Am I late with this chapter? Hell yes. Will the next chapter be on time? Um...I'll try to make it be, but this IS midterm season folks! I'll still try though. :)

*And for those who're wondering, my interview with Microsoft went lowkey.

Rescue (Final pt9)

Confuse your allies, then you will confuse your enemies

One entire night passed and Trench had become livid Dr. Elav had not yet returned. He knew the Twi'lek doctor was angry at him, but this was borderline treasonous. Right when Trench was about to send out a team of droids, he receives a call from Dr. Elav at the front door.

Dr. Elav was let in. He had several hoverboards of crates of all kinds of supplies, ranging from simple reusable equipment to the latest nanotech prototypes.

"Admiral!" Dr. Elav huffed. He looked out of breath and was sweating buckets. "Sorry I took so long."

"Yes, you should be," said Trench with no hint of concern to Dr. Elav's current state. "I was beginning to think you ran away. What happened out there?"

"Had a close encounter with some clones on my way to the export centre," Dr. Elav quickly answered.

The entire hall tensed up. The research team especially. "What?" One of the doctors cried.

"They're here, Admiral," Dr. Elav repeated, looking unusually distressed. "The Republic's here to get their soldier back. Which means we're running out of time for this experiment."

Trench was somewhat glad his head doctor finally—finally—had a taste of fear from his little errand. He hoped this would strengthen Dr. Elav's resolve to complete their experiment. "I'm already well of this doctor," Trench explained. "But now that you are too, what do you suggest?"

"We discard all the plans for testing external stimuli on the clone's biochip!" Dr. Elav announced. He was speaking a mile a minute. "Instead, I can forcefully make a reaction of some sort by applying mild electricity on the clone's chip from within his head. The procedure is minimally invasive and shouldn't take long, Admiral. Especially now that I know where his chip is located."

"Is it risky?" Trench asked.

"Could be," said Dr. Elav. "But I can't see any other way to quickly generate results in a short amount of time. Do you condone this, Admiral?"

Trench was surprised at Dr. Elav's new willingness to cooperate. A surprise, but a welcome one. "I condone this. Begin the operation at once, Dr. Elav."

Trench walked out of the hallway. The droids took over the supply crates from Dr. Elav and began moving them to their designated locations in the facility. It was just Dr. Elav and his research team, and they approached him, concerned with his decision for the procedure.

"Dr. Elav, this procedure you suggested is very risky!" One team member shouted. Another one agreed.

"He's right, doctor. What if we lose the clone? Trench won't like it—"

Dr. Elav silenced them all with a stare. They immediately shut up. He then nodded at them, to follow him to a quieter location. "Come, everyone. I need to talk with you all."

The doctors were confused and a bit scared. But they followed their lead doctor down the hall to a more private room to hear what he had to say. There, Dr. Elav informed the entire team of all the things they were required to know of, and do, in the coming moments. All of them were shocked. All of them were scared. But none of them objected.

The droids placed the supply crates on the ground outside corresponding labs, rooms, and offices. The research team would handle unpacking the items inside later.

"Boy, these crates are heavier than I thought!" A B1 droid remarked upon putting down the last box. His buddy nodded in agreement.

"Yep. And there's a lot more than I thought too. Why would Trench order so many?"

They and the rest of their metal comrades walked away.

Outside on the edge of the original rendezvous point, Steele had heard the entire conversation between Dr. Elav and Trench about Kal's upcoming procedure via a borrowed ex-Separatist communicator. In fact, everyone in the legion had discarded their original communication devices and prime soldiers were lent ones owned by their new Separatist allies, along with any extras their personnel had. Constant communication was key to success.

The legion and a fully cloaked and hooded Aliyah stood prepped on the edge of the terrain, ready for action. As were the Separatist ships, parked just on the edge of the forest, in line to the side exits of Trench's facility, ready to receive their passengers.

