Chapter Five

Palpatine watched as the doors to his office hissed open, admitting the Jedi Knight he had wished to see. Up front, Anakin Skywalker seemed to be every bit the Hero with no Fear the media portrayed him as, but a surreptitious probe of his Force Signature revealed the fear, anger and frustration within him. Oh, there were blocks in place that prevented any deeper search of his feelings, but Palpatine supressed a smile at how close to the Dark Side his future Apprentice was already. It would not be long now.

"Ah, Anakin. I am happy you could see me at such short notice."

"You are the Supreme Chancellor, Sir. I would have made the time." Anakin replied with a respectful nod.

"Quite."

Palpatine motioned for him to sit down in one of the plush chairs on the far side of his desk and dropped fully into genial host mode.

When Anakin denied refreshments, Palpatine rose to his feet and stared out over the cityscape of Coruscant. Anakin rose, and as the two stood side by side, the Supreme Chancellor began to speak.

"Beautiful, is it not? The embodiment of civilisation, it's highest heights and it's lowest depths, all united in one planet-spanning city."

"It is, Chancellor." Anakin replied, unsure where Palpatine was going.

"As with all things, there are those who seek to destroy it, by any means at their disposal."

"The Separatists are a grave threat, Chancellor." Anakin said nocommitantly. Somewhere in the back of his head alarm bells rang, so was wary.

"Not only the Separatists. There have been several cases where even our own choose to work against the Republic and for Confederate victory. That they did not succeed... we have you to thank for that, my boy."

Anakin gave a appreciative nod, and returned to look out over Coruscant. He was still shaken by the nightmare he'd had today, one that was worse than ever before. This time Obi Wan had been there, ready to take his children away from that place, leaving Padmé were she had died. He had a hard time believing that Obi Wan would do any such thing, commit the ultimate treason against him, and yet the vision had been so vivid, so real, that he couldn't help but wonder if they were true. But what in the name of the Force could drive Obi Wan to do such a thing? Though at the same time, his secure knowledge, his firm belief in his brother alone made him doubt the visions just in a small way.

Beside him, Palpatine chanced a glance, and hid the look of satisfaction he wanted to display. He may not be there yet, but the boy was well on his way to the Dark side.

"Republic Intelligence has uncovered something far more sinister than a single spy however."

"Another conspiracy within the Senate?"

Palpatine didn't answer and instead left Anakin to ponder what he had said. Minutes later, he sensed his worry through the Force. Good, very good.

"There are many within the Senate who have opposed the latest set of Security and Emergency laws."

"But Chancellor, this is their right within a Democracy." Anakin said, starting to sound worried.

Inwardly rolling his eyes, Palpatine sighed. "Oh certainly, my boy. And no doubt, most senators are as fiercely loyal to the Republic and it's cause as you or I, but in some this has turned into active opposition to the war in service of either the separatists or their own nefarious ends."

"In the Senate?" Anakin asked incredoulously.

"Yes, I fear it is true. There is plenty of evidence for it."

That nine tenths of it was fabricated and planted was of no matter at the moment.

"There likely is more. Some may even have connections to the Jedi Council."

Bomb dropped, Palpatine drew back to watch the impact.

Anakin's mind reeled at what the Chancellor had said. The idea that the Jedi could plot the overthrow of the Republic was, in one simple word, inconceivable.

"But..."

He struggled for the right words. Part because he didn't want to believe what he had heard, part because it fit in with what his visions had told him. He was confused, unsure who he was supposed to believe. Which of course suited Palpatine just fine. Not that he said so of course.

"Yes, Anakin. It seems that the both of us have treason and plot far closer to home than we expected."

"I will be vigilant then, Chancellor."

"Very good, my boy. Vigilance is the only thing that can save the Republic now."

Anakin swallowed and suppressed the urge to examine what he had been told right away. Instead, he asked a question.

"Do we know who is involved?"

"In the Senate? No, I am afraid not. On the Council, if at all, there is no way to tell, but rest assured, Intelligence will find out if there is treason within the Jedi Order."

With a sickly sweet smile Palpatine turned to Anakin and looked at him directly. "There is at least one Jedi Knight of whom I can be sure."

"Always, Chancellor." Anakin replied, knowing full well who was meant.

