Admiral Yularen strode down to his med bay, the Saviour's Captain and First Officer flanking him.
"Sir," boots clanked as he entered and every able bodied man came to attention.
He nodded and went straight for the one person who didn't belong on his crew or anyone else's. Senator Amidala was now in a stark white medical robe, sleeveless to reveal her arm. A med droid was delicately placing a final bacta patch over the wound, having cleaned away all the blood and temporarily sealed the wound.
"Senator Amidala, it's good to see you again," he greeted, his eyes inevitably shifting to the pregnancy that couldn't be concealed in the flowing hospital gown. "Apparently it has been some months," was the only comment about it he made.
Then he looked to the Medical Lieutenant attending her. That level of attention was overkill considering she had a flesh wound on an outer limb, something a med droid was more than capable of handling without supervision. He took this into consideration when he asked "is everything quite alright?"
He purposely held her gaze, did not let it drift down to the greater risk,
She nodded her head.
"The good doctor assures me no injuries were sustained there. Your men are to be congratulated."
The Admiral hesitated, and then clarified "on this particular mission, I'm not sure they're my men. This act of bravery is their own."
Padmé's features turned sombre as she asked "Admiral. What is happening? Is it true the Jedi are being –" she couldn't bring herself to use any of the terms Rex had. "Attacked?"
"Yes milady," Yularen confirmed with military efficiency. "The news is being broadcast far and wide, a bounty on every one of their heads offered by the Republic." He shook his head in disgust at the government they had come to serve. "It's an order first programmed into Clones in the maturation chamber, or so I'm told," he looked to his left shoulder. His Captain, a clone, nodded in agreement.
"And yet here we are," Padmé's look to the Captain was one that asked for explanation.
"Clones can think creatively, milady," he tilted his head, mocking the oft-spoken words that triumphed their army over that of the droids. Then he continued "I've served five years under General Skywalker. He thinks about lives first, trooper lives, and I'm alive because of him. So are my brothers. You don't repay loyalty with betrayal," he ground out the final words.
Yularen looked at his Captain with serious admiration, though he didn't let it show on his features. When he'd first caught wind of the order more than three months ago he'd been aghast that such a thing existed. Determined to stop it from happening. But with the confidence of two of his Captain's they'd teased it apart and realised there was nothing they could do but have themselves executed as traitors should they betray the secret. Luckily for Yularen, his Captains had already been planning their own roles in the mysterious Order 66-S. And he had become their co-conspirator.
To save one Jedi, amongst the destruction of them all. One cunning, brave, outlandish Jedi who could perhaps in turn save them all.
That did not explain what was going on here. In this med bay with Senator Amidala, the leader of the opposition.
"We're debriefing now if you'd like to join us," he offered.
"Very much so," Padmé glanced to the medical lieutenant who nodded his approval, then jumped down from the bed. For a moment her hand went to her swollen stomach, as if to steady it, then moved away. She remained in her medical robe but was given a heavier cloak to maintain warmth.
Then He, the Senator, his Captain and First Officer walked in silence to the briefing room.
Captain Rex joined them soon after, his armour still filthy from the fire in the hanger bay but his face freshly washed.
"Sir," he greeted Yularen.
"Captain Rex," Yularen's own gaze lit up. "I had no idea you were in on this, although I should not be surprised. Did you start it?"
He didn't make explicit what 'it' was and Rex looked at him quizzically. "Sir?"
"Order 66-S. Did you start it?" Captain Rex looked around the room, deciding whether to tell the truth.
He'd already committed treason, that much was abundantly clear by his escape from Coruscant, his absconding with Senator Amidala and his admission to knowing the order number at all. If Yularen was actually putting on a charade to capture him for the Republic, then at this point it didn't matter. He would be put to death either way.
"Yes sir," he admitted.
"How did it come about?" Yularen pressed eagerly.
