Responses to Reviews
Hghg (Guest), 13.07.2020, Ch. 17: Glad you liked Order 99. You're right - Pompeii is gonna get his ass handed to him on a plate by Pallas. Ares and Ahsoka have their ying and yang thing, son of the Sith and daughter of the Jedi. Hope you enjoy the chapter!
TheChamp123, 13.07.2020, Ch. 17: Hahaha, your review made me very happy - thank you so much. Keep fanboying. Why am I not working for Star Wars? Because fanfiction is not something you can put on a CV. I hope that my teachings have been helpful, my apprentice. Yeah, it is slowly ending because this is the penultimate chapter – stay itchy and hyped. My all time favourite character is Ahsoka. Enjoy the chapter!
RainfallMyth, 13.07.2020, Ch. 17: Here's the penultimate chapter. I hope you enjoy it!
Leo's Reading, 13.07.2020, Ch. 17: Glad that you're liking the story – "magnificent writing" made my chest puff. Yes, Pompeii proceeding the attack might have been predictable, but I was hoping to contrast it against Ares' temptation to the dark side. In both cases, you have a character who is being tempted to make a seemingly obvious choice – one of them doesn't and one of them does. Had Ares made the wrong choice, Pompeii's decision would have been "correct". Every victory has a price. Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter.
Falconfighter1427, 13.07.2020, Ch. 17: Obi-Wan and Anakin to find out… read on to find out. Enjoy the penultimate chapter!
TragicFiction, 13.07.2020, Ch. 17: There were a lot of twists last chapter, but I'm glad you enjoyed them. To avoid your threat of telepathic strangulation, here is the chapter.
Triglavian, 13.07.2020, Ch. 17: Obi-Wan's been making a lot of mistakes since he's become Papa-Wan / Obi-Mom. Enjoy the chapter – this is where the fun begins!
Xxnike575xX, 13.07.2020, Ch. 17: No new reader is looking through the reviews or the "responses to reviews" – they are too busy reading, but you know who is looking through the reviews? Me… constantly and I want to hear about those emotions. Don't you hold back anything from me, nickey! Enjoy the penultimate chapter!
Jamin (Guest), 14.07.2020, Ch. 17: I cannot express how happy I was to receive your review and to learn how much you loved my brain-spawn. Really, "one of your favourite fanfics ever"? That's incredible. Glad that you loved the plot-twist and were surprised by CL-Y. Essentially, every single character in this story has committed a form of treason. As for the secondary characters, I understand what you feel. The only episode where they showed the Separatist in a sympathetic light was Heroes on Both Sides and, I would argue, it showed the Separatist's humanity, rather than their beliefs. Anyway, enjoy the chapter and Pompeii ruining things!
DuckBoi, 14.07.2020, Ch. 17: Yup, two chapters (If I feel there's too much, I doubt anyone will object me for smuggling in an extra chapter, but I'm very certain all I need is two). The plan could still go south if they all die – in fact the plan does go south for them a little. Sure the Jedi Order might survive because of the lice, but all the characters are on a closed ship that's about to ignite, with misunderstood identities/allegiances, surrounded by angry Republicans and on board they have the most powerful being in the galaxy that's about to become very, very angry for being duped by some meddling kids. Do you see now why Ares hated their plan? He's the hazard-assessment twin. Pallas has been cold-blooded and ruthless for the entire story and she's been waiting for Dooku to die for so long. In contrast, Ares had a difficult time doing the deed against his own father – or maybe he just didn't want the career of a Sith Lord and passed on the chore to his sister XD typical bro. Enjoy the penultimate chapter.
Lucas Kulla, 14.07.2020, Ch. 17:I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed the chapters and the plot twist. If I was to do a sequel, and by no means do I promise anything, what would you like to read about? I'm very flattered to hear that this is the best Star Wars fanfic you've read. Glad to hear about the drawings – if you need any help with descriptions or anything, just let me know (I check my PM fairy regularly). Tell you what, let's make this interesting - for every piece of drawing, I'll write you an exclusive one-shot on a subject/theme/character of your choice, provided it's within this fanfic universe. Good luck with your farm and enjoy this chapter!
Starwarsfan1114, 17.07.2020, Ch. 17: Last-minute? I don't care – I'm just happy to see you. I tried writing Ares and Pallas' catch-up bittersweetly – they may be happy to see one another, but so much shit has gone on in the past three years. You would not be the first person to point out Pallas and Ahsoka's friendship material – both of those girls need some female friends in their lives. Thrilled that you enjoyed Grievous' death – I thought it was only fitting that the head clanker should be executed by his own clankers, a "youngling" and the student he's been constantly putting down (since Pallas gave Ahsoka the code for Order 99). The fight between Obi-Wan, Anakin and Ahsoka will continue to break your heart – prepare for the chaos. AWW, shucks! I'm gonna start putting those on mugs. Thrilled that you enjoyed the same story +2 times for two very different readings. Enjoy the penultimate chapter and don't forget to ramble!
Chapter 18 – The Dark Lord of the Sith
Pallas barrelled into the command bridge with rage. They were not in hyperspace. Pompeii had disobeyed her orders. "What is the meaning of this!?" she screamed at him as soon as she saw him. Seeing their general's wrath, the pilot droids around them all ducked their heads and didn't dare utter a word.
