After being captured and tortured for months on end by Wat Tambor, Echo finally dies... and then wakes up along with the rest of Domino Squad, hours from when they're supposed to take their final test, and as it turns out, they all remember their deaths too, and are in the same exact situation. After Fives reveals the conspiracy about Order 66 that he discovered shortly before dying, they collectively decide that they will change the timeline for the better and expose the conspiracy. But it may be easier said than done...
Dominoes
is a Star Wars: The Clone Wars fanfic by meridianpony. There is also a canonical one-shot called Silent Cry which is centered on an event that happens off-screen in the story: Pong Krell's arrest at the hands of Mace Windu and Luminara Unduli with the help of their clone battalions.
Dominoes provides examples of:
- A Father to His Men: Many Jedi are this to the clones. Dominoes use this to their advantage when showing them the biochips. So far, Anakin, Obi-Wan, Plo Koon, Aayla Secura, Mace Windu, and Luminara Unduli have de-chipped their battalions. Jedi Masters Depa Bilapa and Jaro Tapal have started the process. However, Jedi Master Kit Fisto has been unable to start the process yet.
- Adaptational Nice Guy:
- Thanks to Hevy's influence, Dogma is an amiable rookie rather than the Yes-Man stickler for the rules he is in canon. It also helps that he was mind-controlled into following orders to kidnap and kill his brothers. Though no deaths happened, the experience and memory of it makes Dogma willing to admit that there's a difference between following orders of your own free will and following orders because you have no choice in the matter.
- Commander Fox is not the useless Inspector Javert than he was in canon, instead being a stern but fair A Father to His Men, with it being implied that his canon personality is the result of Palpatine frequently using the chip to brainwash him.
- Anyone Can Die: The Battle of Kamino sees a ton of character death, with Nax and General Grievous dying.
- Back from the Dead: All of Domino Squad. It's heavily implied to have been caused by the Force itself. Chapter 45 confirms that it's because the Sister chose Domino Squad as her champions in an attempt to Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
- Berserk Button: Slavery is Anakin's. Being a former slave himself, he quickly draws the parallels between the clones' situation and the one he used to be in and becomes among the most outspoken on the topic of the clones' freedom. When realization first dawns upon him, he is so furious everyone has to retreat from the sheer rage he is emitting.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Droidbait is one of the kindest people you can meet. He also holds one hell of a grudge, is a great fighter, and keeps tally marks of all the droids he's killed.
- The Big Guy: Zeer, Hardcase, and Hevy all collectively serve as this for the 501st.
- Birds of a Feather: The 501st's resident Boisterous Bruiser Blood Knights Hevy and Hardcase get along swimmingly.
- Boom, Headshot!: Attie is killed when a droid shoots him in the head.
- Brainwashed and Crazy
- The Coruscant Guard are left permanently brainwashed by the inhibitor chip after it's discovered Hevy's was removed.
- Tup, Dogma, and several other shinies are all put under the control of the Kaminoans thanks to their chips and ordered to capture Domino Squad. They're brought back to normal after Kix removes their chips.
- Bullying a Dragon: After Ahsoka points out that Fives, having been resurrected and served the longest out of Domino Squad, has more experience than Rex, who believes that "experience outranks everything", Fives foolishly chooses to mock Rex for it. While the clones are in the middle of a sparring training session.Fives: Experience does outrank everything after all! Maybe you're the one who should be calling me sir, Rex-
Rex: That's it. On the mat, Fives.
Fives: I- Hang on, I was kidding! I didn't-
Rex: Let me remind you how much experience I have. It seems like you've forgotten.
Fives: But-sir, I just went four rounds against Tipper and Zeer.
Rex: Oh, now I'm sir again. Too little, too late. On the mat, Fives. Don't make me make it an order.
Fives: Kriff me. - Character Development: Hevy starts thinking things through more and abandoning his shoot-first mentality, though he stays a Blood Knight. He even turns out to be a great political speaker, drumming up support for giving the clones more rights.
