in my dreams anakin's rage was bleeding his kyber from the moment he lit it in the temple slaughter younglings in cold blood. in my dreams he had to replace his lightsaber after geonosis because no kyber tied to the light comes out of such atrocities as the tusken massacre unscathed. in my dreams by the time he ignites it on mustafar there are veins of purple and red in what was once as pure blue as his eyes, as the skies he is named for. in my dreams by the time he jumps from that rock in the lava and does the stupid flip that costs him his remaining three limbs it is with a lightsaber red as the blood that bubbles where obi wan simultaneously cuts and cauterises his wounds.
Shameless plug for my Clone Wars/RotS Fix-It Fic: Part 17
As soon as Fives and Artoo were in the operating room, Tano tinted the observation windows and took charge again. "Okay. Last we knew, Rex left you and Tup on Kamino. Start from there, get us to now."
The entire room turned to Fives, waiting and expectant. Now he could explain the whole story without having to try and distill it down to the most essential pieces. There was something relieving about having an audience willing to just... listen.
"The Kaminoans' first assumption was that Tup got some virus from the Separatists," he remembered, his voice wavering slightly at the mention of Tup's name. "Thought I got it too, and they quarantined me while they were testing him. I don't know what they were doing but it didn't look fun. Test came back negative. Dead end.
"Probably would have tried a few other things, but then Tup woke up and started going off the rails again, except this time at Master Shaak Ti. He-"
"She wasn't even at Ringo Vinda. Why would he have anything against her?" Tent asked. "She's been on Kamino since the war started, he should know better!"
"Yes! Well, he should know better regardless," Fives pointed out. "He shouldn't be attacking any Jedi, but not the point. Something was obviously wrong."
"No shit," Jesse muttered.
"They started debating what they should do, but I got a medical droid to do a level five scan on Tup."
"Woah, woah, woah, timeout," Kix interjected. "A level five atomic brain scan? Fives, that's not safe. Clone brains can destabilize under that kind of scan."
"Then why do you know about it? Why would the Kaminoans even tell you that it existed?"
He raised a hand and opened his mouth to answer, but it took a second for the words to come out. It was... weird. Not weirder than usual, but weird. "So we know not to do it? It's a widespread medical procedure, if we ever saw a civie doctor, we'd need to make sure they don't do it to us by accident."
"One, we all know damn well that clones don't see civie doctors," Tent argued. "Two, why not tell all of us? I didn't know atomic brain scans had levels until just now, much less that level five is dangerous. If it were that important, shouldn't it be in our reg manual or something?"
"Not that you would know," Vaughn muttered. "You've never opened that thing a day in your life."
"None of us have."
"I have."
"Doesn't matter," Fives said, trying to bring the room back on topic. "We did the scan and found a 'tumor.' I got the droid to remove it, but he... he didn't survive."
That part, they had all heard. Kix really didn't want to say what he was thinking, but he knew what he had been told in training. "Fives-"
"It wasn't the scan," he insisted. "I did the scan on myself, and I didn't die because of it. This wasn't the scan."
"You- you what?"
"Did the scan on myself. Not right away, though. They were going to wipe my memory, but I escaped and-"
"They were going to WHAT???"
That's when he REALLY lost the room. Even Tano and Skywalker couldn't let that pass without comment, and they were doing everything they could to stay quiet and let him talk. Tent might have punched one of the windows if Vaughn hadn't seen it coming and pulled him away before he got too close. As chaotic as it was, there was nothing as cathartic as seeing all of his friends lose their shit at the thought of his memory being erased.
"What the fuck?"
"Did Master Shaak know?" Skywalker asked, pointing out the door. "There's no way she'd agree to that!"
Ahsoka bit her tongue, wondering where exactly was the line of 'things members of the Jedi Council wouldn't agree to,' but she had enough sense to keep quiet and not make this about her trial. Keeping it to herself hurt, but she'd already been doing it for weeks. It was easier now.
"What did I say?" Tent growled, pacing around the room. "What have I been saying for months? They don't give a damn about us!"
"How did you get out?"
"I stole a pod, set it to autopilot so they'd follow it out to sea, flew back on a medical droid. That's not the point."
"It sounds like a point!"
"I stole this armor, scanned Tup's 'tumor' and it wasn't the same genetics as Jango Fett, so it definitely didn't come from him. Had to be implanted. That's when I had AZI-3 scan me. Same implant, same spot, same shit."
"Wait, the tumor?" Kix asked. "You have the same tumor Tup had?"
"It wasn't a tumor, it was a biochip," Fives corrected before pointing at his temple where a fresh scar reflected the harsh white light of the operating room. "And no, not anymore."
"But you DID have it?"
"Yes, and so did every clone embryo at Stage 3 or older."
Kix's eyes went wide, and everyone dropped silent again. Fives kept going: "Nala Se said it was to inhibit aggression or something, but that's bullshit. She was lying to hide the truth."
"How do you know?" Rex asked. He didn't doubt it, but it was worth asking.
"Master Shaak ordered that I needed to present all of this to the Chancellor. That's what I did earlier today."
Tano felt Skywalker tense and she nudged him gently with her elbow. They needed to hear all of this in its entirety.
"I was sedated for the trip over, felt a bit loopy when I woke up, but I got here and said the chips had to be part of some plan. I thought it was the Separatists, honestly. Figured Nala Se was saying the opposite of the truth. The Chancellor got the two of us alone in a room to talk, didn't want Master Shaak to hear anything.
"That's when he told me. The inhibitor chips have nothing to do with aggression. They're pre-programmed with orders that only he and the Senate can activate. When clones hear them, they have no choice but to carry out the orders. Tup's chip must have malfunctioned, and the order that activated was the one that kills Jedi."
Jesse did a double take. "The one that what?"
"That makes the clones kill Jedi," Fives repeated. "Palpatine is planning to use it to wipe out the Jedi Order. He wants to use us to do it."
"But that's bullshit," Tent argued. "The Jedi are the only people sticking up for us out here. Why would we-"
"WE WOULDN'T HAVE A CHOICE! It's mind control! Tup never wanted to kill General Tiplar, just like he never wanted to kill them!" He pointed at Tano and Skywalker, who were trying not to panic at the phrase 'wipe out the Jedi Order.' "The kid had it right from the beginning! It wasn't him!"
~
Link: Eleventh Hour - Chapter 1 - Sparkplug02 - Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types [Archive of Our Own]
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