What’s Left Ch. 5 “Fragments”

(Fives(child or rex) begins decoding the memory core and Kix returns to a familiar place.

ALSO! I’ve just now realized that I’ve been writing Fives nickname as Fifi as in Feefee BUT I really mean for it to be read as Fye Fee. If that makes any form of sense. Don’t write at 1 in the morning kids. The brain does weird things. Also, I’m too lazy to change it now unless someone can give a better way to spell it because my brain is tapped out at the moment :))

Qell

The ice in his drink clinks as he shifts in his chair and exhales a cloud of smoke through his nostrils. The image of Jacen approaching Dee’s concert plays across 6 different screens hanging on the wall above his desk. He takes another drag of the spice stick and leans back in his chair. His eyes stare at the dark ships ceiling. This could be bad. The spice stick is stolen from his lips before Calli sits on his desk with one leg crossed over the other. She takes a hit, winks, and exhales a stream of smoke.

“Boy Scout got you down?” she lightly bounces her foot that is crossed over the other and offers him his stick back. He takes it and lifts it to his lips.

“If Dee gets involved…” he shakes his head. Calli shrugs her shoulders.

“She’s better then Jess.” Calli steals Qell’s drink and takes a sip. Her nose wrinkles slightly so she sets it back down.

“Jess is smart, but she can be predictable. Dee’s…”

“Like Fievel?” she finishes for him. He breathes out another cloud of smoke and nods. When the doors behind them part, he turns his chair to face Gigi and Suzu who are rushing out of the garage towards the spare parts bin. They rummage through the junk before Suzu pulls out a coil. Gigi tries to fight her for it, but they end up both grasping hold of it and running back into the garage. Calli and Qell exchange a look before they get to their feet to go see how much progress has been made.

The garage is dark besides a few lamps peering down at the blackboard where Chop is scribbling something below a mess of different equations. He’s muttering to himself as he writes, completely oblivious to everything around him. Fifi is hunched over a cylinder on the other side of the room. Power tools and spare parts surround him like some kind of nest. He sits in a chair that swivels around the cylinder. His welding mask is pulled over his face despite how dark it is in his area. Neon glow in the dark pain appears on the walls, floors, and ceilings of the garage. Gigi and Suzu rush over to Fifi and hand him the coil. He pats their heads and goes back to working on the cylinder.

“How’s it going?” Qell asks. Chop doesn’t even react to his voice. He wipes away something he wrote that leaves a smudge of chalk before trying to write over it. Fifi lifts a hand up in acknowledgment but goes back to his work. Calli makes a clicking sound with her teeth while carefully maneuvering around the junk on the floor to get a closer look at Chops work. Chop might be a little scatter brained, but he knew what he was doing. Qell found his way to Fifi, who still doesn’t stop working. Behind Fifi, on a workbench, is the memory core. Fifi decoded it while they were asleep. He came out of his funk and went straight to work. Qell wasn’t thrilled about the fact that he chose work oversleep but he knew he had to pick and choose his battles. This wasn’t going to be one. Qell scans over the seemingly endless information sprayed into the air from the memory core. There was so much they could use, but they were only after one thing.

“Got it!” Chop shoots up, nearly hitting Calli who was leaning over him to get a better look at the board. Fifi finally tears his eyes away from the cylinder and looks towards Chop. Chop moves so his work can be seen more clearly. Qell arched a brow. To him, it looked like a jumbled up mess of a mad man. But Fives could see it. Fives slides out of his chair and approaches the blackboard. He places a hand on Chop’s shoulder, giving it a light squeeze.

“It’s perfect.” He says behind the mask. Qell leaned against the workbench and crosses his arms. Calli moves over to stand next to him as Fives and Chop go deeper into their own little nerd world. Gigi and Suzu stand at their feet as if they understood what was happening, but really, they were just waiting for the okay to start dismantling things again.

Calli nudges Qell’s side, “I don’t think we’ll need to worry about Dee.”

“You think?” Qell chuckles when Chop and Fives start arguing over some part of the problem.

“I think by the time the Princess finds us; it’ll already be too late.”

