A/N: I am stoked to be back, and I cannot wait to hear from you guys- I missed your messages while I was gone! Also, please see my profile for an important announcement after reading this!

In this chapter we will finally see the aftermath of the infamous Order Sixty-Six. Who lived and who died? Start reading, don't ask me!


Order Sixty-Six

Asuna's lightsaber was just a fraction too slow. By the time she had turned around, the troopers' rifles were already cut in two followed by the removal of their heads by a green lightsaber. Yoda looked around to make sure that there were no more troops before he sheathed his blade.

Tarfull and Chewbacca both gave out little half-grunts half-whines at the sight. "Not safe it is," Yoda said, his face etched with an unbearable sadness. "Move into the jungle, we must."

"Master Yoda?" Asuna asked. As the little green creature hopped up onto the back of Chewbacca. "I felt a powerful… wave, coming from the Force just before those clones tried to kill us. What's going on?"

"Dying, the Jedi are," Yoda replied, his ears drooping. "Revenge of the Sith, this is."

"The Sith?" Asuna was nothing short of shocked. "But we killed Count Dooku! Wasn't he the master of the Sith?"

"Doubt that I do," Yoda replied as they began to make their way through the tree-city that the wookiees called home. "Never claim the title, did he. Boastful, he was. Yet never claim the title of Sith Lord, did he."

"So…" Asuna paused in her thinking. "Then if he wasn't, who was the Sith Lord?"

"Know that I do not," Yoda answered. "Get to Courascant, we must. Fear what we will see, I do."

"Oh no…" Asuna had never had a tan complexion to begin with, so when she paled, it seemed as though the blood had drained straight out of her face entirely, leaving a ghost in its wake.

"Asuna?" Yoda asked as the girl stopped walking. "What is the problem, child?"

"If Jedi are dying…" Asuna croaked out, "What happened to Yui?!"


Yui deflected the red blade with her saberstaff, leaving the Sith Lord otherwise known as Chacellor Palpatine open for an attack by Vaxra, who took the opportunity to lash out with his blue blade. Although, seeing his face even beneath the cowl, it was almost impossible to believe that he was the same person: the man looked like a skeleton with a thin veneer of skin holding his demonic orange eyes in place.

Palpatine used his outstretched hand that was empty to blast the youngling with lightning. He cried out in pain as he flung against the window, cracking the glass and dropping hard on the floor. Some of his comrades went to aid him, but he only let them help him to his feet.

"Vaxra, no!" a girl named Skai'li said as tried to hold him back. "You'll die if you go back in there!"

"We'll all die if I stay here," he retorted, shrugging off her grip. "If you're not going to help us and put everything that Master Kirito and Asuna taught us to use, then at least use this chance to escape while we hold him off. But I'm not going to stand here while my friends go get themselves killed for nothing."

With that, he activated his lightsaber and reached out with the Force to connect himself to Yui and Ahsoka. The three attacked in unison, keeping even the Dark Lord on his toes as he used every bit of his power to hold them off. He snarled as one of Yui's stabs burnt his arm, just missing the tendons that would have rendered the hand holding his lightsaber useless.

He retaliated with a lightning-charged swing of his lightsaber, the knockback powerful enough to smash her back into one of the pillars and rendering her unconscious. Palpatine forced the other two off of him with ease after that, and he took the advantage to advance on Yui, who was still knocked out, his lightsaber coming up for the kill.

"I've wanted to do this for some time now, my dear," the warped voice of the Chancellor said. "You nearly ruined my plans by discovering Order Sixty-Six and by holding a place in the heart of my new apprentice. The penalty, of course, is death." He brought his lightsaber down- only to have it blocked by two green blades.

He looked to either side of Yui to see two determined younglings, each one holding back his blade from killing their comrade. Then there was a surge in the Force and Palpatine found himself being shoved away from the three Jedi-in-training. He wasn't tossed like he had been tossing the younglings, but the power behind the repulsion was strong enough to make him feel disoriented. Looking around, he had to shake his head to clear it, not sure that he was seeing things right.

Far from being terrified by his presence any longer, the entire class was now illuminating the Council Chamber with the glow of the green and blue blades. Yui slowly staggered to her feet as her two classmates helped her up. She shook her head to clear it before her comrades placed their hands on her brow and cheeks and used the Force to assuage her dizziness and headache so that she could fight again.

