Saachi's entire body ached, and a migraine drilled into the forefront of her skull. All the caff in the galaxy couldn't cure the way her mind was racing. The ambient white noise of Coruscaunt's skyways wasn't doing much to dull her thoughts.

"What do you think they did to the troopers who killed General Tionne?" Rya asked softly, making a couple notes on her datapad.

"Decommissioned, probably," Darta's voice was quiet, though it echoed behind her rebreather.

Yulia sat on her bunk, holding her pillow to her stomach, but her gaze flickered to her communicator every two seconds, waiting for it to blink with Echo's signature message of "I'm home." If it weren't the way her lekku twitched at Darta's borderline callous comment, Saachi would have thought that Yulia had missed it entirely.

Saachi turned off the white noise and stared at a holo on her datapad screen. It was an image of her and Yulia at 79's with Fives and Kix, right after Jesse was made an ARC Trooper. They had all been so proud of him that day.

Fives had been shot and killed three weeks later, and the old ache swelled in Saachi's chest. She didn't think she would miss him, not this bad.

She glanced at her chats with Jesse, just to make sure her datapad wasn't being slow. She had sent the message over two hours ago, and he still hadn't seen it.

Do you know anything about an Order 66?

She dropped her datapad onto her chest with a groan. He was on Mandalore, helping to liberate it again. It was like she told Yulia, he wasn't likely to respond while on a campaign.

Her comm pinged, and she snatched it up as a series of similar alerts echoed through the room.

Mandatory Assembly. 1500.

"Mandatory assemblies are for the clones," Rya tossed her comm aside as they all got a message from Miss Nala Se in the class group chat.

Please be at the Mandatory General Assembly at 1500. Supreme Chancellor Palpatine will address us on the State of the Republic.

Darta sat up. "Do you think this means the war's over?"

"There hasn't been an address like this in two years," Yulia said.

Saachi shrugged, "Coruscaunt got attacked last week. He probably wants to tell everyone about how Skywalker saved his butt again."

Saachi did not care for the Supreme Chancellor. He was always very nice when she met him in person, but his public actions as Chancellor didn't always quite match the kind, grandfather-ly persona he gave in the presence of his protege, Senator Amidala. Maybe Saachi was thinking too much like her father, but someone who cared for Democracy as much as Chancellor Palpatine professed to would never accept such egregious measures like emergency powers and extending the war, no matter how much the people pressured him into accepting.

Saachi glanced at her comm messages for a moment, and considered comming Padme. Was she okay after the Invasion of Coruscaunt?

She sighed, and pushed the thought aside. They hadn't talked much in the last two years, aside from the odd luncheon or two, and Padme was busy with her duties as a senator. Her people always came before her friends. Maybe she would comm Dorme instead, the handmaid was slightly less busy.

How are things on Coruscaunt?

Jesse still hadn't answered.

Yulia leaped up without a word and sprinted out the door. Saachi sighed, and internally debated going after her. Yulia's dismissive remark about Echo's habits at breakfast resurfaced, and Saachi groaned at the thought of having to leave her warm and comfy bed. Well, as comfy as GAR regulations would allow.

"We'll see you at the Assembly," She muttered to her roommates, before buttoning up her jacket to follow after. No need to lose any more professionalism in the eyes of Clone Force Ninety-Nine after last time.

"Wait up!" She called, breaking into a run as she noticed the tip of Yulia's pink lekku disappear around the corner. Yulia giggled, but she did slow down enough for Saachi to catch up before breaking into a breakneck run, dodging holo-perfect formations of shiny-armored squadrons that had yet to see combat. A shock trooper watched the two interns as they passed, but didn't do anything after Saachi waved at him.

Again, Saachi wondered about the fate of the squadron that had attacked General Tionne. What had triggered them to suddenly attack? She knew that some of the men were disgruntled with their lot and life, but none of them had ever attacked a commanding officer before...

A wave of cold air washed over Saachi as she remembered Tup. The glazed look in his eyes when Fives and the others brought him in for surgery, Nala Se's sharp orders that all interns were to vacate the operating room, as much as Saachi had insisted on being there to help her friend. Fives had fairly fought his way into Tup's room when Nala Se said the only viable option was to kill him, but Fives' best efforts failed, and Tup was dead minutes later. Barely anyone had seen what was wrong with that outcome. For killing a Jedi the way he did, at point-blank range, decommissioning was the likely next step.

