Part the Tide | Captain Rex (BOOK 2 of the CHANGING WAVES series)

24 | Meeting New Siblings

22 BBY, Month 10

Giggles

Giggles awoke with a start, rushing to sit up. What a nasty dream that was! To be decommissioned was unthinkable. And over a gut-wound? Ridiculous. But as he looked around, he noted he was not in an area he recognized. He was in some strange little closet of some sorts. He scrambled to his feet, but froze as pain shot through his stomach. So, maybe, his wounds were a bit deeper than he thought, but he had to get better. What about Brodes and the rest of Crest? And Rylann? And the Batch? Did they know that he was about to be decommissioned?

The closet door slid open and Giggles crawled away from it in a last effort to escape his fate. He didn't want to die. He was too young to die!

"It's okay, Giggles," a young, soothing voice said in front of him.

Giggles looked over to see a young human girl with blond hair. A Kaminoan head-piece rested on her forehead which shot fear through Giggles' gut. But then he remembered asking the girl for help before he had passed out. He sat up straight, grunting in pain as he leaned against the wall. "Who are you? And how do you know my name?"

"I'm Omega," she said, sitting down across from him as the door slid closed. "I'm Rylann's friend." She pulled something out of her pocket. "Here, put this on."

Giggles took it and found it was a bacta pack. He met her eyes. "Thank you," he said sincerely. He grimaced as he lifted his shirt and unwound the bandage. Hastily, he put on the bandage, unable to look at the wound on his stomach. It wasn't good and that was all that he knew. It was bad enough to threaten decommission.

"Of course, it's my pleasure," Omega said, tapping her fingers on her knees as she watched him carefully. "I don't often talk to regs."

Giggles rose a brow. "That's what the Batch calls us."

Omega smiled. "Clone Force 99?" she asked, pulling her knees to her chest. "I've yet to meet them, too."

Giggles rewrapped his wound, watching her from the corner of his eyes. "You still didn't answer how you knew my name."

Omega hid her face in her knees, blushing. "I know Rylann and might have looked into who she is hanging out with."

"Might have?" Giggles asked, chuckling. "Looks like you did."

Omega lowered her legs. "I'm sorry, but I am quite curious about all my brothers."

Giggles opened his mouth to respond, but closed it just as quickly. Brothers? "You're a clone?" he asked, taking in her features, immediately recognizing the shape of the eyes and the placement of the nose. And the ears. Couldn't forget the ears.

"Yeah," Omega said, biting her lip. "Like Boba. Do you remember him?"

Giggles thought for a moment before recalling the clone that Jango adopted as his own. Something about aging differently. "Yeah, haven't seen him around in a hot minute."

Omega shrugged. "I don't know where he went."

Giggles groaned as he tried to stand. Omega jumped up and rushed to his side. "What are we going to do?" Giggles found himself asking. "They want to decommission me."

Omega paused for a second, scrunching her nose in thought. "I think we could hide you in Shaak Ti's suite until she and Rylann return. They will protect you."

Giggles nodded. That sounded reasonable. It wasn't like he knew anyone else besides them that would help. "Let's hurry then."

【 '۷' 】

Wynn

All was silent on the flight descending into the atmosphere of Kamino. Apparently, Wynn's master was going to take over Master Shaak Ti's position on Tipoca City while the togruta oversaw Padawan Tetra's training for the Trials. All these words and ways were new to Wynn. Padawan, Jedi, Master, Trials, Temple, Force—all were unfamiliar to her.

Master Kenobi sat at the steering of the ship, deep in thought. Wynn noticed he did that a lot. He didn't seem like much of a talker. In fact, she knew very little about Master Kenobi. She knew that Shaak Ti and Duchess Satine knew him very well, but for being considered a padawan for a month now, this was their first 'mission' together as master and padawan.

"How many padawans have you had, Master?" Wynn asked, crossing her legs as she looked over at the bearded man.

He blinked, glancing at her from the corner of his eye. "You are my second," he said succinctly, steering the ship down to land. "Anakin was my first. He was also a bit older for a padawan, though he just turned ten. You are fifteen, correct?"

Wynn nodded. "Yes, sir."

Kenobi sighed. "No need for the formalities." He successfully landed the ship, turning it off with a few flicks of a switch. He stood up, looking down at her. "It took me too long to realize my formalities with Anakin made him resent me for the first couple of years. You may call me Obi-Wan if you'd like."

"It feels wrong, sir," Wynn said, standing up to follow him out of the ship. "You are my master—my teacher. It feels disrespectful."

Obi-Wan paused to look down at her, a thoughtful look donning his face. "Alright, whatever makes you the most comfortable, Wynn."

Rain splattered down onto the deck of the water city, all of it rather new to Wynn. She'd never traveled outside of Mandalore's capital, and then she went to Coruscant which looked similar enough. But this felt alien. It looked so different. And then the Kaminoans came to greet them and Wynn couldn't help but stare. They were so very tall and strange. And scary. She felt icy when they were around.

Wynn tuned out the conversation as a familiar feeling burned through her gut. She felt as if she'd been here before. Something was familiar to her. Obi-Wan finally finished talking to the Kaminoans before he led her inside.

"They gave us new rooms, but Shaak Ti asked me to make sure to remove any bad food from her fridge," Obi-Wan said, walking down a bright hall, Wynn following close behind. She passed Kaminoans and she had an eerie feeling that they would snatch her up and experiment on her. Not something she wanted to happen.

"Are you alright, Wynn?" he asked as they stopped in front of a door.

She shook her head. "Something doesn't feel right."

He punched in a passcode and the door swung open, revealing a girl helping a bandaged clone onto the couch. Obi-Wan sighed. "What do we have here?"

"I have a bad feeling about this," Wynn muttered, watching what her master would do.

The small girl waved sheepishly. "Uh, hello there."