Ahsoka looked at her Master, hooded cloaks wrapped tightly about them both. They hadn't seen Coruscant in over 15 years, and it looked quite a bit worse for wear. It had never been a very clean planet but even the opulent, wealthy surface level was now covered in filth and trash. Republic troopers walked the sidewalks in massive patrols their reason evidenced by the wreckage from Palpatine Loyalist attacks which dotted the horizon. What had originally started as a political movement had quickly evolved into a cult-like worship of the madman as a living deity incarnate. Stepping off of the shuttle, the pair made their way as inconspicuously as possible towards the Jedi Temple when Ahsoka dragged him towards an alleyway.

She quietly voiced her doubts, "I don't know Master… what if we just make everything worse?"

"We have to try," was all Anakin replied with.

"But wouldn't it be better to go to the Senate and inform them?"

"Windu is the Senate, Snips."

"Not yet. Chancellor Sinube is openly vocal against Jedi politicization. He'd surely listen."

"Well I don't know if you realize this but we can't exactly waltz into the Chancellor's office unannounced anymore."

"And we can't exactly waltz into the Jedi Temple either! Especially if it's apparently crawling with Sith cultists in the basement!"

Anakin held his head in his hand, clearly having not thought this out as thoroughly as he assumed. Then he had an idea, "Wait… do you still have contact with Rex?"

"From time to time? He's a general now, I think. Haven't gotten to speak with him in years though."

Anakin chuckled, "Well, let's see if we can stop by and say hello."

General Rex ran a comb through his white beard, laying down and straightening any loose wiry hairs, then inspected his grey uniform and medal plate, making sure everything was proper regulation. Taking his hat off its hanger he placed it neatly onto his head. Time for a shift-change, which meant time to inspect the troops. While nowhere near as glamorous as fighting back in the Clone War, precautionary patrols across Galactic City were what the Republic needed now; furthermore, the 501st was by far one of the most prestigious legions in the GAR by far and the fact that he had been promoted to Clone General after General Skywalker and Commander Tano left. Granted the Fett clones had been slowly dwindling to a minority over the years, age had that effect. Just the other day he had to bury another brother. Wolffe this time. Civvies were replacing them and had totally replaced them in the grunt work. Oh there were clone officers aplenty but time was killing them one by one. Soon enough they'd all be extinct. Walking back to his desk to grab his datapad with updated orders, he took a quick look at the holo he kept on his desk. His wife and three kids, well step-kids technically, clones were sterilized to avoid wreaking genetic havoc across the galaxy with their offspring (at least it saved a small fortune on birth control!), but he loved them like they were his own. Kara, a beautiful, Mirialan woman, recent widow when they had met 15 years ago. They had just moved their oldest daughter in at her college a few months back, pre-med. He couldn't have been prouder of her. He held the holo in his hand, it was shortly after their wedding, they had taken a family holo. Their youngest was still an infant and their oldest had the widest snaggle-toothed grin while their middle child was camera shy and had tried to somewhat hide behind him. Sighing, he put it down. Time to get back to work.

Ahsoka and Anakin had arrived at the military base, right where it had always been. A bit of graffiti being scrubbed off by some grunts, all manner of soldiers ran around, in relatively similar white armor but customized to the various species enlisted. They were all in solid white nowadays, either they were all shinies or the tradition of personalizing the armor with legion colors had apparently been relegated to the past. A few sentries stood at the entrance of the base, a humanoid of some type and a Rodian by the look of their all-encompassing white armor. "Halt!" the Rodian ordered, "State your business!"

"We're here to visit General Rex."

"Do you have an appointment?" the humanoid asked.

"Uhm, no," Anakin replied honestly. "No we don't."

"Well then we can't let you in."

Ahsoka interjected, "Please! We have information on an upcoming attack!"

The Rodian trooper sighed, "Call the informant hotline like everyone else."

Now, Anakin was annoyed, "There's no time for a hotline, we need to get to Rex, now. We're old friends of his and he needs to know about this yesterday trooper!"

Another exasperated sigh, "Fine, look if you'll just give us your ID, I can get you an appointment with the general later this afternoon, alright?"

Ahsoka waved her hand and, with the slightest hint of a Force suggestion in her voice, said "You don't need to see our identification."

"We don't need to see your identification."

"You'll tell us exactly where General Rex is."

"Last I heard General Rex was in his office preparing for a troop inspection prior to sending them out on mid-morning patrols."

"We can go visit him right now."

