Saving History
One piece.
Disclaimer: I do own Star Wars, which is accredited to the great GL. I am making no money from this piece of fiction.
The character of Ki'ara Tonan belongs to me. And yes I know I've used her in other fanfics, but she's a Jedi RP character and I am kind of fond of her (that and the fact that I suck at making new fic character names).
The Ki'ara in this fic is a mixture of different specie, most prominently Nautolan and Zabrak.
I am going to write this fic in second person POV. But it's been a while since I last wrote a fic that isn't in first person, so please forgive me if I refer to Ki'ara that way.
This fic is AU.
Warning: Spoilers for ROTS.
She flew through time and space, landing with a crash on the hard duracrete and rolling to her feet instantly. Lower levels of Coruscant, she thought. Not what she had aimed for, but at least she had the right planet this time. Time travel was after all hard to do, you could get the right planet but arriving at the right time was a little more difficult, you could arrive on the right date, right time, right place, or you could get none of it right. She had to find out if she had managed to get it all correct this time. She ran towards the nearby repulsorlifts, she knew that she could have 'borrowed' a speeder, but she did not want to draw attention to herself; at least not until the right time. She stepped inside the lift, saw someone else approaching to get in, silently she shook her head and he backed off, glaring at her. The lift started moving slowly.
"Come on," she muttered. She had always been a little impatient. You need to work on that more. Her Master had told her more than once. On day you will need to be very patient, Padawan. But in her time her master was gone, dead these long years like so many others. No point it thinking of the might have beens, Padawan. Learn from them instead. Ghostly voices. That was why she was here, to stop them from becoming ghosts in the first place. The lift doors opened and she stepped out onto the well lit walkway. A huge holo-vid screen hung in the air high above her. Live feeds on the Clone Wars flashed across the screen and then it returned to the newscaster, the time down in the small corner of the screen. Ki'ara started running. She had less than an hour to get to the Senate building and his private office. People stared at her as she raced past at a speed faster than anything they had ever seen any humanoid sustain. She completely ignored them, intent on completing her mission.
There they were just about to enter the Senate building. She increased her speed even more; she had to get in there before them. As she moved through the shadows she just seemed to fade out altogether. There may have been a barely audible whisper from her robe as she moved past the Jedi Masters and the young Padawan that walked a step behind her master. She moved up the steps silently, having no need to wait for them to lead the way. She already knew where they were going. She arrived outside his office and watched sadly as the Padawan was instructed by her Master to wait outside the door. She waited for them to enter before her and slipped in before the doors closed. He sat in front of a console, looking old enough to almost be frail. She knew better.
"You are under arrest, Chancellor." Mace Windu said. As one the Masters activated their lightsabers.
"And you brought your invisible friend with you." Palpatine said. Her already large eyes widened even more; how did he know she was here? Before he could do it Ki'ara called his lightsaber to her hand. That didn't stop him, his hand flashed out and blue lightening arced from his fingertips, hitting her and forcing her to allow the light to touch her again and becoming visible to the the others. Invisible fingers clamped around her throat, choking her.
"You have no idea you are dealing with." Sidious snarled at her. Her head rose and her black eyes met those of Mace Windu.
"Now would be a good time to take him down." She croaked. Her hand flashed out channelling the Force into one massive push that spent him stumbling back a few steps. And then the Masters were on him. Ki'ara dropped to the floor, rolled and came up on her feet, green lightsaber in hand. She was just in time to see Palpatine leap out the Windu of the office. She moved after him, changed her mind and started searching though the desk. She couldn't find what she was looking for and once again was about to jump after the Chancellor, intending to follow him. Agen Kolar; one of the masters, grabbed her arm before she could. She yanked her arm, trying to get away from him, but he had an iron grip on her.
"Let me go, I have to stop him." She said. Mace Windu extinguished his lightsaber and came over to them.
"Not until you tell us what's going on here. And more importantly who you are." He said.
"I don't have time for this." She said.
"Make time." Windu growled.
"Master!" A voice screamed from outside the door. Ki'ara; being the closest to the door was the first one out. The apprentice that had been with the masters was barely holding her own against a large number of the Chancellors personal guards. The lightsaber clutched in her left hand was knocking blaster bolts back at her attacker. Her right hand; lower arm and half her upper arm lay on the floor, Ki'ara could smell the sickly stench of burnt flesh. Ki'ara moved in front of her, knowing that the apprentice would soon have to choices; die here or run for her life. She joined the Padawan, her green lightsaber spinning in her hands. Kit Fisto was the next out the door, the girl was his Padawan and he moved to the other side, just in front of her, shielding her on that side. Within seconds the guards' blasters were silenced. Ki'ara glanced back at Windu.
