I don't own Star Wars, but I do own this particular one-shot.
AN - I had this idea after listening to Big Finish's AUDIO "Full Fathom Five," a Doctor Who parallel universe story but my main inspiration was "Hurtful Rejection" where Padme rejects Anakin - a brilliant story and has so much promise since the Jedi Council showed their true colours. My thanks to Marcus S. Lazarus for one idea. Anyway, on with the story.
The Price we Pay.
Obi-Wan Kenobi walked into the War Room of the Jedi Temple and was instantly greeted by Mace Windu. "Obi-Wan," the older Jedi Master greeted while the holographic projections of Masters Yoda, Secura, and Shaak Ti and Knight Tano were projected over the situation table. Other members of the Jedi Council were nearby as well, some of them in different parts of the War Room and out of earshot, but they could sense his Force signature as easily as he could sense theirs. "Congratulations on your defeat of General Grievous and the Separatists on Geonosis."
Obi-Wan accepted the compliment with a humble nod. "Thank you, Master Windu," he said while the others congratulated him as well, finding only a small amount of delight in the praise. It wasn't exactly what he had been taught as a youngling, but Obi-Wan had learnt over the years to take gratitude on the chin. In any case, the gratitude was well earned and he knew it only too well. The Jedi Master accepted their gratitude for ending the life of the thing which had been responsible for the deaths of many Jedi, personally, Obi-Wan was just grateful to have survived the whole mess.
Sensing that Obi-Wan wasn't going to say anything else about Grievous, Mace steered the discussion onwards. "What of the Separatists? We know their leaders were there, and we heard they had left," the senior Jedi Master went on to find out if what they'd heard was true.
"It's true enough," Obi-Wan reported grimly, only just suppressing a surge of anger that the Separatist leaders had escaped yet again from justice for starting this pointless war. The anger didn't really surprise him that much either. He had been fighting for days and days with very little rest, and he had only just managed to catch a few hours of peace to meditate to calm his mind, but like all beings Obi-Wan knew when he needed to properly rest, and while the meditations had helped him a great deal, he was still extremely tired even after catching a few hours rest on the way back home. "They left soon after we got there, and I engaged Grievous. They just left him behind."
The listening members of the Jedi Council were not surprised to hear that, but it still gave the listening Jedi hope. Grievous had been the only member of the Separatist organisation who had been the driving force behind the Separatist campaign across the known galaxy. With him gone, it would only be a matter of time before the Separatist war effort slowed down, hopefully to a halt.
The rest of the Separatists were just a bunch of dissatisfied financiers, bankers, traders, and politicians with delusions of grandeur. Put them in their real environment before they turned against the Republic, and they would be in their own little world. Put them in a war where they were meant to be directing operations, and they would be hopeless, so unless if they found someone else to be a military general to replace Grievous, the Clone Wars would not last for much longer.
Obi-Wan honestly prayed that was the case. He was tired of the war, tired of the blood and misery. He had seen so many people deaths, and so many Jedi had died as well, and some good friends had died at the hands of the Separatists. He wanted it to end.
Master Ti voiced what they were all thinking. "We have to press our attacks," she said fiercely, showing some of the Togrutan fierceness which seemed strange coming from a Jedi Master. The holographic form of Knight Tano, who was also from that race, showed a fierce visage even over the holographic transmission. "Redouble our efforts to bring down the Separatists before their leaders can find someone else to command the droid armies."
The rest of the Jedi Council agreed and they were about to discuss their strategies when Master Fisto came over, holding a data pad that he was reading with great interest. The normally laid back Jedi Master's expression was serious and thoughtful, and there was none of that good humour which usually lit up his green face.
Master Mundi looked at him with concern. "What is it?" he asked.
Kit Fisto looked up, and the Jedi could feel the worry seeping from him. "One of our hyperspace probes has just picked up signs of a nuclear holocaust in the Mustafar system," he reported. "The blast is recorded here as being off the scale."
Mustafar?
Obi-Wan remembered all the trouble caused by the mess when a bounty-hunter called Cad Bane was involved in a plot involving Force-sensitive children still out in the galaxy. He, Master Windu, and Knight Tano had gone out immediately to stop whatever was going on, but while they had succeeded the entire place had been destroyed, and there were corpses everywhere who were affiliated with the Separatists. Even now no-one knew what the conspiracy was trying to do, and what the plan for the children was, but the good news was it had been stopped.
Everyone knew the system was affiliated with the Separatists, but the place didn't have any military or strategic value. The Separatists just used it for mining, so they could have a ready made supply of weapons and battle droids for their war machine.
"Where's the closest Star Destroyer?" Master Tinn asked, his voice full of concern, he too remembered that mess.
Mace checked. "The nearest destroyer is over 70 light years away," he reported, "but they're in no position to do anything; they're currently dealing with a very strong Separatist fleet, and they won't be in any position to deal with the disturbance on Mustafar for some time."
"Do you think that's where the Separatist Council went?" Knight Tano asked.
Yoda huffed thoughtfully. "Possible, it is. Strong in the dark side of the Force, Mustafar is," the elderly Grand Master went on, "use it for a base for his followers, the Sith Lord would."
The debate went on about what the explosion could possibly mean and if the Sith Lord, who was still unknown to them even though they could feel this presence, and the way he was smothering the entire Senate with a black cloud of darkness, had even sent them towards that dismal volcano of a planet in the first place.
The Jedi Council would have gone on, if it wasn't for the sudden tremor in the Force, coming straight towards them. Obi-Wan turned in the direction where he could sense it coming and his eyes widened when he saw Knight Keto running towards them. Obi-Wan had known the young woman for a long time, especially since her rivalry with…. no, he couldn't think of him with anything except pain and regret, had been legendary. Serra Keto had certainly become one of the Order's greatest fighters, and although she was now a Knight and no longer a Padawan, Obi-Wan knew she would have a great deal to learn still, but he knew she would be a brilliant master.
But right now he could sense panic, shock, dismay, horror, and anger radiating from the Knight as she raced towards the part of the War Room the Council were clustered around.
"Knight Keto, what's wrong?" Master Windu was instantly by her side and cradling the woman, and Obi-Wan quickly took hold of her other arm. Obi-Wan knew, although it seemed like a lifetime ago, the young Knight had been recruited to spy on the Chancellor Palpatine, who had begun to slowly interfere with Jedi affairs as the war had gone on.
For a long time, the Chancellor had worried the Jedi Council. It was bad enough the man had stayed in power long after his term in office was meant to have ended, but he had gained more and more powers as the war with the Separatists had gone on, but there was a growing disquiet in the Order, a resentment, that the man was beginning to interfere with Jedi affairs.
Serra took a couple of deep breaths, and Obi-Wan sensed the young woman was using the Force to drag in as much oxygen into her body as it could handle before she looked up into Master Windu's face, now only slightly calmer than she had been when she had raced into the room. "The Chancellor," she panted, "the Chancellor.."
"What about him?"
"He's the Sith Lord!" Serra got out, virtually yelling the words for all the Jedi in the room to hear. It took Serra a moment to calm down to collect her thoughts, but when she did her voice was lower, but she was still panting form exertion from her run. "We were talking in his office after you sent me to let him know Grievous was gone, but he was in the middle of a meeting and so he couldn't speak to me immediately. When he could, he put on a sad act, saying he couldn't lay aside his powers even when I said the war was nearly over. He wouldn't listen when I said the Separatists would soon be rounded up, he just kept talking about traitors in the Republic and in the Senate. He then began talking about how I could help him. As he spoke, I felt the dark side around the Chancellor. It was so strong, so powerful… it was like being swallowed up by anger and hatred."
A cold chill went through Obi-Wan's body and he looked into the faces of his fellow Jedi and saw how distraught they were. They all knew where this was leading…
"He began talking about how, if I let go of any anger I was holding, I would have a power beyond that of any Jedi," Serra went on, tears rolling down her face, looking more frightened than Obi-Wan had ever seen her. "And then he said he could help me become all powerful and finally help him bring peace to the galaxy."
"Peace?!" Obi-Wan flinched at the indignant yell from Agen Kolar, who was looking angrily himself at his assembled Jedi, hoping they shared his outrage. "There was peace before that piece of filth took control of the Senate; yes, there were conflicts, like the blockade of Naboo, but there's a difference between something like that and the war where millions are dying!"
"Calm yourself, you will, Master Kolar," Yoda chided, clearly sensing that the outraged Jedi Master was close to making a mistake that they would all pay for.
The Jedi Master looked down, chagrined. "My apologies, Master," he said.
"Why would he let you go?"
Everyone turned back to the situation table, to where Knight Tano's hologram was still being projected from the table across a vast distance. The young Togrutan Jedi Knight was looking at her fellow Knight with confusion. "If he wanted to make you his new apprentice when Dooku is still alive and running around, I can understand given you are much younger than Dooku is, but why did he let you go? I thought when Sith Lords were interested in someone new they would work on them to tempt them to the Dark Side?"
Serra shook her head. "No, he was serious, but he wasn't that serious. He fired Sith Lightning at me though he missed, but when I fled I heard him laugh."
Obi-Wan shook his head while he struggled to make sense of what Serra was telling them all. From the sounds of things the Sith Lord had been putting on an act of trying to tempt her to the dark side where she would be lost forever in a haze of rage and fear while the galaxy was consumed in darkness, but she did not appear injured, and he couldn't sense any darkness in her at all. However, considering how difficult it was becoming as the days of the Clone Wars went by, it was a wonder they could even sense the dark side.
