They decided to start off on a more positive note. "Before we dive in, I ought to let you all know that Grievous is dead," Obi-Wan announced, crossing his arms. "What was left of his organs ought to be a pile of ash now."
The news was met with a good amount of celebrating and a bit of whooping. The younger clones who had never met Grievous had heard the stories, and the older clones as well as Ahsoka and Anakin had their fill of the cyborg. At least something good had come out of all of this.
"I can't speak for the rest of the mission, though," he went on. "Quite frankly, I snuck off the planet as soon as the chaos started. I don't know what's become of Utapau."
"They'll be alright," Anakin assured him, "and probably better off than us. At least you weren't sitting on Coruscant, doing nothing."
A few of the clones who had served under Anakin chuckled. He turned to Ahsoka, remembering, "I saw your report on Mandalore, it looked like it went okay."
She nodded, shrugging. "In all honesty, the Siege itself went well. Barriss was missing, but we captured Maul, arrested his soldiers, and Bo-Katan had everything under control by the time we left." Ahsoka neglected to mention her Sith spirit problem, but she refused to allow the clones to worry about that. The Rule of Two was a conversation for later. "It was the way back to Coruscant that went sideways."
"So what happened?" Obi-Wan asked, looking around the group. "I'm still not quite sure what, or who, started all of this."
"It was a 'who'," Ahsoka answered, delving back into her memory. "When Palpatine ordered for the creation of the clone army, he instructed the Kaminoins to implant chips into their heads during the early development stages of their growth. These chips are programmed with orders that only the chancellor of the Republic or the Senate could activate, which at the time, was Palpatine himself."
"Fives," Anakin realized, looking to Rex. The commander nodded, remembering the night.
Glancing at Jesse, Rex explained, "I don't know how, but he must have figured it out during the investigation on Tup. When Palpatine caught wind of it, he had him executed for treason."
Obi-Wan looked at the two men. "When was this?"
Anakin looked down, shrugging a bit. "A little over a year ago. I didn't realize..."
"None of us did," Rex reminded him, and Ahsoka kept talking to keep Anakin focused.
"One of the orders Palpatine created was Order 66. Under this directive, any and all Jedi leadership must be executed for treason against the Republic, past or present, apparently."
"And future," Obi-Wan added, stroking his beard. It took Ahsoka a moment, but she understood the subtext of his statement.
Horror crossed her face as she realized. "No..."
Unfortunately, Anakin nodded, looking at her. "I managed to get a few of your friends out, but most of them were killed yesterday. Younglings, Padawans, Knights, and Masters, all of them were targeted."
The fact only made Ahsoka want to strangle Tyrannus more, but she didn't react physically. Those children had been the future of the Jedi Order. Whether she was a part of it or not, she didn't want it to end, and certainly not like this.
Rex picked up the conversation. "Chancellor Kanai activated the order, sending a message to every clone battallion in the army. I managed to get a recording of the one she sent me."
Taking the cue, Ahsoka reached into her pocket and pulled out the recording Rex had given her on the shuttle, connecting it to the holotable so everyone could see.
"Commander Rex, execute Order 66."
"Yes, Chancellor Kanai, but I assure you, there are no Jedi on board this cruiser."
"Correct me if I am wrong, Commander, but isn't Ahsoka Tano on board?"
"Yes, she is escorting Maul to Coruscant. Is she marked for termination by Order 66?"
"Well, I suppose that-... yes. Ahsoka Tano is to be executed, as well as Darth Maul."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Your men were never ones to follow orders," Obi-Wan muttered to Anakin, which lightened the mood but only slightly. "Kanai ordered for your death specifically?"
Ahsoka shook her head, remembering the conclusion she and Rex had come to earlier as she deactivated the projection. "Whoever ordered the death of the Jedi did, but I'm not sure it was Kanai." She wound the recording back to the spot where the Chancellor had flinched, pausing it. "Rex and I think it was whoever did this."
The Jedi studied Kanai's face, having noticed it earlier but not enough to get a good look. Anakin looked to Obi-Wan. "Jedi mind trick?"
"Or maybe Sith mind control," Jesse suggested, bowing his head. "That's pretty effective too."
"It wasn't your fault, Jesse," Rex reminded him, and Anakin felt sympathy for the lieutenant. Maul seemed like the type to torture people for information. He would have asked under different circumstances.
Looking to Obi-Wan, Ahsoka went on. "None of the Jedi knew about Order 66, so I don't think any of them activated it. Not to mention, most of the Jedi who would be strong enough to perform a Jedi mind trick were either deployed on a mission or knew Anakin was guarding the chancellor. If they were going to destroy the Order, they would have done it sooner or later, not now."
Anakin wasn't convinced, though. "We've had Jedi betray the Republic and the Order before. If it was a Sith, then Dooku would have been the only one who knew about Sideous's plan, but I didn't sense him on Coruscant. Usually, I can tell when he's nearby. Remember Zygerria?"
"I wish I didn't," Ahsoka grumbled, but she agreed. "And I know Maul didn't do it either, he was in Bo-Katan's containment module. Either we're dealing with a different type of mind control, or we just don't know who activated Order 66."
