“I was framed!” Fives says, his voice breaking, “because I know the truth. The truth about a plot, a massive deception.”

Rex’s eyes bore into him. “By whom?”

Fives struggles to find the words. “Well there’s a sinister plot, in the works against the Jedi!” He feels muddled, cloudy. But he needs to make them see. “I have proof of it. I can prove that everything that I know is true beyond a shadow of a doubt!”

General Skywalker’s face scowls at him. “Show me the evidence.”

Fives fights to bring the words into focus. He needs to say this. He has to. “The evidence…is…in here. It’s–– it’s in here. It’s in all of us, every clone.”

“What is it?” Rex asks.

The immensity of it is too great. The implications. He slumps against a stack of boxes. “Organic chips built into our genetic code, to make us do whatever someone wants. Even kill the Jedi! It’s all in here.”

General Skywalker glances at Rex, the scowl still on his face. “Let’s just get you some help first. Then we can review everything. It’ll be okay, Fives. We’ll sort this out.”

Fives lets out a frustrated cry. “You don’t believe me!” His words echo through the warehouse.

“I believe you,” a voice answers back.

Fives turns his head. “What? Who–– who’s there?”

A shape emerges from the shadows, slowly, cautiously. Fives tries to identify it. The edges of his vision are blurring. He shakes his head, trying to clear it. If this is a trap, he needs to be able to run. Needs to get out.

“Fives,” the figure says, stepping into the light, hands up, nonthreatening. “I believe you. But we have to go. Now.”

Rex’s audible intake of breath carries through the ray shield. Fives can’t even take a breath, can’t move, can’t think. “You…”

The flickering ray shield throws Dogma’s tattoos into stark relief and then into shadows again. “It’s me,” he says, “it’s really me. I’ve been following you since I heard. But we have to go, Fives.”

“But…”

“Fives you have to trust me. I can’t explain right now. Corrie Guard are on their way here to get you, we have to go. Trust me.”

Fives glances from Dogma to Rex. He looks back to Dogma. The room sways uncomfortably. What else can he do?

“I trust you.”

Dogma scoops up Rex’s pistols and tucks them into his jacket. “Sorry Captain,” he says, “we need these more than you do.” His hand closes around Fives’ elbow. “We have to go.”

Fives takes a stumbling step after him, then another. Into the shadows. Into the unknown. He can hear Rex and General Skywalker yelling after him, but they wouldn’t listen. They wouldn’t listen. He has one chance now, one way out.

“How did you find me?”

“Comm chatter. Surveillance cams. Transport traces.”

Dogma hurries him through a small door onto a service platform. He barely makes out the shape of a covered speeder before he tumbles into the backseat. His stomach twists as the speeder pulls away and dives. “Comms? I wasscareful.” His words come out slurred. It’s getting harder to keep his eyes open.

Dogma’s soft chuckle drifts from the front seat. “Chasing code isn’t something I got the chance to showcase on Umbara. Jesse insisted on cracking the Umbaran encryptions, remember?”

Memories come to Fives, shifting with each sway of the speeder. Marching, and battle, and stealing a starfighter, flying, lying, disobeying orders, saving the day and a prison with shielded walls, the silhouettes of brothers and blasters, the blinding fear of staring at death…

And a shaking hand holding his pistol. A hand that wasn’t his.

I had to. He betrayed us.

“Umbara…” is all he can say.

Dogma’s voice is soft. “I think about that a lot. I have a lot to tell you, and a lot to make up for.”

“Don’t haveto…” Fives tries to say, but he’s losing the battle against keeping his eyes open and making his mouth work. “Why…”

“Because you’re right. And you have to tell everyone. You’ll be okay. I’ve got you. Trust me.”

Fives slumps in the seat, feeling more than seeing the lights flash by out the speeder window, swirling around him. Trust. He could do that. He could…do that. He could…trust…Dogma.

“Hang in there,” comes Dogma’s voice again. “Hang in there, brother.”

Also on AO3

Strike one for KTraviss in the Clone Wars novelization: there is no canon evidence in that film that Rex shaves his head so completely that it shines from lack of hair. KT why would you include such an unfounded detail?