A.N. ~ sorry that took a little while, but here's Chapter Eleven. Please R&R!
"Nope." Twitch said, turning on her heel without slowing down, as if she'd been walking in one direction the whole time. Tail caught the collar of her shirt.
"You're not scared, are you?" Lantana goaded.
"Scared, no. Sick to death of it, yes." The first part of commando training was to test and see wether the soldiers could withhold information from enemy torturers or not. They would be tortured to the brink of death.
"Well, you'll have to put up with it one more time. Then, if you get captured again, you can feel free to escape as soon as you can."
§ § §
"Now, what's your favourite colour?" A droid asked. These weren't the types of question Twitch had expected.
"Oh, that lovely shade of not your business." An electrified prod was jabbed into her ribs.
"How old are you?"
"Gesundheit." She'd been making witty remarks for twenty minutes, ever since the torture started.
"What is a weakness in the clone army?" That was more like the things the teenager had thought she would hear.
"Um, let's see...popcorn?" The difference between when the large slugs had tortured her and now was that the slugs had merely hurt her for amusement, so she stayed silent because it was what would irritate them the most. This droid wanted information, so giving it nothing useful, yet still talking, would be the most provocative thing she could do.
The droid whacked her with the prod.
"Answer truthfully."
"What?"
"You can hear me. Be honest."
"I can't hear you." Twitch tried to shrug in her containment field, but it didn't work.
"Be honest!" The droid thundered.
"Oh, that? No!" The sergeant shook her head. The machine grabbed a hot poker. "'Oh, no! It's a hot poker! Whatever shall I do?' Said myself never seriously." It pressed the hot metal into her cheek. Her breathing sped up and became ragged and she became rigid.
"Is there a weakness in Naboo's defence?"
"Chimichangas." She grunted. The poker moved to her palms. A splintered second of a peep escaped her lips.
"What is your name?"
"Nothing that concerns you." The poker slid down the skin of her arm. She was wearing a sleeveless belly top.
"Name!"
"Nada."
"What are key points to Kamino's defence?"
"Why? Are you going to kill the long necks?"
"Answer me."
"I'm thinking of a word with two letters. The first is 'N', the second is 'O'. Can you guess what it is?"
"No."
"That just proves how stupid you are." Her cackle turned into a yelp as the poker touched her belly. "Kriff! You actually know how to use a poker!"
"Perhaps you should answer me before I move on to the Malrunwa Spiders."
"Oh, you've got some of those little devils? Great! I wonder what I'll see this time. Come on, I'm curious! Get the spiders!"
§ § §
"Is she even taking this seriously?" Lantana sighed as she watched Twitch thrash around, screaming from the venom of a red spider.
"Apparently not." Alpha-17 murmured.
"The others don't seem to be taking this very well, except Tail. He's lasting longer."
"He was exposed to some of Dooku's brutalist torture techniques. It nearly killed him."
"Is that where Twitch got her scars?" The clone shook his head.
"No, those are from five to three years ago, when Dooku captured her. She was tortured for two years before escaping."
"So that's why we aren't making a proverbial scratch. Why does she hate Tiku so much?"
"One moment..." Alpha began tapping on the datapad he had with him, sifting through Twitch's files. "He was the Jedi in command of the Vhalan Campaign. Twitch pointed out that his plan was probably diving them into a trap. She was right, and Pyro Squad got captured by Dooku. The Sith tortured every member to death except Tail, who managed to shut down his body and appear to be dead."
"That would do it."
§ § §
"That sucked." Twitch mumbled. Everyone in her new squad, as warned before it started, had been tortured within an inch of their lives.
She was in the med bay, getting a final check up on the table beside Tail's. She still had cuts and bruises, since the couple days in a bacta tank had only partially healed her.
"You can say that again. I can't believe you managed two years of worse." The scout agreed.
"This was probably worse for you three. You're not as used to it." Lantana swatted Twitch's head, sneaking up on her clone. "Ah, what?"
"Did you even take that seriously?" She demanded.
"Um...no, not really."
"And why not? With your past, you should've been terrified!" Fett demanded.
"With my past, that was just a couple day's sessions. It wasn't really much of a problem. What are you trying to accomplish with this conversation, by the way?"
"I want you to understand the importance of this training."
"I know it's important. Look, do you want me to laugh in the face of danger or fill my pants with osik?" Fett sighed.
"No doubt you're my clone, that's for sure."
§ § §
"Okay, spill it. You've been tortured before, you're a clone of Lantana Fett, and who the kriff are you?" Hazard asked.
"Like you said; the clone of Lantana Fett." Twitch growled, limping toward the refresher.
She was tired, sore, hungry, and didn't feel like explaining herself yet again. The older clone blocked her path.
"At least explain a little." He said.
"There's nothing to explain. Lantana's DNA got mixed up with Jango's, twenty six hundred clones of her were made, only a few dozen weren't killed off, end of story." She sighed, trying to move past her squad mate. He moved with her. "What do you want from me? A biography?"
