"Are you sure you can walk, Echo? Maybe we could get you a hoverchair or a gravcart or-"
"A gravcart? Seriously? I'm not karkin' cargo."
"You're still a little pale."
"Fek, Fives, I'm alright! Stop being such a... mother-"
"Mother what?!"
"Mother nuna... 'cause... you keep hovering. Krek, brother, what do you think I was going to say?"
Sly sighed heavily as he listened to the two ARCs argue. They were winding their way through the basement corridors as fast as they could. Considering he was recently unconscious, Echo was doing an impressive job of keeping up with their fast clip. But, it didn't help his frayed nerves. The security teams at the Medical Center were staffed by clones and not droids. They were frighteningly efficient and good at their jobs. Rumor had it, they were all clones who had been reconditioned. They all seemed to have the skill sets of battle-hardened clones, but none of the warmth and affection he saw in clones who hadn't been mindwiped. If they were overtaken by these clones, they were done.
"How can I not worry, Echo? You nearly died. Do you know what that did to me?"
Sly stopped, sensing the two ARCs were no longer behind him. His heart stopped, worried MedCenter Security had already caught up with them.
Unbelievable. These two decided now was an appropriate time for a show of affection. Echo had gripped the back of Fives' neck. "I'm sorry, brother."
Sly ran back and grabbed both of them by their pauldrons, yanking them apart and tugging them along. He ignored their shouted objections. "Hurry up, you two, before we..." He stopped suddenly as they heard the pounding of booted feet. He slammed his access card up against the nearest access door, praying it would open, and tugged the two inside. It was an abandoned lab of some sort, and the smell was awful. He didn't even want to know what happened down here once upon a time. The three pressed themselves up against the wall, staying silent as the pounding of booted feet passed by outside. They waited several minutes until everything was silent again.
"What are the odds they can find us?" Fives asked quietly.
"They're good. But, it's a maze down here in the lower levels. It will take them a while to search all the corridors." He pinned the two ARCs with his gaze trying to impart them with his sense of urgency. "We have to get out of here before we..." He grunted again in frustration, not sure how to explain to the other two about the bad things he more sensed than knew about the medical facility where he'd been assigned.
"Become permanent residents of this place?" Echo offered up brightly.
Sly stared at him. Echo was in good spirits, but he had no idea how close he'd come to...
Fives got it, though. Sly could see that by looking at him.
"What? Come on, brothers, what did I miss?" Echo frowned as shifted his gaze between Sly and Fives.
"Nobody becomes permanent residents of this place, Echo. Isn't that right, Sly?"
Sly didn't say anything, staring down at his boots. Gah. What was that weird stain on the floor?
"Somebody want to give me context?" Echo demanded.
"No time," Sly opened the door, and peered out cautiously checking the corridor in both directions.
Fives came out behind him, blaster drawn, as he checked to make sure the area was clear.
"Fek, Fives, what is this about?" Echo demanded, tugging one of Fives' DC-17s from his grip and taking up his usual position back-to-back with his brother. "We're on stun, yeah?"
Fives flipped the switch on his blaster. "I am now. Ask me another time about what happened to Boomer."
'Boomer?' Echo mouthed silently to himself, the confusion on his features clear. But, he let it go.
"Lead the way, Sly. We've got your back." Fives gestured to the younger clone to move out, sticking very close to him as they moved out as a group. The younger medic was unarmed and Fives was making it clear he was prepared to protect him if they ran into the security patrol.
Sly wasn't nervous anymore for some reason. With Fives and Echo at his back, he felt... exhilarated. Calm. It was as if he was suddenly where he was always meant to be.
They reached the access door to the street level all too soon. Sly hesitated for the briefest of moments. This was it. The end of the most interesting period he'd ever had in his short life. Sly ran his access card over the door controls and it chimed green, happily opening out on an alley of wall-to-wall dumpsters.
Suddenly, the path forward for Sly was all-too-clear. It was out there and not in here.
He followed the two ARCs out into the side alley and suddenly the massive medical facility was towering over him.
Fives jammed his foot in the door to trip the hold sensor and gestured to Sly. "You need to go back in."
Sly shoved at him. "Move your foot, Fives, before you trigger an alarm. They only give the droids 30 seconds to get the trash out."
Fives shook his head. "Sly, we're grateful for all you've done, but you can't go AWOL."
"I know the consequences. Move - your - foot."
"No." Fives' tone brokered no argument. "Go back. Tell them we forced you if you need to."
