Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars. It belongs to Disney. I make no money from this story.

Chapter 6: It all began on Tatooine

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Part 3

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In a story, like those told to countless younglings all across the galaxy, that would have been it. The heroic Jedi Knight brought low the dastardly villain. Jabba the Hutt was no more! The villain could no longer harm the innocents. In a story, the heroes would have freed the slaves held by the nasty Hutt, and left into the sunset, because then everything would have been all right.

The Age of Heroes was at its end. Geonosis was its final chapter. It was there, that the Hero Without Fear fell before his light could truly shine and inspire the whole galaxy.

The Negotiator followed, vanquished on Christophsis. By the time he would recover, he would awake into a different galaxy.

A darker galaxy.

The Age of Heroes was over. A civil war ravaged the galaxy. Brother against brother, parents against their younglings, neighbor

s tearing at each other… And the Jedi? The last beacon of light illuminating this darkening galaxy of ours? They began to fall.

It was a quiet thing at first. A tarnished hero, whose tortured mother died in his hands, was the first.

A young, impressionable child followed. She broke when exposed to the horrors of the Hutts.

They were the first. Unfortunately, they would not be the last.

The Rise and Fall of the Jedi Order

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Jabba's palace
Tatooine

Marq Jerbo was one of the many Overseers working for the Great Jabba. He had been at this job for over a decade. For Marq, it was an enjoyable reward for his long and faithful service to the Hutt. Compared to his earlier work as a mercenary and later guard, this was a happy semi-retirement, that allowed him to have many pleasurable nights with the stock of entertainment slaves. He was one of the people keeping the goods fresh and obedient for Jabba, his guests, and minions to enjoy.

As such, one of the few nightmares Marq had those days was over the unlikely scenario of the goods one successfully rebelling. Overseers like Jerbo did their best all over the galaxy to ensure that such things didn't happen, yet there were always stories whispered over a drink. Stories about the odd slave losing their mind and murdering their betters; stories about a crazy vigilante, or worse, a Jedi coming along, and ruining everything. More importantly, there were stories about the rare slave uprising and what those wretches did to their owners and Overseers.

Marq had never really believed that something like that could happen here, on Tatooine, much less at the heart of Jabba's palace. After all, who would dare strike at a great Hutt in such a way? A rival might have raided or even bombed the place, taken the slaves to make use of, sure.

No one in their right mind would have proclaimed their liberation. That wasn't the done thing. Tatooine was in Hutt space, not the heart of the Republic!

Yet, the screens in the security center didn't lie. The Great Jabba, Marq's patron, was dead, butchered by a sip of a girl. By a Jedi monster! All of their guests were dead, murdered by Jedi sorcery!

The security cameras were still intact, showing only the two Jedi had spared the slaves.

Loric finally came out of his stupor, and the Duros hurried to raise the alarm. Their buddy, Kikks, activated one of the microphones meant to record conversations between Jabba's guests, so they could hear what the Jedi were up to.

"It's all right." The armored Human proclaimed. "We won't hurt you. You're free now. We're here to end slavery and liberate you from the Hutts."

Loric and Kikks looked at each other, then as one, they turned to stare at Marq.

The three of them knew very well what would happen to them if Jabba's slaves ever got free. Alarms roared, armored feet hammered over ancient stone passages, while guards mustered to defend the palace. After what the three of them just saw, they suspected it would be too little too late.

"Do it man! Jabba's dead!" Loric exclaimed.

"We need to get out of here before those things get us!" Kikks rapidly nodded his head, speaking in barely legible basic. His face- tentacles twisted in clear agitation.

Marq glanced at the monitors and saw the Jedi rise and wave at the slaves. He knew many of those girls. He had used and trained most of them. The last thing he wanted was to find himself at their dubious mercy. Marq wasted no more time and pulled out his special communicator. He cursed his trembling fingers, which made him fail twice to enter the relevant code. Finally, he managed it, and the upper part of the communicator unfolded with a soft click, revealing a small red button. Marq slammed his thumb on it without a second thought. All he knew or cared about was that now, there would be no slaves left to take him apart.

The Overseer smiled in relief when he saw the consequences of his actions. It was understandable. He couldn't sense the Dark Side howling in glee. However, Marq could see the Jedi stiffen in shock and smiled briefly at that. Serves the kriffing bastards right, he thought!

