"Don't worry, " said Rex, and dragged a hand down his face. "Stang. "

Torrent Company was so cheerful. It broke her heart to see them laughing, teasing, roughhousing, as though they didn't have a care in the world. Because if they knew what she knew...

Rex sat back, pretending he wasn't upset. "What have you seen, Ahsoka? What's the Force shown you?"

She was under strict instructions never to discuss how the Force was getting harder and harder to read. She mustn't mention it even to Rex and Coric, whom she trusted with her life. Of course, this once she didn't have to lie. She hadn't seen anything, though she'd nearly pa.s.sed out trying.

"All I get is a feeling, " she said, keeping her voice low, though there was so much noise in the room. "Like I'm about to be sick, all the time. "

"I know that feeling, " said Coric, trying to joke. "D'you reckon I could be a Jedi, too?"

Rex stuck an elbow into his ribs. "Some Jedi you'd make. You'd give the other Padawans nightmares. "

"Now look what you've done, Captain, " said Coric, miming heartstruck sorrow. "You've gone and hurt my tender feelings. "

They were trying to cheer her up. Distract her. Distract themselves, too. For all they were hard men, seasoned soldiers, not given to softness or sentimentality of any kind, they adored their general.

Because she couldn't tell them any more, and because she was so very tired of thinking about it, of worrying about Skyguy, Ahsoka changed the subject.

"So are you hoys on furlough?"

Rex nodded. "Don't know for how long. n.o.body's told us. " And they knew better than to ask. "We'll take another day or two of R and R, then we'll get back to training while we wait for the next deployment. But if General Skywalker's not back by then... "

Ahsoka felt her guts tighten. "I don't know. n.o.body tells me anything, either. " She nearly added, And it's not fair, but caught herself just in time. She had no business whining about not fair to these clones.

"Ah well, little'un, " said Rex, with his most sardonic grin. "This is the life, isn't it? This is what we signed up for. Hurry up and wait.

Long stretches of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror. " Leaning forward again, he patted her on the knee. "So I say we play darts. What d'you reckon?"

And there was her heart, breaking all over again for love of him. Such a decent man, he was. She bounced to her feet, determined not to disappoint him.

"I reckon I can take you. Captain Rex. "

" Yeah, well, we'll see about that, " Rex retorted, a twinkle in his eyes. And then it faded and he was the serious clone captain again.

"But little'un-when the time comes? When you and the general need us?" He jerked his thumb at Coric, equally somber by his side.

"Just say the word and we'll be there. "

She had to wait a moment, swallowing hard. "I know you will. And so does he. " She leapt up. "Now come along and get thrashed at darts. "

23.Early the next morning Jedi Master Taria Damsin tracked Ahsoka down in the Temple arboretum, where the gra.s.s was cool and moist and the tumbling waterfall filled the warm air with spray and bright sound.

Discreetly inspecting the Jedi Master, Ahsoka thought she seemed perfectly recovered from their wild mission on Corellia.

Either Taria was an excellent actress, or her Boratavi syndrome was back under control.

My guess is it's a bit of both.

"Ahsoka, " said Taria, as cheerful as ever. "I've been thinking. "

Unfolding from her final meditation pose-a flower stem bends and does not break in the wind-Ahsoka treated the older woman to a grin.

"Thinking? That's dangerous. Should I be afraid?"

"Cheeky brat, " said Taria. "Now listen. I know you hate that you're stuck here, waiting for word from Masters Ken.o.bi and Skywalker.

There's nothing worse than being left behind when your Master's off on a mission that doesn't require a Padawan's presence. And the Force knows that after Corellia my appet.i.te's been whetted for something a little less sedate than research in the library. So what do you say we get a nice little compet.i.tion going? Something to challenge the senior Padawans that'll challenge us at the same time. "

"That sounds intriguing, " Ahsoka admitted. "What kind of compet.i.tion?"

Taria's tawny eyes were alight with mischief. "A race through the new training dojo. Two teams-we lead one each. First team to light the beacon at the top of the mini city's central tower wins. "

"Wins what?"

"Bragging rights, of course, " said Taria, grinning. "What else?"

The new training dojo, completed a few days before the mission to Kothlis, took up all of the Temple's ma.s.sive sublevel nineteen.

Tricked out with artificial atmospherics and randomly generated zero-g pockets, terraformed into marshy quagmire, thick foliage, a ravine, a cliff, a stretch of wide-open quake- ground, a very small and self-contained river, and four large blocks of streets complete with buildings and towers, it was also populated by a panoply of actual Sep battle droids-salvaged from real battles-which had been modified to shoot stingers instead of blaster bolts. In short, it was the ultimate in urban and natural habitat warfare training terrains.

The poor little Padawans were going to get their b.u.t.ts kicked.

But better they were kicked in the safety of the Temple than out there in the real war, where second chances were rare and dead really meant dead.

