"Padawan."
His first word. His first word in nearly a week since it all happened. Since Palpatine had corrupted young Skywalker, since the loss of his arm. Mace lifted his hand to his head, feeling his own face with the newly regrown limb. The sensitivity in his fingertips was electric, similar to the hum of a lightsaber when ignited. This sensation was unlike anything he had felt before, and hoped to never feel again.
"The force was right to choose you, young one. The knowledge of regeneration has been lost to the Jedi for hundreds of years, even master Yoda in all his wisdom could not recreate the art like you have, he never had to work under your circumstances." He let out a coy smile.
Barriss didn't speak. She could only stare at the master's arm. It had completely regrown, she had caused such a miracle of the force. The energy that resonated within his arm matched that of a youngling when they first enter the temple, overwhelmed by a world far beyond their understanding, as if reborn. Practically begging for answers now, she had so many questions to ask the high council member, but unsure of where to start, she settled for a conversation she thought she already knew the answer to. "How do you feel?"
Mace stumbled over to a chair overlooking the Bardottan jungles below, as he sat, he took a deep breath before revealing his answer. "Motivated"
That wasn't the answer she'd been expecting. "Motivated? To do what?" She asked.
"To save the galaxy." He simply said.
This infuriated Barriss, she didn't come all this way to be given vague answers. "How? By finding more Jedi? Stop the Empire while it's still young? Please, master. I need your guidance more than ever, I know I don't deserve it, not after everything I've done, but I am tired of going by ear of the force, I need an end goal, something, anything!"
"Calm yourself, child." Windu raised his hand before continuing. "Tell me, what did the force show you? What visions did you have? These questions will answer those you have."
"I saw… I saw creatures, clad in armour of bone and flesh, using living beings as weapons. I only saw a small number of them, but the force is telling me there are many, many more. By the force, master, how many are there?" She dropped to her knees clasping her hands over her head. "It hurts! Master, it hurts to think about them. So much death, so much destruction. What is it all for?" She cried.
Mace Windu reached out with the force into Barriss' mind. Within her head, both of them manifested out of thin air before an image of the galaxy itself. He pointed "I don't have a name for them, not yet. But they come from far beyond the galaxy, perhaps even another. But those few that you saw in your vision, they reside within the Unknown Regions, my best guess would be that they are a scouting party preparing a beachhead to pave way for an invasion the likes of which the galaxy has never seen. Even this Empire wouldn't stand a chance"
She turned to him. "How do you know about the Empire? You've been in a tank since… since… oh force HE is the Sith lord, isn't he? The one Dooku served, and Maul before that."
The vision of the galaxy faded away and reformed into the very night the master lost his arm. "I'm afraid that is the case. When you healed me, you created a link into my mind, you saw how I survived, how I escaped, Jar Jar was a huge help with aiding us both. But the link worked both ways, I saw into your mind, where you've been since prison, how you lost your friends. Knowledge of the Empire is inside your head, and if it's in your head, it's now in mine. What's worse is that Skywalker has been swayed by the dark side. While my duty as a Jedi is telling me to go to Coruscant to finish what I started, the force has another role for me… and for you."
Barriss could only think of Ashoka, what she would think of her former master. She hoped that the Togruta was nowhere near any clones when they started killing the Jedi, she hoped she was somewhere out there.
Her thoughts manifested into another image, this time of Ashoka herself. Mace walked up "One of many students I have failed over the past few years, she had successfully led the occupation of Mandalore and captured Maul when I went to confront the chancellor. Rest easy, padawan Offee, I can sense her, she is safe. Like yourself, her path is not yet over, but it is not our place to intervene with the will of the force. For many years, I said those words, only now after losing everything, do I fully understand them."
"Then what do we do?" How do we stop the Empire and these Outsiders?" Barriss stood.
Julia had finally stepped forward after allowing the two to interact. "Myself and the Degoyan masters also received a similar vision. And you, Barriss, are at the center of it. The force is already working towards balance, the Empire will fall, but it is not our role to stop them. No, that part shall be played by another, far from now. Our mission is to prepare for the arrival of the far outsiders however we can. Child, think back to your vision, what else did you see?"
