Sorena danced across the length of the large training room aboard the Star Destroyer, the two crimson blades on her lightsaber flying this way and that.

In a moment, Darth Vader was upon her once more. Their lightsabers clashed with a loud tzap, as the two beams of plasma struggled to find a weakness and dominate over one another.

"Your skills have improved since we last sparred," he said, breaking the saber lock to use the Force to push her into a wall.

She fell effortlessly into a low crouch, and the energy went over her head to smack into durasteel plating of the inner hull and dissipate into the air. But not before leaving a shallow dent in the wall.

"Or maybe you're just getting slow in your old age, Sky Guy," she taunted, a wicked smile on her face. Using the Force to propel herself, she jumped up and used a nearby pillar to vault herself back down onto her Master from above.

Their blades smashed together once more, and Vader grumbled indignantly. (The noise really sounded quite peculiar and even a little funny with the mask on and the microphone active, but Sorena would never tell him that.) "I will have you know that I'm thirty-nine! That's hardly–"

"Still old," she sang, landing a few quick strikes to his left side before darting away. Then, she revealed her secret weapon: she pushed a button on the saber and tiny locks gave way to allow it to split in two, leaving her twin a lightsaber in each hand instead of just the one.

Surprised, Vader took a step back. Using this to her advantage, Sorena hit the floor and slid by his unguarded right side, slashing at the unarmored underside of his arm. Of course, he was on alert far too quickly to allow her a hit, but she comforted herself with the fact that she had shaken the mighty Lord Vader.

Her Master retaliated by aiming for her face, forcing her to bring up both sabers in an X formation to block him. "Impressive... Most impressive," he said. "At last I find out what you were working on in your quarters all last week and the week before that when you ditched training. You had better not let Fifth Brother or Seventh Sister get ahold of that design."

"I have no intention whatsoever of doing so," she told him. "I'm the Grand Inquisitor, and they are my underlings. They're nowhere near as powerful as me. They would not deserve it."

"But you're not all-powerful."

As if to underline that statement, Vader put all the force in his metal arms behind pushing her left blade away. The blade deactivated as the sword was sent skittering across the floor, leaving Sorena's side unprotected.

Another sharp blow with the Force sent her sprawling to the ground. The tip of a red blade appeared over her neck the moment she tried to sit up.

"You are defeated," he intoned, with just the slightest glimmer of self-satisfaction she'd always known from back during the Clone Wars as they had fought side by side and he was in the process of winning the latest game of who-can-kill-the-most-clankers.

But she wasn't out of tricks yet. Reaching out with her senses as far as they would go, she pulled both sabers from the ground without breaking eye contact with her Master or using her fingers. By the time they had turned on and alerted Vader to Sorena's plan, it was too late: both sabers were formed up in a V around his neck from the back, at such an angle that even he couldn't force them away.

"I may be defeated, but there's no reason I can't take you with me," she said with a smirk.

Then, simultaneously, the two withdrew their lightsabers. Sorena stood up and looked at her Master, putting the two hilts back together again and clipping it back onto her belt.

"Let's just say we're evenly matched, huh, Snips?" he said, dropping his lordly manner of speaking.

It was silent for a moment. Then, without warning, he pulled her into a hug. She hugged him back, smiling gently as she tucked her chin over his shoulder. There, she could feel that, just underneath the surface, it was flesh and blood. He was a person, and not an unfeeling machine, like most people thought.

Her Sky Guy was more human than most people she'd met.

I'm going to miss you, he said telepathically. It sounded like his voice from back during the war, before his throat had been charred so much that he had trouble making himself heard without the helmet. She had always liked his real one better than the one always associated with Darth Vader. You'll need to have to be brave, Snips. This could be your hardest mission yet.

I know, Master, she answered. But I will succeed. And when the rebels have been destroyed, then I will come back to you. I always come back, Sky Guy.

He sighed. I know... Ahsoka.

Kanan watched from one of the seats in the small transport the crew had hijacked on an earlier mission as Zeb and Sabine climbed aboard.

