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Chapter One
He awoke to the sound of blasters and the stink of ozone, his head throbbing. Forcing his eyelids open, he stared down the smoke-filled corridor, eyes stinging as they tried to adjust.
Oh, Force…
What was going on? The last thing he remembered was talking to Master Windu, waiting in the Council chambers… and running out the door to stop the Jedi from arresting Chancellor Palpatine. Suddenly he knew exactly where he was and what was going on.
The Chancellor had won. The realization did nothing to ease the fear in his heart. If the Sith didn't need the help of the Chosen One in defeating four Jedi Masters and taking over the Temple, would he decide that Anakin's life wasn't worth sparing?
No, it couldn't be. Palpatine was his friend.
Anakin staggered to his feet and tried to take stock of the situation. He could feel several presences, but not enough to account for the all of the younglings.
Not nearly enough.
His heart froze as he reached out for the source of the distress that was pouring into the Force. There were no children here, none at all. Instead he felt a giant void, a mark on the fabric of the galaxy where a great many lives had been obliterated in the space of an instant. Layered over the emptiness was the frenzy of a fierce battle, probably the one that was causing the turmoil he felt. Anakin swallowed hard as he propelled himself forward, praying that whoever was behind this massacre had given the younglings quick deaths, knowing somewhere down in his gut that their blood would always be on his hands.
I could have ended this with one swing of my lightsaber.
What have I done?
Another thought struck him.
Where is Padmé?
Fear for his wife overwhelmed his senses. He tried to touch her presence but found no trace of her. Horrified, he attempted to further his range. Nothing. It was as if the design of the Force had altered radically in the time that he'd been unconscious. The only familiar sensation was the anger, rage, and desperation permeating the air like a potent toxin. He knew that feeling well, but he'd never expected to feel it here, in the tranquil Jedi Temple.
Anakin looked behind him at the door he'd been sprawled in front of, but instead of the smooth curves of the Council chamber entrance, he saw a sharply angled durasteel door that looked as if it had been on the wrong end of a frag grenade. Twisted metal jutted out at gruesome angles, reminding Anakin of some of the worst battles of the war. Turning back to face the corridor, he realized that the layout did not match the one outside the Council's meeting place.
What in the Corellian hells…?
This wasn't the Temple, at least not any part he'd ever seen. But if he wasn't there, then where was he?
Blaster fire echoed along the corridor, louder than before, and without thinking Anakin drew his lightsaber and activated it with the familiar snap-hiss that sent dread through enemies of the Republic. The cerulean blade lit the smoky air, faintly illuminating a long, narrow hallway. He narrowed his eyes, extending his mental perception into the hazy darkness.
The black-clad figure appeared out of nowhere, his green lightsaber blade slicing toward Anakin's neck. The young Jedi jumped back a step, surprised not so much by the presence of a saber-wielding enemy, but by the fact that he had not – and could not – sense the figure in the Force. He was real enough, his weapon a swirling pinwheel of deadly emerald energy. Anakin lunged forward, driving his blade hard into his opponent's, pushing him back with sheer strength and weight. Instead of matching Anakin's attack, the man in black did a back handspring and landed in a crouch. Anakin watched him carefully but held his position.
The figure stood slowly and pulled off his black cloth mask. It was indeed a man, and he looked to be close to Anakin's age. The Jedi's natural instinct was to assess his opponent, memorize every detail of his appearance, his stance, the way he breathed. Three years of war had branded the procedures deeply. Anakin wondered briefly, in a detached way, if he would ever be able to meet someone new without evaluating the easiest way to kill them.
The man's face was surprisingly placid. He looked like someone who knew well the life of a warrior and took every battle in stride. If he was a fellow Jedi, Anakin had never met him. Even without the sense of him in the Force, Anakin could tell he was a skilled fighter.
"If you've come to kill me," the stranger said, "then do it quickly."
For an instant, Anakin remembered what he had planned to do before leaving the Council room, and a mixture of shame and apprehension washed over him. He tightened his grip on his lightsaber. "I'm not here to kill you." He was unable to hide the strain in his voice. "I'm not even sure where here is."
The man cocked his head to one side as if listening to something. With an expression somewhere between anxiety and annoyance, he unclipped a comlink from his belt and brought it to his lips. "Boys, we've got company," he said crisply. "Make for the rendezvous." Hooking the comlink back onto his belt, he deactivated his lightsaber and gave Anakin a mock salute with the hilt. "Gotta fly."
And then he was gone.
"Wait!" Anakin yelled after him, his voice sounding much rawer than he'd imagined it would. He had to get to Padmé, to the Chancellor, to someone who could tell him what was going on. "Please! What is this place?"
