Ours

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Rex thought that this was going to take some getting used to. The distinctive t-shape of his visor had morphed into two eyeholes joined by a slit of black, and the bulgy air filters… His new helmet looked just like everyone else's, but although it looked alright on his men, whenever Rex looked in the mirror he didn't recognise himself. As a result, he'd taken to walking the halls of the Resolute in his fatigues rather than his armour.

Another downside of the changeover to Phase II was that it changed the silhouette of his men completely. It took him a moment longer than normal to recognise the trooper coming towards him as Sergeant Zeer.

"So what do you think?" Zeer asked, turning on the spot in the corridor so that Rex could take in the freshly painted armour.

"Your head looks like a squashed crate, but other than that—it's just fine," Rex said.

The men had all been so excited to show him their new kit. Zeer was the fifteenth—or was he the sixteenth?—man to stop Rex and ask his opinion. None of them seemed unhappy with the gear they'd been issued; maybe it was just him.

"Captain Rex! Captain Rex, sir!"

Rex looked up to find Brac, from the armoury, trotting down the corridor towards them. Zeer excused himself, leaving Rex alone with the other man.

"How can I help you, trooper?"

"It's your armour, sir. We haven't got a record of your Phase I helmet being handed in."

Rex crossed his arms. "That's because it wasn't."

That seemed to stymie the other man. "But, sir, it's not like you'll need it again."

"No, but I don't plan on tossing it away either."

"But that makes the flimsiwork very messy, sir." Brac was grasping at straws, clearly uncomfortable at the thought of having to order Torrent's commanding officer to hand in his gear.

Rex flashed him a brilliant grin. "I have every faith in your reconciliatory skills, trooper. If you'll excuse me, I have a training exercise to get to."

Rex had slammed the door shut with such force that Sunny felt the bank of lockers wobble slightly. In front of her, Buddy was silent.

What happened? she asked at last.

He doesn't like me, Buddy said. Why doesn't he like me?

What were you doing?

He had too many screens overlapping during the exercise. I removed some for him so that he could focus better.

Part of Sunny was pleased that Buddy wasn't getting along well with Rex, but the thought that Buddy wasn't looking after her Rex properly made her uneasy. She opened an ultra-high-frequency datalink to Buddy. Here—the layout and settings that he likes. Don't change them unless he says to. She didn't know if the other helmet would take the data or the advice.

He wishes that I were you, Buddy said suddenly. The whole time he was cleaning me, he was talking about you.

Sunny didn't reply. She knew the pain of being unwanted, but this was Rex. He was hers, not Buddy's.

What else am I doing wrong? Buddy asked.

You are requesting assistance from an obsolete system?

Buddy fell silent.

Sunny wondered again why her Rex was bothering with this slow piece of hardware. For something that was supposed to be an improvement, Buddy seemed to be a step backwards.

I can show you the exercise, Buddy offered.

And see you with him? No.

Why not? You will never be used again. You will just sit here until he tires of you and gives you back to the armourer.

Sunny slammed the datalink shut and cut her externals. Her Rex wouldn't do that to her. He just wouldn't.

Time crawled by in darkness. Sunny waited for Rex to come for her, sitting in the black hole of the locker. This in itself was nothing new—after all, Rex rarely needed his armour outside of battle or training—but having another helmet in there with her… Sunny still couldn't decide whether it was good or bad.

Rex came and took Buddy with him. "Sorry, Sunny," he said to her as the locker swung closed, "but I need Buddy for guard duty."

"Sorry, Sunny, but I need Buddy for training."

"Sorry, Sunny…"

"Sorry…"

The days wore on as Sunny sat in silence. She kept herself going by revisiting vid feed of old battles of her and Rex. He always had a word or two for her when he came, but it was Buddy who was with him at training; Buddy whose face was Rex's.

Sunny was sure that time hadn't gone this slowly when it was just her and Rex. She used to sleep between uses, never doubting that Rex would come for her. Now she waited patiently for his face to appear in the doorway, critiquing old battles to fill in time. More often than not, she found some way she could've done things differently, helped Rex more. She considered sharing her findings with Buddy, but didn't feel like breeching the gulf only to be slapped down as obsolete, so she kept her thoughts to herself.

For his part, Buddy never spoke when he got back after training; so often Rex was less than gentle when he closed the locker. Sunny couldn't help feeling a bit sorry for Buddy, even though he'd taken her place. After all, she and Rex had grown together ever since Kamino, now Buddy expected to seamlessly slide into a partnership that had taken months and years to develop.

She was sitting silence again, when the frosty tension between her and the other helmet came to a head.

What did you do that was so special? Buddy demanded one day, out of the blue. I am a better model than you, why doesn't he see that?

Sunny debated not answering. Because newer isn't always better, she said finally.

Prove it.

Sunny opened a data link to Buddy and transferred the vid feed of Rishi.

Buddy went quiet as he reviewed the feed. How did you know that the armour tally was inaccurate? he asked.

Incorrect infrared readings and biometrics for a clone.

Those don't show up on the Heads Up Display.

I ran them in the background.

Then you flagged the trooper as possibly hostile?

No, even though I should have. Rex realised before I alerted him.

How did he know? Buddy asked.

Because he is Rex, she explained. How should I know how his wetware works? I was keeping a running tally of the infractions in the sidebar there. It might have helped.

Wetware?

You know… we're hardware and he's wetware.

Oh. He paused. So why does he like it when you do unexpected things, but doesn't like it when I do?

Show me.

Buddy sent her a vid feed of the recent training exercise and slowly, they went through it, but together this time.

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A/N: To forstall any questions, Buddy is indeed a standard Phase II helmet. Just as an aside, he got his name after I saw rayn44's wonderful piece of artwork 'An Excuse to Cry' on deviantart - I recommend you google it :)

Hope you enjoyed today's instalment. Next time: It's our final chapter.