Chapter 51 : Heroes return !
Author Note : I just want to thank the seven people who have reviewed the last chapter, I'm very glad you liked the duels. Now it is time for our Knight of the Force to come home :)
A sheet of shimmering energy suddenly flared in front of Palpatine and Anakin holding the limp body of Ahsoka Tano on his shoulders, blocking the corridor on the far side of the intersection they were trotting across, and Anakin stopped so short that the Chancellor almost slammed into his back. He reached over and caught Palpatine by the arm.
"Careful, sir," he said, low. "Better not touch it till we know what it is."
The Jedi unclipped his lightsaber, activated it with a certain amount of difficult considering the weight on his shoulders, and cautiously extended its tip to touch the energy field; an explosive burst of power flared sparks and streaks in all directions, nearly knocking the weapon from his hands. "Ray shield," he said, more to himself than to the others. "We'll have to find a way around—"
But even as he spoke another sheet shimmered into existence across the mouth of the corridor they'd just left, and two more sizzled into place to seal the corridors to either side. They were boxed in. Caught.
Anakin stood there for a second or two, blinking, then looked at Palpatine and shook his head in disbelief.
"I thought I was smarter than this."
"You are Anakin," Palpatine comforted.
"Apparently not. The oldest trap in the book, and I walked right into it." Anakin felt as embarrassed. If only Artoo could come right now and free them, if only Ahsoka woke up, it would all be much easier. But this mission had gone wrong from the very start, when he had heard Padme had been captured too. Where was she ? And what about Obi-wan and Dooku ? Anakin knew his old master had purposely sent him away from Padme, to go fight Dooku alone. It didn't matter to Skywalker right now, only if Obi-wan appeared in the corridor with Padme at his side. Would it cost too much of the Force to make such thing happening ? But the Force was weak in such place, only the darkness was holding the Chosen One in its sharp cold claws, ready to tear him apart, then swallow him all. He could feel the cold running on his back, his inner dragon urging him to use it again, like he did against Malorum. How powerful had Anakin felt when he had let go of any control, and how much terrible was the price Malorum had paid …
"Perhaps," Palpatine said thoughtfully, as though the idea had only just occurred to him, "we should simply surrender to General Grievous. With the death of Malorum and perhaps Dooku, I'm sure that you can..." He cast a significant sidelong glance at Anakin. "… negotiate our release."
"He's persistent, I'll give him that," Anakin thought. He caught himself smiling as he recalled discussing "negotiation" with Padme, on Naboo before the war; he came back to the present when he realized that undertaking "aggressive negotiations" could prove embarrassing under his current lightsaber-challenged circumstances. "I say...," he put in slowly, "patience."
"Patience?" Palpatine lifted an eyebrow, knowing that this particular aspect wasn't used by Anakin, unlike the so many of Jedi Knights. The boy was reckless, powerful but not patient. "That's a plan?"
"Master Yoda says: Patience you must have until the mud settles and the water becomes clear. So let's wait."
Palpatine looked skeptical and repeated, looking slowly at Ahsoka Tano still unconscious. "Wait."
"For the security patrol. A couple of droids will be along in a moment or two; they'll have to drop the ray shield to take us into custody."
"And then?"
Anakin shrugged cheerfully. "And then I'll wipe them out." At that moment, Artoo appeared in a hurry from a hidden door, crashing on the opposite wall in the hurry. "Artoo can you do something about this ?"
But before the little blue droid could bip, four of those skinny useless battle droids came marching toward them, one along each corridor, clanking along with blaster rifles leveled.
One of them triggered one of its preprogrammed security commands: "Hand over your weapons!" The other three chimed in with enthusiastic barks of "Roger, roger!" and a round of spastic head-bobbing.
"Don't worry about them Artoo," Anakin, with Ahsoka still unconscious on his back, winked in confidence at his fellow astromech.
"Anakin", Palpatine whispered behind him. Concealed doors in the corridor walls zipped suddenly aside. Through them rolled the massive bronzium wheels of destroyer droids, two into each corridor. The eight destroyers unrolled themselves behind the battle droids, haloed by sparkling energy shields, twin blaster cannons targeting the Jedi's chest. Through those same doorways marched sixteen super battle droids to back up the destroyers, their arm cannons raised to fire over the destroyers' shields. Behind the super battle droids came two droids of a type Anakin knew all to well since the Clone Wars. They were the personal body guard of Grievous, and Dooku sometimes. Magnaguards … These two droids threaded between the super battle droids and destroyers and casually shoved aside one battle droid hard enough that it slammed into the wall and collapsed into a sparking heap of metal.
The one with the damaged photoreceptor pointed its staff at them, and the ray shields around them dropped. "He said, hand over your weapons, Jedi!"
"Sir," the red droid captain on the bridge advanced towards the cyborg General, "we captured the Chancellor and the Jedi, sir." Anakin Skywalker was finally there, withtout his weapon. His padawan had been ruthlessly laid on the floor, without any attempt to held her, considering her internal injuries that Grievous had personally dealt. And next to him was Palpatine, his face darkened by his fear and the loses of all his hopes.
"Ah yes," Grievous' eyes narrowed as he chuckled painfully, "what a rescue, General Skywalker." General Grievous lifted the lightsaber that the red droid had given him, in his duranium hand, to admire it by the light of turbolaser blasts outside, and said, "Rare trophy, this : the weapon of Anakin Skywalker, and I look forward to adding the weapon of General Kenobi to my collection."
"That will not happen. I am in control here." The reply came through Anakin's lips, but it was not truly Anakin who spoke. Anakin was not in control; he had no need for control. He had the Force. It was the Force that spoke through him. Grievous stalked forward. Anakin saw death in the cold yellow stare through the skull-mask's eyeholes, and it meant nothing to him at all. He wasn't afraid for him, he was afraid for Palpatine, for Padme, and for Obi-wan but he wouldn't show it. He didn't have to tell R2-D2 to access its combat subprograms and divert power to its booster rockets, clawarm, and cable-gun; the part of him that was the little astromech had seen to all these things before they had even entered the bridge.
Grievous towered over him. "So confident you are, Skywalker. A weak attempt to hide your worries for the Senator". Grievous sniggered. "Should I tell you that Count Dooku had captured your Master ?"
