Within the heart of the Temple, Shaak Ti watched a life sized holoscan of Commander Cody give a report of the current situation on Utupau.
Mace Windu, Yoda, and Ki Adi Mundi were seated around her.
"We are beginning our supporting attack as ordered. And...If I may say so...From my experience working with General Kenobi, Grievous does not have long time to live."
Please be careful. Shaak Ti thought, trying not to rub her montrals anxiously. Obi Wan, be careful.
"Thank you, Commander Cody. Make sure to cover all possible escape routes." Ki Adi Mundi said curtly.
"Of course, sir."
Mace Windu's face did not betray the slightest hint of the mingled dread and anticipation rushing through him.
Shaak Ti could feel it it building in him.
Fear.
Shaak Ti wanted to pace just a little and go to her chambers and meditate, and Windu looking calm as a stone despite the report did not do her any favors.
He had always been close to the dark side-too close, and now...
He's poison.
She blinked widely-that was a warning.
"Keep us updated with your progress. May the Force be with you, and with Master Kenobi." Windu said, tone severe.
"Ending transmission."
The holoscan flickered to nothingness.
Mace Windu turned brief but seemingly significant glances upon the other three Master in the room with him.
Yoda.
Ki Adi Mundi.
Shaak Ti.
He turned to Shaak Ti.
"Take this report to the Chancellor."
"Of course I will, Master Windu."
"Take careful note of his reaction. We will need a full account."
Shaak Ti blinked. "I beg your pardon, Master?"
"What he says, Master Ti. Who he calls. What he does. Everything. Even his facial expressions and body language. If he blinks too fast, tell me. If you feel anything that is even remotely off, tell me. You are very sensitive to these things. It's very important. Scrutinize everything."
"I don't understand, though."
"You don't have to understand."
"But, I was charged with giving a report, how does that account for spying on the Chancellor?"
"Just do it."
"Master Windu, we only serve the Chancellor and the Judicial Department. It has been this way since the Ruusan Reformation-"
"Master Ti! Do I have to remind you that you are still a Jedi Master? That you sit on this Council and that you are still subject to the orders of this Council?"
"But it is not the Council ordering me. You are, Master Windu. I am not a soldier."
"Master Shaak Ti!"
"Yes, Master Windu. Yes, I am leaving." Shaak Ti said, taking her leave.
She glanced at Yoda fleetingly before she departed fully.
He hadn't said a single thing to Windu.
No rebuke.
Once Shaak Ti was gone, Mace Windu lowered himself in a chair, staring at the doorway through which the Jedi Master had left.
Though he shared the command center with the two other Jedi Masters, he wasn't even looking at them. He struggled the grim and clouded future within his mind.
"Have you considered..." Ki-Adi-Mundi paused, measuring carefully, cautious. "That if Palpatine refuses to surrender power, removing him is only the first step in the process"
Mace looked at the Cerean Master. "I am not a politician, Ki Adi Mundi. Removing a tyrant is enough for me."
"But it will not be enough for the Republic, Master Windu. Palpatine's dictatorship has been legitimized and can be legalized, even enshrined in a revised Constitution...By the super majority he controls in the Senate. If we try to remove him, we could be viewed as the tyrants. It would be an act of treason, one that endangers the Jedi."
"Right, he is." Yoda agreed. "Outlaws, we would be."
The grim future inside Mace's head turned even darker.
"Filled with corruption, the Senate is. Controlled, they must be, until replaced the corrupted Senators can be, with Senators honest and without avarice-"
"Do you hear what we are saying?"
Mace lowered his head into his hands.
"Has it really come to this!? Arresting a Chancellor. Taking over the Senate. Dooku was right...To save the Republic, we'll have to destroy it...We are supposed to serve, we have served since the Ruusan Reformation! We are not a military power!"
Yoda lifted his head, and his eyes shifted as he struggled with some inner pain.
"Hold on to hope we must! Our true enemy, Palpatine is not, nor the Senate! The true enemy, the Sith Lord Sidious, who controls them both with the dark side. Once destroyed, this Sidious is...All these other concerns, less dire they will instantly become."
"Perhaps." Mace Windu rose, and moved to the window, hands folded behind his back. "Perhaps..."
"And Palpatine has put the chosen one in play against Count Dooku. Undermine us and our authority, he has. Continue to, I believe he will. But, if young Skywalker can apprehend Dooku, and if Kenobi brings down Grievous, end this war, we will. A great victory for the Republic, it will be. Surrender his power, with no choice, he must."
