I've been in here for a while - it's getting cold. My breath comes out in short huffs which emit clouds of steam. They don't heat the cargo storage unit in the back of the ship on freighters apparently. Somehow I didn't know this.

I only hopped on a few hours ago and it's freezing. This freighter is heading to a neutral planet which I've forgotten the name of. God, I'm starting to be as forgetful as Anakin. Anakin... I'm doing all this for him. I can't wait to see him again.

I feel warmer now, so I hug my knees to my chest. I should take this opportunity to rest before I take the next supply ship to the Separatist base. I can feel Anakin's presence forever away; hopefully he can feel mine. I drift to sleep in the presence of the same loving glow as I did when I was a Padawan, falling asleep with my head on my master's shoulder.

I'm woken abruptly by a loud thump, then a hiss of the door starting to open. I pull the cloak over my head and get ready to casually walk out into the crowd. The door to the freight compartment is wide open now, and two men walk in, ready to unload the ship. I peek outside, unnoticed, then silently panic as I see that it's night out and there is no crowd. Now what?!

Well, if I run for it, they can't possibly be fast enough to catch me. What's there to lose? It's a neutral planet, I'm covered, they can't catch me. So I make a beeline for the hatch. The two men jump in surprise as I wisp past and one reaches out to grab me. I fall in my hurry and he manages to catch my arm, his grip like steel, and hoists me up onto my feet. That's it, this is it, I'll never see Anakin again.

"Who do we have here?" he asks. I glare at him coldly, trying to pry my arm out of his fist. He won't let go and I don't want to hurt him.

"Silent, huh?" His partner kneels down in front of me. By heart races. I don't like this situation. If they know my face from the advertisements...

I feel two fingers on my chin, turning me to face him. I can't be held up like this now! The Separatist freighter leaves in eight minutes! The man tries to peek under the hood which alone protects my identity. I don't like the way his fingers brush the flesh on my chin. It sends chills up my spine.

Knowing I don't have time to play the distressed, silent, damsel in this situation, I go to pry my arm away. If Anakin were here, he'd probably have this guy in a choke hold right about now. He has this rule that, 'No one touches my Padawan but me.' The fondness of this memory gives me the push I needed to run.

My arm whips out of the grasp of his fingers and I nail him in the stomach with my foot. He doubles over and chokes for air, while the other grape his comm, probably to get help and report the incident. I rush out of the freighter towards the next one on my travel list.

Its doors are wide open, so I jump in and hide in one of the crates. I know for a fact that smaller prisons like the one I'm going to don't scan for lifeforms until they're on the planet, which is easy for me to avoid. At the Citadel it was different - they scanned upon entering orbit because it was such a high security prison.

The droids walk in with their blasters in their hands and look around. They don't even bother to look in the big crate that I'm in. Stupid clankers.

My head peeks up over the rim of the box and I observe the droids walking away as if they've checked everything. Sure... Now I just have to wait it out and try not to starve or run out of air. That should be pretty easy, seeing as there are ration packs in this box. And it's not like I haven't lived in a box before. Well, not lived per say. More like hung around in a box until a bunch of dumb droids waltzed past me and my former master. I'll be fine.

xXx

I'm jolted awake again by the ship landing at the port. I'm here! I just slept the probably boring trip away curled up at the bottom of a box. Now I just have to figure out a plan to get out-

A small gasp slips from my lips as the hatch to the Separatist freighter opens and the sounds of metal on metal footsteps can be heard. I peek over the rim again, lifting the heavy lid with my fingers. I can see the droids clearly, but they can't see me. Maybe I shouldn't have done this, but I'll do whatever it takes to save my friend.

The droids waltz around all willy-nilly looking through crates which doesn't give me the best opportunity to run out of there. I extend my fingers out over the crate and curl my fingers into a fist, crushing the droids then gently moving them out of the way. Their receptors must have stopped relaying their signal to the tower - now they'll know that they aren't in operation any longer. I'll have to get out of here fast.

I clip my lightsabers to my belt and pull the hood over my head, then make a beeline for the hatch.

The sunlight hits my face in a brilliant shine as I step outside and I give my eyes a few seconds to adjust. The first thing to do when in an unfamiliar setting is to observe, not just see, your surroundings. There're several towers surrounding the semi-circle of a platform thatI'm standing on currently. Three towers are in front of me and another two lie behind me. All are equal in height and technology; I guess I'll have to be careful of all of them. The platform is metal like everything else and there are trees surrounding the area. I have no idea what planet this is, but I have a good enough scope of where I am that I'll survive for at least ten minutes. So I scurry over to one of the guard towers and press my back to its warm metal wall. There's a single droid manning the two towers that I see right now, neither of which have looked up from the control panel.

Thinking ahead, the towers will have to be out of operation if anybody's leaving here alive. The ships can be easily hijacked and I could fly back to Coruscant or some Republic world so I don't have to worry about that for now. Taking out all the towers would be pretty easy for me alone because of their guard - or the lack thereof.

