AN 1: Well, here goes another. Slightly longer, and I hope it makes up for last week. Seriously though, all it took me was one night of inspired writing to complete.

Dark Side Cookies to my beta anand891996 for any minor grammatical errors.

Also, next chapter's gonna be slightly different from the ones I've written till now. Well, you'll see. Plus, this chapter has the last major narration flashback.

Thank you all for the positive inputs I've received. Seriously, it's what makes me want to write more. I love reviews, so keep them comin'!

Enjoy, and once again May the Force help y'all kick some butt.

Chapter 3

A Supreme Skirmish

Anakin was glad for the fact that the Jedi were more-or-less exempt from traffic laws, because he was sure he'd have an entire unit of the Coruscant Guard Task Force on his back, given the way he was driving, or well, flying. He flew like he had a bunch of Separatist starfighters on his tail. It almost made him look back upon the Boonta Eve Classic speeder race as a pleasure ride.

He only hoped he got to Master Windu before tragedy struck. Even if he was a Jedi Master, he had no idea about the deep poo-doo he was in. (That phrase was probably the only thing remotely Dug-related he could tolerate.)

XXXXXXX

Anakin leaped out of his speeder even before it came to a full halt in the Jedi Temple Hangar. He had to find a Councilor and he had to find one fast. They had to know what he'd learnt about the Supreme Chancellor, and he hoped they'd act in a manner expected from the representatives of an Order that stood for wisdom.

If Anakin's extremely plausible suspicions were true, that would mean that Palpatine was not just a Sith, but also a very powerful one at that. He'd literally been sitting under the Council's noses for years together and no one had been able to sense any form of disturbance in the Force. Apparently the Dark Side did cloud everything, but Anakin was starting to get a clearer picture. The cloud was lifting.

He'd barely reached the Hangar doors that lead to the Temple when the opened with a pneumatic hiss. He was surprised and for once, pleasantly so, to see Masters Windu, Fisto, Tiin and Kolar walk through.

"Woah, Four Councilors right when I need them."He paused and frowned, trying to equate his luck into the picture.

"I have a bad feeling about this..."

Master Windu furrowed his brows on seeing Anakin there, and asked "Well, Skywalker, did you glean anything out of your meeting with the Chancellor? What did he want?"

"Masters, I've just learnt a terrible truth. If my suspicions are true, I think Chancellor Palpatine is the Sith Lord that we've been looking for. He's literally been orchestrating the war by controlling both sides, and he definitely doesn't look like he's the 'Live and let live' type, when it comes to the Jedi Order."

"A Sith Lord? That's a serious accusation, Young One."

"He knows the ways of the Force, even the Dark Side. Hell, he was even spouting Sith Legends like they're bedtime stories."

Anakin recounted his interaction with that Sleemo, while all of them listened on intently with varying degrees of palpable tension on their faces. Windu always had a brooding look on his face, but this was nothing compared to anything he'd seen before. Whatever happened to Jedi being detached and expressionless?

"This is serious. If what you're saying is true, then our worst fears have been realized. We just got news that Master Kenobi has engaged Grievous on Utapau, and were going to make sure that the Supreme Chancellor intends to give up his emergency powers once this situation is handled, but I don't think that's likely now." Looking at the other Masters, he said "We better be prepared for a fight. It's not going to be easy."

Turning, they all made to leave for a transport.

"Master, please, let me come with you. Given how long he's managed to stay at his deception, he's likely to be extremely powerful. We might not be on even terms on a lot of things, but I do have the Order's best interests at heart. Also, my impossibly high Midichlorian count doesn't hurt either." Anakin interjected.

"Anakin, I sense a lot of emotions leaking out of you. I don't know if you're emotionally stable enough to handle this. The four of us are Masters and also on the Council. Given our strengths and experience, it shouldn't be too hard for us to handle. For your own good, stay out of this."

Anakin was stupefied with anger. He had to be a part of this and see this through. He wanted the oppression of the Sith to end way more than any other Jedi, because of his attachments. There was no way he would sit around, twiddling his thumbs while he let someone else handle this situation. The curiosity as to the outcome of said battle alone would eat him alive. If they failed…

No, he could not let that happen. Anakin grimaced and took a deep breath. He schooled his expression into a calm one and looked Windu in the eye.

