Chapter 20 – The Redemption of the 501st

For the last month Rex had been answering to the call sign Cards. He was posing as a clone cycled into the 501st to bring the division up to readiness. There were lots of guys like that on the Anaxes, the name given to the Venator class Star Destroyer on which the 501st served, in honor of their commanding officer, Wulff Yularen, who hailed from that planet. The 501st's losses on Coruscant had been terrible, mitigated only by the fact that two other divisions had arrived during the fighting and taken part. But less than 1/3 of the clones who had been in the 501st before the attack on the Temple were still alive. Rex only knew a few of the clones he bunked with. It was a strange thing to be surrounded by strangers all with the face of your long lost friends. He tried to remind himself, when sorrow for his fallen comrades seemed as though it would overwhelm him, that his job was being made easier this way. He only had a few men in his room who he knew, and therefore only a few men to trick. He had told everyone on his arrival that he was called Cards in his old unit because of a fondness for Pazaak. It was the kind of thing a clone would latch on to for some kind of distinguishing identity. He had, however, inadvertently created a cover for himself that required him to be far more fun loving and care free than came naturally to him. He wouldn't have to keep it up for long though. The day of salvation had arrived.

He had planted the device in the air filtration system. He had prepped his helmet with an air reserve that would hopefully last long enough for he and his confederates to take the bridge and switch it onto the emergency backup air filtration system. Then it would just be a matter of sending their location to General Skywalker and waiting for him to jump in with the medical droids. Everything was going according to Commander Tano's plan. It occurred to Rex as he put his modified helmet on that if she was a Jedi Knight now, he should really be referring to her as General Tano. An army of three generals, one captain, and a band of misfits he thought to himself as he put the helmet on and shook his head.

His misfit confederates were at that time feeling both less and more sanguine about the situation. More sanguine because they had no problem being in an army full of misfits, having fit nowhere the entirety of their short lives. The 'Bad Batch' their fellow clones had called them. Well now this Bad Batch was going to save them, some of them anyway, from a lifetime as slaves, and were able to do so only because they were misfits. Less sanguine because at that point the Bad Batch was outside of the ship. Rex only needed a cover story to blend in with the other clones, but there was not much that could be done to hide that Clone Force 99 was not like the other clones. They had been smuggled aboard several days after Rex's arrival and had spent most of that time hiding in the cargo hold. But their part of the plan involved being quite a bit closer to the bridge when the gas started flowing. Rex had to be near to the device that contained the concentrated form of the gas to release it, and there was always a chance that some quick thinking by the command crew of the bridge would find a way to isolate the problem and fix it. So Hunter, Wrecker, Tech and Echo were hanging on to the underside of the command bridge, waiting for the signal to find their way into the nearest airlock from the outside, so that they could overpower the bridge crew to prevent any last second heroics. The trouble was they had already been out there for hours. Their suits kept them warm, and they had extended air containers on their backs, so there was no chance of running out of oxygen. It was just so boring waiting for the cautious Captain Rex to give the signal. He had also commanded them to maintain strict radio silence, and so it had been hours of nothing but silent watching of the stars slowly moving across the sky as the Star Destroyer orbited the planet below.

At last the signal came, and the members of Clone Force 99 made their way, one magnetic grappler after the other, to the airlock Rex rigged to open by the same signal that had let them know to start moving. That meant Rex had already cut the oxygen and would soon be adding the gas to the mix. They made their way quickly, with the only delay coming from Wrecker's difficulty getting through the small airlock which was primarily meant for astromech droids to use when doing external repairs or inspections on the ship. Once they were all through the Bad Bath sprinted to the bridge, moving past clone troopers leaning against the walls as the combination of the lack of oxygen and then the presence of the sedative gas had its effect. Most, seeing their vaguely similar uniforms didn't seem to think twice about the fully armed squad running down the hall. Likely, Hunter thought, they believed we were dealing with the air problem. A few were still in sufficient possession of their faculties that they noticed the different heights and sizes of the squad, and were likely under the mistaken impression that the ship had been boarded by non-clones. One clone trooper even reached for his blaster before Hunter knocked him out with a swift strike to the head with the butt of his own. There would be no lethal force on this mission. They were here to save their brothers, not kill them.

When they reached the bridge they found the doors already closed. Rex had been right to worry, and been right to order them to prepare a manual override. Tech removed a data spike from his kit and inserted it in the wall socket by the door. When the doors opened the shocked bridge crew, including Admiral Yularen, reached for their blasters, but the Bad Batch was faster. With their blasters set to stun they were able to knock out everyone on the bridge before the crew even got a shot off. After Tech closed the doors behind him he went to a computer console and got to work. After a few minutes he gave a thumbs up to Hunter, who nodded and removed his helmet, letting the rest of the Bad Batch know it was safe to follow suit.

