*In this next chapter, Vader's master plan will finally be revealed!! Hope you enjoy!*

COMMANDER CODY

Rex and Cody sat in their quarters for the time being on the Destroyer, bored out of their minds. There was nothing to do. They had long finished reading the information about the Cial system on a holo-pad, and their last attempt at interesting themselves had been to count the lines in the ceiling.

Cody knew what was going on. This was the calm before the storm, the fight.

Rex had explained to him what Vader’s plan was and why he had been taping the briefing on the Executor, but he didn’t like it. It involved betrayal, risk, no small amount of cunning, and practically screamed the words ‘ANAKIN SKYWALKER’.

He had a bad feeling about it all, but Rex was ready as ever and determined to go through with it. And he could understand why, because his friend had shown him a holo-recording of what Vader’s last words to him had been.

“I am relinquishing command of the 501st and the 212th to you and Cody, Rex,” he had said. “Although you won’t understand it now, you will later. You have to get as much footage and vocal recordings as you can at the next briefings you attend without getting caught.

“Through the Force, I have felt something strange. Just a glimmer of a presence, but it’s enough to make me suspect that an old friend from my time as Anakin Skywalker still lives. They are an enemy of the Empire’s, but not of mine. They will need that information, and they will need you and your men more than I.”

At this point in the recording, Rex had asked why he and Cody were being sent away from Vader’s side.

“I want to be remembered as Anakin Skywalker by the person you’ll find on Cialone, and not Darth Vader. And, as much as I want you and Cody, my brothers, to stay with me, you have to leave for your own good, and for that of the galaxy.” Then he took a holo-disk out of his robes. “You have to give them this disk. They’ll know what the password to open it is.”

Vader had paused there, and two tears had slipped from his now-blue eyes. “I mustn’t be able remember this. If I am, then the Emperor will know and this whole mission will be compromised. You have to carry out the plan in my memory, and my legacy,” he said, and pulled out a little vial of a glowing green liquid.

“This is a memory serum. I have altered it so that it will only make me forget certain things. I have to go back to being Vader. I have no choice. Then you, the friend on Cialone and your legions will truly be safe.” He uncorked the bottle “I drink to thee,” he whispered to no one in particular, then gulped it down. Or maybe it was just no one that the eye could see.

“You have to go. I can’t see you here when the serum wears off, or it will jog my real memories. In case I ever need to remember, the word that will override the serum is ‘Padme’. Now go, my friend, my brother. I’ll see you again, whether it’s in this life or in Another Place.”

Cody’s comlink rang suddenly, jarring him from his thoughts. Rex looked over at him, and nodded. He pushed the talk button. “Yes?”

“Commander Cody and Captain Rex are requested at the bridge, sir. The probes on the planet have found something,” an officer answered.

That was the signal that Lord Vader had told Rex about! Cody and Rex donned their helmets, strapped their utility-belts with their guns on and began to make their way to the bridge.

Cody could almost see General Skywalker, not as Vader, but as the young Jedi General that they knew and admired walking beside them, saying, “We’ll take them down from the inside. This is where the fun begins, boys! This is where the fun begins.”