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There was a child on the ship, or they had a stowaway cadet, Waxer wasn’t sure. The whys and hows were not his concern, but they were leaving Coruscant in a few hours and he needed to get the stowaway off of the ship before they did so , or Cody would give them all hell.
Longshot runs into him with a panicked look on his face.
“Is everything alright Longshot,” Waxer asked, trying to see if he could spot the stowaway in the cargo hold without letting his men know of the problem.
“There’s a tiny general running around sir,” Longshot blurts out, then slaps a hand over his mouth in horror.
Waxer blinks, “A what?”
“A cadet-sized General,” Longshot says slower than before, “I saw him snag a box of the General’s tea.”
That can’t be good. Waxer thinks over what that means for his current cadet hunt.
“You don’t think the Jedi are… cloning their own , do you?” Longshot asks after a second.
That would be worse.
“We should probably find the tiny General first before we jump to conclusions,” Waxer settles on try to feel calm.
It takes a bit to track down the tiny General, and dear maker does the boy look like an exact copy of the General. His eyes are the same stormy color, same red hair, pale skin even down to the freckles on his nose. It was a bit eerie on the General. Was this what others felt when they saw the clones?
The boy was pouting on Commander Cody’s lap with the aforementioned box of tea, which was empty of actual tea, but had a treasure trove of cadet-trinkets in it, rolled up flimsy, shiny rocks, and what looked like a handmade scarf.
“Commander,” Waxer greets.
“It seems I’ve found a stowaway on the ship,” Cody says.
“I’m not a stowaway. I was just trying to get Buir’s present together,” The boy whines. At the word buir they stiffen. That was what Boba had called the Prime. Was this a clone child? This wasn’t good.
“That still doesn’t explain how you’ve gotten onto the ship,” Cody tells him.
“Is he a cadet-commander ?”Boil leans over to whisper in Waxer's ear.
“Do you have a designation?” Longshot asks. The tiny General clone wrinkles up his nose and frowns, “A what now?”
Dear Ka’ra the boy even sounds like the General.
“What are you called?” Cody asks.
The boy smiles, “I’m Jedi Initiate Cal Kestis!”
Oh. Oh, no they had a tiny Jedi on the ship.
Wait, didn't the Jedi not have buire?
General Vos burst in the room a moment later before anyone else could say anything his eyes landed on Cal, “Thank the little gods, there you are Cal!”
Cal frowned at General Vos, “I wasn’t missing. I told you I was looking for a container,” at which point he holds up the empty tea box and beams proudly, “It's even one Buir likes.”
“You said you were getting buirs lifeday gift, not that you were looking for a container,” General Vos scolds Cal. “I’m so sorry men, Cal isn’t usually one to run off. The Creche-masters are never going to trust me with you again.” Vos says.
“But Papa!” Cal cries.
Vos lifts an eyebrow at the boy, “Do you want to get Buir his gift or not?”
Cal pouts.
And with that the two Jedi leave the room. Silence reigns over the Vode. Waxer still doesn’t know what to make of Cal and his leaving with Vos.
“Was that the General's Clone?” Waxer asks.
Boil and Longshot shrug.
Cody hums, “Perhaps, his eyes are closer to green than the Generals. He called Vos, Papa, isn’t that another word for parent?”
“But Jedi can’t have families,” Boil points out.
“Are the Jedi cloning themselves?” Longshot asks.
“Is the War really getting so bad that the Jedi need to clone themselves?” Waxer's stomach twisted at that idea.
Now there were rumors going around that the General of the 212th Attack Battalion had a clone. The men of the 212th checked in with other battalions and it seemed that their General was the only one who had a clone. And did he even know it? Had Vos been hiding the Clone from the General.
Really the rumors were growing at a crazy rate. That Cal was a special order Kenobi had asked for when he had arrived on Kamino the first time. That Cal was part of a secret Jedi expansion program. That Cal was an illegally created clone that was being raised in the Order. One theory said that Cal was actually the Duchess of Mandalore and the General's child. Cody through that was rather unlikely as Cal looked nothing like that woman.