"They got the backup working for the bridge fast. Oxygen levels were at normal and there was no sign of the gas. Yularen must have had them well trained," Tech said.

"Yeah well, they didn't practice for everything," Hunter said.

They all stopped and turned towards the door when they heard a tapping sound. Tap, Tap, Tap…Tap, Tap…Tap, Tap, Thud. Hunter, recognizing the agreed to signal, nodded towards Echo who walked to the door and opened it, revealing Rex on the other side, still wearing his helmet. Rex stepped into the bridge quickly and Echo closed the door behind him. Rex looked around at the clone troopers and normal humans lying on the floor and then to the faces of his compatriots before shaking his head.

"You should have put your helmets on before you opened the doors for me," Rex said.

"The amount of gas we allowed in was negligible and easily handled by the backup system," Tech said without looking up from the console he had turned back to once he heard that the tapping matched the agreed pattern.

Rex took off his helmet and breathed deep. "Good to be out of that thing."

"We were in it for hours!" Wrecker yelled.

"Time for the signal sir?" Hunter said, cutting off a potential argument.

Rex nodded and walked over to the communications hub, hit a few buttons and then sat down and said, "Settle in boys, we have a little bit of a wait ahead of us."

"Done nothing but wait all day," Wrecker grumbled.

"What would you prefer?" Rex asked.

"A little action!" Wrecker shouted.

"Against who?" Hunter asked. When Wrecker gave him a confused look Hunter followed up with, "I think we've seen enough of our kind dying recently, don't you?"

Rex gave Hunter a sharp look before turning to Tech and Echo, each of whom had taken a seat at a console, and asked for status updates. Hunter turned his attention back to the closed doors. After a few minutes Rex approached him from behind. He opened his mouth as though to speak but seemed to think better of it.

"Something you want to say Captain?" Hunter asked.

"What? Oh yeah. I just…what did you mean about seeing enough of our kind dying recently?" Rex asked.

"Nothing. I meant nothing," Hunter said.

"You in the habit of talking nonsense soldier?" Rex asked.

"We aren't in the army anymore Captain," Hunter said. "You can stow that soldier talk. I'm here because I owe Saw and General Skywalker."

"Just like that? You stop fighting for the Republic?" Rex said.

"What Republic? Palpatine controls everything. He's got all the clones not in this room doing whatever he says. He's destroyed everything that could have stood in his way. The Republic's gone," Hunter said.

"The Republic isn't gone soldier, it's just on the ropes. And it's our job to bring it back. That's why we're here. That's why you're here, whatever you tell yourself. But never mind that. I am not ordering you to tell me what you meant. I am just asking," Rex said.

Hunter waited for a moment before saying, "Kamino."

"What about it?" Rex asked.

"What did you hear?" Hunter asked.

"Hear a lot of things, mostly from those I don't have much reason to trust," Rex said.

"Well I saw a lot of things," Hunter said.

"What were you doing there?" Rex asked.

Hunter started his story. "We were in custody, for refusing to shoot civilians. I think they also suspected us of not carrying out Order 66, which we didn't by the way. We were all set to break ourselves out when we started hearing booms," Hunter said. "You know the sound. Ships crashing, exploding. Anyway the power started going in and out and we heard shouting. Our fellow troopers rushing around. They didn't sound like they had a great idea of what was going on. Then we heard some blaster fire and we were all ready to have to fight our way out of our cell. We didn't know what it was, maybe a last ditch Sep attack or something. But it didn't sound like the clankers. You fight long enough the battlefield starts to sound like music. You can tell what is going on through the chaos, just by ear. Anyway, Saw and his boys break into the cell block. Seems they were there for something in particular and they wanted our help to find it. We wouldn't have actually been much help without Omega."

"What?" Rex asked.

"Omega. Never met her I guess. Clone, but something went wrong. Came out a girl, and didn't age up right. She's a kid. Anyway the Kaminoans kept her around, not sure why, and she ended up being kind of an assistant. She knew where the droids were, she knew which hangars had the big ships, the ones that could hold all the droids. Saw remembered us. We remembered him. He offered us a deal. Help them fight their way to what they needed and we could come with them when they left. So we did. Have you ever had to kill your brothers before?" Hunter said.

"Yes," Rex said sadly.

