Chapter 52 – Victory and Death
Author's Note: Yes, this is pretty similar-ish to canon. Also, get ready y'all! Some of the changes that have happened in the CW have led up to a pretty major divergence in the next chapter. If you don't know/can't figure out which changes those were next week, just ask. :)
And an fyi to y'all, there was a blink-and-you-miss-it mention of Ahsoka freeing Maul in the last chapter. :)
To Guest (1): Okie. So, this is kinda long, but I needed to properly address what you said in your review. Lol.
I don't believe Ahsoka couldn't have redeemed Vader, regardless of what Dave said on the matter. Vader was very distant from Luke, too, and it was obvious that he was far more willing to hurt Luke than he was Ahsoka, which I think says a lot. As his padawan and child, Ahsoka also represented his future. And it's not true that Anakin was willing to abandon everything to save Padme. RotS showed very, very clearly that he didn't want to hurt Obi-Wan until Obi-Wan tried to stab him in the back, and even on Malachor, Vader offered Ahsoka a chance to join and be with him, which he stayed with, even trying to talk her down from fighting, until she attacked him. Vader didn't distance himself from his past until after Mustafar, mostly because it was too traumatic for him to process, therefore making it easier to distance himself from Padme and Obi-Wan, both of whom he lost very traumatically in a very short period of time. He never had as much of a reason to distance himself from Ahsoka, as was shown very obviously from how he reacted to her on Malachor.
Also, I think the biggest role Luke (and/or Leia) play in Vader's redemption is the mere knowledge that he did not kill Padme and his children as he feared. If not for them, I do not think even the combined efforts of everyone in his family would be enough to help him let go of the darkness born from guilt he has for that.
As a side note, I really love the Clone Wars but it isvery childish, and it's a fact that no one is portrayed in character like their Canon-selves, which makes me question how well Dave actually understands the movie characters. I prefer using the movies first to analyze and write characters before going by what others say about it. From personal experience, I can say that authors do not always 100% understand characters either, and sometimes come back and seriously question some of what they either said or wrote.
I know many people interpret the scene of Vader finding Ahsoka's lightsaber as him believing that she was dead, but the Vader comics and another canon source say he figured out from that that she was still alive, and Sidious had her on his most wanted Jedi list, so the Empire obviously at least suspected that she was still alive. So as for what Theseus will do in that regard, you'll find out soon. =)
Glad you're enjoying the fic. ^-^
To Jayden: I'm glad that our explanation to you made sense! :D Also, you're right. Nothing is gonna be the same after this. Lol. Maul would have died in this arc at some point, but he has a very important role to play later on, so he gets to survive. :)
Thank you all so, so much for reading and reviewing! ^-^
~ Amina Gila
There's a sudden movement from behind them, and they both turn around to see Rex slowly sitting up. He looks a little disoriented, but not like he's about to try killing them again.
"Rex?" Ahsoka is the first to find her voice, "Are you okay?"
Theseus decides not to comment that the clone is clearly very much not okay, but at least he's alright from the surgery.
"Yeah," he answers shakily, rubbing the side of his head, "Yeah, kid, I'm okay. I'm sorry for what happened earlier. I almost killed you both."
"It's alright. It wasn't your fault," Theseus replies, moving to stand next to him. The clones are already cutting through the door, so they're going to have to plan, but he needs a moment right now. He's pretty sure they all do.
"How widespread is this?" the Togruta queries after a moment.
"Ahsoka, it's all of us," Rex responds, "The entire Grand Army of the Republic has been ordered to hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights."
All of them?
Every single clone turned on their Jedi, all spread across the galaxy.
And that means... No, he doesn't want to think about what this means. He can't, but –
He can feel it all again, in his mind, the Force crying out with pain and death all across the galaxy. With a sinking, every-mounting horror, he knows what it means. Maybe he knew all along but didn't want to consider the implications.
The Jedi are dead. All of them.
