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It was late. Quinlan was teasing Fox, mostly just looking to not be alone after a particularly long and wearing undercover mission.
Fox got a message. He looked at it and sighed. "I have to go. See you later."
Quinlan frowned after him.
It was far too late for meetings, and yet, Fox didn't just put his bucket on, he was headed straight for the door that led him to the Senate building.
Something wasn't right. There had been a whole shift in Fox's body language.
He was scared, tense. Bracing himself for something.
What was going on?
Quinlan carefully crept after him. It was harder to go unnoticed in the long halls of the Senate building, but Fox seemed to have a single minded determination to his goal.
Quinlan only had to duck away when someone appeared. It was rare, though. Most of those people were the nocturnal ones who struggled with adjusting to the expectations of the Senate for daylight hours.
He was alarmed when Fox went for an elevator. That was going to be harder to follow.
He fixed his attention on Fox's Force signature and followed it up several floors.
To the Chancellor's office.
What did the Chancellor want with Fox? And so late?
It was so late, there wasn't even a receptionist.
...the guards were gone too. They weren't supposed to be gone, they were supposed to follow the Chancellor everywhere.
Quinlan let out a breath and approached the door, pressing up against it to listen in.
.
"There you are CC-1010," the Chancellor greeted him.
Fox stood stiffly at attention. He knew what the Chancellor expected of him after so many years of war.
"Now, anything to report?"
"No, sir."
"What about your Jedi friend?"
"He is very private, he talks a lot but nothing of substance." Technically not really true, but anyone who met Quinlan but didn’t know him would believe it.
"Nothing about his investigations?"
"Only the usual complaints about dead ends and loneliness." Fox hated this part. The Chancellor could tell if he was lying. He had to be truthful while holding some things back, or he would end up totally betraying Quinlan, the one person who cared enough about them to ignore all the barriers the Chancellor had put into place to isolate them.
"See if you cannot get more information from him. If not, I will find a way to keep him from visiting in the future, do you understand, CC-1010?"
"Yes, sir." Fox would have to start making notes on what he could say that wouldn’t make things harder for Quinlan.
"Good. Now, how is the Guard?"
Fox felt relieved but did not show it as he fell into the usual reporting patterns. Give the Chancellor what he wanted to hear, don't erase all the bad, but don't go for the ones that would get anyone seriously in trouble.
He finished the report.
The Chancellor nodded, walking over to the window and looking out over Coruscant. He didn’t bother looking at Fox as he gave his orders.
"Good. Now, for the next month, you will find a way to keep the riots from getting too close to the Senate building- redirect them to the Jedi Temple if you must. If I am not satisfied with the results, I will make things harder for you."
"Yes, sir." Fox dreaded making the Jedi the targets. They didn’t deserve it.
"Now, Sena- What was that?"
There had been a noise by the door.
That was unusual; the Chancellor always made sure no one was around for these meetings he didn't want anyone picking up on.
The Chancellor gestured at the door. "If there is someone there, I want to see who it is and plan accordingly."
Fox was already almost to the door by the time he finished talking. He pulled open the door.
His heart stopped.
Quinlan was already backing up, with a conflicted expression on his face. A question of if he could trust Fox.
Fox didn't think he could get away with letting Quinlan go.
He grabbed Quinlan's wrist and yanked him in the room, closing the door and locking it as Quinlan stumbled and caught himself on the furniture.
"Master Vos, it's a bit late to be eavesdropping."
Quinlan raised an eyebrow at him. "I got curious."
"It's none of your concern."
"Sounds like you're using the lack of people to conduct clandestine meetings to orchestrate things and still appear the good guy."
"I should have known. You are far too good at your job for how idiotic you act."
Quinlan smirked. "That's the point. So, I've been locked in. What are you going to do about me overhearing all that?"
The Chancellor sat down at his desk. "Take a seat, Master Vos."
Quinlan sat down and relaxed, waiting.
Fox wondered what was going through his head. He was so calm for the danger he was in.
The Chancellor studied Quinlan then sighed. "I suppose I cannot convince you that it is in your best interests to keep what you heard and figured out secret?"
