"Meet me in briefing room A-thirteen, eleven hundred hours. I have a mission for you."

The call from General Skywalker had come while Rex was listlessly trying to finish his breakfast. There was no other explanation before the link on his new comm went dead. Now, back in his battered armor, Rex found General Skywalker waiting for him out in the hallway.

"Right on time." The general met him halfway, looking tired, but grimly pleased.

"Sir," Rex said, coming to attention once the distance was closed between them.

"I'm sure you have some questions, Rex," Skywalker said, and dropped his voice to an urgent whisper, "but the most important thing is to act like you're completely ready for this mission. Your arm is fine, got it? It's fine. Now, let's get inside and we can start this briefing."

"Understood, sir," Rex said, feeling disoriented. He did not understand at all.

Inside the briefing room, an indigo Chagrian stood waiting, dressed in earthy red-brown robes. The Chagrian had no horns, only the two lethorns draped over the chest: female then. Rex wondered if she was a Jedi or not. Otherwise, the chamber was empty. Skywalker locked the door.

"Rex, this is Agent Soltam, from Republic Intelligence. Agent Soltam, this is Captain Rex."

Rex's mouth opened and closed as he wondered whether mentioning his demotion would be wise.

"Former Captain," Skywalker corrected himself in a more subdued tone. "Slated for reconditioning."

"Ah… yes, sir, that's right," Rex said quietly. It made him nervous, not knowing how much he could say, or even why silence was required.

"A clone who will no longer exist," said Agent Soltam. Her voice was much more pleasant than her fierce-looking appearance had led Rex to expect, and her accent was surprisingly smooth. "Yes, I know what the word means. Be thankful, clone; this is why you are perfect for this mission. Let me explain."

She turned to the hologram console and called up an image of a ship Rex had never seen before. It resembled a Praetor-class battlecruiser, doubled up and welded together, with a huge array on the back end.

"This is yet another Separatist super-weapon." Soltam almost looked amused. "They have constructed something known as a superlaser array. They have attempted to dramatically boost the destructive power of the more commonly known technology which has been used in ore mining and demolition for quite some time. Lucky for us, the construction of the weapon has encountered one problem after another. Even now, our inside intelligence assures us that its fearsome appearance disguises the instability of its construction. They are pushing it before its completion. Nevertheless, it does work, and when it does, it has enough firepower to obliterate a small moon in a single shot. It can never be allowed to engage in battle with our ships or enter Republic space. And we cannot risk approaching it in detectable vessels, as the Separatists are unaware we know of its existence, and that can't be compromised without a guarantee of the weapon's destruction."

Agent Soltam was still wearing a grim smile at the Separatists' increasing audaciousness, but Rex didn't see what was so amusing about any of it. All he could think about was how much the war effort was still limping along because he hadn't completed his mission fast enough.

"We must destroy it now before it enters their active navy. Our best option for flying deep into Separatist space and taking it down is via a one-man vessel. The vessel will emit a Vulptereen trace and be unnotable as it passes through the region. Once in the vicinity of the super-weapon, the pilot—that's you, trooper—will eject in a small iridium-lined pod capable of remaining undetectable to the ship's systems. This pod will be set on a precise trajectory to pass close by their ship, and from then on, all live pod systems will be irreversibly terminated as you approach; you will appear as nothing more than random debris. You will abandon the pod once nearest to the ship and transfer to its hull. From there, you will access an external maintenance hatch on the side of the array and plant a modified form of their own virus. They've taught us a great deal about such technology in their efforts to destroy our fleet, and this will take full advantage of their array's flaws. In fact, you can thank ARC-Zero-Four-Zero-Eight for this little piece of software. Before him and his squad joined you, they were working for us."

Rex stared at Soltam, then at Skywalker. Both wore carefully neutral expressions.

"You seem to have a question, trooper," said Soltam.

"Yes, sir," Rex said. "I don't understand why this mission is being given to me specifically. You seem to be saying I'm particularly suited to it, but it seems too important for Intelligence to trust to just anyone, let alone a… clone… who has been deemed unfit for duty."