"I saw an opportunity and took it," said Pompeii.
The audacity, Pallas thought, disbelievingly. "You were given strict orders to retreat. Why didn't you follow them?!"
"I evacuated the entire fleet, as you instructed," said Pompeii, still confident in his righteousness. "But the Republic will not fire on a ship that has the Chancellor and Jedi on board."
As soon as he had opened his mouth, Pallas had started giving orders to the pilots to retreat with the rest of the fleet. "You fool!" she yelled at him, somehow, impossibly, becoming more enraged than she previous was. For the first time in her life, she understood the instinct of Grievous to punch off heads in his rage. "I don't care if you had sacrificed any of those other ships, so long as this one was safe. I'll have you court marshalled for this, you thick skulled—"
"Uh, general?" a timid voice interrupted.
Pallas turned to look at the droid brave enough to interrupt her fury. "What?!"
"The cruisers are not firing on us, but they have surrounded us and boxed us in," said the droid. "There is no calculable retreat that we can make, and we have sustained considerable damage. We are outnumbered 20 to 1."
Pallas turned back to Pompeii, who seemed to shrink in size upon hearing that outcome. "This is exactly what I was afraid of," she said with both disappointment and disdain. "Get us out of this mess. I don't care how, think of something. I have a more pressing matters to attend to than your incompetence." Pompeii immediately set about doing what he was instructed.
The young general thundered to the main holotransmitter and opened up a hologram of the Operating Theatre and the Chancellor's cell. Time to play with fire, she thought and took a deep breath.
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A spray of water from a showerhead on the ceiling brought the Chancellor back to consciousness. He had no recollection of falling asleep, but then he remembered the bright blue ring and the yellow reptilian eyes of Grievous. It seemed the cyborg had not trusted himself to capture a barely resisting, withered old man.
With his hands restrained, Palpatine had to blink away the spray of water in order to see clearly. The features of his cell became clearer. He was in a ray-shielded box, in a cell with force-restraints on his wrists and ankles. Strange, he thought, did Dooku not have more comfortable confinements? Expecting the Jedi to come and rescue him at any moment, he did not attempt to get free of them. Although, the temptation to test whether his powers were strong enough, along with the adrenaline-fuelled thrill of getting caught, rushed through his old veins giddily.
Palpatine took a sharp intake of air and let the sensation of the Force course through him. He sensed young Skywalker on board. His connection to the young man was unparalleled to any other. He put his head back and closed his eyes, imagining the chess-pieces coming together. He was so close.
The melodic hum of a hologram got his attention. He was expecting Count Dooku to appear before him, but instead he was facing the blue outline his daughter. "General Pallas, I command you to release me! The Republic would not tolerate this!" he puffed. His inner actor and politician came naturally to him. Dooku's generals knew of a Darth Sidious and a Chancellor Palpatine, but it was imperative that they didn't connect the two with one another.
"Calm yourself, Your Excellency," she said, with a cool, soothing voice, though he could feel that she was not at ease. Her fear and fury were pulsing through. It was delicious to the old man. "I wish to ask you something."
"Then stop being a coward and come and face me yourself, instead of hiding behind holograms like a spineless Separatist!" he barked at her and made a show of trying to jerk out of the restraints.
"I think I'd be more prudent to stay up here," she said, her face hard and focused. "Sith Lords don't agree with me, Darth Sidious."
She knew. The brat knew! Palpatine had trained himself for such a situation. A situation of being found by those that he still needed for his plans but did not wish to be revealed to. Without missing a spare beat, he laughed aloud as if it was a joke and feigned confusion. "You must be insane, young lady. Me, a Sith Lord? That's quite preposterous. Where have you heard such fantasy?"
"Count Dooku, my father, revealed to me your identity," said Pallas, but he could sense that she was lying. Dooku would never reveal to her the identity of his master. He was too prideful and too ashamed to admit to his children that he had been a pawn of the Chancellor this entire war. "His holo-computer revealed to me your transactions. You orchestrated the war and have since been covertly manipulating both sides of it. There has never been a traitor more treacherous than you."
She's lying, he thought as she spoke. The transactions were always done on secreted frequencies and he had never revealed his face or identity in them. She must have known less than she showed.
He gave her a condescending look, as if she was stupid. "Well, a man as insane as your father will have many fantasies to explain his grave sins," said Palpatine. As he talked, his powers reached out and tried to search through the girl's mind. He closed his eyes as he did so to focus better with the strain of distance that holograms caused his powers. "Blaming the other party for one's wrongdoing is a petulant child's trick. I have absolutely no doubt in the Jedi—"
"You gave me the order to invade Coruscant," she interrupted. Show me, child… the cold whisper shivered down her spine. Show me everything you know.
