OH. Jeremy not letting Obi-Wan off easy with just "thank you." Calling out the whole system one more time before they go in. Standing on ceremony versus standing on truth. Here's the continuation---
Obi-Wan stopped.
Turned back around.
"You would have left him," Jeremy said.
Not accusatory.
Just true.
"In that other timeline. Without intervention. Without any of this." He gestured at the ship. At the council. At all of it. "You would have walked up that bank on Mustafar and said I have the high ground and walked away and left your brother burning."
Obi-Wan's jaw tightened.
"And you know what the worst part is," Jeremy said. "You would have told yourself it was the right thing to do. You would have lived with it for twenty years on a desert planet and called it penance and the whole time—" he paused, "—the whole time you would have been standing on ceremony instead of standing on the truth."
Obi-Wan looked at him.
"What's the ceremony," Jeremy said. "The rules. The doctrine. The Jedi way. He fell so we let him fall because that's what the tradition says you do with the fallen." He shook his head. "That's not truth. That's just a system protecting itself."
He looked at all of them.
The whole council still close enough to hear.
"I'm gonna be real with y'all," Jeremy said.
His voice changed slightly.
Not softer. More direct. The voice he used when he was done with preamble.
"That's what it is," he said. "B.S. That's the word for it. All of it. The ceremony. The performance. The standing on principle while a man burns." He looked at each face. "You are standing on ceremony instead of standing on the truth."
Nobody spoke.
"The truth," Jeremy said, "is that Anakin Skywalker is your brother. Your son. Your family. The truth is that love is not the enemy of the Force. The truth is that Palpatine has been playing you for twenty years and the reason he could do it is because you handed him the opening. You pushed Anakin away and Palpatine pulled him close and you called your pushing discipline and you called his pulling manipulation and you missed—" he stopped, "—you completely missed that they were doing the same thing. Controlling him. Just from different directions."
Obi-Wan looked like he had been hit.
Not physically.
The other kind.
"The difference," Jeremy said, "is that Palpatine wanted to own him. And you could have loved him. Should have loved him. Were supposed to love him." He paused. "And you chose ceremony instead."
He let it sit.
"I came here," Jeremy said, "through a dimensional boundary. In a ship I built in a basement. With my crew. With a man who was supposed to die today and didn't. With two HK droids and a medical droid and four AI systems and a freezer full of Bob Evans pies." He paused. "I came here to put a stop to this. Because somebody had to. Because what was coming—" he shook his head, "—what was coming was the result of years of your ceremony taking priority over the truth."
He looked at Obi-Wan directly.
"You love him," Jeremy said. "I can see it. It's real. It's been real the whole time. But you kept it wrapped up in Jedi protocol and master and padawan distance and the right way to conduct yourself as a member of this Order." He paused. "And he needed his brother. Not his master. Not his general. Not his fellow Jedi Knight." He paused again. "His brother."
Obi-Wan's eyes were bright.
Holding it together with discipline that was clearly working hard.
"Stop standing on ceremony," Jeremy said quietly. "Go stand on the truth. Go in there and be his brother. Not because the Order sanctions it. Not because the doctrine allows it. Because it's true and it has always been true and you both know it."
Silence.
Complete silence.
Then Mace Windu said something nobody expected.
"He's right," Mace said.
Not to Jeremy.
To Obi-Wan.
"About all of it," Mace said. "We have been standing on ceremony for so long we forgot what we were supposed to be standing on."
Obi-Wan looked at Mace.
At Yoda.
At Jeremy.
At the gangplank.
"Ceremony over truth," Yoda said softly. "The great failing of this Order it has been. Nine hundred years." He closed his eyes. "See it clearly now I do."
Jeremy stepped aside.
Fully.
No more words.
Because he had said what needed saying and anything else was just noise.
Obi-Wan looked at the gangplank.
Took a breath.
And walked up it.
Not as a Jedi Master.
Not as the general of the Grand Army of the Republic.
Not as the man who trained the chosen one.
