War truly seemed to never end lately, the battles got tougher and more complicated to deal with day after day. There were days in which the heroes definitely got exhausted for fighting for days in a row, today was not the exception.

We find ourselves in Ringo Vinda, the Separatist and Republic forces engaged battle all around a massive space station that surrounds the entire planet.

  General Skywalker found himself leading the 501st men down the pathway in the middle of the station, Genera Naberrie and Captain Kestis were fighting with the 104th down the left and the twin sisters, Generals Tiplee and Tiplar, were aiding them by the right. It didn't matter how hard the three battalions pushed forward, it seemed as though any of the sides was gaining any ground to finally be done with the battle.

"Push forward!" Anakin made his voice audible around the three passages where his fellow Jedi were fighting through, as well as every single clone trooper. They all pushed as instructed, until the sound of elastics echoed around them.

"Commando droids!" Allana warned as her attention snapped from the front to her right. "They're on the flanks!"

"Tighten the flanks!" Ordered Tiplar and her men, as well as Naberrie's tightened the flanks to protect themselves and those in the middle.

"Cal, with me, Sinker, you handle the offensive." She knew all too well that Wolffe would help them out, better leave the right hand of the Commander to lead the attack on the front side.

"Yes, sir!" He said and the two Jedi of the Wolf battalion headed towards the commandos with few of their troopers following behind.

"Destroyers!" Said Tiplee as the last three units of special droids were destroyed.

"Same here!" Sinker warned.

"Shields up!" Tiplar and both battalions used a manoeuvre implemented by the twins, using the shields to hold the enemy fire while the Jedi lifted the deadly droids by using the Force and the troopers made poppers roll over the ground. The Jedi placed the droids back down only for them to be deactivated shortly after.

When the destroyers were out of the game, both squads kept on pushing until they met with a smaller droid armada and quickly destroyed them all. The three battalions ended up meeting in a room that rests in the centre of the station, the twins were the ones to take out the last few droids.

A breath of relief left Allana's lips as she clipped the handles of her lightsabers to her belt and rubbed her aching wrists, the rest took a second to cool down as well.

"Don't get too comfortable." Said Skywalker as he washed off the sweat that fell down his forehead and made his hair get stuck to his skin. "This battle hasn't been won yet." The clones gathered around the middle of the open area as Kestis placed the holo-projector with the map of the station before them all.

"Master Skywalker." Tiplee called the attention. "We must get to the command post, Admiral Trench has sent for reinforcements. We must get this post before they arrive." Anakin nodded.

"We'll get you there, Witty, where are we?" He asked Cal.

"At this position, Master." Cal pointed at an oval area highlighted with a red light.

"Time for phase two of your plan." Allana commented as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Tiplar, take your men down this passageway." He pointed at the corridor of the right. "Tiplee, you'll move along here." He pointed at the left. "Allana, go down the middle. They'll have to divide their forces to counter us and when they do, Rex and I will join you to press them down even further." He looked at her and Naberrie nodded. "If we time it right, we'll all coverage on this spot at the same time, just like we just did, and droids won't know what hit 'em." Cal nodded and stood up.

"If we're making a run, we'll need backup. My men are severely depleted." Said Commander Doom.

"What if we help with that?" Allana suggested. "If we move with you, they will certainly not expect Anakin and Rex to go down the middle, they'll expect us all to stick together."

"It sounds good to me." Said Cal, enthusiastic.

"But that leaves one flank completely alone, they could gain ground as we deceive them." Said Tiplee.

"Not if we divide the squads. Risky move but I'm confident it could work." Anakin meditated for a moment.

"I'm taking the risk. Fives, Tup, take ten of your best men and support Master Tiplar, Naberrie and Cal."

"Sinker, you'll lead the assault down the middle with Anakin; Wolffe, you'll come with me." Said Naberrie.

"Great." Said Anakin. "Let's go."

"On it, sir." Said the clones all together as everyone stood up and stepped closer to the gates.

"We're ready when you're ready." Allana told Tiplar when they stood side by side.

