And we are back on schedule! At least for me. It's 9:30 pm on the 10th, so I'm saying we're good.

Zabuzasgirl: Thank you!

bsmith1138: Thank you! And...you're not wrong with that interpretation. But I'm still not saying anything. And while I'm normally not that confident with my action scenes, I think that this one will fit the 'edge of your seat' bill.

Bvadams: I don't think any of us realized that until it happened. Maybe in canon they're cellmates and Cody murders him anyway.

imaginationflies: Palps is still alive, so we've still got that to check off the list. And Tarkin. Ew. Dooku's still alive, but I don't hate him, but he also probably needs to go down. Let me tell you, it was satisfying to write. And please please please let Crosshair murder Hemlock in canon. Please. Don't worry, I've got plans for Omega. And much more hurt and comfort for the Batch because that is what sustains me during this horrible time between seasons.

Peachpopsicle: And he has more to do! (just...not this chapter. We gotta a lot of characters to follow)

merel nieuwenhuizen2019: Thank you! I hope you enjoy this one!

Now for the rest of the people's jobs!

Mando'a translations at the end!

ABSOLVED: Chapter 38

The moment Rex felt the Venator fall out of hyperspace, he engaged his Y-wing's engines. The motley crew of fighters burst into life around him, led by General Fisto. Rex blasted into space. They were already surrounded by the Empire's fighters. General Fisto's men shot out around Rex, engaging the enemy. Rex thought he caught sight of General Kenobi and Jesse's transports. He feinted left and right, never directly engaging. He searched desperately for an opening to the planet below.

R2 whistled at him and the droid's words were translated onto a screen in the cockpit.

"Where?" Rex demanded, trying to scan the battlefield and read R2's response at the same time.

Then he spotted the small and growing smaller gap in the darting ships. Rex took a deep breath and shot towards it.

It was chaos, but not chaotic enough. R2 screamed that two fighters were on their tail. Rex cursed. He had less than a second to make his choice: commit to the closing opening or take evasive maneuvers.

R2 demanded what he was doing as Rex hit the accelerator. The Y-wing jolted as the enemy hit their target.

"Calm down!" Rex snapped at the droid. The ship was becoming more difficult to control now. "Don't do anything for the damage yet; we have to look like we're spiraling out of control."

R2 grumbled something about Rex being as bad as Anakin.

"That's a lie." Rex said as he dove into what was supposed to look like an uncontrolled plunge. "He'd likely actually crash the ship. Are they still after us?"

He held his breath as he waited for R2 to respond. The droid finally beeped a negative. He disengaged the engines to further the ruse and let the planet's gravity take hold. R2 beeped nervously as the ship began to tremble.

"Hold-" Rex muttered.

He could see the heat begin to form around the outside of the ship. He still hesitated. If the fighters noticed him reengage the engines, getting to the surface would be a lot harder. R2 shrieked a warning and Rex revved the engine, turning the shields back on.

"Are they following us?" He demanded. He still let the ship be dragged by Coruscant's gravity. "Are we in the clear?"

R2 beeped that they were fine. Rex relaxed somewhat, though his grip was still tight on the controls.

"Plot a course to the Administrative Sector." Rex ordered. "Our spies have reported that the twins are being kept at the Youngling Protection Agency headquarters. Try and keep us looking like we're going to crash for as long as possible."

R2 twittered in response and Rex began working at the comm system. If he could hack into the Imperial comm chatter, things could go a lot smoother. Especially if he knew if Tech and Echo were successful in their mission.

"-ones are going AWOL!" Finally a panicked nat born's voice filled the cockpit.

"All of them?" A gruff voice replied.

"All except the ones that are dropping dead!"

Rex sucked in a sharp breath. Dropping dead? What was happening? He remembered with a stomach ripping jolt the injured clones that had died after having their chips removed. Was Tech's method causing something similar?

