I just wanted to say THANK YOU SO MUCH! 60 reviews? that's insane! I have never gotten this much attention and love on a story I've written, and I'm so happy you guys have come to love Esinon as much as I have, and there's only more excitement to come! Again, thank you, thank you, thank you!
The next day…
Anchor had always been deemed a perceptive person. He could always tell when something was wrong with something, so when Commander Windcaster showed up to their first Citadel practice test looking like she was going to throw up, he knew something was wrong. He decided not to probe about it, because she could handle it right? Jedi were basically invincible, there's a reason that they were in charge, right?
"Take position," Esinon muttered, using the force to leap up to the control tower where she could watch from above. She typed in a few codings for it, as Theta took their position, Delta would go second. Esinon felt like she was going to be sick, and shifted her gaze away from Anchor as he stared at her worriedly. He shook himself from his stupor,
"Remember, focus, and we can do anything," he advised his squad, they all nodded tightening their grip on their weapons. The alarm blared and the droids flooded into the arena. Anchor laid down cover fire with his Z-6 as his squad slit up and took cover on either side of him. Anchor dove out of the way of an incoming blast, sliding next to Bean.
"This ain't so bad," he joked, Bean gave a half-hearted smile as he fired at another oncoming droid. "We have to advance if we ever want a chance of taking that tower!" He flagged his squad forward to next section of cover,
"We need to split up," Bean advised, Anchor nodded,
"Push! Rainstorm! Zoom! Flank the right, Bean, with me!" Anchor commanded, he growled in frustration seeing Push get caught in the crossfire. Zoom tried to make a break for the tower but got caught by a commando.
"Man down!" Rainstorm shouted, Anchor groaned. This couldn't go any worse, could it? He wondered to himself as he watched Rainstorm try to get to Zoom and get shot. They were two men left with almost ten droids still surrounding them. At this point Anchor didn't know what to do, the number one rule was to never leave a man behind, but the odds were too great. Just as he was trying to come up with a plan the training droids slumped, the program shutting down.
"Stop, stop, stop, stop," Commander Windcaster said, shaking her head. She jumped down from the command center as Anchor and Bean went to help their squadmates who were groaning and protesting against their sore muscles. "You guys,- it's- you can't," she started to pace in front of them, growling frustratedly to herself. "The Citadel isn't a joke," she finally snapped, "This is do or die and it's my job to keep you guys from dying! You can't just go and make reckless decisions!" Anchor hastily glanced at Bean who discreetly shrugged. They didn't know what reckless decisions she was talking about, he thought they were pretty level headed about everything, they just didn't do a good job. And it was only their first time so- "You have to be watching! Looking before you're leaping! Not grabbing shields that don't cover all of your body!" She wasn't talking about them anymore, "If he would have just listened to me, he would still be-" She stopped mid-step and mid-sentence, her head dropped. She glanced up at them, then back down at her feet, sucking in a harsh breath, trying to keep her voice even. "I'm… I need to go for a walk. I'll be back in a minute," She headed out of the training room, hugging her arms close to herself.
"So now what?" Sharkbait asked, as soon as the door closed.
"We wait for her- Anchor where are you going?" Dogma asked, Anchor didn't answer, marching after the young Commander. She was standing in the middle of the hallway, pacing back and forth.
"Come on Windcaster, get it together," she murmured, lecturing herself. "You've got a job to do, now get back- Anchor!" She jumped, hurriedly wiping at her eyes. "Uh, sorry I didn't see you there. I was just on my way-"
"Commander, are you alright? Like really alright, and I- I would respectfully ask that you be honest with me, because you aren't usually like this." She stared at the ground for a moment,
"I… a lot of people I care about are at the Citadel right now." she said, "And… I think I lost somebody, I think I should listen to my powers, and my powers are telling me that I lost somebody really important to me... And he looks like you." Anchor's stomach flipped, a clone, she had lost a clone? "So I guess I'm mad at him for being… gone? Haven't really said that out loud, I guess I was inadvertently trying to yell at him, but I took it out on you guys. I'm really sorry," Anchor didn't exactly know what to do at that point.
