Fixing Our Broken Pieces || The Bad Batch

Chapter 18: The Living Force

Hunter and the rest of the squad collectively agreed they would return to Cid's once she had called them, there was no point going back when they had only just arrived at Zelda's. For once there wasn't anything for Hunter to do, no missions, jobs or tasks to complete, just relaxation. But being busy was how he kept himself focused and not thinking too much about the overwhelming amount of magnetic frequencies that buzzed in his mind 24/7. At the back of the cantina, he looked around for things to think about instead of his agonizing mutation. The first thing that caught his eye was Orla who was in deep conversation with Zelda. Sleeping on her lap was her cat Snippy and she occasionally would bring her hand down to stroke the cat's fur and back up to take a sip of her drink. He took note of how many seconds between each time she stroked Snippy: 20, 12, 30, 40, 26, 13 and so forth. It only took him a few minutes to get bored but Zelda had been moving her eyes back and forth from Orla to Hunter, noticing Hunter staring at her for far too long. She excused herself from Orla and Echo joined her instead while Zelda moved over to Hunter's table

"What's up with you bandana boy, why so down?"

If Hunter were to explain the real reason, he was sure to lose concentration and the sensation in his brain would become unbearable. Boredom was simply not an option, he needed something to take his mind off of it. He needed something he could talk about for hours or someone.

"What was Orla like when you first met her?"

Zelda furrowed her brows while turning her head back to Orla, "that's why you're sitting here alone, you can't talk to Orla?"

"No, I just, you know, wanted to know how she handled transitioning from being in the Jedi Order to... who she is now? Did she know what she was doing or did she make a bunch of mistakes that you had to save her from," Hunter covered up well?

Zelda forgot all about Hunter's strange behaviour when answering his question. "Well, actually I never had to save her from anything, by the time she reached Ord Mantell she had been on her own for maybe a month and a few weeks. But when I first saw her I knew she was a Jedi. Not just any Jedi in the order that worked for the Republic no, a real Jedi. She didn't have to whip out a lightsaber or announce her title, but she had this presence that made you think she wasn't just any normal being. I had never seen a Jedi like that before, independent, abided by the force instead of a code. She was my protector, my guardian angel who came in and put my life back together. I lost a lot of trust in the Jedi when they forced my son to stop communicating with me. His mother? They didn't tell me that when they took him at two years old to train to be a Jedi. I didn't think that relationship could have ever been repaired if it wasn't for Orla coming in and caring the way she did about my well-being. She made sure I got out of bed, that I ate,

and that I took care of myself. My business wouldn't have thrived the way it did if it wasn't for her.

"That's very sweet."

"What can I say, she likes to help out. The special thing about her is that she always puts others before herself, she has empathy like no other Jedi. The only thing is, she still follows the "no attachment" rule. But I don't think that's because of the Jedi. I think it's because she doesn't like affection, she avoids it but I don't know why."

"Affection like love?"

"I don't know," even though Zelda always liked to tease Orla about boys, she never tried bringing up the topic of love. The Jedi order had removed that feeling from her by drilling a thought into her mind that if she were to ever love someone, the threat of loss would consume her. Like how leaving Caleb almost consumed her.

"It's just not something you learn as a Jedi, it could be the trust that's hard for them."

"So you don't think she'll ever fall in love with someone?"