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“For Fox.” Riyo whispered, eyeing the door that was now just meters away. The scream of her last remaining guard was still echoing in her mind.
The blaster rifle kept ringing out, followed in split seconds by the bolts lighting up the machinery around her, each one coming closer to her than the last. At last, she reached the door, pulling on it as hard as she could, only to find that it would not budge. She would need to try and find another way out of here.
“Do not try. Do.” She thought to herself, running back through the building, with no idea where she was going. “You may have lost Fox, but you can still save his brothers from being lost, too.”
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It had all played right into the Emporer’s hands. All their hard work, all their efforts to give the clones a better life ahead of them, and all of it would only give more power to Palpatine.
The same man, Riyo realized, who had Fox and his brothers under his control the whole time. And the one person whom Fox feared.
Riyo remembered all the times Fox had mentioned his name to her. She remembered him saying that he would give his life to protect him. But yet every time he was called to report to him, she could sense him trembling nervously, his normally deep voice growing quiet, his hands shaking as he put his helmet back on.
She remembered all the comments Fox would make to her about his fallen brothers, rising crime, and growing hostility among both senators and citizens. How he expressed concern to her about the Chancellor’s seeming indifference to all of it. Only to immediately push that concern away, assuring himself that the Chancellor knew the needs of the Republic best, and Fox was there to serve him, not the other way around.
She thought about all of Fox’s hard work, and all of his loyalty to both those he served, and those who served him.
And she remembered Fox telling her how much he admired her for always standing up for what she thought was right.
Echo’s voice brought her back from her thoughts. “The fate of all the clones is now sealed, because of us.” Bitterness colored his voice. “What’s gonna happen to them?”
“I don’t know,” Riyo admitted. “But I will keep fighting for the clones. You all deserve the same rights as every citizen.”
She bent down to Omega and looked the female clone in her bright, young eyes.
“I won't give up.” she said.
And she looked around at the rest of the men who faintly shared Fox’s face.
“Just like Fox never did.” She thought to herself.