He's awoken by distant yelling.
Hunter blinks at the wall, trying to force his mind back into consciousness – he can't remember the last time he slept so deeply. It's ridiculous. He's in prison. He should be alert. He'd blame having bit Crosshair, but then he remembers the rawness on his gums and never mind. They still hurt.
"Let me go!" a voice is yelling in the hall, and he rolls over, sitting up. "My master is going to find me, and when he does, he'll burn this entire place and gut you like a Rokaria'n dirt fish! You have no right to do this. I'm more Imperial than you are, sleemo!" Hunter knows that word – Echo uses it all the time. He picked it up from his general, apparently. It's a Tatooinian word.
There's a thump and a crash, but the ray shield comes down and two regs throw someone inside.
She's a Togruta, a foot shorter than him, and probably half his width. Her skin is a familiar orange. She jolts upright, whipping around with a furious snarl-growl in her throat, bearing her fangs. They look longer than Hunter's own were. Sharper.
She slams a red-gloved hand on the ray shield. It ripples, holding strong and repelling her. She kicks the floor, stamping her boot on the duracrete.
She's feral.
Hunter has seen that before. Everyone has. There's nothing more terrifying than a feral vampire. They're something out of nightmares. He doesn't know what causes it, but their eyes go a terrifying, unnatural gold, and they lose all sense of reasoning. They're, well, feral, and they lose their minds completely. The only way to stop them is to put them down, and it happened with a number of regs on Kamino.
She hisses at the shield, turning back.
Hunter backs away a little, heart pounding. They locked him up in here with a feral vampire? Why? What do they want?
Her eyes glitter gold when she looks up at him, the blood vessels in her eyes sort of just... bright. Dilated or whatever word Tech would use.
Her montrals are striped white and blue. There's two diamond-shaped white marks on her forehead, another shaping something vaguely diamond-shaped in the center, and... some twisted markings on her cheeks. But Hunter knows those marks. He's seen her before. He would recognize her anywhere. Any clone would.
Ahsoka Tano.
All the clones know about her and her general. She's close with them. Cares about them. Is one of the only people who does.
She was Echo's commander.
And she's feral.
Hunter takes a half-step back from her, heartbeat skyrocketing.
Breathe. Focus. In. Out.
He does this all the time.
He's also never had a feral vampire unleashed on him before. They're basically the same as animals, just more vicious and dangerous, and he doesn't have a way to defend himself.
She shudders, shaking her head and licking her lips, eyes bright and sharp. That's the same look Crosshair had yesterday before he bit Hunter. "You're a clone," she says.
He didn't know feral vampires could talk. "Commander?" he asks, and he sounds unreasonably faint. He's seen holos of her. He knows her face. The markings are unmistakable.
"You're right about that," she gripes, hand on her hip, "I was an Imperial commander. Before they demoted me." She scowls at his – their? – bunk.
"I thought the Jedi were all dead."
She glares, snarling and bearing her fangs. "Don't call me a Jedi!"
YOU ARE READING
Blood of Glory
FanfictionHunter never really thought there was a connection between the clones' vampire abilities and the fact that the Jedi share a heightened version of it, and why would he? It's not until after Order 66 when the Empire captures him that he realizes there...
