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Rex stood before the brig in the hull of the Resolute, Cody standing stone-faced beside him.
Slick only laughed bitterly. “Come to gloat?”
He laid back against the rock-hard cot, arms cushioning the back of his head. To anyone else, he might have looked the picture of ease, but Rex knew his brothers. Knew the tension caught between Slick’s shoulders, the subtle undercurrent of anger to his sarcastic words.
Rex folded his arms. “We’re here to understand.”
Slick didn’t bother to sit up. “That’s rich. If you’d really come to understand, the Commander wouldn’t be staring daggers at me.” He spat out the title like it was something foul.
Cody only narrowed his eyes further. He’d insisted on coming, but he understood that this wasn’t his fight.
Slick had been 501st. Rex’s responsibility. The blood of his brothers was on his hands just as much as Slick’s.
Slick still refused to make eye contact with Rex, and his ire grew. “Maybe we’d be a bit more sympathetic if you hadn’t gotten it into to your head to kill brothers for a Sith assassin."
“I tried to free us!” Slick said, his easy tone breaking to reveal his anger. “You accuse me of killing brothers when you march out every day at the orders of our slave masters! You hear me? We die out there in droves and we never had a choice—about any of it!”
Rex stepped close to the ray shield of the cell, staring him down. “You swore an oath to the Republic,” he said, deadly quiet.
Slick was unnerved. “An oath?” He stood up, stalking to the ray shield to face Rex. “You mean when the kaminiise forced us to pledge ourselves to a Republic that sees us as property ? We had no choice! You know damn well what they do to anyone that speaks against them!”
“So instead of saying anything, you allied with the Separatists who gun us down,” Rex snapped.
“Yeah, I sided with the assassin,” Slick said hotly. “She was the only one who saw what I did—that we are slaves! You think the Jedi care how many of us didn’t leave Christophsis? You think that if this war ever ends, whoever’s left will be free to go?” He laughed again, and the sound chilled Rex to the bone. “If we don’t die today, we die tomorrow. The clock’s ticking. Once it goes off, there won’t be any clone troopers left.” He spat on the ray shield, the red energy hissing with the movement.
Rex was stunned into silence for a moment, and Cody stepped forward to place a hand on his shoulder.
“You’re wrong,” was all he could say.
Cody tugged at his shoulder, and Rex made himself step away from the cell.
“And they’re not your brothers anymore,” Rex said over his shoulder. “You lost that right when you killed them.”
Slick shook his head, walking back to his cot. “You’ll never understand. And they’ll all suffer for it.”
“Goodbye, Slick,” Cody said coldly. They started to walk away.
Slick’s parting shot struck them as they made their way back down the hallway. “One day you’ll see, Rex. When your brothers are dead around you and you finally realize that we are slaves to the will of the Jedi. I only wish I could be there to see it.”
The brig door slid shut before he could say any more.