"It's- it's ok sir, it's alright to be angry," she scoffed,
"Yeah, yeah, tell that to the Jedi." she murmured, rocking back and forth on her feet. "Uh, they're probably waiting for us," she started towards the training room,
"Sir, if you ever need someone to talk to… I- I'm told I'm a good listener," she smiled,
"Thanks, Anchor," she said, disappearing back into the training room, with a fake grin plastered on her face, acting as if nothing had happened. She wasn't planning on taking Anchor up on his offer.
Jedi didn't really talk about their emotions… it was more of a meditate on it and you'll be fine.
It was like the cure-all, just meditate.
She wasn't exactly sure if she was supposed to have emotions, because they were kind of all stuffed down and away, which she didn't know that that wasn't healthy at the time because it was all she had ever known.
Esinon Windcaster was unsure of a lot of things, the only thing she was sure of, was that she missed her brother, and everything was a reminder of him.
The next day…
Esinon had trained her squads all day long, but it had been a blur. She couldn't remember most of what had happened, she couldn't afford to grieve so she was just numb. She knew that Theta and Delta had noticed she was off, but she didn't care. She went through the motions, make the plastoid balls float, fire at the target, punch, kick, block, one, two, three. As she lay in bed in her quarters that night she couldn't sleep as memories ripped through her mind. She heard her datapad chime, she grabbed it off of her nightstand and opened it. The Citadel mission report had come in, she scrolled down to the casualty count,
Jedi Master Evan Piel
ARC trooper CT-1409
She froze, Echo was truly dead. Her memories had been right all along, her brother was dead. Her hands clenched around the pad,
"They didn't even bother to put his name on the report," she growled, "My brother was not just another number!" She screamed and hurled the datapad into the wall, shattering it into a thousand pieces. She'd had enough, she grabbed her water bottle and a change of clothes heading down to the training room. Esinon didn't bother to wrap her hands, she let bare skin make contact with the punching bag.
With every punch she could feel her rage building, another one made contact, ECHO! Electricity sparkled on her fists, scorching the bag as another hit made contact. Fear leads to anger,
She was angry at Echo for doing something so stupid, anger leads to hate, she hated herself for not even trying to sneak on the mission, she was mad at the Separatists, hate leads to suffering, she would never see her brother again. The electricity surged sending an explosion of lightning around the room. Esinon dropped to her knees in exhaustion, she'd lost control. Her panting filled the room, she'd let the anger win.
She pressed her forehead to the floor as the tears came, she was alone with no Jedi or clones to watch her, to judge her, to shame her emotion into the darkness. At the moment she cried, cried that she would never see Echo again, that Fives was alone to grieve, that she could never openly admit to the Jedi of how she missed all her brothers so much.
Mourn them do not, miss them do not.
Because a Jedi couldn't miss people, they couldn't grieve, they couldn't get attached in the first place, it hurt. It hurt more than any wound ever could, and this was the kind of thing that bacta couldn't fix.
One week later…
After Esinon collapsed in the middle of training, Bear had been keeping an especially close eye on her. He never did explain why her collapsing suddenly hit close to home for him, but what she did next, hit even harder. She'd been in the training room for hours on end in the middle of the night, she was barely getting any sleep, and still training both her squads just as hard, if not harder. He wasn't going to let it go any longer, last time he let it go, his brother almost died. He knocked on her door,
"Commander Windcaster, are you in there?" he asked, the door slid open and she hid her hands behind her back.
"Hi Bear!" she said cheerily, the bags under her eyes were more prominent, and she looked exhausted. She reminded him so much of Callum at the present moment. She kept hiding her hands, "Is there something you need?" He pushed her onto the meditation cushions in her room and grabbed her hand.
"I knew it," Bear muttered, staring at her scabby and bruised knuckles.
