#rex is stunned or cuffed or something

[redbean-nom]

honestly echo is probably going to die heroically in the next two episodes. he's not with rex, gregor, and wolffe in rebels, he's not with the greater rebellion, and Echo Base exists.

what i'm more curious about is when cody gets his own heroic sacrifice. he's not with rex and he's not with obi wan, so unless he also fell in a sarlacc or got carbonited, he's definitely dead.

anyways, the last episode's title is The Cavalry Has Arrived. and who could be a more fitting "cavalry" than Cody?

[phantomphangphucker]

Ectober Day 28: Fall - Sinners Are We Chap.6: No More Idle Hands

And Dove could stay silent no more.

Neither he nor his brother got their father’s infamous wail. For Russet that made perfect sense, he simply didn’t hold up in the power department for such a powerful ability. And Orrin didn’t find such a brash brazen ability to be suited to him, so he rather didn’t care if he developed it or not. But Dove having it, and so young, was truly a surprise. And he loved those. So he feels he is quite justified in laughing as everyone else grasped their ears and collapsed, even father fell to the ground as everything shook. Everything around bursting, exploding, pluming even more smoke and ash into the sky practically blotting it out.

Who would have thought she’d have such a destructive ability.

He summons enough ectoplasm around his ears to muffle the sound, father wasn’t honestly smart enough to think of this quite yet. Then again, father was never on the receiving end of the Ghostly Wail. Orrin stands up, defying gravity to keep his balance on the shaky ground, sticking his arms out to the side and laughing, “WOW! I MEAN REALLY! WOW!”, grinning wide and a bit wild, if everything’s descending into madness and chaos then might as well behave a little mad to match, “KEEP THIS UP AND YOU MIGHT JUST KILL EVERYONE YOURSELF! HAHAHAHAHA!”. He absolutely knows father looks to him and notes his little trick to get around the wail, and will, of course, utilise it himself in a few seconds. The pressure’s on Dove, what will you do? What will you do.

But again she catches him by surprise, picking an option he never realised was on the board at all. She doesn’t stop, or aim it; no she changes octaves. Which, was father even capable of such a thing? She, she might just be stronger than him. Well fancy that. This octave though, oh it absolutely makes Orrin drop to his knees; the ectoplasm doing nothing to muffle the sounds.

All the mortals groan and roll over, many simply watching or backing away in stunned silence as three of the -apparently- four present Gray-Phantom’s pass out, the little girl- the princess losing the human disguise in the process.

Rio pushes herself up, staggering to run over to the little glowing gray-haired girl with her little head tilted skyward as green/purple sound-waves pulsed out of her mouth, sparkling pale blue tears streaming down her face from amber eyes. Rio collapsing next to her and hugging the little girl she’d grown to know as so gentle it almost hurt, “ROBIN! DOVE! STOP! SWEETHEART IT’S FINE! IT’S FINE! NO ONE’S HURTING ANYMORE! BUT YOU NEED TO STOP!”, and practically smushes the girl into her as the horrific sound peters off and the girl shakes violently.

Rio looks around as everyone starts to stand, some very cautiously looking towards the downed Gray-Phantom’s and chucking things at them from afar. Rio squeezing Dove/Robin closer and snapping her head towards Rex as he walks over, “she’s never hurt anyone”.

“She’s one of them”.

Rio snarls, “do I look like I care?”. Rex just huffs and wanders off, waving over his shoulder, “this is your problem then. Remi’s fine though”. Rio sighs at that. Then looking around as she stands. What the Hell are they going to do?

Spotting one of the hunters moving to put anti-ecto braces on Lark -Orrin, she staggers over, minding her twisted ankle and other injuries, “wait. This- this utterly insane nutter is to thank. He did this. Planned this. He-”, glancing to the girl she’s carrying in her arms who looked to just be staring blankly, “-got her to take them down. At least wake the twit up”.

The hunter huffs and cuffs him anyway but does give the... prince a good zap to wake him up. The guy groans on the ground in a way that makes it sound like he had simply been taking a nice afternoon nap, “well. That was certainly interesting”.

Rio grunts down at him, slightly out of pain, “and that was a stupid choice of first words. I don’t think I need to point out that you’re at gunpoint, cuffed, and surrounded; Orrin”.

He chuckles faintly, sits up, and crosses his legs. Cool, calm, demeanour never faltering, “well I would certainly hope so. These fellows wouldn’t be doing what they’re supposed to otherwise”, he looks around and shrugs a little, her following his gaze towards Russet. Him chuckling faintly, “well damn, that imbecile’s still alive”.

Jester loses it at that, “you wanted us to kill him?”.

“Arguably, why not? He’s a real bastard”.

One of the hunters makes a wheezing sound, “oh gods”, looks to Rio, “how in all the worlds did you turn one of the princes. Seriously”.