"It…" she staggered back, clutching her temple. She had been training to resist that violent prodding for years. Her father and brother had always tried to riffle through her mind at their leisure. The mental exercises and training jumped forward out of instinct. She pictured a candle flame burning. She pictured the smoothness of the stick, the drip of the molten wax and the brightness of the flame. She had to imagine the flame, keeping it steady, strong enough to breathe and not so strong as to spiral into a wildfire, a balance. So long as she focused on it, the candle was all the Dark Lord could have access to. Just a little longer, she promised herself. "It was you…" she spoke, mentally scribbling the words into the wax stick. "…who wanted chaos… term is expiring… an invasion… a war… would give… you… ultimate powers." The strain of resisting the Dark Lord's penetrative force abilities was becoming too much to bear even on a strong mind.
Palpatine doubled his efforts and strain. He would not admit anything until he knew all her cards. "The will of The Senate is its own. I am merely a servant of my people," he said, his voice completely steady, despite his struggle of his opponent.
With the controlled, steady flame burning, shadows started to dance behind it for the Dark Lord to see. Shadows of a biochip being implanted into the brains of babes. Think critically! Shadows of troops shooting swordsmen. Never trust a Sith. Shadows of a burning funeral pyre. My notes… you'll find everything you need to know there… my droid will know the security codes… Shadows of a boy and a girl huddling together over a black and white chessboard, whispering of plots and treasons. Palpatine is the selfish King, the Chosen One is the used Queen, the Senates are the hard-headed Rooks, Father the evasive Bishop, the Jedi the sacrificial Knights and we must hide as pawns. Cross enemy lines in plain sight. Shadows of a tyrant falling. The Dark Lord and his plots will perish! Then the candle burst in an explosion of hot wax and flame and the Dark Lord was forced to retreat, screaming in agony at the mental burns.
"How do you know of such things?!" he screamed, feverishly, ignoring the breaking of character. "The Admiral… that filthy traitor!" he realised with a snarling anger. "He died three years ago… I made sure of it!"
Pallas ignored the confession. "It seems you've broken your character, Lord Sidious," she said with a hint of a smile. "Your skeletons have risen to drag you into their graves."
His response was laughter, true and poisonous. "In this scenario, child, you are the villain. Your fleet is ripping through Coruscant as we speak tearing down homes and people's lives. There are Jedi on board coming to cut down what remains of your family and free me from this bondage. They'll kill you too, general. Who in the galaxy is going to believe your outlandish ideas, child?"
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Somewhere in that vast expanse of the battleship between Pallas and Palpatine, Ahsoka and Count Dooku were fighting for their lives.
"Anakin, please listen to me!" Ahsoka shouted at her master, parrying away his blows. "Let me explain!"
There was a frightening determination in his eyes. A determination she had seen only when her master was fighting scum that threatened the Republic. She had become one such scum that was threatening the Republic.
"I won't let him take you away from me!" Anakin roared as their blades hummed together. The most unrestrained anger thumped inside him like an iron hammer. "I've watched you turn to the dark side before! I won't—" Strike. "Let it—" Strike. "Happen again!" Strike.
'Count Dooku' had chosen a different tactic with Obi-Wan. Rather than appealing with emotions, he tried reasoning and negotiations. "I wish you could give me half an hour to explain everything, Obi-Wan," he said, noticing, perhaps too late, that his newfound deep voice made him sound more menacing than he intended.
"You're poison," Obi-Wan growled hatefully. "You poisoned Ahsoka! I won't let you poison anyone else!"
"Going forth guns blazing and exploding is Skywalker's usual folly," said Ares. He prayed upon Obi-Wan's pragmaticism, but there was an anger in the Jedi Master that Ares had never seen before. The cooled pragmatism was gone the moment Obi-Wan saw Ahsoka standing beside their enemy. "I don't want to hurt you, Obi-Wan!" Ares cried out, but the Jedi wasn't even listening to him.
They locked blades, parried, swivelled and clashed again. Ares pushed the blue blade off and then unleashed his signature red lightning out of his fingertips. Lacking the speed and weighed down by his dark feelings, Obi-Wan could not deflect the incoming current. The flash caught the Jedi and threw him back, against the wall. Ares winced as his mentor fell to the floor, unconscious.
"Obi-Wan!" Anakin screamed, terrified of sensing his master be defeated by the count. He pushed Ahsoka back with the Force and leapt onto the old man with a need for blood in his eyes. Blue and red humming blades clashed together.
"Master!" Ahsoka shrieked out, having recovered from the force-push and joined her green sabres into the fray.
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Pallas' eyes flittered to the green light on the holo-transmitter's switchboard and then back at the Chancellor. Her mouth was dry.
"Did you hear me, girl?" Palpatine demanded, annoyed by her silence. His voice was a strange mix of paranoid high-pitched screech and sadistic pleasure. "Who will believe you?"
"You're right. Absolutely no one will believe me. Your agents are crawling all over the Senate, ready to cover up any mistake. Anyone who finds out the truth will be accused of treason. No one in the Separatist Parliament will believe that the Chancellor is manipulating them," said Pallas, "which is why I won't be telling them."
Palpatine crooked an eyebrow. "Not much of a plan then, is it, girl."
"I've wanted revenge for so much and for so long," said Pallas. "Your actions have ripped open wounds that will never heal… I've never wanted anything as much as I've wanted vengeance."
Palpatine laughed. "Revenge? That I know well, child. It is the great feeling in the world to rip away the most precious thing your enemy has. Watching them crumble without it is… exhilarating," said Sidious, instantly.