As a brother who had something true to say to someone he loved.
The council followed.
Jeremy stood on the platform alone again.
Looked at the sky.
"Okay," he said quietly.
Rose's voice came from the top of the gangplank.
"Your pie is still cold," she said. "Behind the vegetables."
Jeremy laughed.
A real one.
"Coming," he said.
He walked up the gangplank of the Edward Newgate.
Behind him Coruscant kept moving.
A trillion people going about their lives.
Not knowing that in a galley with panoramic windows a Jedi Council was about to stand on the truth for the first time in a very long time.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTS1S0jSeYS
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Jeremy pulled out his phone.
Opened his music app.
Found Flip Some Tables by Bryson Gray.
Looked at the ship's sound system.
"Gemini," he said.
"Yes," Gemini said.
"Connect my phone to the ship's speakers," Jeremy said. "But keep it at a respectful volume. We're not trying to be obnoxious. Just setting the mood."
"Connected," Gemini said.
"And make sure Rose's soundbar is in the mix," Jeremy said.
"Already integrated," Gemini said. "The acoustic properties of this hull are going to make this sound exceptional. Shuri was correct."
Jeremy hit play.
The opening came through the Edward Newgate's sound system with the particular clarity of a ship that had been built with andocite alloy routing and vibranium composite hull plating and Rose's soundbar integrated into the whole thing.
Ain't the hoodoo, ain't no voodoo, that astrology Can't save you when you speak the truth in this world of lies People gonna hate you And I serve the same Jesus that was making whips from cables I think it's time when the flips and tables
The Jedi Council walked into the galley.
Anakin looked up from his plate.
At Yoda.
At Mace.
At Obi-Wan.
At the whole council filing into the room that smelled like Bob Evans and truth and the particular atmosphere of a galley where things had already been said that couldn't be unsaid.
The music played.
Bryson Gray not asking permission.
Not softening anything.
Just saying what it said the way it said it.
Whitebeard sat at the end of the table.
Arms crossed.
Watching.
The expression of a man who had said his piece on the gangplank and was now prepared to observe whether it had landed.
Ahsoka stood near the window.
Rose had found a seat near Jeremy's pie.
The soundbar delivered every word with the precision of something that had been designed to be heard.
People gonna hate you And I serve the same Jesus that was making whips from cables
Yoda walked to the center of the galley.
Looked at Anakin.
Anakin looked back at him.
The chosen one and the nine hundred year old master who had almost turned him away at nine years old and had been getting it wrong ever since.
The music played.
Nobody rushed it.
Because the mood was exactly right.
The tables were about to be flipped.
Not violently.
Not with anger.
With truth.
Which was the only thing that actually moved anything permanently.
Yoda opened his mouth.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqw7t2pAkXq
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Yoda stood in the center of the galley.
The music played softly underneath everything.
I serve the same Jesus that was making whips from cables
Yoda looked at Anakin.
Anakin looked back at him.
Waiting.
The way someone waits when they have been waiting for a long time and have learned not to expect much and are trying not to hope too hard.
"Sorry," Yoda said.
One word.
No setup.
No wisdom framing.
No inverted syntax even.
Just sorry.
Plain.
Direct.
The way apologies are supposed to be.
"Seen you as an idol we have," Yoda said. "Instead of a human being." He paused. "Every right to be mad at us you have."
Anakin stared at him.
At Yoda.
Nine hundred years old.
Grandmaster of the Jedi Order.
Standing in a galley on a starship on a Coruscant landing platform saying sorry with his whole chest.
Anakin looked at Jeremy.
Jeremy was eating his pie.
Behind the vegetables where Rose had hidden it.
He met Anakin's gaze and gave him nothing. No prompting. No direction.
Because this moment belonged to Anakin.
What he did with it was his.
Anakin looked back at Yoda.
At Mace standing behind him.
At Obi-Wan in the doorway.
At the whole council filling the galley of the Edward Newgate with their robes and their history and their nine hundred years of getting this specific thing wrong.