"Let's get out of here." Loric was the first to bolt out of the security center, and his two buddies followed suit a moment later.

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It took Vader precious time to calm down Snips with soft words, gentle touches, and practically shoving at her through the Force how much he cared about her. He kept reinforcing the concept that she wasn't alone, that she had done nothing wrong, all the while, the Dark Side sang around them in joy. That was rarely a good sign. Yet, for the time being, Vader had little time to deal with it. The only distraction he allowed himself was to send a soothing pulse through the Force and address the terrified slaves. Their understandable emotions weren't helping Snips.

"It's all right," Vader spoke, using his voice as a vector for a compulsion through the Force. "We won't hurt you. You're free now. We're here to end slavery and liberate you from the Hutts."

The skittish slaves slumped to their knees, some in sheer disbelief, others crying in relief.

For a few precious moments, their terror subdued, and Ahsoka finally relaxed in his hands. Snips blinked away tears, sniffed once, and twisted her head so she could look up at him.

"Master?"

"Shhh… It's going to be all right, little one." Vader muttered awkwardly.

The Dark Side surged in joy, and muffled explosions echoed in the silent throne room. Bloody mist, pulped flesh, and chunks of bone flew in all directions, gruesome yet mostly harmless.

Snip's eyes went impossible wide at the backlash of sudden death washing over them. Vader himself froze in understanding before inhuman fury burst forth from deep within him. It took him a mere heartbeat to comprehend what just happened and his tenuous grip on sanity cracked.

The imaginary dragon within his heart, the furnace that used to be Anakin Skywalker at his darkest moment, burned like the heart of a star. The Dark Side whispered and laughed, hungrily anticipating what would happen next.

Only Ahsoka's thin hands hugging Vader slowed him down, acting like a damn for his fury.

It was not to be. Snips was a bright kid. Their connection was now fully in place, and it took her mere moments to comprehend what just happened. There was shock at first, stunned disbelief that shattered the last fragile remains of her innocence.

Then Ahsoka's last restrains snapped, and burning fury surged within her, pulsing in tandem with Vader's own. Her eyes bled until they glowed like lakes of molten gold.

A distant part of Vader's mind knew that this was wrong, that it was a disaster in the making.

He no longer cared. Vader had been restraining himself for too long, without giving the Dark Side within him an outlet. The dam broke. He stood up, bringing Snips to her feet.

There was no need for words. Master and Apprentice marched together, blades in hand. Jabba's guards came at them, and the screaming began.

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Part 4

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Senate Building

Coruscant

A miasma of fear and uncertainty clung to the Senate building. Senate Guards and Clone Troopers marched down the corridors in a show of force – a desperate attempt to keep people calm. The same was true for some of Coruscant's most iconic landmarks.

It was a crass display, Padme decided; and a useless one too. The fear was thick in the air. Holonet new sources constantly spoke about the consequences of the Hutts choosing aside. There were already rumors of unrestrained Separatists' assaults against the cut-off Republic strongholds in the Outer Rim.

There was no news from Tatooine, not even a hint. However, there were rumors about Anakin. It was a quiet thing at point – a state of affairs that would not last. A message came first, containing whispers of a confrontation between the Jedi, the Chancellor, and the GAR about Anakin. A friend stopped her on the way to Palpatine's office, hugging her and whispering about impossible, and insane accusations.

A small army of guards stood still as statues in the Chancellor's ante-chamber, another sign of the times, Padme guessed. If even Palpatine was afraid for his safety right here, in the heart of the Republic, then no one was safe, anywhere.

A Captain in the traditional blue of the Senate Guard met Padme's party and quickly led her through the security checkpoint. The man's expression was grave, and he seemed almost unsettled.

"This way, Senator. The Chancellor is eagerly awaiting your arrival."

Padme found her mentor hiding in his suit, sitting on a couch near the window, almost invisible in the darkened room. Uncharacteristically, he had a tall glass of wine in hand, with a partially empty bottle sitting abandoned on a nearby table.

That was so unlike Palpatine, that the former Queen froze, momentarily forgetting her questions, and just stared at the man. Palpatine appeared to had aged a decade since the war began.

"Padme, it's good to see you safe and sound." A brief smile ran over his face before a despondent expression replaced it. "Please, take a seat."