"I am sorry to have to bring this to you in this fashion, but I could not risk communications that can be intercepted."

"Of course." Anakin said with a short nod. "But I have to ask, since we do not know who is involved in this conspiracy, is there a motive beyond the new laws and the powers they grant you?"

"In the Senate there is always someone who seeks to gain politically from the Republic's misfortune. In the Jedi Order... As you are aware, the new laws place the Order under the guidance of the Republic, and there are some elements who like things the way they were, however misguided and wrong."

About that Anakin could have written several sets of Holo-Operas. That the Order had it's share of people resistant to change and unwilling to accept even the notion of a new idea was one of his bigggest problems with the institution.

"So what do we do?"

"You said it yourself, my boy."

Palpatine finally turned away from the window and back towards his desk. "Constant vigilance. That is the only thing we can do until there is more evidence. Therefore, I want... no, I need you to report everything that is suspicious to me."

The Jedi Knight only nodded in agreement, fully aware that he had just all but agreed to be the Chancellor's spy within his own organization.

"But enough of my own problems. There is something about you that tells me you have some of your own. Can I help you? Is there anything you want, anything at all? Your loyalty to the Republic must be rewarded after all."

Anakin considered telling the Supreme Chancellor of his visions for a short time, but decided not to. "I fear it isn't something you can help me with."

"Are you certain? I have ways and knowledge that even the Jedi do not know of, even though the Council might not approve of some of them because of the code."

Palpatine had placed the bait in front of him.

Anakin hesitated for a minute before shaking his head. "Thank you for the offer, Chancellor. But... I need to consider all options first."

"Of course."

Inwardly Palpatine was pleased. It had been risky to be so blatant about his Sith knowledge, but he had correctly assumed that Anakin would be too worried about his dear Senator's health to run screaming to the Council. It was too bad that she had to die, because her twins would have made an excellent second generation of Sith. But the Dark Side of the Force was a fickle mistress and often chose to withhold one's wishes, and the one thing that both sides had in common was that their wishes were very much open to a different interpretation by each adherent. Which was what had lead Sidious down the path to the point where he had killed his own old master.

And tonight, Palpatine decided, Skywalker would have yet another dream.

Right now though a change of topic was needed. Luckily Anakin provided it himself.

"And what of the War? There are rumours that General Grievous is planning a major attack."

"Unfortunately we have only rumours. With so many fronts it is hard to say what the enemy will do. We can only hope that we are lucky."

"In my experience Chancellor, there is no such thing."

That night the dream was worse than ever before, and this time Anakin felt as if he was really in it. He was running down the grey-scale corridor of a Victory-Class Star Destroyer, though he had no idea why he knew this. The hatch in front of him hissed open.

Inside was Obi Wan, standing over Padmé's limp body. He turned, exclaiming 'ANAKIN!'

Anakin jerked awake inside his temple quarters with sweat dripping from his body and his bedding damp to the touch. Breathing heavily, he turned off the annoying chime of his comm unit, never before so thankful for it.

Still half-asleep, he picked the unit up from his bed-side table and checked who it was.

That changed the moment he recognized his wife's personal comm code. He tapped the holographic projector alive.

"Senator Amidala, what can I do for you this late at night?" he said, mindful of the Jedi Communications centre this had to be going through.

"General Skywalker," she said, "Further inquiries in regards to that droid purchase we discussed with General Kenobi yesterday evening has yielded some... interesting results. The initial buyer has once again made contact, once again by recording. Considering what happened the last time, it might be best if you both came to meet me in my Senate Offices right away."

Anakin checked his Chrono. It was an hour before local sunrise, so by now Obi Wan should be about his usual morning routine that he followed whenever they were on Coruscant.

"Very well, Senator. Give us an hour, and we will be there."

"Thank you, General." she replied with a courteous nod, "I shall await you then. Amidala, Out."

He turned off the unit and sighed. Those dreams were getting worse each night, and he had almost reached the point where he was afraid to go to sleep. The last time this had happened his mother had died shortly afterwards, and he shuddered to think at what he had done in revenge.

Revenge, a path to the Dark Side is. Avoid it you must.

