“The lawyer is going to be there, right?” It wasn’t the first time Alpha had asked the question, but you were nervous enough that you didn’t mind the repetition.
“Yes, she said she would be attending the meeting in-person, to advocate for me.”
“Good.” Alpha gave a decisive nod. He had approved of Nora Czajak since she had first sent you a holomessage offering to represent your case.
“I’m not a public defender, but I take an interest in cases that are unusual, or ones in which I think the defendant made the right choice,” she had explained. “I think this case has the potential to be impactful, maybe even set a precedent for Senate workers who feel they’ve been abused. It may never make it to trial - in fact, that’s my main goal - but I would appreciate the chance to be part of it. I’ll represent you pro bono, of course.”
You had thanked Nora Czajak, especially since she had made that final offer. Free representation wasn’t common, especially for lawyers who represented clients like the ones her firm did. Still you had been hesitant when you called her back.
“There’s no guarantee that the Senate will even try to charge me with anything,” you had told her. “This is just a preliminary meeting to discuss what happened on Kamino, and how it affects my contract.”
The lawyer’s eyes had sharpened at that, but her voice stayed gentle. “You’re right: there’s no guarantee that the Senate will try to charge you. But there’s also no guarantee that they won’t. And If they’ve already mentioned contract negotiations, you’ll want me there. Or, if not me, then some other form of representation. I know it’s difficult to hear, but the Senate is a government authority in the middle of a war. The attack on Kamino was widely publicized and the Republic is being criticized. They need to put the blame on someone. Your main concern is to make sure it doesn’t end up on you.”
At length - and with much urging from Alpha - you had agreed, and Nora Czajak had taken on your case. He had liked her blunt speech and distrust of the Senate from the beginning, but she had truly won his loyalty when she had negotiated for him to be at the initial meeting and every one following.
“After all, his perspective is valuable,” she pointed out. “He has been your companion almost since you arrived on Kamino. He knows how the training processes work and he’s seen everything you’ve done for this report. More importantly, he was witness to the situation with your supervisor and was one of the first to respond during the battle. I feel very confident saying that he has earned the right to be present at these meetings.”
And so here Alpha was, fully armored and sitting beside you in your office. He had wanted to stand behind you, but you had refused to let him. First, it would look a bit too much like you were bringing a bodyguard to a holomeeting. That would give the wrong impression of how argumentative you planned on being, and it would relegate Alpha to the status of muscle rather than active participant.
Second, and slightly more important, Alpha towered over you when he was standing. If you were in the frame, his entire head would be cut out of the holo projection.
You had finally succeeded in getting him to sit down, but Alpha looked so incredibly grumpy in the frame beside you that you couldn’t help but laugh.
“You laughin’ at me, neverd’ika?” Alpha asked, glancing over at you with a wounded look on his face.
“Not at all,” you reassured, bumping his shoulder with yours. “Just thinking about how you’re going to scare the poor Senate assistant designated to go over our case.”
Alpha smiled at you for referring to it as ‘our’ case rather than just yours. He had insisted that the situation had been brought about by both of you rather than just you… though he maintained that the Senate was at the most fault.
“You look nice,” Alpha said abruptly. “Too fancy for a meeting with some di’kut, but… yeah. Anyway. When does this start again?”
“Any minute now,” you told him in an effort to keep from smiling like a love-sick idiot. You were, in fact, a love-sick idiot, but that didn’t mean that Alpha needed to know that. Instead, you channeled that energy into bouncing your non-broken leg as you strummed your fingers anxiously. Why hadn’t the meeting started yet?
“Hey, breathe,” Alpha reminded you, his large hand settling on top of your strumming fingers and your bouncing leg all at the same time. “Easy. I know neither of us like meetings much, but we’ll get through it together.”
“Together,” you agreed with a nod, your heart aching at the same time.
When the screen finally connected to the feed from Coruscant, you found yourself looking at a Nikto - impossible to tell whether they were male or female, though it didn’t truly matter - and Nora Czajak.
Nora looked furious, but when she greeted you and Alpha, her voice was as smooth and professional as ever. “I would like to present to both of you the honorable judge T'roir'krivov Oiplis.”
Alpha stiffened beside you as you blinked to hide your own shock. “A pleasure to meet you, Judge Oiplis.”
“Judge, I must once more protest against these proceedings,” Nora told the Nikto. “We were specifically told we would be having a preliminary meeting with a representative of the Senate’s administration offices, not a judge.”
“Your protests have been noted and recorded appropriately, Miss Czajak,” the judge told her, voice steady. “But we must press onward. Administrator, would you be so kind as to explain your involvement in the events leading up to the attack on Kamino?”
You looked at Nora before you did anything more, but she gave you a slight nod, so you did as Judge Oiplis had asked. The judge seemed particularly interested in how you had been the one to request the Kaminoans allow an unknown ship to pass through their security measures.
“I’m afraid it does seem rather conclusive, administrator,” the judge said regretfully. “The Kaminoans want to hold you personally responsible for the damages, as well as the loss of troopers and cadets. The Republic is in favor of putting you on trial for treason.”
Your stomach dropped. How had things gone so wrong so quickly? Alpha squeezed your hand, a menacing scowl on his face.
“You haven’t asked for my testimony yet, Judge,” he ground out, voice deeper than you had ever heard it.
Judge Oiplis glanced at him in curiosity. “Of course, how could I overlook that? Do you have anything to add?”
And Alpha started to speak, telling his side of things from the time you had arrived on Kamino. He talked about how you had thrown yourself into work with a focus that had made him worry about you. He told the judge how you had spoken with every contact the Republic had provided for you, then sought out new ones to give the most accurate representation of Kamino in your report. He spoke about the meals you had skipped, the late nights you had pulled.
You were flattered, but also wanted to sink through the floor at the grin Nora kept sending your way, waggling her eyebrows in a way that managed to look lascivious even through a holocall.
“All of that time and effort put into this report and her supervisor tried to have her booted off the project,” Alpha said eventually. “Not once, but several times. In fact, Brid tried to have her fired outright. She was made to question every order, kept on her toes every time the Senate contacted her. She may have been the one who made the final call to let that ship in, but every other part of the problem was a systemic failure on the part of the Senate. I think she’s just another unfortunate being who the Republic is trying to punish for their own failure. And though I’m just a lowly Captain and Advanced Recon Commando trainer for the Grand Army of the Republic, and my opinion holds no weight… I think she should be rewarded for identifying the system’s flaws before the Separatists chose a larger target. Maybe even Coruscant.”
“That is an excellent point, Captain Alpha-17,” Nora mused, pointedly emphasizing Alpha’s title. “It is clear that there is a breakdown in the Senate’s communication and security systems. If our hard-working administrator had, in fact, neglected to instruct Kamino to admit the ship, it is likely the Separatists would have tried to take advantage of those same weaknesses to attack another target. Maybe Coruscant, maybe not, but it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if some clever Coruscanti citizen were to realize how close the planet came to an attack…”
“If she had reported the breach through the proper channels, it would have been investigated and the problem solved,” Judge Oiplis countered.
“Would it have?” Nora asked, skepticism thick in her voice. “I think not. And why should an administrator who had been treated so poorly put her faith in the same system to help her? Besides, has anyone provided you with the frequency that was used to call Kamino and plant the instructions for the ship’s arrival?”
When the judge shook their head, Nora flipped her datapad around and displayed it. Judge Oiplis’ eyes widened. “That’s a Senate-specific frequency.”
“Exactly,” Nora said, tucking the datapad away once more. “Unless we expect every civilian to do layers of digging into every government communication, there is no way for the Senate to insist that the administrator had not done her due diligence in making sure the communication was legitimate.”
“Thank you all,” Judge Oiplis said. “I will review this information. We will have another call at this time next week to either gather additional information or discuss my decision on this matter, as needed. Until then…”
And the judge swept out of the room, leaving Nora alone. She beamed at the holoprojector. “That was perfect! Alpha, especially you!”
You turned to glance quizzically at Alpha. “How much of that was planned?”
“Systemic failure was mine,” Nora admitted openly. “And rewarded for identifying flaws and so on. The rest was all Alpha. I told him to tell the judge the truth, what he had seen in your time working on Kamino. And he did a beautiful job. Verymoving.”
A red tinge crept up Alpha’s neck, but he kept his gaze firmly on Nora. “What do you think the odds are that they’ll try to take it to court?”
“Low,” Nora said immediately, confidently. “Extremely low. I didn’t even usemy threat to sue them for attempted breach of contract - though that is still an option, by the way - because I’m so sure the case will be dropped.”
“Well, if you do decide to sue for breach of contract, let me know,” Alpha told her grimly. “I’ll testify.”
“Alpha…” you admonished with a weary sigh.
“I’ll keep that in mind, Captain,” Nora agreed, eyes bright with amusement as she turned them your way. “You’re a lucky girl to have such a good man in your life.”
You stammered out a flustered agreement and watched Alpha’s hand tighten on his thigh. Did the compliments bother him that badly, or was the reaction caused by the suggestive way Nora had phrased them? Either way, you cut yourself off so you wouldn’t make him more uncomfortable.
“All right,” Nora said, her all-business tone cutting through the tension of the silence that had stretched a beat too long for comfort. “You two relax for the rest of the night. I’ll be in contact with details about the next meeting. For now, go think about something else. Have fun for me!”
You stood too quickly, trying to ignore the sight of Nora Czajak’s wiggling eyebrows as she faded from the holoprojector’s blue-tinted image. Unfortunately, you had forgotten to factor in the lack of balance that came from having one leg in a cast and you began to topple forward.
Alpha caught you without any reaction, making the motion seem so wholly natural that you forgot to be embarrassed. “Easy there, little one. You did well.”
“I didn’t do anything,” you disagreed. “You did well. Thank you for saying all of that.”
“I just told the truth,” Alpha said, glancing away. You did the same, your face heating as your mind helpfully reminded you exactly what he had said. When Alpha spoke again, it was with the air of a man bringing up an unpleasant topic. “Are you ready to talk about what that meant?”
Ah, so it was an unpleasant topic after all. You tried to avoid his eyes, but it was hard. He had stayed sitting down while you stood, and you were close to the same height because of it. “I didn’t know there was going to be a judge. It means the Senate didn’t tell me everything.”
“It means the Senate set you up to take a fall,” Alpha told you. Now his eyes met yours, his gaze intent and piercing. It was too much, too close, and you wanted to look away, but you couldn’t. The raw honesty in his face held you, kept you staring back as the muscles danced in his jaw. “They’re going to blame you for everything, ruin your life and try to put you in prison, all so they can hide their own failures.”
“That seems a little dramatic,” you protested weakly. “They probably-”
“No,neverd’ika,” Alpha said, eyebrows flattening into a stern line. “I understand, you think the best of everyone, but you need to know this. The Senate doesn’t care about you. The Republic doesn’t care about you. War makes people do terrible things, especially when they’re in positions of authority like that. If the Republic has to choose between doing right by you or keeping the public’s trust by denying their mistakes, which will they choose?”
You could feel your expression change as a wave of cold fear washed through you at that. If Alpha was right - and he probably was - there was no chance that the Republic was going to let you walk away from this unscathed. The needs of one person against those of the entire Republic? It would be far easier to paint you as a traitor and be done with it. Your eyes fell to your feet as you considered that, but they darted up again as Alpha reached out to take your hand in his.
“I’m sorry, little one.” He seemed to be telling the truth. For once, his scarred face was filled with sympathy without an edge of mocking or the cruelty that could sneak in every now and again. His dark eyes were soft and sad, and you wanted more than anything to erase that look from them.
“Maybe prison won’t be so bad,” you offered half-heartedly.
The change that came over Alpha’s face was almost comical. His brow crinkled in confusion as bewilderment, realization, anger, and determination flashed across his face at incredible speed. His hand tightened around yours - too tight for a moment, but he relaxed his grip as soon as he realized.
When Alpha spoke, it was with a grit and unmoveable strength that told you he had no intentions of changing his mind. “You will never see the inside of a prison. You’ll never see the inside of a courtroom, if I have anything to say about it.”
“Alpha, you said it yourself,” you reminded him gently. “The Republic is going to try to paint me as the one at fault for all of this so they don’t lose the trust of every planet who swears loyalty to them. How am I supposed to fight against them when they’re trying so hard to take me down?”
“You aren’t fighting against them,” Alpha growled. “At least, not alone. I know a dozen men who would vouch for your character and I was there for most of the situation pre-attack. I’ll testify for you in a heartbeat. If that doesn’t work, I’ll threaten anyone who tries to push the issue.”
“All that means is that we would end up in prison together,” you said with a small smile.
“Nah,” he denied, sounding abruptly unconcerned. “If it comes to that, I’ll steal a ship and you and I will run to Wild Space. We’ll live away from the Republic if that’s what it takes.”
You didn’t want to encourage him, but as you sat there, listening to Alpha plan a hypothetical future for you both, you couldn’t help the broad smile that spread across your face. He saw the change in your expression and an answering smile crossed his face as he listed civilian jobs he thought you could each do. The fact that he clearly had no idea what a civilian job entailed only served to make you break into giggles.
“What, you don’t think I could be a water-watcher?” he asked, sounding playfully offended.
“I’m sure you could be,” you countered, “but I’m not sure what that even means. Are you watching to keep people from stealing the water? Are you trying to check that nothing comes out of it? Making sure it isn’t sentient?”
“All of ‘em,” he answered. “That’s why I’m the best.”
“You’re ridiculous… but if anyone could convince people to pay them to do it, you could,” you said, trying to keep any hint of inappropriate feeling from your face.
It was a challenge, especially sitting this close to Alpha when he was in one of his rare playful moods, and you ended up glancing down. Unfortunately, your gaze landed on where Alpha’s hand still held yours and he abruptly pulled away, clearing his throat.
“Now, we have most of a week before the judge calls back,” Alpha said, standing up and stretching his shoulders. “You can’t stay here by yourself all day and I have some work to get done. You’re coming with me to the ARC area. At least for today.”
“That’s probably not a good idea.” You didn’t enjoy turning him down so bluntly, but if Alpha had work to do, you would only be in the way.
“It’s not an idea at all, it’s the plan,” Alpha told you, passing you the crutches before he started moving toward the door of your office. “Come on.”
You stared at him for a moment, but positioned the crutches and followed him. Something in his expression warned you that Alpha wasn’t playing games. If your choices were between walking to the ARC area of your own volition or being carried like a child, you would rather walk, even if you had no interest in going to the destination.
Walking through the halls of Kamino was a little uncomfortable for you. It had been nearly a full month since the Separatist attack and much of life in the raised cities of Kamino had returned to normal. Training had been back in session for the past week and the platform that had been destroyed was already being rebuilt. The stilt itself had been largely undamaged, and could be repaired rather than replaced. Certain areas were still marked off with neat signs written in both Kaminoan and Basic, warning that structural instability could be present, but those areas were getting less common every day.
The biggest difference between pre- and post-attack for you was how you were being treated. Surprisingly, the difference didn’t stem from the Kaminoans. No, despite their attempts to use you as a way to force payment from the Republic, the Kaminoans treated you with the same polite, distant manner they always had. The biggest change was from the cadets.
Since you had first stepped foot on Kamino, the cadets had found you interesting enough to talk to and about. You had found their attention flattering, if a little overwhelming, but you weren’t egotistical enough to think it was due to anything other than being one of the first human females that these cadets had ever seen. Alpha had told you that almost verbatim the first day you had met him. For better or worse, the cadets watched you, followed you, and flirted with you any chance they got.
Or, more accurately, they usedto.
Now it was rare that a cadet would even look at you as you walked through the halls of Kamino. When one did, it was usually to eye you suspiciously before he walked away. When Alpha saw it, he wasn’t happy (you could tell by the muscle tensing in his jaw), but he didn’t speak up on your behalf, either.
You couldn’t blame them - Alpha or the cadets. You had hurt Kamino, took away the slight bit of safety the cadets felt here as they were learning to be soldiers. Of course they would treat you with suspicion. What proof did they have that you hadn’t brought the Separatists here on purpose? You would have been wary, yourself. And when one considered that they had lost brothers during the attack? Well, you understood why they had closed ranks, keeping their pain among brothers. Alpha understood it as well, which was why he was doing his best to overlook the new attitude among the young troopers.
You were broken out of those thoughts when you heard raised voices. You were getting close to the ARC area and the noise was coming from the area ahead. You glanced up at Alpha. The captain was frowning, but something about the angle of his brow told you that he didn’t know what was happening, either.
You would have told him to go ahead so he didn’t have to wait for your slower pace, but you were just around a corner from the ARC area and there was little point in it now. You picked up your pace as much as you dared and Alpha followed suit.
When you got to the doorway that led into the ARC’s training area, you found a group of cadets arguing with some of the ARCs-in-training. You kept pace with Alpha as well as you could, but when you heard some of the specifics of what they were saying, you stopped short.
“Don’t let her in there!”
“You can’t trust her! None of us can!”
“If she sees where the ARCs train, how long will it be before there’s another attack?”
“She risked her life to get intel for us during that fight,” Neyo told them, voice deadly.
Drift nodded, sounding more serious than you had ever heard him. “And she did everything possible to keep from becoming a hostage.”
