Hi everybody, a small two-shot that I wrote when I wanted to try my hand on some Star Wars fanfiction. As always the permanent disclaimer: I don't own anything about this universe but the idea for the story itself.

Hope you like it. Happy reading.


Clues

Anakin knew that he had to do something. Things had really gone down the drain and the Jedi Order was rotten in its core. The teachings that he had grown up with since he joined the Order clashed rabidly with the things he had seen during his life, both while being a child slave on Tatooine and while fighting the war against the Separatists. Right now he was plagued by visions of his beloved wife's death while giving birth to their child. He needed to find a way to prevent that disaster, but Master Yoda had only given him some platitudes of her becoming one with the force and to be happy about that.

It was like the superficial dismissal of the clone soldiers that served under the different Jedi commanding officers. He had never been able to see the clones as expendable beings. Just bred to wage war, being the army of the Jedi Order. No, that was wrong, that was arrogance speaking, and the Jedi shouldn't be arrogant. It led to the dark side of the force. He needed to think about all options. He needed to have a clear view of all the details of the war, the details of the things that led to the war breaking out in the first place. And that could only be done by doing some good, old-fashioned research with a holo-pad. The force couldn't tell him the way to go. Master Yoda had taught all younglings while they were trained at the temple that the future was always moving, always changing, and the slightest thing could bring a scenario one feared to happen.

Well, he had tried finding guidance by the force, that didn't work out, now he would do what he had learned to do while being a child. Listening, collecting information and then using it to his advantage. It was something a slave learned early on, to prevent that his master would punish him for something.

Thus he went to the Republic's Archives on Coruscant, where he was currently stationed before he would be sent onto another mission, and went over all the historical events of the past fifty years. He knew that the Sith were good at planning long-time. He had been taught about the wars against the Sith from the ancient past in his studies at the temple, so he knew that their plans had often been started a long time before they became visible. The Sith wanted total control over the galaxy and the Jedi were in their way. But any Sith knew how to be patient and to place all pieces of the puzzle into the right position before acting.

Anakin spent countless hours in the archives, adding files of events to his personal datapad and only took breaks for eating a bit and sleeping after he couldn't keep his eyes open anymore. After doing this for four days on end, he had collected a large number of files. He went back to his room at the temple and created a folder to sort the events he had noticed as possibly important into a logical order. He also added arrows to connect the events, if there was even the lightest connection, like the same people being involved in them. He had a large diagram in the end, but the results weren't pleasant.

Everything had begun long before the clone wars. Way before. Even before the attack on Naboo when he had met Padme for the first time. No, the first signs of things being pushed into position had come up five years before the invasion of Naboo by the Trade Federation. There were laws that the Senate passed that disadvantaged certain groups. They added on top of each other. Politicians were found out for one scandal or the other and lost power inside the senate over it. Chancellor Valorum was quietly undermined by people that wanted power for themselves. And then Padme was convinced to start a vote of no confidence by Senator Palpatine, who had then become Chancellor.

And looking into things, Palpatine had managed to avoid scandals where other senators didn't. All his most serious competitors fell before the situation of the needed quick election of a new chancellor ever came up. Then the number of emergency powers that Palpatine got once the clone wars started. The army that was just coincidentally ready for the Republic to use against the droid armies that the Separatists had created. Palpatine had been chancellor for ten years by the time the war started and he would at most have been allowed to stay in his position for another two years, three terms of four years in office before he would have had to give the position to another senator.

That was law of the Republic. But it didn't happen, as, during the war, the senate was too scared of the Separatists taking over more and more of the Republic's systems, which had good reasons to split from the monster that the Republic had become. All signs, including the warning that Count Dooku had given Obi-Wan on Genosis, before the war started, which said that a Sith was in control over the senate, put together with the information he had puzzled into a horrifying picture said that the most probable candidate for being Darth Sidious, the puppeteer in the background, was Chancellor Palpatine.

