Spectre: November chapter here! Been getting diseases nowadays, and my throat isn't going to well and a little emotional support would help brighten up my spirits!Also, I am proud to announce that the fic now has over a million views and 1.1k reviews! As always thank you so much for the continuing support!
Chapter 37: Survivors and Sacrifices
In all his years, Grandmaster Yoda never felt so much uncertainty, unsure of the path they would be taking now that they have known the full extent of the Sith's Grand Plan.
He knew that they could not stop now, not when they saw the Sith's Grand Plan came to fruition. The Jedi may have strayed from the Will of the Force and perhaps have grown increasingly arrogant or worry, but they will not stray from their duty in keeping the Sith at bay.
He looked at the Council as they tried to cope on what they had just seen regarding the Younglings. Anakin buried his face onto his knees in self loathing, while Obi-Wan pinched his temples as he tried to find solace in what just happened.
Shaak Ti and Luminara tried to calm themselves via short meditation, but were unable to the trauma that was inflicted. The rest were struck silent, slumped in their seats where some are utterly demoralized or even hesitant to continue on.
"Keep moving forward, we will", Yoda said to the occupants in the Council Chamber, his face both bearing uncertainty and pain of the future before him. "Painful what lies ahead it may be, let Sidious succeed we shall not. Both victims tied in his hand, the Republic and Separatists are"
Everyone complied with Master Yoda's order and everyone opted to take different seats.
This time however, Windu opted to switch seats with Master Fisto, just two spaces near Anakin as a means to keep an eye on him, and he gave him a resentful glare as he took his seat.
Anakin only apologetically lowered his head in shame in response, with Ahsoka placing a hand onto his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him. Padme looked at her husband in sorrow, never wanting to accept that this was the extent of who he was l.
Most couldn't hide their fear and their anxiousness as Obi-Wan stepped forward to press the button of the holoplayer. He stopped mid-contact on the play button, unsure what to see next, and he was desperately hoping that he would not want to see that scenario.
Shaking his head off the uncertainty, Obi-Wan pressed the button and the holoplayer began playing again.
Bail set the speeder down only a few meters from the deck entrance and hopped out. A squad of clone troopers stood in the open doorway. Smoke billowed out from the hallway behind them.
"Appo better not harm Senator Organa", Rex uttered to himself, causing Padme to worry for the Alderaanian Senator.
"What's going on here?!", Bail demanded an explanation to the troopers before him.
"There's a rebellion, sir", Appo responded, which left the Senator perplexed at the declaration. "Don't worry, the situation is under control!"
"Of course Sidious would label this as a rebellion than a massacre", Kit Fisto uttered in total disgust.
Anakin placed both hands on his face, knowing that he was mostly responsible for this affair.
Bail wasn't taking any of it, and he tried to force his way to the entrance, only to be met with a blaster pointed at him. "I'm sorry sir, but it's time you to leave", Appo warned him.
"They even spoke like droids...", Plo Koon mournfully uttered to the ones at the screen.
"And so it is...", Bail conceded as he made his way back to his speeder.
A burst of blasterfire ripped through the smoke and scattered into the dawn outside. Bail stared with an open mouth as a Jedi flashed out of nowhere and started cutting down clones.
No: not aJedi. A boy.
"Padawan Jukassa?", Saesee recognized the boy before them.
A child, no more than ten years old, swinging a lightsaber whoseblade was almost as long as he was tall.More blasterfire came from inside, and a whole platoon of clones came pelting toward the landing deck, and the ten-year-old was hit, and hit again, andthen just shot to rags among the bodies of the troopers he'd killed.
Everyone bristled at the callous murder of the young Padawan. And they could not comprehend to the fact that the Clones will spare no one belonging to the Jedi Order.
Yoda closed his eyes in despair at the sight. Remembering the Younglings that Anakin had felled at the very chamber they are in. He began to accept that what he did was mercy to what the Clones did to them, especially when they go to lenghts to make sure that their target is dead.
Anakin only turned away from the screen, his future self's deed for the Younglings continued to scar his mind.
