In this dark time, I hope to at least bring a little joy out of our esteemed Jedi Masters embarking on an adventure a little out of their comfort zones.
"We should have brought Kenobi and Skywalker out of retirement for this," Mace gritted out. "This is more their style, don't you think?"
Yoda chuckled and climbed, easily, another few metres up the elevator cable.
"Daring rescues, hmm?"
"Getting stuck in elevator shafts," Mace corrected him, grumbling.
He hauled himself upwards in pursuit of the Grand Master. It was at times like this that he envied Yoda's smaller frame.
Yoda smiled down at him.
"Stuck, we are not. Merely delayed, we are."
Mace did not reply. Yoda was right, as usual. They would make it to the top of the shaft and they would re-enter the ship's main hold and they would take on the B2-series super battle droids, droidekas and MagnaGuards all over again. Perhaps the delay was more of a reprieve.
"Stars of the HoloNet, at mission's end, we shall be," Yoda chirped.
Mace grunted his displeasure and kept climbing.
Heroes of Coruscant! Yoda and Windu Bring our Chancellor Home
The crash-landing of the commandeered Separatist flagship the Invisible Hand onto Coruscant's Senate-district air strip has heralded the end of the Battle of Coruscant. Onlookers held their breath before breaking out into cheers at the joyous sight of our beloved Chancellor Sheev Palpatine safely returned to the Republic's capital less than twelve hours after his kidnapping by the feared General Grievous.
He was flanked on arrival by Jedi Masters Yoda and Mace Windu, putting to rest the concerns for emerging tension between the Republic and its reportedly war-weary Jedi Order. In responding to the Chancellor's desperate plea for help, Masters Yoda and Windu have proved that the Order is devoted to the Republic still.
The indefatigable General Grievous, unfortunately, has reportedly escaped again.
"It is possible that he was killed in the ship's collapse and crash-landing," Master Windu conceded, "but I believe it safer to assume his survival. We know from droid analyses of the flight record that escape pods were deployed and there has been no sighting yet of his body."
Master Windu was also asked about the recent Jedi resolution to scale down their participation in the war effort to a volunteer-only basis.
"We stand by it. Master Yoda and I, as citizens of the Republic, made the voluntary choice to assist the Chancellor today because we understood that he was in great peril requiring Jedi assistance. All Jedi are free to make the same decisions and defend the Republic to the extent that they see fit. But we will not compel any Jedi to do so any longer."
While the crash-landing was, miraculously, without fatality, the infrastructure damage associated with the crash has been estimated at over ten million Republican credits: the latest heavy economic blow wreaked by this war.
"Ten million credits in damage!" Anakin scoffed. "Were you even trying to land the ship?"
The holoprojection of Mace Windu gave a wry smile.
"I will confess I wish I'd had you to crash that ship for me, Skywalker. I hear it's your expertise."
"Well, at least the Chancellor's safe back on Coruscant," Anakin reasoned, with a fading grin. "Too bad about Grievous escaping. Have you managed to track him yet?"
"In the Utapau system, we believe he is," Yoda replied. "But call you for assistance with the General Grievous, we did not."
Anakin felt his heart quicken.
"You've made progress? With the Sith Lord?"
Yoda heaved a sigh.
"Tenuous progress, we have made."
"What does that mean?"
"We have not found them," Mace explained. "But we have come to suspect that the Chancellor is, at the least, heavily influenced by the Sith."
Anakin's stomach clenched.
"What makes you say that?"
"He has been dogged in prolonging and expanding the war, Anakin," Mace went on.
His tone was almost apologetic. He never addressed Anakin by his first name.
"This war has given him great power that he is reluctant to relinquish."
"How do you know he won't relinquish it when we have peace?" Anakin asked.
"When peace, we have," Yoda mused, "Activate the Order, the Sith Lord will. Told you as much, did Dooku, no?"
Anakin grimaced.
"That was his best guess."
Yoda made a humming noise of thoughtful assent.
"Peace may be close," Mace contributed. "The siege on Coruscant, initially the cause of such fear, has been revealed as little more than a final act of desperation by a heavily weakened Separatist Army. We are running out of time."