And Anakin could also deduce how the Order hadn't noticed it, here on Coruscant, while they were on close proximity to the Sith. The force was strong on Coruscant. Too strong to differentiate between force signatures clearly. Any initiate at the temple learned this early on. One had to really know a person to pinpoint his or her location. He could do it with Obi-Wan, who had been his teacher when he had been a padawan, and he could do it with Ahsoka, his own padawan. He could tell that many strong force users lived on the planet, but there were techniques to dampen one's aura. Many masters did that instinctually, as the younglings got headaches if they didn't do so. Take that a step further and it will have the effect that a person's signature was hidden perfectly, while anybody that looked for that person, would know that he or she was on the planet, but not where exactly. And the dampening effect would shield the most obvious traits of a person. Like being steeped in darkness.

He had also looked up anything he could about pregnancies and difficult kinds of giving birth, complications and so on. And one thing was clear. There was no reason for a healthy woman to fear giving birth to a child. If the child was too large, or lay wrong, the most common reasons for complications, the doctor would perform a Caesarean and get the child into the world that way. The mother wouldn't have any problems after that, she just needed to rest and heal from the operation. But it was an old and reliable method, that had a mortality rate form nearly zero. As long as the pregnant woman was at a proper hospital, nothing would happen. That meant, somebody probably messed up his connection to the force. As long as he could get Padme into a proper hospital two weeks before she had her calculated due date, she would live.

It was a huge relief to know this.

But he needed to be careful to not tip the chancellor off that he was onto him. And he needed to find out what was going on with the clones. Fives had talked about some chip inside of their brains. He hadn't paid much attention to that before, but now he needed to be sure that there wasn't something to it. The clones were everywhere and if they truly had some control chip inside of their brains, who knew what kind of command could be given to them? The question was to find out what exactly was on those chips. Well, he would only need to use the next chance he had to examine one of the dead clones. Sadly, in his opinion, there were too many of them that were just killed in the battles against the Separatists. But now that he had a suspicion that needed to be confirmed, he would take any advantage he could get. And he needed to talk to Padme. She had to promise him to leave for Naboo in time to be there before the baby was due. That was imperative.


Anakin seethed after getting the reading from the chip he had extracted from the mind of one of the killed clones. His own unit, the 501st, had wondered about his actions, but they knew that he would never do anything to dishonour one of them after he had fallen in battle. They were on a mission on one of the planets at the Outer Rim and had just managed to defeat a small group of separatists, next to blowing up a production facility for droid parts. It was a success in the overall war effort, but the effect wouldn't be major. Anakin had ordered them to wait with giving a report about the results of the mission until he was done with his investigation into something he had been suspicious about for a while.

When he left the lab, his look on his face was murderous.

"I need all clone soldiers to undergo surgery for extraction of a traitorous biochip in your brains. Fives was right with his warnings. Somebody has made sure that they could kill all the Jedi if a certain order was given. No distinction will be made for age or if the person committed any crime. It's absolute slaughter of anybody determined as a Jedi," He informed them, "I just got done with testing what was written on the chip I extracted from Till. We need to get this done for as many clones as we can, as secretly as possible. We can't allow for the mastermind in the background to find out that I know," Anakin told them.

"Who is behind this travesty?" Rex wanted to know.

"Palpatine," Anakin ground out, "As soon as he gives a certain order, it will cause a chain reaction. It activates the chip via voice recognition and any clone with an activated chip can pass on the information and activate the other clones' chips as well. It's a sure way to force all clones to kill their commanding Jedi officers. And if you all fired at an unsuspecting Jedi, the force wouldn't be enough to save that Jedi. It would be total annihilation. And I would bet that as soon as the order is given, one of the first targets would be the Jedi temple on Coruscant. The initiates and younglings are sitting ducks."

"What can we do to prevent that, sir? We will never manage to get those chips out under surgery of all the clones. Not to mention that any new ones that come from Kamino will have them as well," Rex asked.

"I know. What we need is a reason and a location where to take the younglings to. One that we pull off without that Sith lord noticing what we are really up to until it's too late," Anakin pondered.