"No. I am a Jedi, we serve the galaxy. Not the Senate, and not you. You are talking about manipulating things behind the scenes. I cannot forget that."
"Of course not..." The Chancellor rubbed his chin thoughtfully, eyeing Quinlan. "Why have you not tried to leave? You are a Jedi and you could easily leave."
Quinlan snorted. "Any way I can get out of this has me looking violent and you can spin in your favor. And besides... Call me curious. I want to see what depths you stoop to. Are you the typical power hungry politician? Is there something more sinister? What will you do now that I know more than you want me to?"
"And this is why you have been giving me trouble, overturning far more of my plans than you can imagine."
Quinlan smirked. "Glad I can protect the people just by doing my job. That's the goal."
"That's the goal, hmm... I need you keep your mouth shut, and if I want you to stop interfering, I need to ensure you cannot do your job. I could send people after you no matter where you are or what undercover identity you hold."
"You could. Or you could just kill me now."
Fox admired how calm and almost mocking Quinlan remained throughout. Fox didn't think he could ever handle this situation so well.
"I could just kill you. The problem is, you were last seen with Fox, and if you go missing, and turn up dead, that implicates him. Which means everyone will be scrutinizing him, and might clue into some of what I have been doing."
"True. You're not going to buy my silence."
"Not even if I come up with a good threat?"
"There is very little that will convince me."
"Hmm. I see. Then I shall have to resort to methods I prefer not to use in this office. But it will get me your silence. On everything."
Quinlan raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Really? How will you achieve that?"
"You shall see. CC-1010, take care of Master Vos. I believe the midnight special number 5 will do the trick."
Fox's heart sunk, past his stomach and down to his toes.
"Yes, sir."
There was something off about the Chancellor. Fox preferred not to think about it. He didn't know what the Chancellor was hiding and he didn't want to know. He knew that the Chancellor would come down harder on him if Fox knew what was going on.
The Chancellor disappeared.
Quinlan watched him go then turned to Fox. "So..."
Fox swallowed. He didn't have much of a choice.
The Chancellor had isolated the Guard enough. Had allowed them to be hurt enough.
If he disobeyed, he would make things worse. Deny supplies for a while.
Make sure they suffered because Fox was disobedient.
"You shouldn't have followed me," Fox said quietly. He took one more moment to brace himself for what he had to do.
The Chancellor had a bunch of different types of what he called punishments, but were really torture, that he liked to have Fox do. One of the first things Fox had learned was all the names.
Because the Chancellor preferred not to have to spell out what was going to happen.
Quinlan stood. "I was worried about you! It's too late to get a message that sends you into the Senate building."
Fox didn't respond. He wouldn’t be able to explain without spilling something. He was already fighting tears, grateful for his bucket hiding hsi face.
He grabbed Quinlan's hands and cuffed them, then he dragged Quinlan over to the spot where apparently it was easiest to get the bloodstains out and clean up the evidence.
Fox was forever grateful that was one part of the Chancellor's scheming he was not a part of.
He had done the midnight special number 5 multiple times. He knew exactly how it was supposed to go.
But he still was reluctant to carry it out on Quinlan.
Quinlan, who was looking confused and hurt.
Fox reached under the table next to the spot and pulled out the chain that would keep Quinlan there.
Now the look on Quinlan's face shifted to betrayal.
Fox pulled out the box of 'punishment tools' and dragged it over.
"What are you doing, Fox? Are you really on his side in all of this? Hurting anyone he asks? Killing them? I thought I knew you better than that."
Fox didn't bother responding. He didn't want to give away his true feelings. He didn't want the Chancellor to know he was anything other than an obedient droid that cared too much about his troopers.
He pulled out a blindfold and covered Quinlan's eyes.
Quinlan wasn't struggling yet.
Fox closed his eyes. Quinlan still trusted him.
He shouldn't.
Fox set up the tools. Only once he had everything in order, including some metal heating over a fire, did he get started.
He picked up a knife. He stared at it then told himself to picture any one of the Chancellor's previous victims. Of his previous victims.
Anyone but Quinlan.
