This series of fics is based upon Sarah Selene's wonderful One Hundred Themes: Star Wars; and they have all been written with her EXPRESS PERMISSION to do so.
This is a prequel to Sarah Selene's AU series. My fic is canon with George's wonderful work for a grand total of 172 words; any dialogue that is quoted from the RotS film dialogue is identified by *.
I hope you enjoy this, and please do pay Sarah Selene's fic a visit - after all, this fic was inspired by her work.
I am an amateur author of false name,
I borrow worlds of another's fame.
I stake no claim on recognised locations,
Neither do I own canon situations.
I merely come here to spend a while,
Reading other's work; writing my own style.
I earn no money, no wage, no dosh.
I gain no finance, no revenue, no cash.
I do not mean to step on legal toes,
I mean no infringement, I'm friend not foe.
So please, do come in, relax, unwind.
I hope in my work, enjoyment you will find.
TRUST
*"You are under arrest, My Lord."* Master Windu said, his voice dripping with sarcasm at the Chancellor's title. The Jedi's lightsabre trained on the Sith cowering at the window's edge.
*"Anakin! I told you it would come to this!"* The Chancellor gasped from the floor, *"I was right, the Jedi are taking over!"*
*"The oppression of the Sith will never return… you have lost."* Mace replied, even though the Chancellor was addressing Skywalker.
*"No, No, No! You have lost!"* Windu barely managed to block the streaks of blue electricity that exploded from the Sith's fingertips, the energy danced along the blade of his 'sabre.
*"He is the traitor!"* Windu cried, deflecting the Force Lighning back at the Sith still laying on the floor, disfiguring the man into a physical monster.
*"I have the power to save the one you love!"* Palpatine gasped. *"You must choose!"*
*"Don't listen to him, Anakin!"* Mace cried, struggling now to block and return the Dark energy back towards the Sith powering it.
*"Don't let him kill me!"* Palpatine pleaded, seemingly unable to continue his onslaught of Force Lightning. "I have the skills you need to save your wife!"
Mace's facial expression morphed into a combination of shock and confusion. "Wife? What Wife? The Code forbids such attachments."
"Ah, it is hardly surprising that you are unaware, Master Windu, You couldn't sense a Sith Lord within a stone's throw from your precious Temple. What chance did you possibly have of sensing something as small and insignificant as a pregnant Jedi's Bride and her Code-flaunting Husband." Palpatine sneered, continuing to gasp pitifully where he lay.
"Bride? Pregnant? Husband? What lies do you spew now, Sith?" Windu sneered, his eyes never leaving his prone opponent as he felt Skywalker approach.
"Why not ask the groom yourself!" Palpatine cackled, "Come Anakin, be rid of this Code-spouting-fool! Join me, become my apprentice. Together we will rule; together we will save your Wife from her fate. Together we will destroy the Jedi that have used you and mistrusted you from the offset, my boy."
Anakin grinned sweetly, looking back and forth between Master Windu and the Senator before speaking, as if choosing the side he'd fight for. Master Windu felt the shift in the tide, felt Anakin's choice.
"Are you certain that you want to help a 'small and insignificant pregnant Jedi's Bride'?" Anakin's voice calmed to something approaching conversational, "Say whatever you want against me, but I feel rather compelled to defend my Wife's honour from your words against her." Within a heartbeat, Anakin had his 'sabre ignited, and had taken an attacking stance, holding it firm, waiting for the Force and Master Windu to clue him in on his next move. Mace gave a brief nod of respect to the younger Jedi.
"You must join me! I am the only chance you have to save her life! She will die if you do not accept my help, son!"
"I think we will let the Jedi healers have the last word in that argument, Sith, they are exceptionally good at saving people. Force knows they've had reason to do so with this war!"
"There is nothing they can do to save her - I have foreseen it!" Palpatine yelled
"I must remind you, Sith, that the future shown to us by the Force is never completely certain." Windu said, changing his stance to compliment the one Skywalker had taken.
"Surrender, and your life will be spared. Supreme Chancellor, In the name of the Galactic Republic, you are under arrest." Anakin said, passionately, echoing Master Windu's earlier words.
"You will stand trial for the crimes you have committed against the Republic. You will be liable for the home planets that you have destroyed, and the individual residences that you've left in ruins. You will be held accountable for each of the innocent lives that have joined the Force, all because of a war you have choreographed from the very beginning for your own personal gain." Master Windu said, his voice impassioned, yet unwavering.
