So we have a few criminals amongst us in this chapter. Clearly Han is a bad influence on Luke. It's the only explanation. Haha...
Chapter Eleven
Ahsoka concentrated on the two minds across the room, focusing into their thoughts to plant the suggestion to go to sleep.
"Oh, Force," she breathed, her eyes snapping open.
"What, what is it?" Luke asked and she glanced back at him.
"The guards are Force Sensitive," she whispered.
"Force Sensitive?" Luke echoed and then nodded. "Yeah, that sounds about his style."
"Why would the Chancellor have Force Sensitive guards? Why don't the Jedi know this?" she asked, and Luke gave a shrug looking off at the various pieces of art surrounding his office.
"Luke, what do you know?"
"Nothing, nothing," he shook his head. "Just... Stuff."
"This stuff include the Sith Master protecting the Chancellor?"
"From a certain point of view," he shrugged, remembering Ben's careful deception regarding his parentage.
"Whatever," she shook her head. "I don't think we can Force Suggest these guys. They have fairly hefty shields."
"Well, we do things the hard way," he nodded before stepping out from behind the corner and into the guard's sight. "hey, is this the Chancellor's office?"
The guard on the left inched his head slightly at Luke, staring through the thin black piece that covered his eyes.
"That is so wizard!" Luke laughed, continuing on. "I mean, school mentioned coming here once but, you know. The war happened and it was deemed 'too dangerous'. Pfft! What do they know?"
The guards didn't respond so Luke took a step forward. Two Plasma Spikes came down in and 'X' across his path.
"Woah, neat weapons!" He grinned. "I bet you I got a cooler one."
With a snap-hiss his lightsaber ignited and at the same moment Ahsoka stepped around the corner and lept forward, igniting her blade mid-air. They sliced through the guards quickly and painlessly.
"Oh, Force," Luke mumbled, staring at the cut down guards. "How are we going to hide this?"
"Sith, you're right. Man, Master Obi-Wan always thinks of these things before hand," she groaned. "I need to start paying more attention to him than Skyguy."
"We need to focus," Luke said. "For now let's take them in with us. Maybe Palpatine has some sort of garbage chute."
Ahsoka snorted. "Probably goes straight to the Lower Levels for all he cares about them."
"Not the point," Luke sighed. "Alright, let's move before someone sees us."
"Agreed." The door slid open with a wave of Luke's hand and the two Jedi pulled the red-robed guards into the office. It was huge, the walls papered in red and the furniture all similarly colored with little variation. It was fairly boring.
"Ugh, I need to work out more or these guys need to diet," Ahsoka grumbled. She let go of one of the guard's ankles, his boot dropping to the carpeted floor with a thud.
"Shut the door, I'll check out his desk," Luke said, walking up the leveled floor and to the old, synthe-wood desk. He tugged at a drawer, opening it up to reveal flimsy and spare styluses. The second draw had a data-pad and a few credits, and the third drawer was locked.
Luke reached into the Force and opened the lock, listening to the slight click it made on release. He tugged at the drawer and sighed when it opened to reveal a blaster and an old comlink.
"So much for that," he sighed. Ahsoka was wandering around the room, running her hand over the various statues and couches, feeling everything. "You see anything?"
"Just some ugly art," she replied. "You?"
"A data-pad," he sighed. He clicked it on, scrolling through the stored documents. "It's only Senate stuff. I'll copy it to mine and see if Leia can make heads or tails of it."
"You do that," she nodded. She continued running her fingers along one of the golden vases set by a spare couch when she stopped and fingered the arm of it. "Hey, Luke."
"What?" he asked, looking up from the data transfer.
"The handle-arm thing to this vase," she said, running her fingers along it. "It's worn down, but the other side isn't."
"How in the Force did you see that?" he asked, walking over to her.
"I don't know," she shrugged. "It just felt like I should look at it. So I did."
"That's the Force for you," he mumbled, examining the vase. He ran his fingers lightly down the worn handle, feeling the roughness of it. He tugged slightly and the Handle slid down and into the vase from top to bottom. A small click sounded and they glanced back at a painting situated on the wall. It had swung open like the old style doors and opened a small enclosed box. "That's odd."
