"There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!"

Linkin Park

"Wretches & Kings"

Cody had just enough time to count his heart beat once, twice, before the pub broke out into a barrage of activity. To give the nature of the clientèle some amount of credit, the panic was mostly silent. There were some raised voices, some vocal expressions of concern and alarm, but not enough to represent the entire body of patrons. There was, however, a great cacophony of chairs being scraped hastily across the floor, of dishes and glasses knocked accidentally to the floor, of blasters being drawn, and of armored boots thumping urgently toward the door.

Someone hit the door panel and blue-tinged light filtered through a press of bodies jostling though the sudden opening. An explosion hit again and Cody saw the horizon flare a hot, bright white before bursting into a hellish array of reds, oranges, and flickering yellows. Something like a hiss of anger rippled through the pub and the mass exodus out the door seemed to grow more urgent as the ground rumbled dangerously below their feet.

Saa stirred underneath Cody and the clone rolled off of the older merc so he would have a chance to regain his feet. The woman still stood over them - Cody could see her illuminated in shades of night-vision green and white - and her attention was still toward the door. Her attention was so focused, in fact, that Cody wasn't sure that she even realized they were there.

She jerked in surprise when Saa's voice filtered through the murmur of louder voices around them. The former commander didn't catch what was said at all, except that Saa's words were Mando'a and directed over him toward the female Mandalorian still aiming down-range toward the door.

For the first time, she turned her head to look at them; Cody saw her pupils dilate in the darkness as she tried to focus on their features in the ghostly gloom. Saa spoke again and this time, Cody picked out exactly three words - Saa's name, Hella's name, and the word alor.

Her eyebrows knitted together and she stared hard in the direction of Saa's voice. For a second, her attention flickered toward the door, but if the trooper was still standing, he made no move toward them. Cody, too, glanced toward the front of the pub and there were still patrons milling about as they made their hurried exit. Given the accuracy of Mandalorian blasters - at least, as Cody had observed so far - the commander rather suspected the other clone was lying incapacitated on the floor.

The thought unsettled him. He had caught only a glimpse of the trooper's armor - enough to notice that there was a pattern on his chest-plate and that there were blue markings on his helmet. But, nothing else. Nothing truly concrete.

All the same, the design on the other clone's helmet was beginning to bother him. It stirred a memory...and Cody was sure that if he could just recall the memory that teased at the edge of his mind, he could identify the marking and the other clone.

The woman spoke - something else in Mando'a - and Saa responded with just two words - a name.

"Sher'ika. Shereshoy."

Cody had gathered himself into a crouch, choosing to stay low between the two while they addressed each other. He watched the woman warily from his vantage point; her own face was uncovered and he saw as her eyes widened slightly at the mention of what he assumed was her name. Then a firm sort of look settled her around her jaw and she nodded her curtly once.

"There's two of you?" she switched to Basic and her eyes moved to consider the darkness between her and Saa's voice, where Cody stood.

This time, he answered.

"Yes."

She took the introduction of an unfamiliar voice completely in stride.

"Follow me."

She spared no time for other words, as she turned abruptly on her heel. She paused just long enough to reach across the edge of her table and grab something that she then slung deftly over her back. Her hand flashed out again and she retrieved her helmet. Without any further adieu, the woman Cody now assumed was named "Shereshoy", set a brisk pace toward the darkness behind the bar.

She slipped her own buy'ce on as she moved along and Cody was momentarily distracted by her movement. Whatever she had slung over her back - it looked to be an instrument of some kind - stuck out at an odd angle and gave her a peculiar outline in his HUD's night view. As she rounded the curve of the bar, the observant clone noticed something else rather odd about her...

She limped. And it was even more pronounced of a limp than Saa's. He raised his eyebrows in passing curiosity; she moved as if she'd had the handicap for quite some time. Whatever it was, it wasn't a condition new to her - the female Mandalorian moved with surprising deftness in spite it.

He was so absorbed by his observations, that he nearly ran into her when she made an unanticipated stop in front of the wall behind the bar. It took Cody a second to realize that they were now standing below the stairs he had seen earlier in his visual reconnaissance of the pub. They were behind the bar, in the corner across from the door; there were still bodies filtering through the door, but the press of customers was significantly less than it had been before. Cody glanced furtively around his helmet's 180-degree view, but he didn't spot even a flash of white armor.

