Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Duke...I---I….I'm sorry.”
Those words are all Duke, the clone Captain of the 51st, can hear as he and his brothers stand around the fire or his commander’s pyre. His hands curl into fists as he gazes at the young woman’s dead body, his eyes prickling with tears. Tears of anger, grief, and guilt. His brothers watch him with eyes of anger, pity, sadness, grief, and neutral. No one shows tears, through the eyes of every man are misty with unshed tears for their fallen commander. He blinks at them as he looks around and numbly shakes his head no. He knows that they want him to talk about her. He can’t, he can’t explain, not when her pyre is so close and her death still closer. The fire burns on and when it dies down, all that’s left is her ashes and her lightsaber. Duke leans down and grabs the lightsaber his commander once used in their defense and put it on his belt. He looks up at the stars and constellations of the planet Dantooine, tears jump in his eyes and he lets out a scream of pain and loss. Sly, the medic of the 51st, rushes over with Spark as Duke screams and falls to his knees.
“Duke!”
They both grasp his shoulders, all they receive as a reply is broken sobs. They look at each other in concern. Sly smiles slightly as he pats Duke’s back,
“It’s alright, Vod. Hey,”
He looks up,
“You guys remember when she first came to us? As a shiny?”
All three of them laugh.
“Oh yeah. She was a dear in the headlights.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Duke stands on the Venator class cruiser in its hangar deck awaiting the arrival of his new commander. From what he’s heard, she is a warrior with a gentle heart towards her men. A ship comes in for a smooth landing. The ramp lowers and a young human female with blonde hair and blue eyes with a few scars on her face walks down the ramp. The girl walks up to him and she is slightly shorter than him. He salutes,
“Commander.”
She bows,
“Captain.”
He notices the tension around her shoulders as she bows,
“Are you alright, sir?”
She has to tilt her chin up to look at him,
“I am fine, Captain. Just sore from my latest mission with Master Voss.”
He can’t hold in his snort of laughter,
“Master Voss? Haven’t heard that name in awhile. I used to serve with him. Good man, but on the cold side with us clones.”
He removes his helmet,
“I’m Captain Duke, by the way sir. Duke works just as well as Captain. Welcome aboard, Sir.”
She smiles,
“Call me Marissa.”
She extends her hand and he extends his. To his surprise, they are in a warrior’s arm grip. He looks at her in confusion. She smirks,
“I was with the 501st before I came here.”
He laughs,
“Come on, sir...Marissa.”
She nods and walks with him. As they walk, he sees her eyes gradually widen. She bumps into a trooper with a datapad and a cup of caf in hand. He drops both items, but only catches the datapad. Marissa splays her fingers on her right hand as the clone’s eyes widen as his caf drops. Time seems to freeze.
“Grab it quickly please. I can’t hold this forever.”
Both Duke and the other clone turn to look at Marissa. She seems frozen too. The other clone quickly grabs his caf and Marissa lowers her hand, time flows once again. He notices that the commander smiles and apologizes,
“I am soo sorry for bumping into you...um?”
“My name is Sly, sir. Field medic of the 51st. You must be the new commander.”
She nods,
“I am. And please, call me Marissa. Nice to meet you Sly.”
“Nice meeting you too, command--er, Marissa.”
Sly walks away as does Duke and Marissa. Marissa is still wide-eyed as they walk.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sly, Duke, and Spark chuckle. Duke smiles sadly,
“Heh. Yeah, she was like that for the first few days. Until the first mission. Remember that one?”
They nod,
“Yeah,...that took its toll on her afterwards.”
A few shinies walk over and sit down them. The way they’re sitting means that they want to hear about their fallen commander. Duke smile wavers slightly and takes a deep breath.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Duke watches Marissa deflect and redirect blaster bolts away from them with her purple lightsaber. He finds himself admiring the way she moves. She moves with grace, but when it came down to crunch time, she moves with bit more jerky movements. He shakes his head, telling himself to focus on the fight at hand. He and his men fire frantically into the enemy lines to take out as many droids as they can. They are all shocked when a blaster bolt hits Marissa’s hand and sends her lightsaber out of her reach. She looks at them in shock before getting hit by two more blaster bolts, one in the stomach and one in the right shoulder. She stumbles back, then another one hits her in her chest. She crumples to the ground. Duke turns to his men,
“Sly! Go! Spark, Shredder! Go with him! Everyone else, hold the line!”
Everyone of his men nod and does as he says. He watches out of the corner of his eye as Sly quickly assesses the commander while Spark and Shredder cover him. Soon, Shredder is carrying Marissa to the medical tent with Sly walking in front of them and Spark covering them. In a matter of moments, the battle is over. They take off their helmets and look around. Duke turns to them,
“Alright. I want this place cleaned up by five o’hundred hours. I’m going to check on our commander’s status.”
They nod and get to work. He turns, sharply, on his heel and starts to walk in the direction of the medical tent. He walks in and sees Sly working on Seaweed. Duke walks over and puts a hand on Seaweed’s shoulder when he tries to get up,
“Easy, Seaweed. Get some rest. We’ll need you at your best when we’re back on Kamino.”
Seaweed smiles and nods,
“Understood, Duke.”
Duke looks at Sly. Sly is covered with dirt and blood and has a tired and worried look on his face. Sly jerks his head and walks away. Duke follows with a concerned look on his face. Sly stops when they reach a quiet part of the medical tent and turns around. Sly has fear in his eyes,
“I don’t think she’ll make it through the night, Duke. Her wounds are bad, fatal too.”
Duke lowers his head and closes his eyes,
“She can’t die! We need her!”
“I’m sorry Duke. I can’t do anything else. Not here. I could on the ship, but it's too dangerous to move her.”
Duke sighs,
“Where is she?”
Sly leads him to the isolation room. In the viewing window, he can see Marissa, otherwise known as their commander, lies on a cot. She has an IV in her left arm, bandages and bacta patches on the three wounds, an oxygen mask on her face, and the monitors she’s attached to are showing her vitals are low. Duke’s face turns into one of sorrow as he looks at his ailing commander’s body then looks at Sly,
“Can I...can I see her?”
Sly nods and opens the door. Duke steps into the room and quickly crosses to where she lies. He kneels next to her and takes her right hand in his left and puts his right on her forehead. He stays there forever then Sly comes in,
“Duke, you need to rest.”
He nods numbly and gets up and walks to his quarters. He wakes up in the middle of the night to his holocom going off. He reaches over,
“What?”
Sly’s panicked voice comes through the transmitter,
“Duke!”
“Sly! What is it?!”
“It’s Marissa. She’s gotten worse! We need you here now!”
“I’m on my way!”
Duke jumps up and quickly gets his armor on and runs to the medical tent. He comes to where Marissa is and stops dead in his tracks. All of the men of the 51st are standing close to the window. They make a hole for him to see. What he sees is worse than what he imagined. He sees Marissa, their young commander, on her side facing the window coughing up blood. Her wounds still leak blood out and her face is the worst part. Her face is of pure agonizing pain. Duke puts his hand on the window and Marissa looks up. Her lips quirk into a small smile, before she has another coughing fit. Sly opens the door and gestures Duke in. Duke is in before anyone can blink. He crosses over and kneels next to his commander. He rubs her back as she coughs. To his and everyone else’s horror, she goes onto her back and just lies there, gasping for breath. Duke puts a hand on her forehead and his eyes close in a grimace. Fever. One of the worst things to have when you’re injured. That either means you’re sick or you have an infection. Duke keeps his hand on her forehead as she sighs in relief. He grips her hand and brings it to his chest. She looks at him through a pain filled gaze,
“D...Duke?...”
He smiles sadly and nods,
“I’m right here, commander. We got you.”
She relaxes into the cot and her eyes slowly slip close and her breathing slows. He mutters,
“K'oyacyi, Marissa.”
He keeps holding her hand, waiting for her to breath her last. Yet, she never does. She heals enough to be moved to the ship by morning. She spends several days in a bacta tank. When she’s out and resting, she receives visitors. Duke is one of the first. He gives her an update on the battle and that they won. She smiles at that and gestures for him to sit. He does. They talk about many things, the main one is that there should be bacta tanks on the surface of the planet they’re on so they can use it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The shinies look at them with bewilderment as they laugh. The shinies ask,
“Weren’t you worried for her?”
“She had us worrying since she got shot.”
“Then why do you laugh?”
Spark smiles slightly,
“Because these are memories, shinies.”
Now the entire 51st is laughing. Half of the 51st was with the original company that served with Marissa while the other half are completely shinies, newbies, barely knew her. So one of the shinies raises his hand,
“Sir...could you tell us more?
Duke smiles,
“How much more, kid?”
“All the way to now.”
Duke, Sly, Spark, Shredder, and Seaweed all look at each other as well as the others that knew her and they nod.
“Alright kid, but this’ll take awhile.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marissa and Duke stand across from each other in the training room. Both are panting and sweating, but they smile at one another. The cheers and yells of their audience keeps them going at it. Duke wears simple training clothes while Marissa wears shorts and an exercise bra. She scars from her first mission seem to stick out because of her pale complexion. Duke’s eyes eye the scars. To him, those scars means failure. He’s supposed to protect her not the other way around. She looks at him so concerned and he’s about to say he’s fine when she mouths,
“Later.”
They charge at each other. They fall in a tangle of limbs. He elbows her in the stomach, in the same spot she was shot. She lets out a small hiss of pain, but keeps him in a headlock. Duke is forced to tap out. Marissa let's go and they both roll to their feet, her hand goes to the scarred over wound on her stomach. Duke walks up to her and puts a hand on her arm,
“I’m sorry sir.”
“Don’t worry about it, Duke. It's still healing. Still sore.”
Sly heard this and walks up to them,
“Marissa? Do you need for me to look at it?”
Marissa shakes her head,
“I’ll be fine, Sly. I’ll come to you if I do need you to.”
Sly nods and backs off. Duke turns to leave,
“Duke. We need to talk.”
Duke turns to his commander. She motions for him to follow her. He does follow her. She stops in front of her quarters. They enter and she turns around,
“What was the look for in our sparring match?”
“What look sir?”
“The one that reads guilt.”
Duke looks down,
“I was supposed to protect you! And you protected us. That almost killed you.”
“It's what I do, Captain. I am a Jedi. I will always look after my men.”
“We thank you for that, Commander. But let us return the favor.”
“On a few occasions, I’ll allow it.”
“Allow it? But sir…!”
“NO! I’m not losing anyone else! That’s final.”
Duke recoils. He is shocked to see tears falling down her face, her hands in fists, and the look of failure on her face. She lowers her head. That’s when he realized that the deaths of her men took its toll on her. He walks over to her and puts a hand on her shoulder,
“Commander...Marissa, look at me.”
Her head tilts up to look at him with tears in her eyes. He wipes away her tears, gently,
“You can’t blame yourself for their deaths. It's what we were born to do.”
“That doesn’t mean that they have to die!”
Duke pulls her into a hug and she sobs into his chest,
“Marissa….Commander, you can’t let the death of your men overwhelm you. I had to learn it the hard way. Trust me on it.”
She sniffles and pulls away,
“Ok. Ok. I’ll trust you.”
They smile weakly at each other before Marissa wipes her tears,
“You’re dismissed, Captain.”
Duke salutes and walks out. He makes his way to his own quarters.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The 51st are on the planet of Taris, fighting the droid army. Marissa, their brave and loyal commander, is up front. Next to her is Duke, Captain of the 51st. Their goal is to capture a listening outpost, as quickly and as quietly as possible. They get inside and destroy the droids before grabbing the information they needed to get. On the way out, Marissa is admiring Duke’s aim as well as how well he’s keeping up with her after five hours of fighting, or was it six? She shakes herself out of those thoughts and goes back to focusing on the battle at hand. She turns as she hears a scream of agony behind her. She gasps and splays her fingers on her left hand to freeze time as she sees Duke get hit. She and Duke are the only ones that freeze. Sly and Shredder scramble to get to him. They grab him and pull him out of the way before he hits the ground. She lets her hand fall and goes back to getting out of the droids alive. In another hour, the fight is over. She turns to her men,
“Make sure they never knew we were here. Spark, if a droid isn’t that damaged, fix it and wipe its memory of us being here. Tin, erase the memory of the terminal so it never showed us in it and erase the camera footage too.”
Tin, Spark, and the rest of the men get to work. Marissa turns and runs to where Sly is treating Duke. She kneels next to them,
“Sly?”
Sly looks up,
“He has a chance if the transport gets here in time. If not, I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do.”
Marissa nods numbly,
“I’ll stay with him. Come to me if the men are done with what they’re doing.”
Sly salutes,
“Yes, sir.”
He walks away. Marissa puts his head in her lap and runs her hand through his hair. Duke gives a groan of pain,
“Shh, captain. I gotcha.”
Duke groans again. This time, Marissa takes a deep breath and begins to sing a song taught to her in the temple. Her voice is like an angel to Duke,
“Loo-li, loo-li, loo-li, lai-lay
Loo-li, loo-li, loo-li lai-lay
Lay down your head and I'll sing you a lullaby
Back to the years of loo-li lai-lay
And I'll sing you to sleep and I'll sing you tomorrow
Bless you with love for the road that you go
May you sail far to the far fields of fortune
With diamonds and pearls at your head and your feet
And may you need never to banish misfortune
May you find kindness in all that you meet
May there always be angels to watch over you
To guide you each step of the way
To guard you and keep you safe from all harm
Loo-li, loo-li, lai-lay
May you bring love and may you bring happiness
Be loved in return to the end of your days
Now fall off to sleep, I'm not meaning to keep you
I'll just sit for a while and sing loo-li, lai-lay
May there always be angels to watch over you
To guide you each step of the way
To guard you and keep you safe from all harm
Loo-li, loo-li, lai-lay, loo-li, loo-li, lai-lay
Loo-li, loo-li, loo-li, lai-lay
Loo-li, loo-li, loo-li lai-lay
Loo-li, loo-li, loo-li lai-lay
Loo-li, loo-li, loo-li lai-lay
Loo-li, lai-lay”
When the song is done, all of the men are around them. They stand there with their heads lowered. Duke’s breathing is laboured. Marissa lowers her head so that their foreheads are touching. Her head darts up when she hears the sound of a gunship landing. She smiles and hands Duke over to his brothers. Marissa watches, concerned, as Duke is put on the gunship. The blast door close and the gunship lifts into the air. Marissa takes a deep breath and walks to another gunship. A few moments later, she’s on the cruiser, The Cenotaph. She rushes to the medbay. While on her way there, she bumps into Spark,
“I’m sorry, Spark.”
“It's alright, Commander.”
They both kept walking in the other direction. Marissa gets to the medbay after what feels like an eternity. She enters and Sly immediately notices her. Sly quickly walks to her with a smile on his face. Marissa sighs in relief,
“I’m guessing that he’s ok.”
“He is. Thanks to you. When he woke, he asked where you were.”
“Can I see him?”
Sly nods and leads her to a cot where Duke is lying with bandages and bacta patches cover his wounds. He looks up and smiles,
“Commander.”
“Captain.”
Marissa smiles and looks at him,
“Get some rest. It wouldn’t be good if you were sleep deprived in the next battle.”
“I’ll sleep when I know how many men we lost.”
“Then I’ll help you rest easy. We have no dead. Everyone is either wounded or fine.”
Duke is shocked,
“Wha...What? No dead?”
“No dead.”
Duke smiles in relief and relaxes into the cot. Marissa’s smile broadens,
“I’ll leave you to rest.”
She leaves before he can even say anything. Duke just stares after her with his mouth open. He hears a snicker and looks over to Joker,
“What’s so funny, Vod?”
“Oh. Nothing.”
Joker turns away from Duke, leaving him confused, like always.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A few days later, Duke and Marissa and the 51st are on the planet of Geonosis for a mission. It's a simple one, get in, get out, blow the factory. But they didn’t foresee that Ventress would be there, waiting. Duke tried to force Marissa to the back, but instead, she stood her ground and fought Ventress. Marissa’s brilliant purple lightsaber clashes with Ventress’ blood red ones. Marissa force pushes her back and turns to them,
“GO!”
Duke and everyone else stares at her like she’s crazy. Duke snaps out of it first,
“No way, Commander. We are not leaving you here with that hairless harpy!”
“Captain, that is an order!”
Duke remembers the conversation after her wounds. He hears her words to him. Duke closes his eyes and looks into her’s. Marissa’s eyes are pleading for them to finish the mission. He makes his choice. Duke nods and begins to run to the elevator with the rest of the 51st following him, leaving Marissa to fight Ventress, alone. Duke and his men recover Republic info and have set the charges. They return to the area they last saw Marissa and Ventress, except no one is there. The only thing there is Marissa’s lightsaber and blood staining the floor. Duke frowns,
“Oh no.”
Duke runs over to Marissa’s lightsaber and picks it up. Sly goes to the bloodstain and takes a sample. Sly turns to Duke,
“It’s Marissa’s blood.”
Duke stared at the blood in horror,
“We have to find her!”
“We can’t! We have to finish the mission! She would’ve wanted it…..We can look for her after we succeed in our mission.”
Duke’s shoulders slump and he nods. They all run out of the factory and blow it sky high. They are assigned with finding Marissa, their commander, and rescue her. It takes them an entire year to locate her. When they do, they storm the ship, kill the droids and search for her. They find her bleeding heavily, barely breathing, and barely hanging onto life. Duke runs into the cell and catches her as she falls from where they had her chained. Duke cradles her in his arms as he carries her out of the cell and onto the ship and into the medbay where they tell him to get out. He gets out and paces in the waiting room, but no one tells him to stop. Eventually, one of the medical droids came out and approached them. Everyone who was sitting, stood up and looked at the droid with the expression that if it didn’t start providing answers soon, they’d tear it apart.
“She sustained many injuries, internal and external. We’ve treated what we could, now the rest is up to her.”
The droid rolls back into the room while the clones turn and look at each other. Duke walks in first and holds her hand. A few months later, Marissa is up and strong enough to train. She mainly spares with Duke or Sly. Duke accidentally punches her where one of her wounds are and she backs away hissing. Duke stops and walks over. Marissa smirks and gets him on the floor. She pants,
“I win.”
Duke groans,
“For the thousandth time.”
She chuckles and lets him up. They walk to the viewport and talk. About command and learning. About the massacre that happened at the beginning and how they can't guarentee forgiveness. As the months go by, their relationship becomes like brother and sister. Then, they are assigned to the planet, Dantooine, to stop the Separatists from moving closer to any of the core worlds. Marissa, as usual, was on the front lines with her men. They were faring quite well when General Grievous showed up. Marissa looked back at them with an apologetic look before running over to Grievous and locking sabers with him. Duke saw this and screamed at the top of his lungs,
“COMMANDER! NO!”
Marissa didn’t seem to hear him, for she just kept leading Grievous away from him and his men. Duke and his brothers kept fighting until all that was left was smoke and droid parts. A piercing scream filled the air causing all of the clones to look at each other. Duke stiffened and ran towards the sound,
“Marissa!”
When he arrived in a clearing, he wasn’t expecting to see his commander lying on her back and gasping for air with her lightsaber on her belt. Duke ran over to her and removed his helmet before taking her in his arms,
“Marissa….”
Her fading blue eyes focused on his face,
“D-Duke…”
“I’m here. I’m right here. We’ll get you fixed up.”
Marissa smiles before turning her head away, wincing in pain from the many lightsaber wounds on her body. Duke takes in her situation with pain filled eyes. He strokes her hair and pulls her closer,
“Don’t go…..we still need you….I still need you…”
Marissa raises a shaky hand to cup Duke’s chin. She gives a sad smile as her body relaxes and her hand falls. Duke catches her hand and brings it to his chest,
“K'oyacyi Marissa….K’oyacyi vod…”
Marissa’s head lolls to rest on Duke’s shoulder. Her breathing is labored and her eyes are glazing over. The ever present fire in her eyes, close to being extinguished. Duke holds her tighter,
“Don’t leave me….please don’t leave me….”
Marissa looks up at him and whispers,
“Duke...I---I….I'm sorry.”
Marissa goes limp and she breathes her last. Duke puts his forehead to hers as he fights back the tears. He picks up his commander’s body and carries her back to her brothers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Duke finishes the story as his brothers put comforting hands on his shoulders. There is not one dry eye after the story of their commander. Duke grits his teeth and stands up before walking over to a different part of their camp. He closes his before having them snap open again. He turns to his brothers and holds up a hand and an eerie silence falls over the camp. They hear metal feet hitting the ground and they grabs their weapons and armor. They form a line of defense and wait for their enemy or enemies to show themselves. They hear a robotic laugh and a hacking cough before four lightsabers come to life in front of them. General Grievous laughs,
“Hello there.”

