Summary: "No one else looks at him like that- no one else can." The Bad Batch brings Rex to the sunken remains of Tipoca City. Within her walls, they find a cryo stasis chamber- and, inside it, a fractured soul in desperate need of healing. Or, Clone Force 99 finds and adopts another traumatized reg. One-shot. Set after TBB S1. AU.

A/N: Title is in Mando'a, the language of the Mandalorians.

Solus Tome (Alone Together)

Hunter is awoken by the pinging of the Havoc Marauder's holocall pager, the sound searing at his enhanced ears, louder than the engines and even Wrecker's snoring in the back. Kriff, he thinks, wincing as he sits up in the pilot's seat, I really did fall asleep on watch, didn't I?

He takes one look at the ship model transmitting, recognizes it as Rex's Y-wing, and lets him through. Sure enough, the blue form that solidifies above the holoprojector is one Captain Rex, clad in his Five-Oh-First armor, sans helmet.

"Captain. It's been a while." Hunter greets. Even now, it's still difficult to break the formality of addressing someone of higher rank. "Is there…something we could help you with?"

"Yes, actually." Rex says. He rubs at the back of his neck as he ponders how to make his request, and Hunter tries to stifle his curiosity. "I, uh…I'm planning a trip to Kamino- Tipoca City, specifically, to see if I might be able to scavenge anything of what's left of it down there. But, I never had the chance to memorize the coordinates. Could you provide me with them? If it's no trouble, that is."

"Actually, we're between jobs at the moment." He confesses. Now, he pauses, gut twisting grimly as he thinks of the last time they'd visited their homeworld, of how they had left Crosshair there on his own.

He's not sure why he asks. Out of the hope that Crosshair is still there? To make sure that they hadn't imagined the city sinking? No, he's not sure why, but he asks anyway. "Mind if we tag along?"

"Not at all. I'd be grateful for the company, to be honest. It'll liven the place up a bit. Sure beats showing up to a deserted facility like that all alone."

"Always happy to bring life to the party, Captain. Where do you want to meet up?"

Tipoca City is still underwater, at the bottom of Kamino's endless oceans.

And it's still as empty as it was when the Batch had last left.

They wander through the hallways that haven't yet been flooded, searching what rooms they can get into- which, with Wrecker's strength at hand, is most of them.

But, even with there being seven of them- Omega convinced Hunter to allow AZI along- it is still too quiet, everyone is still too uneasy. The sound of their footsteps- and the sound of their breathing- is much too loud to Hunter's heightened senses without the usual chatter going around. The droid is the only one among them trying to keep a conversation going. Every slight creak has Hunter struggling not to leap out of his skin. It's psychological torture at it's finest, past Kaminoan tests aside.

Rex, while cautious, is by far the most composed of the group, acting just as he had back on Bracca. Hunter suspects that the captain has been pulling a lot of jobs similar to this one, exploring and foraging through different abandoned republic bases and crafts. It must be tough, he thinks, working on his own like this. He already knows that everything's tough enough with a team. He can't imagine being on his own like Rex is.

They've been on site for about half an hour already, and they haven't found much. It wouldn't be concerning under normal circumstances, but they've left their helmets up top, instead having to use those same breathing masks they'd worn on the Ordo Moon. There's no oxygen left in the facility, not with it submerged. Their time down here is limited.

The masks had also allowed them to swim down to it with no issue- but the return trip is always harder, and Tech's giving regular updates on how long they have before they must return to the landing pad far above.

They still have another few hours to go until they're empty, which means that they have about a quarter hour short of that time if they want to get to the surface with oxygen to spare. It's something that Hunter keeps at the back of his mind at all times, because even though they are more prepared than last time, things still have the chance of going awry.

"Tech, report."

"We still have another two and a half hours."

"How about we stop worrying about the time for a little while?" Rex suggests, briefly glancing back at them over his shoulder from where he leads.

"Hunter, how's this one?" Wrecker rumbles, prepared to pull back a door, his flashlight thoughtlessly shining over into the others' faces.

Hunter can feel the water on the other side, shifting and swirling with the outer currents circulating around the planet, begging for the door to let it in. He shakes his head. "Not that one, Wrecker. Let's try the next."

"Aww, come on!" The larger clone all but stomps away from the door. "Why are so many of them flooded?"

"We're underwater." Echo snips at him.

"Echo-" Hunter begins.

"-Don't worry, I'm sure the next one will be empty." Omega chirps, doing her best to disperse the tension between them. She's never liked it when the others are the slightest bit unhappy, especially with one another. Hunter admires that she can actually act on it and ease the others, something he's never really been able to do.

