Smoke billows from the dark hole as a deep crimson liquid flows through heavily. The flesh singed and destroyed pieces of armor melded to the hole walls. Galen stumbles, still breathing, but it's slowly fading out. He drops his blaster, his vision fading in and out. He sees Amera running toward him, but as his vision worsens, she is an orange and blue blob. "Who shot me? Revenant? I heard him yell. Is he okay? Sir, are you okay?" Galen doesn't say these words; he can't form them out of his mouth; these are nothing but the thoughts of a dying man. Amera barely catches Galen as he falls over. She holds him up, and he can hear crying. "Amera? Don't cry, little Togruta; I'll be okay!" He looks down at her, helmet falling off. He hallucinates Amera as her younger self, the child he met early in the Clone Wars.
"Flower, don't go! Please stay with me!" Amera screams out in utter agony. Galen tries to lift his arms but can't; losing all motor function can do that. Amera struggles to hold him up as she continues to sob; she looks at Galen's face. He has a neutral expression on his face, his eyes slowly dimming. Amera can't help but look utterly broken as Galen's mouth stretches itself into a smile. He looks up, slowly hallucinating Maverick flying through the sky with his jetpack. "I'm coming, brother." With that, Galen goes limb, his body getting too heavy for Amera as she lets go of Galen to let him fall. Revenant, Ghost, and Zer0 stand breathlessly as Hovo and Trin sprint to Amera and Galen. Amera's lachrymose sobbing and screaming are heard throughout Tatooine.
Revenant stares at the blaster in his hand as he visibly shakes violently. His head is playing that moment over and over. He falls to his knees, the blaster falling out of his hand as he trembles. He watches as Zer0 and Ghost start walking toward Galen's body. He can't find the strength to get up. His breathing hasn't slowed since the shot rang out; every time he looks at his hands, he sees the blood of both Galen and Maverick. Tears roll from his eyes like a cascading waterfall of pain and misery. Ghost takes his helmet off and kneels at Galen's body. Trin is hugging Zer0, and Hovo tries to get Amera off Galen's body. Revenant watches, but then he hears something that throws him off: jet packs. He quickly looks over and sees the Mandalorians flying toward the LAAT Gunship. The side door opens again, allowing the Mandalorians to board the ship. The gunship's side doors close, and the gunship starts flying away. Revenant watches, not having the strength to try and stop them.
Despair is the ultimate suffering. Suffering leads to hate; hate leads to anger. Revenant stands, picking up the blaster; as he holsters it, he walks toward the group. He walks right beside Trin and stares at his brother's body. "Galen..." Revenant quietly chokes out. Amera quickly looks up at Revenant and breaks out of Hovo's grasp; she lunges at him and strikes him across the face, knocking him to the ground. Hovo grabs her and quickly pulls her back again as Trin turns to her with a hand on her lightsaber.
"YOU KILLED HIM! YOU SHOT HIM!" Amera screams at Revenant, spit flying everywhere. She struggles to break out of Hovo's updated tighter grip. Ghost and Zer0 look at their Commander with sympathetic stares. Revenant stares at Amera; he feels her full rage on the beet-red pulsating handprint she left on his cheek. Like a rabid dog, Amera struggles to escape Hovo's grip. "WHY? WHY DID YOU KILL MY FLOWER!?" She keeps screaming even when her voice starts to give out. Her rough screaming turns into broken and exhausted yells and then into defeated and damaged vocals as tears roll onto the sand where snot and saliva already mix. She eventually stops fighting against Hovo, just slumping over. "Why..."
Revenant stares at this broken woman, still seeing a dulled anger in her eyes; if it wasn't evident before, she hates Revenant. "I..." He stops himself. Defending himself won't help. "I'll submit my report once the backup arrives." He says, talking directly to Trin, his eyes not leaving the ground as he scrambles to stand up. He sympathetically looks at Amera, but she meets his gaze with a glob of spit on his chest.
YOU ARE READING
The Clone Who Refused To Die
Science Fiction"When does a man become a monster?" CT-7900 "Revenant" and General Trin Shadow survive order-66 and attempt to live against the newfound Empire. They hide in plain sight and even take in odd jobs to survive but can't shake the feeling that they are...