"Ha! The Republic will continue to dance to the tune of the Sith once the Jedi are destroyed! I will not stand trial! You will be defeated!" Palpatine cried, regaining his strength and using both hands to aim Force lightning back towards Master Windu.
"You have made your choice, Sith, even given the opportunity of life and a fair trial, you have sealed your fate of death with your refusal of surrender, and that strike. I will end this once and for all, Sith." Master Windu said, raising his sabre into an attacking pose, Skywalker took a defensive stance, looking to the Council Master.
"It is not the Jedi way to kill an unarmed prisoner!" Anakin yelled.
"Since when did Lightning coming from fingertips count as unarmed?" Mace snapped.
"Ah, I see your point." Anakin muttered under his breath, feeling a little sheepish. "I guess he really is too dangerous to keep alive."
"No! No! Anakin, my boy, you need me, your Wife needs me! Join me, and we can set the Galaxy to rights! You can't afford to kill me, your wife can't afford for you to kill me!" Palpatine begged, "Do not fear what this lilac-sabred fool tells you! You know I am the only choice!"
"The only thing I'm frightened of is the reaction of my 'small and insignificant' pregnant Wife should she find that I've turned to the Dark Side." Anakin paused, grinning with a silly smile, "At the very least she'd make me sleep on the couch for months; and that sucks like a Mynock on a power cable."
"I'm so glad you have your priorities straight, Skywalker." Mace spat, grinding his teeth against the continued charge coming from the Sith. A particularly fierce gust of wind came through the shattered window, knocking the Korun Master backwards and over the desk.
"Damn you and your foolish bitch of a breeder!" With a tremendous effort, Palpatine redoubled his efforts, striking force lightning solely at Anakin. "I created you! I manipulated the midiclorians to induce your very conception! And this is how I am repaid? My child, you were to be my apprentice!"
"I'm sorry, but I can't really fit that in my really busy Light-Side-of-the-Force schedule. I'm a very busy Jedi." Anakin spat, having to rely on the Force to keep him standing tall against the onslaught of darkness striking at his lightsabre. "And I will only ever be the child of Shmi Skywalker.
"You fool! You Love-crippled brat! You could have been something great at my side! You would have made an incredible apprentice! Don't throw it all away! You still have the chance to kill Windu and join with me!"
"I stopped being an apprentice as soon as my Padawan braid was cut." Anakin said, grinning, "Oh, and I am something great - according to my Wife, I am a 'Great Husband'."
"No! No! No!" The Sith cried, "If you will not join me, then I will destroy you! If the Dark Side cannot have you, then the Light won't have you either!" Objects from around the room were swiftly flung at Anakin through the Force, combining with the near constant onslaught of the Force lightning. With the young Jedi Knight distracted, Palpatine rose to his feet - with surprising grace and agility for someone whom had appeared helpless not long ago.
Anakin continued rolling, ducking and leaping over the things being thrown at him, managing to keep his 'sabre focussed on the lightning; listening to the warnings and directions the Force whispered to him as he did so.
"May. The. Force. Be. With. You." Master Windu hissed, swiftly creeping up on the enraged and distracted Sith, deftly separating his head from his body in a single strike.
The resulting Force shockwave threw both Jedi into the opposite wall of Palpatine's office. The resulting change in pressure dragged the Sith's wizened remains from the windowsill and out into the air, dropping them down into the street far, far below.
Every Force-sensitive within a radius of several kilometres were physically affected, stumbling where they stood. Around the Galaxy, Jedi felt the disturbance in the Force, and the sudden calm that followed.
Dazed, Windu and Skywalker pushed themselves to sitting positions, both leaning their backs and shoulders heavily on the cracked and charred wall.
"Its like I can suddenly breathe properly! It almost feels like the difference between walking in Coruscant's pollution, and then stepping into the filtered and purified air circulating in the Temple." Anakin whispered, awestruck.
"The Shadow has lifted. The Force is clear, the clouds gone." Master Windu said, smiling softly. "I can see again, the Force hasn't been so clear in years! Its so pure! So Light! Oh! It hasn't been like this in decades!"
"Master, I can't sense the others…" Anakin whispered, crawling over to the nearest body and futilely searching for any signs of life.
"They are at one with the Force, they're at peace, Skywalker." Windu said, sighing deeply and bowing his head in respect for the lives lost, not just those lost today, but those slaughtered in this ridiculous war.
"I should have come sooner, I should have come sooner." Anakin muttered under his breath, crawling between the dead Masters, refusing to accept their deaths until he'd verified it for himself.