Or maybe not all of them, because if Theseus and Ahsoka were able to survive this far, there's no way they're the only ones, but most of the Jedi – especially if they were alone – would have been caught off guard too much to react fast enough.
Are Obi-Wan and Anakin – No, no. He can't let himself get distracted thinking about them right now.
It doesn't feel possible, or even real, how the entire Order could be gone. And what about the ones at the Temple? The clones would have caught them off-guard, but there's no way they would be able to kill everyone.
He feels like he's living in a horrible nightmare that he can't wake up out of.
"Maul said he thinks it's Sidious who did this," Ahsoka declares.
"Of course, it is," Theseus growls, "Did Maul know about this ahead of time?"
"I don't think so," she replies, "He seemed surprised and maybe a little impressed at the idea of Sidious turning the Jedi's own army against them." Impressed? Because apparently Theseus didn't have enough reasons to want to kill the Sith already.
"Where is he now?" Theseus demands, gaze darting to the door where the clones are half through cutting up the sides.
"Out there making chaos, but clearly not enough."
"I wasn't expecting him to escape," Rex sighs.
"He didn't escape, actually," Ahsoka corrects, "We let him out."
"Let him out?" Rex exclaims, "Why?!"
"Diversion."
"That's... one word for it."
"I'm not any happier about it than you are," Theseus tells him, "But we didn't know what else to do. We need to take down the clones here and find a ship to get out of here."
"We can't leave the ship when it's still in hyperspace," Rex points out.
"Yeah," he mutters, "Right. We need to get back to the bridge somehow."
"How are we going to get out of the room?" Rex objects.
"I have an idea," Ahsoka declares, "Just set those things to stun. We're trying not to kill anyone."
"Tell them that," Rex grumbles.
"They're almost through," Theseus warns, looking back to the door.
"Get ready," Ahsoka advises, pulling out her lightsabers, and moving to stand right in front of the entrance. Theseus isn't fully sure what she has in mind, but he moves to stand next to her, giving Rex plenty of protection behind them.
A split second before the clones can knock the door, Ahsoka blasts it backwards with the Force, knocking over half the clones in the hall. Rex instantly starts shooting stun blasts at them, while Theseus and Ahsoka deflect away the shots, trying not to kill anyone as best they can.
With the first line down, they make it a few steps out into the hall before several more clones run into view, shooting. R7 plugs into a port, shutting several blast doors, sealing the clones out away from them.
"BD, find us a path out of here," Theseus orders.
The droid beeps.
"All escape pods have been destroyed. We'll have to take a shuttle," he sighs. Which really complicates things.
As soon as the halls are clear, they take off again, heading for the bridge. They're almost there when the entire ship suddenly jolts violently, and alarms start blaring. "I don't like the sound of that," Ahsoka puffs.
"Hangar bay doors are sealed," Rex notes, "They've got everything locked down. If they weren't trying to kill us, I'd be proud."
A few minutes later and the droids determine that – apparently – the hyperdrive has been completely destroyed, and the Star Destroyer is caught in a moon's gravitational field which means they don't have much time to get off before it crashes.
Of course, it's just their luck that the clones were waiting when Ahsoka orders the hangar bay doors opened. It hurts that so many of their helmets are painted after Ahsoka's markings. And now there's hundreds of them, all standing across the hanger, waiting for them to try and escape. There's no other way out, and they'll never be able to fight through all of them.
"We can't fight our way through all of them," Theseus states, his mind scrambling to come up with something, anything else they can do. After everything, after the entire war he – all of them – fought in, there's no way this can be the way they're going to go out.
Shot down by their own men or killed when the ship crashes.
No, there has to be another way, but he doesn't know what.
"Yeah, and besides, I don't wanna hurt them," Ahsoka murmurs.
"I hate to tell you this, but they don't care!" Rex retaliates, "This ship is going down, and those soldiers, my brothers, are willing to die, and take you and me along with them." Theseus can't imagine how he must be feeling right now, having to fight off his own brothers. For a moment, he thinks of what it was like to fight his mother, and hastily suppresses that thought.
