Rex was puzzled by Fox's actions. He'd made it clear he was confined to the cell and said the guard was to be doubled, (so far it hadn't, but he assumed this was an oversight. Surely Fox wanted them safe?) He'd also said that he and Cody would be confined to the cell. Yet, now, he was ordering them to leave. Rex froze in place and looked over to Cody, awaiting his decision as senior officer. Stay or go? Cody was a Marshall Commander, and so was Fox. This was a kind of draw when it came down to rank. But, they were in the brig, and Fox was in charge here. So, that did put Fox at a rank advantage when it came to telling them what to do.

Cody gave a slight jerk with his chin toward the door.

Fine, they were going.

Cody put up a hand indicating he wanted Rex to help haul him up. Rex gripped him lightly by his uninjured arm and pulled him to his feet without unduly putting weight on his new injuries. Cody nodded and indicated he wanted to make his way on his own.

No vod wants to be unduly fussed over.

OK, Rex didn't mind a little bit of fussing over when Ahsoka was around, but that was different. Cody would let him know if he needed help.

Orli and Bodie lined up on either side of them exchanging a quick glance.

That look was telling. This change of plan was a surprise to them, too.

Rex looked over to Fox to demand an explanation.

But, Fox offered no reassurances. No explanation. He stared them down and waited for Rex and Cody to get moving.

What was going on?

As they started down the corridor, heading in a different direction from when they'd arrived, Fox reached down to type into his compad. Except… he had a second compad next to the first one. A smaller one. He had a hidden panel built into his forearm hiding an extra set of controls. It wouldn't be notifiable to someone who didn't live in the armor.

Rex shot a quick glance at Cody.

Cody caught his eye and flicked a glance toward the security holocams ringing the corridor.

Oh.

The power indicators were off on the cams. Fox had shut down the surveillance.

Behind them, Orli and Bodie shifted slightly.

Cody tensed.

Fox abruptly halted and turned to their escort. "You're dismissed. Head back to the barracks."

Orli cocked his helmet head to the side for a moment, clearly thrown off by the order. "Sir?"

Cody glanced back and forth between the trooper and his commanding officer. He'd heard the Corrie Guard were fanatical in obeying orders. But, perhaps the stories had been exaggerated. Orli, a lieutenant, was clearly struggling with what he saw as two conflicting orders.

"Dismissed," Fox repeated clearly and with finality.

Bodie elbow Orli slightly. "Come on. I could use some caf." The second guard still shot their commander a look, though. It was clear, even through the helmet.

"Of course, Commander," Orli acknowledged to Fox, giving Cody and Rex one last look. The guards quickly departed, leaving them alone without an escort.

Fox set off down the corridor again. His pace was brisk, hurried and almost agitated. Rex stayed back to keep pace with Cody. Considering he'd been shot, stabbed and cut across the abdomen, Cody was keeping up a good clip. But, he was no match for Fox's long agitated strides.

Fox could figure it out on his own. Their stupid mysterious brother who refused to tell them anything that was going on around this place.

'Better you don't know' .

Fekker.

No wonder most of the batch had lost touch with Fox. He was insufferable.

Rex kept a careful eye on Cody, prepared to help him if he faltered. But, Cody seemed to be holding up alright despite his injuries. Rex, however, was not fine. He was fuming. Why had the guards been sent away? Not that Rex didn't think he could defend himself, but he'd prefer a good blaster at his side. And, his armor, damnit. Without armor and blasters, they were at a serious disadvantage.

And, why shut down the security holos?

Cody had already been attacked once.

This seemed like a perfect setup so someone could finish the job-

No. Fox wouldn't set them up. Would he?

Fox led them through a maze of unfinished corridors. No cells, no guards, no prisoners. The lighting went from bright to spartan to nearly non-existent. There were minimal construction lights set up every 5 meters, but it was obvious no work was currently being done in this area.

" Fox ," Rex hissed, demanding answers.

