What have I done?
Slowly, the room fades back into focus before Anakin's eyes. As the adrenaline wears off, he looks down at his hands. He kept them both gloved at all times, but he couldn't remove the fact that it felt like blood coated them.
He took a glance towards the window and saw the beheaded body of his friend and closest mentor.
Palpatine was a Sith Lord.
Palpatine was also the only one besides Padme who understood him.
Now he was dead.
The office of his former mentor is destroyed. Every piece of furniture and sculpture has been toppled or bisected by a lightsaber. The window is completely shattered, and the old desk is a heap of scrap. Everything, including the walls and floors, is scorched with the marks of a lightsaber duel.
Master Windu was still standing before him, seemingly waiting for Anakin to pull himself together.
Anakin wasn't sure if that was ever going to happen again.
He grabbed his lightsaber from where it had rolled out of his hand and it seemed to scald him just holding it.
"Skywalker. Thank you for coming to my aid... there is a lot we will need to talk about in the coming days. We will have much to discuss regarding Palpatine. If you hadn't arrived when you had," at this he grabs Anakin's shoulder in a show of gratitude, "things would have likely ended much differently."
Anakin isn't relieved. He doesn't feel better. He doesn't feel anything besides a deep gnawing pain in his chest.
He can't even look Master Windu in the face while he thinks him. Each word strikes deep lacerations into Anakin's psyche.
Mace Windu doesn't know how close he came to death.
In the private of Anakin's mind, he wasn't sure who he was going to swing his blade at until it happened.
In the deepest recesses of his brain, he can't help but feel he's made the wrong choice.
There was never any question on what Ahsoka was going to do when Padme told her what had happened.
Anakin was in trouble, Palpatine was a Sith Lord, and Obi-Wan was hurt or dead.
There was not any question that she was ever going to do anything but what she had always done when Anakin managed to get himself into trouble. She'd run after him.
After reassuring Padme, she had jumped back in her speeder and jetted off to the Executive Building. The building was far too quiet. There were no soldiers, no guards. Not a single soul in sight.
Just a single empty Jedi Speeder that Anakin had liked.
Ahsoka was many things: prideful, somewhat complacent, stubborn, and not good at knowing when she was beaten or outmatched.
But what she senses in the Force ahead of her gives her pause. A battle among titans that could brush her aside like a hurricane does a single leaf. This Sith Lord could rend her, tear her apart with a single brush of the force. She knew this.
It didn't scare her.
She had faith. Faith in Anakin.
For every time Anakin had ever shown weakness, he had shown unimaginable strength. For every time Anakin had ever failed, he had fought back tooth and nail to turn it into a victory.
Anakin was unstoppable.
If Palpatine was a Sith Lord, if Palpatine was the hurricane, the storm which threatened to tear the galaxy apart, Anakin was desert rock.
He had seen storms and weather far greater. They had worn and weathered and torn him apart, but at the end of the day he'd still be standing.
Ahsoka had faith in the Jedi Order. But more than that, she had faith that Anakin would always be able to fight another day. It was truth. It was law.
The force seemed to agree.
He will always survive, it said.
Ahsoka couldn't quite tell why that sounded like an omen.
Somewhere along her run to the Chancellor's office, she felt an explosion in the force. A presence had passed on. Not the way a Jedi's presence would, Ahsoka had been unfortunate enough to witness many Jedi deaths throughout the war, this presence seemed to fight the force itself on its way out towards obliteration. It twisted and moved and tore and then it slipped away into the night.
The Sith Lord was dead.
Ahsoka almost fell apart right there. Heaving back a sob, she ran into the public office of the Chancellor.
The first thing she notices is how the room is absolutely torn apart. Not a single thing remains the way it had looked the last time she had visited this place. It looks less like a lightsaber duel took place and more like a war zone.
The second thing she notices is Master Tiin's body. It's been bisected directly across the chest, the Iktotchi Jedi Master did not die a peaceful death like he had always wished for. Ahsoka barely holds back bile and presses onward. There's nothing she can do for him.
The window is shattered, and wind blows into the office, the smells of burnt flesh, a burning fire, and the oily smell of Coruscant mixed into an unpleasant abomination.
