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Fives looked like a wild animal as the Coruscant guard approached. Cornered and raving, Skywalker and Rex behind a ray shield as he swore to the Chancellor's guilt.
Fox raised his blaster and fired.
Fives had barely turned around, horror on his face as the stun washed over him and his body fell limp to the ground.
Rex was shouting something, concern as well as relief in his voice.
"Someone get the ray shield down" Fox called as he approached Fives, holstering his own blaster as well as disarming the unconscious man. The sound of the ray shield echoed around the small warehouse as it deactivated and Rex dropped to his side, cradling Fives' head.
The static in Fox's head was broken through by more shouting, not a brother, he thought idly as he looked to where his troops were trying to calm Skywalker down, the jedi becoming more and more agitated as he had an apparently one-sided argument about the chancellor.
Being on Coruscant for the duration of the war had its effects, both positive and negative, but Fox knew the one he was most proud of was his mental walls, of a scale and durability that had been the result of compliment by many a visiting Jedi. Or maybe not a compliment. They seemed more suspicious than anything. What was Fox to know, he wasn't a jedi, he couldn't read minds. And they couldn't read his.
Fox raised his blaster, and Skywalker toppled into the same unconsciousness as Fives.
One problem down, far too many to go.
---
Commander Fox of the Coruscant guard was known for his bad attitude, his occasionally harsh actions, and his relative hatred for the planet he had been sent to guard. The average GAR soldier would rather clean a whole Venator with a toothbrush than run into Fox in a bad mood, even more so as the war progressed and the guard seemed to become more insular, stranger, brothers to each other more than to the rest of the clones. The truth is that sometime in the war there had been a shift. Most of the men would pin it to the Zillo beast, but Fox had felt it before, something brewing, a dog not quite baring its teeth, just stopping its wagging tail as it watched you.
Fox had felt it before, but he only realised it when the first guards cracked.
He'd see them on patrols, trigger fingers tightening as they passed a group of loud teenagers. Not rowdy, definitely not a risk, just loud in that way that the clones had been too. But he could see their focus shifting, because he did it too. Were they loud, or were they an issue?
The guard was meant to deal with issues.
They had the first close call a few weeks after. Not from some trigger-happy shiny, or from one of the boys transferred from a front line, the ones they would get when their nerves were too fried for clankers (Fox always laughed when he got those transfer papers, everyone assuming that the guard was somehow a better place for them to be, he laughed because he didn't know what he would do otherwise, and stamped them for logistical support only). It was one of his originals, who had joined the guard fresh off Kamino, now a lieutenant after no short amount of references and paperwork by Fox to get him there. A peaceful protest against the war that the guard had been defending, people protesting to not "use the clones as slaves". Bracken had seemed on edge but Fox chalked it up to discomfort, none of the clones ever seemed to know how to react to these mentions of their rights, keeping alive was more of a priority than thinking about their lives after the war.
Then someone tripped, sign in hand, and fell towards Fox.
He put his arms out to try and catch them in case they didn't catch themselves, and caught a limp form as a stun blast came over them. When he looked up he could see Bracken's finger still hovering over the switch to change from stun to live fire.
Bracken had apologised of course, but things kept happening. It spread through all the guard, a type of paranoia, their first thoughts on duty not being the peaceful methods that had been drilled into them, but something more dangerous that had to be squashed down.
Fox had heard about men in the army going that sort of way, but in the guard it was an epidemic. He sent them in for med scans and checks but nothing definitive could come up other than a seeming change in attitude, a type of newfound fear and impulsiveness that would get whole squads decommissioned if anyone on Kamino found out. Fights started to break out, in the streets, in the barracks, in the bars. Never guard against guard, but, in increasing frequency with every passing week, guard against Gar.
Fox had already lost enough brothers.
He spent hours on redoing the guard rotations, and it wasn't a perfect system but he had to hope it would work. No shifts guarding the senate for more than 7 consecutive days, always interrupted by at least one shift around the area of the Jedi temple. His brothers always spoke about their space-wizards like heroes, so Fox could only hope that whatever part of the vod had been designed for the Jedi would make something better.
