner or later, she had to learn that it could be a dirty job. "Judging by the number of droids, I'd say this is an official Separatist operation, not a spot of freelance hobby extortion." He noted, examining the shattered chassis bathed in puddles of oil.

"Agreed. It's got Dooku's fingerprints all over it, sir. Explains the dead bounty hunters, too." Rex agreed. "Probably just one part of something incredibly elaborate." Ahsoka edged her way between the two men and looked up expectantly.

"But the hard part's over, right? I mean, we just crawled up a cliff under fire and wiped out a battalion of droids or something." She asked.

"I wish you wouldn't say that." Anakin groaned.

"'Fraid not, littl'un." Rex countered, patting her on the head. "The hard bit isn't over until we put our boots down on Republic soil again, preferably with one Huttlet on board." Anakin kicked through the carpet of shattered droid components like fallen leaves. Some chunks of debris were still smoking. His boots came away oily and dark.

"Yes, it's definitely Dooku." He muttered. "Expect the worse."


High above the courtyard, where neither Clone nor Jedi had bothered to look, Asajj Ventress stood one pace back from the narrow slit of a window. She could see the aftermath of the battle. Everything was going according to plan. Skywalker would think he'd won a magnificent victory rather than that he'd been duped. He'd encountered just enough resistance to make it look like more than a token defense, without the droids getting lucky and actually killing the Jedi. The things couldn't act. She'd had to balance the battle carefully.

I need you and your little Padawan in one piece, Skywalker.

The Jedi Council could spare the resources to drop everything for a Hutt they despised, when there was something in it for them. But Rattatak, her homeworld, could drown in blood for all they cared…. and it had.

"What would you make of all this, Ky?" She wondered aloud. Ky Narec was long dead, and maybe that was just as well. He wouldn't want to see what the Jedi had become now. "Or me, maybe. But you'd understand why it had to be done, I know."

"Perhaps he does." Jayden's voice caught her attention and she turned to see her fellow Apprentice of Dooku walk up to stand beside her, his arms crossing over his chest. "The Jedi only care about themselves... and they call us Sith selfish."

"Well, one main difference is we don't hide behind emotionless walls." Asajj said with a small grin. They turned their attention back to the Jedi and Clone Army below. "Now, we simply wait until Skywalker finds the little slug."

The plan was for them to gain that one incriminating holocam sequence of the Jedi with Rotta the Huttlet, anything that would convince Jabba that the Jedi were behind the kidnapping to force Jabba's cooperation with the Republic: handling Rotta roughly, making him cry, anything plausible. The slug cried a lot; that wasn't going to be hard.

I still think it would be better to have the Jedi framed with a dead Huttlet. Inarguable. Case proven.

"I'd agree with you, but our Master would be very displeased if we simply killed the Huttlet." Jayden pointed out, sensing her thoughts. Though, if he had to, he would've killed the young child. There was no room for softness in the Sith Order. There was a reason they were once a feared Empire during the days of the Old Republic, back when the Sith were still great in numbers and had the world of Korriban as their homeworld.

Asajj just sighed before getting back to business. "Go into the monastery. You know your role in this."

Jayden gave a small nod of his head and turned to go back inside, leaving Asajj alone and to her thoughts before she contacted Dooku to inform him of how things are going.


The armored door opened with an ominous rumble like a bantha's gut and a faint smell of decay. Rex sighted up, checking out the long corridor in his rifle's optics. Yeah, he thought, we picked the wrong end of the bantha again. He flicked on his helmet spot lamp, throwing a blue-white disk of light on the far wall. The four troopers with him; Coric, Vaize, Ayar, and Lunn, followed suit. Dense black pools marked the alcoves spaced at regular intervals along the full length of the passage, and where there were blind spots, there were potential ambushes.

It was like one of the nightmarish house clearance exercises the GAR instructors on Kamino would run as part of training. They liked to show you just how many ways you could get yourself killed if you didn't have eyes in your backside and didn't treat every shadow as hostile.

Standing on a nice open battlefield with good honest laser rounds raining down was actually comforting by comparison. Rex put his finger to his lips and signaled his squad to do a forward overlap maneuver, checking and clearing each section of the tunnel before moving on. "Kill the lights unless we make enemy contact," Rex calmly ordered, "night-vision visor and infrared." He turned to Skywalker. "You can see okay, can't you, sir?"

"I can sense my way." Anakin replied. Ahsoka's boots crunched on something.

"I'll be fine. Togrutas have good low-light vision."

"No snacking on the local rodent life, littl'un." Rex teased and she laughed. He was glad she could take a joke. That was a big plus. "But unless it's wearing a diaper, shoot it. No chances."

"Is that fair?" Ahsoka asked. The two Jedi crept along the passage behind him. Rex hoped their Force sense of danger was working.

"In hostage extraction, you don't have the luxury of checking ID. You slot them before they slot you. The only ones you give the benefit of the doubt are those you've already identified positively as hostages. Everyone else is a hostile until proven otherwise." He instructed.

"Wow." She murmured in awe. "What if..."

"I think hostile is a given here, Ahsoka." Anakin cut in. "Do what Rex says." They edged down the passage, waiting for the worst. Rex tried to get an idea of the layout of the monastery, planning a search pattern in his head. It was going to take time.

And it's going to have some Dooku-surprises along the way. The General knows it. I know it.

Something a few meters ahead showed up in Rex's night vision, an unnaturally smooth surface that appeared as a green smear. It moved. Rex raised his rifle. Coric and Lunn, five meters ahead, slammed it against the wall and put their Deeces to its head just as Skywalker lunged forward with his lightsaber drawn. "Uh, good guy or bad guy, Master?" Ahsoka called out.

It was a droid. Not a battle droid, just a regular domestic protocol-model. And it was lucky it wasn't already a smoking pile of scrap. As for friend or foe, he had yet to decide. "Who are you?" Skywalker demanded. His blue blade lit up its face.

"I am the caretaker of this holy place, mighty sir. Four-A-Seven. You have liberated me from those dreadful battle bots." The droid froze. Coric and Lunn didn't stand down. "Thank you." Anakin wasn't inclined to shut down his lightsaber either.

"Where's the Hutt?" 4A-7 paused, long enough for the human equivalent of a blink and a head-tilt. He was confused, apparently.

"They kept their prisoners on the detention level." He replied.

"Kept." Anakin repeated with emphasis on the past-tense, his grip on his weapon didn't relax one bit. "So they've all left, have they?"

"I appear to be alone here, yes." Said Four-A innocently. It didn't matter if Four-A believed that or not. Rex didn't, and it was obvious that Anakin didn't either.