~ O O O ~

Dr. Elav and his operating team were prepared faster this time. He only needed two assistants and his usual anesthesiologist for this. Kal was mildly sedated and as soon as he went under, Dr. Elav began the procedure, going about it using much more efficient, minimally invasive techniques. The remainder of the research team watched from the observation room through the transparent wall.

In another room, Trench was on a call with Count Dooku. "Count Dooku," Trench greeted. "I am very close to finding out the true purpose of the clone's brain chip. My head doctor is performing something that should give meaningful results."

Dooku was glad. "Excellent. Do not forget to notify me immediately once you do."

"Of course. You can rest assured."

Trench left the call and made way to the surgical observation room, where he joined the rest of the non-participating researchers.

Meanwhile at his private place, Dooku contacted his Dark Master of the updates. "Master, Admiral Trench informs me that he is close to concluding the clone experiment. I am ready to relay any updates he has to you as soon as he does."

"Good," Sidious answered. "I shall grant him permission to the protocol and all blame of the Jedi's soon-to-be tragedy shall be pinned on him. Revising things from there on out would not be difficult at all." He ended the call and began to think over his potential changes to the grand scheme of things.

Of course, I'll need to make sure Skywalker is out of the crossfire when Trench does execute the Order. Can't have him accidentally killed during it all. He's an emotional man, if he thinks Trench is behind the clones turning against his Jedi Order, it wouldn't take long before he loses himself in his thirst for revenge. And the Dark Side would only grow within him…perfect.

~ O O O ~

At the operating room in the facility, the procedure was going smoothly. Dr. Elav knew exactly what he was doing this time. He found the biochip inside Kal's brain in the span of 5 minutes, using long thin instruments through a small incision made in the clone's head. He demanded the handover of the electrodes.

"Electrodes," said Dr. Elav, putting one hand out.

The new first assistant handed him the pair of wires that would conduct electricity to Kal's biochip—hopefully—without complications. If all went well, they'd have the secret to the chips revealed. Trench watched closely as Dr. Elav threaded the wires into the incision of Kal's head.

Dr. Elav concentrated hard, making sure not to accidentally mess this up. The wires touched the biochip inside just slightly, and Dr. Elav readied to send a tiny current of electricity down there.

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

Loud beeping suddenly filled the room. Everyone's muscles tensed upon realizing the vitals machine was going off. Dr. Elav looked to the anesthesiologist.

"What's happening?" He demanded.

"Not good, doctor," the anesthesiologist answered. "The patient's BP is dropping. He seems to be going into some sort of shock! Heart rate's dropping and fast!"

"What!?"

The anesthesiologist took a second closer look at the vitals monitors. His eyes widened. "Patient's fallen unconscious! It's a code navy!"

Dr. Elav took immediate action. "Hook him up the oxygen tank!"

Upon hearing those keywords from Dr. Elav's end, Steele immediately switched channels and made a call to the inside team. "That's your cue! Go! Go!"

In the OR, the anesthesiologist immediately did as ordered and placed the oxygen ventilator mask over Kal. The beeping continued incessantly.

At the different locations in the facility, supply crate lids were suddenly kicked off violently from the inside, startling any droid just passing by. From those crates emerged individual clone soldiers, including Dogma, Egad, and several others chosen to embark this part of the plan. They quickly took out any unlucky clanker who just happened to be present during their unboxing, then divided up into their assigned teams and scurried down the halls.

Back in the operating room, Dr. Elav was giving orders left and right, taking any necessary measure to restabilize Kal. He relayed these orders to the research team observing. "I'm gonna need 5 milligrams of an epinephrine mixture down from the lab, and .4 micrograms of lythiendrine. Can some of you get that for me?"

One of the research doctors nodded. "We'll get the epinephrine!"

"And we'll get the lythiendrine!" Another one claimed.

Two teams of up to five doctors each, left the observation room to get the requested drugs, all located at different areas of the facility building. Dr. Elav continued issuing orders to the remaining doctors until there were none left in the room with Trench.

