Hours earlier...

A knock came at Chancellor Kanai's office, as it had nearly every hour since Grievous had attacked Coruscant. "Come in, Master Skywalker," Kayla told him, in a somewhat weary voice. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy his company or reassurance, but his routine check-ups on her had already become a bit predictable.

The Jedi walked in, hiding a smirk at her annoyance. Anakin would be too if he was being protected around the clock. "I'm glad to see you're still alive," he noted, trying to lighten the mood.

"Yes, just as alive as I was the last time you came in," she informed him, groaning a bit and rubbing her temple. "I'm sure you agree, your efforts could be more useful elsewhere than protecting me at the moment."

Anakin did agree, but he wasn't naive enough to admit it out loud to her. "But then no one could bring you reports on General Grievous," he reminded her, having just come from a meeting with Yoda, Mace Windu, Ki-Adi Mundi, and Aayla Secura. Commander Cody had just checked in, and Master Windu had asked him to deliver a report to the chancellor. "Master Kenobi and the 212th Battalion have engaged him on Utapau."

She perked up at the news, folding her hands on her desk. "So their efforts to hunt him down have been successful," Kayla deemed, thinking. "Have they reported whether he has been detained yet?"

"Not from what I've heard," he admitted, folding his hands in front of him. "Commander Cody's update came only minutes ago. It may be a while before he or anyone else has a chance to communicate their status again."

"I understand," she nodded, letting her gaze drift. "Where else are our attacks making gains?"

He mulled over in his head what he knew. "Master Plo Koon is launching an airstrike on Cato Neimoidia, as our defenses there have been compromised. Aayla Secura is on Felucia, and Master Yoda is on Kashyyyk. Both of them are reinforcing native troops on the ground. Part of my battalion is also laying siege to Mandalore, in hopes of capturing Maul and Barriss Offee."

Kayla paused, not remembering that last one from any other reports. "Who is leading that attack?"

"Commander Rex, along with his advisor, Ahsoka Tano."

She smiled, having been somewhat familiar with Anakin's history with her. "I suppose that will mean a long debate later, but for the better, I would say." Looking at Anakin, she told him, "I won't keep you in here if you would want to walk around. After your rescue earlier today, I imagine many people would appreciate getting to thank you for your and Master Kenobi's efforts."

Anakin bowed and walked out of the room, accepting the dismissal. He could tell the chancellor was exactly as tired of his visits as he was and let her have her space. Besides, after Palpatine had died, he didn't exactly enjoy being in that office anymore.

He started walking in a loop around the building. As per the Council's instructions, Anakin would have to check in again in an hour, so he had an hour to talk with anyone he recognized or recognized him. Many people waved and commended him for the rescue of the chancellor, but most of them had places to be so the conversations didn't last long.

On his fifth trip around, his comlink went off on his wrist. Ahsoka had sent him a report. He wandered off to the side of the grand hallway and took the message, turning down the volume so others wouldn't hear it.

It was just a quick hologram recording, which meant it was probably sent to the Council as well, maybe even the Chancellor. "The siege on Mandalore has been successful. Maul is in custody and is currently being taken to Coruscant. We're about to jump to hyperspace and will be there within the next few hours. Unfortunately, Barriss Offee was not found in the city of Sundari, and Lady Kryze's sources report that she had not been seen on Mandalore for as many as two weeks. Maul claims that Miss Offee is being held hostage by Count Dooku, although no proof for her location was provided. I advise that if possible, this claim should be investigated.

"As for Mandalore, Lady Bo-Katan Kryze has taken over leadership of the city and is working to unify her people. Prime Minister Almec has been assassinated by the warrior Gar Saxon, who was loyal to Maul and is currently being held by Lady Kryze and her allies in Sundari. The rest of Maul's leadership either has or will be detained. Lady Kryze has expressed her intent to inform the Republic of any updates of the situation in Sundari as they happen."

"Is that Ahsoka?" a familiar voice asked behind him. He turned, powering down his comlink, and he saw Padme and one of her friends, Bail Organa, walking up to him.

Smiling, he answered. "It is. According to her report, Maul is in custody, and on the way to Coruscant."

Padme beamed, happy to hear the good news. She had only returned to Coruscant a few weeks ago, having finally recovered from her pregnancy. Her decoy was finally able to have a break.

From her side, Bail folded his arms. "Between her, you, and Master Kenobi, we seem to be making quite a few gains, despite the attack this morning. The Senate will be pleased to hear this."

"I hope so," Padme agreed, beginning to walk again with the two men with her. "I only hope they will be as happy about Mandalore, though. They know the nature of its people."

"When Lady Kryze reaches out to the Republic, we will be able to act," Anakin reminded her. "Until then, there's not much to do except to wait."

They strode into the main lobby of the building, and Bail asked Anakin, "Will you be in our midst for long?"

Nodding, he explained, "With the losses that the Jedi Order and the Republic have suffered recently, I've been stationed here for the time being. Until more Jedi return from their missions off world, I won't be leaving soon."

"That sounds somewhat infuriating," Bail noted, picking up on Anakin's slight undertone. "Especially right now, when so much is happening."

"That's the problem, unfortunately," Anakin admitted. "Too many missions and not enough Jedi to facilitate all of them. We're being spread so thin that stationing a Jedi in the Senate Building is necessary."

