Fifty chapters! Unreal. Thank you very much to all you battlers who are still here reading. It means a great deal.
They argued the entire walk home, as stray members of the paparazzi snapped photographs from indiscreet hiding spots.
"Anakin, I know that Master Yoda has asked something very difficult of you," Obi Wan reasoned. "Truly, I do. I know it's never been your style to sit back and watch and I know that this is scary but-"
"But what?" Anakin appealed, throwing up his hands.
"But it's a delicate task and one that will be best performed by Master Yoda for now," Obi Wan intoned firmly. "If anything changes, Anakin, you know he'll call us."
Anakin shook his head, expression dark.
"I don't think that's likely."
"I do," Obi Wan countered. "I think he appreciates our trust in him and that he will extend the same trust to us."
Anakin made a noise of scepticism and waved his hand so that a curtain fell down over a window through which someone was taking his photograph.
"It's not superfluous use of the Force," he grumbled.
"I wasn't going to say that it was."
They walked in uncomfortable silence. Obi Wan changed tack.
"If the world ends, Anakin," he implored. "If the galaxy implodes and there is nothing that Master Yoda or anyone else can do about it… how do you want to have spent the time before it did?"
Anakin did not answer him.
"I know how much you love Padme, Anakin. And the war's been going on as long as you've been married. You've had so little uninterrupted time together. This could be your opportunity now. Go to Naboo if you can, if the Queen will allow Padme some leave, and take some time to be with each other."
"Thank you for your interest in the state of my marriage," Anakin countered sourly, "but-"
"When Maul had Satine in his grasp, Anakin, all I could think of was how we hadn't had enough time together."
Anakin was unsoftened by the emotional plea.
"I'm not interested in having the galaxy implode in the first place, Obi Wan. I'm not letting that happen."
They were going in circles. Obi Wan groaned and reiterated his point.
"We can't fix this, Anakin, you and I. We're not powerful enough. Dooku told you as much."
"We can," Anakin gritted out. "You might think you're powerless but I don't. I'm the Chosen One, for kriff's sakes. If I don't fix this, who will?"
And Obi Wan didn't know what to say anymore.
"Do you still believe it?" Anakin pressed. "That I will be the one to bring balance to the Force?"
Obi Wan breathed heavily and wished that his Master was with him.
What did you mean, Qui Gon Jinn? What did you see?
Obi Wan looked at the young man before him. What did he see?
Weary eyes, lengthening hair. Nails bit down to the quicks. Engine oil on his pants. And fierce, protective love shining all around him in the Force.
"I think that you are extraordinary, Anakin," Obi Wan managed. "You always have been. And your greatest gift has always been your goodness. Your righteousness. Your determination to protect those who are not strong."
He rubbed a weary hand over his face.
"We need you to survive, Anakin," he went on. "The galaxy needs you. So, you need to let Master Yoda help us. You cannot charge alone into a battle that is beyond your current strength. You are young still, Anakin. There is plenty of time to be the Chosen One."
Anakin grimaced and shook his head but said nothing further. They had arrived at the apartment building.
"Perhaps talking to Padme about it will help," Obi Wan suggested.
They rose through floor after floor in the elevator, Anakin stoic and silent still. When they entered the apartment they found Satine and Padme huddled on the couch with their legs tucked beneath them. Satine was rubbing Padme's back.
"Ah, good timing!" Satine greeted them promptly. "Obi Wan, we're on dinner duty. Let's go find some takeaway."
Obi Wan almost protested – there were reporters and photographers outside, they could afford to have something delivered – but he quickly understood the meaning hidden in Satine's abrupt suggestion. She had risen immediately from the couch.
"We could go to Dex's!" he suggested cheerfully, gathering Satine's cloak from the hook by the door and proffering it to her.
"Why must it always be Dex's?" Satine groaned, accepting the cloak. "Do you know how much culinary variety Coruscant has to offer? And yet, time after time, we go only to Dex's."
"Why seek variety when perfection exists, my dear?"
