AN: Please read the AN at the bottom. It holds some important information. Quick note, though. The language in this one is definitely stronger in this one, but the dark stuff shouldn't be as bad as TLoHP.

Chapter I: The Game Wasn't Over

"Where are the enemies?" cries out one of my men as we take incoming fire from the Umbarans clad in 212th armour.

"I don't know! I can't see anything!" another yells as the first is slammed with a bolt to the left of his face, taking him to the afterlife.

We're all pinned as an explosion rocks through the section near my position. I turn towards the rearguard and order, "Get those mortars up here!"

A section's worth of men make their way to my placement and prepare their payloads. They fire off, and seconds later, I wince at the brightness of the explosions in the darkness.

"Anyone have a visual?" I ask out.

"Ah, negative. It's too dark" the scout responds. He suddenly perks up, "Oh wait! I see them! They're disguised as clones, alright."

After that declaration, the men begin to sally forth, trading shots with the bleeding bastards. I also surged forward, firin with precise abandon towards the enemy. Within no time, the two sides are a kriffing mess in terms of position and flanks.

I hear through my comm piece, "Captain, where are you? We're sustaining heavy casualties!"

I pause my firing and take cover behind some of the local fauna. Before I reply, I notice a downed trooper not too far from me, and he looks pretty banged up. I sprint towards the man, making sure not to get hit by anything as I do so.

When I make it over to the poor sod, I notice another dead clone atop of him, so I lightly shove the still clone away from the trooper I originally spotted. I start to worry as I notice two things. One, this was 212th armour here. Two, I see a human throat and chin. I reach forwards and remove his hel-

"What the!" I cry as I drop the helmet and flinch back a good few metres. That was not an Umbaran like Krell said. I don't bother to draw my sidearms as I rush towards the fray.

"Everyone!" I project my voice as loud as I can, "Stop firing! We're shooting at our own men!"

I continue to flail my hands as I continue to yell, "They're not Umbarans! They're clones!"

I start to see troopers from the 501st start to cease fire and look at me, "Take off your helmets! Show them you're not the enemy!"

I start running towards the 212th as I begin to doff my own helmet-

==NV==

I bolt upright as I scream in my officer voice, "THEY'RE CLONES!"

I reach for my DC-17 under my pillow, and I almost lose my mind when it's not there. My head flies left to right as I take stock of my surroundings. I almost don't believe it. White walls, white beds, white floors. Even the armour was white. Shiny white.

I see the rest of the barrack is at full attention due to my outburst, and I can't help but notice the silent tears running down my face. All the other troopers bar one are looking at me strangely, while the one is next to my bedside holding my arm.

He speaks calmly, "Easy, Rex. It's alright. Everything's fine. It was just the nightmares again. Get lost, the rest of you, double time!"

The room clears, and it's only the trooper and myself remaining.

"Wh-where am I?" I stutter as I try and fail to ge my breathing back to normal.

"Kamino, trooper," he says softly, "We're in Officer Barracks Besh on Kamino."

"Not Umbara?" I question in disbelief as I let the tears flow.

"We're not on that hellhole anymore, Rex."

"Cody?" I sigh in relief as my eyesight clears up past the teardrops.

"Aye, Rex, it's me," he says sadly as I begin to freak out.

I push him away from me and fly backwards as I shout out, "Cody! What the kriffing hells is happening? I saw you on the hunt for General Kenobi! You died on the first Death Star-"

"First!" he yells in shock, "They made a second one?"

"That's where I was before… before…" my voice breaks as I fall to my knees.

"Before what, Rex?" Cody asks as he joins me on the floor.

"I took a blast to the side, and then I fell asleep. You know what happened after that," my voice gets quieter as I reach the end of the sentence.

"When did you come back? Cause that's apparently what happened," I say, still not believing what's going on.

"I came back yesterday, and I woke up quite like you did," he says remorsefully, "Except mine was about that day on Utapau on the last day of the war."

I nod my head in understanding. I had talked to him about the chips just a few weeks before that fateful day, and he had turned me away, citing that there was no possible way this was real.

I slowly get back up on my feet, and I help Cody do the same. He turns to the door while saying, "Let's get to the mess hall, we don't want to be late."

"For what?" I ask, unaware of when exactly we are. I know it's before the First Battle of Geonosis due to our armour, but I know nothing but that.

"It's graduation," he starts, "Then we load onto the transports with General Yoda and head to fight the bugs."

"No," I gasp, "Not again. Not for a third time. Not a fucking third time."

Cody takes my shoulders and stares into my eyes, "It. Will. Be. Okay. Understand? We will make it out of there, and we have will have forty eight hours to explain strategy and tactical analysis to the Generals and Commanders. We will get through this with more boys than before. Now, let's go get breakfast."

I nod as I numbly follow his lead. As we exit the barrack, the rest of them officers stop chatting amongst themselves while one of them walks towards us and speaks, "Rex, Cody, we don't need to know what that was about, but if you need anyone to talk to about it, we're all here."

"Thank you, Bly," I say with a gracious smile. All of us then head to the mess hall.

