Boomer raced towards Spitfire's bed, he could hear Heart struggling with him.

"What is it?" He asked as he pulled back the curtain, but no answer from Heart was needed took one look at Spitfire shaking on the bed and could tell the psychologist was way out of his depth. He sprang into action quickly, "Use the straps to restrain him! He might aggravate his injuries!" Boomer set his datapad down and moved to the other side of the bed.

Heart nodded and followed Boomer's lead, grabbing Spitfire's wrists and pinning them as the energy cuffs locked around them. As they locked his legs in place, Boomer activated the ship-wide broadcaster "Code purple, I need Ziska and Jez in the medbay now! It's Spitfire,"

"His face is flushed," Heart noted, which was rare in seizures. "He could have an intracerebral hemorrhage."

Boomer nodded "Right, let's get a tomography scan and confirm that."

"On it!" Heart flew around the curtain on his way to the equipment room.

Boomer saw Ziska and Jez come into view as Heart left. They entered the room and immediately started helping get Spitfire's bed ready to move. As Ziska activated the levitation mode of the bed and released it from its port, Boomer gave Jez instructions, "I need you to get OR 2 ready for a Neuro operation. I hope we don't need to open him up but it's better to be prepared."

"Roger!"

Jez sprinted out of the space just as Heart came back in and bumped into him. He turned around to try and stabilize Heart but he was too late. Heart was propelled at the large biomonitor hooked up to Spitfire. He didn't have enough time to slow down, so he just shielded the CT scanner with his arms as he ran into it. Boomer heard the collision, but he didn't see the monitor coming down on him.

"Boomer! Look out!" Ziska grabbed Boomer and pulled him out of the way just as the machine came crashing on the wall beside him. But Ziska was just a little too slow, the monitor pinned Boomer's hand against the wall as he yelped then groaned in pain. Heart, Ziska, and Jez all hurried to get the monitor upright and off of Boomer's hand. The three could barely get it to budge due to the machine's weight, but they managed to get Boomer enough space for his hand to slide free.

"Thanks," he said rubbing his hand, "now, Jez get to work on that OR. Ziska, get Spitfire moving in that direction and Heart get the scan done while he's on the way. I'll grab my datapad and follow after you." They all nodded and acted on Boomer's orders. Meanwhile, Boomer lagged behind them while rubbing his hand, "Kriffin' kriff." he quickly made his way down after the other medics and pushed the door open with his good hand. Heart had just finished the tomography scan and handed the CT scanner to Jez who set it to the side.

"Scan results should be transmitting to your pad Boomer," Heart called out and moved behind him to view the x-ray.

Boomer sat his datapad down on the desk in the OR and brought up the results with his good hand. The large white mass on the screen confirmed their fear, this was a large hemorrhage. Boomer set his pad down and turned to his brothers, "Alright gentlemen, we've got a rapidly flowing vessel burst inside the cranium. We're gonna have to clip the ruptured artery, drain the hematoma, and then repair the artery." Heart, Ziska, and Jez listened as Spitfire's seizure finally subsided, "That'll make this a bit easier." Boomer brought up a 3D hologram of the scan from his pad. He circled the area they'd be working on, "Since the flow is this rapid, we're going to have to go with an open craniotomy."

Heart winced, that meant the skull was getting opened up. He had little to no experience with surgical procedures as he mostly dealt with the psychological side of patients. And this procedure was one of the more mentally demanding. It was a good thing Boomer had been a surgeon for as long as he had, Heart had no doubt Boomer would pull this operation off flawlessly.

"And I've got some bad news," Boomer said, lifting his hand, "My hand is broken. I can't do the surgery." He turned to Heart, "that means you're gonna have to fill in for me on this one."

"What? Boomer I've never done that? Ziska or Jez would be better than me. There no way I could poss-"

"Heart, it's gotta be you. Your hands are more steady than theirs. Look at that table. Spitfire needs you right now. This isn't a time to be worried about what you have or haven't done. The three of us will be here the whole time and I'll walk you through each and every step."