Sometimes someone would be on the brink of snapping, and then Fox could admit that something between the members of the guard was different than the other clones. Most of the brothers could speak without talking to each other, but with the guards it seemed to ripple through the entire corps. Something would change in a walk, or a look, or just the way a brother carried himself, and he would find himself within an hour transferred to assisting with logging in the Jedi library, or guarding the medical wing. They'd come back after a few nights in the temple and seem to breathe just a bit easier. And if that didn't work? Well, Coruscant was a big planet, and it's easy for assailants to get away, even after attacking members of the guard. So what if there was a hooded figure on a shuttle off-world a few weeks after?
Fox could feel that the jedi had started looking at them differently since then, still that suspicion he got, from being such a blank wall in the force, but there was more kindness, but there was more concern. It was the same concern he felt himself, mirrored back at him by the Jedi that he encountered, even mirrored by the vod from the GAR as they came to Coruscant. Something in the air was different, and they could all feel it brewing, sitting in the boiling energy like frogs in a soup, suspicious of the broth but not realising the temperature.
"A good job you are doing, Commander Fox" Yoda had said one day as Fox accompanied him back to the temple, "Great friends of the temple, we consider the guard. Know that always here, I am, to speak with"
Fox had just nodded.
No one had actually snapped yet, and Fox had no idea what would happen if they did.
---
He hadn't expected it to be the Jedi that broke first.
He was in the meeting of senators and prosecutors as they claimed Commander Tano's guilt.
He was on call with Master Yoda not even 5 minutes after leaving the meeting.
Fox had met Commander Tano loads of times, sure, he didn't know her as well as Rex or Cody did, but she was essentially his brother's little sister. Plenty of times he had seen Rex'ika and her getting to mid mischief, though not as often now, both with their limited visits to Coruscant and the more sombre mood when they were planetside. But Fox had seen when Letta died, and seen Tano with the corpses of his brothers, and it wasn't correct. There was none of that putrid scent that seemed to hang over Coruscant recently, the summer rot rising from the lower levels. The guard's blasters were all locked to stun as they searched for the Jedi. Wolffe brought her in, his good eye gleaming with tears as he and Master Plo brought her to the surface.
The senate tried to push for a military trial, for a dismissal from the Jedi order. Fox called in another bomb threat.
It wasn't the ideal strategy, but it delayed things, and brought enough doubt on Ahsoka for his more specialised men to get to work.
You don't hang around the galactic senate for 2 years without picking stuff up, and between the members of the guard was enough blackmail material and insider knowledge on corruption for the guard to play for some time. The few senators that Fox trusted and the Jedi council pushed as far as they could to delay the trial, the council inventing seemingly endless excuses of traditions needed before a Jedi could be expelled from the order in such circumstances.
Fox got sent the guys that cracked enough to leave the front lines, which meant he had acquired a good number of well-trained commandos, the ones considered by the GAR as too valuable to lose, too volatile to keep. They trailed the underground, bloodhounds on the scent of the bomber.
He had to strike a deal, not one that he was proud of, but in that moment in the lower levels Ventress felt like a small price to pay.
Barriss Offee was arrested, unsuspecting, by the Coruscant Guard in the early hours the day of Ahsoka's trial. In her room they discovered a lightsaber with a bleeding red Kyber in it.
Ahsoka was acquitted, Barriss convicted, and for a few tense hours in that court room Fox could feel that rotting air becoming more and more suffocating, a force pushing on his chest as he presented the guards evidence. The courtroom doors opened, and the sunlight gleaming off of the capital's buildings actually seemed radiant for once as it purged Fox from that dreadful mustiness.
He got two medals for it.
One from the Jedi in a small ceremony in the temple, presented by Commander Tano almost in grateful tears, surrounded by her brothers in the 501st and Jedi of all ranks. It felt like the small ceremonies they would hold on Kamino when each batch finished various stages of their training. He hadn't even been expecting it, had just been visiting master Yoda with some of the vod for their weekly shift helping with the creche. They'd been getting demolished by the kids in some Jedi ball game that used far too much of the force to be fair when they were dragged by urging child hands into one of the small halls of the temple.
The medal from the senate was different. A ceremony in one of the largest plazas of the upper crust of Coruscant, with all the pomp and circumstance that could be mustered. For services to "upholding the justice of the Republic and maintaining integrity". The chancellor personally stuck it to his chest, pins almost piercing Fox's skin beneath his dress greys, and the chancellor's eyes piercing into his own face, unprotected by his helmet.