The white of clone armor was distinctive; he had learned that as a child on Kamino. Cody knew that he could be 100 years old and he would still be able to pick out the luster of his brothers' armor, even in the green-tinged range of night vision.

His soldier's senses tingled - something wasn't quite right. But, she had opened a narrow door built into the stairwell and was impatiently waving them through.

"Quickly," she muttered and gestured firmly toward the darkness beyond her for a second time.

"After you, ad'ika," Saa - ever wary - answered as he nudged Cody from the back.

Shereshoy nodded once and Cody suddenly wasn't sure if Saa had been talking to her, or to him, or to them both. To stay on the safe side, though, he waited until she had limped through the open door before making any move to follow her.

The scene outside of the pub was something straight out of Cody's worst battlefield memories. Shouts, screams, and sirens jostled for supremacy in what should have been a quiet spring evening; the horizon was drenched in shades of incandescent scarlet and brass that showed up as brilliant shades of white in Cody's HUD. Shadows wove an eerie dance against spectral buildings and the whole world seemed to disorient through the surreal filter of his night-vision.

The bio-chemical filters on his helmet did nothing to mask the stench of scorched earth, burnt flesh, and melted slag. Something screamed loudly in passing overhead and Cody slammed his back against the pub wall out of sheer ingrained reflex. His head twisted upward instantaneously as he tried to track the hostile bogie shrieking through the night sky.

The former commander's breath caught in his throat as he recognized the unmistakable outline of a TIE-fighter thrown in stark relief against a burning building. Where there was one...

Another explosion rocked the city and this time, Saa and Shereshoy joined Cody in flattening themselves against the nearest wall. This time the explosion was so close that it left an annoying ringing in Cody's buy'ce-padded ears; chunks of duracrete bricks spewed down the alleyway with all the force of a rotary cannon's bolts. Oxidized ash glowed eerily in Cody's modified vision as it rained down softly from above.

"'Fek!" Shereshoy broke the shocked silence with a particularly passionate curse.

Cody raised his eyebrows, but the Mandalorian female didn't offer up a word of explanation. The clone glanced up toward the sky and at the TIE-fighters that screamed for supremacy up above them. He supposed that perhaps an explanation wasn't needed after all - the reality of Imperial fighters strafing Cree'dee into the next millennium was rather neatly summed up in a few choice bits of emphatic Huttese.

"Keep up," was Shereshoy's next curt command; crouching slightly at the waist, she scuttled with surprising speed from one sulking shadow to the next.

Cody glanced toward Saa, who only nodded once; the mercenary's jaw was taunt, the only sign of his apprehension. The clone glanced up briefly at the thundering night sky and took the rear this time as he followed Saa and Shereshoy further into the narrow alleyway.

Their Mandalorian guide set a grueling pace and her path zig-zagged furtively from one dark alleyway to another. The Imperial fighters above them seemed to be following their course with a bizarre intuition and Cody couldn't help questioning the wisdom of their choices as the three crouched for cover in a broken doorway.

"Are you sure we can trust her?" he asked quietly over the private line he shared with Saa.

They seemed to be heading toward the south-west outskirts of the city, toward the small port Cody had seen while riding into Cree'dee earlier that evening. But, it was hard to tell for certain; Shereshoy's path seemed to mimic that of a drunken Lepi on the run and Cody was starting to feel a bit perplexed. He had long prided himself for his ability to keep track of direction - in fact, it was one talent that had held him in good stead during his ARC training - but, the unfamiliarity of his circumstances was beginning to sow doubt in his confidence.

He had never run from the enemy before. This was an uncomfortable turn-around for him; instead of standing his ground and fighting, he was ducking and weaving through anomalous streets. The adrenaline of battle pumped powerfully through his body, but Cody could only clench his fists and shake from the overpowering effects of his hyper-aroused endorphins. He had no weapon with which to attack the fighters dominating the Cree'dee sky; he had no command at his disposal with which to formulate a defense, either.