But Ahsoka was right, why had he let Serra escape?
Palpatine had proven to be a slippery politician in the past, but now they knew he was a tyrant just waiting to emerge. He had not gotten to where he was now by making foolish mistakes. Only one thing made sense to him. "He has something in mind for all of us," he said quietly, looking at his fellow Jedi in horror as the other members of the Council, attracted by the despair in the Force radiating from where they were, approached. "He knows Serra would tell us what she had found out."
"A trap, this is," Yoda commented after Mace quickly informed the other Council members what they had just learnt about Palpatine. The ancient Jedi Master looked troubled, but somehow not really surprised by this turn of events. Obi-Wan only needed a few minutes to work out why that was.
In many ways, the Council and the Senate were not that different, but where the Senate was ruled by greed, where the senators were more than happy to line their own pockets, the Council were governed by reason. Obi-Wan could see that Yoda had quickly added up all the evidence to make sense of what Serra had just announced.
For a long time, Obi-Wan had wondered about the Sith Lord supposedly in charge of the Senate after Count Dooku had told him on Geonosis. Dooku had just been decidedly literal about it. The Senate was in the power of a Sith Lord, and that Sith was the Chancellor.
"We must act!" Kolar spoke up. "The longer he is in power, the more difficult it will be to stop him when he decides to take control of the Republic!"
"It won't be easy," Master Gallia whispered. "Palpatine has been given almost unlimited power, without killing for it. He's manipulated his way to the top. He wouldn't have done that without being aware we would eventually know."
Ki-Adi Mundi licked his lips as he completed the logical thought in his mind, looking troubled and horrified. "And he would have come up with contingencies. We must be careful."
Obi-Wan was about to open his mouth to say that he wished they had enough proof before they went to Palpatine, though he knew it would be impossible to find on such short notice, but he was interrupted when Master Yoda dropped his walking cane which hit a wooden surface on the other end of the transgalactic link, and suddenly let out a horrified gasp, and he clutched his chest.
Mace looked at the small master in worry. "What's wrong?"
Yoda looked at him with a sour and horrified expression that was puzzled at the same time. "Dead, my old apprentice is," Yoda said shortly.
"Dooku?" Serra whispered while the masters were stunned by this startling news.
"It would not have been Sidious," Mace spoke in a whisper as well, as he looked around the faces around him while he tried to work out what had happened to the former Jedi Master turned Sith Lord. "Surely even he would not kill his apprentice so soon after the Jedi had been alerted to his true identity."
"No, kill Dooku, Sidious would not!" Yoda said strongly, seemingly back to his old self as he looked around at the other Jedi Masters. "Felt fear, pain, and horror, I did. Dooku died in fear, but feel the Force on him, I did not."
"You mean….," Shaak Ti began, her eyes wide in horror at the implication.
"Cut off from the Force, my old Padawan was," Yoda's head dipped sadly, clearly unsettled someone could even get close enough to a former professional Jedi Master with a lifetime of experience under his belt and do something like that to him. "He only just allowed to be reconnected in his final moments, he was."
"Masters, you had better see this!" someone called before any of the Council members could ask what that was supposed to mean, though the implications were horrifying.
Obi-Wan turned at once in the direction the voice came, and he saw Ahsoka Tano was standing over the situation table where something had caught her attention. When he saw what it was, Obi-Wan could see why instantly, and his eyes widened in shock when he saw the holographic form of a man dressed in a black robe that reached his shoes, with a hood over his head.
In front of him was a projection of Count Dooku.
"It is done, My Master," Dooku was saying - clearly this was a recording, but how far back it went, Obi-Wan had no idea. "The Separatist movement is fully formed. We are waiting for the next phase."
"Good!" there was a note of cold satisfaction in the other Sith Lord's voice. Obi-Wan was slightly surprised the Sith Master was not even trying to disguise his voice, clearly believing this evidence would never have gotten out in the first place. Obi-Wan knew that although many would be in denial all throughout the Republic, the truth was you would have been incredibly stupid not to realise Palpatine had orchestrated this war. Everyone in the Republic heard Palpatine's voice on a day to day basis, and it was obvious who the Sith Lord was.
Another recording quickly replaced it, this time showing Palpatine and Dooku in the Chancellor's office, and this time Obi-Wan could clearly see the timestamp. This was taken….over a month ago. This time Palpatine was not wearing his up.
Palpatine was clearly displeased with Dooku. "I told you to arrange the assassination of Senator Organa and to carry it for yourself when the pacifistic idiot went back to Alderaan. The assassination was to ferment hatred against the Jedi Order, and yet someone managed to stop you!"
Dooku's usually calm and regal manner was absent as he tried to plead for mercy, but even through the holo Obi-Wan could see that it was not working.
"My Master, the Senator was-!"
"I don't want to hear it!" Palpatine shrieked, the sound shocking the Jedi in the room, and outstretched his hand, generating a stream of brilliant blue lightning from his fingertips. "YOU FAILED! You failed to contain Anakin Skywalker," Obi-Wan felt a chill go through his soul when he heard the name of his old apprentice but his chill became one of horror when he continued to listen as the holo went on,"when we captured him when we had the perfect opportunity of turning him against those fools who hounded him with their complete lack of common sense, and now you have failed when we needed to strike a blow against the Jedi Order without killing one of them!"
The recording changed one after another. The Jedi Masters saw recordings of Palpatine conversing with Gunray during the Naboo crisis a few times, even one where he introduced his apprentice at the time, the tattooed form of Darth Maul. The sight of the serious looking and quiet Sith warrior who had murdered Satine made Obi-Wan stiffen, but there was now no longer any more doubt in anyone's mind about the connection between Maul and Sidious, aka Palpatine.
One by one, the Jedi and the rest of the Republic watched as moments of Palpatine's time went by. They saw him torturing Maul, manipulating Senators, donning his Sith identity when he wanted to speak with his subordinates without them being any the wiser about whom they were speaking with back on the Capital of the Republic. They witnessed as he tortured Dooku in a few more frames, forced Dooku to hire bounty hunters like Jango Fett, among others to do the dirty work. More than once, they saw holos of Palpatine losing his temper in a devastating display of Force induced rage. There were also recordings of him and Dooku, and the Separatists, including General Grievous, discussing strategies with one another.
As each holo recording was played out, Obi-Wan and the whole Jedi Council felt that they had seen enough damning evidence, but the last one was even more damning.
It showed the tall, lean figure of a Muun, wearing long black Sith robes, drinking copious amounts of wine while Palpatine was rehearsing what appeared to be a speech. Obi-Wan studied the Muun. He was sure he had seen him somewhere before….
"That…that looks like…. Hego Damask the Second!" Master Kolar said, looking at the holo with amazement. Obi-Wan nodded in remembrance.
"I remember. I was with…Anakin, in the back of the ship, on our way to Coruscant. I had spent a couple of hours helping Anakin learn the basics of the Force, and I had put him to bed and turned on the news," Obi-Wan said, stumbling over the name of the apprentice he had abandoned so long ago now from the early days of the war, "and saw Palpatine standing next to him just before he was elected Supreme Chancellor. The recording then was only a few days old, but it was still news," he jabbed his finger at the holo to where the Muun was becoming increasingly intoxicated and unaware of his surroundings.
"Sidious' master, the Muun was," Yoda said.
"So he was an apprentice at the time himself," Mace observed, but any further comment was cut off when Palpatine unleashed a tremendous amount of Sith lightning towards his master, torturing him to death before he expired.
"Proof enough, I think that is," Yoda brought the entire thing to a close, and he looked at the assembled Jedi Masters seriously. "Stop the Sith Lord, you must. May the Force be with you."
As he and his fellow council members made their way towards the Chancellor's quarters, Obi-Wan noted how everyone was running out of the building in terror. Shortly after leaving the Temple, Master Windu had sent word to the police forces and ordered them not to do anything foolish around the Chancellor, such as to get close to him. They were to keep watch over the building to make sure Palpatine did not escape, but they were not to engage him since he would wipe them out.
But the Sith Lord had not left the building at all, he was still in there since Serra had left him behind; Obi-Wan had more or less guessed that he would remain behind, though why he had no idea.
On their walk towards Palpatine's office, Obi-Wan was still amazed by the skill and power this particular Sith Lord had used in order to hide. He was also awed and frightened that the Sith Lord had been in power this whole time, and yet the Jedi had never seen through it. Not once during all of these years, and now the man had virtually unlimited power, and he was not going to let it all go. It was not the way of the Sith, no matter how adapted they had become over the last millennia since the Sith's last known appearance.
The Jedi Masters made their way towards the Chancellor's quarters. Their expressions were set and grim as they prepared to do battle, immersing themselves in the Force to centre themselves for the fight they knew was going to come. They knew this was not going to be easy or simple.
As they drew closer to the Sith's quarters, they could feel the dark side of the Force as clearly as they could feel the ambient temperature of the hallways. For a long time, the Jedi had been feeling the growing cloud of the dark side during the years, it had been growing like a festering disease over the last few years of the Clone Wars.
But now… now it was like a terrible mini storm was being unleashed, and indeed they could hear sounds of bestial screaming down the hall and the sound of smashing, though it was too far away for any of the Jedi Masters to get an idea of what it was; Obi-Wan could distinctly hear the sounds of shattering glass, metal being wrenched, but it was all blended together.
