Chapter Text
Kunea hadn’t expected to be treating a clone tonight.
If one appeared at her doorstep, it was always after she’d received a message warning her. Every time, it was the same three types of procedures, and the clinic always had the necessary tools on hand.
This time, there were no messages, no perfectly healthy troopers wearing the exact same clothes as the others before them, and no preparation beforehand. Instead, Kunea’s son turned up with a half-dead human in full, pure white armor marred by blaster fire and skin the color of concrete.
She and her small team were a varied bunch who usually had at least one person on board who knew what to do. Jinn was called on hand for his expertise in poisonings and drugs. Kunea and Merris got to the blaster wound and the broken ankle, though they had to split their attention to make sure that the patient’s heart didn’t give out.
Jinn knew that it would take one hell of a substance to even make a dent in a clone trooper’s system. Half the time, the painkillers the clinic had didn’t work on them. Something about the modifications done to their bodies when they’re but cells in a tube. “Kaminoan engineering,” the trooper medic who’d explained this to them had said. Whatever this particular trooper had taken or been administered, it was clone-specific and highly potent.
They flatlined four times before the three clinic workers got them stable.
“Go take a rest, Merris,” Kinea said softly. “You’ve been up for too long.” Merris opened their mouth to protest, but a yawn cut them off. Their pale face went red in embarrassment, and they rubbed at it with their hands like it would help them wake up.
“Fine,” they said. “Wake me if you need anything.”
“Of course, sweetie,” Kinea said, touching the human’s shoulder briefly in reassurance. “Now shoo.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m shooing.”
Jinn finished setting up the IV just as Merris disappeared through the door separating the clinic from the first floor. His lekku were twitching in barely concealed anxiety, his blue skin a few shades paler.
“I have seen this one on the news,” Jinn said. “The tattoo is the same, and so is the facial hair. He just got a shorter haircut.” He pointed to the bacta patch on the right side of the trooper’s skull. “And just had brain surgery.”
Kinea passed a hand over her face, thinking. “Okay. We can deal with that later. For now, keep monitoring them. We’ll shift watch turns every three hours.”
“He is wanted by authorities right now,” Jinn said, finally meeting her eyes with his own. “If the news is being truthful, this one tried to kill the Chancellor.”
Kinea allowed herself a smile. “We’ve had worse beings under our care, Jinn,” she said. “This one might have a good reason. Whatever they had in their system wasn’t like anything you could find on the street or even in the medical facilities above level 50.”
“Not that we know of.”
“There’s a lot of mystery in every patient we treat,” Kinea reminded him. “Better not concern ourselves with it. If this one’s in danger, we call a ride for them to get off Coruscant, like we did with the others.”
“What if they are a danger to us?”
“Then even more reason to get them away.” Kinea put a hand on Jinn’s shoulder and squeezed once. “I’ll ask Timu to do some research.”
Jinn nodded, though he still looked worried. But he was just like the rest of them, willing to help. He wouldn’t be here in the clinic otherwise.
Kinea watched the slow rise and fall of the trooper’s chest, the monitoring nodes keeping track of their lifesigns. “Call us if he flatlines again,” she told Jinn, who nodded and waved her reminder away. Kinea stored away her own worries and curiosity for later and left the room. She trusted him to do his job, just as she did the others who worked at her clinic. The trooper will live.
-
His body was floating.
His head throbbed in pain, rhythmically, like a migraine. He couldn’t quite…
Rex.
He needed to call… He knew something. He…
He floated.
. ..
… ..
. .. . .
… . … . …
There was water beneath his feet. It was clear and flat like a looking glass, reflecting the clear, endless blue around him.
He had to find something.
He began to walk. He wouldn’t find it if he stayed put.
Water rippled beneath his feet at every step. The only sound he could hear was that of drops falling into it.
Drip. Drip. Drip. Barely a splash.
He had to find it. He had to.
He had to.
.
… There was something chasing him. .. .. . .
. …. . .. ...... ... .. He needed to keep going.
.. … .
. ..
The first thing Fives felt was a sharp pain in his side and left ankle. The second was his lack of armor and the weight of something thin but warm over him.
Everything smelled like bacta and metal. Was he in a medbay?
Kaminoans.
Fives tried to get up and get his armor on, wherever it was. He couldn’t be unprotected. They’d caught him. They were going to decommission him, or worse.
His body failed him. Every nerve hurt, his limbs were sluggish. He tried opening his eyes, but regretted it the moment he was blinded by lights. He rolled sideways on the medcot beneath him. He heard it groan under the shifting weight. Odd. Hovers didn’t make those sounds.
He was so tired. And through the throbbing pain in his skull, he started to think that maybe it wasn’t Kaminoans. There was none of the usual whirring of a medical droid or the slight smell of fish and sea salt.
His arm gave out, and he fell back onto the cot shoulder-first. The metal squeaked beneath him loudly, sending another sharp stab of pain behind his eyes. Kark. Whoever had gotten him here had definitely heard that. He didn’t know if he would be able to defend himself if they were hostile. He waited for the spike of fear and the sudden clarity that always came to him when danger approached.
Instead, he just felt mildly nervous and in pain. There was no tense anticipation in his gut or buzzing in his bones.
What the fuck had these people given him?
Drugged.
Nala Se had drugged him. Was it still in him? If it was, he was doomed.
Only that had made his heartbeat faster, his breathing erratic, his senses exploding at every turn. He’d been cold and hot at the same time, and his muscles would jump and jerk by themselves.