That had been the Chancellor's strict instruction, to appear in dress greys. Some of the guard were there, the ones that could bear it, all of them dressed in official grey. No Fox red armour, no bucket to hide behind.
Maybe that was what Fox had needed, to look at the Chancellor without his bucket in the way.
Because the Chancellor felt like safety.
A few months before and Fox probably wouldn't have noticed it, but standing this close to the Chancellor it felt like a sudden wave washing over him. For a few minutes the headache he'd been sporting for the last few days disappeared, it felt like a blanket drawn over him. But that wasn't right. Fox could feel his mental walls slipping as the feeling of safety washed over him. The man in front of Fox didn't sing with youth like the younglings did, nor the hope of the Padawans, nor the duty of the knights and his own brothers, not even the wisdom of the masters. He felt like the calm of the temple, but it wasn't right.
Fox stood in front of the Chancellor as the medal was pinned into his skin, and mentally shook himself. Of course the Chancellor was as safe as the temple, something whispered to him as it wrapped around his mind, he was safer, he was the republic, he was what Fox was born to protect.
The medal shone brighter than the one from the Jedi did, and for a moment the turmoil seemed to quiet.
---
It had screamed at him as they approached the warehouse, the desire to run in and shoot the bastard for crimes against the Republic. It whispered to him, Fives was a lunatic, a clone spent, he had to be decommissioned. Do it Fox, cut out the rot.
His blaster never left stun.
He could see Rex's throat bobbing as he took in what Fox had done. The guard had caught Skywalker and were laying him flat on the floor, executing a perfect recovery position.
"You shot my general" Rex said weakly, face blank as he looked in shock.
Fox holstered his blaster again and observed his brother.
"Rex"
He didn't look at Fox, caught between the brother in his lap and the general to the side. Fox took off his helmet, discarding it to one side.
"Rex I need you to look at me"
Rex turned, face still stricken. Fox sighed and looked over his shoulder to the guards, barely glanced at them before three had moved, one joining Fox in coaxing Rex to stand as the other two saw to checking Fives. Rex tried to protest, eyes locked on the two unconscious figures but he was nothing against the guard. Fox felt a small bite of humour, riot training frog marching being used against his stunned brother. They rounded one of the stacks of containers and Rex's gaze finally turned solidly to Fox as the other trooper left them alone.
"I thought you were going to kill him" Rex said.
Fox barely caught his brother as he slumped forwards, tears immediately soaking the neck of his blacks where Rex's face was smushed into his neck. He remembered Kamino, where he had last felt like a proper big brother, holding his vod'ika in the time after a failed training, those times when the pressure became too much for the younger batches, barely smaller than Fox but seeming so little with their CT numbers compared to his CC. Rex had been a big brother himself for so long, had so proudly told Fox about the two shinies he picked up on Rishi moon, then again how proudly he'd talked about them becoming ARC troopers, then how they lost Echo, armour stamped with Rex's own handprint. Rex hadn't cried then, all his tears already shed by the time he had reached Coruscant, weeks after it had happened.
Fox had understood that pain of losing a brother, the way that it just becomes numb after a while, so he just hugged his brother, slowly bringing them both to the ground as he rubbed circles into Rex's back. He didn't say that he had thought he would kill Fives too. That he had thought any of the guard could've, unbidden and unwilling. It didn't seem like the sort of thing that the regs would understand.
---
Fox had heard that an ARC trooper was being brought to Coruscant following something in Kamino, it was something that at this point he wouldn't have paid much attention to, trying to keep his troopers sane and living was taking enough of his time already, he only began to pay attention when he heard that the guy was from the 501st, from Rex's own squad, one of those shinies he had picked up and was always prone to proudly talking about after a few drinks. So he'd pried a bit, but nothing had been revealed. Classified on the Chancellor's orders, the way that so many things seemed to be recently.
Then the shock troopers were gearing up to hunt him down, only barely stopped in time by the trooper sprinting faster than anyone Fox had seen towards them. His stomach had sunk as he saw the look of fear on the troopers face, dreading that his worst fear had finally come true, that someone had snapped. What he heard was worse.