Could the same thing that happened to Tup have happened to Afton and the others?

She crashed into Yulia, waiting impatiently for the next lift, and promptly put those thoughts out of her mind as she pulled up Echo's file. The screen took its sweet time responding to her commands. It was far more scuffed up than she intended it to be.

The lifts took them down a couple floors to the barracks. The barracks for Echo's squad, of course, were labeled neatly with a large "99". Inside, however, was much more of a mess than the Kaminoans liked to project.

"Holy kark what is that smell?" Saachi demanded, pinching her nose the second the door opened.

"I told you!" Echo shouted at one or more of his roommates.

"I don' smell anythin'!" Wrecker protested, crouched next to the door, where an extensive tally board stretched from floor to ceiling. As she watched, Wrecker gingerly carved three more tally marks into the wall with a vibroblade as long as Saachi's forearm.

Yulia blissfully ignored the smell, skipped the stairs entirely, and launched herself into Echo's arms. At least his strength was improving, he hardly buckled under the weight as his arms found their home around her waist and hers around his neck.

"Missed you," She mumbled, suddenly shy.

"Missed you too."

Saachi waved a hand at her nose in one final measure and made her way to the happy couple.

"Not interrupting anything, are we?" She asked. Hunter was staring out the window across the room, and Crosshair was glaring at him, seated on a stack of crates and leaning on his rifle for support.

"Nothing important," Hunter huffed.

Saachi shrugged, and focused on Echo.

"Yulia said you were having stomach problems?"

"The rations we acquired on Scarif were slightly out of date. Echo's delicate digestive system did not seem to agree with them." Tech chose to make his appearance, hiding behind a work desk piled high with spare droid parts that Saachi knew for a fact were contraband.

"Did they disagree with the rest of you?" She asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Nah! We can handle anything!" Wrecker bragged, marching across the room to his bed, where he cradled a large plush tooka in his arms.

Saachi looked back at Echo, who was still paying more attention to Yulia. She could hardly blame them and the goo-goo eyes they gave each other, but they were making her sick to her stomach.

"Did he throw up? Have a fever or anything?" Saachi asked Tech.

"He was nauseous, but otherwise the stomach seems to be working perfectly well. The medicines are helping."

Saachi made a further note, and wagged a finger in Echo's face to grab his attention.

"You know this means you cannot skip out on your physical before you get shipped off who-knows-where, right?"

Echo chuckled, and saluted Saachi. "Sir, yes sir."

"It's unlikely we will be "shipped off" anywhere anytime soon." Tech mused. Sparks flew as he took a tool to his mysterious project.

Yulia and Saachi turned to him, and Crosshair groaned.

"What do you mean?" Yulia looked to Echo, slightly terrified by Tech's ominous tone. That could mean anything from they were in trouble, they were getting decommissioned, or Echo was sick and wasn't telling them.

"It's okay," Echo placed his hand over hers in reassurance, "General Kenobi and the 212th defeated Grievous on Utapau. The war is officially over."

Saachi's grip on her datapad slackened. "It's over?"

This war had dragged on for so many terrifying months, it seemed all too easy for it to be over just like that. Saachi had expected some sort of campaign sweeping the galaxy in a winner-take-all triumph, not some distant victory on an inconsequential planet. It was too anticlimatic.

"We only learned of it after we landed." Hunter took a seat next to Wrecker on one of their couches, "Do you know what shock troopers are doing here, by the way?"

Saachi bit her lip. "A squad of men went rogue and killed General Tionne. The shock troopers were called in to take them into custody."

Hunter and Echo looked at each other, and Tech looked at Saachi uneasily.

"What?" She demanded. Five sets of eyes were on her suspiciously.

"Saachi..." Echo took his good hand from Yulia's shoulder and set it on Saachi's. "They didn't go rogue. Most of the GAR were ordered to kill the Jedi."

The datapad fell from her hands for the second time today.

"Excuse me?" She demanded. "Why would the GAR be ordered to kill the Jedi?"

