Chapter 61
Darkness Falls
Obi-Wan dropped out of hyperspace and was greeted by the sight of the yellowish orb of Utapau. He'd gone on ahead in his new blue-trimmed Eta-2 to scout out the situation. Hopefully Cody and the rest of his troops were waiting just outside the System, ready for whatever he found here.
Ditching the booster ring high over the atmosphere, he had Geenine bring them down to the surface. After skimming over the arid wind-swept plains, they dove down into one of the many deep sinkholes that dotted the planet. Inside was an entire city wrapped around the edges of the sinkhole in rings.
They landed on a pad that jutted out from the rock wall. Obi-Wan glanced around for a moment, before popping the canopy and hopping out. A tall gray Pau'an, who Obi-Wan assumed to be Tion Medon, the Port Administrator, glided over to greet him.
"Greetings young Jedi, what brings you to our remote sanctuary?" Tion Medon asked politely.
"Unfortunately the war." Obi-Wan answered regretfully.
"There's no war here, unless you brought it with you." Tion declared.
"With your kind permission, I would like some fuel, and use of your city as a base while I search nearby Systems for General Grievous." Obi-Wan inquired hopefully.
The Pau'an considered the request for a moment before he barked out some orders in his native language. Several small, squat, brown aliens scurried to hook fuel hoses to his starfighter. They were the Utai, the second intelligent species of Utapau, nicknamed Shorts due to their physical stature and their limited lifespan.
While the Utai refueled his ship, Tion stepped closer. "He is here." The Administrator whispered. "We are being held hostage. They are watching us."
"I understand." Obi-Wan replied quietly. Well this is interesting…
"Tenth level…thousands of battle droids." Tion added, spitting 'battle droids' out as a curse.
"Tell your people to take shelter." Obi-Wan advised. "If you have warriors, now is the time."
The Pau'an nodded and Obi-Wan scuttled back over to his ship. "Take the fighter back to the ship." He instructed the brassy-domed droid. "Tell Cody I've made contact."
Geenine whistled in agreement and cheerfully lifted off to run his errand. Obi-Wan, meanwhile, carefully backed away into the shadows of the landing pad with his hood drawn up. As he scanned his new environment, he overheard Tion Medon and the other Pau'ans talking as they departed.
"Is he bringing additional warriors?" Another Pau'an asked.
"He didn't say…" Tion Medon replied.
Not to fear, help is on the way, Obi-Wan chuckled to himself. Hopefully Cody will make it here soon. Now, I think I need some transportation…
The transportation that Obi-Wan acquired turned out to be a fifty foot long feathered lizard named Boga. She was a fine specimen of a Varactyl with bright green scales and a glossy blue crest of feathers. And she was…spirited…almost throwing him as he rode her out of the corral where the Varactyls and Dactillions were stabled.
She moved startling fast for a reptile, swiftly carrying him to his goal. He'd noticed a modified Trade Federation vessel, the spherical center of one of their donut-like droid control ships, attached to the wall of the sinkhole at the tenth level, just as Tion had warned. With a little Force nudge, he convinced Boga to soften her cries and move slowly and cautiously as they entered the shadowy recesses at the top of the sphere.
After scampering through a few tunnels and scrabbling over a few walkways, they came to a high ledge that overlooked a meeting area. General Grievous was there, speaking to the controlling board of the Separatists. Obi-Wan dismounted and crept closer so that he could hear what they were discussing.
"Safe?" Nute Gunray sputtered, standing up from his seat behind a long table. "Hmph, Chancellor Palpatine managed to escape your grip, General. Without Count Dooku, I have doubts about your ability to keep us safe."
"Be thankful Viceroy…that you have not found yourself in my grip." General Grievous wheezed threateningly. "Your ship is waiting."
The Separatist leaders stood from their seats and obediently marched in the direction the cyborg general had pointed. Obi-Wan watched them leave with interest, stroking his beard thoughtfully. Once Grievous was alone with his droid forces, Obi-Wan decided to make his move. He shrugged off his cloak and leapt down to the floor behind the hulking cyborg.
"Hello there." Obi-Wan greeted cheerfully as the Magna Guard droids spun and activated their electro-staffs.
"General Kenobi…" Grievous growled as he turned. "You are a bold one. Kill him!" He ordered.
The droids moved to obey and Obi-Wan lit his sapphire saber to meet them. He dispatched the tricky Magna droids quickly enough and then used the Force to pull down a heavy catwalk and crush another group of battle droids. Before he could do anymore damage, General Grievous decided to intervene.
"Back away," Grievous ordered. "I will deal with this Jedi slime myself!"
"Your move." Obi-Wan invited, raising his blade into a guard position.
"You fool!" Grievous sneered. "I've been trained in your Jedi arts by Count Dooku!"
The skeletal cyborg shrugged off his gray cloak and drew some of his lightsaber trophies into his hands. His arms then split down the middle, turning two arms into four, each hand holding a lightsaber. And then he lit all four sabers, two green and two blue.
"Attack, Kenobi!" General Grievous snarled.