"Right. Okay." Hunter nods slowly. "Let's move onto the next room, then."

"Glad we're all on the same page here." Rex mutters with a sigh. "Azee, would you mind scouting ahead? Maybe get a number on how many doors we have left to cover in this wing?"

"Of course!" The little medical droid practically spins around in excitement at the prospect of being put to use. "Would you like me to scan for life forms as well?"

"Eh, why not." The captain shrugs. "I doubt you'll find anything, but it can't hurt to check anyway. Don't want anyone getting the jump on us."

"Understood." AZI turns from where he hovers in front of Rex and floats off, circuits whirring gently in his wake, though Hunter can hear them- and the scanner, once it starts up- down the hall. From what he's learned from their short time with the droid, it's a troublesome thing, and he makes sure to keep tabs on it.

That uncomfortable silence returns in full force as they continue forward. They check a couple of more devastated rooms, find an intact bacta tank that they are able to detach and hook up to a repulsorlift. They toss the few sparse items they've collected thus far inside- they'll have AZI transport them to the surface, just as he'd done with them the last time they were on world. It's risky, sure, but it worked once. It can again.

Hunter frowns when the droid stops counting, when he doesn't come back. He can hear AZI moving around- kriff, is he cutting something? He grits his teeth and hopes that the droid knows what he's doing. They'll catch up to him soon enough, anyway. They can deal with whatever he's getting into when they get that far.

"There's nothing here!" Wrecker whines after they check another room and come up empty.

"Or, someone beat us to it." Echo suggests.

"That is a possibility." Tech remarks. His armor glows under the beam of someone's light as it passes over him.

Hunter sighs as they exit back into the hallway. "Hate to say it, Captain, but I think this venture of yours is starting to look like a waste of time."

"Tell me about it." Rex grumbles, the slightest bit of disappointment filtering into his tone. "I wonder if that droid has found anything. He sure is taking a while to get back here."

"Honestly? I'm not sure what he's doing." He confesses. The cutting has stopped, and he can't hear anything other than the hum of the droid's circuits in one of the further rooms.

"Can I go look?" Omega asks, hopeful.

"No. You're staying with us."

The last thing they need is Omega wandering off and getting lost or thrown out into the ocean early. They're all still pretty wet from the swim down here, and none of them need to start the process of warming up over again. That, and, well, Hunter has sort of dedicated himself to protecting her at this point. Letting her out of his sight isn't the best idea, especially with her boundless curiosity and knack to find trouble.

She sighs. "Okay. I'll stay here."

"Thanks, kid." He murmurs.

They continue on, the bright beams that shoot out of their flashlights cutting eerily through the darkness, making the shadows swim and twist. Hunter tries not to think too hard about it. They are alone down here, he's certain of it. It's just them and AZI. Nothing else within these old durasteel walls can hurt them- nothing but the water which fills some of the rooms, and they're being more than careful regarding that matter.

Still, it feels wrong to be standing within the very walls of where they had been created, surrounded by nothing but flooded ruins and broken machinery. So many memories here, both good and bad…

Hunter keeps himself steady by honing in on the heartbeats of the others, letting the familiar throbbing buzz play like white noise at the back of his mind. Everyone's here, everyone's fine, nothing is going to happen. They're safe down here, beneath the dark, protective waves of Kamino's waters. He knows that.

But that doesn't stop his breath from catching in his chest when one of their lights halts on an open door up ahead on their right, even as he logically knows it's probably nothing.

"Azee?" Rex calls, his voice strong and stable. It always is.

"I am in here!" The droid chirrups, always sounding far too enthusiastic. His head pops out through the doorway, and pale white eyes shine yellow in the light. "I have found something!"

"What'd you find?" Hunter manages to ask.

"I have found,"the high-pitched voice lowers to a stage whisper,"a stasis chamber."

"What?" Several of them chorus, caught off-guard.

"I wanna see this!" Wrecker pushes past them from his position in the back, earning a couple of protests. His shoulder knocks against AZI as he passes through the doorway.

The others follow at a more reasonable pace. The room is as destroyed as the rest of them, tools and all sorts of gear thrown across the floor, with the only exception being the pod hung upright on the left wall. Hunter can feel Echo shiver at the mere sight of it, no doubt remembering his time on Skako Minor.

"What's a stasis chamber?" Omega asks, frowning at an overturned hovergurney.

"Stasis chambers are used to keep an individual alive for an extended period of time." Tech informs her. "Some models, like this one, keep the individual inside of them frozen."

