Chapter 35 – Off the Front

DISCLAIMER: We do not own Star Wars, even if we wish we did. xD

Author's Note: In which the Trio face the Council and the repercussions of their actions... ;)

~ Amina Gila

Apprehension is rapidly mounting inside of me as walk through the hallways of the Jedi Temple to the Council chambers. From what we'd seen, Coruscant appears to be in an uproar. What have I caused? All I know is that from the feel of it – and through using logic – we're in seriously trouble. And possibly not only with the Council. Perfect.

As the doors slides open and we step into the room, the grave expressions of every member on the Council only serves to make me even more worried. What did we do? Why did I ever think that was a good idea?

"A serious mistake you have made," Yoda warns us sounding graver then I've heard him in a long time, "Spoken with us about your plan first, you should have. By exposing that we know who he is, a potential disaster you have set in motion."

As Anakin opens his mouth to speak, Obi-Wan interrupts. "What happened here?"

Windu's glare is severe enough to scare anyone but us. His thoughts of 'what possessed you to do something so stupid?!' is practically screaming through the Force. "Palpatine returned with the news that the three of you attempted to kill him, while Shaak Ti was defending him. He claims that she was able to hold you off until he got into an escape pod after which he saw you kill her. He insists that you must have Fallen to the Dark Side and possibly allied yourselves with Count Dooku."

Not again. I better not be accused of treason against the Republic a second time. And it'll be so much worse if I pulled my master and Obi-Wan into all this. I feel strangely numb as I stand in the center of the room, feeling almost as though we're about to hear our own death sentence. It reminds me altogether too much of that day hardly any time in the past but also a lifetime ago.

"Although there is obviously no evidence to back up his story beyond what he said, there's nothing to prove that he's the Sith Lord," continues Plo. I shift uncomfortably. I don't like their tones at all, and I'm getting the distinct feeling that whatever news they're about to tell us – and are taking an unnecessarily long time about – is extremely serious. Hopefully, we're not about to be thrown out of the Order and turned over to the Senate for trial. They couldn't risk something like that. But then again, they did last time, so who's to say they won't do it again?

"In order to calm the Senate, we have informed him that we will investigate the matter," continues Windu.

"But forces us, this does, to make a decision we do not want to," Yoda continues. My stomach plummets to the bottom of my boots, maybe lower, as I nearly hold my breath waiting for the decision sure to come.

"The three of you will be taken off the front lines and put on a meditative leave, effective immediately. Master Kenobi, I regret to inform you that you will be temporarily removed from the Council," Windu declares.

For a moment, we're all stunned into silence. It's better than I thought it would be, to be honest. At least they're showing some concern about what happens to us. They reacted in their own best interests by taking us off the front, trying to maintain their public opinion, but that puts the Republic largely at risk. Anakin and Obi-Wan are the best fighters out there, and without us on the fronts, who knows what will happen?

I wonder now why I even gave that suggestion. It was probably the stupidest, most reckless thing I've done in my life. I could have gotten us all killed. Even if we're still alive for now, we could easily be executed by Sidious if he wanted us to be, especially since we won't be at the Temple for protection. And I might even have ruined all possibilities of killing Sidious before he completes his plans. If we could redo that... I never would have suggested it. If I hadn't told Anakin about what happened in the past... well, I did what I did, and there's no going back now.

"How can you do this?" Anakin snaps, suddenly breaking the gloomy silence that had settled over the room. "We're needed on the front. This isn't going to help the situation. Did no one seriously raise the question on how he could be totally uninjured if we all tried to kill him?"

"It's my fault, Master," I state quietly, my gaze riveted on the floor, "It was my idea, and if I hadn't told you everything I did, we wouldn't be in this mess."

"An unfortunate turn of events this is," Yoda says finally, "But placed the Jedi in a dangerous position, your actions have. Aware Sidious now is that know his identity we do." Which is the biggest problem of all. It's like both sides of this are playing a very intricate chess game while openly pretending to know nothing is wrong, and the only question is who is going to reach their goal first? For that matter, what is Sidious even waiting for to issue Order 66 and start his empire? I think I'd prefer not to know.

"You need to avoid endangering yourselves further," cautions Windu – as if he cares, "In the meantime, we will work on obtaining enough evidence against the Chancellor, as well as secretly de-chipping the clones."

"I can't believe they did that," Anakin grumbles as we walk through the halls towards the exit of the Temple.

"I can," I reply, glancing at him. "They're just trying to protect themselves and not lose their place as the leaders of the war. Just like they did when they handed me over to the Senate for trial. They just wanted the approval of the Senate and Republic." I pause for a moment, before continuing. "During my time in the future, I did a lot of meditating on everything that happened. I realized the Jedi don't fully understand the Force. Nor do the Sith."

"What do you mean?" asks Anakin, raising an eyebrow at me.

"The Jedi fear and condemn the use of the Dark Side, while only using the Light Side. The Sith, of course, are practically slaves of the Dark Side. Both sides have forgotten the Force is as it is. Everything is the Force, and there's a balance point between both everyone needs to find. What they both don't understand is that neither side can exist without the other, and the more people on one side without using the other, the more imbalanced the Force becomes."

"So... bringing balance to the Force means what exactly?" he queries.

"I think there needs to be more people who use both sides," I tell him slowly.

"So, you're recommending a major overhaul in the beliefs of the Jedi Order?" Obi-Wan inquires.

"Yes, I guess so," I confirm. That's the only way the Force will ever be in balance, even when the Sith are destroyed.

"I can't imagine they'll be very receptive to hearing that," Anakin remarks dryly.

"No," I agree, "They won't be. But that's not something will be able to address anyway until we get off meditative leave and Sidious is destroyed. Right now, changing the ways of the Jedi is the last thing the Council will be worried about."