"With all due respect, Master, but none of you have even faced a Sith in combat. Your experience may not even count in this battle. I can do this, and I swear it on my life that I have the Jedi Order's survival as my highest priority right now." Anakin said, while he inwardly thought Right below my family and Obi-Wan's survival, of course."

"No. That's my final word. Go back to the Council Chamber and wait for our word. If what you've discovered is true, then you will have earned my trust. But, till I return, you're to stay there. We will handle this."

At this, Windu just turned and left, not even letting Anakin get an argument in edgeways, and went to find a trooper to pilot a Gunship to the Senate Tower.

Anakin was visibly angered. He scowled at Windu's retreating back and made his way to the Council Chamber, all the way musing about this entire situation. There was still some element he was still missing and he hoped to the Force that it wouldn't cost the Galaxy a huge price.

XXXXXXX

Anakin ran up the stairwell to the Chancellor's office as fast as he could. There was tension in the air and even ripples in the Force that anyone with a single midichlorian could feel, emanating from the upper floors. Anakin had no doubt where the origin of the disturbance was, so he had to make his next move quick.

The Galactic Senate frequently voted on issues pertaining to the Grand Army of the Republic and the Clone Wars, the outcome of which had to be immediately exercised. To this end, the GAR had a liaison office in the Senate Tower which acted as a means of communication with the Army engaged in various skirmishes around the Galaxy and the conceited politicians seated in comfortably cushioned pods, who thought they knew what war was.

This very Liaison office was Anakin's intermediate destination.

The Grand Army of the Republic constituted of Clones, all of whom were bred to obey orders, especially contingency ones. Now that the entire tirade with ARC Trooper Fives made sense, Anakin had no doubt that orders, especially Contingency Orders overrode each Clone's programming, forcing them to follow the order, irrespective of their situation. When the Jedi had taken control of the various battalions of the GAR, they had made sure they got well acquainted with their teams, but almost all of them had let go of their paranoia when they found out that the army was for the Republic. Anakin was one of the few remaining ones who had bothered to research a bit on the difference between the Clones bred for the army and a normal human. During this process, he had come across a list of the various Contingency Orders that were programmed into the Clones.

There were a total of 150 Contingency Orders, amongst which the orders numbered 65 and 66 had caught his attention.

Order 65: "In the event of either (i) a majority in the Senate declaring the Supreme Commander (Chancellor) to be unfit to issue orders, or (ii) the Security Council declaring him or her to be unfit to issue orders, and an authenticated order being received by the GAR, commanders shall be authorized to detain the Supreme Commander, with lethal force if necessary, and command of the GAR shall fall to the acting Chancellor until a successor is appointed or alternative authority identified as outlined in Section 6 (iv)."

Order 66: "In the event of Jedi officers acting against the interests of the Republic, and after receiving specific orders verified as coming directly form the Supreme Commander (Chancellor), GAR commander will remove those officers by lethal force, and command of the GAR will revert to the Supreme Commander (Chancellor) until a new command structure is established."

Order 66, the Chancellor going for emergency powers to "tide the Republic over the war" and the extremely lengthy procedure to execute Order 65 now made sense. Anakin had a feeling this was what the Chancellor's plan had been, all along, and Anakin's hunches were never off.

He ran down the corridor of the Senate's penultimate floor's ring, until he reached the office. The doors opened with a hiss and Anakin strode in, taking in the scene. Apparently today was inspection day, as a unit of the official Coruscant Guard, in their iconic red-painted armor, was also here. He spotted Commander Fox's helmet amongst them.

All clone troopers in the room looked up and snapped into attention when they recognized who exactly it was that had walked in.

"Good evening Troopers. Commander Fox, I need your help and it is of utmost urgency. I authorize you to activate recording on all cameras in the Chancellor's office, and also bring up the Security Council. I need them to authorize the execution of Contingency Order 65. I believe the Supreme Chancellor is not who he says he is, and is the one orchestrating this war from both sides. He is a Sith Lord, the very same we believe in command of the Separatist Forces."

"What?! Master Jedi, those are very serious accusations against the Supreme Commander of the Grand Army. I hope you're not basing this off your hunches." Fox replied cautiously.

"No, I'm not. That's why I ordered you to start recording the happenings in the Chancellor's office, and I suggest you get to it immediately."

Fox looked at the Troopers at the console and nodded at him. One of them pinged the various holocommunicator frequencies of the members of the Security Council, while the other got to work on the cameras.

