A few weeks later…

Esinon climbed out of her speeder, Jeho, Byte, and Glitch climbing out after her. They were on leave for a bit until the war called them back, and Esinon had the intention to enjoy every minute of it. That meant partying with the 501st for as long as she could tonight. She'd even called Anakin and made sure he was coming to 79s as well, it was sure to be a fun night. As Glitch walked with her toward the bar she watched as Jeho and Byte started off in the opposite direction of 79s.

"Where are you guys going?" she asked.

Jeho didn't answer, too engrossed in whatever was on his datapad, "Byte, we need a hydraulic converter for that fancy blaster we're working on,"

Byte grabbed onto the back of his brother's chest plate, stopping him in his tracks. "We're going dumpster diving General," he replied,

She cocked her head, "For what?"

"Well the Kaminoans won't give us everything we need so we're going to look for parts," he explained, "Jeho's just a little excited," the lavender-haired clone ignored them again.

Esinon chuckled, "Well keep your com on, and try not to be late to curfew because that reflects badly on me," she said, placing her hands on her hips.

Byte chuckled, "No promises sir," he gave her a sloppy salute before he and Jeho disappeared. Esinon laughed to herself, shaking her head and heading towards the bar with Glitch.

"Have you ever been here before Esinon?" Glitch asked,

Esinon nodded, "Fives used to sneak me in there all the time. The bouncers here are pretty lazy," she replied as they climbed up the steps already hearing throbbing music coming from inside. "And Jedi don't really get rejected from anywhere."

"Must be nice," Glitch murmured, Esinon glanced at him but quickly dismissed the remark as they headed inside the club.

"Hey! Speedy!" Anakin called, she grinned, weaving through the crowd to reach the elder knight. She hadn't seen Anakin since she'd been knighted, their leaves had never lined up. She embraced him briefly before sliding into the booth next to him with Glitch taking a seat next to Jax on the other side. It was a conjoined 501st and 221st table tonight. Rex was next to Anakin, with Fives on his other side. She snatched a drink out from under Anakin, downing the rest of it. "Hey! I was gonna drink that," he grumbled.

She chuckled, "I'll get you another, by the way, Anakin, this is Jax, and this is Glitch," she said motioning to the respective troopers.

Anakin gave them each a nod, "Nice to meet you both."

"Likewise sir," Glitch replied,

"Couple of stiffs," he muttered,

Esinon chuckled, "Oh ho, if you think Glitch and Jax are stiff then it's a good thing Dej didn't come, he would've probably saluted by now," she said, "He's gotten more comfortable around me, but he's as bad as Dogma was with rules."

A shallow smile crossed the face of Fives, "Reminds me of Echo when he was younger…"

Esinon smiled "Dej is very sweet,"

Glitch grinned, "I'm gonna let him know you think so General, see how red his face gets," he joked,

Esinon chuckled, "Don't go teasing him, he probably wouldn't believe you anyway," she said, they lapsed into comfortable conversation. Hours passed and Esinon was so wrapped up in the story of a recent campaign Anakin was telling, she didn't notice Glitch get a hailing on his com. He left the Generals and other clones to their banter while he quietly slipped away from the table and out the back door of the bar. Spitfire had commed him and told him to meet him outside the bar. Glitch glanced around, searching for the familiar blue and yellow flames of his brother's armor, but spotted none. He bounced on his toes watching the various people pass outside the bar, waving to the 221st men when he saw them. He was about to try and call Spitfire again to see if he'd gotten lost when a man interrupted his train of thought.

"Excuse me, you wouldn't happen to know how to get to a train station would you?" he asked, Glitch glanced at him, the man was of ordinary build, dressed in civilian clothes, human by the looks of it. Glitch couldn't see any markings. He had mistaken Esinon for human the first time they met but then he'd seen the markings.

"There's a station a couple of blocks down," Glitch pointed to his left, "It's getting late out here, I can walk you if you want," He offered, the man let out a sigh of relief.

"Thank you so much, I got a new job this week and just can't seem to navigate my way around down here," he said.

