Next chapter will likely be delayed. Sorry, I did warn you guys about this :(. But nonetheless, I hope you'll still enjoy this chapter!

Dangerous Deals (Final pt2)

You should never gamble under pressure

Plo walked up the steps of the Senate entrance with ease. It was a bright and beautiful day on Coruscant but he was too one-track-minded to take notice. As he marched across the building's pristine halls, Plo ignored the stares of politicians and passersby who wondered what could've caused a Jedi Master like himself to move with such tenacity.

The answer: the events of last night. It was a conversation that Plo would be forever grateful to Wolffe for having with him. And it replayed in frame-by-frame accuracy inside his head as he entered the elevator doors.

~ O O O ~

"I'm sorry. I didn't want any of this to happen, I really didn't," Wolffe suddenly burst into apology. There was a slight crack in his voice; he was overridden with guilt. Plo quickly got up from his desk to calm his commander down. He asked for clarification on what Wolffe was sorry for.

"What do you mean?"

~ O O O ~

To say Plo wasn't surprised when Wolffe explained to him what he knew on the 304th's detainment would be a lie. But he didn't expect it to be the way it was either. If what Wolffe said was true, then it'd only be a matter of time before Aliyah and all of her arrested men would be dealt with…by capital punishment.

And Plo would not let that happen.

The elevator finally reached the top floor of the Senate, where the Chancellor's office was located. A barely audible chime was heard before the doors opened.

~ O O O ~

"They were looking into Fives's death," Wolffe finally and reluctantly answered. "Steele was, at least. I'm not sure who else from their legion was involved but it couldn't possibly have been everyone that was arrested. And General Korentayer…I got her involved by telling what Steele's been up to." Regret of his decisions that night at the Senate came back to Wolffe. He should've gone to Plo instead of her. "I thought she'd be able to talk some sense into him. Because he's important to her."

Plo at Wolffe closely. His mind was working hard to wrap these facts that were just presented to him. So it was true that some of the 304th men, Steele included, was trying to dig deeper into the case of ARC-Trooper Fives. And it was true that Aliyah was both aware and involved…because she cared, probably more than she should, about her commander. Then that would make more sense than the story of them giving Admiral Trench a clone from their own ranks.

"You're telling me that Aliyah and the others were arrested, not on suspicion of orchestrating Kal's capture by Trench, but because they've discovered something about ARC-Trooper Fives that they shouldn't have?" Plo confirmed his understandings with Wolffe. The clone commander of the 104th nodded.

"That's what I think. Yes."

~ O O O ~

"WAIT!" One of the guards standing on duty cried to Plo. He and his other two colleagues attempted to stop the Jedi Master. "YOU CAN'T GO IN—"

Before Plo could say something in response, the elevator behind him chimed open again. This time, two additional members of the Jedi Council, Mace Windu and Obi-Wan Kenobi stepped out. The taller, dark-skinned Jedi Master looked both confused and displeased at the sight of Plo being here.

"Master Plo," Mace marched towards the Kel Dor Jedi. He seemed to be a bit out of breath, as if he and Obi-Wan rushed to get here in time. "I thought we advised you to wait for the entire Council to finish with their tasks before accompanying you here."

"And I thought that I told you I would likely not listen to your advice," Plo retorted. It was true, he mentioned to the Council what he learned of last night and what he planned to do. The Council sympathized with him enough to allow him to request an audience with the Chancellor again, but suggested he wait until all of them are available to attend together. Plo did not have the time for that. Every second he waited gave Palpatine a second to prepare. He turned his attention back to the guards.

"I know you're doing your jobs, as it is expected of you, in face of the Chancellor of the Republic. But I also have a job. And that is to both serve and protect my government, even if it's from its own leader." Plo's tone was a mixture of warning and understanding. "Now. Tell the Chancellor that I am here to see him."

Deciding to let Palpatine handle the consequences for this Jedi Master instead of them handling it themselves, the head guard on duty took out his communicator and buzzed the Chancellor. "Your Excellency, Jedi Master Plo Koon and a few others are here to see you."

