The Wolf Pack

Chapter 49

Kriari had always been one to complain through a tough job. It wasn't that she was lazy, she just found it to be the best way to let her frustration out without hurting herself or somebody else. As she hung from the underside of the rock bridge using only the strength of her fingers and the Force, she had no energy or spare breath to complain with.

Swing, grip, place a bomb. Swing, grip, place a bomb.

Her mind was completely blank with the exception of the task at hand, and even when it felt like she had been hanging there for an eternity, there was a certain peace that came with it, if she ignored the certain death that came with falling.

It was the hardest, most physically taxing thing she had done so far, but she was glad to find another weakness that needed honing.

Ahead of her, Skywalker seemed to breeze through the task with no special effort made, and it was both awe inspiring and more than a little annoying. If there was one kind of person Kriari envied it was prodigies. But she had never been exceedingly prideful, so she was able to brush off the feeling and finish without falling behind.

When they both emerged from underneath the bridge and onto the other side, the tanks were almost finished crossing, and when Skywalker pressed the detonator, the entire rock structure came falling into the abyss taking the weapons that had been on it with it.

It was a mess of dust and debris, but when it all cleared they could both clearly see the troopers celebrating their success on the other side of the trench. The plan had succeeded, now they just had to hold out until Barriss and Ahsoka were clear. But as usual, battle gave you very little time to think, so before they could even question the whereabouts of the remaining two Padawans, they were already under enemy fire once again.

"Those bombs are going to go off any second now, where are they?" grunted Skywalker as he continued to defect enemy blaster fire.

"They should be on their way out already," answered Kriari as she bisected yet another battle droid. "maybe they are almost at the trench-"

"Master? Do you read me?"

Ahsoka's voice on Skywalker's commlink gave Kriari more relief than she had experienced so far. She was still alive.

"Ahsoka, where the hell are you? Those bombs are gonna go off any second now!"

Skywalker seemed more agitated than Kriari had ever seen him, and she wasn't sure it was because he was running out of patience with his apprentice or because he was just that concerned.

"I'm sorry, Master. We can't make it out."

The effect those five words had on Kriari was instantaneous. Reality seemed to slow down. The blasts that flew towards her seemed to move impossibly slow, and all the noise around her disappeared at once. She saw Skywalker yelling at his wrist com but couldn't make out what he was saying.

She realized what was about to happen, the feeling was eerily reminiscent of her fight with Ventress, but this time, she couldn't stop the threat. Ahsoka was about to bury herself alive alongside Barriss, and they couldn't stop them.

She realized she couldn't stop the demolition, but maybe she could prepare for the rescue. But, should she really? Was it fair?

Ahsoka knew the risk she was taking, and so did Barriss. The cold truth was that if it had been clones that sacrificed themselves, no one would have moved an inch to rescue them: they would have been presumed dead. But still, Kriari couldn't just stand there, watching the entire weight of the factory falling on her best friend, her sister.

Truth was cold and dark, yes, but Kriari knew that if it had in fact been clones, she would also have organized a rescue mission after the demolition. That is why, she called on Waxer as soon as time resumed its pace -which could have been mere seconds, but Kriari would never know for sure- and ordered him to prepare the tank carriers to move the debris.

"Kriari! It's coming down!" Skywalker's voice made it through the cacophony of explosions and gave her just enough time to react.

Together, Master and Padawan used the Force to push the falling debris away from them as the entire droid factory fell upon them.

The air was clogged with dust and breathing was proving difficult, the debris around them was more than a little unstable, and there was a high chance of there being energy or fuel leaks all around. They would all have to tread lightly in those conditions if they wanted to avoid any accidents.

"Foreas, you still there?" Asked Skywalker somewhere to Kriari's left.

"Yes, Master, I'm all good, just a little dirtier. I already called for the troops to begin removing the rubble as soon as possible." She answered, coughing in between sentences.

She didn't mind the dry air, but the dust? Nope, she would much rather have sand in her underwear than breathe in so much dust.

"Good, because they both are down there somewhere, I can feel them."

Kriari didn't want to be the bringer of bad news. She could feel them too, slowly drifting and the light of their Force signatures dimming with every minute that passed. But she stayed silent anyways, this would be painful enough for both of them without her rubbing salt into that wound.

She had been through this before, she knew what the pain of a loss this big could do to her, but she had faced it before and she would again. She would mourn if she had to, she would miss Ahsoka if she had to, but she would move on and behave in a fashion which her friend would be proud of.

That did not mean she was about to abandon her without even trying to save her, not at all. But she knew that preparing oneself for the worst, often paid off in the end.

Anakin Skywalker did not seem to be of the same mind. No, he opted for arguing with Master Luminara and holding onto the life of his Padawan like his sanity depended on it. Kriari understood that having a Padawan was a huge responsibility, but she didn't think it was in any way a bigger responsibility than being a war Commander or in his case a General.

Yes, there was a special attachment to an apprentice, but their life could not, should not be more important than that of your soldiers, even if the future of the Order depended on it. Luminara seemed to understand this, but she also was being too passive about her efforts. If one looked at the situation from the outside, it was very clear that Kriari was the balance between Skywalker and Unduli: not sacrificing herself and her mental health for her friend, but also actively trying to improve her chances of survival.

Of course this was not something the three of them were able to see at the moment, but theirs were not the only eyes in the field that day. There were hundreds of men watching, and they all could see the stark differences between the three, and each of them were of an independent enough mind to choose who they agreed with most.

In the end, it didn't really matter, because just as her Master, Ahsoka was not one to sit idly by, and had managed to get a signal out to Skywalkers com. This allowed everyone to track the lost Padawans and rescue them before it was too late.

As Masters and Padawans reunited and exchanged compliments, Kriari left to find Waxer and Boil. She wanted to be made aware of any casualties or changes within her men, as well as making sure they were all taken care of and accounted for. This too was something the troopers from the other two battalions found curious, but they would never really tell anyone that wasn't a clone what they thought about it.