Orrin apparently won’t let that statement fly, “oh no. Blame the little missy. Real gentle doll that one”.

Rio looks to the side as Dove/Robin stirs at that, looking down at Orrin. Rio holds on to her, unsure, when the girl moves to reach for him. Orrin just chuckles and stands up while the cuffs just fall off and takes the girl from her in a swift motion. Everyone near -who aren’t helping with clean up or medical care- gape at him and follow him with their guns, Rio turning around gapping herself. Orrin chuckles again, looking at them with a smirk, “what? Did you really think I wouldn’t have altered everything to have little to no effect on me?”, he grins, “I’m the smart one you know. The sneaky shadow. Guess it’s true what people say that no one notices what their shadow does until it does something they don’t expect”. One of the hunters shoots him in the foot as if to check, which he rolls his eyes at. It, of course, does nothing more than leave a bit of ash on his black spandex high-heels.

Everyone looks to the two Gray-Phantom’s that could actually be cuffed. One guy clearing his throat, “so... what are we supposed to with this? Did... did we just win”. It takes only a bit of murmuring for most of the people around to break out into cheering or crying. No one stops pointing weapons at Orrin though, which he obviously ignores as if they don’t even exist.

Rio does smile at Dove when she seems to hum slightly happily over the cheering. Though Dove straightens up and leans away from Orrin a bit, reaching her fingers out towards Russet. Everyone jumping and staring as both Russet and Phantom move across the ground to the other two Gray-Phantom’s inhumanly fast, yet never waking. Orrin putting Dove on the ground who goes over, takes off her teddy bear backpack, and bops Russet on the head with it; pointing at him with puffed out cheeks like she was scolding him. Then moving to do the same to Phantom. Orrin blinks at the scene, “I do not claim to understand that girl”.

Rio is the only one willing to stand anywhere close to him, her crossing her arms, “I think you just don’t understand being nice and innocent”.

“You may be right there. Though I doubt most would be any different in my shoes”. No one really argues him there, because he was probably right. How could anyone be raised by those monsters and not wind up one?

Rio scowls at him, “I almost feel bad for you. But you’re probably as much a murderous monster as the rest of your family”, scowling more when he chuckles and grins meanly. Making it very clear to everyone that he was perfectly fine with that fact, and that he has, in fact, actually killed people. Rio draws her eyebrows together, “then why, why effectively save us”.

Orrin quirks an eyebrow, “didn’t I already tell you? Oh well, mortal minds are hardly of quality”, then steamrolls right over multiple offended objections, “me and brother dearest started out like terrible terrors”, pointing at Dove, “she, did not”, smoothing his jacket, “be a shame to turn gold to brass, don’t you think? Further, this seemed like a far more interesting course of action, I dare say”.

Everyone pauses and looks to Dove and Russet as the latter stirs. Orrin actually smirking when Russet spots Dove glaring down at him with crossed arms and Russet actually flinches. Orrin saunters over with a very wicked-looking grin on his face, “now what was that? Did the big scary bad Rusty flinch at the sight of a little girl?”. Which fine, more than a few people around laugh at slightly. Though many find this to be incredibly surreal and way too mundane after everything; petty sibling bickering between those framed to be the worst of monsters in the middle of what was just a battleground that had promised nothing but death for all the mortals there mere seconds ago.

Russet scowls up at the younger prince, “fuck you you fucking piece of shit demon child bastard. Ancients fuck you are a psychopath-”.

Orrin cuts him off with a shrug while everyone else just watches wide-eyed, “I appreciate the compliment, though really this seems more like a situation where you should be aiming to be insulting”, he shoves Russets head with his boot, making Russet squirm and start spewing profanities at noticing the cuffs and everything. Orrin just talks over him, “be glad I’m not power-hungry like you. Otherwise-”, Orrin grins and everyone tenses as he bends down, “-I’d find it quite tempting to take advantage of this and just do away with the first prince entirely. I find doing so would hardly be difficult, considering your current predicament”. Everyone relaxes when Dove hits Orrin with the plushie backpack, and he just chuckles faintly and gives her a head pat as he straightens up.

After a second though, all the hunters and rebels nod to each other, marching over and move to grab up both the still unconscious Phantom and snarling Russet. But Dove grabs both of them and squeezes them, somehow knocking Russet back out, and puffs out her cheeks defiantly.

Everyone glancing at each other awkwardly. Orrin breaks their awkwardness slightly by sighing, “and she still doesn’t know how to snarl properly”.

