Chapter 26 - Beginning of Chaos

DISCLAIMER: We do not own Star Wars or any of the characters in it, though we wish we did. xD

Author's Note: I have no regrets about the massive cliffhanger at the end. :)

~ Amina Gila

Anakin spins around to look at his padawan. Shock and disbelief don't even begin to encompass his emotions. What was she even thinking? Ahsoka gives him a very nonchalant look as the Sith Lord's body falls to the floor, life rapidly disappearing. He tries to ignore the sudden screaming in his mind of how this was his friend, and he should be angry at her. Something in his mind suddenly feels... wrong. Raw, almost, in a way. And oddly empty, like something was there and out of place. He files the thought away for later contemplation, deciding focusing on his completely insane padawan is far more important.

"It was the only way. If I did it without thinking, he wouldn't see it coming."

"You are aware that that was likely caught on camera, right?" Anakin demands incredulously, voice rising slightly, "And when the guards come in here and see this, you'll be held responsible." As much as he hates it, he knows there's nothing he can do. They have to get out of here, and the sooner the better. At least if Ahsoka is safely at the Temple, the Senate shouldn't be able to reach her. That raises the question of what's going to happen afterwards, because they will be demanding Ahsoka be turned over... and her execution.

"I didn't have the time to consider all that," she argues. "If I'd thought about it even a second longer, he would have sensed it. But at least he's dead now."

Anakin glances around the room one last time, some part of him wanting to remember it. This place was – it wasn't home, or anything like that, but it still gave him a place of belonging. A place of being... wanted, except now he knows it was all fake. It still felt real to him. Why can't it be real for everyone?

"Let's get out of here, Ahsoka," he advises firmly, taking her hand and practically pulling her out the door. The faster they move, the better, because the last thing they need is to be arrested right here and now. First thing, Anakin is going to find Obi-Wan, even if he's admittedly terrified of the reaction they will get. Anakin did seemingly commit treason, and both him and Ahsoka could be killed, never mind how much damage it would cause the Order. Obi-Wan is the only person who might have an idea what to do, if anything, and Anakin needs his help right now.

He wants to feel like home. Obi-Wan – his father – is the only person who can offer the feeling of being protected like he so badly needs right now. It feels childish for him to go running to his former master like this, but what else can he do?

Apparently, the Jedi Master reads their half-panicked expressions before they have a chance to say a word. "What did you do now?" he sighs. Any other time, that tone would sting a lot more than it does now, but Anakin actually knows he did something really stupid, worthy of all the yelling in the galaxy, this time.

"Ahsoka may or may not have decided it would be a great idea to kill Sidious." Anakin gets straight to the point.

"She – you did what?!" Obi-Wan cries.

"I didn't do anything!" Anakin protests. "Ahsoka did!"

"What happened?" Obi-Wan demands urgently, turning to his padawan. He doesn't seem angry, just a little freaked out. More than a little, on second thought.

"I had the thought," Ahsoka says, practically squirming, "That I could kill Sidious. He was facing away from me so he'd never know, and I knew it was the only opportunity we might get."

Obi-Wan looks on the verge of launching into a long lecture, but thankfully refrains. "I will go speak to the Council immediately. The word may already be out. Until further notice, Ahsoka better stay in your apartment, Anakin. I don't know how the other Jedi will react. Most of them don't know who Sidious was."

Anakin nods. Of course. Turning, they take off down the hall. There's hardly a moment to waste.

"We will be having a talk about this later," Obi-Wan calls after, sounding vaguely threatening. Oh, yes, he knows.

**w**

"Maybe we should check the holonet?" Anakin suggests finally. They've been pacing around the apartment in relative silence since they got here. Really, there's nothing to say. Ahsoka will be blamed, and he'll share almost as much of the guilt for standing by. The news is probably getting everywhere already.

Ahsoka shakes her head. "No. I don't want to know."

