Allana

  In no time, after Adi called our friends, the ships arrived. A special one where Luminara, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka and Barriss were to take Poggle to a cruiser and a separate ship and another one that's slightly smaller, in that one were the medical droids that said they'd heal me at the medical wing but for now they just gave me a sling for my shoulder, that eased the pain a bit.

"I'm glad to see you're all alright." Said Kenobi as soon as he saw us. "But I'm afraid we have a problem."

"Don't we always?" Anakin said and I chuckled as Snips placed herself in between said guy and me.

"We've just received a distress signal from our forces on Dantooine." He started and I frowned. "Master Windu's defences held but at a great cost to his men, they need medical supplies immediately. We can obtain these supplies at the medical station near Ord Cestus."

"We're delivering Poggle to Coruscant and Cestus is not exactly on the way."

"The Republic must begin debriefing Poggle right away if we're to get useful intelligence from him." Said Adi and Luminara nodded in agreement.

"Master." Anakin turned to Unduli. "I suggest we let our Padawans handle the supply mission." He placed his hands on both Ahsoka and Barriss's shoulders excitedly, causing me to smile.

"Whatever needs to be done Master." Said Snips. "I'm happy to help."

"As am I." Barriss added.

"Very well." Said Kenobi. "It's decided then. Take a medical frigate and after we've delivered Poggle to Coruscant, we'll rendezvous with you for the voyage to Dantooine." As soon as he spoke, he walked away with Adi and Luminara. Anakin stayed behind for a moment.

"I'll go with them." I commented to him, his eyes went from our Padawan to me.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

"Yeah. I'll rest on the ship and as soon as we get to the medical station and while we wait for you lot, I'll get my shoulder and ribcage checked up and will be fine to help everyone out at Dantooine." He smiled and then, our attention snapped at the horizon. I felt it too, something...odd but I couldn't tell what was it. "Anyways." His blue eyes came back to me and we started to walk towards the separate ship to get going. "Few members of my squad will come with us and I'll keep an eye on the kids."

"I didn't expect to hear those words leave your lips Smarty." We chuckled. "At least not yet."

"That makes two."

"You'd do anything to get off this planet."

"Now you're catching up." We chuckled again as we walked up to the ship, the girls were talking vividly by the entrance.

  I clicked the communicator that's on the left glove of the arm that's injured, in no time, Wolffe piked up. "Commander, send a few members of the Pack to my position would you?"

"Yes ma'am, how many?" He asked.

"I don't know, just send a small squad, we're just escorting the Padawans to a Med Station. I want you to go with Skywalker's forces to deliver Poggle at Coruscant, the rest of the Generals will be there too."

"Alright ma'am, few Wolves should be reaching your position any minute now."

"Thank you Wolffe, see you in a while."

"Copy that General." The communication ended and I breathed in, it hurt a bit, I hate broken ribs.

  I saw the small squad approaching and I sighed as Obi-Wan waved at Anakin to go with him.

"If anything happens-" He started.

"I'll contact you." I started to walk towards Ahsoka and Barriss. "Although you don't need me to do so, you always know when to arrive." He chuckled. "Good luck out there."

"You too." An unspoken 'I love you' was said as he walked away and I met the girls. As we walked in, the Wolves that Wolffe had sent arrived and started to walk behind us.

  "Can I ever leave without having to meet with an injured Anakin or Allana when I see them again?" Asked Ahsoka and I laughed, placing my hand over my ribcage again.

"Probably not." She laughed too alongside her friend. "Nice to see you two again."

"Likewise Master." Both girls said at the unison as we walked into the cockpit where the pilots were moving and clicking buttons.

"Ma'am, I'm patching to through." Said the Pilot, in a second, Kit Fisto appeared on the screen. I smiled when he smiled, he trained with me for a while, even if he's part of an older generation like Aayla, both of them are six years older than me. He's another great old friend.

"Thank you." I told my Pilot and looked at the controls they had before them, then, at the screen. "We're ready to jump Kit."