Bail ran. He dived through a hail of blasterfire, hit the deck, and rolled under his speeder to the opposite side. He grabbed on toits pilot's-side door and swung his leg onto a tail fin, using the vehicle's body as cover while he stabbed the keys to reinitialize its autorouter.His speeder heeled over and blasted away
Padme sighed in relief, knowing that a close friend of hers had managed to escape as did Obi-Wan and Yoda.
The Battle for Kashyyk raged on as Republic and Wookie troops continued to engage Separatist Amphibious forces at the beachhead. On top of one of the pavements, Commander Gree received his new orders from Darth Sidious.
"Even the 41st received their orders...", Luminara uttered in dismay., slowly realizing what would happen to her and Master Quinlan Vos.
"It will be done my Lord", Gree obediently complied and turned off his comlink. Walking over to a fellow 41st Trooper, he and Gree nodded with one another as they both raised their blasters at Yoda.
But the Grandmaster knew what was going on. And in a blink of an eye, both Gree and his fellow trooper's heads fell to the ground when Yoda used his lightsaber to quickly dispatch both of them.
The Mirialan Master bristled to the unfortunate fate of her Clone Commander, having served with him for so long. And Rex likewise pitied on Gree's predicament.
For Yoda, it had bring him sadness as it had bring him much pride. When the Clones all have unique individuality with one another, which made them standout to their life as soldiers.
And now, they're no less than droids whose programming had been activated.
Both Chewbacca and Tarfful growled with one another, realizing what was going on. And they were quick to escort Yoda out of the pavements to safety.
"At least we know what happened to Master Yoda", Kit Fisto spoke out in behalf of the Grandmaster. "I hope that he may be able to warn the others what had happened"
"But needless to say, we did not see what happened to Masters Vos and Unduli", Saesee Tiin pointed out, which some mentally remarked that they do not have to know what happened to them, and hoped that Yoda would warn them.
"I don't think I want to know what had happened to my future, Master Tiin...", Luminara said in reply, not wanting to imagine how did she fell, but the thought gave her a terrible sense of deja vu.
Back at Utapau, troopers of the 212th Attack Batallion rounded up prisoners, completely unknown to them that Obi-Wan hid behind one of the pillars neared them. Cody approached one of his troopers to get his report regarding the Jedi.
"Boil...", Rex sadly uttered, remembering the Clone's reassignment as a paratrooper following the Battle of Umbara. He wouldn't even imagine what Waxer or the little girl at Ryloth would feel, now that he was far from the brother they once knew.
Unknown to the 501st Commander, Obi-Wan sensed his thoughts, and he likewise felt the same.
"Did you find Kenobi?", the Clone Commander demanded to one of his men, oblivious to the Jedi's survival.
"Sir, no one could have survived that fall!", Boil reasoned out for their inability to locate their former General. Before he could reply, Cody paused for a moment, groaning to himself as he momentarily slapped his helmet before shaking his head.
Obi-Wan and Rex's eyes widened. "Is he trying to snap out it as well?', Rex uttered to himself.
"Start loading your men onto the ships!", Cody ordered to which Boil and a few Clones scrambled to carry them out. He looked behind him and around the area, before moving on.
Seeing the coast is clear, Obi-Wan then took General Grievous's starfighter screaming out of the atmosphere so fast he popped the gravity well and made jump before the Vigilance could even scramble its fighters. He reverted to realspace well beyond the system, kicked the starfighter to a new vector, and jumped again. A few more jumps of random direction and duration left him deep in interstellar space.
"A close escape, Master Kenobi", Shaak Ti remarked in relief.
"You know," he said to himself, "integral hyperspace capability is rather useful in a starfighter; why don't we have it yet?
While the starfighter's nav system whirred and chunked its way through recalculating his position, he punched codes to gang his Jedi comlink into the starfighter's system.
Instead of a holoscan, the comlink generated an audio signal—an accelerating series of beeps.Obi-Wan knew that signal. Every Jedi did. It was the recall code.
It was being broadcast on every channel by every HoloNet repeater. It was supposed to mean that the war was over.
It was supposed to mean that the Council had ordered all Jedi to return to the Temple immediately.
Every Jedi recognized this signal. "This is not right...this is a trap...", Depa pointed out immediately.
"With the Temple captured and Clones stationed in the area, it is indeed a death trap for the Jedi", Saesee Tiin reluctantly agreed with her.
