General Windcaster darted out of her office, glancing around. She pressed her comlink,
"Bo, status update," she said, her com crackled a few times.
"General… where… don't know… in… stay away!"
"Bo, repeat," nothing happened on the com, "Bo?" she let out a small growl of frustration, a loud screech thundered through the ship. Esinon cried out, covering her ears with her hands and dropping to a knee. She whimpered, gritting her teeth, "Make it stop," Dej went to her side, trying to figure out if she was injured or what was wrong.
"Make what stop General?" he asked, maybe she just didn't like the noise, but it looked like she was in an immense amount of pain, and the noise wasn't hurting him in the slightest. The screeching finally stopped and Esinon shakily removed her hands, glancing around the hallway that was still enshrouded in red light.
"We need to go find the others and find out what's going on, it looks like coms are down," She said, as Dej helped her to stand. They began to run down the hallway in search of other troopers, and Esinon was hoping she would find Bo. The two of them continued to sprint through the hallways until they spotted a pair of troopers running towards them. All four of them skidded to a halt, it was Jax and Glitch. "Guys? What is going on?"
"We don't know," Jax panted, "But there are a lot of angry robots headed this way," Esinon cocked an eyebrow,
"Robots?"
"Angry droids are coming to kill us!" Glitch shouted,
"Glitch!" Jax hissed, "Sound activates the droids remember?"
"Hold on," Dej said, "Byte's droids are coming to kill us?"
"Yes!" Glitch whisper- shouted, another loud shriek echoed through the ship causing Esinon to yelp,
"General?" Jax asked as Esinon whimpered, gripping her head. "What's wrong?"
"The force," She grunted, "It's angry, it's dark, it's hurting,"
"Gah where's Jeho when you need him," Jax muttered, as Esinon tried to block out the screaming in the real world and in the force. The shrieking once again stopped and Esinon drew her lightsaber as a new sound caught her attention. The sound of thundering droid feet, there were a lot of droids coming this way. She got in front of her men and looked down the hallway, there were at least half a dozen droids charging down the hallway, all of their eyes were glowing red and the kyber crystals in their centers were covered in red tendrils. She ignited her second blade, spinning the double-bladed emerald saber threateningly.
"Sorry Byte," she whispered, she was going to try and not destroy them too badly. She could always help him put them back together, she charged towards the droids, flipping over a repurposed commando droid and kicked it hard in the head sending it into another droid. She landed gracefully, using the force to shove a droid away that attempted to charge her. She got distracted for only a moment and a droid tackled her from behind, she flipped herself over, attempting to shove her lightsaber through the droid's core but Qui-Gon's crystal ripped out from under her shirt.
The crystal was glowing brightly and her lightsaber was crackling violently, she panicked as Qui-Gon's crystal floated closer and closer to the red tendrils. She attempted to shove herself away but couldn't, the crystal's tips touched a tendril and Esinon cried out in pain.
The droid drew away from her as Esinon clutched and arm to her body, red veins starting to crawl up her arm. Someone shouted her name, she wasn't sure who, she was too overwhelmed by the darkness and pain to answer. The veins crept up her arms and neck towards her face and the world went dark.
"General?" Jax asked carefully as Esinon went silent, she started to slowly pull herself from the ground. The clone captain had yet to realize what had happened to his General, Esinon slowly turned around, her eyes glowing bright red. "General…" she called her lightsaber into her hand and ignited it slowly,
"Jax," Dej said, tugging on his brother's arm. "Jax, I think we should go,"
"I have a bad feeling about this," Glitch murmured as Esinon raised a limp finger towards them, and the droids charged. The three troopers sprinted down the hallway,
"We've gotta get to the armory!" Dej shouted, Jax pulled out one of his DC-17's and began firing at the rouge droids, Esinon stalked around the corner, her eyes flickering darkly. Jax knew that whatever had taken over Esinon had left only a shell, that wasn't his General. She let out a roar, firing a bolt of lighting down the hallway.
The clones jumped out of the way as she sprinted after them, more droids flooding the halls. She leapt towards Glitch, throwing an electrified kick towards his head, he ducked as she landed gracefully behind.