"So I don't need to describe that feeling. We didn't feel it until after anyway, too much adrenaline at the time. To get where Saw wanted to go we had to leave the building we were in, move across the skyways. And that's when we found out what was causing all the commotion. It wasn't Saw. It was the distraction which was serving as Saw's cover. You fought with him right? General Skywalker?"

"Yeah that's right," Rex said.

"I hadn't ever seen him at work before. We…uh…well we didn't fight alongside Jedi that much, and we certainly fought with none like him. When we came outside we saw squads of troopers firing at the top of one of the buildings. It took a moment to figure out where he was, with all the smoke and the spray. He was deflecting their shots back at them, and they just kept shooting like idiots. He was running, jumping. Seemed like he could get anywhere he wanted. There were ships attacking him too. Some fighters, mostly LAATs. Didn't matter. He was pulling them out of the sky. A few got too close and he just jumped to them and sliced their wings off. They kept crashing into the city, and I swear he was directing where they crashed. We had to run a mile through that mess, and none of them came close to us. Got to a point where we had to split up, one team went to secure the hangar and one team went to get the droids. Omega went with the team getting the droids, and so we went too. Once we found them Saw told us to sit tight while they got the ships they needed. When the time came for evac we had to get outside, hold our position against the troopers while Saw dropped in and got us. That's when it happened."

"When what happened?" Rex asked.

"When the bombs went off. My guess is Skywalker, Saw and his team had been on Kamino for hours before their attack started, and must have been planting them the whole time. They clearly didn't know which buildings they needed and which they didn't, so they just put bombs on all of them. Once they were sure, once we had everything they needed, I saw the buildings go down one by one. Thousands of regs in each one. Just one after the other, until there was nothing left. The last few went down while we were in the ship, ascending."

"I don't understand how that's possible. There's a fleet permanently stationed above Kamino, has been ever since the Seps attacked. How could that small a group pull something like that off?" Rex asked.

"It was a simple matter of jamming transmissions," Tech said, having clearly listened in the entire time. "The fight in Tipoca City went on for the better part of an hour, but without comms the navy wouldn't have known about it until a ship actually flew up to them and delivered the message personally."

"And probably no one thought to do that at first. After all, it was just one Jedi, and a few partisans. I don't think anyone believed they could do so much, destroy so much," Hunter said looking off into the distance at nothing in particular.

"It doesn't make sense. The operation on Kamino was about allowing us to do this, to free the 501st from the influence of their chips, to liberate the clones. You're saying they destroyed Tipoca City, killed thousands upon thousands of clones and Kaminoans. Its contrary to the whole point of the mission," Rex said.

"They wasn't the 501st," Wrecker said. It was not clear whether he had failed to understand what Rex was saying, or whether he had understood it perfectly and was pointing out the flaw in Rex's reasoning. This was Skywalker's mission and just because he wanted to save some clones, his clones, did not mean he meant to save all the clones.

"You don't have to make sense of it Captain, because it happened. How much of the war made sense? How much of what we did in the war made sense?" Echo said.

"The Jedi don't kill people unless they have to," Rex said, a note of desperation audible in his voice.

After a long pause Hunter said, "And look where that got them."

"Those were our brothers!" Rex shouted.

"Yes, they were. And then they got turned into things. Things that could be commanded, controlled, made to do whatever their master said. Droids in all the ways that matter. They stopped being our brothers then. Maybe today we can win some of our brothers back, but those troopers on Kamino? They were corpses before they ever fell into the water. The difference now is just that they are at rest," Hunter said sadly.

No one said anything after that until the scanners picked up a small flotilla of ships jumping into the system. A voice came out over the speakers.

"Is the ship secure?" Anakin asked. When no one answered he said, "Rex, are you there?"

Rex stood up slowly and walked over to one of the comm consoles. He put a hand on each side of it and leaned over before softly answer, "Yes sir, ship is secure. Opening up ventral hangar bay now."

After Rex turned off the comm channel Tech stood up and said, "Should we go help them unload and deploy the medical droids?"

"No," Rex said. "We hold the bridge until we are relieved."

It did not take long for Anakin, Saw and his men to arrive on the bridge. The clones did not have to open the door for them, Anakin did so on his own. After removing their assorted helmets and breathing masks, Anakin went straight to Rex. "Well done Captain," he said, reaching out his hand.

Rex lifted his own hand slowly, and brought his gaze up to meet the Jedi's even more slowly. Anakin, noticing this cocked his head to the side and said, "Is there something wrong Rex?"

"No. No sir. Let's get moving on the next stage of the plan," Rex said.

"No need. We liberated more than just the medical droids on Kamino. We have more than enough astromech and pit droids, or some similar model, to get the medical droids set up. They are bringing them up to the dorsal hangar now," Anakin said.

