Chapter Text
19BBY
Officially, I'm dead. Any document you find on my death will tell you I "lost it" and Commander Fox took me out to save lives.
Unofficially, we planned for this. When I found out about the Chancellor, I confronted Fox. I didn't think he'd believe me, but he did. We both knew the only way I was getting out of this fiasco alive was if everyone else in the galaxy believed me to be dead. So that's what we did. As of this moment, a total of 6 people know I'm still alive. Unfortunately, that number probably isn't going to change-
"Fives! Stop talking to yourself and get up here!"
Fives sighed, turned off the holo recorder and stuffed it in one of his belt pouches.
"Fives!"
"I'm coming! I'm not deaf!" Fives stood up from the consol he had been seated at, moving up towards the cockpit. The moment he stepped in, a ration was pelted at him, hitting him square in the face. "Gah-! Cross!"
The sniper sent him an amused smirk, his arms crossed innocuously over his chest. He didn't say a word as Fives bent down to pick up the ration bar, unwrapping it and taking a bite. Fives kept their eyes stubbornly locked the whole time, glaring blunt daggers that they both knew meant nothing more than annoyance.
Across the cockpit, Hunter cleared his throat loudly, calling everyone's attention. "Fives, Crosshair, enough. We've got another mission and it's gonna be complicated."
Fives took another bite of the ration bar as Crosshair shrugged. "When is it not?"
Hunter cut him a look of slight annoyance. "It's complicated because we are going to be working beside the 501st." The Sergeant turned his gaze back to the ARC. "Specifically under General Skywalker and Captain Rex."
Fives ran his hand down his face. "Yeah, that makes things complicated…" he looked back up at Hunter, "Rex will recognize me in an instant. As will half the 501st."
Hunter nodded in agreement. "Which is why I'm a bit confused as to why Commander Cody specifically asked for us on this mission."
The ARC gawked at Hunter, bewildered. "Cody?! Why the hell would he put us with the 501st when he knows I'm with you lot?!" Fives pinched the bridge of his nose, squeezing his eyes shut. "He's specifically been keeping us away from anyone that would recognize me for months!"
Hunter crossed his arms, his shoulders falling in a light shrug. "You might have to stay in your bucket the whole mission. The Commander said he'd explain more when we land on Anaxes."
Fives looked past Hunter to watch the swirling lights of hyperspace. "Cody's gotta have a reason, right?" He met Hunter's gaze. "A really good reason. He knows how important it is to keep me hidden. He wouldn't jeopardize the entire war just for some mission."
Tech spun the pilot's chair around to look Fives in the eye. "You are correct. You remaining 'dead' is imperative to us finding a way to shut down the behavioral modification chips in the rest of the GAR."
Fives motioned to Tech but kept his gaze on Hunter. "Which is why I shouldn't be going anywhere near the 501st. What could possibly be important enough to risk this?!"
Hunter grabbed a datapad off the copilot's seat, handing it to the ARC. "All we know is it's a data retrieval mission in the middle of Separatist controlled space."
Skimming the information on the datapad, Fives glanced back up at Hunter. "We've run this kind of mission several times solo. Why do we suddenly need jedi backup?"
Hunter shrugged, unable to find an answer for the ARC. Fives handed the datapad back before turning to leave, finding himself unceremoniously crashing into the seat of the tail gun moments later. Fives let his head rest against the back of the chair, his eyes falling closed as he sucked in a lungful of the recycled air in the small ship. The soothing hum of the engine had the ARC slipping in and out of consciousness, letting the time fly by as the swirling blue of hyperspace lulled him further into a dreamless sleep.
---
Something grabbed Fives' shoulder. Jarring awake with a start, Fives whipped his head around in search of a threat, only to be met with a pair of mismatched eyes and a familiarly warm smile. The tension melted from Fives' shoulders like ice.
"Sarge told me to wake ya and letchu know we are about to land," he explained before promptly turning and walking back towards the front of the ship. Fives let his head fall back against the headrest, taking a shaky breath before getting down from the gunner's nest to follow Wrecker. Through the cockpit view port, Fives watched as Tech piloted the Marauder down towards the planet, landing strip gradually coming into view. He could tell by their speed that Tech was about to do one of his 'fancy' landings as Fives had taken to calling it.
Hunter patted Fives' shoulder to get his attention. "Crosshair's agreed to leave his bucket on for the duration of the mission to keep some of the heat off you, but it's probably best you don't talk too much."
