The Rishi Moon outpost is terrifying and familiar at the same time. It's the only place Droidbait has been to other than Kamino, so he's torn between celebrating seeing his second home again and bolting from the place that once was his grave.
Cutup and Hevy aren't doing well, either. Cutup can't stand to be outside. He panics if there are no walls around him, eyes darting about furiously in search of shadowy monsters. Hevy does his best to hide his unease, but he flinches every time he steps into the control room, eyes darting almost instinctively to where the explosives had supposedly been placed.
They're a mess. Echo and Fives are the only things keeping their resurrected team from falling apart.
Their very first day at the outpost, after Sergeant O'Niner had given them the rundown of the place, Domino squad had huddled together on their beds, and Echo and Fives had told them the whole story.
It had taken a long, long time. Echo handled the tale up until the mission where he'd been captured, at which point his already hoarse voice had stuck in his throat and he'd grabbed blindly for Fives, desperately seeking comfort. Fives had taken over then, gently explaining the Citadel mission and continuing further into the war. He told them about Umbara, about Krell, and his eyes were haunted as he spoke. Then… he had told them about the chips.
Droidbait knows he wouldn't have believed it if anyone else had told him, but it's Fives telling him this now—Fives, who shakes and chokes out his words as he recounts Chancellor Palpatine's treachery, and the loss of loved brothers. Fives is still devastated by the discovery, and when he finally stops talking (none of them had dared interrupt him, in fear of losing important bits of the story), they're all silent for a long, long time.
Cutup is tracing the back of his head softly, with a disturbed expression on his face. Echo has a comforting arm wrapped around Fives, and the two of them appear to be drowning in mutual sorrow. Hevy's expression is dark, fury etched into his face.
Droidbait… Droidbait feels numb.
It's a lot to take in.
Slowly, he reaches his hand to his head and prods gently at his skull just as Cutup is doing. He doesn't feel anything—hadn't expected to—but he feels he has to try.
There's a chip in his brain that will make him kill Jedi.
"How can we fix this?" Cutup breathes in horror. "How? We can't—we can't. Every clone has one of these chips. The Chancellor is the mastermind. If we can't tell the Jedi… who's going to believe us? We can't fix this—"
"If I knew how to fix it, don't you think I'd be doing it by now?" Fives snaps a little too loudly. "They killed me last time for figuring it out. I don't know how we're supposed to fix it."
Echo grips Fives' shoulder tightly and gives him a little shake. Fives shudders, obviously struggling to stave off a panic attack of his own, and Droidbait immediately forgives him for the outburst.
"Listen. It's a big job," Echo begins.
"Understatement," Hevy growls.
"It's a big job, but at least we know things," Echo continues to point out. It's a weak argument, but Domino squad latches onto his words regardless. "We've got the advantage of surprise. The droids, the traitors, the Chancellor—none of them have any idea we're coming. We were trained to save the Republic, remember?"
Droidbait flinches, because that just brings up a whole new set of issues.
Was our creation a lie? he wonders bitterly, and only realizes he'd spoken aloud when the rest of his squad looks at him.
"Maybe it was," Echo says calmly, keeping them grounded, "But that hardly matters now, does it? We exist. No one can change that. We exist, and we know all about the treachery of Palpatine. So what if they created us to be Jedi killers? We know the truth now. We can fight it."
Droidbait is hit with a sense of awe at Echo's words, because Echo had died before learning about the chips—this is his first time hearing about them, too, yet he is still able to encourage the rest of his team instead of panicking.
"Sounds to me like we can't fight it once it activates," Hevy grunts. "Then we'll be just like the rest of them, memories or not. Can we save the Republic before they activate?"
"We don't have to," Fives says. "The chips can be removed. Mine was, before."
They stare at him in shock. They hadn't been expecting that.
"Well then, what are we waiting for?" Cutup says. "Let's get them out already!"
Fives shakes his head. "I wish it were that easy," he tells Cutup sadly. "We won't be able to take them out for a while. We need an extremely skilled medic, or a specialty droid, and we don't have either of those here. There's a medic in the 501st who could do it. We'll have to wait for him."
"Who, Kix?" Echo says, and then stifles a grin. "He's younger than us, isn't he? Is he even off Kamino yet?"
"Doubt it," Fives answers. "You three will like him. Him and Jesse, and Hard...case…"
Droidbait recognizes that tone as Fives trails off. Hardcase is dead. Or, had been killed during Fives' first life. They all shift a little closer to Fives on instinct, reassuring him that he isn't alone. Fives relaxes minutely.