"We find a secret compartment like on a Holo-Drama and all you can say is 'That's odd'?" Ahsoka asked, shaking her head in disbelief.
Luke rolled his eyes and walked forward, up to the painting. The compartment was shadowed, making it hard to see the contents. Luke reached in and felt around, grabbing several Data-Pads. He handed them off to Ahsoka and reached back in, his fingers falling on cool, cylindrical metal. He tugged it out, his heart going numb as he realized he'd just found Sidious's Lightsaber.
"Is that...?" Ahsoka asked, her voice strained with surprise.
"Yes," Luke nodded. The hilt was a shiny black, very low key. It was a weapon designed to go undetected, that was for sure. "We just found Darth Sidious's Lightsaber."
"Then that means..." she trailed off again and looked up at Luke. "You knew, this whole time, and you didn't tell anyone?"
"You had no proof, it wouldn't have mattered," he said. "Look, let's copy the data on those Data-Pads and get out of here before the Senate meeting is over."
"Fine," she sniped, clearly angry of his withholding of information. "But I'm keeping this to take to Council," she said, holding up the lightsaber.
"No, don't," Luke warned. "If Palpatine finds out its missing he'll bring forward the Purge. That can't happen for two more weeks. We must put everything back as we found it."
"Fine," she said. "Then maybe we should present all the information to the council and let them decide what stays canon with your future."
"Ahsoka, this is serious," he said. "If Leia and I aren't born at exactly the right moment, everything could change."
"You're already stopping Sidious!" she cried out. "How much more different could the future turn out?"
"Please?"
"Fine," she sighed, reaching back into the secret compartment and returning the blade. "Wait, one sec."
She pulled it back out, aiming it away from them, and igniting it once. A brilliant crimson blade emerged for a few seconds before she returned it to the hilt, and then to the vault.
"Just wanted to confirm he wasn't a secret Jedi," she nodded. "Okay, let's get started transferring data."
It took ten minutes to transfer the six pads of data. Luckily that Luke had a nearly empty Data-Pad in hand and Palpatine's pads were not full. They managed to fit all the data on the pad without much trouble.
With quiet speed, they returned everything away in the compartment and the desk, sliding the vase arm back in place to close the painting. It was just as they had seen it when they entered.
Except for the dead guards.
"Do see a trash chute?" Ahsoka asked, glancing around.
"No," Luke sighed. "What are we going to do?"
"There's a janitorial droid closet down the hall. If we leave it in there the droids will just clean it up," she said.
"Fine, we do that, but let's hurry," he agreed, grabbing one of the Guards by the shoulders. Ahsoka grabbed the other guard's wrists and began dragging.
"The hallway is clear," she said after scanning it through the Force.
"Good," Luke said, punching the door release. They walked down the hallway, encountering no one luckily. They hoisted the guards into the closet, next to the various deactivated cleaning droids. "Okay, let's get out of here."
"Agreed," Ahsoka nodded and the two made their way briskly through the hallways. Senators were just starting to arrive back from the Senate meetings, and Luke and Ahsoka picked up their pace slightly. They made it back out of the Senate building and onto the street safely. "Are we returning to the Temple?"
"No," Luke said. "Let's go to 500 Republica. Padme can help us look at the files. She's already working in some secret meeting Leia helped put together."
"Secret meeting?"
"Don't ask me," he held up his hands in surrender. "Leia wouldn't give me the details. Said it was secret."
"Fantastic," Ahsoka rolled her eyes. "Padme can help us?"
"She was Senator for years," he said. "I'm sure she knows how to read the Chancellor's secret files."
"Yes, but these aren't the Chancellor's secret files, these are the secret files of the Sith Master!"
"Still," Luke shrugged. "Politicians all write alike."
"They do not," she countered.
"Are you always this childish?"
"Are you always this much of a stick in the mud?"
Luke grimaced and looked back forward at their path. They were nearly halfway back to 500 Republica.
"What are we going to do with the information we find?" Ahsoka asked after a moment.