Heart sighed, looking at his hands and steeling himself for what was to come, "Alright, let's do it."

Everyone went about the sterilizing procedures, washing their hands, donning facemasks and gloves, and positioned themselves around the table.

"Jez, elevate him." Boomer said.

Jez held a button on the side of the table and it began to slowly bend in the middle. One Spitfire was sitting up, Ziska secured his head's position with metal bands under his chin.

"Alright Heart, open him up. One clean incision from the frontal to the occipital lobe." Boomer stood behind him.

Jez handed heart a scalpel, and heart let out another large breath before he cut into spitfire scalp. He carefully slid the blade down Spitfires head as he completed the first incision. Then Boomer directed him to make four more cuts, two at each end of the primary so they fold away the skin and get to the skull.

"Ziska get the aspirator ready and get any blood that's escaped from the sutures." Ziska complied and collected any blood that made its way past the skull. "Okay now Heart, let's cut away the parietal bone first and then try to locate the rupture."

Heart nodded as Jez handed him he cutting laser, he slowly traced the outline of the parietal bone until he could free it from the rest of the skull. Boomer nodded to Ziska who quickly aspirated the surrounding brain. That small amount of blood leftover would keep everything healthy so it could be replaced later. As the blood was evacuated, it became apparent that the flow originated on the lower left side of the skull. Boomer directed Heart to also cut away the left temporal bone so they could access the artery.

Boomer took the bones and placed them within the folds of skin that were removed earlier so they could be preserved. "Jez, store this in the freezer and make sure the bones stay in contact with the skin. Heart, use one of the small bands to and wrap it around the artery." Heart carefully maneuvered his forceps around the artery as Ziska continued to aspirate the free-flowing blood. Once Heart had banded the artery, Ziska was able to clear all of the blood around the brain.

"Ok, this is the last part. Your hands are going to need to be really steady for this one. Cutaway a small piece of the artery on the free side of the band you just put on. Be careful not to cut to close or he'll start bleeding again."

"Alright," Heart said shakily, and went about the cut. He managed to get just far away enough to avoid another bleed.

"Great work Heart," Ziska said.

Boomer took the forceps Heart had with his good hand called Ziska over with the grafter. Together they ran it through while Heart nervously waited for his next instructions.

Boomer came back with a grafted piece of the artery in forceps and gave it back to Heart, "Now use bands to connect this to either side of the rupture on the artery." Heart did just that, carefully stretching the graft out enough so there was no slack. When he was done he set down his forceps as Boomer, Jez and Ziska pat him on the back.

"Well done Heart," Boomer said, "I knew you could do it. Now we'll wrap him up and check to see if the graft healed tomorrow. If it heals well, we'll reassemble the skull and patch him back up."

Heart smiled to himself, proud of what he'd just done, "I really did that, I did a surgery."

Boomer laughed as Ziska and Jez started wrapping Spitfire's head in gauze, "And you'll get to finish the job tomorrow."

"I think I can handle that, I feel like the worst of it has passed."

"Well don't go jinxing him, Heart."

He laughed, "You know Boomer if you need me to do any more surgeries I think I'm getting the hang of it."

"Slow down there, you've only done one, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to let you come join on a few more of them. It'd be nice to have another surgeon on board."

A few days later...

The day after Spitifire's surgery, Heart had stitched him back together, he was going to be ok. Boomer was currently checking over monitors in Spitfire's room, he'd been showing signs of waking for two hours. He glanced over at Spitfire's bed as he groaned, the younger clone blinked his eyes open, glancing around the room.

"m- head hurts," he murmured, Boomer chuckled, pressing Spitfire to the bed as he attempted to sit up.

"Should be expected, you've been through quite the ordeal," he said, "Brain fog should wear off in a few hours, that's why it's hard to think and talk right now," Spitfire grumbled something under his breath.