Chapter Text

General Grievous laughs,
“Hello there.”
Duke swallows thickly as Grievous comes closer. He turns to his brothers,
“Hold the line, vod!”
Grievous cackles as the clones shift between running and fighting. Duke looks up as bright lights fill the air. Gunships come swooping down and the whole 51st runs to them. Duke, Sly, Spark, Seaweed, Shredder, and Ninja happen to get on the same gunship as Captain Rex. As soon as their on and away from danger, Duke and his men take off their helmets and slide down the walls of the gunship. The 501st and the 51st stay separated from each other and glared at one another. The hostility is evident. Rex comes over, cautiously to Duke and kneels next to him. Duke doesn't look at him but puts his head back against the wall of the gunship.
“Duke?”
Duke breaks down. Tears come streaming down his face. The members of the 501st on the gunship take off their helmets as they talk in low voices as Rex puts a hand on Duke’s shoulder, which is shrugged off with a snarl and he backs off. Duke continues to sob. The men of the 501st looked at Duke very confused and almost disgusted. Duke chokes out,
“She's gone…”
Rex looks down at him, emotionless,
“Who's gone? Who'd you lose?”
Duke slumps forward, Sly rushes to catch him before he hits the metal floor. As he started to lose consciousness, he mutters,
“Our commander, Marissa…”
Sly speaks up as Kix starts to say that she is way too reckless,
“He wasn’t injured though! Not at all during this campaign!”
Duke hears those words as he fades into sleep.
---------------------------------------------------------
The gunships land in the Resolute’s docking bay. As soon as the door’s open, Duke is half dragged half carried to Rex’s quarters by Shredder and Sly. They lay Duke down on the bottom bunk, where he always sleeps on the Resolute. Sly sits down next to him and looks at Shredder lingering,
“I'll take care of him. Go.”
Shredder nods and exits the room. Sly looks at the sleeping form of his batch brother and whispers,
“What happened to make you be like this vod?”
-------------------------------------------------------------
Shredder walks back to the rest of the 51st including Ninja and Kess, who stand upon seeing him. "Well, is he ok?" "I don't know." The bald clone replies, "Sly is seeing to him. He'll make sure he's ok." They go back to sitting and waiting, all the while staying away from the 501st. ---------------------------------------------------------
Duke is trapped in his own mind. He keeps replaying Marissa’s death over and over and over. It never ends, no matter how hard he tries. He then dreams of his brothers which turns into a nightmare as well. He watches as his brothers fall around him and he's frozen. He can't do anything and soon all are dead. Duke unfreezes and walks around. Some were killed by blaster bolts, some by vibro blades, and a few were killed by a lightsaber. Duke hears footsteps behind him. The steps are lighter than a droid or a brother. He turns and is face to face with Marissa. She is clothed in all black with red eyes and a red saber. Blood drips from multiple wounds on her. With a horrifying look, she stabs Duke in the gut. Her face twisted into a sneer. Duke sputters and gasps as he falls to the ground. His head hits the ground hard and he slips into a dark oblivion.
--------------------------------------------------------
Sly dips a piece of cloth into a bowl of cold water that he had gotten. He bites his lip in worry. Duke is running a fever and having fevered nightmares. Duke has moaned the names of his brothers and Marissa. Sly stood up to go over and get some more blankets so Duke could sweat out the fever. As soon as Rex touched the blanket, Duke fell silent. Sly quickly ran back to Duke. He slid to Duke’s bedside and immediately noticed that he wasn't breathing.
“Kriff…”
Sly frantically put his fingers to Duke’s neck, praying, hoping that he'd have a pulse. But there was none. There was no beat. The skin was already going cold.
“Duke! Don't you dare die on me vod!”
Sly began to do CPR. He stopped to check then started again. He repeated the process several times.
“Come on, Duke! Vod!”
He stopped and checked again and laughed in relief as there was a pulse under his fingers. But he stopped,
“He's not breathing still...kriff.”
Sly started assistive breathing. Each time, Duke wouldn't breath on his own.
“Damnit, Duke! Breathe! Come on you di’kuta! BREATHE!”
--------------------------------------------------------
On the surface of Dantooine, a lone figure stands in a clearing where the camp of the 51st was. It was all destroyed by General Grievous and his droids when they retreated. The figure walks through the camp and to the other side of the clearing. A funeral pyre had once stood there with someone they loved as a sister and a lover. The cloak of the figure blows in the wind but it doesn't come off. The figure kneels before the ash and scans it. The figure spots what it was looking for and grabs it. The figure opens its hand and allows the ash to go with the wind. Remaining in their hand is a beautiful necklace. The figure clasps it around their neck and stands. The figure turns to the wind and the cloak’s hood is removed. The face of Marissa stares into the sky to the Resolute where her men are safe and sound. She fingers get necklace and mutters one name,
“Duke…”

Chapter Text

The figure turns to the wind and the cloak’s hood is removed. The face of Marissa stares into the sky to the Resolute where her men are safe and sound. She fingers get necklace and mutters one name,
“Duke…”
Marissa turns to walk away with a last glance at the Resolute. She walks into the woods and soon is enveloped in the shadows of the forest.
----------------------------------------------
Sly started assistive breathing. Each time, Duke wouldn't breath on his own.
“Damnit Duke! Breathe! Come on you di’kuta! BREATHE!”
Duke still refused to breath. Sly had tears coming down his face as he continued,
“Come on, Duk’ika! Don't do this to me!”
Just as Sly was about to give up, Duke gasped for air. Sly quickly supports Duke’s upper body by leaning him against him. Duke coughed and sputtered then his eyes open. Duke whispers
“Sly…?”
“I'm here, Duk’ika. I'm here.”
Duke relaxes before sitting up slowly. He looks around the quarters he and Rex share when they're both on the Resolute.
“How'd I…?”
“Shredder and I half carried, half dragged you here.”
Duke looks down at the ground and folds his hands together and puts it to his face. Sly watches with sadness before hugging his brother from behind. Duke’s shoulder shakes as he silently sobs.
“She was a sister to all of us."
Duke nods wordlessly and after a few moments of comforting each other, they don their armor and walk out to meet the rest of the legion.
---------------------------------------------------
Marissa walks through the plains of Dantooine. She quickly makes it to the ship she had brought down. It's a Mandalorian fighter. One of the big ones with the seats you can launch allies with jetpacks from. She enters and quickly changes to the Mandalorian armor she made with her mother. Her armor is black with gold accents. She puts the helmet on the co-pilot seat and puts all her concealed weapons in their places. Then she puts the rest of her weapons in a secret compartment under her seat including her pistols and vibrosword. She starts up the systems and takes off. The Resolute doesn't notice since it's on the other side of the planet. She sets coordinates to Coruscant in the nav computer and jumps into hyperspace. She sighs before contacting her uncle.
“Marissa. Good to hear from you.”
She frowns,
“I can't say the same for you, Kal.”
“No ‘uncle’ this time?”
“No. You didn't come to help so you can shove that shit up your ass. But I'm en route to you now.”
“....Understood. What's your ETA?”
She checks the chrono and nav computer,
“Around 2 to 3 hours.”
“See you then.." And Marissa cuts the feed and the transmission ends. That's right Kal Skirata is her uncle, which she isn't overall fond of. Funny to think that when her father is a senator for her homeworld. She laughs at the irony. She mutters,
“Kal has wanted me to meet his boys for awhile. Now I finally get to meet them face to face…..in 2 to 3 hours at least. I wish I didn't owe him shit....”
Marissa crosses her arms and sets her chrono to wake her up as soon as she’s close to dropping out of hyperspace.
---------------------------------------------------
Duke paces in the meeting room of the Resolute. He is waiting for Generals Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi to arrive. Heh, for once they actually want to speak with someone under Marissa's command. Speaking of which, the generals walk through the door to the meeting room and immediately head for Duke,
“We're sorry that Marissa died, Captain Duke. We all know that you and the rest of the 51st were fond of her.”
Duke simply nods at the words, trying not to let his anger raise its head at how forced the grief is. General Skywalker moves and begins to type a command into the holocommunicator. General Kenobi speaks in his usual calm like manner,
“The council wishes to have a word with you, Duke. No, you're not in trouble, don't worry.”
Duke closes his mouth and the question is gone from his mind. The hologram of Master Mace Windu and Master Yoda appear. Skywalker and Kenobi motion Duke to step forward. Duke does as motioned after a hesitation. He forgot how much he hated the two generals and the council. Yoda and Windu look at Duke and Yoda speaks first, just as forced as Skywalker's was,
“For Marissa’s loss, we are sorry to hear.”
Mace Windu speaks in a clearly forced sad tone,
“I will miss her. She was my apprentice.”
Master Yoda sighs,
“But the truth, hid long enough it has.”
“Agreed. Do you want me to tell him or you, Master Yoda?”
“Tell him, I will. Come, I will to the Resolute.”
“Are you sure General?”
“Sure, I am. Be there, I shall in a few hours.”
“Understood, Master Yoda.”
“Understood, General.”
“Duke. You are dismissed.”
“Sir, yes, sir!”
Duke walks out and immediately heads to the mess because he is starving and needs a break from the faking of sadness and the irritation of the rest of the Jedi, aside from Plo Koon and Quinlan Vos.
On the way there he wonders what General Yoda will tell him. He eats and jokes with his men in the mess then he gets the call to come back to the meeting room. Duke jogs back. Once he enters, General Yoda stands there. He motions for Duke to sit and he does with reluctance. Yoda looks down then up and reluctantly says,
“Duke. Sorry, I am to keep this from you for this long. Marissa, still alive she is.”