Anakin nodded, picking at his nailbeds in agitation. He turned the ominous words over and over in his mind.
"Hold on," he interjected. "You said 'at the least' heavily influenced."
Mace nodded, sombre.
"There is, of course, the frightening possibility that he is the Sith Lord himself. Hiding in plain sight."
Anakin's jaw dropped. He almost laughed.
"Masters, he couldn't-"
"There is almost no limit to what the Sith can achieve," Mace murmured.
Anakin shook his head.
"I don't believe it. I know him. Maybe the Sith Lord is deceiving him about this war but he cannot be-"
"A close friend of the Chancellor, we know you are," Yoda reasoned. "Hoped, we did, that for us you might unravel this mystery."
"If the Chancellor is truly the good man you know him to be," Mace added, "then we must find the evil that has corrupted him."
Anakin took a steadying breath. Their words, as much as he hated to hear them, had an unsettling ring of truth to them. The Chancellor wasn't his normal self anymore. He was not the sort of man who would ever want to prolong or enlarge a war. He was gentle. Kind. Had longed for a family. Had longed for a son.
And Anakin hadn't visited him since leaving for Naboo, even though he had promised that he would.
"I'll come to Coruscant," Anakin vowed. "I'll help you find the Sith Lord. We will free the Chancellor from his grip."
Mace nodded once more, his face stony still.
"This task will test you, Anakin," he warned. "It will test your connection to the Light."
"I will not go astray," he vowed. "My wife is due to give birth ten days from now. Do you think I want my children to grow in Darkness?"
"Know, we do, that you do not."
Yoda bowed before him.
"Greatly appreciate your assistance in this endeavour, we do, Anakin Skywalker."
"I appreciate that you called me," Anakin replied, bowing himself. "I'll be on Coruscant as soon as I can."
"What do you mean you're going to Coruscant?" Padme erupted.
Anakin had the look of dull shock on his face that showed he had not anticipated the faintest resistance on her part.
"Ani, think about what you're suggesting!" she pleaded. "I'm due in ten days!"
"I'll be back well before then."
"Babies can come early, Anakin," Padme gritted out. "I could go into labour any day now and I'm not having these babies without you."
Anakin softened, then, realising the weight of her words. He came to embrace her. She turned in his arms to face him.
"I'm not having these babies without you, Ani," she repeated. "You can stay here or I can come to Coruscant but we're staying together."
Anakin grimaced.
"I want to stay here, Padme," he murmured. "But we're running out of time to find the Sith and Master Yoda and Master Windu asked me-"
"Then let's go to Coruscant together," Padme resolved. "They've got perfectly good hospitals there too. Besides, I need to speak to Bail and Breha. They're on planet."
She swept out of his arms and over to pack a travelling case before he could change his mind.
"We should have Obi Wan come too," she resolved. "A support person. For both of us."
Anakin almost protested, then faltered.
"It might be good to have him there," he conceded. "I'll call him."
"What do you mean you're going to Coruscant?"
Korkie threw his arms wide in his emphatic protest.
"It's the centre of it all, Buir. All that evil. You can feel it, can't you?"
His father gave a reluctant nod.
"Whether Palpatine is the Sith you're looking for or not," Korkie went on sternly, "None of you should be going there."
Korkie's mother laid a steadying hand on his shoulder.
"Half a million clones of the Grand Army are there, Obi Wan," she pointed out.
Her voice soft but her Force signature held the same anxiety as Korkie's. It filled the room, suffocating them.
"All of those we diverted to Kamino were redeployed to Coruscant for the siege and they haven't gone back," Satine went on. "It's not safe there."
Obi Wan leaned back against Satine's desk and rubbed at his brow.
"I know."
The truth of it settled heavily in the royal study.
"That's why you want to go, isn't it?" Korkie asked, voice low.
"That's why I have to go," Obi Wan amended. "Anakin is going somewhere dangerous and he needs my protection."
"He has Yoda and Master Windu," Satine protested.
"They don't know him as I do."
Korkie bit his lip, unable to contest the point.
"I just don't want any of you to go."
Obi Wan lifted an arm and his son came to stand with it draped over his shoulders.
