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Cutup stumbles as he wakes mid-step.
What?
He’s—he is dead. He died. He's sure of it. Surely Nala Se didn’t let him live. So what is this?
White walls. White everywhere, blinding, actually. Kamino. Definitely still Kamino.
Has he been reconditioned? Is snapping out of reconditioning something that can happen? Has his chip been activated? Is this what happened to Tup?
Kix. He needs to talk to Kix. He needs to get to a long-range comm—
A hand lands on Cutup’s shoulder. He spins without thinking, lashing out. His attacker deflects—fast, kriff—and hits back, and Cutup takes the blow sideways off his chest plate and moves into the opening, going for the throat.
“Hold!” the captain orders.
Cutup freezes.
So does Fives.
Cutup’s brain screeches to a stop for a second, like it always does when a shiny reminds him of one of his batchmates. Then he looks again.
“Fives?” he whispers.
“Cutup?” Fives says cautiously. He backs off a step, keeping his hands open and down, where Cutup will have a half-second warning of any attack. Telegraphing not a threat.
Cutup just stares for a few moments, drinking in the sight of his long-dead squadmate.
Wait.
What is Rex doing on Kamino?
Cutup turns, and it’s Echo standing there, not the captain, a few steps away but tense and ready to move. “Did you just—how the kriff—”
“Let’s get out of the main hall,” Echo says over him. He and Fives herd Cutup smoothly down the nearest side corridor without touching him or even moving too close, which is way too slick a joint maneuver for the men Cutup remembers, and something’s wrong here. A lot of somethings.
Cutup opens his mouth to demand to know what’s happening but loses his breath all at once when he sees—
“DB!” Cutup jolts forward, half-aware of Echo and Fives going tense and still at his sudden movement. Droidbait’s head jerks up from where it was pressed into Hevy’s spaulder.
He meets Cutup halfway, crashing into his arms and babbling apologies that Cutup can’t believe he’s even hearing. “—knew it’d leave you alone, Cutup, I’m so sorry, someone had to—”
“Don’t say sorry, don’t you dare, I would’ve done the same thing, shut up,” Cutup says. His voice breaks.
“I know, I know you would, but I’m the one who did, I’m sorry—”
“I’m dead,” Cutup realizes out loud. “You’re dead, I’m dead. They’re definitely dead. I thought I was but I wasn’t sure, but I’m dead, aren’t I.”
“Yeah,” Droidbait mumbles.
“Uh, no,” Hevy says.
Cutup looks over at him. Droidbait twists to do the same.
“Uh, yes,” Cutup says, and sue him if it’s a little inane. He’s not at his wittiest right now.
“First loop,” Fives says, which makes no sense, but Echo makes a noise of agreement, so clearly it means something.
“No,” Hevy says to Cutup. “You’re not dead. I get why you’d think that, and you did die, but you’re alive.”
“What is going on,” Droidbait says plaintively, which about sums up Cutup’s feelings on the matter.
“Time travel,” Echo answers, which is just—
What.
“You guys died, and you woke up here on Kamino, yeah?” Fives asks. “The year is 7955 CRC. Our graduation test is tomorrow. We failed it, the first time. This time, we’re not going to do that, because we have five—I’m pretty sure it’s five, you guys are ARCs, right?” He tilts his head at them.
“Yeah,” Cutup says after a second.
A grin spreads across Fives’ face. “Thought I recognized that takedown you were going for. Yeah, we have five ARC troopers in our squad, so we’re going to pass the graduation test, and then we’re going to get assigned to Rishi Station. We’ll have some downtime there, so we’ll be able to answer all your questions and hear your story. And then, after the attack, we’re going to join the 501st.”
“All of us?” Droidbait asks in a small voice.
Hevy nods. “Absolutely. We’re sticking together. No one’s dying on karking Rishi this time around,” he growls.
Cutup looks around at his brothers, at the men he lost a long time ago and never got over. They sound so sure. They think this is real.
If this was a dream, or some kind of afterlife, it would probably also feel pretty real.
