Tythelia, On the Eastern Fringes of The Outer Rim, 21 B.B.Y.

Anakin Skywalker let the wind of a far-flung world blow on his face, cool and refreshing in the early morning, as he closed his eyes and took a moment to center his focus. 

The world of Tythelia was like a lot of other worlds scattered throughout the galaxy; rather unremarkable. Sure, it was largely temperate, of a decent gravity and temperature for most species, and had little in the way of dangerous flora or fauna. It could even be considered, at any other time, safe.

But that it was not, because it was unlike most other worlds in the galaxy; strategically important. This world was known for the confluence of its central position on the Perlemian Trade Route and its proximity to several gas giants that were rich with the tibana gas used for weapons. Add in the fact that the rather new capital of the Confederacy, Raxus, was relatively close by, along with several worlds used for industry, and it explained why he, along with his padawan and elements of the 501st, was here.

For as temperate and populous as the world was, it had, shockingly, remained largely neutral. And, being as far removed from most of the battles out in this sector of space as it was, largely uncontested. That, of course, hadn’t prevented their target from coming into being. 

As Anakin opened his eyes, he put away the stuffy, rather boring briefing he’d received before infiltrating Confederacy space, looking at the refinery that bore the hexagonal mark of their foes. It was remarkably large, what intelligence agents they had here underselling its sprawl. Shuttles, all of them likely packed with harvested raw tibana, flew in and out as they had for the last three days that he and his men had spent camping on this forested hillside.

Speaking of camping, he heard and felt someone walking up to stand next to him, stretching as she yawned deeply. “So, Skyguy, when are we going to be done with sleeping in holes in the ground?”

“When we’re done scouting out the refinery, Ahsoka,” he said with a smile. “Don’t worry. It’ll be soon, I’m sure.”

Ahsoka, rubbing her twin white and blue striped head-tails and then her eyes, nodded. “Yeah. I’ve gotta say, this is probably a new record for you, Master.”

“Record, Snips?” Anakin asked archly.

“For how long it takes before something around you explodes. I think I’m going to owe credits if we don’t see action in another few days.”

“Credits?” Anakin said somewhat incredulously. “You’re betting on me? With who?”

“That would spoil the surprise, wouldn’t it?” Ahsoka replied as she grinned mischievously. 

Anakin sighed quietly. “As your master, and someone who’s seen what gambling can do to someone… don’t get too serious with it. It can get bad. Really bad.”

“Are we talking about the situation, sir?”

Anikin found himself somewhat surprised that Captain Rex had managed to sneak up behind him. “Something like that, yeah,” he said, grateful for the change in topic. “Has Fives gotten back to you yet?”

Rex shook his head, his face exposed as he held his helmet by his side. “No, sir. I’m guessing he’s still trying to find some way into our target.”

Anakin sighed as he nodded, taking a pair of electrobinoculars that had been sitting on a stool next to them and scanning the facility, the view zooming in to allow him to clearly see what Fives was likely seeing as well.

“He’s probably going to be looking for a while if we want to stay quiet,” he said as he considered the remarkable amount of defenses. “This is supposed to be their primary refinery, if I remember correctly.” 

“And they certainly treat it like it is,” Rex remarked. “Guard towers, automated defenses, regular ground and air patrols, and enough sensor tech to spot a flea jumping off a bantha in the middle of the night. And not a single non-droid worker to try and replace in an infiltration.”

“That’s a lot to ask of two Jedi and a dozen clone troopers. Even if they’re the best. Maybe…” Ahsoka said as she cupped her chin thoughtfully. “Maybe there’s a secondary station somewhere that this place draws power from. If that’s the case, we could make an opening we can slip into to cause some chaos.”

“Not a bad idea,” Anakin said as he lowered his electrobinocs. There was a part of him, small as it was now, that hated that he was complimenting the military strategy of a now 15-year-old. But it was a part that he pushed aside, set in that little box labeled ‘things Jedi shouldn’t be focusing on right now’. She had saved their lives more than a few times. As long as he trusted her instincts, he was sure it would happen again. 

“Problem with that,” Rex remarked as Anakin found himself lost in thought for a moment, “is that the base is large enough that they could do all their power generation on-site. We might find secondary stations to hit, but I doubt that knocking something like that out would do much for long.”

