Astor walked over to the ship,

"Astor! Wait!"

Astor turned to see Ezra running up to him, 

"What is it, Ezra?"

Ezra sighed, 

"I know you are going to look for my Godmother again. I know I can't stop you this time,"

"And?"

Ezra smiled at him and handed him the Mandalorian helmet, 

"You left this. It was Nikki's helmet as you probably know, I think it fits you,"

Astor sighed, grabbed it, and smiled softly at Ezra, 

"I'm going to bring her home. Just you wait,"

Ezra smiled at him, 

"I have faith, Kanan might have lost it...but I know Ahsoka would have wanted us to figure it out. I'm heading to Tatooine to find Obi-Wan Kenobi...Cody told me not to bother,"

Astor chuckled, 

"Well, from the stories Nikki used to tell me, Cody was close with Obi-Wan. He's riddled with guilt, I can tell,"

Ezra nodded, 

"Which is why I think it's so important to find him and save him from Maul,"

Astor nodded and put a hand on his shoulder, 

"May the force be with you, Ezra Bridger,"

"May the Force be with you, Astor Kestis,"

Astor chuckled, 

"Since when did you call me by Kestis?"

Ezra rolled his eyes, 

"Don't play dumb. I know Nikki and Cal acted like your parents,"

Astor chuckled and smiled softly at the thought, 

"They raised me to be who I am today."

Ezra smiled and nodded, 

"I can tell. They will be proud of you when they see you,"

Astor sighed, 

"I'm not sure about that...I don't think Nikki would be able to handle Ahsoka's death,"

Ezra frowned and nodded, 

"I know what you mean...but you can tell her that R5 is guarding Bail's daughter,"

Astor chuckled and nodded, 

"I am sure she will be happy to know that...and Ezra?"

Ezra nodded at him to continue. Astor smiled,

"Bring Cody with you. I think that reunion is well overdue,"

Ezra chuckled and nodded, 

"Alright, I'll do my best,"

With one last hug, Astor climbed into the old Jedi x-wing and took off with ease, 

"Oh, please actually work and not get me stuck in Hyperspace."

He plugged in random coordinates and relaxed as he saw the familiar blue of hyperspace. He turned his wrist to the comm link, tried calling the two again, and failed again. He grumbled and put the helmet on as he sighed, 

"Please force. I just want to make sure they are alright. I miss them, and I just need my honorary parents back. I miss Merrin, and I miss Cal and Nikki more than anything. I want them back."

He gasped when he saw green flood his vision and he yelped as his ship was thrown out of hyperspace, 

"OH YOU MOTHERFUCKER! I TOLD YOU NOT TO BREAK DOWN!!!"

He quickly grabbed the handles and looked to see a battle of some sort happening below him. His eyes widened in shock as he felt two presences on the ground and smiled happily as he turned on the comm-link, 

"HOLA MI FAMILIA! Did you guys miss me?!"

Cal and Nikki momentarily stopped as they heard the familiar voice over their communicator. Nikki glanced at Cal, 

"Did you hear that?"

Cal slowly nodded, 

"You have got to be kidding me,"

They looked up to see the ship coming in hot and Rex tilted his head in confusion, 

"Who is flying that ship?"

Nikki shook her head and looked at Cal, 

"Throw me so I can get that kid,"

Cal nodded and looked at Rex with a smirk, 

"Rex, don't have a heart attack on us, old man,"

Rex sighed, 

"Oh no,"

Nikki ran to Cal and immediately jumped. When she jumped, Cal pushed her further up with the force, and she went flying to Astor's ship. She landed with a grunt and looked at him through the glass of the hatch. Astor nervously waved to her and she glared at him, 

"We will talk about this later. Can you get out?"

Astor shook his head, and Nikki immediately sliced the locks on the hatch, and it flew off. He smiled brightly at her from under his helmet, 

"Nice seeing you too, Sora,"

Nikki sighed, 

"Yeah, come on kid,"

Astor chuckled and stood up carefully, 

"Hey, I have my jetpack. Do you want to do the aerial attacks?"

Nikki turned to Astor, her expression serious yet playful,

"Astor, do you remember our favorite aerial maneuver?"

Astor grinned,

"The Split Swoop?"

"Yeah, that's the one. Let's give them a show."