Rio shakes her head, personally glad for that, and walks over the kneel in front of her, “sweetheart, we can’t just leave them in the street. And remember what I said about bad people needing to be punished?”, when Dove nods she continues, “well we punish people by locking them up. Besides-”, side-eyeing the hunters, “-I doubt you’d let us seriously hurt them. Right?”. Dove nods immediately and repeatedly, puffing her cheeks more. Rio can tell that the hunters got the damn message that this was a losing battle. No Gray-Phantom was dying/being destroyed here today. This tiny girl just effectively took out all of the ghostly Gray-Phantom’s with one attack and practically instantly, even nearly destroyed the city and everyone in it at the same time. They were very lucky she was a kind gentle soul. Very. It would be better to not tick her off or do something to change that. Not that Rio was entirely sure it was possible to piss that girl off. Annoy? Sure. Piss off? No.

Dove huffs again, turns almost dramatically, and starts marching off in the direction of the -probably wrecked- jailhouse; dragging Phantom and Russet under her arms across the ground.

One of the hunters pointing out, “she does realise we can’t put them in regular cells, right? Like, those things need special ecto-containment cells. Especially Phantom”, grumbling, “with that bloody crown of his”.

Orrin grins and turns to him, sticking his hands in his pockets and giving a smile that’s close to charming, “actually, no”, tilting his head, “well, yes, but no”. Rio glares at him so he explains himself without any further prompting, “I think it is fair to say that father was quite efficiently and effectively bested, yes?”.

One of the hunters scowls, “your point, monster”, scowling a little more, “and know that regardless of this, you still belong in a cell or obliterated out of existence”.

Orrin only chuckles instead of seeming even slightly threatened, “oh I’m well aware how others feel of me, no need wasting your breath. After all, you need it and you have so very little of it”, grinning meanly, “why it could be snuffed out just like that”.

Rio pinches the bridge of her nose, “for the love of- stop being threatening just because you can be now that it won’t make you suspicious”.

Orrin rolls his eyes, “you have no idea how many times I’ve wanted to tear off your pretty little head”.

“Uncalled for”.

“And yet you still seem to put up with me. Strange”. Rio absolutely scowls deeper at the Gray-Phantom for that. “Anyway, my point is, when you best a royal, what is it that happens?”, he taps his chin in obviously fake contemplation before sounding rather condescending, “why you usurp them of course. You take their throne. Their crown. I do believe you get the message this time”.

Rio blinks at him, bullshit, “there is no way your... mother will go for that”.

He wags a clawed finger at her, “ah but her role as Mortal Queen is entirely made up and her claim as High Ghost Sovereign is that of a Consort”, shrugging, “normally in chess, you kill the queen, you win the game. But in this case, it’s the king”, smirking, “or was”. Needless to say, everyone starts freaking out.

Rio watches him smirk as people panic, it was mostly a good or confused panic though. “You just like chaos, don’t you”.

He doesn’t even look to her as he speaks, “I find it enjoyable yes. It’s more that I like to be entertained. I’m a creature of novelty and I had been rather bored as of late”.

Rio squints at him, “I can’t figure out if you’re genuinely on our side or are just dicking around”. Scowling when he winks before sauntering off in the direction of the jailhouse. More than a few hunters and rebels following largely to ‘keep an eye on’ the Gray-Phantom they could do nothing about; though some were conflicted on their feelings over the halfa that they had become familiar and even friendly with over the past while.

They walk in to Dove sitting on the floor attempting and succeeding at braiding Phantom’s flaming hair. Orrin furrowing his eyebrows at her, “why? What purpose does this serve”. She predictably just hums at him, rocking a little. Many of the hunters and rebels mutter, “you've got to be kidding me”. Rio and a few others barely hold back cooing ‘awww’s at the girl; the fact that it was Phantom getting his hair braided rather killed the cute effect of the scene.

Everyone but Orrin and Dove jumping at a portal swirling open on the wall and the FrightKnight waltzing through. All of the fully living aiming their weapons but doing nothing when the ghost bows to Dove, who pats his helmet with a small smile.

The FrightKnight looks to Orrin, “I must say, you frighten me. It will never cease to amaze me how so many call the first prince the demon rather than you”. Orrin bows very exaggeratedly with a coy grin, “you flatter me so”. The ghost shakes his head before turning and kneeling before Dove, “shall I take these two to the dungeon for you, my queen”, she just hums but the ghost seems to understand and before anyone can do anything the two captured Gray-Phantom’s are whisked away by the ghost.

All the fully living around are stunned stupid, Rio looking to Orrin, “you were serious”, then screwing up her face, “wait”, throwing her hands out to the side and scowling at Orrin, “Dove obviously doesn’t have a mean bone in her body. Isn’t she just going to let them loose?!?!”. The group giving the halfas panicked looks as they come upon the same worry. The princess -Queen?- was practically a newborn and those two monsters were her family.

