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


Ahsoka laid the backpack down on the floor and examined Rotta. "He's asleep," she said, "or unconscious." Anakin sat down before he checked the Huttlet, too.

"He's breathing. That can only be good." He mused in agreement.

"But he's burning up." His Padawan worriedly implored. Ahsoka had no fear of slime, it seemed, as she put her hand flat on Rotta's head. "Kids can run fevers, have fits, and then be right as rain in an hour. Well, human children can. Can't they?"

"Where'd you learn that?" Anakin queried.

"Same way you learned Huttese, probably. Jedi pick up stuff." She said. Anakin wasn't sure if she was being sarcastic or defensive, but he suspected the latter.

"You're doing all anyone can, Snips. Don't beat yourself up." He gently encouraged.

"If anything happens to him, it'll be my fault." Ahsoka whispered.

"No it won't." Anakin countered, gently but firmly. "What are you trying to prove, anyway?" Ahsoka fidgeted with her hands for a moment, seemingly toying with the notion of telling the truth or telling a fib. If there was one thing Anakin remembered from Master Shaak Ti, Togruta were notoroiously bad liars.

"That I'm not too young to be your Padawan." Ahsoka confessed. Anakin cocked a brow.

"Oh, that? Have I sent you back to the Temple yet? No. Have I stopped you fighting? No. So I must think you're old enough." He mused, leaning forward and folding his hands together. "A very wise Jedi once said 'nothing happens by accident'. It is the will of the Force that you are at my side. I just want to keep you there in one piece." Ahsoka didn't reply. But she managed a toothy smile and went on fussing over Rotta.

Anakin shot the Huttlet another glance. He really did look bad, even for a Hutt. His eyes weren't completely shut, even though he wasn't responding to anything, and Anakin could see a hint of the glistening membrane under his eyelids. The smell? He'd forgotten it. The last few hours had been so numbing that the stench had just ceased to register on him. Anakin rummaged in the small satchel attached to his belt. "Snips, when did you last drink some fluid? Come to that, when did our fragrant little precious?" He wondered and held out his water flask. "Come on. Dehydration makes you confused, and then it kills you." He should have known better by now. Ahsoka reached out, took the flask with a grimly determined smile and then dribbled a little of the water into Rotta's mouth. There was no way Anakin was placing that flask near his own mouth again, if he could help it. Ahsoka moistened the baby's lips again. An oversized slimy tongue darted out and Rotta slurped.

"Oh, that's good! Good boy! Come on, Stinky, drink some more for Mama…" She cooed.

"I don't think Hutts have mothers." Anakin remarked. He watched, a listening ear on the lookout for trouble and trying to sense the degree of danger at the front door. "If you're not careful, he'll bond with you."

"Do they do that?" Ahsoka wondered as she took a swig from the bottle without wiping the neck. Anakin's stomach rolled a little. Maybe if you snacked on rodents, Hutt dribble didn't seem so offensive. She did wrinkle her nose, though. "I don't want to confuse the poor little guy."

"When he's all grown up and he's a two-ton crime lord, you'll have a devoted friend for life." Anakin remarked with a roll of his eyes.

"Talking of loyalty… Rex and his men…" Ahsoka trailed off.

"I know. I know." Anakin agreed with a sigh. The job had to be done. It didn't mean Anakin had to like it, though. "This is one of the worst lessons you'll ever have to learn, Snips. Command means being prepared to get troops killed."

"They'd do anything for you." She noted, casting a glance over her shoulder at the bustling troops behind her.

"And I won't throw their lives away." Anakin vowed, both to her and to himself.

"Is it better not to get to know them?" The Togruta queried innocently.

"No. It's not. It's shirking your responsibility, and it's disrespectful. Get to know them, and then you fully understand the price you're asking them to pay." Anakin stated. Ahsoka paused to reflect on that, chewing on the information in her mind.

"With any luck, Master Kenobi will arrive before then." She was hopeful, Anakin had to appreciate that. Her attitude and mind had yet to be sullied by the horrors of war, she still had the bright spark of childlike optimism and he smiled just thinking about it. She'd grow up, maybe lose it in time, but for now it was a reminder there was a life outside of war. And one worth living at that.

Obi-Wan was pretty good at showing up when needed most. But Anakin had a sinking feeling he'd be too late for what was left of Torrent Company.

A sudden outburst from one of the Clones jerked both their heads to the main room, a single trooper standing jerkily in place, his hand clutching his throat. But there was nothing there. He lifted off the ground, writhing and choking before there was the sound of something being crushed and then his body fell to the ground, dead. others crowded around, the two Jedi leaping from their places and running over to check on things.

"Medic!" Rex snapped and one of the Clones quickly checked over his fallen brother.

"Dead, sir. His windpipe's been rushed by something." He announced.

"The Force..." Anakin muttered, realizing there was a Force-sensitive in the room with them, and it wasn't a friendly. "Rex, defensive positions, now!"

"Yes sir! Come on you lot, weapons up and hot!" Rex ordered as the Clones scrambled to ready themselves. They worked to form a defensive formation when there was the snapping hiss of a Lightsaber activating, followed by a red blur being thrown from the darkness and impaled through a Clone's chest.

"Crossguard?" Ahsoka blinked in surprise upon seeing the hilt of the Lightsaber... just before the Lightsaber flew back into the darkness as the red blade deactivated. "Didn't ancient Jedi in the Old Republic use them?"

"Not the time, Ahsoka." Anakin chastised her before he reached out with the Force, he could sense someone lurking in the shadows. And they were strong with the Dark Side of the Force, strong enough to hide their presence and Force signature from two Jedi until they struck.

Igniting his blade, Anakin reached out, hoping for some more illumination. Ahsoka quickly echoed his movements, adjusting her posture slightly to accommodate the weight on her back. Rotta still didn't stir, something she was partly thankful for but also quite worried about. Yet it was something she could not focus on right now. It was a constant, she'd be able to come back to it later. This right now, this demanded her full attention.

She narrowed her eyes, catching faint shapes here and there in the dark, the odd pattern occasionally lit by the lights on the troopers' helmets. The over-opulence of the room made it hard for her to see straight. The Force told her someone was out there, watching them… stalking them… She went into huntress mode, predator searching for a rival on the hunt. Her headtails were hollow at the top, and allowed her a form of echolocation if she focused just right. Ahsoka closed her eyes, cancelling out visual stimulation as soundwaves began to move, painting a picture in her mind. The click of Clone rifles against plastoid armor bracers, the soft crunch of stone under foot, the squeak of leather tightening as her Master's glove gripped his Lightsaber.

That was when she heard it.

