Chapter 10: Target Practise
Wolffe was conflicted when the General commed him to collect a small group and to get down to the hangar. He'd tried to only think of his brothers but he knew the General would ask about Doryn if she wasn't already there with him. Would he tell him? He reminded himself how many of his men had openly lost it a bit against droids and that a Jedi wasn't allowed to do that. A Jedi had no outlet like he and his brothers did. Maybe a few days ago he would've told the General. He told himself that he wanted to give her a chance and that everyone has bad days. The only thing was, not everyone was a Jedi. Not everyone had that much power. Not everyone was that dangerous. If he lost it without a weapon, he would be able to do a good amount of damage in a fist fight but she could kill easily from a range with nothing but her internal will. Plo Koon, the calm Jedi Master, had never given Wolffe a reason to consider Jedi dangerous. It was like his view on reality split in refusal of accepting the girl from the night before and the girl from that morning were the same person. Refusal that the person who'd refused a title out of not feeling she'd earned it was the same person so quick to go against her beliefs.
Wolffe led four of his men into the hangar. Comet and Wildfire, the standard troopers, followed close behind in their standard gear. Scope and Mortar, the cold assault troopers, followed at a distance with only the under layers of their armour. It changed their outline significantly, taking away the smooth sloping edges of their thermals. As they entered, they could feel music booming from a speaker. It was a smaller hangar that had probably been used a lot before the war but the clones had never seen it used for its intended purpose. A few times they'd heard of certain Jedi or nat-born pilots using it accidentally at the beginning of the war because of how set in routine they'd gotten. Wolffe didn't know much about music but the song had an energy to it. He didn't know how to describe it, but he knew there were drums and realised one of the instruments was a voice. The first line he caught was, 'incapable of making alright decisions, and having bad ideas'. He'd heard more of the song but missed what the lyrics after the initial line were as he spent a bit trying to decipher the weird sounding voice. He took a moment to understand what he and his men had walked into. Once he knew, he kept near the exit, not entering too far into the hangar. Doryn was there with her lightsabers connected to make a double bladed one. Her body looked like it flowed with it so naturally. Even her choppy red hair flowed along with the faster movements. He forgot having considered her dangerous an hour before. He couldn't believe something as beautiful as her could pose him any threat. Instead of the dress she'd worn the night before and when leaving the barracks, she had a more casual outfit on. Something which seemed fitting for the lower levels of Coruscant but still captivating from the back. The General was watching her intently with his arms crossed. He was in his standard Jedi robes.
Master Plo turned the music off and it brought Doryn back into the moment. She'd trained a lot to music, let herself get lost in it, as a stand-in for the Force. She powered down her lightsabers and turned to her Master. "I think it should work with an extender from Huyang." She unlocked the base of the hilts and slid both of them into her jacket's pockets. It was loose enough to not show much shape. She would've preferred to put them on a belt or on her legs but the jeans she had on were quite well fitted and she couldn't have them on display. She noticed her Master only nodded a little before speaking. "I also wanted to get you to do a final practice before sending you out." He moved his head to make it obvious he was looking behind her and she followed it to see Wolffe and some of his men. She thanked the Force that she hadn't been born human. If she were human, she was sure her face would've been bright red. He stood with his helmet under one arm and his body was covered in the same plastoid she'd been pressing herself into less than 12 hours before. Under that armour were the arms that had held her and the chest she'd used as her pillow. His eyes were on her and she soaked up the feeling of having his attention. "Good morning." She kicked herself for sounding like a scared kitten with her wobbly voice and soft tone. She also kicked herself for only saying 'good morning' with the hope that he'd respond with the same greeting he'd used that morning. The same one she'd lost control after.