“All we need is a few seconds if we’re ready,” Ahsoka said confidently. “If we can get their attention focussed on something else, even for just a moment, we-”

There was a flash of light in the sky accompanied by a distant, growling sound unlike anything any of them had heard before, one that caught everyone’s attention and ended any and all conversation as it drew the eyes of the entire camp. It allowed everyone to see the flickering… something, white mixed in with a multitude of colors, that flashed once, then again, then disappeared.

“What was that?” Rex asked as he put his helmet on.

Anakin once again raised his electrobinoculars, pointing to where he last saw the flashes. Zooming in…  zooming in… there.

“It’s a ship,” he said, studying the smoking, spiraling craft. “Looks like a shuttle of some sort.”

“A gas transport shuttle?” Rex asked. “Maybe there was an accident.”

“No, too small. It doesn’t look like anything I’ve ever seen before,” Anakin said as he tracked its descent. It began to right itself, but couldn’t stop its rapid fall. A fall that would put it in the refinery. “I’ve also never seen an explosion like that before. Some sort of warp drive failure?”

“I’ve never seen any warp drive fail like that,” Ahsoka replied. “Not that I’ve seen many drives detonate before.”

It took long seconds for the ship to finally crash into the plant itself, a long line of smoke and flames drawn behind it as it barreled through the inside of the refinery, going through one of the tibana silos and causing a massive explosion as the gas lit up from the trailing flames.

Even from here, they could hear the alarms beginning to wail as Anakin focused on the endpoint of the shuttle’s crash. 

“Crikk…” he breathed. “That ship’s mostly intact still. Its shields must have still been functioning during the crash.”

He handed the binocs to Ahsoka so she could see, thinking silently for a moment as he made a decision. “If their shields were still on…” Ahsoka said as he thought. “Could there be survivors in there?”

As the question was asked, Anakin made his decision. “We’re about to find out. Rex, get everyone ready. We have to act now, while they’re focused on the shuttle.”

“Yes, sir,” Rex replied, turning and ordering the other troopers, their explosives specialists Blink and Thundercut especially, to make sure they were ready to go.

‘This is going to be interesting,’ Anakin mused as he caught, from the corner of his eye, another clone, Artila, sliding Ahsoka a credit chip.

He had no idea.

.  .  . 

In the compound itself, the garrison of battle droids, B1s and B2s accompanied by somewhat heavier spider droids, began to surround the strange craft that had just made a remarkable mess of their refinery.

It was a long, somewhat thin shuttle, two pairs of wings that folded to be flush to the sides of the body mangled and forced out, at least those two that had remained on the shuttle during its crash landing. The hull was blackened, pitted, and scored, though from before the crash or because of it the droids weren’t entirely sure.

One B1, scanning the wreck, focussed on the insignia, what was left of it that could be discerned at least, that was emblazoned on the side. “Does that look like the Republic symbol to you?” it asked its companion.

“It’s not Republic,” the other B1 said in slight exasperation. “How much junk code is there in your processor? You think that,” it said as it pointed at the bright blue, almost bird-like design, “looks like a Republic cog?”

“Well, it could be the Republic trying to trick us.” the first B1 said pointedly.

“You think that about every ship that isn’t one of ours,” the other replied. “Let’s go and…”

It paused as a thunk came from inside the ship, at one of the side hatches. Guns were raised, and the droids advanced cautiously to the hatch as the sound repeated. “Come out with your hands up!” the first B1 shouted.

“They probably didn’t mean to crash into us, CY-17,” the other droid said. “They’ll need help more than anything.”

Finally, the hatch opened, a booted foot retreating as a human man in black robes made his way out. He was followed for a moment by another woman wrapped in brown robes before the man in black waved her back into the shuttlecraft. He looked to be in his 30s, with a short head of dark blond hair and a well-trimmed beard. There were more than a few nicks and scratches on him, a notable bruise peeking out on his right cheek from under his beard.  

“Get the others out!” he said, the woman pausing before she nodded and made her way back in.

“Excuse me, sir,” the second B1 said, walking up to the man as he stumbled forward and looked around the scene with no small amount of shock. “Are you in need of medical assistance?”

The man looked at the droid for a moment and nodded. “Yes. Yes, there are wounded people in the shuttle. We have our own medic, but…”

He turned, and as he turned, his cloak billowed from the fires that were beside them to reveal a gleaming hilt that could only be one thing. A lightsaber.

