#( does this mean hevy is the little brother ? )

[techniiciian]

📏+ Hevy (6'!)

matt vc: . . . if i make a short joke will you shoot me?

@pracses

while hevy is only a few inches shorter, hes by no means small. so luckily he won't suffer matt picking him up. though this does man he might try to put on hevy's clone armor. maybe. ( if it doesn't end in him getting into a scuff. )

[margindoodles2407]

You guys were asking for the Fives And Echo Dissertation so here it is. Courtesy of @seeking-elsewhither, who first asked the question, "Do you think Fives or Echo is older?" and then patiently listened as things got out of hand.

(Author's note: this is written in my own sort of weird style, where I have a point to prove but to prove it I use almost a kind of narrative style. A great previous example of this is The Crosshair Dissertation, which I published whilst watching The Bad Batch. I hope this style doesn't throw anyone off. Thank you for your time.)

@whyoneartheven You may be interested in this and @kitty-i-swear-to-gosh I know you asked me where the thesis was so I'm tagging you. I hope you don't mind :)

Tube twins are incredibly rare within the ranks of the GAR. Very few of them survive gestation due to lack of nutrients or other complications, and the few that do are often… taken care of by the Kaminoan scientists. The reason for this is that (based on prior tests and research) tube twins, more than any other clones, have a tendency to become dangerously codependent. They will often prioritize their twin over the rest of their squad, which means missions get failed and battles are lost. And Force forbid a pair of twins get separated, whether it be through simple reassignment or, worse, death- it can cause severe mental depletion to the point of a psychosomatic response, a full-on breakdown, and too many other problems to count.

Neither Fives nor Echo knows the real reason they were allowed to survive. They both doubt it was a show of mercy on the parts of the Kaminoans, and even less likely is the idea that they somehow slipped through the radar unnoticed. They agree, though, that it's better not to pry. For their own sake.

Now, with this knowledge in mind: let's examine the fact that, in my mind, Fives is the elder twin. To make sense of this, you may need to take a brief refresher on my characterization of Fives. He's a silly guy, yes, and we love him for it. He also takes responsibility incredibly seriously, he does NOT tolerate those who abuse their positions of authority, when he sets his mind to something only the Force itself could possibly hope to stop him, and he is willing to literally fight and die for the people he loves.

Now, Fives is not the eldest of his vode. He has Hevy, Cutup and Droidbait ahead of him, and only Echo directly under his care. Echo his twin, Echo his closest brother, his best friend, his confidant, his better half.

And he, Fives, is his older brother.

On Kamino, he keeps his head down, as much as deep in his soul he wants to lash out against the Kaminoans and their standards of genetic purity, because if he were to act out on Kamino he could get himself and his entire squad in trouble. And he has a responsibility not to do that. But he also has a responsibility to protect them- ESPECIALLY ECHO- in other ways.

He… becomes a little bit overprotective of Echo. He has a tendency to constantly pull "older brother status", but he's not doing it out of a sense of inflated ego or superiority, he's doing it out of a genuine sense of duty. He's doing it because he knows the danger tube twins are in, the fact that most of their twin brothers died as tubies or newborns. He's doing it because he knows Kamino is a harsh world, a dangerous world, a world of scientists so pragmatic that they speak of human beings as "units" and discard anyone who doesn't measure up to their standard of genetic perfection. He's doing it because he loves Echo, he loves his brother more than anything in the galaxy and he genuinely wants him to be safe. But Echo, especially as a cadet, doesn't fully understand this. And he does resent Fives, just a little bit (mostly as a cadet), because in his mind Fives is only being needlessly overprotective. He feels that Fives won't let him fight his own battles, he feels that Fives thinks that he's weak and incapable just because he's the youngest and the younger TWIN and the straight-laced rule-follower who would never willingly go seeking out a fight. As cadets, they get into a LOT of arguments about this, and it's not until right before their graduation that they both finally seem to fully understand each other.

Now-- the Kaminoans are absolutely not justified in their termination of tube twins. But they aren't exactly wrong about the dangers of codependency. Especially after the Rishi Moon, Fives and Echo really feel like it's them against the galaxy. That's not that they don't love and care for their other brethren, but they begin to cling to each other in somehow an even more intense way than they did as cadets and as shinies. It's a good thing they both end up going to the 501st, they both end up in Torrent Company, they both enter ARC Training and both graduate ARC Training. It's a good thing they're assigned on the same missions. Rex and Anakin recognize that they do seem to work best as a team, their movements seem to be in tandem and it's almost as if they can communicate between each other without saying anything, which makes them both utterly fascinating to watch and entirely lethal on the battlefield.

So of course it's only natural to assign them both to the Citadel mission.

Such a shame no one knew there was a bomb in that shuttle.

Fives spends the next few weeks after the incident completely out of it. He's a sobbing, hysterical, sleep-deprived mess, and everyone begins to wonder if the stories about separated tube twins having broken minds are true. But Fives is not a fragile man. He's devastated, he's lost the person he loves most in all the world, he's experienced the worst tragedy in his short life… but he also knows that he has a responsibility. To his Captain, to his Company, to his brothers. So he pulls himself together and goes back to war. But there's something markedly different about him after the Citadel. He's still warm and friendly and kind, but he's not as quick to smile. He's slower to laugh. His gaze holds a kind of sadness and emptiness to it that brothers unfamiliar with the story of his life don't fully understand. (Even the ones who are familiar don't fully understand. Only the Captain, and the men who were at the Citadel, really get it, and even then… none of them had a twin.)

When he first meets Tup and Dogma, they kind of remind him of the old days. They aren't twins, but they share such an incredibly close bond that they could be. He sees a lot of himself in Tup. He sees even more of Echo in Dogma, which is why the whole debacle with Krell breaks his heart so much. (People ask him if he hates Dogma, for everything he did. For trying to execute him. Fives always looks them hard in the face and simply responds, in clipped tones, "No, of course not. How could I hate my brother?" The recipients hardly wonder if his words might have a double meaning.)

He ends up taking Tup under his wing, the way Rex took him and Echo under his. (If Dogma had stayed in the 501st, he'd be there too.) And part of the reason they're such close friends is because of the way that Fives sees so much of himself in his younger brother (and so much of Echo in Dogma). It's one of the reasons Fives fights so hard against the chips.

It's the reason that it's not just blasterfire that shatters his heart.

Echo is rescued from stasis a few weeks later. He doesn't ask where Fives is, not at first. There's the whole shock of getting off of Skako Minor, then there's the stress of the Battle of Anaxes, then there's the joining of an entirely new squad.

But he knows there was a reason, and not a good one, that the arms he woke up in were Rex's and not his twin's.

He finally works up the courage to ask the Captain where his brother is.

Rex tells him Fives is gone, and he screams.

He screams, horrible sobbing tears, because the one and only thing that kept him going through those years of horrible torture and pain and absolute agony was the fact that he HAD to stay alive, because he HAD to see Fives again. He HAD to get back to Fives his twin, Fives his closest brother, his best friend, his confidant, his better half.

Was everything he went through for nothing?

Should he have just… let himself die? On Skako Minor, should he have just… given up?

No. No, he tells himself, when he's finally calmed himself down (which is… not after a short period of time). That's not what Fives would want.

And that's why, when he has a chance to go with Rex, when he has a chance to go and finish what Fives started- rescue their vode from the prison in their own minds- he grabs it with hand and scomp and doesn't let go. He loves Clone Force 99, he loves Omega, he loves them all more than he's loved anyone since he was first separated from his brother.

But this… this is why he didn't die. This is why he didn't let himself give up. Rex told him the stories, the stories of Umbara and the tragedy of the Chips. And Echo knows that, if Fives were alive, he'd be right there too, fighting the Empire under its very nose.

How could he possibly do anything else?

(And, years and years and thousands of rescued Clones later, as he lays, an old man, struggling to take his final breaths, surrounded by his former Captain and the squad that took him in and the little girl with star-colored hair who has grown into such an incredible young woman-- out of the corner of his failing eyes he sees a bluish figure with unruly curls and warm, grinning eyes and a supernova smile, eternally twelve-twenty-four and crystal clear against the grey fuzz of everything else. And finally, it's the twin he lived his whole life in memory of who's the first to welcome him into the afterlife.)

[darth-kote]

Cutup Headcanons Pt. 1

Has made a ritual out of mealtime. It's one of the only chances throughout his day that he doesn't have to worry as much about being quiet so as not to sabotage the rest of the team. He chooses what he knows tastes the least offensive to his palate, then picks a spot to wait for the rest of the group to join him before digging in. He can unwind while replenishing his body's energy and enjoying his squad's company, even if they all tend to be quieter and let Cutup fill the void with a story General Anakin had told him or something from his day when they weren't together for a brief second. Maybe in the beginning, before passing their training, they'd yell at him to shut it, but a lot's changed since being cadets on Kamino. They seem to understand better now that he can't help it – those mile a minute thoughts bubbling to the surface. He feels they should be caught up, so he does it. He's grateful when they don't hold him to the expectation of silence.

Hate isn't a strong enough word for how he feels about authority. From the Kaminoans to trainers like Bric to even Hevy... They've all hit him where it hurts before. Of course, nowadays are better with Hevy – so much so he's practically the only person Cutup will obey. If an order comes from Rex or even their Jedi General, he can't help the cock of his brow and second glance given in Hevy's direction. Only once Hevy nods does he get to work. He's never once thought about the lack of punishment for this (doesn't even consider the possible consequences as he does it), and he has no idea how many times Hevy has had to defend him for it when he wasn't around to hear.

When he sees Clone Force 99 around, he can't help but feel like a fan too nervous to approach their celebrity crush. He just thinks they're so cool. He remembers a time when he'd loathed to be labeled defective. (I mean, who wouldn't?) But sometimes when he's around the rest of his brothers for extended periods of time (Domino Squad not included), he can't help but feel a little out of place. Once, when CF99 had joined them for a brief mission, he'd escorted them to the mess hall in utter silence – which is not in his nature. Their Sergeant, Hunter, had noticed him slip away from the group and asked where he was going. "What do you mean?" Was all he could think to ask. "Eat with us!" The tallest one, Wrecker he'd heard him call himself, interrupted, "You're defective like us, aren't you?" The chuckle in his tone almost made Cutup forget about the fresh red webbing of scar tissue across the side of the other clone's skull. Since then, he's been dreaming of getting assigned to a mission with CF99; ideally with the rest of Domino Squad along for the ride. It just wouldn't be right without them by his side.

Loves giving and receiving gifts. The object in question doesn't have to be of much monetary value – or any at all, actually. It's more about the fact someone thought of him when they saw it. That they've gone even further to pick it up and bring it back to him means the world and then some. Although he doesn't have much space to store or display anything too large, he's just as grateful and excited to appreciate the trinket (sometimes an extra smooth pebble, other times a rusted peace of metal from who knows what abandoned machinery) before propping it up to glint in the sun or burying it shallowly in the dirt. He likes to think that perhaps he might return to it one day, after the war, when he has more space to call his own.

In terms of giving, Cutup's extremely thoughtful if not a little mischievous by nature. Once, he stole Droidbait's blaster and cleaned the whole thing without being asked too. When he started to hear his brother getting worried that the weapon couldn't be located, he kept the thing hidden to make the surprise more... well, surprising. He got a good shove to the shoulder when he finally revealed that he'd had it the whole time, but a warm smile quickly followed as Droidbait noticed the work that'd been done on it. He's done the same with a helmet or two... When the opportunity arises, Cutup will sneak a couple extra bacta patches while Kix has his back turned, and he'll hand them out to his squad as needed.

S/o to @harmless--dreamer for the inspo to write more Domino Squad and CF99 together. Hope this satisfies the itch a little for now ((:

[tending-the-hearth]

you made a post a while ago about a bad batch au where fives lives- any new thoughts on that given the newest season?

SCREECHING TY ANON I GET TO TALK ABOUT MY FAVORITE AU

this is going off of Fives' murder being faked, and Fox, Cody, and Rex being the only ones (besides the Batch) who know everything.

i mean... just imagining the first night on the Marauder after Echo's brought into the Batch. It's been years since the Domino twins have been able to sleep beside one another, since they've been able to reach out after a nightmare and feel their twin already moving to hug them.

The Batch was worried about not having enough bunks, but Fives and Echo were a tangled mass of limbs and passed out on Fives' bunk before they could say anything, so that solved that issue.

(seriously though, imagine not having the other half of your soul next to you for years, and then you get them back after you've both been traumatized to hell and back? the twins aren't letting go of each other any time soon)

i think the training exercise that the Batch does in episode one of the first season would 100% bring up some very not great memories for Fives and Echo, both of training with Domino, and the day at the citadel. While they obviously trust the Batch, there's still certain things they keep within their little bubble, so the Batch doesn't really comment about how glued to each other's sides the twins are after everything.

Fives remembers Omega from when he and Tup were on Kamino, and she remembers him. It's not until they're on board the Marauder leaving Kamino that Omega hurls herself at him, latching onto the Arc and hugging him as tightly as she possibly can. Fives can't resist hugging her back, and they're attached at the hip after that.

Fives also would (as I've said before) want nothing more than to help Crosshair, because he knows what it's like, and while the current season 2 doesn't exactly support this scenario, i can never get the thought out of my mind of Fives and Echo sitting down on the landing platform on Kamino, Crosshair between them, and the three of them just sitting in silence. After an hour of waiting, Hunter steps out of the Marauder, and he sees Crosshair laughing at a story Fives is telling about Hevy, Echo's arm around his shoulder.

so moving into the canon season 2, Echo and Fives are absolutely in the same mindset that they could be doing more.

Everyone still things Fives has died. the clones heard the whispers of the 501st soldier who was killed for asking questions.

Fives hearing that more of his brothers are dying, dying for the same reason he nearly did? He'd jump at the chance to help Rex save them, and Echo would too.

the reunion with Cody is honestly all I can think about, just Cody running through the underbelly of Coruscant, tailed by one of the assassins, and as he ducks into a shadowy alley, the assassin is stunned, and Cody's pretty sure he's seeing ghosts as Rex and Fives and Echo step out of the darkness, and all his adrenaline just leaves him as he collapses, but Rex and the twins are at his side, pulling him into a hug, and the four of them are reunited, and Rex and Cody can't help but breath sighs of relief because they're okay, their twins are okay, and they can help the rest of their brothers.

[mwolf0epsilon]

Continuation from the last post...

Every clone out on the field (and I do mean everyone) saw Fives transform into giant monster of some kind. A beast with wicked claws, armoured skin, a lashing snake-like tail, multiple eyes and dangerous jaws. Some were even injured as the enraged and shrieking monster bulldozed past them, charging back towards base like a creature possessed. Uncaring of what it knocked into as it went.

