The Wolf Pack

Chapter 38

This chapter's a little short because (1) I have zero (0) inspiration and this is the result of a month of writing one paragraph every week and a half; (2) because I started a new job and am now a cog in the capitalist machine and am very miserable about it. But I still wanted to update something for you guys, so this is what you get. Once again sorry for the delay and know this is not the end of TWP, I love the story too much already. Have a nice spooky season and drink lots of water, fight that seasonal depression and live another day, if only to see if your favourite fic will update :)

Jedi Master Plo Koon felt the Force shift around the room when Brendon Kalil informed them Kriari knew about Kamino. There weren't many officers on duty that late in the night, but they were all thankfully clones. There were mixed feelings about Brendon's statement. Disbelief and bitterness, maybe at his padawan's ignorance, maybe because the General they regarded so highly had hidden something like that from their beloved Commander. Other troopers were relieved, even enthusiastic at the idea. Seeing how Commander Foreas would react to such treatment of her troops was something to look forward to. But there was a single Force signature that felt a lot like dread, and an overwhelming amount of it.

General Plo Koon said nothing of this, mostly because he felt the exact same way. Sketcher had been there when Kriari had nearly lost herself to the Dark Side, a reaction like his to the news was to be expected. It was also a sensible reaction to have. Kriari might have been a Jedi in training, but she was still very much a Zabrak child raised by Tuskens. Plo Koon discarded the idea as soon as it presented itself. No, his dread would not make him revert to racist ideals, the Zabrak and the Tuskens had nothing to do with this. If Kriari did something extreme, it would be the Jedi Order's failure and no-one else's.

When the Holo ended, General Plo tapped the code for "confidential intel" into the table and sent it out throughout the bridge. There was no need for more people to be made aware of Kriari's intent. He trusted the crew to keep silent, and said nothing more on the matter as a sign of his belief in them. He exited the bridge without a word.

Master Plo could feel his son walking a few paces behind him, body straight and at attention and face covered by his helmet. Clone armour did nothing to hide how Wolffe felt about the matter, his pride could have been felt a galaxy away had someone been searching for it. It was an unusual response to being told the woman he was courting was one step closer to destroying everything in her path. He would have to ask him about it later, for the time being, he needed to clear some things out with his son first.

...

After his conversation with the General, Commander Wolffe had started to second guess his pride. He hated the system that had brought his brothers and him to existence, but he was also thankful to have been given the opportunity to experience the very limited amount of life they had been allowed. If it wasn't for the Republic, he would have never been enslaved and forced to fight another's war, but he also wouldn't have met Plo Koon and Kriari Foreas.

As he stood at attention in the main hangar as watched his Commander's ship land, Wolffe wondered if he would be ordered to restrain her. He dreaded the moment she came down the ramp. As the ship's hydraulic landing system hissed and touched down, the clone commander of the 104th battalion wondered whose side he'd take if a confrontation started.

As it turns out, Wolffe never got to find out.

Kriari came down the ramp holding the side of Art's stretcher and looking like she hadn't slept in years. Her lips were set in a tight line and there was an icy determination to her gaze. Wolffe hadn't been there when she'd almost lost her battle to the dark side, but she could see now why it would have frightened Sketcher so much. Kriari looked like she could stage a coup and bomb Coruscant any second now. It was rather unsettling, Wolffe had always known Kriari to have volatile emotions, but this did not feel like other times. This felt planned, premeditated, this felt like anything she would do next she'd planned and she would enjoy.

Wolffe stood at attention a few steps behind his General, waiting for someone to talk first.

"You've gone through a lot, Child." said the General finally as his apprentice stopped before him. She watched Twitch hover over Art's stretcher as they moved him to the medbay. "I believe you will want to discuss a few things with me."

Kriari's eyes never left the stretcher, and she only spoke when her best friend was out of sight. She looked like she'd aged ten years in three months.

"Not discuss, not really." she answered finally as she looked at her master in the face. "More like a warning, Master. I will confront the Council about this matter."

Wolffe bristled instantly. No, she couldn't, she would be tried for insubordination and expelled from the Order. How was he supposed to protect her when he wasn't there? Because Wolffe was not delusional enough to think Kriari would stop fighting, not even if she was expelled from the Jedi Order.

"I see you have made up your mind. May I suggest a few approaches? The Council will be hard to sway in this matter. Even more so coming from a Padawan."

Wolffe resisted the urge to grab his father by the shoulders and shake him in his boots. What was his buir thinking? Kriari was not in a state of mind to confront someone about something this serious while keeping her cool, even less the Jedi Council. To him, it seemed like a mere clone trooper challenging the Chancellor's orders. It seemed like insanity and the lack of a reaction from his father -who not only wasn't stopping her, but helping her as well- was very nearly making him break all protocol.

"I would appreciate that, thank you, Master."

Jedi Master Plo Koon had not overlooked his clone commander's anxiety, and invited him to take part in the conversation back in his quarters.

"I believe your input would be beneficial, Commander."

...

"I will make everyone see, Master. The entire Order deserves to know this. Not only for the sake of their own conscience, but also because they owe it to their troops."

Wolffe watched his father stroke the end of his mask, deep in thought. It was madness, he knew it was madness. His father also knew it, and yet here they were considering the best approach to insubordination. Wolffe was at a loss.

"I would suggest you discuss this with the council exclusively, if put on the spot, they might want to divulge this information on their terms."

Clone Commander Wolffe did not need to be Force sensitive to feel the ice in Kriari's aura.

"No. They do not get to do this on their own terms when they have been keeping the clones' treatment secret since the very beginning," she said, her voice growing harsher and sharper with each breath. "They don't get to decide how much of the truth to tell. They don't get to hide that so called 'defective' clones are discarded by the dozen. They don't get to hide the fact that ARC troopers and Commandos are made to fight each other with live rounds for training, sometimes even to death. The Jedi Council doesn't get to hide that they have bought children and made them fight their war."

Wolffe was torn between awe and being intimidated. The woman before him was so much more than he had ever given her credit for.

"We are Jedi. We do good by the will of the Force, and what we have been doing is wrong."

Jedi Master Plo Koon took a breath to respond but was interrupted by his apprentice once again.

"I just watched a thirteen year old get shot in the back of the head and my best friend asked me to kill him so that he wouldn't be thrown down the garbage, shot into open space for missing his legs." She said, tears brewing in her eyes now. "Art asked me to kill him, Master, because being a cripple in the GAR means death anyway."

The silence in the General's quarters was colder than anything Wolffe had ever experienced, it was colder than open space. And it wasn't because of how Kriari had phrased her words, no. It was because he hadn't known that ARC troopers and Commandos died in training. Wolffe had assumed the worst any clone would get out of a simulation would be a shock that tingled under your skin and in your muscles for a couple of days. He had known Kaminoans to 'decommission' defective clones, he had known some of those defects had been less than 20/20 vision, and resented them for it. But this? This was another thing entirely.

"The Council will not take kindly to defiance, my child." answered General Koon finally.

"Let them expel me from the order if they dare. See if that stops me."