“Yeah,” a tall boy added, looking at the crowd of disgruntled cadets. Three more cadets guarded the speaker’s back. They all looked vaguely familiar, but you couldn’t quite place them. “Why don’t you worry about the real threat here?”
A murmur of action ran through the group of cadets at that and they all began to push closer.
“That so?” one cadet asked with a smirk. “And who exactly is the real threat? You?”
“No, me,” Alpha announced, striding forward. You couldn’t see his face, standing behind him like you were, but he didn’t sound happy. “As a matter of fact, I’m the real threat to Kamino. Look up the rescinded order to stop incoming traffic to Kamino. It’s got my authorization code. Is there something you cadets wanted to say to me?”
Alpha had been lovely with you during the past month. He was kind, attentive, entertaining. He was comforting when you were feeling guilty over the loss of lives during the attack, but he also wouldn’t let you wallow in self-pity. You looked at him and saw a friend - someone you had deeper feelings for, but a friend more than anything.
That changed as you saw him now.
He was in full authority mode, standing there as Captain Alpha-17, trainer of the ARC troopers and trusted leader of troops for the Jedi. He was impossibly tall and broad, cutting an imposing figure even without the bulky plastoid plates of his armor. He stared the cadets down without the slightest hesitation, letting them choose exactly how they wanted to proceed. No matter what decision they made, he would deal with the outcome.
“And you don’t think she’s a traitor?” someone asked.
Alpha laughed. It was not a happy sound. “Kid, I’ve met the Chancellor, and he’s less dedicated to the Republic than she is. She’s no traitor.”
“But that’s what the Republic has said - that there’s a chance the attack was orchestrated from inside of Kamino.”
“How did you get access to the holonet?” Alpha asked him sharply. “You need to learn what news sources to trust. Whatever one wrote that isn’t worth your time. The truth - the real truth - is that the attack came from somewhere inside the Senate, not inside of Kamino.”
“Didn’t you teach us that the only people we can trust are brothers?” one cadet asked, looking more confused than angry now.
“Yes, absolutely,” Alpha told him with total confidence. “Can you trust me?”
The cadets nodded.
“And I trust her. So as long as you think my judgment is sound, I never want to hear another word about her being a traitor. I was there for what happened before the Seppies landed here, and I know the truth. There are people who want to hurt you, but none of them are in this room. Keep your eyes open and your wits sharp, but never forget who had your back when it cost them. Look at her leg. She paid that price with blood and bone. She’s a warrior, not a traitor.”
You struggled not to look away when the cadets glanced in your direction, but you managed to hold their gaze. They still didn’t look happy to see you, but they also didn’t look outright hostile anymore. It was an improvement, no matter how slight.
“Now get out of here,” Alpha ordered. “I know you’re supposed to be doing your own training, not hanging around the ARCs.”
The cadets dispersed, but four of them stayed behind - the same four who had spoken up on your behalf. Alpha motioned you to join them while the entire group entered the ARC area.
When you caught up, Alpha gestured to the four cadets. “Do you remember them?”
You smiled apologetically. “You all look so familiar… but I can’t place you. I’m sorry.”
“The last time we met, I believe you were suffering from a rather great deal of pain,” the cadet wearing goggles told you.
“And had carbon monoxide poisoning,” Alpha muttered.
You shot him a look, but smiled at the cadets as you introduced yourself and offered them your hand to shake.
The cadet with slightly longer hair than you were used to seeing spoke first. “My name is Hunter, ma’am. It’s nice to see you recovering.”
“I’m Wrecker,” said the tall boy who had threatened the other cadets. “You’re pretty.”
“Crosshair,” the thin cadet told you simply, rolling his eyes at his brother.
“And I am Tech,” the goggled one announced, just barely managing to pry his attention away from the datapad in his hand.
“I didn’t know they let cadets have datapads,” Drift said, glancing around Alpha’s shoulder.
“They do not,” Tech told him. “This particular datapad was discarded by a Kaminoan who believed it was unusable.”
“I guess it wasn’t?” Neyo asked.
“I repaired it with very little difficulty,” Tech replied, glancing at the screen once more.
“You four helped during the Separatist attack,” you said slowly. “I think I remember. You had blades you were throwing, and you had a gun.”
You pointed at Hunter and Crosshair in turn and both nodded. Alpha’s hand rested gently on your shoulder. “She still has trouble remembering what happened during the second half of the battle.”
“It comes back in bits and pieces,” you explained, trying to ignore Drift elbowing Bacara gleefully at Alpha’s casual touch. “But what are you doing here? Did you get an instant promotion to ARC troopers? You did handle yourselves well.”
“No, we’ve just liked keeping them around,” Monnk told you, slinging one arm around Crosshair and the other around Wrecker. Crosshair pushed his arm away while Wrecker tried to put the ARC into a headlock.
“We’ve been teaching them some useful tricks,” Alpha told you blandly, but you saw the warmth in his eyes when he nodded back at Hunter. Alpha had taken these cadets in as his own. You were glad to see the connections forming, especially between troopers as highly regarded as the ARCs and non-standard cadets like Hunter, Tech, Wrecker, and Crosshair.
“What’s going on out- Oh. Hey, Captain,” Faie greeted as you reached the section where most of the ARC training actually happened. “Are you back?”
“Yeah, and I’ve brought a visitor,” Alpha told him.
Monnk looked at you with an air of sympathy. “Should have known it was just a matter of time before the captain made you start doing drills with us. Brace yourself.”
“She’s not here to do drills, di’kut,” Alpha said with a scowl. “Her leg’s broken!”
“Sothat’s how you get out of drills,” Drift mused, grinning when Alpha shot him a glare.
“She’s going to be here observing,” he corrected. “So you’re all going to be on your best behavior. Right?”
“Yes, sir!” the four young cadets agreed immediately. The ARCs took a slightly different approach, agreeing lazily or - in Drift’s case - grinning at you as he sent an obnoxious wink in your direction.
“Drift,” Alpha sighed. “It’s not going to be a good day for you, is it.”
Drift grinned at him, too. “It’s always a good day when we have such a lovely guest watching ARC training. Maybe you should join us for a few exercises, show her what exactly you have to offer in the strength and physical fitness departments?”
“Eight laps, full kit,” Alpha barked, turning away from you while he issued instructions to the ARCs as well.
It was a good thing, too. You weren’t sure what kind of look you were wearing, but you were worried it would give you away far too easily. As you noticed the scarcely hidden glee on the ARCs’ faces, you sighed. It was going to be a long afternoon.
—
Author’s Note - I said I would post more chapters in May, remember? Obviously, I wasn’t able to wait too far into the month before I posted something!
It’s so lovely to be back, friends! Thank you to everyone who has continued being interested in this story despite the hiatus, or those who have just found this story and are interested in seeing where it goes! I hope you enjoyed, and I’ll be back with another update soon!
Warnings: ANGST (seriously, my beta reader didn’t talk to me for two days after she read it), conversations with a judge, contract specifications, and a lot of exposition.
“-So, you understand the terms as I have stated them, correct?” Judge Oplis asked, giving you a stern look even through the holoprojector.
“I understand, Judge,” you agreed.
“I don’t,” Alpha pitched in. “Repeat it for me one last time.”
A long-suffering look crossed Judge Oiplis’s face while Nora obviously struggled not to laugh openly in the background.
“Alpha,” you muttered admonishingly.
Alpha glanced over at you, shrugging even as his dark eyes gleamed in private amusement. “Sorry, but I’m just a simple trooper. I want to make sure we don’t have the chance for any more misunderstandings to happen.”
With that, he sat forward, staring into the holoprojector with such intensity that Judge Oiplis visibly flinched. “Not a problem, Captain, I can explain it again.”
Giving an imperious gesture, Alpha gestured for the judge to continue with their explanation. You shook your head at the clear threat Alpha had put into his tone, but he only patted your knee - too low for the holoprojector transmitter to pick up.
The resulting buzz of feeling from his touch - even through his gloves and the fabric of your pants - was so strong that you almost missed the judge’s second explanation, but you managed to regain your concentration somewhere along the way.
“You - both of you - have been officially cleared of any wrongdoing,” Oiplis explained. “That being said, the Kaminoans are understandably concerned about the future security of their compound. All transmissions between any Republic official and the outside galaxy are subject to screening by the Kaminoans.”
“Which one of the Kaminoans?” Alpha interrupted.
“That’s actually a good question,” Nora agreed. “There needs to be a designated person or department in charge of that. With your permission, Judge, I’ll reach out to the Senate and the officials on Kamino to see what we can figure out.”
Judge Oiplis nodded stiffly. “Very well, details to come later. In any case, communication may be monitored. You’ll continue to work on your report as you have, but under new supervision.”
“Has there been any news about Akridia Brid?” you asked, suddenly realizing the implications of that condition.
Looking fed up with all of you, Judge Oiplis said, “She has been found.”
“…Alive?” Alpha asked.
“Yes,” the judge confirmed, but carried on without any further explanation. “As I was saying, you will have a new supervisor. Your deadline has also been extended by several months, but the details of your assignment will be delivered by that new supervisor. The main purpose of this meeting is to tell you that you have been cleared of the charges, but that we may require your testimony in the future concerning this incident.”
“Yes, of course,” you agreed readily.
Alpha folded his arms over his chest, looking impossibly broad in full armor. “You already collected written and recorded statements from both of us. What more could you need?”
“It’s just a formality, really,” the judge bit out.
“Yes, but travel between Kamino and Coruscant can be inconvenient, if not outright dangerous during a galaxy-wide war,” Nora pointed out. “We’ll agree to future testimony if you can be more specific about how often they’ll be expected to travel to Coruscant and how much advance notice they’re given.”
“Very well,” Judge Oiplis confirmed, rubbing at the horns protruding from their forehead. “Miss Czajak and I will continue this meeting to work out the details. Do the two of you agree to everything else as stated?”
“Yes,” you affirmed and Alpha gave a tight nod beside you.
“I’ll be in touch when we get those details finalized,” Nora told you, reaching for the holoprojector on the other side of the call. “Expect to hear from me before the end of the week.”
And then they were gone.
You let out a deep, heartfelt sigh and Alpha glanced over at you. “Are you okay, neverd’ika?”
You nodded, smiling weakly. “Two holomeetings in two weeks about the potential of being put on trial for treason is just… a lot. But it’s a good thing you asked the judge to repeat everything again. I didn’t even think to clarify a lot of the details the first time.”
“Yeah, it ended up being a good idea,” Alpha agreed. A moment later, he smirked. “I just did it to piss off Oiplis.”
“I knew it,” you muttered. Alpha turned to you, laughter still spread thickly on his face, but the long-distance comm rang again before he could speak.
You checked the incoming transmission code, reporting, “It’s a Senate-specific frequency.”
Alpha’s shoulders tightened - not as if he was nervous, more as though he was preparing for whatever happened. “Answer it,” he advised, voice calm.
You did and were treated to the sight of a female Dug. She had gray skin and piercing yellow eyes, but her ear flaps flowed backward instead of extending beside her face in an intimidating display. It was as promising a start as you could hope for.
She smiled, the motion emphasizing the shorter barbels beside her mouth and under her square chin. “Hello! I don’t know if Judge Oiplis mentioned that I would be calling you?”
“He didn’t,” Alpha told her. “Who are you and why should we believe you?”
A look of solemn understanding passed over her face. “I understand your caution. I heard about the situation with Akridia Brid. A secure connection verification should have been transmitted to your personal comlink. I have the matching code here.”
After you had verified the code, she smiled again. “My name is Jaissussi Sirnes and I’m your new supervisor for this project.”
“Nice to meet you, Miss Sirnes,” you greeted politely as Alpha grumbled to himself.
“You can call me Jaiss if that’s easier,” she offered. “Are you free to talk over some changes to the reporting process or should…” Jaiss paused as she glanced over at Alpha. “…I can call back another time, if you need me to?”
“No, Jaiss, thank you. I would prefer to go over the changes sooner rather than later,” you said honestly. At the same time, you pushed Alpha’s thigh, hoping he would get the message to behave himself and stop intimidating your new supervisor. He didn’t move a bit, but he relaxed slightly in his seat.
“As I said, I’ll be your new supervisor for this project,” Jaiss repeated. “My goal here is to focus more on the opportunities of this assignment than the challenges that come along with it.”
“What kind of opportunities?” Alpha asked, suspicion written across his face. “Because her last supervisor, Brid, was interested in opportunities, too - every opportunity she could find or create to try to push her way into the report-writing process.”
“Not those opportunities,” Jaiss reassured. “Especially considering how Brid ended up.”
“Ended up?” you asked before Alpha could interrupt yet again. “We heard she was found alive.”
Jaiss watched you for a moment, yellow eyes bouncing between you and Alpha. Eventually, she sighed. “Listen, you seem like you both prefer bluntness, so I’ll tell you the truth as long as you do the same with me.”
“Refreshing change,” Alpha muttered.
“I think that would be best,” you told Jaiss.
With a glance between the two of you, Jaiss revealed, “Akridia Brid was found… while she was attempting to flee Coruscant.”
“She what?” you gasped while Alpha shifted in his seat.
Jaiss nodded conspiratorially. “I’m only telling you this because she was your supervisor and her actions had a direct impact on you both, but I would ask you to keep this to yourselves since it’s an active Senate investigation. Brid was accepting bribes from Klaanuc Dralnulo, the Kaminoan senator. He wanted you off the project for humanizing the clones, and was willing to pay to make sure that happened.”
“Does the Senate think either one had anything to do with the attack?” Alpha asked.
You glanced at him out of the corner of your eye. The fact that he was asking Jaiss for information at all was a good sign, one that meant he didn’t actively distrust her. That was interesting, and Jaiss rose even more in your estimation.
“That’s the question,” Jaiss said, looking grim. “The Coruscant Guard captured Brid, but they weren’t able to get Dralnulo before he fled the planet. The Republic is trying to find him, but resources are scarce right now. Like I said, it’s an active investigation. The Senate is dedicated to finding out just how far the conspiracy between Dralnulo and Brid went.”
“So, what does this mean for her?” Alpha asked, tipping his head at you.
“For one thing, it means that the deadline has been extended,” Jaiss said, her yellow eyes meeting yours. “Officially, it’s extended four months beyond the original deadline date.”
“And unofficially?” you pressed, reading behind her words.
“Unofficially, you have as long as it takes,” she said with a shrug - an impressive gesture considering that all of her weight was held balanced on her powerful arms. “I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but the Senate is eager to keep you on this project. You have a lot of leverage here.”
Alpha crossed his arms, a fearsome frown hanging heavy on his brow. “Why exactly do they want to keep her here so badly?”
“Because they have no choice,” Jaiss said with a sympathetic grimace. “I’m sorry, this may be difficult to hear. The Republic originally tried to find a replacement for you. While Dralnulo was out of line by trying to have you removed from this project, some senators think he had a point. Your preliminary progress on the report has shown far more information on the mental and emotional well-being of the troopers than expected. Some people think you’re going too far, losing objectivity.”
“So the Republic doesn’t like hearing that their soldiers are thinking beings capable of feeling complex emotions? Is it offensive to them that those needs aren’t being met?” you demanded, stung by the implications of both your work and its impact. “Because - good! They shouldbe uncomfortable with that! Because it’s a bad thing we’re doing to millions of sentient beings!”
“I know, I agree completely,” Jaiss soothed as Alpha smoothed a hand over your forearm. “But to cut down on the likelihood of anyone claiming a lack of impartiality on your part, the Senate began searching for replacements.”
“And?” Alpha asked. “How many did they find who would be willing to come here and put in that much work for this project?”
“None,” Jaiss told him, nodding at both your surprised expression and Alpha’s knowing smirk. “No one else is willing to be in such a dangerous place, much less doing an assignment that is becoming infamous for how much effort it requires. So, like I said, the Republic is desperate to keep you there. They need you to continue this project, and they’re willing to give you whatever you need to stay here and do the work.”
“Tell ‘em you want ten thousand credits and your own transport ship,” Alpha muttered.
From the small smirk on Jaiss’s face, she had overheard Alpha’s advice. “I don’t know about any bonuses, but you have been cleared to receive hazard pay. It’s an additional seven percent of your salary.”
“I don’t want it,” you refused immediately, cutting through the confused and disbelieving protests from Jaiss and Alpha. “Men died in that attack. Two hundred and three of them. I may not have been the official cause of it, but I played a role in it. It seems wrong to profit from a tragedy, especially since these troopers experience nothing buthazards and they aren’t paid at all.”
“Denying that money doesn’t help them at all,” Alpha countered. “All you’re doing by letting the Republic keep the credits is to help them pay for another trooper.”
“I agree with the captain,” Jaiss interjected. “If you really don’t want the hazard pay, use it for something that helps the cadets.”
“Like what?” you asked, floored by the previously unconsidered suggestion.
Jaiss shrugged. “You would know better than I would. But, like most questions concerning the cadets, I think the best person to ask is the man sitting beside you.”
You glanced over at Alpha, who looked just as startled as you were… though his surprise was hidden under layers of suspicion and consideration. Maybe Alpha really was starting to trust Jaiss. Or, more likely, he was still in the process of gathering information about your new supervisor before he formed an opinion. You had noticed he constantly took in information, testing it against what he already knew to reaffirm everything.