They were reciting the argument without feeling, a performance to fill the silence until they closed the apartment door behind them.
"What is it?" Obi Wan asked quietly as they approached the elevators once more. "What happened?"
Satine hesitated, then mimed a pregnant belly.
"Oh, kriff," Obi Wan groaned.
"That is an entirely unhelpful attitude," she reprimanded him coolly.
Obi Wan lifted his hands to appeal in his defence.
"It's not exactly good timing, Satine," he protested. "Anakin has more than enough to worry about right now."
"Korkie wasn't exactly good timing either," she countered. "At a time when you and I both had plenty to worry about. And he worked out just fine."
She took his hand in her own.
"They just need our support, Obi Wan."
Obi Wan nodded heavily. The timing was horrible and they had the impending end of the world as they knew it to worry about. But Satine was right. He could not ask himself whether baby would even be born into a galaxy with Jedi and the Republic.
There was no fear, only love.
A new code, perhaps.
"So what does that make us?" he asked, lightening the situation. "Grandparents?"
This comment had the desired effect; Satine appeared sufficiently horrified.
"We are in our thirties, Obi Wan," she reminded him sternly. "Aunty and Uncle, I should think."
There was the snap of a camera or two as they exited the apartment building – the photographers had seemingly established a vigil at the front entrance – but they weren't quite so irritating as they had been earlier.
"You know, Korkie would be well capable of giving us grandchildren before we graduated our thirties…"
"You are just trying to upset me now," Satine admonished him, folding her arms but unable to stifle her smile.
They went to Dex's. There was no need to seek variety. They had found perfection already.
Anakin was aware – heavily and shamefully aware – as he sat beside his wife on the couch that he had not been good enough to her in the weeks gone past. Padme was everything good in this galaxy and Anakin never wanted to dirty her with the darkness inside of him. His fear, his anger, his shame. He kept it all from her. He kept it all from her but sometimes that was all he had, all that he was, and in those times he gave her nothing.
"I'm sorry, Angel," he murmured, wrapping an arm around her. "It's been a tough few months, hasn't it?"
Padme nodded mutely. Anakin could see the puffiness around her eyes. She had been crying. She had been crying to Satine because he hadn't been there for her and the knowledge of it was piercingly wounding to him.
"I'm so sorry," he whispered again, landing his lips upon her head.
She looked up at him.
"It's not your fault, Ani."
She took a steadying breath.
"I have something to tell you and it was frightening for me at first but it's good news, Ani, it truly is."
And just as the pieces had finally clicked when Anakin had rounded the corner towards the Duchess's bedroom at nine years old, just as those faint feelings of light and warmth had finally begun to take shape, to hold meaning, Anakin's eyes widened and he understood.
"I'm pregnant."
"You're pregnant."
They had spoken at the same time. Padme laughed and Anakin wrapped her tighter in his arms. He tucked her face against his chest and tried to make sense of it all. The world was going to end and yet…
"We're going to have a baby," he murmured.
"Twins," Padme corrected him.
Anakin made some faint noise of amazement in his throat. He could not find words. Twins.
The world was going to end and he was going to have two babies.
"That's…"
Fear, rising inside him. He pushed it down.
"That's wonderful, Padme."
"You think so?"
"I do."
It was wonderful and terrible. A reason to save the galaxy and a reason not to kill himself doing it. Someone new to love. Someone new to fail.
Anakin reached for their faint presences in the Force. He loved them so incredibly hard already.
"I was hoping to have them at home on Naboo," Padme ventured. "I haven't spoken to the Queen yet, I don't know whether I'll be allowed to continue to serve…"
"We should go to Naboo," Anakin agreed.
Stars. He'd hardly been keen on the idea earlier but this changed everything. They would go to Naboo and they would look after each other and no matter what happened they would survive.
"We'll see if we can bring my mother over to visit," he went on. "We'll have all the family around us. We'll be together. We'll be safe."
Padme lifted her chin sharply to look at him.
"Safe?"
There was a faint crease of worry in her brow.