He was simply a Mandalorian civilian, scurrying for cover with two other Mandalorian civilians. And he might have been able to accept the circumstances of their unfortunate situation, except that he wasn't even the one in charge. Nor was Saa. They were both being led by a woman Cody had never met before; a woman who, so as he knew, had no loyalties to them or their mutual survival.

All of that together made him edgy, distrusting. Cody could only squint through his visor and try to gauge what he could of Saa's own private thoughts.

The only concession to the mercenary's concern, was a certain tightening around his mouth. Other than that, his expression was a study in bland.

"We don't have much choice, ad'ika," Saa's throat and jaw worked unspoken words that were nevertheless translated into meaning through his subcutaneous comlink.

Another building exploded on the horizon and the sudden display of aggression, destruction, and Imperial supremacy seemed to underscore Saa's words with just a little too fine a point. Cody grimaced underneath his helmet and glanced uncertainly toward Shereshoy. Her visor was pointed in the direction of the newest conflagration that now lit up the night sky with fresh flames; Cody wished he knew her better. As it was, even her body language was unfamiliar and indiscernible.

She hadn't said a word to them since they'd left the familiarity of the pub's shadowy back alley. Even now, she said nothing; she merely held up two fingers and waved them sharply toward a side alley that branched off into the darkness to their left.

Cody sighed to himself and shifted his weight forward onto his heels, so his momentum could carry him out of the uncomfortable crouch he had taken below the archway crumbling above him. Saa followed; the two had swapped positions every time they stopped and started. It was his turn to take the rear - as a result, Cody saw everything that happened with perfect clarity.

Or, at least, everything that happened up until the point where he was knocked backwards off of his feet by yet another bomb.

The only warning any of them had, was a blur of white and blue that propelled itself at full force from another alley to their right. There was no shout of indignation, no warning of any kind. There was simply a silent, perfectly executed ambush, followed by the nearly ultra-sonic whine of a TIE-fighter passing over head and the corresponding thunder of a high-explosive impact.

As his center of balance was thrown unexpectedly onto his heels, Cody could only think of one thing - that the sudden reappearance of the unknown trooper was too perfectly timed.

He planned this... the commander mused, even as the force of the nearby blast toppled him over onto his back.

Coincidence rarely played a part in clone tactics - Cody would know. The newest bombardment was the closest hit yet - a building just a block behind them erupted into an inferno of destruction and death. Chunks of duracrete and brick spewed out from the center of the blast in a radius that Cody guessed probably encompassed several nearby blocks. Thankfully, he and Saa had been thrown to the ground and the worst of the debris sailed right over them. Not all of it did, however, and the commander grunted in surprise as something sharp and solid slammed into the center of his chest.

If it weren't for the armored plate covering his torso, Cody was certain his chest would have caved. As it was, he could feel his armor dent painfully inward, digging into his skin with sudden force. He'd been wounded enough times in similar fashion, to know that he'd have a bruise across his upper torso for several weeks at least, as well as a good-sided gash and some strained tendons. He rolled as quickly as he could to his side before the worst of the pain could set in and knocked the chunk of brick off of into the dirt next to him. The flying debris had been about the size of his first and jagged on all sides; the wind had been knocked out of him and for several painful moments, it was nearly impossibly to breathe.

After a brief struggle, Cody managed to get one or two shallow breathes in; the center of his chest radiated pain with a savage intensity across his upper body. The close proximity of the blast had kicked his adrenaline into high gear, however, and the former soldier managed to push himself quickly up off of the ground and onto his feet, despite the difficulty he was having breathing.

There wasn't time for injury, for nursing unexpected wounds, or for catching his breath. Cody turned toward the alleyway where he had last seen Shereshoy, and was rather shocked to find her holding her own against the larger trooper.

Their conflict was vicious, though it didn't look like it had yet turned bloody. Viroblades flashed red in the reflected light of the fire behind them; Cody grabbed both of his blasters in instinctual reflex. But then he hesitated, if only for a moment.

