CHAPTER IX
Developments, Continued
Echoes of a blood-curling scream from a soul as it left its body…
The shadowed face of a grey-haired man with dark, soulless eyes…
A fleeting glimpse of a steep mountain cliff, falling, falling…
Blue eyes livid with pain and hate…
Then Barriss Offee's own eyes flew open and she was back in the darkness of her small room, her bed hard and comforting beneath her, and her body completely drenched in sweat.
Her heart was pounding with fear.
Instinctively, her hand reached underneath her bed for her lightsabre but even before she had grabbed it, she knew that the danger that had pulled her so violently out of sleep was not one that she could see or touch with her hands. Still, the moment her fingers wrapped around the cold solid metal cylinder, she felt her senses relaxing.
She threw her legs over the bed and with the lightsabre clasped firmly in her lap, she bent over and drew in deep calming breaths, drawing on the Force for reassurance.
After long moments, she finally raised her head. Her breath was steady and her heartbeat pounded with a steady, purposeful rhythm. She was calm. She was at peace. She was a Jedi and she had found her balance.
"A vision," she told herself. Not a nightmare, of course. Jedi did not dream. She forced her mind back at once, trying to recall the particulars of the vivid, painful sensory images that had assaulted her sleep. It was like trying to hold onto sand. The moment her mind focused on one memory, it faded away, slipping out of her head completely. After few more minutes of this, she was left with nothing but a frustrating blankness.
And a vague but definite sense of premonition.
"Thank you, Padawan Offee," Mace Windu said gravely. "This new information will be most helpful."
Barriss bowed deeply. Her long dark robe swept her ankles and her robes shifted with a sort of simple dignity as she stepped briskly out of the room. The meditation room was silent and waiting as the two Councillors and Jedi Knight watched her leave.
A very young Padawan, Mace thought, but with the wisdom and composure of a Knight twice her age. She was a credit to Luminara.
The moment the doors had shut behind her, Yoda broke the silence.
"Imprudent your words were, Obi-Wan. Kept from both Padawans their Masters' mission, have we. Now given it away you have." His moss-coloured eyes were dark and unhappy in the faint light of the partly-lit room.
"I am sorry I spoke out of turn Masters, but I did not expect that she and Ferus had been kept in the dark about their Masters' mission," Obi-Wan said. The words were courteous as usual and his tone was a respectful pitch but his accusation rang out in the Force. Mace and Yoda couldn't help but hear it.
An hour ago, Barriss Offee had approached Master Windu in the hall and told him about a vision she had had the night before. Immediately, Mace had taken her to the meditation room where Master Yoda was discussing with Obi-Wan Kenobi on a related matter and she had recounted everything to all three of them. Not that there had been much to recount. The Padawan remembered no particulars of the vision and the only proof she had that it ever happened was her own conviction and the definite feeling of unease she had borne with her since. They had been enough to convince the councillors. Master Yoda had placed her in a trance and tried to make her recall the vision, but to no avail.
Finally, Mace and Yoda had dismissed the Padawan, reassuring her that they would meditate on this matter and try to get to the bottom of things. Before she left, Obi-Wan, who had watched on in silence all through out the interrogation, spoke up and asked her if she had any reason to connect her vision with her master's mission on Raxus Prime.
Barriss had tried to mask her shock and anxiety at this revelation but her face, and then her Force aura had given her away. Mace had firmly reassured her of Luminara's faith but the deep worry had still been in her eyes when she left.
"To bear a burden which she was not prepared for, your rash words have caused her," Yoda said now. "Wonder I do if your unintentional slip might have been deliberate."
"It never occurred to me that she and Ferus would not be told of their Masters' mission," Obi-Wan said obstinately. "I can understand that they are too inexperienced to go along on such a dangerous mission but surely they could have been informed? Are they not trustworthy enough?"
Yoda and Windu exchanged glances.
"The reasons for our decisions we need not explain," Yoda said curtly.
