One Step at a Time

One Step at a Time - Part 4

"YOU THERE! STOP."

Chuck's heart fell as he froze, breathing heavily as he held Nita closer to him. He could hear her heart pounding in her chest as her fingers dug into the neck of his undersuit, her tiny body quivering with fear.

Not again. Please not again.

He turned back slowly, his grip tightening on the blaster at his side, trying to quell the shaking in his hands. Two troopers in magenta and grey armor were approaching him and the younglings, blasters aimed at them.

"Please let us pass," he begged. "You know this isn't right. Deep down, I know you do. We don't kill kids. We don't do this."

"They're traitors to the Republic and are to be executed."

"Please."

"Put the youngling down."

"Nita, close your eyes honey, ok?"

"Are you not going to comply?" the trooper demanded.

"Arni, stay behind me."

Chuckles looked down at the DC-17 in his hand. It was on the lethal setting. He clicked it. The red indicator didn't change. He clicked it again. Still no change.

"PUT THE YOUNGLING DOWN." The first trooper stepped forward, and Chuck's heart fell as he whipped his blaster forward, shooting the clone in the chest. Before he could think, he whirled and shot the other trooper, tears pooling in the corners of his eyes as he sobbed, watching his other brother fall.

Suddenly, he realized his left arm was empty. Nita was gone. He spun, and Arni wasn't there anymore either. In fact, he couldn't identify where he was. Darkness and cold surrounded him, the only source of light shining down on the bodies of the two troopers lying on the ground in front of him. He looked closer at the bodies, and his breath stuttered as he noted the grey lines that cut through the magenta paint over one of the helmet's eyes.

It's a pilot. It wasn't a pilot. It... it can't be. He was already dead.

He dropped to his knees, pulling the bucket off.

Crater stared up at him, his eyes wide, unseeing, the notches in his eyebrow that matched the stripes on his helmet unmistakable. Chuckles fell forward, resting his head on his captain's chest plate.

"I'm sorry, Crate," he sobbed. "I'm so sorry."

"Chuckles!" His eyes snapped open, his fingers locking around the thin blue arm that was shaking him awake. Arni's brown eyes widened with alarm, but they didn't pull away as Chuckles sat up quickly, rubbing sleep from his eyes. The birthmark on the young Twi'lek's cheek twitched with an anxious swallow.

"What is it?" Chuck mumbled, clawing his way free of the sleepy haze that was still fogging his brain.

"Nita's gone."

Chuckles was immediately awake, flying to a seated position. "WHAT?"

Arni held their finger to their lips, their eyes darting around the room to where the other refugees were sleeping. No one seemed disturbed by Chuck's outburst, but the clone pilot could hardly be bothered to care who he'd awoken. He swung his feet over the edge of the cot he was sleeping on, pulling his scarf back up to cover his face. The monks of the temple had set up the temple's main atrium for housing the refugees with tables for food and cots for sleeping along a few of the walls. Chuckles had chosen to take one of the back corners, picking a cot that allowed him to sleep facing a wall so that he could pull his scarf down to sleep without fear of being recognized. The two younglings had opted to sleep in two cots that he'd pulled closer to his, but now, he could see Nita's cot was empty, her trooper doll the only remaining occupant. His eyes scanned the snoring forms of the refugees around them frantically. He didn't see Nita's figure anywhere, and he swore under his breath.