Cadaver (CT-1811)

> *"Just comm me whenever you need me to drag your sorry ass out of a gang of street teens again."*
> —Cadaver, to Duke
>
>

**Cadaver** was a clone trooper born in 32 BBY. He was the CMO of the 501st Legion during the Clone Wars. He was most well-known for his gruff attitude, lack of patience for antics, and general anti-social nature. His circle of close siblings was extremely limited, but includes (while she was alive) his last remaining batchmate, Knockout, and his siblings in the senior command of the 501st. Beyond his siblings, his closest friends were Duke, Druzy, and Dvas, a group of natborns on Coruscant.  He carried with him emotional struggles and trauma that he has little-to-no outlets for processing, lending him a tendency to lash out when pressured to open up. He buried his grief, confusion, and fears of inadequacy behind the tough, multi-layered shell known simply as "Cadaver".

After the implementation of Order 66, Cadaver was one of the sole survivors of the crash of the Tribunal. He was trapped beneath debris that ironically ended up saving his life by protecting him from the worst of the impact. After being rescued from the wreckage, he followed in Captain Rex and Ahsoka Tano's footsteps while recovering from his injuries. He took the backseat while they established the beginnings of their rebel cell, doing small jobs and fulfilling his duties as a medic whenever the situation required it. However, when Rex, Ahsoka, and the leadership of the cell were abruptly lost in an accident, the only one present with the ability to step up to the task was Cadaver. Despite his struggles with overwhelming grief, he took on the responsibility. At first, his leadership was clumsy and his dedication to the cause was faked, but he quickly settled into the role. He learned as he went and it wasn't long before the spark was reignited; a fire so hot that he sometimes feared it may burn.

Cadaver, referred to as Commander Cad by most of his troops, saw the rebellion through until the end of the war.

## Biography

### Early Life

Cadaver was born in 32 BBY as one of the first batches of CT clones. His batch of five, from oldest to youngest, included Brock (CT-1810), himself (CT-1811), Knockout (CT-1812), Claw (CT-1813), and Ditto (CT-1814). By the end of their training, the batch were all set on a collection of specialized training paths–Brock on a heavy weaponry track, Cadaver on a medic track, Knockout on a mechanic track, Claw on a pilot track, and Ditto on a slicer track.

Cadaver had always been one of the more abrasive members of their squad, outmatched in grumpiness only by his younger brother Claw, named early for his scathing attitude. Always laid behind Cadaver's gruffness, though, was a deep-rooted love and concern for his brothers, especially the younger ones in his batch and in other batches. Cadaver almost always left leadership to Brock, the eldest of the batch and assigned team leader, but he was a rock to his batch, supporting and guiding where needed.

Cadaver earned his name in a training simulation around the age of 6, or biologically 12. It was going to hell very quickly, and perhaps in an attempt to impress his idol Claw, Ditto made a poorly thought-out move into the open and was immediately struck down by a stun bolt from a training droid. While Cadaver, the team medic even at his young age, dashed out from cover to drag their brother to safety, Claw laughed at Ditto's foolishness. Fed up, Cadaver snapped at him: "At least he's trying! If you two don't start pulling your weight, I'll turn you into cadavers for practice–maybe then you'll have some use."

Brock clasped a still-seething Cadaver on the shoulder and said, "Alright, *Cadaver*… but let them be. We still have a battle to win," and his name was Cadaver from then on.

There was nothing particularly remarkable about Cadaver's batch–they were not exceedingly successful nor were they near the lowest rankings. However, they finished their training knowing that as troopers all on specialized paths–as a pilot, a medic, a slicer, a mechanic–they could never serve on a squad together when the Jedi came for them. And so they knew as they trained, squabbled, and evaded the eyes of the ever-observant Kaminoans that their time together was limited, and no matter what arguments and conflicts the day had contained, when the lights flickered off after dinner they came together in a grateful huddle of small, fearful bodies, unsure of whether or not they’d ever be able to hold each other in the same way again.

### The Battle of Geonosis

As Generation One clones, Cadaver and his batch were present at the First Battle of Geonosis, but as expected, were all assigned to different squads. They each fought with groups of brothers they’d never met before, experiencing the brutal horrors of war in ways they’d never been prepared for.