The pain of Krell's betrayal and the newfound fear of this unknown threat sends everyone into a panic. The clones that remained back at base are in potential danger and, without their communications lines working correctly, Rex can't warn them of what's coming their way. He orders everyone to help carry the wounded and retreat back immediately.

The 501st and 212th rush back to claimed base following a trail of destruction as they go.

There are dead vexus that thought they'd snagged a meal in their tendrils, but found a furious thrashing death instead. The banshees, usually only too eager to pick at unattended corpses, remain up atop the tree canopies. Too afraid to touch a much bigger predator's meal least it turn its anger upon them as well. There are even torn apart Umbaran craft, their pilots crushed in the smashed cockpits, after fruitlessly trying to take down an invasive predator from another world with an equally merciless food chain.

The worst is back at base itself.

It's not just Krell's blood that decorates the walls, ceiling and floors. There are lightsaber scorch marks, a large quantity of rishi eel blood, pieces of carapace that got sliced or broken off... What's recognizable as being part of the deceptive Besalisk's body and clothing is very little indeed...

He put up a fight but it wasn't enough to save him. The Force would not save him anymore.

The new monster the 501st is afraid of, however, is missing. It had only attacked Krell, the soldiers attending to the base had been wiser than get between it and the Jedi who'd repeatedly berated and threatened them. But now the beast is wounded and likely even more aggressive, and they had to deal with it before it killed anyone else.

Domino Squad's pleas keep falling on deaf's ears.

The only clones that look their way trying to understand what it is they're trying to tell them, are Tup and Dogma who had been trying for months to get evidence of the creature that had haunted the GAR barracks and Resolute walls. They are just as scared and confused as everyone else, but Tup and Dogma both trust Fives and Echo respectively... And if the others say they can explain, surely they should all listen?

There's another trail of eel blood to follow. It goes deeper into the base. Far away from where Krell has been slain. It's Kix who realizes where it's leading them and he becomes frantic, near hysterical even, because Hardcase is alone and injured in the barracks and that's where whatever that thing is, is going.

Hevy continues to try to get everyone to calm down and listen to him. His little brother's life depends on it, especially if he's cornered and injured. Domino Squad has dealt with the curse for longer than the 501st and 212th knew it existed, they know the Were-eel is terrifying but not a threat towards brothers. At least not unless these frightened men listen to Hevy and remove their damn helmets.

Cutup keeps yelling over the crowd as well. His accent is thicker than usual and for once he hates that he'd taken so many lessons with that one bloody trainer he got it from, because no one seems to be understanding him and it's only making matters worse.

Droidbait doesn't know what to do with himself. He's always been the quieter one of the batch, small and unassuming in personality, because he'd always been just so darn clumsy. He's scared he'll make matters worse by saying the wrong thing.

Echo runs ahead, desperate to reach Fives before everyone else does. He needs to hide his twin. Protect him from the fate he and the rest of Domino had always feared might befall him if the curse were ever discovered. No one will listen to them and Krell brought out the worst in them all. Not just the Were-eel...

[wild-karrde]

This one is for @razorcrestpitdroid:

Tech + "The grief comes in waves.”

"Guarded" and "Reunion" spoilers below the cut.

Tech sat back on his palms as the sun crested the Yavin base. He'd made a habit of coming out to feel it every morning. It was when he felt closest to Kestia, the sunlight the closest thing he'd experienced to her presence in the Force when she'd reached out to him.

Like sunlight hitting your skin after being inside a cool, dark place.

He closed his eyes and tipped his head back, allowing the sunlight to kiss his cheeks.

Maker, I miss her.

Footsteps behind him snapped his eyes opened and he turned to see Fives standing behind him, sheepishly.

"I-I.. I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't realize it was you."

"It's quite alright, Fives," Tech replied evenly.

Fives was clearly unconvinced, rubbing the back of his neck. "I didn't mean to intrude."

"What gives you the idea that you did?"

Fives's sheepishness deepened. "The kid told me you come out here. Because it feels like her. I just... I didn't know you were out here..."

Tech surveyed the former ARC trooper for a moment before patting the ground next to him. "Why don't you come and sit? I find the peace refreshing before we jump back into the chaos."

Fives hesitated for a moment before coming to sit next to him, crossing his legs and resting his elbows on his knees. He inhaled deeply, closing his eyes. Tech allowed his eyes drift back out to where the sun was beginning to climb above the horizon. He hadn't interacted much with Echo's twin, but he felt as though he already knew enough about him with as much as Echo had regaled them all with tales of his lost brother. And now, here he sat, having survived unspeakable tragedy and cheated death.

"When does it stop?"

The question slipped out before Tech realized it was his own voice that had articulated it. Fives seemed equally surprised.

"When does what stop?"

Tech wet his lips. "The sadness. The grief. I find... " He paused, searching for the correct words. "I find that the smallest, most insignificant things completely derail my day. A faint smell. The color green. Even this sunlight. It all reminds me of her, and I suddenly feel as though I cannot breathe. And no matter how much I try to forget how much I miss her, I can't make it stop."

Fives sighed, extending one leg and tucking the other knee to his chest. "It doesn't. Not really. The grief comes in waves." He flicked at a rock next to him. "I've lost plenty of brothers, Echo included, and I never really got over it. Still gets me at times. I see his body lying on the ground sometimes when I close my eyes, almost as if the image is tattooed there. I see Tup, another brother, lying on the medical table on Kamino as the life faded from his eyes. Hardcase. Cutup. Hevy. Droidbait. All of them." He sighed, rubbing at the goatee that he'd finally grown out to his satisfaction. "But I know that they'd hate me doing nothing but grieving, so after a while, I decided to think of the waves as them reaching back out to remind me to keep living. It's just their spirits reminding me of the impact they had on my life, even if it was brief."

Tech smiled. "I like that."

Fives nodded. "I understand she had quite the impact on you."

"She did."

"Then don't forget. Hold her memory close. And then she's a little less gone." He pushed himself back to his feet. "I'll see you inside when you get done being with her."

Tech nodded, a lump rising in his throat. Fives turned and walked away.

"Thank you," Tech said softly.

The sunlight almost seemed to embrace him as the warmth brushed across his face. He sighed, smiling as the tears finally fell from his eyes.

Tag List: @seriowan @partoftheeternalsoul @rosmariner @misogirl828 @ellichonkasaurusrex @the-sith-in-the-sky-with-diamond @gjrain20-starwars @dsburnerblog

[meridiansdominoes]

(same annon with the kittens) I would send a pic, but I don't have the Tumblr app. Fives even had a mustache!😍 Love your writing - keep it up!!

TINY CAT FIVES WITH A MUSTACHE??? A;LSKJDFAL;SDKFJ

.............

what have you done. I don’t have a cat. I’ve never had a cat. I don’t know how cats act. I don’t know cat body language. I don’t even like cats that much, I am the person least qualified to write a cat fic. But I did this anyway. It’s dumb and not even that great but you inspired me and it helped with my writer’s block at the very least asld;kfasdlfk;laskdf 

ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25919743

_________________________________________________________

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Fives snarls.

“I don’t… I don’t think this is a joke, Fives,” Droidbait says nervously--meows, actually, because Droidbait is a loth-cat. Inexplicably. Impossibly. 

So is Fives. And so is Cutup.

The barracks are massive around them. Fives shakes his head in horror. It’s even worse when he can feel muscles that he shouldn’t have twitching and moving as he does. His ears… they can move in so many directions. Not to mention the kriffing tail.

“Alright, just… there’s gotta be an explanation behind this,” Fives says, sitting back uneasily onto his back legs. “Someone will be able to fix us--the Jedi could… do something, I think, I don’t know--”

“Whoa,” Cutup says, staring down at his paws and letting his claws extend and retract, extend and retract. “That’s… kind of cool, actually.” He flexes his claws against the fabric of his abandoned blacks below him experimentally. He looks up at Fives and suddenly chokes on a laugh. Fives rounds on him, tail lashing involuntarily.

“What’s so funny?”

“Your hair… fur, I guess… it looks like you have a mustache,” Cutup sniggers. Fives growls at him--this is so not the time. It isn’t the most threatening sound, but it works to some effect. Cutup’s eyes go wide. He nearly trips clumsily over his paws as he scrambles to put some distance between them. Droidbait curls in on himself, tucking his tail around his paws and flattening his ears against his skull.

“Guys, can we not fight?” he meows plaintively. “We’ve gotta figure out what happened--”

Fives’ tail twitches again. He spares Cutup another dangerous look, but Cutup is spared from Fives’ wrath by the sound of a frustrated yowl from the hallway. 

“Oh, kriff. Hevy and Echo!” Cutup gasps. He darts for the door. Fives goes to follow him and is impressed at the speed that his tiny body can achieve. As long as he doesn’t trip over his own feet… paws… whichever, he can really move when he needs to.

The barracks door doesn’t open immediately--the three of them have to leap up to trigger the motion sensor, which isn’t too hard either. They can get higher than Fives had thought possible. Maybe their transformation isn’t actually that bad--

Then he pokes his head into the hallway and recoils in horror. 

“Guys! Help! I can’t get him off of me!” Hevy cries, scratching fruitlessly at Hardcase’ greaves. Hevy is puffing himself up to make himself look bigger, but it’s not doing him any good. Hardcase, however, looks like he’s having the time of his life, cradling Hevy in his arms and cooing at him in the middle of the hall. Which, ugh. Fives can’t decide if he wants to vomit or if it’s just a hairball. 

“Back up!” Cutup hisses in alarm, but they’re not fast enough. Hardcase glances down. His eyes go very very wide.

“Holy. Kriff. There’s more of them. Jesse! Jesse, get the kriff over here!”

“Oh no, oh no oh no--scatter!” Fives yelps. Droidbait and Cutup obey even as Hardcase drops to one knee in order to swoop one giant hand towards them. Force, he’s massive. Fives barely manages to avoid the fingers that reach out. Behind Hardcase, Jesse rounds the corner of the hallway and gasps. 

“What the--”

“Catch them!” Hardcase shouts gleefully. Jesse stops dead, stares, and then dives straight for Fives. Fives hisses at him and makes a desperate leap for freedom, because he is not going to be coddled like that today, no, not now, not ever, it’s humiliating and he won’t--!

__________________________________________________________

“Fives.”

“Mmm.”

“Fives. You’re purring.”

“Kriff off,” Fives mumbles. The words rumble around in his chest. Vaguely he realizes that he is indeed purring, but he can’t really make himself care. Tup is warm and when his fingers scritch just right over Fives’ skull it sends the most pleasant little tingles down his spine and so what if he’s purring it doesn’t mean anything, shut up, Cutup.

Hevy had been rescued from Hardcase by Del and has been shunted around since then, passed from Coric to Dogma to Jesse. Cutup is perched happily on Tipper’s knee. Droidbait is free, but he’s winding his way around Kix’s ankles to ask for more scratches instead of escaping, the traitor. 

Though… to be fair, Fives could probably escape if he tried. It’s not like Tup is keeping him in place, but… but, uh, it’s a long drop to the floor. Yeah. Who knows if Fives would survive a fall. Not worth the risk, no, absolutely not. That explains it. Fives is stuck, no doubt about it.

Tup’s fingers run down Fives’ spine. He arches into the touch and purrs again. Tup grins down at him fondly.

“So… what should we name them?” Jesse wonders aloud. Fives groans. 

“It’s us, you idiots. I’m Fives. Hear me?” he huffs out. For a moment there’s silence, and Fives dares to hope that he’s been understood--

“Sithspit. That is the cutest sound I’ve ever heard,” Nax deadpans. Fives has to resist the urge to snap at Tup’s fingers in annoyance. Tup doesn’t deserve that, so he restrains himself, but it’s a close thing.

“We’re keeping them, right?” Hardcase says. “Come on, we have to!” 

Cutup rolls his eyes. Hevy lets out a muffled sound of protest. Fives sighs. Droidbait stifles a laugh, tail waving happily in the air as Kix’s fingers run through his fur. 

The door to the barracks suddenly slides open to admit Captain Rex. The men go to jump to attention, but they freeze when they fully register the sight of their CO. Echo is sitting proudly on the Captain’s pauldron, ears pricked up as high as they’ll go. His tail is looped loosely around his paws, and he looks smug. Beta squad’s mouths collectively drop open. 

“There’s another one?” Hardcase whispers. Echo sends him an unimpressed look as Rex holds out his hand in order to lower Echo gently to the floor. Droidbait immediately abandons Kix to rush for Echo, nosing him anxiously to make sure he’s alright. Echo bats at him half-heartedly.

“Your nose is cold, DB, holy kriff. Okay, alright, I’m fine!”

“I know, I know, I’m just making sure!” Droidbait tells him, curling himself up against Echo’s flank gratefully. Echo leans against him obligingly and turns to look back up at Rex. The Captain suddenly heaves the longest sigh Fives has ever heard from him, which… really isn’t a good sign. Beta squad tenses in concern. 

“Sir…?” Del prompts quietly. Rex clenches his jaw. 

“I’m comming the General,” he grits out. “We aren’t equipped to handle this.”

“Wh--what are you talking about, sir?” Tipper says in offense. “They’re just a couple of loth-cats, sir… I mean, they’re kittens. I think we can handle it--”

“Fives, Cutup, Hevy. Can you three come down here for a second?” Rex deadpans, sounding like he’d much rather be fighting a platoon of battle droids than dealing with magical transformations right now. Fives huffs and shuffles to his feet, reluctantly removing himself from Tup’s gentle hold. It’s a lot harder to manage a jump with four legs, but somehow his tail acts as an odd counterbalance and allows him to drop to the floor smoothly. 

Huh. Well, turns out the floor wasn’t actually that far down. Oh well. He sits down next to his batchmates in front of Captain Rex and stares back at the rest of Beta squad, tail lashing, challenging them to just try and pick him up again. Fives has claws and he’ll use them.

...unless it’s Tup. Tup is the only exception. 

“Wait. Captain, you’re not seriously telling me that--” Kix starts. Rex interrupts him with a raise of his hand. 

“Del, you asked me if I had any idea where the rest of your squad had disappeared to a few minutes ago. Here they are,” the Captain says tiredly. Fives glances at Echo as the rest of the room goes dead silent.

“Oh, thank the Force. You got him to figure it out?”

“Yeah. Typed it out on his datapad. I was near the bridge when it happened, so it wasn’t too hard to get to his office.” Echo licks his own paw. Cutup makes a strangled sound. 

“Echo. You’re… you’re. Licking yourself.”

“Huh? Oh.” Echo blinks at his paw for a moment in surprise. “I didn’t even realize…”

“That’s… Domino squad? Are you serious?” Tipper says incredulously. 