Wolffe had been enjoying the view of her butt until she turned around and he saw under the hoodie. It was only a band of fabric around her chest. The fur on her belly was a slightly lighter shade than the rest of her body. Her jeans held her hips, teasing him with the idea of his arms being there instead, and he couldn't help but fantasise that the hoodie was his. The hoodie would've fit him much better which only helped his imagination. He was barely okay with his brothers seeing her dressed in that. The idea of seedy strangers seeing her in it made him want to shoot anyone that would even dare to think about what should've been his. He pushed the possessive thoughts to the back of his head. He could work them out after. He didn't have much success with that when she spoke after a couple of moments. He'd kept to his self-assigned mission for about 3 seconds. He couldn't help the want to carry her away to his bed and to simply cherish her when he heard the same voice that asked him, so sweetly, to stay with her through the night. That tone that was for him, and only him. Her ears lowered for a second, like a short version of how she'd made them fold over themselves to make the tips point toward the floor the night before when she'd begged. Even with his limited experience of non-human body language, Wolffe figured it was an 'I'm harmless' message. Coming from her, he just read it as her promising to behave for him. It was like when he'd seen a tooka waiting expectantly to be stroked on the head. She'd also purred as much as those tookas did when he'd stroked her head the night before. He gave a nod to acknowledge her greeting. Speaking would've given him too much temptation to call her kitten again or to make a teasing comment that would actually just be a warning to his brothers that she was his and to back off. Even though she was married to the Force if anything. At least, that was how Wolffe understood the Jedi. "Wolfpack, you will be shooting at my Padawan." The General's tone was somehow calm and as if he hadn't given an order for 5 of his men to shoot his student.
Doryn had been hoping that her Master would give her the practice. She'd been shot at by plenty of droids since her previous Master's death and hadn't been close to getting hit. Nothing organic had shot at her since she'd gotten the white spot of fur on her shoulder. She'd been lucky for it to grow back at all, but it growing back white made it stand out even more than if it lacked fur. It was as if the Force wanted to mock her with another reminder that her Master was dead because of her. She felt the worry in the men in front of her as soon as Master Plo's words had hit their ears. Between trying to prepare herself mentally and feeling the worry which she interpreted as doubt, she was more than ready to lose herself again. "Make sure they're not on stun." She spoke with reckless confidence. Wildfire tried to argue that they should be using stun rounds for a practice and both him and Doryn looked to Master Plo. He was the final authority on both the battalion and the Padawan. "You will be using live rounds. If anyone uses a blaster against her, it will not be set to stun. Now, form a circle."
Mortar seemed pretty eager to get to it whereas the other 3 looked to Wolffe. He knew that the General would never ask what he had if he believed it was above her ability. He remembered seeing her surrounded by countless droids and taking them out without getting hit. He had to remind himself that she'd likely become a Padawan around when he was 'born'. As much as he felt it was wrong, he gave his men the go-ahead. She was a Jedi. As they surrounded her, she taunted them. "I'm sure that two training droids would give me a bit more of a challenge than you lot. I might be underestimating the droids though." She hadn't even reached for her lightsabers when the General gave the order to start firing. Mortar was the first to fire. Wolffe was confused as to why she hadn't taken out her lightsabers. She was simply dodging the shots. He kept a close eye on the General, waiting for when he'd command them to stop. As soon as he heard the low voice of the General he stopped firing before realising that it was an instruction for the Padawan. He didn't believe his own comprehension of the words when the General told her to open her eyes. She had been dodging shots from all 5 of them with her eyes closed. She'd been moving as if she were remembering the steps to a dance with her hands clasped behind her back and that had been impressive enough to Wolffe before he knew she also deprived herself of her vision. It really should've made her seem more dangerous to him but he couldn't help simply admiring her immense skill. Eventually, she drew her lightsabers and deflected each shot to the floor.
She kept trying to give herself to the Force like she knew she was meant to. She could protect herself easily with how intensively trained she had been by Master Tassu. The struggle was protecting something less mobile. She wouldn't've been shot and made to sit out of Geonosis if she'd protected herself but the senator in her care would've died quickly. Every time she dipped into the Force, she felt fear. Not her own, but someone else's. She felt that fear turn to anger. She felt intentions turn from helping her practise to harming her. She tried dipping into it again and it swallowed her whole. She was almost a passenger in her body as the Force guided her. It felt so wrong. It wasn't a friend warning her, but instead a vengeful spirit possessing her. She had no say in cutting Mortar's blaster or force-pushing Comet. Scope soon had his blaster pulled out of his hands by the Force and shoved back into his face. It took Master Plo calling her off to be able to stop. She refused to admit to herself that him calling her off only worked because he simultaneously restrained her with the Force.
