Clones

My Mission

"Your first mission!" My master, a Kel Dor, celebrated with me. Excitement flowed through me as I jumped up and down, a crazed grin spreading across my face. He looked just as excited for me as I was for myself. I'd trained my whole life to hear those words. I got to travel with my master on a mission!

"This is the best, Master!" I squealed. The mask hiding his nose and mouth twitched as he spoke.

"I'm happy for you, Merete." He looked as if he was smiling under the mask. I managed to make my a back a teeny bit straighter as a thought occurred to me.

"Are you coming with me, Master Plo?" I asked with a sweet smile. He nodded.

"Always..." He told me. Ha, ironic.
If I'd never asked, maybe he'd still be with me now.

"I've gotta go tell Jack!" I jumped. Jack, short for Jack-o-lantern, or CT-27-1031. 10 is October. 31- is Halloween, hence the name, Jack-o-lantern.

I danced down the hallways of the Jedi temple on my toes. I got several inquiring looks from the more experienced Jedi in the temple, but I ignored them as I changed direction abruptly, promptly colliding with someone. As I looked up into the scowling face of Kiara, I had a tiny memory of wondering how it was possible for one person to frown so much. The older girl yanked me to my feet by my shirt collar, glaring into my eyes.

"Watch where you're going, shorty." Kiara snarled in my face, throwing me back to the ground. I glanced back up, and stuck out my tongue at her. Looking back, that was probably not my best idea ever, but ain't takin' it back. Kiara was blazing with fury as she raised a fist, prepping to bring it down on my face.

I moved my arms to shield my face, when a voice hollered from across the hall, "Hey!" Both me and Kiara glanced over to my right to see a boy standing in the hall, a knowing look on his face. I smiled somewhat smugly.

"Oh, hi Caleb!" I hollered, standing up to brush myself off. "Nice timing!" Kiara threw me a look of absolute disgust, before marching off down the hall, probably still scowling. Caleb walked over to me, with a slight eye-roll.

"Told ya you'd run into someone eventually." He said. I simply flashed a grin.

"So? It's not like you've never done it." I pointed out. Caleb shrugged.

"Point." He admitted. "Where are you going, anyhow?" He asked. I nearly kicked myself.

"I was supposed to go get Jack!" I remembered suddenly, rushing off. "Bye Caleb!" I hollered over my shoulder.

I never found out what happened to Caleb after that.

I ran into the clone trooper training room, panting. The sun shone through the windows creating a nice light during training. It looked as if training was ending soon. Every clone of Jack's level was huddled together in three separate squads, watching a shiny and Jack himself. The two were in the center, wrestling ferociously. I was half-tempted to use the force to help Jack, but decided against it. That hadn't gone over well last time.

The fight didn't last long. With a twist of his arm, Jack judo-flipped the opposing clone onto his back. The man didn't get up, and a cheer erupted from the squad behind Jack. They must have been in teams for training, I realized. Jack turned away from his group, his helmet still on, but I still knew it was him. He waved, then turned back to the group and lowered his hand in the center with the others. They yelled a separation cheer and ran in seemingly fifty different directions. All but one.

Jack's brown eyes turned to me as he removed his helmet. He smiled and began running up the stairs to the post I stood on. His hair fluttered behind him as he ran. He'd never found any reason to cut it, so his long braid dropped behind him when he stopped in front of me.