Words flashed across Rex's screen, telling him to focus and pay attention. Rex jerked his head around to see a few Coruscant Guard patrol ships darting towards him. He felt sick for a moment before the triumph of what the nat borns had said hit him. The clones were going AWOL. His brothers were free. The soldiers filling those ships were likely nat borns.

Rex felt strangely light as he accepted an incoming comm.

"Y-wing, identify yourself!" a frantic nat born's voice demanded. "How did you get past the blockade?"

"My name is Captain Rex of the 501st." Rex said with a sense of triumph. "We've come to get our brothers back."

"Stand down, clone!" The nat born snapped. "You have no chance of-"

Rex cut his acceleration, falling sharply behind the two ships.

"We've got more of a chance than you think." Rex said.

He fired, the bolts slamming into the back of the ships. Both engines erupted into flames. The shields on those had never been good.

Rex realized his mistake as they went careening down towards the city. That was going to get him noticed.

R2 squealed in alarm. Rex looked to see several explosions spattering the cityscape. He felt an odd mixture of relief and worry.

"That'll be Maul." He said. "Kriff, he's going to get innocents hurt."

Regardless, no one was going to be suspicious of one of many ships fleeing from the explosions. He blended easily with the chaos. More explosions followed, both down below and up above. The battle above the planet had begun.

The Administrative District was no different than the other districts Rex had passed through, except that the mess of ships were nicer. Rex frowned at the frequency of the explosions. This was getting excessive. Perhaps Maul hadn't been the right choice for this.

Few ships were on the landing pad of the YPA facility. It looked identical to the buildings around it, except there was some sort of training field with brightly colored equipment. That was odd, as Rex had heard that natborn children weren't trained.

"Stay here and keep an eye out." Rex told R2 as he climbed out of the Y-wing. There was no one around as he jogged to the building. There were no lights in the windows.

Rex tried the door, but it was locked. Likely because of the explosions, Rex thought wryly. Luckily, Rex wasn't too bad at slicing and the lock was civilian grade rather than military. He put his hand on a blaster as the door whooshed open. The place was dark. Rex crept forward.

They had no idea what protections Palpatine had put around the twins. It was possible, though unlikely, that there was no guard, in order for things to seem normal. In any case, there were likely to be civvies here. Rex didn't want to get too trigger happy.

As if on cue, a Zabrak rounded the corner. The man gasped and dropped the box he was holding. It made a dusty rattle as it hit the ground.

"Don't move." Rex said sharply, pulling out a DC. "Don't make a noise. I'm not here to hurt anyone."

The man froze. Rex could see that he'd taken a breath to yell, but deflated silently. The Zabrak was large: bulky and a few inches taller than Rex himself. He had bronze skin, slightly redder than a human's, and pale violet eyes. What was oddest was his horns, which were filed down to round nubs.

"I'm just here for Luke and Leia- Amidala." Rex had nearly given the twins their father's last name, but it wasn't likely that Senator Amidala had legally used it.

The man's eyes flicked behind him and Rex caught a glimpse of white. Rex fired, trusting in Tech's device. The two TK troopers behind the Zabrak crumpled.

Rex turned back to the man. There was fear in the his eyes as he silently pointed up. Rex's heart plunged.

"Take me to them." He said sharply. "Now."

Rex didn't know what made the man obey, but he was grateful that the Zabrak just turned and beckoned.

"I don't know what you can do." The man panted as they sprinted. "That thing- but it only arrived just before you."

"It's here for the twins." Rex said. "No one else?"

"I don't think so." The man said. "But we can't let it take even just them."

Rex agreed. Even if he hadn't been tasked with rescuing the twins, no child should be subject to Palpatine's whims.

They met the Inquisitor as he left the twins' room. The tall, black clad man held the twins under his arms. The babies were squalling, a devastating, hurt sound that rent Rex's heart and ignited fury against the man causing it.

He had pulled out his blasters before he knew what he was really doing. He could see the Inquisitor's disdain, even with the helmet. A force slammed into Rex, throwing him against the wall. Rex crumpled to the floor. He tried to suck in a breath, but was hampered by a sharp pain in his ribs.

