sparky // a padawan story

chapter 62. betrayal.

Boil hesitates, as if he's trying to fight something off, like something's... controlling him. Like he knows what he's about to do is the wrong thing, but he can't stop it. But the problem is, I don't know what he's doing. I can't prepare myself, and I can't help him. All I can tell... is something terrible is about to happen.
I feel a sudden pang in my heart. There's... death... loss... betrayal. I put my palm on my head and scrunch my eyes closed. It hurts. My head, my chest. Something terrible isn't about to happen... because it already has.
"...It will be done, my Lord," Boil forces out. He puts the com away and turns to me slowly.
"Boil, what's—?" I'm cut off by my men surrounding me and pulling their guns, pointing them at me.
"No! No. Leave her to me," Boil demands. The clones around us put their guns down slightly, but not completely away.
"Boil, tell me what the hell is happening!" He pulls out his gun and points it towards my heart. He's trembling. His helmetless faces looks at me helplessly, desperately, like a plea for help. He isn't himself. It's not him who's doing this. "Boil, please, this isn't you, snap out of it!"
"I'm sorry... but g-good soldiers... f-follow... orders... I can't—!" He cuts himself off in the middle of his sentence by firing his gun straight at me. I just manage to dodge out of the way of it as I pull out my lightsaber and start deflecting the other blasts coming my way. My vision begins to blur as tears threaten to spill from my eyes. My friends, my brothers-in-arms, just turned on me in the blink of an eye. What did I do? Is this happening to everyone? Is Obi-Wan okay? I cut up the guns of the clones closest to me right in their hands while I do my best to try to keep the deflected blasts away from both me and the men. One of them, however, hits a clone in the shoulder, causing him to drop his pistol. I pull it over to me with the Force as I escape through the gap in the circle where the clone used to stand. I glance down at him quickly just to be sure he's still breathing, and he is. I know I shouldn't be relieved by that right now, but I am. I can't bring myself to kill my troopers, even though they're very obviously not mine anymore.
I block blasts shot at me as I sprint behind a pile of crates and put my lightsaber down. I fiddle with the pistol frantically as I try to set it to stun as the clones creep towards me, still firing and about to corner me once again. I finally flip the right switch and peek out of cover as I point the gun and begin firing stuns at them, hitting them dead on nearly every time. I've never been more grateful for Cody's blaster lessons all those years ago.
As I stun one of the last troopers, Boil shoots at me and hits the pistol in my hand, knocking it out of my grasp and damaging it. I still have my lightsaber, but I'm not going to kill him. I hide behind the crates anxiously as he creeps closer. As he walks behind the crates and points his blaster to shoot at me, I quickly stand and kick it out of his hands, then take my lightsaber hilt and smack him in the right side of his still uncovered head with it as hard as I possibly can, knocking him out cold. I take a shaky breath and wipe my eyes as I put my saber back on my belt and consider what to do. I know I have men in the forest by the gunships, and men returning there from the Duke's palace. I can't take that risk, because they might be hunting me down, too. But that's where the ships are, and that's the only way I'm gonna be able to escape. Unless...
I turn and start to run towards the old shipyard. The ships there are bad quality and practically forgotten about, but at least it's something. The only problem is that it's quite a few ways away from the Spire. Things begin to click in my mind as I run.
We know that our enemy created this clone army for us. Count Dooku, Darth Tyranus. But he was one Sith Lord. And there are always two Sith, no more, no less. So this hooded person who gave Boil the orders to kill me... he must be the other Sith Lord we were looking for. This had to be their plan all along. To get our own army to turn on us. There's obviously something in the clones' programming that they put in there to get them to immediately obey these orders. But I have no idea what.
I turn into an alleyway to my left as a shortcut to the yard. I sprint past piles of trash and crates as I try to contact Obi-Wan once again. Still, all I hear is static. He's still alive, I can tell that much through the Force, but I can't sense where he is from so far away, let alone be able to communicate with him without passing out from exhaustion. The further I am, the harder it is for me to connect with him, and I need all of my stamina to make it out of here alive.
"There she is! Get her!" I suddenly hear a shout from behind me. I skid to a stop and look behind me to see a squad of troopers running towards me. I ignite my saber as they begin to shoot at me while I continue to run away from them down the alley. I can't lead them to the shipyard because they'll know I'm escaping, and I need to stay hidden. So I take a right into an even smaller passageway to divert them away from my true path. As I run, I notice that I'm nearing a dead end. I turn to run back out to the main alley, but it's too late. The clones continue to shoot at me as I back away. I'm cornered. There's no escape. As they draw closer, it gets more and more difficult to block their blasts, but I still refuse to deflect them straight back at them. I'm overwhelmed, and I almost give in, let them kill me. But just before I get the chance, someone fires at the clones from behind them, killing them and saving me. The fallen clones drop to the ground, revealing my savior.
He stands, blaster shaking in his hand, breathing heavily, eyes frantic and scared. Blood trickles down the side of his head where I had knocked him out with my lightsaber hilt. The hand holding the blaster drops to his side helplessly as he gives me an apologetic look.
"Boil?" I breathe out, completely shocked, but mixed with relief.