She snarled, leaping for his neck again, this time landing a rapid-fire series of punches and kicks. Dej attempted to make a run for his brother, but it was quickly tackled by a droid, the droid screeched again. Esinon grabbed the back of Glitch's chest plate and threw him down the hallway, she pointed a finger at Dej who was still on the ground, wrestling the droid who was still screeching.
"Back," she snarled, the droid instantly fell in line with the others, "He's mine," her voice was distorted… dark. It didn't sound like her. Dej was given much more time to think about it as Esinon bent a piece of plating on the wall with the force down towards him. He rolled out of the way as the metal came crashing down, she broke off shards with the force, sending them hurtling towards him.
He dodged them, ducking around another corner. He eyed Jax checking in on an unconscious Glitch. He needed to draw her away, and hopefully find some help. He heard metal screeching against metal as Esinon threw another dagger of plating, which ricocheted off the opposite end of the hallway, and plunged into the wall, right next to his head.
He decided to bolt, skidding around another corner as a steady stream of lightning fired after him. General Windcaster came stalking around the corner, both of her arms encased in electricity, she clapped her hands together sending a shockwave in his direction. The noise and force of the action echoed through the halls of the Duchess, it made Dej's head pound, and ears ring.
He plastered himself to the floor as the lighting roared overhead, before he could get to his feet Esinon had tackled him, he wrestled with her for a moment while she tried to reach an electrified hand for his face.
He knew General Windcaster was smaller than him and she was always big about 'throwing weight around' when she trained with them. He was about a hundred pounds heavier than her and decided to use it. He shoved her shoulder, throwing her off balance. He swung his leg over her back, gaining enough momentum to get on top of her, he grabbed her arms pinning them to her sides, forcing her to lose her concentration to release her hold on her lightning.
What Dej had failed to remember is that her army of droids had been patiently waiting for their General to call them to action and Esinon chose that moment to do so. She screeched in the same pitch and tone as the droids, instantly four droids had tackled him off of General Windcaster. She rolled away nimbly jumping to her feet, with a flick of her finger the droids instantly backed away from him. She drew a ring of lightning in front of her body, and fired, Dej collapsed to his knees as the electricity coursed through his veins.
He can help but let the scream of pain escape from his lips, he's felt pain before. Unimaginable pain that spreads through him like a forest fire, he can only scrunch his eyes shut, body curling further in on itself. As soon as it began it stopped, he opened his eyes slowly as Esinon grunted, growling and whimpering as her eyes flickered. She slowly sunk to her knees, gripping her hair, her normally neat phohawk braid coming loose and long brown strands drooping in her conflicted face. The droids neared her, her kyber crystal ripped forward again and touched the core of another droid. She again went silent, her hand raised slowly and she clenched her fingers, not yet forming a fist. She dragged her hand down, he was hurting too much to move. He could only watch as another metal plating came crumbling towards him. He didn't want to accept his fate, but he knew it was coming, he was about to be killed by his own General.
A loud clang filled the air, Dej glanced up to see a pair of lavender arms holding up the plating. He recognized that tech,
"Jeho?" he asked, the second pair of lavender arms shot out and grabbed him around the waist. He was lifted up into a ventilation shaft where Byte dragged him.
"Dej, are you alright?" the engineer asked frantically, he nodded slowly,
"Wait! What about Jeho!" he said, trying to scramble back out of the vent, Byte grabbed him, holding him back.
"Jeho can handle himself," Dej heard a loud grunt, followed by the clattering and screeching of metal. Dej poked his head out of the vent to see Jeho had thrown the metal plating back at General Windcaster.
She evidently had dodged it, but he had managed to trap a good portion of her droid army underneath it. Dej grimaced as the droids began wriggling like worms out from underneath the metal plating. He'd remembered hearing horror stories about a hive mind on Geonosis after the 41st left, well, all except Commander Offee. The whole incident had almost claimed her life.
Esinon tore out more shards, sending them in an angry frenzy towards Jeho. He had far more mobility than Dej had had on his mechanical arms, and gracefully dodged each of the shards. He swiftly raced towards General Windcaster, grabbing an arm that was lifting another shard forward to hurl at him. He threw her down the hallway, turning his attentions to the droids, four droids poppers were instantly released from his belt and with a bong the electricity dispersed over the droids that had been trying to attack him.
