The clone's name is Shim, but when they come for him they call him CT-28-1795.

Anakin is standing in the corner of the 501st's temporary planetside barracks more out of coincidence than anything else, leaning over a datapad with Captain Rex as they consider the terrain for their next assignment. Two weeks of leave are nearly over and they will be sent to Felucia next, to support Aayla Secura in the ongoing conflict there. Rex explains that much of the specialized gear they used on Umbara, aside from the headlamps and weapon mounted lights, will also be used on Felucia. The fleet, he says, is fully stocked already.

The door opens and clone troopers enter. Their armor is unmarked; they are not part of a battalion. Shock troopers, permanently stationed on Coruscant, Anakin surmises, as he straightens up to investigate.

"CT-28-1795," one of them says, "you are being recalled for reconditioning." There's a wave of something in the Force. Mourning, Anakin realizes, as if their brother is already dead. Shim stands, abandoning the datapad he'd been looking at on his bunk, and tucking his helmet under his arm. Anakin doesn't need to reach out with the Force, although he does anyway. , to see the quickly veiled panic in the lines around his eyes. His Force signature is drenched in something - acceptance? Surrender? - and echoes of fear.

"Clearly you require further processing!"

"No! I won't go back there!"

Anakin draws a deep breath and releases the table. Shim is walking towards the shock troopers, helmet under his arm, like he's going to the mess after a mission. The room is humming with unspoken goodbyes and muted fear and silent resentment, but there's no anger; no defiance.

"Stand down, trooper," Anakin says, and the whole room turns at the unexpected interruption. "Why is he being reconditioned?"

The shock troopers pause for a moment; it seems they've never been questioned in this particular execution of their duties before, or not by a Jedi General, at any rate. "Desertion," comes the response. "Trea-"

"He ran." Rex cuts off the speaker. "On Umbara. After Krell set us against the 212th. He hid in the barracks." There's no derision in Rex's voice; not like the disgust he'd harbored for Slick. Anakin has only heard the abridged version of what happened on Umbara. He's used to demanding answers out loud, or forcing them, but he finds he doesn't even have to try to skim the unspoken truth from Rex's mind; it floats easily toward him and he wonders if Rex did that on purpose. Everyone had wanted to hide after that, weighed down by the filthy shame of having murdered their brothers, torn between following orders because good soldiers follow orders and the knowledge, suddenly clear as day, that Krell wanted them dead.

"You're not taking that soldier," Anakin says.

The trooper hesitates. "Sir, our standing orders are -"

"You're not taking that soldier." To punctuate his claim, Anakin opens his hand and his lightsaber easily flies into it. The room is alight with fear again, but this time it's trepidation that their general has finally snapped and Anakin takes comfort in its familiarity.

Shim shifts uncomfortably. "Sir, my actions endangered my brothers. I knew there would be consequences when I -"

"You're not going anywhere, Shim," Anakin says. He points at the shock troopers, standing uneasily by the door. "Get out."

They leave. Anakin returns his lightsaber to his belt. Everyone is still staring, unsure how to process this new development. "Sir," Rex says.

Mentally, Anakin laughs. Now they want an explanation and he doesn't have one. He could make a dozen excuses, but in the end he did it because he felt the compliance and the fear and had viscerally rejected it because fear should be out there, on the front lines and among the clankers and not in their own (temporary) barracks, among their own brothers. He doesn't even know what reconditioning is. Nothing good, judging by the cautious relief floating around Shim.

Anakin opts to leave the barracks. As soon as his outburst is reported the Council will summon him, so he decides to save them some time. He is walking up the Temple steps when his comlink beeps and he answers it. It's Obi-Wan. "Anakin -"

"The Council wants to speak to me, I know. I'm on my way." He hangs up. It's only a fifteen walk through the grand entry hall, up a wide staircase, into a turbolift, and down another hall.

When he enters the Council Chamber, everyone is silent. He wonders if they have sat in silence since Obi-Wan called him as he steps to the center of the room and offers a bow.

"Skywalker," Mace Windu says, "we've been told you obstructed Senate shock troopers in their duties."

"I prevented them from recalling one of my troopers for reconditioning," Anakin says.

"By threatening them," the shivering hologram of Shaak Ti says. Anakin does not respond, and judging by how quickly the next question comes, they expect no response.

Obi-Wan speaks up this time. "Anakin, we don't have the authority to decide which clones need to be reconditioned."

"None of them!" Anakin suddenly says, to his own surprise as well as everyone else's. "Haven't you felt their fear? It's a death sentence."

"Felt it, we have," Yoda says, peering at Anakin over clasped hands. "Partaken in it, we have not."

Anakin, uninterested in hearing again about the inescapable dangers of fear, presses ahead. "He wasn't able to go out and fight, but there are plenty of administrative jobs he could do, away from the front lines. Reconditioning isn't necessary."

"Once again, we don't decide that," Mace Windu says.

"No, you can't do this," Anakin says. "It's outrageous, forcing them to -" He still doesn't know what reconditioning is.

"The Senate has bills on the floor regarding clone rights," Ki-Adi Mundi says.

