90 Chapter 80

"Urgh, I'm sooo bored!" Opal moaned in frustration.

"I know" Seela said placidly from beside her.

The two girls were walking side by side through the clean, curved corridors of Tipoca city, with no real destination in mind.

They had been reading in the city's library while Renn and Shae were off doing their own things, but they had left to explore the city after Opal started getting frustrated with the Kaminoans restricting certain information.

The kaminoans had allowed them access to Tipoca city's library, partly to secure Renn's co-operation in giving the clone army extra training, and partly because Jango had asked them too and they were terrified of him.

But they had still restricted most of their knowledge from them, especially all of their information on cloning, which had greatly frustrated Opal who wanted to absorb any knowledge that related to medicine in any way.

"This place is the worst! Stupid kaminoans and their stupid bright white corridors. Seriously this glare is giving me a migraine!" Opal complained scratching her head in frustration.

"I know," Seela said in the same tone as before.

Opal squinted her eyes suspiciously at Seela, who just shrugged noncommittally with a soft smile on her face, which enraged Opal more.

"Why aren't you watching Shae beat up training droids anyway? You normally try to get those Mandalorians to let you join in with the training sessions when we visit this rainy hellhole." Opal muttered to Seela.

"They're doing building clearance drills and blaster practice right now," Seela said, shrugging as though that explained everything.

"Ah, so you decided to bother me in stead then, seeing as you aren't getting the chance to swing your precious lightsabre around." Opal looked Seela suspiciously, who merely shrugged again.

Seela had crafted a lightsabre for herself a year before, using the Krayt peal that Renn had given to her, and she liked to practice with it at every opportunity.

Her lightsabre's blade, like the pear it was made from, was a deep blue in colour but the colour was occasionally broken by wisps of white.

She had given the sabre the ability to be used as a single or a double-bladed lightsabre, thanks to the pearl being big enough to process into two crystals and was also able to detach the bottom half of the hilt so that she could dual wield two lightsabres at once.

Seela preferred to use the lightsabre in its double-bladed form and would incorporate a lot of fast movement and quick, powerful strikes into her fighting style.

"Pretty much, yeah. I'm not really interested in blasters and stuff…. Unless its when Renn is practicing with a blaster pistol…. I could watch that for hours." Seela said, adding the last part dreamily.

"Yeah, and I'm pretty sure you have done." Opal said rolling her eyes, but privately couldn't disagree with her. She also found watching Renn train kind of dreamy.

They had been walking down a curved corridor, that led them back towards the military complex where the clone barracks, training rooms, as well as Jango Fett's personal quarters were located, when they both stopped suddenly.

"You feel that?" Opal asked Seela quietly, glancing around warily.

"Probably not as well as you, but yeah." Seela nodded, her hand instinctively reaching for her lightsabre's hilt, before cursing when she remembered she had left it on the ship.

Kamino was supposed to be friendly territory for them and had been the countless times they had visited before, and so they had stopped wandering about armed long ago.

Opal and Seela could feel a wave of negative emotions from nearby and that was causing them to raise their guards.

They had been trained by Yaddle and Sapphire to be able to use the force to sense emotions and Opal had discovered a great knack for it, which was why she could pinpoint the negativy emotions source while Seela could only sense its general direction.

"Come on." Opal said, jerking her head towards a side corridor, "Let's see what's going on."

Seela nodded and followed her towards the other corridor, her muscles tensed and coiled as she prepared for a fight.

-

Renn and the clones where still sat chatting in their storage closet hangout, although the conversation had moved on from sports and was now on galactic conspiracy theories and what if scenarios.

Specifically, whether or not a secret cabal of sentient A.I.s could ever seize control of the republic without anyone knowing about it.

"Yeah, but think about it. If the A.I. was powerful enough, like that one you hang out with Renn, multiple ones could definitely infiltrate enough government systems to seize control." Spoon said sagely.

"Right, but that isn't the question is it." Prudii cut in, "The question is could they do it undetected. And no, they couldn't, not with all the fail safes and fire walls built into government systems."

"Nah they totally could, especially if it was Sapphire and A.I.s like her. She's unstoppable." Renn said happily.

"Yeah, I heard a story about a group of A.I.s taking over a planet during the time of the old republic, I think, so it could happen" Badger said confidently.

"I thought that was about droids that became sentient and killed their creators before seizing control of the planet." Egg said and Badger suddenly looked unsure.

"It might have been… now that you've said that." Badger said his brows creased in thought.

"Well, whatever the ca—" Renn suddenly stopped mid-sentence as he a wash of emotions struck him from his bond with Opal and Seela.

Force sensitives had a way of forming connections, known as force bonds, with those they had strong feelings for.

The participants could communicate emotions and as the bond deepened it allowed them to also send thoughts and feelings to each other, as well as sense each other's locations.

