AN: Okay so maybe I'm having entirely too much fun just fucking with an entire cast of characters, because this chapter was really fun to write.

Oh, and some minor context, aka a scene I meant to put in last chapter but forgot and wouldn't make sense if I put it in now, after the fact that a sith lord was attacking with the 501st, Vader ordered his men to advance in to the temple, as secrecy was now pretty much blown. So there are squads of clones advancing through the temple, and Vader going on his own as a rogue plot device I can throw in anytime things start looking too hopeful. And I'm comfortable enough with myself and my writing abilities to admit to that fact.

Cause I mean clones are badass and all but this is literally the goddamn Jedi Temple these defenses will not be broken by nothing but a bunch of normal. Actually tbh the whole siege probably would have gone tits up if Vader hadn't been leading the siege, or if the clones hadn't been around to back him up, and keep him from just getting charged by literally every fucking Jedi in the temple at the same time. And I definitely didn't just write that sentence only because I wanted to use the phrase 'gone tits up'. Don't judge me god damn it.

Also fun anecdote, when I was writing this chapter I got to a part in my layout that included a line about Alex going to help out Xariek and I swear to god I spent a solid ten minutes just staring and going "What the fuck? Alex is the main narrator for the entire crèche arc why the fuck did I put him leaving it what the hell!? I don't even have any other narrators going over there until like chapter 9 why the hell would I set two of my narrators on the same plot thread and abandon a different one!?" and then I remembered that in the first stages of planning, the crèche master was a woman named Seha, and the man named Alex was a random master somewhere else in the temple. Then I realized that I had one too many characters to be doing stuff in the plot lines, so I was like fuck it, bye Seha, Alex can have your job, and I guess I forgot to take that out of the planning for this chapter. So that's fun.

Don't write from obsolete plans at 2 AM kids.

Anyways, enjoy!


Chapter 4: First One Up

Lin carefully peeped out of a bush, looking up and down the path to check if it was safe.

She couldn't tell what was happening, or why, but the Force had gotten scary, and the little girl was smart enough to be able to tell that something was very, very wrong. Her little adventure had become way less fun suddenly.

It was time for her to get back to the crèche. Immediately.

Seeing nobody, she slipped out of the bush, and started running along the path towards the exit of the gardens. She was making good pace, until she rounded the corner, and slammed in to somebody, getting knocked to the floor with a yelp of surprise and pain.

"Oh, Force! I didn't see you, are alright little one?"

The person she had knocked in to was a man, a tall one too. She couldn't tell if he was a knight or a master, but he was clearly an adult. And Lin really needed one of those right now.

"Yeah, I'm okay… I need to get back to the crèche, something's wrong in the Force and I don't know what's happening, do you?"

The man's expressing froze slightly, eyes darting to the side. He very obviously knew what was going on, and didn't want to tell Lin.

"That's… Uh… Y'know what, I'll help you get back, how does that sound. Okay? Okay. Let's go."

He helped her up, and the two continued down the path, before rounding the corner to find a small group of clone troopers.

Lin perked up, eyes bright at the sight of the Jedi's allies. The man flinched in surprise, shoving Lin behind him.

"Hey, what's going-"

The troops fired at the pair, and Lin screamed in surprise, dropping to the ground behind the man and covering her ears. After a minute or so, the shooting stopped, and the man gently helped her sit up.

"Wha- what…"

"The clones have turned on us for some reason. They're attacking them temple. Uh, that's why the Force is upset right now. I'm gonna help you get back to the crèche, okay? Oh, also, my name's Korin."

She noticed that he was using his robes and body to block her sight of the rest of the path, specifically where the clones had been. She was very glad about this fact.

"O-okay. I'm Lin."

"Nice to meet you. Alright, we're gonna get moving now. Uh… don't look until I tell you to."

She obligingly covered her eyes with her hands, and Korin picked her up, quickly carrying her a ways down the path, before putting her back down.

"Okay, you can look now. Uh, you're a little big to carry the whole way, so you're going to have to run for as long as you can, okay?"

"Yeah, I can do that. I'm a good runner."

"Excellent. Let's get moving."


Micah settled herself down in the chair of the security room, the sturdily locked door doing wonders to make her feel safe.

"Oookay, let's see what we're working with here…" She muttered, turning on the monitors, and tapping in the password to access the camera feeds. Said password may or may not have been acquired through some questionably legal means, but that was neither here nor there.

The screens around her lit up, displaying footage from all over the temple, and she grinned, the expression taking on a slightly predatory look as she surveyed the new wealth of information available to her.

"Ohhh yes. I can work with this. I can work with this just fine." She said, indulging in a small victory spin of her swivel chair.

"Hey. You getting held up by something, or did you geek out over the setup again?" Xariek snarked from the commlink.