"Bringing up the live feed now."

The scene that unfolded on the screen shocked every single occupant of the room, given the audible sharp intakes of breath around the room.

Not too surprising, as none of them had ever seen or imagined the Supreme Chancellor cackle in glee like a maniac, whirl a crimson saber through an unfortunate Jedi's head or shoot bolts of lightning out of his fingers, only for them to be stopped by Master Windu's purple saber. Two of the Jedi were dead or severely injured and Masters Fisto and Windu seemed to be hard-pressed to keep up with him.

Anakin knew he had to act and act fast. He turned to Commander Fox and spoke to him directly.

"Fox. I don'tcare what the Security Council is up to. You get them a channel with a live feed of this, and get them to execute order 65. Given that we do not know if the current Acting Chancellor is involved in this scheme or not, I will be taking direct control of the Army until this issue is resolved. Meanwhile, I will try and get some answers from that maniac. Also, get a priority channel to Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and the 212th on Utapau, andget the Contingency Order out to them first! It is imperative that I head up there and prevent that scum from killing the others and sending the entire Galaxy spinning into turmoil. Do not waste time."

Commander Fox of the Coruscant Guard never had any issues with following morally sound orders, no matter who they might be against. His sense of justice was unerring and he had a reputation amongst criminals in the Coruscant underworld, that made them think twice before messing with anything under his area of jurisdiction. In this case, that human part of Fox convinced him it was the right thing to do, irrespective of the fact that a Jedi could not initiate Order 65.

He called out to Anakin as he ran out, and said "Master Jedi, the order will go out, irrespective of how long it takes. How soon, just depends on the events that unfold on the screen."

Anakin smiled inwardly as he ran to the stairwell again. Clones were seriously so much superior to those clankers. Imagining himself arguing with one of those while they spouted "Roger, Roger" itself was infuriating enough to make him want to kill the Chancellor.

Still, he'd have to play this carefully, if he wanted that fool to divulge more.

Not two minutes later, Anakin burst through the doors leading to the Chancellor's office, and did a double take at the proceedings unfolding before his eyes. Windu and Palpatine were engaged in a furious lightsaber duel, while Master Fisto was kneeling and clutching his side, across the room.

The Chancellor noticed him enter, and suddenly, his lightsaber form got noticably sloppier.

"That was barely a distraction. Not even the weakest Padawan would lose focus this quick."

Windu kept thrusting his saber forward, frowning at the sudden lack of combative pressure from his opponent. He had not expected that, but he would not let go of any openings he got. This man had proven himself to be far stronger than Windu could have ever anticipated. Within a matter of seconds, Windu had pushed the Sith back up to the ceiling-to-floor window that looked over the Coruscant skyline. A single strike from one of their sabers shattered the window completely. Windu pressed on and surprisingly managed to disarm Palpatine in two moves. The Sith stumbled backward and fell on his rear, with an expression that was supposed to depict hopelessness, but was comically fake.

Anakin mentally facepalmed as he understood what was happening.

"Master of deception, 3PO's foot."

Palpatine struggled upward to regain his footing and turned to him. "I knew it Anakin! It was as I feared! The Jedi are plotting to gain more power and take over the Republic! Help me! I'm too weak, I cannot fend off this murderer on my own! Please! You will have all the power you want, just strike him down!"

"NO! Don't listen to him Anakin. This man is pure evil, and it's just like you suspected. We need to finish him here, once and for all!" Windu yelled.

"You can't let him do that! Anakin, save me, I'm powerless against this madman!"

Palpatine looked at Anakin with, ironically, hope, that his plans would come to fruition, and Anakin would spring into action. He was extremely taken aback when all Anakin did was tilt his head and raise an eyebrow.

"Tell me, how do you intend to help me gain power if you can't even beat one lousy Jedi Master at combat?"

Palpatine stumbled at that.

Another memory suddenly surfaced in Anakin's mind. Ever since he'd walked into the room and seen Palpatine duel Windu, something was nagging him at the back of his mind, and he just realized what it was. When Anakin had just started his Padawan training under Obi-Wan, there was one particular day they had visited the Chancellor's office. Apparently the man had broken his foot while evading an assassination attempt and they were here to inquire about his health. "Jedi etiquette training" Obi-Wan had said. Even for said hairline fracture, someone as untrained as Anakin had been able to perceive that man's pain. His emotions had been obvious to anyone even barely Force-sensitive.

