Shadows of Tomorrow

Chapter 52 - Victory and Death

Author's Note: Yes, this is pretty similar-ish to canon. Also, get ready y'all! Some of the changes that have happened in the CW have led up to a pretty major divergence in the next chapter. If you don't know/can't figure out which changes those were next week, just ask. :)

And an fyi to y'all, there was a blink-and-you-miss-it mention of Ahsoka freeing Maul in the last chapter. :)

~ Amina Gila

There's a sudden movement from behind them, and they both turn around to see Rex slowly sitting up. He looks a little disoriented, but not like he's about to try killing them again.

"Rex?" Ahsoka is the first to find her voice, "Are you okay?"

Theseus decides not to comment that the clone is clearly very much not okay, but at least he's alright from the surgery.

"Yeah," he answers shakily, rubbing the side of his head, "Yeah, kid, I'm okay. I'm sorry for what happened earlier. I almost killed you both."

"It's alright. It wasn't your fault," Theseus replies, moving to stand next to him. The clones are already cutting through the door, so they're going to have to plan, but he needs a moment right now. He's pretty sure they all do.

"How widespread is this?" the Togruta queries after a moment.

"Ahsoka, it's all of us," Rex responds, "The entire Grand Army of the Republic has been ordered to hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights."

All of them?

Every single clone turned on their Jedi, all spread across the galaxy.

And that means.... No, he doesn't want to think about what this means. He can't, but –

He can feel it all again, in his mind, the Force crying out with pain and death all across the galaxy. With a sinking, every-mounting horror, he knows what it means. Maybe he knew all along but didn't want to consider the implications.

The Jedi are dead. All of them.

Or maybe not all of them, because if Theseus and Ahsoka were able to survive this far, there's no way they're the only ones, but most of the Jedi – especially if they were alone – would have been caught off guard too much to react fast enough.

Are Obi-Wan and Anakin – No, no. He can't let himself get distracted thinking about them right now.

It doesn't feel possible, or even real, how the entire Order could be gone. And what about the ones at the Temple? The clones would have caught them off-guard, but there's no way they would be able to kill everyone.

He feels like he's living in a horrible nightmare that he can't wake up out of.

"Maul said he thinks it's Sidious who did this," Ahsoka declares.

"Of course, it is," Theseus growls, "Did Maul know about this ahead of time?"

"I don't think so," she replies, "He seemed surprised and maybe a little impressed at the idea of Sidious turning the Jedi's own army against them." Impressed? Because apparently Theseus didn't have enough reasons to want to kill the Sith already.

"Where is he now?" Theseus demands, gaze darting to the door where the clones are half through cutting up the sides.

"Out there making chaos, but clearly not enough."

"I wasn't expecting him to escape," Rex sighs.

"He didn't escape, actually," Ahsoka corrects, "We let him out."