"You can go visit him right now."

"Move along."

"Move along," the Rodian waved them through, "Move along."

Smirking, Ahsoka proudly walked in through the front door with Anakin in tow. Now to find Rex's office.

Rex stood in front of the 501st, eyeing them over. Row by row he did this, column by column. A few of the newer recruits had slight mistakes with their armor, one idiot put his on backwards and was ordered to fix it in front of the entire base. After inspection he waved them off to their commanders, who marched them out to their transports. Coco Town was a good fifty kilometers away and while Rex may have gotten stricter over the years, he hadn't gone insane. There was no way he'd order his men to march all the way there and back if he had an alternative. Nodding as the last transport departed, he marched back to his office. Endless paperwork, endless bureaucracy, endless regulations, and the spate of terrorist attacks had only made everything worse. The Palpatine Loyalists, or "Children of the All-Wise Leader" as they called themselves, had gotten bolder in the last few months. Normally there was only a few bombings, stabbings, speeders crashed into pedestrians, or mass shootings per year, but now it was multiple times per week. The informant hotline was swamped and despite his repeated requests to hire on new employees at the call centre to help him keep the Republic safe, the Senate was idiotically refusing it again and again. They were spending a fortune in the long term to save pennies now. Opening the door to his office, he was surprised to see two hooded figures with their backs to the door.

Quickly drawing his pistols he said, "Figures you'd finally come for me. Take out the defense against your damned terror cell. Put your hands behind your head!"

Ahsoka turned to face him, pulling down her hood, "Long time no see Rex."

"C-Commander?" Rex asked. He could hardly believe it. Immediately lowering his weapons back to their holsters, he stumbled up to her and looked her up and down.

"It's really us Rex," Anakin replied, similarly revealing himself.

Ahsoka ran up and hugged their old Captain as Rex laughed, "You got old!"

"Had to happen sometime," Ahsoka replied with a smile. That smile had led thousands of men into battle. He had missed that smile.

"You're one to talk there, grandpa," Anakin joked, punching Rex's arm, "I don't think there's a hair left on you that isn't white as snow!"

"What are you doing here?" Rex asked, "Wait, you aren't specters of death to lead me to the underworld with a familiar face, right?"

"Nope!" Ahsoka answered, "We're really here."

"And we really need to talk to you," Anakin continued, his smile dropping. When Anakin Skywalker stopped smiling, that was not a good sign.

"What's happening?"

"There's going to be an invasion of Coruscant," Ahsoka informed him, "I don't know how big or when exactly, but I know it is going to be soon. Maybe even tomorrow. The new Sith Empire, the same ones who wiped out Zygeria."

"And we found the headquarters of the Palpatine cult," Anakin added, "They've taken refuge under the Jedi Temple."

"What?!"

"Apparently the Sith want to wipe out their competition, and that involves taking over Coruscant," Ahsoka explained, choosing to omit the part about her sister wanting to save her daughter.

"We need you to tell anybody and everybody who will listen," Anakin ordered, "Windu, the Chancellor, the Senate, the Jedi, anyone and everyone."

"Yes sir!" Rex replied with a salute. "Permission to ask one question sir?"

"Go right ahead Cap... General," Anakin corrected himself.

"Will you be joining in the defense? And if you are, will any of your plans involve falling?"

"No, and no," the Jedi replied in disappointment, although with slight amusement at the second question, good times. "Windu threatened to kill our families if we did anything. We're stuck. We'll do all we can to help from the shadows."

The clone looked down, had Windu really threatened their families? Their children? He thought of his own family, "Well, I can't say I blame you, General Skywalker-"

"Come on Rex, call me Anakin."

"Anakin… I would do the same if he threatened my wife and kids."

"You're married?" Ahsoka asked.

Rex smiled and grabbed the holo off his desk, proud to show off his family, "It's an older holo, that little girl just started college. She's in pre-med."

"And that's your wife?" Ahsoka asked, pointing to the woman.

"Yep," Rex beamed.

"She's a remarkable woman," Anakin noted, a smile forming on his face, "If we had more time, I'd show you some holos of my family."

"And mine," Ahsoka interjected.

"But business comes first," Rex replied with a twinge of disappointment, "If you two could hide in that closet I'll contact the Jedi Council and let them know of their little terrorist infestation, then I'll informed the Chancellor of the impending invasion," he smiled, "Then maybe we can afford to spend some time exchanging family holos."