“Unfortunately.” The Captain raises an eyebrow at Domino squad inquisitively. “Kenobi, or Skywalker?”

“What kind of question is that?” Echo complains. “Kenobi. Do you really have to ask?”

Fives agrees. Not that General Skywalker couldn’t figure this out, but General Kenobi will probably fix it faster. Maybe. Hopefully. 

“Right, dumb question,” Rex agrees, even though there’s no way he could have understood what Echo had said. “I’ll be on the Communications deck to let General Kenobi know. Until then, stay here. Beta squad, watch them. Understood?”

He doesn’t wait for their affirmations, turning on his heel and leaving the barracks. Fives feels a thrill of horror. 

“Wait a second, wait wait wait,” Fives says, scrambling for the door, “Rex, don’t leave us with them, this is humiliating, they’re gonna--wait--!”

It’s too late. The Captain is gone. Fives’ ears droop. He stares up at the massive door in front of him in dejection. Oh no.  

“Force, he looks so sad. Someone grab him,” one of his horrible, terrible, awful brothers mutters. Fives gets scooped up unceremoniously by a large hand. He’s half a second from sinking his teeth into the finger closest to his mouth when suddenly that same finger scratches under Fives’ chin. Fives goes limp. Mmmmm Force, it’s nice. 

“Alright, Fives. At least, I think you’re Fives. Calm down,” Hardcase says, grinning in amusement. “We’ll keep you safe, don’t worry.” Fives glares at him. Hardcase chuckles. “Yep, you’re Fives, alright. No doubt about it.”

Fives nips at his finger anyway just to hear Hardcase hiss in pain, but then Hardcase stubbornly scratches under Fives’ chin again and Fives’ eyes slide closed. He can hear his batchmates receiving similar treatment from Beta squad, some protesting more than others. He opens one eye to check on them--Hevy is snarling curses, but Tup has him, so Hevy’s temper won’t last long. Dogma’s hands reverently stroke over Echo’s ears. Droidbait is curled up in the crook of Del’s arm. Cutup is batting lazily at Jesse’s fingers, stretched out comfortably on his back.  

“Just rest, Fives,” Hardcase orders gently. Fives sighs in resignation. There’s no escape. Fine, fine. He’ll rest. But only for a minute, as long as his batchmates are safe.

Eventually, five content purrs fill the room. Fives falls asleep. 

[greaterawarness]

Brothers CH. 2 "Fresh Off The Shuttle"

(Fives and his brothers arrive on Coruscant for the first time. After finding a place to stay Fives gets lost and runs into some interesting characters.)

Fives squeezes his bag tighter with every shake of the shuttle. They’ve been on a ship taking them to Coruscant for a while now. Droidbait is asleep with his head on Hevy’s shoulder. Cutup gets ship sickness and has his head in a bag he brought for such the occasion while Echo plays a game on his datapad. Fives keeps a death grip on his bag and taps his foot nervously. He wasn’t afraid to fly in starships. He was more nervous and excited for when the shuttle landed.

“Please be seated. We will be landing in Coruscant in a few moments.” The droid flying the shuttle says over the coms. Fives foot taps more vigorously.

“Good… don’t think I can take much more…” Cutup moans from his bag. Hevy rolls his eyes and keeps his eyes on the shuttle doors. He’s always so calm and cool in everything he does. Fives stares down at his hands frowning. He thinks back to the moment in the canyon when he wanted to grab the blaster and shoot the trandoshan. He couldn’t move, but Hevy didn’t even hesitate to reach for the blaster. Hevy’s always been the leader of their batch. On Kamino, at the farm, and even now. Echo finally puts his datapad away and nudges Fives.

“Remember when we said we wanted to be the best star pilots in the galaxy?” Echo says.

“Remember when we wrecked 99’s speeder immediately after starting it up?” Fives chuckles. Echo laughs and shakes his head.

“We were stuck mucking stalls for months after that.” Echo sighs. Fives loosened his grip on his bag and felt his fidgeting stop. He rests his back against his seat for the first time since they took off. The shuttle shakes harder then normal knocking Fives and Echo into each other. They were landing. Cutup groans while Droidbait jumps awake.

“We’re here.” Hevy says with eyes still glued to the shuttle doors. When the shuttle lands Fives and his brothers hold their breath. They have to use all their self-control not to burst out the second the doors open. Instead, they wait patiently like good sane people. When Fives steps out of the shuttle planting his foot on the Coruscant pavement for the first-time, excitement buzzes through his body. Giant skyscrapers surrounded them. Speeders fly overhead like rivers of light in the sky. The streets are filled with all walks of life. He can already make out some clones peppered in with the crowds. His brothers share his look of shock and awe.

“Watch it clone!” a Quarren shouts shoving Cutup out of his way, pulling Fives out of his trance. Cutup frowns after the man but doesn’t say anything. Hevy pats his shoulder and pulls everyone to the side of the street.

“Alright, lets stay focused here. We need to find a place to stay and then we’ll let ourselves get all excited. Understand?” Hevy says while waving a finger at them.

“Understood.” They say but Fives can’t force himself to say it.

“Good,” he says before turning to Echo. “Pull up the addresses to all the apartments we can afford.”

Echo pulls out his datapad to start pulling up the apartments before handing it to Hevy so he can lead the way. Fives pulls his bag over his shoulder and walks in the back of their group. While walking he peeks over the side of the street and nearly loses balance. Cutup grabs his arm to steady him.

“It looks like it goes on forever.” Fives says. Cutup pats his shoulder as they keep moving. When Fives heard about Coruscant he never imagined it would be like this. It was all so disorientating. So many shops layered on top of each other with people walking so fast and confident that Fives had to keep jumping out of people’s way. Even the clones didn’t seem to want anything to do with them. He had no clue how they were going to find their way around this place. He hated to admit it, even to himself, but he was glad Hevy was taking the lead this time. Fives doubted he would be able to find a way off this street let alone to some random address somewhere in the city.

They eventually take a lift down lower in the city. They have to take three more lifts down before they get to the right level. Echo flinches at a stray lothcat that hisses at his feet when they step off. Fives and his brothers look around the dirty streets covered in filth and graffiti.

“Stay close.” Hevy says over his shoulder before walking on. There are a lot more homeless people on this level. A lot more shadier people too. Fives spots two men talking in an alleyway. One of them meets his eyes making him jump and quickly look away. The streets reek of urine and sewage. Fives pulls Echo out of the way before he stepped in a pile of vomit on the sidewalk. This far down it was hard to see the sky. Fives squints up only able to make out the lights of the speeder lanes. His stomach twists with anxiety. The last time he went anywhere where he couldn’t look up and see the sky was on Kamino. He winces at the memory of Bric, the bounty hunter assigned to train their batch. A shiver runs up his spine. Echo steps closer to Fives, letting their shoulders touch. Fives glances at his brother who keeps his eyes forward.

“I think this is it.” Echo says, stopping in front of a dirty building with the name Cott’s lit up in a broken neon sign with only the C and T’S glowing.

“You’re joking?” Droidbait practically gags.

“I mean at least its not any worse than the other buildings around here?” Echo shrugs trying to find some positive here. Hevy walks through the front doors and stops in front of a Sullustan sitting behind protective glass. He doesn’t acknowledge them as he reads along to something on a datapad.

“Excuse me?” Hevy says. The Sullustan keeps reading. Hevy clears his throat. “Excuse me!”

“What?” The Sullustan finally says turning around. He wears a name tag with the name Sbug on it.

“We called to view one of your apartments.” Hevy goes on. Sbug looks them over not seeming impressed. They stand there another moment in awkward silence before Sbug grunts while getting to his feet. He grumbles something with a little wave for them to follow. The inside of the building is just as disgusting as the outside. They can hear the inhabitants fighting while walking past the doors along with muffled yells and distant laughing. Droidbait pinches his nose from the moldy stench. Sbug stops in front of the door that read D405.

“Here you go, home sweet home.” Sbug says while pushing the door open. He steps aside so Fives and his brothers can get a good look. Hevy walks in first trying not to show how disgusted he was by the place and failing miserably. Echo, Droidbait, Fives, and Cutup made no such attempts letting their true feelings show. It’s a studio apartment with one small window. A small kitchen is set up against the wall with the door leading to the hallway. Bunkbeds are built into the wall but there are only four of them. Echo opens the door on the left side of the room revealing a very small grimy bathroom with flickering lights.

“Do none of the lights in this building work properly?” Echo asks but Sbug is back to reading whatever is on his datapad. Fives walks over to the one small window and peeks out. The only view is of the building right next to it. He tries to look out it through different angles but no matter how hard he tries he can’t spot any sign of the sky.

“How much did you say this place was again?” Hevy asks slowly.

“500.” Sbug grunts.

“500? For this? There aren’t even enough beds!” Cutup says with his arms out.

“Not my problem. You want it or not?” Sbug asks.

“Well think about it.” Hevy says before Cutup can try and argue more. They couldn’t get out of the building fast enough. Echo and Droidbait shiver and scratch at themselves.

“I swear, if that place gave us lice or some other parasite I’m suing!” Droidbait swears.

“Oh yeah because I’m sure they’re just swimming in credits.” Cutup nudges him.

“Calm down, we have other places to see before making a decision.” Hevy says. And he was right. There were other places. Three to be exact. All three were even lower then the first one. The second place was about the size a shoe closet. The third had a communal bathroom that was currently being occupied by a man having sex with a prostitute. And the moment the landlord turned the lights on in the fourth place an army of rodents and insects scattered. At the end of the day Fives and his brothers found themselves standing in front of CT’S. They walk inside and stare in defeat at Sbug.

“Still got that room available?” Hevy asks with no life left in him. Sbug gives a little chuckle.

“Yeah, but the price went up. It’s 800 now.” He says while taking a bite of some greasy snack.

“800? You can’t be…” Cutup starts before Hevy places a hand on his shoulder stopping him.

“Fine. 800 it is.” Hevy gives in. they pay the Sullustan, and he hands them the key. “Wait, this is only one key. There are five…”

Sbug slams a metal screen down that says GONE ON BREAK.

“Well, at least we’re not sleeping on the street.” Fives says while watching Hevy’s fingers curl around the one key.

“Oh yeah because I would hate to sleep in a dirty cold dangerous urine smelling place! Oh wait…” Cutup starts making Fives punch his arm. They walk up to their new home and lock the door behind them. No one wanted to sit or touch anything. They stand around looking at their new home trying to find something positive.

“Alright, this doesn’t look good.” Hevy starts. “But we’re in Coruscant! Once we get jobs and get some credits coming in on a regular basis, we can find a better place.”

Fives finally plops his bag down on the bottom bunk on the right side of the room. His feet were killing him, and he just wanted a hot shower and to go to bed. When his stomach lets out a loud growl it reminded him and his brothers of just how hungry they were.

“Why don’t we go up closer to the surface and get some dinner? That might cheer everyone up?” Echo asks. While no one wanted to walk anymore no one also wanted to stay here. They make sure to lock the door behind them before heading towards the surface.

They end up eating at a greasy fast-food place, but no one seemed to mind. It was cheap so they could order a lot of it and Fives could get a great view of the sky. Entire lanes of starships aim off world in beautiful lights. With the sun going down it turned the sky into a beautiful pink hue. He notices a park further down the street. He shoves what’s left of his food in his mouth before standing.

“I’m gonna check the park out.” He says gesturing to the patch of green.

“Don’t go to far Fives, you don’t know your way around the city yet.” Hevy warns. It takes everything to keep himself from rolling his eyes. Instead, he manages a nod before walking off alone. He shoves his hands in his pockets enjoying the fresh breeze. He passes a flower shop and a nicely dressed couple walking their three tiny dogs. For the first time today, Fives felt like he didn’t have to hide his wallet and avoid eye contact with anyone.

When he approaches the park, he finds a winding path to follow. Parents play with their children in the large patches of grass while others play fetch with their furry pets. The trees are all lush and green while perfectly trimmed. He finds a bench facing a large lake and takes a seat. From here he can watch the star ships take off and enjoy the greenery in front of him.

“Mind if I join you?” a voice startles him. He looks up to see a Kel Dor staring down at him.

“Uh, go ahead.” Fives says scooting over to make room for the man. He sits before pulling out some bread and tossing some crumbs out for the birds. Fives shoves his hands in his pockets awkwardly.

“Haven’t been on Coruscant long, have you?” the man asks making Fives almost flinch.

“No… how did you know?” Fives arches a brow.

“Because you keep looking up. Usually only the ones new to Coruscant stare longingly at the sky.” He chuckles softly. Fives looks down at the birds pecking at the scatter bread.

“Yeah… Coruscant isn’t how I imagined it to be.” Fives confesses.

“Most things aren’t.” the man says while leaning back on the bench. “Why have you come to Coruscant?”

“To find ourselves? I’m not really sure honestly. I mean, I’m a clone. I was always meant to come here at some point to fight for the Republic. Just seemed right.” Fives explains. The man gives a small hm. “Not to mention there are more clones here on Coruscant than anywhere else.”

“That is true,” he chuckles softly. “Clones are good alone but great when they’re together.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t know where to meet any of them. At least not without just striking some random conversation on the street.” Fives sighs now leaning back on the bench.

“It just depends on what type of crowd you want to be in. There are some clones who work normal nine to five jobs like everyone else. They go to work and then go home to a family and kids.” The man explains. Fives wrinkles his nose making the man laugh. “And then there are those that aren’t quite done fighting.”

This makes Fives sit forward staring at the man.

“Piqued your interest, have I?” the man laughs. “There are groups of clones that take on jobs similar to bounty hunters except with… let’s say a moral code. Each group is different, and it is important to do your research before joining. These aren’t just clubs or ordinary gangs. They’re families. Clans.”

“Like Mandalorian clans?” Fives asks making the man lean back slightly and cock his head.

“Perhaps.” He says with his hands folded in his lap.

“Where can I find these clans?” Fives asks now turned fully facing the man. He first looks like he’s about to answer when his com starts beeping. He excuses himself to answer. Fives sits back and crosses his arms. He imagined himself in Mandalorian armor just like Rex. He would have thought deeper into it if it weren’t for the shouting coming from the man’s com. He can’t make out who he’s talking to but can hear the commotion on the caller’s side.

“I said shut up already!... anyway, we could really use you back at… dammitSin—” that’s all Fives can make out before the com shuts off. The man shakes his head with another soft chuckle before turning back to Fives.

“It seems my boys have gotten into trouble again. I’ve quite enjoyed chatting with you.” The man says before reaching a hand out. Fives stands and shakes his hand. “I wish you luck on your journey.”

