Chapter Text
Rex was skeptical of this plan. That would be an understatement, now that he thought about it. The correct words would be: he did not think this was going to go well.
The plan itself was sound and nothing out of the norm: fake surrender until you are in enemy territory, then spring a trap on the suckers and claim victory. But the plan had an unaccounted for variable: Artanken.
During the sweep of the facility he had taken out a fair share of droids, true. But those were some lazy swipes to slice them up as they ambushed any patrols coming by, not an actual pitched fight of any kind. So he could still be a threat to them; maybe he slipped away while Rex and Fives walked right into the next patrol of battle-droids that were accompanied by a pair of super battle-droids definitely there as a precaution.
As they were escorted through the factory, Rex made sure to keep track when they reached the other side of the factory that was split off from the open area by a wall and they ascended to the second floor via a turbolift before being led down a bunch of winding hallways that were also packed with droids.
‘The Presidente is a paranoid one, isn’t she,’ he thought as they took a right, the droids tugging on the cuffs around his wrists making Rex lose his footing once or twice.
“You sure this is going to work, Captain?” Fives asked in a whisper beside him, prompting one of their guards to turn its head back and tell them in a whiny voice:
“Quiet, Republic dogs!” before turning back and continuing to guide them to their mistress. Rex made a few hand signs to avoid the droids rounding on them again that, while not translating well into casual speech, was enough to convey the message.
“Affirmative. Wait for my signal.”
And as if on cue, they took a left and were in front of the last set of doors. One of the guards broke off and inputted an access code that went through, prompting the set of blast doors to open up, the pair of clones being pushed in quickly before the doors shut once more.
The room looked, for lack of a better word, sterile. The walls were white, the furniture was white or light grey and the room was so well illuminated that it brought back some memories from Rex’s, and no doubt Fives’, time on Kamino.
Bad memories, of course. Kamino had not been made to create good memories, that rang especially true for clones.
Shaking away the brief trip to the past, Rex located General Koon fast enough - how couldn’t he, when the Kel Dori was presented as an attraction to gawk at? He was being held up by his hands and hovering above the ground, pretty identical to what General Kenobi told Hondo had done to them.
“Skywalker sent two of his loyal little clones? I suppose I should feel honored.” came from off to the side and indeed, the Presidente was there, mocking them.
She walked to the middle of the room and activated the holoprojector, where General Skywalker was the only one there while Commander Tano and Vette were out of view, doubtless doing something to get out of whatever trap had been sprung on them.
“I see Rex and Fives have reached you. So now you will uphold our deal?” he asked, though the answer was expected:
“‘Deal’? I’m sorry General, but I have no recollection of any ‘deal’ we have struck. Perhaps you should have told me you didn’t send your men as a gift.”
“You said-”
“I said your Jedi friend would be safe. Never did I say it included a prisoner transfer.” she replied with a smug grin and Rex had to hand it to his General, the man was excellent at acting like he wanted to strangle the Gossam.
Or maybe it wasn’t fully acting. Who could really tell?
“Your Excellency, usually those kinds of procedures don’t need to be spelt out. You said Master Plo would be safe in exchange for my men giving themselves over to you. That usually implies prisoner transfer.”
“Well, Skywalker,” Shu Mai sneered at him. “I am a banker first, a soldier second if you are not aware. We don’t work under ‘implications.’”
As the two continued to exchange words and getting more heated as time went on, Rex saw the perfect opportunity after the Presidente called his general ‘a sniveling pup of the Republic’ and stepped forward, a droid behind him reaching for him but it was too late.
“Listen here lady, you have no right-” Rex half acted his indignation at her when she slapped him for speaking up.
The hit was nothing compared to what he had experienced on Kamino but he still fell to the ground as if he was a cadet straight out of the Tubes being hit by an instructor for questioning an order.
“Sir? Are you alright sir?” Fives asked as he crouched down next to Rex, conveniently blocking the sight of Shu Mai and the droids.
“Up, clone,” one of the super battle-droids ordered and dragged Rex up, but not before he was able to slip a small EMP charge to the commando, who hid it in a fist.
“Roger roger." Rex echoed the droids’ phrase back to them as he got to his feet, seeing Skywalker look at him in concern that was only half fake.
“You good, trooper?” he asked and Rex nodded, saying: “Oh yeah, I’m fine, General. A misstep, nothing else.”
“Is this the best the Republic has to offer? How the Count hasn’t wiped you out, I have no idea.” The Gossam remarked, sounding genuinely disappointed at the clones’ ‘poor performance’
‘Oh lady, you have no idea,’ Rex thought as he saw Fives looking over at General Plo, now looking at the pair with a knowing look and nodding towards them.