Ahsoka looks desperately around, her eyes zeroing on Obi-Wan.
Obi-Wan's entire right side seems cleaved apart. His right arm and leg sit not far away, along with a portion of his side.
It looks wrong and perverse to Ahsoka, the way Obi-Wan just lays there, forgotten. The dignified Jedi Master looked broken. He looked unnatural.
Before she knew it, she sat there by him, sobbing her eyes out.
Oh Anakin...
Life had never been kind to him.
His mentor had killed his brother.
There is a small push. A small gust of air. The feeling you get in a building, when far away someone opens or closes a door. As if the atmosphere shifts, just the smallest bit. If Ahsoka wasn't still, she would have missed it—she had almost missed it.
Obi-Wan breathes in a short, shaky, rasping breath.
Even in this he sounded dead, the air came out of his mouth like a ghost.
Ahsoka couldn't help but remember clones and Jedi as they died. The death rattles as their bodies processed with the death of those that controlled them. The final flinches, movements, and breaths that fooled you one last time.
For a couple of seconds Ahsoka was angry. Angry at the Jedi. At the Sith. At the Force. For this cruel trick.
Then Obi-Wan breathes in again.
Ahsoka looked closer. Beyond the missing limbs. Beyond the blood, the scorched flesh, beyond it all. She looked deeper.
She let out a twisted mix between a laugh and a sob that sounded harsh in the quiet room.
Obi-Wan was alive.
Obi-Wan had lost two limbs, most of his side, and received injuries that should have assured his death near instantly. Then, he was left there for crucial, important minutes that should have spelled doom for any regular human.
Ahsoka should have known. Obi-Wan never left a job unfinished.
Even now, she could feel Obi-Wan's presence faintly, weakly, reach out for Anakin.
Obi-Wan refused to die as long as Anakin needed his brother.
He isn't entirely sure how long he spends sitting in a chair looking at Palpatine's body. Master Windu has already called for a medical LAAT and contacted the Coruscant Guard, letting them know a very loose understanding of tonight's events.
A confrontation between the Chancellor and the Jedi occurred tonight.
Yes. A confrontation. Anakin supposes that it's technically true, but as is usual with the Jedi it was never the actual truth.
The truth.
Anakin sits and wonders, "what is truth"?
He sits and watches Palpatine's body and wonders if the Jedi have ever told him the truth. He wonders if Palpatine had been lying.
It's like a fog has set over his mind. Not one of deception, but of confusion. There was no longer the desperation that existed just hours ago, when Palpatine was alive. When his mentor has promises and words for him, if only he'd make a decision for himself.
And yet.
And yet Palpatine was right.
He never once decided for himself throughout the entire night. He had gone and told the Jedi like he was supposed to. Windu seemed to, only slightly, appreciate what Anakin had done. He didn't seem to understand that Anakin had thrown his whole world away for the Jedi.
Padme was his home, yes, but he had never admitted to anyone that Palpatine was his rock. His solid ground.
Palpatine always trusted Anakin. Always had kind words and important lessons. He had never done Anakin wrong, not truly.
And Anakin killed him.
"You are my heir, Anakin"
He had killed the only person who had ever cared for him like a father. He'd murdered his rock.
It was a clean slice. Less than a single second between the drawn blade and the bisected head.
Anakin couldn't clear from his mind the utter shock that was revealed on Palpatine's face. The utter disappointment. And for a quick flash, the anger and rage.
Anakin deserved that. He deserved the disappointment, the anger, the rage. He had surely been angry and full of rage before, he could never admonish the Chancellor for that.
He was a pitiful creature, Anakin was, to betray that which had protected him all his life.
The desperation was gone. Now, he was just tired. He felt empty.
"-yguy? Can you hear me?" Ahsoka's voice is like a sword, divining truth and cutting through the fog he sat in. "Anakin! Anakin can you hear me?"
For the first time since it happened, Anakin looked away from Palpatine's corpse. Turning and looking at Ahsoka, he breathes in fresh air and takes in her worried face.
"Skyguy, quick, Obi-Wan is alive, he needs help quick!"
Anakin felt struck by lightning. He sprung up from the floor, leaving his lightsaber where it lay untouched, and bolted out of the room headed towards the public office of the Chancellor.