Dr. Elav turned to his two remaining assistants in the operating room with him. "You two, see if you can bring me the medical record of Jango Fett from the data room. About a quarter of the galaxy is allergic to some hypotension drug and I need to make sure Fett isn't one of them!"

"Yes, doctor!" The two assistants obeyed at once.

"Hold on just a second, Dr. Elav!" Trench finally spoke. The three doctors turned to him. "The data room is confidential, and I don't like the idea of mere doctors rummaging around in there unattended. I need to be present with them and I need to be the one to retrieve anything from the system."

Dr. Elav nodded, not arguing with Trench, much to Trench's delight. The two surgical assistants leave the room as did the Admiral.

Once they were all gone, the anesthesiologist suddenly removed the oxygen ventilator from Kal. He handed Dr. Elav an extractor instrument. He then went over to the vitals machine and adjusted a single wire loosely attached to a socket. The beeping stopped. And Kal's vitals returned to normal. There was never an emergency in the first place.

The anesthesiologist had tampered with the machine slightly at Dr. Elav's order to give false critical warnings. Now his part was done. He prepared to leave the room. "Good luck, doctor," he said to Dr. Elav. "Stay safe."

Dr. Elav could only nod at him. "You too!"

The anesthesiologist left the room and Dr. Elav immediately began performing the true procedure he was going to do for a long time: removing Kal's biochip. He got started.

~ O O O ~

Trench and the two surgical assistants entered the data room. He proceeded to search up on the terminal for any health records or general biological data regarding Jango Fett. The two doctors were looking uneasy, they glanced suspiciously around the room.

Before long, Trench found a record about Jango Fett. "Alright, here's something that seems—"

The first assistant doctor suddenly hit Trench on the back of the head with a metal box. Trench was stunned and dizzy for a second, but recovered. He turned around, murderously livid.

"I guess you want to join your predecessor in the ground!"

Trench lunged at the doctor, ready to kill him with his bare hands.

Suddenly, a stun shot was fired from the opened data room door, and Trench fell unconscious. Dogma rushed into the room, lowering his stunner. His team of soldiers followed in and helped stand up the two pale-faced surgical assistants.

"Sorry we're late!" Dogma apologized as he turned the unconscious Trench around onto his back. He took out a small listener from his pocket and stuffed it down Trench's throat before refocusing on the doctors. "Hope we didn't worry you too much!"

The still-shaking first assistant shook his head in response. "N—no…he just, found the record faster than I thought…a—and I didn't want him to leave before you guys got here…"

Dogma stood up and faced the first assistant. "You did a brave thing. But you needn't worry now. We're getting all of you outta here! So let's go!"

The clone team cuffed Trench to a database machine before taking the two doctors out of the room. They bolted the door shut, destroyed the controls and escorted the doctors down the halls and towards the side exits of the facility.

~ O O O ~

More teams of clones smuggled in from the supply crates met up with research doctors all around the building. Each group of doctors was sent to their designated spot by Dr. Elav for emergency 'drug retrieval'. And each group was escorted by a clone team to the side exits, out of the way for the incoming battle.

Egad and his team ran swiftly across the facility, triggering any emergency alarm they came across. Instilling chaos and confusion throughout the building. All the droids rushed to the front of the building, attempting to find out what was going on.

"Are we under attack?" One droid asked.

"Why isn't the Admiral answering our calls?" Another one attempted to contact Trench with no luck.

Suddenly, explosions shook the entire place. The metal army, from outside patrollers to scrubbing caretakers, flooded outside. Cannon shots hit around the facility grounds. In the distance, 304th troopers loaded their artillery and fired deliberately around the building's proximity, drawing out their foes and covering the rest of their forces as they ran out into the rocky terrain. The still-hooded Aliyah at the front, keeping track of where the halfway point lay ahead.

The facility droids, concerned and lost without their brain, who was Admiral Trench, did what they could within the limits of their programming.

"Why're they coming towards us!?" A B1 panicked.

"Doesn't matter," a B2 superdroid answered. "They can't make it all the way, Admiral Trench said. We have the upper hand. Let's push them back!"