"So where's the detention level?" The Jedi demanded.

"Down those stairs, sir. They lead to the storage cellars, which were turned into cells by the heathens who defiled this place." Four-A described, gesturing over his shoulder to the darkened hall behind him. "I must warn you, it is very dangerous down there. Not a place for a servant girl." His empty gaze was on Ahsoka when he said that and she frowned.

"Do servant girls carry these?" She retorted, igniting her blade. "I am a Jedi Knight," she paused, feeling the disapproving gaze of Anakin boring into her, "or soon will be." She added quietly, shrinking away as she realized the pointless childishness of her outburst.

"A thousand apologies, young one." Four-A said in monotone. Rex gestured to Coric and Lunn to let the droid go on its way, but he kept an eye on it as it left. And he didn't like the sound of cellars and stairs. Both presented their own security issues. Anakin motioned Ahsoka ahead and turned to Rex.

"Yes, I know, but you stay here and secure the exit, Captain." He ordered.

"Yes, sir. You must be psychic." Rex dryly remarked.

"No, just as suspicious as you are." Anakin replied before he vanished into the gloom, Ahsoka at his side. Coric flicked on his helmet spot lamp and tracked Four-A up and down the passage as the droid went about its business, which seemed to consist of flicking pieces of debris from ledges and muttering to itself. Rex switched to a secure comm circuit that linked him to his squad and nobody else.

"Trust is a virtue, Sergeant." He stood at the doorway to scan the courtyard outside for devices and droid activity. "Like patience."

"I must have been at the back of the line when they handed those out, then, sir." Coric remarked.

"Me too." Rex concurred. An uneasy silence ensued, too many thoughts and figures on the Clones minds for them to ever settle.

"He knows he's walking into trouble, doesn't he?" Rex simply nodded.

"Yes."

"I have this nagging feeling we ought to be down there with him." Coric muttered.

"Don't worry, Sergeant." Rex activated a few more HUD icons with rapid blinks. He knew the coordinates of every gunship, each sergeant. "If the General comes back with any broken bones, well, they won't be his."


Jayden was hidden in the shadowy alcoves in the ceiling, using the darkness to camouflage himself as he felt two Force signatures come in his direction... where the Huttlet was located in the monastery. Jayden was many things, patient being one of them...

Anakin couldn't sense droids as entities in the same way that he could feel organic beings, but his Force sense of danger knew something was wrong.

He also had a brain that worked just fine and it told him that no Seppie commander in his, or her, right mind would kidnap a strategic hostage, put up a token fight, and then run away.

Count Dooku certainly wouldn't. "Master, you do know you're walking us into a trap, don't you?" Ahsoka whispered. Anakin crept carefully along the flagstones, ready for booby traps and ambushes. Something moved in his peripheral vision.

"I do." He said simply.

"We just passed two battle droids."

"I know." Ahsoka reflexively checked over her shoulder for the third time.

"Well I don't like it. Can I just take care of them?"

"If it makes you feel better. They obviously don't want to kill us." He relented. Ahsoka fell back. Anakin heard the hum of her lightsaber, saw a bloom of green light reflected from the slick layer of condensation on the wall, and waited for the sound of destruction. Metal clattered; Ahsoka grunted a couple of times. Then she was at his side again, but he hadn't heard even a single footstep. She really could be a silent hunter.

"Not bad. You remembered to destroy their weapons first." He quietly mused.

"Why did you say they don't want to kill us?" She wondered in a whisper. "You think they weren't trying? They were pretty serious about it from where I was standing." Then again, maybe she hadn't caught on to the whole stealth thing.

"Can we have this conversation later?"

"Won't that be too late?"

"It's a trap. And if it's Dooku's, then it won't be a simple case of 'gotcha'." The whole monastery smelled of decay and ancient dampness. But on top of that aroma wafted something distinctive, a scent firmly embedded in Anakin's memory. Smell was the most evocative of senses for a human, the most primal, even for a Jedi; and this smell went back to before conscious memory, to his earliest childhood.

It was… ammonia. That was the nearest thing Anakin could compare it to. It had that sinus-searing quality, but it was also laced with sulfur and other compounds that made him gag.

Hutt.

It was a scent he'd somehow grown up with on Tatooine. At a time when he was trying hard to suppress emotionally painful memories and concentrate on doing his duty, however much that duty stuck in his craw, he didn't need his buttons pressed by things that whispered to the buried primal self deep within.

His boot nudged something and Anakin stopped to look. He grimaced, seeing a severed arm, cauterized. The work of a Lightsaber. Ahsoka paused and made a face. "Ew…" She trailed off, gaze rising and cast across the remainder of the sub-level hall. More body parts, limbs, bits of clothes and weapons, lay scattered across the scene. Blinking her eyes a few times, her vision allowed her to better scrutinize the scene. "What happened here...?"

"Someone wielding a Lightsaber." Anakin answered darkly as he looked around. It was either Dooku himself... or Ventress.

His thoughts went to Ahsoka, this was the first time she'd ever seen battlefield gore up close and personal. Then again, even he thought this was excessive. He knelt to examine the hand, and noted the texture of the skin to be dark and veiny, clearly belonging to what used to be a Nikto. The rest of his body was somewhere with the debris field. His gaze, trained and honed from dozens of downtimes, caught sight of a dismantled droid body among the mess, chassis dented and split, wires pulled free. The head had been removed completely yet cleanly.

"I think we know what happened to the bounty hunters." He murmured. Standing up, he reached out with his senses, hoping to get this over sooner rather than later. "He's down here." He broke into a faster walk, still alert and ready for a fight. "I can sense him. Cover me." When he looked back at Ahsoka, she was sniffing the scent too, inhaling with her lips slightly parted as if tasting the air. The more he looked at her, the more he saw not this gawky child desperate to be taken seriously and treated as an adult, but the legacy of a species that could bare its claws and rip apart its prey without a second thought when need arose.

Anakin knew what it was to be dismissed as just a pushy kid when there was so much that he could do.

"Eugh, that's pretty rank." Ahsoka wrinkled her nose. She inhaled like a Corellian wine taster, sucking in the air in a long, slow sigh. Droids moved in the shadows, and Anakin half watched them, waiting. "Not just scent glands, something… ickier. I don't think Dooku's minions know how to take care of kids. Like changing diapers."

"They all smell like that. He's a Hutt." Her Master replied dismissively. Anakin's revulsion just slipped out, or maybe he wanted it to. Ahsoka was attuned enough to sense his emotional struggle anyway. "I hate them."

"I can tell, Master." She remarked. "So why are you doing this?"

"Because duty is about doing what's right, about keeping your word, not just doing what you feel like doing." Anakin stated.

