Rex spares a second to smile proudly at Kix, to put his hand on his vod's shoulder and press his forehead to Kix's. "Thanks, Kix."
Then he steps back, tightens his hand around his blaster, and looks over his squad. They're a wreck and Kix can barely stand and Dogma won't be able to fight because he's carrying Soka, and neither will Jesse until Fives wakes up, and Rex knows he himself is in danger of falling.
But this is too kriffing important for them to fail. Whatever is happening to them, Rex knows better than to think it's just his battalion - there's something wrong with all the vod'e and it's in the nightmares. Kill the Jedi because good soldiers follow orders .
"Kix, do you have any idea where there's a lab with scanners?" he asks, and Kix swallows, nods.
"Just… I think down the hall and around the corner," he points with his free hand, swaying. Rex wishes he didn't have to ask Kix to do this but he doesn't have a better option right now.
"Okay. We need to do this fast , and protect the wounded first ," he says, knows Kix can do that. His blood is rushing in his ears and he wants to break down and hyperventilate and panic, but he won't, not yet. His men need him, Ahsoka needs him. He strides through them and feels, more than sees, them falling in behind him. Kix takes up position at his shoulder, holding Ahsoka's saber in a white-knuckled grip in front of him.
Tell him he needs to relax and let the Force tell him what to do , Soka says in his thoughts. He has to trust his instincts.
Rex touches Kix on the shoulder again, knowing it will help ground him. "Kix, Ahsoka says you need to relax . Breathe, listen to your gut. You know what to do."
"I don't, " Kix says, an anxious growl to his words. "I'm not a Jedi just because I have- just because of the Force, Rex."
"I'm not asking you to be a Jedi, Kix. But you're capable of this. We need you. Gedet'ye, vod ."
Kix nods, and his death grip on the saber eases, just a little. That has to be good enough for now. Rex raises his blaster, hits the button for the door, watches it hiss open with a sense of heavy inevitability.
He can't do this. He's exhausted and injured and his head aches and everything that's happened threatens to crash over him and overwhelm him.
But he has to do this, for them, so he forces steadiness into his hands and readies himself to fight .
...
Kix takes a deep breath as the door opens, and for the first time ever he purposefully reaches for the power in him, for the Force. Listen to his instincts, the Commander says. He can do that. He can-
If the Jedi find out the clones can be Force-sensitive, they'll call you all traitors and execute you. That is why it is your duty, as loyal cadets of the Republic, to report to your 'toon leader if you see anything suspicious.
He doesn't want to be a traitor. (Ni'duraa, aruetii!)
But-but the Commander knows, and she's not calling him aruetii, she's not taking her 'saber back (maybe that's only because she can't, physically cannot, right now).
(I won't report you, Dogma says.)
(You disgust me, traitor, Jesse hisses out.)
He's shaking.
"Kix," Rex murmurs, "I need to know that you can do this."
"I-" and the words ball up in his throat, he can't, he isn't a traitor, good soldiers follow orders- no, that's wrong, wrong voice, and he redoubles his efforts at shielding. Breathe, in-two-three-four, hold-two-three-four, out-two-three-four, repeat. Your duty as loyal cadets of the Republic to report anything suspicious. Clones can't be Jedi. Clones can't be Jedi. He can't. He-
I'm not asking you to be a Jedi, Kix.
Breathe in, breathe out.
He feels the Force rushing through him, like he's never felt it before, alive and real and present, and it's easy to touch it, to ask for strength, to immerse himself in the ebb and flow of it, forget the pain. The lightsaber is alive in his palms and something within him resonates with it, with the way the crystal sings. Trust your instincts.
He can do this.
He meets Rex's eyes, nods once-he doesn't quite think he can speak, right now, not with all this power flowing through him.
The corridor is empty at first, but they barely get entirely out of the lab they've been holed up in before troopers show up, shinies with their armor still brilliant, blinding white, and for a moment the panic surges again- your duty as loyal cadets of the Republic- but trust your gut, Rex says, you know what to do.
There's so many of them.
He doesn't know what he's doing, the lightsaber is strange and clumsy in his hands, and the blaster bolts come so fast, out of nowhere, and how's he supposed to block them all? He manages to catch one or two on the white blade, but mostly by accident, slow and fumbling and a far cry from the graceful elegance of General Kenobi or the fierce beauty of Commander Tano or the easy confidence of General Skywalker, and he's going to fail.
Clones can't be Jedi.
"Kix, please," Rex says, staggering to one side to avoid blasterfire, nearly losing his balance.
Trust your gut, you know what to do.
The Force is wild and feral and powerful, ancient, with a will and a knowledge far beyond his ability to comprehend; he doesn't ask it for comprehension, just to see. Let me see the blaster bolts in time to block them.
Why? the great consciousness asks him, more an impression of a feeling than a word, heavy with the weight of eons.
Because I need to protect them. My family. My vod'e.
The blasters fire again and his leg screams but that doesn't matter, because he can see, he can feel, and he knows where the bolts are going to be and it's just a simple matter of moving- he asks for more speed, more strength, more balance, has a sense he could simply will it and the bolts would kill the brothers who fired them, but he doesn't want that. They're vod'e, too. But maybe… and he tries it, just a bit of will, and he has to push more than he'd expected but he deflects a bolt back and it slams home into the blaster that'd fired it, ruining the blaster. His men are stunning the troopers as fast as they can, no time, no space, no energy to talk, but when he destroys the blaster someone (he thinks it's Jesse) whoops and says, "Nice job, vod!"
He thinks that if the Force was a person, it would be smiling.
...
At first, Rex thinks Kix really won't be able to do this, and they'll have to face down all these troopers and try to break through their ranks without the protection of a saber, and he knows they're in no shape to do that. He takes aim and fires as fast as he can at the shinies in their perfect armor, but they fire back and he's not going to be fast enough , not for long, and a slow soldier is a dead soldier.
"Kix, please ," he says, stumbles, swears silently. He feels Ahsoka shove strength at him and he just manages not to fall. If Kix can't do this, his squad can't, and that's just the truth of it. If he has to, though, he'll defend Kix with the rest of them.
He has to shoot better, faster, steadier than he ever has and he's trying , keeping one eye on Kix, and the medic wavers for a moment, and Rex twists out of the way of a blaster shot that almost takes Tup in the head except Tup moves just in time and-
Look, Rex .
He spares another glance at Kix as he fires one, two, three, four times in succession at their opponents, and Kix looks like he's done this his whole life, the saber humming in his hands, moving with the same precision and ease that he always has with his patients. He shifts just a little, flicks his wrist, and a blaster bolt deflects back into the weapon it was fired from and it shatters . Jesse lets out a joyous yell and Rex can't help but grin because kriffing Kix looks like a Jedi, he kriffing did it .