After the battle ended, Cadaver searched for his batchmates in their different squads. He shuffled through reports for hours, unable to find a single mention of his siblings until, with a pit in his stomach, he pulled up the casualty reports. To his complete devastation, he discovered that all but himself and Knockout had perished. Ditto was the first to die–the youngest of their batch, Ditto had always been timid and a follower, not a leader. When his squad launched off the LAAT into battle, Ditto hesitated for a moment. Just as he was about to leap off and follow his brothers, he was struck through the helmet by a stray Geonosian blaster bolt and killed instantly. He was one of, if not the first clone killed in the war.

Brock soon followed with a blaster bolt to the chest.

Just after the ceasefire had been called, Claw was killed when a stray bolt caught the engine of his starfighter.

The first battle of the war had just ended and had taken more than half of his closest siblings with it.

### After Geonosis

Cadaver and Knockout were folded into the 212th legion immediately after the Battle of Geonosis, under the command of High Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padwan Commander Anakin Skywalker, and Alpha-17. They quickly bonded there with the other survivors of Geonosis–particularly, Lieutenant Rex and privates Jesse and Kix. It didn’t take long for Cadaver to consider these clones his brothers, but so soon after the loss of his batchmates, he was not willing to open himself up to such a close relationship as the ones he lost, and he would not be for a long time. There was always a barrier between Cadaver and his brothers. Cadaver coped with the loss of his siblings by throwing himself into his work as an up-and-coming field medic. Even this early in the war, Cadaver pulled long hours in the medbay, finding the constant work to be therapeutic–or, perhaps, helpful in the process of bottling up his feelings to never see the light of day again.

### The 501st

Not long into the war, Cadaver, Knockout, and many other vode of the 212th were split off into a newly formed legion, the 501st, under newly promoted General Skywalker. Cadaver’s efforts paid off, and along with Rex’s promotion to captain, Cadaver was promoted to lieutenant and made the CMO of the 501st. He took his new duties incredibly seriously and performed with incredible efficiency and skill, but still had the instinct to be very independent. He struggled with delegating work to his subordinates, preferring to do it all himself, which often lead to extremely long hours in the medbay and chronic sleep deprivation. Attempts at affection and brotherhood rolled off Cadaver like water off a duck’s back–he found trust in his captain, Rex, and kindred silence and rigidity in the young ARC trooper, Echo, but his ability to unwind and truly become one of the brothers of the 501st was severely limited.  He struggled to view bonding with his new brothers as anything other than replacing the brothers he grew up with.

Cadaver had never been a particular emotional or empathetic vod, and that was reflected in his attitude, treatment, and relationships with his brothers, but he was never intentionally cruel. He healed with a brusque efficiency, but underneath his sharp orders and pointed words was a genuine concern for the safety of his legion. He would not coddle his subordinates, but he would not hesitate to step into the line of fire to save even a single one of them.

Though appearing confident, stoic, and self-assured, Cadaver struggled with deep feelings of insecurity in his relationships and place in the world and as a result, became very anti-social. He never went out of his way to bond with the members of his battalion, and the most intimate moments he had with many of his brothers was when he told them he had failed to save their loved ones. Because of this, he became somewhat of a Grim Reaper figure within his battalion, a man followed only by suffering. You knew that when Cadaver knocked on your door, he was not stopping by for a friendly chat before he started his shift. He only ever delivered bad news and a clipped “sorry” before turning on his heel and returning to the cold sterility of his medbay. He was followed by heavy eyes and halted conversations wherever he went. Though perhaps it was not intentional, was instrumental in his own ostracization.

The only brothers to break this pattern were two shinies named Tup and Dogma, who joined the legion in 20 BBY. Though he had quite the reputation for having no patience for shinies (and the death glare to prove it), Cadaver claimed Tup and Dogma for himself–perhaps he saw some of Ditto in Tup’s compassionate demeanor, or some of Brock’s rigidity and potential in Dogma–whatever the reason, the three bonded quickly, and Cadaver viewed himself as responsible for them.

### Umbara

Umbara was a massively traumatizing campaign for all involved. The casualty numbers could only be likened to those of the very start of the war when the unqualified Jedi generals were even more inexperienced. Despite his rank, Cadaver rarely participated in leadership beyond the direction of the medics under his command, so he shared few direct exchanges with General Krell, but he experienced the Jedi’s effects in the number of brothers whose lives faded from their eyes as they laid in Cadaver’s arms. Cadaver went days without sleep on the dusky planet, a ghost drifting from one ramshackle cot to the next on a battlefield quickly soaked through with the blood of his siblings.

