So, I have decided to continue on with the original story. Major present-day action happens, but no deaths. Enjoy. (this will kind of be continued from the last chapter) I have decided that this will take place two years before instead of three, since I've found a lot of continuity issues. Also, there will be some mild/somewhat strong language going on in the continuing chapters—starting with this one.
Ri sat up in her crib, not liking the feeling she was getting in her belly—it wasn't hunger, it was something that felt dark and cold to her.
She didn't like it.
Ri knew that something bad was about to happen, and she was going to make sure that none of her friends got hurt. Ri placed a small foot on one of the vertical bars of her crib. Kanari always said she shouldn't be climbing out of her crib the way she does, that she should wait for someone to carry her out. If Ri wasn't supposed to be able to climb out, they shouldn't have made it so easy. In no time at all, she was on the carpet floor of her nursery, rubbing her sore bottom from the hard landing. Quickly, little Ri stood up and opened the door, looking out into the hallway.
Luckily, she had thought to wake up her cousins to help with getting their uncles out of bed.
"Ri, are you sure something bad is going to happen?" her only male cousin, Chino, said sleepily.
"Of course she's right," Shora whispered harshly. "Ri is always right."
"Not always…" he muttered under his breath.
Ri ignore the bother of them and came upon the barracks for the clones.
They were all sleeping, naturally, but Ri could feel how important the situation was. The icky feeling in her tummy had crept up to her chest.
She came upon the first bed, which had Uncle Ridge. She knew he didn't like being woken up, and that he would probably be very upset the next morning. She let her five cousins take care of the rest of her uncles while she struggled to get Ridge up.
"Uncle?" she said quietly, peeking at his sleeping form. "Uncle!"
"Mmm…what? What is it?" he said, rolling over to face Ri.
"Come, you have to wake up!" Ri said, pulling on his arm.
"No…leave me alone!" Ridge said, pulling his arm away. "Maybe later kiddo."
"Uncle!" Ri was totally and completely willing to stand on his chest if it meant getting him out of bed.
Shora came to Ridge's bed with a sleepy Marik in tow. "Uncle, wake him up please," she said to Marik.
"Ridge, you'd better get up," Marik said. "We have watch in a few hours anyway."
"Hours?!" Ridge said angrily. "Then what am I doing up?"
"Ri said she had a hunch," Shora supplied.
"It's a kriffing hunch! I'm going back to sleep," Ridge said, turning away from them.
The comm. next to Ridge's bed began beeping. Marik answered it before Ridge could hit the ignore button. Behind him, the rest of Crusade Squad was getting out of bed. The children were starting to make enough noise to get their attention.
"This is Marik here," he said, the last of sleep leaving him.
"You guys should suit up; the Separatists are moving closer to the capital. And you'd better hurry." The short message ended with a click.
Ri sent Ridge a triumphant smile. He only grumbled and sat up. "You're lucky this wasn't a false alarm," he said, opening his trunk with his armor in it.
Ri waited while her uncles put their armor on. Now that they were up, she just had to figure out how to get the rest of her uncles' brothers up.
Bliz looked up at the fireworks display above him. Something was bothering Rex—that much he knew. The problem was, Rex didn't want to say anything. They could have easily had a silent conversation in that way that all clone commanders mastered.
Brothers didn't hide things from other brothers.
Bliz couldn't help but feel slightly hurt that Rex refused to speak with him. I guess that makes sense, after what I said to him, Bliz thought. He promised himself that he would apologize to Rex, even if it was the last thing he did. "I'm going to go to bed," he said, realizing that the fireworks display was over, and they were just staring at the stars.
Rex followed after him, wanting to stay as far away from Kanari as possible. But, he couldn't help but cast another glance back behind him. Kanari's face was completely expressionless, same went for her eyes. A stab of guilt struck Rex. It was for the best, his mind reasoned. Just as he was about to reach the door, Rex heard another explosion.
It wasn't a fire work.
The ground under Rex's feet shook, almost toppling him over.
"What was that?" Kanari asked, bracing herself on the ground.
Rex looked up in horror to see a billow of smoke rising up through the air from the barracks section of the palace. Another explosion blasted, and fire erupted from the west and east wings. The air surrounding Rex was quickly turning dark and clouded.
"I can't get the door open!" Marik yelled. He slammed his shoulder into the wood, knocking the door back.
They pounded down the stairs, following where the smoke was coming from until they reached the barracks.
Or what was left of it.
Fire burned what was left of the clones' sleeping area, which was now just smoking holes and splintered and broken wood, metal, and stone.
