Our word count was 3,157 but Mayek is using his sponsorship perk of unlimited word count. I'm posting it so you guys know we turned it in on time. Everyone else who hasn't handed in yet has until the 15th, so four more days left! Enjoy!

Aevo clenched his jaw to keep from snarling at the Stormtrooper that chained his right hand to the human man beside him. That's my dominant hand, Aevo thought. So much for shooting anything... He thought the man's name beside him was Mayek. "Well, looks like you and I are in this together," Aevo said. Whatever this is, he added in his mind.

Mayek sighed as he hoped that the Zabrak attached to his left wrist would be a better companion than the one before. He was separated from Sul-Juuk after the landing, thankful to be rid of her tenacious character. "Think we have any chance of surviving against them?" Mayek gestured to a Sith some feet away.

Aevo nodded, shooting the Sith a scornful glare. "Yeah, if we stay out of their way." In his experience, it was always best to stay away from the warriors with lightsabers. Especially since the good ones were all dead. Mostly, he thought, glancing over where Kanan was chained.

"Comfortable?" Defik asked with raised brows as he came up from behind Mayek.

"No." Mayek glowered. "Where have you been?"

Defik shrugged. "Catching up with Mazhdar. He's been hooked up to the Cathar."

Mayek rolled his eyes and motioned his chained hands. "I believe this is Aevo. Aevo, this is my brother, Defik."

"Pleasure to meet you, Aevo. I look forward to beating everyone else with you."

Aevo chuckled, but his negative mood only made it sound gruff. "Maybe... if you're a good shot." It was easy to tell the two men were brothers; they were both human and both had similar features. Star sat quietly across from them, as usual not bothering to say anything: only observe.

"I'd say I'm pretty good with any blaster." Defik smiled in reply.

"I bear witness to the fact my brother has a better aim than I do." Mayek wobbled his hands in front of him. "Shaky grip."

"This doesn't look good," Defik interjected.

Aevo shifted his gaze to follow where Defik and Mayek were looking.

Stormtroopers rushed into the room, dragging away anyone who wasn't chained to someone else. Two troopers snatched Star, but she didn't struggle as they dragged her away. Aevo's chest clenched, for reasons he couldn't explain. Watching them take her away wasn't easy and he wasn't even sure why.

Mayek shot a concerned glance to his brother. They were separated by the Empire too many times. It made him sick to the stomach. It almost seemed like the galaxy was bent on keeping them apart.

"I'll be rooting for you out there," Defik said as a Stormtrooper took his arm.

"Bet on me."

"I might." Defik nodded in assurance before being pulled away.

Mayek sighed as he watched his brother disappear into a starship. "Any plans?" he asked his new partner.

Aevo shook his head and gazed down at the gray, gloomy planet below. "Survive." It was about the only good advice he could give.

The transport took all the rebel pairs to the surface of Obstillia, dropping them onto a round pad. There was nothing around them. There was only the metal ground beneath their feet and the oxygen in the atmosphere. Aevo wondered how a place could look so empty and still exist.

As the transport stranded them in the forsaken place, Aevo suspiciously eyed the landscape. "Do you know what your droid does?"

Mayek frowned. "What droid?"

"The droid a Stormtrooper placed on the back of your neck."

"... What?" Mayek tried to look behind his shoulder. "When did that happen?"

Aevo looked up at the darkened sky, trying not to imagine all sorts of scenarios going wrong. "About the same time they put us together."

That's nice, Mayek thought bitterly as he reached behind him to feel a small droid clinging to his skin.

"Can you..." Aevo cut off as a new image flashed around them. The image completely changed the entire landscape quicker than they had a chance to blink.

Now, everyone was on one side of a large room. There were no objects save a metal door on the other side. There were only bright, red lasers shooting out from the walls. Some were higher than others and there was no pattern to the way they were located—they zigzagged around each other in utterly random formations.

Aevo and Mayek exchanged glances as their shoulders drooped in dread.

Isn't this fun, Mayek thought darkly.