Ahsoka feels almost as proud and excited as he does, and he falls back a little behind Kix, shoots over his medic's shoulder. Kix seems to be growing in confidence, because he's moving faster, more fluidly, but there's no wasted movement - everything he does has a purpose because he's a surgeon first and a fighter second and he knows how to be efficient.
Rex thinks he's putting more weight on his leg than he should, but he doesn't have time to worry about that because they're still trying to not just hold but advance down this corridor and he has to trust Kix to know if he's overextending himself.
Rex, he needs to be careful , Ahsoka says, keeping her voice light in the back of his mind so she doesn't distract him. Rex dives out of the way of a shot Kix misses, swears and catches himself on Dogma's shoulder.
I know.
You need to be careful , she adds, sharply, and he growls.
I know .
He glances at Jesse and he's got his arm around Fives, holding him upright against him so he can stand with his blaster in one hand and shoot. "I think he's waking up, vod ," Jesse calls, sparing Rex a brief grimace.
"As soon as he's awake, get his binders off," Rex answers. He needs Fives and his blaster, and this isn't remotely good, but they have to fight firstand then he can try to help his friend.
"Yes, sir."
Kix is definitely putting too much weight on his leg now; he's not moving much but he is still putting weight on that foot to pivot and twist out of the way of blaster shots and he's as confident with the saber as he's ever been with a blaster or a needle or a roll of bandages. "Kix, watch yourself," Rex calls, sharply. The last thing he needs is for his senior medic to push himself too hard and get hurt.
That's not good, Ahsoka says, and he feels her concern digging into his thoughts enough to know this might be serious.
...
"Kix, watch yourself," Rex says, but Kix can't spare the focus right now. He shuts down any and all extraneous thought processes, keeps his movement to the bare minimum necessary, like he's in the middle of a tough surgery, Ahsoka's lightsaber his scalpel.
He doesn't have time to watch himself.
He almost misses a shot, has to twist painfully on his bad leg to reach it in time, and he hisses through gritted teeth, pulls on the Force again, goes deeper, muffles the pain. He can't afford to feel it right now.
They have to advance around the corner, get to one of the gene labs, which means they can't just hold here and tire themselves out. They have to push now, while they're still… kind of fresh. "We need to move now," he says sharply, almost an order (it's instinct, take command, the Force hums through him and he feels its strength and power like a second layer of armor deep within his skin, wrapping around him like a cloak, and now he understands why the Jedi are good leaders). He half-expects Rex to contradict him (which can't happen, he knows what he's doing), but the Captain stays silent, and Kix takes that to mean he has permission.
Not that he was asking.
He starts advancing, pulls on a memory of General Skywalker wading through clankers like they're nothing, but he has to remind himself he can't kill his brothers, so he starts slashing blasters in half too, moving deeper-but not too far ahead, he has to be able to protect his vod'e still. There are too many troopers in front of him, he can move fast enough to disable their weapons but not if he stays back to protect his men, and they'll have an opening to shoot if he moves now, and the panic is starting to set back in again (he can't be a Jedi, he can't do this) but the Force says look, shows him Krell in the command center of the airbase on Umbara.
And he understands.
He reaches, pulls on the power, drawing more into his veins, his muscles, giving him a burst of speed and strength, and he twists and writhes between blaster bolts until he's in the middle of a cluster of troopers (drawing their fire).
"Kix!" Rex shouts it, but Kix cannot listen.
He pulls his 'saber up, brings his hands together, concentrating, please help me, feels the Force eagerly responding to his plea and filling him to the brim, so full he feels almost like he's burning, heat and cold chasing each other around in his chest, and the troopers have just enough time to worry before he pushes, shoving both his hands out, and the Force ripples out of him and tosses the troopers to the ground like toy soldiers thrown down in a child's fit of temper.
It's the opening they need.
Kix doesn't waste time or energy checking on the downed troopers (he's not a soldier he's a medic but right now he has to fight), trusts his vod'eto stun them; instead, he runs, around the corner, his lightsaber glowing brightly silver in front of him. Dogma is right behind him with the Commander, and Jesse, and-is that Fives, awake and uncuffed?-but he ignores them, focuses on the squad of troopers skidding to a stop a meter or two away.
"You should go back, vod'e," he says, carefully, the words feeling strange and slow and clumsy in his mouth compared to the free-flowing images-emotions-sensations passing between him and the entity living just inside his skin.
"We have our orders," the one in the lead, probably the squadron leader, says, shaking his head. "Sorry, vod."
And he brings his blaster up to fire.
Before he can squeeze the trigger, Kix moves, asks the Force for more speed, more strength (there's a stab of pain from his leg and he sinks deeper, because he can't deal with this right now), and he cuts the blaster in half, starts deflecting bolts back into the blasters that fired them again. There's a lab just a few more meters down the hall, if they can get past this squad they'll have a clear break to make it, and he reaches again, for more, because he's starting to shake and breathing is hard and he hurts and he cannot afford to fall over yet-
Easy, little one, the Force hums in a series of impressions, you are too deep, you are not ready for this, it will burn you up.
Kix swears silently. He doesn't have time for this. Can you protect me, please, I have to get my vod'e to the lab up there-
I am what is burning you.
Not kriffing good.
Well, I can't let go yet, he snaps back, frustrated and scared and hurting, not until they're safe, and he keeps reaching for more strength, more speed, blocking blasterfire and falling into an almost hypnotic movement, a bit of a haze, everything a blur as the Force flows through him, directing his motions-
And suddenly, there's no more blasterfire, and Kix blinks in confusion-when did the troopers stop coming?
No more, the Force tells him, stern and firm and yet almost warmly, comforting, and as suddenly as the power had come to him it withdraws. Not fully, but he has to half-run, half-stagger to the door to the gene lab and beg the Force to unlock the door for him because he's suddenly hovering on the edge of collapse and he can't do this, he's got to get this kriffing door open, please, and there's something like a sigh and the Force says very well and the electric lock beeps and the light goes green and the door opens.
Kix almost falls inside, catches himself on a handy table, manages to get his lightsaber off and clipped to his belt, and then it's like a switch has been flipped: everything all comes back at once, and he almost screams as his leg erupts in agony worse than anything he's ever felt before, and shavit he's kriffed, he's not going to be able to stand now, he-he-he
hurts.
His legs turn to water beneath him, knees buckling, and the last thing he feels is strong arms around him (someone's swearing roughly), catching him before he hits the ground.
...