CY-17 was the first to spot it. And the first to react. “He’s a Jedi!” it shouted as it stepped back and raised its blaster. “Blast him!”

In a flash, the man’s saber was out, a snap-hum preceding a trail of brilliant green light that cut CY-17 down, the first of dozens more to follow as he deflected blaster bolts and sent the droids around him flying with the Force. 

In an instant, the woman reappeared as well, activating a lightsaber of her own and leaping into the fray, a purple blade carving into the droids that approached him as she blocked the blaster bolts that came in torrents towards them.

“Are the others safe, Mara?” the man asked as he grasped a spider droid’s cannon with the Force, bending it into uselessness. 

“Of course they are,” Mara replied as she pulled a blaster pistol from its holster, aiming at and shattering the eye sensors of the spider droid. “We just need a way out of here.”

“Easier said than done,” the man muttered as he dashed towards a bulky B2, running it through and using the Force to crush the two others that stood beside it like tin cans as he used the first like a shield. 

Another lightsaber, a brilliant beam of blue, flew out, a whirlwind that twirled and tore through several droids before returning to its user’s hands, another man in a more utilitarian outfit, his red hair unkempt and his beard somewhat longer and scruffier than the first man's. He got to work covering their left flank, taking to the fight with practiced ease. 

After a moment more, he looked out to one side, pointing. “Look! Someone else is coming!”

The man turned his head and saw… the impossible.

Soldiers in white armor with blue markings, ones that were almost but not quite familiar, spread out and laid down fire, two of them dashing off with a third to plant what looked like explosives on some of the tanks that were still standing. 

Driving through the crowd of droids, blades of blue and green making a path of twisted, sizzling metal, were two Jedi, one a human man, armed and armored, just as all the holograms the man had ever found showed him, the other a Togruta woman, more a girl, by his side.

After long moments, the two groups of Jedi united. “Are you alright?” the man who was nominally their rescuer asked.

The man nodded. “We’re fine. There’s three more…”

He looked back, and saw the final trio emerging from the ruined shuttle; a young woman with strawberry-blonde hair carrying a much older man, his hair white and his fair skin wrinkled. The woman looked around at the chaos before adjusting her carry of the man, pulling out a heavy blaster pistol and beginning to take shots as best she could. Behind her, perhaps the most striking sight of all; a Dathomiri woman, her short hair an ashen gray, almost silver, and her eyes framed by dark gray tattoos on pale skin. 

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

She pulled out, of all things, a spear that she leveled at a droid, her throw skewering the frail armature before a flash of green made it disappear, the weapon reappearing in her hand.

“We’ll clear a path out of here for you!” the Togruta Jedi said. “Come with us!”

“Not like we have much of a choice!” the other man said, covering them from the left. “We stay here, these battle droids will cut us to pieces!”

“Come on!” their Jedi rescuer, a man who was clearly in command, said as he turned back to where he’d come from. “Follow me to the clones!”

With that, the group made a concerted push towards the clone troopers, Mara and the other man falling back to the two women and the older man to protect them as they went. After long moments where the weight of fire falling on them finally slackened due to how many droids they’d destroyed, they made it back to the line of clones taking cover behind a building.

“Sir,” one of the troopers, wielding two pistols, said as the Jedi and company joined them, “Blink and Thundercut are almost done setting charges. We’ll need to be out of here as quickly as we can before the window for getting off-planet closes. The Seps have to be broadcasting a distress call.”

“Please,” the Dathomiri woman said, looking around, “allow me to help. I can make this quick once you need a way out.”

“I’m not exactly in the business of trusting Dathomiri women,” the Togruta Jedi said skeptically. “The one we know is usually trying to kill us.”

“If she’s friendly to us, then I don’t see a reason to turn down help, Snips,” the commander said. He paused and looked at the Dathomiri woman meaningfully. “You… will help us with whatever you’re going to do, right?”

She nodded. “I don’t have any intention of making enemies today,” she said firmly. “You’re our way out as much as we are yours.”

“I hope this works, General Skywalker,” the pistol-wielding clone said.

“You and me both, Rex,” General Skywalker replied.

“Here they come!” one of the clones shouted, pointing at the trio that had peeled off. They raced back towards the collected group as fast as they could, one of them turning to shoot some droids that were trying to follow. 