Palpatine had definitely seen the Holonet news. His reaction was exactly what Obi-Wan had expected, really; revealing his identity and his rank as a Sith Lord to Serra had been calculated, it was part of the plan Palpatine had concocted. Palpatine wanted the Jedi Council to come to him, knowing that he could carry out the next phase of his plan without any problem, but having everything he had done broadcasted on the Holonet, Palpatine's plans had been shattered from under his feet.
Obi-Wan had a bad feeling about this. He had been feeling it ever since they had been sent to deal with the Sith. Palpatine's plan to lure the Jedi Council into a battle with him was calculated, deliberately. Obi-Wan honestly did not know what Palpatine had in mind for this battle, but the Jedi Master knew one thing…. he was prepared for it. It might even be part of his plan.
The Red Guards that always stood like ominous red sentinels outside Palpatine's office were no obstacle. Using the Force, Obi-Wan and Mace were able to knock them out, knowing the sound of their ignited lightsabers would warn Palpatine of their approach unless of course, he wasn't already aware.
The door to the inner sanctum was open. Palpatine was expecting them. What wasn't unexpected was the trashed furniture, and some of the 'priceless' pieces of art Palpatine liked to show off had been smashed to pieces. Inside the office was the man himself. Palpatine looked composed, and he even offered his usual mild smile. It would have been believable to the Jedi Masters if they couldn't sense the power of the dark side whipping around him like a terrible hurricane. Something about Palpatine's expression rattled Obi-Wan's nerves, especially the angry expression the Sith Lord was wearing along with that smile.
Determined not to let the expression on the Sith Master's face unsettle him too much, Obi-Wan, Saesee Tinn, Ki-Adi Mundi, Mace Windu, Adi Gallia, Agen Kolar, and Kit Fisto walked into the entrance way of the office while blocking off the Sith Lord's retreat. They had left Master Ti at the Temple, much to her displeasure since she had believed the group needed all the help they could get, but Mace Windu had firmly told her that they needed a senior Council member there to monitor the war effort, and to direct the movements of the Clone troopers.
The other Jedi Master had not liked it, but against the Master of the Order, she had no choice but to obey. She didn't have to like it though.
Obi-Wan watched the expression on the Sith Lord's face. He didn't appear bothered by the show of force being displayed, though a predatory gleam appeared in the Sith Lord's eyes as he took note of where every Jedi Master was.
"Master Windu. Welcome," Palpatine greeted; Obi-Wan raised a brow at how welcoming Palpatine appeared to be towards the sworn enemy of the Sith, and the Jedi Master could not help but wonder to himself if Palpatine was deliberately putting it on as a means to clamp down on his rage, or if he was busy buying time by playing with words. "I have been expecting you."
Mace took off the lightsaber from his belt and ignited it, the others followed suit surrounding Palpatine in a crescent of lilac, blue and green blades of light. "In the name of the Galactic Senate of the Republic, I hereby place you under arrest, Chancellor," Mace declared.
Palpatine's smile morphed into a sneer. "Are you threatening me, Master Jedi?"
"The Senate will decide your fate," Mace replied.
Palpatine's sneer grew, and in a voice that was more of a guttural growl he said, "I AM THE SENATE!"
Mace was about to open his mouth to deliver a reply to that proclamation - none of the Jedi present in the room were particularly surprised by Palpatine's stance even if the entire Republic knew now what he was, and knew he was the true architect of the Clone Wars and the one who began the Separatist movement in the first place; as a Sith, he would never allow anything to get in the way of his power - when suddenly something strange happened in the office. Palpatine's stance changed, and he looked ready to unleash all of his power against the group of Jedi Masters, but then everything shifted.
Obi-Wan was struck with the sensation everything around him had just vanished. As he looked around at the faces of the other Jedi Masters and the only Sith Lord, that they knew of, in existence, he could see that they too looked shaken; Master Gallia looked as though she had only just gotten back to her feet as though she had her legs knocked out from underneath her. At once Obi-Wan realised what had happened; he had just lost all awareness of the Force in the office.
"What?" Mace asked, placing a hand on his head, while Kit was looking around the room as though he had only just seen it while he held onto his lightsaber.
"What… what was that?" Palpatine asked, speaking in a normal voice, as opposed to immersing himself so deeply into the dark side to make his voice into a manifestation of darkness. Sith and Jedi alike looked around in confusion, and then they heard something from the corridor and the hallway. A sound like metal tapping onto the floor plates outside. From the sounds of it, there was a loud whirring sound out there, and they also heard another sound, one that immediately startled them; a mechanical breathing sound, a menacing sound that was growing louder as it approached. The Jedi Masters and the single Sith Master watched in apprehension as a dark clad figure walked into the room, wearing a simple black cloak with a large hood covering its hard. Obi-Wan studied the figure, and saw that just visible underneath the cowl there was a metallic shine underneath, and there was a semi-transparent plastic tube running form the mouth area where it disappeared underneath the cloak. None of the Jedi could see anything of the figure's face or form, except that whoever it was, they were quite tall.
The sound of mechanical breathing was definitely coming from the figure's chest.
It was obvious the figure was a cyborg much like General Grievous; Obi-Wan and the other Jedi Masters could see one vaguely looking human hand, though the skin was extremely badly burnt, the flesh stretched tightly over the bones which made it look like it was close to decomposing and leaving nothing behind but the skeleton, though one or two of the fingers - Obi-Wan couldn't tell how many - had been replaced by metallic digits. The other arm was purely cybernetic and it wasn't even covered, as though the figure had the means of hiding it since he or she was able to hide the rest of its body quite well, barring a cybernetic looking foot, but couldn't be bothered to hide that.
Trailing behind the figure were three droids. Obi-Wan recognised two of them as the type of hover-droid the Holonet media used to photograph and showcase events and interviews while making sure they were as unobstructing as possible. Judging from the red lights on the two hoverdroids, they were recording this entire thing. The third droid was an astromech droid that looked as though it had seen better days, and even with his shoddy knowledge of mechanics, Obi-Wan could tell this droid was only a few days from being scrapped.
But his eyes went back to the figure, and Obi-Wan studied him in worried fascination; without the Force to rely on to gauge what their intentions were, Obi-Wan had so few clues to what the figure was going to be doing. The presence of those hoverdroids which were recording this whole thing was concerning, and there was a handful of reasons where this could be worrying, but so far Obi-Wan didn't think there was anything either he or the others could do. Without their powers over the Force, their skills were stunted. or a moment neither party spoke as they both sized each other up.
"Well, well, well," the figure said, at last, breaking the silence. "This is my idea of a reunion."
The voice had a trace of a once human voice, though it sounded too hoarse, now it was heavily distorted by the breathing apparatus, and had a sickly and distorted tone to it, as though the figure were trying to speak into a microphone through a thick layer of mucus.
"Is that you, Palpatine? I have been watching you, these three years since the war began. Oh, three years," he paused, sounding almost wistful, "… time has so little meaning when you are suffering from agony," the figure went on.
The absence of his Force powers had snatched away a lot of Palpatine's confidence. It was evident with how he hesitantly stepped towards the figure, though Obi-Wan saw that the Sith Lord's right hand was twitching slightly. "Who are you?" he asked.
The figure let out a harsh rattle that seemed to vibrate in his throat, and Obi-Wan was chilled to the bone when he realised the figure was actually laughing. "You have the nerve to ask me that, especially when you are responsible for the majority of it? Though I cannot say I blame you, it has been a while, has it not, Palpatine?" the figure tilted its head. "How does it feel to have all of your plans shattered and lying in pieces at your feet? I went to a lot of trouble to make sure the Holonet made full use of those recordings. I'm even uploading a recording of this meeting now, to be broadcasted across all known space."
Palpatine's expression shifted and became furious. He whipped his right hand, and Obi-Wan caught sight of the gleaming hilt of a lightsaber in his grip; he wondered if Palpatine was lashing out because he had lost a good portion of his abilities, but Obi-Wan knew that the Sith Lord didn't need the Force to use the lightsaber. Still, the Sith Lord's irrationality shocked the Jedi Master.
"THAT WAS YOU?" Palpatine yelled, his face furious as he ignited the weapon, but the figure did not look bothered. He simply whipped out a hand blaster quickly and shot the Chancellor in the arm. If he had full use of his Force Powers, Obi-Wan knew that the figure would never have been able to do that, but without the Force to help warn of an attack, Palpatine hadn't been able to see it coming.
Then Obi-Wan felt something burning strike him in the knees and he collapsed with a cry of pain, and after a volley of blaster fire from the figure, eliciting shocked cries from the rest of the Council members, the figure put the blaster back into his robes. Mace shared a pained look with Obi-Wan and the others. None of them had foreseen or expected the figure doing something like that.
The figure laughed gain. "Without your powers, you are nothing more than an ordinary man, Palpatine," he said, spitting out the name scornfully, "a dangerously powerful man, but a man nonetheless; still, it was your powers and what you would do to me that made me bring these."
The figure turned around on the spot and revealed the cloak and the cowl had been hiding some kind of harness on his back where a lizard-like creature was suspended. Obi-Wan gaped, recognising the lizard creature instantly.
"What is that?" Ki-Adi Mundi asked curiously, screwing his face up against the lingering pain from his injured kneecaps. Clearly, he was in too much pain to focus clearly.
Master Gallia gaped at the lizard. "Is that what I think it is?" she asked, looking at her fellow Jedi Masters with shock.