Fives wakes up to chaos . His head hurts so bad that he cannot focus his eyes on anything at all and the sound of blasterfire rings in his ears, makes him wince. Where is he, what's happening, why are his hands cuffed behind him - is this Jesse?
"Good, vod , you're awake." Jesse grabs his arms and Fives feels the cuffs open and that's good. He doesn't know why they were there in the first place, he-
Oh, gods . He stumbles a little and Jesse props him up, pulls his blaster out of Fives' own holster and hands it to him. "We need you to help fight, vod ," and Jesse sounds sorry and tired.
Oh gods . He doesn't want his blaster, he almost drops it, and he pushes past his headache to look around at his squad, searching frantically for Rex because he remembers shooting him and he knows his aim was good, knows he was going to kill him - but thank kriff Rex is standing with one of his blasters, one arm in a sling, and that's not much better but relief hits like a tank and he chokes on a sob.
What the hell had he done? He listens to Jesse, curls his hand around his blaster and raises it so he doesn't let his vod'e down but it doesn't feel safe and Ahsoka is hanging limp in Dogma's arms and Kix has one of her sabers and that's not good, not good, what if she's dead and he killed her (and he knows he didn't but everything hurts and he can't focus and he just remembers Kill the Jedi ) and he knows he almost killed Rex, twice - his Captain, his vod , and he can't breathe .
"You have to fight , Fives, come on," and he realizes he hasn't taken a single shot but his kriffing hands won't stop shaking. He'd tried to kill his Commander and all he'd been able to think was good soldiers follow orders , but since when has that mattered to him? "Orders are just orders, vod. They aren't always right, and if you can get the job done better or the job isn't right, then kriff orders." He'd questioned once whether Rex's commitment to the chain of command, to honor, was really his own choice or whether it was engineering, and he'd thought as he did that he knew he was more than a number, more than orders and laboratory experiments.
But good soldiers follow orders and he hadn't even tried not to listen and his squad is a wreck and they're going to die here and he- and he knows if he doesn't focus and fight , right now , then he'll die, so he pulls the trigger even though his fingers still shake, takes aim at their opponents and stays close to Jesse.
Kix is a whirlwind of sharp, precise movements and he has a saber and Fives remembers his blaster arm yanked to the side, totally out of his control (and gods he'd been going to kill his Captain ), and it suddenly makes sense as Kix wades into the middle of their vod'e , saber a blur, and Rex is yelling at him , Fives doesn't know why.
Their opponents are thrown back in a ring, so forcefully that all Fives can remember is Krell and he stares because it's kriffing Kix , hands outstretched, eyes fierce. Fives shoots at the downed troopers because part of him knows if he doesn't, they'll just get up and come after them and he's unfocused enough that he doesn't remember where they're going or what they're trying to do but they have to follow Kix and Rex.
It's all quiet except for their own blasters for just a moment, and the quiet reminds Fives that his head hurts , but then he hears booted feet running and they round a corner to come face to face with another squad. The squad leader looks wary and Fives raises his blaster to shoot him, the rest of his squad does the same, but Kix speaks and forestalls them. Fives knows Kix, knows how much authority the medic's voice can hold when he's trying to get them to kriffing stay still , but this is something else entirely. "You should go back, vod'e," he says, and Fives finds himself lowering his blaster, listening, because he has to do as Kix says , but he knows that feeling, knows a Jedi's influence, and manages to stay put. The other squad shifts, but they don't move either, and the squad leader shakes his head like he's trying to rid himself of something.
"We have our orders," and good soldiers follow orders . "Sorry vod ."
Fives is going to be sick .
And Kix leaps into motion like he's done this his whole life, with as much power and far more precision than General Skywalker, and it's magnificent and terrifying and Fives can't do anything but follow with the rest of his men, keep his blaster up and firing, but Kix almost doesn't need them. He slices through blasters and deflects their bolts without pausing, smooth and sharp and perfect .
If Fives weren't so lost he'd be cheering.
He doesn't think the medic realizes when they manage to subdue their opponents, at least not right away, because Kix twirls his saber fiercely and Fives wants to point out that for now at least they're free to, to- right, to get to the lab. They were going to scan Rex for a chip or, or kriffing something like that.
Kix is suddenly reeling like he's drunk and that's not good, is he injured, what's happening - but Kix stumbles to one of the doors in the hall, fumbles at the keypad, and Rex hurries up behind him to stand at his shoulder. "Kix, hey, slow down, it's okay. Someone else can-"
The light on the keypad goes green and the door hisses open, and Rex turns to gesture them into the lab and Fives looks down, fast, wishes Rex just wouldn't look at him .
They all pile into the lab and Fives notices a shiny kind of hovering behind Tup, but he doesn't say anything because Rex is busy (and he doesn't want Rex to notice him) catching Kix, tugging the medic against his chest and holding him up, hand soothing over the medic's shoulder blade. Rex is in no shape to be supporting anyone since Fives shot him, but Kix is crying softly and somebody had to catch him.
Dogma sits down on the floor, holding Ahsoka, and the rest of their little squad drops too, like someone's cut their supports.
Fives doesn't want to look at any of them.
...
CT-8493, known to his squad as Brii, shifts awkwardly just inside the door of the gene lab and tries to figure out what to do.
He'd been in the first squad that'd attacked, and so he'd gotten stunned pretty early on, but that means he's been awake for a couple minutes now, long enough to watch some of the end of the fight. And he'd seen how even the trooper with the lightsaber, the one with the medic insignia on his shoulder, didn't kill; all their blasters were set to stun and all the medic did was deflect blaster bolts and knock troopers out and cut weapons in half. It doesn't make sense. When your opponent is shooting to kill, you have to shoot to kill too; tactically, that's the only sound decision. Shooting to stun, to incapacitate, is limiting.
And they're all wounded (what the kriff happened to them?) and tired and one of them is just in blacks, barefoot and with one arm in a sling, and another one is carrying their Jedi in his arms. There's a bandage around the orange-skinned Togruta woman's arm, but other than that she's uninjured, so Brii doesn't quite know what's wrong.
All he knows is the longnecks, the Kaminoans, ordered his squadron to shoot to kill, and good soldiers follow orders so he is but-but that's a Jediand those are his vod'e even though he doesn't know them, and… and they aren't killing. They aren't killing vod'e even though it would make everything easier for them and he doesn't understand but he doesn't want to kill his brothers.
He wakes up before the rest of his squad, slips around the corner (so many vod'e on the ground, but they're all just unconscious, just stunned, not a single one really even injured), watches as the medic with the lightsaber suddenly seems to just run out of energy, sagging against the wall by the keypad locking the door to the lab, and then he does-something, apparently, and the door opens and they start filing inside and before Brii can really think about what he's doing he's following them.