Obi-Wan looked moderately abashed. "Forgive me, my Masters."
Yoda glared at him through narrowed eyes as if trying to weigh the sincerity of his apology. Then he sniffed and started walking away, "Your anger I sense, Obi-Wan."
"I am not angry," Obi-Wan said at once.
And he wasn't, Mace admitted, he was exercising a remarkable effort to restrain his temper.
"Dissatisfied, then," Yoda grunted. He had reached his cushion and he now clambered up it. "Unhappy you are that we forbade you from following after your apprentice." He settled onto the cushion and folded his small legs beneath him.
"I fail to understand why I should not have fetched Anakin from a foolish endeavour that would have at best ended in a bitter disappointment for him, yes."
"You are so certain Anakin is on Naboo, Obi-Wan?" Mace interjected.
The Knight stiffened. "He is not on Coruscant," he answered flatly. "The last people to see him in the Temple were Eeth Koth and Ferus Olin two days ago. Eeth witnessed an argument between the two boys that ended in Anakin throwing Ferus into a rack of training sabres. A diplomatic shuttle disappeared from the Senate hangar not long after. It filed a flight plan to Naboo."
"He must have gone after Senator Amidala," said Mace.
"It appears so, Master," Obi-Wan said in the same flat voice.
"Long has this rivalry between your Padawan and Olin lasted," Yoda added. "Resolved it must be, especially in these perilous times. One thing is spirited competition but conflict it can cause if out of hand it goes."
"This is not the first time we have spoken to you and Siri about this," Mace told Obi-Wan sternly. "You have tried to speak to Anakin about this matter, haven't you?"
"There is a great difficulty to doing that, Master, owing to the fact that he is currently not here."
It was out of line, Obi-Wan knew and he was threading dangerously close to outright rudeness to the two Councillors but between arriving back on Coruscant to find Anakin gone, and discovering that Siri and Luminara, two of his closest friends, had been sent on a very dangerous mission after Dooku, Obi-Wan was… not angry. But he was as close to anger as a Jedi could morally be.
He had been all set to go after Anakin the moment he had put two and two together – Anakin had gone too far this time and all Obi-Wan wanted to do was get hold of his Padawan and give him the tongue-lashing of his soon to be short life. But Mace Windu had made him stay back. They needed Obi-Wan on Coruscant; the Jedi team that had been selected to go to Raxus Prime had initially been Obi-Wan and Anakin, Mace had informed him firmly. The least Obi-Wan could do was stay behind on Coruscant and make himself useful rather than gallivanting about the galaxy after his errant Padawan and beautiful senators.
Of course, it had not been said in as many words but Obi-Wan got the general idea.
So he attended to the two Masters in the meditation room and tried to search the Force through his bond with Siri for clues about the progress of their mission. Communication between Coruscant and Raxus Prime was nearly impossible so the Jedi were relying on their tentative links in the Force to keep in touch with the team on Prime. So far the senses they were getting from the Force were vague and disquieting and although the mission was barely twenty-four hours old, the Council was worried. Obi-Wan even more so.
Anakin must have discovered the open Master/Padawan bond because he had effectively closed it from his side. Of course, Obi-Wan could have breached the restriction anyway and tried to find out about his Padawan's whereabouts. But it would have been a level of invasiveness that Obi-Wan was not ready to undertake.
He had felt something last night. A tremor like a galactic seismic wave. It had felt as if Anakin was reaching out for … him. Or more specifically, for help or comfort of some kind. But when Obi-Wan had tried to reach out back to him, he found that the bond was closed again.
Whatever worries Obi-Wan had had before had doubled after that.
Barriss Offee's visit had been the last straw. Obi-Wan was still outraged over the fact that Siri and Luminara's mission had been kept from their Padawans. He braced himself now for a sharp rebuke for his words.
Master Windu pressed his lips together firmly, his high forehead bunched in disapproval. Then he turned his back to Obi-Wan with a deep sigh and he allowed the comment to slide.
