Cadet Captured

20. As Embryos

We get to a medical room, where AZ immediately begins preparing for the procedure.

"I'm going first," I say. "I was told to watch after you and Tup, and so far all I've done is seen Tup die and we've been detained and disobeying orders since."

"No," Fives argues. "As an ARC trooper, I am mentally and physically prepared for whatever comes next. And if something happens to me, it's better you go on to get this information to the Jedi Council. At least to General Skywalker."

I sigh, crossing my arms. "You're not going to listen to a thing I say, are you?"

"No, probably not. You can lecture me later," Fives grins, laying on the gurney. Looking to AZ, he asks, "You do know what you're doing, right?"

"Why, yes," AZ says. "I have been programmed to perform over 100-"

"All right, all right," Fives interupts as AZ brings out his drill. "Let's do this. Blitz, please don't watch. You don't wanna know what goes on in my brain."

I chuckle at his weak attempt at a joke, but obligingly turn around. I really don't want to watch this, anyway. When AZ is done, I turn around. Fives, now bald, has a patch on his head, hiding where the drill went in.

"Well?" Fives asks. "Was it... was it there?"

"Yes," AZ answers. "Identical in structure. However, it appears the one I found in your friend had malfunctioned, while your's is perfectly intact."

"Are you sure his breakdown was isolated?" I ask.

"There is no way of knowing that," AZ says. "And now that we have removed Fives' chip, we do not know what will happen to him."

"We need to know if more clones than just Tup and Fives have these," I sigh. "AZ, we need to see if I have one. Please."

"Not yet," Fives interupts me. "We don't know what will happen to me now that it's out. Wait to see if I can survive without it. First, we need to know when these were implanted."

"Good idea. Based on what I have seen, it most likely occurred when you were only embryos," AZ says.

"Then we need to start there," I sigh. "But, Fives, if everything goes well, you can't stop me from getting mine taken out as well."

"Understood, sir," Fives acknowledges.

We head down to the training room, where young cadets are working on screens. Application tests, probably.

"Try to act normal," Fives tells us.

"Normal?" AZ questions, then starts singing random notes as we walk across the middle of the room. When we reach the opposite door, he asks, "How was that? Was that normal?"

"For you, AZ, yeah," Fives sighs.

We reach a room filled with hundreds of embryos in birthing canisters.

"We will start with the earliest stage of development," AZ tells us, calling a stage one embryo over and scanning it. "Nothing. I will now try a stage three embryo... There it is!"

"Try another," Fives suggests.

"Based on this data, I can calculate how many on this tree are altered," AZ explains. He taps on the screen and all the birthing canisters light up green. "All of them."

"I can't believe it," Fives states.

The door slides open, and Nala Se enters, holding her hands up as Fives and I point our blasters.

"Why are you doing this," Nala Se questions.

"I know what you've done," Fives accuses.

"What is it that you think I have done?" the doctor asks.