A Diary Lost

4

Fives sat in the middle of his room meditating when he heard the door slide open.

"Fives, there is someone to see you," Shaak's voice informed him. He nodded and felt the presence of the other person, Shaak already gone, come closer to him before they gasped. Fives opened one eye.

"What have they done to you?" Rex exclaimed. Fives couldn't tell what had made Rex outburst like that, then realised he was floating about a metre off the ground while Rex gaped at him.

"A lot of things. I'm not sure how much I can tell you," Fives said, landing on his feet. "But I can let you know this: the Kaminoans are using me for an experiment to see how injected midichlorians react to the body and if they raise the midichlorian count and stay there or fade out. It's quite messed up. Part of me wishes I was dead still."

Rex said nothing and embraced his brother in a tight hug. Fives buried his face into the crook of his neck, savouring what's probably going to be the last hug for a very very long time. "Even if they're doing terrible things to you, I'm glad you're alive and I know you can get through this. It's also been... hard to say the least."

Fives nodded. "How has everyone been?"

"Miserable. Especially Cain. He disappeared for a week once he heard the news. Still don't know where he went. He refuses to talk about it. But he's back now. Ulari didn't take well to you disappearing out of her life. It brought back memories of her biological parents leaving her, and she was hysterical. Since Cain was also gone in that time, it made her panic really badly. She couldn't stay in her room alone and alternated sleeping with me in my bunk in the barracks and sleeping over at Senator Amidala's quarters."

Fives felt the guilt bubble up. "Is she okay now?"

"Won't leave Cain, Skywalker or Senator Amidala alone. Poor kid."

"What about the rest of the boys?"

"They're alright. It was a big blow for everyone. Now uh, to make this conversation a bit happier, do you have a lightsaber?"

Fives let a small smile spread on his face. "Yeah." He let go of Rex and grabbed it out and handed it to Rex.

Rex turned it over in his hands. "It looks different to the General's."

"It's colour is the same though." Once Fives made sure Rex's hand wasn't over where the blade ignites and it was facing upwards, he used the Force to ignite it. Rex nearly dropped the lightsaber, but then steadied himself quickly.

Rex glowered at Fives. "Don't scare me like that. I need to get used to you using the Force first." Rex pressed the ignition button and extinguished the blade before handing it back to Fives. "How long do you have left here?"

Fives looked around the room while he thought and tried to hide the unsure look on his face. "I've just had my seventeenth dose and I have twenty-eight in total, so about eleven more weeks if it goes by that. It'll probably be longer though."

"Oh. I was really hoping they'd let you back into the 501st."

"I really want that too, but I don't think they'll let me."

"Everyone would be excited to see you again, and it sucks I can't even tell them you're alive."

"I know. They will know one day, I'm sure of that."

Rex smiled. "Yeah. I don't doubt that."