By the time Anakin reached his destination, he saw the female sith laying face-down on the rock floor and noticed that his soldier companions were still standing with proud expressions on their faces. With a grin the size of a moon, he jogged over to his team and clapped them all on the back. "Way to go, you guys. Didn't even need my help." The small group of survivors jumped at his voice but sighed with relief at his words.

"It was all Commander Rino here," Molindi averted her eyes bashfully and rubbed the back of her neck as Rex complimented the woman. "I've never seen a non-Jedi take on a Sith as an equal with only a few cuts and scrapes to show for it."

"Hey, she had me on the ropes towards the end," Molindi smirked back. "I'd be dead if it weren't for you and Axel." She elbowed her squad mate in the ribs and, for the first time ever, he nudged her back just as playfully.

"As adorable as you all are together, we should probably get moving," The general was right; even as they spoke, the next wave of guards were quickly approaching and the four of them were not going to get another chance to escape before the spies became surrounded. He'd seen the speeder they'd taken zip away towards the hangar which crossed out that method of a getaway. With a quick glance around the arena, Anakin looked over at the pit the gorog had climbed out of and a plan began to fall into place. "Alright, we're going to jump."

"Again?" Rex questioned with a raised brow. "Will you be able to catch all three of us?"

"He will if we go one at a time," Molindi suggested. "If we're fast, we can make it-"

"Ladies first, then!" Before the woman could finish her sentence, Anakin had taken hold of her through the Force and sent her body flying over the edge of the stands. Both Rex and Axel let out audible gasps of shock and the Varactyl squadron member rushed to the side. Though Anakin felt it the moment Rex saw Molindi's body lift from the ground once more, the other commander still sent the man an unamused expression. It was meant to scold the general somewhat, but ended up doing the exact opposite; it confirmed that Anakin's plans for the two were already in motion. At least on Rex's side of the task. "I'll let you be the one to push her next time." The Jedi chuckled as he nonchalantly jogged back over to the edge where he extended his hand and caught Molindi before she could face plant below.

"Nah, I probably shouldn't if I want to stay alive." Rex smirked after the woman had landed safely and made a gesture towards them with her finger that would probably be left out of the mission reports. He leaped after her and Axel followed suit to the sound of blasters being fired behind them; the elite guards had arrived and the spies weren't hanging around long enough to see if they were any more skilled than the ones they'd faced before.

In seconds, everyone had made it in one piece to the arena floor, kicking up little clouds of sand and dust upon contact, and began the short sprint towards the gorog's den below the establishment. Despite having to climb up and over the gorog's corpse, the four still made it there in decent time and dropped down into the depths below.

***

"Maybe this wasn't as great of a plan as I thought before."

It was a rare occasion when Anakin Skywalker actually admitted out loud that he could possibly be wrong about something. As the four trudged ankle-deep in raw urine and manure through what actually turned out to be the dark sewers of Twar's capitol city, it wasn't difficult to agree with him in the topic.

The walkways were somewhat narrow, stretching to be only six feet wide and eight feet high. Basic protocol stated that in situations like this, soldiers were to walk in a straight line, one man behind the other. But since none of them had any real knowledge on what dangers the sewer held, the four fell into going two by two, almost shoulder to shoulder, so that they'd know right away if someone was to be attacked from behind or torn away from the pack by something like the vines that claimed the palace walls.

At the beginning of their journey through the underground, they'd sprinted for a solid ten minutes, weaving their way through the pipes and tunnels in a pattern their pursuers would have a difficult time following. When they collectively decided they were miles away from where the gorog dragged its carcass out, the group of four slowed their pace to a walk with only the light of Anakin's lightsaber to guide them through the darkness.

"Yeah, real crappy plan," Molindi emphasized her pun with a cheeky smirk, an action to which Axel replied with an audible groan and rolled his eyes.

"Really? That's the best you've got?" He questioned, though he was trying to hide a small smile while walking side-by-side with the woman behind Rex and General Skywalker.

"Hey, don't get pissy with me," She countered. "Now that we're farther from that shit-show, we can take a moment to relieve ourselves of the tension-"

"Please stop," Axel begged and the woman along with the two men in front of them began to chuckle to themselves despite the circumstances.

After he'd started feeling a shift in Rex's emotions toward the other commander, Anakin had taken advantage of their time in the solitude of the sewers to further their knowledge of the woman, including her sense of humor. Yes, they'd talked about common things on their way to Twar, but Anakin would be damned if he didn't try as hard as possible to make the two better acquainted with each other. Puns were just a first step in a long line of blueprints Anakin had mentally constructed for Rex's love life.

"Come on, Axel," Rex chipped in. "It's impolite to take a dump on her jokes." Molindi and the General let out a burst of laughter. Despite everyone being grown adults, it was fun to have the mind of a twelve-year-old boy every once in a while.