"Good to know that you'll have to follow my lead now, Allana." The yellow-skinned Mikkian said with a smirk, the human with fair skin smiled back. If you remember, Allana was moved one generation up for her great achievements, to the twins' generation. When she arrived, she became top of the class and whenever the Padawans were divided into teams, Allana would have the lead. Now, things were different. Everyone was the leader of their teams.

"Well, there's a first time for everything, isn't it?" She chuckled.

"Indeed." She turned at the rest of the people that were ready to follow her into battle. "Follow me." She raised her hand and proceeded to get out running with her battalion, as well as part of Lana's, close behind.

Skywalker pressed down the middle while the other Jedi made sure to press the attack on their sides, all of them fighting valiantly with the troopers fighting with the same effort than them. They destroyed every droid until they entered a hangar, there, they found a lot more droids.

"Allana, Cal, take out the spider droids, the rest of you, focus on the assault droids!" Tiplar commanded. The pair of Jedi that were fighting alongside her nodded and jumped on top of two separate spider droids while she jumped on top of another one, the second those droids were destroyed, they jumped down and took cover from the blasts behind some boxes. "On your right!" She warned her sister.

The three of them continued to deflect the blasts back to the droids and heard what they thought were orders between clones. At some point, Tup, a trooper from Skywalker's battalion stepped close to them.

"Tup, no!" Yelled Fives and only a second later, Tup shot Master Tiplar.

"Sister!" Yelled Tiplee.
"Tiplar!" Yelled Lana as the body of the Jedi fell to her left. "Tup-" The clone aimed at her. Cal's eyes opened wildly when his tingle spiked.

"Master!" Kestis yelped and pulled Allana's arm by the time Tup fired again, her scream flooded the room. Anakin's attention snapped towards the area, he spotted a wounded Lana and a worried Cal covering her Master to defend her from the clone, not watching his back.

"Lana!" He yelled as she simply groaned and Cal watched over her, fearing for her life and his own as Tup seemed to be unable to wake up from a trance, he seemed to be determined to shoot again. Wolffe stood in between Kestis and Tup while Fives tackled Tup to take a hold of him.

"I'm fine!" She lied. "Kid, look at the front, cover our flank. The rest of you, hold your positions!" She ordered as she moved to recline her back against some boxes, hand over the wound. Tiplee jumped down to take into her arms the corpse of her sister, her features covered in sadness.

"Destroyers!" Doom pointed out and Allana had to pull herself up, a hand over her abdomen, blood crawling out from in between her fingers. She continued to deflect the blasts back as she could, under the attentive gaze of her two boys, both of them worried. Anakin and Cal know her too well as to know her movements started to be sloppy, a wrong blaster hit and she'd be disarmed just to get properly shot.

"We've lost our momentum, fall back!" Anakin yelled as he placed Allana's arm around his shoulder and his around her waist, his hand above hers to add more pressure to the wound, making her groan, while Tiplee carried Tiplar's body. The remaining twin and her battalion ran out while the other two remained covering their backs. "Lans, we need to get you out of here."

"No, someone needs to hold them off." He rolled is eyes.

"Master, I think you should listen to Skyguy." Cal said as he deflected the blasts back and pushed back a few.

"Some day."

"You're annoyingly stubborn." Anakin added and picked Allana up, making her complain. And not because it hurt, she complained because she didn't have it her way and about the fact that Skywalker had literally picked her up from the ground to the point where the girl wasn't even walking by herself. Anyhow, Naberrie knew he had made the right call.

"Thanks." She said, Skywalker smiled even if he was worried and looked at his trooper.

"Fives, I don't know what's going on, but you're responsible for Tup now. Get him back to base, get answers." Fives nodded and that's when Anakin started walking backwards, dragging Naberrie with him.

They moved down the halls and made sure to fire back to the droid army, placing turrets to press their defence until they found themselves back in the room where they had planned the phase two of Anakin's plan. The second they were in, the gate closed and troopers from Tiplee's battalion sealed the gates. Anakin walked downstairs with Lana and reclined her against the console, she sighed with certain relief as her back made contact with the cold metal.

"I need to take a look at it." Lana nodded and Anakin lifted her vest above the waist, he frowned. The superficial scar of a Separatist blaster fire she had gotten back at Teth had a new one across from it, now she'd have a pair of scars on her torso that would look like an x.