Cody could put a stop to the rumor if only he would actually ask the General what was going on. There just never seemed to be the opportunity to actually ask that of the man.
And again did the General know he had a clone.
They were making an abrupt turn about to Coruscant, it wasn’t actually all that abrupt, they needed more supplies and shinies, but usually they went to Kamino for that sort of resupply. The General seemed to be dancing with nervous anticipation.
“Are you okay Sir?” Cody asked after the General started to bounce on the balls of his feet.
“Just nerves,” The man stopped his nervous action only to start tapping on his forearm.
“Is there something I should be aware of? I thought we were just visiting the Temple for resupply and rest before heading to Kamino again.”
“You are fine, I’ve just received a comm about…Jedi stuff, I don’t quite know how to translate it for you.”
“Jedi stuff,” usually the General, wasn’t so vague Cody frowned.
“I am not sure how to explain, my initiative is being placed with a Master.”
The Generals Initiate? The general has an initiative, what did that even mean? The General had initiated a Jedi Initiate? What did that even mean!?
“I’m not sure I know what that means.” Cody finally says.
The General's face falls, “Don’t worry about it, it's good news, exciting even, I’ll be anxious until we leave again.”
Cody doesn’t know what to make of that.
Cody to Rex:
Hey do you know what it means when a Jedi has an initiate?
Rex to Cody:
Aren’t they called Commanders then? Or Padawans?
Cody to Rex:
That's what I thought. The General is visiting his Initiate.
Rex to Cody:
His wot!?
“General Skywalker sir,” Rex cleared his throat to ask the question his di’kut brother wont, “What does it mean when a Jedi has an Initiate?”
“You mean a Padawan, its like Snips and me.”
Rex shakes his head, “No sir, I meant an Initiate.”
“Jedi don’t really have initiates?” Skywalker tilts his head like a confused tooka.
“...so where do Initiates come from?” Rex felt cadet-sized again as Snips cackled.
“Master Plo usually finds them,” She finally gasps out.
Rex reports his findings back to Cody. The inner workings of the Jedi temple were even more confusing than where natborn tubies came from.
Obi-Wan was nervous, Cal was finally becoming a Padawan, he didn’t think this day would ever come, but his precious little one was both old enough and skilled enough to be taken as a Padawan. Sure it was in the middle of a war and that was never a good time to be a padawan, but Obi-Wan was proud of Cal. Quinlan was too. It seemed like just yesterday the scamp was running about the Negotiator causing terror in the troops or leading revolts against nap time in the Creche.
“Obes, are you crying?” Quinlann asked mirth in his voice.
“Absolutely not. Master Jaro will be an excellent teacher for Cal, I just-” Obi-Wan trailed off.
Quinlann pulled the other man closer, kissing his cheek, “It’ll be fine.”
“I know.” They were quite for a minute as they watched Cal hug his new master.
“Do the troops know he’s ours?” Quinlann asks.
“...I’m not actually sure.”
“I’ve heard a rumor going around that you have a mini-me clone,” Quinlann says, “Fox asked me point blank the other day if the Jedi were cloning out Generals.”
Obi-Wan snorts, “One of you is enough, thank you.”
“Buir, Papa! Look!” Cal came racing over to the two Jedi Generals with a grin that threatened to split his face and a tiny braid hanging behind his ear.
Obi-Wan bent down and hugged their son, “I see, I’m so proud.”
“It looks fantastic, I can hardly believe you are old enough for a braid of your own,” Quinlann ruffled Cal’s hair and received a glare in return.
“Now remember if any of the Troops ask if you are a clone what do you tell them?” Obi-wan prompts.
“Give them wide eyes and whisper that they aren’t meant to know about that,” Cal chirps back.
Master Jaro Tapal shakes his head at the antics of his new Padawan and his Jedi fathers. Vos and Kenobi were always in the middle of the gossip when they were Padawans, at the time he had thought it was the antatics of their master, hopeful this padawan didn’t inherit the same bad luck as the Jinn lineage.