"For you, my lord of the Sith, the most precious possession is power. And the destroyer of power is an angry, cheated rabble," said Pallas, watching Palpatine's face closely. "I obtained access to the long-range, public frequencies from some new allies and equipped my ship with a powerful transmitter. Every part of our conversation," she twirled her index finger in a circle between the two of them, "every word we have both just said has been live broadcasted to the entire Inner Rim. It will spread to the rest of the galaxy like a wildfire. Your dreams of an empire will never come to fruition and you will never know power again."
She did not need to see or have use of the Force to know Palpatine's wrath.
A sharp tightness that was not fear coiled inside her throat. It was acidic and she could feel the fleshy tissue burn inside. She tried to clutch at it, but there was nothing there. Her feet lifted from the ground. There were black spots pounding in her sight and there wasn't enough oxygen to breathe. She looked at the old man on the hologram who had not moved a muscle except the ones necessary to make the hateful look upon his face.
"Then, execute order 66," he lashed out.
She would die there. There was no way out and nothing she could fight. She imagined the organs inside her torso crashing like the machinery of a breaking droid or ship. She thought about death, the black nothingness that awaited her.
Then it was over and Pallas of Serenno fell to the ground.
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Mas Amedda and Sly Moore had been watching the entire recording from the Chancellor's office. The whole galaxy was watching their master be exposed by the girl and his plots laid bare for everyone to see. When he uttered the words for Order 66, they both knew what they had to do.
Moore dislodged the mass broadcast from the holotransmitter and typed in her security codes. Amedda swiftly made the recording and they sent the briefing to every clone commander in the Republic Army.
"By order of the Supreme Chancellor, execute Order 66," Mas Amedda said. His forked snake tongue slithered around the words.
The Jedi had to be exterminated at all costs.
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The galaxy seemed to have stopped moving. The Force of death was felt by every Jedi. It was unlike anything anyone had ever felt before. To describe it best, it was as if an invisible hand had reached out with a searing heat and clutched the heart in every breast and pulled through the ribcage.
The three duelling warriors in the main hanger of The War God stumbled back in unfathomable pain, each clutching at their chest to try and understand what that feeling was.
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"Are you alright?" Pompeii's voice sifted through her consciousness. Her eyes fluttered open and saw the dilated cat pupils of the Zygerrian staring at her.
"What happened?" she croaked painfully and felt her damaged throat. The oxygen was coming back to her lungs and the blood into her head. It was dizzying. Her temples were hammering, and she pressed down upon them with the palms of her hands.
"I shut off the recording and hologram," said Pompeii. "I thought if he couldn't see you, he wouldn't be able to use the Force… or something. Who was that?"
She was impressed. "That was some quick thinking, buddy," Pallas said. He had just saved her life and she suddenly felt very guilty for shouting at him earlier. "Have we retreated?"
"We can't. We're cut off," said Pompeii, remorsefully. "We are crash landing onto the planet."
"How?" she asked.
"I don't know," said Pompeii, helplessly. "One minute we're okay-ish and then suddenly something explodes. I look at you and you're being straggled by your little friend down there. Who the hell did you bring on board?"
"The Chancellor," said Pallas simply, busy thinking of their options. "Are the ray shields holding in the Operating Theatre?" she asked the whole bridge.
"No, general. We've lost manual control of the whole detention block," said the pilot droid. "The prisoner has likely escaped." Through his own force of will Palpatine just… crushed ray-shields and steel, Pallas marvelled fearfully,
"Sir!" another droid got her attention. "The temperature of the ship is drastically rising."
"What?" she asked.
Pompeii clambered to check computers. "We're entering the atmosphere and we're burning up from the inside," said Pompeii. "At this temperature, the walls will start melting."
Pallas' eyes narrowed. "And everything between them," she said, grabbing her commlink and dialling her brother's channel.
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"What is that?" Anakin groaned, confused, on his knees. He was reeling from the impact of the force of death. "I heard… them calling out… hundreds of voices."
"That's Order 66, master," Ahsoka answered, herself in tremendous pain. "That's the Chancellor, the Sith Lord, executing Jedi across the galaxy."
Ares was about to add something when his Confederate-issued commlink beeped with his sister's channel. "We broadcasted the recording. Sidious is exposed," Pallas spoke with incredible speed. "He's broken out of his cell and heading towards you. The ship is collapsing and melting." Ares didn't respond. "Ares, do you copy?!" Silence. Nothingness. "Ares, this isn't funny! Come in!"
Ares didn't answer because into the main hanger stepped the Chancellor. A golden lightsabre was clutched in his shaking fist and his eyes were scorching yellow with rage and hatred and violence. Three of them stared.
"He's here, Pal," Ares answered quietly. "He's come." He paused. "…I love you, sis," he whispered and turned the commlink off, lightsabre up.
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"What should we do?" Pompeii asked his general. For the first time in his life, he was happy that he was not in charge. Why had he ever wanted command? This was terrifying. They were all going to die. They couldn't board a ship to escape. Even if they tried to make a run for one of the hangers, it was very likely that they would be roasted alive before they even got anywhere. Their options looked desperately dim.
Pallas stared at her commlink, where her brother's voice had just cut off. There was nothing she could do about Palpatine now. It was up to them. "We need to land the ship," she said.
