Author's Note: some of you have expressed concern over how "unstoppable" Wraith is by comparison to the likes of Sidious, Windu and others, who are some top-tier players in Star Wars. Don't worry, Wraith will discover his mortality soon enough...
-Chapter 41: Renovation-
Location: Coruscant
"No price too high implies a steep cost."
In the wake of Wraith's rampage across Coruscant, the devastation was starting to add up.
With the garrison being hit hardest, repair teams and medical clean-up crews were most occupied with undoing the catastrophic damage Wraith had inflicted to the military complex.
And there was a lot to undo.
After the Council meeting earlier that morning, Anakin Skywalker stood by and watched as the bodies of dead Clones, whole bodies that is, were zipped up inside body bags. Dozens of them were lying on the ground in straight rows, too many for the Jedi to want to count. He watched as medics laid another body marred by blade-wounds into another open bag, another corpse on Wraith's ledger.
"Dammit all..." Anakin sighed, crossing his arms and giving his head a solemn shake.
"I know how you feel." Obi-Wan said as he approached his friend. "If only we had killed him on Utapau." The Jedi Master was sporting a few bandages of his own, having suffered his own beating by Wraith's hand.
"Never thought I'd hear you talk like that, Master." Anakin remarked.
"You must be rubbing off on me." Obi-Wan dryly replied. While intended to be a joke, neither of them were in a laughing mood. Obi-Wan turned to look at the destructive aftermath before them. "What an absolute nightmare." He sighed.
"You're telling me." Anakin agreed.
"How's Rex doing?" Obi-Wan inquired.
"He'll live. I managed to cauterize the wound and keep him from bleeding out. But he's gonna need a prosthetic for sure." His friend replied. Anakin had been there for the medical analysis of his captain, refusing to tend to his own needs until after Rex had been given proper care. Most of the damage Wraith dealt was fixable, given time. But his lost arm was a different story. "He won't be the same..." Anakin muttered.
"Sorry to hear that. I also overheard you talking to Ahsoka."
"What did you hear?"
"Well, maybe talking isn't the right word." Obi-Wan corrected himself. "You certainly did give her an earful, metaphorically speaking... quite loudly, might I add."
"She did something incredibly dangerous. Dangerous in multiple ways." Anakin stated, defending his actions. "She needed correction."
"Unpack that for me. 'Dangerous' how so?"
"Not only was it dangerous for her to approach him while he was on the warpath, but the way she was talking to him was probably enough to fuel his feelings for her." Anakin replied in a rather emphatic tone. Obi-Wan could tell his friend was getting a tad riled up.
"But... she wants to help him."
"Well I want him dead!" Anakin retorted. "Look at this, Obi-Wan," he declared, gesturing to the destruction around them, "I want to put a stop to this. Her actions were not conducive to saving the lives of Clones, she was fueling forbidden thoughts instead!"
"Maybe she needs coaching as to how to better help Wraith, rather than a scolding." Obi-Wan suggested.
"I don't think that monster can be saved." Anakin bitterly replied. "Her optimism can only last for so long before reality hits her like a runaway reek. I'm trying to help her see that."
"Are you sure you're helping? Are you sure you're not fueling thoughts of defiance instead with your hard-handed approach?" Obi-Wan countered.
"She'll come around. She always does." Anakin responded, firm in his beliefs and his approach.
"Well, if you say so..." Obi-Wan relented, wondering if he might have to have this talk again another time. "Let's just make sure another one of these doesn't unfold."
"A tragedy to be certain." Another voice calmly stated. The two Jedi turned to see none other than Commander Thrawn, dressed in his black Chiss Navy uniform. "My condolences for your losses, Generals." The Chiss quietly added as he stepped over to the two Jedi.
"Commander Thrawn," Obi-Wan greeted, the arrival of the visiting officer unexpected, "fancy seeing you again."
"I thought you had left us." Anakin wondered bluntly.
"It had been my intention to return to the Chiss Ascendency. Until Wraith's recent outburst and notable return, that is." Thrawn replied. "Chancellor Palpatine contacted me early this morning. I am here, not only to survey the damage from last night's raid, but to also inform you we wish to hold a meeting with the Jedi Council." He informed them.
"We'll be sure to let them know." Obi-Wan replied. "Where will it be held?"
"Chancellor Palpatine wishes for it to be held in his office later today." Thrawn quietly responded.