The Mirialan closed her eyes and focused once more. "I see… weapons. I'm not sure of the brand, but they're coloured in carbon Black and red with blue lighting, blasters, rocket launchers, blades… I think it's a vibroblade"
"Vibroblades haven't been in use since the Mandalorian wars. Even now I can only recall a handful of the Deathwatch to use such technology from Kenobi's reports. Strange I'm not sure what to make of these weapons. What else do you see?"
The faces of her allies appeared one after the other, but with every face she saw, Barriss also saw a location after every single one. "I see Tanuk and… Naboo. I see Slick and a desert planet with a bright orange sky. Wait. I see a burst of energy, every colour expanding out in an explosion"
"That sounds like Rydonium. That fuel can only be found on a handful of planets, but the last one, the planet with the orange sky. That has to be Abathar, but it's been practically stripped dry"
Abathar.
"Yes. That's the planet. That's the planet I see Slick on, I don't know why he'd be there though." Barriss closed her eyes once more, trying to make sense of her vision "There's a city, surrounded by a giant wall, covered in a glowing purple dome. I've never heard or seen such a place in my life, but I see someone there. It's… I don't know who that is."
Windu pondered on this "I sense him too. His path is set to cross with ours but there's something blocking us, as if time itself is the issue. We can't find whoever this is, not yet. I believe the force is guiding us on that one. Barriss, out of all of your visions, which seems like the first place to go?"
"Wait, there's somewhere else. It feels familiar, but it can't be, I don't recognise this place at all. Endless green hills, a series of buildings scattered across the grassland, something big in the center of it… a temple. Crystal caves..."
"Dantooine. It has to be" Mace concluded. "The force is telling us to go to Dantooine, we need to leave as soon as possible if we are ever to have a chance of stopping the Outsiders. Come padawan."
"Wait."
Mace Windu could feel the force resonating within the child, time around them slowed down. He looked over to the Queen who's breathing had physically halted. They were in a temporal pocket, created by Barriss strong will in the force and the planet Bardotta as an amplifier to her power.
"You keep calling me that. Padawan. I'm not, I'm not even a member of the Jedi Order anymore. You were the one who cast me out, so why do you continue to use a title that I have given up?"
Mace sat down in a meditation stance and closed his eyes. "The Jedi Order failed. It failed the Republic as it did fail young Ashoka, as it failed you. In the few days I was healing, I have learned to understand what the Jedi are once more. Keepers of the peace, which is exactly what we will do, Barriss. I know you want to help the galaxy, you wanted to help Skywalker's Padawan in a way. You wanted to show her the errors of the Order before it killed her. This is a chance for both of us to start over, to rebuild the foundations of the Jedi philosophy to our design, with the goal of protecting the galaxy. Not the Republic."
Contempt with his answer, Barriss tried to start their journey. "Okay then. We need to find Tanuk and Slick, we can tell them where to go and pray that the force will guide them to aid in our cause" Time resumed as she turned to the Queen. "Where are my friends?"
"Behold! The halls of Clarity. A powerful Degoyan meditation observatory, designed to open your mind to the galaxy around us in order to achieve mental clarity. Now, the queen has instructed us to help you discover what is inside your head, clone. Lay down on the meditation bed." The tallest Bardottan of the guard said as he gestured to the elevated mattress in the center of the room.
Slick walked up to the bed before a Degoyan followed up "It would be wise for you to remove your armour. Only when the body is truly relaxed is the mind as equal."
The clone felt slightly uneasy about this. There were only ever a handful of times in his life where he wasn't in his armour, that was bed and prison. The second Cayde brought him his armour during their escape from Coruscant, it felt like he never left it. Reluctantly, he removed his protective layer piece by piece, laying them on the table before climbing onto the bed.
Suddenly the platform they were on had risen to the top of the observatory, giving Slick a perfect view of the sky above. Despite being completely exposed, Slick felt oddly relaxed, this might even be the comfiest bed he'd ever been on. All of his life, he had simply traded one thin mattress for another. From his pod on Kamino, to his bunk in the barracks, to his cot in prison, he was almost having trouble registering there was anything beneath him.
"Rest easy, clone. Take a deep breath as we shall channel our combined energies of the force to peer into your mind. Invite us in, you want our help, you desire answers" One of the elders spoke.
