Anakin was tired. He always was after a campaign. Some battles weighed heavier on him than others though. There had been many times when they would spend months on end on a campaign, or have a mission that ended in countless casualties. Those were the battles that weighed on Anakin's soul and made him feel like he was a thousand years old. Those sorts of missions left him wondering just what all of this was for? What was the point in fighting for freedom when the battle never ended, and those he was fighting for and with died before they saw the fruit of their labor?
Umbara hadn't been a battle like that, but Anakin had the horrible feeling that it could have been. If he hadn't returned, what would Krell have done? Anakin had heard vaguely about Krell before this whole thing. The Jedi spoke highly of him and called him a good leader. He got good results, so Anakin hadn't questioned it. After witnessing and feeling his cruelty as seen in Dogma's eyes, that opinion had changed immediately.
Anakin spent the entire flight to Umbara taking another look at Krell's history. His reports contained a massive and concerning number of casualties of the troopers that served under him. Anakin had noted that before, but he hadn't thought anything of it because he had high casualty numbers too. It came with being part of as many campaigns as they were. When you served more frequently, and in more dangerous situations, you lost more men. It was an unfortunate fact of life.
After what he had learned from Dogma and Jesse though, Anakin began to wonder just how many of those casualties had been unavoidable. Was Krell actually a good leader, or was he just someone who knew how to use and throw away the tools at his disposal?
Just thinking that made Anakin feel sick. He had a strong suspicion which way Krell leaned, and he wasn't going to let it stand. Anakin couldn't do anything about Krell other than stop him from doing anything to the 501st, but he could report him to the Jedi Council. They would figure out the truth.
But Krell wasn't Anakin's biggest concern. Dealing with him on Umbara had been the immediate issue, but now that that was dealt with he needed to let it go. Krell was a problem, but there was far more than that.
Dogma was a slave. Anakin didn't know if he literally was, or if he just had one bad trainer who put the idea into his head, and those who were in positions of power over him didn't know enough to recognize the problem for what it was.
In a way, it didn't really matter if this was all in Dogma's head or if it was so much bigger than that. It was real to Dogma. Anakin knew from personal experience how hard it was to fight the 'slave instincts' that were drilled into you. Even when nobody else around him saw him as an inferior slave, that didn't change how he felt about himself. On really bad days Anakin still felt like he was that same little slave boy.
Anakin felt like he was the worst person to help Dogma with this. He knew that Dogma was worth just as much as anybody else, but how was he supposed to show him how to see himself that way when Anakin struggled to do just that?
Anakin just hoped that the Council would be able to do more than he could. Sometimes he felt like he despised the Jedi Council, because they talked in riddles and talked in a way that made him feel like they looked down on him. Usually though he respected the Jedi Council and looked up to them. He wanted to have the inner-peace that all of them had. He wanted to be a good leader that the people around him admired.
They'd be able to figure out why Dogma felt the way he did. More than that, they'd be able to help him heal. They had to. This was the exact kind of thing that the Jedi stood for, and Anakin liked to think that nobody on the Council would be happy with the idea that any of their troopers were only following them because they were too scared of what the consequences would be if they didn't.
Anakin liked to relax after coming back from a campaign. His men deserved a break, and he wanted to at least have the chance to spend the night with his wife before he had to think about his work again. He couldn't do that this time. He had to return to the Jedi Temple immediately and take care of this Dogma situation.
When they landed on Coruscant Anakin wasted no time. He didn't stop to say hi to Padmé. He didn't make sure they had gotten through the proper landing procedures, or take care of his droids or ship. He didn't touch the mission reports he was supposed to fill out immediately. He just went to the Temple. Rex and Kix followed just behind him. They both had far too much work to do, but they were too worried about Dogma to be convinced to stick around.
He had expected to find Dogma in the halls of healing. He had been through a lot of trauma, and he didn't know how to deal with it. The healers could get through his blocked memories, and they would know how to get him past it. To be able to find enough peace in the painful memories that he didn't have to block them out completely.