"It's not a big-" she began,
"Stop, you're gonna break your hand or worse," he said sternly. He opened the medpack he had brought with him just in case his suspicions were correct. "I've seen you go into the training room every day for the past week after hours." She stared at her feet as he generously applied bacta over her knuckles. "So do you want to tell me why you've been down there every night?"
"Wanted to catch up," she muttered, it didn't take a genius to know she was lying. "I haven't had time to do my Jedi training, and it'd be easier to do when I'm being left alone."
"You lost someone, didn't you?" she didn't answer, staring at her feet. "Callum does the same thing when he loses someone. The first time it happened, I let it go. I thought I needed to let him grieve in a way that suited him. Then one day he just collapsed on me. If I would have said something, that wouldn't have happened. So I'm saying something to you." He wrapped her right hand in bandages before starting on the left one.
"I'm fine, really," she insisted, Bear gave her a stern look.
"I'm taking over training of Theta and Delta for at least tomorrow, you need to sleep because I know for a fact you haven't slept more than three hours in the past week," he said, finishing wrapping her left hand. "You need to take it easy,"
"Is that why you looked so worried when I collapsed?" she asked, "More worried than on average." A small smile quirked across her face, Bear nodded,
"My job is to keep Callum from doing anything too stupid, and at the current moment, you." he noticed her small smile drop off of her face.
"Echo used to say stuff like that," she whispered, Bear had heard of the pair of ARC troopers. When he suggested she lost someone, he thought maybe it was one of her friends or her Master, not a clone. Yes, she was friendly with the cadets and other troopers, but he attributed that to the compassionate nature of the Jedi. He placed at hand on her knee,
"I'm sorry," he said softly, she nodded, voices on the other side of her door.
"She's in here!" a little boy exclaimed,
"Are you sure?" another voice asked, Bear sighed,
"You're a bad influence on them, I hope you know that," he said,
"I want to press it!" the boy on the other side of the door said,
"No, let me!"
"They do get into a lot of trouble," Esinon said,
"That's your own fault," Bear muttered,
"We'll press it together," the door slid open to two younglings pressing their hands over the button. It was Racer and his squadmate Bev,
"Uh oh," Bev whispered, Bear stood up,
"What are you two doing up?" he demanded,
"It's alright Bear," Esinon said, standing up to greet the young boys, "I'm sure they have a good reason to be up after hours, isn't that right boys?"
"Um…" Bev murmured, Racer grabbed his hand and squeezed it reassuringly,
"You can say it," Racer whispered,
"But he said he'd throw me down in maintenance," Bev replied,
"Who said that?" Bear demanded, "Who was it, Bev?"
"It was Bric," he muttered, "I had a nightmare,"
"It was the bad one," Racer added, Bear's strict expression fell, Esinon glanced from the ARC to Bev. The bad one? What did that mean?
"Come here," Bear scooped Bev up in his arms,
"You're not mad?" Bev asked, wrapping his arms around Bear's neck.
"No, I'm not mad," Bear replied, holding Bev close. "Bric was a di'kut for saying that."
"You're gonna get in trouble for saying mean things,"
"You get to do stuff like that when you're a grown-up." Bear replied,
"You can come in Racer," Esinon said, sitting back down on her meditation cushion. As soon as Racer got close, she scooped the youngling up into her lap. "Have you got something on your mind?" Racer nodded,
"But I don't want to make you sad," he whispered,
"It's always good to speak your mind," she said, "It's never good to bottle it up." Some hypocrite she was, she noticed Bear glance in her direction before refocusing his gaze back out the window.
"Are you sure?" he asked, she nodded, "I want to be a good soldier, and protect you and the Republic! I don't want to fail,"
"Is that because of what Bric said?" she asked,
"A little bit," Racer said, "I didn't do so good at target practice today,"
"Well that's ok," she said, "You know that I have brothers that used to not do so good at target practice either. They told me stories about how Bric didn't believe in their squad, and now two of them are ARC troopers!" she said, poking his stomach making him giggle.