"Wouldn't that be cold?" She wonders.

He shrugs. "They cannot feel it."

"Wait, look- it's still on." Echo blurts out.

Hunter casts his gaze to the vital reader panel and sees the muted green light of the monitor glaring at the ceiling. It is still on. "Huh. Odd thing to still have power."

"It is likely that it is running off of some sort of power generator." Tech surmises.

"Is there anything inside of it?" Rex demands.

"My scans have indicated that there is exactly one living being inside of it." AZI reports.

Echo doesn't hesitate. "Tech, get it open."

"Wait." Hunter stops the engineer half a step away from it.

"What?" Echo looks at him in disbelief. "Hunter, there's someone in there! We don't know how long he's been like this. We have to let him out."

"Listen, Echo, we don't know what's in there." Rex tries to placate him. "It might not even be another clone. It could be some animal. Do we really want to let something like that out? It could damage the facility-"

"-Forget the facility, Rex! It's a risk we have to take."

"Yeah, what if it is another clone?" Wrecker asks, shifting uncomfortably. "We can't just leave him here. It's not right."

"Well, we will not know until we open it." Tech points out, shedding his pack and pulling something out of it. "And, remember, we did bring a spare oxygen mask."

"We are not leaving anyone down here alone. It's not fair to whoever's inside that thing." It's clear that Echo isn't going to change his mind on this. And, looking down at Omega's near-pleading face, Hunter supposes that he and Rex are outvoted on the matter.

"Alright, alright, calm down." He reluctantly caves, resting a hand on the former-ARC trooper's shoulder. "Tech, open it."

Rex sighs. "I have a bad feeling about this."

The first thing he is aware of is the cold. It feels like the carbon freezing from the Lola Sayu mission all over again.

The next thing he becomes aware of is the sensation of falling.

A strangled yelp tears from his throat as his upper half folds over his lower half and he topples to the ground, landing in a heap. The air leaves his lungs, and- oh. There is no air.

Where am I? He wonders as he chokes, fear clawing at his chest as he tears his eyes open and drags them across the floor.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa- easy, brother." Someone presses an oxygen mask to his face and sits him up against something. "I got you. You alright?"

"Yeah. Th-thanks." He gasps, taking deep breaths as the pain in his chest begins to subside.

"What's your name, trooper? Wait-"

"Fives?"

His eyes narrow at the sound of his name, and he leans on the armored figure next to him as he rises to his feet. He lets his gaze rise, and he squints against the bright lights shining over at him- he recognizes the expression on the face that the voice came from, the look that only he can give. But the face, he doesn't recognize the face. So pale, so thin, so not him, hairless, surrounded by metal. Still, it has to be. No one else looks at him like that- no one else can.

"Echo?" Just saying the name triggers a flash of memory, and a fire springs up behind his eyes, an explosion. Grief rises anew and he shakes his head desperately. Why do I always see you wherever I go? "No…you're not- Echo's dead. I saw- the shuttle- the turrets-"

"Fives." Not-Echo says. He looks like he's staring at a ghost. "Fives. It's me. I'm alive."

"No…it's not- it's another trick!" He spits, jerking away from the man supporting him. "I saw you die. You- you're not here! I've seen you like this before, I know it isn't real, I saw-"

His tunnel vision shatters and reveals the figures holding the other lights. He sees red, running towards him, a pistol pointing at him. His chest burns. It hurts so, so bad…

He suddenly can't breathe, even with the mask.

"Red…No…No, no, no. Red- red is bad." He shakes his head again, begins to back away from them, hands raised in front of his chest. Not again, not again, not again…"S-stay back! Put down your weapons! Stay away from me!"

"Fives-" He jerks around to the man who had spoken, the one who had been beside him, and- thank the Force. Blue stripes, not red. Blonde hair, not black. That man, he recognizes. He'd recognize Rex anywhere.

Still, everything is too overwhelming, Rex looks horrified, and it's not helping.

"Rex, tell them- I- gah!" He growls into his fists in frustration and sinks to his knees on the floor that feels as cold as him. He can't do this. He can't. "Make them go. Please."

Fives watches Rex turn to look at the others, who have fallen silent, and refuses to look at them himself. Something shifts in the captain's eyes when he turns back to him and lowers himself to eye-level. He looks steady, like the anchor that was there for him after Rishi, after the battle of Kamino, after Lola Sayu and Umbara. He looks like Rex again. "They're not going to hurt you, Fives. No one is going to hurt you. I promise."

