Chapter Text
A note from your humble narrator, before I continue the story, I would like to tell you another. The Astrum Squad, nine members proud, was not always under the command of infamous Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi. Closer to the start of the Clone Wars, a Jedi Knight by the name of Ceh-So was gifted a clone force for a specialized mission in the Outer Rim. The batch proudly bore her name in their batch number: CS-xxxx. Ceh-So had been a little girl, barely a toddler, when her parents entrusted her to the care of the Jedi Order. She never saw her mother and father again. They remained a distant memory in her past, a faded image she could never put together. Ceh-So exemplified the ideals of the Jedi; a truth-seeker who protected the innocent. She always told the younglings, "You can't have peace if someone is in pain, and it is our duty to keep the peace." Only her clones referred to her as "Master Ceh-So". The younglings had given her the nickname "Mother Ceh-So" and the name spread through the order like a wildfire.
As we mentioned above, the Astrum Squad was built for a mission in the Outer Rim. The official story was that she was to keep the peace- at least to the best of her abilities. (It goes without saying that the Outer Rim was a lawless land). Do you want to hear the real reason? There was a Jedi killer on the loose. Her job was to hunt him or her down and what better place to start than the wild west of outer space? She was to track this villain down; no whisper could go uninvestigated, no stone left unturned. The team remained in the Outer Rim for two years- two long, grueling years, R-3 had the sun-bleached hair to prove it. It was often too hot to wear their full uniform- sometimes it reached over a hundred degrees- and all the members often neglected to wear their helmets, exposing their hair to the elements. While the others dyed their hair to hide the sun damage, R-3 did the same- At least, at first.
Once in passing, Ceh-So had told him, "That color suits your smile," with that bewitching smile of hers.
Ever since that moment, any idea of dying his hair back to its natural color was thrown out the window like a live grenade.
There are only three people who know for certain what happened during those long, cool nights on the sand, under the moonlight with no one but the stars watching them. Who can say for sure what happened on those long "night patrols" where the rest of the squad turned a blind eye to the absence of their captain and general. No one spoke about the private meetings the two shared in their tent. No one said anything about how the two were always found with their hands entwined. Even when the bump started to show through Ceh-So's robes, no one uttered a single sound. The other clones in the squad didn't believe it was their business. They covered for the couple when people came knocking- Especially the Jedi.
What could they have done besides stand around and try to console their grieving captain when he was kneeled next to the lifeless body of his general. R-3 grasped at the blood-soaked silky sand as he sobbed. Her head had been cleanly decapitated, the wound having already been cauterized. Her head had been severed by her own lightsaber. Leaf had to turn his head away from the scene. They could only watch as their stern captain fell apart in front of them as he wailed over the death of the only woman he ever loved- the death of the child that never had the chance to live. It broke their hearts.
Ceh-So had cared for them, treated them like they were human- and they failed her. She had been the first to respond to the sound, running into the dunes after catching the sight of something. They had scrambled to follow her, but when they heard the scream... R-3 blamed himself. He should've moved faster. He should've arrived at the scene of her massacre fast enough to stop it... and now she was dead. Gone.
"Her lightsaber!" R-3 screamed. Who was he yelling at? Not even he knew. He was just screaming into the vast dessert. If he had ever believed in a greater power, that belief was now crushed. Crushed like his hopes and dreams. "That bastard stole her lightsaber!"
That's how they came to be under Obi-Wan's command.
She had been six months pregnant.
Ceh-So had taken them in with open arms when they were rambunctious, bright young men with starry hope in their eyes- A belief that they could change the world. When Obi-Wan got them, they had been scarred by the horrors of war and they had lost that hope in their eyes. They never spoke a word about their formal general. The other troopers whispered about them, the suicidal squad who threw themselves into battle like they had nothing to live for anymore. Gossip spread fast between young men who only had conversations to entertain themselves with.
There was always one thing that could soften R-3's hardened gaze- kids. His care and compassion could only be described as the paternal drive to be a father. To him, the possibility of ever having a kid had been killed the moment he had found Ceh-So's warm corpse atop the dunes. Maybe that was why, when small Twi-Lek hands tapped his cheek, he blinked open his bleary eyes.
"Afa'm scared." She whispered.
R-3 didn't need to know her language in order to understand what she was conveying. R-3 looked up at this little girl with tears in her eyes, and something in his heart twisted. He opened up his blanket and let the kid crawl into his cot. She snuggled up next to him, and he covered her with the blanket. He closed his eyes and tried to go back to bed, ignoring how tightly she was holding onto his shirt.
