13 Onwards to Choal

Jaden was standing on a large hill overlooking a city and what looked to be the fiercest battle he had ever seen before. It sent shivers down his spine as he saw the sheer savagery of what was happening down below; he saw Jabiimi civilians —some not even adults— strapping bombs to themselves as they ran through the streets encountering clones and blowing up. He watched clones draw out vibro-blades and stab them into these children's necks before they could trigger the bomb.

The exchange of fire between both forces was bloody and savage. The streets were running red with blood on both sides; it was as if an ocean of red swept across the streets and floating on top were the body parts and innards of the fallen. Jaden could even see Jedi amongst the dead. A blue Twi'lek Jedi wandering around without a head with his lightsaber slashing in random directions as he walked aimlessly.

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

Jaden had to cover his eyes as he saw the city being bombarded with heavy artillery turning both forces into puddles of paste on the ground. The sheer horror of what Jaden was witnessing brought a stream of tears down his eyes. Jaden found the hill getting closer to the city, he tried to back up and leave but the hill got steeper making him stumble down and fall right into the ocean of blood in the city. He breathed heavily as he stood up and tried to reach for his lightsaber or any weapon at all only to find nothing.

Jaden could only watch as a long blonde-haired man with a beard approached him and raised a blaster "No wait-"

*Ting*

"AHHHH!" Jaden screamed as he woke up from his nightmare breathing heavily. He looked around and saw that he was on the ground on what appeared to be a medical stretcher. Four clones were sprawled out across the floor; Jaden assumed that they must've been carrying him and cause of his nightmare he must've unconsciously pushed them away. He looked up and saw it was night, though the weather hadn't changed and it was still raining. Though the clones had been nice enough to make a little cover for his stretcher to protect him from the rain.

"Master, are you okay?" Aubrie asked as she came running towards Jaden having felt the disturbance he created when he awoke.

Jaden rubbed his eyes and took a moment to calm himself down, he looked down and saw that he had a few bandages wrapped around him; he tried to remember what had happened. 'I was caught in the escape pod explosion,' he thought to himself. Though as he remembered that, he was reminded of the moments before that and a flood of negative emotions from the battle engulfed his mind for a moment before he was able to push them down.

"I'm fine Padawan Wyn, how are the casualties did the plan work?" He asked. 

"It worked better than we hoped it would, we managed to secure an overwhelming victory against the enemy and send them retreating with only minimal losses on our side," Aubrie explained as Jaden struggled to stand up.

"I did attempt to heal you but for some reason I wasn't able to, it was quite strange, it's as if your body rejected me," Aubrie explained as she helped Jaden up.

Jaden nodded in appreciation "Thank you for trying, I should be able to help myself, where are we travelling?" He asked.

"We are heading towards the city Choal, the Jedi General in charge there has requested reinforcements though communications went out before he could ask why." A voice echoed out from behind him.

Jaden turned and found a smile growing on his face "Commander Delts I'm glad you're alive," he said sincerely. During their time training and spending time together on the ship Jaden couldn't help but like Delts, something he does regret as it'll just be all the more difficult to leave.

"I'm glad you're well too General, and thank you for rescuing myself and my men, no one would've blamed you for retreating," Delts said with a quick salute. Delts hadn't thought much of the young Jedi when he first met him, but that opinion quickly changed the more time he spent with him, it was easy to tell that Jaden Katarn was a natural strategist and a hard worker, he looked forward to seeing how far he could go, and he was glad that he could fight alongside him on Jabiim.

"We need to keep moving! We don't know if they will come back with reinforcements!" Zule said impatiently as she walked back from the front of the column where she was taking point.

Jaden nodded "She's right, we need to keep moving," he said in agreement.

Aubrie looked at him with concern "Are you sure you can keep up Master? Perhaps you should get back on the stretcher," she suggested.

Jaden shook his head "I'll be fine, it'll do me some good to move around," he said as he rolled his arms and stretched his muscles.

"Delts let's walk, I want you to run me through inventory," Jaden instructed, once again slipping into the role of General.

"Yes sir," Commander Delts replied and they both walked to the front of the column with Jaden limping behind slightly but to Aubries surprise his limp seemed to disappear within a few strides of walking.

Aubrie and Zule were left walking together, and as soon as Jaden and Delts walked out of earshot they turned to one another. "Did you sense anything?" Aubrie asked.

Zule shook her head "I sensed nothing, just the presence of a strong Jedi Knight," she replied.

Aubrie nodded as well "I do not understand, we both sensed the potent usage of the Dark Side, it wouldn't surprise me if Master Leska could sense it, there should be a stain or residue of the Dark Side left behind, but I sense nothing."

"Perhaps it was not him? But someone else who fled before the battle ended?" Zule reasoned.

"It could've only been him, we would've felt the presence of another user," Aubrie said with a shake of her head.

"So you believe he could be with the Sith?" Zule asked in a whisper as she walked close to Aubrie.

"I am not sure, I have not met a Sith before, other than that assassin that serves Count Dooku," She replied.

