Chapter Text
He blinked awake to warmth. Warm weight against his side, warm blankets over his body, a general fuzzy heat settling over his skin, like the first time he really saw the sun.
Dogma turned his head with some effort; every limb felt heavy and weighted, pulling him down like the heavy blanket Tup had made for him, once.
He managed to look to the side and tried to flinch away from the sight, although it ended up more of a slow jerk backwards into the mattress.
Fives was there. Fives in a chair pulled up close, his head pillowed on his arms and pushed up against Dogma’s side. He lifted his head at the movement, blinking blearily.
Dogma stared.
“Oh! You’re awake!” Fives said, and smiled. At Dogma.
Fives had never once smiled at him. Dogma pushed that aside and managed an affirmative “Yes?”
“KIX!” Fives hollered off to the side. “HE’S AWAKE!”
There was an answering shout from somewhere deeper in the medbay, but Dogma could only concentrate on Fives’s bewildering presence.
His mind raced with questions: what did Kix want, what happened to Krell, what happened to me, what happens now, why are you here, but the only thing that came out was a faintly muzzy “What?”
“Kix’ll want to look you over,” Fives explained. “You were in bacta for a while, after he got all the armor shrapnel out of you.”
Oh. Dogma remembered the shattered points of his armor piercing his torso, the massive hands that had held him still as Krell squeezed the life out of him with his other two hands, cracking armor and bone alike-
“Krell?” Dogma asked, and Fives’ face went hard and tight.
“Dead.” He leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. “Rex decided he was too much of a liability to keep prisoner.”
But - that meant Rex had killed a Jedi. A superior officer. Did he even have the authority for executions? Dogma had been authorized to kill Jesse and Fives on Krell’s orders. Maybe Rex was, as well? Dogma’s panicking brain flipped through the reg manuals he’d memorized-
Fives’ voice cut through the frenetic thoughts. “Besides. He almost killed you.”
“If Krell didn’t, Rex will,” Dogma’s mouth said automatically.
Fives let out a shocked sound of denial, then leaned forward to take Dogma’s limp hand. “No, Dogma, he would never,” he said.
Dogma nodded. That made sense. Rex wouldn’t stoop to killing a brother. Not like Dogma had.
“Kamino, then.”
“No-”
There was a gasp from behind them, and then Tup rushed around Dogma’s bed, Kix following more sedatedly.
“Kamino?” Tup cried. “But I thought - Rex said -”
Fives held up his hands for calm. “Wait, no - nobody is going to Kamino!”
Both Tup and Dogma had frozen at the ARC’s raised voice; Fives continued, more quietly.
“Nobody is going to Kamino, not if Rex can help it.”
Dogma didn’t understand any of this. If he wasn’t going to Kamino, where was he going? Coruscant, to be tried in a military court? Transferred to a penal camp?
“Then where am I-”
Fives didn’t even let him finish. “Here,” he said fiercely. “You’re staying here.”
Nothing about this made sense. Fives hated Dogma, always sneered whenever he walked by, even before the execution. Now he was smiling at Dogma, reassuring him, even. It didn’t make sense he needed it to make sense-
“But - why?!” Dogma burst out, and tried to sniff back his tears.
Fives stood. Dogma couldn’t quite hide his flinch, but Fives ignored it and reached out with both hands. Prepared for the worst, Dogma braced for impact.
And Fives pulled him into his chest, wrapping his arms around Dogma’s shoulders and holding him firmly. “Because you’re our brother,” he said, steadfast, to the top of Dogma’s head. “You’re our brother and this planet is a shithole and Krell was a monster. He played us, all of us. It’s not your fault.”
The mattress dipped, and then Tup was there. His batchmate curled around Dogma’s back, a comforting weight. Tup didn’t hate him. You don’t hug people you hate.
It was more than Dogma could have hoped for.
“It’s not your fault,” Tup echoed, and repeated it when Dogma shook his head against Fives’ chest. “It’s not your fault.”
How could it not be his fault? Hardcase was dead. Troopers from the 212th and the 501st were dead. Captain Rex had killed a Jedi and was flaunting regulation by not reporting Dogma to the GAR authorities.
But with Fives and Tup both hugging him, both forgiving him, Dogma couldn’t bring himself to care.
A warm pressure landed on Dogma’s ankle, and he glanced over between the tangle of Tup and Fives’ arms to see Kix at the foot of the bed. “We all did things here that we regret,” he said. “We’re not going to let you be one of them.”
He smiled, small and sad.
Dogma smiled back.