Obi-Wan shifted into an offensive stance while Grievous spun the two upper blades around in deadly pinwheels. The cyborg advanced, lowering the spinning blades so that they gouged the durasteel floor and showered sparks everywhere, the two lower blades he kept at his sides, pointed ahead and ready to skewer his target. Obi-Wan easily gave ground as he sought an opening.
When the moment felt right, he lashed out with his saber. Grievous stabbed back with all four blades, making it hard for Obi-Wan to keep up. He flipped over the towering alien general and he managed to slice off Grievous' lower left hand.
Growling in rage, Grievous redoubled his efforts to slay the Jedi general. Obi-Wan held him off though and took another hand off the cyborg. They hacked at each other for another minute or two when Cody and his troops arrived.
The clones rappelled down on wires and rode down on gunships. The rest of the droids rushed to meet them and a vicious firefight ensued. Grievous glared at the clash, then turned back to scowl at Obi-Wan.
"Army or not…you must realize you are doomed!" Grievous sneered.
"Oh I don't think so!" Obi-Wan retorted, then gather the Force and shoved the cyborg away and into a wall.
Grievous managed to land on a lower level on all six limbs and scuttled insect-like into a strange-looking vehicle. It was a single large wheel that he sat inside with four droid legs jutting out of the sides. Gunning it, the droid general tried to run Obi-Wan down, then blasted away down the side of the sinkhole.
Obi-Wan dove to the side to avoid being flattened and landed on a nearby catwalk. With a sharp whistle, he summoned Boga, who enthusiastically crushed a few droids as she rushed over to him. Leaping on her back, she darted off in hot pursuit of Grievous.
As he struggled to hang on while Boga raced nearly vertically down, his lightsaber slipped from his sweaty grasp. He watched helplessly as the silvery hilt spun away from him, out of his reach. There was no way he could get it back because if he stopped he'd lose Grievous.
Just great, Obi-Wan sighed as he and Boga chased Grievous down into a dark tunnel. Just wonderful! I could really use some help here…
Mace Windu was troubled. At the moment, he was leading a review of troop movements over a holo-table in the depths of the Jedi Temple. Yoda, Ki-Adi-Mundi, and Aayla Secura were attending via hologram. Vader was there in person, observing.
He didn't want to admit it, but he was worried about the young man. Vader looked exhausted and he only looked worse each time he appeared to give his report on the Chancellor. The stress of dealing with the suspicious politician appeared to be wearing on him significantly. Mace worried that the boy would soon be unable to handle the pressure.
We should not have given him this assignment, Mace mused. This goes far beyond our original agreement. It might even violate our agreement if it turns out that the Chancellor is in collusion with the Sith Master…
A new hologram, one of the Clone Commander Cody, flickered into being between Ki-Adi-Mundi and Aayla Secura. "Master Windu, may I interrupt? General Kenobi has made contact with General Grievous and we have begun our attack." Cody reported.
"Thank you Commander." Mace replied and Cody's image vanished as he returned to battle. "Vader, deliver this report to the Chancellor. His reaction will give us a clue to his intentions."
"Yes Master Windu." Vader bowed and reluctantly trudged out of the dark strategy room.
Mace watched him go, sighing when the door shut behind the young man. "I have a bad feeling about this. Something is wrong about the Chancellor; the Dark Side of the Force surrounds him." He commented, echoing his earlier suspicions that he'd voiced to Master Yoda and Master Kenobi.
"If the Chancellor does not give up his emergency powers after the destruction of Grievous, then he should be removed from office." Ki-Adi-Mundi remarked, unknowingly repeating Mace's own thoughts on the matter.
"The Jedi Council would have to take control of the Senate in order to secure a peaceful transition." Mace mused thoughtfully. Not that I'd want to. We have enough to do in ending this war.
"To a dark place this line of thought brings us," Yoda sighed, repeating his warning. "Great care we must take with our actions."
Mace nodded and stared down at the glowing table thoughtfully. I hope that we are wrong to suspect the Chancellor of anything for our sakes. Though I doubt that we are…
Anakin just felt so incredibly tired, and the feeling only got worse the closer he came to the Chancellor's office. Being in the presence of the old man seemed exhausting in itself. Pretending to be a mildly disillusioned Jedi Knight who was sympathetic, or at least open to what the Chancellor said chafed at him far worse than impersonating a Jedi ever had. All he wanted to do was just pack up and run away again.
But it had to be done. It was a duty that he, while reluctant, had accepted. It was now his responsibility to follow it through as best he could.
Pausing outside the Supreme Chancellor's office, he ran through a quick exercise to try and get his thoughts in order. Tightening his mental shields, he straightened out his cloak and stepped inside the collection of spacious rooms that the Chancellor used as his office. It seemed to take forever until he came to the old man sitting at his desk.
"Chancellor, we're just received a report from Master Kenobi. He has engaged General Grievous." Anakin informed him as he came up to the Chancellor's desk.
"We can only hope that Master Kenobi is up to the challenge." Palpatine commented.
"I should be there with him." Anakin mumbled before he could stop himself. Gah! I didn't mean to say that! But…it's still true. And quit bad-mouthing Obi-Wan!