"That bad, huh?" She said, his silence was enough answer. "Oh, brother."

"I need a stim." He said and Cal pulled one out of his pocket to hand it over to Skywalker, only a second later, he injected it on Naberrie's abdomen, making her squeeze her eyes shut. Seconds went by and blood was still crawling out of the wound. "It's too deep."

"Could've been worse." Said Kestis.

"Yeah, could've been if you hadn't been there. Thank you, I owe you one."

"You owe me a lot more than one, Master." She smiled weakly, as well as Anakin, who saw a lot of himself in the young Jedi. Just like he used to see himself in his own Padawan. "What do we do? We need to stop the bleeding." Skywalker nodded and Lana frowned as she thought of something.

"Use your lightsaber." She said.

"What?" Both boys asked at the same time.

"It's a laser, that will cauterise the wound."

"Are you sure?" Asked Anakin and she nodded after a second. "Cal, hold her arms, she'll try to punch me. Wolffe, hold her feet still, she'll try to kick me too." He smiled and made her laugh just for her to complain. "How long do I have to press it?"

"Ten seconds, don't press it too hard or you'll cut me in half."

"Got it. Ready? It will hurt like a motherfucker." He turned on the lightsaber.

"Just do it." He looked at Kestis, who had a strong grip around his Master's arms, and over his shoulder at Wolffe, who nodded once he held Allana by the ankles. Skywalker breathed in and out sharply before he gently pressed the blade of his weapon to her skin, making her scream as she closed her eyes and looked away. Anakin frowned as he counted in his head to ten, when he was done, he turned off the weapon and pulled down the soft fabric to gently place his palm against her waist while a breath of relief left her mouth and both Cal and Wolffe let go of her.

"Done."

"I can tell, thank you." He smiled briefly. "Check on Tiplee while I catch my breath here." He nodded and stood up to make his way to the other Jedi, who was holding her sister and was surrounded by some of their clones.

"Why?" Tiplee said as she held Tiplar close to herself when Anakin stood beside her. "Why would he do this?"

"I'm about to find out." He answered and walked away to meet Rex, Fives, Kix and a handcuffed Tup. "How's he doing, Rex?" He asked low.

"Not sure, General." Answered the Captain, just as low. "It seems like he just...snapped." Rex bent down right in front of Tup, Anakin stood closely. "Tup, can you hear me?"

"Yes, Captain." Said the trooper. "What happened?"

"What do you mean?" Anakin frowned and crossed his arms. "Do you have any idea what you've done?" Tup's pupils dilated and he frowned.

"Good soldiers follow orders. Good soldiers follow orders." He repeated over and over again as he looked at his brothers while Allana, Tiplee and Cal gathered behind Anakin. He looked at Naberrie from over his shoulder. "Good soldiers follow orders. Good soldiers follow orders."

"What's he talking about?" Asked Cal, who was standing in front of his Master for her to use his shoulders to help her stand. He insisted even if she could walk, she didn't complain and mocked him by saying that he had the perfect height, he mocked her back saying that he'd end up being taller than her in a short amount of time.

"I have no idea." Rex answered.

"Good soldiers follow orders. Good soldiers follow orders. Good soldiers follow orders." Wolffe stood behind Naberrie, she placed a hand over his shoulder after he looked at her, asking without words if she was alright. "Good soldiers follow orders. Good soldiers follow orders." Kix examined him, moved his hand in front of him as his eyes shoot up, looking directly into Allana's eyes but he didn't wake up at all. "Kill the Jedi."

Tup screamed and jumped out of his seat to attack Allana again, Naberrie moved Cal behind her in a second and Wolffe stood before his General, whose hand fell on her waist. Kix was pushed back and hit Anakin before he could do anything, and Tiplee placed her hand up and stopped him by using the Force. She proceeded to push him against the wall that's opposite from them.

"Thanks." Said Naberrie, patting Wolffe's shoulder, making him nod. Tiplee simply looked coldly at the trooper that's floating against the wall. Allana looked at Anakin briefly and he placed a hand over the Jedi's shoulder.