"You arrived when you were needed, and you did well, you were tempted and you refused the seduction of the Dark Side… However… I did not sense any untruth in your words as Palpatine baited you – you really are married, aren't you?" Windu pinched his nose and squeezed his eyes shut in preparation for the Knight's answer.
"Yes, I'm married, and very happily so, Master." Skywalker replied with a beaming grin.
"And your wife is… pregnant?"
"Yes, that was a bit of a shock!" Anakin's face brightened further, "And now with the Sith destroyed, the baby won't be born into a time of Darkness."
"Whom is she, Skywalker? And don't say 'Missus Skywalker'." Windu demanded quietly.
"Padmé, you know her better as Senator Amidala of Naboo. More accurately, she's Padmé Skywalker – but for the sake of secrecy, she's never used my name, its only recorded in one place - on the official record of our marriage." Anakin grinned as he watched the Jedi Master's jaw drop.
"Obi-Wan said you were close, suspected that your friendship might be at risk of becoming something more – but nobody ever suspected this! Kenobi never even suggested this could be a possibility!"
"Obi-Wan doesn't know, nobody really knows – unless you count myself, Padmé, The dead Sith, Padmé's Assistant, The Holy Man who married us, and the droids R2-D2 and C3-PO. We were married not long after the first battle on Geonosis; when I escorted Padmé back to Naboo." Anakin said, sitting back on his heels as he covered the dead Jedi with their own cloaks.
"In the name of the Force! You were still a Padawan! I cannot believe it occurred so long ago! I thought that this marriage was a recent development!" Mace said, stunned.
"I think we're constantly developing, Master, we've both managed to come through a war with our relationship intact - and stronger than ever. The only one going through some major recent development is the baby, pun intended."
"Very witty... The Chosen One and a Senator for parents – this child will be trouble personified!" Windu said with a groan, gingerly getting to his feet, leaning on the wall with one hand.
"The baby is already causing trouble… I've had so many visions of Padmé dying in childbirth. I know that visions show only one possible outcome - but my visions tend to be the actual outcome." Anakin whispered, he looked up to see Master Windu offering an outstretched hand to help him to his feet, that was accepted.
"Skywalker, Duty first. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Our immediate priority is to gain temporary control of the Senate, and to call an emergency session. We need to distribute the emergency powers Palpatine took back to their rightful owners."
"I agree." Anakin said, waiting for the Council Master to continue.
"We will need to keep the Senators of the two thousand systems that signed that treaty safe from any repercussions. The Sith had many senators enthralled with promises of power and protection; the Treaty of the Two Thousand stood in the way of their gains. Those senators are loyal to the Republic, they are our most realistic chance of peace. We must protect them."
"And that means that you have to protect their entourages – they all come with a compliment of staff and often a spouse or children. Their entourages and families would easily become hostage targets and bargaining chips to be used against the Republic. You're looking at nearer twelve or thirteen thousand to protect, not two thousand. Where are we going to put them all? Its not as if we can keep them in their Senate Pods like caged squawking songbirds." Anakin supplied, watching as Master Windu's face fell ever so slightly.
"The Jedi and Republic will provide for now, until things are settled. The Temple is more than large enough to house the Senators and any immediate family temporarily – just not in the luxury they are acclimatised to. We can use the Clone Trooper barracks on the Republic Assault Ships and Attack Cruisers in orbit to house their aides and staff."
"Master Windu, that's not going to go down well with either the Political Entourages or the Clones." Anakin said, shaking his head, not daring to imagine the hissy fits that the pampered Senators and their Entourages were going to have. "Master, all the Clones have done for the Republic, you are going to evict them from their beds! It just isn't fair!"
"It is either that, or the Aides and Staff will have to compromise their safety by risking returning to their own comfortable residences; we are stretched too thin to guard them all in different locations. The Clones will have to use the hangars and open training areas on the ships for sleeping for the moment. Hopefully it won't take the Senate too long to come to a solution, and then everyone can return to their own beds. I know it isn't fair to do this to the Clone Troopers - but it is the only realistic option we have."
"Master, are we stretched too thinly to have the Jedi escort and guard the Senators as they move to and from the Senate?" Anakin asked.
"We don't have many Knights and Masters at the Temple. Most Padawan and Master pairs are also deployed… we do have the Crèche Masters, the oldest initiates and the more experienced Jedi whom are at the Temple on meditative retreat and medical leave. I think that between them and the Clones we can manage a bodyguard service." Master Windu said, contemplating the problem. "The Crèche Masters have their hands full with their charges as it is; and I am highly reluctant to let the older initiates take on such a task. They're much too young for this mess, we need to let them be children while they still have the opportunity."