"This is a one-way mission," said Soltam simply. "When conceiving of a plan to destroy this ship, the only problem we could not solve was the extraction. If we eliminate the need to extract our man, the mission is simple. A stealthy approach becomes relatively easy. In all aspects, the mission is more likely to succeed if there is no expectation of survival. This also eliminates the possibility of capture, as the result will be quite… explosive. We need someone with the experience of a veteran officer for this to succeed, but we can't afford to send anyone whose advanced skills are still required elsewhere."

"I see." Rex put his hand on the console of the holoprojector.

"It's an option, Rex," Skywalker said quietly, his forehead creased. "It's a chance to be remembered as a hero."

"If you do not accept," Soltam said, "we will have no choice but to take another experienced officer away from the front lines."

"Understood," Rex said. He turned to face Soltam more squarely, guilt and gratitude clashing inside him. "Given the choice between being reconditioned and dying in service to the Republic… there is no choice, sir. I accept the mission."

Soltam grinned. "Very good, Rex. You will have to be very precise in plotting the trajectory of the vessel we will provide you and in timing when to shut it down so that you are not detectable once in range of their sensors. The necessary calculations will be included in your mission file. The most dangerous part will be the transfer onto the ship's hull, but you will be equipped with a jet pack, so you will be able to compensate if you overshoot your target. After that, it is a simple matter of placing the virus in the terminal we have specified in the file. You will not be in communication with anyone once you enter Separatist space. We will only know if you have succeeded when our informant reports Separatist awareness of the explosion."

"Yes, sir."

"General Skywalker assures me that you are able to focus on this mission, as there will not be any distractions." Soltam held out a datapad for Rex to review. "True?"

Rex nodded sharply. "I will follow your instructions to the letter, Agent Soltam."

"That is always so good to hear." Again that amused look. "We have a rendezvous with the rest of the navy in sixteen hours, which is when we will pick up the vessel you will be piloting. Please bring up any questions you may have before then."

"I will, sir."

Agent Soltam left the room, and Rex looked down at the datapad, then back up at General Skywalker, who had made no move to leave the room yet.

"General," Rex began, unsure of what to say. "I… appreciate this."

"Well, it was the least I could do." Skywalker folded his arms. "You can do this, right? Your shoulder's healing?"

"It won't get in the way, sir." Rex rolled his injured shoulder a little to disperse the perpetual aching stiffness.

"Good. I'll let you review that." Skywalker indicated the datapad and turned to go.

"Thank you, sir," Rex said, and Skywalker paused, a cautious grimace on his face.

"Don't thank me yet."

…

From the observation deck, Rex had seen them arrive: the many smaller battle ships carrying the 212th Battalion. He had new armor—standard rookie, blank and white, but not exactly shiny; its previous owner must not have needed it anymore. Echo and Diode Squad had left sometime while he'd been asleep. Physically, Rex was ready to leave, and he would be leaving, soon. The one-man vessel was there in the hangar, tucked inside a slightly larger lightspeed-capable vessel he would take to the edge of Separatist space.

Dwelling on these details was all his mind could do to make it seem real. Or perhaps that was what made it seem unreal. To a part of him, this was just like any other mission: if he was prepared, he had a better chance of success. But the rest of him, the slowly suffocating majority which felt the passing of each second as being one second less for him to live, understood that it was not. And down there, in the hangar, was the last thing that would give way to make it final, and real, and different from all the other missions he'd faced so far.

Cody stood next to Obi-Wan, a tiny white and goldenrod figure, talking and gesturing easily as the rest of his men disembarked with their wounded. Rex pulled his eyes away and turned to make the walk down, each step taking him forward faster than he expected down a hallway which seemed endless… into the lift that pulled his heart into his throat in a way it never had before, and didn't let it back down even after he stepped out.

His body moved on its own, and he was a passenger, letting it carry him forward before this small window of time, this one crucial moment, was wasted.

