Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Oh for kriff’s sake.” Mace said the moment he opened the news tab, tea in hand. Ponds finished preparing his own tea and looked over his shoulder at the glaring headlines all vying for attention,
“Huh. Do you think that’s real or -”

Mace’s comm began ringing and he sighed, setting the datapad down to accept the call, already done for the day and the sun hadn’t even fully risen. Ponds moved out of view of the holocall and sat down opposite Mace, taking up his own comm. It was weird Fox hadn’t written anything to them in the group chat if this was real, though that in itself wasn’t too unusual these days. His vod’ika seldom had time for them anymore, now that he was the Marshall Commander of the Coruscant Guard and worked with the natborns all day. Though Ponds saw that he was often online, even if he didn’t participate in any discussions or the gentle affectionate ribbing they all enjoyed.

But he would have written about this, at least to bitch about it. But he hadn’t even been online all day yesterday and still wasn’t this morning.

Ponds looked over to Mace who seemed to talk to several Generals quietly and then suddenly looked up at Ponds with a complicated expression.
“Ponds, Commander Fox of the Coruscant Guard is your batchmate, is he not?”

Speak of the devil.

“Yes, General Windu.” This was obviously no longer Mace, their early morning privacy invaded by their professional lives.

Mace - General Windu, get it right - looked at him with something like concern.

Ponds had a bad feeling about this.
“Why do you ask, sir?”

“It appears he is the one responsible for the death of the Chancellor.”

–

“Would you like some tea, my dear?” Cody looked up and refrained from making a face, but just barely.

Obi-Wan laughed quietly. “Just a joke, have no fear. Here is your caff.”

“Just throw it in my face.” Cody muttered, suppressing a yawn as best as he could. Obi-Wan tutted and set the cup down in front of his Commander.

“Now, what are our plans for the day?” He got a ping from his comm and looked to Cody apologetically, picking it up and reading the message on it. His eyebrows slowly rose.
“Cody, be a dear and open up the news. Any channel will do, apparently.”

Cody frowned but grabbed his pad, switching it on and selected the correct tab, getting bombarded by several large headlines, all saying basically the same thing,

“...the Chancellor is dead.”

–

Bly woke up from the ringing of a comm, grumbling into Aayla’s shoulder and decided that if he didn’t open his eyes, that comm didn’t actually exist. He felt Aayla slap around the nightstand for her comm and pick it up with a groan.

“General Secura speaking.” she said sleepily and then stiffened and sat up so quickly her shoulder nosechecked Bly who yelped and rolled to his back, looking up at her with tears in his eyes and then felt his heart stop at her next words.

“Good morning General Windu. I’m afraid Commander Bly is currently unavailable we- uh…we…were sparring! Yes, that is what we were doing, absolutely. I'll tell him to come to your office in an hour, of course, Master.” She fell silent, listening to whatever General Windu was saying.

Bly had sat up in bed feeling his heart drop down onto his stomach.

“...what do you mean the Chancellor is dead?”

–

“Rex, wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake-”

“Force damn it, Fives I’m awake, what.”

“I love it when you’re grumpy.” Fives grinned. “And good morning.”

Echo shoved him away with a hand on his face and grimaced when Fives licked it in retaliation. He leaned down to kiss Rex gently, who made a pleased sigh into the caress.

“‘Morning, Echo.”

“Good morning, Rex. Your comm has been going crazy with notifications.”

“Echo wanted to look because he is a nosy bastard! But I defended your privacy, cyar’ika, aren’t you grateful?”

Echo flushed a bit but didn’t deny the accusation.

“Ugh, let me see.” Rex grabbed the comm from Echo and unlocked it, grimacing at the slew of text messages from General Skywalker.

Gen. Skywalker, 7:37:

DANK FARRIK

KRIFF KRIFF KRIFF

REX

REX

REX

REX ANSWER

REX

FORCE KRIFF IT REX

ARE YOU AWAKE

REX

ARE YOU WITH FIVES AND ECHO

OH EW NO I DIDN’T ASK THAT FORGET THAT

REX ANSWER+

And then a few minutes later one more.

Good morning Captain Rex, this is Senator Amidala on behalf of General Skywalker speaking, would you be able to call him at your earliest convenience?

“Oh wow, kriff me.”

Fives snorted. “That’s what Rex said last night.”

Echo wordlessly held up his datapad to him. Fives read for a few seconds and then let out a low whistle.

“Well, we know why the General has a meltdown at least.”

–

"We won't be continuing our journey, my son. There has been a development of great concern."

Wolffe hated developments of great concern.

They dropped out of hyperspace and his comm blew up with messages. He muted it with a glare, not even looking, and instead turned to General Plo.
"What happened, General?"

"It appears the Chancellor was found dead this morning." Wolffe blinked in shock.

"Was it an attack?"

Plo hesitated on what to say for precisely too long to get Wolffe to really start worrying. No wonder his comm was going crazy. Fox must be bitching up a storm.

"It appears he was murdered, yes. They have a suspect, caught on camera, fleeing the scene of the crime."

Plo hesitated again and then sighed, a strange sound through his mask.
"The suspect is Commander Fox, my son."

"No, that can't be right. Fox wouldn't do that, he is loyal to the Chancellor.”

More loyal to a natborn than his vod'e…

--

The news continued in that vein, never being actually informative beyond the sensationalist headlines. The statement from CorSec that Commander Fox was the only one leaving the Chancellor’s office after the estimated time of death and was considered the prime - and only - suspect had been accompanied with a picture of Fox from his files and the warning that he was supremely dangerous and possibly unstable.

The Jedi Council had received the order from Acting Chancellor Amedda shortly after that.

“Every battalion currently on Coruscant is ordered to aid in the planet wide search for Commander Fox. He is to be captured alive, but neutralized immediately if he poses a threat. Several Battalions already en route on new missions will be called back to further assist, if necessary.”

General Windu made a face and looked at the assembled Commanders and Captain Rex before him. “You are currently the only GAR Commanders on Coruscant. We will split the battalions up into squads to cover more ground, The Coruscant Guard Command has assured us that they will assign members of the Guard to every squad to serve as guides around the planet.”

Rex groaned a bit. “So we have to drag them around and keep an eye on them and do our own job?”
He winced as Ponds’ elbow slammed into his side.

Bacara spoke next. “Sir, how certain is the intel about Commander Fox? Should we expect heavy resistance?”

General Windu sighed. “We are not certain. We have started our own investigation into the matter, but the camera outside the office clearly shows only the Commander entering and leaving during the window of time in which the Chancellor was killed.”

“And he was, in fact, killed? Couldn’t he have had an accident or a heart attack or…something?” Bly asked with a frown. General Windu shook his head. “They found the murder weapon, a vibroknife, still embedded in the side of his throat. And- well.”

The General lifts a holocomm and plays a short video of what must have been the camera outside of the Chancellor’s office.
They saw Fox leave the room at a fast walk and even in the blue of the holo, the blood spatter is obvious.

“No one said he was injured.” Bacara said and General Windu paused the video with a frown. “What do you mean, Commander?”

Bacara motioned for him to rewind the video and stopped it at one point. “He masks it well, but he is keeping his entire left side still. Probably because of an injury to the shoulder.”
Ponds tilted his head a bit as they rewatched the video. “You’re right. So there was a struggle and the Chancellor managed to injure Fox?”#

There was a derisive snort from the side. Ponds frowned but didn’t press the issue.

“How? The Chancellor’s like…70 years old, or more, and a civilian to boot."

“There is no mention of any defensive wounds on the Chancellor. In fact, according to the preliminary report we received the vibroknife wound was the only injury on him. His robes weren’t even torn.”

General Windu took a long look at the still form of Commander Fox on the recording and then looked back towards them.
“Thank you for bringing that to our attention, Commander. It raises several questions no one has asked yet in this investigation.”
General Windu inclined his head towards them, sent a last look to Ponds, who nodded, and returned to his office.

The Commanders huddled together and looked at each other.
“So, Fox finally snapped? I guess you can only write so many parking tickets before you have the urge to commit treason.”
Rex danced away from Ponds’ next elbow slam.

“What? Everyone's thinking it, I’m just saying it out loud. Fox hasn’t had time for us in months and according to the vod’e who have the displeasure of meeting him while he’s on duty he’s even more of a bastard than he was before. This posting changed him, or revealed a part of him that was always there, I don’t know which. But he’s practically a natborn at this point.”

Bly sucked in a sharp breath at that last part and even Cody looked a bit taken aback, but it was Bacara who slammed Rex into the wall and got in his face.
“Vode kriffing An, Captain. If I hear you ever talk about a brother like that again we’ll have words. Do you understand?”

