#i like to think too that as any human Cody will learn slowly to not depend as much as he used to other matherial belongings like his jacket | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

inkformyblood · 4 years ago

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To Love Is To Learn

Jangobi Week 2021 Prompt #6 Fix-It AU (Canon Divergence mid-Kamino)

“Decommissioned?” Jango stopped, his boots ringing on the metal floor. The spindly Kaminoan, Lino Bivui, turned back towards him, twisting a stylus round their pale fingers. Their cheeks were flushed a pale grey, something that resembled excitement sparking in their dark eyes. It sent a cold shiver of unease running down Jango’s spine, and he tucked his thumbs into the hip pockets of his blacks to stop himself from reaching for the blaster on his hip.

“Yes.”

Jango fought the urge to roll his eyes, the gesture no longer hidden behind the safety of his helmet. Muscles he didn’t know he had ached from training the new batch of troopers, and exhaustion had been a constant companion for the past two years. But he was still here, roaming the halls with the Kaminoan, rather than curling into his bed for a few hours before the training began again.

“What,” Jango let some of his irritation gather in his voice like an oncoming storm, “exactly do you mean by the decommissioning of the clone troopers?” The words ‘of my sons’ went unspoken, bitten back at the last second, because how could he not love them? It would be as impossible as trying to pluck every star from the sky with his bare hands. He was Mando’a, regardless of what people tried to say to him, and some instincts were harder to shake than others.

Lino Bivui drew themselves up higher, confused and affronted and Jango didn’t care. He wasn’t about to ask twice, letting himself finally wrap his fingers around the handle of his blaster. Their eyes dropped to it the movement, as dark and liquid as the sea on this infernal planet, and they sighed.

Telling Jango what it meant may not have been the last thing they ever did, but they sealed their fate when they finished with ‘After all, they’re not human.’

Green blood covered the walls, dripping from Jango’s hands as he worked methodically through the floors, enacting his own brand of justice. When the day dawned on Kamino, the facility was empty and Jango Fett, along with his sons and storage vats, was nowhere to be found.

⁂

Jango didn’t know exactly what time it was — the instinct had slowly eroded with every year of peace that passed — but he knew it was too damn early.

An exploratory press of his hand sideways came away tangled in a cold nest of blankets, some softer than he was used even now, revealing Obi-Wan was already awake and up with their sons. The thought still sent a twisted curl of warmth through his chest, Jango’s heart beating slightly faster whenever he remembered that Obi-Wan had chosen him, and let Jango love him in return.

His train of thought was derailed as the crushing weight firmly settled on top of his chest shifted, one tiny hand pressing into his cheek. “Bui’?”

Jango fought back the reflexive groan, knowing his previous plans last night — of being able to luxuriate in bed with his riduur on one of Obi-Wan’s rare mornings free — were now impossible and half-opened an eye. A blurry face stared back at him, impossibly close and Jango did groan this time, eyes snapping shut again to try and dissuade the eager toddler sitting on him.

It didn’t work.

“Bui’!” Jango flinched away from the resounding squeal, the noise sending a blaster bolt of pain through his head. He hooked his arm under the wriggling toddler and twisted them both so they were lying on the blankets, side by side, hoping beyond hope that his restless son would settle.

“Bui’, up!”

Jango resigned himself to wakefulness, navigating by touch — making the child next to him giggle in delight and try to grab at his fingers — to press his forehead to his son’s, breathing in the gentle scent of floral shampoo and the faint tinge of engine oil.

Clearly, the Alpha batch had gotten distracted while watching their younger siblings already.

The group was so similar to Jango already that on previous occasions, he had found Jaster’s admonishments falling from his lips, an echo that made him turn pale with looks of teenage defiance turning to worry in a second.

“Good morning, ad’ika,” Jango groaned, pressing his shoulder back as far as he could, hearing the bone crack with the motion. He squinted down at the boy, a growing sense of confusion washing through him. Which child was this?

The decision to decant the remaining batches from the storage tanks had been a long argued over one. The battle raged until the early hours of the morning, only to resume at first light, proving to be ultimately pointless when they all discovered that the children would die otherwise.

Plo Koon and Shaak Ti had deliberately not looked at the other before they crept from the meeting room towards the tanks to begin the process as soon as they heard. Jango suspected they were the key driving forces — except Jango and Obi-Wan himself — in annulling the previous agreement between the Kaminoans and the Senate and granting all of his sons their freedom.

Jango sat up, the child copying his actions clumsily, a wide grin on their face and eyes fixed on him. A quick check of his outfit: the steel blue of the batch marked to be the 501st Legion originally, helped somewhat, but not enough. He couldn’t be Echo or Fives — those two were never far apart from each other — and he lacked the careful braids of Tup. Jango sighed, roughly kicking his legs free of the blanket and standing up, the child already rising to his feet — wobbling slightly on the uneven mattress and raising his arms to be picked up.

“Kix?” Jango asked as he obliged. The delighted peal of laughter as he settled the boy on his hip let him know he was wrong once again.

The tiles were warm beneath his feet, and Jango smiled to himself as the memory of Obi-Wan collapsing into the bed beside him — his skin sun-warmed and smelling faintly of honey — rose unbidden as he walked towards the door. For all Jango treasured his memories of Obi-Wan, nothing could compare to the man himself.

Obi-Wan sat crossed-legged in a pool of dappled sunlight, a gently steaming cup of tea next to his knee with one child sat in his lap with a look of such intense concentration on his face Jango couldn’t help but grin.

“Cody has been such a good help this morning,” Obi-Wan said, his eyes still closed but his face inclined towards Jango regardless. Cody opened one eye — the other slowly opening despite his best efforts — and nodded enthusiastically.

“Have the rest been behaving for your buir?” Jango asked Cody who, even at the age of approximately seven, carried the self-inflicted responsibility of the other children on his shoulders.

Cody paused, clearly trying to think of a half-truth as he spotted the child held on Jango’s hip.

“Seventeen said they’d only be a few minutes,” he reported finally. “And that Jesse wanted to find Kix so he wouldn’t be any bother, and Kix is still asleep.”

“Cyar’ika, we need better colour-coding for our children.” Jesse was already squirming to be put down as Jango lowered him to the floor, trying to run towards the sleeping Kix — sprawled on the floor next to Obi-Wan — even before his feet made contact.

“Oh?” Obi-Wan did look at him then, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he smiled, hair shot through with gold in the sunlight.

Cody sighed a far too world-weary sound, and wriggled free of Obi-Wan’s lap, crossing the room to scramble into the playpen with Boba and Rex instead.

Jango laughed, leaning down to kiss Obi-Wan as he had been wanting to do since he first woke up. The other man laughed against his lips — laughter prompted by the disapproving sigh that echoed from the teenager passing by their open door, one child clinging to his back — and reached up to wrap his arms around Jango’s neck, fingers tugging at the curls at the base of his neck.

“I love you,” Jango whispered, trying to fit years worth of gratitude and love into those three simple words.

“I know.” Obi-Wan’s voice was soft and so full of love that he could have plucked Jango’s heart from his chest and he wouldn’t have protested.

A wail made them break apart, Boba noticing that Jango was in the room and reaching for him demandingly as Cody held Rex balanced on his hip, smoothing one hand over his younger brother’s blonde curls.

Jango kissed Obi-Wan again, quick, gone before the other man could do much more than blink and moved towards Boba. The morning was golden, and his family was safe. It was everything he never imagined he would have on that day when he fled from Kamino, blood on his hands and a sobbing child on his lap while the rest sat silent and scared in the hold. And Jango was so grateful that he had made that choice, as it brought him his family.

#jangobiweek #jangobiweek2021 #jangobi #jango fett #jangowan #obi wan kenobi #star wars

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vinciwolf · 4 years ago

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Rex + nsfw alphabet

Pairing: Rex x fem!Reader

Warnings: 18+, nsfw

Here’s a nsfw alphabet that nobody asked for xD

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex)

It depends on the night. Sometimes Rex is so messy that both of you end up in the refresher, the end up changing the sheets from all the sweat. On the more lazy-sex days, aftercare is simple and sweet. Rex will usually be the one to grab a towel and wipe you clean.

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

Rex’s favorite body part are your boobs. He loves massaging, sucking, biting, or simply fondling them when he’s taking your ass from behind. Those large, calloused fingers will play with your hardened nipples until you beg him to stop. The next morning, your swollen nips will itch from tenderness and be very sore underneath the fabric of your bra.

Aside from your boobs, Rex loves your pussy. Not the exterior (even though he loves the noises your make when he circles your clit) but inserting his fingers inside your slickness drives him nuts. He loves the feeling of your slippery walls against his fingers and how your juices make the lewdest slapping noises when you’re about to cum.

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically)

He mostly loves it when he can cum inside you, then watch it spill from your entrance afterwards. The view of your eyes blissed out, body glazed over with afterglow, and his juices seeping from your core is a site to behold. Nothing can compare to how proud he is of being able to make you that beautifully relaxed.

This is very rare though because y’all wrap it up to prevent an unwanted pregnancy.

D = Dirty secret (pretty self-explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

Occasionally, he’ll cum on your stomach in order to force you both into the refresher. There he will use the shower spray to stimulate another orgasm out of you.

Also, Rex hasn’t told you yet, but he really wants to make a holorecording of y’all having sex (not just holorecordings of your voice) for… personal reasons while he’s away on long missions~

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?)

Rex had a few encounters at 79’s before meeting you, but he wasn’t really that great at love-making. He knew the basics of PIV sex, jerking off, and that’s about it. When you entered his life, however, you helped him learn how to actual enjoy himself during intimacy.

F = Favorite position (this goes without saying)

Tbh, this clone is a basic bish. He likes missionary position because he can hug you tightly against his body while he rails your pussy. And it gives him the advantage of holding onto the headboard for support.

But Rex is not afraid to try new things though. When you introduced him to anal sex, he instantly labels it as a favorite. Why? Because he can either fondle your nipples more easily or play with your clit (or both at the same time).

Also, when you ride him, he is driven wild. Being able to watch his cock slowly disappear into your warmth, bouncing on his hips, squeezing your tits in his hands while you contort your face with pleasure… he just… explodes from arousal.

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.)

Sometimes if Rex is tipsy from drinking, he’ll be sloppier and throw a joke around here and there, but for the most part, the captain is more serious during intimate moments.

H = Hair (how well-groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.)

You’d think for a clone with a shaved head that he’d be more groomed down yonder, but he’s actually kind of bushy. Not as in he could beat a Wookie in the bushiest crotch competition, but just sporting a naturally grown out bush for your average human male.

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect)

One time you returned to a dimly lit apartment with candle leading to your bedroom. Rex was in his blacks waiting on the edge of the bed, condoms scatter over your nightstand.

Sadly, the romantic moment was cut short due to one of the curtains catching on fire. Your apartment was saved, but you ended up having to lecture the poor clone about not putting candles near flammable items.

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon)

Rex often times jacks off in a refresher for easier clean up, but he must make sure it’s empty because it would ruin him if Cody or Kix stumbled upon him with an upright pecker in his hand.

Before meeting you, the captain would simple jack off for stress relief, but now Rex cannot see himself masturbating without the aid of a hologram on you naked or a holorecording of your moans.

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks)

It’s not really much of a hardcore kink but going back to how Rex loves the feeling of your warm pussy, his ‘kink’ is fingering you until you’re a sweaty, panting mess beneath him.

One of his more serious kinks involves restraints. He love it when he can hold you legs down while he eat you out, not allowing you to squirm or clench your thighs around his head.

L = Location (favorite places to do the do)

Honestly, anywhere. The bed is optimal, the refresher is relaxing, and the wall for when it’s a rough quickie… particularly the last one.

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

When you’re wearing lacy lingerie and switch to a dominate role in the bedroom, that is when Rex get’s going. He loves it when you call all the shots.

N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

He won’t do degradation.

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

Rex dies when you give him head. See here for proof.

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

Depends on how long you and Rex have been separated. Sometimes when you two are on the same star destroyer, sex will be quick. When you two are planet-side on Coruscant, sex will be slower due to having more privacy.

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

Rex is 100% up for quickies. Remember what I said about y’all being on the same star destroyer? Yeah, Rex will totally shove you into a supply closet or the empty barracks and just pound away until you come apart.

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

In the empty barracks, Rex will clamp his palm over your mouth to keep it down, but the rush of y’all being found makes the sex more exciting for the both of you.

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

As a clone trooper, Rex will obviously have more stamina, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be respectful of your limits.

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

Unfortunately, Rex cannot keep any toys with him due to moving around too much, but when y’all have sex in your apartment, a vibrator sometimes makes its way into bed too~

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

Since you and Rex have to keep your relationship low-profile, teasing in public is not really an option.

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

Rex grunt and curses at first, then he lets out quick huffs or gasps as his impending orgasm slowly erupts. These noises are usually accompanied by him quickening his thrusts against your hips.

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character)

He secretly wants to make a baby with you… If you say yes, he’ll yeet that baby into your womb in seconds!

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes)

Rex is not packing in regard to length, but in girth. It’s not much, but the slight difference in girth size will leave you moaning, mouth ajar, from the sheer fullness inside your pussy.

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

His sex drive is pretty average, but when he has been without sex for longer than a couple of weeks to months, his yearning for you is through the roof.

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

Y’all will both fall asleep relatively at the same time after sex, usually a few minutes after clean-up.

#captain rex x reader #captain rex #rex x reader #the clone wars fanfiction #star wars fanfiction #mywriting #myart

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a-tale-of-legends · 3 years ago

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A semi-deep dive of N's relationship with Alexis and Elliot. A matter in three parts.

Part 1: The Journey

It's no secret that Alexis and Elliot's journey wasn't what they were expecting. And it all started with a strange green-haired person named N. Both of the twins collectively agreed that N was odd at first, from talking really fast to claiming that he could talk to Pokemon. It got even more odd, and a bit concerning, when they would start to talk about becoming a hero and befriending the white dragon. Elliot was easy to dismiss this as just a weird person doing weird things( though she still had an eye out). Alexis, on the other hand, was oddly concerned? Something about this stranger concerned him. Was he hurt? Lost? Confused? He didn't know the answer then, but he did know that it wouldn't hurt to get to know the mysterious N a bit more.

As the twins journey continues, more joy and despair happen on both sides, Alexis breaking more and more, far from the youthful spirited kid he was before this journey started. N would make appearances in their journey, up to Nimbasa City. At that point, Alexis actually considered N a friend. A strange and distant one, but a friend non the less( Anything to distract him from the death around him).Elliot was a bit more apprehensive, slowly starting to put the pieces together. Though Alexis talked a bit positively of N, and if Alexis was happy, she was happy. N was confused about the both of them. Alexis was someone who almost seemed happy to see him, by the chances that they do see each other, even sharing some of his ideals. But he still seems to oppose him. Then there was his sister, Elliot, who was much more harsh and opposing to N. Tbh, N didn't really like her at first. But her pokemon remain by her side, claiming to love her with every ounce of their being. So confusing....

Everything came crashing down at Nimbasa City. At that point, Alexis, the poor boy, broke. He spilled everything to N on the ferriswheel. The death, the running away, the sleepless nights, everything..... everything expect Team Plasma. What they did. But Alexis trusted N. N was his friend.

I'm going to be honest, I'm still not sure how N would react to Alexis confession. Disgust, anger, sympathy? All of the above. I don't know. But I do know is that he decided the worst timing to tell Alexis the truth. That he was the king of Team Plasma. The team that harmed pokemon. The team that stole pokemon. The team that killed Alexis' pokemon in Wellspring Cave. That team. Alexis never felt so numb in his life. He felt so betrayed.

Elliot, who was just about having enough with the Team Plasma shabang and was about to talk to Alexis about it when she saw them. N and Alexis leaving the ferriswheel. Alexis looking terrible. Two Team Plasma running up to them. She hears them call N "Lord N".

Lord N.

The pieces finally click together.

Elliot was livid.

Surprisingly, after the two had their battle, Alexis prevented Elliot from absolutely beating the shit out of N( which also didn't let N see her in a better light either).

The whole ordeal left Alexis so confused. He was betrayed. Was he? Was he just that desperate to not think about the reality of the situation? Was N ever truly hid friend? And yet, after all that, he just felt it. Something was wrong. Something bigger than Team Plasma, or N ideals. He needs to find out. He has to. For N. For Unova.

Elliot wanted Team Plasma to burn to the ground. Really, she did not fucking care. They hurt Alexis, they hurt so many people! Fuck them! She's going to take them down if it's the last thing she does. She has to protect them. She has to.

N, after the ferriswheel incident, has just become more and more confused. Whatever emotions that he felt, or tried to not feel, has died down. All he feels now is guilt. And he doesn't know why. He's right! He knows he's right! His father trained him for this exact moment! Why?! He remembers their faces. The emotion in their eyes. Alexis feeling of betrayal, Elliot's rage. He can't un-see it. They haunt himAnd the pokemon. The pokemon. He heard them scream. Yell. Shouting at him to get away, crying in concern for their trainers. Calling him a monster. A monster. Him. No that can't be right. The true monsters are humans. They are foul, and dishonest, and bring nothing but harm to pokemon. N is not the monster here, he-

...

He confides in his sisters. He.... doesn't want father to know of his doubts. They, too, have been exploring Unova. They should help. They should set him straight. But his sisters shake their head.

" That's just means your learning the truth N. Your truth,"

The truth? The truth.

Hm.

He needs to find Reshiram.

N and the twins don't meet each other for a while. Elliot is head set on beating down any Team Plasma grunt she see's, while Alexis is honestly just avoiding them to ensure his pokemon lives( fun fact! The later half of the nuzlocke was actually decently deathless! I take it as Alexis being extremely paranoid of everything). Chargestone Cave was an awkward encounter between Alexis and N( Elliot was busy battling Team Plasma grunts to notice N). They don't really talk, both being as elusive to the topic at hand. The tie breaker is Cody( a then joltik) who was vibing on N's hat before taking interest in Alexis. It was a good ice breaker at least. N asks Alexis if he has a dream. Alexis thinks for a bit. He says he's not sure. Not right now. Of course, in typical N fashion, they battle, to which Alexis wins. Professor Juniper and Bianca( but mostly professor juniper) seems to get N riled up. He leaves as quickly as he came.

After getting his 6th badge, he meets N again. No battle. He just wants to talk. That scares Alexis more than it should. Oh wait it's too his pokemon. Still scared though.

N's mind is still plagued with the events of Nimbasa City, what his sisters told him. But he's tired of talking to humans. Pokemon are better. They don't lie.....though it seems that Alexis' team doesn't want to talk to him. Everyone except the Samurott. She insists for him to call her Kai. The name Alexis have her. That's.... interesting. He hopes to find something, anything, that proves him right. Surely, Alexis, his enemy friend rival, isn't as nice as he appears to be. There has to be more. There's always more( he knows from experience)

What she says surprise him. Does it? Was he something he always knew? He doesn't know .

Kai speaks of her trainer highly, and with great pride. Almost like a mother, ironically. She tells N that she would never leave his side. That Alexis is the most selfless human she is so fortunate to have as a trainer. She tells N that she loves him, and the team that they created

She also warns him if he tries anything to harm Alexis anymore than what Team Plasma already did, she will maul him to death. Politely.

Ah.

The new information makes the guilt N felt before resurface. The bond between Alexis and his pokemon( and dare say between his sister and her pokemon) is strong. It's would be heartbreaking to separate them. But if he must for the sake of pokemon then....

...

He tells Alexis about the stones. In Dragonspiral Tower.

