WARNING: At least one character I love dies in this chapter.

AN: I know this may feel like a time skip, but there is a purpose to my madness.

Chapter 15 - Good Men

Things were moving too fast for Darth Sidious's liking.

He had taken out two of the Orders' most popular Jedi, he had taken out Kenobi, the Republic's finest General.

But the rules had changed. The GAR no longer took its directives from the Senate or the Chancellor's office.

The Jedi had effectively implemented their own red tape and the Senate itself was still locked in debate over giving the clones citizenship or not.

The attack on Kamino had been thwarted, at the time, having Kenobi seemed like the greater advantage, however, Commander Cody and Captain Rex were more than equal tacticians to match their Jedi counterparts.

So time sped by and each day, Chancellor Palpatine's popularity decreased and the Jedi's standing grew firmer.

He commed Dooku, "Kill Kenobi."

He felt his apprentice's reluctance.

"Do as I saw, or we lose everything," Sidious pressed.

-As you wish, Master, Dooku said before signing off.

Sidious had the distinct impression that in this, he could not trust Dooku.


Obi-Wan could barely bring himself to care as Asajj placed the hologram of Count Dooku before him.

Pain, exhaustion, and grief did, as it turns out, loosen his tongue, "Hello, Grandmaster, we must stop meeting like this."

Dooku sighed, and tried the same tactic he had attempted on Geonosis; "Qui-Gon was always so proud of you."

"Funny," Obi-Wan said dryly. "He always seemed rather ashamed of you. He hardly spoke of you and went to great pains to keep us from meeting. Not that I blame him now that I've had the displeasure of your company."

Dooku's hologram lips thinned, "It need not be this way, Obi-Wan. You could still join me."

"Indeed, you could have made your case in the Senate, done a vote of no confidence against the Chancellor until you had someone in power that would let you go."

"The Republic has failed."

Kenobi laughed hollowly, "I've failed. We've failed, Grandmaster, there is no, victory now, only survival."

"You sound defeated, Apprentice," Dooku coaxed.

Obi-Wan wondered if Anakin's death had been hidden, even after more than two months of being dead. But then, he only knew time was passing because Asajj had had to insert IVs into him and Alpha-17 to keep them alive.

Dooku sighed, "Defect, Obi-Wan. Join me, and together we can change the galaxy's fate. Your army would follow you if you bid them, come to me, and I will shelter you all. Qui-Gon would have—"

Obi-Wan shook his head, ignoring the pain the motion cost him as he said, "Do you really want to know what my Master thought of me, Grandmaster? Estranged as you were, do you wish to know the truth?"

Dooku cocked his head to the side, "Yes."

"He never wanted me," Obi-Wan said, hating the pain that knowledge still brought him. "From the moment he met Anakin, he knew the boy was destined for greatness. But me? He never wanted me. He saw my future, you see, and found me wanting. Despite being a man of the Living Force, he believed himself quite prophetic."

"What did he see in your future?" Dooku asked.

Obi-Wan sighed, closing his eyes, "Suffering. Qui-Gon said I would never be able to escape it, that one day I would walk alone and know only darkness."

"Do you believe him?"

Obi-Wan's heart ached, "I do now. Especially, if you plan to let me live."

Dooku frowned at him, "I have orders to kill you as it so happens."

"All that you betrayed…" Obi-Wan raised his head, catching Dooku's gaze. "You gave up your dignity for the trappings of power, and now you're a slave to powers that care nothing for you or your ambitions."

"The Dark Side of the Force could give you everything, Grandpadawan," Dooku said in his deepest tenure.

Again, Obi-Wan laughed, "I would not trade my freedom for a mirage."

"I could free you from your suffering."

"No, Count, you are a slave to your own suffering. You see only your desires while losing sight of reality. It doesn't matter if I suffer, everyone suffers, but I don't matter."

"You fail to see your role in all of this."

"And you fail to see yours," Obi-Wan retorted. "If you loved Qui-Gon, if you had truly loved him, you wouldn't have given up the fight."

"I didn't give up, I started a war," Dooku drawled.

"You joined in with the slavers, you are the corruption of the Republic. Do you think you're better than the Jedi? Do you think you will destroy us? No, Dooku, you sought to destroy the Order but you've only made us stronger. The balance of the Force has shifted again."

To that Dooku said nothing, though he glanced to the side, at Asajj, who stood quiet and passive despite the fury radiating off of her.