"It is a ysalamir. It is a prey animal on a planet, though I am sure you know it already, and it is hunted by a predator which has evolved the means of hunting by using the Force. The ysalamir has also evolved an ability to negate the Force and elude the predator. I knew if I came here, unprepared, the Chancellor would blast me with Sith Lightning, and I am not the man I used to be."
Obi-Wan felt a surge of compassion soar through him, he could hear the melancholic sadness in the voice of the figure - the man - and he wondered just what had happened to him.
The compassion faded when the figure turned his head slightly and seemed to be taking in the Jedi Masters. "I wasn't expecting the Jedi Council to be here so soon, though I had hoped to see you, it doesn't matter; I knew you would be here soon, but either way it is a bonus. I have waited a long time for this day. A very long time."
The figure's last words were laden with barely hidden anger, and Mace looked at the figure in confusion and worry. "Who are you?" he asked, trepidation filling him.
The figure laughed again. "Oh, I am looking forwards to this!" he said gleefully, and it made Obi-Wan shudder as he heard the emotion behind the voice he was sure was modulated, and a quick glance at his fellow Jedi colleagues showed they were just as nervous.
Reaching up to take the hem of his hood, the figure slowly pushed it up.
All over the Republic, everyone was shocked and horrified by the appearance of the mysterious figure who appeared to have cornered the Sith Lord, Chancellor Palpatine, and several senior members of the Jedi Council. When he had appeared live on the Holonet which had overridden every program they were watching at the time to broadcast what took place in Palpatine's office, they all wondered who he was.
But when he slipped up the hood of his cowl, everyone was horrified at the sight of the mutilated face which had once been a face of a man, the skin was burnt and pitted with scars and cuts, but it was mostly incinerated like the figure had been put through an incinerator, so now the skin that was left was stretched tightly across the face, making it look more skeletal. One eye was covered with a thick, dark band of tattered material, leaving him with only one eye left behind, though it was artificial as well, so there was no way they could recognise who he was though quite a few viewers wondered why the other eye had not been replaced as well. A few strands of hair was left on the man's mutilated face. Covering the man's mouth was a metal plate with a raised plastic cover that showed the man's mouth in the shape of a triangle with a clear plastic tube running from it down into the chest. Through that, they could see a vocal modulator which helped to amplify the man's voice. Everything about the man now seemed to be supported by medical technology, but so many wondered how he had gotten into this state in the first place.
Reactions around the Galactic Republic varied, some people screamed, or those of a weaker constitution threw up, pitying the man for the type of life he must be living right about now.
Those viewers in the Republic who were medical specialists in every field could not help but shudder at the state of the man's wreck of a body, running their eyes expertly over the man's face, noting the way he flinched with every move, and now, when he inhaled the reprocessed air from the respirator into his lungs, he seemed to be wheezing which told them the state of his lungs, they wondered what sane medical practitioner would allow this man out of their sight when it was clear he needed extensive work.
The man laughed again as he took in the horrified reactions in the room. "Not quite what you expected, am I?" he said mockingly. He wheezed slightly as he recovered from the laugh, and then he was back to normal, and he turned his prosthetic eye to gaze around the faces.
He walked slowly over to the Jedi Masters, limping as he did while he looked down at them, and although they couldn't see the entirety of his face they could all see and tell even without the Force that each move caused him a great deal of pain, while the terrible sound of his respirator grated on their nerves. Finally, he came to a stop, and he let his one eye sweep over them silently. "I never thought I'd see any of you again," he began and he turned around and paced up and down the room in thought as if he were trying to work out what to say next.
"Again?" Master Gallia repeated, looking at the man uncertainly as if she were trying to recognise him while she was on the ground with her fellow Jedi, and one looked showed they were just as confused.
"We know you?" Master Mundi asked.
The man laughed again as if the Jedi Master's question was the greatest joke he had ever heard, and the sound reverberated around the room and on the Holonet, sending chills down the spines of the onlookers, though this time it was more wheezy as though the life-support system he was using to keep his obviously damaged organs going were becoming exhausted. "Yes," he gasped through his mask, and then he turned to Obi-Wan. For a long moment, the two men regarded one another. Obi-Wan looked deeply into the man's face, trying to see if there was anything there that he recognised, but with the prosthetic in place of something organic, Obi-Wan couldn't see anything familiar with all the technology spliced in the man's body.
Obi-Wan looked up into the man's eye, wondering what he was thinking. When he spoke, the Jedi Master was surprised.
"Hello, Obi-Wan, I wish it was good to see you again. Maybe there is a God, after all. Doubt it though, considering everything….You treacherous son of a slut!" he began softly, though he geared himself up for a rant, and he finished with a hoarse yell that made him almost double over and wheeze harder.
Obi-Wan was startled by the notion this poor creature even knew him at all, but the accusation and the insult took him by surprise. "We know each other?" he asked before he aded, "If I've said or done something to offend you," he said slowly, his mind racing as he tried to match any enemy or someone of his acquaintance with this badly injured man but it was in vain, "please tell me."
It took a moment for the man to stop wheezing long enough to lift his head and stand upright again. He laughed gently, clearly concerned if he put too much pressure on his respirator he may never get over it so easily. "It has been too long, has it not?" he asked, ignoring Obi-Wan's request.
"Who are you?" the Jedi Master demanded, his voice hardened with frustration with all these riddles, and the insult.
The man let out a sound under his mask that could have been a snort. He opened his robe. Obi-Wan reared back in horror. He had fought General Grievous many times over the course of the war so he was familiar with encountering androids, but Grievous' shattered body had been encased in a cybernetic shell. But this man… Underneath the man's robe was a clear transparent shell that was practically welded into his remaining flesh. His chest was covered his torso clearly for easy maintenance and monitoring of the life support mechanism. There was a tube connected to a maze of machinery that was designed to keep the man still alive. Through the shell he and everyone else, it seemed, could see the man's lungs and heart, and several of his other organs. Obi-Wan was no Jedi Healer, but he knew enough about physiology to recognise that the lungs and the heart were heavily damaged. But as he looked deeply at the lungs and the heart, Obi-Wan realised that was an understatement. The lungs and the heart were covered in what he remembered as cancerous tumours, and he had to swallow down the bile that threatened to rise through his throat.
He felt sick - Obi-Wan had worked for the Jedi Order for a long time, and he had seen many disgusting things during his life, but he had rarely seen this type of affliction.
But as Obi-Wan and the other Jedi Masters watched, the man pointed to a familiar looking cylinder hanging by his side.
A lightsaber?
This man had a lightsaber?
"You're… a Jedi?" Obi-Wan asked hesitantly, unsure if he was right; Dooku was one thing, as was Ventress, but he knew he had to start somewhere.
The man snorted. "Not just any Jedi, Obi-Wan. Don't you remember me?"
Obi-Wan looked closely at the scarred and pitted face with the prosthetics attached, but he couldn't see enough of the original face to give him a clue, and the voice didn't help. "Who are you?"
The man covered himself up again and focused on Obi-Wan. "Don't you recognise me….. Master?" he asked plaintively. "I am your apprentice. Your first apprentice! The one you spurned."
Obi-Wan couldn't believe it, and out of his peripheral vision, he saw the other Jedi Masters react as well. "Anakin?" he whispered tentatively, as if hoping this was not happening, that he had not been reunited with his former apprentice in this manner. "Anakin, is that you?"
At 500 Republica Boulevard, the senator from Naboo had been planning on having a quiet night with her friend Sabe and several other senators of her acquaintance. The last few years of the Clone Wars had been quite rough on her, especially since she had spent her time trying to take back the powers Palpatine had garnered for himself after Jar-Jar had been manipulated by a master in giving the Chancellor powers no leader should possess. The discovery that not only was Palpatine a Sith Lord, but the architect who had manipulated the blockade of Naboo, and the Clone Wars which had resulted in thousands of people and worlds being wiped out or destroyed, had shaken her to the core.
But when she and her entourage of senators who had been invited here to have a talk and to watch the Holonet at the same time, Padme had been as surprised as everyone else when the Holonet had instead played a scene shown live in Palpatine's office where they saw the Sith Lord being cornered by Jedi Masters while a figure had appeared, and had claimed to have cut off the Jedi and the Sith alike from using their powers. Like many other people, the senators had no idea the Guardians of Peace and Justice could have their power removed in such a manner.
When she had seen the poor man's appearance, seen how he was hanging on by a thread, she'd felt great sympathy for him, though when he had revealed who he was, and when Obi-Wan had whispered his name in shock, Padme felt her world was about to shatter. She suddenly burst into tears, shocking her fellow senators.
"Anakin?" she whispered, tears welling in her eyes.
Bail Organa was immediately by her side as he tried to comfort her, but Padme was too far gone by that point. All her friends and handmaidens and her chief of security could hear her say was, "My fault… it's all my fault."
Anakin laughed again, although there was no humour in the situation. "So you do remember," he observed dryly.
But Obi-Wan was not in the mood for jokes or humour at the moment. "But… what happened to you?" he asked, gazing at his one-time apprentice in horror.
Anakin laughed again, softly this time. "Is that guilt I hear in your voice? Concern? Horror?" Anakin got control over himself then. "Like you care. How dare you show concern for what's happened to me now I've only got a few days left to live! Why are you bothering to sound so horrified now? You didn't seem concerned when you told me over our connection you were cutting me loose," he commented, tilting his head in a pondering manner, though it was made sinister by the sudden sound of servo motors they could hear underneath the man's skin where his neck was.