“I think you’re probably right,” you agreed slowly. Alpha was an excellent resource, partially because he was so suspicious that he dug into everything. The other reason, of course, was that he was dependable and knew what he was talking about.
Alpha sent you a look. You could see the warmth in his expression because you knew him so well and were sitting so close. Jaiss, having neither of those benefits and seeing your interaction through a holoprojector besides, missed the entire thing.
Instead, she just smiled and gave a satisfied nod. “I’m glad you agree! I’ll send over a finalized version of your updated contract. Feel free to share it with your lawyer so she can check for anything out of place.”
Instantly, Alpha was back on edge. “Are you saying that’s something we should be worried about?"
"Not at all,” Jaiss denied instantly. “But a lawyer named Nora Czajak has been in contact with me, my office, and my supervisor, all over the span of a day. I told her we can’t share your contract with her - only you can choose to do that - but she seemed very suspicious of all of us.”
You nodded sympathetically. “She’s heard plenty about the situation with Brid. We’re all a little jumpy.”
“Understandable,” Jaiss acknowledged. “Well, if you do have anything you object to in the contract, have her bring it up with us. As I said, you have leverage right now.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, thanks,” you replied, hoping you looked as grateful as you felt. This interaction was already more positive than any you had ever experienced with Brid.
“That’s all I have for you right now. I’ll be in touch after any contract negotiations. Until you submit a signed contract, don’t work on the report.” Jaiss’s yellow eyes watched you closely, letting the silence stretch until you nodded. “Good. It’s been a pleasure. I think we’ll work well together.”
“I do, too,” you told her, your reply honest as well as mannerly. You could be wrong, of course. Jaiss could turn out worse than Brid and it could all turn out terribly, but you didn’t get the feeling that would be the case. “I’m sure I’ll speak with you soon. Thanks for everything, Jaiss.”
“Of course, and please let me know if you need anything else.” Jaiss’s gaze shifted slightly over so that she was making eye contact with Alpha. “Nice to meet you as well, Captain.”
Alpha only grunted in reply, but it was one of his more polite grunts if that was something that could be said to exist. Without much more conversation, you disconnected the holotransmission and the office fell silent once more.
“Okay, what’s your honest opinion of Jaiss?” you asked, cutting straight to the heart of the matter rather than dancing around it.
Looking somewhere between amused and offended, Alpha said, “Do you really think I wouldn’t say anything if I thought your new supervisor was suspicious? No. I would have told you - and her - exactly what I thought was wrong with the situation.”
“That’s fair,” you agreed with a nod. Alpha had never bothered to hide his opinion before. It was extremely unlikely he would suddenly start doing so now. “Well, I trust your judgment. I’ll consider that a mark in her favor.”
“Good.” Alpha sat back slightly in his chair, his elbow brushing yours as he crossed his arms over his chest. “You know I would never let anything happen to you, neverd’ika.”
Your heart melted a bit at that, both the sentiment and the term of endearment. “I know you wouldn’t, Alpha.”
He bestowed a rare smile in your direction and you were suddenly terrified of the look that may be on your face.
You were falling and falling fast. And now that the fear of your potential treason trial was over, there was nothing holding you back from fixating on your feelings for the ARC captain. It was only a matter of time before you told Alpha how you felt and there was every chance it would be the end of your friendship. If the choice was between having him as a friend or not having him in your life at all, there was no question that you should keep quiet. The trouble was that you weren’t sure whether that was an option.
You sighed and glanced down at your hands, folded neatly in your lap. Not for the first time, you wished you could be as logical and in control of your emotions as Alpha himself.
“Let’s get out of here,” Alpha suggested, voice low and enticing as he rose from his chair. “You heard it: you aren’t supposed to do any more work until Czajak has looked over your contract and you’ve signed it. We could go to the new stilt. I’ll show you some of the improvements we’ve made.”
“I-” you hesitated. The pain you felt at turning him down was almost physical, but you were on-edge, struck by how much he had done to help you. You were going to lose control of your emotions if you didn’t get some distance soon. “No thank you, Alpha.”
“Why not?” he asked, a teasing grin crossing his scarred face. “Worried you’re going to fall into the ocean? I wouldn’t take you somewhere dangerous.”
You smiled, even though you wanted to cry at his sweetness. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Fine,” Alpha breezed, utterly unbothered. “Then come with me to the ARC area. The kids have been asking about you.”
The ‘kids’ were the young cadets who had helped you during the attack on Kamino. They had been fully accepted amongst the ARCs-in-training, and they liked to keep you updated as they got more proficient at different types of combat..
“No, thank you,” you refused, fiddling with the datapad on your desk to avoid meeting his eyes. You couldn’t actually remember saying ‘no’ to Alpha before. It wasn’t fun.
“Okay, then what do youwant to do?” Alpha asked, an edge of irritation entering his voice.
“I…” you frowned at the datapad, trying to think of a plausible excuse. It gave a helpful beep and offered an answer: Jaiss had sent you a copy of the contract. “I think I’m going to get started on reading the terms of my updated contract.”
“Why?” Alpha asked, sounding disgusted. “Leave it to Czajak. She’ll love it. She likes looking for reasons to fight with the Senate."
"There might be some things in it that are specific to my job,” you argued, warming to your subject. “Things she may not know.”
“Fine,” Alpha grumbled, sitting down beside you once more. “But I won’t be much help. I don’t know osik about contracts or negotiating them.”
You grimaced, the temptation to let him stay stronger than ever, but you needed a step back, a chance to breathe and think through everything. Carefully, voice and expression bland, you said, “Actually, I think it might be better if I looked it over by myself.”
“Are you sure?” Alpha asked.
You forced a smile in his direction. “Yeah. Go check on the stilt or do some training with the kids. I’ll take care of this.”
Alpha stood, seeming unusually hesitant. “Are you just trying to get rid of me so you can work without me stopping you?"
You chuckled slightly at the joke, shaking your head in a silent denial, but still didn’t meet his eyes. After a moment, he turned and moved toward the door.
”Neverd'ika?“ he asked quietly.
You glanced over, doing your best to wear the same expression you always did. It must not have been a successful attempt, because Alpha searched your face for a long moment before he gave a tiny nod, as if he had confirmed something to himself.
"You’ll let me know if you need anything, right?”
“Of course,” you told him, still wearing that unnatural-feeling smile.
Despite the way he hesitated before leaving the office, Alpha didn’t say a word in reply.
The moment you were alone, you dropped your head into your hands with a loud curse. Even when you were specifically trying not to, you had hurt Alpha’s feelings. You needed to figure things out quickly before you did even more damage.
You were too close to the situation to judge it with any real objectivity, but as far as you could figure out, there were two main categories your protests fell into: reasons you shouldn’t have feelings for Alpha, and reasons you shouldn’t tell him about those feelings.
To be fair, the first category held a very short list. The basics boiled down to that you had very little in common and that any relationship would have very little chance of having a future. Regardless of your contract being extended at least four additional months, your time here was limited. You treasured your friendship with Alpha, but perhaps it would be less painful for both of you if it remained a friendship and nothing more.
The other list was much longer. Alpha had already spent so much time and energy protecting you - first from the flirtatious cadets, then from the Separatists, and finally from the Republic. You would never want him to feel pressured into a relationship out of some need to continue protecting you… or worse, a twisted sense of guilt.
That was the big reason, but it seemed like the collection of smaller reasons grew longer every time you thought about it. What if your interest in him made Alpha feel uncomfortable? If he agreed to see where things went, your relationship could be a distraction to him. And would he get in trouble if the Kaminoans found out? Would you if the Republic found out? Would it undermine your report? Could he lose his position and be forced back into going on missions?
And even after all of that, he might still say no. You didn’t know if you could stomach the possibility of your friendship growing awkward. Assuming, of course, that he would still agree to be your friend.
You picked up the datapad with the contract still displayed on its screen. With a few taps, you had sent a copy of the contract to Nora. You told her that you were reading through it, but requested that she advise you on any changes she felt were necessary.
With that done, you pulled up the contract and started to read, pausing only to take a deep breath and mutter, “Keep it to yourself.”
You could only hope you would take your own advice.
—
When you stepped into the cafeteria the next morning, you knew it was with an unpleasantly exhausted look on your face.
No one said that, of course. The cadets were still wary of you and no one else spoke to you other than Limit and Drift. And Alpha, obviously.
Thinking about Alpha - even in such an abstract way - made your stomach twist uncomfortably. You had managed to avoid him the night before, claiming a headache after spending so much time looking at your proposed contract. Alpha had accepted that, letting you end the transmission without a single 'I told you so’. You had definitely upset him.
This was killing you. You had worked so hard to build a friendship with Alpha, and now you were working to remove the closeness you had cultivated so carefully. It was hurting him. It was hurting you as well, this slow-motion severing of ties forcing you to feel every twinge… but how could you complain when you were the cause of the pain?
As if your subconscious was trying to torture you, your eyes flicked automatically to the table you usually shared with Alpha. It was empty. Honestly, you would have been a little surprised if it hadn’t been. You didn’t typically take time to eat breakfast, opting for a protein bar in your office so you could work and eat at the same time.
You got your food and sat down, trying not to explore the textures of the first mouthful. Generally speaking with Kamino’s food, the less you tasted, the better you would be able to eat a substantial amount.
It was funny, you reflected. Your place at that exact table had marked a profound shift in your Kamino-based life. From being so scared at first that you were doing something wrong simply by existing in the middle of a group of soldiers-in-training to meeting Alpha and finding a place, and then to living in post-attack Kamino and trying to come to terms with everything that meant. This simple seat in the cafeteria seemed to have been the only constant over the last few months.
Besides Alpha, of course.
You gave in to the overwhelming urge and allowed yourself to think about Alpha. You had been sitting in this spot the first time you met him. He had chased away cadets and let you ask him a question. He had hurt your feelings in that first conversation, looking down on the cadets for flirting with you, assuring you it was just because you were the first female they had close contact with. With the perspective of time, he had just been his typical self - blunt and matter-of-fact. He always was.
But that wasn’t really true, was it? It was hard to remember and try to push aside the warmth and fondness that overlaid your memories of him, but Alpha had been different in that first meeting. He had been quiet and distant, and it was only then that you realized how much he had changed during the time you had known him. He was more at ease now, relaxed and teasing. Yes, he was protective of you - especially since the attack on Kamino - but he joked with you, cheered you up when you were tense, and had even comforted you when you were feeling out of sorts. Your friendship with Alpha was the most important thing in the universe to you… which made it even more frustrating that you couldn’t think of a way to save it.
When you were about halfway done struggling through your meal - trying to come up with some plan of what you would do that day - the doors to the cafeteria opened. That was strange in itself: the cafeteria had stopped serving breakfast since you had gotten your food and no one coming in now would get the chance to eat anything.
Alpha’s eyes locked with yours, but you couldn’t do anything more than stare stupidly at him while he crossed the space between you.
“Alpha?” you asked, speaking at the exact same time that he said your name slowly and sternly. “What are you doing here?”
“What are you?” he countered. “You never eat breakfast.”
“Ialways eat breakfast,” you told him. “I just don’t eat it in the cafeteria. I eat a protein bar in my office while I work.”
“What changed?”
“I ran out of protein bars.”
Alpha blew out a sigh, scrubbing a hand over his scarred face as he sat down across the table from you. “Is there a reason you didn’t call me?”
“You’re training the ARCs. That starts in the morning and you don’t get a break until mid-day, when you eat lunch with me. When would you have had time to come here?” You frowned as you realized the implications of that. “Wait, you’re supposed to be instructing right now. Why are you here?”
“Bacara saw you in here and mentioned it to me,” Alpha told you, crossing his arms across his massive chest. “Said you were alone in here. I have them doing their warmups while I came to make sure everything is okay.”
“Yeah, everything is fine,” you assured, willing yourself not to melt at his concern.
“Is it?”
The question made you frown and pull your eyes back to Alpha’s face. You didn’t know exactly when you had started looking away, subconsciously reluctant to look directly at him. You had to keep pulling away. It was your only chance to keep your friendship intact.
“Of course.” Was your voice even enough? You could hear a tremor in it, but you would always hear more than he would because it was your own voice. That was how this worked, wasn’t it? Surely he could hear that slight waver, the way your vocal cords were demanding that you tell him the truth…
You cleared your throat, hoping to push that nervous reluctance aside, and smiled in Alpha’s general direction. “You’re good to go back to training. Everything is fine, other than that I need to get a new box of protein bars shipped in.”
Alpha stared at you, eyes searching your face the way he had recently started to do. It was as if he couldn’t quite figure out what you were thinking, but was trying to see those thoughts anyway. He stood up and walked toward the door.
Before he took more than a few steps, you watched Alpha pause, tense, and wheel around. In moments, he was back, having walked around the table. You felt like you could hardly breathe as he sat heavily beside you.
“You said we were friends.”
You literally flinched from the hurt in his voice. “We are friends, Alpha. I promise, we are. And I don’t want to stop being friends. Stars, that’s exactly what I’m trying to avoid.”
He noticed the regret on your face when you said the last part of your explanation. Still, he didn’t comment directly on it. Instead, he set his jaw and asked, “Are you upset with me?”
“No, of course I’m not!” you protested.
Alpha’s voice cut through yours, low and deadly certain. “Because you’re acting like someone who’s upset. Do you blame me for the attack?”
“I think we both know that, if I blame anyone, I blame myself.”
“Then what?” Alpha asked, tension making his voice taut. “Are you angry that you got hurt? That I didn’t manage to kill Ventress?”
“No, Alpha,” you said, rubbing at the headache you could already feel forming between your eyebrows. How had the entire situation gone wrong so quickly? Everything was spiraling out of control and you were in a panic trying to stop it. “I’m not angry about any of that. It isn’t anything to do with the attack-”
“So you admit there isa cause,” Alpha said, sounding somewhere between triumphant and frustrated. “What is it?”
“I like you!” you snapped.
He didn’t react dramatically. Of course he didn’t. Alpha was a soldier, trained to expect anything from any given situation, and this was no exception. But his face went blank, turning into the mask of expectant neutrality that said he was waiting for his next set of orders. Other than the hint of confusion in his dark eyes, he looked as if you had told him it was snowing on Hoth.
You sighed, shaking your head in embarrassment. “There’s probably a better way I could have phrased that. I admire you deeply and I am starting to develop feelings for you. I treasure our friendship, and I don’t want to do anything that might hurt it or you. I also don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable, which is why I was trying to get some distance. But I hurt you and I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry for that.”
With effort, you managed to cut yourself off, ending your rambling by biting your lip and twisting your fingers together in hopes that you wouldn’t fidget while you waited for him to say something.
“You have feelings for me?” Alpha asked, sounding stunned. “Romantic feelings?”
“Yes,” you admitted, giving yourself an extra long blink to indulge your cowardly urge to hide away from the vulnerability this situation was causing.
Alpha stared pensively at the door, jaw muscles dancing as if he was trying to speak and not speak at the same time. At last, he seemingly allowed himself to share his thoughts: “Poor choice on your part.”
While you were trying to process that statement - and the hurt that went along with it - Alpha stood from the table and disappeared through the cafeteria door.
You were alone then, all other occupants of the cafeteria having long since left. You couldn’t even begin to work through your emotions from the conversation; the abruptness and unpleasantness of it had left you in a state of near-shock. So you stayed in the cafeteria until you could bear to leave, sitting in the place where it had all began…
And where it had ended.
—
Author’s Note - I’m so sorry. I know this is a comfort fic for a lot of people, so if you need to vent/ask questions/demand answers, feel free to pm me! I have the next few chapters written and I can answer questions, just not in a public format so I don’t spoil anyone who doesn’t want to be spoiled.
This is NOT the end of Gar Cabur, I promise! I’ll be back soon with an update!
You can find other works on my masterlist or sign up for the taglist here.
Before you read: This should probably be considered chapter 13.5. Someone mentioned wanting to see the ARCs trying to set up you and Alpha. That’s what this chapter is, and it spans the time from when you first met the ARCs to the current time setting. Enjoy!
Word Count: 7,700 (oof)
Warnings: ARCs being stupid, attempted manipulation, some situations that could potentially trigger claustrophobia
There was, of course, her own name, but the men didn’t favor that one. They were clone troopers, and most men had some say in what their name ended up being. They had no interest in a name she hadn’t chosen.
Then there was her title. Administrator. A popular choice, but impersonal. It didn’t tell anyone anything about her other than what she did for the Republic. It worked in a pinch, but there were better options.
The most personal name option was neverd’ika, the way Captain Alpha-17 addressed her. Little civilian. Maybe it wasn’t as personal as it felt, but the way the captain said it turned it into something fond and far softer than the words themselves would make the name seem.
But the name the ARCs like best was the one they had come up with themselves. She had never been addressed by it, not directly. If all went well, she never would. No, the men called her ‘Alor’, if only so they could talk about her without drawing attention - or, on the captain’s part, suspicion.
She wasn’t alone, either. Captain Alpha-17 had his own ARC-given code name: Cabur.
Both the administrator and the captain had to have those code names so the ARCs could do what needed to be done…
Push them into giving in to their feelings.
The ARCs weren’t stupid. In fact, they had been chosen for their advanced training because they weren’tstupid. They knew something was up with the captain and his administrator. But they also knew that whatever was going on wasn’t nearly enough to make either one happy. And, most importantly, they knew nothing was going to happen if they didn’t give a little… encouragement.
