Vader's second chance

A Star wars story

Chapter 21

Disclaimer: Disney owns everything except my plot.

Hello there everyone and welcome to chapter 21 of the story. This one will be much more serious than the last one, simply because Rex doesn't do jokes. This chapter is centered on him, as his curiosity gets the better of him and he decides to investigate the mysterious woman that visited Kamino just before the war began, which no one seems to remember. Commander Cody decides to help his friend with his investigation, which is about to cause a lot of trouble for the two Clones. Enjoy the chapter and don't forget to review!

Note: BFE and AFE are acronyms for "Before the Formation of the Empire" and "After the Formation of the Empire" respectively. It's not something I made up, and I'm pretty sure it's cannon because I have seen this being used in many other stories here on FF.

Coruscant, 501st barracks, 3 BFE, Rex's point of view:

The men and I have been lounging around the barracks for a while now. To be more specific, we've had downtime ever since Generals Skywalker and Kenobi returned to the Jedi Temple, not that any of us are complaining about that. Most of my brothers were either training or relaxing during downtime, except the ones who were on patrol duty, not that they didn't sit and chat with the rest us whenever they had the chance, and I had given up on trying to convince them to be alert long ago, so I just went with it and took some time for myself as well. Commander Cody, who had become my best, and only, friend was visiting today since the 212th had downtime as well. He and I had been spending a lot of time together recently, mostly because our Generals work together most of the time, and when I introduced with to the rest of the men, they were quite happy to teach him all sorts of games and tricks they had been practicing during their free time. He was reluctant to participate at first, but he quickly warmed up to us. Cody approached me and I teased him by greeting him professionally, and I even called him "Commander" or "Sir" until we both burst out laughing. The others had become used to this and didn't pay much attention to us, at least until we were out of sight. In truth, Cody hadn't just come by to say hello and spend the day with us, but to help me with something I've been trying to figure out for a while now. He and I went to my quarters and locked the door, to make sure that no one would know of what was going on. I didn't tell him anything over the comm., because I wanted to be sure that no one could hear us. As soon as the door was locked, Cody started asking me questions.

Cody-Alright Rex, are you going to tell what's so important that you had to drag me back here?

Rex-Yes, I will. Cody, something pretty weird happened to me on Kamino a little while ago.

Cody-Weird? What type of weird?

Rex-Weird as in, something I can't explain type of weird.

Cody-Okay, what happened?

Rex-You see, it all went down like this.

Flashback

Kamino, moments after Ahsoka's ship landed, Rex's point of view:

I had been standing guard on the landing platform for about an hour now and it was almost time for the shift change. I was bored out of my mind and knew that I didn't even have to be there, because no one has ever come to the planet in the last decade, but alas, there I was, guarding an empty landing pad, all by myself. I looked up into the sky for a second and spotted a ship that was about to land. I pulled my blaster out and when the ramp lowered, I was ready to fire on whatever intruder was aboard that ship. Someone walked out the ramp and I told them to stop moving. They didn't listen to me and instead waved their hand at me. The last thing I remember was hearing a female voice telling me to take her somewhere. After that, everything was blurry for a moment and I found myself standing on the same landing platform with the mysterious ship nowhere in sight. When my shift changed I asked a shinny who was patrolling the hangar if he had seen anything and he said that whatever ship I was talking about had never even landed. I brushed it off and decided to look around to try and find this woman. There was no sign of her anywhere. It was as if she had never even been there in the first place.

End Flashback

Cody-Rex, that's really crazy and all, but are you sure that you didn't just fall asleep or something?

Rex-I was awake the whole time, I'm sure. Besides, there were plenty of guards around me area. If I had fallen asleep they would have woken me up.

Cody-Well, how is it possible that only you remember something that supposedly happened when a lot of other people were present?

Rex-I don't know Cody. Heck, I even checked the cameras that night only to find that they were all going offline as soon as a mysterious shadow started appearing on the screen. Slack and Rock, who were supposed to be monitoring the cameras, were just staring at the monitors and only responded when I physically pushed them. If I didn't know any better, I'd say they were in some sort of trance or something.

Cody-Okay, let's look at this logically. If I take your word about everything happening exactly as you say it did, then it should have been impossible, unless someone tampered with the footage and somehow got past all the guards to go…somewhere.

Rex-I know! It doesn't make sense! I mean, how could I just forget something like that? Only a Jedi can make that kind of stuff happen!

Cody-Hold on. Repeat that.

Rex-I said, it doesn't make sense!

Cody-No, the other thing. About the Jedi.

Rex-Oh. I said that only a Jedi can… Oh my God!

Cody-Well, there is your answer. A Jedi got shipped of early and…

Rex-Cody! This happened weeks before Geonosis or General Kenobi's arrival and the Kaminoans said that they had started to think the Jedi weren't coming. Why would the Long-Necks say that if that woman was a Jedi?