Suddenly, Anakin's comm starts beeping. It's Padme. Well, if that doesn't show that the word is out... He answers the call, and a hologram of a very frustrated, worried, and completely confused Senator appears. "Anakin, why am I hearing rumors that Ahsoka killed the Chancellor?" is the first thing out of her mouth.

"Because she did?" he supplies lamely. He'd much rather be having this conversation in person, but that's not possible right now. But he knows – or at least hopes – the line is secured, and they can hardly leave the Temple to talk to her.

"What? Why?" cries Padme.

"He's the Sith Lord behind the war," explains Ahsoka.

"He – what – he's a Sith Lord?" she exclaims, emotions ranging from shock to anger flickering across her face. He can feel them so clearly in the Force, and he wishes there was something he could do to calm her. There's nothing. It's the reality, and nothing in the galaxy he could do would change it.

"Yes," Ahsoka confirms, "He's been manipulating both sides of the war from the beginning."

"Ahsoka kind of decided to act on a spur of the moment with no thought to the consequences," Anakin interjects, "What's the situation?"

"The Senate is in uproar. They are demanding Ahsoka be handed over for trial," Padme replies. "The Jedi Council is currently negotiating with them. I'm not sure what the outcome will be."

"Couldn't we give them proof he's a Sith?" Anakin asks.

"You'd have to talk to the Council," she answers with a sigh, "I don't know if there even is any evidence. I imagine that's their biggest issue right now."

Suddenly, the apartment door slides open and Obi-Wan enters, looking grimmer than Anakin's ever seen him. This does not bode well.

"I'll call you back," Anakin says hastily and disconnects the call with Padme.

"What's happening?" Ahsoka beats Anakin to the question. Partly because he'd also rather not know.

"The Council has informed the Senate that Palpatine was the Sith, but because there's not really much evidence, many of the Senators don't believe it, or insist that that it does not justify killing him without a trial. The Council has managed to convince the Senate to let them keep you here while waiting for trial if you're really dangerous," Obi-Wan tells her, "And to keep an eye on Anakin. But we have no real evidence yet to back up the claim he was Sidious beyond your word, which doesn't mean much when you're accused of his murder. No matter how we argue it, it was treason."

"Great," Anakin groans, the enormity of the situation only beginning to catch up with him. So, there is no way out of this. What's even going to happen to either of them now? Unless they're able to convince the Senate that the Chancellor was, in fact, the Sith Lord they're going to end up on trial, and probably dead. Even after the Senate accept the truth – assuming they do – it might not even matter. He doesn't even want to know what will happen then. What will can they even do? Go on the run and go into hiding for the rest of their lives? That's better than being executed for trying to help the galaxy, but...

"What's happening with the investigation of the biochips?" Anakin inquires finally. It's best to distract himself with something else. At least if they can get the information about that, there might be something useful implicating Palpatine, and while that won't absolve Ahsoka of her crime, at least it might lessen her punishment. And it's something that has a positive outlook. Although if Sidious is dead, it might not be so urgent for them to take care of. Even so, he doesn't want to take the risk.

"They checked several other clones. It seems like all of them have the chips," Obi-Wan responds gravely, "From the looks of it, Echo's malfunctioned in advance, while the others have not."

"Who created the clones in the first place?" Ahsoka questions with a frown.

"That is something the Council has never quite been able to figure out," replies Obi-Wan, "But Jango Fett said he was hired by someone named Tyranus."

Ahsoka freezes. "Oh. Oh. Well, that explains everything then."

"What?" demands Anakin.

"Tyranus is Dooku's Sith name," she explains.

And that means... Oh. Of course. Palpatine probably ordered Dooku to have the clones created as an army for the Republic, simply for the sake of destroying the Jedi. Is that why he initiated the entire war in the first place, to lead the Jedi into a trap like this? And along the way rip apart the entire galaxy with war, not to mention all the clones who have been pointlessly killed, so that someday Sidious could take control of them and destroy the Jedi. If he wasn't already dead, Anakin would go kill him again right now. For everything he's done or could have done, his death was far too satisfying. He ignores the sudden spike of guilt. Sidious was evil. He deserved to die, and it doesn't make sense for Anakin to feel guilty about it. What's wrong with him?

