𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐃𝐔𝐒𝐊 ⪢ anakin skywalker

𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄

♚

𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄⬎

━━━━"Something is wrong with Tup..." Apollo trailed off. "Something... something."

They sat at their desk, fingers digging into their palms, desperately trying to figure out why Tup was acting the way he was. "Tup, Tup, Tup, Tup..."

After killing a Jedi... a Jedi, Tup was gone. A disease. A virus. They kept saying those words. Malfunction, defective clone, chip, chip, chip... What did it all mean?

Fives almost... no. Why would they? Why would they try to cover it up. Apollo glanced across the room. There he was, breathing under a bacta tank. What was happening? Apollo had to go pretty deep into his mind, get back Fives back slowly after healing the blast wound. They had to carry him back aboard the Resolute, and treat him quietly, soon after most everyone in charge, Rex, Anakin, Ahsoka, were asleep.

"King," Omega said, trying to get their attention. "Can you come back to bed?"

"Not now, Omega," Apollo said firmly, turning to see the seven year old at the door. "I'm a little busy, okay? We'll watch a holovid tomorrow."

"F-Fives..." Omega wobbled out, and Apollo knew she caught sight at Fives in the bacta tank. They got up to go confront her, knowing she was near tears.

"Sh, shh," Apollo soothed. "I've got this under control, okay? Fives is just a little sick. He's gonna be okay. I always find a way, don't I?"

"Why dod some-someone hurt Fives?" Omega hiccupped between the words.

Apollo sighed, glancing at the bacta tank, "Fives found something out. Something bad. People didn't want everyone to know about it-"

"But why him?"

Why Fives? What did he know, and why did they want to silence him...

"I'm gonna figure it out Omega, don't you worry okay. Now go back to bed, I'll be there soon," Apollo answered.

"Promise me you'll come back?"

Apollo rolled their eyes. "Yes Omega, I promise. Go to sleep. I'll be there when you wake up."

After Omega left, Apollo sat back down, drawing pieces and lines together. Slowly. They picked up the chips in their hand one more time, and squinted softly...

"What was in your head, Fives?"

Then it hit them. All of a sudden, and the pieces falling apart, together, and into balance. All a meticulously made puzzle, just... made sense.

The running away, the chancellor, the tumor, the chip, the conditioning, just everything was making sense.

Oh this is the part where no one believe me, isn't it?

━━━━

Apollo didn't know what was worse. Knowing the partial truth, or knowing nothing at all. Knowing nothing was... blissful. It let them wander the day with their trusted clones, but knowing. Oh knowing was worse. Any moment the Jedi they love near and dear to their heart could be executed by clones. The worst part? They loved the clones as much as the Jedi. 

"Rex!"

"King! Do you need anything?" Rex asked, turning around in the corridor and looking at Apollo. 

"I..." Apollo glanced around. "I have a couple tests to run on a sick trooper, and I need some scans of a healthy trooper in order to compare scans."