"And a plan set up by Lord Vader...", Mace added, glaring at Anakin.
Obi-Wan suspected it actually meant what had happened on Utapau was far from an isolated incident.
He keyed the comlink for audio. He took a deep breath.
"Emergency Code Nine Thirteen," he said, and waited.
The starfighter's comm system cycled through every responsefrequency.
He waited some more.
"Emergency Code Nine Thirteen. This is Obi-Wan Kenobi. Repeat: Emergency Code Nine Thirteen. Are there any Jedi outthere?"
He waited. His heart thumped heavily. "Any Jedi, please respond. This is Obi-Wan Kenobi declaring a Nine Thirteen Emergency."
He tried to ignore the small, still voice inside his head that whispered he might just be the only one out here.
He might just be the only one, period.
He started punching coordinates for a single jump that would bring him close enough to pick up a signal directly from
Coruscant when a burst of fuzz came over his comlink.
A quick glance confirmed the frequency: a Jedi channel."Please repeat," Obi-Wan said. "I'm locking onto your signal. Please repeat."
The fuzz became a spray of blue laser, which gradually resolved into a fuzzy figure of a tall, slim human with dark hair and an elegant goatee. "Master Kenobi? Are you all right? Have you been wounded?"
"Senator Organa!" Obi-Wan exclaimed with profound relief. "No, I'm not wounded—but I'm certainly not all right. I need help. My clones turned on me."
"At least Master isn't all alone...", Anakin uttered in a jaded tone, relieved that Obi-Wan would be all right.
"There have been ambushes all over the galaxy." Obi-Wan lowered his head, offering a silent wish to the
Force that the victims might find peace within it.
"Have you had contact with any other survivors?"
"Only one," the Alderaanian Senator said grimly. "Lock onto my coordinates. He's waiting for you."
Maul's eyes snapped open as the ray shields to his holding cell opened with a hiss. Two clone troopers stepped through with blasters raised. Trapped inside his sarcophagus prison and held in place by heavy duty restraints, he could do nothing but watch as one of the clones unlocked his coffin and prepared to finish him off.
But before the Clones could execute their captive, Ahsoka intervened. Force pushing one of the clones into a wall hard enough to knock him unconscious, she drew one of her lightsabers and sliced the other's blaster in half when he spun around.
Then with a wave of her hand, she slammed the clone into the ceiling, crushing him against it with the force until he blacked out. Ahsoka glared at Maul as she let the clone fall to the ground, levelling her weapon at Maul's throat.
"Don't make me regret this." Ahsoka snarled at the Sith before hitting the release on Maul's restraints, freeing the mad man.
"You've… you've survived." Maul coughed out as he stumbled out of the sarcophagus prison and fought to catch his breath.
"Is this your doing? Choose your words carefully." Ahsoka held the lightsaber to Maul's throat again and demanded answers.
"No, no it was not my doing. I don't know what has occurred. But surely you have felt it. The voices crying out. The death." Maul admitted freely and Ahsoka looked away, not wanting to think about the force vision that heralded this madness.
"He too have sensed it?", Caleb pointed out curiously.
"A tremor in the Force, Sidious has caused", Yoda said to the Padawan.
"The clones turned against me. Even Rex. I don't know why, they just suddenly… weren't themselves." She said before turning back to the door and looking for any hostile reinforcements.
"Brilliant… brilliant!" Maul began laughing to himself as he pieced things together.
Maul's laughter caused the Jedi to frown, as if his laugh mocked them for their ignorance of what Sidious was doing.
"I was not privy to my master's plan, but now… now I see it. He turned the Jedi's own army against them." Maul rose and dusted himself off, despite their falling out, he could still appreciate Sidious' masterstroke.
"You have done the right thing by coming to me, only together can we survive this. Now if you'll follow my lead-" Maul shut up when the glowing sapphire blade stopped just short of his neck.
"There is no chance that I am working with Maul", Ahsoka reinforced her future's decision.
"You don't understand, I'm not here to team up with you. I need a diversion, and you're it. Now go cause some chaos, it's what you're good at." Ahsoka shot down the idea immediately and began walking away.
"Care to give me a fighting chance?" Maul asked, raising his empty hands to draw attention to the fact he was still unarmed.