With a nod of agreement, Astor activated his jetpack, lifting them high above the battlefield. Droids below fired at them, but Astor expertly maneuvered, spinning and dodging with agility that surprised even the seasoned clones. Nikki's focus sharpened as she used the Force to enhance her movements. She leaped from Astor's shoulders, somersaulting in mid-air as blaster bolts flew past her. With precise timing, she landed amidst a group of droids, her lightsabers slashing in elegant arcs. She deflected incoming fire effortlessly, the Force guiding her every move. Astor's jetpack flared with bursts of speed as he darted around, targeting clusters of droids with his blasters. He weaved between obstacles, using the terrain to his advantage. Suddenly, he spotted a tank lining up a shot at the clones. Without hesitation, Astor activated his EMP gauntlet, firing a pulse that disabled the tank's systems just as it fired, causing it to miss its mark. Hardcase stopped momentarily to watch,

"Is that a Mandalorian fighting with Sora?"

Cal glanced up and sighed, 

"Yep, that, Hardcase, is Astor. I'll explain later,"

Rex sighed, 

"Any other surprises?"

Cal smirked, 

"Just you wait. Now that he's here, this party is just starting,"

Wrecker let out a booming laugh as he charged headlong into a group of droids, smashing them to pieces with sheer brute force. Crosshair was able to find a position on a nearby ridge, his sniper rifle picking off droids with deadly precision. Tech moved swiftly to disable the droid tanks, the ones left standing after the EMP blast, using his technical expertise to turn their own weapons against them. Echo found his way next to Hardcase and Jesse and the three looked over to Astor as he flew effortlessly and Nikki used the force to jump back onto his shoulders as she deflected shots back to the droids while he took out the ones that she missed. Hardcase's eyes widened in awe,

"How the kriff are they doing that?"

Cal sighed, 

"With a lot of heart attacks,"

Astor soon landed, after Nikki vaulted off of him again, and he nodded at Cal, 

"Hi Axel, did you miss me?"

Cal rolled his eyes, 

"So very much,"

Sora laughed and deflected more shots, 

"Astor, are you just gonna stand there or are you going to use some fun gadgets?"

Astor chuckled and immediately shot out some EMPs from his gauntlet and kept shooting. Rex glanced at him in surprise, 

"Where did you get that?"

Astor glanced at him in surprise before shrugging, 

"Family,"

Sora glanced at Astor, 

"I'm going in, you deflect,"

Astor saluted her, took out two Beskar batons, and used them to deflect the blasters. Hardcase gasped, 

"Can I try?"

Astor shrugged, 

"After this battle, by all means-"

Wrecker's eyes brightened, 

"CAN I?!"

Hunter glared from under his helmet,

"NO,"

Rex grumbled, 

"We do not need any incident reports on that,"

Astor chuckled, 

"Relax sir. I've been training with these since I was like seven maybe earlier I don't know, ask Axel,"

Cal rolled his eyes, 

"Too early if you ask me. Gave me headaches for hours,"

Nikki easily jumped and used the force to propel her to the droids further away and started slicing heads. Cal sighed and glanced at Astor, 

"So, did we miss anything fun?"

Astor winced under the helmet and shook his head, 

"No, nothing fun,"

Cal frowned as he sensed the pain and nodded, 

"We will be talking about this,"

Astor groaned, 

"I know,"

Jesse threw a droid popper, 

"Come on! Push the clankers back!"

Cal glanced at Nikki and smirked, 

"Boomerang!"

Nikki nodded, 

"Ready?"

"Born ready!"

They threw their second lightsaber and cut off all the droids in between them and easily caught the other's saber, 

"Damn, you guys make it look like child play,"

Rex shook his head, 

"Yeah, that's the last of them,"

Nikki gracefully walked back over to them and switched lightsabers back, and Cal and her immediately put their lightsabers back on their belts. Nikki then turned to Astor and slapped his shoulder, 

"Astor! Do you know how dangerous that was? You could have gotten hurt! You could have crashed while you were still inside!"

Rex and the other clones immediately stepped back as they watched the young woman scold the Mandolorian. Astor sighed and took off his helmet to show the short blonde hair and blue eyes, they all thought about how similar their hair looked and how they both had almost the same eye color,

"I'm sorry for worrying you, Sora, but you and Axel had me worried too."

