Reminder: Please kindly note that this is a remix of angelrider13's fic titled: Resist Order 66. This has been written with her permission and blessing.
- Moving away from Aayla Secura and Bly. This chapter is about Strauss Allie and Neyo.
Of Neyo, his General, and the beauty in sand.
In another life, Neyo thinks he would have found the rolling hills and crystal sands of Saleucami beautiful. But at this moment when the fine grains seep between the cracks of his armor and grind against his speeder, he thinks maybe the scenery isn't really that wonderful after all.
Glen is silent besides him, several clicks away on his own speeder, and Neyo appreciates the quiet solitude he provides as in the distance, far ahead, their General flows through the sand like a waterfall. She looks so natural among the brown of the ground and the blue of the sky, her headdress bellowing behind her so perfectly that he almost doesn't hear the soft click of his comms turning on.
Almost.
But he does hear it and he sees Glen's speeder waver a bit out of the corner of his eye. Everything fades except for his General's speeder ahead as he hears a command he doesn't even know he would in this lifetime. Or the next.
Execute Order 66.
He thinks he signals Glen for in one beat and the next, they are moving in unison, pulling further back from their General's flowing journey ahead. He can only watch in horror as his own hands betray him and tighten on the handle of the laser gun cannon on his speeder. General Allie never looks back at the two of them aiming at her small small back.
Execute Order 66.
This cannot be happening as Glen mirrors his movement. Glen who is younger than him by two years. Glen who has only been with them for mere months. Glen who was laughing with his General Allie only the night before. Glen whose face Neyo cannot see because of the white white helmet that shelters and binds them both. But surely, surely, Glen must be having the same terrifying experience as Neyo for he turns to him and even from the distance between them, Neyo can see his eyes. They are pleading for release.
Execute Order 66.
And then Neyo no longer sees anything, no longer knows anything as he jerks his controls hard to one side and everything turns upside down, his speeder slamming straight into Glen's. There is air, and there is sand, biting into his skin, etching themselves into patterns unknown. He feels more than hears their General's alarm and wishes he feels nothing as an ache laces through his body, making flames in his vision. He blinks and he realizes that the flames are not his imagination but very real as his speeder burns and crumbles into the sand.
His helmet is gone. The sun is shining. And Neyo turns his head to find his brother lying spread-eagled some distance away. Glen's left arm is twisted unnaturally, and his forehead is splattered with blood. But even from this angle, Neyo can still see his brother's chest steadily going up and down; the Commander doesn't even know he stopped breathing until he releases air. Glen may be down and out but he's alive and Neyo thanks any and all deities for this small small blessing.
"Neyo! Glen!" Sand blows over his face as General Allie's speeder skitters to a stop next to them and she hops off, still graceful despite the urgency of her action. "What happened?"
Warm hands, warmer than the sun beating down on them all, touches his face and his aching slowly ceases; she is healing him despite not knowing anything, despite not knowing that she is this close to dying, and this is the moment that makes Neyo certain that he made the right choice.
"General," he calls, taking her hand in his own, but she is no longer seeing him and Glenn and the burning chaos behind them. She is seeing something beyond, her face a mix of heartbreak and horror. Her hands fall slack in his and his General looks like she's shattering into a million thousand pieces just like the sand beneath their feet.
"General," he calls again because he knows she knows what's happening now when she seems to come back to herself, her familiar purple eyes shining with tears. "You have to leave."
Allie does not move though she removes her hands from his; he misses the warmth, the imprint of it that had been burning him from the inside out. "Please," he repeats, tasting ash and iron and so much sand. "You have to leave."
She blinks and he knows she's searching through the thousand and one questions she has to find the most important one to ask. She settles for, "How?"
"Order 66," he answers, words spilling out hot and fast. "The Jedi are now traitors. We must eliminate any threats. We-" He cuts off, trying not to say anything further that could mar his General's face in more sad lines. He's not sure if he succeeds as Allie takes a shaky breath in.
"But we are loyal to the Republic," she whispers.
"It doesn't matter now. The Order is given. We must act." Even now, there is a dull aching in his head that has nothing to do with him crashing into Glenn. He thinks she understand what he's saying but she still doesn't move. Her lightsaber hangs at her side.
"Who-"
"The Supreme Commander," he bites out, heart hammering against his armor so loudly that he's certain his General can hear it as well.
"The Chancellor?"
His General is openly weeping now, and it takes everything in him to say, "Please. Leave. Don't let us find you. Don't let us kill you."
"Oh Neyo," she says, voice raw as if she has screamed for a thousand years and will continue to scream until her sorrows are over. He wonders how it must feel to be so connected and utterly lost; he tries not to think about it as Glenn stirs in the background. "What have we done to you?"
"Doesn't matter," he hisses. "You have to-"
"It matters!," Allie cries, her voice sounding like thunder in the stillness around them. "You matter! You all do!"
Neyo cracks a smile at this because yes, he knows this but knowing and hearing it said out loud are two different beasts. Glenn groans and it seems to ground Allie back to the present as she stands up.
"I never wanted anyone to be hurt because of me."
"We know," he responds. Because he does. His General hates death, hates getting hurt, hates others getting hurt for her even more. That's why his men try to avoid it. But war is brutal and ruthless and cares little for the wants and needs of those trapped within it.
"It's been an honor, Commander," she says and he pretends not see her delicate tremors. He feels her headdress brush against his face as she bows down low to ghost a kiss on his forehead. Then she is racing across the dunes, speeder never touching the sand as it glides, dips down low beneath the burning sun, and disappears into the horizon.
"May the Force be with you," he whispers into the wind, words so foreign yet so familiar as Glenn finally surfaces from the deep. The younger breathes raggedly, head slowly turning until he's sure there is nothing but him and the Commander and the mangled fire scraps behind them.
"She's safe?," Glenn asks and it's so hopeful that Neyo's smile grows bigger.
"Yeah, brother. She's safe."
Then there are no words as they both look up at the blue blue sky, not a regret or care in the entire universe.
Sometime later when they are both found safe and appropriately reprimanded, they return to the rest of the 91st who welcome them with open arms because their General is safe and sound among the stars above.
A/N:
- In the original story, angelrider13 has Neyo and Glenn dying in the sand. I couldn't bring myself to do something like that when there is already so much death in the universe. I wanted there to be hope. An acknowledgement that this terrible tragedy is happening but there is also some good. Some live. This is probably one of my favorite chapters to remix and write.
- Hope you enjoy and please feel free to drop a kind review to let me know what you think!
- Thank you all for reading! :)
