POV: you wake up in the middle of your own autopsy with force powers then immediately get brainwashed into falling to the dark side
I was reminded of the fact that I haven’t drawn inquisitor!fives’ autopsy scars in way too long so here I am, delivering a few too many Fives 💀
Anyway I know I don’t post much about the AU on here so props to anyone who knows what’s going on here even slightly, I’ve decided to nerf siren!echo (who WAS part of this AU yes I know quite random) but since him being turned into a siren kinda limits what I can do with him story wise he is now an AU of the AU.
That means the name I came up with for the au (dead mean walking/swimming or dmw(s) as I’ve been tagging it) is kinda irrelevant. I’ll just call this the inquisitor fives AU but if you have any AU name suggestions feel free to drop them.
Here are some of the major factors of the AU:
It gets worse before it gets better
(WARNING: there are quite a few heavy topics covered in the AU such as torture, dehumanisation and su*cidal thoughts, so pls read at your own discretion)
- fives wakes up in the middle of his own autopsy with force sensitivity, then gets brainwashed into falling to the Dark Side by Palpatine. As an Inquisitor, he does not remember anything about his life because those memories were blocked by Palpatine.
- Palpatine discovers that Fives is essentially immortal, and any injuries inflicted on him will heal no matter how bad.
- when echo gets rescued from skako minor, he is recalled to Kamino for experimentation, first of all so they can figure out what the Techno Union did to him, second of all to see how he survived his injuries. Nala se, who knows that fives came back to life, theorises that since he and echo were tube twins they share the “immortality”. He is kept on Kamino for VERY extensive experimentation where terrible things happen to him (cough vivisection cough lobotomy) and so never joins Clone Force 99 even if he did work with them on Anaxes.
- Fives in this time is sent out on many missions by Palpatine that involve him unaliving many people, and after the rise of the Empire he hunts a few Jedi.
- Fox, who throughout the war had experienced many blackout missions where he woke up afterwards covered in blood, is the last living Coruscant Guard commander. (Thorn dies, stone vanishes one day, Thire mistakes Vader for a Jedi and pays the price) Despite the best efforts of his son secretary Dogma (no way!?) Fox has very little will to live, is extremely depressed and borderline suicidal, he would like nothing more than to bite the dust, but still feels he has a duty to the very few remaining corries and so tries to keep it together (he is failing)
- one day Palpatine decides he doesn’t need Fox to do his bidding anymore since he has much better assets at his disposal (Fives), and decides it would be ironic to sic his pet clone inquisitor onto Fox. Fives still doesn’t remember anything, and only knows that Fox is responsible for the main scars on his body and believes fox is the reason he doesn’t remember most of his life, and so sets out to kill fox. They battle it out (ref to that one animation wip I posted) and fives is on the verge of killing fox (who didn’t really try to fight that much, like I said he would very much like to die and dying at the hand of the vod he “killed” seems fitting to him) when he gets a sudden vision of echo.
- all fives knows is echo is extremely important to him and must be rescued and that snaps him out of palpatine’s control. He knows he probably can’t rescue echo alone, and since fox has already been betrayed by the empire he decides “fuck it” and basically kidnaps fox and they run. They make a deal, that once echo has been found, Fives will put Fox out of his misery (fox feels that fives should be the only person to kill him, and only goes along with the plan because he refuses to let anyone else kill him)
- fox and fives proceed to go on an intergalactic road trip to “rescue echo” even though neither of them know how to do that. They become closer friends throughout, and fives slowly regains bits and pieces of the Before
- meanwhile during the destruction of Kamino, the bad batch stumble on echo and rescue him and he stays with them for a little bit before leaving with Rex
- meanwhile Dogma helps the rest of the remaining Corries desert, kills too many storm troopers, and tries to go after his buir fox and the bastard inquisitor who kidnapped him
This is the main stuff you need to know for the AU haha so if you’ve got new name suggestions I’m all ears ty!!
Domino Squad still bickers a lot, but they're very quick to close ranks around Fives when people start looking too hard at him.
The Domino's are still seen as weird and poor soldiers, but a large part of that is because Fives doesn't know what he's doing and shares his feelings with his batchmates.
Somehow, they manage to hide this from Shaak. Later, she would marvel that these untrained men managed to hide Fives force sensitivity from her.
All five Dominoes survive Rishi.
All five Dominoes also survive the attack on Kamino.
Though only Hevy, Fives, and Echo end up in ARC training. (It doesn't matter, in the end, because A force bond between the five Dominoes means that all of them are ARC trained)
Fives gets snatched up by the 104th, Plo Koon taking Fives as his padawan. And upon realizing that there's a force bond between the five Dominoes, he also takes the other four Dominoes as well.
Talking to Domino Squad can be very frustrating. It's been known to happen that Echo will start a conversation with someone, and then Cutup will pick up the conversation thread.
