Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. I know it's been a while, but I've had some issues about whether I even want to continue this as it's grown into such a monster of a story! Anyway, the next few chapters will be absent an Obi as I wanted to catch up with everything that's been going on during this series of events on Coruscant so that I can get back to Obi-centric stuff. As always, reviews are most welcome, but I'll reply using the messaging service on ff rather than post them at the beginning of chapters. I don't think that's been terribly useful!
This chapter mentions events from the episode of Clone Wars where Jedi Doa died, which is not in the correct time line, so I would just like to remind everyone that THIS IS AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE STORY! before I get reviews slating me for bringing it up.
OK, now I feel a little better! Here goes….
As Dooku was greeting Palpatine outside of the senate, Clone Captain Rex was walking the halls of the Jedi temple with a very small, green Jedi Master.
"Ah, good to see you, it is, young troopers," called Master Yoda as he showed the slightly confused man into the communications room where two other white clad clones waited for them.
"Er, excuse me, Sir, but why am I here again?" asked the clone captain. He had just been promoted to captain after his commanding officer had sacrificed his life to save their men on the emergency evacuation of Ryloth. The mission had been a disaster from the start and the clones had barely escaped with their lives. Had it not been for the sacrifice of his captain and the loss of the Jedi Master Doa, none of them would have made it and he had been eager to get back into the fray when, out of nowhere, the cease fire had been announced. Now he found himself in the awkward position of tourist as it seemed to him with this walk around the Jedi temple and he was unsure of his role in the new found peace.
He looked at the unfamiliar armor of the two troopers already present as the small Jedi turned to answer his inquiry.
"Good question you ask, yes, good question." The green gnome chuckled to himself and moved to the control station in the middle of the room.
"Your attention to the holo-vid, may I ask you to turn," said Master Yoda and everyone present saw the boy at the podium clearing his throat. Rex tensed for a moment, was that Boba? Was he actually going to utter those words Rex had longed to hear since his captain's death?
"A deep breath, you should take, Captain," came Yoda's voice at his side as the realization of Boba's words washed over him. It was actually happening, he was free, he was no longer a warrior in this army of same faces, he was just Rex and it felt great. No more ordering men to mindless deaths. No more racing across battlefields, innocents screaming in his arms for their slaughtered kin left behind. How he had hated that helplessness in the pit of his stomach eating away at him inside and hidden behind his trooper training. He almost doubled over from the strain of the release from the grip it had over him. He had not realized how much he had relied on his indoctrinated training for the support to hold the man together after Ryloth, and he wondered how his counterparts were faring. He looked up from his hunched over position, having grabbed the sides of the holo-projector involuntarily and he shook his head to clear it, attempting to stand. The fellow troopers in the room were at his side, helping him before he realized they had moved.
"It's quite a shock at first sir," said the first, his helmet removed, his clean shaven head suddenly recognizable to the former captain.
"Waxer?" The bald man nodded and looked over to his companion, who Rex immediately recognized also, "Boyle?" The two friends exchanged smiles and then looked to their Captain. "Yes, sir," both clones said on hearing their names. "But, how?" exclaimed Rex.
"Contacted them, young Boba did and find them I did for this new mission. Help us with our younglings, will you?"
"I..I'm sorry, Master Yoda, but.." Rex looked from his comrades to Yoda with confusion. How were they here? His pod mates from the Kamino Academy here in the Jedi temple, it was crazy. He half expected Cody to come through the doors any minute, carrying their father on his shoulders!
"Little time we have, and many lives wish we to save. Not like Ryloth, this will be," the green gnome's statement shot Rex back to the conversation. No, not like Ryloth, nothing would ever be like Ryloth ever again, the former Captain thought.
"I'm your man, sir," he said saluting the authority he saw in the Jedi before him, not because of his programming to obey the chain of command, but because he knew what he had to do to set things right, he was not leaving anyone behind this time, because of his orders. Perhaps those orders had saved him on Ryloth to live and fight another day, but that had not been his choice. And he would have gladly given his life that day to save one more innocent from that horrific battle ground.
Yoda stared for just a moment, his clear green eyes taking in the conviction of the freed man before him. Once he had read the report from Ryloth, he had known Rex was the perfect man for the job. With the help of Waxer and Boyle, already names given to him from his former student, he had the small non-force sensitive team that could discretely ferry away the younglings from the temple.
"Move quickly we must," he spoke to the three men, "younglings prepared and ready to move, but quietly, it must be done. Acquired cargo freighters we have, yes. Fit for our younglings they are, but small and vulnerable they also are. Off world they must go, into hiding they will flee. Grave danger for them to stay here, it seems. Protect them, you must."
"But, why us, sir, I mean, you're Jedi. Surely you can protect them better than we ever could."