"So you all wish to die?" Palpatine sneered.

"No," Vaxra retorted. "But if we do die, we'll do it like we were taught: together. And even if we don't survive, we'll be sure to take your ugly face down with us." Together the younglings rushed at the man who would destroy their home.


The swim to the surface of the water was comparatively easy compared to the effort that it took to make it back to the same level where they had left Grievous' ship undetected. Kazuto and Obi-Wan had both regained consciousness just in time to use their breathers to keep from drowning. Unfortunately, Boga had not survived the fall, and was left to rest at the bottom of the lake that spread across the length of the canyon.

When they finally reached the ship where Grievous had attempted to escape, Kazuto go into the pilot's seat while Obi-Wan climbed in the back to take over as co-pilot. Only then did either of them speak, with Kazuto being the first.

"Okay, what in the hell just happened back there?!" The younger warrior demanded. "Our own troops just shot at us, and we heard Cody, of all people, giving out orders to confirm that we were dead by showing him our bodies! Did the clones glitch out or something, because I thought that they were supposed to follow Jedi orders no matter what!"

"No, they weren't," Obi-Wan said in a flat, removed tone. "That's not true. It never was."

"What are you talking about?"

"The clones' loyalty is to the Republic first, just like the Jedi," The Knight replied. "However, the Jedi have always had their free will, whereas clones never did. Whoever gave them the order to kill us has to be in the Senate, because only their authority would be above ours in the eyes of a clone trooper."

"But who would do that?" Kazuto demanded. Another thought made his blood run cold. "Obi-Wan… If the clones were ordered to kill us, then… how many other Jedi…" He couldn't finish the words as the thought of Asuna and Yui being shot to death by their own troops flooded his mind.

In response to the question Obi-Wan sent out a message to a man he hoped that he could trust. "Hello, is anyone there?" he asked into the comlink as the connection was secured. "This General Obi-Wan Kenobi and Commander Kazuto Kirigiya. Can anybody read me?"

"Master Kenobi!" A middle-aged man appeared as a hologram in front of both Kazuto and Obi-Wan: Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan. He looked immensely relieved, Obi-Wan thought. "Thank goodness you contacted us when you did."

"We need help," Kazuto replied, a little more curtly that necessary. "Our own damn troops attacked us, and we need help."

"We figured as much," the senator nodded. "We've received reports that this catastrophe has struck in multiple places, including the Temple itself."

""The t-" Kazuto's voice caught in his throat as his fear threatened to choke the life out of him.

"Commander Kazuto, I am sorry, but try not to worry too much," Organa said, trying to placate the young man. "We've managed to pick up Master Yoda and Asuna, as well as your class and daughter."

The fear that had threatened to consume Kazuto Kirigiya melted away, leaving him too exhausted to form a response. They're safe… he thought. Thank the Force…

"We're transmitting you our location now," Organa said. "Please get here as soon as possible. We have a lot to talk about."

"We'll be there as soon as possible, Senator," Obi-Wan replied as he uploaded the coordinates. "We'll see you in a few hours." Once he hung up, he told Kazuto to initiate the lightspeed. It was all that the young sword master could do after the emotional storm that he'd had to weather.


"Daddy!" The Force connection that Kazuto shared with his family rang like a soothing bell as soon as he entered the ship owned by Bail Organa.

"Kirito!" The two voices reached Kazuto in the white hallways of the Alderaanian vessel. He took off at a sprint, leaving behind a disgruntled Obi-Wan as he made a mad dash to reach his family. They all collided at an intersection, which involved them all ending up on the floor in pain at first. However, as soon as they were able to regain their senses, they ended up just holding one another on the floor, Kazuto and Asuna's arms locked to bring Yui in between them to make a human sandwich.

Tears flowed down everyone's faces as they lay there, reunited at last. "Asuna… Yui…" Kazuto's voice was muffled slightly by his daughter's head and hair, but he didn't care. He was just glad that not one piece of his heart was missing.

After a few moments, they slowly got up off the floor together, though they all stayed in contact in one way or another. Kazuto picked his little girl up off of the floor and Asuna latched herself onto his arm, intending to stay there for some time.