Cal crossed his arms with a small smirk, 

"Now you know how we feel every time you run off,"

Astor rolled his eyes and grumbled, 

"Where is BD? I missed him more,"

BD-1 immediately came running over to him from where he was with Tech and climbed up his armor, and nuzzled his cheek. Astor laughed and petted his head, 

"See? This is what a hello is supposed to look like. Not you two scolding me every single time,"

Nikki narrowed her eyes at him and he immediately raised his hands in defense, 

"Sorry, sorry. Got it, no more back talk,"

Cal nodded and pulled him into a hug, 

"Missed you too, kid,"

Astor smirked proudly and nodded, 

"Yeah, I bet you were bored without me,"

Nikki rolled her eyes and patted his shoulder, 

"It was almost peaceful without hearing you yelling every five seconds or making something fall,"

Astor rolled his eyes, 

"That barely happened,"

Then Rex and Hunter cleared their throat. Every clone finally took off their helmet as they noticed that the battle was over. Hunter watched with curiosity while Rex narrowed his eyes at Astor in suspicion,

"Generals, are you going to introduce us?"

Nikki's eyes widened and she nodded, 

"Oh, yes, sorry, Captain. Boys of the 501st and 99, this is Astor. Astor, this is Captain Rex with his Battalion, the 501st, along with Sergeant Hunter with his squad The Bad Batch. This is where we have been in the time away,"

Astor's eyes widened and he rubbed at them, 

"I think I am hallucinating, maybe I did crash inside the ship after all,"

Cal rolled his eyes and slapped the back of his head, 

"Don't be rude,"

Astor glanced at him and sighed, 

"Hi, I'm Astor I'm new...uh...yeah, Hello,"

Hardcase immediately walked up to him, 

"Where did you get that armor?"

Astor shrugged, 

"Inherited it. Uhhh...I do have something to tell Axel and Sora if you don't mind giving us some space,"

Nikki frowned and looked at Rex, 

"Can you start loading up the transport?"

Rex glanced at the three but nodded, 

"Alright, we will start, call us if you need anything, General Sora,"

Cal nudged Hunter, 

"And you get the squad ready to join the Negotiator, we will ride to Coruscant together,"

Hunter sighed, 

"Fine, but I can't promise it will be entirely civil,"

Cal smirked, 

"I know. Just get us started,"

Hunter nodded and left. Nikki watched as they all left. She could tell that Rex did not want to leave; it was a habit that she saw, and he started to pick up around her just as he did around her younger self. Hunter was also showing some traits of over-protectiveness around not only her, but also Cal too, but he also knows how much danger they were all in if anyone found out what they did with the inhibitor chips. Nikki finally looked at Astor once everyone was out of earshot, even Hunter, 

"Alright, what happened?"

Cal nodded, 

"We can sense something has been off with you ever since we saw you,"

Astor sighed and sat on the floor, 

"I failed you both,"

Nikki frowned and shook her head, 

"Astor, you could never fail us,"

Cal nodded, 

"What happened to Merrin is not your fault,"

Astor felt tears well up in his eyes, 

"B-But...something terrible happened,"

Nikki frowned, put a hand on his shoulder, and grabbed her old helmet from him, 

"Astor, what happened?"

Astor broke down crying and Nikki and Cal immediately pulled him into a tight hug and rubbed his back,

"Shhh, what happened lil star?"

Astor looked at the two as he felt the memories come back, 

"A-Ahsoka...Kanan, Ezra, Ahsoka and I...we went to this place looking for answers. Ezra said he felt something there so we d-decided to check it out. I know I'm not a Jedi, but I-I know some stuff from what you taught me...B-But we found Darth M-Maul. Well, Ezra found him and M-Maul thought Ezra had promise as his new apprentice. We were at a s-sith temple. It was so cold. We found a holocron in there and...and...Vader showed up...he wanted to take Ezra and I...he wanted the holocron for h-himself. Ezra and I attacked him together. Me with my batons and Ezra with his lightsaber. V-Vader said he recognized my forms...said something about his old friend getting a padawan...and that since m-my master was dead h-he could take me on as his apprentice. I obviously said no...but then Ahsoka came and K-Kanan got Ezra and I out while Ahsoka distracted V-Vader...I-I I'm sorry Nikki and Cal...The temple blew up when the three of us left...Ahsoka...she didn't make it,"

Nikki felt something in her snap. She was not there for her honorary sister again. After years of thinking Ahsoka was dead, they finally found each other again. Only to be taken away once again. Just for Ahsoka to die. She was fighting to save the future, to save Ahsoka from her fate. Yet, was it worth it if Ahsoka would still die? She felt hands on her arms. Her eyes were closed as memories flew by. The time they met. The times they pulled pranks on Rex and Cody. The time they convinced Fives and Echo to help them pull a prank on Anakin and Obi-Wan. The many times they trained together under Anakin to prepare for the future purge of all Jedi. 

"SORA!"