"Not the medical bay?" Hunter asked.

"With the number of medical droids we have, more space was required. It's a positive development. We are going to get this done twice as fast as we thought," Anakin said.

Rex looked around and saw Gerrera's men checking all the unconscious men on the bridge, and said, "We already separated out the clones from the non-clones. We put the clones up front."

"We saw that," Gerrera said. "We are identifying the non-clones. We had pictures of the command crew of this ship before the fall of the Republic."

"Isn't the Republic still around?" Echo asked.

"Technically yes, in that there has been no formal reorganization of government," Tech said. "What do you intend to do with the command crew?"

"Because tyranny always declares itself," Saw said, without bothering to answer Tech's question.

Rex turned to Anakin and asked, "What do you intend to do with Yularen and the non-clone crew members General?"

Anakin smiled. "Hadn't really thought that one through all the way. Guess we will have to improvise. Now Rex, once the first round of surgeries is done those clones are going to start waking up. I think it would be best if you were there to greet them. I imagine they are going to be more than a little confused."

"Yes, they will, but…," Rex said before being interrupted.

"These are your men Rex. They will trust you more than anyone, and you are the only clone in the galaxy who knows what they have gone through. We need you down there," Anakin said.

"Yes…sir," Rex said. He turned to look back at Saw's men, who were propping the unconscious command crew up against the wall.

"I think you all should go with him," Anakin said, looking at Hunter and the others. "If there are any disturbances he will need some backup."

"Yes sir," Hunter said. The rest of the Bad Batch fell in behind him, and they did not wait for Rex before leaving.

"What is it Rex?" Anakin said upon noticing that Rex had not moved.

"They are prisoners of war sir," Rex said, looking at the bridge crew.

"I know that, Rex. You are worrying for no reason Rex," Anakin said. "Now, head down, and go be with your men."

Rex nodded, took a last look at the unconscious Yularen, turned around and walked away. Anakin watched him as he left and once the doors were closed said, "Wake them up now. I want this done before anyone comes back up."

"Prisoners of war," Saw said while shaking his head. "He does not understand what this is, what things are going to be like now. None of them do."

"Maybe not yet, but they will," Anakin said as he walked over to where one of Saw's men was injecting the command crew with stimulants. "How long until they are awake?"

"Shouldn't be more than a few seconds," Saw said.

"Take the others over to the corner. Have your men question them. I will take Yularen," Anakin said. Saw relayed the orders and they obeyed quickly.

Within a few seconds Wulff Yularen started waking up, thought it took a while for him to become fully cognizant of what was going on around him.

"Hello Admiral," Anakin said while standing above Yularen, who was seated and leaning against a console.

"What? General Skywalker! What is this?" Yularen shouted as he tried to get up. With a quick movement of his hand Anakin pushed Yularen roughly back to the floor.

"Your ship is mine. Soon your clones will be mine," Anakin said.

Yularen looked up at Anakin with a mixture of fear and anger but said nothing.

"Did you know, about the chips I mean?" Anakin said. Yularen looked around his bridge and saw Saw's men interrogating his crew. "Admiral!" Anakin said sharply.

"No of course not," Yularen said.

"But yet you know what I am talking about," Anakin said.

"We weren't told before I mean. Before the order went out," Yularen said.

"Order 66?" Anakin said.

"Yes. The non-cloned officers of the fleet were just as surprised…we were surprised as anyone I mean," Yularen said, adjusting to the harsh look Anakin gave him. "After that, we were told to expect different behavior from our clones going forward. Some failsafe loyalty feature put in place on Kamino."

"And what did you think of the Chancellor's address? What did you think of his claims about the Jedi?" Anakin said.

Yularen closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened them again he said, "I thought it was one way of looking at things."

Anakin knelt down, until he was in a crouched position and his face at the same level as Yularen's. "You were always a clever man Wulff. Are you really telling me that you thought the Jedi were secretly trying to destroy the Republic and we chose to do it by starting a war that we fought on both sides of? That we secretly created the clones but somehow were unaware of the fact that there were, what did you call it, 'failsafe loyalty features' embedded within them? That we wanted to overthrow the Chancellor but made him more powerful by starting a war and giving him control of that army we were supposed to have made? Is that what you are trying to tell me?"

Yularen looked into Anakin's eyes with a face that spoke of desperation and terror. It is the face you wear when an answer is called for, and you have no answer to give. "I am a soldier."

"And good soldiers follow orders, right?" Anakin said. Yularen said nothing. "Right!?" Anakin yelled. Then he clenched his fist and Yularen screamed out in agony. The Admiral grabbed at his lower left leg. Anakin stood up again as the Admiral lay writhing in pain.

