Shadows of 79's

The smell of burning duracrete and blaster fire stuck to Clive’s robes. Wouldn’t wash out. His lungs burned, his legs screamed, and that last whisper from his master—run—still echoed in his ears. Coruscant’s lower levels had become a maze of shadows and sirens, and every corner he turned seemed to tighten the net around him.

The 501st swept through the Temple like a tide of white and blue. Soracc shoved him into a service duct just before the bolts hit. Clive heard the thud of his master’s body on the marble, felt the light fade in the Force. He crawled through the dark, gripping his lightsaber hilt like a lifeline, until he emerged into an alley slick with rain and blood.

Now, hood pulled low, breathing ragged, he stumbled into a neon-lit street that felt too quiet. A sign flickered above a door: 79’s. Music thumped inside, muffled and rhythmic. Clive hesitated. Distant wail of patrol speeders. Staccato of blaster fire. He needed cover. Needed to think.

He pushed the door open.

The bar was a cavern of dim light and stale air. Holos of past battles flickered on the walls—Geonosis, Umbara, worlds Clive had only read about. The patrons were almost all clones. Hundreds of them, packed into booths, lined along the bar. Many still in armor, helmets tucked under arms or resting on tables. A few had removed their buckets, revealing identical faces marked by scars, tattoos, and the haunted look of men who’d seen too much.

Clive’s heart hammered. He was a Jedi. Or what was left of one. In a bar full of the men who had just murdered his family.

He forced his feet forward and slid into a corner booth, back to the wall. Head down, hands hidden under the table, trying to make himself small. The Force around him felt fractured, like cracked glass. He’d been trained to stay calm, to blend in, but his grief kept spilling out. He tried to pull it back, but it leaked through his fingers.

Breathe. Just breathe.

Two booths away, a group of clones were deep in conversation. Their voices carried over the thrum of the music.

“…heard the 501st hit the Temple an hour ago. Took out half the council before they even knew what was happening.”

“Good riddance. The Jedi were traitors, plain and simple.”

“You believe that, Knot? Really?”

Knot shrugged, gauntleted fingers drumming on the table. “Doesn’t matter what I believe. Orders came down. We follow.”

A third clone, older by the scar carving a line through his brow, leaned forward. “Orion’s got a point. Something about this doesn’t sit right.”

Clive’s ears perked up. Orion. He risked a glance. The clone they’d called Orion sat at the end of the table, armor scuffed and unpolished. He wasn’t drinking. Just staring into a half-empty glass like it held answers to questions he’d never dared ask.

“It’s not about sitting right,” Knot said. “It’s about duty. We’re soldiers.”

“We’re murderers,” Orion said quietly.

The table went silent.

Clive’s breath caught. He looked down too late. Orion’s gaze had landed on him. For a long second, their eyes met—Orion’s tired, sharp, full of something like guilt. Clive looked away. He felt the clone’s attention linger like a weight on his skin. He tried to look ordinary—just a scared civilian in the wrong place. But his hands shook, and his lightsaber hilt pressed against his ribs like a secret he couldn’t hide.

A few minutes later, a shadow fell over his booth.

“You okay there, kid?”

Clive looked up. Orion stood beside the table, helmet tucked under one arm. Lean face, thin scar from temple to jaw. Brown eyes like all clones, but tired. Intelligent.

“I’m fine,” Clive said, voice cracking. “Just… trying to get home. The whole sector’s locked down.”

“Rough night to be out,” Orion said. He didn’t sit, but didn’t leave either. “You a student? From the University?”

“Something like that.” Clive forced a weak smile. “Lost my ID in the chaos.”

Orion’s gaze flicked to Clive’s jacket, where the fabric had bunched oddly over his chest. “You’re not from around here, are you? Your accent sounds like… Corellian?”

Clive’s mind raced. He’d grown up on Corellia before the Jedi