A Family Worth Fighting For

Prologue

"Master, may I go down to the training center and practice?" I look up hopefully to my master's face; she strokes her blue and white lekku and her misty blue eyes study mine for a few moments before smiling.

"Very well young one, you may go."

I grin and thank her before turning quickly and running down the bright white halls. The never ending rain lashes against the spotless windows and outside the powerful waves crash against Tipoca City. I wave and smile as a squad of clones walks near. Their white and reddish-orange armor is scratched and dirty, and I notice many of the men have bags under their eyes. But they smile and wave back, a few of them respectfully nodding their heads.

I follow the hallway until I reach one of the training rooms; it is smaller than some of the other training rooms, and I hardly ever see clones training here. They prefer the bigger rooms with the better training equipment, but I like this room the best.

Today however, I see an unusual looking clone sitting on a crate in the middle of the room. The first thing that catches my eye is the dark gray armor he is wearing, different from the standard white armor that the other clones wear. It wasn't uncommon for the troopers to customize their gear, but the way this particular clone did it, it was different, bold, mesmerizing. His back is turned to me but I can sense his emotions; he is angry about something, and he feels hurt. As I watch him, a small box with a red x painted on it moves around the room, finally hovering around 20 feet to the right of the clone. The clone stands up and turns slowly to face the target, and I can finally see his face. His eyes are closed and his eyebrows are bent in concentration. I notice that he is younger than I thought originally, I guess him to be around 14, although since he is a clone he's probably around 2 or 3. He runs a hand through his dark black hair, which has fallen into his face, and pulls out a knife from a holster behind his back.

With his eyes still closed, I watch with intrigue as the clone pulls his arm back, but all of a sudden swivels and throws the knife directly at me. Time seems to slow down and I can see the knife fly end over end towards me, but notice that with the way the blade is traveling, it won't hit me. I stand as still as possible, but my calculation is off, and the knife cuts my cheek. It stings and instantly I can feel blood start to trickle down the side of my face.

The clone opens his eyes and surprise quickly flashes on his face before being replaced by mild curiosity.

"I think you missed the target," I say as the clone walks over to me.

"Thought you were another one of those stupid regs," he shrugs.

"Um no, not a reg," I say, and figure he was talking about the other clones here on Kamino. "Is that why you were angry earlier?"

The young clone studies my face for a moment before answering. "Yeah, some di'kuts thought it would be funny to insult one of my friends. How'd you know I was angry? Are you a jedi?"

"It doesn't take a jedi to figure that out. When that box with the x on it was hovering around, you kept clenching and unclenching your fists. And then when you lined up your shot, you heard me and decided to change objectives. You thought I was another clone, and threw the knife at me. And I'm no expert at knife throwing, but I'm pretty sure you threw that harder than you're supposed to," I respond.

The clone hums and smirks. "Not bad."

I blush slightly and kneel down to grab the knife off of the floor. There is blood on the edge of the knife so I grab a wad of my robes and wipe it off.

"Uh, here, all good as new," I say, but a drop of blood runs down my cheek and onto the hilt. "Oh, um, sorry."

"Yeah, I guess I nicked you pretty bad. Sorry about that," the boy says, and pulls out a red piece of fabric from his belt. He hands me the fabric and I use it to clean off the hilt before offering the knife back.