Fives was precise with the throw as the charge landed right in front of the force field before letting out a pulse of electricity, rendering the technology useless.
Before Rex could think whether the Sith had left them high and dry, he heard the telltale hiss sound snap to reality behind him as the two super battle-droids behind him each had a red blade sticking out of them.
The clones themselves reached to the clankers beside them and hooked their cuffs around their heads, simultaneously making them pop out and taking their blasters.
General Plo and Shu Mai took cover behind the contraption of the force field and the holoprojector while Artanken, Rex and Fives continued taking out the droids; the Sith Lord making quick work of the super battle-droids headed his way while Rex and Fives ran to the hallway, opening fire on the guarding droids and making sure their rear was secure.
Before long, the familiar sounds of droidekas rolling down the hallway became apparent before they popped up, activated those annoying deflector shields of theirs and immediately opened fire on them.
Before the troopers could be turned into target practice, Rex felt himself fly up against the ceiling, the ARC trooper quick to accompany him. Artanken exited from the room behind them, keeping one hand up while the other was deflecting the shots with one of his lightsabers.
He kept deflecting the droidekas’ bolts back towards them but as expected, they weren’t going through the shields and slowly but surely, the man was being pushed back.
“You aren’t going to beat them this way, Sith.” General Plo’s voice rumbled as he made to stand next to him, brandishing not his usual blue lightsaber but instead one of Artanken’s and stabilizing the line.
“I didn’t notice, Master Jedi. Got any other illuminating bits of wisdom?” the man asked, his modulator not hiding the snark coming from him. General Plo ignored it however, opting to talk to Rex instead who already knew what he would be asking for:
“Captain, do you have any-”
“Never go to a battle without more than one of these puppies,” he interrupted as he dropped two more EMP charges hidden in his vambraces.
The Kel Dori nodded in thanks as he caught them before tossing them the droidekas’ way, bouncing off of their shields and rolling a little bit away but not out of radius, disabling the shield generators.
The next shots that were deflected were received this time and blasted through the rollies, finally ending the brief but nonetheless intense fight.
“You can let go-” before the general could even finish the sentence, Rex fell to the ground with a thud, grateful for his armor taking the brunt of the fall.
“Ugh…yeah, just drop us like a sack of potatoes, that works as well.” Fives groaned from beside him before getting up. “Where’s the Presidente?” Rex asked and went back into the room to see the Separatist out cold.
“My my. I did not think the Jedi would resort to violence first thing. Isn’t it against your Code?” the Darth mocked Plo, the modulator making it sound even more demeaning.
“I did not harm her, Sith. I simply suggested that she should rest.” the Jedi Master retorted, causing Rex to feel a shudder go through him as he was reminded, yet again, of these space wizards’ magic.
“Right well, that’s two objectives completed. Didn’t the Jedi want her captured as well?” Rex asked, receiving a nod as confirmation.
“Yes. But I doubt we will be able to carry the Presidente around without attracting attention.”
“Luckily for us, our friend here has a nifty little trick that will help us get right past the clank-”
A boom cut off Fives, reverberating throughout the whole facility, followed by the alarms started blaring across the whole building and the voice of a tactical droid echoed in the walls:
“Intruders, intruders. All units converge on section eighteen-Y of sector seven.”
“The trick will have to wait,” the Darth replied, picking the prisoner up and handing her over to Fives, who had to drop his rifle that he had been reaching for in order to catch her.
Rex picked the rifle up and slung it back over Fives’ shoulder, taking out his own twin blasters as the sounds of lightsabers deflecting blaster shots could be heard down below.
“Looks like Skywalker’s party has gotten out.” General Plo remarked before noticing his lightsaber on Shu Mai’s hip and taking it back. Then, a fwoop and Artanken’s other lightsaber flew back into his hand. “So let’s go.”
But as they turned to head down, they came under a barrage of blaster fire as the droids had reached their position and they took cover.
“Blast ‘em!” one of the droids up front reiterated to its comrades as they marched forward, undeterred by Rex’s returning fire. Seeing that it wasn’t working, the captain shot the console next to the doors, buying them some time.
“Did anyone memorize the layout at all?”
Artanken’s question made Rex’s mind whir into overdrive, trying to recreate the mental place he had made on the way here. “That wall! It should be overlooking the assembly area of the factory,” he remembered.
That was followed by the Sith running to the other side of the room and jamming his two lightsabers into it, quickly carving out a hole wide enough for everyone to jump through.
General Plo used the Force to push the carved-out wall out and was the first to jump through onto the catwalk nearby, followed by Fives, Artanken and lastly Rex, just in the nick of time as well as the doors burst open.