Listening to the dominoes talking to each other is worse, though. They jump from topic to topic, and sometimes have whole conversations silently. No one can keep up with their conversations, though Commander Wolffe can understand them better than most.
Permanently on my force sensitive Fives agenda. Ft bonus sketch because all I could think about while drawing this was the “what do you have?” “a knife!” “NO” vine lol.
Anyone else enjoy force-sensitive clones? Cause I do… especially when Fives has force-sensitive.
So the idea is this: Fives is force-sensitive but doesn’t found out until after he’s “killed”. Instead of dying, he enters a hibernation trance (which is a canon ability that causes the user to go into a state that makes them seem dead with the exclusion of those who know to look for it and through extensive testing) with everyone assuming he’s dead (since no one knows he’s force-sensitive so they did not think to check).
He wakes up weeks later on a ship back to Kamino (side note: canon states that a force user can stay in this state for up to a month without water) with the rest of the claimed dead (I’m making a point that the Kaminoans dissect them to find out any ‘flaws’ that resulted in them dying (aka, trying to make their ‘product’ more ‘perfect’). The reason he woke up is because the ship is under attack (don’t know by who. Maybe space pirates?) and he just manages to escape in an escape pod before the Kamino ship blows up.
Unfortunately, this leads his ship to lose control and he winds up trapped in the Valley’s Force nexus. There, he meets the spirit of Tarre Vizsla, who becomes his temporary master (and reveals to him that he is force-sensitive).
While reluctantly training with Tarre Vizsla, Fives is trying to leave the nexus and keeps failing. He later learns that Tarre is preventing him.
According to Tarre, the universe is on a dark path. There are several chances for it to remain in balance but thus far, the Jedi have not been able to make the right decisions to prevent this from happening. The prevention of Fives’ ‘death’ was one of them, their failure to listen to him further pushing the universe towards the dark future (the next is them not believing in Ahsoka’s innocence, resulting in her leaving the Jedi and thus further pushing the universe towards the dark path).
Fives demands to leave so that he can fix it, but it turns out that the point in time where Fives could have fixed it has passed and that trying to do so will only result in his death (with his now awakened force abilities allowing a new path towards balance to form, although only a potential one if the right choices are made). Fives, angry about this, refuses to learn from Tarre for awhile but eventually continues.
To Fives, it feels as though he’s been there for years despite his appearance not changing. Turns out, the nexus is preventing him from aging and that he is almost ‘outside the time-space continuum’ whilst there (aka: it’s mentally been years for Fives while in reality, it’s only been a few months). He has even managed to built himself a lightsaber from the broken remains of destroyed lightsabers.
After being there for awhile, Fives feels Order 66 happen (as in feeling his brothers suddenly go ‘blank’ and the deaths of most of the Jedi). In his anguish and desire to stop Order 66, he manages to escape the nexus and inadvertently releasing all the trapped souls there, including Tarre (did I mention that Order 66, as a result of him being in the nexus, feels a lot longer than it actually is?)
After a final goodbye with Tarre, Fives leaves to see what he can do but finds that he is too late: the Chancellor has won. Full of despair and with no support or resources to fight the empire, Fives goes into hiding. He hops planet to planet to keep hidden, assuming that this will be his life now (and somewhat wishing he never left the nexus).
But that all comes to a halt when he lands on Ord Mantell and meets Omega.
At this point, Echo has left with Rex so the Bad Batch don’t know who Fives is, just that he’s a clone who had his chip removed (he also gives a fake name (let’s say… Domino). ‘Domino’ reluctantly joins the Bad Batch for a bit and helps them out.
Unfortunately, they get in over their head at one point with the Empire. With no other choice, Fives reveals his force abilities (think of how Kanan revealed his in Rebels) and during the fight, his true identity is revealed (maybe because he got distracted by his anger, causing him to slip and use the dark side for a moment).
That’s kind of it for this idea, except that there’s a reunion between Fives and Echo, the Bad Batch eventually run into another Jedi (maybe a crash landing on Tatooine and meeting a certain general who may or may not help Fives continue his training?… or maybe they crash land on Dagobah…?), and them eventually joining up with the rebellion. Also, inclusion that technically, Fives fit in more with the Bad Batch’s usual standards than Echo since, like the rest of the Bad Batch, Fives was born with his ‘defect’.
Thoughts?
Edit: personally, I would see his Force abilities as being around Padawan level & that he is better with lightsaber forms (partially because it takes years to even reach Padawan level, partially because Tarre is not able to access the force as a living being would (since he’s dead and all) and mainly focused on lightsaber forms (and minor force abilities).
“When Fives is killed, his essence refuses to become one with the force, instead, searching out the easiest sentient being to attach itself to. After years working beneath Palpatine, Fox has had his mental shields completely eroded and his defences completely shattered, making him the perfect person for Fives’ essence to transfer into. The two of them must figure out how all this strange ‘jedi stuff’ works and how they can both coexist long enough to save their brothers and if they’re lucky, perhaps the rest of the galaxy too.”