“Charges planted, sir!” one of the clones called out.

“Whatever you’re going to do,” General Skywalker said, “do it now.”

The Dathomiri woman walked past them, taking out a phial-shaped metal flask and using a thumb to unscrew the top. Green mist trailed from it as she traced a large circle, as wide and tall as she was in the air before her. As she completed it, it became a vortex, transparent waves being pulled in… somewhere.

“I’ll go first,” the Dathomiri woman said. “Follow me in a few seconds.”

With that, she stepped through and vanished. The red-haired man was first to follow after her. Soon enough, the others followed suit, the man watching as he flew through the world in a green-tinged tunnel, zipping up and over the wall into the forest beyond it.

He emerged with sure footing, walking confidently. Not all of the clones were so fortunate. Or even all of the Jedi.

The Togruta Jedi lay on her back, groaning softly. “Thanks for the rescue…” she began, looking up at the Dathomiri woman.

“Merrin,” she said simply.

“Merrin,” the Togruta Jedi replied. “Again, thanks, but I’d rather not do something like that again.”

The man walked past her to General Skywalker. “Your men said they planted charges. How far away should we be before they blow?”

“This is a tibana refinery,” General Skywalker began.

“Ah,” the man replied. “So, far away, then.”

“Pretty much,” General Skywalker nodded, casting his gaze across the now fully reunited group. “Let’s get moving, everyone.”

He turned to walk away, then looked back at the man. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you around. “I’m Anakin Skywalker, that’s Ahsoka, and Rex and Fives lead the clone squad here. You are…?”

The man was silent for long moments. It was so strange seeing him like this. In his prime. Without the overflowing rage and pain that had defined so much of him as the man knew him.

“I’m Luke,” the man said. “That’s Mara, Cal, and of course, Merrin.”

“Good to meet you, Luke,” Anakin replied. He glanced back at the last two who hadn’t been introduced yet. “Who are they?”

Luke looked back at the couple. “They’re Dan and Elle. He’s… how we got here.”

The last words were almost murmured, Anakin not noticing as he returned his attention to the troopers and getting clear of the blast radius this refinery was going to make. 

.  .  .

It was something of a long walk, the group making it to a camp that had been established well back in the hills. It gave a commanding view of the refinery in question. And, as Blink pressed a button, the remarkable red, blue, and green fireball that all that tibana made the refinery in question.

The older man was attended to by one of the other clones, a medic the others named Malachite. “He’s still breathing, ma’am,” he said to Elle. “Besides the bumps and bruises, he should pull through just fine. I’ll want to see him in a dedicated medical facility, though. Likely onboard our flagship. Should pick us up when we get out of here.”

Elle nodded. “Do you have a shuttle close by?” she asked before nodding to the burning refinery. “That’s probably going to call a whole fleet down on us.”

“We hid one here,” Anakin replied, the clones pulling off a camouflage tarp to reveal the nondescript shuttle in question. “It’s what we came in on.”  

“Then let’s not waste any time,” Luke said. “The last thing we need is to get noticed this far into your mission.”

“Agreed,” Anakin said. “Let’s load up.”

For as regular-looking as the pill-shaped shuttle was, it was remarkably fast. It was only a minute or so until they were clear of the atmosphere. They were long past the planet beyond it when the first Confederacy ships began to come out of warp. 

“And there they are,” one of the clones, the one Anakin called Drum, said with a chuckle as he watched the sensor readout. “Just in time to see Blink and Thundercut’s fine work.”

“Hardly our work,” Thundercut said with a shrug. “Sitting on that much tibana, it only took about a quarter of the explosives any sensible refinery would have needed to start a chain reaction. And now, they’ll be keeping track of their shots for months to come on this front.”

“Which is exactly what we needed,” Anakin said, sitting next to Ahsoka and Rex at a small table. He looked at Luke after a moment. “Which leads me to the people who made that possible. What had you guys all the way into Separatist space like this?”

That question was better answered by someone else, Luke knew. He looked over at Elle, sitting next to Dan as the man lay on the gurney. Elle looked back at Luke, then at an expectant Anakin and Ahsoka.

She closed bright green eyes and sighed quietly. “Well, Commander Skywalker… as ridiculous as it sounds, we’re from the future.”