"Good, I look forward to your arrival Lana." After a flash of his bright smile, he disappeared, then, we jumped into hyperspace.

  "Alright." I called everyones attention. "It's just two pilots, an entire squad, two Commanders and an injured General who wants to sleep, so, Ahsoka, Barriss, you're in charge, if anything happens wake me up and if you don't find me in a room, I'm probably eating something." The four of them chuckled. "If trouble continues, Pilot, you're in charge."

"Yes ma'am."

"Good." I walked out and in a second the door echoed behind me.

  "Master?" Asked Ahsoka and she reached my side. "You should go to the medical wing."

"I know, I'll go and sleep there, it's nothing too bad. It hurts, yes, but I prefer to get everything checked at Cestus."

"You always say that's 'not to serious' but okay." I chuckled and they continued to walk beside me in silence until I reached the door.

"You know? I didn't need an escort to get here but thank you."

"I was actually wondering something."

"Okay, tell me."

"What if the two Commanders are tired too?" I chuckled again.

"You could've asked that as we walked here Snips." She smiled.
"It's been days of constant fighting. Go and rest, you both deserve it, but still, you're in charge, so, keep that in mind."

"Yes Master." They smiled and I entered the place, after the door closed, I assumed they left.

  I laid down on a bed and a Medical droid checked on me. He gave me a painkiller for the shoulder, that made me sleep faster but it didn't last much. I felt two lives being taken in a second, I woke up and gasped. I sensed that Ahsoka and Barriss were okay, so, what was going on?

  I stood up —even if the droid told me not to— and walked out towards the room where I assumed the girls were, the one that's closest to where I was. When the door opened, it was empty, so, I thought about what I said. Eating. I made my way to the Dining Room and found both girls talking.

  "Hello Master, how are you feeling?" Ahsoka greeted and asked. I had a frown as I looked at them, something was off. "Master?"

"I'm fine kid, doing good."

"Is everything alright?" Asked Barriss as I took a trade of food.

"I don't know." I sat beside them. "Let's not worry yet." I smiled as I took my fork and started to eat. "What were you talking about?"

"About the difference between a warrior and a peace keeper." I took a bite of my food. "What do you think it is?"

"Well, I...don't know." They chuckled. "When I was a Padawan like you and up to when I was almost an adult, there was peace, so, everything was quiet. The Masters just made sure it stayed that way, not using such...radical ways of fighting evil like we do nowadays when there's war in every corner of the Galaxy."

"How was it? When war started?" Asked Barriss. "Because it actually started in Geonosis right?"

"Yeah, everything started with that battle. Before it happened, Anakin and I decided to go and save Obi-Wan. We tracked him to Geonosis and we found out that there was a droid factory creating those nasty machines at a terrible speed. I thought it was a plan that had been going in for years, perhaps a plot against the Republic, I don't know." I sighed. "It was such a complicated thing to get out of that place, we could've died. Then we were captured and faced trial."

"Trial?" Asked Snips. "What could they've accused you of?"

"Espionage." I chuckled. "We were sentenced to die, we fought, the Jedi arrived, they saved us and Obi-Wan, then we followed Dooku but I don't exactly know what happened after that, I wasn't there."

"Why?" Asked Barriss.

"I fell off the gunship, ended up unconscious for...I don't know how long. When I was woken up, I dragged a group of clone troopers that ended up being Wolffe, Sinker and Comet with me to the hangar where we were following the Count and when we arrived, he was already escaping, then, after a year, we're still here, fighting."

  We were silent for a while as we continued to eat and talk about the peaceful years of the old Republic. In that moment, the door opened, revealing two of the members of the squad my Commander sent.

  "Oxe, Edge, nice to see you guys, would you like to join us?" I welcomed and smiled at them but they were silent. Their silence made me uncomfortable, specially when the feeling of something being off intensified. Their eyes didn't reflect any emotion at all. "Troopers?" I slowly moved my hand towards my belt when they tightened their grip around the blasters, in a second, they opened fire and I grabbed my saber, turning it on.