Fox finally makes his return to consciousness, but it's far from a pleasant experience for all involved, and Cody fears for his brother's mental state.
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The first thing Fox notices when he slowly slips back into the land of the living is some sort of insistent prodding sensation. It feels like something is pressing against his brain, hard, and he can’t help the irritation that immediately consumes him. Had he been drinking too much and ended up with a nasty hangover? He can’t quite recall drinking anything, in fact, it’s difficult to remember anything that happened before now.
He wants to reach up and massage his aching head, only to feel panic shoot through his veins when his arm refuses to respond. He desperately feels like he needs to choke down frantic gasps of oxygen to try and calm himself, but still, his body won’t follow his lead. What the kriff just happened?! He wants to scream, but the thought stays trapped within his mind.
He knows he blacks out every now and then – it's a terrifying thought, but the medics can’t find anything physically wrong with him – and while it’s obviously not okay for the head of the Coruscant Guard to be losing time he can’t recall, there’s no way he can go to anyone else about it. Every day it’s a choice between potentially putting his brothers and members of the senate in danger, and getting himself decommissioned (or worse) for being broken.
In the eyes of the higher ups, he’s nothing more than a weapon, and a weapon that no longer works correctly is both useless and dangerous to those around it. But if Fox is removed from the Guard, then who will be left to ensure that his brothers are well taken care of? He trusts Thorn and Thire explicitly, but they don’t have the experience that he does, nor are they willing to take a more... dubious... approach when it’s needed.
He can always remember waking up after periods of memory loss, but never anything that has occurred during them. Is this what happens when he blacks out for periods of time? His body moving on its own without his say-so, leaving him effectively trapped? Numerous curses race through his brain as he tries to desperately find a way out of this situation. Kriff. Kriff, what the hell am I supposed to-
“Commander?” was that... him asking? The question came out of his own mouth, but he certainly wasn’t the one saying it. “Commander, is that you?” It’s definitely his own voice he can hear and he can feel his lips moving to form the sentences.
Who the hell else would it be? He snaps, wishing he could scowl at whoever was dumb enough to ask a question like that. Instead, he feels his face cringe sheepishly, his throat clearing to try and alleviate the nerves his body seems to be responding to.
“Sorry, sorry, right. How, uh, are you feeling, sir?”
Fox is mentally grinding his teeth together. Whoever this is, is already getting on his nerves and clearly has no idea what he’s doing. How do you think I’m feeling? Force, if he weren’t trying to maintain some form of calm in order to figure out who this ‘other person’ was he would be completely freaking out. Is this some sort of medical episode? Is he so badly kriffed up that he’s imagining other people in his head? He’s heard of natborns being so badly affected by trauma that they make up other people to inhabit their brain, but surely he can’t be that far gone. Clones aren’t supposed to be affected by stress like that.
“Okay, bad question.” A hand runs through his curls, causing them to briefly be disturbed before almost immediately springing back into their original position.
Before he can ask any more questions, Fox decides to ask one of his own, cutting off whatever train of thought the other person had been considering. You don’t say. Now. Would you mind telling me who in the Nine Corellian Hells is in my damn head?!
His body swallows, going quiet for a moment that seems to stretch out for a small eternity. “I’m Fives- ARC Trooper Cee-Tee-Five-Five-Five-Five,” he almost sounds uncertain of his answer, most likely worried about how Fox will respond to it.
Something tickles at the back of Fox’s brain, stirring up a memory that he’d nearly forgotten about. He’s standing there, his blaster very nearly slipping from his hands because of how badly they shake. He shoves the weapon back into its holster, his heart pounding in his chest when he watches CT-5555 collapse to the ground. The memory opens the flood gates and everything that happened the previous night comes rushing back to him, drowning him with the intensity of it. His body might still be behaving calmly, but Fox’s brain feels like it’s being crammed full of too many emotions, leaving him effectively choking down on the agonizing memories.
Force, I’ve lost it. I’m going insane, I’m imagining dead people. His guilt has caused his brain to think that the brother he killed has somehow come back to life to haunt him. Is it supposed to be some kind of punishment? He can’t remember everything that led up to the fatal shot that took the life of ARC Trooper Fives, likely caused by one of his usual blackouts, but in the end, it was still his fault. Whether he was in control of his body of not, Fives is dead and that’s something he’s going to have to live with for the rest of his miserable life.
“Hey, hey, calm down. Commander?” The person – Fives – says, distracting Fox briefly from the way his mind is rapidly spiraling. “You’re not going crazy, sir, I promise. I don’t know how to explain it and I’m not sure what happened, but please, trust me.”
Fox would shake his head if he could, desperately wishing he could just curl in on himself or at the very least call a medic, because he’s clearly not fit to do anything right now. You’re not real, you’re dead. He can feel frustration that isn’t his own quickly filling his mind, almost overruling his own emotions. It’s terrifying, having his own thoughts and feelings shoved down. Not being in control of his own body is one thing, but not being in charge of his mind is a whole new level of fear. Get out of my head! He mentally shrieks.