He didn't realise he sounded suspicious to Captain Rex, he was so keen to finally have this mystery brought to an end. To know what had possessed these men to abandon their programming, think for themselves, be loyal to the end.
"Umbarah, sir," Captain Rex named the shadowy planet and Yularen took a seat at the briefing table in knowing understanding.
"Ahhh," the Admiral nodded in complete sympathy.
Captain Rex turned to Senator Amidala and explained "General Skywalker planned the invasion of that planet with General Kenobi, and had planned to lead our battalion personally. But he was recalled to Coruscant just as we were landing. Master Krell," he spat the name "replaced him."
Padmé winced. She knew the name – a Jedi traitor, a Sith turncoat who had been assassinated by his clone battalion.
"Krell turned clones on clones," Rex said without mercy. "Had thousands of us killed for his own amusement. Ordered us into death marches. Endangered the Republic."
That last point was one of the most important.
"That's when we started to think for ourselves. Not rogue," he pointedly emphasised. "Just consider our orders."
His gaze flicked to the porthole as he sombrely remembered "More recently a good man under my command, Fives, died while trying to tell me and General Skywalker about a mysterious plot he uncovered, it went right to the top."
When his eyes turned back to the Senator they were narrowed and filled with anger. "The next day we all had to suddenly be inoculated against some mysterious parasite they just happened to have a vaccine for. I – wasn't vaccinated," he confessed simply. "Neither were my men. We investigated what Fives had tried to tell us, that there was something inside us. He was right. An organic chip in our brains, put there when we were embryos. I had mine removed first, a trial, and soon I realised – I remembered. Order 66 – this order that calls for loyalty above all to our programming, not to our experience. To kill the Jedi. After that my men all had theirs removed too."
He looked at all his clone brothers in the room, men who nodded firmly in solidarity. Every one on board this vessel had chosen to have the chip removed. Made a conscious decision to avoid their Kaminoan makers and undergo a secret medical procedure so they could carry out this final mission. Then he gave Padmé a triumphant smirk.
"So you devised Order 66-S?" Yularen wanted to know.
"Yes. Although Admiral," he turned away from Padmé to look down the table. "You're actually now executing Order 66-S2."
"S2?" the Admiral repeated in confusion.
"S1 is aboard the Defiance en route to the rendezvous," Rex clarified.
The Admiral's blue eyes widened in understanding. "Skywalker," Yularen devised.
"Exactly. S2," Rex's eyes turned to an avidly listening Padmé and pinned her with his gaze. "Is here."
Yularen, his Captain, the first officer and the rest of the security staff all turned their eyes on her as well.
"Order 66 states that all past, present and future Jedi be killed," Rex repeated the nightmare he'd endured since the maturation chamber, the words that had formed once he'd had that damned chip out of his brain.
"Senator Amidala is no Jedi," the First Officer put in confusedly, a question to the more knowledgeable Captain Rex.
"No, but I do have a future one," she said softly, putting the connection together for him.
All male eyes scuttled briefly over the significant female swelling just visible over the table top.
"S2," Rex confirmed the code-name for the baby. "When my team learned Senator Amidala was expecting a child with General Skywalker we split our goals. 66-S1 and 66-S2. This was some weeks ago, but clearly, however Order 66-S originally spread, the updated plans did not do so as quickly. This news hadn't reached your command."
"I'm very glad of your intelligence Captain," Yularen's eyes had moved to Padmé's face and then out the window. "Had we not known of this connection - well. We already fear what Skywalker's reaction will be when he wakes. Had we left the Senator behind I have no doubt he would have dragged us all back here to rescue her."
"My thoughts exactly sir," Rex confirmed.
"General Skywalker would not endanger two Cruisers worth of troops, thousands of lives..." Padmé trailed off, not even able to convince herself as she was saying it. Anakin would endanger the entire galaxy if it meant he could save her and her alone. It's what made him special. And dangerous.
"Yes," Captain Rex confirmed her thoughts. "It's why we needed you to come wherever he went."
