Chapter 8 Clone Wars Part 1

As he supposed, Anakin was drawn into the Clone Wars. There, he earned a name. The old Anakin was called the fearless hero, but he was called the one-man army because he swept entire battlefields of droids on his own.

Away from the Jedi, and with sporadic collaboration from some allies, Anakin could train with the Force as he pleased, never touching the skills of the dark side, as they were unnecessary. Jedi skills were already OP on their own; they just needed to be used appropriately.

So, a year passed, during which Anakin reclaimed some planets for the Republic while many others were lost. The separatist armies outnumbered the clone army, and their ship numbers were almost double in most battles. The Republic was forced to gather two fleets to face just one separatist fleet, allowing the separatists to dictate the battlegrounds most of the time.

Anakin could wreak havoc with droid armies, but those were short battles, as his power was not unlimited, and he used it strategically. In space battles, he was limited because the assigned ships were standard, and he wouldn't waste time upgrading a ship that Palpatine could seize. He awaited the right moment to play his cards, and that moment was now approaching.

Anakin knew this because after a year, he had finally identified an object from Xion's memories, and that something was a name: the planet Christophsis. It sounded familiar to him, and he knew he had reached a point where his future memories would be useful and where he could strike a second blow to Palpatine's plans.

The timing was also ideal because faced with the separatists' numbers, the Senate, guided by Palpatine, wanted to increase the size of the army by manufacturing more ships and creating more clones. If he allowed it, Palpatine's power would grow, and so would his influence. The focus of this war was the neutral worlds Dooku invaded to claim their forces, and the Republic had to rush to confront them and prevent their army from growing.

"General, is something wrong?" asked Admiral Yularen, a member of a wealthy family supported by Palpatine, assigned to a Venator-class destroyer as an admiral.

This didn't mean he wasn't efficient; he had command experience and was one of the few who supported Anakin's views on the Republic and the need for a capable army, which would have prevented the Clone Wars.

People like Yularen saw in Palpatine the opportunity for a new order for the Republic, and that's why they approached him, deceived by his words and false political stance.

"Something is strange," Anakin said sincerely.

The situation he was in now, facing eight separatist ships blocking the planet Christophsis with three Venators, was common, and he saw it every day. It was very rare when they had a evenly matched battle. The strange thing in this was the enemy leader, whom Anakin knew because he kept up with the entire situation in this war. This enemy commander was also in Xion's memories, so he paid special attention to his story.

The commander in question was a humanoid spider, an iconic character in Xion's memories, leaving a great impression. The problem was that he didn't remember him appearing at the beginning of the story…

"Chronological order," the Force intervened. Xion's memories were not in the correct order, and some things happened before he remembered and others much later. When Xion saw the story, he was a teenager and didn't pay much attention to this, but when he was older, he read that the series was not in chronological order.

Anakin blinked. He wondered if his goal would also be affected by this because he couldn't wait; the moment was now. If he waited longer, Palpatine, who was in trouble because Padmé had significant political support, would regain his advantage, and Anakin would have nothing to support her…

Anakin shook his head in his mind because the admiral was already looking at him with concern. He had to set aside his plans for another time.

"Our opponent is Admiral Trench," said Anakin.

The humanoid spider was known for efficiency and cruelty in battle, and Xion remembered that he survived their first encounter. What he didn't remember was how Anakin defeated him. It seemed that for Xion, the character was more important than its purpose or plot.

Admiral Yularen tensed. He had his own history with Trench, who was a war criminal.

"General, Admiral Trench cannot be underestimated. We should retreat and wait for reinforcements," advised Admiral Yularen. Anakin smiled.

"Advance and open fire!" ordered Anakin.

The old Anakin almost killed this spider in their first encounter, and he considered himself a thousand times superior. There was no way he couldn't discover its weakness. Everything the old Anakin could do, he could do better.

…

Two hours later, their three Venator cruisers needed repairs, and Anakin had a twitch in his eye as he looked at an arrow-shaped ship in front of him.

"Anakin, calm down. We'll deal with Trench later. Right now, the priority is delivering supplies to Senator Organa, who is trapped on Christophsis," advised Obi-Wan, sensing his fury, shame, and a lot of humiliation.

Obi-Wan had arrived half an hour ago, bringing another Venator and this arrow-shaped ship that would help them bypass enemy lines and deliver supplies and troops.

"Xion, you freaking nerd, I curse you! Fanboy, idiot, moron. How the hell could you forget about a ship that could turn invisible?" Anakin shouted in his mind with anger, shame, and humiliation.

When he saw the ship appear in front of him in Obi-Wan's cargo hold, Anakin understood how the Anakin in Xion's memories almost killed the spider.

In no reality was there any chance they would put a stealth-capable ship in his hands, and he would use it to deliver supplies. But he had spent over an hour racking his brain and feeling ashamed of himself, thinking that the dumb version of him could handle the humanoid spider, and he couldn't find a weakness. That had been the greatest humiliation he had suffered so far. Right now, he felt twice as humiliated and twice as stupid as before.

Anakin took a deep breath and, with all the reluctance in the universe, pushed his emotions into the Force. He wanted to kill the witnesses to his humiliation, but he was the witness himself, and he could only cry and curse Xion for ignoring everything else while focusing on the humanoid spider.

"Watch me crush your damn spider!" scolded Anakin in his mind before releasing the last shreds of his anger into the Force.

"I'm calm now," said Anakin calmly. "I'll take care of the supplies," he added.

"Anakin, I know you, you're planning something," accused Obi-Wan.

"Master, don't accuse people randomly; I assure you those supplies will reach their destination without any problem. Keep in mind that while you talk, Senator Organa languishes on Christophsis," warned Anakin, starting to give orders to load the supplies as quickly as possible.