"We have to get out of here." She snapped.
"Who are you?" He asked. She looked down the corridor; she could already hear running footsteps.
"I will tell you everything, but now is not the time. We need to leave now." She told him. Finally he relented and nodding his head he gestured for the others to do as she said. Fisto was with his Padawan, wrapping the stump of her arm and making sure she was alright. They moved through the Senate building as one unit.
"We cannot be stopped from leaving here. If anyone tried we need to kill them." Ki'ara said.
"We are Jedi. We do not harm anyone unless it's necessary." Saesee Tinn said. Ki'ara looked at him from under the hood of her robe.
"You may not have a choice; believe me they don't want us leaving here." She said.
"Saesee is right, we cannot hurt people." Windu said.
"Well they're going to try their best to make sure none of us leave here alive. Is that really what you want?" She asked. Windu stared at her, wondering how she knew this and debating whether to believe her or not.
"You heard her, we are all going to get out of here and return to the Temple. You better have a very good explanation." He said eventually. She said nothing to that, as some clone troopers rounded the corner just ahead. They saw the Jedi, the Jedi saw them.
"Wait, they're on our side." Windu said. Ki'ara stayed silent, but she did activate her lightsaber just in time as they started attacking them. Now no one was wasting time on talking, just fighting for their very survival. It took them longer to dispose of the troopers than the guards. The troopers were better trained. But the Jedi were not giving up and they finally got out of the Senate building and made their way back to the Temple.
"Contact Shaak Ti, tell her to implement maximum security." Ki'ara said. Windu stared at her, but did as she told him. The speeder they had borrowed raced through Coruscant and finally they were back at the temple. They were met by Shaak Ti who informed Windu that everything was ready.
"Good," he said crisply, he turned to me.
"I think it's time you explained everything."
"You need to contact every Jedi in the field first. Those clone troopers weren't the only ones following Palpatines orders." I told him.
"The troopers follow our orders; they will not attack our people without first verifying the order with the Jedi council." He said.
"They have no choice in the matter. Before the clones were created Sidious had a default programme put into them." I said. He looked sceptical and he opened his mouth to question me.
"Believe what I'm telling you or all those Jedi out there will be dead by this time tomorrow." I didn't have time to wait. He turned to Shaak Ti.
"Do it." He told her. She hurried away in the direction of the comm centre.
"Start talking." He snapped. Kit Fisto was still tending to his Padawan, whose face was bleeding profusely where two of her head tentacles had been ripped off.
"Bring her with us." I said. Fisto looked at me and I recognised the dark swirling in his eyes.
"She needs to see the healers." He said.
"She'll be fine." I said.
"Do you have any idea how badly injured she is?" He asked, a growl in his moist sibilant voice.
"Yes," I looked at Windu.
"I don't have time for this, Master Windu." I glanced back at Fisto.
"We don't have time. You wanted me to explain and I will, but she comes with us."
"The Council Chambers now. Bring her, Kit." Windu said. He led the way to the repulsorlift and we ascended to the highest tower in the Jedi Temple. As soon as we got there the Council members; Windu, Kolar, Tinn, Gallia, Rancisis and Unduli took their seats. Fisto stayed by his apprentice, I moved closer to them.
"She'll be alright." I told him. He cast a wary glance my way, but eventually decided I was telling the truth and he too took his seat.
"How I know what is going to happen is because I am from the future." Gallia sat forward in her seat.
"That is impossible. It is not yet known how to traverse between timelines." She said.
"Not yet," I agreed with her. I looked at Fisto's apprentice. She was holding a piece of cloth against the wound on her head.
"Tell them what you saw happening at the Chancellors office and everything after that." She looked at me, eyes curious.
"I don't know what you're talking about." She said quietly.
"Yes, you do. The premonition that you had on Commonor three years ago." I said.
"How do you know about that?" She asked. I pushed the hood of my tattered and ripped robe back of my head. Gallia leaned back in her seat, looking from me to the apprentice, then she glanced at Fisto.
"Who are you?" Fisto asked.
"I think that would be fairly obvious. I am Ki'ara Tonan." I gestured to his apprentice.
"I am her future self." Indeed I looked a lot like her right down from the Zabrak horns on my head to the tentacles themselves, including the healed scar where I the head tentacles had been ripped off. I looked back at her; she was staring at me with wide black eyes.
"Tell them." She looked to Fisto, he nodded to her. Her shoulders slumped a little.
"At the time I didn't know it was a premonition, I thought it was just an ordinary dream I was having. In it Master Windu, Master Kolar, Master Tinn and you went to the Chancellors. When you entered Master Windu told the Chancellor he was under arrest. The Chancellor asked if Master Windu was threatening him. Then he attacked you." She stopped talking. Windu leaned forward in his seat, resting his elbows on his knees.
