Skaovis part 2

"You haven't chosen your path yet." a female voice stated.

"I'm a Sith." He answered back.

"Are you? Are you really?" His own mind now supplied.

"YES!" was shouted much too quickly in defense.

"It doesn't seem like it." His mind casually stated before his eyes snapped open. He let out a groan as pain shot through his left shoulder on which he had fallen due to the rather rough landing that they just had. He barely registered the indigent beeping that was coming from somewhere behind him. When he got up and turned around he saw that the droid had ended upside down during the crash landing and was now trying to wiggle its way right side up. With a flick of his hand he used the Force to help the droid. It let out a surprised beep and then rotated its head towards him.

The next thing he knew he was being interrogated by the droid who was now acting more like a mother hen than anything else.

"Yes, yes. I'm alright. No, I do not need a med pack. Yes, I'm sure." He answered the droid's flurry of questions while standing up and looking around.

"Well this isn't so bad." He noted. More beeps and bangs followed which were really the droid asking how he didn't know how to pilot a ship.

"Well excuse me for not knowing. I'm literally three years old." C473 replied as he began rummaging through the pockets of the men he had killed and taking their credits. "Oh don't look at me like that. These men won't be needing their money anytime soon." He mumbled as he looked back to the droid who had fallen silent and was observing him. Then the droid asked him one question.

"How I'm three years old when I look like an adult?" C473 repeated as he mulled over what to tell the droid. He wasn't one to lie but even Drago told him to shut up countless times because he was too blunt. "I'm a clone, plain and simple. Was activated almost three years ago." He said. "I can do everything an adult can so you don't need to worry." He told the droid as an afterthought.

C1 beeped a bit impishly. "With the exception of flying and landing a ship." The clone corrected to what he thought must have been a smug looking droid. He placed the pouches of credits in his pockets and his hand froze when his fingers brushed against something there that he hadn't noticed. There in the palm of his hand lay a translucent Kyber crystal.

"How?" And then it hit him. He thought back to when he had been possessed by Andeddu. That woman, Mala, he overheard her being called, had spoken to him. Her words now rang fresh in his mind. "Now make sure you keep that thing I placed in your pocket safe." She had said before fading out. 'How did she even get a Kyber crystal?' He asked himself. He closed his palm and placed the crystal back in one of his pockets. It wouldn't do to dwell on that right now. He couldn't use the crystal anyways. It felt cold and unresponsive to his touch. That was all the proof he needed that he was still a Sith.

"Let's get out of here." He mumbled and headed back to the cargo hold. C1 one followed behind him but bumped into him abruptly as he had stilled in the door's entrance. His eyes narrowed as he saw the other prisoners. They were huddled together in a corner. Where he once sensed hope he now sensed trepidation. He took a step forward and watched them huddle closer. The clone wondered what these people had endured and where they had come from to be so afraid.

"Please spare us." One of them mumbled. A slightly older humanoid than the rest. He cocked his head to the side to convey his confusion.

"Why would I hurt you?"

"You......... the crew......" The man managed to get out and then pointed to the body of the slumped slaver that he had left dead in the hold. C473 frowned and thought 'Did they actually think that he was going to kill them? The slavers were an annoyance, these people hadn't done anything and had been prisoners like him.'

'There is no advantage in killing them.' He thought as frightened eyes looked up at him.

'A true Sith would have killed them. No witnesses.' His mind supplied as he thought about his options. He reached into his pockets and threw some pouches of credits at the former prisoners. "Take them and leave. You never saw me." He muttered before walking to the ship's door and opening it. He stepped out onto the planet's surface without looking back.

The surface of Skaovis looked equally as unpleasant as the ship he had been on. The ship had crashed in a grass field. The grass, instead of being lush and green, looked shriveled up. The sky held grey clouds. C473 could sense a large number of lifesigns to the east. He started making his way in that direction. The astromech droid beeped and he turned around and saw it following him.

