The Rise of the Valkyrie *ON HIATUS*

Chapter Eighteen

Ashara quickly found Tchachke and Meeva sitting in the corner, with a couple of their clone brothers with them. As soon as they saw her, they stood up and saluted. 

"At ease", she said. The four of them relaxed. She looked to the brothers. "Boys, may I have a moment of privacy to speak with my squad?"

They nodded and walked away. Ashara sat down next to the female clones, and let out a deep sigh. "We lost Dice and Halene today", she murmured quietly. "I'll see if I can get you some time to grieve but I can't promise that it will happen."

The two clones sat quietly. "Don't bother", Meeva said. "We'd like keep fighting, if we can. Keeps our minds off of our families deaths." Tchachke nodded in agreement. Ashara smiled sadly.

"I understand", she said softly. "I'm going to go find Anakin now."

"Wait!" Tchachke nearly shouted. "The captain was worried about you earlier. Nearly yelled at the General when he learned that you had been sent after Grievous."

Ashara closed her eyes, and gave them a tight smile. "Thank you for telling me that, Tchachke, but the captain doesn't need to worry about me. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself."

With that, she turned and headed to the cockpit, where she instantly regretted going because Rex was the copilot. He didn't acknowledge her presence though, and Ashara realized it was because Admiral Yularen was on the comm.

"There will be several landing sites. It will be hard to locate the good general", Anakin snarled. 

"You'll have to command the space battalion while Rex, Cody, and I head to the surface", Obi-wan said.

"Are you sure you can handle this on your own?" Anakin asked, a small smirk on his face. Ashara quietly chuckled, gaining the attention of the Jedi in the room. 

"I'm sure I can manage", Obi-wan remarked. "Though I might take Ashara with me."

Ashara's eyes widened and she tried to shake her head against it, but Anakin was immediately on board. "Great idea", her best friend exclaimed. "It'll get her more leading experience."

"Excuse you?" Ashara nearly spat. "I have enough leading experience, thank you very much." Anakin chuckled, and shook his head. 

"Sure you do, Ash, sure you do."

Ashara grumbled and crossed her arms, glaring out the window, but not before sneaking a glance at Rex. His face was blank as he focused on his tasks, and the young Jedi sighed quietly. She looked away from and closed her eyes briefly as she reminded herself of why they weren't talking. He had hurt her, and she wanted nothing to do with him. At least, that's what she kept telling herself. Whether she believed it or not was another story. But as she snuck another glance at him, only to meet his eyes, she found herself wanting to shoot him a smile, or even just say hi. However, she found herself unable to, and she just looked away again, not wanting to let him see the tears that were forming in her eyes. Unknown to her, he had already seen them and was angry at himself because he knew it was his fault.

~~~~~~

Ashara walked alongside Kenobi as he spoke to her and Rex. "Instead of scattering our troops looking for all the escape pods, we shall head toward the wreckage of the landing transport first." 

Ashara nodded, but remained beside Rex as Obi-wan headed off and as they climbed aboard speeders. Neither one of them said anything, though the Jedi was itching to. She almost opened her mouth a few times, but found herself tongue tied each time she tried to speak. So they ended up just riding their speeders in silence. Ashara was grateful when Obi-wan called down to her that they had found the wreckage.