"It's upsetting to me to see that the Council doesn't seem to fully appreciate your talents." Palpatine sighed with a slight frown. "Don't you wonder why they won't make you a Jedi Master?"
Guess I'm supposed to answer that. "I wish I knew." Anakin shrugged. Feeling the Chancellor's hard gaze on him, he started to pace slowly in front of the desk. "More and more I get the feeling that I'm being excluded from the Council." They probably are excluding me, but I can understand why, and I don't care. "I know there are things about the Force that they're not telling me." He added rather randomly, trying to sound frustrated though he thought he just sounded tired. Yeah, they don't tell me because I don't ask…
"They don't trust you," the Chancellor told him, getting up from his chair. He started to walk down the hallway of his office and Anakin reluctantly followed. "They see your future. They know your power will be too strong to control. You must break through the fog of lies the Jedi have created around you." Palpatine encouraged. "Let me help you to know the subtleties of the Force."
Whoa, whoa, whoa, what? "How do you know the ways of the Force?" Anakin asked warily, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
"My mentor taught me everything about the Force." Palpatine replied calmly. "Even the nature of the Dark Side."
"You know the Dark Side?" Anakin repeated stupidly. …WHAT?
"If one is to understand the great mystery, one must study all of its aspects, not just the dogmatic, narrow view of the Jedi." Palpatine patiently explained. "If you wish to become a complete and wise leader, you must embrace a larger view of the Force."
What the hell is wrong with you! Anakin wondered as he tried to hide his horror and not stare openly at the Supreme Chancellor. You sound like a kriffin' Sith!
"Be careful of the Jedi, Anakin." The Chancellor warned. "Your usefulness to them is fast approaching an end and they will not hesitate in disposing of you to wash their hands of your specific deceit."
Anakin felt like someone had whacked him in the back of the head with a durasteel beam. How do you know my name? And how do you know about–
It all made a terrible sort of sense. The main concern of the Sith was power, and as the Supreme Chancellor, he was arguably the most powerful man alive. And all his talk about power, the Dark Side, the Sith…
"You're the Sith Lord!" Anakin inhaled sharply. Ah, I've been hanging out with Sidious!
"Don't continue to be a pawn of the Jedi Council!" Palpatine frowned. "Only through me can you achieve a power greater than any Jedi. Only by taking your proper place at my side will you ever achieve any true significance."
Anakin could only stare at him. He couldn't think to speak, couldn't move. No! No, no, no, no. no–
"Remember Anakin, it was I who instructed Count Dooku to retrieve you from Tatooine and save you from that wretched ball of sand." Palpatine – Sidious – reminded him in a warning tone. "And it was I who had Dooku begin your training in the ways of the Force. Without me, you would still be toiling away as a slave in obscurity."
"I-I-I…" Anakin stammered dumbly. He could practically feel his shields crack, allowing his panic to seep out into Sidious' view.
"What is it that you fear?" Sidious wondered, looking amused as he detected Anakin's terror. "Do you think that I am angry that you killed Dooku? Of course not, he was always only a temporary apprentice. Now that he is gone, the way is clear for you to ascend to your rightful place."
Anakin managed to un-stick one boot from the floor and take a step back. And then another. And then another…
"Hmm, or perhaps you fear me," Sidious mused thoughtfully. "I suppose that's understandable. In fact, you should fear me, especially if you should decide to defy me…" Sidious studied him for a moment, then graced him with a smile that more properly belonged on a kindly grandfather than a Sith Master. "Here, why don't you take a nice walk, consider your options. But…know that your time is short. When General Grievous has been disposed of, the Jedi Order will stop being an asset and start being a liability."
Anakin trembled at the hidden threat in Sidious' words and fled from the office. He didn't care if anyone saw him running or what they might've thought of him. All he was focused on was getting away. Far away…
Obi-Wan clung to Boga's saddle with all his might as she careened down the winding Utapaun tunnels in pursuit of Grievous. She pulled up alongside the odd monocycle and Grievous began swiping at him with a Magna droid's electro-staff. But Obi-Wan managed to turn the tables and take the staff for himself so that he could attack Grievous and his strange mode of transport.
Not long after that, Obi-Wan ended up jumping inside the wheel with Grievous to better attack him. The instant he left the saddle, Boga screeched to a halt and waited for him, just as she was trained to. Now that there were two of them in the monocycle, grappling with each other, the vehicle wobbled dangerous from side to side as it continued to race down the tunnel.
Grievous tried to pull his blaster on Obi-Wan, but he managed to dodge the blasts and pulled Grievous out of the cycle. They crashed into the floor of a landing pad of some kind while the now driverless cycle flew off the edge of the pad and down into the depths of a much smaller sinkhole. Then the fight really began.
Obi-Wan still had possession of the electro-staff, which gave him the advantage, but he didn't keep it for long. Grievous, after losing his blaster, knocked the staff from Obi-Wan's hands and began to mercilessly pummel him. The Jedi Master was hard pressed to keep from getting smashed into a bloody pulp by the durasteel limbs of the alien cyborg.
