Unexpected

chapter forty: signal

Author's Note:

A little bit of steam
at the end...

This story is coming to an end in a few chapters and I feel empty inside 😔

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"Still no word from Ellie?" Kix asks as he leans against the back wall of the shooting range.

Fives reloads his blaster and shoots at the distant targets, hitting each one dead on.

"Guess not." Kix sighs.

"Maybe she's with Rex and the Generals! They'd never let anything happen to her, 'specially Rex." Tup points.

As Fives reloads his blaster yet again, the comlink on his wrist guard starts to blink. He freezes as the flashing light grabs his attention and quickly drops his weapon to answer the call.

"Hello?" He asks, not recognizing the signal of the transmission.

"Fives." Elara's voice calls as she sighs in relief.

"Ellie, oh thank the maker." Fives breathes. "Where are you? What's going on?"

"I don't have time to explain, I need you to see if there's any information in the archives on a trooper named Gregor." Elara rushes.

"What? El, I-"

"Hurry, Fives. The signal out here isn't strong enough to keep this going much longer." She says.

"Right, okay, I'm going." Fives says as he runs through the clone facility with his three brothers on his tail.

"Signal's fading, I don't think it'll work." Another voice says through the comlink and Fives furrows his eyebrows.

"It'll work." Elara assures the stranger.

"Cyar'ika, are you okay? Who are you with?" Fives asks as he reaches the database in the command center.

"I'm fine, did you find anything?" She asks.

Fives sighs and quickly types Gregor's name into the computer. His eyes scan the projected screen, passing Gree and Gett and Gunner but no Gregor. "Are you sure it's Gregor?"

"Positive." Elara states. "He might be assumed, uh.. Well, dead."

Fives glances down at the light on his wrist for a moment before clicking over to the casualty list of troops. As he scrolls through the alphabetized list, his eyes skin over Echo's name—causing a pang in his chest—but he continues on.

"Here it is, Gregor." Fives clicks on the file. "CC-5576-39. Captain Gregor was a clone commando, part of an elite squad." Fives reads aloud. "Says here he was reported MIA during the Battle of Sarrish."

"Sarrish?" Gregor asks in a hushed voice. "Sarrish." He speaks with more recognition.

"Ellie, I'm really worried abo-"

"Fives?" Elara asks.

"Elara?" Fives answers.

"Fives, I can't-"

Her voice cuts out before the end of her sentence and Fives's heart races.

"Elara, are you there?" He asks. "Can you hear me?"

The light on his wrist goes out and he clenches his jaw. The other three troops run into the room and pause to catch their breath.

"Was that her?" Jesse asks. He's completed his ARC training but is clearly still very far behind Fives in stamina.