"Why did you follow him?" Anakin said. "You knew! You knew at some level he was lying. You could have saved so many of us. You could have saved the Republic. Why didn't you?"

"What did you do to me?" Yularen yelled.

"I crushed your tibia. Shattered it. In probably a hundred places. I want the truth from you Admiral. The details, the information about the new defense initiatives, the Chancellor's plans about extending his reach, his dominance, that can wait for later. I trust Saw to get all of that out of you. All I need from you right now Wulff, is understanding," Anakin said.

"Understand…what?" Yularen said between short, panicked breaths.

"How so many who should have known better got themselves to go along with it. What did you say to yourself? How have you managed to find a way to live with yourself? Hmmm? I want to know. I really do," Anakin said as he slowly squeezed his hand again. This time there was no sudden pain for Yularen. He reached for his throat as his eyes began to bulge. He tried to speak but found no breath could escape his lungs.

"How does a coward come to betray his friends? Friends who fought by his side, who saved his life, whose sacrifices and heroics made his career? Hmmm? I don't understand, and I need to. There are thousands of men like you. Palpatine likes men like you. Men he can control, men he can turn into tools of his will. And I need to understand those men, understand what makes them do what they do. One must understand one's enemies. And that is what you have made yourself," Anakin said before letting go of Yularen's throat. As the Admiral gasped for air Anakin looked over to Saw.

"Any of them seem useful?" Anakin asked.

"Not really, no. Low level officers for the most part. They might have some technical information that would be useful, but that's it," Saw said.

"Do you think you will keep them?" Anakin asked.

"I think I will keep one. I have a lot of mouths to feed already," Saw said.

Anakin nodded. Saw turned around and with a silent motion of his hand gave the order to his men. He picked one officer out of the group and pulled him away as his partisans levelled their blasters and fired on the remainder of the bridge crew.

"No!" Yularen yelled as he watched his men die. Hearing this Anakin picked him up using the Force and threw him into the bulkhead. Holding him there, his face pressed up against the wall, Anakin walked up behind him and said, softly, into his ear, "I am coming for all of you. All you cowards. All of Palpatine's dogs. I am going to have you all. And you, my old friend, you are going to help me."

Anakin threw Yularen to the ground. The impact sent pain shooting through his leg and he screamed as he grabbed at it. Anakin looked down on him and said, "Let go."

Yularen looked up bitterly and slowly pulled his hands away from his shin. Anakin looked at the leg, which was turning purple in some areas. "I doubt even bacta can handle a break so severe. And I wouldn't want internal bleeding to take you away from us before you share what you know, so…," he said as he ignited his lightsaber. Yularen watched in horror as the blue blade came down and separated his broken lower leg from his body at the knee. He started to scream again in pain when Anakin closed off his throat.

"You won't need your legs in your cell," he said slowly before letting Yularen go. He turned to Saw and said, "Call the ship. I want it in and out before they are done with the 501st."

It would be several hours before the procedures were all complete. Rex and the Bad Batch were so busy overseeing the process that none of them noticed another ship jumping into the system and a single shuttle departing the ventral hangar bay to rendezvous with it. Neither did they notice the bodies of the bridge crew floating away among the trash. Once Rex was confident that the troopers were trustworthy post procedure, he made his way back to the bridge and found Admiral Yularen, Saw Gerrera and his partisans gone. Anakin stood alone on the bridge facing the windows and the planet below, a junk world called Bracca.

Rex approached Anakin from behind and came to a stop, waiting to be recognized. The Jedi seemed to be focusing intently on the planet below, and though Rex did not know it Anakin's eyes were closed. After waiting for several minutes to be recognized Rex cleared this throat.

"Yes?" Anakin said.

"We have passed the halfway mark sir," Rex said.

"And their reactions?" Anakin asked.

"100% loyalty sir," Rex said proudly.

"Loyalty to who?" Anakin asked.

"To the Republic sir, the real Republic," was Rex's wounded response.

"I suppose we will see," Anakin replied. "What was the 501st doing here, above this planet?"

Rex shook his head at Anakin's suspicions. He knew the Jedi had suffered, but he was anxious to get the old General Skywalker back. However, there was no way for that to happen, Rex reasoned, unless the clones served faithfully and well. So he made his report.

"The 501st was sent here to investigate the loss of the Albedo Brave, the ship carrying the 13th battalion. It went missing around the time of Order 66," Rex said.

Anakin nodded and turned around as he said, "Remind me who the Jedi was in charge of the 13th."