He frowned and asked "What are you doing?" A series of beeps given as a reply.

"I know you're following me." He muttered. "I'm asking why?"

C1 beeped a few more times and looked a little expectant. "So what if that ship won't fly again?" The clone grumbled. "I still see no reason for you to follow me." He pulled the hood of his tattered robes up as a few droplets began to fall. A few beeps and what seemed like an indigent chirp.

"Oh, so now you're just going the same way I am." C473 huffed but said no more as he made his way across the field. The droid rolled behind him, also keeping quiet. It looked like it wanted to say something.

"Well? Spit it out?" He asked the droid after having received several curious looks from it. It let out a series of chirps and C473 frowned. 'How the hell was he going to explain the Force to a droid?' He wondered. The droid was a rather curious thing. The droids on the ship he was stuck on when Drago was still alive had all avoided him and never engaged him in any conversation like this one. 'Had anyone ever tried to explain the Force to a droid before?' He now thought before answering. "Well it starts with the amount of Midi-chlorians in your body...." he started to explain as they continued their journey to the nearest settlement.

By the time they had reached what looked like a town he was well into tale of the Force and the various powers it provided. C1 listened with rapt attention and would occasionally chirp a question. The town itself looked rundown. The buildings looked old, some looked hastily put together. The clone didn't need to stretch out his senses to feel what type of people inhabited this place. A brawl had just broken out in the middle of the street that told it all.

"Smugglers" He grumbled as he pulled his hood tighter around him as men had started cheering and placing bets on the brawlers. Cantinas lined the road and merchants were peddling their wares in what he supposed construed as a market. There also seemed to be a lot of slavers here. C1 rolled a bit quicker and stuck next to him as one of the merchants had been eyeing the droid.

"How much for the droid?" The merchant shouted at him. He chose to ignore the man as he and C1 walked along the road. Something caught his eye however. Up ahead a crowd was gathering. It looked like a large stage had been set up there. Red banners had been hung on either side of the stage. C473 stopped and lifted a brow as a fat man with large jeweled rings on his fingers took the stage.

"Welcome ladies and gentleman. Scoundrels of all ages!" The man shouted. "Welcome to Olaf's oddities! Today we bring you some very rare and exotic animals!"

The clone had crossed his arms as he watched from afar. C1 beeped, asking what was going on.

"Animal smuggler." The clone murmured as they watched several cages being brought on stage by what seemed to be Olaf's crew. He could only sense greed from the man as the first cage was brought forward.

"Dear viewers, here we have an exotic animal that only appears every four hundred years on the planet of Lothal. A genetic anomaly and a very rare specimen that any collector would want. I give you the Black Lothcat!"

The crowd oohed and aahed as the contents of the cage were revealed. A black furry thing growled and stood on its haunches. Its black fur was dotted with white stripes and its tail was puffed up as it bared its sharp teeth at the audience. The clone's eyes narrowed as he felt a strong feeling of defiance coming from the creature. It hissed and growled at the audience and looked ready to rip someone's throat out.

Olaf prodded the Lothcat with what appeared to be some type of electrical prod that had been attached to his belt. The Lothcat yelped and leapt back, hitting the back of the small cage. Olaf tried to prod it a few more times to get it to stop growling. The animal's ears were pulled back as it tried to avoid the prod.

"The bidding starts at 1000 credits!" Olaf announced once the Lothcat had quieted down. There were several people bidding as and it looked like another brawl might start.

"Let's go." He told the droid. Giving one last look at the stage, C473 made an innocuous gesture with his hands, using the Force to unlatch the cage door. The Lothcat's ears perked up as the little door swung open. Olaf hadn't noticed this yet, as he was busy trying to auction the animal off, that was until he was jumped by the Lothcat who let out what seemed like a shrill warcry. The area was thrown into chaos as people started trying to catch the animal. C1 gave a beep of surprise as it followed along, almost missing the mischievous smirk on the human's face.