Neta smirked back, gesturing to the blaster rifle slung across her back. 
"Honey, give me some credit. I wasn't assigned as a sniper for several years in the Republic militia because I couldn't hit a moving target." As the pair made their way through the drafty halls of the tomb, Neta withdrew her rifle, clicking a couple of buttons on the side of the weapon before holding it out in front of her as she moved, making sure to stay at Aria's six for an ambush from the rear. Thankfully things weren't as dark as Neta thought they would be with Aria's lightsaber, but she wished there was a bit more illumination. Darkness was indeed their friend when it came to sneaking past enemy detection, but these tombs had monsters and beasts that could tear them apart in pitch blackness. Her ears strained to pick up on anomalies, but only heard the slight "woosh" that the air currents within the tomb were producing. It was in this relative quiet that Neta decided to say her piece. She had wanted to reserve this discussion for some other time, but as she had learned in difficult ways, it was much better to get something out of the way rather than letting a situation spiral out of control. 
"I've only known you two for forty eight hours, but I've been around long enough to know when there's the potential for trouble." She paused for a moment, checking the scope of her rifle to examine the upper left corner of the room they found themselves in for a potential creature, but found nothing. She then resumed: 
"I met my husband in the service...actually rescued him and a couple of his men on a botched rescue mission in Hutt space. We met, we talked and then we just..." She shook her head.
"We just knew. There were sparks flying off of us just after knowing each other for a week. We dated for a month and got married the month after because in our line of work, we didn't know when..." She took a breath, exhaling before finishing:
"When our last day would be together. Managed to stay together for ten years. Even had to go on parental leave when we had the twins." She quietly chuckled, memories flitting through her mind as she continued: 
"We loved each other, yeah, but it was more than that. We wanted to be around each other all the time, lived for the moments when we got back from separate deployments and could just be goofballs together..." Another shake of the head. 
"I was on Kashyyk when I got the news. We hadn't seen each other in a few months because of what I was doing for work and...and my squad commander told me. He was killed trying to rescue civilians from Corellia. And I never got the chance to tell him how much he meant to me. I told him that I loved him, but I never sat down and really TOLD him...." Her voice was cracking, so she stopped, continuing to walk forward, eyes trained on her surroundings, vision getting slightly blurrier. She wiped the blurriness away as she wrapped up:
"What I'm trying to tell you through this particular sob story is that if you've got a connection with someone, I mean a REAL connection with someone, you need to act on it as soon as you can. Relationships like that don't come along very often. Grab them when they do." She wanted to follow up with some kind of quip to lighten the tension, but that was interrupted by the sound of garbled voices from up ahead. There were slivers of moonlight that shed some light on the situation.
"Hold it." Neta walked in front of Aria, scope trained on the entranceway to the larger and lit room. 
"Three of them. Two arguing, one up against a pillar. Looks injured, holding his side." She turned to Aria. 
"Think they'll want to talk or should I just turn my stun bolts on and start firing? I'll knock em down in five seconds flat."

__________________

"NO!" 

Udike slammed the blunt end of his apprentice blade against the shock trooper's helmet, a sickening CRACK thudding against the animal cages. Janika picked herself up off the ground, wincing as she placed weight on her left foot. 
"You ok?" 
"Uh huh. Thanks." A feeble smile crossed her face as the two emerged from the beast pens back into the main hall where the chaos had started. Yerbol was currently standing over a Republic trooper at the base of the imposing statue that greeted those who entered the academy. The trooper tried to raise his head, but Yerbol ended that gesture by slamming his right fist into the trooper's unarmored skull.  Breathing heavily, the Knight tore at the holes in his overshirt as he made his way to the Padawans. 
"Did Manso get out ok? I don't see him around." Yerbol looked at the handful of troops laying on the ground, sighing in relief.
"Good. Let's meet him at the hangar entrance and get out of here. We've done enough damage as is. Don't need any more of them storming down on us." Following Aria's directions, the trio ambled down a corridor, then another, then on an extended walkway that served as a bridge between the main Academy grounds and the hangar. 
"Janika...what happened back there..." Sorrow tinged his voice.
"It wasn't your fault. They attacked first and you were caught off guard."
"I don't wanna talk about it." He nodded.
"Right. Let's just get Manso, shall we?"