Good day all,

I hope this chapter finds you well. As will be for the rest of this story, please note the rating. Violence, blood, and mentions of war crimes will continue – reader discretion is advised.

I wish you all enjoyment as you read on, and look forward to your feedback.

Happy Writing,

Eliana

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Kachina had worn herself out a couple minutes ago and had now just become a limp mess against the doctor's shoulder as he held her against his chest. The small stuffed rabbit was still clutched in an amazing iron grip that betrayed her exhaustion, and in any other event, he would have been quite proud.

Eddy was sure he had worn a trench into the ground below his feet and he couldn't actually tell anyone if his pacing was for the weeping toddler's benefit or his own… in all stark reality, it didn't really matter. What mattered was that his head was whirring from the sheer overload of information, sounds, sights, smells, and emotions that hung like a soupy fog in his mind, none of them willing to relent and give him any form of a break. It was overwhelming, and when it collided with the anxiety that he shoved deep down into his chest for the benefit of the young girl he was comforting, he thought his heart was going to rip itself from his chest.

Unconsciously he hummed low in his lungs, feeling another hiccup rock Kachina's body before she started to fully settle down. She was just as terrified as he was (as hard as he tried to hide it, it was a reality), so it shocked him that when Rex suddenly opened the electronic door to their safe space the toddler didn't move at all. For the sake of his pride, he pretended that he hadn't had to swallow a startled yelp.

"Doctor, we need your help," was all that the clone captain had told him, and it was all that it took to rattle Eddy enough that he was back in control of himself again and following the man without hesitation.

A million thoughts raced across his mind just as fast as the Chargers had run past him earlier that day. Rex had addressed him as 'doctor' – not 'representative' or 'sir' or even 'Eddy' – 'doctor'…. And that terrified him. Someone was badly hurt, and he was trying to come to terms with it before they even made it past the chaos of the stirred hornet's nest of clones and to the medical tent. It could be anyone… surely they wouldn't need him to help a clone, they had two medics for that. So, it could be…

Ahsoka.

Djibourdi.

Anakin.

Tombur.

Any of those options made him want to projectile vomit, and when he finally did reach the tent it only got worse.

"I'll take her, Eddy," Ahsoka told him with a gentle smile, and he didn't need to ask if it was for his benefit or not.

The relief at seeing her and her master well and the warm bit of happiness that came with passing Kachina into a safe set of arms was strangled by the cold stab of uncertainty that hissed to him. Two were still missing. Anakin wordlessly led him into the medical space and past the wounded Chargers who were hurriedly being tended to by Kix, Sam, and a couple of helpers – part of him wanted to run over and start working on them too, but the human who led him walked with an air of urgency. That meant a bigger trouble was ahead, and as they both passed the dividing tarp that separated the large space into a makeshift room, his voice barely cooperated at his sudden demand of it.

"'Carra!"

He almost couldn't believe that he was seeing her – and apparently her him – because, even with her right arm being tightly bound to her chest and her other clear wounds, she still attempted to move toward him. Tombur softly corrected the motion with calm hands, keeping her as still as he could so that his padawan could keep focus where he and a medical droid leaned over her badly damaged abdomen. Djibourdi had yet to twitch, hands hovering just over her damaged skin and his eyes shut in focus. The droid's ultrasound was displayed in the air above it, showing the weeping blood vessels slowly, torturously slowly, ebbing off their pouring leaks.

Eddy was by his friend's side in a heartbeat, leaning himself over so that she could wrap a shaking hand in his shirt and bury her gasping face into his neck. The prized calm face that he had always run into in his years as her apprentice was long gone, leaving a shattered collection of poorly stained glass behind. The woman in front of him was a shattered, battered, bruised, terrified mess compared to the woman he was accustomed to. It tortured him.

"Spirits, where did you come from? What happened? Where are you hurt?" the questions went from slow to calmly demanding as he sunk back into his natural role as physician, forcing himself to pull back enough to view her face. He would give anything to get his hands on the individual who dared to put those bruises and busted lip on her face.

"I'll be okay," she rasped out to him, not yet letting go of her grip on his shirt, "The last thing I expected after that was our little Djibourdi and his master."

A quick glance over to the padawan told Eddy that he was close to finished with what he was doing – and he was suddenly incredibly thankful for whatever tricks he was using, even if it was sapping his energy rapidly.