"How? We barely have control of it," said Pompeii.
Pallas ordered a droid to vacate the first-mate's computer and sat behind it. Pompeii dropped to the second-in-command's seat and computer, ready for orders. "Let's see how much control we do have. Open everything to cool the ventilating system if you can," she said. "I'll divert all power to magnetize the engines," she said to Pompeii. "Come on, old boy. Don't fail me now," she said affectionately to the ship.
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The ship was plummeting to the ground and they could all feel it burning up.
Ares looked around. Amidst the dismantled droid corpses, there was only one ship in the hanger, The Solar Sailor. All the others had been used by the clones when they were dispatched with the lice droids. If Sidious got to it, he could make an escape. If they got on it, they would lose track of him in the havoc and he would likely find another way off this death-trap. Ares looked at the unconscious form of Kenobi. He lifted his mentor onto the ship. "Ahsoka… the droids," he called out to her.
Seeing what he was doing, Ahsoka immediately pushed the two astromechs into the ship too. "Get out of here," Ahsoka said quickly to R2. Within moments, one of the astromechs had connected to the ship and it flew out of the hanger. They would get it to safety. The four warriors had more pressing matters here.
"Chancellor Palpatine…?" Anakin said with disbelief. "I don't… I don't understand…"
"Yes, Anakin, it must be confusing for you," said Palpatine, his voice barely suppressing his rage. "Let's get off this ship and I will explain everything to you, my boy."
"Master, don't listen to him!" Ahsoka shouted out to Anakin. "He's the Dark Lord! He's been using everyone, master! He's been using you from the start! He's the Dark Lord of the Sith!"
Palpatine's patience had evidently been bled dry by Pallas. In his blind rage, he sent a torrent of blue lightning at Ahsoka. Though she drew up her two green lightsabres to block it, the force of the blast pushed her back several yards.
"Ahsoka!" Ares screamed out and fired his own red lightning at Sidious. Ares' attack diverted Sidious' and drew it to himself. The red and blue electricity burned around them. The blasts ripped the floor of the ship apart. Everything around them was aflame.
"You must choose, Skywalker!" Ares screamed, with Count Dooku's face and voice. He felt his powers draining. The exhaustion and sheer drain were crippling. "Choose now!" he screamed.
The confusion and betrayal by all parties rendered Skywalker immobile.
"Master, please!" Ahsoka's voice added to the chorus of confusion. "He's the Dark Lord!"
It seemed impossible. Nothing made any sense. The stifling heat did not help. Anakin's mind and vision clouded with black spots. His nose and mouth filled with soot and ash and heat. Flames were licking up his legs. He could hear the infrastructure of the ship's whale-like groaning. Most of all, his brain boiled.
Ares couldn't do it anymore. His fingers were charred black, his metal hand had malfunctioned from the strain of the current, and all the power was sapped from him. He couldn't go on – there was just no more juice left in him. The fiery, electrical explosion died. When Sidious saw the old man fall to his knees, he grinned and fired another torrent of blue lighting. Before it could reach Ares, Ahsoka force pulled him out of the way of the blast. Furious, Sidious fired at her and Ahsoka, out of pure instinct, pushed them away with force shields that deflected the current away.
"Anakin!" He didn't even know who was screaming at him anymore. They all were. Anakin put his hands over his ears and closed his eyes. All he needed was a little time to focus. "Skyguy, just trust me!"
Seeing Ares comatose and her master motionless terrified Ahsoka more than anything ever had. She would not be able to resist Sidious' lightning for long. She ignited her sabre and force-jumped to strike Sidious. There was still some fight in her. The War God would crash eventually. She just had to keep Sidious occupied long enough for the collision.
The red and green sang together. The old man was so much faster and deadly than his appearance suggested. His blade struck, spun, weaved, and twisted with a speed that Ahsoka had never seen before. The evil cackling and shrieking were so disorientating, and the flames engulfed everything. Her senses, even the finely tuned ones of a Togruta, were distorted. She was no match for the Dark Lord.
Finally, the red blade slashed through her two lightsabre hilts, severing them in half. She saw Sidious' wicked, victorious grin and the glowing red blade swung down. She didn't even have time to close her eyes or prepare for the fatal burn.
It never came. Ahsoka looked to her side and found her master stretching out his hands and force-holding Palpatine's lightsabre mid-strike. Quickly, Ahsoka jumped out of the way. Anakin jumped forward and collided blades with Sidious' suspended one. He pushed it forward, so that the crossed blades hovered over Sidious' throat and he pushed down, thus slicing the old man's head clean off in one swift motion. The Chancellor's head dropped to the floor and the rest of him followed suit.
Anakin Skywalker turned his gaze on Ahsoka and then the comatose body of the count.
"We have to get out of here," Ahsoka said, quickly. They would crash any second now. She could see Coruscant's daylight streaking across the flaming hanger. "Out that hanger door!"
Anakin nodded, wordlessly, and he slung Dooku over his shoulder. They started running to the edge of the hanger's entrance. The ship was burning up on the outside, but they were less than a three-hundred feet from the surface of a runway. A good enough distance for a force jump. They'd made more perilous jumps before, thought Ahsoka. They cushioned their landing with the Force and rolled on the tarmac from the impact. Anakin let go of the count.