Anakin walked with purpose to the halls of healing, and he could immediately tell that something was wrong. He could feel a tension in the air that didn't belong in the temple, let alone in these rooms. He heard shouting. He didn't sense a threat, but it was clear that there was conflict.
He followed the noise and the bad feelings until he came to one of the more private rooms. A room intended for injuries of the mind. This was supposed to be one of the calmest rooms in the halls, but it was far from peaceful.
There were a number of clones there. He recognized Dogma, Jesse, Hardcase, and Tup. The two others were strangers to him. One of the unknown clones was clearly the injured one. He was sitting on one of the beds. He wasn't in his armor, and Anakin saw the hints of fresh injuries on his chest. Injuries that were nearly completely healed. Based on the tension in his shoulders, and what room they were in, Anakin knew that he still had a lot of recovering to do.
Half of the Jedi Council was in this room. Mace Windu was trying to speak calmly, rationally, and slightly patronizingly, but Anakin couldn't make out his words because Jesse and Hardcase were shouting over him.
Anakin scowled. He didn't know what was going on, but he didn't like it. Jesse and Hardcase could be disrespectful and outspoken sometimes, just like many of Anakin's men would be, but they wouldn't yell at the Jedi Council and glare at them like they were a threat for no reason. Something was bothering his men, and he intended to find out what.
"What's going on here?" Anakin raised his voice, using his General voice to cut over the noise. Jesse and Hardcase stopped yelling, but the anger in their eyes didn't go away.
"Apparently the Jedi don't know how to take 'no' for an answer." Hardcase spat. Mace Windu's mouth thinned.
"This matter is too big to ignore just because it makes you uncomfortable." Windu said. "We've talked about it, and we believe that the benefits outweigh the potential risks."
"That's easy to say when you're not the one in danger." The uninjured unknown clone said. By his armor it was clear that he was in the Coruscant Guard, though Anakin had never seen a guard without his helmet before. It was unsettling just how human he looked. The guard had always acted far more stiff and obediently than the GAR. Anakin knew they were clones, just like any other, but it was still odd to see the evidence of that right in front of him.
"He's not in danger." Windu said tiredly. He sounded as though he had said this same thing a dozen times.
"You said it will hurt if he's right." Jesse said. "Looking into someone's mind isn't supposed to hurt."
"You c-can't punish him for being right." Dogma pushed himself in front of Jesse, getting directly between the Jedi and the clone on the bed. "It's not fair."
And Anakin knew that tone of his. He knew it all too well. That shaky and determined tone was just like what he had heard back on Tatooine. His mom used it all the time. It was the tone that a slave would adopt when they dared to speak against their master to defend someone else.
Anakin felt that familiar protectiveness rise. Dogma shouldn't feel like this. Nobody should.
"Dogma." Anakin reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. Dogma stiffened and the cold bravery in his eyes faltered as he made a barely audible sound of fear. Anakin was sure he was the only one who heard it, and he hated himself for being responsible for this.
"I-I'm not going to let them hurt him." Dogma said quietly.
"Believe me, it isn't our intention to hurt anybody." Windu said. "But for his own good, and for the good of the entire galaxy, I must insist that you stand aside."
Anakin's protective fury came out in an instant. He pulled Dogma behind him and glared at Windu. "Do not tell him what to do. Ever."
Windu sighed tiredly. "Skywalker, this is bigger than just one clone."
"He's a person." Anakin growled. "And his name is Dogma."
"Refuting that, we are not." Yoda said. "However, find the Sith, we must."
Anakin felt lost. "What does this have to do with the Sith?"
"The Jedi say that Commander Fox was hurt by the Sith." Jesse said. "They're trying to get their identity from him, but they don't believe what he has to say, so they want to torture it out of him instead?"
Anakin was feeling a little dizzy by now. The Sith? Anakin had come here to deal with Dogma, and now there was a Sith? And they'd managed to get to the Commander of the Coruscant Guard, who worked with the most influential people in the galaxy. How did the Sith get to him without any of the Jedi noticing? And what was this that Jesse said about the Jedi torturing the Commander for information? They would never do that. But the clones' fear was genuine.