"We have to get him back to the medical bay before he hurts anyone else." Said Skywalker. Tiplee nodded and let go, making Tup fall. That's when Fives and Rex took a hold of the trooper and stayed with him. "Sedate him." Kix nodded and injected the right amount of meds to make Tup fall asleep.

When the gang decided they had given enough time to the droids to regroup, they got their shields up and got ready to fight their way out, only that when they walked out, they realised the droids had pulled back.

"That's odd." Said Kestis.

"Indeed." Said Allana.

"Is it a trap?"

"Could be, most likely." Anakin was the one to speak this time. "Come on." The three teams made their way out of the station and arrived at the hangar where they had locked their ship a while ago, then, they were piloted to the medical bay.

  Tup was taken to a bed and the droids attached him to the bed, Tiplar's body was placed in a coffin and Lana sat down on the bed beside Tup's to get her torso bandaged. Everyone left, only that Skywalker came back moments later to find Naberrie sleeping calmly, but she woke up after a while as he stroked her hair softly. "Hey." He said softly too.

"Hi." She smiled at him.

"Did you get some rest?"

"I did, thank you."

"Does it hurt a lot?"

"Well, they gave me some hardcore pills, so, no. However, it will hurt a lot later on." He smiled relieved and nodded.

"I'm glad you're okay." Her hand found his cupping her cheek.

"Me too." She looked at his right hand. "Did you get the blood off of the leather?" Anakin nodded. "That's quite complicated."

"I know and I did before it got too dry." She chuckled and that's when Tup started to wake up, he grunted. "I'll call in the rest." She nodded and incorporated.

She grabbed her navy blue vest and placed it on as Anakin made the call for the rest of the team to get to the med-bay. In a short amount of time, Fives, Rex, Tiplee and Cal arrived.

"Master, good to see you're doing better." Said Cal as he approached Naberrie to high-five her, she smiled at him.

"Thanks, kiddo." Tup grunted again, calling everyone's attention. His eyes opened and he seemed very confused, specially because he was cuffed to the bed.

"Fives." He said. "What's happening to me?"

"You...don't remember?" Asked the Arc Trooper.

"No."

"You murdered General Tiplar, you could've killed General Naberrie if Captain Kestis hadn't pulled her out of the way." Tup's eyes met Tiplee's and then Allana's, everyone could tell he was confused and agitated.

"What? No. I- that- that's not possible...I- I would never." He started to get anxious. "I could never." He started to wrestle with the cuffs.

"Tup, you did." Fives placed his hand over his forearm to make him calm down, as he didn't, Allana stepped forward, her compassion always taking over.

"Tup, calm down, please." She said.

"General, I'm sorry. I- I would never mean to-"

"I know, I know, just...calm down." He didn't, instead, he tried to kick his way out, but his legs were attached to the bed as well. Naberrie's eyes met Anakin's and he stepped away after he signaled the med droid, who stepped forward with a sedative already in hand.

"How could this happen?" The droid moved Allana out of the way gently and moved Tup's head to a side to have a clear view of his neck, where he'd inject the meds. "What's happening to me, Fives?" He yelped when the needle entered his skin, Cal looked away, he couldn't bare the sight of a hurting friend, while the rest frowned with worry. "No! No." He breathed out and his eyelids closed slowly as he fell asleep again. Everyone stepped away from the bed, except for Fives, and started to walk out.

"What do you think happened?" Rex asked. Anakin looked at the ground and ran a hand through his hair as he thought.

"Did you check all of the scans?" He asked Kix.

"Well, all of his scans are clear." He said. "As far as I can tell, this is a combat-related stress."

"Stress?" Asked Naberrie, making the clone nod and hand the datapad over to her to have a look, thanks to her height the rest could have a look from above.

"It seems he's had some sort of breakdown."

"Kix, you should know better." Said Rex, quite upset. "We were designed to withstand any stress."

"I agree, we've been through a lot together." Said Fives as he approached the group. "He doesn't seem to remember what happened. It's like his sick or drugged." Allana handed over the pad to Anakin, her eyes reflected that she was lost in her train of thought and memory.

"Like a virus?" She asked softly and out of the blue.