"Hey, kid," he shakily replies. "I'm... I'm so sorry, I... couldn't control it, it..." He points up to his head. "Something... made me do it, I don't know—"
A tear unwillingly slips out and streaks down my cheek, but I wipe it away quickly with the back of my hand, wetting it with the tear and a little bit of blood from my father off my cheek. "It's not your fault, Boil. We're gonna find out what's happening. But if we're going to do that, I need your help figuring a few things out."
"Of course I'll help you, Commander, but we probably shouldn't hide in a dead end, it won't end very well."
"...Arlo. Just call me Arlo. I'm... I'm no commander, Boil. Not anymore." I look down and my eyes land on a sewer. "This is perfect. Down here." I lift the lid and let Boil down first, and I hop down close behind him, putting the lid back on on the way down.
"So what's your plan?" he asks me.
"Sneak through here over to the old shipyard. We can't take our own ships, or we're gonna get killed. But why, Boil? What just happened?"
"Honestly, it's kind of a blur... it felt like I was living a nightmare."
"Will you tell me what all you remember?"
"Something in my head, it felt like... like a switch was flipped when this Lord Sidious gave me the order. It's like it flipped in all of us. I felt like a puppet. I tried so hard to fight it, but it wouldn't let me. It was almost like it was speaking to me, giving me commands. My head was filled with protocols and contingency orders I never knew existed. And then... 'Good soldiers follow orders'. Over and over. Constantly. That's all I really remember from it. But when you hit me in the head, knocked me out, it's like you turned off the switch. I woke up and felt... free again. And then what I remember all came flooding back... I'd tried to kill you. I knew I had to find you and help you, so I followed the squad that had a location on you, and well... here we are now."
"So what's Order 66?"
"...All Jedi are to be executed for treason against the Republic."
"But... but what did we do?"
"I don't know. What I do know, though, is that if you survive this... they'll be after you for the rest of your life."
My heart drops. My feet stop carrying myself. I feel myself slump down to the ground as an ugly sob racks through me.
"And if my loyalty is my downfall, so be it."
I had said it myself. And now... oh, now I'm paying the price.
The only reason I'm still in the Jedi Order is because of loyalty. A loyalty to the Order that saved my life. A loyalty to the Republic and my battalion. A loyalty to the greater good, to helping others. And most importantly, a loyalty to my found family, to Obi-Wan.
Maybe my father was right. Maybe I am naive. It was foolish of me to stay. The Order isn't perfect, I've always known that. They let me go numb, empty, before I was even a teenager. They allowed me to be haunted by my past, and did nothing. Until I found Obi-Wan, or, more like, Obi-Wan found me. He found me, and he saved me. He's the father I always needed. And then they let me think he'd died. Even he was okay with it. I know he regrets it, but can I say the same for the others? And then they let my best friend, my sister, get framed for a crime she would never commit. They expelled her so she could be given a full criminal trial. As a teenager. Only to find out that, because of the Jedi Order, my other friend had turned. She was the one who had really done it.
If it weren't for me listening to the people I loved most telling me to stay, I would be gone by now. I don't know where. But I wouldn't be on the wrong side of a manhunt right now if I had just left. All I had to do was walk away, but no. I didn't have the guts to. My loyalty is going to be my downfall.
I could have saved myself.
And I know it's selfish to think that. But I can't take it back now. The damage of my choices is done. There's no going back. Ever.
I didn't even notice that Boil was knelt next to me, both hands cupping my face in a panic, telling me deep breaths, breathe. I glance down to my hands. They tremble uncontrollably. My eyes sting with tears. It almost hurts to keep them open.
I feel helpless, vulnerable, pathetic. All of a sudden, I'm the same scared little girl from all those years ago. I want to curl up and hide. I want Obi-Wan to come and scoop me up, tell me I'm gonna be okay. The independent young Jedi I've become over the years cowers behind my tears. The powerlessness I feel brings me back to who I really, truly am.
"They were always right," I say, quietly, shakily on the cold hard floor of the Batuuian sewers. "I'm just a child in the middle of a war."
"No, no, you're more than that. Listen to me, Arlo. When I volunteered for this mission, I was given one order from General Kenobi and Commander Cody. That was to make sure you were safe at all costs. And I'd be damned if I didn't see that through. I'm gonna help you get out of here. Okay? You can't give up now, Arlo. You're one of the strongest people us clones know. And they might not be the same anymore, but I'm still here to tell you that you've got to keep fighting. Do it for them, and for the brothers we've lost. Like Waxer. Do it for your master. But above all of that, you owe it to yourself to keep going. You've been through too much to give up now."
Boil looks at me reassuringly, and I nod. I really have been through a lot. But none of it has ever stopped me before. I can't quit now.
We're going to get out of here.
I'm going to find Obi-Wan.
And one day, it's all going to be okay again.
I stand up, not even bothering to wipe my face or brush myself off. Boil stands next to me with a concerned look. I have so many things I want to tell him, so many thank you's to say, but I don't speak. I say it all through the hug I give him. He hesitates, but reciprocates it. Eventually, I slowly let go of him.