Rex swallowed hard, nodded, and slumped a bit when Bacara let him go.
“I’m just saying he has been different. Distant.”

“And there must be a reason.” Ponds said quietly. “In any case, we all know if CorSec or the Red Guard are the ones to find Fox, he is as good as dead. So we have to get to him first.”

He looked at them all and squared his shoulders. “I’m not letting them take my vod’ika without a fight.”

Chapter Text

Deer was a bit embarrassed that he only saw the figure lunging for him from the left a second before it was upon him and he yelped in surprise and then shock as he recognized the red armor of a vod. And not just any vod, either. He almost crumbled under the sudden deadweight of Commander Fox, but braced his foot on a backstep and held his ori’vod upright. Elk made a twin sound of surprise and quickly helped him, taking half of the Commander’s weight.

Commander Fox snarled in pain and Deer was suddenly aware of the slickness under his gloves.
“Sir! Sit down, I’ll get Purr and a stretcher -”

“No.” Fox groaned. “Not enough…time. I need- need to speak to the Commanders. Get me there.”

Deer looked towards Elk for assistance, but his twin only shot him a long look and said over their internal comm “If anybody gets him to sit down it’s the Commanders. You get Purr, I’ll take him.”

“Don’t talk about me on internal comms.” Fox slurred, seemingly out of energy now that he was with people he trusted. He let himself be transferred from one twin to the other with nothing more than a groan of pain,

“You’re my favorite, Elk.” he slurred and tried patting Elk’s pauldron. Elk caught the hand and carefully held it still.

“Everyone knows Grizzer is your favorite, sir.” he said with a smile as Deer disappeared quickly and he followed with the Commander more slowly.

Purr was waiting when they arrived at the Commander’s quarters, standing there and tapping his foot as Stone, Thire and Thorn waited for them. Deer stood in front of the door and helped Elk heave the Commander through, where Thire and Thorn took him from them.

“Thank you, Deer, Elk, you can return to your post, We got it from here.” Both of them looked to Commander Fox for a long moment. Fox nodded with a low “And keep this quiet for now, please.” and they both swallowed, nodded and left the room.

–

He had taken a long and meandering route to one of their secret entrances to shake any potential followers off his trail and he knew the moment he sat down, he wouldn’t be getting up again.
The knife wound, sitting between the spaulder and his breastplate kept bleeding and felt dangerously hot and cold at the same time. He could barely lift the left arm. But there was no way around it, he had to tell his vod’e what had happened. What he’d done, how much danger he had brought down on all of them.
“I killed the Chancellor.” Fox said even as Purr bullied him onto his bunk and started taking off the spaulder, making an unhappy noise as he started to see the stab wound better.

“Yeah, we all wish.”

“I kill him every night in my dreams.” Stone said with a shrug.

“No, I killed him. He stabbed me with my knife and was droning on and when he bent down I jammed it into his neck. He’s dead.”

Even Purr stopped fiddling with his breastplate for a moment, before he made a low noise and kept tugging it off.

“Good riddance.” their CMO said then and tried to get Fox’s blacks off.

Fox swatted his hands away.

“No, we don’t have time for this. They’ll have discovered him by now, they’ll come here to look for me. I can’t stay here. I need to-” he blinked a few times, trying to find what he wanted to say.

“- to turn myself -”
“You need to disappear, at least until we can get you off world.” Thire spoke over him and pointed at him with a glare.

“Don’t give me that look, ori’vod. You better think again if you believe any of us wouldn’t have done the same if given the chance to off that shabuir.”

“Hear, hear.” Thorn said from his own bunk, where he was stuffing something into a satchel.

“No, I can’t just leave you-”

“Fox.” Stone said quietly and Fox looked to him and fell silent at the expression on his face, except for a low noise when Purr started to peel his blacks away from the wound.

“I don’t like this, but he’s right. I’ll come with you to one of our safehouses and administer treatment.”

“No.” Fox shook his head. “They will search the HQ, make a headcount. It will be obvious if the CMO is missing.”

“Then Gore will go, or maybe Fellow-”

“No, he’s right, unfortunately. A missing medic will be suspicious. I hate to say it, but Fox has to go alone, at least until we can comm the patrols and tell them to keep you safe.”

Purr fell silent, mouth working and then pressing into a thin line.
“Fine.” he said and stabbed Fox with two hypos in quick succession in what was clearly an act of revenge. Fox yelped and looked at him in betrayal.

“Don’t give me that look, you’ll thank me in a moment. Analgesic and antibiotics. The moment you are safe you will use this-” he held up a large bacta patch and shoved it at Thorn who added it to his satchel.

“We don’t waste bacta on small wounds.” Fox protested tiredly. “And we don’t have enough analgesics as it is, and where did you even get antibiotics?”

Purr sniffed haughtily. “I have my ways. And this isn’t a normal case; if I can’t be here to monitor the wound, you will put the karking bacta patch on, or you will never know peace again.”

Fox wanted to protest, he really did, but he also liked living so he remained quiet.

“Okay, I have ration bars, water, some of the credits of our emergency fund and the patch. You’ll get to one of the safehouses and lie low and we’ll watch CorSec try to actually solve a crime and laugh.” Thorn quipped and handed the satchel over.

Fox took it with another grimace and tried to get the willpower to push back to his feet, to keep going. He was tugged to his feet and into a Keldabe kiss, feeling Thorn exhale slowly, Thire and Stone just as close and pushing their heads in in a little fourway huddle.

“We got your back, ori’vod, always.” Thire said quietly and they stepped back a bit as Fox pushed down the burning in his eyes and nodded.

“I won’t be able to keep in touch.”

“We know. Don’t worry about it. I don’t say this normally because you always get testy, but you’re kriffing mandokar’la as shit. You got this.” Thorn said fiercely and prodded Fox out the door with the other two on their heels.

–

They watched him leave from another of their secret entrances, this one unguarded because it would just pull attention towards it.

Fox swayed a little, Stone had to hold Thorn back from lurching after him and they stood there for a while longer as they stared into the darkness.

“Okay!” Thire said then, clapping his hands together and making both Thorn and Stone flinch.
“I’ll call the patrols currently out to tell them about the whole…fugitive thing, you get everyone together in the mess hall, we need to make an announcement about this. The news will have reached the vod’e by now.”

They assembled everyone not currently on shift in the prisons, on patrol or in the medbay with too severe injuries and remained silent as the holoprojecter showed the newsreel including the warning about Fox and explained where Fox was. There was silence for a moment afterwards and then Axe raised her hand.

“So…is the Commander alright?” That led to everyone in the room looking at Thorn accusingly.
“Yeah, why is he alone? He should have backup!” Someone yelled from further back.

“Not that he needs it.” Stab mutters from his place in the first row. “But he should have someone to tell him it’s not his fault.”
“He was injured too!” Elk called out because he enjoyed throwing fuel in the fire. That started another round of very judgmental looks.

They all flinched when the door slammed open and Hound rushed into the room, Grizzer by his side.
“What is this kark about Fox assassinating the Supreme Raisin?”

Stone sighed.

“I was on patrol in the lower levels, I didn’t hear about it until just now. What the kriff? Did he at least get video of it? I want to watch it and have a party.”

“Hound.” Thire ground out. “Sit.”
Grizzer obediently sat down. Hound didn’t. He looked around exaggeratedly.

“Where is the shabuir anyway?”

“In hiding and injured.” Gore informed him from her place next to Axe.

“Yes, Fox was injured prior to executing the Chancellor, but Purr examined him and gave him painkillers, antibiotics and a bacta-patch for later. We now have to make sure he can stay at one of the safe houses and no one finds him. We all know we don’t have to worry about CorSec-”
Several snickers were heard.
“-but we have to be prepared for other people paying attention, like the Jedi.”

That quieted the room down. In the sudden silence, the ringing of Thorn’s comm seemed overly loud, and several vod’e flinched.

Thorn turned away from everyone and accepted the call.
“Commander CC-3410 speaking.”

“Clone.” came the voice over the holo, easily heard in the silence. “Prepare for an inspection of your base to recover any evidence regarding CC-1010’s defect and instability, and clues on where it might be hiding. We will arrive in two hours.”

“Understood, sir.”

The call ended. Thorn made a face at the comm and turned back to the room.
“You heard the man, get ready for an inspection.” He took a breath to dismiss them, and his comm rang again. Thorn looked down, did a double take and threw an uncertain look to Thire and Stone, shoulders hunching lightly. The room went completely quiet again.

He cleared his throat, straightened his spine and accepted the call.
“Commander CC-3410 speaking.”

“Commander, it is good that I reach you. I apologize, I do not think we have been introduced. Do you have a name I may use?”