"Send them in," Palpatine's voice said from both the device and behind the door. The guards stood at ease and the guard opened the door. Plo, Mace, and Obi-Wan stepped inside.

~ O O O ~

"You don't know much about us, do you, sir?" Egad asked in the middle of his interrogation with Tarkin. The Judicial looked up from his notes in shock and confusion at the audacity of this clone.

"Excuse me?"

"I mean if you did, you wouldn't be wasting your time trying to find which one of us did this so-called crime." Egad sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. His eyes radiated the coldness coming from Tarkin, if not more. "Because none of us, and I mean none of us, would ever give up one of our own."

~ O O O ~

Palpatine spun around in his chair to face the lot of Council Masters that just entered. "Why have you come to speak with me, Masters Jedi?"

"The crime you've imprisoned the 304th officers and their Jedi general for is both false and fallible—"

"This again?" Palpatine interrupted Plo midsentence.

"I'm not finished yet." Plo cut right back in. He waited until he had the Chancellor's attention again. Palpatine put his hands on his desk, nodded for the Jedi Master to continue, despite his questionable facial expression. "You've arrested them on suspect of orchestrating the offer of one of their own clone captains to Admiral Trench. I believe that they're innocent of this."

Palpatine leaned forward in his seat. "And what makes you think that?"

"Because I think you've arrested them for something else. Something far worse." Plo had a hint of accusation in his voice. "You're only using the capture of Captain Kal as a cover-up."

Behind his facade, Palpatine was carefully calculating his risks and next moves. He had predicted Plo Koon would try and do something about the 304th's detainment but he hadn't predicted that he'd have hints on what the true reason behind their arrest was.

"Chancellor. If you have something to say, please say it." Plo was getting more irate by the minute. "Whether it be more missing details on the events of ARC-Trooper Fives, or the fact that Dr. Nala Se managed to conclude the Ringo Vinda parasite as a Separatist bio-weapon right after our researchers said there was no parasite in the first place. This whole situation is starting to resemble a silencing of voices. And I would gladly stake my life on the claim that they are innocent."

That caught Palpatine's attention. "Really?"

But Mace immediately protested. He put a hand on Plo's shoulder, pulling back from whatever he was about to say. "Now hold on Plo Koon. A statement like that is both extreme and reckless, you shouldn't be saying it in the first place."

"Tell me. I am a Jedi Master, am I not?" Plo asked without even looking at anyone in particular. Neither Mace nor Obi-Wan could believe what they just heard. Mace quickly answered the question.

"Yes. Yes you absolutely are and nobody would ever doubt that."

"But I am beginning to doubt it, myself," Plo confessed. He looked down at his hands. "I have been teetering dangerously close to the edge with my emotions, and allowing my judgement to become clouded. That is not becoming of who I am to represent. I am a Jedi. I fear what I may do in retaliation if my former Padawan and those she protects with all her heart are punished for what felony you're accusing them of. So I ask you, Chancellor, that you give them a chance to prove their innocence, and have me confined in the meantime."

"Master!" Mace and Obi-Wan cried simultaneously. But Palpatine seemed highly intrigued.

"Master Plo, please," Obi-Wan pleaded after containing himself. "Let us discuss this as a Council, first."

"I've already made up my mind," Plo said. His tone was final. "This is the best course of action for myself and for the Order as a whole."

"I admire you." Palpatine stood up from his chair. He walked around his desk towards the three Jedi. "Your faith in your former student's innocence is earning of respect, and I will consider your offer of giving them a chance to prove their guiltlessness. However, I should inform you that if you choose to be confined in their stead, you will suffer the consequences meant for them in the outcome that they fail to clear their names."

Plo was already willing to accept that. He nodded. "All I ask is that you consider. Thank you, Your Excellency."

~ O O O ~

The Jedi left soon after, and Palpatine was left to his thoughts. He smiled gleefully out the window. Mas Amedda walked up to his side, curious as to why he looked so unfazed after everything that just happened.

"You're not troubled by the Jedi's actions?"