Mace's face darkened, the conversation with Palpatine fresh in his mind.
Anakin will be leaving on a mission I have personally assigned him. There is much I have to discuss with you and the Council when he returns with Count Dooku concerning his rank and place among the Jedi. This is very serious and I expect only diplomacy!
Windu's gaze darkened, his fists clenching.
Perhaps...
I will not take this lightly.
"I suppose I am committed to being the bait."
Through electrobinoculars he examined the shiny spheroid high above on the tenth level.
The rows of spines had to be droid-control antennas.
That's where Grievous would be.
"Then that's where I should be, too..."
The closing of the deck canopy quieted the howl of the wind outside, and now from deeper within the city Obi Wan could hear a ragged choir of hoarsely bellowing cries that had a resonance to them. Whatever was making them was also massive.
They reminded him of Suubatars
They sounded vaguely like the calls of the suubatars he and Anakin had ridden on one of their last missions before the war, back when his biggest worry had been how to keep his promise to Qui Gon...
A simpler time, indeed.
Moments of following the cries through the shadows of deserted hallways carved into sandstone brought Obi Wan to an immense, circular arena-like area, where a ring of balconies were joined to a flat lower level by spokes of broad, corrugated ramps.
The ceiling above was hung with yellowish lamp rods that cast a light the same color as the sun rays striking through an arc of wide oval archways open to the interior of the sinkhole outside.
The winds that whistled through wide archways also cut the eye watering stench down from overpowering to merely nauseating.
Squatting, lying, and milling aimlessly about the lower level were a dozen or so massive and burly lizard-like beasts that looked like the product of some mad man's attempt at a cross of Tatooine Krayt Dragons with Haruun Kal Ankkoxen.
Seven meters tall at the shoulder, they had long crooked legs that ended in five-clawed feet clearly designed for scaling rocky cliffs and tearing apart earth to get at water or meat.
Their tails were nearly twenty meters, ridged with spines, spikes, barbs, and tipped with a long, acutely sharp horn-bladed mace.
A flexible and muscular neck lead up to an armor-plated head that sported an impressive cowl of spines and barbs of its own.
They looked fearsome enough that Obi-Wan might have thought them some sort of dangerous wild predators or vicious guard beasts.
Which they probably were.
But, that idea faded when he seen the docile way they tolerated the team of Utai wranglers who walked among them, hosing them down, scraping muck from their scales, and letting them take bundles of greens from their hands.
Obi Wan took note several large racks with an array of saddles in various styles, from ruggedly basic, to royally ornament almost, very much indeed like those the Alwari of Ansion had strapped to their suubatars.
Moving out of the shadows, he walked down one of the corrugated ramps and made a slight hand gesture in the direction of the nearest of the Utai dragon mount wranglers.
"I need transportation."
The Short's bulging eyes went distant, and he responded with a string of burbling glottal hoots that had a decidedly affirmative tone.
Obi-Wan nodded.
"Get me a saddle, please."
With another string of affirmative burbles, the Short waddled off.
While he waited for his saddle, Obi-Wan examined the dragons.
He passed up the largest, and the one most heavily muscled.
He skipped over the leanest.
He didn't even dare approach the one with the fiercest gleam in its eye.
He didn't approach the one with a ferocious demeanor.
Finally he came to a dragon with a clear, steady gleam in its round yellow eyes, and small, close-set scales that felt warm and dry. It neither shied back from his hand nor bent submissively to his touch, but only returned his searching gaze with calm, thoughtful intelligence.
Through the Force, he felt an unshakable commitment to obedience and care for its rider.
An almost Jedi-like devotion to service as the ultimate duty.
A selfless creature.
He could feel it was searching him, just as he was searching it.
"This one."
The Short had returned with a plain, sturdily functional saddle.
Rustic, but reliable.
He and the other wranglers undertook the complicated task of tacking up the dragon mount, he nodded at the beast.
"Boga."
"Thank you."
He took handfuls of greens from a nearby bin and offered them to the dragon. The great beast bent its head, its hooked beak delicately withdrew the greens from Obi-Wan's hand, and it chewed them slowly. He retrieved some water, offering it.
"Good girl, Boga..."
Obi-Wan frowned at the Short.
"She is a she?"
The wrangler frowned back saying a string of jibberish to his ear.
Obi-Wan took that to mean I have no idea what you're saying to me.
"Very well, then."