Cody-Well, who else can do that kind of stuff?

Rex-I heard the Sith can.

Cody-The what now?

Rex-The Sith. General Skywalker said that they are the enemies of the Jedi.

Cody-Well, how do you know they can do the same things?

Rex-General Skywalker told me so. He said that they can do all kinds of stuff like moving stuff with their minds, hurting people without touching them and so much more.

Cody-Hey, isn't the Sep. Leader one of these Sith?

Rex-Huh?

Cody-I heard General Kenobi call him a Sith Lord.

Rex-Well, if the Sith are with the Seps, then we have a big problem on our hands.

Cody-I'm pretty sure that the Sith are Seps.

Rex-I agree, but I know it wasn't Vader. For starters, he is a male and not a female.

Cody-True…You know what?

Rex-What?

Cody-I say we call for some backup.

Rex-Cody this can't get out. If the Seps know that we know then surely something bad is going to happen.

Cody-I know, but Bly's General was captured by Vader for a while. Maybe he told her something important and she told Bly.

Rex-It's possible.

Cody-Well, I believe you and I want to get to the bottom of this. Kamino is our home. We can't just allow some random space witch on it until we know what's going on.

Rex-Did you…did you just call her a space witch?

Cody-Yeah, why?

Rex-Doesn't that make all Jedi space wizards?

Cody-Come one Rex, you know what I mean!

Rex-Sorry brother, I just wanted to mess with you.

Cody-You did. Now, do I call Bly or not?

Rex-I'm not sure. What if it isn't worth the risk?

Cody-Then we tell the Generals at the first chance we get they can investigate this.

Rex-Not a bad idea. I'm down.

Cody-I'm calling him.

Rex-You talk.

Cody-No, you are talking.

Rex-No, you are…

Bly-Cody? Hello?

Cody-Oh, hey Bly.

Bly-Hi. Do you need something?

Cody-Uh, yeah. General Secura was captured by Vader before the war right?

Bly-Yes…

Cody-I was wondering, did she mention any other people like Vader?

Bly-You mean Sith?

Cody-Yeah, that.

Bly-Why do you want to know?

Cody-Well, something strange happened to Rex and we think a Sith did it.

Bly-Rex? Is he alright?

Rex-I'm fine Bly. I think that a Sith pulled one of those Mind tricks on me while I was still on Kamino, before Geonosis. Did General Secura mention any other Sith?

Bly-Well, we know that Vader has an apprentice and according to General Skywalker she is a Togruta.

Rex-Well, I don't know what the woman looked like, but I'm sure it couldn't have been a Jedi. Do we know anything about her?

Bly-Nope. She and Vader showed up out of nowhere five months ago. The RIB (Republic Intelligence Bureau) is still trying to pinpoint the location of origin and identities. According to the systems, these two are ghosts. They don't exist.

Rex-Okay. I'll tell the General.

Bly-What is this about anyway?

Rex-Well, I think there might have been a breach on Kamino before Geonosis.

Cody-We're looking into it.

Bly-Count me in. I'll tell my buddies at the RIB to check it out. Keep me updated. In the meantime I'll ask General Secura about Vader's apprentice.

Cody-I'll check in with General Kenobi and Commander Lars.

Rex-I'll inform General Skywalker and Commander Tano.

Bly-Copy that. I'll get going.

Rex-We'll catch you later.

Cody-I'll call you once we inform the Generals.

Bly-Copy that. Bly out.

Rex-Thanks for the help.

Cody ended the transmission with Bly and we went back into the lounge to spend some time with the men and have some fun. I had to push him a little to get him to stay, but Cody eventually agreed to stay so his visit doesn't "look suspicious". After spending the rest of the day relaxing in the barracks and blasting clankers in the training rooms Cody went back to his own men and I went back to my room to think about all that happened today.

So, Rex, Cody and Bly are officially on the case! This investigation will come up again soon and will actually help the Jedi learn more about Palpatine's plan later on, which hasn't changed for the time being. He doesn't know that the Council is aware of his identity and is far to cautious to try and probe their minds for answers. Also, I'm assuming that a Republic version of the ISB existed back then, considering that Palpatine changed almost nothing regarding the Republic's military and security forces in the first years of the Empire, but the name isn't cannon, and to my knowledge, I'm the first person to use it on FF. Now, this is happening while the events of Tatooine are taking place. To be more specific, Anakin has just finished his duel with Vader by the end of the chapter so it's going to take another day for him and Obi Wan to be back on Coruscant. The reason this is happening at the same time as the mission on Tatooine is pretty simple. Rex and Cody would have been able to contact Anakin and Obi Wan to tell them what's happening if they weren't on a mission. Anyways, that's it for this chapter. Chapter 22 will focus on our four Jedi while they are on their way back to Coruscant and there will be a time-skip after that. I'll explain further in the next chapter, but until then May the Force be with you.