"You must cross the floor. Do it successfully and you will move on to the next challenge. When you complete them all, you will find your loved ones waiting for you at the end. These challenges will weed out the weaker ones of you," a strange and unfamiliar voice said over an apparently invisible speaker.

As the people around them immediately began to cross the floor, Aevo glanced from himself to Mayek. He was much bulkier than Mayek, but they were both still larger than the spaces left behind by the moving lasers. "How... In the kriffing galaxy to they expect us to make it through this alive?"

Mayek shrugged, looking at them in surprise and dread. "I honestly have no idea. No good ones at least."

Aevo shook his head. "Neither do I. We should watch them... see if there's a pattern to the way they move."

Mayek nodded and watched the lasers.

Aevo did the same, but they appeared to move in random patterns. One laser that was hovering inches above the floor slid upward while another crossed beneath it. Aevo's eyes watched a space between them where he would have gone, but another laser sliced that area in half. He gulped. Obviously my choices on moving is only goin' to get us both killed.

Likewise, Mayek didn't see any pattern to the movements. "I don't think there's a pattern to them at all. They're moving in random orders."

"Kriff," Aevo cursed. "Then how are we supposed to cross this?"

Mayek shook his head, dumfounded.

Aevo growled, clenching his fists in frustration. "We're either going to die or we won't. I'm going for it."

"Well, that's two of us," Mayek agreed as he shrugged his shoulders, trying to ignore the thought of the droid on his neck.

The first laser was against the ground, but it was sliding further away from them. Criss-crossing above it was another, thicker laser. Aevo stepped over the one on the floor while ducking beneath the one above it. He held his hands to his right to give Mayek as much leeway as possible.

As Mayek crossed in between them, the one above shifted at the last instant, sliding down. The laser singed his right arm from elbow to wrist. He yelped in pain and clenched his jaw.

Aevo stopped to check on him and see if he was alright, but the movement only ended with a laser stabbing through his left foot as it shot up from the floor. "Kriff!" Aevo cursed with a loud, painful scream. The center of his left foot was completely shot, leaving a sizzling hole in the middle of it. Probably goin' to have to have that chopped off later... Aevo thought, but his mind was focused on the task at hand. He knew he'd be feeling it—pain and emotions—after this was over. If he survived, which he probably wouldn't.

He hated that he was okay with that.

Mayek rolled forward, thinking only of living for his brother. He had to save him. "We can't stop moving, even if one of us gets hurt!" he called back to Aevo.

Nodding, Aevo limped forward, charging in between two narrow lasers that had moved to form a sort of doorway. As he passed through them, another one rose up from the floor. He leapt in the air over it, but landed hard on his injured foot. Finally, the agony surged in the hole from the previous laser, making his eyes water.

Mayek was just ahead of him, crouching low to the ground to avoid a laser above his head. The problem was the fact that there were two lasers right behind his back and three criss-crossing in front of his chest. If he moved another inch or two forward...

The lasers were sliding back and forth, but there was no pattern to their movements. He could move with them, but he was still trapped inside them, as if his body was encaged inside a cell made from lasers. The droid on his back suddenly beeped and whizzed and an image appeared to him: an aerial view of the entire laser floor. It lasted only a second, but his eyes had coincidently landed where the caged lasers were moving back and forth. Seeing it from the air showed him the tiny space by his right hip—a place that he was blinded to on the ground but saw perfectly from the air. He slipped through the hole, feeling his wrists jerked by Aevo who had a laser shot through his right shoulder and another grazing his right side.

Aevo's adrenaline had finally fled him, leaving his body exhausted and feeling every bit of the agony from his wounds. Instead of stopping, he and Mayek both nodded, despite their tiredness, and just ran straight across the rest of the floor. Aevo felt several places on his body burn as the lasers singed them—his left leg, his right side again, his left cheek.

At the same time, Mayek kept flinching, expecting a laser to blast him through the neck or head and instantly kill him, but none did. The lasers attacked other parts of his body, such as his left hand, his left shin bone, which had almost crippled him, and his back. His injuries were bad, but he refused to stop running.