Now there isn't much to say about the rest. The tension is high, Elliot is still mad, and Alexis is still a shadow of the young boy he was( but is slowly putting the puzzle pieces of N together)

When reaching N's castle, Elliot gets a slight perspective change. She's still angry and mourning( she lost pokemon too) but then she see's more team Plasma grunts. Some her age. Some younger. They all share the goal of wanting a better world for Pokemon. Some are even unsure of Ghetsis' action. Even N's! That's.....not different from what she saw. She's seen these type of grunts. Those who just want to protect pokemon. Those who just want pokemon safe. She knows that. ...

But that doesn't excuse all the harm they cause. She's still mad. She's still mourning. But she understands now. Just a little. Still doesn't like N.

Alexis finally understands. N's room. It's so....empty. So crooked. He can feel the loneliness. The isolation. He feel a fire blazing in his heart. He's going to save N, and Unova and maybe punch Ghetsis in the face! He just Zekrom feels the same.

The rest of it is a blur.

Alexis remember a few things. The gym leaders, the Elite Four, Cheren, Bianca.

His sister.

He remembers hearing Zekroms cries, lightning and fire clash. Waves of emotions pour out his body. He needs to make him understand. He has to.

Ghetsis. That smile. That rage. N's cries for his father to stop. His sisters were right. His sisters were right-

It's over.

He's gone.

And then they were two.

" Alexis! You said you weren't sure what your dream was. I hope you find it someday," N smiles down at the slightly bloodied Alexis, " I hope you find your dream! I hope you dream that dream! Dream that wonderful dream, and with the ideals in your heart, make it a reality!" He tips his hat, his eyes glistening.

" Thank you for everything, my friend. I'm sorry for the pain I caused you. And.....farewell!"

And then he's gone.

It's over.

Why does he still feel so numb? He should be happy. Ghetsis is gone, N is going to find his truth and everyone he loves is safe. He should-

He should....

He should go.

He doesn't want to be here anymore.

He'll be back.

Of course he will he just-

Can't do this anymore.

Elliot gets a phone call from her mother, crying. It's about Alexis. He wasn't at the hospital. The nurse found the bed empty. All except for a note:

"Gonna find N. Be back soon"- A

Liar.

#oc: alexis jones #oc: elliot jones #n harmonia #this ended up a story and a half #AND IT'S ONLY PART 1 #i think the next two will be much shorter #but who knows #also #don't tag as ship #please their relationship is purely platonic #they're siblings your honor

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writer1 · 4 years ago

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A regretful Wolf and his Beauty

Chapter Eleven

Beast!Rex x Fem!reader

Summary: As punishment for his actions, young prince Rex was cursed to become a monster by a witch. The only thing that saved him from his fate was an enchantress, who gave him a condition. He has to find true love in order to redeem himself and he only has until the last petal of the enchanted rose falls. Rex's family helps you by guiding your way into his heart. Rex's fate now lies in your hands.

A/N: This is a collaborative fic with @ahsokatano-thetogruta.

Warnings: mistreatment of kids, abuse, experimentation, neglect, guilt, small mention of injury.

Ezra doesn't have much in life. He's been too busy following Maul around that he hasn't really learned how to make time for himself. Not knowing what to do with himself means going to Maul and making sure that he is okay and if he needs anything. If Ezra doesn't do something right, it will end up with him either getting shouted at or beaten. Sometimes it will be both.

He sits on his small, broken bed as he takes care of his freshly made bruise. He doesn't know what he's doing wrong, but he always makes sure that he does better, even if it's still not enough. His thoughts of running away linger in his mind for moments at a time, and today they are screaming at him to escape, run away as far away as he can. But he reluctantly decides against it.

The pain from his leg makes him tear up a little, but he fights through the pain. Ezra's parents died when he was 6 years old. He was wandering around the streets for a while until a Zabrak found him and took him in. Maul doesn't really care for Ezra, he just wants to use him and make him do things that he is too lazy to do himself, things like cleaning, bringing him drinks and running errands.

All the work he does makes the young boy feel exhausted every night, and he'll go to bed late and wake up early to have things ready for Maul. It's almost already midnight, so Ezra listens out for Maul, hearing him go to his room and get into bed. Ezra knows that he's safe to go to sleep now, knowing that he won't be needed until morning. He tucks himself in, forcing his eyes shut as he slowly falls asleep.

xxx

A few hours later and after some much needed discussion, Kix and Jesse both rush towards the west wing, they need to tell Rex about what you know. Neither of them can believe that you already figured it out, you’ve only been in the castle for about four days, and most of those were spent alone in your room.

They arrive in the room to see Rex, Stutter, Cody and Obi Wan, they stop talking once they see the frantic look on Kix’s face. Jesse, in his bird form, flies over and lands on Cody, folding himself back into a paper man, Kix flies over as well. Rex looks between the two. “What’s wrong? Is Shiny okay?”

Kix and Jesse look at each other nervously, neither knowing what to do about this, Kix, being the medic, flies forward. “Yes. She seems to be a little better. She was starting to feel weak again when we left, but she did have a few visitors, so that’s normal.” Rex smiles, happy to hear that you’re getting better. He still feels guilt over what he did.

“That’s good, but what's wrong, the two of you looked frantic when you came in?” Cody would have an expression of confusion on his face if he had one. Jesse sighs and steps forward. “The thing is, Shiny... she knows.”

“What? What do you mean Jesse?” Rex asks. Jesse frowns. “She… She knows about the curse.” Rex’s eyes widen significantly, he feels fear fill him. “WHAT!!! Did you tell her?!” Jesse shakes his head frantically. Stutter cowers a little, he hates to hear yelling. Rex’s ears press against the back of his head when he sees Stutter cower.

“Sorry, Stutter. I didn't mean to shout, I just…I don't understand how she could have found out.” Rex has an expression of a cross between stress and confusion. Jesse rubs his paper neck nervously “Well, she figured it out. Kix was telling her the story of how I was his first patient, saying how I got a blackeye. That's how she figured out we were once human.”

Rex doesn't look impressed at all and he huffs, trying to control his temper “I see… I guess there's no hiding it now.” his head lowers a little as he thinks of what to do next.

He feels nervous thinking about how you may think of him as more of a monster now that you know that he was once human, and that a prince can be such a beast. “We better go and talk to her.” everyone nods at Rex and follows him out of the room.

xxx

You awake to see that you are the only one in the room. Kix and Jesse had left you to get some rest, but you ended up falling asleep for a few hours. After being in bed for so long, you feel fed up and need to stretch out your legs a little. Kix had said that you have to stay in bed and to call someone if you need something, but you honestly can't take it anymore.

A little wobbly, you manage to stay on your feet without feeling the need to sit back down on the bed. As steadily as you can, you leave your room and walk down the corridor to explore a little. You feel fatigue take over your body again, so you slide down the nearest wall and sit down, trying to catch your breath after using the little energy you had.

Sitting down, you look up to see a framed painting hanging up on the wall. Two boys, an older one with black hair and a younger one with blonde hair, stand together in partly formal and partly casual clothes, smiling as the one with a scar on his face wraps an arm around the other boy's shoulder.

They look very similar to each other, like they are closely related. Brothers maybe? The blond one looks younger than the one with the scar, who looks more like a young man.

Lost in thought, you hear your name being called out. “SHINY?!” The voice is loud and deep, making you realise that it's Rex. Kriff, he must have gone to check on me in my room. You think to yourself as Rex gets closer. “Shiny!! Where are y- There you are. What are you doing on the floor?” Worry consumes him as he gently helps you stand upright.

“I got tired of being in bed, so I went for a wander. But I guess that didn't end so well…” You look down and then back up to see Rex's concerned expression. “No, it didn't. C'mon, let's get you back to your room.” You nod, but just before you leave, your interest is still focused on the painting of the two boys.

“Rex, who are those people in that painting?” you point up to the painting of the two boys. His concern turns into nervousness, remembering that you know about Kix and Jesse being human before, but he doesn't know if you know that he was once human too.

You look closely at the painting and then back at Rex a few times, realising that the colour of the blonde hair in the photo is the exact same as Rex's fur. Your eyes widen in realisation. “Is...Is that you?” You ask, pointing to the youngest of the two boys.

Rex sighs. “Y-yeah, that’s me, and the other is my older brother, Cody.” You can feel Rex’s nervousness in the force, and even though you are still mad at him, you feel bad for making him feel this way. “Are you okay?” Rex nods, though he still feels nervous.

“Yeah, I’m okay.” You look back at the painting. “How old were you in this?” you ask him, he smiles, there was a nice memory with this painting. “I was thirteen, it was my birthday that day. Cody is seventeen.” You smile, turning to Rex, but he suddenly frowns. “This was painted only a few months before…” You know exactly what he’s talking about.

“Before you and the other’s were cursed?” He nods. “You were so young, who in their right mind would curse a child? What happened?” Rex grimaces. “I… I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s get you back to your room.” You nod, not pushing the issue. You follow him back to your room, something’s changed. You don’t feel anger towards him anymore, just sadness and a sense of empathy.

You both arrive back at your room, and you lean against Rex as you start to feel weak again, he helps you over and into your bed. You notice the others in the room.

There’s a desk and a paintbrush, who you haven't met yet, along with Obi Wan, Kix and Jesse. “H-H-Hello.” the paintbrush flies up to you as you lay in your bed again. “I-I’m Stutter! R-Rex's younger b-b-brother.”

You smile at the sweet paintbrush, he’s so adorable. “It’s very nice to meet you, Stutter.” suddenly Kix flies up to you, he does not look happy in the slightest. “And what were you doing out of bed?” You smile sheepishly, you know that it was stupid to get out of bed while you’re this sick.

“I...I was bored and just wanted to have a little walk around, but I guess it didn't really end well.” Your sheepish look grows as Kix huffs. “Well at least you're back in bed now. From now on, unless you are back to full health no getting out of bed unless necessary. Am I clear?”

“Yes, of course. Sorry if I've caused you any trouble.” You hear a shuffling sound moving closer to you. Turning your head a little, you see a desk stopping just beside you. “It's okay, Shiny. We're all just worried about you.” Everyone in the room, who can, nods in agreement. “I'm Cody.”

“It's nice to meet you, Cody. You must be Rex's older brother.” you smile at him. “What's it like having younger siblings? I'm an only child you see.”

“It's nice to have brothers to hang out with. I'm also an older brother to Fives, Echo and Stutter, who you've met, and also Bly and our youngest sister, Ahsoka, but you haven't met either of them yet. Though I do have the best embarrassing stories about Rex when he was younger.” Rex presses his ears back a little in embarrassment, scowling slightly at his older brother “Cody, please don't…”

“I'd love to hear them!” You say with enthusiastic interest. If Cody could, he'd be smirking playfully at his Rex'ika “There was a time when Rex was five years old, he tried to feed me some slices of Meiloorun from his mouth.” You do your best to hold back a laugh, while feeling Rex's embarrassment through the force. The chuckles from around the room finally make you break into small laughter.

Rex feels his face heat up. He wants to be annoyed at Cody, but hearing stories about his past makes him feel happy, though that story is quite funny, so he can't help but chuckle as well.

Obi Wan clears his nonexistent throat, causing everyone to turn to him. “I loved that story, but we do need to discuss a certain something with Miss Shiny here.” Rex’s ears press back, you can feel his nervousness in the force.

Cody sighs. “Obi Wan’s right, we wanted to talk about the curse with you, Shiny. Since you figured it out, what do you know so far?”

You look at Rex, then turn to Cody. “I figured out that you were all human once, and Rex told me that he was thirteen and you were seventeen when it happened, but thats all. I saw a painting of the two of you, and asked him about it.” Cody hums to himself, happy that you didn’t figure out too much. The group had already discussed what to tell you.

“Did Rex tell you what happened that night?” Rex shakes his head. “Can you tell it, Cody?” The desk does it’s best to nod, you can feel sadness from everyone, Obi Wan walks up to Rex, patting him on the back. “Don’t worry, little one. Cody and I can tell it.”

The knight then turns to you, the desk shuffles around to face you more as well. “The day we were cursed was Christmas day, Rex was thirteen years old. He had woken up on the wrong side of the bed, so he was tired and cranky, but he did his best to join in on the fun.” You nod along, thinking about the boy in the picture.

Cody continues on. “We had a few bumps that piled onto Rex’s already bad day, it started with him breaking a vase, then the kitchen was out of his breakfast, then he was pranked by Fives and Echo. he snapped at them then him and I got into our own fight over how he had treated them, we made up later but it just piled on to the things that had already went wrong. Then she showed up.” You can hear the venom in Cody’s voice when he says the word she, and the force is suddenly filled with the feelings of anger and hatred from everyone in the room.

“She? The woman who cursed you?” You ask and Obi Wan nods. He places a comforting hand on top of Cody. “Yes, though she wasn't just any woman. She was a witch, named Ventress.” Obi Wan almost hisses the name out, hating saying it.

Cody continues after calming down. “She then decided to pretend to trip over and spill some drink on Rex's favorite outfit. When the drink was already starting to stain his shirt, Rex lost it and snapped at her. Ventress then found the perfect opportunity to use her magic for fun. Then…” Cody takes a deep breath in and out before speaking again. “Then she transformed Rex into this werewolf. Everyone else in the castle got turned into inanimate objects.” Cody wants to frown, but he can't.

Obi Wan feels Cody's sadness and anger, so he traces his scar to comfort him. “The other knights left just after breakfast, so they weren't here at the time of the curse. It seems that Ventress made them forget about us.”

“That was about twelve and a half years ago, we also realized that we don’t age right. We haven’t aged as fast as we should have at all, for example Rex is twenty-four, while he should be 25. But a few years ago we all stopped aging for two years, none of us understand it.” You nod. You can’t believe that this happened to them.

“I'm so sorry that this has happened to you all, no one deserves this.” Rex looks at you, he can see the sincerity in your eyes. He can’t believe that you don’t hate him anymore, at least not fully. You let out a yawn as your eyes become heavy. “We'll let you get some rest now, Shiny. Call us if you need anything.” You smile at Rex. “Thank you, Rex. Thank you everyone for telling me your story.”

Rex smiles at you. “Well, you did figure it out first. Now get some rest, just call if you need anything.” You nod, turning over and falling asleep almost immediately. Rex and the little group all leave, Kix is already planning to check on you in about an hour, and so is Rex.

Rex finds that it’s nice telling someone about the curse, it felt good to get it off his chest. Everyone is going to be happy, they don’t have to hide that they were human. The only thing Rex has told everyone is not to tell you about them being royalty, he doesn’t want you to know that he is a prince.

They all walk off in different directions; Rex wanders off towards the west wing, while Jesse, Kix and Stutter find Sabine to have an art session. Obi Wan and Cody, on the other hand, go to their shared room to spend some time together.

A few years ago, they both wanted to be in the same room together. They decided on this after they had talked about taking their relationship to another level. As kids, they would always sneak into each other's rooms to cuddle at night.

Cody would be so scared during stormy nights, so he used to run to Obi Wan's room. Obi Wan would keep him safe and comfort him until he felt better, though he would never stop giving Cody affection. They both enjoy sleeping together, giving each other sweet and loving kisses until they fall asleep.

Anakin and Rex would also always sneak in with the two. First it was just Rex sneaking into the bed on stormy nights, Obi Wan and Cody always provided comfort. Then Anakin joined in when he came to the castle at nine years of age, the young boy was always so frightened at night.

Rex made it a habit to check on Anakin, even though he was only a year older. If the younger of the two was having trouble sleeping, Rex would lead them to Obi Wan's room where Cody would already be there. The two older brothers would always provide comfort, especially to Anakin once he joined.

This went on even after the curse, only stopping when the boys got older. It still happens once in a while during the worst storms, or when Anakin has flashbacks of his life as a slave.

Most times, Cody and Obi Wan will just end up falling asleep with each other when they are super relaxed, but nevertheless they always enjoy being with one another, no matter what it is they do together. Obi Wan walks beside Cody, who shuffles along beside him, while having a hand placed on his table top. It makes the both of them feel like they are holding hands together as they walk. Cody has gotten better with moving around, but it can still be pretty difficult sometimes, physically and mentally. “Here we are.” Obi Wan pats Cody gently before opening the door.

He lights an oil lamp as Cody shuffles sideways through the door and over to the side of the bed, ready for when Obi Wan lies down beside him. Obi Wan feels himself smile, laying down on the bed and draping an arm over Cody. He thought being in his armour while laying down would be uncomfortable, but it just feels like his human body.

It's still strange when he tosses and turns, hearing the creaking and scraping of metal, though he has gotten used to it over the years of being like this. Same with Cody, he's still not fully used to not being able to walk or do the things that he could before the curse. At least they both still have each other.

Cody lets out a humming noise crossed between happiness and sadness, making Obi Wan reach out in the force to feel how his Fiancé is feeling. “Are you alright, Cyare? I can feel that you are a little sad.”

“I'm okay, I just… telling Shiny about when me and Rex were younger just...brought back memories is all.” Cody wants to smile, but not having a face means that he can't show his expressions very well, so he has to show them through his words. “It's been so long, Sweetheart. Everyday it becomes a little bit easier, but also more difficult at the same time all at once.” Cody lets out a small sob for a moment. “I wish things were how they were before all of this.”

“Oh, Cyare.” Obi Wan strokes Cody's scar gently as he sits up and leans down to press his helmet against Cody, kissing him lovingly. Cody takes in a deep breath as he composes himself to carry on. “I-If only I hadn't fought with Rex that day, then maybe he would have been a bit calmer. Maybe this wouldn't have happened. Maybe we could have gotten married by now. Maybe-”

“Cody, it's alright, Cyare. This isn't your fault. It's no one's fault except Ventress'. If she hadn't purposely spilt her drink on Rex, then we would have been fine. And about the fight, you were only looking out for your other Vod'ika. Though it wasn't right, it just goes to show that you care about protecting those close to you.” Obi Wan traces Cody's scar. “And that's why I love you, Cyare. I'll never stop loving you, because you are so wonderful.” He can feel Cody's sadness fade away into nothingness, being replaced with emotions of love and adoration.

“Thank you, Sweetheart. I love you too, so much.” He leans up into Obi Wan before relaxing again, starting to feel a little tired. “I feel slightly tired, could we take a nap together?”

Obi Wan nods as he reluctantly pulls his face away from Cody to lie back down. “Of course we can, I'd love to.” He places an arm over Cody again as his non-existent eyes drift close, so does Cody's. It doesn't take long before they both fall asleep and dream nice dreams about each other.

xxx

Rex walks to his room, he’s deep in thought at the moment. He has no idea how you knowing about the curse is going to affect everything. “Hey, Rex!” Rex is startled out of his thoughts by Anakin, who’s standing by Rex’s bed in the west wing, Rex sighs.

“What are you doing up here, Anakin?” Rex asks in confusion, not that it’s weird for the knight to be up here. Most of the time you can find Anakin sitting in the west wing, having been there for hours talking to Rex, it was like that before the curse, and stayed the same even after.

“I’m just here to talk to my friend, besides I… I heard about what you said to Miss Shiny.” Rex’s ears press against the back of his head, he knows that what he said was bad. “I know that it was bad, are you mad at me?”

Anakin wishes that he could smile, just so that he could comfort his friend. “No, I know you Rex, you wouldn’t hurt anyone. You are the nicest werewolf I know.” Rex chuckles, cracking a smile. He raises an eyebrow at Anakin as well. “Aren’t I the only werewolf you know?”