Orrin waves everyone off, “oh it’s no matter. Crown’s hers all the same. Dear brother isn’t strong enough to beat her and father wouldn’t bother to even try. He never genuinely harms family in any long-lasting or permanent ways”, Orrin looks around and gives another mean smirk, “though you should thank little Dove for stopping you from killing Russet. I sure wouldn’t have”.

One of the guys squints at him, “why? Also, them being free is the problem, not them trying to challenge her. Though fine, that would be an issue too”. Everyone had officially decided without question that they’d take the sweet little Dove as a ruler over her monster parents or siblings.

“Why that’s so very simple. You may think father is bad already, but that is nothing compared to what he’s really capable of. I wouldn’t put it past him to annihilate everything he could get his claws on if one of us were destroyed”.

Rio almost can’t believe that she’s hearing the Phantom, the mass-murdering monster of monsters, had a ridiculous soft spot for his family. A genuine one. Turning to look at Dove and going wide-eyed at her floating/walking over while tugging at a flaming glowing green crown. Which pulls down over her face before springing back over her head every time she lets go of it. The girl humming and purring in clear joy and amusement. Then kneeling down to poke Rio’s ankle which suddenly doesn’t hurt. Rio blinking, “sweetheart... did you just... heal me?”. Dove hums and nods before running off poking people.

Orrin sighs and shakes his head a little, guess she thought the hiding game was over; he does follow her with his eyes though. Which doesn’t go unnoticed.

One of the hunters kneeling down to let the little glowing girl poke his head, then staring off after her as she moves on, “this is going to take some getting used to”, then noticing Orrin’s staring that’s boarding on a glare, “chill out ah... for the love of everything take your human form again, this is too weird”. Some others nod, some laugh though it’s weak.

Orrin rolls his eyes but promptly shoots the guy lazily with an ecto-beam; the guy hissing from the impact and being caught off-guard, “that’s for proposing the idea of kidnapping Dove”. Unsurprisingly everyone points their guns at him again before lowering them and glaring at the halfa after he spoke. He just grins, “just keeping things interesting”, the grin turning rather mean as the guy brushes himself off, “besides I think you’d prefer a weak little ecto-beam over my original idea. Which involved cups, mice, and your eyes. Make of that what you will”.

Rio scowls, “I think I preferred when you didn’t randomly threaten people, let’s go back to that”, sighing and glancing to Dove, “at least you’re protective I guess”.

Everyone goes silent, which becomes slightly awkward till Remi comes running in looking for her ma only to get practically tackled by Dove. Gently tackled, but still tackled. Remi just looks confused and kinda scared, “w-who”. Resulting in Dove looking almost heartbroken and making gestures at Orrin, who rolls his eyes but twirls his fingers dramatically; both of them suddenly looking as everyone was rather more familiar with. Remi gets over her shock instantly and starts worry babbling at Dove.

-

Orrin grins faint and amused as he leans his arms on the windowsill, watching as Dove finishes poking people outside, everyone exchanging glances before basically shouting, “LONG LIVE THE QUEEN”. Oh there were so many possibilities to be had. Especially when father wakes and mother hears of this. Would she be proud ‘her little girl’ bested the ghost she never could? Would Dove ‘talk’ them into being peaceful ‘or else’? Would the dead accept her as a High Sovereign or would she need to prove her worth?

Looking down, she obviously had little idea what was going on. Possibly none at all. She was simply smiling and moving her hands around because she was enjoying their happiness and cheer. Such a strange thing. Her enjoying... joy. He truly has little clue how their parents made her. And he rather doubts they understand it either. Even when those two were ‘good guys’ they certainly weren’t able to be called ‘innocent’ or ‘gentle’. While those were the first words that came to mind with Dove.

Turning his head slightly as Rio comes in, her closing the door and leaning against it with crossed arms, “so... are you guys going to be staying or...”, and quirking an eyebrow.

“Is this your mortal way of asking me to”.

She huffs, “Remi would be sad, that is all”. Which Orrin isn’t even close enough to a fool to believe for even a second, “yeah. Sure it is”.

“...”.

Orrin shakes his head a little and turns to look back out the window. The mortals were giving her sweets. How quaint. “I doubt I could keep Dove away. As I find I doubt she would really let me try to in genuine”. She had clearly grown fond of this place and it’s creatures; and clearly not as simply pets, servants, or loyal manipulatable underlings.

He can hear the raised eyebrow in Rio’s voice, “wouldn’t ‘let you’? You don’t seem like someone who’s controllable”.

He elects for vague, not as if he needs to explain in the first place, “there are ways”. Far be it for him to mention that the Crown makes the wearer able to control the dead, or part dead for that matter. He doubts Dove would make much use of that, which is quite fine by him. Not that that wouldn’t make things interesting regarding father.

“Riiiight”.