"Then why aren't they here ? " From so close, Anakin could see the hairline cracks and pitting in the bone-pale mask and could feel the resonance of the general's electrosonic voice humming in his chest. He remembered the Question of Master Jrul: What is the good, if not the teacher of the bad? What is the bad if not the task of the good? He said, "Anyway, General, we can resolve this situation without further violence. I am willing to accept your surrender. Do not make the same mistake that Malorum did."
"I'm sure you are." The skull-mask tilted inquisitively. "Does this preposterous I-will-accept-your-surrender line of yours ever actually work?"
"Obi-wan is mostly the one suggesting such line. I prefer actions, and people get often hurt. Sometimes they die." Anakin's blue eyes met squarely those of yellow behind the mask. "By people, in this case, you should understand that I mean you."
"I understand enough. I understand that I will kill you." Grievous stepped back, and ordered his magnaguars, "Kill him !"
"I'm sorry General, but you will have to delay that order," a voice behind Anakin said, so amplified by the Force that the walls of the bridge seemed to tremble. Skywalker didn't have to turn back, he knew the Force had heard his command, and now Obi-wan Kenobi was right behind him, ready to neutralise the cyborg General.
"General Kenobi, how pleasant of you to join us," Grievous paused surprised that the Jedi had been able to make his way there without effort, apparently. He watched curiously the hilt of Dooku's lightsaber hanging at Kenobi's belt, and at Amidala who was carefully pointing a stolen blaster at Dooku's back. "So you've captured Lord Tyrannus and freed the Senator. How foolish of you to come back for the Jedi and the Chancellor."
"How foolish of you to have stayed on the ship, Grievous," Obi-wan replied dryly.
"Surrender General," Dooku counseled, "he is too powerful for you. This war is over, we have lost."
"Never !" The cyborg was enraged and ignited two lightsabers, "You are simply to weak to continue. I shall lead the Separatist to victory, without you."
"Artoo !" Anakin yelled, Even as he opened his mouth, a panel was sliding aside in the little droid's fuselage; by the time the droid's nickname had left his lips, the fusion-welder had deployed and fired a blinding spray of sparks hot enough to melt duranium, and in the quarter of a second while even Grievous's electronically enhanced reflexes had him startled and distracted, the part of the Force that was Obi-Wan tried a little trick, a secret one that it had been saving up for just such an occasion as this. Because all there on the bridge was one in the Force, from the gross structure of the ship itself to the quantum dance of the electron shells of individual atoms—and because, after all, the nerves and muscles of the bio-droid general were creations of electronics and duranium, not living tissue with will of its own— it was just barely possible that with exactly the right twist of his mind, in that one vulnerable quarter of a second while Grievous was distracted, flinching backward from a spray of flame hot enough to burn even his armored body, Obi-Wan might be able to temporarily reverse the polarity of the electrodrivers in the general's mechanical hands. Which is exactly what he did. Durasteel fingers sprang open, and Anakin's lightsaber fell free.
Skywalker reached through the Force and the Force reached through him; his blade flared to life while still in the air; it flipped toward him, and as he lifted his hands to meet it, its blue flame flashed between his wrists and severed the binders before the handgrip smacked solidly into his palm. Obi-Wan was so deep in the Force that he wasn't even suprised it had worked. He made a quarter turn to face Anakin, who was already in the air, having leapt simultaneously with Obi-Wan's gentle murmur because Obi-Wan and Anakin were, after all, two parts of the same thing; Anakin's flip carried him right in front of a Magnaguards and severed the upper part of its body. Obi-wan had quickly joined him too, ignited his blue blade as he dashed towards another Magnaguards who fell without having the time to raise its electronic staff, and while Grievous was still flinching away from them, behind his bodyguards. Soon, only two Magnaguards left, and Grievous was more thinking about surviving that winning. After all it always had been like this against Kenobi : escape, never victory. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker stood back-to-back in the center of the bridge, expressionlessly staring past the snarling blue energy of their lightsabers.
Obi-Wan regarded the general without emotion. "Perhaps you should reconsider Anakin's offer."
Grievous braced himself against a control console, its dura-steel housing buckling under his grip. "This is my answer!" He ripped the console wholly into the air, right out from under the hands of the astonished Neimoidian operator, raised it over his head, and hurled it at the Jedi. They split, rolling out of the console's way as it crashed to the deck, spitting smoke and sparks. "Open fire!" Grievous shook his fists as though each held a Jedi's neck. "Kill them! Kill them all!"
For one more second there was only the scuttle of priming levers on dozens of blasters. One second after that, the bridge exploded into a firestorm. Grievous hung back, crouching, watching for a moment as his two MagnaGuards waded into the Jedi, electrostaffs whirling through the blinding hail of blasterfire that ricocheted around the bridge. Now was the time for escape, nothing more. Sidious would be displeased, but he couldn't much more. Let his MagnaGuards fight the Jedi; that's what they were designed for—and they were doing their jobs well. IG-101 had pressed Skywalker back against a console, lightning blazing from his electrostaff's energy shield where it pushed on Skywalker's blade; the Jedi general might have died then and there, except that one of the simple-minded super battle droids turned both arm cannons on his back, giving Skywalker the chance to duck and allow the hammering blaster bolts to slam 101 stumbling backward. In the meantime, the Magnaguard which had gone against Kenobi had been destroyed in a blink, without the use of a lightsaber. No, Kenobi had simply used the Force to litteraly turn the metal body of the droid into dust. Nothing more. He wasn't even sweating as he slowly returned to Dooku and Amidala, ordering them to cover the Chancellor from blasters fire, as he gave Dooku his lightsaber back. Surprisingly, Tyrannus had ignited his scarlet blade and had begun to destroyed the droids around him, obviously obeying to Kenobi, but why ? Grievous hadn't the time to think about Dooku, Kenobi was already in front of him, at the end of the bridge. But the cyborg watched something he would never thought to. Obi-wan Kenobi had thrown at him the electrostaff of the Magnaguard he had annihilated.
"Defend yourself," Obi-wan warned, as Skywalker appeared on the other side, blocking any exit for Grievous. "Time to surrender is over, General."
Grievous clicked the electrostaffs power setting to overload; it spat lightning around him as he lifted it to combat ready. "I am sorry I don't have time to fight you—it would have been an interesting match—but I have an appointment with an escape pod. And you..." He pointed at the transparisteel view wall and triggered his own concealed cable-gun, not unlike the one that fancy astromech of theirs had; the cable shot out and its grappling claw buried itself in one of the panel supports. "You," he said, "have appointments with death." The Jedi leapt, and Grievous hurled the overloading electrostaff—but not at the Jedi.