The Senator took him up on the offer and walked inside, much less sure about anything than she had been moments ago. She sat on a sofa close to the Chancellor and spent a few moments examining him. He wore crumpled clothes. Hooded eyes with dark crescents below them looked tiredly at her. And his slumped posture – this was so unlike the peerless politician who was her mentor, ally, and as of late, as often as not, political opponent, that it kept her off balance.

"We've got even more problems than I believed possible, Padme." Palpatine's voice betrayed bone-deep exhaustion. "Have you heard the rumors already?"

"Which ones? That the Republic is doomed, or about Anakin?"

"Both." Palpatine grimaced and took a sip of his wine. "You might want a glass as well, Padme. I'm afraid that the news I have for you are not good."

"I'll get myself one if I need it, Chancellor. What is happening on the Outer Rim? What about Anakin?"

"What passes for Hutt aligned patrol craft are moving to block our access through their space. For now, the Navy could sweep them away. However, doing so would be an act of war we can ill afford. It is now confirmed that over the past few hours, the Separatists launched half a dozen attacks upon our forces in the Outer Rim. Our intelligence services are certain that this is merely a taste of things to come."

That much, Padme suspected already.

"We're about to lose a significant part of our new army. We will be unable to replenish those losses before the Separatists will be in a position to strike directly at critical strategic targets." Palpatine's tone was level, not betraying even a hint of accusation, merely exhaustion. "As if that wasn't enough," he waved at a stack of data-pads laying innocently on the table near the wine bottle, "the economy is crippled. We've just lost access to cheap and easy to procure resources from the Rim. That by itself will significantly slow down all attempts to transition to a war economy. Even if we get enough people in the military and trained, supplying them will be an issue in the short to medium term. The same goes for shipbuilding. It will take months, if not years, to fully make up for the loss of resources from the Rim by reopening mines deemed no longer economically viable. Those resources will be more expensive as well, not to mention that many refineries were close to the mines so refined material could be shipped directly where needed."

They weren't ready for this war, a war they shouldn't be fighting in the first place. Padme admitted that much aloud.

"It doesn't matter now," Palpatine sighed. "It's clear that the Separatists wanted a war. They would have gotten one, no matter what we did."

That statement stung, even more so, because the Chancellor might be right. However, accepting it, was a hard thing for the young Senator. Doing so went against her ideals, against everything she stood for. Yet, she keenly remembered Geonosis. The Viceroy demanding her death, the crowd of locals baying for her blood. That wasn't what civilized people were supposed to do. It went against the principles that should be sacred for every right-thinking being in the galaxy, yet wasn't.

"We've argued about this many times before, Padme. We live in a huge galaxy," Palpatine smiled wistfully. For a few precious moments, he looked like his regular self, "it is full of wonder, of magnificent people ready to do the right thing." His smile fell. "It is also full of terrors. There monsters, criminals, and regular people who merely see everything through the prism of very different cultures and mindsets."

That was an old argument of theirs, one they often had in the past. While Padme was ready to condemn individuals as rotten, greedy, sometimes outright evil, the same couldn't be said for whole cultures and species with very rare exceptions. However, she had to grudgingly agree on a simple fact – some Senators, some member states, simply saw little or nothing wrong in practices that Padme and her allies viewed as abominable. Slavery was one of them. Conflict as an extension of politics was another, even if it might mean an outright war.

"Chancellor, please tell me about Anakin." Padme changed the topic. She didn't visit so they could argue on points they might never agree.

"Our Jedi friends," Palpatine spoke with so much bitterness it was painful to listen, "declared our young friend evil. The Jedi decreed that he has fallen to the Dark Side now and that he has to be stopped before he becomes a second Dooku or something." The Chancellor rolled his eyes and drank from his wine.

"Anakin? Evil?" Padme exclaimed. Her mind immediately went back to what happened just before Geonosis. To Anakin bringing his dead mother back, after he found her tortured and she died in his hands. She recalled how Anakin confessed what he did in retaliation and how he broke in her embrace.

Letting him go back to Coruscant alone had been a grave mistake, Padme decided. What the Jedi thought about throwing him straight back into the war, was another. What were they thinking?!

"That was my reaction as well. There is not a shred of proof that Anakin has done anything wrong, Padme. To the best of my knowledge, he has broken no laws or military regulations. Unfortunately, the Jedi don't see it that way. I'm afraid what they might do, and where they might push him."

