*You see that pic? YOU SEEEEE?!?! THIS is one of several reasons why I should not be allowed on the internet. I find this sort of stuff and go insane and then try to fit it into the plot of my fanfics somewhere.*

"I need to use the 'fresher!" Sorena yowled, trying to make her voice as plaintive and noticeable as possible. "Let me out!"

That was a lie, of course. If they actually fell for it, Sorena knew she would be very let down, and wonder just how much the Empire had over-exaggerated the crew's abilities. It was just another part of her plan to distract the crewmembers that were still while she did her work.

Because even if she couldn't free herself from where she was, she could still cause a fair amount of mischief.

"Will you quit your whining?" the Twi'lek pilot of the ship, Hera Syndulla, yelled back over the ship's internal comm system. "You're a grown woman, for crying out loud! Hold it in! I do not have the time to baby you right now, not with the hyperdrive about to–"

For a moment, all was quiet aboard the ship. But then, loud enough so that Sorena could hear it without the comm, an enraged cry echoed throughout the ship: "CHOPPER!"

Sorena couldn't help herself – a low chuckle escaped from between her lips. "Oh, dearie me, Chopper," she murmured, "there really is nothing you can do right today, is there?"

Smiling to herself, she pushed the metal panel she had removed from floor back into place, and began taking apart the pair of tiny wire cutters in her hand.

Suddenly, the comm crackled to life again. "Chopper, get ready to redirect the power through the conduits under the ship back up towards the hyperdrive – we're gonna have to try this whole thing again!"

Oh, you have no idea what you're getting yourself into, Sorena thought, settling back on the pallet and blanket she'd been provided with to watch the show unfold, well clear of the panel.

Sure enough, hardly a few moments later, there was a loud zapping noise as the cables she had just cut short-circuited, and thin tendrils of smoke began rising up from between the tiny gaps in the metal flooring.

Sorena smirked as the ship's lights flickered once, before going out entirely.

"You should have let me go to the 'fresher when you had the chance," she said, smiling into the darkness.

Despite the ysalamiri oil, she could sense Hera's anger plainly. She breathed deeply, basking in it. Although she had fair reserves of hatred she could call upon to fuel herself if she so wished, the negative feelings from other beings only made the Dark Side of the Force stronger; and, as a result, made her stronger.

But she wasn't finished yet – she had to clean up after herself first. The two sharp little blades from the wire clippers she placed on either side of the red stone in her headband, clicking them back into their places so they looked merely decorative. The handles turned into extra buckles near the tops of her boots, and she tucked the screws under her beskar shoulder guards.

As she stuffed the pivot down her bodice to a small pouch designated to hold it, she smiled. Just the thought of a fulcrum and clothes brought back some pretty embarrassing – but funny – memories about the time she had spent with Lux.

Because after all, even he was the Rebel informant Fulcrum today, there had been a time when things had been so much simpler than a Darksider and a Jedi. And even if she hated him now, there had been a time when things had been quite the opposite...

Sorena shook her head, shooing the thought away. The present was all that mattered now, and it was best to keep the past under lock and key, as always. The only thing that she allowed to remain was her hatred. Hatred that she'd been abandoned; hatred that no one had come looking for her save the man whom she had thought was her enemy, but had really turned out to be a friend and someone she could trust completely.

Rage and hatred kept her strong. They kept the walls of lava around her heart from caving in and letting that single, flickering pinpoint of Light out of its prison to where it could wreak its havoc on her state of being.

Ahsoka Tano was dead. Sorena was the fire burning in her soul, the brilliant, shining reincarnation of the conscience of the woman on the physical plane that by all rights should have died in that explosion.

And yet here she was, but she had the long, wicked scars just about all over her that still acted up every so often to remind her how difficult saving her had been.

But the two halves, Jedi and Darksider, still had the same recollections, and whatever feelings she had experienced at the time were and always would be the same. Hate the memories as she did, Sorena's darkness just couldn't touch them.