“Yeah, but you’re still the nicest. Probably. So, you might finally get a girlfriend! Let me give you some relationship advice!” Rex groans. “Just because you and Padmé are together doesn’t mean that you are the relationship expert, and...can we please not talk about relationships right now, Ani? I just want to talk about anything else but that right now.”

Anakin can hear the little bit of a pleading tone in Rex’s voice, he decides to stop joking and talk to Rex about other things. Anakin knows when Rex needs a break. “Yeah, of course. Let’s talk about having another knight in the castle, it’s been so long since I’ve had someone new to spar with!”

Rex smiles, watching Anakin walk over to the bed. He jumps on, sitting criss crossed as he usually does. Rex smiles, he sits on the end of the bed, across from Anakin who’s up near the pillows. “So, has Shiny told you about how she got her nickname?”

Rex looks at Anakin with a confused look. “Nickname? I thought that was her given name.” Anakin shakes his head. “No, a few of us were talking to her this morning. She told us that her given name is Y\N, but the way she got the nickname, Shiny, isn’t really a nice story.” Rex looks at Anakin with a confused look. “What do you mean?”

Anakin sighs. “Well… I guess that her village doesn’t approve of female knights, at all! She’s the only one and nobody, but a retired knight, would train her, especially in the force and how to wield it. She got her nickname because the other male cadets would make fun of her all the time, calling her Shiny, which if I remember correctly, means naive and new for knights in certain places.” Rex feels anger at your village for treating you like that, he’d heard his father talk about the abuse towards female knights in other kingdoms before, but to hear that it’s happening in his own kingdom is even worse. And he can’t even do anything about it.

“That’s not right! At least she likes the nickname, but still.” Anakin nods in agreement. “Yeah, all the knights here already offered to train her, including me. She deserves to be trained, everyone in the village also called her odd for being a knight.” Rex can’t believe that you had been treated this way, it’s disgusting.

“It is going to be nice to have someone closer to my age to train with, it was getting kind of tiring, always training with someone older. Sometimes I wish that you were a knight instead of a prince.” Rex chuckles. “But then who would you protect, Ani? I did appoint you my private protector, there's no one I trust more than my best friend.”

"Yeah, there's no one I trust more than you either Rex. You were my first friend ever." Anakin goes a little quieter, Rex knows that he is thinking about when he first arrived. "You okay Ani? I know that it's hard to think about… about before you came here."

"I… yeah. I wish that I could have saved my Mother, I miss her so much, Rex. And I wish that she could have met everyone, especially you. I know that she would absolutely love you."

Rex chuckles, then he frowns. "Even like this?" Anakin looks at Rex, nodding. "She's the kind of person who doesn't care about what you look like, it's what's inside that matters."

“Your Mother sounds like she was a very caring person. I know that she'd be so proud of you, you've done so well to be where you are now. The kingdom couldn't have asked for a better Knight. Nor I, a better friend.” Rex gives Anakin a friendly, toothy smile. He's glad that his fangs don't scare anyone, especially his younger siblings.

“Thank you, Rex. I really appreciate it, you've been there for me, helped me through the darkest and most difficult times of my life, so I'm glad that I get to serve in protecting you. And I’m honored to call you my brother.” Anakin shuffles towards Rex, leaning forward a little to give him a hug. Rex sighs and hugs him back. Their friendship has only grown stronger over the years, even after the curse.

“You're welcome, Ani.” Rex whispers, letting his instincts take over and giving Anakin a little affectionate lick. Anakin chuckles, this isn’t the first time Rex has done this, he just doesn’t understand how the armor doesn’t hurt his tongue.

xxx

As dusk begins to fall, the candles along the corridors are lit up as 99 sweeps his way down the halls, cleaning up for tomorrow. He enjoys cleaning around the castle, knowing that his hard work and help is appreciated.

The bad batch are currently in the ballroom, making conversation with each other. “It's so cool that there's someone new here, especially that she is a knight too!” Wrecker exclaims, his face showing much excitement. “Yes, it'll be nice to get to know them.” Tech nods and agrees, reading a book from the library that Jocasta Nu had given him to read. He himself is a book, and for some reason he can control the movements of other books too, so he is able to flip through the pages and read them whenever he likes.

“It's not that exciting.” The grumpy hatstand pulls a face. “Oh cheer up, Cross.” Hunter nudges his twenty three year old brother, before throwing himself across the almost empty room to hit a target board of wood that Hardcase had chopped up for him to train with. He floats back to his brothers. “Another knight will be super fun to train with too! I wonder how skilled she is.”

“I can't wait to play some music for her!” Wrecker suddenly starts messily playing music using his keys. The way he plays sounds good but bad at the same time. Crosshair wishes that he had actual hands to cover his non-existent ears, or something to whip at the piano. “Wrecker, knock it off.”

“Aha, sorry Vod. I'm just so excited!” Tech and Hunter nod in agreement as Crosshair just eyerolls. He doesn't want to admit that he is slightly curious to meet you, so he just pulls his usual grumpy face.

The door swings open, making the bad batch turn around to see 99 sweeping his way over to them. “Buir!” They all shout, making their way over to him. He feels himself smile at his sons. “Hello you four, are you all alright?” They all nod happily.

Hunter flings himself past 99, showing off his knife throwing skills. “Nice one, Hunt’ika!” Hunter feels himself smile, wishing that he could show it, He’s the only one out of his brothers who doesn’t have anything that resembles a face. “Show off!” Crosshair yells at him, but Hunter knows that his brother is being his normal grumpy self. He starts to feel a little tired, panting as if he’s out of breath. 99 and his brothers notice immediately.

“You’ve tired yourself out again, Hunt’ika, go rest on Cross’ika.” Hunter turns to the hat rack, who has a worried look on his face. Crosshair nods, waddling over, he leans down and picks the little knife up in his hooks. “You rest, Ori’Vod. I’ve got you.” Hunter nods, letting his body go… limp? In Crosshairs hooks.

No one knows why Hunter always gets tired out when he floats, their best guess is that it’s because of his enhanced senses, but they can’t know for sure. Crosshair gets tired easily as well.

Crosshair holds on to Hunter gently as he rests, he hates when his Ori’Vod tires himself out like this, the first time this happened the knife had kept going and passed out for about a day. It was scary for everyone, especially their youngest, Tech. They couldn’t see him breathing, the only way they figured out that he was alive and only passed out was when his Buir had leaned down and heard Hunter’s quiet, steady breathing.

Tech floats up, nuzzling Hunter’s face, making him chuckle, he then does the same for Crosshair, Wrecker and 99.

The bad batch all show their love with touches instead of words, it’s how 99 had gotten them to trust him originally. All four of them were touch starved and abused by their parents, not to mention experimented on.

He also gave their name the bad batch a much nicer meaning than what their parents, mainly their mother, had used it for. He said that their abilities make them unique and special, that they are all loved no matter what their parents did to them.

25 years ago...

Their parents called them the bad batch because they were all failed experiments.

Hunter was their parents' first born. At night, his cries would be so loud they were almost deafening. Their parents didn't think that his cries were above the normal level that a baby cries at. A few years later when he reached the age to start understanding what people were saying, he could see their lips moving but no sound at all could be heard. It had then occurred to his parents that he was born deaf.

They then tried experimenting on him to bring his hearing back. They'd use a serum that they'd inject into him in different doses for a few days until it was time to let it get to work. The sound around him was like thunder banging against his eardrums.

He had woken up at night to a rainstorm, the water hitting his windows. It scared the force out of him, making him feel frightened of the sounds that had always been there but unable to make themselves present to Hunter.

His parents were happy with the results that the serum had worked, but then they were disappointed that he was kept up at night because of all of the noise. They had failed, making his hearing and senses too good. They pushed him aside, trying to work on making it better. Hunter would lose sleep and cry with how much his ears hurt. The pain had lasted about a year, but he was still kept up for hours at a time for years.

Two years after Hunter was born, Crosshair came along. He was born premature, he was a little sick with a few deficiencies and had his mother, Nala Se’s, skinny build. He was sick for the first few years of his life, after His brother’s experiment failed, his parents experimented on him next.

They tried to cure his sickness for a whole year, they failed, managing to make him sicker than before, they did however make his eyesight much better than before.

Whatever they gave him made his hair turn grey as well, so whenever they'd look at him, they'd think about how weird he looked. they threw him to the side as they did Hunter.

His parents always ignored him when he got sick, leaving Hunter to try to care for Crosshair the best he could, even though he was only three, nearly four, years old. His enhanced senses allowed him to be aware of dangers, keeping him safe from anything that might harm him whole having to take care of his Vod'ika.

Wrecker was born a year after Crosshair. He was the smallest out of the three of them, but after two years, he hadn't been growing much at all, staying small. He was way too skinny for his height, unlike Crosshair who was the tallest of them.

Their parents noticed that he was very weak as well, so they decided to experiment on him next. Their plan was to make him strong and healthy, but they never expected what happened.

Wrecker had gotten so strong and his physique was not like his brother's at all. He was a lot more muscular and his frame was broad. At night, the serum they used on him would make his body, especially his muscles, hurt a lot, also causing his growth spurt pains to start early.

His pain would be unbearable sometimes, but Hunter would help him through it the best he could. Once Crosshair was a few years old, he'd start helping Hunter to look after his little brother.

Five years after Wrecker was born, they had a new baby brother, Tech. He was the tiniest and weakest out of all of them, their parents thankfully learned their lesson after Wrecker and didn’t try to fix it. He had horrible eyesight once he got older, but no one cared. Except for Crosshair, Wrecker and Hunter, who all took care of him, their parents simply stopped caring. Their father left after Tech was born, he grew tired of having failed and deficient children.

Tech was three, and his brother’s found that he loved to learn. Little Tech craved new information, but he had a hard time learning new things like walking, talking and other normal things, he just didn’t develop the skills. As soon as the other three figured it out they did their best to hide it from their Mother, they knew that Tech would be an experiment like them if she found out.

It was all for not, Nala Se quickly figured out about Tech’s disability, the young boys tried to fight her when she came for Tech, but she sedated them. She started to give Tech a new serum, it made him smarter, but much smarter than she had wanted. She hated it.

After the serum was given to him, Tech would get severe headaches at night, and his dreams would be intense from all the new knowledge he would learn from books during the day. He would let out tiny whimpers at night from the pain and visions he had during his dreams, so his brothers would often sleep together.

Tech would be sandwiched in the middle, while being comforted by his brothers when his dreams got too much for him to handle. Thinking about his brothers being near him would give him something to focus on instead of several different thoughts at once. The three boys hated that they had let Tech down, and they hated their parents.

Even though they were neglected by their parents, they still had each other to take care of one another. Not long after Tech had turned four, their Uncle 99 had come to visit. When he turned up, she grimaced at the sight of him, the way his back was hunched over. “What do you want?” what a way to greet your brother who you haven't spoken to in years.

She was so jealous that 99 got to live in the castle to clean around for the prince, their nephew. Rex didn't allow her to visit him after what he told him about Nala Se, how she would be nasty to him. “I've come to visit you, Nala-”

“Don't you dare use my name. Get out of here, I don't want to see you!” Before he leaves, he sees four boys down the hallway of the house, peeping out of a room. “Who are they?” Nala Se whips her head around, making the boys run away in fear. “Nothing, just failed experiments. A bad batch.”

99 feels anger rise in him. “They aren't nothing. I'll ask again, who are they?” Nala Se huffs in annoyance, not even going to bother to fight with him. “They are my sons.”

99's eyes go wide “And you think you can just call them Experiments? Failed experiments at that! A bad batch? How could you say that! They are children. Also I have nephews?” he's angry that Nala Se, his own sister, hadn't even bothered to tell him about his four nephews. “Let me in please, I’d like to see them.”

“No.” Her answer was quick and short, almost said as a warning. “I made you leave years ago for a reason, there's no need for you to come back. You live with the prince now, living a wonderful life while I'm stuck here, trying to have the perfect family, yet my son's won't let me.”

99 doesn't bother to fight with her, he doesn't have the strength to, so he turns and heads back to the castle. He thinks about what he should do now, he wants to go to young Rex, but the child is still mourning his parents. 99 sighs, those kids his sister had need help, she called them experiments. He grew up with Nala Se, 99 knows what she does with experiments.

99 hobbles into the throne room, he sees his two young cousins, Rex and Cody, talking. They turn to him once he walks in. “Uncle 99! How was your visit with her.” 99 sighs, he can hear the anger in 15 year old Cody’s voice. “It didn’t go well at all, I need some help from Rex.” Rex perks up at that, the 11 year old jumps up off the throne, walking over to his uncle, Cody follows behind.

“What do you need Uncle? Did she do something?” 99 shakes his head. “No, she has four sons there, Cody, she didn’t even call them her sons at first, she called them failed experiments.” Cody’s face turns into an expression of disgust, Rex’s does the same.

“She actually called them that!? That’s not right. At all.” 99 nods sadly. “That’s why I need Rex’s help, I want to go down with some of the knights, this can’t go on any longer!”

“I agree Uncle! What about you, Cody?” Cody nods in agreement. “We can send Plo, Mace and Obi Wan to arrest her, if our parents were here, they would be furious. They already were with the way she had treated you!” Rex’s parents had been furious, and so had the crowned prince, even if he was young at the time.

She was banished from ever coming to the castle. Nala Se had come to the castle a few months ago after they had died, she didn’t know that Rex had known about everything, the young prince had made sure that she knew exactly what he and the family thought of her.

With not a moment to waste, 99 was on his way back to Nala Se's house with Plo, Obi Wan and Mace right behind him, ready to rescue his four nephews. They got to her house and knocked on the door. “Nala Se, this is knight Plo Koon, protector of his royalty, Prince Rex. We have been reported that you have been mistreating four young boys, your Sons.”

There's no reply, so Obi Wan uses the force to unlock the door. Mace runs in first, seeing that the house is in darkness with the curtains shut. It looks abandoned.

After doing a sweep of the house, they were about to leave before they heard a child crying. The knights and 99 share a worried look with each other then rush to one of the bedrooms. They try the door but it's locked, so they use the force to open the door.

They see the four boys huddled together behind the bed. 99 hobbles over to them, speaking softly. “I-It's alright now, you're safe. Everything is going to be okay.” Tech stops crying and sniffles as he sees 99 smile softly towards him. Hunter can sense that he isn't dangerous, but he doesn't trust them.

99 reaches out a hand “Here, come with us. We'll keep you safe.” Tech, Crosshair and Wrecker look towards Hunter, making sure that it is safe to go with them. Hunter stands up first, picking up Tech who wraps his small body around him. Hunter nods at 99 and the knights as Wrecker and Crosshair stand up and follow close behind their Ori'Vod.

Hunter keeps an eye on the adults as they walk out of the house, he doesn’t trust them. Every adult he’s met in his life has experimented on him and his brother’s, who's to say that these ones aren’t different. Hunter carries Tech as they walk to the castle, the little boy is already sleeping, but Hunter, Wrecker and Crosshair are all very tired too, but they know not to ask for help.

“Are you three tired too?” Hunter looks up to see the one man looking at him, he’s the one that was at the door earlier. Hunter bites his lip, looking back at his exhausted brothers, then nods. Everyone stopped, the knights had been watching the boys too.

“I can take the little one from you, lad.” Hunter looks up at the Keldor, he doesn’t know what to do. “It’s okay, you can trust us. I’m 99, the Keldor is Plo and the other two knights are Mace Windu and Obi Wan.” Hunter eyes them and nods. “Okay, I’m Hunter. This is Tech, the big one over there is Wrecker and the skinny guy is Crosshair.” Hunter gestures to each of his brothers as he says their names, the knights and 99 nod. Plo walks over slowly, opening his arms for the sleeping kid in Hunter's arms.

Hunter’s hold automatically tightens around Tech, but he calms down and places him in Plo’s gentle arms. Tech immediately wraps his arms and legs around the Keldor, who chuckles. Hunter then see’s the other knight, Obi Wan, walk over to Crosshair and pick him up.

Crosshair protests a little but then settles down, letting out a big yawn. Then the knight Mace walks over and picks up Wrecker, he grunts a little, but is able to lift him better after he closes his eyes in concentration. Hunter doesn’t know why.

Plo then moves Tech around so that he’s on his hip, which is not an easy feat with how the four year old clings in his sleep. The Keldor then leans down and picks Hunter up, holding the two boys in his arms. Hunter’s eyes start to close, but not before he sees and feels 99 pet his forehead lovingly. He does it for each of the boys, 99 knows that these boys are going to be his son’s, he can feel it.

Taglist: @ellie1366 @pro-fangirls-unsocial-life @lightning-wolffe @pinkiemme@captainrexisboo @trash-dino-5000

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funkervogt · 4 years ago

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i want to metapost about cody-5 more bc i have like, ideas about how he functions with different subclasses. also other stuff.

ive already posted(i think) about how he was never human before so he can be this crazy thousand degree (~538°C) Europan killguy without getting DER over it and without having to do the whole eating sleeping nonsense. im not sure if bray ever knew about felwinter (was never human before either and made by rasputin) but regardless clovis bray is godcomplexed enough to "create life from nothing" and "elevate humanity" or whatever. the main reasons to have that heating system were to keep warm and functioning smoothly in the worst blizzards, melt iced out areas with ease, and the occasional non-Vex combatant could be dealt with quickly without spending ammo.

i already described how his body works before but TLDR he gains energy by fighting/running around/generally being active and he spends energy by utilizing the heating system. he can also be jumpstarted like a car. (his energy system was also catalyzed by darkness like exominds are.)

His heating system is all run by electricity (and some other science bullshit whatever) so once he became a Guardian the thing he immediately took to was arc energy. for a while he couldnt stop himself from using it whenever he activated his heating system in any way. hed have to avoid people for a while so he wouldnt hurt anyone by mistake. once he learns to control it though (probably gets lessons from ikora) he can confine it to his body and his heating system can reach 50,000°F (27760°C) without damaging him. this expends his light energy rather than his bodily energy (in game terms it would slowly cost super energy). (i didn't draw it in his reference but i might make an edit of how the arc-infused heating system looks later, hed be glowing arc blue) and i guess it doesnt damage his armor either because stormcallers dont burn their robes to a crisp whenever they use their supers. the miraculous power of the traveler or whatever. however if he's not utilising arc to boost the heating system, he might burn off any cloth he's wearing.

the other subclass he ends up taking to naturally is stasis. while he can't melt stasis crystals even at his highest temperature (i imagine they're paracausally inclined to maintain absolute zero or some shit), he can control stasis pretty well. he doesn't really fear being tempted by darkness or whatever (he probably should), and probably gets along okay with eris, elsie, and maybe drifter. he believes guardians who never learn stasis are unlikely to survive in a situation where the traveler abandons humanity/guardians lose their powers again like in the red war.

he's average with void, doesn't really use it too much though. he has a LOT of trouble with solar energy. it just feels so backwards to control heat in the form of fire. hes been doing that with electricity instead for his whole existence. using solar energy is like dancing with two left feet for him, and usually ends up with a weird mixture of arc and fire that isn't really effective against anything. he's a little self conscious about it so he never really tries to use it.

ok im done idk what else to write for now. you can probably cook an egg on him.

#cody5

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softboywriting · 5 years ago

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Haven Port | Chapter One | Shawn Mendes

Summary: Shawn and his pack have moved to your tiny town of Haven Port. You've never met werewolves other than your dad before and you’re infinitely curious. You may be only half werewolf but you and Shawn have a connection that will send you on a wild romantic journey in this small town you call home. [hybrid reader] [werewolf shawn]

Word count: 2.5k

|Masterlist In Bio|

--------

Winter in Haven Port never seemed to end. The small town was blanketed in snow probably a solid 6 months of the year. The population was under four hundred and much of the residents lived outside the actual town.