"How… how did you… survive?" the Black Swordsman asked through his still-blurry eyes. "I thought that…"

In response, Asuna told him about how she and Yoda had escaped from Kashyyyk with the help of a pair of wookiees. She also described how Yoda talked about the mass genocide of the Jedi that he had sensed through the Force. Apparently, he had been having visions of this catastrophe for some time, but only the higher-ups knew about them.

Yui's story took a little longer to tell. The girl talked about how she and Ahsoka had discovered the missing Order Sixty-Six and then hacked into the Chancellor's personal files to discover the horrifying truth of it all. But by the time they tried to warn the council, they had been lured into a trap by Palpatine, or Darth Sidious, as he called himself. None of the council members were alive anymore, save for Yoda and Obi-Wan. Both Asuna and Kazuto were shocked to learn the identity of the true Sith Lord.

Yui then went on to talk about how Sidious and his new apprentice had led an assault on the Jedi Temple. The Chancellor had attacked her personally for cryptic reasons that she was still trying to figure out. The only thing that made sense to her so far was that he had sensed her intruding on his plans, so he wanted revenge. There was some other reason that she was dangerous to him, too, but she didn't know how that was so.

"Did he say anything to you?" Kazuto interrupted. "Some sort of clue?"

"The only thing that I'm still wondering about is when he said that 'I held a place the heart of his new apprentice.' I have no idea what that means, though."

"Hmm…" Kazuto thought hard for a moment before he shook his head. "Sorry, I have no idea what that means."

"It's okay, Kirito," Asuna said soothingly. "None of us expects you to solve anything right now. Right now I just want to enjoy this moment before we have to go back to saving the galaxy…"

"I wish we could," Kazuto sighed. "But Yui, what happened next? You said that the whole class was getting ready to attack, and Senator Organa said that he'd picked you all up. Did you beat the Chancellor?"

"We got away from him, but…" Yui's little face began to tear up again as she buried her face in her father's shoulder. "We lost, too. It cost us a lot to get away."

"What happened?" Asuna asked, worried.

"We regrouped, and then…"


Chancellor Palpatine cackled at the attacking group before he unleashed a force repulse laced with lightning to throw them all back against the wall. Ahsoka hit her head on one of the columns and stayed down. Yui and Vaxra both joined in the Force to assist one another before they could be hurt. In unison, they landed against the wall with their legs bent to absorb the impact. Then, using the Force hard enough that they left spider web cracks in the walls that they leapt from, they launched themselves at a very surprised Chancellor.

He deflected Yui's straight thrust and barely had time to dodge Vaxra's slashing attack. The two hit the ground and immediately turned with rising attacks to strike at the Sith Lord, who was forced to leap away with an agility that was impressive for someone his age.

Once he was at a distance, he unleashed blue lightning straight at Yui, who managed to hold it back with her lightsaber, but it would not last long. Vaxra shot forward at the speed of a laser blast, his blue blade coming up to strike at Yui's, surprising both her and the Sith when it deflected the lightning at the feet of Palpatine with the force of the counterblow.

The Sith Lord snarled in frustration as he was forced to retreat once again. Seeing this, Vaxra stood in his ready stance and taunted, "Come on! Is that all you've got? I think a thousand years of cowardice has made the Sith lose their edge."

The response that the Chancellor gave was enough lightning to blow up Jedi Starfighter. This time, Yui had a better handle on things, swinging her staff in unison with her classmate's to deflect the lightning. Howling with frustration and rage, the Dark Lord unleashed his power at the ground, causing the two friends to be tossed into the air.

But before he could press the attack, he was slammed out of the chamber by an even stronger Force blast than before. He staggered to his feet as the younglings exited the hall, all of them with lightsabers at the ready, save for the two that were carrying Ahsoka. Stepping up to the front were Yui and Vaxra, the latter saying, "Let us pass, Sith. Or die."

"Foolish boy," their enemy hissed. "Even if I die here, today, Darth Vader will become more powerful than any of us."

"Darth Vader, huh?" Vaxra smirked. "If he's so strong, why'd you have to come up here to take on us yourself?"

