Shadow's Odyssey: A Star Wars Story

Shadow looked towards the building he had spotted before. Hopefully someone in there had a ship he could barrow. Shadow went inside and saw a bar populated with rough-skinned humanoids who all turned to stare at him.

"Is there anyone here who can take me to Kamino?"

"Well that depends, how much you willing to pay?"

Shadow was about to say he had no money when something caught his attention. One of the aliens off to the side was holding a Chaos Emerald. Shadow went over to him. The guy was clearly very drunk.

"Whoa, is anyone else seeing that or did I just have too much to drink?"

Shadow rolled his eyes. "I am real, and you have something that belongs to me."

"You're going to have to be a bit more specific. I've taken a lot of things from a lot of people."

"That Emerald."

"Oh, this! Isn't it nice? I can see my reflection in it!"

"Give it back."

"Hey, finders, keepers."

Shadow had had enough of this drunk idiot and just snatched the Emerald from his hand. He turned around to see everyone else in the bar pointing their blasters at him.

"No one steals from Hondo!"

Oh, great this scenario again.

Shadow really didn't want to do anymore fighting that day. He was tired, his head hurt, and a painful bruise had formed where that robot had punched him.

He tried to warn them off. "You know, the last people who tried to stop me from getting one of these Emeralds back all ended up dead."

The drunkard laughed. "And how did a cute little creature like you do that?"

Hando then proceeded to do something profoundly stupid. He reached out his hand and petted Shadow. A second later, the Darksaber was ignited and Hando's smoking hand was on the floor.

He screeched. "Why does every maniac with a lightsaber end up on my planet!?"

"This is a little souvenir from those people I killed." Shadow held it up and let the aliens see it.

"That's the Darksaber!"

"He killed the Mandolorians!"

They backed away from Shadow, lowering their blasters.

"You can have the thing! Just go!"

"I still need a ride to Kamino."

Just then, the door burst open and a handful of clones came in. "Okay, who here has information about… oh."

"What are you guys doing here?" Shadow asked.

"We heard you were kidnapped by bounty hunters. We came here to see if we could find any information about where you were taken."

"Well, it's a good thing you're here. I need a ride back to Kamino."

"How did you escape? And how did you get the Darksaber?"

"I've been busy. Let's go."

The 501st and the two Jedi masters snuck up on the droids advancing towards the Jedi Temple. The clones opened fire on the unsuspecting droids. The droids, discovering that the enemy was behind them, turned around and opened fire.

"There's too many of them! We aren't going to last long like this!" Jessie yelled.

Suddenly, a large air speeder flew over their heads and crashed into the approaching droids. The speeder had no pilot, so they assumed it was thrown by either Mace Windu or Kit Fisto, but Mace and Kit both turned around, surprised.

"Hey, guys! Nice to see you again!"

Ahsoka Tano ran over to Rex. She pointedly ignored Mace and Kit.

"Commander Tano!"

"You know I'm not a commander anymore."

"Right but, what are you doing here?"

"Helping. Where's Skyguy?"

"He went towards the Senate building."

"Why? All the droids are over here! Wait… Padme!"

Anakin ran through the Senate building. He made his way to the senator's emergency bunker and was stopped by Fox.

"Fox, let me in."

"No one is allowed in the senator's bunker during an attack."

"I am ordering you to let me in!"

"I'm afraid I'm under the command of the Chancellor. I'm not allowed to let anyone in or out until the invasion is over."

Anakin raised his hand. "You will let me in."

"I… will let you in."

The mind-tricked trooper opened the security door.

Anakin rushed in. "Where's Padme?"

A petite human woman stepped forward. "Anakin?"

"Padme are you okay?"

"Of course, I'm okay! Shouldn't you be defending the Temple?"

"I had to check on you first!" The other senators were staring, but Anakin didn't really care right then.

"I can handle myself! There are other people who need you more!"

"We got clankers!"

The shout came from Fox, who was now desperately trying to defend the wide-open door. A commando droid leapt forward and decapitated him with its blade. Anakin ignited his lightsaber and sliced through the droid. He took up Fox's position defending the door and used the Force to slam it shut again.

Ahsoka stood in front of Rex, defending him from blaster shots so he could focus on taking out droids.

"So, the holonet's been going crazy with stories about clones betraying the Republic. Wanna tell me what that's all about?"

"Well, it's a bit of a complicated story."

"Give me the short version!"

"Well, there's this unknown creature named Shadow. He's been removing the bio chips from the clones."

"How did he manage to do that?" Ahsoka asked, twirling her two lightsabers to deflect a concentrated burst of blaster fire.

"I'm not really sure how he got the first few, but now he has most of the clone army doing the work for him."

"Didn't Fives go insane when he had his chip removed?"

"About that, I don't think Fives was as crazy as we thought, or at least it didn't have anything to do with the bio chip."

"What do you mean?"

"I've had my chip out for a while now, and I don't feel crazy."

"You did what? Why?"

"It seemed like a good idea at the time!" Rex defended.

"You sound like Anakin."

"I trust Fives. The other clones who had their chips removed said that the real purpose of these chips is to keep us enslaved to the Republic. That seems to be this creature's motivation for removing them. And they definitely aren't to keep us from going insane so… he might be correct. If so, there's something really wrong with our government."

"Well, I definitely know there's major problems with the Jedi." Ahsoka said bitterly.

Suddenly, the droids started pulling back.

"Are they giving up?" Ahsoka asked.

"No way. I saw all the ships they brought. They've got millions of clankers to throw at us."

"Then why are they retreating?"

Anakin deflected the shots of the droids, defending his self-assigned post. But then they stopped firing. Anakin watched in confusion as they turned around and left.

"Unusually smart of them."

He opened the door to the bunker again.

"It's okay, everyone! They're leaving! They're probably regrouping with the main force attacking the temple. Don't know why they came over here if their target was the Temple."

"Isn't it obvious Anakin? They came here after you!" Padme pointed out.

"If they came after me, then why did they leave? Those droids aren't programed to know when to give up."

"They're leaving. But why?" Obi-wan wondered aloud.

Then they saw one lone battle droid still approaching them. Cody aimed his blaster at it.

"Hold your fire. It's not attacking, it's bringing a message."

The droid presented a holoprojector to Yoda. He activated it and Dooku's image appeared.

"Master Yoda. I couldn't help but notice you no longer have an army. I think this battle has made it very clear that you are helpless to stop my droid armies without them. Luckily for you, I am generous enough to offer you a chance to surrender. If you are ready to admit defeat, the Jedi Council and the Supreme Chancellor will meet me on Mustafar to negotiate your surrender. However, if you refuse, the Separatist fleet is prepared to bombard Coruscant until no life remains."

The hologram of Dooku faded. The droid took the holoprojector and walked away.

Obi-wan turned to Yoda. "What are we going to do?"

Yoda was deep in thought, processing the information he had just been given. He looked at all the dead bodies scattered on the Temple stairs. He looked up at the thousands of ships hanging above them. He leaned heavily on his walking stick, suddenly looking every second of his nine hundred years.

"Continue this war, we cannot. Defeated, we have been. Surrender, our only option, it is."

Grievous stomped over to Dooku.

"Why did you order my forces to retreat? We had the Jedi right where we wanted them!"

"The decision was made by my master. He has proposed a different way to end the Jedi Council."

"And how could it be more effective than simply crushing them right here?"

"He didn't say. But he has ordered both of us to meet him on Mustafar for the Jedi's surrender."

"What's the point of luring them into a trap if we already have them trapped in the Temple?"

Grievous worked himself up so much he went into a coughing fit.

"Patience, General. when this is over, the Jedi order will be dead."