"You're right! Let's go!" The same B1 agreed.

And they all charged towards their incoming Republic enemies, under the impression they had the advantage, and doing what it takes to 'protect' Trench's experiments from being terminated. Aliyah slowed down once the halfway point came into view. Everyone stuck close to the ground, using the multitude of bumps and rocks as some cover.

The building was draining of its metal army, just as the legion hoped for.

Dogma and his team navigated the near-empty hallways with ease. As did all the other clone escort teams. They reached their assigned exits with their first round of doctors, handing them off to the Separatist Personnel waiting outside.

"We got it from here!" A personnel guard said to Dogma. He took the two surgical assistants and began leading them towards the forest edge where the ships were. "Go back for the others!"

"Don't have to remind me twice!" Dogma and his team turned back around.

They met up with other inside clone teams, including Egad and his group. They divided up and went to retrieve the remaining groups of doctors from different parts of the building while the majority of the droids were too distracted with the more obvious threat coming in from the front.

Steele stood next to the line of artillery with his squad of select troopers, receiving updates from numerous ends of communication from key folks all over the place.

"First wave of doctors are out, Commander! We're onto the second and hopefully last one…"

"Reached the halfway point! The droids are still focused on us and only us…"

"Trench is still in the data room, sir, make sure to keep track of how long he's out for…"

It was nerve-wracking having to hear from so many at once. Dogma, Dr. Elav, the Separatist Personnel, and Aliyah. And thanks to the listener Dogma planted inside Trench, Steele could hear updates on the Admiral's end as well, albeit without his knowing. He held on tightly to the reins of the plan, bracing for the worst to come.

~ O O O ~

Trench finally regained consciousness inside the data room. He attempted to free himself from the cuffs or from the database machine he was attached to. He quickly discovered he was removed of all communicators and weapons.

However, as soon as he heard the sound of the battle going on outside, Trench became unleashed. He pulled on the database he was cuffed to until it broke in half and snapped off the ground. He picked it up and bludgeoned it against the door.

Ten tries later, the door finally broke open, and Trench's cuff broke off from the massacred database machine. He walked out into the hallway, finally free.

"Admiral! You're alive!" A passing-by B1 droid suddenly caught sight of his missing superior. "We were wondering where you were!"

Trench seized the droid by its scrawny metal neck. "Just what is going on here?"

The B1 droid panicked. "Uh…the Republic's attacking and we thought it'd be good to push them back, 'cause you know, they can't make it far into our territory—AH!"

Trench threw the droid away and rushed to the main control room of the facility. He had to get a better assessment of the situation. He opened up the surveillance footage and saw Dogma and his team escorting various members of his research group out of the building.

"Impossible…" Trench breathed.

Without a second wasted, Trench brought up a secure-looking button and pressed it hard. The entire facility instantly became deadlocked. All over the place, doors shut closed and bolted tight, trapping the clone teams and their doctor protectees in various parts of the building. Many of them were close to exiting before this occurred.

"NO!" Dogma shouted as the side exit shut tight before his eyes.

In the operating room, Dr. Elav had just took out the biochip from Kal's head when the exit door suddenly bolted shut. The transparent wall to the observation room also got sealed off.

"I knew it…" The Twi'lek doctor silently cursed at Trench.

Outside, the droids fighting in the backlines turn around to see the entrance to the building locked tight. They instantly realized they were now trapped between the facility and the legion.

"Uh…I think the building's been deadlocked…we can't get back inside!" One of the backline droids exclaimed.

~ O O O ~

Trench took out an observing nanodroid from the supply crate placed outside the control room. It was a good thing Dr. Elav got back with these things earlier today. Trench sent out the spyer to the battlefield outside, finally able to get real-time footage of what was going on out there.

He contacted Dooku upon seeing Aliyah and the legion pushing through the halfway point. "Count Dooku!"

Dooku's hologram appeared on the table projector. "Have you discovered the chip's purpose?"