I stood up and deflected the blasts —with some difficulty—alongside the girls. Blue, green and violet moved in all directions to deflect the attacks. What are they doing? Ahsoka moved the table and made it turn around, Barriss jumped and landed in between the Togruta and me.

"Trooper! Stand down!" Snips yelled but they kept on firing.

"Don't make me do something we'll regret!" I warned as the thought of hurting my troopers flashed through my head. No, don't do that.

In that second, they approached the edge of the table and aimed at us. I stood up and cut their blasters, Barriss hit with the handle of her weapon a soft spot on Oxe's neck and made him go unconscious as Ahsoka pushed Edge with the Force, making him impact his brother and then both of them hit the wall.

  We approached them and when I was about to bend down to check on them, the door slid open again, more troopers walked in and aimed their guns at us. I placed the girls —who turned their lightsabers on again— behind me and turned mine on as well taking a defensive position, they raised their hands.

"What are you doing?" Asked one of them, Trap.

"Two clones just attacked us." Ahsoka answered. "What is going on?" She asked the question before I could.

"Trap, do you know what happened to your brothers?" I asked.

"Couldn't tell you General, I'm just as confused as-"

"You're in charge of those men, did you order them to kill us?" Barriss asked dryly.

"No ma'am, I did not."

"What's happening? Why would they do this?" It was my turn to ask again.

"We don't know, we heard shots General."

"Why should we believe you?" Asked the girls at the unison. Just as my mind works alongside Anakin's theirs do the same, like two drops of water.

"Look...no guns." They lowered the blasters and placed them on the ground, hands still up. I turned my lightsaber off and the girls did the same. I breathed in deeply in an attempt to calm down. The pain on my body was numb but I could feel it, then, I turned around and bent down beside the unconscious troopers.

  A silence was produced. My mind was racing like a pod trying to understand the reason of their action, the reason why would they attack us, why? Why? Why? That's all my brain repeated, my men, my friends just turned against us, WHY?

  "These men wouldn't just attack us without a reason." Barriss spoke her mind.

"It's like what happened in Cristophsis, my Master told me he had a clone betray him, Master Naberrie and Master Kenobi once." Said Snips.

"Yeah but he was payed off by Ventress. He just gave her our intel, he didn't want to kill us." I said and frowned as I stood up. "It can't be that simple, there's something else behind this."

"I agree, it...didn't feel like that." Said Barriss.

"Ma'am, we should make sure we're still in control of the bridge." Said Trap and Ahsoka clicked her communicator.

"Bridge, this is Commander Tano, respond." Static. "We need to get up there. We need to find out what's going on." My head was still racing and began to ache, this was too much to handle.

"But these two will be coming around any minute." Offee commented.

"Havoc can watch them until we check on the bridge." Trap proposed.

"Then let's get moving." I ran outside and the trooper and both Padawans followed behind.

[...]

  We walked carefully and in silence, I don't know who to trust now. As we reached the bridge, the security shields appeared.

"Someone doesn't want us going up there." Ahsoka said looking at me, I nodded.

"I'll attempt to override the controls." Said Barriss and as she clicked buttons, I heard a gun getting loaded. I turned around and turned my lightsaber on deflecting a blast that could've gotten Barriss' head and cut the blaster. When I did, Trap grunted and tackled me. The pain on my shoulder increased when my body collided with the ground making me yelp in pain.

  As that happened, he knocked my lightsaber off my hand and fighting with only one arm is hard. In a second, a worm started to climb out of his mouth.

"He's infected!" I warned. From the corner of my eye I saw the girls not exactly knowing what to do. I punched Trap's face with my elbow feeling a sharp pain on my injured shoulder and pulled my lightsaber towards me. When there was space, I placed my saber underneath his abdomen as his hands grabbed my neck and squeezed it, making it hard to breath. "I'm sorry." I turned the lightsaber on. The blade went through him and his grip went loose and the worm made its way through my face, but before it could get on me, I grabbed it and threw it away. Snips cut it by the half.

