Shadows of Tomorrow

Chapter 81 - The Last Battle

"An energy-shield," Marr answers, ignoring the two. "It's impenetrable."

"Why doesn't the Empire use them – " Ezra begins, and with a familiar quiet hiss, a whitish shield forms all around them.

Great.

How did he get so distracted he didn't even see this coming?!

"This is a ray shield," Rex declares, sounding decidedly unhappy.

"Aren't those battle droids?!" Ezra exclaims, as sure enough, a group of battle droids walk down the hall, blasters raised, surrounding them. What?! Marr hasn't seen those in years, but the sight of them makes him feel like a teen again. He grew up around those things, but they've been absent from his life for as long as...

Okay then. Everyone from his past life is coming together, and this is one part he is not happy about.

BD beeps furiously in confusion, climbing up Marr's back and perching near his shoulder.

"I thought they were all shut down!" Ezra continues.

"Well, these weren't," grumbles Zeb.

"You have been captured by the Separatist Alliance," the droids announce in their tinny voices, and Marr ignores the voice in the back of his own mind wondering if they took a wrong turn through time. "Prepare to blast the Republic invaders!"

BD beeps in confusion, probably at just what those droids think they're talking about.

"Republic invaders?!" Ezra exclaims, looking between them in confusion.

"That's insulting," Anastasia says, flatly.

"Belay that order," another droid's voice orders.

"Roger, roger."

"Wait, who's Roger?!" Ezra demands.

Marr chokes on a laugh. "It's how droids talk to each other. We had to deal with that for years." He doesn't understand, though. All Separatists droids were shut down right after the formation of the Empire. How are these still operating?

"We have new orders," reports one of the droids, "Incapacitate and capture. Activating stunner!"

Marr doesn't have more than a split second to register what they're about to do – not that there's much he could do to stop it – before electricity crackles into him, and everything blacks out.

"Marr!"

He blinks, opening his eyes to see Ezra leaning over him. The others are all already sitting up. He's going to blame his exhaustion with constant battle planning for why it knocked him out so long, and he thinks it's only the tactical droid interrupting that spares him from whatever Anastasia was about to say. It's beyond jarring to be in a position like this again. Marr wasn't captured by the Separatists very often, but being here in a room full of droids is not easy. It's bringing up a lot of the far more negative side of his childhood that he prefers not to dwell on. He can still distinctly remember losing so many friends throughout the war, to the point that their faces and names almost began to blur together.

"After Clone Order 66, the whole droid army was given a shutdown command," Rex speaks up, glaring at the tactical droid as it paces back and forth in front of them, "How are you even operating?"

"The Jedi betrayal ended the war for most of the galaxy, but here on Agamar, I assumed it was a Republic trick and prevented the shutdown command," the droid replies.

"Well, it doesn't matter how it ended. The war is over," Rex growls. Marr can feel his raging emotions, and he thinks half his anger is a front of keep himself from panicking. He is not taking this well, not as if that's a surprise. "Let us go."