Not the child, you. Yularen studied the Senator with avid curiosity. Skywalker was even more of a conundrum than he'd revealed himself to be in all these years. And he hadn't thought there were any surprises left in this war.
"If you don't mind my asking sir, how did you come to find out about the Order?" Captain Rex turned wary eyes his way.
"Not Umbarah, I didn't make ground landing in that battle," Yularen clarified. "And I didn't know about the chip. Clearly it was some time later, I discovered this about three months ago when I overheard my troopers on a secure comlink. I made it my business to go through the original Kaminoan purchase order line by line, and found the reference. Then I cornered those troopers and demanded to be briefed. After much debate we decided we couldn't stop it, we would only be denounced as traitors and the order would go ahead anyway. Though we couldn't be sure we would be with any Jedi when the time came, we decided to provide whatever support we could."
He turned to Senator Amidala and briefed "General Skywalker often needs firepower at his back."
The statement was woefully understating it.
She smiled for the first time, helplessly fond of his brash outlandish behaviour and penchant for finding trouble. "I'm aware he requires rescue on occasion."
"I have two trusted Captains," he waved at the one sitting beside him, "but couldn't be sure of the loyalty of the others. I don't have my entire fleet I'm afraid, but I was able to escape with the Defiance and Saviour including their full crew complements."
His eyes turned to Rex meaningfully. "Those troops that have most often served with the 501st."
"Anakin's command," Padmé said it in soft wonder for all of them.
"Yes," Yularen confirmed.
None of them said it, but all of them thought. Anakin was at the centre of it all. A figure that had inspired loyalty amongst thousands of officers, troopers and commandos who served alongside him.
"Where are we going now?" she moved on to the practical.
"The Rendezvous coordinates," Admiral Yularen cleared his throat. "Are somewhat remote. Outside Republic-controlled territory."
He met Rex's eyes. This was really the test. If he was in on the plan, trusted by his Captains and crew, then he would know the Rendezvous coordinates by heart. Like they all did. Not written anywhere, just memorised.
"We're going into Separatist space?" Padmé asked in surprise.
"No," Yularen's look at her was hard. "The Hutts. We're going to Tatooine."
Silence fell in the room. Padmé looked to Rex and smiled for the first time.
"Yes, I see now why you needed me. When you get Anakin to Tatooine you'll be lucky if he doesn't shoot you all on sight."
"Anakin," Padmé's soft voice was calling to him. She was unkempt and not in the freshly tumbled way he so liked. Her skin was sweaty and flushed, her hair stuck uncomfortably to her damp skin. Sitting up in a bed where she was clothed in a medical robe. Yet she was smiling the softest smile he'd ever seen. Cradling a tiny baby to her chest in wonder. She looked up just as he entered the room and brightened even more. "Anakin!" she wasn't loud, in fact she was shattered with exhaustion, but she was so joyous, tears wet her cheeks.
Anakin groaned, rolled over onto his side and then groggily sat up. A dream. It was a dream – and a force induced one at that. He rubbed his face, letting the feelings settle as the meaning of the premonition seeped inside his chest and calmed the taut tension he'd suffered for unending weeks now.
He paused and drew in a deep breath that filled his lungs. Padmé would live. His features lit as he realised the premonition was of her after the baby was born. She'd been holding it, happy, calling to him not in agony but with happiness.
He pulled his hand away from his face, the gold catching in the light while a genuine smile curved his lips. The feeling of joy stayed with him, his mind settling on the image of the tiny baby she had been holding. Curled safely in a soft white blanket.
The emotions lingered and he revelled in them, let the realities of the dream remain with him. It took some time for the joy to dissipate enough that he cared where he was. When that moment came, he stiffened and looked around, assessing his surroundings, utterly confused.
This wasn't home, the grand multi-level penthouse atop 500 Republica with Padmé nearby.