"I should kill you." The Inquisitor said. "End your pathetic life. I very much doubt that you could do anything to stop me, but you likely know some that could."

Rex pulled himself to a crouch.

"Demagolka!" He spat. "They're just kids! What do you think Palpatine will do to them? He'll ruin them and they'll be ripped from everything they know!"

Somehow, his words did seem to make the Inquisitor pause.

And then the building shook. The Inquisitor stumbled and Rex took the opportunity to tackle him. A combination of the man's imbalance and hesitation allowed Rex to tug the twins from him and run.

Before he could get more than a few meters, Rex felt the touch of the Force reaching for him.

The building shook again, more violently. Dust and chunks of ceiling rained down. Rex fell to his knees and clutched the twins to his chest, at the next, stronger tremor. The walls began to crumple and Rex covered the crying babies with his body as the building fell apart around them.

Ahsoka froze as she knelt over a clone's collapsed form. Something had twinged in her mind, in her bond with Rex. She had purposefully dampened the bond, but this had still come through. She pushed it away, as well as her worry. She had her mission.

She checked the pulse of the clone in front of her. Dead. Very few of the collapsed clones had survived. The landing platform was scattered with white armored figures. They hadn't had time to look into it further. In any case, it was too late for the clones on Coruscant.

Her heart ached for these men. They had been so close to freedom and mere chance had ripped it from them.

She wished she knew their names, so she could remember them.

With a sigh she looked up to Appo, who waited nervously nearby.

"Report." She said.

"Sir, it seems that the effects of the device is lethal to one in four of the chipped clones." Appo said. "But the rest seem to be fine, if not disoriented."

"And willing to join us?" Ahsoka asked, voicing the tiny doubt in her heart.

Appo nodded.

"And they're angry, sir." He said. "Most of them turned on the TK troopers immediately, according to Imperial chatter."

"Have we heard from Fives?" Ahsoka asked.

"No, sir." Appo said. "But reports say that the GAR headquarters are sieged by the clones."

"He's likely stuck there, then. Trapped in his disguise." Ahsoka said with a grimace. "That's our next target. Most clones are probably there regardless."

That was her mission: to gather the newly freed clones and bring them into the Rebellion. She'd found this group, mostly shock troopers, by the Senate building. The clones' confusion was still so orderly. These had gathered together as a battalion as best they could.

A clone in red and white jogged up to them. He saluted, but Ahsoka saw hesitance in the action.

"Name, trooper?" Ahsoka asked.

"Commander Thorn, sir." The trooper said.

"Thorn, gather your men." Ahsoka said. "We're going to storm the GAR headquarters and collect the clones from there. Move out!"

Thorn didn't move, much to Ahsoka's surprise. He had gone stiff and- was he trembling?

"Thorn?" Ahsoka asked.

Appo put a steadying hand on Thorn's shoulder. Thorn visibly shuddered.

"Those are our- our orders, sir?" He whispered, and Ahsoka understood.

"No." She said quickly. "You can choose."

Thorn relaxed.

"R-right." He said. "I'm telling the boys and they- they can choose."

"That's right." Ahsoka soothed.

Kriff, she should have expected this. Being forced to follow orders, orders they had known were wrong, was going to leave its mark.

That was a problem, because she needed them to be able to follow her orders.

Now that they had been freed, Ahsoka was tempted to withdraw now. It was difficult to not prioritize the clones' lives after years by their side. There was a- disconnect with the rest of the galaxy sometimes.

It was dangerous thinking. She knew the value of every life, not just the clones'. She closed her eyes and for a moment connected herself to the web of souls on Coruscant. These people needed her too.