Dej thought the nasty machines would quit wriggling and screeching, but it seemed to only hinder them. Unfortunately, Jeho didn't have much time to try and figure out a better way to deal with the droids because Esinon was up again. She let out another snarl, stamping her foot on the ground, and thrusting her arms out towards the walls around the room.
She pulled downward and instantly every metal plating in the hallway came down too. Jeho yelped as he rose up on his mechanical arms, desperately trying to dodge all of the metal that was crashing down towards him. He gave a fleeting glance toward Byte and Dej before sprinting down the hallway, latching onto the ceiling to avoid the hoards of droids below. Just before Jeho could manage to draw Esinon awake, she stretched out a hand towards him, stopping him dead in his tracks. She chuckled darkly, stretching out another hand towards the ceiling.
"Don't think I don't know you're there clones," she said slickly, she wrenched downward, drawing the ventilation down sharply. Both Dej and Byte were dragged down as well, yelps of pain escaping from both of them as the vent collapsed on top of them. Dej groaned, struggling to push a heavy metal plate off of his body. "Did you really think you could defeat me?" she asked with a cold laugh, she let go of Jeho, using the force to throw the metal plate that had been crushing Dej and Byte aside. "And as fun, as it would be to watch you die by crushing you with that," she lazily motioned to the metal plate. "I'd rather kill you myself," she smiled wickedly, her eyes flickering darkly, casting ominous shadows across her normally gentle face. She ignited her lightsaber, just as she was about to plunge it downward, Jeho's lavender arm caught her wrists. He wrenched her hands away and her lightsaber was torn from her hands. She let out a roar of pain, as she stumbled. Jeho wrapped another lavender arm around her waist, he grunted as he threw her down the hall again.
"Come on, we have to get out of here now," he said, Dej grabbed Byte's arm, pulling his brother to his feet. The three clones sprinted away from their infected General, they ran faster listening to the screeching of the droids growing closer.
"The armory is this way," Dej said, turning around another corner. They luckily made it to the armory before General Windcaster or her droids could catch up to them. Dej quickly wired the door shut, he sighed, sliding down against the wall, gripping his aching ribs. "Are you both alright?" he asked,
"We'll be fine," Jeho replied, inspecting his lavender arms, grimacing at the strains in the machinery the fight had caused. Dej immediately perked up when he heard something clank, he stood, grabbing a blaster off of the wall. He started into the dimly lit armory, searching for the source of the noise and hoping it wasn't what he thought it was-
"Dej!" Glitch shouted, tackling his brother in a hug, Dej sighed, dropping the blaster.
"Kriff Glitch, I could've shot you," he muttered,
"I thought you were gonna die," Glitch murmured, Dej huffed out a laugh. He decided not to say that he thought he was going to die because, one that would make Glitch even more upset, and scared, plus Jax was right there and that would set off his anxiety like a landmine.
"'M ok," he decided to murmur instead,
"Where is General Windcaster?" Jax asked,
"We don't know," Jeho replied, "Somewhere a couple hallways down when I threw her, but I doubt she's stayed in one place for long. Whether she's coming for us, I don't know, she may have gotten bored and tried to go find a fun new target."
"We've got to get her isolated," Dej said, "she's far too powerful with all those droids."
"What's even happening to her?" Glitch asked, "she would never attack us like this,"
"It's because it isn't her," Dej replied, Byte was about to open his mouth to explain but Dej beat him to it. "General Windcaster didn't get infected until she went near the droids. Also, the kyber crystal she wears around her neck touched a droid's core twice. She attacked me and had a moment of conflict, but then a droid touched her crystal again and she shut down. Byte, what do you guys use to power your droids?"
"Kyber crystals," the engineer replied, "they're more reliable and powerful than batteries and power cells."