"Perhaps during this time we can work on try finding more evidence against Sidious," offers Obi-Wan, trying to be optimistic.

"Where would we even start?" I ask, "It's not like we can just sneak around in his office or eavesdrop. It's not that simple. We'd never even be allowed in the Senate anymore."

"First of all, let's go to Padme's apartment. We need to stay somewhere that's not at the Temple and that's the best option," suggests Anakin.

"And perhaps she will have some ideas," Obi-Wan adds.

"Though without endangering herself, I'm not sure what she could do," I sigh, really wishing that I hadn't suggested such a rash plan. This made everything so much more difficult and dangerous for everyone. But there's no going back now, so we'll have to deal with it.

As we step outside the Temple, I get the distinct feeling we won't be here again for a while. And when we do, whether for better or worse, the world will be nothing like we now know it.

**w**

"What is going on? Why am I hearing rumors about you attempting to assassinate the Chancellor and being under investigation?" demands Padme, worry and confusion obvious in her brown eyes. Of course. She has no idea who he is.

"Those rumors would be correct," Anakin confirms.

"Mainly with Ahsoka's help, we've found out that the Chancellor is the Sith Lord behind the war," explains Obi-Wan.

"And our foolishly executed plan of elimination worked out splendidly, as you can tell," I chirp.

By the time we're done explaining, Padme's expression borders on horrified. "How did you find such a thing out, and what were you thinking trying something so foolish?" She seems to be about two seconds from hitting all of us for our stupidity.

"I believe that's something Ahsoka may want to tell you," Anakin declares as we take seats in the living room.

"The night before I rejoined the Order," I begin, "I had a very detailed vision of the future. Like I time traveled."

"Time traveled?" she echoes, still clearly struggling to comprehend everything we just told her.

I nod. "I went to about twenty years into the future and found out what everything that was going to happen... from Palpatine turning the Republic into a Sith Empire to –"

"An empire?" cries Padme, horrified, "How could he do that? With the Jedi around?"

"That's the thing," I state grimly, "He couldn't, so he had them all eliminated... through the clone armies. They were engineered by the Sith and have a chip implanted in them that, when given the order by the Chancellor, will force them turn on the Jedi and kill them. That's what almost happened to me in the last mission since one of the clone's chips malfunctioned. With that information, plus what I told them about my vision, we were able to figure out who Sidious was."

"But you needed more conclusive evidence to do anything, so you decided to take matters into your own hands," concludes Padme with a sigh. "Anakin, was this your idea?"

"Why does it always have to be my fault?" he complains.

"This time it was my idea, actually," I reply.

She sighs exasperatedly. "I see you learned subtlety from Anakin."

"Hey!" he protests, giving her a half-hearted glare. I can't help but chuckle.

"Of course, this made Sidious aware we know of his identity," Obi-Wan continues, interrupting the argument before it can start, "So the Council decided to send us on a meditative leave, but we were wondering if there is anything you could do to try and collect evidence against the Chancellor – while being discreet about it this time."

Padme frowns contemplatively for a long moment before replying. "There already is some suspicious evidence about his actions in the Senate – like decisions that appear to be discreetly made to keep the war going, if one is paying close enough attention – but alone, it's not going to be enough to prove anything." Wonderful. He's covering his tracks way too well.

"Be careful whatever you do," warns Anakin.

"Of course," Padme nods, "But it's my duty to ensure that he is uncovered, so I will do what I need to – with taking necessary precautions."

"Just remember he can feel your intentions," I warn, "So be careful what you think near him."

**w**

"Did Anakin ever tell you that you had twins in the future I saw?" I inquire of Padme as I recline lazily on a couch in her living room. We've been here for a few days now, and while I don't mind the break from the action, it's going to become incredibly boring. Especially when there's nothing we can do at the moment against Sidious, and I don't like sitting around when the galaxy is falling apart. The one nice aspect of the situation though is that it's keeping Anakin away from Sidious.

"Twins?!" exclaims Padme in surprise. Evidently, he didn't.

"When I was in the future, I met your twins," I tell her.

"Tell me about them," she requests.

"They were named Luke and Leia," I begin, "Leia was very much like you – looks and personality. She was just like you but with Anakin's temper." Anakin glances up from where he is in the corner, tinkering with some mechanical parts. I guess I have his attention now too.

I pause for a moment reflecting, "I spent a lot more time around Luke, though. When I first got there, I was seriously scared for the future of the Jedi Order. He was so undertrained it wasn't even funny." I catch myself before saying that the only Jedi left to train him was Yoda and just skip that part, so Anakin won't start asking questions. "I spent most of the time training him."

"Wait, so you had a padawan when you were still a padawan?" says Obi-Wan, looking up from the datapad he's been busy on.

I smirk slightly. "I did. And that means Luke became a Jedi Knight before I even did. But technically, I was about to be Knighted anyway." The irony.

"Was Leia trained too?" asks Anakin.

I shake my head. "She would have been, probably, but I came back here before she could have been. They were separated, so Leia didn't even know she was Force sensitive for a long time," I continue, "Luke was raised with Anakin's family on Tatooine..." The family I never knew he had there. I cast a sideways glance at him in time to see a shadow cross his face. I want to ask, but from his expression I decide against it. I doubt he'd answer anything about it right now anyway.

"And Leia was raised on Alderaan by Bail..." I grimace remembering how the planet had been blown up by the Death Star.

"What happened to Anakin and me?" asks Padme, presumably wondering why they weren't raising the twins.

I instantly regret bringing this up. How am I supposed to tell her she died? "When they were born, you died," I say finally, "Everyone thought Anakin was dead too."