He had been taking quite a bit of time. He had to be mostly done before the Chancellor came back.
He stabbed Quinlan's shoulder and twisted the knife.
Quinlan gasped, then his face went from confusion and betrayal to blank as he tugged on the chain, clearly thinking about escaping.
Fox let go of the knife and turned Quinlan to push him to the ground on his stomach, using his knee to pin him in place, heedless of how it drove the knife deeper into Quinlan's shoulder.
He tore open Quinlan's shirt and started the torture.
He followed each step without pause or hesitation, letting the familiar process carry him through.
Until when he started using the metal to add burns to the injuries already in place... when Quinlan started making sounds of pain. Whimpering.
That reminded Fox of just who he was hurting.
But he had to keep going.
The Chancellor returned.
Fox picked up hot metal in the shape of a heart and dropped it on Quinlan's back.
Quinlan let out a loud noise that was almost a shriek.
Fox closed his eyes tightly and stepped back.
"Good, good. Pain has lowered his defenses. It is time for you to leave, CC-1010. Do not forget my orders."
"Yes, sir." Fox stood and walked to the door, closing it behind him.
He hesitated, then didn't leave. He had to know what the Chancellor was doing.
He had to know how the Chancellor intended to be sure Quinlan wouldn't tell anyone.
And maybe, he would just be the one to tell everyone for Quinlan.
Fox let out a breath. He would have to be absolutely certain that he wasn't going to get hurt for going against the Chancellor like this.
"What are you going to do to get me to shut up?" Quinlan asked, voice a bit strained from the pain of the torture Fox put him through.
"Just an old Sith ritual."
"What?"
...oh no. Fox's stomach dropped again.
The Chancellor was the Sith.
The whole galaxy was doomed if no one did anything.
"Yes, I am Lord Sidious. You will not be able to tell anyone. It will be locked in your mind, unable to be expressed."
"No!"
From the sounds, Quinlan must have been trying to fight or escape.
The Chancellor only laughed maniacally. "When I'm done, you won't be able even think about telling another person about tonight. It will all be stuck in your head, with no way out."
There was a pause.
Quinlan started screaming.
Fox winced.
The screams disappeared.
"Now, I suggest you take care of those injuries and go to bed. Can't let anyone know anything is wrong- that's against the silence curse as well."
Why wasn't Quinlan saying anything?
Fox then mentally cursed and jumped away to make sure he wasn't caught.
He quickly left completely, but even though he tried to sleep, he couldn't.
He couldn't stop thinking about how he had hurt Quinlan. How he had betrayed Quinlan.
The Jedi he thought he might be falling in love with... and he had betrayed him.
On top of that, the Sith turned out to be the Chancellor.
That wasn't something Fox should just sit on. He had to let people know. And the sooner the better.
Not just for everyone's sake, who knew what the Sith had planned when he was orchestrating both sides of the war, but because Fox knew it would be killing Quinlan not to say anything.
Fox gave up on sleep and sat up, putting his head in his hands. He had to do something.
It would put everyone in the Guard at risk if the Chancellor found out.
But the Sith had to be exposed or things would get worse for everyone in the galaxy.
Fox hesitated, then sent a single message to Quinlan.
Which Jedi do you trust the most? Any Senators you trust?
He didn't expect an answer. He would understand if Quinlan wanted nothing to do with him.
Fox hated feeling like he had no choice. He hated feeling like all he could do was obey.
That was one of the things he loved about Quinlan. Quinlan was always giving him choices, but narrowing them down if Fox was overwhelmed. Fox would still end up with a choice between two, not a decision made for him. Quinlan liked it when he pushed back, when he challenged Quinlan, especially when it wasn't for no reason, when he had a good reason.
Fox would be lucky if Quinlan ever spoke to him again.
In the meantime, Fox had to plan his approach and start figuring out the risks and how to mitigate them.
He couldn't sit on this information for long. He was giving himself a week before he told someone.
At least he had plenty of evidence to show that the Chancellor at least was abusive. If nothing else, that was an angle that could be pursued.
It was just an hour later that Fox got an answer.