"He's quite the medic," his mentor told him with what was supposed to be a smile on cracked lips, "He learned that from somewhere."

Tombur's voice drew their attention for just a moment, and they realized that Djibourdi had moved back, allowing the medical droid to begin placing bacta patches on the swollen skin of Tocarra's abdomen. The two Jedi were speaking to one another in a language that neither of them understood…but the look they shared said a thousand things. Tombur was telling his apprentice to salvage what energy he could after that expense, one porcelain hand resting against his padawan's flustered neck in reassurance – and it wasn't lost on either doctor that, not terribly long ago, the interactions between Djibourdi and his master weren't so caring.

"Ed," Tocarra grunted out, finally letting him go and settling back into the meager pillows with a weary huff, "They were everywhere. We had no warning."

"Who was it that attacked you?"

Ahsoka's voice should have startled both of them but instead they accepted the presence of all four Jedi who were now in the space with them, Kachina drearily limp and fast asleep in Ahsoka's embrace.

"Shaiotine," the woman told her as her voice cracked, "demons. They killed everyone."

"Everyone?" Eddy wanted to believe he heard her wrong, but the shadow that crossed her eyes made his stomach drop from his body.

"Everyone."

"Tocarra," Anakin was surprisingly careful when he pressed a bit more, "What did you say attacked you?"

"Shaiotine," she managed as her energy leaked from her like a stabbed hose pouring water. She wasn't going to be of much help, so Anakin turned to the other adult Togruta for answers.

"What is that?"

"They're…. they're like demons, goblin-fiend-lookin' things…" he was struggling to form a coherent sentence that made his point understandable, and then the proverbial lightbulb clicked on above his head. In a flash he was across the space and retrieving the old bound book of legends from the shelf where he had stored it, flipping through the wrinkled old pages until he found the one he was looking for. He turned it over to the human, pointing to the fang toothed, skull-like, goblin-faced creature on the page, "They look like that."

Anakin and Ahsoka both studied the page intently, then it was passed to Tombur.

"I've never seen a people or a creature that look like that," Ahsoka wondered aloud, moving to sit in the chair next to Tocarra's bedside. In desperation to be of some form of help she retrieved one of the towels that was folded on the table and dabbed at the paled skin of her friend's forehead, her other arm cradling the sleeping toddler to her.

"They were everywhere," the woman mumbled to her, eyes now clouded in relief from the searing pain of her bruised ribs that the droid was nearly finished covering. She shakily pointed with a couple bloodstained fingers to a small object by her leg, telling them all, "The clones killed a couple…and I managed to take that."

The small piece of round, stained durasteel was retrieved by Anakin who turned it over in his hand slowly. All of the occupants of the small space snapped their attention to the tarp that was suddenly pulled aside by Bones, his face held in tense urgency.

"A thousand pardons, sirs," he addressed them all, then to Eddy, "We have a situation sir, I need your help urgently."

He was gone that quickly before Eddy could ask for details. Tocarra answered the silent demand for him, weakly tapping his hand to gain his attention.

"It's Donny. He needs you," she looked down to the teenager at the end of her bed, "Both of you."

Now Eddy's heart was hammering again, and he pressed out, perhaps more intensely than intended to the padawan:

"Do you have enough energy for one more?"

Djibourdi just bobbed his head in affirmation despite his clearly fatigued state, the only thing holding him where he stood was a confident hand on his shoulder. Tombur was saying a thousand things to his apprentice with that motion but to make it clear to the Togruta across the room he spoke calmly:

"I will send him in in a moment. I have to borrow him briefly."

Eddy only nodded his understanding, quietly ordered Ahsoka to watch over both Tocarra and Kachina, then disappeared with a whisp behind that curtain.

"Master Jedi," Tocarra grumbled to Tombur, not flinching when the medical droid moved to push an IV needle into the skin of her arm nor when it pressed the hypospray of morphine to her neck, "He's going to need supplies… that was a medical transport. It had a supply carrier with it but it's…" she had to draw in a shuddering breath before continuing, "Probably watched by those demons."

"We're going to need those supplies. Here, kiddo," Anakin pressed as well as he handed off the piece of durasteel to Djibourdi who was suddenly fixated deeply on it, "Tocarra, I know I'm asking a lot of questions and it's hard to focus… what else can you tell us about these things that did this?"

