Anakin ran his fingers against the heated screen of the computer. It had been running nonstop for days and the heat threatened to burn out the circuits inside. However, the Kaminoians decided that was well worth the risk as they were still trying to figure out how humans responded to cloning. Cloning wasn't a simple process, it was difficult for even the most technologically advanced races and even if a system did have the tech to pull it off, more often than not, gene mutation ethics would get in the way. Kaminoans were perfect in that regard as they were both genius and cloning was morally acceptable to them.

  They weren't influenced by Repubic policies, which were very much against cloning and gene modification. Of course, there were some species that relied on cloning just for the sake of survival due to repopulation difficulties and even then the Republic kept a close eye on them. Cloning was very much regulated in the Republic only spared for reproduction difficulties or rare exotic animals, it was not only an expensive process but one that was difficult to achieve due to the very fragile nature of genes.

  Even if cloning wasn't so technologically difficult, there was the ethically difficulty. Hypothetically if cloning was possible we could create a perfect race, choosing genes, eradicating diseases and removing undesirable traits. There is a genetic component to intelligence, you could make a race smarter, make them stronger, make them more predisposed to positive learning and even lower depression risk.

  Yet, as a society we are constantly changing. What we see as attractive now might be unattractive in a few hundreds of years. Many races see women as lower beings, to them cloning would mean erasing them, seeing them only as a disease. Completely wiping out a gender just because it was 'not optimal'.

  Attractiveness is also subjective and therefore at what point is something a disease? Is blue eyes a disease? Are certain ethnic groups considered less than others? Should they be removed?

  Also 'if' these perfect children were being born? Who would get them? The rich, they were the only ones that would be able to afford cloning. Now suddenly you have the rich producing these children who are born better. Elite athletes, CEOs, government leaders and scientists would all be these perfect children as while it wouldn't be impossible for natural borns to compete, however, these genetically made children with finical support would have every advantage over them.

  With the most popular, well-paying and powerful jobs going to these perfect children then suddenly you just get those who can afford cloning and gene mutation getting richer while those who can't afford it can't compete. Cloning would be a luxury for the rich only furthering the gap between the 99% and the top 1%

  That was the problem with eugenics. It just didn't work when considering the selfish and subjective nature of mortals.

  "I can't believe it, I've heard of cloning but I've never actually seen it." Padme stared in wonder out of the window of the nursery. There wasn't many incubators, they were still just trying to figure out how to clone a race that wasn't Kaminoian afterall. Once they find some success, they will begin mass production.

  "Yes, we are quite proud of the progress we've made. You humans are remarkably resilient, adaptable to the many environments and climates of the Galaxy, add the fact you repopulate like a Smu-hastan it's no wonder you are the most populous race." The Kaminoian explained. They were given a personal scientist that was ordered to give them a tour, something the Kaminoian was not happy about.

  "You are too kind to humanity, we are far from a perfect race," Anakin spoke, though his eyes never strayed far from the incubators. "That one has melanoma, that one has extra fingers and that one is coughing up blood, I assume he's got twenty different types of cancers that have metastasised to his lungs."

  "Yes, it took us decades and a great flood to achieve cloning Kamonians. Our race was on the brink of extinction, we put everything we had into our research and even now cloning isn't perfected. Compared to you human natural births, our children suffer more defects during the cloning process, and we have more stillborns. While humans are a more resilient race, starting with a completely new gene pool, unlike our own has proven some difficulties."

  There was a reason childbirth existed. It worked. Cloning was difficult and meticulous work, while sex was easy. Just stick it in the hole wiggle it around a bit and bam! Child. Maybe in the future cloning would be better but as of now, the natural process worked.

  "At the rate we are progressing we will have an functional army in six years." It wouldn't be six. It would be two, maybe they would make a breakthrough in human cloning or the fact humans were more resilient than Kamoians but they would be done in a third of the time given. Then again they were probably just lying, they were scientist afterall and what smart person wouldn't barter for more time for free.

  "I can't believe this is a whole army of clones. How much could have this all cost." She whispered to herself in awe at the sheer wealth that was before her. Research, equipment, the very best Kaminoan engineering. Kamino was also far away from the core, transporting cost alone would be expensive.