Glitch smiled, "It's no trouble at all, this way," he sent a quick message to Spitfire, letting him know he'd be gone for a few minutes and to wait for him inside. He and the man walked in silence as they headed further into Coruscant's underworld, it got quieter as they walked further. People had already returned from their jobs and back to their families, and there weren't many people around anymore. They passed another apartment complex, the train station was only a few blocks away.

"So you're a clone," the man said, breaking the silence.

Glitch glanced at him, "Yeah.." he wasn't sure what else to say, the answer was pretty obvious.

"Strange folk, your kind," he said shortly, Glitch tensed up, but said nothing. "So many of ya, all the same person..." This time Glitch's fist clenched, the clones were unique, no matter if they shared the same face. He and his brothers may genetically be the same person, but each of them was different in their own way. "You all look the same and sound the same, and have the same armor, most people just call you guys flesh droids. And you know I'm starting to agree with them," before Glitch could react, he was shoved into the alleyway behind him. He grunted as he slammed into a dumpster; he tried could collect himself and fight back but he was tackled by the man. Glitch cried out as a knife was drawn up his side over his chest, slicing through the gaps in the plastoid plates, bodysuit, and his own flesh. "Cheap stuff really," the man chuckled as Glitch scrambled, trying to get away from him, but the man held fast to his body, as he drew another red line across his stomach. "You'd think the republic would take better care of their pets!"

Glitch snarled, managing to get a hand free and socking the man in the face sending him reeling. Glitch shoved himself to his feet, despite the growing fire of pain in his body. The man chuckled darkly, touching the blood that was trickling down his lip, "So, he wants to fight back, how fun..," the man leapt toward him, socking Glitch in the jaw. He was sent flying back, Glitch ducked as the knife was swung toward him. He got behind the man, sending a kick into his back. The man groaned as he was thrown into the cold metal of the dumpster. "Why you worthless little piece of filth," the man snarled, Glitch stumbled for a moment, his abdomen cramping as sticky warm blood ran down his body.

It was enough for the man to charge him and stab the knife into Glitch's stomach. Glitch choked as blood bubbled up in his throat, "There you go, now go to sleep and you can march with the rest of your brothers," the man whispered in his ear mockingly, he pulled the knife from Glitch's body and the clone crashed to the ground. Glitch watched through blurred eyes as the man walked away, a trail of his own blood following. A tear slipped from his eye, he was going to die here…alone.


Esinon glanced behind her as Spitfire entered the bar,

"Hey!" she greeted, "I thought you were staying back at the barracks,"

"Changed my mind, I got bored," Spitfire said with a shrug, sliding in next to Jax. "Where's Glitch? He said he would only be a few minutes. I figured he'd be around by the time I got here."

Esinon looked around, "I thought he went to the bathroom…"

"I asked him to come meet me outside, but he commed me five minutes ago to meet him inside and he'd be back in a couple minutes." Esinon looked around again, starting to reach out for Glitch through the force-

'You'd really think the Republic would take better care of their pets,' she could see a dark figure towering over her, blood was running down her body, and pain spreading to every nerve. She scrambled backward as the man stalked toward her. She was going to die alone.

Esinon leaped up from the table, knocking over several drinks in the process, her eyes wide. Glitch was in trouble.

"Esinon what's wrong?" Anakin asked, sensing her distress in the force,

"Jax, go find Jeho and Byte now," Esinon commanded, Jax obeyed immediately,

"Yes sir,"

"Esinon, what's going on!" Anakin called after her as she and Jax sprinted for the door of the bar.

"Someone call Dej!" she shouted over her shoulder, "Tell him to get to the temple!" She jumped into her speeder, locked onto Glitch's force signature and raced through the streets. He wasn't very far now…she weaved through traffic and skidded to a halt next to an alleyway. "Glitch!" she yelled, vaulting out of the speeder and into the alleyway. When her eyes adjusted to the darkness she could see her trooper on the ground, in a pool of his own blood. The site was enough to take her breath away, but she needed to act fast. She knelt down in front of him, holding her fingers against the sides of his neck. "Glitch? Glitch can you hear me?" she let out a small breath of relief as she found his pulse.

