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RC-8154 of the Republic Commandos got his name as a very young cadet from one of the Alpha ARCs. And despite it being Curiosity, he loved it almost from the start. Because he was curious. And most of the time he was proud of it. Especially when said curiosity allowed him to find things that shouldn’t be there. Like tumors that weren’t really tumors in his and his entire units’ brains.
He wasn’t supposed to have been in the position to find them at all. Entirely because Fyre hadn’t wanted him in her med bay. She had tried to convince him to go play the ball game the other four and Commander Geza were playing. But he wasn’t feeling it. And instead found himself messing around with her scanner.
“What does a level five scan mean?” he asked as he bounced it through different settings. “What is it looking for?”
“Microscopic abnormalities.” Fyre replied absentmindedly, eyes stuck on the datapad in her hands. “I don’t generally need to make use of it.”
“Hmm.” he hummed and lifted the scanner to his sister’s head, clicking it. When it lit up in response, he frowned. “Hey, uh. Fy? I think it has a problem?”
“What do you mean it has a problem?”
His frown grew as he turned it around to face her. “I mean that it registered something in your head? That isn’t normal, right?”
Fyre stepped closer, her pink dyed hair falling into her eyes as she peered down. “What the hell?”
She reached over and snatched it from him, brow furrowing even more as she looked it over. “This can't be right?”
“What is it?” he asked worriedly, but instead of replying she lifted it to his head and ran the scanner over him. And then made another alarmed sound.
“This thing is reading as if we both have some sort of tumor!”
“Then it is broken, right?”
“Maybe. It is reading the exact same thing in the exact same place. It has to be a glitch.”
“What if we checked everyone else? All of Ares Squad? The General and Commander too?”
Fyre nodded immediately. “Yes. Yes, let's do that.”
The two Jedi were the only members of the unit without the odd tumor showing up in the scan, and their general was immediately concerned.
“Take them out.” she said without hesitation, brow furrowed as her green lekku stood scarily tense against her back. “As soon as you can, Fyre. Tomorrow, even. And I’ll get my master’s medic here to take yours out as soon as he can be spared.”
“Sir,” Fyre tried to protest, but she cut him off with a glare.
“No. No dispute. No debate. If all of you have cancer, in the same spot, then something is wrong. ”
“What if it is meant to be there?” Sojourner asked with a frown. “Should we ask the kaminoans?”
Opportunity snorted. “Oh, yes. That would go over well.”
General Quin shook her head. “I agree with Opportunity. Absolutely not. They are liars, slavers and abusers. If they put it there, they won’t want it gone.”
“Is it safe to remove?” Spirit asked worriedly. “I mean, what if something happens to us when we try and take it out?”
“Medically, there is nothing difficult about the procedure.” Fyre replied. “I could probably even teach one of you how to run the machine that will do it. And if it is showing up in these scans, the general is right. It isn't meant to be here. The scan is only supposed to show tissue that does not fully belong to the patient. Scar tissue doesn’t show up, but cancerous cells, shrapnel, slave chips. Those will.”
“What if these things are slave chips?” Geza asked softly and all six of the vod’e and his master turned to face him.
His silver cheeks turned a dark violet and he gave a small shrug. “I mean, they could be, right? You did call them slavers, master Quin.”
“Right, Gei.” she agreed with a nod. “And they’re all far too perfectly in the same place to be anything but . Good catch, padawan!”
He flushed again and Curiosity gave him a proud smile. Though then immediately asked his general nervously, “if that's what they are, it's probably not just the six of us. Is it?”
She let out a harsh breath and nodded. “Right. Most likely, it is each and every one of you. I need to go call Master Plo. He has to hear this. The council has to hear this.”
So, Curiosity’s inability to not just sit still and leave things alone brought to the Jedi’s attention that each and every one of their men was sporting a slave chip, one that was likely a bomb, in their brains. It wasn’t just Curiosity's general that was outraged, but nearly each and every one of them. Quin, her master, and Generals Secura, Kenobi and Skywalker the loudest and most infuriated of all of them.
In fact, the five of them refused to move their men to any other battlefield until General’s Windu and Yoda agreed to remove the chips. It wasn’t as if they fought that decision, though they had to figure out a way to get it done without the Kaminoans finding out.
“Slavers don’t like it when they lose control.” Quin explained to them as she sat in the med bay at their bedsides. “They panic and lash out. Anakin, Aayla and I expressed concern that if they found out about the chips being removed, they would detonate them.”
“What!” Perseverance gasped. “They would, would rather we die?”
“Decommissioning, vod.” Fyre replied sadly, her fingers tracing over the bald spot in her pink hair. “On a massive scale.”
Spirit sniffled, his chin digging into his lifted knees. “Why is it that we find life, find, find ourselves only for those bastards to show us another way that we aren’t even real?”
“You are real!” their general insisted firmly. “Spirit, this is what monsters like the kaminoans want you to feel! But you have just as much right to your life as anyone else in this galaxy does.”
“General Quilvai, no one but the Jedi think that.” Sojourner remarked bluntly. “And not even all of you do.”
She reached over with her lekku, the green tip pressing against his chest. “You listen to no one who tells you that you are less than them, you hear me? You are my journeyer, my adventurer and you will not let anyone take who you are from you. Or I will be loaning you one of my lightsabers.”
“May I borrow the purple one?” Perseverance asked with a grin. “I think it matches my aesthetic pretty well.”
“You mean airhead?” Fyre teased and he pointed at her with a playful glare.
“Says the one with pink hair.”