  As I coughed letting the air fill my lungs with pain on the right side of my body, I heard the worm shrieking.

"Ugh, what is that?" Asked Ahsoka.

"Looks like some type of parasite." Barriss answered.

"Not any parasite." I said standing up, Snips rushed to aid, placing my healthy arm over her shoulders. "Thanks." She nodded. "That's a child of the Geonosian Queen, it controls the mind."

"Mind control...that explains a lot. Trap was our friend, he would never have tried to kill us." I bent down beside the corpse of the clone and closed his eyes feeling a sharp pain in my chest. I've never had to kill a trooper, ever, I wish not to do it again. "How did these things get on board in the first place?"

"You said that this is Geonosian Master." I looked at the blue eyes of Luminara's Padawan and nodded. "They must have infected the clones while they were there." She stood up, turned her lightsaber on and pointed it at me.

"Woah kid what are you doing?" I asked raising my healthy hand, lightsaber in hand. Barriss tightened her grip around the handle of her weapon.

"Barriss!" Yelped Snips.

"She was there, how do we know that she's not infected too? Trap said he didn't know about anything and tried to kill her a second ago, how do we know she won't try to kill us?"

"You just said it, Trap tried to kill me and I ended up killing him, and I'm not infected, I can assure you that Barriss but you're right, it's okay to doubt now, so, if you let me." I moved towards Ahsoka, she gave a step forward, the warmth of the lightsaber was too close to my neck. "Okay, okay, easy." I extended my hand to Ahsoka. "Take it Snips, keep it there, I won't hurt you, none of you." She turned her lightsaber off as soon as Ahsoka grabbed mine and clipped it on her belt.

"I'm sorry Master." Said Offee.

"It's okay, I get it." I smiled and she did the same.

  We looked at the clone trooper that's laying on the ground and I frowned, what now?

"We'll have to quarantine the ship." Ahsoka proposed and I nodded.

"We'll also have to contact Master Fisto, let him know about the situation." Barriss added.

"Let's go." I started to run again and they followed behind me. When we turned to the right, we heard some clicking, I stopped running and they stopped too.

"That sound..." Barriss whispered.

"It is..." Ahsoka added.

"Geonosian." I assured as we walked closer to the entrance.

  We moved closer to the wall and the clicking didn't stop, instead it was louder. I saw a group of clones were there, two were holding one of them, another one was approaching with something in hand, I assumed it was a worm.

"We have to help him Master." Ahsoka whispered behind me and as I meditated what to do and counted how many of them were present when the worm went into his nose and the echo of his gagging reached my ears making me close my eyes.

"It's too late." I whispered and from one second to another, a blaster fired behind us. The girls turned their lightsabers on while I made an attempt to hold the blasts and throw them to the walls using the Force. "Barriss, sorry, but you'll need to trust me." She nodded and I pulled the handle of my weapon from Snips's belt and turned it on and started helping the girls out.

  We ended up walking into the room. Ahsoka managed to close the door but that meant we had to face eight clones with mind controlling worms into their heads, that surely were going to try to get one in ours too.

  When we turned around, one of them had three eggs, two on the right hand and one on the left one. We pulled them using the Force and cut them, making them all yell and open fire against us. We deflected their attacks and with all the pain in my heart, I deflected the blasters back...to kill, making them impact their bodies.

I approached one of them and cut his blaster, alongside his hands, when he screamed I stabbed him and my eyes filled with tears. In a second the Padawans joined me behind a large box to take cover.

"The vent." Said Ahsoka and we jumped on top of the boxes that helped us cover from the fire and then to the hallways that are way up. Barriss took down the vent's entrance and we jumped in.

  Crawling inside of it was hard, the pain on my shoulder was increasing but I thought I could live with it, so, when we had moved in all directions and saw from above how the clones came and went running through the hallways trying to finds us, we stopped to catch our breaths. I started to remove the sling, hissing in the process.

"You shouldn't do that Master." Snips whispered with a frown. "I thought we called you Smarty for a reason." I chuckled in a whisper.