It was a dangerous mission, fraught with too many hazards to count. From the horrors that would happen if they were caught to the look of betrayal the administrator would wear if they succeeded, the task took bravery and tenacity.
Good thing those were two pillars of being an ARC trooper.
—
Monnk worked on the smallest possible scale.
He hadn’t been the first ARC-in-training to meet her - that had been Neyo, the di’kut - but he had been one of the earlier ones. He had certainly met her earlier than Drift, which wasn’t saying much. If Alpha could have kept Drift from ever meeting her, he would have.
But Monnk didknow that she and Captain Alpha had first met sharing a meal in the mess, so his subtle efforts were just to mention that. He encouraged the captain to keep spending his mealtimes with her. He would keep anything from interrupting their meals together.
Too often, Monnk had intercepted cadets intent on interrupting the pair as they ate. He redirected them elsewhere with persuasion or threats. They weren’t as scared of him as they were of Alpha, but Monnk did his best and came up with some creative stuff, if he did say so himself.
Evenings were even more of a challenge. Since ARC training ended in the afternoons, it seemed like the entirety of Kamino came to Alpha with questions they had or small tasks they needed him to do. Monnk ran interference in those situations as well, and found himself becoming one of the most trusted sources for information from the cadets and well-acquainted with most of the officers stationed on Kamino. He also got a better idea why Alpha seemed as harsh as he was - even with Bacara taking on some of the tasks, Monnk always seemed to be busy keeping the heat off of the captain.
When he got the chance to speak with Alpha, Monnk pressed his luck and directly mentioned the meals he shared with the administrator, usually by pretending to have temporarily forgotten that arrangement. “Did you want to meet up during lunch to talk about-? Ah, sorry. I forgot you have a lunch partner. Lucky vod. We’ll figure it out later, then.”
So far, the captain hadn’t gotten angry about these little comments, but he didn’t seem to be particularly swayed by them, either.
Ah, well. Monnk would keep trying. Maybe he would turn up the intensity at some point, but this was enough for now. Anything more would be overkill.
—
“Drift, I swear to the gratii’la Maker that I’ll tear you to pieces if you don’t get us out of here right now!” the captain bellowed.
“Sorry, sir!” Drift apologized, only barely managing to keep the sound of his grin from showing in his voice. “The elevator just stopped! I don’t know what happened.”
Alpha continued shouting threats from behind the doors as Drift pulled his slicing kit out of the control panel. Drift tucked the kit neatly into the pouch on his belt as he chuckled at the occasional Mando’a obscenity the captain tossed into his tirade, half-wishing he could see his commanding officer’s face.
“Alpha!” the administrator chided, her voice only barely audible through the doors between them and Drift. “I’m sure he had nothing to do with it. Why would Drift want to get us stuck in an elevator?”
“What are youlaughing about?” Faie asked, approaching with Bacara. “Did you trick another cadet into calling a Kaminoan something inappropriate?”
“Not exactly,” Drift told him, beaming as the sound of quiet conversation reached his ears. They were talking, and that was the precursor to other things.
Bacara’s eyes traveled past Drift, widening as they scanned the panel and found it slightly askew. “Is that-?”
Drift pushed the panel fully back into place. “Alor and Cabur? Yeah.”
“Are you insane?” Faie hissed. “The captain’s gonna kill you.”
“We all knew it was just a matter of time,” Drift said flippantly. “But this might be enough to convince them.”
Bacara shouldered his way past Drift, clearly aiming for the panel while Drift hovered behind him, ready to pull his vodaway if he started to undo Drift’s hard work. Instead, Bacara just popped the panel open again, entered a long code into the miniscule keypad, and keyed in his datapad’s frequency.
Then he, Faie, and Drift watched as a grainy cam feed flickered to life on the small screen. The administrator and her captain were standing close - a necessary thing in such a confined space - but they weren’t touching. They were talking, though, and the captain was wearing the softest expression Drift had ever seen on his scarred face.
“Turn on the sound,” he urged. “I wanna hear what they’re saying.”
“I dunno,” Faie told him, eying the way the administrator’s hand settled lightly on the captain’s forearm. “Looks like a private conversation to me.”
“Exactly!” Drift told him, exasperated as he pressed what he guessed to be the correct button on the control panel.
It worked… in a way. A long beep came from the datapad, but it clearly had sounded inside of the elevator as well. Alpha and the administrator pulled apart, their conversation broken off as they glanced around.
“Osik,” Drift breathed, frowning when the expletive was repeated a second later from the screen. He had activated some kind of internal comm system.
Fortunately, Bacara had enough presence of mind to cover him and keep their self-instigated mission from being discovered. “Captain, it’s Bacara. Faie, Drift, and I are working to fix the elevator.”
Alpha snorted, his derision clear even through the tiny speaker of the datapad. “I’d rather not leave our safety to other people. Especially if Drift is one of those other people.”
He raised a large fist, clearly aiming for the control panel inside of the elevator as the administrator’s mouth fell into a stunned gape. Bacara made an aborted move toward the control panel and Drift had time to let out a panicked breath as Faie stared at him, wild-eyed. If Alpha destroyed an elevator that worked perfectly and had just been temporarily stalled, there would be hell to pay from the Kaminoans.
“Captain, wait!” he demanded, pushing the panel open once more, flicking a switch and pressing the four buttons necessary to restart power to the elevator. “We have it figured out now. The elevator will stop on the next floor down, then you can take it wherever you need to go.”
“Kriff that,” Alpha swore. “We’re taking the stairs from now on.”
And when the elevator doors opened on the next floor down, Alpha stomped out, leaving the administrator to trail in his wake.
Faie sighed, shaking his head at Drift. “You’re an idiot, vod. But I’ll give you this: I think I’ve figured out what I’m going to do for my push.”
Bacara disconnected his datapad and walked away with Faie, leaving Drift to put the panel back like he had found it. As he worked, Drift thought about his attempt, analyzing the successes and failures of it. Maybe it wasn’t the most elegant solution, but it hadn’t been a total loss, either.
He wouldn’t give up on it.
—
It didn’t take long for Faie to plan out his attempt. The most time-consuming part of the whole thing was waiting for the right situation to present itself. He needed to be in ARC training, working on defensive and offensive maneuvers, and he needed her to be there.
The administrator being in the ARC training area wasn’t exactly a rare thing, but it wasn’t common, either. That mirshepar'la report took up most of her time. Everyone knew it was busy work, a way of keeping the Senate occupied while the GAR and the troopers did the real work of fighting the Separatists. Well, maybe the administrator didn’t know it… but how could she not? An infant could see that.
In any case, Drift’s stunt with the elevator had given Faie the inspiration he needed to make his plans, and when she came to quietly observe the ARC training, he knew he had found his opportunity. Bacara had pointedly refused to participate in the mission, but he was usually fine with supporting the others in their work. That day, he had triggered a small electric charge that had temporarily frozen the administrator’s datapad. She was paying full attention to the training, guaranteed to see everything that Faie was planning.
“Captain?” he called, attracting Alpha’s attention. “Could you give another demonstration of Maneuver 127? I’d be interested to know how you adjust for the weight of a kama.”
Maneuver 127 was a tricky, showy motion. It required a trooper to fling himself into the air, twist to kick an opponent of equal or greater height, and spiral himself back into position to land on his feet and keep fighting. It was one of the most technically difficult movements in the entirety of Advanced Recon Commando training, and Alpha had perfected it before any of these men had been decanted.
The man in question frowned at Faie. “We went over that move two days ago and you have questions about it now?”
Even for the sake of the mission, Faie bristled at being found lacking. “I understood the rest of it, but I didn’t consider the kama’s effect on balance until today, sir.”
Alpha sighed. “Fine, but watch closely. I’m supposed to be training you sharala men, not putting on a show for you.”
As the captain strode to the middle of the training space, Faie noted with smugness that the administrator was watching him closely. Her attention was fixed on Alpha almost constantly, but it was good to know for certain that she was going to witness his competence and combat abilities. Faie couldn’t think of anything that would impress a female more.
Alpha’s muscles tensed and he leapt into the air, performing every motion perfectly. The kick he delivered was swift, sharp, and brutal - it would disable a droid immediately and any nat-born would beg for mercy just at the threat of it.
When Alpha landed on his feet once more, he glanced around the room. “And that’s how you balance. Any more que-?”
He had cut himself off as his eyes landed on the administrator, who was shaking with silent laughter. She noticed that he was watching her and waved her hands apologetically. “Sorry, I- I’m sorry! That was just… I never knew you were so spinny! It was-” she cut herself off and cleared her throat, striving for a serious tone. “It was very impressive.”
Alpha’s face took on a hint of red under his tan and glared at Faie. “Ten laps, men!”
As Faie ran, trying to figure out what had gone wrong, Neyo passed by and tossed him a sympathetic look. “Alor’s a tough one to crack, huh, vod?”
Faie couldn’t agree more.
—
The second time wasn’t his fault, not really.
Drift had been just around a corner when he heard Alpha’s exasperated huff emanating from a nearby storage room. “It’s not in here, neverd'ika.”
The administrator sighed. “Alpha, just- Yes, it is. I justsawit.”
Drift peeked around the corner. Alpha was indeed inside a storage closet and his administrator was waiting outside. The lights were off and he was rummaging around on the last shelf, his broad back aimed toward the door.
“You get it, then,” the captain huffed. “I don’t see it in here at all.”
“The whole reason I asked you is because I can’t reach it!”
“I can’t reach what isn’t in here!”
“This is ridiculous,” she muttered, stepping into the small storage closet while Drift watched from around his corner.
When Alpha didn’t leave the closet or turn around, the opportunity officially became too good to pass up. In seconds, Drift had sprinted up, closed the door, and activated the exterior lock.
The shouts and fists against the inside of the door started instantly, but Drift ignored them all. Instead, he retreated around the corner - safely out of earshot, with the noise in the closet - and activated the group comm frequency the ARCs-in-training had set up.
“Alor and Cabur mission completed,” he reported.
“There’s no way,” Neyo denied instantly.
A sigh that could only have come from Faie emanated from the speakers. “He means he’s trapped them in another elevator.”
“Ooh, bad idea,” Monnk said. “Captain’s gonna kill you.”
“Not if he’s busy enjoying life with his new girlfriend,” Drift countered. “I just need to figure out how to get from this point to that one. Any ideas?”
“Here’s an idea: run,” Monnk advised, and the other ARCs agreed. “You need to be far away from there when Cabur gets out.”
Drift opened his mouth to argue, but a cadet turned the corner, heard Alpha’s demands to be let out, and started for the control panel beside the door. Then he was too busy running to think up a witty reply.
—
Neyo wasn’t afraid of anyone or anything. It was part of what had signaled him out as an ideal ARC candidate. More than once, his quick actions and fearless demeanor had been the difference between life and death - not only his own, but those of his brothers and general.
Those skills translated well to ARC training, but Neyo wouldn’t have guessed that they could be applied to a conversation between himself and his ARC trainer.
Still, his mind was working overtime as he decided on a day. After the day’s training had ended - and Bacara had helpfully ushered the other men out of the ARC training area - Neyo approached Captain Alpha-17.
“Captain, can we have an honest conversation?” he asked.
Alpha stared at him for a moment, eyeing him skeptically before he checked his chrono and gave a slight sigh. “Fine, but… hurry. I have places to be.”
“Meeting your civvie - I know. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” Neyo told him quickly, seizing the conversational opening as soon as it appeared. He didn’t miss the way Alpha’s expression shuttered, turning icy as he gave a tight nod.
Realizing that was all the invitation he would get, Neyo got straight to the point. “You like her.”
Alpha blinked, startled at first, then incredulous. “Like h- Of course I like her! Why would I spend so much time with someone I can’t kriffing stand?”
“That isn’t what-” Neyo broke off, adjusting the trajectory of his point. “I meant that you clearly have a romantic interest in her. You should just ask her to go out with you. I’m sure she would say yes.”
The look Alpha sent Neyo’s way made the ARC-in-training’s blood turn to ice. Neyo’s spine stiffened as every instinct screamed that he was in danger.
But Alpha didn’t make a threatening move. He didn’t evenspeak.
Instead, the captain simply turned to leave, holding his glare for every millisecond possible before breaking his gaze.
The minute that chilling look was aimed away from him, Neyo started after Alpha. “Captain-"
"One more word, Neyo,” Alpha rumbled. “One. More.”
Neyo wasn’t afraid of anyone or anything. Theoretically, that included Captain Alpha-17 and his unfinished threats. In practice, though…
He decided to let things go.
—
The ARCs-in-training had to take a step back from their mission before much more progress could be made. A Separatist attack on Kamino had pushed duty before the pleasure that was - depending on the man - a toss-up between trying to ensure the captain’s happiness or thoroughly unbalancing him by putting him in situations he was unprepared to deal with.
On the smallest possible positive side, the attack gave the ARCs confirmation that their captain truly did care for the administrator. He had been unhinged during the attack while they were trying to find her, taking out tinnies with a speed and violence that none of the other men could hope to match even if all of their efforts were combined. And when they had found her, only to see that she had sustained injuries?
Well, none of the men had ever expected to see the legendary Captain Alpha-17 hobbled by his emotions.
Still, she hadn’t let it slow her down too much, despite the cast that wrapped around the lower half of her broken leg. She still spent plenty of time in the ARC training area… though there were also four new men to explain the mission to.
“So you’re trying to form a romantic connection between the two of them?” Tech asked, fiddling with his goggles as he did when he was deep in thought.
“No, of course not,” Faie denied, sounding offended. “That would be ridiculous. They already havea romantic connection.”
“We’re just trying to get the captain to act on it,” Monnk explained.
“Or the administrator,” Drift pitched in. “We’re not picky.”
“Code names, guys, c’mon,” Bacara muttered.
“Alor and Cabur, right?” Hunter asked. He didn’t hesitate or stumble on the pronunciation - trooper memory was too exact for that - but he frowned. “Were those chosen for a reason?”
“They’re Mando’a words,” Bacara explained. He had kept out of things for the most part, but he was good at running interference for his brothers. “Alor means ruler and-”
“Ruler?” Wrecker asked. “Why ruler? She’s not in charge of us.”
“It means ruler traditionally,” Faie told him. “In context of the GAR, it means something closer to ‘leader’ or ‘officer’. She’s basically an officer, or might as well be. Just one who doesn’t see combat.”
“Or shouldn’t have to,” Monnk said darkly and the group grew quiet thinking about everything that had happened during the attack.
“And Cabur?” Crosshair asked. He was easily the least interested of the cadets, but he had asked the question, which had to mean something.
“‘Protector’ or ‘guardian’,” Bacara said shortly. “He’s on his way here now. I’ll hold him up while you all finish explaining. I probably can’t keep him for long, so make it fast.”
They did, quickly explaining what they had done so far.
Crosshair snorted. “You’re all cowards. What you shoulddo is flirt with her, make him jealous.”
There was a beat of silence as the men considered that.
Drift chuckled lowly. “That’s what I’ve been trying to do since the first time I met her. Doesn’t work. Besides, none of us want to die at the captain’s hands. That’s not cowardly, it’s… it’s a wise allocation of resources. The resources in question being my face and my ability to keep using it.”
“I believe Neyo’s efforts make the most sense,” Tech opined when they had finished. “If this is something the cap- Cabur wants, the best thing to do is explain how to make it happen.”
“Nah, Faie’s got it,” Hunter disagreed. “She was impressed with everything he did during the attack, so we know she likes his competence. He just chose the wrong move. Civvies don’t understand how hard Maneuver 127 is to do.”
Wrecker grimaced. “Females are tricky and I don’t know what would work. But I’d flirt with her. I’m not scared of the captain.”
From the amused grumbles around the room, no one believed him, but they didn’t contradict him aloud so everyone else moved on.
Crosshair looked thoughtful. “Why don’t you make this more interesting? Turn it into a bet. First one to push them together wins it all.”
“We don’t have money, kid,” Neyo told him, chuckling.
“I’m sure you have something worth betting,” Crosshair said with a shrug. “No trooper leaves Kamino and comes back without any prizes at all.”
“Just help Drift, Crosshair,” Hunter told him.
“Yeah,” Monnk said with a grin. “Drift needs all the help he can get.”
Drift scoffed. “I don't need help because my plan is perfect enough to stand on its own.”
“When I die, it’s not gonna be because I locked the captain in a closet and he threw me from a platform,” Crosshair snarked.
Wrecker laughed loudly, throwing an arm around his brother’s shoulders. “Yeah, you’re gonna die from shame when I take out more droids than you!”
“I beat you during the attack,” Crosshair argued. “By a lot.”
That sparked an argument between the two cadets, but Bacara’s overly loud conversation warned them that Alpha was coming into the ARC training area, his administrator trailing just behind. The troopers exchanged weighty glances and got ready to train. Their conversation ended there, but the second half of their efforts were only beginning.
—
Unsurprisingly, Wrecker’s plan was the first to fail. He had done his best to flirt with the administrator, but considering that he was a cadet and not one of the smooth-talking ones, his efforts were immediately unsuccessful.
The administrator had laughed, erasing the uncomfortable smile from her face. “You’re adorable, Wrecker. I’ll have to pass, but that was very sweet.”
