A/N - this is a new chapter of Scars. I deleted it from the original because it seemed, sluggish in parts. It's still not very 'adventusome', but we've just had 'The Hidden Enemy' and Teth preceding it. Perhaps it is the calm after the storm...

Court-Martial - Questions

It seemed as though General Skywalker's new padawan was always in Captain Rex's office. She had a million questions and it was quite obvious that General Skywalker had simply pointed her in the captain's direction and said "Ask Rex."

In one way, Rex didn't mind. She was bright and her questions usually evolved into interesting debates that made him think. However, at the moment Rex didn't have time for debates or training a youngling in military matters or even much thinking.

They'd only recently gotten in the new equipment for the destroyed armory. More refugees were making their way every day into the capital of Christophsis creating havoc and worries of CIS infiltration. Daily there were skirmishes as remnants of General Whorm Loathsom's forces attacked the 212th which should have been augmented by the non-existent Torrent Company. Rex had to build up the 501st from the handful of men who had returned from Teth and a few who had, for various reasons, remained on Christophsis.

He, Cody and the generals had finished three of the interviews of Slick's men and were cautiously reassigning them to other companies. They were in the middle of Jester's interview then there would be Chopper's interview as well as his court-martial for the droid fingers. The interviews had not been easy; not for the troopers reliving them and not for the officers shocked by betrayal in more than military matters.

Sketch had been the most forthright, telling them before they even thought of asking, that Slick had truly hated Chopper. Later interviews with Punch and Jester had confirmed that though Gus had been hesitant to label it 'hatred'. 'He's just not a good trooper,' Gus had explained but his specifics simply brought out the convoluted rules of Slick's squad.

Rex simply didn't have time for the new padawan. He had even growled at Coric once, "Can't they just flash-train her?"

Coric had laughed at Rex's frustration but then invited the padawan for a day-long tour of the medical units at the refugee camps. He had been pleased with her questions and even her unsolicited advice.

"Rex," her voice came around the corner before she did.

Rex sighed as he promised himself his next office would have a door. He set the data-pad beside the droid fingers he'd confiscated from Chopper and faced his commander with as much patience as he could muster under the circumstances.

She blinked as she faced him. "Oh," she looked stricken, her lekku twisting in some emotion Rex decided was consternation. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize I was a bother."

Kriffin' Jedi mind-reading tricks. Rex sighed. "You're not,"

She frowned, her lekku moved in an agitated manner. "But…"

"There's a lot to do at the moment, Commander Tano. My impatience is simply based on that. He looked into her eyes and mustered up a smile from somewhere. "I enjoy our debates and I enjoy teaching you as well. However, now is simply a bad time."

She stood at his desk, her fingers absently touching things on its surface as she spoke. "There never seems to be any down time…"

Rex chuckled. "There will be time; you'll see. We'll be leaving Christophsis soon enough and you will be so bored your lekku will lose their stripes."

The padawan giggled like the youngling she truly was. "Ok, I guess I can hold my questions until then."

Rex frowned and shook his head. "I don't want you to hold your questions. Learning is important and I don't want you to be unaware of battle procedures or clone capabilities, especially since Christophsis still has a scattering of CIS forces. Will you ask Coric instead of coming to my office every time you have a question? Or any nearby trooper? You are their commander," he gave her a small smile of encouragement. "At least for a short while; just until we're in transit?"

Satisfied with the compromise, she nodded glancing down to see what her fingers had encountered. She lifted Chopper's droid fingers up to her eyes with a quizzical expression on her face. "I like his thinking," she said, "but what it is?"

Rex sucked his cheeks in slightly as he watched her admiring the workmanship. "Forbidden. The trooper is confined to quarters pending court martial after this mess with the traitor." She still didn't seem to understand what it was because she held the heavy metal even higher with a frown on her face.

"Is it a necklace?"

Rex nodded to her question as he reached for his data pad and keyed in to some logistics he could handle during a conversation. He made a note by the supplies for the refugee camps; they were running out of foodstuffs quickly.

"He's very talented and meticulous," she observed as her fingers moved along the smooth edges of the metal which Chopper had sanded then polished so each finger was incrementally smaller. "It soothes his mind. Why are necklaces forbidden?"

Rex didn't really want to explain and his irritation must have been evident to her because she set down the necklace and stepped to the doorway.

"I'm sorry, Captain. I'll wait until we're in transit." Her voice was soft and she moved down the corridor.