He threw it at a window. One of the transparisteel panels of the view wall had cracked under a glancing hit from a starfighter's cannon; when the sparking electrostaff hit it squarely and exploded like a proton grenade, the whole panel blew out into space. A hurricane roared to life, raging through the bridge, seizing Neimoidian corpses and pieces of droids and wreckage and hurling them out through the gap along with a white fountain of flashfrozen air. Grievous sprang straight up into the instant hurricane, narrowly avoiding the two Jedi, whose leaps had become frantic tumbles as they tried to avoid being sucked through along with him. Grievous, though, had no need to breathe, nor had he any fear of his body fluids boiling in the vacuum—the pressurized synthflesh that enclosed the living parts within his droid exoskeleton saw to that—so he simply rode the storm right out into space until he reached the end of the cable and it snapped tight and swung him whipping back toward Invisible Hand's hull. He cast off the cable. His hands and feet of magnetized duranium let him scramble along the hull without difficulty, the light-spidered curve of Coruscant's nightside whirling around him. He clambered over to the external locks of the bridge escape pods and punched in a command code. Looking back over his shoulder, he experienced a certain chilly satisfaction as he watched empty escape pods blast free of the Hand's bridge and streak away. All of them. Well: all but one. No trick of the Force would spring Kenobi and Skywalker out of this one. It was a shame he didn't have a spy probe handy to leave on the bridge; he would have enjoyed watching the Republic's greatest heroes burn. The ion streaks of the escape pods spiraled through the battle that still flashed and flared silently in the void, pursued by starfighters and armed retrieval ships. Grievous nodded to himself; that should occupy them long enough for his command pod to make the run to his escape ship. As he entered his customized pod, he reflected that he was, for the first time in his career, violating orders: though he was under strict orders to leave the Chancellor unharmed, Palpatine was about to die alongside his precious Jedi. Then Grievous shrugged, and sighed. What more could he have done? There was a war on, after all. He was sure Lord Sidious would forgive him.
On the bridge, a blast shield had closed over the destroyed transparisteel window, and every last surviving combat-model droid had been cut to pieces even before the atmosphere had had a chance to stabilize. But there was a more serious problem. The bucking of the ship had become continuous. White-hot sparks outside streamed backward past the view wall windows. Those sparks, according to the three different kinds of alarms that were all screaming through the bridge at once, were what was left of the ablative shielding on the nose of the disabled cruiser.
Anakin stared grimly down at a console readout. "All the escape pods are gone. Not one left on the whole ship." He looked cape at Obi-Wan. "We're trapped."
Obi-Wan appeared more interested than actually concerned. "Well. Here's a chance to display your legendary piloting skills, my young friend. You can fly this cruiser, can't you?"
"Flying's no problem. The trick is landing, which, ah..." Anakin gave a slightly shaky laugh. "Which, you know, this cruiser is not exactly designed to do. Even when it's in one piece."
"You can't possibly plan to land that ship !" Dooku looked at Anakin like he was the most foolish man in this galaxy.
Obi-Wan looked unimpressed. "And so?"
Anakin unsnapped the crash webbing that held the pilot's corpse and pulled the body from its chair. "And so you'd better strap in," he said, settling into the chair, his fingers sliding over the unfamiliar controls. The cruiser bounced even harder, and its attitude began to skew as a new klaxon joined the blare of the other alarms. "That wasn't me!" Anakin jerked his hands away from the board. "I haven't even done anything yet!"
"It certainly wasn't." Palpatine's voice was unnaturally calm. "It seems someone is shooting at us."
"Wonderful," Anakin muttered. "Could this day get any better? And Padme, how is Ahsoka ?"
The young Jedi Knight hadn't turned to his wife, he didn't want her to see his worries now. He had to concentrate on landing the big cruiser, and bring all of them alive on Coruscant's floor. But Obi-wan allowed himself to catch a glimpse of the Senator now holding Ahsoka in her arms, strapped in a chair next to Dooku.
"She is still breathing, Anakin," Padme's gentle voice sent waves of comfort to Anakin, "do not worry for us."
"Perhaps we can talk with them." Obi-Wan moved over to the comm station and began working the screen. "Let them know we've captured the ship."
"All right, take the comm," Anakin said. He pointed at the copilot's station. "Artoo: second chair. Chancellor?"
"Yes?"
"Strap in. Now. We're going in hot." Anakin grimaced at the scraps of burning hull flashing past the view wall. "In more ways than one."
It's been two years since Siri Tachi had joined the slave trader Krayn and renamed herself Zora, as the Jedi Council had ordered her to. After two long years, she could walk inside the Jedi Temple again, now as a Jedi Knight, not Adi Gallia's padawan anymore. Moreover, she would now have to choose her own padawan, she felt proud, but terrified in the same time. Will she be a good teacher as was Adi ? She had always prefered working on solo, unless with Obi-wan, so taking a padawan with her ? Certainly not, she wasn't ready for that. And Obi-wan … How much difficult were those two last years, training Anakin and dealing with the loss of Qui-Gon … How could she complain about taking a padawan ? Obi-wan was training the CHOSEN-ONE !
"Siri !" Bant Eerin had finally spotted her friend, who had tried her best to hide her face under her hood, but apparently without success. The Mon Calamari Jedi immediately came at her and hugged her fiercely. "You are back ! I heard Master Gallia talking about your return, I am so relieved to see you in one piece !"
"If you continue to squeeze me that hard, I might break in two, Bant !" Siri tried to remain serious, but the grin on her friend's face was too much. The two Jedi's laughters were heard in the whole corridor of the Jedi Temple, causing many other Jedi to look at them strangely, if not reprimanding them.
"Does Obi-wan know ?" Bant asked. Of course she wasn't aware how Siri could have returned on Coruscant.
"Well, he found me and rescued me there," Siri chuckled, " I guess he knows I'm back. But He still believes I left the Order two years ago."
"Oh !" Bant's eyes widenned, "Why haven't you told him when he rescued you ? Master Gallia told me everything, but if Obi-wan is still ignorant of your mission, well ..."
"I will tell him, Bant. Do not worry"
"Tell me what ?" Obi-wan's voice resonated behind Siri, who jumped in surprise. Obi-wan was the only one able to surprise her. It both infuriated her, and melted her heart of joy : she didn't love him for nothing.