The Guard Commander made a brusque hand signal for silence. As they rounded a corner, Fox tapped his compad again. All lights cut out.

Cody sucked in a breath.

Rex crouched down into a fighting stance. He wished he could reassure Cody that he'd protect him, but he couldn't farkin' see him. He didn't want to speak and give away his position.

If their attackers had night vision, they were at severe disadvantage-

Rex smacked at the hand that gripped his bicep and smashed his fist against his best estimation of the attacker's face. They were wearing a helmet which put Rex at a disadvantage, but-

"Fek, Rex! Hold! It's me. You almost fekkin' broke my nose," Fox hissed, gripping his bicep again. He hissed out an annoyed sigh. "I'll lead you and Cody from here."

"Did you hit Fox?" Cody asked, keeping his voice down. His amusement was clear.

Neither Rex nor Fox dignified that with a response.

"Well," Cody continued on quietly, "I could court martial you Rex for hitting a superior officer, but I am currently in the brig myself so I suppose you could hit him all you want."

"Will you shut the fek up, Codes?" Fox hissed, guided them down the completely blackened corridor.

They walked for several long minutes, Fox warning them of obstacles on the left and right. "Construction bot, on your left."

This reminded him, uncomfortably, of the time he ran headfirst into a pipe. Not one of his best moments.

A door swished open and Fox pressed them inside. After the door closed again, Fox switched on a low level lumen. "It's safe to talk in here."

Rex blinked a few times as his eyes adjusted to light once again.

Fox tugged off his helmet, dabbing the back of his glove against his nose.

Rex took some satisfaction in the trickle of blood streaming from his brother's nose. He deserved it.

"You did shoot me," Cody reminded him, "I think you had it coming."

"You're both a bunch of fekkers," Fox grumbled. "I don't know why I'm trying to help you."

"How is this helping?" Rex looked around their surroundings. There was furniture everywhere, still wound in the plasti-seal from the factory. It was a large store room. Judging by the quality of the furnishings, all of this was likely meant for the senate building, or for the natborn officers. Rex had been in Fox's office, and the furniture looked to be a random collection of repaired pieces. They were all held together with generous amounts of mesh tape and aeromesh filament. But, none of it looked anything like the contents of this store room.

Fox shot Rex an annoyed look, taking a moment to clean up his nose with a wipe from his belt pouch. "Cody, you should sit." He gestured to a plasti-wrapped couch. A very comfortable looking plasti-wrapped couch.

The place smelled of chemicals and things that were too new and hadn't been properly aired out or used yet.

Cody carefully settled down, not quite able to suppress a groan as he sank down into cushions that were too low. Fox walked over and hit a button on the side of the couch raising up a foot rest. Cody blinked in surprise at the unexpected courtesy.

"You should keep your leg up," Fox muttered. He tossed Cody the medkit from his beltpouch. "And, probably take another painshot."

Rex settled into the chair nearest Cody, and couldn't hold a small, satisfied grunt of pleasure. Fek. These chairs were comfortable . Who used chairs like these? Who knew furniture could be… comfortable ?

He shot a look at Cody who was settling deeper into the couch. His brother looked very comfortable and it eased some of the pressure sitting on Rex's chest.

"What is this place and why are we here?" Rex asked, some of the sharpness naturally gone from his tone now that he was sitting in the galaxy's most fekkin' comfortable chair. Did it also have a foot rest? He fumbled for a button on the side like he'd seen Cody use with Fox and… oh… yes… he sighed with satisfaction as the footrest came up.

"You are deep in the bowels of one of the unfinished areas of the RMB. And, you are in one of the few areas not wired and bugged."

"Wired? By whom?"

Fox perched onto the edge of a shrink-wrapped desk, frowning in annoyance as it stuck to his butt piece. "Security Bureau. Seppies. Take your pick." He moved around to the other side of the desk and busied himself with rummaging through the drawers.

Security Bureau? The place Yularen works?

The same Yularen who is currently in charge of both the 501st and 212th? Almost all of whom had contact with the boys from Ando?

