Rebels on the Run

Chapter Two

Howzer stares at you silently, and you can see him trying to make sense of your words. It's almost as if he's debating whether or not you're lying, and whether or not he should stick around, leave, kill you, or let you live. You, on the other hand, are internally debating if you should kill him before he possibly attempts to kill you. You took the risk to reveal your identity, and now you have to wait to see if it was the wrong choice or not.

"Y/n Jinn..." he repeats after a minute, his hands slowly moving down to his side. You watch, and slowly move your hand to your blaster as well. He notices your movement, and slowly grabs his blaster and vibroblade. "If you are who I think you are claiming to be," he says, "then you have no reason to fear me." He sets his blaster to stun and then sets both weapons on the ground before sliding them over to you. You set a foot on top of each one, but continue to watch him carefully.

"You could still physically attack me."

"But I'm still sitting here, aren't I?"

"False trust."

Howzer sighs, and you watch as he moves to sit on the floor. "Now I'm in a worse position to get up and try to attack you." You remain silent, but you too settle yourself on the floor. He watches curiously, and then his eyes go slightly surprised as you lift your bounty hunter mask off and set it to the ground. He looks at you for a minute before letting out a slight chuckle. "Commander Sans was right."

"About?"

"How beautiful you are." You feel your cheeks burn up at the compliment before a pang of hurt strikes you. You look down, tears building in your eyes. "I'm sorry if that was too much-"

"No," you say quickly, shaking your head, "it's just..." You take a deep breath. Maybe it will be therapeutic to talk about what had happened. "Sans, Hex, and Steele believed that they had shot down and killed me, and after that they all took their own lives. Sans ordered Hex and Steele to kill him, and then they killed themselves. I heard everything over the comms. I would have done anything to save them, but I knew they'd just end up hunting me down and killing me, and still end up killing themselves after. It would have only delayed the inevitable."

"I see," he says, "I'm sorry you lost such loyal men."

"I just...I don't know or understand what happened. I loved them so much. And they loved me...I thought."

"We were given an order, order 66," he starts, "and it was to kill all Jedi because they betrayed the Republic. Or so the Chancellor claimed. But I want to believe you, that the Jedi were in fact innocent. But at the same time, I don't want that to be true, because then we all turned on our generals that fought alongside us for so long, and took their lives for a false belief."

You remain quiet, not quite sure how to respond. Howzer is right, the Jedi had fought alongside the clones for the entire clone war, and with one simple phrase, they'd turned on them and killed them. It doesn't make sense, it shouldn't have been that easy. There has to be more to it.

"I have things to do," you say after a while.

"Oh, uh, yeah," Howzer says, standing up awkwardly. "I'll uh, be on my way, then."

"Not so fast," you say, holding him in place with the force as he begins to head to the entrance, "you can't forget your weapons. Especially since you're a fugitive."

"Right," he says, reaching to take the blaster and vibroblade as you hand them to him. You take a step back after he grabs them, and watch as he hesitates while looking at them. "Can I ask you a question?"

"You haven't given me a reason to deny you the right to."

He nods, clearing his throat while holstering his blaster. "Would I be able to...stay with you? I know my being a clone might put you on edge, but I can promise to be helpful. And I think we'd both have a better chance of surviving if we worked together."