Thorn swallowed and threw another short look to his fellow commanders.
“General Windu, sir. My name is…Thorn, I am the senior commander serving under Commander Fox.”

“Commander Thorn. I am sure you have heard the news about the Chancellor.”
“Yes, sir. We haven’t found CC-1010. Of course we’ll apprehend him if we come across him, I was just about to send out a general notice to all patrols-”

“Yes, well. This is what I am calling about. Acting Chancellor Amedda has issued the order that all battalions of the GAR currently on Coruscant are to help in a planet wide search for the Commander. It would be our preference if all squads could be assigned at least one member of your Guard to search as guides. You probably know the planet best, after all. We would like to use the hangar in the Temple to organize the search squads. If you could assemble there in the next four hours, that would be appreciated.”

Thorn opened his mouth several times until he managed a weak “Of course, General. We will be ready.”

“Windu out.”

Thorn signed off and stared at the comm for a long moment before turning to the rest of the men.
“Well, kark.” Hound muttered for everyone.

Chapter Text

Vode an, yeah, that was all well and good; but Corries were just weird. Rex had never before seen so many in one place and their uniformity was unsettling. They stood at perfect parade rest and just looked at them all.

He fought down the urge to shiver in unease.

The three Commanders approached the Generals and their assorted little group of GAR Commanders and saluted sharply. General Skywalker was notably absent. Rex knew he had been close to the Chancellor, but there was something else going on, though no one had explained yet what that was.

“Generals, sirs. Commanders. …Captain.” Thorn kept his hands up in the salute along with Thire and Stone, and only lowered it to relax into parade rest after General Windu nodded to them,

“Commanders Thorn, Thire and Stone reporting for duty. We have assembled any Guard Trooper not currently on shift or in the medbay at Headquarters, sirs. 297 men, us three included. We could contact the other battalions stationed on Coruscant, but it is unlikely CC-1010 has left the current area of the city.”

“Fox. He has a name.” Cody snapped, and all three Commanders looked at him wordlessly for a moment, before turning back to the Generals.

“Glad to see you again I am, young Thire.” Yoda piped up at that moment and Thire looked towards him and inclined his head.
“Sir.”

Nothing else was forthcoming. The General’s ears drooped for a moment and then he pressed on.
“Hoping, I was, to see Jek and Rys also.”
“Apologies, General. Trooper Jek is currently in the medbay because of injuries acquired in the course of duty and Trooper- Trooper Threetoo is on a prison shift.” Thire’s voice was perfectly level and bland, but he stumbled over the second name.
“Threeto? Changed his name, he did?”

Thire hesitated for a moment and something in his posture changed in a subtle and disquieting way. Rex saw Stone shift minutely closer to him.

“CT-1932 was sent for reconditioning several months ago and does not feel comfortable using his previously chosen name currently, General. If you’ll excuse me.” He saluted again and moved away, towards where the Guard Troopers were still standing at parade rest, like statues.

Or droids.

Now, further back, Rex could see that there were several ARF Troopers also present, with their massiffs on a leash.
Even the massiffs were quiet and mostly unmoving.

General Yoda was looking after him and Rex had never seen the little green Master look quite so old and burdened.
Thorn cleared his throat. “Generals, if I may, I suggest assigning two Guard Troopers to any search squad you are forming, and any Guard trooper of the rank of Sergeant or higher to be assigned singularly to one squad. We currently have 63 Officers present, us included.”

General Windu shook his head. “That will leave us with only 180 squads, Commander. We will have to spread the Guard a bit thin. One trooper to every squad.” Thorn and Stone clearly had a talk over their internal comms before he nodded and Stone excused himself with a sharp salute, joining Thire.

“Of course, sir.” Thorn said then, voice crisp and professional over the vocoder of his bucket. “Has Acting Chancellor Amedda specified whether CC- Fox is to be apprehended or neutralized?”

“You’d kill your Commander?” Bly asked, shock evident in his voice and Thorn looked at him for a moment.
“We are loyal to the Republic. Fox killed the Chancellor, he has to be found and evaluated and will be tried for his crime. And if he continues to be a threat to the Republic, yes. I would neutralize him.”

“We do not know the real circumstances and whether he is truly responsible.” General Windu said, something close to reproach in his voice. “Your orders are to apprehend him, not kill him. We recently learned he was injured when he left the Chancellor’s office, but there were no signs of a struggle inside.”

–

Something had prickled at the very edge of Bacara’s awareness since the Corries had marched in, uniform and picture perfect, but it was only when Thorn didn’t react to the General’s statement that he realized what it had been.

He wasn’t surprised. Neither the injury, nor the lack of a struggle had been news to Thorn, and come to think of it, none of the Corries were surprised or agitated about the alleged treason their Commander committed either. You could say about Fox what you wanted, but his men were loyal to him to a fault and Bacara couldn’t imagine them taking this so well if they were really just now learning about the circumstances of the whole mess.

“Commander, you had no contact with Commander Fox after his alleged murder of the Chancellor?”

Thorn turned to face him and shook his head. “Of course not, Commander, I would have arrested him immediately.”

That’s a capital L lie. And it’s an amazing one - Bacara almost believed it. Maybe he was projecting his own sense of loyalty to the Guard after all.

“CorSec already searched the base and found nothing to indicate Commander Fox was there after the events in the Chancellor’s office.”Thorn added and that was…

Ah. Now he was sure Fox had been there afterwards, and equally sure the Corries would rather eat their own boots than actually deliver their Commander to anyone, be that the Jedi, CorSec or their own brothers.

Bacara couldn’t help but be impressed. Fox must be one hell of a Commander to inspire this amount of loyalty. He’d never really interacted with him after Kamino, had only second hand knowledge delivered by the man’s own batch or the rumors circulating about him in the wider GAR. But he found himself interested now.

“Alright then, if you’re sure.” he said, letting disbelief color his voice just t.o see if Thorn would scramble to convince him of it and offer more insight into the matter.
Thorn got angry instead.

“Fox is way too good at what he does to make a stupid mistake like coming back to his homebase while he is being hunted.” he hissed and then seemed to realize what he’d said - and who he said it to.
“Excuse me, Generals, Commanders, I need to speak to the men.” he said stiffly, executed the same kind of effortlessly perfect salute and did an about face to rejoin Thire and Stone.

“Well that was illuminating, Commander. Well done.” General Windu said and then looked down at his comm a moment before it started to ring. He nodded to them - mostly to Ponds, they really weren’t subtle - and turned away.
“Vos.”
“Master, I arrived at the Coruscant Guard’s headquarters, would you please tell the lovely Trooper at the front desk that I am authorized to snoop around?”

The rest of the conversation was too quiet to hear and Bacara turned back to his fellow CCs…and Rex.
“So who wants to play matchmaker for the Corries and the squads? Not it.”
Everyone quickly tapped their own nose and Bly groaned, being the last to do so.
“Don’t whine.”

Bly sighed. “I already had several Troopers request to get paired with their batchmates but look at them. None of them even tried to meet their batchers.”
“You’d think they’d jump at the chance to meet their brothers.” Cody said with a frown and Ponds shook his head.
“It’s not like our men were eager to spend time with their brothers in the Guard in the past, Cody. And even now a lot of them are just looking for a source of gossip. To ask about Fox.”

“I mean, I understand the urge? Fox killed the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic. Force, I want to know what the kark he was thinking too.”

“He always was an overachiever.” Cody muttered and Rex choked on a bark of laughter, but sobered quickly as Ponds shook his head.
“We still don’t know anything about why he did it. I refuse to believe he didn’t have a reason. Should we ask Thorn or the other Commanders?”

“They won’t talk to us. They don’t trust us.” Bacara said simply and shook his head.

“We can still try. I’ll take Thorn into my squad, you guys take either Stone or Thire.”

–

Cody nodded and walked away, over to the Corrie Commanders who were apparently all three still talking to their men. All over internal comms; the sight was unsettling. Cody looked over to the clustered GAR troopers milling around, most of them talking quietly, already splitting up into groups. There’s a lot of mixing between the battalions, and quite a few seem to use the opportunity to talk to batchers and other vod’e they might not get to see too often. Bacara’s Marines weren’t on Coruscant often, after all.

A stark contrast to the Guard troopers, who were still standing at impeccable parade rest. The only ones moving in the throng of bodies were the massiffs at their trainers’ sides off to the right, and even they were quiet and attentive.

“Commander Thorn, I would prefer it if you joined my squad.” Thorn looked up, cocked his head and nodded. “Of course, Commander.”
He turned back to Thire and Stone and nodded to them before fully turning to Cody. Cody shifted his stance a bit as he watched the other Commander.
“We are ready to assign the men to your Troopers. One per squad, as was ordered. Have you established the search grid already?”