Teri sat a few seats behind him, his eyes darting across the text displayed on a datapad. Although the Jedi was determined to keep an aloof distance, he was curious about what the informant was working on. Teri had said that he had to crack codes to get at secret Imperial information on a regular basis, and Kanan assumed that he was now reading one of the files he'd pirated.

"So," said Sabine skeptically, "we're not taking the Ghost and we're letting Chopper drive?"

Hera looked up, her lekku bobbing slightly with the gesture "After our stunt on Mustafar, there's a good chance the Empire will be able to track it."

"Great mission so far," said the big Lasat behind her cynically.

Chopper began to argue in droid binary, and, although he was communicating too fast for Kanan to catch all of it, Teri chuckled.

"What is it?" he asked.

"It's nothing." Teri powered down the datapad and shoved it into his jacket pocket. "Well, your droid curses like a spacer fresh off Nar Shaddaa, for one, but it's not that. He just sort of reminds me of another Astromech droid I knew for a while during the Clone Wars."

Chopper warbled again, before pulling a few levers. The ship disengaged the docking clamp attaching it to Phoenix Home and flew away, entering hyperspace a few moments later.

Kanan sighed, taking a look out the window at the blue streaks of hyperspace. He had been on edge ever since this mission was approved. He twirled his blaster around one hand quickly to release some of the tension, before sticking it back in his holster. "So what's the plan?"

"Okay, so Minister Tua is scheduled to visit Governor Tarkin tomorrow. She leaves Lothal via shuttle at 1800. We wait at the hangar, steal the shuttle, and take her to safety." He smiled, shaking some of his hair out of his eyes.

"Ezra, I hope you're sure about this," Sabine said, concern in her brown eyes.

Zeb crossed his arms and shifted in his seat, unimpressed. "After all the trouble she's made for us, why should we help her?"

"Because that's what we do; help those who can't help themselves," he said. "Plus, her list will help us out."

"But something's off." Everyone in the cabin looked back as Teri spoke up, worry in his grey eyes. "I've checked out a number of people in the Lothal sector. Even though my Intel is probably more outdated than theirs, most of these guys look like quiet supporters."

" 'Quiet'?" Kanan said. "What do you mean by that?"

"They're the kind that won't speak up unless a majority is agreeing with them. They were most active during the Bridger broadcasts several years ago. I've seen this before, back on Onderon – without motivation and people they're sure will back them up no matter what, they won't be so eager to help us out."

"There's a lot riding on this," the dark-haired Jedi added.

"Then we'll just have to hope for the best for those who aren't so shy," Hera said, looking back towards the crew.

Kanan's gaze drifted back towards the viewport. I don't think this is a good idea, he thought. Something's going to go wrong. I have a bad feeling about this.

Because after all, at least something in the latest crazy plan went askew for the ragtag group of rebels trying to keep the Empire off their tail while hoping to land a few hits. There were never any exceptions to that rule.

And that was what Kanan was afraid of.

*Our Jedi Knight seems to know that something's amiss... But will they see through the plans of the Sith in time? Because there's more at stake on this mission than the rebels yet know, and they might just be walking into a trap. Everything is falling into place, but the designs of Darth Vader remain incomplete. But what his grand scheme is, only time will tell...

Hello all! Yup, second update for one fanfic in 24 hours!! How rare is that?

Yes, stuff is happening. Sorena is saying goodbye to her Master, but why would that be? All we have is questions and no answers... But some of those will be resolved in the next few chapters, and so will a meeting I think has been pretty long-awaited ;)

And HOLY KRIFF DID YOU GUYS SEE THAT VIDEO ABOUT ANAKIN AND AHSOKA ON THE STAR WARS YOUTUBE CHANNEL?! THERE WERE SOME NEW AUDIO CLIPS AND I AM CURRENTLY DYING FROM AN OVERDOSE OF FEELS *falls to the floor dramatically* Which is why I wrote some Snips-SkyGuy stuff today :)

Anyways, I have other stuff to attend to (mostly homework and the writing of fanfics), but I'll do my best to get something updated soon. It's probably gonna be SAtJ or this, by the looks of it.

May the Force be with you,

Sharron