Whatever answer she gave was drowned out of Ahsoka's mind by the focus she gave to her friend and his master across the space. Tombur was watching his padawan turn the shined piece of black durasteel over and over in his palms, and worriedly she noticed that the pupils of Djibourdi's eyes had dilated drastically as he focused down on it. There was something about it, something about how it felt or how it was made that commanded every cell of the padawan's attention – yet he still seemed slightly confused (or so the slight twitch of his lip told her) as he studied it.

It was juggled purposefully between the two red palms then brought to his nose where he gave a slight sniff… and that did it.

That smell…

There was a momentary lapse from him catching whiff of that scent and it burning deeply in the back of his throat, but the instant it settled in the reality must have landed a blow straight between his eyes. Realization froze his face in a look of startled anxiety and his head whipped up to lock eyes with his master who, finally understanding after three or four seconds, shared the expression.

They were worried. If they were worried, Ahsoka was terrified.

Anakin had caught onto the exchange then as Tocarra slowly faded from being alert, the cool saline, numbing morphine, and soothing bacta mercifully lulling her into an exhausted half-awareness. Both Djibourdi and Tombur understood exactly what had attacked the group and what was coming to them, and before either Anakin or Ahsoka could bring themselves to ask ,the Echani was calling to his clone Praetorian on the other side of the tarp.

"Sam, I need runners," he told him urgently, then to a second Charger who appeared, "Ricochet, grab a couple of your brothers and bring my and Red's light armor here. Rapidly."

They were off that quickly, and his attention turned back to Djibourdi.

"Stay here and help your friend – but if I call for you, I need you to be there with your Reapers as fast as you can. I know I am asking you to fight on two fronts, but I need you with me. Understand?"

His younger companion gave the affirmative before he was dismissed, his form disappearing behind the tarp that separated all of them from Eddy and Bones.

"Rabbit, what's going on?" Anakin's voice was steady, but the undercurrent of trepidation leaked through.

"Do you remember, Anakin, when I told you the story of the shadows that Warren and I fought all those years ago?"

"Yeah…I thought that was just exaggeration."

His friend fixed his suddenly haunted gaze on the human.

"I do no such thing, you should know that. This has suddenly become very dangerous for everyone here – but our hand is being forced. My men and the injured need those supplies, especially now that we know our enemy and what they intend, and I am going to get them. If we can move fast enough we will be able to retrieve them without much trouble, and if not a small detachment should be all I need to get us hidden again."

"I'm going with you."

"So am I," Ahsoka chimed in, immediately irritated that both adults fixed her with correcting stared.

"You're not coming," Anakin told her in a no-nonsense tone, "Someone needs to be here to make sure everyone stays safe."

"I'm not staying behind while you both run head-first into danger. No one would be dumb enough to attack a camp filled with clones –"

"Ahsoka," the porcelain-skinned man spoke, beginning to slip on the armor pieces that his men brought to him, "Tell me… these battles you and your master have fought, I assume there's always the same holochess match that goes on in your head, right? Fight the battle, capture or disable the enemy, retrieve their general… and the day is won when the droids are deactivated, tja?"

She nodded, not understanding what he was getting at until he snapped the arm plates into place. His Force signature, normally warm and pleasant and nurturing, was suddenly a dark, clouded black hole that ate away at his peaceful presence. Ahsoka noticed that her throat was suddenly dry as a desert when that scarred face turned to look at her.

"These people are not going to follow those rules. They believe that life is suffering, and that pain is the answer to that suffering. The only way to win against them is to kill them before they kill you – they will not hesitate at the sight of a camp of clones, nor will they practice restraint because your friend," he nodded to the now-sleeping Tocarra, "Is badly wounded or that Kachina is an infant. They will kill them, all of them, if they get the chance."

A vibroblade sword was handed over to him by Ricochet and he swung it across his back, never taking his eyes off of the padawan who had clutched Kachina tighter to her.

"You will be the only one denying them that chance. Djibourdi is having to play double duty right now – he will help Eddy as much as he can, but if something happens and I call for him he will have to fight. He is strong but he can only do so many things at once. I need someone I can trust to guide my men into standing against what's coming if he has to run to meet me. Will you do that for me?"

Anakin was shocked when she actually agreed with him. Tombur always had a way with words, he reminded himself. He addressed his fellow general next.

"I'm still going with you."

"You're going to have to move quickly, Skywalker. There will be no margin for error, they will be on us quickly and the Force will not be able to help you."