It was a scene of every day life.
Simple life.
Children playing and adults sitting quietly under the warm sun, or gossiping across neatly trimmed hedgerows.
Elders sitting in shady areas and speaking of old tales.
It was a scene of absolute normalcy for Naboo.
On Tatooine, the houses were singular, out in the desert, or they were clustered tightly in cities like Mos Eisley, with its hustle and bustle and bright colors and brighter characters.
On Coruscant, there were no streets like this one any longer.
There were no hedgerows and trees lining the ground, just permacrete and old buildings and the gray foundations of the towering skyscrapers. Speeders and other cruisers always zipping around.
On Ryloth, there was segregation and slavery openly. Female Twi'lek were exported and certain Twi'lek, depending on their color, were frowned upon.
There was nothing on Hoth.
People did not gossip, with children running carefree about them, in either of these places.
Simple beauty.
Cadus felt everything-using his body as a focal point of the Force to stretch across Naboo. He back to wearing his Jedi robes, the peasant garb discarded. Padme walked alongside him in a simple, yet long, yellow dress.
"There's my house!"
Cadus nearly jumped like he had been pricked with a needle.
He followed her gaze to see a simple but masterful structure, surrounded, like everything on Naboo, by flowers, trees, vines and hedges.
Padme moved for the door.
Cadus didn't follow right away.
He studied the house, every line, every detail, trying to see in it the environment that had produced her. She had told him many stories of her childhood in this house during their trip from Coruscant, and he was replaying those tales, seeing them in context now that the yard was in view.
He probed with the Force, feeling for...Not quite sure, but every prick he felt in his awareness was warm.
"What are you doing?" Padme asked, now a good distance ahead.
Cadus looked at her, half distracted.
"Don't tell me you're a recluse."
"No, but I am not good with children." Cadus said.
"Aunt Padme!"
Padme rushed ahead, bending low to scoop the pair, who looked to be no more than six years old.
One had hair short and curly with tufts growing out the sides, the other, the older of the two, had hair that was near ebony, but remained a tone of brown.
"Ryoo! Pooja! I'm so happy to see you! You both have grown so much!"
"We're happy to see you, Aunt Padme!"
She smiled, hugging them. She took them by the hand and led them toward Cadus.
"This is Cadus. He is a Jedi Master. Please show him respect. Cadus, this is Ryoo and Pooja!"
Nieces
The way the pair nearly screamed in amazement brought a burst of laughter from Padme and an awkward look from Cadus.
It only lasted for a second as the two went back to laughing and running around.
Cadus turned back to Padme, to see that she was no longer looking his way, but had turned toward the house, where another woman, who looked very much like Padme, was approaching.
Not exactly like Padme. They had their differences, facial structure wise. She was a little older, a little heavier, and a little more...Worn. Experienced.
Mother.
She gave life.
Yes, he could feel it, watching as she and Padme hugged tightly.
Ryoo and Pooja were that woman's children-their connection was unmistakable.
This was where Padme could become-more settled, more content, perhaps.
If she allowed herself the choice to do so.
These are the people she loved and trusted.
Considering he could already feel their relation in the force and through appearance alone, he was hardly surprised when they approached him.
"Sola, meet Jedi Master Cadus. Cadus, this is my older sister, Sola."
Cadus bowed a little.
"Formal." Sola noted.
"He is professional." Padme corrected.
"Mom and Dad will be happy to see you. I am really happy to see you, too. It's been a difficult few months, but the last standard day here has been dreadful. There was a huge warship and the Royal Guard was ready for an attack. It was an attack that we could have not repelled."
Padme frowned.
She knew that word of everything going on would have reached her parents' ears, and that was possibly the most disturbing thing of all to her.
But the one thing about it all that troubled her.
The political ramifications of such distractions, the ways they might weaken her position in the Senate were all but paltry.
Her main concern was the effect and affect, of such danger upon those she loved.
She didn't want to bring pain to her family.
She did.
How dare Nute Gunray...
How dare he ever threaten Naboo again!
"Mom's making dinner." Sola continued, noting Padme's silence. "As usual, your timing is perfect."
She started toward the house.
Padme waited for Cadus to move beside her, when he didn't, she moved beside him, then took his hand, looked up, smiled at him, and led him toward the door.
"Come on."
"But-"
"We'll worry about it later."
"It is not something that should be prolonged, Padme-"
"Later." Padme smiled sweetly, tone holding no argument.