Cadaver kept as close track of his siblings as he could in the chaos. The one brother Cadaver didn’t find, however, was Dogma. Cadaver never learned what happened to him.

### Ringo Vinda

Along with the confusing and abrupt loss of his only remaining kih’vod, Tup, Cadaver’s brother Fives was also gone under mysterious circumstances before he could catch his breath.

As one of the most senior and high-ranking members of the 501st, more responsibility fell on Cadaver with an additional senior member gone and he threw himself into his work with more exhausted vigor than ever. For those months, Cadaver was a ghost aboard the Resolute, working double or even triple shifts and crashing for four hours a night only to drag himself out of bed in the morning to do it all over again. He numbed the crushing loneliness and increasingly difficult-to-ignore depression that he’d struggled with all throughout the war by working himself to exhaustion–it was easier when he was just too tired to feel.

### Shore Leaves

The 501st would travel back to Coruscant for a week or so a few times a year so that the Jedi could commune with their people and the soldiers could take a rest. These occurred all throughout the war, so the “Shore Leaves” section is not placed chronologically, but the events detailed below will be in chronological order.

The 501st took their first shore leave only a few months after Geonosis. Many formed groups to explore Coruscant and all it had to offer together, but Cadaver preferred to spend the leave alone.

He was exploring the Coruscant Commerce district (or CoCo Town, as it had been affectionately nicknamed by the siblings in the Coruscant Guard) when he stumbled across a young nautolan–probably only a year or so younger than him, if his skills in gauging natborn ages had improved as much as he’d hoped–being harassed by an older being. It wasn’t hard to scare the older one off, but the young nautolan, Druzaranth’idae (or Druzy, as she requested), was immensely grateful. She offered to buy him some street food as a thank-you, but just before he could decline, a harried mikkian skidded up to the two. He chided Druzy for running off and, once Druzy explained Cadaver’s presence, offered the clone his appreciation for watching out for his young friend.

Even years later, Cadaver wasn’t entirely sure how it happened, but he was quickly sucked into the group and adopted as a member of the then-trio. Neither of the two of them minded his grumpy attitude and enjoyed his company, and it wasn’t long before he found that he enjoyed theirs as well. Dvas and Druzy, he learned, were both college students at one of the most prestigious universities on Coruscant. She was a freshman, 19, and he was a master’s student, 24. The two had met as part of a mentorship program on campus and became close friends.

Dvas was also an up-and-coming singer in the jazz scene on Coruscant. He dragged both Druzy and Cadaver into it, and though Cadaver claimed to bever be one for dancing, he found that he quite enjoyed the bounce, energy, and life to the various jazz clubs Dvas would sing at.

It was around a year into the war when Dvas was invited to sing at the opening of a fancy new jazz club that was opening up. Of course, he brought Cadaver and Druzy as his plus ones. They were all chatting and enjoying the music when a man, probably a few years older than him and wearing a self-assured smile, traipsed up to Cadaver and asked him for a dance. Cadaver rolled his eyes but accepted, deciding to step on his stupid boots as many times as possible while they swung around the dance floor.

The man’s name was Duke, he learned, and he enjoyed scoping out new jazz clubs that popped up on the scene that he’d so adored for years. He had been impressed by the performance of Cadaver’s friend, he told him–“you should tell him that,” Cadaver had grumbled in response–but Duke had only laughed and tipped his hat. The song ended quickly, but Duke spent the rest of the night with Cadaver and his friends, and from that night on, Duke became an irreplaceable member of the newly-named D-Squad. (They changed Cadaver’s nickname to Dav–against his will, he would note–so that he would fit the theme.)

The four of them loved to meet up to dance, sing, and catch up whenever Cadaver was on Coruscant for shore leave. The bond between the group was instantaneous and light; despite the varying ages, backgrounds, and lives, a connection was forged that wasn’t disappearing anytime soon. Though it could sometimes veer into more of a distraction from the war for Cadaver, he valued the group of friends who never questioned his stretches of silence or brooding nature. They met him where he was, and the same went for the them, too.