"Brothers?" he asked,

"I'm gonna let you sleep for a few more hours and wait for the fog to wear off and then you can see them." Boomer said, Spitfire didn't seem too happy about that but soon surrendered to sleep anyways,


"Spitfire!" Glitch shouted as Boomer finally stepped aside to let Spitfire's batchmates into the room. Spitfire grinned as Glitch sat down on the edge of his bed and gently wrapped him in a hug. "I missed you,"

"Missed you too vod'ika," he said, as Glitch let go and the rest of them said their hellos, he glanced back to see General Windcaster leaning against the doorway, he grinned,

"Sir," he greeted, she gave him a soft smile,

"Hello Spitfire, it's good to see you up," she said,

"Good to be up,"

"Are you alright?" Bo asked,

"Yeah, and I get to have a wicked scar too," he said with a big grin,

"If your hair grows back," Boomer said, Spitfire whipped around,

"What?!"

"A scar like that might mean you're bald for the rest of your life," Spitfire groaned,

"I'm gonna look weird," he whined, Esinon chuckled,

"Plenty of clones shave their heads you'll look just fine," she said,

"And I never said it wouldn't grow back, I'm just making you aware of the possibility," Boomer said,


A few weeks later…

Finally back on Coruscant and she had a minute to breathe. She let out a deep breath as she sat in the temple gardens meditating, she'd been meditating far more recently in pursuit of balance. She closed her eyes breathing deep the fresh air, exhaling slowly. She finally fell into a meditative state, able to connect with everything arou- BEEP! Her eyes whipped open at the sound of comlink beeping, she grumbled to herself aggressively answering the hailing.

"What?" she snapped,

"Well that's some way to greet me after so long," Korkie said from the other end of the link, her eyes went wide for a moment before she sighed, placing her hand on her forehead.

"Sorry," she muttered, "It's just… been a long few missions and this is my first alone time in a lot of days."

"I can call back later if you want," he said, he sounded concerned.

"No, now is good," she replied, "What's on your mind,"

"Actually I wanted you to go somewhere for me," he said, Esinon cocked an eyebrow,

"Where is it you want me to go?" She asked curiously,

"I'll send you an address, can you go there for me?" he asked, Esinon cocked her head,

"What is this?" she asked,

"A surprise, I promise you'll like it," he said the excitement building in his voice, Esinon chuckled,

"Alright, I'll play along I guess," she said, rising to her feet. Korkie kept talking to her as she headed to the hanger and hopped on a speeder heading for the address Korkie had sent her. She finally pulled up next to the address. It was a nice neighborhood, where a lot of senators and high-class members of society lived, now that she thought about it it wasn't far from the Senate building. She hummed thoughtfully for a second, before knocking on the door of the building in front of her. The door opened to a familiar face.

"Korkie?" she asked,

"Surprise," he said,

"What- what in the name of the force are you doing here?" she asked as he embraced her.

"You are now looking at the new senator for Mandalore," he said excitedly, as he led her inside.

"Korkie, that's-that's incredible," she breathed, a little stunned by the apartment and her boyfriend who she thought was still on Mandalore here, standing behind her with his hands on his shoulders. She could feel all of the excitement radiating off of him.

"So you're going to be seeing a lot more of me General Windcaster," he said, coming to stand in front of her. She smirked, leaning up and placing a kiss on his cheek.

"I think I'd like that very much," she replied, she enveloped him in a hug and he placed a kiss on her forehead. She felt his chest heave in relief,

"I'm really glad you're ok," He murmured, she smiled softly, gently rubbing his back.

"I'm alright, I promise," she whispered,

"Do you have to go back to the temple or can you stay for a bit?" he asked, they finally separated,

"I can stay for a bit," she said, he smiled, "Besides, there's a lot of apartment for you to show me," she linked her arm in his and they set off.

One week later…

Jayla was really annoyed that she had to admit that Esinon would be able to handle this situation better than she could but for the sake of this trooper she'd swallow her pride and move on.