They don't notice him at first.
"What the kriff, Kix!" The other medic, the one without a lightsaber, sounds angry and panicked. "Captain, lay him down, I've got to check his leg-kriffing idiot, what the kriff was he thinking," and he trails off, kneeling by the barely-conscious medic.
The one in bare feet and blacks must be the Captain, then.
"And someone should tell Fives what's going on," the conscious medic continues, "he's probably really confused right now."
And then a very very quiet voice, weak and a bit shaky and hoarse, says, "What's your name, trooper?"
The entire little squad turns to the Jedi where she's cradled in a trooper's lap, and the Captain hurries over to her, kneels down. "'Soka, do you know where you are?"
"I'm talking to the shiny," she mumbles, and they still don't seem to understand.
"Um, CT-8493, I'm called Brii," Brii says, a bit self-conscious, shifting his weight. "Uh, it's short for briikase. In case you, wanted to know?" He cringes. No, they didn't want to know, idiot.
He jumps as multiple blasters are suddenly pointed at him, and even though he knows they're set to stun he still feels a rush of fear, and he throws his hands up. Quickly. "Who the kriff are you?" another trooper growls-it's the one who'd been supporting the one they call Fives, when Fives was cuffed and unconscious. (What the kriff happened to them?) "And what are you doing here?"
That's a really good question, actually. "I-don't know?" he hazards, shifts a little. "I just… didn't want to kill vod'e, and you have a Jedi with you. We aren't supposed to fire on the Generals."
"Stand down, Jesse," the Jedi says again, and she pushes herself out of the trooper's lap and sits up on the floor. The medic glares at her, but she ignores him, ignores the way the Captain tenses too. "I'm not going to stand up, relax, Tuck. I-I don't think I can." That must be a big admission for her, because her shoulders curve inward a little. The Captain puts his good hand, the one not in a sling, around her shoulder and she leans into him.
"Are you sure, Commander?" Jesse asks, not lowering his blaster. "What if he goes insane too? Kriff, you should keep us all in binders, we really willkill you if it happens again. You can't fight."
"You mean the nightmares?" Brii blurts out, horrified, because that's awful and how could they? "You mean it-you listened to them?"
"We didn't exactly have a choice," Jesse snarls back, but his hand is shaking around his blaster. "What would you care, anyway? You're just a shiny, you don't know the Jedi."
Brii shrugs, because that's true, in a way. "Master Tii oversaw my training, though," he says, "and she treats us like-like people, not like objects, like things to be thrown away when we break, and she doesn't like it when the longnecks want to have us reconditioned."
"Stand down, Jesse," the Captain says, and his voice is low but deadly. "That's enough."
There's a moment of silence, and then the blasters disappear as quickly as they'd appeared in the first place, and Jesse turns away. "I need a stim shot, Tuck," the Jedi says, and the functional medic-Tuck-swears.
"No you kriffing don't, Commander," he spits out. "You need sleep and bacta for your arm and I don't even know what to do for Force burn, kriffing Kix-"
And maybe it's the word Force, but Brii has an idea. "I have Master Tii's personal comm frequency?" he offers hesitantly, but the Jedi shakes her head.
"Anakin is on his way-General Skywalker," she clarifies, and Brii's eyes go wide because no kriffing way.
"You're 501st?" he breathes out, and pulls off his bucket, and he shouldn't be grinning but- "So you're Captain Rex, little gods, sir, you're the best captain out there, you stood up for your troopers on Umbara and-kriff, sirs, the 501st is the best battalion out there!" He's kriffing talking to kriffing Commander Tano and Captain Rex and- "And we hear stories about you, ARC-trooper Fives, sir, my entire batch wants to meet you."
...
Rex has no idea how he's expected to respond to this shiny's sudden and effusive admiration. Brii, short for briikase , happy . Unbelievable. And he isn't even wearing kriffing shoes .
"Thanks," he says, awkwardly, and glances at Fives.
Fives who looks like he's been shot between the eyes and who won't look at Brii at all.
Rex swallows, frowns. Now isn't the time for this at all - Fives needs him, but he can't let go of Ahsoka and Kix is in bad shape too and Tuck is way out of his depth and they're all just barely clinging to sanity.
"Not now, Brii," he says, quietly, and the shiny goes silent, although there's still such excitement in his eyes. He's definitely never seen a real battle and Rex doesn't think he understands what he's seeing now.
Soka, I need to check on Fives, he says, because his friend is staring at the floor and shaking and Rex knows this is a nightmare for him. I'm going to have Tuck sit with you, okay? He thinks if he just gets up she'll panic.
There's a vague sort of agreement, and Rex waves Tuck over. "Take a look at her. And give her the kriffing stim shot, Tuck, we don't have time for better." The assistant medic swears, but he sits down by Ahsoka and takes her arm, digs into his medpac.
Rex gets up (and kriff he wishes the world would stop spinning and he stumbles, almost falls) and starts towards Fives when suddenly Brii is there, pulling Rex's arm over his shoulders and Rex doesn't want to lean on him as much as he does but he's exhausted .
Fives glances up for a second, meets Rex's eyes but immediately looks away again. Still, Rex saw enough to understand what's going on and he stops next to Fives, gently pushes Brii away, and sits down on the floor next to his friend.
"Rex, don't," Fives says heavily, rubbing his head. "I don't want to do this right now."
"Well, good timing isn't a luxury we have right now," Rex answers, and although it feels too vulnerable with Ahsoka here, he puts an arm around Fives and pulls him close, ignores his resistance. "I'm fine, Fives."
...
Ahsoka hisses as the stim enters her bloodstream, sending a wave of adrenaline flooding her system, and closes her eyes, waiting it out. It takes a long moment for the original rush of jitters and trembling to fade, but when it does she thinks she might even be able to stand up. She doesn't try yet, though, senses that would probably be a bad idea.
Anakin is still far enough away that it hurts her to try and reach through the bond, and she swallows hard, because she has a feeling the only way they're going to get off this stupid kriffing planet is if her Master makes it before they get killed-and she allows herself to think that for a moment, and then she pushes the thought away, because it's not helpful right now. "Tuck," she says calmly, and the assistant medic looks at her, "I need you to prep for the bioscan. You know what Kix was going to do, right?"
Tuck nods, although he looks unsure. "Yes, sir," he says, and he pushes himself to his feet and makes his way over to the operating table in the middle of the room.
