June of Doom 2026 - Day 17
Masterlist | Ao3 Series
Title: "mirrors start to whisper (shadows start to sing)"
Prompts: "I'm worried about you." Missing Time | Dissociation (21) | Mind Control (29)
Fandom: Star Wars - The Clone Wars
Characters: Fox & Tal (Coruscant Guard's medic), Tal & Kix
Add. Tags: (Post-)Bio Chip ARC, Fives dies, Memory Loss, Fox Whump
Note: I really like this one. One day there will be a long fic dealing with the medics and the bio chip thing. It is already in the making.
@juneofdoom
After Fox kills Fives, the memory disappears into a familiar fog. Tal, the CMO of the Coruscant Guard, has been suspicious about the happenings for a while now.
“Look at my face, yeah?”
Fox forces his head up from where he is sitting slumped on the biobed, starring at Tal while the medic shines the little lamp into his eyes.
“It doesn’t look like you have a concussion,” he declares finally.
Tal reaches up and gently pressed around the crown of Fox’ head, feeling for bumps and other injures.
“There seems to be nothing wrong with your head.”
“Are you sure?” Thorn inquires form where he is leaning against the wall by the door, arms crossed and a hand resting over one of his DC-17.
“Commander, get back to work. I’ll take care of him,” Tal explains, calm but persistent.
Thorn huffs indignantly but pushes up from the wall and pats Fox on the shoulder, reassuringly. The other flinches a little.
“My coms are open. Call if you need,” Thorn simply states before leaving the medbay.
Tal watches him leave before he focuses back on Fox. The thin purple tattoos that frame his eyes and forehead crinkle softly with worry.
“You sure you don’t remember anything?” Tal asks softly.
Fox shakes his head, stays quiet, says nothing. There is nothing to say, only fog. Faintly, he can hear someone shout in a voice that distinctively does not belong to one of his vod.
It isn’t the first episode like this either. They have been becoming more frequent lately, too.
“Fox, you shot a vod,” Tal states but doesn’t blame, doesn’t back away from Fox. He sits down in the floating chair and looks at the other attentively.
“I was with a squad on patrol,” Fox whispers.
Tal shakes his head softly.
“No, commander. You were alone. Thire checked the timetables and asked around. You weren’t scheduled for patrol today and no one reported to have been out with you.”
Fox trembles but doesn’t move, just stays where he is.
“I set the gun to stun. I set it to stun but I wasn’t allowed to. ‘Don’t set it to stun,’” he mutters. “I had my finger on the switch. ‘Use lethal forces. Don’t set your weapons to stun.’”
Tal gently cradles Fox’ face in his palms to interrupt the mindless mumbling.
Fox grips his wrist and looks up at him through glassy eyes, wide with terror.
“I keep losing time, Tal. One day I am here and then the next I am there. My body moves all by itself, but I don’t remember…”
Tal sighs and gently pulls Fox closer.
“Why didn’t you tell me this is happening? I’m your medic, you can trust me,” he scolds, gently.
“I didn’t want you to think I am going crazy. I’m scared someone will find out and…”
And write him up for decommissioning. It’s what happens to clones who show stress reactions that impair the completion of their duties.
Tal gently strokes his hand down Fox’ back.
“I wouldn’t tell on you. Never.”
Fox says nothing. His body is stiff with his forehead resting against Tal’s plackart.
“I’ll give you something to help you sleep, yeah? You’ll feel better after some rest.”
Tal would like to believe that this is all a stress reaction. The war has been getting more taxing by the day, so it wouldn’t surprise him. Fox in his position as a Marshal Commander experiences this strain even more than the rest of them.
Even so, Tal knows better than that.
Fox doesn’t react to him.
The medic sighs and opens one of the drawers by the biobed without letting Fox go.
“Sharp,” he warns softly before injecting the sedative hypo into Fox’ neck. He holds the other until his eyelids grow heavy and he sinks into Tal’s hold.
Tal holds him for a moment, brushes his hand over Fox’ back before he carefully sets him down on the biobed.
Carefully, he removes the rest of Fox’ armour and sets it on a stand to the side.
Tal seizes the opportunity and checks for new scars, branching trees of lightnings specifically. Fox doesn’t let him get to him often anymore. He hides from him.
If it only wasn’t Tal’s job to specifically poke around in the business of his vode, especially the more uncomfortable aspects of it.
There are new lightning strikes that rank up Fox’ flanks and spread over his chest.
Tal sighs heavily. Being part of the guard has always felt like a burden. Not that his vode in the GAR were any better off. At least, on Coruscant, they didn’t take active fire often. Here, they are killed by different things.
He spreads a blanket over Fox’ sleeping form and dims the lights of the medbay before he heads into his office. He doesn’t close the door in order to be able to keep an eye on their sleeping commander.
Maybe, later, he will ask Thorn to set up a guard by the door. Even someone like Fox wouldn’t get away with shooting an infinite number of people without having himself killed.
He digs out his holoprojector from the desk drawer and ponders his possibilities a moment.
It is a gamble if Kix will be good talking to him or if he will be cursing the guard out altogether. He breathes out, rests his temple against his palm and twists the com device in his other hand.
Tal didn’t kill Fives. It was Fox, that much Kix has to know. His captain was present at the scene after all.
He types in Kix’ code and closes his eyes. They are medics, it is their duty to keep their brothers healthy and walking. Even if Kix is angry at Tal for whatever specific reason, he will have to overcome these feelings eventually. Both of them have felt that there is something going on beyond their consciousness for some time now.
He waits for the other medic to pick up the call. Carefully, he brushes his hand over the notes in his desk. Maybe now they will be able to piece this entire thing together. Tal refuses to believe that Fives was not up to something.
When he eventually does, Tal can immediately make out the frown that flashes over Kix’ face.
“Something is happening,” Tal simply states. Kix nods, thinks, ponders. The other medic glances over his shoulder suspiciously before walking out of the room. Tal can follow the change of scenery in the projection.
“Can you meet me here?” Kix inquires. The barracks of the 501st are much less monitored than the Guard base.
Tal nods determinedly. He can make it work. “I will be there.”
“Good. I will inform Vet. Kemi ulyc.”
Kix ends the call, leaving Tal in silence.
Kemi ulyc.