"And this isn't about helping Jabba but about defeating Separatists."

"We won't be able to destroy them if we don't grab his kid. It's that simple."

"I think that must be the hardest part of being a Jedi." Ahsoka mused as she put her hand on the door of the cell. The stench of ammonia and sulfur was like a flashing sign saying the Hutt's in here. "I think I can hear him." Anakin strained to hear, internally impressed with her auditory acuity in addition to her other predator-traits. The door to the cell looked almost like a cube that had been rammed into the aperture, so massively heavy that it was as good as soundproofing.

"Stand back." Ahsoka snapped her lightsaber to life and stood to one side of the door. Anakin eased it open with a Force push to leave his hands free for whatever might try to rush him on the other side. But as the creaking slab of wood swung inward, what hit him wasn't a fist or a blaster bolt, but a wall of noise, and a smell that he could have sliced with a blade.

The Huttlet was crying, which sounded more like screaming, on a mattress in the middle of the floor. Ahsoka rushed in and knelt down beside him. "Oh, he's just a baby!" Her expression was part pity, part dismay. "I was expecting him to be older…"

"Yeah, and then we wouldn't have been able to lift him." Anakin was still waiting for the trap to be sprung, but the baby needed moving. "Come on. Let's get him out of here." The Huttlet was screaming himself into a frenzy. Ahsoka tried to soothe him.

"It's okay, Rotta, you're going home. You're going home to Daddy. Come on, Rotta, stop crying… Master, do you know any Huttese?" She asked when her gentle reassurances failed.

Oh yes, I most certainly do. I grew up speaking it. I never wanted to speak it again.

"Rotta," Anakin said quietly. "Rotta, pedunkee, da bunk dunko. Sala. Sala." He was a slug. A baby slug, a helpless one, but Anakin knew what he'd grow into. When Rotta sobbed himself to a gulping standstill and squirmed to see where the voice was coming from, Anakin couldn't quite reconcile his feelings.

How can I hate a youngling? He's just a victim. He doesn't know what his father is. He just loves him and wants to go home.

And Anakin understood that simple hunger better than any Jedi he knew. "Wow," Ahsoka expressed her amazement, "I don't know if he understood you, or if you stunned him into silence, but he's calmed down. He's so cute. He's just like a little toy!" She cooed, fawning over him.

"You just volunteered to carry that smelly larva, Snips." Anakin replied.

"Fine." She squatted down and scooped Rotta up in her arms, but Anakin saw the surprise on her face as she realized he was a lot heavier than he looked followed by the look of exertion as she slowly stood. "How did you learn Huttese? Or were you just making that up?"

"You pick up all kinds of things as a Jedi." He lied. Ahsoka wasn't stupid. She knew there was something eating away at him, and he hoped she'd think it was just a dislike of Hutts. It wouldn't make Anakin unique, that was for sure. Hutts didn't inspire affection. He suddenly felt trapped. He needed to turn this conversation around. "You know any other languages, Snips?"

"Master Ti helped me with Togruti." She said and that made sense. Anakin didn't know nearly enough about Togruta's, just the basics. Among them, being what their native tongue was called.

"So how would you refer to stinky there in Togruti?" He queried, a part of him genuinely interested despite his primary investment being deflection. Ahsoka tapped her chin with a free hand, thinking hard.

"Tazi tungu, I guess. Maybe Jabba tungu'ko." She offered. That was enough for her Master and he nodded in understanding.

"Sure. Now let's get going." Anakin switched on his commlink. "Rex, this is Skywalker, over. All clear?" Rex's voice carried over the comlink.

"All secure here, sir. Got him?"

"Safe and sound. We're coming now." Anakin answered.

"I'll send Coric back to make sure the droids don't get ideas. Can't risk any accidents with the kid now." Rex offered.

"Good point, Captain." Anakin affirmed. He paused and sized up the Huttlet with a practiced eye. "Ask Coric to fetch a backpack, too. Rotta's heavy cargo."

"Copy that, sir." Rex clicked off. It was nearly done. Anakin waited, defending the door until Coric showed. Ahsoka did her best to keep Rotta calm, rocking him. Nobody could ever accuse her of giving less than a hundred percent; cuddling a Hutt was beyond the call of duty, because she'd be in the refreshers for a week scrubbing the smell off herself.

So the Jedi Council can pull out all the stops for a Hutt criminal when it suits them… and they send me. Anakin grumbled internally. Is Master Yoda trying to teach me a lesson about submission to the will of the Force? Does he even remember how I came to be a Jedi?

Anakin wondered just how good, how clever, how brave he'd have to be to get any acknowledgment from the Jedi Masters. He didn't serve for prizes; he served because Qui-Gon Jinn believed he had a destiny, and he needed to know what that was to make sense of the pain and loss in his life. But he knew as surely as he knew anything that his troops liked him and cared if he lived or died, and that Kenobi did his best to make up for the sheer… dislocation Anakin felt at being absorbed into this Jedi world of no families, no loves, and no passions.

But I've got Padme, and nobody can take her from me. Not your rules, not your traditions, not your disapproval. I have to find my own way, Masters.

"You okay, Skyguy?" Ahsoka asked. "You look worried. You know I only call you that to get you to lighten up, don't you?" Anakin shot her a sideways glance, impassive but not condemning.

"Yeah…"

"You worried that this has been too easy?" Ahsoka queried.

"Not with half my men lying dead, no. Not easy." He gruffly stated.

"Sorry." Boots thudded in the passage outside. Coric entered with a backpack in both hands, and almost screeched to a halt as if he'd hit a wall. Anakin couldn't see his face, but the jerk of his head showed he had his helmet filters open and had inhaled Rotta's distinctive aroma.

"Sir, permission to speak freely?" Coric wheezed as he held the backpack out to Ahsoka, trying to keep his composure. "That kriffing Hutt is honking, sir. His dad must need a decomposing nerf as an air freshener. Can we stow him in the cargo bay?"

"My sentiments entirely, Sergeant." Anakin concurred. "Let's go."

"Awwww," Ahsoka's sympathetic noise turned into a grunt of exertion as she heaved the laden backpack onto her shoulders. "He probably thinks we stink, too."

"I bet you wish you had a helmet with filters right now, ma'am…" Coric chuckled, then adjusted the breather unit of his helmet and stood back to let the two Jedi exit the cell. "The Captain's got a larty on standby, sir. You got everything you need?"

"Yes, let's get out before I change my mind about the Hutt." Anakin determined.

