#the same way you did to Fives and Rex and Ahsoka and Dogma and Anakin and Echo and Wrecker and everyone else

[feltpool]

More brain clearance thoughts

Same warning as the last post.

May contain Bad Batch spoilers, I might just be talking rubbish.

Either way, if you don’t usually like my ideas about the show it’s probably best to avoid reading this.

By the time The Clone Wars aired its final episode we were still left with a lot of loose ends and unanswered questions, things that many of us have given up on ever getting a canon answer for, but it seems like the writers of The Bad Batch have spent time looking into this and thinking about what they can reasonably tie up or borrow from fanfic before leaving the CW era behind entirely.

We’re already well on the way to getting answers about what happened to Rex between TCW and Rebels that led to him ending up living on Seelos with Gregor and Wolffe.

I already covered the possibility for what happened to Dogma post-Umbara

So what about Commander Fox?

. Fox shot Fives. And we’re left to assume that he was exonerated for it afterwards, everyone had been told that Fives had tried to assassinate the Chancellor after all. But we never got to see any follow up, we never saw Fox again in the show after that episode.  We also never saw Fox without his helmet on - leading to HC’s about Fox getting his name because of his red or silver hair.   But Fox could just as easily get his name because of his cunning, his resourcefulness and his tenacity, and not his hair colour.

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Fox doesn’t get a lot of screen time to choose from so lets jump right in the deep end and look at the scene where Fives meets his untimely end...

Anakin and Rex have met Fives in the warehouse and he’s trapped them inside a ray shield.

If you listen when they’re talking you’ll notice that Fives is agitated and sometimes loud, not shouting but still being louder than a normal speaking volume, but the ray shield adds to the echo of Anakin and Rex’s voices so makes what they say louder and clearer than anything Fives is saying:

Fives: “How do I know you’re not tricking me? How do I know it won’t be a trap? The Chancellor will try to kill me! I promise you that!”

Anakin: “The Chancellor?”

Fox enters the warehouse building with his troopers in tow

Fives: “He’s in on it.  I don’t know to what extent, but I know he orchestrated much of this. He told me in the medical bay!”

Anakin: “He told you? When you tried to assassinate him? You have gone too far, Fives! The Chancellor is incapable of what you claim”

Fives: “He is! I swear to you General. You have no idea...”

Fox gets within range and Fives ends up going down. The shield is deactivated and Rex rushes to Fives’ side.

And Fox is standing right there when Fives says:

“Rex. This... is bigger than any of us… than anything I could have imagined. I never meant to… I only wanted to do my duty. The mission… The nightmares… They’re finally over”

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What interests me in this scene is how clearly Fox must have been able to hear what Anakin is saying as he approaches Fives’ position with his men.

Back in the S4 Ahsoka arc, when she leaves her jail cell and Fox thinks she’s killed the clones under his command he issues a ‘shoot to kill’ order. Which makes sense in the given context. The clones know how powerful the Jedi are, how much of a threat a rogue Jedi presents, and he saw her appear to kill Letta Turmond without so much as laying a finger on her from the viewscreens in the guard station not too long ago.

And since it also appears that she’s just killed some of his own men, his brothers, you can see why Fox is angry about that and responds with full force.

But not only does Anakin tell him not to do that, Rex backs him up and tells him that he knows Ahsoka, and that she wouldn’t do that.  In the later pursuit of her it’s made clear that it’s all weapons set to stun, do not shoot to kill.

And in that warehouse he once more has Anakin’s word to go off. And why wouldn’t he listen to him, listen to the Jedi? Because that’s exactly what they’ve all been trained to do and it worked out well the last time he did that. The true killer of his men was discovered and apprehended.

But here, what Fox likely hears far more clearly than anything else is Anakin saying:

“When you tried to assassinate him?  You have gone too far, Fives!”

and Fox acts upon what he hears. Just like he did previously.

And he shoots Fives right in the chest with a live round and kills him.

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But what happens after that?

Anakin’s immediate response is to tell the troopers to get the ray shield off, and Rex rushes straight to Fives’ side and calls him brother. Calls for a medic.

Hardly the actions of people who are glad you just shot down the dangerous man who tried to assassinate the Chancellor.

Fives doesn’t waste his last breaths on damning the Chancellor, or anyone else in that room. He only talks about the conspiracy, and says he wanted to do his duty.

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Fox is up and on his feet right through Fives’ speech to Rex as he’s dying, he was close enough to shoot him at close range, so he’s close enough to see the pain on Rex’s face as he holds Fives in his arms, close enough to hear the anguish in his voice. Close enough to see the pain on Anakin’s face as well.

We see him twice amongst the shock troopers standing around as the view cuts back and forth, but he doesn’t join the others as they gather around Fives and Rex just after Fives died, and as the camera pans out we don’t see him in shot at all.

So where has he gone?

He was standing with the guard when one took out the ray shield. That’s his shoulder guard there on the left.

He was standing with his men when Fives says: “This is bigger than any of us, than anything I could have imagined”

But 36 seconds later, once Fives has gone and that same trooper who shot out the shield generator removes his helmet.

No Fox.

Just how quickly did he realise just what he’d done here and have to get out of that place?

To feel sick for what’d just happened? For having acted rashly and murdered a fellow clone he’d only intended to knock down and had to leave or… what?

Vomit? Cry? Stumble from that room only to sit on the floor outside as his legs gave out in shock as the full realisation of what he’d just done hit him?

We see the look on the face of the ray shield shooting trooper, see his sadness as he looks down at Rex and Fives and they all realise what just happened.  But we don’t see Fox.

Because Fox didn’t intend to kill Fives but was pushed to do it by a fast bit of mental programming to shut Fives up permanently. Not by the Chancellor with his Sith mind control abilities, but by Nala Se seeking to hide what was really going on there. A full on mental reconditioning of his brain might not be possible long distance, but sending a signal to his inhibitor chip that allowed his judgement to be affected, to put him off balance at just the right moment to affect his judgement and before he realises that something’s wrong it’s already far too late to do anything about it

And being careless with his blaster isn’t something that Fox would ordinarily be, he’d hardly be the most highly decorated clone in the GAR if he was reckless.

And he’d never choose to kill a brother in cold blood.

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So what happened after that?

Most likely he went looking for an explanation that’d make sense out of this mess.

But he’d have to look into it independently. After all, Fives had claimed that the Chancellor “orchestrated much of this. He told me in the medical bay!” and since it was the same man who’d have overseen the committee that looked into the affair afterwards and failed to find anything wrong he could hardly turn to him or the senate for any help with it, and he doesn’t have a Jedi General to turn to.

And we know the matter went to an official investigation because when Ahsoka is following Rex’s lead to ‘find Fives’ just after Order 66 has been called she brings up two old reports on the matter:

Nala Se (in recording): An independent investigation confirmed that the Clone Trooper CT-5555 experienced a malfunction with his inhibitor chip.

Both the Senate committee and the Jedi Council have accepted these findings.

However, a grievance report was filed by CT-7567.

Cut to Rex’s report:

Rex (in recording): I already know this report is gonna fall on deaf ears, [sighs] but I owe it to Fives to record what I saw.

I'm not sure I believe it myself, but there's a possibility that the inhibitor chips the Kaminoans put inside of us have a purpose that we don't yet fully understand.

So what happened next?

Fox realises he’s been just as used and lied to by the people with power over him as Dogma was by Krell?

And then what?

Because something happened here that we haven’t seen yet, something that leads to the big question I’ve been working towards here:

Was Crosshair formerly Commander Fox?

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The sniper. A gun programmed to point in the right place at the right time.

Fox didn’t expect Fives to die when he shot him. Only expected to put him on the ground, just like Crosshair later does with Wrecker. Because it’s not so much that he’d shot him that’s the issue here, so much as that the variable power output of his blaster was turned up so high that it burned a hole right through his armour and into his chest. We know that Rex was badly hurt when he got shot in the chest, but it was a survivable wound that he’d recovered from sufficiently to get back to work the next day. And Cross was careful with the settings when he shot Wrecker. You see him adjusting and checking his rifle beforehand. It was enough to hurt him, but not enough to do him any major harm. You see him doing the same thing before he shoots in Caleb's direction as well. Crosshair always checks the power output before he takes a shot.

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I did a little research to make sure the power could be changed on blasters (quote from wikipedia):

Blaster weaponry can vary the intensity of their output, generating bolts of greater destructive power but with corresponding trade-offs. For example, the DC-15 blaster rifle used by clone troopers can blast a hole .5 m (1 ft 8 in) wide in a wall made of the fictional material ferroconcrete when set on maximum power, but doing so consumes more [tibanna] gas and reduces its ammunition capacity from 500 shots to 300. A more powerful blaster bolt also generates more recoil which can make it more difficult to use the weapon.

No one had to force his hand to make him shoot Fives, only to nudge him towards turning up the power output beforehand.

And after that?

Fox doesn’t have to be the smartest trooper out there to be determined to find out the how and why of what happened there that day, he just has to know that it was wrong, to be stubborn and thorough, and to refuse to let the matter go. Just like Fives wouldn’t.  Unfortunately that didn’t work out so well for him either, but he’d heard what Fives said so when he got the opportunity he had himself scanned and got his chip removed. A looooooong time ago!

He wasn’t lying, This is who he is.

The writer’s have had great fun in interviews telling us that we should see a noticeable difference between Crosshair with his chip and Crosshair without it

And we do, we just haven’t been handed the context to realise exactly when it happened until we’re specifically looking for that moment. But that doesn’t mean you can’t work it out.

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When he says ‘Good Soldiers Follow Orders’ he does that because he knows it’s what Tup said when he was sick because of the chip, and he knows that because it was in the reports he’s read. No other clone ever says it. Not Rex, not Jesse, not even Wrecker when his chip fully kicks in.  But he knows Tech is recording him and wants to fake this as well as he possibly can for anyone who might have access to his recordings.

Because the only way he’s ever going to get to the bottom of all this is if he can gain access to the Kaminoans records, to do his best to find Fives in his own way and then to expose what’s been happening to the clones for all this time without anyone else knowing about it.

And not just to the standard clone troopers, but also to experimental Clone Force 99.

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In the training room Tarkin offers him a chance to catch his eye, he wants to see them in the training room to see what they can do. And his trick shot with the knife? Well, that worked perfectly!  Tech downplayed his own abilities without looking too obvious about it then flopped on the floor pathetically because catching Tarkin’s eye is the last thing he wants the rest of them to do, making Cross look like the perfect soldierly option.

And it’s probable that Cross had that little cry in the armoury where only Wrecker could see him because he already knew that persuing this course of action was going to be difficult and that it’s going to come at the cost of leaving his brothers behind where he can’t help to protect them. That he’s going to miss them all and will have to make some very hard decisions with no kind of support network around him. No Lula, no Tech, no Echo, and no Wrecker.

But this is their best shot at exposing this whole thing, of not only clearing his name of murder, but of letting all clones know what Fives tried to do for them as well as letting them know the full extent to which they’d all been used and controlled.

And it reminds me of the Rako Hardeen episodes, where Kenobi had to fake his own death and spend time behind enemy lines knowing in advance that he’d be cut off and alone, and would have to deal with whatever situation arose. No matter how much he knew it was going to hurt Anakin to think that he was dead, or how hard it’d be to maintain his facade while pretending to be a callous bounty hunter.

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On Onderon he’s careful to show nothing but loyalty to the Empire, even overdramatically groaning about it when Hunter tells him not to massacre the civilians, but also being a Good Soldier and Following Orders when Hunter gives them.

And a report is sent in which only confirms that.  Because right there is a chance for the sender to really sell Crosshair as being an ideal soldier for them, as showing them true loyalty even though there was no Imperial presence on the mission with them. And sure, it can turned around and made to look like his own team sold him out to further their own ends, but it really only helps Cross to get where he wants to be.

But after Cross is taken away from other others in the brig Nala Se gets to reprogram his mind again. Oh sure, she tells Tarkin that she’s enhancing his chip. What else is she going to say to the new guy they know almost nothing about? That she’s reprogramming his brain so he’ll behave in the way she wants him to and not in the way he normally would? And after they’re so keen to establish that the Kaminoans feel that they have to tread carefully among these new Empire representatives because they don’t know what they’re like or what kind of treatment towards the clones they’ll be happy about? Not to mention that she has secrets to hide here, technologies she wants to keep safely hidden.

We see the procedure causing him pain as it zaps his brain from both sides, but in spite of the treatment he was still able to exert enough control to allow the team to depart from the hangar at the end of the episode. However, it’s strongly suggested that he gets at least one more more session of treatment after that when we see him in the med bay again before he’s sent off to Onderon with his new squad to deal with the refugees there.

And after that we see him behaving very differently indeed. Not only does the stupidly mouthy ES-01 have to die because he’s made himself a direct threat to Crosshair but he also cannot afford to show any weakness or leniency towards him in front of the rest of his team. And while the refugees also have to die in order to maintain this pretence – he lets his squad take care of them while he walks away and doesn’t have to watch it happen.

Later on, and with an unknown number of potential further conditioning treatments in place (it’s unclear if she’d be able to give him any more after he’s been handed over to Rampart as his new Commander), he sets the Batch up to die on Bracca. They have no obvious escape from the ion engine and the Imps are already walking away from the ship when the explosives go off and the reality of their imminent demise as the engine flares snaps Cross’s programming like a dry stick.

He can’t help himself from crying out NO! when he sees it, but since everyone standing with him probably died in the blast from the engine with only his increased physical density saving him from death, no one was able to report that part in. The med techs we see with him afterwards presumably came in from elsewhere on site. His immediate reaction on finding out his brothers are alive is wanting to follow them, to go to them, to see for himself whether or not they’re ok. But they vanish off into hyperspace and his chance is lost. He sits and looks angry and thoughtful.

So what are his options now? To try to leave and give up on everything he was trying to achieve in the first place, to have suffered all this for nothing, or to stay put and see what he can still accomplish. It isn’t like Kenobi could have acted any differently when he was playing at being Rako Hardeen. They both have to commit fully to the role they’re playing while also trying to do as little harm as they can.

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Skip to the finale and we get this scene:

Crosshair: The Empire can't protect the galaxy without strength. This is what we were made for. Think of all we could do together. We were brothers once. We can be again.

Hunter: Why would we trust you?

And then Cross executes his team exactly as he’d previously set up. But not directly, he doesn’t shoot any of them himself, only bounces a shot off the reflectors. It still has the same end effect but he only ever kills ES-01 directly. Anyone else is only shot to wound. So far at least.

But why does he kill them? (aside from the whole scene being ripped off from referencing a different show - “Have you betrayed us? Have you betrayed me?”) It looks like a display of loyalty to the Batch, and it is, but that’s not entirely it.

He’s desperately lonely and he wants his brothers back by his side. He’s literally never once in his life had to spend so much time away from other clones and it’s killing him. Yes, there are problems within the team, but maybe things could be different under Empire control than when they were following the orders they were being given previously by the person Hunter refused to name back in TCW. They could find a way to work together to achieve the end goal he’s been working towards instead of being at odds with each other, hurting each other. To go back to the way things used to be.

And we see how much being alone is hurting him, the look on his face when he turns and sees Howzer standing in Rampart’s office with that oh so familiar face looking back at him.

And he wants that. Badly.

He wants them to come with him, but he can’t say that outright. Firstly because of his new team being present, and then because he doesn’t know where he stands. Not after they failed to respond to him after he called out to Hunter as the Batch were leaving Ryloth, and this happens before he realises that Hunter never told them he’d called him. That only happens in the following episode in the tunnels under Kamino.

But there and then if he brings the Batch in with him, maybe makes himself look a little sloppy. Not incompetent, but complacent enough for his squad to have been taken down by the Batch before he got through to them, but not bad enough for the Empire to dismiss him entirely.

But we don’t know what he had planned to happen next because Omega sets her own personal droid army off and everyone has to scramble for their lives.

She messed up all of his plans and no one but him even knows it.

And it makes ES-02 absolutely correct when she reports “Admiral, the Commander lost control of the situation.”, just not in quite the way she means it. However, she also helps him out here because it only aids in making him look sloppy, but not murderous.

But we’ve already seen him take steps towards looking less perfect than he could do. Like when he’s casually sitting on Rampart’s desk, in his office, directly facing the door, idly browsing through his datapad. Unlike the perfect soldier we’ve seen him act like at all other times.

Bloody impudent clone! Maybe he’ll behave better with his previous team leader around to keep him in his place.

And then that’s where Cody is likely to come in from the Empire side of things.

To find out if Crosshair is truly loyal, and whether he can remember to act like he’s a soldier of the Empire and not a desk polisher.

Bad Commander Crosshair!

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I posted previously about

Crosshair showing the physical signs of someone who’s experienced a stroke or similar type of brain injury

and if he managed to get his own chip removed but it didn’t go as well as the other removal operations we’ve seen then it could have left him with noticeable damage in the aftermath.

And maybe he’d have been able to keep it hidden for a while, which should be pretty easy since he often appears to keep his helmet on.

But he has no scar! I hear you cry. Well no, not if he had access to medical equipment to heal it up afterwards. Any traces would be hidden by his hair like Tech’s would be, and now that his skin is burned it could be gone without a trace.

Rex has a scar because he didn’t have access to follow up treatments, not because surgery always causes heavy scarring.

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There’s the possibility of it being a side effect of others messing with his head so often (”I've had my head adjusted by some of the best in the business. But it just won't stay adjusted.”), or of him fighting the reprogramming she’s inflicted on him. Re-laying new neural pathways to get around the blocks installed in his mind could have caused some noticeable side effects, and this is without going into the physical alterations that’ve made him taller, thinner, paler, etc.

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Now, I’d suggest that the damage could have come from his investigation having been discovered by Palpatine. Palps could absolutely damage him in ways that no one would ever see externally, especially since he’s “severe and unyeilding” enough to resist any attempt to pursuade him to let this go.

‘Poor Commander Fox, probably the stress dont’cha know.’ Yadda yadda yadda and off to Kamino he goes, never to be seen again.

But surely he’d just kill him and be done with it. Who’s going to care enough about one lost clone anyway, right?

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In TBB Ep 01 after Tech informs them that the clones have been ordered to execute the Jedi on the grounds on them having committed treason what does Crosshair say?

“That would explain things”

Not only explaining what’s happening there and then with the Jedi, but what had been happening all along. The missing piece of the puzzle he’s been trying to work out for so long now.

What secret purpose it was that their inhibitor chips had.

What they’d really been created for.

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Many have complained about the loss of his sense of humour and playfulness we’d seen in TCW. Wrecker only got annoyance and was shoved away when he tried to pal up to him as usual, before Lula slapping him. But Wrecker looks surprised at his reaction to him. This wasn’t normal behaviour.

But Cross has a lot of his mind at this time and isn’t in the mood to deal with it just then.

Especially since what Tech has just been telling them all is how:

“It's been well documented that the Kaminoans inhibited the cognitive functions of clones to engineer them to follow orders without question.”

which is something he already knows more than enough about, and is something they should all be a lot more concerned about being informed of. Because that goes far beyond the scope of the inhibitor chips.

And why has Tech been looking into that anyway?

But rather than letting us focus on that statement they move in with the Lula slapping to distract us from what was just said.

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Anything else about Crosshair turning on the team at the start of TBB?

While Crosshair’s actions are being influenced here, on Kaller, and later on after his trip to the med bay on Kamino before he leaves with the Empire, it isn’t because of the inhibitor chip.

They’re just a red herring as far as most of this story goes.

The chips caused the clones to turn on the Jedi and their supporters, but once that’s done they’re just left with the knowledge that the Jedi were evil betrayers and that they have new masters and new orders to follow now. And after that point they have to make their own minds up about whether they want to follow those new orders and stick with the Empire or if they’d rather attempt to defect instead.

