Well here's a coincidence, I hate the number fifteen (don't ask) and I hate the title of this chapter. Go figure, but mostly I hate the titles of all my chapters since I usually make them up before I begin plotting the chapter out itself.

Chapter 15: To Coruscant and Back Again

Anakin's Lambda class shuttle spat of hyperspace above the metallic orb of Coruscant. His stomach jerked forward as his body stayed back, exiting hyperspace in small craft was such an unpleasant experience. Or perhaps his stomach felt like that because of the seething hatred for Admiral Daala and that Sith Lord radiating off him. Darth Sion? Who the bloody hell came up with that name. Sidious was idiotic yes but nothing as bad as Sion.

Anakin steered the white hulled shuttle downward toward the atmosphere of Coruscant turning on the propulsion system for gravitational areas such as planets and switching off life support as he entered the system. The stupid power generator on this thing had been acting up lately, same thing as his life. He hadn't seen Padmé in how long? A week, a year, a lifetime? He hadn't even had a chance to hold his son or daughter. He silently made a vow that Admiral Daala would die for what she did.

He had entered the atmosphere and his ship dove down to the permacrete ground of Coruscant. The entire planet was one big city. He pulled his shuttle up just in time to get into a traffic lane with a bulking little cargo speeder in front of him. He headed towards the former Imperial palace, now the chancellors office. Immediately in range of the radar the mesh speakers on his dashboard crackled with static as someone called him.

"Lambda Class shuttle, transmit signature and wait for verification." The voice said, it was incredibly dull, like a storm trooper.

Anakin quickly pulled up his electronic signature on the computer of the shuttle and set it through the connection. After a few silent seconds the voice issued through again.

"Lord Skywalker, you are cleared for landing. I see here you have an appointment with the Chancellor, your five minutes over due."

"How many minutes do I have left?"

"Twenty."

Damn idiots on his ship who set up his appointment. He did not reward incompetence and they should know it, he killed incompetence. To bad that wasn't exactly legal anymore. He folded his shuttles wings and landed on an out jutting landing platform. The ship hissed as the ramp lowered and Anakin stepped off of it before it even touched the ground. He walked into the building and headed to Mon Mothma's office.

XxX

The Chancellors office was, nice, nice enough. Though Anakin still didn't prefer the huge elegant politician stuff and he never would. As far as it went from being Sidious's throne room it was unrecognizable. The floor was still black marble yes, but almost completely covered in crimson and navy blue carpet. The marble situation table in the middle of the room had been plated with red and blue plates in republic colors and had the insignia stamped in the middle in pure blue ink. The stairs leading up to the throne had all been replaced with a red marble, but it looked a little more pink than anything. Sidious's throne itself had proved hard to rip out.

It turns out it was actually attached to a piece of floor that lifted up so one could get into a hole and slid down into an emergency… room. There was a holonet viewer down there, food processor. Pure crystalline water producer, everything to hide out with. They had torn it out though and replaced it with a red chair and filled the entire hole up with duracrete since Mon Mothma's security was practically impregnable.

The Emperors desk had not been replaced, it was still black marble but imprinted with the New Republic insignia in honor of the fallen Empire. Behind the chair and desk was a whole new window, it was much cheaper than taking Sidious's apart which had the Imperial insignia sculpted with metal in it. It had been replaced by a similar window but it had no insignia in between the panes of transparisteel. The New Republic insignia didn't quite work with it.

But even harder than all of this remodeling was picking out every single little trap Sidious had put in the room. There were a grand total of three cages hidden in the shadows above on the ceiling which could be lowered via a remote Sidious attached to his chair. Each cage had served a different evil purpose as well, so far as they could tell.

One was just a standard cage, but had slots in-between the bars where the Emperor could insert his hands and shock the victim with Force lightning. The next cage was far more complicated. Small blades lined the interior bars and if Sidious pressed a certain button on his remote the knifes would extended and stab the victim. The last was far more sinister. It was a cage made of mesh so tightly wound together that you could barely stick an infants pinky finger through the mesh. But the sinister part was that, precisely where the cage lowered at the floor under could be pulled back. Under the floor was a grate, with holes small so the victim could not fall in, but big enough so thousands of beetles, native to a moon of Yavin could escape through. Sidious would watch as they each ate the flesh off his victims bones.