Chapter Text

Duke’s P.O.V.
Duke gapes at Master Yoda in shock. There are a million questions running through the Captain of the 51st’s head. He stutters out, “W-what?”
The little green Jedi Master chuckles at Duke’s reaction and begins to explain, “Faked her death, she did. Why we do not know. Important, it must have been.”
Duke asks in a hesitant voice, “Why didn't she tell me? Or any of us?” Master Yoda looks down then back up with a grave look upon his features, “Unsure of this, I am. Said nothing, she did. Of utmost secrecy, it must have been.”
Duke scowls, “Where could she have gone? And she’s without her lightsaber.”
Master Yoda closes his green eyes and reaches out for Marissa in the force. He reopens his eyes once he gets through her barriers, “To Coruscant, she goes.” As soon as the words come out of Yoda’s mouth, Duke stands abruptly and makes his way to the door. He dashes through the hallways and gets to his room. Duke looks around quickly and grabs his helmet, weapons, Marissa's lightsaber, an encrypted communicator, and a datapad. He then dashes out of the room and goes to the barracks where his men stay. Duke enters with his purple marked armour and turns on the lights. He can hear the groans of his men as they roll out of bed. They see him instantly and stand at attention, “Captain, sir!” Duke sighs, “At ease, boys.” They all relax and Duke steps further into the room and asks in a very serious voice, “Anyone willing to come with me on a special mission?” The men look amongst each other when the dirty blonde haired medic steps forward, “I do, sir!” Duke nods and mutters, “Thank you, Sly.” The captain looks around and asks, “Anyone else?” A big hulking brother with buzzed hair steps forward, “I was getting bored anyway.” Then seven more step forward. One with marble colored eyes, one who has a seaweed tattoo on the right side of his face and neck, one who has a darker skin color than the others, one who has implants and cybernetics, one whose face is always smiling, one who has a scar diagonally across his face, and one who is a mechanic with piercing ice-blue eyes. Duke nods to each in turn and says their names in order of who joined, “Thank you, Sly, Shredder, Marble, Seaweed, Ninja, Tin, Joker, Kess, and Spark. Get your gear. Meet me in the hanger in 15.” “Sir, yes, sir!” Duke left them to prepare and he dashed as fast as he could to the hanger. He arrived and boarded the ship Marissa had allowed the men to keep for off the radar missions. Duke quickly ran the pre-flight checks and check everything Marissa had said was important. He heard footsteps running up the ramp as he checked the last thing on the ship. “That you boys?!” Duke yelled over his shoulder. Nine voices yelled back, “Yes, sir!” The dirty blonde comes to the cockpit and quickly takes a seat in the copilot seat and asks, “We’re ready to go, Captain.” The captain looks over and nods and yells over his shoulder, “Hold on boys! This is going to be a bumpy ride!” In the hold, the eight other brothers strapped themselves in as the ship exited the Resolute and jumped into hyperspace, heading towards Coruscant.

Marissa's P.O.V.
Marissa jolts awake as she hears a beeping noise. She rubs the sleep out of her eyes and quickly mans the controls to bring the ship out of hyperspace. Marissa turns her blue eyes towards the path she's supposed to go. She does follow it and lands in the spaceport. She walks out in her black and gold accented Mandalorian armour. As she walks, a hand gripped hold of her and pulled her into an alleyway. Marissa pulls out a vibro knife and held it at her assailant's throat. Her assailant held up his hands and removed the gold helmet to reveal the face of Kal Skirata. Marissa’s blue eyes narrow as she puts the knife away and slapping him. “You dikuta!” She yelled, “I could've slit your throat!” Kal laughs, “Good to see you too, Marissa.” She crosses her arms, giving the impression that she doesn't like him, which he returns the sentiment with his eyes. “Where're your boys?” Marissa asks coldly. Kal replies just as coldly, “They are waiting for us somewhere.” Marissa sighs and doesn't push it, but instead puts on her helmet. Kal follows her lead and puts on his helmet. The golden armoured Mandalorian leads the black and gold armoured Mandalorian out of the alley and to an awaiting speeder. They travel for a few minutes before arriving at their destination. They landed and are walking to the doors when a blaster bolt whizzes past Marissa’s helmeted head. On instinct, Marissa ducks under another speeder and takes out her dual pistols into a ready position. The former Jedi takes off her helmet and allows her golden hair to spill around her shoulders. The golden armoured Mandalorian comes beside her and yells, “Put your helmet back on!” The golden-haired Mandalorian shakes her head and looks over the speeder. Marissa aims her pistol in her right hand at their assailant and fires a stun shot. It hits true and the assailant crumples to the ground. Kal carefully goes out from behind the speeder and ties the assailant's hands behind his back and drags him to the door. Marissa follows after putting up her weapons and grabbing her helmet. Once they reach the door, at least 10 troopers and two Jedi come are there, weapons ready. They immediately point their weapons at the black and golden armoured Mandalorian, who responded by taking out her own weapons and pointing them at the troopers. Kal got in between them all and yelled, “STAND DOWN! All of you!” Some of the troopers lowered them, but one still pointed it at her. “Ordo. Stand. Down. Now.”

Chapter Text

Marissa
Marissa narrows her eyes at the one Kal had told to stand down. He was bigger than the rest. Obviously had high command in GAR and he seemed cautious towards Karl’s order to stand down. He seemed to size her up before he lowered his carbon blaster and grunted, “I doubt she’s a threat anyways…” She eyed him and lowered her weapons but didn’t put them in their holsters till she sighed, “Don’t push your luck there...Ordo.” His head popped up at his name and his lips pulled back into the beginning of a snarl. Right before either of them could talk, Kal got in the middle and snapped, “Enough! Both of you. Ordo, boys. This is Marissa, my oldest niece. Born to an Alderaan noble and my sister. I will not speak her name. She’s a Jedi as well as Mandalorian.” Marissa nods, “I left my lightsaber behind to come here. I didn’t leave the Order, but I kinda faked my death to get here.” They all gaped at her before Kal saying, “Come on. Let’s get inside before it starts raining.” The assorted group began to walk inside as the clouds over them opened up and rain poured down on them. Soon they were in the apartment Kal and his boys stayed at and amidst the talking and excitement, Marissa knelt down next to the man who had tried to kill her. She began to study the man. High cheekbones, sunken eyes, bald with a red tattoo over his right eye and above it. Walon Vau, wearing his usual black Mandalorian armor, walked up to her. Marissa’s ocean blue eyes looked up to Vau’s gold ones as Vau asked, “Why fake your own death to come here and help us?” Marissa stood and calmly spoke, “Kal contacted me. It’s not that he doesn’t trust you and the others to get it done and I also owe him a favor, unfortunately, it’s just that,” she pauses and thinks ‘Should I really tell them?’ before making up her mind not to. “I know someone who’s helping them. And I’d rather come and face her than have someone else get her.” A look of curiosity crossed the black-armoured man’s face before falling back into his normal steely look. Vau nods, “I understand. But we will need to discuss what to do later.” Marissa smirks, “I know.” They both laugh as they both walk back to the rest of the boys.

Duke
As the blur of hyperspace passes, Duke and the last of his batch, Sly, sit in the cockpit. In the back, the snores of the others are heard as they sleep before they reach Coruscant. The dirty blonde haired medic touches up the purple accents on his armor. His Phase 3 helmet fin is painted purple and on the back of his helmet, he has the names of his 3 batch mates that didn’t make it. As for his body armor, his chest plate has it almost completely purple except for the middle, which forms the outline of a medic sign and Duke’s pistol, and the part which sticks out in the back. As he works, he watches Duke closely. His brown eyes on the blue lines of hyperspace and zoned out, body relaxed but tense. The Captain of the 51st’s mind wanders back to the trip to Naboo. The 51st was sent there on leave and the Queen gave them unrestricted access to everywhere on Naboo. The waterfalls in the meadow is where he and Marissa and the rest of the 51st swore into Marissa's clan, Clan Tenau. He was about to think of the big ass party that night to celebrate when a voice interrupted him,
“Are you thinking about her?”
Duke’s head snaps up and looks around before looking at Sly, “What? Oh, yes. I am.” Sly smirks, “It was in your eyes and face.” The medic looks down then back up, “What do you think she left for?” Duke sighs, “I don’t know, but I’m not sure I’ll like it when she tells us.” Sly nods in agreement before looking Duke square in the eyes, “We might have to fight there.” Duke sighs, “I know. Please be careful. I don’t want to lose you too.” Sly smiles comforting, “I will and I know you will too. Cause I don’t want to lose you either, brother.” The two stand and clasp their forearms in a brotherly manner, put their foreheads together, and close their eyes before the blaring and blinking of the alarm, that means they are coming out of hyperspace, brings them apart. Sly sits as does Duke as they bring the ship out of hyperspace and go to land at the spaceport. “Sly, get the boys up will you? We need to move in less than 30 minutes.” The dirty blonde nods and smirks, “It would be my pleasure, Captain.” Sly goes into the back and yells, “GET UP! Come on! We’re on Triple Zero and we move in less than 30 minutes!” Groans and muffled protests come from the men. As Sly gets them up, Duke stares out the window before going through his gear. He made sure his dual blaster pistols are in working order, checking his communications, then his night vision. After that, he puts Marissa’s lightsaber in his pack and strings her ring on a chain and put it around his neck. Duke steps into the back and finds his men putting on their purple accented armor and checking their gear along with talking to their closest brothers, telling them to stay alive. The 51st’s captain quickly strides over to Sly and puts a hand on his shoulder, before lowering the ramp to the spaceport. Duke turns to his men, “Come on men! Marissa is here and we need to find her to get some explanations! Then help her if she’s in trouble or in something over her head, which she probably is. Like usual.” Sly and the rest of the men snicker at that, before falling silent at Duke’s glare. “Alright. Now let’s move out, before it either A. Pours rain with thunder and lighting or B. Gets dark and we’ve got maybe 3 hours on our hands. But we will probably have to fight someone, everyone be careful, we don’t want anyone to get hurt or worse, die. We don’t want that at all. What do you boys say?” They cheer in agreement as they begin to descend the ramp.”

Chapter Text

Duke and the rest of his squad move through Coruscant quickly and effectively as they look for their commander and sister. They check restaurants, alleyways, cantinas, bars, anywhere really. They go deeper and deeper into the underbelly. Eventually, Duke spots Marissa standing outside of a cantina with another Mandalorian. The group makes their way over and Marissa abruptly ends the conversation with Kal because she sensed Duke approach. Marissa turns around, “What are you guys doing here?”
Duke fires back, “I could ask you the same question.” Marissa sighs, “Fair enough. It is good to see you, boys.” They all clasp forearms. Kal looks like he wants to kill all of the 51st members. Marissa quickly explains with a slight snarl, “Its fine Kal. They're my boys. They're apart of my clan.” Kal looks shocked before nodding in approval. They go inside the cantina to get some food and drink. The rest of the group get along barely with Kal’s boys as they laugh and have less than friendly competitions. As they have do so, Kal and Marissa head upstairs to interrogate the prisoner. Marissa circles the man as Kal asks questions.
The man spits in Kal’s face, “I won’t give you anything.” Marissa laughs, “You will. Eventually.” Kal begins to beat him up and he does break. “OK! OK! I’LL TALK! I’ll talk. Their base is a warehouse down in the lowest section of Coruscant. They have guards and everything with strong defences. They have illegal goods there as well as prisoners. If you do plan on going in there, you're going to need a guards clearance, mine is in my pouch.” Kal nods, “Thank you.” He shoots him and Marissa just looks at him, “Do not ask me to clean this up.” Kal laughs, “Of course not. The thought never crossed my mind. I’ll get the clearance card and clean it up.”
Marissa nods and looks at the stairs as the boys came up. No one batted an eye at the dead man. Marissa yawns, “I’m going to bed.” Before she can enter the room, Duke grabs hold of Marissa's arm and holds out her lightsaber to her. She nods and enters the room where the last blood of takes off her armor and puts on sleepwear. Marissa lays down on the bed and smiles slightly as she nods off.

-NIGHTMARE-
Marissa stands before the senator of a planet whose name she did not know. He looks her up and down before turning to Mace Windu who is her current master, “She will be fine.” Mace bows and leaves. Marissa bows to the senator, “How can I assist you, Senator?” The senator stands and walks over to her, “My planet has had separatist droids on it for far too long. I’d like you and your battalion to help me get rid of the separatist occupation on my planet.” “Of course. Is Grievous or Ventress there?” “No. Wat Tambor is.” Marissa flinches but nods, “I can understand why you want him off your planet. He plunders the riches and doesn’t care about people.” “Exactly. My people are furious with him and want him gone as well as the droids.” “Then we will drive them off for you and your people.” The senator smiles kindly, “Then let us leave immediately.” The board her ship and once they are on the surface with the entire battalion everything went downhill. Marissa was grabbed by the senator and chained to a wall. “What are you doing?” Marissa struggles. “I’m switching sides Jedi. I’ve never liked your kind or the Republic or your clones. And I’ve been supplying the separatist with information about your Republic, clones, and Jedi” Marissa watches with horror as her men are slaughtered like animals. She struggles harder, “STOP! PLEASE STOP!” The senator does nothing to stop the massacre, only smiling wickedly. Marissa turns back to her men, her personal squad that she takes on missions are the only ones left but are failing. Her husband and Sly are working with their batch mates to survive. Marissa screams and cries out as they fall one by one. Soon it's only Duke and Sly left and she breaks the chains holding her and holds her lightsaber to the senator's throat and growls, “Order them to stop!” The senator gulps and calls out, “Hold your fire!” The shooting stops and Duke and Sly look up. The senator hisses, “Leave and never come back.” Marissa leaves a burn mark on his throat before jumping down and running to a gunship. They hop on and report to Mace Windu about what happened and gives them leave till they can get another battalion together.
-END OF NIGHTMARE-

Marissa jerks awake screaming. Duke rushes in and holds her as she screams and cries. Tears come down like rivers on Marissa’s face. Duke lets out some tears as he strokes her hair and holds her close. “Ssshhh. You’re safe. I’m here. I’m here. Sly is here too. Ssshhh ssshhh vod sh it's ok. We’re here.” Marissa slowly calms down but keeps her head on Duke’s chest, “I failed them.” “We all did.” They stay there like that till they both fall asleep.

