After Fives left, Kix spent several long minutes monitoring Echo's vitals. He was stable. That was something. Sly worked beside him, monitoring readings, and offering suggestions on tweaking the meds to make Echo more comfortable. He was a solid medic. Despite his lack of experience in the field, he had the right instincts to be an outstanding battlefield medic. Some things couldn't be taught.

"You ever think of leaving this place?" Kix asked, making a vague gesture to the chipped paint and depressing architecture of ArmyMed.

Sly snorted quietly. "And leave all this?"

"You never crave some battlefield action? It's what we clones were born to do."

"And what we clones die to do. I see the aftermath every day." But, despite his words, there was a longing in the young clone's voice.

Kix gestured to where Sly was adding an injection into Echo's IV. "You have excellent instincts. You'd be good in the 501st."

Sly's eyebrow quirked with interest, but then he turned away and tossed the used hypo into a flash bin. "I practically run this place. I'll leave the glory to you boys in blue."

Kix gave a thoughtful noise in the back of his throat as if he didn't believe him, but let the matter drop. He checked Echo's readings again and breathed a sigh of relief. For now, Echo was stable. But for how long? Fives had to succeed. Or, they would lose Echo.

# # #

Fives rounded a corner, his boots clicking against polished floors as he went from a more utilitarian wing into something meant for administration. He was still wearing the guise of a medic but hadn't been willing to give up his own boots. They were perfectly worn in and somehow the thought of wearing another man's boots bothered him. He'd been everywhere in his boots and they gave him a sense of security- a sense of being on a secure footing. He needed that now as he navigated his surroundings. His mind swirled with thoughts of Echo. What if he failed? His brother's fate was in his hands.

He glanced up at the perfect Alderaani art paintings on the wall, trying to calm his mind.

I can do this... I have to do this... There is no room for failure. Whatever it takes, this Director Valo will perform this surgery on Echo.

But, how can you force someone to perform delicate brain surgery at blaster point?

Don't worry about that now. Just find her and get her back to Echo.

He stuffed down his doubts about the success of this plan, but he was starting to have a very bad feeling about all of it. He barely took notice of three natborns working behind a counter.

"Ooooh hello, handsome, I haven't seen you on this floor before. Get a load of those muscles. You work out a lot? I'll bet you do," a buxom admin rose from behind a counter. "I'm Shoshanna and I have a break coming up in ten minutes."

"Give it a rest, will you?" her co-worker hissed, annoyed, barely glancing up from her work. She got a better look at Fives. "Oh. You are a bigger one, aren't you?" Her demeanor immediately changed. "I'm Cetone and I can take my break anytime so if you want to catch a cup of caf with me-"

"Thank you, no, official business," Fives muttered, hurrying by.

"I don't get what you two see in those clones," grumbled the third natborn, in a voice loud enough for Fives to hear you, "you've seen one and you've seen them all."

The three of them erupted into a heated argument about the various physical attributes of clones. It was demeaning, but Fives was used to being treated as 'less than' by the natborns.

He dodged down another hallway, not positive he was still correctly following the directions given to him by Sly. He shouldn't have allowed himself to be distracted by those di'kutle natborns.

Fives startled as a hand gripped him. On instinct, he gripped the fingers tightly, preparing to break them.

"Ow! Udessi, vod, it's me."

Fives stared down at a trooper on a biobed.

"Boomer?" Fives immediately loosened up on his grip. "Fek, I'm sorry. I didn't recognize you."

"It's me, more or less," the trooper gave a harsh laugh, and the sound turned into a painful, rasping cough. Fives leaned in and lifted his brother up, holding him so he could breathe more easily. Boomer smiled and reached a shaking hand out to trace Fives' tattoo. "I'd recognize you anywhere. What the krek are you doing wearing that get-up? You don't work here now, do you? You're an ARC trooper."

Fives looked around in alarm. "No."

Boomer grinned, but his teeth were discolored like he'd been exposed to something that was rotting him from the inside out. "You're undercover."

"Something like that. Boomer..." He didn't know what to say to his brother. They'd gone through ARC training together. He and Echo had been in the same bunk as Boomer and shared almost all of their meals together. He wanted to ask what happened, but it was obvious Boomer had been hit with something and it was bad. Fives had seen enough dying clones to know.