'Okay. Rest easy. I can do that' Slick thought to himself
'Rest easy… '
Everything seemed normal at first, his mind at ease. Slick's mind drifted off to Kamino, the pure, clean white ascetic of the hallways always left him disorientated, never telling which way is which. He thought back to a fun little fact one of the 501st medics told him during training. Kix, he remembered his name was. He told him about how Kaminoans have a sense of sight far beyond that of any other species, seeing a colour spectrum so advanced that everyone else's minds cannot process it so they only see white.
Something felt off. Thinking of Kamino, it left an itch within his Skull. Only a small one, barely noticeable, like a distant memomory. The Degoyans noticed this discomfort and addressed it. "Clone. Your homeworld, we believe this is where something foreign was introduced into your mind. Think back. Back as far as you can remember so that we may find it"
Slick tried. He thought as hard as he could, his earliest memory to date being a cadet, no more than four years old, of course, to clones, they would be seen as eight. Sitting in a large square room facing a terminal like all his brothers beside him, learning strategies, revising battles of the Mandalorian wars, Darth Revan, Malak, Meetra Surik, Canderous Ordo and the battle of Malacor. Only one in two hundred thousand clones ever struggled with these studies, Slick wasn't one of them, he was on par with the majority of his brothers. He thought on this memory, he remembered completing a quiz on the subject of the Old Republic, the screen showed a perfect score with a caption beneath that read "Good soldiers follow orders."
"Good soldiers follow orders." Slick mimicked. The feeling in his skull evolving from an itch to an unmistakable pressure. The Degoyan high priest awoke the clone from his slumber.
"It appears that this foreign element inside your head is part of a much larger design, dating all the way back to your training and conditioning. It is very possible that it is in fact a part of your molecular design by the Kaminoans. However, I must advise against perusing this for your own safety."
"You can't be serious." Slick protested. "You're telling me that those long-necked freaks have us trained like obedient pets, and you want me to ignore it?!"
The shorter Degoyans of the group stepped back slightly with caution.
"I'm sorry, but I cannot ignore this! If this thing in my head is going to turn me into a slave, then it needs to be taken out, it needs to be removed from every clone. Can your medical facility do that?" Slick continued.
"Clone, we don't even know what result will occur from removing part of your brain. It may very well kill you. How do you expect to save your brethren when you're dead?"
Defeated, Slick slumped back onto the bed. "So, what am I supposed to do? What are my options? Because all you've told me is what I can't do. I need something here."
"Your Jedi friend and the Gungan will be back shortly, you may discuss future plans then."
Slick waited in the council chamber of the Bardottan temple, pacing back and forth, the same phrase repeating in his head over and over.
Good soldiers follow orders. Good soldiers follow orders. Good soldiers follow orders. Good soldiers follow-
Jedi
Slick shook his head to rid himself of that thought as Barriss walked into the room, followed by Mace Windu which caught him off guard. "Sir!" He instinctively saluted.
"At ease, soldier." the master then turned to the padawan. "So, this is the clone you were telling me about?"
"Yes, he is the only one I know of that isn't trying to kill the Jedi."
Slick decided to share what he knew. "Sir, there's- there's something in my head. An itch, a random thought, a memory, I don't know. But I keep hearing the kaminoans voice "Good soldiers follow orders" and, well, I see you Jedi and it's like the whole world stands still. Beyond that, I don't know what it means, but they have to have done something to us. The Degoyans themselves have told me as much."
The tallest elder stepped forward. "What the clone says is true, master Jedi. The clones conditioning began on Kamino. Most likely when this foreign element was implanted in his mind."
Mace crossed his arms while looking down at the floor, processing all the information that was before him. His eyes widened in shock as he came to the horrifying conclusion. "Fives…"
"What?" Barriss asked.
"Not what. Who. Fives was an ARC trooper in the 501st. After a fellow trooper named Tup executed master Tiplar on Ringo-Vinda, Fives investigated why a clone would do such a thing. He discovered a tumor in every single clone, these… inhibitor chips were supposed to prevent clones from becoming aggressive. Fives removed his chip and went insane, trying to attack the chancellor, capturing Skywalker and Captain Rex. I remember the report, Fives had saidThese chips can make us do whatever someone wants… even kill the Jedi'" The master dropped to his knees, shock and horror cursing through his body.
"Master?"
"He was telling the truth… all this time, he was telling the truth. And we believed the Kaminoans excuses. These chips, they must be some sort of control mechanism designed to make the clones obedient, no more than droids of flesh and bone. By the force… It was all his plan. Dooku. He was the one who created the clones."