Glitch whimpered trying to squirm away from her hands, "Glitch it's alright, it's Esinon, we're gonna get you back to the temple," she used the force to get his arm over her shoulders and hefted him to his feet. Glitch put all of his weight on her, it felt like he was going to double over at any second. She managed to get him to the speeder, easing him to the passenger seat. She stripped her tabards and pressed them under his hands against the large wound in his stomach. "Just keep pressure on the wound, it's gonna be ok." She jumped into the speeder and raced towards the temple. Glitch was in pretty bad shape and he needed attention fast…so she decided to hail Jayla.

"Hello?" Jayla answered,

"Jayla, go get healer Joy. Glitch is injured, it's bad," she said, she was thankful that Glitch seemed focused enough to keep pressure on his stomach.

"How far are you from the temple?" Jayla asked, Esinon could her Jayla start to run.

"Three minutes, tops," she said, dodging another speeder just as the temple came into view. The speeder felt agonizingly slower the closer they got the temple. She tried to soothe Glitch because she could feel his force signature pulsing in more pain. As they pulled around the private entrance she rapidly slowed to a halt. Healer Joy was waiting with a gurney, a few other healers, and Jayla. She helped Glitch up slowly, "We're at the temple, alright? Healer Joy is going to help you, it's going to be ok," Glitch nodded, biting back a whimper.

"Did you tell Dej?" he asked in a small voice, she nodded,

"I already told Spitfire to call him, I'm sure he's on his way," She said softly, she eased him onto the gurney and watched as he was rushed away. Jayla placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, sending the younger knight silent support.

"Esinon, what even happened?" Jayla asked after a moment, Esinon stared at her feet.

"I'm… I'm not exactly sure," she said, "He got… jumped. I saw bits and pieces of the memories, but not enough to tell what happened. I found him in an alleyway like that, but we'll ask him more about it later. Whatever happened we need to catch this guy," she growled, her jaw setting.

Jayla squeezed her shoulder, "Just take it easy, alright? Why don't you go wait outside the halls of healing and I'll go call fox and make sure Dej got the news." Esinon nodded, wrapping an arm around her abdomen before heading into the temple. Jayla waited for a few minutes before heading back up the steps and back to their apartment. She quickly got changed into her sleep clothes and grabbed her comlink, plugging in Dej's com frequency.

"Dej," he answered, Jayla could tell by his clogged voice that he had already been asleep.

"Dej, I need you to come to the temple," she said, there was a beat of silence.

"Sir… I-"

"Something happened to Glitch," Jayla said, "he's injured, and asking for you. I'll have a guard wait for you at the steps and then they'll bring you to our apartment. We'll go from there," there was another beat of silence.

"Yes General, I'll be right there," the com called ended and Jayla dragged her hand down her face. She could feel the throbbing bundle of emotions that was Esinon as she paced outside the halls of healing. Surely some of the others could feel it too. Jayla put up her mental shields and took a deep breath. She was in for a long night.

Dej had never been in the Jedi temple before, kriff, he'd never even been near the building before. It was so massive…spacious and airy, the world seemed to stand still in here. He followed quietly after the temple guard. There were Jedi still milling around, younglings staring up at him in awe. He tried to keep his head down and eyes on the guard in front of him. Now that he looked, there were keys lining the belt of the guard, keys that looked like the ones General Windcaster wore around her waist. The guard finally stopped in front of a door and pointed to it.

"Thank you sir," Dej said, the guard nodded before departing. Dej stared at the door for a minute,

'Archer-Windcaster' read the nameplate, he finally knocked on the door and it slid open, he poked his head, looking around the room. It seemed…eerily normal. There was a couch in the middle of the room, and a kitchen off to the side. "General Archer," he called, "It's Dej," The young General, whose face looked very similar to his own, stepped out covering a comlink with one hand.

"Hi, make yourself comfortable, I should be done in a couple of minutes," she said, before disappearing around the corner and back down the hallway Dej heard a clone's voice come over the com. "No I can't put General Windcaster on the com, yes I know you're busy, but you need to put me through to Commander Fox." there was a beat of silence from General Archer, "Someone was attacked tonight!" she snapped, "And whoever it was is still out there, so put Commander Fox on the line."