But once they convince us to focus on the chips being the root of all clone controlling evil we’re not looking for any other explanation. So they do still serve a point in the plot aside from setting these events in the timeline with the activation of Order 66, but it’s a lot more limited than they want us to think it is.

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Why was the Ep 01 hangar scene set up the way it was if not to make a parallel between that moment and Fives’ death?

Why fill a spaceship hangar with a bunch of boxes of troopers personal belongings if not to have an excuse to have a backdrop of crates for the scene to unfold against?  Because they could have gone pretty much anywhere on Kamino to retrieve their armour and weapons. There’s nothing special about that specific location other than that being the place the story contrives to put the things they’re going to need before they leave.

Why are there shock troopers on Kamino in the first place? Kamino doesn’t need them to be there, they have their own security forces with a grey and white paint job, and it shouldn’t be like the Empire are so short on troops that they need the CG to watch their backs.

The only real reason I can see for them to be there at all is so they can set up a scene where they can make the same man’s life take a sharp turn for the worst, for the second time, when he enters a darkened space filled with boxes, while flanked by shock troopers, before shooting a man who hasn’t done anything wrong.

They do love their parallels in this show.

But this time he lets his men go in first, takes his time to assess the situation before him, and places his shot a lot more carefully.

And just look at the curved, swirled, striped lighting of the ray shield in front of Fox, and the light on the wall behind Crosshair as he stands in the doorway.

Coincidence? In animation? I highly doubt it!

Anyway, he checks the power output of his rifle, then hits Wrecker in the exact same place we already saw him take a hit and walk away from it earlier in the episode. Crosshair may not entirely be feeling like himself at this point, but he hasn’t become a meat-droid either.

And both Fox and Crosshair have showed that they care about their brothers.

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I’ve said previously (somewhere) that it seemed like Crosshair might have been the new guy before Echo joined the team, with CT-9904 implying that he’s the 4th to join the group, not the youngest clone there.  Umbara was Season 4, The Fives arc Season 6. But we don’t know how many attempts there have been to try to create ‘superior’ clones, only that there are four team members and Nala Se says ‘Five are all that remain’ What number does Tech have? He could be CT-9908 and that wouldn’t affect the amount of squad members, only the number of attempts at generating clones who manage to survive the ‘enhancement’ process.

And surely there's a reason the Empire immediately assigned him the rank of Commander despite everyone referring to him by a CT number and not a CC or RC number. As far as we know the only Batch member with any rank other than ‘trooper’ is Hunter.  I've always thought it was an odd detail, especially since Rampart doesn’t think much of the clones, but we all saw how easily he took to his new command position right off the bat.

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I was trying to work out exactly how Omega could claim to know what Crosshair would do next when they were in the brig, which led to me rewatching the scene where Cross is supposed to be getting his chip enhanced. And Nala Se says to Tarkin “the order does appear to be working.” With a very odd emphasis on ‘appear’. Because she really can’t be certain, but clearly can’t tell for sure if his reprogramming has been successful just by scanning his head. She knows who Cross used to be, she knows how he ended up back on Kamino And she may well assume she knows full well what it is that he wants to do given the opportunity to get out of there. He's severe and unyielding, and unwilling to give up on his end goal, and this is his chance to make a play for it.

. But back to Omega. She's said enough that's been wrong right to his face, and she's a part of Kamino, not a part of his family unit. So he’s doing his best not to say anything in front of her which might cause him problems later on, he has a quest to fulfil and no current intention of letting it go

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Cut to the end of episode 1, after the Batch have escaped

Lama Su: Has the matter been rectified? Nala Se: The inhibitor chip augmentation was a success.  However, the remaining clones of squad 99 have escaped, along with Omega. Lama Su: We must be cautious.  Until the Empire's intentions are made clear, say nothing. Nala Se: Yes, Prime Minister.

This is another one those split conversations we don't initially notice.

Has the matter been rectified?

The inhibitor augmentation was a success

and

However, the remaining clones of squad 99 have escaped, along with Omega.

Are two absolutely different things.

And Lama Su's concerns? "We must be cautious. Until the Empire's intentions are made clear, say nothing."

They're about Crosshair, not Omega.

Nala Se wasn't buying that Cross was genuinely showing loyalty to the Empire but she also tells Lama Su that she was enhancing his inhibitor chip. Which strongly suggests that the Kaminoan Prime Minister knows very little about what she’s been getting up to in her own private lab, and Taun We likely knew nothing of it either.

All of this comes down to one scientist pushing what she has at hand to see just how far she can go with the technology she’s created and caring nothing for the suffering she inflicts upon those people in the process. Just because you can do a thing doesn’t mean that you should.

And Omega is Nala Se’s creation.

Nala Se doesn't let Omega go so much as she lets the team get away from Kamino before Crosshair can ground them and she risks her special secret project falling into Empire hands and them being able to do whatever they want with the things that she’s created.

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But let's go back to this scene:

Omega: You're angry. Crosshair: How perceptive. Omega: I know what you're going to do, but please don't. Crosshair: What do you know? Omega: I know it's not your fault. You can't help it.

And Cross gives her that barely seen sly smile. But she also directly tells him that she knows far too much about what's happening here than any mere child should. And he shuts her down quickly at every opportunity after that. Because he isn't stupid and he knows she's a part of this, that she knows too much. He keeps her firmly at arms length and wants nothing to do with her, he doesn’t even call her by her name, only referring to her as ‘the kid’, and saves her from drowning more to stop Hunter from jumping in after her and risking his own life in the process than to actually benefit her.

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Anyway, we all know Cross is angry, he’s put on a good show for everyone watching as he pointed out that Hunter is a poor leader and they never should have gone back to Kamino. That's hardly a stunning revelation. But what is it that she 'knows' he's going to do? She also says 'you can't help it' Why can't he help it?  Why does she assume he'll have a loss of free will or self control? She wasn't in the room while he was getting his ‘chip enhancement’ done because she'd already been caught by the Shock Troopers, so if she knows about that then she'd need to have known in advance that his head was going to be messed with. And of course she does, why would such things not be freely discussed with, or in front of, Nala Se’s assistant just like when Tarkin is there and they discuss everything right in front of her. She's a part of all this, not some innocent bystander. Azi tells us "We are official Kaminoan medical personnel". Not I am, we are.

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And how else would Foxhair tie in to the wider plotline and some of the characters still in play?

He’s connected to Ahsoka from his pursuit of her following her escape from jail even if people mostly seem to remember Wolffe from that arc because of the scene where he shoots her and the associated Plo Koon angst potential.  Just because she didn’t show up in TBB yet doesn’t mean she doesn’t have the potential to do so later.

To Anakin and Rex from that arc, the Fives arc, and from the mission to Skako Minor.  

To Wolffe, however loosely, from the time they both spent pursuing Ahsoka.

To Cody, who already knows the Batch and introduces us to them, as well as his forthcoming appearance in Season 2

To Palpatine and the Empire by his prior job with the Coruscant Guard as well as by whatever his current position will turn out to be after they’ve retrieved him from Kamino.

And he’s connected to Echo through having assisted in rescuing him from Skako Minor, being on the same team as him for a while, and also because he’s the man who killed his long time friend and brother.

Which then suggests that this is a part of the reason they chose to bring Echo back from the dead after all this time. So they can come back to those events and deal with the repercussions of that plotline from all those years ago. To give Rex, Echo *and* Fox some closure over the matter as well as showing exactly who was responsible for everything that happened to kick that arc off in the first place.

Which also makes sense of why we didn’t see them mention, let alone actually talk about, Fives when Rex and Echo met up in Cid’s bar. Can’t get them talking about him and exposing the underlying plot too soon, can they?

.

What else?

Look at this:

What’s that on the side of his helmet? Is that a microphone or a camera on his left hand side? The SW way for commanders to have a record of personal accountability?

If it is then he knows what it's like to constantly record everything around you as a part of your duty, which would go a long way to explaining why he knows to be SO very very careful with every word he says in front of Tech in the finale.  

Because if the things Tech records are retrieved from wherever they get stored or backed up to then his own words could easily be used against him at some later point. And that’s without the risk of some Empire lackey overhearing him talking and reporting what he said.

. Fox appears to have had a forward facing aspect to his position with the CG. He’s there in the office when Ahsoka comes to the prison, and again when Anakin comes to talk to her. He’s likely had to deal with the public in a way that most clone troopers will never have had to do, or had the opportunity to do. This can only have helped him to deal with Rampart and the members of his former Elite Squad, as well as any other non-clone troopers he has to deal with in the future.

Having the skill of being able to read the mood of the room and pick out the extent of the underlying intent in ES-01's words and tone is a valuable skill that the Batch team could sorely use right now, and one which will also help keep him alive and one step ahead of Rampart, who isn't likely to expect that from a clone.

It also helps explain how he knew just what to say to get under Rex's skin on Skako, and how his words helped to keep Rex motivated instead of putting him off from his goal. .

What about Crosshair’s tattoo?

When did he get that badly drawn tattoo?  And it is badly drawn, especially the line running down his cheek. It’s reasonably straight but it isn’t consistently applied. The horizontal line is higher on one side of his eye than on the other, and the line thicknesses of the whole thing vary wildly, not to mention the gaps in the lines. 

Not only have we ever seen any other clone sporting a poorly applied tattoo, but would someone as precise as Crosshair really choose to have that mess scrawled on his face? Are we supposed to assume he did it himself so it’s ok if it looks shit? Or is this a part of the once mentioned bullying? That this was something drawn on him by someone else, someone with power over him, that he’s never dared to have removed for fear of what punishment would be inflicted if he tried it.

Is it an enforced reminder to him that this is who he is now? That he’s Crosshair and he’d better not forget it!  Clones tattoos don’t generally relate directly to their names, Fives is the only exception I can think of there. Which is probably for the best otherwise Jesse might have been named Coghead.

And what of the picture from Hunter’s trunk?

Just how closely have you really looked at that picture?

Same picture

And the crossed arms. Ever notice that habit of his?  It isn’t common amongst clones, they usually keep their arms by their sides or have a helmet under one arm.  It’s noticeable because were see it so infrequently.

But they both do it, and it’s almost always the left arm over the right.

.

But why didn’t Crosshair leave with his brothers at the end of season 1?

Because he knew there was no point in doing so. “None of this changes anything.”

Kallus chose to return to the Empire before having a good think about things and becoming Fulcrum and that’s who we’re set up to most think of in that situation, but Kenobi had the chance to return to the Jedi during the Rako Hardeen arc, realised that the job wasn’t yet over and chose to remain for a while longer in order to complete his task.

Once he realised that Hunter never told the others he’d been in touch with him on Ryloth he knew that they’re all taking his actions at face value and that anything he says is his word against Hunter’s. That they all think he really has turned against them and sided with the Empire, taken the easy way out and chosen a bed, 3 meals a day and all the ammo he can fire over fighting for his brothers like some of them had been planning before he left the team - shows what they know, right?

This is only further backed up when Tech says “Understanding you does not mean that I agree with you.” and he does think he understands him. Understands why he’d choose to stay where he is of his own free will and not come back and suffer with the rest of them rather then helping them find a way out of their situation as well. But he’s wrong.

In order to achieve his aims Crosshair has chosen to stay where he is even though “loyalty means everything to the clones”

But that’s only a part of the story and one that’s likely to come out by the end of Season 2

Regardless of how hard he tried to convince his old team to come with him in the finale, that he set up in advance and then slaughtered his Imperial team in front of them, no matter how much he protected them all in the fight and through the collapse of Kamino, he still chose to stay and wait for someone else to pick him up.

Because he’s finally managing to put all the pieces of a long term puzzle together, of being placed in a position to help all of his brothers and not just himself or his own team. He’s looking at the bigger picture and how it’ll negatively affect all of the clones. And that’s something he can’t simply turn his back on in order to go and play happy families with his brothers, no matter how much he really really wants to be able to do that.

.

Because despite what Hunter says in the S2 trailer, none of them will really be free until the Empire decides to let them go, and even then that’s debatable for this particular special team.

But that’s audience knowledge, not character knowledge.

[hellothere-generalangsty]

THE BAD BATCH THEORY

Some spoilers of ep1, ep2 and ep8

Also a TW later on (it's notified so don't worry)

I hate it, but I still think about what my bf told me a few days ago about Crosshair

Basically he told me "I'm sure he doesn't have a chip and he's willingly following the Empire"

And I was like "no because he reacted to Order 66, said the infamous 'good soldiers follow orders' and they showed a scene where he was tortured as they enhanced his chip so it could totally take control of him"

But then yesterday I think I read this post on Tumblr where OP said smth like "what if he gets the chip removed but remains loyal to the Empire"

And I'm telling you, this is making me nervous because I know he's an asshole to the regs and he's cold and irritating; hell I would probably punch him if I met him irl.

But also. I can't imagine him just being bad. I can't picture him willingly hunting his brothers, trying to kill them, obeying orders like a good little soldier and being used as a war tool by the Empire when he couldn't take an order from Rex if Hunter didn't agree to it first.

Like... I know some people don't like him/ hate his guts, which I understand (difference btw fiction and reality, like I said above I would probably punch the snark out of him if I met him irl) but I also see the way he's synchronised with his brothers, the way he teases Wrecker with silly bets on who will take out the more droids; or the way he gently pat Echo's shoulder when they rescued him; or the way he holds so much respect for Hunter and his leadership.

I mean, family is a damn weird thing, sometimes you fight, you drag each other down, you make snarky remarks; but you also always got their back when they need you, you'd do anything to protect them from intruders and you'd put yourself on the line to make sure nothing bad happens to them.

And that's what he does everytime we see him with the BB pre-Order 66.

And post-Order 66, he sticks to his brothers, even if he disagrees with Hunter about the fate of Caleb, even if he feels filled with frustration and anger. He only turned against them when he's completely brainwashed by Tarkin and the enhencement of his chip; and even then we still have moments where he's doubting/hesitating (ep8), reflecting back (ep2).

So yeah. Do what you want with that, I just want Crosshairs saved from the chip, and see the aftermath, the consequences it has on his relation with his brothers; and with himself.

(TW: violence/ death, implicit mention of wanting to die, break down)

Just imagine:

Crosshair getting rid of the chip, fully aware of what he did under its control; all the killings and the tracking and the death threats on his brother's lives.

The way he almost shot Hunter, then Tech, then tried to get Omega killed.

The scars on his face being a painful reminder of him ordering his Empire squad to brun his family alive.

Have him sit by himself in the cockpit of the Havoc Marauder, unable to sleep because of the nightmares he has everytime he closes his eyes.

Let him get really uncomfortable when one of the Batcher join him; Wrecker or Hunter, sitting in silence in one of the seat, trying to keep him company but not wanting to invade too much...

But it's too much to bear anyway, and he breaks down. He shoves his face in his hands, barely able to mutter a "sorry"

And first he got tears rolling down his cheeks as he whispers "I couldn't help it", and it get worse when he says that he tried, he really did, he missed his shots even though it was atrocious and so hard to fight against the damn chip

And as he ugly cries, cockpit filled by his sniffing and his sobs, he confesses that he wanted one of them to get him.

"I wanted the nightmares to stop"

And his brother, sitting next to him, so taken aback by his confession, his behavior, he doesn't even know what to say neither how to react

Because the snarky and cold-facaded Crosshair is gone and all that's left is a broken man, a little brother begging for forgiveness.

I want a brutal shift in his behavior, as a direct consequence of the effect the chip had on him; the possessive and oh so nefast influence.

I want him being mentally and physically unable to mock or get snarky at his brothers because it triggers memories of the times he really did try to hurt them.

I want him to be as silent as usual, but now when he talks it's always to bring out something positive his brothers did or said; or a constructive criticism on a plan, a mission. He still chews on his toothpick, even more than he did before, and he cannot sleep alone anymore.

He grows to loathe cold blue, and doesn't protest when Omega paints a miniature version of his plush on his helmet. The next time the Batchers cross path with Rex, he takes him to a quiet corner and apologize about that one mission to save Echo, about the regs- the brothers Rex lost during Order 66.

I want him to realise that he was an asshole, but he is not a bad person in his core. Let him face the consequences of his snark; but also let him heal from the traumatic experiences he had to endure because of the chip, the Empire, Tarkin and Palpatine.

___________________________________________

Edit: just tagging @loth-wolffe again don't mind me I deleted the comment that's why 💀

[anakinisvaderisanakin]

Evil Unmasked AU Part 3 - Lord Vader (aka Ahsoka learns the truth)

If anyone had, by sheer luck, missed the news or the announcement - every single broadcast via the holo networks made sure to either remind or inform people of the event. “Revered war hero and former Jedi Knight revealed as the Emperor’s right hand man”. Every single one left out the man’s birth name, the name by which he had been celebrated by Republic forces and maligned by the Separatists mere months before the revelation. The Hero with no Fear, he had been dubbed by the media. It was easy to see, in hindsight, that this too may have been a ploy constructed by the then chancellor, Palpatine.

Anakin Skywalker had been built up, like a fictional hero bestowed with charm, intellect and skill. His appearance had never detracted from the positive spin on his tale, his handsome features inviting people to buy into and accept the public image created for him. It was this man, this living legend, that had been retooled to masterly.

The man who had been cherished, with his wit and his cocky half smiles masking a perceived shy insecurity, was nowhere to be seen now. Once or twice, in the wake of major events during The Clone Wars, Skywalker had been projected on holo networks. The interviews had been brief, the young man seemingly uncomfortable by the attention, as if he struggled to live up to the public image tied to his name. For the past month, since he had been renamed, none of that persisted. While it was evident that the man cared even less for making public appearances or statements, he had been forced into giving a slew of them.

Every broadcasting network wanted a tout-a-tout with this reinvented icon. Little of the boyish charm remained, and all that persisted of Skywalker seemed to be his dry sarcasm and his inherent desire to act out in favour of his political and personal beliefs. As he had explained, with little interest, his “loyalty has always lied with Emperor Palpatine, and it will remain to do so.”

To those who had known Skywalker closely beforehand - those who remained alive to tell the tale, that was - were shook by the altered man, and the confusion this change left behind. His new persona was so vastly different, he might as well have been a new person altogether. Some would say that Skywalker had always been a snake in the grass, had always maintained a charade - acting out a falsehood to lull former friends and allies into trusting him. On the other hand, some were convinced something tragic must have happened to Skywalker, or that he had been bribed or manipulated by the Emperor into giving up on his morals.

Ahsoka reacted accordingly.

She had been lucky to miss out on the initial, official inauguration of her former master. She had come back from Mandalore, no longer a child but a woman. Forced to grow up at the age of 17, her and Rex had been the only survivors. And Maul, of course, who’d made his escape and remained cleverly hidden ever since. The fall of the Republic had been enough of a shock, in the wake of Order 66 and the death of Jesse and the entire 212th battalion. On top of that, the Senate’s power had been reduced to virtually nothing, restrictions and documentation of every single Galactic citizen had become mandatory; every ship was to be licensed and catalogued.

A long list of names had been released to the public with large bounties on their heads; names of those considered dangerous foes to the newly formed Empire. Most of them were former politicians, military deserters and Separatists; few were Jedi. Ahsoka didn’t take that as a good omen, seeing as the omission so many Jedi names probably came from the fact that Order 66 had already eviscerated the order. Ahsoka herself had been absent from the list, as had Rex, and as such they were presumed dead to the new government.

While Ahsoka had let out a sigh of relief to see master Yoda and Obi-Wan were noted as dangerous Jedi fugitives still considered to be alive; her stomach sank when master Plo and Anakin’s names remained absent.

