I Choose You ( discontinued )

Chapter 6: A Home in the Skies

Al and Blue Jay were what someone would call secret friends. Krell forbid Al to talk to the clones, so she didn't. When he was around that is. When he was being all dark and brooding, she was getting to know her soldiers, with Blue Jay's help that is. He helped her get to know each and every clone by name and number. Soon she had most of their names down and spent most of her nights aboard Krell's ship the Victory alone in an empty bunker room with Blue Jay, talking about their different outlooks of the war. 

"How come we never get assigned anything?" Al asked, laying sprawled out on the floor, levitating random things Blue Jay found.

"Cause the general doesn't trust us," said Blue Jay, swinging Al's ignited lightsaber around and trying to see how it worked.

"I know that," said Al, sending a random tool into it's box. "Careful with that, it can really but through anything. Including eyeballs."

"I know what I'm doing," said Blue Jay, lowering the blade.

"The bed is smoking."

Blue Jay quickly lifted the lightsaber from the melted mattress. "Maybe your should keep this for now."

"Good idea." Al stood up and took the lightsaber from him, closing the deadly weapon.

"How come you Jedi are peacekeepers yet you blow things up and carry the most dangerous weapon in the galaxy around in your belt?"

Al shrugged. "I'm not really sure. "I think we use lightsabers and the Force to help keep the peace. Not all peacekeepers are pacifists."

"That's the most logical thing I've heard a Jedi say," Blue Jay said, sitting down on a non damaged bunk.

Al sat next to him. "You've never met a Jedi besides me and Krell have you?"

Blue Jay nodded. "One other."

"Who?"

"Shaak Ti. She's the Jedi mentor on Kamino. I didn't have a personal connection with her, but she seemed nice. Usually me and Red Hawk kept our distance from other besides ourselves and Crusher."

"I don't know her," said Al, racking her brain. "Then again I've never been to Kamino before so that's probably why."

Blue Jay chuckled. He opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by the sound of the admiral's voice over the intercom. "We are coming out of hyperspace now."

"We were in hyperspace?" Al asked. Just as she said this, she felt the small jerk of the ship that signaled the exit. 

Blue Jay shrugged. "I don't know. They never tell me anything."

The two walked into the throng of clones marching to the bridge. Blue Jay grabbed ones arm.

"What's going on?"

The clone shrugged. "Apparently the general is returning to Coruscant. They want you in the hanger commander." He said the last part to Al.

Al nodded, smiled at Blue Jay, and ran to the bay, hoping she wasn't late. Her master was standing near the ramp to a ship.

"You're late," he snapped.

"Sorry Master," said Al. "I got held up."

"By a clone?" Krell spat the final words.

Al shook her head. She didn't know what happened next, but suddenly the side of her face burned and she felt tears spring into her eyes. Krell had hit her across the face. There was a small cut and a trickle of blood dripped down the bruise.

"Don't lie to me," he said savagely, his voice so quiet that Al felt smaller with every word. "Get on the ship. Speak of this to no one."

"Yes Master," said Al, her voice surprisingly steady. When she got onto the ship, she closed herself in one of the side rooms and collapsed on the floor, clinging herself. Silent tears flowed down her face, most from anger. The slap didn't even hurt, she was mostly angry. Forcing herself to stand, she walked over to the medical case and put a bandage over her cut. In her little shutting herself out episode, she had forgotten to turn on the lights in the room. She missed the bandage and it raked across her bruised skin. "Damn it!" she hissed, clutching her face. More blood gushed out of her wound. She closed her eyes and focused, finding the lightswitch and flicked her hand in an upward motion, flushing the room with artificial light. With this done, she placed the bandage in the right place. She was just thinking about what to do with her bruise when there was a loud banging on her door.