"We can save him this time," Droidbait says, because he feels like Fives needs to hear that. "He won't die. Not while we're still breathing." He looks around at his brothers. They look defeated already. Hevy, in particular, seems to be taking the information the hardest. Cutup still looks like he's about to keel over, and Fives and Echo seem to be lost in memories of the dead. For all of the two ARC's dramatic speeches and words of encouragement earlier, they're struggling to cope, and the retelling of the Republic's fate had brought up far too many bad memories.
Droidbait takes a deep breath, and does the only thing he can.
He laughs.
"Jeez, you guys look like we've already lost," he says. It's not really in his nature to act cockily like this, but someone has to, before all hope is destroyed before they've even begun. "Come on, boys, we're better than this! I died before I got a chance to tear the clankers apart, but I've got a second chance now, and I'm not about to waste it sitting in here moping about what hasn't yet happened in this life!"
Fives jerks his head up, eyes wide. Cutup stands up straighter, and Hevy's jaw drops.
"We've got plenty of free time here," Droidbait points out. "Tons of time to ourselves, to plan and learn and prepare. We can't expect to have a plan to save a whole galaxy in one evening. It's going to take a while. In the meantime, we need to do what we can to increase our skills. I, for one, am not going to die here again."
Echo smiles at him in approval. Droidbait takes a deep breath, turning to fully face the two ARCs.
"Teach us to be ARC troopers," Droidbait proposes determinedly. "We need every edge over the Separatists we can get. If you teach us what you know, we'll survive."
They're all staring at him now, and Echo isn't the only one smiling.
"Who are you, and what have you done with Droidbait?" Cutup mutters. "The real Droidbait would do almost anything to get out of extra training. Are we sure we don't have the wrong clone, guys?"
Droidbait frowns.
"That was before I died without taking a single clanker with me," he points out bluntly, and then feels bad when Cutup winces. He'd just been trying to lighten the mood, after all, so Droidbait shuffles closer to him, grabbing his brother's hand in apology.
Fives smirks. Just like that, he's back to normal, grief stowed away.
"You three want to be ARC troopers?" he asks, and oh, Droidbait does not like the tone of his voice. "It's not easy, shinies. You might prefer death." He's smiling, but somehow Droidbait doesn't think he's kidding. It's a smile that promises pain.
"Sir!" Droidbait says, because Echo and Fives definitely count as higher ranking than the rest of them. "We want to learn!" Cutup and Hevy echo him, determination replacing the blind panic and terror that had settled over them earlier.
Fives and Echo are grinning like their Life Days had come early.
"In that case, you'd better get some sleep, boys," Echo suggests slyly. "I think you're going to need it."
Droidbait knows ARC training will likely save his life. He knows that, he knows it's one of the most important things they can do to prepare for the war to come.
But he also knows he's going to seriously regret suggesting it.
Droidbait knows what dying feels like. He's done it before, after all, and it hadn't been fun. It'd been terrible. There had been violent pain, and then a sickening feeling of failure and horror as his vision had faded to black.
ARC training feels…remarkably similar to dying.
Droidbait had known he would regret suggesting it.
"Pick up the pace, you slackers!" Echo shouts from the other side of the gym. "You think you're tough, trooper? You're nothing! Move it, you worm-ridden filth!"
Next to Droidbait, Fives snarls something under his breath—a swear word in another language, no doubt picked up during a campaign in some far corner of the galaxy. They've been doing suicides for nearly an hour now, and Droidbait's vision is starting to swim from exhaustion.
"Droidbait, you're falling behind! Move it! Don't make me come over there!"
Yep, Droidbait is ninety-eight percent sure he's dying.
Cutup and Hevy are right there with him, though, gulping frantically for breath. Even Fives is having trouble maintaining Echo's demanded speed. The two ARCs rotate who's in charge each day, because even though they've done the training before, their bodies are young and don't have the ARC muscle mass anymore.
"Come on, you sorry excuses for bantha fodder! If you want your rations today you'll move those pathetic legs faster!"
"He's having way too much fun with this," Hevy gasps out as they turn around to repeat the drill for what feels like the billionth time. Droidbait chokes on a hysteric giggle and nearly falls flat on his face.
"I take back everything I said before about Echo being nice," Cutup pants raggedly. "He's a demon."
"What was that, Cutup?" Echo howls. "Are you looking for a beating, cadet?" Echo sounds positively gleeful. "Get on the ground, soldier! I'll have you doing pushups until you drop!"
"Thank the stars," Droidbait says, and falls to his stomach. Pushups are bad, but at least he's not sprinting anymore. Hevy and Cutup are right behind him, but Fives keeps running, and there's definitely a smug look in his eyes as he passes them.
"Wha—" Droidbait starts to say, rising up onto his knees, but it's far too late.