"Really!" he exclaimed,
"Yes, you just have to work hard and believe in yourself. I used to, well I still get scared I won't make my Master proud,"
"How do you get rid of the fear?" Racer asked,
"Well, you can't get rid of the fear, but you put on a brave face, and you keep marching," she said,
"The Commander is right you know," Bear said,
"I know!" Racer exclaimed, wrapping Esinon in a tight hug. "She always knows what to say," Esinon stomach flipped, she didn't know if she always knew what to say, but she was glad she could help Racer at the moment.
"Isn't it a little past your bedtime," she joked, tapping his nose as Racer yawned,
"Bev's already asleep," Bear said, Esinon hefted a sleepy Racer onto her hip,
"Lead the way Bear," she said, after a few minutes of walking they made it to the rows and rows of sleeping pods. Luckily, Racer's and Bev's were on the bottom row, Esinon tapped the control panel with her foot, wiggling her way from Racer's grip. "Sweet dreams little one," she said, brushing his hair out of his face,
"Goodnight Commander," he whispered, Bear had already closed Bev's pod up and then closed Racer's. Esinon clicked her tongue,
"I don't know how you people don't get claustrophobic in those things," she muttered,
"It's an acquired taste kid," he joked, "Now are you going to go back to your quarters and sleep, or do I have to walk you back?" She smiled,
"I think I can handle it," she said,
"And remember, go sleep, I'll train your squads tomorrow," he said,
"Ok couple things, Dogma does better when he's given vocal encouragement, Push can get stressed out easily so you've-"
"Go to bed," he laughed, "Before I carry you there,"
"Ok, thank you Bear," she said softly. He gave her a firm nod before she disappeared around the corner and headed to her quarters.
The next morning…
"I thought I told you to sleep today," Bear said, placing his hands on his hips as Esinon came into the training in a very un-Commander like fashion. She had a datapad clutched in one hand, and the other hand clasping a blanket around her shoulders.
"Slept through the night if that makes you feel better," she said, taking a seat in a chair on the sidelines. "Please continue," the four squads of troopers stared at her as she curled further into the blanket and began scanning something on the datapad.
"See Anchor, she's alright," Bean whispered, Anchor nodded, he drew in a sharp breath centering himself. You can do anything if you focus. He took his mark and fired.
"Bullseye," he whispered,
That night…
Esinon rolled over in her bed, struggling to fall asleep. It was so… quiet. She was so to the loud noises of Coruscant or the constant tap of boots and chatter of voices on the Negotiator from the night crew. She flopped to her other side, clutching the blankets around herself tighter. She scrunched her eyes shut, trying to think calm thoughts and drift into meditation. As she drifted deeper into the force she could feel a presence, a familiar one. Her eyes flashed open, someone was here She leapt out of her bed calling her saber to her hand and igniting it.
"Who's there?" she demanded, scanning the dark room. A light began to glimmer in front of her view,
"Esinon," a voice whispered, she whipped around to see the light had moved with her and was growing steadily brighter and larger. She could make out a shape in the blinding light, a person… a man… an ARC trooper. "Esinon, I'm here," the voice whispered, so achingly familiar.
"Echo?" she whispered, the figure stepped out of the light to reveal her brother. She backed away trembling, "H-how? How are you here?"
"It doesn't matter how I got here, it matters that I'm here," he said, stepping towards her. Her hands were shaking so bad she dropped her lightsaber, the weapon clattering to the ground. Echo caught her as she sank to the ground, "I don't understand," she sobbed, gripping him tightly,
"It's alright vod'ika," he whispered, rubbing her back comfortingly, she held on tighter for fear of losing him.
