Just here for the clones.

-

The past few days, the rain had slowed down, falling into something gentler. Sometimes it stopped completely. Fives noticed those moments by the way the chutes were echoing less. The water itself never had time to stop trickling down the window with how far down it was. It would be soon collected anyway, no water went to waste, deep inside Coruscant. 

He wondered what Echo had said or was doing when the rain stopped. Force, he missed him. He missed them both. And while he was in the process of convincing Stone, Thire and Thorn to bring Echo in the loop (bring him to Fives), seeing Fox was far out of the question. 

It itched in his fingers, down his spine, the need to fix this, to tell Fox— He had so many things to say to Fox and to Echo. Plans, reassurances, sitreps over datapads full of spreadsheets, soft whispers dropped right on warm skin with a brush of lips. So many things that could change the world for everyone or for them alone. 

Soon he would help Echo through his grief and pain. But there was nothing he could do about the distressed and guilty rain. 

“What’re you doing here, Thorn ?” He asked after a quick glance towards the new coming. “You should be sleeping.”

“I can be wherever I want to be in my own buildings.” Thorn absolutely didn't pout as he fell on the shapeless couch with a noisy “poof”.

Fives smirked. Technically, this was an illegally refurbished apartment complex. But for once, he didn't correct him on it. He had something much better to tease the Commander about. 

“Running away from Rex ?” He knew that Thorn could see the reflection of his smile in the transparisteel. 

The following sputtering was punctuated by the grizzling of the lamp. Oh, this was even better than he thought. He turned towards Thorn just to see him embedded even farther in the floppy pillows, arms crossed around his chest and definitely-not-pouting harder than ever, a murderous light shining in his eyes. Fives snickered. 

“I hate you. You and your riduur are both insufferable.” 

Fives usually would have answered with something light-hearted and teasing like “how do you think we managed to woo Fox ?” but he couldn't make himself say it. He knew his eyes didn't sparkle like they used to do, dimmed by the sorrow weighing down his soul, like a waterlogged cloak. It was useless to pretend. 

“How are they doing ?” He asked instead, voice soft enough to barely cover the rain that had started again, its echo rattling through the entire chute. 

Thorn sobered as well, shared pain in his eyes as he looked at Fives. 

“Better, I guess. Echo is doing a lot of progress with his prosthetics but we’re still looking into suiting him with better ones. Though you weren't kidding when you said he’s just as obstinate as you. You two nuisances will get your meeting, stars dammit, don't ask again. I’m doing my best. It’s just hard to organize.” 

Thorn’s voice lost its bite on the last words. Fives got up from the window, sitting next to the Commander — his friend, after all the time they spent together those past weeks —, pushing their shoulders against each other. It didn't clatter because Fives was just in his blacks and not in armor, but the meaning and comfort was still there. 

Echo was the only one who managed to stabilize Fox a little, even if he wasn't all the way there yet, far from it. Making him disappear for a length of time without telling Fox where he was… Yeah, Fives understood why Thorn wanted to wait, he really did. 

“Thank you,” he said, voice soft as to not spook the Commander with the weight of the words. 

Thorn, unsurprisingly, grumbled. None of the Corrie Commanders handled well being thanked so easily. None from the Commander track did really, were they from Kamino or from Coruscant, even if the ones close to Jedi were more used to rolling with it, in Fives’ experience. 

Thorn was ready to change subject when Stone entered the room unannounced. Fives was pretty sure the Corrie officers took pleasure in never announcing their arrival when they were in their safe places just to surprise unsuspecting troopers. He had to admit that it kept him on his toes too. 

Stone gave one look at the pair of them, shaked his head and went straight for the conservator on the other side of the room. 

“Get me one too.” Thorn called over as he somehow melted a little bit more on the couch. It was always impressive how he could do that even in full armor. 

A grunt answered him. Stone had finally found a bottle of his preferred drink — a sort of bubbly green soda that was both sour and very sugary — and was methodically drinking a good half of it before he surfaced from the conservator. The bottle Thorn had demanded went flying across the room before getting caught seamlessly. Thorn did pull a face at the sight of a non-alcoholic juice. Not trusting himself to manage the same exploit, Fives decided to pass on the drink. He lived here anyway, and he also was in charge of resupplying. He could get one (alcoholic too) whenever he wanted. He also didn't know if Thire was coming and there might not have enough bottles left for all of them. 

“If I don't get to drink alcohol because my next shift starts soon, you don't get to have it either.” Was all the consolation Thorn got for his trouble. 