"I thought only force sensitives could find those," Jax said,
"Tech is a wonderful thing my friend," Byte replied,
"There must be some sort of source for this 'infection'…" Dej said, "A patient zero,"
"Yeah… I think we know what happened," Byte said carefully,
"Remember that crazy rock from Scipio? Well, we took a sample of it to try and supercharge our droids because it was reading similar force energy to kyber crystals and we thought maybe it could supercharge our droids to make them more efficient, but the crystal from Scipio seems to have reacted negatively with the kyber crystals and infected the crystals in our bots and consequently General Windcaster," Jax glared at the two of them.
"What in the name of the force made you think it was a good idea to take a strange crystal from a planet we don't know!" he shouted, Dej slapped a hand over his brother's mouth.
"Just because the door is locked up doesn't mean we need a bunch of droids or General Windcaster trying to knock it down," he said, Jax's eyes went wide for a moment before Dej carefully removed his hand from Jax's mouth.
"Sorry, but now look what you dunderheads have done!" he whisper shouted, "Now all of your droids and our General are trying to kill us!"
"Maybe that's what the strange reading was, maybe it was the dark side," Byte said, Jeho cocked his head, he pulled out his holo-recorder,
"Log, day 123 update, the strange crystal seems to have infected General Windcaster as well. Byte has postulated that it was possibly a dark side reading," he said, then clicked the recorder off.
"Ok, where is the crystal from Scipio now?"
"It's in a machine in the Cortex," Byte said,
"Wait!" Jeho exclaimed, his lavender flopping down in front of his purple-tinted goggles, "The experiment isn't done yet!"
"I think it's pretty safe to say the experiment is a failure!" Glitch snapped,
"No-" Jeho began, but then he glanced down at his damaged mechanical arms and then Dej who was still guarding his ribs with his arm.
"Ok, yeah, yeah this experiment is a failure."
"Ok, so we know that General Windcaster didn't get infected until her kyber crystal touched the droids, so the logical option is to get her crystals off of her. Maybe then the infection will stop." Dej said, "We just need to isolate her, we should be able to overwhelm her if we can get her away from her mini army."
"It's worth a shot," Jax said,
"Alright," Dej replied, "Here's what we're going to do,"
Dej watched silently as the door to the armory slid open, he could see the shadowy outlines of the droids standing near the doorway as General Windcaster stepped into the armory. He waited until she had stepped further in, she swiveled her head slowly, walking further, further, almost there… Jax slipped behind General Windcaster, pressing the panel to the armory door, successfully closing and locking it. She let out a roar of frustration, her arm hurling forward about to throw a bolt of lightning towards her Captain-
"Now!" Dej shouted, Jeho's mechanical arms extended down from the ceiling grabbing a hold of Esinon's arms and waist. She yelled and shouted, thrashing in the restrains, Glitch fired a stun blast from behind. But instead of stunning her as Dej had hoped, it just made her angrier. She finally managed to ignite her lightsaber, despite Jeho's best efforts to hold her firm, she slashed his mechanical arms and freed herself, dropping down to the ground.
Before she could charge any of them, Dej tackled her, grabbing her arm holding her lightsaber, and twisted the weapon out of her hand. She snarled, calling a new weapon into her hand, a dagger flew out of her boot and she grabbed him by the back of the chest plate and threw him over herself. She tackled him and just before she could plunge the dagger into his heart he caught her arms. She chuckled darkly,
"You really thought you could defeat me?" she cooed, "I'm going to enjoy killing you,"
"Byte," Dej grunted, desperately trying to keep her dagger from going through his heart, he knew she had the strength to plunge it straight through his plastoid armor. Byte darted out, snatching the kyber crystal from around her neck. Her dagger clattered to the floor, and her body slumped on top of Dej's body. Dej held up his hands awkwardly, trying to touch General Windcaster as little as possible, this situation was not one he ever pictured himself in. Jax grabbed General Windcaster's lightsaber off the ground.
"We probably keep these away from her," Jax said, Dej watched as the red veins that once covered General Windcaster's body retracted and disappeared.
"Um- guys, a little help here," Dej said, Glitch rolled his eyes, he went around by Dej's head and grabbed under General Windcaster's armpits and hauled her upward, shifting her into a bridal's carry in his arms.
