pov. Omega

My own breath rushed in my ears. My heart was beating far too fast. Every now and then, a little blood dripped from my head wound into my eye. But I kept on running. Always after what my eyes could see but my mind couldn't quite grasp. The blue stripes of his greaves kept flashing. Blue symbolized a very specific unit. It symbolized the 501st. He had served in the 501st, I realized.

The trooper fought on determinedly. He kept swaying, sometimes leaning against the wall to prevent himself from toppling over. But he didn't give up and kept on swaying. "GENERAL SYWALKER.....REX!" he shouted desperately as he staggered around the next corner.

His voice brought tears to my eyes. It was so similar to Rex's and Echo's. What happened to him? How did he end up in that crychamber and, more importantly, why was he on a Separatist ship?

I had been so focused on not losing sight of the man in front of me that I only noticed the piece of scrap metal hanging down at the last second. I ducked my head just in time and kept running.

Suddenly the brown-haired man started to stumble. He struggled to stay on his feet. But he seemed to be at the end of his energy. With a groan, he slid down the wall and hit the ground with a thud. He gave a stifled cry as he landed on his broken wrist.

I increased my speed once more to catch up with him. As if he had sensed that I was approaching him, the trooper sat up with difficulty and slid back against the wall behind him in panic "You don't understand!" he shouted, raising his hands defensively. He crouched against the wall with his legs pulled up and looked at me desperately. As if I didn't want to listen to him.

I squatted down in front of him at a distance. I didn't say a word, just let him talk.

"I....I found out something..." his eyes darted nervously from one side of the corridor to the other, as if he suspected he was being watched "...Fives, he...he knew. He figured it all out...after Tup...it killed him..." he babbled quietly to himself as he ran his healthy hand over his frost-covered mop of hair.

A shiver ran down my spine. No matter what secret this trooper had revealed, people were willing to kill to prevent him from telling anyone.

The trooper's eyes turned to me "They said it was a virus..." his gaze went blank, as if he was trapped in old memories for a moment "but it's a chip in our heads. In every clone. And... and an order, an order to betray and kill them. The Jedi, all of them....it comes from the Chancellor himself!"

I forgot to breathe for a moment. He was talking about Order 66. This trooper had found out long before the war ended. Long before the Jedi were all on the verge of extinction. He never had the chance to tell anyone. I looked at the exhausted man in front of me with pity. How was I supposed to tell him that Order 66 had happened long ago? How was I supposed to tell him that all his brothers had been dead for years?

Without warning, the trooper's hand leapt forward and grabbed me by the forearm "The Separatists caught me..." a tremor ran through his body "they...wanted to find out who I told. I didn't, I didn't tell anyone... didn't know who I could trust."

Sweat broke out on his forehead, his breathing quickened slightly "They wanted to send me to someone....someone I couldn't keep secrets from....a Sith..."

Carefully, so as not to frighten him, I placed my hand over his, with which he was still clutching my forearm. I didn't want to imagine what the Separatists did to him to get the information.

He flinched a little at my touch, as if he had momentarily forgotten that I was crouching in front of him. "It was cold... burning cold... so cold..." he kept muttering.

I was at a loss. I knew I couldn't lie to him. I had to tell him that the order to carry out Order 66 was given over 60 years ago and that the galaxy sank into chaos and darkness afterwards. But how was I supposed to tell him that? Would he even believe me?

"I believe you," I assured him. He lifted his gaze. Relief sparkled in his amber eyes "I'm Omega." I introduced myself. I quickly wiped off some blood, which was dripping from my head wound into my eye again. "What's your name?" I twisted my mouth into a gentle grin.
"Kix" he straightened up a little "I'm a medic in the 501st." his gaze fell on the head wound on my forehead "Bacta better be on there" he mumbled "and it needs stitches too." he reached for his belt. But he reached into the void.

I tilted my head slightly "That's not important right now." I took a quick breath "Kix, you need to know something."
His eyes were immediately on me. He was so desperate and at the same time so full of hope that he could still save his brothers that it broke my heart to have to take that hope away from him "The Clone Wars, the Jedi" a shiver ran down my spine as it always did when I thought of Order 66, because every time I saw Wrecker's cold eyes in front of me as he chased me through the Venator all those years ago "Order 66, that was all 60 years ago."
Kix's grip on my arm tightened "What!" he exclaimed in disbelief "That can't be... you're lying!" he shouted.

I suppressed a cry of pain as his grip on my arm tightened "I wish it was that way." Tears welled up in my eyes. How much I wished I was really lying and that everything had turned out differently back then.

Kix pushed me roughly away from him "Why should I believe you!"
I barely managed to keep from falling backwards "Because I was there." My hands clenched into fists as I thought of the time when the Empire rose. All the pain and fear it spread. All the horrible things it did to the clones. "And because I'm a clone."

Kix laughed in disbelief "There are no female clones!" he slid back even further away from me.
I raised my hands to placate him "Look at my eyes." I asked him. Even though my hair was blonde, I still had the typical amber-colored eyes of a clone.
For the first time since he had stumbled out of this chamber, Kix looked directly into my eyes, which were an exact match for his own.

Realization crossed his features "60 years?" he breathed softly.
With a lump in my throat, I raised and lowered my shoulders and sat down next to him against the wall "I'm so sorry Kix." I murmured.

Tears gathered in the trooper's eyes "They're all dead." The first tear dripped down his cheek "Jesse...." he mumbled desperately "...I didn't say goodbye." More tears dripped down his cheeks, made their way down his chin and dripped onto the floor in front of him. A sob escaped him as he rested his forehead on his knees and clutched his legs with his healthy arm. He let his injured hand rest loosely next to his body.

