Darius Kymeri, then a Jedi Padawan, remembered that fateful day in Cato Neimoidia. The day when the Jedi were accused of treason and had to be hunted down.

He was on his starfighter striking down several Separatist Vulture droids. Together with his Master, Plo Koon, they led the Wolfpack fighter squadron into an airstrike.

Suddenly, amidst the battle, he felt a disturbance in the Force. Troubled, Darius turned to his master, who flew his fighter beside his. "Master, did you feel that?" He asked, glancing out the transparisteel windscreen of his cockpit.

The Kel Dor Jedi Master's head was visible. He couldn't see the expression on his face due to his goggles and breathing mask on, but he knew that he had felt it too.

"Darius, be on guard." Plo Koon said. "Something's about to happen." He warned.

"Copy that, Master," Darius replied.

Right on cue, the squadron fighters following them started firing.

"Darius—" Plo called in an urgent tone. He never finished his sentence.

A torpedo caused an explosion and Plo Koon's fighter went down, splintering into pieces.

"Master Plo!" Darius yelled.

With his master down, the clone pilots turned to him and started firing. He wanted to go to his master's aid, but he had to maneuver the fighter to evade the torpedoes.

"Pilot, stand down!" He ordered.

"This is Captain Jag." The clone pilot Jag said through the radio comm. "Fire at the Jedi Starfighter."

"What?" Darius shrieked. "Captain, this is Commander Kymeri, hold your fire." He ordered.

The clone red leader Jag never responded, he kept telling the others to shoot Darius' fighter.

"Jag—" Darius started to say, but unfortunately a torpedo hit his right engine and his fighter went spiraling down to a woody area of one of the hanging Neimoidian cities.

The fighter hit the ground hard. Luckily, Darius was awake when it crashed. He was still dazed but he forced himself to stand. "What in the universe is going on?" He complained and noticed that his right jaw hurt. He became aware that the crash left a gash on his right jaw. Darius ignored the pain as he broke off the burnt transparisteel windscreen and ran before clones could find him.

Darius donned his brown Jedi robe and pulled the hood down to cover his face. He didn't understand why the clones suddenly had the nerve to kill Jedi. They succeeded in killing Plo Koon and are trying to kill him, so he decided to find out more. He found himself in a hiding spot not far from his crashed fighter. He knew better than to hide where the clones can easily find him.

As expected, the clones checked the wreckage. They approached the fighter, which was still smoking, half-buried in the mossy terrain and with the windscreen of the cockpit wide open. The clones advanced with their blasters ready. Any sign of movement and they'll shoot without hesitation.

"Hold it!" A clone yelled as he ran towards the clones surrounding the fighter. Darius recognized him immediately with his slightly different armor and helmet. It was Wolffe, his master's Clone Commander. "Blasters down." He said as he pushed down the blaster of the nearest trooper. "What are you doing, Comet?"

"He might still be alive, sir." The clone corporal, Comet responded.

Wolffe scanned the wreckage, then turned back to Comet. "If he's still alive, he wouldn't just sit there." He said. "Of course, he would run!"

"Is he dead?" Another clone approached them. Jag.

"There's no sign of Commander Kymeri." A clone trooper said.

"General Plo Koon?" Wolffe asked Jag.

"Dead." Jag said. "I shot him myself."

Wolffe sighed and looked down. "Yes, but," He turned to Jag, clearly unimpressed. "What about his padawan, hmm?"

"Uh…" Jag scratched his helmet, then he straightened. "We'll find him."

"That won't be necessary," Wolffe said. "I'm rallying all troops back to Coruscant."

"Sir," Comet interjected. "The orders came from the Supreme Chancellor himself. The other Jedi is still out there. We have to find him and execute him."

It took Wolffe a long time to answer. Clearly, he was hesitating. "Very well," He sighed, turning back to Comet. "You and your men search this area."

Darius shivered as he listened. The Chancellor ordered them to kill the Jedi. Why? He didn't know and he didn't understand. Now, the clones mentioned the other Jedi. By that, it meant him. They're probably gonna scour all of Cato Neimoidia until they find him.

But there's something different about Wolffe. Like the hesitation to give orders to find him. Maybe he was against this Chancellor's new order. But why did the others followed it with no questions asked?

While the clones were out searching for him, Wolffe remained near his burned fighter. He knelt on one knee and took off his helmet.

Darius took it as his chance. He leaped into the clear, holding his lightsaber hilt, and approached Wolffe quietly. He ignited his lightsaber, which glowed with blue light, and pointed it at Wolffe. "Where are your brothers, Wolffe?" He asked.

Wolffe turned, only to find a lightsaber pointed at his throat. "Sir? You're alive!" He said, with a mixed expression of surprise and amusement.

"Yeah," Darius said. "I believe you were looking for me."

"Sir, you need to get out of here," Wolffe said urgently. "Before they come back."

"I'm not leaving until I understand what's going on." Darius gritted his teeth, pointing his lightsaber closer to Wolffe's throat. "Why did your brothers killed Master Plo? And why are you trying to kill me?" He demanded.

Wolffe held his hands up in surrender. "It was an order passed out by the Supreme Chancellor. To kill the Jedi."

"Why?"

"I don't know," Wolffe admitted. "It was programmed in a chip in our heads, so no one will be able to refuse, and that we'll follow it without hesitation." He explained.

