Traitors To The Heart

Chapter 8: Loyalty

"I'm not sure that round was really fair. Want a rematch?"

"Why? So you can lose twice?" Everyone who heard the burn seethed with pain on their brothers behalf. A couple of his friends from his legion hit him as they died of laughter. Even Fives was laughing. Nova found herself overjoyed by the amount of attention, she's never had anything like this happen to her before.

"Don't get cocky, kid. Come on, round two." Fives and Nova went back to it. From a distance, Lyra and Echo stood together in silence; watching them.

"How's she so strong?" Echo asked our of genuine curiosity.

"She told me she took some hefty labor jobs on the streets to pay for her food. She's built up some muscle." Lyra looked at her facial expression in their round two arm wrestle. Occasionally it would shift in and out of straining, showing she was only sometimes putting in extreme effort while Fives always was.

"Plus, I'm about 90% sure she's using the force. Whether she realizes it or not is a while different question." Echo scoffed and looked away from her neutral face.

"Don't worry, I won't tell Fives. He could use a good knock to the ego." Echo succeeded at making the stoic girl chuckle dryly. He didn't much care, as Fives was the one who had the stupid crush on her. If that's even what you wanted to call it.

A lieutenant of the 501st, known as Jesse, started a betting system between who would win round two. Everywhere you turned someone was talking about how tired they were and different strategies to place bets. They didn't have much money, but they had other things to bet, like they're pride.

Right in the middle of their arm wrestle, a brief alarm went off through the mess. Nova jumped in her seat at the loud noise, accidentally allowing Fives to get the jump on her in the match.

"Nooooo!" Jesse dropped to his knees after his fate was sealed. Nova didn't even notice her hand slammed against the cold metal until Fives' chuckle broke her out of her nervous freeze. The alarm went off but the flashing re flight remained.

"Whoo!" Fives jumped up to join the cheering, except nobody else was in the mess any longer. Only Jesse remained, quietly sobbing about his new job of cleaning the latrines for 60 Coruscanti cycles.

"Oh come on!" Echo and Lyra ran to get the two oblivious arm wrestlers and usher them to where they needed to be.

"This isn't over!" Nova and Fives yelled at each other before going opposite ways. Echo and Fives both ran to their post quirk Lyra dragged Nova down the corridor to their room.

"Hey! What are we doing in here? We should be helping!" Nova yanked her arm free in front of the doorway.

"Nova, these men are trained to know what to do to help. You aren't, so get in the room." Nova relented, solemnly sinking onto her bed with a deep pout on her face. The two didn't say anything to each other while they sat there in silence. Nova had found a squishy ball in the corner on a desk she would toss up in the air. It would hit the ceiling and land in her hand. One time it hit the ceiling and fell behind the bed, but she was too comfortable to get up and get it.

When the flashing red lights finally stopped, Nova bolted upright from the bed and took off out the door, Lyra yelling after her. Unfortunately, she didn't care enough to run after her. A subtle walk would be good enough. Nova came crashing through the doors of the room she was in before going to the mess.

"What happened? What was the alarm for?" Captain Rex and another clone were in there alone together, hovering over a data table.

"I don't think you're authorized to be in here, kid." Rex put a hand on her shoulder, trying and failing to get her to turn around and leave.