"I can't go past here, sweet buns. A word of advice, though? You shouldn't either. I mean, my card will open it, but I'm only allow to go through there to deliver records. They're very strict about that sort of thing. This whole area is only for those with clearance five and above." She glanced at Fives' stolen uniform. "You're high-ranking for a clone, but you're no five."

"If only you knew," Fives muttered.

"What's that, sugar?"

"I said, wouldn't you know it, I forgot my access card."

Cetone's emotions played out on her face as she weighed her worries about losing her job versus the chance to break up her monotonous day with a bit of fun. She swiped her card through the locked card reader.

Fives gave her his best flirtatious smile. "When did you say your next caf break is? Can you make it a double? We might need some time. And, a closet."

She smacked Fives in the shebs again. Hard. "Get going. You know where to find me, honey buns." She took off back down the corridor.

"Honeybuns," Fives grumbled. "One of the GAR's finest is reduced to a pair of buns."

He quietly slid into the level five corridor. The carpeting here was plush and the paintings were decidedly more luxurious than the more standard-fare art in the rest of the facility.

So this is where the money is spent.

There. At the end of the corridor. Director Valo's office. Fives was of half of a mind to just storm in there and demand the fekkin' civvie come with him.

Gah. What was his plan? He could just see this conversation playing out: 'Hello ma'am. My name is ARC Trooper Fives and would you be so kind as to perform brain surgery on my injured brother whom you decided was unsalvageable and red-carded?"

Images of Boomer's transport flashed in front of Fives' vision. Echo was not going on that transport.

Fek. Think.

Maybe I could charm her with my honey buns?

Gah! He had nothing.

I'll have to wing it.

He stalked down toward the entrance knowing this was a terrible idea. This could end very badly. His boots clacked against the polished floors as he moved as if to spell his doom.

Echo was his moderating influence and always talked him down from his bad ideas. He turned his bad ideas into good ones.

Turn around. Don't go in there.

Every part of his gut was telling him not to enter that office.

He had to go. For Echo.

His hand touched the panel to buzz the door just as his comlink buzzed insistently. He startled, withdrawing his hand and impacted the wall instead. There was no response from inside. Fives heaved out a sigh of relief and tugged out the comlink hidden in his pants.

"This is-"

"Fives. Get your shebs down here."

"Echo?!"

He took off at a run just as the director's office slid open. Fives diverted into the nearest staircase, disappearing from sight.

# # #

It was strange to arrive back at the Republic Military Base with Appo. They wound their way through the massive cluster of buildings, working their way over to the barracks. Construct droids of all sizes worked around them. Every time Rex touched down on Corrie he barely recognized the place. It was unsettling, even for a military man.

"Unbelievable," Appo muttered, looking up at a towering construct droid, "they just keep making this place bigger."

"Yeah," Rex agreed, "all signs point to us winning the war. Not sure why they need to keep building up this complex. Sends a strange message."

Appo cast him a sideways look. "I was thinking the same."

They walked along in silence for a while as they continued to dodge the construction chaos. It was often hard to get a read on Appo, so it was strange to find himself agreeing with him. Rex hadn't even known Appo that well before and now he reported to him.

Why Appo?

He didn't get it.

On the one hand, he was grateful to get his command back, but it carried a lot less weight than it did before since he no longer directly reported to Skywalker.

He stole a quick glance over at Appo.

In some ways, it might be a good thing…

Did Appo know about Skywalker's... loss of control?

There were times when the General wasn't himself. He could get so angry and then there was no reasoning with him. He usually directed that anger at the enemy. Usually. Rex had learned to walk away from the General once he got into these moods and to keep the men away so they didn't suffer for it. He'd once sent Spirit to the infirmary for asking him a question at the wrong time. Skywalker later apologized and Spirit was killed shortly after in battle. But, multiple men had witnessed the incident. Skywalker hadn't even struck Spirit. He'd sent him flying into a stack of crates using some Force thing. Spirit had suffered a head injury that kept him off-duty for two weeks. It was only through clever flimsiwork on the part of Kix that the shine hadn't been sent off-ship for the injury. It was the type of injury a clone might not come back from, but the young clone had never been the same. He'd failed to dodge a force pike blow from a commando droid and took it straight in the chest. Kix had taken that loss particularly hard.