  "Yes, the Republic and Jedi have certainly been generous. Cloning a planetary garrison alone would be expensive but a Galaxy-wide army? The wealth of the Republic truly feels limitless."

  But it wasn't and Anakin watched as Padme ran the numbers in her mind. Cloning wasn't cheap and he could tell Padme was counting every hospital, every school, how the money that was being used for a secret military could be better spent.

  "I do believe that the expense the Republic has put in us will be well worth it. We estimate that this will be the strongest army in the Galaxy now or even the past. Honestly, we were hesitant of cloning a bounty hunter or an army, behavior has a genetic component and we weren't thrilled at the idea of a bunch of drug-shooting ruffians running around. Yet, Fett has shown he is quite a genetic goldmine. He's disciplined, well trained and to be frank. He's perfect for an army. The clones that come out with a functional brain has responded well to training."

  "Brainwashing," Anakin corrected.

  "Yes, I suppose that's a more accurate term." The Kaminoan admitted. But they weren't being paid so much to have moral obligations.

  "Brainwashing?" Padme questioned.

  "We haven't yet started to experiment with changing the genetics of the brain, but simple grooming behaviours by our therapists have been showing promise, simply implanting the concepts of loyalty and patriotism whilst they grow."

  "That's inhumane."

  "Agreed. We Kaminoians only use cloning and gene modification to prevent the end of our species. The idea of clones being nothing more than materials for war disgust us, we do not percieve clones as lower beings such as you do."

  "I don't think that." Padme lied. Not that Anakin blamed her of course, to her who was raised in the republic clones were seen as 'lesser'. They were not natural, they weren't original and most importantly they weren't protected by the same laws that natural borns were.

  "But if you care so much about clones then how could you breed an army? Doesn't this go against something?" Padme argued.

  "We do not take blame for what happens off Kamino. Do you blame a car dealer or a drunk driver for running over children? This is your army, Senator, if you do not like it then use it in other ways," the Kaminoian explained. "Now that we have seen the breeding pods let us show you how functional they are in motor skills."

  "It seems the Kaminoians were telling the truth. There really was a Jedi, Sifo-Dyas, along with some Republic senators who built this army in secret." Obi-Wan aimed for Anakin's shoulder with his lightsaber; the blow was slow and obvious, but the intention of the blow was just to warm up.

  "So the Jedi really was behind this?" Anakin rolled his eyes, being forced to play dumb. The chosen one attacked Obi-Wan, closing the gap between them so instead of lightsaber combat it was now a flurry of blows of hilts and elbows.

  Shifu had been a skilled Jedi, but Obi-Wan was better, more experienced. Despite Anakin's non-traditional fighting style, it had little effect against the knight, who at this moment still surpassed Anakin's current ability.

  "A Jedi," Obi-Wan corrected, ducking under a strike from Anakin and then delivering a strong knee to Anakin's thigh, forcing him to retreat, hopping back on one leg. "Not the council. I have alerted them to the situation and they have made it clear that they were not aware of the situation. Apparently, Sifo-Dyas had come to the council with the proposal of creating an army due to visions but without any real indication the Sith have come back they were against the idea. Seems he went behind the Council's back and did it anyway."

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  "And what will the Jedi do now?

  "They- I have been given orders not to interfere with the clone army. At the time, there was no sign of the Sith but with Dooku leading the CIS they believe that it's only a matter of time before another Jedi/Sith war. As of now the Jedi do support the idea of the clone army in preperation for the war and since it really was commissioned by a Jedi and not a Sith Lord they do have some faith. Sifo-Dyas is currently MIA but they are trying to find him, it's not uncommon for Jedi to disappear for long period of time on their own personal missions but they want more information about this army."

  Of course they did. The Jedi still believed this was going to still be a traditional war. Why wouldn't it be? The last conflicts with the Sith had been after all, and the Jedi had won those. They were too used to war, to ignorant to see beyond their own dogma. To blind and prideful see that the Sith were sick of losing wars.

  "Well that's good, I suppose, no Sith is going to hijack the army and kill the Jedi when they least expect it." By now, the clone army was no doubt already under Palpatine and Dooku's control. Syfl-Dyas may have had the idea and contacted the Kaminoians but Dooku quickly caught on after him and took over the project for his own mass murder purposes.

