Chapter Text
The dense jungle had opened into a clearing that was littered with the broken remains of buildings. Behind the homes had once stood fields of native fruits and imported vegetables. The village had been so small, the 212th didn't realize they were walking through its remains until they found the first body. The Rodian woman's body was littered with blaster wounds, mutilating the corpse until she was almost unrecognizable. The only culprit could be the Droid Army they'd been tracking for days. They must've completely wiped out this village, leaving the inhabitants' bodies to rot in the street.
General Obi-Wan's face remained neutral, but a fire Tonic had only seen once burned behind his eyes.
"I want your men to split up, we need troopers to bury the bodies, search for survivors, and set up camp." He whispered to CC-2224, Commander Cody.
Cody nodded and barked orders. Tonic founds his squad breaking up. Clanker found himself setting up the platoon's tents on the other side of the wrecked village. Ak, along with Ply and Six, found themselves tasked with burying the bodies.
Teams of four took to all directions to cover more ground. Those searching the crops found charred body after body of plowed down victims who tried to flee. They no longer bothered calling when the found them, they just whistled a sad note.
Tonic's team took to the homes, where there was less bodies to be found. While the stick and mud homes kept out the cold, they failed to keep back the droid attackers. R3 was kneeling next to the remains of a Chiss girl who appeared to be in her later teenage years. He had found her next to the remains of a bed, her face frozen in a helpless scream. She had attempted to hide from the massacre but was shot down before she could.
"She didn't stand a chance," R3 murmured, closing the young girl's eyes. "None of them did."
He got to his feet, cradling the girl in his arms. "You all go ahead," He ordered his team. "I'll take her to the gravesite myself."
None of them protested.
The next home they inspected had caved in on top of a young woman. Gin held up the boards that once made the roof so Tonic could retrieve her body from the rubble. The Twi-Lek had taken multiple shots to her back, burning away her flesh. She held a blaster in a steely grip. Tonic had to pry the weapon from her dead hands. It was the only weapon they had found so far, and it looked like she had taken it from one of the droids.
Tonic noticed something else in the rubble. He pushed some boards aside to find the battered remains of a droid.
The woman hadn't gone down without a fight.
What kind of place was this, Tonic thought. No weapons, in the middle of nowhere.
The trooper closed the Twi-Lek's eyes and pulled her body from the home, leaving her in the street to be taken back to the gravesite.
Comm whistled the all clear from a few homes down. There were no signs of life. Gin ran ahead with Leaf to meet up with Comm. R3 still hadn't returned.
Tonic was left behind, but he wouldn't have minded if the silence wasn't so eerie. Something bumped against metal and his gun was immediately in his hands. He followed the sounds until he found where it was coming from.
Behind one of the homes were some metal garbage bins. He looked to his squad disappearing, looked back to the bins, and sighed.
He slowly approached, careful not to make a sound. He threw the first lid open. Nothing was visible and the sound didn't stop. He threw open the second lid and the noise hushed. He couldn't see anything on the surface level but some boxes and scraps.
So, he decided to dig deeper, whatever was in here, it was hiding.
He pulled a box up, but little blue hands grasped the edges tightly and pulled it back. Tonic tried again. The hands, once again, pulled it back. He grabbed the box with both hands and forcibly yanked it out of the garbage bin. Having been discovered, a small Twi-Lek shoved the small bone she'd been gnawing at into her mouth and dug further into the bin. She used the rubbish as a shield to hide her. Tonic tried to dig up the trash on top of her as she hid firmly on the bottom, scrunched up to make herself smaller. Tonic removed the scrap of cloth covering her. She hissed and threw her bone at him.
It wasn't very threatening since she looked nine, maybe ten years old. The bone bounced off Tonic's helmet, not even leaving a dent.
"Woah, woah," Tonic assured her.
He removed his helmet to put her at ease. The armor must've been frightening her. His face was human and tan from his years in the outer rim. His features were identical to his brothers except for one feature; Tonic had begun to develop Vitiligo. Pale patches of skin dotting his face and neck.
"My name is Tonic, I'm here to help you." Tonic promised in a gentle voice. "What's your name?"