The group were all close friends, but there was a special sort of understanding that formed between Duke and Cadaver. There was a pass that they gave each other, for some reason neither would be able to put a finger on, to let the other into the deeper parts of their lives. When Druzy and Dvas get up to go get another round of cocktails, Cadaver, so untrusting and anti-social–even with his brothers, sometimes–loosens his collar and grunts something about the number of troop requisitions he’s going to have to file with his captain after the losses of his most recent campaign. Duke, a man who paints this picture of being a social and friendly and easy-going person letting the carefully maintained mask slip when it’s just him and Cadaver. He becomes something almost frightening to himself and so genuinely honest to Cadaver; something quiet and made of sharp edges that only Cadaver seems to be able to navigate with his steady surgeon’s hands. Something so uniquely foreign and uniting for the two beings leading unimaginably different lives. When Duke invites Cadaver back to his office after Dvas and Druzy retire for the night for a quiet place to do some datawork. When Cadaver catches Duke’s eyes under the brim of his hat and offers him a small, quiet smile. His mouth never moves, but his eyes say all that needs to be said.

Halfway through the second year of the war, Dvas was jumped leaving a club. He was badly injured, but Cadaver and Druzy found him quickly enough to get him to a hospital in time to ensure he’d make a full recovery. Dvas never got a good look at his attackers, but he recalls what they demanded of him–to know where Duke lived.

Cadaver ran to Duke’s apartment faster than he’d ever run in his life the second he’d heard those words. He shared the warning–and Duke’s only response had been that he already knew. Duke assured Cadaver that Dvas would be alright and that the people who had attacked him were too bad at their jobs to ever figure out where he was. He gave a frightening amount of disregard for Dvas and Druzy’s safety, only caring–and assuming that Cadaver was only caring– that he would never be found.

Cadaver asked who it was.

Duke said it was the Coruscant Guard. “Dogs of the senate, more like,” he had scoffed.

Cadaver had been out of the office before Duke could even realize he’d gone.

Cadaver didn’t return to Duke or the group for more than half a year. He replayed that night over and over again in his head, trying to understand exactly what he’d missed–why. It was–of course–a shore leave when he got his answer.

He was patrolling a lower level of Coruscant on a favor to a sister in the Guard when he stumbled across–and subsequently saved–Duke from the results of a business deal gone wrong. It was probably something Duke would have eventually been able to save himself from–really only two overly enthusiastic young goons finally getting their chance to beat on a rival–but the man had sure as hell appreciated the help. He explained, once they’d finally run far enough away and caught their breath, that he had kept the truth of the matter from Cadaver because he didn’t want to lose him. He knew that Cadaver respected the Guard and hadn’t wanted him to leave when he found out they were investigating him. He apologized as genuinely as a man so thoroughly caught up in all of his personalities and masks ever could, explained that he’d tossed out lines and thrown off scents to make sure that nothing would ever happen to Dvas or Druzy ever again. He met Cadaver’s gaze and apologized for his disregard for Cadaver’s right to the truth. Cadaver couldn’t accept the apology right away–but he accepted Duke’s offer of dinner and a show at a new jazz club that had just opened up north of CoCo Town. Duke always met Cadaver where he was, and Duke was willing to wait as long as it took.

It was not a monumental thing, but after that night, Cadaver and Duke’s relationship shifted. The quiet looks started to linger with a little less reservation; the visits to Duke’s office became less to catch up on datawork and more to share the silence in a way neither could with anyone else. Dvas and Druzy were brought back into the fold, too–both overjoyed to see Cadaver again–but there was always a special space for what Duke and Cadaver was after that late-night chase through Coruscant’s underbelly.

The 501st were on a shore leave just before being dispatched to Mandalore. Cadaver knew, somehow, that something was different about this one; and so, of course, Duke did too. Cadaver’s hands trembled with tension after he got the comm that his battalion would be shipping out early in just a few hours and, for those scant few hours, Duke held Cadaver’s vigil with him. When Cadaver was sprinting out the door into the rain not so dissimilar to that night all those months ago to catch the formation he already knew he would be late for, Duke grabbed his hand and dragged him into an embrace that, for a second, squeezed the fluttering fear out of his chest. “I have to go,” Cadaver had whispered. “I know,” Duke had responded. “I don’t want to,” Cadaver had rasped. “I know,” Duke had replied. “I don’t want you to, either.”