Obi Wan watched the entrance of the Senate. The building was on lockdown, now that the invasion was in full swing. It was still being set up, which annoyed Obi Wan. This was a rather time sensitive mission and he'd prefer to get things moving along. Finally, two blue armored Senate Guards stepped out. Nat borns, likely, as Obi Wan had seen the Coruscant Guard being recruited by Ahsoka. Any clone in the building would be in revolt, rather than enforcing the lock down.

Obi Wan stretched out his hand. The two guards slammed into the wall and crumpled. Obi Wan hurried over and inspected his handiwork. He was relieved to find that one of the men seemed to be his own height. Excellent.

It took a moment to disguise himself, but soon enough, Obi Wan was trotting off into the Senate. Alarms blared and lights flashed red as he made his way into the building. He slowed that trot into a stroll as he came upon more guards. One was giving orders. Obi Wan joined the crowd around him, as if waiting for assignment as well.

"You three!" The lead guard said, gesturing to some guards next to Obi Wan. "We have orders from the top: watch Amidala's allies. They're on the third floor."

Why, thank you. Obi Wan thought as he slipped from the group.

They were not going to leave Senator Organa and the others more sympathetic to their cause to the whims of Palpatine. And if Anakin's plan worked- they would need some politicians ready to restart the Republic.

He was forced to take a different route from the guards ordered to watch his targets. He arrived to see them stationed in front of a door.

Obi Wan reached out again with the Force. In his experience, it was the clones that truly defended the Senate. The Senate Guard were more spit and polish than substance. With this in mind, Obi Wan whispered his suggestion.

"This is the wrong room. They are on the second floor."

The three men cocked their heads, and then moved off in a pack. Obi Wan smiled to himself. The Empire had made such a blunder in replacing the clones. But then again, Obi Wan mused as he approached the door, they would have been damned if they had relied on the clones.

He opened the door. Several senators stood in a clump, muttering to each other. Senator Organa immediately stepped forward.

"What is this?" He demanded. "Why are we being guarded like criminals?"

"Please don't be coy, my dear Senator." Obi Wan said as he pulled the helmet off. "We all know that we are all guilty of treason."

Senator Chuchi gasped softly. The others, including Mon Mothma, stared at Obi Wan.

"General Kenobi?" Senator Organa asked. "What are you doing here?"

"We are opposed to the upcoming trial, among other things." Obi Wan said. "And, well, we believe that your own lives are in danger. Would you please follow me?"

No one protested and all obeyed him as he ducked out of the room again. Obi Wan was glad. He liked Senator Amidala very much, but she had a habit of insisting on being where the action was. These senators seemed quite happy to escape.

"You there!" They had only made it to the staircase before they were noticed. A troupe of guards came up, marching at double time. "What are you doing with those Senators?"

"I am escorting them to be held at the GAR Headquarters." Obi Wan said smoothly, his words slicked with the Force.

The guards paused, confused. Obi Wan kept walking, urging the senators to do the same.

"Wait-" One of the guards called. "The headquarters are under attack!"

"Are they?" Obi Wan said as he continued herding the Senators away. "How unfortunate."

"Halt!" The guard captain finally shouted. "What's your designation?"

Obi Wan sighed and glanced at Senator Organa.

"Run." He said quietly. "I will be right behind."

Obi Wan sprang into action without checking to see if he'd been obeyed. By the time the guards had realized what Obi Wan was doing and more importantly, what he was, he had cut down two. He was pleased to find that his skills had not deteriorated since the end of the war.

"Jedi in the building!" One of them shouted. "Requesting-"

Obi Wan slammed the man into a wall and he dropped.

He returned to the gaggle of Senators as they reached the bottom of the stairs. Unfortunately, Obi Wan couldn't tell if the building was on higher alert; the lights couldn't get more red or the alarms louder.

"This way." Obi Wan prompted.

As they hurried, Obi Wan thought to use his new helmet's comm to tap into the enemy's communications.

"-senators are demanding evac!" One guard was saying.

"We can't leave the building!" Another snapped back. "Those Mandalorian ships are fire bombing the landing pads!"

Obi Wan stopped short.