Coming back to the present, Anakin put forward his next question, tightening the noose further.

"Also, tell me, how does a man who was struggling to move after a fracture, not so long after I'd been inducted into the Order, suddenly seem able enough to do incredible acrobatics even with a multitude of lightsaber inflicted wounds? You're not Sheev Palpatine. I could feel that man's agony when he was in pain. Your mind and emotions are closed off to the Force completely. You think I can trust you if you keep lying to me?"

Windu, thankfully, had the sense to shut up and observe, as he realized what Anakin was trying to do.

The Sith straightened up, and his now-yellow and red tinted eyes met Anakin's.

"Well done. No one in the all of my years here has been able to garner even an inkling of the idea that I'm not who I claim to be. You're right, I'm not Sheev. Sheev was a week, incompetent fool, and all he could do was spin lies with that forked tongue of his. Spouting his ideologies all day, about how he would go on to make the Republic great again."

He dropped off the Senatorial garb he had on, revealing black and purple robes beneath, that looked very similar to the garb of a Sith Inquisitor, from the time of the ancient Sith Empire. His facial features changed subtly, and his skin sunk slightly into his skull, outlining all the sutures on his cranium. The man that stood in front of them now was nothing like the pleasant and warmth-filled man they had met on Naboo. No, this man had a malevolent nature that downright stank evil, given how the Force churned around him. Even though the man was a bumbling idiot, he was still very powerful.

He spoke in a deeper and much different voice.

"I am Sheev's elder brother. You have no need of my real name, only that I am now called Darth Sidious. I murdered my brother and took his place once I realized that the Chosen One was at the Jedi Temple. As for power, I was toying with him, waiting for your arrival. You see, all of my moves have been made for you. This is the entire truth. It's more than what the Jedi have ever given anyone. Join me, my apprentice and you shall have all the power that you seek. Trust me, and the entire Galaxy will be at your fee-"

Neither 'Sidious' (The Sith tended to be very dramatic with names and flairs), nor Windu expected the ball of Force that slammed into the former and smashed him into the wall behind.

"Wow, you're really as stupid as I thought. You're still trying to act convincing about caring for me, while all you want is a tool to wipe out the Jedi. Seriously, your attempts have been extremely obvious, ever since the start. The not-so-subtle nudges in the Force, the 'dreams' that I have been having, and also, your claims that the Jedi are evil. So yeah, no, I don't think I'm up for your Mission: Power Grab. Oh, and as far as your plans go, here's to that:"

Palpatine rose up slightly from the floor and spat out blood, tilting his head up to look at Anakin menacingly.

Anakin turned to look squarely at a camera, and enunciated "Execute Order 65."

At that, all hell broke loose in that office on the topmost floor of one of the most prominent structures on the Coruscant skyline.

Sidious screamed in rage, and some control of his over his powers snapped. Physical Force ripples emanated from him, as he narrowed his eyes at Windu.

"First, I'm going to to kill you and then feed your carcass to a Gundark. And you,", here he gestured at Anakin, "I will shatter your mind and forcefully make you my slave. You are mistaken if you believe you have won anything here."

Master Fisto had neatly succumbed to unconsciousness by now and hence escaped having any murder threats thrown at him.

With that, he lunged at Windu, suddenly much faster than before. The Jedi Master was forced to sink deep into the conducting loop of the Vaapad lightsaber form to fend off Sidious' saber strikes. Given that it relied on the Dark Side Force energies emanating from the enemy, that wasn't too hard. Years of experience helped too.

For all he could see, Sidious's duelling strength came purely from his speed. His strikes and form were unrefined, but he more than made up for it using his speed. This was completely discounting his abilities with the Force, which they were yet to see. Master Yoda and Anakin were much stronger opponents at pure lightsaber dueling.

Anakin leaped into battle right alongside Windu, using his Djem-So moves to prevent the Sith from exploiting any openings. Both the Jedi swung their sabers in harmony, pressing on and preventing Sidious from gaining an upper hand. They quickly managed to stall his advance, and the furious rate at which they were exchanging blows shredded walls and furniture alike.