The War God finally crashed and skid across the surface screeching and flaming. A wrecked remain of a proud warship. A few Republic fighters had trailed behind the warship with water jets to cool it down. Ahsoka and Anakin sat up to watch the flaming chaos.
"Eh, I've seen worse landings," said Skywalker dryly.
Maybe she was just in shock, but Ahsoka sniggered and lay back, pressing her fingers into her eyes. She had the urge to scream aloud, but her lungs felt raw, smoky. She couldn't believe they were alive.
She turned her head and looked at the unconscious old man lying a little distance away. His finely pressed robes were blackened with ash and soot. The grey hair and beard that had been artificially engineered by a medical droid was singed and scorched. There were horrific burns and spots of blood everywhere and the gloves that were supposed to hide his prosthetic had burnt off. The prosthetic itself looked wrecked.
"Ares," she hissed at him. She dragged herself across the tarmac floor closer to him. "Can you hear me? Wake up! Wake up damn it!"
Her master looked at her. "A-Ares?" he asked in disbelief.
"It's a really, really long story, master," said Ahsoka, as she slapped the Count Dooku's face several times. She pressed two fingers to his neck and make sure the heartbeat was indeed there. It was, though faint, but the brown eyes did not open.
Anakin nodded, pretending to understand. "Okay…." He said. "I trust you."
She stopped her attempts at waking up the count and looked at her master earnestly. She took a deep breath. "Thank you, master," she said. "I know nothing must make sense to you, right now, Anakin, but I promise I'll explain everything in due time."
"What… what did I just do?" asked Anakin, shaking. The shock of everything seemed to only just hit him. He had just trusted her, blindly, ignoring that he had just duelled her and her seemingly new master for what felt like hours. He had to make an on the spot decision and he had chosen her without knowing all the facts. He had acted out of impulse. So often he had been berated for acting out of impulse. So often the Masters said impulse leads to mistakes. Had he made a terrible mistake then?
"You just beheaded the Lord of the Sith, Anakin," said Ahsoka. "I think you just brought balance to the Force."
"Palpatine… was a Sith Lord… all along?" asked Anakin, mouth dry. "And no one knew?"
"I was shocked too," said Ahsoka. "He had us all fooled. He was using you from the start, but it's okay now, Anakin, it's all over now." She lifted herself off the hot concrete, wincing at the burns all over her body. Somehow, she had only just become aware of them. The boiling tarmac and Coruscanti mid-day heat were not helping.
"If that's really Ares, we should get him to a med-bay," said Anakin, gesturing to the comatose count.
"Except… no one can know this isn't Count Dooku," said Ahsoka. Her skull and everything inside it felt so hot and yet, strangely, she could still remember the details of their plan. "We still have to end the war… only Count Dooku can… rally the Separatist for peace. Or at least, transfer power elsewhere."
She stood up on her two feet. Oxygen and a light cool breeze had never tasted so sweet before. She leaned down, gripping her knees. She noticed for the first time since they leapt out that she no longer had any lightsabres. Neither did Ares.
"What about the real Count Dooku?" asked Anakin, getting up himself. He could hear the gunships flying towards them to pick them all up. "Won't he have something to say about that?"
"The real Count Dooku is dead, master," said Ahsoka. "So is Grievous. And now, thanks to you, so is Sidious. We can end the war now if we work quickly… and if Pallas survived that landing."
"What do you need?" asked Anakin. "What can I do?"
"We need to get Ares, or well Dooku, and Pallas off Coruscant, to Raxus," said Ahsoka. "Because of the Chancellor, chaos is about to break out everywhere, if it hasn't already. While the Jedi establish peace in the Republic Senate, Ares and Pallas need to make sure no one else takes over the Separatist government." The gunships were above them. "Anakin, Count Dooku needs to go to Raxus," she told her master forcefully.
The gunships touched down. Clones spilled out with their rifles and trained them on Count Dooku. "Sir?" said their lieutenant. "You alright, sir?"
"Yeah, trooper," said Skywalker, unsurely. "Take us to that crash-site."
"What should we do about him, general?" asked the lieutenant, gesturing to the old man.
Anakin looked at Ahsoka and the look on her face. Anakin didn't like it. Great, another Rako Hardeen escapade, he thought to himself. "Tend to his and Ahsoka's wounds and take us to that crash site."
Every Republic gunship was equipped with an emergency first aid kit. As soon as the gunship lifted from the ground, one trooper began tending to her burns and another clone set about keeping the old man alive. It occurred to Ahsoka that all these clones were lice carriers, vaccinated by Rex and his boys. She wondered if anyone had even heard about Order 66 yet and how many had perished. Those in touch with the Force might have felt the deaths, but they wouldn't have known what any of it had meant.
The clone struck a syringe into Dooku's neck and within seconds the brown eyes shot open. He breathed heavily, panicked, clutching for things around him. A lightsabre perhaps, that was now amongst the wreckage of the warship. The squad around them all trained their rifles on the leader of the Separatists. Some of them looked at their general for orders, but Anakin only glared at the count, not saying a word.
