#ly writes

Kix was slightly surprised when Captain Rex trudged through the medbay doors with two extra men, both dirty and shaking slightly. He had already heard about some of the Captain's misadventures at the Rishi base, but he hadn't heard about any strays being taken in. That was more of Cody's style than Rex's. Although by the look on the Marshal Commander's face, as he slipped in behind them, he was upset that he hadn't snagged the two rookies. Kix smirked to himself at that, it wasn't often that the Captain was able to pull one over his brother, but what he lacked in frequency he made up in ferocity. Cody loved being able to incorporate rookies into his battalion and mold them into menaces. Codone would be pleased that he wouldn't have to patch these two up regularly.

Kix quickly pulled his features into a more professional mask as his Captain finally approached. Rex's lips quirked for a moment, catching Kix's smirk, but didn't address it. He raised a brow in askance and Rex sighed and subtly shook his head. Kix felt his stomach sink.

"Kix, this is Echo and Fives. Two rookies we pulled off of the Rishi moon. They'll be transfered into my platoon by the day's end. They need a full med eval and to be entered in on you end. Let me know when you're done." Kix nodded at his Captain as he turned away from him to look at the shinies. "Echo, Fives, this is our CMO Kix. He'll look you over and patch you up if needed. After he's done with you, we'll get you sorted with a temp bunk and schedule until all the paperwork is filed." Rex's voice was tired and a closer look at him proved that this little jaunt hadn't been good. It was never good when there were only one or two adoptees. Generally speaking, command staff tried to keep squads together. For there to only be two meant that the others were dead.

Kix beckoned the two shinies forward with one hand, patting the bed. He gestured for Rex to go join Cody in a private room with the other. He had seen Coric follow the Commander in and he could could wrangle Rex with his help if need be. Rex hesitated for a moment, obviously about to protest, but Kix cut him off before he could say anything. Turning to the shinies he started his usual spiel,

"As the Captain said, my name's Kix and I'll be doing your initial eval. Strip off and stack your armor at the bedside and we'll start. I'll need to do individual deep scans for our records, once we start the scan we can't really stop it, so let me know if you need a break now." Kix didn't look up from the computer as he heard a door open from the side and Coric start a whisper fight with Rex.

Once he had pulled up the med intake forms, he looked up to see the two shinies staring with wide eyes as Coric was slowly wrestling a protesting Rex out of the room. The one with a small 5 tattooed on his temple looked like he was trying to fight a small smile, the other had a shocked and worried look. Kix snapped his fingers, and both shinies jolted before looking at him.

"You two, armor off and on the bed. I don't care who's first, but I should see one of you on the bed by the time I turn back around." Kix turned to the sound of armor franticially being shucked off and watched the sideshow happening in his medbay for a minute before whistling sharply.

pwwwwffftt

Armor clattered to the floor as both shinies jumped. One of them cursed as the other froze. Rex whipped his head up from where he was up in Coric's face, whisper yelling, to glare at Kix. Coric took the opportunity to haul Rex closer to one of the private bays. Luckily for Coric, the door slid open as the Commander poked his head out to see what was going on. Cody raised an eyebrow at the scene before smirking,

"Setting a bad example for your rookies, Captain?" he drawled, propping a hip in the doorway to prevent it from closing.

Rex snarled at his older brother as he shook Coric off and stomped up to him, pushing past him into the room. Cody's smirk grew into a full blown smug grin as Coric followed Rex. He gave Kix a sardonic salute before turning back to continue snarking at Rex, letting the door slide shut.

Kix rolled his eyes at the closed bay door before turning back to the rookies. The tattooed kid was just sliding onto the bed. The other, was holding his chest plate like a shield, as if it would protect him from the ridiculousness of this command staff. Kix raised his brow at him and the kid blushed and finished stacking his armor. Kix turned to the rookie on the bed,

"Fives?"

"Yes, sir." There was a muted cheekiness in the tone, Kix paused before evaluating the rookie. The kid met his eyes, unashamedly, a hint of mischieviousness appearing in his eyes before being swallowed by grief.

Kix groaned internally, this one was going to be a pain in his ass. Maybe it wasn't too late to pawn him off to the Commander. Deep down, he knew it was already too late; the Captain was attached. Somewhere, whereever he was at the moment, Codone was laughing at him. The 212th CMO had often wished that Kix would get his own nuisance and Kix had a feeling that his Captain had just brought one home. Kix said nothing of this to the kid; the kid was obviously grieving his squadmates, and though Kix was an asshole, he wasn't that much of an asshole.

"Alright Fives, I'm going to do a deep scan for our records and ask some questions as to what happened on the base. I can pull your records from your ident chip, but I need to know if you have any injuries……" Kix kept his voice all little gentler than his normal tone. He had a feeling that the kid would get him yelling soon enough, but for this first, horrible meeting, he could be softer.