"Skyguy, your lightsaber!"
A single sentence thrummed through his head. It focused his thoughts and gave him purpose.
Obi-Wan is alive!
He repeated it, then repeated it again in his mind until it was the only thing, he was aware of.
He can ignore what he'd just done. The betrayal he'd just committed. He refused to think about the consequences of his actions because Obi-Wan was alive.
When he arrived at the office, medics were already loading Obi-Wan's body—just Obi-Wan, not his body, Anakin thought—onto a hover-stretcher.
The medics didn't stop him from running over to the stretcher. He took his first real look at Obi-Wan.
Obi-Wan was right-handed. Obi-Wan no longer had a right hand. Or a right arm. Or even really a right side. How his master had lived was a force-damned miracle at this point.
Obi-Wan was alive!
"Please Master... I can't lose you too," his voice was raspy, he didn't like it.
When Ahsoka caught up with his lightsaber in her hand he refused to take it.
He was too scared he'd use it for something awful again.
Perhaps Mace should have contemplated the consequences of storming the office of the Supreme Chancellor, ousting him as a Sith Lord and committing what was, essentially, an assassination against the highest office in the Republic. If you twisted it a certain way, it could even be construed as a member of the military leading other members of the military in a takeover of the Republic's Executive Powers. Also known as a coup.
He should've contemplated that.
Mace liked to think he should be excused for not thinking of such a trivial idea when a Sith Lord was the Supreme Chancellor.
And yet, when members of the Coruscant Guard, Coruscant Security Forces, various members of the military and judiciary and numerous other members milled around the Executive Offices of the Republic, all looking at him in an accusatory manner, it seemed like a slight oversight.
Yoda still hadn't turned up, though he'd sent Jedi to search the area around where Yoda would have taken his several hundred floor fall, and it was becoming quite worrying. Mace more than anyone knew Yoda wasn't invincible, but this situation would've been a hell of a lot easier with the Grandmaster at his side.
Anakin and Ahsoka had left on the medical LAAT with Obi-Wan, Master Tiin's body had been moved by Jedi Consulars to the temple where he'd be lain to rest, and Palpatine's body had been moved off to a morgue.
4 O'clock in the morning and Mace was dealing with politics. Military politics, but politics, nonetheless.
"Commander Fox, I understand the need for clarity and an independence from the Jedi at this time with the investigations. Do not feel that you have lapsed in your duty to protect the Chancellor... this was bigger than you. You will see that."
Fox didn't seem to like that.
"I understand that, Sir, but we'd really like to bring you in for questioning regarding the ...death of the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic."
"Remember, Commander, that the Jedi currently oversee the Republic Military along with members of the Senate, we will be releasing information regarding the situation as it becomes prudent and apparent."
"Yes Sir. If you are a traitor Sir...I will have no reservations taking you in."
Mace sighed, "that, I have never doubted. In the meantime, let's get a slicer team of troopers and investigators besides what the Jedi will be providing. Palpatine was a Sith Lord, no matter how smart he may think he was, he must have left something."
With a quick "Yes Sir," Commander Fox stormed away to talk to his men.
All night he'd dealt with troopers and questions and everything that came after killing a Sith Lord masquerading as the Supreme Chancellor.
If Palpatine had managed to continue pushing reforms and bills limiting the powers of the Jedi... the aftermath of this could have turned out very differently. He almost feared what the galaxy would have looked like.
There was a bill that had just been shot down by the pro-Jedi members of the Senate that would hand the military directly over to the Supreme Chancellor. If that had passed...
But for now, the Jedi and the Senate still held control of the military. With the looks and whispers so far, he would not be surprised if Palpatine's long-laid plans would see them ousted even after his death.
With the death of Palpatine, there was a clarity of vision found in the Force. He could stretch his senses further, see and feel Jedi across the galaxy and even detect and be led by the Force in a way he had not felt since long before the Clone Wars began.
His shatterpoints were immense. The whole world was like splintered glass, stretching out into the Coruscant horizon, each line and fracture a future or possible event. Mace could spend the rest of his life deciphering the impacts of just this moment.
He felt secure in the future of the Jedi more than ever before. There was not a darkness that lingered around everything.