"Move your fekkin' foot." He shoved at Fives' again but there was no moving the larger clone. The door started to beep a warning tone. He grunted with frustration. Sly peered up at him. "MedSecurity has my codes. I don't think even I could talk my way out of this one." He backed up to get some momentum and bodily forced Fives out the door.
The door slid shut, closing off any possibility Sly could get back into the facility without detection.
"Fek," Echo muttered. "That's it, then."
Sly took off at a fast clip down the alleyway. They heard booted feet and shouted shouts coming down the alley just as they reached the main thoroughfare and disappeared into the crowds.
They kept going for several blocks, swimming with the crowds, until Fives pulled them back into the overhang of an ornate facade for the Coruscanti Republic Bank. He turned to Sly. "Where will you go now?"
"I said I'm with you," Sly said stubbornly. He gestured to the crowded city around them. "Unless you're going to abandon me here," he gave them pleading eyes, "I am going with you."
Echo seemed unperturbed by all of it. He grinned. "I guess he's with us, now, then."
"Alright," Fives sighed, "I guess you are, then." He indicated they should continue walking, but slung an arm around Sly's shoulders. "Welcome to the 501st, vod."
Sly's eyes widened. "You mean it?"
Fives chortled. "You're not giving us much of a choice. But, yeah, I guess we just adopted ourselves a shiny."
"I'm not a shiny! Well... not much anyway."
Echo huffed lightly with amusement. "I like him. I think he'll fit right in. Tup and Hardcase will love him. Uh... one problem, though, isn't Appo in charge of the Legion now?"
Fives waved his hand dismissively. "Technicalities. If we need to, we can smuggle him aboard ship."
"The ship?" Sly asked, his voice betraying a slight nervousness.
"We're about to deploy. You're going to see some action."
Sly glanced back at the looming shadow of ArmyMed behind them. He cast a nervous glance upwards toward the busy skyways of Coruscant as if trying to see beyond where the cruisers docked in orbit around the city planet.
"Sly," Echo asked without judgment, and casting a glance toward Fives, "you ever been in battle before?"
"Uh... do the sims at Kamino count?"
"Oh boy," Echo muttered, "you are as shiny as they come aren't you?"
"Freeze!"
Fives whirled about blaster in hand and Echo followed suit after a brief second's hesitation. Sly stood fearlessly beside them facing their fate.
"Don't do it, Fives."
# # #
Captain Ko stared at the faces of the 212th troopers lined up in row after orderly row awaiting inspection by Commander Cody. He was thrilled to be back in training. They'd been idle too long as they sat in the barracks. Troopers were not meant to sit around.
Commander Cody had returned from his briefing and announced they were returning to the Negotiator, and the 501st troopers would be returning immediately to the Resolute. Troop transports had arrived soon after and within an hour the Coruscant barracks were empty.
He shifted his shoulders in his new armor and blinked to make an adjustment on his new bucket. His helmet had arrived late. Some snafu with shipping from HQ. But, their quartermaster had straightened it out, and delivered his kit before they'd shipped out. He'd even had a chance to throw a bit of 212th Attack Battalion orange on it to make it look more presentable.
It still didn't feel like his old bucket, but it would do. He noticed many of his troopers were shifting slightly. Normally, he would bark at them for the slightest breaking of the ranks during inspection, but he let it go. They were all adjusting to the new armor. And fek, they'd been through so much just to get here.
He was fiercely proud of the 212th Legion. The odds of surviving Darkknell had been slim, yet he was surrounded here by survivors. The toughest of the tough. They had received no replacement troopers for this mission to the Outer Rim sieges, although they would be supplemented by the other Legions.
They'd been blown lured into a trap on Darkknell, blown up by a minefield, and captured by Kaz'harians. Many of those who had been in the initial medevac had been shot down out of the sky.
Buckets on, or buckets off, he knew every face here. He knew them all. They'd survived so much in the dark shadowy prison cells of Darkknell, whispering back and forth, trying time and again to figure out how to escape. All of their attempts were met with failure. Their captors were brutally strong and impressively shrewd, but they never gave up hope. Most of their prison guards were not overly cruel. It was only, in the end, they learned the majority of the Kaz'harians were not there by choice. Once he'd been eliminated by Commander Tano, they disappeared back to their villages in the jungle.
The prison had been a place of dark shadows. But, Ko had learned the war was not black and white. It was all shades of grey.
So what did that mean for following orders?
Good soldiers follow orders.
His head buzzed and tingled.
Don't tell me my new kit is glitchy.
