"What are you doing?" Barriss looked over to her fellow inmate and asked.

Slick sat at the small desk provided in his cell, with a physical pencil and paper in hand. Barriss had her own set too, but she chose not to use it. In this day and age, the need for paper is non existent when there are holopads sold at nearly every store, especially on Coruscant, where vegetation only exists in the private gardens of those wealthy enough to afford them.

He didn't look up at the young Jedi when he answered, instead he remained focused. "I'm… practicing."

Her eyes widened slightly. "Practicing handwriting?" She asked again for clarification.

This time, Slick looked up at her, then quickly averted his eyes, as if embarrassed. "I uh… yeah. I've never really written anything on paper before this place. Everything is done on screens and holograms, I never had the chance. There's not a lot else to do, you know?" He gave her a small smile, which she returned.

Suddenly, the thundering rumbles of orbital bombardment shook the very facility. Slick fell off of his chair as Barriss struggled to stand. Shortly after the first quake, a squad of Coruscant guard shock troopers stormed into the hidden wing and stood guard over their cells, following the guard was a human male wearing an officer's uniform. Slick knew of this man, he had the displeasure of meeting him on his first day, this was Warden Kuln.

"Mind telling us what's going on, sir?" Slick then asked, attempting to show the warden the bare minimum of respect.

Kuln didn't look either prisoner in the eye, instead he focused on a small holopad in his hands, reading and typing simultaneously. "This shall be the only time I address either of you two on the matter. Coruscant is currently under attack from the confederacy of independent systems. These men shall provide additional security over you, should you get any ideas." He said calmly as he finally glared at the clone before showing himself out.

Days had passed and there was no word of the world above. The Clone guards had changed over every day, so it was safe to assume that the prison was still functional. Every day for the past four days, Slick had tried to talk to the guards, pleading for any information, something that would stop his mind from wondering. Barriss on the other hand, sat in a deep meditation, barely eating, not even saying a word.

It worried him. But not nearly as much as what would worry him in the next few minutes.

The first thing that Slick noticed was that all four guards had raised their hands to their helmets, he knew the procedure, they were receiving ordered and were readying themselves to respond if necessary. The second thing he noticed was Barriss, she had broken from her meditation. In fact, she had collapsed completely as she began to grab her hair by the sides of her head and rive in pain.

"Kid!" He shouted as he stood from his bunk. Something was wrong, very wrong.

Then Kuln returned, quickly pacing towards his cell. He pressed away at his holopad and disabled the ray shields. Slick stood firmly in place, staring down the warden. "What's going on?"

For the first time since his imprisonment, the former Sergeant saw his warden smile. "CT-3572, the Republic has been formally reorganised into a new Galactic Empire. You are being given a chance to serve once again." He explained as he then went on to shut down the ray shield to the padawan's cell.

Kuln motioned for him to step forward towards the doorway to her cell, he then held out a DC-17 pistol. "You shall prove your loyalty to the Empire by executing the Jedi."

Slick didn't take the pistol, he just looked at the young girl quivering on the floor. "Sir, she's injured and unarmed." He protested.

Warden Kuln then shoved the pistol into Slick's chest, forcing him to grab it in both hands. "I will not ask again, soldier. Execute the Jedi. Execute Order Sixty Six…"

He squinted and trembled, the blaster visibly shaking in his hands. Force knows he didn't want to shoot her, but there was a feeling, a nagging sensation, an uncontrollable force keeping his gun raised at Barriss Offee… but there was something more. His own thoughts overpowering his urges, he already knew that this was wrong.

"No…" He muttered under his breath before quickly turning to Kuln and pulling the trigger.

It all happened in a second. The warden's limp body dropped to the floor, the shock troopers looking to each other then raising their blasters at the traitor, followed by all four of them being thrown against the wall, knocking them unconscious simultaneously. Slick gasped for air as he collected his thoughts and looked towards Barriss, who had her arms raised from using the force to disable the other clones. He gulped as he looked at her, he had no idea of knowing what she was thinking.

He didn't need to ask as she grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the elevator. "We have to go!" Slick barely had time to grab his pencil and paper and shoved them into his jumpsuit pocket.

The prison was in chaos, a massive riot broke out shortly after the transfer from Republic to Empire, and not just inside the walls. The people of the Republic had mixed opinions, while many welcomed the jew change, there would always be those who would seek any excuse to loot and vandalise, which is exactly what was happening on Coruscant.

The riots made the perfect cover for Barriss and Slick to make their way through the prison complex undetected. They made their way to the property room, Slick then sealed the door so that they could catch their breath.

"You wanna talk about what happened back there?" He wheezed.

Barriss didn't look him in the eye, instead, she was searching through various crates marked "B" and "O", hoping to find any of her belongings. "There's nothing to say. You were ordered to kill me, but you didn't." She said bluntly as she pried open one of the crates and began throwing her Jedi robes over her prison jumpsuit. "I'd start searching the "C" crates if you want to find any of your belongings."

Slick did as instructed, but continued to talk. "Kid, I-… Barriss. I didn't kill you, you're right… but it was like I wanted to… like, there was something making me hold the gun to your head. I can't explain it." He admitted as he began to put on his generation 1 armour.

She then turned to him. "Like a trance? Is that what you're saying?" She asked and she walked up to him, almost confrontational.

He raised his hands in defense. "I uh-yeah! Like that." He replied frantically.

Her eyes darted left and right, trying to piece together a puzzle that she didn't quite understand. "We have to go to the Temple. They'll have the answers we need." She said as she grabbed his wrist once more and tried to drag him out of the room, Slick barely had time to grab his phase 1 helmet.

The personal hangar luckily wasn't too far from their location, the only problem was the advanced ARF trooper and his attack hounds guarding it. Barriss and Slick crouched down in one of the walkways above the hangar.

"I know him. He's Sergeant hound." Slick commented followed by a light chuckle. "Get it?" He smirked.

Barriss just rolled her eyes while hiding a tiny smile back. "I think I can force bond with the creatures, you'll have to subdue him though."

Slick grumbled. "Weapons weren't in the property room, I don't know if I can do that."

"Oh you'll be fine." She replied casually as she lifted him, slowly lowering him down behind the Sergeant, he tried his best not to appear distressed at being elevated but failed miserably as he desperately reached out in all directions to grab onto something for support until he touched down on the hangar floor. She herself gracefully descended behind the fuel tanks and reached out with her hand and focused her mind on the dogs.

"I am one with the force and the force is with me." She chanted to herself, reinforcing her own concentration and willpower. The two creatures then began to slowly walk towards her, disappearing from view of the ARF Sergeant.

"What is it, boys?" He asked before Slick emerged behind him and swept his arm under his legs, toppling the soldier and knocking him out with a quick punch to the face while he was down.

Slick then turned to see Barriss step out of the shadows, behind her, the hounds rested in a deep slumber. She then walked up to him and looked down at the unconscious clone. "What do you want to do with him?" She asked.

"Dunno. We could take him with us? Figure out how the other clones are being influenced?" He suggested.

"And why it didn't work on you." She coldly added, reaching out and using the force to lift Hound off the ground for Slick to carry him over his shoulders.

"Come on, we'll take this shuttle." He said as gestured to the LAAT gunship behind him.

They quickly restrained Hound inside the troop carrier section of the gunship and both climbed into the pilot and Co pilot cockpits. As they took off and flew away from the maximum security facility, Barriss opened the shuttle comms.

"Attention, this is Barriss Offee broadcasting on all Jedi channels. Is anyone there? Can anyone hear me? Can anyone establish contact?" She desperately asked, having a bad feeling about this.