Soft steps, rendered so by hundreds of tiny pneumatics adjusting for weight and balance in order to move as silently as possible, that echoed somewhere in the darkness of the hall. She could track their path now, thanks to her echolocation. Chancing to open her eyes, Ahsoka caught the briefest flash of red in the dark.

No one said anything. Anakin watched the door, expecting some commando droid to leap from the shadows with a knife. The Clones fingered the triggers of their weapons, ready to fire at a moments notice at anything that dared move. Ahsoka took a few careful steps back, Rotta gurgling behind her in his diseased stupor.

Both of them missed the figure hidden in the shadows above Ahsoka.

It took a sudden disturbance in the Force for Anakin to turn, his senses alive with the feeling of imminent danger. Not for him, but for her. His own eyes widened at the sight of movement behind her. "Ahsoka! Behind you!" He cried out, wheeling around on his heels as the Clones swiveled on instinct. The Togruta stopped and finally heard the movement behind, followed by her danger sense going off.

She turned, raising her Lightsaber in time to block a red blade but she was caught off guard and knocked onto her side from the impact. The attacker stood and threw his hand out, and a Force push sent several Clones off their feet and into the wall. Anakin leaped and met the Sith in battle, their Lightsabers clashing in a Saber lock of red and blue, their clash illuminating the face of his foe with intermittent flashes.

Anakin frowned as he stared at a mask that looked Mandalorian in origin, but with a straight single visor rather than a t-shaped one. He also noticed his foe wore silver armour with a red hood, an outfit known as 'Jedi Hunter' for some reason.

The Sith pushed back against Anakin's blade, forcing the Jedi back a step. The Sith reared his free arm back and Anakin's eyes widened before he was thrown off his feet with a powerful Force push that sent him crashing through a wall.

Rex, Ahsoka, and the men watched in horrified awe, then the head of their attacker turned to them, boring into them with silent, malevolent intent. With Anakin momentarily out of the way, the Clones were vulnerable. It was open season.

"Stay back, ma'am!" A trooper shouted, putting himself between Ahsoka and the Sith. "Keep that slug safe!" He fired off multiple rounds from his rifle, but the Sith deflected the shots with his Lightsaber easily, swing the weapon with one arm while he strode fourth with purpose. He slashed the Clone in a diagonal way, cutting him into two halves.

"Close ranks! Close ranks!" Rex cried, an order that proved fruitless as the Sith was on them, swinging his Lightsaber and cutting through Clone after Clone without mercy, without hesitation, without a single bit of remorse.

The Sith spun and stabbed a Clone through the head with his Lightsaber, then twirled his weapon before stabbing a Clone behind him without looking. He then threw the Saber and several Clones were cut in half from the waist down. The Sith picked several Clones up with the Force and slammed them into the wall repeatedly until blood stained the ground and their bodies dropped. He Force called his Lightsaber to him as he deflected more shots and sliced, slashed, and cut his way through the Clones. Ahsoka stood frozen in wide-eyed horror, unable to comprehend the senseless slaughter unfolding before her. She blinked as the Sith blocked a punch from a Clone, twisted his arm before decapitating him. The other Clones backed off as the Sith lifted one up with the Force and began Force choking the life out of him.

He started to clench his hand into a fist when-

"Stop it!"

Ahsoka's sudden outburst from fearful desperation and raw terror caused the Sith to turn his attention to her, and he tilted his head a little.

Swallowing her fear, Ahsoka fought the rising panic. "Put him down!" She ordered as fiercely as she could, but her expression belied the truth.

Instead of doing so, he clenched his fingers into a fist hard. The sickening crack of bone signalled the snapping of the Clone's neck and the Sith cast him aside like discarded waste. Ahsoka loosed a choked gasp, remaining in wide-eyed horror at the horror laid out before her.

The Sith continued to stare at her before he started to walk towards her. The Clones started shooting at him again, but he deflected their shots without looking. Rex was shouting something but Ahsoka could not understand. Everything was fading out, replaced by this unbroken line of sight between her and this merchant of death. Death was coming for her. Her little body would join the pieces on the ground soon, she just knew it.

Suddenly, Anakin lept from the dark and unleashed a Force push so strong it half-buried the enemy in the wall. Next thing she knew he was in her face, grabbing her shoulder in a painful grip. "Ahsoka!" He roared and the Togruta was shaken from her stupor. "Run! Run to the lower levels, get Rotta out of here! Come on, move!" Anakin urged. The weight in her feet began to alleviate and Ahsoka started moving, walking first then jogging. Soon she was sprinting as the panic and the fear set in, Anakin guarding her rear as he retreated alongside her. The girl barely heard Rex's final order to his men.

"Put some heat on this guy! We have to buy the General time!"


Jayden grunted upon slamming into the wall, nearly going through it. He had underestimated Skywalker, believed he was down for the count after Force pushing him through a wall. That a mistake he will not make again. He grabbed his Lightsaber, deflecting the Clones blaster shots before he unleashed a Force shockwave that sent them all off their feet and slamming into the wall or ground.

Jayden surveyed the sight before he looked in the direction Skywalker and his Padawan ran off to, and took off after them. Asajj and the droids can deal with the Clones.


Half a dozen doors had been wedged shut by the Force, Anakin barricading them with whatever extras the lower halls could afford them. Only after the sixth clanged shut and was locked tight did Anakin allow him and Ahsoka a breather. Being chased by that Sith proved even more taxing than usual. It was relentless, it just didn't give up.

The noise of the explosions made Anakin start, even in these buried vaults. He had no hard data, but he felt death, pain, and fear rip through the fabric of the Force, and that only could come from living beings snuffed out of existence, not droids. I'm sorry, Rex. I'm so sorry.

"The droids have broken through." He realized in a grim tone. "We need to get out of here."

"What… W-What was that thing?" Ahsoka asked in a trembling tone. Anakin stopped and looked to her. She seemed paler and he knew that the horrors of war were starting to settle in. "It just… Th-The men…" He placed a hand on her shoulder. Ahsoka just looked to him and he could see the fear in her eyes. "What was that?"

"A Sith." Anakin answered grimly. "Either Dooku or Ventress have got themselves an Apprentice, or it's a Sith assassin like Ventress is. But this guy was too strong in the Dark Side to simply be am assassin. Look, it's not here now. We're safe for a moment. Taker a breather. Get it together, Ahsoka." It was softly spoken, but the command laced within his words was evident. Anakin knew they needed to get out of here but now time was of the essence, as if it wasn't already. Not only did they have to get to Tatooine before Jabba's limit was up but they had to survive and escape this place to boot. "We gotta get out of here. I need you focused." Ahsoka managed the barest of nods. Anakin could tell she was shellshocked. A loose, trembling finger pointed towards the wall.