Anakin, Ahsoka and Vette were in a pickle, as the saying goes.
It turned out, the hallway they had walked through before being trapped was also a trap of its own - once Vette and Ahsoka had found a place near the door to put a small-yield explosive into to short-circuit the door and it exploded, damn near immediately the alarms started blaring.
Before they could even make their way through the hallway as the ray shield was deactivated and the blast doors opened, the walls retracted, revealing kriffing reactivated commando droids in them.
Of course. It had to be the goddamn commando droids.
“Take cover!” Anakin yelled over his shoulder, to Vette mostly as he and Ahsoka got into melee with them, the ones further down opening fire.
The Twi’lek provided covering fire and even downed a couple of them despite their limberness. Anakin cut through two commando droids in quick succession before getting pushed back against Ahsoka who was also engaged with one of the spindly pricks, constricting their movement.
Back to back with his Padawan, Anakin let her know of what to do and, with synergy that would make any other Master-Padawan pairing to shame, Anakin turned himself around and attacked low, cutting off the commando droid’s legs while Ahsoka jumped over him, twisting mid-air and landing right on top of the other droid, cleaving its head right off.
They couldn’t celebrate for long, however, as the last three droids ran towards them, jumping against and off of walls and the ceiling to avoid Vette’s blaster fire.
Anakin held two of the advancing droids in place with the Force, letting Vette take them out with a shot to the body and head each. The last one faltered at seeing its fellow brethren in pieces and made to run, but was cut down by Ahsoka’s lightsaber that she threw at him before calling it back into her hand.
“I know, I know,” she began before Anakin could start scolding her “don’t throw my lightsaber away from me. But it was running away! And besides, I have two now.”
“The minute we get back to the 501st, we’re going to have a talk about this. Again.”
“That’s great, sounds riveting. Can we move now?” Vette snapped, gesturing for them to get the hell out of the hallway. Anakin was inclined to agree.
But they had run out of time- the assembling area was already filled with squads of battle-droids and they were already heading their way, meeting the group halfway up the stairs.
“Look, Jed- AAGH!” the droid was cut off as Anakin sliced right through it and kept going despite the neverending supply of them.
When they finally reached the top, there were too many to push through so Anakin decided to create a bottleneck at the entrance downstairs.
The tactic was a double-edged sword in this instance: on the one hand, the droids were getting cut down in droves. On the other hand, this strategy was used with the intent to eventually receive reinforcements and Anakin had no idea whether his half-baked plan had succeeded at all.
As minutes dragged on, Anakin could feel his muscles burning with exertion and himself breathing a little heavier after each swing of the lightsaber. Ahsoka’s state wasn’t looking better, as she was close to collapse.
However, the universe had decided that it liked Skywalker just this once as he heard the sounds of a lightsaber cutting through droids at breakneck speeds heading their way, accompanied by blaster shots.
With one final push, Anakin and Ahsoka left the bottleneck they had created and linked up with Rex, Fives and Plo Koon, clearing the corridor.
“We do not have much time. The Sith is holding the others off at the wake of the stairway.”
Anakin nodded before noticing the Gossam slung over Fives’ shoulder, glad that things had gone even better than expected.
“Is that the Presidente? Nice job, boys!” Ahsoka praised them, who merely nodded in acknowledgement at their Commander as they started sprinting towards where the last member of their party was posted.
By the time they got there, Artanken was still holding the droids at bay but his swings were getting more sluggish as instead of merely blocking the bolts back at them, he was jumping right into them and then disengaging back to the entrance once he was pushed back.
Anakin thought it a wasteful tactic as it just tired him out and didn’t work on the droids as they were easily replaceable by the ones at the back.
“Get through them! We’re right behind you!” Anakin ordered and to his shock, the Sith obeyed as he pushed out of the stairway once more, this time backed up by Plo, Anakin and Ahsoka who kept the corridor open.
Vette and Rex were right on Artanken’s heels, their blasters ineffective at the moment as they were avoiding being swarmed while the Sith Lord cut through the droids with a ferocity even Anakin knew he couldn’t match.
“Shit!” the Twi’lek growled in pain as she gripped her shoulder and holstered her left blaster, though kept moving, taking some pot shots at the sniper droids on top of their towers as they finally got through the assembly area.
Rex noticed where she was taking aim and shot at the other guards, taking out three of them with his blasters before shouting to the others:
“We gotta get out of here, sir! Do we go over the wall again?” he asked his General who also managed to get through with the other Jedi, the battle-droids trailing slowly after them.
“I guess so, captain! Everybody, follow me!”