He’s not sure if it’s Fives’ or a combination of both their guilt that he can feel, finding it too difficult to differentiate between them. Fortunately, Fives is quick to respond, taking slow, calming breaths as he speaks, “I don’t know how I ended up here, but even if I wanted to, I don’t have a body to go back to,” he says quietly, something similar to hurt permeating his tone.
The two minds fall silent, much to Fox’s relief. Fives, the ghost, continues to make his body breathe calmly, helping him to settle his frantic mind. What is he supposed to do now? No matter what this alleged dead man tries to tell him, Fox knows that it’s impossible for Fives to actually be here in his mind. However, he has no idea how he’s supposed to get back to work when he can’t even twitch his little finger.
He wishes he could just rest for a little while, but that’s not an option when someone else is in his body making decisions for him. Can you at least somehow let me be in charge? I don’t want things getting karked up because I’m no longer in control here. Fox can’t imagine what would happen to the Guard if someone who has never worked on the planet before was suddenly put in charge of the multiple battalions that make up their ranks.
“I uh... I’m not sure how to do that,” Fives responds rather sheepishly, scratching at the back of his neck. “But we can figure something out,” he adds quickly, nodding more to himself than to anyone else.
Fox wants to bash his head against the table before him, mentally huffing and offering up several choice swears. Of course Fives has no idea how to relinquish control, that would be far too easy. It looks like they’re going to have to come up with something a little more complex than he had hoped. He’s about to suggest something else when suddenly the door to his office swishes open, another clone entering without announcing themselves.
------
Cody frowns down at the clone sitting stock still across from him. Clearly, his appearance had been quite the surprise – just how he had wanted it really, it left Fox with no chance to weasel his way out of a conversation the same way he could if he had received a heads up – it seems that Thorn had done an excellent job at keeping his mouth shut. Fox didn’t yet seem irritated by his unannounced visit, more stunned by the fact he’d suddenly been cornered, something Cody was easily able to tell thanks to the lack of a helmet like his sibling usually wore.
“Fox,” he greets, offering a comforting smile as he takes a few steps towards his brother’s desk. Normally, Fox would have already been on his feet, but the other clone is still sitting, just staring at him. He can near enough see the sweat gathering on Fox’s brow.
“Commander Cody,” Fox says stiffly, his spine snapping straight to attention, “what can I do for you, sir?”
Cody can feel the tension in his jaw tighten at Fox’s response. If Fox is trying to refer to him as ‘Commander’ while they’re in private then clearly, he’s in a truly foul mood. It’s insulting that his own batchmate would greet him so coldly, especially after so many months apart. The last time they’d seen one another behind closed doors, Fox had walked right up to him, signature grin showing off one of his canines, and near enough yanked Cody against him.
Fox had been tired and stressed and perhaps even a little short-tempered at times, but he’d still been relieved to see that Cody was alive and well. Something had been weighing on his mind, but the longer Cody spoke with him the more relaxed and less uptight Fox had become.
“I’m here, because last night General Skywalker brought Rex, our brother, to me because he wasn’t able to calm him down,” Cody starts, his voice taking on a dangerous edge, “you’re lucky I was, otherwise he’d probably be in here trying to throttle you.” He crosses his arms, eyes narrowed down on his batchmate. He doesn’t tell Fox to drop the attitude, going down that path won’t help him get down to the bottom of what’s wrong with his brother it’ll only make him start acting defensively.
Cody takes a breath, allowing the tension to slowly seep from his shoulders. He’s always been good at remaining calm, even in difficult situations – it's an essential skill as a Marshal Commander, to not let anything visibly bother him or effect his judgement – but Obi-wan has also been offering for him to join in shared meditation sessions. They’ve been helping him to ‘release’ any of his more volatile emotions with even more effectiveness than before.
“Look, I’m not here to try and fight with you, vod.” He walks over, taking the seat across from his brother and resting his elbows on the desk, “I just want to understand what’s going on with you, the other Guards are worried about you, I’m worried about you.”
Fox is quiet, silently chewing on his bottom lip as he considers his reply. While he seems to be less welcoming than usual, Fox also seems to be far more open about his emotions. Cody can near enough see each feeling that passes across his brother’s face and it’s rather concerning to say the least. Fox has always shown his true emotions through his eyes, but has always kept his other expressions rather subtle.
“I’m not sure, si- vod,” Fox quickly corrects himself, “just feeling a little tired I guess.” Fox offers what is apparently supposed to be a reassuring smile, but instead just looks like a pained cringe.
Cody frowns, blowing out a deep breath through his nose. He’s never appreciated being lied to by people, but especially not by one of his closest brothers. He sits in silence, continuing to stare into Fox’s eyes in the hopes of eventually breaking him down. Now that he’s closer to the other clone, he can see the way Fox continues to anxiously swallow, fingers twitching and eyes looking anywhere other than Cody’s eyes.