We arrive to an almost full mess hall, and I say almost because the only tables not full are the three tables that us officers eat at.

We get our food and begin to eat. Shortly after, Bly, who was looking at his datapad, chokes on his drink.

He sets down the pad and motions for the other commanders at the table to lean closer. He whispers, "Don't let this spread yet, but tonight we load up for Geonosis. 99 just sent it to me that he overheard the longnecks speak to Master Yoda. The Jedi are going to have command over us for the assault."

I shake my head in disappointment, "That's unbelievable. They don't know anything about how to lead! I've on my studying, boys, and it's not good."

Cody sees where I'm going with this and continues where I left off, "They'll probably pair us off with Jedi to command our units. I suggest that we use the travel time to brief our Jedi on the dos and don'ts of strategy and tactics."

Gree nods his head in agreement before speaking up, "We'll have to spread this to the Corps commanders. We don't know who they'll be sending to Geonosis, so it'd be best to have everyone on standby just in case."

A muttering of agreements comes from the officers around me. I speak, "Aye, the more we're brothers we keep alive in the coming days, the better off we'll all be."

There is a small cheers to that. After breakfast, Cody and I split apart as we head to our respective units. I hear my datapad go off, and the message simply tells me to alert my unit to the incoming assault on Geonosis.

I reach the rendezvous point for the 501st graduates. I say graduates, but when I think about it, the only people that don't "graduate" are the clones who become Kaminoan support staff. People like 99. The rest of us are practically soldiers, through and through.

My boys are lined up nicely, and I take a position right in front of them as I notice some of faces. Many think we are all the same face, but when you have nothing but mirrors staring at you, you learn to spot the differences. Echo's eyebrows was half a milimetre higher on his face. Jessie has a slight scar above his lips from a training exercise. Hardcase's left eye is a darker shade of brown. These seemingly imperceivable details allow us to sort each other out.

I look at my men with pride in my eyes, and I begin to speak, "Alright, troopers. We've done what we needed to in order to be where we are right now. We've suffered through blood, mud, and blaster fire to become the best fighters in the galaxy, and in a couple days, we prove it to everyone.

"After the graduation ceremony, where some uppity ponce will tell us that we are the proud men of the republic, we will board the Acclamators and head off to Geonosis. In the two days' journey the officers of every unit involved will be going over tactical plans with both the men, and the jedi who will be leading the assault."

I pause momentarily before speaking once more, "I will not lie to you, troopers, some of you will not return to the ships come the end of this. Some of you will not make it off the gunships entering the planet. I know this, and now, you know too. I don't expect you all to be super soldiers, but I do expect you to keep and eye on each other and keep yourselves alive for as long as you can.

"What we are about to do, we do not for the Republic, but for the men, women, and children who are a part of it. We fight so they won't have to, and I'll die happily knowing that."

The men, who were stoic during the first few minutes, all applauded as I finish my impromptu speech. I know that the Kaminoans and Palpy would not approve of my last two sentences, but there aren't here right now.

My boys talk amongst themselves as a couple of clones approach me.

"Sir, Kix, Chief Medical Officer of the 501st," the man introduces himself before doing the same for his comrade, "This here Medical Officer Jesse."

The troopers salute, and I return it before asking, "What can I do for you, gentlemen?"

Kix gestures to a corner of the room where other clones aren't around, and we make our way over there. Kix says quietly, "Sir, I need to ask about this morning. I know that Commander Cody said not to worry about it, but several other officers have asked me to see to you, just in case something is wrong. So, what happened?"

"Nothing but bad dreams, trooper," I start, "Nothing but bad dreams."

"Sir, I'll be frank and let you know what I know. I know you woke up screaming 'they're clones', I know you searched for something under your pillow, and I know that it took Commander Cody to calm you down enough to become coherent. I need to know what the hell is wrong," he finishes sternly.

I toss it around inside for a few moments before responding, "I'll need to talk to Cody. It's something that only he is aware of, and I want his opinion on how I should proceed. Is that acceptable?"

Kix and Jesse look at each other before they nod. Kix replies, "As long as you get to us before we land on Geonosis. No one but clones know about this, and I'd like to keep it that way."

I put offer my hand as I say, "I appreciate that you're doing your jobs. I wouldn't want an unstable man leading my boys."

They offer salutes, which I return, then they head off.

A few minutes later, the PA goes off. The mechanical voice booms, "ALL UNITS PROCEED TO LOADING DOCKS. REPEAT, ALL UNITS PROCEED TO LOADING DOCKS. TAKEOFF IN THREE HOURS."

AN: Alright, so this is going to be the second story I work on alongside TLoHP. This is heavily inspired by Dominoes by FFN user Meridianpony. The author of that story is going on a year hiatus, so I decided to write something in the spirit of that story. There are definitely going to be things that differently, and I will try to keep it as original as I can for a fanfiction. As I finish this AN, I'm about to start Chapter IX for TLoHP. These will be posted when both are done, and both will be updated weekly. This week as well as the next are finals and term papers, so I am stressed and overworked, but I will try my damnedest to update both stories when I can. There will be a similar AN in Chapter IX of TLoHP.