Jayla had realized very early on in becoming the new General of the 673rd that all of her men either feared or hated Jedi. But every single one of them had been abused in some way, shape, or form, by Krell, and she'd been working tirelessly to prove she wasn't Krell for the past two years. Esinon had a special bond with her clones, a kindness that Jayla couldn't seem to replicate.

So when even after two years a certain trooper in her ranks had yet to become any better, she decided to send him to Esinon. She wanted her men to thrive and if it meant them not being with her, she needed to accept that.

His name was Bash and he refused to take off his helmet around her. She knew that he took the helmet off because Uno had told her when she'd asked but he refused to show his face around her.

When she'd asked Uno, he said he didn't know, all he knew is that one day Bash just refused to take off his helmet in front of the Jedi. Jayla knew that he wasn't happy here, she could sense it.

Besides, Bash barely had any friends and never really interacted with others, he just did as he was told and ate, trained, and slept but other than that he didn't do anything remotely for himself. That's why she was sending him to Esinon, Esinon would be able to help him. Jayla finished the transfer form and sent it off to Uno with a sigh.

"I hope you'll find some happiness Bash," she murmured,


Esinon glanced over as her datapad dinged, while Dej was helping her organize her disaster of an office. She grabbed it opening the notification,

"Huh," she said,

"What is it sir," Dej asked,

"There's a new transfer, from Jayla," she said, "CT-6453, his name is Bash." Dej nodded, tapping another stack of flimsi on her desk to straighten them out before depositing them into a vanilla folder and stashing it neatly into her filing cabinet. "The ship is supposed to arrive soon, do you wanna come?"

"If you would like me to sir," he replied, she nodded,

"Besides, I need someone to show him around the Duchess," she said excitedly, Dej smiled under the helmet. It was nice to see her excited about something, it'd been a difficult time on the Duchess lately with all of Bo's 'stuff'. Dej knew that Bo was trying his best, but he still wasn't acting very Commander like and still shoulder checking General Windcaster when he got the chance.

Dej was simply becoming frustrated, he understood that Bo had trauma from the event with Krell, but he didn't think that should carry over to General Windcaster. She'd done nothing but attempt to take care of her men and be the best leader she could be. Dej didn't think that she deserved what she was getting from Bo.

Besides, they were soldiers, they were made to follow orders, and Bo should at least try to put aside his personal feelings for the sake of the mission at hand. Esinon used her speed to haphazardly stack the flimsi in piles around her office. "There I think that's good enough," Dej sighed, there was still a lot of work to be done in here.

Plus the speedster would rustle papers anytime she moved as fast as she did so he doubted her office would ever be truly organized. "To the hanger!" she announced, Dej followed after her down to the hanger. It wasn't a long wait until a small transport pulled down into the hanger, the door slipped open and a trooper with plain aqua-blue stripes of the 818th on his armor. He stopped in front of General Windcaster and saluted her, "Hello," she greeted, "I'm General Esinon Windcaster, and this is Dej, welcome to the Duchess Bash,"

the soldier made no move at first, seemingly off-put by her friendly nature. To be honest, Dej had been a little off-put by it at first as well, but he had quickly learned that that was just her personality and she was a generally friendly person.

"Thank you, sir," Bash said, falling to parade rest,

"So Dej is going to show you around because the Duchess is slightly different than the average-"

"General!" Jeho called from the ventilation shaft above, he lowered himself to the ground on his mechanical arms. "General, you said you would come to the Cortex for us to run some tests," Esinon sighed,

"Jeho, I'm kinda in the middle of something right now,"

"But you said-"

"Yes I know, I will be there in five minutes alright?" Jeho nodded, a mechanical arm firing back up to the ceiling and he crawled back into the ventilation shaft. Bash simply stared back up at the ventilation shaft as Esinon sighed. "Well that's one less person for you to meet I guess, that's Jeho, our head engineer. I'm sure you'll meet his counterpart Byte soon enough. Also if you see weird looking B-1s wandering around, please don't shoot them. They're Byte's droids and he might have a riot if we break them… we already had an… incident." she said, Dej knew she was referring to her 'infection' and the not so unfortunate destruction of Byte's rouge bots. "Alright, so there is plenty to see and Jeho won't leave me alone even though it's been one minute and not five. So if you need anything just comm me alright Dej?" she said, passing him a datapad.