"Very well." Obi-Wan nodded in agreement. Thrawn did so as well before turning on heel and leaving for other parts of the garrison. "Well, if Chancellor Palpatine saw fit to involve Thrawn, this must be serious."
"You think?" Anakin wondered, almost incredulous to his friend's notion. "But it does leave me wondering what the Chancellor might have in store..."
"I suppose that question will be answered later today." Obi-Wan surmised.
Later that day...
The Jedi Council, looking a little less than spectacular, assembled in Palpatine's office at Thrawn's request. Many of them were sporting bandages as they healed up from Wraith's rampage, nearly all of them feeling the effects of his attack on the Temple. Anakin joined them, given his frontline presence, and stood off to the side as they faced Palpatine's desk. Thrawn stood adjacent to the Chancellor, hands clasped behind his back and exercising a very calm yet commanding veneer.
"Master Jedi, I do hope you're all recovering well after last night." Palpatine began, having witnessed the harrowing events himself.
"I'd like to say we've had worse... but I can't think of anything worse." Mace remarked.
"Indubitably. Last night was a very trying time for all involved." Palpatine agreed. "However, it also revealed the rather arrogant nature of our foe as he seeks to come and go as he pleases. Something that cannot stand, as I think you'll all agree with." The Council nodded, knowing that Coruscant could not withstand repeated assaults like this. "My response has been to collaborate with Commander Thrawn so his skills and talents in the field of strategy may be put to best use combating Wraith. I know it sounds like we've said this before, but please bear with us. Commander, the floor is yours."
"Thank you, Chancellor." The Chiss quietly thanked him. With his gaze on the assembled Jedi, Thrawn folded his arms behind his back and began. "This meeting concerns the future of the Republic... a future that will not come to pass so long as The Wraith acts as boldly as he does. If not even the capital of the Republic is safe from his assaults, this war may end sooner than we all would like with an outcome none of us would prefer." Thrawn calmly stated, sinister overtones lacing the entirety of his every word. The Jedi understood what he was hinting at, although they'd very much prefer to not dwell on the topic. "Therefore it is my personal belief that the Republic find a much more permanent solution to The Wraith."
"With all due respect, Commander Thrawn, we have been trying to deal with Wraith only to be met with setbacks and failure." Mace interjected. "You know this."
"I am aware of your efforts, General. No disrespect intended, but they have all been misguided and flawed." Thrawn calmly replied. The Jedi swapped curious glances, questioning what Thrawn may be hinting at.
"And what exactly do you mean by that?" Obi-Wan queried, voicing the question on everyone's mind. Thrawn regarded him with a calm and collected gaze.
"Each solution put forward by the Republic has been in an effort to meet Wraith strength for strength in an attempt to strongarm him into submission. Surely it is born of a natural and emotional response, but it is one that simply will not work under the current circumstances." He explained with methodical precision. "Need I remind you that I offered you a solution to him when we first met, General. One that many of you thought very highly of. And yet I have not seen your Clone armies attempting to use any of the practical solutions I suggested. What I do see are bigger and deadlier Clones, larger armies comprised of soldiers trained in the most lethal forms of combat... All of which have met with minimal success and have not at all been in accordance with the solution I offered."
"We have been following it!" Anakin suddenly exclaimed. "We created Jaeger Company, we outfitted blaze troopers to go after him-"
"And each time he had an answer for them." Thrawn calmly stated, cutting him off. "You are attempting to meet him with equal force and you are playing into his hand, General. My recommendation was for you to outsmart him, to keep your distance and to avoid playing by his rules. I do not believe you've done any of those." Anakin frowned and crossed his arms. He thought that their efforts to reinforce the Clone army had been successful. The blaze troopers especially. The first time they had been deployed, they had Wraith beaten and on the run.
"What about you? What've you been doing to help?" He curtly wondered. Thrawn took his words in stride and continued.
"I have been studying every encounter the Republic has had with Wraith. I have been asking the pertinent questions and understanding who he is as a man." He calmly answered. "While you have been busy reacting to him, I have been busy acting upon the threat he poses." That seemed to shut Anakin up and, with his questions sufficiently sated, Thrawn continued on with the rest of the Council. "As an observer, I have watched each of the aforementioned assaults on The Wraith and have witnessed his capacity to evolve and rise to meet any new challenge that might knock him down. There is much more to this man than meets the eye, more than I first assumed. So much so that I have had to annotate my original report." He informed them. "To that end, I have been busy working on new tactics by which to approach the problem he presents and have been assisting Chancellor Palpatine and the Republic Army's Research and Development department with a few new projects that should help us... when applied correctly."