The words, like a spell, made the entire shuttle fall silent, all eyes turning to the resolute expression on Elle’s face. “You’re joking,” Ahsoka finally said. “You have to be.”

“We came in on a New Republic shuttle,” Elle continued. “I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t see the insignia. Honestly, we should probably thank you for destroying it along with the refinery. Where — when — we came from, it’s likely nothing that might have been lodged in or attached to our hull could have survived.”

“Survived?” Fives said incredulously. “And wait a minute. New Republic? What happened to this one?”

Elle opened her mouth, then closed it silently as she looked over at Luke and the others. “A lot.” she finally said. “Coming from the future, knowing what we do, there are things that we could say that have the potential to destroy everything that you hold dear if the wrong people hear them. I’m sorry… but I hope you’ll understand why we might keep secrets. Though there are some things that we can explain once my husband wakes up.”

Anakin’s jaw clenched for a moment before he sighed quietly. “As long as those secrets don’t endanger my men, I guess that’s fine for now. But the instant they might, I’m going to ask.”

Elle nodded. 

“And hold on,” Ahsoka interjected. “I’ve seen a lot of things, but the old man is your husband?”

“Well, like Luke said,” Elle explained, “he’s the reason we’re here. Manipulating time like he did has deep effects for even the most minor of uses. And… well, this wasn’t minor.”

“How far back in time did you people come from, exactly?” Malachite asked somewhat slowly.

Elle frowned slightly looking at Luke, then at Cal. “I’d say… a little over 30 years.”

“That long?” Rex said skeptically. “I have to ask, but are you all sure that the crash didn’t knock you all senseless?”

“I can confirm that,” Malachite said. “Besides the physical injuries, there’s no signs of any other trauma. That includes cranial.” 

“So that leaves scamming us,” Rex said. “Tell me something that only someone from the future would know.”

“That old saw?” Elle said skeptically. She was silent for a moment, her brow furrowed in thought as she looked down at Dan.

Finally, she nodded, sighing quietly. “Has Kamino been attacked for the third time? Or is it the second?”

“Third?” Anakin asked. “There was a battle on Kamino about two months after the war kicked off. Then… I guess you could count the Mandalorian raid about a year ago as a battle. Are you saying the Separatists are going to try and attack Kamino again?”

Elle nodded. “Yes. And 99 is going to be a casualty of that event.” 

“99?” Rex asked. “Who’s that?”

“A defective clone,” Fives interjected quietly, his eyes wide, almost… haunted. 

“One of my friends, back on Kamino,” he continued. “Everyone in Domino Squad looked up to him. Just ask Echo once we get back to the Resolute.”

He looked at Elle intensely. “How do you know 99?”

“Because he earns a combat commendation, the highest one possible, for trying to get more ammo for an ambush you participate in,” Elle replied. “They name a task force after him.”

“You’re not kidding,” Fives whispered after a shocked moment. “You really don’t think you’re kidding.”

“I wish I wasn’t,” Elle said quietly. “From what little I could tell… he seemed like a good man.”

“One of the best,” Fives replied. 

“If you're not bluffing, or trying to scam us…” Rex began slowly, “Then you might be a real valuable intelligence asset.”

“Like she said, bucket-head,” Mara piped up, “some secrets we can't tell until it's appropriate. And some we might never share. All told, we're probably better off closer to the action than sitting in some dim room on Coruscant.”

“Ouch,” one of the clones, one Anakin introduced as Kep, said. “That's a little uncalled for. Bad experience with clones?”

Mara looked at Kep for a moment, then the helmet that was at the man’s side. “Let’s just say that people who wear armor that looks like yours become really unpopular in a few years.”

It was silent as the shuttle continued on its way, eventually leaving hyperspace in a system well away from the front.

“Well,” Anakin said as he stood from his seat, going to the window to see the massive asteroid field, and the fleet base that settled within it, “welcome to the Roche fleet posting. We’ll transfer you over to our flagship, the Resolute. Then, we’re going to report you to the Council.”

Luke, Mara, Cal, and Merrin stepped to the window, looking out over the collected fleet with no small amount of awe. “I count… what 50 capital ships?” Mara said. “Along with attending cruisers and corvettes… There must be hundreds of ships here.”