"What happened after that?" He asked. The apprentices' eyes locked with Fisto's, but she said nothing.
"Sidious killed Kolar and Saesee immediately. Then he decapitated Fisto. You were the only one left alive, Master Windu. You fought with him, he had you on your knees and was about to kill you to when Anakin Skywalker came in." She said. She could still remember that vision she had had of Skywalker coming up the window of Palpatines office and seeing her Masters head staring back at him from its poison of the console.
"So you came back to save Kit, Saesee and Agen?" Windu asked.
"N…no, Master," the apprentice said. Windu's eyes moved to her, he waited for her to continue.
"Skywalker came into the office and stood with you against the Chancellor. But then the Chancellor said something about having told Skywalker that all Jedi wanted to take over the Republic and kill him. Skywalker attacked you as well. The Chancellor killed you with lightening that came from his fingers." Her hand trembled slightly as she removed the cloth from her forehead. I didn't make a move towards her, this was something she…I, was going to have to do by herself. Windu frowned at her, the thought that Palpatine could take down four Jedi masters was not a good one.
"Tell them the rest." I said. She looked at me and shook her head.
"It doesn't matter now, they aren't dead." She said.
"Yes, it does. It is one thing to loose four Jedi, but to…" I trailed off, but she knew what I was talking about. She stared at the floor.
"He sent Anakin Skywalker here with Clone Troopers. Master Ti and the other Jedi fought against them, but eventually they were killed. Clone Troopers herded the initiates into the Council Chambers where Anakin Skywalker waited…" she stopped, looking like she was going to be sick. She swallowed hard.
"He killed them all. After that the Chancellor abolished the Republic, set himself up as Emperor of the Empire and declared all Jedi as outlaws. That is where my dream…my premonition ended." The Council were silent for a long time, looking at each other. All except for Fisto, he was looking at me, questions in his dark, unblinking eyes. I picked up where she had left off.
"Then the Jedi purges started. All across the galaxy Jedi were hunted down and killed. Anyone who harboured Jedi were considered enemies of the Empire and punished for helping us. Within five years there were only three Jedi left." I said.
"How is that you survived when no one else did?" Kolar asked.
"You mean how is that I; as a Padawan managed to stay alive when other, stronger Jedi didn't?" At his answering nod I continued.
"It happened the same way as it did today; up to the time you entered the Chancellors office. He did kill you and everything that I saw in that premonition did come true. My master told me to wait out in the corridor for him to return and to prevent anyone from entering. By the time I called for his help to fight the Red Guards he was already dead. I was left with two choices to die or to return to the Temple to warn them of what had happened. I did the latter. But something happened, I think that I may have passed out because I there are a few hours that are a complete blank to me, even now. By the time I returned to the Temple I found it empty of anyone living and Anakin Skywalker gone. I went to the comm centre to send a message telling the other Council members what had happened. I found out that Palpatine had already sent a signal that made the troopers turn on their Jedi generals. He ordered Anakin to activate a signal here in the Temple to order any Jedi that had survived the troopers' attacks, or Jedi from the Outer Rim worlds to return to here straight away. I reversed the signal and tried to get off planet myself, but by then Palpatine had already told the Senate that we were now outlaws and people had issued a statement saying that anyone who saw a Jedi could kill them without worry of legal repercussions. For the next three days I thought that I was the last Jedi still alive. Then on the fourth day Master Kenobi and Master Yoda returned to the Temple. Master Yoda was looking for the book of Whills. He fought Sidious in the Senate and Sidious defeated him. Master Kenobi fought Anakin. Both of them were defeated, but they did survive. We made it off planet with Anakin's children."
"Children?" Mace Windu said.
"Yes, Anakin married Senator Amidala just after the Clone Wars started. No one knew, not even Obi Was privy to this knowledge. Amidala had twins, but she died not long after giving birth and both children were hidden. We knew that if Sidious or Vadar knew of their existence then they would either be killed or brought up in the service of the Dark side. I went to Dagobah with Yoda. In my time that was almost ten years ago. He continued training me there so that I could come back here and stop what happened."
"Interfering with the timeline could have serious consequences." Tinn said.
"I said the same thing to Master Yoda which had no affect, other than to persuade him not to come with me." She said.
"That is surprising. Yoda is not one to just give up." Fisto said.
"No he is not. Ten years of being hunted by the Empire can change some people, but not Yoda. The main point of my argument for him not to come was that if we should fail back here then history would repeat itself and he would be needed in the future."
"Yes, but you either do or you do not, as Master Yoda himself would put it." Windu said.