"I don't know," Luke shrugged. "Maybe we can find a way to take down the Chancellor that doesn't end with the rise of Darth Vader."
"Darth Vader? That's the Jedi that replaces Dooku right?" she asked and Luke nodded.
"Yeah," he said. "I lost my hand to him."
Luke held up his hand and Ahsoka gasped, grabbing I and examining it thoroughly.
"Woah, wizard," she mumbled. "I've never seen an artificial limb like this."
"Yeah, I guess in twenty years science advances just that much."
"Wow, wait till Skyguy finds that out! Boy will he be jealous!"
"He can't know," Luke admonished. "No one can. It's a future thing."
"Right, fine," she sighed. "So tell me more about this Darth Vader. Who is he?"
"I can't tell you."
"Great," she said sarcastically. "Okay, what's he do?"
"He's the Emperor's right hand man," Luke said. "He does everything so Sidious doesn't have to."
"Okay, Mr. Vague," she said. "How about what he looks like?"
"He's in a medical suit after some bad injuries. It was pretty frightening."
"You really can't give me anything more to go on, can you?"
"I can, but I won't," he said with a grin as he palmed open the door to 500 Republic. They made their way to the lift and up to Padme's floor.
Luke knocked on the door, not really sure of how to enter.
"Sir Luke!" Threepio greeted. "And Miss Ahsoka, how wonderful it is to see you!"
"Hi, Threepio," Ahsoka greeted.
"May we come in, Threepio?" Luke asked, drawing the droid's attention back.
"Why, most certainly!" Threepio said brightly. "You do in fact live here now."
"I'm just staying," Luke corrected. "Are Padme and Leia still here?"
"Miss Leia returned to the Senate for the meeting," Threepio said. "Mistress Padme has remained here and is currently in the living area."
"Thanks," Luke nodded, heading into the room. Padme was seated on the couch watching the holo-net as he walked in. She turned at the sound of his footsteps and smiled.
"Oh, hello Luke," she greeted. Ahsoka followed in behind him and Padme's grin brightened more. "Oh, Ahsoka! I haven't seen you in ages."
"Hello, Senator," Ahsoka smiled.
"Padme, we were hoping you could go over some political files for us. See if you can decipher some of the things in there," Luke said, pulling out his data-pad.
"Sure," Padme smiled, clicking off the 'Net. Luke handed her the data-pad and she took it, clicking it on and scrolling through the files. "Where did you get this?"
"Just, you know, around," Ahsoka shrugged and Luke shot her a warning glance.
"Oh my," Padme whispered, her whole body stilling. "This is... Luke, where did you get this?"
"Why?" he asked and she looked up.
"Luke, there are some very devious plans in these files. Where did you get this?"
"Chancellor Palpatine's office," Ahsoka said. "We haven't been through the files yet. What did you find?"
"Chancellor Palpatine?" Padme gasped looking back at the data-pad. Her hand went down to her stomach, stroking the rounded surface lightly.
"Padme, what does it say?" Luke urged.
"These are plans to a new government," she whispered. "To an Empire."
Luke sighed. "Okay, what else is there?"
"Let me look," she said, and began scrolling through the stored pages. "There's work on the Clone Army, agreements with Kamino... Jedi notes... Wait. These notes are evaluations of the Jedi."
"He's evaluating the Jedi?" Ahsoka asked. "What does it say?"
"Master Yoda and Master Windu are the two main voices on the council," Padme read. "They continue to be a hindrance in the war, and must be eliminated in the first wave."
"First wave?" Ahsoka echoed and looked up at Luke. He had gone pale at the words.
"There's more," Padme said. "On the other hand, Ana..." she swallowed heavily. "Anakin Skywalker is proving most powerful and will be a most awesome apprentice. He will serve many years. Kenobi at the current time is holding him back, but I have planted the seeds of doubt regarding an illicit affair between Kenobi and Amidala..."
"This is huge," Ahsoka whispered.
"He knows," Padme breathed and looked down at her stomach.
"Padme, it will be alright," Ahsoka said, walking forward and clutching the Senator's hand.