There were other traps, holes in the floor that opened up by Sidious will so the victim fell in. One led to a tank of acid, the other to a tank of scalding hot water in which little flesh eating fish swam about, and two others that went deep into Coruscant's crust. So deep scientists were still working to figure out where they led. The had found where one led, it drilled a grand total of twenty feet into Coruscant's crust, the victims slid down a twisting slid with sharp edges poking out and slicing at them, it they survived they ended up in a dark box underground and suffocated to death.

None of that mattered now though, Anakin had important things to discuss. He walked up the red marbles steps to Mon Mothma's desk and sat down before it in a comfortable blue cushioned chair. Mon Mothma looked up at him.

"You are five minutes late Lord Skywalker." She said bitterly, she still had not forgiven him for all he did as Darth Vader.

"Well I am sorry for your inconvenience Chancellor. But I have urgent news, you have heard of the attack on Mon Calamari I presume?"

"Its all over the HoloNet."

"Well care to guess as who attacked?"

"I should know very soon because I assume you are going to tell me since you came to the planets aid."

"Correct. Remember what I told you about that Admiral Daala, the one you did not consider a threat."

"It was her?"

"Yes. And she was guarding a scientific installation in the black hole cluster near the planet Kessel. I request permission to head there and take out the installation. I do not believe she is headed there but we still don't want her to create any super weapons. She already has a prototype of the Death Star there."

"Permission denied Lord Skywalker." Mon Mothma answered. "I want General Antillies to lead the raid on the installation while you search for Daala herself. I would like her taken alive, if at all possible."

"Alright Chancellor, I accept. When do you want me to leave."

"Now, you're appointment time is up and I do not fancy a chat with the former Sith Lord."

XxX

Anakin had already landed on the Executor and he was now striding down the bridge over the control pits at the top of the control tower. He found Admiral Piett, Yoda, Mara, Kreia, and Xen waiting for him. Piett bowed slightly as he approached and Anakin dismissed him with a careless flick of his hand that nearly knocked the red cap off of a passing officer's short haired head.

"Master Skywalker," Mara began bowing.

"I am not a Jedi." Anakin stated.

"Foolish pride should not cloud your better judgment Lord Vader." Kreia said out of nowhere before Mara could even reply. Anakin's eyes turned to slits as he looked at her.

"What did you call me?"

"You refuse to be called a Jedi, so I call you by your Sith name. Since you have no desire to be a Jedi this hardly strikes me as problematic."

"No, not about the Sith. About foolish pride, because it is not about foolish pride!"

"Then what is it about, guilt? That is worse than pride."

"YES!" Anakin shouted making the crew jump. His eyes turned sickly yellow and Yoda had to fight to stop himself from telling Anakin to control his anger. "It's about guilt! I killed every Jedi in the Jedi temple, I slaughtered Knights, Padawan, and younglings! Do not speak to me about my guilt or you will pay."

"Ha, ha, ha." Kreia laughed. "You are indeed a Sith Lord."

Anakin turned his back on her.

"You are an odd old woman, I think you are hiding something."

"Well perhaps I would tell you if you would turn around and face me rather than turn your back on me like a child."

Anakin whipped around and nearly smacked her in the face.

"Fine, tell me what you are hiding."

"Nothing."

"Do you enjoy irritating me, old woman?"

"No I do not enjoy it. It is necessary."

"Why?"

"You must be a Jedi, you cannot be a Sith. The Sith are the enemies of Jedi and if you are an enemy of the Jedi you are an enemy of the Republic. As is your wife."

At this point Anakin became enraged. His face paled with anger making his yellow eyes look very colorful. He whipped out his blood red lightsaber and pointed it at Kreia's neck.

"Don't you dare call my wife a traitor to the Republic."

All eyes were fixed on them now. Piett was even staring.

"Or what? You will impale me with the stroke of a lightsaber."

"Yes."

"Then do it."