"This thing will only make them kill me easier, it's cumbersome." They chuckled and then went quiet when we heard footsteps below us.

"Now what?" Asked Barriss in a whisper as I bit the inner part of my cheek, hard enough to make it bleed.

"Plan maker?" I smiled at my shared Padawan.

"Barriss, go to the reactor room, get rid of the thrusters, that place should be empty." She nodded. "Snips and I will head for the communication center and send a warning to Kit, we have to stop this ship from arriving at the medical station, if we don't, everyone there will be at risk."

  They didn't say anything. I sensed a hint of doubt in both of them but when I started moving and bit my lip enough to make it bleed whenever the pain on my shoulder spiked as I placed my hand on the metal to move, they followed behind in silence.

"I don't know Master." Ahsoka whispered, speaking the doubt she felt, getting it off her chest. "We should stay together, the three of us."

"I think so too, but-"

"I agree with Master Naberrie Ahsoka." Barriss looked at me and the trust was back in her eyes. "Right now, staying together is not a luxury we have, one of us must succeed."

"Indeed, and I know it must be...radical, but to succeed, you have to do what must be done." I explained. "Both of you will, I know it." Ahsoka frowned while Barriss smiled kindly.

"I'll see you soon." We nodded and Unduli's apprentice went to the left while we went to the right.

[...]

  After a fair amount of time, we reached the comm-center. I breathed in.

"Ready kid?" I looked at Ahsoka who was still frowning.

"I think so." I smiled.

"It'll be fine, trust me." She nodded and I turned my lightsaber on, cutting a hole though the vent and moved it towards me carefully using the Force. I pocked my head through the opening and saw that it was empty. I jumped down and waved at Ahsoka, she jumped down as well and I quickly walked up to the controls. "Cover me." She nodded and I clicked the location and marked the coordinates. "Pick up, pick up, pick up." I whispered as the controls beeped and the screen was black but in no time, a trooper appeared. "Oh thank God, trooper, get me General Fisto now."

"General Naberrie is every-"

"Get Kit Fisto here, now."

"Right away ma'am." I waited for about three minutes and then he appeared. His usual kind smile was replaced with a frown of worry and concern.

"Allana, what's going on? We expected you to make contact a while ago."

"I know, I know, I'm sorry but we have a situation here." I breathed in. "A parasite from Geonosis boarded the ship, as long as these things are on board, we dare not dock with the medical station."

"You must bring the ship in, the only way we can stop these parasites is to analyse them."

"No, no, no, Kit, you don't understand how terrible these things are, what if they get loose?"

"We'll take precautions."

"I have a bad feeling about this Fisto, these things control the mind of the host, makes them do...terrible things, I don't-"

"Naberrie, just breath in, calm down, clear your head and get here, we'll figure it out." I sighed.

"Will do."

  "So?" Ahsoka, who was pacing around the room, asked.

"We still need to get there, he gave me instructions to dock at the station no matter what." I sighed again. "I don't like this."

"Me neither." She tensed.

"What is it?"

"I...I don't know." I frowned, then, someone familiar popped up on the screen.

"Cargo ship TB-73, this is clone Captain Rex, please respond." I didn't waste a second and answered the call.

"Rex, this is Allana." Ahsoka rushed behind me.

"Boy, am I glad to hear your voice." Said she with a smile.

"Likewise kid." Rex smiled. "I've got someone here who wants to speak with you." Anakin appeared and my heard jumped. Seeing him calms my nerves, not as much as his gentle touch, but it does.

"Lans, Ahsoka, what's going on? Are you okay?" He asked.

"Not exactly Ani." I said and he frowned with worry.

"What? Why?"

"Remember those worms? Well, I have plenty of them on board to study, but, I don't wanna do that anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"We don't know how it happened but the parasites are on board and they infected my soldiers, they've tried to kill us."

"Oh man." He stopped to think. "But you're okay? What about Barriss?"