"Hey, uh… Dooku?" Ahsoka asked, awkwardly, gaining his attention. "You're alright. You're safe… relatively."
"The… Chancellor?" was the first thing he asked, albeit dazedly. The drugs from the syringe were pumping through him repellently. Sweat beaded on his forehead.
"Dead," said Ahsoka.
"Why are we on Coruscant?" he asked. This wasn't supposed to happen, he thought panickily and she could read the words. This wasn't part of the plan.
"The ship crashed… Dooku," said Ahsoka, pointedly.
The gunship touched down at the crash-site of The War God.
[][][]
To say that Obi-Wan had woken up unpleasantly would have been an understatement. Not only did he have a pounding headache, have no idea what happened or where his lightsabre was, but he found himself in a ship's cockpit with Count Dooku's corpse.
He remembered fighting the bastard and being shot with a red flash. His limbs were still sore from that unpleasant shock. Had Anakin killed the count? If so, why had they both been thrown out in this ship? Obi-Wan looked around for a clue to his myriad of questions. Aside from him and the corpse, there were also two droids, R2 and CL-Y. R2 was piloting their ship and CL-Y looked like she had been trying to wake him up. As if she had read his confusion, CL-Y produced a blue hologram out of her projector and Obi-Wan immediately recognised the Chancellor and Pallas.
"… It seems you've broken character, Lord Sidious," CL-Y sped up the recording. "How do you know of such things!? … Your agents are crawling all over the Senate … Every part of this conversation, every word we have both just said has been live broadcasted… Then, execute Order 66!"
Obi-Wan stared at the hologram with horror. Palpatine? Palpatine had been Sidious all along? The more Obi-Wan thought about it, the more the puzzle pieces fit together. Everything the council discussed, all the clues that had trickled into their intelligence were there intentionally. Obi-Wan thought of the Chancellor's spheres of influences in the Senate and beyond it, even in the Jedi Order. With horror, Obi-Wan thought of the Chancellor's influence over Anakin. His own padawan had been groomed right under his nose.
The Jedi Master looked at the corpse of Dooku. It hadn't been the man he'd been fighting a few hours ago. Red lightning, he thought with realization. How could he have been so stupid? Obi-Wan of all people knew about the surgery available to alter one's appearance, but that begged the question: why would Ares disguise himself as his father?
"R2, we need to land," said Obi-Wan. "What happened to the warship?" The astromech beeped his answer: it crashed. "Of course, it did. Take us to the Jedi Temple, R2." He tried standing up and groaned. CL-Y passed the Jedi a tablet out of her metal body. "Thank you, CL-Y," he said, accepting the medicine and swallowing it. "I need… I need to talk to Ares."
He looked at Count Dooku again. When he had been in the guise of a bounty hunter, ironically to protect the Chancellor, they had gone to laborious lengths to make sure that no one would stumble over the real Rako Hardeen. It seemed that Ares had gone to similar measures with his father. "Is there a hidden compartment somewhere, CL-Y?" There was only a closet. It would have to do. Obi-Wan shoved the old man inside and made a mental note to lock the ship when they landed. Dooku couldn't be found before his time.
[][][]
The wreckage of The War God was incredible. Amidst the ash and smoke, demolished computers sparked and destroyed droids crackled. Glass was shattered everywhere. The beams that supported the command bridge were bent and broken.
When Pallas regained consciousness, she felt an immense weight pushing down on her. She didn't even register any of her pain. She blinked the dust out of her eyes and realised that Pompeii had jumped on top of her to shield her from the crash and the falling debris.
"Pompeii wake up. Get up," she said with a croaking voice, gently hitting the sides of his furry, horned face. "Come on, the Republic troops will be coming soon," she said, but he didn't move. His massive weight pressed down on her and she felt around clumsily for a pulse, unable to find it. It's all this fur, she thought. She shimmied and struggled out from under his bulk, stretched out and observed her friend.
A small gush of Zygerrian blood was leaking from the side of his head. He was dead. He had sacrificed his life to save her from the crash and the shards of debris. He had died like a good soldier protecting his general.
"I hope that yours is the last life that is taken by my family's stupid war, my friend," she said, sadly, before pressing her lips to her friend's forehead. She wanted to cry, but everything was so dry and desolate that she couldn't force it. The tears will come later, she thought.
With her heart-clenched and her head pounding, she stood up and made her way out of the command bridge. The walls had melted during the crash and she was pretty sure half the ship had broken off during the fall. She continued moving slowly through the rubble, until she reached what used to be the main hanger. It was an unrecognisable mess.
She kneeled at the scorched corpse of an old man. Palpatine, she recognised from the senatorial garbs. The crash landing had burnt his body, but the pool of blood around him and the clean cut of his neck suggested that he was killed before the crash. She reached out and touched what would have been his head, now a black skull.
Something gold caught her eye amidst the ruins. She reached out and found the golden hilt of a lightsabre amongst the ashes. She ignited it and watched a red blade spring up, mesmerizingly bright. Another glint, this time white, drew her attention to what she recognised to be Ahsoka's blades, now sliced in half.
She looked around in dread, fearful of find any other bodies. "They must have abandoned ship before impact," she said to herself, seeing none. She didn't want to think what she would have done if she found Ares here in the ash.