"Yes, it could be, or a toxin. I can't be certain." Said Kix. Anakin frowned and crossed his arms as he closed the gate of the medical bay.

"You mean the enemy could've made him do this?" He asked, a hand on his hip and the other one holding his chin. Allana shrugged as she crossed her arms herself, Kix tilted his head and Cal just looked at the adults.

"It's a possibility." Said Tiplee, crossing her arms as well. "There have been rumours that Separatists have been trying to develop an anti-clone virus biological warfare." The clones that were guarding the entrance looked at her, now everyone was even more concerned.

"Listen." Kix called the attention. "We aren't equipped for this type of situation. He'll have to be taken back to Kamino, only then will you have your answer." Anakin nodded and in no time, Tup's stretcher was taken into a vessel that would take him back to his home planet. The same group, except for Tiplee and Kix, were there to watch him leave.

"Wait, wait." Fives called and the troopers stopped for a moment. "Tup, it's gonna be fine, I promise." He added, bending down beside his brother. "They'll fix you up real good. We'll be having a drink together in no time, eh?"

"Good soldiers follow orders." There it was again, that phrase. Naberrie frowned and stepped forward a bit to listen closely to the words Tup was talking in his sleep. "Good...soldiers...follow orders."

"You are a good soldier, Tup."

"It's time to go now." Said one of the troopers and Fives stepped away with a nod.

"Be careful." Anakin said, arms crossed.

"Yes, General." With that, they all saw how Tup got into the ship and the gate closed shortly after. The vessel took off and a small squad of ships followed it as an escort. Anakin, Rex and Fives turned around to walk back to the bridge. Skywalker realised Naberrie didn't move to follow them, he turned around just to find her looking at the emptiness of space.

"You alright?" He asked but there was no response from her, instead, her fingers continued fidgeting with the pendant of her necklace. "Lana?" His hand fell upon her shoulder, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Hmm?" Their eyes met. "Sorry, did you say something?"

"Yeah, I asked if you were alright."

"Yes." He narrowed his eyes a bit. "No. Yes. Yes, I am."

"Sounds confusing." Said Kestis, making her sigh as the five of them walked down the hangar.

"I'm just...thinking."

"Of what, General?" Asked Fives.

"What he said, 'good soldiers follow orders'. Doesn't that sound odd?"

"Quite a bit." Said Rex.

"It's unsettling." Added Cal.

"Yeah." A pause. "I don't think it's a virus" She said.

"You think...it's something else?" Asked Cal and she nodded.

"What do you mean?" Asked Anakin, frowning.

"Well, if it was a virus why didn't it affect any other Clone since it's in the air? I mean, Fives tackled Tup and Wolffe placed himself right in front of me to protect us. I just...I don't think a virus would make someone snap and shoot a person just like that." She sighed. "It just doesn't make sense to me, you know? Good soldiers follow orders. Who would order Tup to do that? To attack us like that? I mean, he said good soldiers follow orders and then kill the Jedi. It simply makes no sense. There's something we're not looking at."

"Like what?"

"No clue. This feels like that time...when the Geonosian parasite spread across the ship. I was with...Snips and Barriss that day." Anakin thought for a moment, mind control? It could be a possibility but who and, most importantly, how could they have done it? Before he could ask those questions, an alarm went off and many troopers started running down the hangar, the group frowned.

"Admiral, what's going on?" Anakin asked through the comlink.

"We received a mayday call from the medical vessel." They all exchanged looks at Yularen's words. "The enemy circled behind them, the escort has been taken down and they're being overwhelmed."

"Prep the fighters, we'll get out there as soon as-"

"They left, General."

"What?"

"They attacked the vessel and flew back to their position." Anakin closed his eyes, upset while the rest had confused and also angry frowns on their faces. Only those machines could hurt those who were in helpless.

"Send me the coordinates, I will be the one to look for survivors." He had learned that from his Snips.

"Right away, General." The communication ended and he sighed.

"Y'all are coming with me, I suppose?"

"Of course, Skyguy." Said Cal. Anakin looked at him and smiled tenderly, then, and all of them started walking towards the nearest ship. Once they were in, Skywalker and Naberrie sat as pilot and co-pilot respectively, Kestis at the guns with Fives and Rex was on the Navicomputer with R2.

