Chapter Text
Dogma belonged in this cell. He knew he did. He’d turned his blaster onto his brothers, on his captain, in defense of a Jedi who’d turned out to be a monster.
He didn’t know much else, because nothing else made any sense. The soldiers of the execution squad had thrown down their guns. Krell had turned on his own men. Tup had pointed a blaster at Dogma and Dogma had pointed one back and everything was just wrong wrong wrong-
But Dogma was in the cell, because Captain Rex had put him there, and Krell was in the other cell. Both traitors, somehow.
A traitor. Something Dogma never thought he’d be.
He’d done everything by the book. He’d listened to his Captain and applied the regulations and never disobeyed an order and he was still in this cell.
Maybe he’d always been wrong? If - if Dogma was wrong for following orders and Fives and the others were right to disobey, then - what did that mean?
It was impossible to know, because obviously Dogma didn’t know anything. He shoved the heels of his cuffed hands deep into his eye sockets and tried to breathe.
A chuckle from the other cell made Dogma drop his hands and flinch back.
“I can hear your tiny mind struggling,” Krell called. “Stop trying to think, it’s obviously not your strong suit.”
Dogma flinched again but said nothing. How could the Jedi know? Was he reading Dogma’s mind?
Even if he was, there was nothing to be afraid of. They’d brought the Besalisk to the cell already bound in stun cuffs. And nothing, not even a Jedi, could break through the ray shields.
“You’re half right,” came the mocking voice from the other cell. “I can’t break through ray shields.”
Before Dogma could parse that, the wall between the cells echoed with a muffled bang, followed by what seemed to be the screech of warping metal. Dogma retreated as far as he could within his own cell, pressing his back against the wall.
There was no way Krell could break through, and even if he did, Dogma’s cell still had a ray shield-
A fist punched through the durasteel walls and panels bent outwards from the blow. Krell’s massive hands, all four of them, gripped the edges of the rough opening and pulled, and with a hideous groan the metal in his grip flexed and failed.
The Besalisk shoved his way through as alarms blared and the room flashed red. He advanced on Dogma, four arms held high with no sign of the stun cuffs.
“What - what are you doing?” squeaked Dogma. “You can’t get out!”
“That remains to be seen,” said Krell. “But you’ll help.”
“I won’t help you! Never again!”
Krell advanced; Dogma cringed back, bringing his cuffed hands up in a useless gesture. “You misunderstand, fool. I’m not asking for your assistance.”
–
Rex wasn’t sure what they’d see at the bottom of the lift; the holocams in both Krell’s and Dogma’s cells had been destroyed during Krell’s escape attempt.
“Shoot to kill, boys,” he said to the troopers behind him. “We can’t let Krell escape.”
“But not at Dogma, right?”
“No, Tup, not at Dogma,” Rex said, and elbowed Fives when he muttered, “Maybe a little bit at Dogma.”
The lift slid to a stop in front of the cells. At least the ray shields were still holding, and safely behind them-
Rex’s stomach dropped straight through his boots; behind him he could hear gasps of horror and a high keening protest from Tup.
Krell stood, uncuffed, holding a beaten and bloody Dogma in front of him by the shoulders, his boots dangling off the ground. Dogma’s chin sagged to his chest; blood dripped from his nose to the floor from his ruined face. Rex watched his chest try to expand, to breathe, but Dogma’s armor there had splintered inwards with a blow from a massive fist, and shards of bloody dripping plastoid stabbed into his torso.
“CT-7567, how lovely of you to arrive,” sneered Krell. “Dogma here wasn’t going to last much longer.”
“You MONSTER!” screeched Tup, before Rex could say anything; behind him there was a short tussle and then Kix’s voice, speaking quick and low.
“We’ll help him, I promise, but wait.”
Tup made a frustrated sound of grief; Rex was already talking. They couldn’t waste any time, and his mind was already spinning, making and discarding plans and strategies at light speed as his mouth moved robotically.
“We can’t let you out,” he said.
Krell shook Dogma at Rex; he flopped back and forth, unresisting, a low moan of pain breaking from his lips as a shard of plastoid shoved its way deeper into his body.
“Then the traitor will die,” Krell said viciously, “And his death will be on your hands.”
“You sadistic fuck,” Fives hissed from Rex’s right shoulder, almost vibrating with fury.
Rex nodded almost absently as his mind raced for something, anything that would let Dogma live-
Of course.
“You’ll let him go?” he asked, moving towards the control panel.
“Of course,” promised Krell. “I’ll even leave him here for you.”
The Besalisk made as if to drop Dogma, and Rex lunged madly for the controls, this wouldn’t work if Dogma’s body touched the ground -
Rex slammed the electrocution switch just in time, while Dogma’s limp body was still in Krell’s grasp. A ray shield swept over the floor of the cell; Volts of electricity leaped up Krell’s form, blazing blue and crackling with smoke. Hopefully Dogma’s armor would hold, plastoid was meant to be non-conductive.
Krell screamed in pain, a sound none of them had ever heard, and collapsed in a pile of limbs as Rex hurriedly shut the shield off.
Dogma tumbled from his grip, landing hard in a clatter of armor. He didn’t get up. He didn’t even move. “Weapons up!” Rex shouted, and deactivated the ray shield. “Dogma’s too weak to move. Go!”
Fives and Jesse sprinted forward as the others trained their blasters on the unmoving lump that was Krell. They lifted Dogma’s feet and hands and carried him out; the instant they were clear, Rex reactivated the shield and rushed towards them.
Kix was already there, assessing Dogma’s injuries with Tup knelt by his side, stroking Dogma’s arm and saying his name over and over as tears ran down his face.
“Dogma? Dogma, please, c’mon-”
“Kix?” Rex asked. The medic shook his head without looking up.
“He needs immediate surgery and a bacta tank. I can do the surgery but we’ll need to get to the ship for bacta. Jesse, stretcher,” Kix snapped out, and Jesse sprinted out of the room.
“Do what you can. Anything you can,” Rex said. Kix nodded grimly.
“He’s lost a lot of blood. We don’t have a ton of reserves.”
“Take mine!” Tup cried. Fives’ hand landed on Tup’s shoulder, squeezing gently.
“Mine too,” he offered.
“We’ll need it. But - do we need the cuffs?” Kix said, with just an edge of censure.
Right. Dogma was still cuffed. Cuffed and defenseless, locked in a cell with a monster because Rex had put him there -
“No.” Rex said gruffly. He knelt and keyed them open, swallowing hard at the sight of bloody wrists where Dogma had strained at the cuffs, trying to get away. “No, I don’t think we’ll be needing those again.”