"What you said about the Republic was false!" Trench could care less about his tone with the leader of the Separatists right now. "I've got clones running around the place and an entire legion halfway down the rocks! You said they won't make it far! What is happening?"

Dooku looked shocked for a split hundredth of a second. "Hang on a moment."

Trench was left on a paused call as Dooku went to do something without his knowing. His ire and distaste for the situation grew. Finally, Dooku returned on call with a more confident look.

"Alright, Admiral, I shall take care of this little issue with the clones. You just keep me informed on the situation here as it changes."

"Can you tell me why this is happening?" Trench demanded.

"Unfortunately no," Dooku answered coolly. "But I have an idea on how to resolve this. Be warned, Admiral. There is about to be some very loud, and very incessant noise."

Though not the clearest due to the nature of the in-body listener, Steele was able to hear most of the conversation between Trench and Dooku. He swore under his breath and made an inaudible call to another channel, likely someone inside the facility. Then he and his select squad finally enter the fray, shouting for everyone to get back.

"Get back!" Steele warned. Prepare yourself, prepare yourself… "Get back beyond the halfway point this instance!"

Hooded Aliyah looked up and behind her, just as deafening high-pitched sounds suddenly came from everyone's communicators.

~ O O O ~

With a few pushes of a button and cranks of a switch, Dooku increased the strength of incoming transmissions surrounding the experiment building. He also opened up the transmission to all channels, not just the ones the 304th clones were supposed to be on.

If some of them made it past the effective zone without my Master knowing, they must be using other devices that weren't issued to them. Dooku thought. Clever little creatures, I'll give them that. So they found out about protocol 66's trigger location.

Across the terrain, all communication devices, regardless of issue, type, or owner, gave off an awful screech-like beeping sound. As a result of an incoming transmission trying to force itself through. The fighting clones outside all winced from the sound.

"Ah!" Vito instinctively brought up his hands to where his ears would be, if not for his helmet, and fell to one knee. "What the hell!?"

"Get back!" Steele pulled Vito to his feet and shoved him behind. "Or have y'all gone deaf already!? Move!"

Everyone began moving back beyond the halfway point. There, the sound finally ceased. But the damage was already done. It was hard for any soldier to concentrate on keeping themselves alive with the ringing from their ears.

From the discomfort of his control room, Trench witnessed it from his nano-spyer. He too, suffered from the sound. "Count, they're falling back…now can you please stop this noise torture, whatever this is?"

"Not yet, Admiral." Dooku increased the radius of effect. The trigger point was set to beyond the halfway point now.

The sound returned. Causing all soldiers, from frontline to back, to react visibly to the cacophony.

"It's back again!?" Cleaver shouted.

One clone had the crazy idea of taking off his helmet and stuffing his ears with pebbles from the ground. Vito never felt so much pain from something that wasn't a wound.

"I think my ears are gonna bleed!" He cried. "I think they're already bleeding!"

Near the front, Steele also felt his ears figuratively bleeding from the noise. He didn't know how much more he could take. Or which was worse: the ongoing battle or the awful sounds. Something garbled and unclear came from all the clones' communicators. And a distorted, static-bound image attempted to form on their borrowed holo-pads.

"E—execu—e—exe—" Was what was barely made-out from the voice forcing through on everyone's devices.

Steele located the hooded Aliyah swinging her lightsaber not too far from him. He was about to call out to let her know of his location when he finally noticed the beeping of his own holo-pad. He took it out without hesitation.

A hooded Sidious appeared on camera when the call was finally answered. He was so glad. So glad this was happening at long last. "The time has come, Commander Steele…"

Having heard the normal-sounding beep as well, Aliyah turned away from the droids, and looked around for her commander. "Steele! Where are you?"

But Steele couldn't spare a second to answer her. He focused on Sidious, timing things down to the hundredth of a millisecond in his head.

"...Execute Order Sixty-Si—"

SMASH!