Ahsoka had, thankfully, been left in the dark when her former master’s fate was concerned. She had assumed him dead, at first. Two months had gone by, she and Rex parting ways soon after they had buried their fallen soldiers and friends on the unrecorded moon where their Jedi cruiser had crashed. It was too dangerous to stay together, and while Rex had returned to Coruscant for supplies and to hopefully seek out further clones who may have avoided or resisted the command of Order 66 and the inhibitor chip’s programming - Ahsoka had lingered in the outer rim. A brief meet and greet - albeit unfortunate - with Hondo Ohnaka had granted her a false new identity as Ashla, before relocating to the mostly peaceful Thabeska. In the blink of an eye, two additional months had passed. Then another, and another. Settling into mundane life, building a new future; she had honed her knack for mechanics and turned it into a profession - making just enough credits to scrape by. Five months had passed since the end of the war, when the news finally reached her.

Ahsoka had been scouring one of the few off-planet affiliated trading shops for supplies and tools. She was in desperate need of spare parts for her comlink which had been dead since she arrived. She had promised Rex they would stay in touch somewhat regularly, and figured it was finally safe to reach out and catch up. Rex, Ahsoka presumed, was still located on or near Coruscant in hiding. She would have by-passed the slim offering of flimsiplast and data-tape prints, had a preview the issue of the day not been screened on the beat up, flickering holo screen poised on the wall above the aisle as advertisement to draw her attention. A reporter seemed to be enthusiastically interviewing one of the freshly promoted Imperial figureheads. The sound was muffled, the image grainy - but it was the voice that caught Ahsoka off guard.

“It has been just short of six months since the Republic was officially denounced, and the new Galactic Empire firmly installed. How do you feel this transition has affected you?” asked the reporter, eyes wide with awe and admiration as his face filled the holo-screen.

“Very little,” said a gruff, monotone voice - so void of emotion or excitement, that it came off as nearly synthetic. “I believe my position is quite similar to that of my pre-Empire self. While I am no longer, by profession, a knight or a general - I still carry out similar services. It is, naturally, expected of me to hunt down detractors and traitors. There is little difference in leading a war effort where casualties are a constant, and leading a judicial effort of assimilation.”

The words were big, foreign, and unnerving. Words Ahsoka had never heard uttered by that particular voice before. The voice itself seemed unrecognizable; twisted, and warped. But still, a familiar note to it remained - one that urged Ahsoka to keep watching, one that beckoned her, and compelled her naive curiosity. Her stomach sank before she even had laid eyes upon the screen, before the image that came with the distorted voice could confirm her greatest fears. As she focused on the screening, the reporter had come back into frame and Ahsoka’s heart pounded nigh painfully hard against her ribcage as she waited for the man that was the focal point of the interview to answer the next query.

“Do you struggle with any guilt, in regards to your unfortunate responsibilities? I understand it must have been difficult to carry out the order of persecution towards the Jedi order. Indeed, you were raised within those walls, were you not? Indoctrinated with their religious beliefs, did you ever doubt their teachings beforehand? Were you ever disillusioned by their cult before the assassination attempt upon the Emperor came to light? I am aware that you wish to distance yourself from the order, but I’m certain you understand the importance of your shift.”

“My own former master lied to me. That was the moment at which I was first privy to the mastery of manipulation that ran deep within the sect, as he had been required to carry out their dishonest schemes. I was not raised within the order, but I was offered training under the false pretense that I might free someone close to me from slavery once knighted. This was another malignant lie, as I was restrained from realizing these wishes.”

Ahsoka didn’t notice the screwdriver slipping from her hand, nor did she pick up on the clatter as it hit the durasteel floor once the man’s face came back into view; at once painfully reassuring, and horrendously frightening.

“I feel no guilt in the wake of my actions. I pity the Jedi order for their misinformed notion of the Force as a sacred yet passive entity. True power and understanding of its whims has thus evaded them. I pity their hunger for control, and their warmongering. I pity their attempts at kidnapping and brainwashing young children into following their flawed dogma, and any child present at the temple during the march is indeed better off becoming one with the Force, than continuing to serve a false doctrine. I was not raised entirely within the temple, and as for my morals, no person within the order served as a model or mentor me through true honesty,” said a begrudging Anakin Skywalker - and there was a prominent anger flickering beneath the drawled monotone.

Outwardly, Anakin appeared nearly the same as he had the day Ahsoka had said goodbye to him before she set off to capture Maul, and he went to rescue the kidnapped then Chancellor Palpatine. Anakin had offered a forlorn yet gentle smile as they parted ways. His wavy hair had been long and unruly, but his eyes were bright, and blue, and warm. Full of hope. On the holo screen, despite the inevitable blue tang to the recorded session, his face seemed pale and gaunt; fine lines were traced around his eyes, at the corners of his lips, and dug into his forehead.

His sockets seemed dark and sunken, as if sleep had evaded him for weeks. His expression was a perpetual scowl, his arms folded across his chest as he stood nonchalantly beside the armchair that had no doubt been offered for him to settle into. He was taller than Ahsoka recalled - even with the limited props of the room the conversation was being held in, he towered over every single piece of furniture.

The reporter, Ahsoka recognized him as Mas Aqui - he’d been present at her trial, waiting with bated breath to record her conviction - had been tall and lanky then, but seemed almost frail and miniscule while standing next to the former Jedi he was now bothering.

“It is my belief that the order had a singularly negative effect on my character, and it is impossible for me to harbour any remorse towards a sect that so thoroughly stunted my growth. In the wake of Order 66, and the subsequent termination of the Jedi sect, I have had sufficient time to consider the events. I believe the Jedi were inherently incapable of showing humanity. It is for this reason, first and foremost, that I am determined to distance myself from any remaining ties I may have to the order. I consider myself enlightened, and do not wish to be associated with the negative connotations of the cilt that so maliciously affected the Galaxy.”

Ahsoka couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. The words coming out of Anakin’s mouth seemed pre-scripted in their delivery, but still genuinely professed. They sounded nothing like the man who had nurtured her, and cared for her as an older brother - but the conviction behind them was similar to the one that had backed every lesson he had taught and passed onto her. She felt cold and numb, hands trembling and eyes wide as she stared at the unsettling display.

Anakin’s dark blonde hair was trimmed and combed back, a few fresh battle scars lining his brow and his left side cheekbone. His robes seemed a mixture of de facto Imperial garb, armour, and sacred Jedi robes twisted to mock the order's very existence. But his eyes were the biggest detractor. Their colour could not be discerned, but their iridescent, glowing quality carried through. The blood vessels were visible, lining the irises like an intricate work of haphazard artistry. Cruel, calculating, animalistic. Ahsoka had seen those same eyes too many times, and had been confronted with their unhinged quality in the Sith Lord Darth Maul’s every expression. In Maul, they conveyed a deep seated insanity - in her former master; they spoke of a fury so overt, it seemed to reach right through the screen with their oppressive glare.

“I see. As to sum up our brief rendezvous, Lord Vader, I am obliged to aim a few final questionnaires at this past connection of yours - I aware that this is to be the last time, as of now, that you speak out on the matter - and am thus mandated to collect a few loosely affiliated tidbits,” Aqui cautiously pointed out.

“Make it a quick affair,” was Anakin’s only reply; gleaming eyes narrowed in a disgruntled surrender that matched his threatening cadence.

“Very well. There have been some questions frequently asked by our dedicated viewers. As such, I’ve picked out the topmost three. They may be a bit personal of nature, so feel free to dodge them if you are uncomfortable with their direction,” the reporter reassured.

Anakin’s dramatic eye roll at the implication was grand and demeaning, but served as the only, silent reply. Aqui shrunk back, no doubt feeling embarrassed by the disregard of his patience and attempt at pandering.

“Do you miss any of your connections within the fallen Jedi order, and if so, whom?”

“No,” was Anakin’s direct response, a sharp warning of a hiss. “Every single one of them was a traitor and a liar. I pity their ignorance, but I do not mourn them. I rejoice in their fall, and I would aid the Imperial efforts to eradicate their kind all over again if need be.”

Ahsoka swallowed back the lump forming at the base of her throat; her eyes burning as they watered against her will. The Jedi had cared deeply for Anakin. Master Yoda, Master Plo, Obi-Wan. How could Anakin not have seen their love? They may have practiced a no attachment policy, but Obi-Wan had clearly contradicted the rule to his own detriment. So had Ahsoka, one of the reasons behind her decision to sever her ties with the order - something she knew that Anakin too had longed for.

“Is there any hope for a Jedi on the run to reform and thus evade persecution?”

“No. Some have attempted to reform, but it is in the grand scheme of things, useless. The Jedi are the sole reason behind the detriment of the Galaxy, and their hubris is the foundation upon which the war was built. No man or woman raised within the temple walls is unaffected by their harmful teachings. As such, few if any may break the vicious cycle. I have yet to meet a truly dedicated Jedi who would admit their fallacy and turn away from the sect. The few reinvented Force wielders I have come across, have all doubted the order before its inevitable fall, and were thus given the tools necessary to break away,” Anakin simply stated, still as arrogant in his stance; his tone premeditated but with a sincerity that made Ahsoka feel sick to the stomach as a lone tear escape and trailed lazily down her cheek.

“Alright. Finally, what is behind your change of persona?”

Anakin’s expression shifted for a brief moment, the rage behind his eyes laid bare and unveiled. His eyes burned, their glow predatory and unadulterated. He seemed to heave a sigh, his mouth drawn into a repulsed sneer. When he spoke, his voice was calm and calculated, but his eyes were dangerous and intimidating.

“Anakin Skywalker is dead. I do not associate myself with this man, whom the Jedi were attempting to shape me into. I reiterate, and hope to never need state again, that I denounce my past as an act forced upon me. In severing my ties to the order, I have found freedom with the true facets of the Force. As such, the Emperor has bestowed upon me the title of Darth Vader. Lord Vader is the only title befitting of my stance within the Empire. Lord Vader is the name by which all Galactic citizens are expected to address me, as is my right. There is no Anakin Skywalker, and there never was. The Jedi order destroyed the weak child bearing that name. I am Darth Vader, and that is all that there is.”

Another tear followed the first, and Ahsoka bit back a choked sob as she covered her mouth. The Anakin Skywalker she had known was no more. Barely a trace of him remained. In his place, stood Sith Lord Darth Vader.

Vader, who would stop at nothing to keep his promise and reaffirm his loyalty towards his Emperor and master.

****

Because I was inspired by the commenters of the second chapter to explore how Vader may be used for propaganda, I wanted Ahsoka to find out about Anakin's turn through one of the many media Palpatine would no doubt promote Vader through. Vader could be used as a tool to strengthen the notion of the evil Jedi, and his breaking free from their brainwashing. I figured this was a fun spin on it, and included it! There will be more coming!

Ao3 link below:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/32029582/chapters/79572163

[oceanera12]

501st headcanons?

 Sorry, this took so long to answer: my work started back up! Hooray! But that means I haven’t been on my computer so...

Honestly, the 501st is harder for me than the 212th and I don’t know why so a lot of this was me just spitballing ideas and going, “Yes,” or “Nope!” so please forgive the lack of organization.

The 501st blue was picked out by Anakin because of his lightsaber color. The men like it too because of the major contrast with the white, unlike some lighter colors.

There was a Commander of the 501st before Ahsoka came along. Don’t know his name or anything, but let’s say he was a CC and he died early in the war. Like really early, which really stinks because he was training to be a Commander on Kamino and then he’s dead. So Captain Rex kind of took charge and everyone had a silent agreement the position would stay open out of respect for their fallen brother

Then Ahsoka came along and everyone approved of this small child so yay, Commander on deck again!

Rex headcanons!

Rex got his name for always winning King of the Hill (or the Kamino equivalent of it, which I imagine had to involve climbing up a ladder to the top bunk and fighting to remain on top).

Because of that, he got used to heights and has a pretty good head for high places (which is good since people really seem to like throwing him up, over, or down from high places)

Rex is the last surviving member of his batch

Everyone thinks the tally marks on his armor are for the number of battles lost or maybe won. Or maybe it’s people he’s lost or droid’s he’s killed. Or how many days the campaign has gone on for, each cluster being separate campaigns. Reality: it’s the number of times Anakin has come up with a stupid Skywalker plan and it somehow works. Rex started it as a joke, thinking it would only happen a few times. Now he just looks at them and thinks: “How the kriff am I still alive?”

Rex secretly likes the Coruscant Symphony (or whatever the Star Wars equivalent is) and will play the music in his earpiece on his breaks and before battles to calm him down or hype him up (depending on the situation. Usually calm him down because he is low-key panicking on the recent Skywalker plan)

Although Rex wields his twin DC-17′s, he is also a very good sniper. A fact that only a few people know so it’s very fun to watch the men’s reactions when he takes down a target from 1,000 meters away

Jesse and Kix headcanons!

Kix and Jesse first met as cadets when Jesse had to go to the med bay for an injury. Kix was there for some training and got to be Jesse’s “doctor”. They ended up bounding and would eat lunch together in the mess when they could.

Most people think Kix is Jesse’s impulse control. It’s actually the other way around. Jesse keeps a pretty level head and knows when to charge and when to stay down. Kix’s entire focus is on when a brother goes down and he will charge blindly into the fray to treat them. If Jesse wasn’t there to keep him put until it was safe, Kix would probably be dead.

Kix’s tattoo was a saying an old batchmate said a lot. Kix grew to appreciate it and had it immortalized on his head after that batchmate was killed by (you guessed it) a droid.

Jesse took a considerable less time deciding on his tattoo and was debating between the Republic cog or a shattered Separatist symbol. He ended up flipping a coin and got the cog. The reason the thing is so big was that he lost a bet-- and the winner got to pick how big to make the tattoo. Jesse ended up embracing it and putting it on his helmet.

Jesse and Kix got their tattoo’s at the same time. Kix would tell anyone that Jesse cried (which he didn’t) and Jesse would say Kix actually yelped or flinched with each prick (which he did). Most people believed Kix and thought Jesse was lying (since Kix worked with needles all the time)

When Kix has stayed up longer than forty-eight hours, Jesse will physically drag Kix to a bed and knock him out with a sedative. Once, Kix resisted so Jesse just knocked him out.

Kix is a better shot then Jesse. Jesse is better at hand-to-hand combat.

Kix grew out his hair in season 7 to hide the fact that he removed his chip (he didn’t have proof to what it was but he needed to study it so he removed it). Jesse never asked about the scar, determining that Kix would tell him when he was ready.

Hardcase, Dogma, and Tup headcanons!

Dogma and Tup were in the same batch. Hardcase unofficially adopts them as his little brothers (although Dogma acts older since he’s a bit more down to earth)

Hardcase has ADHD

Dogma has OCD

Tup started growing out his hair the moment he left Kamino and has only gotten trims off of it since. Dogma and Hardcase are the only people who are allowed to brush/touch it (After Hardcase dies and Dogma is... taken away, Fives is given permission)

Hardcase likes heavy rock music while Tup and Dogma are more classic rock.

Dogma is obsessed with the reg manuals (similar to Echo) and follows orders to the letter, something Hardcase and him disagree on a lot.

Tup is the peacemaker between the two and keeps the other from strangling the other.

When Hardcase dies, Dogma convinces himself it Hardcase’s fault for not following orders. Only later, after Krell shows his true colors, does Dogma realize it was Krell’s fault. Dogma shot Krell for Hardcase.

Dogma and Tup are allowed to talk to one another after Krell through communications and pending Dogma’s investigation. When Tup’s calls stop coming, Dogma panics a little thinking it’s his fault. Rex later calls him and tells him what actually happened.

Dogma takes the news as small mercy as he finds out the day before he’s sent to reconditioning. 

Fives and Echo headcanons!

Echo is Fives impulse control.

Echo has a habit of repeating orders even after he’s an ARC trooper. Of course, no one is allowed to call him out for it (except Fives)

Of the two, Fives is a better shot while Echo is better with hand-to-hand and battle tactics. Echo’s more practical while Fives is more emotional.

Fives has nightmares about Rishi. Echo’s the only one that can calm him down.

After Echo “dies” Fives has imaginary conversations in his head with Echo because he needs his impulse control.

When Echo comes back he has actual one-sided verbal conversations with Fives in his room on the Bad Batch’s ship.

Appo headcanons!

Did you guys know Appo was promoted around the same time Rex was? I like to think that was the moment Anakin realized Ahsoka wasn’t coming back to the position and he didn’t want to steal Rex from her soooo...

I’m guessing both Rex and Appo took the same “crash course in being a Commander” because of the short notice.

Appo and Rex didn’t get along very well on a personal level. But in battle, they were a force to be reckoned with. Which was why Anakin made sure they lead separate parts of the Battalion. 

Appo likes seafood.

And I’m going to stop there because DANG this is long.

[big1ron]

The Venator “Resolute” had jumped right into a separatist trap. Somehow a virus infecting the main computer has scrambled the hyperspace jump coordinates, and now the companies on board were outnumbered and without reinforcements, deep in separatist space. A few last, desperate SOSs to nobody, and the ship was quickly overwhelmed with fire. The Resolute was going down. But not before each of the escape pods could be jettisoned.

————- Chapter Six: Rescue. -————

- as always sorry for the wait and length. But here you go! May receive small edits later. -

There were a few moons in the system to check over, and they couldn’t waste much time. This was separatist controlled space and they had already shot down one Venator. Plo Koon didn’t want his fleet to be next. Still, he opted to be deployed with the rest of his Wolfpack. Leaving the fleet to Admiral Coburn. Now that he was closer to the system, he could feel Anakin and Ahsoka in the force. He took a gunship down with Wolffe and his personal squad to the command outlet the message had been sent from, as that was where they were most likely to find them.

Echo pulled up beside Jesse, now free of Kix as Kix got too fed up with the constant tripping and was now walking by himself. Jesse was still carrying Dogma, who was resting his head on Jesse’s, eyes closed.

“did he actually fall asleep?” Echo poked him in his injured side and he jolted awake with a hiss of pain.

“Well he’s not sleeping anymore” comments Jesse as echo flinches in sympathy, clearly not having intending for that poke to hurt badly.

“You karking bantha fur osik rag shabuir better kriffing have one hell of a karking good reason for doing that.” Dogma cursed angrily. Kix stifled a chuckle.

“No I just wanted to see if you were awake.”

“Jesse, if you would be so kind.” Jesse took a step closer to Echo and Dogma smacked him upside the head.

“Hey no, that’s not fair! You two teamed up on me you’re not meant to do that!” Echo complained, rubbing his head

“You did deserve that” says coric.

“You too?! You’re supposed to be the neutral party you shabuir!”

Tup continues his trek forward, now using his weapon as a walking stick, when he hears a clones voice. He can’t make out what they said but he stops and looks around.

He hears shouting and chatter but when he determines the direction they’re coming from and heads towards it, he doesn’t see anything.

Great. More hallucinations. He thinks. Maybe from the dehydration this time. He ignores it when he hears a more clear

“Hey! Trooper! Over here!”

He starts walking again, in the same direction, but he hears running footsteps behind him. He turns around and points his stick at whatever it is.

“Who is this!? Are you even real or am I just actually going crazy now?”

He’s face to face with a Wolfpack clone. But he doesn’t lower his weapon until he gets his response.

“Woah, vod calm down. This is the 104th, here to retrieve you. I’m sparker. Come with me, let’s get you back to the transports ok?” He had the signature warmth of the 104th’s relief devision but tup couldn’t quite believe it. Still, he cast his stick aside and followed Sparker back to his squad.

He gained a few strange looks from the rest of the squad as he still looked quite wild. A wave of self consciousness washed over him.

They located a couple other 501st members as well before returning to the gunship, marked with the signature “plo’s bros”. There he was looked over by a medic, and told to sit tight for the trip back to the venators in orbit.

Plo Koon’s gunship landed at the outpost that had relayed the message. Three troopers were waiting outside the command post at attention as the general stepped out. Wolffe was right on his tail

“At ease, troopers. You must be Rex, Fives and Hardcase correct? We received your transmission. It was quite... entertaining. Trooper Fives, do you mind sharing what discussion topic had you so passionate? You have permission to speak freely.”