“Thank you, sir.” Fives says before the man walks away with his hands folded behind his back. Fives decides to head back to his brothers. While walking towards the place they grabbed some food he was becoming uncomfortably aware that his brothers were nowhere in sight. He stops in front of the shop and looks around. Nothing. Fives curses under his breath before walking down a street thinking they may have just gone home without him. He’d kick each of their asses if they have. The only trouble with this is: Fives didn’t know how to get home.

Fives takes a turn that he thinks will take him towards the lift down to his level but ends up on a street he didn’t recognize. He takes another turn trying to get back to the street where the food place is but still can’t seem to get where he needs to go. With the sun now completely set Fives starts to panic. He picks up his speed desperately trying to find his way through the city. In his blind panic he manages to run straight into someone’s back. He falls to the ground hitting his head on the concrete. He sucks air through his teeth while rubbing the spot that made contact with the ground. When he opens his eyes, he freezes. A blaster pistol is pointed directly at his head by a Mandalorian in light orange armor.

“Easy, Cody! You’re frightening the boy.” A voice says before possibly the most well-dressed man Fives has ever seen reaches down to help him up. “Are you alright?”

“An… angel…” Is all Fives manages to get out. The man is not only dressed well but is the picture of beauty. Not a hair is out of place from his soft brown hair or from his well-trimmed beard. He arches a brown with a smile.

“Watch it kid.” The Mandalorian warns. The man only laughs and places a hand on the Mandalorians shoulder.

“Now, now, Cody. I’m sure the poor boy didn’t mean to.” The man says.

“I am sorry.” Fives finally manages to form words. A stretched-out speeder appears next to the sidewalk.

“We’re going to be late.” The Mandalorian says.

“Of course,” The man says as they turn for the speeder. Before sliding inside his ride, he looks back at Fives. “Do be careful next time. There’s no telling what lunatic you might run into next.”

The Mandalorian stares at Fives a moment longer before getting in next to the gorgeous man. Fives watches the man fly off before smacking his cheeks to snap out of his daze. He still needed to find his way home.

Fives eventually finds a lift down to the lower levels of the city. Unfortunately, everything looks less familiar in the dark dingy streets then the ones near the surface. Fives stuffs his hands in his jacket pockets while walking down a street he hoped would lead him to his new home. He was becoming aware of the two twi’lek men following a ways behind him. He picks up speed before noticing the twi’leks speeding up as well. Now in a full sprint he found himself in a bigger panic then before. At least near the surface he wasn’t running for his life! Fives starts to turn a corner before running into something short and metal. He goes flying over it and rolls in the street. Once again hoping the dark smudges on his clothes were just mud.

“Artoo!” a voice calls from down the street Fives was trying to run down. The droid Fives ran into beeps urgently. Fives gets to his feet as a man being chased by two twi’leks himself reaches them.

“You’re being chased too?” Fives asks. The man stares at him for a second before grabbing Fives and forcing his head down before a blaster shot could pierce his head.

“Come on!” the man yells while running down another street. Feeling he had no choice Fives does as the man says.

“Why are they chasing us?” Fives asks while trying to keep up with the man.

“They must have thought you were with me!” the man yells when the four twi’lek men start firing down the street.

“Why?” Fives yells while ducking.

“This might come to a shock to you, but you don’t have the most unique face.” The man laughs. Fives frowns unable to think of a comeback. They take another turn before Fives nearly runs off a ledge. The man grabs him by the back of his shirt and pulls him back to safety.

“What now?” Fives asks. The droid beeps before its rockets lift the droid to the street on the other side.

“Good idea, Artoo!” the man says.

“Good idea? We’ll never make that jum—ahh!” Fives yells as the man grabs hold of him and launches him into the air. Fives manages to remember to tuck and roll when landing. He looks back in time to see the man back up a few steps before running and jumping. Fives jaw drops while watching him clear the space between the alley and the street with ease. He lands on his feet before looking back at the four twi’leks.

“Get back here you scum!” one yells. The man gives a two-finger salute before running down the street again. Fives and the droid run after him before the twi’leks decide to open fire again. When they catch up to him, he’s leaning against a pole grinning.

“That was impressive.” He says.

“What was? Running for my life or getting thrown across a speeder lane?” Fives asks frowning. The man chuckles while placing his hands on his hips.

“All of it really. Sorry to get you involved.” He says. Fives rubs the back of his neck.

“Wasn’t your fault I guess.” Fives grumbles before the man’s com goes off.

“Oh, there you are Snips! Really could have used you a few minutes ago.” The man says into his coms.

“Hey, someone had to stay and protect the objective!” a girls voice snaps over the com. “I took down three of them by the way. You’re welcome!”

“Oh yeah? Well, I took down four. So, I win!” he says.

“You’re impossible.” The girl sighs over the com.

“Except you didn’t take down four. You just ran away from them.” Fives arches a brow making the droid beep in agreeance and the man wince.

“What was…?”

“Nothing! I’ll be back soon!” the man cuts her off before turning the com off. “Gee thanks.”

“You did nearly get me killed.” Fives snorts.

“Fair enough,” The man says as they begin to walk down the street. “Anyway, can I make it up to you? Buy you a drink? Dinner?”

“Actually, I’m a little lost. Think you can help me find this address?” Fives asks before showing the man the address. The man looks at it and smiles.

“Sure thing.” He says before leading the way.

Turns out they weren’t to far from the apartments as Fives originally thought. When they reach the building, the man holds a hand out.

“Thanks for showing me the way.” Fives says shaking his hand. He was surprised to feel metal underneath the gloved hand.

“No worries. Sorry again about nearly getting you killed.” The man says. the droid beeps at his side before they start down the street and out of sight. Fives let out a sigh feeling the exhaustion from the day hit. He walks up the stairs to his apartment and tries opening the door. Locked. Dammit. He ends up sitting on the floor of the apartment hallway for an hour before his brothers appear. They carry bags of groceries and cleaning supplies.

“I told you he’d be here!” Echo says when he spots Fives. Fives stands relieved they finally made it home.

“What happened to you?” Hevy asks with a note of anger in his voice.

“What happened to me? What happened to all of you? I came back to the food place to find you all gone! I came home thinking you left without me.” Fives crosses his arms.

“We noticed a grocery store across the street. We decided to grab a few things. Cutupwas supposed to wait for you.” Droidbait says eyeing their brother.

“There may have been a pretty girl in the bar next to the grocery store…” Cutup rubs the back of his neck. Hevy rolls his eyes before opening the door to the apartment. Fives punches Cutup’s arm before helping his brothers do a deep clean of the apartment. Droidbait takes over the kitchen, Hevy and Fives cleans the floors and walls, Echo makes all the beds and hangs up a hammock between the two walls, while Cutup is stuck cleaning the bathroom. By the time it’s done, the room is at least tolerable. Fives claims the bottom bunk on the right side of the wall with Echo taking the top. Droidbait sleeps on the top bunk on the left side of the room with Hevy on the bottom. Leaving Cutup to sleep in the hammock. Everyone’s so tired from the day that they all pass out almost immediately. Fives rolls onto his side listening to his brothers soft breathing and snoring. Despite their living conditions today wasn’t completely terrible. He did get to meet some interesting people. Especially that Mandalorian. He was a clone. It’s not always easy to tell just by the voice when covered by a helmet. But this time he knew. There are clone Mandalorians here. Right before he gave in to sleep, he wondered what it would take for him to be a part of a Mandalorian clan too.

Read full story HERE on AO3.

taglist: @imabeautifulbutterfly

[lifeofclonewars]

Nu Kyr'adyc, Shi Taab'echaaj'la

*rushes to post this before the month is up* Happy Halloween! This is my contribution to Clonetober! I used the prompts Fives, Cutup, Droidbait, tears, and haunt (because apparently I love writing Force Ghosts lol). Title is Mando'a for "Not gone, merely marching far away." Hehehehe have fun 

Ao3 link below, like always

Summary:

Hevy appears beside them before the base finishes exploding.

Cutup punches the gunner in a move that probably hurts his knuckles more than Hevy’s plastoid-covered shoulder before tackling him in a hug. “You self-sacrificing di’kut!”

Droidbait quickly joins the hug. He really doesn’t want to let his batchers out of his sight again. Even if that now means watching over the twins and keeping Hevy and Cutup by him and not what he had originally thought. Kriff, that’s the second time the plan had to be adjusted and doesn’t that just hurt.

His brother squeezes them tight. “I did what I had to,” he says, voice muffled from where he’s buried his head in Cutup’s shoulder.

“We know, Hevy. We understand.”

-

"Not gone, merely marching far away." But what if that marching on was actually...relatively close?

----

Droidbait is the first of Domino to die. One second, agonizing pain wracks through his torso, the next, his vision goes dark. He blinks and here he is, standing above his own body, Nub, CT-327, and Sergeant O’Niner surrounding him.

He blinks again. “Uh...what?”

The Sergeant gives a half-hearted smile. “We’re marching on. Apparently, that includes watching over our brothers.”

“I, uh...huh.” Droidbait has only heard that term a few times in passing, but he knows enough to gather what his CO means. It’s probably a lot more popular of a term out on the frontlines, even with how early into this war they were. 

“So, are we going to follow them, or are we just going to watch the droids take the base?” Nub asks, spurring them into motion. Said droids — the same droids that killed him and Nub, he realizes with a start — are chasing the survivors out of the base and taking it over.

They trail behind his batchmates, somehow able to pass through the closed grate, however odd it felt. Down and down and down they crawl, the tunnels never seeming to end. They crawl for what feels like hours but is probably only ten minutes until the light starts to get more grey and less black. Hevy kicks open the other grate and they jump out one by one. 

“What do we do without the Sarge?” Fives asks as they start down the path.

“The reg manual says the next—”

“Wait, wait!” Hevy interrupts Echo, holding a hand up and halting. “Did you hear that?” 

The four turn consecutively and Droidbait snorts at the irony of how it looks like a domino effect. Straining his ears, he listens for what Hevy pointed out. A faint hissing makes itself known from somewhere close, but he can’t pin it.

“It doesn’t sound like droids,” Cutup adds. 

They’re scanning the rock in front of them. The droids had landed somewhere close, hadn’t they? Could they possibly have reinforcements waiting outside for them? Droidbait didn’t know. He never made it to the front lines and the thirty seconds before what just happened surely didn’t count.

The heavy gunner raises a hand. “Don’t forget about those giant eels.” Ah, yes, the eels Echo talked about whenever someone suggested they try to sneak outside.

Fives tilts his helmet in a way Droidbait knows he’s likely rolling his eyes. “Yeah, I’ve…” Something moves over his head and he tunes out his brother, glancing up. 

It’s an eel. And it’s headed right for Cutup. 

It snatches him off the ground, screams ringing through the air as it bites down on him. “Cutup!” Droidbait finds himself shouting in unison with his batchmates.

Someone starts shooting and he squeezes his eyes shut, hoping he doesn’t have to see his closest brother ripped in half. The blaster fire resonates in his ears over the screaming and his head swims. So much is happening, has already happened today, and they’re not even in an official battle. He fights to focus again, clenching his fists. When he’s able to open his eyes, Nub’s hand is on his shoulder and the eel is gone. His ears ring for a few more moments.

“Ugh, poor Cutup,” he catches once they decide to work again. 

That’s it? That’s all they’re going to do? Say only that and move on? A sob chokes the back of his throat. He gets that they had to move on — sithspit, they didn’t even get to do anything about him, as far as he’d seen — but it feels so unfair. Maybe it was a good thing he never made it to the front lines if this is what it entails. 

Nub gives him a little nudge and he manages to shuffle along as they follow the remaining three. Cutup hasn’t appeared next to them, so he must still be alive. In agonizing pain, trapped between an eel’s jaw and— 

He needs to think about something else. 

Glancing ahead, Echo is tapping around on his vambrace. When had they stopped again? After a minute or so, he stops. “It’s no good, their comlinks are on a different scramble set."

Their…? Right, the inspection team. He wants to hope that means these three get off this blasted rock safely, but just fifteen minutes ago he thought Cutup would’ve been included in that, too.

“I’ll signal them with this flare,” Hevy states, holding it up. Droidbait does a double-take. Where had that come from? Granted, it was Hevy, but Droidbait has no clue as to when he could’ve picked up when they were escaping. Which meant the heavy gunner already had it on him, while watching the scope earlier. He sighs, which draws a laugh out of 327, for some reason. 

Hevy lights it up and they hold their breaths. He positioned it well, Commander Cody should be able to see it clearly. Within seconds, more blaster fire sounds out from above. He looks up: the landing platform is almost directly above them. An explosion rocks the ground for a second and debris falls, missing the group by mere meters. As soon as it stops, the final three Dominos pick their way around it. This time, he finds his feet moving on their own. 

Two clones stand across from them, in orange and blue armor. Commander Cody and Captain Rex, guns raised and pointed at them. 

“Hands above your heads.” His brothers’ hands shoot into the air promptly. “Take your sunbonnets off. Take them off. Now!” While Droidbait questions the Captain’s word choice (sunbonnets? really?), his brothers comply. 

The second they come off, the ground shakes. Another eel emerges from the rock near them, a growl escaping it that makes his hair stand on end. Captain Rex fires off a shot faster than anyone in Domino has ever seen, hitting it in the eye. With one last growl, the eel falls to the ground, life seeping out of it. Everyone braces themselves as the impact shakes their footing once more.

Wandering over to the eel, Captain Rex kneels by the eye he hit and takes off his helmet. Droidbait blinks when he sees blond hair. He’d known about the Captain, yes, but that wasn’t a detail that made its way through Kamino-centric gossip (and for good reason).

“Nice shot,” Hevy compliments. The shock and amazement on his brothers’ faces are amusing, but he has a feeling his face looks the same. Even the Sergeant looks impressed.

“The name’s Rex,” the Captain responds, reaching out and touching the eel’s blood. Ew. “But you’ll call me ‘Captain’ or ‘sir.’”

“Sir, yes, sir!” his batchmates call out, standing at attention as Captain Rex stands. When Sergeant O’Niner snorts, Droidbait registers that he, Nub, and 327 all straightened to attention as well, even unseen as they were.

“I’m Commander Cody, your new boss,” the other man introduces himself, taking off his helmet. 

Fives talks first. “My designation is trooper two-seven dash five-five-five-five, sir.”

“Wow, did Mr. ‘The-Name-is-Fives’ just say his whole CT number out loud?”

Droidbait spins, nearly knocking himself over in his haste. Cutup now stands to his left, helmet off, a semblance of a smile on his face. Faintly, Droidbait realizes he has no idea where anyone’s helmets have gone in death, his own included. Rather, an overwhelming rush of emotion hits him, making him pause for a second before acting. He’s here! Which means he’s not in pain anymore, but means he died, too. The other three couldn’t go back for him later.

“Bait?”

