Jedi Fugitive (The Bad Batch)

59

A/N: It's Valentine's Day so here's two chapters :))

Astera:

"No, Omega, not like that," I called over to her, carefully disguising any impatience when the girl switched to a reverse grip for probably the eighth time since she'd begged me to give her another lesson in lightsaber wielding. "It's not a knife!"

"But you hold it the same way sometimes!" Despite her protests, she obediently changed her hold back, grabbing the lightsaber in both hands and pretending to slash at invisible enemies.

"And my master would tell me the same thing." Not that it helped anyway - I always found a reverse grip more comfortable wielding two blades at once. "No, not that way- Careful!" I dragged a hand over my face with a sigh, wondering how Master Yoda ever had the patience to deal with younglings. This was the reason why I'd told Obi-Wan I never wanted a Padawan. "Okay, come here."

I activated my other lightsaber and took a stance in front of her, guiding the weapon through the basic movements of Form I. "Follow my movements. Slowly - like this... Yes, much better!"

She copied every move I made, the tip of her tongue poking out and giving her an expression of fierce concentration. Her arms were already beginning to tremble with the strain of holding it, the plasma blade wavering in the air the longer she kept it up.

"This is heavier than it looks."

"Energy is always flowing through the crystal," I told her, remembering the lessons at the Temple and reciting them from memory. "Fighting with a lightsaber is more than just fighting with your average sword. You're directing a current of power as well. Your thoughts, emotions, actions, even your intentions will be part of the blade. They become energy which will flow through the crystal as well."

"Woah." Omega straightened to stare at the yellow blade in awe. "That's so cool."

"Yes," I said amusedly. "I suppose it is."

"I'm bored, I'm hot and I'm starving!" Wrecker's grousing floated over to us, the clone petulantly leaning away from the bike the three veteran clones were attempting to fix.

"I told you to preserve your rations." Hunter's voice held no trace of sympathy for his brother, glancing up from the rusted speeder bike only briefly.

"Well... I got hungry!"

"Here, Wrecker." I unhooked the last ration bar from my belt and tossed it towards him. He caught it easily, his eyes lighting up once he realised what it was and he lifted it to his open mouth without a second thought.

Until he looked to the other side of the bike, seemed to think better of it at the sight of something and lowered it with an embarrassed expression.

"Are you sure?"

"I've survived on less."

He took that as an invitation to tear into the ration stick, swallowing the entire thing in two bites and leaning back with a satisfied sigh. "That hit the spot. Thanks, Astera."

I acknowledged it with a short nod and returned to watch Omega go through the motions again, the lightsaber beginning to pick up speed as she grew familiar with the repetitive pattern.

"You didn't have to do that." Hunter settled his weight fluidly beside me, his thigh almost pressing right up against mine.

"It's fine." I shrugged, keeping my eyes carefully trained on Omega in front of me. He was already too close - I could feel the familiar warmth crawling up my neck again. If I had to make eye contact with him too, I wasn't sure if I would be able to handle it without making a fool of myself. "He needed it more than I did."