"Perhaps we should be cautious and take him while he is injured, the power he used yesterday was dangerous," Zule recommended.

"No I will not act rashly, this war has affected Jedi deeply, none more so than yourself, or do you not feel yourself slipping closer and closer with every friend we lose," Aubrie said sternly as she looked to her older friend.

Zule just scowled a bit and walked off heading towards a different part of the column leaving Aubrie on her own. 'Master what should I do...' she thought to herself with a heavy sigh. In truth, she was concerned at the sheer amount of Dark Side power that was released, but now she couldn't sense anything, Jaden felt like any other Jedi Knight untainted by the Dark Side. 'This doesn't make sense unless he is an extremely powerful Sith, but that wouldn't explain why he revealed himself in battle,' it was all very confusing. Aubrie decided she would watch Jaden carefully, he hadn't done anything hostile to them, but the moment he did she would strike with Zule.

She hoped she wasn't making a mistake in her actions. What she hadn't told her friend was the Shatterpoint she saw surrounding Jaden; it was vague but from what she could see it related to her and Zule's death, in what way she didn't know, but her Master had always advised her not to be cautious of visions of the future as they are ever-changing and sometimes self-fulfilling.

...

"Delts where's the prisoner?" Jaden asked, referring to Aurra Sing.

"Lieutenant Locke said she managed to escape, they tried finding a trail but the requirement has been waterlogged pretty badly," Delts explained.

'Kriff!' Jaden thought to himself, he should've just killed her when he had the chance. The only solace he had was that the parts that they needed could only be found in urban areas, she wouldn't be travelling back to the ship, she'd probably be heading to find the parts that were needed to take off. 'But she doesn't know what parts she needs to get to she'll have to head back to the ship first, I still have a large lead on her,' he thought to himself with a smile growling on his face.

While he was worried about being stranded on this planet he knew that he could trust SD8 to do the smart thing and blow the ship up if she tried to leave. "Sir I think we have more to worry about now than a rogue Bounty Hunter," Delts commented.

Jaden nodded "You're right Delts, we should focus on getting to the city in one piece, with the garrison already there it should be well fortified."

"Agreed, but we need to find a way to speed up the injured soldiers, we have no way of knowing if we'll be ambushed out here," Delts said as he looked off into the distance, the rain and storm clouding a lot of his vision.

"I'll see what I can do," Jaden said as he headed towards the back of the column where soldiers limped and others were carried on stretchers. Jaden felt a little sick as the smell of burnt flesh and blood invaded his nose. One of the Clone trooper's armour had completely fused into his arm and it was clear it would need to be amputated as there was no way of safely removing all the pieces.

"At least a third of our forces are injured, but at least most are still combat-ready," Delts said as he walked up next to Jaden.

"You call this combat-ready?" Jaden said as he looked at Delts with a mixture of disbelief and disgust.

"If you can shoot a blaster rifle, you're combat ready, the Clones know that and they know they're expected to fight until they drop dead," Delts said resolutely.

Jaden couldn't help but see the hypocrisy in the Republic's ideology. Freedom and Democracy. 'Just not for them...' Jaden thought as he looked to one specific trooper who had one of his legs blown off. "We can get him fitted with a prosthetic in the city, he's lucky if he had both legs blown off we would've left him behind," Delts said as he looked at the Trooper.

Jaden couldn't help but feel more and more disgusted as Delts kept on speaking. As he got close to the injured troopers they became aware of his presence and tried to scramble to attention despite their injuries "At ease please, you don't want to make your wounds worse," Jaden instructed.

"What medical attention have they been given?" Jaden asked as he looked back to Delts.

"Standard issue, stabilise the condition and give them some pain relief if available," Delts responded.

"Was it available?" Jaden asked, but he didn't even need to hear a reply from Delts to know the answer, the men looked like they were in agony. Jaden knew that Satele had advised him not to show off his healing, but he couldn't just let them suffer like this, it was wrong. 'When did I get so soft,' he thought with a chuckle as he approached the clone with one leg and with quick use of the force he stripped the armour from the injured area.

"Sir? What're you doing?" Delts asked but Jaden ignored him and focused. Once again he slipped into a slight trance and began the healing process.

Jaden frowned however as when he began to heal, instead of a new leg forming the skin just started to heal over the wound. Jaden stopped for a moment trying to conceive of a way to give the man his leg back, he looked deeper into the wound trying to find anything that may help him. 'What is that?' He thought as he saw what looked like a fractured pane of glass on reality itself.

Touching it with force he instinctively knew that it was an event linked with the severing of the Clone Trooper's leg. As he focused more intently he was hit with a vision of the Clone fighting on the hill before an artillery strike struck near him sending a sheet of metal at him which sliced his leg off. Jaden breathed heavily as he returned from the vision, knowing how it happened wouldn't help him.'Maybe I can change it,' he thought to himself as he flooded the point with his force healing.

The Clone started to scream as he shifted around "Hold him down!" Jaden shouted to Delts who immediately jumped on the trooper below him and held his arms at either side. Delts looked on in awe and fascination as bone formed and muscle stretched over it reforming the clone's severed foot.

