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The shot went wide.
Fox cheered inside as 1010’s shot went wide.
Palpatine was going to kill him, but Rex’ika wouldn’t.
After all his ARC was on the floor unconscious but alive, blaster wound in his shoulder.
Alive.
Palpatine had said dead, 1010’s Orders were dead, but 1010’s Orders were also to protect Skywalker and preserve the secret and with the ARC already on the floor. 1010 had to stand down, and Skywalker and Rex’ika were taking the ARC and the secrets he held.
1010 had failed.
Fox's vod’ike were alive though.
Fox forced 1010’s eyes to linger on Rex’ika, as he worked on his ARC, as he freed Skywalker, as his own body just stood there.
He'd never see Rex’ika again, this would be the last time.
He'd never see anyone he loved again.
So he was going to memorise his vod’ika’s face and his armour and the sound of his voice, so his last memories could be something other than Palpatine, something other than pain and punishment.
He wanted it to be his baby brother.
1010 marched back to Palpatine and the punishment that awaited him.
And that was fine, that was how it was going to go.
Rex’ika... Fox could pray he’d be fine. He had Skywalker, and Skywalker was protective. If he protected Rex like his wife, Palpatine wouldn’t be able to touch... no, Palpatine would get to him, a mission would go wrong, but they had time. He'd hate it, but Palpatine would have to wait for the right moment.
Skywalker bought him time.
Skywalker, he was an ass and Fox hated him, but if Rex lived...if he’d bought Rex and his ARC time to get the truth out so Palpatine could be stopped...
Fox might not make it, but his vode would be ok.
Rex’ika was smart, he was fearless, he’d be able to stop Palpatine, get that info to the Jedi and stop Palpatine, and from the afterlife Fox could watch and be proud as his vode were free and safe.
“Fox,” Rex had said, grabbing his arm before he could leave, “we need to talk later, don’t freeze me out again. Please, vod, I've mi... I just want to talk.”
1010 hadn’t responded, and Fox could almost picture the way Rex’s face would have fallen as he walked away, but as the Chancellor’s door appeared in his view he banished that thought, thanked the manda he hadn’t seen Rex’s face for real, and he let himself think, just for a second as his body paused, of his batch, of their smiles and their love, before he pushed them from his mind.
And 1010 pushed open the doors.
.
Rex needed Fives to open his damn eyes and give him the answers.
With the drugs the Jedi had found out of his system, he could give Rex the answers that would explain everything that had been so crazy since Tup...
He needed to know what this was, so it could make sense, so they could find a way forwards.
He leant back on his chair.
Fox had shot Fives, only in the shoulder but he shot him.
Part of Rex wasn’t even sure it was Fox, there was something off about his stance and how his armour fit and that he hadn’t even reacted to Rex or the fight.
He'd been watching Rex, but then he’d pulled away and left without a word. If Fives hadn’t been bleeding and in his and General Skywalkers custody, he’d have gone with his big brother instead.
He didn’t want Fox freezing him out anymore, didn’t want his big brother brushing him off and not responding anymore. Something had happened on Coruscant to change his big brother and frankly he didn’t think it was that Fox felt like he was better than the GAR, despite what some people said. Something on Coruscant had changed him and Rex had the feeling Fives knew what it was.
Fox never missed a shot; he’d been best in their class on Kamino.
If he’d wanted Fives dead, he'd be dead.
But his blaster hadn’t been on stun and he’d been ordered to chase Fives down and he responded to the chancellor who Fives had tried to kill and what was he missing?
What info was he missing?
Come on Fives, wake up.
Wake up and have the answers I need.
.
Fox dropped to the floor with a thump, the smell of lighting and burning flesh embedded in his nose, his blacks singed and smoking. The beating from the Red Guard had been hell, but it was nothing like the lightning.
He didn’t know what he’d done wrong, what 1010 had done wrong, but he had clearly failed.
His blaster had been fired.
Rex’s message had been open on his hud asking to talk later before he’d been ordered to remove it with his armour.
Palpatine was furious.
Furious with him.
“You will never see your ‘brothers’ again, clone, any of them, and I will take all the energy you can afford me. You are a useless failure, worth nothing except what I deem you to be worth, my battery.”
Fox could feel the way the words washed over him, the way they did over politicians.
He was worthless.
He was a failure.
He was nothing more than a battery.
That was what Palpatine was pressing into his mind, but he wasn’t exactly wrong.
Fox had failed to protect his vode, and as a clone he had no worth, and maybe it would be better for everyone if he vanished, ended up nothing but a battery.
But that wasn’t what his corries said to him.
Mind control was cheating. Kriff, push through it Fox.
He clawed himself to his knees and wished he knew what had happened. What had made him so furious.
“You were picked because you were a good shot, but you missed, and now everything could be ruined. You couldn’t even make one shot. Useless.”