"There has to be something else," he insists, though he doesn't know what.
After a moment, Ahsoka takes a step closer to Rex, reaching up and lifting off his helmet. "You're a good soldier, Rex," she says quietly, and he turns away, looking on the verge of tears. "So is every one of those men down there. They may be willing to die, but I am not the one who is going to kill them."
"So, we're just gonna surrender? Admit defeat? Is that it?"
"No."
"Well, I don't see any other option."
"I have an idea," Ahsoka declares, "Don't worry, it's a good one... I think."
"You think?" Theseus repeats, raising an eyebrow, "It had better be, because we're only going to get one shot at this." He doesn't say how if they don't make it, they're both going to end up dead.
**w**
As soon as the main doors slide open, Theseus crouches back against the wall, right around the corner out of sight. Rex heads forwards towards the assembled clones, blasters pointed at Ahsoka's head.
This has to work. Because if it doesn't, if one of the clones decides they aren't going to wait, it means that Ahsoka will die. No, he can't let himself think like that. This will work.
"The order was to execute the Jedi for treason against the Republic," Rex tries to reason, around the corner, once Jesse orders him to go through with it and shoot her, "The problem is, Ahsoka Tano is no longer a Jedi and hasn't been for some time."
There's a heartbeat of silence before Jesse speaks again. "Sir, you said yourself we're under special order from Darth Sidious to eliminate Ahsoka Tano and any other clone who disobeys Order 66."
What?! Why were they specifically ordered to kill Ahsoka?!
"Jesse, Jesse listen to me," Rex argues, "We've known each other a long time. If we don't get this right, we will be the ones committing treason, not her."
Jesse falters, but only for a moment. "Commander Rex, you're in violation of Order 66. I accuse you of treason against the Grand Army of the Republic. You'll be demoted in rank from commander and subject to execution along with the traitor Ahsoka Tano."
"Now!" he hears Ahsoka call suddenly, followed by a bunch of startled exclamations.
Theseus flies around the corner literally, shooting stun bolts down at the clones. Rex is already shooting, while Ahsoka slashes through their blasters.
One of the other doors to the hanger suddenly opens, and Maul sprints into view.
"The ship!" Theseus realizes, as it dawns on him where the Sith is running. No. It's their only escape route! He darts after immediately, firing at the Sith with his blaster. Maul dodges anyway, throwing a crate at him with the Force to knock him off-course when he starts flying. Ahsoka also sees, and lunges at Maul.
He throws her back with the Force, and she stabs her lightsabers into the floor, frantically trying to stop herself from falling, but she slides over the edge to where Jesse and the others are anyway.
"You wanted this chaos," the Sith growls.
Theseus' gaze darts frantically between the Sith, the shuttle, and Ahsoka, for a moment uncertain if he should try to focus on the shuttle or run to help Ahsoka. Maul instantly takes advantage of his moment's hesitation, throwing him back.
Theseus catches himself, spinning and running over to where Ahsoka is still dangling over the edge, frantically trying to block the clones' blaster shots. He starts shooting stun bolts at them, giving her the chance to climb back up over the edge.
A blaster shot strikes his shoulder and he stumbles back a step, but it doesn't actually burn, thanks to his armor. "Get these lifts activated! Get us up there!" Jesse shouts to the other clones, as Ahsoka frantically scrambles the rest of the way up and Theseus offers her a hand to pull her over the edge.
"The shuttle!" Ahsoka yells.
Theseus whirls around to see it already lifting off into the air, flying towards the opening up above them. No. If the shuttle is gone, they'll have no way off the crashing cruiser. They've come this far. They aren't going to die here like this, failing simply because Maul decided to run off with their only escape route.
Theseus instantly activates his jetpack, going in pursuit of the ship, only half certain what he's planning to do. He needs to get the ship back on the ground safely, without damaging it, and there's no realistic way he could get into a fight with Maul over the controls without risking crashing the shuttle.
