When Stars Align

Chapter 10 - Order 66

Author's Note: I would put a warning, but the chapter title says it all. :)

~ Amina Gila

Walking to the bridge of the Star Destroyer alongside Rex feels right. Perfect. Home. It feels like he belongs here.

That doesn't stop the wary uncertainty burning inside him. Something is wrong.

He was hoping to talk to his master again. Never got the chance. Obi-Wan was off with Palpatine when Anakin's call came in. There's a stupid, childish part of him that wants to hit redial on repeat until he finally gets through to his master, because he needs to talk to Obi-Wan again. Doesn't want to wait. They can't afford to. Something's happening, and he desperately needs reassurance that his master is fine.

"He will allow Sidious to kill you, the same way he allowed your friends to die."

"He would never do that. He never has."

Fives.

"Something on your mind, kid?" Rex asks gently as they watch the ship streak into hyperspace, Maul safely secured aboard.

"I need to know what happened to Fives," Anakin says, "I think it's important somehow."

"To tell the truth, sir, it's not something any of us understand," Rex confesses, "But he went on an... unauthorized investigation. He claimed the inhibitor chips put in us had another purpose, one we didn't understand, but he lost his mind after removing his own."

Anakin winces. "And they – from there..."

"He tried to assassinate the Chancellor," Rex continues. "I don't understand why. The Coruscanti Guard tracked him down and shot him before he could finish explaining whatever his findings were to the General and I."

"Maul told me that Sidious... is trying to turn my master," Anakin admits, staring out the viewport in front of him. He can't look at Rex for this. "I'm afraid he might be right. And... I think it might involve the Chancellor. Maybe."

"I don't know what to say," Rex confesses, "We've never seen anything off about him, but politicians are..."

"Elusive?" Anakin supplies, "Generally unpleasant? Yes."

He throws a side glance at Rex, sighing softly. "When I came back, I honestly thought it would be easier. Better somehow. That... I don't know why I never realized how things went."

"It was nothing you could've helped, kid," Rex promises, "It would've been... easier if you were there after it happened, but it wouldn't have changed it." He believes that, too, and Anakin doesn't, but hearing it still makes him feel a little better. Marginally.

The door behind them opens, and someone tells Rex the next briefing is in. Not something Anakin needs to see, hopefully. Right now, he just... wants to be alone, which sounds ridiculous, considering he has been for seven months, but still.

Anakin is still there, watching out the viewport when he senses it.

It's a quiet whisper at first, rapidly growing and spiraling into something more. The words are indistinct, but he hears his master's "You can't kill him; it's not the Jedi way," and something – something else. It's happening, now, whatever it is – just like Maul warned.

There's a rapidly spreading darkness, something he can't understand, but it's hammering in his mind and ripping across the galaxy. Light and Dark will always exist as one, but now, it's like – like something's dying, and the Force is mourning, though it feels peaceful – like this was somehow always destined to happen.