"Quite the contrary, Mr. Speaker-person," Palpatine said. He turned to look at him. "Master Plo Koon is rather popular with the crowd. He's hailed as a galaxy-wide godfather on many of the worlds he's been to. Who do you think the public will side with if we decide to execute the closest thing he has to a daughter?"

"Him," Mas Amedda answered simply.

"Exactly." Palpatine was glad Plo came to him with this offer. Now I may have an unscathed method of getting rid of one of the Order's finest and most beloved Jedi Masters. But first, I'll need the meddling legion's cooperation. "Bring me the 304th commander. I'd like to have a word with him. One on one."

~ O O O ~

Steele awoke from his unsettlingly realistic nightmare. What time was it? Almost noon? Afternoon? It was only the first night he's in prison and he swore he heard Kal screaming bloody murder. But that could just be paranoia. Or guilt. Probably guilt. It was partly him who caused Kal's predicament after all—but still, he wondered, what was with these lucid dreams as of late? Did the universe enjoy toying with him this much?

Suddenly, before Steele could ponder any more on his train of thought, the cell door opened. Two Senate Guards entered. The one in front was holding a pair of handcuffs.

"Get up. The Chancellor wants to have a word with you."

Great. Just what I needed right after waking up.

But Steele knew better than to resist. He stood up, accepted the cuffs from the Senate Guard, and was led out of the detainment building and towards the Senate.

~ O O O ~

The guards took Steele right up to the Chancellor's office. Then they uncuffed him and let him be. Palpatine put his hands together in curious delight at his desk. He welcomed Steele with a contradicting aura.

"Commander. So good of you to join me."

"I didn't have much of a choice," Steele muttered while looking around the room. Trying to find anything that Palpatine might use to frame him for even more trouble.

"No you didn't. But you complied, and you came without any resistance." Palpatine gave him an eerie look. "That is good."

Steele felt himself grow cold when Palpatine got out of his seat and began walking towards him. There was something heart-stoppingly terrifying about this man, but he couldn't put his finger on it. This kind of fear he was feeling from Palpatine couldn't compare to any kind of fear he's experienced before.

Not even Krell could compare.

Palpatine stopped about a foot's step right in front of Steele. A small smile curled upon his face. "What if I were to let you go right this instant? Remove your confinement, lift all your accusations? What would you do? Who would you go to immediately?"

"My general," Steele answered. Does it even matter lying at this point? "My officers, all of my men."

"Not the Jedi Council?" Palpatine asked with skepticism.

"I'll see them afterwards. I haven't forgotten about that yet." Steele made it clear that he had no intention of pretending Order 66 didn't exist.

Palpatine now got the angle he needed to proceed with this clone. He slowly started to circle around Steele. "Let's say I released your entire legion as well. Your darling general, your devouter-than-life officers, all of your men on Kamino that you've inadvertently put into the fray. And of course, your captured clone captain. Would you then be willing to leave all this nonsense behind?"

Steele could hardly believe what he just heard. Did Palpatine take him for a fool? "N—No."

"No?" Palpatine sounded more threatening than amused. He narrowed his eyes. "Why 'no?'"

"I don't trust you." Steele's voice was barely in the range of audibility.

"You don't trust that I'll keep my end of the bargain?" Palpatine questioned.

"Not that. I don't trust that you'll stop suspecting us once released." Rows of goosebumps formed on Steele's skin wherever Palpatine's eyes bore onto him. He held his quivering left forearm still. "I can swear that I'll forget about this. Tell my men to forget about this and you'll let us out of our cells, just as promised. But you'll never let us go."

The temperature dropped to absolute zero. Palpatine's smile stuck on his face, as if stitched and glued there, but he was far from being content. He turned his back on the clone and walked towards his giant window. "You're right, I won't. In truth, it would be much more preferable to have your minds all wiped. But that'd only solidify to the Jedi that I'm hiding something from them. And, Master Plo Koon…" Palpatine's head swivelled just an inch. "…you're familiar with him, aren't you?"

Steele knew he needn't answer that question. If Palpatine was bringing it up it was obvious he already had the answer.