"At least we know it was an order, though," Obi-Wan pointed out. "Up until now, I thought this was some kind of spontaneous revolt. This makes much more sense. Not that it's any better, I was still shot off a cliff."
Glancing towards the HoloNet portal, Rex told him, "We saw Cody's report a few hours ago. You convinced him you had died, and some people placed bets on whether you had faked it or not."
Anakin saw him glare at Jesse. "So that's what the commotion was about on the comms," he assumed, and Jesse grinned a little bit.
"So you escaped Utapau and went to Coruscant," Ahsoka understood, turning to Anakin, "but you were already there, stationed right in the Senate Building. How did that go?"
"About as well as you'd expect," he admitted. "Fox and his men started firing at me in the middle of the lobby, so I ran out and put some distance between us. I followed your lead, actually," he told her, the corner of his mouth curling up. "Ran down to the tunnel system, cut my way in, and ran for the Lower Levels. By the way," he turned to Rex, "I don't suppose you can explain why Dogma and a few of the other men defected as well?"
At that, the clones cheered for their brothers, knowing what had happened. Smiling, Rex explained. "After Fives went down, I asked Kix to remove my chip, and I got a few of the others on board. Dogma was one of them."
This took a second for register for Obi-Wan. "Wait, if he...so all of you have had your chips removed?"
The troopers nodded, looking to Ahsoka for the rest of the story. "Rex organized all of these troopers, and they set up a way for me to get off the ship. Originally, I was going to run once our cruiser reached Coruscant, but Maul damaged the hyperdrive before that happened. I improvised a little bit and instead of escaping on my own, they came with me and made it look like I was dead. On top of that, we pretended that our shuttle had taken damage while they 'killed' me, so we might as well all be dead by now."
"Nice work," Anakin praised, "all of you. I almost wish I was there to see it."
"What about Maul?" Obi-Wan asked, looking to Ahsoka again. "He damaged the hyperdrive, but I haven't heard anything else about him.
Ahsoka shook her head, regretting her actions. "I thought he had caused the troopers to turn against me. When I realized he hadn't, he was already out of the containment module. I meant to use him as a distraction to escape before I knew Rex already had a plan. I wouldn't be surprised if he escaped the cruiser before it crashed."
This wasn't exactly comforting news, but Obi-Wan wasn't surprised. "Leave it to Maul to pull that kind of stunt. At least you got him off of Mandalore."
"What about you?" Ahsoka asked, to both of the Jedi. "How did you find each other on Coruscant?"
"I didn't, really," Anakin admitted. "I used the vents to sneak back into the Temple once I realized the clones would attack there too, but I got trapped under rubble about five minutes in. Once Obi-Wan found me afterward, it was the next day and the fight was over."
Trying not to think about 'the fight', Obi-Wan added his experience. "Senator Organa assisted me in returning to Coruscant and helped me regroup with Master Yoda. We joined the battle at the Temple, but no one else survived." He sighed deeply before sharing his last bit of news. "I suppose you ought to know that there was one more loss. Yoda is not dead, but he left this morning."
Ahsoka hesitated before responding. "Left as in...?" she glanced at Anakin, who nodded.
"He mentioned you specifically," he told her, remembering how Yoda had stared at him. "He left his lightsaber at the Temple and walked out."
"Of all the people..." Ahsoka murmured, shaking her head. "Did he say why?"
Anakin looked to Obi-Wan. He hadn't been there for his goodbye, as Obi-Wan hadn't been there for Ahsoka's. He looked down, not making eye contact. "He believes the Jedi Way is to blame for the death of the Order," he answered briefly, not wanting to go into detail in front of the clones, or at all.
Not that she would say it out loud at the moment, but Ahsoka knew what Yoda had been talking about. There were some horrible decisions the Jedi Council had made that would have otherwise prevented much of the Clone War from happening. However, correction and redemption was the way to repair the damage it had done, not running away from it. Then again, what kind of hypocrite did that make her?
"There's one more thing," Anakin told her, trying to take their focus off of Yoda. He wasn't sure he deserved the time of day anyway. "Senator Amidala sent us a message right before we left to find you. Chancellor Kanai is dead."
Muttering went around the whole room, and Ahsoka wanted to smack herself. Rex groaned, looking back to the recording in his hand. "It makes sense. All of the transmissions for Order 66 were erased from the Republic database. Whoever activated it wanted to tie off any loose ends."
It was a good point, but Anakin didn't want to tell them this next part. "That's the thing, though. The security footage was destroyed, and the only evidence left behind was a clone blaster."
Stunned silence replaced the murmuring, as the implications of this slowly worked their way into their minds. Ahsoka, clenching her fist on the holotable, spoke what they were all thinking aloud. "There's no more proof that Order 66 was activated. No one knows the clone troopers were ordered to do this."
"Surely someone will realize," Obi-Wan insisted, trying to remain open to possibilities. "The Kaminoins will not allow something like this to pass without an investigation. The Republic will find the truth."
"Will the people?" Ahsoka asked, thinking of what her coworkers from the Lower Levels probably thought. "Citizens aren't going to understand how deep this goes. They don't get how horrible Sideous was, or what he did. All they're going to see are dead Jedi and a dead chancellor, and they're going to point fingers at someone."