"What's all this talk about being safe, Ani? For weeks it's been on your mind. I don't understand you. We're winning this war."
Anakin sighed heavily and tucked his chin atop her head.
"We'll talk about it all tomorrow, Padme. I promise. But for now… let's have this moment. Please. To be happy."
Padme hesitated, then acquiesced.
"They're going to be safe, Ani," she murmured. "All of us. It's going to be okay."
She didn't understand. She didn't know. And that, too, was his fault. Anakin held her tightly.
"I know, Angel."
Barriss had not been caught but she'd not exactly been successful either. There had been deaths and media coverage and the funeral and then… well, business as usual. Stars. The Jedi disgusted her more with each day that passed. They did not truly mourn their dead. They threw themselves into battle after battle on system after system and they fought not for peace – for how could there be peace in this endlessness of war? – nor for the Light. They fought for power. Territory. The maintenance of their authority in a corrupt Republic.
She could barely breathe but for the hatred these days. It rose like poison in her throat. Barriss was not proud of it nor did she enjoy it. But it was inescapable. The truth of the Jedi's crimes were all around her and she could not – would not – relinquish her anger.
Master Unduli used to help her find peace. When Barriss was young and the galaxy was simple. Jedi good, Sith bad. Peace good, war bad. Long ago, when the Jedi Temple was a place of learning and growing and life was still precious.
Now, Luminara chased battles like the rest of them. Where was she now? Geonosis? Kashyyyk? It didn't matter. She wasn't where Barriss needed her and she hadn't been for a long time.
So what to do now?
The answer, of course, was to grow stronger. Strike harder. Wound them with a blow they would not so easily forget. Barriss wandered the Halls of Healing and waited for her answer to come. This was the place where she had tried, time and time again, to let go of her anger, to feel love for her fellow Jedi once more. But it hadn't worked. She had seen too much wasted sentient life in these Halls; she had come to see the glorious battle wounds as ugly marks of the Council's abuse, their negligence. The Halls of Healing were a place to come and be patched up before being sent out again. It was sadistic.
Barriss's eyes fell upon a nearby data-pad, which mapped the ward out along with its assigned patients. She scanned the names. A blow they would not so easily forget. One name shone beyond all others.
Mace Windu.
Mace Windu of mighty sword and iron will. With Yoda keeping his distance, Windu was more or less the leader of the entire Grand Army; he took temporary command of any battalion that had lost its Jedi General and continued the fight until a replacement could be found. He spoke of the war as a fire across the galaxy and yet somehow failed to see that they were not extinguishing the fire, but fanning its flames.
He was the perfect target. The war might not quite grind to a halt without him, but the Jedi Order would surely stumble. Find a moment to look at themselves and realise…
"How are you feeling, Master Windu?"
Barriss ducked her head into his cubicle.
"Can I get you anything?"
"Nearly better, thank you," he acknowledged, with a tight smile. "Just waiting for the bacta to sink in."
Their gazes fell upon his left arm, where an angry burn lanced from his fingertips towards his elbow. The skin was beginning to peel and fray.
"I hope you're taking some proper leave," Barriss told him, although she didn't. "It wouldn't be right to rush you off to another mission."
Mace gave another smile and shook his head.
"I'll be alright."
"You have another mission lined up?"
"Anaxes. Two days."
Barriss feigned emphatic disapproval.
"Master Windu, really, they have you do too much. Send me in your stead! I've got only Temple duties for the next two months."
"A kind offer," Mace acknowledged. "But I intend to go."
Barriss sighed.
"At least let me come with you, then. Lend a hand. Just about everyone else has a Padawan with them these days."
Mace considered, smiled, and shrugged.
"Come, if you'd like."
Barriss gave him an earnest smile.
"I would like to."
The Chancellor met them before their departure. It was to be expected. The mission to Anaxes was a high-profile one; the Grand Army was losing badly on several fronts and Mace Windu's reinforcements were their last hope. All the same, it displeased Mace to see him.