Barriss stood back in equal shock. "I thought Sifo Dias sanctioned the creation?"
Mace's voice was now trembling. "No. No, no, no, no… Sifo Dias died on Felucia before the authorisation ever took place. Dooku used his name to create the clone army for the Republic, we only found out about this recently."
"How long?"
Mace looked up to see Slick stood before him.
"How many days did you know about this?"
The Jedi master slumped his head. "Too many…"
Amongst the feeling of pain, guilt and dread, the feeling of a hard punch to the face caught the Jedi master off guard.
"YOU KNEW!" Slick growled between clenched teeth before being restrained by the Bardottans. "You knew about the chips all this time and did nothing?! How could you have just sat on that information? TELL ME!" He screamed as the degoyans tried to restrain him.
Mace couldn't even look him in the eye. "We had a war to win. I know now that should not have been our priority."
Slick rolled his eyes. "Oh, now you see. Give me a break! You are exactly the reason why I did the things I did! I don't need this." He shook off the guards and stormed towards the hanger.
Barriss chased after him. "Slick, wait!"
The clone turned to the late teenager out of respect for her and her alone. "Sorry, kid. I know you're not like him. But I can't be here, not after what he and the rest of the council have done."
"Slick, please. We need you. I need you. I've had a vision of the future from the force. I saw you on the desert world of Abathar, I need you to be there if we are ever to stop them."
Slick could see the genuine fear in the girls eyes as he bent down slightly and put his hand on her shoulder. "Stop who, kid? What's wrong?"
She shuddered as she took a deep breath. "There are monsters in the unknown regions, a scouting party, preparing the galaxy for invasion. Slick, the force has given me visions because it wants us to stop them. That includes you and it means you need to go to Abathar. Please!" She cried.
"Barriss. Listen to me. If what you say is true, then I'll help you… but not yet. Right now, I need to find a way to save my brothers. If what Windu said is correct, then nearly every clone has been compromised, but maybe not those lost in battle"
Barriss looked confused before asking "What help can you get from the dead?"
"Not dead, kid. Lost. There have been dozens of battles across the galaxy in the past three years. Brothers sometimes get left behind, unable to make it back home. But we're survivors, if anyone can live in the deserts of Geonosis, the jungles of Umbara, the fields of Selucami, it's clones. I need to find them, hopefully their chips haven't been activated yet."
Selucami
Barriss knew what that voice meant. She knew the force was guiding her. No. Guiding Slick.
"Okay. I think you should do what you think is right, Slick. But if you said you'll help, promise me you will when you've saved all you can."
He held out his hand. "I promise, kid." And with that he turned to the hanger and took the Sliver Lining into the stars.
Slick was gone. Now out of all those she knew at the beginning of this mess, master Windu, Jar Jar and Tanuk were the only ones left. She returned to the council chamber in hopes to speak with her Gungan friend.
Barriss entered the room to see Jar Jar, Tanuk, Mace and Julia all talking together. "Slick left" She announced. "Gone to try and save his brothers. He took our ship"
"Hmm, that is unfortunate. We can only hope that your friend here will be enough" master Windu commented.
She turned to Tanuk, confused. Jar Jar spoke up. "Before the creation of the bombad empire, Meesa authorised a second Gungan settlement plan. Weesa have a station in orbit of Omah-D'un, building a colony ship as Weesa be speaking. Meesa am appointing Tanuk as the initiative leader. Heesa shall be overseeing construction, settlement sites, and military operations. Weesa looking to be settling in the unknown regions to prepare for the arrival."
"It'sa true, Barriss. Meesa shall be helping you deal with these bombad outsiders. But it could be months or even years before weesa be ready." Tanuk said with unease.
Mace stepped in "We have no idea how prepared our enemy already are. We may not have years. What we can do, however, is trust only in the force. It wouldn't warn us of the impending invasion if it did not believe that we didn't have at least a chance. Good luck to you, Tanuk B'Carr" He turned to Barriss. "Padawan, we shall be heading to Dantooine to complete your training. Are you ready?"
This was all moving too fast for Barriss to keep up with. "Are you sure the Gungans are up for the challenge?" She looked to Jar Jar.
He smiled. "Gungans are bombad warriors. Weesa can either die fighting de Empire, or we can die fighting for something much bigger than ourselves. The right to live at all. And when that time comes, weesa be ready for them"