The Land Which Bears Your Footprints

Chapter 3 - Hoping It Reaches You In Time

Author's Note: Ben and Rey figure out more about who they used to be. :)

~ Amina Gila

Rey has no idea why she's almost feeling nostalgic as she walks through a Separatist cruiser of all things, but they finally reach a vault deep inside where she can sense someone. Except their Force presence is strangely quiet, and when they enter the room, she can see why.

The only thing in there is a stasis chamber of some kind. The person must be... in there?!

Ben approaches it cautiously, pushing the buttons on the side to deactivate it. The contraption hisses open, to reveal a... clone trooper?

Rey could swear something about him looks familiar, even if she's never seen one before. And how is one of them still alive, when the war ended so long ago? From the little she knows of history, she thought they were all already dead. "What...?" she squeaks, staring at him wide-eyed as she feels his Force presence start to waken, for presumably the first time in... so long.

And all this time, he's been sleeping. Everyone he ever knew is probably gone. She can't imagine what that would even be like, for as much as that feeling haunts her sometimes. It wasn't like this. She might have been somewhere else once, but she's here now, and this is where she belongs. That's not true for him, who missed decades of his life, decades he'll never get back. It's not true for this clone, probably one of the very last remaining ones alive.

"Where... where am I?" he stammers, and she can feel his instant surge of panic.

"We just found you?" Rey offers, instantly stepping forwards to steady him before he falls. Something inside her whispers fiercely that he's familiar, which is stupid, because she doesn't know any clones.

"You don't understand," he yells, pulling away, and clearly, he's not talking to them, not really. His mind is trapped on whatever was happening before he was frozen. "I'm a medic. And I... I learned something... something horrible. Fives knew... He's the one who figured it all out after Tup, and it got him killed. But I kept investigating. They said it was a virus..."

What is he talking about? And why does it sound so familiar?

"A chip in our heads," he continues, "In all the clones' heads! And an order. A command to betray... kill... And it comes from the Chancellor! The Seppies... captured me. Interrogated me to find out who else knew." He's practically shaking now, and she doesn't really understand what he's saying about the Chancellor? He must mean the Chancellor of the Republic, who would've been her grandfather, but maybe he's referring to something that started long before that. "I never had a chance to tell anyone else what I learned. I didn't know who I could trust. But I wouldn't tell them anyway... so they said... They said they were sending me to someone I couldn't keep secrets from, to the Sith. The cold, the freezing, burning cold..."

He staggers and then collapses to the floor, though he's still somewhat conscious.

The Sith?

What?

But that – that doesn't make sense. The Sith wouldn't... (But then she can't help remembering the Death Star again.)

"What's your name?" Ben tries prodding, crouching in front of him. He looks as uncertain and confused as Rey herself feels. She feels entirely lost, and she has no idea what to do. How is she supposed to tell this person that he's from another time?

"I can still – still save them," he rambles out, "Skywalker..."

Rey and Ben still at once. What?

"Get me General Skywalker. He'll help. You – you're Jedi too?" His gaze flicks to the lightsabers they both have. "We can save... save the Jedi still. Save the Republic!"