"I need to inform the Council of this," Obi-Wan declares gravely.

"We should start de-chipping the clones," Anakin warns. "I have a bad feeling about everything right now." He suddenly can't shake the feeling of impending doom. For whatever reason, he's pretty sure it has to do with more than that the Senate is demanding that he and Ahsoka be put on trial.

His anger spikes as he realizes the fact that Ahsoka acting of her own was to the Council's advantage. Sidious is gone, and it would be so much easier to turn her over to take the fall for everything, even if she was innocent, than to take it with her. It's for the "greater good" after all, even if it will mean the execution of a teenager and... he doesn't know what would happen to him. He tries to banish the thought as quickly as it comes and tell himself that the Council would never do that, but he's quite certain they would.

"So, what's the Council planning to do? Just let the Senate have what they want?" Anakin demands. Best to ask than wonder.

"No," Obi-Wan assures him, "But we haven't decided what we are going to do. This is an extremely delicate situation, and it will take time to reach a decision."

"We'll stay here and keep waiting for an update I guess," Ahsoka sighs.

Obi-Wan nods. "I'm going to go speak to the Council about the situation with the clones now. I'll come back later to give you an update on what's happening." He heads out of the apartment, leaving the pair in a tense silence.

**w**

"I spoke with Anakin and Ahsoka about the situation with the clones," Obi-Wan informs the Council. "According to Ahsoka, Dooku's Sith name is Tyranus."

A ripple of shock runs through everyone seated in the Council chambers.

"You believe that Dooku may be behind the creation of the clone army?" asks Windu.

"It appears so," confirms Obi-Wan.

"Runs far deeper than we could have imagined, this plot does," murmurs Yoda at last.

"Even with Sidious dead, the chips in the clones could still be used against us," Obi-Wan points out, "We must start removing them as soon as possible."

"Of course," agrees Shaak Ti.

"Move quickly we must, or too late, we may be," murmurs Yoda gravely. For whatever reason, Obi-Wan gets the impression that the Grandmaster might be sensing something in the very near future. He's never been good at any form of precognitive abilities himself, but somehow, he's been getting the same lingering sensation himself. Everything is falling apart around them, and Obi-Wan simply doesn't know what to do.

"Ahsoka has mentioned before that Sidious has been intentionally working to keep the war going until he reaches his goal," Obi-Wan adds. "Perhaps we should try negotiating a deal with the Separatists and bringing an end to this war." It's something they need to consider, though it has no bearing on what to do with Ahsoka. Or about Anakin. He's worried for them both. In a worst-case scenario, he knows they could be executed, something he'll fight against at all costs. He doesn't want Anakin to suffer such a fate.

Mundi nods in agreement. "This war gets less popular every day among the people."

"Unless Dooku wants to continue the war, we should be able to bring it to a rapid conclusion," Fisto asserts.

"Which brings us back to what we will do about the Senate's demands for Tano and Skywalker," Plo declares.

"Perhaps we should attempt to find more evidence to prove to the Senators who doesn't believe that he was the Sith," proposes Gallia. Something that's far easier said than done. They've already been working all this time, and even though they've gathered a lot of evidence against him, it's not necessarily enough to prove anything. At least not if no one's going to take Ahsoka's word as evidence as well.

"But where would we start?" asks Plo rhetorically. "Dooku would never agree to testify against him. And even if he did, the Senate would not take his word for it."

"Even if we did manage to convince the Senate that Palpatine was Sidious, some will still demand justice for his death without even a trial, as they are now," points out Koth.

"We must do something," Obi-Wan objects. He's not willing to sit by and watch. While it is the easiest way out to give the Senate what they want, he won't accept a demand that will likely result in Anakin's death. He knows that when the time comes, he will have to let him go, but not like this.