"I see," the senator realized, tapping a finger against the back of his arm. "I suppose I haven't been made aware of the losses you speak of. I would ask, but I imagine most of that information is classified."

Anakin was about to respond that he was correct, and he would have if he hadn't have heard clone troopers run up behind them. He turned to see what the problem was and saw that all of their weapons were drawn. Commander Fox was leading a squad headed their way.

"Commander, what are you doing here?" he asked, confused. Fox was supposed to be at the detention center, most likely waiting for Maul to show up. Why was he at the Senate Building?

Fox didn't answer him but instead pointed his weapon at the group. "Senators! Step away from the Jedi!"

Both Padme and Bail looked confused but slowly backed up a little bit. That wasn't the right direction though, because Fox motioned for them to move to the side. Anakin glanced at Padme, wondering if she knew something about this, but she looked as puzzled as he did.

It was only when they cleared out of the way that Anakin realized all of their blasters weren't pointing at the whole group, but just him. Uh oh.

He barely had enough time to draw his lightsaber and activate it before the troopers started firing. Shouts went up throughout the lobby, and everyone started backing away. Everyone, of course, except for Padme who yelled for the troopers to cease firing. She would have run up and interfered if not for Bail holding her back and out of danger.

After deflecting the shots for a few seconds, Anakin pushed all of the troopers back with the Force and knocked them off their feet. "Fox, what are you doing?!" he asked, but the clone didn't seem to be in a talking mood.

He backed up, holding his lightsaber out in front of him. That wasn't exactly helping him though, because another squadron was running up behind him.

They had turned on Anakin, that was the only explanation he could come up with. He glanced at Padme, who was still being restrained by Bail. When she saw what was coming, she made fearful eye contact with him and mouthed one word: RUN.

Anakin didn't need telling twice. If the clones were going to try to kill him, he wasn't going to be able to protect the chancellor, so there was no point in staying and trying to fight. He ran towards the front steps and vaulted over the troopers' heads, deflecting the blaster shots that came his way. After that, it was past security and out of there, to...where?

He had to hide, somewhere were the clone troopers would have a hard time finding him. Underground, he thought, darting off towards the nearest shaft. That's what Ahsoka had done when they were chasing her. For now, it was going to have to work.

With the advantage of the Force, Anakin had a pretty good head start, but he needed to get past the detention center if he wanted to get to the Lower Levels, and that was going to be difficult if the clones were trying to kill him.

Why was this even happening? Anakin was sure he hadn't done anything, except for show Bail and Padme the last few seconds of Ahsoka's report, but that wasn't worth trying to kill him, right? He hadn't killed anyone, he hadn't stolen any intel or resources, so what was going on? At least Ahsoka knew what she was getting blamed for, but I don't even know what they think I did!

Anakin started noticing more troops chasing him as he passed around the back of the detention center. He could have outrun them if they were all on foot, but some of them were in gunships, which wasn't helpful. He needed cover, quickly.

The pipes, he remembered, and he started scouting out for the sewage lines Ahsoka had used to escape last time. He didn't wait until he was surrounded to cut his way in, but used his lightsaber to make an opening as soon as he got close enough. Right on time too, because the troopers were already within firing range.

He really wasn't appreciating the irony of the situation right now. The last time he had been down here, things hadn't ended well. What had happened this time? Deactivating his saber, he kept moving as the water at his feet seeped through his boots. At least I had convinced the clones to set their weapons to stun for Ahsoka.

Behind him, he heard the clones beginning to search for him. Anakin ran faster, putting as much distance between him and Fox's men. Just get to the shaft, he kept telling himself. I just have to lose them. He turned the corner, thinking it would bring him closer, but he was met with more clones, his own men.

Anakin couldn't take the chance, so he drew his lightsaber and prepared to knock them down. To his surprise, though, they didn't point their blasters at him. They didn't even have them out. All of them raised their hands in surrender, and the leader of the squad, Dogma, called out to stop him. "Easy, General! We're not here to hurt you!"

To prove it, Dogma took off his helmet so Anakin could see his face in the glow of his lightsaber. He breathed a sigh of relief, but Fox and the others were still chasing him. Lowly, he asked, "Dogma, what's going on?"

"No time, sir, but you need to keep moving," Dogma told him, drawing his blaster and putting his helmet back on. "We'll cover for you. Just get out of here!"

The troopers slipped past him and kept running, hopefully to convince Fox that they hadn't seen him. Anakin didn't waste time questioning it, but put his weapon away and kept running. He was going to take any help he could get right now.

It wasn't long before he finally made it to the shaft, and he slid to a stop as he approached the mouth of the sewege line. Bracing one arm against the wall of the pipe, he looked down at the ships ascending and descending between the levels of the underground.

The memory of Ahsoka jumping down floated past him, and Anakin could almost see her looking back up at him while he let her go. This time though, he didn't hesitate to follow her. Backing up a step to get a running start, he jumped out and onto a freighter that was heading down, landing lightly on the roof of the ship. He too looked up, but he didn't see a friendly face watching him disappear. He didn't see a clone helmet looking down at him either, though, which was enough. Anakin was safe, for now.