“Alright. Let’s start from the beginning. The Chancellor told you to catch a rogue trooper. What happened for it to end with one of our brothers being killed?” He tries to keep his voice soft despite his frustration. Clearly this event has badly shaken his brother, so while he wishes he could just shake the answer out of him, he has to try and tread carefully.
He’s tired after spending the entire night trying to console Rex. It was a lengthy eight hours filled with talking Rex down from wanting to hunt Fox for sport, and gently holding him while he blamed himself for ‘failing’ their brother. Not to mention dealing with his own grief – he'd known Fives since the kid was a mere shiny on the Rishi Moon and watched him grow into a confident, strong individual – and now he’s marching on with so, so many other brothers who were taken too soon.
“I’m afraid that’s classified information, Commander. I can’t discuss the incident until the information is declassified by one of the higher ups.” Fox answers, doing his best to meet Cody’s gaze, “is there anything else you’d like to know?”
“Fox, I have no idea how much longer I’m going to be on Triple Zero for, are we really going to do this? I want to help you, vod, please.” He doesn’t want to leave his brother in this state with so much going on, he just needs to convince Fox to let him. He doesn’t see his batchmate in the clone sat before him and it breaks his heart that Fox is so badly broken and has changed so much in only a couple of months.
Together with Obi-wan, he has worked for a long time to help the brothers scarred by the traumatic events they experienced on Umbara. Taking the life of one of their own, knowingly or otherwise, left more than one of them permanently changed and left several with enough guilt that they couldn’t continue living with the burden of it. He can’t watch Fox go through that too, can’t lose another one of his batchmates. But if Fox refuses to accept help, then he’ll be powerless to do anything to save him.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t discuss anything about yesterday’s events.” Fox doubles down.
Cody can see that Fox desperately wants to tell him; he can see it in his brother’s amber eyes. But he won’t force him to discuss something he’d get in trouble for sharing – Force knows that the natborns Fox is forced to work with can be downright foul – although, just because he isn’t able to get Fox to open up just yet doesn’t mean he’s going to give up on him easily.
He pushes his chair back, pulling himself up and moving around the desk so that he stands on the same side as Fox. He reaches out, gripping the soft hair at the back of Fox’s head with a gentle hold and pulls him close. Their foreheads meet with a soft knock and Cody can feel himself relax into the action, his eyes closing for a short moment.
When he opens them again, he can see the confusion on his brother’s face, but Fox doesn’t pull away from him, allowing the tender gesture. “I’m not giving up on you, vod,” he says gently as he pulls away, “please, comm me when you’re ready to talk.”
“I will,” is all Fox says, but the genuine way in which he says it does give him some hope, even if his eyes show clear relief when Cody drops the subject.
He steps away from his brother, collecting his helmet that he had left on the top of Fox’s desk. “If you feel like you need help, or you want to tell someone anything, then all I ask is that you try to speak to someone about it. It doesn’t have to be me, just don’t suffer alone because you don’t want to ‘burden’ anyone else.” After that he heads back toward the door. “I’ll drop by again before I’m due to ship out again, alright?” Fox gives him a nod. Cody quickly returns it as a form of farewell, turning away once more.
When he steps outside and the door to Fox’s office slides closed, Cody lets out a deep breath, dragging a gloved hand over his face. Thire might have thought that he was the only person that could get through Fox’s thick skull, but there’s still one person that could potentially snap Fox out of whatever strange state he’s gotten himself into. He needs someone who knows him better than he knows himself, who can be gentle and supportive when needed, but is even more stubborn than even Fox and won’t accept any bantha osik excuses.
He types out a long message to the person in question, pressing send, before finally moving on. He needs to return to the barracks and check on Rex before he can get back to the piles of flimsiwork covering his desk, but he’ll be back soon to make sure that Fox hasn’t gone downhill. He sends a request to the other Coruscant Guard commanders to keep him informed of any changes, then heads to leave.
(The Domino Squad head out to do a job for a Mandalorian crime boss. They have no idea what waits for them. It most certainly wasn't four Jedi and three Mandalorian clan bosses. This might be their only chance to prove they have what it takes to join a clan.)
Fives fidgets while standing with his brothers waiting on the subway. His blaster felt heavy in its holster. He can’t help but look over his shoulder waiting for someone or something to attack him. Echo pats his shoulder helping him stare forward again.
“We’ll be fine, Fives.” Echo says softly. Fives could feel Echo’s own anxieties, but he was hiding it a lot better than he was. Fives swallows after taking a deep breath to try and calm down. They had no idea what was waiting for them at this address. Was it a trap? No. If the woman wanted them dead then she would have done it at the training ground. He thought of what would happen if they messed up. If they fail whatever test awaits them. What then? Would she just leave them alone? He didn’t know. When the subway doors open Fives, and his brothers step inside and take a seat.