Okay, that's being taken care of, and Rex is sitting with Fives, hopefully trying to fix that, so… what's next, she has to focus, she has to plan or she'll shatter-the shiny. Brii. "Brii," she calls, and the shiny trots over to her like an eager puppy, his eyes wide, oddly young- and she thinks maybe he's only just been brought into the GAR. "Go ahead, sit down," and she indicates the floor.
Brii does, hesitates, then quietly asks, "What happened, sir? I don't-it's not good, is it?" He cringes, then, rushes to add, "I mean, you don't have to tell me, I understand if you don't trust me, I wouldn't trust me either-actually," and he scowls a little, the expression somehow looking wrong on his face, "I probably would, I'm not a very good trooper-"
"Brii," she says again, and he closes his mouth abruptly, hard enough she hears his teeth click together. "Breathe. It's alright. I was wondering if you could do something for me, trooper?"
"Yes, sir! Anything, sir, I might just be a shiny, and I'm kinda useless, but I can-run errands," and his smile dims a bit, but he jumps to his feet. "What can I do?"
"Do you know if there's a storage room somewhere where the Kaminoans put the armor and weapons of the troopers they're having reconditioned?"
Brii nods. "Yes, sir. Usually the longnecks-er, I mean the Kaminoans-scrub the armor once the procedure is done and then reuse it, but with all the commotion I bet they haven't yet. It's not a high priority."
"I need you to find Captain Rex's armor and a pair of DC-17 pistols," Ahsoka says, tries to keep her voice soft. "And hurry, reinforcements will be arriving soon and I'm not sure we can help you if you get stuck out there."
Brii smiles brightly, salutes. "Yes, sir! I'll be right back, sir," and he turns and hurries out the door.
He's gone, but she finds herself thinking about his question: what happened? Ahsoka thinks back, concentrates-she'd been talking, explaining how the shatterpoint felt, and then her men had just… frozen. It doesn't make sense-
And somebody else said, the time has come, execute order sixty-six.
Oh, kriff.
Tuck is really going to hate her for this, and so will Kix, later, but she doesn't have a choice; she uses Dogma's shoulder to push herself clumsily to her feet, swaying dizzily, almost falling. "Commander, sit the kriff down!" Tuck yelps, and he sounds less authoritative and more terrified, but she ignores him.
Instead, she staggers across the room to Kix, sinks back down to the floor in a graceless, more-or-less controlled collapse, and digs in his medpack for a stim shot.
This is such a bad idea, but she needs his help.
She fumbles with the stim, pulls the sleeve of Kix's blacks up-Tuck has already removed his armor, to make doctoring him easier-and injects the stim into his upper arm before Tuck can figure out what she's doing. "Kriff, Commander Tano, what are you doing-"
Kix opens his eyes and swears. His voice is weak and thready but here, and he's awake. "All due respect, sir, this is a terrible idea- ow," and he closes his eyes again.
"Desperate times, desperate measures," Ahsoka says softly, her own voice hoarse, wincing commiseratingly-she knows how intense the pain must be, right now. "First: you almost killed yourself, you went so deep into the Force, you can't just do that unless you know what you're doing," and he has the grace to at least look sheepish.
"Did you wake me up just to yell at me?" he grumbles, almost petulant, and she can't help but smile.
"No, actually-I think the… I think you started acting the way you did-I think there was an auditory trigger," and her head hurts way too much for this and she just wants to curl up with Rex and sleep and not have to worry about reconditioning or good soldiers follow orders or kill the Jedi or anything else, but she has a duty to protect her men and she has to figure this out and she doesn't know when her Master will get here, if ever, and the Force has deserted her for now.
She's alone.
...
Rex's arms around him help, but Fives still feels too sick to want them. It's not fine , Rex isn't fine. Fives shot him and he'd attacked his Jedi and his men and given them terrible orders.
"Let go of me, Rex," he says quietly, and when his Captain doesn't right away, shoves him back. "I mean it, back off."
Rex does, leans away. "I knew you were going to shoot me, Fives. It was my own fault."
"I shouldn't have been trying , sir," Fives says, clenching his fists. "I don't know why I did it."
"None of us do, Fives," Rex says. He looks so earnest and sure, even though there's exhaustion and pain behind his eyes also.
"You and Kix didn't listen - kriffing Dogma broke out of it!" Fives doesn't know how to explain how that feels, that Dogma could disobey orders but he'd kept trying to kill his vod'e just because good soldiers follow orders. "Rex, I… I thought I was better than that." It's so prideful of him, maybe, but he has always felt like he is a little freer than many of his vod'e .
"Well, I had Ahsoka in my head to pull me out of it," Rex says. "And Kix is Force sensitive, apparently."
"Well kriff ," Fives breathes. No wonder Kix is always so insufferable . He's like half a Jedi.
That doesn't help though, doesn't explain Dogma, doesn't make it easier to know that he'd almost killed his Captain , the one person who's always protected him.
"But why? Why did that happen, Captain?" he asks, and Rex fits his good arm around him again.
"We don't know," and he sighs, shakes his head. "You know I forgive you, Fives."
"Yeah," Fives says. He does know, but it helps to hear. "That doesn't make it okay."
"I know." Rex does know, that's the thing. Fives knows his vod knows better than anyone.
...
Kix levers himself to a sitting position, despite Tuck's glare, which is promising dire things if he doesn't lay back down right now.
But this is important.
He thinks back to the last words Ahsoka had said before this whole nightmare began. The time has come, execute Order Sixty-Six. She hadn't emphasized the last three words, but they feel like they should be. "An auditory trigger makes sense," he says, nods quietly. "The-Order Sixty-Six, that sounds like a military protocol," and he tenses but the voice doesn't come back and no one else moves, so. "But I've never heard of it before."
And then the door hisses open and a shiny in pure white armor comes back in, his arms full of familiar armor painted in 501st blue, Rex's helmet upside-down under one arm. The shiny sets Rex's armor and helmet down, pulls a jar out of the helmet, comes over to Kix and sits down, pulling his own helmet off. "What's the jar?" Ahsoka asks.
The shiny fidgets, looks hesitant. "Well, since this is the medical wing, and you have wounded, I thought you might need some bacta. So I took some."
Bacta? Kix doesn't know who this shiny is, but he loves the kid. "Tuck, stop glaring at me and get some bacta on the Captain's shoulder."
"Actually, sir, I'm putting it on your leg first, since you decided to fight on it," and Tuck just glares harder. "Why the kriff are you sitting up?"