Ahsoka runs forwards, throwing up her hands and wrapping the Force around the shuttle. It jolts in her grip, and stops moving, even though it's straining hard against her.
He lands on top of the ship, looking around for a way inside. It's not as if he can chop it open if he wants to use it to fly in later. The ship jerks again, almost dislodging him. He can see the clones swarming towards them down below. He'll have to get back down there, and on second thought, using the Force to help Ahsoka would probably be more useful, but it's still not something he exactly excels at.
Flying into the air again, he starts shooting stun bolts at the clones, taking them down quickly. At least it gives Ahsoka time to focus on trying to drag the shuttle back. She isn't getting anywhere, and neither is the shuttle.
It drags on for a few more moments, before the entire cruiser itself suddenly trembles violently. Ahsoka falters for a moment, and the ship instantly streaks away towards the opening, disappearing from reach and sight before she has the chance to properly catch ahold of it again.
"No!" he growls, furiously. Maul just took off with their best – and only known – escape route. They could die here. Him, Ahsoka, and Rex. Theseus lands on the ground next to the others, continuing to furiously shoot at the clones. "We need to find another way off here," he calls over the commotion.
"I got an idea!" Ahsoka yells back, and throws her lightsaber into the floor, using the Force to cut a circle beneath them. The floor gives out, and they fall down.
Only to come face to face with several dozen clones. Right on cue, the droids save the day, and the platforms the clones are standing all start lifting into the air.
The three instantly take off again, going in search of a functioning ship. It's their only hope left. Theseus may be able to fly off the cruiser – and possibly take one of the others – but they'd still have no guaranteed way out of the system.
Surprisingly enough, it doesn't take long to find a functional one. Clones are running towards them again, though, so Ahsoka throws Rex to safety next to the ship so he can get it running before the two turn their attention to fending off the clones.
The Force suddenly screams in warning, and Theseus doesn't even need a second to realize what's about to happen before the floor starts tilting, and everyone starts sliding downwards, away from the fighter.
He tries to grab for Ahsoka, but misses, and she and everything in the area starts sliding downwards. He hastily activates his jetpack as he starts falling too and goes in pursuit of Ahsoka. She's already stabbed her blades into the floor, though, slowing her fall.
The ship is tearing apart with them on it, and they're running out of time.
"Come on!" Rex yells to them frantically.
Ahsoka takes off running up the slope, so Theseus doesn't try to intervene and offer her assistance, but he stays flying close. And then...
He feels the warning through the Force, and a moment before he could have dived down and yanked Ahsoka to safety, everything explodes. Something throws him off-course, and the next thing he knows, he's spinning through the air, trying to reorient himself.
Debris is flying everywhere, occasionally hitting him, and it's so smoky that he can't see anything. He's lucky that he's wearing his helmet, because it protects him from the worst of it. At least he's not breathing it.
He struggles to regain control of his jetpack, which is hard this high in the atmosphere, especially with the debris of an entire ship crashing right next to him, and definitely having a major impact on the air currents at the moment. Finally, he manages to direct himself away from the ship, catching sight of Ahsoka running down the top of the crashing cruiser. Rex is flying their escape ship a short distance away, but he can't get close enough to pick her up.
Theseus dives towards her, just as she jumps off the edge of the part of the cruiser she was currently running on and starts falling. He flies down, catching her, a quiet sigh of relief escaping him. Finally.
He takes them to where Rex is and they drop into the open other side, uncaring that it's only made for one person and therefore, very squished. Right as he does so, the cruiser disappears from their line of sight, crashing through some thick clouds. He does his best not to think about how many people are about to die. It's unlikely that any of them are going to make it out.
He can feel the death rippling through the Force as they fly down to the surface. By the time they actually make it to the ground, the cruiser – and its many torn apart pieces – are strewn across the ground. This is it. That's all that's left of the cruiser Anakin sent with them to Mandalore. All his clones here are dead. Probably.