He didn't trust the Chancellor. He acted increasingly as though Mace were his direct subordinate and obliged to comply with his every whim. Just as he treated the rest of the Republic, Mace supposed. The HoloNet called him 'beleaguered' and published sympathetic pieces about how long it had been since he had travelled home to Naboo but Mace knew that Chancellor Palpatine had done well out of this war. He was, more or less, a dictator now. It was deeply frustrating to Mace that in addition to all else going on – the very real Separatist threat, rising poverty in the galaxy, the Sith Lord they never had located – he should have to deal with a corrupt politician.
But such was the will of the Force.
"Good day, Chancellor," Mace greeted him, with a curt bow. "I appreciate your support at our departure."
Support was a generous word for it. All the Chancellor was doing was generating some nice footage for his propaganda.
"I am merely here to honour your service," the Chancellor replied, smiling as he returned the bow. "The challenge on Anaxes is great, Master Windu. But I have no doubt that your leadership will prevail."
He turned to appraise Barriss, trailing respectfully half a step behind Mace.
"Knight Offee," he greeted her, with another bow. "I have heard that you are a volunteer in this mission. For a young Knight to pursue further service to our people, beyond what is asked of her…"
He shook his head in wonderment.
"Your quest is a truly noble one, young Knight."
Mace awaited Barriss's reply but it did not come. She was gazing at the Chancellor, transfixed, perhaps confused. Mace hurriedly interjected and filled her silence.
"We too in the Jedi Council recognise Knight Offee's fine contribution," he assured them both. "Now, forgive me Chancellor, but we must move quickly now."
He beckoned Barriss along with him. She broke from her reverie and hurried after him up the ramp of Endurance II.
"Are you alright, Barriss?" Mace asked quietly.
Barriss nodded mutely a few moments before finding her voice again.
"It's just been a long time between missions," she explained. "Going to a warzone such as this is… momentous. My apologies, Master Windu. I was caught up in the moment."
Windu appraised her steadily. He wouldn't have accepted her company if he'd known how shell-shocked he was. But that was the callous soldier in him speaking. He had accepted her company and he would look after her. She had been but a youngling when he was first Knighted.
"Take this time to meditate, Barriss," he advised. "You must find stillness for the battle ahead."
He waved a hand in greeting to his approaching clone commander.
"If I can find some time after initial briefing I will come sit with you," he reassured her.
Barriss shook her head, adopting an expression of grim determination.
"There's no need, Master Windu. I don't want to disrupt you from your work. Just let me take an hour, alone, to calm my nerves, and I'll regroup with you well before landing."
You are being too stoic, young one.
But there was not time to indulge her.
"Alright, Barriss. I'll see you later."
Anaxes loomed ahead. It was resplendent from afar, a cacophony of steely grey stone and brilliant red foliage. But at ground level, battles raged. Battles that this ship intended to augment, prolong, intensify. Battles that would still and quiet as they watched fire lance across the sky above.
Barriss's hands shook at the central reactor controls.
You don't have to do this.
The voice was not her own. Not her Master's. But distantly familiar.
Ahsoka?
Barriss felt a stabbing of guilt and suppressed the voice. She wasn't sorry. And yes, she had to do it. There might have been a whole Sector Army aboard the Endurance II but it would be nothing, nothing at all, compared to the death toll of this miserable war. This was the way. The best way. The world would stop for her; the soldiers would lay down their weapons and they would stop and listen to what she had to say and they would thank her, one day, when the war came to its end.
She had seen the explosion in her mind's eye. She had seen it as she looked at the Chancellor on the boarding ramp. She did not know why it came to her then. But it had come to her in perfect clarity and it had shown her the beauty of what she was about to do.
Your quest is a truly noble one, young Knight.
Barriss heard the voice of the Chancellor again and again in her mind. Truly noble. It was. The Jedi thought they knew nobility, hurling themselves like tragic heroes with their lightsabers into the fray of devastating battle. But that was not noble. Barriss would become a villain, she would do what no one else would dare, and she would end the Jedi involvement in this war. No one would celebrate her name but she would know that what she had done was right.