"They were traitors," Silent Crosshair spoke up, absently twirling a toothpick between his fingers, "And does it matter? Good soldiers follow orders. They did what they had to do."

"What did you just say?" Saachi started to march across the room to Crosshair, and the sniper rose to meet the challenge, but before she could blink, Hunter was in between them.

"Why they did it or not is irrelevant now, the Jedi are dead."

"Are they now, Hunter?" Crosshair drawled. He leaned back on his leg, and folded his arms smugly.

Saachi could feel her heart pounding and the blood rushing through her fingers as they curled into fists.

"Are you saying you killed them too?" She bit out, her voice shaking.

Hunter looked at her in alarm, but his words stopped in his throat. Before he could gather his thoughts in the silence, the PA chimed softly.

"All personnel report to the staging area for a briefing on the state of the Republic."

Yulia slipped Saaachi's datapad into her hand and gently tugged her away from Hunter and the others. "Come on, we need to meet up with the rest of our class."

Saachi grit her teeth, following Yulia out of the room.

This was one meeting she didn't want to miss.

—

Rya saved them a spot in the viewers box with Nala Se and the Prime Minister. Omega had been standing obediently at Nala Se's side, but the moment she saw Saachi she latched on to her hand.

"You okay, beti?" Saachi knelt down to her height so she could hear the little girl's answer. Strange, the troopers, disciplined as they were, were typically chattier than this. But as they assembled in straight columns, they were oddly silent but for the stomping of armor against the durasteel floor.

"The captain is here," Omega hissed, cupping her hand over Saachi's ear as she whispered.

"What captain?" Saachi squinted into the crowd to see what she meant, and spotted him quick enough. There was the dark green paint of the Captain and the five men who had survived the attack on General Tionne. They stood tall and proud, guarding the six entrances to the assembly hall.

Saachi's throat went dry. So it was true. The orders had been to kill the Jedi, for whatever reasons, then the Shock Troopers had been sent to help the Captain and his men, not to defend the General.

Saachi stood tall again, and squeezed Omega's hand, determined not to let her see how nervous she was. Omega wrapped both hands around Saachi's, and buried her face in Saachi's pants leg.

Pershing tutted, "Grown up, kid," He nudged Omega with the toe of his boot, and she yelped in surprise.

"Back off, Pershing," Rya snarled, "It's beginning."

The room dimmed as the hologram was projected into the air above all of them. Saachi pulled Omega closer. Before it got too dark, she could see Echo and the others. Their charcoal armor stuck out like a sore thumb amidst the white. If she squinted, she could almost see Hunter looking directly at her. Saachi huffed, and turned her attention to the hologram.

"Is that...Chancellor Palpatine?" Rekly hissed to his fiancee.

Saachi did not know what she expected from this mandatory briefing, but she certainly wasn't expecting this. At least the warning from Echo and the others gave her and Yulia a chance to brace themselves for the announcement that had their entire class aghast.

The Jedi were gone.

"The remaining Jedi will be hunted down and defeated!" Chancellor Palpatine promised.

"I knew it," Pershing shrugged aside his surprise, "They were too arrogant, too sure of themselves."

"Sound like someone we know?" Saachi growled to Yulia beneath her breath.

Yulia managed a smile, but quickly returned her attention back to the hologram of the withered old man, blown up a hundred times so that all the clones could see him. This was the Chancellor that was supposed to be at their graduation in just a few weeks?

"The attempt on my life has left me scarred and deformed," The hologram continued, "But I assure you, my resolve has never been stronger!" Applause thundered from the room where the hologram was broadcast, the senate chamber, perhaps?

"In order to ensure the security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire, for a safe and secure society!"

Saachi had seen almost every speech Palpatine had made in the last twelve years. She had never heard him this passionate, this loud. He was always controlled, calm, and sure of himself. Now he just sounded crazy, making extreme promises that politicians shouldn't be making.

Saachi bit her lip as the clones shouted their support. This wasn't supposed to happen. Palpatine was supposed to step down after the war, the "crisis" he'd called it. He was supposed to let diplomacy resume.

But without the Jedi, who would dare to stop him?