That the Chancellor had provoked Fives into attacking, that Fives had been drugged by the Kaminoan on the way to Coruscant, that the Chancellor had so confidently admitted to the true purpose of the inhibitor chips, and that among it all he trusted fully in the Coruscant guards loyalty to him. His mind whispered to him: Loyalty to the Chancellor above all others. Protect the republic, obey the Chancellor. Fives was defective, defective clones had to be decommissioned. He had his orders. Fives could have killed the Chancellor. Protect the Chancellor. Follow orders. Fives had failed in his orders. Good soldiers follow orders. Bad soldiers were to be killed.
But this was his brother. It was his brother standing in front of him, winded and terrified, looking to him for guidance.
He's doubting the Chancellor. He's doubting the Republic. He's lying. Undermining the democracy. Five's influence is spreading. Decommission necessary.
Fox felt sick. This was his brother, Trip, so kindly named by Fox and Thorn immediately as he stepped off the shuttle from Kamino. He'd been with the guard for almost a year, arriving just before everything seemed to start getting weird. He was a good trooper, and he was scared. He was Fox's little brother come to him for help. How could he be all the things that Fox's mind was telling him? Then what about Fives? Wasn't he the same? Maybe not Fox's trooper, but one of Rex's. The brother of his brother. He would be scared too.
The doubts were clawing at him, trying to make their way into his mind, howling like dogs at the chase as Fox locked his mental walls against them. Some things were clicking into place as he considered what his brother was telling him, but the Shock deployment sirens were still ringing in the background.
"Set all weapons to stun! Complete radio silence once we get out! I want Fives captured alive and reported back to me immediately! Squads deploy as per orders, follow prisoner recovery plan 6!"
The chorus of "Yes Sir" went up instantly as the men followed their sergeants out of the bay, setting to work as efficiently as Fox had drilled into them.
---
Rex didn't cry long, and after his face held that defiant look that he had possessed since he was a cadet.
"Something's wrong on Coruscant" Fox said.
"Is that why you shot my general?"
Fox scowled at Rex, but the other didn't even blink in response. Damn brothers growing up too fast.
"I shot your general because he's hysterical. He's too close to the issue,"
"What do you mean?"
The whispering was starting again, mixed threats and pleas. How could the Chancellor be the issue? The Chancellor is trust, is safety. It is treason to speak of the Chancellor like this.
"One of my troopers was in the room when Fives tried to kill him, he heard everything, and Palpatine was confident that he could speak so freely in front of the guard and not have us become suspicious. Something's been wrong for a while, but we haven't really been noticing it, or not noticing the root. It's coming together though. I don't fully understand but I can know for certain that my troopers would never lie to me. Palpatine is responsible for the chips, and their purpose is to make all of the Clones turn on the Jedi when he orders it,"
Rex's face dropped in horror. It made sense, Fox had seen how close Rex was with Skywalker and Commander Tano, he barely saw them apart. If the order was given, Fox would put money on it being Rex to kill either of them, and none would ever see it coming.
"Is that why you shot Anakin?" Rex's voice was tinted with suspicion.
Ah. Fox hadn't considered that aspect. He held his hands up, "No, different reason. I'm around the senate a lot, so I see things. I pick up on things. Do you know where your General goes when your legion has shore leave on Coruscant?"
Rex frowned, "To the temple, or to see-" he cut off, looking sheepish.
"If you were about to say to see Senator Amidala then trust I'm fully aware of that so there's no need to have to keep a secret. But I was referring to his visits to the Chancellor,"
"He doesn't meet him that often, no more than any other Jedi,"
"Wrong. Over the last few months everyone's been seeing the Chancellor less, everyone except Skywalker. Their meetings have actually increased in frequency and duration, despite the fact that Skywalker is so often off-world. Palpatine meets with Skywalker more than any other Jedi, even the masters. I heard him when we were entering, he doesn't believe that Palpatine could be so involved with whatever this is. I think it's part of the plan,"
"You think Anakin would help with something like this?!" Rex's voice was filled with defensive rage.
"No, vodika, that's not what I mean. Palpatine is clearly up to something, and manipulating a Jedi could easily be part of that. I have theories but I need some time, so here's what's going to happen. My men are taking Fives, we've faked enough deaths to be able to do this one too. We're going to the Jedi temple, it's one of the few places on this banthashit planet that I think is safe. We've got reinforcements coming in, and then we'll act as necessary"
"I know there's more to this plan than that, you sneaky shit,"
Fox was already walking back to the main area of the warehouse. Rex followed.
