Chapter Text
Fox’s heartbeat hammers in his ears, but his hands are steady. He grips the blaster tight, fingers already numb. He doesn’t feel anything anymore.
It’s been a long day of patrols, a long day of reports, a long day of broken troopers and broken promises. He thought he’d have time to breathe, but then, just when the sun begins to set, the order comes through.
A soft, barely perceptible click of the comm.
And then a voice.
“Execute the order. Maximum force.”
Fox doesn't question it. Doesn’t pause. Doesn’t wonder why Fives—a brother —has become a target. Why the order to terminate rings through his helmet’s comm like it’s just another job. Just another mission.
It isn’t. It shouldn’t be.
But he’s already moving before he has the chance to stop himself. He can feel it in his chest, the sinking feeling that tells him this isn’t just some directive—it’s a trigger . A command. Something that twists his gut and makes his muscles move without his will.
Fives is in front of the ray shield confining Rex and General Skywalker inside, talking about Palpatine, and chips , but the order is still ringing in his mind.
Fox steps forward. The rest of the Guard follows.
Fives disobeys the order to drop the blaster, so Fox has no choice but to use lethal force .
He can hear Rex and the General shouting in the background, but the words don’t register. Fox has switched from stun to kill, and the blaster goes off with a sharp crack.
Fives falls. It’s fast, over in an instant, but that doesn’t make it any easier. Fox vaguely registers one of his men deactivating the ray shield, Rex running to his fallen brother, hears Fives say the nightmares, they’re finally over , and lets his eyes fall shut.
Rex’s voice cracks through the comm line as he rushes back into the headquarters, eyes wild and frantic.
“Fox—what the hell? What did you—what did you do?”
Fox doesn’t respond. He can’t. His hands are shaking. He’s not sure whether it's from the fight, or if it’s something more. But Rex’s words cut him deeper than the blaster ever could.
He tries to say something. Tries to force out a reasonable excuse. But there’s nothing. Nothing to explain.
Rex’s voice comes again, quieter this time, but more urgent.
“ Why? Why did you do it, Fox?”
Fox doesn’t know. He doesn’t know how to answer.
“You’re not thinking straight. You—”
Rex doesn’t get the chance to finish. The comm goes quiet.
Cody is in his barracks, reading a novel someone recommended to him, when his comm chirps.
He sees that it’s Rex and picks it up, closing the holonovel, and settling deeper in his bunk ready to listen to Rex complain about Skywalker’s unorthodox ways again, when instead Rex’s voice, trembling, tells him that Fives is dead.
Cody is moving before he’s even aware of it, tugging on his armor and running to the warehouse Rex mentioned.
Rex is kneeling on the floor, next to where he presumes Fives died, shaking like a leaf.
“Rex?” Cody asks gently, walking up behind him. There’s something terrible in his voice. Something that makes Cody’s heart stutter in his chest. “What happened?”
Rex doesn’t answer. The silence is suffocating. The world has paused, held hostage by whatever nightmare has come to pass.
When Rex finally turns to him, his eyes are glassy, full of a rage that Cody doesn’t understand.
“Fox... Fox killed him .”
Cody freezes. His breath hitches in his throat.
No. Not Fox. Not like this.
The words don’t make sense. They can’t. Cody doesn’t know what to believe.
Cody’s mind flashes to the last time he saw Fox. The blank stare. The broken conversation. But this?
This is something else.
Rex stalks through the entryway, still blood-spattered, still too keyed-up to think clearly. The Guard troopers posted by the door straighten at the sight of him.
He doesn’t acknowledge them.
He walks straight through, eyes searching, jaw clenched. A few of the red-painted clones avoid his gaze. One nods, uncertain.
“Where’s Fox?” Rex demands.
No answer.
His voice rises. “Where the kriff is your commander?”
Stone approaches slowly from down the hall. His expression is unreadable—tight, closed off.
“He’s not here.”
“Convenient,” Rex snaps.
Stone doesn’t flinch. “He’s in debrief with Marshal Commander Cody.”
Rex steps closer, jaw tight. “You all just—what, follow orders without question now? Doesn’t matter who dies? Doesn’t matter if it’s one of us ?”
Thorn’s voice cuts in from nearby, quiet but firm. “We don’t know what happened.”
“ You think I’m making this up? You think I wanted to carry my brother’s body out of a warehouse?”
The hallway has gone still. Dead quiet. No one moves.
“Stars, I don’t even know you anymore,” Rex mutters, stepping back. “None of you. How the hell can you stand behind someone who kills a vod and doesn’t even flinch ?”
Thire speaks, low. “He flinched.”
Rex freezes. “What?”
Thire looks away. “You weren’t here. After. You didn’t see the way he—”
“Don’t. Don’t try to defend him.”
Rex turns on his heel and stalks out before anyone else can say a word. His comm hisses with static, but he doesn’t respond. Doesn’t want to talk.
He wants answers.
He wants justice .
And he doesn’t know where to start.
The door to Fox’s office creaks open.
Fox is sitting behind his desk, armor off, undersuit unzipped halfway, hands resting loosely in his lap. He looks like a man who’s been hollowed out.
Cody steps inside slowly.
“Fox.”
Nothing.
Cody moves closer, heart aching with something he doesn’t have words for. “Talk to me, brother. Please.”
Fox lifts his gaze. It’s glassy. Lost. His voice, when it comes, sounds like it’s breaking apart in real time.
“I didn’t want to do it.”
Cody’s breath catches.
“But I did,” Fox whispers. “I shot him. And I—he was my brother , Cody. And I don’t even remember… choosing. I just did it .”
Cody kneels beside him, hand resting heavy on Fox’s shoulder.
“I know.”
Fox shakes his head, frantic. “No, you don’t . I can’t—I don’t even know where I end and the orders begin anymore.”
Silence falls like dust.
Cody grips tighter. “We’re going to figure this out. Whatever this is—whatever’s happening—we’ll get to the bottom of it.”
Fox looks away, toward the window.
“How can you say that? After everything I’ve done? After I…” His words trail off. He can’t finish them. Cody wants to say it’s okay. He wants to say it’s all going to be fine, but he knows that’s a lie. This is bigger than both of them. And they’re not going to make it out unscathed.
“We’ll figure this out. I promise.” Cody says, voice shaking just the slightest. “But we need to talk. Really talk , Fox.”
Outside, the city glows, golden and sprawling. It looks like it always has.
But something’s changed.
Inside this room, inside Fox —something has cracked.
Cody watches him carefully.
And in that moment, he knows.
This wasn’t just a mission gone wrong.
This was the beginning of something much darker.