The Separatist general tossed him around, knocking him into the side of a small starfighter of some kind several times. Obi-Wan managed to slip in close and pry apart Grievous' chest plates, revealing what remained of the alien's internal organs. Roaring in rage, Grievous knocked him down and tried to stomp him to bits.
Out of reflex Obi-Wan tried to kick the cyborg at a point on his leg that would hurt an ordinary being. But Grievous wasn't ordinary; his body was made of bone-white durasteel. So all Obi-Wan did was hurt himself.
With a cruel cackle, Grievous hurled the limping Jedi over the side of the landing pad. Obi-Wan just barely caught himself on the edge before he joined the monocycle down in the depths of the sinkhole. Before he could pull himself up, Grievous was advancing on him, the electro-staff crackling in his claws.
Oh, this is bad…
Spying the forgotten blaster, Obi-Wan took desperate action. He called the weapon to his hand and fired at the opening he'd made in Grievous' chest plates. The alien cyborg stumbled backwards, clutching at his chest as his vulnerable organs caught fire. Obi-Wan fired a few more times, just to be sure that the other general would die, and watched in fascinated horror as all that remained of Grievous' biological parts burst into flame.
When the smoking durasteel remains clattered lifelessly to the floor, Obi-Wan was able to pull himself back onto firm ground. He wandered over to Grievous' scorched corpse, wrinkling his nose as she smelled the foul stench of charred flesh. Having no more need for the blaster, he tossed aside disdainfully.
"So uncivilized," he muttered in disgust.
Shaking his head, he jogged back the way he came to retrieve Boga. Now that Grievous was dead, he'd have to pass the word along to the Jedi Council. And then it would be back to wrap up the battle that he'd started.
Almost home!
Despite all his efforts at a speedy return to the Temple, he didn't get back and find Master Windu until afternoon had started to turn into evening. He found the Master with three other Council members, Agen Kolar, Kit Fisto, and Saesee Tiin, in the Temple Hanger. It looked like they were on their way to somewhere.
Anakin trotted after the Human Master, desperate to speak with him. "Master Windu!" He called. "I must talk to you!"
Master Windu stopped and waited for him to catch up. "We have just received word that Obi-Wan has destroyed General Grievous." Master Windu informed him. "We're on our way to make sure that the Chancellor returns his emergency power back to the Senate."
"He won't give up his power," Anakin gulped, trying to keep his breathing under control. "He's a Sith Lord."
"A Sith Lord?" Master Windu repeated, alarmed.
"Yes, the one we've been looking for." Anakin nodded tensely.
"How do you know this?" Master Windu frowned.
"He knows the ways of the Force. He's been trained to use the Dark Side." Anakin swallowed. "And he knows my name, my real name."
"Are you sure?" Master Windu asked.
"Absolutely." Anakin replied. Why would I be telling you this if I wasn't sure?
"Then our worst fears have been realized." Master Windu scowled. "We must move quickly if the Jedi Order is to survive."
"Master Windu, the Chancellor is very powerful," Anakin warned. "If you try to stop him, he won't hesitate to kill you."
"Perhaps, perhaps not. It is a risk we must take." Master Windu declared firmly. "Wait in the Council chambers until we return."
Anakin thought about protesting, but he quickly caved. "Yes Master Windu," he mumbled miserably.
Satisfied, Mace Windu continued on to a waiting gunship with his three fellow Masters. Anakin watched as the four of them stepped on board and lifted away into the setting sun. And then he turned away and stumbled towards the Council chamber to do as he was told, unable to keep watching them zip away towards their doom.
I've never liked Master Windu. I'll probably never like him. But that doesn't mean I want him to die!
Mace Windu led his colleagues to the Supreme Chancellor's office at the back of the Senate rotunda. The shatterpoint, the point at which, depending on what one does, determines the outcome of a conflict, was drawing near. But instead of this being the shatterpoint of a simple duel, this was the point of turning for the entire war, for the ancient conflict between Jedi and Sith.
If they triumphed here, the war would end, the Sith would be destroyed, and the leadership of the Senate would temporarily fall to the Jedi Council until a new Chancellor could be elected. If they failed, they would all die and the Sith Lord would turn his wrath on the Jedi Order. Whatever happened next would determine which fate befell them and the rest of the galaxy.
He stepped into the Chancellor's office and headed for the back, where Palpatine sat at his desk. The elderly Chancellor deactivated the holo-terminal that he was sitting at and turned to regard his Jedi visitors with a friendly smile. Mace fought not to tense as the atmosphere in the room seemed to drop a few degrees.
"Master Windu, I take it that General Grievous has been destroyed then?" The Chancellor guessed. "I must say that you're here sooner than expected."
"In the name of the Galactic Senate of the Republic," Mace declared, lighting his violet lightsaber as the other Masters lit their green and blue ones, "you are under arrest Chancellor."
"Are you threatening me Master Jedi?" Palpatine growled, suddenly very unfriendly.
"The Senate will decide your fate." Mace declared sternly.
"I am the Senate!" Palpatine snarled, standing up.
"Not yet." Mace retorted.
"It's treason then." The Chancellor hissed.