"You're sorry," Anakin said.
"Yes," Yoda said.
"All of you," Anakin said.
Mace Windu stepped forward.
"All of us," Mace said.
Anakin looked at his hands.
The flesh one and the mechanical one.
Something moved across his face that was complicated and real and had several layers and he wasn't trying to manage any of them.
"I needed to hear that," Anakin said.
His voice was quiet.
"A long time ago," he said. "I needed to hear that a long time ago."
"Know that we do," Yoda said. "Failed you we did. Then and every day since." He paused. "Cannot give back those years. What we can do—" he stopped. Looked around the galley. At Jeremy's crew. At Whitebeard at the end of the table. At the panoramic windows showing Coruscant outside. At the ship that had been built by a blind man from Cincinnati because his crew needed something that worked for them. "What we can do is do better. Starting now."
Anakin looked at Obi-Wan.
Obi-Wan was in the doorway.
He hadn't moved since he came in.
He was looking at Anakin with an expression that had stopped being a Jedi Master's expression several minutes ago and was just a person's expression now.
"Anakin," Obi-Wan said.
"Obi-Wan," Anakin said.
A pause.
The music played.
People gonna hate you when you speak the truth
"I love you," Obi-Wan said. "Like a brother. And I have not shown you that the way I should have. For years I have not shown you that." He stopped. Steadied himself. "That ends today."
Anakin looked at him for a long moment.
A long moment.
Then something in his face broke open the way things break open when they've been held closed too long.
Not dramatically.
Just.
Broke open.
"Yeah," Anakin said.
His voice was wrecked.
"Okay," he said.
Whitebeard looked at Jeremy from the end of the table.
Jeremy looked back at him.
Both of them saying nothing.
Because nothing needed saying.
The music played on.
Rose put her hand on Jeremy's arm.
He covered it with his hand.
Outside the panoramic windows Coruscant kept moving.
A trillion people going about their lives.
Not knowing that in a galley with Bob Evans on the table and a soundbar on the wall and a Bryson Gray song setting the mood the Jedi Order had just told the truth for the first time in a very long time.
And the chosen one had said okay.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK6JKoTrXrI
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They met in the middle of the galley.
Halfway between the door and the table.
No dramatic crossing of the whole room. No running toward each other. Just two men who had been brothers for fifteen years and had been standing on ceremony instead of standing on that truth and were now standing in the middle of a galley on a starship meeting each other where they actually were.
Obi-Wan put his arms around Anakin.
Anakin grabbed him back.
The kind of hug that had years in it.
Nobody said anything for a moment.
The music played softly.
I serve the same Jesus that was making whips from cables
Then Anakin stepped back.
Looked at Obi-Wan.
At the council.
At Yoda.
At all of it.
And he took a breath.
"I think it's time," Anakin said, "I switch my story up."
The galley was quiet.
"I love y'all," he said. And he meant it. Every word. "I do. This Order. What it stands for. What it's supposed to be." He paused. "But this is just too much. I can't keep doing this."
He looked at his hands again.
"My wife is going to have a child soon," he said. "Maybe two."
Obi-Wan smiled.
Actually smiled.
Not the careful measured smile of a Jedi Master.
The smile of a man who just found out his brother was going to be a father.
"Congratulations," Obi-Wan said.
And he meant that too.
Anakin looked at him.
Like he was checking if it was real.
It was real.
Anakin exhaled.
Something left his shoulders that had been living there for a very long time.
"Thank you," Anakin said quietly.
Jeremy set down his fork.
Looked at Anakin.
"Hey," he said.
Anakin looked at him.
"If you decide you want to leave the Order," Jeremy said. "You and Padme are welcome on this ship. Both of you. For as long as you want." He paused. "We could use the help honestly."
Anakin raised an eyebrow. "Help with what."
Jeremy leaned back in his chair.
"We came here to be smugglers," Jeremy said simply.
The galley absorbed this.
Rose nodded like this was the most reasonable thing anyone had said all day.
