Chapter 13

Earlier

" -so we still have not heard from Master Fisto. Communications has tried to contact him on every channel his equipment could pick up. We even tried GAR channels, but nothing."

Master Windu handed the word to Yoda. The small, green Jedi Master frowned. "Continue to try, we must. A danger to the Republic, Grievous is. "

"We must prepare for the worst." In the back of his mind, Windu came to realize that he should have insisted on sending Obi Wan who was considered to be one of the best swordsman in the Order. But the past was the past, so they had to make the best of it. "Assuming that Master Fisto has... failed to apprehend or kill Grievous, how should we handle this? By now the General could have already crossed half the Galaxy, and we will not have this sort of opportunity again."

Yoda nodded sagely, and pinched the bridge of his nose. "If escaped again, he has, then make every effort to find him, we must. Yeesssssss. Go on without him, the war would, but the best strategist the Separatists have, he is."

"But Master Yoda, if we do not take him out now, our best change to seize the initiative will have gone to waste. When will it end?"

"Full of uncertainties, war is. " Yoda replied, "If vigilant, we remain, prevail, the republic will."

At that moment the holoprojector tin the middle of the chamber sprung into life, revealing the Jedi currently on duty at the main entrance.

"Forgive the interruption Masters, but there has been an incident outside the Main Entrance. Masters... someone attacked Master Che as she was about to return to the temple!"

No one spoke. That someone had attacked the Order's Chief Healer on the edge of the temple...

Master Windu spoke up first. "What happened? Is the Chief Healer wounded?"

"I- I don't know, Master Windu, I-"

Windu looked at the others before saying: "I will be right down. Get help from the Halls of Healing."

"Y- Yes, Master."

The young Knight gave a short bow and the hologram dissolved. Windu jumped to his feet and hastened out of the chamber as fast as his dignity would allow, with Yoda on his heels, while the rest of the Council looked at one another, and all wanted to follow.

Yoda and Windu beat every record to reach the Main Entrance and they were greeted with a scene of horror.

On the first, lowest of the steps leading up to the Temple, Master Che was sitting on the lowest one, waving away the attentions of her healers. At least she was not badly wounded, even though she bled from where a blaster bolt had grazed her arm. Around her a few Knights and Padawans near the Entrance of the Temple had hurried to the scene and now formed a perimeter around her, sabres drawn. Some metres onwards a speedy Coruscant Security Force vehicle hovered over where a group of CSF officers were inspecting a body laying at the foot of one of the spires.

As the two Masters hastened down the stairs, Windu saw that the attacker must have been an awful marksman, since he had fired dozens of shots, but failed to even seriously injure his target. He only nodded at Che and as he pushed through the CSF officers, he knew why the attack had failed. The human male with the lightsabre wounds was reeking with alcohol. Long story short, to Windu it looked as if the man had been stone dead drunk. Small wonder he'd barely managed to hit the right section of the city, never mind his actual target. That still left to consider why he'd done it, and even though the prospective assassin was dead and through the alcoholic haze, Windu could still sense a faint but clear Dark Side presence, like an afterimage.

It would need further examination to make sure, but by the looks of it, the man hadn't been a Force user himself. That meant he had to have been around a strong, very strong Dark Side presence or source himself to eve get that kind afterimage and presence.

Fortunately it would not take long to convince the CSF to let the Order have all their reports on this affair.

While Windu dealt with them and the assassin, Master Yoda questioned the intended victim.

"I have no idea why, Master. My helpers and I were just walking over from where the hospital speeder had dropped us of over there," she said, waving towards the edge of the Temple District. "What saved us was that he started yelling at us even before he opened fire, so we were forewarned at the last moment, thank the Force."

Yoda looked over to where Windu was talking to the CSF. "What say did he?"

Chen shook her head. "It's not in any language I understood, Master."

"Sense something in the force did you, hmm?"

"No. It was all too quick and chaotic."

Yoda decided that she likely couldn't say anything substantial, so he dismissed her for the Halls of Healing with the strong 'suggestion' to file a full report on even the most minute detail she remembered and climbed the steps to the top. There he stopped in front of the entrance and turned around. On impulse he reached out into the Force, and to his surprise, it was less clouded and fogged than at any point since long before the war that he could remember. What had changed?

With a snort he waved the thoughts away. Right now he had better things to do, like sending the automatic recall for all Jedi on and around Coruscant, if that had not been done already.

