It was a shock to see Agnacia be overtaken by the dark being she'd summoned, but it shattered Asemdi's world when her possessed sister fell to the floor and her body started to flail rapidly on the ground. Her arms and legs pumped and kicked, her torso and head seizing furiously against the hard surface and the black liquid that had once coated her eyes began to spew from her mouth.

"Sister!" Asemdi shrieked in fear. She collapsed to her knees and reached out to her closest adviser, but was pushed away when her sibling's foot made contact with her chest and sent the queen reeling backwards. With her hand pressed to her sternum and her eyes turning to the Sith in the room, Asemdi pleaded in desperation. "Help her! Please, do something!"

More and more black goo squirted from Agnacia's gaping maw and smeared down her chin and cheeks. The oil-like substance coated her skin like tar til it nearly covered her entire face and began pooling on the ground around her head. Ventress just watched in a horrified stupor as the witch continued to expel the dark liquid from her body, now beginning to leak from her eyes and nose as well.

What did she expect Ventress to do? She didn't know the ways of the witches, let alone how to fix whatever bat-shit crazy spell that had gone wrong. All either of the women could do was wait for what they knew would happen next, but dreaded nonetheless. As the dark sludge crawled down Agnacia's chest and shoulders, over her stomach and across her legs, her body suddenly seized up before going motionless once and for all, the black sludge disappearing to reveal the dehydrated corpse beneath. Asemdi gasped and scurried back over to her sister's side.

"Agnacia? Agnacia?" She grabbed her by the shoulders and shook the lifeless body, but there was no difference. No motion. No pulse. With her skin shriveled like a grape and her eyes rolled into the back of her skull, the queen's sister was dead and what once had been an act of revenge had turned into a suicide mission.

And now not only had Asemdi lost her daughters, but her best friend as well.

As the queen of the witches released the dead body of the one person she trusted most, her fists began to shake and her breathing began to speed up at a rapid pace. The sound of her blood pumping in her ears and the rage building within her soul was blinding; the queen stood up, not even looking at the Sith apprentice beside her.

"Fetch someone to pick up my sister's body," She spoke in a low, monotonous tone before making her way towards the exit. Asemdi clasped her hands behind her back, tightly holding each other to stop them from shaking. Though before she left, the queen glanced over her shoulder with a gaze more menacing than anything Ventress had seen from her master. "I hope you're at least useful for that, Sith."

"Where are you going?" She asked as she watched the woman walk away. This time Asemdi didn't bother looking back at the only other living person in the room.

"To kill those bastards myself."

***

By the time night had fallen, the Chitauri had begun to mend the rest of Molindi's wounds and had given the four Republic spies one of their guest homes near the market of the village. It wasn't anything over the top, consisting of a small kitchen with a table and chairs, a bathroom with running water and what appeared to be a functioning shower, as well as a bedroom down the hall with a bed big enough for two grown Chitauri. But it was much better than sleeping on the hard ground like they had the night before.

"And you're sure that thing won't come back for you?" General Skywalker asked from his position at the entryway of Etolga's, the woman who saved Molindi's life, home. The elephantine woman had carried her from the street to the foyer of her house where, based on the gurneys and medical supplies, seemed to be a makeshift hospital for the injured of the encampment.

Axel and Rex stood back as well while Etolga finished wrapping Molindi's ribs in a tight, tan-colored gauze. Her leather armor that covered her torso lay in a neat pile on the floor beside the examination table, exposing the bruises and scrapes that nearly covered her entire shoulders and back. Molindi flinched when Etolga tugged a little too hard, but gave the Chitauri doctor a reassuring smile when she seemed to apologize for the use of force.

"I'm pretty sure," The commander stated, Etolga's thick fingers tying the cloth tightly in place. "Etolga's spell should've been enough to counter-act whatever the Twaran witches threw at me. And thanks to the rest of the town's help, that little slug-monster is nothing but a mark on the ground now." As Molindi spoke, her voice now much stronger than it had been before and her overall appearance returning to that of which it had been before the encounter with the Tokep creatures, Etolga stood up from her spot beside the table and handed Molindi one of her spare shirts. Although thanks to its enormous size, the shirt was more of a baggy dress over the smaller woman. Regardless, Molindi nodded her thanks and slid it on.

Upon their arrival to Etolga's hut, the elephantine woman had made the three men leave when she began to undress Molindi. It was a weird sensation to the clones and the jedi, being reminded that there were actually physical differences that would've been deemed rude to look at since they weren't of the same gender. It was also a good feeling as well to Molindi; it showed that these three new men currently in her company didn't or no longer had any gender-biased thoughts towards her. To the woman, it was a sign that even deep down in their subconsciouses, they saw her as one of them despite their differences in body parts.

A strange detail to some, but a compliment to Molindi.

"How do we know they won't try something like this again?" Rex questioned from a few feet away, his arms folded and his shoulder leaning against the wall. "We don't know how they managed to manifest that...parasite," he nearly spit the word in distaste, Rex's anger towards their enemy slowly beginning to rise to the surface. "How can we be sure that those witches won't make another attempt to kill you-" At the last moment, he caught the general's smug gaze and the clone commander suddenly realized just how infuriated he sounded to the other people in the room. Though Molindi seemed appreciative of his concern, Axel on the other hand just stared at his superior with a stern eye, as if Molindi needed protecting from him instead of Queen Asemdi and her cohorts. "-or one of us in the same manner?" He quickly tried to recover.