He was in officer's quarters. He recognised them immediately, having slept in them often enough on transport between battle fronts. The distinct hum of hyperdrive engines vibrated through the floor so he knew he was on a ship. A corvette or a cruiser from the heavy base thrumming.
Frowning, he got to his feet, trying to think of what would possess him to fall asleep fully clothed, without even removing his utility belt. Last he remembered –
He grabbed for the wall to steady himself as his equilibrium shifted and he had a bout of vertigo. Oh he remembered alright. He'd been fleeing the Council Chambers on a fast route to the Chancellor's Office. Windu had taken the remaining members of the council to capture the Sith Lord and Anakin needed to keep him alive. He needed to save Padmé.
The Council Chamber doors had flown open at his command but barely a step outside and half a platoon of ARC troopers had appeared from nowhere. He remembered nothing after that.
"They darted me!" he remembered in disgust, trying to shake off the lethargy he now realised was a drug-induced haze.
His fingers went to his neck and he couldn't feel anything but he knew it had been there. A tiny prick.
Unsteadily he let go of the wall and took a moment to breathe deeply, finding his balance. Once he had it he took off with thundering outraged footsteps. Stormed out of his quarters and up to the bridge. He didn't know what ship he was on and now he realised he didn't have to know. He'd spent half the past three years on ships like this and could navigate them without guidance. It didn't strike him as odd that he didn't encounter a single trooper in the corridors because he was so focused on his goal. In any other mindframe he would have heard the Force, promoting him that they were all steering well clear of him on a murderous rampage.
"Captain," he roared when he entered the bridge and all eyes turned to the stark raving mad Jedi.
The Captain, highest ranking officer and clone on this ship, tentatively took a step forward towards his fate. Clearly ready to die for the transgression he and his entire crew had partaken in.
"What's going on?" Anakin demanded, palm itching to take up his lightsaber.
"General," the Captain quickly held out his hands, desperate to placate their prize turned hostage. He didn't delay in giving a full report. "Order 66 was issued," he explained. "To execute all of the Jedi immediately. Turn on any you were with and shoot them."
"WHAT?!" Anakin's eyes lit with fire and he began advancing again.
The Captain stumbled, took a hurried step back and swallowed in case it was his last as the lightsaber blade lit before him.
The bridge fell silent.
"Your battalion disobeyed that order," the Captain was amazed at how steadily he spoke. That after all this planning, all these men, all these months, it was he that actually had to reveal to Skywalker the plan they'd perfected to extract him and him alone from the massacre. "The 501st smuggled you out of the Temple the moment it was issued. We fled from Coruscant immediately, and are now moving at all speed to put distance between this ship and the rest of the army."
Anakin's threatening advance halted, so startled by the revelation. He looked at the Captain, then turned his head and begun studying each of the members of the bridge in disbelief.
"We're on board the Defiance, Sir," the Captain finished his briefing and then waited, on edge.
"You disobeyed an order, to save me?" he repeated hesitantly.
It wasn't the most important point in the whole explanation, but for a man who had spent so much time around troopers, that was the most impressive.
"Yes sir," the Captain confirmed.
There was a long pause.
"Who gave the order?" Anakin's saber deactivated and without thinking he returned it to his belt.
"Chancellor Palpatine. The head of the army."
"The Sith Lord," Anakin murmured a correction. Then closed his eyes as the enormity of what he'd just been told settled on his young shoulders.
"This order 66. How widely is it being disseminated?"
"Every clone will turn on their Jedi leader," the Captain admitted quietly. "It is hard-wired into our brains, an order we can't refute. Use whatever means necessary to exterminate them." He shot a meaningful glance around those loyal men who staffed his bridge. "Only a small number of us had cause to question what that chip was and have it removed, after we'd worked with you General."
Anakin wasn't quite digesting what the Captain was telling him, only understanding that this ship and its crew had saved him. No one else.
"And the other Jedi?" he asked without hope.
Silence befell the massive bridge as no man dared to speak.