The ship is still smoking, and he doubts the fires inside have entirely died out yet. If any of them were still alive, he'd probably see some sort of movement, of them trying to escape. Unless they're too badly injured, of course.
It's only now that he's standing here staring at the wreckage, out of action for the first time in probably hours, that reality starts to catch up with him. It's the first chance he's had to begin to think about everything that just happened. It doesn't...
He has no idea if Anakin or Obi-Wan or anybody he used to know is alive and alright. He doesn't know how much destruction was caused. And most of all, he has no idea why or how it happened except... Yes, he knows.
Somehow, despite everything that happened, Sidious won the war. Maul was right. What else was he right about?
**w**
Obi-Wan still has no idea what just happened, or why it's happening, but he isn't going to stick around to find out. As soon as he's certain the coast is clear and none of the clones will be able to see him, Obi-Wan sprints over to Grievous' abandoned ship, climbing inside.
Ironic how he's trying to escape now in the very same ship of the person the Republic has been hunting for since the start of the war, but he always managed to escape first.
Brushing the unimportant thought aside, he focuses on the situation at hand. The clones betrayed him, and he has no idea if this was an isolated incident or not. The only people he can trust in this is the other Jedi, so he dials in the frequency for Jedi only, in the case of an emergency.
In the end, the only one who answers the call is Bail. No one else answers, and the implications of that – it doesn't feel real. There's no way thousands of Jedi are all too busy or occupied with something to answer.
The attack was happening everywhere, Bail had told him, and the only Jedi he's been able to pick up so far is Yoda. Does that mean that the Grandmaster is the only one left? No, it's impossible. The Order has stood for thousands and thousands of years. It's not possible for it to be gone. If nothing else, there has to be more Jedi than the two of them who survived.
Anakin wouldn't have...
Speaking of Anakin, it reminds Obi-Wan of the message he'd gotten from him when he was on the way to Utapau. He never had time to listen to it then, because he was too busy, but since he's in hyperspace now, he doesn't really have anything else to do.
Except for sit here wondering what could have happened. Theseus was probably still on Mandalore, so he should be fine. Or at least it's what Obi-Wan wants to believe, because he can't accept the implications of what Bail told him.
Finally, Obi-Wan flips on the recording, and a hologram of Anakin appears.
He looks quite worn out, Obi-Wan notices immediately, simply because it's so much more obvious than it ought to be, given that he's been on Coruscant for days. Anakin should have had time to rest, but it doesn't look like he has. "Master," Anakin says, "I don't know when you'll have time to watch this, but Theseus told me I should talk to you."
Well, that's definitely unusual.
"I need your... advice on something," he continues, looking surprisingly nervous. "It's... important, and I don't know what to do. I don't know if you can help me, but I have to ask. I'd rather talk to you about this in person as soon as you get back."
What could be wrong that Anakin would call him with a message like that? Yes, he was upset over the mission the Council had given him, but other than that, as far as Obi-Wan saw, everything seemed normal.
He needs to find him. He needs to try to find all the other Jedi who are still out there, because there must be some. There's no way the Order could be completely gone. Maybe by the time he arrives at the coordinates Bail gave him, others will have shown up. He can only hope.
**w**
BD survived the crash. R7 is in one piece too, and Ahsoka suspects they'll be able to repair him. Thankfully. She could have cried in relief if she were able to cry at all. She can't. She feels too numb and senses the same in Theseus and Rex. No one speaks as they make their way inside the cruiser, searching the halls for the clones who were killed in the crash. Even if the clones tried to kill them, Ahsoka doesn't care. It wasn't their fault, and she thinks she'd take the time to bury them even if it was. These were the boys she fought side by side with, before leaving the Order.
The Jedi are gone. She can sense the way the Force is in turmoil, and has little doubt that when the turbulence is gone, the galaxy will feel dark. It will take time for it to settle out though, and she is not looking forwards to when it does.