Fives could feel Rex’s glare burning holes into the sides of his head. They had actually heard that? That was embarrassing. “It was uh... wether or not how many lightsaber blades an individual had related to how much of a bitch they were... sir. Among other things.”

Rex shook his head disappointed and embarrassed, hardcase was struggling to contain his laughter, and one of the Wolfpack members passed some credits to one of the pilots. Wolffe was definitely grinning Impishly at Rex. Definitely. Plo Koon only shook his head amusedly. “Well captain, do you happen to know where your two lightsaber wielding individuals are?”

“Oh yes sir. They should be back soon. They got bored and so made a small speeder bike track. They’ve been racing eachother.”

“Then we had better get the gunship out of the way. Wouldn’t want to skew the results.”

No doubt the Wolfpack was already placing bets. They were notorious for it.

As the men took their places along the main road, eagerly awaiting the results, Rex finally asked Wolffe the question that was burning in his mind. “Have you heard from the other squads yet? Did you find anyone else?”

“Sorry Rex, haven’t had any contact with them since they were deployed. But it’s still early. Just you wait and I’m sure at least a few will turn up. Don’t worry”

Waiting, Rex could do. Not worrying? Not so much.

Cheers erupted from the small group as the motors of the speeders came into earshot. Anakin jetted last the crowd and with a quick 90° turn he drifted to a stop. Ahsoka wasn’t far behind, but Rex had no doubt in his mind that anakin had lapped her. Ahsoka might be a daredevil but Anakin was a true speed demon. Always had been. The Two of them dismounted and met with Plo Koon as the Wolfpack paid their bets.

“Ahsoka, Skywalker. It’s good to see you two.” Plo Koon greats them.

“And it’s great to see you Master Plo” Ahsoka responds.

“Now, I assume you two have had enough of this planet?”

“Definitely” they both respond at once.

Jesse and echos squad overhear a series of howls in the distance. Multiple groups communicating to each other. Jesse signals for them to ‘stop’ and be ‘silent.’ Coric disobeys.

“No. No! Howl back!” Coric howls as loud as he can, to Jesse’s horror.

“What are you doing!? You’re going to lead those animals right to us!”

“Those aren’t animals! It’s the Wolfpack!” Coric howls again.

“It’s official. He’s lost it. Good job everyone, we actually drove him crazy.” Says echo.

Coric gets a response and howls once more, before the air is quite again. “I’m not crazy. But rescue is coming now”

“You can’t possibly know that. The howling thing is fake, we all know that.” Jesse isn’t having it.

But in just a few minutes two Wolfpack members, sinker and boost make contact with the group.

“Hey! 501st! Coric! Come over here! Man you all look terrible!”

“Yeah Thanks boost. Truth is we all feel mildly terrible too. Here to get us off planet I hope?” Coric walks over to the two, and the rest of the group follows. Jesse and echo are completely stunned.

“Yep! We were just about to leave. You were going to be left behind you know. You all got lucky. Which one of you was howling by the way?” Asks sinker, as they lead the group in the direction of the transports.

“That would be me.” Says coric.

“Ah, figured. Pretty impressive, but not as impressive as this.” Sinker takes a deep breath and howls so loud it makes the rest of the groups ears hurt. Kix winces. Boost laughs.

Rex darts around the hangar. This is the last batch of gunships and he’s still missing so many clones. He feels terrible. Especially about Kix and Echo. He can’t stand the thought of leaving any clones behind, but he knows they won’t all come back. He spots Tup getting out of one of the gunships and rushes to him

“Tup! You’re alive! I was worried when Hardcase and Fives told me that had lost you. Are you doing alright?”

“I’m gonna kill those karking nerf herders. They left me! I fell down a cliff and I don’t think they even noticed I was gone!”

“They looked for you. But fives thought you were dead. With good reason. How did you even survive that fall?”

“I didn’t jump, I slid. I rolled the entire way down.”

“Alright kid. I’m glad to have you back. You’ll have to give Hardcase and Fives a stern talking to about that.” Rex patted Tup on the shoulder before moving onto the next gunship.

His eyes fell on the group leaving this one. The group was larger than the rest, sitting at 5. Dogma, Jesse, Coric-

“Echo, Kix!”

Rex ran over and hugged the two tightly.

“Huh. Guess I am your favourite after all.”

Rex smacked Echo in the back of the head. “You’re not my favourite. I don’t have favourites. But I’m sorry for leaving you two. I had to lure a group of droids away, and I got lost.”

“That’s fine. We survived. Mostly.” Says Echo

“Thanks to Coric. Echo would have killed me if it weren’t for him”

Rex gives echo an unimpressed look, but he can’t stay mad as he’s still to relieved at seeing them both alive.

Tup storms over to where Hardcase and Fives are discussing something with Sinker and Boost.

“You two LEFT me! I was all alone! Cause you two wouldn’t too arguing long enough to notice I FELL OFF A CLIFF!”

“TUP!” Fives immediately scooped up his little brother in a bone crushing hug. “I’m so sorry! I won’t do it again! I’m not gonna leave you anywhere again and I’ll stop picking fights with Hardcase I promiseeee”

“No you won’t.”

“Ok maybe I won’t but still I love you and I’m sorry. Hardcase, you can come in too.” Fives knew he wanted too, but sometimes Hardcase needed an invitation. He joined the hug wrapping his arms around the both of them but not too tightly.

Rex watched as the troopers found their brothers, and each made note of who was there. He waited for more gunships, there was still a significant portion of the 501st missing. But the last wave had arrived, and Rex tried not to think too hard about the ones he would have to leave behind, as he saw the stars turn into smears and the planet disappear out the viewport.

Wolffe put his hand on Rex’s shoulder. How long had he been standing next to him?

“You know... we did the best we could. I’m sorry Rex.”

“I know... I know.”

“Why don’t you go join the others? Some of them have some pretty interesting stories to tell. I’m sure you do too.”

“I will, thanks.”

Wolffe knew the thanks was for more than the offer. He watched Rex go join the others, laughing and enjoying the company of those who were still there.

[bi-naesala]

The one in which Anakin arrives early

It must be a miracle, but for once in his life, Anakin Skywalker isn't late to school, which grants him the occasion to go looking for a certain pair of people...

(Part of the SW Modern AU)

For once in his life, Anakin isn’t late.

It’s weird for him to arrive at the same time as Obi-Wan, since that asshole of his brother never waits for him because getting late would ruin his pristine record or some other bullshit he’d make up on the spot, but here they are now. He doesn’t even have the excuse that he’s going to meet with his upperclassmen friends, since they’ve all graduated now and are beginning college; Anakin supposes some habits die hard, even when there’s not a reason to keep them anymore.

 Wow, he doesn’t think he’s ever seen so many people at the entrance. It must be because, since he’s always late, everybody’s entered already, unlike this time, when all the students are still outside, waiting for the bell to ring and the doors to open, allowing them inside.

 “Ugh, how long are we gonna wait yet?”

Anakin turns his head to his left, and he notices the person who just talked: it’s Ahsoka, his little sister! Well, she’s not exactly his sister, but she might as well be since they practically grew up together in the neighbourhood, though Anakin supposes he’d have to fight Plo - his adoptive brother - if he ever tried to say it out loud, since Plo prides himself in being her brother a lot.

She’s talking to one of classmates, Barris Oifee. They’re actually girlfriends, having gotten together only recently, but very few people know, and Anakin of course is one of these people - he helped Ahsoka build enough confidence to ask her out after all!

Since they’re trying to keep this recent development under wraps, at least for this initial stage, they’re not acting on that sweet sweet pda they could get otherwise, so Anakin figures he can go interrupt them.

 It’s not hard to sneak up behind Ahsoka, and Barriss is too taken by what she’s saying to notice him, so he can freely poke her in the ribs, making her squeak - and Barriss chuckle.

“Who-- Skyguy! You ass!”

“Language, Snips.”

They still keep calling each other with those dumb nicknames they have given each other as kids, but what can they say? It’s their thing.

Ahsoka huffs, slapping his arm. Ouch, it hurts.

 At least after that outburst, she seems to calm down.

“What are you doing?” she asks.

“Uh… going to school?” Anakin replies, perplexed. What is he supposed to say?

She rolls her eyes, but she’s smiling.

“I meant at this hour, you dummy. Did Obi-Wan drag you out of the bed?”

“Ah. Ah. Very funny,” Anakin says, face completely void of any emotion, then he begins to look around, “I was actually looking for a certain pair of beauties…”

“Well, good luck then,” Ahsoka laughs, noticing that Anakin’s eager to leave, “See ya after school?”

“Of course. Bye Ahsoka! Bye Barriss!”

“Bye Skyguy!”

“Y-Yeah, bye…”

  The more Anakin looks around, the more people he knows he spots, especially Fetts.

They’re known as a huge family, and Anakin swear they make up at least one third of the school. They could take over it easily if they actually wanted to - that would be fun to watch, thinking about it.

 Here there are Hardcase, excitedly gesturing at their older brothers Dogma and Tup. Anakin remembers being excited as well when he was on his first year of school; it will die down, though considering how Hardcase is, maybe it won’t be the case; Anakin really hopes it isn’t.

Wow, it’s been a while since Anakin has seen Tup. Man, he’s gotten taller! Also hey, is he growing out his hair? Nice! He was thinking about doing the same, actually, but he’s still isn’t convinced entirely, even though he’s had many people say that it would certainly be better than the hairstyle he’s sporting now - that’s not true, there’s nothing wrong with how his hair is now they’re just jealous.

Dogma looks like he wants to die. He has on his face the same expression Anakin has seen Obi-Wan wear when he was up to his usual shenanigans. His little brother’s instincts can’t help but to act out at that, and Anakin silently cheers on Hardcase. Yes, keep annoying your brother.

 Here there are Fives and Echo, the twins - at this point Anakin has renounced trying to understand their names, or any Fett name by the way. They’re hanging on their own, but they’re clearly planning something, maybe a new prank against the hated math professor Pong Krell? Anakin hopes so; nobody likes that guy.

On the other hand, however, he hopes it isn’t, if anything because he has helped them on a few pranks already and he’s always had a blast; he doesn’t want to be excluded from what looks like is going to be a good time. At least he hopes they’ll eventually come to him if they’re actually planning something.

Usually it’s Fives the one who comes up with the ideas and logistics. No matter how crazy the plan may sound, they always manage to pull it off. Echo is more of a damage control kind of guy, misdirecting the attention from him and his sibling and making up alibis for them. He may seem like the less innocent of the two, but it’s all a façade.

Anakin would love to stop and chat with them, if anything to tell them to count him in if they need to wreck some shit, but he’s looking for other people already and he doesn’t want to waste too much time finding them.

 Here there are Waxer and Boil, classmates of Fives and Echo and another pair of twins - so many twins in this family - talking about something with Cody. Cody’s the one Anakin’s more familiar with, since he hangs out with the same group as he does.

He’s paying attention to his cousins, but it’s all gone when he notices Obi-Wan by the door, and all his attention turns towards him as he stares at him with such a pitiful stare that makes Anakin want to vomit.

He can’t believe he and his brother aren’t together anymore, they were such a cute couple!

Some things just don’t work out it seems, though Anakin would love it if they got their shit together - which they don’t, no matter how much it may look like it. How weird is it that he of all people thinks that about them?

At least they’ve remained friends, even though this makes things awkward sometimes but oh well, it’s not Anakin’s place to tell that story, not to say that he’s also quite tired of it if he has to be honest. One day he’s gonna butt their heads together and who knows, maybe things will change for the better.

 Anakin shakes his head. He should get a move on.

  As he walks to the back of the school, he begins to step in the “bad kids” territory, the one where you find those who always get in trouble.

 The first one he meets here is Asaj Ventress, chilling on her own listening to that goth music she likes so much; Anakin could never stomach it.

Her presence in Anakin’s group is weird; if she wasn’t an old friend of Obi-Wan - though she’ll get offended if you call them friends - she wouldn’t even bother with them, and sometimes Anakin can’t help but to wish that was the case.

The worrying thing is that Ahsoka has begun looking up to her - something about being an “experienced gay” and something else about “girl power” - and Anakin’s starting to get worried, not wanting Ahsoka to be ruined by her. Not that Anakin himself is such a better influence, but whatever.

Knowing that Ventress would hate him even more if he interrupts her alone time, he doesn’t bother greeting her.

 As he goes on, he’s surprised to find Jesse, of all people, there, though he looks like he’s walking away towards the main gate again. Jesse is another Fett, and Anakin’s classmate - along with Jesse’s twin Kix.

“Oh hey! Jesse!”

“Anakin!” Jesse greets him. They do a handshake and kiss each other on the cheeks. “Nice seeing you up and about already. Looking for Rex?” Rex being another Fett, Cody’s twin.

“Yup,” Anakin replies, popping up the p. “And what are you doing here?”

Jesse shrugs.

“Had to ask Wolffe a thing for Kix. He would’ve come himself, but you know how he hates the smell of smoke.”

“Yeah, I know,” Anakin replies. Yes, given how badly it smells in here, poor Kix wouldn’t have survived.

“Well, gotta report back now. See ya in class!”

“Later Jesse!”

 Of the cluster of people Anakin meets next, he recognizes Wolffe. He too is a Fett, and Cody and Rex’s twin. Yes, their mother had a triplet, poor woman.

He’s smoking a cigarette with the rest of his class, the 5C. See, that class is infamous because it’s full of heathens: if something bad happens, you can be assured that at least someone from 5C is involved.

He also sees Hondo Onaka, the resident weed dealer, Cad Bane, a guy that has been charged for felony a couple of times already and… Maul Oppress.

 Now, Anakin doesn’t know the whole story since he came into the neighbourhood late, when his mother and Obi-Wan’s father begun to see each other, but basically the Oppress family used to live in the same neighbourhood as theirs, and Maul and Obi-Wan were even best friends. Then… something happened and Maul lost their legs, having to replace them with prosthetics.

They blame Obi-Wan for it, or at least he used to: as of late his hatred for him seems to have died down a bit. Maybe it’s because he’s living with his mother and brothers again instead than with his father - yes, his parents divorced - but Anakin doesn’t know. Given that his father is professor Palpatine, it could be. Lord knows how messed up that dude is - and they still haven’t thrown him out. Anakin shivers as he remembers how much he tried to get closer to him during his second year. Gross.

Anakin hopes Maul will get his act together one day, because if they try shit with Obi-Wan he’ll punch his teeth, and he’ll do so with his prosthetic arm, so it’ll hurt more.

 He’d like to say hi, since Wolffe’s in there, but given the other people who are present, he passes them without a hint of acknowledgement.

  When he finally arrives to the spot under the fire escape stairs, he finally sees the people he’s been looking for.

Padmé, his girlfriend, and Rex, his boyfriend. Anakin still doesn’t know how he managed to score the prettiest people in the entire school - ok that Rex has twins, but he’s way prettier than them anyway.

Padmé’s the first one to notice him, and a big smile appears on her face as she waves at him.

“Ani!”

Anakin runs at her, picking her up in his arms and twirling her around, only to then give her a quick kiss on the lips.

He immediately hears a cough and he turns towards an amused Rex, who’s pointing at himself.

“What? Nothing for me?”

Anakin chuckles and drags him into a kiss by the scruff of his shirt.

“Hi Rex.”

“Hi Anakin.”

 “What are you doing so early here?” Padmé asks, making Anakin groan.

“Not you too!”

“I mean, can you blame me?” she points out. Well, she’s not wrong…

“Anyway,” he deflects, raising his eyebrow suggestively, “What were you two doing?”

“Little Missy over there was telling me that she won’t be available after school,” Rex provides.

Anakin’s face falls immediately. “What? Why?”

“Me and Satine have a meeting to figure out our course of action during our next school council,” she replies, “I’m sorry guys.”

“It’s chill,” Rex shrugs, understanding that as class president she has duties towards the school.

Anakin… understands a little less. He knows it’s not nice to think that way, but if he could he’d have Padmé and Rex all for himself, without sharing them.

Still, in the end he can only sigh in defeat, even though the frown he was sporting soon becomes a smile as he exposes a plan that is immediately approved by the others.

“Well, since it’s still too early for the bell to ring, might as well make up for lost time in advance.”

 Maybe he should put some effort and get to school early every day. If he gets to spend some good times with his partners, it’s definitely worth it.

[theoceanoasis]

The 501st were stuck on Hoth. It had been two months and they still had another month. Everyone was unhappy and moral was really low.

Ahsoka looked around at all of her men's sad faces before turning to her master and captain.

Both of them were still dancing around there feeling's.

Ahsoka wished there was away to get them together.

That was until an idea came to her. One that would get Rex and Anakin together and boost moral.

Excited by her new plan. Ahsoka quickly made her way to see the boys in Torrent and tell them her plan.

"Everyone stop what your doing."

Fives and Echo quickly put Dogma down while Tup and Kix glared at them and Jessie gave them a thumbs up.

"What's going on here?"

Everyone looked at each other before Fives spoke first.

"Nothing important commander. Now what can we do for you?"

I have a plan to help moral.

Kix perked up at that.

"How are you going to fix moral?"

"I have a plan to get Rex and Anakin together."

Kix wilted at that along with everyone else.

"No offence Commander but that's impossible."

"Not anymore Tho because I have a plan.

"And what plan is that Commander?"

"Thank you for asking Echo?"

"No problem Commander. But what's the plan?

Ahsoka broke out into a huge grin.

"There going to share a tent together."

Jessie looked confused while Echo got excited.

"I don't get it. How would sharing a tent get them together."

Echo quickly cut him off.

"Because Jessie. It's cold."

"So."

"That means there going to have to cuddle for warmth and since the General is from a desert planet and can't handle the cold well. Rex is going to help him.

"Okay but how do we get them to share a tent."

Fives grinned.

"I know how."

Dogma worriedly looked at Fives.

"How?"

"By doing this."

Fives marched over to a bunch of tents and started pulling things out of it.

Kix was the first to shout out what was on everyone's mind.

"FIVES WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!?!?!."

"What does it look like?"

After Fives was done he grabbed a large stick and started walking to the fire.

"Dogma was the first to realize what he was doing.

"Stop him."

But it was to late.

Hardcase who had been on guard duty ran over.

"What's going on."

Fives held the flaming stick up.

"I'm getting the General and Captain together."

Then Fives threw the flaming stick at the tents.

Hardcase started to cheer while everyone else stared in shock.

Everyone turned to Fives who was grinning at the flames.

Before anyone could do anything Anakin and Rex rushed over and Rex was the first to speak.

"What happened?"

Everyone quickly stood to attention before Fives spoke first.

"A fire happened sir."

"How did a fire happen Fives."

"I don't know. I think it was the wind."

Hardcase cackled which caused Rex to turn to him.

"Anything you would like to say trooper?"

"No."

"Do you know what happened?"

"The wind."

Rex looked annoyed at that response.

"Echo what happened?"

"The wind sir."

"Commander what happened?"

"Rex it was the wind. We all saw it. Right guys."

Everyone agreed.

"Yep wind."

"Totally the wind."

"That darn wind."

Rex sighed.

"How many tents were burned ."

Dogma was the first to speak.

"Ten sir."

Rex pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Alright then."

"Who's tents were burned.

"Fives, mine, Jessie's, Your's, Matchstick, Copper, Ash, Chatterbox, Jex, Twitch.

"Okay then Fives you are going with Echo. Dogma your going with Tup, Jessie your going with Kix, Matchstick your going with Rio, Copper your going with system. Ash your going with Risk. Chatterbox your going with circuit. Jex your going with Drag and Twitch your going with Slip."

Everyone started moving around and doing things while Rex sighed and Fives walked up to Rex.

"Rex where are you going to sleep."

"I don't know."

Fives shrugged his shoulders trying to seem like he didn't care.

"Why don't you sleep with General Skywalker. Since your both officers."

Rex and Anakin looked at each other and both of them were blushing.

"I don't mind Rex. We can share a tent."

Rex looked at his still smoking tent.