Vito struck the holo-pad in his commander's hands with his fist. It fell to the ground and he stomped on it with his foot for good measure. Everyone, Steele, his select squad team soldiers, Aliyah, and even Sidious on the receiving end, were shocked beyond their limits.

Vito shook his commander violently. Angry and confused. "WHAT THE HELL SIR!" But Steele barely reacted whatsoever. "WHAT! HAVE YA GONE INSANE! WHY WOULD YOU—"

Steele bludgeoned Vito on the head with the blunt side of his blaster. And it all became predictable from there on out. He took the first shot at his general, no shock, no emotion.

"NO!" Aliyah cried. She blocked the bolt. But that's when the rest of the select soldiers rushed in, opening fire at her. Cleaver and several unaffected clones rush into her aide, pulling her down and protecting her from the incoming friendly fire. Vito recovers and joins the defense.

From the control room, Trench witnessed the mayhem, and informed the Count of this update. "Count Dooku! Dissension occurred amongst the clones! The commander and a few soldiers have openly targeted their Jedi general, it's Ringo Vinda all over again."

"Excellent." Dooku kept a hand over the button that would cease all increased transmission strength and radius across the terrain. "Tell me once the Jedi is struck down."

~ O O O ~

Out in the battlefield, it was a nightmare in broad daylight for the unaffected clones. Left, right, and all around, they defended their general as best they could, same with Aliyah herself. But it was worse than that night with Compass.

Here, they had to worry about enemies in metal and enemies in flesh and blood. They weren't afraid to use stunners on their former comrades, but if it had to come to taking them out for good…they weren't sure if they could do that. Whether they wanted to, or not.

Standing literally between his general and his commander, Vito felt the pits of despair rise inside him with every shot exchanged from either side of this brawl. He shouted, "You're better than this, sir! Why the hell did ya answer when you knew who it was who was calling, why sir!?"

"I dunno what you're talking about," Steele answered nonchalantly. "But I suggest you get outta my way, if you don't wanna get hurt!"

Still somewhat resolved, Aliyah tightened her grip on her lightsaber. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"That's a shame. Because if you don't…I'm going to hurt you."

Two soldiers from Steele's squad suddenly threw frag grenades in Aliyah's direction from behind. She diverted them at the last second with the Force. They explode, causing her and her surrounding troopers to be disoriented. The two soldiers attempt shots at Aliyah, but were quickly stunned down by Cleaver. But he failed to notice another threat behind him.

"Too slow."

Cleaver was grabbed from behind and shoved into Aliyah's direction by his commander. Aliyah instinctively diminished her lightsaber to prevent Cleaver from being injured by it. They collide and nearly crash onto the ground. She attempted to re-orient herself and that was when Steele took another shot at her, this time, successfully.

Everybody rushed in.

"GENERAL!"

~ O O O ~

"Is it done yet?" Dooku demanded from Trench. "Has the Jedi fallen?"

"Yes, My Lord," Trench answered. He was barely able to hear his own voice by now "The Jedi has been shot down by her own Legion commander. It's just like what I've witnessed before."

Dooku immediately pressed the button. The trigger zone was restored to its default settings. The extremely loud and incessant screeches died away and everyone's communicators returned to normal. The mysterious voices and images were also gone.

Trench nearly sighed in relief at the ceasing of the noise. Dooku gave him an intimidating glare. "This is your last chance to give me conclusive results from your experiment. Do not fail me."

"Of course, Count Dooku!"

The call immediately ended and Trench exited the control room with a special-access keycard that allowed him to open deadlocked doors. He was ready to head back to the operating room.

"I swear, if Dr. Elav has turned traitor on me again, I will…what?"

Out in the hallway, Trench saw the body parts of several droids littering the floor. There was only one thing that could've done this damage: a Jedi's lightsaber. He suddenly received an incoming call from a facility-bound B1.

"Um, Admiral, there's a Jedi in the facility! She's cutting through the doors and a lot of us down—ah!" The call ended there.

