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It seemed to Fives that Captain Rex was the coolest and most badass of all the Command clones. He could admit to being a little bit bias: Rex was his commanding officer, after all, and the blond was also the only officer he had any real interactions with seeing as how he was only one layer of paint away from being a shiny himself, but the point still stood. The only other Command clone Fives had ever met or spoken to was Commander Cody, and well...he just wasn’t as cool. He made his case like this:
Commander Cody’s armor, while as weathered and scarred by battle as any trooper’s, was fairly plain. He didn’t have a pauldron or kama and probably wasn’t ARC trained at all. Since he had so much rank, it stood to reason that most of his time was spent doing datawork or in boring meetings with his equally boring Jedi (no offense to General Kenobi, but he looked like he would drop dead if a single hair got out of place on his head. He just didn’t have the same gritty rawness that General Skywalker or even the little Commander Tano had), and he probably didn’t deign to spend too much of his time rubbing elbows with the grunts. The Commander was just too clean cut and put together to be anything close to someone worth looking up to in Fives’ eyes.
Yet Captain Rex did. Fives couldn’t number the amount of times Rex spoke with near hero worship of the Commander, referring informally to him as his older brother even though they had to have been decanted at nearly the same time. If anyone should be the older brother, Fives thought, it should be Rex and never mind about rank.
He said as much (well, a highly edited version because he wasn’t a complete fekking idiot) to Rex one evening while they were sitting around a campfire on Lorien.
Rex snorted. “You really think that, huh?”
Fives flushed and scratched the side of his head, subtly eyeing his Captain. Rex wasn’t angry; if anything he seemed like he was trying to keep from laughing in his face.
“Well...yeah, I guess I do mean it.” He said, and his suspicions were confirmed when Rex did finally laugh softly before taking a swig from his canteen.
“One day I’ll get to show you how wrong you are, vod.” Rex said. Fives shrugged and decided to let the matter drop, secretly thinking there was nothing in the galaxy that could change his mind.
——
Six standard months later, Torrent and Ghost Companies were in orbit around the disputed world of Filleen, home to an aggressive race of beings called Yeji who favored the Wookies in height and hairiness but had twelve beedy black eyes and a long proboscis instead of a mouth. As per the conditions of meeting for negotiations, General Kenobi had gone planetside alone, his only means of communication with the orbiting cruiser a small, audio only comm hidden behind his ear. Commander Cody listened attentively to the, frankly boring, discussion coming in through the earpiece while Captain Rex stood off to the side idly chatting with Ghost Company’s Captain. Fives, on roving guard duty, tried to keep from looking as bored as he felt.
This was so boring! And the exact reason he always groaned when he heard they were linking up with Ghost Company. They were forever going on boring diplomatic missions (missions that General Skywalker always found his way out of), basically glorified babysitters to their prissy Jedi General while he flitted from planet to planet talking to these people or that. Fives was a man of action, and he couldn’t see how his brothers could stand to deal with what they had.
“You really are barely more than a shiny, aren’t you?” A brother named Waxer had said with a short laugh when he’d heard his complaining. Fives had flipped him off and gone to start his rounds. Barely more than a shiny, his shebs. How did they all know that???
Suddenly the monotony was broken up by General Kenobi’s cultured voice speaking with greater volume and an unusual urgency. “A-Ah, Cody, I think I need you to -” the comm went out with a static hiss. Cody (and Fives would later marvel at how lax the Commander’s posture had really been) stiffened and turned on his heel, barking orders as he strode out of the control room.
“Boil, you’re in charge. Rex and you in the blue, come,” Cody said, jerking his head in Fives’ direction and not giving either of them time to process what was happening before he was halfway out the door.
“Hurry.”
It was amazing how much ground the Commander was able to cover. The two of them nearly had to sprint to catch up with him, and by the time they did, he was already in the launch bay, a LAAT/i fueled up and ready to go. Fives mashed his helmet on and leaped inside, and as soon as he was clear, Cody was giving the signal to the pilot to lift off.
“The General’s nav signal is still strong. We’ll go in, grab him, and get out. Stun if you can, but the General is the priority,” the Commander’s voice was tight and controlled over the speakers of his HUD, and he realized the man was extremely pissed. Fives couldn’t blame him: every clone felt that their particular Jedi was their personal responsibility, and Fives was sure the feeling was magnified by a million for Cody since he worked hand in hand with the man on a daily basis. Right under his nose, General Kenobi got snatched, so he couldn’t be feeling too good about that right now.
The familiar feeling of excitement and dread welled up in Fives as the LAAT/i touched down and they jumped out. This was what he loved: the calm before a battle or fight, the way his heart would thud painfully against his ribs, blood rushing through his veins, his body primed for anything. In this space, only his quick wits and those of his brothers would keep him alive. He couldn’t wait to see what Cody could do. The pilot touched two fingers to the side of his bucket in a salute and settled down to wait for them to return.
“Follow me.” Cody said tersely, his footsteps nearly silent on the lush grass as he crouched low and sprinted into the dark shadow of the swoop-necked building. The Filleen were famous for their graceful, swirling architecture, their buildings resembling nothing so much as ice cream swirls covered in grass and large blossoms that bloomed year round in the hot and humid climate. The building the General’s nav signal was coming from was a low spiral built into the side of a hill, round openings that served as windows their entry point.
They did a quick sweep, and finding the immediate vicinity vacant, they slipped in without any trouble.
The trouble came when they actually found the General.
Fives was able to see the man (disheveled and dirty and bruised from rough handling but alive thank the stars) gripping the bars of his cell while trying, and failing, to reason with his captors before the Yeji guarding him gave out warbling wet hisses of rage and began firing. He and Rex took cover and began to return fire, but Commander Cody went for broke.
Squaring up with the largest and most heavily beaded of the Yeji, he tackled the squealing creature. They wrestled, snarling and grunting, for a bit before the Yeji was able to throw him bodily into the stone wall behind him. Cody’s bucket went flying, but the Commander somehow snatched it in mid air and bashed the Yeji in the side of the head with it. Using his momentum, he swung up onto the creature’s shoulders and crossed his legs behind its head and began to squeeze. The Yeji, probably sensing its impending demise, began to screech and repeatedly slam Cody into the wall while it tore at his armored sides with its claws, leaving deep gouges in the armor. All Fives and Rex could do was continue to lay down cover fire while Cody squeezed and squeezed until, with a disgustingly wet squelch that would haunt Fives’ dreams for the next year, the Yeji’s head caved in. Cody rode the dead Yeji down with surprising grace, his face, abdomen, and legs covered in blood and brain matter. The other Yeji fled the scene hissing, but Fives was too busy picking his jaw off the floor to notice.
What the fek just happened?
Calmly, Cody pulled the access card from the dead Yeji’s belt and freed the General, gently supporting the injured Jedi’s weight with a firm hand wrapped around his waist.
“Good work. Let’s head back before more come.” Cody said cheerfully, oblivious to the way he just turned Fives’ world on its head. He and the Jedi made their way out slowly but surely. Rex laughed and clapped Fives on the shoulder.
“That’s why Cody is the big brother, Fives.” Fives shook his head.
Goddamn.