“It’s our hub for keeping an eye on the entire galactic northeast,” Anakin explained as they made their way towards one of the ships that looked as though it was preparing to leave. It was a mighty Venator, wedge-shaped and striped in red across its gray surface. “That, there, is the Resolute. Home away from home.”

They ascended into the lower hangar bay entrance, the massive corridor of the ship’s hangar filled with fighters, bombers, and transports. Clone soldiers, along with other human and alien technicians and engineers, made the bay a bustling place. 

As the shuttle came in to land, it gathered a crowd of clone troopers and a gray-clad human, standing sternly at attention in amusing contrast to the rather more raucous clones.

The shuttle touched down, and the hatch opened to the cheers of clone troopers, the sound only intensifying as Anakin, Ahsoka, and Captain Rex, along with a few of the other clones, stepped down the ramp. 

The cheers quieted as Luke and his group emerged, Malachite helping Elle bring Dan down the ramp on a collapsable stretcher. 

“Sir,” the gray-uniformed man, looking at Anakin with an arched brow that sat over deep blue eyes and a thin mustache, said, “may I ask who you’ve brought home this time?”

“Some guests who helped us out against the droids, Admiral,” Anakin replied. “Come meet us in the medbay when you can. I’m going to want to talk with you about them.”

Malachite waved away the clones that were beginning to crowd around the new arrivals as they made their way towards what Malachite assured them was a medbay of the ship, the Admiral following them for a moment as the clones largely stayed behind with their comrades, only Rex following along. “And Admiral,” Anakin said, “we looked like we were heading out of here, right?”

“General Kenobi and the 212th requested our assistance over in the Boz Pity system,” the Admiral replied. “Apparently, the Separatists are using it as a forward staging area for their assaults further into the Mid-Rim. Resistance is somewhat greater than expected.”

“We’ll make our way over there and punch the Seps in the face, then,” Anakin said with a slight grin. “Far be it from me to turn down my master asking for help.”

“I expected as much,” Yularen replied, a ghost of a smile on his own face. “I’ll get us underway as soon as I’m able to.”

“Good.” Anakin continued for a moment in silence, his grin slowly disappearing. “And Yularen.”

“Yes?”

“Once we’re done there… could you try and pull some strings to get us assigned somewhere close to Kamino?”

“Why Kamino, sir?” Yularen asked with no small amount of surprise.

“It has to do with our guests,” Anakin said simply. “I’ll explain after we meet in the medbay. Or I could let them explain.” 

“Very well,” Yularen said after a moment. “I’ll see what I can do.”

With that, he turned down a side corridor, the rest of the party making their way soon enough to an auxiliary medbay.

It was relatively small, with only 8 gurneys with medical equipment taking up a majority of the room, with two bacta tanks in the corners of the wall on their right, shedding a blue glow that tinged the white space around them. 

“This place’ll keep you out of the way of the other soldiers, offer some privacy,” Malachite explained as Dan was hoisted onto a bed. “I’ll do a quick scan, then try and wake him up.”

Elle nodded, looking over at Rex, Anakin, and Ahsoka. “And are we expected to be under guard?”

“Well,” Rex said, “until we can verify that you won’t be a security threat, we’ll keep two soldiers posted at the entrance. That’s all. We’ll clear out a bunk room for some privacy close by, but until we’re sure, that’ll be the extent of you all wandering around the ship.”

“That’s entirely reasonable,” Luke said. “Operational security is a must, especially during wartime.”

“And are you a wartime Jedi, Luke?” Ahsoka asked as Rex stepped out of the room to make the necessary calls.

“For quite a while, yes,” Luke admitted. “Though not war quite like you might be used to.”

The answer seemed to visibly unsettle Ahsoka, Anakin’s brow furrowing slightly. “What kind of war?” he asked.

“Guerilla fighting, hit and fade tactics, supply interdiction,” Mara replied glibly. “Your mission writ-galactically-large.”

“Does the Galactic Republic…” Ahsoka said slowly. “Do we lose this war where you’re from?”

Before anyone could reply, movement from the gurney put all attention on the stirring form of Dan, his eyes open, a clear, sharp blue that scanned his hands and then the room, focusing on Ahsoka. 

“There’s not much we can tell you right at this moment,” he said, a weathered but firm tone to his voice. “But I think I can say this. At the end of this war, everyone loses.”