"You two have a lot to talk about," Bant was already running away, "Good luck Siri !"
"Bant !" The blonde Jedi cursed. How could she simply leave her with Obi-wan alone ? And speaking of Obi-wan, why his eyes were so stern ? Where was the passionate brilliant gray-blue eyes that she loved so much ?
"So, Siri ?"
"What Obi-wan ?" He was disappointed, she felt it too much. So she would play his game, and she would win this time.
"Why did you came back here, Siri ?" He sighed in sadness, already taking two steps away, leaving her. "Goodbye Siri."
"Obi-wan wait !" She ran after him, taking his hand and led him one of the small balconies on the right of the corridor. The way he was reacting to her was too painfully, she felt like her heart had been torn up in pieces. When the door behind her closed, she pushed him against the guarddrail and pressed her body against his.
"What are you doing ?" He asked, trying to hide the effect she had on him by keeping his stern face.
"I never left the Order, Obi-wan," she said to him, leaning closer against him. How much she wanted to kiss him right now ! Kriff the promise they made years ago, they still loved each other ! "It was a mission, all of this was fake to legitimate my infiltration ! I was undercover for two years, and if you hadn't shown up, I would still probably be stuck with Krayn now ..."
"I know this. When I rescued you, I felt your allegiance to the Order. I knew when I saw you escaping with Anakin that you were still a Jedi, I felt it in the very core of my heart," he took her hands away from his shoulders, "I'm asking you what are you doing now, against me."
"Can't I hug the man I love ?" she grinned at him. She had underestimated him, he had become more powerful in those last years. He was a great Jedi Master now. "I can't kiss you, we promised that, but at least I can rest against you, can't I ?"
"Siri, we made a promise ..." He sighed, conflicted between his honor and his love for her.
"Please just one kiss," Her lips were now a breath away from his, "It will be my "welcome back" gift."
"Siri … I promised once never to remind you."
She leaned her head to the side, closing her eyes, ready to seal their lips together, "It's not you who is reminding me, is it ? So much time has passed."
"And so little" he said in a breath.
"And we've changed so much."
"Yes. You're more beautiful, and smarter, and stronger."
"So are you," she replied smiling lovingly, ready to make the mistake she would never regret, "And you've grown sadder."
"You can see that ?"
"Forgive me if I still think I know you better than anyone else."
"You do ..."
"MASTER !" Someone yelled. Everything was so confusing, she was remembering Obi-wan and now, all she could feel was a pain in her head. And who was that man screaming at her ? Where was she ? "SIRI !" The same voice yelled again, then strong hands took a grip of her shoulders and started shaking her.
"How is she ?" another voice asked. A female voice.
"She is fine," the man replied, "a small concussion on the left side of her head, but I healed it. You better hide yourself Dia, she must not see you."
"Shall I call the others, Ferus ?"
"Yes. It is time." So it was Ferus ! Siri was on Coruscant, and she remembered now : the chase of that ship, then she had been shot. She had probably crashed, but thank the Force she was alright. Wait, who was this Dia ? Slowly and painfully, Siri Tachi opened her azure eyes, and found in front of her her former padawan, inside the cockpit of the magenta Jedi Interceptor. "Good morning, Master," he said smiling.
"Hey," She found speaking rather difficult, "what times is it ?"
Ferus grinned happily, like he used to when he was still her padawan, "You are just in time, Master."
"Just in time ?"
"Obi-wan and Anakin had rescued Palpatine and Padme, they had just landed," Ferus explained. "Dooku was captured but Grievous had escaped, again."
"Do I detect anger, my former padawan ?" Siri teased, her vision no more blurred, and her strength recovering fast.
"Not at all Master," Ferus replied in the same teasing tone. Then using the Force, he lifted her up and out of the ship, taking her in his arms when she laid her foot on the destroyed floor. "Can you stand ?"
"I believe so," she said weakly, "Wait ! You said Obi-wan captured Dooku ?"
"That's what Master Windu had informed us," Ferus nodded. "Master ..." he paused, letting her go after being sure you could stand. He seemed troubled, or disturbed. "I need to leave."
"Leave ?" Siri knew what he was implying. She remembered in Obi-wan's previous life that Ferus had left the Jedi Order during the Clone Wars. Fate would never cease to amaze her, in the good or wrong way.
"I failed protecting Palpatine during the siege," he painfully admitted. "I could have same them both. Padme and Palpatine, but I …"
"I failed too, Ferus. And I nearly killed myself."
"I need to take a break, to get away from Coruscant," Ferus looked past Siri, in the shadow he could still feel Dia hiding perfectly remained unnoticed of the Member of the Jedi Council, but he felt the love she had for him, betraying her position. "When I'll come back, I am not sure I will stay in the Order."
Siri remained silent, studying him carefully then crossed her arms. "I think you indeed need to leave Coruscant for a moment. The Separatist would not return here, I assume Palpatine can live without his bodyguard for a few week, right ?"
"I can't be Palpatine's protector anymore, Master."
"I know, Ferus," Siri smiled genlty, like she used to do when he was still a child. "I will tell the Council, do not worry, they will understand. Are you going to see Aayla ?"
Ferus' eyes stared immediately at Siri again, and that confirmed her thought : he wasn't going to. "No Master, she is leading a war on Felucia. I can't distract her. I need to do something without the Jedi. I'm glad you understand that."
"You are a great Jedi, Ferus, but you are an even greater man," Siri watched at her starfighter completely destroyed because of the crash. A miracle she wasn't injured at all. "Yet if you don't come back to announce me your departure from the Order, I will hunt you down."
Ferus grinned, "You will be the first to know Master."
"Alright then I believe you brought me a speeder to join my foolish husband ?"
"Of course, Master" the young Knight confirmed, pointing two vehicules behind him.
She nodded happily at him, and sat on the silver speederbike. "And Ferus ?" she called, igniting the engines, "When you come back, you will have to stop calling me master !"
