Not a whole lot to say here, enjoy the ride.
Quinlan Vos sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose just above his tattoo. "What the kark is this about the Chancellor? I've been, ah, a little distracted to keep up with the political decisions of the Senate."
Distracted was, as always, underselling things. Between almost being shot to death by Faie, a running battle that had led to both Faie and most of two clone squads' deaths, the rescue of an injured Luminara Unduli from more hostile clones, and escaping Kashyyyk in an Aethersprite that really wasn't built for two, even if one of them was slight for a Miralan. The fact that he'd managed to even make it to Coruscant, let alone one of his safe houses, without being forced to do more than mind-trick a Coruscant Guard Captain twice was all but miraculous.
"It appears to most of the galaxy," said Tholme, scar seeming almost washed out with the rest of the man in a way that the hologram alone couldn't explain, "that several members of the High Council attempted to assassinate the Chancellor of the Republic, so he has declared the entire Order traitors as he ascended to the title of Emperor. Reading between the lines, it is more likely that it came out that he was the Sith Lord whose machinations started this war, and that their attempts to arrest the man ended with them, allowing him to control the narrative."
"That's not ideal," said Quinlan, hand drifting to his saber to feel the comforting hum of his kyber. "Any suggestions aside from some kingmaking?"
Tholme shook his head. "It's too soon to tell how any more… indirect measures would work, and given what I've heard from my underground contacts, we're already being hunted, so we can't afford the time it would take to learn."
Quinlan sighed again. "Great. Any chance you know of any assets we can use to keep an eye on Luminara while I make my run at him?" Left unsaid was the question of whether Quinlan would win- he would be able to at least make a run of it, given his own experience against Sora Bulq and Dooku, not to mention his own Fall, but nothing was certain in this world.
"Hmmm… Masters K'Kruhk and Jeisel are alive and mobile, last I heard, but they're on Bogden with younglings and can't make it to Coruscant within the next tenday at least." Tholme frowned. "I don't-"
"Sha Koon is on Coruscant," said a smooth voice, as T'ra Saa appeared next to Tholme on Quinlan's holoprojector. "I can still sense her, and if given perhaps an hour to meditate, I can direct her to your location to render aid in whatever way you see fit."
"That would be much appreciated. I don't think that Luminara would need too too much minding- she has some blaster wounds and isn't combat ready, but otherwise she's mostly intact and should be up and about soon-ish."
"Understood." Tholme paused. "Khaleen is doing fine, so you're aware. She's asleep, otherwise she'd be here on the call."
Quinlan nodded. "Thank you, both of you."
"Thank us by finishing the job," said Tholme gravely.
"Will do. Vos out."
The holoprojector winked out, leaving Quinlan with nothing to do but watch cheap holodramas and slice (which did, in fact, yield results) until Sha Koon arrived almost three hours later, letting herself in with a mental nudge and the sound of the deadbolt turning itself.
"Quinlan, I came as fast as I could," said the Kel Dor, robes grubby and stance haggard. "What do you need me to do?"
"You? Not much. I'll handle the Sith Lord, I just need you to keep an eye on Luminara, make sure she doesn't come to alone. She should be okay to take a turn around the apartment, if she feels the need, but don't let her do anything more physically demanding than that, and be careful with her psychically since I haven't had the chance to see her mental state before putting her into as good of a healing trance as I can."
"Wait, no, slow down. What's the situation?" asked Sha, running her hand over her head and grimacing. "I've been cut off from most things in the Undercity."
Quinlan sighed. "The Chancellor made a power grab and is consolidating his position, and sees the Jedi as a threat to it. Several councilmembers, including Windu and Kolar made a run at arresting him, from what I've managed to get out of the archives, but they ended up dead or missing because surprise surprise, he's a Sith Lord, and Skywalker led the 501st to sack the Temple, so there's only a couple of survivors there that we haven't managed to track down yet. Tholme is… trying to coordinate things, as the Master with the best organizational skills and experience with these kinds of situations, but he's got his hands full with other stuff, so I'm being cut loose to… rectify the problem, if I can."