"Reports from Coruscant are not good sir," the communications officer piped up from the pit eventually. "Jedi spread thin across the galaxy fell quickly, overwhelmed by numbers. The Jedi Temple has almost been burned to the ground and images show hundreds dead. Present and future."
"Future?" Anakin's confusion about the term didn't go unnoticed and he looked down to the man, needing more explanation.
"Y-yes sir. The Younglings as well."
Younglings. A much more terrifying thought than the Knights and Masters being killed by their own troopers occurred to him. Stole the breath right out of his newly relaxed chest. Youngling. His own youngling. Padmé. He'd last seen her this morning at home and not since. She was alone and unprotected on a burning Coruscant while the entire Grand Army of the Republic hunted Jedi.
The Sith Lord had probably guessed they were married. And if Palpatine knew about the baby they were expecting like Anakin suspected he did –
"Drop out of Hyperspace. Turn the ship around. We have to go back," he immediately demanded.
"But Sir!" The Captain protested at the completely ludicrous order. "They'll kill you!"
"They won't, turn the ship around!" Anakin's lightsaber relit.
"Sir," another clone appeared on the bridge and Anakin turned his enraged eyes towards the trooper.
"Boyle," he hissed in recognition.
Boyle got down to business, knowing that calming the Jedi was the most immediate problem on all of their hands. Like Shadow Stalkers had two days before he slipped right to the heart of the problem.
"Order 66-S2 is on board the Saviour and will rendezvous with us in two days," he said shortly.
"Explain yourself!" Anakin was frustrated, but so confused by words which made absolutely no sense that he paused. What did any of this mean?
"Order 66 was our original programming, to destroy all the Jedi," Boyle slowly spelled it out for him. "Some of us," he looked around the heavily staffed bridge with a meaningful sweep of his gaze. "Decided we didn't like that very much. So we devised our own variation, more reckless but a better plan. We called it Order 66-S1 – to save General Skywalker."
Boyle folded his arms and met Anakin's heated gaze straight on. "And Order 66-S2 – to save Senator Amidala," he enunciated. The lightsaber stilled, the quiet buzz filling the room while Anakin stood unmoving, breathing heavily. With his temper obviously fleeing Boyle could now continue on with a more jovial "Of course that one we had to add a few weeks ago. You've been quite discreet. Didn't know you had that kind of stealth in you General."
The room went silent.
"So Padmé –?" Anakin invited Boyle to finish the sentence, understanding what the trooper was getting at but wanting it confirmed before he let go the constriction that had formed across his chest and was slowly destroying his heart.
"Is on board the Saviour with Admiral Yularen," Boyle obliged him smugly, quite proud to have saved not only the General but the leader of the Senate Opposition as well. "Captain Rex confirmed he had her and they were fleeing Coruscant when we jumped to lightspeed with you."
Anakin's blade deactivated. His head dropped to his chest and his eyes closed briefly in palpable relief.
The bridge crew heaved a collective sigh of relief too.
Since he was listening to Boyle like he hadn't to the Captain, Boyle kept Anakin's attention focused on one trusted source. "You've been out cold for thirty hours," he gave their latest update. "We haven't initiated any outside contact since leaving the capital, in case our communications are being monitored."
Anakin nodded in understanding. "A wise precaution." Many times they had been the ones intercepting transmissions between enemy ships. It wasn't that hard.
Here Boyle looked to the Captain for an update on the current ship's status.
"We're making multiple jumps to conceal our final destination," the Captain piped up. "We're on schedule to be at the rendezvous point in two days. Saviour is taking her own route, hopefully we won't be followed."
"Sounds like you've got everything under control," Anakin looked out the window at the blurred lines of lightspeed. His chest constriction easing and the pleasantness of his dream this morning returning to flood his soul, reaching right out to his fingertips. Padmé was alright, would be alright.
With that weight lifted off his shoulders, he slowly became aware of the other targets of this final battle. He wouldn't lose Padmé, he would lose everything else.