Fives was up front as he was the one without a weapon, followed by Vette who had, now that Anakin got a brief look at her, been hit with a blaster bolt. Next went Master Plo, who used the Force to get the two on the wall before they jumped off on the other side, leaving Shu Mai’s up top so the Kel Dor could grab her and lower her without damaging her when he got over.
Anakin was always amazed at the clones for quickly adapting to their generals’ ‘Force wizardry’, despite having witnessed and seen their brilliance at work for nearly two years now.
Rex and Ahsoka were next, the Padawan deflecting the bolts coming for her captain and hopping up and then back down on the other side, leaving Anakin and Artanken to make a fighting retreat.
Anakin was not turning his back on the Sith to trust him not to let any shots hit him or stab him himself and he knew the feeling was mutual, so they slowly backed up towards the wall they had climbed over before.
Making a leap of faith and hoping he wouldn’t be filled with plasma, Anakin used the Force to leap over the wall, followed closely by the Sith before they made a run for it with the others who were waiting for them.
***
It took about an hour and a half to make it back to their HQ, during which nobody said anything.
It was barely 9 in the morning and the adrenaline had worn off. All Anakin wanted to do was crawl into his bed and have a nap for the next, hmm…18 hours.
It wasn’t the rescue mission that had worn him down - those were too common when your name was Anakin Skywalker - but it was having to combat Artanken’s darkness at the same time. Now that he had been up close with the man, the Jedi was surprised he hadn’t felt such a presence in the Force earlier. It was potent in the dark side, like a maelstrom or whirlwind of hatred and rage was wrapped tightly around the man.
But it felt like a front of sorts, or like the tiniest of glimpses through a crack in the door; you see what the holder wants you to see but the true contests are tucked safely behind the rest of the door. Vette was much the same, save for a grimace and holding her shoulder as they made their way back to the battalion.
“You should let Kix take a look at that, Vette.” Anakin offered her before quickly being rebuffed by the Sith.
“We have enough kolto on our ship to patch you up.”
“Actually we don’t. Remember, we were supposed to restock with Darth Marr’s fleet.” Vette responded, causing the Jedi to stiffen up at the mention of another Sith. And one with a fleet?
Anakin was now seriously considering whether the duo were experiencing some kind of shared mania or the Jedi had done a very bad job at their extermination of the Sith Order.
Or maybe he was going crazy and these last 48 hours have been an exercise in madness since they were actually able to capture Shu Mai without (major) complications with the aid of a Sith. Nothing was out of bounds at this point.
“Didn’t we restock earlier?”
Vette shook her head at that. “Nah, the whole thing with Ziost made kolto unavailable to private vessels. Pierce was pretty furious at that.”
“I thought he was furious because Broonmark nearly pushed him out of the airlock again?”
“No that too probably.”
“Ziost? I’ve never heard of that planet in my entire life.” Ahsoka commented through their bond, throwing a side-eye towards Anakin for good measure.
“To be fair, it’s been a pretty short life you’ve had, Snips.” Anakin replied, earning a not-so-subtle nudge to the gut by her.
“And yet I’ve had time to die and be brought back to life on a weird-ass planet inhabited by some avatars of the Force.”
Mention of Mortis made Anakin’s eyes glance downwards for a brief second, a second which Ahsoka unfortunately noticed as she was now emanating worry instead of the amusement from before.
He still struggled with feelings of guilt and anger at the memory of his Padawan dying with but a simple tap on the forehead and not being able to stop it. It made Anakin feel helpless. Just as helpless as the weeks of visions ignored by Obi-Wan and the Jedi prophesying his mother’s-
“Alright, I’ll take you up on your offer then o’ esteemed general.” Vette said, drawing Anakin away from his thoughts and making him realize that he had tuned out the entire conversation.
“Let Triage handle it. If he can keep Wolffe alive then he can keep anyone alive,” Rex told the Twi’lek before realizing that Wolffe’s Jedi was there as well, quickly adding to Plo Koon “no offense to the man, sir.”
“No I agree. Wolffe can be…eccentric at times, leading to injuries that could be avoided and yet never are.” Master Plo tells Rex, drawing a chuckle from the two clones in this party.
“You could say that again, sir. C’mon, let me show you to him.”
While the others headed towards the 104th’s miracle medic, the Jedi went to the two-story house to deliver their reports which they advanced the Council in advance for. As the projector flickered to life the faces of Obi-Wan, Windu and Yoda came to life, standing in await of their call.
“General Skywalker, General Plo, Commander Tano.” Windu acknowledged the lot of them in the room.
“How is the advance progressing on Minntooine? Recent reports have indicated a stalemate has been reached.”