Waiting for orders to kill them, no doubt.

Obi-Wan continued speaking, hoping to spur Dooku to do just that.

No one was coming to rescue them, Anakin was dead after all, and he was ready to join the Force. Ready to apologize to Anakin and Qui-Gon, his Padawan and Master, for failing them so spectacularly.

"You are the architect of your own destruction, Dooku. You said the Order failed, you said the Senate is corrupt— I believe you, not the Senate, nor Sifo-Dyas, are the one who ordered the vode made."

"You think I created an army to fight against my own interests?" Dooku asked lightly.

Obi-Wan gave his grandmaster a withering look, "I've seen your plan since you so helpfully explained it to me. If the Senate hadn't acted as quickly as it had, I might have stopped the war before it began. But of course, that is what showed your hand."

"How so?" Dooku asked without denying Obi-Wan's suspicions.

"You said the Senate was ruled by the Sith. But you chose the wrong army."

"The clones could betray you, Obi-Wan."

Obi-Wan almost smiled, "They will not, at least, not now. You've forced the Jedi back to their roots, back to being warriors of old, and you gave us to true Mandalorians. If the Jedi and Mandalorians fight united, we cannot lose."

"You shall lose."

Dooku almost sounded regretful.

"The Force is with them," Obi-Wan said, thinking of Omega.

He had failed her too.

He wished he could have told her goodbye.

The only regret he did not have was Cody.

Cody understood better than anyone that they danced with death. Their love had never been a promise of a long life, just admittance of who they were.

He was glad Cody would know how much Obi-Wan had cherished him.

"I can only give you this last chance, Obi-Wan. Join me, or die," Dooku said.

"There is no death, Grandmaster, there is only the Force."

Dooku sighed and looked to Alpha-17, "It is you who will decide when and how your general dies. Answer my apprentice's questions, or he will lose his mind before he returns to his beloved Force."


Alpha-17 had hardly been touched after the first week of being here. Instead, he had been made to watch as General Kenobi had his body torn apart and taped back together.

Over and over again.

Alpha-17 had begun to grow more worried than ever this last week when they had allowed the general to nearly heal completely.

He was right to fear it as the Witch unwound an electro-whip. As it crackled to life, sparking yellow energy, Alpha-17's gut tightened.

The Witch had held back from breaking Kenobi, but she wouldn't stop this time.

"It's okay, Alpha-17," the general comforted him. "I can endure, the pain will not follow me into the Force."

"Brave to the end," the Count said from the still active hologram said, sounding almost admiring.

The Witch cracked the whip, and Kenobi let out a breathy gasp.

The first of many strokes to come.

Alpha-17's fear spiked further, and he hated himself for it. Hated how willing Kenobi was to suffer on Alpha-17's behalf, on his brothers' behalves.

He understood now why Cody loved his general.

Alpha-17 might love him a little bit too.

He never thought he would ever consider a natborn, much less a Jedi, a brother, but he did.

And after stroke, after stroke fell, and tears began to trail down Kenobi's face as sound was ripped from his throat, again and again, Alpha-17 felt like weeping.

This wasn't right; this wasn't how it was supposed to be.

He didn't know how long passed, but when he looked at Kenobi, the Jedi's grey eyes met his.

No words left his lips, but still, Alpha-17 felt as if he could read the thoughts in the general's mind;

You matter, you all matter.

"Switch to the clone," the Count instructed.

"No," Kenobi said between parched lips. "Please, don't."

Alpha-17 looked away.

Not in disappointment, but because General Kenobi had finally broken to call for mercy, and it was for Alpha-17's sake, not his own.

Mercy for a clone.

That somehow hurt worse than the lash of any whip.


"Please, Dooku, enough," Cody heard Obi-Wan beg.

Cody saw red.

"Please," Obi-Wan begged again as the crack of a whip filled the space of the room they were in. "Let him go. He will never talk."

Of course, the di'kut wasn't begging for himself. Even if his voice sounded as if it had been shredded.

Cody was glad Obi-Wan had taught him how to shield, glad he had told his team to split up so he approached the Sith alone.

Asajj Ventress didn't sense him, and Count Dooku wasn't here in flesh —a pity and a blessing.

Cody decided to take a tactic out of the Prime's book.

One could not best a Jedi or Sith with a blaster or bladed weapon. They could deflect one and could probably best you with the other.
So Cody didn't draw a weapon, he moved on silent feet as he got behind the Dathermiran Witch.