Well, except this office. Now, with clarity of vision, it reeked of the Dark Side. And when Mace had been trying to reach Anakin in his catatonic state, he could nearly see the hooks that Palpatine had planted in young Skywalker for years. It unnerved him to know that Palpatine had been, very likely, grooming Anakin since Anakin had arrived on Coruscant all those years ago.
Looking now, he can't help but notice how broken Anakin was. He was well and truly fractured. Even years with a Jedi Mind Healer might not repair the damage that had so obviously been done.
How had they not noticed? How had none of the members of the council noticed?
Sure, they had seen his recklessness and his unbridled emotion. They had thought Anakin existed solely to spit in the face of Jedi teachings. He was everything a Jedi wasn't. And yet, because of that damned prophecy, they had ignored it.
The prophecy was right, he balanced the Force tonight, a traitorous voice whispered. Mace silenced it.
His cockiness, his blatant disregard for orders, his lust for action and violence.
It was all symptoms of a problem, not a problem itself. Anakin Skywalker was broken a long time ago. He never should have been trained as a Padawan under a newly knighted Obi-Wan.
He certainly should never have been on the front lines of a war.
The Jedi had seemingly failed Skywalker many, many times over the past decade. Mace just hoped that it wasn't too late to fix the past wrongs.
Padme understands that it was unlikely that anyone would reach out to tell her what happened to Anakin.
She understands that the only ones who even know that she should be contacted are Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, and Anakin himself. Obi-Wan who was likely injured or otherwise incapacitated, Ahsoka who likely had her hands full dealing with Anakin, and well, the less said about Anakin's inability to follow clear lines of communication the better.
She understands all this. But pacing back and forth on her balcony, staring towards the Executive Offices, she despises it.
She's scared sick with what might have happened, with what Anakin might have or have not done.
What happened to her friends? To her husband?
She hears the beep from her commlink in her hand. Had she been holding it, waiting for news, the entire time?
It's a written message from Bail Organa, "Palpatine is dead, he's been killed by the Jedi." She tries to feel guilty over the relief that washes over her.
She doesn't hesitate to call Bail.
His hologram appears and he's looking worn and tired. At this time of night, she imagines she looks the same way. He's wearing his characteristic blue Alderaanian dress clothes that look wrinkled.
"Padme?" he says.
"Bail, thank the Force, are you okay?"
He sighs, "Yes, I'm fine. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for our less-than-stable democracy."
"Because of Palpatine?"
Bail seems to age a decade before her eyes. "No. Not because of Palpatine. His twisting of law and abuse of emergency executive powers were bad... but this? The military leaders of the Republic arresting and executing the Supreme Chancellor in the dead of the night?"
"But wasn't Palpatine a Sith Lord?"
"According to the Jedi."
Padme is bewildered. "According to the Jedi? Are the Jedi no longer trustworthy?"
"Padme, it doesn't matter if the Jedi are trustworthy or not. They just rolled into the Executive Chambers of the Head of the Republic and executed him. It doesn't matter if he's a traitor, it doesn't matter if he's a Sith and killed some Jedi, for heaven's sake, it doesn't matter if he's the leader of the Separatists himself!"
Padme doesn't exactly have anything to say about that. Bail looks stressed and honestly, he looks downright scared with what's happened tonight.
"Padme... I don't know how we're going to come back from this in any reasonable way. The backlash from the Senate will likely be... immense."
"What should we do?"
Bail looks down, rubbing his forehead and mumbles under his breath. Looking back up, his face is grim. "We must denounce what the Jedi did here. We've always been friends with them, I am personally on good terms with Grandmaster Yoda himself, but what was done here tonight is wrong. It was a miscarriage of justice."
Padme's can feel her heartbeat increase from those words alone. "What do you think will happen?"
"They'll vote for someone to take the Chancellor's place for the time being. The Jedi will come forward to explain whatever they did tonight. Other than that, I can't really say."
"Who was there? I know of two Jedi Knights, Obi-Wan and Anakin, were they there?"
