Earthlings 2: The Dark Age

11

[Before]

7/06/2019. Planet Earth, Oakland, CA

"EXECUTE ORDER 66!" The next thing Eli knew, he got a face full of pool water. Coughing and spluttering, he turned to look at the little maniacs responsible for the deed.

Petey giggled, his super soaker still aimed at his face. "Good soldiers follow orders."

"There will be no shooting faces in the pool!" Their mother called from one of the chaises nearby. In response Petey proceeded to squirt another jet of water at Eli, who ducked underneath the surface before grabbing a pool noodle.

"I'm not dying that easily!" He deflected another shot from Penny before swimming to the staircase. Avoiding the babies in their floaties, he climbed out, taking the pool noodle with him. But he soon found a problem- it wasn't just CT- 1501 and CT- 1502 after him now. Other kids with water guns had decided to join the fun.

"Get him!" Penny went up behind Eli, joined by a 6 year old boy. They pulled the triggers.

--

[Now]

19 BBY, Coruscant

Eli woke up to blue all around him. A blue substance with bubbles. Was it slime? It couldn't be; not even Penny would have the audacity to make that much slime.

He was made aware of the fact that he was floating. A black tube protruding from a breathing mask connected him to the ceiling, and outside, a medical droid went about its business, watched by 2 people... wait...

Before he could figure out who the man was, he felt himself being lifted out of the bacta tank and dropped to the ground. It was cold, and his brain felt fuzzy, but he managed to make out a few words from the dialogue. Finally, the man came over.

"Hey... Commander..." The man peered into Eli's eyes, waving a hand over his face. "You remember me?"

"Wha- huh...?"

The woman beside the medical droid huffed. "You think he'd remember you after surviving that bad of a concussion? What kind of doctor are you?"

"One that has faith in his patients," The man retorted. He appeared to be a clone, one that had deserted or something. "Besides, I couldn't just let him die."

"Wait..." Eli blinked, unable to comprehend. "I'm... I'm not... dead?"

The clone shook his head. "No."

"Wait..." Memories began to return in bits and pieces. "B-but then... what about..."

"Listen, kid. Apart from that concussion, you also had some pretty serious voltage burns, which made the concussion 20x worse than you would get from just hitting your head on a speeder," The clone said matter of factly. "Not to mention, it would also make it unlikely for you to live. As it was, you were already on the brink of death when we took you in. I'd suggest you rest now, and ask questions later."

"One question, are you Dean?"

"Are you Eli?" Dean helped him over to a nearby bed and set him down. "I thought so. Yeah, I'm Dean."

"Who's that?" Eli asked, indicating the woman.

"A friend of mine," Dean replied. "Her name is Brie."

"Yeah, I'm his assistant," Brie piped in sarcastically before her eyes landed on his left wrist. "What's that?"

"What's what-" Eli looked at his wrist, where 2 faint, blueish-white marks had suddenly appeared like ink from an invisible ink pen, illuminated by UV light. "What are those...?"