"Commander, if I may," Kit Fisto said, jumping in, "how exactly do we integrate your new suggestions with our current courses of action?"
"Simple. You don't." Thrawn plainly answered, much to the Council's surprise. "You're going to have to forget everything you know about tactics. All of you. You will have to start fresh and adopt an entirely new approach to The Wraith." He calmly explained. Yet there was a part two to his answer, one more complex than what he was already telling them. "However, you must also be open to changing your strategy every time you encounter him."
"And why is that?" Mace asked, seeking clarification.
"If you continue down your current path of resistance, there soon won't be a Republic Army left for him to fight. The key to defeating Wraith requires active observation and active adaptation to his own approach. You will have to be willing to change to fit the scenario he presents you, much like he does."
"This we can all agree on, Commander. But how do we do it?" Obi-Wan wondered. "Sure, we may understand who he is, what he's wearing and how he operates... but that's all useless if we can't use it to our advantage. I guess what I'm trying to ask is, what would a successful approach look like?" Thrawn tilted his head in positive acknowledgement.
"An astute observation, General." He calmly replied with a hint of approval. "To that end, there is no one method of implementation. Only a series of underlying objectives that each strategy must have in order to be successful. As for execution, I have concluded that we must be more... original where The Wraith is concerned."
"Original? How so?" Shaak inquired. Thrawn had an answer ready for her.
"Action patterns are predictable courses of action people take during certain situations. No one is immune to these and they make all of us, myself included, very easy to know and understand. But while some may take a very long time to understand these 'action patterns', Wraith appears to have the uncanny ability to deduce them in seconds." He explained in an insightful, quiet tone. "This is how he has been able to draft a response to every threat you've sent his way. Given how Jedi all come from the same order, and share similar backgrounds, and how Clones are basically all the same man, it seems quite obvious how he has come to realize the best courses for overcoming all odds. To put it plainly, you send the same person, just wearing a different outfit, to fight him and hope they will claim victory over him." Thrawn paused as the Jedi dwelt on this information for a moment. The Chiss Commander knew he couldn't force them to abide by his logic. That would be a decision they had to make for themselves. But, if he could sell this information in such a manner that they would readily accept it, his plans might come to fruition sooner rather than later. "In conclusion, Master Jedi, you will have to do something Wraith will never expect a Jedi to do in order to beat him." He declared, challenging them.
"Well... acting outside the box happens to be a specialty of mine." Anakin mused with a slight smirk.
"Then why haven't you?" Obi-Wan dryly quipped. Anakin rolled his eyes in response.
"I am aware of your penchant for being most unorthodox with your plans, General Skywalker. Quiet frankly, I believe that style of planning is exactly what the Republic might need right now." Thrawn commented. To Anakin, it almost sounded like the Chiss was praising him.
"I have a saying Commander: whatever it takes to win." The Knight replied, affirming his rash nature to the visiting officer.
"'Whatever it takes'..." Thrawn thoughtfully repeated, quietly considering Anakin's rather bold statement. "Then I suppose you would not be opposed to using your apprentice as bait to lure The Wraith into an inescapable trap?" Thrawn suddenly asked. Anakin tensed up, suddenly taken aback. The rest of the Council seemed just as on edge.
"Woah woah, hold on a minute!" Anakin exclaimed, trying to halt Thrawn's idea.
"You said it yourself, whatever it takes." Thrawn repeated, using Anakin's words against him. The Jedi said nothing in retort, his gaze focused on Thrawn as he realized what the Chiss was attempting to prove. Thrawn took note of Anakin's silence and steady gaze and believed he had gotten his point across. "Might I suggest you choose your words carefully, General. While your unorthodox ways might prove successful they also imply high-risk, high-reward potential. A fifty-fifty chance we cannot afford to lose at this juncture." He stated.
"Yeah, but that was low, Commander. I don't want Ahsoka anywhere near this freak." Anakin retorted, not liking the apparent role his apprentice had in all of this.
"And what has you so afraid? I have heard Wraith's personal recordings also, therefore I know of his feelings for Ahsoka." Thrawn calmly revealed. "Tell me, what has you so worried about the two of them interacting?"
