Chapter 13 Regret and Zak in Action

Zak looked down at the floor, at Grel moaning there and at the blaster still in the armless hand; a trickle of blue Chagrian blood pooling on the floor next to it. Grel was dying; Zak's first lightsaber hit had been a fatal blow to Grel's midsection.

"I'm sorry." He said mournfully.

"Murderer…" Grel uttered.

"I didn't want to; I warned you. Why didn't you stop?" Zak sobbed.

"You…killed…both…" Grel gasped. "Murderer."

"No; I tried to warn you. I had no choice." Zak said. "I'm sorry."

However, Grel was no longer listening; he was no longer able to. He stared lifelessly at Zak; Grel was dead.

Anakin hauled the Clone down to the center of the courtroom and pushed him to the floor, "Don't move; not one inch." He ordered. "Do you understand?"

The Clone said nothing and nodded; he had experienced what Anakin was capable of and had no desire to find out what else he could do. Anakin walked up behind Zak and put his real hand on his shoulder, "Zak?"

"I…I…look what I did; I didn't want to…look…" Zak stammered.

Anakin squatted next to Grel to check and see if he was still alive. He bowed his head, sighed and after a moment, looked up at Zak, "This is not your fault, Zak. He left you no choice. You understand that; don't you?" He said gently, quietly.

"But…I…I…killed him."

"I know, but he forced you into it." Anakin told him patiently.

"He was trying to let Lord Amedda go; I…I…tried to stop him…but…but…" Zak stammered.

Anakin stood up and gripped the boy's shoulder tightly and then glanced over to see Amedda lying on the floor still secured to one of the chair arms, "You stay right there, Zak." He said and then quickly crossed to where Amedda was lying. The front of Amedda's tunic was covered with blue blood and his eyes were closed; Anakin knelt and touched him. He, too, was dead. Poor Zak, he thought.

He got up and walked back over to where Zak was. The boy had not moved; he just stood there, looking down at Grel's armless hand, his ignited lightsaber hanging limply at his side.

"Zak, there's nothing more we can do here. Come on." Anakin said quietly.

But Zak could not move; all he could think about was what he had just done and Grel's last words, "Murderer."

Anakin carefully took Zak's lightsaber from him and powered it down, "Come, Zak. We should see if Master Obi-Wan is alright." he told Zak calmly. "Come on."

Anakin took Zak's arm and guided him to where he had left Obi-Wan; he suddenly had a feeling that something was not quite right. When he got to the place he had left his friend, he was gone.

"Anakin." Obi-Wan said.

Anakin turned toward the voice and saw Obi-Wan, on his knees, the Clone, standing behind him holding another blaster, a different one, to his head, "What are you doing?" He asked the Clone, trying to keep his voice calm.

"Executing Order 66." The Clone said without emotion.

"Order 66 has been rescinded." Anakin replied.

"No, Lord Grel said that was a lie. The Jedi murdered the Chancellor, all the Jedi must die." He droned. "Starting with Obi-Wan Kenobi."

"No, Lord Grel was lying to you." Anakin said slowly. "The Chancellor was a Sith Lord; he was evil."

"Lord Grel said the Jedi were evil, they took over; they wanted power, they murdered the Chancellor." The Clone said robotically. "I have my orders, I must execute Order 66."

"If you do that, I will kill you." Anakin warned.

"I must execute Order 66. I have no choice." The Clone replied; but Anakin noticed that he was not so sure about it.

"Yes, you do. Think about what you are doing. Can you really shoot an unarmed man in the head?" Anakin asked calmly; he had to stay calm.

"Where is the boy?" The Clone asked. "He is a Jedi too, I must execute Order 66."

Anakin looked down; Zak, who had been at his side only moments ago, was gone.

"I don't know, I guess you scared him away." Anakin said lightly as he scanned the room for any sign of the young Padawan.

"I don't want to do this." The Clone said, somewhat regretfully. "But I have my orders; you understand; don't you?"

"No, I don't understand; Master Kenobi has done nothing wrong. He helped to end the war by killing General Grevous." Anakin explained.

"But, my orders…" The Clone said, now sounding very uncertain.

"Order 66 is no longer relevant. You cannot follow an order that no longer exists." Anakin told him.

"But Lord Grel…" He answered, clearly confused.

"Lord Grel was wrong." Anakin replied.

Obi-Wan remained silent and unmoving; but he looked at Anakin and then moved his eyes to his right. Anakin looked to his left and saw Zak sneaking quietly up behind the Clone. He knew what he must do – give Zak more time.

"Did they give you a name?" Anakin asked.

"JK." The Clone answered.

"JayKay, I don't think that's much of a name; maybe we could think of a better one." Anakin replied.

"What? I don't think that's allowed." JK said.

"Sure it is; we did it all the time during the Clone War." Anakin answered as he kept his eye on Zak.

Zak was almost there he just a little more time.

"Well, I don't know about that." JK said. Anakin noticed that he had lowered the blaster; JK was becoming distracted.

"I do; have you ever thought about your name; I mean what you'd like to be your name; a real name?" Anakin asked.

"I…well…no…I…" JK stammered; his blaster was now pointed at the floor and Zak was right behind him.

"NOW, ZAK!" Anakin shouted.

Without further thought, Zak lunged at JK, throwing him forward on top of the unfortunate Obi-Wan.

He grabbed the blaster and picked himself off the floor. Then Anakin was there, yanking the Clone off the prone, still body of his best friend. Zak trained the blaster on JK, "Don't move, don't you dare move." He ordered.

Anakin kneeled beside Obi-Wan and touched him.

"Master Anakin?" Zak asked without taking his eyes off JK.