---
Thorn's gunship landed outside soon after, complete with three medics and hover stretchers. His squad reinforced the perimeter that Fox's had already established and he entered the warehouse.
"No need for the third stretcher, he didn't survive," Fox said as he got up from the trooper he was crouched beside.
Thorn looked down to their brother on the floor, sitting as he secured the regulation-issue white armour to his legs, "I see, this is our man then?"
"Yup, ARC trooper Fives. Easily recognisable, perfect match to the photo on file for the wanted notice,"
One of the medics crouched next to their brother and opened his medical bag, pulling out an electric shaver and makeup pen. The other trooper muttered something about how he felt to be losing his "luscious locks".
Thorn raised an eyebrow under his helmet, "I was under the impression that trooper Fives had a beard as well?"
"We are assuming that he shaved it off in order to attempt to blend in. His tattoo more than confirms recognition though, right Captain Rex?"
Rex looked up from where he was helping one of the guards to fix the armour on their unconscious teammate, "Yup, large 5 on the right side of the forehead, that's Fives"
"Exactly. Area is now under lockdown as a military crime scene, though due to the sensitive nature of the case I must stress a policy of absolutely no in and out. My squad and I will be accompanied by Captain Rex to the Jedi temple Medbay, it's the most fitting place to see to General Skywalker's injuries, and we may as well take trooper Shear there too,"
"I understand completely, sir. I presume we will be taking the customary crime scene photos and sending them to the Chancellor to... ease his fears?"
"Of course, though past that I would be hesitant to... harass the Chancellor with any more... unnecessary details. In case we cause further alarm to him,"
"Naturally," Thorn looked back to the trooper, now with head shaved and the beginnings of a fake tattoo on his forehead, "What is the cause of death?"
"Shot directly to the chest and died from blood loss soon after,"
Thorn sighed, "Could you and your perfect aim not have considered shooting the armour before dressing the corpse in it?"
"A mild oversight, but one that I'm sure you will quickly remedy. Now we must get our casualties to the Medbay. I have reason to believe comms are compromised, so would advise continued radio silence apart from the emergency measures," Fox said as the unconscious Skywalker and Coruscant guard were moved to the gunship. "I understand that some of the Jedi Generals are returning to Coruscant in response Master Shaak Ti's concerns. It would be useful to alert their Clone Commanders to the fact that the Chancellor is under lockdown in the senate due to the attempt on his life, and that they would be better landing and staying in the Jedi temple for the time being. I suggest forwarding this message to flight control, and then recommend everyone turn off their comm receivers due to the risk of compromise,"
"I believe I heard from the slicers before we left that the separatists have caught wind of the unrest, surely due to spies on Coruscant, and are taking the opportunity to attempt an overtaking of planetwide communications. A full radio blackout may occur,
Fox nodded, "Though I'm sure that we will be able to relay the necessary information to the relevant Commanders before such a thing happens,"
"Of course," Thorn said, pulling Fox into a deep hug, "Stay safe ori'vod," he whispered.
Fox tapped Thorn's helmet and left the warehouse.
---
Fox didn't know how long it would take for the incoming Jedi to arrive, but luckily until they did the medical Jedi had agreed to keep General Skywalker fully sedated until they did.
"I've been waiting for an excuse to do this since he was a padawan" the old woman had said with far too much glee.
Rex had taken up a post between the beds of Skywalker and Fives, and the rest of Fox's squad had assembled themselves in the waiting area nearby.
Now more than ever the temple felt like a refuge. He could still feel the doubts clawing at his mental walls, but they were quieter, soothed away by the ambient sounds of life continuing around him. But the adrenaline of the situation was wearing off, and it its place came rage.
He wasn't yet sure of everything, he felt like he wasn't sure of anything anymore. He could feel it radiating from his brothers too, all of them held in that suspension between action and calm. He was familiar with it, it was the same way they always looked after a close call or a slip up or anything else that restarted the flurry of thoughts that all the guard seemed to share nowadays. Fox was a good older brother, his vodika came to him for help, and they knew he would never let it slip if they collapsed by his side and wept into his shoulder. Frankly Fox usually felt jealous that they had an older brother to go to. Fox wanted to see any of his brothers again in positive circumstances, not under the conditions of having put their General and ARC trooper into stun-induced unconsciousness.
