Author's Note: Before we begin, apologies are in order; I've had this chapter completed for about a MONTH now and I've been forgetting to upload it because school for me was still a thing. In any case, I've got some adjustments to do now that Rex went from Captain to Commander in the Clone Wars series, and there's a whole separate unit to worry about under Ahsoka's command. The Siege of Mandalore has also given me some stuff to rework, so I'll have to adjust for that to. In any case, hope you guys enjoy the chapter!

Derylon System

Above Derylon Prime….

The waiting just before a fleet battle was absolute murder, in Anakin's well-known opinion. The silence, the fleets just hanging in space, the starfighters floating in formation aimlessly, it was all too much for battle hungry pilots like him. He sighed as he sat in his Eta-2, hunched over his controls, waiting. Around him floated his Gold Squadron, all of whom felt the same angst and impatience that their squadron leader felt, only made worse by the three clones that sat in each ARC-170. Anakin's waiting was interrupted by Admiral Yularen's image appearing on his holoprojector.

"Apologies for the intrusion sir, but General Kenobi has relinquished command of the fleet to me for this battle." Yularen stated.

"Ah, so my master's trying to get under Vork's skin; nice." Anakin commented. "What do you need me to do, admiral?"

"Well, sir, I was going to let you…do your thing, as it were?" Yularen answered airily.

"Oh? And what is my thing?"

"Playing havoc with tactics, both mine and the enemy's," Yularen said, grinning, "oh, and to keep you on your toes, I'm having two of our light cruisers, the Rusher and the Stormer, advance with you…their gunners will be keeping score." Anakin blinked.

"Yularen."

"Yes sir?"

"Are you…challenging me?" Yularen smiled.

"Take it as you will, sir, we will be beginning our attack shortly. Yularen out." The admiral's visage blinked out of existence.

"Gold Squadron, this is Gold Leader; Admiral Yularen's giving us a challenge today. The Rusher and the Stormer will be joining us on our attack run, and their gunners are keeping score. Let's show them why we're the best squadron in the galaxy." A series of whoops and jeers followed Anakin's announcement as the Open Circle fleet began to lumber forward. "Gold Squadron, check in!"

As the squadron began to check in one-by-one, Anakin tapped a quo of holoprojectors next to his dashboard. One was an image of Padme and him, another of him and his twin children, Luke and Leia, another of him and Ahsoka tinkering with their interceptors, and the final one was a Holonet image of him and Obi-Wan on Christophsis before Ahsoka had come. The pair were holding the line against another wave of droids, but it wouldn't look like it. Instead, it looked like the pair were having fun; Anakin had said something to Obi-Wan that had caused the pair to start a short insult war, leading to the accompanying journalist capturing this picture. No matter how frustrated he got with his master, Anakin remembered the good moments, moments like these.

"This is Yularen to all forces, begin your attack runs." The admiral ordered over the fleet channel. Vork must have done the same, because at once, both fleets seemed to leap towards each other as the fighters from both sides hit the accelerator. A swarm of droid starfighters began their approach as ARC-170s, V-Wings, and Y-Wings came to meet them. Already firing and rushing to join them were the two light cruisers, Stormer and Rusher; Anakin's blood began to boil just a little bit when the gunners of both ships began to keep their kill counts on an open channel.

He punched down the accelerator, sending his interceptor hurtling forward, and he left his thumbs dig deep into the triggers. Red light arced out and blasted a starfighter apart and Anakin was already switching targets, taking another one down before he rolled to dodge a storm of cannon fire from a trio of Vulture droids. Even when he was dodging, Anakin was selecting his next target, transitioning from the defensive to the offensive in the blink of an eye, using the agility of his craft to its full potential. A third Vulture went down in an explosion and a fourth followed soon after. By now, Gold Squadron had joined the fray, and the clones were adding their kills to the squadron's growing kill count. But Anakin had something far greater in mind; a ship.