You were born and raised here in Haven Port, the only child of a Werewolf father and a human mother. Your parents met when your dad got run out of a pack town along the shore.

For twenty two years you've grown up with the same people, and known everyone like they were your family. So when someone new shows up in town you're surprised, and even more so because they came into your shop.

Owning a tea and coffee shop in a place so small seemed unreasonable but most of your business came from regulars, fisherman from the boat yard and online orders that you shipped around the world. You specialize in making custom tea blends and gift baskets that become a highly sought after item during the Christmas season.

The bell over the front door jingles and you dismiss it for a moment, assuming it's one of your regular customers and they will wait for you to appear momentarily. You continue to stack the boxes of your most recent shipment of whole tea leaves. You like to grind them yourself when you make your blends.

You glance out into the shop and see a tall, young, dark haired guy browsing your display table. His appearance stumps you, and you can't put a finger on who he is. For a second you think he is Felicia's son, Cody, the one who ran the post office during the week. But he is too tall, far too tall.

“Who in the world...” You mutter to yourself as you climb over boxes to get to the counter. A better look would help.

“Hello is anybody- oh. Hello.” The stranger smiles and his eyes meet yours as you approach the sales counter. His eyes...wow...they were like liquid gold, honey in the sun, Amber on an ancient tree. They are stunning.

“Hi,” you say, a smile infectiously spreading across your face of it's own free will. “I don't think we've met.”

“We sure haven't,” he purrs and extends a hand out to you. His eyes leave yours in favor of your ears.

You flatten your ears down and back, realizing he probably thinks you're a weirdo. You hated interaction with people who didn't know you. How could you have forgotten the fuzzy things sticking out of your hair?

“It's rude to stare,” you say cooly, shaking his hand very briefly before burying them in the pockets of your apron.

The guy shakes he head and looks down, a slight blush tinting his cheeks. “I'm so sorry. It's been a long time since I met a hybrid...I shouldn't be so rude. I'm s-”

“You've met others?” You ask, cutting him off and he raises his eyebrows. “Where did you come from?”

“You're a curious little pup aren't you?” He chuckles and leans against the counter. “How about we exchange names before we talk histories? I'm Shawn.”

You give your name and twist your hands in your apron. “Would you like some tea? Coffee?”

Shawn looks up at the menu and hums. He bites his lip, narrowing his eyes as he reads. “I'll have the Earl Grey special. No sugar.”

You punch it into the register and announce his total. He slides a card and you turn away to make his drink. When you turn to give it to him he is on his phone, frowning at the small screen. You slide the cup toward him and he wraps his hand around it, brushing your fingers with his.

He looks up, smiles and takes the cup. “Thank you. Have a good day,” he smirks and heads out into the icy spring air.

“Wait! You didn't...tell me where you were from.” You sigh, watching him pull off the street in a big black Jeep that looks way too new for anyone in Haven Port.

Immediately you go for your phone on the back counter. You had to tell your best friend, Faye, exactly what happened. She'd probably never believe you, and maybe Shawn was a fever dream, but you had to tell her anyway.

_____________________

Two days later you turn around from grinding up some tea for a special order and drop your spice blender as you catch sight of Shawn standing at the counter. You'd never heard the bell ring, but it was probably because the blender had been too loud.

Shawn rushes around the counter as you squat down to clean up the broken blender base. “I'm so sorry! I didn't think I'd scare you!” He kneels down and helps you clean up. “I can replace it, I'll order you a new one, top of the line. I feel so bad.”

“It's okay, I've got an extra one. It's not your fault at all. I was just startled.”

Shawn reaches for a towel to put the small pieces into to carry to the trash can. Unfortunately the towel he grabs has powdered sugar all over it from an instant coffee blend you were working on. The white sugar snows down all over your head and you can't help but laugh, falling back against the cupboard as Shawn stares in shock that he's screwed up again.

“I-I am so sorry,” Shawn mutters, reaching for your ears and running his hand over your fur gently dusting the sugar off.

The moment he touches you, you're done for. Your eyes roll back, you lean into his hand, and you go slack. All you want to do in that moment is curl up on this strangers lap and have him adore you. God if he asked you to, you'd be all over him like a puppy wanting attention.

“Hey, you okay?” Shawn asks quietly, hand in your hair, thumb stroking over the base of your ear.

You snap back to reality, pulling yourself out of the euphoria you'd entered. You shove Shawn away and scramble back along the floor. “Don't touch my ears!” You blurt out as you smooth them down, trying to get rid of the feel of his hands.

Shawn stares, bewildered by your sudden mood change. He stands, brushing his pants off and looks to the front door as the bell jingles.

You stand up and see Faye crossing the small sitting area. She stops, eyes finding Shawn almost instantly. He was hard to miss, being so tall and broad.

“I should go,” Shawn mutters, walking around the counter and straight out the front door.

“Ohmygod! That's Shawn? That! Wow, if you don't lock that down, I'm going to.” Faye drops her bag on the counter and click her tongue. “What happened in here?”

“I dropped a spice blender.”

“Uh huh,” Faye says, eyeing the mess behind the counter. “ You sure you didn't knock it off the counter while you and Shawn were getting hot and heavy?”

“Faye! I don't even know him!”

Faye snorts. “Psh not yet, but you're gonna.”

_____________________

A few weeks later and you're behind the shop taking trash out and it's snowing. The sun went down hours ago and the night sky is reflecting off the snow, making the town an off orange and brownish hue. You crunch across the fresh fallen snow. May 2nd and still snowing. That was Haven Port for you.

“Hey,” you hear softly from behind you followed by crunching footsteps. You turn and see Shawn approaching with his hands in his pockets. “I'm sorry I touched your ears.”

“What? Oh! Oh that was weeks ago.” You laugh, shrugging it off. “You didn't know, you were just trying to help. Is that why you haven't come by?”

Shawn rubs his neck nervously. “Well, it's part of the reason. The other part is that I'm helping my pack move into a place right outside town. I was the first to get here so-”

“You're a Werewolf? You're like me!” You grin, excitement bubbling out of you as you start toward Shawn. You knew there was something about him when you'd seen those gorgeous golden eyes.

“Yes,” Shawn chuckles as you circle him. “I take it you haven't met any Werewolves lately?”

“Never. Just my dad, but it's not the same.” You circle him and shake your head. “How do I know you're not a liar?”

Shawn cracks his neck and rolls his shoulders for a second before he steps back and before your very eyes, his form changes into that of a very large rich brown and black wolf.

You can't help yourself as you touch his fur tentatively, fully burying your fingers in his coat near his neck. He sits and you drop to your knees in the snow, hands running up and down his back.

Shawn shifts back, sitting on the ground before you. “You're hard to read.”

“Huh?”

“Well,” he starts, taking your hand and rubbing his fingers over your palm. “You're sweet and shy one moment, then you yell at me the next. Now you're like a kid in a candy store upon learning about me.”

“Y-you're a wolf, how could I not be excited.”

“I'm an alpha actually.”

“An alpha? Oh my God.”

Shawn laughs, standing and pulling you up out of the snow. “You've really never met a wolf before huh?”

“Never. I've never left Haven Port, and not very many people visit here. We're kind of a stop over for fishing boats and that's it.”

“Ah, yeah, I picked Haven Port just for that reason. My pack has run into trouble over the past few years and I really just wanted to settle down somewhere nice. Something drew me to this place...I dunno what it was.”

You shake your head. “There's nothing here?”

“You're here.”

A blush tints your cheeks and you bite your lip. “I'm not sure what you mean.”

Shawn crosses his arms and looks you over. “Come on. I move to this little sleepy snow-covered town and I meet the most adorable hybrid on my first day? I think this town is going to be just what I needed.”

You roll your eyes and turn toward the back door of the shop. “You're such a flirt. I know you're just trying to butter me up for whatever reason.”

“I am not trying t-”

“You don't have to try so hard,” you giggle and Shawn smiles, chuckling nervously. “I'm already interested.”

“Oh? You are huh?”

You walk slowly back toward the door and Shawn follows.”I am. Would you mind walking me home?”

“Of course not. Would you like a ride instead? My Jeep is parked out front.”

“I'd rather walk, if you don't mind. I'm just...I don't know you that well. I don't think getting in a car with a stranger is very smart.”

Shawn shakes his head and laughs. “You're totally right. I'm so dumb, of course we can walk. For the record though, I'm not a creep.”

“Sounds like something a creep would say,” you joke and he just sighs into a chuckle.

You grab your bag and a hat off the coat hooks by the door. You lock up, pushing Shawn out and fishing your keys from your coat pocket to lock the dead bolts.

The two of you walk around the building and past his Jeep and you pause, looking at the shiny black car. It was really nice, and you sort of always dreamed of having one. They were such great all terrain vehicles...it makes you wonder if he bought it just before moving here.

“What's on your mind?” Shawn whispers, leaning in close to your ear. It sends a shiver down your spine.

“Nothing, I was just spacing off. Come on, I live up this way.”

You set off up the street, heading for the road that turned toward a street lined with old brick homes. It's chilly, and the wind picks up significantly as you round the corner to your street. You pull your coat closer around you and shiver, even with your Werewolf genetics, the cold got to you sometimes.

“Are you cold?” Shawn asks, glancing over your shivering form. “I could give you my jacket, I'd be fine.”

“No, no we're almost there.” You bite your lip to keep your teeth from chattering and tug your hat down from where it's slid up because of your ears.

“Pup, stop,” Shawn murmurs and grabs your hand. “You're shaking so badly. I can't in good conscience let you keep going like this.”

“I'm not a pup. I'm an adult,” you say a little harsher than you mean to. “I just...I'm fine. We're almost there. It's only a few houses down.”

“Please, I insist.” Shawn shrugs off his thick winter coat so he's standing in a nice collared front zip sweater. It's form fitting and you can't help your eyes as they wander over his chest.

“Fine,” you sigh. Shawn helps you put the coat, squatting to zip it up you. He stands to pull the hood up over your head and admire you in his big coat It smells like his cologne and him...it's wonderful.

“There, you'll be nice and warm now.” Shawn says smiling down at you as a snowflake falls on your nose.

The two of you look up as it begins to snow, big clusters of flakes falling all around you. You push the coat hood back and your hat falls off as you tilt your head up to catch flakes on your tongue.

Shawn joins you and you can't help but laugh. You're two weirdos standing in the middle of the street at nearly eleven at night catching the first flakes of a snowstorm in your mouths. “What are we doing?” You giggle and Shawn shakes his hair out.

“I'm taking you home I believe.”

“Right, yeah.” You pull the hood over your head, pocketing your hat. “It's a few more houses up.”

Your house is at the end of the street. It's small and made of brick with a stone accent around the base of it. It's the home you grew up in and your parents gave to you when they moved a little farther out of town to a cabin your dad built.

At your porch you stop, hands on your keys in your pocket, and look up at Shawn. “Thanks for walking me home. I know it's not a big deal, being out here alone in a tiny little town, but it was nice.”

“Yeah, it's a pretty sleepy town, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.”

“Yeah,” you chuckle nervously, grinding your toe into the snow on the porch. “Good night I guess.”

“Mmhmm. Good night.”

Shawn steps off the porch and heads for the road to go back and get his Jeep. It's not until you're inside, greeting your cat Parker, that you realize you still have Shawn's coat on. Quickly you go to the window and look out, he's more than half way down the street and you decide you'll just have to keep it for now. Not that you mind.

-------

Please send feedback in asks, replies or reblogs. Let me know if you’d like to read this story. Thank you so much -A

*****Note: none of my works should be posted anywhere outside of my linked accounts. I do not give permission to repost with or without credit to my accounts. Please notify me of any reposted fics.*****

#shawn mendes #shawn mendes fic #shawn mendes au #shawn mendes au fic #shawn mendes werewolf #shawn mendes werewolf au #shawn mendes story #shawn mendes fan #shawn mendes fan fic #shawn mendes fan fiction #shawn mendes series #shawn mendes imagine #shawn mendes oneshot #shawn mendes stories

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colehasapen · 4 years ago

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(CHAPTER 4) there's a river full of memory STAR WARS

Rating: T

They arrive to restrained chaos. The panic of the troopers hits Ahsoka like a solid wall the moment they step off of the Twilight and into the Negotiator’s hangar, and the teenager stumbles without fully meaning to, her stomach churning like the time she had eaten a bad nuna bird as a youngling. She’s so used to the Negotiator being suffused with a comforting blanket of her grandmaster’s calming presence that it completely takes her by surprise.

Distracted as he is, Rex still manages to catch her, the worried furrow of his brows deepening as he grips her elbow. The contact with her captain is grounding in a way her tumultuous bond with her Master isn’t, and allows her to focus on Rex’s muffled distress instead of the panic and fear that lines the Negotiator like an oppressive cloud.

Skyguy’s mood sours even further the longer they stand without any member of Ghost Company acknowledging them. The hangar is completely barren of any living souls, save for the two Jedi and the small group of troopers they had brought with them on board; most of the fighters and shuttles went with the rest of the 212th to join up with Master Plo, leaving just a skeleton crew of Ghost Company and the deck crew to man the star destroyer. But still, even with their General… indisposed, and their crew halved, it wasn’t incharacter for any of Master Obi-Wan’s troopers to not have someone waiting to greet them.

It’s making the squad of troopers with them antsy.

“The Ghosts are really dropping the droidpopper today.” Ahsoka hears Jesse mutter, before huffing when one of his brothers elbows him in response.

Worried, Ahsoka looks at her Master, “Do you think Master Obi-Wan is hurt?”

“He’ll be fine once he gets turned back.” Master Anakin growls, and it makes Ahsoka’s montrails twitch. He’s already stressed and tense, and he’s steadily stiffening further, his anger and distress radiating off of him in waves, so heavy that it makes Ahsoka’s head hurt. He and Master Obi-Wan have a relationship she doubts she’ll ever understand, alternating between antagonistic and brotherly depending on the day; their personalities just seem to clash more often than not. They love and care for each other, Ahsoka can tell, but they always end up arguing about things, though maybe it’s just their thing.

Ahsoka worries about her master, just as she’s worried about her grandmaster; she can imagine that waking up in a strange place surrounded by strangers would be a scary situation, especially for a young Force Sensitive who had likely been told about the history of slavers and Force Sensitive children like Ahsoka had been growing up. He must be scared, so far away from the Temple and away from other Force Sensitives, Ahsoka knows that she had struggled at first, but at least she’d always had her lineage around, but she also knows that the 212th, and Commander Cody especially, wouldn’t let anything happen to their General without putting them between him and the threat. Master Anakin though - he’d been off balance since he’d learned about what had happened to his former master while he wasn’t there with him, it seemed to have flipped all these switches in Skyguy’s head, and he’s been in turmoil since.

Ahsoka had offered to meditate with him while they were in hyperspace like the masters at the Temple had taught her to, the way she had seen Master Obi-Wan do, but her master had turned her down, sending her off to work on her coursework instead.

Finally, the doors to the hangar hiss open, letting a trooper that Ahsoka quickly recognizes as Waxer by his shaved head and the strange hairy thing under his lip that she remembers him calling his ‘soul patch’ - whatever that means, Ahsoka had long since learned that Humans were strange - rush in. The Lieutenant looks flustered, eyes frantically darting around in search of something, and he’s hurrying over to them. It’s usually Master Obi-Wan or Commander Cody who welcomes them on board in the few instances that they’ve boarded the Negotiator, and seeing someone else increases Ahsoka’s worry that something had happened to her grand master, beyond the de-aging thing.

“General Skywalker! Commander Tano!” Waxer salutes distractedly, eyes still roaming, and Skyguy crosses his arms over his chest, scowling.

“Where’s Commander Cody, trooper?” Waxer winces visibly, eyes skittering, but Master Anakin’s gaze narrows into a pointed glare.

“There was a-” Waxer hesitates, likely trying to figure out the best way to word why his Commander hadn’t come without risking Cody being punished, “-an emergency, that came up.” He says lamely, awkwardly, and then he winces when Master Anakin’s mood doesn’t lighten and his glare darkens instead. The Lieutenant sighs, muttering something under his breath that sounds like a curse to Ahsoka’s montrails, before he straightens further, emotions falling into a state that Ahsoka recognizes from troopers making a report. “We were in the medbay when you arrived, sir, but Kenobi crawled into the vent the moment our backs were turned.” He says in a clipped rush, eyes darting again, and Ahsoka finally realizes that he’s trying to keep every vent cover in sight. Smart kid, honestly, but Ahsoka isn’t surprised - it’s Master Obi-Wan - of course he’d wait for the moment someone wasn’t looking to try to make an escape from the people that, for all he knew, were holding him hostage. “No one else fits, and he seems to have grown comfortable around Commander Cody, so he’s trying to coax Kenobi out.” And of course he’d feel the most comfortable around Commander Cody, Ahsoka isn’t so young as to not have noticed the imprints of Master Obi-Wan’s presence in his Commander’s Force Signature, and with how much they work together, it’s not surprising that her grand master had left something behind on his troopers - and those of the 501st.

“You lost him?” Skyguy sounds furious, stepping forward to loom over the trooper, and Waxer stares back at him, something nervous sparking in his dark eyes.

Silently, Ahsoka prods her master through their bond, giving him a small pointed frown. It makes the Knight startle slightly, his aggression dissipating, and suddenly his body language loosens, and he steps away from Waxer with a heavy sigh and an apologetic wince.

Flustered and stressed, and likely running on more stims that was healthy, her master rubs an aggressive hand through his messy hair. He’s quiet for a long moment, and Ahsoka can feel him trying to release his heavier emotions into the Force while Waxer watches him, mute wariness in his signature.

Master Anakin makes him nervous, Ahsoka realizes, something like dread pooling in her stomach. She can’t understand why though; Skyguy is a great warrior, an even better Jedi, and he’d never hurt anyone who didn’t deserve it.

Maybe he just wasn’t used to seeing someone like Master Anakin? He’d be used to Master Obi-Wan, after all, who was so reserved with his emotions, so no wonder Skyguy’s habit of wearing his emotions on his sleeve would make him a little uneasy in the long run. It wasn’t like they worked with the 212th often. Usually when they had to work together, Master Obi-Wan would join the 501st and leave command of his Battalion to Cody, so there was little reason for one of Ghost’s scout Lieutenants to interact with another General whose specialty lay with frontal assaults.

“I can’t feel him anymore.” Master Anakin admits quietly, and Ahsoka’s lek twitches in a wince. She knows what he means. “Our bond is -” he flounders for words for a moment, “- weird right now.” The Knight settles on. “It’s there, but at the same time it’s not. It leads to nowhere.” He sighs thunderously, anxiety in their bond, and Ahsoka sends him a brush of comfort that has his shoulders loosening further, looking frustrated but defeated. “The Force feels strange.”

“It’s been a strange day, General.” Waxer agrees, head tilting, and there’s a hint of nervous humour shining in his signature.

Master Anakin huffs out a strained laugh, “That’s one way of putting it.” He gestures for Waxer to take the lead, and the Lieutenant salutes. As they stride through the empty halls, Master Anakin asks, “What happened?”

“None of us are really sure, sir.” Waxer admits, “The mission to the surface went off without a hitch, with minimal casualties. One moment, General Kenobi was studying the relic, and the next there was a youngling there instead.” The trooper hesitates, but most of Ahsoka’s attention has slid towards Rex as his signature buzzes with something muffled, studying him when he lets off a muted wave of pain.