- The Chosen One: Anakin is this, obviously. Like the Mortis Arc, this becomes central, as The Daughter wishes to prevent his fall to the Darkside. As such she, chooses the Domino Squad to serve as his vanguard to prevent this from happening. While the Son, chooses Krell to help bring this about.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: Fives's punishment for disobeying orders during the Blue Shadow Virus crisis is to give Jar Jar firearms safety training. He winds up bailing after Jar Jar nearly kills everyone at the firing range thanks to his Reckless Gun Usage.
- Deadpan Snarker: All of the clones have moments of this, obviously.
- Death by Adaptation: In canon, Echo survived his torture at Wat Tambor's hands and was eventually rescued, going on to serve in the Bad Batch even after the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire. Here, he dies while in Tambor's custody so the story can happen.
- Defiant to the End: Slick reacts to getting caught by Ventress while exposing the Separatist attack on Kamino by making a sarcastic quip before she runs him through with her lightsaber.
- Doomed Moral Victor: Subverted. Hevy becomes a symbol for giving the clones equal rights after his death is faked so he can escape Coruscant.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Subverted. Tipper and Zeer are seemingly killed in a rancor attack, and Cutup even reflects that it was pointless and stupid, but it's later revealed they survived.
- Epic Fail:
- A battle droid attempts to shoot open a hatch to release the Blue Shadow Virus while mocking the clones, only for his gunshot to ricochet and hit him square in the chest.
Cutup: Pride comes before the fall.- Fives gives up on trying to give Jar Jar firearms training after Jar Jar's clumsiness and Reckless Gun Usage, which includes dancing around while holding a gun, somehow manages to nearly kill everyone at the firing range.
- "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner: Slick gives one right before Ventress kills him for betraying the Separatists.Ventress: Traitor!
Slick: Triple crosser. - Faking the Dead: In order to get Hevy and Flak off Coruscant and the now-brainwashed Guard off their trails, Plo Koon has them fake their own deaths and brings them the corpses of two of his own men so that actual bones are left behind in the fire, making it more convincing. Plo says that the two men died protecting their brothers, and that they would be pleased to know that they continued to do so even in death.
- Fighting from the Inside: Hevy and Flak speculate, as they're fleeing, that the only reason they haven't been found despite the Coruscant Guard being brainwashed is because they're deliberately not trying as hard as they possibly could or using the best tactics available to them. They were told to find Hevy, not necessarily do it well.
- Formula with a Twist: The Peggy Sue is a very popular genre in the Star Wars fandom, but this story has some twists that sets it apart from other stories with similar premises:
- In most time travel stories, it's almost always a Jedi (usually Obi-wan or Anakin) or at least somebody who is Force-sensitive the one sent back in time. In this story, however, it's a group of Clone Troopers.
- The time traveler is sent back in time with the goal of stopping Palpatine, who they know is Darth Sidious, from wiping out the Jedi and turning the Republic into the Empire. Here, due the fact that all of them died before the end of the Clone Wars, Domino Squad instead use Fives' future knowledge to ensure past battles have better results with less casualties. Fives knows about the chips and that Palpatine has something to do with them, but other than that he is unaware of their true purpose, that Palpatine is secretly a Sith Lord who's running both sides of the war, or what is his ultimate endgame.
- Greater-Scope Villain: There are two, in different ways.
- The first is obviously Palpatine. While the Dominoes know that he's responsible for the chips, their participation in the war ended well before Order 66 and the establishment of the New Order. As such, they think he's a traitor, but don't know what the end goal is, the true purpose of the chips, or that the Chancellor is secretly a Sith Lord.
- As of chapter 45, it would seem that The Son (or the Brother as he is called due to the absence of the Father) is this. Acting against The Sister (read: The Daughter) and her champions: Domino Squad. So he opts to select Pong Krell as his champion.
- Heel Realization: After finding out about Order 66, Anakin realizes that the clone troopers are basically slaves, and has a Freak Out. Obi-Wan expresses the same sentiment.
- Hypocritical Humor: Fives is the one who instructs the Dominoes not blow their secret about being time travelers, and then proceeds to always be the one to accidentally give it away.