"What about staging a fire at the temple, forcing full evacuation of the inhabitants? Nobody would suspect anything being wrong. Or a warning of a separatist attack on Coruscant and the Order deciding to evacuate all the children for them to be in safety in that case?" One clone suggested.

"Possible, but the former is much easier to manage than the latter. But before that can be done, we need to establish a safe retreat for the Jedi. A place where they can be hidden properly, without Palpatine being able to find them," Anakin stated.

The information on the chip had been the last part of his puzzle of determining Palpatine as Sidious. He would need to inform the council, but before that, any soft targets had to be evacuated, as he was sure that the bastard would use any kind of attack, if it failed to kill him, as a reason to activate the chips and then it would be mass murder of the Jedi, which Anakin wouldn't allow to happen. Rex was right that they couldn't free all the clones unnoticed, but they would have to get enough of them to have a chance at actually killing the hidden Sith Lord. Time to put his mechanical talent to good use. If he could build a machine that destroyed the chips without needing the complicated surgery, they would win a lot of time.


Anakin needed a week to build a prototype of the chip destroyer, as he called it. He got numerous chips to test the procedure with, as all clones of the 501st unit used the time to have their chips removed surgically. None of them wanted to risk harming their general, should that order be given anytime soon. And they managed to get good enough that after the first three surgeries, they knew exactly where the chip was located and it only needed a minor operation to get it out afterwards. Anakin used the removed chips to test the frequencies of the device he built and after countless tests he had managed to get the chips to simply implode without causing damage to the area around them.

He built a hundred of them within three days and then taught the clones how to make more. He equipped the clones with the devices he had built and they would then use them to free as many of their brothers as they could without causing suspicion. The first ones they targeted were the clones under Commander Cody who was under the command of Obi-Wan. As the two groups often worked together on missions, it wouldn't be strange for them to meet and then the chance would come to destroy the chips in their brains. And from there they could free more and more of their brothers. The one question was, how long did they have until the sith lord would make his ultimate move?


Anakin was glad to see Padme on a ship that was on a diplomatic mission for the Republic. She was seven months pregnant now and he urgently needed to talk to her about his discoveries. He couldn't have told her before, as it was too dangerous to speak of such information over holonet. Too many chances that somebody hacked the calls and then the sith lord could find out that Anakin and his unit were onto him and dismantling the plans he had set up in secret. He asked her to talk to her in an important matter after the official meeting was over. She agreed, even if they pretended that they were just friends and not closer involved.

When they were inside a small meeting room, Anakin activated a device that scrambled any kind of listening device that might be around. He couldn't risk that this information got back to Palpatine.

"What is going on Ani?" asked Padme concerned.

"I figured out who the Sith Lord is that we have been hunting for years," stated Anakin seriously, "I also found out his final game. It is total annihilation of the Jedi and probably taking over the power over the galaxy."

"What? How? Who is it?" asked Padme horrified.

"Palpatine is Darth Sidious. I analysed fifty years of data to work out the connections between several events that all led to where we are, which is close to him succeeding in his plans. The master before him definitely started this but Palpatine is close to finishing it. And I fear that he also has the goal to turn me to the dark side. Several things he told me and advised me to do paint a horrible picture when they are put in context with the events I found to be influenced by the sith," answered Anakin pained, he had trusted Palpatine, thought him a mentor and friend.

"No, how could he be a sith?" asked Padme shocked, which didn't surprise Anakin, as she had a similar view of Palpatine, a wise older mentor and friend.

Anakin then proceeded to explain all the events he had found that had helped Palpatine grab more and more power over the Republic and avoid having to step down from his position as Supreme Chancellor, even if his three terms in office were over by now. How he had far too much power assembled to be easily taken down, especially if the jedi were killed by the clones.

"That, oh, what a horrible plan. And nobody would suspect it in any way," she realised horrified.