Rex sighed and picked up the droid finger necklace. There was fine craftsmanship and balance in the necklace but it was forbidden. What would a clone do if he could disobey basic rules and tenets of battle that had been drilled into him for years? Would Chopper turn out to be no less a traitor than Slick? For a moment Rex went back to the data pad, keying in several new troopers who'd just come in earlier that morning, but his eyes were caught by the droid finger necklace and he lifted it in his hand again. He gave a slight smile as an idea suddenly entered his mind. He stood, picked up his helmet and went in search of the Jedi padawan.

Rex found her just outside the barracks beginning some light saber kata as several of Commander Cody's off-duty troopers watched. After a moment's admiration of her grace, he cleared his throat and called her. "Commander Tano, I apologize for my impatience earlier," he said as a preamble, "but I have realized that you could be a great help." He glanced around to see the troopers dispersing with nods of respect in his direction as she moved in that Jedi grace to his side. "It's the trooper who made the necklace. He was one of the traitor's squad. We've spoken to the other troopers and are finishing up the last interview before moving on to this – the final man in the squad."

"You need to find out if he's a traitor?" Her face was excited.

"No. Not exactly." Rex shook his head. "He's being court-martialed for the collection of battlefield artifacts. We cannot presume he is a traitor." Rex shook his head.

She frowned and Rex could see the questions on her face.

"We're too close and it's too recent." Rex glanced away, hiding the pain he felt for the men he'd lost. "We have no evidence or indication that he's a traitor, no reason to believe he might betray us but we see him in association with the traitor. I don't believe we can find anyone to work hard enough to defend him in his court martial. I would like for you to make his case before the board of inquiry; before Prince Organa, Generals Kenobi and Skywalker, Commander Cody and myself."

"But I don't know anything about a court-martial."

"Exactly," grinned Rex. "And what better way to find out?"

"That isn't fair to him; giving him someone who knows nothing about the rules and situation."

"For any questions regarding the court-martial procedure, you can interrupt me in anything I am doing for a question about this. Coric, also, will be available for your questions." Rex saw doubt in her eyes. "Furthermore, this is a… unique situation. There is no precedent for being a trooper under the command of a traitor and I have my…." The captain stopped, pursed his lips then continued. "I have doubts we can apply justice. We will be viewing this in a combination of Jedi, Kaminoan and Republic law; not as a legal court but more like a court of inquiry, of curiosity. This court will only make recommendation."

Slowly the Jedi padawan nodded her head. "Like the Jedi Council, asking him questions."

"Very much like, Commander. My only suggestion would be to not let us ask him questions. He has already admitted to collecting the droid fingers; but that's it. No reasons given, no extenuating circumstances explained. That is what I want you to explain to the board of inquiry."

Commander Tano looked confused but nodded slowly. "I think I can do that."

Rex gave her an encouraging partial smile. "You can. You will." He turned back toward the building when Commander Tano touched his arm. He turned with a sigh.

Kriffing Jedi mind-reading…

"What is it, Captain Rex?" Her voice was surprisingly gentle for the exuberant padawan as though she knew he wanted her to ask.

Rex frowned, biting his lower lip. "Just this; before we identified the traitor and I thought it might be this trooper, he said 'I just wanted something back. I guess I felt like they owed me.'" Rex glanced down at the soil of Christophsis. His men had died here also. "I didn't know what he meant then and I'm still not sure." He paused and looked into the Jedi padawan's sympathetic eyes. "But after Teth, after losing…" he held his hand out, empty-palmed, "so much and so many men, what he said resonates through me and I empathize. Somehow, I want to believe he's a good trooper and this isn't his fault."

Chopper kept his head bowed, the scars in the shadows next to the wall by the bunk he'd taken over now that Jester was no longer in the barracks. No longer was it Jester's refuge; it had become his.

Captain Rex had told him he was confined to quarters; that later he, Commander Cody and the Jedi generals would come for a quick briefing. Captain Rex told him there'd be an in-depth interview later about Slick and he would face a court martial for the droid fingers. Chopper had nodded, saluting the captain. When he'd stood before the command group asking about Slick, Chopper had stood at attention as he answered their questions. He had given them his best salute. When he had returned to the barracks, he had removed his armor and uniform, cleaned them thoroughly then crawled into Jester's bunk and wept.

He had kept to his quarters as ordered and when the padawan youngling had requested entry, he hadn't really believed she was the new commander, but Coric had come in with her, a data pad in his hand.