What Fox really wanted was to get up and punch a wall. What Fox was going to do instead was be a sensible Commander and good older brother. He took a few forced breaths as he tried to put the anger into the same mental box that all the rest got put in, and started removing his armour plates. He heard the rustling and clanking as his troopers followed, the determined quiet of people moving on automatic, practiced motions. He stacked the pieces together, a small cairn of plastoid on the chair that he had been on, and sat on the floor, cross-legged as the Jedi taught the younglings to do. He closed his eyes and felt his breathing level as the shuffling around him tapered out as the troopers all sat.
The sound grew again, from humming to a gentle chant, almost singing, in call and response from one of the troopers, Crash, Fox thought, he always seemed to have a better singing voice. A song for meditation wasn't the traditional Jedi way, but Fox had heard enough of the members of the order humming to know their addition was more popular than initially let on.
The mando'a words drifted through the halls of healing, and Fox waited for what would come next.
---
It was four pm, Coruscant had been under full communications blackout for eight hours, the two casualties were waking up but thankfully still sedated enough to be calm, and the few Jedi that could make it had reached the temple.
Kenobi had come strutting in first, Cody at his side and both radiating apprehension and confusion.
Cody spoke first, "We were partially briefed upon landing, Fives is okay?" The edge of fear in his voice was not something that Fox had ever heard before.
"Stunned but waking, he's bound to be confused and we know he was drugged when we found him, Rex is going to need help,"
Cody nodded and Kenobi folded his arms, "Will we be receiving an explanation for all of this, Commander? I was particularly concerned by finding out that all of Coruscant's communications had been... compromised," He glanced at Cody, and Fox could see in the General's expression the same fear as in Cody's
"I can't explain any more than I know, but for now it is very important that no one, particularly no clones, access any communication. Especially with the Chancellor. For fear of compromise,"
Cody's face somehow paled as he hissed, "This can't all be serious, it can't be true, something must have gotten mixed up, or confused, or-" his voice trailed off as Fox shook his head.
"One of my troopers heard it from the Chancellor himself,"
Kenobi placed a hand on Cody's shoulder, "Why don't we go check on poor Rex?"
Fox almost didn't recognise Cody as he allowed himself to be lead away, despondent in a way more fitting of the cadet he had once known rather than the Commander that Cody had grown to be.
"General!" Fox called, and Kenobi paused to turn to him, hand never leading Cody's pauldron, "I thought it would be useful to know, General Skywalker has seemed quite close with the Chancellor lately, and he didn't take Five's story as well as we may have hoped,"
Kenobi nodded, face grave as he and his Commander continued on to the ward.
Shaak Ti had been covertly slipped from the senate to the temple, Fox doubted anyone but the rats knew Coruscant's hidden passages better than his guards, and she went immediately to join the others in the medbay, her whole body screaming with regret as he troopers told her the truth of the situation.
Commander Tano was soon after, almost crash landing her speeder at the temple hangar with a screaming R2 unit as she raced to her master and brother's sides. Past that it was a blur to Fox, until he felt a deliberate poke to his shin from a walking stick.
"Much to discuss, we have,"
Fox followed in a daze.
---
Fox couldn't pretend to understand a lot of what the council said, half of it was some nonsense about Jedi history, and the other half of the conversation seemed to be happening mentally. He was acting more as a witness than anything, but he was glad for his testimony to be listened to.
A shift in the guard, as murmurs bounced around the room and around his head. Instability, fear, anger. Care, Fox's care, the Jedi's care, some last fragment of hope in Fox that maybe it was just because the guard were overworked, overworked and lacking in something essential, a vital nutrient, the purpose they were made for. Starved for contact with the Jedi.
And it worked! Poor, hopeless Fox's plan to try and save his brothers, it worked! To be saved from the politics, and rhetoric, and sneers, and shouts, and the voice in their heads screaming to see the problem and remove it. It quieted, even if just a little, drowned out by the music of the temple, the music of the force and life and the love of a whole planet concentrated into one building, the love of a million units concentrated into the generals who glowed in the force.
