Rex glares at his comm, or more accurately the message from Senator Amidala. He'd been wishing since the news broke this morning that it would turn out to be a misunderstanding, but clearly thats not the case.

"Something wrong?" Cody asks, his bucket tilted towards him curiosity.

Rex looks in front of him and the loud furious mob who at this point are looking for any excuse to try and charge through his men and into the Temple and switches to internal comms, "That was confirmation. The article is accurate."

"Demagolka!" he hisses furiously.

"Lek" he agrees darkly forcing his eyes away from the comm.

"General Kenobi is going to kill that hut'unn" Cody hisses "I hope he lets us help."

A frown overtakes Rex's face at those words. He agrees 100% with the sentiment, he wants to beat the osik out of the old man for hurting his friend and General, but...

"Are you sure we should though?" he frowns, "I've seen General Skywalker with the Chancellor before. He treats the old man like aliit, I don't think he realises what's been going on. If we go in there blasters raised without his okay..."

"You said it yourself, he's been messing with Skywalker's head" Cody cuts in, "The General doesn't know what he wants here. The best thing for him is to never see or speak to Palpatine again."

Rex's frowns deepens, Cody is right. But whether or not the Chancellor deserves a blaster blot to the face isn't the question. The fact is it has to be Anakin's choice.

Everyone is going to be telling him how to feel, that he has to press charges, that he has to hate him, that he should want him out of his life.

But when you love the person hurting you it doesn't work that way.

Rex knows that first hand.

"Captain!" Fives voice pulls him out of his head.

He switches off internal comms and looks towards the ARC Trooper running towards him, "What is it Fives?"

"Sir, the Chancellor" he spits the title "Just released a statement."

Both the Troopers and the protesters around them get louder at that news, some demanding to know what it says, others taking out their own Pads and looking it up.

Rex takes the pad off his vod, it's paused on the Chancellor's grandfatherly face, smiling at the recorder from behind his desk.

"Citizens of the Republic. I am sure you have heard many terrible things about me today, and I would like to settle those rumours" he stares into the recorders, eyes filled with false kindness "I have been friends with Knight Skywalker for manys years and in that time I have never harmed him nor anyone else in the horrific way I am accused of. I appreciate the hard work and diligence of those who work for the Republic Chronicle, but as I sure they will soon uncover they are mistaken in this case. Thank you."

Rex scoffs when it ends "What a load of osik."

One of the protesters near him, a light green Twi'lek snorts darkly looking up from his own pad "Who would buy this bullshit?"

Rex looks around at the crowd that is growing more angry by the minute. No one here from the looks of it.

Fox grimaces as the crowd pushes against his riot shield, screaming insults about the Chancellor and the 'blaster fodder' blocking their way.

It has been insane all day since that damn article about the Chancellor dropped this morning and people found out a small part of what kind of chakaaryc Palpatine is.

Most people were shocked to read what he did to Skywalker, but not Fox. He's seen him blackmail Senators, order deaths, forced him to forge paperwork. He's seen over a dozen Senate Aids, Guards and low level Senators leave his office confused and fearful, their heads so turned around by the Chancellor's manipulative words they don't know what's up and what's down.

A part of him wants to let the mob through, hells part of him wants to join it. But he can't, he has to do his job.

"LET US THROUGH YOU KARKING FLESH DROID! CHANCELLOR PEDOPHILE NEEDS A BEATING!" one human man shouts punching his shield furiously.

"Get back!" Fox calls back, this is getting out of control all his men are out dealing with this but they need more. Cody's battalion is planet side, maybe they can help...

No they'd killed Palpatine on their Generals behalf. Maybe Commander Grey? His battalion doesn't have many connections with General Skywalker, so they're less likely to kill the man they are supposed to protect.

"Thire" he calls to the brother next to him "We need backup, call in Commander Grey's battalion."

"Yes sir" he nods as Fox's comm goes off.

He freezes. The Chancellor wants to see him.

"Thire, you're in command" he orders, letting another brother take his place before turning and heading to the Demagolka's office.

There are 50 Senate Guards in the hall outside his office and another 20 inside standing at the walls watching the exits and the Chancellor, who is standing in the middle of the room speaking with Mas Amedda.

"CC-1010" Palpatine acknowledges him, his voice dismissive as it always is when speaking to one of the Vode, "Report."

"The situation is escalating Sir. The crowd outside the Senate Building has grown from an estimated 10000 sentience's two hours ago to estimated 25000, a third of them have turned violent since your statement. The protesters at the Jedi Temple have gone from an estimated 5000 two hours ago to 2000, most having come and joined the protesters outside the Senate building. 153 smaller protests have been reported across Coruscant as well as 3078 other Republic worlds. #ChancellorPedotine and #VoteNoConfidence are trending on StarChat. More than 30000 Senators have requested an emergency Senate meeting to discuss the allegations" he summarises promptly, the Chancellor's frown growing with every word.

"This is getting out of hand" he frowns grimly, "Is there any word on Knight Skywalker making any statement?"

"No Sir. There has been no statements from any member of the Jedi Order on these accusations."

"Good, good" he nods, "Try to get word to Knight Skywalker that I need to speak with him."

"Yes sir" he agrees, having no intention of following that order. There is no way in haran he's going to add to the Generals already kriffed up day by passing on that request.

"Dismissed" Palpatine turns away from him, having given his orders lost interest in the clone.

Fox turns and leaves, he needs to get back to his men.