Life Of War

Chapter 95

"Execute Order 66."

"Yes, Lord Sidious." Rex agreed with a sturdy nod.

"Rex. It's Anakin. I feel like something terrible has happened." Ahsoka started, rushing over as the doors opened to show Rex again. He hand shook, dropping his helmet to the ground.

"Rex?" I questioned carefully, moving in front of Ahsoka while the troopers around us aimed their blasters towards us both.

"No! I'll do it." Rex stated to his men, turning around darkly.

"Rex, what's happening?" I worried more, seeing tears on his face as he stared at me, the vision from my past haunting me. I took a step closer with caution trying to figure out what was wrong with him.

"Stay back!" He shouted, pulling his blasters at us. I slightly raised my hands, tears pooling in my own eyes.

"Rex, this isn't you" I tried to get through to him. Looking into his deep golden eyes, they seemed to have been darkened.

"Find him. Find him. Fives. Find him! Fives!" He shook more violently while giving us orders. My eyes widened at the realization that this was all true, but before we could act on anything he started shooting at us.

"Lyra!" Ahsoka snapped me out of it, both of us dodging the attacks and running towards the clone. I kicked his head back onto the table, knocking him out temporarily while Ahsoka gave us cover by deflecting the bolts. I used the force to close the set of doors in front of us to stop the clones from shooting just as Rex got back up.

"Rex!" I tried again, but he aimed his blaster again and the back door opened with more blaster fire going off. I started to help deflect the blasts with Ahsoka. Taking a hit to the arm from Rex, we both knew we were outnumbered and needed to escape. In a flurry of dust Ashoka had cut a hole above us and we both jumped into the vents.

"She's down. She's down."

"Hold your fire! We got her!" They shouted, moving to see that we had escaped in the vents.

"Sir, are you all right?" One trooper asked Rex.

"Fine, just tired is all." Rex claimed as he touched the side of his head gently. "I want you to go to the detention level. Execute Maul."  Rex put his helmet back on, taking away all that made him unique.

"Yes, sir. All right, men." A few men ran out.

"All right. We know Lyra Jayko and Ahsoka Tano are on board. They've  been marked for termination by Order 66. Under this directive, any and all Jedi leadership must be executed for treason against the Republic. Any soldier that does not comply with the order will also be executed for treason. Understood?" Rex gave his men their orders.

"Yes, sir!"

"There are only so many places to hide on this ship. Gather up search parties. We'll fan out and move section by section. Come on. Let's get moving." Everyone ran out at Rex's final orders.

"Lyra, look at me. I need you at your full attention or we won't make it out of here" Ahsoka sternly reminded me as we sat in the vents hiding. I was curled up into myself, lost in my thoughts as tears spilled from my eyes suddenly. "Hey, hey, Ly" she pulled me in for a hug. "I know this is hard for you, it's hard for me too, but I have an idea" I began wiping the tears from my cheeks sadly, agreeing to listen to her plan with all hope lost.

"What's the plan?" I managed to choke out the words.

"I'm going to release Maul as a distraction before we both go for you to find what Rex was talking about because you seemed to know more about that than I do" she explained to me. I nodded silently in a promise to help her.