Before anyone else could make another crap-related pun, Anakin paused in his tracks, causing Axel to nearly walk straight up to his back, and the Jedi squinted our into the distance.

"General?" Rex questioned and followed Anakin's gaze; he couldn't clearly see anything of concern ahead.

"Do you see that?" General Skywalker asked, then put away his lightsaber, submerging them back into complete darkness. "Up there, something's glowing."

"A way out?" Molindi spoke up and stood on her tiptoes to look past Rex's shoulder. Anakin shook his head, though none could see him do it.

"No, it can't be," The general began. "It's sort of blue, almost luminescent." He pauses a moment, rubbing his chin with his hand in thought before speaking once more. "I'll scout ahead and see what's up, you three stay here and wait for my signal." He slid his hand into his pocket and pulled out a comm-link, handing it off to Rex a little less gracefully in the pitch-black than Rex would care to admit. "Rex has a comm-link. I'll let you guys know when it's safe to follow."

"You sure you don't want any backup?" Molindi spoke with concern. "We don't know what we're up against, this could be a trap for all we know." She had a valid point. The odds of this being some trick of the locals to capture them was highly likely; the Twarans knew the routes of their sewer better than the Republic spies. They could've been tracking the group the entire time and waited til they'd spent some of their energy in their supposed escape through the tunnels.

"You're right," Anakin stated, then thought of a brilliant idea. "Axel and I will scout ahead, you and Rex watch our backs from here."

"You sure you don't want me-"

"Nope, Axel and I have this in the bag," Anakin patted Rex's shoulder before he could finish his sentence. "You and Commander Rino will hang back until I give the all-clear. Axel, let's get going."

"Yes, sir."

***

Rex couldn't decide what he thought of General Skywalker leaving him alone with Molindi.

It was obvious now to the clone what the Jedi was trying to direct, what Anakin's little side quest during this mission was, and it left a strange feeling in his chest along with a slew of questions racing through his mind.

Was this actually a possibility? Rex somehow wooing over Molindi? She was a nice enough woman, noble and always thinking of the well-being of her men first, as well as having a light kind of personality along side her killer fighting abilities. Plus she didn't look half bad, Rex would say she was pretty, even beautiful if he didn't know any better. And she was great with kids. The kindness she showed the triplets made him think of that one clone he'd met years ago,  Cut Lawquane, and the family he'd started after deserting the frontlines. Was that something Rex wanted too once the war was over?

He knew the answer before he'd truly thought of the entire question-

"So," Rex was pulled from his thoughts by the sound of Molindi's voice as it broke the somewhat awkward silence, a smooth tone he hadn't quite gotten used to yet. "Come here often?" She fake-flirted and the two let out small chuckles in response. "Seriously though, how many sewers has the general taken you to? Or is this a first?"

"Uh," He thought for a second, running his bare hand across the back of his neck. "Not many, certainly none that smelled this bad. You?"

"Same," She responded. "This might be my first." He couldn't see her face, but he knew she was grinning when she spoke next. "It's funny that this is the first moment we've truly been alone since being married."

"True, sorry it's no five-star meal," He teased back. He found the awkward weight of nerves and uncertainty slowly began to subside as soon as he adopted his teasing part of himself in her presence; he felt just like he had the first time they'd talked by themselves on watch duty.

"I'm sure we've probably stepped in one by now." They both chuckled but cringed at the joke as well. "I need to stop doing that. Just trying to keep the mood light."

"You do a fairly decent job at that," Rex complimented, his arms folded and a small smirk on his lips.

"I try my best," She admitted with her smiling words. "Anything to keep the spirits of my men up in situations like this."

"I appreciate that, and I'm sure your men do as well. Well, all of them except Axel." He teased once more and he felt a fist lightly punch the leather armor on his chest.

"Hey, I think I've finally cracked him," She giggled. "He reminds me of a teenager who gets embarrassed by his parents easily, so that's the route I've decided to take with him."

"Ah, yes, extremely effective from what I've seen so far."

"Honestly, I'm just glad we're not at each other's throats anymore. I guess that's what near-death experiences do: bring people closer." She sighed. Even hiding in the darkness, he could still feel her eyes on him and a wave of blood began to rush to his cheeks.

"You could say that," He attempted to say bashfully, but his voice cracked towards the end that left Molindi in a fit of giggles.

"Oh Rex," She chuckled and the warm, gentle feeling of a soft hand pressed against his cheek. "You're adorable." His heart began to race and the commander tried to keep his breathing steady, but he was hopelessly failing. He opened his mouth to speak-

"Uh, Rex, Rino, you guys should probably come see this." The general's staticky voice rang out through the comm-link and Molindi's hand fell to the device.

"Will do, on our way," She pressed the glowing green button in response, her face being lit up by the device and she smiled sweetly at the Clone before turning to head towards the luminescent light down the tunnel.

Rex couldn't decide if he was thankful for Skywalker's interruption or hated him for it.