Sly and the others heard. They started to move forward to their room but Sly and the rest of the boys from the 51st stop them, “That’s not a good idea.” “Why?” “She’s unpredictable when she’s like that.” “What made her like this?”
Sly sighs, “Have you guys heard of the 51st massacre?” Everyone nods. “That was when Marissa was new to the commander position. She was assigned to a senator and they were to take back his planet, but he turned out to be a separatist spy and lead them into a trap. The attack he launched started when she was chained up. The senator had droids surrounding us and the fired and wouldn’t stop. She was screaming, crying, and pleading for him to stop, but he only stopped the attack when she held her saber to his throat after she broke the chains. She has flashbacks and nightmares. They’re really bad. And Duke and I are the only ones who can calm her down after she haves them. If someone else tries to do it they will end up hurt in some way. Its because she thinks she’s still in a nightmare or flashback. Only reason Duke and I can is because we were there and we understand. We all have those episodes but her’s last longer and have a more drastic effect on her. Sometimes she doesn’t have them sometimes she does. It's unpredictable.” Everyone looks down and just looks sadly at the door.

In the warehouse the man spoke of, a young woman with red tipped hair stands on a balcony facing the rough direction the cantina where Marissa and the rest are staying. She looks a lot like Marissa but more aggressive features and shorter hair. Her clothes are red with black accents and a black lightsaber on her belt. She growls as she felt the man she sent after Marissa die. “They are coming put the whole place on alert. No one comes in and no one goes out if they get in here.” A man bows as he comes out of the shadows, “Of course mistress.” He runs and she bares her teeth, “And so it begins. Come and get me, Mars, if you are up for the challenge.”

Chapter Text

As Marissa comes to, she blearily remembers the nightmare from the night before. Her entire body stiffens as she sucks in a breath, fear clear in her eyes. It doesn’t help that Duke isn’t in bed beside her and almost completely on cue, he comes out of the bathroom in only a towel. Water still travelling down his tan skin, Marissa stares for a hot minute before looking away with a small, shaky sound of relief. Duke saw the fear as soon as he walked out and the sound of relief she made confirmed that she had been remembering the nightmare. He moved with haste as he dried himself off and dressed in his civilian clothing. Immediately afterwards he moves over to Marissa, pulling her into his arms after sitting next to her. “It’s alright, vod, I’m right here.” She sniffles a little bit, “I hate reliving that day. I hate it.” Duke strokes her golden hair as she puts her head in the crook of his neck. “I know you do. I do as well. We’ll get through it. With everyone else in the 51st.” She nods and sniffles again. “I need to get ready.” Duke reluctantly lets her get up to do just that.

The door to the bathroom closes, Marissa looks in the mirror. Thankful that she doesn’t have any bags under her eyes. She strips herself down and hops in under the warm water of the shower. Allowing her thoughts to drift, she eventually thinks back to the initiation of her boys into Clan Tenau, her clan.

-FLASHBACK-

Marissa stands in the centre of her men of the 51st, leading them through the chant and dance of Clan Tenau to welcome them into the clan. She looks over all of their faces that hold joy and laughter, even Ninja has that look which is surprising. Afterwards, it is the fighting portion which everyone excels at. Though Duke, Sly, Ninja, Shredder, and Joker are the final five. They have a battle royal and it is Duke who wins and becomes Marissa's second since she's Clan chief since she's the only real one left. Then comes the sharing of blood, which all do happily to be related to the person who is like a sister to them. "Welcome boys! To Clan Tenau! We are born anew!" Everyone cheers up to the sky with animalistic joy. They party all night, getting drunk and dancing and playing games to pass the time.

-END FLASHBACK-

Marissa blinks after she comes back to herself and quickly finishes her shower. Drying herself off and dressing in an all-black outfit, she walks back out to Duke, who looks at her with a small, shy smile, “Let me guess, you were thinking about our initiation?” She gives a small hmph, “Was it that obvious?” He nods as he pulls her into his lap, “Yeah.” Marissa is about to say something else when the door opens and Sly pokes his head in, “Kal wants to talk to you.” A sigh escapes both of their lips as the dirty blonde medic steps back out, “Well, we better get this over with.” A hum escapes the other’s lips as they reluctantly stand and walk out to the common room. All at once, all of the heads snapped to them. The Captain of the 51st instantly stands behind her with his arms crossed and the rest follow suit in other places of the room, as a comforting move. All of the men raised their hands at Duke’s piercing glare, murmurs of “She’s yours vod” echo in the room. They sit down on a lover’s couch. Kal Skirita takes that moment to stand up and explain the situation, “We have full clearance to the warehouse the man spoke of during our interrogation. It’s deep in the underbelly of Coruscant. We’ll go in teams to get in. Marissa and Ninja, your way in is stealth. I’ll take a good portion of the boys and go in disguises. While Vau leads the others under the guise of mercenaries. And I promise your men will be taken care of.” Marissa scowls slightly as she barely nods before asking, “When do we leave?” The golden armored Mandalorian shrugs, “Soon.” Marissa grimaces, “A couple of minutes it is then. Alright. Good luck boys. Ninja, let’s get ready.” The tanner clone stands and nods silently, walking to one of the back rooms to get his gear. Marissa moves to stand but the Captain of the 51st pulls her back, “Good luck, Vod. K'oyacyi.” The golden-haired commander nods with a small smile, “K'oyacyi.” Duke allows her to go to the room. There Marissa puts on her black Mandalorian armour with golden accents and puts all of her weapons in their proper place. She puts a vibro knife in a gauntlet, her sniper rifle on her back, twin pistols in her thigh holsters and after some hesitation, her lightsaber on her belt. Marissa grabs her helmet and walks out to met Ninja, who is wearing his all-black clone trooper armour with purple accents. They share a nod then get into a speeder that takes them down to the warehouse.

The ride is around 30 minutes and both manage to read all of the briefings Kal gave them. The gist of it is that they sneak in and meet them in the cleared lobby after Kal and Vau make it in with their teams, who take out all of the enemies. Marissa heaves a heavy sigh as she looks out over the side of the speeder, observing the route they take with more patient than she usually is. The darker tanned man glances over at her and murmurs so lowly that Marissa strains to hear him, “What are you thinking about?” Underneath the helmet, Marissa hums, “About leaving the Order.” Ninja keeps his eyes ahead as he asks, “Why?” The normally fiery eyes of Marissa go cold under her helmet, “Because they don’t give a damn about me or anyone of your brothers. If they did they would have made you citizens or gave you options to leave. And as for me, they didn’t care during the aftermath of the first two massacres I was apart of with the torture I’ve had time and time again and then the 51st massacre. Even my masters didn’t care about me when I started to get upset over nightmares or flashbacks. I’m just sick and tired of them treating everyone as bantha photo.” Ninja murmurs, “We’re with you.” She nods, “I know.” Marissa sighs, “Though no one seems to want to talk about or even acknowledge what happened with the 51st massacre.” The Assassin trained clone bit his lip underneath his helmet, “You’re still traumatized, but we’ll have to eventually. There’s tension.” The black and gold helmet dipped as Marissa bowed her head, “I know. It's hard to miss.” Before Ninja can speak again, they arrive at the warehouse where Kal and Vau have their teams in position.

Ninja guides the speeder down slowly to avoid detection and once it lands, blaster shots break out where the rest are on the ground floor. As soon as the shots are fired, Ninja and Marissa stealth run to where they need to go which is the control room to disable everything from the inside. The door to the control room slides open and they quickly take out the guard droids and quickly disable any traps, weapons, shields, and security that was in the other teams’ ways. The black and gold armored Mandalorian and black and purple armored assassin turned to leave when Marissa looks to the camera monitor and walks over to it. Ninja hisses, “We don’t have time to do that, let’s go!” Marissa shakes her head and looks at one camera readings, it shows a black-cloaked figure standing in the center of the Warehouse, “I have something I need to do. Go back to the group as we planned.” The assassin shakes his head, “No. Not happening. When you go off by yourself you either get into trouble or hurt so I’m going with you.” Marissa sighs, “Fine. If I tell you to run then you run.” Ninja nods in agreement, reluctantly though.

Sounds of fighting echo through the entire warehouse but the sounds don’t stick to the two shadowed figures rushing to the center of the warehouse. To Ninja, Marissa seemed more on edge and distant than normal and that concerned him but it showed how she could handle herself in these types of situations which is a good thing for everyone else. Marissa’s thoughts are whirling as she leads Ninja through the maze that is the warehouse, ‘Why is she here? What is she here for? Is she going to try to kill my men?’ She shakes her head as she reached the door to the main part of the warehouse. The door is locked which is very surprising to both Marissa and Ninja. “Do we try to jack it open? Or do I just use the force?” Ninja snarls, “Use your fekking force powers!” As Marissa moves back she murmurs, “What got under your skin?” The assassin snaps, “Whoever's in there did!” The black and golden helmet is removed so Marissa’s face is showing and hooks it to her belt, then she reaches out with the force and the door flies into the room with a loud CLANK.

A cackle fills the room from the shadows as Marissa and Ninja enter, “I was wondering when you would find me, Marissa. It has been a long time since we’ve seen each other.” Marissa scoffs, “Says the one hiding in the shadows.” Another laugh echos through the room, “I’m not that idiotic girl. I still value my life.” The blonde-haired Mandalorian snarls, “Your life will be forfeit for what you have done! And no amount of begging, pleading, or bribing will be able to save you from your death.” Ninja’s black and purple helmet whip to look at Marissa, he’s never heard her use such menace in her voice. Whoever is hiding in the darkness of this room must have done something truly terrible for Marissa to hate her so much. “I don’t remember you even being this emotional last time we were in the same room together.” There is a pause before the voice comes out again, this time with scathing heat, “Your pet seems concerned for you Mars. I wonder why that is. Could someone really care about you for once? The answer is no for no one will ever care about you but me.” The assassin jumps in front of his Mandalorian commander, “I care about her and so do the rest of the 51st. You’ll have to fight us to get to her!”

Marissa pushes him back with a hand, “This isn’t your fight Ninja. Let me handle this. Go back to your brothers and team!” Ninja pushes her hand off his chest with a snarl, “And leave you here alone to fight someone in the shadows and possibly die by this crazy witch’s hands! No! Absolutely not!” The golden-haired Mandalorian pushes him back with both hands, “This so-called “witch” I have fought. I have known her far longer than any other person before she stabbed me in the back and left me to die. You must go and help your brothers, Ninja, she has a clever mind and isn’t afraid to use it to kill. Make sure no one else dies because I couldn’t help. Please.” The assassin scowls, “You’ll have to make me, I’m not leaving you here.” Marissa closes her eyes and is about to force push him out of the door when Ninja is thrown back and out of the room. He flies through the air and lands against a wall outside of the room with a sicking thud. Marissa whirls around and screams, “NINJA! No!” The golden-haired commander runs after Ninja and slides to a stop next to him. Breathing a sigh of relief knowing that he is alive but will be feeling the bruises for weeks she pulls out her commlink, “Sly, come in. Ninja’s down and unconscious. I’m sending you the coordinates to come and get him.” The voice of the dirty blonde medic’s voice comes over her comm, “I’m on my way. What do I do when I have him?” Marissa hesitates before replying, “Get him away from where he is. I have someone to hunt down that is in the warehouse.” There is a brief hesitation before Sly’s response, “Understood. Call if you need back up.” The golden-haired Mandalorian stands and walks back into the darkly light room and stops in her tracks as the black-cloaked figure walks into the light. “Now then Marissa, where were we? Oh yes, that its.” The black hode is removed back from the figures face, revealing a young woman with red-tipped hair and looks a lot like Marissa but more aggressive features and shorter hair. Her clothes are red with black accents and a black lightsaber on her belt alongside her black cloak.

She smiles evilly, “I believe it is time for us to sit down and have a chat dear Mars.” Marissa snarls and takes her lightsaber off her belt, bracing for a fight, “About what, Rachel? Last time you said that you tried to kill me.” Rachel laughs, “About you coming back with me.” Marissa looks down, “That will never happen Rachel. I’ll never return to you after what you’ve done!” The black-cloaked woman’s crazed laughter echos throughout the room, “Oh but you will eventually. You always do. You’ve always been the weakest link Marissa and as such will die because you are too weak on your own. You doubt yourself in every situation and hesitate before taking action which is why you have so much blood on your hands both yours and your men’s.” The black and gold armored Mandalorian screams as she force pushes Rachel back, “SHUT UP!” Rachel is thrown back into the metal crates with a yelp of pain and landing in a heap. The red-tipped blonde-haired stumbles to her feet with a crazed chuckle, “Perhaps I was wrong about you Marissa. You are quite powerful when you’re emotional.” Marissa activates her lightsaber sending white light through the huge room and casting shadows and snarls, “I’m more powerful than you could ever imagine Rachel and you’ll see when you fight me. And maybe you’ll see more if you survive this.”

Rachel chuckles and ignites her own lightsaber which conflicts the white glow from Marissa’s with a red glow, “We shall see won’t we, Marissa. You haven’t been able to beat me yet in a fight.” The golden-haired Mandalorian twirls her lightsaber and gets into a battle stance, “There is a first time for everything, Rach.” The black-cloaked figure also twirls her lightsaber and gets into a battle stance, “Indeed there is Marissa. Or should I call you something else besides that and Mars? Perhaps I should call you what you are instead of names and nicknames. Perhaps I should call you….Sister. More specifically my Twin Sister.”

Chapter Text

Rachel smirks as she and Marissa circle each other with their lightsabers shifting from side to side, “Well then vod shall we begin?” Marissa gives out a roar and charges at the red-tipped woman with her lightsaber in an attack position. Rachel defends for the first couple of strikes then goes on the offensive. This goes on and on for around an hour as both are evenly matched. Both begin to grow frustrated as they can’t get past the defenses of the other.

Meanwhile, with the 51st boys, they begin to grow worried for their commander who hasn’t come back and for Ninja who has yet to wake up from when Rachel knocked him out. Sly works feverishly over Ninja growing more and more frustrated at him not waking up. Kal yells out, “Charges are set! We got 5 minutes!”

Shredder roars over at him, “We’re not leaving Marissa! She’s still here!” Kal snarls, “Then stay and die but I’m leaving, same with my boys. You’re on your own.”
Duke nods, “That’s fine. We’ve gotten out of worse situations. Get the kriff out of here old man. We never needed you.” Kal and his boys walk out and Ninja jerks awake, snarling, “I’m gonna kill that bitch! I’m gonna kill her!” Sly puts a hand on his shoulder, “Who are you talking about Vod?” Ninja stumbles to his feet after shrugging off the medic, “There’s someone with Marissa! She’s in danger. Like kriffing usual. They sounded similar to each other…”

Marble, a backup medic with marble colored eyes of brown and gold, brings his communicator to his wrist, “Marissa. We have around 4 minutes to get the hell out of here! Charges are set!” Kess joins in, “We’ll be waiting at the speeders. Meet us there!” And with that, they all run towards the speeder pad as fast as they can.