"I look like fek. I know," Boomer gasped out, as he pushed the words out between a laugh and a groan. "I look like fek, I know. Got exposed to Acetol while doing covert ops on Regis Prime. It's eating away my lungs." He grinned again, showing his horrible teeth. "Well, it's eating away at all of me. My lungs were the first to go, but..." he made a vague gesture with one hand, covered with painful-looking lesions.

Oh, fek. That was bad. Acetol was like Crsyfeefa. But, more readily available, and just worked more slowly. And, painfully. Against his better judgment, Fives asked the obvious question and then cursed himself for doing so. "Can't they do anything?"

"I'm fekked beyond repair, brother. But... we all have to go... sometime, right?" He stopped, rested, taking slow, shallow breaths. He waved a dismissive hand, done with talking about himself. "What are you... doing here? Where's Echo?"

Fives gut clenched, not even sure where to begin to explain what was going on with Echo. "He's here."

Boomer looked around hopefully, and then realization sank in. "Oh... how bad?"

"Bad. Di'kut saved two whole fekkin' Legions."

Boomer snorted and then coughed harshly. Fives held him until the fit has passed. "Typical," Boomer wheezed out. "He's getting better, though, right?" Boomer's eyes were wide with hope. A tear trickled from the corner of one eye. "Please... Fives..." He knew he was beyond saving, but he needed to hear Echo would make it.

"Yeah, Boom, Echo is... uh... he... is... uh... getting better." And, for that brief moment, just saying it out loud, somehow made Fives believe it, too. Boomer's questions reminded Fives he had to go. There was never any time in this war. No time for the right kinds of things. He clenched his fists and forced himself to stay for a few more seconds. "But, you, can't they-"

Boomer shook his head. "I'm done, Fives."

They were interrupted by two med techs who grabbed Boomer's biobed.

"Time to go to your transport," he said to Boomer.

"Transport to where?" Fives demanded.

The medtech shrugged. "Don't know. I just load 'em up. I don't ask questions." He gave Fives a hard look. "You shouldn't either." They briskly and efficiently whisked Boomer away and into the nearest lift. It was filled with cargo and droids, but they shoved the biobed in, amongst the other cargo and made it fit.

"Wait!" Fives said, trying to follow.

The medtechs ignored him, waving him off dismissively. Boomer looked back at Fives and weakly shook his head. His eyes said it all. Too late for me.

Fives knew he should not be spending his time chasing down Boomer. He had been assigned to watch over Echo. But, his head and his heart didn't always listen to each other. With a burst of adrenaline, he headed for the nearest stairs and charged toward the rooftop transport landing pad. It was empty. He raced back down and searched for another.

What the fek was he doing?

He charged down the stairs and into Shashonna. "Hey handsome, what's the hurry-"

"Rooftop transport- critically injured-" Fives demanded, "no time to explain-"

"929."

Fives took off at a run.

"But, then you come back and see me-"

Gah! Did all natborns just want to use them?

He burst out onto the roof just in time to see a medical transport blast off into the sky.

"Fek, fek, fek!" he shouted at the sky full of traffic.

Fives stared up into the crowded city sky. The ship had disappeared and been immediately swallowed up as if it had never existed. Boomer was gone. Disappeared in an instant. And, he wouldn't be coming back. The more the war dragged on, he was less sure about his purpose and the meaning of it all. He shoved the thoughts to the back of his brain, knowing if he spoke out to the wrong people that he likely would disappear as well. There was something dark and sinister about all of it. Even as he buried all of his thoughts and discontent, he could feel it gnawing away at him wanting to break free and be expressed.

Gah. What the fek was he doing?! He was wasting time. He had to find this Director Valo. He stalked back down the stairs, his steps as dark and angry as his thoughts. He was angry at himself for failing in his objective, angry at the Republic, gah, he was just fekkin' angry.

"There you are, handsome! You ready for that cup of caf-"

"Director Valo's office!" Fives' growled.

"Now, why do you want to go there?"

Fives took a deep breath to reign in his temper. He changed his voice over to a deep purr he'd learned during his ARC travels. "Shashonna, you show me where her office is and I will give you the caf break of a lifetime."

Shashonna squealed and smacked him on the shebs. "This way! No, on second thought, you walk in front of me, I want to appreciate the view. Take a right at the next corridor-"

# # #

Kix took one last reading and stretched and cracked his neck. Gah. All of this sitting around was no good for a clone. He almost longed for a bit of action. Not the being thrown into a wall by a Kaz'harian type of action, but he wasn't much for all of this sneaking around. He took one last reading on Echo, and then he needed to take care of his own needs. That caf and a cup he'd had earlier at the barracks was catching up with him-

Echo's eyes snapped open. "Fives?"