"You're… what, being sent to assassinate a Sith Lord? How are you going to fare any better than the Council did?" she asked.
"Shadows approach this kind of thing differently than Councilors. They don't know the Dark Side like we do." Unbidden, memories of his time with Dooku bubbled up, and he shook himself to push them away. Now wasn't the time to be bogged down in the past.
Sha looked carefully at him, brushing up against his shields cautiously. "Are you sure? I could-"
Quinlan shook his head, raising his hand. "No, Knight Koon. I will face him alone. This is not your path."
Sha hissed a breath out through her mask, then nodded. "May the Force be with you, Master."
"Here's to hoping."
It was easier than Quinlan expected to get in to see the new Emperor.
Then again, he was used to the competency that Faie had been forced to develop to deal with him (at least, before something had reached into his head, pulled him out, and stuffed something else inside- no, not now), so even Fox's best couldn't have stopped him, not that it was Fox leading the Guard now.
"Emperor Palpatine," he said, voice measured and steady, "you are under arrest for treason, obstruction of justice, and resisting arrest."
"Oh?" he croaked in a voice like a frog being crushed in its favorite hiding spot by an excited toddler who hadn't noticed the poor creature, waving off the two guards whose force pikes fell to point at him, standing dead center in his office.
"We have more than enough proof of your collusion with Count Dooku, Chancellor." Quinlan's chapped lips peeled back into a smirk. "You really should have wiped your holocomm more often."
"No matter," snarled Palpatine. "A simple fix."
"So you admit it, then?" Quinlan resisted the urge to check that the holonet streaming apparatus connected to his shirt was operating correctly.
"Not that you will live to tell of it, Jedi," sneered the former Chancellor.
"Perhaps," said Quinlan. "I think you'll find that I'm full of tricks."
"Tricks are insufficient to destroy the Dark Lord of the Sith," cackled Palpatine, lightsaber hilt slipping from his sleeve and igniting with the tortured hum of bled kyber.
"Shows what you know," said Quinlan, his own blade humming to life as he interposed it between himself and the Sith Master.
There was no more time for words, after that- Palpatine screamed, darkness dripping down Quinlan's mental shields, trying to slow his actions, as the man himself lunged in, blade swinging down with the straightforward brutality of Juyo to try and cleave Quinlan from shoulder to hip.
The Jedi Master flicked his blade up to match the Sith's, guiding it off-course to scorch into the floor as Quinlan flipped forward, an Ataru slash deflected by a second blade the Emperor summoned from a statue across the office.
A sweeping Djem So offense from the Sith drove Quinlan back, forcing him to flip over the oversized desk. Palpatine gestured with one hand, sending the desk slamming forwards, but in an arc of green light, Quinlan cut it in half, and a burst of his own telekinesis sent the two massive wooden objects at the Sith, just offset enough to force him to handle them separately.
In the seconds that bought Quinlan, he flicked his wrist, flashbang dropping out of his sleeve, then swung his arm up, sending the grenade flying at Sidious' face.
Closing his eyes and covering his ears with the Force, Quinlan waited for the explosive to detonate, then drove forwards at Palpatine, Vaapad's unyielding offense forcing him back into Soresu momentarily, long enough for Quinlan to slip a cortosis-coated dagger out of his sleeve and flick it out at Palpatine's left eye. The blade missed its intended target as Palpatine dodged, but a mild push with the Force shorted out his left lightsaber, and in the heartbeats between the blade being thrown and Palpatine pivoting into a Makashi offense, Quinlan's lightsaber flicked out and stabbed through the emitter of the deactivated lightsaber, rendering it useless as it melted the internal components.
"Your arrogance will be your downfall," snarls Palpatine, driving forwards with his single remaining blade to try and separate Quinlan's hand from his arm.
"That's my line, I think," Quinlan riposted, combining a verbal return with a flow into a Soresu guard for long enough to stall Sidious' advance.