Yoda's words came into his mind unbidden and unwanted, but somehow the old Jedi Master often had things to say in the worst moments. Whatever that ended up meaning. Anakin shook both him and the dream away and got dressed, and as he clipped his lightsabre to his belt, he keyed Obi Wan's code into his wristunit.

"There are only two reasons you would call me at this time of the day, my former Padawan." Obi Wan said without a greeting, "It is either some sort of war emergency or has to do with the Senate. I am not sure which I prefer, to be perfectly honest, so now which is it?"

The humour in his voice was obvious.

"The latter. Do you remember that droid matter we discussed with her the other day? It seems that there has been some activity on the accounts, so she called me just now. We are to meet her in her office."

Even though they hadn't actually decided on using a code, Obi Wan understood what Anakin was talking about, so he just replied with a "Meet me at the dock." before shutting off his comm.

The ride to the massive building that housed the Senate was mercifully short, as neither man had much patience tonight. Padmé had provided them with an access code that by-passed local traffic control, thus allowing them to land unannounced and in a private corner of the expansive hangar that served the building. As they walked towards the private access lift that would take them directly to the level of Padmé's office, Obi Wan sensed something that he had missed during the short flight over from the temple.

"Something troubles you."

Anakin halted in mid-stride, and for a moment contemplated brushing Obi Wan off with his customary "I'm fine.".

But the dream and Obi Wan's presence in it had shaken him up, and at the same time he remembered what Yoda had said several days ago. And yet... he couldn't bring himself to talk to the person who was closest to him with the exception of his wife. What was wrong?

"I'm sorry Master."

Obi Wan knew that it was pointless to try and get an answer out of Anakin when he was like this, so he cast him a worried glance but kept his mouth shut.

It remained that way until they exited the lift.

He stopped Anakin with a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Anakin.."

Obi Wan hesitated, unsure how Anakin would take what he wanted to say next.

"Anakin, if there is anything I can help you with, you can tell me. You know that, my friend."

"Thank you, Master: You have helped me very much already."

Since the usual sarcasm was absent, Obi Wan nodded. "I just wanted to make sure you know that."

Anakin place his other hand on Obi Wan's arm.

"I know, Obi Wan."

And silence fell once more, even as the droid acting as Padmé's receptionist chimed them in through the doors. Obi Wan had never actually been in here, so he looked around without trying to be too obvious, but Anakin moved through the office with a familiarity that spoke of many mostly clandestine meetings here. He turned his gaze away from the magnificent view of the city and saw Anakin give Padmé a kiss.

When they noticed him watching they sprang apart like a couple of younglings caught stealing sweets from the kitchen at the temple.

"Oh do go ahead." Obi Wan said, "Though you should try to keep it out of the public eye."

It was refreshing to see the both of them this unguarded, and once again he had to appreciate what good actors the both of them were.

Padmé, desperately trying not to turn twenty-seven shades of red, offered chairs, which were gladly taken. Next she summoned R2 and raised the privacy screens before beginning her narrative.

"Same code, same frequency, about the same time of day for reception. However, this time I had snooper software ready and was able to trace it for a short time."

Anakin leaned forward in anticipation. "Where did it come from?"

"I don't know. The trace ended in the System Exit relay. It is as if it was fed in directly at the relay there."

"Seems like someone wants to make it look like it came from off-world." Obi Wan said and stroked his beard. "Any chance at a transmission signature we could use to compare to others?"

"Of course." Padmé replied.

She handed Obi Wan a chip. "Anyway, since Anie gave me the code, I was able to decrypt it. I stored it in R2, but haven't seen it yet."

The Jedi Master nodded. "Let's get to it then, shall we?"

R2 beeped an affirmative and began displaying the message.

"General Skywalker, I must apologize for the way our last attempt at a meeting went. Rest assured, those droids were not sent by me but by those I wish to warn you about. Once again, I need to meet in person with either you or General Kenobi, who I assume has been notified of this matter by now."

Obi Wan glanced at Anakin as if to say 'He knows you well'

"However, I don't want to meet on Coruscant for several reasons of my own, but I'm confident I haven't been followed off-world. You need to do so as well, General. If you ask yourself why I am making this request of you, consider that those who attacked you employed Separatist droids, and those who attacked me used Sith techniques. Take a a ship to a position five million clicks sunward of the primary relay you have undoubtedly traced this message to. Once I have satisfied myself that everything is as I want it to be, I'll contact you again."