The interior of the house was just as pleasing and just as full of life and soft color as was the yard.
There were no glaring lights, no beeping consoles or flickering computer screens. No over sized chairs or over decorative couches and the like.
The furniture was plush and comfortable.
The floors were made of cool stone.
This was not a building as Cadus had been in on Coruscant, and not like the hovels, as he had known on Tatooine. It was not like the dangerous caves of the ice planet Hoth, and it wasn't the Shadowlands of Kashyyk. It was not like the dense forests of Felucia or Endor.
He swung himself up into the saddle and the dragon rose.
Obi-Wan looked down at the Utai wranglers, wondering if they understood him.
"I cannot pay you. I can only offer the freedom of your planet from the General. I hope that will suffice."
Without waiting for a reply that he would not have understood anyway, Obi-Wan touched Boga on the neck.
Boga reared straight up and raked the air with its long claws, gathered itself and leapt to the top ring-balconies in a single bound.
Obi-Wan didn't need to use the long, hook-tipped goad strapped in a holster alongside the saddle.
Boga seemed to know exactly where he wanted to go.
The Force would guide them both, he thought mirthfully.
As it had brought them together.
The next introductions were more uncomfortable as Padme showed Cadus to Ruwee, her father.
Strong shouldered with a face that was plain, strong, and passionate all at once.
He wore his brown hair short, but still it was a bit out of place, a bit...Unkempt.
Padme introduced Jobal next.
Cadus knew that the woman was her mother-he didn't need the Force to see that.
Sola took after Jobal in looks a little more.
The moment he met her, he understood where Padme had gotten her joyous and sincere smile.
Jobal's face had that same comforting quality, that same obvious generosity. Her smile was her first and most defining trait.
It was so real and so genuine.
Cadus, Padme, and Ruwee sat at the dinner table. Cadus sat comfortably quiet while Padme and her father were chatting lightly. The trio listened to the bustle in the next room.
"Too much, Mom." Sola said, a little exasperated.
"Nonsense."
"Too much."
Ruwee and Padme smiled knowingly.
"I doubt they've been starving all the way from Coruscant."
Sola exited the kitchen, glancing back over her shoulder as she spoke.
She returned carrying a bowl full of food.
"Enough to feed the town?" Padme asked.
Sola quietly put the bowl on the table.
"You know Mom. Can't stop her. Don't try."
The tone told Cadus that this was not an isolated incident, and that Jobal was quite the hostess.
An overzealous, maybe fanatical, smothering, hostess.
The bowl of food looked and smelled very good.
Jobal entered the room, holding an even larger bowl of steaming food.
"You both arrived just in time for dinner." Jobal said.
She set the plate down near Cadus and put her hand on his shoulder.
"I hope you're hungry, Cadus."
"Starving." He looked up and gave her a contented smile.
The look of humble gratitude was not lost on Padme.
Jobal grinned widely and nodded.
"If you're starving, then you came to the right place at the right time." Ruwee said, his smile rustic. "Eat up, son!"
"You shouldn't call him, son, dad. He is older than you are. He is older than Count Dooku even."
Everyone took a moment to look at Cadus.
He didn't care for the pointed attention and made it known.
"Padme, that is rude." Cadus pointed out.
"It is." Jobal agreed.
"You don't look that old. Not a day over twenty six." Ruwee said.
"How old are you, Master Jedi?" Sola asked.
"Sola." Jobal admonished.
"Padme started it."
"Mature." Padme commented.
"I was a Knight for a long time by the time Dooku was becoming a Master."
"You are old." Ruwee remarked. "Older than 120 standard years."
"I told you!" Padme said, triumphant.
"Enough about that." Jobal said. "He is a guest here. Manners."
There was a collective nod as silence fell.
Jobal and Sola took their seats and began passing the food bowls. Cadus made sure to take a good helping of several different dishes. They were not foreign to him, he knew each dish, and he craftsmanship behind each one, and the smells told him that he wouldn't be disappointed.
Cadus sat quietly and ate, listening with half an ear to the chatter all about him.
"Honey, it's so good to see you safe and sound. I am so glad you are here. We were so worried." Jobal said.
Cadus could see the disapproving, but understanding frown that Padme answered with.
Ruwee, obviously trying to dispel the tension before it could really begin, put his hand on Jobal's arm.
"Dear-"
"I know. But I had to say it. Now it's done. We can eat."
"It's okay dad." Padme smiled. "I am glad to be home, though it is for the different circumstances than I would care for."