"Anakin, what happened was-?" Horrified as he was when he heard how his former apprentice had been hurt so thoroughly he only had a short time left to live, Obi-Wan stumbled over words as he sought to find the words to explain what had happened, but Anakin waved a hand away. It was a cybernetic hand.
"I heard you and the rest of the illustrious council over our connection, Master," it should have been impossible for anyone with that type of mask to spit the word with contempt, and yet somehow Anakin managed it, "the meeting you had with the other members of the Jedi Council. Qui-Gon Jinn referred to me as the Chosen One, and yet to a Jedi, the Chosen One is supposed to be a Jedi; an emotionless automaton. One who knows nothing about passion or imagination. Did it never occur to you that the Chosen One may have been a member of another Force sensitive group? The galaxy is littered with them, and many of them, including the ones who look to the dark side of the Force, oppose the Sith and everything they stand for."
Obi-Wan was left crumpled there on the ground, the pain from his blaster wounds faded, listening in shock and horrified hurt as his former apprentice let loose a torrent of pent up rage. But the Jedi Master let Anakin vent, his former apprentice had every right and reason to be angry.
"Anakin, we did not make the decision to cut you loose lightly," Mace Windu said sternly, though it was levelled out with a tone of compassion. "We thought you had been lured into Separatist territory. We could never have gotten you out."
Anakin turned his head towards the Korun Jedi Master. Obi-Wan looked down, knowing even without his perception this was not going to be good. When he spoke again there was sheer contempt in his voice. "Don't insult my intelligence, Master Windu. You could have gotten me out, you just chose not too. Don't think I'm stupid, I overheard what you were saying during that Council meeting. You said I didn't live up to the tenets of the Jedi Code, that I was guilty of murder even though the citizens of Tatooine would consider what I did justice, and that I should never have been trained to become a Jedi in the first place, and for that reason alone you decided to make my Master who wouldn't say boo to a Gundark unless you told him too to break our connection. Jedi Code," he suddenly sneered underneath his mask, "that is all you care about. You also had no problem with saying you would replace me as if I was some kind of droid. Don't you dare lie there and lie to me, you arrogant bastard and claim that you couldn't have gotten me out from where Count Dooku had me locked up!"
"Why did you go into Separatist territory in the first place, Skywalker?" Master Gallia asked.
"I didn't," Anakin replied simply.
"What?" Master Mundi said, looking at the former Padawan in surprise. "But…you were there on Geonosis…"
Anakin seemed to glare at the Jedi Master. He clicked his fingers, and the astromech he had brought along with him rolled forwards. "Play the recording," he instructed, and for the benefit of the audience he explained, "I had this recorded. I wanted a little family film," he seemed to sneer, "so any grandchildren I and she had would know how we got together. As you can guess, it never happened the way I wanted it too."
The astrodroids' holo imager glowed white as it projected the image of both Anakin when he had still been a Jedi Padawan with all of his body parts in one piece. Obi-Wan gaped at the image. It had been so long since he had last seen his old apprentice before this new version of him, crippled, and mangled, only holding onto life with technology which was able to squeeze life into his body so he could live another day, though it was a pained life, and to his surprise he realised he had forgotten some aspects about Anakin's appearance, such as the shape of his eyes, and the curve of his face. The hologram of Anakin was speaking to Senator Amidala. It looked to Obi-Wan like they were in the middle of an argument.
"Padme, wait, please. I love you!" Anakin was saying.
"Oh, stop it, Anakin!" Padme snapped, clearly exasperated with the whole thing. "Just…wake up! It would never work out; I am a Galactic Senator. You are a Jedi. It would never work even if we tried. You would be separated from me for months and months. I would be worried for your safety, and I can tell you now, I don't want that to happen!"
"Padme, I will resign from the Order if that will make you feel better-," Anakin said, trying desperately to make Padme change her mind.
But the Senator was firm. She shook her head at him in disgust. "Just like that? The Republic needs all the Jedi it can get, and yet you just want to abandon it, to be with me. If you think I'd want that, you genuinely don't know me, Anakin."
"Padme, you can't say that what we've been through over the last few days never happened, what you said on Geonosis, did not happen. By the Gods, you said you loved me-."
Padme's holographic image snorted. "I thought I was going to die, Anakin. I said that I loved you because it felt romantic. But… I don't love you, I have NEVER loved you. You're a former slave, you come from a gutter on a planet that is full of scum. If it weren't for Qui-Gon Jinn, you would have probably become just as bad as one of them. In any case," she went on, twisting the knife so then it caused more pain, "why would I want to get together with some pathetic murderer like you?"
Obi-Wan looked at the figure of Padme with surprise, wondering what she meant by that, though he could tell by the look of surprise on Anakin's holographic face that whatever the Senator meant by that, it had taken him by surprise. And then the answer came to him. The Tuskens, she was referring to the Tuskens Anakin had murdered when he had found his mother on the brink of death.
"Padme-," Anakin tried to say, but the woman suddenly became angry.
"You murdered all those Tuskens in their settlement, Anakin; you murdered all of those people, those children… and you honestly think I want to be with a man who would do such a thing? You're an animal, and if you think I want to be with something like you, then you are even more deluded than I thought you were!" Padme looked at him with scathing disgust. "I don't love you, you piece of slave scum. I think you're a pathetic little thug. A loser. This…notion we can be together is ridiculous.
While he was aware of what Anakin had done to the Tuskens because Padme had included it in her report to the Jedi Council, Obi-Wan felt sorrier for Anakin being rejected like that. The former Jedi apprentice looked like his entire world had been shattered, and all he was left with were shards. But the Padme hologram was not finished. She was starting to walk away from Anakin.
But when he had been told of what Anakin had done, Obi-Wan had no idea what to do or what to make of it, except the knowledge of Anakin slaughtering those Tuskens had proven the Council right, and had been a deciding factor in their decision.
"I've had enough of you harassing me, Anakin. I'm tired of saying no, all the time and you never get the hint. If you truly loved me, then you would never have acted in that manner. I am going to report your conduct to the Jedi Council."
With that Padme walked away.
In her apartment, the Senators were trying to calm Padme down. They were shocked and horrified by what they were seeing and what they were hearing, but they were trying to calm the hysterical woman down. The moment she had seen the hologram start, Padme had started crying harder than she had been, and as she was forced to relive the horrible moment when she had pushed Anakin away.
Padme had been as surprised as everyone else that Anakin had wanted to record the whole event, for the sake of future family history, something which was definitely not going to happen now since she had turned him away. But she felt it made sense given that she knew that family was more important to Anakin than anything else. It would make sense if he did make a recording of the event.
As she cried when she had listened to her holographic self berate him, put him down, she cried harder.
So many what ifs were piling through her mind. What if she had agreed to love him despite all of the risks? Yes, it would have been hard, but Anakin
would never have been tortured or mutilated. What if she hadn't insulted him, breaking his heart into little bits? What if she had not said a word about the Tuskens?
She had realised too late she did love Anakin, and it made her see that because she had followed her brain, she had pushed aside the man who would shower her with more love than anyone other than her own father.
Now she would never get the chance to tell him.
When the holographic recording stopped playing, Anakin's mutilated face regarded the space it had been playing. Padme wondered as she stared at his image what he was thinking. She reached a decision and she stood up and hurried from the apartment. She was going to try to sort things through.
"I was just leaving Naboo when my ship was hijacked; I don't know how they did it, so don't ask," Anakin said, not commenting about the hologram or whatever he was feeling at the moment towards the senator from Naboo, "There was a tranquilliser in my ship, and it injected the tranquilliser into my leg. I don't know how long I was unconscious for, but when I came too I was trussed up and stretched so tightly I felt my limbs were being torn out from their sockets."
Anakin paused as he let that sink into their minds. Truth be told, he himself was still reeling from the memories that had been conjured up by what Padme had said to him. He realised now that it would never have worked, and to be honest he had nothing to say to her. She was not essential to his plans after all.
Anakin went silent, but because of the burnt appearance of his features none of the Jedi Masters nor the single Sith Master telling his audience what he was thinking or even feeling - for the first time in their lives, they had been completely separated from the Force to give them their perception, and they did not know what they could do to help them compensate. The only sounds in the room came from the droids, and from the respirator attached to what little remained of Anakin's chest.
"I couldn't move," Anakin began, his voice so quiet it was a whisper through the artificial voice as he broadcasted the story throughout the whole Republic, "and during that time they tortured me. Do you want to know how?"
Without giving the Jedi Masters time to reply, Anakin went on, his modulated voice vibrating with the tremendous rage that was just beneath the surface.
"First they started pummelling me with fists, then they stretched me so tightly it tore my skin and muscles apart. Next, they poured acid into the wounds, but that was nothing compared to when they drilled into my joints, tore away two of the fingers on my right hand," Anakin held up the partially repaired hand for emphasis, allowing the sleeve to fall and revealed that half of the arm had been replaced with a prosthetic, though there was still enough organic arm left, though the listeners wondered why Anakin hadn't simply ordered the whole thing removed in the first place, "then they used The Burning; you know what that is, don't you? Set a blaster to low power, fire it and scorch the flesh. They used that on me, but imagine seven droids shooting you at once, burning my flesh off, leaving it hanging from the bones while two droids repeatedly whipped me with heavy chains. The outside pain was bad enough, but they injected me, over and over again, with compounds that made me suffer terrible seizures. Sometimes they would inject me with a drug that would paralyse me, and they worked me over. They used something on my body, locating my pain stimulators, injecting me with a drug, so the slightest scratch, the smallest nick… felt like someone cutting into my flesh like it had been sliced off by a butchers knife.