"His training is not yet complete," the evil lightsaber-wielder retorted. "But by this time next week, he will be a fully realized Sith Apprentice. And the entire galaxy will bow down to the names Darth Sidious and Darth Vader!" Then he leaped forward, whirling his body like a tornado to stab at Vaxra and causing the students to dodge to the side.

"Go!" he shouted as he parried the Sith Lord blow for blow. "I can hold him off! Get out of here and find help!"

Yui leaped into the battle once more and said, "Daddy would never leave a friend behind to die! So neither will I!" As soon as she had room, she called out to the others, "Go! We'll meet up with you in a few minutes!"

"No, Yui!" Vaxra cried. "I won't stand to see you get hurt by him! Please, go!"

"Never!" Yui screamed. She unleashed a blast from the Force so powerful, the air itself seemed to ripple with power. "I already watched thousands die once before! I won't see it happen again if I can help it!"

Sidious was completely floored by the attack. He sprawled on the floor, his lightsaber deactivated and rolled away from his grasp. Seeing this, Vaxra ran forward, saying, "I'm going to finish it!"

But Yui felt what was coming before it happened. Before she could cry out, Sidious' lightsaber flew back to the hand of its master and ignited just in time to stab Vaxra in the chest. He had a look of surprise on his face as the blade entered his body and he realized that he had been tricked.

Sidious stood up and removed his blood-red blade from his defeated opponent as Yui sank to her knees, despair overwhelming her. This, she knew, was how her beloved Daddy had felt when he had lost Sachi, his closest friend at the time. The pain was like a burning drill that numbed wherever it touched, emptying her body of all vitality.

Seeing the look on her face and her position on her knees, Sidious cackled darkly to himself. He walked towards the Kirigiya girl, taking his time, wanting to savor his victory over the little nuisance.

Yui saw him approaching, but she didn't care. She had failed her friend, and now she would reap the consequences of her inability. Her eyes locked with Vaxra's and she felt a powerful presence enter her mind. She gasped inaudibly without any physical reaction as she felt the mind of Vaxra, fading fast, yet still strong in spirit. They were joined as one in the Force in this moment, and she could feel his every emotion and memory caress her soul gently, trying to restore life to her spirit.

'Yui,' she heard him say in her mind. 'Jedi have never been allowed to fall in love in all our history, until your parents came along. Even then, I thought such a notion to be wishful thinking… But now, finally, I understand what love is. Love is when you set someone else's needs before your own… So if I was ever to love someone, I suppose that I would have loved you, Yui Kirigiya… The tears began to fall even harder, and Yui shook with the force of them.

'Don't cry, Yui… There is no death, there is only rest in the Force. Whenever you feel sad, just know that when you reach for the Force, you will be reaching to me… So don't mourn me, please. Keep fighting, daughter of Asuna and Kirito. And never give up hope.' Then Vaxra smiled and closed his eyes, a peaceful serenity settling on his face. The connection seemed to vanish for a moment to Yui. But then…

Sidious raised his lightsaber slowly, theatrically, a dark smile on his lips. Then he swung it down with all his might, aiming for Yui's neck. He expected the blade to slice straight through, so it was only natural that his mouth gaped in surprise when his sword stopped a mere centimeter from Yui's unoccupied hand, which had suddenly shot up to interpose itself between his sword and her neck. With a start of surprise, he realized that she was using the Force alone to block his lightsaber- a power not seen since the days of Satele Shan, the Jedi Grandmaster during the time of the Sith empire's return.

The light side of the Force surged as Yui flung out her hand, sending Sidious sliding a good fifty meters down the hallway. She shifted her hand to reach out to Vaxra's body, and something flew out to meet her grip. A single purple blade emanated from her right hand even as a blue one slide out from her left fist.

Yu locked eyes with the Chancellor and smiled through her pain. "I'm done saying good-bye," she said to herself. "I'll never forget you, Vaxra. Thank you." Dual blades in hand, she moved so fast that she seemed to be nearly a ghost flitting at the edge of Sidious' vision. But as he was about to discover, this little ghost packed more than one surprise.

He felt as though he had been struck with a vibro-axe when Yui used the Force to increase the power of her blow with the blue lightsaber, despite his own attempt to block it. It sent him sprawling again, the little girl standing over him in an innocently superior manner that annoyed the Sith.