"Indeed. The clones were always loyal. Them turning against their commanding officers without warning would kill nearly all the adult jedi there are. The next biggest problem are the children at the temple on Coruscant. They are far too easy to kill if that order is given. I have built a device that can destroy the chips without needing surgery and have given the ones I built to my clone troopers. Next to explaining to the technologically talented ones how to build more. But there are millions of clones out there. It is impossible to reach them all. Especially without it being noticed. And I fear that Palpatine will make his move soon. The visions that I got in my nightmares, of you dying when you gave birth to our baby, I believe he sends them to undermine my will.

"I would do anything to save you. I can't live without you. That is my one major weakness and he knows it. I didn't tell him that we were married of course, but he most probably figured it out. Therefore, you need to be safe and somewhere where there are professional medics that can help you when it is time to have the baby," pleaded Anakin.

Padme understood.

"He would pretend to know a way to save me and instead turn you to the dark side," she said.

"Yes. I have talked to Rex after I realised the plan. He has given me a different perspective of things. Palpatine has been manipulating things all the time. Knowing that he is Sidious also means, he is Dooku's master," pointed Anakin out.

"He's the leader of both sides of this war," realised Padme.

"Yes. He uses the war to become the ultimate power in this galaxy. It also makes sense that he chose me to become his next apprentice as a Sith. Dooku is much older and weaker than I am in the force. I have the highest midiclorian count in the whole galaxy. And when I became a jedi, this kind of information would be accessible to the chancellor. He started with building a connection since I was a child. He only used me, subtly leading me towards the point of no return. It doesn't help that the jedi don't like me. I don't conform to their practices and beliefs. I can't do it, as I haven't grown up in the temple.

"I also don't believe that attachments are ultimately evil. I believe that they can make a person much stronger. It just depends on balance. I know that you are the one anchor that keeps me sane in this insane war," admitted Anakin.

Padme took his hand, squeezing it.

"What else did Rex say?" asked Padme.

"He thinks that the whole war is meant to destroy the reputation of the jedi order. The clones are the army of the jedi, commissioned by Master Syfo Dias. That is a lie obviously, but it is what the public was told. The jedi lead the army as generals. Even if they don't have any kind of training in how to properly do that. Only a few have the skills to be competent as army leaders. But it destabilises the mental health of the jedi that are sent into battles all the time. And we lost countless jedi over the course of the war, actually over the past fifty years.

"The order itself is also rotting from the inside. Things need to change but due to the war, nobody wants to see that. The jedi were meant to keep peace in the galaxy, not to wage war. The only part of fighting that we learn is using lightsabres. And that is because a force sensitive child can be sold for huge amounts of money on the black market. I was taught that the children are taken in at the temple because it was too dangerous to leave them among normal people without having control over their ability with the force. But I don't believe that it is right to take babies away from their families.

"And most people will see it the same way. Nobody that loves their child wants to lose it forever. It is an old argument that paints the jedi order in a bad light. It will make it easy for the sith to turn the people against the jedi. There are too many things that are going the wrong way to not make many believe that the jedi are at fault for the war. And too many knights and masters behaved horribly since the war started. It is easy for the Separatist army to look like defenders of freedom for the systems that belong to them. Especially, as they don't send countless living beings into their deaths, as they use droids to fight. Their ways aren't acceptable, especially with Dooku and Grievous leading them, but few people that live on planets that left the Republic will acknowledge that part.

"They see the Republic as oppressors. Not too surprising, as the senate doesn't get many things done properly. Probably a result of Sidious' manipulations," listed Anakin.

"This is a huge mess and it will take years to solve. Especially as it will be nearly impossible to make people believe that Palpatine is a sith," sighed Padme, "He's far too popular."

"And if he's confronted directly, he will activate that order that will start the slaughter of the jedi. If we tell the council, they will act immediately but if he can call the clones, it will end in disaster," added Anakin.

"Then he needs to die in a way that isn't connected to the jedi. In fact, it would be best if they were seen trying to save him," decided Padme.

"We can't just assassinate the chancellor. We would be executed if that happened," argued Anakin.