Cadaver had done what he’d felt was the only course of action then; he’d stretched up and pressed his lips to Duke’s as they stood in the rain on the street outside Duke’s home that had, in a way, become Cadaver’s too. Cadaver’s meagre bag of possessions was held loosely in his grip and Duke’s arm held him to a chest with a heart that beat in time with his own. It was short, hesitant, and unsure, and after a few seconds Duke pulled away to cradle Cadaver’s face and press a firm kiss to his forehead with only one word on his lips–“go.” Cadaver did.

### End of the War

Cadaver was on the ground during the Seige of Mandalore. His injuries were thankfully minimal, and as soon as the fighting calmed somewhat, he was sent back to the Tribunal with the clones who hadn’t escaped so luckily. He treated them as best he could but ended up adding notches to the inside of his bracers regardless.

When Sith Lord Palpatine activated Order 66, Cadaver was completely lost to the order.

While confronting Rex and Ahsoka in the hangar of the ship, Cadaver was knocked off of the descending platform during the conflict and trapped in the level below, filled with faulty and damaged starships. When the Resolute fell out of hyperspace and started its rapid descent to the moon below, a damaged ship near Cadaver exploded. He was caught and trapped beneath the burning debris and sustained extremely severe burns among other serious injuries.

Miraculously–or regrettably–the debris that Cadaver was trapped under protected him when the ship made contact with the surface of the moon, and he survived–unlike the rest of the 501st Legion after the Tribunal made contact with the surface of the moon.

Cadaver was trapped under debris for two days before Rex and Ahsoka found him. He was left with lasting injuries that he was unlikely to ever fully recover from.

### After the Order

#### Recovery

Cadaver suffered a brain injury and moderate-severe hearing loss in his left ear and severe hearing loss in his right ear when the Tribunal crashed. His recovery after his TBI was slow, taking months to return to something baseline, but even after that his abilities to form short-term memory, process speech, and recognize faces were permanently affected.

He struggled most with the difficulties with memory. He, with the support of Rex and Ahsoka, quickly developed coping strategies–his favorite, a small notebook that he always kept in his pocket to mark off the day and make notes–but Cadaver had always seen the act of remembering to be the most valuable way to honor his siblings who had marched on, and he resented himself for how he struggled with that then. He was horrified when he couldn’t recall the name that belonged to every tally on his bracers–when his remembrances took hours not because he spent the time reciting names, but because he spent the time trying to remember which names to recite.

He struggled less but still struggled regardless with his hearing loss; it wasn’t complete, but he struggled to pull apart different sounds and speech (especially when compounded with the effects of his TBI) and was less aware of his surroundings than he once was. As a soldier who had been valued for his entire life only by his ability to fight, he was massively frustrated by his new disabilities and struggled to understand that they did not devalue him. That mental battle was the one that took the longest for him to overcome.

During the war, Cadaver was forced into growth more than he chose it. He formed rigidly, unable to bend, for if he did he would break. But after Order 66, he is shattered so thoroughly into a thousand pieces that he must construct a new existence for himself. After Order 66, Cadaver is quiet, still, a shadow of what he used to be; barely treading water in rapids making every effort to drown him. With nowhere else to go, he follows in Rex and Ahsoka’s footsteps, lingering in the background as they establish a rebel cell and continue the fight that Cadaver considered himself done with.

#### The Command

However, when Rex, Ahsoka, and the leadership of the burgeoning rebel cell were abruptly lost in an accident, Cadaver was the only one able to step up. As always, despite his overwhelming grief, Cadaver became what was required of him. Though at first, his leadership was clumsy and reluctant and his dedication faked, a spark began to reignite in him. While before, Cadaver was forced into every form he took, he chose to take this one–he was reluctant and he was unsure, but this is the legacy that he chose to create. The fire that burned in Cadaver was so hot that he feared it may burn him sometimes, but he resolved to continue on for the lives that he carried in his hands then.

Cadaver got to grow up and mature in a way he never did during the war. Beyond the knowledge he thought himself so full of, he gained wisdom, experience, and adaptability–his position as a leader taught him compassion and empathy that he gained out of the desire to improve rather than the necessity to survive. He learned to not rely on the aggression he had protected himself with during the war, and though he would always be a bit of a gruff jerk, he grew immensely as a person and in his relationships during his time as a commander.

However, Cadaver was still far from a perfect individual. He still held insecurities within him and carried unimaginable amounts of grief on his shoulders. If his remembrances took hours during the war, after the war they would take him days. He knew that if he were to truly think about all he’d lost, he’d never return from it, and so forced himself away from the memories that he knew he should be confronting.