"We're fine." Said Snips. "Barriss is fine. Last time we saw her she was fine. She headed to the reactor room while we came here." I meditated, I should've sent them together, I should've went the other way, not the young girl but I was selfish as to not let Ahsoka go alone.

"I sent her, I should've went instead." I commented and Ahsoka placed her hand over my shoulder.

"That doesn't matter now, just, make sure you have a wrist com, both of you, keep it on. I'm going to interrogate Poggle, he might have some answers." I nodded. "Find Barriss and wait for my signal." I turned my communicator on and breathed in, my ribcage hurts again.

"Barriss, you're back." Said Snips, there was relief in her voice. "Were you successful?" I looked at her, she was not moving, I frowned and stood up slowly.

"Barriss...what's wrong?" I asked but she didn't answer, instead, she raised her hand and placed it before the glass.

"Barriss, no!" Ahsoka yelped but in a second, the glass broke. We covered our faces and made an effort to push the tiny glass pieces away with the Force, few scratched my hands, the exposed skin of my arms and my cheek. "We're your friends! Barriss, snap out of it!" Instead she enlightened her lightsaber and I did the same. In less than a second, she attacked me, when Snips turned her green saber on, she attacked her as well. It was as if she was a moth flying towards the flame. It looked like the light of our weapons attracted her and brought out of her the worse.

"Barriss, this isn't you!" I said. "It's the creatures, fight them!" She pushed with her attack and punched my ribs, making me yell and fall down, while I was on the ground, she raised her hands up but Ahsoka jumped and kicked her down.

"Come on Smarty, up." She grabbed my arm and dragged me with her out of the center as I coughed.

  We ran through the hallways but Barriss is fast. I was being too slow, there was a very sharp pain on the right side of my body that expanded like fire with gasoline through my body. What a day, I just wanted to sleep.

From one moment to another Offee was already behind us. In a second, we were thrown against a wall My shoulder was the one that collided first and I yelled in pain again. Two seconds later, she approached and we turned our lightsabers on, blue hit hardly against green and violet with a terrible noise. I pushed her back and Snips kicked her stomach, but she managed to keep coming for us.

  She attacked us over and over and we defended ourselves, I killed one of my troopers today, I won't harm a kid, I couldn't live with it.

  Our sabers collided again and she was pushing down once more.

"When I tell you, break the crash and run." I told Ahsoka and she nodded. I waited a couple seconds until we were closer to the ground. "Now." Snips backed down and started to run away while I slid my leg underneath Barriss's feet, making her fall, when she was on the ground, I kicked her away from us, got up and started to run as fast as the lack of air let me.

  I turned right and heard a 'chsst' above me. I looked up and my apprentice waved. I jumped and placed myself in the airlock. After we had placed the vent's opening gate as it was, we looked down, spotting Barriss stopping for a second, looking for us and then resuming her hunt.

  When she was away, we placed our backs against the cold metallic walls and tried to catch our breath. I coughed as silently as I could, covering my mouth, when I removed it, tiny drops of blood were staining my skin and my gloves, I blinked and chose to worry internally, knowing very well the girl before me would freak out a bit.

"You okay?" She asked.

"I'll live." She smiled, barely.

"You always say that when you're terribly injured." She reads me like an open book too.

"I'm fine. Are you okay?" She nodded. "Let's move, we shouldn't stay here."

  We crawled for a while and about four minutes later, we reached another vent, where we saw a group of clones walking by below us, when they were away, we rested again.

"This is Ahsoka, come in." She whispered as she tried to make contact with Anakin, so, I turned my comm off, too much echo would reveal our position.

"Ahsoka, is Lana with you? She turned her communicator off." He said.

"Yeah, she's right beside me, she's fine, or so she says." I rolled my eyes.

"Okay, listen to me, the worms are affected by the cold."

"Cold?" Ahsoka and I asked at the same time. "That's how we stop them?" She asked. In that moment, I heard footsteps, so, I moved forward and placed my hand over her communicator and dragged her backwards a bit to be away from sight.