Sola cleared her throat. "Well, this is very exciting."
Everyone looked at her.
Padme scowled a little.
"Cadus, would you know you're the first boyfriend my sister has ever brought home?"
"Sola, be quiet! He isn't my boyfriend! I am too old for a boyfriend!"
"Husband then?"
"He's a Jedi Master assigned by the Council to protect me and take care of the problem here on Naboo with Nute Gunray and Asajj Ventress!"
"A bodyguard?" Jobal questioned, body shifting with concern.
Padme's sigh sounded more like a groan.
"No one is after my life, not right now. I promise. Anyway, Cadus is a friend. I've known him for years. Remember the Jedi in the reports that is always in the trenches with his clones and the commandos?"
"I can see that is him." Sola said, staring at Cadus. "The Maverick."
Padme smiled at Cadus. "He's grown even stronger since then. He continues to fight for the greater good."
Cadus glanced at Sola and noted that she was staring at him, analyzing him, observing him, scrutinizing him. He met her steady gaze, looking into her eyes.
Padme's whole family may have talent just like her, he realized.
It was like Sola was seeing something even he couldn't see.
"Honey, when are you going to settle down? Have you at least thought about it since the last time we talked? Haven't you had enough of that life? I certainly have! I think it's about time you think about your legacy!"
"My legacy is Naboo and the Republic."
"Padme, the Republic could fall any day. Your legacy is children!"
"Mom, I'm not in any danger right now. It is Naboo. I was sent here for Naboo, not for protection. I am here to handle the diplomatic side of things." Padme insisted, taking Cadus's hand in her own.
He was about to ask what she was doing, but she squeezed.
"Is she in any danger?" Ruwee asked.
Cadus stared at the man, seeing the honest concern. This man loved his daughter so much. He deserved to know the truth. She would always be his little girl, though he had let her go to do what she yearned for. It couldn't have been easy, he worried, but not like Padme's mother.
Padme's desire for public service did stem from him, after all.
It was logical.
"Yes, she is. But, it is just not her. Certain Senators are speaking out and saying certain things, some of these things can be called treason or threatening. Depending on what is said to whom, such people disappear. Money is being used to pay off people in high places. The Senate, at any point, could be dissolved, and if anyone speaks out, they will be seen as an enemy."
Padme's grip tightened.
"But I am in not much danger. Everyone knows where to find me and I am not hiding in the first place."
"Cadus..." she murmured.
"The Council thought it was prudent to give her some time away from Coruscant, and put her under the protection of myself. I had to intervene in order to get her to see reason at that point in time. We both understand that we are needed here, and while no immediate harm may come to Padme, we still believe protection to be prudent."
Cadus showed no signs of pain as Padme's fingernails dug into his hand.
"Master Obi Wan is going to capture or destroy Grievous at this very moment, and there should be someone being sent out to bring Dooku in. We can get two leaders of the Confederacy and Ventress is right here. Naboo is our first priority here, not Padme's safety-although I am to take that into account. But, Padme announcing herself and saying she will not hide does not help things. Her boldness gets her in trouble, at times."
Padme loosened her grip.
Ruwee, and Jobal seemed to relax.
"It is not an isolated incident?" Ruwee asked, needing clarification.
Cadus shook his head. "As much as the war rages out in the galaxy, on Coruscant, war is waged with words and ideals."
The city looked and felt deserted.
Nothing moved save the shadows of clouds moving far, far above.
Even the wind-power turbines had been locked down.
The first sign of life he saw came on the tenth level.
A handful of other dragons lay basking in the midday sun, not far from the durasteel barnacle of the droid-control center.
With the Force, he nudged them to move down a few levels-where the sun was greater.
Obi-Wan rode Boga right up to the control center's open archway, then jumped down from the saddle.
The archway led into a towering vaulted hall, its durasteel decking bare of furnishing.
Deep within the shadows that gathered in the hall stood a cluster of five hundred figures.
Their faces were the color of bleached bone.
Magnaguards.
They looked like they were waiting for him.
No need to keep them waiting.
He was the bait after all.
"You'd best find your way home, Boga." He said patting Boga's scaled neck with gentle affection. "I do not wish for you to be harmed."
Boga gave a soft honk of acknowledgment, then bent a sharper curve into its long flexible neck to place its beak against Obi-Wan's chest.
"Stay in cover. I wish no harm to come to you or the people of this world."
Obi Wan stepped from the sun into the shadow.