"You know you're allowed to touch her right? She's big on his hugs," Dej grumbled to himself as he stood up and grabbed her dagger off the ground,
"Even though you've gotten all buddy-buddy with the General, which is very much outside of regulation, doesn't mean I will too." Dej said as Jax passed him General Windcaster's lightsaber, "You're supposed to respect, not dote her,"
"I do respect her," Glitch protested, "I respect her love of hugs," he pressed a cheek to General Windcaster's hair just to prove a point to his annoyed brother.
"Shouldn't we wait for General Windcaster to wake up?" Glitch asked, "After all, she could help us," Dej paused for a minute,
"I dunno, we don't really know what kind of effect being infected had on her," he replied, Glitch glanced from his limp General to his brother.
"We can't just leave her," he said,
"And I'm not suggesting we do that, I'm suggesting that we get somewhere safer than here. Just because we've removed General Windcaster from the picture doesn't mean we've shut down all the droids," he said,
"I think Dej is right," Byte said, "We should get back in the vents and get to the Cortex. His kyber crystal theory seems to be right, I think if we destroy the crystal from Scipio in the Cortex, it should shut down the rest of the droids."
"Sounds like a plan," Jax said,
"Alright everyone, in the vents," Jeho said, just as they all began to make a move for the vents, General Windcaster began to stir. She groaned, looking up at Glitch.
"Glitch? There's two of you!" She giggled in a slurred voice, "That's nice,"
"That's not good," Dej murmured,
"How are you feeling General," Glitch whispered,
"Just peachy!" Esinon said sarcastically, throwing her head back, "Wait, why are we whispering?" she asked, lifting her head up again,
"Sounds activates the robots," Glitch whispered,
"ROBOTS!" Esinon shouted, "What robots?"
"The ones that are trying to kill us," he replied, Esinon sighed,
"Oh, those robots. Ok. I'm 'nna take a nap now," she said, dropping her head back and closing her eyes, Glitch panicked and shook her back awake.
"No, no, no, no, no! You have to stay awake! We've got to go to the Cortex to destroy the crystal that Jeho and Byte stole from Scipio and then you'll feel all better again!"
"Better?" Esinon scoffed, "I'm finneeeeee, pfft, I'm Esinon Windcaster! I'm awesome!" She pressed her nose against Glitch's giggling, until her head dropped back again, "Hi Glitch," she murmured,
"Seems that her ego isn't infected," Jax said, Esinon giggled again as she stared at Dej upside down,
"When did you learn to fly Dej?" she asked, he sighed,
"She's getting worse, we need to get to the Cortex," Dej said,
"Alright, every one, into the vents," Byte said, Jeho grabbed the back of his brother's chest plate with his still operational mechanical arm and placed Byte into the vent. Glitch stood up next, still holding Esinon in his arms. She wriggled a little bit, successfully hopping out of Glitch's arms.
"I can walk fiNE!" she yelped as her legs gave out. She attempted to grab onto Glitch's arm to steady herself but the momentum of the movement brought them both to the ground. Jax grumbled to himself as he grabbed Esinon off the floor and placed her arms around his neck.
"No walking for you," he said, Esinon grumbled to herself,
"I'm your General," she said,
"My General you may be, but you are currently incapacitated," Jax replied, Jeho wrapped his mechanical arms around Esinon's waist and hefted her into the vents. Jeho lifted everyone in next and then climbed in himself,
"Alright, everyone this way," he said, everyone crawled along. It seemed like they had been at this for hours, and Jeho didn't seem to know where he was going.
"I think we already went down this corridor," Byte said, Jeho glanced around, and Dej cocked his head. How they could even differentiate the vents from one another was beyond him. "Don't you have a map of this place?"
"Well, I normally do on my datapad," Jeho replied, "but just like all of our other tech it's kind of evil right now." Dej sighed and continued on anyway, they finally came to another grate. Jeho peeked downward, "Wait, I think we're close," he said, he pried off the grate,
"Hang on Jeho, I'll go with you," Jax said, Jeho nodded as Jax passed a still delirious Esinon over to Dej.
