Disclaimer: I make no money, and I only write about what I enjoy. Crimson Squad, Cerina Browlin, Reone, Gan Pohin, and the opening segment quotes are mine. Arlington Zey and Bardan Jusik belong to Karen Traviss. George Lucas owns everything else.

Epilogue

RC-1168 (Dusty) was out of communication for two hours and thirty-eight minutes. He denies ever turning off the comlink, and we have nothing but dead air in that time. I hesitated to do an extraction because we knew from our eavesdropping that Cerina Browlin was the only chance we had to find Barl Nusset and his plans. It was a difficult call to make, but the risk had resulted in a satisfactory ending to the mission.
Excerpt from the report submitted by RC-1155 (Gath) after the Denon Mission

The City of Sha'ye on the Planet Denon
723 Days ABG

I had heard about the death of Barl Nusset, and I was surprised that it happened only a couple days after my encounter with the cloned man who I had the privilege of…entertaining. I had hoped from the moment we went our separate ways that the man I knew as Elig Munot had survived. I never asked for his true name on the night of our meeting, and I knew better than to ask for his rank and number or for any further communication after we parted. It was obvious to me when he looked so dramatically different from Jango that he was protecting himself as well as my identity.

Reone had proven his or her worth again, and the master of illusion that such a being was had advised me that no one thought any differently of the date I shared that night of the meeting. What kind of species Reone is I will never know for he or she has not even entrusted me with such a secret. I also respected Reone's privacy and never asked how the information on Barl Nusset had been acquired, but I suspect that Reone probably had used his or her illusionary skills at some point to infiltrate Nusset's lair and obtain that crucial knowledge.

The disguised clone I met that night was also easily overlooked as just another passing fancy of mine. I suppose having a reputation for being hard to please romantically still comes in handy at times. Those amongst me think I'm nothing more than a woman who refuses to settle down. Let them believe that because I can work such arrangements to my advantage should I ever need to do so again.

Denon now has a small garrison of clones stationed here at the insistence of our leader who wished to keep us protected from the Separatists. I've always made sure to express my thanks to those cloned men when I pass by them on the streets or in the various tourist locations as I go about my daily routines.

I know that Jango thought of those cloned men as nothing more than a business arrangement he chose to partake within, but a small piece of him remains in every one of the clones. Sometimes when I see one of those soldiers without his helmet on, I catch that tiny twist at the corner of his mouth, the wry smile Jango gave when he saw the irony in something. At other times, I'd hear a particularly accented word when a cloned man speaks, and I hear Jango's voice or laughter. Occasionally, I can get close enough to one of them, and I see him inhale more noticeably whenever I wear Jango's favorite perfume.

I also notice that they are a refined and polite group of men, referring to all civilians as "Sir" or "Ma'am," and they try not to overstep any boundaries where civilians are concerned. They also have an innocence about them, a wonder in their eyes at so much of the everyday occurrences we civilians take for granted. However, I have seen more than once that they are so ingrained with their training and their sense of duty that it takes a mere fraction of a second for them to stand at attention or fall into a defensive posture.

The man in the guise of Elig Munot didn't have the opportunity to teach me much that night about clones, but the one thing I did quickly observe was that they have incredible appetites. I had begun to think that if would have offered for him to try every dish in the Heart of Sha'ye, he would have. Knowing now that it's the increased metabolism due to the clones' accelerated aging, I have made it my private agenda to donate various foods of texture and substance once a week to this garrison and deliver it personally. In contrast to conventional soldiers, these cloned men don't receive care packages from loved ones at home, and I feel it's up to me to give them something to encourage their efforts in a seemingly endless war.

Unlike my times with Jango and that night with Elig, though, I don't plan to use the skills I had perfected in my past life. I have come to accept the identity of Cerina Browlin, and I think using her to provide charity has given me a new perspective on my second chance at life. I have come to realize that I may have lost Jango, but I am more privileged than ever to see how he continues to live on.