"Shut up. And yeah, I'm here. And the setup is sweet, I've got eyes all over. This is the best."

"Nice you fucking nerd. Okay, I'm at the main comm relay for the temple so… I'm gonna need like, five minutes here to take over the systems. Evaluate the situation and have an overview for me when I'm done. And try to find that sith!"

"Can do. Enjoy your slicing."

"Oh, I will."

She set her comm down on the desk in front of her, before getting to work, flipping through screens, and muttering vaguely to herself, formulating a report for her partner. This wasn't the first time she'd been acting as the eyes for an operation, and by now the motions had become familiar.

Something on one of the screens caught her eye, and she manipulated it to increase the size, cursing quietly to herself.

The Sith was on the screen fighting a trio of what looked to be knights. And the battle was not going well for the three.

"Holy fuck." Micah muttered to herself, nervously chewing on her thumbnail as she watched the fight, using her free hand to adjust the camera to follow the heated battle.

One of the knights took a lightsaber graze to the side, and fell back, slumping against a wall, and holding his side in pain. The other two stepped up their pace, working together to capture all of the sith's attention, a thing which the injured man used. He locked blades with one of the knights, and the injured one gave him a strong Force push, sending him flying down the hall, and out of camera range.

The two non-injured knights approached warily, lightsabers held at the ready.

"Just stab him already!" Micah muttered, drumming her fingers anxiously against the desk.

The advance of the knights was stopped by them both being lifted in to the air, their hands grabbing at their throats in panic.

Micah adjusted the camera again to see where the Sith was, and swore loudly, recoiling in shock. Said recoil probably wasn't the best idea, as it tipped over her chair and sent her toppling to the ground with another curse. The fall didn't phase her much compared to what she had seen, and she quickly scrambled to her feet, not bothering to right the chair as she took another look at the camera, eyes wide with horror.

The sith was on his feet, hand outstretched, and strangling the two knights through the Force, both of them helpless in the face of his power.

And the Sith's hood had been knocked off from the force push.

And Micah recognized him.

She recognized him very easily.

"Force help us all…" She breathed out, shaking her head slightly in a desperate attempt to deny what was in front of her eyes, even as she watched him snap the necks of the two knights, and advance on the injured one.

"Okay, I'm in to the comm system. Give me something good babe." Xariek said through the comm, sounding satisfied with herself. Micah picked up her comm with a shaking hand, bringing it up to her mouth.

"I found the Sith."

"Nice! Where is he, I'm just gonna flip to an open frequency to all comms inside the temple, and start coordinating this shit… Oh, sick, registry says Skywalkers on the temple grounds, that gives us a fighting chance. Should I even bother pretending that anyone else is gonna deal with this, or should we just accept that he's always going to be pulling heroic shit no matter what, and send him after the Sith?"

"A-about that… I- I also found Skywalker."

"Micah, what's wrong?" Xariek asked, concern and worry leaking in to her voice.

"Anakin Skywalker is the Sith."

There was a very long pause.

"Oh. Well fuck."


Ji-Lien carefully stood up, minding her injured back as she got out of her hospital bed. Again.

Normally, she probably would have listened to Rina's earlier orders to get the fuck back in bed and stay there, but she had followed those orders after being promised a full explanation. And god damn it, she had heard the broadcast earlier like everybody else, and there was still. No. Explanation.

So technically, no orders were being disobeyed. Ji-Lien was the epitome of honesty and rule following.

Yeah, believe that shit.

As she was about to make a calculated hobble towards the door, her commlink beeped on the bedside table, prompting her to turn and blink. Who the fuck was calling her now?

"-Just connect this, and- Oh, here we go! Hello, Jedi temple! Okay. So, we all heard the earlier broadcast, and are aware that shit is going down. Hardcore. Well, luckily for us, like everybody in this temple is an experienced general, myself included. I'm patched in to every single Jedi comm in the temple right now, or, y'know, most of them. One of them has been dropped, on account of the man in question being the problem we are organizing to defeat."

"I'm talking, of course, about that Sith motherfucker that is encroaching upon our turf at this moment. He is a motherfucker. A fucker of mothers. Also, while we have been unable to discover what name he is using at the current moment, my source – and by that I mean my partner that's holed up in a room with all the security cam footage – has confirmed that the Sith attacking the temple and trying to kill us all is… there's really no way to sugarcoat it, he's Anakin Skywalker. Just gonna rip that bandage off right now. To avoid emotional hang ups, from here on in, unless we discover what name he is going by now, we will all refer to him as Skyfucker. Because he's being a fucker. Apologies to any children listening to this. Welcome to the real world."