"Rupture the coolant system." Said Ani's muffed voice underneath my palm as we saw the trooper looking up to where we were. After a while, he walked away. When I was sure, I removed my hand, and we returned to our position. "Did you hear me? Rupture the coolant system!"

"Yes, we heard you, the coolant system, got it." I said and she finished the transmission.

  I moved the vent's gate, feeling pain all over my arm now and pocked my head, then, I slowly crawled out of the vent and looked to the opposite side. I let go of the edge of the metal and jumped down, waving Ahsoka to do the same. She jumped down and then, we started to run to get to the system's room.

  In no time, we arrived and quickly walked up to the control panels. We clicked buttons and pulled the leaver together. Son after that, cold, freezing air started to come out from the vents.

  A shiver went through my spine, making goosebumps appear all over my skin. In that minute, the sensation of jumping out of hyperspace arrived. We had reached the medical station and my anxiety kicked in again. What if one single parasite gets out? What if we can't contain them? What if everyone inside the ship gets to the station and infects everyone there? What could happen if that happens? What if? What if? What if? A knot was formed on the mouth of my stomach and made me feel very uncomfortable.

"Hey." Ahsoka placed her hand on my forearm, her fingertips cold as ice. "It'll work, you'll see." I smiled and she smiled back.

"You always know what to say kiddo."

"I learned that from you." I smiled again at her kind words.

"Come on, we need to get to the bridge." She nodded and we walked out.

  As we ran through the hallways, I expected to get warm because of it, but I was wrong, it was freezing everywhere and running was doing nothing for us.

  As we stopped to catch our breaths and shiver because of the cold, I looked up, our way of hiding, the vents, seemed like an impossible place to go now.

"There you are." Barriss whispered behind us. She turned her lightsaber on and walked out of the icy mist that was coming out of the ducts. "You can't hide from me."

  It didn't matter how impossible or not it seemed to hide in the vents. I pushed the vent's gate open and jumped inside. Bad idea, bad idea, a fucking bad idea. In a second Ahsoka was behind me. A part of me expected Barriss to follow us but thankfully she didn't, so, we continued our way to the bridge.

  After about five or six minutes, we reached what we thought was a vent underneath the entrance. Snips pushed it open with shaky arms and we walked out. At last. We opened the door and my heart sank to the floor when I saw the pilots dead.

  I sat down and clicked buttons to communicate with the station, shivering and with my articulations feeling extremely useless.

"We're coming in awfully fast." I said once I saw the green light above the communications button. "This is Allana Naberrie, can you hear me? I'm shutting down the engines, I'll try to reverse the-"

"Master!" Ahsoka yelped behind me and pulled me to a side, making me fall. The blue blade of the possessed Padawan's lightsaber hit the controls instead of my head.

  When I moved back to get to Ahsoka —who was fine and trembling because of the temperature— we saw how a tube with freezing air hit Barriss, making her yelp.

  The air here at the cockpit was maybe even cooler than outside. I felt my skin freezing as we weakly fought against Barriss. At some point, she pushed me again and I hit my head with the controls. While I was stunned, I received two strong punches on my already broken ribs, while I yelped in pain, and fell to the ground feeling my entire rib cage breaking, Snips pushed Barriss off me.

  I coughed and collapsed on the ground. The blood that I spit out of my mouth froze in within a second on the metallic ground and I felt the skin of my face getting stuck to it.

  In that moment, I heard Offee screaming and then she fell before me while Snips collapsed by the co-pilot chair. I felt my chest on fire as I couldn't breath on the floor. The metal was awfully cold and I decided not to move.

"Kill me...please." The Padawan begged to Snips, my eyes threatened to close.

"I can't." I closed my eyes when I saw Ahsoka moving to the side, then, I heard struggle, screaming and a lightsaber cutting something. I hoped that wasn't Barriss's head although I know that Ahsoka wouldn't kill her, she wouldn't do what I had to do earlier, she wouldn't kill a friend. Among all the Jedi I know, she wouldn't be a cold blooded killer.

