Chapter 10: Haunted

"When you want something done right..." The roaring engines of Slave I broke over the horizon, and as Ponds and Stone turned to the sound, out leaped an armed and angry Aurra Sing. "....you do it yourself!" she cried as she landed on the packed dirt of Onderaan, weapons drawn. Her lithe figure was devastating against the falling sun; in another situation, she would perhaps have been beautiful, but all that either man could sense now was fear and impending doom.

Stone was the first to react, oddly choosing diplomacy in the face of unyielding terror.

"Stand down, now!" he bellowed, his dual DC-17 pistols trained on his target. To this, Aurra Sing only laughed.

"Oh, Ponds. Your friend is adorable. He's like you, but less... fun." With a flick of her wrist she flung a posi-charged bolo tie at Stone's ankles, wrapping his legs up instantly as he let off an errant blast from his pistols. The shots landed ineffectively on a high railing near the outpost's catwalk, sending sparks cascading down behind Aurra's sultry approach. Ponds instinctively drew his guns on the advancing attacker.

"Oh, my dear 411," Aurra chided. "That's the difference between you and me. You were built for war." In an instant Aurra had leapt through the air and crashed down on the trooper, her right knee pinning his neck down and scattering his guns to either side of the two of them. "I fight because I like it," she sneered, her face an inch from his. "And passion wins over duty. Every. Single. Time."

Ponds struggled beneath the bounty hunter, whom he remarked was exceptionally strong for her small frame. She seemed to delight in his squirming, as she made a strange display of running her nose up his torso.

"I can smell your fear, and it's exquisite."

"I'm not afraid of you, scum!"

"Then you're a fool!" she quipped. She shot a glance at Stone, struggling to reach down to the electrified twine binding his ankles. "And your friend is a fool, too."

As if on cue, Stone's hands clasped around the tie, sending a burst of electrical energy coursing through his body, which went rigid in pain. He screamed, the sound energizing both combatants on the ground in vastly different ways. Aurra laughed, and Ponds bucked harder beneath her.

"Here's what's going to happen, love: you're going to watch me kill your friend, then you're getting back on the ship and we're concluding our work."

"Never!" spat Ponds, his right hand working its way towards his belt.

"Don't make me kill you," Aurra retorted, leaning in closer to the clone trooper's face. It seemed she might kiss him before he was able to activate the gravity-containment field on his belt, causing her to harmlessly float up and off him. He wheezed as he caught his breath.

Aurra fired her pistol wildly in the bubble she found herself in, her shots unaimed as her body was unsure of what could be up or down. She screamed in frustration.

"Traitor! You ungrateful little bastard! I gave you this! Me!" She holstered her weapons and kicked and punched at the containment bubble as though she might break free.

"I supposed you did," Ponds offered, as he stood and dusted off his armor. "I guess I never did say thank you."

He carefully timed his attack, pressing the button to disengage the containment field right as he delivered a swift kick to Aurra's prominent chin, sending her flying over the planet's surface, falling and rolling a considerable distance. As she came to rest, he was standing directly above her.

"Nice move," she said, sincerely, as she wiped blood from her mouth. She wiped her hand on the hem of her tunic, and seamlessly reached for her remaining pistol, the other having flung away in her recent flight. As she drew it, Ponds reached down and pried it from her hands, almost effortlessly. He quickly aimed it on her.

"You can't treat your mentor this way," Aurra slurred, her mind racing to outsmart the trooper who clearly had the upper hand.

"You're not my mentor, vile creature. Mace Windu is."

"Was!" she retorted. She turned her body to face him fully, his foot stepping forward and the pistol he now held drawing closer to his target. "And I doubt he taught you to be ruthless; to do what had to be done."

Ponds again moved the blaster forward. He was now at point-blank range, ready to execute.

"I did, though. If you pull that trigger, you'll become my slave. Forever." Their eyes locked as Ponds hesitated, the silence between them speaking volumes. Aurra narrowed her eyes and pushed her head closer to the barrel of her gun.

"But if you don't; if you let me live, I will hunt you down and destroy you. I will haunt you until the end of your days." Her smile was everything Ponds had ever imagined when he contemplated evil. He dropped the weapon to his side.

"I've seen enough to haunt me for a dozen lifetimes. So, if that's truly your plan..." He turned the weapon to his sight, examining its body and functioning switches. "...you'll have plenty of company." He swiftly activated the weapon's stun mode and shot Aurra Sing where she lay, her body going limp on the dirty planet's surface. He dropped the gun in the dirt between them, his shoulders sinking under the weight of all he'd seen and done.

"Little help?" Ponds turned to see Stone still lying on the ground, his hands up in surrender, accepting of the futility of his efforts. Ponds turned again and found the remote switch for the bolo, deactivating it. As he walked over to his comrade, Stone had shrugged off the tie and was starting to stand.

"I'm sorry, I--"

"I know," Stone interrupted, sparing his former brother the labor of his excuses. "You are not to blame."

"But I am. I was complicit in my partnership with her, and Coach. And now your friend is dead."

Stone placed his hand on Ponds's shoulder. "Many are dead. I lost a friend today, yes. But another has returned to me."

Ponds looked into Stone's eyes, his own eyes, and saw himself for the first time in a long time. He bowed his head and wept at the sight. He bemoaned what he'd become, and wondered if redemption would ever be his. As the wind kicked the dirt around them, Stone pulled his friend into a comforting embrace.

--

Stone was quietly wrapping up his debrief with Leia and Bail Organa as Ponds sat silently at a nearby table, his eyes set on the ground before him.

"Welcome to the Rebellion, soldier," Stone said proudly. Ponds stood abruptly and saluted his comrade, who laughed heartily. "That's hardly necessary."

"How will I atone for all I have done?" Ponds asked.

"One day at a time, friend. You're part of a great movement, now. One that hopes to achieve peace."

"Peace," Ponds repeated, turning to face the window. "We were created for war. Cloned from the mind of a tactician and the body of a warrior, for one purpose: to eradicate our enemies. What can we know of peace?"

"That's ours to discover."

Ponds turned again to his friend, seeing now in his face the wisdom he himself had yet to attain. "How so?"

"When the sun sets, does the world end? No. Day becomes night, and soon it is day again. Just because what we've come to know may change, it's not the end. It is different and new, and we will find that we become something different and new in turn."

Ponds looked at his feet, then again into his friend's face. "What will we become?"

Stone smiled. "I don't know. But I can't wait to find out."