Cadaver’s cell grew immensely and became an extremely crucial member of the Rebel Alliance. Cadaver was always a bit standoffish with the other leaders, considering many of them to be a bit filled with idealistic fluff rather than pragmatism, but lended his forces to the effort regardless. There were more than a few clones within his cell–some there to fight, some only there to live among brothers again–but regardless of their reason for being there, Cadaver provided as many of them with a haven as he could.

#### Reunions

Beyond the rebellion, however, Cadaver also reunited with Duke six years after the end of the war.

After the end of the establishment of the Galactic Empire, Cadaver stopped coming around. Duke watched the clones on Coruscant change. He watched Cadaver’s brothers wearing the blue that he always wore so proudly burn the Jedi to the ground. He had no idea what to think. However, always the businessman, Duke struck up a rapport with the Empire, negotiating information and eyes on activities in the lower levels, and business boomed.

About a year after the end of the Clone Wars, a year since he’d last seen Cadaver, Duke was in a meeting with a handful of Empire higher-ups when one of them mentioned something in passing about the fate of the clones. Ever observant, Duke caught the opportunity and slowly, carefully pried into the thread and pieced together that the Empire had systematically exterminated the clones. Right then and there, he cut every business tie he had with the Empire. And when the Empire stopped receiving business from Duke–they decided to take it.

Duke was completely destroyed by the Empire. His assets were frozen, his employees and connections were all either killed or jailed, and his name was methodically dragged through the mud until none of his allies would so much as stand in the same room as him. And–instead of doing the job themselves–the Empire placed a bounty the size of what his wealth once was on his head. His only option was to flee the only home he’d ever known–he was utterly annihilated.

As opposed to the freedom of being able to choose being what led Cadaver from being a slave to the Republic–never fully considered a human, never more than a cog in the machine–to becoming, for the first time of his own volition, a genuine leader, the lack of choice that Duke’s destruction forced upon him is what forced him to become more than the void behind an ever-changing collection of masks. Duke was forced to confront his fears and darknesses and, for the first time in his life, to do it alone, because for his entire life he has been surrounded by white noise and buffers and social isolation created by his own lack of genuine identity. Sitting alone with himself was more tortuous than anything else he has ever done in his entire life, but it was what lead him to, for the first time, a true sense of self.

Starting over from square one and holding the memory of his lost friend close, Duke became a founding member of the organization known as the Path–an underground network created to hide and smuggle force-sensitives and other refugees to safety, away from the prying eyes of the Empire. He used his shrewd intelligence and social ease to spy on, set up connections, and foster business with parties for the benefit of the Path, and spent four years working with them and thinking that Cadaver was dead before they met again in 13 BBY.

It was an accident. They bumped into each other when Cadaver was escorting a group of refugees along the sector of the Path that Duke just so happened to be the sponsor of. The look they shared was not immediately one of recognition, but when Cadaver tilted his head to reveal the tattoos on the unscarred half of his face, Duke felt his breath stutter to a stop and the x-shaped tattoo over his heart burn more than the day he got it.

The re-emergence of Cadaver and Duke’s relationship was not particularly anxious or hesitant, but it wasn't urgent either. Perhaps it should have been, with the lives that both people led, but it wasn't. Though neither could put words to the crushing pressure of the joy in their chests when they embraced for the first time in six years, both had changed so deeply and fundamentally since they last saw each other that they couldn't just pick up where they left off. They reminded each other of a past neither could have, but in each other saw the strength that could grow as a result of it. Both were incredibly busy people leading their own lives far separate from each other, and so it started only as brief comm calls exchanged and pass-by visits planned, but it didn't take long for Duke to get roped into the rebellion, too.

It was a long and twisting road, but Cadaver and Duke eventually found their way to companionship built on devotion, independence, and respect. It wasn't the same as what they shared during the war–how could it be, when they were different people?–but carried just the same connection between two people of vastly different lives coming together to share the same heart.

Duke found his way to high regard within Cadaver’s rebel cell and eventually gained the rank of lieutenant and became an invaluable member of the war room. While never a huge fan of combat, Duke was very tactically-minded and excellent at running covert ops. Duke was Cadaver’s advisor, second-in-command, and bodyguard, and Cadaver trusted him more than anything else–and Duke, always at his side, never let him down.