Should he warn Appo about Skywalker? Did he already know? Had he seen it during the short time he'd been in command?

"Something on your mind, Rex?" Appo asked, startling Rex out of his chain of thought.

"Eh..." How could he explain General Skywalker without being disloyal to him? Rex did not know how to put it into words. The General was such a complex man.

"Rex?" Appo prompted. He waited for Rex to gather his thoughts.

The 501st commander could be patient, more so than Skywalker. He wasn't a complete fekker. Ahsoka was right. Maybe he should give him a chance. Admittedly, he despised Appo more for the situation they were in than the clone himself. Although, there were things about Appo which irked him. Maybe he could smooth out Appo's rough edges like he would any other clone.

But, he didn't know how to explain the conundrum that was General Skywalker. He scratched the back of his neck. Cody pointed out this was a nervous habit he'd had since he was a young cadet and something he did when stalling for time.

"If there's something on your mind, you can tell me," Appo prompted.

Fek him. Why did he have to be so reasonable?

Skywalker's face flashed in his mind. Loyalty to his General or loyalty to Appo? Well, that was an easy one. After all, experience outranks everything, right? "No, everything's... good."

"You sure, Rex?" Appo prompted, and for a moment and there was a hint of genuine concern in his voice that reminded Rex of Cody. It threw Rex completely off because he didn't want to like Appo. It was easier not to like him.

Rex sighed. Krek it all. Now he was seeing Ahsoka's face as he promised her he'd try to work things out with Appo. "So... uh... Commander..." Rex was still stalling for time, trying to find the right words to describe Skywalker without being disloyal.

"Appo."

"Right, eh... Appo..."

This conversation is not getting any less awkward.

"A word of advice about working with Skywalker..." He was already feeling disloyal.

Appo was quiet, not pushing him. Why did he have to be such a good listener?

The Wall of Remembrance towered over them and they both stopped by unspoken agreement. He automatically worked his way over to the portion of the wall where his fallen brothers were etched. He traced their numbers. The pain never seemed to ease up, nor did the bitterness of losing brothers that didn't have to die.

The Jedi leadership made so many mistakes that day.

Brothers first.

Rex took a deep breath and pushed through. "So, Skywalker... he can be unpredictable at times. When he gets angry, really angry, you have to walk away then. Don't think it's something you did, because it's not. It's just his nature. He's a good General, but..."

How could Rex excuse some of the things Skywalker had done? The list was growing longer as the war went on.

"You're thinking about Spirit."

"You know."

"Word travels. Appreciate the heads-up, though."

Appo traced his hands along the wall, and then bowed his head, saying the words of remembrance. Rex bowed his head and said it with him, honoring their fallen brothers. "Ni su'cuyi, gar kyr'adyc, ni partayli, gar darasuum."*

Rex couldn't whisper the names of all the brothers he'd lost, there were too many. But, he always felt better for honoring them.

They walked on. Their mood was subdued. "I didn't know you said the remembrance." Rex wasn't sure why this behavior of Appo's surprised him so much.

"I started after... Kaz'haria."

Rex inhaled deeply. Appo said the remembrance for the brothers lost under his command. It was the same for Rex. The intense guilt of sending men to their deaths and wondering what you could have done differently. Cody commanded an entire corps. Gah. It had to be a hundred times worse for him. No wonder it was so hard to get Cody to smile sometimes these days.

They were approaching the front entrance of the barracks. Feeling he'd made some headway with Appo, and not sure he'd get another chance to ask this burning question, Rex blurted it out, "You and Ahsoka were imprisoned together, did anything-" He stopped. Fek. What exactly was he asking? Did Appo develop feelings for Ahsoka? Did she show any signs of attraction to him? Is that what he was worried about? Well, yes, but krek, why did he think it was a good idea for him to ask Appo about it?

