If you haven't read my story "The New Guy", I suggest you read that first.

I do not own Star Wars.

He was walking through a field. Green grass and stalks of wheat waved around his knees, prickled under his bare feet. The air pressed down on him like a tangible force, trying to push him to his knees. He squinted at the horizon, the field stretched on for an eternity in each direction to distant rising hills that vanished into the sky. The moon loomed above,green through a thick haze of clouds. From the sky it rained little flames, golden stars crashing down. They hit the grass and smoldered like coals, making small werelights that flickered and sparked in the green twilight. He felt the fire rain scorch the skin of his back, eating away at him like he was paper. The heat evaporated his sweat and cracked his flesh. He blistered and bled, over and again and was made into a wasteland. He walked on for days, years, centuries and did not find an end.

An elbow jammed between his shoulder blades woke Shades from his dream and drove the air from his lungs. Gasping and choking on curses, he rolled away and turned to face his attacker.

Little could be seen in the makeshift shelter, the only light soarce being the moon peeking through holes in the tarp. Shades could make out three other forms in the darkness, all hudled deep within their sleeping rolls to ward off the night chill. He didn't see anyone else, only his sleeping brothers. He relaxed minutely and listened to the nighttime noises. Inside the tent, Onyx snored in a steady, unbroken rythem. Carp mumbled something, shivered, and tucked his head inside his sleeping roll. From outside came the occational cry of an avian and the rustle of branches overhead as the wind stired them. No alarms, nothing to be afraid of. Shades allowed himself to relax completely.

There was a sudden blur of movement as the third man in the tent flayled in his sleeping roll. He trashed from side to side and moaned, maybe a word, maybe nothing.

Shades quickly slid over and grabbed the other guy's shoulder, shaking him awake. He clamped a hand over his mouth to keep him from shouting and waking the rest of the tent.

"Hey, Fib. Fib! Wake up."

Brown eyes opened and stared up at him in the dark, wide and frightened. Shades let out a quiet breath and eased his hand back just as Fib went to shove it off. The medic sat up, panting, and pushed sweat soaked red hair out of his eyes. Shades regarded his brother for a long moment before breaking the silence.

"Well?" he asked in a hushed whisper.

"Well what?"

Shades grunted in irritation and shook his head at the other's terrible attempt at evasion. "You know shabla well what. The dream, moron. What was it about?"

"Nothing," Fib muttered. His voice sounded raspy, like he'd been screaming. He pressed a shaking hand to his mouth and inhaled sharply, then let out a trembling sigh. "It was nothing."

Shades didn't buy it for an instant. He had a lot of experience reading the meaning behind Fib's words, and right now the guy was doing a terrible job of hiding how shaken up he was. What puzzeled the sergeant was the reason for it. Everyone had nightmares. The days of naïve innocence, when the clones had believed that serving the Republic was the greatest gift they could ask for, had long since faded with the ugliness of the war. Now there was only fear, the brewing storm of anger, and the slow rot of madness. Shades knew they all suffered from the slow death in one form or another. Some were worse than others, but all who fought on the front were familiar with its stench.

But when Fib had nightmares, he always woke up calm. It was as though the twilight world of dreams had no hold over him when his eyes were open. Privately, Shades thought it was because the man could be so unlikeable that even nightmares didn't want to hang around longer than absolutely nessesary. Whatever the reason, Fib was obviously feeling the effects of this one.

Concerned, Shades reached out and pressed his palm to his friend's sweaty forehead. Fib blinked in surprise. The skin under Shades's hand was warm and damp, but not feverish.

"Well," he said sagely, "you don't appear to have a fever."

At that, Fib scowled and shoved the other clone's hand away. "Of course I don't. I'd know if I was sick, you dikut. I'm a medic."

And a healer.

The words hung in the air between them, unsaid, but understood all the same.

An idea occurred to Shades, and the hair stood up on the back of his neck and along his arms under the black bodysuit he wore.

Maybe he had a vision.

Really, everything had been much simpiler back when Fib had been nothing but an irreverent, brilliant medic who didn't think he was worth anything because he'd let his closest brother die. Yeah, there'd been issues, but nothing of the supernatural sort. Now that Force-sensitivity had been added to the equation, normal had taken a turn for the weird.

Shades had mostly come to terms with his brother's abilities. He could handle the healing; most of that happened beneath the surface, out of sight, and it was really useful to have a Force healer around in a combat situation. He was all right with the quick reflexes and the talking to him without seeing him enter a room; annoying, but manigable. What really got to him was when Fib moved things without touching them. He didn't do it often and it was never something larger than a helmet, but it was downright unnerving to see a datapad lift itself off a table and float into Fib's hand. If Force visions were about to become a regular occurance, Shades didn't know how much longer his sanity would hold.

He cleared his throat quietly and finally asked, "Was it a vision?"

He waited, apprehention building, as Fib stared off vacantly at the corner of the tent for a few minutes.

"No," he answer finally, voice subdued. He slid into his sleeping roll and turned onto his side, back to Shades. "It was just a bad dream."

I know I said not to expect anything for a while, but I had some ideas and there are still two weeks before school starts. Might as well take advantage of them. The title comes from the song "Dha Werda Verda", or "Wrath of the Shadow Warrior." I hope you enjoy. Please review.

mad'ika