"They took advantage of that. They used it to cut holes into my skin, all over my body. They gouged out my eye," Anakin tore off the blindfold and roughly used two fingers to open up the slit in the scarred pit where his left eye had once resided.
"They starved me, deprived me of food and water for days, They kept me alive, but only just. They wanted to prolong my torture. Sometimes they wouldn't even use physical force - electrocution, breaking bones, or burning me with acid or other chemicals to make me snap. They sometimes placed me in a metal cube, tied what was left of my body on a metal slab so I couldn't move while blasting me with bright, blinding light to burn my remaining eye out, and they blasted that cube with sound. Some times they would keep me in the same cube, but instead of light, they left me in the dark. They kept it so silent that even the silence had a dull note you could hear.
"That was nothing compared to what Count Dooku did. He used Force Lightning on me, the energy slashed its way across my cuts, making the agony worse. Hours and hours passed as he repeatedly electrocuted me, while his droids either chain-whipped or Burned me with blaster fire. Sometimes he would have my dunked into a vat filled with caustic chemicals or boiling water, or cold, depending on his mood while he had my remaining eye and mouth, and my ears, covered with a mask. He wanted to keep me alive as long as possible, even as he used his own Force powers to crunch or smash my bones until they were either bent, cracked, or splintered.
"Dooku also used my weakened state to enter my mind, looking for the worst of my memories. He twisted them, tore them to ribbons, and made them much worse. He used the beatings I'd endured when my mother and I were Gardulla's slaves, when Padme rejected me, and so on. It was all to send me spiralling down into the dark side, where I would become a Sith Lord myself," Anakin finished darkly, and although it was virtually impossible for him to do with the prosthetic eye and the scrap of cloth wrapped around his head, Obi-Wan would not be surprised in the least if his former apprentice was glaring at them all with fury.
He wouldn't blame him either.
Obi-Wan just wanted to be sick after the monologue. He had done this, he had done this to his friend because he had not had the courage to stand up to the Jedi Council. And now Anakin was back, and judging from all the trouble he had gone too, he had no intention of fighting a battle of words. No. He had something else in mind, but Obi-Wan prayed he could get through to his former Padawan and try to find some way to help him. He turned to look at the rest of the Council. They had been shaken by the loss of the Force, so they had no way of bleeding out their emotions outwards like they could, though some of them did their best to appear unaffected to the grisly description.
But Anakin was not finished. Not yet.
"During the torture, I only held on by using the Force myself; it had been blocked off, ironically, by the same Ysalamir lizards except when Dooku was blasting me with different types of tortures through the Force. You see the irony, don't you, Palpatine?" Anakin suddenly asked the downed Sith Lord mockingly for a moment before he went on. "But I remembered my training, you remember that, right, Obi-Wan? The training those tin plated dictators with delusions of godhood you call a Council broke off simply because I wanted to have an ordinary life without the Code driving me insane. I used Force meditation to 'disconnect' my mind from my body, and it was worth it because Dooku kept trying to push me into becoming a Sith Lord. But the meditation I used helped when some of the Neimodians and other members of the movement…became overzealous and wanted to learn how to be sadists."
While he was pleased his former Padawan had managed to survive the dreadful events of what had happened to him, Obi-Wan wondered what Anakin meant there. He soon found out.
"They bombarded my body with hyper matter radiation when Dooku wasn't around," Anakin wheezed painfully, the sound alone tearing Obi-Wan to pieces with pity although he knew Anakin well enough to know the other man would not like it, "but they poured too much into my body, and my chest became a wasteland. Even Dooku was furious by what they had done, but it was too late. I was dying. Did he tell you the tale so you could amuse yourself, Palpatine? No?" he suddenly asked, looking at the Sith Master.
Palpatine seized his chance and he looked desperately over at Anakin. "Anakin, I did not want what happened to you to become extreme; I punished Dooku myself for what had happened although it was too late at the time. But I wanted you to see perspective-."
"Perspective?!" Mace Windu yelled, glaring at the Sith Lord who was as hopeless as they were. "Your Separatist movement has killed millions of lives, and you are talking about perspectives. What kind of perspectives could justify what you've been doing?"
Anakin chuckled hoarsely. "While I think Mace Windu has the nerve to speak at all considering how dismissive he was when I was your captor, Palpatine, he has a point. Why did you do what you did?" The Sith Lord looked like he was about to refuse to answer the question, but then Anakin grabbed him and with some effort, lifted the struggling man into the air painfully by the throat. "WHAT DID YOU WANT FROM ME?" Anakin yelled.
"I wanted to have a powerful servant, the ultimate apprentice. When I discovered you were on Naboo, trying to get Senator Amidala to love you," Palpatine sneered at the word though he stopped when he felt the fingers tighten around his throat, "the moment was too good to pass it up. Yes, it was early, but my orders from Dooku to break you, to mutilate you in order to release all of that raw, untapped anger which gives you so much focus, made it worth it."
Obi-Wan felt sick. Listening to what Anakin had gone through, what Palpatine had said to justify himself for what he had done to the powerful Jedi Padawan, sickened him. But what made it worse was the role the Jedi had in this disgusting act. For a long time, Anakin had claimed the Jedi Council had not trusted him and feared him. Obi-Wan had thought the boy had been dangerous when they had first met simply because the Council had, although he had little understanding why besides Anakin's age, and that he had fear and anger in him in abundance and many on the Council worried about what the boy would do when he grew older.
What made this so evil on so many levels was the fact that by dismissing Anakin's pain, the Council themselves could very well have been responsible for the birth of a powerful Sith Lord. The thought of Anakin becoming a Sith frightened Obi-Wan, although it was clear Anakin was not a Sith at all, though it was clear that he no longer cared much about being a Jedi anymore.
"What about the war? It's swept across this entire galaxy like a plague or a fire," Anakin asked, "what was the point behind all that?"
"Peace…-," Palpatine began, but Obi-Wan, responding to his own guilt and the way the Council had forced him into just cutting his apprentice loose as though he were nothing, was forced to listen to this… thing talking about peace when he was responsible for so much pain and grief in the galaxy.
"Peace? You wanted peace, you Sith disease?!" Obi-Wan shouted.
"Obi-Wan…," Mace chided, but Obi-Wan shouted down the other Jedi Master. Mace Windu was responsible like the rest of the Council for what had happened to Anakin, and the memory of the way the other man had just….coldly and calmly dismissed his apprentice's plight, it was even more sickening to him now since it was clear Mace didn't care for Anakin at all, but listening to Palpatine talk about peace infuriated him.
"What would you know about peace? We had it! Yes; many planets had their problems, and there were small wars, but we didn't have an interstellar conflict which has cost thousands of lives!" Obi-Wan screamed at the Sith Lord.
"Master Kenobi has a point," Anakin pointed out mildly as he lifted Palpatine up slowly, his grip making the old man choke but Anakin ignored it. "What would you know about peace?"
Palpatine gurgled as he struggled to fight against the grip, but it was no good. Without any Force assisted strength to draw on, Palpatine was hopeless and the Jedi Masters knew that.
Anakin didn't seem bothered with trying to find out though. "You said you wanted a new apprentice," he pointed out, "but I've been missing for some time. Who did you have in mind?"
Palpatine struggled again, gasping for air. He refused to answer the question.
Anakin squeezed his throat and made the old Sith Lord choke. "Serra Keto," he gasped. "I…I have been trying to strengthen the dark side of the Force in her for some time, make her question and distrust the Jedi, but that girl doesn't sleep at all. She meditates, which means that I wouldn't get in too far into her mind, although I have augmented her aggression."
"Serra?" Mace whispered in horror, hoping the Jedi Knight in question was watching this and was preparing to get some professional help to get rid of the contamination.
But Palpatine had a question of his own. "Anakin… how did you survive?" he asked breathlessly through the clenched cybernetic fingers holding him up.
"Why would you care?" Anakin wheezed.
"I need to know what happened?"
"Again, why would you care?" Anakin pressed.
"Please, tell me…," the Sith Lord begged.
Like Anakin, Obi-Wan was confused by what the Sith Lord was hoping to learn. He was curious himself about how Anakin had managed to survive long enough to get some treatment, though it was clear he had escaped, or else he would not be here now, he just hoped his old student would not tell the Sith Lord what he wanted to know.
He was in for a disappointment.
"Alright, if you want to know so badly, I'll tell you…."
Anakin had been waiting for the lull to come for a while. The illustrious Count Dooku had eased off on the torture because of what the Neimodians and other prominent Separatist races had been doing to him; now they were no longer bound by the numerous treaties and laws sent out and regulated by the Senate on torture, the Separatists had celebrated by torturing him with great pleasure, though it had taken the cowardly aliens time to realise they were no longer members of the Republic so the laws meant nothing to them.
Unfortunately, even by Sith standards, they had gone too far by pumping his body full of hyper matter radiation (what had made them do that, Anakin had no idea), but the agony alone combined with the other painful tortures he'd endured recently since his capture had pushed Anakin's ability to push it back with the Force.
Dooku had punished the Neimodians and the others who'd tortured him excessively, and he had lowered the effects of the Ysalamir to allow him some use of the Force to get some rest. It seemed that Dooku, despite being a traitor and a Sith Lord, had some scruples and limits. The Count had never bothered with that before since he had pressured Anakin to embrace the dark side in order to resist the pain, but Anakin had held back from the temptation.