Appo's body immediately tightened up at the mention of his imprisonment. "What are you asking me?"

Ahsoka spoke of Appo like he'd been her hero protector. He wanted to know if anything had happened between them. That was a long time to be locked up together and more time than he'd ever spent alone with Ahsoka. He'd worded it badly, though. He'd read the report of how Appo had been found-

They did not get a chance to finish their conversation. They were interrupted by two cheerful voices ringing out from guard duty at the front gates of the barracks both greeting Rex at the same time.

"Captain, you're back!"

"Captain Rex! You're a sight for sore eyes!"

"Waxer! Boil!" It was good to see these two again. Cody was very fond of this pair of ARF troopers. He said both of them had command potential. Waxer, in particular, he was eyeing for moving up the command track. Boil was a candidate for the ARC program, although he had yet to mention any of this to either of them.

The 212th clones snapped off immediate salutes. Neither clone had greeted Commander Appo. Rex jerked his chin slightly toward Appo. Waxer picked up on the gesture immediately.

"Commander," Waxer said, straightening up, and greeting the 501st commander properly. His boot lashed out and kicked Boil in the ankle. His fellow trooper hissed in response before snapping off a sharp salute directly at Appo.

Appo responded with a cool nod, the less-than-warm greeting not lost on him.

Waxer turned slightly toward Rex. "What about Cody?"

"He'll be returning to duty, as well. He be here shortly." Rex couldn't quite keep the grin out of his voice.

Boil whooped with happiness.

Waxer was slightly more restrained. "That's... excellent news. The boys have been a bit... eh..." He looked over at Boil for help as he searched for the right word.

"Creative?" supplied Boil.

"Well, I suppose that's one word for it," Waxer sighed, and glanced back towards the barracks.

Rex had a bad feeling about this. "What'd they do?"

"It was nothing too bad!" Boil jumped in.

"If that's what you call nearly burning down the barracks," Waxer rejoined. He turned back to Rex. "We only just got the smoke smell out."

Appo stayed silent next to him, allowing Rex to handle it.

"No one was hurt?" Rex glanced back at the newly built barracks, looking for signs of damage.

"No."

"Not unless you count those kitchen droids," Boil muttered. "Hardcase had this idea-"

Rex let Boil's recounting of Hardcase's latest adventures in pyrotechnics fade into the background as he lost himself for a moment in his thoughts. Surprising that Yularen hadn't kept better control of the boys. Maybe he was giving them a bit of leeway considering their recent imprisonment. Rex had found out through experience troopers did not do well with idle time. What had Yularen been doing? He nodded his chin toward the barracks. "Seems quiet now... almost too quiet."

"Armorers are on the way," Waxer reported. He gave a quick glance over to Appo who still seemed curiously impassive about all of it. "Admiral ordered everyone to their quarters after a second incendiary incident."

"No, it was a third one, if you count what happened in the refreshers."

"How do you catch the refreshers on-" Rex shook his head, not wanting to know how the men managed to cause a fire in the bathrooms.

"Captain, is it true we're going to the Phase II armor?" Boil's voice was wistful. "We've been waiting a long time for that upgrade."

Rex didn't want to make any promises he couldn't keep. "We're getting new kit and there are supposed to be some improvements. That's all I know."

"Rex, we should get going," Appo said, jerking his chin toward the entrance.

Both clones saluted as they passed by, before quickly dissolving into a discussion of desired armor upgrades. Rex only caught a snippet of their conversation as the large automated door locked behind them.

"Now, why would you need a heated butt plate?"

"It's cold in space!"

As the door sealed shut, they were plunged into the sterile artificial lighting so loved by all GAR facilities. The corridors were empty and it took a moment for his HUD to adjust to the change in lighting. Some of the tension eased from Rex's shoulders and he had a sense of being home. The place smelled like new paint, and these barracks were both unfamiliar and familiar at the same time. But, it didn't matter. The 501st was here. The boys had done an excellent job cleaning up. There were no traces of fire or smoke.