"Enough!" roared Xen. He cyborg arm twitched. "As much as I enjoy a good fight we are somewhat on a mission. Admiral Daala and that Darth Sion sound familiar?"

Anakin grudgingly extinguished the red blade, though his anger still bubbled deep inside him hotter than any lightsaber blade could ever be. Deep in his soul a dragon reared back and spat fire, engulfing Kreia and making his sizzle.

"Correct." Anakin said. He looked to Mara. "What is it you were supposed to tell me?"

"We have contacted Qui-gon, he and Padawan Mundi are on their way."

"Excellent." Anakin said crisply. "PIETT!"

The Admiral ran up to him as fast as his legs could carry him and nearly tripped when he bowed.

"Yes milord?"

"Begin calculating every possible hyperspace route Admiral Daala could have taken within the sector she exited in."

"Alright milord, but I am not sure how that will help us."

"We are going to my quarters to meditate, we should have an answer by the time you are done and you can confirm it."

"A well thought out solution." Kreia said.

Anakin turned back to her and the already chilly temperature of the bridge dropped five degrees.

"When I seek your opinion I will ask it."

Kreia matched his stare though she could not see him.

"Very well, I will keep such things to myself, especially in life threatening situations where you must rely on others to help you."

"Lets hope if that ever happens a different Jedi will be fighting along side me."

"Hope can be as hollow as fear."

"More meaningless cryptic words."

"So it seems."

XxX

It was like the old fashioned meditation circle from the Jedi of old. Yoda, Mara, Kreia, Anakin, and Xen sat in a perfect circle on the black carpet of Anakin's quarters, meditating. Kreia of course had asked why the carpet was black and again Anakin had to resist the temptation to smack her. If only he hadn't taken her before the Jedi when her cargo ship came out of hyperspace. Each Jedi dimly sensed Qui-gon and Padawan Mundi enter the ship but continued searching the vast recesses of the galaxy for any sign of this Darth Sion.

Anakin was already aware that his efforts were in vain. He had never been good at meditation, and apparently Kreia sensed it to for he could feel amusement rolling off of her in bright waves of cold water. She kept her tongue behind her teeth however. Anakin was bad at this though, yet he taught Padmé.

"Reach out with the Force." He had said to her in the training room aboard the Executor. "Feel the galaxy around you."

"It's hard." Padmé said from the floor, sitting cross legged and thankfully before she was pregnant. "There are so many people. So many planets."

"So much life? It's sickening isn't it?"

"Its so crowded, how do people live?"

"It's a mystery."

"I cannot do it."

"I didn't expect you to."

"What?"

"How am I suppose to teach you? I haven't even perfected the technique myself."

She smiled at him then.

That was really the only thing that prompted him to meditate. Padmé's smile. But he couldn't think about that now really, anger with Kreia clouded his mind.

Then Yoda's ears perked up and he opened his big green eyes.

"Found something I did." Yoda said in his twisted little language. "Orbiting around the planet Telos, Sion is."

"How ironic my apprentice." Kreia thought. He was following in the footsteps of the one who died at the hand of the exile above Telos. Just as he would soon die at her hand if everything went smoothly.

"Why Telos?" Mara asked.

"A mystery that remains. A half dead world Telos is, without much civilization."

"And it is the perfect place to hide." Kreia said. "Telos has no military, if threatened by Daala and her fleet they would not call for help."

"Well they are getting some." Anakin said. "We need to go tell the Admiral."

Everyone agreed and stood up, except for Kreia.

"I will remain meditating, to make sure he does not leave."

Anakin eyed her suspiciously.

"Don't touch anything in here."

"Oh rest assured I will not snoop around your suite Lord Skywalker. After all you have so many things of value I could take."

Ha-ha-ha! Meaningless babble, don't you love it? And miss-AZ, Nabberie Skylar, what happened? Were you suddenly struck with a new idea for some fan fiction that you just haaaaaaaad to type so you haven't been reading anything? Hmm? Review! Complaints, comments, anything but flames I'll take. God this is a long chapter, and I really am not helping it be more meaningful with my little notes am I? Guess not.

Next Chapter: Over Telos