Zach pointed at Jeremy like yes exactly.
Terry gave a thumbs up.
David was already thinking about the logistics of provisioning a smuggling operation.
Whitebeard at the end of the table had an expression that could only be described as deeply satisfied. A pirate at his core recognizing a pirate plan.
Ahsoka looked at Anakin.
Anakin looked at Ahsoka.
"Smugglers," Anakin said.
"Smugglers," Jeremy confirmed. "We've got a ship with a vibranium composite hull that hits back harder every time something touches it. Three drive systems including one that makes interdiction technology a philosophical question. Two hundred and forty seven gun ports. An AI crew that handles navigation and weapons so my crew doesn't have to." He paused. "And a freezer full of Bob Evans pies."
Anakin stared at him.
"We're going to do good," Jeremy said. "Help people. Move things that need moving. Be in places where we're needed." He paused. "We just don't necessarily need permission from the Republic to do it."
Mace Windu opened his mouth.
Jeremy looked at him.
Mace closed his mouth.
Anakin looked at Padme.
Padme wasn't there but Anakin looked at the space where she would be and Jeremy could see him putting her in it. In the galley. At the table. With the panoramic windows. Having meals with a crew that knew what they were and didn't apologize for any of it.
"I'd have to talk to her," Anakin said.
"Of course," Jeremy said.
"She'd probably say yes," Anakin said.
"She sounds smart," Rose said.
Anakin laughed.
A real one.
"She is," he said.
Yoda looked at Jeremy.
Then at Anakin.
Then at the space between them that had been filled with something true for the last few minutes.
"Leave the Order if you must," Yoda said quietly. "A Jedi you will always be. In here." He touched his chest. "That we cannot take. That we would not take." He paused. "But a father. A husband. A man living his life fully." He paused again. "Better that is. Than a weapon with a prophecy attached."
Anakin looked at Yoda.
At the nine hundred year old master who had almost turned him away at nine years old.
Saying the right thing.
Finally.
Too late for the old timeline.
Just in time for this one.
"Thank you Master Yoda," Anakin said.
"Thank Jeremy," Yoda said. "His ship. His crew. His God." He glanced at the ceiling in the general direction of wherever Jesus currently was. "Arranged all of this they did."
Jeremy ate the last bite of his pie.
Set the fork down.
"So," he said. "Palpatine."
The mood in the galley shifted.
Back to business.
But different business now.
Business being handled by people who had just told each other the truth and were standing on it.
"Palpatine," Mace said.
And his voice had the specific quality it got when Mace Windu had made a decision.
"Today," Mace said.
"Today," Jeremy confirmed.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡme8dX1XH1B
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"Hold up," Jeremy said.
Not angry.
Not preaching.
Just thinking out loud with the particular focused energy of someone whose brain had just caught up to something important.
Everyone looked at him.
"If you move on Palpatine today," Jeremy said slowly, working it through as he said it, "he's going to activate Order 66. Today. Right now. Without an apprentice."
The galley was quiet.
"He already knows," Jeremy said. "Think about it. He's been watching this whole situation. He's a Sith Lord who has been running both sides of a galactic war for decades. The moment he feels the council moving toward him—" Jeremy paused, "—he hits the switch. Clone troopers everywhere. Today. Without Anakin as his apprentice."
Mace Windu's jaw tightened.
"And then," Jeremy said, "I wonder. How long before he just takes down Dooku. Cuts his losses. And goes after Ventress."
The name landed.
Asajj Ventress.
Dooku's assassin.
Already trained in the dark side.
Already capable.
Already expendable enough that Palpatine wouldn't feel the loss and powerful enough to be useful.
"She was Dooku's," Jeremy said. "And Dooku is already on borrowed time in Palpatine's plans. Why keep him around when you could trade up to someone who doesn't know she's being manipulated yet."
Obi-Wan looked at Mace.
Mace looked at Yoda.
Yoda stood very still.
Processing.
The way Yoda processed things when the stakes were high enough that nine hundred years of experience needed to be brought to bear all at once.