Droidbait’s armor clacks against his from where they’re pressed together, just like they’re supposed to be. Just like Cutup knew they would never be again.
Kriff it. If this isn’t real, he’s going to enjoy it until he wakes up.
“Okay,” he says.
“Okay,” Droidbait agrees. “But do we really have to wait until Rishi to talk about this? Why do you know so much more about what’s happening than we do?”
Echo smiles. “Yeah, we’ll have time to explain the bare bones to you, but we’re going to be kind of busy tomorrow--actually, kriff, right now we’re going to be late if we don't get a move on.”
They dart back into the main hall and head for the training wing for the first day of a new life.
They are late, but only barely. Echo waits until they’re walking into the simulator and then starts whispering. “Remember, Hevy’s squad lead. Don’t take too much initiative. Hold back, obviously, but if you’re too good, we’ll drag squad performance down for you, so don’t worry about it too much.”
Cutup shakes his head and tries to focus. Echo has a point. If Cutup and Droidbait let their reflexes and training carry them through this, they’ll blow the test out of the water and bring the Kaminoans down on them.
“What about General Ti?” Droidbait asks. “Won’t she notice something weird happening?”
“Not usually,” Hevy says. “As far as I can tell, she doesn’t notice us until this sim, which we failed hard the first time around.”
“We can get through this and graduation without too much suspicion,” Echo agrees. “Answers later, okay? Promise. For now, just focus on performing adequately but not outstandingly.”
Balancing act. Right. Well, Cutup’s always been good at improvising.
He falls into formation next to Droidbait. “Got your back, brother,” he murmurs.
Droidbait grins at him and reaches out to tap their bracers together as the sim begins.
It’s almost soothing, oddly. Cutup knows how this sim goes, and he’s been in so many real firefights that it’s cadet’s play to gun the training droids down as fast as they can attack. He and Droidbait move together, following Hevy through the landscape.
Having Droidbait next to him again feels like a dream. It’s the easiest thing in the world to slip back into their rhythm. For months after Umbara, Cutup felt incomplete. It nearly killed him a few times before he remembered he had to watch his own back.
Droidbait died saving Cutup’s life. Cutup didn’t throw that gift away. He adjusted to being just half of a pair. But it never felt right, no matter how many fights he survived with Jesse or Tup or Dogma by his side instead.
Cutup’s still not totally convinced this is real, but if it isn’t, he might not care.
They advance through the simulation, moving from cover to cover. Cutup makes sure to miss every few shots. He doesn’t remember what his accuracy was like as a cadet, but he’s pretty sure he’s outdoing it anyway. When he glances over at Fives and Echo, they’re shooting past the next group of droids, neatly tracing silhouettes, before they finally get down to business and start taking them down.
They take their time, but they still beat the sim faster than they ever did during their time as real cadets.
Five ARCs, huh? It’s hard to tell how good they are when the entire squad is holding back so much, but Cutup knows how much damage two ARC troopers can do. He’s never seen five in action at once, but he’s kind of looking forward to it.
They’re definitely only going to need to take the graduation test once this time.
Back in the barracks, Fives and Echo immediately climb up to Echo’s bunk. Echo looks down and frowns. “Well, in the past, we’ve only needed space for three of us to talk. Get up here, and let’s see if this still works.”
Hevy snorts. “You two go ahead, I’ll just hang on the ladder.”
Droidbait starts up. “Better you than me,” he teases.
Cutup laughs and hauls himself up after him. It’s a squeeze, but all four of them do fit on Echo’s bunk. Hevy hooks one arm and one leg through the ladder and turns to them like he’s prepared to chill there for the rest of the night.
“Alright,” Fives says. “Time travel.”
“You’ve done this before,” Cutup says. They’re far too unconcerned about all this for it to be otherwise.
“Yep,” Echo confirms. “This is your first time, but it’s not just going to happen once. It’s a loop. If you die, you’ll land back here.”
Cutup blinks.
Well.
“I’ll think about that more later,” Droidbait mutters.
Hevy laughs. “Don’t think too hard,” he advises. “It’s a lot to take in, and you don’t have to adjust all at once. Take it one loop at a time. It’ll be nice to see Rex again, right?”