They flew towards the area of the attack, finding debris from the ships and the corpses of some clones floating around, a very disturbing sight.

"It doesn't look good." Said Anakin, the rest silently agreed with him.

"Looks like some buzz-droids got into the hull and opened it right up." Rex commented.

"Hmm. Strategically, this attack doesn't make any sense." Fives pointed out, making Cal nod.

"I agree." Said Allana. "But it does if they were after something specific." It didn't take long for them all to tie up the lose ends of her comment.

"Tup." The two clones said at the same time.

"I'm going over there." Said Anakin.

"We're coming with you." Said Rex.

"You two, gear up." He told the members of the 104th that had come along and they nodded before putting on the space suits. When they had locked the helmets and they could breathe properly, they attached themselves to the ship and proceeded to jump out of the ship to get to the destroyed vessel.

If the sight was disturbing from afar, from up close it only got worse. The Clones had pale skin and some frost on it because of the cold, mouth and eyes opened and rolled back, all of them with blaster shots on their armours.

"Hey!" Cal said, calling everyone's attention from further into the ship. "Over here!" The rest moved quickly towards the area where he was.

"Tup's gurney." Anakin said and turned it over, there was no sight of the trooper.

"The restrainers have been cut." Naberrie pointed out.

"The clankers took Tup? Why?" Asked Rex.

"They must be responsible for whatever's happening to him." Said Fives.

"Maybe they wanted to study him. If whatever made Tup murder Tiplar and attack me, the Separatists would surely want to take a close look at it." Naberrie thought.

"Maybe even duplicate it." Kestis added and Allana nodded. She's proud of her apprentice, specially the quick ability to tie thoughts together to get to a strong conclusion or formulate a flawless e strategy. She's taught him that, as well as Wolffe.

"It's possible." Anakin spoke. "All I know is, they went greater lengths to capture him and that means something." He turned around to face the rest.

"We need to get him back." Said Fives.

"Don't worry, we'll find a way." Allana placed her hand over the trooper's shoulder and he nodded, thanking the support for the cause. With that, they all got out of the wrecked ship and entered their own again, all of them took off their helmets once they were in the cockpit. "Well, I suppose we're entering their lines."

"A direct attack?" Asked Lana.

"Yeah."

"We're just five against God knows how many."

"I'm aware."

"Okay, just making sure." Anakin chuckled as he piloted the vessel towards the opposite side from where the Republic forces were hiding behind the space station. "What's your plan?"

"Well, the five of us will go in, R2 will stay with the ship and drop us off just short of the main hangar. Then we space-walk from there." She nodded. "R2, once we're on our way to the hangar, I want you to regroup with our forces, if anything happens I'll signal you to get us out of there." The droid beeped.

"Are you picking anything up from Tup's locator?" Asked Rex.

"I've got a faint signal, but it's hard to track." Fives answered as he looked at the data-pad. "It's moving."

"Then we better hurry." Said Cal and Anakin pressed the controls forward to go faster.

"R2, take over." Skywalker commanded his droid and he beeped before he manoeuvred the ship and the rest got ready again. R2 placed the ship downwards and on top of the outer part of the space station for the five of them to get out, when they did, they started walking slowly through the station.

"I have a better signal. Tup is heading this way." Fives commented.

"They're moving him to the hangar." Anakin pointed out.

"Obviously." Kestis said to himself, he forgot about the inner comlink of the helmet, though. Skywalker punched his arm softly while the rest chuckled.

"They want to get him elsewhere." Allana commented.

"Obviously." Cal said once more and they pressed the climb through the station walls as they heard the enemy ships flying away from their position. After what seemed to be an eternity, they reached the hangar and pocked their heads out to have a better look at whatever they'd face, and they found a lot of droids. "Oh, boy."

"Well, I guess that's how many of them we're facing." Anakin said as all of them took out their telescopes to look for Tup amongst the crowd of metallic soldiers.

"You don't even know how many droids are there." Said Naberrie.