But that only made her hatred burn brighter still.

Ezra watched as Kanan deflected the shots fired at him by the clone on the right and back out onto the dusty ground. He did so easily, but, hardly a moment later, a tall yellow Zabrak stepped out of the shadows just beyond the doorframe, a wicked-looking battle-axe in his hands.

Even for a Jedi who knew as much about fighting against unfair odds as Kanan, it wasn't looking good.

"Enough of this! Stop it, right now!" Teri cried, but his words didn't give anyone pause.

"Drop the blaster, old man," Zeb growled.

The man on the far left grabbed his gun too, and a slightly off-kilter smile appeared on his face as he fired a few warning shots at Zeb's feet. "Don't try it, boyo! I'll gun ya down!"

Zeb and Sabine fired a few warning shots of their own back.

"I said STOP!"

Suddenly, Ezra was nearly thrown back by the equivalent of an explosion... But instead of being corporeal, it was an incredible tremor in the Force. He put his arm up in a half-hearted attempt to shield himself as a shockwave lashed out and away from its epicenter – Teri – in the directions of both the crew and the tank.

But when Ezra looked up again, he couldn't contain a gasp of wonder. The laser bolts from the blasters of both parties were frozen midair, and bits of dust that had been drifting on the breeze suddenly stopped, as if some phenomenal energy was keeping them there.

Teri stood between both parties, gritting his teeth in concentration and with his arms outstretched, suspending the lasers in place a few inches away from his clenched fingers. Although the blasts still vibrated from side to side, pulsating with the sheer amount of energy they contained, they weren't moving so much as a hair forward.

Then, the shockwave surged back inward towards Teri, and the suspended lasers disappeared completely, compressed into nothingness by the sheer power of the Force. All the power shifting and darting around him suddenly withdrew, rushing back towards him until his presence, which had gone as bright and potent as a star, folded in on itself until it was normal again.

When the dark-haired man opened his eyes, they were unnaturally bright compared to their usual calm grey, but, somehow, at the same time, stormier than the approaching thunderclouds of the monsoon season on Lothal. As shocked as Ezra was, he guessed that this strange manifestation was just an aftereffect of holding that much power within him for so long.

"Don't ask me how I did that," he said in a low voice the minute Kanan opened his mouth. "All you need to know is that it's not a skill the old Jedi taught their Padawans and younglings."

Suddenly, another shot was fired, from the same clone as before. But then, faster than Ezra had ever seen Kanan do it, faster almost than the eye could see, Teri drew his lightsaber and deflected the blast away, his blade a brilliant white against the blue of Seelos' sky.

"You don't want to be doing that, Wolffe," he said, his entire body thrumming with the same sort of energy he had displayed before. "I'm not your enemy."

Well, he'd make one hell of an enemy, Ezra thought, aware for the first time that Teri was an exceptionally dangerous man to cross.

The clone standing in the middle took Teri's lead, and knocked the guns of his two flankers down. "Stand down, troopers, now! That's an order, soldier!"

The man who had started the whole firefight resisted, an almost mad and tortured look in his good eye as he fixated Kanan. "B-but he's a Jedi! A-a Jedi!"

"I know, I know!" This time, he managed to force the gun away. "But they weren't the ones that betrayed us. Remember, Wolffe... Remember."

The man named Wolffe stood down, looking away. Ezra could see the conflicting emotions raging in that single hazel eye, and he couldn't help but question what sort of betrayal could have put him so at odds with himself.

His sympathy for the man getting the better of him, he turned back towards his Jedi instructor and said, "Kanan, Teri said we should trust them."

"Sorry about the, uh... Weapons malfunction." The man in the middle smiled. "My friend here's just a little defensive. We haven't seen another Jedi who didn't leave the Order before the... Well, you know. It's been a while. There's just Teri here and that guy Captain Storm of the Constant Marauder is with when their ship comes around. Skai Joka, I think his name is... And Ahsoka, too, before she passed on."