The Force Push Quinlan followed that up with separated the two combatants, and they circled each other cautiously.
The uneasy pause was broken by the cackling of Yoda, who had somehow walked into the office without either of them knowing. "Beat me to the punch you have, Master Vos."
"Fortune favors the bold and all that," Quinlan replied, relaxing slightly as his mental estimate of their odds ticked upwards- he'd worked with Yoda before, and they knew each other's ways of fighting well enough to slot in together- not as well as him and Aayla, or Yoda and any of his own apprentices, but well enough.
"One Jedi or two, it matters not- your lives are forfeit nonetheless," sneered Palpatine, raising both hands as he disengaged his blade and hurling lightning at both of them.
Yoda, being unprepared, was caught full-on with the attack and sent flying back into the wall. Quinlan, in contrast, caught the lightning on his blade, having fully expected a sudden attack, and returned it to Sidious in a maneuver he'd learned from watching Mace Windu on his occasional visits to Hurikane. "What makes you think that would work any better on me than it would on Windu?" he asked.
Palpatine snarled wordlessly at Quinlan, yellowed teeth glimmering in the last vanishing sparks of his own lightning, then lunged forwards again, blade reengaging inches from Quinlan's eye. Quinlan's own saber swept up and batted Sidious' away, leaving his ear uncomfortably warm but otherwise intact, and he aimed a kick at the man as he disengaged, forcing himself to leap away.
Yoda met Palpatine in midair, blade flashing as the undisputed master of Ataru engaged the Sith Lord and landed on the Supreme Chancellor's pedestal, starting it rising into the Senate chamber above.
Quinlan breathed in deeply, then leapt up onto the swiftly rising podium, blade already swinging forwards to try and disarm the Chancellor from behind.
Palpatine spun around, smashing his own blade into Quinlan's to deflect his attack and forcing him to step back or else take the swing on his chest.
Quinlan took another step back to allow Yoda more room to maneuver, but he nearly slipped on something. Looking down, he saw the knife he'd thrown earlier. Surprised, he flicked it up with his boot, catching it with his left hand for use later in the fight.
"At an end, your reign is," Yoda ground out, "and not short enough it was!"
"On the contrary, my little green friend," said Palpatine, teeth bared as he bore down on Yoda with Juyo's brutal drive. "My Empire is ascendant!"
Cloaking his intent, Quinlan stalked forwards as Palpatine's blade hammered down hard enough to send Yoda's lightsaber flying, green light winking out as it flew.
Palpatine cackled, raising his blade above his head with both hands. "The time of the Jedi is over! Your order is all but dead, and will be soon!"
"A foolish miscalculation," said Quinlan, dagger flashing forwards.
Palpatine was fast enough to avoid a cut from the blade, but not fast enough to prevent his own lightsaber from being deactivated by the cortosis.
Yoda's clawed, upraised hand moved, and instead of an attempt to catch the blade with tutaminis, his own lightsaber flew back into his hand and ignited, the hum of his kyber harmonizing with Quinlan's.
"This isn't over," snarled Sidious. "Lord Vader will see both of you dead!"
"The utmost faith in Master Kenobi, I have," said Yoda calmly.
"You're played out, Emperor," said Quinlan.
Palpatine's hands raised and his mouth opened, but before more than sparks could fly and before he could speak, both Jedi swung their blades, and the former Chancellor hit the ground in three smoking pieces.
Still tense for a moment, once it became clear that Palpatine wouldn't be getting back up, Quinlan sighed with relief. "That was certainly an adventure."
"Indeed." Yoda bowed his head. "Now, Master Vos. The holonet stream, you should stop, and to your friends, you should take me. A pressing need to comm senators with integrity we have, hrrm?"
Quinlan nodded wearily, then switched off the camera in his shirt. "Hopefully we can rope Sha and Luminara into doing the paperwork while Tholme and T'ra Saa find other Jedi who've gone to ground."