It’s early morning on the weekend so not many people are on today. Fives spots a homeless clone bundled up in a corner trying to sleep. There were a few people trying to make it home from their drunken escapades. Fives stares down at his clasped hands and tapping foot.
“Hello again.” A deep familiar voice says pulling Fives out of his thoughts. He looks up to see the same Kel Dor that he met in the park staring down at him.
“Oh,” Fives says shocked. “Hello.”
“Do you mind if I sit with you? I do enjoy company on these early morning commutes.” He says. Fives shoves Echo and his brothers down so he can make room for the man. “I am Plo Koon by the way. I don’t believe I ever properly introduced myself last time.”
“I’m Fives. These are my brothers Echo, Droidbait, Cutup, and Hevy.” Fives says gesturing to his confused yet slightly intrigued brothers.
“A pleasure to meet your acquaintance.” Plo Koon says in his deep rich voice.
“Off to work, sir?” Echo asks. The man lifts a hand to his mask as if to stroke a beard.
“Yes, in a way.” He says. “What of you boys? Off to work or off to cause trouble?”
“Maybe a little of both honestly.” Fives rubs the back of his neck. Plo Koon chuckles while folding his hands in his lap. They spend the rest of the subway ride sharing small talk. Plo Koon’s presence calms Fives almost to a point where he was relaxed. When the subway comes to their stop, they all stand. Fives is surprised when Plo Koon gets off on their exit.
“Going the same way? My how strange the Force works.” The man says. Fives knits his brows together in thought.
“The Force, sir?” he says. He only chuckles with a slight shake of his head.
“It is nothing. Let us just enjoy this beautiful morning.” He walks on. Fives shares a shrug with his brothers. As much as Fives enjoyed the company of Plo Koon he was becoming uncomfortably aware that they seemed to be heading to the same place. The longer they walked together the more his anxiety resurfaced. Hevy pulls out the sheet of paper with the address on it. They were getting close. Plo Koon comes to a sudden stop. Fives opens his mouth to ask why when he feels an uneasiness wash over him.
“Get down!” Plo yells before an explosion blasts debris overhead. Fives and his brothers have no time to run for cover. They can only try and shield each other. When the dust around them starts to settle, Fives can make out an odd purring sound. He has to blink a few times before he believes what he’s seeing. Plo Koon stands in front of them holding a green lightsaber. He had cut a giant piece of the building that had fallen on them in half.
“You’re a Jedi.” Fives says almost breathlessly.
“I have reached the objective. I have no visuals on the suspects yet.” He says into a commlink on his wrist.
“Understood, heading to your location now.” A clone’s voice says back. Plo turns to Fives and his brothers.
“You boys need to leave this area, now!” he says with a wave of his hand. A blaster shot echoes through the buildings. Plo Koon manages to deflect the shot with his lightsaber. Out of the dust from the explosion a group of bounty hunters jumps out onto a passing speeder. Fives instinctively tries to follow it before running into something hard. He falls back rubbing his face before making out grey Mandalorian armor. The Mandalorian tilts his head before turning and firing a single shot hitting the speeder taking it down.
“Sir,” the Mandalorian says to Plo Koon. “Boost and Sinker are on their way.”
“Good, we need to apprehend these bounty hunters before…” Plo Koon is cut off by a gun ship lowering down between the buildings.
“Oh, no, no, no!” the Mandalorian yells when three Mandalorians in light orange armor jumps down. They fan out before a familiar one pauses at the sight of the grey Mandalorian.
“Not again!” the orange one says. Fives flinches when a man leaps from the gunship to land between to two Mandalorians. Fives’s jaw drops at the sight of the gorgeous man from his first day on Coruscant standing in front of him.
“Come now, I’m sure we can share.” He says before dropping his white cape and spinning a blue lightsaber. The orange and grey Mandalorian sigh before turning back to the bounty hunters. The bounty hunters open fire down the street. The two Jedi stand in the front to deflect the shots. The two Mandalorians take point with their men trying to make ground from their positions. Fives felt frozen. He wanted to move. He wanted to fight.
All thoughts stop when a missile shoots overhead landing near the bounty hunters stirring up a cloud of dust.
“A missile?” the attractive man says before frowning. “Anakin!”
“You guys again?” a voice says before the man that helped Fives find his way home and the same one passed out with Rex jumps over them landing in front of the blaster fire. “I thought we were the only ones on this job?”
“It seems there has been a miscommunication.” The attractive man says deflecting another shot.
“Or perhaps not.” Plo Koon says. The man, Anakin, waves his own blue lightsaber before another figure jumps into view.
“Ahsoka?” Fives says but no one can hear him. She swings two green lightsabers before aiding in deflecting blaster shots.
“Master Plo, Master Kenobi, always nice to see you!” she says with a grin. Movement behind Fives makes him move finally. He and his brothers move out of the way so Rex, Jesse, Kix, and Hardcase can charge up from behind. They take point next to the orange and grey Mandalorian.
“Again?” Rex asks.
