"Fives! Stop pacing!"

Fives glared at Kix, but stopped his endless path back and forth across the monitoring room. He crossed his arms across his chest, and then uncrossed them again as if he couldn't figure out what to do with his arms. "How much longer? He's been in there for-"

"One-hour standard plus ten, not counting prep time. Pestering us will not get him out faster."

"Why is it taking so long?!"

"This is standard. Considering it's an atomic-level scan, it's going quickly."

"Wait- is that bad? Should it be going so quickly?"

"Fives! Keep it up and I'll send you back to the barracks."

Fives' eyes narrowed. "You can't do that. Rex ordered me to be here. I'm supposed to watch over Echo." The twitch in the corner of his eye betrayed his nervousness. "You're not going to pull some medic crap on me, are you?"

Kix gazed down at the rank bar on his borrowed tunic. "Yes, well, I do outrank you by significant margin."

Fives' expression changed from nervous to baffled to irritated. It was worth it. Kix had gotten his mind off Echo for a few seconds.

The large scanning machine beeped red to signal it was done. Sly looked up briefly from his post at the monitoring station. "Results coming through." He plugged his datapad into the side of the terminal. "We should look at this somewhere else. We've already stayed here too long. Fives, I may need your help to delete our tracks from the system-"

Fives was already sliding into auxiliary technician chair. He'd slid a dataspike into the system before he'd sat down.

Sly raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you always carry one of those on you?"

Fives shrugged. "In a pinch, it makes an outstanding improvised weapon."

Sly winced. "I'm not going to ask if you've tested that theory out."

Fives smirked. "Best if you don't. It involves a Neimodian-"

Kix leaned in, looking at the results as the young medic uploaded them. "Cavil was right! There's a distinctive biomass below the parietal and temporal intersection-"

"Cavil's anamoly?" Fives leaned in from Sly's other side, ignoring the protests of the young medic.

"We don't have time to discuss the results here." The cockiness was gone from the young medic's voice. "It would end very badly for us if we are discovered." He unplugged his datapad, preventing the others from reading anymore. "We have to go." He tapped the controls for the massive scanning machine, clearing it away from Echo.

Kix and Sly took their places on either side of the hoverbed and they moved toward the door.

"One more second-" Fives muttered, staring at his screen, his hand already on his dataspike. He pulled the spike and followed them out the door. He followed Kix and Sly from the room, falling back into his roleplay of a Coruscanti medic.

###

Kix leaned his head back against the durasteel panel of the lift, and took a deep breath. They were headed back to the dreary underbelly of the massive facility. There was a measure of safety down there. Or, at least the illusion of safety. Fives knew better than to pepper him with questions in the lift, and let him be with his thoughts during the short ride down.

Fives rested a hand on Echo's uninjured shoulder, his thumb rubbing gentle circles. "He's going to get better, right?"

Kix tried to keep his expression neutral, but he was used to being honest as a medic. "We'll do everything we can to save him."

Fives inhaled sharply, his expression crumpling.

Kix couldn't give bland assurances. There was no guarantee Echo would live.

# # #

"We need to take it out," Kix delivered the news before they'd even cleared the threshold. He knew Fives wouldn't take it well, and there was no delivering this news gently.

"Wait, what?" Fives said, rounding on him. So opposed to the plan he could barely get the words out. "We can't... No. It's too risky."

Sly ignored both of them, studying the results on his datapad. He plugged a second pad in and then handed it over to Kix. Fives stared hard at both of them, waiting for their medical analysis.

"We would need a specialized medical droid to do this type of surgery. Getting access to a scan is one thing, but there's no way we could sneak Echo into one of the advanced surgical suites without someone noticing."

Fives tilted his head to the side, a gesture Kix knew he was concocting a plan. "We have droids." He pointed outside the door. "This whole floor is a storage unit for them."

" This floor is a dumping pit," Sly clarified. "A graveyard for non-functional units. The last thing we want is malfunctioning tech messing around inside Echo's head."

