The Rising

Alarm

Hunter smiled slightly at his closeness to Damali as they walked down the main ship corridor. It was barely big enough to fit three fully grown clones but they still had to walk past bulk head after bulkhead while fighting the occasional clone group hurrying to get to their station.

Their hands barely brushed past each other but it was enough to make him feel just a little bit taller. In fact every time they passed a group of clones in the hall she would move closer to him trying her best to put as much distance between the unfamiliar forms that passed her way.

At first he was confused about why she was doing this, but he soon didn't care as her hand would touch his arm almost as if asking for some type of shield. One which he gladly gave her in the form of his hand gently pulling her behind him and to the side so she was safely away from any rushed clone who might knock her down.

Damali blushed each time this happened but was silently glad he understood her wariness towards others.

"The hanger is just ahead, the traffic should begin to slow down slightly" hunter whispered to her as she huddled close behind him once more.

Damali squeezed his arm gently telling him she understood when something strange caught her attention.

Or at least what she heard did.

The last group of soldiers that passed them, while still very fuzzy to Damali, where talking rather loudly.

"Grub is grub I don't care what you say vod."

"Hey all I'm saying is that it should be at least a little different every now and then"

The voices...they sound so very much the same.

She focused slightly more trying to catch why they sounded so familiar.

Then it hit her.

They sounded exactly like Hunter and his brothers.

Infant everyone in the corridor sounded exactly like Hunter.

That wasn't possible.

That couldn't be possible.

"Hunter?" her voice shook a little as she moved closer so only he could hear.

Hunter smiled before he pulled her gently so she was snug against him, thinking that this was simply a slight fear of the crowd's.

"Why do they all sound like you?"

Hunter froze misstep for a second before he pulled her gently back to their original pace.

"I'll tell you after the mission brief, just....stay close" his voice wavered slightly as he spoke, his fear showing itself before he felt something he didn't expect.

Her hand had woven around his in such a manner it made butterfly's dance in his stomach and a slightly goofy grin spread on his face as he stopped in the hallway.

Hunter reached into his pocket carefully and pulled out his Vibro blade, it was sheathed and not a danger to anyone, but Hunter still smiled gently as he placed it into her free hand "Isn't this yours?" Damali asked slightly nervously before Hunter's hand squeezed gently. "It's in case you feel nervous," Hunter said slightly blushing as he ducked his head so the passing clones could not see his face.

Damali blushed hard before holding the blade close, though she could not see she could tell he was blushing as she got on her toes to kiss his cheek and whisper a small "thank you" into his ear. 

Hunter's face was now bright red as he resisted the urge to do anything other than squeeze her hand gently and smile like a fool. 

To both of their dismay, they arrived at the hanger a lot sooner than Hunter had expected.

And to say it was packed was an understatement in his eyes, in fact he had to take a step back so he would not be pushed into another group.

Then he looked closer at the soldiers.

They weren't clones.

Most of them went even human at all.

There where twileks, gungans, pantorans. Practically every republic friendly species seemed to have migrated to the hanger.

"Hunter, what's going on?" Damalis voice was Shakey as her senses where being bombarded with so many life forms.

"Honestly...........I have no idea......"

Hunter felt her press into his back slightly to avoid another group of incoming soldiers before he finally spotted a familiar face.

Wolfe.

He turned to make sure Damali was behind him before he took off toward a rather ruffled and pissed off Wolfe who glared at the data pad in his hand as he mumbled rude and vulgar mandoan curse words under his breath.

Hunter felt Damali tug at his hand trying to pull him back from Wolfe. Hunter figured she must sense his anger or something along those lines in the force.

That was until alarms began to go off.

They where so loud he almost buckled at how intrusive they where to his ears, instead he felt the familiar warmth that had been holding his hand slip away.

Hunter turned terrified to find Damali had covered her ears and was backing away slightly.

Just as he reached out to pull her back to safety he heard Wolfe yell "alright everyone to battle stations!".

That's when all hell broke loose.

Everyone made a mad break for either the hanger operations or for the main ship causing a sort of current in the crowd.
At first hunter was not to worried, he could still see Damali just a foot away from him.

He smiled gently towards her as he reached out to pull her close, hoping she would be able to tell it was him then, quite suddenly, she disappeared from his sight and was pulled into the crowd.

"DAMALI!" Hunter yelled over the now loud roaring crowd as he fought through them desperately trying to figure out which way she was pulled as sirens rang above his head.

"Damali!!!" He yelled slightly less loud his head spinning slightly from all the noise and movement that crowded his senses.

His mind felt as though if was about to be overloaded when all of a sudden he was thrown off his feet and fifty feet backwards right into the metal hanger wall with a resounding 'clang' that echoed slightly before it was met with twenty or thirty more clangs of some kind of metal being thrown from what felt like the other end of the hanger

Hunter shook his head trying to clear the ringing from his ears, not quite understanding what was going on, and slowly got to his feet. His eyes first caught sight of the pieces of metal that had landed next to him. The metal sounds where infact multiple newly arrived soldiers and their armor that had hit the wall. though now most of them where a bit banged up, bruised and quite disorientated.

He shook his head trying his best to get rid of the last bit of ringing when he spotted the forms in the far corner.

Two carrying a third.

Though the third looked to be crumpled down to the floor, almost as if they where unconscious.

Hunters eyes focused slightly more before he realized just who the two forms where.

Darth Vader and Darth Gorr.

And once he recognized the third form that was being carried between them his whole body seemed to cease up.

It was Damali.

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Ok I know it's a bit rushed but I've been way to busy lately. And I've had precious little time to write down everything. That being said I will try to update tomorrow. As always props to my readers and fellow writers ❤️