"Oh dear." He muttered to himself.

"What is it, General Kenobi?" Senator Organa asked.

What in blazes is Maul doing? Obi Wan thought.

"An ally of ours seems to have taken their role too seriously." He said aloud. "We er- may have to find an alternate mode of transport."

The group of senators came to a halt as well. Many of them were wide eyed with fright.

"The landing pads are under attack." Obi Wan explained. "Our ship is likely destroyed."

"Then we use the under path." Senator Organa declared.

Obi Wan turned to him, an unseen eyebrow raised.

"A secret way out of the Senate, I assume?" He asked.

"Yes." Senator Mothma said. "I'm quite surprised Padme did not tell you."

She might have told Anakin. Obi Wan thought dryly. But no- Anakin would have told Obi Wan for this mission.

"Lead the way." Obi Wan said.

Senator Organa took point and took them back up the stairs. Obi Wan was pleased to see a few of the senators retrieve the blasters from the fallen guards. Riyo Chuchi was one of these. It made sense. She was a friend of Ahsoka's.

The armed senators came in handy when they ran into more guards. They rarely hit anything, but they were a good distraction as Obi Wan did the real work.

"General Kenobi," Senator Chuchi said in a shaking voice after Obi Wan had taken down the third patrol. "Where are the clones? I have sometimes seen them outside the Senate building, but not often, and they haven't guarded us in weeks!"

"Palpatine wants them out of the way." Obi Wan explained. "But we are here to retrieve them."

"Thank the moon mother." Senator Chuchi said with real relief. "Palpatine has been hinting at and pushing for their disposal."

"You'll be pleased to know that we are currently freeing the clones of Coruscant from the inhibitor chips' control." Obi Wan said. "Palpatine will no longer hold power over them. If our plans work well, he will no longer hold power over any of us."

A few senators gave gasps of surprise.

"Then this is a coup." Senator Organa said.

"If you must put it that way." Obi Wan said with a grimace. "Ah, hold a moment."

Another squad of guards had found them. They seemed panicked, which was expected if Anakin was doing his part.

Eventually Senator Organa led them to an innocuous office near the top floor.

"This office is never assigned." Senator Organa said. "I must confess, I never expected to be forced to use this route."

"It is an era of surprises, Senator." Obi Wan said. "Open it, if you please. I will guard the door."

Obi Wan heard the Senators move to the back of the room and the sound of a keypad. A door whooshed open. Of course, that was when the guards caught up.

"Into the passage!" Obi Wan ordered.

He slashed through the first guard into the room as Senator Organa corralled the others.

"We're clear!" The senator finally called.

Obi Wan backed through the room, deflecting the blaster bolts as the guards clustered around the doorway. He took a step behind him and his heart lurched as his foot came down on empty air. He sucked in a breath as he teetered and then fell into a hole in the middle of the floor.

It seemed that the escape route for the Senate building was an escape slide. Obi Wan hit the smooth metal and shot downwards at a barely controlled speed. He heard the clatter of armor as a few guards jumped after him. It was completely dark, until a red bolt blasted by Obi Wan and into the tunnel's ceiling. Obi Wan could hear the yells of the senators further along.

His stomach lurched as he took sharp turns, veering high onto the sides of the slide. The guards above him cursed as they followed the chaotic route. Against his better judgment, Obi Wan ignited his lightsaber just in time to deflect another incoming blaster bolt.

With the saber's light, Obi Wan saw that they were in a completely round metal tube. It likely ran through the ground of the level the Senate building resided on. Obi Wan batted another bolt away and plunged his lightsaber into the bottom of the tube. It dragged just enough for Obi Wan to get his feet under him and to stop. A second later the guards were upon him, but with a swift stroke, both went limp. Obi Wan waited a moment more, but no more guards came shooting towards him.

He let himself begin sliding again. After more time than Obi Wan would have expected, he saw a light at the end of the tube. He shot out into a pool of grimy water. He sputtered as he scrambled to his feet in a rather undignified way.