He nods solemnly. "Yes, the Hero-With-No-Fear was there, as was his Master. A Jedi Master, Master Tiin died, Obi-Wan went away in a medical LAAT with Anakin and Ahsoka. All that's left here is Mace Windu and he's not answering any questions tonight—"
Bail's holocomm goes blurry with static very quickly as he turns away, "Yes, yes I'm leaving, I'm leaving," Bail disappears as a Corsucant Guard in Clone Trooper armor seems to be directing Bail away from where he'd called from, "Sorry, Padme, looks like I'm being escorted off the premises, I'll get back to you in the morning."
Click.
Anakin is alive, Padme thinks.
Padme has no clue what may come, not with the way the world has been shaken in the past 24 hours, but her husband is alive.
And that's all that matters right now.
Mace hadn't gotten a lick of sleep in the past two days. Not once had he been able to meditate or lay his eyes to rest for more than a couple moments before he'd been interrupted with what seemed like the next great fall of the Republic.
From Dooku's death to the reveal of the Chancellor to his death as well.
The Master and the Apprentice. Dead within two days. Such is the will of the Force.
Over the past couple of hours, protesters had started to arrive throughout the morning to outside the Senate building, the Jedi Temple, and down outside the very Executive Building that Sidious was killed.
From sycophants and fans of Palpatine who saw him as the kindly old man who led the Republic, to those who decried to miscarriage of justice and democracy that had occurred last night when the Jedi had arrived to arrest the Chancellor.
As the crowds started to build up, Mace couldn't help but doubt his decision to attempt to keep everything quiet for the time being. It seemed like everyone had found out enough anyways and the silence was being seen as evidence of conspiracy. Of treason.
If something didn't happen soon, there might be a system-wide riot.
Right now, members of the Coruscant Guard and Police were keeping the crowds at bay. More members of the military under the guide of the Jedi.
Mace hadn't had the time to sit down and think about how much power the Jedi truly had at this moment in time. With the war going on, it hadn't ever been a conscious thought of his. He'd spent more time focusing on all the power the Chancellor had been creating for himself.
But the contracts with the Kaminoans were quite clear. The Jedi Order had ordered and purchased a Clone Army. The Jedi Order were its generals and leaders. And Mace Windu himself currently held supreme authority over all military function of the Army and good portions of the Republic Navy.
He had delegated these powers and authorities out to many military leaders and members of the Senate, sure, but all that spoke to say, with the Chancellor dead, Mace Windu was the acting leader of the Grand Army of the Republic.
With the state of what was the functional equivalent of martial law declared, Mace Windu was also the highest operating leader within the Republic. Until the Senate reconvened later this evening, Mace Windu was the leader of the Republic itself.
He was disgusted with himself.
Sadly, that power was extremely useful to stop the arrest of all the Jedi involved in the duel with Sidious. It also allowed him to direct military forces and investigations into the Chancellor looking for the evidence he'd need to absolve himself and the Jedi of the crimes they had committed. It sounded a lot worse when he thought it all out.
Mace hadn't even had the time to mourn and pay respects to Master Tiin. There was a small whole in his heart that he knew he'd have to spend time in the Force meditating over. Master Tiin had many disagreements with Mace over the years, but they had been staunch friends and supporters of each other, and frequently trained and dueled together to keep themselves sharp.
To lose a master swordsperson was bad. To lose a close friend was devastating.
Worse even, Master Yoda still had not been found in the streets below. He had a squad of Jedi Shadows under Master Tholme searching the streets for, hopefully, Master Yoda. And in the worst case, recover his body.
Finally, Obi-Wan was in critical condition and missing nearly the entire right side of his body. It was a miracle that young Master hadn't died in a single instant, let alone survive to be med-evac'd.
Anakin and Ahsoka had gone with him. The former looking sullen and holding onto the hope of his master's living status and the latter coming to terms with the fact that her master may never be the same again.
Other Jedi had since come to help take the body and limbs away, but the evidence of the battle here had not suddenly disappeared. At least three separate investigation teams were rummaging around Palpatine's collection of public and private offices. The Coruscant Guard's, the Jedi's, and whatever mismatched collection of private investigators the Senate had managed to collect this soon.
Mace could feel the eyes of the Courscant Guard on his back, their feelings of distrust and their disquiet palpable from where they stood at the door. The Guard themselves had been jumping between outright accusations and pure submission to his authority over them as a General. Nothing here would turn out well.