He outright ignores that. Him speaking again as she joins him by the window, “regardless, no we will not be staying. Dove has her castle and throne to attend to”, grinning both mean and mischievous, “and I have a brother to torture”.

“... I can’t tell if you mean that literally”, she sighs, “so she’ll come back then”.

“Indeed”.

“And you?”.

That does catch him just slightly off-guard. Apparently he wasn’t completely deplorable to these people. Fancy that. Though he had a level of feeling that this particular member of the living was more than just tolerant of him. “Oh I doubt Remi would care if I did or not”, him smirking a bit, “unless of course, that particular question has nothing to do with her happiness at all”.

He glances at her as she audibly scowls at him, “you’re an emotionless asshole without a caring bone in your body”.

Which only makes him chuckle, “then clearly you’re rather nuts for getting feelings involved”. This entire escapade was bringing plenty of interesting surprises and twists that he hadn’t yet experienced it would seem. “Particularly when you know said asshole has wanted to at the very least mildly murder you on multiple occasions”. Why that of all things gets her to promptly give him a chastised kiss he isn’t going to claim to understand in the slightest. Instead he furrows his brows at her, “I find I don’t understand you much either at times”. Did Phantom’s just have a habit of attracting living women? That could be an idea to look into at a later date.

She rolls her eyes and looks back out the window, where Dove is now chuckling flowers at people. “Good. I’d probably bore you otherwise”.

He dips his head slightly to acknowledge that is rather true, “accurate”.

“... so, will you come back?”.

“Well I dare say my curiosity is rather peaked now, so I hardly can find a reason to not”.

She scowls at him, but even his moron of a brother could tell she wasn’t actually upset with him. “Yup. You’re still a jerk”.

He snorts, “don’t go expecting change. Dove’s the ‘sweetheart’, not me”, running a hand through his hair and smirking, “I’m definitely more charming though”.

“Annnd there’s the ego”.

“It’s far too late for you to make denials-”, pausing and tilting his head at sniffing mothers scent. Looking up to spot the red suit and hoverboard far up in the sky, clearly she was watching, was seeing this. Dove frolicking with a bunch of mortals, a green crown flaming over her head all the while. “Mother’s here”.

Rio immediately jerks to attention and puts her hand to her blaster in preparation for assault. Orrin tilts his head though, watching as mother seems to shake her head and laugh before shooting off into the distance. “She... left”, he’s never felt genuinely shocked by something before. Why?

Rio blinks at him, obviously in shock herself, “what?! Why?!”.

“I... don’t believe I know”.

Rio blinks at him before shaking her head and stiffly leaning on the windowsill again, “well I'm not about to look that particular gift horse in the mouth”.

He squints before smirking after a bit, “she may very well be going to mock father and berate brother for being a moron again”.

“Still not even glancing at the gift horse”. He chuckles at that.

Suddenly Dove’s floating in front of them, tugging gently on Orrin’s sleeve. ‘Come’. He feels the unspoken command deep into the core of him, and he can’t very well deny it. Now can he? So he floats off the ground and moves to head out the window, though smirking meanly and grabbing Rio at the last second to yank her out too.

“You bastard!”. That only makes him chuckle more.

Him speaking quiet enough that the living won’t hear, “you truly ought learn to be more sparing with the KingSpeak, being forced to do things is hardly enjoyable. Particularly for a Gray-Phantom”. Dove just hums pleasantly at him as he’s effectively dragged into the silly dancing thing. And while the mortals keep their distance mostly, they don’t outright flee from him. How quaint and a rather peculiar turn of events.

End.

[aces-to-apples]

AO3

Warnings: Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Mind Manipulation, Mind Rape, Mind Control, Psychological Torture, Memory Manipulation, Flashbacks, Implied Sexual Roleplay

Chapter 1: ramikadyc

The clone resists, as is their wont.

Mandalorians prized strength above all else, but to clones, it was loyalty. To the wretched Republic, to the Jedi rotten to the core, to each other, it all amounted to the same thing. Pawns for Sidious, bodies to step over on the path to victory.

He will not give Maul the information willingly, but that is of no import.

Kast holds the belligerent clone still as he begins the process of probing his mind. The Force swirls around them in agitated eddies, but Maul pushes them aside, impatient to find what he’s looking for.

He screams—of course, he does—when his shields, no doubt shored up by Jedi interference, break against the might of Maul’s will. And then his mind is open, but it is chaotic, thoughts and feelings and memories irrelevant to his search clouding his search. A clever defense, to be sure; if an enemy breaches the walls, overwhelm them with numbers.

Maul wades through sense memories of battle, dust-filled air coating his mouth and choking his lungs, blood and broken bones ignored and left untended, the comforting weight of armor and weapons dragging him beneath the waves—

Traumatic, disturbing, upsetting as they are, he pushes them aside.