  "This may have been done by a Jedi but I don't like this, I understand the necessity of an army for the upcoming war. No less one of such quality. But, Qui-Gon would never approve of such a method. Breeding and raising beings and putting them into a war. There is a difference between soldiers who choose to fight for their country and soldiers born and groomed for it."

  "Cause the Jedi don't do that at all." Anakin sarcastically teased, which earned him a sharp kick to the ribs, sending him staggering back.

  "Jedi can leave the order whenever they want. Besides, it's not like our goal is to fight Sith, the Jedi exist to help beings less fortunate then ourselves. With our gifts in the Force, it's our duty as the lucky to help the unfortunate. Despite popular belief, Jedi are not judged on their combat ability, I would rather stand beside the worst duelist if he was kind than vice versa."

  Anakin would have argued that many of the Jedi didn't see the order that way. A lot of Jedi didn't see themselves as peacekeepers but rather executioners. The goal of the Jedi right now wasn't to help the galaxy but rather to exterminate the Sith. It was a little hypocritical of Anakin to critique the Jedi on putting side the good of the Galaxy to kill the Sith when he himself had sacrificed the Galaxy many times to kill Palpatine, but then agai,n he was no Jedi.

  Regardless the two continued their training, the only thing allowing Anakin to keep up with Obi-Wan was his advanced knowledge on his old master's fighting style and his unpredictable moves that no one would ever find in any temple holocron.

  "Well well well, if it isn't the Jedi." A voice snarled, Anakin never saw the face as it was covered by the iconic Mandalorian helmet. "Care for a few more?"

  Padme watched from the observation deck of the training rooms looking at the scene below. Anakin's brow had been bloodied to the point one of his eyes had crusted shut whilst Obi-Wan was sporting a nice little artwork of electric burns on his back.

  It looked like a scene from a high school drama where a group of bullies surround the main character and his best friend and proceed to beat them up, except from the way Obi-Wan smirked, that didn't seem to be the case.

  The group of clones and Mandalorians surrounded the Jedi, all shirtless cause of cause they had to be. She rolled her eyes at men's need to be shirtless while exercising but she continued to look down observing the scene. The clones (she figured from the fact they all looked the same) and Mandalorians were taking turns charging at them. They were treating this as a game, all groups using low-energy stun batons that Coruscant police would often use. That's probably where they got them anyway, but Padme pushed the thought out of her mind. The fact that there was a secret army was bad enough, she didn't have to think about the weapon shipments as well.

  A group of two clones charged at Anakin while a singular Mandalorian went after Obi-Wan, there was no real order, just an unspoken word that they wouldn't all just attack Obi-Wan and Anakin at once.

  Obi-Wan effortlessly used his baton to parry the Mandalorian before sweeping his legs. The Mandalorian fell to the floor with a loud thud but got up laughing and went back to the circle waiting for his next turn.

  Anakin however, weaved between the two clones who not only threw a furry of baton strikes but also a few elbows and knees. Not that it mattered of course, Anakin was like a conductor, leading the fight as like a conductor would lead an orchestra till eventually the climax, where in a swift, almost artistic blow he knocked the two clones down.

  'He thinks he's better than he actually is.' Padme remembered the critiques of the Corellian Jedi.

  "Those two are impressive, we have a few Kom'On ourselves. We thought we would lose such a gift when we discovered that cloning would not pass down the gift, but it seemed to survive in our blood despite our genetic modifications. A shame really, we tried to genetically engineer the gift but alas our technology hasn't been perfected to that level yet."

  "Kom'On?"

  "It's, what do you call it in Republic space? Force-sensitive?" Padme noted the disgust in the Kaminoian's voice. Forced to use basic instead of their own language. "Yes, I do recall that's it's called that. One of our own Kom'On, Kina Ha is actually a Jedi at the temple currently."

  "And you've tried cloning a Kom'On? Cloning a Jedi?" Padme shuddered at the thought. She knew the history of the Republic, the major conflicts. All of which had been more so won by the Jedi than the Republic. To have an army of Jedi bred for war was frightening.

  Then again, an army of Anakin. She tried her best but she couldn't fight the blush that rose to her cheeks when she imagined herself surrounded by him. They would probably smirk at her and ask her 'what's the problem?' knowing full well that they knew what the problem was before they, NO!