Your quest is a truly noble one, young Knight.
She affixed the detonators and hurried to the nearest escape pod.
Ahsoka and Korkie differed fundamentally in their upbringing.
In the early mornings, Ahsoka rose with the early sun then meditated by the pond, before exercise, and then finally, breakfast. All of the excitement and challenges of the day could wait until the ritual had been completed. The routine of Jedi, from youngling to Grand Master, for millennia.
Prince Korkaran also woke early (courtesy of a clanging alarm tone) and while his body devoured an enormous stack of wheat-biscuits and milk (he could not, he explained to Ahsoka, meditate whilst hypoglycaemic), his mind feasted on the morning news. It was the routine of a politician; his mother performed the same task, albeit with greater elegance, sipping on her tea and preparing herself for the day's events across the kitchen table from him.
Which was why when the news broke it was Korkie who heard it first.
"Ahsoka!"
He called her name in an urgent whisper; he never, under usual circumstances, interrupted her meditation.
"What is it, Korkie?"
"Not good," he answered.
He came to sit beside her, data-pad in hand.
"It's proper bad, I warn you, but I figured you'd want to know…"
He scrolled through to find the correct story.
"Okay, so it starts here. Published an hour ago."
BREAKING NEWS: Chaos over Anaxes!
Endurance II, the Venator-class Star Destroyer under command of eminent Jedi General Mace Windu, has suffered the ill fate of its predecessor, erupting into flames as it approached Anaxes on Windu's latest deployment. The HoloNet understands that in addition to Master Windu, the ship was carrying Jedi Knight Barriss Offee and an entire Sector Army along with their associated crew.
The Jedi Master and Council member has not yet been sighted. Urgent medical retrievals from nearby troops at Fort Anaxes are underway at the time of reporting. While no casualties have yet been officially reported, footage captured by an arriving fire shuttle shows extensive structural damage to the ship that is concerning for substantial loss of life.
The Grand Army of the Republic and the Jedi Order are both yet to make statements as this unprecedented disaster unfolds. There were no CIS ships in the space-zone at the time of the incident and the CIS has not claimed responsibility for the disaster. It is unclear whether this is the work of a rogue saboteur or a devastating technological malfunction.
More to come.
"Kriff," Ahsoka breathed. "That's really bad, Korkie. A Sector Army has nearly 150,000 troopers in it…"
Korkie nodded grimly.
"It gets worse. I'm sorry."
He scrolled to the following story, published only minutes ago.
BREAKING NEWS: Endurance II disaster an act of deliberate internal sabotage.
In a shocking development, as the debris control and medical retrieval efforts over Anaxes continue, Jedi Knight Barriss Offee has claimed responsibility for the devastating explosion upon the Endurance II.
In video footage broadcast indiscriminately across open-access networks, Offee speaks from what appears to be an escape pod. She claims responsibility not only for the sabotage of Endurance II but also the bombing of the Jedi Temple three months prior. Offee cites her betrayal as a response to a "corrupt" Jedi Order who have "lost their way". She claims that in their role as Generals in the Grand Army of the Republic the Jedi Order have "abandoned the Light for the pursuit of power" and accuses the Jedi Council of "slaughtering its Knights" by sending them to war.
The Jedi Order and Grand Army of the Republic have issued a joint statement:
"The unfolding events over Anaxes are profoundly tragic. We convey with great sadness the estimates provided by emergency staff on-site: that the vast majority of sentients travelling on the Endurance II are presumed dead.
We are committed immediately to emergency efforts to save as many lives as possible aboard Endurance II and have deployed fire and medical shuttles as appropriate. There is thought to be a low risk of atmospheric debris contact and citizens located between 60° north and 40° east on Anaxes are advised to exercise caution in the case of debris entry.
We are aware of Jedi Knight Barriss Offee's claim to responsibility for this tragedy. This is a gravely disturbing scenario. The matter will be investigated in its entirely upon the conclusion of the immediate efforts to save lives aboard the Endurance II. In the intervening period, Barriss Offee is to be treated as a traitor to the Republic and a threat to life. She is wanted for questioning."