"I-If there's a way out of here, A-Artooie should be able to find it." She offered. She had found an old data terminal that, thankfully, had an astromech port. Nodding with the good news, Anakin turned to his faithful droid.

"Make it quick, Artoo. Find us a way out of here. We still have an objective to achieve." Whistling in compliance, R2 rolled over and plugged himself in, beginning the process of cycling through dozens of data channels and age-old files. Hopefully the monastery's database was in good repair, otherwise they would have a whole new problem to contend with. "Ahsoka, take five but get ready to move." She nodded, doubled-over and gasping for air, a slightly vacant look in her eyes. Rotta seemed to wake, blinking, and gurgled.

"Hey… You… y-you back with us, Stinky?" Ahsoka craned her neck to look around at him. "Little nap do you good?" She wished she could take one. Her heart felt like it was going to explode.

"Just don't die on us." Anakin muttered. He'd probably lost an entire company just to save this slug. He wondered if the Outer Rim routes were really that critical, and if a little more strategic thought could have circumvented the supply-chain problem. It was all too late now. "The sooner we can get rid of you, the better." Ahsoka frowned slightly.

"I… I know you probably have good reasons for hating Hutts, just like everyone else, but what can Rotta possibly have done? He's a baby. He's only guilty of being a slug."

"I'm sure he'll make up for that when he gets older." Anakin wasn't in the mood to debate speciesism. The Huttlet was still alive, but most of his troops weren't. Maybe none of them. The worst thing about the pressure easing for a moment was that all the other ugly thoughts and memories flooded back in. He sighed. "Look, I do my duty, but I reserve the right to think what I like about whether it's worth the sweat and blood or not."

"If it means we can fight more effectively, doesn't that save lives?"

"If we get chummy with organized crime, and turn a blind eye to our allies making a living from slavery, drug running, extortion, and murder, what exactly are we fighting for?" He retorted heatedly. Ahsoka stared at him, wide-eyed.

"Is this a test?" Anakin sighed.

"No. It's just me getting angry." He muttered. R2-D2 beeped frantically. He was triumphant. He'd found what he was looking for. Anakin's train of thought was broken, mercifully, and he concentrated on the holographic plan that appeared from the astromech droid's projector. It showed a network of passages leading out of the monastery. But even better than that was a landing platform jutting out of the sheer side of the cliff, set a little way from the top, and approached from the rear. "That's a great place to land a gunship." He realized. "Artoo, you're the navigator. Lead us down there and I'll call for extraction."

"You're going home, Stinky," Ahsoka whispered to the Huttlet. "Hang in there. You'll be back with your daddy soon."

"Lucky slug." Anakin huffed sourly. It wasn't the way a General should have behaved, he knew; it was a poor example to set for a Padawan. But Anakin was twenty, having lived through things most kids his age hadn't, and he'd had few of the carefree times that young men his age took for granted. And Rex and his men had even less. I've at least got Padme. What am I griping about?

It was too bad. He was the Chosen One, a Jedi, and he wasn't the one doing the choosing. He had a destiny. But sometimes it was very hard to take it in his stride without anger, frustration, and a growing list of unanswered questions. "Get going, Artoo." He commanded. "Next stop, Tatooine."


Rex wasn't sure when the weight on his chest lifted, but it had, and he could breathe again. He flicked his visor back to normal light vision with a couple of blinks. Either he was dead, and being dead was an awful lot like being alive, or he'd survived. It took some moments to work out that he was propped against the wall on a carpet of wreckage. Biosign icons blinked in his HUD; five of his men were still alive.

Yeah, I'm alive. I really am. You should have finished me off when you had the chance, tinnies…

But he couldn't spring up and get on with the fight. He needed to assess the situation. "Nobody move." He ordered. In the privacy of his helmet, he could speak with his men undetected. "Report in if you can hear me."

"Receiving, sir."

"Yes, sir."

"I hear you, sir."

"Got you, sir." Coric. He'd made it. "Just a few bruises."

"And me, sir."

"CT-nine-nine-three-two, sir."

Rex felt he'd taken back control of the situation, no matter how many droids were still out there. "Anyone not capable of moving or using a weapon, speak up now." There was just the sound of breathing in his audio circuit. "Okay, time for dynamic risk assessment. Follow my lead. When we get the chance to make a run for it, we head for the courtyard, grab any spare weapons, and rappel back down onto the jungle floor." There was a chorused mumble of agreement. He could make it sound so simple. As he lay slumped, he saw a pair of boots and the swinging hem of a robe coming toward him at a leisurely pace, accompanied by a pair of droid legs. The range of vision in his HUD gave him a panoramic view without him moving his head if he needed it. Playing dead, he adjusted the view with a few blinks and saw a battle droid in commander's livery, and a severe-looking, shaven-headed woman in darkened robes, with what looked like a lightsaber grasped in one hand.

Nice choice of hairstyle, sweetheart, but something tells me you're not a Jedi.

He knew who she was. His HUD database held a rogues' gallery of Separatists, and Asajj Ventress, Dooku's assassin, was one of the easiest of the scumbags to identify. "Stand by," he whispered. Rex took a chance that the rest of the droids had moved on. He reached slowly for his sidearm. Droid first, or Ventress? He opted for the droid, aimed his sidearm and blew its head off, then swung onto Ventress..

He really should have picked her off first.

She ignited her lightsaber and batted the fire away in the fraction of a second it took him to shift his aim. The next he knew, his weapon was jerked out of his fist by an unseen force, and he was lifted bodily by his throat. The rim of his helmet took most of the stress, and if it hadn't he was certain that it would have snapped his neck.

Ventress had grabbed his throat in a stranglehold. She didn't even need to touch him.

I won't make that mistake again. Now, nobody else move…. keep your nerve…

"Captain," Ventress murmured. "What a miraculous return from the dead. Where's your general?"

"Which one?" Rex sputtered. Asajj scoffed.

"Don't get smart with me. You know who. Skywalker. I know he's here."

"I haven't seen him since the shooting started." Rex retorted.

"At least you're not lying."

"I'm not talking to Separatist scum, either..." She gave a little surprised snort.

"Why do you bother to waste your lives for these Jedi scum?" Her Force grip tightened, not enough to choke him into unconsciousness, but hard enough to let him know she could rip out his trachea. "They don't care what happens to you. They don't care about anything except themselves and their nice, comfortable, Coruscant lives." She loosened her grip a fraction. "You're less than an animal to them. A piece of equipment. So tell me where Skywalker and the Hutt are. I've got no personal grievance with you or your men." There was only one answer he was obliged to give as a prisoner of war.

