Prime had to jog to catch up with Slicer. "Hey, wait a tick!" he said. Slicer showed no sign of slowing.
"Ke'gev!" Prime barked. Slicer slowed for a moment, debating, then stopped. "Slice," Prime said, "give me an excuse. Just make up anything that will make your actions seem logical. It doesn't even have to be the truth. Just give me some reason."
Slicer didn't look directly at Prime. "He deserved it."
Prime pinched the bridge of his nose. "Not good enough. So now who's the one beating up the army from the inside?"
"He deserved it," Slicer repeated. He started to walk off.
"Slice," Prime said hesitantly. "That's not all."
Slicer stopped and turned around, facing the squad leader. "What now? Suspended from the team? Reassigned? Stuck here forever training new recruits?"
Prime just shook his head. He turned to go the other direction down the hall. "Follow me."
Slicer ruffled his brow, but followed. They walked in silence for a while. Prime seemed to have something on his mind, but Slicer figured it would be best not to ask. They passed several clones down the starch-white hall, all of them eying Slicer suspiciously.
"I'm going to do the best I can to find an alternative, Slice," Prime finally said. "But I can't guarantee they'll listen to me. Just don't panic. We'll find some way to handle this."
"What are you talking about?"
Prime brushed the hair out of his face, then opened up a door hidden inside an alcove. Slicer watched Prime, but stepped inside without question. The room was large, and filled with odd looking scientific equipment. One wall was a large window, looking out over the Clone Creation Facility. Several Kaminoan technicians milled about, but one stood out amongst the others. It was Orun Wa. The sight of him sent a wave of panic through Slicer. He spun around to face Prime. The squad leader looked grim.
"Prime?" Slicer pleaded, his voice wavering. "Prime, what's going on?"
"Reconditioning," Prime said sadly.
Slicer made a move toward the door, but two technicians blocked the way. "No, Prime? You can't let them..."
"Give me a minute, I'm going to talk them out of this, alright? Ni hukaat'kama."
Orun Wa approached, intending to lead Slicer to a room where he was to wait while his fate was decided. Slicer was in a panic, though, and had no intention of being led anywhere. He jumped behind Prime, grabbing onto his arm as if that could help. "Prime, don't let them kill me, it wasn't my fault!"
"Slice," Prime said, trying to calm him down. It wasn't working. "Slice!" he shouted. "Calm down. You're not helping out here. Go with Orun Wa and wait there. I am going to get you out of this."
Slicer was trembling as Orun Wa led him to a small room with only a metal stool. Slicer sat down, and the door was shut. There was only a dim light in the room, not enough to see by, but there wasn't anything to see anyway. Slicer got up and pressed his ear to the door, hoping to hear what was going on, but the room was soundproof. So he sat back down on the stool and shivered, a knot growing in his stomach.
---
Prime called Stealth over the comlink, knowing he would need backup. Lurk was receiving bacta treatments in the infirmary, so he couldn't come, but Prime wouldn't have invited him, since he'd be entirely in favor of Slicer's reconditioning. Stealth must have run pretty quickly, because it didn't take him long at all to arrive. Prime was grateful, knowing that Stealth would stand by his brother without question.
"The unit is flawed," Ko Sai said. "It will be replaced with one of equal value."
Prime leaned his fists on a polished metal table. "He's not a unit, he's Slicer, and he's our brother. You can't equal that value."
"And he's not an it!" Stealth said, wagging his finger at the Kaminoan.
"This sort of aggression should have been weeded out of the unit's DNA. Obviously it wasn't, so it must be destroyed. We can't have our units fighting amongst themselves, our client expects quality."
Prime squeezed his eyes shut, holding back the urge to carve Orun Wa's head into a small sculpture. "Look, I won't say that he had any excuse for what he did, but it wasn't unprovoked. Lurk is as much at fault as Slicer."
"If One-Oh-Six is flawed as well--"
"No," Prime said quickly, "That's not necessary." He sighed. "This is the first time Slicer has been this out of line. Check his record. This sort of aggression isn't normal for him. He's done well in the sims--"
Stealth coughed to cover up a snicker.
"--and he's an excellent member of my team. We can't function with a replacement. We need someone with Slicer's exact qualifications."
"We can train--"
Prime slammed his fist down on the table. "No, you can't! You can't train someone else to be our brother!"
Orun Wa tilted his head to the side and studied Prime. "You may leave now. We are going to discuss our final decision."
Prime opened his mouth to argue some more, but Stealth stopped him. He leaned over and whispered, "Keep going. I'm going to go find someone."
Without another word, Stealth ran out the door and down the white hall. He nearly knocked down a few clones, and did knock over a Kaminoan, which he may have done on purpose. He skidded to a stop in front of the training sims and poked his head inside. A few clones were around, but no one else. He kept running. He sprinted up a flight of stairs to the commander's quarters. Lama Su was strolling down the hall in the opposite direction and stopped to inform Stealth that he was in a restricted area, but there was no time to slow down. He ducked past the Prime Minister, then rounded a corner, finally skidding to a stop. He banged on the door.
"What?" came the annoyed answer.
Stealth pounded on the door again. "I need your help!"
A few seconds passed, then the door slid open.
"Whoa, easy there, boy, you'll give yourself a heart attack," Kal Skirata said.
Stealth leaned against the door frame, struggling to catch his breath. "You need to come quickly, they're going to kill him."
In a moment, Kal knew exactly what was going on. He shut the door behind him, not bothering to lock it. The two of them raced back down the hall, past a very confused Lama Su.