Anakin was listening to what the Chancellor was saying, but now he took everything Palpatine said with cynicism towards the Chancellor's intentions. Currently, Anakin was just smiling and nodding to whatever was just said. Now he was talking about Obi-Wan not being the right Jedi for dispatching Grievous. "Well, Chancellor, I beg your pardon, but I agree with the Council's decision. Obi-Wan is the correct choice. I would probably go in with some half-baked plan and be captured almost immediately. I'd get out, of course, but the element of surprise would be gone. Obi-Wan would probably be able to sneak up on Grievous and finish the war within one fight."
Palpatine suddenly recognized the change in Anakin. He was more sure of himself, not angry at the Council... Exactly the opposite of what Skywalker should have been! Anakin should have been an angry, mistrusting wreck who hadn't eaten or slept for days! Would he be able to be turned as easily? Palpatine knew he had to try to make Anakin doubt the Order. Otherwise his Empire would never be. But it should be. Did it have to do with that disturbance in the Force? "I still fear, Anakin," Palpatine said in his best it's-a-pity voice, "that Obi-Wan might fail in his mission and fall to Grievous. What if, had you gone, Grievous would have been captured?"
Anakin couldn't contain his surprise. He could tell Palpatine was spouting lies at him. That was fake concern and the words were hollow. Anakin knew that he had to keep up a ruse of agreeing with him. Maybe Obi-Wan and the Council were right in asking him to spy on Palpatine... Well, time to test my acting and espionage skills, Anakin thought. "I don't know, sir. Maybe I'd be sent next, but I truly cannot tell for certain."
Palpatine sighed, not really meaning it. "Regardless, I have some important business to discuss with you. There is a ...disturbing development in the Senate. A large number of Senators, about two thousand, have decided that I need to be removed from office by... other means than law dictates."
Anakin blinked and put on a surprised expression, half-feeling it anyway. "Treason? What Senators? Surely they don't mean to start another war!"
"Unfortunately. There is a rumor that the leaders of the group have fallen under the enchantments of the Jedi Council, and as a result could be drifting towards the Council's plot to overthrow the legitimate government." During the pause, Anakin thought, That's complete and utter sithspit. Palpatine continued, "However, this is just a rumor. But, I feel as though it is our duty to be prepared for the worst. Therefore, I would like you to be present at my meeting with the delegation representing the group today."
"Me? Sir, of all people, why would you choose me? If you want a Jedi to act as a truth-sayer, then I hardly think that I'm suitable for the job." Anakin then remembered he had to pretend to still be following Palpatine's every word, so now he had to smooth that comment over. "Chancellor, I haven't been in the greatest state of mind in the recent past, and I don't know how useful I'll be, but if you really insist on my presence, I'll try to help."
"Good. I appreciate it," Palpatine replied and gave Anakin a list of the Senators who were "against" the Republic. Palpatine kept talking about who he suspected and how corrupt the Jedi Council seemed to be to him, and Anakin just listened, sensing the lies and wondering how he had ever trusted the man. He wanted to walk out of the room, tell the Council everything, all of the conspiracy theories Palpatine was spouting, and never speak to the Chancellor ever again. But Anakin had a job to do, so he would suffer the talk for as long as it required him. After the conversation finished and he was outside, Anakin hopped in his speeder and went straight to the Temple to report.
Luke hadn't heard the last two things that Yoda or Mace Windu asked him. He was sill stuck on Yoda asking who the Dark Lord he fought was. "I'm sorry. What did you say?"
"Know we do who you are," Yoda replied. "From the future are you; therefore ask you we did who the Dark Lord of the Sith is."
"Besides Anakin," Mace added. "It's a pity the Force balanced like that."
"Yeah. I heard you asking whom the Dark Lord is, but... how? How did..." Luke trailed off, realizing who said what. "It was Obi-Wan, wasn't it?"
"No one else knows but Obi-Wan," Yoda replied. "Tell Anakin, he did not."
"Oh. That's nice." The shock had finally set in, and Luke was wondering how in the world Yoda had figured out that he had fought the Sith and that the Jedi were mostly extinct in the future. "Well. I don't really know what to say. I don't really think I should tell you who the Em---Dark Lords are." Almost slipped. Again. Luke had been wanting to call Palpatine the Emperor the entire time he'd been in the past, and it was really starting to grate on his nerves.
"You have a point," Mace admitted. "It wouldn't be quite as effective for you to tell us who the Sith is then go off and ...eliminate the threat to the Republic. Then we wouldn't know how to identify Sith in the future, and that means that this might happen again."
"But if more dire the situation becomes, help us you should," Yoda decided.
Luke nodded. "Yeah. If the Sith Lord goes too far, then you can bet I'd help keep him from taking over the galaxy. One of the things that made me decide to help is that where I'm from, millions, maybe billions have died because of that madman. After a while, I just couldn't stand doing nothing anymore."