"The flimsiwork, your responsibility it is," said Yoda, chuckling at the expression of dismay on Quinlan's face. "Some benefits, my age does have, hrrm?"
"Obi-Wan! Quinlan!" said Chancellor Organa, teeth gleaming white and yellow alternatively in the lights of the various Senators' offices. "How have you been, my friends?"
"I've certainly been better," replied Obi-Wan, his normally-neat hair limp and unkempt. "Even if not for Order 66, the sheer flimsiwork alone would be enough to drown in."
Quinlan, thankful he'd managed to hand that particular headache over to Obi-Wan, nodded, as he had his own issues to deal with. "Be glad that's all you've got on your plate. I'm having a devil of a time working with what networks we have left to track down everyone who went to ground after the Order went out and hasn't resurfaced. The sooner I can get someone to take my place on the Council so I can focus on that, the better."
"Well, I have some news on that, from my end. We've managed to, ah, find a couple of Jedi leading slaves through the Freedom Trails, and the leader of these Jedi agreed to come to the Temple to make an attempt at rebuilding the Order."
"Oh? Which Jedi did you manage to pull out of the fire this time?" asked Obi-Wan, hand rising to stroke his chin as he visibly bent his mind to finding a place for whatever Jedi they were off of the limited information on offer.
"Two young Knights, named Tae Diath and Elora Sund. Knight Diath mentioned something about his uncle, as well, but I'm not sure, since I was under the impression that he was killed on a mission early in the war, before the GAR was really solidified in its command structure," said Bail, not noticing the haunted look in Obi-wan's eyes.
"Impossible," whispered Obi-Wan. "Tae Diath and Elora Sund both died on Jabiim, and I was present on the mission that claimed his uncle Nico Diath's life."
"The same one that killed Jon Antilles for the eighth time. Yeah, no, I read the mission report. Funny thing, I ran into Jon a couple months after you went to Queyta, running interference for a Diath in Hutt space so he could sneak a slave caravan out. He died there, too, not that it stopped me from meeting him last year. Death… it doesn't stick, not around Jon Antilles."
Quinlan turned back to the Chancellor. "Enough about us, how go the negotiations with the former Separatist worlds on reintegration?"
Bail grimaced. "Not well, I'm afraid. The Trade Federation, Banking Clans, and Techno Union are all being obstructionist, and while some systems are willing to cooperate, like Ryloth and Ruusan, too many are trying to hold out in solidarity with these groups."
Obi-Wan, recovered from the revelation that multiple Jedi he thought dead had in fact survived, reinserted himself into the conversation here. "I maintain that Commerce Guilds v. Orlen Mollo should not have been ruled to protect corporate statehood, at least not in the way that it has been interpreted in the last century."
"Preaching to the choir, my friend. Hopefully, we're able to push through a constitutional amendment before these corporate forces rejoin the Republic to try and avert the kind of political and economic issues that caused the war." The chancellor opened his mouth to continue, but one of his bracers buzzed, and as he looked down, he winced. "My apologies, Masters Jedi, but I have an appointment I can't afford to miss."
"By all means," said Obi-Wan, offering a bow to the Chancellor. "Convey our greetings to your wife and Senator Amidala, when you get the chance."
"Of course. May the Force be with you," Bail said before turning and striding away, just a hint of rush in his motions.
Once he was out of earshot, Obi-Wan turned to Quinlan. "Come on, we're going back to the Temple and you're not going to dump your flimsiwork on me this time."
"It was one time," whined Quinlan, taking a heavily effected childish tone.
"It most definitely was more!" came Obi-Wan's reply.
And that's that!
I know I said I'd probably have either Rouse the Stars or There Is No Death but I didn't get nearly as much writing time as I thought recently and this was already mostly written.
Speaking of which, the next few weeks look a little busier than I'd prefer, so I might end up having to push back my chapter of Incense by a week or two- I'll have it up eventually, but I haven't had nearly enough time of late to actually write it and I've got stuff on my plate to handle that I didn't quite see coming. We'll see how things work out.
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