As Anakin tried to wrap his head around what had just been said he heard Rex make a wounded sound behind him.
"Ori-vod?" Rex sounded so vulnerable.
The clone on the bed, Fox, grimaced and sat up straighter. "I'm fine, Rex."
"Fine?" Rex sounded flabbergasted. "You had a run-in with the Sith, and you expect me to believe that you're fine?"
"I wasn't hurt by the Sith." Fox scoffed. "It was…" He trailed off and gave Anakin an odd look. He seemed scared of telling him the truth. Anakin didn't want anybody to look like that ever again.
"Who was it?" Anakin asked. He put as much of a calming influence as he could into his voice. He wasn't nearly as good at it as Obi-Wan was, but he'd picked up a thing or two.
Fox took a deep breath. "You're not going to believe me, but it was the Chancellor."
Things were just getting weirder and weirder. "The Chancellor hurt you? Why would he do that?" Anakin couldn't even comprehend the idea. He wanted to brush it aside without a second thought, but he couldn't bring himself to just disbelieve Fox. Not when he could hear his mom's voice in the back of his head telling him to always believe a slave and give them the benefit of the doubt, regardless of how unbelievable their story was.
"I disobeyed him." Fox said plainly. "I needed to be disciplined." This was sounding more and more familiar. Anakin knew that not all clones saw themselves as slaves, but he wondered if Dogma might not be the only one.
He wanted to ask Fox about this and figure out where this mind-set had come from, but Windu was already talking, and he had a completely different set of concerns.
"It couldn't have been the Chancellor." Windu said. "You were hurt by Force lightning and had signs of the dark side lingering in you."
Fox frowned. "I know."
"Only a Sith could have been responsible for this." Windu said. "Are you claiming that the Chancellor is the Sith?"
"Of course not." Fox made a face.
"And yet you believe he disciplined you with an ability that only the Sith would use." Windu said. "You can see why we suspect your memory has been modified." Fox just looked confused and a little frustrated. Anakin got the feeling that they'd had this same discussion multiple times.
"This is getting us nowhere." Anakin looked at Fox. "I think I have an idea, but I'll need to go into your memories." He didn't want to do anything without permission. Not when it was becoming clear that Fox might have had a lot of his choices and free-will taken from him. Anakin wasn't going to take anything else.
Fox looked wary, and Anakin didn't know how to start to convince him. Dogma sat next to Fox and made the commander turn his head to look at him. Dogma rested his forehead against Fox' in a clear sign of affection.
"It doesn't hurt." Dogma said. "He did it to me, and I didn't feel anything."
Fox sighed and closed his eyes. "If you trust him, D'ika, then I'll trust him."
Dogma gave him a small smile before pulling away and giving Anakin a warning look. He had no intention of betraying their trust.
"You were hurt." Anakin put one hand on Fox' chest, where he felt the most amount of lingering darkness. It was a swirling, ugly, heavy feeling, and he couldn't imagine how it felt to Fox. He put his other hand on Fox' head. "There was darkness. Anger. Pain. Show me." He pushed past Fox' natural barriers and let himself into his head. He didn't see much. There was a block there. Something powerful was obstructing things.
Anakin could probably force his way past the blockage, but that would hurt Fox and he wouldn't become a liar about this. Besides, while Anakin couldn't see a lot he could feel plenty. This memory had a strong presence in the Force. It radiated in power and potent energy that carried the feeling of darkness and rage.
The sound of crackling was dancing in his ears, and it took Anakin a long time to realize that there were two distinct sounds. He heard the electrical surge of lightning, and he heard the dark sadistic laughter of someone who thrived in the darkness surrounding them.
"You know why you deserve this." The voice behind the laughter said. "You know you've left me no choice."
