Fox III
...
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It was an evening that toed the darkness and taunted it, that chased a tragedy and rekindled it anew. For him, and for her. For them all. A night of regret, confusion and heated thoughts and shots and feet and blood. Death and craze and hate. And looks. So many looks...ones he'd never forget.
"I'm Commander Tano. I'm here to see the prisoner."
He knew who she was, although she had looked different back when they had first met. Light and smiles and heaping a plate of food for him as he sat. She didn't seem to recognize him, her thoughts tangled elsewhere and distant as her eyes. Not unlike everyone's then. There was still a light there, though. He didn't think it was possible to snuff that, but it played backdrop to something else now. Now her gaze was dark and clouded and edged. Harder than before.
Wars did that to you. People dying did that to you.
"A lot of innocent people died in those blasts. Good job bringing her in."
He stepped forward as he spoke and saw her blink with sudden recognition. A small smile of embarrassment. A jedi-sense perhaps. He hadn't been wearing his armor the last time they'd met. There was a small stoke of pride in his chest that she did remember him now. In an army of likeness it was a comfort to be remembered.
She was scanned and parted with anything which might offer or provoke a recourse toward the accused. He didn't anticipate anything of that nature but procedure had to be followed and she hadn't seemed offended or hesitated to comply.
Things weren't supposed to go wrong.
He had led her down the hallway to the woman's cell with an allowance for himself of a small feeling of relief. An expectation of pressing forward and making progress. He had heard many times, from the lips of many brothers that she could be fierce when she needed to be. The other part to her softness that he hoped would come into play that night.
He couldn't imagine what the prisoner wanted to tell her, but he was eager to hear it said. To have the 501st Commander make work of it. A breakthrough. A confession. Something that would allow his return to his normal post.
He opened the door as the guards took up stances on either side without instruction. A small and simple thing, but a show of confidence that they were both reliable, and good, men, equally loyal and hard working as his own. Not that he doubted it, it was just a comfort to kindle at that moment.
But it caused his mind to drift unnecessarily and also reminded that they weren't his men, not in the way of those he oversaw and assigned rotation to at the other complex. Those he shared his double life with. In a way, at that moment, he was very glad of that, eyes on the Commander's back as she stepped across the cell to the figure on the bed..
The woman had given him a look then, from beneath the rim of her hat and arms wrapping her knees as he stood in the doorway. A dark look, venom and distrust and hate. It shocked him a little, and he stared back at her, feeling the heat rise within him. It was insulting. He and his men had done nothing to her aside from booking, escorting and watching.
He had no love for her, it was true, and he certainly wouldn't have been above shooting her if the situation called for it, but neither he nor his brothers had taken any part in, or were in any way inclined to, mistreat a prisoner simply because they had poor favor of them.
When Ahsoka had asked him to go he had gone gladly, welcoming the distance from the crazy woman and that degrading look.
He didn't anticipate the death.
He stood at the doorway again, mere minutes later, in shock and trying to find words that matched his mind to the reality which tasted like bile and cracked like gritted teeth. The flicker of a dying woman passing before his eyes. His prisoner. On his watch.
It couldn't be. But it was. The woman was dead and Ahsoka had a look of surprise. As though she didn't believe it herself.
She looked up at him, bent over the body of a dead woman and a dark image flashed across and seared into his mind. A jedi gone rogue. Threats and deceit and lightsabers, neon arcs and slashes and a dark figure hovering over dead bodies.
Fox battled the images and sounds of a friend's rule-breaking helmet vids as he did the same of duty and emotions. It was a bad place to be. Compromising. Dangerous. Deadly. He severed the emotional tie, removing his familiarity with her, and received cold clarity as a consolation. He drew his blasters and pointed them to her head.
She had looked at him then, before she turned and raised her hands, with vivid eyes, bright and blue-fire and stunned meek. Looked to him for some solace or reprieve, before mumbling her own to herself when he failed to give either.
He had none to offer. Had to perform his duty in spite of feelings. The nature of his job forbade him partiality, whether he would have afforded it to her that or not.
"I can't say I blame you, Commander Tano. All the same, you're under arrest."
...
.
He watched it over and over.
Trying to reconcile the images in his mind with the girl he'd met, feeding and playing with children and laughing beside his men. The stories he'd heard about her from the brothers of the 501st, the look of Rex's eyes as he spoke of her.