"Okay, sir. I will take you up on your offer.

"Do you need help moving your stuff into my tent."

"It's fine I only have my backpack."

"Okay."

"Um, sir which tent is yours."

"Oh right. I will show you. Come on Rex."

Rex quickly grabbed his bag and followed his General.

"Here it is. You can make yourself comfortable while I go do something really fast."

"Okay, sir."

Anakin ran into the comms tent. His face was bright red but he quickly dialed Padme.

Ani what's wrong?

Anakin was bright red and he bursted out.

Rex'stentwasburneddownsowearesharingatentandIdon'tknowwhattidobecausehe'ssohandsomeandamazingandeverytimeI'mnearhimIfeelcomplete.ButIdon'tthinkhelikesmelikethatandifItellhimhewillprobablyhateme.PadmeIdon'tknowwhattodoooooooo.

"Ani can you please repeat that?"

"Is that Anakin?"

Anakin could hear Padme's wife Sabe in the background before she popped into the screen.

"Hey Anakin, how's it going."

"Not well apparently all though I couldn't understand him because he was talking so fast."

"Oh right, sorry."

"It's fine just repeat what you said."

"Okay, well I said that Rex's tent was burned down so we are sharing a tent."

"That's very nice of you Ani."

"I think the real question is how did the tent burn down."

Padme gave Sabe a disapproving look.

"Sabe."

"What I have questions and I need answers, so how did his tent burn down.

Oh well, Fives and some of the trooper's said it was the wind. They had a campfire going to stay warm and the wind must have blown the fire onto nearby tents.

"Mighty convinent his tent was burned."

"Anakin cocked his head. What do you mean?"

"Oh nothing. Why don't you continue."

Anakin thought back to the rest of what he was saying.

"The rest of that was just me ranting. It's not important."

"If you say so Ani."

Just then Anakin could hear troopers just outside of the tent.

"I have to go know."

"Alright Ani I will talk to you soon."

"Bye."

Anakin hung up.

The trooper's entered and saluted him while Anakin just waved them off and left.

He was going to be sharing a tent with Rex. The man he a huge crush on. He could do this.

Anakin walked to his tent. It was evening and pretty soon everyone would be in bed except for those on shift.

Anakin was about to open the tent but stopped himself.

He breathed in and then out before repeating to himself. That he could do it.

Anakin unzipped the tent and walked in.

The first thing he saw was Rex shirtless and his brain broke down.

Rex was hot and he was screwed.

I can't do this. But it was to late Rex had already seen him.

"Hello General Skywalker."

Anakin was bright red.

"You can call me Anakin. Were off duty right now."

"I will try."

"Thank you."

Anakin was going to put on his pajamas when he stopped and blushed.

His pajamas were a soft sweater dress Padme had gotten him. It was really warm and cozy. When ever he wore it he couldn't help but feel safe. It was the same color as his eyes.

Anakin had never worn it in front of anyone before because he was embarrassed. But that wasn't the only embarrassing part. He also liked to sleep with a collar on. It was a simple black color that had a bell on it. The color fit perfectly on his neck. He was always embarrassed about it and kept it a secret from almost everyone.

"Are you okay Gen-Anakin?"

"Yes Into fine."

"Are you sure."

Anakin bit his lip.

"If I tell you, you have to promise me you won't tell anyone or that you won't laugh at me."

Rex was confused but agreed.

"I promise."

Anakin looked really nervous.

"Okay but can you turn around."

"Sure."

Rex turned around and Anakin got ready.

He put his soft sweater dress on and instantly started to relax. He kept his leggings on and put on his collar.

Rex was confused when he heard what sounded like a bell.

"Sir?"

"You can turn around now Rex."

Rex turned around slowly and choked in surprise.

[dottiechan]

Spare bunk

Pairing: Captain Rex x reader

Word count: 2008

Warnings: TCW S7 spoilers below cut

Summary: After discovering a strange signal at the cyber station on Anaxes, Captain Rex calls an old ally for help.

Having just arrived back to Fort Anaxes from the Separatist cyber station, Rex feels drained. Drained might actually be a poor description of what he is going through – being overwhelmed by all his newfound feelings might be a better way to capture his inner sufferings. Sufferings he cannot share with anyone truly. No one who would understand, no one who would fully believe him.

Because he knows Echo is alive, damn all who think otherwise.

Tup, Dogma, Hardcase and Fives are all gone – no more than distant memories and smiling faces on holo images tucked away carefully in crates of 501st military gear and equipment. Cody is injured, moaning incoherently in his sleep while his face is scrunched up in pain despite all the kolto circulating in his bloodstream, with Jesse and Kix tending to him, watching over him.

There’s General Skywalker, of course, but one need not be Force sensitive to feel he’s reluctant, filled to the brim with disbelief and concerns to his own. And the Bad Batch may have proven themselves as allies and warriors, but none of them knew Echo. None of them would share his pain, feel his grief, and support his blind hope.

There is one another, his mind reminds Rex as he sits alone in his barracks, the white-blue shells of his armour lying discarded on the floor more carelessly than how he usually leaves them, knees hugged tightly to his chest. Another who’s survived the Citadel, another who was broken by the loss of Echo, so broken she walked straight out the Jedi Order, maybe even the Republic. Another who could potentially help, potentially understand. Also across the Galaxy, probably, but that is beside the point. Rex is aching to hear her voice, feel her compassion, feel like something, anything that isn’t just plain miserable. Anyone who says clones are engineered to not be afraid, to focus only on duty, can go straight to hell according to the Captain.

Rex moves slowly, not trusting his limbs as he unravels himself, plants his feet firmly on the ground as if he didn’t trust his own body. He pushes aside the pieces of his chestplate to fish out the utility belt underneath. There’s an encryption only he and her know, the one he constantly aches to use and yet never once dared to actually use to make a call. Now there is no hesitation in his fingers as he keys it into his holoprojector and waits for you to answer on the other end.

...

Sskoora growls, but you know him well enough to decipher the meaning behind the Trandoshan’s hisses – the one he emitted just now is the equivalent of a sigh, and you know you’ve won when the hunter brushes past you to enter the cockpit of your ship.

“Scorekeeper won’t accept droids as Jagannath points. A waste of time; a hunt not worthy of our time and our talents.”

But your old friend is already entering the coordinates of Fort Anaxes into the navicomputer and you can’t help but smile softly. He isn’t like most Trandoshans. He is a seasoned warrior, but he has honour, and the friendship you established over the last year after surviving the harsh sands of Tatooine together is one you will cherish until you die. Your attachment to Sskoora is yet another reminder why you kept failing as a Jedi. And another is waiting for you at the end of your destination.

“I owe you one, old friend.”

“You owe me a hunt,” he corrects you calmly, his red scaled face a mask of perfect tranquillity.

“Find the burliest rancor by the time we’ve rescued my friend, Sskoora.”

The Trandoshan wants to say he knows it’s about more than just Echo, more than just a friend lost and found again. He knows you want to be reunited with your mate, but he keeps his mouth shut. You’re still young in his eyes, and he will respect the rashness of youth just like the wisdom of old age.

“The burliest I will, little hunter.”

...

When a Trandoshan appears on the ramp of the ship that just landed in Fort Anaxes, all the perimeter guards are on alert, guns aimed and ready to fire. Until a Jedi appears behind, waving her arms to show their harmlessness. It takes General Skywalker to break the state of emergency, but the great hunter seems to be regarded with distrust even afterwards. Anakin is upset when he finds out why you’re here, but he cannot truly be mad. He stalks off in the night after showing you the direction in which Rex’s barracks are. You bring back too many painful memories – the Citadel, the way you got out of the Order to live your life, the same way Ahsoka did. You don’t blame him for not wanting to speak to you more. So you send Sskoora back to the ship and ask him to prepare for a fight, pacifying him enough to know his preparations for the hunt will quell any desire in him to cause trouble. And then you take a deep breath and go, trying not to reach out with the Force so eagerly to where you suspect Rex to be. The man you so innocently loved as a Jedi, and then agreed to let go for the sake of the Republic.

You’re not a Jedi anymore. And though you wish nothing more than to throw your arms around him like he used to allow you, what you truly wish is to make him happy, to console him, to trust him when no one else does. You tell your little heart beating so fast that the man asked for your help only to bring Echo back, not for any other reason, and the sour lie helps you restrain your emotions as you enter the dark building.

“I got your message. Rex?”

You can sense him – his anguish and thoughtfulness draws your focus immediately, but you cannot see him until he moves. He’s partly in his blacks, the circular emblem of the Republic visible on his chest. His kama and boots are on, however, and you’ve caught him in the act of fastening his belt around his hips.

“I wasn’t sure you’d come, if I’m honest.”

“Oh... I can wait outside, if you’d like.”

“With our shared history?” Rex snorts, shaking his head. “You’ve seen more while you were still a Jedi.”

“A fair point,” you admit, usurping a bed and perching on top of it cross-legged. “Why weren’t you sure I’d come?”

“That message encryption we cooked up was during... well, you know,” he sighs, sitting across from you as he fidgets with his bracers.

“Yeah. I know,” you breathe, voice quiet and strained.

It was during the prime of your love, before you both agreed to put an end to it for the greater good. Not long after, the mission to the Citadel came, and all your hopes of ever loving him again where shattered by the most painful decision you’ve ever had to make. Echo was a friend, a member of your weird little family, and you realised you were tired of losing them all one by one under your command, as you led them to countless battles knowing full well many of them would die. Echo’s death was the last straw, the awakening you needed to stop being a hypocrite by enslaving an army of clones and spouting wisdom about the wrongness of oppressing the weak.

You never lost hope and you never stopped helping wherever you could, wherever the Republic would still let you, but you mostly did it for the same reason you didn’t delete the encryption from your datapad all this time – Rex. It is well beyond your capabilities to say no to the man, to do anything that would harm him, anything that would go against his beliefs. Even if those beliefs in the GAR and the Senate had shaky underpinnings at best these days.

“I haven’t seen you since you left,” he says suddenly, eyes not rising to meet yours, but voice so full of suppressed yearning that it makes your head spin.

“I hope you understand why it had to happen this way, Rex...”

“You never told me. So no, I don’t really. But you’re not a Separatist, so I wouldn’t mind hearing you out.”

“I left because of you.”

“Me?” he asks, looking up with a face full of shock that makes the corners of your lips lift into a small smile that disappears quickly from your face. Rex’s eyes chase after it, wishing it lasted more than that split second.

“In a way, yes. I refused to be part of an Order that would willingly enslave you and your brothers, forcing you to fight in a war you have nothing to do with. And I don’t see a way winning would make your situation any better. You’re men, and yet you’re treated as property. So much for the Jedi values.”

“It’s the Senate, not the Jedi,” Rex argues back meekly, knowing your words to hold more truth than he’d like to admit.

“Well, now I’m not bound to either. Speaking of being bound, I have a spare bunk on the ship... Sskoora takes up two, but the top bunk is all free,” you joke, trying to lighten both your moods momentarily. It works for a little while as Rex snorts, shaking his head a little as he concentrates on slipping his gloves back on.

“Sharing sleeping quarters with a Trandoshan sounds fun, but I might just pass on that.”

“You could share mine. Captain’s quarters are quite spacious, you know. More comfortable, less... Trandoshan, I suppose.”

“Now that is a tempting offer. Think you could extend it to the end of the war?”

“Let’s just extend it until we find Echo now,” you sigh, both your moods souring considerably as you think of your friend. “You really think he’s out there?”

“It was his voice. I know it. It couldn’t have been anything else.”

You slowly stand and sit next to him, casually letting your elbows touch. When Rex doesn’t pull back, you let your shoulder lean against his, a small encouraging smile gracing your lips as you lean closer. “I believe you. We’ll find him tomorrow. I’ll help. Even if the Republic does not want me to. You just send me the coordinates, and I and Sskoora will be there on Skako Minor to back you up.”

Rex, struggling with his tears at the prospect of seeing Echo again, and moved by your devotion to him, stares at his fingers and nods. “Thank you. For believing in me.”

“I never stopped doing that, and I never will. Oh come here, you,” you sigh, drawing him in for a hug which he gratefully accepts. Despite all the heartache, the war, the constant terror the Galaxy lives in, you find peace in Rex’s arms, and he in yours. It’s both extraordinary and just so natural at the same time, your minds joined in a synchrony you’ve terribly missed. Even if he cannot feel it through the Force, there’s a bond that intertwines your fates so much that there is no escaping one another.

“There was a time I would have scolded you for even suggesting something like that, you know. About the spare bunk thing. But now all I’m saying – no, all I’m asking – is that you hold onto that question until we find Echo and win this war. And then I’ll say yes, if you still want me. Stars know I’m more than ready for that.”

You nod against his shoulder, letting your heart rejoice at the notion that the man you used to love, the man you still do, has grown so much in your absence. Maybe your separation was not for good, but only a temporary setback, a lesson for you to learn that there is no life without one another.

“I’ll be waiting patiently until then. Like I have been all this time.”

[norcumii]

some musings on TCW season 7

One of the things that makes Tumblr difficult is that I really, REALLY don’t want to harsh anyone’s squee. I don’t want to be that person who sails in, sneers disdainfully at what people are enjoying, and then ambling out, having sucked as much joy out of the room as possible.

My brother used to do that about ANYTHING I was watching, and I still resent it. I don’t want to do that to anyone.

Meanwhile, I’ve reached my saturation point with Season 7 of clone wars, and in my own tired, perpetually exhausted way, I want to scream. Thus, kvetching under the cut. In all seriousness, if you’re enjoying Season 7, then please, PLEASE skip this rant. I sincerely hope you continue to enjoy and Season 7 continues to entertain.

I haven’t watched it: I’m practicing that much self care, at least. There’s been lots of meta and gifsets running around, so I’ve gotten enough second hand exposure – along with useful meandering through various wikis and such – that I feel able to comment about it.

It is indeed very cinematic, and I guess if you dig the art style, then it is a very good example of said art style. But from a broadstrokes perspective, the writing?

What an absolute screaming dumpsterfire.

The thing that finally pushed me from “meh” to “nope, gotta rant about this” was a fascinating piece of meta here, about how Maul is the prism character – the lens through which the story is told. Now, that’s my phrasing and not the OP’s, and again, I haven’t actually seen this so I’m taking a lot of things at face value.

It’s a fascinating approach, and makes the angst and despair that much sharper – especially if you apply this post about parallels to RotS, and let’s not forget the very impressive mocap for the lightsaber fight.

My question, however, is why the FUCK would you do that in the first place? (Not the mocap. That’s genuinely impressive.)

First off: you’re putting the audience in the same boat with the villain. Your lens character is the one who frames the story, who puts into perspective how one interprets events. In this case, that implies that what Ahsoka, Rex, and the rest of the clones are doing is in the antagonist's position, which might be part of the whole “nothing is true and nothing is false but everything is fucked” atmosphere that they seem to be trying to foster (see: Ahsoka’s arguments with Obi-Wan. GFFA has some good breakdowns as far as I can tell). So Maul is supposed to be the lynchpin of this story, either as the protagonist or the Sancho Panza to the protagonist.

That’s a damn weird take on this particular story. Is it about Mandalore? Is it about Ahsoka’s journey? Is it about Maul’s journey? Or are we trying for something meta about how it’s how Maul and Ahsoka’s journeys parallel each other’s, and how those contrast with Anakin’s?

Have you noticed yet who’s missing from this equation?

For a show that’s called “The Clone Wars,” there’s been astonishingly little clones involved in the broader plot. So let’s take a step back from this one issue and look at the season as a whole.

There’s been ten episodes so far this season, out of twelve total. Six of them have centered around Ahsoka. The other four have been about Rex and the Bad Batch. Now, let’s set aside the whole very valid debate about having so many female centric characters and stories is grand, and we need lots more. That’s a damn good point, and Star Wars as a whole needs better diversity on all fronts. Not the particular lens I’m looking through at the moment.

There’s been four of ten episodes about clones. In the final season of The Clone Wars. Yes, they show up in other episodes, but that’s not the focus.

Why would you do that?? We got five seasons already where the clones are more background noise with the occasional highlight (The Deserter, the Umbara Arc), and the entire freakin’ war has been named after them. Ok, so maybe that’s to some degree social commentary about how the Republic was viewing them – background noise against which the weird mythical Jedi shit really stood out – and the sixth season was more a hodgepodge of “we have THESE episodes nearly in the can, rush to finish them because this is important shit to get out the door to bridge from this series to the movies.”

They didn’t expect to have the chance to make this season. They could’ve done pretty much anything, since they didn’t even default to just using the episodes that WERE 70% done (if not more) and had been released into the wild as animatics.

So why pick these stories to tell? And moreover, why this way? Why not make the last hurrah that the crew could not have expected be something coherent and about the actual people that the damned show is named for?

Let’s play with hypotheticals, since kvetching without reasonable alternatives is considered uncouth these days. Let’s say one wants the Bad Batch “rescuing Echo” arc (and that it’s not agony porn. To be fair, I’m not sure if it IS agony porn, thus the presumption that it’s an arc to be had). Since we already spent SIX ENTIRE SEASONS beating home the point that clones are individuals and to be respected as such, rather than introducing new clones who are “aberrations” just to drive home hey, they’re clone versions of TF2 characters clone versions of terrible action movie heroes individuals, how about this?

Cody calls in the Bad Batch, a squad that gets sent into the worst situations and honestly, isn’t ever really expected to come out alive. They’re bad clones, you see. Their leader is probably a man named Dogma – he’s a Jedi killer, but damn loyal to the Republic. His second in command – not that either of them are happy about that – is Slick, a Brother Killer and all around asshole. The other two members of the squad are two deserters: Cut Lawquane, who was found and brought back to the army, and Boil, who was caught trying to leave after Umbara. They have a civilian support member, Suu Lawquane (a damn good sniper, and she now has armor as well as actual clothes).

Bring so many of Rex’s issues home to roost. Make that poor man question all his life choices. He’s still reeling from the whole chip arc and Fives’ death. Let him see what the Grand Army does with its too loyal soldiers, how Dogma did the right thing against orders and is now leading others into the meat grinder on the daily. Let him see what the Grand Army does to traitors, like Slick whose hands are red with the blood of his brothers – just like Rex’s, after Umbara. Cut, who left after too much death, and built a life. Boil, who lost so much, who had enough and just wanted to go find the one remnant of good things that he’d ever encountered in his short life.

They’ve got slave explosive implants somewhere – three because they’re flight risks, Dogma because – well, no one can say why, but it’s so. Let Slick shove Anakin’s nose into the fact that the Jedi are still leading a slave army, have Anakin have to confront that it’s not hyperbole anymore, not when the clones have chips in their heads and now these have slave implants they literally don’t know where.

Hell, have Anakin blow up at Cody over this, and perhaps Cody has to pull rank – establish on screen that he’s running so much of this damn war. He doesn’t like what’s been done with the Bad Batch either, but he can only put out so many fires, and keeping this from raging out of control is the best he can manage.

Let the audience see consequences. Let there be fallout as they go searching for Echo, and the Bad Batch’s various past issues bounce against the experiences of Rex and whoever’s along with him.

(For that matter, if you still want to tackle Mandalore and all that, have one of the soldiers going along with be Vaughn – get to know the man for a little bit. See how Random!Clone reacts to all this, not just Jesse and Kix. Someone without the history with any of these men. While we’re at it, Dogma had Kix in the firing line against Jesse. GIVE ME THE REACTIONS, DAMMIT! AND! And does Rex ever have to say to Dogma “you did the right thing, that Jedi needed to die”? How much does that blow EITHER of their minds?)

Show us travel time. Show us what it’s like for a bunch of soldiers to be stuck in a tin can flying through space along with an entire penal squad of brothers who spit in the face of what the GAR stands for – for reasons both good and bad. Show us what the years have done to Dogma and Slick, how Cut and Suu have adjusted from a life of growing things to having to murder things. How Boil just is done, and wants to head to Ryloth (hey, maybe Numa is currently living with her new sibs/cousins/friends/arch-rivals Shaeeah and Jek).