He had been disgusted with how the dark side had tapped so effortlessly like a lost love over the cries and pleas of Qui-Gon Jinn during that mess with the Tuskens, but when the dark side had promised him much more, he had pushed it away especially since a vision of Padme suffering had made him stop.
In any case, Anakin had seen the rot lying underneath the lies of the dark side, and it had filled him with disgust. He had worked out very quickly what Dooku and his Sith Master wanted, him falling to the dark side. While it had been tempting to fall and to lash out at the Separatists and the Jedi, Anakin had held back because he was torn.
But at the moment he was not in any current state to do anything about this mess he was in.
In his current mess, Anakin was relieved he had some access to the Force to allow him to meditate and to try to release some of his pain into the Force. He hoped that the Jedi in other parts of the galaxy were feeling his pain and his anger.
Anakin had been meditating for three days now. His body was a wreck, and even Dooku knew better than to push him in his current state - whether it was mercy on the former Jedi Master's part, Anakin did not know and he did not really care. In that time the Separatists had monitored his condition to see when his body would be ready for another dose of pain.
He wasn't going to give them that satisfaction.
Anakin had come up with a plan to get out of here while he still had the opportunity, and right now the first part of the plan was unfolding as he had hoped it would unfold. While he had continued to meditate he had put himself into a virtually unconscious state, and he used it to lower his heartbeat and his respiration. Step 1.
"The Jedi's heart rate has plummeted," one of the Neimodians spoke in their gurgling voices.
"Increase stimulation," another doctor spoke.
Anakin felt the injection with the Force, but he used his powers to slow the drug down a fraction.
"It isn't having any effect," another doctor reported, a note of panic entering their voice.
So far so good. Anakin deepened the meditation to push his heart rate to full even further while he used the connection he had with the Force. At the same time, he moved onto Step 2.
He used a Jedi mind trick on the Neimodians while he used the Force to make him appear dead.
"We must get him down from there," the first Neimodian said, "he's dead."
Anakin reinforced the mind trick on the others so then they were in complete agreement; the last thing he needed right now was to have one of the so-called doctors protesting. Fortunately, it wasn't hard - Neimodians were extremely weak-minded, their natural cowardice made mental manipulation childishly simple.
Using the mind tricks, Anakin had the Neimodians place him inside a medical capsule so then he would be placed inside it as it would act as a coffin which needed a bit of work so they wouldn't question the notion, that was Step 3 of the plan. During the procedure, he sifted gently through the minds of the doctors so then he learnt more about them. He had the capsule sealed and taken onboard a shuttle with one of the doctors in control, although there was a slight delay when he found that his old Jedi fighter was still there. Near it was Dooku's own personal solar-sail ship; Anakin was curious about why the star fighter was still here, looking completely intact. Anakin had one of the doctors go over, and with the small mental connection he had to the doctors to force one of them to go over and remove a tracking device from the supply box and fix it to Dooku's own ship before coming back over and returning to the capsule while the doctors kept the droids away.
Anakin had always marvelled at just how…pathetic the Trade Federation had programmed their droids. None of them seemed to have any common sense, so it was easy for them to board the ship without any of the droids question them.
Anakin had two of the doctors onboard the shuttle - one to monitor his heart rate while he twisted the Neimodian's mind a little bit to not question how a seemingly dead man had returned to life and to monitor the capsule and administer the drugs supplied to act as painkillers. Anakin allowed the drugs to do their work this time around while he used his Force connection to dampen the pain he was feeling.
When the shuttle came out of hyperspace near a medical facility, Anakin had them take the shuttle down. Even through the Force while the doctors at this new facility were shocked and aghast by how badly injured he was, Anakin had no problem taking over their minds with the Force and making them get to work on his injuries while he closed himself off from the Force to make sure the Count did not find him again.
Tracking down the Count was not difficult once Anakin was released from the hospital facility, and as he followed the trail left behind by the Count's solar-ship through Coruscant's atmosphere which he had picked up a week before, and was only now just following the trail to see where Dooku had been on the capital planet of the Republic while he used the Force to shroud his presence from the large star destroyers in orbit - it amazed and worried Anakin with just how lax security in the Republic was, but he pushed that aside so he could concentrate on his task - Anakin had to adjust the controls of his life-support computer to inject him with another dose of painkillers and anti-radiation drugs, and though he knew they would dull the pain down they wouldn't help him in the long run. As he guided his new ship down through the atmosphere - it felt great to be able to fly through space again, and it was now one of the few joys he had - he had time to think.
He had been undergoing extensive surgical and cybernetic procedures for the last seven-months, and he had needed a further two-months to try to get used to his new prosthetics. Anakin hated his new condition. Not only were his arms and legs so heavily damaged that he now needed cybernetic limbs in order to walk and lift things up, but the worst part was also his chest. The entire chest cavity had been worked on so much there was no a transparent cover over his heart and lungs, or what was left of them, and the majority of his torso muscle mass had been replaced with hydraulic muscles, leaving him more machine now than man. But even worse than that, his lungs and his heart were so badly riddled with cancer and with the particulates from a fire lit to torture him that he now had trouble breathing, and he had been fitted with a respirator mask to breathe properly. He could not put too much stress or pressure on the lungs, either by moving quickly except for short periods, or he would collapse in a wheezing fit.
Dooku's torture had also affected his eyes. His only remaining eye had been so badly damaged it had needed to be removed and replaced with a prosthetic, but he had stopped the doctors from fitting a second into what was left of the other socket.
As his ship dropped through into the atmosphere of the planet, Anakin cast his prosthetic eye around the city-scape. It hadn't changed at all during the months he had been gone and the Clone Wars was being waged. All around him speeders were flying in their traffic lanes at different altitudes while spaceships were either flying through the air upwards to break out into the vacuum of space or they were in the process of landing.
Anakin was tempted to fly close to the Jedi Temple to see how much the war had changed the Order, but he decided against it. Just because he was shrouding himself in the Force did not mean it was one-hundred per cent foolproof. In any case, he had no time for detours. Ignoring the urge to deviate from his course, Anakin carried on with the flight towards the location Dooku's ship had been.
He was slightly surprised to see that it was The Works, an industrial complex on Coruscant which had become rundown and polluted over the years. As he opened himself up a touch in the Force, Anakin was amazed by how strong the dark side was here. He nodded to himself thoughtfully - Coruscant had a very cloudy effect on the Force, and there were places like this everywhere, but it was quite strong here.
In short, it meant this place was a perfect place for the Sith to hide.
After he had parked the ship in a part of The Works where the dark side was stronger which meant the Sith had definitely used this place although there was seemingly no sign of them, Anakin left to examine the Sith Lord's base of operations. As he walked through the compound, ignoring the way the Force tried to tempt him to fall and blocking any trace of the dark side taking some of his essences which the Sith Master could track, he noted the collections of Sith holocons, symbols and so on littered the place. But as he looked he couldn't see any sign of the Sith Lord's identity. It frustrated Anakin, but he wasn't surprised; the Sith had not come this far after their supposed mass extinction a millennia ago by sloppily leaving behind clues for others to find, but it was still annoying. Anakin left the base and returned half an hour later with a number of surveillance devices. He spent two hours fitting the devices in the hanger and in other parts of the base. He also placed Ysalamir cages near them so then the Sith Lord would not use the Force or detect them with the Force. Each cage had enough food inside them to keep the lizards going for a bit longer. He had learnt from tracking Dooku's ship he kept coming here every few days in order to make a face-to-face report, so Anakin knew he wouldn't have long to wait. But still, he knew better than to put all of his eggs into one basket and hope the second Sith Lord Dooku answered to came on the same day. No, there was still a chance Dooku's master would appear before that, and if he did then Anakin would be ready and would finally discover who he was.
He got his answer two days later.
He was surprised when he saw the Sith Master lift his head during a meditation session while he was immersing himself in the dark side of the Force so then Anakin could see his face under his cowl.
It was Palpatine.
The shock Anakin had felt had mixed with horror. For years he had trusted Palpatine, looked up to the man as a trusted friend and mentor who had spoken to him as an equal instead of an inferior. But now Anakin could see the man was not the corrupt politician several Jedi had already condemned him as even though during his term in office he had done more good than Valorum and half a dozen other Chancellors previous. The man was not his friend. He was a monster.
For the first time in a while since he had come up with his plan to deal with the Sith, Anakin was knocked off balance.
"The surveillance cameras caught everything. I watched meetings between yourself and Dooku, I also watched how you tortured him. I managed to hack into the Holonet so then I could upload everything you were doing. Occasionally I went to your own apartment when you were at the Senate, and I soon found out where you had a hidden communications room," Anakin threw a data-chip towards Mace Windu, noting the angry glare Palpatine was sending both him and the chip and guessing what it was instantly, "and I got in and downloaded more evidence of what you have done over the years."
Palpatine's dark look fixed on Anakin. "So you have gone to a lot of trouble, Anakin to get to me."
"Yes, I even arranged to bring in the Ysalamir because I knew if I didn't have an equaliser, I wouldn't be able to defeat you. The damage to my body has removed a vast amount of my strength, and my prosthetics are designed to keep me alive, not to help me fight. But I have something else…," Anakin's hand reached into his robe pocket and drew out a small chip and held it in the palm of his hand.
The sight of it enraged Palpatine. "Where did you get that?" he shrieked.
