Ashara was quiet as she stood next to Obi-wan in front of Jabba the Hutt. She forgot how ugly the slug like creature was. "Mighty Jabba, one of our most powerful Jedi is on his way to rescue your son. We will not let you down."

The togruta listened carefully as Jabba spoke in Huttese. "I have another condition for this deal. You must bring back the slime who kidnapped my little punky muffin."

She hesitated, unsure if she should reveal she understood and spoke Huttese. This gave the droid a chance to translate for Obi-wan.

"Punky?" he whispered. Ashara shrugged, wincing as Jabba added another thing to the deal. "Dead or alive. If you do not succeed, Count Dooku and his droid army will."

Ashara responded once the droid repeated everything to them. "Don't worry, mighty Jabba. We will succeed."

Jabba exclaimed in surprise, having not expected her to speak the language, but continued to talk about the deal. Once he finished, Obi-wan and Ashara agreed to the terms, and walked over to a quiet corner of the palace and contacted Anakin.

"Alright, Anakin, here's the story", Obi-wan started. "Jabba has given us only one planetary rotation to get his son back home to Tattooine safe and sound."

"Won't take us that long, Master", Anakin said cockily. Ashara sighed, wishing he hadn't said that. 

"Well, take extreme care", Obi-wan said. "We have no idea who 's holding Jabba's son. When we've finished negotiations with Jabba, we will join you."

Ashara glanced at Obi-wan. "I think I'll leave now and help them take and keep the monastery. You can handle negotiations by yourself, right?"

Obi-wan nodded before returning his gaze to Anakin. "Ashara will be joining you shortly, Anakin. She'll help with Jabba's son, and taking the monastery."

Anakin nodded, before his image vanished. "I'll take my leave now", she said, leaving Obi-wan to finish negotiations. She got to her ship, and took off her cloak, placing it in a storage area of the ship before climbing into the fighter herself. She instructed her astromech to take the ship to the hyperspace ring so they could go to the Teth system. It didn't take long for them to get into hyperspace, but Ashara knew it would be a long flight to Teth. She sighed, and stared out the window, trying to use the force to help her know who was behind the kidnapping of Jabba's son.  Unfortunately, that information was blocked from her senses, and so Ashara was left to her own thoughts for most of the flight until the yellow astromech beeped at her.

"Good", she answered the droid. "Contact Anakin."

A familiar face soon popped up on her ship's holocomm. "I'm about to jump out of hyperspace", she informed him. "Have you taken the monastery?"

Anakin nodded. "We have. We've also located Jabba's son. You should be able to land on the main platform of the monastery. Rex will be waiting there for you, and Ahsoka and I will join you there shortly."

Ashara nodded. "I'll see you shortly then, Anakin."

The hologram faded out just as the yellow fighter dropped out of hyperspace. Ashara called to her astromech.

"R5, you know where to go?" The droid beeped in confirmation, and Ashara let him take the controls. As they made their way through the fog, a monastery appeared. The togruta smiled when she saw Rex waiting. R5 landed the ship easily, and let Ashara out of the ship. Rex greeted the Jedi Knight with a smile, and led her over to the doors. 

"So you're just guarding the monastery while Anakin goes off promenading around, huh?" she asked teasingly. Rex chuckled. 

"Yeah, that's basically it", he said. "Usually how it happens."

Ashara chuckled. "Ah, I'm sure that there will be other times were you're helping him instead of just guarding."

A few short minutes later, Anakin and Ahoka came out of the monastery, carring a small hutt child with them. They were bantering like usual until the huttlet starting coughing. Ashara instantly took the huttlet away from Ahsoka, feeling the little guy's forehead.

"Anakin, the huttlet is sick. He's burning up with a fever", Ashara said. Anakin turned and looked at the huttlet.

"We've got to get him back to the ship immediately", Anakin said. Ashara nodded, and gestured for a clone to bring over a backpack to put the little slimeball in. 

