Where Jedi Fight
Yoda leapt back, avoiding another Senatorial pod that Sidious had flung with such ease.
The fight, to Yoda's surprise, was not going well.
The tiny Jedi had fought with all his knowledge and experience of the Lightside of the Force. He'd remained calm, focused, determined. Sidous fought with hatred, anger and all the power of the Darkside. He enjoyed making Yoda dodge and avoid and block.
It was the embodiment of Light against the embodiment of Dark.
It was something that Jedi had fought for and trained for since long before Yoda had first learned the ways of the Force.
The Light was coming up short against the Dark.
Hmmm, a problem this is, Yoda reflected as he repelled lightening back to the Emperor. With Anakin and Obi-Wan I must speak.
Darkness had changed. Evolved. Over millennium of silence, the Darkside had adapted.
The Light had not.
It was a bitter pill to take.
Yet one that Yoda willfully swallowed as he tumbled down to the floor below, his cloak fluttering and blocking Sidious's view.
The holocron Obi-Wan had left behind had spoken of other things, learned from Anakin. That the Jedi had failed.
As Yoda slid through maintenance tunnels, surrounded by circuitry and calling for Bail Organa to pick him up, Yoda was starting to believe that the holocron was correct.
The Jedi had failed.
And as a Jedi master, Yoda accepted it, and was willing to learn something new.
Because the Jedi would need to regroup. The Emperor would be defeated.
Yoda just needed to think outside of the box he'd helped to create and live in for centuries as to how.
The three of them sat together in meditation. It was not a joint meditation; the three had not sunk into the Force together as they could have. It was silently agreed that, sometimes, one just needed a moment alone to absorb all that had happened.
That Anakin knew this mostly was a result of him did not help.
Even now, locked away deep in his own mind so that even Obi-Wan's constant presence in the back of his mind was just a whisper, an impression much like he had at the beginning of the war, he was seething. More than anything else, this was what he needed - a moment to just stop and think. Things were happening so fast, he felt he could hardly keep up with everything that was going on. The clones turned on the Jedi, the Jedi were dead, all of them, Palpatine was a kriffing Sith Lord, his own troops had slaughtered younglings, it was like the entire galaxy had turned against him and he was just waiting for the other shoe to drop - and worse, he knew exactly what that other shoe was: his vision.
The darkness he felt in his vision was now permeating the air; the horrible picture of Ahsoka collapsed in pain had come to pass. He hadn't prevented it. He'd tried so hard, promised with everything that he was, and it still happened! He looked to the other pieces - Obi-Wan in emotional agony, and worst of all, Padme dying in childbirth. Even thinking about it seemed to trigger the vision, and all at once Anakin saw the cloudy images.
"Please! Please! Ani! Ani!"
"Hold on, Padme; you've got to hold on!"
"He can't... he can't have... Ani! Auh!"
Anakin could feel it; he could feel the contractions as they hit, could feel his stomach lurching as the baby tried to be born. He could feel Obi-Wan's desperation to keep even one person alive - the most important person to Anakin. He could feel Obi-Wan's anguish, his utter inability to confirm Padme's words. He could feel the weariness, the exhaustion, the hurt that was both physical and mental. He'd just been through battle, Anakin realized. That was a detail he'd not been aware of before.
From Padme he could feel the overwhelming broken heart, the sense of hopelessness and loss and what-was-the-point-of-living without her beloved. He felt the pressure of a physically taxing labor seeping her energy and crushing her already shattered heart. He felt her desperate fight of denial, crippling her even further, until her body could simply no longer maintain the strain.
And Anakin felt the exact moment she died, because that was when hope died with her.
...Wait, hope?
Anakin's brow furrowed, and he frowned. On reflection, this was the first time he'd had the vision during the meditation. Always before it came when he was asleep or lost in thought - caught unawares or when he was emotionally vulnerable. Anakin's first instinct in those situations was to react; the anger shielded him from the possibility of being hurt - something that had been drilled into him through constant meditation with his master as a Padawan even before the war started. Now, though, emotionally calm - or at least neutral - he saw more details than he ever had before. He had not known Obi-Wan had just come from battle, nor had he before felt Padme's overwhelming sense of loss. Coupled together, Anakin could only come to one conclusion, a suspicion he'd had earlier now simply confirmed:
He died. Anakin Skywalker was about to die.
Even in meditation, there was a gut reaction: run the hell away. Hide somewhere until Padme's birth, erasing the vision. That was at war, however, with another gut reaction he'd been suffering since watching the holo-recording of Dooku's last battle: fight and kill Palpatine.