"No, but if you're patient enough to count them all, do let me know." She scoffed at Skywalker's words. "Goodness, I hate this thing." Anakin added lowly, hoping not to be heard, but he obviously was. Did he forget of the helmet's comlink too? You guessed it right, he did.

"Are your scopes a Jedi-issue, Sir?" Asked Fives, making them all smile with amusement.

"Stay focused, Fives." The trooper chuckled and Skywalker shook his head, a smile on his lips.

"Found him." Kestis said and everyone looked at the spot where he was pointing at. They all found Tup laying down on a stretcher that was being taken to the ship, commando droids were escorting him.

"We'll have to work fast." Said Skywalker with determination.

"There must be hundreds of droids in that hangar." Rex commented. "Not to mention the starfighters. This is stretching, even for you, Sir."

"Rex, you're beginning to sound like Obi-Wan." Cal chuckled. "You got a better idea?"

"Look, I don't doubt you three could pull it off, but I'm not sure Fives and I would be around to see it happen."

"Don't say that, Rex." Kestis told the Captain.

"Smarty?" Anakin looked at Allana, who sighed.

"I'm blank. When we fight that amount of droids, we usually have our battalions with us, Ani, right now we're just five. The odds don't seem to be on our favour right now, but I'm thinking." Anakin frowned and nodded as he knew very well the meticulous mind of his wife and the way it goes through almost every single detail and thinks of different outcomes, was taking everything into consideration and was rushing to come up with something. The problem was that the clankers had them at check.

"I've got an idea." Said Fives after a few seconds.

"Great, let's hear it, quickly." Anakin turned to look at his trooper, he took out a device to click it to his blaster. "Grappling gun?" The General smiled. "Good thinking."

"Get ready to hold on." Fives said as the engines of the ship started to roar, getting ready for takeoff.

"That's why he's the Arc Trooper." Rex commented and offered a hand for Anakin to take it after he had clicked the grappling device to his blasters, then, he offered one of the guns to Naberrie, who took it and offered her hand to Cal for him to take. The three of them aimed at the ship when it flew above them and fired the megnetic-hooks, which got stuck to the bottom of the ship, dragging them through the immensity of space.

When they had climbed the ship and stood on one of its wings, they took the hooks off and Allana handed Rex his weapon. The Jedi waited for the troopers to open a vent and then the five of them slid inside, arriving at the small cargo area of the vessel.

"It's locked from the other side." Cal said when he tried to open the gate, all of them ready for anything with their weapons in their hands.

"Well, open it up, Witty." Naberrie instructed her apprentice, who smiled at her before nodding.

"You ready?"

"Always, kid." Rex told him and Cal turned on the blade of his lightsaber, cutting the door, making it slide open. He realised he had stabbed a droid when he opened the door and, for some reason, that made him feel so proud of himself.

"Scrap 'em." Anakin commanded when the droids aimed at them and started firing their blasters. Anakin and Allana stepped forward to destroy the droids that were further in the back while Cal, Rex and Fives handled those that were closer to them. It wasn't going to be a quick battle since all of them were commando droids.

In no time, four droids were destroyed by Anakin's hand, a fourth and fifth one were taken out by Kestis. Allana pulled one of the droids to herself by using the Force and cut it by the half, and deflected a blast from one of them back to itself, taking it out of the game. Rex and Fives were fighting together a pair of those nasty machines.

One of the droids opened fire at Naberrie and she used the upper half of the previously destroyed droid as a shield while Anakin grabbed it and threw it against the wall. That's when the cockpit's gate opened, revealing the tall and big Commander droid. Allana dropped the droid's spare part and threw a thrust of her saber to the Commander's head, but it moved backwards and avoided the attack just to punch her on the wounded side of the abdomen, making her grunt and fall down, the air had been knocked out of her lungs all of the sudden.

Anakin looked angrily at the droid and threw himself at it, he stood in between the machine and the girl. The droid punched his helmet once —luckily it didn't break— and then punched his back, his body colliding against the ground. That's when Cal appeared into scene by rolling over the ground just to jump up shortly after and, by swooshing his lightsaber up, he managed to cut off the droid's arms. That's when he threw the droid against the wall with the Force and Anakin stood up to grab it by his metallic throat, his lightsaber threatening to cut its head off.