What does that mean?!, Ahsoka heard her mind spit.

"I'll handle it, I'll take a bike," the human shrugged off, sending a quick, "May the Force be with you, Ahsoka," to his padawan before they were both gone.

Suddenly she felt so very alone, the sounds of minute chaos humming in her montrals from both sides of the space she occupied. She couldn't bring herself to stay in that chair any longer than she had already, so she called Ricochet who had diligently guarded the entrance to where she sat since they had all arrived. She asked him if he would be willing to keep an eye on the two Togruta who were sound asleep, and with a slight bit of hesitation he agreed. When she had safely tucked the toddler next to the sleeping doctor, she left Ricochet to stand watch over them with the doctor droid.

She had to keep busy, get her hands on something to do to keep her mind working and pass the time. She opted to help Kix and Sam in their current roles of caregiver for the badly wounded Chargers on the other side of the tarp. As the minutes passed, she noted the flow of troopers in and out of the space that Eddy and Djibourdi occupied, all of them carrying in or out containers of the herbs and plants that she remembered helping her friend with.

She so very badly wanted to go in there and be of help, but her knowledge was limited to trying to keep the men in front of her calm – so to make herself less of a potential issue she stayed busy where she was. Whatever it was that they were doing in there…she had to believe that they were doing it right. Neither one had looked confident when they had gone into that room.

She couldn't lose another friend. Not this quickly after one.

Not five days before a major holiday that she had just learned about.

Not when she had so many questions and so much to be thankful for that she hadn't made clear before now.

She understood that it was one of the most blatant attachments that she had… but she couldn't bring herself to reprimand her heart for it.

That same heart, wounded and aching, was suddenly in her throat when Sam made a beeline in the direction of where her two friends were working. The blinking light on his wrist gauntlet burned a hole in her resolve. When he reappeared, her heart went straight from her throat to her stomach with the weight of a stone. He wasn't alone. Djibourdi, fingernails stained in blood, face worn, muscles shaking with fatigue and strain under the light armor he wore, and clearly on high alert strode with him. She barely caught his soft, yet commanding, words to his praetorian as they floated by.

"Summon the Reapers. Pull fifty of the reserves, set them in front of the gate."

"Sir," Sam pulled them both to a halt just at the entrance to the tent, "Please, let me lead them. I am the one who is responsible for sending the general out with those runners."

It was well intended…and Ahsoka suddenly understood that Sam was to Djibourdi what Rex was to her. He was trying to help his friend in a desperate situation in the only way that he knew how. It was becoming alarmingly clear that the other padawan was becoming drawn on energy reserves, but he wasn't ready to back down yet.

"And now it is my responsibility to get them all back," Djibourdi answered softly. Ahsoka translated that meant gratitude, "Muster the men."

Sam conceded, moving out to shout orders among the chaos to rally his troops to the correct location. Ahsoka's concern wasn't for that. It was only for her friend who lingered in the doorway of the tent.

He almost looked asleep on his feet where he stood suddenly as still as a rooted tree, eyes closed against the soft breeze that carried the startling shock of chaos around them over his cheeks. She could only guess that he was meditating to keep himself focused and calm, but the obvious strain of what he had been doing mixed with the physical labor of what he was about to set upon was asking a tremendous amount of him. Just as she was going to approach him and offer, a futile effort she was sure, that she go in his stead, his whole demeanor changed.

At a proverbial snap of the fingers his eyes were open and sharp, shoulders were square, back straight as he marched straight out of the med tent. Ahsoka was quick to pull herself after him. He was walking toward the Reapers who waited for him, accepting the durasteel helmet plate that was offered to him with a bow from one of them. He arranged it on his head, tucking it over the bristle-colored fur of his headdress, as he walked toward the entrance of the camp with his Reapers following his lead and trailing after him. The fifty reserves that he called for split their ranks to allow them through first.

She couldn't shake her nagging concern for him and trailed them, immersing herself in the familiar tension of battle that filled the air outside of the safety net that was the med tent. Her orders were to keep the non-fighters safe. They were under watchful eyes in the safest place they could be.

That, in her eyes, made her decision that she was making now fully justified.

Rex spied her from his position on the wall and immediately gestured vigorously to her as if to ask what she was doing. She returned his urgency with a crooked grin and a half wave of her hand, bring sure to keep enough distance between herself and her friend who was now standing at the cusp of the gate. He was silent, head bowed and eyes shut again, and this time Ahsoka stilled herself and felt him out through the Force – she wanted to know what he was doing. So worn was he that he didn't bother to repel her soft probe… and his whispering voice filled the distance between them, carried in the echoes of the Force.