Flinging himself forward, he wraps his brother in a hug. Arms immediately wrap around his own torso. Plastoid armor makes it clunkier than he’d like, but it still soothes him. The two stand there, reveling in the comforting touch. Ignoring whatever their batchers are talking about, they hold onto each other like a lifeline they technically no longer need. Did that make it a deathline, then? Did that even make sense? Either way, Droidbait never wanted to let his batchers out of sight again. The Sergeant said something earlier… ‘marching on includes watching over our brothers’ or something like that. Yeah, he’ll do that, with both Cutup and his living batchmates.

Cutup and Droidbait stay standing there until Nub taps them on the shoulder and alerts them to the others moving out. They’re going to try and retake the base from the droids, and the Sergeant wants to know if they want to follow behind. Nodding their heads, they set off to observe and support them.

They watch the living troopers take back the base through an odd plan courtesy of the Captain. They watch as Fives gets hit by a blaster bolt in the arm. They watch as a Separatist fleet lands on the moon. They watch as Hevy excitedly picks up a rotary cannon once more. They watch as the handset doesn’t link up with the detonator. They follow after the group while Hevy stays behind to fix it before leaving himself. They rush back up to the base when Hevy doesn’t follow, not caring if the Sergeant and the other two are behind them or not. 

Hevy appears beside them before the base finishes exploding.

Cutup punches the gunner in a move that probably hurts his knuckles more than Hevy’s plastoid-covered shoulder before tackling him in a hug. “You self-sacrificing di’kut!” 

Droidbait quickly joins the hug. He really doesn’t want to let his batchers out of his sight again. Even if that now means watching over the twins and keeping Hevy and Cutup by him and not what he had originally thought. Kriff, that’s the second time the plan had to be adjusted and doesn’t that just hurt.

His brother squeezes them tight. “I did what I had to,” he says, voice muffled from where he’s buried his head in Cutup’s shoulder.

“We know, Hevy. We understand.”

“Love you, vod. Please don’t do that again.” 

Hevy responds by pulling them impossibly closer into the hug. They cling to each other, reflecting on what happened and avoiding those thoughts all the same. And if they all break down crying once the adrenaline wears off, well, that’s not really anyone else’s business.

----

Following the explosion, Domino decides to follow their two remaining batchmates around, who had gotten themselves inducted into the 501st Legion. It was, after all, the logical next step. Sergeant O’Niner, Nub, and 327 all leave, having their own living batchmates to look after. 

Fives and Echo get to paint their armor shortly after arriving on the cruiser. “You’re definitely not shinies anymore,” Captain Rex reiterates, handing them the buckets and paintbrushes. They thank him and take their supplies to a quiet corner in the barracks near the bunks they were assigned. 

They take off their armor and set it on the ground, sitting beside it, Echo to Fives’ right like always. Echo’s looks more organized than Fives’, but Cutup knew Fives likely had a better understanding of where he set which piece. The paint sits in front and between the two of them, lid now on the ground and paintbrushes at the ready. There’s a minuscule portion of red paint on the lid one of them must’ve managed to steal from the medics, along with some grey, black, and, surprisingly, white. Where they got that, he has no clue.

“Any bets on what they’re gonna do?” Cutup asks.

“I have no idea,” Droidbait responds.

The twins stare at the armor for a few moments before looking at each other. “Any ideas?” Fives asks Echo.

He tilts his head to the side. “A few. It’s, uh, easier to think about armor designs than anything else right now.”

Fives nods and rests his hand on Echo’s knee. They sit in silence for a few more moments. “Alright, well, I have this idea, but I’m going to need your help executing it.”

They start with the standard 501st stripes down the arms and cuisses, chatting softly to one another. Except, not quite. Fives leaves white stripes in the paint of his left cuisse: three grouped on top and two closer to his knee.

Hevy narrows his eyes at the armor, abruptly jolting, almost falling off the bunk he sat on. 

“You good?” Droidbait asks.

He blinks a few times. “I think the stripes are for us.”

“What?”

“Look at it again.”

Cutup does. Three… and two. Five stripes, five Dominos. Droidbait, himself, Hevy; Fives and Echo. Oh. Fives. His eyes sting and he blinks to clear it. 

The blinking works and he continues to watch as they continue to paint more of their armor. They take turns putting a handprint on Echo’s chest plate to match the mark Captain Rex had left. Then, they paint the indented cheeks of the helmets blue to match each other. After that comes the top of the helmets. Echo paints two matching stripes on either side of the fin and then the fin itself. Fives watches as he does this. Once done, Echo pulls out a utensil of some sort and scoots closer. They bend over the helmet together, working on an outline. Handing the helmet back, Fives goes to begin painting while Echo produces a piece of flimsi and begins to sketch. 

Most of whatever they designed is blue, starting at the front of the helmet and framing the fin all the way back. Finally, the red is used, forming two small dots and something that, at first glance, he thinks is a triangle. The little point on the short side proves otherwise. 

Fives sets the helmet down to dry after that. Cutup’s breath catches in his throat when he sees the full pattern for the first time. It’s a Rishi eel. Not only did he do the stripes, but Fives also painted a clear reminder of what happened to Cutup. Everyone can see it this way. He and Echo are likely to be the only living people who recognize the full significance of it, but that’s something he wants everyone to see and himself to see as a tribute and reminder.

He doesn’t bother trying to blink back the tears this time.

Droidbait shuffles over and sits by him, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. “Bait—” he starts, leaning into his brother’s side.

“Shh. It’s okay, I get it.” He looks close to tears himself.

Meanwhile, Fives and Echo begin to take whatever Echo sketched out and paint it onto their armor. They place it in different spots: Echo on his left cuisse, close to where Fives had painted the three stripes on his, Fives on his right pauldron. This uses up the black, grey, and white, but none of the red. Some of the blue is even mixed together with the white to make a lighter blue they use to frame something.

They set down the pieces to dry, and suddenly, Hevy has tears starting to fall. The armor has a rotary cannon, Hevy’s specialty weapon, framed in a circle. Underneath the circle is a small box, painted white over the blue. In Aurebesh within the box reads, “For Hevy.”

Droidbait stands up and drags Hevy over to where Cutup sits, hugging both of them. They accept it gladly, watching as the twins start painting on the armor connected to the back of their gloves. Hmm, from what they had seen around the ship so far, most brothers didn’t paint that part, and if they did, it was an extension of the stripes. 

Instead, they paint a series of circles inside each other. There’s only one thing it could be: a target. Droidbait starts crying, too, and the three of them hold tight to each other as they watch their living brothers finish up and start packing up the supplies. 

“Do you think they’d like what we did?” Fives asks, low enough Cutup has to focus to make out the words.

“I think so. They deserve to be remembered. They deserve to be painting their own armor right now,” Echo responds, choking up near the end. Fives pulls him into a hug. They cling to each other for a few moments, not unlike the rest of the squad was doing, before pulling away and standing up to clean off the brushes and give the can back.

If only they could see them now.

----

Coming back to Kamino alive would’ve been interesting. Coming back while dead is straight-up strange. Everything and nothing has changed since they last wandered these blinding white halls. Cadets go about as normal, yet Domino Squad has been irrevocably changed. What are you supposed to think when you watch your two living batchmates wander an area that must remind themselves of you everywhere they look?

Then the battle starts. Droidbait has found that he’s picked up on the Mando’a spoken by the infantry troopers just as fast as Fives and Echo in their time in the 501st. It’s a nice thing, being able to understand their brothers more than just the handful of words that get spread through Kamino. Unfortunately, that makes the battle harder to watch, curses and shouts and pleas being thrown around and yelled as soldiers die and watch their friends die. 

Echo and Fives perform wonderfully, as always. From being personally requested to snipe by Commander Havoc to helping 99 to protecting the cadets and even getting the cadets a little battle experience of their own. Cutup fails at holding back a laugh when Fives gives his little inspirational speech, Droidbait almost following suit. Not because it was bad, or anything, but because his vod seemed to be unconsciously crouching to get closer in height with the verd’ikase. 

Then… then 99 died. He had, miraculously, appeared right next to them. Hevy still has his arms around him, talking his ears off. Cutup and Droidbait somehow managed to get a hug from him, too, even without Hevy letting go. Now, they watch as the twins chat out near one of the landing pads, helmets off somewhere and the sun shining for once.

Echo, gesticulating with both arms, recites a story from the squad’s cadet days Cutup’s not sure he’s not just making up as he goes. Fives — equally amused and skeptical, if the set of his eyebrows says anything — stands there with his arms crossed. 

“That doesn’t sound like anything cadet-you would’ve done,” he comments.

Echo scowls slightly. “Yeah, because I never had any sort of fun with you guys while we were here.”  He sets his right hand on his hip, an indignant set to his brow.

“I’m just saying, even if you did it, you probably did a lot more complaining than you’re telling me,” Fives responds, lifting his hand off his arm momentarily. 

“I didn’t complain that much!”

“All you did was complain about us not following the rules!”

“That’s...only mostly true.”

Hevy snorts. When Droidbait turns and looks at him, he shrugs his shoulders. “The story’s true, but Fives is right about him complaining more than he’s saying. I was there, I’d know.” 99 nods in agreement.

“Echo, Fives,” Commander Cody says as he and Captain Rex approach the duo, who fall into attention at his words. Droidbait perks up at his voice and turns back to face them completely. What could the Commander have for them next? “You both really stepped up in the heat of battle.”

“We did what we had to do, sir—” 

“ —what any clone would’ve done,” Echo, then Fives, says, completing the sentence like it’s no big deal, just like Domino Squad got used to them doing. It was odd to others outside their batch how often the duo seemed to be on the same wavelengths, but they’d been doing it for so long, Droidbait almost stopped noticing when it happened.

Captain Rex steps forward and moves in front of them. “Both of you showed valor out there, real courage. Remind me of me, actually.” At that, Cutup chuckles a little. Droidbait rolls his eyes.

Commander Cody looks at them, a twinkle in his eye. “Echo, Fives, you’re both officially being made ARC troopers.”

Dead-Domino Squad cheers loudly and proudly as the twins look at each other in shock. Everyone on this section of the platform, dead and alive, sports a grin at the words. 

“I don’t think the Separatists will be coming back here anytime soon,” Rex states, drawing the attention back to him. “But if they do, Kamino will be lucky to have clones like you defending it. Good job, men.”

The officers salute, Fives and Echo doing their own only seconds later. 

Droidbait finds himself standing on the platform with Hevy, Cutup, and 99 long after the officers and their batchers have walked off. They’re celebrating, outwardly excited in a way the twins won’t be able to until they’re in their barracks later. He’s smiling so wide still, his cheeks are starting to hurt. He can’t find it in himself to care. 

“They did it! They’re going to be ARCs!” Cutup exclaims again, laughing. “Holy kriff, they really did it! I’m so karking proud of them right now!”

“I knew they could,” 99 says softly. “All of you have that potential. I’ve known since you were the littlest of cadets.” 

Hevy hugs him tighter and Droidbait gives him another one while Cutup’s grin grows impossibly wider. 

They chat and celebrate for a few more moments, sharing memories and telling 99 of the good times before the disaster on Rishi before Cutup stops halfway through a rambling story he had of some cadet-aged shenanigans Force knew how long ago. His eyes widen.

“Guys, I just realized something!”

“Wow, you can think?”

Cutup punches Hevy in the arm— carefully enough to avoid 99, but hard enough to at least try and make it hurt — and continues. “If we’re already on Kamino, then the 501st is kinda leavin’ them here when they ship out again. And they’ll be here for the next few months, too.”

“Oh.” Droidbait finds himself saying in unison with Hevy. “Oh,” again, with grins splitting across their faces. They have months to figure out how to haunt Bric. This will be fun.

----

Fives has been sitting in the corner of the closest empty room to the hanger since he got off the ship, feet planted on the ground, elbows resting on his knees and hands clasping the back of his head, a vacant stare focused on the ground. The only bit of armor he’s taken off is his helmet, which slipped from his fingers without him noticing, now lying by the door. He hasn't talked in hours and, quite frankly, Cutup is starting to get worried, even if the rest of Domino has been almost as quiet for just as long. 

The three dead brothers have situated themselves around him, a protective barrier no one can see. If only they could actually do something for him, anything: talk to him, hug him, just be seen by him.

But they can’t. 

It’s quite literally impossible.

In lieu of getting to touch Fives, Cutup found himself wrapped in Droidbait’s arms again. Hevy had paced the room, fuming, until about 2 minutes ago, when he slumped against the wall adjacent to Fives, resting his head against the cool surface, staring at the ceiling. The world feels muffled and Cutup can hardly imagine what Fives is experiencing right now.

He wonders how much longer before one of the 501st comes looking for Fives. He hasn't debriefed yet, nor shown up to the barracks. Someone should have noticed by now.

Maybe they're giving him space. But Cutup doesn't think his vod needs space right now; he needs someone to hold onto him and let him, help him, grieve.

He still can't believe what happened. Another death, that's one thing, especially when they'd expected him to appear right away like Hevy did. But he didn't, so they thought it might take a bit longer like Cutup did. And yet, as much agony dying slowly put him through, he'd rather it have been that than what seems to have happened. 

He hasn't appeared. 

It's been hours. Too many hours. He's still alive. Fives has no way of knowing. They have no way of telling. And Cutup can't help but feel like this might be a fate worse than death because nobody will know to go back. Nobody will be able to save him from whatever the Separatists plan to do. So instead of dying slowly over minutes, hours, days, he'll be slowly dying over years. 

He just wishes Fives would move, show that he's still alive, too, right now. He hasn't moved for at least 10 minutes and his legs are bound to be numb by now. Not that he probably notices.

Why hasn't anyone found him yet?

Droidbait shudders and presses closer into his side. Hevy is now staring at his fingers as he flexes and unflexes them. Fives still won't move. They don't know what to do. 

Force, they're going to have to tell 99 what happened. Their ori'vod hadn't gone with them. He's been alternating his time between Kamino, the 501st, and another group of brothers he apparently watched over when they were cadets. Not just what happened, but the aftermath, too, because he will undoubtedly want to hear about how Fives is doing. He always does, but even more so once he finds out. 

The door finally slides open. There stands Captain Rex, the top half of his armor off, a few things in his hands. He steps into the room and walks over to Fives, somehow avoiding them even though they're in the way and not visible. 

Fives doesn't look up, doesn't acknowledge he notices the Captain in any way. He very well might not, after all.

With the lack of response, Rex crouches down, gets himself to Fives' eye level. "Hey, vod'ika," he murmurs. 

Fives glances up and Cutup lets out a small breath of relief. Pain has seeped into his gaze, no longer vacant. Seeing it twists the knife in Cutup’s chest further in, the small amount of relief gone. He has to steel himself for the conversation about to happen; it’s going to hurt.

