Miles Away From Yesterday

Chapter 11 - Madness in Disguises

Author's Note: No one's having an easy time... :') 

PS. I got the idea of Raada and some of the names from the Ahsoka novel, but other than that, I'm basing the town off what we saw in Tales of the Jedi. ^-^

~ Amina Gila

They take the Twilight to Tatooine. It's a good place for Cut and his family to disappear. Tatooine has become the center of slavery resistance networks after being freed from Hutt control, and the people here, the General's family, will be able to help them disappear. It's what they're good at. Not all slaves want to live somewhere where they can be recognized or re-enslaved, so they're given new identities and sent to safe places across the galaxy.

Echo and Rex don't speak much throughout the hyperspace trip. There isn't much for them to say to one another admittedly. Mostly, they just go through intel that Rex has pulled together to see if they can find any leads about Fives.

They don't.

He's good at disappearing, way better than an ARC trooper should be able to, but then, he wasn't an ARC trooper for nothing. He and Echo were some of the best that the 501st has ever had.

They go to Mos Espa, of course, and they're given immediate clearance to land when Rex sends over their codes. A young man with black hair is there to greet them when they disembark, and he escorts them to the main office building that's used to oversee the slave trail. Echo was there, once, the last time he was on Tatooine. It's strange to be back here again, stranger still to be here without Fives and the Commander.

Tatooine brings up so many memories. It's where General Baylan was injured, nearly killed. It's where he first met the General. It's where General Skywalker told the clones that they were worth something, that he would help them leave if they wanted to, that he would take charge of the remains of their legion and lead them through the rest of the war. Echo doesn't know all of the details, but there must have been some sort of exception that was made because General Skywalker isn't a Jedi, and he shouldn't have been given charge of Commander Tano's training, but he was. He protected her, saved her life. If not for him, Echo doesn't think she would have made it.

An older woman with dark hair is inside the main office, and her eyes widen when she sees them. "Anakin told me you might be coming," she says, and then, Echo remembers her. He never met her, not more than briefly, but she's the General's mother. Shmi Skywalker, he thinks it was.

"Yes, ma'am," Rex answers, nodding respectfully to her. "I wouldn't have come if there had been another choice but Cut and his family need to disappear."

Shmi looks at the four of them, her dark eyes dark and intent, and Echo knows that they'll be safe. Shmi will take care of them. She'll help them hide away where no one will ever find them. "I'll take care of them," she promises, moving to Suu, touching her shoulder, and saying something in what sounds like Ryl before looking back at them. "My son will want to see you. He's in the back."

Rex nods to Echo, and they head through the back door and through a dimly lit hall to a room in the back, illuminated by flickering lights. And there, in the center of it all, is General Skywalker himself. Echo freezes for a moment, suddenly overwhelmed by emotion. He hasn't seen his General since shortly after he joined the Bad Batch and now... now, everything is so different.

The General looks up, and a smile lights his face. "Rex, Echo," he greets, wiping the grease off his hands on a rag as he comes to greet them. He and Rex clasp forearms, the traditional greeting between clones that their General picked up on, before he turns to Echo to do likewise. Stars, but he's missed him. "I'm glad to see you. Have you found anything?"