"He doesn't mean it, Rotta," Ahsoka cooed, jiggling the backpack and trying to glance over her shoulder. "We need you to get your daddy to let us use his space lanes." She paused, dropping her voice. "And I think you're adorable." Anakin overheard and rolled his eyes as he made his way back to the exit, checking every alcove for Dooku's real trap. There had to be one. Separatists made mistakes and lost battles, but not like this, not this blatantly. He saw daylight ahead and Rex silhouetted against it, kama swinging as he turned repeatedly to check something outside in the courtyard, and he tried to work out what could possibly go wrong in these final minutes.

An attack once we're airborne.

Hawk was the best pilot of a brilliant squadron, and the LAAT could take a serious pounding.

They couldn't possibly have booby-trapped a baby… The Separatists would try anything, but there weren't many places to strap an explosive on a baby Hutt. I don't get it. I just don't get it. Not yet. "Skyguy..." Anakin didn't look around. His gaze darted everywhere in the shadows ahead. Coric had their six.

"Don't tell me, the Hutt's thrown up on you." He cheekily retorted.

"No, but I think something's wrong." Ahsoka explained, her tone a mix of concern and idle curiosity.

Here we go. "How wrong?" Anakin slowed, ready to swing his lightsaber. He was prepared to believe that a Togruta could detect things that even he couldn't. "Can you sense something?"

"I think I know why he was screaming. And then why he went quiet." Ahsoka cautiously continued.

"What? Spit it out, Snips." Anakin urged. Ahsoka did a turn so that Anakin could peer into the backpack.

"Look at him. He's making awful noises. Does he look okay to you? I think he's ill. Really ill." The Togruta prompted. "He was hot to the touch when I held him. I think he's burning up with fever." Anakin couldn't recall seeing a baby Hutt on Tatooine, but he didn't have to be a doctor to see that Ahsoka's fears were justified. Rotta the Hutt, his vengeful father's pride and joy, was dull-eyed, tongue lolling, struggling for breath. He was ill, all right. They now faced the prospect of handing back Jabba's kidnapped heir in a body bag.

Now, that's some trap.

Dooku was much, much subtler than even Anakin had imagined. "You're right. We've got to get him back to the ship immediately." He said, with the most ugency he'd had all day.


As soon as the Obi-Wan left, satisfied that he had a deal, Count Dooku arrived.

Jabba had long since decided they were both in this for the same thing, both of them from the same nest; arrogant offworlders from the Core who thought that he was some ignorant Outer Rim peasant shag who couldn't see the bigger picture or the political game they were playing.

One of them had probably set up the other. Jabba just didn't know which. Maybe the Jedi wasn't that devious… maybe, although Jabba would never bet on it-but he served politicians, and the Senate was not Jabba's kind of scum. They were beneath contempt. They bribed, lied, cheated, defrauded, stole, and murdered. Jabba did quite a few of those things too, but he never claimed otherwise, nor was what he did against Hutt law and custom. Republic Senators, though… they paraded one morality in public, but lived another in private.

Hypocrisy wasn't the Hutt way. Jabba was ashamed of nothing. He growled at TC-70, ordering the droid to show the Count of Serenno in.

Dooku was stiffly formal, a much older man than Kenobi. They said he was incredibly wealthy, from an old dynasty, but Jabba had never seen or heard the slightest rumor about how he spent that wealth-if he did anything with it at all. And a business like Jabba's ran on good intelligence about the market and the needs of the rich. "Lord Jabba, I have urgent news about your son," Dooku began, removing his hood to reveal the neatly-trimmed beard of resplendent silver, "you were right, he was taken to Teth. This will anger you greatly, but I have to tell you-the Jedi are behind this." The court gasped, but Jabba went unfazed. He expected Dooku to say as such. The Hutt played the game that Dooku seemed to expect.

"Whao uba bla hee kiuke, toupee mi kava goo doth!" He bellowed. "Doth goo banieie? Doth goo nem? Keelya mah wei?"

"Mighty Jabba demands to know what you know of his son, given you are privy to such information." TeeCee squeaked.

"He is alive, Lord Jabba." Dooku stated sincerely. A rumble of consternation left Jabba's throat.

"Goo gee cua dan doth. Wonkee lwaa Jee phaba uba, pionpoe? Uba bla bu Jeedai nan nei bai tasag. Uba banag bu boe kaa doi mi, hee kuna kee sey kaa bai yoieu fa." He demanded.

"All-Knowing Jabba wishes to know why he should believe you, seeing as you want what the Jedi want." TeeCee translated.

"I'm disappointed you feel that way, Lord Jabba." Dooku politely responded.

"Tee? Paniena mi. Toupee mi kava uba bla."

"Lord Jabba wants to know how you came by such information." He couldn't tell. Jabba watched him clasp his hands slowly, and wondered what he might lever out of the Separatists by turning the tables on Dooku.

"It would be wrong for me to reveal my sources, because it would put my agents at risk, but I have evidence." Jabba stared at Dooku in complete silence. It was a tactic that always worked, sooner or later, and it was less trouble than strapping him to a thermal detonator with a ticking timer. Dooku took a visible breath. "Lord Jabba, I have footage from a security holocam on Teth that shows your son being held hostage by Jedi, and… I'm sorry, there's no easy way to tell you this, but the recording also shows that they're planning to destroy you."

Again the court gasped. This time, Jabba hadn't been expecting that.

But Rotta was alive. Now Jabba had some control over the situation again, real hope, the kind that set him thinking what revenge he might exact on the guilty parties-beyond denying them the access they needed. But he had no intention of begging for crumbs. "Tah doth ba pauahau doi! Cohou mi!" The Hutt bellowed.

"Mighty Jabba wants you to show him. Now." TeeCee elaborated. Dooku held up his hand.

"You shall have it. Two of my agents are risking their lives right now to get your son back from the Jedi. They have the recording and are due to transmit it very soon… a matter of minutes." The Count promised. Jabba leaned on one elbow and disguised the kind of desperate hope and relief that didn't look at all becoming on a kajidic lord.

"Hee Jee hatkocanh wanta kaniaka." He rumbled.

"Mighty Jabba says he will wait minutes then." TeeCee translated.


Asajj Ventress had taken some years to fully understand that information was as much a weapon in war as the lightsabers on her belt. She understood it fully now as she watched the espionage droid 4A-7 edit the holocam record of events in the Huttlet's cell.

"This," said 4A-7, "is elegant proof of a saying they have at HNE News."

"How do you know anything about HoloNet news?" Ventress questioned.

"The media are an integral part of intelligence, ma'am, whether they know it or not. Sometimes very helpful, too." Four-A replied.

"Whether they know it or not..."