Today, one the Executive Building's tiered docking bays, dozens of citizens had gathered on the red rich carpets leading to the docking bay number 37, where the shuttle bringing Chancellor Palpatine and Senator Amidala was supposed to land. Those citizens, around the famous and powerful Jedi Master Mace Windu, were not simple person. The Korun Master was surrounded by Senators or Aide coming to acclaim Palpatine, to show their commitment to him, their respect and their relief to see him well alive. They were more here for Palpatine than for Amidala, but who could blaim him ? Power had always attracted the corrupted ones, it was something Windu had learnt from Count Dooku, when he was still a Jedi Master. Mace could see the ship now, reaching the rich marble-like floor with journalist running towards it to capture the arrival of the Heroes. The three steps of the small shuttle appeared on its side, as the main door was lifting : a moment later, Anakin Skywalker came out, with his padaway unconscious in his arms, followed by Palpatine, Amidala and the blue astromech of Skywalker and the red one of Obi-wan. So Kenobi would wait before coming out, causing a small grin to appear of Mace's face. Mace strode swiftly out to meet them. Palpatine's robes were scorched and tattered at the hem, and he seemed weak, almost unable to walk but hold still, proudly advancing forward whereas Skywalker had immediately ordered for a medic.
"Chancellor," Mace said as he met them. "Are you well? Do you need medical attention?" He gestured over his shoulder at medic unit. "I have a fully equipped field surgery—"
"No, no, no need, but the young Ahsoka Tano needs medical attention." Palpatine said, rather faintly. "Thank you, Master Windu, but I am well. Quite well, thanks to our Jedi"
"Skywalker ?" Mace called, "I will return to the Temple with Ahsoka. Our healers will take good care of her."
"Thank you Master Windu," he replied without losing sight of his padawan.
"What happened Anakin, and where is Obi-wan ?"
"I'm here Mace," Obi-wan replied as he stepped outside the shuttle with Count Dooku right behind him, his hands restrained, the curved lightsaber was still on his belt. Before Mace could ask anything, the holoreporters went between the two Jedi and took hundreds of holopictures in a second, asking dozens of questions at Kenobi about Dooku but Obi-wan simply waved them aside, making his way gently but firmly to Windu.
"Master Kenobi had captured Count Dooku," Palpatine stated, "and he freed Senator Amidala while Anakin and his padawan came to rescue me. Anakin killed the one called Malorum, the agent of Dooku. Unfortunately, General Grievous is still running free."
"All he does is running, he is a coward," Mace cursed.
"I'm afraid peace is out of the question while Grievous is at large," the Chancellor was saying sadly. "Dooku was the only check on Grievous's monstrous lust for slaughter; with Dooku here, the general has been unleashed to rampage across the galaxy. I'm afraid that, far from being over, this war is about to get a very great deal worse."
"Very well," Mace said. "Then the Jedi will make the capture of General Grievous our particular task." He glanced at Anakin and Obi-Wan, then back to Palpatine. He leaned close to the Chancellor and his voice went low and final, with a buried intensity that hinted—just the slightest bit—of suspicion, and warning. "This war has gone on far too long already. We will find him, and this war will end."
"I have no doubt of it." Palpatine strolled along, seemingly oblivious. "And now, with our Intelligence taking care of Count Dooku, I am very sure we will find Grievous very soon."
"The Jedi Council will take care of the Count, Chancellor," Obi-wan came next to the Korun Master, his words carefully chosen. "It is our responsibility, not the Republic's. When we will capture Grievous, then your Intelligence will be free to act as you wish."
"Dooku is the Separatist Leader, not a Jedi anymore," Palpatine's eyes narrowed, "I'm sorry but you can't take him away." But Obi-wan had already joined Dooku again, and pressed him inside the shuttle.
"I'm sorry Chancellor, it wasn't a suggestion. The Jedi will take care of this." Mace tried his best to hide his amusement watching Palpatine's struggle, and came inside the shuttle too, before he could betray his feelings. Only Skywalker had remained on the ground as the medic unit put Ahsoka Tano inside the ship.
Anakin on the landing deck, looked back at Obi- Wan. "You coming?"
"I haven't the courage for politics," Obi-Wan said, showing his usual trace of a smile. "I'll brief the Council."
"Shouldn't I be there, too?"
"No need. This isn't the formal report. Besides—" Obi-Wan nodded toward the clot of HoloNet crews clogging the pedestrian gangway. "—someone has to be the poster boy."
Anakin looked pained. "Poster man."
"Quite right, quite right," Obi-Wan said with a gentle chuckle. "Go meet your public, Poster Man."
"Wait a minute—this whole operation was your idea. You planned it. You led the rescue. It's your turn to take the bows."
"I think you are forgetting someone, Anakin." The auburn Jedi Master indicated Padme waiting patiently, in the middle of others senators, for her husband. "And when you'll come back, Ahsoka would be here to greet you, I promise."
"I-" Anakin stared at his wife, her look told him "come to me or you're dead, Jedi". He was hesitating, but being with Padme on the same room without the possibility to kiss her had been a torture of the Invisible Hand. He understood her needs. "Alright Master, but you owe me !" Anakin laughed and waved, and then headed briskly off to catch up with Palpatine as the Chancellor waded into the Senators with the smooth-as-oiledtransparisteel ease of the lifelong politician.
The hatch cycled shut, the shuttle lifted off, and Obi-Wan's smile faded as he turned to Mace Windu. "You wanted to speak with me."
Windu moved close to Obi-Wan's position by the window, nodding out at the scene on the landing platform. "Dooku," he simply said, assuring that the old man couldn't hear them as he was guarded by clones. "What happened ?"
"He will help us, Mace," Obi-wan watched the Count deep in his thoughts, "We know he nearly accepted Yoda's offer on Vijun. I simply asked him to come home."
"The Senate will not like that, my friend," Mace grinned in anticipation. "But Dooku's home will always be the Jedi Temple. Now the real question is : is that man Darth Tyrannus or the Jedi I knew ?"
"No Mace. The true question is : will Sidious let him help us before his trial ?"
Windu's eyes widened in understanding, "You want Sidious to come out ! He escaped us on during the siege, what makes you think he will reveal himself ?"
"Believe me, Mace," Obi-wan nodded gravely, "He will."
"We must go to Yoda, Obi-wan," Mace suggested. "I have too much on my mind, I sometimes feel that we need to move against Palpatine."
"Perhaps Dooku will give us answers," Kenobi replied as the shuttle was already landing on the Jedi Temple's platform. Suddenly a small smile appeared on his serious face as he spotted Siri holding his son, waiting for them, next to Jocasta Nu, Yoda, Bant Eerin and Adi Gallia.
"I've been worried for Siri during the siege," Mace informed, "she went alone after that Malorum and she had nearly destroyed Grievous' shuttle."
"Dooku showed me the records."