"Temper temper," Anakin said mockingly before he showed it to the Jedi Masters. "This chip is inside every Clone trooper out there. Controlled by Palpatine, they will allow him to carry out Order 66."
Obi-Wan's eyes narrowed in thought as he remembered that mess when a chip was discovered in the Clone troopers, but as far as he knew nothing had come from it although the results had been worrying.
"What's Order 66?" Kit asked, looking worriedly between the Sith Lord and Anakin.
"Want to answer that one, Palpatine?" Anakin asked, glancing at the Sith Lord before he carried on. "Order 66. It's a program where the Clone troopers would turn on the Jedi. Across the entire galaxy, there are Jedi Masters, Knights, and apprentices in command of Clone forces as they fight against the Separatists. Imagine what would happen if the Clones betrayed them right now, gunning them down before they even realised what was happening? I learnt about Order 66 after I managed to capture and torture Count Dooku, among many other things."
The Jedi Masters were horrified by the news of what could very well of taken place to their Order if it hadn't been stopped right now. They were also horrified that Anakin would torture a man, but there was nothing they could do about it now.
They didn't see Anakin move. With a swift cybernetic-enhanced punch to Palpatine's gut, Anakin shoved the chip into the Sith's mouth, making him choke.
"Open wide, I have waited a long time for this moment. It's no more than you deserve!" Anakin shoved the chip into the choking man's mouth. "Swallow! Or I will break your neck in two," he warned while he took Palpatine's head in his hands, and started to twist it.
"Skywalker, don't-!" Mace and the other Jedi Masters shouted while Obi-Wan called out to his former apprentice, but Anakin did not listen during the struggle. Suddenly there was a crack, and Palpatine's body went limp before Anakin dropped the body onto the ground, the neck at an unnatural angle.
For a moment there was silence before Anakin let out a sigh of relief. "It's over," he whispered, gazing down at the Sith Lord's corpse almost as though he couldn't believe it. "It's finally over," he said in a voice full of gleeful relief. "He's dead!"
For a few minutes, Anakin looked down at the corpse on the ground, but then he pulled himself together, took the lightsaber from his robe and ignited it, casting an unstable looking azure blade into the room before he walked towards the window.
"Wait, Anakin!" Obi-Wan called, worried that Anakin might be doing something stupid while Anakin slashed the window and shattered it into little pieces.
Anakin paused and turned.
"What are you doing?" Ki-Adi asked.
"I have done what I set out to do, what your precious prophecy wanted me to do; I have just killed the last of the Sith, the so-called Chosen One has done his task," Anakin's artificial voice was low and foreboding. "I already have plans about what to do next."
"What plans?" Windu asked while Anakin pulled something which looked like a com link from his robe, and pressed a button on it. The Korun Jedi Master was not sure what to think - he had to admit the former Jedi had defeated the Sith, but he was now worried about what his new plans were since he had carried out his old plans in such a brutal manner
Anakin seemed to be mulling over the answer. Finally, he decided to just get it out. "My ship is waiting for me. As soon as I get back, I will fly out into the sun. I don't want to live like this anymore."
Obi-Wan couldn't believe it. He had never expected his former apprentice to be suicidal although he could see it from Anakin's point of view. The type of life he must be living right now must be agony, but surely he wouldn't have given up on trying to find a way to recover? "Anakin, wait," he called, stopping the former Jedi from hopping onto a speeder that had just arrived, and for a moment he wondered how Anakin had gotten it, but he pushed it out of his mind. It was not relevant.
Anakin paused and turned around, waiting silently for him to speak.
"We can help you," Obi-Wan pleaded.
"You don't get it, do you? There is nothing that can be done," Anakin said, sounding both sad and grim. "The exposure I've received from hyper matter radiation has riddled my body with tumours, and I have pushed myself for three years while using drugs to stay alive. Today, I stopped taking my medicines because I knew I would die. I've been in agony all day, but I've been holding it back to focus on my tasks. But I wanted to take Palpatine with me. Do you have any idea how painful the tumours to hyper matter radiation is? There's also no way to cure me. I checked at the medical facility; my body has been so badly damaged there is no way to repair it. In any case for the last few years, a little voice kept telling me to die. I have even come to welcome the possibility of death. In any case, I have nothing to live for anyway. Goodbye, Obi-Wan."
Anakin was about to step onto the speeder that was waiting for him to return to the ship, but he was stopped by the last person he had expected to hear.
"Anakin, wait!" Padme yelled as she rushed through the doors of the Chancellor's office. Obi-Wan was surprised to see her, and behind her, he could see Bail Organa, and Mon Mothma, and several other people. Obi-Wan couldn't help but feel it was hypocritical of Padme to come here now when it was partially her own fault for pushing Anakin into this state.
Anakin was surprised to hear the voice of the woman he had once loved, but he had nothing to say to her, and so he stepped onto the speeder and he flew it away without a word, proving truthfully he wanted nothing to do with Padme.
"Anakin!" Padme screamed as she rushed to the window, but she was pulled back by her bodyguard.
"No, Milady. You can't," Typho sounded hoarse as he tried to stop Padme from leaping out of the window herself. Padme struggled but soon calmed down, tears trickling down her face.
Obi-Wan looked down and closed his eyes, cursing himself and the rest of the Jedi Council for not doing the right thing.
On his ship, Anakin settled into the pilot's chair while he tried to push the agony of the tumours aside. He had already made the calculations into hyperspace which would take him all the way back to Tattooine's star system. He had decided to commit suicide there rather than around Coruscant, there were still a number of ships nearby which would allow the Jedi to capture his ship in a tractor beam. As he leaned back in his chair after the ship had entered light speed, Anakin closed his prosthetic eye and rested.
"You've done it, Ani," he heard an unwelcome voice say, and he slowly cursed before he opened his eye. The prosthetic stopped him from seeing the ghostly form of Qui-Gon Jinn, but Anakin knew he was there.
"Go away," Anakin whispered, his exhaustion making his vocal systems rasp.
He heard Qui-Gon let out a regretful sigh. "Ani-," the older man tried to say, but Anakin had nothing he particularly wanted to hear from him.
"I said, go away," he repeated patiently. "I have nothing to say to you. I have nothing to say about the way I killed Palpatine. The Sith are gone, the Jedi can, at last, be happy their precious balance has come, even though they don't deserve it. I don't want to hear what you have to say."
"Yes, you do," the voice of the Jedi Master was benevolent, but Anakin could hear the pain and the regret in the voice of the man who had freed him from slavery. "Anakin, I am truly sorry for what the Order did to you-," he went on, but Anakin was not in the mood.
"Why didn't you stop them from making that decision? Do you have any idea what I went through on that miserable planet?" Anakin asked rhetorically knowing that Qui-Gon had indeed seen the events he had gone through. "Look at the state of me! Would you really have blamed me for turning to the dark side after this?"
"No, Anakin," Qui-Gon replied. "But I am happy you didn't initiate Order 66 as you had planned."
Anakin paused. "It wasn't worth it. Sooner or later, the Order will kill itself," he said in a dead sounding voice that frightened the Jedi Master. "Why accelerate the process?"
Qui-Gon was chilled by Anakin's question. He had to admit the young man had a point, and a good reason to be bitter.
Anakin checked the ETA clock. Three minutes to go. "You'd better leave, Master Qui-Gon," he said mildly. "This ship will be crashing into one of Tattooine's suns in a few minutes."
"Anakin-," Qui-Gon tried to say, but Anakin waved a hand.
"I'm going to die in a few minutes, whatever else you have to say to me can wait," Anakin said, focusing on the controls. He could hear Qui-Gon's regretful sigh, and then he felt the Force presence fade away. Anakin was alone, and a few minutes later the ship dropped out of hyperspace close to the sun.
Anakin pushed the sub-light engines past the safety limits and he accelerated towards the star. He loosened the robe around his body even as the alarms started to sound as the ship was both caught in the gravitational field of the star, and the heat and radiation levels were rising. Anakin ignored it all as the ship accelerated. He leaned back, and let the heat wash over him.
Not long now.
On Coruscant, Obi-Wan and the other Jedi Masters were in consultation when they suddenly felt something in the Force. It was like a shockwave that hit them head-on. Now Anakin was no longer masking his Force signature, they could feel it clearly. When it faded, they realised there was at last peace in the last thoughts of the man as Anakin Skywalker died.
Obi-Wan was nearly rocked off by the sudden shockwave as his friend died like he had wanted to. "He's gone," he whispered, looking down at the floor of the hospital where he and the other Masters were being looked over after being injured.
"Yes, he is gone!" an angry, but a familiar voice said, and before the eyes of the Jedi Masters the ghostly form of Qui-Gon Jinn appeared. Obi-Wan looked at his former master in awe. "How-?"
"Many things are possible with the Force," Qui-Gon stated briefly, but his glare never left the Jedi. "Anakin is dead, but I hope that you are happy that he is no longer a problem. Because of you and your fears of him, Anakin is now dead. He was tortured to death, but he never broke down. Not once. but if he had turned, then what would have happened? Would you have blamed him for the turning, or would you have pointed the finger to those more deserving of the blame?"
Without another word, the ghost of the deceased Jedi Master disappeared. His message had been delivered.
Obi-Wan looked down at the ground, shaking from the tears he was shedding. His former master was right, they had driven Anakin close to the dark side, and they would have no one but themselves to blame for it. But Obi-Wan wished he had stood up more for his old apprentice, but now any chance of helping him was gone forever.
And he had no-one to blame for himself that Anakin had not even wanted his help.
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