"Well, he's insistent on the fact that you're all innocent of the crime being pressed onto you. And has even offered to take on your confinement and punishment, in exchange that you all be given a chance to prove yourselves guiltless."

"We already are guiltless," Steele insisted. He wasn't about to let himself fall into another one of Palpatine's pit holes. "You're just trying to appeal to my basic human altruism, and not let an innocent 3rd-party get involved."

"Are you sure about that?" Palpatine turned back around, facing eye-to-eye with Steele once again. But Steele continued to hold onto his suspicions.

"Well then," Palpatine began, then paused for a moment. All traces of dishonesty disappeared from his presence. "From the way I see it, you have a choice. You can continue to be stubborn and let Order 66 be executed the instant Trench discovers the chip inside your fellow brethren's head, or you can accept mine and Master Plo Koon's generous offer, go rescue CT-7701, and delay Order 66 to the time it was supposed to originally be activated."

A choked sound, somewhere between a gasp and a cry, escaped from Steele's throat. Behind the opaque lens of his vision-wear, his eyes widened so much his pupils shrunk to prevent him from going blind again. This…this was insane.

Palpatine smirked in victory. "Plo Koon shall be detained in you and your men's stead and suffer the consequences should you all fail. The choice is yours. Yours, your general's, and all of your legion's. Whether you fail or succeed in retrieving CT-7701 in time will determine how much the Jedi have left to live. Best start deciding now."

Steele swallowed back his last night's dinner. But it threatened to come up again.

~ O O O ~

The Council was in an uproar this afternoon. Mace and Obi-Wan had told everyone the story of what happened at the Chancellor's office. No was happy about it.

"Master Plo, this is unacceptable!" Kit Fisto cried. All around him, several Council members agreed in earnest. "Why would you do such a thing?"

"Would you like it if I decided to do something reckless in the face of Aliyah's execution?" Plo calmly asked. The Council got quiet, sealing Plo's point. "That's what I thought. Neither would I."

"The Chancellor's say in this offer, what was it, exactly?" Yoda asked Mace and Obi-Wan.

"He said he'd be considering," Obi-Wan answered. A dubious shadow cast across his eyes. "He seemed really happy when Master Plo offered to be locked up."

"Which brings me to my next topic," Plo swiftly added. He stood up from his chair. "There is something dark and dreary about Chancellor Palpatine. I've been feeling it ever since the aftermath of Ringo Vinda. My commander confirmed to me that some of the arrested clones were indeed looking into what happened with Skywalker's late ARC-Trooper. I trust him more than I trust His Excellency."

"Your commander only decided to tell you that now?" Mace asked incredulously.

"He has his reasons," Plo defended strongly. The tone of regret and reluctance in Wolffe's confession last night was still etched deep inside of him. "He, just like the rest, only want to protect those they care about, nothing more. Which was why he hesitated to come to me when he knew what his fellow brothers-in-arms were up to. Being close to the upper echelon of the Senate, it'd mean that whatever we know, the Chancellor would likely learn about it too. Wolffe didn't want him to find out. Because he was afraid of crossing him. As we all should."

Yoda put his cane down on the ground. His mind deep in thought.

The meeting ended hours later. The Council couldn't come to a final conclusion on what to do in light of Plo's offer to Palpatine, and Palpatine had yet to get back to them on his consideration. But it was obvious to Plo, Mace, and Obi-Wan what the Chancellor's decision was going to be.

Travelling down the several flights from the Council tower towards the first floor, Plo eventually came across a very distraught-looking Wolffe in the Temple hangar. He took his helm off and a step forward.

"General…don't do this." He also heard about Plo's offer with Palpatine. Not surprisingly, he was upset.

But all Plo did was give him a reassuring nod. "I know what I'm doing." Before Wolffe even had the chance to retort, Plo picked up his gloved hand and squeezed it tight. "And I hope, you will too."

Plo soon let go and turned around to leave the area. As soon as he was gone, Wolffe looked down at his hand and slowly opened it. There was a single small datachip placed on his palm.

~ O O O ~

At the Senate holding building, arrested officers of the 304th were slowly being grouped together. The official reason was because there weren't enough cells for each individual person to be put in. But the real reason behind this was because Palpatine wanted the clones to understand how hopeless the situation is. That even despite being put together, they have absolutely no control or say over their fates.

