Chains of Fate | Star Wars: The Clone Wars (ENG)

1. Remembering

CT-6678 dreams that something burns inside his head.

It starts weakly, like the flame of a candle that has just been ignited and is now trying to brave the storm. But that is where the similarities already end.

Because within a matter of seconds, the subtle sensation of the burning flares up, and CT-6678 suddenly realizes that he isn't dreaming after all.

The burning sensation is real.

His eyes fly open and then he screams. He kicks out with his legs but hits nothing but air, while his eyes frantically search for something recognizable to calm himself down. There is only darkness that meets him and it takes him a few seconds to remember that he is lying in his pod. Safe and sound.

Little spots dance around the edge of his vision and his scream quickly shifts into a gurgling sound.

For a blink of a second, he calms down and the trashing ceases. But calming down also means that he finally starts to become more aware of his surroundings.

The walls to his side and the ceiling above him, almost less than a meter, are suddenly too close and his breathing hitches as he tries to take a deep breath that is supposed to help him with slowing down his abnormally high heart rate.

He is hyperventilating, he realizes. And this only gives him reason to panic even more.

CT-6678 never - absolutely never - hyperventilates. He never loses control over himself and that is what has always impressed the Kaminoans so far. That is why he is more or less the leader of his cadet squad.

It feels rather much like another bad dream that he has slipped into after his previous dream has ended, though he can't even remember the details about the last one.

But the feeling of the thin and hard mattress, that makes up his bunk and is now poking into his back, is too real to be just a dream. As is the low echoing sound of his labored breath.

Hardly seeing anything, he feels with his hand for the small control panel that he knows is located to his right, and jams his finger hard into the little button that will release him from this suffocating darkness.

His mind is spinning wildly and he is having a bad feeling that he might throw up if he can't concentrate on a certain spot soon.

What a soothing thought.

Sitting up quickly doesn't help to make this feeling go away, but he'd rather throw up in an upright position than later gag on his own puke.

Only dimly aware, he notices how his pod quietly slides from the rack. Before he knows it, he almost falls down the several meters that are between his pod and the ground as he sits up and reaches for the ladder to his left, missing it narrowly by a few centimeters.

His heart rate immediately seems to jump up again and he audibly lets the air in his lungs escape through his mouth.

A thin layer of sweat is covering his forehead and he feels cold, despite the heat radiating from that one area in his brain that he can't directly pinpoint. The burning itself has stopped by now, but CT-6678 can still feel a phantom of the pain every time he closes his eyes.

Pressing the heels of his palms against his forehead, CT-6678 pauses for a moment and tries to take a deep breath. Underneath his palms, he can feel small rubble of facial hair growing on his cheeks. While it would have triggered an annoyed groan from him in any other situation, it bothers him fairly little this time.

"Hey, Seventy-Eight!" someone calls from below and causes him to flinch. When he opens his eyes to glance down, he spots a brother staring up towards him. The clone is wearing his full training armor and is apparently just about to leave the barracks. "Are you up to something? Your sleep rotation isn't over yet, in case you haven't noticed!"