"We're gonna get out of here."
"Lead the way. I'm right behind you, Arlo. I've got your back." I nod in thanks as we continue on through the sewers. Eventually, we find the right exit, and I remove the lid with the Force. Boil climbs out first. I bend my knees to jump out, but I freeze as I hear a voice.
"Lieutenant Boil, what are you doing?" I hear Wooley say from above. Boil glances down at me as if to ask me what to do.
"You captured me?" I suggest. He ever so subtly shakes his head no as if to tell me that's a bad idea. "Just go with it, we don't have much other choice!"
"Get up here," he demands in a harsh tone. He's acting, so I play along. He bends down and roughly pulls me out of the sewers, discreetly taking my saber off my belt in the process so it looks believable. I look up in front of me while on my knees and see nearly our whole company standing on the shipyard, weapons at the ready. My eyes widen. Yeah, this definitely was a bad idea. And, of course, there's only one ship. All the way towards the back of the yard. Great. I put my hands up behind my head in surrender.
"Why were you in the sewers?" Wooley questions, pointing his gun at my head from a distance.
"I found her down here, trying to sneak over here to get a ship to escape," Boil tells him.
"So we figured," Wooley says. "Men, fire at her on my command."
"Now hold on," Boil says, stepping in front of me so they don't shoot. "I'm the one in charge here, Wooley. If we're doing this, we've got to do this right. Don't you think we should... interrogate her first, get some answers?"
"Lieutenant Boil, you are in violation of Order 66," Wooley tells him.
"I'm not in violation of anything," Boil defends. "We can't do this wrong, or we'll be punished, Wooley. I'm just thinking this through."
"You will be demoted and be executed for treason against the Grand Army of the Republic along with the traitor, Jedi Commander Arlo Just," Wooley tells him. Boil subtly drops my lightsaber behind him, and I use the Force to stop it from hitting the ground, hands still behind my head.
"Set your blaster to stun," I mutter to Boil.
"But they're trying to kill us—"
"Ready..."
"Against their will. I will not be the one that kills them."
"They don't care, Arlo. I hate to tell you this, but they don't. Not anymore," he whispers to me. "You don't have to kill them. But I'm going to put them out of their misery. Trust me, I would know what it feels like for them."
"Aim..."
I don't argue with Boil's reasoning as I remove my hands from behind my head and grab my saber. I just nod at him.
"Fire!"
I hop up off my knees and flip over Boil, then land in front of him, igniting my saber as I begin to block the blasts fired at us while Boil pulls out his blaster and begins firing back at the company. My saber and I act as a wall of cover for Boil as he fires at our former men. The two of us work in perfect tandem. He isn't slow or hesitant with my rapidly swinging lightsaber whizzing by him so closely, it's almost as if he acts like I'm not there. In a good way. Because it's obvious that he's placing his full trust in me right now, and vice versa. I use the Force to push a few clones back while Boil shoots at them. We make good work, but our success is unsurprisingly short-lived. A Jedi Padawan and a rogue clone lieutenant against an entire clone company? Even with our combined talent, we stand no chance.
"We've got to make a run for that ship!" I tell Boil.
"Ready when you are," he replies. We nod at each other before making a break for the rusty ship. I block blasts and Force push clones to protect Boil and myself as we draw closer to our escape.
"Men, fire at those fuel tanks!" Wooley demands. Two of the troopers by the ship turn and fire at three barrels of fuel by the ship's engine, causing them to explode, and in consequence destroying the ship. My heart sinks. There's no way out now.
"Arlo, we've got to keep fighting, come on!" Boil shouts as I stare at the destroyed ship. I snap out of it and begin blocking blasts again. Though Boil and I work together in perfect harmony, we struggle. We're far too outmatched, and it begins to not look so good for us.
They always say to go down fighting. I know that's what I say. And that's what I do every time. But I've never truly believed that when I've said I'm going down fighting, that I am going to die in the process. But I can't say the same for this time. My hope begins to slip away slowly as Boil and I try to hold off our brothers-in-arms.
As our men begin to surround us, creeping closer and closer, a ship fires down at us. Not at Boil and I, but at the clones. Boil and I take the blessing of a distraction and make a run from it away from the shipyard. We sprint, without stopping once, all the way back to the main street, and towards a communal landing bay in hopes of being able to sneak a ship from there. After a few minutes, I notice the ship that had shot at the clones begin to follow us. I never got a very good look at the ship, so I look up at the sky do glance at it. I skid to a stop as I do a double take while looking at it.
"Hey, we've gotta go—" Boil says, lightly tugging my arm.
"...I know who's ship this is," I tell him. "Boil, this might be our way out! If he's in a good mood today, at least."
"Who are you talking about—?" He's cut off by the ramp of the ship opening up as it stops above us.
A loud voice speaks from it. "Arlo, m'dear! I must say, you are the last person who I expected to be around here. Not that I am not happy to see you, no no, not at all, because as am! So, tell me, what kind of trouble did I just save you from?"
—
i actually cannot believe i just wrote arlo's view of order 66. it feels like just yesterday i was writing about her and obi's first adventures together :(
thanks for reading! -a 🪐