~Ahsoka's POV~

"Not again. Whydoes he do this?" Ahsoka groaned as the landing ramp slid down. In front of her lay the rubble that had once been the Separatist base. Republic forces had not gotten a chance to examine it yet, so it was just as her master had left it. Obliterated.

Nevertheless, the dark side hung in the air thickly, choking her.

"I don't like the amount of dark side here," Nava said warily as she walked down the ramp. Padme walked after her. When she saw the wreckage, she paled. "He… He's in there?" She croaked. "Somewhere," Obi-wan agreed, crossing his arms as he surveyed the damage.

"Don't worry, Padme," Ahsoka assured her unworriedly. "He has survived much worse, trust me. This isn't the first time I've had to dig him out of his explosions," she said. Padme nodded, but kept her eyes glued anxiously to the rubble.

"How are we going to find him?" She asked. "Found him," Obi-wan, Nava, Intrepid and Ahsoka announced in unison, having been searching the force. Padme smiled, relieved. "Lead the way, then," she said.

Ahsoka hurried to the piles of destroyed base, and used the force to jump atop it. The others followed. Using the force as a tracking radar, Ahsoka followed her master's force signature, maneuvering her way over poles and still sparking wires. He was deep under the ruins.

Finally, she stopped over a particular spot. He was underneath them. Obi-wan stopped next to her. "Oh, Anakin," he sighed. "Let's get lifting," Intrepid said, gathering the force. Ahsoka nodded and did the same.

~Anakin's POV~

Anakin's impending insanity was interrupted by the sound of the metal above him screeching. He looked up, by the light of his lightsaber; he saw a dent in his ceiling starting to slowly lessen in its weight.

He scowled, was the ruins that had been his home for two days finally giving way? He moved to the side. Your death has arrived, the voices mocked.

Anakin shook his head, no; it couldn't end, not like this. He had been through too much, he had held unto hope for too long. He still needed to figure out a way to save Padme.

All of a sudden, he felt a familiar force presence break through the darkness he was in. And it was purely light. As if he were a desperate man craving water in a desert, he scrambled towards it. He recognized that signature, and force was he glad to sense it.

A shard of light broke through from the surface as a block of debris was moved. Anakin shielded his eyes while they adjusted. The light side worked feverishly. "Ani!" Someone called. He blinked, was that Padme?

"Anakin!" It was Padme, and her voice sounded like one from an angel. Part of her face appeared from the hole above him. When she saw him, her entire face lit up. "Anakin!" she called again.

"The one and only. What are you doing here?" He asked. "Master! Are you alright?!" Ahsoka's voice broke through.

Anakin couldn't help but laugh. After two days of mental torture, he was saved. "Fine, Ahsoka," he replied. Padme reached through and they locked hands. Relief and love flooded through him, she was okay.

"Didn't I tell you to be careful?" Padme demanded. Anakin shrugged. "I was careful, you see I'm still alive," he defended. She rolled her eyes and sighed. "Back up, Padme, we're going to get him out," Nava said.

"Nava is here?" he gasped as Padme backed away. "We all are," Intrepid added. "Oh," he said stupidly, what were they all doing there? Another chunk of his enclosure was taken away. Now there were only the two walls.

"Alright, this will be tricky," Obi-wan, said contemplatively. "Ahsoka, you and Intrepid lift that side, Anakin move to the left, the other wall will come down," Anakin quickly obeyed, wanting nothing more than to escape the cave that had confined him.

He could feel the tremors of effort in the force as, slowly, the wall to the left was suddenly lifting. Padme reached in and grabbed both of his hands. Quickly, he hauled himself out just as the right wall fell on top of where he had been a second before.

He raised a hand as his eyes readjusted to the light. The other Jedi lowered the wall. Padme brushed his tunic off anxiously, searching his body for injuries.

"It's good to see you, little Ani. You gave us quite a scare," Nava said slapping him on the back. He smiled wanly. "Sorry about that. Subtlety isn't my strong point," he said. Obi-wan snorted and crossed his arms. "No kidding," he agreed with a feeble smile.

Anakin smiled at them, and then his face grew somber as he remembered the comm. link in his pocket and all the Sith he had a feeling escaped. "I'm glad to see all of you," he said, glancing around.

"But I have some bad news." The overjoyed faces fell back into seriousness. The war was not over yet. "Let's get inside," Intrepid suggested.

~Nava's POV~

"Again I say, this is ridiculous," Intrepid said as they pulled Ahsoka back on board. Ahsoka gave her a warm grin in response as she slipped the rope from her waist.

"Life isn't without its difficulties," she huffed, tired. Nava grinned and nodded. "Rightly so. Well, let's go see what this bad news is. Not that I'm very eager to know," she sighed. Bad news and more bad news. The life of a Jedi was filled with it.

"Neither am I," Ahsoka agreed as they walked past her. In the cockpit, Artoo piloted the ship. In the pilot's seat Obi-wan had turned around, his attention on the comm. link in Anakin's hand.

Padme was standing next to her husband behind the co-pilot's seat; hand on his shoulder. Ahsoka sat in the co-pilot's chair and Intrepid sat behind her. Nava leaned against the wall, arms crossed.

"Good, we're all here. Now tell us what's so important, Anakin," Obi-wan said. Anakin nodded and passed the comm. link to Ahsoka, who studied it. "Do you remember when Dooku told you the senate was under control of a Sith named Darth Sidious?" he asked. Obi-wan nodded.