…

"Anakin!" scolded Obi-Wan over the radio when Anakin directed the stealth ship toward Admiral Trench's ship.

"We'll get as close to his bridge as possible," said Anakin after cutting off communications.

Admiral Yularen, who had decided to accompany him, sighed. This wasn't the first time they worked together, and he was already accustomed to Anakin ignoring ninety percent of the Council's orders.

"General, the torpedoes we have won't be able to penetrate Admiral Trench's ship shields," warned Admiral Yularen. They also had a few cannons, but if the torpedoes didn't work, mentioning the cannons would make it worse.

"At this moment, their shields are deactivated; this is a surprise attack," explained Anakin.

"General, the shields will go up as soon as they see us because to fire, we'll need to disconnect the camouflage," replied the admiral.

"Relax, admiral, we'll shoot when we're a few meters from the bridge. They won't have time to activate the shields," explained Anakin.

"General, if we do that, we'll die alongside the enemy!" exclaimed Admiral Yularen with an alarmed tone.

"Calm down; we'll be fine, and we won't be firing torpedoes," said Anakin, raising his hand to stop the conversation.

He began plotting a course toward the enemy ship's bridge, while R2, whom Padmé had given him for saving her life on Geonosis and the Republic's reputation, questioned his methods.

The admiral was busy thinking about what he would do if Anakin wasn't going to shoot missiles when, about a hundred meters from the enemy ship's bridge, he blinked, looking at his back.

"And your backpack?" …

Four energy beams were fired from the front of his stealth ship, hitting the enemy bridge: two vertically and two horizontally. The cut was clean and didn't produce any explosion; it looked like the cut of a lightsaber. The humanoid spider and its command bridge were divided into four pieces, along with all the droids there. Decompression explosions started when his ship was almost half a kilometer away.

"There you have your damn spider, brainless geek," insulted Anakin, as a thought reached his mind, reminding him that it was just one spider of an entire species. Anakin had a small twitch in his eye, but he forcefully dismissed his feelings; he had no energy to fight. He activated the communications and called Obi-Wan.

"Master, we had some technical issues and lost control of the ship, which headed straight for the flagship's bridge. Fortunately, I was prepared and integrated my four Death Stars into the hull, so we could get rid of the obstacle without any trouble.

"Don't worry; we'll bypass the blockade without problems and won't lose a second in the delivery time. By the way, unfortunately, the enemy admiral was on that bridge, so he has passed away," explained Anakin. Obi-Wan's hologram brought his hand to his face.

"Anakin, just deliver the supplies and return to bring reinforcements," he said with a depressed tone. There were still seven separatist ships blocking the passage, and they only had four ships.

The remaining ships had also seen what happened to the spider and wouldn't lower their shields as long as their fleet remained there. That was good for them because they could wait a couple of days and attack when their shields had discharged. The attack on the spider had done a hundred times more damage to this blockade than the original Anakin's, as it should be.

As Anakin pulled away, the separatist ships fired their blaster cannons everywhere, trying to hit him, but they hit nothing. From the start, the ships' accuracy was poor, and Anakin had confirmed it with his own ships, which missed seventy percent of the shots. The targeting system of the capital ships was garbage, and Anakin had already created his own system for when he had his own capital ship.

…

Anakin delivered the supplies and then returned with reinforcements, rescuing Senator Organa, who led the defense to stop the separatist invasion and was replaced by him and Obi-Wan.

…

A day later, Anakin frowned as he found himself in another situation Xion remembered, and again, it was happening earlier than it should according to his memories. It was another story that wasn't ordered chronologically and was also taking place on this planet. Anakin wondered how many events Xion remembered were happening on this planet.

Anakin opened communication with Obi-Wan. They had landed reinforcements, bypassed the blockade, and deployed their forces on the planet using the stealth ship. They were now setting up an ambush for a battalion of droids, but as he watched them march and observed the tower where Obi-Wan awaited, a memory reached his mind, along with a Force danger warning.

"Master, it's a trap. There's a battalion of droids heading up to your floor. Get out of there," informed Anakin.

Obi-Wan didn't ask anything and left his position, ascending with his clones to the rooftop of the building while calling for aerial rescue. Anakin wasted no time, breaking the building's windows, deploying cables, and being followed by the clones to Obi-Wan's building to accompany him to the rooftop and escape when their rescue arrived. A few droids began to emerge on the rooftop, looking at the departing ship in confusion.

Obi-Wan sighed and then grimaced as he looked at Anakin.

"Someone has betrayed our ambush," explained Anakin.

Anakin knew it was a clone, but he didn't know which one, and these clones were quite good at hiding their emotions, so he would have to focus to find out, although it wouldn't be too difficult now that he knew what he was looking for.

Obi-Wan frowned as Anakin glanced at the clones and influenced their minds with the Force.

"Anakin!" warned Obi-Wan, indicating that this was going beyond Jedi rules. It wasn't forbidden, but it was close.

"Master, I'm reasonably sure one of the soldiers accompanying us has revealed our position," said Anakin.

While Obi-Wan blinked and the clone soldiers tensed, Anakin reached out and stopped one of them with the Force. He assumed the traitor was among them because in Xion's memories, one of them was injured during interrogations.

"Slick," said Anakin with a grimace. This sergeant had accompanied him on several operations and was an outstanding soldier. Slick growled, revealing his hatred.

"Jedi are just slavers, and you're no different from them," snarled Slick.

"Slick!" … Anakin raised his free hand to interrupt Rex, halting any conversation.

"Rex, handcuff him and take him to a cell as soon as we get back to the base," ordered Anakin, and three clones restrained Slick. No one said anything for the rest of the journey, and Anakin went to meditate as soon as they arrived at the base.