"Kora, sotan tun tena get scared?" She asked.
R-3 opened one of his eyes. "I don't know what you're saying, kid." He grumbled.
"Scared." Amari repeatedly softly, closing her eyes. She slowly breathed in and out, holding onto R-3's arm with a steely grip. "Safe. Warm."
"Yeah... good night, kid." R-3 closed his eyes and drifted off to the buzzing of insects and the calls of a native nightbird.
When morning came, the woke up at the crack of dawn to the sound of a Wharlithan horn playing taps. R-3 nudged the Twi-Lek and she sat up, rubbing the gunk from her eyes.
"Qato-" Her mouth split into an enormous yawn. "Qato so early?"
R-3 smiled. "Tired, huh?"
She nodded.
He rubbed the top of her head affectionately, taking care to avoid touching her bandaged lekku. Amari followed him around as he began packing up the tent. The Twi-Lek did her best to help- She strained herself to pick up a box of weapons and ammo but resorted to aimlessly pushing it. She put her back against it and pushed with her legs, pushing with all her little might. R-3 laughed with a little shake of his head at the sight. The camp was already buzzing to life as Clone Troopers took down the camp quicker than soldiers run for cover when someone yells "Ion Grenade!"
"Stay near me, okay?" R-3 told Amari as he effortlessly picked up the box she had been struggling to move. She chirped and held onto the skirt of his armor. Amari looked around in wonder as she walked through a sea of identical men running around. Some wore their helmets, but some didn't. R-3 had placed his on top of the box he was carrying.
"Amari!" Leaf yelled when he saw her little blue figure standing next to the imposing tank that was his captain. She stared at him with blank eyes before he removed his helmet, her eyes lighting up with recognition. He shoved his helmet into Ply's arm and ran to her.
"Kora!" Amari chirped. She hopped up and down with her hands reaching up to him in a clear sign she wanted to be picked up. Leaf scooped her into his arms, and she threw her arms around his neck.
"Where have you been?" Leaf chided.
Amari pointed to R-3. "Kora!" She warbled happily.
"I think she had a nightmare last night." R-3 said.
Amari was no longer paying attention to him as she gently touched Leaf's scarred face.
"Sha so same." She said softly. "Sha match!"
"Yeah?" Leaf said, still having no clue what she was saying. Every word that left her mouth was an utter mystery.
"Ka! Match!" She chirped, wrapping her arms around his neck again and rested her head atop his shoulder.
"Sleepy?" Leaf asked.
"Ka..." Amari mumbled.
Tonic strode over and booped her on nose. Amari snapped at his armored hand with her sharp teeth and giggled. R-3 watched as his men began to crowd around the young Twi-Lek. He smiled. It had been so long since he had seen them so happy... it had been so long since he had seen their eyes light up. Gin offered her a native fruit, bulging with sickly sweet juice. Amari sank her teeth into the spiked fruit with zero hesitation. Juice dribbled from her mouth as she vigorously chewed the overly ripe fruit. Ply offered a cloth for her to clean herself with, and Amari mumbled a few unintelligible words between ravenous bites. Something in his heart twisted seeing such a young child ravaged by war. Her home was demolished, her family and community dead; She bore the marks of a survivor at the age of ten. Her lekku would be scarred; There was no doubt about that- They had all seen the blisterous wound. There was no restoring that damage/ It would heal with time, but Amari would bear the mark of that injury for the rest of her life. At the tender age of ten, she had been scarred for life from a war that didn't concern her. Why did both parties have to go through so much pain to orchestrate this meeting?
They won battles at the cost of lives; they lost battles at the cost of lives. When one droid fell, a hundred took its place. It was always easier to create more machines than to create more life.
With every battle, they lost men- He lost his brothers. The Separatists only lost cannon fodder. They fought for freedom at the cost of the very lives they were fighting for.
It was a vicious cycle- A cycle no child should ever be trapped in.
Why did they fight? Why didn't R-3 just die? R-3 couldn't wrap his head around the fact he was still here. Why? Why was he STILL fighting? Why did he keep making it out of these battles? He didn't plan to. He tried to get himself killed- He tried to throw himself into danger with the fury of someone who had their reason to live ripped away from them. Maybe Ceh-So was still looking after him- that thought made him want to laugh. She told him that she was always with him, that she would become one with the force.
"The force surrounds all living beings." She had said. "And I'll be there right next to you, holding your hand, even if I'm gone."
"I'd rather you didn't go at all," R-3 had whispered back.