Ahsoka was guilty, apparently. But Fox knew who to trust.
Fox knew who to trust.
Fox knew to trust the Chancellor.
It was instinctive, curling around him like the fluid in the tubes he was grown in. Urging him to calm down, rest, and stop resisting, stop resisting, stop resisting, stop resisting, Stop Restisting, STOP RESISTING STOP RESISTING STOP RESISTING STOP RESISTING STOP
He had stopped, at least for a while, grown too complacent, not suspicious enough. Always forgetting to be the sneaky Fox he was named for around the Chancellor, always forgetting to doubt rather than just follow his orders. Another meeting with General Skywalker? After Master Yoda had spoken about how little he had heard from the Chancellor recently? Let it slide. Another protest in the lower levels? Insurgents to be quieted. A rogue trooper?
He had wanted to kill Fives. Or it had wanted him to kill Fives. He struggled to tell, between it and him. He hadn't realised it for a while, too long, too complacent, but that trooper had made him realise. The trooper running as soon as he could, as fast as he could, to claim the Chancellor's treason against the Republic, the Jedi, the clones. Fox remembered. He knew where his duty lay, knew where the boundary was between whatever "it" was and what he knew he was.
He would help his brothers.
The council was silent. A silence even in the force.
"Why would the Chancellor do that?" Skywalker said, his voice weak, an enquiring child learning of the world's evils. He sat next to General Kenobi in the space in front of the master's chair, Commander Tano on the other side. Both had their knees drawn up and leant onto Kenobi, his arms and robes around them as much as he could manage.
"A Sith lord, the Chancellor is," Master Yoda said.
Master Windu sighed, hands massaging his temples, "We should've realised sooner. So many have been lost,"
"More will be lost if we do not act," Kenobi said.
"How did we not realise?" Skywalker said, his voice growing in outrage, "We just let all of this happen right under our noses! The whole of the clone wars! Force, the clones themselves! The dark side of the force influencing us, influencing politics for as long as I've been in the order!" His head whipped towards Ahsoka, throat bobbing. His voice dropped to almost a whisper, "What the Commander said about the trial, he wanted Ahsoka out of the order. That must have been it, his rage at Fox's evidence, it created some kind of push in the force or something, that's what Fox felt,"
"An interesting detail, it is. More in the force, Commander Fox felt, why, we must ask ourselves?"
The attention turned back to Fox, their eyes and their force, he could feel the different strands each prodding at his mental walls in the way he had become accustomed to around force users.
"We're made for the Jedi, sir. The chancellor may have planted the chips in us, but it was a Jedi that commissioned us, I suspect something in the programming or training or just our expectations was still tailored to that. It was more feeling what was the same than what was different. The Chancellor seemed to emanate something a lot like the temple, but stronger. Going from something in my brain screaming about orders to an immediate sense of calm tends to stand out,"
"It seems that the Chancellor overcompensated, in terms of his reaction to the Coruscant Guard. He seems to have assumed that a combination of the chips and this effort in the force over an extended period of time would have ensured the guard's loyalty to him. A factor he did not consider is Commander Fox's unflinching care for his brothers above all else," Kenobi said as he stroked his beard
Fox frowned "I don't deserve so much praise when I was complacent for so long, Sir"
"Surviving, you were, for all of the jedi temple to not realise, more embarrassing, it is. Needed a solution now is," Yoda's eyes seemed to twinkle, "Suggestions, you have, Commander?"
---
Fox and his squad flew back to the senate.
When he got inside it was quite predictably the kind of manic that happens when something is well-managed despite the efforts of everyone involved to create chaos. The guard were ruthless in the way they had perfected, the perfect efficiency that comes to those truly scared of failing in their work.
One of the lieutenants, among their best slicers, was already briefing Fox as he entered the building.
"All comms in and out of the building shut down to prevent compromise, including use of the signal blockers. We have a total 15 senators, all in their relevant chambers and under guard by order of the Chancellor," The lieutenant glanced up at that, and Fox cleared his throat to prompt him back to action, " 46 Senator's aides, junior speakers and other relevant positions are being guarded with the senators. Then a total 241 other personnel, all scattered through the building but approximately guarded in spare offices in groups of 10,"
"Good, I have an update on the situation for the Chancellor, open comm line to his secretary's office and let them know I will be coming with important news regarding the separatist spies that attempted to recover trooper Five's body,"
The lieutenant followed his orders, still on the move through the rambling hallways of the senate as they received the confirmation from the secretary.