Thanks to Coruscant traffic, it took Obi Wan and Anakin only a little less long than usual to make their way to the Temple. As Anakin brought the speeder in to land on the eastern platform he could see that there was a group of people and vehicles milling around in front of the Temple, but nothing more than that. On reaching the council chambers, Anakin and Obi Wan noticed they were the last to arrive, as only Obi Wan's chair remained empty or not occupied by a hologram.

"Master Kenobi, we were unaware that you had returned to Coruscant already."

There was no accusation in Windu's voice, but Obi Wan knew that they did need an excuse. "We had an errand to run first before coming here, Master. We were on our way already when the recall reached us."

"We will discuss that later, though be aware that there might be a connection."

"In what way, Master?"

Over the next few minutes Windu relayed what had happened to those that had seen it.

"In summary, Master Che is at present being tended to and the CSF is investigating her assassin. What I have not yet told them is about the Dark Force aura I sensed."

"That is the connection, Master Windu?" Anakin asked respectfully and received an affirmative reply.

"Even though the assassin was.. less than able in marksmanship and heavily inebriated, the presence was there."

"Involved, the Sith Lord is. Exposed to a very strong source of the dark side to be tainted this way, the assassin was. Yes, hmmm."

"Master Yoda, if this is the same person that prompted everything that has happened in the last few days, then..." Anakin was lost for words, because somewhere in the back of his mind alarm bells rang.

"Then the apprentice, Dooku was, not the Master. "

"At least we have proof for that now, even if it is circumstantial." Master Ti said, "Though the question of what we do about it remains."

"Let us hear Master Kenobi and Knight Skywalker's report first." Windu decided. "Did you meet your contact?"

"We did, Master, and we got the information we needed." Obi Wan replied and gave a highly sanitized account of what had happened on Corellia, leaving out that Ahsoka had been their contact. "In the end we managed to evade the mercenaries but failed to bring the contact with us."

"And there was no chance to bring him here?"

"Yes, Master. Skywalker tried to convince the contact to accompany us, but was not entirely successful."

Strictly speaking that was the first little white lie that he had told them, everything else had been stretching the truth and simply not saying everything. He silently begged the Force for forgiveness, but he had promised.

"Correct to bring this information to us instead you were, Master Kenobi. Sense the dark side at any time during the last few days did you, hmm?"

"No."

Yoda noticed that Skywalker hadn't answered, but for the moment he decided to ignore it, they had more important things to do.

"Has your contact said anything else useful?" Windu asked with an eye to investigating this whole affair further.

"Only that he was approached on a trading station near Hutt space, and that the contact clearly was a Force user connected to the Dark Side."

That moment Anakin recalled something that Ahsoka had mentioned off-hand.

"There was one thing, Masters. He said that the Dark Sider spoke with a very pronounced Coruscanti accent."

"Chance then that the sith is on this very planet there is. Hide among the millions here, he does."

"We must be vigilant then." Windu said, "But at the moment there is little to do but await the CSF report."

"And try to find the Sith."

"How do you propose we do this, Skywalker?"

He lacked a decent reply, but Yoda nodded. "Right, young Skywalker is. Still clouded the Force is, find this Sith Lord to end it we must."

The meeting ended soon afterwards, as no one had any more pertinent information, aside from Anakin. Obi Wan looked worried as Anakin told him to leave. "Master Yoda," Anakin said, "a moment?"

Yoda nodded and remained behind. Obi Wan walked to the exit and as he was about to walk down the long staircase, he turned and looked back one last time. The view that greeted him near broke his heart. Backlit by the sun from the windows Anakin looked down at the diminutive figure of Master Yoda, his posture a picture of defeat and resignation.

With a sigh, he turned and left. It was all in Anakin's hands now.

"Changed, something has, yes?"

'Tell him the truth, without censoring yourself, and the Force will show you the way.' Anakin thought, 'The Order is not the be all, end all of existence.'

He sighed, took a deep breath and steadied his emotions.

"Master, remember when you told me that I could come to you for help?"

"Of course I do. My advice you need, hmm?"

Anakin shook his head. "Master, I've been having... I don't know what to call it, dreams, nightmares... visions? For several weeks now, and... it's been getting better in the last few nights, but.."

He paused, trying to find the right words. "Master, can the Dark Side influence my dreams?"

"Why do you think that is?"

"They... they show me my worst fears..."

At that moment Anakin realized what the dreams had been intended to do.

"The one thing to make me loose faith in myself and the Light Side of the Force."

Yoda tilted his head and looked at the younger Jedi. A smile crept on his face. "About Senator Amidala it is, hmm?"

Anakin was beyond surprise, like many he believed that Yoda knew everything about everyone in the Temple.

"Yes, Master."

"Broken the code, you have. Forbidden, attachment is."