"—managed to patch up a good number of them on the way. Tucker does good work, General, but it's a good thing we—" Cody cut off and turned his head, and Rex stopped, wondering distantly what sort of expression he had on his face right now. He tried to keep it neutral, but he couldn't know for sure.

"Captain Rex," Kenobi said. "Something to report?"

"No, sir. I was interested in how the assaults are going."

"As well as can be expected," said the general.

Rex nodded and walked away just enough to indicate that there was no urgency to his presence, pretending that he was just watching the 212th disembarking as something to fill the time. He couldn't shake the feeling that everything he was seeing was a carefully scripted act. His part of it certainly was.

Cody glanced at him between the lines of his conversation with General Kenobi, and Rex made sure his face was neutral since he couldn't manage a smile.

At last, General Kenobi went off to find Skywalker, and Cody walked up to join him, the default formality of his expression opening into amazement and concern.

"Rex! I heard you were out of commission for a while." Cody's voice had a nervous edge. "I didn't expect you to be back on the front lines so soon. Did they destroy your armor? Where's your pauldron?"

"Oh… yeah. Yeah, I got shot in the chest… and the shoulder."

As he turned, and Cody followed him out of the hangar, Rex felt as if he were trespassing in someone else's dream. Like a ghost, he was invisible and unfitting, just inhabiting the body that was speaking to Cody now.

"Everything alright?" Cody asked.

I'm still alive, right? Rex almost said. "Yeah."

"It's a good thing you're so hard to kill," Cody laughed, and Rex's skin prickled coldly. "Same shoulder as on Saleucami?"

"Yeah," Rex said, laying a hand over his mostly-healed wound. "I guess it is." He wondered how many of his injuries Cody remembered so specifically, and was struck by how his brother was always watching out for him, even when they weren't serving together.

"I got a few scrapes on New Bornalex," Cody said, "but it really wasn't so bad fighting down there… once I showered all the mud off from when we re-took Ord Radama."

"You had to take Ord Radama all over again?" Rex followed Cody out of the hangar and then took the lead down the corridor toward his quarters. A spear of guilt wedged itself in his ribs.

"Ahh, it was easy." Cody made a gesture like brushing away a fly. "They didn't have enough time to really build up the same numbers and infrastructure as before, so we wiped them out in a few hours. Where you headed?"

"Quarters." Rex glanced at Cody, hoping he wouldn't question it. He decided not to give him the chance. "Get bitten by any Devlikks?"

"Uh. No." Cody raised an eyebrow at Rex. "Why would a Devlikk attack me? They don't want the seppies on Ord Radama any more than we do."

"Well, anything that lives on a swamp planet is just waiting for the right moment to eat you." It was a relief to Rex when his voice sounded appropriately light, despite the way his throat felt taut. "At least, that's what you assumed when we were cadets."

"What?" Cody laughed sheepishly. "Come on, Rex, you can't bring that up now. That was years ago! Besides, even if that snake was harmless, I did get caught in quick sand, remember? And my suit was leaking so my boots were full of sludge and I couldn't pull them out… was it really that far off to say that the swamp was trying to eat me?"

"It was the way you said it." Rex wished this were a normal day, a normal conversation. If he could just know this wasn't their last day together, the pure relief might be enough to make him attempt a ridiculous, exaggerated impression of how Cody panicked back then. If nothing else, it would make Cody laugh, and he wanted to hear that.

For a moment Rex was tempted to count out how many years, how many weeks and days they'd known each other. But he didn't remember the exact date of their first meeting.

"You remember when we first started training together?" he asked, buying time.

"Course I remember." Cody smirked. "But what part? The part where you accused me of being the Master Chief's favorite?"

"I never actually said that."

"Right." Cody put on an overly thoughtful look. "What was it you said? Oh yeah. You just said—" his voice became stilted and overly formal, his arms stiff as planks at his sides. "'I was told that you were one of the best. I guess that's why you're allowed to take so many risks.'"

