It was just after daybreak that Obi-Wan was woken up by the transmission from Utapau. A holoprojection of Mace Windu appeared, looking tired but satisfied. "Grievous is dead," he said without preamble. "I caught up with him eventually; he couldn't hide forever."

"That," said Obi-Wan slowly, "is the best news I've heard in a long while." In fact, he couldn't remember anything in his life going right since he and Anakin had successfully rescued the Chancellor from Dooku on the Invisible Hand. "Will you be back soon, then?"

"There's still some mopping up to do," Mace replied. "Some of these sinkholes are completely overrun with droids, and there are starting to be civilian casualties among the Utapauns. It could take a few hours to clear them all out."

Obi-Wan nodded. "Understood."

"And how are things on Coruscant? Has Anakin gotten anywhere with the Sith?""

For a moment, Obi-Wan experienced total panic. "Gotten anywhere?" he asked, heart pounding rapidly in his chest. How could Mace have known...

"With Palpatine, I mean. Has he come any closer to identifying which of his advisors might be Sidious?"

"Oh. Right." He'd been so worried about Anakin's trip into the Sith vault, his friend's actual mission had completely slipped his mind. "No, I don't think he has." Remembering his conversation with Padme, Obi-Wan added, "However, I've been in contact with a representative of a group of Senators who oppose Palpatine's constitutional amendments. With their help, we may be able to create a substantial obstacle to any further power grabs."

"Hmm," said Mace. "Force-willing, that won't become necessary. Obi-Wan, I want you to go to Palpatine personally to tell him of Grievous' death. Watch to see how he reacts. If Anakin hasn't had any success before now, it's possible you were right and he's too close to Palpatine to read him objectively, and we must know what the Chancellor's planning."

"I understand," Obi-Wan said. Part of him wished that Mace had a little more faith in Anakin; part of him knew that after last night, faith might be a naive thing to have. And part of him was just relieved that Anakin wasn't being sent to spy on Palpatine again, not when he knew how much Anakin hated it. "May the Force be with you, Master Windu."

"And with you, Obi-Wan."

Obi-Wan was made to wait outside the Chancellor's office for a good half an hour before the man would see him. He forced himself not to get impatient; it would do him no good to go into this meeting with his mind clouded with annoyance. When Palpatine finally sent for him, he allowed no trace of his frustration to show on his face as he walked into the office.

He was struck with a sense of wrongness the moment he stepped through the door. The sensation was odd - not the general clouding of the Force that had been worsening since the war had begun, but a concentrated darkness that he couldn't identify. So taken off guard was he by the unexpected malevolence, Palpatine was forced to repeat his greeting of "Good day, Master Kenobi" twice before Obi-Wan responded.

Palpatine himself was genial and calm as ever. He exhibited only pleasure and relief at the information about Grievous's death, and if Obi-Wan hadn't been keeping himself up to date on all the ways the Chancellor had been restructuring the government to bring power towards his own office, it would have been easy to believe that the man was exactly what he seemed to be. "So does this mean we can declare the war officially over, then?" he asked Palpatine cautiously. Doing so would mean an end to the Chancellor's 'emergency powers.'

"Oh, not quite yet," Palpatine said, and Obi-Wan's heart sank. "We'll need a formal surrender from the other Separatist leaders, Nute Gunray and his cabal, first." He smiled widely. "Still, I have no doubt that all of this will be over very soon."

A chill ran down Obi-Wan's back as he said it, and the feeling of darkness intensified. Suspicion began to creep over him, not due to any evidence or specific thing the man had said. Or perhaps it was a great deal of things all adding up at once, years of pulling watching the man expertly pull strings to gain power over the Republic and the Jedi, and this new feeling of darkness surrounding Palpatine simply the final straw. They had theorized that the Darth Sidious was someone in Palpatine's inner circle, someone who had gained his trust and was manipulating him. What if Palpatine knew exactly who it was, and was working with him to gain power? Or, even more horrifying, what if…he could hardly bear to think it.