Then, she heard running footsteps and saw figures rushing in. No soldier wanted to greet their enemies on their knees. Pallas threw the golden hilt back into the ashes and pushed herself back onto her feet.
"Freeze!" a Jedi yelled out before he reached them. She recognised the Jedi immediately: Mace Windu. Though the Jedi Master boasted of a great legacy, she knew him primarily as her first defeated foe from the Invasion of Ryloth, at the start of her career. Just my luck, she thought.
"General Windu," she said, addressing him with courtesy and amicable manner, despite everything hurting too much. She didn't even know what region hurt anymore. Maybe she was still in shock. "Good day to you."
The Jedi Master ignited his purple lightsabre and pointed it at her. Clones surrounded her in a circle with their rifles pointing. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw one inspect the remains of their Chancellor and picked up the golden hilt. Another Jedi Knight ran up to them – Seesee Tiin. He took his place by Windu's side with his green blade at the ready.
"General Pallas, you are to be placed under house arrest until the Senate can decide your fate," said Windu. Though Jedi were forbidden to act out of feelings, Pallas could see the Jedi Master's anger.
"You have no Senate," she said. "Your Senate has just collapsed."
"Not yet," said Windu.
"If the wheels of bureaucracy must grind with their incredible sluggishness, then so be it," said Pallas, despondent. "Where will this… house arrest take place exactly?"
"In one of the cells of the Jedi Temple," answered Tiin.
"Just great," she said. She had not meant it mockingly. She was so exhausted and dead inside that she was incapable of feeling anything anymore. All she could picture was Pompeii's dead face and the question 'why didn't the crash take her too?'
Just then, another set of footsteps came running into the hanger. Over Windu's shoulder, she saw Skywalker. He looked horrible, ashen and burnt. "Wait!" he shouted out. "Master Windu! The Chancellor! The Chancellor is the Sith Lord!"
Windu fixed an unimpressed look upon Skywalker that made him stop in his tracks and walk the remaining distance. "Thank you, Skywalker. Every owner of a holotransmitter in the Core Worlds knows that much," said Windu.
"What?" Skywalker asked, confused.
"Skywalker missed the broadcast. He was busy fighting the said Dark Lord," supplied Pallas. Windu drew his sabre to her throat to force her silence. She seemed about as unphased by the purple lightsabre as if it was a wooden play sword.
"We are aware of the Chancellor's true identity now. General Pallas has just wreaked havoc across the galaxy," said Windu. "There is chaos in the Senate. Masters Yoda, Fisto and Koth are currently trying to re-establish order. They'll take control of The Senate if they must. We have reports all over the galaxy of unexpected mutiny. Clones have turned on their Jedi generals. Dozens of Jedi are dead. The galaxy is being torn apart and until we can find out what has happened here, Pallas of Serenno is going to serve house arrest. We'll decide on a war crime trial once we have everything under control."
"One of Palpatine's puppets must have set off Order 66 as a desperate attempt to end the Jedi," said Pallas. It had been the risk of a live broadcast, but they had to expose the Chancellor. Otherwise, he would have slipped away like the serpent that he was. "Look, General Windu, the war is still going on out there. I can't order my forces to cease firing from a house arrest. Let me go and reinstate order in my Parliament, whilst you do the same with yours."
"We'll figure it out," Windu hissed at her.
"You'll forgive me for the inconvenience caused once you realise what disastrous fate you have been saved from," said Pallas. It only enraged Windu more.
"Today, you dealt the Republic a blow more devastating than any battle," said Windu.
Unexpectedly, Pallas started to laugh. "So much for a 'thank you for saving our lives'," she said, laughing and not caring about her surroundings. The situation was inexplicably funny to her. Her brain was just releasing dopamine to deal with the shock and agony of everything. "You make a very bad damsel in distress, General Windu!"
"Get her out of my sight!" Windu snarled.
"No one likes saving an ungracious princess!" shouted Pallas as two troops grabbed her shoulders and led her out to the gunship.
[][][]
Skywalker pushed Pallas into the Republic gunship, where she found Ahsoka and Dooku sitting on the floor of it, applying bacta-spray to their burnt wounds. They both looked up at her. Dooku stood up, unsteadily, and she had to remind herself that it wasn't her actual father. The sound of the rifles being tensed clicked inside the gunship.
"Easy," Anakin said softly to his men.
"You're alright," said the baritone voice of the count. His brown eyes searched her in that caring way that only her brother could.
"Pompeii is dead," Pallas said, swallowing bitterly the lump in her throat. "And I think I just… made Windu very, very angry."
"Windu can go kriff himself," said the count. "And I'm so sorry… about Pompeii, about everything."
Forgetting the rifles trained on them, Pallas took a step forward and wrapped her arms around his neck, the tears finally spilling. She buried her face in her father's brown cloak, shattered and broken.
"It's done. It's over. It's all over," she whispered. He nodded against her and pulled her closer, tighter.
Thoughts, feelings, conclusions? I'd like to read them all if you don't mind. In fact, if EVERY ONE of YOU wrote a review, I'd be almost as happy as Pallas was laughing at Windu. So, PLEASE REVIEW!
Next is the finale!