Work Text:
There are three things that Tup notices when he wakes up.
The first is that he is awake at all, and not dead or decommissioned or reconditioned or captured and locked away in a cold cell.
(He pauses for a second, wonders why it is a surprise for him to be awake, dismisses it. It’s nothing.)
The second is that, though his head aches and pounds something fierce, no other part of him feels injured. He feels warm and there are blankets on him, soft, and comforting.
The third is that there is another clone looking at him, with something in his eyes that Tup can’t read.
Tup moves to sit up, groans and nearly throws up as his head spins and protests it. He breathes through his nose, curls up in a ball and waits for the wave of dizziness to stop.
“Steady there, you aren’t doing great, take it slow.” The vod says and Tup breathes slowly.
“Where—” his voice is a rasp, fizzles out with a cough and Tup wheezes. Closes his eyes as the room spins again.
There are hands soothing themselves gently down his back and something pressed to his lips. He pries his eyes open slowly, a Twi’lek standing there with a glass of water.
“Go on, you need the water.” They say, when Tup hesitates.
He does, drinks and feels a little better for it, head still pounding.
He clears his throat, closes his eyes, “Where am I?” he asks, “And where’s the rest of my company?”
There’s a beat of silence and Tup feels a spike of fear and resignation go through him.
There’s the sounds of shuffling and someone leaves the room, Tup waits.
“What do you remember?” the vod asks.
And Tup remembers —
Nothing.
He can’t remember anything after going to bed before the campaign. He opens his eyes and turns to the vod.
“Why” he asks, swallows past his terror. He shouldn’t be missing that much time. How long has it been since then?
It’s quiet, there is no answer.
Tup breathes, “I don’t remember anything, please I just—”
He cuts off and the vod sighs, “You’re safe, and as far as I know your company is fine.”
Tup shudders, the reassurance making him relax just the slightest, even as he remains wary.
“Thank you,” he says, closes his eyes against another wave of nausea.
The hands run soothingly over his back again and he can place them as the vod’s now.
“D’ya think,” Tup grits out around the nausea and the pounding in his head, “I could get a name for you, vod?”
There’s a pause, a soft snort, “Yeah, the name’s Cut.”
Tup hums, “Nice to meet you Cut.” He breathes out, pushes himself up and rests against the wall.
Cut helps steady him and Tup grimaces, exhales, and speaks as evenly as he can manage, “I’m Tup and I’d really like to know what’s going on now.”
Cut huffs, “Yes, I suppose you would,” he pauses, looks like he’s about to respond when the door opens again, the Twi’lek from before standing in the doorway.
Tup waves a hand to them, “Hi.”
They smile, gently, and wave back, “Hi there. Cut told you anything yet?”
He moves to shake his head, regrets it instantly and closes his eyes, sucks in deep breaths against the vertigo and swallows down the urge to vomit.
He breathes, waits until everything feels a bit steadier before forcing his eyes open, meets their concerned gaze and tries for a smile, “Not yet.”
They turn to give Cut a look and Cut shifts, “Aw c’mon Suu, I was about to before you came in, just,” he shrugs, “just needed to figure out what to say.”
Suu softens, a sad look on her face, “Okay dear.”
Cut turns back to Tup, “This here’s my wife, Suu.”
Tup waves again, “Hi.”
Suu smiles, soft and amused, “Hello again.”
Cut’s lips twitch up and Tup huffs, reaches for the water on the table next to the bed, manages a few sips.
He looks up at Cut, tries to gauge his expression, doesn’t like what he reads from it and puts the cup down again with a frown.
He takes a deep breath, steadies himself and prepares to hear something he can already tell he won’t like. Wets his lips and asks, “What happened to me, and what did I forget?”
Suu winces and Cut sighs, pulls out a tiny vial from his pocket.
There’s a little piece of metal in there, a chip maybe, or a piece of scrap, and Tup looks at it in confusion, looks up and meets Cut’s eyes.
Cut’s expression is tight, voice even in a purposeful way, “Do you know what this is?” he asks Tup and Tup does his best not to lash out.
He doesn’t think Cut means for it to sound accusing, but Tup is all wound up and worried and reading tone always gets harder to do like that.
Suu notices and she smiles at him reassuringly, “You aren’t in trouble, but any information you already have means we can elaborate on other things.”
Tup relaxes a little, shoulders dropping, and he bites his lip, shakes his head as he looks at the vial again.
“A piece of shrapnel maybe? Or a chip?” he guesses, shrugs his shoulders hopelessly, “I don’t know, why?”