They've been working for hours when they move on from the hangar and the surrounding areas – where most everyone was – and Ahsoka stumbles into the living quarters. It's empty, but the lingering presence was what called to her.
The lingering presence of someone she knows she may never feel again. No, she cannot think like that. Anakin is still alive. He must be.
Everything smells of smoke, but in here, there's still the faintest traces of motor oil. If she could, Ahsoka would have some serious questions to ask him, like how long he's been spending his nights tinkering instead of sleeping. Is that really a surprise, though? He'd always had a hard time sleeping – they both did – and it got worse as the war progressed. Of course, it worsened after she left.
His presence feels a little different than she remembers. He feels more depressed, more lost and alone. He begged you not to go, a voice in the back of her mind whispers accusingly. Laid out in front of her now is the blatant proof of what she put her older brother through. It hurts, cutting her to the core, but Ahsoka lets herself soak up the remnants of his presence anyway, not knowing when the next time she'll feel it will be.
The others appear behind her. She didn't notice when they came, only that they're here now.
None of them speak. It's not as if they have anything to say, but the silence is maddening, and she wants it to be broken.
They're going to have to leave this all behind, though. They need to find somewhere civilized to settle down for a few days and figure out what happened. If they leave, Ahsoka wants to keep something here. She wants something of Anakin's with her, something other than the blue of her lightsabers. Something that isn't distinctively hers.
"We can repair the droids with this," Theseus says finally, setting down his helmet as he approaches the toolbox in the corner.
"After we finish with the bodies," Ahsoka agrees.
"Night is falling fast," Rex speaks up at last, "We should stay here."
And they do. Ahsoka borrows – not much to borrow, considering Anakin will never be back here anyway – some bacta for her injuries. Rex leaves to collect a picture from his own room, probably the last thing other than his armor he'll have from his past. Ahsoka... she looks over Anakin's robes, finally picking out a smaller, non-Jedi-like one for herself. It's gray, and quite big on her, but it fits. It is probably something he used to wear as a disguise when he was still a padawan. Theseus collects whatever of Anakin's tools they can find.
The night is restless. Ahsoka spends a long time staring blankly up at the ceiling. Sometimes, when she closes her eyes, she can pretend the quiet breathing in the room isn't Theseus and Rex's, that it's her master's.
The next morning comes soon enough. Ahsoka is still feeling in about as much shock as she was the previous evening. She doesn't know how to accept this, that everything she ever knew is gone. Again. And this time she can't go back, because there's nothing to go back to.
Everyone opts out of eating anything, including ration bars. None of them really talk. There's nothing to say.
They work side by side, carrying all of the clones out of what's left of the cruiser to an open area not far away. It takes them hours to finish, leaving each of their helmets on sticks above their individual graves.
It hurts seeing how many of them have markings after her painted on their helmets. Most of them here do. And they're all dead now. She can't even imagine how Rex must be feeling seeing this. This was a large portion of the 501st, all things considered. And the rest of them are mindlessly subservient to someone's orders now. At least those still alive are. They were on Coruscant, and – No, she doesn't want to think about what may or may not have happened at the Jedi Temple.
She stands there looking over the graves for many long moments, a quiet breeze rustling the robe she's wearing. Anakin's robe. Theseus stands motionless next to her.
It feels like more than just the graves of the clones; they're looking on the graveyard of what was once their lives. The Clone Wars are over. A new era has begun, and Ahsoka can't shake the feeling that it's going to be one far, far darker than the war ever was.
And the cruiser here, that was once her home. It bears so many memories of her and Anakin, from better times, from before she left the Order. Now that's all gone.
The Republic – what's left of it – will come looking for them eventually. It would be best if they thought she died here, too, seeing as Sidious apparently gave out a special order for her to be killed. She can only think of one thing: one of her lightsabers.
Slowly she holds out a hand, letting her shoto drop to the ground. The one that Anakin gave her. She needs to leave one of them, and it seems almost appropriate that she leaves this one here, to rest in the same place where she last felt her master's presence. (Maybe for the last time.)
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