"He could ruin Anakin, though," Padme said.
"No, Palpatine wants him alive and unbroken by the Jedi," Luke said. "He won't reveal the knowledge of you two. He's only using it to turn Anakin."
"He's turning Anakin?" Padme asked. "Why? Why would he want Anakin?"
"He's the chosen one," Ahsoka said. "The sith want that power."
"This doesn't make sense," Padme shook her head. "The Chancellor is working with the Sith?"
"The Chancellor is the sith," Ahsoka said. Padme stood up abruptly and began pacing slowly.
"The dreams, Anakin's dreams," she breathed.
"Dreams?" Luke echoed and Padme glanced up.
"He's been having dreams about my death," Padme said. "He's driving himself mad over it."
"Do you think Sidious could be planting them?" Ahsoka asked and Luke shook his head.
"I don't think Sidious could do that, but I'm almost sure he'll play off them," he said. "Has he had the dream lately?"
"No," Padme shook her head. "Not since before you were in the coma."
"Alright, there's something," Luke nodded.
"Luke," Ahsoka said. "I think things might just be that much easier if you revealed some things."
"I can't, you know that," he said. Ahsoka sighed and looked away, clearly disappointed with his answer.
"I'll go over these files," Padme said, reaching for the data-pad.
"Check out orders 65-67 on the Clone Mandate," Luke suggested. "Leia found those three missing. We don't know why."
"Alright," Padme nodded. She grabbed the data-pad and pulled up the file on the clones and scrolled through the orders. "Order Sixty Five: All Clones will respond with immediate action to any order given by commander in chief number one. Order Sixty Six: The complete elimination of the Jedi Order in the event they become Enemies of the Republic. Order Sixty Seven: Complete Obedience to Darth Vader."
Padme looked up from the reading, her face pale. "He's taking over the Republic. He knows that the Jedi will fight to preserve the Republic. He's going to take them out."
"Elimination of the Jedi Order?" Ahsoka asked. She was shocked and panicking. "Luke we have to take this to Council."
"Agreed," he nodded. "There's no way this can wait to play out."
"I'm going to call Bail and see if we can change the petition into an impeachment," Padme said. "Palpatine needs out of office now."
"It won't do you any good," Luke said. "He'll just label you traitors and falsify the story."
"I have to do something," Padme said.
"Then do something by doing nothing," Luke suggested. "Put in place a contingency plan. Something in case Palpatine succeeds. Something to take out this Empire."
"A rebellion?" Padme asked and Luke nodded.
"Trust me, it's the only plan that will work," Luke said. He turned to Ahsoka and continued. "Let's present these orders and files to council. Call the meeting immediately."
"I'm coming with you," Padme said. "Let me first call Bail and Leia. They need to know of this."
"Alright," Luke nodded. "Ahsoka, run to the Temple, get the Masters together. Master Windu. Call him first. He can set things up."
"Alright," Ahsoka nodded and left the room quickly. The sound of the door sliding open and shut sounded as she left.
"Senator Organa's office," Leia's voice and face greeted on the comm unit. Padme was sitting at the station, her fingers tapping nervously against the metal.
"Leia, this is Padme," she said. "Luke and Ahsoka managed to get a hold of the Missing Clone orders. We're meeting at the Jedi Temple. You and Bail should be there."
"He found the orders?" Leia asked, surprised. "I'll get Bail and we'll be there in ten."
"Alright, meet you there," Padme nodded and clicked off the comm. "Thank Force Anakin thought to heavily encrypt that station."
"You ready to go?" Luke asked and Padme nodded, grabbing the data-pad off the couch and heading out towards the veranda.
"Let's take the speeder," she said. She pressed a button beside the door and a small enclosure opened to reveal a shiny black speeder tucked inside. Padme got in carefully so as not to jostle her stomach. Luke got in the driver side and started it up. He pulled into traffic, flying the skylanes off towards the Temple.
They found the orders! How fun! I happen to love the upcoming chapters, by the way. Everything starts compacting from here. We are getting closer and closer to the climax of this story...
Anyways, Review! I love hearing from you guys!