I trust the Council, but choosing one or two Jedi I trust most? Obi-Wan and Kit. Tholme, Mace, and Plo are right below them. Senator wise... not really any I trust but I know Obi trusts Senator Organa of Alderaan.
Thank you.
Fox swallowed. Okay. He had to make arrangements. He could handle two Jedi. He could handle a Senator.
He liked Senator Organa.
Bail had actually propositioned him once, but Fox wasn't really into sex, or romance, which was why he wasn't sure if he was falling in love with Quinlan or if it was just a different sort of feeling than the love he had for his brothers.
Fox liked to think that he was close to Bail, that they were as close to friends as a clone like him could be.
Fox trusted Quinlan's judgment. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Kit Fisto, plus the senator that Kenobi trusted the most.
He could handle it.
He just needed to figure out how to set up the meeting in a way that wouldn't arouse suspicion. He couldn't risk anyone catching onto what he was doing.
If this fell apart, so many could die. Fox was not taking that risk.
.
Almost a week after he had tortured Quinlan, Fox was ready for the meeting with Bail, Kit, and Obi-Wan.
It was on the surface a meeting with Bail, with Kit and Obi-Wan 'crashing' the meeting to check with him on something, and then sticking around since they were on the Council.
Unofficially, they all knew that Fox had something top secret to tell them, and that he didn't want them to tell anyone else about the meeting.
He had thought long and hard about what he was going to say, and he thought he had a decent approach.
It wasn't the best approach, but it wasn't like Fox had ever been socialized normally, and even in the terms of how the clones were raised, he wasn't normal.
It was the best way he knew to get the point across.
When he arrived, he found that Bail had made dinner, and the table was set for two... with plenty of food for two more.
He didn't push Fox to talk as they ate.
Thankfully, just ten minutes later, the two Jedi arrived.
Fox took a deep breath and handed the three of them the typed report on the situation.
It was divided into a few sections. The Guard and how they were treated. Fox's personal dealings with the Chancellor. The night he tortured Quinlan. And a few other minor things he decided he might as well throw in since he was already putting himself at risk. He might as well share everything while he could.
Thinking about talking about it made him sick after so long of keeping it quiet with threats.
That was why he went with writing it out like a report. He could fool himself into thinking he's just documenting everything the whole time, and now there it all was for the Jedi and senator to read.
Fox busied himself with his food, though his stomach rolled with anxiety. He wasn't just exposing what he was dealing with.
He was disclosing his own, horrible part in it.
He had given up on eating by the time they finished reading.
Bail immediately got some more wine and sat down rubbing his forehead.
Obi-Wan peered at Fox.
Fox shifted anxiously, barely able to meet his eyes.
"So that is why Quinlan has not been talking this week," Obi-Wan mused. "It has seemed like he is unable to talk rather than not wanting to."
Fox winced and looked down.
"The Chancellor is the Sith. That is going to be hard to prove. Especially without Quinlan's help." Kit frowned as he set down the report. "But there is enough here to open an investigation into the Chancellor's actions, and that will follow."
"I'll support the investigation. I had wondered if he truly supported Padme's causes, but I hadn't considered he would be so far the opposite direction. He has too many supporters to make taking him down easy." Bail sighed, sipping his wine. "But we will not leave this meeting without a plan. I will not leave that madman in charge of the Republic any longer than necessary."
Fox relaxed as the discussion went on. They were not saying anything about his involvement, just discussing the best course of action.
Fox was certain that he would have to face the consequences of his actions eventually.
He just wanted to make sure that his troopers wouldn't suffer first.
He was asked questions that he answered to the best of his ability.
Eventually, a plan was settled on that should get the Chancellor revealed in less than a month.
Fox just had to last that amount of time without letting on that he had decided to risk everything, and then things would fall into place.
.
Less than a week after the meeting, some clone stumbled upon the existence of chips, and General Kenobi convinced General Ti to send the clone to the Temple, not to the Chancellor.
That gave them a huge advantage, and they were able to attempt to arrest the Chancellor sooner than expected.