Obi-Wan decided to throw caution to the wind. "The Jedi will be most grateful for the war to end," he said. "As you know, we believe there is a second Sith Lord who has manipulated the conflict from the start." They had told Palpatine of the possible danger after Dooku had revealed himself as a Sith, for the Chancellor had demanded to know everything the Jedi did about what sort of threat he might pose. Obi-Wan wondered now if that had all been an act. "We will be most relieved once we are sure we have derailed his plans."

This time, Palpatine did react. He stiffened slightly, glancing away as the smile slipped off his face. "Yes," he said after a moment. "I, of course, am also quite invested in the Jedi's pursuit of the Sith. May it turn out well."

Obi-Wan kept his face as carefully blank as possible. Now, it was more than a suspicion: Palpatine definitely knew more about the Sith than he had let on. The only question was, he thought as he hurriedly said his goodbye and left before Palpatine could realize he had caught on, how had none of them noticed before?

Palpatine smiled. Kenobi had taken the bait, he was sure of it. That any Jedi who visited his office would sense the holocron had been easy enough to predict, and though it would have been simple enough to keep it elsewhere, he'd ultimately decided that this was an opportunity he couldn't pass up. It would be best to make his move with both Yoda and Windu off Coruscant, and of course he couldn't put things off too long lest Padme Amidala give birth and his greatest hold over his soon-to-be-apprentice broken one way or another.

No, it was time to force a crisis. The Jedi were already suspicious of him, and he hoped that the aura surrounding the holocron would make those suspicions too strong to ignore. Palpatine was long past ready for a confrontation.

And he was quite sure that Obi-Wan Kenobi was going to bring one to him.

Obi-Wan hurried through the corridors of the Temple, barely taking notice of his surroundings. How could he have been so blind? Lost in his thoughts, he nearly ran into the person coming around a corner in the opposite direction.

"Obi-Wan!" He skidded to a halt at the sight of Anakin, who had also stopped in his tracks and was looking at him with a mixture of apprehension and guilt. "Um, is something going on?"

Obi-Wan opened his mouth, then closed it again. Anakin would never believe an accusation like this about Palpatine, not without proof. And given how unstable his former apprentice had been acting these past few days, Obi-Wan wasn't sure it was a good idea to be testing his conflicted loyalties any further. Better to keep Anakin out of this one, at least until they had some evidence.

"Obi-Wan?" There was confusion evident in the younger man's voice, and Obi-Wan realized he hadn't answered his question.

"Yes, actually," he said after a moment. "Master Windu was successful on Utapau; General Grievous has been killed."

"Oh!" said Anakin. "That's, uh, that's great." He stared at the floor. "Obi-Wan, look, about yesterday…" he trailed off, fidgeting nervously.

Obi-Wan sighed, rubbing his face with one hand. For all that he'd made a conscious decision to wait until this morning to talk to Anakin about it, somehow he still wasn't quite prepared for the conversation. "Anakin, why did you you do it?"

Anakin rubbed the nape of his neck, visibly distressed. "I just - I'm sorry, Obi-Wan. I wasn't thinking straight, I guess."

Closing his eyes, Obi-Wan prayed to the Force for patience. "That may have worked as an excuse for your reckless behavior when you were a Padawan, but this is a completely different situation. You should have known better, Anakin. You should have known better, and it hurts me that you took advantage of my trust like that. Do you have any idea of the trouble I could be in for letting you in there? You weren't even supposed to know the Sith holocrons existed!"

"I'm sorry," he said again, looking miserable. "And you didn't, you didn't let me in. Obi-Wan, you were the one who pulled me out of there when I was getting sucked in. It was my fault; no one can possibly blame you for what I did." He folded his arms.

"I was the one who let you in the Vault in the first place," Obi-Wan said. "And apparently, I should have known better than to think you could behave yourself for five minutes while I wasn't in the room."

Anakin flinched, his hands gripping his upper arms as he glanced downward again. "I know. I shouldn't have. I was just...I was worried about Padme. I was desperate, I wasn't thinking about, about any of that."

"I know you weren't," said Obi-Wan, running his hand through his hair. "That's the problem, isn't it? Anakin, I thought you agreed to tell me what you were thinking. I am trying to help you, you know."