When he realized this, he realized that, if he went to fight Palpatine, he would die, and the vision would come true.
His frown deepened even further when Anakin realized that this was not an easy decision, like he thought it should be. There should have been only one choice: protect Padme. Run away and fight when it was safe. It was a sound military strategy, one many a Jedi followed. It could guarantee 100 percent that Padme lived. The flip side, however, came when one considered Palpatine. The weeks spent in hiding would give the Sith a chance to solidify the power he had with the Jedi dead and a clone army at his command. Any strike Anakin could plan would be that much harder - maybe even impossible. A quick strike now, when the Sith hadn't yet consolidated his power, had the highest chance of success and frankly it was Anakin's preferred style. He was never one to hide. And yet, he knew his own heart when it came to loss of a loved one, and he knew all too well how he reacted with his mother's death. He couldn't inflict that pain on anyone, and if he went to face Palpatine he was as much as told he was going to die. He couldn't do that to Padme and Obi-Wan - or even Ahsoka though she wasn't in that part of the vision. She'd already had one brush with the Darkside.
Force, why was it Palpatine? Anakin had so many happy memories with the man, of sitting in his office and talking to the older man about any- and everything. Palpatine always knew just what to say, Anakin always felt good after seeing him; he always said what he wanted to hear. He remembered the secrets of politics, the questions Palpatine would pose to him as if he were already an adult, the prolonged discussions that would carry over to Obi-Wan as the debate continued. Was it really all a lie? Did it really mean nothing, machinations to get into the Jedi Council and spy on them by an unwittingly open Padawan - and then a Councilor himself? If Palpatine could be that deceptive, what did that say about anybody else? Could Obi-Wan hide his feelings that well, too? Was he lying as well? What if nobody loved him?
And just like that, there was a soft, distant touch on his mind, Obi-Wan mentally patting his shoulder even though he was waist deep in his own meditation.
Anakin took heart, knowing that he had no right to ever, ever doubt Obi-Wan - for no other reason than because their bond hid nothing from each other.
Turning back to the problem - the decision - at hand, Anakin realized there was another consideration to be had. Palpatine had told him it was possible to keep people from dying. Obi-Wan had searched the Jedi archives for hours trying to see if such a technique was possible before heading to Utapau. If he confronted Sidious, was it possible to extract the technique from the old man so that Padme could be saved - if not by him than by Obi-Wan or Ahsoka? Didn't killing Palpatine trump the vision? Was there any way to save Padme that didn't mean running away and leaving the galaxy to rot?
Ultimately, Anakin didn't want to run away.
As soon as he thought that, however, he knew that there was one thing he constantly ran from, one thing he avoided over and over - accepting that one day the people around him were going to die. He ran away every day. He'd been running, ever since he lost his mother.
...
... He was tired of running.
That thought brought a cascade of decisions.
It was a risk, running off to face Palpatine; but Anakin decided it was one worth taking. It might even be impossible, and Obi-Wan often stated his views of what Anakin did with the word "impossible." He could do it; he could do it. He could face off with Palpatine, beat the kriffing Sith to a bloody pulp, have him publicly renounce himself, force him to explain how to keep Padme from dying, and then maybe kill the sucker. He could have his cake and eat it too. Doing so would make him face and then defeat the fear of the loss of others because he would make sure he wouldn't lose to Palpatine. He wouldn't. He wouldn't.
It was a win-win situation; because it would also erase some of the damage done to the galaxy by Palpatine's hand. Yes, it would be better to have Palpatine show himself to be a Sith Lord, maybe even publicly, make the galaxy turn on him after kissing his ass for over a decade. If they could get a recording...
A plan started to form in his head; he had an idea of how to make this work.
He could do this. Nobody would have to die. He could save everyone.
He could... he could stop the pain.
Really, he should have learned by then that battle didn't bring resolution.
But he was so steeped in the Darkside he didn't even realize he was making rationalizations.
Padme sat back, stroking her swelled stomach. She was back on the Tantive IV, waiting patiently for Anakin, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Bail, anyone. Her healer had insisted she get some rest, and so she sat in the conference room and waited. It wasn't restful. It wouldn't be restful until her husband and family were back in her arms. But at least it wasn't strenuous.
She had the HoloNet on in the background, white noise as she looked down at her unborn child and tried to focus on the positive. The life she and Anakin would have once this little miracle was born. Uncle Obi-Wan dragged over to babysit while she and Ani went out for some private time. Maybe even Auntie Ahsoka as a babysitter. First steps, first words, first smile, first laugh, so many happy times to look toward.
Assuming she lived. Assuming Anakin lived. She wasn't sure about the prospects of either of those events occurring.