Cody nodded. “Yes, we did. We will find Fox. Before CorSec or the Red Guard do.”

“Of course, Commander.” Came Thorn’s smooth, even reply.

He didn’t know why he said that, why he tried to reassure the other Commander. They’d never been close, not even after that one night at 79’s.

Or technically that one night behind 79’s, in the alley.

He resolutely called himself to order. That had been a one-off thing, he’d told Thorn that, and Thorn had had no problems with it. He still seemed to not have a problem with it.
Cody told himself he didn’t have a problem with that either and he almost convinced himself too. Then he saw Thorn pull Thire and Stone down into a Keldabe, buckets clacking together and his hands clenched into fists. He breathed out and forced the set of his shoulders to relax.

“A bit more professionalism would be good, Commanders. We are not having a fun get.together here.” The words felt strange coming out of his mouth and he jammed his bucket on as the three turned to him.

“As you say, Commander.” comes the infuriatingly even reply. Cody just wanted to find Fox. He could do that, and he could do that with Thorn at his back, because neither of them had a problem working together after that night,

He could almost believe it.

Chapter Text

Fox didn’t go to their nearest safe houses, even though all he wanted was to sit down and close his eyes for a day. But that would be the first place anybody would look, and he already endangered his vod’e enough by showing up at their HQ.

At least the painkillers were starting to work, which made moving naturally much easier. He couldn’t run - that would draw attention he could not afford, with news about his actions surely being public by now. He needed to get to one of their safe houses and change into civilian clothing, and he needed to keep his head down and his bucket on until he got there.

He needed -

There was a low mreow sound close to him and Fox stopped reflexively, even as his mind was still whirling and making plans.
He looked down to see a Loth-cat press against his legs in a daring lean, already purring and he had to bend down and pet it, reminding himself to use his right hand.
“I don’t have time right now.” he informed the critter regretfully, and it just purred louder and pressed against his legs even more, winding around them.
“No, really, I’m busy.” Fox insisted, but kept petting and scritching at the ear cones and the Loth-cat looked up at him and made it very clear it wasn’t accepting that excuse.

“Okay, fine, but I need to keep moving.” Fox scooped the little thing up and settled it in one arm, wincing a bit as he straightened up again. The Loth-cat sniffed at his chestplate a moment and gave a concerned sounding little meow, and Fox smiled in the privacy of his bucket. “No, don’t worry, it’s alright.”

He started moving again.

–

The objective was clear: make sure the GAR didn’t find Fox. Stone was keenly aware of the soldiers around him and Commander Ponds, who seemed to pay as much attention to him as to their surroundings.

That wasn’t optimal, but Stone had worked with far less. He was sure Fox wasn’t anywhere around the Temple or the Senate district and he had definitely left the area around their base already. He’d probably avoid going anywhere near one of their safe houses in those districts. So maybe CoCo Town or the Uscru district instead, and maybe even further down.

“Why do you think he did it, Commander?” Commander Ponds asked suddenly, and Stone could feel the GAR troopers around them perk up and pay close attention. He felt his lips curl in distaste.

“I don't presume to know CC-1010’s motivations, Commander.” he said and apologized to Fox quietly in his head as he added. “He clearly had a defect of some kind.”

Commander Ponds bristled in reproach. “He had to have had a reason. Fox was loyal to the Chancellor, he wouldn’t just do something like that. There’s got to be an explanation.”

Stone inclined his head without a word and thought to himself that maybe, if Commander Ponds actually spent time with Fox, he wouldn’t have to ask his brother’s subordinates for a motive. And the man dared to call himself Fox’s batcher.

–

The loth-cat had abandoned Fox by the time he reached the Uscru district to pounce on a spilled container of takeout in an alley, and Fox couldn’t even blame it. The food smelled heavenly.

He watched it drag the container further down out of sight and then started walking again, adopting the loping gait of a Guard trooper on patrol. The safe house was a few blocks away, but the good thing about this district was that people came here to forget about the outside world, so the chances of the news not having spread here yet was much higher than in the other districts. The important thing now was to keep his head down and not attract attention.

“HELP!”

Oh for kriff’s sake.

Fox thought longingly of the safe house, almost in sight now, and knew, at the same moment, that he’d never be the kind of person who didn’t react to that scared tone of voice.

But he was not going to be cheerful about it.

He moved towards the alley, slowing down when he reached the entrance and peered inside. Two figures, one pressed against the wall, one in the first one’s face, holding something to their throat, most likely a knife.

A mugging, then. Fox stepped into the alley and drew his blaster, making sure to keep his steps quiet as he approached until he could see more clearly. The robber was snickering, tilting the knife from side to side in a mocking way. “See? No one cares. One more dead slut, no one’s going to -”

“I’ll stop you right there.” Fox said firmly, raising and aiming the blaster. “Step away.” The robber looked at him for a moment like he couldn't believe Fox was actually there - Fox could sympathize. The safe house was so close.

“You’re a clone.” The robber said then, taking another step back from the - Fox spared a short look - Twi’lek woman, who shrank into the wall as if trying to phase through it.

“A keen observation.” Fox scoffed, completely unprofessional and not caring. He’s an enemy of the Republic, he could say what he wanted now. He kept the blaster aimed and steady. “Get away from her and leave her alone from now on.”

The robber lunged at Fox with a curse, and the painkillers made Fox react just slow enough to get slammed into the wall himself, his shoulder connected with the duracrete and even through the numbing effect of the painkillers, Fox felt the impact in his entire body.

“You don’t tell me what to do, meat droid, you got that? You-” the rest got unintelligible, or maybe it’s the roaring in Fox’s ears that drowned the words out. Fox let go of the blaster as fireworks of pain exploded along his nerves and he went for his vibroknife, only to remember that that is currently in the Chancellor’s neck.

Well, surely they have taken it out by now, he told himself, it’s evidence after all -

and the robber crumbled to the ground. Fox looked right at the woman, who was holding his blaster in both hands. Her grip was abysmal, he noted dumbly, but her hands were steady as rock.

She looked at him with wide eyes, but seemed to calm herself down quickly, looking at the robber and kicking him two times, harshly, then looking back at Fox.
“Thanks for the rescue.” she said and Fox blinked, because no one ever thanked them in normal cases. He’s not sure how to react.

“You’re welcome, though you ended up rescuing yourself.” he answered on auto pilot.The Twi’lek grinned and tried to hand him the blaster, only to look down and gasp in shock. Fox followed her gaze. The robber’s knife was sticking out of the thin sliver not covered by his cuisse and codpiece, just below his hip bone.

“Oh for kriff’s sake.” Fox muttered and everything went dark.

–

“Moose was very hurt by your and Deer’s refusal to join his squad, Trooper.”
Commander Bly said apropos of nothing, and Elk sighed, keeping the sound low enough that his vocoder didn’t pick it up. The Commander clearly hadn’t been able to bite that back any longer.

“Neither CT-3543 nor I are interested in spending time with CT-3541, Commander.” he replied evenly, and is glad that Deer wasn’t the one who joined the Commander’s squad. His twin - they weren’t triplets anymore, Moose had made that clear, and how dare he act hurt now? - would have gotten too emotional if questioned, would have felt the need to explain why they both felt this way.

“He’s your batcher.” One of the GAR troopers said, a frown clear in his voice and Elk stopped moving all at once, turned to the squad and played the voice message left on his and Deer’s comms a long time ago.

”You two are weak, and…kriffin’- kriffing disgraceful. M’ the only one who was good enough for a real fight - the war. Kriffing emb’rassing, havin’ to tell- to tell the vod’e you’re both Guards. You’re not- not anything. Not my batch. Not- Fawn and Stag would’a been so kriffing ashamed. Don’ call me ever again.”

The silence that followed seemed very loud. Elk looked at them all in turn and then turned to the Commander. “Shall we keep searching, sir?”

–

Fox woke up because someone was sitting on the edge of his bunk and it dipped in a strange way. This someone had to be huge to achieve that and he was immediately ready for a fight. He opened his eyes.

A petite Nautolan woman sat at his side and looked at him with a smile and Fox realized he was not in his quarters. Or the medbay.

The room was way too purple for that to be the case.
He sat up, still trying to figure out where the kriff he was and realized he was also not wearing his armor or the upper parts of his blacks.

“What the kriff.” he said, because he could just say whatever he wanted now. The concept was still new and exciting for him. The Nautolan snorted inelegantly.
“You’re not wrong. I’m Richa Siijur, you’re in my house, in one of our private rooms. Thank you for saving Niema.”
Fox followed her look to the Twi’lek woman from earlier, who was rummaging through a dresser currently and waved at him cheerfully.