"So, my name's Xariek, and I suppose I will be your general in command until we kick these fucks out of our home. To avoid information overload, I will be contacting separate groups and areas at a time. There is a possibility that Skyfucker will figure out that we're using the camera's to spy on him and his men, and in that case, you're all going to have to become my eyes, and the networks going to get awfully crowded if everyone's doing that. So, before things get crazy, if the various areas of the temple could just decide on who's in charge, and then that boss person could comm me, that would be great. Standing by for response."

Ji-Lien stared at her comm for a minute, blinking in surprise. So, she was getting her information on that matter after all.

And that information was not good.

She bit her lip absently, sitting back down on the bed as she thought.

If the temple was under attack, the crèche and Halls of Healing would lock down immediately, to block off any attackers from the most vulnerable residents. Then, any capable, able-bodied Jedi inside would defend the locations in question.

Ji-Lien, while certainly capable, probably didn't qualify as abled at the moment. Which, frankly, wasn't her god damn problem.

"Pain is only my body telling me that something is damaged. If I already know this, there is no reason for pain to stop me." She said quietly to herself, before taking a deep breath, holding it, and slowly letting it out, releasing her pain in to the Force as she did so. Injuries handled for now, she fluidly stood up.

She grabbed her lightsaber off of the table, and slipped her comm in to her pocket, pursing her lips in annoyance at her lack of belt to hang her lightsaber hilt on. Now prepared to defend the Halls, she headed for the door. Right as it opened, revealing Rina, who was holding a comm up to her mouth and talking in to it.

Oh shit.

"-We should be able to handle anything the clones can throw at us." She said, finishing some unheard sentence, and giving Ji-Lien a look that clearly stated she was in trouble the second the conversation finished.

"Good to hear. We'll tell you if Skyfucker heads your way."

"Understood. Halls out."

Rina closed her end of the conversation, and pocketed the comm, still holding some rather terrifying eye contact.

"What the FUCK are you doing out of bed!? Again! Fucking fuck, do you have a death wish or some shit!?"

"I'm helping with the defense-"

"Yeah, because we need a knight that can barely move to save the day, that's gonna make everything all better. And you definitely won't just distract every healer around you in to trying to protect your dumb ass. I mean fucking hell, I get that you're young, but at least pretend to think through your stupid antics!"

"I- I can't just sit here-"

"You can, and you fucking will. Get back in that bed, or so help me god I am sending somebody in here to tie you to it!"

"Kinky."

"…Girl I am old enough to be your mother, so I'm going to pretend you didn't say that to my face. I'm sure some of the younger healers would appreciate it though, kids are in to some weird shit lately. Now sit the fuck down!"

"But-"

"Sit! The fuck! Down! Immediately!" Rina snapped, gesturing angrily at the bed.

Ji-Lien sat the fuck down.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. If I catch you out of bed again, so help me god I will confiscate your lightsaber."

"…You wouldn't."

"Try me. I dare you. Do I look like I wouldn't? Because I would."

There was the sound of a muffled explosion. Both women's glanced in the direction it came from.

"I have to go do my job. Stay in that bed. Or else." Rina snapped, before leaving.

"Yeah, yeah… asshole."

"AND DON'T THINK I DIDN'T HEAR THAT!"


Aaron's search for his master was interrupted by the sound of blaster fire, and a child screaming.

Clearly, he had spent entirely too much time around some of his more heroic friends, as his lightsaber was ignited, and he was sprinting towards the location before he even realised what he was doing.

Rounding the corner, he saw pretty much exactly what he suspected, namely a squad of clone troopers firing upon a single Jedi from behind cover. Said man looked like he was beginning to have difficulties, with the constant barrage of blaster fire overwhelming him slowly yet surely.

And Aaron was behind the clones.

He hesitated for a second, before attacking, neatly taking down five of them before he was noticed, and half of their fire turned on him.

But Aaron hadn't survived as long as he had in the war through luck, and he easily deflected their shots back at them clones, taking full advantage of the fact that they didn't have any cover from him.

The little showdown lasted roughly a minute, before all the clones were disposed of. Aaron very firmly forced himself not to think about the fact that the men he had killed had been fighting bravely alongside him less than a week ago, and turned to the master, who had lowered his lightsaber, breathing hard.

"Are you alright?" He asked, walking briskly over to the man.

"Yes, yes, thanks to you-"

His sentence was cut off by a hole appearing between his eyes. He dropped like a puppet whose strings had been cut, a look of shock on his face.

The Force whispered a warning, and Aaron threw himself to the side, narrowly missing another shot that had been aimed at him. Looking up, he saw a final clone on a balcony, holding a sniper rifle.

Aaron reached out with the Force, grabbed a hold of the man, and tore him from the balcony, sending him falling gracelessly to the floor, where he was easily dispatched by Aaron's lightsaber.

The source of the screaming from earlier made itself known, as a small group of children tentatively emerged from where they had been taking shelter behind a column. Aaron took a deep breath, and mentally accepted the role that he knew he had to play.