Wrecker’s smile had faded almost immediately when she walked past him and he was faced with a glaring Alpha looming over him.
“You boys are new here,” the captain ground out while Bacara lingered behind him, ready to interrupt if necessary. “I’ve let you figure things out for yourselves, but maybe that wasn’t a good choice on my part. You and I are gonna go over some basic rules and you can share ‘em with your brothers. Sound good?”
“Yes, sir,” Wrecker agreed instantly, trying to swallow the nervousness away from his voice.
“Good,” Alpha had said, pausing an extra moment. “Are you ready?”
“Yes, sir,” Wrecker said again, mostly because it seemed like the safest choice.
“First rule: keep what you learn to yourself. The other cadets don’t need to know what you know.”
“…okay,” Wrecker agreed slowly, wondering what this had to do with the administrator.
Alpha nodded approvingly. “Second rule: don’t pick fights with the other men. You haven’t spent much time with them and you have different skills from the ones they have, but they’re your brothers. If they start something, end it, but you do not make the first move.”
“No, sir. I won’t.” Wrecker was gaining confidence the longer this conversation went on.
“Third rule: if I everhear, see, or even think you’re flirting with a civilian administrator who is made uncomfortable by the attention, you and I are going to have a conversation that you will - not - like. Do you understand me, soldier?”
Wrecker had snapped to attention by the time the captain had asked his question, and fought the urge to salute as he replied, “Sir, yes sir!”
Captain Alpha-17 let Wrecker dangle there for a minute, one that felt even more intense under Bacara’s concerned gaze. Alpha brought his large hands together, slowly and methodically cracking every joint in his fingers before reaching up to crack his neck. The popping was loud in the taut silence, and Wrecker fought not to flinch with every sound.
“Great,” Alpha said, turning away from him. “I never want to have this conversation again.”
When he had left, Wrecker almost slumped in relief as Bacara let out the breath he had been holding. The ARC trainee let out a laugh clearly designed to break the tension. “Scratch that plan from the list of ideas.”
Wrecker could only agree.
—
Drift was observant. No one would believe it at first - and that was the way he liked things - but Drift took note of everyone and everything. It had helped him stand out from his brothers, and it had helped him take early notice of the way the captain and the administrator had claimed a particular balcony on the lower levels of Tipoca City as their own.
And so he took to haunting that particular section of the city, ready to continue his plan.
It didn’t take long to find the pair out on their balcony, and the door panel didn’t even need to be sliced to make it lock. Ever since the Separatist attack, all of the doors with exterior access had been programmed to lock from the inside, no matter where they were at on the compound.
It was the work of a single moment to engage the door’s lock – it was even soundless. The couple-to-be were none the wiser.
Drift knew better than to call his brothers to figure out the next step. They had shown a startling lack of understanding for his extremely nuanced plans, and were no help when it came to figuring out how to get Alpha and his administrator from ‘trapped together’ to ‘getting together’.
He was on his own.
Fortunately, Drift was an independent thinker, but he really thought quantity over quality of time together would sort things out. Most nat-borns believed in outside forces like fate or destiny. Maybe the admin would think that all of the times they had been locked into places with Alpha were because they were fated to be together and not because Drift was the only ARC-in-training with a valid plan.
In any case, he just had to keep them there. Alpha was a clever man, and he would probably try to slice the lock when he found out they were trapped on the balcony. Drift would block those attempts just enough times that Alor got to see how talented a slicer Cabur could be, then he would gracefully retreat and leave them to romantic bliss.
Of course, graceful retreat and respect of privacy were for later.
Drift pulled his datapad from the pouch on his belt, booting up the feed from the holocam he had strategically placed on the balcony while he was doing his prep work. It was a minuscule cam, impossible to notice unless one happened to look in exactly the right place on the outer frame of the door. And it had an audio feed.
When the feed displayed on the screen of Drift’s datapad, the pair looked peaceful, lost in the bliss of standing in each other’s arms - well, almost - and staring out at Kamino’s gray sky and gray ocean. Despite their depressing surroundings, both looked deliriously happy, like they were watching a sunset on Scarif instead of watching a midday gap in the rain on Kamino. Maybe love really wasblind.
Alpha’s arms were on either side of the administrator as he stood behind her. From what little Drift could see of her, she looked happy with that arrangement. Still, Alpha glanced down at the top of her head after a while.
“I think we should go back inside, neverd’ika,” he said, normally gruff voice gentle and full of reluctance. “We both have work to do.”
She stirred gently, giving a sigh so light that Drift was impressed by the tiny cam’s mic quality. “You’re right, Alpha. But thank you; I needed this.”
“Any time, you know that.” Alpha was still smiling slightly as he turned around to prod at the door’s exterior control panel.
That smile disappeared entirely when the door didn’t open, and he was outright frowning by the time he had finally accepted that something was wrong.
“What’s going on?” the administrator asked.
“Something’s wrong with the door,” Alpha bit out.
“Uh oh,” she replied, sounding more than a little concerned. “I’m not terribly afraid of heights, but I really don’t want to spend the night out here.”
“We won’t,” Alpha reassured her. “We’ll call someone to let us in. It might just take some time for them to get here.”
“…Do you have your comlink?” she asked. “Because I don’t.”
Alpha froze. “I… don’t. I left it in my quarters with my armor. Along with my slicing kit.”
Drift beamed. Without a slicing kit or a comlink, the two really were stuck out there. They would have no choice but to talk and, eventually, come to terms with their feelings. An extremely intoxicated Commander Hilltop had once told Drift that relationships took two things: chemistry and a crucible. While Drift had a healthy amount of skepticism for anything one of his brothers said about relationships, that one made sense to him. Alpha and the administrator had chemistry, and this was definitely a crucible…
“What are we going to do?” the administrator asked, her voice tight with growing tension.
“It’s okay, neverd’ika,” Alpha soothed, setting a hand on her shoulder. “I have an idea.”
His free hand rose to her other shoulder and Drift held his breath, certain he was going to see his captain kiss the pretty civvie… but Alpha just positioned her in one corner of the balcony.
“Stay there. I’m going to break the door down and I’ll need as much room as I can get.”
“Break the door down?” the administrator asked, watching Alpha with horror.
“Break the door down?” Drift repeated, watching the datapad with horror.
“It’s solid durasteel,” she continued. “You’ll hurt yourself!”
He turned and aimed a sharp kick at the panel beside the door. It made an ominous cracking sound, then began to beep frantically. The inner panel flashed with all kinds of interesting colors and warning lights.
“One more should do it,” Alpha reported.
Drift agreed, which is why he sprinted away from the door as quickly as he could. The cam feed on the datapad showed that they made it safely through the door in under a minute. Drift was long gone by that point… though he realized on the way that he hadn’t had time to close the door panel before he left.
—
“I hope you know what you’re getting us into,” Neyo muttered. “It didn’t go well the last time.”
“That is because you tried to advise him based on your own understanding,” Tech countered. “Why should Cabur trust your experience with females since it is so lacking? This information was found scattered in various places across the holonet.”
“That doesn’t make it true, kid,” Neyo argued.
Tech frowned at him, eyes narrowing behind his goggles. “Why would it have been recorded to so many different places if it weren’t true?”
“Because natties don’t make sense.”
“Do you have a better plan?”
Neyo sighed. “No. No, I don’t. Fine, let’s try passing on your holonet advice.”
“After considering all of the variables, I believe this will be the best time to speak with him,” Tech explained. “He is about to go see Alor, which puts him in an observably better-than-average mood, but the day’s training has ended, so the captain is less likely to be in a warrior’s mindset.”
“I’m always in a warrior’s mindset,” a voice rumbled from behind them, sending the same tension through the cadet’s shoulders as the ARC trainee’s. “Why are you men so concerned about my mental state?”
Neyo tensed, but Tech turned and breezily asked the captain, “Did you tell her that she looks lovely today?”
Alpha frowned. “No, I- Why would I? Is there something going on?”
“No, but it is always advisable,” Tech pointed out.
Neyo nodded, backing up the young cadet. “Yeah, Captain, he’s right. Females like knowing that they look nice.”
“That’s… not a terrible idea…” Alpha slowly conceded, seemingly searching for a way to think of it as one anyway.
“No, it isn’t,” Tech agreed. “You could also consider bringing her flowers.”
“Flowers?” Neyo tensed, thinking Tech had pushed too far, but Alpha only looked thoughtful. “Why? Did she say she wanted flowers? I don’t know if I could find any, but if she wants them…”
“No, she didn’t say she wants flowers,” Neyo admitted, knowing that in particular could come back to bite them. Tech glared, but Neyo ignored him. Only one of them was being directly trained by Alpha, and Neyo wasn’t going to suffer the consequences if Alpha thought they had tricked him. “It might just be nice for her to get some kind of gift. You know how hard she works.”
“She does work too much,” Alpha agreed with a slow shake of his head. “But if I’m gonna get her a gift, it’ll be something she can use, not some di’kutlaflowers. Maybe a vibroblade, or a small blaster.”
Tech shot Neyo a triumphant look, but Neyo shook his head. The captain was smart, and it was too early to start celebrating.
Sure enough, Alpha’s eyes sharpened a moment later. “What brought all this on, men?”
“We simply thought you could use some assistance,” Tech said before Neyo could stop him.
“Assistance,” Alpha repeated, voice slow and dangerous.
“Yes, because you seem to have trouble forming a romantic connection to the administrator,” Tech continued, heedless of the growing danger. Alpha seemed to loom larger in front of the slender cadet as Neyo’s hands tensed, ready to pull him away. However, the feeling of impending violence from Alpha halted as Tech said, “It is quite perplexing, considering the obvious strength of her feelings toward you.”
Alpha halted entirely, and Neyo hadn’t even noticed that he had been moving until that moment. “Get out of here, men. We aren’t talking about this.”
When they were out of earshot, Tech turned to Neyo. He looked thoroughly disgruntled. “What were you doing? I had more information to share.”
Neyo stared at the cadet, utterly heedless of the danger he had so narrowly escaped, and shook his head. “You’re one lucky verd’ika, you know that? We’re dropping this.”
Tech snorted, but didn’t refuse. It was good enough for Neyo.
—
“What about Attack Formation 37?” Hunter asked.
Faie shook his head. “No, that’s a group formation. Still impressive, but more based on teamwork than individual strength.”
“Ooh, what if we asked him to demonstrate the right way to disable a weaponized flying probe droid?” Hunter’s dark eyes gleamed excitedly at the prospect.
Faie bit back a sigh. Hunter was a cadet, just a kid. Well, as much as any of the troopers could be considered children, anyway. These cadets in particular had been kept away from the others because of their mutations, which had led to them being far more mature in some ways and far less in others.
Hunter had been a huge help when the ARCs-in-training were helping to take out the Separatist infiltrators around Kamino. Without Hunter, Crosshair, Tech, and Wrecker, it was likely the future ARCs wouldn’t have been able to fight off Ventress. They hadn’t managed to capture her before she fled the planet, but they had kept her from getting the Fett genetic sample or killing more people, which was a better outcome than anyone had expected.
That being said, Faie was beyond frustrated with the way Hunter was straying from the task at hand. Yes, he was suggesting ways that they could showcase Alpha’s competence and impress the administrator…but all of Hunter’s suggestions were far less focused on finding the most impressive moves and maneuvers and far more focused on having Alpha demonstrate all of the things that the cadet wanted to learn.
With infinite patience - or as close as he could manage, anyway - Faie said, “No, that won’t work the way we want it to, either. Flying droid intercepts almost always involve the use of a net gun, which is tricky, but ultimately looks unimpressive.”
Hunter nodded slowly. “Maybe Maneuver 63?”
“That might work…” Faie agreed, filled with relief about an idea that would be acceptable… if not for certain other factors that the cadet wouldn’t know about. “The only problem is that it needs a Z-6 rotary blaster and we don’t keep one of those around, not for practice purposes. By the time we found one, Alor would have probably lost interest or remembered something else she needs to work on.”
Hunter sighed, but froze before he could finish the exhale. “They’re coming-”
Alpha and the administrator stepped through the doors an instant later. Faie appreciated Hunter’s gifts, but that hadn’t been very much warning. “Don’t say anything. We’ll figure it out and try a different time.”
“Cabur’s happy and so is Alor,” Hunter hissed. “We won’t get a better time than this.”
As the couple crossed to where Faie and Hunter were standing, Alpha was clearly trying to ignore them both, but the administrator smiled and gave a small wave in their direction.
“Hello,” the administrator greeted. “What are you two doing today?”
“Trying to figure out a tricky maneuver,” Faie answered, but Hunter interrupted a moment later.
“Captain, what’s the best way to disable the memory stored in a commando droid?” the cadet asked.
Alpha’s brows shot upward, then furrowed as he gave Faie an unhappy look. “That’sthe tricky maneuver, Faie? You should know that well enough from your training, soldier. C’mere, kid.”
Faie did his best not to glare at Hunter as the cadet went to stand beside Alpha. “We’re gonna use Faie as our commando droid in this example. The memory storage is here.” Alpha’s fingertips connected roughly with Faie’s body-glove clad chest. “You’ll have to hit hard to get through the durasteel plating in the way. Your best bet is shooting it, aiming for the small maintenance panel here.”
Faie fought not to wince at the second hard prod to his chest.
“I understand, sir,” Hunter said quickly.
“Good,” Alpha approved, sending Faie a dark look. “Faie, where is the memory storage in a B-1 battle droid?”
“In its head, sir,” Faie replied immediately, struck with an idea at the same time. “Maybe you should explain to Hunter how he would remove a B-1’s head by hand if it ever became necessary.”
Alpha’s frown deepened. “He’s a cadet. He would have to use tools - knowing him, a vibroknife would be his first choice.”
“I could use an explanation for when I’m fully-grown, sir,” Hunter told him, eyes brightening in the way they did when he sensed that he could learn something new and interesting.
Alpha snorted. “Tell you what, kid: when you’re fully-grown, find me and I’ll show you then. Deal?”
“Yes, sir,” Hunter agreed.
“Faie.”
“Yes, sir?” Faie asked, a little surprised to be addressed again.
“By the end of the week, I want to see that you’ve logged at least two non-instruction hours on the droid component module.” Alpha crossed his arms over his chest and the administrator looked sympathetically at Faie.
“Yes, sir,” Faie agreed tiredly.
Alpha nodded and left, the administrator by his side.
“So…” Hunter started hesitantly. “What maneuver were you thinking would work best?”
Faie shook his head. “Forget it, kid. I have two module hours to log.”
—
When he couldn’t sleep, Drift made a point of walking around Kamino’s training compound.
There wasn’t much more he could learn from the area - after all, he had spent years mastering every subject and practice activity the Kaminoans could develop and throw at their cadets - but he enjoyed showing the Kaminoans that he could get inside. Their security measures were okay, for civilian stuff, but rudimentary considering that they had trained a literal army to do things like slice locks and break into high-security locations.
One night, Drift was walking through a darkened practice area - utterly lost in the mad tangle of sleepless thought - when a lurching fighter simulator almost crushed him.
It was a testament to his training that he even noticed it, soundless as it had been, but also that Drift was equally silent as he leapt out of the way and turned to study the machinery. It didn’t seem to be damaged or malfunctioning.
It was only then that he heard the slight gasp from inside, followed by a small laugh.
“Did I scare you?” a feminine voice asked, still bubbling with laughter.
A slightly shaking breath answered that, followed by the sound of Alpha’s voice. “I’m not scared of much, neverd’ika, but your flying skills are… a challenge.”
An offended gasp. “Excuse me? I’ll have you know that I am the safest pilot I know!”
“On Coruscant?” Drift grinned at the way he could hear the captain’s raised eyebrow. “That planet has a higher number of speeder collisions than the total population of most planets. Just because you’re the safest pilot youknow doesn’t mean you’re a safe pilot.”
“I’m an extremely safe pilot!” the administrator lectured, met by Alpha’s disbelieving snort. “I am! I’m just not used to flying military transport vehicles.”
She laughed again. “Alpha, I’m grateful you’re taking the time to do this, but honestly? If it ever comes down to a situation when I’m going to have to fly a military transport to live, I’m probably going to end up dying either way.”
“Not funny, little one,” Alpha growled.
Drift’s spine stiffened reflexively at that tone. The captain only used that voice when he was deathly serious about something… and there wasn’t an ARC trainee among them who didn’t listen when he did.
To his utter disbelief, she didn’t seem even slightly intimidated by the implicit threat in Alpha’s voice. “If you wanted funny, you should have caught me after a full night of sleep.”
“Yeah? When’s the last time you had one of those?”
She fell silent at that, and the quiet lasted long enough that even Drift got uncomfortable.
When the captain spoke again, it was with uncharacteristic gentleness. “It’ll get easier, neverd’ika. The nightmares fade.”
“So you tell me,” she agreed, her tone much less doubtful than the words would make it seem. “Well, since we’re awake, will you show me again how to fly this thing?”
“Yeah.”
When Drift engaged the lock on the practice cockpit, it was a half-hearted gesture at best, but one he made anyway. The simulator cockpits were small, but they were designed for a trainer and a cadet, so they boasted two seats. The locks on the simulators were flimsy and mass-produced, easy to break, and he started to leave the training area without a qualm when he heard the administrator speak.