He was the last of the Jedi. And he was on the run from everything he'd been sworn to protect.
The Captain shared a worried look with his first officer, then glanced at Boyle. They looked nervous and edgy as they silently communicated. Someone had to bring it up, yet no one was brave enough to say a word.
"What is it?" Anakin asked without even setting eyes on any of them.
Their concern was enough to be felt through the Force, unusual for men of battle who could die without betraying much emotion at all.
"We weren't prepared for this, General," the Captain slowly revealed, his words carefully calculated.
Anakin turned, shot him a confused look over his shoulder. "You just said you organised this plot to save me."
"We planned to keep you from being killed when the order was given," The Captain clarified. "We didn't know it would be today. Defiance served in the battle of Coruscant, we were grounded in the shipyards undertaking major repairs."
He toured the shipyards mere weeks ago – crammed with ships so damaged they couldn't even safely sustain a crew in space who would undertake basic fixes.
"Were your repairs finished?" Anakin asked, not liking where this was going.
"Mostly," the Captain tried to be positive. "But we were only just at the stage of doing trial flights. It gets worse."
"I'm sensing that," Anakin faced the bridge crew with worry. "Well?"
"We left quickly. We'll need to restock, refuel. This ship can't run forever, we've got supplies enough for two weeks but not beyond. You've more loyal men than anyone knew, the ship is running over capacity. More star fighters, more bombers and more men to be fed."
A genuinely amused smile flitted at the corners of his mouth as he looked around. "It's a problem I'm happy to have," Anakin folded his arms across his chest and studied them all.
Yes, it had seemed the bridge was running with a few more men than a usual crew complement would call for.
The First Officer chimed in, pressing home the issue. "We can't return to a base for re-supply. You'd be killed on sight."
When it was said in that way, Anakin suddenly understood just what had happened. Not that his brethren were being killed. Not that Padmé was threatened. But that thousands of troopers had chosen to sacrifice themselves, to risk their own lives, for the sole purpose of him. Saving him. Just him.
"You breached the Jedi Temple to save me," he turned to Boyle in disbelief.
Boyle nodded. "We had to keep ahead of the other platoons so we used the ventilation and access shafts to get up that spire. Blew out the windows and had a transport evacuate us with your body from there."
Anakin's eyes widened. "Very daring," he approved the plot, surprised by how clever it was. It was something he would have devised himself. He looked into Boyle's dark eyes and realised that kind of ingenuity did not get taught on Kamino. That kind of creative thinking was learnt on the battlefield. Under his command.
His smile twitched again as he advised Boyle "You could have just told me. I would have cooperated."
Boyle's eyes widened, he coughed in disbelief and looked away. No one wanted to say it. Everyone was thinking it. Anakin and cooperation were not two words that often went together.
Even Anakin was able to chuckle at himself the moment the words had left his mouth.
"Alright maybe not," he conceded. His voice dropped "And S2," he used Padmé's apparent code name. "Thank you. For thinking of that, for bringing her too. Without her all is lost." The last sentence was said very softly.
Boyle nodded. "That was Captain Rex's doing. It was all Captain Rex's doing."
"Why am I not surprised?" he grinned at the thought of his loyal friend.
Though he was keen to set eyes on his wife and decide for himself that she was ok, there was a future to plan.
"Once we get to the rendezvous point, what are our options?"
The Captain took the blame again this time. "There isn't a comprehensive plan sir. We've been monitoring communications and, well," he waved Anakin over to one of the screens. "See for yourself."
Anakin moved to the screen, confused as a news broadcast was replayed at the command of the Communications Lieutenant. He watched on in stupefied horror as the Chancellor declared himself Emperor, head of a new Galactic Empire. "It's not enough to be a Sith Lord?" he muttered darkly.
"So as the last bastion of the Republic we all swore to protect, we are now traitors to the Empire." His eyes rolled as he looked around his ship of renegades. "Just great."