Something about Sly's words struck a chord with Kix.

Messing around inside our heads.

He was listening to their argument but ignoring them at the same time. He was also thinking about what Coric had said about the direction of Cavil's research. Most of the research had been redacted. Medical notes are usually secure and encrypted. Who had redacted those notes? Why? What had Cavil written that had triggered red flags?

"If we don't have the right parts or the right droid, we borrow the right unit. Failure is not an option. Echo is having that surgery."

Sly ran his scanner over Echo again. "I don't disagree with you, Fives. This will end badly for Echo if we don't get that thing out of his head. Kix is right. His body is trying to fight the virus and this anomaly in his head. It's too much for his system. We need to remove it if we are to save him. We need to work out how."

"So, I go steal one of those fekkin' droids," Fives said, his voice already taking on the tone it did when he was preparing to head out on an op. "Show me exactly what you need."

Kix knew he should be participating in this conversation, but he couldn't help the feeling there was more going on here. Something that went beyond Echo.

Sly sighed heavily, his voice filled with resignation. "There is another option." He pushed out a long sigh. "I seem determined to sign my own transfer papers to Kamino today."

Fives crossed his arms. "I'm not going to like this idea."

Sly bit his lip before continuing. "There is one civvie in this place who could perform this surgery, even better than a droid." He hesitated again. He shook his head. "No." And, then, smacked his hand against his head. "I'm mad for suggesting it. Let's get a droid. It's a better option."

Fives rounded on Sly, his voice taking on the low growl it did when he was intent on taking a piece of intel at all costs. "Who - is - this - civvie?"

Sly shook his head. "No, I should have even suggested-"

"Yes, well you did suggest it. The - name, shinie. NOW." There was a dark look on Fives' face that said he would do anything to save his brother.

Sly missed the look. He stared heavily down at his boots. "I can't believe I'm even... " he shook his head again, wrestling with himself, "shab...I never should've left my bunk this morning... " He stared up at the ceiling for a long moment, taking deep breaths. "The best surgeon in this place is Director Valo." He waited for a reaction from the other two clones. Fives and Kix stared at him in confusion.

Fives recovered first. "Wait- director of the facility? The same one whom you said has a nasty habit of red-carding clones? The same one who likely sent Rex to Kamino and red-carded Echo ?"

"She's one of the top neurosurgeons on Coruscant, specializing in neurilemmoma and traumatic brain surgeons. She's top in her field."

"That's shabla' great for her. But, why would she help us?"

"I don't know. It's just a hunch. She's a talented surgeon. I've seen it firsthand. But, this place has reduced her to an administrator." Sly shook his head again. "It was fekkin' stupid idea. I'm sorry."

Fives looked thoughtful. "The idea is solid. You did good, shini- er, Sly. Where do I find this Director Valo?"

"I'll go with you," Sly said. "I'm in this now."

"You and Kix should watch over Echo. Tell me where to find her. I've... had experience in these sort of negotiations."

Kix grimaced. "Fives."

"Where do I find her?" Fives demanded again.

Sly transmitted a facility map to Fives' wristcomm. "I don't know if I should be relieved or terrified you're going alone."

The two medics watched as the ARC slipped out the door.

"I don't think you want to go with him," Kix muttered. He turned back to Echo, determined to lose himself in his work. He couldn't worry about both Fives and Echo. (OK, he could. Kix excelled at worrying.) But, for now, he had a patient to focus on, and he also excelled at a singular focus on his task. Once we sunk his teeth into a problem, Coric described him as akk-pup that wouldn't let go. Something didn't sit right with him about this genetic anomaly in Echo's head. He ran another scan, scowling as the results indicated the ARC still had wildly fluctuating readings. His body was the virus raging in his body and this unusual mass they'd discovered in his head. How were the two connected? What if they were related and by solving one he could 'cure the other?' "Sly, I need your help on some research."