Duchess' Homecoming - Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Chapter 6

While Elya, Echo, and Fives were taking a transport on their way to Naboo from
Coruscant, Elya was fiddling with her necklace. She didn't really know why. It just sort of happened now and again.

"Quit fiddling with that thing", Fives told her.

He didn't have a demanding tone of voice. It sounded more like quiet advice. It's why Elya did as he said. But not before asking him, "Why?"

"You're a Duchess", he simply told her.

Fair enough.

"How do you know how Duchesses act?", she asked curiously.

Fives turned slightly red and muttered, "I uh, knew... a couple... before the siege", while Echo snickered.

"Yes, you knew a particular Duchess very well", Echo teased him while he turned away to hide his face.

It took Elya a couple of seconds to understand but when she did, she teased him even more than Echo did, "Fives! You sly dog! Who was she?"

Fives scoffed, "Why should I tell you?"

Elya thought for a moment, "Because I asked you nicely?", she tried.

"Ha!", Fives laughed.

Elya rolled her eyes before turning them to Echo.

"Do you know who she was?", she asked him.

"I do", Echo started before receiving a death glare from Fives, "But I'm certain that if I told you, I'd be dead where I stood", he finished.

Elya turned back at Fives to see him giving Echo the death glare and frowned.

"You're no fun", she moaned.

"Hey, I can be fun when I want to!", Fives defended himself.

"Then be fun now", Elya blatantly asked him.

Fives paused before replying, "... I don't want to."

Elya huffed while slumping back in her seat with her arms folded.

~ ☆ ~

While she was staring out the window, Echo saw Fives staring at Elya. He smirked at his friend. When Fives noticed it, he frantically shook his head at his friend, who in turn nodded frantically. After a couple of seconds of that, Elya noticed and gave them weird look

~ ☆ ~

It had been silent for a few minutes when Elya blurted out, "Okay, can someone fill me in? I have to ask... why do you two look the same? I mean, I guess it's fine for just two people because they might just be twins or something but I've seen at least ten other people who look nearly identical to you and I have no idea why!"

The two blinked at her, glanced at each other and then back at her before Echo said, "We're clones. We were made to serve the Grand Army of the Republic during the war. Us clones were actually what caused the siege. See, there was this biological chip implanted in our heads when we were made so that, at the push of a button, someone would brainwash us to kill the jedi. Lucky for us, Fives here figured it out when our buddy Tup died because his chip malfunctioned. He also almost got killed if it weren't f-."

Echo cut himself off when Fives started shaking his head again and he remembered why he couldn't continue.

"'If it weren't for...'?", Elya asked him.

"Um...", Echo looked at Fives and, upon seeing his very disapproving face, told her, "If it weren't for our commanding officer, Captain Rex, Fives would've been a goner."

"We're gonna try and find Rex while we're in Naboo. We heard he's still around", Fives added.

Elya sighed. That was a lot to take in. Her eyes went to Fives and she said, "Well... if he's as handsome as both of you, I'd be happy to meet him."

The clones laughed at her joke. Fives looked into Elya's eyes and smiled for a second before his face fell again.

~ ☆ ~

When they were waiting to get on the last transport they had to take before Naboo, Elya noticed someone slink in front of them. She didn't think much of it, 'why pick a fight where there isn't one?', until she noticed something sticking out from their pocket. She looked closer and saw that the person had nabbed their tickets.

She tapped the person on the shoulder and said, "Sorry to bother you but I believe you have something that isn't yours."

The person looked spooked and started trying to shuffle further away from her before outright leaving the line when more people, particularly guards, started looking at them. Elya ran after them and grabbed them by the back of their collar before holding them by the stomach as guards approached them. The guards found several stolen goods in the person's pockets and Elya got the gang's tickets back.