Obi-Wan had just uttered his question when Mace's comlink beeped.
"Yes?"
"Master Windu? This is the Control Centre. We have just received a communication from Master Mundi: he has killed General Grievous and his troops are taking control of Utapau."
"Thank you for letting me know. Windu out." Mace switched off his comlink and turned to face Yoda, "So the moment of truth has arrived."
Yoda nodded. "It has."
"I will talk with Palpatine at once."
"Alone you should not go. With other masters you go," Yoda advised.
Mace nodded, "I will take Masters Kolar, Fisto and Tiin with me."
"Good. To the Control Centre I will go; wait there for news I will. With Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon will stay."
"Yes, Master," Qui-Gon answered, then stood up as Yoda and Mace left the room. "May the Force be with you, Mace," he said to his old friend.
"And with you, Qui-Gon," Mace replied with a tight smile.
The two masters left the room and Qui-Gon found himself alone with Obi-Wan Kenobi and his companion.
The Jedi master was at loss for words, something unusual for a seasoned diplomat like him.
He thought it could be due to his concerns for Anakin now that it seemed clear his former Padawan was in serious danger to be consumed by darkness. True, the future was always in motion and Obi-Wan's vision could never become reality now that he was here.
Qui-Gon raised his head as he heard Obi-Wan get up and walk to stand near the window, arm crossed over his chest. He sensed the Force gather around him, as it was used to "look" at the landscape his eyes could not see.
Qui-Gon was impressed by Obi-Wan's power and by how controlled and serene he was. There was nothing in him of the angry teenager he had known.
Obi-Wan had said the loss of his eyesight had changed him, but Qui-Gon thought the incident may have merely caused the then eighteen year old boy to mature, to stop being childish and become a man.
This consideration made Qui-Gon shiver. He had refused Obi-Wan as a padawan because of his anger, without thinking the boy could have just grown out of it when the time was right. What did the prophecy say? 'The knight that should have been'. Should have, not could have. Obi-Wan was meant to be a Jedi and he would have been if Qui-Gon had just listened to Yoda's urgings and taken him as his apprentice.
Qui-Gon then wondered if the Jedi he could have trained could have been compared to the man now in front of him. The light in Obi-Wan Kenobi was almost blindingly pure, without any of the taints the war and its atrocities had left on many a Jedi's aura.
Qui-Gon sensed he was observed and returning to the present, he watched as Asajj Ventress stared at him with a belligerent expression. He had to admit she was quite an intriguing woman, with an interesting past. He wondered who had been her master. Probably a rogue Jedi, since she had not much control and he could sense some darkness in her.
It made him think of Anakin, with the difference his former padawan was not bonded – and thus bound to the light – to someone as Obi-Wan.
Asajj was like fire, Obi-Wan was like water, and water always wins over fire… especially if said fire is willing to be conquered!
Qui-Gon was smiling, a smile that threatened to become a full grin the more Asajj glared at him when, suddenly there was a violent shift in the Force.
Both Obi-Wan and Asajj's eyes widened as they looked at him. Qui-Gon took a big gulp of air to calm down. "Jedi have just died—very close to us." Mace and the others?
Obi-Wan nodded. "I feel the darkness has just grown more powerful. We must go there to help."
"What?" Asajj exclaimed raising to her feet. "Are you out of your mind Ben?"
"We must go…I sense that if I do not go now my vision will become reality."
Qui-Gon did not need to hear more. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the Living Force. As he had feared the source of unbalance in the Force came from the Senate building—and that was where they were going to go.
Now.
Obi-Wan felt the evening air whip his face and the Coruscant traffic roar in his ears as Qui-Gon piloted their speeder toward the Senate building at breakneck speed.
At his side, Asajj was so filled with tension he thought she would jump if someone touched her. He felt exactly like her, even if he was more able to disguise it.
"Faster, faster, faster," he chanted in his mind as the speeder turned sharply on the right.
"The Senate Building is straight ahead," Qui-Gon informed them. "Hold tight, we are going to land...now!"
The speeder brusquely lost quote, its pilot too hurried to make a by-the-book landing.
Obi-Wan's stomach churned as he grabbed the back of seat in front of him in an attempt to keep himself steady as the speeder came to an abrupt halt.
"Anakin is here too!" Qui-Gon exclaimed. "That's his speeder!"
"Then we must run," Obi-Wan replied and, completely opening his bond with Asajj, he shifted his perceptions until he was able to see through her eyes. It was a very tiring practice he seldom used and could not keep up for long, but he could not use the Force to negotiate his way in the foreign environment. The dark side was so strong it was clouding his senses.
"This way!" Qui-Gon instructed, leading them toward the hangar exit. A couple of guards tried to block his path but the Jedi sent them slamming against the wall using the Force without even breaking his stride.
Obi-Wan followed Qui-Gon closely as they left the hangar and entered inside the most private part of the Senate building, the one hosting the various delegations' offices. The corridors there deserted due to the late hour, and the more they proceeded ahead, the more the dark side became powerful.