"Not if the reason of death is declared natural causes. He is old, Anakin. A heart attack due to stress or an allergic shock wouldn't look suspicious. And I happen to know that he is allergic against a certain type of food from Naboo. If we managed to have the plant mixed under his normal food, he wouldn't suspect anything and it would be declared a sad unfortunate accident that nobody could have predicted, as he doesn't have a warning in his medical file to avoid it. I only know about it because I was Queen of Naboo while he was senator. He had to attend parties there in his function and he once mentioned that he couldn't eat anything with that plant in it, as he would suffocate from it in short order. He was lucky as a child to be close to a hospital when it happened and was determined for the first time," revealed Padme, "I normally wouldn't be in favour of this, but I don't want to imagine what would happen, should his plans succeed."

Anakin pondered that part. It wouldn't be difficult to arrange this. And no matter if he wasn't happy about having to assassinate somebody, he couldn't let him kill off all the jedi. Many of them were innocents and only wanted to do the right things.

"I guess there is no choice, but you will stay away from him. He would use you in a way and you can't shield your mind from his powers. It could happen that you unintentionally send him a warning if you are close. I can smuggle the plant into his dinner easily. Can it be used as a powder by the way?" asked Anakin.

"Yes, easily. It is even often used as a spice in native Nubian dishes," nodded Padme.

"That makes it easier. We can arrange that one evening the kitchen serves typical Naboo cuisine and then he dies from the spice he didn't know about," nodded Anakin, "though we would have to keep the medical team busy to be too late to get to him."

"Should be easy. A simple blackout, which isn't uncommon on Coruscant, and they will be delayed long enough to be incapable to save him," stated Padme.

"And I can set up things to happen that way easily. I just need to block the main line for about twenty minutes. The medical staff of the senate's building is located on the first floor, while Palpatine's office is on the fifty-seventh floor. Without electricity to use the lifts, the team would need to use the stairs, which will take a while. Especially if an emergency calls for evacuation of the floors above the medical centre. Normally, thanks to the lifts being fast, the team would reach the fifty-seventh floor within five minutes if a call comes in. But without electricity and the stairs blocked, that will be all the time needed for Palpatine to die of an allergic shock," nodded Anakin.

Padme nodded. It was a workable plan. One that didn't have a lot of risk for anybody. There was just one thing that needed to be arranged before they acted.

"We need to have some form of succession planned out, otherwise there will be chaos inside the senate," she pointed out.

"The problem is, we can't let it appear like that. Otherwise Sidious would be forewarned and I don't want him slipping away again. The best thing would be if some of your friends from the senate could arrange for a memorial soon after his death and then appoint an interim chancellor until proper elections can be held. And that interim mustn't be a militarist. Who do you think could step up for the position?" asked Anakin.

Padme thought about it.

"The best choice would be Bail Organa. Mon Mothma is actually better suited for the job, but she is too young to be taken seriously by several of the older senators. Alderaan is a pacifistic world like Naboo, that should appeal to many that are sick of the war. Bail could manage the transition from the war to a truce and then peace. Though, we still need to out Palpatine's activities as Sidious after his death and that won't be easy. We need proof, as only then we can unravel his machinations. We also need to take out Dooku and Grievous," mentioned Padme.

"True. But I am sure that R2 can get us the data from Palpatine's servers. Once we have got rid of him, it should be easy to connect R2 to a computer and let him find the proof that we need. I can, if you support me, present that in front of the senate. It will be better than to go through the jedi order first. They might reprimand me, but once the war is over, I will leave the order anyway," Anakin told her.

"Really?" she asked surprised.

"Yes. There is nothing more important to me than our family. We will become parents soon, Padme and I want to be there for my child. The order won't accept that in any way and it will be better if I end things on my terms. I can explain that I didn't want to leave the order when the war just started and then I got Ahsoka as my padawan. It wouldn't have been right to abandon her at that time," explained Anakin.

Padme knew that he was rightfully angry about the treatment that Ahsoka had got over the false charges against her. If not for Anakin finding proof of her innocence at literally the last minute, she would have been executed for a crime she didn't commit. And to make it worse, the true culprit hadn't been given the punishment that would have awaited Ahsoka. It only drove Anakin further away from the jedi order.