He laughs, broken and maniacal. "You promise? Promises- you can't trust them. Shaak-Ti, the Jedi, she promised me that everything was going to be fine. And then, the Kaminoan, she- she drugged me. And then- and then…"

There's a flash of blue, and he sees a clone laying on a medical gurney in a room like this one, a black tear under one eye- Tup. The tumor. The- the chips!

That same dreadful fear tears through him like the explosion that killed Echo. He grabs at Rex's cuirass. "The chips…Rex, the chips! W-we need to get rid of them. All of them! They- they could ruin everything! Everything we've fought for, everything we have- we have to destroy them!"

"Fives- Fives, listen to me!" Rex's hand snaps down on his shoulder, grabs on tight. "You need to calm down. We're working on getting rid of the chips, I promise. Look- see?" He turns his head, and points to a long, pink-white scar. "Mine's gone." He gestures towards the others. "Theirs are gone, too. You can trust us, Fives. We're working on helping the other brothers out there, too, you hear? It's going to be alright, vod, I mean it."

You really believed me…I…you listened to me. His eyes widen and he swallows around the lump in his throat as his breath finally begins to even out. He wants to cry in joy.

"Promise?"

"Yeah." Rex nods. "I promise."

Fives nods right back. "Okay. Okay, I trust you, Rex. Th-thank you. I trust you."

His captain's eyes are filled with concern, watching him, noticing the shivers that wrack his frame as the heat from the adrenaline fades and leaves him cold again. "You've been in stasis for a long time, Fives. How are you feeling?"

"Cold. And...and tired. What did I miss? Who- who are they?" He shudders. "They're not the Guard? The red...?"

"That's Clone Force Ninety-Nine. They're commandos, the best of the best." Rex explains. "They helped me find you. They're friends, I promise."

"Friends…I could do with some of those. I- they can stay. They're okay. Yeah, yeah…they're okay."

"Good, because they're our only ride out of here."

"Where are we, exactly?" Fives is finally able to ask, is finally able to manage to say something without sounding half out of his mind.

Rex opens his mouth to reply, but he doesn't get the chance.

"We are on Kamino, in what remains of Tipoca City." A high-pitched, robotic voice is the one to answer the question.

"In what remains of Tipoca City…? Rex, I need to know- wait, I know that voice." He shoves the dread aside and perks up as he turns to see past his captain. He can feel his own eyes light up at the sight of the yellow-white ones on the tiny mechanical body floating a few feet away. "Azee!"

Rex releases him and moves back as the medical droid brings itself forward. "Hello, Fives."

"You remember me…They didn't wipe your memory." He finds it within himself to produce a small smile. It feels good, smiling. "It's good to see you in one piece, old friend."

"You know Azee?" It's a child's voice that reaches his ears, coming from where Clone Force 99 is gathered. Fives is able to put aside his trepidation and turns towards them, watching as a small, blonde girl steps forward to approach him.

"Yeah. He- he helped me, when I was doing my research on the chips." He raises his hand to run across the light fuzz on the top of his shaved head and rest on the uncovered scar near his tattoo. "He took mine out for me, proved that all clones have them."

"Really?" Not-Echo drawls, peering at the droid in mild interest. "Why didn't he mention it?"

"Clone trooper Fives's research was unrelated to what we were doing." AZI replies with professional ease. "We were-"

"-Alright, that's enough." Rex smoothly cuts the droid off. "Fives, this is Omega. She's a clone, like us."

"Hello!" The blonde girl beams, waving.

Fives tilts his head and tries to grin back as he observes her. "Hey, kid."

She smiles brighter, her skin stretching beneath the oxygen mask, her small body almost vibrating with energy. She looks like the rest of his batch, when they were cadets, brown eyes happy and focused. "It's nice to meet you."

"You, too." He says.

He lets his gaze travel up, to roam over the other members of Clone Force 99. They all have their fair similarities to the normal clone base, but they're all so…different, each in their own way. One is huge, one has a half-skull tattooed into his face, one is lanky and has goggles, and then there's Not-Echo with a scomp arm. He's curious, he really is, but he's not about to question them about it. He's in no position to if he wanted to, anyway. "So, Clone Force Ninety-Nine, huh? I…see where you got the name from. I think he'd appreciate it."

"We like to think that he does." The tattooed clone murmurs, looking grieved for a moment. He shakes himself. "I'm Hunter, squad sergeant. The big guy is Wrecker, he's Tech, and that's, uh, that's Ricochet."