Rex recognized the distinctive polished tread of the Admiral's boots on highly polished floors even before he appeared. "Ah, Captain, Commander. I heard you were back."

His smooth confident tones washed over Rex and for a moment he felt like he was back on the Resolute. "Yes, Admiral, it's good to be back."

"Right, then, I'll be going."

"Sir?"

"I have a great deal of work to do back at Republic Intelligence. It's been difficult to get any work done here. I leave the Legions in your capable hands." He handed datapads off to the two clones. "Good luck." He nodded crisply and stepped away down the corridor. Rex wondered if he imagined Yularen's muttered: 'You'll need it with this lot.'

He was leaving already? Wasn't the Admiral going to stay with the 501st? Why was he headed back to Republic Intelligence?

He sighed. "Let's see if we can't find the mess in this place and get some caf." He glanced down at the datapad. "Looks like we have some work to do." He hoped the kitchen was still somewhat intact after Hardcase's recent adventures.

# # #

Other than a hole in the wall shaped suspiciously like a droid, the mess hall was still intact. Rex and Appo were sitting at one of the long tables, deep in conversation, when Boil alerted them to the arrival of the Legion armorers.

The massive new shipments came in by a fleet of cargo shuttles.

As they stepped out onto the roof, they were nearly run down by crate loader droids. They both dove to the side to avoid the massive hover crates. Rex flipped off one of the bots as it zoomed past with another overloaded crate. The bot stopped and flipped him back, adding in several curse words in Huttese, before it sped off again.

Appo gave an amused snort, sounding like Hardcase, although, Rex couldn't think of two vode that were more different. "For your information," Appo called at the rapidly retreating droid, "clones don't have mothers." He rubbed at his shoulder. "Ow. Could have done without hitting the 'crete."

They both backed out of the way as another rush of droids passed, some of them crashing into each other in their haste to make it into the lift. The 501st quartermaster, Harley, materialized next to them, saluting in his trademark quirky manner. Rex hadn't seen Harley since... fek... before he'd been injured on TriLuna. He never had been able to get Harley to salute properly, but he was such a good quartermaster it never mattered.

Harley stepped right into the chaos. He didn't have his full armor yet, but had grabbed what must have been one of the new Phase II buckets and amped it up to full volume. He was using it to re-route the swarming sea of metal, shouting at the droids.

Rex took a moment to gawk at the sight, Harley in his fatigues and the unusual helmet. "That's the new armor?"

It was shockingly different from Phase 1.

Appo gave it a considering look. "I don't know. I rather like it."

Rex shook his head. "I don't think I'm ready to give up my Phase 1 armor. We've been through a lot together."

Appo looked down at his clone fatigues. "I'm happy to get armor again. Any armor. Tired of wearing this soft kit."

Rex nodded. Giving the bulbous helmet another look. "You're right." He'd make it work. Somehow. They stayed another thirty minutes to supervise the unloading and then headed back down to finish their review meeting. Harley and the armorers had already taken over the mess hall, so they had to find someplace else to work. "Let's go find someplace quiet. A back corner. Somewhere away from all this chaos."

Appo said nothing. Rex noticed he bounced back and forth between fits of being conversational and being silent and moody. He'd have to ask Ahsoka about it.

"Appo?" he prompted.

"Fine," Appo grumbled, "wherever, as long as it isn't a fekkin' closet."

Rex gave him a quizzical look, but let the bizarre comment go.**

# # #

* I'm still alive, but you are dead. I remember you, so you are eternal. * (This is usually followed by the names of the dead, sometimes in a whisper. But, in the case of the clones, the number of dead is so numerous it is nearly impossible to name all of them.)

**Appo is carrying PTSD from his imprisonment. (Doesn't help the clones from the Andoan Legion also locked him up in a closet. They meant well and protected him from the battle and also from finding out too much about them. But, it was probably the worst place to lock someone up who had been assaulted in a closet hours before.) His unresolved emotions from his attack by one of the prison guards has left him prone to depression mood swings. If you've ever known anyone suffering from deep depression, there is no controlling these emotions. They control you.