Chapter Text
The explosion blinds Boss for a few seconds. The Separatist ship goes down, and it looks beautiful in its demise. After so long, after a few failed tries, they did it. Boss allows himself for a flicker of hope when he watches the falling cruiser. We’re getting out of here…off to Kamino, or next assignment…but together. His comms blink to life with a crack.
"Nothing like a little precision teamwork, Deltas." Sev comments, his voice sounds as usual, making it impossible to guess if he’s joking or serious.
"And that was nothing like a little precision teamwork." Scorch replies joyfully, as always eager for a little banter with Sev. Though Boss would never admit it, he likes listening to their little bickering.
"Lose the chatter, Commandos. What now, Sir?" And Fixer. Strict, bored Fixer, always so keen on protocols.
"Awaiting further instructions, Forty." Boss replies and sees the notification that the Advisor is joining the comms.
"Delta Squad, regroup at Three-Eight’s position for exfil."
The Advisor says and Boss sees Fixer and Scorch running to his turret. Where’s Sev? Boss thinks, a spike of fear through his heart.
"Boss, I’ve got a problem here!" Sev calls out, voice strained. He lets out a muffled yelp, and on the other side of the comm, Boss hears blaster fire.
"Sev, where are you?" He asks, trying to sound calm, but his voice shakes slightly.
"Sector…multiple hostiles, Sir!" Sev replies, and tries to say something more, but his voice is lost in the static.
"Lost his signal, Boss." Fixer reports grimly. No, it can’t be happening. Oh-Seven…Sev…
"Well, find it again, dammit! Squad, regroup! We’re going after Sev!" Boss yells, furious.
The Advisor patches in.
"Negative, negative, 38! New orders came from the Jedi Generals! Clear the area! Evac now!" He tells them, and Boss grits his teeth.
"I don’t care if they came from Master Yoda himself!" He yells, furious at the Separatists, at the Advisor, at the Jedi.
"As a matter of fact, they did, soldier. Now get your squad out of there." The Advisor says, clearly trying his best to stay calm.
"Blast our orders! Forty?" Scorch cries out.
"He’s right, Boss. We’ve got to evac." Delta-40 says calmly, if Boss didn’t know his second-in-command, he’d think Fixer doesn’t care about Sev.
"Sir, we have to go back! It’s Sev we’re talking about!" Scorch tries again, voice sounding desperate. Boss sighs.
"Affirmative, Advisor. Delta-38 out." Boss says grimly and turns the comm off.
"Boss, what the kriff are you doing? We-we have to go back for him!" Scorch yells, yanking his helmet off, waving his hands angrily. Boss sighs. "Listen, Delta-62. I…I don’t want to leave him behind either, but 07’s likely…" Scorch cuts him off. "Sev. His name is Sev, 38." He exclaims, brows furrowed. I know, Scorch. It’s all I can do to make it easier to leave him.
"Six-Two, we have orders. Even if we don’t like them, we have to follow them." Fixer says calmly, and Scorch, usually so calm and light-hearted, raises his left hand, flexing his fingers. The vibroblade ejects with a hiss, and Scorch launches himself at Fixer, but Boss grabs his wrist. "Enough!" He shouts, and Scorch flinches, his eyes show remorse.
“What the kriff, Scorch?! Attacking your own squadmate, your own brother?!" Boss yells, and Scorch seems to shrink on himself. Boss turns to Fixer.
"And you - are no better! You know how close Scorch and Sev are, you could show at least some compassion! Such a great vod you are!" Boss exclaims, his whole body showing fury.
"I’m sorry, Delta Lead. I just…I can’t leave my brother behind. I can’t leave without…at least seeing the-the body…" Scorch sobs, and Boss sighs, taking out his sniper attachment at placing it on his blaster. He checks the scope, looking at Sev’s turret. He can see the turret clearly, Geonosians flying away. His heart clenches when he spots a still figure laying under the turret, helmet rotated in his direction, blue visor staring at him from the distance. He drops the rifle to the floor and staggers.