“It was my duty, ma’am.” Fox said on instinct, and Niema and Richa both snorted at that.
“Not really, Commander Fox. They haven’t actually stripped you of your rank yet, have you realized? You’re technically still Marshall Commander of the Guard.”

Fox stilled and realized he didn’t have any weapons.
Richa saw his expression and held up both hands. “Don’t do anything rash. None of us have any desire to call CorSec or deliver you to them. Rather the opposite.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Fox said honestly. He found he quite liked this - just saying whatever he wanted.

“Well, when we found you you had a fresh stab wound already and there are a lot of bruises and scars. I recognize an abuse survivor when I see one, honey.” She kept her voice low and soothing, and her hands plainly visible. Fox felt patronized and strangely thankful for the treatment.

“Secondly, you and yours have always treated my darlings fair and respectful, which can’t be said for CorSec. And the Chancellor’s always felt…off. He used to hire some of my workers, you know. They never were the same afterwards.” Her friendly smile disappeared and her eyes were hard and cold.

Fox knew that feeling all too well and he just nodded. “I killed him. I can’t remember why. I just knew I had to, that I might never get another chance.”

She nodded back and then brightened again after a few long moments. “So, that’s why you’re safe here! We won’t tell anyone, and my darlings are keeping their eyes peeled to make sure no one knows where you are.” She leaned in. “You’re safe here.” She repeats intently. “I swear.”

Fox stared. That’s- no natborn had ever talked like that to him.
“But…I’m a clone.” he said trying to understand what this insane woman was talking about. Richa shrugged, but her eyes were soft and concerned again.

“Yes. And?”

–

“Commander, where would Fox most likely go to disappear on planet?” Thorn bit back the scoff he wanted to make by sheer willpower alone. Yes, as if he would tell aruetii that.

“It would greatly depend on whether he truly suffers from a defect, or if he is in his right mind.” he said instead as he led the squad to the nearest elevator. He could feel Cody’s frustration and mounting anger the more he deflected, though the Commander was good at biting it back for now.

But like with their previous encounter, it would be only a matter of time until the dam of Cody’s self control broke. And it would be a sight to see.

He’d never imagined he’d get the Marshall Commander Cody all for himself, and Cody had been adamant it was a one-time thing at the time. But Thorn still had a little flicker of hope, and he was eager to use the opportunity to see if his hunch was correct. It was a good thing this hunt wasn’t meant to be successful anyway.

–

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay?” Richa asked him as Fox ran a hand through his curls. She tutted and swatted at the air close to his hand. She never touched anyone without asking permission first Fox had found, thrown all over again that she grouped him with everyone. He appreciated that more than he could say.

“Leave them, they look good! You are quite the looker, darling. With that and the clothes, no one will recognize you unless they really think about it.”

Well, that was true, at least.

Fox kept staring at his reflection. It was always strange to see himself out of armor, and right now was no exception, but at least the blacks were familiar.
This wasn’t.

Richa had given him a tight pair of black leatheris pants, a deep red shirt that came just to the seam of said pants and exposed a sliver of skin every time he moved and she was holding the last items of clothing, a jacket made out of the same leatheris as the pants only in a dark brown, and a belt to keep his blasters secure. She and another of the workers, a Zabrak male named Adren had hidden his armor and blacks in a compartment behind a floor length mirror.

“You look great, darling. If I didn’t know better, I’d offer you a job.” She said and handed both garments over.
“The plan is to blend in.” Fox reminded her, and she grinned. “Yes, and everyone will think you’re a prostitute! It’s foolproof." She watched as Fox slung the belt on and put both blasters into it.

“Let’s hope that’s true.” Fox muttered and took the jacket next.

–

Commander Bacara was starting to be a problem. Axe had tried steering him and his squad of marines in the direction of the Works, as far away from where Fox was supposed to be as possible, but he kept consulting the map and veered off her carefully planned course. And it wasn’t like she could outright tell him to stop actually looking for Fox. At least the marines were quiet and focused; she appreciated that, even if them being attentive meant her job was harder.
None of them tried to bond with her.

“Sergeant, in your professional opinion, where would Fox have gone to avoid being captured?” Commander Bacara asked her, studying the map, manipulating it to highlight an estimated area Fox could be in. Axe realized with a sinking feeling that he had the Guard HQ as point of origin.
“Sir, if he was fleeing from the Chancellor’s office he’d probably try to get out of the Senate district as fast as possible. The easiest way to disappear on Coruscant is down, which is why I have marked the Works on the map.”

“And if he wasn’t?”

Axe had a bad feeling about this.
“Sir?”

Bacara looked at her directly. He had the same piercing stare as her ori’vod, the one you could feel clearly through two bucket’s visors.

“If he started from the Guard HQ, where would he have gone then?”

“I have not seen Commander Fox at HQ since the news broke, sir.” Because she had been dead asleep in her bunk cuddled up to her riduur after a 72-hour shift and had only woken when the Commanders had called everyone in for the meeting in the mess. But she hadn’t seen Fox; that wasn’t a lie. Not that she would have told this aruetii if she had.

Commander Bacara kept staring at her. Then he abruptly nodded.
“Noted, Sergeant. Let’s act on the assumption he was in his right mind. Where would he go to quickly disappear?”

Axe thought for a moment. The Uscru district, if she knew her ori’vod, but he had a good head start. He most likely wasn’t there any longer, and the pleasure district would surely confound even Commander Bacara.

“He’d probably try to keep a low profile in the Uscru district, sir.”

Chapter Text

Mace would have preferred a long drawn out campaign on Hoth to this mess. At the very least, the Separatists seemed to be quiet - and wasn’t that just highly suspicious timing - so Acting Chancellor Amedda demanding they throw several battalions of Troopers at the problem of Commander Fox being still on the run wasn’t actively putting people in danger.

Quinlan had started his own investigation into the matter, and had already reported several findings CorSec seemed to have overlooked or outright ignored. Among them the fact that Fox had definitely been to the Guard HQ after the killing of the Chancellor. And the Guard were obviously not going to confess to that, and most likely were actively sabotaging the search as well.

“Honestly, Master, I could smell the bleach without stepping foot in the officer’s quarters - and by the way, aren’t Commanders supposed to have single rooms - and Stab, the front desk guardian of secrets told me Commander Thorn tripped while bleaching his hair. It was such an audacious lie I almost believed it.” He paused for a moment. “But there’s a small trail of blood from one of their secret entrances - and yes, they have secret entrances - to the room and I’m pretty sure it’s the Commander’s. This is wild, Master, I haven’t had this much fun in ages.”

Which was another thing worth investigating. Vos had put into words a sensation Mace had almost not noticed himself.
He felt, for lack of a better word, lighter than he had in years, and several others of the Order had already remarked on the same feeling.

Yet another suspicious coincidence. And the most disturbing thought was the clarity that, even a day ago, he would not have seen the insidious strings connecting these events with the death of the Chancellor.
He wished Ponds was here. That was not a thought he was supposed to have; but it pushed to the forefront of his mind nonetheless. But Ponds had an important duty, and Mace knew finding Fox was important to him, not just in general.

CorSec had sent the autopsy report of Chancellor Palpatine over finally, and there had been no other injuries apart from the knife wound to the neck. Interesting was the angle of the attack. It had been thrust upwards, as if Commander Fox had been kneeling.
And why would he kneel in the presence of the Chancellor?

He looked down when his comm rang again and Quinlan looked much more serious than during his first report.

“So, Master, I have…news.”

“Bad news?” Mace asked with a raised eyebrow and Quinlan shrugged.
“Well, they are kind of bad but also, they could have been so much worse and that almost makes them good? It’s weird. Anyway. Turns out Dooku’s warning to Obi-Wan was right. There was a Sith in the Senate and he’s currently in the morgue due to a lethal knifotomy.”

Mace could only stare for a long moment as Vos seemed very pleased with the result. “Are you absolutely certain?”

Quinlan let out a long puff of breath. ”Considering I’m in his office right now and staring at his secret evil wall of evil stuff, including a red lightsaber…yeah, pretty certain. It also explains why Skywalker had his meltdown - there must have been a lot of mental manipulation going poof all at once.”

Mace took a deep breath. “And why we all feel suddenly unburdened.” he added. Quinlan made a surprised face.
“So it’s not just me who feels like they could suddenly float a foot off the ground?” He tilted his head in thought.

“I haven’t had a chance to search the rest of the office yet, Master, I thought I’d better check in with this. But I’m pretty sure at this point I’ll find evidence that explains the curious silence of the Separatists as well. One thing is sure; Commander Fox did the Jedi Order an immense service."

Quinlan signed off and Mace had to admit that the Shadow was right. He considered the matter and then started a group call to the Commanders currently on search.