"Jax!" Dej exclaimed quietly,
"It's only for a few minutes, I'll be back," he said, lowering himself out of the grate with Jeho. Esinon stirred, staring up at him, she slowly turned her gaze towards Glitch.
"You know… you guys are really great. You're just like the best. You're good friends and good people," she said in her slurred voice, she jabbed a finger into Dej's chest plate, "but you need to relax, your force signature is always so stressed around me. And like, all your second-hand stress is exhausting. So you just need to like live, because we have a dangerous job." she frowned for a second, her brows furrowing. "So like live life, because a lot of it isn't sucky,"
"Holy force General," Glitch murmured, "Can I hug you? Because I've been trying to tell him that forever,"
"I kriffin' love hugs, c'mere," Esinon said, embracing Glitch, and he shot Dej a smug look.
"Told you," he mouthed, Dej rolled his eyes,
"We're talking about this later," he mouthed back, at that moment they could hear a lot of yells and a string of curses followed by blaster shots, Jax appeared back in the vent a second later, dragging Jeho up with him.
"Ok, change of plans, we're staying in the vents," Jax said,
"Yeah! It's a girls' night in!" Esinon cheered, her eyebrows screwed together again, "Wait a minute. How am I supposed to have a girls night in when all of you are boys?" all of the troopers glanced at each other, "Ok, PEOPLE NIGHT IN!" Glitch slapped a hand over Esinon's mouth,
"General, remember noise activates the bots," she nodded tiredly, going quiet once again.
"So are we close to the Cortex?" Dej asked, Jax nodded,
"Yeah, it's a couple corridors down," he replied,
"Let's hurry, General Windcaster isn't lookin' so good," Glitch said worriedly, as the tired Jedi shifted sleepily in his arms.
"Glitch," she murmured, "I don't feel good,"
"I know," he whispered, "We're almost to the Cortex, then we'll make you all better," She nodded, closing her eyes.
"This way," Jeho said, they continued down the vents until they finally reached the hallway and all of them dropped down.
"Did we find the robots yet?" General Windcaster whispered,
"We're at the lab now," he explained,
"Dej, give me my lightsaber," she demanded, holding out her hand towards him.
"With all due respect you should leave this fight to us," she giggled again,
"See? So stressed out," she murmured, Dej sighed, was he really that tense? Then again, General Windcaster was probably just saying things, she was really out of it. Glitch set her down right next to the lab,
"Alright, let's go destroy that thing." Jeho walked over to the control panel and attempted to open the door but it electrocuted him. Esinon reached out a hand towards the glowing light but Dej gently guided her hand back into her lap. Jeho finally backed away from the door, his hair sticking up in all sorts of places.
"Wow! The door is infected too, that's so smart," he marveled, everyone stared at him, "And bad, we're all gonna die." Everyone's heads whipped up at the sound of thundering feet.
"That's not good," Glitch murmured, he grabbed General Windcaster anticipating that they were going to have to run.
"Yeah. We should go," Byte said, starting to jog in the other direction, They all started to follow but they didn't make it far before they ran into a pod of droids. "Uh, other way," Byte said, they instantly ran into another pod of droids.
"What now?" Glitch asked nervously, Jax tossed his other blaster to Dej.
"Uh, try and fight them off?"
"Take that droids!" Spitfire yelled, moving down a row of droids with his Z-6, Bo came out next, taking out four more droids, he tossed blasters to Jeho and Byte.
"What's happening?" Esinon asked,
"It's Bo!" Glitch exclaimed happily,
"YAY IT'S A RAINBOW!" she cheered happily, Glitch chuckled as he fired off rounds at droids, all while Esinon was still holding onto him. Soon all of the droids had been demolished.
"What happened to her?" Bo asked, as Esinon giggled softly,
"She got infected by the same thing that the bots did and now she's like this," Dej said, Bo sighed,
"The stupid things you do," he muttered, tilting her chin so her eyes would meet his. Esinon giggled,
"More like the stupid things you do," she said pointing a finger at him, Bo chuckled,
"Sure kid," Jax glanced at Bo to Esinon, he was confused. It really seemed like Bo had known Esinon before now. He shook himself from his thoughts, figuring out how Bo knew Esinon would have to wait.