"So, " said Taria, teasingly taunting. "Are you game? Say yes. This could be the start of a Temple tournament. "

"It sounds like fun, " Ahsoka said slowly. "But-a tournament means winning and losing, doesn't it? The Jedi philosophy discourages pride. "

"True, " said Taria, her amus.e.m.e.nt fading. "But this isn't about pride, Ahsoka. It's about finding a way to train without dwelling on what we're training for. War. Padawans learn better when they aren't afraid. When they're actually enjoying themselves? That's when the lessons stick. "

And that was true, too. As for me, this might he the perfect thing to take my mind off Skyguy. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go get our teams!"

Twenty minutes later Ahsoka stood outside the dojo with eleven eager senior Padawans. They were the Green team. Taria had won the toss, so her Blue team had twelve. The Blues were now their enemy-at least for the next hour or so. Given that this was these Padawans* first time in a war zone, all were wielding training lightsabers designed to stun instead of kill. They wore colored bibs to identify one another, too, although the fluctuating light levels and sudden bursts of storming rain would make it tricky to see anything clearly.

Green team entered the dojo first, its consolation prize for losing the toss. Ahsoka's Padawans were entirely trusting and alarmingly impressed because she was Anakin Skywalker's apprentice and knew the best clone soldiers by nickname and had crossed lightsabers with the likes of Asajj Ventress-and lived to tell the tale.

24.Hey, Skyguy. Don't let me mess this up.

"Right, " she said, raising her voice over the dojo's first computer-generated cracks of lightning and howls of wind. "Focus on the objective, people: reaching the tallest tower in the center of the mini city and lighting its beacon. That means you keep your eyes peeled, and if you get into trouble then you rely on the Force... and each other. Understood?"

"Understood!" the Padawans shouted.

The rules only gave them a three-minute head start on the Blues. Since the opening terrain was the dreaded quake-ground, it was time to get cracking. First of all, though, she had to inspire her team. Captain Rex's Hints for Leaders #4: If they think you're having fun, they might forget to be terrified.

Spinning to face her Padawans, walking backward without missing a stride, Ahsoka smiled at the youngsters closest to her. Chivas and Tibrugni smiled back, two small peas in a Kuatipod, the glow of their ignited training lightsabers reflecting in their wide, excited eyes.

"There's an old Hutt saying, " she told her Green team, as beneath their feet the treacherous quake-ground woke and shivered a warning. "And it goes like this: Ungdaliki-aigoto-aigoto-grutaaaaah!"

A moment's startled silence, and then the Green team shouted back. "Ungdaliki-aigoto-aigoto-grutaaaaah!"

Then the game began, and Ahsoka forgot that none of this was real. Long since blooded in battle, she couldn't think that way anymore.

Christophsis. Teth. Maridnn. Kaliida Shoals. Bothawui. Kothlis.

Memories of each encounter rose to drown her, and instead of fighting them she let herself sink beneath their hot red surface. What she'd learned in the real war could help her now, could help these Padawans. It might even make the difference between life and death for them one day. And she owed it to Anakin to train them as well as he trained her.

With Taria's Blue team coming close on their heels, the most important thing was to find cover before they ran into any Sep droids.

The Green team staggered and fell and rolled across the heaving quake-ground, then pounded into the dojo's thick foliage as a hard, driving rain began to fall. That was where the first wave of mosquito droids found them. Relentlessly they harried the Padawans, whose excitement swiftly turned to uncertainty and confusion as the rain flogged them and the quake-ground unbalanced them and more mosquito droids came in hard and blasting.

Fiercely focused, remembering Kothlis, Ahsoka led the attack, shouting encouragement and instructions to her stunned, faltering team.

They rallied quickly. Amazingly, she lost only one. Crushed with disappointment, downed Laksh'atz waved them a forlorn good-bye as the Greens zapped the last mosquito droid and pushed on to the river.

A detachment of battle droids waited for them on its far bank. Proudly Ahsoka watched three Padawans take the initiative by felling a tree and rolling it into the water. Instinctly responsive, the rest of Green team formed up to give them cover. The dojo's damp air spat and sizzled as volley after volley of stinger bolts were deflected, knocking all but three of the battle droids out of the game. They lost T'boor in that engagement, but the rest of the Greens stayed safe using the tree trunk for cover as they half waded, half swam across.

When they reached the river's other side, Ahsoka took out one of the remaining droids and Chivas the other two.

"Good job, Greens!" she said, grinning, and waved her team on toward the ravine. Feeling a familiar stirring in the Force she looked around and saw Taria, leading the Blues toward them in a furious charge. "Whoops!" she said, and chased after her team.

After that they lost sight of their opponents, but they could hear distant blaster shots and the buzzing whine of lightsabers even though the atmospherics program was enthusiastically deluging them with another storm. Somebody was keeping the Blue team busy. And then they forgot about everything but their own survival, because STAP-riding battle droids were swooping in for an attack as they stumbled across a treacherous pocket of zero-g-which shut off when they were some five meters above the ground.