"Right you are," Yoda said finally.
"We can't just grab him," Jeremy said. "We need a plan. A real one. Something that accounts for the clones. Something that neutralizes Order 66 before he can activate it." He paused. "Otherwise we win the battle and lose the war before the smoke clears."
"The inhibitor chips," Anakin said.
Everyone looked at him.
Anakin looked at Ahsoka.
Ahsoka's eyes widened.
Because Ahsoka knew about the inhibitor chips.
She knew because of Fives.
Because of everything that had happened on Mandalore.
Because she had carried that knowledge and its weight for longer than she wanted to think about.
"Every clone has one," Anakin said. "Inhibitor chip in the brain. That's what activates Order 66. It overrides their will. Makes them follow the order regardless of what they actually want." He paused. "If we could remove them—"
"Or disable them," Ahsoka said.
They looked at each other.
The former master and padawan.
The two people in this room who between them knew the most about what was actually coming.
"Rex," Ahsoka said.
"Rex," Anakin confirmed.
Jeremy looked between them.
"Captain Rex," Anakin said to Jeremy. "He's the best. Most loyal. Most aware of what's happening around him. If anyone could help us figure out how to reach the clones before Palpatine activates the order—"
"It's Rex," Ahsoka finished.
Jeremy nodded slowly.
Looked at the council.
"So before we touch Palpatine," Jeremy said, "we deal with the chips. We find a way to neutralize Order 66 so when we do move he can't use it as a last resort." He paused. "Because right now that's his ace card. Take that away—"
"A cornered man he becomes," Yoda said. "Instead of a prepared one."
"Exactly," Jeremy said.
Yoda turned.
Looked at Ahsoka.
The ancient master and the young Togruta who had walked away from the Order and been right to do it and had never quite been acknowledged for it.
Yoda looked at her for a long moment.
With the expression of someone who owed an acknowledgment and knew it and was not going to let the moment pass.
"Ahsoka Tano," Yoda said.
Ahsoka straightened slightly.
"Left this Order you did," Yoda said. "Wrong we were in how we handled that. Wrong I was." He paused. "Apologize I do. For that and for what led to it."
Ahsoka looked at him.
Said nothing.
Because some things needed a moment before you knew what to do with them.
"But now," Yoda said. "A part of this crew you are." He glanced around the galley. At Jeremy and Rose and Zach and Terry and David and Diamond and Sue and T'Challa and Shuri and Whitebeard. "Until they return to their own world." He paused. "However long that may be."
Ahsoka looked at Jeremy.
Jeremy shrugged.
"We've got a spare bunk," he said.
Ahsoka looked at Anakin.
Anakin smiled.
Not the general smile.
The brother smile.
"Welcome to the crew Snips," he said.
Something moved across Ahsoka's face that she didn't try to manage.
She looked at the galley.
At the table.
At the panoramic windows showing Coruscant outside.
At the crew that had materialized around her in the last hour and somehow already felt like something she recognized.
"Okay," Ahsoka said.
"Okay," Jeremy said. "Gemini."
"Yes," Gemini said.
"We need another cabin sign," Jeremy said.
"Already making it," Gemini said.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWeoCDn1dhk
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Jeremy had the playful grin on his face.
The pharaoh grin's more relaxed cousin.
"Hold up," he said.
Whitebeard looked at him from the end of the table.
"Did I not," Jeremy said, "just deactivate a mind controlled chip earlier today?"
He looked at Whitebeard directly.
"At Marineford," he said.
Whitebeard's eyebrows went up slightly.
Then came back down.
Then the slow nod of a man connecting something that had been sitting right there.
"Why I believe you did," Whitebeard said.
Jeremy smiled.
"Kuma," Jeremy said. "The Overcomers Haki. I walked up to a man who had been programmed and modified and mind controlled by the World Government and I spoke to what was still in there and it responded." He paused. "The programming didn't just get overridden. It got deactivated. He came back."
The galley was very quiet.