The scuffle between the Mandalorian and her assailant was silent, ruthless, and consuming. White-and-blue armor seethed and struggled in an awe-inspiring contrast of firelight and shadow, against an equally matched force of orange-and-gray armor. Cody lifted his left arm uncertainly and tried to take aim, but he realized that he didn't really know who to shoot. He knew nothing of Shereshoy's loyalties...and he had never once raised his weapon against another brother. For one awful moment, the former commander stood frozen in a sobering juxtaposition to the brawl playing out in front of him in fists and blades.

Smoke drifted between them and fire lit the sky up as bright as noon-day; for one breath-defying moment, Cody remembered the hallucinations he'd had when coming off the stims. He remembered Waxer and Bellassa, and his blaster wavered.

A firm hand took a hold of his wrist and pulled the muzzle of his weapon down toward the ground. Cody blinked sluggishly and struggled to focus on the reality that should have superseded the surrealism of their circumstances. After a moment, he finally recognized the weathered face that eyed him with genuine concern.

Saa's thick band of dark glass had broken in the force of his fall; Cody's eyes quickly scanned the rest of the mercenary for any other obvious signs of damage, but the spry Mandalorian seemed fine, if suddenly sooty.

"Don't shoot. Let them sort it out," Saa let go of Cody's arm and reached up to pull off his broken head band.

The merc's piercing green eyes flickered from Cody toward the fighting pair in front of them. The former commander followed his gaze as the trooper stumbled back toward them, having been caught off-guard by a forceful uppercut from Shereshoy. Firelight flickered eerily off of the trooper's helmet and its markings -

Suddenly, Cody remembered. The command that bellowed unexpectedly from his bruised lungs cracked across the dramatic tableau, louder than the explosions that were still rocking the city, louder than the Imperial fighters up above.

"Fives! Stand down!"

The trooper's reaction was instantaneous, born from a life-time of intuitive obedience. Fives snapped to attention and turned directly toward Cody despite the TIE-fighters screaming overhead, despite the cacophony of intermittent violence, despite the hand-to-hand free-for-all he had been engaged in just moments before. Time seemed to freeze between them and Cody was overwhelmed with strangely detached observations and with memories of a past that now felt like it belonged in another life-time all together.

He noticed first - with no small amount of surprise - that Fives' armor now boasted the markings of a captain. There was no time to ponder this unexpected jump in ranks, though, and Cody's eyes drifted lower, toward Fives' right hand. The trooper held a viroblade only in his left hand; his right hand was curled up against his stomach. The bleached armor covering his hand was scorched, and the metal on the edge of his right gauntlet looked as if it had melted and fused to the body suit underneath. Cody remembered Shereshoy shooting at Fives in their initial meeting at the pub - putting the two together, the commander concluded that she had shot his blaster, rendering his dominate hand useless.

Her tactic had come to fruition during the course of their fist-fight. Marks from her viroblade had left deep scores across his chest-plate, his left pauldron, and the armor covering both of his arms. She'd even managed to cut a swathe across the side of his helmet; thanks to the battle-tested durability of clone armor, however, Fives still looked to be fairly unscathed.

Memories from the Wars flashed across Cody's mine - of Kamino, when he'd first met Fives and the rest of Domino Squad. Fives had been young and "shiny" then, still willing to share a smile and a quick laugh. He'd still had all of his brothers around him - he'd still been whole.

Then he remembered Fives at the Battle of Kamino, when he'd earned the right to become an ARC. Cody remembered when Rex had left that iconic hand-print on Echo's unmarked armor. Fives and his brother had earned the right to their stripes that day; they'd become peers within their ranks, distinctive in their tenacity, their strength, their valor.

Then Cody remembered the Citadel. Echo, alive and then dead in mere seconds. He remembered the way Fives' body language had shifted so suddenly, so subtly. He remembered the look on the young ARC's face once they had finally left the battle far behind them - after they had left Echo behind them. There were no smiles to be found on Fives' face, no more jokes or easy camaraderie. Something in Fives had been irrevocably broken.