Marissa’s communicator beeps and she hears Marble scream, “Marissa. We have around 4 minutes to get the hell out of here! Charges are set!” And Kess calmly yell, “We’ll be waiting at the speeders. Meet us there!” The message throws her off balance and Rachel takes advantage of that by knocking her back with the force, “So weak. So pathetic. Thrown off balance by the people you think as family.” Marissa snarls, “They are family to me!” With that, she surges to her feet and presses the attack upon her fallen sister, much to her surprise. Rachel gets pushed back and down with a sweep of a stroke to the leg. Marissa stands there with her white lightsaber to her twin’s throat, “Go on Mars. What are you waiting for huh? Kill me!” Marissa hesitates. She thinks of their current meeting. How she hurt Ninja and rage surges within her. Then she remembers all the times they had in their youth before the massacre of Clan Tenau, all the laughter, all the smiles, all the training, all the pranks, and all the times where they just chilled out in comfortable silence. So Marissa shakes her head, “I’m not going to kill you. I can’t kill you.” With that Marissa shuts off her lightsaber and walks away. “Heh. Like I said. You’re kriffing weak vod, never could kill anyone on their knees. No matter.” There is a swoosh as Rachel drops a smoke bomb and jumps out the window. Marissa takes a moment to lean out and watch her land on a speeder bike and ride away before running towards the speeder pad to get out of the soon to be burning building.

She bursts out onto the pad just as there is a rapid beeping and a massive KA-BOOM behind her as the building begins to explode. The leader of the 51st looks back before booking it towards her men on the other side in the biggest speeder motioning fast as they can and yelling, “Come on Mars! Hurry!” They begin to take off and she jumps into the air, grabbing hold of Duke’s hand and pulling herself into the speeder floor. The speeder zooms away as the building goes up in fire and ash. Marissa gives an exasperated sigh as she relaxes from what just happened. Ninja pipes up, “You wanna tell us what that was all about boss?” She sighs, “When we’re on our own ship I will.” They look like they are about to protest but she nails them with a look that says ‘Do not kriffing test me right now.’ To which everyone knows better to do that so everyone stays quiet. Marissa’s holocommunicator beeps and she answers to see Kal, “You’re alive, I’m surprised.” “I’m not that stupid Kal.” To which he snorts, “You are cause you let yourself be tortured multiple times.” Marissa bristles, “I did it to protect my boys. But anyway, we’re now done. I’m going back to my ship to the rest of my men. See you another time, and it won’t be pleasant for you, Kal.” She ends the transmission before he can say anything else. They fly to the ship that each came in with, Marissa boards hers and the others get in theirs from earlier. And with that, they fly up to their ship that her father gifted her, named the Brotherhood. They land in the hanger and come out to cheers and callings of “I knew it! I knew she wasn’t dead!” Another tan-skinned man walks up to Ninja and drags him away from everyone with a sigh as he bristles upon the attention. Everyone else begins to party including Marissa.

Much later after the party, Marissa gathers her men in the hanger. She sighs, “We have a problem. I...My sister, twin sister, Rachel is hunting me and by default you too. We can’t fight her yet. But she won’t show mercy and I don’t want you guys being killed or hurt. Just be careful.” With that, the men begin to murmur to themselves and give her the cold shoulder as memories of the 51st massacre on the planet Mandalore resurface and they don’t want her there. Marissa gives a nod to Duke in understanding to keep an eye on them to keep them safe. When she receives a nod in return she boards a small stealthy ship since she has no shortage of contracts to hunt down and kill as an assassin.

Marissa scrolls down the list of names and affiliations and comes upon a Death Watch supporter. She instantly claims it and snarls as she types in the coordinates. She closes her eyes and tries not to think of the day her clan was wiped out by Death Watch, well almost wiped out.

-----Flashback----
Marissa fires shot after shot into the oncoming crowd of Death Watch members. She hears her clanmates of Clan Tenau yelling and screaming in pain and her father and mother and sisters, “They just keep coming!” “They’re not gonna stop.” “Lexi’s down!” “Mars! Help!” With that Marissa runs forward from cover to drag her younger sister Lexi, who has orange-tipped hair, to cover and instantly starts to defend her as Denise, who has purple-tipped hair, begins to work on the wound in Lexi’s shoulder. Rachel rushes over as well as their mother, Jusuvia, and father, Xartu, to check upon them.

Marissa looks up with her blue-tipped hair, “We have to get out of here! There are too many!” Xartu yells back, “No! We have to keep fighting! We must show we won’t run and surrender and we won’t be scared!” Jusuvia yells back, “What’s the point if the clan dies?!” After a moment he nods, “Alright, get to the ships! Everyone! Go go go! Now!” Everyone in clan Tenau instantly does what the First tells them and dashes for the ships. Every single one of them goes down with well-placed shots. Xartu tries and he falls to the ground with a blaster hole in his armor. “NO!” Jusuvia stands and shots at the troopers of Death Watch. “GO!” Marissa gaps, “We’re not leaving you!” Her mother pushes her and her sisters towards the ships, “GO!” They hesitate before running towards the ships, dodging blaster bolts and knives. They hear a scream of pain. When they turn around they see Lexi get shot right in the head. “NO!” Marissa grabs Rachel and Denise and guides them to the ships. They’re almost there when Denise falls to the ground with a knife in her left leg, “Arg!” Rachel and Marissa turn around in time to see a knife tip emerge from her throat with blood following as she collapses dead. Marissa begins to drag Rachel, “We have to go! We have to keep their memory alive!” And they bolt towards the ships. Marissa works on getting the ramp down as Rachel defends her. The ramp comes down and as they get in, a thermal detonator gets thrown in and before they can react it blows up right in their faces.

Marissa wakes up to see the wreckage of the ship around her and her sister’s body across from her. She cradles Rachel in her arms and screams and screams and screams up at the sky that is pouring rain as if it’s mourning too. Marissa is crying when she sets Rachel’s body down and begins to walk away. What she doesn’t notice is that Rachel starts to breathe again as she boards and ship and leaves the planet, leaving her sister behind. The twin she thought was dead.
---End Flashback---

Marissa jerks awake as the guilt overwhelms her and before she can think of any thoughts, a beep startles her. She shakes her head as she brings the ship out of hyperspace in the Mandalore sector. She lands on an inconspicuous planet and begins to hunt down the Death Watch supporter and kill him. The black and purple armored Mando hunts for hours before finding him. She stealths in and locks the doors and jams the signals so he can’t call for help.
“Hello there scum.” He stands up startled to see her, “Who-who are you?” Marissa takes off her helmet, “My name is Marissa.” He narrows his eyes, “Marissa who?” She chuckles, “Marissa Tenau.” The man’s eyes widen and he tries to leave in fear of who stands in his room. “That won’t work. And you can’t call for help either. I jammed it. And don’t even think of trying to take it out either.”

He stutters, “Why-why are you doing this?” She smirks evilly, “To send a message to Death Watch. I have nothing against you just who you support.” Marissa draws her knife and approaches the man as he frantically tries to get out of the room.
She snarls, “This’ll hurt for you kriffing Death Watch scum!”

With that, she jams her knife into his heart and lets him slump to the floor before slitting his throat for good measure. She unlocks the doors and takes down the jammer and walks out of the building after putting her helmet back on.

Marissa walks back to her ship and begins to travel back to her boys since its been at least a day and they’re probably over it.

--------------------------------
Meanwhile, Duke and the boys of the 51st are over it but something weird is going on. Smoke has filled the ship and most of them are unconscious. Duke, Ninja, Nox, Sly, and Joker are looking for the source but they never find it, instead, they find a very familiar face that they hate with a burning passion, The senator of Mandalore. Before they can raise their weapons, they are knocked out with several stun blasts hitting them in various parts of their bodies. The senator from Mandalore puts a datapad on a crate in the hanger and orders all of the men there to be taken to Concordia, back to the arena where so many died to be tortured and beaten for her to come.
-------------------------------

Marissa doesn’t sleep instead she begins to sing to keep the boredom away and the uneasy feeling in the force in the back of her mind. She comes out of hyperspace to see the Brotherhood still in one piece and she sighs in relief but that relief is quickly shattered as she doesn’t receive a contact from the ship. The first of clan Tenau quickly approaches the ship and lands in the suspiciously empty hanger. She bolts out of the ship once the ramp is out and desperately begins to try and contact anyone of her men, “Duke? Sly? Shredder? Ninja? Joker? Marble? Seaweed? Tin, Kess, Spark?! Gale? Seth? Jaig? Neptunium? Comp, Nox, Zeus?! Viribus? Aeol? Guys?! ANYONE THERE?! This isn’t funny or fun! GUYS!”

She notices a datapad on a crate in front of where she landed and she instantly picks it up and reads it. It says, “Its time to finish this Tenau. Come to Concordia, to the arena. Or your precious boys die one by one till you do. I’ll be waiting with much anticipation - Senator of Mandalore.”

Marissa instantly charges back into the ship and takes off with frantic movements and fear and panic in her brain, “Hang on boys, I’m coming. Just hold on.”

---------------------------
On Concordia, the boys of the 51st are screaming in agony as they are beaten and tortured. Most are lunging for their chosen brothers to get them out of the mess their in but always fail and get more torture or beatings.

The senator of Mandalore walks in and watches, “You’ll remain here till when I say so. And if she doesn’t arrive in the next hour or so, one of you will be executed each hour till she does come for you and that way I can kill her and be in Death Watch’s good graces. Thanks to you it is a guarantee that she will come. Her heart for you is her biggest weakness.”
Duke snarls, “It is her strength!”

The senator chuckles darkly, “We shall see won’t we Duke? Continue with the torture. He,” The senator points to Sly, much to Duke’s and the rest of the 51st’s horror, “will be the first one executed if she doesn’t show in the next hour. Count it down, clone. And take the time to say goodbye to the ones you are...closest with. As if a clone could care for anyone.” He exits and Duke instantly lunges for Sly as he lunges for Duke, “I love you vod.” Duke shakes his head, “No. No. Don’t say goodbye. She’s coming. You know she is.” At that point, they all hear Marissa’s voice in their heads.

“Hang on boys, I’m coming. Just hold on.”

Chapter Text

The engines are pushing themselves to the limit as Marissa comes out of hyperspace above Mandalore and zooms towards the surface. Towards the cursed place where the 51st Massacre happened. She flashes back to what happened.

----Flashback----
Marissa screams as she’s grabbed by the senator and her wrists felt cold as heavy chains are clasped upon her wrist to chain her to a wall.

“What are you doing?!” Marissa struggles. “I’m switching sides Jedi. I’ve never liked your kind or the Republic or your clones. And I’ve been supplying the separatist, and Death Watch, with information about your Republic, clones, and Jedi.”

Marissa watches with horror as blaster bolts fire through her men and as knives pierce her men’s bodies. Her men are being slaughtered like animals. She struggles harder, “STOP! PLEASE STOP!”

The senator does nothing to stop the massacre, only smiling wickedly. Marissa turns back to her men, her personal squad that she takes on missions are the only ones left but are failing. Her captain, Duke and Sly are working with their batch mates to survive. Marissa screams and cries out as they fall one by one.

Soon it's only Duke and Sly left and she breaks the chains holding her and holds her lightsaber to the senator's throat and growls, “Order them to stop!” The senator gulps and calls out, “Hold your fire!” The shooting stops and Duke and Sly lookup. The senator hisses, “Leave and never come back.” Marissa leaves a burn mark on his throat before jumping down and running away after throwing her lightsaber down on the ground.
-----End Flashback-----

She jolts back as she sees it again. The arena. The golden-haired woman never thought she would return to this accursed place again after the Massacre. But yet here she is again, and as usual, she has to save her men's asses. She touches down outside of it. Once she grabs her weapons including her blasters and knives and her lightsaber, she exits her ship. The golden-haired Jedi approaches the arena carefully, fully knowing what may be on the other side.

Marissa enters stealthily through the stone arch and throws a stone. All of the fast movers pounced and she shoots them all dead.

“Did you really think that would work...Senator?”

There is a laugh from above, “Oh. I knew it wouldn’t work again. I just wanted to see if you
were the same.”

“I’m not, you son of a bitch! Now let my men go before I kill you too.”

He roars, “If you do then the alliance between you and the Republic are over!” There is a moment of silence before Marissa speaks up again, “It already is. Now. Give. Them. Back.” The senator gulps and then screams,
“NOW!”
There are chains being dragged as her men are pulled out onto the balcony of stone where the senator is. Marissa tenses up and gives an intense warning glare towards the senator. “If you touch them…” The senator waves his hand in dismissing way, “I’m not going to hurt them. I’m going to hurt you.”

There is a sharp pain in her shoulder as a blaster bolt goes straight through the muscle, “ACK!” She pulls out her lightsaber and ignites it as she looks around and sees several dozen people from Death Watch surrounding her.

She instantly begins to deflect blaster bolts and some getting through and hitting her in the thigh and midsection and grazes her neck. Marissa just goes again and again and again and again to keep alive. To keep alive for herself, her men, and her clan.

Marissa sees something out of the corner of her eye. Her old lightsaber. She can't believe it's still lying there where she threw it away after what happened. After debating for a moment in her head, the golden-haired woman uses the force to pull it to her hand, causing her assailants to backtrack for a moment. Then they attack her with vibroblades and blasters all at once. She does get hurt more but soon they are all dead at her feet. The purple saber flickers for a moment before becoming solid again alongside the newer white one.

The blonde-haired Jedi jumps up and blocks off the senator’s escape, “You’re not going anywhere, Senator. You’re going to pay for what you’ve done to us.” He gulps and opens his mouth and he jolts in the middle of trying to say something. He looks down and in his hear there is a purple lightsaber there. Marissa growls as she allows her rage to control her for a brief moment and allows his body to slump into the arena as she pushes him off. “Rot in hell.”

Afterwards, she instantly waves her hand and the chains clunk unto the ground. Marissa collapses to her knees as her wounds cause pain to radiate through her body. She begins to fall forward when hands grabbed hold of her and pulled her back to safety. Above the golden-haired Jedi’s head, she sees her men who are all looking down in concern. She thinks they’re yelling at her or screaming at her but she can’t think of why. She just wants to rest. Her eyes closed and she knows no more.

-------------------------------------------
A COUPLE HOURS LATER

Marissa awakens in a bed. In her bed. She was safe and she could heal. The injured woman looks around and sees Duke and Sly sleeping on the floor along with most of the other 51st members. She raises an eyebrow in surprise as she sees even the ones who hate her for letting the Massacre happen laying there as well. But even though they are here, which must've been a struggle to get them there, Marissa smiles slightly. She tries to move a bit which causes a groan to break her chapped lips. The noise causes Sly to jerk awake.

“Marissa! You’re awake!” At his shout, the rest wake up and begin to converge on her when Sly pushes them away, “Out! All of you. I need space.” Before they leave every single one of the men that were there for the 51st Massacre mutter an apology to her, even the ones who hate her for it apologize, which leaves her shocked.