"What is going on?" He asked as the troopers of his battalion shot the pilot and co-pilot droids from the entrance of the cockpit and Cal helped Allana up. Her hand found her torso, when she looked at the white space suit's glove, it had a stain of blood. She sighed and walked away after thanking Cal, she instructed him to follow her with a glance. "What do you know about this clone?" Fives approached Tup, who was tied to a stretcher that was reclined against the wall.

"I am programmed to resist intimidation." Said the droid, in a second, Skywalker cut the head of the droid, making its head fall with a loud thud on the ground.

"Fine."

"Keep the head, we can analyse the intel later." Said Allana from the cockpit, she was seated as pilot and Cal was her co-pilot.

"Alright." He approached Tup and Fives. "How's he doing?"

"Not well." Said Fives. "Not well at all. I think he's dying, Sir." Everyone could hear the worry, the fear and the concern in his voice.

"We have to get him to Kamino." Anakin said as he entered the cockpit and reclined his weight against the top of the seat where Allana was.

"I'm going back to the Cruiser." She said as she piloted back to where their forces were. "There we can get him more comfortable." She looked over her shoulder and saw Skywalker nod.

Naberrie took the vessel back to Skywalker's ship and let Yularen know who was inside of said ship to make sure they weren't shot down. When she entered the hangar, she landed so softly no one felt a thing and they all walked out. The medics took Tup back to the medical wing to run a scan on him and make sure the Separatists hadn't harm him or done anything to him while the group took off the space suits, agreed on what they'll do and waited right outside of the Med-wing.

"I want a full report from Kamino." Anakin instructed his Captain —who was instructed to go with Tup to keep a close eye on everything— when the stretcher with Tup on it arrived by their side. "If Tup is the victim of some Separatist plot, we have no idea of how widespread it already is." The Captain nodded and, with that, Anakin started to walk away. Allana offered a comforting smile to the clones before walking away too while Cal high-fived them before walking behind his Master.

"Master." He called Naberrie's attention.

"Yes?" She asked softly.

"May I go back to our cruiser? I have my daily chess match against Wolffe and I have a feeling I might be able to win this time." She smiled.

"Alright."

"Thank you."

"And let me know if you finally beat him, because if you do, you're playing against me." Anakin smiled.

"I will." She saw he was carrying the droid's head.

"Oh, and when you're done with your match, analyse that thing, please. There must be something in it that can give us a clue to all this...hopefully."

"Alright." He made a head bow that was returned by the two adults before walking away.

  "Do you think he'll ever be able to beat Wolffe in chess?" Anakin asked as they arrived at the bridge.

"I'm confident on it, after all, Padmé taught him how to play when we escorted her to Naboo few weeks ago."

"He had a good teacher, one that always wins."

"I know, the thing is that his opponent has been playing for a longer time."

"Patience and practice makes perfect."

"Weird words coming from you, but true." He chuckled as Yularen handed him over a datapad.

"Thank you." The Admiral nodded and greeted with a formal nod the other General before walking into the briefing room. "Medical frigate 517, you are cleared for departure." He informed as he looked through the large windows at the vessel and the squad that had gone with it as escort.

"Thank you, General." Rex's voice echoed through the comlink. "Make the jump." He instructed the pilot.

"Good luck, boys." Seconds later, the ship made the jump through hyperspace and disappeared from their view. They both sighed. "It was a long day." He added, this time looking at Allana, who raised her eyebrows, took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. She frowned. "What?"

"I think the would opened again when that bitch-droid punched me." Anakin frowned with worry. "I'll get it checked right now."

"Let me know how you feel." She nodded. "You should rest after you're checked out."

"I will. Mind if I crash here? I am actually exhausted." He smiled.

"Not at all." She smiled back. "I might join you in a moment." He added in a whisper.

"Okay, but I will be deeply asleep by the time that happens." He shrugged and she started to walk away to get to the Med-Station to have the wound cauterised for good.

When she was done and had mentally added a new scar to her list, Allana made her way towards the Jedi's quarters and take a long nap, her husband didn't take too long to show up and sleep by her side. Both of them rested until duty called again.