"Yes sir," he replied, giving her a salute as she started towards the Cortex. Bash saluted her as well as she gave them a brief nod and disappeared around the corner.

"So, as General Windcaster said, I'm Dej, it's nice to meet you Bash," Dej greeted, Bash gave him another nod. Looked like he wasn't much of a talker, "Also the ship's layout is slightly different, I believe General Skywalker designed it to cater to General Windcaster's speed and Jeho and Byte's… inventions." Bash nodded and followed after Dej. He showed him through the halls pointing out differences in the Duchess's design, such as the droid barracks for Byte's droids, the Cortex, the scrap room for Jeho and Byte.

Now that Dej thought about it, most of the differences were to cater to Jeho and Byte, but then again the engineers did contribute quite a lot to the GAR. They constantly had new tech for them to try out and it was making the army as a whole stronger. Bash had yet to say anything and honestly, it was a little off-putting to Dej.

He didn't have any questions, and only seemed vaguely interested in anything that was going on around him, but Dej left if alone. Maybe Bash was simply frustrated he had been transferred in the first place, it was hard being moved around a lot and having your life uprooted in an instant. He was going to give Bash time to adjust and maybe his true personality would start to shine through.

A few days later…

Bash wasn't big about having his helmet off, especially around General Windcaster. He always kept it close, sliding it on whenever the Jedi was around. Dej found it odd, to be honest, but he got an idea of why Bash might have an issue with having his helmet off, or his armor for that matter when Bash took off his helmet for the first time. There was a burn scar that covered the entire right half of his face, the burnt skin flowed up into his hairline leaving most of his hair gone.

The burn scar disappeared into the line of his blacks and Dej had a sneaking suspicion that the burn continued further than that. Some brothers were uncomfortable with their scars, Spitfire was not one of them, taking any chance he got to flex the big burn scars that spanned his back and chest from his time as a flame trooper, but some simply didn't like others seeing them. He personally didn't have a problem with his because they told a story, all scars did. He wondered what the story behind Bash's. Bash glanced at him and smiled slightly but quickly turned his head back to the floor. He quickly slid his helmet back on and ducked out of the room, Dej followed after Bash, he'd been trying to make the new trooper feel welcome and Dej wanted him to know that.

"Bash!" he called, the trooper froze, he slowly turned around,

"Yeah?" he asked, his voice forced into normality. Dej's heart panged,

"Do you have a minute… to talk?" he asked,

"If you want to ask about my scar, I don't want to talk about it. You won't have to see it anymore," Bash said, he turned around to walk off but Dej grabbed his wrist.

"You don't have to be ashamed about it," Dej said, "Most of us have them in some capacity. No one is going to judge you for it," Bash stiffened under his grip,

"Not like me," he said, "not like mine,"

"You don't have to be insecure around your brothers, it's war and things happen, you don't need to be ashamed of that. Trust me, some will even think it's cool!" Dej said in reference to Spitfire, he would instantly take a liking to someone with as many scars as he and. "The only reason it's drawing a lot of eyes is everyone wants to know the story," Bash stiffened further,

"I don't want to talk about it," he growled, pulling his arm away, Dej sighed,

"Will you at least come and sit with me in the mess tomorrow?" he asked, Bash stared at him for a moment,

"I'll- I'll think about it," he said, before hurriedly walking off.