“That was...unexpected.” She says in a raspy voice. The blonde-haired medic gives her his canteen of water which she drinks from and in a less raspy voice says, “Thank you.” Sly nods, takes back his canteen and begins to look over her wounds. Once in awhile, Marissa will wince from the pain that still lingers there, but she is on the road to healing and getting back to fighting.

Sly leaves after saying, “They forgive you for whats happened. Just... don’t screw it up again, huh, vod?” They both chuckle as the door closes. Marissa stands up, with much pain, and walks over to her desk in her room. She keys her holoterminal to start up and takes a deep breathe, “This is the way. Let’s hope I still have it.”

She frantically begins to key in Rachel’s information and begins the search. The golden-haired Mandalorian begins to think of what she needs to do in order to save people and her men. Should she spare her? Should she try and turn her from the dark side? Or should she kill her? Which way is the way?

------------------------------------------------
Rachel lands her ship on one of the moons of Mandalore and disembarks. There before her, she sees the familiar grey and blue armour of Death Watch.

One of them speaks up, “Well? Have you done what you needed too?”

She sighs, “My sister interfered and we lost the storehouse on Coruscant. I managed to send off most of the gear to other storehouses across the galaxy. So we have...surprises for any of the pacifists or true Mandalorians.”

The one that spoke up before nods and removes their helmet to reveal Pre Vizla, the leader of Death Watch, “Very well, Rachel Tenau, welcome to Death Watch.”

Rachel bows her head with a sadistic smile, “What is my next task, Pre Vizla?”

He chuckles evilly, “To kill your sister so she never meddles in our plans again. As well as the lab rats that are now apart of her clan. Leave no survivors.”

The blonde-haired red-tipped woman bows her head again and smiles evilly, “It shall be done. I’m going to enjoy this.” With that, she gets back into her ship to hunt down Marissa and the 51st.

Chapter Text

Marissa meditates in her quarters. Cross-legged on the ground by her holoterminal, she communes with the force. Asking it questions. Like is she doing the right thing? Should she stay or go? Or she sees visions of possibilities. Like her and Rachel being reunited happily and of them fighting more and more till one is killed. On and on till there is a ping on the holoterminal.

Marissa loses focus and she hits the floor with a resounding thunk, “Ow! Fuck!” She yells out as she stands up and rubs all of her body to see if anything is broken. Once sure nothing is broken she walks over to the holoterminal. The golden-haired woman sees that someone she and her men know has spotted Rachel. She is about to do something about it when the door opens, revealing a very very pissed off Duke.

“Duke? What is it?” Marissa gets up and walks up to him. The captain growls, “The Jedi Council wants to have a word with you apparently.” The golden-haired woman sighs, “Of course they do. Alright, let’s see what they want.”

They walk out of her chambers and into the hallway. Both are quiet but Marissa is thinking. Should she do what she’s planned now? Is this her chance to free herself and her men? Or is it too soon? Is it going to make things worse or better? There is only one way to find out after all. And that is to do it now.

Duke looks over at her, “What’re you thinking vod?”

“Hm? Oh. You’ll find out soon enough vod. Don’t worry yourself over it too much either.” Duke scoffs, “Me? Worried? Never.” Both laugh as they enter into the elevator to take them to the bridge. “You’re always worried.”

Duke sighs, “I know. I have to be with people like you and the boys.” Marissa snorts, “That’s a fair point there vod. With everyone always running around and doing what they want and getting hurt and getting almost killed all the time you’ve got your hands full. As do I cause I have to be worried too.”

The Captain of the 51st snorts, “You worried? Sounds about right. You worry over everything.” She smiles, “I know I do. Its what I do since I’m Clan Chief so I have to be worried for my clan. If I don’t then who will?” Duke arches an eyebrow, “I will if you can’t but after all, you do have to choose your second.”

Marissa starts, “Oh that’s right! Well, you’re my second, unless you’re not up for the challenge.” It’s Duke’s turn to start as she says this, “Are you sure? There are others after all.” Marissa nods, “There are but I want you to cause no one else is cut out for this except for you.”

Duke nods and murmurs, “Then I accept of course.” Marissa chuckles, “Good. Cause I don’t have the time to convince you otherwise.” The doors open and they walk to the bridge with no conversation and everyone seems to know that the council wants to talk to her because they are all pissed off in their speaking and body language.

Once on the bridge, Marissa nods to Tin who opens up the line to the council, “I heard you wanted to speak with me?” The entire council nods as one and some have not so good looks on their faces.

“We do.” Master Windu speaks up. “We heard of your little dance with the dark side.” Marissa gasps in fake shock, “I have no idea what you mean! I’ve always been a good Jedi!” Her men snicker as the council’s look goes stormy. “I thought Jedi weren’t supposed to feel anger and yet you are with me currently. Tell me straight up. Why do you want to talk?” Marissa glowers at the council.

Master Windu speaks up once again, “You killed the Mandalore senator.” Marissa nods, “I did. He caused the massacre of my men years ago and then he kidnapped them recently. He deserved it.” Windu once again raises his pointless opinion, “He might have but its not the Jedi way to do such things. You know this and there are going to be consequences.”

The golden-haired Jedi speaks up, “No there won’t.” Master Yoda now raises his voice, “Hmmm. So sure are you young one?” Marissa nods, “Yes. Cause I’m done with you. I and my men are done with you and your fucking bullshit! I’m leaving the Order and I’m taking my men with me.”

Master Windu raises his opinion once more, “You are free to go, but they aren’t. They are soldiers to the Republic and are the property of the Republic.”

Marissa chuckles darkly, “Are you sure? Go check the manifest of the Republic and see all the names of my men there. They are free men now! I busted my ass with the paperwork and since no one vetoed it when they went through what was needed they were all cleared as citizens. I’m taking my men with me and there is nothing you can fucking do about it. Good day council.”

With that Marissa pulls her finger over her throat and the images of the council disappear thanks to Tin on the comms who now falls out of his chair laughing with tears of joy coming down his face. In fact, now all of her men are doing the same thing and some are thanking her.

“Alright, boys! Let’s get into neutral space! Get us as far away from the Republic as possible.” The 51st whoops and hollers as they jump to hyperspace towards a true Mandalorian world, which used to be Marissa’s home. What used to be Clan Tenau’s home and will be again.

Marissa looks around at her free men and smiles. It was worth it to make her play at that time and looking around at them all, they’re happy too. She can see the relief in their bodies, in their faces, in their voices. They’re free of the Republic, of people who don’t give a damn about them, and of the Jedi.

The golden-haired woman remembers that Rachel was spotted here and her own relief goes to worry. “Alright. Go on down and start to rebuild our home. Clan Tenau lived here before Death Watch killed most of us. Now it is our home again. Look out for Rachel, she’s down there.”

They all nods and rush to the hangers. Marissa makes a quick stop by her room to get her armor and weapons including blasters, knives, and her lightsabers. She stops for a moment and rubs her hand over the now polished and fixed lightsaber she first made and threw away after the Massacre. Smiling, she puts it on her belt and dashes after her men.

Once there, she hops in her own ship and goes to the last place Rachel was spotted. The flight takes an hour but when she lands she is greeted by an old friend, James. “James, its good to see you again old friend. Good to see you’re still alive too.” James, a former Mandalorian sits there scowling at her through his long black hair, “I wish I could say the same. Rachel killed my own men and I know she wants to take yours out too.”

“So where is she so I can end it?” Marissa asks. James chuckles darkly, “I don’t know where she is. And don’t worry about trying to find her, she’ll find you or at least your men and therefor you.”

-------------------------------------------------
The men of the 51st land at the old compound of the Tenau clan. Slowly, they begin to make progress in clearing away most of the burnt wood and bodies of the clan that were never buried from the massacre that took place here. They all pay their respect to the father, mother, and sisters and brothers of Marissa since they all died before they could meet.

Suddenly, there is screaming. Duke and Sly turn from where they are and see Rachel with her red lightsaber out and cutting down some shinies of the legion. They stop what they are doing and draw their blasters, Rachel stops and says in a growl, “Bring Marissa here and no one else dies!”

Duke and Sly both look at each other, both want to just kill Rachel for what she just did but they know that Marissa wants to be the one who deals with Rachel since if Rachel has to die it’ll be by her hands only not anyone else’s. Duke nods and slowly puts his blaster to his side and brings his communicator to his wrist, “Marissa. Rachel is here. You better get back here. Now.” His tone laced with grief and anger.
-------------------------------------------------------

Just as James finishes saying that Marissa’s holocomm beeps and Duke’s voice come over her, “Marissa. Rachel is here. You better get back here. Now.” His tone laced with grief and anger. She holds her holocomm up to her lips and says, “Alright. I’m coming I’ll be there in an hour.” With that, she nods at the black-haired man and gets back in her ship.

On the way there, Marissa goes through and cleans her weapons knowing that when she gets there, there will be a fight. But she wonders should she spare her? Should she try and turn her from the dark side? Or should she kill her? Which way is the way? Which is the way, which is the way repeats in her head as she flies to where she used to live with her family and the Tenau clan.

Soon she is at the burnt-out home where she, and Rachel used to live. Marissa touches down and instantly runs out to see some of her men lying on the ground. Dead. She knows who did this. Rachel. Speaking of Rachel, she sits on the stone steps surrounded by the rest of her men, who are very pissed off at the red-tipped hair woman.

“Ah! Marissa. So nice of you to show up sister!” Marissa growls, “You have a lot of nerve to do this don’t you?” Rachel chuckles, “I have the nerve to do whatever I want to whoever I want, unlike you of course.”

Marissa scowls at her own sister who is taking jabs at her, “So what do you want?” Rachel grins evilly, “Your death of course. Besides I’m sure Pre Vizla would appreciate me killing you as well seeing as how I’m now apart of Death Watch.” The golden-haired Mandalorina’s jaw drops in shock.

“You’re apart of Death Watch?! Why?! They killed our family and almost killed you! What would you side with them?!” Rachel stands up so fast and begins to walk towards Marissa, “Because they are strong! Unlike our clan, they can face whatever they need to and survive while putting up a fight!”

With that Rachel draws her red lightsaber and cuts Sly of the left leg. He gives a cry of pain and Marissa’s face turns stormy. She draws her purple and white lightsabers and glares daggers at Rachel who just smirks with pride.

“Well then. Shall we?” Marissa nods with a scowl, “I suppose it's time for a fight.”

Marissa motions with her hand and all of the 51st instantly moves out of the way and looks on as Marissa and Rachel begin to circle one another.

Rachel strikes first. They go back and forth with offense and defense as the fight continues on into the night. The only light aside from the stars are purple, white and red from the two sisters fighting in the place they both once defended.

As the colors clash in the center of the ruined home of Clan Tenau, Marissa falls onto her back and kicks Rachel away from her. She flips up gracefully and goes on the offensive. Rachel seems to struggle with keeping up with two lightsabers but Marissa doesn’t care. She hurt Sly. She killed her men. For that, she’s going to get a scar.

Marissa stabs Rachel in the leg and she cries out so she hits her over the head with the purple lightsaber hilt. Rachel hits the ground hard at that hit. The red-tipped woman looks up at Rachel and the yellow eyes of the dark side are replaced with brown eyes of the woman Marissa used to know.

Rachel looks around confused and everyone else looks confused right back at her, “Mars? What’s happening?”

Marissa draws in a harsh breath upon seeing and hearing this but soon the brown goes back to yellow and she force pushes Marissa away then disappears from view into the forest surrounding the Clan Tenau compound.

The golden-haired Mandalorian deactivates her lightsabers and just stares in shock at the direction Rachel ran into the woods. Then moves over to Sly to force heal the wound. As soon as it is closed she speaks up, “I won’t kill her. There’s a way to get her back I’m sure of it.” Sly nods in understanding as does the rest of the 51st, “We understand. We’ll help in whatever way we can. We promise.” Everyone nods again.

Marissa sighs, “We need a plan for when she comes back because she will. And she might come with friends.” Duke pipes up, “Death Watch?” Marissa nods, “More than likely.”

Duke sighs, “Well, then we can easily get the things that we need for war off the ship and bring them here. But what about this?” He gestures to the burnt compound of Clan Tenau. Marissa smiles, “We rebuild it. Stronger of course. But we rebuild it and make it our home.” Duke and the rest of the 51st smile, “Sounds good vod. So when do we start?”

Marissa smiles and says, “Now.”

-------------------------------------------------
In a ship above orbit of where Marissa and her boys are, Rachel is putting bacta on her wound. She hisses, “Go away stupid, girl! This is my body. I’m Nightmare. You’re no one. No one will care if you show up again or not just stay. Out. Of. My. Head!”

With that, she hits her head against the comm button causing blood to come streaming down and pain to ripple through her skull. Yet the true Rachel doesn’t emerge so Nightmare smiles as Pre Vizla’s image appears on her dash.

“Well? Is she dead?” Nightmare shakes her head, “Not yet. I will require assistance. There are too many and are too skilled for me. I will need some Death Watch soldiers to help and maybe even another force user.”

Pre Vizla nods and turns around to yell something that Nightmare can’t hear before turning back to her, “You will have our best men and we will ask our Separatist allies to lend us Ventress or Grievous but you will have to wait. So come back to us for a little bit. Rest. Heal. And then kill when the time is right.”

“Very well. I will see you shortly, Vizla.” The image of Pre Vizla fades and Nightmare begins to plot a course to where the Death Watch camp is. Before she jumps to hyperspace she looks back at the planet, “You will die soon, Marissa. That’s a promise.” Then the sound and lights of hyperspace consume the cockpit.

Chapter Text

The sun slaps down across the bare midriff of Marissa Tenau as she helps her men rebuild what used to be her home. It's been a slow-going process. They just finished laying down the foundations of the compound and now are working on putting up the walls and roofs to make sure they have someplace to sleep other than in caves on the surface or back on the ship.

The golden-haired Mandalorian looks around at the rest of her men. Duke and Sly are cooling off in the nearby river. And everyone else is resting after a hard time of working on putting up the last of the walls. “Good work boys. Take a break. Then we can put the roofs on so then we can sleep in here tonight.” At that everyone, some more hesitantly than others while some instantly go to the river to cool off except for Marissa.

Her scarred body is on full display as she walks through each of the rooms and finds the one she wants to be hers, takes out her lightsabers and puts them in the centre of the room and begins to meditate. She receives ...a vision. It concerns her. It’s bad.

-------------------------------
Vision

Breath rapidly leaves and exits her lungs as the golden-haired woman looks over her shoulder. Where is she? Where are her boys? What’s going on? As these thoughts went through her head, her foot trips over...something and she went sprawling into the mud in front of her. “Ugh.” Marissa moans as she wipes away the mud on her face, leaving marks on her face like war paint. When she looked up she sees purple and black armor sprawled out everywhere and not one of the corpses had their helmets on.

Marissa sees the look of horror and pain on their faces and her face twists into horror as she sees who is dead. Duke. Her captain, the man she can always rely on in any given situation, lies in front of her on his back with his left hand splayed out with a burning hole in his chest from either a blaster bolt or a lightsaber. Next to him, lies his batchmate and closest brother Sly. The medic with a heart of gold for everyone in the 51st and for some outside of it. He lies on his stomach and looks like he’s reaching for Duke. She shudders at that realization.