Fox saw a speeder pass out of the corner of his eye, and stopped before the elevator, "Please just inform them that I'm making a quick stop by the fresher, it's been a long day,"
---
He looked so smug.
It was the thing that Fox noticed the most as he stood on the other side of the Chancellor's desk.
He didn't even try to hide it. He had the look of a man who had exactly achieved his goals, for whom decades of work were coming together in front of him. Fox wanted to curse himself, his stupidity for not noticing anything before. He maintained an even grip on the blaster rifle in his hands as he read Palpatine's lips through his visor. He just needed to hold on a bit longer.
"Excellent work on securing our rogue element, Commander. I'm sure that the slicers will soon find that the danger to the comms systems will soon be over and safe to reopen?"
"Lieutenant Pots informed me that the slicers are checking the security as we speak,"
"Good, good. Quite a nasty business, all of this," Palpatine gestured towards the window of his office, "But I am always glad for the Coruscant Guard's unflinching commitment to their duty"
Fox could feel the two contrasting pressures around him again, constricted by them in this tiny office. The notice pinged onto his HUD: Motion from Jedi high council to depose and investigate the Chancellor, seconded by Senators Amidala, Organa, and Chuchi.
A second came in from Stone: Jedi on the way up to arrest the Chancellor. Good luck.
Fox kept his breathing steady. They had a plan.
"Chancellor, a detachment of Jedi are coming in order to discuss Master Ti's findings on the case of Fives,"
Palpatine smiled, raising his arms wide, "Ah, of course. The Jedi, as insightful as ever,"
Fox took up his guard's position by Palpatine's right as the Jedi entered. Kenobi and Windu led, with Shaak Ti and Skywalker behind them. A strategic selection that had been a point of argument for a while.
Kenobi spoke first, "By suspicion of the Jedi council, and in accordance with support of the motion by at least half of the assembled senate, you, Sheev Palpatine, are under arrest for high treason against the republic,"
With the Chancellor's face out of eyesight he couldn't read his lips anymore, but he could see his body grow tense.
The Jedi were still speaking but Fox's attention was no longer on them.
A drawer opened, something cylindrical flying towards the Chancellor's hand.
It never reached it.
Palpatine's body fell forwards onto the desk, a precise blaster shot through the right side of his head.
Fox clicked the rifle back onto safety and took off his right glove, checking for a pulse in the neck. Nothing.
He let out a long breath and took off his helmet, grateful to be able to hear again.
"The Chancellor is dead, and this room is now a crime scene under the jurisdiction of the Coruscant Guard. As presiding officer I must ask you all to vacate the scene but remain in the building if you are called for questioning" Fox checked his vambrace for comms and sent out his orders, "Officers will be arriving to deal with you until then, and a medic to conduct the post-mortem. I would also advise you that planetwide communications are back in order," He looked back up at the Jedi, "I don't know if the chips are still dangerous with Palpatine dead or not, but I suspect the clones will all want to know,"
Kenobi nodded, "We're expecting to hear of positive surgery results from the first few soon,"
"Good. Only one bit of extra formality then, if one of you would be willing to lend a hand," He held up the binders and passed them to Kenobi, "By the authority of the Coruscant guard, I, Commander Fox, am placing suspect Commander Fox under arrest on suspicion of the murderer of Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine. As a Clone trooper you do not have the right to remain silent, though a Republic-issued lawyer will be present for all questioning," Kenobi placed the binders on his wrists, "You guys have got me a lawyer, right?"
"Senator Amidala personally volunteered," Skywalker said. He looked to be on the verge of vomiting, but when he met Fox's eyes there was the kind of strength that he had seen before, during Ahsoka's trial.
Fox smiled in gratitude, "Best in the galaxy, so I'm told," His vambrace bleeped with a message from Stone, "reinforcements on the way now, so I'll remove the suspect from the crime scene. Commander Stone has already agreed to Jedi help in investigating this issue,"
Fox stepped out from the room, binders on his wrists, a group of very concerned brothers running down the long corridor that he could see, and a charge of treason and murder hanging over his head.
He felt calmer than ever before.