When he tried to rise, she hit him in the head with her saberstaff's hilt, as she had turned the other blade off. He was stunned, and now Yui could finish things off for good. She raised her lightsaber to strike, but then she hesitated. Memories flooded her mind, reminding her of how it felt to watch others kill themselves, or worse, each other. She remembered the pain and fear in their hearts as they realized that the end was upon them. And though she wrought much destruction with her skills, never had she directly used her blades to kill a biological being. And in that moment, she knew that she couldn't kill Sidious, even after everything he had done. She knew that it would take a real warrior, like her Uncle Anakin, or her parents to do something like this. Her sole purpose when she was created was to help and nurture the human mind. She could not, in good conscience, kill anybody.

But still… When he tried to rise, she deactivated her staff and slammed it down on his head, hard. This time, he wouldn't move for a while. "You're lucky Daddy's not here," she said bitterly, hating herself for her weakness. Running as fast as she could, she did not stop except to look at Vaxra's peaceful smile until she caught up with the others and they managed to find and commandeer one of the clone's fighter craft…


"And that's how we ended up getting here," Yui finished, still trembling and crying. "Ahsoka sent out a secure broadcast to Senator Organa in the hopes that he would help us out. And once we got word from Mommy, we rushed over to rescue her and Master Yoda."

The family had been seated in a conference room where they could talk in private. Kazuto and Asuna could sense Yoda and Obi-Wan in the next room over doing the same thing. But right now, they both knew that Yui needed them more than any part of the galaxy did.

"Honey…" Asuna said gently. "I am so sorry that this happened to you. And I'm sorry that we left you at the temple like we did." Tears began to mist in her eyes, and Yui threw her arms around her mother.

"It's okay, Mommy," the little girl sobbed. "You didn't… know… what was going… to… happen… I'm… sorry… I couldn't… I should have…" She became unintelligible as she began to cry relentlessly, soaking her mother's Jedi clothing down to the skin.

"Yui…" Kazuto murmured quietly as he enveloped his girls in a gentle, warm hug, even though he wanted to squeeze them both and never let go. "There is no shame in what you did. No matter what anyone else tells you, never forget that we love you. And don't forget what Vaxra told you, either." Yui's only reply was nod wordlessly into Asuna's shoulder. Eventually, completely exhausted by the whole ordeal, she fell into a deep slumber.


Leaving her in the medical room with Asuna, Kazuto dashed the tears from his eyes as he went to meet with Yoda and Obi-Wan to discuss their next move. He entered the room to find both Jedi there, as well as the Senator, all seated at a long table.

"So," he said as he sat down. "What's our next move?"

"Well, first of all, we've received some troubling news," Obi-Wan said with a frown. "It seems that the temple is emitting a signal telling all Jedi to return home. We can assume that it leaves out the part where the clones still occupy the temple."

"Aw crap," Kazuto muttered. "Just when I thought that the day couldn't get any worse. This means that we need to get into the temple, doesn't it?"

"The course of action, it must be," Yoda nodded slowly. "Warn the other Jedi of this trap, we must."

"Another thing," Obi-Wan said. "We need to find out who 'Darth Vader' is. Then we need to decide who will take on the Chancellor, and who will take on the new apprentice."

"Maybe if we can get into the security video files at the temple, it will show us the face of our new enemy," Kazuto said with a slow nod. "I think it's worth a shot."

"I agree," Yoda said. Turning to Organa, he added, "Stay, the children may, I hope?"

"Of course!" Organa said firmly. "I will look after them, don't worry. Although, I doubt that the one called Ahsoka Tano is going to want to stay here. I'd wager that she wants to go with you into the Temple."

"We'll see what the doctors say," Obi-Wan said, but Kazuto could see that he was considering it seriously. "In any case, I think that we had better decide on which path we should take to get into the temple."


Wow... That was hard to write. I really didn't want to kill off Vaxra since I enjoyed watching him make progress with his friends. But... sad as it was, the story needed some catharsis like this, especially if Yui was going to face her biggest challenge as a human being with the history of being an AI.

Good-bye, Vaxra. I'll miss you.