A sickening feeling of dread settled in Rex's gut.

Cody nudged him with his foot, shooting him a concerned look.

Rex shook his head slightly. Cody knew him well enough that this meant they could discuss it later.

Cody nodded and focused back on injecting himself with a combo pain stim.

"Ah, there it is," Fox murmured, a look of relief spreading across his face as he pulled out a decanter of what looked to be an actual bottle of liquor. Not one brewed in a hangar with improvised parts and ingredients, but the type the natborns drank. "I thought Thorne stole my stash."

He popped the glass top off a decanter of amber liquid and two shot glasses. He poured out a generous portion in each glass, filling it nearly to the brim. He tossed one back before offering any to each of them. He smacked his lips contentedly. "Ah, needed that." He held a glass out to Rex. "You two will have to share."

Rex accepted the glass, giving it a cautious sniff. It smelled… amazing. "Where did you get this?" He took a sip and handed it off to Cody. "Fek, that's good."

Fox smirked, a look Rex recognized from their days on Kamino. This was the Fox he knew. The clever cadet who could figure things out just a little bit faster than all the rest of them. "Security sweep."

Rex raised up an eyebrow.

Cody took a sip and handed it back.
Fox shrugged. "There are some senators here who are alright." He sighed, and the stress and worry returned to his visage. "But, they are few and far in-between. Most are the biggest bunch of shab'buirs this side of Kamino. When one of them is particularly offensive to the Guard, we find just cause to do a security sweep. For their own protection, of course."

He opened the draw again and pulled out a decorative tin. "Twi'lekian Biscuit?"

Rex glanced down at their shared shot glass. He and Cody had finished it all already. "Can we get a refill?"

Fox poured himself another shot, tossed it back, and then gestured for Rex to bring his glass. He refilled both glasses. "Take them both."

Rex raised up an eyebrow.

Fox shrugged. "I'll use my alternate… shot glass." He pulled a battered and chipped caf mug from another drawer and poured a generous portion of Scotch into it.

"You mentioned the Security Bureau," Cody prompted.

Fox nodded, staring down into his mug like it was an old friend. He sipped it slowly before speaking again. "We… we are being monitored constantly."

"By friendlies?" Rex questioned, the warm burn of the amber liquid settling nicely in his gut.

Fox tilted his head to the side, looking thoughtful. "Friendlies," he considered the word. "Are they, though?" He took a long pull on his not-caf. "At the beginning of the war, Republic Intelligence was relatively straightforward. Or, at least they seemed to be. But, since Tarkin has been rising in power they've been reorganizing into this new Security Bureau." He shook his head. "I don't feel more secure." He tossed the rest of his drink and refilled it again. He muttered quietly under his breath. So quietly Rex wasn't sure he heard correctly. "More like paranoid, all the time. Bunch of fekkers."

Cody and Rex exchanged a glance.

"What?" Rex asked.

"Nothing," Fox stared morosely into his mug.

"It's never nothing, Fox," Cody finished off his second drink and held it off for a refill. He had sunk deep into the couch cushions and obviously was not getting up. He pointed to his leg and mouthed the words: 'You shot me.'

Fox rolled his eyes but obligingly came over and refilled his glass.

Rex smiled and wondered how long Cody was going to hold that over his brother.

"Your former Admiral, Yularen, works over at the Security Bureau now," Fox said, topping off Rex's glass.

Rex sighed. "Yes, he told me."

"Very hard to know who to trust these days," Fox sank down next to Cody on the couch, bottle in hand.

Rex switched seats so he was squished on the couch with Fox and Cody. "And, to think, there was a time when all we worried about was the Seppies and tinnies."

Fox reached over and refilled both their glasses. "Once you delve deeper into the politics of this war, you start to question which side you should really be on." He gave a graceful shrug of a burgundy armored shoulder. "Or, if one should be taking sides at all." He didn't seem drunk at all.