A lightsaber with a gold and black hilt snapped to the Sith's hand seemingly out of thin air. The old man stroked it with one finger as he glared at the four Jedi before him. And then he lit the blood-red blade.
With an inhuman snarl, the Chancellor abruptly vaulted over his desk in a spinning leap and landed right in front of them. Stabbing forward he instantly skewered and killed Agen Kolar, the Zabrak Master. Before he had even hit the floor, the Sith had turned on the fierce Iktotchi, Saesee Tiin, and killed him as well.
Mace and Kit tried to pin the Sith Master between them and attack him from both sides. But the wily old man slipped away from them, slaying Kit Fisto the Nautulan as he went. Now it was just down to Mace and Palpatine…
Sliding into the deadly and dangerous Form VII, the vaapad style, Mace continued to duel with the Sith. It was a very dangerous style of lightsaber conflict, one that demanded the user to walk a fine line between Light and Dark. And it seemed to be the only thing that helped him succeed where the others had fallen.
He ruthlessly slashed back, always keeping his violet blade moving, striking, like the deadly vaapad beast the style took its name from. The Chancellor was forced to retreat back towards one of the large wide windows of his office. Their blades shattered the transparisteel, removing the only barrier between them and the howling wind and the streets far below. Mace managed to kick the Sith's blade from his hand and pin him in the corner of the window.
"You are under arrest, my Lord!" Mace snapped, his blade hovering over Palpatine's throat. "The oppression of the Sith will never return! You have lost!"
"No!" Palpatine croaked. "No, no! You will die!"
And with that, he unleashed the one of the Sith's most perverse powers, the deadly Force lightning. Mace was nearly blown off his feet by its power and only just barely interposed his blade in time to avoid being hit directly. Straining, he struggled to reflect the Dark energy back at its source.
The Chancellor howled as stray bolts of his own lightning came back to strike him. With each hit, his face began to change. The skin of his face became discolored; it started to run like melted wax, it peeled away from his bones like rotting flesh. Finally the pain seemed to be too much for him and the lightning stopped abruptly, causing Mace to sway, nearly losing his balance.
"I am going to end this once and for all!" Mace growled, raising his saber to strike.
The Chancellor, though gasping for breath, didn't seem all that concerned. His sunken yellow eyes briefly darted to the doorway, as if he were expecting someone to arrive any moment. But no one was there, and no one came. He appeared to be…disappointed.
"No," the Supreme Chancellor snarled, "I shall end this!"
In one fluid motion he called one of the fallen Jedi Masters lightsabers, ignited it, and swung it around to slice off Mace's sword hand at the wrist. Shocked, off-balance, and now weaponless, Mace desperately flailed to regain his balance. But before he could, the Sith returned to firing Force lightning at him, and now without his lightsaber he had nothing to defend himself with.
Mace howled in agony. It was a pain he'd never experienced before. No electrical shock he'd ever suffered before could even compare to this. Now he could understand why Vader hated and feared this so much.
"Power!" Palpatine cackled as he continued to pump lightning into the defenseless Jedi Master. "Unlimited power!"
And then Mace felt himself flying. Flying and then falling. Down, down into the dark Coruscanti night…
Anakin had gone to wait in the Jedi Council chamber as Master Windu had ordered him to. But he couldn't stay there. The atmosphere was too tense, too suffocating.
He'd sat in his chair and waited. But the longer he sat there, the worse he felt. It was like he was being pulled in two different directions at once. And there was a faint scrabbling feeling at the back of his mind, like someone was poking around there, subtlety looking for a way in…
Unable to stand it, he left the Council chamber and went to the Temple Hanger. There he hopped into one of the Order's high performance speeders and took off. Perhaps the thrill of going fast just for the hell of it would soothe him, or at least distract him from what was going on.
With no particular destination in mind, Anakin just drove around as fast and as recklessly as he dared. He paid no attention to where he was or where he might be going, he just went. It did help relax him a bit, but only a bit. Darkness hovered over everything.
Then something got caught on the edge of the speeder's cockpit canopy. Thinking it was just some driver's carelessly discarded trash, he veered out of the lane he was in and opened the bubble canopy to remove the debris. …It wasn't trash.
It was a Human hand.
He screamed, of course. Really, who wouldn't scream when some random body part hit their speeder? And he almost knocked it free and drove away as fast as he could. But then he noticed what the severed hand was still holding.
Is that…a lightsaber? He blinked and very hesitantly reached over to grab the item in question, disgustedly shaking the dead hand off, letting it fall to the streets far below. Ugh, gross! He shuddered as the hand swiftly vanished from sight.
Forcing the hand from his mind, he turned his focus to the lightsaber. Then his disgust morphed into pure horror. Hey, I know this saber…this is Master Windu's! That was his hand! Agh!
Feeling decidedly sick, he turned around and headed back to the Temple, not even bothering to close the canopy again. But the strange rain wasn't quite over yet as he soon discovered. At about the same place where he'd hit the hand, on his return trip he hit something else.
To be more precise, something landed in the speeder with him. Something roughly the size, shape, and weight of an adult Human male. Something that smelled of ozone, burned cloth, singed hair, and perhaps charred flesh. Something that was…
"Ah, Master Windu!" Anakin choked. Gah!