  I don't know how long it had been, I just remember feeling a pair of hands on my arms that turned me around and moved me a bit. When my eyes opened I saw Kit, he smiled and I made an effort to return the gesture, but instead I coughed feeling a terrible pain again and my eyes closed again, then, I don't remember what happened.

[...]

  My eyes opened slowly and the first thing that I saw —just like a year ago— was Anakin. He was sitting on a chair looking through the window, his leg moving up and down fast and his hands intertwined. He looks very handsome whenever he's leaning on something.

"Ani?" I whispered and his eyes snapped from the vast, cold and dark space towards me. I looked around, it was just the two of us, I worried. "Where's Ahsoka? Barris? Is she alright? Are they alright?" He walked up to me when I tried to reincorporate, feeling pain on my body, I grunted as he placed his hand on my shoulder and pushed me down gently.

"Shh, shh, calm down, it's fine, everything's fine, you're safe, they're safe." He sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled the white and warm blanket so that it covered my body. I realised my chest was covered in bandages and that I had another sling holding my arm.

"The hell?"

"You had surgery. Four broken ribs in total. Two of them were dangerously close to perforate your right lung completely, you got very lucky about that. They fixed the ribs, covered you up and fixed that broken shoulder that was about to leave you with a useless arm." I closed my eyes and sighed. Yeah, I got very lucky today.

"And the girls?"

"They're safe and sound as well as your crew. Ahsoka left to check on Barriss about twenty minutes ago while you woke up from the anaesthesia." He sighed and leaned over to kiss my forehead. "Everyone's fine."

"Not everyone." He frowned. "I killed four of my men today." My voice broke a bit. "I know they were infected and that they tried to kill me but I...those were my friends, men I've fought side by side and I killed them when I could've saved them."

"It was a tough situation my love but everyone that survived its safe and sound." He rubbed my legs over the blanket lovingly. "What matters is that you're here." I smiled and grabbed his hand.

"And the worms?"

"They're all gone." Said Kit from the entrance before walking in with his contagious smile. I let go of Anakin's hand quickly and he placed his hand beyond my legs, by the opposite edge of the bed. Kit didn't seem to notice a thing. "We had the parasite worms analysed, they indeed are the same type of creature you found on Geonosis."

"We'll have to inform the troops on Geonosis. This parasite might explain how they recaptured the planet the first time." Said Ani. "I don't want it happening again."

"I agree with him." I commented and they both looked at me.
"When I get out of here I'll do it."

"No." They said at the unison, both of them with gentle smiles on their faces. "You've been through quite an ordeal Lana." Said Fisto, smiling tenderly. "You should rest."

"I agree, you've done so much in the past few days." I sighed, even if I know that I need to rest.

"Fine, but before I do that, may I have a word with you Skywalker?"

  Fisto looked at Ani as he nodded at me with a smile, then, he looked at me and smiled too. I smiled back and he walked out of the room as Ani approached and sat beside me, closer to me.

"You should talk to Ahsoka." He frowned. "On the ship, Barriss asked Snips to kill her, of course she couldn't do it, it's not how she is."

"We already talked, I explained how...hard letting go of our attachments is a difficult struggle but congratulated her for following her instincts." I smiled.

"Good."

"That's all you wanted to say?" He arched an eyebrow as he stood up. I looked at the entrance and no one was coming, so, with a movement of my finger I told him to approach as I shook my head.

"I haven't actually told you recently." He was inches away now. "I love you." He smiled and I smiled too, then, he moved closer to me, his eyes focused on my lips.

"I know." He pressed his lips against mine. They tasted like coffee. His hand found the back of my neck and he pulled me closer. I placed mine on the back of his head too and played with his hair until we broke the kiss for lack of air. "I love you too." I smiled more. "So much." He left a quick peck on my lips and forehead and pulled away. "Rest Angel, you've earned it."

  I nodded and watched him walk out, when he did, I closed my eyes and dived in the darkness behind my eyelids that matched the darkness of the space behind the glass.