"Rex, Captain, Five-oh-first Legion, number CC-seven-five-six-seven." Ventress tightened her grip a notch.

"They don't deserve your loyalty, soldier. When are you going to realize that?" She hissed.

"Rex, Captain." He was trained to resist interrogation. He focused on that, shutting out her threats and cajoling exactly as he'd been taught. "Five-oh-first Legion, number CC-seven-five-six-seven." This time, Ventress growled.

"When you've served your purpose, they'll leave you to rot and die like they left my Master. And he was one of their own, a Jedi. How much do you think Skywalker cares about a chattel like you? When you're too broken to use, he can get another one just like you right away."

"Rex, Captain, Five-oh-first Legion, number CC-seven-five-six-seven." He stubbornly replied. Rex tried to look past Ventress and fix on a point in the wall behind her, to escape mentally to another place. He focused on getting out alive. He focused on getting his remaining men out alive. He focused on everything except the words coming out of her mouth, because those were her real weapons, a far greater danger than her lightsabers or violent Force powers. When he accidentally caught her eyes, they were disturbingly pale, blue, obsessed.

She loathed the Republic, and Jedi in particular. It was written all over her face. She meant every word. She hurt deep down. They'd made a devoted enemy of her somehow. She wasn't an opportunistic criminal, she was...

No, stop. That's all part of her game.

"They'll leave you when it suits them, Clone." Her voice was now softer, conspiratorial. "We're all the same to them, you see. Even those of us with Force powers. We're all expendable when it suits them. Help me crush them now, before they end up getting you all killed." Rex jerked his eyes from hers. Part of him was playing his own game to buy some time, but part of him was disturbed by the way her words somehow struck an unwelcome chord. Jedi can do this. Seen it done. Mind influence. Only works on the weak-minded, they say. Well, I ain't, and I'm ready for you, sister...

"Rex, Captain, Five-oh-first Legion, number CC-seven-five-six-seven…" Asajj threw him to the ground and then turned to her droids.

"Lockdown this area and secure all access points, shoot him if he so much as moves." She ordered. "I am going to the lower levels." Ventress made to leave, pausing by the dismembered arm of a Clone. She knew who did it, but the sight still made her recoil.


Anakin tightened the straps on Ahsoka's backpack. Rotta squealed in protest, fixing Anakin with those unsettling yellow eyes that he preferred to avoid. "Yes, I know it's tight, but you're going to slip out if we have to do any jumping around." Anakin said to the Huttlet. "You're a slippery customer. And you'll be even more slimy and slippery when you grow up." He added with a grumble.

"He doesn't understand." Ahsoka interjected. "All he knows is that you're being mean to him."

"Yeah." Compassion in a Jedi was essential, but it seemed to him like Ahsoka could take it too far. "Now let's get moving. Those droids will be all over us before we know it." R2-D2 headed for the exit. Ahsoka trotted after him, Anakin defending the rear.

"Don't you remember what it was like to be a kid?" She asked. If only you knew, Snips.

"A pain in the neck, you mean?"

"No, being treated as if you're inconvenient, deaf, and stupid by adults who ought to know better." Ouch. That was a real smack around the head, and Anakin couldn't actually argue with it. It pretty well described his relationship with the Jedi Council. He didn't have a smart answer to fire back, and found himself interrupted by wondering how long it was going to be before this numbness wore off and reality slammed him against the wall, screaming: Why didn't you save Rex? Why can't you save anyone who matters? What's the point of being the Chosen One if you can't save people you care about?

He was in the doorway, checking down the passage behind them, when the Force suddenly flared in alarm, cautioning him of a malevolent presence. It was similar to the Sith they encountered, but it wasn't him. He was tearing his way through the sealed doors towards them.

It had to be another one of Dooku's minions, of course. And it wasn't always possible to identify other Force-users simply from the impression they left in the Force, only that they were around, but some-some just announced who they were so clearly that they might as well have stood there in the flesh.

Asajj Ventress.

Anakin knew that raging pain, that absolutely obsessive hatred, a focus so harsh and clean in its dark way that it was like looking into the heart of a diamond. The right side of his face burned, the scars running down through his flesh suddenly felt new and raw. He felt like he was on Yavin 4 again, the rain pelting them, the sizzling of lightsabers clashing over and over again atop ancient Massassi temples…

"Master?" Ahsoka's voice stirred him from his memories. "What is it?"

"Someone's up there. With Rex." He said simply.

"Who?"

"Dooku's assassin, Ventress." Ahsoka arched a brow, the name not entirely unfamiliar.

"What do you think she wants?" She asked. Anakin was certain where this was heading now.

"Either she's here to kill the Hutt and blame it on us or to come and take Rotta to Dooku and then to Jabba." A loud crashing noise from behind them startled the two, master and apprentice jerking around as heavy metal rumbled to a halt, the noise left to carry down the halls.

One of the doors, a mighty, impenetrable slab, had been removed.

"After this guy kills us." Ahsoka swallowed nervously. Yes, that was a given.

"We're here solely to get that Huttlet home. Everything else, Snips, will just be detail in the final report." He urged, patting her shoulder and coaxing her onwards. As they followed R2-D2's unerring path down the twisting passages that snaked close to the foundations of monastery, Anakin was amending his plan to take account of the changing situation. Plans were just a hope, something to start from and try to follow until the enemy came along, poured reality on it, and threw the whole thing in the trash.

Right now, we get to that platform. Call in a gunship. Transfer the Huttlet. Send the gunship back to the ship and tell them to stand by with medics. Go back for Rex. Call for evac. Extract Rex and other survivors. He reasoned in his mind.

Once Rotta was safely on board that LAAT, the primary mission would be out of his hands, and he would then have the time to concentrate on his troops.

Should I send Ahsoka back with the Hutt? She'd be safer. Come to that, should I stay with the Hutt at all times, and leave Rex? No, that wasn't an option. And even if Anakin boarded the LAAT with the Hutt, the gunship was as prey to getting shot down as it would be if he hadn't been there. It was down to luck and good piloting in the end. Wow, these tunnels stink worse than that Huttlet. They must have broken sewage pipes down here. He absentmindedly mused.

R2-D2 whistled in his told-you-so way. There was a door at the end of the passage, exactly as on the holoplans. It opened stiffly and an inrush of hot, damp air hit Anakin in the face like a wet washcloth. They were standing on a platform jutting out over a sheer drop. The trees beneath were still hazy with mist. Ahsoka inhaled deeply, and even the sickly Rotta whined with apparent relief at relatively fresh air. As Anakin assessed the approach to the platform, he saw huge insects soaring on thermals, glittering like gems, and they had to have wingspan of three meters or more to be visible from here. He'd warn the gunship about those. They'd make a mess of a drive intake.