Yoda did not.
"Time for this bickering, we do not have, Obi-Wan," he said sternly. "The situation at Raxus Prime is tantamount and is our purpose here. Return to that line of discussion we must. Deal with Padawan Skywalker later, we will."
Obi-Wan nodded, feeling his cheeks darken. "I am sorry, Masters."
Master Windu walked to his own cushion and folded himself unto it. Obi-Wan came closer, standing respectfully in front of them with his arms folded underneath his robes.
"I have meditated as you asked," he said to Yoda and Master Windu now. "The Force has not revealed to me a reason for the silence from Masters Gallia, Tachi and Unduli."
"What about Dooku?" prodded Mace Windu. "You met him, you fought against him. Do you sense anything from the man?"
Obi-Wan forced his mind to turn to Dooku. It was hard. He remembered the cool elegant voice oozing with poisonous, blasphemous lies about Qui-Gon. He remembered the look of sinful glee on Dooku's face when he electrocuted Anakin. He remembered the humiliation of the easy defeat under Dooku's blade…
He turned his mind away.
"I sense nothing."
There was a deep unhappy silence.
"Asked us, you did, Obi-Wan why we did not tell the Padawans about their Masters' mission?" Yoda said at last.
"Yes, Master but…"
"Need you to know the reason. We suspect… that there might be a traitor amongst us."
Obi-Wan's mouth fell open. Windu noted with displaced smugness that this must be one of those rare occasions when the young Knight was lost for words.
"We have suspected for a while," Windu added. "Certain coincidences, certain plans we made against the Separatists that seemed to have been anticipated." He paused, then breathed heavily. "Dooku was one of us, and there were a lot of Jedi who admired him… There probably still are…"
Yoda's ears bent low over his head. Obi-Wan watched the old Master seem to shrink within himself in distress. Yoda had actually fought his old Padawan, Obi-Wan realized. It was the first time he had thought of it that way. Before in his mind, Yoda had fought against the 'traitor' Dooku. But no, to Yoda Dooku had been more than a phantom grandmaster turned Separatist leader. Dooku had been Yoda's Padawan, like Anakin was to him, like he had been to Qui-Gon. Yoda had actually had to defend himself against an attack from the man he had brought up from childhood. Yoda had to live with the fact that his son in the Force was lost to the Dark Side forever.
Obi-Wan thought of Anakin and his heart quailed. He and Anakin had their disputes, granted. They clashed more than any other Master/Padawan pair he knew. But Obi-Wan could not imagine Anakin ever striking at him in anything more than a practice duel. He could not imagine Anakin trying to hurt or harm him in anyway. He could not bear to imagine it.
Obi-Wan could only begin to understand what the pain of that thought was causing the old Master.
The need to find Anakin and speak to him was so overpowering it was almost like a physical ache. Obi-Wan seriously contemplated breaching the invisible boundaries of their bond.
Just then the small holoproj in front of Yoda's cushion flashed. Obi-Wan knelt down to switch it on.
Aayla Secura's form appeared in the image.
"We are ready to leave, Masters," she said.
Mace and Yoda exchanged looks then Yoda turned to the holo-image. "Coming we are."
The image switched off and the two Masters got to their feet. Yoda used the Force to beckon the hoverchair leaning against the wall to him.
"You will accompany us, Obi-Wan, for a meeting with the Supreme Chancellor," Windu declared.
Obi-Wan hid his expression of distaste just in time but Windu still gave him a sharp glance as he passed ahead in front of him. Head bowed respectfully, struggling to master the feelings of impatience and irritation within him, Obi-Wan followed the two Councillors out of the room.
There had been no answering call in the Force when she had reached for her Master through their bond. Of course, that was expected. Her Master was on a clandestine assignment after all. It was unusual for Master Luminairi to entirely close of their bond but it would not be the first time. Still…
"I am not worried."