The backhand sent him back to the floor and Palpatine stepped onto his barely healed broken hand, the bones screaming under his weight.
“I will not have centuries of work compromised by you, pet. I will find a way to recover this and you will suffer for the damage you have caused. I have worked too hard and scarified too much for a pathetic clone, a piece of flesh to be used, to ruin it. You will suffer every day until I am satisfied or dead.”
Palpatine would never be satisfied, not when pain fed him, and if his plans went as he hoped, he’d never be dead either.
Ruined plans...
Kriff Fox hoped whatever he’d done was worth it.
He felt the sting as Palpatine clawed his way back into his mind, and shuddered at the smile on the Sith’s face.
-“Don’t freeze me out again, please vod...”-
-He wanted his last thoughts to be his baby brother-
“I thought so. The defective clone, you care about him, you wanted to keep him safe, protect him.”
What did Rex’ika have to do with any of this?
What happened to Rex’ika, what did he stick his nose into, and why?
As much as Fox would have loved to keep his vode close, and while he knew Palpatine was messing with their comms and keeping them apart, Fox had found himself doing everything he could to keep them away from all of this, to keep them safe from him . When Palpatine had tortured him or had him beaten until he could barely stand, that was when his batches invites would make their way through, and he’d just never been able to gather the courage to meet with them in that state.
He knew what would happen if they found out, if they looked deeply, and he knew if they saw him like that they wouldn’t stop looking.
It would have been their death sentences.
He'd been trying to protect them.
He wanted to keep Rex’ika safe, was there anything he could do now.
Would begging work?
It had to.
“Sir, I made the mistake, it was me. I have failed, but... please...”
“You made the mistake, that is true, but it was him who stuck his nose where it didn’t belong. You can’t save him, all that work and you failed. If you’d made that shot, he’d be safe, but you missed and now he has to be taken care of, it’s your fault.”
Oh force what had happened?
What had Rex’ika mixed himself into?
“His last thoughts won’t be of you, you know, he doesn’t care. All those times you chose not to see him so he wouldn’t see the bruises I gave you and it was all for nothing. You failed, and because of you he’s going to die.”
“Please...”
“Oh, you don’t get a say.”
Palpatine drew a knife and the red guard stepped closer.
Oh.
The cut went deep, but didn’t hit the artery, and Fox loathed that he hesitated and waited for permission before slamming his hands over the cut, the blood pumping through his fingers anyway.
He squeezed hard, he had to stop the bleeding, and then he was being pulled forwards, dragged across the carpet and tossed and the door slammed.
Slammed then clicked.
Locked.
He was bleeding, he was bleeding badly.
He needed to...
Stop the bleeding he needed to stop it.
He had no medical anything, he couldn’t even use his blacks because he couldn’t take his hands off the wound, not when one of them was bruised and broken and couldn’t grab things or hold pressure.
He had to rely on Palpatine to save him.
Tears leaked down his cheeks.
Rex'ika...
.
Rex paced as Fives spoke.
Of chips and secret plots and Palpatine.
He had a chip in his head.
A chip designed to turn him into a weapon, a monster. Designed to force him against the Jedi and even his own brothers.
The Kaminoans had been working against the Republic the whole time.
He hadn’t hesitated to be put into the scanner, nor to have his chip removed. The little patch looked so insignificant given how awful it was.
The Kaminoans had created them to be controllable slaves.
Slaves for Palpatine.
Fox was with Palpatine, but they couldn’t rush in.
But Fox was with him.
Fox was with him right now and they knew the truth and Palpatine probably knew that.
Fox was in danger.
His big brother.
And they were wasting time.
He understood they needed to make sure Palpatine couldn’t use his plan on the clones before they arrested him or while they tried to, they had to stop him and plan for the worst, but he had Fox now.
“Captain Rex?”
“General Ti.”
“Everything’s ready, are you sure you’re able to come, you just had brain surgery.”
“He has my batchmate, sir, I have to be there.”
She nodded, her time on Kamino likely affording her better understanding of what batch meant than any other Jedi.
He fought the urge to sprint the whole way to the dropship, he understood that rushing into things was dangerous, that the calm approach was the safest...
Fox had been with a Sith for almost three years.
They barely spoke anymore, even when they were on the same planet one or both of them were busy or Fox didn’t take his bucket off...
Fox shot Fives, Fox didn’t say a word to him and just walked away, Fox said no to seeing him even the few times he even responded.
Fox had been alone with a Sith.
Fox was alone with a Sith right now.
He was in danger right now.
He clung to the handle so tightly he was sure his knuckles would crack, finger tapping against his blaster restlessly.
Did he have enough bacta, painkillers, bandages?
Would Fox still be alive for him to use them?