"The Senate isn't fast enough!" Anakin yells, face twisting in anger. He knows exactly how long it takes for a bill to pass through the Senate, from its conception through the committee stages and on into voting before it's finally ratified or vetoed. He knows exactly when this bill was first proposed, almost two years ago. And in that time, how many clones have died on the front lines? How many have been reconditioned, something they clearly regard as equal to death?

"We didn't call you here to have this argument, Skywalker," Windu says. "The Senate Corps will send a detachment to collect the clone. You will not interfere."

Anakin thinks about the quiet hopefulness he'd felt in Shim; the knowledge that he had been completely ready to accept his fate but at the same time so, so relieved that he didn't have to. He bows. "I understand, master Windu," he says. He doesn't even try to sound contrite.

Obi-Wan cautiously follows their bond, probing for Anakin's real intentions, which he doesn't believe for a moment are to go back to whatever he was doing and allow the shock troopers to follow through with their assignments. His former padawan's thoughts are guarded with shields like mountain ranges, though, and he gets nothing but a vague sense of disgust and anger as Anakin turns and leaves.

The Council moves on to other topics; the ongoing conflict on Felucia is a continuing topic of concern. The Republic has been unable to make progress there since the war broke out. There is some hope that the arrival of the 501st and the 212th will give Aayla Secura the support she needs to push through to the planet's capitol. It's an essential tactical position, with its access to hyperspace lanes and trade routes and the vital nysillin resources to be found there.

The conversation apparently continues for longer than Obi-Wan thought, because when his comlink beeps, it's Cody. He answers it with an apologetic nod to the other Council-members. "Sir," Cody says. "The Resolute II is breaking orbit ahead of schedule."

"It's what?" Obi-Wan says, but he already understands.

"The Deliverance is following it," Cody says. "Plus the Paladin and escort ships. The whole 501st."

"Thank you, Cody," Obi-Wan says. "Patch me through to orbital defense, will you?" He looks up at the Council as he deactivates his comm. Someone has already activated the central holoprojector and is hailing the Resolute II.

For a moment, there is no answer from the fleeing fleet. No one really expects one, so it comes as a surprise when a shaky blue hologram of Anakin appears in the center of the room, arms crossed over his chest. "What?" he says flatly.

"Anakin, what are you doing?" Obi-Wan asks.

"What I must," comes the answer, cold and dark and terrifyingly convicted. "My men are not slaves."

"Stand down, Skywalker," Mace says.

"No," Anakin says, and it looks like he'll say more. Yoda cuts him off.

"What you are doing, treason it is," he says.

"Not from my point of view," Anakin says. "From my point of view it's the Republic that's evil, and the Jedi are evil for supporting it." He leans forward, apparently to cut their connection.

"Anakin, if you don't return to orbit immediately we will be forced to arrest you," Obi-Wan says.

It's not with Anakin's usual insubordinate confidence, but with grim determination that he replies. "You will try."

Anakin vanishes. Obi-Wan activates his comm. "Orbital defense, target the hyperdrives of the 501st's task force. Aim to disable, not destroy."

"Sir?" comes the response, confusion evident in the man's voice. It's not a clone.

"Target them now, ensign," Obi-Wan says. "Don't let them enter hyperspace."

"Right away, sir," the man says. Someone calls up a tactical view of Coruscant's airspace. Three star destroyers and a medical frigate have peeled away from their orbital positions and are forming up to leave. It's awkward and inexpert; most everyone comes to the same conclusion that there aren't any naval officers on board. They're being directed by inexperienced hands, and that could work to their advantage.

The first shots connect with the Paladin's aft shields. They're harmless. The fleeing ships continue to lumber into hyperspace position. Everyone knows it's too late; the orbital defense cannons won't make a dent in the shields fast enough to stop the fleeing ships. The Council exchanges glances and then turn as one back to the holo just in time to watch Anakin Skywalker and his task force shrink into pinpoints of light, invisible among the stars.

You might wonder why I am writing a Star Wars fixit. The primary reason for me doing this now (as opposed to later) is because someone recently told me that Star Wars fixits are Wrong and Bad and Fixing What Isn't Broken and Think They're Better Than Canon. Being, as I am, motivated primarily by spite, I immediately began organizing my Star Wars fixit notes so that I could increase the number of Star Wars fixits in the world.

The primary reason for me doing this at all is because I've been meaning to for like six years now but kept putting it off until later because there was no immediate need and picking a divergence point was hard. You have no idea how many beginnings I cycled through before I settled on this one. Some of them were pretty screwed up, too.

Anyway, you might notice that the star destroyer names in this are completely made up. Anakin commanded a task force of three star destroyers (the Resolute, the Defender, and the Redeemer) and at least one smaller cruiser (which I've taken the liberty of identifying as a medical frigate) in the Clone Wars, but my research (read: clicking around on Wookieepedia) indicates that they were all destroyed by this point in the timeline (directly after the Slaves of the Republic arc). I'm just kind of assuming that they were replaced as available, thus the Resolute II, the Deliverance and the Paladin. Careful readers may notice that these names are just synonyms for the original names. That is because I am lazy.

I couldn't find any canon resources on what exactly clone reconditioning is but I expect it's terrible and a human rights violation on several levels. For the purposes of this story it involves memory wipes, basically "resetting" the clone and destroying their individuality and intensive retraining in whatever area they failed in.

If you are concerned that I am abandoning Insight World, don't be. I am still writing it, just much more slowly.