The little guy wasn't cooperating and Ashara was about to give up when she remembered a lullaby that would work on the younglings in the temple. She started singing softly, but her voice carried, and anyone in the main courtyard of the monastery could hear her. Normally Ashara would be embarrassed, but she was so focused on calming the huttlet down that she didn't notice. And it did calm him down. He stopped squirming, and she was able to get him into the backpack with little trouble. She handed the backpack to Ahsoka, who held it in their arms as they used Ashara's astromech to contact Obi-wan.

"Anakin, did you locate Jabba's son?" the Jedi Master asked. 

"We have him, but it looks like the separatists are behind his abduction. This smells like Count Dooku to me", Anakin said. Ahsoka looked down at the slug she was holding.

"I think it's little Stinky you smell", Ahsoka whispered. Ashara snorted.

"I'll bet Dooku is using us to get Jabba to join the separatists", Obi-wan said as he stroked his beard.

"And that's only one of our worries", Ashara said. "Obi-wan, this huttlet is very sick."

"I'm not sure we can get him back to Tattooine alive, Master", Anakin said. "This whole rescue may backfire on us. I still don't think dealing with the Hutts is a good thing."

"You and me both, Anakin. I don't like them, and I never will", Ashara muttered. 

"Anakin, Ashara, you know they control shipping routes in the outer rim. Jabba's cooperation is crucial to the war effort. If you let anything happen to his son, our chances of a treaty with him will disappear", Obi-wan reprimanded the two Jedi Knights.

Ashara sighed, but wasn't able to dwell on it much when a loud sound echoed through the courtyard. She looked up and saw two separatist droid ships coming for the monastery. With a heaving sigh, she looked to Anakin and Ahsoka. 

"This day just keeps getting better and better", she muttered as they prepared to fight some more droids. Anakin explained what was happening to Obi-wan while Ashara grabbed her lightsabers as four vulture droids approached their position. She readied herself to attack them, but they weren't focused on her. They aimed their fire on her ship, and the togruta was thrown back by the explosion. 

When Ashara got up, she noticed there wasn't much left of her ship, or of her astromech. Her stomach dropped and she silently grieved for her droid before she returned her attention to the vulture droids. As one swept overhead, she leapt up, and landed on top of it. She ignited her lightsaber, and cut through it. As it started to lose altitude, she jumped onto to another one, and repeated her previous action. Before she could jump onto the next one, some droids from the ground started shooting at her, and she was forced to deflect the shots. The droid she was balancing on crashed against the ground, and she tumbled off, rolling to a stop on the ground.

As soon as she regained her senses, she leaped up, and started running towards the droids, not yet igniting her lightsabers and instead just dodging the blaster fire. She reached the droids, and immediately started slicing them down. 

"Get inside", she yelled back to her fellow Jedi and the clones. They listened to her and began to retreat. She slowly backed up, now just defending herself. As soon as she got close enough to closing door, she turned off her lightsabers, and rolled underneath the door. The door completely closed after she got inside, and as she stood up, Anakin was glaring at her.

"Are you crazy?" he snarled. "You could have gotten yourself killed."

Ashara crossed her arms, and returned his glare. "I know what I'm doing, Anakin. Don't forget, I always best you in sparring, I think I can handle a few droids."

Anakin scoffed, and turned away, looking to Rex. "Captain, we'll stay here until General Kenobi arrives with reinforcements."

The togruta shook her head. "No. We don't have time. The huttlet is getting sicker and sicker. You and Ahsoka need to find a way to get off this rock and get him onto Tattooine."

Ahsoka piped up. "I have an idea, R2 willing."

Anakin sighed. "Alright, Snips. I'll trust you on this one. Captain, hold them here as long as you can."

"Will do, sir. You heard the general!" Rex said as the master and student duo started to walk away. Ashara stayed where she was, causing Anakin to pause. "Ash, you coming?"

The togruta shook her head. "No. I'll stay here with the men, buy you guys some more time. I have a feeling you'll need it."