"What was that all about?" Glitch asked, coming back from his shower, Dej shook his head,

"Nothing, don't worry about it," he said giving Glitch a small smile and squeezing his shoulder as he passed. Glitch frowned,

"Fine Mr. Secret-pants," he huffed, Dej chuckled,

"You still act like a cadet, you know that?" Glitch stuck out his bottom lip in an exaggerated pout,

"And maybe I do, least I'm not a stiff,"

"Punk," Dej muttered,

"Jerk," Glitch shot back with a grin, Dej shook his head fondly, the lights above automatically shut off as lights out was upon them. Dej crawled into his bunk settling in for the night. He closed his eyes attempting to drift off into sleep, he was just about to when he heard footsteps reentering the barracks. He didn't move, instead just listened. He could hear armor clips being undone and realized Bash had returned to the barracks. He took a deep breath, hopefully, Bash would take him up on his offer, and see that he was safe with his brothers and there was nothing to fear.

The next morning…

Turns out Bash did take him up on his offer which made him very happy. At first, Dej thought Bash wasn't coming but he simply showed up late to breakfast and found Dej. Bash was still sitting in front of his food not touching it and keeping his helmet on. No one said anything and acted normally, Spitfire snorted into his water as Glitch made another bad joke.

"Geez you're no better at those than you were when we were infantrymen," Spitfire said, Glitch whapped his upside the head.

"I'd like to see you do better," he said, Spitfire crossed his arms,

"I could and just choose not too right now,"

"That's code for I can't," Dej smirked, Spitfire glared at him,

"You couldn't even make a joke about reg manuals if you tried," he snapped, Dej caught out of the corner of his eye, Bash removing his helmet. He said nothing and continued on, hoping that the others would follow his lead and not say anything about Bash's scar until he was ready.

"That's why I leave the joke making to Glitch," he said,

"It's a travesty really," Bo said as he finally joined their table, Dej noticed Bash stiffening and slowly started reaching for his helmet and Dej was about to give some silent encouragement, but Bash stopped when he spotted the scars on Bo's cheek, running up to his right eye. His hands slid back to his utensils and he continued eating. Dej smiled to himself, maybe seeing others' scars would help Bash feel better. Just needed to get Spitfire to start bragging during training… which wouldn't be hard.

A few hours later…

Esinon was still staring Spitfire down as they went on and on, up and down up and down, they'd been at it for ten minutes while everyone had broken off to go into separate spars and training.

"I'm not losing this one," Esinon said coolly as she gracefully sank into another pushup.

"I'm not either," Spitfire growled, Esinon smirked, starting to see the sweat gathering on his brow, then again as much as she wasn't showing it, her arms and core were starting to burn. She may be an ARC but that didn't mean she had off days, after another ten minutes she finally sank down for the last time, chuckling as she dropped out of the contest. Spitfire dropped to the ground as well. "Yes!" he cheered, Esinon giggled rolling over as Spitfire jumped to his feet, he pulled up his shirt, revealing large scars across his chest and back. "Abs of steel baby," Esinon rolled to her feet, pulling up her shirt as well,

"I wouldn't count on it,"

"Says the woman who lost," she punched his shoulder playfully,

"Hey, that's your General you're talking to," she said, putting her hands on her hips,

"Sir yes sir," Spitfire said, snapping to a salute, Esinon chuckled, out of the corner of her eye she caught Bash staring at her. She waved giving him a friendly smile but he quickly focused his gaze back on Dej and what they were both working on.

"Alright, abs of steel, what do you wanna work on next?"

One week later…

Bash had finally seemed to settle in with the 221st, sticking close to Dej at any chance he got. He wasn't as uncomfortable with having his helmet off as before but still kept it within grabbing distance. Dej didn't blame him, it was a safety blanket, plenty of brothers had them. Bash still wouldn't talk about his scar and still struggle with his own self-esteem issues. It didn't go unnoticed to Dej that he always showered after everyone, kept his helmet on during training, and never came to do anything overly casual with his brothers. Dej left it alone for now, after all, Bash had only been here for a couple of weeks.