"If you don't mind us asking, what made you change your mind?" Mace asked.
"Well... First it was hearing someone in particular praise the Sith Lord, and then the final nail in the casket was listening to the Senators who are signing the Petition of Two Thousand talk. They seemed all too optimistic about the outcome of the Petition, but..."
"Relinquish the power, Palpatine would not," Yoda finished. "Find the Sith controlling the Senate, we must."
"Exactly," Luke said, wondering how they still hadn't figured out that Palpatine was the Sith. From what Luke had heard, the Chancellor certainly acted like it.
Obi-Wan had been having what some would call a fun time while traveling to Utapau. The Corellian, who had introduced himself as Vykk Draygo, was quite the conversationalist and added expletives into sentences as often as articles. The friends of Vykk were just as odd. One, who was another Corellian that was less like a smuggler than his friend, introduced himself as Kettch, no first name. Within the first hour of hyperspace, Obi-Wan knew that they were both lying about their names, but he said nothing. Another eleven pilots were introduced by Kettch as the One-Hundred-and-Eighty-First. The pilots had laughed when Kettch had said that, and Obi-Wan was left to guess why that was so funny. The last of the group was introduced by Draygo as Tamtel Skreej, "expert sabacc player and decent pilot."
Obi-Wan checked his wrist chrono. There was still an hour left until they dropped out of hyperspace. He looked around the room. A few of the pilots were engaged in a game of sabacc, and Draygo and Skreej seemed to be winning, as far as Obi-Wan could tell. "Who's winning?" he asked anyway.
"Uh, H---Vykk," Kettch told him. "Tamtel's in short second, and I'm currently down a few hundred. " He turned to one of the pilots introduced as being in the 181. "Right, Halcyon? Or have I passed the thousand mark yet?"
Halcyon stared at Kettch. "No. Not yet, but it seems like you're going to soon."
Obi-Wan continued to watch the group (which was predominantly Corellian) play sabacc. As the one calling himself Halcyon had predicted, Kettch had lost a thousand of whatever they were playing with. Obi-Wan had thought it was credits, but as the play had progressed, his conjecture had proven false. Finally, Obi-Wan gave in and asked. "What are you betting with?"
"Rations coupons, spare change," Halcyon replied nonchalantly. "Every coupon is worth fifty, and the change is 'worth' a hundred times it's normal amount, meaning a penny's worth one."
"And pocket lint's worth ten," Vykk added. "Rubber bands are twenty-five, and a roll of engine tape is worth two hundred."
Kettch laughed. "Hey, you guys ever heard that joke about engine tape?"
One of the other pilots walked over. "You don't want to hear it."
"Hobbie! Don't tell them that!" Kettch exclaimed.
"If Wes were here, he'd back me up. That is the most overused joke out of your entire repertoire of bad jokes," Hobbie replied.
"If you let him tell it, then we could get back to the card game sooner than later," Tamtel mentioned.
"I agree," Halcyon added, counting his "winnings" of vouchers and a rubber band.
"What's the joke about engine tape?" Obi-Wan asked. He wasn't sure he'd ever heard a joke about engine tape.
"Oh, God, now he has to tell it," Vykk muttered.
"What do engine tape and the Force have in common?" Kettch asked.
Obi-Wan stared at Kettch blankly. He had no clue and had a bad feeling about this.
"They have a light side and a dark side and bind the universe together," Kettch, along with most of the people in the room finished. Of course, most of the people who had protested against the telling of the joke actually thought it was funny, but overdone, judging by the fact that a few had actually laughed out loud.
Obi-Wan sensed something strange about the group, though. They seemed like hardened warriors, but they didn't all seem to be professional mercenaries, smugglers, or bounty hunters, with some exceptions such as Vykk and maybe Tamtel. The Republic had been at peace for too long to produce people such as those without them being in one of the former professions. But it didn't sound like Vykk or any of the others had had any combat experience in the current war, so how could they come off as veterans of battle? Unless there were more denizens of the future in the past. Only one way to make sure. "Do any of you happen to know a Jedi named Luke---" Obi-Wan stopped was cut off.
"What has Kid gotten himself involved in this time?" The one that cut him off was Vykk, who was shuffling the cards nonchalantly. Obi-Wan looked around and saw that none of the others looked in the least bit surprised that he knew their friend. Of course, this meant that they were from the future. Obi-Wan had to start wondering if everyone from the future was as crazy as the people he'd met so far.
"You mean he's a disaster-magnet, too?" Obi-Wan asked no one in particular. "I should have guessed."
"'Too'? What do you mean by that?" Kettch asked.