It was mid-day in the Temple and the majority of its occupants were congregating to the dining halls for mid-day meals. The few exceptions would be the few species of Jedi that did not eat mid-day meals, the Healers on duty in the Healing centre, teams of Knights and Padawans about to embark on missions and the Archivist on duty at the Archives Centre. Barriss Offee glided past the migrating groups as she made her way to the Archives Centre, head bowed and a tranquil expression on her face.
A young Archivist approached her the moment she entered and offered Barriss assistance. Barriss asked for the Head Archivist. If anyone would have access to the kind of information she wanted, it would be Jocasta Nu.
"I am not spying."
"She's assisting some one now," the apprentice Archivist told Barriss. He was a Twi'lek male with earnest flapping tentacles. "But you can wait for her here. Follow me."
He led her to one of the inner sanctums of the centre – one of the stalls that were built for the more academic Jedi to study and meditate. It was a quiet, meditative place with busts of ancient Jedi Masters placed in the alcoves of the dark terra-detta walls. It soothed Barriss' mood perfectly as she paced on the cool, blue-glass floors, head bowed in deep thought.
The Force echoes of a blood-curling scream as a soul left its body…
She closed her eyes and breathed deeply but not before the shudder ran through her body. A memory from her dream/nightmare/vision. About the only one she could remember with sufficient detail now. No image to go with it, just the sound of sheer terror. The sound of pain itself, of loss, of suffering and of death…
"Padawan Offee, may I be of assistance to you?"
Barriss spun on her heel to look down at the pleasant smile on Jocasta Nu's wizened old face. She had been so preoccupied with her thoughts that she only just sensed the Archivist approaching. She fought back her embarrassment and tried to look as outwardly composed as possible.
"Yes, as a matter of fact," she said firmly in reply to the archivist's question. She took a mental deep breath. "I need some information concerning one of my Master's recent assignments."
One grey eyebrow lifted. "Surely you have access to your Master's personal logs?"
"I have a right to know."
Master Obi-Wan had certainly thought so. Barriss recalled now the look of outrage on Anakin's Master's face when he realized what the Councillors had been keeping from her and she lifted her chin defiantly.
"There are certain details there that she seems to have omitted," Barriss said unblushingly. It was an 'Anakin'-lie. It was not an outright lie – Master Unduli had certainly failed to record 'any' information about her latest top-secret assignment in her logs, but it was not the complete truth either.
The Archivist's lips were pressed tightly together. Anakin had once said that she looked like an avarian creature from his home planet that fed on decaying corpses. Ferus had been there and he had immediately turned on Anakin for that – supposedly for ridiculing an elder Jedi. It had been one of those rare days when Anakin was in such a good mood that he allowed Ferus' snarking to roll over his shoulder.
Barriss always suspected that it was not the insult in itself, but one more reminder of Anakin's strange history – his connection with his home world and his family – that had rubbed Ferus so raw. She understood that. It had made her uncomfortable herself.
"Padawan Barriss, I trust you must have decided by now on what you are looking for?"
Barriss blinked. The old Archivist was looking up her sharp bird like nose, a deep frown between her brows. She was pointing at a console on which Barriss could see the title page of Master Unduli's log. She had been so completely lost in her reverie that she had not realized when the Archivist had led her out of the stalle.
She blushed beneath her tattoos. "Pardon me," she mumbled. "An assignment she had with Master Siri Tachi sometime this year…" The words 'Raxus Prime' hovered briefly on her tongue and she swallowed it. She did not understand why. Instinct guided her.
Jocasta Nu's white brows climbed up her forehead. "Is that so?" she said with something that sounded like suspicion in her voice. "There certainly seems to be a lot of interest in Master Unduli's and Master Tachi's recent missions among their Padawans."
"Pardon me?"
"Just before you came, I was assisting young Ferus Olin. Apparently, he also needed to update his Master's logs on a mission she had shared with your Master these past few months." She gave the speechless Barriss a piercing look.
Barriss just managed to return it without blushing. "What a coincidence," she replied with dignity.