The figure took a few steps out of the pickuprange of his comm unit and hologram flickered off and the three humans in the room looked at each other.

"That is certainly interesting."

Obi Wan scrateched his beard like he did when he was thinking and continued: "This time we've been given a great deal more information."

"I agree, Obi Wan." Anakin raised his mechanical hand, all four fingers outstretched.

"This person served with us at some point, or at least knows us well enough to be able to tell I would bring this to Obi Wan's attention."

One finger was retracted.

"Whoever The Watcher is, he is smart and won't be easy to catch if we want to. He has the knowledge to set up a clandestine meeting place and follows strict security procedures."

One more went.

"He's genuine, but has underestimated the threat posed by whoever is after him, or that ambush wouldn't have happened."

Only his metal pinky-finger was left.

"And I'm sure I know this person from somewhere."

"What?"

"How do you know he isn't behind it?"

Anakin glanced at Obi Wan, answering his question first.

"Force knows who it actually is, and he's disguised it well. But I'd be willing to bet a jump into a Gundark nest that I've seen him before someplace, something about the way he moved still seemed familiar."

He grinned, and shook his head.

"As for him being genuine... Angel, if he knows me this well and had tried to ambush me, I would be dead, because he would have used more than a few droids to try it. And even if he wasn't, we can't let even the hint of Sith involvement go uninvestigated."

"Anakin is right, Padmé." Obi Wan added, "With what we've been through in the wars, someone like the late Jango Fett has a far greater chance at taking him down in a surprise attack than an entire army of droids. And for all their power in fighting Jedi, those weren't specialized assassin models."

"I appreciate your trust in his abilities, but this could still be a trap."

"Oh of course. But as a wise man once said, 'Without risk, great rewards can seldom be earned.'"

Padmé was obviously torn between her need to keep Anakin where she could keep an eye on him and her sure knowledge that he would be pursuing this. Obi Wan wished he could do something to help them, but he had no idea what it could be.

"And there is something else we need to consider. As long as this was on Coruscant, we could do this clandestinely, but if we have to go off-world..."

"We need to seek permission from the Council." Anakin finished with a sigh.

Obi Wan rose to his feet, accepting the unspoken decision the group had taken.

"I will take care of that. You will spend time with your wife and your children, old friend."

"Thank you, Master." Anakin replied and was himself surprised how genuine and heartfelt that was. He really was thankful to Obi Wan, and he felt lighter, airier and almost totally free within the Force now that he did not have to lie to the only person he was almost as close to as Padmé.

Obi Wan left, and Anakin turned towards his wife.

She gave him The look that had made husbands quiver in their boots since wives had been invented.
"I'm sorry, Angel." he said, even though he knew that her annoyance was not so much directed at him but more at the fact that she couldn't come too. And Anakin wanted to stay for the same reason.

Padmé sighed, and put up an obviously fake smile.

As Anakin was about to come around the table and hug her, she put both hands on her stomach and said: "Just go, Ani. We'll be fine."

However her husband hesitated, and after a few minutes reached for something within his robes.

Out came a lightsabre. In fact, it was the same one he had loaned her a few years ago, and once again he handed it to her.

"Here, take this. And I mean it. Take it as a present from me to you. Permanently."

"But..."

For once the Senator was speechless, but Anakin just placed it in her hand and closed her fingers around it.

"I'll use one of my spares from now on. They all look the same, no one will notice. And it's the next best thing to me being here in person. And always remember that I love you."

"Thank you." Padmé replied with tears glistening in her eyes.

tbc


The next mini-arc is the main reason why felt I stretched things out. As they go off-world for a while, I needed the time.


Also, I've noticed that a few tiny, but consistent typos have crept in. Corrected now.


But honestly, I have no idea where that last scene's ending came from. I sat here writing it, and that was where it flowed. Great. Now I have to think of something for her to do with that lightsabre. Though my mental image of her stabbing Palpatine with it is (probably. Maybe.) not going to happen.

And just a little warning. I will not be able to keep this pace up forever, so enjoy it while it lasts.