"Why were you hesitating then?" Darius asked.

"I had that chip removed." Wolffe pointed to a shaved patch of skin on his head, where a faint scar can be seen. "It's a long story, but it was an arc trooper from the 501st who found out about it."

"501st?" Darius repeated as he turned off his lightsaber. "Clones under Skywalker."

Wolffe nodded. "His Clone Captain 7567, Rex convinced me to remove it."

If this happened everywhere, returning to Coruscant will be a death sentence. Where would he go? He took a deep breath. It doesn't matter, He thought. I just need to get out Cato Neimoidia.

Wolffe's comlink beeped. It must be the other clones about to give a status report.

"Commander," Wolffe said, put his hand on Darius' shoulder, and gave a weak smile. "You need to leave now."

Darius raised an eyebrow at him. "You aren't gonna turn me in?" He dared.

Wolffe shook his head. "I owe you and your master a lot, kid. I know I'm disobeying orders, but I would never betray my General."

Darius managed a smile. "Thanks." He turned to leave. "I'll see you around, Wolffe."

"Hey kid," Wolffe called.

Darius looked back at him.

Wolffe took his med supply from his utility pack and threw it to him. "Patch it up. It's gonna get infected."

Darius caught it and smiled. "Thanks." He said again, then touched the gash on his jaw.

"From what I know," Wolffe said. "They'll scour the entire planet to find you so stay out of trouble."

"I will," Darius promised. "We'll meet again, I'm sure of that."

Darius went to his master's fighter's wreckage. Plo Koon's fighter exploded into pieces and the debris was everywhere. He couldn't find his master's body. Either it got burned to ashes as the fighter went down or the clones dragged it elsewhere.

As he was about to leave, something caught his eye near the fighter's smoldering comm transceiver. Some little cube glinted in the daylight. He walked towards it. As he got nearer, he realizes it's not just any cube, it was a Holocron. Plo Koon's Holocron.

He took it and wiped the dirt on it with his Jedi robe. He held it in the light to examine it closer.

Suddenly, a voice called out. "There he is!" A clone yelled. "The other Jedi!"

Darius ran. He didn't know where he was going, he just ran away from the pursuing clone troopers. He ran through the streets and hid behind buildings. Until he got cornered at the end of the bridge city.

At that point, he was left with two options: Surrender and be killed or jump and plummet to his death.

Hastily, Darius chose the second option. He jumped off the bridge city. Thankfully, he was able to grab one of the cables that held the bridge city in place and was out of sight from his pursuers. And while hanging on for his life, he heard the clone troopers' conversations.

"Do we need to inform the fighters for—?" One of the clones, Jag started to ask.

"That won't be necessary," Another said. It was Comet. "That Jedi Kymeri is foolish enough to jump to his death. No one would've survived that fall."

He could tell that the troops left, so he climbed back up the city. He navigated through the streets with the hood of his Jedi robe pulled down to cover half of his face as he went for the Spaceport.

Darius managed to sneak into one of the cargo freighters docked, which was his ticket out of Cato Neimodia. He sat on the cargo hold's paristeel floor and he clutched Plo Koon's Holocron, the only item he managed to salvage from his fallen master's fighter and his last memory of him.

He placed it before him and meditated.

He reached out to the Force and the Holocron floated in midair. A holo-recording of a man in Jedi robes with auburn hair and beard appeared.

"This is Master Obi-Wan Kenobi." The man in the holomessage said. "I regret to report that both our Jedi Order and the Republic have fallen, with the dark shadow of the Empire rising to take their place. This message is a warning and a reminder for any surviving Jedi. Trust in the Force. Do not return to the Temple. That time has passed, and our future is uncertain. We will each be challenged, our trust, our faith, and our friendships. But we must persevere and, in time, a new hope will emerge. May the Force be with you, always."

. . .

"I—I'm sorry," It was all Kanan could say.

"I've been on my own ever since," Darius recalled. "Never stayed long in one place, moved from star system to star system, and I always had to look behind my back to know if someone followed me." He took something from one of the larger pockets of his jumpsuit. It was a lightsaber. "I kept my lightsaber but never used it since it happened. If I do, I'm afraid the Empire will find me and I'd run out of places to hide."

"Well, you're not alone anymore," Kanan said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You've got us now."

"Thanks," Darius managed a smile. And it was like a weight of guilt had just been lifted off of his chest. "But I feel like we had to go through that to get to where we are now."

Ezra blinked at him. "Hiding from the Empire?"

"Fighting for a good cause," Darius corrected. "Only this time, it's much more different."

"So, you'll help us?" Kanan asked.

Darius nodded. "I'll help you rescue Ahsoka back from the Empire," He promised. "If there's anything we need right now, it's hope. And she is hope."

Kanan nodded in agreement. "And even though she refuses to call herself a Jedi, her actions proved otherwise. Sacrificing one's self to save hundreds—it's what a Jedi would do. And there aren't many of us who survived, so it's better if we stick together, for now."

Kanan then offered to spar with Darius since he was a little rough for not using his lightsaber for several years. And while they were sparring, Hera came up to them on the roof deck.

"Rex wants you in the Command Center," She informed.

Kanan turned off his lightsaber. "Why?"

"They received a transmission from Onderon," She informed. "It's Saw Gerrera."

"Hey," Ezra said. "Maybe they finally have news about Ahsoka."