The Archivist made a little sniffing noise and then she turned back to the console and keyed in some instructions. After a few seconds, the screen dissolved and then resolved into a list of data. Barriss leaned closer. The search had recovered three missions that her master had shared with Siri Tachi. Two of them were missions on which Barriss herself had gone along. The third mission was classified.
Classified.
"Which is it, then?"
Barriss barely heard the Archivist. She was staring blankly at the word.
Classified.
Barriss pointed a steady hand at the first mission listed. Inside, her heart was pounding furiously. "That one."
Classified.
"I thought so," Jocasta Nu said dryly.
Of course the mission had been classified. Ferus had been aware of that long before he had asked Jocasta. Confirming what he had already known was not the point of his asking.
"Computer repeat last program command."
Promptly, a line of text appeared on the indigo screen.
Non-authorized request. Cannot compute.
Ferus' fingers were already flying over the keypad. In quick seconds, he was pressing the Input Command button. The screen went blank and there followed a pause of about five seconds during which he was acutely aware of the quiet solitude of his remote alcove, the faint humming of suppressed noise that filtered from the rest of the Archives Centre… He was acutely aware of what could happen if he were ever caught here, literally hacking into the Temple's top-security archives. He had never so blatantly broken the rules before in his life. It was a testimony to his desperation that he had stooped to this level.
The five seconds passed. The screen resolved into the same list of data that Jocasta Nu had retrieved barely thirty minutes ago for Ferus (and barely ten minutes before for Barriss Offee). Once again, the three missions shared by Masters Siri Tachi and Luminairi Unduli presented themselves to Ferus. Once again, the last mission was classified.
Ferus rested his hands against the plasti-glass desk, and leaned as close to the inbuilt microphone as he could. In a voice that was as thin a whisper as he could make it, he said:
"Computer de-classify data type 3."
The cursor at the bottom of the screen blinked once, then twice. Then:
Non-authorized request. Cannot compute.
His hands slipped against the desk and he realized that his palms were sweating. The urge to turn off the console and stand up and walk out of the Archives Centre was overwhelming. He had already received two non-authorization warnings. According to his Master, the third one would cause the console to send a notification to the Master Console in the Head Archivist's Office. The Force only knew the sensitivity of Master Siri's mission. If he were caught…
The humiliation, his peers' disillusionment, Anakin's sneering, the Council's disappointment, Master Siri's pain…
Master Siri would understand. She had wanted to tell him about her mission, had referred to it in broad hints - it had a direct impact on the Clone Wars, she and the other two Jedi were going after a major leader in the Separatist's Army… According to what she had declared to Ferus the night of her departure, her Padawan had a right to know about her mission and the Council could take its mandate and do something too vulgar for words with it. It was Ferus who had refused to hear any more. Ferus who had always had a great deal more respect for the Council's mandates than his own Master had insisted on - in his words - "not helping you to defy the Council, Master." Siri had answered him with her characteristic hiss of exasperation, followed by an affectionate ruffle of Ferus' hair and that look in her eyes that always seemed to ask however had she ended up with a Padawan who was so much unlike her. Then she had told him to try to do everything that she would do. And she had gone.
And now Ferus would have given his Knighthood to have kept quiet for five minutes and allowed her to say all that she had wanted to tell him.
With determination he clenched his fingers and rested them on the keypad to -
"Try to run a Query for missions in Raxus Prime," someone said quietly over his shoulder.
Ferus swerved on his seat so violently that he jostled the console. Barriss Offee's long sleeves went over his head to steady it. For a brief moment, he was trapped between the desk and her slim arms.
"What -" he gasped, his face mere inches from her. He could feel the blood rushing to his head. His heart was racing faster than it had done even after his most tedious workout.
"Did you think you were the only one updating your Master's logs?" Her lilting voice was teasing. She freed him and pulled up a chair.
Ferus moved away reflexively. His shock was dissipating, and was quickly replaced by confusion. "You spoke to Jocasta as well?"