"He'll be back-" It took Kix' brain a moment to catch up. "Echo!" The ARC was lucid. No signs of fever or confusion.

Echo chuckled. "You should see the look on your face, Kix." He glanced around. "Where is Fives? And, where am I?"

Sly was immediately at his side, running fast and furious scans with him.

"He's...uh... " Kix was distracted... he couldn't pull in the data fast enough, trying to figure out what the fek was going on with Echo's brain.

"Kix," Echo prompted impatiently.

"He's tracking someone down for us, and you're at ArmyMed."

"What? Why? Am I in a lab?" Echo tried to sit up, peering around Kix trying to get a better sense of his surroundings. Kix pushed him back down, but he was pleased Echo was feeling strong enough he wanted to be up. Something was happening where his immune system was rallying. This was a good sign.

"Because we had to go around the usual channels," Kix supplied his attention still on his scanner.

"Ah," Echo looked intrigued, "are we breaking regs?"

Kix stopped scanning for a moment. "Since when do you sound so enthusiastic about breaking regs?"

Echo snorted with amusement. "We did bust two Legions out without permission." He tugged down his medgown and studied the entry point of his shoulder wound. "Look at that- almost healed." He flexed his shoulder experimentally. "I'm okay. What's with all the scans?" He cast a curious glance at Sly. "Still don't know who you are."

"I'm-"

Kix cut off the introduction. There would be time for that later. "Something strange is going on with your immune system. Unusual readings."

"Can I see?" Echo pushed up onto one elbow and tilted Kix's scanner where he could view it. "That molecular structure looks familiar to that substance they were working on the Kaz'harian lab."

Kix's eyes widened and he thought he was about going to pass out from this new revelation. "The - what- now?"

"After I was stabbed by that Kazzie, we struggled and overturned a lot of lab equipment."

"Yes, we found a lot of broken glass around you. Define 'substance,' though." A sinking feeling flashed through Kix's gut that he had missed something very important. There had been something sticky on Echo when they'd found him. He'd been so concerned about his wound he hadn't given it any thought.

"Well, I think it was something from a petri dish. I was still awake for a little while trying to comm you guys. Something dripped down on me."

"Did it go in your wound, Echo? Your open wound? It's very important if you can think back and remember that detail."

"Yeah, I do remember that part. There was a lot of it dribbling on me and some went straight into my open wound." He pointed toward the jagged scar on his shoulder. "It didn't hurt, but it definitely went into my bloodstream."

Sly and Kix stared at each other with this new revelation.

Oh, nine fekkin' hells.

The look on Kix's face must have said it all because suddenly Echo's face was fierce. "What?! I feel fine." He glanced around the unfamiliar surroundings. "I don't where I am, but I want to get out of here."

Kix tried to keep his voice steady. "Echo, while we were running scans, we found something in your brain that shouldn't be there."

"Like... a piece of shrapnel?"

"Doesn't look like it. We don't want it is, or how it relates to everything that is going on. You were unconscious for a long time and showed no signs of waking up. Another clone medic found this same anomaly in clones with traumatic brain injuries-"

"I wasn't hit in the head."

"Nevertheless, something came up on your scans."

"Did you take it out?" Echo's expression went from curious to worried.

"We sent Fives out to find a surgeon to remove it."

"Well, why couldn't you remove it? Why do we have to bring someone else into this?"

Kix had almost forgotten how many questions Echo could ask. "Fives is getting a brain surgeon. I don't have that kind of expertise, Echo. I thought if I did the surgery, you wouldn't survive-"

"Krek, Kix! We can't have a natborn mixed up in it. Get Fives back here. Or, use a droid, if you feel you have to remove... something."

The 501st medic bit his lip, debating the right course of action.

"Kix," Echo implored, "I'm awake and whatever it is going on with me, it's different."

"I think he's right," agreed Sly.

"Still don't know who you are, but appreciate the support, brother."

Echo took the decision out of Kix's hands, grabbing the comlink off his belt. He glared at the medic, daring to challenge him. Kix sighed and gave him a slight nod to proceed. "Fives, get your fat shebs back here now."