Anakin had had a vision of her death in childbirth. And from what they knew of his vision, it was possible that he died as well...
Padme didn't want that. She didn't want her child to be an orphan. Obi-Wan would look after the child, there was no doubt about that. And given how good a job Obi-Wan did with Anakin, the child would be fine. Ahsoka would no doubt help as well. But even if their child was fine, she didn't want it to be that way. She wanted to raise this wonderful baby with Anakin. She wanted them to be safe.
So much was happening and it was all so fast. She didn't feel like she had any time to even realize all that was happening.
The Jedi were dead.
All across the galaxy, dead in an instant.
And her husband and his Padawan had felt every single death.
And she could do nothing.
Now Palpatine had provided "evidence" on why the Jedi had to die. Evidence that never even went into debate, evidence that merely had the "sentence" carried out immediately.
It made her sick.
She wanted to do something. But she had a baby growing inside of her to think about. All she could do was wait.
Waiting was probably the most difficult thing anyone ever had to do.
"Such helplessness suits you not," a wizened old voice said.
Padme spun her chair around swiftly, her eyes wide. "Master Yoda!" Another Jedi survived! There was hope that others did as well. She breathed a sigh of relief. Other Jedi were alive out there. They had to be.
"Hmmm, better circumstances I would prefer, to see you again."
"Indeed," she replied. "Please, have a seat."
Yoda nodded, hobbling forward, Bail behind him as they sat down.
Padme looked down to her stomach again, hoping that all this stress wasn't affecting the baby. She also needed a moment to think. Bail, through unfortunate circumstances, knew about her and Anakin. But Yoda didn't. She didn't feel it was her place to say anything to the venerable master. She didn't know him as well as Anakin, and she wasn't the one who had problems with the tiny Jedi. She supported her husband in their decision to keep their marriage a secret. But so much had changed in just one day that she didn't know what was or wasn't the right thing to do.
She looked up, thinking of discussing a good place to hide for her and Anakin and the other Jedi. She never got that far.
"People of the Republic! You've been lied to."
All three turned to the HoloNet. "Padawan Tano?" Bail gasped.
"The Jedi had no plans to take over the Republic. We have only ever sought to protect and keep peace. When war broke out, we were thrown into a place nobody ever wants to be in."
The image flickered and jittered.
"What we didn't know was that we were set up. And that the war was nothing but a game for the Sith. We were all betrayed. And as we are wiped out, we learned who the Sith was."
A security holo came up, of cribs and a handless Dooku and a hooded Sith that Padme now recognized. The holo played out and Padme brought her hands up to her mouth in horror. Particularly when Darth Sidious spoke. There was no doubting the voice. And once Dooku was on the floor, Sidious motioned and clones came in, shooting the defenseless babies in the cribs. Padme dropped her arms down to protect the baby still inside of her in some instinctual distress of what could happen.
"If you have any doubt of the voice of Darth Sidious and his true identity," Ahsoka continued, "this should banish them. Our 'Emperor' has been playing us. And it's time we stand up to him."
The holo flickered to a partially destroyed Senate building, as her husband and his partner, the Team the Republic believed in, faced off with Palpatine.
"Fellow slicers out there. Help keep this feed going as long as you can. I must help my master fight the Sith. And no matter what happens to us, at least all of you know the truth."
"Oh," Padme gasped, tears in her eyes. "Ohhh," because her husband had just made a decision without her and she was going to strangle him when she got her hands on him again.
But everyone in the galaxy now knew the truth. They would resist.
Padme leaned forward with tears streaming. Her husband had weighed his vision of how this meeting would likely turn out against the galaxy. And he was doing it anyway.
She loved him so much.
"Hmmmm. A bold move this is. Too be expected, of young Skywalker."
Bail sat back, looking pale. "We... we need to contact Mon. We're going to have people signing up by the thousands. We need to organize this somehow. Figure out how to select who's not just angry versus those who want real change. This... this won't just set things up... it'll create a maelstrom. How are we going to manage a maelstrom?"
And as they watched the first blows of the fight start, Padme's first contraction hit.
Obi-Wan didn't want to do this.
It bore repeating. Obi-Wan Kenobi didn't want to do this.
As the three of them snuck into the Senate building, all he could think about was how much he didn't want to be there, didn't want to be participating in this, didn't want any of this to be happening. It wasn't for himself that he didn't want to do this, though; it was for Anakin.