"Discuss this matter more in the morning, we shall," Yoda decides grimly. "Meditate on this matter, we should. Dechipping the clones, we must begin. In our decision, may the Force guide us."

**w**

With Obi-Wan gone, Anakin resumes passing around the main room of the apartment. Considering the bad feeling he has about the future and with everything going on now, he probably should try meditating or something, but he's pretty sure it would be a completely fruitless exercise. There's no way he'd be able to do that right now.

Everything feels of tension and chaos. The Republic is quite literally on the verge of falling apart, and if they don't do something soon, he and Ahsoka will be considered responsible for everything that is about to happen. Why did they ever have to get in this situation? He's worried about what will happen in the Clone Wars now, too, though that should probably be the least of his worries. A new Chancellor will take over, and who knows how things will proceed then? But at least now if Sidious is dead, the war will probably start coming to an end. Provided Dooku doesn't do something about it, that is. Either way, the Separatists no longer have their practically-spy in the Republic to manipulate everything in their favor anymore.

But right now, that hardly matters. Anakin's biggest concern is what the Senate is going to do. Surely the Council won't turn them over to the Senate – he hopes they wouldn't do that – but it's certainly not impossible the Senate will become upset. Anakin almost wishes that it had been him who killed the Sith Lord. At least he'd feel a lot better if he knew Ahsoka was safe, and it was only him in danger. He finds himself wondering if there's not a way for them to sneak off the planet somehow, so they can stay elsewhere until everything here has been sorted out and died down. It's probably impossible.

"Skyguy?" Ahsoka asks at last. "It's getting late. Maybe we should try to go to bed."

"Sure," he grumbles, not even bothering to ask if she wants to eat anything first. It would be pointless. Neither of them would manage it. Not like sleeping would go over very well right now, though, either.

After another few minutes, they head off to their separate rooms. Just as he predicted, Anakin can't even think about sleep. Everything is far, far too tense. Something is about to happen, and he has the very bad feeling it's something far beyond the turmoil the Senate could cause. It's something dark, something bad. Now he can't help but wonder if there wasn't some sort of contingency plan for what would happen if Sidious was killed. What if everything is about to fall apart? After all, the Sith had been working on creating an Empire and destroying the Jedi for a thousand years. There's no way there couldn't be some sort of back-up plan.

The harder he thinks about it, the more certain he gets. Something is going to happen. It's going to, but Anakin doesn't know what. He almost wishes he could have gone over to stay with Padme, but not only is his going outside dangerous for himself, but also Ahsoka. He's not willing to leave her here alone. He won't risk her like that.

Finally, Anakin gets out of bed, stepping over to where he left his latest droid project halfway completed. At least this will be more productive than rolling around in bed with no chance of finding sleep. The more time goes by, the more he knows something is dreadfully wrong, but there isn't anything he can do about it. It might do him some good to at least get his mind onto something else for a while.

His bedroom door suddenly slides open a while later, startling him from where he is engrossed in the mechanism. He looks up to see Ahsoka standing in the doorway.

"Hey, Snips."

"Can't sleep?" she asks.

"How could I?" he asks.

She crosses the room, taking a seat next to him. "Me neither. Mind if I stay here?"

Anakin glances up from his work. "Of course not." Not like either of them will be getting any sleep tonight, it seems. He returns to his tinkering, and after a few moments, Ahsoka moves forwards to join him.

As they work, his mind returns to something he'd felt earlier. The strange sensation right after Sidious died. He doesn't know what it was, and the only thing that comes to mind scares him more than he would ever admit. "What does it feel like when a bond breaks?" he asks quietly.

"That's a hard question answer." She frowns thoughtfully. "I've only had a few, none of them very strong. Your mind feels empty at first, but it's fine again overnight. It takes time to rearrange the remaining bonds to fill the gap. Why?"

He doesn't want to answer. Somehow, it seems to slip out, anyway. "I had a bond with Sidious. It... was fairly strong, even if he was concealing it. I should've pinpointed it a long time ago."