They checked in one after the other and Mace centered himself before speaking, acknowledging their greetings with a nod and waited until they confirmed they were not in the presence of their squads - or the Coruscant Guard.

"There's been a development." He started and felt, even over the call, their already keen focus sharpen further.
"Sir?" Commander Cody prompted.

"It has been discovered that Chancellor Palpatine was the Sith hiding in the Senate.”

All five stilled completely.
“The Chancellor was a Sith and no one knew? Wasn’t General Skywalker spending time with him a lot?” Commander Bly asked, and Captain Rex winced. “Sir, is that why my General wasn’t there during the organizing of the search squads?”

Mace nodded. “General Skywalker is currently in the Halls of Healing, and his condition makes a lot more sense now, it is true.”

“So Commander Fox killed the Sith with a knife, while being injured himself.” Commander Bacara said slowly.
Three heads turned to him, while Captain Rex still seemed to reel about his General’s condition.

“What is that tone of voice, vod? I don’t like it.”
Commander Bacara scoffed. “I don’t care what you like. But this makes it very clear why we haven’t seen Fox at all.”
He broke off the rest of his sentence and didn’t elaborate.

“This changes a lot of things, but we have to make sure, above all, that we find Commander Fox and keep him safe.”

Captain Rex shook his head. “We haven’t seen a trace of him yet, and I’m pretty sure the Corries are actively sabotaging the search. Sergeant Hound had to readjust his massiff’s leash five times already because she got loose or tangled.”

Commander Bly hesitated before speaking. “Trooper Elk has been dismissive, but I haven’t caught him actively hindering the search. I’m pretty sure he and the other Corries are in contact over a comm frequency we are not privy to though.”
Ponds tilted his head. “Commander Stone has been professional. Like…scarily professional.”
They all turned to Commander Cody, who fidgeted nervously and cleared his throat. “I haven’t noticed suspicious behavior from Commander Thorn.”

Captain Rex snorted. “Yes, but we all know why you don’t notice anything that isn’t about Thorn’s -”
“I’ll stop you right there, Captain.” Cody warned.

Mace felt his lips twitch, but forced himself to stay neutral. He could see in the shifting of Ponds’ stance that he didn’t fool him, at least.
“Regardless of that, try to make them understand that we are acting in Commander Fox’s best interest.” They all saluted and signed off and Mace allowed himself to sigh as he was alone again.

The Chancellor had been a Sith. What the kriff.

–

Cody signed off from the call and shifted his shoulders, looking to check on his squad and Thorn. The Commander was talking to Wooley, explaining something about the street they were on it seemed, and the younger clone was listening intently.

“Commander, a minute.” Cody called out and Thorn’s attention snapped to him. Cody did not shiver at the memory of all that focus on him during his last leave, because he was a professional and they were on a mission and anyway, it had been a one-time thing.

“Sure, Commander.” Thorn walked over and followed Cody around a corner so the rest of the squad couldn’t see them. Thorn’s bucket tilted in a questioning manner, but Cody didn’t let himself get distracted.
No matter how distracting Thorn was. Cody should have kept his ownbucket on.

“Commander, what’s the matter? Has Commander Fox been found?”

“No, but we have new information. Chancellor Palpatine was a Sith.” Thorn kept looking at him but remained silent.
“Fox killed a Sith. He’s not a traitor.” Cody reiterated.

Thorn said nothing, very loudly.

“So we need to find him before CorSec and get him to safety in the Temple.”

Thorn inclined his head.
“Of course, Commander.” he said infuriatingly calm and obviously insincere.

“Don’t of course me, Thorn! We know you and your men have been sabotaging the search and - “
Cody broke off when Thorn shoved him into the wall, yanked off his own helmet and kissed him,one hand around his neck. The move was so sudden and fast that he couldn’t react at first.
He wanted to shove back and tell Thorn that he was presuming way too much, but he forgot about it as the kiss went on and when Thorn leaned back, Cody had to tense his whole body so he didn’t try to follow.

“We should continue the search, Commander.” Thorn told him with a smile, putting on his bucket again and Cody nodded dumbly, jamming his own back on quickly to hide his heated cheeks.

“Yes, as I said. The search.”

–

Fox had killed a Sith - and the most powerful one at that - with a vibroknife while injured.

The thought kept buzzing around in Bacara’s mind. The more he tried to ignore it, the more his thoughts flitted back to it, though he was still focused on his task.
No wonder his men were so loyal.

He looked to Sergeant Axe, who was scanning the crowds in the Uscru district. The news of the Chancellor hadn’t yet reached this district it seemed, the people still completely absorbed in their chasing after various pleasures and -

the Sergeant was looking at someone in particular. Bacara followed the line of sight and almost made an audible sound of shock as he saw a very much not in uniform Fox.

The Commander’s sharp gaze flitted from Axe to him and in the next moment he had disappeared into the crowd,

“Target sighted.” Bacara barked over the bucket’s comm. “Around 20 meters away from my position at two o’clock.”
His marines came on point all at once and he made his way to where Fox had been, scanning the crowd of beings now that he knew what Fox was wearing.
“Target is in civilian clothing, not wearing armor or blacks. Red shirt, black pants, brown jacket.”

And looking - well. That thought was unprofessional.

“I have eyes on him.” Sergeant Axe said as he moved through the crowd way more smoothly than Bacara or his squad managed, shifting and ducking between groups of beings, in and out of sight.
“Commander Fox is moving away at - no, kriff, I lost him.”

Bacara hurried to the Sergeant’s side as his men fanned out, ignoring the several indignant mutters as he jostled people.

“Where would he go from here?”

Sergeant Axe was silent for just a second too long.
“Answer me, Sergeant, that’s an order.” Bacara barked and the Trooper turned to him with a look he could feel bore into him through their buckets. Axe would have made a fine Marine.

“There are several public transport’s and lifts available from here, sir.” he said, the sir pointed and skirting the line of insubordinate.

“Now that he knows we spotted him he will muddle his tracks and that is easiest achieved by going down.”

“Which one would he use most likely?”

“None.” Axe said proudly. “He’ll use the vents and maintenance shafts.” He made his way to the side, out of the crowd as Bacara followed and led him to a nondescript, unmarked door tucked away in a corner.
“Should we wait for your squad to reconvene, sir?” he asked and was already at the hatch door. Bacara heard the wind howl and push at them as it opened fully and he looked down. The access shaft was cramped and completely vertical and tight enough that they’d have to go one after the other.
“I can go alone if you’d prefer the lift, sir.” Axe said, perfectly polite. If one of his own had dared to make that comment, Bacara would have made them run laps until the offensive little shit vomited his guts out.

“We will pursue, they will take several of the lifts and transports, just in case this was misdirection.”
Either by Fox himself or by you. he didn’t say.

There was nothing for it now - they had already wasted enough time. If Fox managed this, he could do it as well.
Hopefully.

Chapter Text

The moment Axe had met his eyes in the crowd, Fox had known he was busted. Not that she’d betray him, but Bacara was like a kriffing massiff with a bone once he caught sight of a target, and he was observant enough to notice Axe noticing him.

Fox had had to ditch his own comm because it could be tracked. Richa had given him a disposable one to use but he didn’t have the frequency of the secure channel the Corries used to organize when they were forced to work alongside aruetii and while he could guess that his Corries were folded into the search squads, he couldn’t risk contacting Thorn, Thire or Stone or anyone really, in case the Jedi had been paranoid enough to monitor the entire Guard’s communications. He wouldn’t endanger his vod’ike.

He’d made a beeline to the nearest maintenance shaft and then broke right, heading for the lifts at the last moment, only to duck into an alley and make his way quickly to the third floor by way of a dumpster and a fire escape ladder.
He’d have used the poles - it was quicker - but with his shoulder still stiff and weak, even with the bacta patches Richa had applied, he wasn’t as nimble as he should be.

He stayed there in the shadows of an alcove and focused on breathing, keeping an eye out in case someone came looking for him this way.

Now that they had a confirmation of his general location, they’d probably descend on this district in force, which meant he actually had to leave now. But where to? CoCo Town was probably not safe enough for him to show his face, even with the disguise Richa had lent him. The Works would be the most obvious choice, which could be both a good and a bad thing - they could look for him thinking he’d go there, or dismiss the district because they thought he wouldn’t go there since it was such an obvious hiding place.

And it was easy to disappear down there as well, an added bonus.

Decision made, Fox checked his chrono, deciding to wait for half an hour more and settled in to wait.