The words "safe" and "secure" drilled into her mind. This wasn't good, not good at all. The clones knew, just as she did, that they still had a purpose. Though their purpose was now much different than it had been for the last three years. But none of them seemed to care.

The holotransmission ended, and all personnel were dismissed. The interns took a moment to gather their wits.

"Why so glum?" Rekly nudged Saachi, "the war is over! We can go see our families again!"

He turned to the rest of the class. "Anyone up for a beer or two?"

"Rekly, where do you even get that stuff?" Kels asked.

"I got a momma who loves me."

"You'd better hope the clones don't get wind of that, they have a sixth sense or something." Darta warned him.

"They're just soldiers, they don't know better." Pershing said.

"They do too!" Rya said. Saachi couldn't believe that they'd been here for nearly three years now, and Pershing still refused to see the clones as anything but less than human.

"I may take you up on the offer." Saachi said, a storm of thoughts worse than the ones outside running through her head. Curling up on her bunk with a beer and a holodrama sounded really good right about now. She could sort out her thoughts through a hangover.

But first, she had to make sure that Omega was okay. She glanced down to where Omega had been standing not one minute ago, and realized that her hand had curled so tightly into a fist that she didn't even notice that Omega had slipped from her grasp.

"Kriff, did anyone see where Omega went?"

"I think she got bored," Darta said, adjusting the settings on her mask, "She snuck out about halfway through the holotransmission."

Well, she was still a kid.

"Which way did she go?"

Darta pointed over her shoulder at the door. The Prime Minister daily floated through the doorway, followed by two of his aides.

"What are you Gunder, her keeper?" Pershing cackled.

Saachi glared at him briefly. "I'll meet you guys back at the dorm."

It had been mild curiosity, and perhaps a bit of concern for her youngest friend, that led Saachi after Omega, but now it was purely for the sake of pissing off Pershing.

She pushed past Pershing and the others, slipping out the door behind Nala Se. Omega had gotten in enough trouble today, hopefully she could get her back before Nala Se noticed her youngest assistant was gone.

She stepped into the crowded halls, now swarming with clone troopers. She expected them to all be talking animatedly about the most recent news, but there was a distinct lack of the clones' typical casual chatter. And instead of breaking off into their smaller groups of friends and batchmates, they stayed in their regiments, walking in perfect, geometric patterns.

The Empire's reorganization had already come to Kamino.

Saachi shook off the terrible realization and focused on her search for Omega. At least the organized hallways made for an easier search.

"Omega, where are you-" Saachi stopped as she turned a corner. There was Omega, halfway down the hall, talking to Echo and his squad with a smile as dazzling as the lights that lined the halls of Tipoca City.

"Is she with you?" Echo grinned half-heartedly as he spotted her. The news had disturbed him as much as it disturbed her. She was relieved that Echo was still the same, even if everything else wasn't.

"Yes, she's one of our medical assistants," Saachi grinned as Omega smiled at her sheepishly.

"Saachi, you know Clone Force Ninety-Nine?" Omega gasped in awe.

"Well, I've known Echo ever since he was a shiny, but I've only just met the others." Saachi gently ruffled Omega's hair, and she giggled lightly.

Hunter stood to greet Saachi, "You should keep a better eye on her, things can be dangerous for the cadets."

Saachi glared at him, and took a half-step in front of Omega, "I know that, Sergeant. She's a kid, she's gonna wander."

Tech cleared his throat awkwardly, "How is an adolescent a medical assistant on a military base?"

Saachi had no answer for that.

"Omega," Nala Se's even tone cut through the tension, "I told you to stay beside me."

Omega looked down at the floor, embarrassed. Saachi almost felt bad that she had interrupted her adventure, but she really didn't want to trust Omega with the rest of the men.

"Medic Gunder, thank you for your help. If you would please come with me, there is more work to be done," Nala Se waved them down the adjacent corridor.

Saachi sighed. The war was over, sure, but there was still the aftermath to deal with.

"C'mon, Megs," She held out her hand, but Omega didn't take it this time. Obediently, she followed after Nala Se, and as Saachi followed them she could hear Hunter muttering under his breath in that gruff, smokey voice of his.

"This day just keeps getting weirder and weirder."