For a second, he was faced with the image of Fox’s broken body, eyes empty of the life they’d always had, the bright love he’d never been able to hide no matter how gruff he pretended to be.
Rex didn’t know what he’d do if he never got to see that look in his eyes again.
Their pace was faster through the Senate halls, the Jedi sending the Guard away as they passed and Rex thanked kriff they’d be safe now, hated himself for never knowing before how much danger they were in.
The doors burst open and they were faced with him, the liar, the monster, the Chancellor.
Rex wasn't focused on the Sith, he was the Jedi’s foe. Rex was focused on the red leading from the desk to the side room.
Fox's armour piled off to the side and a trail of blood and it was everything to keep his hands from shaking.
He ran for the door, almost slamming into it, and wrenched the door open.
Fox!
He dropped to his big brother's side and this time his hands were shaking.
Fox’s hands were on his wound, but he wasn’t holding down.
Rex slammed his hands over it, the blood oozing but not flooding out.
He looked up from the wound and was met with his ori’vod’s eyes. Fox was awake, he was still awake and alive and that meant Rex had a chance.
For a split second he just traced the black eye and split lip before reality snapped back.
He would not let Fox bleed out!
“Re’s?”
“Lek, I'm here, Fox you need to put pressure on this.”
“You’re here...”
“Yes, yes Fox, I'm here, you need to put pressure on the wound so I can get my med kit out.”
He pressed his hands on top of Fox’s, holding them down, but as soon as he lifted them Fox’s hands went limp again. He needed to stop the bleeding he needed to keep the bleeding at a minimum, Fox couldn’t afford to lose much more.
“Was just trying to keep you safe.”
“I know, I know but now you need to put your hands there and apply pressure, Fox, please.”
He was starting to get an awful idea of what that might mean, but he couldn’t focus on that now. He kept one hand over Fox’s and ripped his bucket off tossing it aside, locking eyes with Fox and letting his big brother focus on him, trying not to let his stomach sink at how long it took.
“Fox, you have to hold your hands there.”
This time, to his utter joy, Fox’s hands stayed in place as he let go, ripping out the biogel and bacta bandages to stem the bleeding and keep him alive, keep his big brother alive he couldn’t fail he couldn’t lose Fox now. His big brother who had been with this Sith so long, who had so many scars and so many bruises and he’d been alone with a Sith .
Fox’s hand reached up and cupped his face with a bloody hand and kriff were his fingers broken?
“I was just trying to keep you safe, keep you all away from him...”
Oh kriff, he had been. He’d cut them out to keep them safe, oh vod...
“I know Fox, I know, but it’s going to be ok. It's going to be ok.”
He wasn’t even sure what was happening behind him. He couldn’t hear a fight anymore, no lightsaber sounds, just silence.
He'd been so focused on Fox.
Fox's hand was sticky on his skin, but the gash wasn’t bleeding anymore, so that was... something.
“Fox, you need to drink this, you’ve lost a lot of blood, you need to get some energy back, please.”
Fox nodded and let Rex empty the pouch into his mouth, eyes fluttering a little, hand slipping off Rex’s face. He was trying very hard not to run his eyes over the lines on Fox’s face, the age and scars and bruises and he was so thin.
Rex dropped his forehead against his big brother’s and clenched his hand. Fox didn’t clench back but he was alive, he was alive.
He was going to be ok.
“Captain?”
“General.”
He whipped his head around to find General Ti, and medics thank kriff.
“Palpatine is dead, we have medics standing by...”
“He’s lost a lot of blood, and he’s been beaten.”
“We’ll take it from here, Captain, we’ve got him.”
Rex let them pull him back, and Fox’s limp hand slipped from his grasp as they loaded him onto a stretcher and carried him out of the room.
There was a bloody hand smear on his cheek, there was a bloody hand print on his bucket, there was blood on the floor and on his knees and so much of it...
But Fox was alive.
.
Fox was comfortable.
Comfortable sheets, comfortable ben beneath him, heat at his side.
He stiffened.
He wasn’t alone... and this bed was comfortable...
“Sleep, vod, I've got you.”
Vod... vod meant safe.
He wasn’t sure who had him, how he’d ended up back in base, he felt safe though.
These were vods arms, this was a vods voice, he was safe.
He slipped back under.
The next time he woke he noticed what he hadn’t the first, the beeping.
The same warmth against his back, the hand clenched around his.
“Fox?”
“Are you with us vod?”
“Oh Fox’ika.”
He cracked his eyes open.
His batch...
What...
Why did they all have a weird patch on their temples, what had happened, where was he, how did he get here?
“Fox’ika, breathe.”
Rex?
“It’s ok, Palpatine’s dead, it’s ok, it’s over. You're safe now. He can't hurt you anymore. We're here, we’ve got you, it’s ok.”
Oh...
Fox sobbed.
His brothers’ arms closed around him.