While the fighters and interceptors dueled in the space between the two fleets, the warships began their opening volleys. Red and blue lasers crisscrossed in the space above Derylon Prime as the Republic and the forces of renegade General Vork made war on each other. The Venators were better shielded and better armed than the renegade's ships, but firepower can only do so much against superior numbers; hence Yularen's aggressive use of the light cruisers. Their assault forward forced both fighter and warship power away from the main fleet and away from their squadrons of Y-wing bombers.

As the Vulture's began to swamp the guns of the light cruisers, the Y-wings began their attack runs. Diving towards Vork's frontline of ships, a cluster of Munificent frigates, the first squadron unleashed a payload of ion torpedoes, dropping the shields. The second squadron followed up with their own volley of proton torpedoes, puncturing the armor and damaging the vessels. One of them lost their shield generator and like a stalking predator, Anakin leapt.

He emerged from the swirling mass of starfighters and dove towards the frigate, angling towards the lower portions. He flew alongside it, pushing his interceptor as fast as it could go, all the while R2, knowing his master all too well, plotted an attack vector. When Anakin came to the end of the frigate, he flew past it slightly, began to spin, and flipped the Eta-2 back towards the frigate's engines. Anakin's fingers jammed down on his triggers, spitting angry red laser fire at his targets. His cannons raked the engines, hitting the majority of primary engines and several secondary engines, disabling and destroying them. As it began a chain reaction to destroy the ship, Anakin flew his interceptor over the top of the frigate and hurtled towards its command tower, his cannons blasting the entire way as he strafed the tower. It erupted in a ball of short-lived flame as the Jedi Knight flew past the dying ship, explosions racking the vessel as it began to break apart. As it died, Anakin allowed himself a grin.

"Stormer to General Skywalker; respectfully sir, that still only counts as one! Out!" The captain of the Stormer protested over the comnlink.

"To hell with him, sir, I say you've beat them already!" Gold-8 countered. Anakin only laughed and dove back into the fray, leading the Republic's fighter squadrons in their fight against the renegade Vulture droids.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

For a short while, the Venator's firepower began to overwhelm the Munificents and the Recusants while the Lucrehulks and the Cunning Count remained behind their frontline. As more and more of his ships went down in fire, and with only two Venators disabled, Vork knew it was time for his escape plan.

"Open a channel to Kenobi; it's time to leave." Vork ordered. A moment later, the image of Admiral Yularen appeared. "I asked for Kenobi, not his Republic lapdog."

"General Kenobi is currently preparing for the retaking of Derylon Prime and granted the fleet battle to me, General Vork." Yularen said firmly. "This has been my battle." Vork struggled to keep the rage down; defeated by a puppet of Kenobi and not the man himself?! Impossible.

"Regardless, Admiral, I am here to dictate my terms of departure." Vork stated, rising from his throne, for that is what the count had converted the command chair to.

"Departure, general, I believe you mean surrender." Yularen countered.

"No," Vork said as he pulled a detonator from his pocket, "I mean departure." He pressed the button once…and a moment later, two pricks of bright orange light appeared on Derylon.

"Sir," A clone aide called, "nuclear detonations detected on Derylon Prime!"

"You see, Admiral Yularen," Vork began as he paced, "I have placed nuclear devices at each of the reeducation camps that house the vast majority of the planet's population. Two of twenty have just gone up in nuclear fireballs with the rest to follow shortly…unless you allow me and the remains of my fleet to depart." Another Recusant went up in flames, bringing the fleet from the forty-eight he had begun with to thirty-two in just forty-five minutes of fighting while the Republic had lost two, but they could be recovered. Yularen stared with undisguised hatred and disgust at Vork, who hovered his thumb over the detonator.

"I will order the fleet to stand down." Yularen said finally and cut the call at his end.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Anakin was preparing another attack run when Yularen appeared again.

"General…I must ask you to discontinue your assault."

"What?! What possible reason could you have for calling this off? We're winning, Admiral!" Anakin protested.

