Chapter Three: Impossibilities

Fives had faced down danger countless times before. He'd been to the brink of the abyss and back and he even had the scars to prove it. A little over a year old and he'd already worked himself into the position of ARC Trooper, a rare feat even for the most seasoned soldier. He was fiery as the underworld and as bright as one thousand burning stars, yet he'd still managed to get himself into one stupid mess after another.

He'd followed something onto the ship. It'd been standing on those weird mountain faces, speaking with something else. Then it hopped down and headed towards the crash site, the fog hiding its movements as it approached the cruiser. Fives had followed because his gut had told him too, but once he got on board, he'd wished he hadn't.

The vessel groaned noisily as he jumped down from an opening in the ceiling and landed in an empty hallway. He'd looked to the side and saw a dead crew member, grey uniform scorched with evidence of fire. And that's when the body twitched before being dragged between his feet and off into the darkness. The rest of the bodies he found followed suit, nothing grabbing ahold of them before carting the corpses away, being dragged into vents and air ducts. He'd tried shooting at whatever was dragging away the dead, but it never worked. Eventually, Fives deemed it a waste of ink, so he stopped all together.

It wasn't until he felt something wrap around his ankle that he knew he was in much deeper then he'd thought. It'd started pulling him along the floor, dragging him through the hallways quickly. He'd nearly dropped his blasters with the sudden jerk that'd swept him off his feet. Next thing he knew, he was having to use his hands to push himself away from the walls that the invisible thing tried to swing him into with its overly sharp turns. Shooting didn't work-again-and once it started pulling him up the wall and into the small vent, only his leg and half of his hip fitting in, he pinned his hands against the sides and resisted. It twisted around Fives' ankle painfully, like barbed wire digging into his bone, yanking harder and harder the more he resisted.

For some reason, it was trying to pull him through and it did not understand he wouldn't fit. He kept fighting, fidgeting as best he could, using all of his arm strength to push away from the tiny opening, but it kept on pulling back. A deadly game of tug-of-war, and Fives was on the losing end of the rope.

Unknown to him were the reasons it finally stopped trying, the tension holding him in place disappearing and causing Fives to collapse to the floor. He'd landed hard on his back, sending his HUD screens everywhere. Once he cleared his vision, he could feel it snaking around his throat. This time, whatever was trying to get him to fit in the vent was being smart about it. Quickly, he rolled away and he could feel it twist wildly in the air, missing its target. And that's when he ran.

It'd tripped him, wired around his arms and legs. And each time, Fives somehow struggling free of its grasp. He'd finally managed to outrun it, it seemed, as he ducked down behind a broken panel inside what was left of the bridge. He huffed in a deep breath of relief.

Whatever was chasing him really had lost him for the moment and he wasn't about to jump around to alert it of his location. He needed to stop and think, especially now that he had a moment, but all his brain could do was run through the impossibilities it'd seen, trying to rationalize what had happened.

Or had it happened? He was so turned around, so lost and so damn frightened, he wasn't sure if he was hallucinating or not. What he saw, it just wasn't possible.

Holding his twin blasters closer to his chest, he dared a peak over the panel. Nothing greeted him save darkness and the faint outline of the entryway he'd come through. Dropping back down to a seated position, he gave a long internal sigh. Glancing back at his wrist, he saw the shattered remains of his wrist comm. It must have been broken in the scuffle earlier, much to his dismay. Cursing silently, he knew he needed to contact Rex, but even his HUD was down. Flicking through frequency after frequency, all were coming up dead on his end. Must have happened when he fell from the vent.

The rattling of something moving through the air vents startled Fives and instantly he stilled, holding his breath for a quick instant as the noise scurried above him.

Had it found him or was it dragging off another body?

When nothing but the silent hum of fear was left, Fives relaxed a little. It hadn't found him-yet. Slowly shifting his weight, he got into a crouched position and began creeping silently. He kept his body aligned with the broken panels and disemboweled controls stations, hiding himself from the doorway he'd come through. Once he got himself to a vantage point, he popped his head above the cover and glanced at the darkened entrance.

If something tried to come through the door, he'd get the jump on it. Settling into a semi-comfortable position, Fives aimed his DC-15s at the door and waited. It'd be back, he knew that. And when it reared its ugly head, he'd be ready.

Rex wasn't sure which way he'd come from as he stepped further and further down the halls of the crash site. He'd been in such a mad rush to follow after whatever had grabbed Kidd, he'd failed to pay attention to what was surrounding him. Now he was helplessly lost.

Maybe he should just sit down and wait, that's what the General had instructed. Though the thought of staying still made him uneasy, it would make his General's job of finding him a lot less complicated. But even slowing his pace caused a shiver to run up his spine, like something was right behind him, trailing at his ankles.

In the end, his mental battle over orders and over fear didn't do anything for him. He kept a quick pace as he walked what he hoped was the path he'd taken when following Kidd. As he walked, his mind replayed the events he'd witnessed. Suicide of a trooper, not common but not unheard of, he supposed. But being dragged away by nothing? Pulled into the vents by nothing? Just what had happened? Maybe Rex's years of service were finally baring down on him. Maybe he'd finally snapped.

That didn't seem likely.

Rounding another corner, Rex paused. He recognized where he was. Not because he'd managed to find the location where Kidd had killed himself, but instead because he'd been on many Republic Line vessels, and knew this was the hallway outside of the bridge. The doorway to the bridge had been forced open at one point or another, the scrape marks along the durasteel enough to tell him that. Had crew members pried themselves free of the bridge and tried to escape, only to be dragged away by whatever had grabbed Kidd. Pushing the chilling thought aside, he stepped towards the darkened entrance, peering inside with his headlights. They did little to penetrate the floating debris and dust, the dim yellow glow reflecting harshly back at him.

From what he could tell, there was nothing besides the stained smears of crimson along the floor and the scrapes of blaster fire aiming miserably at something. There'd definitely been a struggle here. Beyond that, he could make out the gutted monitor stations and holo-tables, each with its wiring torn from it ungracefully, leaving the empty shells exposed. He made to step inside but paused. The back of his neck felt cold, the space around him too hot.

There was something behind him.

Spinning around, he only caught a glimpse of something speeding into the darkness at the end of the hall, where it waited. He could feel it. Pointing his blasters down the empty, narrow walkway, Rex squinted to try and see through the flittering specks of dust, see what stood there at the end of the hall just waiting. "Go ahead and come out…"

Taking careful steps, he inched closer to where it was waiting ever so patiently. The pounding of his heart echoed in his ears endlessly, pattering against his ribcage painfully. The end of his barrels twitched and he forced them to still. The sound of his feet scuffing the ground, inching forward, closer and closer to something that was just waiting for him to get close enough. Every nerve told him he was making a mistake, to turn back, to run, but every bit of soldiers intuition told him if he turned his back, he'd be dead and dragging through those air vents just like Kidd.

"Why don't you come out you kriffin' coward."

A silhouette stood out against the darkness as Rex moved closer. A figure, thin and tall. It couldn't be a crew member, not with the way it was standing. Like a hunter, like it was out for blood. Keeping his eyes trained and aim steady, he watched its face, its eyes staring at him with an eerie sort of calm and bloodlust.

And that's when he noticed why. Rex, despite what he told his body, began lifting the blaster in his hand to his own head.

A/N: A shorter chapter this time. I got what I needed to get accomplished for this chapter and then I scrolled back and was like, "Wow, that's not a lot of pages". I figure it'd be rude of me to try and make it longer and thus not get it up until later, so I'll put it up now. The next chapter will be longer, I can garentee that.

Thanks for Reading! See you next chapter!

Emil Lime, out.