Jedi Fugitive (The Bad Batch)

80:

"He won't talk to them," the other one cut in with a hard glare at his brother. They weren't the only ones here. How many of them actually were?

"Please." Hunter pushed forward, half pleading in his desperation. "We have to find her. She's... part of our squad."

I didn't miss the way he hesitated before saying 'part of our squad', or how Wrecker's expression fell, his eyes dropping to the ground. My free hand touched the red cloth around my wrist automatically, something that had become a habit whenever the thoughts were too much. Like the part of him I carried with me could bring me comfort.

The two cadets' eyes met and the one in front of Hunter nodded almost reluctantly. "Stick to the trail," he warned us. "Follow our steps. And don't touch the vines."

A less than enthusiastic agreement, but if it brought us closer to finding Omega, I would take anything. Wrecker and Hunter seemed to be in agreement, as they nodded when we glanced between us, all three of us putting our helmets back on and following the cadets into the trees.

Both of them kept their tight grips on their weapons, heads on a constant swivel with a hypervigilance that reminded me of Hunter sometimes. It only confirmed what I'd been sensing - there was some kind of threat here. Though I still couldn't feel any sentient presence other than our own.

"When the Empire transferred us off Kamino, we thought we were getting more training," One of them, Stak, told us, carefully brushing aside a branch with his weapon. "Took samples of our blood."

"Why?" This wasn't the first I'd heard of strange experiments going on in the Empire - the information we'd recovered from the Zillo Beast's transport had told us enough - but we still hadn't learned the reasons behind this experimentation. "What was the Empire doing here?"

"Whatever they wanted."

"At least we escaped before they destroyed this facility," The other one - Deke, he'd called himself - added.

"And you survived out here alone ever since?"

"We're soldiers." Stak answered Hunter's question with a shrug as we split up to move around the tree, only for his face to fall when he remembered. "Or... we were supposed to be."

Clones were hardy. They'd been trained to be since birth. But these two were still kids - they should have still been safe on Kamino, being prepped for civilian life if they were never meant to fight in the war. I couldn't help but think of Omega and what would have happened if she had been forced to survive in a clearly hostile environment like this instead. It left a bitter taste in my mouth, one that didn't fade when I remembered it was these two and their friend that had been left here instead. They didn't deserve this.

"Stop." On the other side of the tree, Deke turned and raised his weapon, slowly inching backwards with an expression of apprehension on his face. Wrecker froze, the meaty looking vine he had just shouldered aside twitching and beginning to retract into the trees. Stak hurried over to his brother with Hunter and I close behind him, bodies tensing at the sight of the moving vine.

"What?" He questioned, completely oblivious.

"Wrecker, behind you," Hunter warned, a hand creeping for the blaster at his hip. The vine reared back as soon as the larger clone turned - huge, threatening and definitely alive. As far as I could tell, that thing wasn't attached to any creature. The forest itself was attacking us.

"Run!" Deke and Stak were dashing for the nearest bush cover while all three of us pulled blasters out, blue bolts sinking into the lashing out vine that did no apparent damage. All it did was cause the vine to recoil with what I could have sworn was an audible hiss.

"Don't fire!" Deke shouted from their hiding spot. "It gets hostile when you shoot!"

"You mean it's not already hostile?!"

"No!"

Wrecker had a point though; the vines were reaching for us again, two more tendrils joining the first. It was much too late to do anything but double down - we retreated backwards, still blasting away at the vines even though our shots were doing nothing against them.

Wrecker was jerked back suddenly with a confused scream - I whirled automatically to see the vine that had wrapped around him yank him against the nearest tree, already beginning to drag him upwards. He struggled against it, but it had completely constricted his arms. All he was able to do was kick his legs against the tree to no avail and bellow our names, hoping he could grab our attention.

"Wrecker!" Panic gripped me and I was drawing on the Force before I was even fully aware, grabbing for a lightsaber and leaping upwards as the blade ignited and swept out in a blinding arc. He fell and hit the ground with a thud, the stump of the moving vine flailing with a shriek and recoiling back into the trees it had come from. The other end of it thrashed on the ground where Wrecker had thrown it off, shooting into the undergrowth with almost snake-like movements.

"Come on!" Stak had run out from underneath their bush cover with Deke while the vines were distracted, fleeing into the trees behind us. We didn't hesitate to run after them, hot on their heels with weapons still gripped tight in our hands.

They kept running long after we had left the murder vines behind, finally coming to a stop when there was no sign of the vines anywhere. Wrecker promptly doubled over and braced his hands on his knees, shoulders heaving with the effort of trying to regain his breath. My own pants were coming hard, but I still didn't let myself relax, both Hunter and I still scanning the jungle for any sign of those vines. Deke and Stak's attention, however, had been taken by something else.

"I never thought I'd get to meet a Jedi in real life." Deke's voice was quiet, him and Stak focused intently on the humming yellow blade poised at the ready. "Not after the war ended."

"Yeah, they're a bit of a rarity now." I couldn't bring myself to tell them I wasn't really one anymore, finally powering off the yellow blade and hooking the hilt back on my belt. Next to me, Wrecker straightened, finally recovering enough to speak.

"What was that stuff?"

"Slither vines," Deke said grimly. "The Empire made it. It's some kind of experimental weapon, but they lost control of it."

"And probably why they ordered a Base Delta Zero on their own facility," Stak added. They had that habit of finishing each other's thoughts that most clone squads had had in the Clone Wars, I noticed offhandedly. Harbinger Squad especially had managed to confuse me on several occasions by planning strategies that way. Before I'd caught on and started doing it with them.

"We'll be safe on the crag." Deke jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "The slither vines haven't spread there."

"Yet. And this time, don't touch anything." Stak's words did nothing to reassure us, but it wasn't like we had much choice anyway. Our other option was to battle the slither vines into the base, and I doubted there was much more to salvage inside those ruins.

"Lead the way." I gestured into the trees, stepping back and letting the two boys march past me with their sticks held high.