"Indeed sir, and that is why Vork is departing…he has nuclear bombs placed in his prison camps on Derylon Prime."

"He's bluffing!"

"Sir, I just watched two camps go up in nuclear fireballs, I am respectfully demanding you discontinue your assault!" Yularen insisted. Anakin flipped the Eta-2 towards Derylon and confirmed what Yularen said; the nuclear fireballs still glowing bright orange on the surface. He grinded his teeth together.

"All squadrons, this is General Skywalker, discontinue your assaults, I say again, discontinue your assaults and return to the fleet." Anakin ordered with reluctance. A moment later, after a final Munificent went down in flames, the guns of the Open Circle Fleet fell silent and their hangar bays began to fill. Obi-Wan ran out to meet Anakin as he landed.

"I just heard from Yularen, are they withdrawing their troops as well?" He asked as Anakin exited his interceptor, R2 following suit.

"From the looks of it, any transport craft are heading towards the surface instead of away from it…he's leaving his army behind to stall us." Anakin answered.

"I've seen Vork stoop low before," Came the voice of Commander Prizefighter, "but this…. this is a new low for him." He approached in full combat gear; helmet tucked against as his waist.

"And I've never met someone with so large a superiority complex." Yularen followed his normal, deliberate pace of walk replaced with the angry marching of a hunter whose prey had escaped. "The man believes he should've been born with a key to the galaxy!"

"All things to consider for our next encounter with the man, but I require your focus on the task at hand." Obi-Wan said, rallying the three as a clone aide ran up to him with a datapad. "According to our latest planetary reports, the droid armies are moving into the major population centers, leaving the prison camps and smaller townships alone. However, there are still droids along the major highways of the planet, so our movement will not be completely free. Their primary concentration is on the capital of Derylon, Ripae."

"What are our orders, sir?" Prizefighter asked.

"We'll be splitting our forces to cover the other two major cities, Carga City and Tellerton; Commander Prizefighter, you and your legion will be joining myself and Commander Cortex with the 10th. Anakin, the 501st and the 7th Sky Corps are yours at Tellerton after your clear the skies. Admiral, deploy the fleet around Derylon Prime, ensure no reinforcements are able to break through, and be prepared to provide orbital support."

"You're not going with Cody?" Anakin asked in surprised.

"Not this time; Cody knows how to work with the 501st; while Prizefighter and Cortex are unfamiliar with our methods. I intend to educate them." Obi-Wan answered.

"Sir…you make that sound entirely too ominous." Prizefighter commented. Obi-Wan gave him a grin.

"Do your best to keep up, Commander." He challenged. Anakin's eyebrows raised in surprise as Prizefighter chuckled dangerously.

"Sir," Yularen interjected, "would you like me to redeploy the bombers to Derylon Prime? The more droids we can destroy en-route to the major city centers, the better our odds are for our men on the ground."

"Do it; make sure we have a quick turn-around," Anakin said, "I'll get the fighters ready to go as well."

"Then good luck, gentlemen, and may the Force be with you all." Obi-Wan said.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Cunning Count

Moments after departure from Derylon…

"Open a channel to Count Dooku." Vork ordered, reclining in his throne. A moment later, Dooku appeared on the holoterminal.

"Greetings, Count Vork, what news do you bring from Derylon?" He asked.

"Unfortunately, my dear Count, the Republic intervened in my affairs at Derylon; their fleet was threatening to overwhelm my own, so I was forced to abandon the battle." Vork said. "However, I have retained half of my fleet, my droid armies remain on Derylon Prime in order to slow down the Republic, and I the bank taps I have placed upon the Derylon banking systems remain in place. As of now," Vork activated a side-screen with credit flow data, "I have drained nearly four billion credits from the Derylon banks, and should they remain in place over the duration of the Republic's activities on Derylon, I estimate at least one to three billion more to be transferred."