Anakin raised his comlink to his mouth. "Skywalker to Five-oh-first air support, anyone receiving? I say again, Skywalker here, we require evac and a medic..."

"Skywalker, this is gunship three-niner receiving, please give your position."

"Transmitting coordinates now." Anakin replied, tapping an adjacent button.

"Copy that, sir. On my way. Estimate six standard minutes. Injury?"

"Negative, but the hostage is sick and will require treatment. Better get someone looking through the species pharma database. And look out for FOD-three-meter flying insects." He cautioned.

"Already fried a few of them in the drives, sir… they're attracted by the noise and seem to think we're a prospective mate. We've lowered the intake filters to stop them fouling the propulsion units completely."

"Romance really is dead, then. Standing by, three-niner." Anakin responded before he clicked off. He didn't know where the gunship had been standing off, or even if it was the last one left. He wondered what it was like for those pilots to have to listen to the comm chatter, and know they had to wait rather than fly in and extract comrades in trouble.

All for a Hutt.

And they never said a word about how they felt.

"Give me the backpack." He urged, already reaching for the weight on his Padawan's shoulders. "Have a rest while you can. Stay close to the wall, when the gunship lands, it kicks up a lot of grit. And we don't know who else is airborne." He cautioned. Rotta seemed to be twice the weight he was when Anakin had first picked him up. He was still looking rough, even by Hutt standards. Once Anakin slung the pack on his back, though, he didn't have to look at the thing.

And he turned into the wind to take the smell of Hutt away. The stench still took him back to a time and a place he preferred to forget, when he and his mother were the property of a Hutt called Gardulla. They were used to settle a gambling debt, like a table or any other object that didn't matter or have an opinion.

You're not worth Rex's life, slugs. None of you.

Ahsoka, with her hunter's hearing, jerked her head up even before Anakin detected anything. As he concentrated, he heard the distinctive sound of a LAAT's drives. He knew now why it had such a galvanizing effect on Clone troopers waiting for extraction. Just hearing it, knowing that solid help was close at hand, made Anakin's spirits soar. The gunship appeared suddenly from beneath the platform level and swung its tail one-eighty degrees to set down with its port side hatch open. Its downdraft kicked grit into Anakin's face even this far back. He didn't care. It was the finest sight he'd seen in forever, even covered in bug-spatter and fragments of giant insect wings. Ahsoka shielded her face with one hand.

"Sir!" The winchman leaned out, one hand extended, the other hanging on to his safety line. "Let's get going. We've got Seppie craft all over the place."

"Just take the Hutt." Anakin started to slide the pack off his back, feeling stupid for not doing that first so that he had the backpack ready to hand over as soon as the hatch opened. "We're going back for Captain Rex and the others." The winchman didn't say a word and Anakin couldn't see his expression behind the visor.

Run. That was all he had to do, run the few meters across the landing platform, hand over the Hutt, and run back while the gunship left as fast as it could.

He saw the winchman whip around to look back into the cabin; he heard the sensors sounding a cockpit alarm. He was ten strides out from the wall when the shadow fell across the platform, dark and fast, with the whining note of a diving fighter. He was eight strides out when the familiar shriek of blasterfire filled the space.

He was seven out when the LAAT exploded in a ball of flame.

Metal and duraplast fragments flew out from the blast. Anakin was knocked flat and the last he saw of the gunship was a burning, twisted frame teetering on the edge of the platform before plunging into the jungle below. Seconds. Just seconds separated elation from total despair. Black smoke rose in a column high into the air. "Master!" Ahsoka ran to him. The pack on his back made him struggle to right himself. "Master..."

"The Hutt's okay," he heard himself saying, "get back. Get under cover." He ordered. As he got to his feet, the shadow fell again. It wasn't smoke. It was a vulture droid. It landed right in front of them, barring their path back to the safety of the door, and both of them drew their lightsabers. For a moment Anakin thought it had come to take the Hutt and so wouldn't open fire and risk killing its quarry, but he was wrong, totally wrong.

The thing rotated its wings to become sharp-edged legs, then opened up with laserfire. Anakin darted from side to side, batting away bolts, trying to keep facing the vulture so that Rotta was protected by his body. Ahsoka tried to draw it off. R2-D2 beeped loudly and rumbled forward as if he was going to join in. "Artoo!" Anakin snapped. The Hutt was slowing him down, but he couldn't stop now and stow it somewhere safe while the vulture waited politely for the match to resume. He tried to calculate if R2-D2 could get close enough to grab Rotta from the backpack and get him to safety. No, I tightened the kriffing straps too much, didn't I? The astromech droid started to roll forward at his master's summons. "No, Artoo, no! Get inside! I need you in one piece!"

Ahsoka lunged again and made the vulture spin ninety degrees to face her, but then it seemed to learn her ploy and ignored her, swiveling one cannon to blast at her while its main fire was directed at Anakin. Didn't these piles of junk ever run out of power like the intel said?

But he'd never call them dumb again.

It had worked out how to rush him and get inside the arc of his lightsaber. The vulture darted forward, stabbing at him with the sharp points of wingtips that had become its feet and legs. It forced Anakin back. And he had no choice but to face it. He didn't dare turn his back to it even for a heartbeat. That limited his ability to spin, to somersault, to do things that a Jedi could and a heap of metal couldn't.

So this is how regular beings have to fight. Fine.

Rotta squealed and grizzled. Anakin was sure he'd thrown up during the savage shaking he was getting, and he couldn't face the idea of winning the fight but ending up killing the hostage. But Rotta was a Hutt, and they were far tougher than any puny human. "Come on, you useless piece of junk…!" Anakin edged backward, knowing exactly where the edge of the platform was without looking, and trying to factor in the shifted center of gravity caused by a backpack full of Hutt. "Show me what you've got."

It did. It ran at him. But as he backed away, it came to a dead halt and started firing, leaving him wrong-footed for a crucial moment. A living opponent could be sensed and gauged in the Force, but a droid... a really smart one could give a Jedi a serious run for their creds. Anakin fended off the laserfire, spraying ricochets of energy. Then it turned its fourth cannon- the one that had been keeping Ahsoka busy-and started a random firing pattern with all four cannons that Anakin struggled to block.

He was close to beaten. He felt it. He was losing. He reached for one strap, ready to start loosening the pack to throw Rotta to the safety of Ahsoka's arms-she'd catch him easily with that predator's flawless coordination-and throw himself on the vulture.