The buzz of a thousand conversations never had come next, less easily parsed as they converge upon him all at once, made all the more difficult by the similarity of the voices.

… hit the deck, that was close, what’s your I.D. number, who’s your captain again, I can’t believe he’s gone, local chow’s worse than rations, can’t hold you liquor, civvies are so damned weird, I’m hit, love you too, attention troopers, nice to see you again, we made it, what’s that smell, gods I hate these missions, so much for downtime, why don’t you kiss me and find out, Jedi are so karking weird, bet you my next shift I can hit that, what was that, what’s going on, someone’s in here, get out, getoutgetoutgetout…

These, Maul allows to wash over him without a struggle, and soon the voices crystallize.

“Good work, 5597!” Alpha-17 praises as much as he ever does, prompting a bloom of pride in his chest. “Keep it up and we’ll make a decent ARC of you yet.”

“I’m just doing it for fun!” Hardcase laughs as their trio careens through the atmosphere, nearly a parody of himself as the stress of the campaign becomes worse and worse. He was never so foolhardy at the beginning of the war, dammit. And then he’s out of his ship and telling them to get out, dragging the missile-launcher through to the reactor core and saying, “Live to fight another day, boys!”

“You know, we could get caught,” Kix protests half-heartedly as he presses open-mouthed kisses up the side of his neck. “The commander’s due for a growth-cycle any day now and—”

—there, yes, the commander, Ahsoka Tano—

The new commander is a shiny, cadet-sized Togruta all of seven years old to their eyes. Few nicknames have stuck over the years, Twinblade and Kih’verd chief among them, but she was eyn vod like any other. She even grew like they did, in fits and spurts, and she wasn’t perfect but she was a good soldier, val kih’verd…

“… Motir ca'tra nau tracinya… Gra'tua cuun hett su dralshy'a…”

No, that isn’t what he—

“… Aruetyc talyc runi'la solus cet o'r… Motir ca'tra nau tracinya…”

Ahsoka Tano, who is Ahsoka Tano, the little sister of their hearts, where did the memory—

… sorry, Kixy…

This isn’t what Maul is looking for, this isn’t what he wants, and he presses harder into the trooper’s mind. “Who is Ahsoka Tano?” he repeats, growling at the clone’s stubborn resistance.

“You want in,” he snarls in reply, face a rictus of pain, “then you come all the way in.”

And then his mind opens wide, latches onto Maul, and heaves.

.

. .

. . .

“I thought we agreed we wouldn’t do this after we left Pir’haran,” Kix says into his mouth, sly and victorious even as JesseMaul cages him in against one of the medbay cots. “Something about it being unprofessional to break formation now that the war’s on…”

JesseMaul grins. “I did,” he acknowledges, “but haven’t you heard? I’m a lieutenant now. You going against your CO’s orders?”

“Copaani mirshmure'cye, vod? That sounds suspiciously like an abuse of authority,” Kix replies wickedly. “What if I were to alert someone? Tell them a lieutenant is trying to leverage his shiny new rank in exchange for… inappropriate favors?”

“Ooo-oooh,” JesseMaul groans, starting out mocking and trailing off into something far more pleasurable as Kix bites at his ear. “That what you want, baarur’ika? To come see me in the brig—cuffed and completely at your mercy. Sounds a bit heartless.”

Kix’s hands crash suddenly against his chest, and for a brief second JesseMaul worries that he’d gone too far with that one, but Kix continues shoving him until his back hits the wall, hard. “What I want is for you to stop talking,” he growls and begins tugging at their greys.

JesseMaul shivers. “Think you can order a lieutenant around, baar’ur?”

Meeting his eyes very deliberately, Kix leans over and slams his fist onto the door’s locking mechanism. Then he drags the flat of his knuckles around the skin of his left ear, like tucking away a lock of hair. “Haven’t you heard, lieutenant? Medical outranks everyone. Now, are you gonna respect the chain-of-command, ver’alor?”

His voice goes deep and rumbling with authority and JesseMaul shudders. “Yes, sir.”

. . .

. .

.

JesseMaul can’t breathe properly, but dares not shift to a more comfortable position.

He’s carrying precious cargo, after all.

“Will he be okay?” the voice of Torrent’s newest addition, Double, asks quietly. “I mean, does anyone have medical training?”

Their ragtag little fireteam all answer in the negative and all ask themselves the same question. What do they do when their medic is the one who needs help?

Kix’s head lolls to the side as JesseMaul staggers into their makeshift camp, knees buckling under the weight of his burc’ya and the pain of a few cracked ribs. Nothing he can’t take, but he wishes Kix was at least conscious to berate him for it. The other three, bless their hearts, can’t tell the difference.

“I don’t like just sitting here,” Trouble murmurs, nervously field-stripping her deece.