After it arrived late. Typical.
He had no time for equipment failures now. They had an inspection to finish and a full day of training. The tingly feeling persisted in his head to the point of being painful.
OK, krek, it was getting hard to think around this migraine. Maybe he should ask Keen or Cavil-
No, he couldn't ask them. They were heading into this battle short of medics, having lost both their chief medics. Digger and Glitch were solid troopers, though. He'd have to talk to Cody about possibly promoting one or both of the two junior medics and then crosstraining some-
Good troopers follow-
He shook his head again, trying to clear the persistent buzzing.
"Everything alright, Ko?" Cody's voice startled to the point he nearly dropped his blaster. The move did not go unnoticed.
Cody gripped his hands. "Whoa, okay, that's unlike you. What's going on?"
"Nothing. Just a... little headache is all." He immediately started walking the line, hoping Cody would follow and drop this line of questioning.
"You sure? You seem off today."
"I said I'm fine," Ko bit his lip. Fek. That was downright insolent. "Sorry, Cody. I'm alright, though. I just want to get back to work."
"Alright," Cody said, as they walked up and down each line inspecting each and every trooper. "You'll train with me today, then."
Ko nodded. Fair enough. He was sure his headache would improve.
But, it didn't. By the time they finished the inspection and separated the men out into training groups, he couldn't think for the pain in his head. But, it was alright. The explosion in Kaz'haria had snapped the bones in his wrist breaking the radius, ulna, and humerus, rendering it useless. He'd still fought on, using his one hand, and when his blaster overheated, he'd pulled a Cody and used his feet.
If he could make it through the Battle of Kaz'haria, he could survive a simple headache. Or, a blinding, splitting horrific headache. First day with the new equipment. Maybe if it persisted he'd see their new medic. Gah. What was their new medic's name? He couldn't even remember. It was getting hard to think around the pain in his head.
# # #
"Commander Fox?" Fives lowered his blaster and holstered it. He gestured to Echo, who stood down and tucked his borrowed blaster into the pants of his borrowed medical uniform.
They were immediately surrounded by a wall of Corrie red and hustled away from the front of the bank. Unseen by Echo and Fives, the medcenter medical team ran by on the other side of the street. Frightened citizens jumped out of their way of the relentless troopers.
"I hate those fekkers," Fox grumbled, gesturing with his chin at the retreating backs of the security detail, "you want to explain to me why I received a security alert about three clones AWOL from the medcenter?" He gave Echo a significant look in his borrowed's clothing with the ArmyMed logo emblazoned on it.
Echo gave him a thin smile and a helpless shrug.
"They were going to kill Echo," Fives defended.
"Yeah, I figured it was something like that."
"What happens to us now? You going to lock us up? Like you did, Rex?"
Fox shot Fives an icy glare that he could feel even through the Corrie Guard commander's helmet. "Gah, you boys really think that little of me, don't you?" His heavy sigh tore into Fives as he gave him a shove. "I don't want to hear from you again until you ship out. Do you hear me? I've squashed the alert." He jerked his head toward the building in front of him. "There's your barracks. Stay the fek out of trouble and I don't want from you next time you're on Coruscant. You understand?"
Fives nodded, too dumbstruck to speak.
Fox shook his head and spun sharply on his heel. Echo, Fives and Sly stared at the retreating backs of the Corrie Guard. They'd acted as human shields and seen them safely back to their barracks.
# # #
A/N: There was an old author's note on this chapter that read: "I will be at the "Clone Wars" screening today at Lucasfilm watching the Bad Batch arc with a bunch of buddies from the 501st Legion, (a Star Wars costuming fan group.) I'm excited to watch the new episode."
I wish I had put a date on that author note. I've missed a lot of screenings since then because I was dividing my time between New York and California. I always seemed to be in New York when the screenings would come up. (Our group gets invited with very little notice so you either make it or you don't.) In the "old days," Dave Filoni would attend the screenings with us, as he's an honorary member of our particular garrison. But, those days are over. He moved to Los Angeles when he started working on "The Mandalorian." I miss those days. He used to give these great talks after the episodes and talk about why he did things a certain way. He always had this delightful way of dodging questions he didn't want to answer. He would give an answer that was not an answer and then laugh as he pointed out exactly what he was doing. He was then very gracious about signing whatever you wanted him to sign. He signed the inside of my favorite garrison jacket a number of times, adding different doodles and artwork to it. It's quite the work of art at this point. I still wear it, but only for very special occasions.