“Well, nothing has changed on that front. The 501st and Master Plo’s detachment are giving it their best but we need reinforcements pronto.” Anakin responded.
“Unsurprising, this is. Increase in droid production by the Separatists, reports indicate.” Yoda chimed in, his voice weary with exhaustion.
Anakin couldn’t help but feel bad for the Grandmaster of the Order - centuries of peace that he had overseen, broken with a galactic war the likes of which the Republic has seen in over a thousand years, with his former apprentice spearheading the enemy and himself having to lead soldiers in the later years of his life.
“The 212th has driven Grievous off of Daro and I have lost Dooku’s trail, so I am disengaging and can offer some support.” Obi-Wan offered, disappointment in his voice quite evident.
“The offer is much appreciated, but unnecessary my friend; Master Unduli is to swap out Skywalker and me and take overall command. But we may need extra hands since we are transporting a prisoner of war.” Plo Koon replied, drawing curious gazes from his fellow Council members.
“I take it you have captured the Presidente then?” Windu guessed, “Got it in one, Master.” Anakin replied.
“That is some excellent news! I shall meet with your fleet at once then and help escort her.” Obi-Wan said, the faintest bits of contentment emanating from his tone. Cautious optimism, something that should have been dead in the first days of the war, yet it was what could be felt off of Anakin’s former Master.
“That’s great to hear, Master.” Ahsoka replied with a smile wider than what Anakin had seen in weeks on this offensive.
“We also have some more developments that the Council would need to hear.” Plo Koon changed the subject, earning a slight frown from Anakin as he knew where this was going.
“Your choice of words leads me to believe that the Separatists haven’t collectively decided to surrender and end this horrid war?” Obi-Wan asked which was met with a solemn shake of the head.
“I am afraid not. We have encountered a practitioner of the dark side, possibly even a Sith. And there are indications of a second one that has gone under our radar.”
The news was received very negatively by the members of the Council - at least, in a way that Anakin had interpreted to be decidedly not pleased. Being Anakin Skywalker and the Master of Ahsoka Tano tended to make you perceptive to the Council being disappointed with something, most of the time himself or his Padawan.
Mace Windu’s already stoic face hardened even more with the slightest of scowls forming, Yoda’s ears drooped even lower with his eyes closing and Obi-Wan’s hand that had been stroking his beard moved to hide the frown that was already fast approaching.
“Oh this just gets better and better, doesn’t it.” Mace commented, his deadpan response catching Anakin and Ahsoka off-guard while Yoda questioned them, “Sure of this, you are?”
“Positive, Master Yoda. We met him and his friend, a Twi’lek woman going by the name Vette. They kidnapped Rex and his scouting party a few days ago,” Ahsoka replied, falling into an explanation of what had happened since she had been there during the negotiations and the rescue mission, with Plo Koon filling out details from his own perspective.
“And they are now leaving the 501st?” Obi-Wan asked, much less disturbed now that he had heard how they had aided in Plo’s rescue, “As per our agreement, after we are done here I am ordering the men to refuel their ship.”
“A shame. I think it would be in the Republic’s best interests to keep an eye on these two.” Master Windu commented, earning a disapproving look from Yoda that Anakin knew he would use on Masters and Younglings alike.
“Unnecessary, this is. Involved in this war on the Separatists’ side, they seem not. Respect their neutrality, we shall.”
Neither of the other members of the Council spoke on Windu’s behalf and respected Master Yoda’s decree, making Anakin smile on the inside as Windu looked chagrined.
“You mentioned another one, Master Plo. Could you elaborate?”
“Artanken and Vette mentioned somebody by the name of ‘Darth Marr’ and how they were supposed to meet his fleet to restock on kolto.” Plo Koon answered, which drew a grumble from Yoda.
“A fleet led by a Darth, unheard of to my knowledge is.”
“What if the galaxy hates us and decided to gift-wrap Dooku a new apprentice?” Anakin interjected, trying to bring some levity to a potential disaster on their hands.
No matter how powerful a Force-sensitive may or may not be, they can cause incredible damage against the clones and this one sounded like a powerful one.
“That is such a negative outlook on things, Master.” Ahsoka commented while Obi-Wan hummed before speaking, his tone resolute at the next course of action:
“Whoever these people are, they have to be in some sort of database. You said they had some kind of trouble with the Republic? Then I should be able to look them up on the Republic’s criminal records.”
“That is a wise course of action, Master Kenobi.” Plo Koon commented, earning nods of approval from all around.
With a few more closing remarks, the meeting ended and everybody set off to their own respective tasks for the day preparing for their flight back to Coruscant in a few days.