Anakin nodded, and they turned away, vanishing into the darkness. Ashara turned her gaze to the front door, staying in the exact center while the clones started to hide behind the outcroppings on the wall. A few minutes later, the door started to open. Ashara remained where she was, not even grabbing her lightsabers.

"They've cut the lock", one of the clones yelled. 

"Here they come!" Rex yelled. As soon as he yelled that, Ashara grabbed her lightsabers, and ignited both of the cyan blades, attacking the droids before they could even get five feet into the main vault. She got through the first wave of B1 battle droids and super droids, leaving some for the clones, and was greeted by three spider droids. She sighed, and leaped forward, landing on top of the middle one. She stabbed both her lightsabers into its head, before leaping away onto the one on the left. She quickly took that one out in a similar fashion before turning to the last one. It was watching her, ready to blast her. She waited for a moment, and as soon as it fired, she leapt forward, over the laser, and landed in front of the spider droid. With little effort, she cut its blaster, and then sliced through its head. She returned her gaze to the oncoming droids but noticed that the few that were left weren't shooting. There was a cloaked figure waiting at the door. 

Ashara tightened her grip on her lightsabers. "Show yourself", she spat. The figure chuckled, and pulled down the hood of her cloak.

"Ventress", Ashara hissed, recognizing the bald head of the female from the few stories Obi-wan and Anakin had told her. 

"I don't we've had the pleasure of meeting", Ventress said smoothly before turning and giving orders to the last few droids. Ashara used that small distraction to leap forward, both lightsabers ignited. But with little effort, Ventress used her own two lightsabers to block the togruta's, pushing the Jedi Knight backward. Ashara grimaced, and Ventress chuckled as she pulled off her cloak. Before Ashara could attack again, blaster fire sounded from the side of the room, and a droid fell to the ground. More blaster fire came, aimed at Ventress, but the Sith apprentice blocked it.

With a silent command from Ventress, the droids started shooting at Ashara, forcing her to focus her attention on them. She destroyed droid after droid, but they kept coming, eventually surrounding her. It didn't take long for her to be overwhelmed, and her lightsabers were knocked from her hands. She used the force to send the droids in front of her backward, but the droids behind her grabbed her arms, and held her still. She tried to struggle, to fight back, but the super droids holding her merely tightened their grip, causing her to cry out in pain. 

They dragged her outside and held her off the side while other droids forced the three remaining clones, one being Rex, to get up and stand in the courtyard as prisoners. Ashara heard explosions in the sky and let out a breath of relief when she noticed that there was help coming. She knew Obi-wan would be with them, and would be able to help immensely. First, however, she needed to get her lightsabers back. So when Rex's comm started going off, she smiled, knowing it would distract the droids for a while. 

Ashara closed her eyes, focusing the force around the two droids that held her. She used the force surrounding them to crush their chest-plates inward. When she heard sparks, and felt their grip lighten, she opened her eyes, and pulled her arms out of the droids servos. She saw her lightsabers in another droids hands, and used the force to pull them to her. Once they were in her hands, a cyan color lit up her face, and she charged into battle with the clones.

She attacked the droids, letting the force guide her to where she attacked next. But even she needed to retreat behind a fallen walker with the clones, using her lightsabers to defend them and her while they shot back against the droids.

"We can't hold out much longer, sir!" a clone yelled to Rex. "Where's General Skywalker?"

"He'll be here", Rex promised. Ashara shook her head. 

"You forgot about Ventress!" she yelled. "It's likely that she's holding him off somewhere so he can't get to us!"

Rex looked over at her and nodded once, but focused on the remaining droids that were surrounding them. Ashara used the force to push some of them back, but more took their place. She continued to use her lightsabers to deflect against blaster fire, leaving the clones to take out the droids.

She hoped help would arrive, and fast.

I am so sorry I did not publish this chapter when I said I would. I sent an alarm but I was driving when my alarm went off and then I completely forgot about it.