“It won’t be the same, but yeah,” Cutup murmurs.
“Actually,” Fives says in a tone that instantly draws Cutup and Droidbait’s full attention. “It will be the same, or at least pretty similar, because Rex is looping, too.”
“It’s not just us?”
“Nope. Rex was first, and he loops the most. The rest of us skip over loops sometimes, and then you’ll meet our baseline selves, but as far as we can tell, Rex is in every single loop,” Fives explained.
“He’s important, somehow,” Echo adds. “A couple of times, he’s died, and the loops instantly restarted.”
“Yeah, that’s always weird,” Hevy puts in. “He’s talked about testing it, but nobody’s exactly keen on killing our captain, even if it’d only be temporary.”
“How many troopers is ‘nobody’?” Cutup asks.
“More than you think, probably,” Echo says. “Kix, Jesse. Commander Cody. Hardcase. All three of the Jedi—”
“The Jedi?!” Droidbait repeats. “And they don’t know what’s going on either?”
Fives squeezes his shoulder. “No,” he says. “The Jedi are just as confused as we are.”
“Oh,” Cutup murmurs. “Great.”
“We’re still trying to figure out what’s going on, but that’s kind of stalled. It’s hard to investigate when there aren’t any new clues.”
“So…this has happened a lot, then,” Droidbait says.
Echo nods. “When we’ve got more time, we’ll run you through our early loop stories. It’s a lot to take in. We’ll want to hear what happened to you, too.” He pauses and just looks at them for a moment. “It’s good to have you here, you know. We love you guys in baseline, but, well. It hasn’t been easy.”
Cutup can’t say he gets it, but he does know what it’s like not to have his batchmates there. “It wasn’t easy without you guys, either.”
“Did we die on Rishi?” Hevy asks.
Cutup and Droidbait look at each other.
“Thought you wanted this story later,” Cutup tries.
“So that’s a yes, then,” Echo says. “Later is right. It’s hard to do the grad test without showing too much if you’re sleep-deprived. But when we get to Rishi, we want to hear about your last life.”
“We’ll tell you all about it,” Droidbait says. “We want to hear about yours, too.”
Fives smiles. “And when we’re through that part, we’ll start on fun stories.”
“Welcome to the loops, boys,” Hevy says. “It’s going to be a long stay. We’ll make this a good one for you. Kick it off right.” And with that, he swings himself into his bunk.
Cutup climbs down to his own tube and sits, kicking his legs absently. Droidbait plops down next to him.
“It’s good to see you again, Cutup,” he says quietly.
Cutup slings an arm around Droidbait’s shoulders. “Yeah, DB. It really is.”
“Krell’s alive,” Droidbait says.
“Kark that guy,” Cutup mutters. “You killed him once. You can do it again. Preferably from a distance this time.”
“So I did get him?” Droidbait smiles and tips his head onto Cutup’s shoulder.
“Yeah, DB. You got him good.”
“Served him right.”
“You saved me,” Cutup tells him. “Kix patched me right up. Dogma took you seriously, too. He has a sense of humor, you know. Takes some time for him to get comfortable enough to show it, but it’s there.”
“Can’t wait to meet him again, then.” Droidbait raises his head. “Hey. Can I…?”
“Course,” Cutup says immediately. “It’ll be a tight fit, but we’ll make it work.”
They maneuver until they’re back to back on the narrow bunk, and Cutup hits the button to retract the tube into the wall. Really, they’re too big for this. The bunks are hardly wide enough for one full-grown clone, let alone two. But Cutup just got his brother back, and he’s not passing up the chance to feel his heartbeat and breathing next to him, undeniably alive.
Tomorrow, they’ll graduate. Again. And the day after that, they’ll head back to Rishi, where their nightmares came to life for the first time. Fives, Echo, and Hevy seem to think it’ll be easy. After the ease of today’s sim experience, maybe they’re right.
This is the second life of many, apparently. Cutup can’t think about that yet. For now, just having his batchmates around him again is enough.