SWRC: OC-49 (Part 1)(Book 2.675)

Chapter 5 Misled Dealings.

"Your 'kids', if you can even call them that, are 50 years old! They look like they're supposed to be your father!"

"Watch your tongue when your mention my parents!" snapped Jax. "Silas is 54, and the others are 42. You know that."
"Oh, so suddenly, I'm the one in trouble," retorted Vax. "All for mentioning your dead parents!"

Tye started and flinched violently at Vax's outburst and the resounding silence that followed the painful sounding slap to his face.
Vax hardly seemed to acknowledge the pain that radiated from his face as he returned Jax's murderous glare.

"You of all people know better than to mention that," whispered Jax, so quietly that Tye almost couldn't hear from his hiding spot out the front of the room that the pair were fighting. He felt foolish now for ignoring the mechanics warning to not listen in on what they were fighting about. Tye knew he could never possibly understand what had happened to Jax, as he himself had never had any considered parental figures present every step of the way in his life. The few he had had, were taken away rather violently from him, but that had somehow not detracted from the parental bonds he had formed with his company.

If anything, it had strengthened them beyond the simple constraints of their lives and had even helped him heal his relationship with C.T that was beginning to really form into something else, though he really didn't understand the feelings for his Second-in-Command fully. It was complicated further by having known his SIC since they had been born and had faced everything thrown at them together.

"Why bring them in?" asked Jax suddenly, when no reply seemed to be forthcoming from Vax. "Why do they need to be involved with your mad schemes?"
"It's not a mad scheme."
"If it's not, then why?"
"They'll listen to me," said Vax. "Unlike you."
"Even if they do, why a broken clone company?"

"Because they can find her!"

Jax was silent and Tye was left playing the pronoun game quietly in his head. Who could 'she' be?
Did they know her?
Or did she know them?
Was she friend or foe?
Or was she lost and driving Vax mad trying to find her?

"You will never find her," said Jax softly, shaking his head slightly. "She's gone. She's never coming back."
"Yes she is!" yelled Vax, his voice breaking for a second as if he was about to cry.
"You will never find her Vax," said Jax softly. "You must see this with eyes unclouded by your blind hatred."
"You and your insecent riddles," growled Vax. " 'Eyes unclouded by hate'? You've been drinking, haven't you?"

Jax continued to shake his head.
"You will never see."

Vax bristled at his comment, but before he could say anything against it, Jax he continued,
"What makes you think that they can find her?"
"She's connected to them, she'll feel it!"
"Neeran doesn't keep ties that easily," said Jax, and for a brief moment, Tye thought he had an answer to the pronoun game that they'd been playing.
"Neither does the clone, nor my sister, or the other female clones. Neeran hasn't seen them since the beginning of the Clone Wars. She will have destroyed the connection with her company by now, if not shortly after they parted ways."

Tye was then left confused again as Jax and Vax continued to play the pronoun game, though at least they'd seemed to narrow it down to 3 or more potential culprits, all of whom were female.

"You're chasing a dead and nonexistent trail. My student is not that careless," said Jax. "Though she does have her own faults, excessive carelessness is thankfully not one of them."
"You can't erase everything," snarled Vax, turning to leave and Tye suddenly felt very afraid, for both his own life and those closest to him.

"Is that what this madness is about?!" yelled Jax, Vax turning back around to face him and Tye breathed a silent sigh of relief. "Making sure she isn't forgotten? Ensuring that everyone knows about her?"