Traitor
Also on AO3 [330w] @foxquinweek - quote-altprompt 8: "how are you still alive?" & quote-altprompt 7: "I don't want to be like this forever"
For a long, frozen minute, CC-1010 and Vos lock gazes. The Commander and the Jedi. The Commander and the Traitor.
Vos should know better. He must realise that every second he spends here, he is that much closer to more of the Guard catching up. That much closer to being dealt with as the traitor he is. CC-1010 isn’t sure how he managed to corner him, they worked together often enough to know just how wily the Shadow can be.
Perhaps it has something to do with the way he looks – not older, it has been a bare few months since they last shared a case, mere weeks before everything changed – but tired. Worn down in a way that not even three years of war and gruelling undercover missions could achieve. The Commander knows well how grief can make one careless, and that everyone has a breaking point.
Movement, and a small face peers around Vos’ back, reshaping the answer even as it forms.
Oh. Of course. It shouldn’t make a difference, their orders were clear: the Jedi are traitors and are to be executed on sight. No allowance was made for age. Vos pushes the child back behind him, and he can’t help but fixate on the protective curl of his hand.
He should raise his blaster, he should shoot. Instead he just watches. Good Soldiers Follow Orders, but Fox is so sick of orders.
Quinlan starts backing towards an alley, and without ever consciously deciding to, Fox lets him go.
Even so, the delay costs him.
Commander Thire – CC-4477 now – arrives. Too late to take aim at the fleeing Jedi and his charge, but not too late to see Fox step to block the line of fire, buying the fugitives a few extra precious seconds.
CC-4477 is a Good Soldier, and takes the appropriate steps to secure the traitor before him. Fox accepts that he will face the consequences of being a good man instead.