"Edger! Jax! Where are you?!" Bliz yelled into the smoke. They had no way to get across the expanse of burning wood and metal.
"The kids rooms!" Kanari said, immediately running back in the other direction. "This entire east wing could have been bombed! The children could be—"
"Kanari, slow down!" Rex said above the roar of the fire behind him. He grabbed Kanari's arm, keeping her from running even farther.
"But they—" Kanari tired fiercely to pull her arm out of Rex's grasp.
"Aunty!" cried Shora, running and burying her face in Kanari's leg. Tears streamed down her pale face.
"Shora! Where are the others?" Kanari asked, bending to pick up the others.
"They're right behind us. Aunty, what's happening? Are we under attack? Are we gonna—"
"Shh, calm down Shora. We're going to be fine." Kanari stepped over the fallen beam she would have tripped over had Rex not stopped her. She didn't turn back to thank him.
"Aunty!" four other voices called as the rest of the children ran to Kanari.
"Commander!" Jax yelled. "It's been confirmed that we are under attack. The Separatists—" Jax stopped himself, looking to the small children gathered by Kanari's legs. There was no need to scare them any more than they already were. "Do you have a safe place to stay?" he asked, subtly motioning to the children.
"We have bunkers." Kanari ushered the kids down the hall, disappearing from sight.
Jax could almost feel the worry coming off of Rex as he watched them leave.
"Have you located General Jorani or General Skywalker? Their rooms are on the other side of that hall," Bliz said, trying his comm..
"No, sir. We only had enough time to grab our gear and go," Edger said. "Here." He pulled Rex's helmet off of his belt, handing it to the captain.
Rex nodded his thanks and put it on. "General Skywalker?"
"Rex!" Anakin said, almost biting off the end of Rx's sentence. "Where are you? You need to get out here; droids are trying to overrun the plaza!"
"I'm on my way sir," Rex answered, taking a different route down the halls.
Their boots pounded in the quiet palace halls as they ran to the servants' entrance at the side of the palace.
Rex almost started at what he saw in the plaza.
Droids were coming down from the west, directly in line with the front of the palace. Clones were already in battle with them, the plaza littered with bodies and destroyed droid parts.
Rex immediately went into captain mode, racing down the decimated front steps to meet Anakin in the middle of the plaza. His hands were automatically firing as may droids as would come. Beside him, Anakin was slashing with his lightsaber, cutting down super battle droids, spider droids, and destroyer droids.
The pitch dark of the plaza was highlighted only by the fires, sparks, and lasers produced by the droids and clones, and the porch lights that had been left on by the civilians before the attack.
The civilians, Rex thought. For a fraction of a second, he took the time to swivel his helemet camera to the palace directly behind him. Smoke still rose from the direction of the barracks, red fire glowing just underneath it.
Somewhere in that palace, Kanari was probably watching the battle.
Rex's 360 degree camera was immediately back on the mess of droids in front of him. He wasn't about to allow himself to get distracted when he had people to protect, no matter that one of those people was Kanari.
His mind fell into the numb yet alert state of continuous battle, his fingers squeezing the trigger at each target.
"Rex, there are unidentified ships hovering over the palace," Bliz's voice sounded in Rex's helmet.
Out of the corner of his eye, Rex's could see dark shapes flying against the navy blue sky, their undersides highlighted in neon blue. "Not good—"
Rex hadn't even finished his sentence before an oblong shape dropped out of the bottom, screaming at it raced through the air and landed about half a kilometer away. The ground shook beneath Rex's boots, and even from where he was standing, he could see what it was.
"Oh shi—" Bliz said, but the sound of groaning metal chewed off the end of his words.
The oblong object rose on tentacle like legs, glowing neon blue lights lining the legs. Near the front, a glowing blue window was visible, tentacle like arms whipping out and ripping apart the homes below it. A glowing orange ball formed at its front, growing in size.
"General Skywalker!" Rex yelled as he watched the orange beam race along the ground, bringing up dust and debris as it went. The cannon was loud enough for his helmet to immediately buffer the noise, but Rex could still feel the vibrations in his teeth.
Civilian homes burst into flames as the cannon continued its stream of fire. It wasn't the only one; others had dropped from their transports, landing closer and closer to the palace. The explosive sounds of cannon fire almost completely drowned out the noise of the battled directly in front of him.
Rex's helmet picked up movement between the shops, dark shapes against a darker background.
They weren't droids.
Rex felt a dark, cold shiver run up his spine, into his neck and the back of his head.