"I know," Anakin said. "It...it was stupid." He bit his lip. "Obi-Wan, do you really think it was so awful? I mean, I'm not - I didn't hurt anyone, I wasn't planning on doing anything bad, I was just...looking."

"Just looking?" The pitch of Obi-Wan's voice rose high in incredulity. "Anakin, do you even remember what you were like? I had to drag you out of there, kicking and screaming." It might have started with 'just looking,' but there was no denying that it had gone farther than that. Obi-Wan took a deep breath. "No, you didn't hurt anyone, or plan on doing anything wrong. But the dark side is dangerous, corrupting. The fact that you exposed yourself to it at all is what worries me." His tone softened. "I know you have good intentions, Anakin. You always do. But that isn't enough, not always. Just...talk to me about this. Padme and I can help you, but only if you let us."

"I was going to go talk to Padme, actually," Anakin admitted. "I haven't been to see her recently, not since I first went into the Archives."

"Good," said Obi-Wan, relieved. After the previous day's conversation, he was hopeful that Padme might be able to get through to Anakin and calm his anxiety. Or at the very least, she could keep him from getting into any more trouble while Obi-Wan dealt with the Palpatine situation. "You should definitely do that." He smiled, placing a hand on Anakin's shoulder. "You and I can talk more later, once everything calms down. But in the meantime, Anakin...we will get through this, understand? The war is almost over, and we'll be able to focus on helping Padme quite soon. So just hang on for a little bit longer, my young friend. All right?"

Anakin nodded, leaning slightly forward into the contact. "All right," he said quietly.

For a long moment, they stood silently in that position. Then, remembering the reason for his earlier urgency, Obi-Wan pulled away. "Say hello to Padme for me, would you?"

"Will do," Anakin replied.

And with that, they went their separate ways, Obi-Wan never seeing Anakin's smile slip as he walked off in the opposite direction.

Nobody commented on the fact that Anakin hadn't been invited to the Council meeting. Obi-Wan was torn between gratitude - for the last thing he wanted to do was explain his sudden loss of confidence in his friend's ability to remain objective - and sadness, because it only demonstrated how little faith the others had in Anakin. Somehow, despite the events of the past two days, Obi-Wan still wished the others would trust Anakin just a tiny bit more.

He and Agen Kolar were the only ones physically present. Yoda was there via hologram, as was Ki-Adi-Mundi and Plo Koon. Everyone else was too busy, each fighting their own battle on a distant planet, to attend. It didn't take long for Obi-Wan to relay the news of Mace's victory...and to tell of his own experience.

"Sure you are that it was the dark side you sensed, young Obi-Wan?" inquired Yoda.

"Absolutely, Master," Obi-Wan said. "And it was surrounding Palpatine specifically, I'm quite sure of it. If he's not the Sith Lord, he's certainly directly connected."

Even the normally implacable Ki-Adi Mundi looked perturbed at that announcement. "Palpatine himself? This is worse than we dared imagine."

"I agree," said Plo. "Even if he's not actually the Sith Lord, if he's been working for him, then the Republic has been under the direct control of the dark side for more than a decade. We can't let this go any further."

"But nor can we act without specific evidence." Obi-Wan had been thinking it through ever since the meeting. "Palpatine will deny any accusation we make against him, and I have no doubt the Senate will side with him- without proof, all we can do is alert the Sith Lord that we're on to him."

The image of Ki-Adi frowned. "I don't think we can in good conscience let a Sith control the Republic because we're worried about the political consequences. And I highly doubt that there's going to be any evidence just laying around - we know that both Palpatine and Sidious are smart, whether they're the same person or not."

"Hmm," said Yoda. "Agree with Master Mundi, I do. But agree with Master Kenobi, I do also. A dilemma we have."

"Look," Obi-Wan said. "I suppose Ki-Adi has a point about acting now. It's likely the Sith is prepared for us to figure it out at some point, and the only element of surprise we might have is in our timing. However, I also think that we have to find some evidence before we take any sort of official action." He caught Master Yoda's eye, silently asking him for support. "The Senate will never uphold any sort of conviction without proof, and making an accusation of this sort will only turn public opinion against us."