"I agree, Master. But sometimes what you want to do and what actually happens are to totally different things."
"That is true. But what if you had failed?" Kolar asked.
"Then we would not be having this conversation right now, Master, we would all be dead." She replied.
"There is something else," she paused for a moment.
"My mission was only to come back and stop the Masters from dying in the Chancellors office and to tell you what had happened. Master Yoda told me that as soon as I had completed my mission then I would automatically return to my own time. That has not happened yet, I can only assume that there is something else that I need to do." I paused, my head coming up as I sensed something.
"He is here." Windu said. I nodded in agreement as I turned to face the chambers doors. The slid open and Anakin Skywalker entered. I could feel the Jedi down in the lower levels of the Temple; they were battling against the Clone Troopers. Skywalker held his activated lightsaber in his hands. He did not speak, just attacked. I Force leaped towards him, my own lightsaber in my hands. I was not alone; seven Jedi Masters, one Knight and one Padawan attacked him from all sides. He was a lot stronger than I expected. Skywalker lunged at my younger self and took a swipe with his lightsaber, she fell back a gash on her cheek. I had always wondered where I had gotten that scar, now I knew. I stepped up the attack, my lightsaber raining blows on his one. It never made contact with him. I could sense that Windu had totally immersed himself in the art of Vaapad; a style of lightsaber fighting that he was a master in. He moved faster than anyone else, but no matter how fast he was Skywalker always got his lightsaber in the way before one of Windu's blows landed on him. But something was wrong, I let my senses spread out, my head tentacles floated in the air.
"Wait." I said quietly.
"I know you don't want to do this. Stop now."
"Never, the Jedi are the ones who are controlling the Republic." Skywalker growled at me.
"That is what Palpatine told you, but you know that it is not true. You kill us and where will it end? I have something for you, I don't want it anymore." I took one of my hands of the hilt of my lightsaber and reached out in his direction. Channelling the Force I showed him what I had seen. Jedi fighting him in the Temple and him cutting them down. Skywalker sitting in the Council Chambers as the young initiates were brought in to him. I added in everything that I could think of. The sound of the initiates screams as he slayed them, the smell of the Temple burning, the image of him trying to kill Obi Wan; a man who had been like a father to him, him attacking Amidala and causing her death, the remaining Jedi going into hiding and eventually being hunted down and killed.
"Stop it!" He yelled, he was on his knees on the Council floor. I crouched before him.
"Now you know what I do. The Chancellor gave you the controller for the Clone Troopers. You can stop this, Anakin Skywalker; you were the only one who ever could."
"The Chancellor said that-" he started.
"The Chancellor lied to you. He has been lying to us all. He is a Dark Lord of the Sith and he is using you to his own end. If you give into your anger then what I have shown you will come to pass."
"How else can he be stopped?" He looked me in the eyes and in them I saw his own pain.
"You doubt yourself; you do not think that you do this. Up until a moment ago I had those same thoughts. Believe in yourself and you will succeed. If you give in to your anger and hatred then you will become his slave, you will do whatever he tells you to. But if you remain on the side of light you cannot be corrupted." I ignored the Masters that were in the chambers.
"It is too late. I cannot undo what has been done." He whispered.
"No, you cannot. But it is never too late to do the right thing." I said. He sighed, reaching under his robes he pulled out a device that could only be the Clone controller, he handed it to me and without looking up I tossed it to Windu. He stood up and I joined him, he moved for the door, but he turned back to me.
"Why are you helping me after I tried to kill you?" He asked.
"You were the only one who wanted to be my friend when I was younger. You thought me one thing; even if no one else wants to know you and everything turns to dust around you friends will always be there. Friends stand by your side in battle and they are willing to give their own life if it means that you will live on. No matter what they will always be they for you regardless of what you do. And most importantly they will hold out their hand to you and help you up when you fall." I said.
"Thank you." I barely heard his choked whisper.
"You would have done the same for me." I told him. He walked out the door and I watched him until the doors slid closed and I could no longer see him. I grabbed Windu's arm as he made a move to go after Skywalker.
"This is something he needs to do himself." I said.
"How do you know it will work?" Windu asked. I smiled at him sadly.
"I don't, but he will do his best to bring down Palpatine and if he doesn't he will die trying." I said.
"But if he does succeed then-"
"-it the Jedi will continue their work for the Republic." I finished. I turned in a slow circle and looked at the ring of chairs, where the Council sat. A Jedi Master and his apprentice stood in the middle of the circle, obviously in the middle of a report.
"It worked." I whispered. Sweet relief coursed through my veins. The Master giving the report turned to look at me and smiled when he saw who it was.
"Welcome home." Anakin said. And I was finally home.