## Relationships

### Knockout

Knockout was the last remaining member of Cadaver’s batch after the battle of Geonosis. She was loud, brash, and affectionately mean, and she and Cadaver mirrored each other; appearing vastly different on the outside, but more similar than either realized. Cadaver was quiet and Knockout was *not*, but their differing methods came from the same desire to self-isolate. She was notorious for her biting attitude, just like Cadaver, but where Cadaver was silent and brooding Knockout was brazen and self-assured. At the beginning of the war, their effort to self-isolate so as to avoid the same pain of losing loved ones was the same. However, as the months passed, Knockout took the leap where Cadaver stayed stagnant; she opened up and found a niche for herself easier than expected. She settled into her role as a senior engineer within the 501st quickly and, even though she mourned and lashed out, she found her group of siblings that embraced her and gave her community.

Her relationship with Cadaver was complicated. The two were never particularly close on Kamino, but after Geonosis, they were the only members of the batch they’d both spent their entire lives as a part of up until that point. They inevitably drew closer in an almost *us-against-the-world* type pair. Neither were incredibly social–they weren't the type to sit and talk for hours–but with each other were able to turn the heavy silence into something a little lighter. Knockout was the one who remembered to bring a flashlight when they reminisced over lost brothers and things that weren’t meant to be so they could find their ways back out of the darkness again.

After her death, there was little outward change to notice in Cadaver, but the absence of her barking shout over the chatter in the hangars and her inevitable presence outside his medbay at the end of a long shift waiting to walk with him back to the barracks drove him even farther into the quiet he hid himself in. And without Knockout, there was no one striking a match to lift up the gloam. He considered himself instrumental in her death; she had warned him of how harmful his self-isolation was becoming and he had ignored her, and as a result had been so distracted by his work to notice that she was missing after the explosion that caused her death. There was a part of him that knows that Knockout made her own decision to sacrifice her life for another--a younger engineer that she had taken under her wing--but he can't help but believe that, had he taken her advice, he would have noticed the second she was gone.

### Rex

Rex was Cadaver’s infallible older brother, though the two were likely near identical in age. One of the few able to truly get through to Cadaver, Rex was one of his most trusted brothers and superiors, and Cadaver would have followed him anywhere. Both of them shared an experience in being “muties”–a rather impolite term for clones with genetic differences. Cadaver was taller than the average clone–just barely, but noticeably–and much broader, as his mutation allowed him to gain muscle and fat more easily than his brothers. Rex’s, obviously, was his blond hair. They understood each other’s experience of growing up under scrutiny, knowing that the slightest screw-up could lead to their decommissioning.

After the war, Cadaver continued his dogged following in Rex’s footsteps. Rex had purpose and drive where Cadaver did not. After Rex's death, Cadaver couldn't take the time to mourn until years later, when he found Rex's helmet in some old storage bins and pulled out the helmet's blackbox to watch the last of Rex's footage. Finally, he crumbled apart, torn to pieces over his existence of one of the last living members of his people. He sat in the dark and listened to the voices of his siblings for hours, remembering a time before.

### Tup and Dogma

Dogma and Tup were *Cadaver’s* shinies–before the two of them, he had never really understood his siblings’ fascination with taking their hapless younger siblings under their wings, but he saw so much of himself and his batchmates in Dogma and Tup that he couldn’t help but take in the two. When not on duty, the two were often found in the medbay. Neither were medics nor at all interested in medicine, but were happiest in the company of their admired ori’vod Cadaver, who would always turn a blind eye to their unnecessary presence.

### Duke

Duke and Cadaver’s relationship evolved greatly during the three years of war that they knew each other. He and Cadaver met on Coruscant towards the beginning of the war, with Duke as the last addition to the friend group of Cadaver, Dvas, and Druzy. Duke was gregarious, easygoing, and had excellent taste in music–they all met at a jazz club, where Dvas was a singer on opening night and Duke was an avid enjoyer of the scene. The group's relationships were all good, but Duke and Cadaver got on like a house on fire from the moment the man asked Cadaver for a dance and Cadaver made sure to step on his toes the entire time.

Duke and Cadaver (and Dvas and Druzy), were close friends for most of the time they knew each other. However, beyond the general friendship of the four of them, Cadaver and Duke favored each other, enjoying the easy understanding they shared. Cadaver, so abrasive and antisocial but with a snorting laugh that lit up the room never failed to fascinate Duke. His attitude wasn’t a detractor, it was just… a part of Cadaver. A part of the experience he created. Duke, a man who had perfected the art of shifting himself into any shape to fit whatever situation he’d find himself in, settling into something a little closer to honest whenever Cadaver’s eyes settled on him.