Dej finally stepped into the apartment, the door closing behind him. He made his way into the living space, but it felt exceedingly weird being here. This was an extremely personal look into his General's lives and a clone should almost certainly never see this side of his commanders.

[Don't be too repetitive, saying he said this over and over is enough to get the message across so I reduced it down to him saying this twice. Otherwise, it feels over the top] 'This is for Glitch, this is for Glitch,' he mentally reminded himself over and over and over again.

He scanned the room, keeping his hands at his side. At least it smelled familiar in here, like General Windcaster's office after General Archer had visited. Honey lemon tea, and lavender. He glanced around spotting holos on the wall, house plants lining the windowsill, bottles of nail polish abandoned on the caf table, and a teapot on the stove. There was a small workbench off to the side, with small projects littered across it, General Windcaster's space, he assumed. It was… strange seeing them as regular people. He wouldn't normally think they had a space of their own, a small bubble outside the war. He stepped off to the side of the door, not wanting to block the entryway should General Windcaster return. He stood there quietly, listening to the broken conversation General Archer was having down the hall. He could tell by the growing tone and volume of her voice whoever she was talking with, it wasn't going well. Seconds melted into minutes, and soon ten minutes had passed.

Dej was ripped from his study of the apartment when the blast door next to him whooshed open. He turned around to find General Windcaster, with Glitch leaning heavily upon her. She smiled softly up at him.

"Good, glad you found your way up here," she said.

Dej didn't answer, he was too busy staring at his brother. Glitch had a Jedi issued tunic and his normally tan skin looked extremely pale, there were white bandages that showed through the thin fabric. Glitch could only stare at Dej. He couldn't offer his brother a small smile; he could only accept the small wave of relief that washed through him at the sight of his brother. Esinon gently handed Glitch over to Dej for a moment, as Dej studied his brother before pulling him in close. The two brothers began to converse quietly in mando'a as Esinon slipped out to find Jayla. Dej could feel Glitch shaking underneath him, hunched over trying to make himself smaller.

"It's alright, I'm here," Dej whispered, gently setting him down onto the couch. Glitch didn't answer, instead only having the energy to make himself more comfortable on the couch. They lapsed into silence as Dej stood over him, his mind racing with what could have happened to him, but he wouldn't ask about it now. Maybe General Windcaster would know, he could ask her later, she looked exhausted anyways. After a few more minutes General Windcaster returned,

"Dej, can I talk to you?" she asked, "outside," he nodded, gently putting his hands on Glitch's shoulder.

"General Windcaster wants to talk to me for a minute, I'll be back." Glitch nodded, turning over on his back. Dej followed General Windcaster outside, she inhaled sharply, scrubbing her hands down her face.

"I know that you probably wanna know what happened," she said, "And I don't exactly know Dej, I only saw abbreviated versions of Glitch's memories. He hasn't uttered a word since I found him,"

Dej listened intently, a small sigh escaping his lips when she finished speaking.

"General, what happened to him?" he asked, his eyes never leaving hers.

"I found him in an alleyway, a couple of blocks from a train station, but I don't know why he'd be out there," she muttered, "Someone jumped him," she said after a beat of silence, "I don't know who, and I don't know why, but they wanted to make Glitch hurt before he died. They knew what they were doing so it's not their first time trying to kill someone.`` Dej stared at her for a moment, his heart dropping into his stomach.

"Can- "he paused composing himself. "General, is there anything we can do?" Dej knew that in the face of the law, it was only General Windcaster who could do something. She had pull, people listened to Jedi. People didn't listen to clones.

"Jayla is on the com with Fox right now, they can put out an APB, but only once Glitch talks to a sketch artist. I couldn't see who the man was in the memories, only that there was someone there. I called Ko- a friend, and he said that we could use his apartment to talk to a police officer tomorrow morning." She explained, fiddling with a key on her belt. "Police officers aren't super allowed in the temple, a lot of people aren't…" she muttered,

"General, I can take Glitch back to the barracks," Dej offered, he wanted to take his brother somewhere familiar, he might be able to rest easier there.