Nodding the Jedi crammed into the wardrobe and shut the door. Ahsoka was not happy to have Anakin's elbow smashing in her nose, and he was likewise concerned with how unnervingly close her knee was to smashing his crotch. Getting as comfortable as they could in this position, the pair listened to Rex's call.

Rex took out his holo-communicator and brought about a visage of Mace Windu, former General, now Senator and Grand Master, and despite his denials obviously gunning for the Chancellorship. Mace didn't bother with a greeting, "Just the man I wanted to see. General Rex, I've found something."

"It might have to wait Senator Windu, I have information from an anonymous source on the CAWL terror-cult's base of operations."

Windu raised an eyebrow, "Most useful, if your source is correct. I trust you'll be leading an assault team there within the hour?"

"With your permission, of course."

"Of course. Where is it?"

"According to my source, underneath the Jedi Temple, sir."

Windu didn't find this apparent attempt at humor, "What kind of sick joke is this trooper," making sure he called Rex by the wrong rank to remind him of where he was from.

"No joke. Palpatine's cultists are based within the Jedi Temple."

"I'd have half a mind to think you were going senile."

"Can we at least investigate the information?"

"Never. No Sith cult would be popping up in my Temple without my knowledge."

"Fine, ignore that if you want to, but there is something else that is-"

"If it's from the same source I don't care to hear it General. We need you hunting terrorists, not fairytales."

Sighing in defeat, Rex simply replied, "Yes, Senator."

"Now as for a legitimate threat, it would appear as though Palpatine had been constructing a planet-killing superweapon during his reign of terror in the Clone War. All the records as to its location or whether it has been destroyed were all wiped by Chancellor Amidala,"

"Skywalker…" Anakin muttered, only to be kneed exactly where he was afraid of being kneed by Ahsoka.

"As such, we may need to expand our patrols beyond just the Core Worlds. If he had constructed a massive space station, he may very well have been hiding out on it all this time."

Rex's steel gaze never broke from the Senator. This idiot was really going off of an old record to find some decrepit rustbucket in the middle of nowhere that has probably been destroyed by now, but wouldn't even consider the possibility of an existential threat living in his basement?

"Of course, sir. We'll expand the patrols. Rex, out." Closing the call, Rex immediately punched his desk, shouting, "THAT KRIFFING POMPOUS MORON!"

"Can we get out now?" Ahsoka asked.

"One minute," Rex replied, calmer but still frustrated, "I'll call Chancellor Sinube. See what he can do. It'll be political hell if he goes over Windu's head and orders a search of the Temple but it'll be kriffing worth it."

Gràinne looked out upon the ecumenopolis with disdain. She despised this planet. Her and fifty-five Sith volunteers, including a fair number of Darths, crowded the Millennium Falcon. She made to land at the home of their enemies, both Jedi and false Sith. Despite being permeated with the Light, the Dark Shrine was still powerful, more powerful than when she had last seen Coruscant, when she had been awakened to the Darkness. Following its call, she ignored the hails sent by the Jedi Temple was she made her approach to the Temple hangar bay. She noticed Temple guards running out to where she was landing… cute. They thought she was a smuggler or some random criminal trying to make a big score. Deciding it would not be in her interest to open fire on the hangar bay, she ordered her astromech to man the cannons in case any danger were to come to the Falcon while they were on their mission. From the cockpit she counted thirty Temple Guards. This part would be ridiculously easy, making their way through the rest of the Temple to get to the ancient Sith Shrine to try and take out the cult? That would be a different story.

One of the Temple Guards banged on the door to the YT-300 freighter which had just landed unwelcomed in their hangar after ignoring every hail. They had better have a good reason for raising this kind of alert; he was hungry, he was tired, and he was cranky. Although he would never voice such a complaint, Windu's increasing paranoia had forced them to take double shifts and after expelling so many of their fellow guardsmen in his repeated purges they were all running on empty as far as sleeping and eating were concerned. Just a few hours ago two guards had collapsed from exhaustion and had to be rushed to the healers, who then rushed them to an actual hospital to get an IV drip going. He had also been cutting "non-Force" resources to the healers, making their jobs infinitely more difficult. Finally after what seemed like an hour, but was probably only a few minutes, of banging the ramp lowered and all the Guards ignited their yellow blades. An armored Togruta stood at the front of what looked to be an assault team, igniting the Darksaber. Behind her, all the Sith she had brought ignited their own red blades. It was a very good thing he was wearing a mask or his terror would have been blatantly evident.