Signature Bonds - Star Wars TCW

Chapter 35

Warning: This chapter is somewhere around 2,000 words, so... Enjoy???

---

As it turns out, her master was more of a moron than she thought he was. They were taking a 'shortcut' to get to the medical center before Grevious would, and since Anakin was being a bit overprotective again, she was stuck in the gunner's seat in the back of his ship.

"So, Skyguy, how did you know about this shortcut?" She asked curiously, peering out the window into the endless fog and space dust.

"It's an old smuggler's route." He responded, and Ahsoka's eyes widened in surprise. "Pilots used to talk about it on Tatooine."

"A smuggler's route?! Huh, that makes me feel much better!"

She got the feeling he was only thinking, 'See, snips? This is why you're with me.'

"They call it, Balmorra Run."

"Balmorra Run?!" Plo-Koon echoed over the comms, terror evident in his voice.

"I think I'm picking up a contact!" Ahsoka called from her seat, staring intently at a screen that was beeping.

"Skywalker, listen to me, we must turn back!" Plo said urgently, but Anakin just shook it off.

"We can't, not if we want to catch Grevious."

"I'm picking up another contact! This one is much larger!" Ahsoka shouted nervously, her baby blue eyes growing wide.

"Skywalker! Balmorra Run is the nesting ground of the Neebray!" Plo called urgently.

"Another!" Ahsoka squeaked, fear evident in her voice.

"Take evasive action!" Anakin ordered the pilots as a giant, flying, whale thing, a Neebray, came out of the fog.

"Those gas-gulpers are huge!" Ahsoka said nervously in awe, her hands gripping the controls for the guns tightly.

"Don't shoot or they'll panic!" Plo ordered immediately, gripping his own controls tighter.

"They'll panic? I'm about to panic!" Ahsoka's voice wavered, and she could feel Anakin's presence subconsciously press against hers, trying to comfort her a little.

"There are so many of them!" Matchstick called over the comms. Just then, a neebray ran into him, causing the stabilizer on his ship to malfunction. "I'm hit sir!"

"Pull it together, Matchstick!" Anakin ordered urgently, not willing to loose any one of his pilots. Matchstick spiraled for a little bit before seeming to smooth out again.

"I'm okay. I got it." The clone muttered back a moment later, seeming to reassure himself more than respond to Anakin.

"These things are gonna make a meal out of us!" Ahsoka exclaimed, still slightly scared. They were a lot bigger than she was, way over five times her size, and she couldn't expect that they would even give her a few seconds before they ate her.

Artoo beeped something that got lost in the panic.

"All wings, line up behind me!" Anakin directed, and all of the pilots followed suit.

"Hurry! They will not follow us beyond the nebula!" Plo called in desperation.

Ahsoka glanced out her window, her eyes still wide in fear. A giant Neebray was flying outside, its long, pointy teeth sticking out of its jaws. "That one looks hungry!"

"Nah, he's just smiling at you." Anakin joked, trying to get her to calm down a little. It was kind of uncomfortable to feel his bond mate in fear, and since he couldn't actually get to her, it was even worse for him. When Ahsoka and Anakin had been younger, if either got scared (which wasn't often) or nervous (again, rarely happened), the frightened one would just curl up against the other, which usually helped to dissipate the fear.