"Because," Molindi began as Etolga took her hand and gently began to help her off the wooden gurney. Despite Rex being closer to her, Axel was faster and slung the commander's free arm around his shoulders for support. So instead he picked up Molindi's things from the ground and carried the folded pile. "Etolga said the kind of power needed for a spell that lethal, especially with such strength from across the planet- maybe even across the dimension, is almost impossible without a strong, meaningful sacrifice from the caster."

"Sacrifice?" Anakin raised an eyebrow.

"Either the caster gives their own life or the life of the one they love most in order to connect the darkness in their soul to the soul of their target," Molindi explained and thanked her rescuer one last time before the Republic troops began their walk from Etolga's house to the guest one they'd be sleeping in for the night. "Agnacia is the strongest witch they have in their arsenal, and unless Asemdi was hiding some seriously over-powering abilities from her kids and decided to sacrifice the last family member she has, I don't think anyone else from their side has the capability for something of that scale."

The streets had gone quieter since nightfall; most of the villagers had returned to their own homes for the evening, while a couple groups sat in small circles on the ground and passed around bottles of wine from the day's celebration. The patrol along the borders of the village had increased in number, now jumping from two guards per section of wall to four. They weren't going to risk being taken by surprise again anytime soon, and the Republic troops understood that, even admired their common sense to increase protection of the ones they loved.

It was a short walk and Molindi managed to finish the last half of it on her own, though they could tell she was trying to hide her exhaustion when they finally reached the guest-house.

"Holy hell, this bed is huge," Axel exclaimed when they walked into the only bedroom of the small house. He wasn't wrong; the mattress was long and wide enough for all four individuals to sleep on with room to spare.

"Best part is we don't have to sleep in shifts anymore," The general responded and sat down on the soft, fluffy mattress. There was a neat stack of blankets sitting off in the corner of the room, but with the heat and humidity, they seemed to be more of a luxury than a necessity. With a sigh of comfort, Anakin laid back and closed his eyes, not even bothering to make sure his head was on a pillow. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to enjoy a good night's rest."

"Sounds great to me," Lindi yawned and carefully sat down on the opposite side of the bed. It took a minute for her to get comfortable, but when she did, it was as if a light had shut off in her mind and she fell into a deep sleep. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, Rex and Axel didn't have a heart-attack at the sight of the woman's eyelids falling shut.

With the General on one side of the bed and Lindi on the other, that left two wide open spaces in the center of the mattress for the taking. It wasn't a conversation; Axel didn't hesitate to crawl to the spot nearest to Molindi and turned his body away from Rex without so much as a grunt. It was clear to him now that the Varactyl Squadron commander was off-limits to the clone commander of the 501st in any way, shape, or form, at least where Axel was concerned.

But too tired to pick a fight or even think about what was running through Axel's mind, Rex didn't care about sleeping-spots and the minute his head hit the pillow, his mind was consumed by a comfortable warmth.

***

It was dark, that was the first thing that he noticed when his eyes opened and he viewed the scene before himself. Surrounded by trees and draping vines, Rex began to wonder if he'd been sleepwalking and somehow ended up back in the jungle they'd just escaped from. Though he'd never been known to sleep-walk, there was no other explanation as to how and why the commander was deep back into flora-territory.

But then he took a breath of the air and immediately wanted to vomit. The scent of blood and decay was vibrant and overloaded his senses to a point where he had to cover his nose and mouth to keep from puking all over the ground. Something was wrong, something was dreadfully, terribly wrong.

It wasn't long after that the tree branches above began to shake rapidly, swaying back and forth as if blown by gale-force winds and a wave of animalistic cries rose up and shattered the silence that had once been.

"Go! Go! Hurry!"

He whipped his head to the right at the sound of Molindi's voice and felt his chest tighten as the woman sprinted in his direction through the light-less cluster of brush.

Clad in her normal yellow-detailed armor, though it was layered in dust and grime, was the Varactyl Squadron commander. Her hair was shorter and disheveled with her face almost unrecognizable from the mixture of mud and blood that had been smeared over her cheeks and forehead. There was a quickness in her breath and the look in her eyes was one of pure terror as she continued to sprint as fast as her legs could carry her.

"Molindi?" He questioned in confusion. "What's wrong? What happened?" But she didn't listen, her fearful eyes almost staring right through him as if he wasn't even there. It was then that the commander finally realized he wasn't alone. Seeming to materialize out of thin air, another trooper appeared right beside him, equally as rugged and beat-up as the woman.

"Bren, run!"

Almost as soon as the words left her lips, Rex saw what had the woman in such a rush. The sound of shrieking and screaming grew louder and louder with each step she took; following not far behind was the most disgusting and horrifying group of humans he'd ever seen in his life.

Bald and covered in scars, open wounds, and chiseled symbols all inscribed into their flesh, this clan of abominations wore nothing but loin cloths and clumps of foliage on their bodies. They carried an assortment of jagged spears, crudely melted knives and leather sling-shots that propelled tiny, narrow stones. Even from far off, Rex could still see the glint of their filed teeth and the pointy tips of their fingers; it almost looked like they'd peeled the flesh from the tops of their digits and sharpened the bone beneath into talons.

The sight sent a paralyzing sensation throughout his body that he'd never felt before- the feeling of petrified helplessness. Finally the pieces in his mind began to fall together and he immediately knew where he was.

Rex was on Ganta-Nego.

And he was witnessing Molindi's personal Hell.