"CT-9523," Sergeant Coric said as he stood in parade rest, "Jedi Padawan Commander Tano will be interrogating you regarding the collection of droid fingers on the battlefield."

Chopper barely turned his head in her direction. Proper procedure was to salute but Chopper didn't want to stand in front of her naked-faced. What would they do to him if he didn't stand? A demerit? Another court martial? He snorted and turned his head back to the wall. There wasn't anyone who cared about individual troopers. He'd already told them he had collected the kriffing fingers, already admitted his guilt. All they had to do was sentence him, send him back to Kamino for correction, for reconditioning.

"Trooper," Coric's voice snapped sharp in reprimand, but the commander must have made a gesture because nothing followed.

Chopper heard them move, the small sound of someone sitting on a bunk.

For a long while there was silence then Chopper partially turned his scruffy face to the padawan. She was Togrutan, all ruddy orange with white marks on her face and dark blue stripes on her lekku, sitting cross-legged on the bunk closest to the door; the bunk that had once been his.

"Are you reading my mind?" Chopper growled his words, hoping to drive them away.

"No, we're simply waiting." Her voice was soft and Chopper flinched at how hard his voice had sounded. She was just a youngling.

"What for?" This time he kept some of the growl out of his words.

"For you to speak to us."

"What if I don't want to talk?"

The commander Jedi gave a sigh and a shrug of her shoulders. "Then we'll go away."

Chopper thought about that for a moment. He didn't believe they'd go away, didn't believe she wasn't traipsing around his dark thoughts. "Go away." Chopper turned back to the wall.

Once again he heard noise, the slight shifting of their bodies and the door opening. There was a pause and her voice spoke to him again. "We'll return tomorrow."

And they were gone. Chopper had even gone to the door, opening it to look down both long corridors wondering if they were monitoring him from the hall. The only person in the hallway was a trooper of the 212th who glared at Chopper as he hurried to duty.

Chopper had gone back to the refuge and thought about that until late in the night.

They returned the next morning. Once again Chopper refused to stand, refused to face the Jedi youngling. Coric said nothing this time, simply sat on another bunk. The commander sat on his old bunk again, cross-legged and her chin in her hands with her arms braced against her knees.

The only noises were the soft breathing of three people and their slight movements.

"Ten minutes," Chopper began in his rough voice. "Reinforcements should have arrived ten minutes later. I would have been dead by then. A chunk of my head was on the LAAT behind me." Absently he rubbed the scar tissue that spider-webbed over his skull and part of his face. She'd seen only a glimpse of it when she'd first walked into the barracks before he ducked his head and turned the scars to the wall. He now sat with his dark-bristled face in the shadows.

"I was in Kamino bactank for two weeks. Normally, you get one week." Chopper shrugged a shoulder. "Something about the body starting to digest itself starting with muscle, but this was the beginning of the war and Kamino medical wasn't too crowded. There were more fatalities then." He glanced up from the floor but not quite high enough to look into her eyes. "Practice is real good on Kamino but it isn't real." He saw Coric nod as he made a note on the data pad. "So they let me pickle a little longer." His voice was bitter. "Keeping notes, of course. A one-off experiment. When they brought me out of the tank, I still felt…" he reached a hand out in front of his body, as if seeking his way in the dark. "I don't know. Wounded? I was missing something intrinsic to me, some kind of strength."

He gripped the edge of the bunk and was silent deep in thought as even now he tried to reach that portion of himself he'd lost. There was the quiet tapping of Coric on the data pad and Chopper didn't know why he was taking notes. This had nothing to do with the droid fingers and he wasn't sure why he was telling them this.

"I didn't let them know that though," Chopper began again in a quiet voice. "They would have reconditioned me for sure. As it was, they still discussed what to do with me; whether I could be sent back out in the field immediately or should have training or be reconditioned. They decided to put me into a squad of shinies and have me go through the last two weeks of training as if I was a rookie."

His lips gave a slight upturn that was almost a smile and he scratched his chin with the back of his thumb. "That wasn't bad at all. It brought my muscle tone and stamina back up. It was relaxing after the fighting; to know that it was unlikely anyone in my squad would die that day." His face hardened. "But before that, while I was just out of the bactank, they discussed whether I was battle-ready; in front of me while I was all naked lying on that gurney."

