Chapter, four, here it is! Btw, I reloaded it and made some changes. Hope you like!
Disclaimer: None of this is mine, so why bother?
Ani watched silently as the door closed and the heavy tramp of the Wookies' feet and her Master's light whisper footing eventually float away into nothingness. She sighed, a barely audible sigh, and went into the kitchen.
"Well, gotta do lunch and research at the same time. Piece of cake, right?" Somehow, she felt that it wouldn't be so this time. As she went into the kitchen, she surveyed the cupboards. /Almost bare, they are, and stop talking like Master Yoda, I must. Well, better make do. / She pulled some food capsules from her belt and heated up a pot with water to boiling hot. As she watched the pot boil, putting in the food capsules and ration bars, she suddenly felt a surge in the Force, warning her to duck. She did – and the roof was on top of her before she knew it. Dangit, she thought, taking a good look of what happened. Someone or something made this collapsible roof – well, collapse on me – and now I'm stuck! Perfect way to get caught by clone trooper! That is, if they haven't already found the source of this noise! Just then, she heard the steady tramp of the troopers' feet as they slowly but surely came towards the now-ruined house. Sithspit! All I had to do was to make lunch and do research, and it ends up becoming more complicated than I thought it would be! Force, you had better help me get out of this mess; otherwise Master will have one heck of a time with you when she finds out that I'm not part of this galaxy anymore! She said, and I quote, "If you die, Padawan, I'll kill you!" So maybe you'll want to keep me around for a little while, 'kay? She adjusted herself so she wouldn't be noticeable to the naked eye; she'd be hidden by all the fallen timber and rotted junk that continually fell from them. She slowed her breathing down to a bare minimum as she heard the clones come closer. She heard them stop, and start talking.
Clone 1: "I can't believe we didn't burn this down sooner! See Commander Fai, I told you to tear it down."
Clone 2 (Commander Fai): "Shut up! Let's get this cleaned up before the others come here and spread the word."
Clone 1: "Right-O, Commander!"
They worked together to clean up the mess. Ani could hear them as they clumsily scraped away the debris, making it blend in with the rest of the forested landscape. She lay in the awkward position she happened to be in, being careful to not shift anything around too much, & closed her eyes. She might as well make this look believable.
Clone 1: "Hey, Commander, look what I found!"
Clone 2: "It's 'who' not 'what', soldier."
Clone 1: "Okay; whatever Captain. Anyway, look who I found!" He emphasized the 'who' over emphatically.
Clone 2: "Yes, I see. By the looks of it, this could possibly be a Mirialan female, a standard fifteen years old."
Clone 1: "You don't think –"
Clone 2: "No, no one could have possibly survived what we have done to this old, abandoned shack." His tone darkened. "Not even a Jedi." He spat the word Jedi, acting as if that was a swear word, or if something foul had been inhaled or chewed upon inside his mouth, overwhelming his sensors.
Clone 1: "Well, at least we should bury her."
Clone 2: "What was that, soldier?"
Clone 1 (submissively): "Nothing, sir."
Clone 2: "Good, soldier. I will go inform out to inform our Commander about the body we've found. I'll expect an autopsy report from you when you return, along with the remains of the body." With that, he hopped onto his speeder bike, revved the engines, and soon was out of sight.
The ordinary clone trooper, not a commander, not a lieutenant, not even having a rank, went over, knelt down, and surveyed the body, using his sensors and a little device in his left hand. Yep, the girl seemed to be dead, alright. As he looked closer, however, he noticed something glimmer in the shaft of sunlight that had penetrated the thick forest and settled on that particular object. He reached for it, grabbed it gently, and held it up, awed. In his hand, he held a lightsaber, a weapon that the Jedi had used, that they had protected their commands, battalions, and troopers with.
The clone held it in his hands, gently weighing it in his hands as it shifted. It was not heavy, nor light; it was somewhere in the middle. Just by touching it, he could feel courage and kindness radiating from it; he bet he could've felt it a parsec away. He sighed as he clipped it onto his own belt. Whoever this girl was, she had been a Jedi, perhaps a padawan. It didn't make him feel any better to realize that she had most likely died when the house had collapsed on her. As he gently turned her over onto her back, he idly wondered whether or not he could've known her. Get a grip on yourself, he told himself sternly. If this girl's a Jedi, then that most likely means that she is…was a traitor to the Republic. We cannot afford to have traitors take down our beloved, esteemed Republic.
Ah, said another voice in his head, but what if they weren't guilty of treason? What if they had been, in fact, innocent? What if they were gotten out of the way just to make room for someone who couldn't bear to have them stay where they were? What if –
He quickly tried to tune out the questioning, and sometimes irritating, voice in his head that kept giving him the what-ifs.
The past is the past, he told himself ruthlessly. I can do nothing to change it, nor can anyone else, traitors or fellow citizens. He bent down again, working as hard as he could to free the girl's still body from amongst the wreckage. Another shaft of light shone down, caused him to blink, and illuminated the girl's face. Man, is she ever pretty, he thought, gazing down at her pale skin, blood-red cheeks and black tattoos. He mentally kicked himself. This was one of the two main reasons why he wasn't promoted to lieutenant yet; the other being the fact that he still needed more practice and experience.
After he got promoted, then the climb to become commander wouldn't be so difficult…hopefully. He grunted as he hoisted the kid's body over his shoulder, noting that she was lighter than air, it seemed. He carried her with a swiftness that seemed unrealistic to him; he set her on the grass gently. The clone felt distinctly uncomfortable as he took out a fire-lighting device and set the tiny flame on a dry piece of timber. The entire crumbled ruins, what was not stone or brick, soon burst into flame and quickly turned into ash. Fortunately, none of the surrounding grass had caught fire.
He was about to go grab his speeder bike when his sensors beeped, indicating the woman – more like a girl – was alive. He blinked. That was impossible; no way could that girl have survived that cave-in, even if she was Jedi. As he turned around, knelt, and checked her, he felt someone's, or something's, eyes on him. He whirled around in time to see several Wookies staring down at him, blasters in hand, joined with a green-skinned woman wearing all black – dress, headdress, etc. He surveyed the area, looking for a possible escape route.
There was none.
Well, you like? (whispers: please push the pretty green button, please push the pretty green button, please push...)