Suu and Cut exchange a look and Suu turns back to him, face pinched with worry or fear or maybe both.
“That was pulled outta your head Tup.”
And Tup freezes, frowns for a second because that can’t be right, his hearing must be knocked out of wack by whatever happened to his head—
Oh, he thinks, suddenly freezing, lightheaded and numb.
He closes his eyes, breathes. The hands are back again, gentle and grounding on his skin and he leans into them like a dying man.
He opens his eyes, finds Cut, with his large, calloused hands, and chipped nails looking down at him, concern painted across his face. Suu mirrors him on Tup’s other side, with her smaller calloused hands, with long fingers and nails.
Tup is grateful for that, as he processes the information, tries to find a center.
“Damn,” he mutters, with as much weight as he can put behind it, he presses the heels of his hands against his eyes, sighs, “I’m not gonna like the rest of this very much, am I?”
Suu sighs and Cut snorts, “Afraid not.”
Tup drops his hands with a sigh, “Damn.” he says again.
Cut gives him a sympathetic look and Suu reaches down, tangles their hands together and gives a gentle squeeze.
Cut run a heavy hand down the length of Tup’s spine and back up again, the motion reassuring.
“So,” Cut says, doesn’t stop his movements, “Do you want the bad news first, the worse news, or the vaguely good news?”
Tup winces, “Surprise me,” he says and Cut snorts while Suu huffs.
“Alright then,” Cut says, expression going serious, “So, first of all, You tried to kill a Jedi.”
Tup goes cold all over again, tightens his grip on Suu’s hands and feels his breath hitch.
“What?” he chokes out, and Cut winces, switches to rubbing soothing circles against his back.
“You didn’t succeed,” Cut reassures him, “One of your squad saw you and tackled you, knocked you out and got you out of there as quick as they could.”
Tup shakes, and it’s like he can breathe again, a weight off of his chest, he looks up at Cut and whispers, “What the fuck.”
Cut grimaces, “Yeah, that was the general sentiment from what I heard.”
Tup breathes, “Alright, so I tried to kill a Jedi, and someone stopped me and, just a guess, but it probably had something to do with the thing you pulled out of my head, yes?”
Cut nods and Suu hums in agreement.
“Okay,” Tup says, “but that still doesn’t explain how I got here, or,” he breaks off, looks around the room again, “where exactly here is.”
There’s another tense look between the two and Suu gives Tup’s hands a final, gentle, squeeze, “I’ll let Cut finish explaining, I have to go check on the kids.”
She presses a gentle kiss to Tup’s forehead, presses a hand to Cut’s shoulder and a kiss against his head before slipping out of the room.
Cut turns back to Tup with a sigh.
“To answer your question,” he says, rubs a hand across his face, the other slowing to a stop until it is pressing heavy on Tup’s back, a comforting weight, “you're on Saleucami, Rex sent you my way after they found that karking chip in your head.”
Tup’s heart feels like it’s going to beat out of his chest and he grips his hands tight together, tries to keep his breathing even.
“Kark.” he whispers, and Cut nods.
“Whoever put that chip in you didn’t want it found.” Cut tells him, serious and blunt, “It took a level 5 scan to find it, and the entire time they were looking for it the Longnecks kept trying to figure out what was going on. Kept demanding the ‘defective product’ be sent back to them for examination.”
Tup winces, looks at that tiny vial, with the little chip inside of it and thinks of the missing time, the confusion, the nightmare.
“All because of that?” he asks, and he means more than just the Longnecks panic, means both the forgetting and the trying to kill the Jedi.
Cut nods, “Far as we can tell, yeah. You’re gonna stay with us for a while, until we can figure out what it’s for and why it was there in the first place.”
Tup bites his lip nods. And, it’s scary, and he hates it, wishes it wasn’t happening, but—
He looks at Cut, thinks of the way he and Suu interacted, the way Suu held Tup’s hands and the way the both of them helped ground him, remembers the mention of kids and—
It’s not the best situation, it’s awful and Tup wishes there hadn’t been anything in his head in the first place, no nightmares, no missing time, no attempt to kill a Jedi but, since it did happen, and he does have to stay somewhere the Longnecks can’t get to him—
He’s glad it’s here, with Cut and Suu and their kids.
He looks up at Cut and leans forward, presses into keldabe shakily.
“Thank you.” he whispers and Cut huffs.
“Of course,” he says, as if it’s the easiest thing in the galaxy.
Tup pulls away, yawns and Cut’s lip twitches, “rest,” he says and Tup hums, lies back down slowly, carefully. Cut’s hand guiding him down.
He closes his eyes and he dreams.