The door to the chambers slides open a cluster of Senators walk through the doors escorted by clone troopers. Each senator has a grim look on their face, but Mace can feel in the force that they seem smug and self-assured, if a little disquieted.
The one at the head, a human Senator, opens his mouth to speak, but Mace interrupts first.
"Senators, what can I do to help you?"
The Senator at the front's expression folds into almost a snarl. "Nothing, it would seem. Unless that something is to cut us down with your lightsaber. We are here to ascertain what might have occurred on the premises here between the Jedi and the Supreme Chancellor that might have resulted in his assassination."
Now, Mace was incensed. "I'm sorry Senator, but not only do you have no jurisdiction here, but your outright accusations are unfounded. There's nothing you can do, I operated under my full legal ability. I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
"Perhaps it is time for that to change. If the Jedi think they can overthrow the Republic or start a coup without any repercussions or any way to stop them, then they no longer have the moral acumen to hold the power they do any longer." He smiled at Mace, "I may not have the jurisdiction here, but I can assure you, you won't for long either."
As the group of Senators walk out of the offices, Mace can't help but feel as if he's fallen into a Sith trap. A last laugh from Palpatine to strip the Jedi of power and authority.
Even in death that Sith is still a pain in his ass.
Anakin had spoken to Padme once during the night to reassure her. To tell her that he'd killed Palpatine and that Obi-Wan was alive.
Hearing her voice had grounded him for a moment, made him feel marginally better after all the blood on his hands. It hadn't stayed around for long.
Padme couldn't come to the Jedi Temple Medical Center, and Anakin wasn't planning on leaving Obi-Wan's side until he was sure that his master would survive.
Ahsoka sitting curled up in on herself in a chair across the room, snoring softly. She was dressed in her usual combat gear with her lightsabers on her belt. She held his own lightsaber tightly in her hand as she slept.
She had tried to hand him back the lightsaber multiple times throughout the night, but Anakin could not bring himself to take it. To hold the weapon in his hands. It felt like it was dripping with the blood of his father.
He's been rubbing his hands all night. He can't remember the number of times he's washed and scrubbed them in the medical sink. By now, they're red and sore and dry and yet they still feel dirty with blood. It hurts to look at them, so he keeps his eyes closed.
Anakin had come to a consensus.
He regrets killing Palpatine. He regrets it more than anything else in his life. He regrets it more than the time he was too slow to respond to an attack from the Separatists, where he watched them slaughter a village of innocents. He regrets it more than the times he'd nearly gotten Obi-Wan and Ahsoka killed.
Deep inside himself, he regrets it more than the time he was too late to save his mother. When she died in his arms and he slaughter the men, women, and children of an entire people.
Because then it wasn't just his fault. His mother's last words had been her love for him. She had looked at him as if he hung the stars in the sky.
He remembers the look of utter surprise and betrayal on Palpatine's face.
He wishes he had cut of Windu's head instead.
Then he'd still have Palpatine. Palpatine and Anakin could have healed Obi-Wan. Made him understand.
Instead, Obi-Wan was sitting in a tank of bacta, barely hanging on to life.
And Palpatine was dead.
He's glad Ahsoka is asleep. He can't bring himself to speak to her, but he listens when she talks. He can tell she feels like she's walking on eggshells around him. Sounding out every word she says to him. With her asleep he doesn't have to feel bad about not doing anything about it. Not reassuring her or being the master he's supposed to be for her.
There's no constancy, no balance in Anakin. If this was what he had been born for. If this is what the Force had required, he couldn't help but think that the Force was cruel.
Anakin had spent his entire life trying to save and protect the people that meant the most to him. All of them were either hurt or dead by his actions. It wouldn't be long before Ahsoka left him for not being the master he was supposed to be.
And if Palpatine was right... it wouldn't be long until something happened to Padme too.
Looking into the Force for answers, he finds nothing. Just silence, like every other time he's tried to meditate. He finds Obi-Wan's force presence, so small and weak to its usual nature and listens to beat of Obi-Wans life-force.
He finally fades to sleep to the small, steady thrum of Obi-Wan's heart.