Kix

Part of him probably shouldn’t have been surprised that Rex had more than one kid. Most people had at least two. The thing that set Kix’s mind reeling was the fact that no one had bothered to tell him. Though, when he really thought about it, they probably don’t really trust him yet and… that’s fair. Dogma sets her glass down and crosses her arms, never breaking eye contact with Jacen.

“We’re trying to get him out of trouble.” Jacen’s eyes try to tell more than his words, but Dogma’s face never changes. Reveth steps forward, her hands clenched into fists.

“He fucked with the Crimson Corsair and we’re getting tired of all this running around trying to find him. We made a deal with Maz that we would bring him in alive. You can help us now and save everyone some heartache or… step aside and I tell my captain you left us no choice.” Reveth has reached the end of her rope. Kix couldn’t blame her. She’s been remarkably tame during this whole ordeal. Now, even Kix was growing tired of it all. They needed real answers. Dogma’s eyes cast down to the floor and back up to meet Reveth’s.

“Fine,” she says finally. Her words are short and laced with venom. “Because Maz still has hope for him.”

She pushes herself away from the table and strides to the closet disappearing inside leaving the room heavy with tension. Jacen glances at Reveth but she doesn’t show any signs of bluffing. Pendewqell stands next to her, forming a united front in this decision forcing Kix to reluctantly fall in behind them. These were the people that saved him. He owed them this. The room is unbearably silent while they wait for Dogma to reemerge from her closet. When she does, Kix is a little shocked. Not because she is dressed in a bright frilly dress that Kix was expecting, but because she wears sensible clothes with neutral colors. She pulls her hair back up into a tight ponytail and pulls on her single bag that drapes over her shoulders.

“I’ve got to clear some things up with my manager and then I’ll meet you at the Ghost.” She says when she’s situated. Jacen gives her the Ghosts coordinates and leads them to the lift and out of the building.

Outside, its eerily dark and quiet compared to the bright chaotic lights and music that had surrounded them when they first arrived. The theater is almost completely empty now with only a few workers dotting the stadium cleaning up trash. When they are back on the ordinary streets, Kix feels himself give a sigh of relief. He hadn’t noticed before, but he had been tensed from the second they stepped into that building. They barely talk while maneuvering through the late night crowds of Coruscant. Most people at this hour were drunk and trying to find their way home while others were trying to keep the party going. At some point, things were looking more and more familiar. Kix stops, causing Pendewqell to walk into his back.

“What’s wrong?” Reveth turns back when she realizes he’s not directly behind her.

“I… I just…” he starts to explain but the words disappear and he’s walking down a different street. The light fixture that has the large dent… the statue of some wealthy patron that was rammed by a speeder all those years ago… the shops that may have changed their names and what they sell, but the store fronts are almost the same. He knew where he was. His feet move faster down the sidewalk.

“What’s he doing?” Azil’s voice comes from behind him, but he doesn’t stop moving. His feet carry him all the way to the end of the street where the platform drops off into a gorgeous view of the city. He feels his heart pounding in his chest. He could hardly believe it. It’s still called 79’s.

“Kix, we don’t have time for detours.” This is from Reveth. Her voice is low and softer than what most would think possible for her. But Kix just waves her away. Something compelled him to enter the bar. The bar he and Jesse would go to after every mission. The bar they used to go to with Hardcase. He forces the knot in his throat down and steps inside.

Kix stops dead in his tracks. Not because the bar was almost completely the same, minus the different furniture and modern music, but because of the sea of white armor scattered throughout the bar. He rubs his face trying to fix his vision, but when he looks, they’re still there. With tears blurring his eyes he opens his mouth to call out to them… until one speaks.

“Just gonna stand there or come on in?” a voice drunkenly laughs to his side. His delusion shatters. The faces his mind so desperately wanted to see shift into strangers. These aren’t clones. They’re stormtroopers.

Kix knew he should leave. Do the smart thing and walk away. The others didn’t even dare to come in. They probably saw the stormtroopers and fell back unable to convince Kix not to go in. He should turn back. But he couldn’t. He hesitantly moves along the back wall, steering as clear of the stormtroopers as possible, and heads for the refresher. He doesn’t know why he feels the need to return here. To the last place he saw him. The last time he felt like an ordinary soldier fighting for the right cause.