"Did I say you two could stop running?" Echo shouts. Droidbait realizes too late the order to drop had been for Cutup only. His addled brain had heard an order and reacted automatically, too tired to care who it was directed at.
"Fives, you son of a hutt!" Hevy gasps. "Why didn't you warn us—!"
"Give me seventy-five pushups, now, and then we'll try to find a suitable punishment for you three!" Echo snaps. Fives passes them again, and he's breathing hard, but smirking, obviously delighting in their torture.
"It won't all be like this," Cutup struggles to say, his words interspersed with inhales. "It won't be all—stamina training, it won't all be this bad—there's, there's—tactics, and hand-to-hand and firearms—"
Droidbait moans in horror. Tactics should be fine, but hand-to-hand is going to end in a lot of bruises.
"Less chatting, more working!" Echo orders, and Droidbait forces his shaking body to comply.
It hurts, it feels like he's dying (and it's only the fifth day!), but he knows this is going to keep him alive.
So he pushes through the pain, and lowers himself into pushup one out of seventy-five.
When they aren't working on stamina, shooting the range, sparring with each other, or reviewing complicated battle strategies, they're either sitting at a control panel watching the moon, or planning. Droidbait hadn't minded the numbing boredom that accompanied watching over the Rishi Moon the first time, but he's learned to despise it now, because this is where the worst of the stress rears its head.
There are other clones stationed with them, of course, so they can't speak out loud. Nub and O'Niner are good soldiers, but they're not supposed to know. Fives teaches Domino squad the ARC trooper silent language, which relies on a combination of hand signals and taps. It's not the subtlest thing, but O'Niner doesn't seem to care, which Droidbait appreciates.
Actually, the Sergeant is incredibly tolerant of Domino squad's intense training regime. He watches them sometimes, but never comments on the harsh workouts they're putting themselves through. He has no way to know it's ARC training, of course, but Droidbait had thought he'd at least ask them what they're doing. He doesn't.
They make multiple contingency plans for the Rishi invasion. They hide various explosives and ammo in vents around the base, and snoop around in search of the best vantage points.
Their first plan has Droidbait at the farthest back vantage point, next to Echo, away from the doors where he had been felled the first time. He doesn't complain. The firing range has no commando droid-shaped targets, after all, and there's no telling if he'll freeze up like he did before.
He has a nightmare, about a month before the remembered date of the attack. He dreams that he's standing next to his brothers, in front of the outpost, and there's a massive Separatist ship headed right for them. He tries to raise his gun, panic surging in his chest, but he can't move, and then suddenly the outpost disappears, and they're standing in empty space, suspended above a swirling mass of darkness.
His teammates scream. Droidbait watches as they are destroyed. Cutup is snatched away by a dark shape that dwarfs them all, and his screams are audible for a long time through the darkness before they're harshly silenced. Hevy disappears in a torrent of flame. Echo thrashes against hands that reach out of the darkness, crying out as they pull him to his death. Fives is the last. He hovers above the darkness in agony, reaching blindly for something Droidbait can't see, before he sags like a puppet with it's strings cut and drops into the chasm below..
The commando droids come for him, once he's alone. He hears them long before they arrive, the whirr of gears and clinking of mechanical feet echoing through the darkness. They don't shoot him like last time, though—this time they come with swords drawn, and Droidbait is powerless to do anything but scream as they cut into him.
He wakes up shaking, and he hadn't cried out in his sleep but his teammates seem to sense something's wrong, regardless. Cutup actually climbs into his bunk next to him, pressing their foreheads together comfortingly. Droidbait is embarrassed at first, especially when Echo clambers in as well (and that's an impressive feat, because their bunks are barely big enough for one clone, much less three), but then he realizes how reassuring it is to have his brother's weight covering him, keeping him safe, and he stops caring about being embarrassed. Hevy and Fives can't join in, for fear of breaking the bed, but they sit nearby and just watch, like they're keeping guard.
Droidbait stops having nightmares after that.
The date of the invasion draws closer, and Droidbait wonders fervently if they've done enough to prepare. It feels like they've done a lot, and he has the bruises to prove it, but he also knows better than anyone that a single moment of bad luck can destroy a lifetime of training.
He clings to the hope that it is enough, though, because if he doesn't, he knows he'll fall apart the moment the droids come into view.
A/N: Suicides are an exercise drill that involve running back and forth to lines of various distance away, repeated over and over. They're not fun.
Lifedays are the star wars equivalent of birthdays.
Thank you for the kind reviews! A bit of bad news, though: Updates will slow as the school semester starts, especially with stories with long chapters such as "Only in Sleep" and "Way Down We Go". "Dominoes" and "Protection" will probably get updated slightly more often as their chapters are shorter. Sorry about that, it can't be helped!