Ahsoka was suddenly close in, way too close. "Hey, trashcan!" She yelled, and swung her lightsaber. She wasn't close enough to hit the vulture, but she got its attention, probably because she triggered its complex threat analysis system. For a machine's short moment, it paused. She rolled as she was anticipating its fire.

She rolled too far.

Had she skidded on a pool of Hutt vomit? Her lightsaber went spinning from her hand and she went clear off the edge of the platform.

No, no, no... "Ahsoka!" Anakin screamed, reaching for her in a desperate attempt to save his Padawan. The vulture abandoned its attack on him and clattered toward the point where she'd fallen. Anakin thought it was checking where she'd fallen until he saw it raise one leg in a stabbing motion. By then, he was right behind it, almost on its back. He heard her voice. He saw her fingertips, just her fingertips, clinging to the edge of the permacrete, completely white with the pressure of the grip.

"I'm okay!" She gasped. "I'm okay." No, she wasn't: she was about to lose her arms to a droid and plummet to her death, Jedi or not. Anakin went for the vulture, lightsaber whirling. It swiveled and poured laser fire back at him. In the seconds he distracted it, Ahsoka swung back onto the platform purely on her fingertips, throwing one leg high like a gymnast and pivoting at the hip to hurl her body forward. Then she reached out to bring her lightsaber spinning back into her hand with a Force pull.

Anakin was so close to the vulture now that the sheer light output of its laserfire was almost blinding him as he deflected it with his blade. Then it lurched to one side. He thought it was a feint and leaped onto it in that split second, driving his lightsaber deep between its visual sensors, but then he realized it had lost half a leg, and that Ahsoka had sliced through it.

He let himself fall back and landed heavily on his feet just as the vulture lost stability and tipped over the edge of platform.

It didn't have fingers. It couldn't grab and save itself. And its leg was its wing, and so it couldn't even fly again.

"Oh, that was smart, Snips..." Anakin heard the sob of exhausted relief in his own voice. He straightened up. Hey, I've still got a Hutt on board. I almost forgot. "I thought I'd lost you for good."

Ahsoka's head-tails had taken on a slightly more vivid striping. Maybe it was the Togruta equivalent of being red in the face. She smiled, not her usual polite smile, but a feral baring of her sharp teeth that was pure triumph at catching her prey.

"I really didn't want to find out if it was true that we Togrutas always land on our feet." She quipped.

"Good distraction, though." Anakin praised, ready and willing to take another breather.

"Maybe I meant to do it," she said, mock-gravely, "and maybe I didn't."

It took all sorts to be a Jedi. Her way worked fine as far as he was concerned.

But the relief was short-lived. Rotta wailed pitifully in Anakin's ear. Rex and his men-he had to think some had survived-were still held by that fanatic Ventress. He tried not to dwell on what she might be doing to them. Anakin still had a few fights ahead. He shrugged his shoulders to ease the ache from the backpack and opened his comlink.

"Master Kenobi, can you hear me? Obi-Wan, are you in range yet?" The comlink rattled with static. Anakin waited.


"Sir?" Rex grunted.

"I hear you, Coric."

"Just checking you're still with us." The sergeant replied. Rex hadn't moved since the mad-eyed Ventress had finished with him. His chance would come, and he'd know when he saw it. He lay where Ventress had finally thrown him, slumped against a wall, working his way through all the comm channels he could access from his helmet systems, then starting again, in case he happened to find one that wasn't being blocked at that moment. As soon as the GAR comm center neutralized a Separatist jamming signal, the droids would rush to change it again. If he kept trying, he might get lucky and find a window.

"I'm fine, Sergeant." Rex stated with a wince. He suspected she'd broken his ribs. When he breathed, it hurt enough to make him bite his lip. "I've never hit a woman, but she'll be the first when I get a chance."

"I've never been called a lickspittle Jedi lackey before." Coric remarked.

"I rather liked 'naive cannon fodder' myself." Rex dryly mused. Droids didn't seem to realize that Clone helmets were sound-proofed when sealed, so he could chat freely with his men. Maybe droids judged by their own limitations. He'd never worked out why droids needed to talk aloud instead of just silently transmitting machine code to one another, but that probably said more about the beings who built them than the droids. Funny: one side in this war was making droids more like men, and the other was making men more like droids.

"I thought she'd like you, what with the same haircut and everything." Coric said.

"Maybe I should have taken my helmet off and shown her." Rex snorted.

"So she's a Jedi of some kind?"

"Sith, or a dark adept. Red lightsaber is a giveaway, apparently." He said.

"What's the difference?"

"Membership subscription, maybe. It all hurts the same, though." Rex quipped, although he was more interested in pragmatic issues. "I'm still not getting any clear comm channels."

"Me neither, sir." Coric added. Rex began at the top of the frequency list again, lingering on each for a moment and straining to hear some stable audio before moving on. As he listened, he watched droids clearing a path through the debris from the door. Four others stood nearby in the courtyard itself, making a token effort to guard all that was left of Torrent Company. The scale of Rex's losses was threatening to gnaw away at him if he didn't channel that anger into leveling the score.

The comm frequencies were still white noise and bursts of static.

What use are we going to be to them?

He had a pretty good idea what Ventress was going to do to them, if only to vent her spleen because she couldn't get her hands on a Jedi. Boy, whatever they'd done to her buddy, whoever that Narec guy was, had really bent her out of shape. He'd already made up his mind that he'd rather die fighting than wait for her to kill him slowly, and he wasn't going to let her get his men, either. He'd shoot them himself before he'd let that happen.

The tinnies had taken their weapons, but that wasn't going to stop him. The debris was still littered with DC-15s and sidearms.

They hadn't found his vibroblade, either… Rex bided his time.

He'd been careful not to show any external signs of talking-moving his head, his hands, any of the little unconscious movements people make when they are speaking. He didn't want to alert the droids. He was sure he'd covered every security angle.

And then his wrist comlink bleeped, and the droid nearest to him looked around. "Did you hear that?" One of them intoned. Stang. Should've diverted the kriffing thing to my helmet.

"Rex, are you receiving? This is Skywalker." Yes, the droids had heard. Another turned. Rex stayed on his internal comm circuit, completely still.

"I think it came from the prisoner."

"Go check him over."

"Here we go, gentlemen. Stand by." The droids weren't exactly fast thinkers. One clunked over to him and tilted its head down to look at the source of the sound. It peered at his wrist. The comlink crackled with static again.

"Rex, if you can't respond-tap the receiver or something." The droid leaned a little farther. Rex raised his arm very slowly, the back of his wrist turned outward, and steeled himself to ignore the pain he was going to be in very soon. He heard the swallowing and general sounds of his men getting ready to make a move.