"Yes," Barriss said, her eyes never leaving the console. "How were you able to recall this information? I thought you needed an Archivist password to run this type of Query?"
After a long moment of utter silence on Ferus' part, she wrenched her gaze from the screen and turned it to him. Under her cowl, her dark eyes were even larger than usual. She was near enough that he could see the hazel glints in them.
"You used an Archivist password! How did you do that?"
"Keep your voice down," Ferus hissed. He looked around him frantically but his alcove was as empty as he had thought it was before Barriss appeared.
Which was not saying much, actually.
She had cocked one dark eyebrow at him. "I am not shouting. Don't worry, Ferus, I'm not going to report you." She nodded at the screen. "I need to know, too."
But all of Ferus' misgivings were coming to the fore again. It was one thing for him to gamble with his own interests but to now trust someone else with this… That was mad, utterly mad…
And however had she been able to sneak up on him like that? All his senses had been on full alert.
"How did you do that?" He asked sharply.
"Do what?"
"Sneak up on me like that."
She shrugged elegantly. "Mild cloaking, I knew you would have deleted anything of value before I came within one foot of you."
Ferus was effronted. "That's abusing your powers! You can't cloak without your Master's supervision unless you're on a mission. You're not supposed to cloak in the Temple."
Barriss looked at him gravely. "I am on a mission, Ferus. A mission to find out what's happening to my Master. The same mission you seem to be."
Ferus shook his head. "This is ridiculous. There is no mission. You had no business resorting to that. I had no business coming here. We are both overreacting. Master Siri has gone on solo missions lots of times in the past."
"Solo classified missions?" She pierced him through with her gaze and he looked away. A long silence followed.
"I had a vision last night," she said softly and he turned to her at once.
She told him about all that had aspired from last night in her chambers when she was woken up by the violence of a vision she could barely recall now, the meeting with Yoda and Mace in the morning and their revelation, and her unsuccessful encounter with Jocasta.
By the time she was finished, Ferus was dumbfounded where he sat. Barriss' dream… the Council's decision… Obi-Wan's defiance… His mind was spinning with questions but he had no idea which to ask first. He had been trained to assimilate large briefings but the information overload he had just received was overwhelming.
Barriss gave him a sympathetic smile. "That's how I felt, to. I wouldn't have left the Council chambers so meekly if I hadn't," she added disparagingly.
Ferus barely heard her. He was thinking about the death-scream she had remembered from her vision/dream. He was also wondering when all of this information was supposed to have reached him.
From the corner of his eye, he could see her gesturing at the console. "Who taught you how to do this? Anakin?"
Ferus jerked out of his daze at once. "Of course not," he snapped. As a matter of fact, it was Master Siri on one of the rare moments when she had convinced him to learn something unconventional. But that was none of Barriss' concern.
"Why are you here?" he demanded abruptly.
"What?"
"Why are you here?" he repeated. "Were you sent to inform me of this? To summon me? Or did you just happen to seek me out on your own?"
Barriss shrugged. "When Jocasta told me you were also asking questions, I knew I had to speak to you. Why?"
"So the Council had no intention to inform me of Master Siri's mission?"
"Didn't you listen? They weren't about to tell me at all. It was Master Obi-Wan that let it slip out. Master Yoda didn't show it, but he was furious."
"Then they were right," Ferus retorted. "He had no right telling you then and you had no right telling me now."
"What?" Barriss' normally tranquil voice raised in outrage.
"I certainly did not ask you to tell me all this! I didn't want to know!"
"You'd rather bury your head in the sand, you mean," she said waspishly. "You'd rather not know about whatever dangers your Master is facing?" The hazel lights in her eyes were glinting like fireflies.
"I'd rather obey the Council. They are far wiser than you or me or Master Obi-Wan."
"Anakin was right: You are a hypocrite." And her words were like a slap across his face. "You're here trying to hack into the database to find out what you're accusing me of telling you."