- In Spite of a Nail: The Blue Shadow Virus crisis plays out mostly the same, except Cutup and Fives are present.
- Internal Reveal: It takes a while before Domino Squad reveals the truth about Order 66 to anyone else, and an even longer while before they reveal the truth about the whole time travel thing.
- Jerkass Has a Point/Hypocrite Has a Point: Deconstructed. Hevy notes that while Slick is dead-on that the clones are slaves for the Republic, the fact that he's an arrogant Jerkass who decided to prove his point by siding with the Separatists and getting a ton of clones killed still undermines his point, and that the best way to actually get the clones equal rights is to play for sympathy.
- Kill Tally: Droidbait covers his armor in tally marks for each droid he kills. Eventually, his armor is covered by them.
- Knight of Cerebus: Grievous, Cad Bane, and Ventress' appearances during the Battle of Kamino result in the mood darkening fast. The Son's appearance in Chapter 45 is this as well.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Inspired by Hevy's speech to the Senate, a clone battalion under Pong Krell's command record his abuse of them and send it to the government, resulting in Mace Windu and Luminara Unduli being sent to investigate him, and then stripping him of his rank and imprisoning him for his behavior. To say Fives is happy about this would be an Understatement.
- The Medic:
- Kix serves as this to the 501st as a whole, being the one to remove the inhibitor chips from the entire battalion.
- Coric serves as this to Torrent, until an injury leaves one of his hands paralyzed and forced him to transfer to working in the medbay.
- Mythology Gag:
- During a mission on Ord Mantell, when Obi-wan boasts how his division reached the meeting point before Anakin's, Anakin complains that Obi-wan only won because he started on high ground.
- When Anakin finds out about the chips inside the Clones' heads and how it basically turns them into slaves Anakin laments that "he has become the very thing [he] swore to destroy".
- Nice Guy:
- Attie. He's jovial, kind, and lends an ear to each of his colleagues.
- Droidbait, who's shown to be caring and kindhearted.
- Odd Friendship: Cutup and Ahsoka bond over the course of the Blue Shadow Virus crisis, and become close friends. Cutup even paints his helmet with her markings to show his deep respect and Undying Loyalty to her.
- Oh, Crap!: The general reaction of anyone who learns about Order 66 and the surrounding conspiracy is either shock or utter horror. Fox in particular starts utterly panicking, as he pieces together just why he has so many episodes of missing time.
- Pet the Dog: After arresting Krell with Master Luminara, Mace Windu folds Krell's former soldiers into his battalion of the 91st Recon Corp.
- Redemption Equals Death: Slick turns on the Separatists to reveal that they will attack Kamino to Hevy, and is subsequently killed by Ventress for it.
- Sacrificial Lion:
- Attie is killed by droids during a firefight to show how dangerous the Clone Wars are, and hammer it in to Droidbait, Cutup, and Hevy.
- Coric, Tipper, Zeer, and Admiral Yularen are seemingly killed when the Resolute is destroyed, while Nax and General Grievous are definitely killed during the invasion of Kamino, which establishes how serious this massive change to the timeline is.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: All of Domino Squad are pretty traumatized by their deaths, and tend to react badly when confronting whatever causes them.
- Spotting the Thread: Senator Burtoni realizes Hevy is chipless after she spitefully uses a command to get him to kill himself.
- Took a Level in Badass:
- Droidbait and Cutup slowly grow into more experienced and skilled soldiers, with the former racking up a very large Kill Tally.
- An odd variant happens with Hevy, who started off as a badass, but slowly becomes very politically savvy after being temporarily paralyzed and sent to Coruscant to serve as a spokesman for the clones.
- This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: The Daughter tells Droidbait in a vision that Anakin will have to face one last trial in order to escape the shadow of the Dark Side currently looming over him, and stresses that Anakin's actions must be his own and can't be helped or warned, otherwise he will never escape the Dark Side.
- Tranquil Fury: Rex is outwardly calm upon learning about the biochip conspiracy; he's also utterly filled with rage.