"I'm not rooting for you. Now get going." Ahsoka ordered. Maul frowned in displeasure before turning on his heel and leaving.
"Please tell me that this isn't a decision that I will regret later", Ahsoka asked the audience.
"They're… not going to work together to survive? I mean they're on a ship where everyone is trying to kill the both of them, surely they can work together?" Caleb muttered.
"Padawan, if there is one thing that you learn about a Sith, is that betrayal is part of their culture", Mace told him.
"Sir, we've finished our sweep of the detention level. The prisoner has escaped. No sign of Tano or Maul." A clone patrol reported to Rex.
"Destroy the escape pods. Increase security on the hangar decks." Rex took the bad news in stride and ordered the only ways off the ship locked down.
"Right away sir!"
"Destroy the escape pods? That's a bit much isn't it? What happens if there's an emergency?" Padme asked.
"Then they all die together." Mace said.
"…They would go that far just to kill two people?" Kit Fisto muttered.
"In Sidious' point of view then yes. The clones were made to be expendable soldiers who would do anything to see his plan a success. They were created to be sacrificial pawns to fulfill that end goal.", Mace spoke out his own assumptions that left many inside the Council chamber felt sick
"It's a despicable concept." Plo Koon growled.
Rex only clenched his fist in anger when thinking about the Chancellor, as did Anakin.
At the night in Coruscant, a Jedi Starfighter landed onto an apartment's landing bay. Emerging from it was Anakin Skywalker, who was met by Padme who embraced him in a rush.
Anakin closed his eyes and shook his head, recalling the lengths he went into just as he could protect her, not wanting to imagine how disgusted would she have been now knowing she was pregnant.
And if Obi-Wan hid Luke from the monster that was his father, then he made the right choice for the boy.
"Are you all right? I heard there was an attack on the Jedi temple.", Padme urgently asked her husband. "You could see the smoke from here."
"I'm fine", Anakin assured her. "I came to see if you and the baby are safe"
"What's happening?", she asked him.
Anakin paused for a moment before be replied. "The Jedi have tried to overthrow the Republic."
Padme couldn't register what he had just said. "I can't believe that."
"I saw Master Windu attempt to assassinate the Chancellor myself"
Mace sighed to himself, knowing better that he should not have rushed towards Palpatine that gave him the precedent to declare the Jedi as traitors.
"And he would have done it if I didn't do anything...", Anakin uttered to himself.
"What are you gonna do?"
"I will not betray the Republic", Anakin firmly said. "My loyalties lie with the chancellor... and with the senate and with you"
"I would not have traded my own friends for a Sith Lord...", Anakin said in denial.
"What about Obi-Wan?"
"I don't know. Many Jedi have been killed. We can only hope that he's remained loyal to the chancellor."
"And if he is not?", Depa quipped in unease.
"Then he will be forced to dispose Master Kenobi", Mace answered his former apprentice.
Both the Master and apprentice shot down the mere thought of that ever happening, not after all that they had went through.
"Anakin, I'm afraid", Padme admitted. She shook her head helplessly, and a pair of tears spilled from her eyes
He touched them with his mechanical hand; the fingertips of his black glove glistened in the dawn.
Two liquid gems, indescribably precious—because they were his. He had earned them. As he had earned her; as he had earned the child she bore. He had paid for them with innocent blood.
"Have faith, my love. Everything will soon be set right. The Chancellor has given me a very important mission. The separatists have gathered on the Mustafar system. I'm going there to end this war", he declared. "This won't take long. Wait for me."
Fresh tears streamed onto her ivory cheeks, and she threw herself into his arms. "Always, Anakin. Forever."
He smiled down on her. "You say that like I'm already gone."
I already am..., Anakin thought for his dark future, a few tears leaving his eyes. Regret and self-loathing consumed him as he began lightly sob, as did Padme for everything that they gave up for their love.
"Wait for me until I return", he told her as he began to make his way back to his starfighter. "Things will be different. I promise. Please, wait for me."
Anakin's starfighter rose to life as it flew away from the apartment complex, leaving Padme to wipe her tears alone.
Things will never be the same after that..., Padme regretfully thought, knowing the pain that lies ahead.
Spectre: End of Chapter for now! Expect the next maybe within the month or so!