Those with really strong bonds could also empower and boost the strength of the one they were bonded to, although it was rare for jedi to form a bond to that level as their order forbade them from enjoying the passions of life as well as attachments, so it was difficult for them to form strong emotional connections with people.

Renn, Opal, Seela, and Shae had all formed strong force bonds with each other thanks to the feelings they had for each other, and it was through that bond that Renn could feel the wave of anger and fear from Opal and Seela.

It didn't even take a second for Renn to curse and sprint out of the room, he could feel Opal and Seela were in trouble and that was all he needed to know.

Spoon was up and following him moments later, he had seen the look on his friends face and instantly known something was wrong.

"Come on!" Spoon called out to the others, even as he sprinted from the room and after Renn, and soon all four trainee ARC troopers were running full pelt through the corridors of Tipoca city after Renn.

-

"One minute, eighteen seconds. That's a new personal best, well done" Jango Fett said proudly as he patted Shae on the back.

Shae grinned. She had just completed a close quarters training course named 'The kill house' that Jango and his Mandalorian training sergeants had created as for the ARC troopers and the clone commandos.

She was now stood in front of Jango and a group of other Mandalorians as they gave her feedback about her performance.

"You did really well Shae," Jango's sister Arla Fett said happily from beside Shae.

Despite the initial awkwardness between Arla and Shae, caused by Arla being sent by Death watch to assassinate Shae, the two women had become quite close.

Over the years since their initial meeting Arla had become very protective of Shae and it made her incredibly happy to see Shae becoming more powerful.

Jango also felt a similar sense of happiness and pride watching Shae grow stronger as she reminded him of her farther, who he had been close friends with before his death.

"You were sooo cool big sis Shae! Your almost as strong as dad!" an exited young boy said from next to Arla.

Shae smiled and patted the boy, Jango's son Boba, on the head. The boy had started to see Shae as his big sister, because of the almost familial affection both his farther and his aunt had for the girl and held her in a deep sense of admiration.

Shae was also quite fond of the Boba and enjoyed how being with Boba, Jango and Arla made her feel like part of a family.

That wasn't to say she didn't feel that way around Renn and the others, they were definitely her family.

It reminded her of the feelings she had with her mother and farther. She had thought those feelings would have been lost to her when she lost her parents, but she was glad she could feel them again.

"Yeah, nice one kid" Kal Skirata, one of the trainings sergeants, said. "Good creative tactics. You're a Mandalorian, you're a warrior, fight hard and fight dirty."

"You were overconfident… you missed the Death Watch assassin lurking in the last room because you were expecting their only to be pirates in the simulation… Expect the unexpected." Walon Vau, another training sergeant and the final member of the group, said neutrally.

Kal Skirata shot the other training sergeant a scathing look, it was no secret that the two weren't exactly friends and he didn't appreciate the negativity, but he remained silent knowing that despite his bluntness the man was right.

Jango also shared a similar opinion. But he had noticed something else, something that made him very angry.

Shae had panicked when she had seen the Death Watch assassin leaping towards her. Not because it was an unexpected enemy, but because it was dressed as a member of Death Watch.

The terrorist group had caused Shae a great deal of pain throughout her childhood, and were responsible for her becoming orphaned, so it was unsurprising that she had developed a bit of trauma related to them.

Her trauma had caused the panic, and even though she had managed to recover from it quickly she had still hesitated. And on the battlefield hesitation could be the difference between life and death.

Jango's anger wasn't due to Shae hesitation though, it was directed towards the group that had caused her trauma. And the trauma of his sister.

He had seen Arla's reaction to the simulated assassin, and it had nearly broken his heart. She had frozen in fear, her entire body tensed and unmoving.

He wasn't even sure if she had taken a breath until Shae had driven her beskad through the holograms neck.

Jango had seen his sister instinctively reach out for comfort and watched as his own son grasp her hand firmly to support her.

That nearly caused him to leave Kamino to hunt down and mutilate every person who dared to join such an evil organisation, but he knew that right now he was needed here on kamino.

He also Knew that Shae wished to be the one to destroy Death Watch and he had promised to support her in that. So, when she was ready, he would join her in ridding the galaxy of their presence.

Shae just nodded, appreciating the feedback, although she couldn't hide the grin that had broken out across her face.

She was about to open her mouth to thank the Mandalorians around her for the training they had been giving her, when she sensed her that sisters Opal and Seela were in danger.

Instead of thanks, a stream of curses left her mouth, and she drew her blaster pistols before running from the room.

The others watched her run off in confusion before Arla picked up a blaster rifle form a weapon rack nearby and charged after Shae.

Boba quickly followed his aunt and Jango immediately ran after his son, leaving only Skirata and Vau in the training room.

The two old Mandalorians glared at each other for a moment before curiosity got the better of them and they ran off after the others.