"Master Jaro Tapal sir. A Lasat," Rex said.

"I remember him. He had a Padawan didn't he?" Anakin said.

"Yes sir, a Cal Kestis," Rex said.

"I see, continue with the report," Anakin said.

"The Albedo Brave never reported in to Coruscant after Order 66 was given. It last reported in here, so the 501st was sent to search for the ship," Rex said.

"And for the Jedi," Anakin said flatly.

"Yes sir," Rex said.

"How much progress did the 501st make?" Anakin asked.

"I know we never found the ship, but we found wreckage that could have been from it. The role I took here was too low ranking to have access to much information. All I know is from the general briefings and the rumors among the men," Rex said.

"Are any of the Clone Commanders through the process?" Anakin asked.

"Yes sir, a few," Rex said.

"Bring me the highest ranking one," Anakin said as he turned back around to face the window. Rex nodded and left the bridge. He chose the clone he would send to Skywalker quickly. Commander Appo was already hard at work organizing his men, helping re-establish discipline after the disorientation that followed the procedure. A quick call down to Hunter got the message relayed quickly, and Appo was on his way up to the bridge before Rex made it to the elevators. Rex's task could have been performed from the bridge itself, but he wanted a chance to speak to Appo before he talked to the General.

The doors opened revealing the Clone Commander Rex had known for years, though there was something different about him. You could tell that without him saying a word. A weariness that Rex had seen on the face of no clone, even in the most harrowing moments of the war. If he had been asked to describe it Rex would have said that Appo looked like someone who had almost drowned but swum through it and barely made his way back to the beach. The signs of a tremendous effort combined with a surprise to still be alive.

"Hello soldier," Rex said.

"Sir!" Appo said while saluting.

"You don't have to salute me Appo. We're the same rank remember?" Rex said as they started their walk to the bridge.

"Not how I see it sir," Appo said. "As far as I am concerned I left my post sir, and you didn't."

"Well we can talk about that another time. Before you go talk to General Skywalker you need to be prepared. He's…he's not how you remember him," Rex said.

"Should he be sir?" Appo asked.

"What?" Rex asked.

"After what happened, after what we did, should he act the same towards us?" Appo asked.

Rex thought about that for a moment and, not wanting to get into a debate with Appo, simply said, "Just don't expect a warm reception is all. He is going to be a little harsh."

"Understood," Appo said.

The doors opened to reveal Anakin still facing the window. The two clones walked in and, as before, Anakin said nothing at first.

"Reporting for duty sir," Appo said.

"Sir?" Anakin said without turning to look at them. "Why do you call me 'sir', commander?"

"You are a General sir," Appo said.

"I was a General. Then the Chancellor declared me and all Jedi enemies of the Republic. How can I be a General if I am an enemy of the Republic?" Anakin asked. "I am not a General in the Grand Army of the Republic anymore. That Army is gone. That was an army of men, good men, brave men. Loyal men. Those men are gone."

"Yes sir," Appo said.

Anakin turned around and stared at Appo, who briefly met the Jedi's gaze but turned away before long.

"You survived the Temple," Anakin noted.

"Yes sir," Appo said.

"Where were you during the fighting?" Anakin said.

"I was in command of the 501st, so I had taken position in a mobile command center," Appo said.

"I don't remember seeing a mobile command center," Anakin said.

"It was only set up after it became clear you were going to put up stiff resistance," Appo said.

"Did you think we were going to just give in? Surrender?" Anakin asked.

"No sir, we…well it's hard to describe sir," Appo said.

"Try," Anakin said harshly.

"We weren't thinking clearly. Once the Order came down, Order 66 I mean, we were slow in our movements, in our reactions, in our thinking. We were told to attack the Temple and get the Chancellor back, so that's what we did. We advanced on the Temple. After you started throwing debris at us some of the old habits started kicking back in. Being afraid kind of shook us out of whatever was wrong with us," Appo said.

"They were struggling against their orders sir," Rex said. "Like I did with Commander Tano."

"Except you didn't kill Commander Tano," Anakin said. "According to Ahsoka you were the key to her figuring out how to release you from Palpatine's control. She says you hesitated."

"I fired on her just the same," Rex said.

"I don't know if we were struggling or not. And we did what we did. I am not going to try to find some kind of excuse," Appo said.

"You were at the front entrance then, for the entirety of the battle?" Anakin asked.

"Yes sir," Appo said, a bit more slowly this time.

"I have been wondering something, a question I keep asking myself. Perhaps you can answer it for me," Anakin said.

"Of course sir, anything you need," Appo said.

"How did Master Windu die?" Anakin asked without emotion, as though he was asking when sunset would be.