Calculating the distance, I make the jump to the first tower. Just as I'm about to cut through the glass on the window, a shot goes through it and hits the droid square in the head. I whip my head around and I see a clone with purple stripes down his armor holding a blaster aimed at the tower. A whole squadron of clones follow this one, whom I assume is the commander. Then I see him and groan in spite of myself. Mace Windu. Well then - far from anything I was expecting.

To ignore or not to ignore? Before I have to deal with him I take out two towers and the clones take out the remaining three towers. The red blade of my lightsaber pierces the window of the tower and I flip inside, taking out the droid at the controls. It tries to reach for its blaster but before it can, I take it out. I do this one more time. Then I realize what they must think that the red blade means. But Windu can probably feel my Force signature. So I jump down sure that they won't shoot.

My feet touch onto the ground and I land in a squat then stand up as regally as I can. I deactivate my blades.

"Former Padawan Tano," he greets, his expression grim as always.

I resist an eye roll, which Anakin probably would've praised had I still been his Padawan. "Hello, Mace." The name sounds weird but I don't really care. "Before you worry about the blades, they're only temporary."

"Really?" It's more of a 'huh' than a question.

So I change the subject. "You here for Anakin?"

"I am, young one." Once again I resist the urge to be a tad rude like scoffing or smirking.

Then I feel a familiar aura coming up behind me. I whip my head around and a smile immediately takes over my facial features. "Rex," I breathe. My feelings aren't just happiness, they're flooded with relief.

"Commander Tano?" The familiar captain takes off his helmet as if to take a better look at me. It's been longer since I've seen him that it has since I left the Order. A good week, I'd say.

I launch myself into his arms. His wrap awkwardly around me and pat my back. "I think I'm just Lady Tano now, Rexter," I murmur into his shoulder.

"Whoever you are, that's fine with me."

I unlace my arms from around his neck. "So where's the rest of the 501st?"

"It's just me, sir- uh, Lady Tano." He motions to the men around him. "I insisted on coming. He is my general - and my friend."

I nod my head. We're all just one big family, the 501st, Anakin and me, and Master Kenobi. Now that one of us is missing, we unite and head to the rescue because that's what family does.

"When you see them again, can you tell me I'll miss them a lot?"

"Of course, Ahsoka."

Mace intervenes, "We should get going, Lady Tano."

So I just follow him and his troops into the facility. At this point we have enough people to do a full on assault on this place, but it seems like he plans on taking a stealth approach. Anakin would just barge right in, blowing studd up along the way, and leave Obi-Wan rolling his eyes and cleaning up his mess. I smile at the thought. But hopefully that's now how this is going to end.

Trekking through the building isn't too easy when you have a grand total of seventy people and narrow hallways filled with those tin head droids. They may be pretty stupid but they know how to overwhelm you. Might as well keep the peace and quiet until we do the breaking out part.

"Where exactly are we going, Mace?" I hiss, keeping my head low.

"We're scouting around until we find him, Tano."

I raise my eyebrow. "I can find him three times faster than scouting around will." When he doesn't reply I trace him in the Force. He still doesn't know we're here - must be the adrenaline keeping him from feeling me. That's gotta be a lot of adrenaline.

My head snaps up. "Floor two near the back."

"You heard her, men, let's go," Mace commands and the crew moves forward.

xXx

I knew right away that we wouldn't reach the second floor without creating a storm of blaster fire and shouted commands. As soon as the doors opened we were greeted by a lovely swarm of clankers. Now here we are, making our way through the floods of droids patrolling the hallways.

I ignite my crimson blades and rush through the crowd, taking out as many droids as I possibly can. Then I see him. He's sitting on the bench with his hands folded and his head down, seemingly ignoring the battle. For a second it's like I forgot how to breathe. Anakin wasn't okay.

Out of nowhere I'm pushed out of the way of an incoming ray blast by Rex. My body hits the ground and I tumble out of the way of another rain of baster fire. "Thanks Rex ol' buddy."

"Anytime, Kid."

But the though of Anakin still lingers on my mind. I have to get to his cell. So I slice my way through the ever shrinking sea of droids and leave Mace and his men to finish off the rest. With the aid of the Force, I crush the control panel to the ray shielded door.

I allow myself to enter, but I do so slowly. "Hey," I whisper.

Anakin looks up and the first thing I notice is that there's a large, bloody gash running down the side of his face, accompanied by a few bruises down his jawline and neck. "Hey, Snips."

I AM SO SORRY. I DIDN'T EVEN INTEND FOR THAT TO HAPPEN - I JUST NEEDED SOME FEELS anD i Had tO JeEz i'M so SOrry. And that was me going out of my mind because this chapter needed some deep feels, guys. I don't really have a lot to say about this, other than I'm sorry about the end. With that, I'll start writing the next chapter. Have a nice day, guys!