  "Yes but as of now the effort is rather fruitless. The 'Force'," Padme could tell that the Kaminoian hated using basic. But despite the fact the alien thought she was an idiot he continued to speak. "It does not like being stuck into a body that it didn't sculpt itself. But alas we will crack the code eventually, I'm sure."

  Truthfully, deep down in her heart, she hoped they wouldn't. This was all to, different to her. She was taught that every life matters, that it is our individual differences is what makes us special. This planet was so alien to her, everything was so wrong.

  Was that how they saw her? So different from their accepted culture that she was barbaric?

  She knew she shouldn't think less of races that do cloning or gene modification but she couldn't ever imagine stuffing her own child into a tube and changing eye color just because Padme didn't like the look of it. Then again they probably thought she was heartless as how many humans are born with birth defects that could simply be artificially taken out. What had Anakin called it, racism without ignorance?

  She knew the logic behind it but it was so different from her own culture that it seemed gross. It was reminiscent to how she learnt that some vegetarians ate bugs instead of red meat to get protein. She thought people were weird as well until her royal chef at her father's decree made a dish of deep-fried grasshoppers with an array of different sauces.

  She blushed at the memory of how venomously she refused to put it in her mouth till she eventually did try it and found it was alright. Not great, but bearable she supposed.

  She had only ever really followed traditional human culture in the Republic. Despite being multicultural humans really did make up the majority and second place wasn't even close. Was the Republic really that multicultural to these other races or did they just annex them? She couldn't help but wonder what those planets that left the Republic for the CIS thought before they cut ties.

  "What did you think of Anakin when you first met him?" She eventually found herself wondering. Anakin, despite his flaws was annoyingly good at dealing with other races. On Grakkus's ship he spent most of the time with non-humans, though that was less about racism and more so because Anakin seemed to vehemently despise all forms of government.

  "The Padawan?" Padme resisted the urge to point out the fact he wasn't a Jedi but she held her tongue. "He's interesting. He knows about cloning, nothing too impressive but he's clearly opened a book about the subject."

  "You didn't find him too abrasive?" She teased, remembering how most people would describe him as such.

  "I haven't met the two of you too draw an appropriate conclusion on you."

  "What about just him? You know when he came here before, what was he like without me?"

  "Pardon?"

  "Anakin said he came across your planet, it was how he knew of the cloning, it would have been a few months ago by now?"

  "We haven't had any instances of any non-Republic ship enter our space, If he had come with the Republic he must have stayed on the ship as we have no record of him." That didn't make sense, Anakin had said he had smuggled himself to the outer rim. He wouldn't have been with anyone Republic.

  "He possibly could have gone under the name Vader, not Republic ship as well." With him, Padme wouldn't be shocked if he came by in a Hutt cruiser.

  "It wouldn't matter his name as once again there was no undocumented non-Republic ship. We are on the borders of the Galaxy, so far away that not even smugglers need to travel so far. Though if you would like, i suppose I could find a list of records." She could hear the irritation in their voice.

  "No, that won't be necessary, thank you though." Was it just a mistake? Maybe Anakin never gave them his name or revealed his identity. It is something he certainly would do, considering the boy's first instinct was to either lie or fight.

  It was a very real possibility, after all it didn't make sense otherwise. How had he known about this planet or the secret army if he hadn't accidentally stumbled upon it? Obi-Wan was a higher rank than him, and even he hadn't known and Padme really doubted Anakin personally knew the Republic officers that must have been behind this.

  It was just a mistake.

  Yet, despite it being the only real option, she couldn't help but watch Anakin below. He moved so fluidly between both clones and Mandalorians alike.

  It was kind of heartwarming to see them go at it, she could see the smiles on the clones, Mandalorians and even Obi-Wan as they fought. To them, this extremely rigorous exercise was just a bit of fun for the highly trainings warriors. It was like watching children playing except instead of kids hitting each other on the head with fake soft plastic weapons, they instead used stun batons.

  She winced as she saw Obi-Wan deliver a particularly nasty move on a clone as one second he was on two feet and the next he was turned into a human pretzel as Obi-Wan performed a rather impressive aerial maneuver. Padme probably would have cried getting tossed around like that but these clones seemed hardier than her as they laughed when either Anakin or Obi-Wan knocked them down.

  The only one who wasn't laughing was Anakin.