The kid was compliant, if not brief in his answers. His squadmate Echo was even more compliant and quiet. Kix couldn't tell if he had a similar temperment to Fives and was just in shock or if he was just quieter than his squadmate.

Kix walked both rookies through the eval and then bundled them up in a bay cot. The rookies mumbled their thanks as the adrenaline crash swept them to sleep before he could even get them blankets. He piled on a few extra in an effort to keep the nightmares at bay.

Kix paced nervously in his medbay. He had recieved the Captain's ping an hour ago. The spec ops squad was on their way back. Few people knew where the Generals, Commander Cody, Captain Rex, and a few others had deployed to, but Jesse had let it slip to Kix a few days in. Kix had originally wanted to scold him, opsec was essential in war, but Jesse's green face had stopped him. He felt slightly nauseaous after hearing where they had gone. The Citadel was infamous for many reasons, foremost for being impossible to break into.

Kix took a deep breath. Generals Kenobi and Skywalker are notorious for pulling off the impossible. They'll be fine. It didn't help with the slightly sick feeling that something was wrong, that persistent sense that something was terribly terribly wrong. He jumped at the bay's doors opening suddenly. He quickly scanned over the bedraggled group. Coric, Kellex, and Visic were already helping the unknown natborn and the Jedi. Kix's eyebrows rose as he saw Commader Tano with them, he didn't know that she was on the mission brief. His breath caught as he noticed that Cody was the only member of 212th orange in the group. He steeled himself, pushing back his shock and grief, there would be time to mourn later. He made a mental note to call Codone in a tenday and talk to the other medic.

Kix took a bracing breath as he scanned over his hooligans, Rex had a hand clamped on Fives' arm. He looked battered and in desperate need of a shower, but otherwise alright. Fives' had his bucket on still, and was listless in Rex's grip. Kix couldn't see Echo behind either of them. Kix quickly went over to scan Fives. He had never seen the ARC this listless.

"Captain, good to see you in one piece. Fives, bucket off in the medbay, you know this. Echo, come around so I can look you over." He kept his tone calm and slightly detached as he programmed his scanner. Command staff and ARCs usually protested the need for medical aid and what they called 'babying.' All he heard in response was a slight hissing from Fives' bucket and a stifled choking from Rex. He quickly looked up, abandoning his scanner's screen; he looked to Rex. Rex's face was full of grief and sorrow, almost grey with how miserable it was, his eyes were red and bloodshot.

"Rex?" he questioned. Rex's mouth opened, but nothing came out for a moment. Fives didn't move a muscle. Finally, Rex found his voice and stammered out,

"Kix, Echo is-." Rex abruptly cut himself off. Kix stared at him in askance, puzzled at what was wrong. The horrible feeling he had had all day had suddenly consumed him. He felt sick down to his bones. He swallowed the nausea down and blinked a few times.

"Rex," he sighed, "What is wrong with-" Kix cut himself off as the realization hit him. He knew that Rex and Fives could see it as it dawned on him. Fives' bucket tilted for a moment. Kix felt his attention snap to him.

Shit Fives. The world stopped for a moment and Kix felt his knees go weak. Fives and Echo. Echo and Fives. They had been like the Generals. You couldn't get one without the other. Skywalker and Kenobi, Cody and Fox, Fives and Echo. Always two. Only Fives didn't has his pair anymore. Fives didn't have his Echo anymore.

There was no Echo.

Kix felt his breath shutter for a moment before he forced it down. He took a bracing breath and forced himself to meet Rex's gaze. Somehow the Captain looked even more miserable.

"I need to scan him just for records, but afterwards take him straight to ARC berthing. Then come straight back for a full eval." He held up his hand to stop Rex's protest, "You know protocol. You need to be checked over, especially after a mission like this. Plus you'll be in debrief for hours yet. I'll take care of Fives. You have my word."

Kix held Rex's eyes for a moment. Rex wasn't the only one who had grown attached; he may have snapped the two up first, but all of Torrent had adopted the two Dominoes. Now there was only one left. Rex nodded and Kix scanned an unresponsive Fives.

Once Rex had pulled Fives out of the medbay, he signaled Coric to come over. Most of the natborns had dispersed to take a few moments to themselves before debrief. The other medics were fussing over the rescued clones as they got them comfortable for observation. Kix could see Cody leaning up against a wall, his eyes closed, expressionless face titled up to the ceiling. Kix winced in empathy. This had been a costly mission.

"Boss." Coric inclined his head as he approached. Kix nodded back.

"Anyone grab a scan of the Commander?" he asked softly, tilting his head in Cody's direction. Coric nodded.