Finally Qui-Gon exclaimed, "We are almost there, Palpatine's office is just beyond that corner."
Obi-Wan and Asajj nodded and they rounded the corner in a full run, only to skid to a halt when they found their way blocked by the corpse of three Jedi.
A quick examination with the Force told Obi-Wan the three masters were all dead, so he and his companions moved past them and entered the inner part of Chancellor Palpatine's office.
The scene awaiting them was most incredible, and made them freeze just before they crossed the threshold.
Mace Windu was standing, lightsabre ignited over the form of Palpatine. The Chancellor was sitting, back to the wall, near the shattered window that overlooked Coruscant. His hands were raised and lightning bolts were shooting out his fingertips, only to be blocked by Windu's lightsabre.
There was another spectator, and Obi-Wan recognized him at once as the young man of his dream—Anakin Skywalker. He seemed in a sort of trance, because he did not seem to notice he had company, so caught he was by what was happening in front of them.
At Obi-Wan's side, Qui-Gon unclipped his lightsabre, ready to intervene, while Asajj stepped closer to her bond-mate, her hand reaching out to touch his arm, as she moved to leave room for the Jedi.
Qui-Gon was about to enter the room, when Palpatine spoke to Anakin. "Come to your senses, boy. The Jedi are in revolt. They will betray you, just as they betrayed me," His face contorted in a grimace of pain. "You aren't one of them, Anakin. Don't let him kill me."
"Aarrrrggghhhhh . . ." Mace Windu growled, his bald head and face shining with sweat. The power behind the blue lightening had to be very powerful.
"I'm your pathway to power. I have the power to save the one you love. You must choose. You must stop him," Palpatine said again, his voice sounding weaker.
Obi-Wan took a deep breath. He sensed the fear grow inside Anakin—the fear for his wife. So the Sith knew about the young man's vision and fears and was exploiting them to convince him to join him…just as prophesied.
The healer could sense Anakin's fear was winning over his good sense, and that the young boy was about to capitulate and so he took two steps inside the room and said, "No Anakin, he is lying. I'm the one who will save Padme."
Anakin whirled around at the sound of his voice, and his eyes widened when he saw Obi-Wan's face.
"You- you are here…you are real!" He ran toward Obi-Wan and touched – tasted—his arm, as if he wanted to be sure the healer was really in front of him. "I saw you in my dreams…I-"
Qui-Gon stepped forward and put an arm around Anakin's shoulders. "His name is Obi-Wan Kenobi, but he is known as Ben Kenobi. He the most powerful Force healer in the galaxy—and a former Jedi."
A loud crash attracted their attention to the scene still unfolding nearby. Palpatine, who had looked powerless a few moments before had just used the Force to send Mace Windu slamming against the desk. He was now looking toward Obi-Wan with an expression of pure hate that made him shiver.
"Die Jedi!" the Sith Lord growled, as blue lightening erupted again from his fingertips, directed against Obi-Wan.
Obi-Wan saw them coming, but before he could react, Asajj stepped in front of him and deflected the deadly energy with her green lightsabre.
The onslaught of power and the effort she had to make to resist disturbed Obi-Wan's perceptions and he lost his connection with Asajj's eyes. He slumped back in darkness, but not before he saw both Anakin and Qui-Gon raise their lightsabres to face the Sith.
Asajj grabbed Obi-Wan by his elbow and lead him into the antechamber, as inside the office erupted a ferocious battle, that lasted for several minutes, until finally silence fell on the room.
Obi-Wan felt the veil of darkness begin to rise just as Asajj exclaimed, "They have done it, the Sith is dead!"
He smiled. "Good." He sense Anakin and Qui-Gon come closer and he said, "Now take me to Padme. I think I will soon have to deliver twins."
"Twins?" Anakin repeated in an almost strangled voice.
"Yes-" Obi-Wan answered with a smile, then sobered as a new image flashed in front of his unseeing eyes…
A surgery room, doctors are moving around calmly. Obi-Wan is sitting near Padme Amidala Skywalker, as she lays on the operating table. Her skin is rosy and she is smiling, gesturing with her hands as a nurse droid comes closer holding two bundles wrapped in blue blankets.
From behind a window, Anakin is looking, as Qui-Gon pats his back…or is he sustaining him? The young man seems on the verge of collapsing now that the tension and the adrenaline rush are ended.
Obi-Wan thinks it would be best if he went to help Anakin, when Padme takes her children from the droid's arms and smiling brightly at him she says, "We will name them-"
"-Luke and Leia." Obi-Wan completed.
"How do you know…? Anakin began, then shook his head. "It doesn't matter." The young Jedi turned to face Qui-Gon "Master, I…"
"There will be time later for explanations, Anakin. Now go. Mace and I will stay behind to deal with this situation."
Anakin nodded, "Yes, Master." Then Obi-Wan felt a hand pose on his elbow and together with Asajj the two men walked away.