I woke up to find Talen outside running through drills with Kote, of all people. Despite the obvious size difference, Talen seemed to be holding his own against the larger Clone, who was talking all sorts of trash in Mandalorian in what seemed to be some attempt to get him to slip up while his brothers and mine all laughed from the sidelines. Wylan and Ros were watching nearby while Kothe cleaned her rifle and watched at the same time, but none of them made a move to join the circle of Clones.

Neither did I.

I made my way over to where they stood and watched Wylan frown as I approached, helmet in hand. Ros smiled at me almost pointedly in response, "Morning, Kaminii. Your jeti'ika got up early."

Kothe had looked up and frowned, "Yeah, and he should be resting. The kid doesn't need to be up and running around."

"Something you need?" Wylan cut in almost before Ros had finished and the other Mando shot him a glare. Kothe had even stopped with her rifle and looked up with the most disapproving glare I had ever seen. Wylan glanced between them and rolled his eyes, "Listen, this is convenience. We all know it is." He pushed himself away from the wall and met my gaze, "You've earned my respect, but that doesn't mean I have to be friendly with you."

"Suits me just fine," I replied and place my free hand on my hip.

He nodded, face still unreadable, "Good. Then we're in agreement." He turned his eyes back out to face the ring of Clones, "They like your kid."

They did.

"Surprised they like a Jedi."

"Helps that he's tiny," Ros chuckled and turned to me, "but what are you going to do when the Jedi inevitably take him back? They won't let him stay with you forever..."

I hadn't thought about that until that moment.

Talen had become such a part of our weird little group that the thought of them taking him away again actually made me a little less eager to end this mission. Once we had Sato'ven, he was going to return to the Jedi Temple, we would return to the streets of Coruscant, and everything would go right back to the way it used to be.

That made me a little... what? Sad, maybe?

Kothe had finally stood up and looked at me with a small pulling one corner of her scarred mouth up, "You five could always run away with us. You and your brothers are good in a fight and the boys like you." She had gestured to the ring of Clones, who had burst into cheers as Talen levitated Kote up off the ground. "We'd need to de-chip you first, but..."

That comment had taken me by surprise. It half made us sound like animals, and my face must have conveyed that because Ros gave a scoff, "Come on, Kaminii. Surely you figured they had ways of tracking down lost property. It's downright dehumanizing. There's a Kaminoan who does it for Clones who want out. We run our boys through him when they arrive."

"You can do that?"

"Contrary to popular belief," Kothe had said.

I was more surprised that a Kaminoan had been involved in all of that. It seemed more than a little out of character for the aloof and scientific cloners to be invested in what they created. I always figured that Iru Bre had some more selfish reason for being as apathetic towards the idea of cloning for money, but if there was another Kaminoan or two out there who felt even more strongly than he did about it, then I was always willing to be pleasantly surprised.

"We protect our boys by giving them the gift of anonymity. Only then can we let them live the lives that they deserve," Ros' voice had dropped to something just above a whisper as we watched Kote hit the ground as Talen got swept off his feet by an excited Red in a peal of laughter. "All of you are more than droids."

"You won't find many who agree," I remember replying as Wylan shifted and crossed his arms beside me again. His face was an impassable mask of durasteel and unsurpassed calm.

"Maybe not," he had replied as he too gained a half-smile as he watched the good-natured exchange going on before us, "but your senators want to kill you for being born to fight a war they started. I'd say that smuggling a few of your brothers out from under them and unleashing the chaos it brings is a little bit worth it." He had grabbed his helmet and thrust it onto his head before he turned to Ros, "I'm going to scout. Keep watch."

Ros just nodded and leaned back against the decrepit wall of the house as Wylan grabbed his rifle and made his way out of the town. He looked back at me and smiled again, "I'm serious about the offer to stay. We could use more good men. The boys wouldn't hesitate to bring you in."

I wasn't sure how to reply at first, so I settled on a nod, "That's a generous offer, Ros, but I can't accept. My duty is to the Republic. Always has been, likely always will be."