How much could he have avoided, had he been a little more observant? He'll never know, but the sudden depressing guilt feels as though it's crushing him. Too much has happened in too short a time, and he needs a break.

"You can't blame yourself," Ahsoka retorts. "If Sidious could fool the Council, of course he could fool a young child."

Anakin shakes his head and looks away. She doesn't understand. It was his duty, his destiny to destroy the Sith, and it seems like Ahsoka's taken on that role, not to mention he's been too oblivious the entire time to do anything useful. She can say what she wants, but it still feels like he failed. Pathetically.

They stay there together in mostly silence for hours. Anakin idly contemplates calling Padme but decides against it. She's probably sleeping right now, and if she isn't, she's working on attempting to calm down the Senate or at least somewhat trying to straighten out the chaos.

The sky is slowly beginning to get light, and the horizon is starting to change color when Anakin senses the disturbance in the Force. Whatever is about to happen is beginning right now.

"Perhaps we should go attempt to eat?" Ahsoka suggests. Unlikely they'll be able to, but Anakin doesn't say so. He knows she's right. The tension in the air is becoming almost unbearably suffocating now.

Right when they head out to the main room, the door to their apartment suddenly opens and Obi-Wan steps in, expression the gravest Anakin's ever seen, graver than it was the previous afternoon. He answers the question before Anakin even has time to ask. "The Separatist fleet has just come out of hyperspace over Coruscant, and they're preparing to attack."

**w**

Chancellor Palpatine is dead.

Of all urgent news from Coruscant, that was one thing Dooku was not expecting. He would almost think it was a trick, another one of his master's schemes about which he was never told, if not for the Force telling him otherwise. Sidious is actually dead. It was as much a shock to hear that his former assassin, Ahsoka, had been the one to take him down. If he knew it would be that simple, he would have done it himself a long time ago.

And that means that Dooku is now the Master of the Sith. He can take the actions he deems necessary to rule the galaxy as he sees fit. A chance to end the corrupt system of the Republic that calls itself a democracy, and finally, to establish a new Sith Empire that won't fall this time like before.

That brings to mind the next action he must take. Though he may not want to carry through with this part of the plan, there is no other choice. The Jedi are the only ones between him and the everlasting Empire. He knows the Jedi are too corrupted to change; that's what prompted him to leave years ago.

He knows the actions he must take now. With the Chancellor gone, the Republic is undoubtedly in the midst of panic and chaos. He has to act before they start regaining a semblance of order. The Clone Army will take orders from him due to the chips. Now it is time. He will destroy the Jedi, and make sure Skywalker goes down with them.

By the next morning, Coruscant will find itself under attack right before their own army turns against them. And before they know it, all the Jedi will be gone. In the midst of the chaos, Dooku will step in and assume control, as he always intended.

The sun is rising over the Temple on Coruscant when the Separatist fleet, with Dooku and Grievous on board, comes out of hyperspace above the planet and immediately attack the Republic cruisers orbiting the planet.

Dooku moves to a viewport in the main room of his ship, the Invisible Hand, watching as chaos breaks loose outside. The Republic cruisers start firing back at the Separatists.

He waits patiently until he can see in the distance, shuttles transporting Jedi up into space to join the battle. They will be spreading out across the planet, as he had planned. The time has come. At last.

Dooku steps into his room on the ship, dialing in the special code to give him access to all communications with the clone commanders.

"Execute Order 66."

Final Notes: If you want to join our Discord to receive updates or just hang out, here's the invite link, and please delete the spaces! :) discord . gg / nqSxuz2

We also have a tumblr account (and delete the spaces): fanfictasia . tumblr . com

And! We have a YT channel for tributes! Please delete the spaces in the link. :D youtube channel / UC_g1M5rSCxJUzQCRS29B6pA

Finally, if you're interested, you can submit a SW gift fic request via the following form (delete the spaces): forms . gle / rmXWtRomMMaULuPa6