Fives glanced over at the sniper where he was leaning against the wall. Crosshair nodded to him, a small smile crooking his lips. He smiled back as Crosshair spat out the toothpick between his teeth, pulling his bucket over his head. He turned back to Hunter, giving him a nod before walking back to his bunk to grab his own helmet. He felt the ship lurch and turn quickly, causing him to crash into his bunk with a string of curses. Fives would be shocked if there wasn’t at least one decapitated trooper when they touched down. The landing gear touched down with a rumble Fives could feel in his chest, and only when he felt the ship’s weight settle did he know it was safe to stand up without risk of getting knocked back on his shebs. Fives promptly snatched up his blasters and shoved them into their holsters before rushing to the cockpit. The rest of the batch had donned their helmets, doing a final double-check of their gear to make sure everything was as it should be. Hunter strode up to throw open the ramp and the rest of the batch filed out after him.
"The cavalry has arrived!" Wrecker boomed.
Fives had to fight to keep his breathing steady when he noticed the three other troopers standing with Cody. The last time he’d seen Rex was when he’d watched the light leave his eyes and felt his body run cold in his arms. Now, he was standing before his Captain, alive and well and unable to say a word to ease the grief he knew he had caused. Beside Rex stood Jesse and Kix, both wearing looks of confusion as they surveyed the batch. Jesse now probably wore ARC armor, but he still had the republic cog painted brightly on the front of his helmet. Fives recalled the day he had returned with that same cog tattooed on his head. Fives had given him shit for it for weeks and Kix had been no different. Kix had grown his hair out to a regulation cut which surprised Fives. He always had those designs shaved into his head and Fives had helped him re-shave it on several occasions. His tattoo peeked out from under his hairline, hiding the rest of the phrase behind his tight curls.
As they approached the group, Hunter removed his helmet, holding it firmly against his side and extending his other arm out to Cody. Meeting him halfway, Cody grasped Hunter’s hand in a firm, professional shake.Tech followed suit, easing his helmet off and surveying the three 501st troopers before them.
"Sergeant. Good to see you again," Cody said, letting his hand fall back to his side.
Hunter offered a smile, nodding. "You too, sir."
Cody turned to the other three troopers, motioning to the Sergeant. "This is Hunter."
Rex nodded, looking Hunter over. Jesse and Kix were still visibly confused. Fives tamped down on the snicker that threatened to spill past his lips. He knew the batch didn't look like any clones they had seen before. Wrecker was an absolute mountain of a man and even though both Tech and Crosshair looked more like the average clone than Wrecker, still stood four inches taller than average.
"Sorry we’re late, Commander," Hunter apologized "We had just finished putting down an insurrection on Yalbec Prime when your comm came in. Had a few unforeseen… complications."
Wrecker’s booming laughter echoed across the landing platform, causing other troopers walking past to stare at the group. "Ever fought a male Yalbec?" he challenged, looking between the three regs.
Jesse shrugged uncomfortably. "Um… No. Can’t say that I have."
Wrecker cackled , swiftly pulling out his large vibroknife. "You’re lucky! Only way to kill ‘em is with one of these!"
Hunter chuckled, shaking his head. "That’s right. Wrecker here cut off the queen’s stinger while she was still alive."
Wrecker slid the knife back in its sheath, the confident, borderline cocky smile never leaving his face.
Hunter looked back at Wrecker with a challenging glint in his eyes . "That's why all those Yalbec males tried to eat us."
"Ah, technically,” Tech cut in swiftly, “they were trying to mate with us. And, for your information, the stinger of a Yalbec Queen is a delicacy on some planets."
Cody smiled and motioned to Tech. "They call him Tech." he explained shortly.
Hunter nodded, turning to the regs. "Yeah, he can fill your head with useless info for hours." He motioned to the sniper behind him. "Crosshair, on the other hand, is not much of a conversationalist, but when you have to hit a precise target from ten klicks, Crosshair’s your man." He turned his gaze back to Cody, his helmet shifting in his hands. "So, Commander, what kind of suicide mission do you have for us this time?"
Cody motioned to the parked gunship on the other side of the platform. "Let’s get going. We’ll brief you on the way."
The group followed Cody across the landing strip, loading into the LAAT. The batch stayed on one side as the 501st piled into the other. The ship took off quickly, the doors sliding closed once they were already in the air.