The words came to him in a whisper of thought.
Hell. Better known as Ossus.
Anakin sprinted forward to catch the man, emerging from the smoke to find an intersecting hallway lit by emergency lights. This isn't possible, he told himself. Ossus was one in a long line of planets to become embroiled in the Outer Rim Sieges, but it had been ruined thousands of years before the Separatists took hold of it. More importantly, it was on the other side of the galaxy. He couldn't possibly be there.
Turning right at the corner, he dashed down the corridor, listening for the sound of footfalls ahead. He couldn't sense the stranger in the Force, but he could hear him. A piece of cloth flapped in the air to the right, catching Anakin's attention. As he turned to look, his danger sense flared, and he whipped his lightsaber around to protect his side. A beam of red hissed to life, crashing into his blade like a vicious predator. The power behind the blow was unbelievable; Anakin had to strain every muscle to keep the lightsaber from cleaving through his neck.
"Oh, you're a strong one, aren't you?" his assailant leered. The voice was deep and distinctively male, and through the blue and red light, Anakin could see just enough to make out a face riddled with black tattoos. For a split-second, the young Jedi's heart froze.
The skin color was different, but Anakin had seen tattoos like those on another man, another Iridonian Zabrak with fire-yellow eyes that burned with hatred so great it could not be contained. The murderer of his first mentor, Qui-Gon Jinn.
Anakin remembered watching Qui-Gon burn at his funeral, a husk of a man, the life stolen from him by a force too evil to comprehend. By a Sith Lord.
Like the man I've trusted for the last decade.
Anakin banished those thoughts from his mind and focused his attention on the saber-wielding Zabrak. As they crossed blades high in the air, Anakin shoved hard and dropped into a spinning kick. The other man leapt over Anakin's leg and angled his blade vertically, coming down for the kill. Anakin rolled away and jumped to his feet, thrusting his saber in the process. The Zabrak parried clumsily, seemingly uneasy being on the defensive.
Anakin pressed his advantage, launching a barrage of blows that the man could barely keep up with. With a violent slash of his lightsaber, Anakin sent his opponent's weapon flying through the air and slashed through his right wrist.
The Zabrak howled with rage as he dropped to his knees, staring in disbelief at the cauterized stump. "You…" he hissed, his chest heaving.
The sight of him, unarmed and vulnerable, hit Anakin at his core. Though the man before him was much younger and in better physical condition than Count Dooku had been, Anakin couldn't help noticing how similar his situation was to the one on the Invisible Hand just days earlier.
If I don't kill him, he'll come back for me. He'll find Padmé and kill her, too.
That final thought clinched it. Anakin raised his lightsaber over his head, ready to slice it through his attacker's neck and end his miserable existence.
An explosion rocked the corridor, sending Anakin into the wall with a ferocious crash. The Zabrak groaned angrily, and Anakin lost sight of him in the fire and smoke that filled the air. Somewhere in the distance a siren was blaring, and voices cried out urgently. Picking himself up of the floor, Anakin retrieved his lightsaber and began stumbling toward the sound of those voices.
"This way, hurry!"
"We're going the wrong way!"
"Elias will meet us, just move!"
At the end of the corridor, a door burst open; Anakin saw three figures silhouetted against the moonlit sky, running for a ship that was still in the process of landing. It reminded him vaguely of the YT-series of Corellian freighters with its saucer-shaped hull, but the rest of the design was alien to him. Painted black, it almost disappeared in the darkness. The hatch opened, and the three figures ran aboard.
Looking behind him, Anakin watched as the smoke began to thin. Whoever that crazed Iridonian had been, he felt sure there were more like him on this planet. One person alone couldn't have generated the level of rage and hatred that he had sensed upon waking in this place. For all he knew, the freighter was his only way offworld. Pulling his hood up over his head and shivering from something other than the cold, Anakin darted toward the ship, crawling up the side of the hatch as it began to close.
.
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Arden Veiss trembled as she squeezed the trigger of the dorsal guns. She'd never been this close to the ruined Jedi Academy; she suspected she was one of the few who had. There was something intensely frightening about the building, about the whole planet, and she knew with certainty that she would not have agreed to this crazy mission if Captain Dagen had told them beforehand that Ossus was their destination.
She could do without the first mate's insane flying, too.
"We're clear!" Elias Till shouted from the cockpit. Arden felt a rush of relief, followed by the fear that they'd escaped the planet only to be blown out of the sky by the defense fleet's turbo lasers.
As if reading her thoughts, Elias pulled up at a steep angle and let out a breath that crackled across the comm. "It's all right, Arden. They're not fast enough for the Daybreak."
"What about the others?"
"All aboard. Told you I could do it."