The Captain’s anxiety had been a near-constant static in the back of her head since they had learned what had happened to Master Obi-Wan. Ahsoka had known they were close, had sensed the imprint on Rex her grand master had left behind, and considering how often he ran missions with the 501st it wasn’t too surprising that they had become friends. They had a similar sense of humour, and a mutual friendship with Commander Cody.

“Sir.” Waxer finally says, “What happened on Bandomeer?”

The name sounds familiar to Ahsoka.

Skyguy sends the 212th trooper a puzzled look, “Bandomeer?” He echoes, brows furrowed, and Waxer nods nervously. Master Anakin is quiet for a long moment, thinking. “It’s an Outer Rim territory, near Hutt Space.” Her master says slowly, “I think there’s an Agricorp outpost out there?” He rubs his chin, much like Master Obi-Wan does when he’d trying to puzzle something out, and it makes Ahsoka giggle quietly, imagining her master growing a beard like his master’s.

“It would have been twenty-five years ago.” Waxer probes, and Ahsoka perks up.

“There was a slave revolt!” She answers, and everyone looks at her, “We learned about it in modern history. There was a terf war going on, between two mining companies.” She can’t remember all the facts; it had been years since that lesson, back before the War, and before all her lessons changed to center around battle tactics, but Waxer’s intense interest in what she’s saying urges her on. “There was a Darksider that was taking advantage of the situation and was planting bombs, but a Master-Padawan pair stopped them, and helped the slaves free themselves - a lot of those freed still work with the Agricorp on the planet!”

“Huh.” Skyguy says slowly, something bitter in his Force Signature, and it makes Ahsoka’s excitement to share her knowledge on the subject falter. “I thought the Order couldn’t do anything about slavery.”

“I mean, on paper we can’t.” Ahsoka shrugs, “We don’t really have the manpower or numbers to wipe out slavery any more, especially not in the Outer Rim. It sucks, but we try to do what we can when we can.” She looks at her master, confused, because she remembers that they had covered this in ethics classes. “The Senate assigns our missions, vetoes them too, and provides our provisions.” She makes a helpless motion with her hands, but the troopers seem fascinated, and just a little bitter too. They know the horribleness of the Senate better than anyone. “You’ve seen the Senate - the majority is corrupt, people like the Trade Federation and the Banking Clans wouldn’t have a seat otherwise. If there’s slavery on a planet, it’s because the government is looking the other way.” Confused, Ahsoka tilts her head, lekku twitching, “Didn’t you learn about this as an Initiate? There’s a lot of ethics classes on it.”

Her master shrugs helplessly, “I skipped the Initiate stage.” He admits, and Ahsoka stares in shock. “I came to the Order at nine and Obi-Wan took me as a Padawan immediately.”

“Oh, that’s pretty lucky.” She says; he had gotten to skip the uneasy stage of growing up in the Order when anyone wanting to be a Knight and nearing fourteen were desperately looking for a Master to choose them. She shakes herself from remembering it. “Well, uh,” she swallows, “the basics are that, as an extension of the Senate - thanks a lot Ruusaan Reformation, am I right? - the Jedi can’t just show up on a planet without an invitation or an assigned mission.” She shrugs, “If a Knight or a Master can, they’ll disrupt any ring they find, but sometimes it does more damage than good, because there’s no way for us to provide for them, and they can’t provide for themselves, if they don’t have a family to return to, and sometimes the Senate just ends up sending them right back. If they’re young enough, we can use the Foundling Protections in the treatise to have more legal leeway to interfere.” Ahsoka makes a little motion with her hands, like she was finishing a class presentation, and she meets Skyguy’s eyes.

He looks confused, like he had never heard any of this, and Ahsoka wonders why he hadn’t. “Huh.” He says again, going quiet, thoughtful, and there’s stress in Waxer’s signature.

Ahsoka glances at the Ghost trooper, “Why are you asking?”

He hesitates, expression twisting, and he fiddles with his glove, “Is it -” he swallows, “- normal - for twelve year olds to be sent after dar’jetiise?”

“No!” Ahsoka says in horror, imagining someone like Katooni or Zatt facing down someone as vicious and murderous as Ventress. She feels sick, the Force churning around her, “Was Master Obi-Wan -”

Her voice is interrupted by a burst of chatter over Waxer’s comm, distracting them, and Waxer turns his eyes to his vambrace. “- energy is spiking!” A clone is saying, and they’re cut off by a voice Ahsoka recognizes as Cody by his commanding tone.

“Do not touch it-”

The Commander himself is interrupted by a high-pitched whine that has Ahsoka clapping her hands over her montrails with a yelp of pain. The Force is fluctuating wildly, and the Padawan is only vaguely aware of her master doubling over as she screws her eyes shut in the face of the suddenly blinding flash of the Force around them. She can faintly hear the alarmed voices of the clones around her, rising above the ringing of the Force and the static of Waxer’s comm, and Ahsoka slams her shields shut, feeling her master doing the same.

“- the kriff just happened?” She hears Kix snarling, and she’s suddenly aware of her body again, of Rex’s hands on her shoulders, his brown eyes staring at her with alarm.

Ahsoka offers him a strained smile as she blinks the spots out of her eyes, “I’m okay.”

Behind her, a private comm pings.

“This is Waxer.” She turns to look at the trooper, watching his brows furrowing in alarm.

“Waxer, it’s Pace.” Another clone says grimly, “You need to bring General Skywalker to the medbay.” Ahsoka vaguely remembers her grand master’s CMO, but the trooper isn’t a combatant and rarely leaves the Negotiator, so she doesn’t often interact with him. “He’s now officially the highest ranking individual on the cruiser.”

“What happened?” Master Anakin demands, “Did you find Obi-Wan?”

The comm is quiet for a long moment, before the medic sighs, “We found him alright. Yeah. And whatever happened to him?” Pace’s voice shakes slightly, “It looks to be contagious.”

Taglist: @a-mediocre-succulent

#cole writes #fanfiction #star wars #ahsoka tano #anakin skywalker #clone trooper waxer #captain rex #commander cody #memory-verse

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triscribe · 5 years ago

Text

The Eyes of Dragons

I’ve found my myself in a Star Wars fix-it fic mood of late. Please enjoy the result of my morning’s work, with all due credit to the amazing @fialleril for coming up with Amatakka and Tatooine slave culture in the first place.

White dragons.

That was all Atru could think to call them in his mind. Huddled up with Nittu in a makeshift cave of fallen walls, he stared out at the courtyard of the palace, watching with wide eyes. Humanoids in white armor painted with blue or yellow constantly moved past, shooting, shouting, some hurrying in the other direction with wounded slaves held in their arms.

And it was only slaves they carried away - the cooling corpses of masters, overseers, and bodyguards still littered the courtyard. One of them sprawled mere steps away from Atru and Nittu’s hiding place - a scarred old weequay who’d been in the middle of beating them when the first explosions began. His wrinkled face remained stuck in an expression of shock, fingers still grasping at the blaster hole through his chest.

One the one hand, Atru felt a little ill at the sight. On the other...

Bentu Depuraak. The Reckoning of the Masters.

“...know there were a couple kids right around here - has anyone double checked the rubble?”

“Not that I’m aware of, no.”

Two dragons moved nearby. Atru could just see their boots from the cave: white and blue, white and yellow. His breath caught in his throat.

Would they come closer? Would they see him and Nittu? His arms tightened around the smaller boy - it was his job to keep him out of trouble, keep him from getting hurt. Maybe the dragons would leave them alone, but what if they didn’t?

“I’ll check with Ahsoka - if she’s finished clearing out the lower levels with the rest of Torrent, maybe the Force can tell her if anyone’s buried under here.”

“Alright, then we- wait. Vod, look.”

Between one heartbeat and the next, the opening of the little cave became filled by armor. Atru cried out when a hand reached for him, and instantly it flinched away.

“Osi’kyr,” the dragon muttered, pulling back a bit from the entrance. “Easy, little one, it’s okay - we aren’t going to hurt you, the slavers are all gone.”

“Shove up, Cody.” The second dragon crouched beside the first, and pulled off his helmet marked with swooping lines, revealing a human face. “Amavikkan?”

Atru blinked. After a moment, he slowly nodded.

The man in dragon armor grinned. “Ek masa nu Rex, ka. Nuk ek upanda, Cody.”

Glancing between the two of them as the second dragon removed his helmet as well, Atru didn’t doubt they were brothers - they looked just alike. “...ek masa nu Atru Sikataku, ka. Nuk ek upani, Nittu Atruaberatu.”

The man nodded, glancing at the other. “Their names are Atru and Nittu. Check with the medics, see if anyone by the name of Suncaller or Windsong’s been seen to-” Even as he said it, though, Atru started shaking his head.

“Ekte masa ekte.” The man sagged, his eyes softening.

“Saekeppa,” he murmured. I offer my sorrow. “Keekta-du?” When Atru hunched his shoulders, the man sat back on his heels. “They named themselves. Don’t know where they came from - probably sold too young to remember.”

The other man muttered the same strange word as before. Most likely a curse, if his pained expression was anything to go by. “Are they hurt at all? Stuck?”

Atru shook his head. When the man who’d been speaking Amatakka offered a hand, he carefully took it, and let himself and Nittu get gently tugged out into the open air. Armored arms wrapped around his back and under his legs, scooping the boy up. He had to let go of Nittu at that point, as the other man lifted him in the same way. For the first time since being found, the smaller child made a noise, whining softly as he buried his face in the crook of clothed neck and armored shoulder.

The man holding him froze, before cautiously rubbing and hand up and down Nittu’s back.

“He goes to sleep if you scratch his hair,” Atru stated. Both men blinked, before the one holding him barked out a laugh.

“You heard the kid, vod,” he chuckled. “Might make your life easier.” With that, he turned to start walking out of the courtyard, and Atru watched over his shoulder as the other man listened to his advice, black covered fingers combing through Nittu’s tightly coiled locks.

-Dragons-

An hour later, Atru learned where Rex had gotten his Amatakka from.

A tall man dressed in black robes and armor strode into the tent they’d settled in, Atru on Rex’s lap and Nittu still asleep on Cody’s shoulder. The newcomer looked them both over before snorting.

“Now I know what side-tracked you two,” he muttered.

“To be fair, sir, the time had already come for us to get out of the way of Speaker Banai’s relief forces,” Rex replied. “And you’ve said yourself, once the fighting’s done with, our main job becomes reassuring the Amavikkan that they’re safe.”

The man still rolled his eyes, but smiled when he looked down to meet Atru’s curious gaze. “Alright, so who is this little guy, then?”

“Atru Suncaller. Found him and Nittu over there hiding in some rubble from the courtyard’s walls. They don’t seem inclined to trust anyone who can’t speak Amatakka, so Cody and I are keeping an eye on them.” Or at least, Rex was keeping an eye on the other three - two minutes after sitting down with Nittu resting on him, Cody had likewise dozed off. Apparently he didn’t get nearly enough sleep, according to the stories Rex shared with Atru in the time since.

The newcomer seemed to already be aware of that, as he gave Rex a knowing glance before focusing on Atru again. He touched a hand to his lips, then his heart - the traditional greeting between the Mother’s Children. “Ek masa nu Anakin Ekkreth, ka.”

Atrua sat up a little straighter.

“Te akinu ikkeltinan?” He asked. You brought the dragons?

The Rain-Bringer Skywalker smiled, wide and fierce and sharp. “Ek akinu an-umakkar.” I brought the storm.

-Dragons-

Eventually, Rex and Cody needed to return to their work, and Atru found himself left with Nittu in a section of tents given over to the freed slaves. “We’ve got medics with scanners who’re removing the detonation chips,” Anakin explained, kneeling in front of them. “But until yours are out, you can’t risk going beyond the palace transmitter’s range, okay?”

Atru nodded.

“We’ll be around, if you need anything,” Rex added, briefly resting a hand on Atru’s head. “Or you can go to any of our brothers, we’re all here to help.”

Another, slower nod. When the three of them left, he took Nittu’s hand and wandered the tents until they found Eteru. The older girl sat against an empty crate, eyes closed and face turned up towards the sky, her hands lying empty of knitting for possibly the first time in years.

“Is he really one of us?” Atru asked her. “Skywalker? Or is he lukkanal?”

Eteru smiled without opening her eyes. “He wasn’t freeborn, I know that much.”

“How?”

“Said too many things, about adjusting, finding ways to prove to ourselves we’ve become kol-depuan.”

Atru felt a thrill race through his veins at that: kol-depuan. Unfettered, unchained. He’d only heard the term in stories, spoken wistfully by older slaves. “And the dragons? Only one of them knows Amatakka.”

“Only one’s been around Skywalker often enough to learn it,” Etreru replied, sounding unconcerned. “Others know phrases, the important words. They’ll learn more, if some of them really stay to help like they say - or if some of us go with them.”

“Go where?”

Eteru lifted her chin a bit higher. “To the stars, Atru. To fight other Depuran, to free other Amavikkan, to bring about Bentu Depuraak across the Outer Rim.”

Awed, Atru looked upwards as well. In the evening light, he could make out two of the moons, green Tenarakin and blue Enchuni, but no stars, not quite yet. Just because you can’t see something, doesn’t mean it isn’t there, a voice from deep in his memory whispered. Don’t be afraid to believe.

The boys sat there for a long while, until Nittu’s stomach rumbled and he made a quiet whine. Eteru didn’t seem inclined to move any time soon, so they left her be in order to go search for dinner.

-Dragons-

People who weren’t dragons or Amavikkan appeared the next day, with replacement food and water and medical supplies. Atru watched from around a corner as Skywalker kissed a short, dark-haired woman, two babies wrapped in a carrier on her back. A twi’lek girl in a white dress with yellow patterns ran and laughed around the feet of the dragons she matched, and a togruta teenager with blue armor of her own stuck close to Rex at all times.

It was this last person who nearly tripped over Atru at midday, as he crouched in the shade of the tent where Nittu and the rest of the little children were taking their naps. She glanced between him and the tent’s entrance, before smirking. “Don’t wanna sleep with the babies, huh?”

Atru shook his head.

“Come on, I know a better spot to get out of the sun.” Seeing his hesitation, she added, “Ek masu nu Ahsoka Tano, ku.”

Atru squinted at her. “...masa, not masu.”

“Ek masa,” the togruta corrected. “And- you must be Atru, right? I haven’t seen any other wroonians around here.”

“Half,” he said, standing up and accepting her offered hand, blue fingers curling around dusky orange. “My dad was human. I think.”

“Okay. What’s your name mean, if I can ask? There’s a lot of Amatakka I don’t know yet.”

“Atru is One with the Wind,” he answered, walking quickly with her to cross the hot sands. “Sikataku is Suncaller, like our Elder Sister Leia. I picked that one,” he added, “‘Cause I don’t remember what my mom’s was.” And because he’d always wanted to be a dragon, someone brave and unafraid to summon fire.

Ahsoka nodded. “Do you want to try and find her?”

Atru stayed quiet until they reached an actual building, and the door slid open, offering cool relief from the noonday suns. “I think- I think my mom died, and that’s why I was sold, ‘cause the man who owned us didn’t want to buy someone else to look after me.”

“Okay, then. Who looks after you here?”

He shrugged. “Eteru, sometimes. Or Ekriti, if she wasn’t busy. But I’m bigger now, so I gotta help look after Nittu.”

The door slid shut behind them, and as his eyes adjusted, Atru glanced around the small room and its furniture - most of which was occupied.

Rex paused with a blaster half-disassembled on the table in front of him, and two others in white and blue armor glanced over from their padded bench. Introductions got passed around again, and then Atru found himself settled on the floor beside Rex’s feet, Echo and Fives watching him with interest as Ahsoka flopped into a chair of her own.

In the thin layer of sand that covered the ground, Atru absently traced out the swooping lines from Rex’s helmet. “What do these mean?”

The man glanced over, and grinned. “Jaig eyes - jai’galaar are the shriek-hawks of Mandalore. They’re a symbol of battle honor that I earned in my training as a cadet.”

Atru hummed. His finger made another symbol from Rex’s armor - the repeated pattern of four lines with a fifth crossed through them. “And these?”

Gloved hands stilled on blaster components. “Tally marks. Each one represents a vod I lost.”

“Vod?”

“Sibling, in Mando’a. It’s how we address our closest brothers.”

Considering, Atru flicked his eyes towards Echo and Fives, who’d picked up datapads to fiddle with but were obviously listening in. “Are you all upandan, or are there ikkalan and attanan too?”

Rex frowned, picking up an ammo clip. “I guess some of us are sisters or siblings, but I personally haven’t met any.”

Ahsoka hummed. “Drop decided a few days ago they were agender, Rexter.”

“Ah. Well there we go, then. At least one attan.”

Atru grinned.

-Dragons-

“Hey, Atru!” Glancing up from the pot he was scrubbing with soft sand, the boy grinned and waved to Ahsoka. Beside him, Nittu looked around expectantly, but the lack of any yellow on white meant he went back to playing with his new brightly colored counting stones.

“So,” the togruta said as she crouched beside them. “How would you like to see the inside of a gunship?”

-Dragons-

“Snips...”

“What? You said we should make sure more of the Amavikkan are familiar with how to operate our equipment, including the aircraft.”

Anakin shot her a flat look, the effect of which was pretty thoroughly dampened by the blonde baby being bounced in his arms. “Older Amavikkan, like Ekriti.” The zeltron woman glanced up at her name, but quickly went back to studying the controls of the ship beside Hawk.

“What, just because he’s a kid Atru isn’t allowed to learn?”

“He’s five, Snips.”

“Maybe six,” Atru said absently, standing on tip-toe in order to peer into the cockpit. He heard Anakin sigh, and the baby gurgle.

“One flight, up to the Endurance and back, and then he stays put, alright?”

“Alright, alright, message received loud and clear.”

-Dragons-

The day after his trip up to the biggest spaceship ever, Atru was once again doing chores with Nittu at his side when Ahsoka appeared, the twi’lek girl in white and yellow skipping along at her heels.

Numa mostly spoke Ryl, with a little bit of Basic - but Amatakka was a language made up of all bits and pieces, with additions from children of more deserts than just Tatooine’s. With a few shared words, and gestures, and laughter, they communicated just fine.

Nittu really seemed to like her too, to the point that he even started to follow after Numa when she ran up to a pair of dragons. Atru nearly stopped him, but then he saw Cody, and just sat back as he watched the smaller boy run up to the man who kneeled to meet him.

-Dragons-

“We’ll be leaving tomorrow, when our Jedi arrives with his flagship,” Cody said softly, sitting beside Atru, Nittu once again asleep with his arms around the man’s neck. “I’d like to take Nittu with me.”

Atru considered it. “Alright. Will you still let him be a Windsong?”

“He’ll always be Atruaberatu,” Cody answered, “and you two can always be upandan. I follow my Jetii, but there will be times he comes back here to visit - probably right around the same times General Skywalker and his family do too.”

“And Rex?”

“And Rex, little one.”

-Dragons-

The copper-haired Jedi arrived, briefly, to hug Anakin and Ahsoka and collect his white and yellow dragons. Nittu went with them, and Numa, along with a few other Amavikkan too, including Eteru, so Atru didn’t feel too worried about the younger boy forgetting himself again.

As he watched the ships take off and slip away into the morning sky, Rex came to stand beside him. “...we’ll be heading off in a couple of days too,” the man eventually said.

Atru kept quiet.

“Going to be more Amavikkan recruits for us than the 212th, thanks to Anakin. Mechanics, mostly, a few pilots, and some who want to learn to fight.” A pause. “Would be nice to have some ad’e around, too, especially ones who might be willing to keep an eye on the little Skies.”