"It's alright, Zak." Anakin assured. "He's just stunned; but next time, try not to land on top of him, he's getting too old for this."

Obi-Wan moaned and slowly opened his eyes, "I think I had better avoid Declan for awhile." He mumbled thickly.

Anakin smiled; Obi-Wan still had his sense of humor, a good sign. He carefully helped Obi-Wan roll on to his side and then pulled him into a sitting position, "I think we both better avoid him." He replied.

"Yes, you're probably right." Obi-Wan said with a small laugh. "What happened?"

"Zak, uh…rescued you." Anakin answered.

"Really? How did he do that?" He asked curiously.

"Well, he…now don't get upset..." Anakin started. "He tackled the Clone."

"Oh, is that how I ended up on my face." Obi-Wan replied. "I think we'll have to work on that."

"Yes, I think that would be a very good idea." He said lightly before turning serious. "We have to get you out of here, my friend; you've lost a lot of blood. You look terrible."

Anakin was right, despite his upbeat manner, he felt dizzy and weak, "I must confess you're right about that, Anakin, but I don't think I can get up." He admitted.

"That's alright; I'll just go and get some help." Anakin said. "Zak, don't take your eyes off JK."

"I won't." Zak said firmly.

Anakin stood up and hurried towards the nearest exit. It was code-locked and could not be opened from inside the room. He tried the next one, and it, too was code-locked.

"What's going on here?" He asked aloud, then headed to the next one which did not appear to be locked, but was jammed so that it could not be opened. He moved to the last door and this was, as the previous one, jammed. He went back to Obi-Wan and Zak.

Obi-Wan was now lying on his side, eyes closed, but when Anakin approached; he looked up at him.

"Bad news, old friend. We appear to be trapped in here." He said.

Outside, the technicians had finally arrived and were working diligently to disable the shielding around the door. The blaster fire had stopped some time ago, but because of the thickness of the walls, they were unable to hear whether anyone was still in the room.

Yoda arrived with Declan, who was clearly very concerned for the health of his patient; Mace was upset with himself, "I should not have left Anakin alone with no back up." He told Yoda.

"Predict this would happen you could not, Master Windu. Focus on opening the door we must." Yoda said.

The Chancellor approached, "Master Yoda." He said.

"Chancellor Organa; glad I am to see that you were not injured." Yoda replied.

"Thank you, Master Yoda; but others were not so fortunate." He answered sadly. "I have an idea…"

"Hmm…hear this I idea, I will." Yoda said.

"I don't know why I did not think of this sooner; but there are security cameras in that room; they have been active during the entire trial. We could go to the security office and find out whether or not anyone is still in there." He suggested.

"Of course, Chancellor; I should have thought of that." Mace said. "We have been wasting our time waiting until we were able to open the door to see if they were still in there."

"Stay, I will, to watch the progress here. Go with the Chancellor you should, Master Windu." Yoda instructed.

When Mace and Bail arrived at the security office, Bail was shocked to see that the cameras had been turned off, "This is strange. I know that they were working after that unfortunate 'demonstration' by Lord Grel. Someone must have turned them off." He said.

"Hmm…now who would do that?" Mace wondered.

"Well, I think there is a way we can find out; but I think I should try to get them working again first."

Bail said as he toyed with some of the buttons on the control panel and then turned back to Mace, "That should do it. It may take a few minutes for then to come back online, and then we will be able to see what is happening in there."

Anakin had found a medical kit and bandaged Obi-Wan's shoulder to prevent him from losing any more blood than he already had. Then he had taken the rest of the bandages and tied JK securely to one of the spectator seats. The last thing he wanted was for him to try to execute Order 66 again. Zak was sitting on the floor, legs drawn up against his chest with his arms wrapped around them and his head on his knees. Anakin was as concerned for him as he was for Obi-Wan; Grel's death had affected him deeply and Anakin could sense his distress. He walked over, sat down, cross-legged, and put his hand on the back of Zak's neck.

"I know what's bothering you, Zak; and you must stop thinking about it." Anakin said. He could feel the muscles tighten in Zak's neck and he rubbed Zak's neck gently.

"You did what you had to do, Zak. You know that." He went on; the tension eased and now Zak was trembling.

"It was not your fault. You tried to warn him." Anakin continued; the trembling had stopped, but now he felt the muscles convulse, Zak was trying not to cry.

Anakin rubbed Zak back, "It's alright to cry, Zak; just let go. What you did was very brave. If Grel had freed Amedda we would probably all be dead." He told the boy.

Zak's whole body shook as he cried and Anakin just sat there, rubbing his back until he was finished.

"He…called me… a murderer." Zak said haltingly.

"Well, he was wrong. You were defending yourself; he attacked you." Anakin replied.

"But Lord Amedda…I…" Zak began.

"Grel killed him, not you." Anakin assured him.

"But I…the blaster bolts…I did that." Zak insisted.

"No, you deflected those bolts away from you; you didn't intentionally aim that at Amedda; did you?" Anakin asked.

"I…no…but…"

"There is no 'but', Zak. You did what you had to do." Anakin told him.

The Clone, who had sat silently watching, spoke up, "I…I'm so sorry." He said.

"Sorry? About what? That you failed to carry out your orders?" Anakin asked harshly.

"No; I was wrong; Lord Grel was wrong." He said sadly.

"Wrong about what, JK?" Anakin asked, a little less harshly.

"Lord Grel said that the Jedi were evil and emotionless and that they enjoyed killing." He admitted. "I see now that he was wrong and I'm sorry that I tried to kill Master Kenobi."

"Well, it's a little late for that now, I think. Why didn't you realize that before you trapped us in here?" Anakin said sarcastically.

"I think I know how we can get out." JK answered.