Then add poor Echo into that mix. Echo, who doesn’t quite know what he’s doing anymore, who was in the Citadel, then stuck in a nightmare of battle sims, and now in this new nightmare of a war that dragged on even longer – and no Fives.

Let us grieve along with him. Fives got a four episode arc (gee, I wonder why this season wanted to start with a four episode arc dealing with the last Domino >_>) where he fell, let us watch Echo’s rise and how he deals with all this.

Let him decide he wants to leave some of the more painful memories behind, how he can’t stay with Rex because it hurts too much, but at least now he’s got some fellow exiles to watch over.

Let the last we see of him be Echo using his new abilities to dismantle both the insidious little buzzing chip inside his and his team’s heads, along with the explosives they also have to bear. Fives died because of the chip, let Echo help others to live in spite of it.

Then slide the camera focus from Rex to Vaughn. Perhaps he gets assigned to go find the former Commander Tano (did he know her at all? Or had he just heard about her?). We could follow him across Coruscant, meeting various civilians who had Strange Encounters with that nice young Togruta. Maybe we get a fun montage: Vaughn questioning people, their various reactions, possibly as a nice voiceover to What Really Happened – that also gives a grand opportunity to get people’s impressions of the Jedi and their clone lackeys.

Then off to Mandalore, still from Vaughn’s perspective. Let us watch this poor man’s rise, as he has to be the metaphorical third wheel to The Team’s reunion. He’s the poor uncomfortable bastard in the room, but he’s a good man, loyal and skilled.

(Also, why could we not get the clones receiving patches or decals of Ahsoka’s markings, and play with that? Emphasize the clones’ individuality – some have it on their shoulder bells, some did the helmets, some have the design down the arm, along the leg – just...diversify, dammit!)

Have Vaughn keep up with Ashoka all the way through to the fight with Maul. Have him be hit, have him be disarmed for the fight – all he can do is witness it (for that matter, you can echo the Duel of the Fates, with Vaughn being in Qui-Gon’s position of dying on the floor).

Then let us see Order 66 from the clones’ perspectives. Show us the sieges, show us Bly and his squad following Aayla into the woods; show us Wolffe and the pack separating from Plo; show us Fox patrolling the Senate.

We’ve seen the Jedi die already. Show us the other side, if you insist on breaking our hearts, and show us how the clones go from good men to good soldiers.

Let me see Cody, let me see the aftermath on Utapau. Let me see Rex breaking, or refusing to break, or whatever it is that happens.

Let this season be about clones.

[sirloozelite]

Hi! I have a chapter/prompt idea for you. Remember the line in the Ahsoka book that goes... “what do you even know about family?” Kaeden said. “You never had one. And you probably never had friends, either. Just clones who had to do everything you said, because you were their superior officer.” Would love to see Ahsoka and Kaeden talk about it in a prompt/chapter. It really struck a nerve in me. The Jedi and clones were Ahsoka’s family and majority of them died... :(

Hey anon, hope you didn’t mind the wait for the reply. Wanted to get it all good and everything. I took your idea and ran with it a bit. It might not be 100% what you wanted, but I hope you liked what I did do. Thanks for the prompt. Feel free to send more my way. Same goes for the rest of you. XD

1: Kaeden and Ahsoka speak about family

"Hey, I need to talk to you. It's important."

Ahsoka Tano was no expert at romance. There was a reason many of her closest friends, her girlfriend included, often referred to her as the 'Queen of being Dense'. Nine times out of ten she missed the subtle social cues that usually indicated that something was wrong, or that something shouldn't be investigated or talked about.

Of course though, Ahsoka just had to be the person who would break all of those rules! She blamed her time as an undercover spy.

That said, even she knew when something was bothering someone, and by the way Kaeden has suddenly sunk onto the couch next to her, her posture slouched in despair and her tone grim, it was something bad.

And as Kaeden Larte's girlfriend, it was Ahsoka's job to find out what the problem was!

"What's up?" Ahsoka replied as she bookmarked the page of the 'Book of Hondo', setting it aside for later, before moving closer to Kaeden, one arm wrapping round the human woman.

Kaeden didn't answer immediately, though she did raise her head from where she had been staring at the floor blankly. Her eyes, usually so bright with joy and focus, and sometimes mischievousness, instead seemed to have a dark shadow to them, as if something was haunting the gateway to her soul.

"Kaeden? Talk to me."

"I need to apologise to you."

That surprised Ahsoka! What did Kaeden possibly have to apologise for? If anything Ahsoka was the one that should be apologizing on a daily basis for all the crazy stunts she pulled.

Still, whatever Kaeden felt like she had to apologize for was clearly eating her up inside, so Ahsoka didn't hesitate to respond.

"I forgive you."

"No! I… you don't even know what I'm apologizing for!

"I know… but I already forgive you."

"Please Ahsoka… just… just let me speak."

Ahsoka didn't miss the way Kaeden had winced as Ahsoka had 'forgiven' her without blinking an eye. The thought that Kaeden thought that Ahsoka wouldn't forgive her hurt the Togruta. Did Kaeden not know how special she was to Ahsoka?

"Ok Kaeden… ok. What do you need to apologize for?"

Kaeden lowered her head for a few seconds as she contemplated how to phrase whatever was on her mind. Ahsoka didn't want to rush her, but every moment that passed was hell for the Togruta. She hated seeing anyone suffer, double so for Kaeden.

"About Raada. About what I said to you when you first revealed your Force powers. I said you didn't know what it was like to have a family. That all you had were Clones to boss around because you were their commanding officer. I was wrong to say that, and I was wrong to say you didn't know what it meant to have a family and I'm so sorry for what I said to you."

Ahsoka's eyes widened. She had honestly forgotten that Kaeden had ever said such a thing! Had she really said something that could have been taken in such a cruel way?

Memories came back to Ahsoka, one of an angry Kaeden surrounded by her friends and sister on Raada, accusing her of not helping them fight the Empire more, of not doing enough!

But even back then, Ahsoka had remembered not being angry at the words. She had understood, and in some ways she agreed. What did Ahsoka know about a true family? She had been taken from hers at three years of age after all.

"What's brought this on Kaeden?" Ahsoka asked quietly, pulling the human woman closer to her, resting her head atop Kaeden's, hoping it offered some comfort. From the way Kaeden leaned in closer as well, Ahsoka could tell it was having some sort of positive effect.

"I was speaking to Rex. I told him what I said to you and he… well he didn't take it too well to say the least."

Ahsoka didn't even realize she had frozen up until she felt Kaeden's palm gently wrap around her own, squeezing intently as a reminder that she was still there. Ahsoka couldn't help the build up of anger at herself that occurred suddenly. She was supposed to be comforting Kaeden… not the other way around!

"What did Rex say?" Ahsoka inquired, worried that her girlfriend had just inadvertently made an enemy out of her oldest and most trusted friend.

"He called me unreasonable and said I was damned lucky to have you. He said if anyone ever hurt his little sister he would kill them, then clone them just so he could kill them again. I don't think he was even kidding!"

Once more Ahsoka's eyes widened at Kaeden's recount of Rex's words. In all honesty, she wasn't that surprised about ex's reaction. The old Clone Captain was fiercely territorial and defensive when it came to people he saw as his brothers and family, and in Ahsoka's case, his little sister.

There was a time Ahsoka could recall that all of the Clones in the 501st saw her that way. Rex was always willing to teach her, to help her improve herself.

Fives was always willing to joke around with her. He had taught her how not to succumb to the pressures of command.

Echo had taught her how to be patient, how to follow procedure when it mattered most. Losing him at the Citadel had been a major blow for them all.

Kix and Coric had taught her how to save people in more ways than one. It didn't matter that they weren't always out fighting, as they fought the most dangerous and formidable foe in existence on a daily basis and won. Combating death was one hell of a task after all.

It wasn't just the boys in the 501st that had taught her either. Both Cody and Wolffe had given her new perspective on things. Through their teachings and encouragement, she had learned how to adapt on the fly, how to improvise, and most importantly, how to get the job done.

And then there were the rest. Hardcase had taught her to be bold. Waxer and Boil had taught her the importance of companionship. Dogma had taught her to have faith and not lose it.

And Jesse had taught her how to be cautious. It was not the lesson she wished she had learnt from him, but it was the most important one of her life, one she had carried with her as Fulcrum. When Order 66 had been issued, and Jesse turned on her and Rex, Ahsoka had no choice but to act.

There were nights where she still saw the Arc Trooper in her dreams, impaled on a burning green blade, mere seconds away from murdering Rex in cold blood. She did not regret her actions, but she wished how they had been different.

If only things had been different.

"He was right of course. The Clones, despite being your subordinates, were your family. Rex told me about them all. About Fives and Echo, Jesse and Hardcase. Hell he even introduced me to Kix. And then there's the Jedi too!"

Ahsoka listened as Kaeden continued on, recalling more and more of her discussion with Rex, which sounded like had gotten more civil after the old Clone's initial hostility.

"And then Rex told me about the Jedi he knew, about the one's he knew had a strong bond with you. I'm sorry about Master Plo Koon, Ahsoka. I wish I could have met him. He sounded wonderful."

"He really was." Ahsoka couldn't help but reply, her fond memories of the Kel Dor coming to her mind. How she wished he was still here.

"He also told me about Anakin. And Senator Amidala too."

Ahsoka tried not to stiffen at the mention of her former Jedi Master. Even now he was a sore spot, for both her and Rex. How Obi-Wan was able to forgive and forget was unknown to her. She really wished she had his patience and understanding sometimes.

But then she hadn't been there at the end, and Obi-Wan had. Perhaps he knew something she didn't.

"I know you hate him Ahsoka, and no one blames you for it, but from what Rex told me he was like your father figure in many ways. I can't imagine what it was like to have to kill him."

It had been hard at the time…. but like with Jesse it had been necessary. Ahsoka had had to make a difficult decision with the information she had… just as Anakin had taught her too as a Padawan.

And Padmé? Padmé had taught her to trust in her actions, and to know right from wrong.

Ahsoka really hoped that the Senator would be proud of her if she was still alive.

"So I'm sorry. I was wrong to say you didn't know what it was like to have a family, because you did have one. It was just very different from mine." Kaeden finished, squeezing Ahsoka's hand again whilst waiting for the Togruta's response.

Wasting no time and already knowing how she was going to respond, Ahsoka brought her free hand up to Kaeden's cheek, gently pulling the woman's face towards her before placing a gentle kiss to her lips.

Pulling back, Ahsoka rested her forehead on Kaeden's and spoke.

"As I said, you are already forgiven, forever and always. My family may have been different from yours, but back then you had every right to say what you did. I may have lost that family, but now I have a new one in you."

The way Kaeden's face lit up with a small smile was all the response Ahsoka needed. If Kaeden was happy, so was she.

"I…. ok… thanks Ahsoka. I feel like I understand you better now thanks to Rex. I wish I could have met all of your old family."

"Me too Kaeden. Me too." Ahsoka replied, banishing any thoughts of the fate of her old family from her mind. It would not do her well to dwell on the past. Right now all she wanted to focus on was the present.

And that present was Kaeden Larte.

[triscribe]

A Lesser Battle of the Clone Wars

Hey, @wolveria! It’s time for clones in the snow~!

Being silent when dashing across deep snow, which had a tendency to squeak as it compacted under one’s feet, was next to impossible. So, Echo chose to skip stealth in favor of speed, hoping to reach his destination before being spotted by the enemy-

“There! FIRE!” Cursing, the ARC trooper ducked lower and started to weave, but knew it was only a matter of time before he was hit by one of the incoming projectiles. Sure enough, only a few steps away from the shelter Fives was calling to him from, Echo took a hit straight to the side of his bare head.

“Ack!” He cried out, the snowball knocking him clear over and into a large pile of the same frozen substance. “Pbbt-pff-plah!”

“Hah! Victory for the Wolfpack!” Across the churned up clearing, Comet whooped and picked up another projectile, Boost and Sinker right behind him.

“CHARGE!” The three 104th men were interrupted in their attack by an ambush from Kix, Jesse, and Hardcase, crying out as they were pelted by numerous snowballs and pushed back from their fortifications towards the treeline. Meanwhile, Fives was laughing as he dug his closest brother out from the snowdrift he’d fallen into.

“You’re looking a little pale there, Echo,” he grinned, dodging a blind punch from the other ARC. Coated from head to waste in a thick layer of snow, Echo struggled to clear enough away for him to regain his senses.

Accompanying their respective generals on a secret mission, currently on hold as they waited for the opportune time to infiltrate the town where their objective was, a handful of troopers had been given leave to explore their winter surroundings and, as Skywalker put it, ‘unwind’ a little.

Unwinding quickly turned into an all-out mock battle when Commander Cody tossed the first snowball at Captain Rex’s head.

With their armor left behind, a necessity of the infiltration mission, each man was dressed in thermal garments underneath thick pants and fur-lined jackets, along with heavy-duty boots and large goggles, their usual symbols and company markings painted on in miniature before even reaching the planet. Heavy weaponry had also been out, replaced by small blasters kept tucked within boots or hidden holsters attached to their pants. None of them were terribly comfortable with that arrangement, but standing out in the city they were planning to sneak into was definitely the worse option, considering it was under Separatist control.

As soon as Echo was upright, he and Fives hurried to join their brothers against the trio of Wolfpack members. Only partway across the clearing, though, they had to change course to avoid incoming snowballs thrown by Waxer and Boil, who’d set themselves up in a fort hidden by trees.

Thanks to the division in numbers, when the men engaged in their battle, it was set up as the 501st versus the 212th and 104th. Unfortunately, that included one honorary member of Ghost Company, whom General Kenobi had given special permission to join them for the mission.

While the pair of ARC troopers tried to avoid being hit by the projectiles of the two scouts, they blundered right into a trap set up by that honorary member. They shouted as the snow gave way beneath their feet, dropping Fives and Echo down into a small, hastily dug pit.

“Why that little-!” Annoyed as he was, Fives couldn’t help but laugh at Numa’s ingenuity, especially when the twi’lek girl poked her head over the top of the hole to giggle down at them.

Sadly for her, Tup and Dogma were close by, and while the two didn’t move fast enough to hit the kid with any snowballs, they were able to help pull the ARC troopers out of their predicament.

“Aren’t you guys supposed to have been trained to avoid falling into situations like that?” Tup arched an eyebrow at them, prompting Fives to dump a handful of snow down the back of the younger clone’s jacket.

“Hey, focus on the enemy, remember?” Dogma ducked away before he could be given the same treatment. “Come on, the captain needs reinforcements!”

Sure enough, Rex was facing off against Cody and Wolffe by himself, and while holding his own the man wasn’t making any headway against the pair. His men helped correct that, coming up behind the two commanders with their snowballs at the ready. That maneuver just attracted the attention of the Wolfpack, who fled their fight with the other three Torrent Company members to help Wolffe, leaving Jesse and Kix to face off against the 212th scouts while Hardcase fruitlessly chased Numa through the trees.

A little while later, though, as the men started slowing down, they picked up the sounds of distant shouting. Concerned that the noise was coming from the same direction as their base camp, the troopers quit their battle to hurry back, Numa riding on Waxer’s back. As they got closer, though, it turned out that any fears were unwarranted.

The Jedi were having their own snowball fight.

General Skywalker and Commander Tano were working together to Force-hurl entire piles of snow at Generals Kenobi and Plo, which the elder Jedi dodged while throwing back smaller projectiles.

After watching for a few minutes in awe, little Numa moved to tug on Rex’s kama, looking up at him with a challenging expression. The captain chuckled before glancing over at his friend.

“I think your recruit it requesting a temporary truce, Cody.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me. Men, get your ammo ready...”

Concentrating on their own battle as they were, the four Jedi only got a split second warning through the Force before they found themselves on the receiving end of a barrage of snowballs. Skywalker spluttered as he went down, Tano laughing even while dodging. Kenobi pulled together an instant pile of snow to duck behind, while Plo Koon simply leaned forward, letting himself be hit but not falling over from the strength of the landing projectiles. As soon as a pause came, however, he promptly Force-pushed at the trees the troopers were standing beneath, burying all of them in the falling snow.

“If you’re still alive over there, Anakin,” Obi-wan called to his former padawan, who looked highly disgruntled as he stood. “I think the time has come for us to work together.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” the younger man called back, striding towards the spot where his men were attempting to dig themselves out. “Snips!”

Cackling, Ahsoka starting to form a wealth of snowballs, setting them to hovering after her master so that he had a steady supply of ammunition. Echo, the first of the 501st men to free himself, took one look at the approaching Jedi and paled.

“Uh... I surrender?” The words did little good, as a moment later he was hit square in the face with a snowball.

From there, it all dissolved into chaos.

[outshinethestars]

The Crazy Life of Rex Fett, 14yo Single Dad to Twelve Boys, Two Strays, and His Next Door Neighbor

It may not look like it but this is a fic idea originally inspired by the the star wars domesticverse.

Rex, Fox, Cody, Wolffe,  Waxer, Boil, Kix, Jesse, Hardcase, Fives, Echo, Tup and Dogma are brothers living on a mid-rim planet.  Their mom is out of the picture and their dad is never there.  He (sort of) provides them with food and clothes and comes home maybe once a month.  (They’re all happier when he’s not home honestly, he’s borderline abusive in his demand for perfection, military-like respect and obedience) I have no idea if he is Jango or how/why he managed to have thirteen kids.

Rex (14) is the oldest.  He is very much in charge and is dad to his little brothers.

Fox and Cody (13) twins (not identical).  Cody is kind of perfect.  Good grades in school (unlike Rex, whose grades and attendance are a mess from trying to parent) rational, with awesome leadership skills.  He and Rex are super close. He’s in charge if Rex isn’t around. Fox is their dad’s favorite.  Really wants to be in charge, really, really shouldn’t.

Wolffe (12) is super protective of his little brothers (older ones too, really).  He’s the only one who challenges Rex’s authority in any serious way, and the only one immune to his “That’s an Order” face/tone.

Waxer and Boil (11) identical twins.  They somehow acquired a three-year-old twi’lek girl named Numa who is now their child

Kix, Jesse, and Hardcase (10) Kix borderline genius and takes care of all his brothers.  He’s the first to notice when Rex has been working himself into the ground trying to keep the rest of them fed, clothed and mostly sane.  (Because when I said their dad sort of provides that stuff the emphasis is on the sort of.  Rex has to supplement their income whatever (legal) way he can). Jesse is the sane one of the triplets.  He does fairly well in school and is generally the leader among the three of them. Hardcase is Hardcase.

Fives (8) Is the only other one besides Wolffe with rebellious tendencies. (both blatantly disobedient and just doing all kinds of ridiculous stuff that will give Rex a thousand headaches.) But all it takes is one look from Rex and he falls into line.  He’s super sweet, and will fight anyone.  Especially if his little brothers are involved, but also just because. He’s really, really scary smart, but you would have to know him a long time before you realized, because he’s also a hopeless idiot and because public school and Fives do not mix well.  Also, he’s shorter than Echo.

Echo (7) is an actual genius.  He’s in the same grade as Fives, either because he skipped or Fives was held back.  Because Echo is calm and really mature for his age and Fives is decidedly not, also the height difference, literally everyone thinks Echo is older.  Even their brothers half the time.

Tup and Dogma (6) identical twins.  I’m thinking they get sick a lot?  have some sort of genetic issues? I don’t know, I’m just looking for more angst and more difficulties for Rex.  Anyway, they’re the tiny babies of the family (aside from Numa).  

Ahsoka (14?) The way Rex sees it, he adopted a feral street kid, because it was winter and she was sleeping on a park bench and he was in possession of a (two bedroom, way overcrowded) house.  What else are you going to do in a situation like that? The way Ahsoka sees it, she adopted thirteen boys and how did this happen?  She knows better than to get attached like this!