Windu felt the grudging respect he'd had for the boy turn into actual appreciation. His skills were brilliant, and he did apparently have the right mindset. He did not let himself get swayed by emotions and made level headed decisions. He may be very unorthodox, but he was definitely as powerful as any Master out there. If they made it out of this fight alive, Windu would make sure he received that promotion. Given the power levels their opponent was exhibiting, Windu wouldn't have lasted a minute against such a furious onslaught.

Tired of the stalemate, Sidious leapt backward and pulled a piece of furniture into Anakin from behind, hurling him to the other side of the room and at the same time causing Windu to stumble and fall on to his knees. Anakin crumpled on to the floor, right next to the prone body of Fisto. Rather than move to finish off the Jedi Master, Sidious pulled out a holocommunicator from his robes and spoke into it.

"It's me. Execute Contingency Order #2. My original plans have been ruined, and we're going to cut our losses for now. Bring Ty-"

"Contingency?!"

A condensed ball of Force slammed into the Sith Lord, shattering the communicator and flinging him ten feet behind. Sidious coughed up more blood and looked up to see Anakin with his arm outstretched and a furious look on his face, panting at the same time. A thin trickle of blood ran down the length of his face.

"No matter, the main part of my message has been sent across. Still, for this, you both shall die here, and I promise to make it painful."

Before either party could react, a massive explosion erupted near the horizon of the Coruscant skyline, billowing up in a mushroom cloud. Without warning, the entire part of the planet-wide city Anakin could see through the shattered window was plunged into darkness, and his breath caught in his throat as he processed the implications of such a massive explosion on a fully inhabited planet.

"The power generating station. Holy shit. H-how many people would that have-?"

Anakin felt sick at the disastrous turn this entire confrontation had taken, but he focused himself, pushing aside his own discomfort. This man was sick, and would stoop to any act just so that he could gain power. There was no clue as to how many other contingencies the madman had made. He had to deal with the Sith, and quickly at that.

Sidious had gotten to his feet by then. Having fully known about the impending explosion, he hadn't even spared it a glance. Jamming his saber into his robes, he stretched an arm out towards each Jedi, as Dark Energies started to gather at his fingertips. The malevolence in the Force was palpable and at the same time, nauseating to anyone not adept at using the Dark Side. To Anakin, it felt like being in the presence of the entity that called itself 'The Son' on Mortis. Neither Dooku nor Ventress had an aura that was even comparable to the man in front of him. Windu retched on the floor, coughing up blood at the same time. Never having had drawn in on so much Dark energy, it had a lot of adverse effects on him, thanks to the Vaapad's conducting loop. The Dark Side energy around Sidious' hands grew and started pulsating menacingly.

"I have a bad feeling about this."

Going with his instinct, Anakin ducked down and threw up two of the strongest Force shields he could muster, one around him and Fisto, and the other around Windu, who was still struggling to get back on his feet, across the room. He realized he's made the right move, when powerful arcs of lightning shot out of the Sith Lords arms, decimating anything that stood in his path. It would've been impossible to block them with a saber, given how wide an area the lightning covered.

Anakin threw all his focus and concentration on maintaining the two barriers. The Force lightning was unable to get through, but Anakin had a feeling that if his shields had been even a little bit lesser effective, they all would've been fried by now. Sure, he'd seen Dooku shoot Force lightning out of his fingertips before, but this was more like a lightning storm. Brilliant arcs of lightning shot out in all directions, melting the floor, ceilings and furniture alike, all around them.

The magnitude of effort it was taking him to keep up the shields was one he had never expended before. The power of the lightning combined with the tainted Force blasting out of that...creature wracked his body with pain. He didn't know how much longer he could keep this up…

"Anakin!.."

"ANAKIN!"

He snapped to look up and saw that Windu was on his feet, his saber raised. The Jedi Master was in a terrible condition, but there was a grim determination on his face that told Anakin why exactly that man had been the Master of the Order. He was powerful, yes, but also had extremely high willpower.

His eyes locked with Anakin's and he nodded.

In a flash, Anakin understood what Windu was going to do. His eyes widened at the realization. Windu just calmly looked at him, with the malevolent storm tearing everything to shreds around him and said clearly, "I trust you, Anakin. I believe in the Chosen One. Bring balance to the Force!"

With that, Jedi Master Mace Windu ran out of the Force barrier, with animalistic rage playing on his features. He drew as much Dark Side energy as possible, without bothering about the consequence, because he knew he was gonna die here, one way or the other. Might as well save a ray of hope and deal some damage to that Sith fool while he was at it.