"An alternative, you see, Obi-Wan?"

Obi-Wan nodded. "I'll go back to Palpatine, and this time, I won't go alone. Here is what I propose…"

Just stepping into Padme's apartment was usually enough to make Anakin relax. Over the past three years, it had become a haven for him away from the violence of the war and the pressure of being a Jedi. A safe space, without stress or judgment or blasterfire. But now…

Now it just reminded him of what he stood to lose if his visions came true.

"Anakin!" For a moment, his worries and exhaustion melted away as Padme hurried out to greet him. "Oh Ani, I haven't seen you in days." She flew into his arms, and he buried his face in her neck. She was right; it had been too long since they had been together. Forget the months that they had spent apart because of the war; right now, Anakin didn't think he could have stood another hour without seeing her face.

For a short eternity, he simply stood there and clutched her close to him. Breathing in her scent, fingers tightening in the folds of her dress, allowing her simple presence to soothe him as it always had. "Padme, how are you feeling?"

"Fine," she mumbled against his shoulder.

"Are you really?" he asked anxiously.

Padme pulled back half a step, reaching up to stroke his face with her hand; he nuzzled slightly into the touch. "Anakin, I'm fine," she said. "I told you not to worry about the nightmares. Nothing's going to happen to me."

He wished he could believe that was true. "You're right," he said, and for a moment her face lit up with relief. "Nothing is going to happen to you. I won't let it."

"Anakin, don't-"

"Don't what?" Her continued cavalier attitude towards her own life was starting to grate on his nerves. "You're my wife. What's wrong with me wanting to save you?"

"With wanting to save me? Oh, Anakin, nothing. But..." He sensed a brief flare of nervousness from her. "But there is a problem when your actions start getting out of hand," she continued quietly.

This time, it was Anakin who took a step back. "What? How did-" he cut himself off, realization striking as he suddenly placed a familiar Force-signature lingering in the apartment. "You've been talking to Obi-Wan about me?" How could Obi-Wan go behind his back to rat him out to Padme like that? And how could Padme believe him? Okay, yes, so in this case Obi-Wan had probably been telling the truth about what Anakin had done, but she still should have waited to hear his side of the story. "What did he tell you?" Anakin demanded, grabbing her wrist.

Padme yanked her arm away from him. "He told me he was worried about you Anakin, that's all. He explained what you've been trying to do the past couple days. I know you just want to help me, Ani, and I appreciate the thought, but there are limits I don't want you to cross, and-"

"I can't believe this," Anakin said, hands balling into fists "I can't believe he came to you and started accusing me without giving me a chance to explain first."

"He didn't come here to accuse you of anything, Anakin," Padme snapped. "He came here to talk to me about your nightmares and make sure I was all right. Yes, he ended up talking to me about you, but only because he wants to help you."

Anakin felt the anger drain away, replaced by a surge of guilt. "He came over to check in on you?" It seemed Obi-Wan was doing a better job of taking care of Padme than he had been, these past few days.

"Yes," Padme said. "He did."

And why couldn't Anakin seem to remember that Obi-Wan was being supportive? His former master had done nothing but try to help him since his first break-in, but somehow, there was something in the back of his mind that kept whispering that it couldn't possibly last. That after how he'd taken advantage of Obi-Wan's trust to steal Rivan's holocron, he didn't deserve for it to last…

"Oh," he said eventually. "Um, look. I'm sorry Padme, I shouldn't have snapped." He rubbed his forehead. "I'm just a little stressed, that's all."

"I know," said Padme. "We all are. The war..."

"Will be over soon." For once, it seemed he had the chance to be the bearer of good news. "Grievous was killed a few hours ago."

Padme smiled widely. "He was? That's...certainly a relief to hear." Almost to herself, she added, "Palpatine will have step down, now."

Anakin glared at her. "You say that as though it's a good thing," he said, crossing his arms. "Palpatine's term in office has been the best thing that could have happened to the Republic." Not to mention how supportive Palpatine had always been of him, how supportive he was being right now about Anakin's exploration of the Sith Vault.