"Want to see how it works, clanker?" Rex stabbed his fingers over the edge of the droid's breastplate and held it as he drove his other fist under its jawline to send its head cracking upward vertically with its neck, ripping its control cables from their connectors. He didn't even need to give an order.

Each of his five troopers sprang to their feet. Coric snatched the rifle from the crippled droid as it tottered backward; Nax grabbed a lump of masonry and battered another droid until its head caved in. Rex ejected the vibroblade from his forearm plate and jumped onto a droid, tipping it off balance and gouging out its photoreceptors. As it flailed blindly, he severed all the control cables to its head.

The six Clones sprinted across the courtyard and took cover behind a fallen AT-TE, Rex quickly performing a headcount as his visor revealed Coric, Nax, Del, Attie and Zeer to him. There were enough charged rifles, of both Republic and Separatist issue, within easy reach to keep the battle droids at bay for a while. Rex took a single-use painkiller sharp from his belt medpac and injected it into the back of his hand before taking aim. The firefight began.

Droids seemed to be okay with standing up and firing. It was all the other business of soldiering; stabbing, strangling, gouging, all the up-close and personal stuff, that left them baffled. They weren't much good on anything other than level terrain, either.

"I enjoyed that," Nax mused, almost to himself. "Really got some tension out of my system."

"Well, relax with a few of those." Rex pointed. Some supers had shown up, their heavier arm cannons shelling the AT-TE corpse and chipping pieces out of the chassis. No heads to batter in or rip off: the spider droids would be along soon, too. Rex indicated the edge of the plateau. They could take their chances in the jungle. "Everyone got their rappel lines primed, just in case?"

"Yes, sir." They chorused in affirmation. It was another option. Meanwhile, they had weapons and personal scores to settle.

"Rex, respond!" Skywalker hadn't given up on him then. Rex had almost forgotten and finally turned on his commlink.

"Receiving, General. We're pinned down in the courtyard, me and five men…" He responded.

"Need assistance?"

"...and a Hutt-load of clankers." He concluded while squeezing off a few more plasma rounds. The noise of blasterfire was magnified by the courtyard walls. "Make that a Hutt-load minus one."

"I'll take that as a yes, Captain. On our way." Anakin promised. The carcass of the dead AT-TE shook as B2 fire punched into its flank. Nax lay flat and peered into a gaping hole, then reached in. When he pulled out, he had a pair of bolt cutters in one hand.

"Toolbox." He realized, making the jaws of the cutter snap open and shut. "Here tinny, here nice tinny..." Rex sighted up again, and decided that was another thing that made a human Clone a far better soldier than any droid. They weren't just inventive, they had brothers they needed to avenge.

"Save a live one for me." He remarked.


Anakin strode back toward the door, working out how best to extract Rex and the troopers from the courtyard. He'd never get a gunship down in one piece even if any were left. Depending on where the Separatist forces were, he might be able to divert the droids, trap them, or just keep them busy until Kenobi arrived. "Master!" Ahsoka ran after him. "Master, Stinky's still in a bad way. He's turning every shade of green except the one he's supposed to be! Our mission's to get him back alive, remember?"

"So what are you saying?" Anakin knew anyway. He walked on. "That we leave our men to die?"

"Doesn't the mission come first?"

"Answer the question, Snips. This is a man you know. Whatever happened to covering one another's backs?" Anakin wondered.

"Whatever happened, Master, to command means being prepared to get troops killed?" She retorted.

"Okay, I said that," Anakin relented, "but prepared doesn't mean leaving them before you've exhausted all the options."

"If saving Rex means Stinky dies, doesn't that make the death of every trooper we lost a senseless waste?" Ahsoka wondered.

"What if the slug dies anyway?" He countered. Anakin would have swapped every Hutt in the galaxy for one trooper. Ahsoka seemed to be rethinking the position.

"Rex won't thank you for it." He held out his arm.

"Okay, Snips, open your comlink and tell him." Anakin ordered. Ahsoka was taken aback.

"What, me?"

"Yes. Comm Rex and say you've made me change my mind, because you've convinced me that neither he nor his men are important enough to save." Anakin told her. His choice of words stung, and Ahsoka's gaze fell.

"Master..."

"If you want to make a tough decision that costs men their lives, you better be prepared to look them in the eye and tell them why." He stated. He bet she wouldn't. He was worried that she would, though, just to prove she was grown-up enough to be his Padawan. And then she'd quote it back at him. "Besides, Rex can help us find a ship that will get us out."

"Master, that's not very convincing." Ahsoka said after a while. Anakin ran a hand through his hair in exasperation.

"Okay, I'm not leaving him while we still have a chance of getting the Hutt out and the troopers. He wouldn't abandon me. He wouldn't abandon you. That's what holds an army together. Break that unspoken promise, and we might as well surrender now." He determined. They were fifty meters into the corridor when Artoo whistled a warning. Anakin heard a sound that forced him to pause: the sound of a Lightsaber humming, one that was neither his or Ahsoka's. Movement caught his eye, and he saw a certain masked, red hooded figure emerge from around the corner.

The Sith had caught up to them.

Ahsoka gasped in fright as her Master ignited his Lightsaber. "Only one way to go," he realized with a grumble. "Artoo, get ready to bar the door." They hastily retreated to the landing platform just as R2-D2 rolled in to shut the door and lock it. "That won't keep him out for long, not with a Lightsaber. think now's a good time for a retreat."

"Is that a new word in your vocabulary?" Ahsoka quipped, trying to hide her own fear. A red Lightsaber pierced through the metal and started to move to make a circle.

"Time to retreat." Anakin stated. "There's a lot of jungle to hide in." Ahsoka looked over the edge.

"There's a lot of things in the jungle, too, carnivorous and poisonous things… oh, and spider droids." Anakin darted to the platform perimeter and looked down. The droids were clambering up the shroud of vines that draped the whole plateau. Several paused to fire into the platform. Anakin felt the shock of impact under his boots.

"Well… the choice is to have the platform shot out from under us, or stand here and wait, or go over the side and meet the spider droids." He mused, much to his chagrin. Ahsoka's gaze was darting everywhere, as if she was sizing up distances and options.

"Can I answer none of the above, Master?" Rotta was wailing intermittently now. Anakin recalled the hasty battlefield first-aid training he'd been given before he was deployed with troops. A noisy casualty was less concern than a quiet one. As long as they were screaming, they were conscious. It was the silent, unconscious ones who were in the most trouble.

