Clever Fox part 3
Fox enters the barracks, Palpatine's words swarming in his head as he plops onto his bed. His eyes grow heavy under the helmet and he falls asleep. He awakes from his nightmare an hour later and breathes heavily. He gets up and looks at the clock. Shaking his head, he heads to the clone gym. He nods to the two troops talking in the hall on his way there. He opens the door and takes off his armor, carefully placing it on the bench. He walks up to the twenty-five foot tall climbing wall and starts climbing, refusing to wear the harness. He reaches the top and contemplates jumping off. He shakes his head, "What am I doing?" he climbs down and sits at the bottom, "It was a mistake. Everything. Just mistakes." he gets up and walks over to the computer in the wall. He plucks off the data pad attached to it and searches up Fives' file. He sits on the floor, "Perhaps he was already insane, or dangerous." he reads it for a good minute, then starts to cry. He trows it at the wall, smashing it, then covers his face with his hands, "You should have stood down... YOU SHOULD HAVE STOOD DOWN!"
The two guards in the hall stop talking and run in to check on why Fox was screaming, sobbing and shaking like a child. They look him over for injury, then one asks, "You okay, Commander?"
Fox calms down and answers, "D-don't call me that."
the trooper on the left gets up and looks at the broken data pad, then at Fox, "Sir. We should take you to the medical ward, just in case."
Fox steadies himself and looks at them, voice shaky, "No. g-get me a data pad."
"Yes... sir." he leaves Fox in the other trooper's care til he returns with a data pad. He hands it to Fox and he types something in.
"Thank you." he hands it back, "Send this message to Kamino."
"Yes, sir." he leaves. Fox slowly gets up and tells the trooper that he's getting some air.
The clone walks into the commander's office and sees Thire filling out a report. He hands it to him, "Commander Fox said to send this to Kamino. I don't think he's well."
"Is he detained?" Thire asked putting aside the data pad he was reading.
"No. But he was crying."
"Sounds like a few days on Naboo might help." Thire takes it and reads it. His eyes grow large in realization, then jumps up from the desk and puts on his helmet, "Get me six troops now!"
"Sir?"
"I said now, soldier!" he snaps. The trooper nods and taps the com. Seconds later a full clone transport lifts into the air. Thire shouts at the pilot the coordinates, then whispers to himself while looking down at the data pad that never left his hand, "Fox, you better be alive." he shouts at the troops as he pockets it, "Set your blasters to stun!"
Fox grabs the nearest forcefield controls and walks underneath the recently fixed forcefield generator that had Anakin and Rex previously imprisoned. He clicks the button and it turns on. White beams of energy circles him in slow interlaced curves, cutting the controls' cord. Fox tosses it aside and pulls out his weapon, sets it to kill and shakily points it under his chin. He starts apologizing and sobbing, trigger finger wavering. Voices were heard coming towards him, mixed, inaudible. A thousand thoughts go swirling in his mind, til it latched on to one. A very important question. Thire and his men run in and one shoots the forcefield generator, shutting it off. Then Thire shoots Fox with a stun blast. He motions his men to pick him up, "Be careful. He's still our commander." they pick him up and slowly take him back into the ship.
In the infirmary, a medical droid walks up to Fox as he wakes up, "Good morning, CC-1010. How was your nap?"
Fox shakes his head, mumbling something incoherent as he tugged at his restraints. It turns to a concerned Thire who walks over, "He will be fine. But I would recommend sending him back to Kamino for a mental evaluation."
"No kidding." he glares down at Fox, "You handed in a suicide note and then tried shooting yourself behind a forcefield. What were you thinking, Commander?!" he asked as the droid injects a needle into Fox's neck.
"This should keep him calm for a while." It said removing it.
Fox slowly shakes his head as it took effect, then looks at Thire and asks, "I read Fives' records. He helped saved Kamino, stood up to a firing squad, and stood against the traitorous clone killer's orders. He asked questions no one else would. Someone like that wouldn't have attacked Palpatine without a deathly good reason. I shot an good man..." he tears up, "I shot him."
Thire thinks for a moment, then answers, "We all make mistakes, Commander." Fox lets go and looks away.
the droid puts the needle on the tray and states, "The Commander will be sedated until the Kaminoans arrive."
he nods, "I suggest you drop this case, for your own health, sir."
Fox waits for Thire to leave, then weakly orders, "Scan my head."
the droid tilts it's head in thought, then answers, "I do not understand..."
He tries sitting up, "Physically scan my head and match it to a regular human prisoner. If something is off, let me know. Be through."
The droid nods and does a scan, then walks over to a coma patient on the other end of the room, then walks up to a computer. It taps away for a good six minutes before coming back, "I have found something."
"What?" Fox asked having gotten extremely groggy. It shows him a small, flat anomaly on the inside of his skull, right up next to his right temporal lobe, "This was not in the other human, but it is in you."
"Remove it."
"Sir. If I remove it, it may cause more pro..."
"Do it!" Fox snapped starting to lose consciousness, "I want... to know... why... Fives... removed... his." his eyes flutter shut and he gives one more order before slipping under, "Wake... me... when... it's... done."
The droid nods and gets to work.
Thire taps the com as he enters Fox's tiny office. Lama Su appears as a hologram and he looked a bit surprised, "May I help you, clone?"
Thire takes his helmet off to show his concern, "I'm calling about CC-1010. He is in need of a mental evaluation. I fear he may no longer be fit for duty." his voice lowered on the last bit.
The Kaminoan nods, "What did CC-1010 do for you to bring this to my attention?"
"He..." his posture tenses, "almost committed suicide. I fear that his... investigation into CT... Fives' death... has made him unstable."
the Kaminoan raises an eyebrow, then nods, "I will send someone to retrieve the Commander. As well as supply a new one."
Thire tenses more, "Thank you, sir." The com cuts off and tears form in his eyes. He slams a fist into the wall and slides to the ground, sobbing like a child, "I don't want a new Commander! I want Fox." then pulls his knees to his chin to hide his quivering lip.
The droid injects Fox with a needle, waking him up. It picks up and holds a small glass slide with an inhibitor chip to his groggy face, "Is this what you were hoping to find?"
Fox takes it, rolls it in his hand, then drops it on his chest. It takes it back as he asks, "Is this in everyone's heads?"
"Unknown. I will have to scan all clones."
Fox points at it, "If Fives had it and I have it, we all have it. Scan the chip's data." the droid nods and walks away. Fox looks at his restraints and starts twisting the chain.
It comes back ten minutes later and hands it back, "It appears to be an inhibitor chip with reprogramming capabilities."
"Reprogramming? To do what?" he asks trying to sit up, clearly getting his voice back.
"Unknown. I am a medical droid, not a computer." it answered forcing him to lie down. It takes the chip and sets it in the tray.
He stares at the chip on the tray for awhile, then orders, "Get me some water." It obeys and leaves the room. Fox twist one last time and pulls hard, snapping it off the bed rail. He slides out of bed and hobbles over to the tray. He grabs the chip and puts it in his pocket, then leaves in a wobbly hurry.