Padme opened her mouth, hesitated, then shut it again. "Let's not argue about that right now," she said.

"Fine," Anakin said. He didn't like to hear people doubting the old man who had mentored and encouraged him for so many years, but he hated fighting with Padme even more. Though, now that he thought about it, he probably should go visit Palpatine again soon. The night before, Rivan's holocron had freaked him out enough that he'd run out of the man's office without any explanation. Now, conflicted as he still was about whether to keep investigating the secrets of the holocron, he thought it might do him good to talk to the Chancellor about it. Palpatine had always given him good advice in the past, and he couldn't think of anyone else who could give him objective guidance about what to do.

That could wait, though, at least for the next little while. Right now, though, before he went back to the world of Sith and Jedi and conflict, he intended to spend some time with his wife while he still could.

Four Jedi Masters entered the office of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine.

He welcomed them with a smile and a warm greeting, the very picture of geniality. But Obi-Wan Kenobi could still sense the concentrated darkness that surrounded him, even more strongly now than it had been earlier that morning. And from the looks on the faces of his fellow Jedi, he was not the only one.

"Chancellor," he said, stepping forward. "We have a very serious matter to discuss with you."

"Oh?" Palpatine raised an elegant eyebrow. "And what might that be?"

"As you know, the Jedi have been investigating the possibility of a Sith Lord residing on Coruscant for some time," Obi-Wan said, watching Palpatine's face carefully for any reaction. Behind him, he could sense the other three Masters fanning out around the office. "We have some reason to believe that the Sith might be someone you know. Someone who works for you, perhaps."

"Someone who works for me?" Palpatine repeated. "How awful." He steepled his fingers together, leaning forward. "Do tell me more, Master Kenobi."

"If I may, Chancellor," said Kit Fisto. He walked around the desk. "I sense that there may be something connected to the Sith Lord in this room. You don't mind if I take a look around, do you?"

Palpatine shrugged, and then swept his arm in a wide gesture around the office. "By all means, Master Jedi."

Kit appeared to hesitate slightly at the unexpected concession, then moved closer to the desk. Now that he was focusing there, Obi-Wan too could sense that that was where the sense of wrongness was converging. Still, it seemed unlikely that Palpatine would keep incriminating evidence somewhere so obvious.

The Nautolan Master pulled open first one drawer, then another, when suddenly he froze. Whipping around to face Palpatine, he drew and ignited his lightsaber in one smooth motion. Obi-Wan was enough on edge that he grabbed his own lightsaber on pure instinct, and he heard the snap-hiss of two more weapons being ignited behind him. "What is it?" he asked Kit, whose lightsaber was hovering by the neck of an impassive, unperturbed-looking Palpatine. "What did you find?"

"I found this." A motion of a green hand, and an object floated up out of the drawer into Obi-Wan's line of sight.

It was a Sith holocron. No, thought Obi-Wan, dazed. Oh no, no, no, no. Oh, Anakin. You didn't. There was an intake of breath from Saesee Tiin, who also stepped forward to point his lightsaber at Palpatine.

"Oh, that thing?" Palpatine's casual tone, his glint in his eye despite the multiple weapons aimed toward him, was unaccountably more sinister than anything Obi-Wan had ever encountered. "Why, that's just a gift from a friend of mine. A trinket, nothing more."

Kit's lightsaber didn't waver. "What friend, Palpatine?"

"Is that any way to address your Supreme Chancellor?" Palpatine asked lightly. "And you know, I don't think I'll tell you which friend. You all seem rather on edge about this, and, well." He looked directly at Obi-Wan. "I wouldn't want to get him into any trouble."

Frozen in horror, Obi-Wan could only stare back at him. Trouble didn't even begin to describe what Anakin would be in, if the truth came out.

"If you're telling the truth," said Kit, "and understand that we aren't taking that as a given, then your friend is probably a Sith Lord. And your refusal to tell us his name-"

"Is well within my legal rights," Palpatine cut him off. "In fact, given that you appear ready to take violence against whoever gave me this...paperweight, I rather think I shan't tell you. Now, if you were to subpoena me - though I highly doubt the courts would support these ridiculous accusations - I suppose I could produce the security recording of him giving it to me. But at the moment, you understand I feel reluctant to cooperate with you waving those lightsabers about." This time, he actually winked at Obi-Wan.