"Decoy, we must become. Defend temple from aggressors, we will, and shield your escape we shall. Begin immediately, you should, and save them we all will."
"This way, Gentlemen," said a dark haired woman, showing them the way to the lower levels of the temple," the children are eager to meet you."
"Thank you, er, Miss.."
"Call me Padme"
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Assaj watched the three clones leave with Padme, keeping out of site of her former students/toys. She shuddered at the memories she had worked through with Anakin, the senseless torment she had inflicted on many of the clone brothers in her time on Kamino, all in the name of supposed training, but she knew better than that now. She knew she still had that twisted version of herself caged inside her mind, her only voice still screaming within that cage to be set free and wreck the universe and everyone on it for the destruction of her perfect Ky, but that voice was not what ruled her now. Her master's true teachings of compassion through passion, understanding through standing for what was just, these were the truths of his words, not the revenge that Maul had driven to the surface, not the quick and easy path but the long and difficult road.
She still struggled against her darker emotions, but Anakin had shown her his own demons and she had been witness to Obi-Wan's, and that gave her hope, she was not alone, she was not a freak of nature tossed on the winds of force that swirled around her and within her. Her new found control was terrifying at times, but now she knew how to release that fear back into the swirl rather than use it as toxic fuel to her abilities, and although spoken language still caused her problems, telepathic communication was becoming something of a specialty of hers, especially between her and Padme.
That young woman's boundless compassion for others had been intimidating and somewhat intrusive for Assaj in the beginning, and the former sith had been openly hostile to the woman she saw as her rival for Anakin's affections. But that had quickly melted away when Assaj became witness to the deep bond within the force that held those two people together. It was a tether of force strength that staggered her senses, like nothing she could have dreamed of experiencing within the sith order. And that had been the moment when she realized nothing would come between them, it was a cord of love protected by the will of the force itself.
At first Assaj's reaction had been one of despair, such a deep connection to another luminous being unachievable for her and she had fled their company briefly, her dragon companion wailing his sorrow at her heart break as they had travelled across the Tatooine wasteland. But once again she had found release through the force, realizing how her strong emotions were tearing her dear creature apart beneath her. And she had sung to him, soothing his troubled mind to sleep that night as they lay together on the cooling sand dunes. She had guided them back to the camp the next morning where a worried Padme had greeted them. The shared relief they had felt in this simple reunion had been enough to form a bond between them that Assaj found brought her a new way to communicate with the former senator that felt so much more comfortable than the forced telepathy Anakin had had no choice in using to help Assaj through her mental break. Hidden as she was right now to the party leaving for the lower levels, she took comfort in the constant presence of Padme within her mind.
/I'll be back to get you once these transports are away. Keep an eye on the senate building, something doesn't feel right./ she heard her friend send. Assaj was still having problems with sensing the subtleties of the force fully and although she hadn't felt anything strange, she trusted her friend and once the group was out of visual range, she headed into the communications room where Master Yoda stood, his chin in his left hand.
"Ah, young one, come, interesting this will become, yes?" he was staring at the images being transmitted through the holo-vid, his concern for Kenobi, Dooku, and his former padawan, Anakin, perhaps hidden from a non-force user, but plain to see for anyone able to pick up the way the force wrippled about the Jedi Master. With her witty banter still eluding her, she found herself studying faces and forms much more closely, and this creature's ears twitched when a release of anxiety found its way out to the force flow that engulfed the temple. Assaj found herself standing behind the small creature and she felt compelled to rest her hand upon his shoulder, her own concern for Kenobi and Anakin shown to him. Dooku was another matter, but Padme had coached her well on shielding her true feelings for the Count, which were still caught within the cage that held her former sith memories in check. Even so, she knew she'd feel better once her friend returned and they could leave with the last transport.
Both Assaj and Yoda felt the shockwave through the force at Kenobi's release of Palpatine's mind, the dark wripples of force shuddering into them. It was Ventress who recovered first only to see her savior impaled by the Chancellor's young guard. The scream that erupted from her lips pierced the room and the Jedi master pulled away from her to cover his over sensitive ears. She slammed her hand through the control panel and raced to get away from the images. This had to be what Padme had meant, this was not how things were supposed to go.
/Obi-Wan is hurt, I have to save him/ she sent out to Padme.
/Wait, I felt it too, but we can't abandon the younglings!/ came the senator's reply.
/We're not, I am/ sent Assaj as she stormed from the communications room.