"Apprentice—" the Count warned.

But he was too late, Cody already had a hold on her head, a hand beneath her jaw and his other on the back of her skull.

Cody twisted with more strength than was strictly necessary.

Snapping her neck.

"Asajj!" Count Dooku yelled as Ventress's limp form crumpled to the ground.

Dead, just as she had done so callously to so many of Cody's brothers.

Obi-Wan had been right, that the Sith were wise to fear the vode.

The Count began to curse him which is when Cody did pull his blaster and shot the communication device to shut the Sith up.

Ideally, they could have used it to track the Count, but Dooku was smarter than that and they wouldn't have had time anyway.

Both Obi-Wan and Alpha-17 were in critical condition.

Cody activated his helmet com, "Bad Batch, Helix, Omega, I found them, bring stretchers."

He received confirmation as he went to the controls to deactivate the electric bonds.

"Cody," Obi-Wan breathed, closing his eyes and slumping in his bonds.

"Don't you give up on me now, Obi-Wan," Cody growled but received no answer.

He looked up to see his general slumped in his bonds.

Cody's heart rate skyrocketed, Please, not now that I have you back.

The Bad Batch and the healers arrived as Cody got the controls to lower Obi-Wan and Alpha-17 down.

Omega showed her efficiency as she began treating Obi-Wan even as Cody and Hunter lowered him safely onto the stretcher.

To Cody's surprise, Alpha-17 was crying.

He was near hysterical in fact.

Cody had never thought, of all the vode, Alpha-17 would be the one to break. That was until he heard what Alpha-17 was babbling in a near incoherent stream of words, a pleading litany of regret.

"We weren't supposed to be people," Alpha-17 whispered, clinging to Helix who was trying to close up some of Alpha-17's wounds. "They weren't supposed to love us. They weren't supposed to care. We weren't supposed to be real. Our blood doesn't matter. It was never supposed to matter. It— we weren't—" he choked on a sob.

Cody didn't know how aware his brother was, or if he knew who he was speaking to, and perhaps, that made what he said next worse.

"We can't matter, please, Sir. General Kenobi, please. We don't matter. We can't be real. We aren't people, please, Sir, please don't let it matter."

Cody breath caught as it finally fell into place why Alpha-17 was the way he was, why he was such a bastard.

What he had needed to believe in order survive and be able to follow orders.

"Please, Sir," Alpha-17's wild eyes closed as he whispered the last; "Don't let us be real. We weren't meant to be real."

Not real.

Not a real people.

Not real lifeforms.

Not real brothers who suffered, who bled, —who died beside and before his eyes, sometimes in accordance with his commands and choices.

They couldn't be real, because if they were real people, equal and deserving as any other, then the horrors they had endured and participated in had been real too.

In order to accept that, Alpha-17 had had to believe that he didn't matter, that the Republic and the Jedi mattered more than any of the vode.

But Obi-Wan had shown in his words and in his actions, that the vode did matter. That a Jedi, of the highest order, had been willing to give his life and blood for a single clone, a single man…

So no, Asajj Ventress had not broken Alpha-17, nor had she managed to kill Obi-Wan, who even bloody and torn, still retained a steady pulse that thrummed beneath Cody's hand where he helped stabilize Obi-Wan's neck as Wrecker and Hunter raised the stretcher.

Alpha-17 had not broken beneath torture or threat, he had been broken by Obi-Wan. Alpha-17's worldview had been broken by the star-shattering reality that he was a person.

As whole and as real as any natural-born child in the galaxy.

As worthy of respect and dignity as the Jedi.

That had broken Alpha-17, because all good soldiers follow orders, but good men protected their families.

Alpha-17 was not a good man, and still, Obi-Wan would have given his life for him anyway.

It was one of the reasons Cody loved his foolish Jetii.

However, it was the same reason Cody was certain —no matter how the war ended— their personal stories were more likely than not destined for tragedy.


KEYnote: I wrote two new stories because depression :D

Child of the Way: is a slow go of Obi-Wan as a Dooku's Padawan with a truly Mandalorian background that will build up to a Jango-mance when he's older. Major AU. Please read and review?


Imperial Renegades: My first original trilogy and it's another Major AU. Jedi Leia and Sith Luke working together to defeat the Empire ;D


AN: Thoughts, tauntauns, and feedback, pretty please?