The impression of his former self was so accurate that Rex laughed weakly. "What you were doing was risky."

"You mean when I gave my suggestions on how to improve our training exercises?"

"I'd never even considered giving suggestions to a commanding officer before," Rex admitted. "But… it was also the fact that you came up with a plan to jump onto the back of a destroyer droid and ride it through an explosion so its ray shield would protect you—"

"Hey," Cody said with a crooked grin. "I was preparing you for General Skywalker. I just didn't know it yet."

"Yeah." Rex shook his head, brought back to the present with a sick jolt at the thought of his general. "Guess you were."

"I never put you into any unusual hardship with my independent thinking, did I?" Cody nudged him gently with his elbow. "Even back in the day when I was more of a hotshot."

"You act like we weren't the same rank during training." Rex was amazed at how easily he could teasingly scoff at Cody's attitude while feeling so unreal.

"Well, I watched out for you, right? You were just so quiet and formal all the time. But then… you watched out for me, too." Cody's smile softened. "Got me out of trouble when I got ahead of myself. Like that time I fell into that hole in the canyon. I still can't believe you wouldn't listen to me."

"You weren't in any position to order me around. It was your idea to take a shortcut. I said I thought it was a bad idea."

"Right, so why risk failing the assignment? We were under a time limit, remember? And I ordered you to take the rest of the men straight on through and leave me behind. And I was pretty well hidden, so the enemy wouldn't find me."

"We were a team," Rex said stubbornly, struck by a vague, uneasy connection. "We were supposed to complete the mission together. As I remember, I got extra points for my idea to commandeer the speeders we used to get you out of there. Didn't we finish even faster than we would have before?"

"Well, yes, but… you didn't know that would work. It was a much bigger risk than taking the base before sending someone back for me."

"It had to work, so I made it work," Rex said, realizing all too well that such a motto couldn't always be followed.

Cody laughed under his breath and put a hand lightly on Rex's uninjured shoulder, just for a moment. "That's the first thing I really noticed about you, you know. Even back then, you were so… indomitable. Once you've made up your mind about what to do, you charge right in and nothing can stop you." Cody made a sharp forward gesture with his arm, echoing the sign to advance into battle. "At first I thought you were so over eager to follow orders to the letter that you'd get yourself killed right away. But then… you proved again and again that you're made of tougher stuff than I expected." Cody's smile had softened, his eyes staring up a bit as if seeing it all in his mind's eye. "And you had some good ideas too, once you loosened up and actually started talking to people."

"Oh yeah?" Rex asked, desperate to keep the subject off how invincible he supposedly was—at least until they were out of the hallway. "Like what?"

"Is this a contest?" Cody laughed. "Well, let me think…. There was that time you got suspicious of me while we were doing all-terrain survival training on Kesh. I was scouting in the tundra for food sources and got distracted by the lights from the geomagnetic storm. You thought I was purposely ignoring my comm link."

"No I didn't."

"You said you did!" Cody insisted.

"I only said that because I was angry," Rex admitted. "I was thinking you'd gotten killed, or incapacitated just like Quickdraw, and then I see you sitting on a rock staring up at the sky like you didn't have a care in the world. What else was I supposed to think? But then we figured out that the power cells in all our equipment had been fried by the storm."

"And you figured out that our communicators could still send a transmission using the energy from the storm, even without their power cells. That way we could update the Master Chief about our situation, let her know that Quickdraw was in critical condition." Cody grinned, shaking his head. "I still don't understand how you figured that out."

"I was just paying attention at the right time," Rex sighed. The door to his quarters was ahead and he wondered how he could possibly say what needed to be said, and bring this review of their lives to an end.

"That's half of what being a good soldier is about," Cody shrugged. "And to think I made fun of you for trying to use a dead comm. Turns out it wasn't so dead after all. I think about that a lot, actually, in battles, when things aren't going so well." Cody's voice turned thoughtful. "Sometimes if you just hold out a little longer, instead of rushing desperately to the next opening, the solution shows up on its own. Sometimes even saves a life."