"I know," he said again. "But Master Yoda and Master Windu think there is some hope that we can get to the bottom of all of this and they need Anakin to do it."
"Do they?"
Obi Wan grimaced.
"He is the Chosen One, Korkie. And the Chancellor trusts him."
"And it needs to be done now," Satine stated.
It was not a question.
"We're running out of time. Grievous is their last leader left."
Obi Wan nodded and reached out his spare hand. Satine stepped forward to take it in hers. The family paused, in silence, connected.
"We have to try," Obi Wan murmured eventually, voice almost a whisper. "If this Sith Lord goes undefeated then nowhere will be safe. Mandalore will not be safe. Even if I were to go into hiding-"
"We're not splitting up," Korkie declared.
Obi Wan tightened his arm around his son's shoulders, bringing him closer.
"I want us to stay together, Korkie. I want us to stay together and live our lives freely and for that, Anakin and I must go to Coruscant and help Master Yoda and Master Windu find the Sith Lord. The galaxy will not be safe until we do."
Korkie folded his arms against his chest and grimaced but he did not protest. Satine moved closer to rest her head against Obi Wan's.
"Do you remember what I told you before you went to face Maul on Raydonia?"
Obi Wan nodded again but could not find words.
"The thing I love most about you, Obi Wan," she repeated, "more than anything else, is that you love the whole galaxy. Not just me."
She kissed his temple and moved to look at their son.
"I'm sorry, Korkie. To learn this at such a young age…"
"I know that it's right," he managed bravely. "I know that it's the right thing to do."
There was a sheen of tears in his eyes.
"There are some things in this galaxy worth the risk, my dear one," Satine affirmed. "Peace. Freedom. I ran towards danger in the revolution and your father has run towards danger nearly every day in his life. We hope that you will never have to."
And Obi Wan had the horrible, heavy feeling that one day his son would have to. He saw him in his mind's eye, wielding two blades. One sapphire blue, the other darker than night. A strange, flickering vision. He looked at his son and knew that he had seen it too.
Satine, blind to these visions, laid a hand on her son's cheek. The family intertwined. The Force hummed its quiet sorrow. Korkie held his jaw firm as tears slid silently down his face.
"By the stars, Padme. I didn't think those babies could get any bigger!"
"The miracle of the womb," Padme grumbled, rising effortfully to greet Obi Wan. "Thank you for coming."
"Not a problem. Thank you for contacting me."
They did not speak about Korkie and Satine left behind with the horrible burden of waiting and not knowing. It would do them no good. Instead, Obi Wan examined the interior of Padme's modified J-type 327 Nubian starship.
"I don't think we've all been in this ship together since we first met," he remarked.
Since their inadvertent journey to Tatooine that had changed everything.
"Since I was a kid," Anakin chuckled, at the controls. "And you were a moody teenager, Obi Wan."
Obi Wan scowled.
"I was twenty," he countered, "and well-tempered."
"You were brooding," Padme contradicted him with authority. "That's why my handmaidens thought you so attractive."
Obi Wan laughed and conceded the point. He had been unhappy, after all, back then. He had left Satine only months prior and had been wrestling to banish her from his thoughts. He had thought himself unworthy of the Trials and his fractured and re-mended relationship with Qui Gon Jinn had fallen apart once again when they had found the Chosen One. He had never imagined, then, that Anakin could bring him such joy. That Anakin would be the one to show him true belonging.
"Could you fly for a bit, Padme?" Anakin asked. "I've got to call Mum, tell her to hold off travelling to Naboo while we're on Coruscant. We don't know where we're having these babies yet."
Padme assented, lowering herself awkwardly into the pilot's seat as Anakin collected his comm and disappeared into the ship's lounge.
"Your courage never ceases to amaze me, Padme," Obi Wan murmured, coming to sit beside her. "Travelling with only nine days to go."
"My stupidity," Padme corrected him. "The medi-droid's mad at me."
Her smile was wry and she seemed to be only half-joking.
Obi Wan did not know how to console her.
"I have always regretted that I was not there for Korkie's birth," he told her. "I'm glad that the two of you will be together."
Padme nodded, her expression one of grim determination.