"How are you here?" Echo didn't answer, continuing to comfort her. She finally pulled away smacking his chest plate, "You idiot!" she snapped, Echo stared at her shocked, "How could you ever do something reckless!" She smacked his chest plate again, "What are we supposed to do with you!" She sucked in a harsh breath, her gaze falling into her lap. Echo placed a hand on her shoulder and brought their forehead together. Esinon took a deep breath, clasping Echo's forearm.
"I will always be with you," he whispered, "If we've got each other, and that's all we have," he began to sing softly, "I will be your brother and I'll hold your hand,"
"You should know I'll be there for you," she finished, tears freely spilling down her face. And with that, Echo was gone.
One month later…
"Congratulations," she said, beaming with pride as she fixed a medal onto Anchor's shirt. "You've all graduated, and passed with flying colors. At ease," they all relaxed,
"Next stop, ARC troopers!" Sharkbait cheered, clapping Dogma on the back,
"Yeah, how about we see some action first?" Dogma said, all of the troopers nodded to their Commander as they exited,
"You did good kid," Bear said, patting her shoulder,
"She sure did," a voice said, a green-clad ARC trooper came around the corner. He had a triangle on his chest plate and painted claw marks over his eye.
"Callum?" Bear asked as he embraced his brother, both of them clapping each other on the back as Esinon grinned at the scene. "When did you get back?" Bear exclaimed, pulling away from his brother.
"Just before the test began," he replied, he pulled off his helmet to reveal a clean-shaven head and identical claw mark tattoos over his eye. "I saw them perform, you did an excellent job Commander,"
"Please, call me Esinon," she said, extended her hand,
"Callum," he said, grasping her forearm tightly, she gave a nod. "Thanks for finishing their training, I was frustrated to leave them in the middle but duty calls."
"Indeed, as much as I would love to stay, I'm due back to Coruscant immediately," she said, smiling at the ARCs. She began her walk towards her quarters when Bear caught her hand,
"Hey kid, when you go back to Coruscant, don't push yourself too far. Remember that you are one heck of a Commander, and can do anything that you set your mind to."
"This a habit of yours? Stern pep talks?" she joked, he smiled, "I will Bear, take good care of these shinies."
"I will," she saluted him and he repeated the gesture. She grinned at him before setting off. She found Theta and Delta celebrating their graduation,
"Commander," Dogma saluted her, she stopped in front of them,
"Be on the lookout boys, you're the kind of men I want for the 212th." she said, she smiled at their excited faces, "See you on the battlefield,"
"Sir yes sir!" they all chorused,
The next night, Coruscant…
"I'm going out for a couple hours," Esinon said, pulling a coat on over Jedi robes.
"Where exactly are you going?" Ahsoka asked, Esinon glared at her still upset at Ahsoka for sneaking onto the mission. Ahsoka was lucky that she wasn't killed,
"To see Fives," Esinon said, it was her first day back from Kamino, one month after Echo's death. Yes, she and Fives had been talking over a transmitter, but she wanted to spend time with him.
"Be careful," Ahsoka said,
"Always am," Esinon replied, she walked out of the apartment and closed the door, "Unlike you," she muttered to herself. She walked down to the hanger, jumping on a speeder bike and revved the engines pulling out into the busy Coruscant streets. She flew down a couple levels to a familiar bar, Fives waved to her as she parked her speeder. She was greeted by Blitz squad, and a bone-crushing hug from Fives.
"That was too long," he whispered, Esinon smiled, hugging her brother tighter,
"I don't think I'll be going back to Kamino any time soon," she said,
"How were your troops?" Attie asked as Fives finally released her,
"Good, strong," she said, as they started to walk towards 79s. "212th material," Nax rolled his eyes,
"Thought you'd say that," he joked, Esinon grinned. Entering 79s wasn't hard because there weren't any bouncers. Things like IDs didn't really get checked when you were down this far.
Sure the guard would come down every once and while to check things out but that was usually when they were pursuing someone. They entered the bar where loud music pounded, and lights flashed.
Esinon blinked a couple times her heightened Jedi senses adjusting to the stimuli overload. She scanned the room of droids, clones, and a myriad of other species that filled the room.