He saw her again, arms outstretched, the woman hovering above her and gagging in the invisible grasp. Clawing desperately at a neck which compressed harshly without touch. Dying. At the whim of the Commander's fingertips.
She didn't. She couldn't have.
But she did.
He watched it again before turning off the projection and setting it down on the table. Sliding it as far away as possible and sitting with his head in his hands, fingers pressing against his eyes.
He sat for as long as his break allowed, returning to the monitoring station long minutes later with insides and thoughts still churning.
She had been there.
They had both jolted at the sight of the other and she had looked at him again, that same look. Surprise, confusion. Desperation.
Pleading.
But in that moment he only saw the men on the ground. And that she stood above them, lightsabers in her hands. They weren't active but they were there and there was no way she had procured them without force.
No matter who it is. Even if its a jedi...don't hesitate.
He hit the alarms and she had run.
The hunt began. A race against time, and the farther he ran the more it solidified in his mind. Stop her. Stop her. A jedi gone bad. A rogue force user. If he didn't a lot of brothers would die. He saw them in his mind.
Rex's voice echoed sudden and crackling in his helmet. Hot panic in his ear. Did you find her? Where is she? Fox!
She'd gotten past the restraining corridor. If he didn't stop her soon they wouldn't be able to.
He found her as he rounded a corner. She froze for a grain of a second. An eon of time captured in a moment, a heartbeat, and a glance. She didn't bother speaking with her lips, only her eyes again. He opened fire, and the blasts sparked a path behind her against the corridor.
He fell to his knees beside the men at his feet.
She wouldn't she wouldn't...
They were dead. Molten slashes in their backs on the floor. Eyes unseeing.
"She's killed clones. Code red. I repeat. Shoot to kill."
Clones. They were more than that. They were men. But it was regs to call them that when accounting deaths, to make the distinction. Even when they lay on the floor, felled by a lightsaber.
A jedi had made short work of his brothers in this manner before. At the expense of a friend. In a deplorable retaliation that was nothing less than a massacre by all accounts. He wouldn't let it happen again.
Rex was there now, arguing against her guilt even as his eyes fell on the men on the floor. But Fox knew behind that visor his eyes were painted with the same uncertainty and horror. He repeated himself over the private comm. Mumbles and head shaking and pauses and broken voice. Trying to convince Fox. Trying to convince himself.
"Then who did? " Fox asked. He didn't want to, but it needed to be said. And there was no answer that Rex could give that would spare him something he didn't want to think about or see.
Fox hated her then.
For killing his brothers. For putting Rex through it all over again.
Fox couldn't see Rex's face but he knew the expression he bore. He heard the sucked breath over the private comm before the channel closed.
The General had tried to reason with her but she was unreachable. Fox didn't know what he would have done at the sight of her at that moment anyways. He still knelt by the bodies of brothers. Rex faltered, eyes dancing over the men and Fox knew what he saw. It played before his eyes, too. The men at their feet were what they had never wanted to see again. What they hadn't wanted to believe could happen again.
Skywalker told Rex to call it in, a request cruel without intention, and Rex did. Impartial words and steady voice. It was the voice they had been made to master in command training. The voice you used when you were at your breaking point, but pretended you were sure of what to do and of the mind to do it. Fox knew it when he heard it, and knew Rex was neither.
In the courtyard he saw her again. Perched on the statue like an angel of death in the night. Even in the darkness his eyes found her and held onto her, followed her.
The blaster fire shrieked past her shoulders, streaked at her feet. The turrets joined, taking up chunks behind her heels.
The ship exploded just as she reached it, sending her sprawling to the ground. Hot flash flames and scraps to the sky, her boots and hands to the permacrete before she took off again.
At that moment Fox froze in a state of awe, forgetting for a second his purpose. Stunned at her immunity to something that would have crippled or killed anyone else. Her thin small form sprinting away from the explosion like a shadow.
The orders came through to catch her alive and Fox wasn't sure if he was relieved or furious. She still swung neon death in her wake. Shot after shot had no effect.
It didn't hit him until later that they never struck a man down. Not once. Not amid being shot at by blaster and stun rays, turrets and rocket launchers fired on by air and foot, surrounded. The sound of fingers on triggers, spotlights.
He saw her face clearly at that moment as she stood cornered, one against many. Her eyes passing over himself and Rex. Asking, not believing. Scared. Hurt. Angry. And then her master between them. Betrayal. A loss of faith. The kind you don't recover from.