"Me too."
They suspected him. They were closing in.
There were more Jedi on Coruscant at this stage in the war than he had planned, but it was of little concern. The clones he had brought back to Coruscant would take care of them. Of all the Jedi gathered in the Temple, there were perhaps only two that could so much as parry a blow from Sidious.
But they were not the Jedi presenting problems to him.
Kenobi.
By the stars, the man was insufferably persistent. He had been given every reason to start his life anew on Mandalore and yet still he trailed after his former Padawan like an over-protective mother strill.
It would not do to have him here when the time came to turn Skywalker.
"General Grievous," Sidious snarled into his comm. "I have new instructions for you."
The cyborg appeared before him, bowing deeply.
"Yes, my Lord."
"You will take the Separatist leaders to hide on Utapau," he decreed. "This is no surrender. Whilst you are on Utapau, you and your forces will enact a brutal and publicised genocide of all sentient lifeforms upon that planet."
Even the famed Kaleesh warrior faltered a little at the instruction.
"Is that clear, General Grievous?"
"It is clear, my Lord," Grievous answered hurriedly.
He bowed deeply once more.
"It will be done."
Never before had the HoloNet broadcast brutality quite like this. The slaughter not of soldiers but of civilians, unarmed and unarmoured, completely unprotected by any Republican force. It was Maul on Raydonia all over again, but the scale massive and the loss of life devastating. A Pau'an mother was struck down with a young child strapped to her chest. The infant wailed and wailed. Then it was crushed by the enormous foot of cyborg General Grievous and it cried no more.
"The Republic has abandoned you," Grievous cackled, as he went about his work.
It was no coincidence that it was being broadcast.
"It's a deliberate provocation, Master," Mace observed.
It was a deliberate provocation but hardly easy to stand by and watch.
"Wishing to have us end the war, our Sith Lord is," Yoda agreed. "But while the means are deceitful, real lives, these are."
The lives were real and being lost at a horrifying rate.
"Someone will go," Mace reasoned. "Kit Fisto, or-"
"Turn this to our advantage, we can," Yoda mused. "Something, I have not told you, Master Windu."
Mace frowned. There was the sense in the Force around them that the information was far from routine.
"The potential to turn against the Jedi, these clone troopers have," Yoda informed him gravely. "Obey the orders of the Sith Lord, when given, they will."
Mace stared at the Grand Master, slack-jawed.
"The whole army?"
"The whole army."
"Why didn't you-"
Mace knew before he finished the question that there was nothing that could have been done.
"You are making preparations for the Jedi to go into hiding?"
"Indeed," Master Yoda affirmed. "Notice, you will, that many Jedi already dispersed on leave, there are."
He made a sombre noise deep in his throat.
"Imminent, the time for exile is now."
He rapped his gimer stick against the floor.
"Travel to Utapau, you will," Yoda decreed. "Take as your army the clones of Coruscant, you will. Trust you, I do, to escape your troops if the order comes."
"But Master," Mace protested. "The Sith Lord is most likely here. Send someone less powerful to Utapau – send Kenobi if no one else will go. My place is at your side."
The Grand Master shook his head.
"Capable, I am, of facing this Sith Lord should he be revealed," Yoda vowed. "Kenobi has not your power in the Force. But all the power, Kenobi has, when it comes to young Skywalker."
Yoda shuffled forwards to look out over the Coruscant skyscape.
"The anchor, Kenobi is, tying Skywalker to the Light. Allow them to be separated we must not."
Mace nodded in silent understanding.
"An important role, your journey to Utapau will play," Yoda went on. "Afraid of ending this war, of activating the Sith's order, we have been. Lost, countless lives have been, in this time of waiting. Search forever, we cannot."
Yoda nodded to himself, the expression upon his wrinkled face showing the enormous burden of this decision.
"If find this villain, even young Skywalker cannot," he resolved. "Bring him into the Light ourselves, we must."
Mace's eyes widened.
"You'll have me capture Grievous and end the war?"
"My word, you must await," Yoda intoned. "Otherwise, only on the saving of civilians, must your focus lie."
"Yes, Master."
It was not his wish to leave. But Mace Windu knew that the Grand Master was right.