Rex, on the other hand, had a definite buzz going on. It was a nice feeling after everything that had gone on over the past few weeks. No, after the past few months. He couldn't remember the last time he'd gotten drunk with his brothers. It had been much too long.

Cody leaned his head on Fox's shoulder. "Damn, Fox. That was a hell of a speech. You need to get out to the field. Get away from this place."

"Hah!" The Guard Commander said, "that's all I need is to get blown up in a minefield like you," he raised his glass in a salute to Rex, "Or get blasted by commando droids like you. They have taken a particular liking to you."

Cody made eye contact with Rex, "To a man too tough to take down." He tossed back his shot.

Rex held up his glass in a salute. "May the mines never find their mark, and the droids never learn to shoot." To Fox, he added, "To you, my brother, as these politicians are the probably the most hidden minefield of all."

Fox leaned over to refill his glass, but Rex shook his head. If he drank anymore, he would vomit. He set his shot glass on an overturned crate that served as a sidetable. "Do you need to watch everything you say around here? Even around your own men?"

That sounded… fek… he couldn't even imagine. He voiced his concerns to Fives, Echo, Kix, Coric, and Jesse all the time.

Fox reached for the bottle and thought better of it. He gestured to Rex to place it over on the side crate. "We are very strategic in where we talk." He sighed and leaned his head back against the couch. "I'm telling you brothers. Something is going on. I see it at the highest levels. You had to have seen with the Jedi Council. They are well-intentioned, but completely out of touch with what is going on. They have no fekkin' clue how to run the war."

Rex stood to stretch his legs, found himself wavering a bit, and then decided maybe it was best to sit back down again for a bit. Evil civilian inventions. Overly comfortable furniture.

Fox snorted. "You're drunk."

"Who's fault is that?"

Fox reached over, grabbed Rex's shot glass and poured him another shot for both of them. Rex hadn't been planning on drinking anymore, but fek, it had been a long day. He raised the glass and nodded to Fox. They down the shot together.

"There's a bigger picture here," Fox continued, "Cody angered somebody, and now they want him dead."

" Who is trying kill him?" he tried to sip his drink slowly this time. He leaned in toward Fox, thinking more and more he was alright as a brother.

Fox tapped the clipped to his belt where the Wolfpack had sent their message. "Cody, when you arrived home and refused to let the Jedi board the ship until they agreed to your demands, it had a huge impact on clones everywhere throughout the fleet. No clone has every done that before. It is as if you have finally given the clones a voice . That is what Wolffe was trying to tell you."

"Oh." Cody looked thoughtful for a long moment. "That's a relief."

Fox gave him a questioning look.

"I was worried he was trying to bust me out of here."

Fox tossed his head back and started laughing. "Although, Wolffe is crazy enough to do something like that, this is not what is going on here." He reached across Rex and set his mug down with a thump. He faced Cody. "You have started a clone rebellion."

"A what?!" Cody was outraged. He straightened up in his seat, unsticking from the plasti-wrap with considerable effort. " I am a clone marshall commander."

"As am I," Fox rolled his eyes, completely unimpressed.

"That was not my intent," Cody frowned fiercely at Fox, and it would've had more effect if the chair and plasti-wrap didn't try to swallow him whole again. Cody did an amazing job of ignoring the chair as he delivered his impassioned speech. "My goal was to protect the men under my command. This was not about… rebellion."

"Whatever your intentions, you started something and I'm not sure you can undo it anymore. You dictated terms to the Council, and they agreed to your terms. Whether you meant for it to happen or not, the Jedi took orders from you. Everyone in the fleet heard what happened. By now, everyone in the fleet has heard the recording. Even in my Guard, where we have to be extra tight on security measures, the boys are finding ways to share the file. They're all inspired by what you did."

Cody buried his face in his hands. "No no no no…"

Rex was much calmer as he mused through the implications. "And, that explains why someone tried to kill him."

Fox nodded. "Too much free thinking by clones isn't encouraged. A bit of creativity on the battlefield is applauded. Way to go with tossing that t-det with creativity. Hoo hah. But, this sort of free thinking?" He shook his head. "Some one sure wants you dead."