Dej was a light sleeper, most clones were, used to sleeping with one eye open. And he heard Bash up and moving around a lot at night. He assumed that Bash was just a restless sleeper and left it alone, he was still getting the sleep he needed and Bash didn't look very tired in the mornings so Dej just assumed that Bash just tossed and turned a lot. Well… until tonight.

Dej blinked his eyes open as he heard more rustling, he attempted to ignore it and go back to sleep but he was soon caught by murmuring. He sat up groggily, knowing that someone was probably having a nightmare. He glanced around the room searching for anyone who was waking up, he glanced to a bunk below him, Bash's bunk. Dej slowly crawled out of his bunk and down to Bash's. He gently shook his brother's shoulder,

"Bash," he whispered, "Bash, wake up," Dej ducked as Bash sent a fist hurling towards him. He caught his wrist and held it firmly as Bash continued to thrash around, "Bash, it's alright, you're safe, it's me, Dej," Bash stopped moving and stared at his brother,

"Dej?" he asked shakily,

"Yeah it's me," he whispered, letting go of Bash's wrist, and gently placing a hand on his shoulder, Bash pressed his fists to his forehead letting out a shaky breath.

"He's dead, he's dead, he's dead," Bash murmured, his body curling further in on itself, "He can't get to me,"

"Who can't get you?" Dej asked,

"Krell," he muttered, "Krell's dead, he can't get to me," Bash repeated this over and over and over again as Dej began getting lost in his thoughts. Krell had hurt Bash too, he'd done something,

"Bash, did Krell give you that scar?" Dej didn't understand Jedi's powers, so he really thought anything was within their range of abilities. Bash shook his head,

"There was a gunship, and… and I wanted to get my brother out before it exploded." he said shakily, "And we didn't get super far, because he was unconscious and my ankle was… broken." Bash's brow furrowed as he fought to memories he had suppressed for so long. "But the ship exploded so I tried to protect his body with mine… and I got burned. And when I woke up… I was scared I was gonna be decommissioned, Krell didn't like clones with deformities. I didn't want to die," he whispered his voice shaking, "But Krell said I could stay if… if I kept my helmet on around him. He told me that my brothers wouldn't want to see it either, so I… I wore- wear the helmet." Dej stared at the floor for a minute,

"You shouldn't be ashamed of it," Dej replied, "And… General Windcaster, she isn't like that. I've seen the things she'd do for us, any of us. Trust me, she won't be upset by your scar,"

"I saw some on her stomach today," Bash murmured,

"See?" Dej asked, "we all have them,"

"I- I can't," he muttered, "I can't trust Jedi anymore, I can't," Dej pulled his brother into a hug.

"You can always go see Heart, if you want to talk to someone," Bash nodded his head slowly, nestling his body a little closer to Dej's. He knew that for Bash it was like Bo, Krell had broken them. He knew that it was going to be a process, but at least Bash hadn't let his personal feelings interfere with the mission.

A few days later...

Esinon stared at the report in her lap as Glitch mindlessly braided her hair behind her. She'd had a lot on her mind over the last few days, particularly about the new trooper who had joined her ranks. Bash didn't seem to like her, correction, he seemed downright scared of her. She let out a sigh,

"What's wrong?" Glitch asked, gently running his fingers through another section of her hair and starting to braid again.

"Nothing," she muttered, she could feel Glitch giving a look from behind her.

"Come on Esinon, I can tell something's bothering you," he said, stopping his braiding for a moment and sliding down in front of her. "Tell me,"

"The new trooper, Bash, have you met him?" she asked, Glitch nodded,

"He's a big burn scar," Glitch said, Esinon perked up,

"Really?" she asked, Glitch nodded slowly,

"You've never seen his face?" he asked, Esinon shook her head,

"He always wears his helmet around me and I don't know why. Whenever I can feel the littlest bit of him, he seems scared of me." Glitch stared at his boots for a minute,

"I'm not sure, he really keeps to himself. He likes Dej though," Glitch said, "They're really close with one another, and Bash talks to him a lot! I'm really glad that Dej is finally starting to make some new friends." Esinon chuckled,