Good question, because Kix is pretty sure sitting up hurts a hell of a lot more than laying down, but he's hurting so much at this point that he almost can't even feel it anymore. "It isn't because I enjoy getting yelled at by my assistant," he snarks. "I need to run that scan on the Captain, I think I know what I'm-" and he cuts off because he was wrong, he can definitely feel it as Tuck unwraps the bandages and starts cleaning the blaster wound and applying bacta. "Shavit," he swears, lets out a strangled burst of Mando'a and breathes through teeth clenched so tightly his jaw aches.
He'd much rather be unconscious.
"First thing we're doing when we get off this karking planet is teaching you better shielding," Ahsoka mutters through gritted teeth.
"I know how to-ah-shield," he snaps, rides another wave of pain. This really hurts.
"Not well enough!"
"You are not standing up and running scans, Kix," Tuck says. "You can tell me what to do and I'll do it, but you aren't allowed to walk on this leg."
And kriff, that's not fair, because he can't even argue with how much his leg hurts right now. "Kriff you," he growls.
Finally, Tuck finishes and stands to go work on Rex, and Kix heaves out a breath. "I need to do a molecular-level bioscan," he says loudly enough for Tuck to hear him-there's a high likelihood that the chip Rex had heard his doctors talking about is, in fact, an inhibitor chip, and it would make sense for the chip to be implanted in such a way that when triggered, it could take over, causing Rex to react to the trigger so completely and turn on his Jedi-
And then it hits him, and he feels the Force nudging him towards this conclusion (to think, he's kept this part of himself walled off for so long-how much help it could've been in a fight): they'd all reacted. Which means…
"We all have chips," he whispers, horrified. "All of us," and it's an easy leap to the next sickening realization. "We weren't created to fight a war for the Jedi-we're their executioners, and they'll never even know!"
...
They all hear Kix, it's quiet enough, and Rex can't even… process that, for a moment.
This, then, is the mission in their nightmares, the thing they don't talk about, the reason every night is the horror of killing their Jedi and they've never known why . Rex pushes himself to his feet, offers a hand up to Fives, and Tuck gives him a sharp look that Rex is getting all too used to.
The one thing Rex has always counted on, since he was cadet, even now that he shares a bond with Ahsoka, is the sanctity of his own thoughts. His mind was his, and his only, and they taught him to shield it and he and all his vod'e trusted that if they had nothing else, really, they had safety in their choices and thoughts. Privacy, individuality, at least some freedom.
If Kix is right, they don't even have that .
"What do you mean, their kriffing executioners? " Jesse snarls, and Kix shakes his head.
"I don't know but, well, with what happened, and Commander Tano wanting to investigate the chip, and the nightmares, I think… I think we're supposed to kill the Jedi."
The voice in the nightmares.
Why? How?
"What the kriff? " It's the shiny, Brii, looking out of his depth and panicked. It's something else to focus on besides kill the Jedi and the horrible possibility that the clones are far more slaves than Rex had even thought. "We can't, why would that be… We can't do that!"
Rex walks over to him, pats him on the shoulder. "We can ," he says, because that's the real danger of this, that his vod'e could do this, could execute the Jedi. "Which is why we have to make sure we figure this out. Thanks for bringing me my armor, vod ."
Brii nods, and the poor kid is shivering. "You're welcome, sir."
Rex glances at Ahsoka, remembers Fives setting a blaster in his hand and the horrible clarity of it, of knowing it was his job to kill her. It's difficult not to feel guilty. "Run that scan," he says, eyes flicking briefly back to Tuck, and the assistant medic nods, squaring his jaw. They'll probably need to promote him if they make it out of this mission.
If anything's ever the same again.
Cyare, he thinks, and Ahsoka gives him a quizzical look.
What?
He's not even sure, he just… she's thinking again, and it's a relief, and he's so tired . We'll figure this out .
I know . She sends him gentle reassurance, understanding, comfort, and he doesn't want it because he's suddenly aware of how much he needs itbut he doesn't have time right now, to think about how terrified he is.
He wants his armor back, but if they're going to run a bioscan it would be in the way, so he crosses his arms, meets Tuck's eyes. "Can you do this?"
Tuck shifts and the skin around his eyes tightens, but he nods firmly. "Yes sir."
Yeah, he's definitely earned a promotion. "Good. Kix, don't you kriffing dare move. Talk to Brii, I don't care, just rest ."
"You're one to talk," Kix mutters, and Rex feels a surge of amusement from Ahsoka. He wishes he felt more amused but right now his heartbeat is a steady pulse of anxiety and he knows it's just a bioscan, just laying still and waiting for results, but… the results are the part he doesn't want, really.
He wants to go home .
...
There's too much going on in his mind right now for Kix to just rest, so he hesitantly looks over at the shiny. The poor kid looks terrified and come to think of it Kix isn't even sure where he came from, but he's young and from the brightness of his armor he's probably never been in a fight before.
"So where did you come from?" Kix asks, and it takes the shiny, Brii, a moment to realize Kix is talking to him.
"Me, sir? I sort of just followed you in here," he admits sheepishly. "I didn't want to kill brothers. But if I'd known you're 501st I never would've eventried, everybody knows you're the best, and you have a lightsaber, sir, that's so cool-"
"Brii," Kix says, blinking, because kriff the kid can talk, "you don't have to call me sir."
"But, sir, I've never even been off Kamino, and you're 501st-"
"You'll be off this rock soon enough," Kix says, doesn't say either that or dead, because something about the kid makes him want to protect Brii, keep that almost-childlike innocence intact for as long as possible.
"How do you know, sir?"
Kix hesitates, because really this isn't his place, and he doesn't even know the shiny, there's no reason for this, but-and Ahsoka makes the decision for him, says, "The Resolute is on its way with the rest of the battalion, so we just have to hold out until then."
Brii's eyes get wide, and again Kix is struck by how much the shiny looks young. "General Skywalker is coming here?"
"Didn't you hear that earlier?" Kix asks, amused despite himself.
The shiny nods, but he's still staring at Ahsoka, almost starstruck. "Will-can I- meet him?"
Ahsoka laughs, faintly. "Of course you will. He's going to be your General, you'll have to talk to him."
Maybe this was an okay idea after all, Kix thinks, smiling at the awe on Brii's face. "My-General, sir?" He just stares, for a minute, and then he clears his throat. "I mean, of course, sir. Commander."
"Kix," Tuck calls, and the medic looks away from the shiny, over to the operating table. "There's some kind of organic biochip for sure, sir. What should I do?"
Kix hesitates, but the Force is insistent, and he nods. "Remove it, Tuck. We'll run some scans on the chip itself, see if we can figure out what the kriff it's for." That's just a-courtesy, almost, at this point, confirmation of what Kix already knows is true, deep in his bones.
"What if something happens when we remove it?" Tuck asks, and his voice is steady and so are his hands but his eyes are so scared.