"Because if he can do what he wants, what's to stop him from... well..." Anakin trailed off, trying to phrase things in a manner that was both indicative of his own wishes and hinting at what he feared might transpire. "I'm just trying to be preventative."
"Fear, binds you it does." Master Yoda suddenly stated. The Grand Master then sighed. "Forgotten already, young Skywalker? Fear, a path to the Dark Side is it. Control you it does, ineffective you are rendered." He reprimanded.
"Master Yoda is correct, Anakin." Mace agreed. "While your desire to train Ahsoka to be a model Jedi is admirable, be careful it does not border on emotional attachment."
"Yes Masters." Anakin meekly agreed, despising the fact he was being reprimanded in such a public way. And yet Thrawn found this information most insightful and recalled a conversation he'd had with Ahsoka, concerning an angle that was very different from the usual topic of Wraith's destruction, that being Wraith's salvation.
"She came to me once. Prior to your engagement on Aphran. She was asking about a better way to get through to him, about a way to try to appeal to the man beneath the armor." He thoughtfully and quietly revealed, much to Anakin's surprise. "She is a compassionate and kind-hearted girl. Because of her youth she sees more than any of us. We see the super-soldier and the effect he has on our numbers. She sees a man with thoughts and dreams and ambitions of his own... and questions if his actions are truly his or if they have been forced upon him. Life has not yet hardened her as it has us." Thrawn stopped as he allowed the Jedi to process this. Deep down, the commander wondered if there was another way to approach Wraith that didn't require force or firepower. Perhaps Ahsoka had stumbled across this path simply due to her desire to see Wraith freed. But there was also the possibly that only she had found this because of Wraith's feelings for her and that he allowed himself to be more open around her and only her.
Perhaps this path was one only Ahsoka could walk.
But until such a solution could be found, Thrawn knew they needed to focus on the present threat. Such potential could not be acted upon until concrete proof could be found. They would have to focus on their current circumstances for now. "Unfortunately, such sentiments will only get us so far, what with our enemy being so hellbent on our destruction. So until a tried and true method concerning The Wraith's rehabilitation is found, this path is better left alone."
"Do you really think it's possible for him to be rehabilitated, Commander?" Adi inquired.
"If Padawan Tano's belief that he has been brainwashed proves true, then yes, I do think it is possible. However, concrete evidence for such a statement does not exist just yet, so I would recommend you do not anticipate the day when Wraith fights for the Republic, as that shall not be any time soon." Thrawn calmly replied. "Therefore we shall approach The Wraith as a foe and treat him as the worst of our enemies. He shall be handled with calculated precision and effectively removed from the battlefield with all possible haste."
"Though I might sound a bit redundant, Commander, might you have a new plan for dealing with this super-soldier?" Master Fisto asked.
"I have much more than a plan Master Jedi." Thrawn quietly responded. "The Wraith has proved himself a very credible threat, one I do not wish to see reach my home and my people." It was then that Palpatine chimed in with startling news.
"To such an end, I have offered Commander Thrawn a commission with the Republic Army, one he has most graciously accepted." The Chancellor announced. The Jedi were stunned by his announcement, not expecting it in the slightest.
"You... You're joining us then?" Obi-Wan queried, seeking to affirm this startling news was in fact for real. Thrawn nodded in affirmation.
"I am now entering the Clone Wars as a special analyst concerning The Wraith." He quietly explained. "Master Jedi, while it is not my intention to supersede your position of leadership, The Wraith is forcing us all to change the way we approach this war." Thrawn stated. "From this moment on, any encounters with The Wraith will be directed to me and I will take charge of the situation. Starting immediately." The Chiss explained. The Jedi Council shared a moment of debate as they processed and accepted Thrawn's continued presence in the Clone Wars. This would take some getting used to, now having a senior specialist to refer to whenever The Wraith was involved. But with Thrawn having proved himself an ingenious strategist and bearing a sound a calculating mind, the Jedi concluded his semi-permanent residence was of no cause for concern.
"Alright, Commander. What do you have in mind?" Mace asked him as the Council's attention returned to the Chiss. "How are we to respond to the threat presented us?"
"Such a question I have asked myself many times over the course of today. It has taken a long time but I believe I've finally determined a way to finally force The Wraith to know what defeat feels like." Thrawn replied in a clear and even voice. Removing his arms from behind his back, he placed a holoprojector down on Palpatine's desk, a blue glow rising from the active device. "And here's how we're going to do it..."
Author's Note: Stay tuned, there'll be more coming!