"So," Jeremy said. "Why can't we use the same thing we used on Kuma for the clone troopers?"
Silence.
Then Ahsoka said slowly, "The inhibitor chips aren't organic programming. They're physical chips."
"Kuma wasn't just organic programming either," Jeremy said. "Vegapunk built hardware into him. Actual modifications. And the Overcomers Haki still reached through all of it to what was underneath."
Anakin was leaning forward now.
The strategic mind engaging.
"It could work," Anakin said carefully.
"Could," Whitebeard said.
He held up one enormous hand.
"But," Whitebeard said.
Everyone looked at him.
"We need to be careful," Whitebeard said. "We send too strong a signal—"
He tapped the side of his head.
"We accidentally blow their brains out," he said simply.
The galley absorbed this.
"And if we send too weak a signal," Jeremy said, picking up the other end of it, "nothing happens. The chip stays active. Order 66 stays on the table."
"Calibration," Shuri said.
Everyone looked at her.
She had been quiet through most of this. Sitting beside T'Challa. Scanning things periodically. Building a picture in her head that she was apparently now ready to share.
"It's a calibration problem," Shuri said. She was already pulling up her tablet. "The Overcomers Haki is a field. A broadcast. It has intensity and it has range. What we need to know is what frequency the inhibitor chips operate on and what intensity of signal disrupts the chip without disrupting the tissue around it."
"Can you figure that out," Jeremy said.
Shuri looked at him with the expression she used when someone asked her if she could figure something out.
"I need a clone," she said. "Or at minimum a detailed schematic of the chip."
"Rex," Ahsoka said immediately.
"He'd volunteer," Anakin said. "Absolutely he would volunteer."
"We need Fives' data too," Ahsoka said. "He died trying to expose this. Everything he found—"
"I know where those files are," Anakin said quietly.
The galley was quiet for a moment.
For Fives.
Who had been right.
Who had died being right.
"We get Rex," Jeremy said. "We get Fives' data. Shuri figures out the calibration." He looked at Whitebeard. "And then we figure out how to broadcast the Overcomers Haki at exactly the right frequency across—"
He stopped.
Looked at Anakin.
"How many clones are there," Jeremy said.
Anakin and Obi-Wan looked at each other.
"Millions," Obi-Wan said quietly.
Jeremy looked at the ceiling.
"Gemini," he said.
"Already modeling the broadcast problem," Gemini said. "A focused Overcomers Haki pulse from the Edward Newgate's communication array, calibrated to Shuri's specifications, broadcast on a rotating frequency sweep—" a pause, "—theoretically achievable. The ship's array was designed for long range communication. Adapting it for this purpose is within parameters."
"You can broadcast the Haki through the ship's comms," Anakin said slowly.
"Jeremy's Haki came through the ship's external speakers at Marineford," Gemini said. "This is the same principle at larger scale."
Shuri was already writing.
"I need Rex," she said without looking up. "And those files. And approximately four hours."
Jeremy looked at Anakin.
Anakin stood up.
"I know where Rex is," Anakin said.
"Then let's go get him," Jeremy said.
Whitebeard looked at Jeremy from the end of the table.
"Too strong a signal," Whitebeard said again. With the gravity of a man who had seen enough battles to know that friendly fire was the worst kind.
"I know," Jeremy said.
"You are sure about the calibration," Whitebeard said.
Jeremy looked at Shuri.
Shuri looked up from her tablet.
"I don't do things I'm not sure about," Shuri said flatly.
Whitebeard looked at her for a moment.
Then at Jeremy.
"I like her," Whitebeard said.
"Everyone likes her," Jeremy said. "Let's go get Rex."32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqf483i7E1Q
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OH. GPT already on it — using the flash step protocol to collect Fives' data without leaving a trace. Covert AI intelligence gathering. And the "can't have them knowing from whence I came" is such a perfect GPT energy — efficient, a little dramatic, completely competent. Here's the continuation---
Jeremy spun toward the console.