And Kix realizes, then, that he's tired. Not physically exhausted, although he is that; he's almost war-weary, tired of finding out he's just a pawn in a game he can't even comprehend. But the galaxy doesn't stop for one single clone trooper, and so he sighs, closes his eyes for a moment, takes a deep breath. "Then we deal with that when it happens. Although-maybe you shouldn't be the first one, Captain." In case it goes wrong is left unsaid.
"I'll do it," Dogma says quietly, standing up.
...
"No, you kriffing won't ," Rex growls, starting to sit up although he'd much rather just stay lying down and go to sleep and not have to think . Tuck holds him down with one hand on his chest, clearly sick of him being careless.
"Sir, all due respect, but they need you more than they need me," Dogma says, and Rex scowls, swats at Tuck's hand. "And I want these orders out of my head."
You're not going first , Ahsoka thinks, fiercely, and Rex scowls because if anyone is going to risk their life and their sanity it should be him because he's their Captain .
Ahsoka, I'm not letting him take this risk, he thinks, meeting her eyes.
And I'm not letting you. If that chip does something to your mind, our thoughts are connected, Rex . Kriff her, she's right. And I've already almost lost you twice today and I'm tired of it .
"Kriffing fine ," he snarls, and Dogma squares his shoulders, nods.
"I want to run a scan for his chip before I go cutting into his head," Tuck says, and Dogma smiles grimly.
"You better," Kix says, and Tup comes over to help Dogma lift Rex off the table because apparently he's not allowed to just move himself , for kriff's sake. He shrugs away their support, walks himself over to Ahsoka and Kix and struggles to just sit down rather than collapsing in an undignified heap. He wishes Brii would stop staring at him - this would all be much less humiliating if there wasn't some overly-friendly shiny looking at him like he's something impressive .
You are, you know, Ahsoka thinks, and he glances over at her, projecting tired disbelief.
Soka, I am about to pass out, I can't move my right arm, and I don't kriffing have shoes. He's trying to be funny but it just feels a little flat.
Well you know, cyare , Brii did bring back your armor.
He doesn't have the energy to put his armor on but he wants it, wants to feel safe again, and surely now it's alright to put it back on. Still, it's farand he can't quite reach the armor and there would be straps to do up.
But he needs it, needs to stop feeling weak and useless and tired, so he gestures at the pile of armor that's still next to Brii. "Pass that here, would you?"
Brii nods quickly, picks up his bucket and hands it over first. Rex accepts it gratefully, although he doesn't want to put it on just now.
"Um, sir," Brii says, as he shoves over the rest of the piled armor. "How did you get the jaig eyes?"
Rex huffs quietly and shakes his head, starting to pull on his boots. "Now's not the best time for that story, kid. Later, maybe."
Oh, come on, Rex, look at him. Just tell him .
Ahsoka, for kriff's sake, shut up .
He gets a strong mental image of her sticking out her tongue and can't help but chuckle a little. Right now is hardly storytime, but he compromises. "There was a battle, and most of my platoon died, including the Captain in charge, so I took over. Got the jaig eyes. It was very exciting."
"Wow," Brii says, and Rex finds himself struggling not to smile. Brii looks like most shinies, with his regulation haircut and spotless armor, but he notices a twist of color on Brii's neck beneath his blacks - so he does have some tattoos.
He starts buckling on his bracers, trying to ignore Brii because now is hardly the time to be having a chat with a shiny named "happy" about how heroic he is (because he's really not).
"Rex…" Ahsoka grabs his hand, stops him from tightening one of the straps.
"What?" he sighs, looking up at her.
Just take a minute to rest, Rex. We're not going anywhere fast.
I need this, he thinks, tries to project how vulnerable he feels, has felt ever since he woke up in the cell.
You need to rest, you idiot.
Rex pushes her hand away and goes back to tightening the armor, irritated despite himself. That isn't priority, Soka, they need me and we have to get this figured out .
Taking care of yourself isn't priority. Why does she have to sound so sarcastic, that's not what he meant , anyway.
"You're so stupid, Rex, for kriff's sake!"
"Back off! " he snaps, sitting up straight (and oh kriff his head still hurts and the kriffing bioscan didn't help ). "It's just not that important right now, everything else is a kriffing mess and I have to- I need to make sure they're all okay ." He lowers his voice on the last part, rubs his forehead wearily.
Kix, sitting next to them, rolls his eyes but he looks ready to scold too. "I'm sure I agree with whatever Ahsoka is saying, Rex."
"Go kriff yourself," he growls, happens to glance at Brii. The poor kid looks shocked and confused and Rex is starting to think they might be breaking his brain. Protocol is a laughable, distant concept at this point.
"All due respect, sir," Brii says, glancing between him and Kix and Ahsoka. "But what's going on? "
Tup laughs from where he's leaned back against one of the walls, shakes his head. "We never know, kid."
Rex smiles a little, sparing some sympathy for Brii and the situation he's gotten himself into. He stops focusing on his armor, leans back a little. How the hells does he even explain this? He glances at Kix for help, but Kix shrugs, and Ahsoka is laughing at him in his head and he's going to kill her later.
That's not as funny as it used to be.
"Yeah, I guess it would be confusing," he says, meeting Brii's eyes and smiling. He has, after all, just yelled at a Jedi and a Commander about something like they'd been having a normal conversation - and maybe he should stop doing that so often. "Um… The Commander and I have a, um-" the kriff how's he supposed to explain this to a shiny who doesn't even know them, has met one Jedi in his life. "Have they taught you how to shield yet?"
"Yeah, of course, sir," Brii says. "And defend against mind tricks."
"Good. Well… Jedi can…" This is stupid. Ahsoka, come on, why can't you just explain?
Go kriff yourself .
Well, thanks for nothing . He rubs his jaw with one hand, sighs. "Then you know that the Jedi can see what's in people's minds and, and all that."
"Yeah?" Brii looks like he's trying so hard to understand and Rex shakes his head a little; this kid is just… unbelievable.
"Well, the Commander and I have a… like a connection that means I can see what she's thinking and she can see what I'm thinking. Because of the Force, and all that shit." He's too tired for this. Ahsoka is definitely laughing at him.
Kriff you, Soka.
"Oh," Brii says, not quite like he gets it. "So you… talk to each other? In your heads?"
"Yeah." Rex sighs and picks up his pauldron, starts fitting it on his good shoulder. He won't bother about the other for now.
...
"Do Jedi do that a lot?" Brii asks, and Ahsoka can feel Rex's exhaustion like a heavy echo of her own.
