Old Enemies, New Allies

A small frame appeared above Dageer. With orange skin, and two blue and white protuberances on her head, the young girl was very similar to Ragout.

Dageer realized that the person who saved him was a teenager Togruta, holding two lightsabers, one green and one yellow. The way she wielded them was weird, almost backward.

She blocked Hiigi's vibro-trident, and seemed almost surprised, either by the force behind it, or by the fact that it wasn't cut in half when facing a lightsaber.

Hiigi opened his mouth, and, although not a sound came out, he seemed to be... growling. The young Jedi, probably a padawan, waved her lightsabers faster than any other Jedi Dageer had ever seen. Hiigi was forced back step by step, and struggled under the torrent of attacks.

Dageer decided that the Jedi could take care of herself, and got up, looking for Sing. All he found, however, were the three massiffs laying on the ground. He didn't have the time to check if they were okay.

He knew Sing couldn't have escaped through the entrance of the alleyway, because the Jedi was there. So, she could only have followed the alley. He saw one of the members of the massiff unit on the ground moving and groaning, and pulled the soldier up.

"Get on your feet, trooper! Follow me!"

The clone scrambled to get up, holding his chest with apparent pain. Still, the trooper grabbed his blaster on the ground, and went after Dageer.

...

The alleyway took a sudden turn to the left, and, while Dageer could still hear the fight, he couldn't see it at all because of the darkness.

He and the other clone advanced carefully, paying attention to every trashcan and piece of metal behind which Sing could hide. However, neither he nor the clone paid attention to above them.

With a loud sound, the Adventurer Slugthrower Rifle that Sing owned fired a round projectile, which pierced the back of the clone. Differently from a laser, the projectile didn't immediately cauterize the wound. Instead, bright red blood splashed out of his chest, and onto Dageer's armor.

The sub-commander was shocked for a moment, but then instinct took over, and he did the same move he had done thousands of times. Dropping to the ground and rolling away, he dodged the next shot, and returned with two of his own.

He missed, but Sing was forced out of her hiding spot, and dampened her fall by rolling on the ground. Before she could recover, Dageer pulled out the vibroblade that he took from the Aki-Aki, and slashed at her.

She used her rifle to block, but his objective had never been to hit her. He hooked her rifle, and pulled using all his strength. The weapon and the vibroblade fell amidst a pile of trash quite a distance away.

The blaster Dageer had remaining was the old pistol he took from one of the bounty hunters, and, at this critical moment, it failed him. Maybe it was because the bounty hunter didn't clean it, maybe it was just because it was old, but when he pulled the trigger, the pistol didn't fire.

Sing looked as surprised as him, maybe because she already believed she was dead, but she recovered faster than Dageer, who, stupidity, tried to pull the trigger once more.

She kicked his knee, making Dageer kneel on the ground, and brought her own knee up on the same move. When the limb smashed in his jaw, black spots appeared in his vision. Before he could react, she punched him twice on his left side, right where the vibroblade cut him.

Intense pain made his body go limp, and he almost passed out. Before his vision turned entirely black, he saw the young Jedi appear running, holding both of her lightsabers, and then he saw nothing more.

-------------------------

For the third or fourth time in a week, Dageer woke up to see a medical droid above him. When the droid tried to examine his pupils, he pushed it away. He pushed the blanket away, stood up, and instantly grimaced in pain.

Looking into a nearby metal mirror, he realized he was naked. Probably so the medical droids could treat him better, because he had wounds all over his body. Both his torso and leg were bandaged, but when he moved he could still feel the pain from cuts made by the vibroblade. His shoulder was red and purple, especially around the joint, where it was broken not long ago. His forearm also had bandages around it, covering the hole a droid laser made in Mygeeto.

And the right side of his face was entirely covered in plasters as well. Curiously, however, it was where he felt less pain. In fact, he felt none. Cautiously, he tried to blink with his right eye, and felt his eyelids move slightly under the bandages.

He reached out, and started removing the pieces of cloth.

"Sub-commander Dageer, your eye isn't totally recovered yet. I advise that you don't..."

"Quiet."

One by one, he removed the bandages. Slowly, his wounded eye was revealed. After so many weeks, his eye struggled to adapt to the light, but Dageer was too excited to care about it. He blinked a few times, and closed his left eye. He was still seeing! For many days, he thought he had lost his eye, and now he was relieved to discover he was wrong.

After making sure his eye was all right, he finally moved on to analyze the scar left behind. Ventress' lightsaber had cut through his helmet and his skin, leaving a scar that would never recover. Starting on the top of his forehead, almost cutting through his hair, and ending just above his chin, the scar was almost a perfect vertical line. That went to prove how powerful and precise a lightsaber was.

It was about sixteen or seventeen centimeters long, and, up till now, it was the biggest scar Dageer had. Although the one the vibroblade left on his torso would probably come as a close second. Dageer grabbed his clothes, a military attire with the 303rd colors and his rank, sub-commander, on it, and wore them.

After taking a few painkillers that the medical droid insisted he had to use, Dageer left the medical center. He didn't have his helmet, but that didn't bother him. If anything, the scar was something to be proud of, a proof he fought a Sith and survived. Besides, he had seen worse scars before. Way worse.

The few Coruscant Guard members he passed by on the way saluted him without batting an eye. Unfortunately, injuries and scars had become common, more common than they should have been.

When he arrived at Hell Squad's quarters, he found most of his men sleeping. Only Cell and Metal were awake, playing some card game. When they heard the door opening, they turned around.

"Sir! You are up! How are your... Ohhh!"

"Ehem... you are handsome as always."

Dageer shook his head. How could he take that compliment seriously when they were clones?