"On this precipice, forever, we cannot walk."
One way or another, the war simply had to come to an end.
Barriss and Ahsoka cohabitated many days in near silence. It was strange to be around her. Ahsoka had never experienced a Force presence like this before. Certainly, there was Darkness in it – Darkness that rippled and flowed generously outwards, when Barriss eyed the lights of a battleship in the night sky. Her friend had killed hundreds of soldiers now and did not repent her actions.
But there was more to it than that. There was righteousness in her fight for peace and grief at the poverty of the Mirialans in this time of war. There were faint glimpses of gratitude at the simple gestures of companionship she permitted Ahsoka to make, such as the brewing of tea in the early mornings.
"What are you thinking about?" Ahsoka ventured on one such morning.
They had been together over a week now. Yesterday, they had disarmed a battleship together without any casualties. You know it's way easier to do it without taking all these safety precautions, Barriss had told her, with a roll of her eyes. But she had permitted Ahsoka's interventions in her plan. They were making some ground.
Barriss raised her brows.
"I'm thinking about having to go across to the village to replenish our food stores," she dead-panned.
Barriss could have been an anti-war hero on Mirial. But she chose to keep to herself.
"What are you thinking about?" she challenged.
Ahsoka sat before her, taking her own tea in her hands.
"I'm thinking about how I never realised what was happening for you," she confessed.
Barriss looked like she might snipe at her but instead shrugged.
"You were busy," she explained, curtly.
"I'm sorry," Ahsoka offered.
Barriss nodded and they were silent for a long time. Barriss only spoke again after their tea had gone cold.
"It was strange," she murmured. "I'm not surprised no one saw it. I almost… almost didn't see it myself."
She swished her tea around in the mug pensively.
"It felt like it wasn't me, you know?" she went on. "Like it was something that came over me. It was only after Anaxes that I knew that this was who I was."
Ahsoka listened with bated breath.
"You must wonder how I could do something like that," she went on, almost with a wry smile. "I wasn't sure I was going to go through with it, to begin with. But before we left I had this vision…"
She tucked her knees against her chest, hugging her arms around them pensively.
"It came out of nowhere. We were about to depart Coruscant and the Chancellor came and bowed before me and he told me that my quest was truly noble. He didn't know what I intended to do, of course. He thought I was trying to ease the burden on Master Windu. But somehow, with those misplaced words, when he spoke to me… I saw it."
Ahsoka's voice was a hoarse whisper.
"What did you see?"
"I saw the Endurance II bursting in explosion," Barriss recalled. "It was beautiful. Enormous."
Her eyes with alight with the memory of it. Strange darkness whirled in the Force around them.
"I knew in that moment that it was the way to send my message," she went on. "That it was the right thing to do. I somehow felt a new strength in me."
Ahsoka felt a wave of cold rush over her. She discarded her tea.
"Barriss, how could the Chancellor have-"
"It didn't come from him," Barriss corrected her. "At least, I didn't feel anything coming from him. He's Force-blind, no? It was some strange coincidence, I think."
Ahsoka grimaced.
"Unless it wasn't," she muttered, and steadied her jaw. "Barriss, I think we need to go back."
The Jedi Order were not such predictable puppets as they had once been. Sidious had intended that Kenobi be sent to Utapau; he should have been the obvious choice – capable enough to wrangle Grievous, but far less powerful than Mace Windu. There was still learning to be done, then. Still power to gain. He might be the most powerful Dark Lord ever to exist but it was not enough, just yet. He had foreseen many events with accuracy but not all of them. He would need to adapt.
There existed a fierce love between Skywalker and Kenobi, one that would be difficult to sour. Brief fits of adolescent jealousy and competition had been smoothed away despite Sidious's best efforts. But the Jedi feared attachment for good reason.
The time for subtlety was nearly over. There was another way to break him.
Sidious pulled out his comm and adopted the façade of Sheev Palpatine.
"Anakin, my boy. I hope that you can join me at the Galaxies Opera House tonight. There is something… concerning, that I need to speak to you about."
Anakin barely saw the Mon Calamari dancers as they flitted in front of him, illuminated though they were in fantastic gold and purple light.
