Al had never seen so many clones in one space before. As she stepped off the shuttle, Master Reugen at her heels, they all cast sideways glances at her. She beamed at them and waved. They were decently confused and one weakly waved back. Master Reugen nodded to them and lead Al away.
"Welcome to the 747th Regiment of the Grand Army of the Republic," she said, navigating Al through the clones. "They are under the control of General Pong Krell."
"You don't like him," said Al simply.
Master Reugen said nothing, but her grip on Al's shoulder became more firm. "I do not agree with his methods and I think the council should have reconsidered their decision."
Al was getting a bad feeling about this Krell character. He didn't seem like the nicest person as Master Reugen was talking about him. They walked the rest of the way to the bridge in silence. When they got to the doors, Master Reugen stopped walking. Al stopped as well and looked up at her. "What is it?"
"I will do the talking when we go inside," said Master Reugen. "Please do not provoke him."
Al was confused, but nodded anyway.
"Be very careful as to what you say to him from now on. I don't want you getting hurt."
Al nodded again. Master Reugen sighed and opened the doors. The room was the worst kind of silent. Standing at the end of the bridge was who Al presumed to be Krell. She wasn't getting a very pleasant aura, but stayed silent obediently.
"Master Krell," said Master Reugen. "Your padawan learner is here. This is Al Galleia."
Al wanted to say hi, but held her tongue as Master Reugen instructed. The man turned around and Al tried not to gasp. He had the most sinister eyes. They were a sickly yellow and they studied her with extreme criticism. She could tell he didn't like what he saw.
"The council brought me a Twi?" he spat with so much disgust, Al wasn't as much upset as she was startled.
Master Reugen didn't back down the slightest. "She is very talented and will make you very proud on the battlefield."
Krell walked menacingly towards Al. She could have sworn she heard some evil tune playing behind him. He towered over both of the women, but neither cowered under his glare. "Padawans are no good on the battlefield. They slow people down." He turned his eyes to her as he said the last part. Al just looked right back into them. "You are dismissed."
"Me or--" Al said quietly, pointing to Master Reugen.
"Who do you think?" Krell spat.
Master Reugen nodded curtly and turned to leave, stopping only to pat Al on the shoulder gently. When she left, the room fell deathly silent again.
"So padawan," said Krell.
"My name is Al," she said firmly.
Krell looked slightly taken aback and everyone seemed to have sucked all the oxygen out of the room. Al wasn't afraid of him. He could beat her senseless for all she cared (he seemed like the kind of guy who did that) and take everything away from her, but she would keep coming back. He couldn't kill her spirit. No matter how hard he tried.
"I am well aware of your name," he said in the same tone. "But are you aware of the etiquette of my ship?"
Al shook her head.
"There is no talking to the clones," said Krell, spitting the last part out like it was poison. "None whatsoever."
"Why not?" asked Al.
"Why would you talk to a slave?" Krell asked, as if this somehow made sense. "They're the scum of the earth."
Al felt her insides burn. She suddenly realized she hated this man. Alien. Whatever he was. He was the real scum of the earth. At least clones have a sense of dignity.
"You will only address me as Master," said Krell. "I don't do first name basis."
Al was relieved. He wouldn't see her calling him Pong. What kind of name was that? "Yes Master."
"You will do as you're told. If you break any rules, you will be significantly punished. Any one step out of line, and I will speak to the council about your removal."
Al nodded. Master Reugen's words rang in her ears. She would have to tread lightly around this guy.
"Do you understand?"
Al nodded. "Yes Master. I understand." She understood that this is not what she wanted. Not even close.
<~>
The next few days, Al was decently ignored by Krell. Usually she hated when people ignored her, but this time she didn't mind. She hadn't heard from Ahsoka or Caleb and that made her feel more neglected. Honestly, her heart hurt. She felt more and more downcast over the few days where Krell made no recognition that she was there. After about a week of being ignored, she finally got used to it. This gave her more time to work on her lightsaber attack and defense forms. The clones had taken a liking to her and set up a training course in the remote areas of the cruiser. It was just old crates with automatic blasters, but Al was touched either way. Krell never left the bridge anyway, so the chances of him finding it was very low. About a week and a half after she had been assigned to Krell, he acknowledged she existed.
The door to her room slid open and her master walked in. Al happened to be meditating, trying to reach Ahsoka, but his dark presence caused her to jump out of it.
"Up," he barked. "Follow me."
Al jumped up and followed him out. "Where are we going Master?"
Krell stiffened. "It seems I am required to train you in the ways of the Force."
Al shrugged behind his back. Of course he was. They were Jedi weren't they?
"So you will come with me to your first lesson."
Al suddenly felt giddy. Her first training session! As soon as the emotion arose, it quickly fell. Training? With this guy? This could not be good. Not in the slightest. As she walked down the hallway of the ship as the clones saluted her and her master, she wondered how Ahsoka and Caleb were doing. She wondered if they liked their masters. The doors to a remote hanger opened. As the lights flickered on, Al realized how vast the space really was. Her footsteps echoed around the room, it's noise bouncing off the walls.
"We're training here?" she asked, her voice bouncing off the metal walls. She wanted to yell and listen to the echo, but kept quiet.
"Yes," said Krell stiffly. "I want to see what you can do."
Al raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"Show me what they taught you," said Krell.
