Chapter 18: The Secret Plot

Anakin did not remember having passed out, but he must have for the Jedi did not remember how he would up in the healer's ward in the Jedi Temple, lying on a stretcher and wearing a blue gown. Everything around him was oddly silent, but hushed whispers could be heard.

Though he could not understand what they were saying, Anakin knew very well the subject of their discussion.

When he opened his eyes, the Chosen One expected to see his beautiful but fretting wife hovering around him, and was because of this quite disappointed upon only seeing Mace Windu.

"He's awake," Mace announced. With him were many Jedi including some of the Masters, Siri, Ferus, and a few of the healers.

Firm hands helped Anakin to sit up, but he refused to look at them.

"We've been told of your… ah, misfortune," Obi-Wan said quietly, thoughtfully stroking his beard. "Siri and Ferus brought you here after you collapsed at Senator Amidala's apartment. Why, Anakin, did you not come here?"

The sight of his former master left the young man speechless as tears rose into his eyes, leaving Obi-Wan's question unanswered. "Qui-Gon," he managed to whisper.

Instantly, everyone in the small room froze and whipped their heads around to stare at him.

"Qui-Gon… helped me."

"Mysterious, this is," Yoda finally broke the silence.

A dumbfounded look was on Obi-Wan's face, but he said nothing at this revelation.

"I brought balance back to the Force," Anakin said weakly, wincing at the pain speaking caused his face. "I am the Chosen one."

Silence.

For some odd reason, his heart began to thud and his breathing became irregular. Even without the Force as his guide, Anakin could tell that something was wrong.

Very wrong.

"Not yet," Siri whispered. Her blue eyes refused to meet his and, after a couple of minutes, she fled the room.

He had not noticed anyone move, but the holovid in the corner of the room suddenly flipped on. On there was a very familiar face, one that should be dead.

Sidious.

A sudden howl burst through Anakin's lips, and his eyes rolled back in his head. Limbs flailing, it took the assistance of all those present to hold down the convulsing Jedi. Tears ran down Anakin's face and burned the jagged cuts of his once-handsome face.

The darkness had triumphed.

Finally, his muscles gave out and Anakin fell limp and sweaty against the once-pristine sheets. His body ached but did not compare to the way his heart felt- defeat was something foreign to him.

"Are you alright?"

"Only my pride… has been wounded." Wiping away his tears, Anakin looked back at the holovid from which demonic sounds could be heard.

"The attempt on my life has left me weak and crippled," Sidious roared as he addressed the horrorstruck Senate, "but my resolve has never been greater!"

Slowly, applause broke out in the chambers, steadily growing into a deafening war. Chanting could also be heard, something which greatly worried Anakin.

For a minute, Padmé's distressed face flitted across the holo, and this alone was enough to almost undo Anakin.

"The young Jedi who inflicted this upon me is now and forever an enemy of the Republic!" Sidious screamed, his vocalizations adding to the mounting frenzy. "The Jedi have turned against each and every one of us."

"This is the end," Mace whispered, voicing the feelings of everyone present.

While Anakin had greatly suffered, his attempt to kill Palpatine had ultimately failed. Confined to a hoverchair, the Chancellor was in obvious pain but the fire color to his eyes proved that he was just as powerful as ever.

It had all been for nothing

Nothing.

A simultaneous gasp went through the room as Anakin started to cry- something practically unheard of. The Chosen one did not cry.

Ever.

Even at the Tuskan Raider camp, he had not felt this lost. Padmé, his soon-to-be wife, had been waiting for him back at the moisture farm. Lying ahead of Anakin had been three years which he had bonded with his dear Master and friend in whom he could always confide his troubles.

Almost always.

Sidious would not forget what Anakin had done to him and what the Jedi had attempted to do.

Anakin was a dead man living.

Cursed.

Around him, the hushed whispers began again, but he succumbed to his grief and continued to openly weep even through the trembling hands that covered his ruined visage.

"We must get him off planet," Kit Fisto said in a hushed tone though Anakin clearly heard him.

"He is a danger-"

"No!" Anakin screamed in a feral way that curdled the blood of all who heard him. For a moment, he just sat there, the sound of his anguished voice ringing in his ears. For reasons that the Jedi could not understand, he could not leave the planet- too much would be left behind. His loved ones would soon become Sidious' target. "I can't leave!"

But Mace Windu had already foreseen the long battle that awaited him. "Anakin, you are a fully matured adult. You can decide how you wish to go on board the ship- willingly or on a stretcher and rendered unconscious by a tranquilizer."

The Chosen One's head hung in defeat, the tendrils of his wavy hair hiding his face and emotions from the gathered Jedi. Nearly a minute later, Anakin slowly lifted his head, grim defeat written into his cool blue eyes and distorted features. "Fine," he gasped, suddenly unable to breathe, "but under my conditions."

Mace and the others sighed seeing as they'd been expecting this but had not predicted Anakin to give up without a great fight.

"Siri Tachi is to bring my padawan here so that can give him a proper goodbye," Anakin said softly, unshed tears filling his eyes. "I have a feeling that we shall never meet again."

"Let go of your attachments, you must if to be a Jedi you are," Yoda interjected.

Normally, this comment would have riled the young man, but he merely nodded. "Secondly, I want greater security for Senator Amidala, and I want that slime removed from her sight," he snarled.

Also under normal circumstances, this would have alarmed the Jedi, but Obi-Wan merely said, "Palo," before they all nodded in realization.

"Thirdly," Anakin said loudly, ticking off the requests on his fingers, "I want greater security here at the Temple. We are already too few in number-"

"Darth Sidious would never attempt a direct attack on the Temple itself," Kit Fist protested, his large eyes blinking at Anakin in agitation.

"We shall see about that request," Obi-Wan said, carefully gauging everyone else's reactions. "If you'll excuse me, I have to go find Knight Tachi."

"Where will we be going?" Anakin asked. He desperately needed the distraction from the troubling things that ceaselessly filled his troubled mind.

"Utapau," Seasse Tiin said. "We've located General Grevious there."

"Finally," Anakin muttered under his breath.

"With a couple of squadrons of clone troopers," the being continued civilly, "it shall only be a scrimmage."

Anakins hook his head sadly. "They'll turn against us."

"Sidious had not intended for you to live- he shall surely kill you before we can act on what he revealed to you. Still, we do not believe he'll do something so… irrational," Mace said.

"If Obi-Wan had said it, you would have given those words more credibility."

There was an awkward silence.

"Anakin, remember- you get to choose how you go," Mace said with more than a hint of warning in his deep voice.

A knocking at the door revealed Obi-Wan with Siri in tow. In her arms was a puffy-faced and red-eyed Luke. It was evident that the infant, through the Force, had felt his father's suffering.

Not caring what the Jedi saw, Anakin took his son into his arms for the last time and held Luke close. In a way uncharacteristic of any baby, Luke did not squirm or cry out, but instead rested his head against his father's chest.

Then, for the first time despite many previous efforts and failures, a tiny mind reached out and touched Anakin's.

Love.

At this, tears began to roll down his face and continued to do so long after Siri had taken back the child.

"This is your opportunity to take care of him like you promised that day I returned," Anakin choked out.

A fire burned in Siri's eyes. "He shall be great like his father," she announce fiercely.

Perhaps it was the fact that they al sensed that Anakin was being sent to his death, but no one chastised him at this revelation. Instead, Obi-Wan and Mace helped the wounded young man off of the stretcher and helped him into the traditional black tunics.

With trembling hands Anakin put on his robe, but looked up in surprise as Obi-Wan extended his forgotten lightsaber out to him.

"You're going to need it."

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