"Do you think Palpatine manipulated things with Ahsoka's trial as well?" asked Padme, "It would fit into the picture if you believed that Palpatine wanted you to become his next apprentice."

"Yes. I mean, the attack is on Bariss' head, but the way Ahsoka was put on trial with basically no proof her having done it, that was clearly influenced by him. I didn't see it, as he claimed he was bound by the laws of the Republic, but it was only another plot to make me distrust and dislike the jedi order. Successfully, I have to admit. What they did was horrible. None of the council members considered the possibility that Ahsoka wouldn't do it. None investigated deeper except for me. I can understand why she left," answered Anakin.

"It will be wonderful when we don't have to hide our marriage anymore, Ani," she admitted, "I want to tell the world that you are the only man in my life. I want to tell the people that I'm pregnant with your baby and I want to finally introduce you to my family as my husband. Not just a jedi I'm friends with."

Anakin pulled her against him and kissed her.

"Soon angel. Soon we can openly show our love and I won't care about restrictions of the order anymore. We can move to Naboo and raise our child and possible future siblings there. And those children will be raised by us, not the order. I can train them in the force without them being separated from our family. The order doesn't have the power to force the parents to give their children up, not with the drop in popularity they got."

Padme nodded and leaned into his embrace. What needed to be done was terrible, but to bring peace to the galaxy, the death of one sith lord that wanted to kill thousands of innocent people wasn't too high a price to pay.


Anakin was meditating inside his room at the temple. He wasn't the best at meditation, but today he felt he needed to calm his nerves to not pace up and down until he heard news from the senate's building. He had arranged for everything to be in place to kill off Palpatine. He had influenced a kitchen helper to leave the room for a minute which allowed him to replace a normal spice container with a tainted one. For anybody not allergic to the spice it wouldn't cause any harm and as far as he knew, the allergic reaction was extremely rare. Thus, Palpatine would hopefully be the only victim.

The blackout would be triggered by the call for the medical team. He couldn't predict when Palpatine would have his shock and thus he needed to time it perfectly. He had manipulated the power generators in the building to fail when the number of the medical team was called from the rooms of the chancellor. He only hoped that everything would work out like he and Padme had planned. He had attempted to direct investigations into Darth Sidious towards the government, but the council had objected and refused to believe that they could have overlooked a sith lord this close to their own base of power.

They were stupid. While he knew that Palpatine was a smart opponent and didn't give any reason to suspect him, there had been too many warnings from all kinds of sources that somebody close to the top was working against the Republic. It seemed that his break with the order would be dirtier than he had hoped. Well, so be it. He had already decided to leave the order once Palpatine was dead and the war over. Even if the war didn't end with his death, he wouldn't stay with the order. He didn't believe in it anymore. He knew he would be happier and in a better place with Padme and their future baby.

Then his com beeped.

"Skywalker," he replied.

"Anakin, we have a major blackout in the senate's building and the temple," stated the voice of Obi-Wan.

"Must be something big to cover both places," replied Anakin, his heart beating faster, knowing that this meant that Palpatine had suffered the shock like planned, but he kept iron control over his emotions to not give up that he knew more.

"Yes. As you are the best at mechanical and electric problems among the jedi, I wanted to ask you if you could have a look at our generators," asked Obi-Wan.

"Sure, Obi-Wan. I will go to the generator room and see what is happening," agreed Anakin and ended the call.

He hadn't expected for the temple to be caught in it as well, but perhaps this was a separate issue. He didn't manipulate anything here. But it would give him a perfect alibi should anybody ask if he was involved with what had happened at the senate's building, even if that was highly unlikely. He had manipulated all the cameras that could have shown him entering the kitchen and he had only been in there for twenty seconds. He left his room and used a flashlight to show him the way in the dark corridors of the temple.


Okay, this is the first chapter. The next one will be up next week. Until then.