Master Windu only gave a faint groan in response. And then he fell eerily silent. Anakin almost thought he'd expired, but since he didn't feel his death, the Jedi Master still had to be alive.
Ah, it's raining crispy Jedi Masters! Anakin panicked, nearly crashing before he could straighten out his flying. Who's next, a fried Master Fisto?
Thankfully, no other half-cooked Jedi Masters fell from the sky. It was crowded enough with just him and Master Windu. And it was more than creepy enough.
It didn't take a rocket scientist to conclude what had happened. Sidious had gone up against four Jedi Master, and had beaten them all. And now Anakin knew what would come next.
Locking the canopy tightly shut this time, he blasted off for the Temple at the highest speed this speeder could make. Putting all his weight on the accelerator pedal, he willed the shuddering machine to go faster. He had to get back to the Temple and try to warn them. And he was fast running out of time…
Anakin scrambled through the halls of the Jedi Temple, desperately seeking the last Jedi Council member on Coruscant who was alive and fully functioning, Shaak Ti the Togruta. Why she'd been left behind here and not gone with Master Windu to deal with Sidious he didn't know, nor did he particularly care. All he knew was that she was here and that he had to find her.
The few Knights and Masters that were still up and around at this hour probably gave him dirty looks for running like a lunatic in the Temple, but he didn't care what they thought of him. This was an emergency of the highest order. He had to get to Shaak Ti and he had to get to her an hour ago.
After he'd landed in the Temple Hanger, the skeleton staff that worked the night shift was shocked at what he'd brought back with him. Leaving the electrocuted Master with them, he'd called for a Healer, but didn't stay. He'd started his search immediately because he knew there was no time at all to waste.
Rounding a corner he was forced to skid to an abrupt halt as there was someone directly in his path. That someone turned out to be a very startled Master Tachi. She didn't say anything to him for a few minutes, seemingly at a loss for words. Anakin didn't speak because he was too busy catching his breath.
"Aren't you a little old to be running through the Temple like that?" She finally asked.
"Yeah but…I need to find Master Ti." He panted. "Do you know where she is?"
"Last I saw her, she was in the Archives." Master Tachi replied after a moment's thought. "Why do you need to speak to her so badly that you're running?"
"Thanks!" Anakin called over his shoulder as he bolted away to the Archives. He didn't have time to explain what was going on. Master Tachi would just have to wait, though she'd probably find out for herself all too soon.
A few minutes later he burst into the Archives and was immediately pounced on by the Head Archivist, Jocasta Nu.
"Young man, we do not run in the Archives, we walk!" Master Nu scolded him, standing directly in his way. "You are more than old enough to know better!"
"I'm sorry Master Nu," Anakin panted, "but I must speak with Master Ti. Is she here?"
"Yes she is," Master Nu replied after a long moment of glaring at him for breaking her precious rules. "She is in the restricted section, only Council members and Masters with special clearances are allowed there. You will have to wait until she comes out to speak with her."
Crud…hey wait. "I'm on the Council." He pointed out.
"You?" Master Nu snorted disbelievingly.
"Yes," temporarily, "I am. Please Master Nu, I really need to speak with Master Ti." He added.
Master Nu gave him a hard stare. "Well, since you asked nicely…this way."
Anakin slumped in relief as Master Nu brought him to the back of the Archives where the mysterious restricted section was located. She walked slowly though and that quickly grated on his nerves. But he didn't dare rush her, he was fortunate that she had decided to help him at all.
She brought him to a plain-looking door, locked with a keypad. She typed a code in, the door beeped, and then hissed open. It was much dimmer than the rest of the Archives and Anakin couldn't see much beyond the doorway.
"Thank you very much Master Nu," Anakin bowed politely and stepped inside.
The restricted section was a small collection of rooms. The first one he peered into was filled with dusty old books, the hardcopy paper kind. The rest of the rooms had data terminals, probably with special links to encrypted information that could only be accessed from here. Master Ti was in one of the rooms with a data terminal and she appeared to be studying an ancient file written in another language.
"Master Ti?" He interrupted hesitantly. He'd never dealt much with her and had no idea what she thought of him.
"Yes?" She blinked her black eyes in surprise.
"Um, there's a problem," Anakin swallowed anxiously. To say the very least…
"A problem?" Master Ti frowned, swiveling her chair to face him. "What kind of problem?"
"A big one," he sighed. "Master Windu failed to take the Supreme Chancellor into custody. He is being attended by Healers now. I fear the other Masters are dead."
Master Ti did not reply to that for several minutes. Anakin could understand that, he'd just delivered some very shocking news. But he couldn't help shifting nervously from foot to foot, they didn't have the time.
"Then it is as Mace has feared," she murmured at last, apparently lost in thought. "There is little time to prepare." Master Ti stood up, turned off her terminal, and began to leave the restricted section of the Archives.
"What do you plan to do?" Anakin asked curiously as he followed her.
"The Knights and Masters must be warned," Master Ti replied. "We must be ready to defend ourselves and our home."