"Someones," Rex corrected, realizing the truth. "Nearly every clone participated in Order 66. Even if most of them didn't take the shot, they would have if they had the chance. No one can fight the chip once an order is activated."
This set the troopers on edge. They knew they had already defected from the Republic, but this was bigger. "The Senate will realize, won't they?" Jesse asked. "Once the investigation happens, they'll realize it's not our fault, right?"
Ahsoka wanted to tell him that they would, that justice would win out in the end, but Maul's haunting words rang in her ears: Justice is merely the construct of the current power base. The justice of the Republic hadn't saved Ahsoka when she was on trial, and she didn't think it would save the clones either.
"The Senate will see what they want to see," Ahsoka told them defeatedly. "Politics will matter more than justice. When civilians see that the Jedi are dead, they're going to be scared. They want to know that the people who pulled the trigger are executed, even if someone else is to blame. Those people are responsible for the re-election of every senator in the Republic. If they don't see the truth, neither will their senators. It won't matter that they were-"
Framed. They were framed. We were all framed.
Everyone else in the room waited for Ahsoka to finish her sentence, but she didn't. She froze, staring at the holotable in front of her as the pains in her stomach returned. She knew they weren't just aches anymore, though. They had been warnings, warnings she had ignored. Her chest heaved as she realized the truth. Ahsoka did know what had happened, she knew everything.
She powered on the holotable again, taking the transmission recording from Rex and replaying it until it came to the part where the ex-chancellor flinched. After pausing it, she stared at the image, all of the dots connecting in her mind. She was free of doubt now. All of the cards were laid out in front of her.
Both the Jedi and the troopers knew better than to question what was happening. They waited, nervous, for Ahsoka to explain. She turned to Anakin, her eyes wide with horror. "They were framed," she repeated, her hands shaking ever so slightly. "The Jedi were framed for treason against the Republic, the chancellor was framed for activating Order 66, and the clones have been framed for killing them both. All of us have taken the fall for something we didn't do."
The last sentence rang in Anakin's ears, and he began to wonder if he knew where she was going with this. He had heard a very similar statement before, and he remembered how it had ended the first time.
"Dooku didn't do this, not directly at least," Ahsoka declared, looking back at the frozen recording. "There's one person who I know has a history of framing others for her actions."
"Barriss," Anakin completed, in the same haunted voice that Ahsoka spoke in.
It was definitely a possibility, but Obi-Wan wasn't going to commit to it just yet. "How can you be sure?"
Ahsoka had her evidence right before them. "Because of this," she responded, letting the recording play. Kanai recovered and said, "Yes. Ahsoka Tano is to be executed, as well as Darth Maul."
"Dooku was the only other person who knew about Order 66," Ahsoka reasoned, "but he didn't know I was alive. Barriss knew I was alive, but she didn't know about Order 66." Pausing, she remembered Maul's claim from before their duel. "Maul and Barriss had gone to kill Dooku two weeks ago, right around the time Barriss went missing from Mandalore and didn't come back. Maul returned to Mandalore without her, and he thought Dooku was holding her captive."
"He wouldn't do that," Anakin caught on, shaking his head. "If Barriss didn't have any value to him, Dooku would have killed her on the spot."
"The Sith Rule of Two says there must always be a Master and an apprentice, but Dooku hasn't had an apprentice since he abandoned Ventress," she explained, talking mostly to Obi-Wan. "Somehow, Barriss betrayed Maul and became Dooku's apprentice, there's no other reason he would spare her."
"Which is why she wanted Maul dead too, he's a threat to both of them now."
"Barriss told Dooku I was alive, and when he ordered Barriss to activate Order 66, he told her to target me as well."
"She wouldn't even have to be in the room to control the Chancellor, we already know she can use the Force from a distance."
"Kanai wouldn't have seen it coming. I doubt she could hold off mind control, especially if Barriss has been training in the Dark Side."
"And when Order 66 was activated-"
"-Barriss used a clone's blaster to kill her. No eye witnesses, no loose ends."
"The Jedi are dead, the Chancellor is dead-"
"-and the clones are to blame."
Their synchronized thought process halted as all of the information began to process. The entire story had been revealed. All of the missing pieces were there, and all of the questions had been answered. All, except for one.
Rex was the one who dared to ask it. "But what happens now? If the Senate sentences the entire clone army with treason..."
"They won't have an army anymore," Obi-Wan finished, his voice low. "The Republic won't have troopers, generals, or a leader."
"And the Separatists still have all three," Jesse added, staring at Rex. "If Dooku sent Offee to do his dirty work, then the Separatists know it too."
Anakin was no senator, but he knew how they worked well enough. He was married to one, after all. "The Senate won't be able to hold off attacks anymore. Once the clones are charged with treason, there's going to be no one to defend any of the Republic bases or systems. Meanwhile, the Confederacy still has millions of battle droids and more in production every day. No one is going to be able to stop them."
"The Clone War is over," Ahsoka announced fearfully. "Barriss just won it for the Separatists. We lost."