Each of them gives some physical acknowledgement as they're introduced. Not-Echo, Ricochet, grimaces through a shaky wave. Hunter flashes the man an apologetic look that Fives can't interpret the meaning of.

"I, ah…Sorry about my behavior." Fives offers lamely. "It wasn't my intention to hurt or scare any of you. It's just...been a rough few days for me. Everything with the chips and being hunted down…yeah. Can't help but to be on edge, you know? It's safer that way. Don't trust anyone, you won't get disappointed when they shoot you in the back. Or the chest…"

"You don't have anything to apologize for." Hunter tells him. He huffs a laugh as he glances at his squad. "Us? We're so different that no one likes us. We know how it feels, working on our own."

"Are you on the run, too?" He asks it before he can think it through. "Because you took out your chips?"

"Something like that, yeah. It's not easy, but we're managing. You wanna come along for the ride?"

"You'd really let me come with you?"

"Why not? We can take one more." Wrecker rumbles, standing tall, eyes shining in welcome.

Fives glances over the squad members. He doesn't see any objection. Ricochet looks nervous, sure, but Hunter has that steady look on his face that reminds him of Rex, and both Omega and Wrecker look excited about the idea. Even Tech gives him an approving nod.

They're all on the run, aren't they? All fugitives of the Republic? Right now, he needs people at his back, more than ever before. And here they are, extending the branch to him. He'd be a fool not to take this offer. Fives is no fool.

"Yeah, sure." He decides. "Better to stand together than alone, right?"

Wrecker surges forward and envelops him in a bone-crushing hug. "That's the spirit!"

"He couldn't even look at me..." Echo's the first to break the heavy silence surrounding the Havoc Marauder.

AZI had managed to prick Fives's neck with a sedative syringe while he'd been caught up in Wrecker's embrace. It hadn't taken him long to succumb to sleep after that, and they'd hauled him back up in the bacta tank, forgoing the rest of their search of the city.

Their findings left in the cargo hold and Fives resting in Crosshair's unused bunk, Rex had joined Hunter, Tech, and Echo in the cockpit, leaving Wrecker and Omega to watch over the sleeping ARC trooper. They've been back for nearly a quarter of an hour, silently processing what they had seen down there.

Rex sighs from where he leans up against the closed door. "He's been through a lot, Echo, trust me. I wasn't there for all of it, but what I saw…it was rough."

"Rex, you told me that Fives died." Echo finally addresses the bantha in the room, turning his chair toward the back of the cockpit with a small, accusing fire in his eyes. "How is he here?"

"I don't know. And, he did- he died in my arms." The captain shakes his head, at a loss. "But there's no mistaking that tattoo. I guess fate decided that it wasn't done with him yet."

"When he wakes up, what's he going to be like?" The cyborg asks Tech, the flame replaced with uncertainty.

"It is hard to say." Tech replies, just a little quieter than normal. "It appears that Fives has severe mental trauma from whatever it was that happened to him. From what I have deduced, his memories are...scattered, broken up into fragments and mixed around. I would not expect him to be in a much better state than the one we found him in earlier."

"Is there anything we can do that can make it easier for him?" Hunter murmurs.

He had been disturbed by Fives's behavior on a level of fear for his squad, yes, but it's clear that the man has really been through the wringer. To fear a color…it makes something painful ache in Hunter's chest. And not because this is Fives, who is the reason that Rex was able to help them remove their chips, to prevent another one of them going rogue like Crosshair and Wrecker…

That soldier, he had known what was going to happen before it did, he had known that there was something off about the Emperor before it had revealed itself to the Batch and the rest of the galaxy. He had known, and no one had believed him. No one but Rex, who had realized it at the very last moment, when all he could do was save himself and pick himself up to rummage through what was left behind. He deserves better. They all do- but especially him.

"We can't tell him about the Empire and what happened to the GAR." Rex says, voice low. "It'll destroy what's left of him."

"We can't keep it from him." Echo argues, eyes tired but hard in disapproval.

"He deserves to know, Echo, but Rex is right. You saw him." Hunter grimaces. "The color of our armor was almost too much for him. We can't keep it from him forever, but we might be able to wait until he's ready to hear it."

"I'm afraid that I must agree with Hunter and Captain Rex on the matter." Tech voices. "Fives's mental health is not stable enough to process the news correctly."

"Is there a correct way to process that everything you did was in vain?" Echo snaps.

"It doesn't matter." Rex decides. "Let's give him some time. We can tell him when we all agree that he's ready."

"How will we hide it from him?" Hunter asks the next big question. "You know the kind of work we do. He's going to ask questions."

No one has an answer for that.