She'd only been in a bar once and that was for a stealth op, she spotted a pair of Rodians in the corner. She slid closer to Zeer seeing the Rodians looking her over. He put a protective arm around her, giving her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.
"I thought only clones frequented this bar," she mumbled,
"Those creeps come here every once and a while when they've hit every other bar," he replied, she felt safe next to Zeer, because he was bigger than anything in here that wanted to try and hurt her. They sat down at a table in the back, where the music was significantly quieter. Drinks were delivered to their table, and a somber note fell over all of them.
"Echo was one of the best soldiers I ever met," Del said, holding up his glass, "And I was glad to have a brother like him."
"To Echo," Fives said, raising his glass,"
"To Echo," they all chorused, they all raised their glasses, Esinon set hers back down as everyone else downed the alcohol in theirs.
"I'm underaged, who wants it?" she asked, Zeer grabbed her glass,
"I got you kid," Esinon smiled softly, her eyes flicked to the back of the club where she could see Echo, smiling at her. She blinked her eyes and he was gone,
"I'm gonna step outside for a minute," she mumbled, scooting out of the booth and walked out of the bar. She sat down on the steps in front of 79s, out of the way of anyone who was entering or exiting the bar. She tugged her coat around her tighter, hoping that no one would ID her as a Jedi. Esinon sighed, this wasn't the first time she'd seen flashes of Echo. She assumed that it had something to do with her powers, but Qui-Gon wasn't sure. She glanced up at the sound of footsteps to see Fives coming to sit down next to her,
"You ok?" he asked,
"Yeah, she muttered, resting her chin in her hands. "Just seein' things,"
"Missed you while you were gone," he replied, Esinon nodded,
"Fives… while I was on Kamino, I saw Echo. He came to me in a vision, I think, I'm not sure," she said, Fives stared at the ground for a moment trying to process this new information. "But he was there, I could touch him, I could hear him. It sounds crazy, I know."
"Sounds incredible," Fives replied, "Maybe it has something to do with the memory thing,"
"I've been going through some old research, and it's possible," she said, silence fell over the two of them as they watched speeders pass by and more clones walk into the bar. Fives was busy thinking about Echo, the war, how tomorrow they might be deployed, and lose their lives.
"Are you… scared?" he asked slowly,
"Of what?" she asked, rubbing her eyes tiredly as she leaned against his shoulder.
"Of… dying?" he asked like death was a cursed word.
"Not exactly… I guess. Cody will tell you that I don't. I guess I'm not afraid of dying because I know that I'm going into the cosmic force when I die. We'll both be reunited with everyone we've lost."
"Even me?" Fives asked,
"You're a living being, right?" she said, nudging him. Fives chuckled, liking the idea of being reunited with all his brothers. "Back to your question about dying, I'm less afraid of the dying part, it's more the losing part."
"Yeah, the losing part is hard." This was the kind of stuff that Esinon only confided in Fives and Echo. The Jedi would question her about her emotions, her attachments, her adherence to the code, Fives and Echo would just listen. She trusted them not to expose her control or lack thereof her emotions. Fives wrapped an arm around her, "The world's not perfect but it's not that bad," he began singing softly, Esinon smiled. Echo's favorite song, "If we've got each other, and that's all we have I will be your brother and I'll hold your hand. You should know that I'll be there for you."
"When the world's not perfect, when the world's not kind, if we have each other then we'll both be fine." Esinon sang,
"I will be your brother, and I'll hold your hand." Fives sang,
"You should know I'll be there for you," they sang simultaneously,
A few hours later…
Esinon placed her keys in the bowl, careful to not let them clink too much. It was almost midnight, and she didn't want to wake anyone up. She was surprised to find Ahsoka at the table in front of a laptop with flimsi scattered across the table.
"When you said you were going to see Fives, I thought you meant at the barracks. Not at a bar." Ahsoka said, she looked up from her homework. "That could have been dangerous."