Shredder, the big burly man that is always eager for a fight and always carried that as a spark in his eyes. He now lies there facing the sky with the spark for a good fight gone with a blaster bolt in between his eyes. A few feet away from him, lying at a very painful angle as if he had fallen to his death, is Kess. The Lieutenant of the 51st looks like he died in horrible pain from bones breaking and cracking and...with that she has to stop thinking about it.

Joker, the usual smiling and joke making man is lying on his side from several blaster bolts to the chest with a comforting look on his face and a small smile to another. He died as he lived. Making sure others felt better first before himself. The brother he is smiling at is actually two brothers. There is a man with marble colored eyes and a man with sparks on his armor, both are looking over at Joker with a scared and innocent look. With a shudder, she realizes who two are: Marble and Spark. Two of the newer boys she picked up from other battalions. They don’t deserve this Marissa thinks to herself.

Tin is sprawled over a brother with shrapnel sticking out of his back. He was always tough with all of his prosthetics but not that tough to withstand all of that. His prosthetics are rusted, blooded, and melting in some places. He must have been close to the blast which is why he’s covering a brother. Marissa very gently moves Tin onto his back after removing each of the shrapnel pieces in his back. Once she looks back to the spot where Tin was she sees Seaweed. The former scuba trooper with seaweed tattoos that wind up his neck and onto his cheek. His eyes, unlike all of the others’, are closed. Marissa sighs in relief. But she also notices the stab wound in his gut. Seaweed had bled to death in Tin’s arms which is why Seaweed is also smiling slightly.

Nox. The black-haired male lays in a pool of his own blood from a stab wound to the chest. Next to him is Ninja. The tan-skinned man is still cradling Nox even in death from what looks like several stab wounds all over his body. They were always gonna die together. Or at least one could hope they would. Without the other, they would be far more cruel or far too caring for anyone else. That’s what happens when you’re both Assassin types she guesses in her head. She doesn’t dare move them away from each other even in death they must be together.

Gale is stuck in his ship. It didn’t explode which is rare for them not too when they hit the ground. But in the pitch black of the cockpit, she sees another person, Zeus. Marissa can tell its Zeus because of how short and how stark white his hair is. Zeus’s flightcraft must have malfunctioned but still wanted to fight so he teamed up with Gale. While Gale’s and Zeus’s flight craft didn’t explode on impact, it looks like a certain dark blue-haired man’s flight craft wasn’t so lucky. A couple of feet from a burning wreck is Aeol. He has cuts and bruises clear signs of a crash landing. All the pilots of the 51st died the way they lived, causing yet another shudder from Marissa.

Seth, the black hair that he has is always in a bun or a braid. His armor is completely melted away to slag from a very powerful explosion that not only caught him but caught the weapons man, Jaig. They both got along in a very tense way since Seth didn’t always like explosions and Jaig always loved them. She sarcastically thinks that neither likes them anymore and then Marissa gets very sad.
Neptunium is covering two brothers from what looks to be former blaster fire. His back is just shredded with blaster bolts. Once again, Marissa gently moves one of her men’s bodies to this back and onto the floor. Neptunium’s eyes are closed which is another relief to Marissa cause what was under him is not pretty. The two that are there, well, one has a tattoo of Clan Tenau on his head and the other is partially patched with bacta patches and bandages. There are Viribus and Comp. Marissa winces at their wounds.

With that, Marissa steps back and looks around the destruction of her men and the entire 51st at their new home. She sees fire everywhere and bodies everywhere. “No.” She whispers. Then a choked sob comes out and she keeps saying through every tear, every sob, “No. No. No. No no no no no. No.” Marissa falls down to her knees, which squish into the mud, and she screams into the sky in rage and grief, “NOOO!”

Then there are footsteps all around her, the golden-haired Mandalorian looks up and sees that she is surrounded by Death Watch members. They all aim at her as another figure walks up. She notices the red-tips of hair and then they remove the helmet and there stands Rachel, her sister.

The Death Watch members put their fingers on the triggers of their blasters. They fire and Marissa jerks back with a gasp.

End Vision
------------------------------------------------------

Marissa gasps and opens her eyes looking around rapidly in what will be her room. Remembering the vision, she dashes outside and sighs. Everything is intact and her boys are still alive. They are laughing and splashing around in the cool river nearby. The golden-haired Mandalorian runs a hand through her hair and fiddles with her blue tips as she slowly grounds herself to the present and not to the all too possible future.

She steps over to a rock wall and feels around it for a little bit before finding what she’s looking for. Marissa presses a piece of the rock in and another section opens up in front of her. The golden-haired Mandalorian looks around quickly before stepping into the open section. The lighting flickers on as soon as she steps in. Marissa doesn’t close the door behind her, just in case her boys freak out and try to find her.

Marissa descends into the pit of what seems to be a secret bunker of Clan Tenau. Her hands corse along the dusty durasteel walls and her feet leave footprints in the dust that has gathered on the stone floor. They never really used this during her time, but they should have when Death Watch attacked. Maybe then everyone would be alive instead of just her and Rachel, who now wants to kill her.

Soon, she reaches a large cavernous space which she knows to be the main bunker. Marissa waves her hand and all the lights in the large room came on in a flash. The light reveals more dust but enough furniture to comfortably fit at least 200 people and protect them from harm with the amount of weapons and armor there are. The things that most caught her attention are the weapons and armor.

There are Blaster pistols, Hold-out blasters, Stingbeams, Sporting blasters, Heavy blaster pistols, Blaster rifles, Blaster carbines, Repeating blasters, Blaster cannons, Autoblasters, and Blastswords all lined up neatly on one side of the room. While on the other are rows of Beskar for those that have lost their own armor. Marissa thinks for a moment then nods, murmuring, “These could be useful.”

The golden-haired Mandalorian then turns on her heel and walks right back the way she came. Up to the surface. Up to her men. Once out of the secret bunker, she immediately summons her men back to the compound, “Alright. It's time to get back to work. We gotta have the roofs on by tonight so we can actually sleep down here tonight for once. And after we’re done, I have a surprise to show you.”

Hours go by and they are all sweating and working their asses off to get the roofs on the compound. Eventually, they finish putting the roofs on by dusk. “Great work guys! We now have our own place to stay that isn’t in space. Now I mentioned I had a surprise.” With that, she leads them to the still open entrance to the secret bunker. Slowly and carefully, she takes point as they walk down the tunnel to the cavernous room that holds all the armor and weapons.

“These will be useful for all of us. The weapons can be used to help defend our new home. I mean we always need more weapons.” To that all of them men laugh and nod, “Then.” She gestures to the other wall where all the suits of Beskar are and all of the men’s mouths drop to the floor as they see what’s over there. “This will help protect you from blaster bolts and lightsabers. Which will put me at ease. We can paint them tomorrow. Since we still have a lot on the ship, we can just bring it down.”

After all is said and done, Marissa and the rest of the boys of the 51st get their bedrolls and spread them out in their respective rooms. Most prefer to sleep with a brother and Marissa always makes sure everyone is comfortable before settling herself down for the night. But the night is unfortunately not uneventful. During the night, Marissa wakes up screaming causing the two closest men to hear her which are Duke and Sly and for them to come barging in.

Marissa looks around wildly as she jolts up in her bed. Before she knows it, the door to her room opens with a bang and in comes Duke and Sly. They rush over to her and pull her into a warm embrace. Duke quietly whispers, “We got you. Your safe.” Marissa sobs, “It wasn’t me. I saw...I saw…” and she trails off into sobs once more. As Duke holds her, Sly is rubbing soothing motions on her back.

They both wait as she sobs into Duke’s shoulder. The blonde-haired medic looks concerned over at the Captain of the 51st as Marissa slowly calms down. Taking a deep breath she begins to speak, “I...I saw everyone. You were all dead. Killed in different ways. By Death Watch and Rachel. I arrived too late ...”

“We’re right here. We’re alive, Mars. We’re alive.” Marissa nods slowly in the crook of Duke’s neck, “I know. I think they’re coming…” Duke and Sly share a look, “Who is coming?” Marissa hoarsely whispers, “Death Watch. And Rachel.” Slowly, the golden-haired Mandalorian pulls back from Duke and Sly so that they can see her face. Her fear and anxiety play across her features in a way that they know what’s coming.

“They’re going to try and wipe us out.” Duke murmurs in horror. Marissa nods, “Yes. Just like last time. Except for this time, we’ll be ready. The weapons and Beskar down in the bunker, we can use those for the fight.” Sly nods, “We do need to paint the Beskar for ourselves though.” Marissa sighs, “We’ll make time while we work on making this a home. Paint it black first, let it dry then do the patterns of purple and or gold.” They all nod in agreement. Duke and Sly slept in Marissa’s room for the rest of the night.
---------------------------------------------------

Rachel is screaming in a chair, “NO! I won’t kill her for you! I won’t!” Another shock and another scream. Pre Vizla stands there in front of her “Tsk tsk tsk tsk. You should know by now that Nightmare is the main host. Not you. You were weak and Nightmare made you strong. Yet this is how you repay her? I’m disappointed.”

“Fuck. Off. That bitch is a monster and I won’t let her kill Mars.” He chuckles darkly, “You hardly have a choice.” Almost as if that was a switch of some kind, Rachel fell quiet then spoke up again, “Ahhh. Finally. She’s quiet at last. You have no idea how hard it is to keep her back. But because of how hard she fights, the more her sister and her friends will suffer.” He nods, “Indeed. And they will suffer more in time.” They look out a window and they see Ventress standing rallying a battalion of Death Watch troops.

“The end of Clan Tenau is upon us. They will die and no one will remember them.”

Chapter Text

Training was always a fun part of life for the 51st but also caused minor injuries because the idiots could never hold themselves back. Sly, the blonde-headed medic of the 51st, sighs as he watches the carnage that is happening on the training room mat. Shredder tumbled over thanks to Ninja and Nox’s combined crouching and pushing effort while Marissa had Duke in a headlock. After seeing Shredder out of the fight, for now at least, Ninja and Nox turn their attention to Marissa.

Seeing that she is now the target of the effective and sometimes terrifying duo of Ninja and Nox, Marissa uses the headlock she has to her advantage. She allows Duke to stand and then roundhouse kicks Ninja away from her and into Nox, sending them tumbling away. The captain of the group breaks the headlock and twists Marissa’s arm behind her back. The blonde-haired Mandalorian twists out of Duke’s grasp and is about to go after him when Shredder comes sprinting across the mat and dive tackles him to the ground causing everyone on and around the mat to burst out laughing at Duke’s surprised face and squeak. After the black haired captain recovers from the dive tackle, he and Shredder start a one on one wrestling match with neither of them seeming to get the upper hand on the other.

Then the other end of the mat erupts into an acrobatics show as Ninja, Nox, and Marissa dodge each others’ blows and offer their own in return. Sly shakes his head with a sigh and puts his fingers in his mouth before giving a glass shattering whistle. Everyone that was watching instantly glares over at him as they instinctively put their hands over their ears as Marissa slides off the mat, Ninja and Nox tumble into a pile, and Shredder and Duke freeze. “Alright! I know you di'kut love to watch them beat the osik out of each other but we have more pressing concerns!” He looks down at the datapad in his hand, “Courtesy of our pilots: Gale, Zeus, and Aeol,” the men mentioned give a two-fingered salute to their brothers and Commander, “Death Watch is prepping to come our way. They’ll be here in the next few days.”

Marissa straightens up, “Well that’s to be expected. Death Watch hates to leave anyone that doesn’t agree with their views standing. Plus the fact that they weren’t able to kill me so that makes them want to come even more.” Duke walks over and gestures to see the datapad, “Hmmm. A whole battalion of Death Watch. Rachel. And Ventress. They’ll have a whole bunch of gear. That’ll be a problem.” Marissa thinks, “We could set a gaanaylir, jahaatir Kyr'tsad bal kyr'amur.” Everyone else nods and Duke speaks up, “How would we do that exactly?”

The blonde-haired Mandalorian smirks, “Well, you could all go into the trees surrounding yaim and make it look like you aren’t here. Then once they are inside your lines, spring the gaanaylir.” Sly narrows his eyes, “And what about you?” She smiles widely, “I’ll be the bait.” After the words leave her mouth, she is assaulted by a chorus of “Nayc!”s, “No way!”s, and “Hell no!”s. Marissa shrugs, “I’m the only one who can do that. Besides, I’m doing it whether you like it or not, which is obviously not.”

Duke sighs, “Can’t we call for help? Wouldn’t that be better?” Marissa shrugs, “I don’t think we have that option right now. I mean, I’ve heard of others like us but we don’t know them. Plus I don’t think they’d come anyway. We’re on our own.” Everyone murmurs and Shredder speaks up gruffly and determined, “We’ll be ready for ‘em!” Duke nods, “We can make turrets, form a perimeter of sensors so we know when they get close, and also get our armor painted plus arm ourselves with the weapons down there.”

Everyone murmurs in agreement and split off into teams. Jaig, Spark, Tin, and Comp work on getting the turrets in working order while Nox and Ninja set up the sensor perimeter. The others get to work on painting their beskar armor and picking their chosen weapons in preparation for the tense days ahead. Marissa takes time alone from everyone during those days and thinks over what she saw weeks ago with Rachel. Thinking of whether or not she should kill her or take a chance and just try to bring her back from whatever has caged her in her own mind.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile on one of the Death Watch ships, Midnight sits removed from the rest of the geared up troops. She sits in black and red armor with her helmet on and it is muted so others around her can’t hear her muttering to herself. Rachel is pounding at the shields that surround her mind courtesy of Midnight, screaming and trying to wrench control away from the monster that has it.

Midnight snaps, “Quiet girl! You’re starting to give me a headache...”

Rachel snaps back with venom in her voice, “Good! At the very least it’ll make you feel ever so slightly like me.”

Midnight gives a low growl, “Careful. This would give me an excuse to shatter your mind. Making it even hard for you to go back to your sisters.”

Rachel goes silent for a split second before responding back in a cold, even tone, “If you shatter my mind, you shatter yours as well. Let’s not forget that you share it with me. It's how you knew Mars’s fighting style to actually stand as a threat. It's how you knew where our home was without scouting for weeks.” There is a small pause before Rachel speaks again, “Even if you did shatter my mind, I know my sisters would find a way to save me.”

Midnight snorts, “Not much good that’ll do with the scattered formation they are in. Your precious twin thinks the other two died that day when Death Watch attacked. And by all accounts they did. They just weren’t dead enough to not revive. While we don’t know who did it, we know where they are and they aren’t exactly good at keeping a low profile. Who knows? Perhaps we’ll focus on them after we’ve taken care of your twin.”

Rachel gives a heated snarl while Midnight laughs, “Snarl all you want, Rachel Tenau. You will not tear away control from me again.”