"No…"
Ahsoka felt dizzy and sick to her stomach.
"Oh kriff, Korkie!"
She clutched his arm and buried her face in her other hand.
"Oh kriff, oh kriff…"
Ahsoka rose to her feet, swaying slightly.
"She was my friend, Korkie. We went on missions together, we-"
Korkie rose to stand with her, placing his hands on her shoulders.
"Breathe, Ahsoka. I'm sorry. It's horrible."
"Kriffing hell."
She strode through the grass towards the palace.
"Where are you going, 'Soka? Let's stay here where you can meditate, let's-"
But the pond and the palace gardens, so beautiful at dawn, would do her no good.
"I'm going to pack my bags and I'm going to go find Barriss," Ahsoka announced. "I need to try to talk to her, understand, bring her back…"
She shook her head clear of wishful thinking.
"Or I need to arrest her. I don't know. I need to do something."
"Come on, Ahsoka."
Korkie was almost jogging beside her now.
"You don't have to do this. The Jedi Council will sort it out, they'll send someone-"
"-someone who won't even try to talk to her," Ahsoka concluded shortly. "I have to do this, Korkie. I should have realised something was wrong. At the time of the bombing if not far earlier."
Korkie scoffed.
"That was absolutely, one hundred percent, not your job, Ahsoka. You can't blame yourself for this."
"You can't tell me how to feel about this!"
Ahsoka had whirled around to yell at him, finger raised remonstratively, angry at Korkie for the first time ever. She regretted it instantly. Korkie grimaced, crest-fallen.
"I'm sorry, Ahsoka, that's not what I meant, I just-"
"I know it's not, Korkie, I'm sorry."
They had finally stopped in their furious progress towards the palace. They had reached the fountain now. Satine had told Ahsoka stories of Korkie moving the water with the Force, replicating the flow of the fountain, at only a year old. Ahsoka gave the young teenager a hug.
"I'm sorry, Korkie. I really am."
She stepped back and looked at him.
"But I really do mean it. I'm going to go. I want to find her."
She offered him a crooked smile.
"It's about time I used my training for something other than beating you up in the dojo."
Korkie returned the smile blandly.
"I think I know better than to ask if I can come with you."
Ahsoka nodded grimly.
"You know why you can't come?"
"Because I'm an untrained thirteen-year-old?" Korkie suggested, wryly. "And my parents wouldn't let me?"
"Because you are important here," Ahsoka told him firmly. "You're redrafting the constitution right now, aren't you?"
Korkie cocked a sceptical brow.
"It's not very important, Ahsoka. It's all hypothetical for a decision I will make in five years' time."
"Then do something important," she suggested, as they turned and continued into the palace. "I know my life is a little more like an action Holo than yours, sometimes, but you're the one out of the two of us who actually has the power to change the galaxy."
Korkie snorted.
"Ahsoka, that's not tr-"
"Look at all those soldiers out there, Korkie," Ahsoka implored. "They're running around playing some Sith Lord's game. You can do better than that."
Korkie rolled his eyes.
"Ahsoka, I can't beat a Sith Lord with diplomacy and constitutional law."
"Why not?" she retorted.
She was being annoying. Like Anakin. But Korkie sighed and offered her a weak smile.
"Fine. I'll think on it while you're away," he resolved, solemnly. "Now, let's get you packed."
I'm sorry if that chapter got unexpectedly heavy. I hope there was enough cuteness - Obi Wan and Satine heading to Dex's, Padme and Anakin on the couch - to get you through. We will follow the fall-out of the Endurance II next chapter, along with Korkie's pursuit of a new diplomatic approach. On the upside, we will also get a whole lot more Ahsoka, who I've been neglecting recently.
Not sure if I have any Aussie readers out there - but I couldn't resist making Korkie a Weetbix kid. Can't get between a thirteen-year-old boy and his breakfast.
xx - S.