"Hmm." Rex paused before opening the door. "I didn't realize you ever thought any differently."

"Oh yeah," Cody said half-jokingly. "That's why I always had to come up with so many ideas, see—back then, I didn't always have the stubbornness or the strength to just hold out until I could win a straightforward victory."

"Yeah?" Rex couldn't quite manage a smile at Cody as he shut the door behind them. "But sometimes holding out too long gets you killed, and it's useful to have a backup plan, even if it is a crazy one. That's a lesson I should have learned earlier."

For a half second, Cody's eyes bored into his and Rex thought Cody knew what he meant—the things he'd learned on Umbara, and which had driven him now to this end. But then Cody laughed a little.

"Come on, Rex. You've loosened up a lot since the day we met." Cody lifted a hand as if to clap him on the back, but then dropped it, remembering his wounds. "I am curious where we would be if we hadn't gotten to know each other so well in training…."

"Probably dead," Rex said, without thinking.

"What?" Cody laughed again. "What makes you say that?"

"Oh…." Rex glanced around, considering. "Well… you know. We've had our share of close calls."

"Yeah. We watch each other's backs. And I guess your precision and stubbornness rubbed off on me a little," Cody admitted. "That has saved my neck a few times."

"And if I'd stayed so rigid," Rex said, "who knows what situations I would have just… stayed standing in, not realizing that sometimes it's necessary to give suggestions or… strong objection to a commanding officer. Or break from the original plan." Rex stopped himself there, cold.

The temptation was strong to lead from this into telling Cody everything. But he knew it wasn't safe for him to tell Cody about the conspiracy; there was no guarantee that Cody would believe any of it without seeing it for himself, and the thought of Cody looking at him with revulsion in his eyes was something he couldn't stand to imagine. He cast about desperately for something else to say.

"And I… get along better with everyone now," Rex added haltingly, "than I did as a cadet."

"That's General Skywalker as well," Cody acknowledged. "But… I do remember you started having a sense of humor just a little while before we graduated…."

"What do you mean?" It wasn't hard to put on what Cody would certainly take as an overly serious look.

"Don't you remember that night we were camping out, waiting to be picked up off… where was that again? Oh yeah, Rothana."

"Right." Rex remembered. "We had just finished learning all the specs of the AT-TEs and other vehicles at the factory there… took a few for a test drive up the cliff, had some drills in the snow… and then we were told to take guard duty shifts outside the refinery."

"Telling stories to pass the time." Cody sighed, smiling. "Mostly about narrow escapes when things went wrong during all-terrain training. Most of our stories weren't that exciting… hypothermia, or getting stung by a poisonous insect… but then it came around to you and you said—"

"I made up some ridiculous story about getting eaten by a sando aqua monster."

Cody laughed. "But you told it with this face, and this voice, like—like it was completely true, and—!"

"And you were so convinced I would never joke about something like that, you got angry with 2701 when he said I was lying." Rex smiled. He could picture it so well, their faces all lit by the glow of the heat lamp they were huddled around inside the tent—the wind whipping snow up against the flaps. Sudden warmth spread through his chest and threatened to rise into his face.

"Right! But then, once I got him to shut up, I asked you how you got out, and you started to explain something about how you climbed back up its throat with a grappling hook… and you started laughing."

"I felt kind of bad, actually," Rex admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "You were so embarrassed."

"Well, you sure didn't act like it," Cody huffed mockingly. "You laughed even harder!"

"I tried to stop once you ran outside," Rex said, some part of him almost wanting to laugh again at the memory. "But then you came back in and dumped snow on my head."

"It worked." Cody shrugged with a smirk.

"Yeah, because my hair was soaked and my neck was freezing."

"You got me back later." Cody waved a hand. "We're even."

"You were suspicious of everything I said for a while after that," Rex mused.

"But you were smart enough not to try it again until I least suspected it."