“Wait, I- I thought I heard something. I’m going to check…” The door rattled, but not hard enough to snap the lock. Not yet, anyway. “We’re locked in. How did that happen?”
Alpha sighed. “That’s been happening a lot lately. Probably Drift.”
She laughed disbelievingly. “Drift? Alpha, you’ll find a way to blame him for anything.”
“And I’m not wrong,” Alpha grumbled. “Do you want me to break the lock? It’ll be easy enough.”
Drift’s tired muscles tensed, ready to launch into a full-speed run before they could leave the simulator and find him there.
The administrator eventually said, “I mean, there’s no rush. I’m sure someone who can help us will be by soon. We’ll keep working on this, right?”
“As long as you want,” Alpha promised.
Drift left them to spend time in the two-seater simulation cockpit, grinning to himself when he heard they had been released from it the next morning when one of the instructors had found them sharing the small space as they slept beside each other.
—
“So, men,” Monnk started before the ARC training for the day had begun. “What progress has everyone made?”
“What progress have youmade?” Drift countered. “I haven’t seen you around much.”
Monnk shrugged. “I’ve been doing little things here and there, but nothing too crazy. I don’t need the captain catching on.”
“None of us do,” Neyo affirmed. “Though some people could be doing more to distract the captain and keep his attention elsewhere.”
With that, he shot a glare at Bacara, who held up his hands in a palms-out gesture of innocence. “Hey, I’ve been doing plenty, especially for someone who isn’t really involved in any of this! Not my fault I’ve had to work harder keeping a certain cadet from sabotaging everyone else!”
“Cross, really?” Hunter asked, sounding exasperated, if not surprised.
Crosshair shrugged. “No one wanted a betting system. I had to find some way to keep things interesting.”
That sent a generally dissatisfied murmur through the gathered ARCs-in-training and cadets, but no one seemed truly displeased.
“Well, all of my efforts turned bad,” Faie admitted.
“Mine, too,” Neyo agreed.
“A little progress for me, but not much,” Drift told them all.
Monnk sighed, rubbing at the space between his eyebrows. “Well, I think that settles it, then. We’ve done everything we can for them and it’s either worked or it hasn’t. They’ll just have to come to terms with their feelings on their own.”
“So we’re just going to stay out of everything?” Bacara asked carefully.
“Oh, kriff that!” Wrecker said. “We have to know what happens!”
“Definitely,” Neyo agreed with a decisive nod. “We’ll keep tabs on things, but no more interfering. Agreed?”
Everyone agreed, some more hesitantly than others, but the feeling of tension releasing was strong in the ARC training area. Whatever happened between Alor and Cabur happened, but it wouldn’t be directly caused by any of the cadets or future ARCs.
It was something of a relief to all of them. War was easy, but romance? That was tricky, something best left to the professionals.
Whether Alpha could be considered one of those professionals remained to be seen.
—
Author’s Note - someone suggested this, and I’m pretty sure it was an anonymous ask, but I’m not 100% on it. Whoever you are, just know that your suggestion completely took over my brain! I hope you enjoyed your gigantic bonus chapter!
You can find other works on my masterlist or sign up for my taglist here.
The sound of a hundred metal feet marching closer and closer.
The taste of adrenaline rolling over a tongue.
Darting across a space that is just too vast, too open. Unprotected.
A dull throbbing in a leg- chest- throat-
Pale fingers outstretched, failing to hide a sneer and cold silver eyes as it got harder and harder to breathe past the immense tightness in your throat…
You flew upright in bed, gasping loudly and fumbling with the comlink attached to your wrist. The sheets had hardly finished floating to rest in a puddle on your lap when the call went through.
“I-” you managed to take half a breath, swallowing with difficulty. “No-nothing. Nothing is wrong, Alpha. I’m- I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to- I just… Sorry.”
And you disconnected the call before he could say anything else. The room was dark, lit only by the comlink’s glowing face. You stared down at that small spot of brightness, noting absently that it was the middle of the night. You had only been asleep for a few hours before you had started to dream- well, have a nightmare, really.
But you didn’t want to think about that.
Instead, you forced your mind to focus on the comlink itself. It was an exact match to the one Alpha had given you in the cafeteria so long ago. Funny enough, you had ordered it to replace the one Alpha had given you to keep in touch with him. However, when yours had been destroyed during the Separatist attack, Alpha had insisted that you take this one.
The Separatist attack…
You sighed. It seemed that all mental paths were conspiring to take you to the one place you didn’t want to go.
Knowing full-well that you weren’t going to get back to sleep for a while, you switched on the small, bed-side lamp and sat staring at the wall, trying to quiet your mind. When a knock sounded at your door, you weren’t surprised, not really.
Wordlessly, you opened the door to let Alpha inside.
The ARC captain immediately made the room seem to shrink around his broad form. He settled on the chair by your bedside like it had been made for him. It may not have been, but he had been the one to place it there, taking up a guard shift over more than one of your naps when you had first been released from the medbay. He had certainly spent enough time in that chair. No wonder he seemed so comfortable in it.
Alpha didn’t speak, choosing instead to stare pointedly at the bed. Every muscle in your body screamed to go, to move, to run… but you obeyed his unspoken command and climbed back onto the mattress. The silence stretched. It didn’t put you enough at ease to grow drowsy, but it also didn’t grow tense enough to make you break it.
You didn’t have any way of knowing how long you had sat in the hush of your room when Alpha finally crossed his arms over his chest. “Bad dream?”
“Yeah.”
You hadn’t even considered being embarrassed by your admission, despite how much more - how much worse - Alpha had experienced. Throughout the process of your healing, Alpha had been fully supportive and understanding, and you were willing to tell him anything.
Well,almostanything.
“Happens to most soldiers, especially after their first combat,” Alpha said.
“I’m not a soldier, though,” you countered.
Alpha shrugged. “You handled yourself better than most shinies. Especially considering that you don’t have any of their training. But no matter how well you did, the bad dreams still come.”
You nodded, but didn’t say anything. There didn’t seem to be much to say to that. Alpha’s knowledge came from a place of personal understanding, so you trusted it implicitly.
“Do you want to go back to sleep or do you need to talk through it?” he asked.
With a sigh, you admitted, “I’m not sure. I don’t think I’ll be able to go back to sleep right away, but I don’t really want to talk about it. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have bothered you.”
“No, you did exactly the right thing,” Alpha said firmly. “I want to know what’s going on with you, neverd’ika - good, bad, anything. I need to know what’s happening so I can help. I’m here, so just tell me: how can I help? What do you need me to do?”
“I don’t know,” you hedged. “Can you just talk for a little while? How are you doing?”
Alpha watched you with a hint of a frown on his face, but began speaking a moment later. He didn’t talk about his own emotional state or any troubles he had handling the aftermath of the Separatist invasion - no, he mostly talked about the reconstruction efforts.
“We’re slowly working our way through to where the destroyed platform is,” he told you at one point. You grimaced, knowing how dangerous it was to travel between the platforms that had survived and the stilt that made up the base of the new platform. Alpha insisted on supervising the process, no matter how many times they told him he wasn’t needed there. “They’re still focused on preserving what they can of the corridors between platforms.”
You nodded anyway, knowing that Alpha’s interest in the reconstruction of the laboratories was how he was processing the attack. He had kept most of his reactions to the attack secured inside his mind rather than sharing them with you. But still, you saw the way his jaw tightened when he saw a group of cadets that was clearly one man short of a full squad. He frowned so fearsomely when he saw the gaps at the tables in the cafeteria that you had started to arrive later to meals. The spaces weren’t as noticeable then.
But he had slipped once when you were with him. You had joined him as he was observing one of the barracks. It had sustained heavy damages during the attack and the Kaminoans had started to work on making it safe again. Alpha didn’t trust any Kaminoan as far as he could throw them - probably less than that distance, honestly - and he wanted to check up on the process personally.
When you had stepped into the room, you found that most of the work had already been finished. There was a trooper sweeping the floor while a group of Kaminoans consulted with each other beside one long wall. Buried in the group was Lama Su, the Prime Minister of Kamino.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Alpha had shouted across the expanse, the harsh demand in his voice making you jump.
“Painting a wall, Captain,” one of the Kaminoans explained. You didn’t recognize him, but he clearly knew Alpha.
“Thekriff you are,” Alpha bit out. Something in his tone made you glance over at him. Alpha was watching the Kaminoans, gaze intent. His body was carefully relaxed, but you could see that the muscles in his neck were corded, standing out from his skin. “Back away.”
“Alpha,” you had murmured, setting a hand on his arm. He had thrown it off a moment later as he stalked forward to stand in front of the wall in question.
“The first one to touch this gets-"
You had cut through his threat swiftly, pushing yourself between Alpha and the Kaminoans. "What exactly is it that you’re painting over?"
"This graffiti,” Taun We said, gesturing gracefully to the wall.
You turned to look at it, grabbing Alpha’s wrist at the same time. He could have shaken you off easily, just as he had the first time, but he didn’t. Instead, his wrist had twisted in yours, moving until your fingers were laced together beside the rough weave of his kama.
It took a moment to process the shock of Alpha’s movement, and you stared blindly at the wall you were supposed to be seeing. When your surprise had passed, you had refocused on the section your eyes were directed toward.
…and your breath caught in your throat.
The ‘graffiti’ turned out to be a simple but stunning mural featuring a clone trooper helmet in front of a pair of crossed blaster rifles. Underneath were a mixture of names and CT numbers, written in painstakingly neat script.
You reached out with the hand not clasped in Alpha’s and traced the numbers '99’ on the wall. “Is this a memorial?”
Alpha didn’t say anything, but his hand tightened around yours.
“You cannot insist on humanizing the clones,” Taun We told you. “They are manufactured beings, products, and there is no need-"
"I think there’s a very great need,” you interrupted. “In fact, I think a mural on a wall is a poor thank-you to the troopers who gave their lives to ensure that the Separatists were repelled.”
“You are already the cause of much disruption,” Taun We warned. “Why are you attempting to cause even more disorder?”
“Tell me, how would your bottom line have done if the troopers stood back and let Ventress take the Fett genetic sample?”
Your question had hung heavy in the air, the Kaminoans looking down at you in the closest thing to disgust you had ever seen them display.
“We would have found another sample,” an unfamiliar male told you.
“Yes, but how long would it have taken to find another sample, create batches, and edit the genes as necessary?” you asked. “My guess is a year, maybe longer. And every day this laboratory isn’t producing troopers is a day on which you are losing millions of credits. You would probably make up for those losses, but could it be done in time to avoid the Republic finding another cloning service?”
“They would do no such thing,” Lama Su denied, pulling his head back in offense. “We have a contract.”
“Yes, I’ve seen it,” you agreed. “I especially liked the clause that allows the Republic to seek out alternate sources for troopers if the Kaminoan laboratories are unable to provide them.”
The Kaminoans glanced at each other, sharing their displeasure among the group. You didn’t especially care at the moment.
“So with all of this at stake, the fact that the troopers held off an army of Separatists, isn’t it fair to let them have this one memorial? A chance to remember their dead?” you pressed. “If they’re denied that chance, they could request much more. And I, in particular, would be thrilled to help them articulate their request.”
“Very well,” Lama Su agreed sourly. “They may have their graffiti. But do not make the mistake of thinking you can interfere with more of our training methods. We must have order and obedience from our clones, regardless of how the Republic may feel.”
Alpha’s grip on your hand felt tight enough to bruise, but it had loosened considerably as the Kaminoans left the barracks. The trooper who had been sweeping the construction debris came over, offering a salute to Alpha and a nod to you.
“Thank you for sticking up for us, sir,” he had said, gratitude filling his face. “Ma'am. It means a lot for the men to have something like this, a way to remember the ones who didn’t make it.”
“Don’t thank me, soldier,” Alpha had ordered, gaze intent on the list of names on the wall.
You had stayed to talk to the trooper for a while longer, but Alpha hadn’t let go of your hand until you were leaving the barracks.
“Are you okay?” Alpha asked.
You blinked at him, vaguely recognizing that he had interrupted his own story about the stilt city’s reconstruction. “Yeah, I think so. Why?”
“You’re fidgeting.”
His nod down at your hand made you frown, but Alpha was right - you were tapping your fingers in a frantic, unfamiliar beat against your thigh. You stopped the moment you realized it, but the forced stillness only made a hot, tangled ball of ugly energy rise in your chest.
“I- I’m not sure what that’s about,” you admitted, watching in utter detachment as you began to wiggle your foot from side to side as quickly as the motion could be done. “I just feel like I need to move.”
“Do you want to walk around?” Alpha asked, half-standing from his chair.
You did, more than almost anything… but the idea of seeing that bleak, distrustful look on the faces of the cadets made you shrink back. It had been happening since the attack, and you didn’t think you could handle it, not right now. “No, I… I’m okay.”
Alpha watched you closely, lowering himself back into the chair. “Are you ready to talk about it?”
“I don’t think so?” you guessed. Because it was a guess. You couldn’t honestly tell what you were feeling, besides that you were uncomfortable and on-edge.
“Talk to me, neverd'ika,”Alpha urged, his voice soft and persuasive in a way you never heard it. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“I don’t know if I can, really, but I’ll try,” you agreed, feeling self-conscious as Alpha’s eyes focused on you. “I feel like… I have too much energy… but, at the same time, like I can’t go anywhere or do anything."
A silence fell and you chuckled self-deprecatingly. "That doesn’t make much sense, huh?”
“Makes perfect sense to me,” Alpha disagreed, still watching you closely. “What else?”
“I also feel like… like the room is too big, somehow.” That struck just the wrong chord and you struggled to take a full breath. Your arms came up to hug yourself. “Like I’m gonna get lost in it. Like I can’t control anything.”
“Do you have a heavy blanket?” Alpha asked, the question just odd enough to bring you back to yourself.
“Uh… no,” you said. “Are you cold?”
After giving you the driest look you had ever seen, Alpha shook his head. “It helps sometimes. A sweater, clothing, something to give you a sense of weight. You don’t have anything like that?”
“No,” you admitted, hugging yourself tighter and squeezing your eyes shut. Shipping things to Kamino was a long and arduous process, but you would make a note to get a heavy blanket sent to you. Assuming your next meeting with Judge Oiplis didn’t end with you getting sent away from Kamino and, more than likely, locked away in a prison of some kind.
Unsurprisingly, this train of thought wasn’t helping much. It was getting difficult to keep your breathing even and steady.
The bed lurched into an alarming angle and your immediate thought was that the platform holding your room was tipping into the storm-tossed oceans. When your eyes snapped open, you found that the room was still fully upright and not bound for the ocean, but Alpha was closer.
Muchcloser.
“Alpha?” you squeaked out.
“Lie down,” he ordered and you did it without a second thought.
The moment you were fully horizontal, Alpha shuffled closer to you, turning onto his side at the same time. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes,” you agreed immediately. It hadn’t even taken a moment for you to think over the question. You trusted Alpha more than anyone - more than you trusted yourself, most days.
A heavy arm crossed over your chest, his hand wrapping around your shoulder on the other side from where he was lying. The moment his forearm pressed against your skin, the tension dissipated from your muscles. From your waist to your sternum and up to your shoulder, Alpha’s arm served as a weight that managed to shrink the room and give you something to ground yourself in.
Your eyes drifted closed without your permission and you simply soaked in the peace and silence for longer than you could track. Eventually, Alpha stirred slightly, and you turned your head to look at him.
He had settled on his side facing you, one arm tucked under his head while the other provided you with the weight you had needed. Your bed was large enough to suit you, but there wasn’t room for two people to be far apart - especially when one of them was Alpha’s size. You were staring into his deep brown eyes from so close that you could see the way his pupils dilated in the low light.
“How are you feeling?” he murmured, voice still so deep that it vibrated up through his arm and across your entire torso.
“Better,” you replied, shocked at the languid relaxation in your voice. How had you ever been confused about the impact this would have on the situation? The weight of Alpha’s arm was amazing, a way to feel physically centered, grounded in this place and time in a way you had been struggling with since the attack. “Thank you, Alpha.”
A low laugh rumbled through his chest and across your torso. “No need to thank me, neverd’ika. This isn’t exactly a punishment.”
The end of his explanation ended with a tightness, a sense of tension in the air that made you start to frown, but you were too relaxed to follow up on that.
Instead, you admitted quietly, “I think I might fall asleep.”
“Good,” he told you, approval warming his voice. “You should.”
“Alpha?”
“Mmm?”
“Do you have nightmares?” you asked, your tiredness removing your filter.
“Most soldiers do,” Alpha replied simply. “Nothing different about me. I get ‘em sometimes. Not often anymore, but they happen.”
“If you want-” you started, pausing while you tried to build the courage you needed to finish it. He was watching you curiously, but you let your eyelids drift closed so you didn’t have to meet that gaze. “If you want, I could return the favor next time you have a nightmare.”
Alpha didn’t say anything and when you snuck a look at him from under your lashes, he was watching you with an odd softness in his expression. “I’ll keep that in mind, neverd’ika. Enough talking. I’ll stay until I know you’re asleep.”
You hummed an affirmative. Now that you had said what you needed to, the weariness had returned in full force and you were steadily losing the battle against sleep. Drowsily, you told Alpha, “Could stay longer if you want.”
