FORESIGHT and SCOPE: BOOK TWO

C H A P T E R T W E N T Y-F O U R

THIRD PERSON POV

"No, absolutely not." Fern shook her head as she crossed her arms with stern antinomy.

"I am with Fern on this one." Hunter nodded, copying the female clone. "Omega, Phee has said a lot of things, and some of it is concerning..."

"Fine by me." The pirate shrugged, not at all aggreived. "I can go alone and take the spoils for myself. Or we go together and split it fifty-fifty." She placed a gentle hand on Omega's shoulder and handed her a small circular disk, to which Fern assumed was the perpetrator to this whole debate. The female clone watched how Phee pulled Omega close to her side, and a spark of jealousy ignited in her.

"Go alone. Have a safe trip." Fern stated with finality. She then swiveled on her stool and stared down blankly at the datapad, her hand raked through her raven hair. A moment later, a small hand grasped onto her forearm. "Please, Fern." Omega gazed up at her with her large, round eyes. "What if there really is treasure there?" Fern was not going to fall victim to those brown orbs — she bit the inside of her lip to help her resist the young girl's temptations. Wrecker chimed in how they weren't on a mission. In response, Fern spun around once more. "You are correct, Wrecker. And where's the harm in just having a quiet recess in between missions, hmm?"

"Not to mention," Echo stepped in. "the last time we went after 'treasure,' it didn't go as planned."

"Thank you, Echo!"

"You weren't working with a professional then." Phee noted with a smirk, to which Fern scowled.

"It could be fun!" Omega tightened her grip on Fern's arm as she bounced on her toes with elation, her giant smile pulled at Fern's heartstrings. The longer she tried to resist, the more she surmised this was how Hunter always felt — and why he could never say no to the young girl... "It could also be dangerous." she breathed in a troubled tone.

"Yeah," Phee cocked her head to the side while adjusting her cream-colored top, her long fingers brushed over the red embroidery along the thin V-slit neckline. "Wherever this compass leads to, the site will demonstrate one of the great dangers of archeology; not to life and limb, although that does sometimes take place. I'm talking about folklore. It is something that is always worth the endless possibilities." The poetry within her words washed over everyone in the room, including Fern. She glanced over at Hunter, who looked to Echo. The cyborg-clone shrugged his vote off. The sergeant faced Fern and, with a heavy exhausted sigh, bobbed his head to Omega, who grinned with glee.

All eyes were on Fern for her final response, though she did not think it mattered at this point. "I'm going to regret this..." she grumbled, and hung her head in a nodding fashion in defeat.

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FERN'S POV

Omega had taken a liking to Phee very quickly. She mimicked the pirate's lounging position: their hands folded behind their heads with their feet propped up on Mel the memory bank droid. As I deliberately glared at them from the foyer that connected the cockpit to the rest of the ship, I had a flashback to when we were all in the brig on Kamino, way back when I first unofficially joined Clone Force 99 to escape the planet, and remembered how Omega would copy every one of Hunter's movements...I also recalled how annoyed I was, just like now as I observed her with Phee. My brows furrowed even deeper into the space above my nose.

Hunter leaned on the opposite wall across from me, skillfully twirling his knife between his fingers, another trick Omega once tried to imitate. I knew Hunter was also skeptical of the dark-skinned woman. As we both eavesdropped, he interrupted after Phee expressed her animated life as a "treasure hunter."