Just as Rachel is about to give a fiery retort, Pre Vizsla walks up to Midnight in his armor and his helmet tucked under one arm, “Is your charge getting too much for you to handle Midnight?”

In response to the question, Midnight stands and just gives a chuckle, “Oh no. I enjoy taunting her.” Midnight hears Rachel give a low growl in the back of her mind and she smirks under her helmet, “But I’m guessing it's not to check on my well-being that you are here.”

“You would guess correctly. We’re fairly certain that we got spotted by a pilot of Clan Tenau. Not that it will make much of a difference, even if they have the next three days to prepare we will crush them under our combined might.”

“I wouldn’t underestimate them, Vizsla. They might be clones but they are highly trained and not afraid to get their hands dirty. Not only that but my charge’s sister is in command. While she has made mistakes and suffered mental and physical scarring, she is still a deadly warrior in her own right.”

“I am well aware of their skill level and their prowess, Midnight. We have had more training and we have the Separatist backing with Ventress on this mission as well as yourself.”

Midnight gives a snarl, “Training doesn’t account for what we’d be walking into! Even with battle droids Ventress, half a battalion of highly trained Death Watch troops, yourself, and myself, we’re walking into unfamiliar territory with no details on what is waiting for us when we arrive in three days!”

Pre Vizsla steps up to be right in front of Midnight’s face and looks down at her, giving a low deadly growl, “Careful Midnight. You overstep your boundaries. And I need not remind you of what happens when you do so.” Midnight gives a barely noticeable wince but it's enough for him to notice and he gives a sickening smile, “Now. Stay in your place like a good girl and worry about how to kill your charge’s sister.”

As he turns around and walks away, Midnight sits down again. She ignores the blank looks of the Death Watch’s helmets looking at her from the exchange. After her helmet becomes muted again, Rachel comes surging forward with a dark chuckle and taunts, “Yeah. “Stay in your place” Monster. Doesn’t that sound familiar? Oh! Yes, it does! It's the same thing you say to me! How does that feel?”

Midnight lashes out in her mind at Rachel who gives a cry of pain, “Careful girl. You’re testing my temper.”

Rachel gives a retort, “And? What’ll you do if I test your temper more?”

Midnight gives an evil laugh, “I will kill you precious twin in the slowest way possible and make you watch as she suffers and dies while you are within reach of her and then I will let you take control only for the moment of her death and then I will move onto your younger sisters.”

Rachel’s response is silence. Midnight gives a mix of a chuckle and a huff, “That’s what I thought…”

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The bunker near their new home is the place to be for the 51st. The sound of painting, moving armor and weapons, and countless voices clamoring over each other fills the air. Duke, who is leaning against one of the walls, looks out at his brothers. He notes that the recent additions before they left are a bit shifty, a bit nervous and makes a mental note in his head to see if they can’t get a few training rounds in with them. However, the black haired captain is pulled from his thoughts as a familiar blonde haired medic stands next to him.

Duke chuckles, “Too much excitement for ya, Sly?”

Sly gives a snort, “You could say that.” However there is something else in the way Sly says it that Duke catches onto, the perks of being batchmates he thinks.

The black haired captain murmurs softly, “What's on your mind vod?”

The blonde haired medic closes his eyes, “Do you really think we can repel Death Watch? We know what they’re capable of from Mars’ stories and if they have seppies as well…we’re about to go into hell.”

Duke lets out a sigh, “I agree that we have the odds stacked against us. But I do think if we play our cards right and smart, we could walk out the victors.”

“Do you think Mars’ trap strategy is the best one?”

Duke shakes his head, “No. But I don’t have any other suggestions. Engaging them out in the open is suicidal and bringing them closer to the house or bunker is a bad idea too.”

Sly gives a frustrated growl, “Everything is a bad option these days…” He runs a hand down his face, trying to recompose himself as he sees some of the rest pick up on his energy. “What were you looking at earlier, Duke?”

Duke nods to the newer members of the Legion, “They’re getting nervous. I was making a mental note to try and get some training in with them before the attack. Try and make them a bit more confident in their fighting or at the very least ease their nerves for a bit.”

The blonde haired medic tilts his head, “That might be a good idea.”

Duke opens his mouth to speak but snaps it closed as laughter erupts from the groups that are painting their armor. It is certainly a sight to see. Shredder is sitting there with a handprint of purple paint on his face, blinking as if in shock, while Joker the 51st’s resident prankster extraordinar still has his hand out in front of him laughing his ass off. Tin is off to the side, shaking his head with a sigh at Joker’s antics. The bald headed muscle looks at Joker who realizes he is now in danger but reacts too late as Shredder launches himself, tackling Joker to the ground. There are some shouts of “Careful!” and laughter as they come close to knocking over paint cans.

Before they can tussle anymore and risk ruining people’s pieces, the cybernetic enhanced Tin walks over and gets between them. He murmurs something under his breath that they can’t hear and Shredder and Joker just share a look before nodding and going back to their little area. Duke can’t help but give a smile. Tin, Joker, and Shredder are batchmates, the last three of their squad and a part of the original 51st Legion. They lived through the massacre just like him, Sly, Ninja, and Nox. His eyes are then drawn to the “shinies” of the legion. He can’t necessarily call them shinies since they’ve been through some missions. But they are still the ones that aren’t as established in the legion.

The men in question are Spark, Gale, Comp, Zeus, and Aeol. They are a complete squad, they left Kamino together and while they have had their fair share of injuries, they haven’t been pulled apart by losing one of their own. Gale, Zeus, and Aeol are very talented pilots and are the ones that alerted us to Death Watch approaching. They’re no slouch in ground combat either. Comp stakes his claim in knowing every regulation and rule there is in the military, he’s been struggling to adapt to their current situation now that they are no longer a part of the military though. But his brothers are helping him even if it's slow. Then there is Spark. Duke gives a small chuckle as he thinks of that little ball of light, Spark is a very apt name. Spark brings a lot of light, a lot of innocence to the legion and it helps that he is a very gifted mechanic and gets along with everyone. If Duke was to throw someone into a room of arguing brothers and not have to worry about their safety because they would stop arguing, it would be Spark.

The new squad is murmuring to themselves and focused on getting their purple patterns just right. Gale is making strong wind patterns while Aeol is making gentle wind patterns. Zeus is making lightning marks across his chest plate and shoulder pads. Comp has geometrical lines that zig zag across the same areas as Zeus. Meanwhile, Spark is just dipping his fingers in paint and splattering it onto his armor, one color then the other and sometimes layering over another color. But they are smiling, enjoying each other's company. And Duke is thinking if this is how his squad was when they were fresh off Kamino.

Just as his mind is about to spiral with memories, he feels an elbow dig into his ribs. The black haired captain looks over and sees Sly looking at him with a look in his eyes that can only be explained as understanding.

Sly speaks in a low tone, “You good? You spaced out for a moment.”

Duke nods, “Yeah. Yeah I’m good. Just looking at them brings back memories.”

Sly gives a low hum, “Yeah. Ever wonder what they would think of us now?”

“Sometimes. But we’ll never know till we follow them. Which won’t be anytime soon if I have anything to say about it.”

Sly chuckles, “Same here vod. Same here. Do you have your armor painted yet?”

Duke gives another nod, “Yeah. It's drying in the sun right now. Had to get my usual pattern of interlocking rings on there in purple. You?”

The blonde haired medic smiles, “Figured that was yours when I put mine out. Mine’s also out there. Had to get my star, staff, and snake combo there.”

Duke chuckles, “Nothing wrong with sticking with your theme.” He pauses and speaks softly and gently, “I’m thinking of putting small symbols that were theirs on my armor.”

Sly puts an arm around his shoulder, “If you do, I’ll do the same.”

The black haired captain nods and claps Sly on his left side, “You should probably get your supplies organized, vod. Like you said, we’re about to go into hell in a couple days.”

The blonde haired medic nods solemnly, “Yeah. You should get some training going, maybe get Mars in on it.”

Duke nods, “Yeah. That sounds like a good idea, get her out of her head. She’s been thinking too much. See you later, vod. If you need help just lemme know.”

Sly chuckles, “Likewise.”

And just as he had come to him, he was gone. Duke closes his eyes before looking out over his men, just in time to see Marissa come walking through the doors. They lock eyes before Marissa makes it to him.

“How's it going Duke? They getting what they need?”

“Yeah. They’re wrapping up painting now. Sly is off with the other medics to prep medical supplies and areas. I’m about to do some training with the boys, wanna join?”

“Sure. It’ll get me out of my head.” Marissa gives a sigh.

“What are you thinking about Mars? Rachel?”

She gives a nod, “Yeah. I have to decide what I’m going to do with her. I know she’s still in there.”

“Then save her.” Marissa blinks and looks over at him before smiling with a nod. “But come on, let's go to the training area.”

The training goes about as well as Duke expected. Drills at first to get everyone warmed up before sparring partners are decided, he does pair the shinies with some experienced people. A lot of people got knocked down but there were no serious injuries. Now it's time to wind down. That’s easier said than done with people that once they get going in sparring it's hard to stop them.

Marissa stands across from him, panting, on the mat and everyone else in a circle around it, cheering and urging them on. Duke has no delusions of grandeur, Marissa could put him on his ass in two seconds if she had the mind to. He thinks she's grown so much since we first met since our first set of missions. She must’ve sensed what he was thinking because she smiled and lowered her stance. Duke lowered his stance as well and they met in the middle with a firm handshake and a hug.

“Good job kid.”

“Not a kid. But thanks.”

Everyone laughs and then they sit out in front of their home, watching the sun set and everyone’s minds veered towards what will be happening in a couple days…and the dread that they feel.

—---------------------------------------------------------------------

A couple days later, the sun is setting and the sky turns red before starting to turn black. Marissa sits in a meditative stance in the middle of a clearing that’s a safe distance away from their new home. Her brothers blended into the surrounding area and waiting for Death Watch to arrive. They had gotten news from Gale, Zeus, and Aeol that the ships had landed and that they were going to keep a watch from their ships in case they tried to use air support.

Marissa tries to calm her heart rate and breathing, trying not to let flashbacks overwhelm her and to get herself focused.

Duke closes his eyes and lets out a breath and talks over the comms, “Alright. They’re getting closer, wait for Marissa’s signal for us to attack. Play it safe, stick with at least a few others. If you get hurt, fall back. If you need help use the comms. Everyone is coming away from this alive.” He stresses the word alive. “Do I make myself clear?”

From around the clearing and only through the comms he hears a resounding, “Sir, yes sir!”

Duke nods, “Good.” He opens up a private comm channel to Sly, “You ready vod?”

He hears a nervous in take of breath in response, “As I’ll ever be. Be careful. Please. I don’t want to lose someone else.”

Duke gives a small smile, “I’ll do my best. You do the same.” He cuts off the channel and focuses on his surroundings.

After a few tense moments, they hear the rhythmic marching of battle droids and Death Watch approaching them. And after another moment, sure enough, they see battle droids to the right headed by Ventress and to the left they see Death Watch headed by Pre Vizsla and Midnight. Marissa opens her eyes as Duke murmurs through the comms, “Steady…”

Vizsla looks at Marissa with a smirk on his face, “All alone? I would’ve thought your “boys” would be at your side.” Marissa just glares at him, shifting her glare to Ventress before softening on Midnight.

“I recommend letting my sister out of that mind cage.”

“And let her demolish us? I don’t think so.”

Marissa stands up, showing them her beskar armor, and pulls out one of her lightsabers.

Vizsla sneers, “Do you really intend to fight us Tenau? You’re outnumbered!” Death Watch and droids move in close and all Marissa does is smile.

“Nau bic laam!”

And as soon as Marissa’s shout comes out, Thermal detonators come rolling out of the tree line and blow the front line of approaching enemies away. As the dirt is still raining down, Marissa activates her lightsaber and points it at Pre Vizsla, Midnight, and Ventress.

“This is our home. Leave. Or we will make you leave.”

Over the comms, Duke can hear his men giving dark chuckles and giving lines like “Yeah, in body bags.” He quickly goes over the comms, “Shut it down, boys. We’re almost there. Steady.” And they all look back to the clearing.

In response to Marissa’s challenge, Midnight and Ventress activate their lightsabers while Vizsla pulls his blasters, “You’re welcome to try…” Marissa smirks and assumes a simple stance, waiting for them to come at her. As they advance, Marissa gives the call of “Oya!” and the men of the 51st start laying into the ranks with their blasters and come out of their hiding places.

However, they start to lead some forces away as Death Watch starts launching flames at them via flamethrowers. The flames get caught on the trees and the clearing begins to burn. As the droids and Death Watch begin to chase after Duke and the rest of the 51st into the forests around their home, Marissa stands in the center of the clearing facing down Ventress, Midnight, and Vizsla.

The flames dance in the wind and send embers up to the clouds that cover the sky. In the distance she sees Gale, Zeus, and Aeol’s ships flying at top speed towards those that belong to Death Watch. They swoop overhead and Marissa watches as the dog fighting begins. She can hear their thrusters and blasters working just as she can hear blasters and yells from within the forest. Then CRACK! A flash of lightning cracks across the sky followed by a deafening round of thunder and the heavens open, letting the rain fall. Slowly at first, then becoming a downpour that would make Kamino jealous. And yet… the flames still remain. By what means, Marissa isn’t sure. But of one thing she is sure. Is that here, surrounded by the dancing flames on the ground and the deafening storm above, is where their future will be decided. Will the newly reborn Clan Tenau made of the 51st Legion and herself fall to Death Watch and be wiped from existence? Or will they succeed in repelling them and gaining their lives?

Marissa shakes her head to clear her head of those thoughts and draws her shoto saber, activating it. The purple and white glows contrast with red on the other side. And as her three opponents move closer to her, Marissa gives a wordless war cry as she rushes to meet them.

Marissa. Duke. The rest of the 51st Legion now the new Clan Tenau. They are prepared to give it all they have. But will that be enough to see them through this night of storm, fire, and blood?

And who will fall?

Chapter Text

Hello everyone! I'm not dead! My mental health has been shitty and my creative energy going towards other projects or its been burnt out.

HOWEVER!

I plan on coming back to actually posting on AO3 and particularly to The Lost Heir and Of Vod and Aru'ese. Plus a new work entirely from FFXIV

HOWEVER!

I will re writing both works from the ground up with new posting works. These versions will still be available but they won't be updated past this update chapter.

I don't have to but I'm going to say why I'm re writing them:
1. My writing style is very out of date since I haven't actually posted in literally years for The Lost Heir and a year+ for Of Vod and Aru'ese
2. I don't know where I was going to take the stories past what I already wrote in notes which isn't much
3. There are things that don't make sense and I didn't flush it out at all or just don't make sense with the timeline (like Ester being Thexan's daughter and being fully grown)

So expect new works to appear eventually. Idk when I'll post them but just stay tuned

Thank you for all of you who have seen these works and liked them. I hope to see you in the new versions <3