"Like you're one to talk," Esinon snapped, hanging her coat up on the rack.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Ahsoka asked,
"You snuck on the Citadel mission, Ahsoka. You could have been killed!"
"But I wasn't," she argued,
"That's not the point Ahsoka," Esinon said exasperatedly, "You think me going to a bar, surrounded by at least seven clones at all times is dangerous. If anyone tried to threaten me they would have a room full of blasters at their head. You went to the CITADEL. Without knowing what the plan was because you thought you could handle it. So yes Ahsoka, I'm upset. I lost Echo, and I don't want to have to know about yours." she snapped, "I'm going to bed," After a beat of silence, Ahsoka spoke up,
"Esinon, I am sorry." Ahsoka said, "I know you're having a hard time with Echo's death, and… you're right the bar wasn't as dangerous as what I did, and maybe I'm just trying to play that down because I feel guilty." Esinon turned around,
"I know that it was the will of the force that you were there, but don't scare me like that again. If you do, I'll come to the Citadel and kick your butt." Esinon said, with a grin, Ahsoka smirked,
"Oh, I know you will,"
"Night Soka,"
"Night E,"
A few weeks later…
Fox was a busy soldier. Most people didn't realize how busy he actually was all of the time, he ran on caf and prayers alone. There were constantly troopers pounding in and out of the barracks in his sector of Coruscant. Calls were constantly pouring in, flimsi work to be filed, charges to be made, criminals to detain, it was hard to keep track of everything. Today had been especially chaotic and in the thick of everything, he completely forgot that Commander Windcaster was scheduled for patrol with him that night. He didn't remember that she was going to show up until she showed up at his door.
Fox perked up at the knock at his door,
"It's open!" he called, sorting through another stack of flimsi. The door slid open,
"Hey Fox," Esinon said, smirking at the amount of disorganized flimsi work that covered his office,
"Commander," he said, a little shocked to see her standing in the doorway, "You can come in," she stepped in, avoiding the stacks.
"You a little busy?" she teased, Fox sighed,
"You could say that,"
"You ready to patrol some streets?" she asked, a loud crash sounded outside and Esinon jumped, and it didn't go unnoticed by Fox. Esinon had been here before and should be used to the clatter by now. She wasn't her usual bounce off the wall-self. Something was wrong and he could tell, another loud crash sounded.
"Come on," Fox said, and the little bouncer followed behind him. They headed out to the mainstream area of the barracks where two guards were struggling to hold a thrashing man still. He had tribal tattoos all over his face and Esinon could barely make out the triangular shapes because he was moving so fast.
"Hold still sleemo!" A guard she recognized as Burn snapped, the man continued to thrash,
"What's going on?" Fox demanded,
"We caught him robbing a civilian sir," Burn explained, his voice trembling slightly under his helmet, "We weren't equipped for an arrest, so we brought him here.
"Where's the rest of your squad?" Fox asked,
"Shot 'em," The man gloated, chuckling to himself, "They're all dead," The room tensed, and Esinon's hands flickered over her lightsaber.
"Burn," Fox said, prompting the trooper to tell him if this was true or not.
"It's true Commander, we attempted to apprehend him then he turned his weapon on us." Burn said,
"Take him to the brig," Fox commanded, his fist clenching, "Add manslaughter to the list of charges."
"Manslaughter? I ain't no murderer," the criminal sneered, "I damaged Republic property maybe, but I didn't kill anyone." Several growls, threats, and swears escaped the troopers around mouths. Just as Burn was about to go ballistic on the criminal, a stun blast fired from the center of the room and the criminal slumped. All eyes turned in the direction of the blast to see Commander Windcaster gripping a DC-17 tightly, the barrel smoking.