"With what?" Al asked, looking around. "There's nothing here. No training equipment, no ships--"
"It doesn't matter," Krell said through clenched teeth. She could tell he was getting irritated and felt a leap of joy knowing she had pissed him off. "Just--bounce off the walls a little--I don't know!"
Al shrugged and looked around the empty room. She closed her eyes and focused. Suddenly she could hear...everything. The sounds of the clones in the barracks hanging around, their footsteps clanging on the metal floor, each and every droid as they rolled along the floor of the ship, all of Krell's men deep in conversation, and...something more...somewhere, far away...was it, rain? Tall necked people came into her view. They were talking to someone...someone in a cloak. As quickly as it came, it disappeared. She was snapped back into the present and the world she knew so unfortunately well.
"Well?" Krell asked. She jumped a little, she had forgotten he was there.
"I heard things," said Al. "Everything going on. The clones, the droids, all of them." She turned to Krell. "Is that normal?"
Krell was a little surprised. "Um...yes. Jedi senses are the five senses, just--what are you doing?"
Al had sat down in front of him, cross-legged. They were directly across from each other. "Listening."
Krell sucked in his breath, glared, and continued. "They're like the five senses, but amplified. You can see things others can't, hear things others can't, your reflexes are strengthened through the Force."
"The Sith can do this too?" said Al curiously. She had been dying to find this out. Whenever she mentioned the Sith, all the younglings but Ahsoka and Caleb had given her glares and told her to be quiet. "But they're the bad guys, right?"
"Any force-sensitive being can." Al could sense he wasn't agitated anymore.
"But, they're evil."
"From a certain point of view," said Krell. "To a bird, a cat is evil. We're just used to being the cat."
<~>
Al still had no means of contacting Ahsoka or Caleb. She had no way to tell what they were up too or what they were doing. She really could care less at the moment, because Krell's words kept ringing in her ears. When she finally stopped pacing, thinking about Krell's idea of perspective, she realized how late it really was. No sensible person was awake this early in the morning. Knowing she wasn't going to sleep today, she got up and decided to walk around the ship. It felt strange, being all empty like this. There weren't any clones, droids, or...well, anyone basically. Al was used to feeling alone at times. But she didn't feel alone now. Her sister was with her, even if she couldn't see her. She passed all the clone barracks and something caught her eye. Someone was watching a hologram; she could hear the voices trailing into the hallway. Softly, Al walked into the room. A clone was sitting alone watching a hologram of three or four people; they kept going in and out of sight range, so it was hard to tell how many there were. Al heard snatches of what they were saying. "--stop it! You know I have to delete this message to the general?"
"Oh calm down Crusher! You overreact too much!"
"You should be more like us!"
"Really Red Hawk?" the clone named Crusher said with obvious sarcasm.
The two other clones burst out laughing. There was an exasperated sigh and the blue light containing the hologram disappeared. Al made to leave, but a voice stopped her. "I know you're there, so there's no need to pretend like you're not."
Al turned around and walked to bunk. "How did you know...?"
"You were there?" said the clone simply. "It was easy. I saw you out of the corner of my eye."
"Those holograms are bright," said Al. She looked around the empty room. "Where are your bunkmates?"
"It's just me down here," said the clone with a slightly sad tone.
"Who's Crusher? And Red Hawk?" Al asked curiously.
"You Jedi are observant," he said. He sounded like he was smirking.
Al tapped her head tails with her middle finger. "Lekkus. Twi'leks and Togrutas have them and they help improve senses. Especially hearing. I was also two feet away."
The clone stood up and Al noticed he had something tattooed on the side of his face. "What's that?"
"A blue jay," he said. "It's my nickname."
"Why?"
"You are full of questions."
"Someone's gotta ask 'em."
Blue Jay chuckled and picked up the hologram disk. "Red Hawk is my brother. Well--all clones are brothers, but...Red Hawk and I are close. Really close. We always have been. When I was promoted to the 747th, he was left on Kamino. The cloners thought it was too dangerous for us to be together any longer. He has a lot of personality, he's a little like you actually. (Al smiled at this) But, clones as close as us was apparently dangerous."
"It doesn't sound dangerous."
"That's what I thought," said Blue Jay. "We got similar nicknames, cause it would be fun. Our numbers are right next to each other, but I'm older. He's CT-6543 and I'm CT-6542."
"Who's Crusher?" asked Al, noticing Blue Jay was spinning the disk around in his fingers sadly.
"He was our instructor. He was supposed to help us break apart and focus on war more. Like we weren't any less focused before. He worked with us for as long as I can remember, until we were ready to take the final test before we could be assigned to leave Kamino. There were 'dud groups' as the Kaminoans called them. I mean, at least we weren't the Domino Squadron. They were a mess. But they passed eventually, and I thought we would get out together. We passed and Crusher was so proud. Then the next day, he didn't show up. We asked the Kaminoans what happened to him."
Al put her hand on his shoulder. "What happened?"
"He died," said Blue Jay, looking her dead in the eyes, no tears in his eyes, but there was visible pain. "In a crash. He left for Coruscant and it got confused with a Separatist ship and they shot it down. I don't believe it though. It's not a believable story. I think Crusher is still out there." He held up the disk. "Part of me thinks this will reveal his location, but I'm always wrong."
Al gave him a sympathetic look. "I know what it feels like to lose people you love. I lost my sister to slavers. If...it would make you feel better, I'll help you look. For Crusher. So you have your brother back."
Blue Jay smiled at her. "Thanks. I'd like that."
And just like that, without either one knowing, a small but strong friendship was born.