Fox was surprised when his role in the Chancellor's misdeeds never was publicized. Sure, they said someone was blackmailed into doing it, but they never said just who it was.
The Chancellor was dead, so he couldn't tell anyone anyway.
Fox stuck around the Coruscant Guard after, mostly to make sure that the promised changes stuck.
But then…
Everything was fixed.
The Coruscant Guard was in a good position.
They didn't need Fox to protect them anymore.
Fox had to get out. He could not keep doing the job that gave him nightmares. Not when they no longer needed him.
Only... it sent him adrift.
Without a routine, without something to keep him going, Fox found that life didn't feel worth living.
Fox didn't deserve to live a normal life. He had hurt so many people.
He had killed so many people.
Because he was an obedient clone.
Without the pressure of the situation around him, Fox wished he could have seen another way out. Wished he could have felt like he had a choice.
But he made the choice. He could have chosen to die rather than hurt any others.
Fox didn't deserve to live after hurting Quinlan, a bright cheerful Jedi who never let anything get him down.
Even covered in bandages from an undercover mission gone wrong, he was smiling and joking around, even if he was a little clingier and quieter than normal.
Now? Fox saw him from time to time.
Quinlan was quiet. He didn't speak. He just wandered around like he was lost.
The death of the Sith had actually loosened the effects of any techniques he had used on his victim and made it possible to remove them, from what Fox had heard in the rumor mill.
And Quinlan still wasn't talking.
Fox did that to him. Fox stood by and let that happen.
One year to the day of that terrible day he tortured Quinlan and let him suffer, he found himself on the roof of the apartment building he lived in. He only had it because clones had gotten backpay, otherwise he wasn’t sure where he would live. He didn’t really care.
He had withdrawn from everyone and everything. He couldn't look at his brothers. He wasn't like them. He had hurt and killed and didn't care until it was Quinlan... and even though he cared... he didn't stop. He didn't protest. He did nothing but torture Quinlan and then walk away.
Fox just didn't feel he deserved anything, and so, without the backpay, he wouldn't have had an apartment because he didn't deserve money, or a job.
It wasn't even him that set it up. Thorn had done it for him and moved him in.
Fox still wasn't sure how Thorn had done it.
He pulled out his comm. One year. One year since he hurt Quinlan.
He tapped Quinlan's message and checked through the old messages. Quinlan hadn't messaged him once since giving him the names of who to trust.
Fox had eventually gotten up the courage to apologize, surprised he still wasn't blocked. But that was the last message. From months previous
Fox sighed. He hesitated and started tapping out a message.
I'm sure you don't want to hear from me again. I promise this is the last message, I won't bother you anymore.
It's been a year. I cannot stop thinking about what I did to you. Not a day passes without remembering your face, your cries... your screams after he sent me out.
I caused that. And nothing I can say will ever make up for what I did. I am so sorry. It is my greatest regret.
I love you. Goodbye.
Fox wasn't entirely happy with it, but he didn't want to go on a whole self pity rant. He had hurt Quinlan. He didn't deserve anything.
He hit send and tossed his comm to the side as he sat down on the edge of the roof.
Coruscant was beautiful at night.
Busy, but beautiful.
Fox stared out at the moving speeders, watching the lights dart around.
He was ready to be done with life.
And that wasn't a drunken thought. He refused to make decisions while drunk. He hadn’t been drinking for months anyway.
It was a long time coming.
He just wanted to enjoy the night one last time before he let go.
He lost track of time as he watched.
But eventually he let out a sigh.
It was time. He didn't want to put it off any longer. Now that the moment was upon him, he was relieved.
He pushed off the edge, just as the door opened behind him.
"FOX!" Quinlan yelled.
Why would Quinlan be there?
Fox stopped falling. He flailed and looked up as he started rising back to the roof.
There was Quinlan, hands outstretched, concentrating, tears rolling down his face.
Fox had heard Quinlan hadn't said a word for the last year.
But Quinlan said his name. Had yelled his name.
Fox flopped onto the roof when Quinlan stopped floating him.
He had two seconds to wonder about this turn of events before Quinlan was hugging him and crying.
...maybe things would turn out okay after all.