Ad’e meant children, Atru knew. He’d asked Ahsoka once, after dozing off in Rex’s lap while waiting out a sandstorm and vaguely hearing the man call him ad’ika.

“...I guess I’m already the right color.”

Rex laughed. “Yeah, same shade, even.”

After a moment, Atru looked up at him. “Would I have to sleep with the others, or could I stay with you?”

The man smiled, and ruffled his hair. “I think you and I can work something out.”

-Dragons-

“MOVE!”

Firing back the way they’d come, Atru shoved Jinni Skywalker ahead of him, keeping his armored form in-between her and little Feather and the blaster shots coming towards them. Once they rounded a corner, he holstered his pistol and picked up both girls in order to sprint for shelter. The stormtroopers moved a little slower, wary of traps or return fire but well aware the old facility had no rear exit.

For the time being, Atru and his charges were trapped.

He skidded around another turn, thankfully spotting a half-open door just ahead. “Okay,” Atru panted, stopping next to it and pushing Jinni through before handing the pink toddler back to her. “Find a hiding place and stay there, I need you to keep Feather quiet at all costs, okay?”

The blonde six year old nodded at him, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. “Atru-?”

“I’ve got to lead them away from you, but I’ll be alright, I promise. Just hide, Jinni, until you feel your dad or Aunt Soka, don’t come out for anyone but them.”

Tromping boots echoed closer. Atru dragged the rusted door closed, hurried further down the hallway, and fired at the first empty-white helmet that appeared after him. Thankfully, the intermittent lighting of the abandoned facility worked in his favor, the pursuing stormtroopers unable to tell he’d left the girls behind.

The teen swiftly lost track of time as he ran, dodged, and returned fire. Once, a blaster shot clipped his leg, not bad enough to take him out, but the pain still caused him to trip and fall against something with a sharp edge. Cursing at the blood that would make his trail easier to follow, Atru tried to put more distance in-between himself and the enemy.

That backfired when he nearly ran right into the backside of a different group of stormies.

Certain he’d just signed his own death certificate, Atru backed away from the array of blasters - only to breathe out a prayer of thanks to every divinity he knew of when the ceiling erupted with red-hot heat and the flashing of lightsabers.

As Anakin and Ahsoka tore their way through the enemy soldiers, other figures landed around Atru, dragons in white and blue and black, death and life and freedom. One dropped to his knees and yanked off his helmet in order to meet the teen’s exhausted gaze, hands skimming his clothes to check for injuries before stopping on either side of his face.

“You better hurry up and finish with these kriffing growth spurts so we can get your permanent armor,” Rex stated, causing Atru to laugh. He rested their foreheads together. “I deal with enough heart attacks from the Skies, ad’ika, don’t you start giving me even more.”

“I’ll do my best, Ipa,” Atru promised.

“All clear, Captain,” one of the Amavikkan dragons called. “Skywalker and Tano found the girls - permission to return topside so Ekriti and Hawk can stop panicking?”

“Permission granted,” his dad replied. He stood, carefully hauling Atru up with him, before pausing. “And someone tell Marker to have his paint set ready - we’ve got some jaig eyes that need awarding, as soon as possible.”

Cheers and whoops followed them out of the facility, and Atru grinned so wide his cheeks hurt. Rex and the other vod’e called them jai’galaar’la sur’haii’se, but to him, they would always be atre-ikkeltinan:

The Eyes of the Dragons.

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coruscantguard · 5 years ago

Text

Before the by-and-by

@loving-fox-hours - Fox Week - Day 4 - Undercover Mission

Commander Fox, Ysanne Isard, Armand Isard (mentioned)

Warning for child endangerment, references to child abuse, shitty parenting in general, abuse apologism, and general horrific implications masked by humor and Fox complaining.

(Ao3 Link)

Coruscant, Level 1329, 22BBY

"Do you know who I am?”

Fox freezes as a young voice-- a child’s voice, really-- cuts him off. He waits for a second, to see if anyone else is going to reply, and when no one does, he sighs and sends the bartender what he hopes is an apologetic smile, but probably looks more like a pained grimace.

The bar is much too empty for the kid to be talking to anyone else, and considering how nonexistent his luck is, Fox is pretty damn sure the kid is talking to him.

The kid is small, humanoid, and she’s making a face at him. The kid is much, much too small to be in a bar. The kid is dressed like a tiny bounty hunter.

But Fox is undercover right now. And that means the answer should be no. Is no. Because his undercover self doesn’t know anyone.

So he’s already saying the word no when he realizes that no, actually, that’s not correct. He does know the kid.

He’s seen the kid around the Senate building before. He’s seen the kid around RCMOP before. Osik, he’s seen the kid in both Senate Bureau and Republic Intelligence meetings before. He vividly remembers wanting to ask why a child was in a briefing, and he remembers not doing that, because contrary to poular opinion, Fox is not stupid or suicidal.

(It’s not like it was that weird the kid was there-- Fox learned about similarly brutal massacres as a cadet, just not via military briefing. If her father is fine with it, and the Chancellor is fine with it, then yeah, a kid who barely comes up to his elbow can sit in on a briefing about the Malevolence and the ion cannons. Fox supposes that the weirdness is probably because he’s used to natborns... coddling their children more. Maybe it’s just a Senator thing?)

“You’re Director Isard’s daughter,” he tells her, and he’s certain of that. Now that he’s looking, it’s obvious. She’s a spitting image of her father, from the inky black hair and white stripe above her temple to the casual look of chilly disdain on her face as she readjusts her stance.

He silently pleads with the Force that the kid doesn’t want him to actually know her name, because he’s got no idea about that little tidbit of information.

Thankfully, it doesn’t seem like the kid wants that, because she just sends him a toothy grin, before putting her hands on her waist and tilting her head to the side. Since cadets tend to loose their teeth at around three standard, and because he’s pretty sure it’s the same for natborn humans, the kid is probably at about seven standard in human years.

“I am!” she says, and waits for a second, before leaning in to whisper, “and you’re the Clone Commander of the Coruscant Guard.”

Fox blinks in surprise. Because, well. He’s undercover. “Right now I’m a bounty hunter from Coreilla,” he quickly corrects, keeping his voice at a low murmur. “But yes, I am,” he replies, because she’s not wrong, and he’d rather her not fight him about actually being a clone.

“I know,” the kid says. “I know what I’m going to be,” she informs him matter-of-factly. Fox blinks again, because. Just. What.

“Do you now?” he finds himself asking as he slowly backs up, bringing the two of them away from prying ears and eyes. He’s not exactly sure what the kid is talking about, but if it’s going to break his cover, he’d rather be near a door for it.

“Mmmhmm,” she says, nodding vigorously as she follows. “The Director of Intelligence. “

Kark’s sake, what the kark, Director Isard, why is your child here--

“After all, I am to be my Father’s heir,” the kid announces as they spill out onto the street. ‘So maybe you’ll work for me one day!”

“Maybe,” Fox allows, and he grabs the kid’s hand as he starts moving down the street. He’s obviously not going to meet with his contact when there is a cadet-aged child there, so his plan has to change. “It’s good to have drive,” Fox says noncommittally, and he could find the leather-rats and drop her off with them, but the CSF is corrupt at best, and he’d rather not be the reason Director Isard’s kid turns up dead in a ditch--

“Dad says that when children aren’t given purpose, they grow up to be unmotivated and... in-comp-e-tent.” She pauses, scrunches up her nose. “I think that’s what he said, anyway.”

Suddenly, he feels a tug on his hand, and realizes that she’s stopped in the middle of the road. Of course.

“Lady Isard,” he starts, and her eyes widen.

“Nope!” she says, cutting him off, and she goes digging in her dress’s pockets until she pulls out a small black comm unit. “Undercover, remember?”

The kid slaps the comm on her wrist before he can even begin to consider how to reply to that, and she hits a button. A digital passport pops up, with a photo of her on it. “Right now, I’m Anne Antilles! Your daughter. Uh, here. Dad told me to give this to you,” she says, and shoves a crumpled up piece of flimsi at him. And--

Director Isard sent his karking child to level 1329 alone to play messenger?

Right. Okay. That’s, whatever. Not important. Not his jurisdiction, not his business.

Fox nods once, but then he sees something out of the corner of his eye, and he’s moving. He grabs her under her arms, lifts her up so he can get both of them off the main street. The shadows of an alley greet them, and his pace is brisk as he moves away from what might be one of the leather-rats’ patrols. The kid masks her surprise in seconds, and she wraps her legs around him as he settles her on his hip. Her arms loop around his neck automatically, and osik, at least the Director’s kid knows how to make a quiet getaway. The kid is silent-- impressively so, he can barely hear her breathing-- and they make it out onto another street without any fanfare.

Fox skims the updated mission parameters flimsi with one hand as he walks. This could... go very badly very quickly if he’s not careful. Director Armand Isard is not a forgiving man. The fact that his daughter is apparently joining Fox on this mission is a fact that threatens to be a Problem with a capital peth, and he’d really rather it not be.

Force’s sake. Why didn’t Thire get this mission? Thire is good with kids. Thire likes kids. Thire would probably like this.

“Can I have a blaster?” the kid suddenly asks in an exaggerated whisper.

“No,” he says, because he learned that lesson well enough.

“Come on! I know how to use them,” the kid protests.

“Still a no.”

“Dad-uh, my other dad would let me have a blaster,” she complains, and Fox snorts. He does not doubt that for even a second. “Wait, should I call you Papa instead of Dad?”

“Nope.”

“But I can’t call you both Dad.”

“Yes, you can.”

“Here, I’ll call my dad Dad, and you can be, um... Buir!”

Oh Force karking hell, lords of kriffing atron, kark me--

“Wait, you clones do know Mando’a, right?”

“Most of us do, yes” Fox grits out, as he silently resolves to never go on an undercover mission ever again. It’s not a resolution he’ll be able to actually fulfill, but it’s nice to at least consider it. “And you can just call both of us dad. In fact, that’s what you’re going to do. Okay?”

He is going to get so, so drunk after this mission, and hopefully forget the entire goddamn thing. Thank the Force that Cody isn’t here right now, kriffing hell. If his batchmate made a crack about him being in a relationship with the karking Director of Republic Intelligence, Fox would be obliged to kill him, which would then make both Wolffe and bottle-blonde pissy, and he has enough problems as it is.

“Ugh. Fine. You’re boring.”

“Didn’t you just say that I’m Dad?”

The kid hits him for that, which, okay, that’s fair. He’d hit Cody if Cody made that joke.

Then she tightens her grip around his neck, and he has to actually fight back a snicker. The kid is maybe 50 pounds soaking wet though, so strangulation isn’t an effective method of punishment. He then tells her so, because he’s pretty sure Thire once said something about how helping children grow and improve their skills is important.

“If I want to strangle you, you won’t see it coming,” she shoots back, but she slowly loosens her hold again. “You’ll be dead, because I’ll actually strangle you.”

“Oh, yes, I’m sure you will,” he replies, voice dry, as they turn onto a smaller, more crowded street. “Sometimes miracles do happen.” This is where the contact the Director wants him to meet with should be...

“I don’t believe in miracles,” the kid replies haughtily, sounding almost offended, and she sniffs in what Fox guesses is distaste. “I’m an Isard! We make our own luck.”

I’m an Isard, she proclaims, and the flinch Fox stifles is instinctive, his body reacting and putting him on high alert before his mind has even started processing. I’m an Isard, she says, and he casts his eyes out to the crowd to check and see if anyone reacts to the name, because kriff, worst timing ever there, kid. If the Director’s contact is paying attention, hears the Director’s name, and if he thinks he’s about to be brought in--

Well. It’s best not to consider that possibility prematurely. He can deal with it if it occurs.

(And Fox is pretty damn sure that this, this, is why the Republic doesn’t use cadets for undercover missions. No matter how good one might be with a blaster, they’re still shinier than the gleaming armor of the bastards in blue, and that’ll always show in some way.)

“You’re an Antilles,” he reminds the kid, and he forces himself to breathe through the instinctive flash of both anger and annoyance. Director Isard’s kid, he reminds himself. Could ruin your life with one word.

The kid’s eyes widen as she realizes what she did, and he can tell that she’s seconds away from looking back over his shoulder in panic, which would undoubtedly give them away, so he bops her on the nose.

The kid punches him in the neck in retaliation, but she manages to keep herself from giving them away, so Fox dismisses it. “We do make our own luck, though,” she mouths to him after a few seconds of silence, because apparently someone really wants the last word.

Fox just nods in response, ceding the point to her. He’s not about to argue with an eight year old about luck, and considering her tone of voice, he’s 99% sure that she’s just repeating something that someone told her. Probably her father, honestly. Director Isard is not one to wait for the tide to shift in his favor. He’s more fond of doing whatever he must, and sacrificing whomever he must, until he can bend the tide in his favor with his own two hands. It would make sense that his daughter has a similar point of view.

It’s also a point of view Fox has never had the privilege of having, and the truth of that stings as it settles into his chest. Because none of his brothers have gotten to even consider having that point of view, without immediately being laughed at. They’re clones. They belong to the Republic. You don’t get to just gaff off and make your own luck when the kriffing Republic is the one that holds both your leash and noose. Not unless you want to choke on it, anyway.

Kriffing Natties.

... But that’s his own karking problem, and it’s not a problem he can afford to ponder during a mission. Or ever, honestly.

Force. Hopefully the Director’s contact will show up soon. Fox would really rather start forgetting this mission sooner than later, but he can’t do that while there’s a child in his care.

RCMOP: Republic Center for Military Operations

Leather-rat: Slang for the Coruscant Underworld Police, insult

Bastards in blue: Insulting version of “Boys in Blue” which refers to the Senate Guards (And the police, but here Fox is insulting the SG)

#commander fox #ysanne isard #armand isard #tcw #the clone wars #commander fox week #my writing #navn rambles

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fourletterworld · 4 years ago

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Getting Lost - Was a Big Brother

Cody, Myself, and four of our best friends hiked the fantasy trail of Big Sur, some 7 miles up into the sky. As night approached, we tucked down off the trail into a small camping area and safely lit a fire near a stream. Here we pumped drinking water into our bottles through a filter. I remember feeling so physically tired, it was the only feeling in me. We made dinner in flame light then made our tents in spotty shadows. It was cold, and we'd fallen asleep quickly.

The next day was crisp and beautiful. We'd made breakfast, coffee and tea and talked a while before heading out to walk off the path into the wilderness. We jumped across the creek where boulders stood out of the shallow depth. After the six of us got across my friend Bob passed out micro doses of mushrooms from a cloudy plastic bag. We chewed them up and continued walking into the trees along the creek. Nothing of note crept into my head, but I have a snapshot of looking back at my friends through the trees and seeing sunlight spill through the canopy onto the green forest floor. There was an Irish glow among the rich tree bark and moss.

Someone mentioned that it looked like we were in an old Skittles commercial. Slow unconscious laughs built as we smiled half-lucidly at one another. The effect began to slow some of us down until we stopped at a clearing and briefly sat. Cody and two others decided to keep hiking while I stayed with the other half.

We talked for a while and observed everything within eyeshot. I felt the stillness of a tree growing through my head. The misty sounds of nature began to strike out with colors of awareness. Suddenly I was conscious of the bird calls, and not in the ordinary way when their beauty serves as the backdrop to one of my moods. Instead, I heard their sounds as though they were strangers with first names I didn't know. They were communicating primal information with the worry of survival in their tone. They weren't having a pleasant day in the wild, they were locked in the grind of their reality. I felt sad for their consistent stress. The concern to live up to nature's expectations is so much to put on a creature. It wasn't their fault.

The plants around me gently moved in a soft breeze. Their limbs reached up to the skylight like a baby wanting its mother. They were as alive as starfish, having fixed themselves to the trunks of larger somber giants. The distant sun sat and burned like a far away look. A look that only time will snap someone out of. This sad poem is why we fall in love, I thought. It all hurts with the innocent anticipation of a loose tooth not ready to come out.

After a time of being unusually quiet in the presence of others, I crept away by myself down to the trickling stream we'd been following. In some sort of dreamy trance, I gently touched my face as I looked down into the water. There was a troubled curiosity in my tremendously large pupils. It was the little kid unwound inside of me; the one I'd twisted hard into a man. Currents pulled at my reflection like smeared paint clinging to an image. Shards of light formed on the folds of water like cuts.

The tired old question walked through my thoughts: "who am I?" This time, it didn't feel like the ethereal philosophical question. It was more like I was trying to make sense of the thing I saw reflecting in the water: The dark pool-eyed organic machine, the adult and the teen, the arrested development, the ill-defined aged of an angst ridden masculine spirit.

I've applied stereotypes to myself my whole life: being a punk rocker, a musician, an artist, a romantic, a good person, a drinker, and all sorts of things that maybe I'm not. They're all just lines of rope I've thrown out which I follow after to see where they might lead me. Being a big brother was something more than that. It was beyond me and rooted in the physical world. It was an anchor that'd dropped down as soon as Cody was born.

These thoughts swam through that river until concern began to gather and pulled me back into the moment. I'd begun to feel some kind of tension pulling at the line between Cody and I. He had hiked away and was possibly too far from me, and I started to wonder if he was okay.

"Hey guys! How long have they been gone?!" I shouted up the small ravine. "They're fine D." my friend Dave called, probably anticipating some psilocybin anxiousness. His assumption that I was paranoid was warranted, but I felt rational in my fear and knew it couldn't be articulated under scrutiny. I walked a short way in the direction the others continued hiking and looked. I didn't see anyone so I began calling Cody's name with my loud voice into the wilderness. I heard the emptiness of the hills as my voice faded through them, and a terrorizing feeling of finality landed. The fear was rooted in the possibility of never getting him back.

What if they'd eaten more mushrooms than I had and got confused and lost? I was worried for all of them, but I was responsible for my brother. The anchor was somewhere beneath dark water and I didn't know if the rope had been torn. I began making all sorts of promises to some God that I never kept. I started to feel the knot in my throat.

There was darkness growing in the mountains. Tall pine shadows loomed and collected over the retreating fragments of sunlight. The pleated hills began to look treacherously prosaic, as if no new word would ever come out of its ravine. It would never unearth my little brother or anything else ever again. I called again, deep and loud, and like a miracle transmission I heard Cody faintly calling back just as loudly from somewhere off in the trees. His voice, when he yelled, sounded just like mine.

"Oh, fucking Christ, thank god", I sighed.

Moments later he'd walked through the trees. Bleach blonde hair and emerald rimmed owl eyes, smiling at the corners. Cody came to me for an instinctive hug. "I'm sorry Dust" he'd said. He could hear the fear in my voice even at its highest threshold of volume.

"Don't be sorry, don't be sorry," I replied as I hugged him tightly. Later, shrouded in twilight, I sat next to him at the fire. I tried to express how tangibly worried I was for him. I’d felt him extracted from my life in that moment, and how terrified that made me.

I'd gone on longer, exhausting my point. The mushrooms hadn't completely waned and the panic continued to play, but the cause for fear was so present it was like I had suddenly felt through the material of time. I’d somehow grasped the shape of that fucked up day that waited for me years ahead. I had no way of aligning that sort of rationale at the time, but in hindsight it’s the best way to explain the reality of that scare. It never felt like it was in my head.

Cody listened, patient and contemplative with a lit cigarette. At some point he interjected, "Yeah, but Dust, I'm fine. Everything's okay. Everything was always okay the whole time. You were just worried over nothing".