Arden tried to still her shaking hands. "I was more worried about the captain. Two teenage boys are not enough backup for a job like this."
"Kohr and Ames are plenty old enough to handle Ossus."
Arden shook her head and unbuckled herself from the guns. "Whatever you say, Elias." She climbed down the ladder and made for the hatch.
The Daybreak bucked as it entered hyperspace, tossing Arden against the curved corridor walls. She grappled at the air before landing hard on her rear.
"Need a hand?"
Arden frowned and looked up into the captain's brown eyes. "Glad to see you made it out okay."
"Thanks." He grabbed her by the hand and pulled her to her feet. "You all right?"
"I will be once you tell me what on Ossus was so valuable that you risked the wrath of the Sith to get it."
The captain exchanged a quick glance with Kohr and Ames before pulling a datapad out of his jacket pocket. "This."
Arden placed both shaking hands on her hips and did her best to look intimidating. "You risked all our lives for a datapad?" She threw a pointed look at Kohr, who was doing his best to pretend he was invisible. "Kohr, you couldn't have cracked their database from orbit?"
Kohr looked at the captain as if seeking permission. Captain Dagen held up his hand dismissively, and the two young men at his side hurried past Arden and headed toward the galley.
Dagen watched the boys until they were out of sight. "Emperor's bones, you've got a lot to complain about, Arden," he said wryly, pocketing the datapad. "We're alive, aren't we?"
He brushed past Arden and headed for the cockpit. The young woman huffed indignantly, but she knew better than to expect straight answers from the captain. She turned on her heel and followed him.
"So what did you do?" Arden called out. "Crack into the big Sith bank account?"
There was no reply, not even the usual grunt of displeasure. Arden strode through the doorway as Captain Dagen finished whispering something to the man in the pilot's chair. They both turned to look at Arden, unable to mask the tenseness in their body language.
"Elias?" Her gaze flickered to the man in the seat, the blond-haired, powerfully built first mate who had just flown them away from Ossus. His normally cheerful brown eyes were clouded with worry. "What's wrong?"
The captain shifted his weight and patted Elias on the shoulder. "Make a few more micro jumps. I'll be back in a minute."
Elias half-rose out of the chair. "You sure you don't need help?"
Dagen offered the rare smile. "Naw, I can handle it." Then he slid out the door and disappeared down the corridor.
Arden shivered. "He still scares me a little." She glanced at Elias. "You know. Sometimes."
The first mate stood up and pulled Arden into his arms. "He's like my brother," he said matter-of-factly, "and you're not scared of me." She could still detect something odd beneath his jocularity.
"You two are nothing alike." She eyed Elias with approval. "But that's okay."
Elias smiled and pulled her down into the chair with him. "Help me plot these jumps." He pressed two buttons, glancing over his shoulder as he did so.
Arden had the feeling he was trying to distract her, or maybe himself, but she went along for his sake. "If you insist. Now, what exactly does this lever do?"
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Anakin had never been claustrophobic, but the tight spot he'd wedged himself into was threatening to drive him insane. He knew it wasn't really the ship's hold that had him on edge. Every second he waited here was another wasted opportunity to save Padmé's life. After his encounters on Ossus – if it really was Ossus – he had been hesitant to extend his presence, lest anyone else detect him in the Force. Now it was time to come out of hiding and find out what kind of crew he was dealing with. He had to get home.
The door to the storage compartment opened without warning. Before he could react, a hand reached in and yanked hard on his robes, sending him headfirst into a pile of cargo containers. The Jedi Knight jumped to his feet and activated his lightsaber in one fluid motion. His attacker stood still, watching every movement without so much as blinking. Anakin realized, with the mildest degree of surprise, that it was the same man he'd met upon arriving on the planet.
"There's no need for your lightsaber," the stranger informed him steadily. "Just tell me why you snuck aboard my ship."
Anakin held fast to his saber with one hand and rubbed his head with the other. "I had a little trouble with the locals."
The man snorted. "I can't imagine why." In this light Anakin could see that he had jet black hair and dark brown eyes. His face was hard, and there were two jagged scar lines along the left side of his face.
Anakin pulled himself up to full height. "You said that planet was Ossus."
"Did I?"
"As I recall."
The man studied Anakin for a moment before answering. "Well, as I recall, I asked you why you're on my ship, and you have yet to provide a good reason."
Anakin knew this would be the perfect time to practice some Jedi patience, but after spending three years as a commander and then a general in the Grand Army of the Republic, he had become accustomed to a certain level of respect, even from his peers. The stranger's tone reminded him too much of Master Windu's for him to ignore it.
Besides, he hadn't planned on remaining in the Jedi Order for much longer when he'd been mysteriously swept to this far corner of the galaxy. He didn't have to be patient anymore.