“”I am neither agreeing nor disagreeing.” Quin replied with a small smile. “But we shall see what happens.”
Perseverance grinned widely and stuck his tongue out at Fyre. “She said we’ll see.”
“If you get one of hers, the Commander will let me use his.”
“I will?” Geza asked, his red eyes suddenly wide. “Did I agree to that?”
“Don’t mind them, kid.” Curiosity said as he ruffled the commander’s bright blue hair. “They think they’re funny.”
Geza smiled at him and nodded. “Okay, Curiosity.” he paused and then asked, “Do you think there is anything we can do to the Kaminoans for what they’ve done to all of you? Legally, I mean?”
Curiosity sighed and shook his head. “I doubt it. There is so much legal gray area here that it's hard to say for sure, though.”
“We could just kill them all.” Opportunity said bluntly and the others turned to stare at him. “What? You can’t say they wouldn’t deserve it.”
“Op, we can’t commit genocide.” Quin pointed out firmly. “Even if they aren’t the greatest of people, killing an entire species because the ones in charge are horrible is wrong.”
“Our brother Jaing killed one. Made gloves out of them.”
“That is a rumor!” Spirit insisted. “No way he actually did!”
“Dunno, last time I saw him he was sporting some pretty cool accessories.”
“General, can we please tape his mouth shut.” Sojourner drawled. “Before he makes the Commander pass out.”
“I’m not going to pass out!” Geza insisted, though his normally silver skin tone had turned a dusty gray. “I’m just a little grossed out is all.”
Quin sighed and gave Opportunity a pointed look. “No more talking about skinning sentients. Or genocide. We will find a way to punish those responsible for those chips without killing an entire planet.”
Opportunity gave an exaggerated sigh, but nodded. “Yes, sir. No more.”
Curiosity was a little relieved that Ares Squad wasn’t the ones in charge of pursuing that punishment. They were a specialist commando unit, but he much preferred the covert tactical missions that theri general was assigned than gathering criminal data on the people who created them.
He was, however, so very glad that their group of eight had been assigned to lead the Two Twelfth when they were sent to Utupau to finally capture Grevious. He didn’t know what General Kenobi was doing on Coruscant, but he was grateful he sent them in his place. Because it meant that he was there to witness the frantic call from the true mastermind of, well. Everything.
They had never worked side to side with Commander Cody before, and he was really regretting that fact now. The Marshall Commander was, to put it lightly, one hell of a soldier. And he fought like no one Curiosity had ever witnessed before. Seeing him round house kick a droid was the highlight of his day. At least, until the golden painted commander answered his comm.
The wide eyed, frantic looking visage of Chancellor Palpatine appeared and practically screeched at Cody, “Marshall Commander, Execute Order Sixty-Six!”
Cody’s response was probably the best thing Curiosity had ever heard. He tilted his head and said in a voice that was a perfect mimic of a B1 battle droid, “I’m sorry, Chancellor. That Order doesn’t seem to be in my data banks.”
The old man made the most infuriated noise he had ever heard a human produce and screeched, “Kill the jedi you useless clone! Kill them!”
The comm call cut off then as the Chancellor made another scream, this one equal parts pained and furious. Cody stared down at the comm and then glanced back over towards Curiosity.
“Well, that proves that suspicion.”
“What suspicion, sir?” he asked curiously, eyes wide and a little horrified.
“That someone in the Senate was responsible for the slave chips, and the fact that they are mind control chips because said someone wanted to use us to get rid of the Jedi.”
“I’m sorry, they are what?! ” Curiosity exclaimed.
“Ah, sorry vod. When Hypno and Master Che found that, we decided to keep it as quiet as possible. Just to be sure it couldn’t get out. Seems like we don’t need to worry about that anymore though. So, what do you say we go find your Jedi and I fill you in?”
He nodded immediately, unable to reply verbally as he felt like his throat had closed up entirely. The thought of what would have happened to his people, to his General and her people had he not been messing around with Fyre’s scanner made him feel so very sick. Nauseous, light headed and nearly breathless. Something that the Marshall Commander noticed when Curiosity found himself unable to move.
“Hey, Commando. You alright?”
“Sir, what if, what if they hadn’t been found? What would have happened?”
“Well, I think we would be shooting your general and her very small padawan.”
He made a horrified, pathetic whimper and Cody reached over to place both hands on his shoulders.
“Hey, Curiosity. Don’t. There is no point in going down those what ifs. Nothing good comes of it. The chips were found, my general and his padawan are stopping the Chancellor, and your general and padawan are somewhere here putting an end to this war. The Jedi are safe. We are safe. Okay?”
Slowly, Curiosity’s breathing returned to normal and he nodded. Cody was right. Worrying about what could have happened did him no good. All it would do was cause unnecessary anxiety. Sometimes, curiosity really wasn’t worth it. And this was most certainly one of those times.
“Okay.” he nodded. “Okay, sir. I’m composed. I just, I can’t believe that one chance scan stopped, well. A lot of death. That goes beyond luck.”
“My general would say there is no such thing as luck.” Cody said. “He would say that whatever happens, happens by the will of the Force. Your curiosity, your interest in everything around you is who you are. And it saved us. You should be proud, Commander Curiosity.”
He flushed behind his helmet and nodded. That wasn’t a compliment he had ever expected to receive, and to have received it from someone as amazing as Marshall Commander Cody felt incredibly. So, he grinned despite the other not being able to see it and nodded.
“Thank you, sir.”
“You’re welcome, vod. Now, what do you say we go finish a war?”
“I think that is the best plan I have ever heard.”