𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐑𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑

FOUR

"Some things are better
as a beautiful mystery."

THE WAYS THE
STARS ALIGN

Kaia Zevari
written by Asteria.

Kaia watched as the stars danced across the sky, watching as they all slowly align in their own chaotic way to create a bigger picture. Pictures of earlier today replays in her mind like a slide show, from plans to capture a separatist base to flashes of troopers training with their brothers.

When sitting on a simple rock, gazing up at the stars, Kaia lets her mind drift.

As a padawan, Kaia had pushed her feelings aside to focus on the world around her—to focus on the selflessness of the Jedi and the hearts of innocents. Her own happiness, often became a distant task in her mind that she put off day after day while her training carried on. And once the clone wars came around, it was like nothing had nearly improved on her situation. Her attachments only seemed to grow once the clone wars came around.

"...General?" A voice asked softly, slowly walking up behind her.

It was hard for Kaia to see more than two feet in front of her, the stars only showing a small amount of the color that coated her skin while she turned around to face the clone that spoke to her.

Much to her surprise, it was the Captain.

"Sir?" The captain asked again, lifting the rust bucket off his head with ease.

Kaia flinched, as if his voice had suddenly shattered her trail of thought and left a thousand alarms ringing in her ear. She turned her head at the Captain.

"Captain? Is everything okay?"

Even behind the addressing tone, Rex noticed how she wouldn't look at him straight in the eye. Her eyes always drifted towards his shoulder pads, his hands, but never his eyes. Rex assumed it was because the general didn't like clones, and was merely picking off details of imperfection by simply looking at his armor.

All of a sudden, the tally marks on his helmet didn't seem like a good idea.

"Can I ask you a question, General?"

This time her eyes meet his, a peek of question behind it.

Kaia nods her head once.

"Is there a reason you don't look at me?" He didn't mean for his tone to be so... accusing, but it just came out that way. "I noticed that about a lot of the clones around here.. you just don't look at them in the eye."

Kaia knew this question was coming, no matter how many times she tried to avoid the question or dodge it—it seemed to always find it's way back to her.

A deep sigh left her nose, and her eyes drifted up towards the sky once more. A part of her really didn't want to explain it, to taint the barrier she had made for herself and let pieces of her code fall away—but Kaia knew that at least this Captain deserved an answer.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Rex was quick to stumble out an apology, "Look, I-I'm sorry if I—"

"I used to have my own squad."

Silence.

It was if that simple sentence put a million pieces together. The distant stares, the eye avoiding, hell—even the tremble in her voice gave all the answers he needed now.

A soft smile appeared on her lips this time, and the tremble from her voice had faded completely, "We were called the 22nd Aster Squad. One of the best underneath the 501st" She teased softly, turning her head to look at the Captain, "One of my troopers used to call you guys the Jedi of clones."

used to.

Rex didn't need to know about what happened in order to really.. know. He could tell by the distant look on her face, the way she seemed to just simply detach herself for just a moment and slip into her memories.

"They must have been very fine soldiers." What was meant to be a complement, only burned a bittersweet tase in the Jedi's mouth.

"They weren't just soldiers," She says, her voice nearly a whisper while the familiar words tumble from her mouth, "They were people with names just like you and me..."

Kaia sighed running her fingers through her wavy hair, knowing that her natural roots were showing instead of the sapphire blue she had come to love. With a soft shake of her head, she waved a dismissive hand.

"...to bad the republic doesn't see that sometimes." She murmured again, mostly to herself.

Rex stood quietly, chewing his top lip between his teeth. "You believe we're more than numbers, right?" He asked suddenly.

"Yes."

"Then that's what matters, General."

Kaia smiled, nearly a full smile while she stood from her rock. She stretched her back softly, before reaching a hand out towards the Captain. "Now that you know my depressing backstory," She jokes lightly, "My name is Kaia.. Kaia Zevari, and you can call me that instead of General if you'd like."

Rex grinned at Kaia, clasping his hand against her's, "Rex. Captain Rex, obviously."

She rolled her eyes, a playful smirk tugging at the corners of her lips. "Let's hope Skywalker has a big enough ship for both of your egos."

Rex was smiling.

"I think he does."

Author's Note:

Fun Facts about this story!

I came up with the name 22nd Aster Squad by
using my traditional soccer number and part of my wattled username.

There are ten people apart of Kaia's Aster Squad!

2nd in command is called Ripple and you'll learn more about him as the story goes on.

And the youngest in the group was called Jackpot because of his CT number CT-4200, aka the jackpot number 420.

The clone that looked up to the 501st legion was also Ripple!