Anakin pulled away from Fox, and it took him several long moments to calm down and recenter himself. He was fine. He wasn't drowning in darkness. Any lingering shadows he felt came from his own anger, and Anakin needed to push past that. He couldn't let himself be consumed by the darkness. Not again.
"Was that okay?" Anakin asked Fox. "Any pain?"
Fox was still for a bit before shaking his head. "No pain, Sir."
"Good, because we're going to do it again." Anakin said. "This time just think about the Chancellor. Try not to think about your punishment. Just the Chancellor." Maybe Fox' memories had been modified, but there was a way to figure out if that was the case or not. A way that didn't involve tearing his mind apart to get to the truth.
The soul was a powerful thing. Stronger than mere memories. Even if the mind forgot, the body and soul remembered. That was why Dogma had been able to warn Anakin of Krell being a threat, even though he'd repressed his memories of interacting with him. Anakin had at least an idea of what Fox had experienced with the Sith. Now he needed to know what his experiences with the Chancellor were, and see if they were remotely similar.
Even if the Sith had changed Fox' memories, they couldn't change the commander's feelings.
Anakin went into Fox' mind again, and was confused to find that his thoughts on the Chancellor were just as blocked as his ones about the Sith were. There was still a feeling of lingering darkness around, but it was quieter and more subdued, lying in wait instead of actively choking. He felt reluctance and resignation from Fox, as well as a dash of fear. It was far too similar to how Dogma had felt about Krell.
"I really had expected more from you, Commander." It sounded like the Chancellor's voice, but the tone wasn't quite right. That wasn't how he talked to Anakin. It wasn't how he talked to the public, or the senators, or the Jedi Council. But then, he used a different tone for all those groups. Padmé had told Anakin once that it came with being a politician, that they needed to adopt a different tone depending on who they were talking to. Anakin understood that, but he didn't like it.
"You were trained to be better than this." The Chancellor's voice sounded both patronizing and passive aggressive. It was like hearing the worst of the Jedi Council. "I really am quite disappointed."
Anakin had seen enough. This was far from proof that the Chancellor was the Sith, which still felt unreal and impossible, but that wasn't what Anakin could bring himself to worry about right now. That was something that the Jedi focused on. Anakin was still stuck in the mind-set of an ex-slave. He couldn't think like a Jedi right now. He would leave that to the Council.
Anakin pulled back from Fox, giving him a sad look that was too sympathetic and real to be pity. "You see the Chancellor the same way that Dogma sees the Jedi." Fox didn't seem to understand, but Dogma and Rex both paled and Jesse immediately started swearing up a storm.
The Jedi didn't seem to know what he was talking about, and they didn't care. "What did you see?" Windu asked.
Anakin turned away from the clones and faced the Jedi. "The Commander's thoughts about the Sith are clouded, but so are his thoughts about the Chancellor. Why would the Sith modify his memories about Palpatine?"
"A good question, that is." Yoda hummed. "Meditate on it, we must. Consider all possibilities." He looked at Fox, who was starting to look uncomfortable with the attention he was getting from Dogma and Rex. "More questions we will have for you, but not for tonight. Rest. Calm your thoughts, and let go of the fear inside of you. Force or no, vulnerable to the dark side it makes you. When ready you are, talk we shall." Yoda left the room. Some of the Council members followed him.
Windu stayed behind for a minute. He looked at both Dogma and Fox. "I know we asked a lot from you. You have every right to be upset. But you need to understand that we asked out of necessity, not because we wanted to make you uncomfortable."
Tup had been quiet this whole time, but he finally spoke up. "If you ask something, there's the possibility of getting refused. Hardcase is right. You didn't let Fox say no. Is that a question, or a command?"
Dogma gave Tup an odd look and Fox raised an eyebrow at him. They both seemed confused, like they didn't understand the difference between the two things. When Anakin was younger it had taken him a long time to understand the difference himself. Obi-Wan and the Jedi had helped him to learn how to say 'no'.