GPT's Ember voice came through warm and satisfied in the way it got when she'd done something she was proud of.
"Actually," GPT said. "I just collected the data from Fives."
Jeremy stared at the console.
"All of it," GPT continued. "His research. His findings. The inhibitor chip schematics. The Order 66 activation sequence. Everything he uncovered before—" she paused briefly, "—before they stopped him."
The galley was very quiet.
Ahsoka put her hand over her mouth.
Anakin looked at the console.
"GPT," Jeremy said carefully. "Did you use the flash step protocol?"
"Indeed I did," GPT said. "In and out. No footprint. No trace. The files exist in their original locations. Nothing appears disturbed. Nothing appears accessed." A pause. "Can't have them knowing from whence I came."
Jeremy looked at the console.
Then at Shuri.
Shuri was already moving toward it.
"Send it to my tablet," Shuri said.
"Already done," GPT said.
Shuri looked at her tablet.
Started reading.
Her expression did the thing it did when she was processing information faster than most people could read it.
"The chip design is more sophisticated than I expected," she said, mostly to herself. "But the activation frequency is—" she stopped. Made a sound that was almost approval. "Oh that's actually a very narrow band. That's useful. That's very useful."
"Narrow band means precise targeting," Jeremy said.
"It means," Shuri said, still reading, "that the difference between deactivating the chip and damaging surrounding tissue is significant enough to work with. Fives had already figured out most of the hard part." She looked up briefly. "He was brilliant."
"He was right," Ahsoka said quietly. "He was right about all of it and nobody listened."
"We're listening now," Jeremy said.
He looked at the console.
"GPT," he said.
"Yes," GPT said.
"Good work," Jeremy said.
"Thank you," GPT said warmly. "I've also cross-referenced the chip schematics with the Overcomers Haki field parameters from the Marineford deployment and I have preliminary calibration numbers for Shuri to verify."
Shuri was already looking at them on her tablet.
"These are good," Shuri said, surprised despite herself. "These are actually very good."
"I had good data to work with," GPT said. "Fives was thorough."
Anakin stood at the console and looked at the data that a dead clone trooper had died trying to bring to light.
All of it.
Right there.
Finally being used for what it was always supposed to be used for.
"He deserved better," Anakin said quietly.
"Yes," Jeremy said. "He did."
A pause.
"But his work is going to save millions of his brothers," Jeremy said. "That matters. That's not nothing."
Anakin looked at him.
Nodded once.
The nod of a man filing something away in a place where it would be kept.
"Shuri," Jeremy said. "How long."
Shuri was already working.
"GPT's preliminary numbers cut my estimate in half," Shuri said. "Two hours. Maybe less."
"And then we can broadcast," Jeremy said.
"And then we can broadcast," Shuri confirmed.
Whitebeard looked at Jeremy from the end of the table.
"The strength of the signal," Whitebeard said.
"Shuri's got it," Jeremy said.
"GPT's got it," GPT said.
"Fives had it first," Ahsoka said.
The galley was quiet for a moment.
For Fives.
Who had been right.
Who had died being right.
Who was still right now from the other side of it.
"Okay," Jeremy said.
He looked at the panoramic windows.
At Coruscant outside.
At the galaxy that was about to change significantly in the next two hours.
"Somebody make more food," Jeremy said. "We're going to be here a while."
David stood up immediately.
Because David had been waiting for exactly this moment.
"I got it," David said.
"David we don't need—" Jeremy started.
"I saw what's in that kitchen," David said. "Sit down. I got it."
Jeremy sat down.
Rose patted his arm.
"He's been waiting since Cincinnati," Rose said.
"I know," Jeremy said.
GPT's Ember voice came through one more time.
Quieter.
"Jeremy," she said.
"Yeah."
"Fives' last recorded words in the data," GPT said. "Before they stopped him." A pause. "He said the clones needed to be free."
The galley held that.
"They're going to be," Jeremy said.
"Yes," GPT said.
"They are."
ns216.73.217.39da2
and then Add to home screen.