"Listen," he snapped, pointing at the man with his lightsaber. "I have no idea what's going on here. Maybe that planet is Ossus, maybe it isn't, but I wasn't about to spend any more time there. I needed a ship, and yours was the only one available."
The man stared at the tip of the lightsaber, his expression darkening just a little. "I told you there's no need for your weapon. Put it away and we can talk like civilized men." He turned to his left and indicated the open doorway leading out of the cargo hold. "This way." Without looking to see if Anakin would follow, he strode through the door and shut off the hold's lights.
The Jedi Knight sucked in a frustrated breath and followed. As he walked behind the man, he noticed that he was no longer wearing the lightsaber he'd wielded during their first meeting.
Curious.
The man stopped at the end of the corridor and pressed his palm to a control panel. A door slid open, revealing the vessel's cockpit. Sitting in front of the controls were a young man and a young woman, both turning to see who had just entered.
"Hey, Captain…?" the girl's words died as she caught sight of Anakin standing in the doorway.
The captain smiled tightly. "Elias, Arden, turns out we have a stowaway. This is… I'm sorry; you never told me your name."
Anakin looked back and forth between the captain and his crew. Obviously they didn't watch the Holonet much. "My name is not important," he answered, adding a nudge of Force persuasion.
The man at the controls snorted. "It is if you want anything from us."
The captain threw his companion a pointed look. "What Elias means to say is, we would love to help you. We just don't know you."
"No charity for strangers?"
The captain looked at his crew, and they all shook their heads. "Not really, no."
"Okay." Anakin reminded himself that he would need their help if he wanted to get back to Padmé. "My name is Anakin Skywalker. I'm a Jedi Knight, and I need to get to Coruscant as soon as possible."
The two men looked truly at a loss for words, but the girl let out a dry laugh. "Right, and I'm Obi-Wan Kenobi. Come on, you've got to be joking." It took her a moment to realize that no one else was laughing.
Anakin glared at her, feeling a dark chill rush through his veins. "I wasn't trying to be funny," he said.
The girl shrank back into her chair, fear creeping into her hazel eyes. She turned back to the control panel, avoiding further eye contact. Her reaction emboldened Anakin, and he took a step into the cockpit.
"I've told you my name. Take me to Coruscant and you'll be rewarded, I give you my word."
"Your word?" The man called Elias stood up from his seat and folded his arms across his chest. "You honestly expect us to trust the word of a man claiming to be Anakin Skywalker?"
"Claiming?"
"Elias," the captain interjected. "Would you plot a jump for the Heibic system?"
Elias nodded and sat back down at the controls.
"What are you doing?" Anakin asked as he watched the man's fingers dance over the panel.
The captain leaned over Elias's chair, ignoring Anakin's question. "If we don't hear from Ulin after we get there, take us to the alternate rendezvous point immediately."
"Please!" Anakin shouted, adding the weight of the Force to his plea. "I have to get to Coruscant, and you have to take me."
The girl looked over her shoulder at the captain as if she expected Anakin's words to send him into a rage. The captain cleared his throat and stared back at Anakin with the steely eyes of one who was accustomed to being in command. "There is no way in hell," he said in a quiet voice, "that I'm risking my ship and my crew to take you to Coruscant."
Anakin bit the inside of his lip, a habit he'd acquired after spending too much time around Coruscanti politics. It generally prevented him from blurting out things he would regret. "You don't understand," he gritted out, eyes narrowed dangerously. "I must go."
"For your own good, stay out of this affair."
Master Windu's words came back to him suddenly, mocking him. He tried to shake the memory from his mind, but it lingered, reminding him of why he so desperately needed to get home. His blood ran hot as he glared down at the captain. Only a criminal would feel that a trip to the Republic's capital was a risk.
He locked eyes with the captain, who was still invisible in the Force. What was he? What kind of person could disappear like that? Was it a natural phenomenon? He couldn't explain it, and that frightened him just a little.
Anakin struggled to suppress his fear and anger. He could almost hear Padmé screaming for him to help her. "I'm going to Coruscant one way or another, captain. Please don't make me use force. I don't want to hurt you or your crew."
"You see, that's where you've slipped up," the captain murmured. "Anakin Skywalker was a guardian of peace and justice, not a desperate bully who stole starships from unsuspecting spacers. You couldn't possibly be him."
Anakin stared at the crew incredulously. These people are all crazy.
The captain smiled darkly. "And if you really were him, you could have prevented this." As he finished speaking, Anakin felt something sharp pinch his neck. He twisted around to see a tall, dark-skinned boy holding a syringe, and then everything faded as he tumbled to the deck.
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