"Indeed. Feed them convincing information, and they do our job for free." Ventress studied the recording intently, keeping an eye on the chrono. She didn't have long to put this evidence together. She knew the sections of hologram she needed, and now it was just a matter of editing them together in such a way that they appeared to be one continuous event.

"So what is this saying they have, then?"

"That every audio receiver is a live audio receiver." 4A-7 paused the recording and magnified the image; the little Togruta Jedi was frozen with Rotta the Hutt in her arms. "Meaning that you should assume anything you say is being recorded to be used in the most inconvenient way. They catch many unwary Senators that way, I gather. They chatter too candidly when they think the audio recorder is switched off." Ventress suspected that 4A-7 enjoyed his calling. She didn't feel that her conditioning to want something very badly-justice, a different kind of galaxy, some way of putting her terrible memories to rest-was all that different from whatever lines of code controlled this droid's motivation.

"Any innocent conversation can be edited to look less innocent than it is."

"But if the speaker is especially careless..."" 4A-7's manipulators moved at lightning speed and tapped codes onto a small keyboard. "See if this is the effect you wanted. If this is satisfactory, I'll adjust the edit points so that the recording appears seamless. Just a matter of blurring the transitions so that there are no embarrassing jump cuts." Yes, he was as pleased with himself as any droid could be. Ventress watched the edited sequence and understood why.

Anakin Skywalker and the Togruta child Ahsoka stood outside the cell, seen from an angle just above their heads. The security holocam image had a frame at the bottom with a record of the local time, moving forward by seconds. Skywalker's tone was surly: "They all smell like that. He's a Hutt. I hate them... We won't be able to destroy them if we don't grab his kid." The two Jedi walked into the cell, disappearing from vision for a moment until the next holocam inside the cell picked them up, with a screaming, obviously terrified baby. The time code had jumped. "Come on. Let's get him out of here." The Togruta bent over Rotta and picked him up. Then a Clone trooper walked into the cell. "That kriffing Hutt is honking, sir. His dad must need a decomposing nerf as an air freshener. Can we stow him in the cargo bay?" The Togruta put the baby in a military backpack with some difficulty; then Skywalker turned and walked out first, face not visible but voice clearly audible. "Yes, let's get out before I change my mind." The holocam angle then switched to the exterior passage again, as the Togruta carried the now immobile baby in the backpack on her shoulders, she was heard saying, "We need you to get your daddy to let us use his space lanes." Ventress had to smile. It was very clever. But then the Jedi had inadvertently given them such wonderful raw material.

The droid turned his head to focus his photoreceptors on her. "It's not perfect, but once I fill the timeline gaps with a little image extension, and match up the light and audio levels, it'll look like one continuous event in real time. I have enough images of Skywalker with his face turned away from the lens to put any audio of his voice over it, suitably spliced. No need to synchronize with lip movement. Then I blur the whole sequence with a little haze from signal interference, insert a bogus time code that makes it look as if nothing has been edited out, and nobody knows the difference." Brilliant. Ventress checked the chrono again.

"You've got three minutes."

"I'll do it in two." 4A-7 stated promptly.

And he did. His manipulators moved faster than she could follow. She leaned over his shoulder, mesmerized, and she watched reality bent out of shape and remolded into a new and equally convincing record of events. Truth was a flexible thing at the best of times. In the hands of technology, though, it became utterly fluid to the point of having no meaning. Truth, reality, was whatever you wanted or needed it to be. She might have been distorting the facts, and that troubled her because she had never thought of herself as dishonest; but if the detail of the event was distorted, the reality for her had not been compromised. The Jedi did the Republic's bidding, and the Republic was self-serving and corrupt. The larger truth was still true.

Ventress inspected the short but eloquent holorecording. "Perfect."

"Thank you, ma'am." Ventress opened her comlink and turned to the holoreceiver. An image of Dooku appeared instantly. He was impatient, waiting, stalling an equally impatient Jabba.

"I'm transmitting the recording now, my lord." She didn't smile. She was long past smiling, and the elation of success had lasted only a moment. It gave way now to grim satisfaction, because no technical skill could edit the past and bring the dead back to life, and all she could do was work for a different future. "It'll achieve the desired outcome. Stand by." She gestured to 4A-7 to transmit the footage. Then she watched Dooku's expression as his gaze dropped to the datapad in his hand.

Dooku wasn't one of life's smilers either. His eyebrows twitched, though.

"Excellent, Asajj." He said softly. "Mission accomplished. Now you have another."

"Yes, my lord?"

"Retrieve the Huttlet alive and well. Don't let Skywalker leave with him." Ventress gave Dooku a stiffly formal nod.

"Consider it done, my lord." His holorender faded as Ventress switched comm channels. "Khan, report. Are you in position?"

"Yes." Jayden responded on the other end.

"Remain hidden, move only on my mark. The time is coming."


"Uba paknee ata mee tee-tocky." Jabba growled as Dooku swept back into the throne chamber.

"Mighty Jabba is displeased by how long you took."

"Forgive me but I wanted to be certain, Lord Jabba." Dooku graciously apologized. "Even I was surprised by this." He set the holoprojector on the nearest table, and waited a couple of seconds to make sure the weight of what was to unfold hit home.

The edited evidence flickered to life. Jabba, to his credit, waited until the he'd heard the offending phrase before exploding into fury. The slit pupils of his eyes widened and he bellowed insults and threats that even Dooku's grasp of Huttese couldn't fully follow. It was a more complex and vividly expressive language than non-Hutts gave it credit for. The denizens of his castle shied away, gasping with each biting remark from the Jedi and cowering before Jabba's rage. By the time Jabba had settled into the more familiar vocabulary of what he would have done with Skywalker had he still been a slave here, and what Jabba would do to him anyway when he finally caught him, and what would happen to any Jedi who dared enter Hutt space, Dooku was satisfied that a wedge the size of Coruscant had been rammed between Jabba and the Republic.

"Mah wei!" Jabba slowed into outraged disbelief. "Woy uba babau bo pheau? La hhoph jen bacaka ba datka!" Dooku had wondered if Jabba's rages were all part of keeping up his image of a dangerous enemy to make, as if that needed emphasis, but he felt no hint of a bravura performance now.

"I'm sorry you had to see that, Lord Jabba, but it was necessary. I've taken the liberty of deploying my droid troops and agents to rescue Rotta, and they're engaging Skywalker's forces now. Rest assured, Lord Jabba, your son will be saved." He calmly replied.

"Bo dantokh," Jabba rumbled in response, almost hissing with frustration, "doth bimahau. Nobata paknee ata tee. Mi katka tee doth kouikei."

"You have my word." Dooku vowed.

"An?" The Count cocked his head.