Cody hadn't spent any more time around the younger clone after that point to really pinpoint what, exactly, had changed about him. But, then, he hadn't had to; he'd seen it played out within his troops after a thousand bloody battles. He'd seen the seeds of desertion sown on that day, in the depths of betrayal that had flashed across Fives' stone-jawed face. He had known, almost instinctively, that it would one day come to this - that Fives would stand unrepentant in the face of his oppressors. That he would seek another fate - one that hadn't been predetermined by the circumstances of his birth.

Cody knew, inherently, that Fives was a deserter. He knew it in the rebellious set of his brother's shoulders, in the uncompromising rigidity of his spine. He knew it by Fives' armor - no clone now loyal to the Empire, would wear his old colors. Their individualities had all been wiped as clean as their armor; those who clung to who they had once been were outcasts, rebels, and conveniently "reconditioned".

No, Fives would still wear his old ARC armor for only reason - because he had refused to give up his identity. Because he had refused to give up on ideals for which Echo had sacrificed himself.

Each realization and each individual memory processed through his mind in a matter of seconds. Everyone - including him - had been shocked into a stunned silence by his sudden outburst. But, the lull could only last the space of a few shallow breathes; before either Cody, Saa, or Fives could react to each other, Shereshoy struck.

And, struck hard. Her viroblade flashed crimson in the hellish light, aimed with blunt intent for the narrow gap between Fives' left pauldron and his rerebrace. It took the men several seconds longer to realize that what happened when her blade struck home, wasn't normal.

Sparks flew as metal grated harshly against metal. Fives still reacted, but with the sharp movements of surprise, not with the evasive response of pain. He turned away from Cody and jerked his arm instinctively out the female Mandalorian's reach. The former ARC's body was now turned half-way between Shershoy and Cody; he moved his arm as if he hadn't even feltthe blade. They all watched, stunned, as he turned his body sharply at the waist and whacked his arm against the wall behind him. The handle of Shereshoy's viroblade broke off, leaving the blade still embedded in Fives' arm.

There was no blood, no obvious pain response. It was as if Fives had been attacked by nothing more annoying than a mosquito. Cody caught Saa's jaw drop out of the corner eye and it was all the former commander could do not to mimic his mentor's response.

Fives' voice rasped from underneath his helmet - if it hadn't been for the distinctive markings that Cody now remembered, he would have never identified the ARC from his voice alone. This was a very different Fives that spoke - more different, even, than the Fives he remembered from after Echo's loss.

"Wrong side, Mandalorian," he shrugged his left shoulder and something electrical popped and whirred in protest.

There was a grim pause and Cody knew that Fives was measuring them all up for another attack. The former ARC shifted his weight slightly and the fingers of his uninjured left hand flexed slowly.

"A souvenir from Felucia, in case you're wondering, Commander."

Cody's blood ran cold at Fives' blunt address.

Fives' fingers contracted again and his weight shifted forward; everything in his demeanor intensified and Cody raised his blasters up in sheer trained response. Before either of them could move, though, Shereshoy's voice broke through the heavy, smoldering air between them.

This time, it was her turn to bring them all up short.

"Enough!" movement accompanied her words and she stepped forward boldly.

The female Mandalorian threw out a confident hand and grabbed Fives by his left pauldron. The smaller woman put the force of her body behind her hand and stepped directly into Fives' space with an authority that was surprising. Fives was clearly startled by her decisive action and he moved back himself - until his back hit the wall not two steps behind him. Brick scraped loudly against tempered armor and Shereshoy squared soundly up to Fives, her helmet tilted upward in a clear stance of defiance.

"Are you done being a di'kut?" her clear alto voice echoed against the duracrete around them as firm as a slap to the face.

Fives drew himself up in obvious indignation, but he seemed to defer to the woman standing so brazenly in front of him - for the moment, anyway. There was a peculiar familiarity between them, as if the two had met before; Cody watched their interaction with a mixture of concern and unsatiated curiosity.

"I'll stop being a 'di'kut' when my crew's no longer in danger," Fives shot back.

His voice was gravely, as if he wasn't used to talking anymore; Cody remembered him as being a bit of a mouth, with nearly always something smart to say. Now, though, Fives' words were slow and deliberate, as if he thought about them, as if he had to concentrate on giving voice to them at all.