/Assaj, I know how you feel, believe me, I owe Obi-Wan more than I can ever repay, but we have our duty as he has his, please-/
/No! I have to get to him, I have to save him, now!/
/You think I don't want to rush to Anakin's side, to be there when he faces the man who betrayed my people, who has subverted his grip on power into something corrosive and would see the destruction of everything free and light. But I know I have to be here for these young ones who would otherwise be lost./
/I'm not you, Padme, I don't have the luxury of your faith, but I do know I can't leave Obi-Wan, not now, please don't ask me to do that./ and before Padme could respond, she cut off their link, not wanting the protection it afforded her anymore. She realized it was partly the side of her that craved the fight of things, to dive into chaos and bury herself within the raging force emotions being thrown about the senate building at that moment, but she couldn't resist it's pull, the caged sith spirit within her perhaps taking back some control. And yet it was to Obi-Wan's side that she wished to rush, the urge to protect her former enemy overpowering in its intensity. She wasn't prepared to call it love, that would be taking things to a whole new level of crazy and she didn't need that right now. He had never given up on her, despite her treatment of him, her vicious actions on Kamino at their first meeting and her vicious words to him on Geonosis, using Padme to bait him. He was the one who had found her so broken, he had tried so hard to stabilize her, to bring her back from the brink of insanity, even after everything that had transpired between them. He still didn't accept it himself, but she saw the light within him as a purer warmth than even Anakin had shown to her, a man tested again and again by the living force and never found wanting. That light wasn't about to be snuffed out by the twisted abomination that ruled the republic right now. She would see to that, she thought to herself as she swept through the halls of the temple to the hangar deck.
"Not your path, this is, young one." Assaj jumped to the side of the walkway at the sound of Master Yoda's voice. How had the troll managed to keep pace with her?
"With Mistress Amidala you must go," she shook her head vigorously and turned to continue on her path to the ships. The Jedi Master vaulted over her to land in front of her, his gimma stick held on the top by both hands.
"Help him, you cannot, face his true fear he must," she looked on him confused for a moment until she suddenly felt a presence within the force she had not expected. The dark presence of her former master pressed onto her consciousness like a layer of thick, all covering oil and she shivered. She then glared at the Jedi Master still in her way, wanting desperately to drop kick the diminutive Jedi when she realized Yoda had been aware of the Sith's impending arrival and said nothing. If looks could kill, he would have melted into the temple carpet beneath their feet.
"Necessary, this is, if broken of his doubt Obi-Wan is going to be,"
She looked at him with skepticism in her eyes. How was a deeply wounded Obi-Wan supposed to face a Sith lord at full strength, it would be a massacre of her friend. The green troll was hiding something, but she didn't have time right now to figure it out, so she went to vault over the Jedi when his stick swept up and struck her legs rather more painfully than she could imagine and she toppled over him. He turned slowly and walked around her to again be in her way to the hangar deck. He sighed deeply, knowing his words would not stop her continued attempts to leave. Now it was a case of delaying her for a few more moments and thoughts of Obi-Wan would be put to the back of her mind.
"Resist this, you must. Your destruction only this would achieve. Further fuel for Darth Maul, your presence would provide, and destroy you both, the Sith lord would. Return to the communications room we should and await the senator, you will."
Ventress got to her feet, rubbing her legs where the stick had hit and shaking her head to refuse Yoda's explanation. The Jedi master was really getting on her nerves, now and she could feel the skin on her face heating up and reddening despite its usually pale silver hue. She shot her hand up and out with what she thought was a massive force push, but the Jedi master merely leaned into the force wave un-phased by her assault and she found herself toppled backwards by his returned force shove. It was just enough to knock her off her feet, but it still stung her pride rather fiercely and she scrambled to her feet ready to through another, more forceful wave at him when both force sensitives froze in their tracks, sensing the immediate threat to the temple. They rushed to the nearest window, both immediately throwing up their arms instinctively to deflect the two missiles fired at the temple. One shot out to the empty council chambers above them, but the other one was heading for the hangar deck that Ventress had been so adamant in reaching not moments before and both Yoda and Ventress used their combined force strength to twist the missile fins, causing the projectile to via off course and hit the outside landing platform, rather than penetrating the building. A huge piece of casing flew towards them, shattering the window in front of them. Assaj ducked down as the broken glass flew at them, but no impact hit her. She looked up from her prone position to see the Jedi Master keeping every piece of glass as well as the missile casing suspended above them. With a wave of his hand, the debris moved away from them and landed harmlessly at their feet. The Master turned to her, drained by the excursion, resting heavily on his stick.
"Begun the attack has, fight by my side, will you?"
She smiled at him, finally feeling that the pent up energy that was coursing through her veins would be put to good use at last. Recovering quickly, Yoda took his sabre hilt from his belt as Ventress leapt through the room and back down the hall she had been using to get to the hanger, this time in the opposite direction to head for the temple entrance where the sounds of droid blaster fire could be heard. The Jedi Master was not far behind and felt gratified that the troubled force sensitive child was within his field of protection, whether she realized it or not.