"Yes, Master."

"But led you to the Dark Side yours has not, young Skywalker. I sense not it will, yes?"

Anakin sighed and Yoda sensed that he was resigned to his fate.

"Master, I know that you will eject me from the Order. I know that, and I accept it. But Master, if she dies, if our children die as I dreamt, I will die with her. She... she is my life, my anchor, my everything. She keeps me grounded, she keeps me from despairing over this damnable war. Without her..."

Yoda reached into the Force and examined Anakin's Force signature closer than ever before. Anakin noticed and opened his emotions to this examination. He closed his eyes and for the first time when not in Padmé's presence he let it flow out of control. This went on for minutes before Yoda stepped back.

"The truth you speak. No dark side in you, there is, calmer than before, your presence is."

"Could this be why the dreams changed?

"Maybe. This attachment for a long time, you had. And helped you to do your duty, it has. Yess."

"Yes, Master."

"Find a solution, we will." Yoda tried to be reassuring, but he didn't need to be a Jedi to know why Anakin still was emminently worried. This worry was not for himself, but...

"Take your children from you against your will we will not, I promise."

"I would not allow that to happen, Master, believe me."

Yoda knew Anakin well enough to know that he would do everything to make that true. At the same time, the Order never took children against the will of the parents, at least they were not supposed to. It happened on occasion, but it was not supposed to. Skywalker would refuse unless it was on his own terms, and rather resign and take his family to hide in the Unknown Regions, the Outer Rim not under CIS control, Hutt space, wherever the Order would leave them alone, and if Yoda had figured Senator Amidala... Senator Skywalker would only help him to do so. The woman was fiercly protective of her planet and people, and she would be even more protective of her offspring.

"Master Kenobi knows, hmm?"

"Not for long, Master. Only from just before we left for Corellia. He does not deserve to be punished for something I did."

"Know that I do."

Yoda considered everything. What Skywalker had said, and what he himself had sensed in Skywalker's Force signature ran contrary to everything the Order had taken as dogmatic belief since the reformation. For the first time in centuries Yoda felt genuine doubt about his own beliefs and the rules of the Order. There had been other Jedi who had challenged the code before, but few so blatantly as Skywalker had, and yet all this had not prevented him from doing his duty as a member of the Jedi Order, quite the opposite in fact.

He had only sensed Skywalker's emotions and intentions, not his actual memories and he was sure that there were instances that the human Jedi wanted to keep hidden, but Jedi were not perfect, as much as they wanted to be. Which, Yoda realized, was part of the problem. In their attempt to attain perfect emotional serenity and balance in the Force they had forgotten that to attain balance one needed to weight both sides of the scales, something that the Jedi Order of millenia past seemed to have understood. And he, Yoda, had led the Jedi down this path.

That bore meditation and thinking, and he would have to discuss this with Master Windu. But right now he needed to reassure Skywalker. Whatever happened to him next would profoundly change the Order, and Yoda sensed that if Skywalker was with them, believed and knew that the Order would not dismiss him and his concerns out of hand...

"Go to your family you will, young Skywalker. Do your duty as always you will for now. Decide what to do with you we will another time, yes?"

"Yes, Master. I will go home and get some sleep."

Anakin radiated surprise, relief and happiness at what had taken place, and Yoda sensed that he had made the right decision. Skywalker may not know it yet, Yoda thought as he watched him leave, but times were changing indeed.

The Stormtroopers led the Princes, the Wookie and Solo into the freezing room. He almost wished that his son was there to see it, but Luke was somewhere within the city. And that 3PO would just shut up. Whatever had possessed him to build that blasted Droid in the first place, he'd never know.

"What's going on... buddy?" Solo asked his former friend.

"You're being put into carbon freeze."

The bounty hunter stepped up to him. "What if he doesn't survive? He's worth a lot to me."

"The Empire will compensate you if he doesn't survive." he replied, "Put him in!"The Wookie tried to save his friend and pushed a few Stormtroopers and tried to seize a weapon before his compatriots talked him down. He had to hand it to Solo, he knew how to control that beast. "Hey, Hey, Chewie! Listen to me! This won't help me. Hey! Save your strength. There will be another time."The Princess looked away from her friends and stared at him. If looks could kill...

"The Princess, you have to take care of her." Solo said, "You hear me? Huh?"

Solo and the Princess looked into one another's eyes, and shared one last kiss before Solo was taken to the platform. Before they lowered him down, the Princess spoke.

"I love you."

"I know."

tbc

I am really, really excited, as we are getting that close to Order 66, as you may have guessed, and I hope the ideas I have are epic enough...