"B-Boss? Did you…did you find him?" Scorch asks quietly and Fixer scoffs. "He’s dead, 62. And we have to go, now." Delta-40 nearly yells the last part, pointing his hand at the gunship nearby. Boss presses his hand against the front of his helmet, and takes a deep breath. "Scorch, Fixer, deactivate all your comms and connections to command. Leave only our encrypted, private channel." He says and Fixer takes a breath to protest, but Boss cuts him off. "That’s an order, Fixer." He snaps and Scorch raises his head. "Are…are we going for him? Boss, are we going to save Sev?" He asks hopefully and Boss nods. "Yes, Six-Two. That’s exactly what we’re going to do. I’ll face the consequences later." He adds, looking at Fixer, who stands with his arms crossed. Boss knows what’s likely to happen to him when the get back.
"Three-Eight, are you crazy? What you’re suggesting, ordering, is practically a desertion! We’ll be court-martialed!" Fixer yells. Boss straights his back a little. "I’ll face the consequences, then." He replies, calmer now that there’s a plan, and it’s not leaving a brother behind. He starts walking down the base in the tree, two other Deltas following him. Fixer scoffs. "Well, maybe I don’t want to be court-martialed because I recovered a dead body against orders. Maybe I prefer to remember Sev by living, not willingly getting myself executed." 40 replies coldly, but he keeps walking behind 38. Boss takes it for a good sign. He hadn’t planned on letting his squad suffer the consequences anyway, he’d take full blame upon himself.
"Umm…Sir, just saying, I’m ready to face whatever consequences you’ll face." Scorch supplies, voice resolved. Boss smiles softly, despite knowing his vod’ika won’t see it. "Thank you, Scorch." He says simply and quickens his pace. I hope it won’t be necessary, they should accept what I’ll tell them. It’s more convenient to decommission one clone, even Commando, rather than two or more.
They reach the door through which Sev went when they parted. Boss stops for a few seconds, hesitating. "Come on, Boss. We need to…" Scorch begins, but is interrupted by loud sound of the engines. The Republic ships are here. Boss steps forward, the door slide open. Sev’s there, laying limply on his stomach on the platform with the turret, hand still clutching his blaster. Boss hesitantly approaches, and Scorch helps him turn Sev on his back, while Fixer stays on a lookout for the Republic forces. Scorch lets out a muffled sob, there are a few blaster wounds in their brother’s chest and sides. "He-he’s alive." Boss whispers, his fingers pressed firmly against Sev’s neck. Scorch looks up at him, relaxing slightly. Boss opens his mouth to tell him to begin bacta application to uncovered wounds, but Fixer approaches.
"They’re reaching this room. What now, 38? Your great plan looks really lousy now, you know." 40 scoffs and Boss sighs. "Use your grappling hooks to move to other tree, where they won’t look for you. Hide there and wait until things settle. Protect Sev and each other." He says, turning towards the door. "But…what about y-you?" Scorch yelps, but Boss ignores him. Before the door opens, he looks back, seeing his brothers on different branch, further away, Fixer holding Scorch back, Sev resting safe on the wide branch.
Boss takes a deep breath and leaves the platform through the door.
Instantly, he’s surrounded by clones, all pointing their blasters at his chest. He drops his blaster and raises his hand above his head. One clone huffs, and holsters his own weapon, coming closer to search Boss, and he takes other weapons from him. Boss snorts quietly. The clone left his vibroblade, but it’s not like he’ll try anything. He’s prepared to face any consequences. The clone puts on shock-binders on Boss’s wrists and yanks him forward. "Move." He snaps, though his voice isn’t so confident as it should be. Boss hears whispers of others around him, but he ignores it. They lead him to the gunship, where a clone commander waits.
"RC-1138, explain your actions." He commands once the gunship is airborne. Boss is shoved down on the floor, his helmet yanked off. He keeps his head up high, looking directly at the clone, face calm. "My men are innocent. The-the desertion to recover our comrade was purely my order and I forced both of them to obey. Any punishment should be placed upon me and only me." He replies smoothly. The clone notices his blinking vambrace comm and rips it off, extinguishing the blinking and cutting the connection.
"It will, Delta-38. It will. That was a mistake, you know. Forcing your brothers to desert?" The clone comments, but Boss ignores him, staring ahead.
"I understand it was their actions that forced you to surrender to us?" The clone asks and Boss bristles. Fixer? Yeah, he might suggest something like that, but no. Scorch? He’d be here with me. However, Boss says nothing more.