The senators, who looked like they had landed in the same puddle of sludge, waited for him nervously among piles of scrap and refuse.

"Lovely." Obi Wan said. "A junkyard."

He turned to study their exit point. It had a keypad, likely for locking it, but Obi Wan was fairly sure that the enemy would have the access codes. So he slashed out with his lightsaber and pushed the weakened metal, crumpling it closed.

"Do you know exactly where we are?" Obi Wan asked Senator Organa.

"I believe somewhere on the twenty-third level." Senator Organa replied.

Obi Wan put a hand to his dripping beard, considering. From what he understood, this level was completely innocuous, with no especially discerning features. That was likely the point. Who would expect senators here?

Luckily, his comm worked.

"This is General Kenobi." He said. "I need evac for myself and-"
He trailed off at the sound of a lightsaber igniting and a red glow cast over his group. Obi Wan resisted the urge to sigh. He should have known.

"Kenobi." Maul said from his perch on top of a pile of debris.

"Is this the time, Maul?" Obi Wan asked.

"Yes." Maul growled. "The other Jedi are not here to interfere. I will have my revenge."

The destruction of the Senate landing pads made sense now.

"How did you know of this escape route?" Obi Wan asked.

"Lady Offee was very thorough in her research for her attack against the Jedi." Maul said. "She had considered making the Senate itself her target, but her plans shifted."

"Of course." Obi Wan said.

He glanced around the area. He couldn't spend time indulging in Maul's obsession. He needed to get the senators out.

"Before you flee like the coward you are, Kenobi," Maul said. "Know that if you do, I will hunt your charges one by one and slaughter them. But if you face me now, I will let them pass."

The senators were muttering nervously. Obi Wan stepped towards Senator Organa.

"Here." Obi Wan said, handing him the comm. "Get out of the way of this fight and call for evacuation. I will try to make this quick."

Senator Organa nodded. Obi Wan watched him lead the other senators through the towers of scrap before turning back to Maul.

"This is the perfect setting for our final confrontation, Kenobi." Maul said. "I was condemned to a hell very much like this one because of you."

Obi Wan pulled his lightsaber out and prepared to finish the battle he had started over a decade before.

Mando'a:

Demagolka: someone who commits atrocties, a real-life monster, a war criminal - from the notorious Mandalorian scientist of the Old Republic, Demagol, known for his experiments on children, and a figure of hate and dread in the Mando psyche

From the top!

A small tribute to the missing buddy cop arc with R2 and Rex that we were never given from TCW. I like to think that R2 screams at people doing crazy things (like a hypocrite)

It took me WAY too long to come up with a Star Wars equivalent of CPS. Also, that's a playground outside its building. Rex just doesn't know what that is.

The Zabrak was going to play a bigger role, and he still might, but I was committed to keeping in the detail that he had filed horns because he works with kids and so they don't hurt themselves. And oooh Inquisitor! Rex's Jango PROTEC AND ADOPT genes kicked into overdrive...but unfortunately that is still indeed a Force user. Good thing Maul's people are blowing things up.

If you think 1 out of 4 clones is bad, at least it's not 1 out of 3 like I originally planned. ...Yeah it's still pretty bad. Poor clones now have ORDER TRAUMA.

Ahsoka is me in this chapter. My priority is the clones.

And then comes the Obi Wan bit that I thought wasn't good when I wrote it and then went back to edit it and it was good! Gotta get those good senators out before Palps has them killed. It's so nice to write Obi Wan as his normal sassy self instead of...what I'm doing to him in Fives Effect.

I was considering the escape route from the Senate, and I remembered that escape slides were canonically a thing...and well, my hands were tied. It had to happen.

And Maul has successfully played the long con! This was his endgame the whole time. He's REALLY pleased that it's in a garbage heap.

Okay, that should be everything!

Stay safe, remember to review, see you next week, and MANIFEST A BAD BATCH SEASON 3 TRAILER.