"What about the children?" Anakin wondered. "And the sick and injured in the Healer's Wing?"
"They will be kept safe," she assured him. "Whatever the Chancellor sends at us, we shall not let it past our gates."
Cold dread began to congeal in his stomach. "But…there are so few of us. Most Knights and Masters are elsewhere, fighting the war. Are there enough of us to defend the Temple?"
"It does not matter." Master Ti answered. "We must succeed here. If the Temple falls, the Order will crumble."
"But–" Anakin began to protest.
"Jocasta!" Master Ti called. "Spread the word that all available Masters, Knights, and senior-level Padawans are to report to the main foyer immediately."
"Yes Master Ti," Master Nu bowed and hurried off to do what she was ordered to do.
"Now you pass on that message too," Master Ti ordered him.
"Yes Master Ti," Anakin agreed.
"Thank you," she nodded slightly and strode off to help pass her order along herself.
Anakin sighed deeply and jogged out of the Archives. He'd spread the word, but he probably wouldn't make it to Master Ti's little meeting. He had a few other things to do first.
Anakin stormed into his room and tore into his closet. He yanked free his old pack and stuffed an extra change of robes in it on top of the supplies that it already contained. He was about to rush out again when he remembered something. Digging through his drawers, he retrieved a small data chip and jammed it into a belt pouch before leaving.
Master Ti was bound and determined to save the Temple at all costs. But she would fail. Anakin was sure of it, though he wished he wasn't. His nightmarish visions were too powerful to ignore, and now he thought he understood them. The Temple would fall and the Jedi Order would die.
When he reached the hanger he belatedly realized that he no longer had a starfighter officially assigned to him. But then he just shrugged it off, he would just take another one. It wouldn't really matter soon anyway.
He hurried over to the first Eta-2 he saw. No Astromech guarded it, giving him the impression that it didn't belong to any other Jedi. Hopping up onto the green-and-gray wing, he used his comm-link to summon Artoo to him.
The spunky blue Astromech rolled onto the scene as quickly as he could, though Anakin couldn't help but pace impatiently while he waited. When the droid appeared, he relaxed a little. But not completely.
"Hey Artoo," Anakin grinned weakly. "I need you to do a few things for me."
Artoo whistled cheerful, ready to receive his instructions.
"I need two things." Anakin explained. "One, I need you to find R4-P44, the droid I used to work with. Have him come here and wait for me. If you can't find him, get another free Astromech to do it. And two, I want you to go back to Padmé and give her this." He pulled the data chip out of his belt pouch and held it out to the Astromech.
Artoo moaned sadly and reluctantly took the chip from him.
"Thanks Artoo," Anakin smiled gratefully. "You're the best. I'd like to keep you longer, but Padmé needs you more now than I do."
The little droid seemed to be consoled by this and beeped a bit more cheerfully as he rolled off to fulfill his instructions.
Sighing in relief, he dumped his pack under the seat in the starfighter's cockpit and strode away. Master Ti's defense was doomed and he wouldn't make much of a difference, but he had to try. At the very least, he might be able to convince some of them to save the children…
Padmé yawned and sighed. It was late, she was tired, and bed was looking better and better. But she wanted to finish up one more thing before she retired for the night.
She was almost done with getting things in order. Soon she would be able to disappear from the galaxy and be set to do whatever she had to do, if she needed to. All that was left for her to do was finalize her will, and she would be doing that with her lawyer in a few days.
Sabé was still here. Padmé could hear her stacking data chips and disks in a box. Those data storage units were copies of all of her files and Sabé would be holding onto them for the time being.
"Why don't you get ready for bed?" Sabé suggested, coming over to Padmé's side. "I'll finish up here."
"Thanks," Padmé yawned and stiffly got up and shuffled off to her bedroom.
She gladly shed her dress and changed into a lighter, simpler nightgown. Next she let down her hair and brushed it out. As she tackled the snarls that had accumulated in her hair over the course of the day, she wandered out of her room and into her common room.
Through the glass ceiling and walls, she could see a wide swath of the Coruscanti skyline. It was beautiful in its own way. During the day, it was a silver jewel that shone in the sunlight. At night, the endless sea of colored lights made the planet sparkle in the darkness. But she personally preferred Naboo to the hectic urban sprawl of Coruscant.
The lift chimed suddenly and there was a familiar electronic warble. Padmé turned to see Artoo rolling into the room towards her. She was surprised to see her droid, to say the least.
"Artoo! What are you doing here?" Padmé blinked.
Artoo chirped a long string of beeps and whistles in response and he extended one of his arms. At the end of Artoo's arm was a data chip. Padmé took the offered item and studied it curiously.
"A message from Vader?" Padmé guessed.
The droid seemed to whistle a confirmation.
"Ooh! Would you get a datapad for me out of my office?" Padmé asked.
Artoo squealed a yes and rushed to obey.
This is interesting, Padmé mused. I wonder what he's sent me…
"What's that you've got there Padmé?" Sabé inquired curiously, appearing with Artoo and a datapad.
"I don't know," Padmé shrugged, taking the datapad. "That's what I'm going to find out."