Rex shook his head. "I was just… surprised you had so much faith in me. I didn't want to take that too lightly."

"You never take anything too lightly." Cody rolled his eyes, but he was smiling. "Except when we go out drinking sometimes."

"I think that has more to do with the company than the drinking," Rex shrugged. He couldn't take his eyes off Cody's face, trying to watch for the perfect moment, the right opportunity to make his move, aware that he was stalling, desperate to stay in this moment where the simplicity of brotherhood encompassed everything. He took a deep breath to force himself to speak, stomach lurching—

"Well, you like to have fun with the rookies, I guess," Cody admitted. "When we were doing all those inspections, you were teasing the men at Pastil so much. And then you pulled that stunt with the droid head at the Rishi outpost—I can't believe that worked. You must have been really bored."

"Ah… it was fun, actually," Rex sighed, "doing those inspections. A nice break from the front lines, just you and me and a bunch of shinies. There was still plenty of excitement to go around."

"Yeah." Cody lifted his arm, which was blinking. "Cody here."

Rex's throat constricted again. He'd wasted too much time.

"I need you up on the bridge right away." It was General Kenobi's voice.

"On my way, sir," said Cody, and switched off the channel. "Hey. We'll catch up some more later, okay?"

For a desperate moment Rex tried to force it out: I'm being sent on a suicide mission. But Cody had to go—the time had passed. He'd have to find a moment later or never at all.

Cody paused by the door. "Okay?" he repeated.

"Yeah," Rex said, hoping there would be time… part of him guiltily hoping there wouldn't be.

Cody left the room and the door slid shut behind him. Rex closed his eyes and pictured himself back in that tent, or under the colored, waving lights of the storm on Kesh, remembered how he'd felt so startled by Cody's defensiveness on his behalf, and all the times Cody had pulled him into conversations almost against his will. The way he had at first felt insulted at Cody's advice or attempts to share blame for Rex's rare mishaps on the training ground… then grateful as he recognized these as gestures of friendship.

If he looked back on his life like one continual picture from his mind's eye, spread out in segments, there was so little richness before his training with Cody had begun. He pictured his batchers, making jokes and rough-housing, himself sitting separate and aloof, or calling them out on their childishness. But the mutual respect he'd found with Cody was something that made room for happiness, even silliness at times. Or—something he couldn't share fully even with General Skywalker—doubt, and grief. He remembered meeting up with Cody after their first missions, sharing numbers and guilt.

Rex knew that once he was dead, he would have no sense of losing all of that history, that strength. He wouldn't need it anymore. But Cody… he would have to go on living a lesser life than what had been stitched together between them. Rex sat down on the bed and exhaled harshly; he put his head in his hands. Thirteen years of life, and nearly half of those so much fuller than all the rest. Cody knew how to reach out to others, Rex told himself. He would be okay.

For a while, he couldn't move from that spot, immobilized by the realization of all that he was losing, overwhelmed by the knowledge that all of this would be meaningless if Echo didn't succeed. He had failed everyone. I did what I could. I did this to save them, he reminded himself firmly, and silently repeated it, again and again, to keep despair at bay.

…

Rex opened the door. It was dark inside. Cody was asleep—the only one in the small commander's quarters. He didn't stir when the door shut behind Rex, probably exhausted from all the fighting.

The sudden silence and containment of the room compared to the subdued but constant bustle out in the halls struck Rex hard. He had come down to the last second. There could be no more delaying. The distant feeling he'd lived with for the past few hours threatened to fade as he knelt in front of Cody's bed and studied his sleeping face. He set his old helmet gently on the floor.

Cody's brow was slightly furrowed as he lay on his back. Rex wondered how often he had the nightmares. Cody's bare left hand lay loosely at his side, half curled, palm-down, and it twitched a little when Rex laid his own gloved hand on it.

"Cody," Rex tried to say, but his breath caught, so he had to try again. "Cody." It came out loud, and Cody started at the sound of Rex clearing his throat.