Ros gave a small nod before his eyes returned to Red, Grek, and Tor, "All well and good, but what about them? Do they feel the same way?"

"After this mission, I don't know."

"Fair enough, but don't make that decision for them. You're each your own man despite sharing the same face."

On that point, the old man couldn't have been any more right.

*

Turns out, our little plan had worked like a charm and Sota'ven had gotten sloppy. Wylan had come back from his scouting mission a much more well-informed man. He had tossed down a map puck with a small sector marked off and gave one nod of his head. "There," he jabbed his finger at it with a rather proud shrug of his shoulders. "There he is. Now, all we have to do is grab him."

"Doubt it will be that easy," Red had replied as he leaned on his rifle.

"True," Kote turned his head to me as a smile came to his face, "but I have an idea."

I knew that look. I'd get it sometimes when I was about to do something either brilliant or really, really kriffing stupid. It was the one perk of being a clone. You almost always knew what the other person was thinking.

"Kando, how good are you and the kid at sneaking around?"

I somehow knew where this was going, "Oh, you have got to be kidding me..."

"Listen, listen... Okay, we all go in the front - big explosions, Tracyn in charge of thermal detonators, the whole spiel, yeah? - while you and the kid sneak around back and make the shab regret all of his life choices, right?"

"And splitting up is just stupid," Red cut in with a shake of his head. "This guy killed a Jedi, in case you forgot."

"The Kaminii has a point," Kade nodded with a glance at Red and he crossed his arms and he sighed and quietly added, "Can't believe I just kriffing said that..."

Wylan was the one who interjected, "No... no, Kote is right. If we can get the Jedi and Kando back behind enemy lines while most of his men are distracted, he'd be vulnerable. dangerous, but vulnerable."

Ros gave a low chuckle, "Then I say we bring firepower. Lots of it."

"Not hard," Kothe gave a chuckle to match her husband's. "We're Mando'ade. Firepower is our middle name."

"Let us help." The entire room turned to see Seku standing there with several other incredibly resolute twi'leks in tow. She strode forward into the room and pointed to the entrance, "You won't be able to draw all of them there alone. They'll know something's up. If we attack the west entrance at the same time, they'll have to spread out. Sota won't put his head out unless he knows something outside of an attack is going on."

"We owe the Jedi," another one of them spoke with an incline of his head to Talen. "Let us help pay him back."

"You make it seem like a fullscale assault while Kando and Talen sneak in from behind," Tor nodded and followed Seku's hand with a slow nod before he looked back at me. "It would work statistically, Captain."

Grek rolled his eyes, "Just let me blow something up already!"

"Up to you as to whether we bring the twi'leks in or not," Ros jerked his chin in my direction before he flipped his helmet in his hands and put it on. "The sooner we get moving, the better."

I looked to Talen and shrugged before he finally turned to the twi'leks. There was something written on his face I couldn't place as he stepped between us and the natives and folded his hands before him. He had to push up the long wide sleeves of his robe to do it. "You don't owe me anything. I promise. I don't want any of you risking your lives for me. I only did what I was supposed to do as a Jedi."

Seku smiled at him, "You gave us hope, Padawan. Let us give you something in return."

"No talking you out of it?" Talen asked as Seku shook her head. He smiled at her before he turned to look at me, "Captain?"

"You're the Jedi, kid. I follow your lead."

Talen turned his attention back to the Beroyas and got a grin on his face, "How much do you have in the way of explosives?"

*

I had been expecting big explosions. That was the sort of group that the Beroyas were: big guns, big personalities, bigger explosions. What I got was a level of explosions so far beyond what I was accustomed to that it genuinely surprised me when they detonated it at the entrance. Talen and I just exchanged a quick look before we slipped inside through the small exposed vent. True, the kid had an easier time of it than I did, but we managed to get inside the now relatively abandoned former Separatist compound where Sota'ven had set up shop.