"A quick version."
"No."
"Just—"
"No!" She snapped, cutting him off. "It's not your business, you don't need to know, move."
"That tone means she's one sentence away from hurting you. Just move." Tail called from where he was painting his new armour.
"But—"
"If curiosity is your only reason, then move." Twitch once again interrupted. Hazard reluctantly stepped out of her way.
"What's up with her?" He asked once she'd closed the refresher's door.
"The harder you push, the more she closes up. When she wants to, she'll tell you." Tail spoke again without looking.
"Was she always like that?" Streak asked from his bunk inquisitively.
"Since we met. Not quite sure about before that." Hazard sat on his own bunk.
"What do you know about before that?" The scout looked up sharply, glare startling the younger clones.
"She'll tell you about herself if she wants to. You won't get me to say anything, and you should respect Twitch's wish. Don't ask again." They nodded mutely. Tail's sharp voice returned to its usual tone. "What I can tell you is that she never takes her grudges from the barracks onto the battlefield, though, she can be prone to disappear without telling anyone what she plans on doing."
"How long have you two known each other?" Hazard asked tentatively, hoping not to set the older man off again.
"Over two years." No hesitation in the answer, no pause to tally it up.
"You seem to always know what she's thinking. You said she was scared when Tiku was here, but she looked angry." Streak commented.
"Her anger was just more noticeable. As for what she's thinking, that's something I don't usually know and don't really want to. If you look at a situation as a whole, it's easier to predict what she'll do. How she does it is anyone's guess."
"Thank you for summing that up. I'm going to the Mess." Three heads swivelled to look at Twitch. Her hair was damp and she looked exhausted as she shoved on her boots and stalked out of the room.
§ § §
Having nerf steak for dinner didn't damage Twitch's mood further, though she could have lived without the continuous wayward glances everyone seemed to be throwing her.
They seem to think I won't notice if they wait twenty seconds, she mused.
"Y'know, I'm still feeling that spot where you elbowed me." A clone sat down across from her, a yellow-green bruise visible if his jaw was examined carefully.
"The joke prior to said elbowing was more than enough to warrant it." She stated calmly, taking a bite of steak.
"Sorry. Didn't catch the name last time." The teenager examined him before inwardly sighing.
"I'm Twitch. You?"
"Scorch. The other guy with me was Sev."
"Yep, I'm just the 'other guy'." Another clone sat down.
"Exactly." Scorch agreed dismissively. Sev swatted his brother's head, getting an elbow to his ribs in reply.
"This di'kut hasn't been bothering you more, has he?" Sev asked.
"No." The door opening caught Twitch's attention. Tail stumbled in, hand clenching his right side, and he collapsed. The teenager leapt out of her seat and rushed to the scout's side.
"Ugh, this isn't the med bay." He grunted.
"No, di'kut, it's the Mess Hall. What's wrong?" His sister chastised.
"Don't know. Kriff, it hurts." Sweat glossed Tail's forehead. He was running a fever when Twitch checked, and shivering.
"Well, you're in pretty crappy shape. Come on, let's get to the med bay." She tried helping him up, but his legs buckled.
"What's wrong?" Scorch and Sev walked over. Most everyone was watching.
"Not quite sure. Could you guys help me get him to the med bay, please?"
§ § §
"Ruptured appendix?" Twitch repeated incredulously. The medical droid nodded. "Wouldn't the bacta tank have taken care of that? He was in one for two days recently."
"It is a rare phenomenon, unlikely to happen again. His appendix is being removed within the hour."
"Then he'll be alright?" She checked.
"He will spend the night in a bacta tank to recover from surgery, but yes."
§ § §
Tail floated peacefully in a bacta tank. He'd been put in only five minutes earlier. Twitch entered the room and sat down cross legged on the floor in front of him.
"Hey, vod. You've still got four hours in there, so I'll just keep you company." He blinked. It was already late, so he would expect her to be sleeping.
He lifted his arm and pressed the tip of his finger against the glass, using Morse code to speak for him. Three short taps, short long short short, one tap, a pause and another short tap, finished with one short, two long, and one final short tap. In all, it spelled SLEEP.
"Eh, sleeping's overrated. Besides, someone has to be sure you don't mix up our quarters with the Mess Hall." He crossed his arms and glared, then tapped two more words. BED, and NOW.
"Nope. You're stuck with me." Tail decided to compromise.
'Sleep here', he told her.
"Mm, you're going to be stubborn, huh? Eh, fine, but you better sleep, too. We're both heading back to training in the morning." She leaned against his tank, crossing her arms and bending her legs to support herself. Tail smiled before closing his eyes.
A.N. ~ 'Malrunwa' is draconic for 'nightmare'. I can be "so" creative sometimes. I'll start working on the next chapter. It shouldn't be more than a week, but no promises.
MANDO'A DEFINITIONS AND PRONUNCIATIONS:
Osik [OH-sik] dung (impolite)