"The only hope your crew has of surviving, is if all of you shablamales finally decide to trust me!" Shereshoy gave back as good as she got, but some of her stance softened.

She even stepped back a pace, though she continued to face Fives' head-on. The former ARC, however, didn't seem inclined to lower his guard; he did turn slightly toward Cody though, and pointed a finger scornfully in his direction.

"Why should I trust you when he's with you? For all I know, Appo finally decided to send someone down to do his dirty work for him."

Fives' words hit home hard, but before Cody could respond, Fives' turned completely in his direction and addressed him directly.

"I heard about you from Appo directly, Commander," Fives' rough voice mocked everything Cody had ever done to set his past behind him; for a moment, Cody felt shame, his old and relentless companion, as it reared its ugly head deep within his bruised chest. "I heard about what happened at Bellassa."

Guilt followed shame and for one long, awful second, Cody couldn't think of anything to say in his defense. But then something else stirred deep inside of him - something that responded angrily to Fives' belligerent stance and antagonizing words.

Something like rebellion stirred, something like revolt.

"If Appo told you about me, then you should know that I've deserted," Cody slowly holstered his blasters, as he thought of all the battles that he had waged within himself - of all the battles that he had won.

He thought of Tay, of Obi-Wan, of Saa - of the absolution that he had found because of them. Now it was Cody's turn to lift his head in defiance and to step boldly toward Fives, to claim the respect that he had struggled for so long to rediscover.

Fives was still unmoved. The two troopers stared each other down from behind their helmets; the world had narrowed down to just the two of them, to brothers who had once fought together.

To brothers who now stood in precarious opposition to one another.

"That still tells me nothing of your loyalties," Fives' voice deepened to an almost impossible octave, his words a veiled warning snarled through grit teeth.

Cody stood his ground and his response volleyed back without a single moment's hesitation.

"My loyalty lies with rebellion, Captain. I hold no allegiance to the Empire, nor will I ever."

A/N: Ye gads! Can it be true? TWO updates, in just as many weeks? Thanks laloga, folks...she's quite insistent about getting her way (i.e., getting more chapters and finding out what's next. All that jazz, y'know. LOL)

I might not be quite as productive this coming week, however...we'll see. I have a midterm, a statistics test, and an event of deepest importance coming up next Friday/Saturday. Oh...and part of a research paper on military psychology to write, too... So, not sure how much I'll get done, outside of some random notes. The good news is, though, that the plot bunniez have been nibbling away at my brain all week and I've got quite an impressive collection of notes to show for it...

For those of you who love Echo...yes, I'm evil and I'm keeping to cannon. I was intrigued by one of the first teaser trailers I saw for TCW: Episode Four, however, which showed a clip of Fives asking Rex about what they were going to do "after the war." That vision of Fives - which struck me as very dark, very belligerent, and very aggressive - has stuck with me and that's the vision of Fives that Just. Won't. Leave. Me. Alone. So...in order to have dark, angsty Fives...Echo must remain dead. . I apologize to those who may have been hoping to see some Echo in ATS...but alas. Fives has asked to retain the dubious distinction of being the only surviving member of Domino Squad. Hopefully, however, you will like dark, angsty Fives and so any lack of Echo might possibly be forgiven...? *eyes Kiana nervously* Pleasedon'thurtme? Fives made me do it!

Also as a head's up...I may be editing the currently existing chapters of Virtues From A Certain Point of View. These edits will include rather significant changes and will apply to all three chapters...so you might want to keep an eye out for those. Should I edit, I'll make note of it in the description line...but now that the plot bunniez have been fruitful and multiplied past just this current story-line, there are some changes that I have to make in order to keep things all in order. I might also post another chapter (a Chopper/chivalry chapter, I think) this week...but we'll see. I make no resolute promises, other than: keep an eye on VFACPOV over the next days/week.

Warm and many major thanks to: laloga, Kiana Tavers-Mereel, Admiral Dala, Librarian Girl, and LongLiveTheClones. You guys keep me writing - never doubt it! You guys have kept this story going and you're awesome support (and laloga's couch) will continue to do so, hopefully, for many more chapters/stories. :-)

Love it? Like it? Hate it? Lemme know...!