“Can you talk?” 

Don’t know. Don’t want to. Fives signs choppily, left hand still clutching at his hair. That’s good, that’s a response of some sort. That’s still good, right? Force.

“Okay, we can work with that. I’m going to sit next to you, is that okay?” Fives nods, a harsh, quick jerk of his head. Rex does so, setting himself to Fives’ left. (Not the right, nobody else got to be to his right.) He sets the things he brought with him to the side.

Suddenly, Fives’ breath speeds up and he starts tugging on his left vambrace, clawing at the plastoid, trying to get it off. He looks so fragile, all Cutup wants to do is curl up and cry with him. 

Rex grabs his hand, stopping the movement. He takes the hand off the armor and keeps it in his grasp. “I’ve got it. I’ve got you, vod’ika.” 

Fives breath hitches, not quite a sob, not yet. He signs a small thank you, holds out his left arm, and lets the Captain carefully take off the plastoid and stack it to the side. He buries his head in his right arm, having had to let go to let the armor come off. 

Working quickly and only speaking to tell Fives what he’s doing next, Rex takes off the top half of Fives’ armor. Everything from pauldrons to the gloves comes off, leaving the duo only in their blacks, leg armor, and kamas. He reaches back over to the things he brought with and picks up a square. Unfurling it, Cutup realizes that it’s a blanket from the barracks. He drapes it over Fives’ back, tucking him into his side with his arms around him, getting to do exactly what Cutup wants to do.

Hevy — wait a tick, when did he move — throws his arms around him and Droidbait. He knows what the heavy gunner is thinking, what they’re all thinking. If they can’t comfort Fives or tell him what they know, at least he has Rex.

Then, the tears start. 

Not just from the ARC, though mostly from him. No, all of Domino Squad breaks down. The situation is hopeless, from either group’s point of view. It’s been building for hours now, but seeing Fives break is the tipping point. They’d been a lifeline for each other, motivating and pushing and being there for each other every step of the way. From decantation through forever. Now that’s gone, torn away by a kriffing extraction mission. 

The twins may have spent less time with the 501st recently because of their ARC missions, but Cutup can’t help but be glad that that is where they got their start, who they teamed up with for this last mission. Right now is hard enough. He can’t imagine how much more it would tear at them if they weren’t on the Resolute, weren’t near other brothers Fives knew well.

He just hopes they give Fives more time than normal before his next mission, let him stay surrounded by these brothers he needs by him. Based on how Cutup feels himself, and that’s nothing compared to the ARC right now, he’ll need all the time they give him and more.

Fives buries his head in his brother’s shoulder, clinging to him. “He’s gone. He-he can’t. He can’t be. Rex- I— ” He finally speaks for the first time since the mission, voice cracking, breaking off into more sobs. The Captain holds him tighter, rubbing soothing circles on his back, eyes shining himself. 

Why can’t there be a way for them to tell them? 

Di’kutla, shabla kyr’am. 

----

Fives is starting to understand why General Skywalker hates sand solely from the number of times he’s been on Tatooine. Umbara is quickly becoming that for him, this dark planet full of creatures and plants killing his brothers. Felucia was bad — this is worse. At least on Felucia, they had Jedi who cared about how many men were dying. At least on Felucia, Echo was alive and by his side.

At least they had a general who led from the front, then, not hiding in the back. At least they had a general who didn’t seem to be going out of his way to create tactics to create the most casualties. At least they had a general who, while reckless, they could trust.

Yet said general had been called away again by the Chancellor (why did the Chancellor always need him at the worst times?) and they were stuck with this hut’uun.

They have barely had any battles under him and Fives will count it too soon if he never has to again after this campaign. What a karking disaster.

Blasterfire and crawler tanks and rocket launchers and the HUD having to adjust how dark this planet is and brothers dying left, right and center. Rex wouldn’t listen to him and the General has to hate clones with how he’s insisting they continue even after all of this. The medics are all stressing and overwhelmed by injuries, Kix especially. It doesn’t help that these giant plants seem to be more in the way than proper cover against these tanks.

Felucia was ten times easier than this campaign and they’re still early into it.

He stands his ground, shooting at the tanks with both pistols. Maybe, just maybe, if he's lucky enough, his ARC training will shine through and reward him with a crippling hit to one of them. Not that that has happened yet.

Someone shoves him to the ground seconds before blasterfire flies from an angle he didn’t expect. Right where his head was. He hadn’t noticed anyone or anything over there. Do karking better, trooper. You know better. Especially for the middle of a battle.

“Thanks, vod,” he says to whoever pushed him. He picks himself up quickly. 

But there’s nobody near him. Nobody close enough to have shoved him, and it definitely wasn’t the joke of a Jedi that was still hiding in the back of the troops. What the kriff. 

He can’t stand and contemplate, though. One oddity hasn’t changed the fact that he’s in an active war zone. Blasterfire continues to be aimed at him and he needs to return it. 

Following through with that line of thought, Fives turns back to the battle and files the moment away for later. Later, when, you know, he wasn’t actively trying to not die. 

True to his thoughts, Fives finds himself reflecting on the moment as they settle into the airbase. 

“You good, Fives?” Hardcase asks as they finish gathering tools to decrypt the hardware on the Umbaran fighters.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m good.” Whatever face he must be making doesn’t convince him and his brother raises an eyebrow. “I’m doing better than Kix?” he offers.

Hardcase scoffs. “That’s really not that hard post-battle. What’s on your mind?”

He shrugs. “Oh, it’s nothing really. Just… do you ever feel like you’ve got some brothers who are marching on that are watching over you, even during battles?”

A sorrowful half-smile makes its way across Case’s face. Fives wonders who he’s remembering, if it’s a batchmate or close friend or even a recent squadmate. “Especially during battles.”  

He shares his own smile. “It’s just one of those moments, that’s all.” No need to elaborate.

“Ah, gotcha.”

Someone calls for Hardcase in the distance. Fives gestures toward where it came from. “Sounds like someone needs you. Better leave, might be that excuse for a general. I’ve got the rest of this.”

The heavy gunner takes a step away, then turns back around. “You’re absolutely sure?”

“I’m sure, Hardcase. I’ll be fine. Hopefully, I’ll be done decrypting it by the time you come back around.” 

With a nod, he puts on his bucket and leaves. Fives takes in the tools and the fighter. He could think over things on his own as he works on it. Provided the decryption doesn’t require his full attention. Nothing like a little mechanics to help, right?

Fives doesn’t get the chance to think about the odd shove until after the campaign. By then, it’s the least of his worries and things occupying his mind. Karking Umbara and Krell.

----

Fives is smothered in hugs before he can register what just happened. He had been lying on the ground, in the most pain he has ever felt, Rex pleading with him, mind clouding even worse than whatever that kriffing kaminii did to him. Now, three sets of arms squeeze him, chattering reaching his ears but not registering. He grunts.

"Oh, kriff, he needs to breathe.”

Immediately, the arms loosen but don't back off. He shakes his head, taking in his surroundings. It's his batchmates that are hugging him. "Hevy?"

His vod nods, half a smile on his face. Droidbait and Cutup share their own when he looks at them, too. Hevy, Droidbait, Cutup. They were dead, so he must be, too. Finally marching on after all these years as the last Domino. The realization is half a relief, half a distress. Is Rex going to listen to him? Who’s going to do anything about the chips?

“You sure are hard to keep alive, did you know that?”

“Huh?”

“That one dark planet… I can’t recall the name right now—” for the better, Fives can’t but help think at the mention of it—  “but we saved your life then! Well, I did that time. Anyway, we did a few times.”

He remembers a push in the midst of tanks and blaster bolts and no brother being there. His eyes widen. “That was you?”

“Sure was!” Hevy exclaims. “And Ninety-nine, he helped a bit. Oh, he’s going to be happy to be able to hug you and talk to you again. Mostly, uh, because of the whole, you know. That’s not the point I was making. We saw the bolt while you were distracted and pushed you. Other times, it was placing your helmet by you, startling some animals to create a distraction for the enemy, kicking abandoned blasters near you, stuff like that. For some reason, we could only touch stuff when it directly related to your survival. Isn’t that odd? We tried for years but it didn’t change.”

Cutup shoves the heavy gunner’s shoulder. “Force, vod, let the man think.”

“Right, right, sorry.”

Fives finds himself blinking at his brothers, sludging through the last dredges of fog clinging to his mind. “Ninety-nine?”

“Yeah!” Droidbait responds enthusiastically. “He’s not here right now; he’s watching over the cadets on Kamino. So actually, he saw you kind of recently, he just stayed while we followed you to Coruscant.”

He startles as he realizes they aren’t in the warehouse or anywhere on Coruscant. Rather, they’re in some sort of void that looks like the inside of a star destroyer if he focuses. What.

Despite the revelation, breathing is coming easier. Thinking doesn’t hurt as much. He scans his eyes over his batchmates. Droidbait, always the hugger out of them, still presses closest to his left side. Cutup’s to Droidbait’s left, where he has backed off a bit but keeps his hands on Fives’ pauldrons. Hevy’s on his right, one arm looping around the back of his shoulders, the other around Cutup’s back. 

But wait, where was...? His brow furrows.

Hevy catches his eye. "Something wrong, vod?" A pause. "Besides the obvious?"

He takes a breath and gulps. "Where's Echo?” 

They don’t answer, glancing at each other. His stomach drops. No. He knows what they’re going to say before they say it. 

“Fives,” Droidbait says gently, “Echo hasn’t died yet.”

His knees buckle without his permission and Droidbait tightens his arms further, keeping him up.

He left him behind. They had promised each other they wouldn’t leave each other, desperate to cling to their last remaining batchmate. He had thought Echo had broken the promise by dying, but it was really him who broke it. He wasn’t the one left behind like he had thought after the Citadel. No, it was the other way around. He left Echo behind. His fellow ARC, best friend, twin. 

His hands shake as he reaches up and rests his head in his hands. Dampness hits his palms and he realizes he’s crying. It’s hard to breathe again. Someone rubs circles on his back, the familiar but long-missing-finally-returned feeling of the other three still around him. 

His head spins, the fog that was finally leaving stubbornly staying. He hunches forward, glad to be sitting already.

When did he sit down?

“We’ve got you Fives.” He can only tell who whispers it because of Cutup’s accent. It comes from the same direction as the hands resting on his shins. They must’ve not changed spots, only sat down. 

“I left him.” 

It’s all he can say, his throat refusing to form anything other than sobs. He broke rule number one. The tiny logical part of his brain tells him that it’s not his fault, it was the Separatist’s for blowing up the shuttle and driving them away, but it gets drowned in the wave of thoughts and jumbled emotions that encompass the rest. 

His brothers offer comforting words, soft and quiet. They sit and guard and comfort him as he breaks down. Light touches on his back and shins and side paired with whispers and reassurances and somehow refutes to the thoughts racing through his mind. They get it, too, he realizes. They just had the luxury of finding out a lot sooner.

They sit with him until he exhausts himself. Even then, they make no haste to go anywhere. 

He missed this, having his batchers by his side. Even with Echo still alive, this is something he hasn’t been able to experience since the Citadel. Since Rishi, if he wanted to be more literal about it. A silver lining in it all. Slowly but surely, they help Fives put himself back together.

Domino Squad and 99, months later, watch as Rex and the Bad Batch find Echo. They get to watch Echo fight and struggle and work his way back to some semblance of normal. The last Domino standing stays strong, just like they expect him to. Soon enough, he’ll be comfortable with his prosthetics and the Bad Batch and all the new variables in his life, they discuss with 99.

But it doesn’t come. Something much more sinister takes the place of the expected normal. All Fives can do is grip onto Hevy, Cutup, Droidbait, and watch as his twin lives to fight another day and wait.

And wait.

--

Mando’a Translations:

Di’kut: Idiot

Vod: Brother

Verd’ikase:  Private (military rank), can also be used literally as "little soldier" (plural)

Ori’vod: Older brother

Vod’ika: Dear brother

Di'kutla: useless, stupid, worthless; Shabla: screwed up (impolite); Kyr'am: Death

Hut’uun: Coward (worst possible insult)

Kaminii: Kaminoan

Thanks for reading! Feel free to yell at me in the tags, comments, or in my ask box. Happy Halloween! 

[missshezz]

The Ballad of Omega Sue

So, just to prove to the Prodigies on Tumblr how I am an equal opportunity asshole when it comes to frustrations I have with shows...

...the Bad Batch dropped episode one at midnight on May the Fourth and I have some definite issues with the first episode.

I stayed up as @caerulea-divilu watched the episode last night. I am not easily spoiled so it didn’t bother me hearing what was going on. I also am a graduate from the Thought Criminal Academy. So, I watched the episode this morning and developed my own opinions based on what I saw.

In total: I loved the episode despite some glaring plot holes (Rebels stuff was pushed a bit too quickly) and timeline issues (why does Tarkin look decades older despite only months passing in the show really?) I can forgive those because all writers can make those mistakes (I have).

See, I had high hopes when Bad Batch was announced. I was just starting to watch the Clone Wars and caught some YouTube clips of Wrecker doing what he does best while surfing for Cody and Rex content (yanno, two of the most popular clones next to Fives, Echo, Wolffe...)

My anticipation soured when a character called Omega was revealed. I smelled the poodoo a mile away but tried to remain positive. Filoni, despite a number of critical writing mistakes in Clone Wars wouldn’t let us down. This was going to be about the Bad Batch and not some new female character.

Boy, was I wrong.

I know this opinion won’t be popular with the Tumblr crowd, but well, I’m not here to be popular: Omega is the worst part of Bad Batch.

She’s what us old school fan fiction writers like to call a Mary Sue (or Omega Sue as I am going to call her).

What do I mean?

Well, let’s see, she insinuates herself into the BB despite being told to go away repeatedly. She’s Nala Se’s “assistant” despite being a child (who nobody saw before this because plot convenience) and having no other training (despite being enhanced), is clearly psychic because she knows what Crosshair is thinking and tells him not to do it, everyone (with the exception of a few clones and Tarkin who hate her cause she’s “different”) loves her, she can take out Crosshairs weapon without ever shooting a blaster, she is given the Ashoka Tano in the Citadel arc treatment by being written in as to how the Bad Batch escape their holding cell (she’s also the plot reason for why they return to Kamino in the first place), she tells Hunter about not trusting Tarkin (something Echo could easily have done) and what he has planned (because Tech couldn’t find out on his own here with his own skills or Hunter not put together the plot based on that training scenario), even Lama Su and Nala Se love “her” so much they allow “her” to escape (more on this in a bit) and decide to keep it silent.

In short, Omega Sue has plot armor so thick even Palps can’t hit her with force lightning. She’s Filoni’s new love child (Ashoka being his first) and it shows.

