Chapter Text
The clone was laying on his back when the stormtrooper entered the cell, one arm crossed over his stomach as he stared at the ceiling. His head turned towards the movement before his lips broke into a smile. “Hey, love.”
How could he smile at him like that when he had been sent here to accompany him to his death?
“I know.” The clone swung his legs over the side of the bench so that he was sitting and the stormtrooper wasted no time in crossing the room to his lover’s side before he let him pull him down into a slow kiss.
“I’m the one who’s going to kill you.”
“I’m fine with that.”
“Is it true?” He had to know.
The clone’s brows drew together. “Yes.”
And there was nothing more to it. Nothing more to do but hold the man he loved close one last time. Nothing else he could do but rise when the other stormtroopers entered the cell, watch as they cuffed the clone and pushed him towards the doorway. Nothing he could do as he followed them out of the prison, into the speeder, and onto the steps of the Senate, where a large crowd waited. The Empire needed to set an example.
But they had not yet established a precedence for traitors, and perhaps that was why the clone was led to a microphone. He held his head high as he spoke. “As a clone trooper, I swore allegiance to the Republic, not the Empire. Emperor Palpatine has bastardized everything the Republic stood for-!” The microphone was shut off as he was dragged away, shoved to his knees before the crowd.
A pistol was pressed into the stormtrooper’s hands. A low-level disruptor. At long or medium range, it would no more than tickle. But placed against the back of one’s head, death would be nearly instantaneous. It wouldn’t even leave a mark.
His feet moved him forward unwillingly, until the crowd fell silent as he came to stand behind the kneeling man. It took all of his will to not let the blaster fall from his grasp. He had chosen this. He had been given a choice, to let his love be tortured to death or to kill him himself. And that was no choice at all. Slowly, he raised the blaster and pressed the barrel to the back of the head of the man who had taught him how to shoot.
“Do you want a countdown?” He found himself saying.
“No.” The sun was beginning to peek over the horizon, her golden waves catching in his lover’s curls. “Just catch me. Please, catch me.”
“Always.”
He watched as the shoulders of the man he loved rose and fell for the last time.
And he pulled the trigger.
Fox knew something was wrong the moment he walked in the door. Riyo sat with her back to him on the couch but he could feel the distress coming off of her. “Ri?”
“Fox!” She ran from the couch and flung herself into his arms despite the sweat coating his body from the run he had just finished.
He lowered his head to rest his cheek on her hair. “What’s wrong ner me’suum’ika?”
She pulled back from his arms with tears in her eyes, taking his hands and leading him over to the couch before pressing a comm into his fingers. Only two other men knew of this comm’s number, and his heart sank as he opened the message. A small hologram of Thire appeared, sitting on something out of the frame.
“Hey, Fox. I tried to call today, though I suppose by the time you get this some time will have passed, but you were working so this will have to do. Something happened yesterday, and I think I’m going to pay for it. Cliché as it is, by the time you get this message I will be dead. This will have been sent the moment my heart stopped beating, hopefully before this device is uncovered by the Empire.
“I tried, Fox. I tried to save them, our men. I’m still trying now, but I fear the Coruscant Guard ends with me. We’re too divided. Our brothers and the stormtroopers cannot stand on their own but they refuse to stand together. I’ve tried to change that, but I don’t think I have that power. I don’t think any of us do. Commander Seeley, perhaps, he’s far less prejudiced than some, but I fear that I’m taking him down with me. We’re too close.” Thire stopped to take in a deep breath, rubbing his hands across his eyes. “I just needed you to know that I tried. Despite everything, Fox, really. I’m sorry.” His voice broke and he brought his hand up to his eyes to wipe away tears that the holo hadn’t picked up. “I’m sorry. I’ve failed you.”
“No.” The word fell from Fox’s lips almost unconsciously.
“I did manage to track down Wolffe for you. He was reassigned soon after the end of the war. I’ve attached his comm channel to this communique, just in case.” Thire stopped again, slowly shaking his head. “I wish there was more to say. Thank you, Fox, for believing in me. I wish I could’ve been the man you needed me to be. And take care of Riyo, she’s more precious than kyber. I love you two. I hope that I’ll see you again, one day. Goodbye.”
The comm flickered off.
Fox bent over with an anguished cry.
He couldn’t hold his little brother, couldn’t pull him close and tell him that everything was going to be okay. Couldn’t cradle his body. Like he had Thorn’s, Stone’s. He wouldn’t be permitted to say goodbye.
Riyo’s hand rubbed between his shoulder blades as he wept onto her lap.
Thorn. Stone. Thire.
He had killed them all.
The clone’s lip curled as he beheld his new roommate. He had just received the comm on his way back to his quarters; the facility was being assigned a new commander, one of low enough esteem to be bunked with a clone. Already, Wolffe disliked the crying man. Ignoring the sounds of weeping, he fell down onto his own bunk, turning his back to the man in an attempt to get some sleep. When that attempt failed, he rolled back over to fix his gaze on the other man’s back.
“What’s wrong with you?”
For a moment, the crying ceased. Then a weak voice answered him. “You’re a clone.”
“What else would I be?”
“Please stop talking. You sound too much like him.”
Slowly, Wolffe sat up on his bunk. “Who?”
“The man I loved." The man paused to take in a shaking breath. "The man I killed.”
“They sent you here for loving a clone?”
“They sent me here because I cradled his body in my arms after they forced me to kill him. The execution was public. Everyone saw. They didn’t like that.”
“I’m sorry.” Wolffe fell silent, listening to the other man’s sobs start up again. “What’s your name?”
The man slowly rolled over to face him. Wolffe watched as his eyes searched his face, looking for any signs of his identical beloved, before his shoulders gave up some tension. He was not looking into the face of a dead man. “Commander Ilven Seeley.”
“Commander Wolffe.” He took in Seeley’s tear-stained face. “Tell me about him.”
Seeley blinked in confusion. “Who?”
“My brother you loved. Tell me about him.” Wolffe was exhausted, he needed to sleep. But sleep lay in silence, and silence lay in the comfort of the man across from him. So Wolffe sat and listened as Seeley laid out his life story before him.
He jolted awake to the sensation of a tube being pulled from his throat, gagging as the end was pulled out. The reflex quickly turned into a coughing fit as his lungs fought for air.
“Vital signs stabilizing.” Called out a medical droid.
“What did you do?” He gasped once the fit began to subside. He didn’t remember being injured. But he didn’t remember much of who he was either. Everything in his mind blurred together as he fought back to consciousness.
The medical droid beside him turned its head to look at the other droid in the room before spinning around and reaching for something out of sight.
“What did you do to me?” He demanded again. “What did you do?”
The droid turned back around with a clear mask in one hand, a long cord that ran from the mask to a system he could not see in the other.
“No. No. What did you do to me?” He tugged at the restraints that hugged his arms.
“The patient will cease movement.” The medical droid ordered as it reached over to place the mask over his mouth. “You have sustained critical trauma. Please cease movement.”
“What did you do?” His head was restrained too, leaving him helpless to resist the droid. “What did you do? What did-.” His head was beginning to feel heavy as he gasped in whatever gas the droid had attached the mask to. “What did you do?” His voice was beginning to shake as he fought to stay awake. “What did you…” His eyes shut unwillingly as unconsciousness claimed him.