Appo hung his head in shame again and did not answer immediately. Anakin, staring straight at him, continued, "You see when I escaped, I could see him still fighting, still holding the Temple against you. And I just wonder, how did that defense end? How did you kill someone as strong, and as brave as him?"

Rex gave Anakin a hard look. He could not help feeling sympathy for Appo, despite what he had done. Rex knew what it felt like to be under that compulsion, and Anakin didn't. Of course, Rex realized as well, Anakin knew what it was like to be betrayed and attacked, knew what it was like to see one's friends cut down by those you trusted, and Rex didn't.

"There was so much smoke, we couldn't see him clearly," Appo said. "Just his blade dancing. He was so fast, we were shooting where we saw the blade, but it was just a blur. Seemed like we were always a step behind. I don't know how long he could have kept that up, with how stupidly we were attacking. But then Admiral Tarkin showed up."

"Tarkin?" snapped. "When did he get there?"

"Sometime after that Consular ship blasted its way out of the Temple. From the flying I figured later that was you sir. Was I right?" Appo asked.

"You are the one making the report soldier, not me," Anakin said roughly. "What did Tarkin do when he arrived?"

"He reorganized our attack. Moved units around. He seemed to be in contact with the Chancellor," Appo explained.

"You freed the Chancellor?" Anakin asked.

"No sir, he was delivered to us, you might say," Appo answered.

"Delivered? By who?" Anakin asked.

"By Jedi as near as I can tell. The ones who wore the helmets with the masks. The yellow sabers," Appo said.

Anakin gritted his teeth and started to pace around the bridge. The news that it was fellow Jedi who had set Palpatine free, likely the very same guards Mace had sent to terminate him, caused in Anakin an irrational, violent anger.

"What then?" Anakin said eventually.

"He brought up ARC Troopers. We weren't having any luck hitting Master Windu with blasters, so he had them target the roof with rockets. They brought it down on him. He caught the pieces of the roof as they fell. I couldn't believe it when I saw it. Never saw a Jedi do anything like that, hold anything that big. But doing that took his attention away from us, stopped him in his tracks," Appo said.

"And that's when you fired on him," Anakin said.

"Yes sir," Appo said ashamedly. "We could barely see where he was with all the dust the collapse kicked up, and the smoke from the rockets. But there were so many of us it didn't matter. I think he must have known the end was coming because before he went down, he threw the debris at us."

"He died like a warrior," Anakin said.

"Like a soldier," Rex added.

Appo nodded and then opened his mouth to speak but then thought better of it. Anakin, seeing this, said, "Yes trooper?"

"By the time the siege of the Temple was over a lot of it had been destroyed. The 501st wasn't there for the post operation debrief, we were sent out to a medical facility to link up and merge with other under strength units. We never knew how it turned out. Didn't really find out what happened. Did we…did the younglings make it sir?" Appo asked.

Anakin looked into Appo's eyes, for the clone was looking at him in desperation for the answer, and saw his anguish, saw the guilt that could swallow him whole, that would break him. There was a part of Anakin at that moment that felt sympathy for the clone, but there was another part, the part that had been honed through war, the part that he hid from Obi-Wan, from Padme, even from himself sometimes, that saw in that desperate guilt the lever that would move the clones of the 501st where he willed. It was a guilt they would do anything to escape, but a guilt from which they would never truly be free. He placed his hand on Appo's shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

"I got them. They were on the ship with me. That is what Master Windu fought and died to allow," Anakin said. The right mixture of camaraderie and twisting the knife at this moment was key. Let him know that his sins were not forgotten, but give him the hope of forgiveness.

Appo inhaled sharply, as though he had been holding his breath waiting for the answer, and nodded vigorously. He looked to his side at Rex and then said, "And I see Captain Rex here. I know he was on assignment with Commander Tano. I know you said she got the chip out of his head. Did she make it? Is she alive?"

"Yes," Rex answered smiling at his brother. Tears were forming in Appo's eyes, but he breathed in quickly and shook his head to get control of himself.

"And that company, the 332nd, any of them make it? Vaughan, Jesse, any of those guys joining us?" Appo asked with hope.

The smile left Rex's face and Appo's shoulders slumped. Seeing this Rex said, "Not for lack of trying. Commander Tano tried to escape without killing them. Refused to consider it, even when I told her we had to. But Maul ruined all our plans. They went down with the ship." Appo nodded slowly

"Which brings us to the matter at hand," Anakin said. "Ahsoka's ship wasn't the only one where Order 66 didn't quite work out I take it."