The kid said nothing, instead, she decided to try and climb out of the bin. Unfortunately, she had dug herself in so deep she couldn't reach the top of the bin anymore.
"Here, let me help." Tonic reached down and grabbed her under the armpit. She didn't squirm as he lifted her out of the bin.
He placed her on the ground. She hissed again but was too wary of her surroundings to be aggressive to him.
Every small sound made her jump.
"hlaari plee afa!" She whispered, grabbing Tonic's arm. He let himself get dragged into the nearest broken home. She dug under the thick logs that once held up the roof but now covered the floor. She pushed some aside to reveal a crawlspace dug into the groud. A simple door of cloth hid it from few. The Twi-Lek crawled in and poked her head out.
"Hlaari! Hlarri!" She said urgently. Tonic looked around and decided to crawl in after her.
The poor trooper barely fit, the back of his armor scraped against the dirt ceiling.
What have I gotten myself into, he thought.
He had to scrunch up to fit his whole body inside without crushing the little kid. She dug herself underneath him to get back in front where she pulled logs back over the entrance to obscure it from view.
After her hideout entrance was covered, she sat back in silence.
"T-Tonic? Come in? Tonic, do you copy?" The communicator buzzed with static.
Tonic moved to answer but the Twi-Lek pushed his arm down.
"Koa'koa! Koa'sound!" She said, raising her voice to a normal volume.
"I need to talk to my friends," Tonic tried to tell her.
"Koa'koa!" The little girl tried again.
"I don't speak this; I don't know what you're trying to say."
The little girl bit the inside of her cheek. She franitcally shook her head. "Koa'koa!"
"There are no droids, no droids. You're safe."
"Tonic, pick up, where the hell are you?" R3 yelled through the radio.
The Twi-Lek yelped in pain at the loud noise and covered her horned ears.
"What the kriff was that?" R3 demanded.
"Koa'koa!" The kid was raising her voice now. "Off! Off! Koa!"
"I'm with a survivor, she's really scared." Tonic whispered into the communicator while the Twi-Lek kept talk-yelling at him. "I think she's scared the droids will come back."
The Twi-Lek tugged on his arm, frantically shaking her head.
"I know, koa, off. I'm being quiet, okay?" The clone trooper tried to reassure her.
"Where the kriff are you then?" R3 yelled.
"I'm in a crawlspace under some rubble. Look for the home with two trash bins outside, we're in there. She doesn't want me to talk, so I'm out."
"Tonic, don't you-"
R3 was cut off by Tonic turning the communicator off. The kid finally started to calm down.
"See, I'm done. No more sound." Tonic promised.
The Twi-Lek mumbled some unintelligible words. Must have been more of her language. Tonic couldn't understand what she was saying and didn't know if she understood what HE was saying. She pressed into him for comfort, her small body trembling. Tonic pulled her into a hug and held her tightly.
Her white dress had been torn, dragged through the mud, and bloodied. The poor kid had lost her shoes at some point, her poor feet was covered in cuts and blisters. Bruises and cuts dotted her arms and legs. She had taken a hit to her right lekku. The skin had split open and around the immediate blaster wound, her skin had been burnt black and the remaining skin was flaking off. The rest of the lekku was red and swollen, blistery bumps dotting the burnt landscape.
"Wha-" Tonic tried.
"Koa," She shushed him, suddenly very alive. "Koa'sound. Koa'sound."
"Okay, okay," Tonic mumbled, shutting his mouth again.
The kid began digging into the ground when she heard footsteps getting louder. Tonic tried to hold her in place, but she squirmed and kept digging. She was surprisingly good at it; she was a few inches down already.
"Tonic, what the actual kriff?" He could hear R3 cursing.
"Hey, hey, it's okay." Tonic desperately tried. "Friends- They're my friends. Brothers, actually."
The Twi-Lek stopped digging for a second.
"Nerra?" She asked.
"I, uh... yes?" Tonic wasn't sure what she meant but she seemed satisfied with the answer.
She reached up and touched his face, her violet eyes staring into his sad brown ones.
"Kora?" She asked.
"Yeah, sure. Cora." Tonic answered.
"Kora," She said again, correcting his pronunciation.
"Kora," Tonic repeated.