“Again.” The two Mandalorians sigh.
“Well, this has been fun, but I actually plan on taking these bounty hunters in.” Anakin says before giving his two-finger salute and jumping into the air. Ahsoka leaps just as high into the air towards the bounty hunters.
“You heard ‘em boys!” Rex says as he takes off on his jetpack. The orange Mandalorian makes a tsk sound.
“I’m going to advance.” He says. The one Ahsoka called Master Kenobi gives a grin.
“Yes, let’s not leave all the fun to Anakin.” Kenobi says before they both charge into the dust.
“Boost, Sinker, move in!” the grey Mandalorian says as he and Plo Koon advance. Fives stands staring at the battle in front of them. He looks to his brothers.
“This is our chance!” he yells.
“Yeah, chance to die!” Cutup yells.
“We might not get another shot to prove that we can keep up with these guys!” he says gesturing to the battle. Hevy and Echo stand with determination on their face. And maybe a little fear. Cutup and Droidbait slowly get to their feet not looking as enthused but none of them were backing down now. They turn and charge into the chaos.
The dust was so bad they could barely make out anything. Every now and then they come across a Mandalorian fighting off a bounty hunter or a Jedi swinging their laser sword. Fives runs into someone nearly falling back again. Ahsoka gasps when she recognizes his face.
“Fives? What are you doing? Get out of here!” she yells before deflecting blaster fire and leaping towards the bounty hunter. Fives turns only to run into someone else. He shakes his head to see a Duros wearing a large hat staring at him. The man narrows his eyes before drawing a blaster. Fives moves his head just before the blaster bolt can shoot through his forehead. His ears ring from the blast. Before the Duros can run away Fives spots the bag in his arms. It’s full of credits. The man zips the bag shut before running into the dust.
“Hevy, Cutup!” Fives yells. His brothers spot him. He points in the direction of the Duros. “Go after that one!”
His brothers charge. Echo grabs his arm to help him forward. They draw their blasters while dodging the chaos around them. At least they try. Fives gets tackled by a bounty hunter. He fights him off before it gets pulled off and thrown into the ground. Rex aims his blaster down before looking at Fives.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he yells. Fives doesn’t wait to get lectured. He runs back into the dust. He can make out the Duros’ ridiculous hat in the dust and lunges forward. They tumble to the ground. His bag rolls across the ground. Droidbait runs by grabbing it.
“No!” the man yells before elbowing Fives in the face. They struggle against each other. the man lands a solid hit to Fives’s gut making him lose his hold. The man runs after Droidbait. Echo and Cutup run past Fives while Hevy helps him up.
“Gotta keep going.” Hevy says. Fives catches his breath and is able to run again. They exit the dust to see the man chasing Droidbait up a fire escape. Fives leaps up grabbing onto the bars jumping up the sides, to impatient to take the stairs. When they reach the top Droidbait is trapped on the roof.
“Why did you run up?” Cutup yells slightly out of breath.
“Shut up!” Droidbait yells. He turns facing the man. They stand on the roof unsure of what to do. The man hovers his hand over his blaster. Echo places a hand on Fives’s shoulder.
“You know what we have to do.” He says with his hand squeezing his shoulder. He watches the mans hand moving closer to his blaster.
“What are you talking about Echo?” Fives’s heart rings in his ear. Before they can react, the man draws his blaster. Everything started moving slower to Fives. He watches the man pulling his blaster up to fire at Droidbait while he and Echo reach out their hands.
“No!” he yells feeling something extend from his arm knocking the man forward. He tumbles across the roof letting Droidbait get away. Fives stands frozen not sure what just happened.
“What the hell was that?” a voice says behind him. He turns to see Anakin, Plo Koon, and Kenobi all staring in disbelief.
“Clone Jedi?” the man grunts from the roof floor. He pushes some buttons on his wrist before the rockets on his feet activate. He flies away but no one seems to care at the moment. Fives looks to Echo.
“What did we just do?” he asks. Echo and Fives both pant feeling drained. Hevy, Cutup, and Droidbait walk up to stand next to Five and Echo.
“Well, we got their attention.” Hevy mutters.
Fives doesn’t know how they got off the roof or when they were sat down as the Jedi spoke to the local police. Everything was muffled. He watched Rex and the two other Mandalorian leaders speaking to each other while glancing over at Fives and his brothers. Fives taps his foot nervously. When the three Jedi and the three Mandalorian leaders walk up to them Fives wants to throw up.
“That was quite a display you just put on.” The one called Kenobi says with a smirk.
“Yes, not every day we see Force sensitive clones.” Plo Koon says.
“More like never.” Anakin mutters while crossing his arms. Fives exchanges a look with his brothers.
“Are we… in trouble?” Droidbait asks cautiously. This makes the three Jedi laugh.
“On the contrary we are quite impressed with what you’ve shown us.” Kenobi goes on.