This didn’t feel like that.
There was something in his arm. He squinted his eyes open, trying to see it as he palmed it to try and remove it, when there was suddenly someone there.
ARC training stayed with a trooper even in their sleep.
Fives shifted back down into a tranquil resting position, evening out his breathing. One of the oldest tricks in the books.
The presence got closer and closer, until it was right beside him. There was the sound of something being set down- a plate, maybe- before a hand touched his forearm.
Fives blindly grabbed it with the opposite hand, pulling it away. He forced himself off the cot in an admittedly clumsy move, but it did the work. Through his half opened eyes, he managed to grab the being’s other arm. He did his best to lock them into the usual grip reserved for possible hostiles in need of questioning, despite his current state. ARCs pushed through these things; he could do this.
“Hk- let me go ,” the being protested, trying to free themselves from where Fives had them trapped on the cold floor. “PATIENT’S AWA-”
Fives pressed his forearm down their throat- easy to do; they were humanoid- and the rest of their yell was cut off. “Fuck,” he swore. His voice was nothing more than a wheezy exhale. He tried to get up, to make a break for it, but only managed to roll over onto the ground next to the humanoid. He pushed himself into a halfway kneeling position with his elbows, trembling as he did so. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“DOCTOR MURAFA!” the humanoid shouted, frantically scrambling away. Fives ignored them and focused on trying to get up. He had to leave. He knew this. He had to go find Rex, and General Skywalker, or Commander Cody. He had to tell them. ”MISTER JINN! THE UNDEAD ONE’S UP!”
If only they’d stop being so loud . His headache was just getting worse.
“Sir, please,” they begged. “Stop trying to get away, you’ll open your wound again. Nevermind your broken ankle, or the drug that’s probably still- sir, don’t grab that, IVs that good are hard to come by. How is it even still- nevermind.”
It spoke to how groggy Fives actually was that he listened. He was out of breath, as if he’d run at full speed for a whole rotation.
“You’re safe,” the person continued, voice soft despite the obvious tremor in it. “My name is Merris. I’m one of the workers at a clinic on level 325C. Someone found you near death and brought you here. You’re safe.”
Fives didn’t know why he believed them. He didn’t know why all his instincts told him to stop, to take a moment, to listen, when his reason told him he should go immediately.
He was so bloody tired.
“Okay,” the person said quietly. “Okay. There’s going to be others here soon, they’re- uh, medics, like me. They’ll explain things, and Jinn is going to make sure whatever you got drugged with gets out of your blood.” They stepped closer, the warmth of their hand hovering over Fives’ shoulder.
He scrambled away, knocking his back into a shelf. He squinted at the blob that was Merris, his facial muscles jumping into the semblance of a scowl.
“ No .”
They immediately froze, before briskly backing away. “Okay. Okay, just don’t move, my-”
“Merris? What’s going on?” Someone else. Masculine, Ryl accent. Another thing to worry about.
And somehow, Fives still felt safe.
“Ah, kriff,” the new arrival said. “Go get something for that. How did he even get that far from his cot?”
“I dunno, I just got here,” said Merris. “Where’s Miss Kinea?”
“Went to get some food, she’ll be back soon. Now shoo, I’ll take care of this.”
Fives tried to follow Merris’ movements, but the moment he moved his head any further, dizziness washed over him. He tried to push through it, to get up from the floor, just one more time.
And then he promptly threw up.
“Ah, kriff. ” The stranger stayed where he was, even as Fives dry-heaved nothing except acid. “Now this is why you should have stayed on the cot. We saved you from death four times.”
Why? Fives wasn’t naive enough to think that anyone this far below Coruscant would give him medical care out of the goodness of their hearts.
Everything still hurt.
“Can I help you back on the cot? And out of the… mess.”
Fives was so tired.
He nodded, gritting his teeth as his head spun again. This was the fucking worst.
It was a little bit of a struggle. Whoever was helping him was tall enough but lacked the strength to get him up on the cot without using their entire body. They slung his arm over their shoulders and hefted him upwards. He nearly threw up again.
The cot screeched when he missed, his elbow jutting out to steady himself on it. His helper cursed in ryl.
“Okay, on three. One, two, three.” They pushed him upwards, and with the combined momentum, they both managed to get Fives onto the cot.
“Do not lay down yet,” they instructed. “We do not want you to choke to death on what remains on your stomach. I’m going to do a quick checkover, and then you will sleep again.”
Fives just squinted at him. He didn’t have the energy for much more.
“Wipe your face.” A piece of cloth was placed in his hand, and he did as he was told.
“I am going to shine a light in your eye, okay?” Fingers pried one of his eyelids open. Everything was still blurry and bright, but at least it wasn’t swaying from side to side anymore. He got a glimpse of someone’s very blue face before he was blinded.
“Pupils are too wide,” the medic muttered. “How bad is your eyesight?”
“Bad,” Fives croaked.
“Hmm. How many fingers am I holding up?”
“...Four?”
“No. Three. Close your eyes, the lights must not be pleasant. Can I take some of your blood? I need to test it.”
Sure. Why not? At least they were asking. Fives gave them his arm, which they gently took and patted for a vein. A pinch, there and gone, and then they quickly let go.
“You can lay back down. No one will hurt you here.”
Fives already felt himself fading away, his exhaustion finally catching up to him. He really, really hoped that he wasn’t about to get murdered in his sleep.