*****
Scorch yelps when Fixer wraps his arms around him and shoots the grapple. For a second, nothing happens. But then, he’s flying through the air, his grip on Sev slipping…
They land on the tree branch with a thud. Scorch places Sev on it, it’s wide enough to be safe. Scorch looks back to the first tree, Boss is still standing there, alone. He looks behind his shoulder, and Scorch leaps forward, before Fixer yanks him back. "What the kriff, Fixer? Let me go!" Scorch hisses when Fixer forces him down. "Don’t be a di’kut, Scorch. You can’t help 38. But you can help Oh-Seven." Fixer says and Scorch slumps. Taking a last look at Boss, he sees the door opening and a group of clones runs through it, surrounding his brother, blasters pointed at him. Boss is calm, surrendering instantly. "B-Boss…" Scorch whispers, blinking away the tears. He shifts his attention to Oh-Seven, to Sev, who lets out a weak groan, followed by a cough. Scorch quickly removes Sev’s helmet, revealing pale face, slick with sweat, and a pained scowl. But his eyes are open, however his gaze is unfocused.
"You idiots…Three-Eight is waiting…for us…" he chokes out, wincing. Scorch places his hand on Sev’s chest, keeping him down. "Boss is…uh, he’s…Fixer…?" Scorch looks at Forty, eyes pleading. Fixer huffs. "He disobeyed the order to retreat, we went for you. He stayed behind so we can help you." Fixer states, kneeling by Sev with a scanner. Scorch’s blood boils. How could he state this so calmly, like Boss means nothing? Like he isn’t our ori’vod? Sev jolts upright and falls right back down, wheezing and coughing. "Wh-what??" He yelps, and bites back a scream of pain. Scorch squeezes Sev’s hand and closes his eyes behind the helmet.
"Udesii, vod. We need to remove your armour, okay?" Fixer asks and Sev nods, tense. He chokes on a scream when the armour is taken off, and Scorch nearly looks away. The blacks melted to Sev’s skin, and the bolts pierced his left shoulder and side. There’s a wound in his right thigh too, but fortunately, nothing hit more vital areas, the chest piece protected Sev from most of the impact. Fixer uses his vibroblade to remove the blacks, some of Sev’s burned skin comes off as well. Sev clings to Scorch with a stray whimper or two, which is strange, he doesn’t usually show how distressed he is, even when injured.
Fixer then seals the bacta patches on the torso wounds and helps Sev put the armour back on. Sev’s still breathing harshly, but after Fixer gives him the last stim and painkiller hypo from his field-medkit, he isn’t wheezing so much, and manages to sit up.
They are quiet for a minute, and Scorch nearly forgets the whole situation, when Sev speaks up. "What…what do we do about Boss?" He asks hoarsely, eyes more focused now that he’s stable. Scorch closes his eyes and removes his helmet. Fixer has his off too, for a while now. "There’s nothing we can do. We have to let 38 handle this." Delta-40 says with a sigh. Scorch snaps his head up, eyes blazing. "No! We have to go for him! He’d never leave any of us up to fate!" He yells, glancing to the side at Sev.
"Yeah, great idea, 62. Just go to Coruscant or wherever they took him, and break him out? Now, if what we did isn’t a treason, then your plan sure is." Fixer scoffs and Scorch’s hand instinctively goes for his blaster, rage all over his face. "Scorch." Sev’s whisper stops him. They both turn to look at their brother. "Wait. We-we shouldn’t act like that. We’re aliit, for Prime’s sake. We can merge those ideas." Sev elaborates, and even though it’s clear that he’s still in pain, he tries to get up. "We can go…find the Republic gunship…and repeat what Boss said before his comm was taken. We can…play along with Boss and help him from the inside." Sev wheezes, and Scorch furrows his brow. "It could work. That’s better than my first plan, so…" He nods. "Yeah, we should try. Good plan, Sev. Assuming they won’t shoot us the second they see us." Fixer agrees and helps Sev get up to his feet.
*****
Boss hangs his head lowly, his hands are still bound with shock-cuffs so he can’t move too much. The transport he’s in doesn’t have windows, so he doesn’t know where they are, but the engine’s pitch is audible. Judging from it, the transport is still in hyperspace. Boss sighs, he hates not knowing what’s happening to his squad right now. He doesn’t want it, but he’s ready to die for his actions, if he gets confirmation that other Deltas are safe.