In a state of denial, Trench returned to the control room and pulled up the surveillance footage. A tunicless and bootless Aliyah was slicing through the halls of his facility. Very much alive and well. Trench blinked twice to make sure he wasn't seeing things. He wasn't.

"Huh?"

~ O O O ~

Outside, the shot down Aliyah was dragged to the safety lines and about to be tended to by medics. They pulled her hood off, and were shocked to see her suddenly open her eyes. Her body then began shifting, and changing, until she no longer took on the appearance of their 304th general, but rather Ahsoka!

"Tano!?" The surrounding medics and soldiers exclaimed.

Ahsoka sat up, very much undead and uninjured, though sore from the blank shot Steele gave her. "Yeah…looks like Dr. Elav was right on how long the nano-transformation would last."

Standing nearby, the soldiers holding down their 'succumbed' commander and other members of his squad look at Ahsoka in shock. She nodded at them to release the lot.

They let go of their thought-to-have-gone-insane commander and comrades. It was all an act. A prevention to Dooku and Palpatine's attempts to force Order 66 no matter what. And a diversion for the real Aliyah to get the rest of their soldiers inside the facility out.

Inside the building, Aliyah reached the hall where the last clone escort team was trapped. She cut open the deadlocked exit door, freeing Dogma and his team at last.

"Dr. Elav and Kal are still in the OR!" Dogma shouted to Aliyah while on the verge of exiting. "You remember the route that was laid out last night right?"

"Yes I do! Now go! Go!" Aliyah urged Dogma out the exit before rushing back into the heart of the facility.

Steele sorely rotated his shoulder where his soldiers had immobilized him hard on. Vito was still in shock.

"Sir!" He cried. "So you weren't insane!?"

"Vito!" Steele sounded a mix between being offended and genuinely shocked. "Why would I purposely answer a call I already knew was a trap to begin with?"

Vito looked between his not-succumbed commander and his false general. "But! If you and Tano are here! Where's the general—"

"Look ahead." Steele nodded to the facility behind him to answer Vito's question.

Inside the building, Aliyah rushed through the halls, slicing and dicing her way to the OR, where Kal and Dr. Elav were waiting for her. At the same time, Trench armed himself and made his way down to the OR, holding off on telling Dooku of his situation.

"I was already half-deaf from all the discord," Steele confessed. "I could barely hear what hooded Palps was saying. And even then, I wasn't gonna let him finish! He just needed enough of an impression that he's won, and once he believes that, he'd let up trying to forcefully get to the rest of you!"

Now the legion got it. The awry transmissions, the enigmatic sounds, the blurry holo-images. They all looked to the facility, wondering what was going inside.

Dr. Elav unhooked Kal from the vitals machine. He gently placed the clone captain in a corner of the room and armed himself with a surgical drill. He really hoped he wouldn't have to use this soon. Suddenly, Kal began stirring awake sitting in his corner against the wall. The effects of the sedative were wearing off.

It was now a race. A race between Trench and Aliyah to get to the operating room of the facility. And only one would reach Kal first. But for now, they had the upper hand.

"Gotcha Palpatine," Steele muttered.

Next time on The Clone's Hero, the finale of the rescue of Kal occurs…in a way none of would've expected, or was prepared for…

Review responses~

Hello: We are reaching the end, and while it's sad Compass won't be there, I hope it'll be a good ending nonetheless. :)

A/N. Alright, so at this point, I'll give you all an estimate for how many chapters we have left. This story will officially on chapter 60. If everyone wants an epilogue, it'll be chapter 61 then. But anyways, it's been an amazing journey with all of you and I love it! Every step of the way! It'll be bittersweet once I leave writing for an undecided amount of time, but hey, it was fun while it lasted!

Also, I got a software engineering internship offer from Microsoft! Dreams really do come true... :'-)

And I will try to make the next chapter come out on time. Just keep in mind, this is midterms season for me, so it is a highly stressful time of the year. Oof, especially with my course load. But hearing from you guys really gives me the extra motivation to keep going! So thank you all!

Until the next time we meet. ~MiraLake