“Neither do I,” JesseMaul agrees, making her startle. “But the Commander said to wait for extraction, so we wait for extraction.”

Explosions and blasterfire shake the ground and light up the night, but cut off from the battle, they can do nothing but sit and wait. Later, at the medcenter after the battle is won, he watches Kix’s eyes flutter open and then narrow in suspicion at his tired smile.

“And here you keep saying that I’m the one who needs looking after, baruur’ika.”

Even beat up and barely conscious, Kix scoffs. “You do need looking after, verd’ika. S’why you got me.”

JesseMaul laughs brokenly. “Then how ‘bout we make it official, eh?” At his riduur’s stunned expression, he leans down and gently presses their foreheads together. “I don’t ever want to hold you in my arms like that, again—knowing that I could help you if we’d just got our heads out of our shebse and cross-trained earlier. What do you say, Kixy?

“Marry me?”

.

. .

. . .

The Alor’verd laughs himself sick when they turn in their “paperwork” for the union.

Grumbling, Captain Rex chucks a shiny gold credit chit at his head and glares at them. “Couldn’t wait another month, lads?”

Kix rolls his eyes but JesseMaul slings an arm around his shoulder and knocks their helmets together as he drapes himself dramatically against his vod’uur. “Sorry, captain,” he lies without a shred of remorse, “I just couldn’t help myself. I’m sure Commander Kote will give it back to you once Boil and Waxer submit their forms, though.”

“Don’t count on it,” the commander snorts. “Those two’ll need something drastic to make them admit to breaking formation.”

“Eh, give it time,” Captain Rex says, malcontent easing slightly at the prospect. “You two said your vows yet? Or did you wanna go the nat-born route? When te verd’ika found out that Sweets and Bitters went for a civilian ceremony, she made me promise to ask if she could officiate the next one.”

Blinking at the unexpected offer, JesseMaul and Kix exchange rueful grins. “We said them,” Kix says slowly, and JesseMaul continues, “But if Commander Tano is that keen on it, I don’t think we’ll mind saying them again.”

Commander Kote snorts again. “I’m sure you won’t,” he says, shaking his head. “I’ll send out a leave-wide comm, ask if anyone else wants to attend. Only you Torrent vode, I swear…”

The captain chuckles, refusing to be insulted. He taps his comm and says, “Commander Tano, are you available to come down to the barracks in about an hour?”

“Of course, Rex,” her voice crackles across the airwaves. “Is there a problem?”

“Sure is, sir,” he says, winking at them. “Same one Bitters and Sweets had last leave, if you recall the particulars.”

Commander Tano’s gasp and muffled, “Excuse me, Master Plo, I have to go!” has the lot of them smiling at each other. “I’ll be there as soon as I can, Rexster! Don’t let it start without me—”

. . .

. .

.

Finally wrenching himself out of the ver’alor’s—the lieutenant’s—the clone’s grasp, Maul bares his teeth in triumph. “There she is,” he hisses, and follows the thread to the information he seeks. The clone thrashes in Kast’s grip but in his effort to obfuscate any information about the former Jedi, he’d given Maul just the opening he needed to find it.

He shrieks in her grip as Maul delves deeper into the recesses of his mind, chasing every scrap of memory about Ahsoka Tano, and Maul feels a stirring of pity. When he finally relents, content in what he’s found, he gestures for Kast to release him.

“You have heart, lieutenant,” Maul says, crouching down to meet the slumped trooper’s gaze. His face is blotchy and contorted with residual pain, tear-tracks stark against his skin. “I believe I may admire that.”

The lieutenant, Jesse, shudders at the words, cringing away from him.

Carefully, gently, Maul brushes his fingers against the clone’s temple and a compulsion against his pain-filled mind. “Now, be at ease, lieutenant. You’ve done marvelously.”

[letitrainathousandflames-archive]

Bitter Victory

“We did it. We took Umbara.”

It sounds more forced in his voice than it did in his head, Fives’ voice wrapped tight around the words. They did it, didn’t they? They foiled the most convoluted plan of the separatists up to now. It’s a victory - a huge one.

It tastes bitter and hollow, and it makes Fives’ guts twist in revulsion. He looks ahead, where Dogma is set into a ship, wrists cuffed and golden-brown eyes cast down. He had nodded to Rex, but seemed to look away as soon as he caught a glimpse of Fives approaching. Barely a shiny, overachieving, too loyal for his own good, jedi-killer, martyr. Kriffing hells, Fives knows he’s only eight. He looks hundreds, standing pale in the ship as it gets ready to take off.

A trooper from Torrent helps one from Ghost to his feet, survivors of Krell’s attempt to make them kill each other. A trooper tears his bucket off, letting it clatter to the ground and drops to his knees wailing like a cadet after helping Tup bring in another dead trooper whose armor had been cut and pierced by Krell’s lightsabers.