"Sir, we're picking up movement in-between the shops," a soldier's voice said in his helmet.
"Anakin!" Kiki was fighting right beside him, a lightsaber in each hand as she swung at the droids. You sense it too, right? The slight current of fear in her voice set Anakin's nerves on edge.
Of course I do, Anakin replied. Kiki's special Force ability allowed her to contact anyone without the usually necessary bond of a Master and Padawan.
Bliz came up beside Kiki, his DC-17 pistols firing faster than usual. "Sir, we have droid movement behind the shops—"
"Those aren't droids." Kiki cut him off. She tried not to let what she was feeling in the Force get in the way of the battle in front of her. Multiple images were starting to assault her brain at once, dark shapes with glowing eyes and tails—
"Rex! Get down!" Kiki yelled. She wasn't fast enough, she knew that.
Rex turned on his heel, getting ready to aim for whatever was trying to attack him. Rex's perspective of the world slowed down, his heart thudding in his ears. He had a clear view of what was about to attack him.
Dark green skin.
Scales.
Teeth.
Claws immediately dug into Rex's shoulders. He felt his back get slammed into the dusty, rocky, plaza ground, sharp nails pinching his shoulders. Glistening, bright white teeth snapped in his face, aiming directly for his neck.
"Rex!" He heard both Anakin and Kiki's voices yell his name. His hand clenched his blaster, raising it to the glowing golden eye of the monster on top of him. The still hot barrel seared into the thing's eye, causing it to hiss in pain and anger.
Rex's finger squeezed the trigger.
"Rex!"
He didn't hear who it was that called him. His entire body felt frozen from his core outward. Rex rolled away from the body of the monstrosity he had just killed.
Lizard.
No! His mind screamed. This can't be happening! They were all supposed to be extinct! They—
"Help!" a clone screamed, pure fear and terror ripping through his voice. "Help!"
The battle snapped back to real time. Cannon shells, explosions, and the screams of dying men attacked Rex's ear drums. He had clear view of what was dragging away the clone.
"They're supposed to be dead!" Kiki yelled above the noise. Why are they still alive? I killed so many of them! Kiki could feel her heart beat begin to reach a dangerous speed.
Bliz's mind was spinning at what he was seeing, hearing, feeling. The dark shapes from his nightmares were taking form and becoming real, living, solid beings.
Beings that were tearing apart his men.
Bliz's back felt rooted with fear, almost hindering his movements as he shot down as many Lizards as he could.
The Lizards flooded from their left and right, appearing from the sewer covers in the ground. Droids still advanced from the front, keeping their steady fire trained on the clones. The oblong machines kept firing the red glowing stream of canon fire on the civilian homes, which Bliz then knew were operated by Kirzmin Lizards.
But how are there so many of them? We destroyed their homes, almost the entire mountain blew up!
"Master, what are those things?" Ahsoka, just arriving on the battle scene, asked, green lightsabers in both hands. She deflected the volley of red laser fire from the droids, making quick work of them.
"Master! What is going on?!" Danda yelled to Kiki.
Kiki either ignored her, or didn't hear her Padawan. The completely haunted and terrified look in her eyes was enough to tell Bliz that Kiki was close to losing control.
"General Jorani!" Bliz yelled, trying to get her out of her current state of mind. "General Jorani!"
Somewhere in the distance, Kiki could hear someone calling her name. He sounded like a clone, his gruff voice calling out to her, but she didn't pay mind to it. All she could see were the dark images from two years before, the Lizards that ripped apart her men while she watched. Darkness was creeping into the corners of her vision, replacing the image of the battle before her.
All she could see was the torture room from two years earlier, the glowing eyes of the Kirzmin Lizards as they hissed and laughed at her pain. The Lizards were taking over her mind. Whatever scrap of sanity was left was beginning to fall from her grasp.
At any moment, Kiki would lose her mind.
"General Jorani! Look out!" The complete urgency in Bliz's voice was enough to snap her out of her momentary delirium. Up above her, Kiki could hear the whistle of something large falling through the air at alarming speeds.
Her head whipped up to see an oblong, black object racing toward her.
Alright, sorry for the long update wait, I was seriously lacking in ideas. At this point, we are getting to the main event of this fic. You Can't Protect her From Everything is taking place at the same time, but it's behind, and I intend to keep it that way since some parts of it will be happening after major events here. I would have used the whole Anakin-and-Rex-get-overprotective-again thing here, but that would have detracted from the story, ad that wasn't the main plot, anyway. Until the next chapter!
~AAx