"Alright, let's get this door open," Bo said, grabbing Esinon's lightsaber off of Dej's belt.
"Wait Bo, do you know how to use that thing?"
"Sure," Bo said, igniting the top half and began cutting through the door. Dej sighed, Bo really had not lost his quality of 'I'm gonna do whatever I want.' Bo finished cutting through the door and kicked it in. All of the clones whipped their blasters up as the droids lifted their heads to face them slowly. They all began to fire as the droids came forward,
"Pew, pew, pew!" Esinon cheered, "GET 'EM!"
"General, you've still gotta be quiet," Glitch said softly,
"Ok, sorry," she whispered, with a dopey grin on her face. Glitch fired off another round, Esinon jumped off of Glitch's back and grabbed a droid that was about to attack Dej and ripped it's head off. "WHOA! Did you see that! I'm so STRONG!" she cheered, using her fist to punch another droid, "This is fun!" She tackled another droid, ripping out its heart with her hand, and threw it into another droid. "Take that!" Bo chuckled,
"Go get 'em, kid," he said, and Esinon took off running and continued destroying bots in a childish frenzy. Soon the room was devoid of any standing droids, they were all demolished now. Byte whimpered,
"My poor droids," he said, Esinon stumbled a bit, holding up a droid arm towards the red crystal in the center of the room.
"There, that thing is angry, WHOA!" she finally tipped over and fell to the ground, "I'm good!" she shouted, holding her thumb up. She jumped up to her feet, stumbling slightly again. Bo grabbed Esinon's lightsaber off of his belt and ignited it, he drove the emerald blade into the infected crystal. The red tendrils retracted and the glowing red lights faded, Esinon groaned and collapsed.
"General!" Bo shouted, he dropped to his knees next to her. "Kid, can you hear me?" She still didn't answer, "I'm taking her to the med bay," he said, scooping the small form of their General and marching towards the med bay. Dej stumbled slightly as the adrenaline from the day faded and his real aches and pain began setting in, kriff, he hurt all over. Speaking of the med bay, he really needed to see a medic. He didn't know what effect getting hit with force lightning had had on him.
Esinon slowly blinked her eyes open, she glanced over at Bo and Boomer who was standing next to him. She could feel an IV in her hand, and a heart monitor on her chest, along with two wires attached to her head, mostly likely monitoring her brain activity. She stared up at the ceiling, trying to hold back tears.
"Did I kill anyone?" she asked,
"No," Boomer said softly, "You didn't kill anyone," she let out a shaky breath,
"Can I have a little bit of time alone?" she asked, her voice cracking towards the end. Boomer nodded,
"Of course, we'll be back in a little bit to check on you." The two troopers exited, closing the curtain behind them. Esinon let silent tears stream down the side of her face, she couldn't remember much of what had happened. But she remembered being in so much pain and wanting to make other people suffer just as much as she was in that moment. She was so angry. She choked down another sob, knowing that Boomer and Bo were probably hovering right outside. It was horrible, every dark feeling of hatred, betrayal, hurt, anger, and sadness had come flooding out in an unforgiving tidal wave. And now it was all coming crashing back down.
Dej glanced up at Boomer as the medic wrote something down on his datapad.
"So you've got some bruised ribs, and a couple minor cuts,"
"I feel like there's a but coming," Dej said, Boomer sighed, tucking the datapad under his arm, grabbing a bandage off the counter as he spotted another scrape on Dej's shoulder.
"But being struck with force lightning can induce fevers and seizures, so I want to keep you overnight for observation just to make sure everything is actually alright." he explained, Dej nodded as the medic started for the door, "I'm gonna go grab some pajamas for you,"
"Boomer, I have a question," he began, the medic nodded,
"Sure, what is it?"
"Is… is General Windcaster going to be alright?" he asked tentatively, still a little rattled by everything that had happened. Boomer sighed,
"She's awake and responsive which is good, physically she seems fine. Just a little battered and bruised from the fights, and her brain activity has returned to normal which is also a good sign."
"So what exactly did that crystal thing do to her?" he asked,
"We don't know," Boomer said, "I'm a field medic, not a Jedi healer. Crazy infected kyber crystal Generals were not exactly covered in my training."