Amped up by the sudden build-up of Dark Side Force inside him, Windu rushed at Sidious head on, with his saber held out defiantly against him. Drawing in on the Force so much partially allowed him to move through the storm, but the lightning still seared away at his body. Windu never missed a stride. He closed the gap between them and charged head on at the Sith. Sidious was taken aback at the fact that this man wasn't a charred husk yet, so much so that he never saw the other's saber being deftly swung upwards in an arc. The saber cut a deep gash into his chest, and sliced across his face, from the bottom right to the top left, making the man's already distasteful features horrifying to even look at.

Windu smashed into him half a second later, completely snapping off the man's control of the Storm.

At the same time, the amount of Force energy being channeled into Windu's saber, due to Vaapad and the Force Storm, caused it to shatter, and at the same time explode in the Force. A wave of pure Force energy blew out in all directions.

Not having to make up the secondary barrier, Anakin channeled all his energy into just the one around him and Fisto, hoping to ride out the wave. The wave was still powerful enough to destroy the shield once it passed over, causing Anakin to fall face-first on to the floor, unable to move even a limb.

On the other side of the room, the Force Wave threw Master Windu and 'Supreme Chancellor Palpatine' out of the window of the Senate Tower. Mace was dead before his body flew out of the window. Sidious, not so much.

Anakin's subconscious registered this moments before extreme bouts of pain wracked his body. A massive portion of the building around the chamber they were in had been destroyed, and multiple fires started out. The lightning had melted through steel beams and flooring on his floor, and going by the way everything was creaking, the entire section of the Tower was bound to collapse any time soon, but Anakin was in no state to do anything about it. Seconds later, he was rendered unconscious, unable to keep up with the exhaustion and pain his body was experiencing.

Of course, his blacking out never meant slipping into the comfortable embrace of darkness, but more of very vivid and terrifying dreams.

"Anakin! Help me, my son! I lo-" His mother said, before her image winked out.

"You betrayed my trust, Master. How can I ever stay with the Order now?" Ahsoka's face accused, before even that faded into the darkness.

Inky, dark images from his past faded in and out of view. When he felt Darth Maul's presence for the first time, when he lost an arm fighting Count Dooku, when he slaughtered the Sand Pe-

A suddenburst of light completely erased all the darkness, and Master Windu's voice spoke out, "Anakin! Wake up! Fight against these visions. Remember, you are the Chosen One. I believe that you can bring balance to the Force. Live, to fight another day."

The presence vanished, and Anakin's eyes opened blearily. There was a fire blazing around him, and the air was hot and difficult to breathe in. The Force around him still felt tainted. He had no idea how long he had been out, or even if he was awake right now, but it couldn't be for too long, else he'd be dead.

He thought he faintly heard someone call out his name, but his head was churning, and he had no idea if he'd thought that up. His vision kept swimming in and out of focus. A second later, the voice called out again, this time much closer.

"Anakin! Where are you?"

"Anakin!", once again, the voice called out.

"He-*cough*- Here...", he responded hoarsely, hoping it wasn't a dream and that the other person had heard him.

A figured came into his field of vision, but he wasn't able to focus on it's figures to make out who exactly his rescuer was. He realized that the part of the flooring he was on had actually broken off, and was hanging almost at the exterior of the building.

The figure seemed to have sighted him, and darted forward, deftly dodging falling debris. The figure came as close to him as possible and held out a hand.

"Grab on to it! I'll pull you up!", said the figure, in a definitely female voice.

Oh, what the hell. Surreal or no, dream or not, he wasn't going to give up. Mustering up as much strength as possible, he reached out with one arm, while the other wrapped itself around Fisto, who was miraculously still alive.

The figure reached forward and grasped him arm. Even this small effort seemed to prove too much, and Anakin started feeling himself slip into unconsciousness. Still, moments before he passed out, he picked up a few random details. It would be impossible for a non-Force sensitive to make it all the was here, given the state the building was in. Also, any Jedi who attempted it would be literally nauseated due to the Dark Energy still lingering in the air. So, if not a Jedi, but Force sensitive, who could his rescuer be? With the last of his remaining strength, Anakin turned his fading vision to her face as he was being hauled up.

He was out before his face could register surprise, because he recognized her, and it was a person he had not even fathomed would come to his rescue.