–

Just how many squads did they have out searching for him? It felt like every clone on Coruscant was looking for him. There had been a few near misses - his Corries were doing what they could to run interference in his favor, but they couldn’t be too obvious, so Fox had been forced to do a few drastic things, like jump out of a speeder mid-flight and land on the transporter a few levels below it. That hadn’t been fun - well, it had been fun until the landing jarred his bones and sent agony through his shoulder. Neither had diving into the garbage chute been fun, even though he had managed to grab the ladder hidden in the side of the shaft and hadn’t actually fallen more than a few meters.

The GAR squads kept trying to get him to surrender or come willingly, promising no harm would come to him, that they wanted to get him to safety, which was such an obvious lie he didn’t bother listening after the first few manipulation attempts.

Bacara kept hunting him and didn’t let himself be led off his trail. Fox was surprised he hadn’t just shot him, to be honest. The orders must be to bring him in alive under any circumstances so they could have him decommissioned properly.

He had managed to shake the squad Axe had accompanied for a while, but eventually someone had spotted him jumping from one of the exhaust pipes to another, lower vent and now the Works were crawling with vod’e and his movements were more and more limited.

He couldn’t get to any of the lifts up which left him with only one option to get out of this district and he was worried he was being herded that way; but he had no other choice than try and get to the maintenance shaft first and climb up. He dreaded the very thought. All that running and jumping around had both of his wounds burn in pain, and he felt vaguely feverish already. The way he was taxing his body was too much for the simple bacta patches to keep up with. But he couldn’t slow down. His vod’ike had risked so much to keep him out of the GARs hands. He couldn’t disappoint them.

“Commander Fox! Don’t move.” There was the sound of a blaster being primed and Fox turned slowly, only to watch shocked as the Marine who had aimed at him crumpled to the ground and Axe lowered her blaster behind him.
“Run, ori’vod.” she said calmly and nodded towards the shaft entrance.

“Are you insane? Give me the blaster, if they think you shot a vod they will-”

“It was set to stun, he’ll be fine. And I didn’t shoot a vod. I shot an aruetii.”
“That’s not the point!”

Fox swayed a bit and cursed lowly. He lost his momentum, and his body was screaming in protest now that it had a moment to take stock of all his aches and pains.
“Ori’vod, hang on. I got you, let’s move to the side, out of sight for now.”

Axe moved close to steady him and Fox used the opportunity to grip the blaster out of her hand and stun her as well, gently lowering her to the ground.

“Sorry, vod’ika, I’m not pulling you down with me.” he muttered and then froze as he heard another blaster powering up. He looked up and saw Bacara walk closer.

“Stand up, slowly.” he said and stopped well out of reach of any sudden attack.
Fox rose carefully, but had to stop the motion at one point and press down on the pain at his hip, biting his lip harshly.
“We’ve been looking for you.” Bacara said just as calmly as before, but Fox could feel his gaze slowly catalog his slightly hunched posture and quick breathing.

“I noticed.” Fox replied, straightening up fully, He cursed his lack of armor - he couldn’t check for possible exits without the motion being too obvious.
“You are ordered to come back to the Temple with us. We know what you did, and why.”

That got Fox attention. Since he staggered out of that office, he hadn’t once thought about why he had done what he did; only the certainty that he had to do it, or he would never get the chance again.

But the why? He hadn’t had time to think about the why.

“What do you mean?” he asked cautiously, blaster still primed and in his hand, though lowered. He’d probably not be faster than Bacara.

That seemed to surprise Bacara in turn.
“You don’t know? …You don’t.” He took a deep breath.

“The Chancellor was a Sith, Fox. The Jedi who investigated the office said there was evidence he tortured you in there. He must have fucked with your mind as well.”

Fox blinked in surprise, because Bacara sounded pissed, but not at him. For him. Then the actual words registered.

“A Sith?”
No, that couldn’t be. Could it? No, he would have noticed that. The old monster had liked to see him hurt, had liked to torment him either directly or indirectly by attacking his vod’e but that just meant he was a natborn, not that he was a Sith.

“We have evidence.” Bacara reiterated and suddenly, like opening a door in his own mind that had been locked tight before, Fox remembered.

The Chancellor had always just known things regardless if Fox told him out loud or not, had seemed to revel in his pain to a measure that went beyond mere sadism.
He remembered…

Kneel, clone. Hand me your knife.” Fox knelt, hate burning in his soul and did as he was ordered. He was alone here; he had to protect his vod’ike, make sure the monster never looked at them. Palpatine inspected the knife thoughtfully

“Hm, it is well-maintained.”
The knife lifting off the old man’s hand to float in the air and suddenly homed in on Fox like a missile, racing through the room and embedding in his shoulder. Fox bit back the groan of pain, tensing up.

“Regrettably, I can not punish you in the proper way, so mundane pain will have to suffice. I can not have you stumble into a Jedi and them feeling the mark of the dark side, you see. You should be thankful, clone, Thank me for hurting you like this.”

“Thank you for hurting me, my lord.”

“I didn’t kill him because he was a Sith. I killed him because-” he broke off.
“I don’t care why, vod. You did it.”

Bacara holstered his blaster and came closer carefully, like he was trying to approach a feral loth-cat and keep it from bolting. Fox snarled and went back a step. He didn’t have a lot of room before the stark drop down, and he couldn’t reach the entrance to the vent without a running leap.

“You led us on quite a chase, you know.Your batch is fending off interested suitors left and right since the news of your innocence hit all the squads.” Bacara said apropos of nothing, and Fox had difficulties tracking what he meant by that. Was that an attempt at distraction? If so, what the kriff? And if not -

what the everloving kriff?

“What?”
Bacara snorted. “Fox, you avoided five battalions worth of vod’e, even if your own ran interference for you. You jumped out of a moving speeder. The Trooper who caught that on camera almost crashed his bike, he was drooling too much. I’ve hunted you for hours over two districts and you evaded me again and again, I only caught you now because I used the Sergeant as bait. And you did all that while injured.”

He tilted his head.
“And the outfit is not helping matters.”

Fox took another step back. This must be an attempt at stalling until reinforcements arrived, anything else didn’t make sense. A sudden gust of wind from below made him stop, realizing how close to the edge he was. He spared a quick glance down.

If he managed to reach that lower platform, he’d probably only break one leg. Not ideal, but a possible escape.
Bacara made a growling sound.
“Don’t even think about it. You have to come with me to the Temple. You’ll be safe there.”

Fox gave a humorless laugh. “I murdered the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic, and I’m a clone. I’m even more kriffed than a natborn would be in my situation.”

Bacara went carefully still.
“I just told you that the Chancellor was a Sith, Fox.”

“What? No, he couldn’t have been a Sith.” Why did his head hurt so bad? It was the one part he hadn’t scraped or bruised or been stabbed in.

Then he remembered.

”Kneel, clone. Thank me for showing mercy, for only punishing you and not the others.”

“Thank you for hurting me, my Lord.”

“We have evidence, Fox. We know, we’re here to keep you safe.”

“No, you’re here to arrest or execute me for killing the Chancellor. I won’t be manipulated.” The pain was getting worse, it felt like someone was driving an icepick into his temples. He couldn't think; he had to get away. Maybe if he jumped…

Bacara looked at him and then his stance shifted as he squared his shoulders. He drew his blaster and aimed it at the unconscious Axe on the ground and very deliberately switched the setting to ‘kill’.
“If you don’t turn yourself in, I will shoot.”

Fox shifted forward and to the right a step, trying to get close enough to Axe to do something, anything.
“Leave her out of this you hut’uun!”
Bacara aimed and shot the ground directly next to Axe’s head, never looking away from Fox.

Fox took one last desperate look around. He should have drawn his blaster when he had a moment - he couldn’t risk it now. He wouldn’t gamble Axe’s life on being faster.
His shoulders slumped as he took a step forward, raising his hands.

He would have said it had been fun while it lasted, but that would be a lie.

–

Vod’e kept staring.

It made Fox long for his armor so he could hide his expression behind his bucket, but that was still safe with Richa. He’d have to tell someone where it was, if he could get a second alone with one of his own.

He’d expected a cell. Well, he’d expected a summary execution by the Jedi, if he was entirely honest, or perhaps a firing squad, but Bacara had led him instead to what appeared to be the Jedi’s medbay, posted two guards - both Marines - in the room with him and then left.

They’d even cuffed his hands in front of him. Fox was so confused. He also still had a headache that seemed to worsen anytime he thought about the Chancellor, which, admittedly, was par for the course. The man’s presence had caused these headaches before - it was just Fox’s luck that now the mere thought of him was enough to do the same.

There was noise outside the small room he’d been led into and then Cody walked in, looked at the two Marines and nodded to them.
“Dismissed, troopers.” he said crisply and that made a lot of sense. A discrete accident was much simpler than going through the hassle of a trial and figuring out how to actually lay charges against Fox, who wasn’t sentient after all.

