4 A Word of Advice

Patriot had left Old Jho's pit stop and was now heading back to his bungalow on the outskirts of the town. As he turned the corner to get to the gate, he noticed another poor vendor being harassed by stormtroopers. It was a common sight, and Patriot had avoided them in the past, lest the Empire learn of his presence. However, this time he felt like he had to do something about it; he had been running from this for long enough. He approached the stormtroopers.

One of the troopers noticed him: "Hey, move along! Nothing to see here."

Patriot kept approaching. The stormtrooper raised his gun: "Hey, are you deaf? I said..." Just then, Patriot grabbed the trooper's arm, twisted it around, and then knocked out the trooper with a clean left punch to the face. The other three troopers noticed and raised their guns.

"Hey, hands up! You're coming with us!" one of them said.

Patriot clenched his fists: "No, I don't think so."

"Excuse me?" But before they could say anything else, Patriot sprang into action. Grabbing a nearby pole, he bashed it over the nearest trooper's head, knocking him out cold. Then, he grabbed the next trooper and pulled him in front of his own body, just as the third trooper opened fire, accidentally shooting his partner in the process. With the body as a shield, Patriot whipped out hid pistol and took out the final trooper with a shot to the chest. Dropping the body, he turned to hasten out of the area before any more Imperials came, but was stopped by the merchant: "Wait! Please, take this, as a gift of thanks!" she said, holding out an exotic fruit.

Patriot took the fruit, nodded his thanks, then hastened away from the spot. As he did, he realized what had made him help the vendor. It was a piece of advice that he learned during his time in the Clone Wars.

…

A few months after the Geonosis incident, Patriot was finally able to solidify his place among the Bad Batch. He interacted pretty well with the team too. Turns out, he and Wrecker shared a love of destruction and made the most of it on their missions, with Patriot making Wrecker's destruction as controlled as possible for efficiency. Though his friendship with Crosshair was a bit rocky, the two were still able to trade notes when it came to sniping with minimal argument. He got along with Hunter about as well as anyone could, but it was Tech that Patriot seemed to get along with the most. Tech had been teaching him the ins and outs of droid machinery in their spare time, including how to rewire one, which was fairly difficult. He also taught Patriot the mechanics of their ship, should repairs ever become needed.

Currently, the team had just finished blowing another hidden Separatist facility sky high on Takodana. As a reward, the head of the nearby club, an old alien named Maz Kanata, allowed the team to stay at the castle the next few days to regain their strength and take out any straggling survivors. However, nearly a day later, the team was called to the planet Annaxeus to assist in another mission. Patriot volunteered to stay behind to finish cleaning out surviving Separatists, while the rest of the team left for Annaxeus. Hours later, Patriot stood at the ramparts of Maz's castle, watching as his team's shuttle took off, leaving the planet.

"Stayed behind, huh?" said a voice from next to him, breaking his concentration. Patriot started and turned to see who had addressed him. It was Maz, who had somehow walked up to him without him noticing. She was odd like that.

"Yeah," he replied, "Gotta make sure that no more Separatists stragglers pop up and cause trouble."

"And yet you got called to another job?"

"Someone's got to finish the one here. If it isn't me, then who?"

Maz smirked: "Come with me for a moment." And turned to enter the castle.

"Where are you going?" Patriot asked.

"To get a drink. Are you coming or not?"

Patriot sighed, Maz was weird, but when she wanted to talk, she usually had something good to say. He followed her in. When they each sat down, Maz took a sip from her cup and then asked: "Can I ask you something?"

Patriot had no idea where this was going: "Sure?"

"Why do you fight the Separatists?"

"We were created and programmed to fight for the Repu…" He was cut off by a snap of the fingers from Maz.

"I'm asking, why do YOU fight the Separatists? Personally." she said.

Patriot thought for a few seconds. No one had ever asked him that before.

"I guess it's because I feel like I have to do the right thing." He finally replied, "I don't want to see anyone get hurt by these clankers anymore."

Maz chuckled: "A decent enough reason, I guess. But let me give you some advice."

"What?"

"There are two kinds of people I have found in this galaxy: those who are dedicated to what they personally believe in, and those who are dedicated to what others tell them to believe."

"What are you trying to say."

"I'm saying that if you are going to ever fight for something, than choose the side that you know is right, no matter what everyone around you might say or do. There may come a time where you even may have to fight those you once called brothers."

"Well, that's certainly something I did not want to hear."

"Eh, maybe. But is something you NEED to hear. This fight is deeper than you may realize."

Patriot looked puzzled: "How so?"

Maz's face turned grim: "There is a deeper war going on that has gone on throughout the entire galaxy. A war between the very forces of the Light Side and the Dark. You must be wary, as the Dark Side can creep into anywhere, manipulate anyone who lets it; it corrupts anything it touches."

"But the Light can stop it right?"

"It can, but the dark always returns in another form."

"So, what's your advice?"

"My advice is this: no matter what happens around you, you must remember what is truly good. It may involve putting your life on the line, but it is the only way to ensure that evil will never win."

Patriot nodded: "And we can't have that, now can we?"

"No, we cannot. Take these words to heart, for all our sakes."

Patriot nodded in agreement, not knowing how soon he would have to truly listen to them…