Reunion - A Bad Batch Fanfic

Chapter 8

"Rex, Captain of the 501st Battalion."

Cal gasped. "You're Master Skywalker's Captain!"

Rex chuckled. "Yep!"

"Rex!" Omega barrelled into him, making him laugh.

"Good to see you survived Omega,"

Moans from the clone on the stretcher caught everyone's attention and Cal recalled why they were summoned.

Rex's smile quickly vanished. Easing Omega off him, he stood up, shielding them from Wolffe's view. Clearly impatient to meet him, Omega tried to dart around Rex, but his hand clamped down on her shoulder, preventing her from possibly getting hurt.

Cal peered around the captain and saw Commander Wolffe for the first time. With a groan of torment, Wolffe eased himself into a sitting position. His right hand flew to the side of his head where a white bandage indicated that was where the ghost of the chip lay. With his helmet lying abandoned on the floor, Cal could see the familiar face that took his master's life. His right eye was cybernetic and stared blankly into the unknown, whilst the other held memories of countless victories and defeats.

"Wolffe?" Rex carefully approached his brother, a hand hovering over his blaster.

"R-Rex? W-What happened? Where are we? This-This isn't Neimoidia."

"Calm down soldier. What's the last thing you remember?"

Moaning in pain, Wolffe twisted around so his feet rested on the ground. "W-We secured a victory. General Koon took some of us on a-..."

Wolffe stopped abruptly and his eyes expanded in horror. "No, no, no, no, no! General Koon!"

Distraught, Wolffe buried his head in his shaking hands, before letting out an unearthly wail. Rex sat beside him and curled his arm around Wolffe's shoulders.

"I killed him! I killed him!" Wolffe kept repeating. "I killed him!"

Hunter cleared his throat. "Boys, Omega, let's give Wolffe some space."

Disobeying Hunter, Caleb gingerly neared the clone. "Uh, Commander?"

Sniffing noisily, Wolffe glanced up at him.

"It wasn't entirely your fault, what you did to Master Plo. You were under the influence of your inhibitor chip."

Wolffe let out a strangled laugh. "I appreciate that, but the fact remains that he'd be alive if I hadn't pulled the trigger on him."

"Caleb." Echo called.

Through his blurred vision, Wolffe watched him leave the room, along with the other two kids. The guilt of what he'd done to General Koon swamped his senses, his actions suffocating him, making him pay the consequences for murdering his kind, compassionate, and brave General, whom he'd served throughout the entirety of the Clone Wars. Flashbacks from the deadly, yet wonderful times Wolffe had charged into enemy fire, his brothers flanking him and General Koon leading them up front surged into his mind.

"Did you do the same to Skywalker?" Wolffe whispered.

Rex shook his head. "No, but I fired on Ahsoka. The boys and I would've killed her if she hadn't removed my chip."

"Lucky trooper."

"Wolffe, I may not be feeling as much pain as you, but believe me, I regretted almost killing Commander Tano."

Wolffe inhaled slowly and released a long breath, a tactic he used to calm his nerves before a fight.

"Do you know if any survived?" Wolffe asked, desperate for some good news.