"But she's going to be alright, right?" Boomer nodded,
"We think so, and if it makes you feel better, she's one room over, so if anything bad happens you'll be the first to call us," he said, Dej nodded, "now lie down, I'm going to go grab you some pajamas," Dej obeyed, letting out a harsh breath as his head sunk into the pillow. He dragged a hand down his face still trying to process exactly what had happened today, he still wasn't sure if he had to be honest. He was just hoping to sleep this out and that no symptoms of force lightning would show up. He closed his eyes, finally letting himself rest.
Later that night…
Dej had always been a light sleeper, years of being a soldier and sleeping in a warzone didn't exactly help. He jolted awake at the sound of a muffled shout from the room next to him. He looked around groggily, he could see the shadow of General Windcaster and hear her panting in the next room. He slowly got out of bed, mostly on instinct, he was used to waking up in the middle of the night to help someone with nightmares. He'd never done it for his General before, but his feet seemed to be moving of their own accord at this point. He pushed back to the curtain to her room,
"General?" he asked, Esinon glanced quickly at Dej before refocusing her gaze on her bedding.
"Oh- uh, hi Dej, did I wake you, I'm sorry," she stammered,
"I was already awake sir," he lied, staying at the safe distance of her doorway. "I just heard some… noises, and came to see if you were ok,"
"I'm fine, thanks," she murmured,
"Are you sure General, because I can get Boomer if you-" Dej began but then tapered off at the look on her face. He followed her eyes downward and realized that bandages were sticking out from underneath his sleep shirt.
"Your ribs…" she whispered,
"These will heal sir," he attempted to reassure her, but the damage had already been done. She let out a harsh breath, a small whimper escaping her lips as she pressed a hand to her forehead.
"I'm sorry," she whimpered, "I don't want you dead, I didn't want to kill, and I'm so, so, sorry. I didn't mean anything I said," A few tears slipped down her face,
"I know that sir," he said gently, "I could tell it wasn't you, you would never do that to anyone,"
"It was horrible Dej," she whimpered, "it was so horrible. It was like every negative emotion I- I've ever had come flooding to the surface and I-I wanted to make e-everyone else hurt as much as I was." Dej was a little unsure what to do at this point, he hadn't expected her to be like this. He tentatively walked toward her, debating about what he should do next. He gradually came closer and carefully placed a hand on her shoulder. At first, she stiffened at the contact but then relaxed,
"It's over now General," he whispered,
"But I should have been able to fight it, I should have been able to stop myself," she said, her voice rising slightly. Dej tentatively removed his hand from her back,
"If it makes you feel sir, you were fighting against it. I saw it, you stopped… trying to hurt me when you heard me," he said, choosing his words carefully. If she couldn't remember much of what she had done, it was probably for the best if she was this distraught about it. She glanced up at him,
"I did?" she whispered, he nodded,
"I knew you were still in there General, I'm just glad to have you back sir," he said, she nodded, seeming to have calmed considerably.
"I'm still sorry, I'm just really glad I- well, whatever took me over didn't kill you,"
"You don't need to be sorry General, and I'm glad to be alive too," Esinon sunk back into her pillows.
"I'm gonna try and go back to sleep,"
"Ok, goodnight General," Dej said, saluting her before walking toward the curtain.
"Goodnight Dej," she replied, she rolled over so her back was to him, he closed the curtain behind him. He let out a long sigh, sometimes he really forgot that Jedi could feel things too. That they were people too, he guessed his General would be reminding him time to time. He returned to his room, hoping to fall back asleep, but he doubted he'd be able to since there were now too many thoughts running through his head.
Sorry I'm late again, this chapter went under some heavy rewrites and tennis sectionals yesterday wore me out
Thank you to eagle eyes98 for helping me revise this chapter and make Esinon about a thousand times scarier!
I guess you could consider this chapter your Happy Spooky season from Windcaster
Next up on let's make this canon corner: you know the 221st has mass bop it games to pass the time. Sabaac? Who's she, never heard of her, bop it is where it's at
Thank you for reading and make sure to leave a review!