"What?" Cody's eyes fixed on him in the dark. He sat up and scanned the room with a wary alertness, which turned to alarm when Rex put his hand again on Cody hand, where it rested on his knee. "What's wrong?"

"Sorry." Rex withdrew his hand, eyes steady on him. "You're probably tired, but… I'm leaving in a few minutes. I don't have much time."

"Time for what?" Cody's eyes flicked over Rex's blank armor, as if noticing it again for the first time; his face went a little slack. "Where are you going?"

"I'm being… well," Rex swallowed and tried again. "My last mission… went all wrong. I wanted to tell you earlier. But…."

Cody stared at him, eyes widening.

"General Skywalker was ordered to send me for reconditioning." Rex was amazed at the calm monotone of his own voice. The few moments he'd spent mentally rehearsing that line out in the hall might have helped.

"No… Rex," Cody breathed, turning his head slightly. "That… that can't be right…!"

Rex exhaled slowly and shook his head a little, never taking his eyes off him.

Anger and fear seized Cody's face; he lunged to his feet. Rex stood up too and caught him by the wrist, irrationally afraid that Cody would leave before he could finish.

"You? Reconditioned? Wh—but—that's ridiculous!" Cody clenched his other fist. "You're General Skywalker's right hand! You've survived and won more battles than—than some commanders I know… how can they…how can General Skywalker stand for this?!"

"Cody," Rex said heavily. "That's… not everything. He gave me a choice. I've been given one last mission. So I can die in service to the Republic." He swallowed, watching Cody's face earnestly for understanding—seeing it crash through. Cody gripped Rex's wrist convulsively with his other hand, just inside where the armor met his glove.

"No," Cody hissed, his face falling. "You? You're the one going on this suicide mission?"

"Yeah," Rex nearly whispered, feeling again the cold certainty of death. "It was my choice. Reconditioning… it's just how the Kaminoans talk about terminating us. It's a death sentence, and maybe even if it wasn't, I'd rather go out this way. As… as a soldier in the line of duty."

"I don't understand," Cody whispered, his voice tightening as his face constricted in pain. "I don't understand how this could happen to you! You're a captain! You—"

"I endangered the mission," Rex murmured, struggling to keep his eyes from slipping down in shame. "I couldn't focus. I nearly failed the entire navy… you, everyone on the front lines. I'm not fit for duty anymore. This… this is my last chance to make up for that."

Cody exhaled a breath he must have been holding, and inhaled with a sharp hiss, shaking his head. His grip on Rex's wrist was hard, his eyes glancing away fitfully.

"I…" Cody swallowed. "I had no idea it was so bad…."

Rex stood, helpless to defend himself, even for Cody's sake.

"It was all too much I guess, after a while," Rex sighed. "I let it all get to me… I don't know how it happened, just that… after Fives was killed…." His voice shook alarmingly and he stopped, tried again after a second in a flatter tone. "Everything reminds me of it… I wake up almost every night feeling sick from the nightmares… sometimes, I can't even enjoy target practice because…." He trailed off, thinking of how Fives had held his pistol just before being shot by Fox—how he had killed his own brothers with them, on Umbara, and how always, in his dreams, they were there in his hands, shooting down the Jedi.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Cody asked desperately, his voice and face straining with shock. "I could have helped… I could have done something…!"

"I'm sorry," Rex said weakly. "I didn't think it would go this far…I thought I could handle it… just… force myself to focus. It always worked before."

"I-I should have known!" Cody stammered, suddenly angry. "I should have noticed something was wrong! You weren't sleeping—you were on leave, you told me you weren't feeling right—you did tell me, and you… you went to talk to Kenobi, that was about this, wasn't it? I can't believe I didn't realize—"

"Cody," Rex broke in, more sharply than he meant to. He couldn't stand hearing Cody blaming himself. "There's nothing you could have done! There's… nothing you can do now, either. I'm no good to the army anymore. I just… I just wanted to say goodbye."