“The Jedi theatrics aside,” Rex butts in making Anakin raise an eyebrow and Kenobi snicker. “You five handled yourselves pretty well in battle.”
“I could use men like you in the 104th.” The Mandalorian with grey armor says. He reaches up to pull his helmet off. Fives could practically hear the air get knocked out of Cutup and Hevy when Wolffe smiles down at them.
“You’re… you’re…” Hevy starts with Cutup shaking his arm excitedly.
“Fans of mine are ya!” Wolffe says making the orange Mandalorian nudge him. he removes his helmet. It’s the same Cody from the video.
“I was thinking you boys would be better suited for the 212th.” He says making Rex frown at him.
“Hold on, now. We can’t just bombard the boys with offers. Let’s let them think on it.” Rex says making Cody and Wolffe roll their eyes.
“Yes, it appears you boys will have the pick of the litter if joining a Mandalorian clan is what you want?” Kenobi asks with an arch of a brow.
“It is!” Hevy says making Rex, Cody, and Wolffe grin at each other.
“But you two,” Anakin says turning his attention on Fives and Echo. “You two have a much bigger decision to make.”
“Sir?” Echo asks.
“I can sense that you are both strong in the Force. If you want, one of us could teach you the ways of the Jedi.” Plo Koon explains. Fives shakes his head not fully understanding.
“Jedi? How could we…?” he trails off.
“Well, variations of the Jedi. We ourselves can’t really call ourselves Jedi anymore either.” Kenobi adds.
“You boys should come by and check out each of our clans. Then make a decision. Nothing needs to be decided today.” Rex says before they can go on. Rex could probably see how overwhelmed they were. Taking the hint, the Jedi back off along with Wolffe and Cody. Rex writes down three addresses. One was familiar. It was to the bar he and his group hangout. “Come check us out when you’re ready.”
He turns back towards his men. Hevy holds the piece of paper in his hand like it was a thousand credits. While his brothers go off on excitement, Fives feels himself get to his feet to walk over to Ahsoka. When she sees him she gives his shoulder a playful shove.
“If you told me you were Force sensitive, I would have just taken you to Anakin right then and there!” she says crossing her arms. Fives rubs the back of his neck.
“Didn’t know I was. Don’t really know what that means really.” He confesses. She places a hand on his arm.
“Well, it looks like you’re going to get what you want. You and your brothers should have no problem joining a Mandalorian clan after today. Just,” she trails off. “Make sure you think about it. Not every clan is the same.”
She leaves him so she can rejoin Anakin and Rex. Fives places a hand where she had touched him.
They start home after Kix checks them over. Cutup and Hevy haven’t stopped talking about everything that happened the whole way home. When they reach their level Fives places a hand on Echo’s shoulder.
“How did you know that we were… you know?” He asks softly. Echo stares at the ground as they walk.
“Honestly, I thought you knew. I just thought you didn’t want to talk about it because you didn’t want to seem different.” He says while rubbing the back of his neck.
“Why would you think that?” he asks. Echo shrugs while hugging his arms to his stomach.
“I dunno, I just assumed that you wanted to act like it didn’t exist. So, I never said anything. I noticed when we were younger. We could predict things before they happened, and you even moved the cookie jar off the counter with your mind when we were nine. I seriously thought you knew.” He says. Fives shakes his head.
“Am I that oblivious?” he chuckles making Echo grin.
“Yes.” His brothers say ahead of them. Apparently, Echo wasn’t the only one who knew. Great.
“You do run into a lot of things.” He points out.
“People too.” Fives laughs. As they walk on, they come across Rafa’s laundromat. They see Rafa about to walk in.
“Oi! Rafa!” Cutup calls. Rafa winces before turning to face them. They freeze when they see her bruised scarred face. Her right arm is bandaged in a sling. “Rafa?”
“Just stay away from me!” she yells. She runs inside her shop before locking the door behind her. they stand in the street feeling the sudden weight of their actions. They asked a favor of a crime boss. A crime boss Mandalorian at that. Rafa got hurt because of them. They walk in silence at that. Each of their stomachs twisted into knots. When they reach their apartment, they notice Sbug is nowhere to be found. Usually, he’s passed out or watching something at this hour. They walk up the stairs pausing at their door. It’s unlocked. Hevy swallows before opening the door. The Mandalorian woman stands in her black armor leaning against the back wall.
“Congratulations,” She says. They stand in the doorway paralyzed. “I hear you boys were quite something. Got three Mandalorian bosses trying to scout you now.”
The boys force themselves inside so they can close the door. The woman steps forward with a laugh.
“You should have told me you two were Force sensitive. Wouldn’t have made you go through that training course.” She says tilting her head.
“What do you want?” Hevy asks flatly.
“Now? Nothing. But now that I know what you boys can do?” she walks forward to grab Hevy’s chin. “Now I have bigger plans for you. We’ll be in touch.”
They part so she can walk through. When the door closes behind her Fives feels like he might vomit. He looks at his brothers who all share his look of horror.