Anakin (18-20 range)  Shmi freed herself and her son before he could remember.  They’ve been living peacefully on Tatooine and now he’s just moved in next door to the Fetts to attend college on this mid-rim planet.  He has absolutely no idea how to adult so Rex adopts him.  Also, I don’t think Anakin is force sensitive in this.

Possible others?

Obi-Wan, either could be Anakin’s professor who ends up actually looking after them all, or teenage Obi-Wan could end up there somehow after having not been chosen to be a padawan, in which case Rex would adopt him, possibly through Ahsoka who is still force sensitive.

Han Solo existed during the clone wars era, I think.  He could join them too.

If anyone wants to, please use this verse.  I know I won’t do anything more than maybe make a few short scenes.

[big1ron]

The Venator “Resolute” had jumped right into a separatist trap. Somehow a virus infecting the main computer has scrambled the hyperspace jump coordinates, and now the companies on board were outnumbered and without reinforcements, deep in separatist space. A few last, desperate SOSs to nobody, and the ship was quickly overwhelmed with fire. The Resolute was going down. But not before each of the escape pods could be jettisoned.

————- Chapter Two: Bad Things -—————

Dogma shot the droid and tackled Jesse just a second to late, and took the bolt himself

The pain in his left side (and a little across his back) was searing. He was still breathing though, it missed anything vital. Just grazed him. He was rolled off the arc trooper to the side as the blasterfire didn’t pause for a second even though his own shot had destroyed its target. The fire didn’t last for more than a minute though, as the arc trooper disarmed and destroyed two of the droids with ease, and the medic took the last one.

That was pathetic, he couldn’t even get back up afterwards. He had taken worse than this, so why did it hurt so badly? He could barely hear what Jesse was saying, almost didn’t notice coric appear beside him.

“You di’kut! That hurt you far worse than it would have hurt me, what were you thinking!”

Right. Arc trooper. Thicker chest plate means the bolt wouldn’t have hurt him that badly

“S-sorry sir.”

Coric removed Dogmas helmet and jabbed a painkillers hypo into his neck “that was a sniper bolt, high powered. But it missed anything vital, you’ll live” Quickly moves to remove the chest plate before being stopped by Jesse

“Leave it coric”

“Jesse I dont care how much you hate him if-“

“I said leave it! This isn’t about my feelings for him. Maybe I hate him a little but he’s still my brother and I don’t want him to suffer. But we just encountered commando droids and that means there could be more around. It’s not vital you treat that but If you remove his chest plate to treat that and he gets shot again, you would be dealing with something much worse. So let’s move!”

“I- sir yes sir.”

“Kix you doing okay there buddy?” Echo turns back from the head of the group to look at kix, who is leaning much more heavily on rex now. Rex had chosen the right tunnel, they were now on the surface walking through the forest.

“I hate you... soo much echo. Plea’slow down...” they couldn’t have been walking more than a few hours but Kix looked absolutely exhausted. And he had been tripped by echo a few times now.

“I do too Kix, I do too. Echo, he’s right we should stop here for a little while, you two need some rest. DON’T annoy him in his sleep please.“

Echo takes Kix from Rex and is glared at before he can drop him. “Oh come on. Neither of you hate me, and Rex I know I’m your favourite.”

“My favourite’s Fives”

Echo gasps, offended “you take that back”

“You’re all rex’ favourite ok? Can I plea’sleep now?” Echo sighs in apparent defeat. The two settle down against a tree and once rex is sure they’re both asleep he begins watch.

Rex paces the parameter and looks back at the two vode, sleeping together. He smiles softly. They really are cute when they aren’t trying to annoy each other, or him. On the farthest corner of his loop though he hears something drop down from the trees between him and the other two. Commando droids.

They were completely unseen in the night, with their eyes not glowing like they should. They did now though, and he was surrounded as three appeared behind him. Rex immediately turn to the one centred behind him and blasts it to smithereens, diving over it and rolling to escape the others blasts. He runs in the opposite direction to echo and Kix to lure the droids away.

All four droids fall for it, they must not have noticed the two. The captain stops dead in his tracks and elbows the nearest droid in the face and shoots it with his free hand. He then throws that droid into another, knocking it over and deactivating both. He shoots a third down and has a mini heart attack when he can’t find the fourth. Is almost relieved when it springs on him from a nearby bush. He wrestles with it on the ground until he can grab his dropped blaster, and shoot it.

Rex gets up and dusts himself off. Now he just needs to get back and... which direction did he come from...?

“ECHO! KIX? WHERE ARE YOU TWO” he called but either they were to far to hear him or were to asleep to hear him.

“- But thats way to risky! There are three of us hardcase, we will be killed!”

“It’s either that or we get used to this place cause we aren’t leaving”

“There are other ways than storming into a separatist base, think with your head for once!”

“Oh don’t start that up again. I’m thinking perfectly fine, just cause your an arc trooper doesn’t make you any smarter than me”

“Yeah well maybe it gives me a little more common-

“will you two stop arguing already!?”

Hardcase and Fives both stop bickering to look at Tup. It’s the first time either of them has stopped bickering in the last few hours.

“Stop yelling at each other, it’s getting nowhere. I know you both want what’s best for the squad but you can do that without screaming at each other! Fives I know you’re and arc trooper and hardcase I know you have seniority, and I know you have conflicting ideas and opinions but following the structure of command we have to listen to fives.”

The three were walking in a single file line across a thin out pass on the side of a cliff face, heading for the summit. Fives first plan. Get a vantage point. Tups speach shut the two of them up for a little, but not long, as they started fighting again as hardcase questioned who has been put in charge by Rex more often. They didn’t hear him yelp when the rocks fell out from beneath him. He was send skidding all the way back down to the base of the cliff, which had had to have been a few hundred feet at least. He tried to grab at rocks, branches, anything he could to slow his fall but all he did was send himself rolling instead of sliding.

He landed on the ground with a thud. His head was spinning and he hardly had time to even register what had happened. He let himself lay splayed in the ground for a second before mentally checking himself over. His hair tie had snapped sometime during the fall and he would definitely be bruised in quite a few places but nothing felt broken. He pulled himself to his feet and looked back up to where they were. He couldn’t see fives or hardcase “GUYS! FIVES, HARDCASE!” He called “IM DOWN HERE!”

No response. Great. Ok. Nice.

Tup scooped up his blaster and began to search for another way up the cliff.

“HARDCASE WE LOST TUP”

“WHAT”

“HES GONE”

“HOW COULD YOU LOSE TUP!?”

“HEY I didn’t lose anyone. He just disappeared!!”

“Well where could he have gone?!”

Both turn and look down and look to eachother before fives has to grab hardcase to stop him flinging himself off the cliff

Jesse still has one pistol drawn and is on guard as his group moves down the path. Dogma had been even more quiet then later but coric assumed that was to hide the pain. Coric would keep an eye on him, he wouldn’t tell him whenever the painkillers wore off. That’s something he knew about dogma. Dogma wasn’t paying attention and tripped in some kind of animal burrow. He w t down with a small noise of distress. Coric stopped and waited for him to get up, Jesse didn’t. Dogma caught back up to the group, but the limp was noticeable. Jesse only rolled his eyes.

“Hey are you alright?” Coric asked, as if he expected any answer other than ‘fine.’

“I’m alright, doesn’t matter.”

Close enough. He kept an eye on him and the limp didn’t go away for 10 minutes so he decided to intervene.

“Hey Jesse, let’s stop. I want to check over dogma again. He’s limping”

“I’m fine coric it’s-“

Ah there it is. The ‘I’m fine’ he’s so used to hearing.

“Listen kid when a medic tells you something you listen. We’ll stop. Coric, make this as quick as possible though.”

Of course, Kix was also a medic. Jesse is just as bad as the rest of them but he’s probably heard these PSAs more than anyone.

Coric held up the medisensor and sighed

“It’s sprained. He really shouldn’t be walking on it. I won’t be able to treat it properly until we get back.”

“What? No, I can walk fine. I was just doing so, wasn’t I? Let’s get going again”

“No, you think you’re fine. If coric says you can’t, I guess you can’t.” Jesse sighs and turns to coric “I guess I’ll carry him. We can’t leave him here, and you’ve got the medpack.”

Coric’s honestly a little surprised Jesse agreed, but then he feels a little bad for underestimating Jesse. But then again he gets the feeling Jesse may actually just be playing four dimensional petty chess as well.

Having acquired Ahsoka a second bike, the two Jedi were surveying the planet right until the crack of dawn when

“Master am I crazy or do you feel what I feel?”

Anakin’s bike skids to a stop in front of a trooper laying face down in the dirt, as if that’s right where he fell

“Whatcha doing Rex? Trying to become a landform?”

The captain pulls his arms underneath him and gets up. He is almost tackled right back to the ground as he’s tackle hugged from behind. Luckily he’s caught (and also hugged from the front) by anakin.

“We missed you Rex! I was afraid you were shot down! I’m so glad you’re alive...” said ahsoka

“It’s great to see you two, sirs. But I don’t know how much longer I’ll be alive if you keep crushing me”

“Now ahsoka, please don’t kill our poor captain. He looks like he’s had a long day.” He pulls away from Rex and ahsoka does the same. “So Rex, we only have two speeders, so who do you want to ride with?”

“Uhh...” he weighed his options. On the one hand- to long. Both Jedi got that glint in their eye that meant competition and both grabbed at rex at once. Anakin pulled him towards himself before ahsoka could lay a hand on the captain.

“Alright captain, you’re riding with me. Hold on.”

[big1ron]

The Venator “Resolute” had jumped right into a separatist trap. Somehow a virus infecting the main computer has scrambled the hyperspace jump coordinates, and now the companies on board were outnumbered and without reinforcements, deep in separatist space. A few last, desperate SOSs to nobody, and the ship was quickly overwhelmed with fire. The Resolute was going down. But not before each of the escape pods could be jettisoned.

————- Chapter Five: Waiting. -————

- I think this one may be short aswell, sorry for the wait I’ve just not been doing amazing. But it’s here! Sorry. -

“Sir, we’re receiving a transition from a separatist base somewhere near the Vinda system. Should we patch it though?”

“Vinda? That’s certainly strange. Patch it though, but don’t respond. Make sure they can’t trace us.”

The radio crackles to life, and there is a significant amount of static and interference, but the message can be made out. “Haha! Yes! Great! If you’re receiving this, this is ARC-5555 “Fives” of the five-oh-first. We’ve been shot down, though most of the escape pods launched. There should be a coordinates package sent with this transmission. And- Wait hardcase what are you doing....” the message pauses, something that sounds like a response in the background. “No! Don’t do that! Hey, stop!” Another pause “I literally AM the boss of you!” A longer pause this time “no, what does that have anything to do with anything at all.” A slight shorter pause, “no, that’s stupid! You’re literally not even making any sense.” “ NO, NO you’re just wrong. I do not have time for this. You’re just wrong. Now I’m trying to get us off this planet so shut up please.” He sighs. “Sending the coordinates now.” The transmission ends.

Obiwan snickers. “Well that certainly wasn’t droids. Forward that message, and the attached files to general koon please, Cody.”

“Yes sir” man is Cody glad the 212th doesn’t usually behave like that. He doesn’t envy Rex, but those troopers sure are entertaining. He’s definitely going to tease Rex about this later.

Wolffe received the translation and chuckled to himself. The 501st sure was something else. “General, we’ve been looking in the wrong place! They’re way off course.”

Plo koon nodded and pressed a button on his comm link. “All units return to carriers. Set our course for the Vinda system!” The general gave the orders, and the 501st was finally looking at a rescue.

“Hey master, I found a road!” Ahsoka had been dragging her bike in the low power ‘hover’ mode while they had been searching for a refuelling stop.

“Great job snips. Now which direction do you want to take?”

“Hmmm left.”

“Yeah I was thinking right too. Alright, let’s go.”

“You’re impossible sky guy.”

“Wait, with all due respect sir, this is a separatist planet. Won’t this path take us right into a separatist base of some kind?” Rex cuts in.

“What’s the matter captain? Afraid of a little action? Besides, these are separatist issue bikes, a separatist base is exactly what we need.” So General skywalker leads the group leftwards down the path, dragging his bike behind beside him.

Soon enough, they spot the refuelling station that the road leads to. The three of them dive to the tree line, even though any droids should have surely heard or seen them by now. There are two wrecked speeder bikes by the refuelling station and a few destroyed droids littered about. Rex dares leave their cover enter the small base down the main road.

“Looks like a few of the boys have already been here.”

“Or are still here. Look!” Anakin points to the window of the small command outlet tower, and though it’s shaded glass, Rex can make out the back of a troopers head and shoulders, no doubt leaning against the terminal inside. “Ahsoka and I will refuel the speeders. You go check it out.”

Anakin and ahsoka moved the destroyed speeders out of the way with the force before moving their own to the station, while Rex cautiously entered the command outlet. He paused in the small corridor between the main communications room (probably a droid charging outlet) and listed in before entering, just out of personal curiosity more than anything.

“Oh my godssss-“

“-no no, no no listen to me-“

“-no how did you even get that conclusion!? How does ‘cereal is a salad’ equate to ‘general grievous should be classified as a sauce?!’ And why do you think those two things true?!”

“Just LISTEN to me! Ok? Because general grievous has his organs in a sack right? And those organs are in a liquid, right? It’s like a sauce. And his robot suit is just a really fancy jar because it keeps it contained and-“

“GENERAL GRIEVOUS IS NOT A SAUCE”

“SHUT UP AND LET ME EXPLAIN! Listen! You’ve never even seen him. And the droids, they’re all controlled by chips right? And- hey wait the cereal is a salad thing was a completely different topic! But milk is like the dressing you put on the salad, cause it’s optional and-“

“HOW IS GENERAL GRIEVOUS A SAUCE”

As much as rex really does want to hear how hardcase ends up explaining this one, he doesn’t want to keep the general waiting much longer and he doesn’t want one of them to end up maimed over cyborg sauces. He enters the room and immediately a blaster bolt whizzes right by his ear.

“You missed. Also, you almost shot me.”

“Rex! You found us!” Fives holstered his blaster and practically jumped up out of the chair he was leaning back in

“See? Both plans worked out. We took the base and we found rex.” Hardcase stopped pacing.

“At ease” Rex said sarcastically, as neither of them had actually gone to attention. Not that he really minded, but still. “It’s good to see you two. And nice work taking the post. Did you get a signal out?”

“Yes, I think so. We made a connection with a republic flagship, but the communication was one way. If the officers were doing their job right, we can assume help is on the way.”

“That’s great then. ...may I ask if there was another trooper in the pod with you?”

Hardcase and Fives hung their heads and looked to the floor. Hardcase rocked back on his heels and began fidgeting with his hands. “It was Tup sir... we lost him. Got separated.”

“Oh. I see.” Tup was an independent enough trooper, Rex had hope that he would survive alone. But if he didn’t turn up soon he would no doubt be left behind. “Well, I’ll tell the generals. We’ll stay here until rescue arrives. As you were.”

“Why do you get to decide which direction we go?” Asked echo to jesse, who was at the head of the group still with dogma on his back.

“Because I’m the highest rank here, so I’m in charge.”

“But we have the exact same rank. And I’ve been an ARC trooper longer.”

“Yeah but I’ve been with the 501st longer. And I’m older”

“Yeah well I’m Rex’s favourite so I should be in charge.”

“YOU’RE not his favourite! I don’t think he has favourites. And if he did it would probably be Hardcase.”

“Hardcase?! Hardcase isn’t even an ARC trooper. And i got into ARC training way before you did, while being in the 501st for a way shorter time. Rex clearly likes me best, or at least better than you.”

“Well he’s left me in charge multiple times while he’s gone. Even when you and Fives are available. So he trusts me to lead more responsibly obviously.“

“Will you two just cut it out?” Interjects Coric at the same time as Kix’s “just shut up already!”

Echo stuck out his leg and tripped Kix, not to be denied this victory. Jesse dropped Dogma and put himself between his favourite vod and Echo. But before things could even start Coric shoved them both apart

“If you two can’t stop fighting about who’s in charge, then we’ll go by seniority and that would be me. So you two stop annoying each other and behave! Echo, there’s no reason for you to be so mean to Kix, Jesse consider Dogma a bit more will you? And if all four of you can’t just get along I swear to kark I will MAKE you! Do I make myself clear?!”

“Yes coric.” Echo and Jesse mumble.

Tup slowly opened his eyes. He must have passed out at some point during that nightmare. He had lost time, and he had no idea where he was or what direction he was facing. Right, he was headed towards the rising sun, but what time was it? He grabbed a nearby tree and used it to pull himself up. His head spun for a few seconds, but other than a mild headache the fruit seemed to have no lasting side effects. His chest plate was hanging half off and he was missing various other armour pieces. His hair was a mess. Full of knots and leaves. And his blaster was gone. Whatever. He was still alive and even if he was going to be left behind for the rest of his life, he wasn’t dead. This was all Fives and Hardcase’s fault. And when he saw them again he would let them know it.

He took a minute to fix himself up best he could, but he still looked like a wreck and his other armour pieces were nowhere in sight. He felt unsafe without his blaster, so he settled with a reasonably sized stick he found (somewhere around 5ft long) to replace it. Yes, he was 1000% going to die here, but he pressed on anyways.

[big1ron]

The Venator “Resolute” had jumped right into a separatist trap. Somehow a virus infecting the main computer has scrambled the hyperspace jump coordinates, and now the companies on board were outnumbered and without reinforcements, deep in separatist space. A few last, desperate SOSs to nobody, and the ship was quickly overwhelmed with fire. The Resolute was going down. But not before each of the escape pods could be jettisoned.

—————- Chapter Four: Contact. -—————

- this one is slightly shorter, sorry ‘bout that! -

“Why do you keep calling him kid anyways? He’s not a shiny.” Asks coric, finally.

“Because I’m older, and I can.” Jesse leaves off the ‘And cause rex does it and its cool when he does it’

“Whatever you say, kiddo.”

“Hey don’t call me that!”

“Why not? I’m older than you”

“Well yeah but I’m your superior officer so, it cancels out. Dogma, stop digging your chin into my head.”

“Sorry.” He tries to straighten slightly

“Only because you’re a commando. I outrank you in title.”

“Whatever. Still counts.”

“Alright Jesse, we’ve been walking for a few hours now. And I haven’t seen a droid in a while. We should rest somewhere, and I can actually treat that blaster burn.” Says coric.

Jesses legs are getting tired and the medic does make a good point. So fine, they’ll make rest. Jesse points to a small clearing by a low escarpment. “We can rest there for a while. But don’t take too long”

Jesse drops dogma by the rocks and takes a seat on the ground nearby.

“Thanks Jesse. This shouldn’t take long.” Says coric as he releases the snap on one side of Dogma’s chest plate. Dogma gets the other side. Coric removes both pieces and Jesse gets up, to better deal with any danger that might come to his vode while they’re more vulnerable. Coric cleans the wound, applies the bacta patch and binds it.

“Alright, if you’re done, we can get on our way then.” Dogma tried to get to his feet but Coric pushed him back down.

“No. We’ve been walking for hours, we should all rest for a little.”

“Hey you said this wouldn’t take long!”

“Changed my mind Jess. And all includes you.”

Hardcase does his best to check his fire but it’s difficult with a rotary blaster. The five droids on guard went down easily. The noise caught the attention of two mounted commando droids at the refuelling station. They leaped forward and into attack mode, easily weaving around the incoming bolts from the z-16. Hardcase just wasn’t fast enough like this, and he ducked behind some crates from returning fire. Fives had warned him against explosions but...

He dove from cover again, this time aiming past the droids and to their bikes sitting idly by. He struck one of the fuel tanks and both exploded, launching the droids forward and destroying them. He checked the premise for any remaining droids before entering the command outlet. Fives had already fried the lock and the droids inside. He was standing over one of the terminals.