"While I am displeased that you were forced to abandon Derylon to the Republic…you have done quite well, Count Vork. I will authorize additions to your fleet and a replenishment of your forces; you should have them within the next month." Dooku said approvingly.

"Thank you, Dooku; what is my next task?"

"For now, remain hidden and do not draw unwanted attention to yourself; I have others making preparations for similar moves." Dooku ordered.

"Understood…I do have one question, though," Vork slid another holographic screen in front of him, this time an image of a small star system, "there's an insignificant cluster of solar systems in the Outer Rim that are just ripe for the taking. Since I'm officially not allowed back to my own home…I was thinking of making another." Dooku inspected the charts.

"Where did you find these?"

"In the vaults on Derylon; apparently some Mandalorians a long time ago placed some items in storage, mostly ancestral weapons and armor, the boring brutish stuff, but I made copies of the star charts for later use."

"If you feel confident that you can take control without Republic notice, then proceed. But have a care, Count Vork, that you are not discovered; if the Republic catches wind of your activities, I cannot be there to assist you." Dooku's hologram vanished and Vork leaned back in his chair. He was going to have the kingdom he so richly deserved.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Courscant

Jedi Temple….

Jedi Master Plo Koon entered the quarters of Master Yoda, who sat with his back to the door, gazing out the wide windows of his room.

"Master Plo, greetings." The ancient Jedi said.

"Greetings to you as well, Master Yoda." The Kel-Dor said as he sat down. "I believe you called me in regards to our dear friends, Master Kenobi and young Skywalker?"

"Called you, I did. A decision to be made, need assistance I do." Yoda said, turning to face Plo Koon, producing a holoprojector from his robes. The image of two young padawans appeared, one female with a double-bladed lightsaber, and another with a pair of lightsabers. "Padawans Baro and Palara, ready for training, they are."

"And you're suggesting we give them to Anakin and Obi-Wan?" Plo Koon asked. "Master Kenobi can most certainly handle another Padawan learner… but Skywalker may have some difficulty in accepting another after Ahsoka's departure from the Order."

"Trouble he will have, grow past it, he must. Hold our failure with Padawan Tano, he must not." Yoda said. Plo Koon sighed.

"In that case, what are our two Padawans-to-be like? What are their temperaments?"

"Padawan Baro and Palara both headstrong, reckless; more patient, willing to listen, Padawan Baro is. Padawan Palara…" Yoda shook his head, "great potential for good, great potential for darkness in her I sense."

"Then might I suggest granting Padawan Baro to young Skywalker, while we give the more difficult of the two to Master Kenobi?"

"Perhaps; hoped to warn Skywalker to his own potential for darkness in Padawan Palara."

"While a noble sentiment, master, the pair could instead take each other down into darkness."

"Indeed." Yoda tapped his walking stick firmly on the ground twice, and the door opened to reveal the two padawans. "Padawans Baro and Palara, Master Plo Koon, this is." The paired bowed deeply as Plo Koon did the same.

"Greetings, young ones, are you ready to begin your apprenticeships?"

"We are, Master Plo." The male, Baro said confidently.

"We eagerly await your decision on our masters." Palara said.

"Shall I tell them, or should you?" Plo Koon asked Yoda. The ancient Jedi chortled and nodded to the Kel-Dor. "Padawan Baro, your master shall be Knight Anakin Skywalker; Padawan Palara, your master shall be Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. Both are well respected Jedi and capable leaders; Jedi I count as personal friends." Plo Koon stated. The pair gleamed with surprise, anticipation, and excitement at the prospects of meeting and learning under two great Jedi.

"Meet them soon, you shall," Yoda said, "proceed to the Derylon system immediately, Master Plo."

"Are Kenobi and Skywalker not engaged with one of the renegades there?" Plo Koon asked.

"Indeed," Yoda's ears wiggled in amusement and he smiled, "to get to know their masters in their element, the padawans should." Plo Koon thought for a moment.

"Would you mind if I took the Wolff Pack with me, Master?"