Mace laid his hand on Obi-wan's shoulder, "Then I don't fear anymore for our future. You have accomplished your duty even knowing that your wife was in danger. Perhaps should we officially announce the new rule of attachment, today."
"We both know it's not the time," Obi-wan grinned as he exited their transport, leading Dooku to the other Jedi Masters, as the clonetroopers remained inside. Mace was right behind, pushing the medical bed on which Ahsoka was laying.
"Greetings Master Dooku," Jocasta Nu welcome warmly.
"Master Dooku ?" The old man allowed a small grin, "I never recalled hearing such formalities before Jocasta."
"Bant, Ahsoka needs immediate cares," Obi-wan stated gravely to the Mon Calamari Jedi. "I believe she is in coma."
"You became a Jedi Healer during those six months in the Outter Rim, Obi-wan ?" Bant teased, but disappeared instantly inside the Temple with the Togruta. Every one had went silent, only the wind was disturbed the disturbing peace on the hangar, all eyes on the Sith Lord next to Obi-wan. Then Siri stepped in front of Dooku.
"Anteres Kenobi," she said showing Dooku to Anteres using the small hand of her one year old son, "This is Master Dooku, in a way your great-grandfather." Siri shot a beaming smile at her son, while Anteres was staring strangely at the old Sith. The blue eyes of the infant were focused, never leaving Dooku until Anteres finally noticed his father on the right side.
"Da da !" Anteres simply said. And Siri felt she was about to melt when she watched Obi-wan's reaction. He hadn't seen him in months, and now he could speak ! She felt a certain amount of sadness from his heart, she knew he had wanted to be here more often : but as a Jedi, duty would always come first, she would never blame him for doing so.
"It's the only word he says," Siri informed to her husband as she put their son in his arms.
"Allow love, the Jedi Code does now. Not passion." Yoda stated coming in front of his former padawan. "The new generation of Jedi, you are watching, Dooku."
"Why are you revealing this to me, Yoda ?" Dooku was at loss of words for the first time of his life. "I am a Sith, your enemy, I can inform Sidious about all of this."
"Yet you claimed on that ship that you will help me," Obi-wan recalled. "And you will remained in the Temple until your trial, Count. Sidious won't be able to reach you here. And even if he did," Qui-Gon's apprentice came closer, with a confident grin, "I'll be happy to welcome him."
Mace noticed the respect look of Dooku for Obi-wan, but knew they had to leave Siri and Obi-wan alone. They hadn't seen each other over months, and Yoda would want to speak privately to his former apprentice as soon as possible. Pushing Dooku forward, Mace was joined by Adi Gallia who, while walking next to him with her hand interlacing his, kept her eyes on her former padawan and on Obi-wan. But then, gave them the privacy they were so desperately asking for.
"He has changed so much," Obi-wan breathed staring at Anteres.
"It will become more difficult to hide him now," Siri said as she came to caress her son's hair.
"Everything will be over very soon Siri."
"Are you going after Grievous ?"
"It would be unwise to send someone else," he looked at her, and winked, "and you know it."
"I could come with you," her hand left Anteres' head for Obi-wan face, "it will be quicker, and we'll be back for Dooku's trial in time."
"I want you to stay with Anteres, Siri." She looked offensed, but Obi-wan knew she was only teasing him. "I need someone to watch over Dooku, Anakin and Palpatine."
"You are really asking me to watch over two Sith Lords and your former padawan ?"
"No Siri," Obi-wan's eyes returned on his son, "I am asking you to keep an eye on three Sith. If I am away, Vader could easily rise again. I will do everything I can, but the Council will send me after Grievous, and Yoda will go with the Wookies. You know what happened last time, you saw everything in my dreams."
"I don't remember everything Obi-wan !"
"And I am glad you don't," the auburn man returned Anteres to his mother, and stole her a gentle kiss. One way too short for her taste. "We must convince Mace to wait for the trial before acting against Sidious."
"You mean you want him to wait for you. You will destroyed Grievous much quicker than last time, I know you plan to fight Palpatine. I have feared that moment for three years, and it's coming in two weeks now. I'm afraid Obi-wa-" Her words never came out, his lips were back on hers, hungrier this time. Seconds felt like hours, and when their mouths separated again, her own world felt missing an entire part, a whole half on her life.
"Don't be," he smiled at her, "I will always return to you, and to our son."
"I don't remember such confidence before your departure to the Outer Rim. Where does it come from, oh mighty Knight of the Force ?" She asked grinned, laying her blonde head on his shoulder, allowing her husband to watch Anteres staring back at them.
"Da da !" Anteres was wearing a full smile, here in his mother's arms, protected by the powerful love of his parents.
"It is love, my dear wife."
"Do you think you have still enough love for me, if you are allowed to sleep with me, Master Kenobi ?"
"Of course," he grinned lovingly, "of course my love."
This was Padme Amidala: She was an astonishingly accomplished young woman, who in her short life had been already the youngest-ever elected Queen of her planet, a daring partisan guerrilla, and a measured, articulate, and persuasive voice of reason in the Republic Senate.
But after her kidnapping by Malorum … she was, at this moment, none of these things.
She could still play at them—she pretended to be a Senator, she still wielded the moral authority of a former Queen, and she was not shy about using her reputation for fierce physical courage to her advantage in political debate—but her inmost reality, the most fundamental, unbreakable core of her being, was something entirely different.
She's Anakin Skywalker's wife. Yet wife was a word too weak to carry the truth of her; wife was such a small word, such a common word, a word that could come from a downturned mouth with so many petty, unpleasant echoes. For Padme Amidala, saying 1 am Anakin Skywalker's wife was saying neither more nor less than I am alive. Her life before Anakin belonged to someone else, some lesser being to be pitied, some poor impoverished spirit who could never suspect how profoundly life should be lived. Her real life began the first time she looked into Anakin Skywalker's eyes and found in there not the uncritical worship of little Annie from Tatooine, but the direct, unashamed, smoldering passion of a powerful Jedi: a young man, to be sure, but every centimeter a man—a man whose legend was already growing within the Jedi Order and beyond. A man who knew exactly what he wanted and was honest enough to simply ask for it; a man strong enough to unroll his deepest feelings before her without fear and without shame. A man who had loved her for a decade, with faithful and patient heart, while he waited for the act of destiny he was sure would someday open her own heart to the fire in his. And because she was his wife, Malorum had captured her .. Whispering the darkest plans he had for her, for Anakin when he would appeared. She knew Anakin had killed him, he heard Palpatine saying it to Master Windu, but she ignored how Malorum had been killed. And that was scarring her : what Anakin had done ?
