One in a Million

After Shock

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In a forest alone, stood a girl. A frantic expression was on her face. She wore only the black under armor from the training sessions, but wasn't equipped with armor or weapons. She screamed out names. Names that only bounced of the trees and echoed back to her. Taunting her.
There was nothing and no one. Nothing she could recognize except the next tree in the circle which surrounded her. There were no animals, no birds, no sounds of life. Only darkness and trees. No, not trees. Not trees at all.
     The girl watched in bewilderment as the standing objects around her turned into dark, cold stones. These were stones. They towered above her in menace... Cold and dry. Lifeless. What all life eventually became.
As she looked around in confusion and fear, she watched as the giant stones shrunk. They shrunk and shrunk until they were the sizes of small tomb stones. They were scattered across a large open plain. The short stones were not decorated and were completely bare except for some words engraved on them. The girl bent down and took a closer look at the stones. She touched the one before her tentatively. She wanted to die when she saw whose name was written on there.
Clone DT-887, Snipe. Clone DT-782...that was Jax. Then there was Clone Dt-662, and DT-133...It was her her team. It was her brothers.
KD stood on their graves.
The realization left her in shock. Pure and utter shock. Tears threatened, no, begged for release. They begged to fall...but she couldn't. Not as she looked upon the last grave stone in the row. It was unlike the others. Whereas their's were plain and smooth, this one was chipped and...glowing? Yes, glowing. A blue shine was around the stone but she couldn't understand why. Curiosity took over her initial distraught.
KD stood and walked towards the stone. When she got in front of it, she saw it had no name. Whoever this was...was not remembered. They were forgotten, but only by name. Designs swirled and spiraled on the edges of the worn down stone. Designs of no particular pattern, but specific shades of blue and red. She reached to touch the odd stone, but was not able to. For suddenly, a crack opened up beneath her and she fell.
She fell, fell, fell, fell...She fell into darkness that wasn't like the lonely forest or dooming graveyard.

She fell down.

And it was terrifying.
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"Ah!" KD sat up, alarmed, eyes wide. A medical droid rushed over to her and urged her to lay back down. "You went into shock clone Dt-1467. You need to lie down and gather your strength. You are not well equipped to-" she shoved the piece of talking metal away from her. It stumbled back into a tray of supplies.
KD immediately scanned her surrounding. A circular room with many other medical beds built into the curved walls. The chain of beds only broke for the door that was across from hers. The sheets were white and so was everything else. There was a desk in the center of the room with a Kaminoen standing in it. He looked truly shocked at her sudden rage and strength.
He raced over to her. Seeing as KD didn't know him at all, or recognize him, she got on the defensive. Her arms, which were braced at her side, tensed and she was ready to launch herself off the bed any second. "Cadet DT-1467 please calm yourself." He stood beside her bed which was imbedded in the wall. She felt trapped with the tall, lanky Kaminoen Doctor standing in her way of escape.
Escape? From where? She was in Kamino. She was still at her home not some forest or graveyard or...she shuddered as a memory of her dream came back to her. That had been...unsettling.
"Take it easy. You went into shock and you fainted. Everything is alright. Droid, bring this patient some water." Within moments the medical droid, which she had shoved not too long ago, appeared at her side with a cup. KD took it and downed the cup in one swig. It was a habit she'd learned from growing up with men. Not very lady like, but what did she care about that?
Taking a breath, she handed the cup back to the droid and she uttered a soft thank you. "Shh, shh," said the doctor trying to get her to lay back down. She was panting. And sweating. Badly. So KD gave in and laid her dizzy head back on the not-so-comfortable pillow. A strand of her unbound dark hair fell into her face, but she was too lazy to do anything about it.
"What-What happened?" She asked rather hoarsely. Had she been yelling or something? Lifting a hand to her throat, KD started to rub the sore part. She turned her gaze to the Kaminoen.
    He looked young. Clearly he wasn't as old as Dormina, who was nearly seventy. He had a long neck just like the rest of his race and big eyes. Eyes that held very little true emotion. The race of Kaminoens weren't very compassionate. They were scientists after all. But Dormina was. Dormina....
     "You were in the mess hall after your training session when you passed out. We got you here right after. It's been a few hours. After the first though, you started squirming lashing out. You were screaming. I called in security but by then you had ceased. It must have been some dream you had. Tell me, do you remember it?"
        The way he was looking at her...she didn't trust. So KD shook her head and looked away from him. "No," she answered. The Kaminoen gave a suspicious "Hmm." And nodded his head.
    "Well, do you at least remember why you passed out?" She still didn't want to say. Because what could she say? That she was afraid of being taken away from her brothers? No, they would certainly not let her go to war with that attitude. People died in war all the time. And the gravestones....
"No," she answered, then... "I think it was just because of training today. We worked really hard and I hadn't eaten anything so I was feeling fatigued."
Lie. But with a little bit of truth. She hadn't eaten after training today, at least not much. She hadn't the chance. But they didn't work really hard today. It was just their average. Ghost Squad had decided to save their real strength for the final test. The test that would determine whether or not they got to go to war. That was the real challenge. It was the hardest.
            "Hm, makes sense I suppose," said the doctor. She almost shivered at his voice. It was oily and smooth, and like scraping metal over a rock. She resisted the urge to squirm.
The doctor walked over and behind the curved desk in the center and pressed a button. He spoke into what must be a speaker. "Ghost Squadron you may enter." Happiness filled her when she heard her squad's name. She got even more joyful when she watched them all file in. Though they were clones and supposedly all looked alike, KD knew who her squad mates were. She could recognize them from a mile away. To her, they were unique in every way. Just like her, they were different.
"KD!" Snipe said and reached her side first. He knelt down and she tried her best to sit up. Once she had a good position against the wall, she smiled tiredly at them. Behind Snipe, Jax and Anon stood. Anon looked like Anon- with a raised brow and arms crossed over his chest. For all the galaxy he appeared as the ever-amused Anon, except now there was a different gleam in his eyes. It was worry.
   Out of all of them, it seemed Jax was the only one standing with a neutral, indifferent expression. He probably found this to be senseless.
Snipe and Sparks appeared most concerned - and weren't as determined to hide what they were feeling. Even KD herself felt the need to hide her emotions. It was impressive that they were not.