Gin removed one of the logs covering the crawlspace, his helmet hovering over them. The Twi-Lek scrambled back, screaming. Tonic held her tightly as she tried to retreat further into the crawlspace. Gin frantically reached inside to offer her some comfort, which only made her scream louder.
"Gin, remove your helmet. Please, all of you remove your helmets. It's scaring her," Tonic said while patting her head reassuringly.
Gin immediately complied and removed his helmet. He gave the kid a wide smile, revealing a gap between his two front teeth. The kid stopped screaming and looked up at him.
"Nerra?" She softly whispered.
"Yes," Tonic confirmed. "Nerra."
Gin gave her his hand. She stared at it, looked to Tonic, then looked back. She hissed but took his hand. He lifted her out of the crawlspace and held her in his arms. She touched his face and started to relax when she confirmed, he was indeed, not a droid.
"See, no metal." Gin said.
"No... mekal." The kid mumbled, trying to repeat Gin's words in Galactic Basic.
R3 stormed over to the odd trio, his helmet off to show his sun-bleached hair from his time in the outer rim. His mouth was open to yell at the troopers, but he shut it when he saw the kid.
"Nerra?" The Twi-Lek asked.
"Yes, nerra." Tonic confirmed as he pulled himself from the crawlspace.
"What's that mean?" Gin asked.
"No clue," Tonic admitted.
Comm walked over, dragging Leaf with him.
"We are all... nerra." Tonic told the kid. "We are brothers."
She looked at them all, her face twisted in confusion. R3 took the kid from Gin, cradling her gently. He initially moved his head away from her reaching hands but gave in and let her feel his scars.
"We should take her to the camp, we can't just leave her here." Gin spoke up.
"Kamp." The kid echoed.
"Yeah, camp." R3 told her, smiling. When he looked up at his men, his mouth tightened into a scowl. "Pick up and let's go."
Gin nudged Tonic, an unspoken 'I think we know who his favorite is' passed between the two.
Tonic couldn't help but giggle, which he had to poorly disguise as a cough when R3's head whipped around. Gin became intrigued in the nonexistent ceiling.
R3 hugged the kid tightly and carried her out of the room. The rest of the squad filed behind him. R3 tried to avert the Twi-Lek's eyes from the gravesites when they passed, but she was resistant.
Her eyes widened when she was a Twi-Lek woman body. She started screaming, tearing herself from R3's arms. The trooper who had been moving her body dropped her in surprise as a tiny Twi-Lek came screaming at him. Tonic recognized her as the woman from the hut, the one who'd been carrying a blaster.
"Ryma! ootay so ahaala? ash must sei buried plee ahaala! ryma! ahaala!" She screamed, tears pouring down her face, her tiny body shaking. She hugged the dead woman tightly, burying her face into the woman's chest. "Ryma... Ryma!"
Tonic slowed to a stop by her side and knelt next to her. He rubbed her back as the kid sobbed. He exchanged looks with the other troopers. One put down his shovel to observe the scene, his eyes sad and tired.
The kid lifted her head, her eyes bloodshot and nose runny. "Ahaala! Ash must sei buried plee Ahaala!" She sobbed. "Ootay so ahaala?"
"We... we don't know kiddo." Tonic admitted. "We don't know what you're saying."
The little girl forced herself to her feet and walked amongst the bodies, her tears watering the ground. She sobbed as she walked over her old friends and neighbors. She caught sight of an open grave where a Togruta woman had been lowered in to. The trooper who had been burying the woman had stopped to watch. The kid jumped into the grave and tried to pull the woman's stiff body out.
"Ahaala! Ryma sota ta sei buried plee ahaala!" She yelled. She gave up trying to pull the woman out and ran back to the Twi-Lek's body. She tried to pull the woman to the Togruta's grave but it was too heavy for her. She collapsed on the ground and sobbed.
She laid there and sobbed.
Tonic's gut twisted and knotted until he couldn't take it anymore. "Come on, let's help her." He got to his feet and picked up the Twi-Lek woman's body. He gently lay her body next to the Togruta's. R3 and Gin were trying to comfort the kid while Tonic and the other trooper buried the two women together.
They didn't know why the kid was so desperate for the two to be together in death, but it was the least they could do for her.