Vykk laughed and turned to Kettch. "What do you think it means, Kettch?" He paused and turned to Obi-Wan. "If you don't mind, we'll keep using our pseudonyms for the duration of our stay, most likely. It's useful to keep from incriminating oneself before our time. And trust me, we need to do that."
Halcyon turned to Obi-Wan, having a vague notion of the answer. "I take it that you're Obi-Wan Kenobi?"
"O-o-oh," was all that Kettch could say. "Didn't he end up training... Never mind," he silenced himself.
"So, in other news, how is the Destroyer of Civilizations?" Vykk asked, obviously meaning Anakin.
"It gets that bad?" Obi-Wan asked and received furious nods from multiple people. "Well, if you seem to have that much abhorrence against my former disaster-prone pupil, I take it that you'd be amused to know that he's in deep trouble with the Order."
"Ok, now I'm confused," Kettch said. "We are talking about Vader, aren't we?"
"Yes," was the chorus of replies.
"Well, I'm already amused," Vykk said. "May we ask why to take further amusement in other's misfortunes? Or is he just in trouble for being evil?"
"Not yet, and hopefully not at all," Obi-Wan replied, wondering how well these people knew Luke. It sounded like they knew him all too well. "Anakin's in trouble with the Order because of a certain Senator."
Halcyon was the only one who understood what Obi-Wan was getting at. "So he's yet another case of the Jedi breaking the 'no marriage' rule?"
"There's a rule against that?" Vykk asked, suddenly interested. Obi-Wan guessed only the Force knew why. That, Tamtel, and the squadron of starfighter pilots.
One of the other pilots, an Alderaanian, arched an eyebrow. "And why would you be worried about that? The Princess isn't going to train to be a Jedi for quite a while, judging by all the work it's been taking to make as much progress as we have. Besides, the Prince of Hapes would be a much better suitor, and---"
"Shut up, Tycho," Vykk snapped at the Alderaanian.
Obi-Wan cracked a smile. So the most likely former smuggler is in love with a Jedi Princess? he thought. What is it with this galaxy and fairy-tale relationships? He then answered Halcyon. "Yes. Anakin's broken virtually every other rule in the book as well."
When Obi-Wan landed on Utapau, he was warned away by the Master of Port Administration, who told him that Grievous was indeed on the planet, but that it was a trap. He had then learned of how there were thousands of droids a few levels down on the tenth level, most likely where the cyborg General was. He had told the Master of Port Administration that the Utapauns would best seek shelter, then turned to Geenine and instructed him to tell Commander Cody that he had found Grievous and was currently engaging him. After a few last words with the Utapaun official, Obi-Wan went General Grievous hunting.
After Cody's report, Mace told Anakin to deliver the report to the Chancellor and note Palpatine's reaction. He had complied and subsequently left. Before the call, Anakin had delivered information about the Chancellor to the Council, every last word right down to the conspiracy theory Palpatine was spinning about the Council. Many of the Masters had been surprised by the change, except Mace and Yoda. They knew that the Skywalker from the future had most likely already expressed his feelings toward Palpatine with his father and that Anakin had started to take the same position. Whatever the cause of the change, the Jedi now had the upper hand. "Maybe we shall know the identity of the Sith Lord sooner than we thought..."
After commandeering a feathered-dragon, Obi-Wan had found the cyborg General. He was now watching the area where said General was. Steadily, Obi-Wan made his way towards Grievous. Once in the arena and standing near Grievous, four of the General's bodyguard droids stepped in between Obi-Wan and Grievous. Why did they always want to do it the hard way? Obi-Wan sighed, then spoke to the cyborg. "General Grievous, in the name of the Republic, you are under arrest."
The other General laughed. "Oh, really? Is this the time when you give me two options? Surrender or death? I have no great liking to either choice, so I'll invent another: instead of my death, you'll be added to the casualty list today."
"If you insist on being suicidal, I'll gladly help."
Grievous was tiring of all the talking. "Kill him," he ordered the droids, but in a matter of minutes, many of the droids had been dismantled, and Obi-Wan was standing next to Grievous.
"General, you still have time to reconsider," the Jedi told the cyborg.
Grievous laughed. "If you think that after that show I would surrender, you're crazier or stupider than I originally thought."
"This is your last chance..." Obi-Wan received no response. "No? If that's your final offer I guess it's a battle to the death, then."
"Maybe to your death, but not mine," Grievous threatened. He then took out the four lightsabers of the Jedi he had killed and split his two arms into the four to hold all of the sabers. "Bring it on, Jedi."
"Gladly," Obi-Wan replied as Grievous started spinning each of the lightsabers around like pinwheels. Inwardly groaning, Obi-Wan thought, It's just not my day, is it? as he started to do battle with the cyborg General Grievous.