"Honestly, Master, I think it would do the older Initiates some good to give them a definite and useful role to play. Especially seeing as most are coming up to the time to be taken as Padawans; they're all after proving themselves worthy of being trained to Knighthood… but I'd still have the Clones working with them - just in case, they're hardly experienced enough to be left alone on guard duty."
The Master nodded, turning his full attention to Anakin, "Skywalker, you will follow these orders: organise a transport to take your Wife to the Jedi healers; I will inform them of her expected arrival, and the nature of her condition. Then you will copy every scrap of information you can from the Chancellor's computers. Dismantle them ready for transport to the Temple once the files are duplicated. I will collect you and our fallen colleagues when it is time to return to the Temple. Do not leave this office until I personally come to relieve you. Guard it from all comers - regardless of who they are. Lock the blast shields on the doors and windows. I do not want you disturbed; I do not want evidence of the Sith and their transgressions tampered with. We need to be able to see what would have been Palpatine's next move, and head it off before it happens."
"Yes, Master – I'll get R2 in here right away." Anakin said, walking over to the huge desk he pressed a few buttons before extracting a data chip. "This is the recording from the security vid of the past few hours – it should be enough proof that Palpatine was behind all of this from the start."
"An excellent idea, Skywalker, thank you. I feel that I will need this evidence, and more, once the emergency Senate session is called." The Master paused, "You do realise that you and your wife are going to have your relationship dragged out into the open when this vid is shown, don't you?"
"Yes Master." Anakin replied. "We are both tired of hiding, but it is a shame that it has to come to this - at least we would literally be informing The Galaxy in one go, rather than having to tell everyone individually."
"You may wish to inform Senator Skywalker of this security footage before she arrives at the Senate, I would not wish for her to be unprepared."
"Thank you for your consideration, Master." Anakin replied, both relieved that secrets would no longer have to be kept, and apprehensive at how everyone would react… at how Padmé was going to react.
Padmé and he had never actually put together a concrete plan for revealing their secrets - regardless of the high number of plots they'd arranged to keep them concealed.
They'd had a few idealistic situations, whispered in the night after loving each other, where everyone was happy for them and everyone welcomed their love. Too used to thinking of ways to hide and conceal their love, Anakin truly wasn't sure how their relationship would hold up once out in the unknown realm of openness. There would be many that wouldn't approve - the Jedi being almost-certainly falling into that category, and it wouldn't surprise him if Padme's family also disapproved of their secrecy.
Taking a moment of quiet, Anakin eased his mind into a light meditative trance, seeking guidance on this from the Force. He could only describe the Force's response as an initial soothing calm washing over him… followed by an amused 'I-know-something-you-don't-know'. With a mildly frustrated sigh, Anakin returned his mind to the here-and-now.
"Skywalker," Master Windu sighed, reaching down for his cloak, "Your personal revolution against the prohibition of attachment will not go without consequence, I thought it fair to warn you of that. However, the Jedi duty to the Republic and Peace must always come first, and your actions will be scrutinised fully at a later date. Regardless of the truly great service you have done for the Republic today, your transgressions will not be overlooked." With a respectful bow, the Master turned to leave.
"Oh, and Anakin…" Windu began as he pulled his cloak on and raised his hood, "…You have gained my trust, regardless of my current urge to slap you about the head and throw you from the Order without a fair hearing for breaking the Code in such a manner."
"Yes, Master." Anakin whispered. Watching the Master leave the room before sealing the blast shutters over the shattered window and exits. With a sigh he sat down at the computer and initiated the power on the communications terminal.
"You have reached the communications terminal of the private residence of Senator Padmé Amidala of Naboo. I am C3-PO, human-cyborg relations. I am terribly sorry, however, my Lady is currently indisposed; would you care to leave a message? I will convey it to her directly, the moment she becomes available. All messages will be treated with the strictest confidence."
"3PO, hand Padmé the comm unit." Anakin said with a long-suffering sigh. Had he really programmed the droid to talk quite this much?
"Master Anakin? Is that you? Do you require anything?"
"3PO, I require you to hand Padmé the comm. Its urgent."
"Oh, she's here now. One moment."
"Anakin? What's wrong? I've been so worried!" came Padre's voice, beautiful music in comparison to the foul words of the Sith.
"My Love, I'm alright. But you might want to sit down for what I'm about to tell you…"
"I'm not a Jedi, but I have a very bad feeling about what you're about to tell me…"