Shattered Stars (TCW)

Extra Scene -- Given a Chance

A/N: Just so you know the context of this scene is very fuzzy, it was just something I wrote one day and I didn’t really feel like attaching it to another scene, you can have it take place wherever you want. Enjoy!

Zevi rounded the corner, head rotating slowly from side to side as he took in the nearly antiseptic landscape. “Oh my kriff!”

“What?” one of the clones behind him gasped.

“There’s nothing!” He said, chuckling to himself before grumbling. “Just like the last fifteen times. This base is completely empty. Why are we even patrolling this?”

“Sir—”

“Is there a problem, corporal?”

“Well, uh, no, sir, but the captain did assign us to do this patrol, and we should probably… well, we should be taking it seriously.”

“Listen, shiny,” he said sarcastically. “I know what a droid looks like. There are none here. We already went through the firefight to clear this area. To me, this is pointless.”

“Sir, if I’ve been through a firefight already, then I’m not a shiny. And my name is Chance,” he said bravely. “All due respect, lieutenant, when it comes to you and the captain, I follow the captain’s orders first.”

“Alright, Chance,” he said. “Just don’t come crying to me when your back hurts from standing up so straight.” A few snickers came from the other squad members, who had been serving with Zevi for much longer than Chance.

His HUD was trained on the towers around them instead of his lieutenant.

Zevi scoffed. “Alright, come on, let’s keep moving so we’re not out after the sleep cycle has started.”

He started to walk forward when suddenly Chance yelled, “Watch out, sir!”

The shiny pushed Zevi roughly to the side, and a red blaster shot barrelled through the air towards them. Zevi’s HUD and his own powers of calculation informed him that the shot would have shot him cleanly through the head.

Instead, it struck Chance in the chest.

In an instant, Zevi had his blaster pulled, shooting down the sniper droid before it had a chance to escape.

“Kid? Hey, Chance!” He exclaimed, jumping up to examine Chance, who had fallen partially on top of his legs. He wasn’t dead yet.

But the breathing was worse.

“Rom, go get A’den! Hurry,” he screamed, ripping off Chance’s helmet. The shiny’s eyes were frozen open in horror. “Edge, Dune, get after that droid, make sure there aren’t anymore!”

The group split off, not bothering with a yes, sir!

Chance seemed to be struggling to form a word, but the ragged breaths tore through his mouth instead. “Don’t try to talk, kid,” Zevi said, trying to keep himself calm as well. “You’ll just make it worse. A’den going to fix you up, okay? You’ll be alright. You saved me,” he added more quietly. “You did real good, kid, you’re going to be the star of the company.”

A’den came back with Rom and a stretcher, which Zevi helped load Chance onto before following the group all the way to the medbay. A’den tried to get the lieutenant to leave, but he refused, standing by Chance’s side in full armor for the two and a half hours that the medic worked.

But medics aren’t miracle workers, never have been.

“Zevi?” Lark asked softly, peering into the barracks. “A’den said I could find you here.”

“I was… I was so terrible to him, Lark,” he heard his brother sniff. “That kid… he really just wanted to do his duty. He was a good kid. He had every right to live, to fight for the Republic, to be there when we… we—we win. And he’s not gonna.”

“You really think it’s your fault?”

“Lark, I know it was,” Zevi whimpered. “I wasn’t taking the assignment seriously, I wasn’t paying attention and he-he-he noticed the sniper w-when I d-idn’t,” he said. His own breathing reminded him all too much of what had happened.

“Hey,” Lark said, rubbing a hand on his back. “Don’t work yourself into a frenzy. Deep breaths.”

“Oh, kriff,” he said softly, burying his head in his hands. With some effort, he eventually slowed his breathing. “He saved my life, Lark. Chance saved my life.”

“Then thank him,” Lark whispered. “Do something to… you know, just let everyone know you’re not gonna take him for granted.”

“Do you have any paint?”

The next morning, Zevi marched into the mess with his shoulders squared, displaying the indigo starburst on his chest. Underneath it, in the smallest of letters, was the phrase, “For Chance.”

Lark patted his shoulder as he sat down. “Good choice, brother.”

“They’re the only ones I’m going to make from now on,” he vowed, and Lark believed him.