If he answered, you didn’t hear it. You were gone as soon as you finished making your ill-advised offer, dropping into sleep like a stone into a pond - swiftly, silently, and without even a ripple.
The last thing you were aware of before the darkness closed over your head was the feeling of someone combing fingers through your hair.
—
A/N - Like I said, short chapter. Maybe the fluff makes up for it a bit? Thanks for reading and I hope you liked it! Thanks to those who have reblogged to help my work spread, and those who left comments or asks about this fic! I appreciate you!
Other works can be found on my masterlist or you can sign up for my taglist here!
It was an abrupt change: one moment, you were floating along, sleeping and unaware of your surroundings. You weren’t dreaming, but you could almost feel your body working to… to do something. You weren’t quite sure what it was, but it was something necessary, something it needed to do to keep going.
And then everything changed. You made some small motion - shifted your weight or twitched a toe - and the world came crashing back down. Everything hurt.
Everythinghurt.
For the first time in your life, you were horribly aware of the entire length of your throat leading down to your lungs. Letting out a breath stung - drawing one in was even worse. How badly had you been injured that it was painful to breathe?
You coughed lightly, more to counter the cold burning sensation in your lungs than out of any need to clear something from your throat, but that only made you aware of a dull ache in your abdomen and ribs.
You kicked your feet a bit, dissatisfied with the quality of everything at the moment. At that moment, speech was the last thing on your mind. You could only show how unhappy you were by moving your body. For an odd moment, you felt a kinship with infants, but all of those strange thoughts were knocked from your mind when your leg actually moved.
Despite what you tried, your ankle wouldn’t twist. Instead, your foot seemed locked in place. That was enough to send you into a panic for a reason you couldn’t explain, and you woke up all the way, launching yourself upward to stare down at your leg and foot.
Dimly, Alpha was aware of the cadets springing into action. Crosshair started firing at the mass of droids, every shot resulting in another droid hitting the ground. Tech tapped frantically at his datapad, muttering about diverting any droid reinforcements. Hunter reached to pull a pair of vibroblades from a belt looped around his waist, throwing them at the super battle droids in the area. Wrecker bowled a piece of Kaminoan lab equipment from across the room, knocking down over a dozen.
All of this was recognized as if over a great distance. The majority of Alpha’s focus was stolen by Ventress and the hold she had on Colt.
Colt was a good man. He oversaw Alpha’s work with the ARCs and while Alpha normally would have resented the supervision, Colt had been one of his earliest trainees.
Commander Colt had been skittish as a trainee and a bit clumsy, but energetic and headstrong. He had earned the name when another trainee had laughingly compared him to a fathier colt - wobbly, uncertain, fast, and unbelievably stubborn. He had grown into his energy, though - become one of the hardest-working troopers Alpha had ever met. If Colt didn’t know something, he worked until he figured it out, and he was never reluctant to ask questions when someone knew more than he did.
Yes, Colt was a good man, a strong commander, and a favorite vod. Alpha couldn’t let Colt die, especially not the same way he had almost died on that failure of a mission.
Even if the thought of seeing those cold eyes and that disgusted sneer made his jaw clench until it ached.
Since the title of this is half of a Mando'a phrase, I had to dissect the phrase as I tried to figure out exactly which words I needed. And, since I think better when I physically write things down, there has just been a piece of paper with different versions of ‘Haatyc or'arue jate'shya ori'sol aru'ike nuhaatyc’ on my couch since this chapter was posted.
Tidiness really isn’t my strong suit, as you can guess.
It was a simple sentence, even a helpful one. From those few words, Alpha knew that Ventress was on Kamino, he knew that she was at least partially behind this attack, and he knew where the droids intended to take you. He could plan an intercept route and release you from their captivity.
Unfortunately, his soldier’s mind - one he had honed over years of work and combat experience - was locked in a box in the back of his brain.
Most of his mind was occupied in struggling against a sea of roaring blankness. It threatened to rise out from the corners of his vision, blocking the steady stream of information from his HUD and overtaking his senses until all he knew was the panic.
With extreme effort, Alpha fought it back. You needed him right now, needed him more than ever. He couldn’t fail you, no matter how much the scar bisecting his eyebrow ached.
With a single sharp twist, Alpha planted his feet and tore the head off of the B1 he was fighting. When the droid dropped to lay sparking on the ground, he turned his attention to the proper order of combat. First, dispatch the threats in the immediate area. Next, help brothers with their opponents. Then, check the immediate area for other potential threats. Finally, help victims.
The steps were completed in moments, efficient and ruthless. Alpha focused on the rhythm of violence, a beat he had been practicing since he was decanted. The blank numbness threatening his mind receded, and it wasn’t until he stood in a droidless room that he paused to take a breath.
Writing PTSD was hard (I did way too much research about it), but the hardest part of this chapter was trying to give personality to the canon ARC commanders without stepping on existing characterization! I’m not overly familiar with Faie or Neyo in canon, so I was scouring articles trying to figure out a good way to represent them.
I was pleasantly surprised how many people were happy to see the baby Bad Batch in here! A lot of people didn’t seem to like the show overly much, and I was worried TBB would throw people out of the story. I haven’t gotten that particular complaint yet, though!
I know the PTSD scenes were a little jarring - sudden references to Jedi and mentions of an injury that didn’t happen here - but they were supposed to be! I wanted to do Alpha justice in this chapter. He’s a lethal, highly efficient soldier, but he’s human. He struggles. And here, he struggles a lot. Poor guy!
The moment the comlink connection dropped, the lights in your room came to life - not the sterile, pale lights you were used to seeing, but a dim red glow matched by a loud, buzzing alarm. Kamino was under attack and everyone was aware.
You finished getting dressed with shaking fingers, choosing simple, dark-colored clothing. Changing seemed frivolous, a needless luxury, but in all reality, leaving your room and walking into a known combat situation wearing only your pajamas would be stupid in the extreme.
You were probably ready in under a minute, but the adrenaline stretched that time into an hour. The rushing fear made you want to fling yourself headlong into the hallway outside of your quarters, but you made yourself take a breath and think logically. Disabling the automatic doors would allow you to control how quickly they opened, as well as how far. It was the work of a moment and could prevent you from being caught, so it was worth doing.
Turning the door mode to manual mode took a button and two switches, then you paused inside the door. You had your ear pressed against the chilled durasteel of the door, trying to hear anything on the other side. There was nothing that you could hear, but that didn’t mean that nothing was there. Alpha seemed to think this was a Separatist attack - droid armies didn’t breathe or fidget or make any of the small noises common to living things. Leaving your quarters had never been quite this dangerous before.
Still self-reblogging! If you ever read more of my works, you probably already know this fun fact, but bear with me.
You know that post talking about oddly specific tropes that always show up in a writer’s works? One of mine is carbon monoxide poisoning. I know I’ve written about it at least twice. When I was very small, my next door neighbors almost died from carbon monoxide poisoning and my parents’ explanation of what had happened terrifiedme. Before I went to sleep at night, I would ask if the carbon monoxide detector was working.
It’s funny what minor incidents make a strong impact on you!
Alpha-17 and fem!reader trying to live life on Kamino
Word Count: 4,600
Warnings: Plot incoming, but nothing too intense yet.
—
The comlink that Alpha had graciously gifted you was versatile and useful. Not only did it transmit short-range audio, video, and holoprojections, it also transmitted long-range audio and boasted a chronometric display so the wearer could keep easy track of the time.
For a civilian, it would have been useful. For a soldier, it was downright indulgent. And Alpha had chosen to give it to you rather than keep it for himself, switching to a cheaper, less useful model. He didn’t know yet, but you had ordered him an exact replacement. Outside deliveries to Kamino were rare, but you had been assured that it was on the way.
In any case, the chrono was what was holding your attention then. You were engrossed in a series of mental calculations, trying to decipher the time difference between Kamino and Coruscant.
Beside you, Alpha heaved an irritated sigh, glaring at the pair of cadets across the table. “She’s. Not. Interested. Do me a favor: tell all of your little friends that being a nat-born female on Kamino doesn’t make her want to hear your pathetic attempts at flirting.”
How long would the rest of lunch take? And then how long would it take to get back to your office? Assuming Alpha came along and you were only stopped by two groups of cadets, it would take roughly the amount of time it usually did.
“But Captain, how are we supposed to get better at flirting if we don’t practice?” the cheeky cadet asked.
“You aren’t,” Alpha told him bluntly. “The Kaminiiwant you to learn to fight, not flirt. Focus on learning to protect yourselves and your brothers. From the way you act around one disinterested female, you’ll need the fighting skills when one of you says something you shouldn’t to someone you shouldn’t.”
This chapter’s fun fact was that it was supposed to just be setting up for the attack on Kamino, but then the attack itself ended up being so long (three chapters, I believe!) that I had to cut a chapter and write this ending. It’s okay though; most of the cut material was written into the attack itself or later chapters!
Continued adventures of Alpha-17 and the fem!reader
Word Count: 5,600-ish
Warnings: Emotions. So many of them.
—
The architecture was strange on Kamino, you reflected, eying the spot where the rounded wall met the gray-toned carpet. Everywhere else in the galaxy placed an emphasis on ease of building and practicality of cleaning, but Kaminoans seemed to place a premium on seamlessness. You couldn’t actually detect the point where whoever had built the room had welded the durasteel pieces together. All Kaminoan architecture was like that - ‘ perfection in all things’ seemed to be their motto.
The overall impression should have been one of smooth perfection, but it hit the eye as something eerie, too flawless to be real. It gave everything in Tipoca City a sense of being removed from reality. Living here felt like a dream, but not a particularly good one.
This is the chapter of Gar Cabur I know better than any other. Not because it took me longer to write or anything, but because (in response to multiple requests) I’m writing a version of these events from Alpha’s POV. I’m not sure when that version will be finished or posted, but I am working on it!
Alpha turned toward the door, letting his displeasure show on his face as he threw an unimpressed look at the extremely late ARC-in-training. “Drift, you were supposed to be back ten minutes ago. Give me one good reason I shouldn’t have you spend the rest of the afternoon making it up to me.”
“That’s not important right now!” Drift rushed out, pointing toward the door. “You have to-”
Alpha felt his eyebrows furrow with incredulity. “You show up late, you’re not even in the right gear, and now you think I’m gonna let you tell me what to do? I’m your Captain, Drift, and if you can’t learn to shut up and take orders-”
“Something’s wrong with her,” Drift insisted.
Immediately, a sickly sense of foreboding filled Alpha. There were plenty of females who worked in Tipoca City. Drift could be talking about Trem, one of the other trainers. Maybe something had happened to General Ti when Drift was there to witness it. It wasn’t necessarily something having to do with you…
With a careful show of wry indulgence, Alpha asked, “What is wrong with who?”
“Who do you think?” Drift sounded as impatient as ever. “Your adviser. I don’t know what happened, but… It looks bad. Really bad.”
Tension filled Alpha’s muscles, readying him to go fight something. “Bad how?”
“I don’t know,” Drift admitted, but before Alpha could write it off as another Drift-based waste of time, he added, “but she was definitely crying.”
Crying? You were crying?Alpha had seen you frustrated beyond measure. He had witnessed you working fourteen hours on three hours of sleep, seen you get waylaid by too many groups of cadets when you finally tried to return to your quarters, and stood by you while you were slowly lectured by the Kaminoans. Without fail, you had accepted those situations with professionalism and cheerful grace. It was ridiculous and far beyond what anyone had asked of you, but the idea of you straying from such a strong pattern had him on-edge.
Beyond the all-encompassing hum of his frantic thoughts, Alpha noted that the ARC training area had gotten quiet. He glanced around to find that every pair of eyes was fixed on Drift and himself. Alpha wasn’t shocked - these men had been chosen due to their instincts, and he had been working to hone those instincts throughout all of their training. If there was trouble in the nearby vicinity, these ARCs would spot it and do what they could to neutralize it before anything bad could happen.
Of course, in this case, something bad had apparently already happened, and none of the men were happy about it.
You weren’t quite a regular in the training area, not yet, but you were well on your way to it. You had visited often enough to have formed small friendships with several of the future ARCs, and even those who didn’t have a bond with you respected you anyway.
“You know, Captain,” Neyo said, rotating his shoulder. “I think I may have pushed myself a little too hard yesterday. Mind if I take a few extra minutes to get a deeper stretch?”
“Yeah, me too,” Monnk pitched in, bending his knee and giving a dramatic wince as it neared full extension. “I think I may pull something if I try to start training right now. I need a little while.”
“And I think I forgot my workout shorts in the bunk,” Drift reported, putting his hands in the pockets of the workout shorts he was wearing. “I’ll need a few minutes to go get them.”
“Sure,” Alpha replied, filled with gratitude for his trainees. “How long do you men think you’ll need?”
“As long as it takes,” Faie told him steadily. “Neutralize the threats and make sure the area is secure before you move on to other tasks, right?”
“That’s the first lesson,” Alpha agreed, glancing around at the slight smiles scattered around the room. “What are you men waiting for? Start your stretches. Drift, get your karkin’ workout shorts before I write you up for breaking appearance regulations.”
“Sir!” the men said in unison, snapping an identical salute as Alpha left the training area.
His stride started off typical for him - purposeful, measured, steady. But then, Alpha started to think about what might have happened that could affect you so strongly. You were atin’la, tough. Strong.
His pace picked up slightly.
You worked hard, were persistent and dedicated, even to something as minor as a report for the karking Republic.
He started walking even faster.
He didn’t know exactly what was going on, but he knew he didn’t like it.
He broke into a light jog.
If you weren’t one to break down over something minor, logic would dictate that you were breaking down over something major. But what could be major enough to make you lose control of your emotions? Something outside of yourself, more than likely. Someone. Were you being harassed by someone? He knew about your supervisor, the di’kut, and you hadn’t said anything about her lately. So that would imply it was someone new. Was someone bothering you? Bothering you badly enough that you were breaking down over it but you hadn’t told him about it.
Since he was already jogging, it wouldn’t be out of the question for him to run, right? It wasn’t like anyone was going to stop him. Alpha snorted to himself. Let any of the kaminiitry to stop him. He was wearing full armor and had both blaster pistols strapped to his sides. If someone got in his way, there were a dozen ways he could make them back off without breaking the steady rhythm of his steps.
Was someone threatening you?
Alpha knew this place well enough to commit a murder without being caught.
Before he knew what was happening, Alpha had reached your office. Quick arrival times tended to happen when someone was running full-tilt to their destination. He was holding a blaster pistol and couldn’t remember when he had pulled it, but he didn’t put it away. What if the di’kut threatening you was in the office just then?
He didn’t want to take the time to knock, so he punched in your code and barely let the door slide open before he had pushed his way inside. You were standing halfway between your desk and the door.
Alpha didn’t even think - he was in the room and scanning his surroundings before he could finish processing the fact that you had clearly been crying. “What’s happening? What’s wrong?”
The room was empty other than you, but your voice still sounded weak and reedy, distraught. Alpha wanted - needed - to comfort you, but there could still be a potential threat in the area. His training told him that dealing with that threat took priority over everything else, but his gut was ordering him to take care of you, too.
He couldn’t say he was fully aware of the way his free hand reached out to grab your shoulder and pull you against him, but he honestly thought it was a fair compromise. Especially when you fit so comfortably against his side and under his arm, allowing him to continue searching the room for something out of place.
When you pulled away, Alpha felt the loss of you against his side like a cold chill. “Alpha, it’s fine. There’s no threat. Everything is good.”
“Clearly,” he said with a frown. Your eyes and nose were puffy and your lips were chapped. Your voice was more of a croak than he had ever heard it and you sounded miserable. “Drift said I needed to get over here, that something was wrong.”
You smiled, and it even looked like there was a glimmer of happiness caught in it. “Nothing you can shoot.”
He would see about that, but Alpha still holstered his blaster and removed his helmet. He could always get ready again. He crossed his arms. “So what’s with the waterworks?"
The flash of disbelief on your face was the first hint that he had said something wrong.
“Excuse me?” you asked, sounding insulted.
Oh, yeah. Civvies weren’t like clones. He couldn’t talk to you that way, not if he didn’t want you to hate him.
He really didn’t want you to hate him.
“Sorry, habit from the cadets. What has you so upset?”
“I-” you started, blinking too fast. Alpha was trying to figure out what was happening when he caught the shine in your eyes. It was too bright to be anger, too intense to be pain or weariness. Were you… crying? “I have to-”
“Hey,” Alpha said desperately hoping to keep you from breaking down. “Whatever it is, it’s not as bad as all that.”
Your face crumpled and Alpha’s heart lurched. He caught a glimpse of the tears streaking down your cheeks before you turned away, lifting your hands to hide it from him.
He couldn’t let you do that - struggle in silence in an effort to make things easier for him. He rested a hand on your shoulder, wondering for a moment how you could be so small, so delicate compared to him.
“Don’t-” he started, voice breaking slightly as he tried to fix whatever had gone wrong. “Don’t hide. Come back here. Please don’t cry, neverd’ika.”
You didn’t push his hand away. Alpha took that as a good sign and used it to gently pull you around… and if he moved you a little closer at the same time, who could really blame him?
To his shock, you didn’t stop when he stopped pulling you in his direction. Instead, you kept moving toward him, pressing yourself against his chest. Alpha’s arms wrapped around you, his instincts forcing the best possible result even as he was staggered by how you felt in his arms.