Though she loved her husband without reservation, love did not blind her to his faults. She was older than he, and wise enough to understand him better than he did himself. He was not a perfect man: he was prideful, and moody, and quick to anger— but these faults only made her love him the more, for his every flaw was more than balanced by the greatness within him, his capacity for joy and cleansing laughter, his extraordinary generosity of spirit, his passionate devotion not only to her but also in the service of every living being.
He was a wild creature who had come gently to her hand, a vine tiger purring against her cheek. Every softness of his touch, every kind glance or loving word was a small miracle in itself. How could she not be grateful for such gifts? This was why she will not allow their marriage to become public knowledge yet. The marriage with a Jedi would be allowed in months, as Master Kenobi had promised them, but her husband needed to be a Jedi. Saving people was what he was born for; to take that away from him would cripple every good thing in his troubled heart. Now she held him in their infinite kiss with both arms tight around his neck, because there was a cold dread in the center of her heart that whispered this kiss was not infinite at all, that it's only a pause in the headlong rush of the universe, and when it ended, she would have to face the future. And she is terrified.
Because while he had been away, everything had changed. Today, here in the hallway of the Senate Office Building, she brought him news of a gift they had given each other—a gift of joy, and of terror. A gift she had feared about while she had been held on the Invisible Hand, next to Dooku. A gift that Obi-wan seemed to know : he had laid a gentle hand on her belly when he had asked her about her health. She wasn't sure, but it seemed like Obi-wan already knew it. This gift was the edge of a knife that has already cut their past from their future. For these long years they had held each other only in secret, only in moments stolen from the business of the Republic and the war; their love had been the perfect refuge, a long quiet afternoon, warm and sunny, sealed away from fear and doubt, from duty and from danger. But now she carried within her a planetary terminator that would end their warm afternoon forever and leave them blind in the oncoming night.
She was more, now, than Anakin Skywalker's wife. She was the mother of Anakin Skywalker's unborn child. After an all-too-brief eternity, the kiss finally ended. She clung to him, just breathing in the presence of him after so long, murmuring love against his broad strong chest while he murmured love into the coils of her softly scented hair.
Some time later, she found words again. "Anakin, Anakin, oh my Anakin, I—I can't believe you're home. They told me..." She almost choked on the memory. "There were whispers... that you'd been killed. I couldn't—every day—"
"Never believe stories like that," he whispered. "Never. I will always come back to you, Padme."
"I've lived a year for every hour you were away—"
"It's been a lifetime. Two."
She reached up to the burn-scar high on his cheek. "You were hurt..."
"Nothing serious," he said with half a smile. "Just an unfriendly reminder to keep up with my lightsaber practice."
"Six months.'' It was almost a moan. "Six months—how could they do that to us?"
He rested his cheek lightly on the crown of her head. "If you and the Chancellor hadn't been kidnapped, I'd still be out there. I'm almost—it's terrible to say it, but I'm grateful. It's like it was all arranged just to bring me home again..."
His arms were so strong, and so warm, and his hand touched her hair in the softest caress, as though he was afraid she were as fragile as a dream, and he bent down for another kiss, a new kiss, a kiss that would wipe away every dark dream and all the days and hours and minutes of unbearable dread— But only steps away, the main vault of the Atrium still held Senators and HoloNet crews, and the knowledge of the price Anakin would pay when their love became known made her turn her face aside, and put her hands on his chest to hold him away.
"Anakin, not here. It's too risky."
"No, here! Exactly here." He drew her against him again, effortlessly overpowering her halfhearted resistance. "I'm tired of the deception. Of the sneaking and the lying, tired of waiting the official announcement about the Jedi Code. We have nothing to be ashamed of! We love each other, and we are married. Just like trillions of beings across the galaxy. This is something we should shout, not whisper—"
"No, Anakin. Not like all those others. They are not Jedi. We can't let our love force you out of the Order—"
"Force me out of the Order?" He smiled down at her fondly. "We will be allowed to marry, Padme. It doesn't matter if we are already married, without the approbation of the Council."
"Anakin—" He could still make her angry without even trying. "Listen to me. We have a duty to the Republic. Both of us— but yours is now so much more important. You are the face of the Jedi, Anakin. Even after these years of war, many people still love the Jedi, and it's mostly because they love you, do you understand that? They love the story of you. You're like something out of a bedtime tale, the secret prince, hidden among the peasants, growing up without ever a clue of his special destiny— except for you it's all true. Sometimes I think that the only reason the people of the Republic still believe we can win the war is because you're fighting it for them—"
"And it always comes back to politics for you," Anakin said. His smile had gone now. "I'm barely even home, and you're already trying to talk me into going back to the war—"
"This isn't about politics, Anakin, it's about you." "
"Something has changed, hasn't it?" Thunder gathered in his voice. "I felt it, even on the bridge of that ship. Something has changed."
She lowered her head. "Everything has changed."
"What is it? What?" He took her by the shoulders now, his hands hard and irresistibly powerful. "There's someone else. I can feel it in the Force! There is someone coming between us—"
"Not the way you think," she said. "Anakin, listen—"
"Who is it? Is it Obi-wan ? Ferus ? Who?"
"Stop it. Anakin, stop. You'll hurt us."
His hands sprang open as though she had burned them. He took an unsteady step backward, his face suddenly ashen. "Padme—I would never—I'm so sorry, I just—" He leaned on the pillar and brought a hand weakly to his eyes. "The Hero With No Fear. What a joke... Padme, I can't lose you. I can't. You're all I live for. Wait..." He lifted his head, frowning quizzically. "Did you say, us?"
She reached for him, and he came to meet her hand. Rising rears burned her eyes, and her lip trembled. "I'm... Annie, I'm pregnant . . . "
She watched him as everything their child would mean cycled through his mind, and her heart caught when she saw first of all the wild, almost explosive joy that dawned over his face, because that meant that whatever he had gone through on the Outer Rim, he was still her Annie. It meant that the war that had scarred his face had not scarred his spirit. And she watched that joy fade as he began to understand that their marriage could not stay hidden much longer; that even the voluminous robes she wore could not conceal a pregnancy forever. That their child would be a potential Jedi, who had to be trained in the Temple, away from them. That she would be relieved of her post and recalled to Naboo. That the very celebrity that had made him so important to the war would turn against them both, making them the freshest possible meat for an entire galaxy full of scandalmongers.