“Does it have what we’re looking for?”

“Yeah, but I’ve got to time this right if I actually want this signal to get off world. So I have to piggyback our message off this stations next checkin signal, and then hope this planets main communications rig is powerful enough to get into republic space.”

“And we can’t just send a straight message why?”

“These channels are all monitored. Nothing can leave this outpost without the separatists knowing.”

“So then... we just wait? How long?”

“About 24 minutes. But after we get the message out, we’ll have to wait at this post until evac.”

Hardcase rolls his eyes. “Great.”

“Are you even paying attention to where you’re going?”

“No.” Kix buries his face in Echo’s shoulder to hide his eyes from the too bright sunlight. He ends up stepping on Echo’s heels again.

“Stop doing that! You’re going to trip me and I’m going to drop you”

“Good. You deserve it. Don’ drop me, Rex said no”

“Well Rex isn’t here right now”

“Yeah but I am and I will kick you if you drop me”

“Well you’re already kicking me so,” Echo pushes Kix over.

“Ah! Meanie!” Kix rolls onto his back and kicks out echos knees.

“Can you two just get along? Jesse, you don’t have to be mean to Dogma, he’s not even provoking you.” Coric was getting pretty fed up with Jesse not wanting to consider their teammate.

Jesse sighed. He knew just how eager to to please the kid was. He would probably throw away his own life if it gained him the approval of Rex, or maybe Jesse. That’s what made him so readily follow orders on umbara. And sure, maybe it was a little unfair to hold it against him, they had all been manipulated. But not all of them would have killed him. However, he also knew dogma would do whatever it took to get back in his good favour. And even if he might dislike him, Jesse didn’t really want him injured. “Fine, ok. We’ll rest. But only for an hour. Set your chrono.” Jesse sits against the escarpment to the left of Dogma and Coric sits to there right, and sets the timer.

“There’s nothing on this planet!” Ahsoka complains while the three of them take a lunch break. “And these bikes aren’t comfortable.”

“That’s cause they’re made for droids snips. And droids don’t need comfort”

“Well I’m not a droid. And I need comfort.”

“A better seat isn’t all these bikes need. They’re running on empty.”

“Well do you know where there’s a refuelling station?” Asks Rex

“Nope. No idea where anything is on this planet.” Responds Anakin.

“Can’t you use the force to find a base or something?”

“That’s not how the force works!” the two Jedi respond at the same time.

“Plus Anakin already tried.”

“Yeesh, Alright then.”

Tup tried to press forward as the ground started to move beneath him, rocking back and forth wildly. Trees and things he should be getting closer to moving farther away, and he tripped over things that seemed far away. His limbs felt heavy but also like they were floating. He tried to press on, but no use. He fell forwards, but the fall seemed much shorter than it should be, and the ground was still far below him. The rocks were pulsing like flesh and trees bent over him, long fingers looking to grab him. The shadows grew long and pooled beneath him, threatening to swallow him whole. He tried to get away, he had to escape, but movement was a difficulty, as this body wasn’t his, and was uncooperative. Even leaves on trees slowly morphed into hungry eyes, looking for him, searching. It was all too much, he squeezed his eyes shut, and covered his head. But it didn’t go away, he couldn’t escape.

“Stop pushing me over!!”

“Stop kicking me!”

“M’ not doing it intentionally!!”

Echo was about to push Kix over again, but he noticed white armoured figures in the near distance. This pause allowed Kix to preemptively kick him In the shin. For once, echo ignored the minor offence and approached. There were three troopers asleep, leaned against each other. Echo stepped on a twig as he approached and had to dive out of the way, dropping Kix, to dodge a blaster bolt headed straight at his head

“JESSE!”

The sound of the blaster jolted the other two awake as Jesse registered what he just did, looking at the blaster in his hand.

“Hey it’s not my fault. You two started me!”

“YOU ALMOST SHOT ME!!!”

“Yeah but if you were a droid that would have saved us. Wait is that Kix?” Jesse unwraps his other arm from around dogma and gets up to get a better look at Kix, who echo was now helping to his feet.

“Yeah but he’s got a head injury or something so he’s been annoying me this entire time.”

“Jesse! I’m so glad you’re here! Echo was being mean to me.”

Jesse shoots echo a (rather intimidating) look.

“Only cause he was annoying me!”

“I was not! You kept pushing me over for no reason.”

“Ookay you three, stow it.” Coric butts in before things can get violent. “I’ll look over Kix, all of you just try not to kill eachother before we goes moving ok?”

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

“I’m so BORED!” Hardcase threw another droid part against the opposite wall. “You said it would be like twenty minutes but it’s been an hour.”

“Stop being over dramatic. That’s my job. Besides, it’s only been thirty minutes.”

“Yeah well there’s-“

“- SHHH IVE GOT SOMETHING!”

[big1ron]

~ Ghosts: A Very Self Indulgent Clone Wars Story. Part 1 of ? ~

~ Title says it all. Includes a few but not all of the clones. More Jedi centrered this time, no I don’t care if that’s not how the force works it is now. Rated E for everyone. ~

~ yes I will get back to the other story very soon don’t worry about it ~

It had been a month since umbara but it felt like way less. No matter how much time it still seemed fresh in everyone’s minds. The world the 501st and 212th had been deployed on wasn’t helping any either. It was currently dark, and foggy. And chilly. It wasn’t below zero, but it was cold.

Tup couldn’t sleep. The atmosphere reminded him far to much of umbara and it was to cold in the barracks to rest. Plus his favourite heat source had run off. The nerve. So, he paced the halls outside the barracks. The planet already had a base built, as it was republic controlled. But the battalions had been sent there in preparation for a large scale separatist attack. That didn’t help his nerves. Nor did the fact he had heard the general and the commander discussing this planets unusual force and supernatural activity. But of course, that was just stories they tell to scare young padawans.

Suddenly he felt a chill and saw some of the thick fog from outside roll into the halls. That was weird... he walked in the direction it was coming from to see what was up.

It was coming from the hangar. The hangar doors should be closed for the night, but instead they were wide open. In fact, Tup knew they were closed before. How did someone get them open alone, and so quietly? The fog was pouring in from the outside and there was a dark figure standing alone in the massive opening. Only their shadow visible against the pale grey-blue of moonlight lit fog. The hangar still had all the lights off so he couldn’t make out any details.

“H-Hey... you’re not supposed to be here!” Oh tup hated the way his voice trembled. He shouldn’t be scared here, he could take whoever it was, even without a blaster. But it felt incredibly off. Whoever that was, didn’t feel like a vod.

Whoever it was turned around and their two glowing eyes pierced through the fog and right into tup.

“D-Dogma? Is that you?” It certainly looked like Tups brother, and of what Tup could make out, had the same armour. But it felt wrong. Very wrong.

Two double bladed lightsabers folded open, cutting through the dark. A green sabre in his left hand, and blue in his right. Tup screamed loud enough to wake the whole barracks.

Whoever it was cleared the distance between them in almost no time flat, way faster than a clone should be able to move. But in the light of the sabres, Tup finally got a good look at who it was. It really was Dogma. He had been right the first time. But at the same time, it wasn’t. Everything from his body language to the bloodthirsty hatred in his eyes while his face remained close to neutral wasn’t the brother Tup knew. It was beyond unnerving. And the low whir of these specific lightsabers was familiar to him. As if he could ever forget what the traitor Krell’s own lightsabers sounded like.

Tup backed away, dodging the strikes as they fell towards him. There weren’t any openings in the attackers defences, and Tup was just in his blacks. It was all he could do not to be struck through with each blow.

“What are you doing!? What’s going on!?” Tup rolled out of the way of another attack, but by the looks of it the other trooper was done playing around with him and the next strike made contact. Tup was struck through his shoulder and down across his chest. But before the second, killing strike could be placed, a squad of five troopers entered the hangar and opened fire.

The blasts were deflected and dodged, tup was thrown against the wall with an invisible shove. The attacker dashed towards the troopers, and with a few expertly placed swings the squad was quickly dispatched. The attacker disappeared into the base as Tup’s vision faded.

“Someone’s causing quite a ruckus in the hangar right now. Im surprised you’re not awake.” Qui-gon jin was standing near obi-wans bed, obiwan was still asleep. He was on his side, facing away. Face pressed against the pillow. “You know... it’s something big this time. Your troopers are in serious danger.” Quigon didn’t really expect obiwan to get up, or respond. He never did.

“They’ll be fine. Go bother cody” obiwan mumbled into his pillow.

“No I- wait, did you just respond to me?!”

“Mmmm should i not’ve?” Obiwan rolled over and suddenly the realization hit him and he sat straight up with a jolt “WAIT MASTER QUIGON?!”

“Yes, I’ve been here the whole time. I thought you couldn’t see me! You’ve been ignoring me this entire time?!”

“No, no of course not! I just couldn’t see you until now! Wait, you said something about disaster in the hangar?” Obiwan got up and threw on his outer robes, grabbing the lightsaber on his bedside table. Quigon disappeared.

Obiwan rushed to the hangar and immediately stopped when he saw the five dead troopers near the entrance. He cursed quietly under his breath. Not quick enough. He ignited his lightsaber and sensed what he could from the room. The hangar doors were open, but he only felt one other life form in the room, and it was weak. Not whichever separatist had done this. If it had been a separatist at all. This attack was unusual. The doors left wide open but no droid force, and all these wounds were from lightsaber. He pressed a button on his comm link

“This is General Kenobi, the bass is under attack. The separatists are already inside the building, I want all squads active!”

The security system kicked on and Kenobi approached the other life form slowly. It was a trooper, attacked with a lightsaber just like the other five. This one didn’t have armour on, probably couldn’t sleep. The trooper was shaking, but it wasn’t that cold. He didn’t have much time, but still he ripped a strip of material from the bottom of his cloak to wrap the wound, and wake the trooper. As he thought, he was terrified.

“Can you tell me what you saw, trooper?” Obiwan kept his voice steady and calm.

“Krell he... Krells dead he cant... he-it’s...-“ Tup was falling over his words and Obiwan gave up on trying to get a straight answer once he realized this was an umbara trooper. He heard a distant lightsaber activate and quickly gave Tup the rest of his cloak and took off back down the hall he came.

Kenobi came face to face with anakin and ahsoka. Definitely not so he was looking for. Right? Right.

“They hit the command room. Communications still seem to be working fine, but all the trooper in there were attacked.” Anakin reported.

“Any survivors? Do you know who it is? One of your troopers is alive in the hangar but he couldn’t give me a straight answer. If we know who this is we’ll have a better chance of stopping them.”

“No survivors. But-“ all three of their comms beeped, alerting them to an occurrence in the western corridor, near the main power generator. Anakin and ahsoka took the main route while obiwan split off on a different route, to corner them.

The power cut out for a second as the knight and padawan made their way to the generator, before the backup lighting kicked on. Anakin and ahsoka could see a blue and green glow across the wall as they turned a corner, expecting to see General grievous. Instead they saw a clone, retrieving a double bladed lightsaber from a freshly stabbed brother.

“What are you doing!?” Anakin growled. His eyes told him that was one of his own men, but the force screamed danger and darkness. The clone turned to face the two Jedi, grinning at them.

The clone spoke, and it was a mixture between a clones voice and something else entirely. “You don’t know what these are, do you? Clones are weapons, created to turn on their makers. Mutiny is in their blood. I’m doing you all a favour. But I suppose you are still to naive to see that.”

“My men are completely loyal! None of them would turn against the republic. Not like you... I know who you are” Anakin was holding back, he did know who this was, but he didn’t know what, or how it was. If he struck now, it would be in fury and confusion

Ahsoka shot anakin a puzzled look, not understanding. “Master, isn’t this one of our men?” She asked quietly.

“No. This is the traitor Jedi. Pong Krell.” Anakin took a high swing, parried. Four blades left little opening in his defences. Anakin gave a slight force shove to off balance krell before striking for the middle, parried, fake mid and a high strike and- anakin is force thrown down the hall. He didn’t see the trooper’s hand even move for such an attack. Krell fled, and Ahsoka went after him. But he activated a blast door with the force and jumped through before ahsoka could.

Anakin was up and right beside ahsoka, cutting through the door. But before they could finish it sprung open again. Master Kenobi.

“We lost him!” Anakin cursed.

“Well did you see who it was?” Asked Kenobi.

“Yeah. Pong Krell. I know he was confirmed dead on umbara, but there’s no way it wasn’t him. I think he’s possessed one of my troopers or something. It’s not a mental problem with the trooper, as he could use the force. And fight in a way no trooper I know could.”

“That is... concerning to say the least. How do you suppose we stop this menace?” So the trooper on the hangar had been right. Obiwan should have believed him.

“Well he died once right? Why not kill him again?” Ahsoka chimed in.

Anakin was thinking the same thing, but he would have rather his padawan didn’t say things like that in front of his master.

“He was killed once and he came back. Clearly that didn’t work the first time. We should apprehend him and see what the council has to say about this. I think it would be wise not to kill him.” Obiwan didn’t really want to end up killing the trooper as collateral, but with the situation escalating, he might just have to.

A blast door slammed shut between Rex and his squad. Then a few more down the halls. Rex waited, blasters raised. He knew what would come next. It was no surprise to him when the blast door separating him from his group finally opened again, with his enemy standing at the ready. Four dead clones at his feet. But what was a surprise to him, was seeing that his enemy was Dogma. One of his own troopers. With the lightsabers of the traitor.

“Stand down trooper” Rex seethed. How could Dogma do this? He was so loyal! Dogma took a step forward. “Drop your weapons! Or I will be forced to shoot you!”

“Captain Rex. Is that any way to speak to an authority figure?” That didn’t sound like any clone Rex knew of. That sounded like...

“Stand. Down. Trooper.”

“For a mutinous clone such as yourself? I suppose it is.” The lightsabers whirred as they swung into motion, charging the captain. Rex shot back, but his bolts were easily deflected. He dove out of the way of the swing, but as he raised his blasters to fire again, they were cut in half. Krell raised to swing.

Rex was about to roll left when something else told him “no.” Time stopped for a minute as unseen hands guided the captain back to his feet, and his hands right onto the attackers. The other trooper looked surprised but fought back, trying to angle the blades into Rex. Rex struggled back, but he was losing. The other trooper somehow much stronger than him. “May I?” The same voice asked politely.

“Go for it.” Rex answered aloud.

Suddenly, it was as if rex was an outside observer to his own body. Watching through his own eyes. Whoever was in control now wrenched the green sabre out of Krell’s hand and pushed him back. “The force...” Rex thought. Rex’s body turned off one blade of the sabre and got into a ready stance. The opponent shifting and doing the same. Rex watched bewildered as his body moved on its own, all the grace and skill of a master.

“I sense I’m no longer fighting a-“ krell was saying, but whoever was helping Rex didn’t pause for a monologue. Their blades clashed once again but each move krell made was parried almost before it could happen. Rex had experience fighting dual bladed opponents, and he would not lose again. Wait, no, that wasn’t right. Krell caught them in the brief moment of confusion and Rex’s friend didn’t block in time. The blade nicked Rex’s leg.

“Anakin!”

“What, Master?”

“I sense... I sense master quigon is in danger.”

“What? How! He-“

“This way!” Obiwan suddenly turned a corner, heading away from the barracks where the group was originally headed. He began cutting through a blast door that blocked his path, and anakin joined to speed up the process. They heard a blast door open and close somewhere on the other side, and they got the door open just in time to see Rex and a lightsaber clatter to the ground.

Anakin and Ahsoka ran to him, Ahsoka turned him over and supported his head in her lap.

“He’s alive” Anakin breathed, relieved.

Rex blinked awake, back in his own body “hmm? Wha? That was strange...” Rex got up and grabbed a blaster from one of the dead clones “doesn’t matter right now, he went that way, we need to stop him!”

“Just wait up Rex. He’s probably already long gone. But you’re not dead, what happened?”

Rex stopped and looked back at anakin “I... don’t really know. I had help. I thought it was one of you, sirs. Their voice sounded a little like General Kenobi’s. I was asked permission and when I agreed it was like someone else took over my body. Definitely a Jedi. They fought off krell for me, but left once I was safe. I got a strange glimpse of a memory from them, they’ve fought a Sith with double bladed lightsaber before, but they lost.”

“You had help from my old master, Qui-gon Jin without a doubt. If he left you afterwards, than I think we may be able to get your trooper back. Set that to stun.”

Dogma was spotted in the medical-wing so kenobi and Rex headed to his last known location and Ahsoka and Anakin ran for the medbay itself. Anakin suspected that was where the real target was. The medbay was cleared best it could be, on Anakin’s orders but there was only so many places for the wounded to go. The blast doors were closed but they all knew that wouldn’t hold him.

As two lightsabers pierced the door Anakin held up a hand for the combat medics positioned behind makeshift barricades to hold their fire, before the door was kicked in.

A mixture of bolts set to kill and stun filled the air in an instant, but krell was good, and he dodged and deflected his way through the chaos. He force-shoved the medics to the ground and the two Jedi took that as their cue to switch in.

Anakin leaped up and struck down hard in a downward slash, that was deflected to the right. Ahsoka sweeper left but she was parried and flipped backwards against the returning strike. Though the Jedi continued to exchange strikes, it was clear that Krell was outmatched against two opponents. Ahsoka dropped her sabres and began to levitate, force choked without krell seemingly lifting a finger.

Anakin took another slash at Dogma. He had to break his focus before is padawan ran out of air. But his attack was deflected. On the return strike though anakin locked sabres with him, putting his weight behind it. Krell had to bring the second saner to match the force, or he would be cut with his own blade. The sabre lock was taking to long though and ahsoka was struggling harder.

Suddenly with a loud metallic clang of aluminum against someone’s skull, Dogma deactivated the lightsabers and fell to the ground, along with ahsoka. Anakin put away his own lightsaber.

“Did you just-“

“Yes.” Said Kix, holding a folding chair. “Now if you have binders I suggest you take him to the brig quickly because I have no idea how long that’s gonna hold.”

“Sir yes sir” said Anakin, still stunned.

Obiwan Kenobi Met Skywalker and Tano at the brig. Dogma hadn’t woken up yet, but they were going to try to expel Krell from him anyways. Obiwan opened the cell and the three Jedi entered. The cell closed behind them.

The Jedi pried into the clones mind, which was much harder to do when a dark Jedi was actively trying to keep them out. It was clear now, the two entirely separate entities, one weaker and dormant, the other much stronger and controlling. But after a few hours, they had started to blend. After just a minute rex had gotten access to a little of Qui-gon’s mind, but now it looked like e dominant force was trying to absorb the other into non existence. Skywalker solved this the best way he knew how. Applying tremendous force to both sides. He squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his hand into a fist, driving a wedge through the troopers mind.

“No, Anakin!” Obiwan withdrew, but anakin was still putting on more pressure, slowly moving his hand closer to the clone’s head. He was struggling now, ahsoka had to hold the clone in place, they were trying to resist the power.

Anakin was getting frustrated, and the dark presence didn’t want to move. But it was budging.

“Stop Anakin! You’ll kill him!”

Skywalker wasn’t paying any attention to Obiwan. He was so! Close! He pushed harder. The clone screamed. But he drove that wedge just an inch further and withdrew.

Anakin opened his eyes. The clone had stopped struggling, or screaming. Skywalker thought he actually had killed him before ahsoka said

“Pulse is back. He’s breathing again.”

“Good.” Anakin wiped his hands “let’s go then. We can question him when he wakes up.”

The three Jedi left the cell before Obiwan began lecturing anakin. “You almost killed him! Why didn’t you stop when I told you to!? That was dangerously close to the dark side you know. That was brutal!”

“Yeah well Krell’s gone. I think. Thanks to me. So, you’re welcome.”

Anakin stormed back to his quarters.