"Who?" Rex and Cody both demanded.

Fox looked thoughtful. "I have some theories. Very likely someone based here on Corrie. You weren't here very long when the attack happened. Whoever it is has local connections."

"You have someone in mind." Rex didn't know how he knew for sure, but there was something about Fox's cautious demeanor.

Fox looked panicked for a moment, and then shook his head. "It's a nasty business. All of it– here on Coruscant." His eyes unfocused for a moment. "The battles aren't all out there in the Rim with you boys."

"Fox, what's going on?" Cody's voice was low, and not demanding. It was the voice of one brother watching out for another.

"I'll do what I can to keep you alive," Fox said.

"That's not what I mean, brother, but thank you. We can't help you if you don't tell us what's going on."

Fox opened his mouth and Rex thought he was finally going up to them. But, he didn't. There it was again. That panicked look that was so unlike the confident brother Rex had known on Kamino. What happened to Fox to strike such fear in him?

"It's alright," Cody reached over Rex to squeeze Fox's hand. Rex was beginning to think sitting in the middle wasn't such a great plan. "We're here for you when you're ready to talk." He gave Fox a long meaningful look. "Don't shut us out."

Fox looked pained, and didn't say anything to Cody's offer of help.

Cody pushed his head back into the couch. "Fek it all." He sighed. "Maybe this whole clone rebellion thing will just die out. Fade away. The boys will all forget about the idea if we don't fan the flame."

Eh, Rex wasn't sure it worked that way. Not after what he'd seen on Ando. Once a clone got it into the head they could be so much more, the idea didn't go away. There was no going back. But, maybe Cody would have to figure that one out on his own.

"Nothing we can do about it any of it now anyway," Cody continued. "We're still in the brig. What happens to us next?"

"They are still figuring out the exact charges against the two of you. Additional charges may still be pending, depending upon what the Jedi decided to do. It may go to trial, or the GAR may decide to handle it as an internal matter. We should know more in the next few days. Until then, you sit tight." Fox nodded toward the door. "Let's head back." He rose from the couch and reached down to tug Cody to his feet. He glanced down at Cody's leg. "I am… sorry about what happened."

Cody snorted lightly. "I'm not. It gives me something to hold over your head for a long time."

Fox smiled back, bumping shoulders lightly with Cody. His expression turned serious again as they reached the doorway. "When you get back to your cell, watch what you say. I have your security cams routed directly to my office, but sometimes our lines get tapped. Too often. I currently have the cams in your cell on loop. If anyone is watching right now, they think you're both still sitting there, discussing bolo scores."

"Bolo scores?" Rex asked with interest.

"Yes, lucky for us no one can distinguish one clone voice from another except for us. The boys and I have recorded a great deal of B-roll audio footage for times when we need to divert the holocams."

"So, if someone asks us about bolo scores, we know they've been watching the feed?" Cody asked with a smirk.

"Something like that," Fox admitted. He reached for the controls by the door.

Rex halted his action. "What chance does Cody stand if he goes to trial? Will he get a fair trial?"

Fox sighed. "First off, I don't know for sure what is going to happen to either of you. It's a toss up. The 'justice' system is very… inconsistent." He gazed at his fellow command clones, his eyes glittering in the low light. "All I can tell you is…" he looked away, as if revealing something he didn't want to say, "Whatever this is, goes so high up, I don't know if any clone can survive this system."

Cody and Rex stood there in silence absorbing his words. Something was wrong in the Republic. Very wrong. They both knew that already, instinctually, had known it for a while. But, to hear it said outloud was chilling.

Fox closed his eyes as if in great pain. "I shouldn't have said anything. Forget it. I had to much too drink. Back to your cell."

# # #

Notes:

fox·hole
/ˈfäksˌhōl/
noun: fox hole
den or burrow of a fox.
2.a hole in the ground used by troops as a shelter against enemy fire or as a firing point.