Avoiding the droids and riding the Force to a safe landing got a bit messy. They lost the Mon Cal Padawan Baggro in that engagement.

Using the Force and the strength of their newly forged bond, the Green team Padawans fought their way down the dojo's steep ravine and up the other side through another cloud of mosquito droids, and then faced the daunting cliff. More droids on STAPS threatened them there. Breathless, determined, Ahsoka drew on every lesson Anakin had ever taught her to lead her team. Too busy now to be scared for him, instead she leaned on him even though he was so far away.

25.See, Skyguy? I was paying attention.

But even so, by the time they reached the first re-created city street Green team's numbers had dwindled from eleven to four, not counting herself.

"Come on, " she told the remaining Padawans, remembering Rex's Hint #6: The worse things get, the more confident you need to look. "This is the last stretch. We can do this. We can win. "

What was left of the exhausted Green team rewarded her with straightened spines and renewed determination. She smiled at them.

This must he what it feels like to he Anakin. And then the narrow street was full of droidekas and battle droids and they were desperately scrambling to survive.

Sprinting through puddles, leaping crumpled groundcars and artfully scattered piles of rubble, diving through open windows and rolling across splintered floors to dive back outside again, deflecting blaster bolts left and right-they gave themselves over to the madness of urban battle.

The Greens lost another two team members to droids in the last desperate push to reach the tower and its beacon ahead of the Blues.

Taria's team had taken its own route into the city and was racing to take the prize at its center.

The teams reached the tower at the same time. "Go on!" Ahsoka shouted to Chivas and Veneka, her last two Padawans. "That beacon isn't going to light itself!"

Breathing hard, aware of sore muscles and sc.r.a.pes and bruises, she watched the Padawans scale the tower's external wall. Taria had three Blue team members still standing. They took off after the Greens, leaving Taria to cheer them on.

Ahsoka looked the older Jedi over. Slushed with muck from the quagmire the Greens had managed to avoid, Taria was sc.r.a.ped and bruised, too, with several rips in her sedate dark gray bodysuit. After what had happened rescuing the scientist's mother, probably she shouldn't be taking part in this game. But Master Damsin was a stubborn law unto herself.

"I'm fine, Ahsoka, " Taria said, not shifting her gaze from the race up the tower. "So you can stop looking at me like-oh. Stang. "

One of the Blues had misjudged a handhold and was tumbling not very tidily to the street below. Her command of the Force to cushion the fall proved far from perfect.

"Sorry, Michka, " said Taria to the winded Padawan. "I think that has to count as dead. "

The Padawan groaned and let her yellow-scaled head thud to the ground.

Ahsoka stared again at the tower where two Greens and two Blues were scrambling to the top with a lot more enthusiasm than finesse.

She couldn't help smiling.

"You were right, Taria. This is an excellent way for Padawans to learn. "

"And what have you learned?"

"Me?" she said, surprised. Oh. Right. I'm still a Padawan, too. She thought of Anakin. "That nothing's ever as easy as it looks. "

Taria smiled. "Don't worry, Ahsoka. No matter who wins this, you haven't let your Master down. "

The lurking unease she'd managed to outrun came surging back. "Taria... " She felt her breathing hitch. Say it, say it. You know you hare to say it. "I've got a bad feeling. About Master Skywalker. "

Taria's greenish-blue hair, stuck through with twigs and unraveling from its long braid, caught the flickering streetlights and shone like living ice. For the first time since they'd entered the dojo, Ahsoka saw a hint of discomfort in her eyes as her terrible illness made itself felt. Atop the tower the Padawans reached the compet.i.tion beacon together, and ignited it together with loud triumphant hollering. A tie.

Applauding their effort, Taria slid her tawny, topaz gaze sideways. "I've got one, too. About Master Ken.o.bi. "

"Oh. " Ahsoka swallowed. "Really? And what does that mean?"

Taria snorted. "You're too smart for a question like that, Ahsoka. You know as well as I do what it means. "

26.She did. Oh, she did.

Skyguy... where are you? What's going OH?

CHAPTER FOUR.

Anakin sat up, shifting between heartbeats from deep sleep to waking. Even as he looked around his unfamiliar surroundings-a storeroom, its walls lined with prefab durasteel shelves not even a quarter filled with cans and boxes-he could feel his senses unfurl and test the cool, dry air for danger. Nothing. At least, nothing immediate. Only the same clouding anxiety and tension he and Obi-Wan had felt as they approached the village. And he sensed Teeba Jaklin, the woman who'd warily given them permission to enter the village, brought them back here to her home, and offered them tea and soup and rough beds on her floor. Vaguely, he remembered drinking something bitter, swallowing some kind of gritty gruel, then afterward falling facedown on this thin mattress. And then lights out.

So. Look on the bright side. General Skywalker. And don't forget that things can always be worse.