Something horrifying was going on in his former Padawan's mind. If the mind of a half-turned Jedi felt like that, he didn't even want to conceive of what the mind of a full Sith Lord like Palpatine looked like. All the fear and anger and hate that was filling Anakin's mind... it was damaging. Literally. When he'd lowered his shields to break the dark hold on the Jedi he'd felt pieces of their bond breaking apart. Even now, he could feel a measurable difference in how well he could sense Anakin, and he was not so closed off as to admit to himself that the idea of Anakin turning utterly petrified him. It would kill Padme to say nothing of himself, and when he'd realized that during the meditation, he realized fully what Anakin's dream was forewarning.
It wasn't Anakin's death.
It was his Fall.
Obi-Wan didn't want to do this.
But fighting a Sith, it was his duty.
He wanted to damn his duty. Qui-Gon had once said that every Jedi has moments where they hate their duty; their duty made them do things they didn't want to, or hurt them in ways others couldn't understand. What made a Jedi a Jedi, however, was the ability to understand that the duty represented the greater good and that the sacrifice was worth it. A Jedi life was not an easy life - it never was; but the reward came in seeing the good that the pain had wrought. Obi-Wan fully believed it, even when he couldn't see the good his actions created. He believed that there was a greater purpose in his life, the will of the Force, such as his mind could articulate it, and so he'd come to the deduction that the greater the pain the greater the good he was doing. Otherwise, there would be times he couldn't understand why he was exposed to the pain - like with Ventress, like with everything that had been happening in this catastrophic twenty-four hour period.
And so Obi-Wan swore to everything he believed in - everything that was in ash and ruins at his feet - he swore to it that he would do his duty. He would fight the Sith Palpatine.
And he would do another duty, too.
He would keep Anakin from Falling.
If he had to die in the process, well, the ultimate pain logically had to bring about the ultimate good. He hoped it wouldn't come to that, but he understood that decisions like that weren't up to him.
That was what kept him calm as he, Anakin, and Ahsoka quietly took over a security control room. Anakin and Ahsoka did their work, both being more skilled in electronics than him.
"Snips, you stay here," Anakin ordered.
"Master-"
"No, Snips, as soon as this hits the airwaves everybody and their brother is going to try and cut off this feed. You need to keep it open for as long as possible, at least until he uses something like lightening or something to prove that he's a Sith. Besides," he added, his voice a little distant, "you don't have the skills to fight him."
"Master! I've fought that bog-witch Ventress more times than-"
"She wasn't a true Sith, Ahsoka," Anakin said, standing to his full height. His eyes were still blue, but the bloodshot rims were bright red, and he didn't quite look at his Padawan, but rather past her, already mentally preparing for the coming fight. "You're good; great even, but potential isn't going to mean much in a fight against him." In a lower voice, almost to himself, he muttered, "I want at least one of us to make it out of here alive..."
It disturbed Obi-Wan on more levels than he could name that he couldn't sense the mental sentiment that backed up his words.
"I... Okay, Master." Ahsoka frowned, looking dejected and determined at the same time. Anakin turned on his heel and marched out, and Obi-Wan offered his own goodbyes.
"Don't take chances," he offered softly. "If you have to run, run; pass on what you've learned, and protect Padme. The Force will be with you, always."
As the two of them walked unmolested through the halls, Obi-Wan poked at their thinner bond, trying to gain a sense of his former Padawan, but all he could sense was black anticipation. He sighed, trying to figure out how he could possibly prevent Anakin from the path he was treading.
"I won't let it happen, Master," Anakin said in low tones. "I won't let her die."
"Anakin..."
"No, Master. Palaptine said he could stop people from dying. I just need to keep him alive long enough to get the process out of him. Then we can kill him."
"Anakin, do you hear yourself?"
His eyes were flickering with red, but finally settled on blue. "Fine, we'll let the courts kill him."
Obi-Wan was lost. And any more thoughts had to be cast aside as they entered the Grand Convocation Chamber. Several pods were upended, there was the smell of smoke and ozone. There had been a battle here. Between whom? Obi-Wan didn't have time to ponder as they both leaped with the Force to the Chancellor podium, Anakin deftly opening the control panel and calling it to lower to Palpatine's offices. Obi-Wan took a deep breath. He could feel the dark energies down there; worse, he could feel them leaking up in great tendrils, caressing and interlocking with Anakin's own personal darkness.
Duty. He thought of duty.
The worried visage of Qui-Gon Jinn startled him but he quickly banished it from his mind.
"Ah, welcome. My young apprentice."
Author's Notes: Grin. Tomorrow we're Christmas shopping and won't have time for the usual post. As such, congratulations! It's a day early!
For the next chapter, in no particular order:
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Next week: Where Light Flickers And...