"I'm afraid I don't understand, Lord Jabba." He innocently responded. Dooku didn't, not for a moment anyway. "'And' what?"

"Hi chuba da naga kankahchonhache tah yauma? Heoi pee fa hatkocanh patka uba bacota, an taneee wohot kaa du tah yoskah che tanea. Dooo bu cee Jeedai gee wa che copah, peee jeejee gee neu."

"Mighty Jabba wishes to know what you ask in return."

"Very well, I'll ask for something that's of mutual advantage."

"Kava che?" Dooku waved away the suggestion. Credits meant nothing. It was what they could buy when it was unbuyable that mattered, and what he wanted was the weight of a galaxy-spanning operation that even the Republic couldn't shut down when it wanted to.

"I want your support, Lord Jabba. Perhaps you would consider joining our struggle against the Republic." Dooku said. He wasn't going to lie to him… well, not about anything this fundamental. The doctored holorecording was a necessary evil. What he said now was something he believed, and believed in, with every fiber of his being; he was prepared to die for it and he knew the likes of Ventress and Jayden were too. He certainly wasn't in this to grow wealthier. "The galaxy needs to clear house. Support the Confederacy of Independent Systems, Lord Jabba. The Republic's become a disease, and the Jedi are keeping it in power for their own ends, so help the systems that are breaking away to end that dictatorship once and for all. Because it is a dictatorship. Planets do things the Republic's way, or not at all. Otherwise, why not just let them cede from the alliance? The Republic cannot be fixed, it is time to start over."

"Yih danko tee dotke cohka dee Republica mee." Jabba wasn't bargaining now, that was clear. It seemed as if he hadn't seen things that way before. "Jeejee doth bamohh roe."

"But if the Republic wins this war, and forces unwilling worlds to submit, do you seriously think they'll leave you alone forever?" Dooku pressed. "The Republic is no better than an empire of old. And it will continue to grow so sickly the longer it is allowed to live." Jabba's eyes narrowed for a moment as he scrutinized Dooku and his request.

"Kuna kee gee cuane baueha bai Yih bmola, an bu Republica mee nah. Ateema yoieu mah wei bata."

"Noble Jabba promises you full access to Hutt space. Now, please, bring his son back." TeeCee translated.


Anakin's Delta starfighter dropped into the courtyard and R2-D2 hopped out of the astromech housing mounted on the wing. The droid swiveled his dome to focus on Rotta, whistling mournfully. "Yeah, he's not well at all, Artoo." Anakin peered into the backpack. "But at least we have him. Is Obi-Wan on his way?" R2 projected a hologram of said Jedi in midair in front of him.

"I am, with reinforcements, too." He stated. "Have you found Jabba's son?"

"If holomessaging transmitted smell, you'd know already." Anakin remarked. "Yes, we have him. But…"

"But what?"

"He's really ill. We need to get him to a specialist medic soon. Hutts just don't get sick, so this is serious. I'm not even sure we can get him back to Tatooine, this whole rescue may backfire on us." Anakin grimly explained. Obi-Wan ran his hand over his beard, not in that considered I'm-pondering-mighty-issues way, but fast, as if he was stifling a groan of despair.

"That's the last thing we need right now, Anakin." He muttered.

"I think I worked that out, Master. And I'm pretty sure that this is a sting by Dooku. The whole situation stinks worse than the Huttlet." Anakin determined.

"He's set us up to alienate Jabba, then. To stop us from getting access to Hutt routes." Obi-Wan nodded in agreement as he clued in.

"I realized something was wrong after I lost half my men in breaching the monastery, and then we were allowed to just stroll in unopposed and get the kid." The adrenaline had now ebbed enough for Anakin to start wondering how he could have seen this coming and avoided the bait, his mind clear enough for mixed thoughts of regret and strategy. "I was waiting for the ambush, but maybe this is it-he's literally left us holding the baby. And it might end up being a dead baby." Kenobi leaned out of the range of his transmitter, looking as if he was checking something.

"You think Dooku has poisoned the youngling?" He inquired.

"No idea. But the timing and circumstance make me wonder." Anakin replied.

"Let's make sure Rotta survives, then."

"I'm sorry, Master. Maybe I should have seen this coming. But it was a bad idea to deal with the Hutts. You can never win with them. You can only choose how badly you lose."

"Anakin, if we'd refused Jabba's request for help, we'd never have been granted access to those routes anyway. We had no choice." Obi-Wan sympathized.

"You think he's colluding with Dooku? That he maneuvered us? It was very unlike Jabba to ask for Republic help." Anakin wondered.

"I don't know, but one thing we can't do is play into Separatist hands by letting anything happen to the baby. Top priority. We return it in one piece." He determined. Ahsoka had been completely silent up to that point, rocking the Huttlet by bouncing a little at the knee as she stood there, but Anakin heard her rumble at the back of her throat. It was an oddly feral noise that made the hair stand up on his nape.

"Okay, Master." Anakin said, ignoring her. "Understood. We… Oh, great...!"

"Anakin? What's going on?"

"I'll have to call you back, Master. We're under attack! We could use your help as soon as you can give it!" Anakin urgently exclaimed. "Down! Everybody down! Enemy fighters, incoming!" He shouted in warning. The next thing he knew Rex was yelling at everyone to take cover, and Ahsoka was running for the shelter of the monastery doors. Flashes of brilliant light blinded him as he instinctively looked up at the sky. Something rumbled and thundered. It wasn't a storm; it was a massive C-9979 Separatist landing ship escorted by at least one squadron of droid vulture fighters. R2-D2 stood his ground, still transmitting Kenobi's message.

"Anakin?" Kenobi's transmission was breaking up. "Anakin!" And then it was gone, and the rising whine of a fighter diving to attack sent Anakin scrambling to the monastery wall with R2- D2. Vulture droids swooped, blitzing the starfighter until it turned into a mushroom cloud of flame and smoke. There was no option but to retreat into the monastery.

"Ahsoka! Are you okay?" He called out. Anakin couldn't see her. A fighter strafed the monastery, ripping up ancient flagstones in a dead straight line and scattering chunks of stone like shrapnel. R2-D2 rolled up beside him. "Talk to me, Snips!"

"I'm okay, Master." Her voice came from behind him, muffled by something. She must have had her face buried in the backpack against her chest, shielding Rotta the hard way. For all the sheer terror of the attack, Anakin could think only of the fact that she was inhaling concentrated essence of Hutt. Now, that takes guts. "I've got Rotta. I think he's too sick to notice what's going on, poor kid."

"It's okay. Keep your head down. And his." Anakin gestured to the droid. "Artoo, get over there with her."

"Sorry, Skyguy," Ahsoka called. "I ran instead of sticking with you."