"They sent you to spy on me, didn't they?" Palpatine asked. "The Jedi Council?"
Anakin's stomach clenched.
"Chancellor-"
"I know that they still don't trust me," he went on. "They didn't rescue me because they wanted to. They rescued me because they had to."
His voice was calm but the undercurrent of hurt was faintly detectable. Anakin felt a swelling guilt within him.
"It is perhaps hard to trust in these times of war, Chancellor," Anakin managed. "But you know that I am no longer bound to the instructions of the Jedi Council."
"Not in name, perhaps," Palpatine mused.
So the Chancellor did not trust Anakin either. Kriff. Anakin was failing Yoda and Windu and he was failing his friend, Palpatine. He was failing himself. He had always considered himself honest, transparent. He had never wanted to spy on anyone. He wished suddenly and very strongly that he had never left Naboo.
"It is a time of fear, I think, in the galaxy," Anakin went on.
It was all he could honestly say.
"The Jedi hold great fear," Palpatine agree. "It is ironic, no? Given they have always counselled so strictly against it."
He shook his head sorrowfully.
"They fear so much in this galaxy. Everything they do not understand. Everything they cannot control."
His gaze slid sideways to pierce Anakin directly.
"That is why they feared you, Anakin, when you were first presented to them."
Anakin's jaw clenched and was effortfully released.
"I was lucky, Chancellor. Obi Wan believed in me. He stood up for me."
Palpatine nodded and hummed pensively.
"But the Jedi never truly accepted you, did they?"
Anakin shrugged uneasily.
"I think that they did. We simply chose to go our separate ways, after some time."
The Chancellor appeared sceptical but did not argue the point.
"Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise, Anakin?" he asked instead.
Anakin frowned.
"No."
"I thought not," Palpatine answered. "It's not a story the Jedi would tell you. It's a Sith legend."
Anakin felt blood draining from his face. He wanted to tell the Chancellor to stop, not to speak a single further word. He didn't want to hear this. He didn't want to know that the Chancellor knew Sith legends and he didn't want to think about why he might know them.
"Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith so powerful and so wise," Palpatine went on, calmly, "he could use the Force to influence the midichlorians to create life."
Palpatine gave Anakin a knowing look, an appreciation of his awe.
"Isn't that a beautiful thing, Anakin?" he mused. "He had such a knowledge of the Dark Side, he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying."
Anakin could feel his heartbeat hammering against his ribcage. Pad-me, it said, with its biphasic thud. Pad-me, Pad-me, Pad-me. He saw her dying before him in terrible pain.
"He could actually… save people from death?"
Palpatine nodded sagely.
"The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider unnatural."
Anakin's mouth was dry. He shouldn't be talking about this. He shouldn't even be listening.
"Wh-"
He couldn't help it. He fumbled the words out.
"What happened to him?"
The Chancellor gave a faint smile.
"He became so powerful, Anakin, the only thing he was afraid of was losing his power. Much like the Jedi Council, in fact."
Anakin should have contradicted him. But he listened, silently, captivated.
"But of course, all power is lost eventually. Darth Plagueis had taught his apprentice everything he knew. His apprentice killed him in his sleep."
The Chancellor chuckled.
"It's ironic. He could save others from death, but not himself."
"Is it possible to learn this power?" Anakin ventured.
Death is part of life, he heard Obi Wan say. There is no life without death. But life continues always in the Force.
He shouldn't have asked. He shouldn't be talking about this. He shouldn't be on Coruscant and he shouldn't be with the Chancellor and he shouldn't-
"Not from a Jedi," the Chancellor concluded.
What are they waiting for?
They had been plagued for months now, as evil hung precipitously over them, by that ominous question. And now Anakin felt a strange revelation, a horrible possibility dawning before him.
The Sith Lord was sitting right beside him. The Sith Lord was waiting for him.
Holy moly it is starting to pain me to write this. I said a few chapters ago that I love and respect the tragedy of Revenge of the Sith and that is still true but man... heavy stuff.
Not too much for me to say. I think you all know that the next chapter will be momentous. I will gather my strength and get it written.
xx - S.