"So why are we arrested again?" One clone officer asked; finally killing the uneasy silence.

"They think we sold out Kal," Another one said.

The first officer laughed in exaggerated false humour. "Are they high on death sticks? 'Cause I'd really like some right now."

"No no. They actually believe we sold out Kal. Like 'believe' believe. Not 'I'm high on death sticks' believe."

Before anyone else could add to the conversation, the PA system suddenly came on. A grueling voice echoed from the soundspeaker over the clones' heads. "Hey! Keep poking fun of the system and you'll wish you got a punishment as light as capital treason!"

And the cell was quiet once again. It bothered the clones to no-end that everything they said or did was being monitored 24/7. The silence kept going for another minute or two until a lone clone who was sitting in the corner stood up. He held a pair of crutches to help him keep balance. It was Compass. Adjusting himself on the crutches, he looked at where the soundspeaker was located on the ceiling and said,

"The system is flawed. Just like this no-good, bloody government, that we've spent years wasting our lives away with."

A loud reverberance sound came from the PA. Every single officer in the cell looked Compass, who just sat back down on the cell floor, seemingly fed up with this situation. The sound of heavy armoured feet marching across the floor grew louder and louder outside the halls. Until it finally stopped just outside the cell's door. Every clone in the room braced himself for what was about to come. They sure as hell weren't going to sit here and take it.

The door opened and a rookie-looking Senate Guard, who was also the one over the PA, entered. He curled his fists tightly. "Alright, who was the one who—"

Suddenly a beeping commlink from the guard's helmet went off. He stopped in the middle of his vent. "Hello?…Yeah…Now!?…Alright, I'll be on my way." The guard finished his call and gave one last glare to the clones. "Don't think I'm letting this go."

As soon as the guard walked out of vicinity, another person came in. It was a clone of the Coruscant Guard division. He entered through the cell door. "You all ok?"

When none of the clones answered, the guard quickly added, "You can speak now. That guy's the only guy at the PA and he's not going to be back there for awhile."

Mild reluctant relief filled Compass's core. He decided he wasn't finished with life just yet. "Do you have any idea what the Republic wants to do with us?"

The guard shook his head. "Not exactly. But I have heard from a bunch of higher-ups today that Jedi Master Plo Koon is really pushing for your innocence." The guard walked in closer to be better by everyone in the cell. "He's managed to get the Chancellor to consider letting you all clear your names."

Everyone's eyes widened upon hearing this. It seemed like there was someone looking out for them after all. Talk soon began flowing throughout the cell. Questions were asked. Closures were given. But the most important question of all wasn't answered yet. And that was: what kind of fate was waiting for them? It didn't matter what the Chancellor said, it only matter what the Chancellor wanted. And if he wanted them dead. They're going to be dead.

The Coruscant guard soon looked at the time and deduced the PA person is back on duty. He made his exit. "Please refrain from saying what's on your gut and keep out of Wilhoff Tarkin's bad side. With enough hope, this should pass over sooner or later." The guard looked back the clones one last time. "Remember that there are many of us who truly believe you didn't do anything wrong. Don't give up hope just yet."

Next time on The Clone's Hero, Kal's location has been determined and the preparation for his rescue and retrieval are being made…

Review responses~

Agent N: Thank you. It's definitely good to be back, as stressful as my situation currently is right now. 100% agree with that statement about Old Palps. Lol

Radicalewe3: Thanks for taking the advice. I hope your break is good and you'll be back in the mood to write soon! :D

A/N. My goodness, this past week is probably the worst week I've worked yet! I'm gonna spare you all the details of what happened but just know that I'm not going to be working HARDER THAN EVER. Which means possibly more delays down the line. This is not how I wanted my Final arc to go... ;_; But hey! Let's muscle through it and we'll reach the end for sure! :D

Thanks all for reading thus far! Please remember to fav, follow, or review if you have the time! And I'll see you all, hopefully, 4 days from now!

- MiraLake