At that moment, Padme felt small and vulnerable. Saying something about what happened on Tatooine might just doom Anakin. Yet, if he was falling, if he needed help, how could she remain silent?

"The Jedi wanted to arrest Anakin, and throw him into a cell, at best." Palpatine was venting his frustration now, a rare occasion, which usually allowed some insight into the man behind the politician. "They claimed that there was no turning back now. That at best, he would be imprisoned for life without a trial, without a chance for rehabilitation! Doing so goes against everything the Republic stands for! Everything I stand for!" Palpatine's free hand turned into a fist, and he slammed it into the arm's rest of his seat. "I refused to even entertain such madness!" He added in a softer tone, obviously regaining his composure.

The outburst left Padme speechless. The Jedi wouldn't do something like that surely! They were the Republic's guardians, the people you could rely on to uphold justice even at the darkest hour!

"Let me tell you, Admiral Coburn and his colleagues weren't thrilled! Even less so, when Master Windu all but accused Anakin of being like a drug addict right in my office! I've known that boy since he was nine! Anakin is one of the most compassionate people I've had the privilege to ever meet! Tell me, Padme, is the young man we know, an out-of-control murderous maniac?" Palpatine scoffed.

Padme closed her eyes and bit her lips. Oh, Ani, what did you do, she wondered?

"Padme, I've known you since you were a slip of a girl," Palpatine spoke gently. "Is there something I need to know about you and our young friend?"

Padme's heart hammered in her chest, nearly deafening her.

"If we're to help him, we need to know what we're dealing with. If he needs help, we need to offer it, before the Jedi do something everyone will regret." Palpatine gently pushed for answers.

She couldn't betray Anakin's trust. But then, the Jedi might already know, or at least suspect about what happened on Tatooine. That was the best explanation she had about this insane turn of events. If she went to the Order, they might damn Anakin. However, if she told Palpatine… she knew he was Anakin's friend. The Chancellor had mentioned Ani often enough over the years. He had taken the young hero of Naboo under his wing, or at least as much as he could, considering their respective positions. Padme had been glad it happened in the past.

She knew Anakin would have been alone on Coruscant, torn from everything he knew…

"Something happened just before Geonosis…" Padme carefully explained.

Palpatine keenly listened to her story. When she was done, he slowly stood up and began to pace in front of the darkened window.

"I see…" The Chancellor muttered to himself. "This makes so much sense…" He eventually stopped and faced her, framed as a shadow by the dim light streaming from behind him. "It's a tragedy." Palpatine declared in a sad, solemn tone. "However, it changes nothing. From what I know about Tatooine and its laws," her mentor grimaced, "the locals would never level charges against Anakin for slaughtering a group of Tusken. They would see it as doing a civil service. Our friend would get a few free drinks or a reward instead of being persecuted for his actions. It also happened outside of Republic jurisdiction in Hutt space. Legally, he has done nothing wrong."

"Legally." Padme agreed, relief, grief, and indignation warring within her.

"If anything, our friend needs friends to confide in, therapy even. He certainly doesn't deserve to be thrown in prison forever because he avenged the torture and murder of his mother. There are many courts within the Republic, that won't touch such a case is presented to them."

"Anakin needs help, I agree."

"More than you know, Padme. Given what you just told me, it was a mistake to send him back to Tatooine. Now, I'm afraid of what he might do if Jabba refuses to be cooperative. We all but ordered him to make an example in such an eventuality. What happens now is on us. I won't let Anakin fall on his sword over our mistakes. As a boy of nine, he saved Naboo in our hour of need. I'll be damned before I abandon him. Will you help me?"

That was a loaded question if Padme had ever heard one.

Padme loved that vexing Jedi. She owed him her life and Naboo's freedom. The least she could do was to help him in his hour of need.

"Yes." There was nothing more to say on that topic.

"I'm relieved to hear that, Padme. Unfortunately, the future of Anakin isn't the only thing we need to discuss. If any of us is to have a future, we need to win this war or at least survive it. If we're to do that, we need to unite the Republic before it falls apart around us."

"You want my public support for the war effort." Padme interrupted her mentor.

"I need your public support, Padme. I need the public support of your idealistic friends. I need the support of thousands of stupid selfish Senators. The same people who would rather see the Republic burn while lining their pockets and advancing the positions of their systems, rather than sacrifice anything for the common good."

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