Walking around inside of an enemy compound almost unmolested is more than a little eerie, so you can imagine my surprise when we made it practically into the heart of the compound before we met anyone, and when we did, it was the man of the hour himself.

Sota was packing up when we accidentally wandered into his office, and I am still not sure which of us was more surprised. All I distinctly remember him doing was hitting a button as Talen drew his lightsaber and four rather ominous looking refurbished B-2 Battle Droids stomped out from a nearby storage room before he drew his blaster and took a few shots at the two of us before he bolted out of the room.

"Go after Sota!" I shouted at Talen over my shoulder and the kid took off after him which left me alone to deal with the droids. In hindsight, it was both a smart and a dumb decision at the same time. These droids had been outfitted with vibroblades, which had been a rather... unexpected and unpleasant surprise.

Now, my hand-to-hand combat isn't shabby. I needed to be good at that because my entire job was kriffing riot suppression and sometimes guns are definitely not the answer to that scenario, but I pose a question to you...

Have you ever punched a clanker?

It hurts.

I knew that if they got in close I had a vibroknife. A singular vibroknife.

I could do a lot of damage with that, naturally. I was an ARC in all but designation because you had to be in my line of work, but what I could do against four of these massive modified metal monstrosities?

Really hope my knife did its job, that's what.

Thing was, it did on the first droid when it jumped across the kriffing room at me like some deranged Kowakian monkey-lizard. The first one wasn't bad. My mistake was uttering that phrase out loud because the next three were a kriffing nightmare. I managed to knock one out of the way before the third swung its arm around and sent me sprawling onto my back.

The droid had me on the ground, and just before the vibroblade came down, I saw the blade of one slip through its neck and thrust upward, dislocating the head from the rest of the body with a series of buzzing snaps before it shot off across the room. I was greeted with the dark grey helmet of Wylan, who grabbed me by the breastplate and heaved me to my feet, "K'atini, Kaminii!" He shoved his blaster into my hands and spun around to meet the other clankers with a laugh, "Copaani mirshmure'cye, shabuire?"I had absolutely no idea where he came from, but I was happy enough to have someone else with me watching my six that I couldn't have cared less if he materialized out of thin air to help me out.

I was watching somewhat starstruck as he ignited his jet pack and shot just high enough into the air to give himself the height advantage and leverage needed to whip himself around with his flamethrower activated, catching the droids closest to him aflame and making their circuits fry and pop audibly as they collapsed. The second he hit the ground, he was running forward with his sword drawn, and I'll readily admit that it was hard to keep up with the old man. He was moving with all the skill and spright of a man a third his age.

Was it hard to keep up?

Well...

Okay, yeah.

But only a little.

There was something about fighting alongside a warrior like him that was genuinely awe-inspiring in a way. It felt right, though. We never had to speak to one another to seemingly know what the other was thinking. There was a sort of way about how he moved that reminded me of my brothers and me. We had been trained for this sort of thing, and as the two of us swapped blasters mid-fight and shoved vibroknives into the joints of various droids one after another I felt a rush of adrenaline that I thought had faded throughout the many battles I fought against these same droids on distant planets.

One final clanker hit the ground and we found ourselves standing there covered in oil and sweat. I don't think either of us registered exactly what had transpired when that last droid collapsed with a low whine since we both kept circling like two predators of some sort around the room until we finally looked to one another with a blossoming recognition that passed between us.

We finally stopped and he pulled off his battered old helmet to look at me with a sweat streaked face. His hair was matted to his head and his chest heaved, but the voice that came out of his mouth was controlled, though it definitely seemed like it was taking more than a little effort, "Are you alright?"

I managed out a nod as I sat down and pulled my own helmet off, pushing my hair back from my face as I did. "Kriff."

He sat down beside me, "Oya, kandosii."

That surprised me more than anything else. Wylan didn't give compliments, but there it was: "well done", said as plain as day in Mando'a.

"That was impressive back there. Didn't think a Kaminii like you could keep up."