I've heard of Captain Kiri Storm and her ship before, but who's this Ahsoka person? Ezra wondered. He glanced over in Teri's direction, quickly noticing how deflated he'd become at the mention of the name. Must have been someone important to him or something.

Ezra stepped forward; putting his hand on Kanan's shoulder briefly as the older Jedi deactivated his saber. "Well, my name's Ezra, and this is Kanan. That's Sabine and Zeb," he said, gesturing to each crewmember in turn. "You already know Teri. It's nice to meet you, uh... 7-5-6-7."

"Actually my name is Rex," the man informed him, a note of pride in his voice. "Captain. Five Hundred and First Clone Battalion. Meet Commanders Gregor, and Wolffe. And this–" he paused to pull the yellow Zabrak out from the shadows, "–is Sirius Jagannath. He's staying on with us for the season."

"Are you related to Maddox?" Ezra asked.

The Zab nodded, resting on the blunt end of his axe. "Yeah. He's my older brother. You know him?"

"Only what I've told them," Teri cut in, and the two males exchanged a look. But then, he smiled. "Anyways, I think I'll take you up on that drop of Corulag whiskey, if the offer still stands."

Rex laughed heartily. "For you, Lux, sure thing. You're always welcome here with us and you know it." He waved at the rest of the crew. "Now come on in, everybody. I'll see what I can help you with."

*Hmm, more questions and still no sign of answers on the horizon... But we'll just have to see what comes of this uneasy alliance between ex-Jedi and Clone Troopers. And just who is the mysterious Maddox Jagannath? We now know he has a brother who can obviously wield deadly weapons, but very little else. What could be revealed about him in coming chapters? 

And poor Ezra is still lacking so many pieces of information to fit the puzzle together... But he's a smart kid. It's only a matter of time before he puts two and two together, and figures out exactly who Ahsoka is and what deadly secrets her story could bring to light...

Hello all!! How are you all tonight at 1 in the morning? I'm pretty good. I was procrastinating about this chapter today, because although I knew what I wanted to write, I thought I'd have an Ahsoka flashback to go with it. Buuuuutttt then I realized the nearest one from her POV is much later than a bunch of others I wanted to include, and not relevant to what's going on. But I digress. 

And yes, the Blueberry is over his head in a lot of new and weird stuff. Clones, new characters we have not yet met, awkward moments, and secrets galore! He'll be his inquisitive self for a while, trying to figure everything out, but I promise I'll get to the big reveal(s) as soon as possible ;D

Anyways, THAT BIT WITH LUX... I honestly have no idea where that came from!! I mean I wanted him to have a display of power like Kylo Ren in TFA (it was the chance to drop a reference I simply couldn't pass up) but exactly how I came to describe it was just... :D

I'll explain the science around it sometime later. But the point is, he's got a huge reservoir of power that he can't access all the time that any number of people would want to exploit. And the way he's taught himself to wield it makes him dangerous. How he came to this unique way of perceiving and using the Force will be explained in future flashbacks.

Also, hiiiiii, Storm-Shadows7... What did you think of my last-minute decision to allude to some of your other awesome stuff, as well as what's already gonna be in this story? It was another opportunity to make a reference I couldn't pass up, so I hope you liked it!

And ooooohhhhh, more information about Sorena's thoughts and what she really thinks... She has two selves that are sort of merged together, one that's Light and the other that's Dark, and they're constantly warring for control. But when the Dark Side won out, the Light was put into a sort of hibernation, only emerging every now and then when she's at her kindest. But coming events could widen the cracks in the lava prison keeping it contained, and allow her to feel things she hasn't felt in a long time...

Well, anyways, I'm going to bed. But I'll talk to you all later and hopefully be able to post a new chapter of UAAT tomorrow! See ya!

May the Force be with you,

Sharron