"You talk too much," she growled, holstering the blaster. Why a Jedi had a blaster, Fox wasn't sure, but he was thankful she had eliminated the problem. She seemed angrier than usual about someone saying something like that about the clones, but then he remembered she had just been on Kamino. She was probably overly sensitive to the fact that most clones didn't think she cared about them. The little bouncer always had something to prove. Burn and his partner dragged the man off, "Alright, let's go." Fox stared at the little bouncer as she started for the door,
"Everybody get a move on! These streets won't patrol themselves," Fox said, breaking the uncomfortable silence. All the troopers moved back to doing their respective tasks as another squad thundered past, Fox led his squad out along with Commander Windcaster. He instructed them on where to go, normally he would have let the little bouncer go off on her own but she was distracted, he didn't want her getting killed. After a few hours of patrolling the underworld of Coruscant, Fox could definitely tell something was wrong.
Normally Commander Windcaster was bouncing off the wall and asking way too many questions for his taste. The kid was the definition of sheltered. He remembered the first time she'd come on patrol when she was about thirteen, she'd stopped in front of every window, and wanted to talk to every person she passed. He'd basically had to push her along in front of him, yet tonight she didn't seem curious about anything, or anyone. She seemed trapped in her mind,
"You alright bouncer?" Fox asked, she narrowly dodged a trash can.
"Fine," she mumbled, trying to focus and failing miserably. When she ran into a third trash can, he'd had enough.
"Alright, you're too distracted for this, we're going for a walk," Fox said, Esinon snapped her head around,
"What? No Fox, we don't need to-" But it was already too late because Fox was calling Key.
"Key, Commander Windcaster and I are going for a walk, keep everything under control until we return," Fox instructed,
"Yes sir," Key replied,
"Fox, we really don't need to-"
"Are you going to tell me what's wrong?" he asked, she stared at her feet, "That's what I thought, come on," The little bouncer sighed before reluctantly following after him. They walked for a few minutes before she spoke up.
"Jesse was in Echo's bunk today," she said, "I went to go sit there and think, it's my best thinking spot, other than trees of course." She paused, rubbing her hands over one another. "I knew it had to happen sometime. It's not that I don't like Jesse, I've known him since I first became a padawan… it's just when I saw him sitting in Echo's bunk, it made me angry… and sad. Rex found me pretty quickly after that, said he wanted to tell me before I found out on my own. Even if he did catch me before, it wouldn't have stopped me from being upset. It made Echo's death… real, I guess? I know it's real, I've known it's real for almost two months, but now life is moving past it."
"I know how you feel bouncer," he replied, she glanced up at him, a fleeting look of surprise crossing her face, but it quickly fell away. Of course, he knew what it was like to lose a brother, "I went through the same thing just after the war began. Lost a brother while we were tracking a string of murders. I was trying not to think about it, but I was forced to when his 'replacement' showed up in his bunk. I was angry, really angry."
"What was his name? The brother you lost, I mean," she said,
"Zackk," Fox replied, getting lost in memories for a moment, "When Zackk's 'replacement' showed up, I went and punched stuff for a very long time. Being angry or sad is normal, makes you human." he glanced down at her markings, "Well, near-human," she grinned,
"Thanks, Fox," Esinon said,
"Course bouncer," he said, ruffling her hair, "You feeling focused enough to go back on patrol."
"Let's go catch some criminals!" she said, with new-found excitement and vigor. She started to run off with Fox close on her tail,
"Slow down kid!"
"Justice waits for no woman!" she cheered, ducking around another corner. Fox sighed happily, chasing after her.
The song that Echo and Fives were singing is called if we have each other by Alec benjamin. The last verse reminds me of the relationship that Esinon, Echo, and Fives have.
Now you're probably thinking, how is Esinon having visions of Echo? He's not really dead. Well Esinon doesn't know that. Grief is a powerful thing my friends, especially when you have powers to go along with it.
Next up on let's make this canon corner: Both Theta and Delta know Spinner, the droid often watches their training and sits with them at meals. He's a puppy, and you can't tell me differently.
Thank you for reading and make sure to leave a review!