Writing tip 101: if a character does not significantly improve or advance your plot?

They don’t belong in the story.

Omega Sue can literally be written out of every scene and the scene does not change. In fact, in some cases, it makes those scenes and the story better.

Example: the food fight scene. They could have written it as the regs ragging on the Bad Batch, showcasing the discrimination (which is honestly terrible given how they were named for 99, who died honorably in service and was regarded as a brother by Hevy, Fives, Jesse, Rex and Cody) among the regs. It could have helped developed the “hierarchy” and how these new clone batches are not like the originals. Wrecker has enough when they start in on Echo and tosses his tray, starting the brawl. Same scene, better focused because it is about THEM. Not some little Sue who has needlessly inserted herself into their group.

The mission to Onderon. Could easily have gone with Tarkin sending out a special regiment to takeout the Bad Batch should they not fulfill their objective. Crosshair could have turned on them then and there and led a fight to bring them down with the Bad Batch team managing to survive and escape. Again showing THEM and THEIR abilities and why they were only FIVE people. This could still have led back to Kamino with Tarkin praising Crosshair, ordering his enhancements and tasking him with hunting down his former teammates. Stronger, allows the team to shine and sets up the rest of the season as Bad Batch versus Crosshair and his new team.

The cell escape (if we wanted to include it). Hunter, Tech and Echo could have fit in that hole. Tech could have figured out another option. They could have fooled the guards into shutting the grid and let Wrecker do what he does best. In short, the scene was written simply to have her in it. Also, the reasoning for imprisoning her? Plot convenience.

The whole show is about her. Filoni and others have said so.

And that’s just fucking terrible.

Her having a father-daughter relationship or brothers-sister relationship with the BB is rehashed Mandalorian and Anakin-Rex-Ashoka. It’s boring. It’s lazy. And it’s taking away from what could be a solid show. I also groaned at her mimicking Hunter and the others. It wasn’t adorable. It was obnoxiously shoving in our faces how stupendously awesome she is and how much she belongs with the BB.

She doesn’t.

She neither compliments them nor adds anything significant to them.

Now, back to Nala Se and Lama Su.

Remember this scene from season 6 of Clone Wars:

https://youtu.be/xHumVdESjgg

Yeah, seems rather funny how Nala Se and Lama Su were all over killing Tup and Fives because they were proving problematic but have grown an attachment to this little Godling (who was ALIVE at the time). Nala Se even helped the little cherub escape before Crosshair could kill her (because she’d let him kill the Bad Batch mark my words). Seems rather unusual for characters who criticized the Jedi for their feelings and archaic thoughts about the clones (who surreptitiously reprogram or decommission at will) to suddenly have such an attachment to one of their creations. It’s OOC, folks. Straight up. They changed their attitudes simply for HER.

Omega is a Sue.

Plain and simple.

If you think I am being too harsh about Omega, that’s fine. If you like Omega, that’s also fine. We can like what we like. I like the show outside of her character. I will continue to watch it. Just not for her. I want Clone content. Real clones. Not some conveniently created one that has been given the Rey development. I want Echo, Rex (nerfed in Clone Wars), Cody (who was screwed in Clone Wars), Wrecker, Wolffe, Gregor, Tech, Hunter, Kix, even Fox. I want to see what happens with them in this new world.

Omega Sue can kriff off.

[coruscantguard]

Droidbait for the 4 headcanon thing?

Droidbait? You mean my favorite member of Domino Squad? You mean the absolute love of my life who deserved so much better?

(regarding this ask game-- send me a character and i’ll write you four headcanons)

Headcanon A: realistic

Droidbait gets along with the bounty hunter El-Les really well. I say this because in the book, The Clone Wars: Defenders of the Republic,  Droidbait tells El-Les that he feels like he’s bringing the squad down after they fail their test. El-Les then comforts him about it, saying that it wasn’t his fault, and that General Ti would let them retake the test the next day. El-Les is one of the nicer bounty hunters, yes, but he’s still a goddamn bounty hunter. Anyway, since Droidbait probably hangs out around El-Les, he hears a lot of stories of Cona, and I think he would love to visit there someday. The fact that it’s jungles are filled with ammonia and he’d need to wear a breath mask the entire time he was there does not phase him at all. Domino gives him so much shit about it. (It’s literally a poison world, ‘Bait! A POISON WORLD!) Moving on! In combat, I think Droidbait is less of a “stand your ground” character, and more of a “I’m going to take your ground” character. Like, when he’s fighting, he bounces around. He is not a stationary fighter. At all.

He's great at popping up somewhere, downing a droid, and then practically disappearing. He's Droidbait, after all, he'll bring them to one place, disappear, and then suddenly he's flipping onto a droids shoulders in a surprisingly Jedi-esqe move.

Side note: I feel like he'd be great at Jar'kai and Ataru.

Headcanon B: while it may not be realistic it is hilarious

Droidbait really embraces the name "Domino Squad."

And when I say that he really embraces it, I mean he takes advantage of it to give his brothers shit all the time. Listen, I'm not saying that Droidbait will go to one side of his brothers, and then just innocently push nudge whoever is next to him so they all fall down, but I'm not saying that he DOESN'T do that either.

He's a sneaky menace.

Headcanon C: heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends

Warning for mentioned canonical death and canonical torture (re. Tambor)

You know how I just talked about Droidbait taking advantage of their squad name to mess with his brothers?

Yeah. Well, that would mean that Droidbait is the one to start the domino effect with Domino squad, both when he jokes about it, and when he dies.

Anyway, let's talk Force sensitive Droidbait.

Theoretically, if Droidbait is Force sensitive, he could... come back as a Force ghost after dying. Which would be a good thing, right? It makes him a little less dead, at least.

So, after Droidbait dies, he's in limbo, because he's a Force ghost but he doesn't know what that MEANS, he doesn't know how to CONTROL it. None of his brothers can hear him because they're not ready to/not force sensitive. He does know that something happened to Hevy and Cutup, as he can't find them in the living world, but he ALSO can't find them in the Force (because they're not Force ghosts.)

He does know where Fives and Echo are, though, he did manage to find them, so he tries to talk to them... but they can't hear him. General Skywalker doesn't hear him, Commander Tano doesn't hear him, General Kenobi doesn't hear him— the list goes on and on and on.

That goes from being something that really sucks, but isn't actually a problem problem, to something that IS a problem at the Citadel. Because as they're escaping the Citadel, he sees Echo go down. He sees Echo go down, and knows he's still alive, but he can't REACH any of them, can't TELL them that, so Echo is left behind, and Tambor gets him.

Droidbait ends up staying with Echo throughout his entire torture. He feels its the least he can do for failing to save him, failing to contact Fives or Rex or someone who could have saved him.

Echo's not sure exactly how he survived being in Tambor's care, but there are wisps of a memory of someone else being there, support from someone long gone.

...He probably just imagined it, though.

Headcanon D: unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own.

When Droidbait joins the 501st, he ends up bonding with Anakin over the fact that they're always the bait in traps.

Also, although it would have taken some work as they probably wouldn't click INSTANTLY, I think Droidbait could end up being great friends with Hardcase. I feel like they're just similar enough to get along, and different enough to also compliment each other well.

Plus, they'd be a great duo in the field too, as Droidbait could lure the droids somewhere so Hardcase could blow them up. I mean, they'd give Rex so many headaches. So many headaches.

And finally, let's be real here: when Droidbait and Hardcase get their hands on a jetpack, it's all over for the Seppies. They're a demon of a team when they really put their minds to it, and now they can FLY. Grievous wouldn't stand a chance.

(Okay, that last part got slightly crack-y, but I'm just imagining Droidbait with a jetpack and it is the funniest fucking thing. He lures the droids to one area, and then he just BLASTS out of there, like, so long, suckers. Hope you like the taste of Hardcase's explosives!)

[ambiguityisnoonesfriend]

May the 4th 2018 Letter

Dear Yoda,

I am so excited! I love all the iterations of the characters and relationships I’ve requested, and can’t wait to see what you’ve created for me!

My likes: toppy women and partners who are turned on by toppy women, humor, angst, endings with hope intact, functional relationships, dysfunctional relationships, secret relationships that aren’t really a secret, canon divergence AUs such as what if they got there five minutes sooner, time loops, porn, gen, fluff, friends with benefits, friends with benefits with feelings, interactions with the other characters who would be around at the same time except as specified, mixing and matching prompts (ex: Leia and Hera both having different troubles raising Force-sensitive kids and complaining to each other, or Ahsoka/Sabine go on a double date with Ezra/Luke, or something completely different)

My specific art likes: two or three panel simple line comics, playing card or tarot card type imagery, setting a scene, magic and metaphor

My specific porn likes: failsex including interrupted during or instead of sex, cunnilingus, both slash and het anal (DNW femslash anal), light bondage, sex pollen, aliens make them do it, the Force makes them do it, mental connections during sex, mental connections as a substitute for sex, using the Force during sex including light Force choking, Force ghost sex, toys

My line for enjoying sex pollen/AMTDI/TFMTDI is based on how much trauma the characters feel -- I prefer situations where they aren’t traumatized or upset and use the aliens/Force/pollen as an excuse for what they both/all wanted.

I do not want: noncon (okay with dubcon and sex pollen), scat, watersports, omegaverse, unrequested ships except as listed elsewhere in my sign-up, non-canon AUs such as coffeeshops, DJ, Holdo, Lux

Rey/Kylo: I went into TLJ expecting to get nothing for this pairing except maybe one dream sequence. I came out loving them even more. I love this pairing for all the potential. They are opposites. They are exactly the same. Each is incredibly jealous of the other. They keep being drawn together like two ends of a stretched spring, and the only question is if they’ll fuck, fight to the death, or both. My fondest hope is both. I love all variations of dubcon for these two, from The Force Made Them Do It and Sex Pollen, to Forced To Work Together For Reasons. Force bond sex also very welcome!

Finn/Rey/Kylo: I see Rey as drawn to both of them in a classic triangle: Finn is the pull of the light, and Kylo is the allure of the dark, and Rey is fascinated by both. Maybe Finn is enough to bring both the Jedi to the light. Maybe Kylo seduces them both to the other side. Finn and Kylo carry a lot of baggage with each other. Do they set it aside at Rey’s request, or does it define how they both must deal with her and one another? Kylo defecting and having to be babysat by Rey and Finn! Rey is injured and Kylo and Finn have to have magic Force Sex to save her! Aliens make the three of them do it!

Leia & Ben: The pain and the angst and the love in this broken family is the gift that keeps on tearing my heart out and I love it. I love every piece of heartache, how they got there, what each one thought the other thought. Given all possible futures, what would the final fallout be between Leia and Kylo after TLJ?

Poe & Ben & Jacen: At some point, these three were dragged along to some Rebellion reunion where their parents had fun reminiscing about the old days and the kids were bored. Nothing starts out well when the first words you exchange with someone are "My mother said I have to be nice to you." Knowing that Ben grew up to be a human disaster, and Poe wasn't not a disaster, and Jacen is named after a different human disaster, all I am saying is that something got set on fire by the end of the party, certainly by accident, possibly by the Force. This or any other misadventure the three kids got into would be a wonder and a delight.

Kanan/Hera & Chopper, Hera & Chopper: It's strongly implied that Chopper was Hera's only friend before Kanan came along, and from the finale, it looks like he's the one friend who will never leave her. How did they grow together? How long did it take her to fix him up after she found him, and what kinds of trouble did the two of them get into along the way? What happened when she brought aboard an alcoholic drifter who is suddenly competing with Chopper for her attention? What did Kanan make of a foul-mouthed astromech who may or may not have tried to kill him a few times?

Luke/Leia: I was ready for this ship to be sunk in the movie. I was not expecting to walk out shipping it even harder. I want all the happy times before the family reveal. I want all the angsty history post-ROTJ. Luke Denying his feelings. Leia denying hers. The times denying those feelings failed. Maybe Han knows. Maybe Han joins in. Maybe he doesn't know and that's part of the angst. Pre-TFA snuggling. Post-TLJ Force Ghost snuggling. It's all good.

Ezra/Luke: I love the idea of Ezra and Luke meeting up after the original trilogy and finding someone who understands what it's like to be them. They've both been through things nobody else would understand. Maybe Luke is the one who ends up finding Ezra out in the UR, or Ezra finds his own way back and runs into / is drawn to Luke.

Ahsoka/Sabine, Ahsoka & Sabine: Space lesbians on a quest! Everyone knows the point of a quest story is the journey and the discovery of the characters' own true inner selves, right? I want to know about all their adventures together! Does Ahsoka teach Sabine more badass lightsaber moves? Do they pretend to be married on one planet for reasons? Does Sabine build an awesome Machine that causes them unforseen plot problems? Do they date each other? Do they date other women while being happy for each other? I am okay with any combination of this, and I am happy to see them as a couple, or as dating any other female characters or OFCs except not Sabine/Ursa or Sabine/Hera.

Leia & Hera & Sabine: Capers for the Rebellion! This mission happened. I don’t know if it happened before or after the Battle of Yavin, or even several years after Endor, but it happened. Maybe they have to rescue other team members. Maybe they have to go woo new allies, or pick up supplies from a picky source. Leia and Hera are going to disagree about who is in charge. Sabine’s loyalty on the topic may vary depending on who is annoying her more at that moment. Leia and Sabine may wind up with their very first hangovers, or at a later setting, maybe they’re remembering same. For background pairings, I’d prefer Leia with Han, Luke, or both, and Hera with Kanan. Sabine is my little black femslash dress; I don’t ship her with Hera or Ursa but anyone else is fair game.

Hevy & 99: I rewatched the Domino Squad arc recently and was overcome with clone feelings. It seems like Hevy had talked to and confided in 99 before. Did he see his brother as a mentor? 99 clearly held great affection for all the clones who passed through his life. In the microcosm of his friendship with Hevy, how did he see himself? You can bring in the other clones to the story, but I'd like the primary focus to be on these two. You could take this in a more romantic direction if you like, or keep it platonic and focus on the friendship they built.

Hera/Rex: I could see them forming a FWB arrangement sometime by Hoth. Hera doesn't want to get feelings involved ever again because she doesn't want another broken heart. That doesn't mean she won't get feelings anyway but they're not in her plan. Rex has admired her for years but there are chain of command issues, which could be why he's on the Endor strike team and not directly under her command circa RotJ. They both can have angst because of the dead guy in the room, real ghost or imagined. She can have angst out of wonder if this is the best thing for her heart or her child. He can have angst because he doesn't do relationships and his time is getting shorter by the minute and should he accept this little bit of happy? Maybe they end it after one time. Maybe they knock on each other's door every several months even after the war.