"Dej is bad at making friends? I'm not surprised," Dej was extremely quiet, he was around her a lot and seemed to like her alright, but he had a big good soldier complex. Which was somewhat annoying when she just wanted him to relax and know that it was alright to be a little more lax around her. Glitch rolled his eyes,

"He's just not as social as me,"

"Yeah I could tell when I first met both of you," she said, "And the pink hair just screams extrovert," Glitch stuck out his bottom lip to pout,

"It's not pink anymore," he said, pulling at a curl of his now bright blue hair. Esinon chuckled,

"Fine, brightly colored hair screams extrovert, besides I could just sense that Dej is an introvert,"

"You can sense that?" he asked, Esinon nodded,

"I'm an empath, you know that right?" she asked, Glitch stared at her for a minute,

"I thought you were a telepath," he said,

"I can do that too," she said, "But I don't because it's invasive,"

"Would I be able to tell if you were doing it?" he asked,

"If I went digging around in your mind for them, yes, but if you're projecting them really loudly and my shields aren't up then no you wouldn't know."

"Are your shields usually up?" he asked,

"People have very loud thoughts," she said, Glitch nodded, Esinon sat back for a minute letting her thoughts swirl for a second. She mentally traced their conversation back to Bash… he'd transferred from the 818th… and was scared of her… a Jedi. "I've gotta go," Esinon said suddenly, Glitch glanced up at her as she jumped to her feet.

"Is everything ok?"

"Yeah- yup, I just need to call Jayla, now, right now," she said,

"O-ok," he replied,

"I'll be back in a little bit," she called over her shoulder as she disappeared around the corner. She sprinted to her office and pulled out a communicator, rustling flimsi as she went superspeed into her office. She quickly dialed Jayla's com frequency. She impatiently bounced her knee as the com ringed once, twice, three times, and Jayla finally answered, "Finally," Jayla frowned,

"You really need to get better about answering com calls nicely," she said, crossing her arms. Esinon rolled her eyes.

"That's not important right now," Esinon replied, "Bash, did he serve under Krell?" Jayla stared at her for a moment,

"What?" she said softly,

"Bash, did he serve under Krell? Was he with the initial troopers that were there when you took over the 673rd," Jayla stared at her foot for a moment before nodding,

"Yes, I don't know what happened to him, but he wasn't happy with the 818th. I've seen how you are with the clones… they like you, I just don't have that with them. I thought you'd be able to help him, that he'd be happier with you," Jayla explained, Esinon sat back staring up at the ceiling. She couldn't escape Krell. She took a deep breath,

"Do you think Krell did something to him, or do you think it was something else?" she asked, Jayla ran a hand down her face.

"Uno said something about an incident once, I don't think the initial part of it was anything Krell did but the aftermath was," she said, Esinon nodded, running a hand through her hair.

"Alright, thank you, Jayla," she nodded,

"May the force be with you," Jayla replied before ending the call, Esinon stood up, getting ready to go find Bash and hopefully talk to him, but before she could even start her escapade to find Bash the loudspeaker came on.

"General Windcaster, can we please get you on the bridge," a clone's voice said, Esinon let out a sigh and backtracked towards the bridge. Looks like they had been deployed again, she'd have to find Bash later, at least it would give her time to think of a way to confront him about it. She made it to the bridge, finishing her braid and tossing her long hair over her shoulder.


Alright, alright, alright, the first scene of Spitfire's surgery, all credit for that goes to eagle eyes98 bc I couldn't write it lol

So what do you think of Bash! Sweet child, I love him a lot, and I think it's nice for Dej to have another friend.

Next up on let's make this canon corner:

Anakin: I need you to promise me you'll be on your best behavior

Esinon: I already promised other people I'd be on my worst behavior. And I have my word so...

Anakin: Don't make me fire you,

Esinon: you can't fire me, you're assistant dad, not head dad, therefore you have no firing power

Thank you for reading and make sure to leave a review!