"Stay here, get some rest," Master Mace Windu said firmly to young Anakin Skywalker - the boy had never looked worse, the Korun master thought, even immediately after getting in from battle. He hurried out of the Temple, meeting the other strike team of Masters he had assembled, and they all piled into a speeder. (There's a joke in there somewhere, Kit Fisto thought to himself, four Jedi Masters in one speeder on a rainy night-) but it was no laughing matter, and for some reason, Mace had deemed it wiser to leave the Chosen One behind.

Not that Anakin had ever excelled at listening to the Council.

Palpatine attempted a veil of courtesy when the Jedi Masters descended on him, but Mace wasn't in a mood to play games, and things escalated quickly. Poor Master Tiin lost his horn again - the Jedi, unprepared for the fury of their opponent, were strangely outmatched. Over a thousand years, the Sith had evolved, the Jedi, in their arrogance and traditions, had changed not at all.

Most of them, anyway.

Palpatine was quite pleased with himself - he'd taken down three out of four Jedi Masters - not that they were dead, oh no, not dead yet - plenty of time to kill them properly when they were all disabled. Then he'd teach the Jedi who the real Master of the Force was! Now, if he could only wear down this pesky Miss Window into making a mistake, through impatience or exhaustion - or anything, really, the Chancellor wasn't picky - he'd have this battle (and the Republic, and his new apprentice, and anything else he pleased,) in the bag.

Treachery is the way of the Sith - therefore, they cannot fully comprehend loyalty.

The door slid open, it had only taken Anakin that long to arrive due to an unfortunate inadequacy of fuel - he sincerely regretted letting Obi-Wan's speeder drop into the oblivion of Coruscant's lower levels, but sacrifices had to be made - and he had Force-jumped the rest of the way there. Faster than taking time to hotwire another speeder, anyway.

"Anakin!" cried several voices at once, but two battled for mastery - literally. Anakin lit his blue blade and moved into the fray.

"I should've been here from the beginning," he whined to Mace, expertly removing an uncomfortably large patch from the middle of the back of Palpatine's robes - not that you could see anything other than black, no undignified underclothes for the Chancellor! "But you left me!"

"You looked tired," Mace improvised, legitimately surprised Anakin had chosen the Jedi. Sidious was equally surprised, and excessively put out about it.

"My boy, do you really wish to doom Padme to death?" he demanded, countering a crushing Djem So blow.

"Padme?" Mace quizzed severely.

"Uh...can that wait?" Anakin said, whirling out of the way of Palpatine's next strike.

(On the floor, the disabled Masters shared knowing looks, and a slightly pained version of Kit Fisto's famous grin trickled into place.)

It had to wait, none of the three combatants had breath left for speaking, each intent on their side of the Force winning.

(Darth Plagueis had a theory, one that his apprentice had most unwisely forgotten - that the Force itself actively worked against users of the Dark Side.)

It was a subject of debate in the Temple, long after the deed was done, whether it was blue blade or violet that slipped and delivered the fatal blow. Not that it really mattered, in the end - both wielders had just enough of the Dark Side in them to not care if it was their hand that ended the Sith Lord. (Not that it was the fashionable thing to say aloud.)

"So. Padme." Mace deactivated his saber and stared sternly at young Skywalker.

"Yes. Padme." Anakin swallowed. "We're...uh...in love."

Kit snickered, earning himself a glare from the dark-skinned master. "You're not helping, Kit."

The Nautolan pulled himself to his feet, grimacing a little at the effort, and clapped young Skywalker on the shoulder. "You're not the only one - why do you think Master Secura and I go on so many missions together?"

"Kit," Agen Kolar sighed. Anakin blinked.

"That's supposed to be classified," Saesee Tiin muttered from where he lay draped listlessly on the desk. Kit Fisto winked at the victorious Chosen One, who simply stared, shocked. Mace sighed, reaching out into the Force to help heal his friends.

"Um...we're also married..." Anakin added after a minute.

"One up on me there," Kit said cheerfully. "Is that why you spend so much time at 500 Republica?"

"Yes..." Anakin said hesitantly. "And...she's pregnant."

All three other masters in the room glared at Kit Fisto. "Don't you even think about getting that close to Aayla, Kit," Mace warned.

"No worries," Kit replied flippantly. "Who's driving?"


"Now I know why Obi-Wan hates being in the same speeder as you," Saesee Tiin muttered, his eyes wide and slightly shocked.

"I dunno, it's kinda fun," Kit said, leaning back and putting his feet up on the dashboard, his lekku streaming straight out behind him in the speed of Anakin's breakneck flight. Mace said nothing, but his jaw was grim and tight.

Anakin had to come to a stop at a traffic junction. "I guess, now that the Chancellor is no more, I've lost my place on the Council," he said gloomily.

Kit clapped the younger man on the shoulder again. "Lose the whiny attitude about life, kid, and you might just find your rank elevated," he predicted cheerfully. "It's not that we don't trust you - we just don't like hearing about how we don't trust you."

This was a novel idea to Anakin, so much so that he even slowed down to a modest 100 kilometers an hour for the rest of the journey.


Okay, this is the last one for awhile. Hope I ended on a cheerful note for y'all!