“You doing good, Stone ?” Fives had to ask after that display, more curious than anything else. 

Another grunt as the interested sat down heavily in front of them. 

“Didn't get to take any break and the Senators were particularly insufferable today.”

The frown creasing his forehead indicated the start of a whisper-induced migraine on top of it. Thorn silently reached out and offered his bottle to Stone who diligently clinged his own to it in companionship, before they both downed a couple mouthfuls as if they were shots. 

“Anyway. I know how we can do it.”

Fives and Thorn exchanged a look before turning back to Stone, both raising their eyebrows at him at the exact same time. 

“Echo. You were just talking about it before I came in.” He sighed as if they were acting deliberately obtuse just to aggravate him. “We only have to wait for Fox to be summoned by the Chancellor. It always takes time and Echo would have used the occasion to snoop around anyway. One shot, two speeders.” 

“We would have to time it right so Echo's back up there — or at least on his way — when Fox is freed but it could work.” Thorn nodded along, already planning alert systems and itineraries by the look of it. 

Warmth spread in Fives’ chest, bubbling up and seeping in his entire body. Soon. He would be able to hold Echo soon. After two years of absence and loss, he was helpless to fight the hope of seeing the man he had sworn his life to. Some of it was soured by the worry that always came up when he thought of Fox going to Palpatine’s office. But with Echo’s help, they might be able to get Fox’s out of there for good. They could protect every clone from that demagolka.  

“Will Thire be coming ?” He asked, his train of thought bringing him back to the new discoveries he and his little team of Corries made. 

“No, he’s needed at the prison.” Stone was the one to respond, already getting up to close the blinds on the windows.

Right on cue, Thorn set up a jammer on the table. Fives swiped the flat for bugs and cameras every time he came back to it but better be safe than sorry. This mission had all of them being paranoid but after Tup and the warehouse, they all had reasons to be. 

“Found anything new ?” Thorn signed, keeping his hands close to him. Just in case. 

“We’re still trying to find how to disable the chips but Ghost and Grabber are hopeful.” Fives answered in the same way.

He hesitated on a few signs but his movements were much smoother than they had been at the beginning of all of this. If nothing else, those meetings had been a great occasion for him to improve. 

Fives wasn't the best at languages but that sign language, the one the Corries had cobbled together ? He loved it. And he loved learning it. It was a complete dialect, much more complex than the mandalorian military handsignals that he learned on Kamino. Fox had told him once that it mixed military signs, signs from various dialects used around Coruscant that they had picked up along the way and some signs of their own invention. But all in all, it was theirs, in a way that no one could take, that no one could understand without the Corries’ will. It was something that Fives treasured.

The two Commanders nodded, relief lowering their shoulders in the same movement. If the Guard’s best slicers were confident, it was clear proof that it was only a question of time before their device was ready. Then they'd have to take care of the logistics of rendering the chips of an entire army useless in utter secret, but it would still be easier than going through mass brain surgery. 

“They’ve also made some progress on slicing their chips. Just like we thought, there is a list of orders in it. But from what I understood, getting access to it is tricky and they accidentally fried a couple of chips already. The bits and pieces they found, though ? It looks even worse than we feared.”

They had all expected that, among their team working on this conspiracy. That was why the only reaction Thorn and Stone gave was the barely there movements of someone feeling a weight fall heavy on their shoulders, gravity setting in their eyes. 

“How many chips did they get Nightmare to take out for their experiments ?” Thorn asked with that air he got when he was both dreading the response and viciously curious. 

“From what they told me,” Fives didn't suspect them of lying but you never knew with slicers, engineers and similar. He could ask the medics for confirmation but he was too scared of them and of getting in their way. “All three slicers are dechipped, so are the medics. I suspect that Captain Tooka and Stab will be next if they need more chips.”

Fives couldn't imagine Ghost leaving their partner and non-medic vod’ika with that karking thing still in their heads for long. He knew how much he hated that Echo and Fox were out there with it still in place. That Fox was in the Senate almost everyday, around Palpatine… And Echo was right there next to him, as much as he could, even if he was still healing. The knowledge crawled under his skin, scratching his nerves slowly like nails on durasteel. If he had Ghost’s chance to do something about it, he wouldn’t hesitate even a second. 

Thorn and Stone nodded along, the latter rubbing distractedly at the side of his head, over the thin scar resting there. It had been agreed some time before that at least one Commander should be de-chipped, in case something went wrong. Stone had been the best candidate at the time. They couldn’t do much more for now, not until they could progress widely and without leaving traces.