"Rotta's got to stay alive. You did right, Snips." He replied, patting her shoulder. Callous as it seemed, Anakin was also relieved that he didn't have an alert, panic-stricken Huttlet screaming blue murder as the laser rounds tore up the ground around him. "Getting shot when you don't have to isn't heroic, it's dumb." Rex, skidding to a crouch beside him, slammed his hand down on top of Anakin's raised head. Laser rounds punched a shower of brick dust and rubble out of the wall above them.

"Yes, sir, it is. Keep your kriffing head down." The Clone remarked.

"I can sense rounds coming, Rex." Anakin retorted indignantly.

"Okay, then do it to humor me." It was gestures like that, real concern however abruptly worded, that made Anakin feel he could tackle anything. He relished the heady comradeship born in desperate situations. Even cornered and outgunned like this, he knew someone was watching his back-not because he was the Chosen One or an officer, but because the soldier next to him was a comrade. And Anakin would do the same for him. It wasn't quite the serene acceptance that Kenobi had tried to instill in him, but Qui-Gon Jinn would have understood. "So what's it to be, sir?" Rex asked, his voice was almost drowned out by the hammer of laserfire. Droids were trying to breach the outer wall, spider droids and B2 models pushing hard agaisnt the troopers defending the gate. "Stall them until General Kenobi gets here, or slug it out?"

"You know what they say about discretion and valor. Can we land a larty?" The Jedi responded. Sometimes Anakin longed for a helmet like what the Clones wore, something that would give him hard data. Right then he needed to see real-time sensor information. "Can we get Ahsoka off this rock with the Huttlet?"

"Negative, sir. Even if the lattie isn't pounded to pieces when it sets down, not even Hawk could guarantee getting past the Seppie ships in one piece, and he couldn't outrun them. We're stuck!" Rex negatively stated. Their options were few and unlikeable, Anakin hated picking between anything of such a nature.

"Okay, then we dig in. Fall back and hold the monastery. Just concentrate on keeping that Hutt alive!" He ordered.

"Got it, sir!" Rex fell silent for a moment, head lowered as if talking on another circuit. Anakin saw troopers dart back through the gates just before something smashed into the wooden supports and left them splintered and smoking. "They could turn this whole plateau to molten slag from the air if they wanted to."

"Not if they want the Hutt alive." Anakin countered.

"Okay, a picture is forming now…" Rex trailed off, stitching together the evidence in his mind.

"If Dooku set this up, then he needs to be the one to hand Rotta back to Jabba." Anakin reasoned.

"What I wouldn't give for air cover." The Captain muttered.

"Twice in a row. Next time, we pack a squadron of Delta intercepters." Anakin agreed. Rex froze for a moment as if listening, then trained his rifle on the massive gates that had stood untouched for centuries.

"Here they come, a full army's worth." He stated. "Coric, Hez, covering fire. Walker, get to that gate and block those tinnies. Everyone else, get inside now!"

"That means you, Ahsoka!" Anakin yelled. But when he glanced over his shoulder, she was already running for the doors, clutching the pack to her chest, with R2-D2 at her heels like a herding akk dog as they bobbed around the shuffling legs of the AT-TE.

"Steady, boys…" Rex urged in a whisper. "Make every round count." The first of the battle droids pushed through the remains of the gate as the last AT-TE plodded toward them, laying down suppressing fire. The front rank was cut down into a flurry of metal shredded so thoroughly that for a moment it hung in the air like decoy chaff. Anakin crouched with his lightsaber held horizontally over his head in a backhand grip and backed toward the main monastery doors. Troopers ran past him, vanishing into the passage.

"How many men still out there, Captain?" He asked. Rex paused to reload. The AT-TE pounded at a target beyond the gate that Anakin couldn't see. "Nobody outside the walls. Here in the courtyard; our walker, Coric's squad, and Hez's squad." He reported.

"Okay, pull them out now."

"The walker can't fit through doors, sir. The crew will have to dismount." And they'd be cut down the moment they opened the hatches. Anakin realized with a sigh. The Knight struggled with that same sense of comradeship that had so buoyed him up minutes earlier. No. I will not slam the doors on my men. He determined. Officers were supposed to accept those losses. But Anakin wouldn't, not as long as he had a lightsaber in his hands.

"Then I'll cover them." He stated. It was not a question or a suggestion, but a simple fact. He didn't wait for Rex's answer, springing to his feet and raced forward as he ignited his lightsaber, batting away droid blasterfire and trusting his Force senses to steer him between the strafing runs of the vulture fighters. He was almost at the feet of the AT-TE, wondering if Rex was giving them an order to dismount or if he'd have to hammer on the belly hatch, when a pack of spider droids scuttled into the courtyard and opened fire on the armored walker.

The walker took multiple hits as Anakin lunged forward to get to the belly hatch, he heard the crunch of glass exploding and the anguished cry of the pilot as he was torn to shreds by explosive rounds. The next round caught it in one of the forward turrets, and the explosion threw Anakin flat. As he struggled to his feet, he could see the smoke and flames belching from two hatches. The walker tottered, then collapsed on its front legs before crashing onto its side.

The belly hatch flew open. Anakin let instinct take over and he was instantly between the stricken AT-TE and the advancing droids, using the fallen vehicle for cover while he deflected small cannon rounds. From the corner of his eye, he saw four white shapes stagger clear, two of them dragging another man. Five. The turret gunner was vaporized, as was the pilot. That left one of the crew. Flames now licked from the hatch. "Sir..." One of them coughed.

"Run. I'll hold them." Anakin stated. "Anyone alive inside?" Dumb question, but I need to know.

"Negative, sir." The Clone responded with a shake of his head.

"Get going. Count of three." Anakin bobbed up from behind the walker and was greeted by a hail of blasterfire. "Three!" He yelled, swinging at the bolts. The men sprinted for the door, plunging into the acrid black smoke that now filled the courtyard. It acted like some kind of cover for a few seconds, the droids' photoreceptors unable to acquire a target through the thick haze. Anakin saw the droids, hampered by their own debris, and his eyes went to the blazing carcass of the AT-TE.

Just do it.

Adrenaline fueled him. He sent the wreckage skidding across the ground with a massive Force push. The kinetic force of the impact and the sheet of flame released when it slammed into the droid ranks had the effect of a bomb going off. Then another explosion, no doubt the walker's magazine, sent a fireball soaring into the air.

Anakin found he wanted to wade in and cut down whatever was still standing when the flame died, but common sense told him to get out. He ran full tilt for the monastery door, leaping over debris, masonry, and downed droids. The door, a solid portcullis, still hung open. Rex stood outside with his rifle aimed past him. They'd never lock the door down before the droids reached them if they didn't start closing it right now. Anakin bellowed at the top of his voice. "Rex, get inside! Seal the door!"