"Alright. Looks like I'm in charge now. How many of you are there?" He said, looking around at the cluster of children, all various species.

"There's fifteen of us. We- we were in class, and-" One of the little girls said, clearly holding back tears.

"Alright. It's going to be okay. I'm gonna get us all to safety." Aaron said calmly, before grabbing his commlink off his belt, and opening up the frequency.

"Hey, sorry to interrupt, but I'm a senior padawan and I've got a group of fifteen younglings here, and their master just died. I need somewhere safe to take them. Help?"

There was a pause for a minute, as Aaron anxiously shifted his weight, unwilling to move from where he was and take several children out in to the unknown dangers filling the temple.

Finally, his comm came to life again.

"I hear you kid. Gonna need your position, so I can get you to the nearest spot." The woman that was coordinating the defenses said, sounding sure of herself. The confidence of the older jedi did wonders to help sooth Aarons nerves on the matter.

"Course. We're… uh, we're in the north edge of the classrooms, twentieth level."

"Alright. I'm gonna transfer you over to my eyes on this, she'll direct you to the best spot. Standby."

Another pause, this one lasting only a few seconds.

"I'm Micah, I'm watching all the camera's right now. Kid, I've got eyes on you and your group. The nearest safe place to go to is… Oh, wow. Council chambers are empty right now, and if you all hole up in there, I just need to cut power to the elevator and you're completely cut off from the attackers. The path should be relatively clear, but don't drop your guard, got it? Comm me when you reach the elevator, I've shut it down for now, but I'll be able to send you on up when you get there."

"Of course. Thank you Micah."

"Not a problem kid. May the Force be with you."

"And with you."


Rina stormed down the hall, muttering less-than complimentary things about goddamn idiot kids not listening to their healers like they goddamn should.

Really, this day was not going well for her. At all.

She entered the main lobby, where several healers were standing near the doors, eyes squeezed shut, and hands occasionally twitching, clearly focusing on repelling the invaders outside.

Really, that was the convenient thing about being a Jedi. You could defend your location without ever stepping outside.

"What's our situation?" She said, looking to the room as a whole.

"We're holding them back pretty easily for now, it's gonna take a lot more then what they've got to get in here." One apprentice reported, hunched over a screen.

"What's that?" She asked, pointing at what the apprentice was watching. They looked up, a grin on their face.

"The knight coordinating everything, Xariek or something? She had her friend patch us through the camera feed of what's going on outside. Man, d'you think I could take slicing classes from them? N-not that I enjoy slicing in to stuff. That's illegal. I wouldn't do that."

The apprentice's voice sounded slightly familiar, and it took Rina a second to place them as one of the people that sliced in to the intercoms to do the broadcast. Her mouth twitched in to an amused grin.

"I heard nothing. Just try not to swear so much when you're broadcasting to the whole temple? Because there were absolutely younglings who heard that."

The apprentice matched her grin, before their face froze in mild horror.

"I- uh. I don't know what you're talking about. At all. That- that wasn't me. Doing the broadcast. At all. You're crazy. That's crazy."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night." Rina laughed, before leaving the room again.

If the Halls of Healing did fall – which was unlikely – she'd like to know if there was a way to evacuate patients, and possibly personnel. That, and she always found it difficult to sit still during a crisis, or any sort of important situation at all. Rina was a very active sort of person. Besides, no sense sitting around where there was something useful she could be doing.


AN: So for the record, the apprentice healer whose voice Rina recognized is the one that yelled "Hey sith dude, I know you can hear this! WE'RE GONNA KICK YOUR ASS!"

Gotta say, I really like them. Shame that they're probably gonna fucking die. Maybe even offscreen too.

Nah, asskicker apprentice managed to grow on me in the span of their handful of lines and no name being given. They get to die on screen like a proper character!

Also please note the idea of Xariek and the entire temple referring to Anakin as Skyfucker is literally just something that came to me mid sentence, and it's going to be staying for a long time. Or until I can figure out a way for someone to find out that he's going by Darth Vader, survive the encounter, and then inform Xariek who can inform everyone else. It's gonna have to happen sometime, because just calling him 'the Sith' is too fucking abstract, and while referring to him as Skyfucker is amazing, that's really going to kill the mood on any serious scenes I'm doing with him in the future. Which is a problem.

Tbh this is turning in to more of a dramedy, or a tragicomedy. Which is good. For comedy to really work, there needs to be a moment where everything suddenly stops being funny. And I like to think I've managed to pull off a few of those moments, but hey. Who knows.

Maybe I would know is some people (that's you) reviewed more?

Review. Please god review. Or shoot me a PM. I live off of validation, I need this to survive.

Also holy fuck this chapter topped 4k words. Nice.