Master Warren, master of my master, please do not let me dishonor my men.

Warren was his guardian in the Force now… and he was calling to him to have spare strength for his grandpadawan. Whatever was outside of those gates had rattled him to the point of prayer… it was nothing but shadow to her, but the fact that he could feel what she could not shot terror up her spine.

Master Warren, master of my master, please accept whatever sacrifice that I might not dishonor my men.

Djibourdi drew in a steadying breath and then stood himself straight, his Reapers mirroring the motion. The call came from Campion who was stationed on the wall, his hand raised in an order to the clones who stood guarding the controls to the gate. His voice echoed off the walls.

"Open the gates!"

They complied, and with a great groan the heavy makeshift gates swung inward. Djibourdi called out something in a language that his friend didn't understand, but his clones did – every one of them, all couple hundred of the Chargers, raised their right hands in a fist with a shout, seeing their commander and his Reapers out of the gate and off onto the path of the distant chaos that the Togruta led them to.

Ahsoka's greatest desire was to run out with them. There was no way she was catching them, she knew, because they were moving at such a pace that they had already moved beyond the cusp of the western ridge as she reached the gate. The fifty reserves her friend had ordered were trotting past her to form a line of shields, the glowing blue of their energy shields a hauntingly cool light against the fiery air that they stood in.

The wind smelled of oncoming rain, and her head echoed with phantom screams that belonged to no one and everyone all at once. She felt sick and anxious and wild all at the same time, the gnarled fangs of some unnamed entity snapping at her in an attempt to get her to move – it was pushing her –

No. Calling her to move. Demanding that she intervene with…whatever this was. A great sin had occurred somewhere, and that entity was pulling her to correct the wrong that had been committed. It was deep rooted. It was overwhelming. It was vicious.

It spoke so precisely to the chaos of her soul that finally, despite what she had promised Tombur, she was off running with all she was down the distance to where Djibourdi had gone. Whatever was shouted to her from the clones was fruitless as she focused on clambering as fast as she could over the ridge and down the grassy slope, sliding and slipping into a small divet with a whispered curse as the familiar zipping of a speeder flew by her.

Her master was safe at least, she bargained, but whatever the entity was that called to her demanded her to run on – so she did. She had finally caught sight of Djibourdi and the Reapers below, moving like an angry swarm of stirred Tatooine sand hornets around and through a group of – once a threat – enemies.

They looked just like Tocarra had said… fiendish, demonic, skull-faced creatures armed with swords and shield and all manner of sharp weaponry. They snarled and snapped and bit in intimidation at the clones and their Togruta commander, only to be cut down the next by the swift men they aimed to kill. The demons were fast. The Reapers were faster. Djibourdi was precise. Each swing of the lightsaber as he dove around and between his enemies felled another after another…and such a sight it was to see, a perfectly executed slaughter of slaughterers, all with a marked oddity that Ahsoka couldn't shake.

She could see them. She could hear them. She could smell them. They were right there in front of her eyes…and yet, it was as if they did not exist at all. The Force around her only felt like her friend and echoed the lifesigns of the clones, but it did not a whisper of the dark enemies that were being cut down by them. It was like the Reapers were killing ghosts, if such a thing existed, and that thought pulled at her mind so harshly that she almost couldn't think.

That alone was more than enough reason why it took so long for her to identify the rapidly approaching danger, whipping herself to her right to spot one of them charging straight at her with a heavily reinforced weapon in his hands. Amateur decision, she corrected him in her head. She sent a powerful wave of the Force right to him, unable to hide the grin that crept onto her lips at her mental image of him flying backward. It always worked.

Until it didn't. He hardly flinched, and her satisfaction melted to horror as realization forced her muscle memory. There was barely enough time for her to raise her arm in defense of his swing, hearing more than feeling the impact of the durasteel against her protecting arm and ultimately her temple. It sent her flying off to her left, mind alight with pain and lack of sense – and the last thing she registered was him running toward her, teeth bared and that weapon raised above his head in preparation to take her life.

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So it begins. Into the chaos, my dear young friends…I only hope that I do justice to the events to come.

I look forward to your feedback, friends.

Happy Writing,

Eliana