"Is it from Vader?" Sabé asked. When Padmé nodded as she loaded in the chip, Sabé smirked. "I bet it's a mushy love letter!"
"Sabé!" Padmé choked, blushing. "No it's not, quit joking around!"
"I bet it is!" Sabé teased.
"It's not!" Padmé insisted and accessed the chip's information.
There were only two files on it. And both had very simple titles. One was named TO OBI-WAN, and the other was named TO PADME.
"Hmm, interesting." Sabé commented.
"Stop reading over my shoulder," Padmé grumbled.
"But I want to see what all this is about," Sabé protested.
"You can read it after I read it." Padmé declared. "Now go sit over there," she pointed at a chair across the room.
"Oh fine," Sabé pouted and did as she was told.
"Thank you," Padmé sighed.
Settling back in her couch, she selected the file that was addressed to her. Before she opened it, she noticed that it had been created over a year earlier and hadn't been updated in nearly as long. Deeply intrigued, she opened it and began to read the text that came up…
Darth Sidious did not make mistakes. He made miscalculations, which were entirely different. And even those were rare to the point of being unheard of. This most recent snag in his plans was one of those very rare miscalculations.
Actually it was the culmination of a series of miscalculations. And that's what really made him angry. But instead of letting his anger rage out of control, he harnessed it, used it to fuel his Dark power. In the wider scheme of things, his miscalculation was negligible. His ultimate plan would proceed, just with a few alterations. And that was fine.
If only that damned Jedi had done was he was supposed to have done, what Sidious had predicted he would do, things wouldn't be quite as messy as they were. Back during the Trade Federation blockade of Naboo, he had set things in motion with certain visions in mind. His talent as a Seer far outstripped the pathetic little troll, yet now it seemed he hadn't Seen quite clear enough.
Qui-Gon Jinn was meant to find the Jedi's fabled 'Chosen One,' a child 'conceived by the Force' who would bring things back into balance. He did not. Instead he merely found a useful child trapped in a regrettable situation. He did not take drastic action as he was meant to and free the child, instead choosing to leave him behind for later examination.
That was the first problem in the series. Qui-Gon was meant to bring the vulnerable child into the Jedi Order, and in doing so sow the early seeds of mistrust of the Council in the boy. But he did not do this, and the boy was left in servitude on Tatooine.
Frustrated that Qui-Gon's apprentice did not learn of his Masters intentions towards the boy and seek him out, Sidious sent Darth Maul's replacement, Darth Tyranus, to collect the boy. If he could not plant the boy in the Jedi Order and activate him later, he would begin his life in the Force as a Sith. He would become the hidden apprentice that would appear when Dooku was at the end of his usefulness.
But that did not go as planned either. Dooku was not as skilled at manipulation and subtle guidance as Sidious had hoped he would be. He failed to engender a desire for power and Darkness in the child, and the boy had fled his torturous training.
Sidious had been enraged by Dooku's failure and punished his apprentice. However there seemed to be a bit of good news that came of Dooku's mess. The child found his way into the Jedi Order anyway, Sidious Saw it.
The Dark Lord considered trying to twist him the way he'd originally planned had the boy begun life as a Jedi, but he discarded the notion. The Jedi were obviously trying to hide the child and it would draw their suspicion if the Supreme Chancellor took an unusual interest in a Jedi Padawan that was not meant to be public knowledge. It was too risky, so Sidious had opted to be patient, wait for the coming opportunity, and attempt to trigger the boy's latent Sith nature.
And that was his worst miscalculation by far. He assumed that Dooku had managed to at least destroy the boy's trust of others, especially tradition-bound Jedi Order. Such lingering mistrust and hidden disdain for them would make it easy to persuade the boy to return to his rightful place, to take up the mantle of the Sith apprentice as he was meant to.
The Jedi, though, managed to corrupt his ultimate apprentice. They infected him with their weakness, their faulty beliefs, their flaws. He grew attached to them and their ways. And now he had turned his back on the true path, the Dark Path, the way to power and glory.
He'd made several offers to the boy, some more subtle than others. In the opera house, he had warned the boy away from the Council and then hinted at his Sith nature with the tale of Darth Plagueis the Wise. Then he'd tried to pull the boy closer by revealing his suspicions of the traitorous Senators. And then he'd just spelled it out for him.
It was admittedly difficult for him to gauge how his advances were being received. The boy had impressive shielding, it almost rivaled his own. And his physical and verbal responses seemed to indicate that he was tentatively accepting of his offer. Now it was clear that that wasn't true.
It was…disappointing.
Pulling a hood over his head to help disguise the terrible damage that Master Windu had done, Darth Sidious sighed in disgust and settled down behind his desk once more. He glared towards his broken window, making a mental note to have it replaced by morning, before bringing all of his attention to the task at hand. He pressed a button and activated a secret, encrypted link.
A tiny blue hologram of a Clonetrooper Commander flickered into view on his desk. "Your orders Chancellor?"
"Commander," Sidious rasped. "Gather the 501st legion, go to the Jedi Temple, and execute Order Sixty-Six…"