Ferus drew himself up haughtily. "If you're going to spout insults at me, Padawan Offee, then I advice you to leave."
Barriss was on her feet at once. "I am leaving Olin. I told you about my nightmare. I thought you of all people should understand. But I was wrong. I can see that I have just wasted both our times here." Even her tattoos seemed to brighten with indignation.
"Perhaps Anakin will be more understanding," Ferus retorted, his voice shaking slightly. "Neither of you certainly know your Masters very well. And if you're having nightmares then he must be rubbing off more on you than I had imagined. Oh, I forgot - Anakin's currently A. W. O. L. No wonder you had to settle for me." And despite himself, he laughed harshly.
She gave him a look that would have turned a Niph'ta to salt.
"Shhh."
They both started violently. A young Mon Cal in Archivist robes was standing behind the furthest shelf and frowning at them.
Barriss recovered first. She nodded apologetically at the Archivist. Then with Force-enhanced swiftness, she spun on her heel and strode away from Ferus. Her swift strides matched each rapid graceful swing of her robes. In seconds, she was out of sight.
"Can I be of assistance, Padawan Olin?" The Archivist offered, breaking Ferus' train of thought.
It took Ferus a moment to realize the danger. Then in a motion that was purely instinctive, and not reasoned out and planned, he turned back to the console and switched off the machine.
"No, thank you," he said as he brushed past the surprised Mon Cal. "I was just leaving."
The audience with the Supreme Chancellor did not go as smoothly as the Jedi anticipated. They arrived minutes before the scheduled meeting and were kept waiting in Palpatine's reception chamber for over an hour. According to his Rodian personal assistant, the Chancellor was in a dragged out meeting with a handful of the Loyalist Senators and could the Jedi please bear with him? Of course they did.
When the Jedi finally stepped through the palatial doors of the Chancellor's office, Palpatine was alone, standing in the middle of his spacious red-shaded chambers with his arms spread open in apology.
"A thousand pardons, esteemed Masters," he said with emotion.
"A Jedi's service sometimes demands merely his patience," Windu said simply. Master Yoda's ears twitched in concurrence.
Palpatine bowed deeply. "As usual, the wisdom of the Order moves me to awe."
With a smirk, Obi-Wan followed Yoda and Mace fully into the room.
"I invited Anakin Skywalker for this meeting," Palpatine said conversationally. "For a young apprentice, his insight has always been most remarkable. I am disappointed he could not come. Where is he?"
The sudden and authoritative way Palpatine asked after Anakin jarred Obi-Wan.
"He was unable to come," he said sharply.
"What a pity," Palpatine said smoothly. "I trust that he is well?"
"Of course," Mace said with a small frown at Obi-Wan. It was not a Knight's place to speak out of turn in the presence of his Masters.
The Chancellor directed the Councillors to seats in front of his large ornate desk. Obi-Wan followed to stand composed behind his Masters. He wrapped his folded arms in his cloak as he wrapped patience around him in the Force. It was a failing of his that he had no patience with politicians, particularly with Palpatine and his sugarcoated verbosity. And the Chancellor's longstanding interest in his Padawan only served to irritate Obi-Wan further.
'Acknowledging our shortcomings is the beginning of wisdom.'
The bittersweet memory of Qui-Gon's advice overwhelmed him for some moments and he lost track of the first few words exchanged between Palpatine and his Masters.
"Don't you think so, Master Kenobi?" Palpatine asked suddenly.
On a subconscious level, Obi-Wan had heard them discussing recent Separatist activities and the Republic military but he had no idea of the current trend in the conversation. Without missing a beat, he said promptly: "I concur with my Masters."
"I am sure your Masters will permit you to speak freely," Palpatine insisted softly. He was standing, leaning against his large window, his face a shadow against the afternoon light. "I understand that you have a personal interest in this matter."
Before Obi-Wan could reply, Mace spoke up.