Rex & Luke: The moment Rex figures out who Luke is, he is going to be Luke's number one fountain of information on Anakin Skywalker. How do they both react? Luke kept the Vader thing secret for Leia's sake, but did he ever tell Rex?

Hera & Jacen: My one DNW with this relationship is no character death for either, otherwise I am here with the fluffiest of fluffy kid fics to the most heart-wrenching of angst. Hera playing with the new baby and feeling her heart lighten! Jacen's first flying lesson! Maybe he has the Force, maybe he doesn't, maybe he really does but Hera convinces Sabine and Zeb to lie with her and say he doesn't. Does she spend every day worrying at the going rate for the Black Sun's bounty on any known Force sensitive child? Does she tell him the Good Parts stories about the Ghost family in their heyday, and is he the one she was talking to in the trailer voice over? Does she have to keep his legion of uncles and aunts from spoiling him? Does she take him into space battles with her aboard the ship, knowing they could be blasted into dust? How does the conversation go with Cham when she tells him he's going to be a grandfather? Did he ever attend Jedi Death School and how did the two of them react when they found it how it ended?

Hera/Kanan: All of it and everything. Their first months working together. Missing scenes from the time of the show. That time they banged in Ezra's old comm tower while everyone else was busy during "Flight of the Defender." Those times they banged in the various rooms of the ship. Kanan figuring out this Force Ghost business after the fact the way Qui-Gon did, and hanging out to watch and guide. Were Zeb and Sabine their first attempt at building a crew, or were there others around before, and what happened? He's been smitten with her since the beginning, and she didn't say she loved him until the end, so how did they work around feelings, and not admitting to those feelings despite the fact that everyone around them knew? What was he about to tell her when Rukh attacked? Fix-its! Post-canon angst! Comedy capers where they're just hanging out having fun!

[letitrainathousandflames]

Ficlet part II - Angst - (tw: suicide, foreshadowing, grieving)

“We’re kidding, we remember you.” Echo adds after a good few chuckles while Fives openly laughs “We we’ve been wondering what have the mighty Bravo boys been up to all this time, right, Fives?”

Fives mirrors his brother’s pleased smirk, shrugging:

“As you can see, we landed on the 501st. Arc Troopers. No big deal.”

Kai forces a tense smile at the two of them:

“Congratulations. I’m sure you earned it, sir.”

There is no venom in his words, and for some reason it annoys Fives. He wants this to feel like sweet revenge and these two are only making him feel awkward. He gives Kai a light shove on his chest.

“Cut out that crap, vod, we’re off-duty.”

“Yeah, loosen up.” Echo says with a chuckle at Nox “it’s been forever since we last seen each other, we’re over it.”

“Speak for yourself” Fives says playfully “I wanna look at Viper’s face when he looks at us in ARC uniform. I’m still pissed at his little ‘watch the dominoes fall’ joke.”

“Where is Viper, by the way?” Echo asks, looking past the two troopers, searching for their leader and the other two clones that made up theIr squad “And Niko? And that shorter one that kept trying to trip me in the halls?”

Kai and Nox share a quiet look that both Fives and Echo immediately recognize from each other’s faces every time someone who knew them from their cadet days asked about Cutup, Droidbait and Hevy.

“Kriff, I’m sorry.” Fives blurts out in a desperate need to fill the awkward silence that follows, and Echo nods

“Yeah... we didn’t mean to-”

“It’s okay.” Nox cuts him off sharply, shaking his head “Don’t bother.”

He sounds tired, and Echo recognizes the feeling, too. When the wound of losing one of your closest vod’e begins to heal and some conversation or memory suddenly rips its scab and make you bleed the pain of loss all over again.

-

They take a seat at a booth far from all the talk and loud music, ordering as much booze as they can fathom being able to handle and still be able to work on the following morning. The mood remains awkward at the first two shots, then Fives makes a joke about Kai’s beard that prompts him to mock Fives’ goatee in turn, and soon the four troopers are laughing, clinking their glasses with a promise to get hammered.

It is not after long that the chatter, storytelling and laughter goes quieter, and the four men take a small beat of silence that is broken by Echo.

“We lost them at the Rishi Moon outpost. One after the other, all three of them on the same day.”

Kai and Nox mutter a string of Mandalorian words familiar to all clones. Words of respect for those who are marching away. Fives nods, reaching for yet another shot glass on the table and downing the thing with a grimace before setting it back down.

“What of your vode? When did they...?”

Kai slumps in his seat, folding his arms over his chest and looking away. Nox laces his fingers on the table, hesitating for a moment.

“Niko and Burn died on a siege right on our first day we were assigned to the 335th. Our general sent all of the youngest troopers to the front lines and used us as bai-” he bites his lip, draws in a breath “Used us to lure a detachment of commando droids away from our supply lines. We had to hold them back and wait for an aerial strike to get rid of them all. It worked, though the few of us who made it nearly got killed by our own bombs.”

Fives feels his stomach turns. Skywalker’s plans are risky, sometimes damn near suicidal... but something like this isn’t betting on luck as he normally does; it’s assuming, unashamedly, that these men were going to die without a fighting chance just to provide a good opportunity to strike the enemy. They were bait. Disposable lives.

“What... what about Viper?” Fives asks in a hushed tone, looking between the two clones in front of him “Did he... did he die there too?”

“No, Viper got promoted to lieutenant and had another promotion in the way. The... rotation in our troops is kind of fast.”

That was an elegant way to say that clones kept dying and their ranks needing replacements.

Kai swears loudly, grabbing a glass and downing it before grabbing another one and doing the same. He grimaces, face twisted in pain as his eyes stare stubbornly down at the table.

“About a month ago” he grits out between his clenched teeth, his fingers curling into a fist on the table “He came up with a great plan to send a couple of our best troopers on a stealthy, surgical strike at the enemy base. But the general said we couldn’t waste good soldiers on such a risky plan, that we should send out the shinies instead. It was a bloodbath. Those kids got slaughtered, our location was exposed, we lost hundreds of our men that day.”

“He was our leader, y’know?” Nox says quietly, fidgeting with his glass “Strongest man we ever knew. But when we stormed the building and he saw those shinies all over the floor, burned through by blaster shots... We killed the clankers, all of them, and once it was done he only had time to rip his bucket off his head before he started throwing up on the floor. He was sobbing, screaming about how it was all his fault and those kids were only eight years old.”

“The general didn’t like that.” Nox continues as his mouth turns in a scowl “Told him to stop being weak and to get back to his feet. So he did. He wiped his mouth clean, put his helmet back on and helped us carry on the assault. He didn’t talk to us there or on the ship back home. Just kept staring aimlessly and muttering something about how ‘it wasn’t worth it’. Kept saying that over and over all the way back home. Kai and I went to sleep as soon as we reached the base because we were exhausted. Then...”

Nox looks at Kai and the trooper supports his elbows on the table, grabbing his head with his hands.

“Then we woke up one hour earlier to spar, as we always did, but Viper wasn’t in his bunk. We thought maybe he had gotten to the training room earlier, so we get there and he’s... he’s...” Kai rubs his eyes and Fives wonders is he’s trying to hide away his tears “He killed himself. Just.... put his blaster to his chin and pulled the trigger.”

An eerie silence follows the two Bravo troopers’ story, and Echo swallows down, feeling a shiver creep down his spine. Fives says exactly what he is thinking:

“This is so fucked up. I’m so sorry. I’m... look.” Fives reaches for Kai’s arm, giving it a light squeeze “I’m so sorry that this happened to you guys. And to your vod‘e.“

“Who...” Echo swallows down again, trying to erase the mental image of Viper shooting himself dead “Who is your general?”

And Nox says it, no, spits it:

“Jedi General Pong Krell.”

Fives keeps the name in the back of his mind for future reference. If he ever had to work with that monster, he would have to do his best to stay alive. He sighs, thinking for the first time how lucky he is to have Skywalker as his general.

Thank the stars he would never have to deal with such a merciless general.

“Well, bravo for Bravo squad”

Sometimes I wonder what are those cocky clones from Bravo squad up to. They sneered and mocked the Domino boys with that whole “watch the dominoes fall” crap just because they had a perfect ARC trooper score and the scrappy, ragtag dominoes were barely scraping by, taking their second attempt to finish their training and graduate from the academy. The Bravo boys must have never EVER expected the dominoes to finish the course AND for two of them to turn into ARC troopers.

I’m not holding their behavior against them though, Kamino had that strange way to raise the clones as parts of a unity, brothers - while at the same time pitting them against each other with aggressive competitiveness fueled by ongoing, constant tests and scores.

The kaminoans don’t want the clones to get too close and too fond of one another. The last thing they need is for this highly skilled group of men that vastly outnumbers them to rebel against them and the republic (despite the chip in their brains, that is. I assume it’s vital for the clones not to be under Sidius mind control until the very last minute, lest the Jedi feel something off about them and unravel his entire plan).

That was a long winded way to set up the following headcanon - ARC troopers Fives and Echo walk into the 79’s to get drunk and unwind, and on their way to order drinks they stumble upon two of the Bravo squad boys, who are now pilots of some Jedi general’s battalion.

Ficlet Part I - funny

They aren’t high-ranking troopers, their armor is simple aside from the colors of their unit, but Echo reads the word “Bravo” written in aurebesh over the thigh armor of one of them, and Fives notices the same word on the other’s shoulder guard.

“Are those two...?” Echo mutters to Fives in disbelief

“Nah.” Fives says, more to himself than Echo “No way. Them?”

The Bravo men recognize fives for his tattoo, their eyes going wide at Fives and Echo; the two clones had grown, not only by their accelerated growth rate but also from the intense ARC trooper training paired with the Kaminoans’ injections that had made them more muscular than the average clone.

The uniform makes them stand out too. 501st blue - Skywalker’s battalion’s color - pauldrons adorning their shoulders, kama draping from their hips and special scopes attached to the helmets they carried under their arms. If anyone who knew Fives and Echo back in Kamino heard you say that this impressive duo were the same lanky, uncoordinated boys from back then, they would laugh at your face.

“...CT-5555?” one of them asks, forehead creased in disbelief

Fives huffs, clicking his tongue. If these two really are who he thinks they might be, there’s no way he’s missing this golden opportunity to be as obnoxious about it as he can possibly be.

“It’s Fives.” he squares his shoulders “ARC Trooper Fives.”

“And I’m ARC Trooper Echo.” Echo says with what Fives notices to be the cockiest smirk he’s ever wore “Do we know you?”

The first clone glances at his brother, and then back at them, holding out his hand:

“I’m Kai, and this is Nox. We met back in Kamino... Bravo squad.”

Fives considers not shaking his hand but does so just to have an excuse to drag the moment some more.

“Bravo... Bravo... do you remember a Bravo squad, Echo?”

Echo presses his lips together looking deep in thought to then shake his head.

“Nope. Not at all. When did we meet? Was it during our ARC training program?”

Fives is doing his damnest not to laugh as he lets go of the other clone’s hand, watching as he visibly blushes, lowering his gaze.

[meridiansdominoes]

For the prompt challenge - any of Domino (but especially Fives) somehow finding out how Order 66 went down in canon? Alternatively, if you don't feel like writing angst - Rex being a bastard little brother to Cody and being overheard by one of his men.

ohohohoho. When have you ever known me to not be in the mood for angst, please! This is more of an esprit de corps type thing than a dominoes thing, but oh well. Also, it’s kind of a really long ramble, not my greatest drabble by far, but I’m blaming that on the plane.

 Fives is dead.

If anything, it means that he gets to see Droidbait, Cutup, and Hevy again, which is far more than he’d ever hoped for. Tup and Hardcase, too. And Ninety-nine.

But Echo is not dead.

Fives watches as Echo navigates life with prosthetic limbs and a role with the Bad Batch. He does his job well, as he always does, even though some small part of Fives sometimes wishes that Echo wasn’t so good at surviving, so that he could join them and all of his batchmates could be together again but—but—but no, he’s grateful that Echo is alive. He can’t afford to be selfish, not with something like that. Echo deserves every moment of life he can get, especially considering everything the Techno-union stole from him.

Commander Fox is also not dead.

Fives doesn’t know how he feels about that.

If he’s being honest, he’s trying not to think about it too much. Fives is little more than a ghost now. Most of the time he follows Rex around and laughs unheard at Jesse’s half-hearted jokes. Jesse’s an ARC trooper now, but he’s tired. They all are. Everyone wants the war to end. Fives wants it to end, too.

When it actually does end, Fives regrets that thought.

Fives had been right. He’d known that he was right, and he watches in muted horror with the rest of his ghostly brothers as the living clones are stripped of everything but life itself. Fives had been right, and he’d failed to stop it. The living become tools under a Sith’s hand, devoid of emotion, devoid of agency. Jesse goes down with his ship, doesn’t even attempt to escape, consumed by the incessant demands of the chip to hunt down Commander Tano. Rex lives, somehow. Fives isn’t surprised.

The knowledge that he could have stopped it all is crippling. Fives doesn’t know if he can die again as a ghost, but he thinks he comes close. He doesn’t want to exist anymore, doesn’t want to see what he had failed to prevent. It’s so much easier to close his eyes and block everything out and mourn—for himself, for his brothers, for anything, everything. His chest aches constantly, like he’s been shot all over again, like he’s burning up inside, like he’s drowning and choking and incapable of drawing breath. The guilt tears him apart. He’s helpless to do anything but watch as the Jedi are destroyed and his brothers are turned into mindless pawns.

Droidbait, Cutup, and Hevy don’t leave his side. Droidbait curls himself next to Fives and mourns with him while Cutup keeps a grounding touch on Fives’ shoulders and Hevy stands watch, silent and grim. They stay like that for a long time.

It’s Jesse who snaps him out of it, in the end, once he finally finds them in the crowds of dead men. He marches his way up to Hevy and shoves him aside. Hevy doesn’t put up a fight, allowing Jesse passage. He knows how close Fives and Jesse had been in life—he’d watched it, after all.

Fives doesn’t look up when Jesse approaches, but he does go tense when Jesse reaches out to run his hand down Fives’ back. Jesse doesn’t say, “It’s not your fault,” or “It’s gonna be okay”. Fives is grateful for that. He wouldn’t have believed them anyway. What Jesse does say instead is just enough to ensure that Fives decides to keep existing.

“Fives. Echo is still alive.”

 It doesn’t take away the guilt. It doesn’t make things right, doesn’t change the fact that Fives should have tried harder, should have run faster, should have done something more, should have told someone else. But it is enough to tear Fives out of the spiral of helpless, howling agony that he’s descended into since Order 66 was issued.

Echo is alive. Echo is still fighting somewhere, and even though Echo can’t see or hear them, Fives could never leave one of his batchmates alone like that.

Echo is alive, and that’s enough for Fives to keep fighting. Just a little longer.