He said this smiling, as though to model what emotion we should had both been feeling in that moment. He then leaned in and wrapped his arms around my shoulders and I took his two clasping hands with mine and closed my eyes. He saw the concern but not my fear, but I knew I had to concede in expressing my worry for him. I'd always have to learn when it was okay to get my point across and when to let life be life. I had to let go of control.

I've always had problems with control because it eludes me. My life has always been out of my control. Not really caring to embrace my strengths and desiring my weaknesses has put huge cracks throughout my being. My self-hood is like broken up continents, and my goal is to form it all back into Pangea. I move something to the center and something else floats away. It's like I don't have room for the whole being I want to be. I fall in love, I become dependent. I find peace, I become boring. I get inspired, I become manic. I have fun, I lose my way.

And I don't want balance. I see balance like a constant sacrifice. I want the choice to be all in, on one side or another, the good and the bad all at one time. I want the full glass now and no glass later.

That is, I had my mind made up in this way until Cody passed. Once I lost him, these fragmented continents weren't just staid floating islands. Gravity suddenly shut off, and they lifted from their watery globe and suspended in disorientation. I'd seen all parts of myself lift from the anchor of my brother and carry out above me and into the atmosphere. Now there is no center to draw things back into, and there are some pieces leaving my weak gravitational field forever. I lay in bed afraid of this new upheaval, not knowing my feelings anymore, and watching them continue to go and go and go.

They've been ripping away from me so consistently and slowly over this last 16 months that the pain has become ambience. My spirit has been tuned to the lowest universal frequency of heartbreak. The longest waves of sadness.

But I keep it together. All of life is too short to let anyone else get tangled in this chaotic orbit of mine, and I think I've become just strong enough to keep it in during the day. Meanwhile this slow-moving shrapnel drifts along, finely opening new aspects of a heart I'd never known. There are things that feel possible in ways that surprise and sometimes shock me. There are days now where I get out of the shower and rub away the fog on the mirror and remember looking into the water. Now it isn't a question of who I am, but who am I becoming, and will any of this ever land again? Did the universe set my heart so it can heal in alignment or is my true nature lost in some ethereal flux?

There's an animal body looking at me and the human has been knocked into a daze. The eyes in the coal mine sockets remind me of those prosaic hills, with the person behind the wheel having retreated inward to crippled shadowy memories. They don’t hold anything to the same beautiful standard any longer. It’s all become possible with nothing inside of myself to protect anymore. The gate has been left wide open and as I stare at my eyes I wonder if I'll ever really come back again.

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hellowkatey · 4 years ago

Text

The Plights of Force Vision: Chapter 3

Rating: T for language

Summary: He tries to relax, but of course the Force can’t give Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi a break. Anakin gets out of class early and finds Obi-Wan in the midst of a vision.

Read it on AO3

1 | 2

Chapter 3: Knight Kenobi

There are coveted moments in Obi-Wan's day when the apartment is finally quiet. His thirteen-year-old padawan is not babbling about something or the other that happened in his philosophy class. No excruciatingly loud reverberations echoing through the wall while Anakin fiddles with his latest project. No gaggle of various other padawans running in and out of the quarters, swiping meal bars and grabbing glasses of water as though it is their own home. (The last bothers Obi-Wan the least-- he is pleased to see Anakin making friends and quite enjoys that they feel comfortable traipsing around their quarters. He even picks up extra snacks to leave around for them, but their frequent presence is in no way quiet)

Luckily, there are always a few hours during the week in which Anakin is in class and Obi-Wan has completed his own training sessions and extracurriculars with other knights. He has the freedom to take a nice, long shower, lounge on the couch with a book or watch a holovid, and maybe even take a nap if he's feeling a little wild. It's his guilty pleasure, a time he lets himself relax in a fashion other than meditation.

Today is like any other. He returns from a spar with Luminara Unduli and wastes no time in stripping off his sweaty robes and turning on the shower. After a revitalizing soak, he steps out, wiping off the steamy mirror. His own face stares back at him, and for the hundredth time, he considers the beard.

He never thought he'd be a beard-guy but after a very elderly Master scolded him for not being in his padawan classes at the ripe age of twenty-six, he decided maybe a beard might do him good. For a few weeks, it was horridly patchy, looking as though Anakin had glued pieces of hair to his chin while blindfolded. He got a bit of teasing for it, but Jedi are meant to be patient and so he waited. Eventually, it filled out, cupping the bottom half of his face with an impressive ginger-colored mane. He's taken to trimming it short-- with the amount of saber training and conditioning he does, it gets quite hot and itchy-- but every time he looks in the mirror he gets the urge to just shave it all off.

Then he remembers another interaction when they were on Zonama Sekot and a stranger thought him and Anakin to be brothers. Usually, masters and their padawans are equated to parents and children, so the sibling comparison was... not ideal. Not with a padawan who already likes to test the limits of his master's authority. (It certainly put a glimmer in Anakin's eye, though.)

So he grew the beard. And now, the beard stays.

Obi-Wan finishes getting dressed, throwing on a fresh pair of Jedi robes and running some product through his hair. He feels refreshed, unwound after the tough spar. The knight pads into the kitchen, puts a kettle on for tea, and pulls out some leftovers from Dex's. As his food reheats, he senses a sudden whiff of mint. His body goes still.

"Drat," he says under his breath, using the Force to turn off the stovetop. He walks carefully to the couch, his vision already starting to tunnel. As he has done many times throughout his life, he shuts his shields. Tight. Then lays down.

Darkness pulls him from reality quickly. One moment he is staring at his ceiling as it spins, and the next he is somewhere else entirely.

______

Anakin Skywalker hates philosophy. Hates it. Nothing in the entire galaxy could make him enjoy an hour and a half of learning about what? Theories that don't even make sense? Questions that have no answers? It's infuriating.

He is always glad to leave the class, even though it's Master Yoda's course and he likes the old green guy. (Though, Anakin has a sneaking suspicion that Master Yoda's weird speech patterns aren't making philosophy any easier.)

Anakin says goodbye to Master Yoda and heads to his next slot. It's mathematics-- math at least has a clear right and wrong answer, and Anakin is fortunate enough to find the right answer more often than not. As he approaches the classroom he is surprised to find the door closed. He turns to another padawan he recognizes from his class.

"We have math today?"

"Cancelled," the Mon Calamari boy says with a big grin.

"Wizard," Anakin grins back, pulling his bag off to shove his datapad in. No class means he is done early! Maybe Master Obi-Wan will spar with me!

It's a longshot, but Anakin always hopes that one day he will catch his master in the best of moods, and he will finally agree to an impromptu sparring session. It's not that Obi-Wan doesn't train him in saber fighting-- it's just... always katas and short fights where he spends half the time instructing him or deliberately on defense. For once, Anakin wants a challenge. He wants to show his master that given the chance, he can step up the challenge and put up a good effort.

Maybe that would help him get better quicker. He is already the best fighter of all the junior padawans-- even those a few years older than him! But he wants to be the best of all the padawans. Junior and senior. If he is going to get there, he needs to be practicing against real challenges. Master Kenobi type of challenges.

It's no secret that his master is one of the best fighters in all the order. He killed a Sith! Though Anakin hasn't watched him spar in a while, he has heard rumors from the other padawans of his superiority among the other knights. It brings a smile to Anakin's face to hear them whispering about his master. He was skeptical when Obi-Wan told him he was going to start specializing in Form III-- I mean, who the heck switches Soresu when they are already awesome at a form as cool as Ataru?-- but from the Temple gossip, it must be paying off.

So Anakin walks quickly through the halls, his imagination running wild about the potential spar he and his master could soon be engaging in. He knows better than to let himself get his hopes up, but he just has a good feeling about today. By the time he reaches their shared quarters, he is practically bursting as he rehearses how he is going to propose the idea.

Anakin walks into the quarters and immediately can feel that something is strange. He hadn't noticed it before, but his bond with Obi-Wan is quiet. Not the usual quiet, but a different quiet. He scans the room, his gaze falling on his master lying quietly on the couch. Anakin tiptoes over, rounding the side to look at his master's face. His eyes are closed, but he is not sleeping. Sleep feels different in the Force. No... this is that weird state that he gets in sometimes.

A part of Anakin is a little annoying. A little disappointed. Of course, he'd be having a vision the one day I get off early!

It isn't Obi-Wan's fault. They've talked a lot about visions and how they work, but he still has the urge to curse the Force.

He sets down his bag and runs into the kitchen. There is already a kettle full of water sitting on the stove and an abandoned container of takeout in the heater. Don't mind if I do, he thinks, restarting the heating process. He turns the stove on to boil the water. Anakin glances back at his unconscious master to ensure he is still in his fugue state before using the Force to telekinetically select and bring a teabag to his hand. He grins slyly and puts it into a mug.

The food finishes heating and he takes it into the living room, settling down on a chair next to Obi-Wan and digging into the sandwich.

Now, he waits.

______

Obi-Wan is walking down the corridor of the Jedi Temple. It's bright outside, sending streams of light through the massive windows. He feels a tinge of nostalgia like he hasn't seen such a beautiful sight in a long time.

From behind him, there are quiet, rapid footsteps. A familiar Force presence. The next moment, an arm hooks over his shoulders, and the weight of a taller human being presses into his side.

"Master Obi-Wan, you thought you could hide from me, huh?"

"I didn't realize walking to my quarters was considered hiding,"

"It is when we have plans and you are definitely not dressed."

Obi-Wan finally turns to look up at the young man. Staring back at him is the wry face of an older Anakin. His hair is longer, slowly growing out past his ears and in a bit of an awkward stage. Darker, too. Without the suns of Tatooine to continuously bleach it, his natural light brunette color has taken a sturdy root. Paired with his dark robes, the contrast makes his blue eyes look even brighter.

"I don't recall making plans, Anakin."

"You. Me. Rex, Fives, and Oddball. Drinks." He pats Obi-Wan's shoulder before releasing him from the half-choke hold. "You can invite Cody, too, if you want."

Obi-Wan chuckles. "I quite doubt you actually want to get drinks with me. You go have fun with your men,"

A groan and then Anakin is suddenly in front of him, stopping his forward progress. It's much easier to take in the hulking height of the young man. His sturdy stature and the maturity in his squared jaw. "I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have tracked you down if I didn't you to be there, Master."

There's a seriousness to his tone. Just a tinge.

"I suppose there is a logic in that statement."

"You act like I'm not logical."

"That is precisely what I was implying, actually," Obi-Wan grins. Anakin rolls his eyes, falling back to Obi-Wan's side as they continue walking toward his quarters. He presses a hand to the back of his head dramatically.

"Master, you wound me," Obi-Wan can feel his eyes on him once again. "So you'll come?"

Warmth spreads through him. The bastard is funneling positive feelings and encouragement through the damn Force.

"I suppose a few drinks could be nice."

Anakin grins, patting him on the shoulders twice. "Landing pad 2, one standard," and then he turns and runs off.

Always on the move.

As Obi-Wan opens his eyes and a familiar sharp pain presses against his temples, he is met with the blurry sight of a blonde-headed boy standing over him. He blinks through the headache and the face of his padawan appears clearly.

"Good morning, Master," Anakin smiles. The same smile as the older version of him. Some things never change...

"Anakin," he slurs, reaching up to rub his eyes. "What time--"

"Nearly three."

A pause. Obi-Wan's hands drop from his eyes and he pushes himself up onto his elbow. "Shouldn't you be in--"

"Cancelled today," the padawan rolls his eyes. "Leave it to you, Master, to come out of a vision and think about my class schedule."

Obi-Wan scoffs, deciding to let that quip go. Besides, he can smell the familiar scent of his favorite post-vision herbal tea somewhere nearby.

"Oh, right," Anakin says, turning and picking up a mug from the table. Lo and behold, a fresh cup of tea still steaming. He hands it to Obi-Wan.

For a moment, he just stares at his padawan standing before him. Those bright blue eyes looking at him expectedly. Looking for approval. The same eyes he saw in his vision. The same man, though right now just a boy. The feeling of warmth still blossoms in his chest, though now it is not the figment of a Force vision, but his real-time feelings. Anakin is a headstrong, arrogant, padawan. Talented, witty, and a royal pain in Obi-Wan's ass most of the time. Yet, beneath it all, he is the special boy Qui-Gon saw the world in. A boy that has nothing yet offers everything.

Even if it's just a cup of tea to ease a headache. When he's coming out of a vision, that is everything.

"Thank you, my dear padawan," he smiles. "You spoil me."

Anakin beams. "Anything to make you less crabby, Master." It's Obi-Wan's turn to roll his eyes, attempting to reach out and tug at Anakin's braid, but the boy manages to evade him. He goes to sit down on the adjacent chair, picking up a tray of food from the side table. Obi-Wan eyes it suspiciously.

"Is that my leftovers?"

Anakin freezes midbite, his eyes flickering over guiltily. "Master I... found this."

"Found it did you?

Anakin holds out the plate. Half a sandwich still remains with only a bite or two taken out of it. "Want the rest?"

Obi-Wan sighs. "No Anakin, that's fine. It just gives me an excuse to go again sooner."

He retracts the plate, still looking guilty but Obi-Wan can feel his faint satisfaction. There are a few moments of quiet. Just the sound of Anakin chewing, and he quickly tunes that out. Finally, the boy finishes his lunch and looks up with a tentative expression.

"What was the vision, anyway?"

Oftentimes his visions are horrible. Graphic depictions of war, carnage, or death. Or all of the above. He doesn't like to tell Anakin about those so he just says it was too vague to tell. At least not while he is so young. No use in worrying him over a silly vision that likely won't come true.

Anakin always asks, though. This time, his outlook isn't so grim.

"Well, as a matter of fact, it was about you, my padawan."

Anakin stops chewing. "Me?"

"Yes, though from your lack of braid it appears you were not my padawan anymore."

"Not-- A master?"

"Knight, probably."

"Wow," the young boy looks wistfully into the distance. 'Was I tall?"

"What?"

"Tall? Was I tall?"

"Well... yes, you were."

"Taller than you?"

"Anakin."

"Taller than you, Master?"

Obi-Wan sighs. He recalls the image of having to look up at an older Anakin. He reminds himself that the future in visions is not concrete. It is always possible his padawan will cap out at an average meter and three-quarter height...

"Yes, Anakin, you were taller than me. Now, do you actually want to know what happened?"

The padawan sobers and nods.

"Right, so I was on a lovely stroll in the Temple and suddenly I am grabbed from behind by an unruly Jedi Knight," Anakin giggles, seeming far too comfortable with his implied designation as the unruly Jedi Knight. "And then you asked me to come to a cantina with you and your friends."

"So we were hanging out?"

"It seems so."

"Did you say yes?"

"Well yes, do you think I would say no to spending time with you, my padawan?"

A grin appears across the young boy's face. A grin that has a suspicious amount of trouble behind it.

"Was there anything else in your vision?"

"No..." Obi-Wan says, eyeing the scheming padawan.

"Well, in that case, when your headache is gone will you spar with me? It would be a great way to--"

"Oh, don't say it, Anakin--"

"Spend time with your padawan."

He said it. Obi-Wan sighs, staring at the hopeful padawan. "You know I hate it when you use my words against me."

Anakin takes another bite. "I like to think of it as active listening."

It seems he walked right into this one, but Obi-Wan doesn't mind today. Not with his headache already waning, a fresh cup of tea in his hand, and a rare vision that didn't ruin his entire day. He sits up to take a long swig of the hot drink, feeling it lesson the tightness behind his eyes even more. "I suppose it has been a few weeks since we have had a proper spar,"

Anakin's face lights up. "Really, Master?"

"You better hurry up and change before I change my mind."

In a flash, he is running for his room. Obi-Wan chuckles to himself, knowing very well the boy is throwing his robes into a haphazard pile on the floor. Silly boy, that one.

Yet, his mind keeps going back to the vision. The young man Anakin will eventually become. Confident. Still snarky, but his underlying kindness was evident even in the short interaction. A man that actually wanted to spend time with his old Master. It's something he often thought about in the wee hours of the night of his own master. If Qui-Gon were... still alive, would they be friendly? Or would they be estranged like he is to Master Dooku?

He imagined it would be the former. Maybe as a knight and he a master, they would see eye-to-eye more.

Obi-Wan hardly hopes his visions come true, but this one is different. This one, he will tuck away and hope to one day find himself walking alone through the temple on a lovely day and hear his former padawan running after him. Feel his arm affectionately wrap around him. Talk to him as though they are quarreling brothers.

Brothers. Huh.

Maybe in this future, however distant or near, he will finally shave the beard.

#the plights of force visions #anakin skywalker #obi-wan kenobi #padawan anakin skywalker #knight obi-wan kenobi #force visions #fluff #gen #ao3 #fanfiction #sw #star wars #fanfic #rex #fives #oddball #cody

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mandalorianbrainweasel · 4 years ago

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let’s steal a padawan -- Leverage Fusion AU

T. Jango Fett and Original Character, Rex and Bacara. Cameo Cody, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Anaking Skywalker. Leverage Fusion AU.

Alternatively titled “The Bacara Job”

Mentions of canonical treatment of clones and Anakin Skywalker’s jealousy.

Read on Ao3 here.

“He needs a teacher,” Mèpe says, pointing out Cort Davin’s favorite CC.

Jango rakes his eyes over to 1138, frowning. “Davin’s a bastard, but…”

“Not that kind of teacher,” they correct. “One we’d be able to give him if we weren’t in the middle of this.”

They don’t mean how they’re both up in observation, watching the trainers who have their favorites working through Independent Study. Normally, Jango would go toss Alphas at each other at this time, but Mèpe is going to be one of these trainers, sooner or later, and needs to know the lay of the land before they start letting CT-7567 loose among them.

No, Mèpe means they’re in the middle of a long con, trying to save these children’s lives. They don’t have time to train any of these kids to the same point they are in mastering their force abilities. Most of the clones can get away with the bits and pieces being passed down from the Alphas.

Jango’s eyes fall shut. “I can’t sense him at all. Is he masking?”

Mèpe is smiling when he opens his eyes again. “You can’t sense him because you’re trying to see something different. But you look out there at him and you see the very things that have been echoing around you for seven years.”

Jango slowly turns to look out the window, at Kamino’s eternally raging storm. “Oh,” he says quietly. Then, leaning back against the observation window he spreads himself out again, looks again. There it is, he realizes. His echo who echoes the storm. “You’re right,” he says, sighing. “He needs a teacher. It’s not that he’s so much more powerful than the others…”

“It’s that he’s wild.” Mèpe, the way they say it, already has a plan. “I’m sure she’ll be by soon. Now we just need to get him away from Davin.”

“Get the Seventeens?” he suggests.

They smirk back. “Actually, I think I have the perfect person for the job.”

CT-7567 is still unsure of his place in the family. Wolffe says it’s because he doesn’t have a name yet, but Jango’s doesn’t think that’s it. ’67 reminds him too much of how he was when he’d first been swept up into Jaster Mereel and the Haat Mando’ade’s wake.

Still, it couldn’t hurt. It’s rude, he usually thinks, Naming the clones like this. Sure, the names he knows in his head usually end up being the ones the clones end up going by, but it's still... He gave up the right to name them the moment he signed the contract.

“Rex,” he says at ’67, sharp but not snappish, to make the boy jerk his head over. He raises his eyebrows at the boy, nodding. “Mèpe and I have your first big assignment for Independent Study. You coming?”

The little blonde scrambles over to him, leaving the painfully empty room. A whole squad down to one just because the Kaminiise found too much wrong. Jango’s so close to just dropping the younger clone and his things in with the Seventeens, or straight up in the Fulcrum apartment.