"The Jedi are all brethren," Mace said. "The missions of all Knights are of personal interest to every other Jedi." There was something like sternness in his voice. Now Obi-Wan really berated himself for losing track of the conversation.
"Forgive me, Masters," said Palpatine and the remorsefulness in his voice was thicker than Corellian rum. "I specifically asked Master Kenobi to accompany you because of my interest in his personal impute in this discussion. He was after all, the initiator of the Battle of Geonosis. Forgive me, but I cannot help but wonder why he and that his enterprising apprentice, young Skywalker, were not sent on the mission to Raxus Prime. After all, with Master Kenobi's personal connection to Count Dooku, I would have thought he would be more capable of carrying out the mission. Nevertheless, I am not a Jedi. No doubt there was some wisdom behind the decision that I will be unable to discern."
"Our own counsel we will keep, Chancellor," Yoda said at once.
"But of course," Palpatine replied.
At last, Obi-Wan got the gist of the discussion - it would have been hard not to after listening to Palpatine's lengthy tirade - and it was not to his liking at all. Whether the politician knew it or not, he had hit not one, not two, but several sore nerves when he mentioned Raxus Prime, Dooku and Anakin in one breath. The urge to retort sharply and sarcastically was overwhelming and Obi-Wan was grateful that the protocol of the occasion prevented him from speaking ahead of his Masters. He merely stared politely at Palpatine's undecipherable face while he kept an iron grip on his temper.
"I only ask because of the enormous pressure on me," Palpatine was saying now. "The Jedi are needed to be Generals of the Republic Army. There is no other way we can fight this war. Any other option will result in rivaling interest groups, accusations of misuse of power and segregation. As the guardians of peace and justice, the Jedi must…"
"Keep peace in the galaxy," Mace cut in. "So, the Senate is asking us to fight a war."
"One that will re-establish peace!" Palpatine's usually calm demeanor had dissolved in his passion to see this accomplished. "Already, your numbers are spread thin resolving the constant civil conflicts that plague us in this present climate. The Loyalist party that just left demanded that I order the Jedi to lead the army."
Obi-Wan jerked and even Yoda's ears curled up violently. Mace's voice was graver than usual when he spoke:
"Chancellor, surely…"
"Of course, I refused them," Palpatine said impatiently. "I will never do that, no matter what the constitution of the Republic says in that regard." His voice resumed its customary placid tenor as he continued, "But you see the unique position that I am in."
"Dooku's elimination, fractionate the individual parties in the Separatists' insurrection it will," Yoda said. "The centre that holds them together, he is."
The brisk callousness of Yoda's tone as he spoke of Dooku's death - in contrast to the sadness that Obi-Wan still remembered clearly barely hours ago - sent small shivers down Obi-Wan's back.
"If the mission to Raxus Prime is successful," Palpatine agreed softly.
"Trust in the Force, we do."
Which meant that they had no contingency plan, Obi-Wan interpreted cynically to himself. If Siri and Luminara failed in their task - Force please no! - then the Jedi would be back to playing hide and seek with the politicians that wanted them stationed firmly at the head of the Clone Army.
There was a long pause while this same conclusion was reached by all the persons in the Chancellor's office. Palpatine had turned slightly so part of his profile was now lit up by the back light. There was a pensive expression on his face, as if he was thinking deeply. Then suddenly, so quickly that later Obi-Wan wondered if he had imagined it, a smile split across his face.
Obi-Wan blinked and the smile was gone. Palpatine's face had fallen back into shadow and he was speaking now.
"I have reason to understand that - "
Obi-Wan's heart clenched and the rest of the Chancellor's words were drowned out in the roar of sensation that bombarded him at that moment.
Somewhere close by a presence in the Force was burning with the intensity of a solar flame. The two Councillors were frozen still in their seats. Obi-Wan watched them exchange glances. They had sensed it too.
Obi-Wan's Padawan might have closed off his bond with his Master but it would be a long time before he learnt how to completely disguise that unnaturally powerful reflective presence he had in the Force.
Anakin was back.