Tup sinks down beside the crying trooper, wrapping his arm around his shoulders and speaking softly to him.

“He’s marching away now vod. It’s over. C’mon now, we need... need to get his body to the medics, see if they can salvage anything. They need blood, organs, limbs, anything.”

“He deserves a pyre!...”

Tup nods, and the trooper clings to him, still sobbing quietly.

“They all do. There’s nothing we can do for the dead now. We need to save the living ones.”

Behind him, Fives hears Jesse muttering about how he wishes he had been quicker than dogma and had executed Krell himself.

Fives shares the sentiment, placing a hand over his Captain’s shoulder.

“You alright, sir?”

Rex looks back to Fives, not seeming to really be looking at him, eyes glassy and utterly lost. The troopers’ cries and angry snarling are all around them, cursing in mando’a melding with solemn words of farewell, and Rex looks for a moment like he’s been pierced by the lightsaber Krell had threatened him with. His jaw is tensed up, lips quivering, nostrils flared in something between hurting and scowling, and he nods sharply.

“What’s the meaning of all this? I mean...why?”

The bitter taste at the back of Fives’ throat intensifies. He looks at their right to see Tup and Jesse taking turns in the task of draining an entire bottle of kashyykian vodka on their own. Kix is nowhere in sight - probably drenched in blood to his elbows trying to keep their vode alive in the medbay.

“I don’t know, sir.” he says sheepishly “I don’t think anybody knows. But I do know that someday, this war is gonna end.”

That was the first and only time Fives lied with conviction, no stammering, no looking back and forth and hesitating. The lie dripped out of his lips like poison, bitter like the tears he kept choking back, because he was an ARC trooper, and he couldn’t allow the younger ones, barely shinies, to see him cry over his dead brothers, over Krell’s betrayal, over the fact that he knew this war was endless and wouldn’t stop even when the last clone trooper dropped dead on the ground.

And he waited for Rex’s words, because Rex was their rock, he was the only one that could always tell them something to give them strength to carry on. But Rex’s voice was raspy and tired, dull look upon his brown eyes.

“Then what? We’re soldiers. What happens to us then?”

Fives’ eyes went wide, and he grimaced. He tried to think of a hopeful answer, but the young clone’s sniffling was blocking his thoughts away. Fives’ throat felt narrow, the permanently dark world leaving no room for anything else in his mind; he reached for his own neck over his blacks, feeling his pulse under his fingers. Alive, he thought to himself he was still alive. Even this small victory felt empty under the weight of  his losses.

“Fives.” Rex’s voice snapped the ARC out of it “I trust you to make sure only the men necessary for our security until Cody and General Kenobi meet us here have their blasters loaded with heat. All others must have their heat replaced with stuns.”

Fives frowned, pleased for at least having orders to make him stop thinking.

“Stuns? In such a hostile situation? Sir, we don’t know if the Umbarans will send reinforcements.”

“That’s precisely why the men you pick will have their blasters hot and ready. They’ll have to be enough.”

Fives wasn’t very much in the mood of following orders without questioning. Look where that had gotten Dogma.

“Rex, why am I supposed to put our safety at risk like that?”

Rex grabbed Fives by his shoulder, eyes no longer dull, but sharp and focused.

“Because they might wanna blast their brains out. After something like this, a trooper might think that pressing a muzzle to their chin and pulling the trigger doesn’t sound like a bad idea. Now, can I count on you to make sure that no vod takes his own life?”

Fives hesitates and then nods. He wonders how Rex knows this. Has he witnessed a vod doing it? Had he ever been one of the ones considering it? Was he talking about Geonosis, or any other battle where countless brothers had been slaughtered in front of him?

Rex and the other commanders, Fives and the other ARCs, they always had to be a rock to those below their station but they were all crumbling as well, weren’t they?

Fives’ eyes were brimming, and he nodded a few times.

“Yessir. Leave it to me.”

Rex pulled Fives by the back of his head, pressing their foreheads together and letting out a deep sigh before letting go of him.

“Thank you. I have to go check Kix in the medbay.” Rex said in a mumbled murmur “have to start the... the bodycount...”

Rex rubbed his eyes, and Fives patted his shoulder, moving on to talk to the young Torrent’s clone still sniffling in his Ghost’s brother’s arms. It would be a long shift.

Rex stepped into Kix’s medbay and the strong smell of blood and bacta was nauseating. The medical droid were hovering over those that were only bruised or with smaller wounds, and two medics as well as a couple of regular troopers were helping those who were gravely injured while Kix worked on his own patients and coordinated the other medics.

“-bacta only for bleeding wounds. The burns will just have to wait unless they’re-“

-

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