Even through the heavy plastoid of his armor, you feltrightthere.
And then you started to sob in earnest and Alpha’s full attention was absorbed by comforting you. Well, not his full attention. A solid percent of it was being used to wonder what thekriff was happening and how he could exact bloody revenge on whoever had upset you so badly.
Finally, your tears slowed. For your sake, Alpha tried not to sound too murderous as he asked, "Are you finally going to tell me what’s wrong?"
"They’re sending me away,” you said, chilling the marrow of Alpha’s bones. “I leave for Coruscant tomorrow.”
“Who is?” Alpha asked, the blood roaring so loudly in his ears that he could scarcely hear his own voice. “Who decided to send you back?”
You looked away. “Technically speaking, I did.”
And, just like that, Alpha went blank. If you had agreed to this, chosen this… it meant he wasn’t - your friendship wasn’t as important to you as it was to him.
Alpha wanted to shout with frustration. Of course this wasn’t as important to you. You were a nat-born, and since when had any clone mattered to a nattie? It was better this way, he decided. He could cut you out of his life, destroy this developing weakness before it took full root. Without you, he could be strong again.
Forcing a bland, carefree tone, Alpha said, “Well, at least you got what you wanted. I’m sure you had your reasons.”
“…I did,” you said, sounding unsure. Who were you really trying to convince? “I can’t finish the report by the Republic’s deadline, and that could impact the war effort-”
“You don’t need to explain yourself to me. You don’t owe me anything.” Alpha grimaced. What could he really accomplish here? It would be better to simply leave. “In fact, I should probably get back to work.”
He hasn’t crossed half the distance to the door before your voice rang out from behind him. “No!"
Alpha stopped, glancing back at you despite himself as you took a moment to gather your thoughts.
"I do owe you something, Alpha,” you explained haltingly. “I owe you a lot. You’re the only friend I have here, the only reason I made it this far. I may miss a few things about Kamino, but I’ll miss you most of all.”
Your voice cracked sharply as you finished, but you didn’t look away. You held his gaze, brave little thing that you were
“If you’ll-” Alpha interrupted himself to clear his throat so his voice would go the same way yours had. “You’llmiss me so much, why did you offer to leave?"
"Brid- she’s my supervisor, she told me that I am slowing down the Republic response by not completing my work on time. If I keep missing deadlines, it could hurt the war effort. I can’t let troopers die- I can’t let yourbrothers die because I wanted to be the one who did this assignment! I could never live with myself, Alpha.”
By the time you stopped explaining yourself, you were meeting his eyes straight-on, full of determination and sadness.
He was floating. One of the jetii had to be doing something to him that made him feel like he was floating. That was the only reason Alpha could think of that he felt so light. You weren’t leaving Kamino because you didn’t care about the men. You were leaving because you cared too much. That was far more in-line with everything he knew about you, and the receding sting of betrayal helped him realize that he had likely overreacted.
Alpha crossed his arms over his chest, trying to disguise the overwhelming surge of unfamiliar emotion. “So your supervisor twisted the vibroblade and you, in a bout of patriotism, decided to leave the assignment you want and the recognition you deserve. Do I have that right?”
You looked irritated, but it was better than sad. Anything was better than sad. “A ‘bout of patriotism’? By not wanting to sentence countless soldiers to death because I can’t work as quickly as the Republic needs? I don’t think that makes me a fool, Alpha, I think it makes me someone with a conscience!”
“Simmer down, neverd’ika,” Alpha told you, laughing with how incredibly light he still felt. That was apparent in the way he forgot himself and pulled you back toward him when he had sworn never to touch you. “You’re a fiery little thing today.”
Maybe this was a dream. The beginning had reminded him more of a nightmare, but the way you willingly went into his arms and leaned against him like you belonged there was definitely dream material. Despite that sweetness, you glared up at him, gaze full of reproach.
“How am I supposed to act? This might be the last day I ever see you and you’re acting like… like a…”
“A what, little one?” Alpha asked, trying not to laugh aloud and offend you worse.
“Adi’kut,” you spat out.
Alpha could have been knocked over by a shiny. For you to push back at him was rare - normally reserved for the times when he had pushed the teasing far further than was wise - but to hear you speak Mando’a? It affected him in… unexpected ways.
“Where did you learn that one?” he finally asked.
“You say it often enough! I’m not a complete fool,” you said, wrinkling your nose at him. “I canmanage to pick up on simple vocabulary.”
Well, that had never been in question. “Of course you can. I know how smart you are. But not smart enough.”
A little crease appeared between your brows, as if you were worried he really didn’t think you were very intelligent. You tried to disguise it with a dark look, but he saw right through you. Alpha always saw right through you - after all, he had enough practice looking.
He smiled, offering an explanation before you could get too concerned. “You haven’t realized yet that I’ll miss you at least as much as you’ll miss me. You also haven’t realized that I’m willing to do whatever it takes to see you again. I’ll take missions off-planet, anywhere close to the Triple Zero, and I’ve got enough rank to make sure we stop there for refuels.”
“But…” you trailed, clearly searching for words. Alpha waited patiently for you to find them. “But you hate Coruscant. You said it’s the armpit of the galaxy.”
Alpha recognized the slight pause before ‘armpit’, internally laughing at your attempt to make his statement more appropriate. “Wrong again. I said it was the sheb-”
Your eyes widened comically. “I was editing for professionalism! But you’d be willing to come there for me?”
“Of course,” Alpha said instantly, no time for thought. “We’re friends, remember? But you’d better tell me if you plan to move to a different planet so I can change which missions I’ll accept.”
“Do they let you choose?”
“They let me. Kenobi made sure of it,” Alpha told you, unable to erase the smugness from his tone. “I get to choose which missions I’ll go on. I’ve been instructing for so long that they don’t ask me often, but if I put out some notice that I’m looking for Inner Rim missions…”
“It would be amazing to see you! I’ll be on Coruscant for a while, unfortunately. It’ll take me a bit to re-earn the faith of my supervisors, so I’ll be stuck planetside for the foreseeable future.”
You looked so cheerful that Alpha felt guilty bringing your mood back down, but he had a serious question. “You’re sure they aren’t going to punish you for leaving the job?”
“I don’t think so. Brid didn’t say anything about a demotion or reprimand.”
That was far less certain than Alpha would have preferred, but he nodded anyway. “It sounds like the best possible way for you to leave. I don’t like it, but if you think it’s the right move, I trust you.”
That was the truth, he reflected with no small amount of shock. He did trust you, implicitly. That alone threw him off slightly. He trusted a civilian? Alpha? What had things come to that he was trusting a nat-born civvie? But even with that unpleasant realization, Alpha couldn’t bring himself to regret it. He trusted you, and he wasn’t going to talk himself out of it based on something as minor as your background or what the old him would have done.
His focus shifted back to the conversation as you spoke again: “I don’t want to go. This isn’t a choice I would make if I didn’t have to.”
And there was the problem. If you had chosen to leave, it would have been unpleasant, but seeing you forced off of Kamino was something Alpha struggled to reconcile himself with. There was a feeling of irritation that bureaucrats on Coruscant could determine something that took place in a world they were unfamiliar with, but… it was more than that. Alpha’s gut was telling him that something more was happening here. Something deeper.
The long-range transmitter rang and you straightened, jerking away from him as a by-product of that movement. “It’s Brid. She’s got some forms I need to fill out before I leave. You can stay if you want, just back up a bit so she won’t be able to see you.”
Alpha almost left. He would be no good to you in this situation and the least he could offer you was the privacy to finish conducting your affairs. But that feeling in his gut… Alpha stayed where he was, taking two steps backward and sitting down in the chair as part of your instructions, but going no further.
You sat in your chair and took a breath. That air of professionalism settled around you like you had put on a cloak, then you answered the call. “Supervisor Brid.”
“Administrator,” the holo-projected female replied. Alpha surveyed her with distaste and disdain. “I trust you’ve finished preparing the report for your replacement?”
“Yes, Supervisor,” you said agreeably. “I have loaded it onto the datapads, and I will gladly answer any questions they may have about my work up to this point.”
Brid grimaced coldly. “We will see about further contact. I’m transmitting the proper documents to your datapad now. As soon as these are filled out, we can consider this situation rectified.”
You looked at your datapad, eyes scanning down the screen. That crease reappeared between your eyebrows and Alpha’s gut tightened. Something was wrong. You reread the document, then glanced up at the holoimage of your boss.
“Is something the matter, administrator?” Brid asked, and Alpha longed to put a fist through her face… preferably in a form that wascorporeal.
“These are forms for my resignation from the Senate workforce,” you said quietly, displaying the screen of your datapad to the holo-transmitter.
The supervisor gave a short laugh. “And you are confused by this outcome? Surely you didn’t believe we would continue to allow you to work for us after failing to meet a deadline on such a major project?”
Alpha stood so quickly that the chair bounced up on two legs. He took a step toward the transmitter. Maybe he couldn’t physically touch Brid, but a threat could be just as effective. As if she sensed the danger, the semi-transparent form of the supervisor turned, but you spoke before she could catch a glimpse of the pissed off ARC captain who intended to beat her to a bloody stain on the durasteel ground of her Coruscant office.
“I will need some time to look this over, Supervisor,” you hastily told her.
“I am extremely aware that speed in paperwork is not in your skill set.” Alpha’s jaw clenched at the additional insult. “Rather than be placed on hold indefinitely, I will contact you again in a few minutes.”
Alpha lost his grip on his temper, striding forward quickly in hopes that his threatening form would be the last thing she saw before the transmission cut. Nat-borns seemed to find his larger-than-average stature and heavy muscle intimidating. He hoped that was true for Brid.
Before he got to his intended destination, the transmission cut off.
Alpha’s rage rose up around him until it was roaring in his ears and dimming his sight as he looked at you. “You let that hut’uun,chaavlashabuir speak to you that way?”
“I don’t enjoy being around her, but among Senate supervisors, she’s not the worst.”
Your easy tone and casual shrug made Alpha stare, but you were looking at the datapad. Hands shaking with anger, Alpha reached out and plucked the datapad from your grip, holding it above his head and safely away from you.
“You cannot sign this. I won’t let you.”
Your shoulder slumped slightly. “I don’t like that I’m going to lose this job, but none of my reasons have changed. What kind of person would I be to put lives on the line for a job?”
“The kind of person who understands that soldiers are going to fight and die no matter how quickly that report is written!” Your expression shuttered slightly and Alpha leaned down in an attempt to get your attention. He had to explain things to you, had to reach you before you made a decision and it was too late. “Listen, cyare, I’ve seen the kind of information you’re collecting in that report of yours, and none of it is vital enough that the Republic will stop mobilizing soldiers. The report is Senate busywork, something some mir’shebinvented so that the GAR could make battle plans without worrying about the kriffing senators breathing down their necks.”
You didn’t look convinced, so Alpha continued his explanation. “You want proof? Look how quickly they mobilized us for Geonosis. Every fully-trained vod went out for that campaign, and the Republic didn’t know anything more about us than that we were here and they needed people.”
You frowned. “What exactly are you saying, Alpha?”
“I’m saying…” Alpha blew out a breath, coming to a conclusion and knowing with every instinct he had that it was correct. “Someone wants you off of this project. I don’t know if it’s Brid or someone over her head, but that line about impacting the war effort? That’s a pile of osik. It’s impossible.”
“I get what you’re saying, but-”
“But trust the instincts of a soldier,” Alpha insisted, resting his hands on your shoulders so he could use infinite care to shake you back and forth. “Trust myinstincts. Something is off here and you’re being lied to. Don’t sign that resignation.”
You thought about that for a moment. When you spoke, your voice was tight. “What… What if it is true, though? What if I’m just not enough for the project? For the job? For anything?”
“I never want to hear you say that again,” Alpha ordered, accidentally using his Captain Voice with you. “You’re enough for all of it. I’ve watched you pour everything you have into this report. No one else can write it the way you can. The reason you want to quit is the same reason you need to stay.”
You looked unconvinced and Alpha sighed, trying to find a better way to phrase it. “You think you have to leave to protect my brothers, but the best way to do that is to stay. You care about us clones, so you’re writing a real report instead of writing a list of our specs. The information you’re requesting from Kaminoans and the trainers is completely different from what the Republic anticipated. The general mentions that every time it comes up.”
“You and General Ti talk about me?” you asked, clearly shocked.
Alpha stifled the urge to roll his eyes. This was Kamino - what else was there to talk about? “All the time. Especially a few weeks ago, when this really bossy Republic administrator told me I had to give the general my new comlink frequency.”
You smiled - finally reallysmiled - but the transmitter notified you of an incoming call and the joy disappeared again. You reached for the datapad and Alpha let you have it. He had done everything he could to convince you to stay. There was nothing more he could do, unless he wanted to try to force you to stay. Though that idea wasn’t the worst he had ever had…
You accepted the call, letting the holoprojection of your supervisor appear and fold her arms. “Was that enough time for you, administrator?”
“It was plenty,” you told her, sounding fully professional once more. “In fact, just long enough for me to decide that I won’t be leaving. I started this report and I intend to finish it.”
“Your resignation was not optional-”
“If my resignation were not optional, you wouldn’t need me to fill out the form. In fact, you never would have given me the option. You would have fired me this morning in Nala Se’s office. You need me to sign this resignation.”
It was a testament to how self-assured you sounded that Alpha stopped his journey around your desk.
“I was trying to give you a graceful exit,” the supervisor snapped. “If you refuse to sign the resignation form, I will have no choice but to terminate your employment.”
Your voice got, if possible, less concerned. “You can’t. In the Senate workforce contract - updated and validated last year - the Republic refreshed and strengthened their employee work protection standards under Article 14, Subsection B, Subheading: Deadlines, Timelines, and Work Hour Requirements.”
Alpha was fully lost as you continued to list off the rules and regulations that governed your job and Brid’s. But he knew enough to understand exactly what was happening: you were putting Brid in her place, neatly and professionally, but without leaving room for misunderstanding. Brid tried to get the last word, insisting that you leave anyway, but you refused, naming another solid reason. You shut down Brid’s final attempt and watched peacefully as your supervisor cut the transmission.
He had a stupid look on his face, Alpha knew he did, but he didn’t really care. “That’s my smart neverd’ika.”
You smiled at him, but your eyes were thoughtful. “You called me something else earlier. What was it?”
Haar’chak, had he said something stupid out loud? Surely he hadn’t… Maybe he had…
Alpha’s perfect memory provided him what he was looking for: Listen,cyare, I’ve seen the kind of information you’re collecting…
Beloved.
He had called you beloved.
It had been an abstract form of endearment for most of his life, vaguely floating around when he thought of you, but he hadn’t ever said it out loud.
Until, apparently, that day.
The only thing to do was bluff. “Did I? Do you remember the word?”
You watched him for a moment while Alpha waited with his heart in his mouth. “No. I don’t. It sounded nice, though.”
The relief was so strong that Alpha stood, giving a wordless grunt to disguise his self-censure. “You’re done with work for the day, right?”
It was only when you smiled at him that he realized he was wearing a stupid-looking grin. “Yes, I am. I have a feeling that I won’t get far from here. Besides, I think I’ll wait to see how much the Republic moves my timeline before I dive into the next section.”
“Good. I have something to show you.”
Alpha left your office without another word, worried he would say something stupid if he said anything at all. You followed him without asking any questions. When he finally reached the place he had in mind, he opened the door and guided you outside ahead of him with only the slightest press against your arm.
You crossed the threshold, staring around curiously before you gave a loud gasp. Alpha smiled to himself, satisfied that he had found something you would enjoy. It was a low-hanging balcony that gave a great view of Kamino’s oceans around the stilts of Tipoca City. The sun was even occasionally shining from behind the clouds. This was the best possible day he could have brought you here and - though he had thought about this moment often - Alpha was glad this was the day it finally happened.
He stepped out onto the balcony behind you, struggling to share the tiny space with you and not overwhelm you with his much larger form. When you turned your head to look at him, Alpha half-expected you to ask him to back up or tell him that you were uncomfortable.
Instead, you smiled, knocking Alpha’s breath away immediately.
“Alpha, this is amazing! How did you find this?”
Producing a snort when he was so out of breath was difficult, but Alpha managed. “I’ve lived on Kamino most of my life. There isn’t an inch of this compound that I haven’t explored. This is the best place to just… get some distance.”
He moved a little closer, hardly able to believe that he was pushing his luck like this. Alpha put his hands on the railing on either side of your body, waiting to see whether you were going to lean away or… maybe… back toward him.
You didn’t do either of those - you didn’t even turn around - but you did give a satisfied sigh and say, “Thank you.”
It wasn’t the best-case scenario, but it was far from the worst. The mild imperfection lent the scene an air of realism that Alpha appreciated, having pictured this moment far more often than he would ever admit.
Alpha nodded. “Anytime.”
—
Author’s Note - Hopefully this helps make up for the emotional trauma of last week? Also, I’m going to be super needy this week. If you have a moment, please consider leaving comments, questions, or feedback of any kind. I just got out of the hospital (planned procedure, nothing to worry about) and I’m feeling really gross. I would love to hear thoughts about this chapter or the story so far!
I’ll be back with another chapter (chronological this time) next week!
You can read other works on my masterlist or sign up for my taglist here.