"Yeah, he has a few bumps and bruises. A slight strain on his left ankle, but that should heal up quickly. I gave him a few shots to speed up the recovery and something to combat the headache he's denying." Kix nodded in acknowledgement at the report. There wasn't much more they could do for the Commander right now. He was required to be in the briefing. Any comfort or sympathies would have to wait. Kix pulled in another deep breath and pushed the anger and grief down again. It'd have to wait. Just like normal. Push through it, you can deal with it later. But when would later come? Kix pushed his bitter thoughts aside, he needed to focus on Fives right now. He could grieve later.

"I need you to run Rex's eval and then watch the medbay for me." he said woodenly. Coric nodded, then asked somberly,

"Who'd we lose?"

"Echo" Coric's face shattered for a moment before he quickly wiped it blank. He nodded at Kix and clapped him on the shoulder.

"Go take care of him. We'll handle everything here." Kix grasped his wrist in thanks before turning out of the medbay.

*

The room was pitch black when Kix punched his creds in. He quickly slipped in, letting the door slide shut behind him. He could hear Fives vainly trying to muffle his sobs in the pillow under his face. Kix gently shuffled his feet as he approached; he knelt down beside the bed and carefully picked up Fives' hand. He didn't say anything, there were no reassurances for this moment anyways; all he did was hold Fives' hand in the dark. Just held on as he pressed his own face against the cold wet metal of the bedframe, hiding his own tears as they streamed down his face.

Kix swore viciously as he tried to pull out the empty patch box out of his kit. His hands were shaking too much and the box was wedged far in. Kix pulled a deep breath in between clenched teeth in an effort to calm down. The campaign was just beginning and Umbara was already shaping to be a shitshow.

He jumped as an arm appeared out of the shadows and reached into his pack, gently pulling the box out. Kix looked up at the 501st blue with a Rishi eel painted on,

"Fives," he managed to croak out.

"Hey, Kixy-stix." Fives was heartbreakingly gentle as he quickly put Kix's kit into order and ushered Kix to his feet, carefully pulling him into the hillside and into a more secure spot. Shells were still raining down from the assault on the Umbaran Capitol. The 501st had been driven to the brink during this campaign, General Krell's cruelty aside, the terrain and local resistance had done a number on the clones. The medics were starting to run out of supplies and they hadn't even began the main assault on the Capitol.

Fives didn't say anything as he pushed Kix to settle down against a small hill of dirt. He quickly sat next to Kix and pulled a water pak out. After Kix drank it and ate the ration bar produced next, Fives carefully stripped off his and Kix's gloves and massaged his hands. He tried protesting, but nothing comprehensible came out. Fives sushed him anyways and continued to massage his hands. Kix slowly let himself slump into the ARC's side. As much as a nusicance he could be, Fives was one of the best men Kix had known. He felt Fives shift to support him as he drifted off to sleep, safe as the ARC kept watch.

Kix found himself sitting on a cot in the medbay on the new Venator. The lights were all shut off as there hadn't been any movement in the room for ages. The 501st had finally returned to Coruscant for leave. The rest of the med staff was out enjoying their rare leave. He couldn't settle down after running into Fives, that antsy nervous feeling had driven him to leave 79s early. He had been driving Jesse crazy too, but his gut was telling him something was terribly wrong. At this point in the war, he had learned to listen to it. He picked out the half filled inventory form that he had started in desperation as he waited to hear back from Rex. He had fulfilled his promise to Fives, and gotten Rex and the General to meet Fives at the coordinates he had passed onto Kix. But his nerves only grew as time passed.

Something about the way Fives was acting, the frantic, harried movements, and his glazed eyes had sent klaxon alarms ringing in Kix's mind. He had known Fives for years, and he had never acted like this, even when drunk. Something about this whole situation was off. The story about Tup, about the Chancellor, about these chips, Kamino's involvement. None of it painted a clear picture and Kix couldn't make sense of it.

Kix looked up as the lights suddenly flickered on. His Captain was walking woodenly towards him, bucket clutched in his hands. His eyes were bloodshot and red, and empty. Kix had never seen his energetic Captain so defeated before.

"Captain?"

Rex slowly shook his head, avoiding Kix's eyes. Once he reached Kix on the cot, he slumped down beside him. Hoarsely, he spoke,

"The medics have a code right? That whatever they hear in these walls stays in these walls?"

Kix's dread spiked, sending nauseous tremors through him, but he nodded at Rex's question. Before he could gather the courage to ask what happened, Rex spoke again.

Kix listened in disbelief as Rex outlined everything that had happened tonight.

Fives. Fives had removed his inhibitor chip. Fives had attacked the Chancellor. Fives had held General Skywalker and Rex captive. Fives had turned traitor. Fives was gone. Commander Fox had shot him. Fives was GONE. The last Domino had fallen.

*