The Decision that Changed Everything

Order 66

Mace struggled to his feet, clutching the desk next to him for support.

"Where did he go?"

"He got away..." Anakin mumbled.

"We have to find him before he does something worse than what he's already done."

"How? He's distorted our use of the force. There's no way we can catch him."

Master Windu clutched his side. Something sticky was on his cloak, he couldn't identify it. There weren't any spilled drinks on the floor.

Then he realized, there wasn't any fabric where he had his hand. It was his skin, burned by the electricity, and his blood was oozing out of his wound.

"Skywalker," he said as he fell back to the ground.

"Master!" Anakin quickly got down on all fours, trying to save his master, but it was no use. Master Windu drew his final breath on the floor of that office.

***

"Execute Order 66," commanded Sidious into his hologram. A blue flickering image of a clone commander nodded his head, and pressed a few other buttons on his headset to send the signal to every other clone commander.

"Yes, sir," the clones replied, before they turned on their friends.

Finally, thought the chancellor. The Jedi will be destroyed and I will become supreme chancellor.

But his blood boiled at the thought of Anakin Skywalker. He had to be his student, but he couldn't just let Skywalker get away with what he had done. He had to make him pay.

***

Anakin raced out of the chancellor's office, his breath heavy and hard. The chancellor could be halfway across the district by now. He took off as fast as he could. A group of clones were making their way into the building, their blasters loaded, which was abnormal, unless there were intruders. Anakin stopped only for a moment, and called out.

Suddenly a barrage of blue blaster fire came towards him. He tried to block, but he had no time. A shot hit his mechanical arm, and his saber went careening across the patio. He ducked, and moved as quickly as he could to evade blaster fire, and used his left hand to pick up his lightsaber, turning it on again.

There were too many. Why were they attacking him?

Suddenly he remembered a clone with the look of terror in his eyes, clawing at his cloak, with a tattoo of a number 5 on his temple.

Fives was right.

They had inhibitor chips. All of them.

Rex.

From across the battalion, two beams of green light flashed in and out between clones. Two figures, back to back, made their way through the crowd. One figure stood much shorter than the other, and they had this white and blue thing on their head. The other figure was exactly the same height as all the other clones, and wore similar armor to them, but it was blue, with familiar Jaig eyes printed across the forehead of the helmet.

The leader of the 501st, captain Rex, and his padawan learner, Ahsoka Tano.

Anakin's heart soared to see his friends again for the first time in several months. Tears collected in his eyes, and he gained the strength to fight back.

"Master," called a familiar voice from the other side of the battle.

"Ahsoka," Anakin cried out, trying to find the source of the voice. "Where are you?"

"Over here, master!" She put up her short lightsaber into the air. Anakin still couldn't see her, and got so frustrated, he could feel the force pulling on his hands. He pushed his arms out, and suddenly all the clones in front of him were on the ground. He pushed so hard that they were all knocked unconscious, and they didn't get back up.

Shocked, Anakin took a deep breath and tried again, pushing the clones away from in front of him, revealing Ahsoka and Rex, fighting  back to back, Ahsoka with one saber in the air. He rushed to join them before the clones made up for the hole in their circle. It felt unnatural to be killing all these clones, the brothers of his friends, but if he hadn't killed them, he wouldn't survive. The final clone hit the ground with a thud.

Before Anakin even had a chance to breathe, Ahsoka pounced on him like a cat, hugging him close. Instinctively, his arms wrapped around her, hugging this girl who was basically his daughter close to himself.

"Why are you here," he whispered.

"I had to see you. I heard about... You... From Obi Wan."

"What?" Anakin felt slightly betrayed. "He told you?"

"He wanted me to watch you, to make sure you didn't do anything rash."

Anakin took a deep breath. "Of course. I'm glad you're here."  He hugged her tight one more time, before standing straight up once again.

"Fives was right," grimaced Rex. "There really was an inhibitor chip. I took mine out after I left the 501st."

"Yes, and he was right about the chancellor as well. He's the Sith Lord."

Ahsoka steamed. "I knew that politician was no good!"

"There's no time for that, we have to warn the survivors. Maybe all of us don't have to die."

"Master, the temple is on fire."

Anakin felt like he was going to throw up. Why was this all happening, why couldn't he stop it?

Obi Wan. He had to get a hold of him. Anakin rifled through his pockets looking for his comlink. Just a small device, no bigger than his finger, but so much held on the line.

"Master," he huffed, "master, are you there?"

It was quiet.

Frustration rose up in him like the tide, and a wave of anger rushed over him. He raised his hand to throw.

Beep beep.

"Anakin? I'm fine, but my clones turned on me. Anakin what is going on?"

"You were right master, I shouldn't have trusted the chancellor. He's the Sith Lord. He's told all the clones to turn on us."

"Anakin, I want you to hide. I'll be on my way back to Coruscant to pick you us as soon as I can."

Anakin turned to Ahsoka, and looked at her one last time, before leading them into temple's catacombs.

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Story Thanks to Emmaisdafawesomeboss