As Rex catches his stride, Jango reaches out and buries his fingers in blonde curls, gently steering the clone to said apartment. They’re going to use Mèpe’s room, already mostly empty, as the briefing room for this one. Bigger things require the main living space. But this is just Jango, Rex, and Mèpe.

Mèpe has the holo projector up and a datapad with color-accurate files. “Everything good?” they ask, pulling Rex in for a side hug before turning him over to the unused bed.

The boy nods, then looks over at Jango and frowns. Back up to Mèpe. “My name is Rex.”

Mèpe breaks out into a dazzling grin. “Jango use his weird magic on you?”

“Is that what it is?”

Jango snorts. “Just time being strange for me, ad’ika. Now, Mèpe, you’re point on this one.”

They smirk and nod, handing the datapad to Rex. “Alright, this is CC-1138. Care to hazard a name, cyare?”

Jango shakes his head. “For when Fay comes, if he’s still not sure.”

“Alright. Rex, this is CC-1138. He trains under Cort Davin. Mark 3, the batch above the Seventeens, near top of his mark. Only mutation is his eyes, though Jango has a theory on that he hasn’t shared.”

Jango smirks. “He’s got the storm in him, hasn’t let it out yet. Eyes are windows.”

Mèpe takes a deep breath, mood darkening. “That would make sense. So, he has gray eyes. He’s the equivalent of 14-year-old human. He’s the wall the storm breaks on, but if he doesn’t get taught how to work with that it’ll either drown him or make him break. We can’t let either happen. Jango and I’s old teacher is in route to take him. But we need to get him away from Davin first.”

Rex flicks through the datapad, looking back and forth between it and the set of floor plans Mèpe has on the projector. “Morning class. CC’s still get called in by Prime enough, it’s an easy excuse. I send him right on…”

“You’re supposed to be in class then, and if you do it with witnesses like that Davin knows right where he is,” Jango interjects, watching as Rex’s face falls only to be replaced by more determination.

“Independent Study. You need to see Davin,” Rex offers. “Davin goes, Mèpe or Gimm get a Kaminii to get him. Say it’s…say it’s decommissioning. For his eyes, and not keeping up, or not keeping up right…” Rex is making himself sick, talking like that.

Jango reaches over and pulls the boy over to him, wrapping him up in a hug. “But instead, you and Mèpe get him to the Fulcrum apartment. He stays there, or with me and Boba, until Master Fay comes.”

That gets Rex’s attention. “A Jedi? Is Bacara going to be a Jedi?”

Mèpe smiles. “Maybe. So, what do you think Jango. Break Davin by saying his training was the last mistake 1138 could make?”

Jango’s eyes fall shut. It’s painful, to talk like this, but it’ll work. “Let’s run it.” He presses a kiss to Rex’s affection-confused forehead. “Good job, Rex. You think you can run it on your own or do you need a Seventeen?”

“I…I can do it, sir,” Rex says, determined.

Mèpe hadn’t planned on taking Rex in here so soon, and they’re scared at first to leave him, their comm in his hand, to “deal with something.”

So Rex gets to answer Jango’s comm. “7567, where’s your trainer?”

“Kaminoans, sir,” he says, echoing the carefully blank face both Jango and Mèpe have mastered. “Do you need me to get them?”

Jango snarls. “You’re in the I.S. training area?”

“Yessir.” He’s getting looks, too. From trainers and vode alike.

“I need Cort Davin to come find me. We need to have a talk.”

Swearing breaks out across the room, a broad man as dark as any of the clones with gray hair stalking across the room. “What do you want, Fett. We’re in the middle of training.”

“In person kind of chat, Dav’ka,” Jango coos, all false sweetness and barely hidden teeth.

Davin can tell, it seems. “Your place?”

“Main office.”

“On my way, ‘alor,” he snaps, glaring at Rex as the comm shuts off. “You can tell your karking trainer to get ready for reality.”

Rex doesn’t act afraid, because he knows what Davin’s about to get dropped on his shoulders. He almost feels bad. “I think,” he says, voice soft and taking a dreamy tone, “That you might need to take your own advice.”

Davin pauses, eyes wide as he looks at Rex. “Be careful, ad’ka. With your hair, the Kaminiise will take that kind of talk as a reason to put you on the other end of a needle, no matter your trainer.”

He’s scared, Rex realizes. Now he does feel bad for him, but… Not bad enough to risk a vod. “Yessir.”

Davin stalks out, leaving Rex to bolt over to 1138. The older trooper, on top of being a CC, is already a head taller than Rex. Part of that is some developmental delay in Rex’s growth that makes him have to work twice as hard to make up and keep on track. 1138 is also filling out to be as much of a wall of a man as Alpha.

1138 seems to be taking at least a moment of Davin being gone to hydrate. Rex already likes him better than the Seventeens, though he’s just about to lose him. Most of them forget to hydrate unless he’s tossing a bottle of water at their heads.

“Need something, tat’ka?” 1138 asks, accent different than most of the other vod.

“We need to go,” Rex says, quiet and careful and not looking at anyone around them but knowing exactly where everyone is, what they’re doing, where they’re looking. It’s not the Force, though it does give Rex a leg up. No, Rex just learned quickly what he needed to know to survive. “Before the Kaminiise come for you.”

1138’s eyes—storm gray but paler than outside—go wide. “What?”

“That’s where Mèpe went, to delay them,” he explains, reaching out for 1138. “I think that’s why Prime called—he’s got to tell Davin.”

1138 stands up, cautious, but follows when Rex leads him out. “So, where am I going?” he asks, bemused, as Rex goes for the apartments the trainers live in.

“Some of the trainers have contacts,” Rex says, digging his key out of a pocket Mèpe taught him to sew into his uniform, hidden but usable. “You’re not the first vod they’ve gotten out.” He pushes open the door, almost expecting the other Fulcrum members. It's empty, though. “Come on.”

He leads 1138 over to Mèpe’s room. Sure, the rest of Fulcrum, probably the Seventeens too, will know about him. But he deserves to have a space to himself. They’re just in when they here thundering steps all the way in the apartment bloc hall.

Five minutes later, Prime knocks on the door, eyebrows raised. Rex wonders if he does it on purpose, because it makes him look less like the boogeyman some of the older clones say he is. “Everything okay getting here?” he asks, looking to Rex.

“Yeah,” Rex says, hopping up from the bed where he was sitting next to 1138. “Can I help cook?” He wants out of 1138’s space, because it feels like his heart might burst if he stays much longer.

Prime’s fingers catch in his hair, curls growing longer than he used to let them since Mèpe thinks it will be an asset. “Sure, ad’ika.” He looks over Rex, to 1138. “You’ll need to stay in this apartment. Not this room, if you don’t want to. But the apartment. When we hear from the one who’s going to take you, we’ll get you out of here. For now, though, you’re safe here. And everyone who has a key in here is safe.”

1138 stares, jaw slack, at them. “What…” He cuts himself off.

Prime smiles, soft and guilty. “We’re going to get you out of here, ad’ka.”

“What about my brothers?” There’s worry in that question. “I need to be able to help them.”

“With who you’re going with, you’ll be able to help them even better,” Prime promises.

Mèpe gets the comm message, Prime hooks up a job off planet so he can take Bacara (as 1138 admitted he’s named himself after being introduced to the Seventeens with their names and Rex’s official introduction and Prime and the rest of Fulcrum’s endless patience and reassurance) to meet the Jedi.

Rex volunteers to help, with packing up Slave I, with sneaking Bacara out. Prime indulges him.

“Knight Vephiema said he’d meet us here,” General Kenobi says, looking around the landing area.

Rex and Cody can’t help the intrinsic straightening of their spines, minds on red alert. Vephiema is the name Mèpe used when they were a Naboo politician. There’s only one person that Knight Vephiema could be.

The metal at the side of the landing pad groans, then someone flips over it, landing on his knees before standing smoothly. Bacara is older — the same age as Cody, technically — and has filled out, grown as tall as Alpha. His hair is star-lightened, with streaks of aqua green in the curls, and he wears a mask based on Naboo make-up — further connection to Lady Vephiema.

He glides forward, confident in a mix of both of Rex’s buire that must come from their teacher, his Master. He flicks two fingers out from his forehead in a field salute.

Rex is already halfway to him, then swept up in a hug and a laugh that shakes like Kamino’s thunder. He’ll get shit from Buir and Mèpe for possibly breaking Bacara’s cover but he’s so glad. He hasn’t seen the older clone since nearly a year before the war started, when they were on the same planet. Fulcrum 2 was running a con, Bacara and Master Fay were heading to Coruscant for Bacara’s knighting.

Something about Master Fay’s use of the Force in training Bacara aged him ahead of them all, even with Prime using an injection to halt the accelerated aging early before Bacara left Kamino.

“Captain,” Bacara says, voice gravelly and warm as he bumps their foreheads together through mask and helmet.

“General,” Rex replies, pulling back and hiding his shit-eating grin only through his helmet. Prime would laugh but get onto him all the same. Just because they hide their faces doesn’t mean they can get loose with their expressions.

Bacara has his hand on Rex’s back as they go forward.

General Skywalker looks furious and confused. General Kenobi just looks confused.

“You know each other, then?” Kenobi asks.

“We ran into Vephiema and his Master on a few training missions,” Cody says smoothly, covering for Rex with a not-lie. “My squad did. And Rex was our usual tagalong, thanks to our mission control.”

“Sometimes I forget the Rishi Maze is in the Outer Rim and not Wild Space,” Kenobi muses. “I didn’t think any Jedi knew about you before I found Kamino, though.”

“General Windu did, though,” Rex says, boggling. Surely that came out. Windu had been a part of this con from just weeks after Rex had been viciously adopted. In case the war happened. “Mèpe did say it was need to know on the Council at the time, though. They were trying to dismantle everything before the war started.”

It’s throwing Windu under the bus, a bit. Throwing their truth under the bus.

Bacara pats his back, assuages his guilt. “Master Windu and the rest of the Nomads were the main ones working on it. There would have been too many accusations otherwise. The clones would have been, at best, killed. People brought there only by circumstance, or by threat, would have been imprisoned. The more people that knew, the more dangerous it would have been.”

Kenobi takes it, this not-all-of-the-truth, and comes out agreeable. Skywalker is still furious that his Captain has apparent loyalty to another Jedi. Still, Bacara’s storm will weather that down soon. Rex will soothe the hurts left, later.

For now, he’ll behave. They have a mission, a little piece of a larger con he doesn’t know about. The same one that Rex, Cody, and Bacara are running with the rest of Fulcrum.

#my fanfiction #star wars fanfiction #star wars the clone wars #jedi Bacara #let's steal the GAR #Jango Fett #Mèpe of Naboo #clone captain rex #clone commander Bacara

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crookedbigbang · 4 years ago

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ARTIST CLAIMS ARE HERE!

TIMELINE:

Artist Sign-Ups: May 22-August 7

Artist Claims Open: August 6

Final Check-In: August 30

Final Drafts Due: Sept 18

Posting Begins: September 21

THE BASICS:

One of the unique aspects of a big bang challenge is the combination of fic and fanart. Artists are welcome to create art in any medium they choose, including but not limited to: mixes, videos, podfics, gifs, drawings, paintings, graphics, edits, comics, physical crafts. Art is impossible to quantify, but we do ask that artists put in a significant effort in recognition of the work that the writers are doing on the fics. Authors will be writing their fics all summer and will be expending significant time on the project. A good benchmark for artists is about 15-20 hours of work, including brainstorming and planning.

The final product should be a collaboration between author and artist. What that collaboration looks like is a highly individual process: if you get a clear artistic vision, run with it; but you should also feel free to ask your author any questions you have along the journey. Artists and authors should share drafts with each other as they go so that when the final products are posted, they complement each other well.

We have 5 wonderful Big Bang fics. Click the Read More for their summaries!

Fic 1: Take Me Out to the Ballgame Tentative Title: (not the title) take me out to the ballgame Pairing(s): Jon Favreau / Tommy Vietor Characters: Jon Favreau, Tommy Vietor Ao3 Rating: E Warnings: No archive warnings apply Additional Tags: Baseball AU ; Coming Out ; Bisexual Characters ; Dating ; Alternate Universe - Different Meeting Summary: Jon and Tommy meet playing baseball in high school and start to fall for each other, then Tommy moves away. Their epic love story continues when they end up on the same Minor League baseball team. The big question is, will they end up with a World Series ring or an engagement ring? Fic 2: Spirits that I’ve Cited Tentative Title: Spirits that I've cited Pairing(s): Tommy/Lovett; background Emily/Jon, Alyssa/Erin Characters: Tommy, Lovett, Favs, Emily, Alyssa, Erin, Dan Ao3 Rating: tentative M (for psychological horror and possible sex) Warnings: a non-consensual kiss under the influence of possession might happen, this scene is not yet written Additional Tags: paranormal investigators, slow burn, reluctant colleagues to friends to lovers, mutual pining, angst, hurt/comfort, accidental internet stars, bed-sharing, coming-out, road trips, witches getting married, demonic possession, ghosts, mythical creatures, Monster of the Week, psychological but non-graphical horror, slightly unreliable narrator, intoxication, magical mind control, themes of bodily and mental autonomy, (past) abusive relationships (not between main characters), possession induced mental health problems, worldbuilding, happy ending Summary: It’s a cold day in November when Tommy meets Lovett and his life turns upside down. Which shouldn’t be the worst thing, looking at it objectively.

Because, objectively, Tommy’s life already sucks. He is lonely, depressed, and Crooked Medium, the agency for paranormal investigations he co-owns with his ex-boyfriend Jared, is falling apart. Besides the shitty fact that he and Jared broke up, they constantly operate in the red, despite their best efforts. And it’s just the garbage cherry on top of the dumpster sundae that Jared and their only other core member, Jon, hate each other’s guts. Jon is Tommy's friend, but more importantly, he is Crooked Medium's exorcist par excellence, and for a former priest Tommy thought he might be better at the whole 'turn the other cheek' thing. He supposes that probably explains the 'former' part. So of course he panics when Jon unexpectedly buys out Jared’s shares in the company and offers Lovett a one-year apprenticeship as a medium and buys Jared shares of the agency. Suddenly Tommy’s faced with training a person who is not familiar with magic in one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, instead of relying on the experience Jared had. Despite the help from magical professors Alyssa and Dan, witch and shop-owner Erin, and their whole team—to Tommy it feels like Lovett’s credentialing next November is ages away. However, after a bonding experience involving ghost mice, Tommy slowly but surely discovers that Lovett isn’t an inconvenience at all. He is charming, attractive, hilarious, and way more talented than Tommy originally anticipated. Even their business improves, especially when they become an overnight internet sensation due to a malfunction. Instead of operating only in Boston, people across the country are now booking them to handle their mystical and paranormal problems. With each new case, Lovett learns more—and Tommy learns more about Lovett. This is unfortunate, given that Lovett is technically Tommy's intern, and the last thing Tommy needs is a harassment scandal. Tommy, naturally good at ignoring things, decides to ignore it. Which works out fine, thank you very much. At least up until Alyssa and Erin’s magical wedding in the woods. Or up until Lovett has a life-changing experience with a mirror. Or maybe even up until Lovett (plus Lovett's friend/household spirit Spencer) moves in. And just when Tommy thinks falling in love with his employee is his biggest problem, it turns out much more nefarious forces are at work. Fic #3: The gentle outline of the country we are building Tentative Title: The gentle outline of the country we are building Pairing(s): Jon Favreau/Jon Lovett/Tommy Vietor, Jon Favreau/Jon Lovett, Jon Favreau/Tommy Vietor, Jon Lovett/Tommy Vietor Characters: Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Tommy Vietor, Dan Pfeiffer, Alyssa Mastromonaco, Cody Keenan, Michael O' Neill, Spencer Wong, Andy Favreau, Tanya Somanader, Travis Helwig Ao3 Rating: E Warnings: No archive warnings apply Additional Tags: DC era, LA era, pining, wrong number AU, polyamory, threesomes, jealousy, slow burn, friends with benefits, angst with a happy ending, getting together, smut, fluff, blowjobs, anal sex, rimming, dirty talk, sexting, drinking, marijuana, sex under mild influence of alcohol, friends to lovers. AO3 (working) Summary: It takes spending the night in one room with a king-sized bed for Jon, Lovett, and Tommy to finally get it right after nearly a decade of trying. AKA A story about Jon, Tommy, and Lovett getting together, aided and abetted by Jon’s technological ineptitude, misunderstandings, love, friendship, and longing. Expanded summary: Jon and Lovett embark on a charged, text-based flirtation without knowing the other after Jon texts the wrong number during the 2008 general election campaign. It feels like a summer fling that wouldn’t end, just like those times Jon had slept with Tommy back in Chicago. But both of them do end, but at least Jon’s going to the White House with a new speechwriter and his best friend in tow. Jon thinks, not the right time then with Tommy, not the right time now with you, Lovett. They write speeches and policies and learn lessons on how to build a country and a friendship. The first summer at the White House, Tommy starts taking Lovett to bed almost every night. Two years later, he stops, because Lovett knocks on his door one day and says, “I am leaving.” Not quite the right time for you and me. Lovett spends his days in LA writing things very different from what he used to but thinking thoughts about Jon and Tommy that aren’t all that different. Jon and Tommy skype him from Chicago when his show gets canceled, and Lovett thinks about how right they look together on the screen, like they belong to each other. Jon comes to LA and doesn’t leave. Tommy moves closer, but not close enough. They lose everything when November 2016 dawns and then build an empire from the ruins, and over the next few months, they think, maybe it wasn’t the right time then, and maybe we did not do this before because we were always meant to do this together. All of us. Fic 4: Loving Him was Red - Azure Title: loving him was red - azure Pairing(s): Jon Favreau/Dan Pfeiffer, background Michael/Elijah Characters: Jon, Dan, Tommy, Lovett, Alyssa, Michael, Elijah Rating: E Warnings: No major warnings apply Additional tags: alternate universe, actors, hollywood, tabloids, love at first sight, BDSM, like lots of BDSM, spanking, flogging, humiliation, painplay, safeword use, failed scene, alcohol, alcohol abuse, drug use and abuse, divorce, bad at communication Summary: Rising star Dan Pfeiffer meets grown-up child actor Jon Favreau on the set of the movie that just might be their big break. It's a good old-fashioned Hollywood story. Boy meets Boy. Boy falls head over heels at first sight. Boy marries Boy. Boy ties Boy up and fucks him til he screams. But the Hollywood lights hit every dark shadow too and as the tabloids stir up gossip; as Jon spends more and more time at the club; and as Dan starts to wonder what comes next, the faultlines widen and their marriage falls into the abyss This is the first of a three fic arc chronicling the beginning, end, and re-beginning of an epic love story. Fic 5: Invisible String

Tentative Title: Invisible String Pairing(s): Jon Favreau / Tommy Vietor Characters: Jon Favreau, Tommy Vietor Ao3 Rating: Explicit Warnings: NO WARNINGS Additional Tags: affection, holding hands, chase sequence, shaving (face), mention of pod sponsors, wills & estates, cartoon villains, clothes sharing, Boston, plane flights, current day/LA era,Summary: Human boatshoe Tommy Vietor discovers he can claim a huge inheritance if he can prove he is married. If he does not, the $40 million fortune will go to the National Rifle Association. Best friend Jon Favreau steps up to help Tommy out. The NRA hires investigators to find information in order to break the will, chasing our boys all over Boston at one point.

#come create art for these amazing fic!#crooked big bang

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