She shook her head, "Glitch can stay here, the only reason he's not in there," She motioned to the apartment door behind them, "Is because Healer Joy ran out of room in the hall," she stared blankly over his shoulder for a moment, "War's taking its toll on all of us," she murmured, to herself more than anyone. She blinked a couple times, shaking herself from her stupor. She fished her comlink out of her pocket and handed it to him. "Call the rest of your squad, let them know what happened, and that Glitch is alright." Dej didn't think Glitch looked alright, "Make sure Jax got Jeho and Byte too. Come back inside when you're done, you're staying here tonight." she made it very clear that she wasn't suggesting he stay the night.

"Y-Yes sir," he replied, watching her slip back into her apartment. He made the necessary calls, trying to ignore his growing uncomfortableness of the eyes on him as Jedi started to file back to their rooms, the sun basking the temple walls in its golden glow, the neon lights of Coruscant's nightlife coming alive. He finally finished, turning back to the door, it slid open and he walked inside. He found Glitch curled around General Windcaster, already fast asleep, the young knight appeared to be asleep as well. She was hugging him protectively, even though Glitch was on top of her. Glitch had been crying, Dej could tell by the sight of his brother's puffy and red eyes, and the wet splotches on General Windcaster's tunic. Dej slowly walked over to them, sliding down in front of a chair next to the couch, he still didn't want to touch anything…. General Archer was nowhere to be found, as he watched the minutes on the chrono tick by, he assumed she had gone to sleep. It was silent in the apartment, save for the sound of the bustling Coruscanti life that never slept. The minutes dragged out into hours and Dej was slowly losing the battle to sleep. He was still in full armor, his head resting on his arm that was propped up on his knee. His eyes were slowly starting to slip shut, when he was jolted from his limbo between sleep and awake by footsteps. He glanced around and spotted General Archer coming out from the hall and walked into the kitchen.

Dej had always thought that General Archer had a regal air about her. The way she held herself, the way she could command a room, the respect she achieved. It was well-founded in his mind. But right now she looked like any other civilian. Here General Archer seemed to drift away from her military life. She grabbed a glass from the cupboard, moving to the sink and filling it up with water. She ran her fingers through her dark hair, a shade similar to his own hair. Now that he thought about it, General Archer shared a lot of features with him. She started toward him and he made to stand but she shot him a look,

"Sit," she said curtly, Dej obeyed, she held out the glass of water to him, "Drink that, you look like you've wanted to faint since you got here," he glanced between the water and her, she gave him another look and he took it from her hesitantly. She sat down on the cafe table in front of him. "Look, we both know that Esinon… will do whatever it takes to track this guy down,"

'So will I, '

"And if that takes her outside the law, and I can't be there to protect her from that. I'm deploying in the morning. No matter what I say, she isn't going to listen, she's reckless and stubborn," General Archer glanced over at the sleeping knight. "But she cares for you guys like nothing I've never seen. That loyalty to you, better be well-founded." She looked back at him, her golden eyes staring him down, cold and hard. "Keep her safe…" Dej swallowed,

"Yes General," he replied, steeling his nerve as his eyes met hers.

She gave him an approving nod, rising from the cafe table. "And for the love of the force, take off your armor while you're sitting in the chair, you'll wake up with muscles stiffer than you right now if you don't relax," she said, before disappearing back to her quarters. Dej sat there for a moment before drinking the water and stripping himself of his armor silently, easing himself into the chair. He took a deep breath, centering himself before curling up to go to sleep. He couldn't do anything for Glitch at the moment, but he could help his brother through tomorrow. Tomorrow would be hard, but they would get through it together. All Dej knew is that whoever hurt Glitch, would pay.


I'm back from hiatus kinda!

So as far as posting, I have the next half of this chapter written so I'll probably post that in a couple weeks.

As of writing schedule for the future, there really isn't one. Right now my motivation for anything really is pretty low, so I'm sorry it's taking longer for the chapters to get out, but I am really trying to improve the quality of my writing with the help of eagle eyes98. I hope that better quality makes up for the less quantity.

Thank you all for sticking with me! It means a lot.

Next up on let's make this canon corner: Esinon has made shirts for all of Helix and herself that say "If found please return to Dej," and Dej has a shirt that says "I'm tired you can give them to General Skywalker,"

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