"Won't lie," I replied with a breathy laugh, "it was harder than you'd think."

Wylan gave a huff that I surmised was something akin to a laugh as he quirked one corner of his mouth up in a half-smile of sorts, "You don't survive in my business to get as old as me without keeping yourself one step ahead of every other shab out there."

"The business of terrorizing dar'manda or hunting scum?"

"Is there a difference?" He glanced at me and gave his helmet a thoughtful pat. "What about you, Kaminii? Is there a difference between scum and the Republic?"

"I'm not always sure about some of the people in it, but I always believed that the Republic was worth dying for."

I had somewhat expected Wylan to make some snide remark about what I said, but I saw him nod slowly as I finished before he sat back and rested his hands on his knees, "It's good that you have something you believe in. Never much cared for the Republic. They protected Kryze. Always had an issue with their meddling. You fight for the ideal, and there's nothing wrong with that, I suppose, so long as you can see where the ideal stops and the reality begins." He pushed himself up as he finished and held out a hand to me. He pulled me to my feet and flipped his helmet in his hands with a fond smile before he slid it on. "Come on, Kando. Let's find the others."

"You used my name."

He turned back to me, "Yeah. You've earned it - just like all of my nephews."

Something made me swell with pride at that comment and I grinned like an idiot as soon as I slipped my own helmet back on. It was probably stupid, but at the time it filled me with a feeling I couldn't exactly explain. Here was a Mandalorian, someone I could idolize pretty easily, telling me that I had earned a name I was sometimes I was skeptical about. It felt... well.

It felt nice.

*

We made our way to where the hangar was and found Sota'ven working on the hangar door and swearing all the way because either the massive explosion - which I later found out was orchestrated by the chaos incarnate that was Kote when given lots of thermal detonators - or Seku's timely knowledge of the base's structure had knocked out the power.

Wylan jerked his chin to the door, "Shabuir is all yours. I'll cover you."

He walked back behind me and let the door slide shut as I saw Sota'ven sigh and stand up, rifle in hand. He looked mildly pleased with himself, "Well, I guess you're better at this than that stupid little-"

He trailed off and looked like he was about to shout something, and that alone had me confused until I turned and saw what had elicited that reaction. Talen had descended from the rafters and stood beside me. He was missing his outer robe, but he had taken the smug look right off of Sota'ven's face and started wearing it for himself. He held up one arm and I saw a rather large and burned hole going through one of the kid's sleeves, "You missed."

"You shot at my Jedi," I tutted and unholstered both of my blasters, "and now I'll have to kill you."

It didn't take us long to get him where we needed him. I kept him too busy dodging to notice the kid get close enough to chop the barrel off of his blaster and fling him against the door to the shuttle bay. Talen had a lightsaber to his throat before he could even think about recovering.

Sota sighed as he sat back on his knees and stared up the blade of Talen's saber with a shake of his head. "I won't go in quietly. Either you kill me, or I do it myself. I fought for my people, Jedi. I have no regrets."

"Then why not take the punishment?" Talen asked.

"Because they'll just stick me in front of a firing squad and put me out like a rabid Akk Dog. That's no way to go," he met Talen's eyes with anotehr shake of his head. "I spent my life fighting for my people - fighting the Clans, fighting the Separatists, fighting the Republic.... I'm tired. I did all that I could, but I won't be left to rot in some prison cell or be shot handcuffed by their pet slaves. Let me go with some dignity."

Talen's hand tightened around his lightsaber and he turned to me, "I won't do it - I can't, but..."

He didn't have to ask. I reached out and took the saber from his hand. I knew what it was like to want to die a warrior. I was always afraid of getting dragged back to Kamino a defective mess. I was afraid of being told I was no longer of use. That I was worthless, little better than garbage that needed to be disposed of as all defective products should be. I wanted to go out in the heat of battle like any good Clone should. In a way, I sympathized with Sota. I understood what he wanted, even if I felt like he didn't deserve it.