When Anakin delivered the news of Grievous' soon-to-be apprehension, he had expected Palpatine to react in some form, but there was almost none. "Um, Chancellor. This means that the war is almost over! No more fighting! Why---"
"Are you really sure it is going to bring an end to the fighting?" Palpatine shook his head. "No. Then the Jedi Council will strike. I'll be arrested and then the first to be executed. They could make their move and be in control soon."
Anakin knew now that this was all a bunch of lies. When he had told the Council of the theory, they had stared at him like he was insane, and when Anakin had told Luke, Luke had started laughing and said that he expected that sort of nonsense from Palpatine. He had even asked Padmé for her opinion, and she had told Anakin the exact same thing that the Council and Luke had said: it was all lies. "But sir, I just don't think that the Council is capable of that! You and the Council haven't always seen eye to eye, but that doesn't mean that they're planning a hostile takeover of the Republic!"
"This isn't just me against them! It's a plan which has spanned generations! Maybe even since the wars against the Sith!" Palpatine faked a sigh. "Anakin, you know that the Council doesn't trust you and probably never will. Not even your best friend has even told you the true intentions of the Council."
Anakin thought, When I told Luke, he scoffed and said, "Maybe he's actually telling you his plans instead. Anakin, you know that the Jedi would never do something like that. It's not in their nature, but it is in others'..." Anakin shook his head. "No, but I trust him. I trust the Council. The Jedi serve the Senate, not themselves. Otherwise the institution would have collapsed already, been collapsed already."
"Then why did they send you to spy on me?" Palpatine asked. Anakin wanted to respond but didn't know how to deny what he knew to be true. "Don't bother answering. It's just proof of the subversion inherent in the Jedi Council. ...and, by proxy, the Senators who signed the Petition. It's even more proof. When the arrests start, the difference between who is and who isn't arrested will be based on that document." Palpatine paused for a moment, but not long enough for Anakin to respond. "Of course, even though Senator Amidala is on the list, that doesn't necessarily mean that she would stay on that side once she knew. You could both be perfectly happy together."
What! Anakin thought. How does he know? It's not that obvious, is it? I mean, Luke figured it out, but I think he had help, and I'd kept it a secret from a roomful of Jedi Masters! "H--How! How do you---Never mind. You just said she'd betray the Republic!"
"Her fate, the fate of the Republic, it's all up to you, Anakin." Palpatine smiled wickedly. "Join me, and we can save her. You yourself said of how she died in your visions. Remember the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise? It was true. The Dark Side has the power. I can teach you that power."
The realization dawned on Anakin that Palpatine was the Dark Lord of the Sith. Palpatine was Sidious! "You---you're Sidious! You've been the one who's caused the war! As a Jedi, I should kill you!" Anakin drew his lightsaber.
"But I'm your friend. Friends don't stab friends in the back," Palpatine said calmly.
"You're the Sith Lord that's been in control of the Senate! You're the one behind all of the assassination attempts on Padmé!"
"You are aware that if I die, all that I know dies with me. Even what can save your wife," Palpatine said. Anakin stopped in his tracks and couldn't speak. He had almost forgotten about his dreams, but here was Palpatine offering a way out. Through the Dark Side. But Anakin remembered. The Dark Side serves only to destroy... Sometimes it's necessary to ignore the nightmares in order to keep them from coming true...
"Excuse me, Chancellor, but I have to think about this," Anakin said, and he calmly walked out the door. Once it shut, he sprinted to his speeder and speed towards the Temple. The Jedi had to know, and Anakin knew that, no matter what, Palpatine had to be stopped. He was sure of that now.
I know I've been a little lax about responding to reviews, but I've been meaning to, so here it is:
BGTom: I agree and disagree. The resulting future is an alternate universe to Luke & the normal Star Wars crew, but to those in RotS land, it is changing the future. Just my thoughts.
Crow T R0bot:
I really am very sorry if you got that impression. I actually like Jar
Jar,
too. What I was trying to say was that Anakin gets peeved with Jar Jar
from time to time, but doesn't really harbor any negative feelings
towards him (most of the time). With Luke it was mostly that he didn't
know what to say, not that he didn't like Jar Jar. And Padmé... well,
sorry if you took offense to the "Jar Jar Rant of the Year Award."
Again, sorry!
Sarag (or Sarah?): Looking back, I completely agree with what you said. The breaking of the suspension of belief does detract from the story. Thank you for the advice.
Flaming Gun: Yes. I know about the grammer. I try to catch the most blatant mistakes, but that's not always enough. On the spelling... I think I made a word up, and I now know the correct way to spell semi-indecipherable.
Yuna-flowering: As you can see, you were correct, and thanks for saying that about the Yoda line. I was thinking of not including it.
All of the Reviewers:
Thank you all for reviewing. I really appreciate it, and your advice
and opinion means a lot to me. So, for a final time, thank you.