And she watched him decide that he didn't care. "That is," he said slowly, that wild spark returning to his eyes, " . . . wonderful... Padme—that's wonderful. How long have you known?"
She shook her head. "What are we going to do?"
"We're going to be happy, that's what we're going to do. And we're going to be together. All three of us."
"But—"
"No." He laid a gentle finger on her lips, smiling down at her. "No buts. No worries. You worry too much as it is."
"I have to," she said, smiling through the tears in her eyes. "Because you never worry at all."
"I'll do something for us, I promise you everything will be fine, Padme," Anakin smiled a her, his piercing blue eyes shinning for her.
"Of course you do." She smiled fondly. "That's who you are. That's what being a hero is. What about Obi-Wan?"
He frowned. "What about him?"
"You told me once that he is as wise as Yoda and as powerful as Mace Windu. Couldn't he help us?"
"No." Anakin's chest clenched like a fist squeezing his heart. "Why is it always about Obi-wan ! Am I not the Chosen-One ? I am more powerful that the whole Jedi Council, and even my wife can't trust me ?" How much painfully her voice sounded right now. And how difficult it was to ignore his inner dragon, whispering that she hadn't the right to doubt about him. He had shown his real strength against Malorum, now he would have to use it every time. Because it felt right. Because with such power, he would become Master, he would be respected ! He would bow to no one, he would cease being a slave ! "I won't let our family be torn apart, by the war, the Republic or the Jedi. We are together, from now and forever." He leaned to kiss her one last time, and then simply listening to her beating heart against his chest, feeling for the first time since months, at the right place. At his place.
The Coruscant nightfall was now spreading through the galaxy. The cold of the darkness had replaced the heat of the warm lights reflected by a series of orbital mirrors, so many of them had been destroyed by Grievous' fleet during the siege : curiously, there wasn't any ship on the dark sky anymore, they all had fled away with the still alive cyborg General. But the man wrapped in black robes wasn't waiting for nightfall, he was waiting for the night to fall on Palpatine's Republic. Soon those hours would be remember as the last ones of the Galactic Republic of Chancellor Palpatine, followed by a complete fall into darkness. And it was only in the depth of darkness that they would rise again, and Ferus Ollin had understood it all too well two years ago, when Palpatine had revealed himself as Darth Sidious. He had remained at his side, as suspicious as ever because the Sith had a certain talent to twist the truth, but to play his own game against Palpatine. Allies they were, but never student and master. Nor was he the student of the red Twi'lek coming behind him, also hidden in the same black cloak, only her golden eyes could be noticed in the shadow : those eyes weren't the same than Sidious' sickened yellow eyes, they were purely gold, captivating every one who had the chance, or misfortune, to look into them. And that Twi'lek would walk at his side until the very end. Ferus also suspected Dia to have her own goal, using him to achieve it, but when he had resurrected her, every thing changed. She had proposed him freedom which he would soon gladly take, after discovering the whole truth. And then, if he decide to take Palpatine's place, then Dia would be happy to oblige. But he remembered her telling him that ruling wasn't her interest, only the power to stay next to him, until the very end. And how much power she had, when he realised she managed to convince the two others female also wrapped in dark robes in front of their awaiting shuttle.
"It is time my friends," Dia informed the two other women. "We may not be coming back, but we all owe Ferus in a certain way."
"I never asked you to follow me where I am heading, only to accompany me to Mygeeto," Ferus stated, disturbed that they had accepted.
"I promise you I would fly you there, Ollin."
"I knew you were a woman of words, Assajj Ventress," Ferus nodded in respect, "But what about you, Bariss ?" He asked to the other woman.
"I miss you," she simply replied, giggling.
"You are willing to chase after a dead Sith Lord because you missed him ?" Dia seemed more amused than jealous. Ferus had to smile, and was happy to be covered by his hood.
"You are going with him because you love him," Bariss added, "so is my reason so difficult to understand ?"
"Absolutely not, Bariss," Ferus came closer to the two women he had saved, and drew three lightsabers from under his black cloak. Two curved ones already belonging to Assajj Ventress, and the other one, being the only half of Maul's saberstaff that Ferus had stolen from Palpatine.
"I believe you won't blame me to take back what is mine," Ventress joked, referring to the time when Bariss had … left the Jedi Order.
"By all means Ventress, I never like the curved hilt."
"Are we ready to go ?" Dia was already on the shuttle's ramp, impatient to leave Coruscant and the influence of Darth Sidious. When they would come back, they would decided the fate of the entire galaxy, and that made her feel … powerful like in her youth, when she had fought hundred of Jedi during so many wars between an Empire, a Republic, the Jedi Order, and the Sith.
"Why are we seeking a dead Sith Lord on Mygeeto, Ferus ?" Bariss asked, causing Ferus to chuckle darkly.
"Darth Plagueis has many secrets that I covet very much," Siri's former padawan came next to Dia, "and many of them would give us victory. Isn't it what you have always craved for ? To end this war, to leave peacefully ?" Ventress and Offee nodded in the same time, for different reasons, but they agreed with him. "Then believe me, Plagueis can offer so much more than all of this."
Author Note : There it is ! Ferus is moving to Mygeeto to meet the mysterious Sith Lord, well you know who it is of course ;) In the next chapter : Anakin will have a dream/vision and Palpatine will try to persuade Skywalker to help him ( yes like in ROTS, yet the dream will be very different ) I'm sorry to announce that we are now in the last part of this fiction, ( a long one don't worry,) and I am definitely thinking about a sequel with an older Anteres, Galen, Luke etc ... Or perhaps two sequels : one again with Obi-wan and the second one with Anteres. I'm not sure yet. Tell me about it.
Dooku is now inside the Jedi Temple, waiting for his trial, but Obi-wan, Mace and Yoda have a plan don't worry. Unfortunately, only Mace will stay on Coruscant ... ROTS is not changed very much for the moment, but I promise you a certain surprise with Ferus, Bariss, Assajj and Dia. I'm sure many of you will find the small group very interesting, as the Clone Wars never told us their fate, I am going to give them an epic one !
Obi-wan, Mace and Yoda will have grave talks, I will also add a Council meeting.
And Ferus will be on Mygeeto ;) I can't tell you how much excited I am haha.
Anyway, please as always, read over and over, and review.