She can also feel that he's about to snap, and she doesn't want him scaring away their newest recruit, so she sighs dramatically (he rolls his eyes) and takes pity on him. Go the kriff to sleep, Rex. "I'm not technically a Jedi anymore," she explains, and the poor confused shiny's eyes just get even wider.
"You aren't? But-how? Why?"
"Because," Rex growls, "the kriffing Council is kriffing stupid."
Which, honestly, sums it up pretty well.
"Oh," and she can tell Brii has no idea what Rex means. "But you're still fighting?"
"She's our Commander," Kix says, "she's not just going to leave us."
"Besides," Ahsoka adds, "Anakin would get killed without me watching his back."
"Really?"
Someone needs to explain the concepts of exaggeration and not meaning things literally to the poor kid, Ahsoka thinks wearily. "Not literally, although it's probably true. He is pretty reckless."
Kix snorts. "That's an understatement."
"Rex, go the kriff to sleep," she repeats, out loud, where her Captain can't pretend he didn't hear. (There's a vaguely muffled surprise, and she sends, yes, I did catch that.) He glares, and she sighs. "Cyare, please. Gar shuk meh kyrayc."
Rex scowls and makes a crude gesture with one hand, grumbles, "Shut up, 'Soka."
And Brii blinks, says very quietly, almost tremulously, "Cyare?"
...
Oh for kriff's sake , Rex doesn't want to deal with any of this right now. I am not explaining our long and complicated history to him right now, he thinks.
No, you aren't, because you're going to sleep , she thinks, and Rex wishes he could shield better right now because that idea makes him panic . Because the nightmares are real and he'd almost lost himself and he's safe if he's awake .
Rex . Her thoughts are soft and gentle and she takes a closer look at him, steps into all the fears and worries he's shoving down in the back of his mind. What if I sleep too, would that help?
I need to make sure Dogma is okay after his surgery and I don't know if Fives is in good enough shape to be in charge and I-
Stop. She soothes over his thoughts and leans into him, pulls a piece of armor out of his hands. You need rest. I'll be right here, I promise . And Rex does think that would help.
"Yeah, about that," Kix says, when no answer is forthcoming from Rex or Ahsoka, and Rex cringes, spots Fives finally focusing, grinning a little. Oh dear little gods, why him.
Oh, just go to sleep, Ahsoka thinks, and he doesn't want to, doesn't want to see the nightmare, hear the voice, but he's so tired and he thinks she might be pulling his exhaustion to the front of his mind, and that's cheating but he lets her wrap her arms around his waist and pull him down to lay next to her on the floor. It's more instinct than anything to slide his good hand under her cheek, press his forehead to hers, and he really is tired and he does want to sleep and he's going to be mad at her for being smug. Later .
...
Brii has pretty much given up on trying to make anything make sense anymore.
Apparently, Commander Tano isn't actually a Jedi, except everyone still calls her Commander, and then she has some weird Force-mind-trick-connection- thing with Captain Rex and he's pretty sure Jedi don't do that, whatever the kriff it actually is. And then she calls the Captain cyare,and curls up next to him on the floor to sleep?
He looks back at the medic, Kix, who seems to at least be sane, except Kix is smiling and Brii really honestly is missing something here. "Um, Kix, sir, is the entire battalion this…" and he gestures vaguely with one hand.
"Pretty much," the medic says. "Don't worry, kid. You'll get used to it."
"But-a Captain and a Commander, that's not allowed," he protests vaguely, because it is really kind of cute and it doesn't bother him, except-
"That's why we're here," Kix says.
Brii frowns. "Because of the Captain and the Commander?"
"Because it's not allowed." Kix sighs, turns and levels a glare at Fives. " Somebody decided it would be a good idea to go to 79's, the clone cantina on Coruscant, and those two got drunk and… well, they were careless."
"Somebody saw," Brii realizes, because he may be inexperienced but he's not stupid. "Was he supposed to be reconditioned?"
Kix winces, nods. "Yeah, but the Commander wasn't about to let that happen. None of us were."
"So you came to rescue him?" This is actually pretty kriffing cool. And he's helping! "But what happened? You guys are really, well, beat up."
"Storytime's over," Fives drawls from his position against the wall. "How's it coming, Tuck?"
"Almost done," the assistant medic says. "Sorry, Brii, but now's a bad time for that explanation."
"We don't actually know what happened," the one trooper who hasn't introduced himself yet says. "I'm Tup, by the way."
"You said the nightmares," Brii starts, and Fives cuts him off, hard.
"Not now, kid!"
"Fives," Kix says, but the ARC trooper just looks away.
"Battles are hard," Jesse explains. "This one was… worse."
"Because you tried to kill your Jedi." Brii nods understanding. This, at least, is one thing he understands: the nightmares, the whispers. Good soldiers follow orders. Kill the Jedi.
From the way everyone tenses, though, he thinks maybe that wouldn't have been the best thing to say out loud.
Oops.
...
"What's so hard to understand about not right now? " Fives snarls, and really he shouldn't but it stings, hearing it out loud, and he thinks he likes Brii but the shiny has no tact and doesn't understand anything . He pushes himself off the wall because he needs to move , and Brii actually flinches a little.
Kriff. He can't karking do anything good today.
The rest of the squad is as tired and pained as he is (and Jesse is a little green because he's not good with medical procedures and Tuck has cut open Dogma's head ) and Brii isn't helping.
Or, well, right at this second he isn't. But Fives has to admit he likes the kid, even though he's kind of an idiot. So he squashes his guilt as much as he can, glances at Rex and Ahsoka curled up on the floor.
(The sight of the bandage and sling on Rex's shoulder makes his stomach hurt.)
"They're insufferable," he says dryly, indicating the two. Brii glances at them too, then back at him.
"Why?"
"Because." Fives sits down on the floor, cross-legged. "They took a really long time to get together and I lost like four bets to General Skywalker."
"It was more than that," Kix says, and Fives grumbles to himself. Like Kix knows.
"Whatever. Either way, they're oblivious and then they always kiss at the wrong times, I can't kriffing win with them."
"Sir?"
"I mean one time they kissed too soon, but then at 79's I called the timing perfectly. See how that turned out, though."
He's not helping Brii's confusion, and it's hilarious, but Kix raises an eyebrow at him. "Fives, now you're just being cruel ," Kix sighs, shaking his head. "Leave the poor kid alone."
Fives shrugs, waves his hand. "It's fine, he can handle it." Brii can't and it's comical how lost he looks.
"You'll figure it out, eventually," Tup says helpfully. "Don't worry about it, Brii."
Mando'a translations:
briikase: happy
Gar shuk meh kyrayc: you're no use dead