Jesse was watching the batch closely, his eyes falling on Crosshair who's helmet hid any expression from view. "What are you looking at?" he accused, glaring at the sniper.
Sniper shrugged with an amused huff that was barely heard over the engines. "We don't usually work with regs." Fives could hear the smirk that had wormed its way onto the sniper's face.
Jesse only glared harder. "Regs?!" he hissed , taking a menacing step towards the sniper.
Hunter quickly stepped between Crosshair and Jesse. "He’s talking about regular clones,” he clarified, calm and placating “But don’t take it personal."
Cody set his hand on Jesse's pauldron, the ARC looking back at the commander. "We’re all on the same team, so cut the attitude and listen up,” he instructed, stern and no-nonsense “Here’s the mission: Our target is this Cyber Center." Cody pulled out a holo projector, a map of the Cyber Center illuminating the ship in cool blue light. "It’s the brains of the entire Separatist campaign here on Anaxes."
"I could demolish that with one hand. Yeah!" Wrecker bragged, grinning wildly as he, pumped his fists in the air.
Though it was clear that Cody found Wrecker's excitement amusing, he cut him off. "This isn’t a demo job, Wrecker. It’s strictly a retrieval operation."
Fives watched as Wrecker deflated a bit with that news but the big guy was still clearly smiling. It was then Fives noticed Rex was staring at him. Specifically, his eyes seemed to be glued to his shoulder armor which Fives realized had the same Rishi eel painted that his old helmet did. Fives mentally facepalmed at his own stupidity. He had kept the design as a reminder of who he used to be, not thinking about the fact that it was his identifying mark within the 501st. Though it was evident Rex was staring at it, he never said a word.
Fives reached for one of the handles above his head as the LAAT shook, causing almost every clone to lose their footing.
"We're going down!" Wrecker yelled, his laughter barely heard.
Fives grabbed the handle with a death grip as the ship hit what he assumed was the canyon wall. The bone chilling scrape of durasteel against rock filled the small ship as it slid down the canyon wall. Fives was thrown as they finally hit the ground, landing on top Crosshair who was quick to start manhandling him off. A large hand grabbed his arm, pulling him from the wreckage, dropping him on his shebs on the side of the ship next to Jesse. Wrecker continued to help the rest out of the ship while Fives jumped down onto the sand, offering Jesse a hand which he ignored.
"We always get shot down when we travel with regs." He complained.
"Cody!" Kix yelled turning towards the others. "Help!" He turned back, looking down into the ship. "He's trapped! We have to do something!"
Rex stepped forward towards the ship. "I'll get him."
Hunter moved in front of the Captain, pushing him back. "Woahwoahwoah!" He said quickly. "Easy Captain." He looked over Rex's shoulder. "Wrecker! Get him out." He continued to push Rex back away from the ship, the Captain putting up a small fight but let himself be moved.
"Get back!" Wrecker ordered, rolling his shoulders with a grin.
Kix stared at Wrecker in disbelief. "This is ridiculous! He's going to need help to get Cody out of there!"
Beside him, Crosshair chuckled, motioning to Wrecker with his head. "He's gonna get the gunship out of there, not Cody."
Wrecker slid his helmet on, grabbing the side of the gunship. Kix watched in awe as Wrecker lifted the ship, pushing over and away from the Commander underneath. He grabbed Cody, slinging him over his shoulder and walking back towards the group. "Boom." As if on cue, the gunship exploded in a rain of fire and metal causing Kix to flinch next to him.
Kix ran forward as Wrecker placed Cody on the ground, the Commander groaning in pain. "He has internal damage. I can cut the pain, but he needs help fast."
"We all need help."
Fives looked to Crosshair who was seemingly looking over his shoulder. He turned, spotting battalions of battle droids steadily marching towards them. "Oh fun." Fives said with a shrug.
"That blast gave away our position." Crosshair pointed out, turning towards his Sergeant.
Hunter chuckled, pointing to the obliterated gunship. "I thought getting shot down gave away our position."
"Everyone, find cover. We’ll hold this position and let them come to us." Rex ordered, pointing towards the gunship.
Hunter shook his head. "I don’t think so, Captain. That’s not our style. We prefer going to them." Turned back to the batch. "Bad Batch, Plan 82: Shockwave!" He yelled, pulling his helmet over his head. "Let’s get to work."