The refresher is unchanged. There’s more graffiti but it doesn’t appear the owner ever bothered to paint over the drawings they made back in the Clone Wars. He walks over to the sink closest to the back wall where he can still make out a large 501stwritten in red paint underneath layers of others scribbles. Kix catches his breath when he makes out the 5’s sister written on the wall. The animal they had drawn has been covered up by layers of writing. Kix leans against the sink feeling sick. He can feel the tears stinging his eyes but no matter how much he wanted them to come, they never did. Despite the pain and aching in his chest, the loneliness that ways him down every night when he’s alone in his room, or the wounds from the past that never seemed to heal, the thing that consumed him whole was the numbness of being left behind. All of this was history. He could stand here all night and Fives, his Fives, would never walk back through those doors. He could go back out, but Jesse wouldn’t be waiting there ready to order another round. There wasn’t a barracks to return to that is filled with brothers who felt exactly the way he felt because they were all going through the same shit. He slams his fists down on the counter and lets out a primal scream. When he finally manages to lift his eyes, he jumps back at the stranger standing right in front of him. Except, he had been leaning over the sink, and it wasn’t a stranger but his reflection.

His chest heaves with every breath. He didn’t even recognize himself. Rage spreads through his veins. He slams a fist in the mirror, watching the glass crack across his reflection and shatter around him. He falls to the floor breathless. Lifting a hand to his head he squeezes his temple trying to contain what little sanity he had left. Everything felt like it was pouring out. The anger, the pain, the overwhelming sadness. He had been doing so good to hide it. He stares at the glass scattered around him with fragments of himself staring back. Not anymore.

“Ohshit,” a voice slurs from the door to the refresher. Kix drops his head refusing to meet the stormtroopers eyes. The man stumbles further inside. “You have a lit’le too much to drink?”

The man lets out a loud laugh like this was the most hysterical thing he’s ever seen. Kix feels that rage bubbling up again. He doesn’t move, just keeps his head down.

“Hey, you gonna answer me?” the man is closer now. “Helloo?”

“Stay away from me.” Kix’s voice is barely audible. He swallows the knot in his throat.

“Hey, you know who I am? I can do whateverthefuck I want,” the man is crouching down so he can shout in Kix’s ears. Kix fixates on a spot on the floor, feeling heat spreading across his face. His fingers fumble with something on the floor next to him. “I’m a soldier! You should be respecting me! You have any idea what I gotta go through? What have you ever done to…”

Kix is staring into the man’s eyes. He doesn’t remember moving. He doesn’t fully understand what happened. The man’s eyes are wide, he’s making a choking noise. Something warm is dripping down Kix’s hand. Finally, Kix breaks eye contact and sees a glass shard plunged into the man’s neck. Kix’s hand grasps so tightly to the shard that it cuts through his palm. Kix gasps and releases the shard and pushes away from the man. The man chokes while fumbling with the piece of broken mirror stuck into his neck.

“It was… accident… it was…” Kix can’t breathe. He shakily gets to his feet while watching the man. The man pulls the shard out causing blood to pour down the left side of his body. The man reaches a hand towards Kix, but he’s pushed himself against the refresher stalls trying to get away from him. when the man falls to the floor, unmoving, silent, Kix turns and vomits.

He shoves through two stormtroopers who are walking towards the refresher. They frown at Kix but don’t seem to notice the blood staining his hands and jeans. Kix blinks struggling to remember where the exit is. When he finds it, he falls to his knees on the concrete outside with sweat pouring down his face. He’s gasping, desperate to get air in his lungs. There’s shouting coming from inside the bar. When the doors to the bar open, he can hear the feet approaching. He squeezes his eyes shut. Get-a-grip-get-a-grip! His body doesn’t listen. He’s frozen. He glances back at five stormtroopers shouting down at him. He can’t make out what their saying over the blood rushing in his ears. They raise their blasters at him. Kix closes his eyes and waits.

When a blaster fires and Kix is still alive, he opens his eyes. Reveth is standing over him with her blasters aimed at the stormtroopers.

“MoveKix!” she yells, still firing on approaching stormtroopers. This breaks Kix out of his trance. He’s running for the alleys. He’s alive. For whatever reason for him to still be here, he’s alive.

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