They both did. At least, until Aevo's head smacked against the wall on the other side of the room.

Mayek's wrists were jerked to a stop just inches before he slammed against the wall too. "Wait... we're alive...?"

Aevo glanced around him, rubbing his head and cursing under his breath. "We crossed... We're across?"

Mayek shook his head in utter disbelief. "How... How are we alive?"

"This," Aevo started, completely dumbfounded, "should not have happened."

Mayek met Aevo's gaze. "Luck?"

Aevo shrugged, just as surprised as Mayek appeared. "I don't know. We should just get through this next obstacle. Whatever it is."

Mayek shuddered. "I hope it's not anything like we just crossed."

They limped side-by-side through the door that exited the room. All around them, Obstilla's plain surface magically appeared at random, before the image flickered and became another room.

At the end of the room were several people inside ray shields. The inside of the ray shields was filling with water. Aevo's gaze swept over them until his eyes landed on one in the far end: Star. The water was lapping at her waist, but it was rising quickly.

Mayek found his brother in the very middle. The water inside his ray shield was the same pace as the one in Star's.

Aevo and Mayek glanced at each other. They wouldn't be able to save both Defik and Star at the same time. "Which one are we saving first?" Aevo asked.

Mayek swallowed. He understood. They had to choose. Mayek hated choosing. "It's my brother..." Mayek said as Defik caught sight of him.

After a second's hesitation, Aevo nodded. His eyes met Star's and though hers were saddened and afraid, she nodded back, as if she understood why he made his decision.

As they started to jog across the floor, Aevo's chest ached at not choosing her. I hope I save her in time. I... don't think I can lose her, he thought.

Mayek noticed droidekas lined up on either side of the room. Each of them had their blast shields up, with blasters pointing at them. "You've got to be kidding me," he muttered. "Run!"

Aevo didn't need to be told twice. They dashed through the blaster shots firing rapidly at them. He was pretty sure they both got hit a couple times, but they didn't stop until they crossed the room.

Standing in the center but in front of the ray shields was a protocol droid. "I am TC-57 at your service." The droid's voice was mechanical but female, irritatingly formal.

Aevo frowned. "How do we rescue the people in the ray shields?"

"You must choose to take his or her place," the droid replied.

Mayek's eyes widened. After only a brief moment of deliberation, he nodded.

Defik shook his head, jaw clenched from inside the ray shield. "No! Mayek don't do it!" His voice was muffled, but clear enough to understand.

Mayek nodded. "I have to right my wrong. I'll take his place."

The protocol droid pressed a button and the ray shield was released and instantly the water stopped. Defik darted toward them, but the chains suddenly disappeared.

Aevo blinked. Instead of Mayek beside him, it was Defik. He looked at the spot where Defik had been only moments ago. Sure enough, Mayek was in the ray shield with the water rising close to his neck. Breathing heavily, Aevo met Star's gaze. Her mouth was already underwater, and her eyes were terrified. She's already been through so much. But... Do I really want to die for her?

Aevo didn't have an answer.

The protocol droid stared at him with its blank, metal face. Even it seemed to antagonize him. "Do you wish to make your decision?"

"Um..." Aevo swallowed, clenching his jaw. "I'll take her place." The words blurted out of his mouth before he could control them.

He blinked twice. Water rose up to his collarbone and was getting closer and closer to his head. Gazing through the flickering ray shield, he met Star's eyes again. She nodded to him in gratitude, standing quietly chained to Defik as he stood in front of his brother's ray shield with tears in his eyes.

Mayek and Aevo both gasped for breath as the water finally rose around them. Mayek knew he couldn't hold his breath for long. He could only watch as Defik stood there – alive. Mayek had deserted his brother, placed him in harms way, and dragged him into this hell hole. He only wished that after he was gone, Defik would find his children and be there when he couldn't. His vision flickered and blackness took over.