"Carry on complaining, my smelly friend." Anakin commented over his shoulder. Rotta switched to a new sound, a coo of surprise repeated over and over. "Well, a change is good as a rest." The pounding on the door grew louder, sizeable dents growing rapidly as R2 whistled in alarm.

"Master, that Sith is still coming!" Ahsoka said, seeing th Lightsaber was halfway done with making a hole.

"I'm thinking!" Anakin snapped.

Rotta whined, his arms flailing. "No, not now, Stinky." But the Huttlet persisted and suddenly, his motions seemed a little more directed and Ahsoka turned to follow his line of sight. "Wait… What's he pointing at?" She asked.

"He's pointing?" Anakin repeated, trying to get a look over his shoulder.

"Over there." She insisted, turning directly behind them. Anakin turned to look, and Rotta wailed. Ahsoka scanned the trees, eyes narrowed.

"How did we miss it? I never spotted that before!" She exclaimed. Anakin blinked, seeing nothing. Clearly Togruta's had better visual range as well. "Over there. Another plateau. And look what's on it!"

"What? I can't see." Anakin reached into his belt satchel for the electrobinoculars. The flat-topped peaks dotted like stepping stones through the jungle were ancient volcanic plugs, so there might have been a chain of them across the landscape on a fault line. With the Sith cutting his way onto the platform and spider droids firing from below, his mind wasn't on a geology lesson. All he could see was the thick haze above the trees and a group of those huge insect-like creatures the size of speeders. They looked like a ketes, or even a Kashyyyk can-cell; long bodies, two pairs of rapidly beating gauzy wings, and a bulbous head. They circled the plateaus, diving and snatching at invisible prey.

"Look at the thing that's glittering." Ahsoka urged, trying to guide him.

"It's… hey, you're right." It was a vessel on a landing platform much like the structure they were standing on now. It made sense; how else could anyone get around this terrain? "It's a ship. But we're here, and it's there. I make that… two klicks away. No… three."

"Yeah... I know. It was just a thought." Ahsoka muttered dejectedly. R2-D2 warbled frantically. The Jedi turned to the door, seeing the red Lightsaber was close to making a full circle. The platform shook from another cannon barrage. It couldn't withstand much more of that.

And we'll he plunging to the forest floor, too…

Then the word Kashyyyk hit him squarely between the eyes. It was one of those moments that Master Qui-Gon used to call 'intuitive association'. Anakin groped for the link, and then he saw the answer his subconscious had laid out for him. Kashyyyk also had dense forest, impassable terrain, huge flying insects… and those insects could be ridden. Can-cells, Aleenan scouts and sometimes even humans rode them. They were also drawn to the sound of fliers' drives, just as the giant insects here had buzzed the gunship.

"Artoo!" He called out, a plan forming. "Can you generate an audio signal that matches a gunship's drive profile?" R2-D2 beeped to say that he could mimic the full range of Republic vessels, and some Separatist ones too if he was asked nicely. He obliged with a demonstration that made Anakin's hair bristle, right down to the LAAT's close-to-infrasonic note that droned steadily under the rapid puttering sound.

"Master, just tell me…" Ahsoka asked.

"We're calling in one of those insects, and we're going to ride it out of here." He answered. Ahsoka just nodded gravely. Maybe she was too tired to argue now.

"Okay. I've done a lot of crazier things today. Why the sound effects?"

"The insects think it's an invitation to go on a date. They were all over the gunship, remember?" Ahsoka didn't respond. Suddenly it wasn't something they could joke about, not with a dead LAAT crew somewhere beneath them.

"Can you steer?" She asked. The platform took another direct hit from underneath. It was starting to tilt; a pebble rolled a few meters toward the edge. "Provided we can hang on, of course."

"Force-pull here, Force-push there. As long as we take off. That's my priority." Anakin responded. R2-D2 rolled gingerly to the edge of the platform, transmitting gunship love songs to gullible insects. This would be one incident Anakin could tell Padme about. She'd laugh. He wasn't sure he'd ever tell her how bloody the battle had been, though. There were some things he simply couldn't express. He stood as close to the edge as he dared with Rotta on his back, looking for amorous mega-insects on the prowl. He listened for the machine-like hum of fast-beating, three-meter wings…

What he heard instead, was the sound of metal falling against the ground. Anakin turned back around and saw the Sith had finally made a hole in the door to enter. The Sith held his Lightsaber in his right hand at a casual stance as he walked towards them slowly. Ahsoka recognized it immediately; the gait of a predator closing in on helpless prey. Her fear rose, her heart pounding as she took stock of the Clone-killing behemoth approaching them.

Ahsoka knew that her Master and Rotta needed to survive, so she stepped in front of both and drew her lightsaber. "Jump, Master. Just… come back for me. Please?" Anakin didn't respond, taking his chance to leap down onto one of the insects, leaving his apprentice alone with the monster.


Jayden narrowed his eyes behind his mask as he watched the Togruta girl take a stance in front of him. She was brave, but he saw right through her. He could practically smell, and feel her fear through the Force. Good, the Jedi should and will be afraid of him in the comics days, after everything they did...

"B-Back off… You won't get him, you… you monster!"

Jayden said nothing, he didn't need words. Right now, he was interested in killing this girl that was standing between him and his goal; the Huttlet. He sprung forward with a Force-enhanced leap and swung his Lightsaber, but Ahsoka blocked it, though she did step back a bit from the force of the blow. It allowed Jayden to parry her attempted push and he delivered a roundhouse kick to her midsection which knocked her to the ground.

Ahsoka fell down with a cry, clutching her stomach. She looked up, her eyes widening as the Sith stood over her with his Lightsaber leveled at her neck. She closed her hands, bracing herself for death coming to claim her as Jayden reared his Lightsaber back.

"Hey Sith!" Jayden looked over to see Anakin on the back of a massive hunting fly, a pretty thing with a brilliantly iridescent body and gossamer wings at a safe distance. But up close, it was a totally different creature; powerful, fast, predatory, surprisingly noisy, and armed with savage mandibles. The delicate wings with their fine tracery of veins were actually a thick translucent hide stretched on a sturdy bone framework.

And this beast had a rider: Anakin Skywalker. The Huttlet was strapped to his back.

"I'd like my Padawan back." Anakin smirked before he thrusted his arms out and made a huge Force push that sent Jayden off his feet, rolling across the ground. "Ahsoka! Come on!"

Jayden shook his head and looked up in time to see Ahsoka leap to join her Master on the beast. The astromech droid trailed them with its rockets on full burn.

They were getting away.

Jayden got to his feet and watched the bug get farther and farther away as he deactivated his Lightsaber. He knew where they were going.

Tatooine...


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