Cody recoiled, horror crumpling his face, but he didn't let go. Rex's hand was tingling from the pressure of Cody's fingers on his wrist. He looked pale, deep lines forming between his eyebrows. The scar by his eye stood out, distorted slightly by his expression.

"I can't." The words squeezed out of Cody's throat, between clenched teeth. "I can't just…."

"We both knew this day would come, didn't we?" Rex managed to keep his voice steady. "Every time one of us left for a battle. We knew this would happen someday."

Cody shook his head as if trying to chase away a bad dream. "Not like this." It was barely audible.

"We're lucky," Rex insisted, trying to convince himself that it was true. "How many of us get to choose our end? Especially for me to have this option after I've failed the Republic? How many of us get to say goodbye to our brothers? How many others would want this chance?"

"Not like this," Cody just repeated stiffly, shoulders slumped, as if begging the universe for a miracle.

Rex knew what he meant. It was harder this way, to be shunted out of existence as something shameful, a broken weapon that had no value otherwise. It was harder to accept that it was a necessary part of war, or blame it on the seppies, or the clankers, or even just bad luck. He didn't know if it was bad luck that he was losing his mind, or if it was a personal defect of his. Maybe there were just some things that would make anyone sick like this, even clones bred to handle the usual horrors of the battlefield.

And it was one thing to face your helplessness to prevent death after it had already happened. It was another to hold a dying brother in your arms and watch the life leave him. It seemed like there had to be something you could do… but there was nothing, in fact. The one you were holding was as firmly out of your reach before he'd breathed his last as after. The only difference was that in those few seconds, you could still say goodbye.

"Listen to me, Cody," Rex said, around the lump in his throat. "You can handle this. You're going to be fine." He tried to force an optimistic note into his constricted voice. "This is where you belong…." He took a deep breath. "It's… like General Kenobi told me. Your duty is to the living. The ones who can still fight. I have to do this… and you… have to let me go…."

"No." It slipped out of Cody like a breath he was trying to hold again. He lurched forward, and for a moment Rex's hand was free, and then Cody's arms were around his shoulders, crushing him in a painful hug. He could feel Cody's hair brushing against his ear, could hear the shaky breathing. "No, no…."

Slowly, Rex leaned forward a bit and returned the embrace, feeling Cody's lungs expanding through the fabric of his own gloves and Cody's under suit. As he absorbed the unusual sensation of another person's living, unarmored body moving with breath, encompassed in his arms, his own breathing threatened to match Cody's, and his eyes grew hot. This would be the last time he ever heard Cody's voice—the last time they were in the same ship, even the same part of the galaxy, let alone this close together. After the years they'd spent together, in training, in battles, the brief, little moments of happiness in between… those little moments were everything. Rex wished he could describe exactly what that meant.

"Cody," he said shakily, not even sure what would come out of his mouth next.

"I know…" Cody said weakly between breaths. "I know… I have to accept this… but…."

Rex swallowed and tried to focus on the good memories, the fact that he had been lucky enough to have a brother he had shared this much with, for this long. But it hurt. He didn't want to let go, either.

Slowly, though, he did.

Cody took longer. He rocked back and stood stiffly on his own two feet again. Rex saw the defeated look on his face. He wanted to promise that he'd find a way to survive—but he couldn't.

"I have to go," Rex said quietly.

Cody swallowed visibly, jaw clenched and quivering.

Rex didn't know what to say—how to break it off. They stood staring at each other for several seconds before he remembered one last thing he'd meant to do. He went to where his old helmet was resting on the floor and picked it up to bring to Cody.

"If… you want," he offered. "I can't bring it with me."

Cody took it without hesitation. His jaw moved as if he were trying to find the breath to say something. He didn't though, just stared at the helmet for a few moments, before turning a haunted look back on Rex.

"I guess this is it," Rex finally said, and turned away.

"Yeah," Cody managed to whisper to his back. Rex opened the door, and when it shut behind him, his whole body went cold at once, weak from what it took to leave a brother behind.