And then again. The last time he saw her. Looking up from the top of the ship below them as it sank to the depths of Coruscant. A final look of aloneness and resolve that she pieced between Rex and Skywalker. Her eyes hadn't sought his again.
He remembered that. The look she didn't give him.
...
He wasn't a jedi but he could feel them. The weight of their stares and unspoken words and thoughts.
He had denied their requests to take up duty at the complex where Ahsoka had been kept. Had kept them away from her. On purpose, for the sake of partiality.
And now he was there to ask them to go after her for that very same reason.
He have them all a weighted look that left no room for discussion. No quips or smart remarks or personal biases. Only the expectation of compliance and the acknowledgment of sincere trust.
"Skywalker wants her found and brought back." He looked at them all, knew he was affording them a wish while giving himself a nightmare. It never got easier picking men you knew may very well not make it back alive. They needed no persuasion and suited up immediately. Grateful yet hard eyes and silent.
He tried reconciling the opposing images and thoughts and feelings again. His blood which had so furiously boiled over now simmered, slow but steady. His head competed for truth within itself. The choking of the woman. The frightened stare. The look of betrayal and the refusal to attack back.
It didn't make sense. None of it did.
Maybe it wasn't supposed to.
"He wants someone who won't go in blasters blazing, and so I figure you lot are the ones for it. Commander Wolffe is waiting for you at the platform."
He stepped out into the corridor as they gathered their gear, still questioning his choice even though he knew it was the right one. He'd never second-guessed so many things in his life.
Lex joined him as he waited for the others, saying nothing but there was an accepting comfort in his stance, and his silence. Neither he nor the others had believed Ahsoka guilty of what Fox told them, but neither had they argued, seeing the look on his face and the obvious trouble of his thoughts. There was no judgement in the crossing of his arms or the neutrality of his face as he stared at the opposite wall.
Fox looked over at him.
"I've called Shard and his squad for this also."
Lex blinked, surprised. He knew Shard. They had been in the same training batch on Kamino. He also knew he was stationed at a different complex, and a special request had to to have been made.
"Shard is a good choice." Lex admitted. "He may not be the most sociable, but he and his men get the job done, no questions asked. You say don't shot, they won't."
Fox didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing anymore. He nodded assent and closed his eyes, tilting his head back to rest it on the wall, trying to forget the looks.
...
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And here we are...full circle. It's funny, the thought of my squad came from watching this arc, and the one with Fives, and wanting to write about the men who were tasked with reprimanding them. I never felt that Fox was a bad guy, just a bit of a smart-shebs, and unwaveringly loyal to what he believed was just (Also, I thought his armor was cool).
Although it was my aim to not contradict canon events too much, I definitely have taken a few liberties with this arc. I hope they weren't disappointing!
*Special news for you guys- I have a few stories that have been in the works for a bit and aren't ready yet, but will be popping up at some point.
Not Like This:
A lost chapter of sorts which takes place between the Kix and Ahsoka chapters. Fox and Aiya in a romantic way. It'll be rated M. -I would say its not too much more explicit than anything I've written so far in the Surge or Rex chapters, but it does cover a romantic encounter from beginning to end. Just a heads up (and warning to anyone who may be opposed to reading that kind of thing). There isn't anything major which you'll miss by not reading it. They'll be discussing things that have been hinted at (Aiya feeling guilty about Turns, Lex having unreciprocated feelings for her, a joking admission of Fox's rivalry with Rex before Aiya meets him. And just the knowledge that they have now shared an experience which they hadn't yet in the year or so they've been together before).
The Other Side:
Obi-wan and Cody crash land on a backwater Separatist planet.
The Moonlight Soldier:
Pure fluff. Takes place after the Turns II chapter. Juni's hosting a dance class to meet college dues, and she has a few ladies lined up. The catch- they want to dance with certain someones. Cozzizzie- I was thinking it needed expanded on too ;). Will feature Turns, Trust, Lex, Hatch, Net, Fetcher, and Steel.
It's been a busy few weeks and I kind of fizzled out for a bit. Sorry! I'm not going to choose days anymore because that's been a failure -_-, but I promise to try really hard to get a chapter of each story to you guys each week. Thanks for sticking with me, and all the favorites and follows and reviews! Next TOK chapter should be up soon, and I'll see you in TOC next time with Ahsoka!