I said nothing. Didn't try to convince him that everything would be all right. Because it wouldn't. The pain he was feeling right now would haunt him for the rest of his life. I knew that. I still carried the pain of losing my brothers inside me, even after all these decades.
I scooted a little closer to Kix and put my hand on his twitching shoulders to comfort him. Even though I was a stranger to him, I wanted him to know that he wasn't alone.
Kix exhaled shakily and looked up again. "What happened?" his voice sounded raspy. He looked at me with reddened eyes.

I shook my head gently "Nothing good." I mumbled quietly. I wasn't sure if his psyche could handle learning the whole truth. To find out what had happened to the clones after the war.
"Please," he looked at me pleadingly, "I need to know."

I looked at him, still a little doubtful "All right" I took my hand off his shoulder and started kneading my hands, a habit I had when I was nervous "but you won't like it."
I told him everything. I told him about the end of the war. How the Chancellor gave the command for Order 66. About how the Jedi were all more or less wiped out and the galaxy was deprived of its protectors. I told him about the rise of the Empire. About how the clones were simply dropped. About Tantiss. That so many clones died in the name of science, or worse. I told him that it took 30 years for the Empire to finally be defeated.

While I was telling him, my gaze was fixed anxiously on Kix. He showed no reaction at all. Only his eyes widened from time to time. "The Empire was finally defeated in the Battle of Jakku," I concluded my story. Images of the battle began to flood my mind. I quickly pushed them to the back of my mind.

I didn't want to think about that battle, didn't want to think about what it had cost me.
Kix still didn't say anything. He just sat there, elbows propped up on his knees, staring at the wall opposite him.
"Kix?" worriedly, I stood up and squatted right in front of him again, my braids dragging a little on the floor "Please say something."
As if I had snapped him out of a trance, he turned his gaze to me "How are you still alive?"
I exhaled in surprise "What!?" after everything I just told him, I would have expected anything. I would have expected him to go crazy or not believe me. But this question was the last thing I expected.

"You're a clone. Like me" he pointed his thumb first at me and then at himself "we age twice as fast as everyone else, so why are you still alive?" he looked at me, expecting an answer.
I let out a sigh. He was right. Even if I was aging at a normal rate, I would be well over 80. But I wasn't, not even close. "The Kaminoans." I whispered. I hated talking about that time of my life. I knew nothing but loneliness and pain in that little lab in Depoca City. "I was an important experiment for them," I sat down cross-legged in front of him, "they shortened your lifespan, but they extended mine. I age half as fast as a human," I explained.

Kix took a breath to say something back. But suddenly his eyes widened and he stared at something behind me. Expecting an enemy, I turned around with my hand on my blaster grip. But it was just Poe jogging around the corner.

I rolled my eyes in annoyance, "I told you to wait." It was a mystery to me how this hothead had made it to captain if he couldn't follow orders.
Poe shrugged his shoulders "That's the right one talking. Have you ever followed orders?" his gaze wandered skeptically to Kix, as if the trooper was about to attack him at any moment
"I tried to talk him out of it," Jason's voice sounded from behind the corner and not a second later, the black-haired man stepped into the corridor we were in. He held my bow in one hand and my helmet in the other "But you know his nature." I could almost see the annoyed yet loving look he gave Poe from under his helmet.

Kix looked uncertainly back and forth between the two men. His hands began to tremble slightly.
"Hey" I looked at the trooper reassuringly "it's all right" I pointed to my best friend and his boyfriend " they are friends."
Kix nodded hesitantly, but remained in a defensive posture. As if he was expecting to have to flee at any moment.
"We should get going," Poe bobbed his foot up and down impatiently, "the general should know about him."

I would have liked to slap him on the back of the head for that. Kix just found out that all his brothers were gone. That he would never see them again and that all those who lost their lives in the war shared a more merciful fate than those who didn't. I wanted to spare him from learning that another war was raging in the galaxy. But even worse, that the New Republic was repeating the mistakes of the past. They simply refused to recognize the danger posed by the First Order.

Kix's eyes widen a little "General?" he looked at me questioningly "You said the war was over?"
I gave Poe a look that I normally only gave my enemies before turning back to Kix "It is. The war against the Empire is over. But...." I bit my lower lip a little "...a few years ago, the First Order emerged from the last remnants of the Empire." I still remembered it clearly. At first it was just rumors about the return of Grandadmiral Thrawn. But then the rumors turned into a threat, which grew steadily and was ignored by the government.

Kix looked at me uncomprehendingly, "But how could this happen?" he coughed a little, a tremor running through his body. He contorted his face in pain and clutched his injured wrist.
I was beginning to worry that the decades in the kyrochamber may have affected his body more than I first thought.

Jason snorted, "That's a good question." He leaned against the wall behind him, resting one leg on the wall.
Poe exhaled resignedly, "The New Republic is simply closing its eyes and ears to the danger posed by the First Order."
I nodded in agreement. It began in the Outa Rim. On worlds so far away from Coruscant that the New Republic didn't notice when they were subjugated by the First Order.
I looked seriously at Kix. "They're both right," I glanced over at Poe, "even if it's very difficult for me to admit it on this one." A slight smile appeared on my face as the pilot put his hands on his hips in protest.

But my smile was dimmed by the thought that the First Order was growing stronger with each passing day. They were not yet strong enough to attack the New Republic openly. But they were on the march. They were operating in the shadows, seizing one world after another. And what was the New Republic doing, whose job it was to protect the galaxy? They closed their eyes. They simply didn't want to see that something was happening out there and as soon as it got big enough for them to act, it would be too late.