Chopper could feel his thoughts spiraling back down to that memory, that helplessness, the inability to do anything. He glanced up as he heard the door close. It was just as well, he didn't feel like talking anymore. But he did take a hot shower, shaving off the stubble that had grown in the past week and preparing himself to at least look like a proper trooper for the commander when she came back.

Chopper knew they'd return the next morning.

"I was wounded again." Chopper turned slightly toward the padawan and tapped his chest. "Shrapnel tore a kniffing big hole in my chest and they got me on one of the destroyers. I was all bandaged, tranked up with drugs. There wasn't too much pain as long as I didn't move or take a deep breathe or think… and I noticed they weren't taking me to a bactank; they were going to put me in a stasis tank." Chopper chewed at his lower lip for a moment.

"Stasis tanks go back to Kamino and I didn't want to go. Not to Kamino with a chest wound and this big red scar just shouting recent head wound. They would have thought I was defective for sure. I got off the gurney and had a discussion with the medical team."

He paused and a shiver of fear ran through his body. He was silent for a long time and only when he realized they were moving, preparing to leave, did Chopper resume talking. "There I am, my shell mostly cut off, soaked in blood, threatening anyone who wants to send me to Kamino. My captain came up to medbay to figure out what's the disturbance and he promised I would not go to Kamino. Anyway, I'm post-op in medical, waiting for a bacta tank. I'm remembering the guys from my squad; Haz, Kyp, good men." Again Chopper paused, remembering them. "They were laughing just hours before, making jokes like we always do. They didn't make it. And I hurt – deep. Maybe I needed more painkillers but I'd already made a big fuss. I didn't need any more attention. Among other things, they've cut open my ribs to get to my chest. I need a bacta tank bad. They're prepping one for me. Mostly, I am so kriffing glad than I'm not in some stasis tank shipped off to Kamino. See, it's another chance even if I know the captain is going to get rid of me."

Chopper suddenly blinked, suddenly remembered who'd been there also. "Slick is there, he brought in a wounded trooper and was leaving," Chopper's voice was quieter. "He comes up to me, frowns at," Chopper paused and lowered his voice as if ashamed, "at my tears and tells me "K'atini."

He glanced again at her to see the padawan looking at him without comprehension.

"It's what we tell troopers who aren't working hard enough or aren't tough enough. Slackers. Troopers who won't pull their own weight." Chopper explained and saw her frown; she thought him k'atini also. He sighed as he turned toward the wall but continued speaking. "After I got out of the bactank I discovered my squad had all died and I was transferred to Slick's squad when he got replacements from Kamino. He didn't like me in medical. And he didn't like me in his squad either."

"Then why did he ask for you?" it was the first question she had asked and oddly, it seemed about time someone asked him a question.

"You must have that wrong. He wouldn't ask for me." Chopper spoke to the wall. "He said I was more a burden than any shiny; said he was always covering my shebs with the captain."

"No. He did request you. I've seen the records."

Chopper shrugged. "I don't know."

"Chopper when did you start taking battle droid fingers?"

He got a cold grin on his face. "On Christophsis not too long before it all happened. Slick had told me I was a waste of parts. We were scouting the boundary on our BARCs and I took out a super battle droid with one shot." He glanced at them. Coric looked impressed, the little Togrutan merely interested so he explained. "Most of the time an SBD takes three, maybe four shots. I did it with one. You have to hit them just right and I had figured out where to hit them. I told some guys in the squad – Sketch and Jester. They both clapped me on the back but Slick came in and told them I was lying and couldn't hit a transport from inside the cockpit. They looked at me, weird and Jester went to his bunk. Next time I'm on patrol I make sure to take out a super with one shot in front of Gus and I take its finger to prove to Slick if he says anything."

"Did Slick know that you were collecting these things from the battlefield?" Her voice seemed curious again. Perhaps she didn't think he was too much of a bad trooper.

"Yes. And that was odd because he stopped calling me the Three."

"Three?" Ahsoka was confused. This was going in so many directions she didn't know where to look. She glanced at Coric who, for once during Chopper's dialogue, looked as confused as she felt.

"Yes." Chopper was silent. He lay down in the bunk with his face to the wall. He was finished for the day and he heard the commander growled in frustration as she recognized it.

Chopper heard them leave the barracks. He chewed his lower lip, wondering if it would make a difference, wondering why they hadn't simply sent him back to Kamino.

Read and enjoy... review and comments wonderfully welcome.