Plo hadn't wanted to be in a situation where he had to protect his men against his own Padawan. Unfortunately, some kind of resentment had built during her short time socialising with the others. He'd obviously made a mistake in believing that forcing her to suddenly integrate would have no issues associated with it. Though, he'd seen her give in to the Force. Even if she'd been a danger, at least there seemed to already be progress. Even progress in the wrong direction was more than he'd expected. Still, he had to pull her aside. Even if it was technically progress, it wasn't safe. Even if it weren't for the fact that he valued his men as individuals that he was responsible for keeping alive and well, the way the Force had guided her was against the direction of the Jedi order. Sometimes it seemed wrong to him, how at times the council was to be followed over a pure feeling through the Force. If he truly believed that the council he sat on was to be obeyed above all else, then he, Wolffe, Boost and Sinker would be long dead. If Ahsoka and Skywalker hadn't manipulated the meaning of their orders to fit what they wanted for them to mean, then his men would have suffocated on that capsule. Even so, as Doryn's Master, he was responsible for her. He was guilty for both her negative actions and positive actions she failed to perform. He had to make sure she knew that she had to stay in control, even if the Force tells her to go against her instructions. He had to teach her to follow something he didn't believe. Even if he was having to reprimand her, he was glad. The fluffball that had made a flower bloom with her sneeze was still in there. Even if she was now an adult that could kill as if it were nothing, he would only ever see the infant he'd retrieved all those years ago.
When correcting her, Master Tassu had always let her know exactly how disappointed in her he was and how much more he expected of someone on her level. It was like she was the enemy. She hadn't expected to feel so loved as her behaviour was addressed by Master Plo. He expressed concern without blame. If anything, the blame was put on the Force and how it had decided to reside in her during that moment. She wasn't a disappointment of a Padawan. He didn't tell her that he should've picked a more obedient youngling, or even simply plucked an unark from the ground to take as his Padawan instead. There was no week of solitude to think on her failures. Instead of any of that, he handed her a blaster. Master Plo Koon, with a seat on the high council, who had just seen his Padawan become a hazard, handed said Padawan a blaster. Doryn was in utter disbelief and was rather confused when given the weapon. She understood somewhat when she was told it was to help her blend in a bit but it still seemed like a bit of overkill. All she knew about blasters was how to fight against them, not with them. "I shouldn't possibly know how to use this." That caused Master Plo to chuckle.
Wolffe listened carefully to what the General told Doryn. On top of the fact that Boost had called her beautiful facial features 'freakish' and the fact that Comet had laughed along as if it were funny, Mortar had developed some kind of vendetta against her. Wolffe had been at the receiving end of her outburst and found it impossible to hold it against her. Despite the one that she lashed out at being fine with her, Mortar seemed to think he had a right to hurt her by simply witnessing it. Boost had also received quite a bit of that power but he'd deserved it. He'd asked her a disgusting question as if he'd never insulted her looks to her face. Wolffe was starting to lose faith in his men. Obviously, ones like Wildfire were still in his good books but he was disappointed with how many had already managed to expose themselves in the worst way possible. Wolffe tried to push it to the back of his head as he watched Doryn hold a blaster. She had no idea what she was doing. He wasn't sure if he should thank the Force or some old gods when the General dismissed his brothers and asked him to teach her how to use the blaster properly. He took great care with and enjoyment from gently manipulating her with his hands so that she held the blaster correctly. He felt that he could get used to teaching her about blasters and slowly teaching her to aim perfectly. Though, the General tested her by throwing a rock and she managed to hit it on her first try. Wolffe didn't know why he hadn't expected her to instantly be good at it. Maybe it was because as cadets they trained for years and still missed. It was even more of a reminder that she was a Jedi and he was just a clone.
Of course he would be enchanted, she was beautiful, talented and perfect. He was absolutely certain that her perfection wasn't simply just his opinion. Of course she was all of those things, which any normal Jedi was. Though, even if she weren't born a Jedi, Wolffe imagined that he'd still be impressed by her. She was able to go on a mission alone without doubts that she'd survive. Knowing all of this did nothing to stop Wolffe from worrying. Despite the fact that she'd easily overpowered him, he still felt wrong, letting her go alone. It didn't make any sense why he felt unease at the thought of not being there to protect her. Still, he spent most of his leave worrying about her. When he wasn't worrying, he was trying to work out what he thought of her. How he felt.