"Well, when I was about to put the bomb on the door outside of the communications center, I over-heard a conversation between him and another Sith; he called the other Sith master" Nava's eyebrows shot up, shocked.

Dooku had a master? She didn't know his pride was capable of allowing such a thing. "Pride is something that can be turned on and off, master" at times, she still heard the voice of Annex in her mind.

Even though he had been a mere child, his spirit lived on in her heart as her guidance. "He called him Master Sidious, to be exact," Anakin explained. Obi-wan scowled and stroked his beard.

"And this comm. link? It's what they used to communicate?" Padme asked. '"It's a private comm. link, only capable of one frequency, and that frequency could be millions of parsecs away, so my guess is yes," Ahsoka answered for him, tossing the device to Obi-wan.

"Right," Anakin agreed. "That's kind of why I didn't get out of the building before it was blown up. I knew the Jedi would need that disk so we could find this Sith, I got caught by the Count," he said.

Obi-wan nodded. "Well done, Anakin, we've been secretly looking for this Sith for years," he said. Anakin sighed. "I wish we had found him sooner. I know you all could sense the dark side in that rubble," he said. "It was very strong," Nava agreed, nodding. That had worried her immensely. Not even Dooku could produce that amount of malice.

"It was worse when the thing was whole," Anakin stated. "Because as I was sneaking round through those halls, I saw twenty-seven Sith. I could sense even more as well."

Each person in the room inhaled sharply. Nava felt her eyes widen. Twenty-seven Sith? That was impossible. It was even more impossible for there to be more. The rule of two prevented the Sith from growing too large. "That can't be right," Obi-wan said, speaking her thoughts.

"There haven't been more than two Sith since the end of the Sith wars," he said.

Anakin shrugged. "Maybe they decided that they weren't ever going to defeat the Jedi with two people," he said. "True," Intrepid sighed. Nava bit her bottom lip thoughtfully. "Tell us, how much of the conversation between Dooku and Sidious did you hear?" She asked.

Anakin looked down. "Not much. I heard enough to contemplate that Darth Sidious is someone we know. He said that the Jedi were not answering any questions on my plan when Dooku called to complain about me," he smiled feebly.

"I also heard that a padawan of mine was winning a war?" He cocked an eyebrow at Ahsoka, who shrugged. "Eh, I'll tell you later. It was nothing," Nava laughed.

"Nothing? Yes, we'll see about that," she said. Small smiles passed around. Nava let out a breath she had not been aware she was holding in. Laughter was the best medicine.

"I also heard..." he cleared his throat, and she saw his eyes darken. "That the backup plan involves turning me to the dark side," she blinked. "What?" Padme gasped. Nava cocked an eyebrow at Obi-wan, who additionally appeared disturbed.

"How were they going to do that?" Ahsoka asked, scowling. Anakin shrugged. "I didn't hear the rest. They thought it wouldn't take too much time though," he seemed almost ashamed about this.

Why? Nava wondered. Why would they think they can turn him to the dark side? Because he's unorthodox? She locked eyes with Padme, and saw the same question in her eyes.

"That is…." Nava searched for the correct word. "Disturbing," silence answered. "So," Intrepid said, breaking the uncomfortable silence. "Let's make a list of our problems," she put up six fingers, counting down.

"We know so far that there are twenty-seven Sith alive, maybe more judging by how thick the dark side was. Dooku and Grievous escaped and are currently running around further ruining the universe," Anakin raised his eyebrows, taken aback by this news. He looked at Obi-wan for confirmation, and his face darkened with further shame when he nodded.

"There's some secret Sith in the government who acts as a kriffing spy for the Separatists. He also wants to turn Master Skywalker to the dark side for some reason. We have no clue where any of these Sith even are. And last but not least, there might be a giant army somewhere just waiting to wipe out the Order. Did I miss anything?" That was her apprentice, ever the factual one.

"No, you got them all," Anakin sighed, putting his chin in his hands. "How did Dooku escape?" he growled. "He was right next to me when I blew the base," he commented. "You survived, master" Ahsoka pointed out. There was another stricken silence.

Nava sighed, knowing that they were all thinking the same thing. If the Jedi Order had not seen all of this happening, what else had they missed? What other important factor to their survival had been over-looked?

"Well," Obi-wan said, breaking the silence. "We can't dwell on it too much for now. Thanks to this," he held up the comm. link. "We might be able to find this Darth Sidious and end the Sith once and for all," he declared.

Anakin smiled and straightened up, his blue eyes sparking with optimism. "So my mission wasn't a complete failure?" he asked hopefully. "Not at all. Half-way, perhaps. But not completely," Obi-wan replied with a teasing half-grin. Anakin answered by rolling his eyes.

"Obi-wan is right," Nava said, clasping her hands together. She was better at this, she was better at hopefulness and buoyancy. It was what kept her alive, making everyone else smile. It was why she and Obi-wan were such good friends; they both needed others to need them to survive.

"Becoming depressed about something that can most likely be fixed is not the Jedi way," she said cheerfully. Maybe. Or; there was some rule like that.

"We each have a story to tell about the battle you missed out on," she said. Anakin grinned. "True, did we win?" He asked. Padme laughed and squeezed his shoulder. "We won, Anakin. We won," she said.

Longest chapter ever. I feel bad for Obi-wan, he has to tell the council all this. Annex was mentioned again. Obi-wan knows about Padme and Anakin. Oh, wait until he tells Anakin he knew! That was a good chapter...