"With respect, sir, no." Rex let loose with a couple of anti-armor rounds that skimmed to Anakin's left. The distinct whoosh of a sudden vacuum created by the solid-steel rounds as they passed him was swallowed by a blast that kicked him forward. The sound of running metal feet hammered behind him. He didn't dare turn and look.

"I said shut the kriffing door." His tone was angry, but not at Rex. He just needed to get his point across. Rex stood motionless for a moment; then, as if he'd been counting, he spun around and fired a round into the controls just inside the door. The heavy slab fell.

It wasn't a controlled closure.

Anakin focused on the gap. Nothing else existed.

The last thing he saw before he dropped onto his right ankle to skid the last few meters was Rex ducking under the falling door almost alongside him. For a split second, Anakin looked up and was sure the door was going to slice clean through his skull.

It crashed down behind him, close enough and hard enough to blow his hair over his eyes. The passage was plunged into darkness.

Nothing moved; Anakin looked at his clenched fist and breathed a silent sigh of relief that he'd shut off the lightsaber in it instinctively. The silence was broken only by the clacking of armor plates in the darkness, and then the faint sounds of droids massing on the other side of the door. Helmet spot lamps began lighting up like a cautious sunrise. So I got you into this. So I'll get you out. Anakin rose to his feet, gearing up to deploy the men for a last-ditch defensive action.

"Sir," one of the troopers piped up, "I think I left my lunchbox outside. Want to go and collect it for me?" The remnant of Torrent Company burst out laughing, and so did Anakin. It was that moment of life-or-death desperation that flipped instantly into the black humor of sheer relief at finding your lungs were still working.

"Rex, how many casualties?" Anakin asked. Ahead, he could see R2-D2's array of lights and panels winking in the gloom. "How many medics made it?"

"Forty-two men remaining, sir, three medic-trained. Six walking wounded, one seriously injured and immobile." Rex reported with clinical precision. The last point was visibly obvious. Three troopers clustered around the injured AT-TE crewman, whose armor plates and helmet had been placed to one side while they tried to stabilize him with hemostats and a plasma line.

Three-quarters of my men dead. For a Hutt. "Okay, Captain. We stay here until General Kenobi arrives with reinforcements. We'll hole up in the least accessible cell we can find and if they get past you, then they'll still have to get past me and Ahsoka. And Artoo." Anakin directed.

"Understood, sir." Rex affirmed with a crisp nod.

"Master, do you honestly think we can hold them off? We've got to find a way out of here." Ahsoka insisted.

"Our mandate is to protect this Hutt, and that's what we're going to do, Ahsoka." Anakin quickly replied. There were some things Clone troopers did that made Anakin realize that their relentless training from infancy was both like his and also utterly alien. At a single gesture from Rex, no audible command given, the troopers split into groups. One party began stripping anything that was removable from walls and alcoves, and stacking it against the door. Another group laid ordnance out on the floor and seemed to be assembling booby traps; three men ran down the passage and started setting up a first-aid position. One trooper pressed a thin wire into the gaps between the flagstones from one side of the passage to the other. Others it took Anakin a few moments to work out, but they were wiring themselves, packing ordnance into their backpacks.

No droid was getting through except over their dead bodies, and maybe not even then. The message was clear.

Anakin said nothing, but walked among the troopers, tapping his palm against the hand of every man he could reach. Some returned the gesture. Nothing needed saying. Rex was last; Anakin clapped his hand on the Captain's backplate as he passed, and Rex just gave him a deceptively relaxed pat on the shoulder in return. It wasn't like this in the holovids. Anakin wasn't sure how he would ever describe it to Padme, or if he'd want to. I haven't even thought about her since the battle started. He felt briefly guilty about that. And, unbidden, another little voice nagged in his head: Yoda still won't give you any genuine praise if you save the day, you know…

But that was the other Anakin's voice. Now the resentment against everyone who wouldn't let him have his head, the pendulum that swung between seeing Kenobi as the big brother he needed and the older sibling who just held him back, was silenced. Something in him switched on-his older, battle-hardened self.

The innermost sanctum had been a Hutt throne room, judging by the overblown decor. What it had been before, Anakin couldn't guess. But now it was sanctuary.


Outside…

The ranks of battle droids parted, and Asajj Ventress walked slowly through their line to pause at the entrance to the monastery. White armor jutted from the rubble. The Jedi were running out of slaves to take the blaster bolts for them. The battle droid commander trotted up to her. "They've barricaded themselves in. The door controls have been destroyed, and we heard activity behind it that suggest the Republic troops are reinforcing it." It reported.

"They have nowhere to run." Ventress calmly responded.

"We could demand a surrender and offer them terms, ma'am." The droid commander suggested.

"A waste of time." Ventress curtly replied. "They won't accept. This is the Grand Army-and the Five-Oh-First, at that. Skywalker's own men. Every indication we have is that they're not just good little loyal Clones, they're personally loyal to him. If he orders them to die for him, they will. Fools. I hope for their sakes that they realize what the Jedi are before they die in the proverbial ditch to save their miserable skins." She hissed.

"That's a negative, then, ma'am." Droids weren't capable of sarcasm.

"Skywalker got a message out to the Republic. We'll have armed company sooner or later. Stay alert. I want vultures and spider droids patrolling the whole complex."

"Roger roger." Ventress didn't like heroism. She didn't disrespect heroes; she just knew that sacrifice was seldom rewarded, and always exploited. Narec's heroic efforts for the people of Rattatak hadn't meant a thing to Mace Windu. It was the Jedi Master who had abandoned Narec, her mentor and her only friend, to die. The Jedi didn't give a second thought to my world and its suffering. The only Jedi who ever did was my poor late Master, Ky Narec. The Republic and its lickspittle Jedi parasites left him to fight and die alone. She angrily thought to herself. And now the fine, decent, oh-so-moral Republic wonders why it's made so many enemies. I wish you hadn't told me that, Dooku. But we all need a focus.

Narec had been expendable, just like those Clones behind that door. There was no point thinking too hard about their plight, though. It would weaken her resolve. There was only one outcome if you tried to help a mistreated akk dog; it would still rip out your well-meaning, sympathetic throat, because its master had made it dangerous and it knew no other response.

She knew what to do now, withdrawing her communicator. "Jayden, spring your trap as soon as you can. But remember, do not kill the Huttlet. Not even a scratch."

"Understood..."


And that's it for this chapter everyone. I hope you all liked it.