Aevo lasted a few seconds past him, but it wasn't long before he too, passed out.

Suddenly, they were both jolted awake. They were on the hardened ground of Obstillia's surface, chained together once again. Mayek's body was lethargic and groggy, but Defik was kneeling over him. "Mayek... I thought—I thought you had drowned."

Mayek rubbed his eyes, coughing up water. "Agh, apparently not. I'm sorry I... I couldn't watch you die again."

"Again? From the dream? Mayek..."

"Let's not talk about the dream," Mayek interrupted as Defik helped him up.

Aevo's eyes blinked to look up and see Star's face above his own. Her blue skin contrasted the plain area around them. He sat up and she pulled him in for a kiss.

The kiss surprised him enough that he didn't know what to do or say for a moment. He kissed her back and then pulled away to smile at her.

His eyes landed on Kanan where he was chained to the citizen woman, Jenaara.

"Hey," Aevo said, glancing at Mayek, "I need to go over there for a minute."

Mayek nodded and followed behind him, quietly speaking to Defik.

"You've got a limp," Defik observed with a teasing grin.

"Shut up."

As Aevo neared them both, he swallowed deeply. "Kanan!"

"Aevo. Glad to see you made it," Kanan said, glancing around. "Have you seen Adaara?"

Aevo shook his head. "No. Not yet. She'll be alright though. Look... We're not going to live much longer. That's the only reason why I'm about to tell you this."

"Tell me what?" Kanan asked.

Aevo blanked out his mind so that the words just exploded from him. "Kanan... I am Sev."

"S—Sev?" Kanan stared at him as if he was staring at a stranger.

In a way, Aevo knew that he was. "I used nanotechnology to change my looks so I could hide from the Empire."

Suddenly, Kanan punched him in the face. The movement sent Aevo sprawling in the dirt with pain radiating from his jaw. Kanan grabbed his throat, choking him. Aevo gasped, trying to gulp in air, but Kanan's tightened hands prevented it. "Y—You...! The Clones.... Betrayed us! They killed us for the Empire!" Kanan's eyes widened in wild fury.

With a loud grunt, Aevo shoved Kanan off, throwing him to the ground.

Jenaara jumped in front of him and ignited her saber. "You're not going near him."

Holding up his hands, Aevo backed away. "I was just gettin' him off me. I don't want any trouble." His eyes shifted to Kanan, who ignited his own lightsaber and held it to Aevo's throat.

He won't kill me, Aevo thought. Then again, the Jedi had lost so much, he'd become a different man than Aevo once knew. Maybe he will. Aevo was surprised to know that either way, he didn't care. "I took out my chip, Kanan. I hid during the attack."

Kanan inhaled sharply. "You were aware... and you hid? You watched them slaughter us! Slaughter the younglings?"

"What was I supposed to do? Attack and kill my brothers? Or my Jedi comrades? I was stuck in the middle, Kanan-- the only clone who was aware of what was going on, the only clone not blindly following orders! What was I supposed to do?" Pain twisted his chest and made his breathing irregular as he thought back to those terrible moments. Watching his brothers slaughter his friends... unsure who to protect and who to attack... that feeling of paralyzed terror that he couldn't overcome.

Kanan shut the lightsaber off and darted away, with Jenaara following close behind him. However painful it was for him, Aevo knew that it was much, much worse for Kanan. After all, Kanan had lost everyone he ever loved.

His Jedi comrades, a teacher he had once looked up to, a hero he had once admired, parts of his body that had now become mechanical and...

A clone brother that Aevo knew Kanan couldn't forgive.

"That was quite an upper cut," Mayek said as he offered a hand, "Almost took me down with ya."

Aevo rubbed his jaw and took his hand, getting up with a few grunts. "Well, I don't think I'll see him again... at least under friendly terms," Aevo said as he pensively looked after Kanan.

"I'm surprised he didn't kill you. I suppose it was more of that luck. Maybe I should keep you around," Mayek chuckled.

"If we survive."

Mayek nodded with an arched brow, "That's the plan."