It hurt that it was Cody, but in a way, that too made sense. Fox wondered if he volunteered for this, out of some sense of duty or maybe even mercy. Or if he just wanted to make sure Fox couldn’t disgrace their batch any more.

Then the others trickled in and that was harder to rationalize away. Fox exhaled slowly, focusing on keeping his posture straight. He wouldn’t beg or cower.

“Vod...nice outfit.”

Bly snorted. “That’s a bit of an understatement. Did you see? A trooper walked into a wall when Bacara led Fox in.”

Ponds snickered. “I saw Rex’s disaster twins collide into one another.”

Fox was silent, just staring. Why were they putting on this act? They acted as if this was a fun reunion.

“Just do it.” he eventually said.

All three turned to look at him. Bly tilted his head questioningly. “Do what? We can't uncuff you yet, vod’ika, sorry for that. The healers have to examine you first.”
“And if you mean the lecture, you can be sure I am already preparing that.” Cody added. “But Wolffe said he wanted to be here as well for that.”

“Kill me.” Fox ground out. “That’s why you’re here, after all. Why else would you be here?”

That shut them up, thankfully. They looked at him as if he just said something unbelievably vicious, and Fox found himself getting angry. How dare they look at him like that?

“I mean it’s not like any of you visit me or talk to me under normal circumstances, right? So you can take that vod’ika and shove it.”
He jerked his chin in the direction of the door.

“You should just get it over with if you want to make this seem like an accident.” At least then his headache would stop, hopefully.

“Fox, no. No, we’re not. We-” Bly trailed off helplessly, turning to Ponds for direction.
“We’re not here to hurt or kill you. We were worried. When Bacara called in that he’d apprehended you and that you were more injured than we were aware of…we wanted to see that you’re alright.”

Cody frowned. “We’d never hurt you.” Fox remained silent at that, just looking at them. Cody took a breath to say more, but Bacara returned with a blue Twi’lek in Jedi robes and he fell silent.
“Everyone out now.” the woman ordered them and they hesitated for just a moment before filing out. Bacara stayed longer.
“He needs to stay under guard for now, Ge- Master Che.” The Jedi frowned heavily but eventually nodded and Fox saw her take a deep breath as her face smoothed out.

“Commander Fox,” she said then. “Commander Bacara told me something very alarming. He said as he apprehended you he told you, twice, that the Chancellor had been discovered to be a Sith.”

Fox gaped at her even as his head pounded.
“That’s not possible. He wasn’t- he didn’t tell me that. I would have remembered.” He looked to Bacara.

“I have audio of it, Fox.” Bacara said almost gently.

Fox’s head was killing him.

“No, that’s not possible. I wouldn’t have forgotten that, I didn’t know, I- I-” he faltered looking down at his cuffed hands that were trembling. He was shaking. he realized suddenly, and then something split his head open with blinding pain, as if someone was tearing it apart.

”Kneel, clone. Am I not merciful, hurting you and not your brothers?”
“Thank you for hurting me, my Lord.”

Fox pitched forward off the bed and knew no more.

–

“No, I don’t care if you have questions. Leave. He doesn’t need aruetii around as he recovers.”

“Thire - “

“Commander Thire has told you to leave, Commanders.”

Fox opened his eyes and squinted for a moment, surprised he wasn’t in pain. He turned his head and saw the tail end of armor disappearing behind a closing door.

“Sir!” Axe rushed over to him and Fox realized he was lying in a way too comfortable bed to be anywhere in their headquarters.
Thire reached him a step behind her and crashed to his knees with a clatter of plastoid.

“Ori’vod, you’re awake.” he whispered and smiled, but his lips trembled a bit. Fox reached out clumsily - why did he feel so weak? - and patted his cheek in a hopefully comforting manner. Thire endured the hand almost pushing its fingers into his eyes gratefully, which told Fox he must have been unconscious for a while.

“Not dead yet.” he rasped out and there was a low sound, almost a sob, as Axe spoke into her comm.
“Everyone’s been worried, ori’vod.” Thire said in reproach after swallowing several times.
“Since the war’s officially over, there are a mass of nosy vod’e with a lot of free time suddenly.”

Fox frowned because that didn’t make sense.

“The war’s what now?”
“Over.” Thire confirmed. “You’ve been asleep for a few days, a lot happened.” And he proceeded to list all the events of those days, with helpful nods of Axe, who was sitting at the foot of his bed, smiling. The last time he had seen Axe smile was the day she said the riduurok with Gore, and that, more than anything, made him suspect they weren’t pulling off a very elaborate prank. He probably should actually listen and not just stare dumbly.

“- so when the Jedi Shadow found documents in the Chancellor’s office about his collaboration with the Separatists - that he orchestrated this entire war - even Amedda couldn’t close his eyes to the truth any longer and you were exonerated. How do you feel?”

He and Axe both looked at him worriedly at that and before he could answer, several loud footsteps rushed closer. It sounded like an entire battalion was trying to get to him. The thought wasn’t comforting at all.

Then Thorn rushed into the room, closely followed by Purr, Stone and Hound. Grizzer was mercifully absent.
“Fox! You’re awake!”
“And rapidly regretting that circumstance.” Fox sighed and then got buried under his vod’ike for long minutes.

Okay, so being awake had a few upsides as well.

–

“Nothing hurts. That’s weird.” he commented to his vod’e and they all glared at him. He’d gotten a more in depth rundown of their current circumstances and the happenings of the last days while he was out. Including the reiteration that Palpatine had been a Sith Lord and apparently everyone knew now that he had killed the bastard with a knife.

“We’re guarding the hallways because vod’e keep trying to sneak in and leave gifts. And courting offers.”

“You’re the hottest thing since extra-strong caff, Commander.” Hound nodded sagely.

There was a knock on the door. They all looked to the door expecting someone to enter and it took them an embarrassingly long moment to remember people asked now if they were allowed to come in.
Asked them. Them!
It was weird.

“Come in.” Fox called out and the door opened to reveal Commander Bacara.

Purr made a low noise, grabbed Hound and stood up, dragging the other with him. Axe got to her feet more slowly, but she was smirking.
“Commanders.” Bacara greeted them and nodded to those not included in the rank.
“I’d like to speak to Fox in private.”

“Oh, I bet you would.” Hound muttered and yelped when Purr shook him by the scruff of his neck like a misbehaving puppy. They all looked to Axe, who looked at Bacara as their resident Marine expert for a long moment and then saluted.
“Yes, Commander, of course. We’ll be outside.”

“Right outside.” Thorn added with a dark look and they all left, though Stone threw Fox one last look and nodded.

The door closed behind them. Fox fidgeted and eventually tried to fill the awkward silence. He could feel Bacara’s eyes on him like a physical touch.
“I apologize for my behavior in the Works, Commander. I should not have doubted you.”

Bacara made a low noise and took a step closer, then faltered, completely uncharacteristically for him, and yanked his bucket off his head, setting it down on a table.
“You were literally not in your right mind because the Sith manipulated you.” he said and Fox winced. That was still a sore subject for him.

Bacara cleared his throat and eventually held out a hand, offering a shiny and new vibroknife. Fox stared at it for a moment, uncomprehending.
“Commander?”

“It’s a gift. Because yours is lost.” Bacara explained and then swallowed, looking to the side for a moment.
“I wanted to - to offer early, because there are a lot of vod’e interested.”
He flipped the knife in his grip and offered it to Fox hilt-first. Fox took it and still had no idea why Bacara, of all people, would replace his knife for him.

“It’s a courting gift. If you’ll accept.” Bacara added after a long moment of silence. Fox stared at the knife in shock and then up at Bacara, who was nervously shifting his weight. Fox had never seen Bacara nervous before.

“You want to court me? Why?”

Bacara scoffed. “Who else would I want? You’re - I read the reports. And I talked to Sergeant Axe. She told me about how you protected the Guard with all you had. You escaped five battalions while injured and under mind manipulation that was breaking down around you because you killed the Sith who was controlling you. And I only caught you by exploiting your protectiveness for your troops. I want to chase you when you’re at the top of your game.” He took a step closer and reached out very slowly. He wasn’t wearing his gloves, Fox realized with a start, and then Bacara touched his cheek carefully. Fox felt that careful touch down to his bones.

“You would honor me if you accepted my offer.” he said quietly, eyes intense. Fox was blushing, a mortifying reaction. He cleared his throat.

“Would you like to stay for dinner?” Hound yelled through the door and then there was a scuffle and the noise of someone being held in a brotherly chokehold.

“Ignore him, we’re not listening!” Purr called out and Bacara snorted inelegantly.
Fox wet his lips, hesitated a moment longer and then nodded.

“I accept.”

The End