Chapter Text
His comm chirped as he walked his rounds, and Commander Cards pulled it out with a nod. He was deep in the Temple, far from most of his brothers and the Jedi. This far in was the Rooms of Healing, the Archives, Meditation room and- his personal favorite- the gardens. These spaces didn’t technically need his patrolling, but he liked it here. It was quiet, away from the wild hub of the Temple and the War. In his HUD, his men were talking about an unscheduled approaching troop, decked in blue paint. He’d have to turn around soon to greet them, once he handled whoever had comm’d him.
The hologram of the Chancellor flickered into view, a rare and unwanted treat. He’d heard Fox and the other Corries talk about him, and the strange hours and orders he kept. “Sir.”
“Execute Order 66.” He intoned, and his head went fuzzy.
That was… bad. That was bad. His head shouldn’t be fuzzy like this, clouded. Beq always said it was bad for his concentration, like having too many stims, the crash was almost as lethal as what you were stimming up to avoid. He’d have to go to the gardens, once he finished up with the Chancellors order. What was it again?
Why was it so noisy? The Temple was never noisy like this, except the training rooms, with the younglings and their little blaster droid.
Movement. He raised his blaster, why was his blaster out? and fired two shots in quick succession.
His mind came back to him in a screaming, screeching twist, a high speed hover car crash in his skull. Clarity exploded through him as the tiny, lifeless body dropped.
It was Hy.
It was little Hysio’ja’ah.
The one who his brothers, his siblings, natborns called them siblings, called Hissy Hy.
He’d shot Hy.
Commander Cards dropped to his knees in disbelief. He’d, he’d had orders. The Jedi, the Jedi had betrayed them. That’s what the Chancellor had said. But Hy was a youngling, he was no more a Jedi than a tubie was a Trooper!
No. No!
Little Hy, who hid behind his Kama when the younglings hunted each other through the halls. Hy, who came to him when the rare storms scared him, demanded that he come with him to the rest of the trembling younglings and tell Kaminoan stories about songs and storms and the Aiwha that flew through the waves and the sky.
Tiny little Hysio’ja’ah, who had watched his siblings getting ready for their Ilum trip and whispered to Cards how he didn’t know if he would be ready, ever be ready, for that trial.
Now he would never get to know.
“Wait.” His voice cracked behind his vocorder and Cards threw off his bucket, the HUD suddenly silent but the sounds of blaster fire and lightsabers all too loud.
“Wait!” Where was Kelleran? Where was the crechemaster? How had he let him do this?
“Wait! I didn’t-!” Something in him shattered, the fog fully leaving him, reality smashing in to fill the void.
“I couldn’t-!” He’d been massacring as he went, whole rooms of meditating Jedi and their Padawans, Rooms of Healing now covered in blaster marks and empty bodies.
“Hy!” He’d walked right through his gardens without a second thought, trampling his favorite flowers and kicking over benches. Hunting younglings in the hiding spots he knew they loved best.
“No! I-!” His hysteria was cut short, tears running freely down his face, on his knees but daring not to touch the tiny Farghulian body, as a green saber erupted through his chest plate. Green. He gurgled. Green, like Jedi Master Kelleran Beq carried.
Kelleran had stopped him, without a thought, the Jedi Master was here to stop him and save the younglings. He’d been hunting younglings. What kind of man did that?
He remembered the order, from the Chancellor, and hoped that Kelleran had the foresight to grab his holo device and scan it. See that he wasn’t doing this on purpose. He would never…
Hy, little Hy, had come to him for safety, as he always did, and he died for it.
Cards was once again grateful to his brother in arms, for stopping him when no one else could.