A year into their friendship, they split when Duke demonstrated a moment of self-absorbed cruelty and disrespect for Cadaver’s friends and brothers. Cadaver spat in Duke’s face and left, not returning during his next shore leave, or the one after that.

They met again more than half a year later when Cadaver ran into and saved Duke from a deal gone bad on the lower levels of Coruscant. Duke had spent the entire time not knowing if he was ever going to see Cadaver again and had planned what he’d say if he did, but he ended up stumbling through the whole thing as they sprinted for their lives through the maze-like alleyways. It was amateurish and short, but genuine, and though Cadaver wasn’t ready to move on quite then, he accepted Duke’s invitation to dinner and a show at a new jazz club just north of CoCo Town.

After that moment, the relationship somehow shifted. It was not some monumental thing, and neither would be able to pinpoint a specific moment if you asked them, but it felt almost like the reality of imperfection and humilty that confronted them both carved out a space for Duke and Cadaver to become something more. Something real, kind, and gentle in a way foreign to both, but allowing room for the independence both needed. It progressed like that, unnamed and non-corporeal and unable to be defined (not that either of them were particularly inclined to try.) It was expressed through Duke’s hands–easily large and strong enough to crush Cadaver’s trachea with little to no difficulty–gently smoothing down the collar of Cadaver’s borrowed fresh-pressed dress shirt and aiding Cadaver’s own inexperienced hands in tying a Windsor knot and reverently snugging it up to the pulse in his neck. It was the way Cadaver’s eyes flicked up from his paperwork when one of Duke’s guests got a little too brash, a little too loud; how in a moment he went from being a furnishing of Duke’s office to a weapon, coiled and ready to strike–to defend. And Cadaver didn't question this, didn't question the fact that there even *was* something to defend, because being with Duke felt as natural as breathing. It felt natural in a way his own existence didn't.

Cadaver and Duke became something urgent, but not hasteful. Inexperienced, but not unsure. They weren't partners, friends, boyfriends; they were something else, something neither had a word for nor the need to find one.

The two shared their first kiss just before Cadaver’s shore leave in 19BBY ended early so that the 501st could ship off to Mandalore. After that, they did not see each other again for years.

## Personality and Traits

Cadaver’s most noticeable trait was his gruffness. He had seemingly little patience for antics or cowardice and was not overly social with anyone other than his batchmate and the most senior members of the 501st. He was pragmatic and a quick thinker under pressure, but had a tendency to overthink any serious or long-term decision presented to him. As a CMO and a lieutenant, Cadaver was a leader within the 501st, but the scope of his leadership was vastly less than the clones who held the same rank as him. Technically, his command only extended to the handful of medics within the battalion, but the members of the 501st still looked to him for direction as a result of both his rank and general seniority, and this was something he took extremely seriously.

Hidden beneath his hard exterior was a man with compassion and love for the brothers around him, but he felt incapable of expressing this. Cadaver was mean, because it is easier to be mean than it is to be compassionate. Cadaver does not wish pain or anger upon his brothers, but he finds that sometimes that is the only thing spilling out of his mouth. He would give everything for his brothers, and he has–he just hopes that they know that.

Far from squeamish, Cadaver was never afraid to do what needed to be done to save a life, be it holding a brother’s entrails in their body for them or breaking open a trooper’s chest to pump their stopped heart with his hand. He was incredibly brave and dedicated but carried every loss he ever had with him. Every time he lost a brother under his watch, he carved a notch into the insides of his bracers, just to ensure that he would never forget them. By the end of the war, his remembrances would take hours.

Cadaver struggled for his entire life with depression before he even had a word for it. Once he did have a word for it, however, he denied with every fiber of his being that it applied to him. There was no part of him that was defective, and he would die on that hill. His healthy coping mechanisms were next to non-existent. Cadaver did everything he could to continue his work through his suffering, taking on more and more work to drown it out, but he ended up suffocating under the weight of his own self-doubt and the responsibility he’s placed on his own shoulders. It’s a cycle of constantly chasing the short-term relief before the burnout comes crashing down, sending him three steps backward.