"No sir, we were here to investigate the loss of the 13th battalion and their ship. Command lost contact with them shortly after the Order was given. Palpatine wants any and all Jedi who might have survived found and eliminated," Appo said.

"And what did you find?" Anakin asked.

"The ship is definitely gone. We found debris in orbit and some on the planet. No way of telling whether any escape pods were jettisoned. We were flying patrols over the planet for weeks, looking for any survivors, clone or Jedi. No clones responded to comms, so we figured they were all lost. As for the Jedi, well they wouldn't have responded to comms would they? They could be down there, one or both of them," Appo explained.

"No leads?" Anakin asked.

"None sir. If they are hiding they are doing a good job of it. We did some estimates of how long it would take to search that giant junkyard," Appo said.

"And?" Anakin said.

"Months sir, and even then it wouldn't be with adequate thoroughness. Admiral Yularen was trying to get Coruscant to send some of the new Inquisitor division," Appo said.

"The what?" Anakin said.

"New unit. Some clone intelligence units got reassigned to it, and the rumor is they are Jedi hunters," Appo said.

Anakin scowled but said nothing. He turned back around to face the window. After several seconds he asked, "How long until you were supposed to report back to Coruscant?"

"There wasn't a schedule exactly sir, but I imagine they will start getting curious if we don't transmit at all today," Appo said.

"Any other ships supposed to rendezvous with you anytime soon?" Rex asked, guessing correctly the reason by Anakin's question.

"Yeah. We get a supply ship tomorrow," Appo said.

"Clones?" Rex asked.

"Probably not. At least not entirely," Appo said.

"Then we need to get going," Anakin said. "We will have to find time to return for Master Tapal and his Padawan later. When the process is complete Rex I want the men to return to their posts and then we need to get under way."

"Is Clone Force 99 staying with us?" Rex asked.

"For the time being, though I am sure we can find useful employment for them elsewhere," Anakin said. He turned around to Rex and continued, "I am placing you in command of the 501st Rex. You answer to no one but me."

Rex hesitated before responding, weighing whether to ask why he would not report to the Jedi Council as a whole, or why he would not report to someone like Senator Amidala. But he could see the firmness in Anakin's eyes, and after the stories he had heard that day he was in no mood to test the General. He nodded and said, "Thank you sir."

Anakin walked to the front of the bridge while saying, "This is the beginning gentlemen. You are the leaders of the army that is going to destroy Chancellor Palpatine, and restore the Republic. This war that is beginning, it will grow, it will spread. Across a thousand systems, from the Rim to the Core, but it has begun here. And nothing will stop it."

To Rex this little speech, with an audience of two, was disconcerting. He found the grandiosity of it unsettling. This was General Skywalker. He had barely grown into manhood when the war had begun. Rex had watched him learn how to become a soldier and then a leader. Where had the irreverent young man, with his bluster and his charm, gone? But when Rex looked over at Appo he did not see his own feelings reflected in those familiar eyes. In Appo he saw a feverish look, a desperate look. Appo looked on Anakin like a drowning man looking at a ship coming his way, and Rex knew why. He remembered the guilt he had felt for firing on Ahsoka. He remembered how it felt to have his will ripped away from him. He had known what it was to be left a voice in the darkness of one's own mind, disconnected from one's body, your whole self reduced to a scream that no one could hear. He had known that feeling for a few hours and in those hours he had killed no one. But Appo and the other boys of the 501st had done horrible things. They had watched as they did them, helpless to stop themselves. But that helplessness had not stopped the shame. The awareness that one was not in control did not stop the dreams that he knew awaited his brothers. To dream over and over again the things they had done while the chip ruled them.

But paired with that guilt was a hatred. They had been turned into the thing they had despised. They had been created to fight the droid armies and had come to revile them. Clockwork soldiers, wound up and sent to do their masters' bidding. Things, not people. And all the while they had been made to become, at the key moment, things and not people. All that hatred and that guilt required a target for retribution and a redeemer who could forgive them. Anakin would provide both. He would point them towards the one responsible for their enslavement, and when they had won, he would grant them forgiveness. Looking at the desperate adulation in Appo's eyes Rex knew that he would find the same thing in any clone they freed. Every one of them would devote the rest of their lives to fighting for Anakin Skywalker, if only so that they could die forgiven.

When Rex looked back at Anakin he felt he could see that same realization in the Jedi's eyes. The Jedi could sense the vulnerability in the clones' psyches and he was prepared to use it. Where Palpatine had controlled them through the brute instrument of the inhibitor chips, Anakin would do so through the manipulation of their emotional wounds. The brash boy had grown clever, and subtle. And cruel.