Jaden slumped over and breathed heavily "Delts, keep this quiet, that's a direct order," Jaden commanded.

"Yes General," Delts replied as he stopped restraining the trooper who looked down at his new foot in fascination.

"Thank you, General," The Trooper said as he stood up albeit a little shakily.

Jaden nodded with a small smile before he stood up himself and moved on to the next soldier "Sir shouldn't you take it easy, Commander Wyn said that Force healing easily drains a Jedi," Delts stated as he followed Jaden.

"I'll be fine Commander, we need to get these men into peak condition in case we get ambushed, how many men do we have?" Jaden asked.

"72 troops with a few demolition teams," Delts replied.

Jaden nodded "Once I heal the rest of them we can start moving at a faster pace, we won't last an ambush without any cover, you got lucky with that hill," he said.

"Keep trying to bring communications online, we need to make contact with Choal sooner rather than later," He instructed.

"Yes sir," Delts said with a quick salute. His respect was growing for the Jedi Knight as he was quickly proving to be a competent commander and someone who cared about their lives.

Jaden was finding it increasingly difficult to be selfish. He didn't know why he struggled, he never used to. Perhaps it was because he could feel the force now, he could feel the force inside everyone. It made it hard to disregard people and it made killing more difficult than it used to be —at least when he wasn't channelling the Dark side.

Unknown to Jaden, Aubrie watched him heal the troopers from a safe distance. Her fears that he was a Sith in disguise were washed away as one would never be selfless enough to heal those they barely knew. But the new problem was Jaden causally defying her understanding of the force by regenerating a limb of a Clone Trooper and walking to the next one like he wasn't affected by the toll it takes.

She'd watch him closely before reporting anything to Master Norcuna or Leska.

———————————————————-

(Choal)

"Commander, the artillery is in position shall we commence bombardment?" Colonel Mazzi asked as he approached the Commander on a small hill overlooking the moderately large city.

"No... Send in the Loyalists, they love the republic so much let's send them back," Alto commanded. Mazzi bowed respectfully before heading back down the hill.

Behind Alto Stratus was a large force composed of both Jabiimi Nationalists and Separatists Battle droids, all ready to lay waste to the city of Choal in the name of those who have been killed. Alto looked down as he watched the Loyalists running towards the city as his men shot at their feet making them run faster.

A frown appeared on Alto Stratus' face at what he had to do with his own people, but in the end, he couldn't have people who would sell them out live in his new world, they simply had no place.

...

"General! We have Jabiimi Civilian's incomings, they aren't armed, should we open fire," Captain Duster asked over the Comms.

"Negative Captain, if they are unarmed they won't pose a threat, let them into the city and secure them if need be," Master Norcuna replied over the comms.

"Sir I believe that's a mistake, why would the enemy release people into the city if it weren't part of a greater plan," Commander Dex asked rhetorically trying to convince the Jedi Master away from this plan.

"They are unarmed Commander, I will not fire on unarmed people," Master Norcuna replied.

"General this is a war zone! There isn't such a concept as unarmed!" Dex shouted.

"Enough Commander you have your orders I expect you to follow them," Master Norcuna said bluntly.

"Yes sir," Dex growled out before leaving the top of a building that Master Norcuna stood on which overlooked one of the largest roads in the city —and the most fortified.

*BOOM*

Norcuna's eyes widened as he saw a large explosion occur at the edge of the city "Captain status report!" He shouted.

...

Captain Duster had been blown clear of his entrenched position and was now on one of the main roads in the city. He looked up to see Jabiimi civilians walking in with terrified looks on their faces and tears pouring down their faces.

"Please! Please! Please!"

*BOOM*

Captain Duster had to cover his face as one of the Jabiimi blew up in a large explosion. As he got up he looked around to see civilians invading each of their positions. "Open fire!" He shouted as he brought up his blaster and started firing on the Jabiimi civilians, but it was too late they had managed to get into their position and now they were all blowing up.

Duster saw one of them laughing maniacally as he walked around with a manic smile on his face. That was until he was shot in the head with a blaster bolt and he fell down dead. "Captain status report!" General Norcuna called out over the comms, but he couldn't answer as he was grabbed by one of the civilians.

"Please help me! Please! I was good! I served the republic well! I promise!" He babbled as he shook Duster.

*BOOM*

Duster was tossed across the ground, his armour was broken and steaming as he was caught point-blank in the explosion. The Republic's defensive position lay in tatters, and despite the Clones killing most of the Civilians, Alto Stratus was still able to detonate the bombs that had been implanted in their bodies.

On the hill, Alto Stratus brought his communicator up to his lips "Commence the attack."

(AN: I know I'm taking liberties with the force but it's easier this way, it's a fanficition so you'll live 🙄. Anyway Aubrie thinks Jaden is acting a bit sus, and is revealed to be a shatter point. In canon Aubrie was chosen to train with Mace Windu but as far as I know there wasn't any specific reason, now there is. Jaden is also a Shatterpoint, but I think I might limit his abilities to physical rather than conceptual things. Anyway hope you liked the chapter)

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