Obi-Wan wondered numbly if this was supposed to be blackmail. Leave Palpatine alone, and he wouldn't inform on Anakin to the rest of the Council. Push him, and he would drag Anakin down along with him. But if Palpatine didn't go down, then the entirety of the Republic would. Anakin, what were you thinking...?! He also wondered if Palpatine was telling the truth about there being security recordings - if so than it had been unnecessary for Saesee to bring his own recording device, so that they could make a tape of what they'd hoped would be Palpatine's confession.

"He's lying," said Obi-Wan, wishing desperately that he had another choice, "He is the Sith Lord; there is no other 'friend'." The first part, at least, Obi-Wan was mostly certain was true.

He waited for Palpatine to contradict him, to explain the truth of who had given him the holocron. Instead, Palpatine simply shrugged his shoulders. "Well, you have me," he sighed. "Master Kenobi is quite right. I am the Sith Lord."

The four lightsabers were again pointed directly at his face. It was Agen Kolar who eventually spoke. "Okay, why in the nine Corellian hells would you just admit that if it were true?"

Palpatine leaned back casually and laced his fingers behind his head. "Why not? I don't think you'll find any laws against being a Sith. You have no evidence of me committing any actual crime, so what have I to worry about?" He flicked a finger, and the holocron levitated itself back across the desk toward him. "And I think I'll take my little trinket back, as well."

There was a long, disbelieving pause.

"All right, this is getting ridiculous," Kit Fisto said. "Why don't you just drop the act, Sidious?"

"Very well," said Palpatine, and attacked. The very essence of the dark side itself for a second manifested itself as an almost tangible presence, pinning Obi-Wan momentarily where he stood. By the time he broke free of it, a blink of an eye later, Palpatine had ducked out from under their lightsabers and a bar of red plasma was protruding from the chest of a surprised-looking Saesee Tiin.

After that, the fight was a blur. Obi-Wan leapt into action, slashing and parrying furiously, to be met with a lethal blur of red that pushed him several steps backward. He whirled to the side, blocking a thrust that would have taken his arm off, lashed out with his own blade.

His saber was swept aside. Moments later, the body of Kit Fisto crumpled to the floor.

Lightsabers slashed and whirled. The flare of energy beams clashing together lit the room. Scarlet met blue, sizzling plasma met sizzling plasma, blurs of colored lightning danced together in intricate patterns, and two Jedi and one Sith gave everything they had to utterly destroy the other. Light struggled against dark, and dark raged against light, and flares of lethal fire went up from the crash of shining energy as the three combatants attacked and defended.

The dark is generous, and it is patient, and it always, always wins. Less than two minutes after the fight had begun, Agen Kolar became one with the Force.

Obi-Wan disengaged his blade. He and Palpatine circled each other, slowly, warily. Lightsaber held in a Soresu-ready, he met the dark avatar's flick of a crimson blade with a desperate slash-parry.

It occurred to Obi-Wan, as he sunk deep into the Force and allowed it to flow through him, allowing his blue-white weapon to be guided into strikes and ripostes with no conscious intention, that if three of the greatest bladesbeings in the Order couldn't take Palpatine down, then he probably couldn't either.

He fought anyway. Swiftly defending Palpatine's strikes, he was unable to get a thrust past Palpatine's blade. He deflected one-two-three stabs, knowing Yoda himself could not fight as the shadow across from him was doing. Centered, balanced, completely aware of the fact that he was fighting an enemy with power he could never hope to match, he didn't slow for an instant the defensive velocity that was all that kept the fan of blood-red energy at bay.

Being forced slowly backward by a devil in human form, Obi-Wan sensed that this fight was being pushed toward a single, inevitable conclusion. He knew that he would likely die very soon. Yet the thought held no anguish for him, for he knew he would die a Jedi.

Four Jedi Masters had entered the office of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, and now only one remained. Obi-Wan Kenobi couldn't win.

He fought anyway.