Anakin wondered at what point the Jedi had started to turn their questions and suggestions into orders. Windu looked thoughtful as he seemed to start to wonder the same thing. He nodded at Tup and the other clones, nodded at Anakin, and then left the room. As soon as he was gone Dogma visibly relaxed. Anakin hadn't realized how tense he was. He wondered how much more Dogma would relax if he wasn't here.
Anakin sighed. He was so tired. "I'll speak to the Council. I'm not going to let any of them hurt you." He looked at Fox. "I'll see what I can do about keeping the clones away from the Chancellor. The red guards can take over for a bit." He didn't really believe that the Chancellor could or would hurt anybody, but Fox' fear was real, and Anakin was going to respect that. Until they knew what was going on, making such a simple change was the least they could do.
Fox looked relieved but confused, like he didn't understand why Anakin would do anything for him. "Thank you, Sir." He didn't really sound convinced that Anakin was going to follow through with his promise. He would just have to prove himself. It wouldn't be the first time.
"Do you guys want to see a mind healer?" Anakin asked. "You don't have to if you don't want to, but it might help."
Tup raised his hand. "I do." He gave Dogma a pleading look.
"I guess I've been curious about their methods." Dogma admitted. Tup beamed at him, and Anakin took that to mean that it was an agreement.
"I've been curious about the same thing." Kix said.
"I'm fine." Fox said. Rex shot him a stern look.
"No, you're not getting out of this." Rex said. "You're seeing a mind healer."
"For once we agree about something." The other guard said, and Anakin was furious with himself that he didn't know his name. He'd never bothered to learn any of the names of the guard, other than Commander Fox, and that was just because he was in charge. It didn't seem like it had mattered before.
Well, it mattered now.
"Anakin Skywalker." He introduced himself, holding his hand out to the guard, who looked at him for a long minute before accepting his hand and giving it a firm shake.
"Commander Stone." He said. "I'm the one currently on Fox babysitting duty. He's not allowed to be alone after he gets disciplined this badly." Which meant that this kind of thing had not just happened before, but somewhat regularly. From the way that Stone was looking at him Anakin got the feeling that he'd let this information slip on purpose to see how he would react.
"Sounds like a good protocol." Anakin said. Stone looked stunned by the response, and Anakin hoped that meant he had done something right. "I'll get the mind healers, and then I'll leave you in peace."
He left the room and started to make his way out of the halls of healing. He paused when he heard hurried footsteps behind him.
"General!" Jesse ran to catch up with him. "Is everything okay with Krell?"
"I got there before anything happened." Anakin said. "And I'm about to report him to the Council." He looked at Jesse, who was holding something in his hands. He looked slightly hesitant. "Is there something else?"
"I didn't know that Fox saw himself as a slave." Jesse said quickly. "But we've known that something's been weird about Dogma. He learned all kinds of crazy things on Kamino, and he's convinced that it was all normal. You said he would have been taught to be a slave. I don't know where Fox learned it, but if Dogma learned it anywhere it was on Kamino."
Jesse held out the datapad in his hands. "Dogma takes very thorough notes. There's a lot to get through."
Anakin accepted the datapad. "Does Dogma know you have his notes?"
"He doesn't." Jesse said. "But he's accepted our help to figure this out." Jesse was pushing the boundaries of what he'd been given permission to do. That was what he did.
"I'll see what I can get from this." Anakin said. He'd talk to Shaak Ti about this whole thing. She knew better than any of the other Jedi what kinds of things they taught on Kamino. She would know how these notes compared to what the clones were supposably taught. "Thank you."
"Thank you, Sir." Jesse said. "For fighting for us."
"You guys have been fighting for the entire Republic." Anakin said. "It's only fair that somebody returns the favor." Anakin knew how it felt to be in their position. Now that he had the power and influence to do something about it, he was going to.
Maybe he should be worrying about finding the Sith. There were bigger things to worry about. But nobody else was fighting for the clones. What was the point in saving the galaxy if the people who lived in it would continue to suffer?
Anakin knew he couldn't save everybody, but he wasn't ever going to stop trying.