Agony in the Force AKA What if Anakin was betrayed and killed during the Clone Wars?
Padme placed a hand on the railing to steady herself and made an effort to not look directly down.
She didn't have an issue with heights, but lately, her stomach had been less settled than normal. She was beginning to suspect that was more than just the jitters of being a wife to a warrior often away, fighting in a war. She smiled uncertainly, planning to have a certain test done to confirm the suspicion. If her guess was true, well, things were going to get much more complicated for her and Anakin.
The idea of a child was wonderful, considering the reality was unnerving.
How would their lives change? Anakin might lose his entire life and home. And her, a senator married to a Jedi? There was a scandal there. She might have to step down as senator. Then again, maybe not? They had always worried it would destroy their lives; their secret love, their hidden marriage.
If the fallout wasn't that bad, she still might have to step down. She had no idea what motherhood would do to her. But perhaps something quiet and domestic was what she and Anakin needed after...everything that happened in their lives.
She shivered, another feeling of dread going through her as she looked towards the Jedi Temple. It wasn't the same sickness, this one she knew more intimately.
This was the dread of fearing her love might be dead. It was a constant thing she lived with sometimes. Even when she knew, life right now, that he was in the temple and safe, she couldn't shake the feeling. She took comfort in knowing it was illogical.
After all, where was Anakin safer than in the temple?
Meanwhile
"Worried for young Skywalker, you are," Yoda observed with a knowing yet sympathetic look.
Obi-Wan smiled tightly as they walked through the temple, basking in the familiar presence of it, the innate feeling of home and safety it gave to them all. "The war weighs heavy on us all. But Anakin always felt a sense of guilt about it. He blames himself somewhat, thinking that he should have done more to stop or slow Dooku on Geonosis."
"A great but troubled Jedi you have trained, my friend," Yoda assured, and they both knew that Yoda understood that sentiment intimately. "Prevent things before they occur, is what all wish. There was no shame in his defeat, when so well he performed against a superior opponent."
"Tell that to the dead troopers," Obi-Wan said wryly, glancing down to the ancient master who raised a brow and ear at his oddly harsh words. "He said that to me on one of his worst moments. You know how he feels about the Clones."
Yoda nodded thoughtfully. Anakin feeling a sense of kinship to the Clones was an unspoken but well-known secret among much of the Order. There were ew Jedi closer to their legions than Anakin was to his, the 501st. These thoughts lurked in the Grandmaster's head and Yoda deduced much of the same strands twirled in Obi-Wan's own mind. "Care strongly and greatly, for those he values, Skywalker always has," Yoda mused, both praising and warry of that fact.
Obi-Wan nodded. "Yes, he...Anakin..."
Yoda looked at Obi-Wan, his face lost in a strange expression. "Sense something, you do?" Yoda asked, ears raised in alarm.
"It's Anakin. He's...something is wrong, he's..." Obi-Wan started to look scared, frantic even as his breath hitched. "I need to go, he's-"
Yoda felt the Force go silent for a moment, and he dropped his cane in shock. The wooden staff echoed ominously in his ancient ears as he stumbled with a stunned look on his.
The Force Flashed with Shock, Disbelief, Fear, Pain, and finally...
Obi-Wan ran, as fast as the Force would carry him. Yoda watched him go, numbly aware of all the Jedi who were looking surprised. Not at Obi-Wan's sudden sprint, but at the startling feeling in the force. But Yoda was acutely aware of one thing.
Obi-Wan arrived too late.
He rushed into the meeting room. Not the Council room, but one of the rooms for planning wars and coordinating movements for the war. There was nothing living in the room.
Nothing living.
There splayed on the floor was Anakin.
Obi-Wan felt as though his spirit had become one with the Force and his body was just moving on instinct now. Because he was seeing the scene before him with more clarity than he ever had anything else. It was something that would be burned into his mind for the rest of his life.
He knelt by his side and cupped Anakin's cheek. His skin was still warm. His face was still caught in the last expression he made, a look of utter betrayal. His blue eyes angrily asked, Why?
And if nothing else, Obi-wan wished that had been here with Anakin in this last moment and not whoever did this.
His eyes trailed down. There was no blood, but that was to be expected. all the wounds were cauterized. Because why wouldn't they be?
Obi-Wan's hand subconsciously went down to take Anakin's hand, feeling one of the wounds on the arm.
Lightsaber wounds. Anakin had been stabbed to death by a lightsaber. Most of them weren't slashes, and none of those were to the point of dismemberment. The majority were stabbed. The chest, the stomach, a couple on the limbs, and one in the throat. Anakin's own lightsaber rested just out of the reach of his other hand, where it had tolled out upon Anakin's grip failing him.
"Anakin," Obi-Wan breathed, his voice shuddering and...when had he started crying? He didn't remember, everything was a blur.
Anakin had been killed in the Jedi Temple and they had no warning, no sign of danger.
Anakin had been murdered in his own home, far from any battlefield.
Anakin had been butchered like an animal.
'They took him from you.'
He heard it. He heard it many times before, but he couldn't try, couldn't even think to push it away.
'They took your padawan, your brother, your student.'
He nearly gave it after Qui-Gon died. It had called to him all throughout this war.
'They Took Your Boy.'
The Dark Side was hardest to ignore, to deny, when it was correct.
"Anakin," Obi-Wan whispered a sob. "Who did this to you?"
And that question alone might be what kept him from embracing it now.
"Master...master Kenobi!? What's happened? Who did this?!"
Someone was yelling. He didn't know who. He didn't see faces when he looked. All he saw was...a question.
Did you kill him?
His stare might have been a glare, because he saw these Jedi, these suspected killers, back away in fright.
"Master...Kenobi?"
He didn't answer. Because if he did, he might scream. He might accuse them, any of them, all of them. He might do something terrible.
His breath hitched in his throat as he felt a twitch in his hand. "Anakin...?!" he asked in shock and hope.
But his hopes were dashed, Anakin still lay lifeless before him. Only too late did Obi-Wan realize the hand he took hold of was Anakin's mechanical prosthetic, not his flesh and blood. The machine was simply malfunctioning, from the damage done to itself or to...to Anakin.
It might have been funny in another situation. And he almost laughed anyway as his head spun and his world seemed to crumble.
With a heart heavy with grief, Obi-Wan began to sob. It felt as if the Light of the Force was weeping alongside him, for it held no comfort or relief for him, save to be a companion in mutual grieving.
He clung onto Anakin's robs, as if he held onto him tight enough, it might bring him back.
Meanwhile
Palpatine reached to his chest in shock, eyes wide and flashing yellow as he felt his body tense and the Dark Side itself seemed to be roaring in rage.
"Chancellor?" Amedda asked in surprise.
"Out. Now," Sidious demanded because it was definitely not Palpatine that spoke.
Amedda obeyed in respect and fear, but concern as well. Not for the man he served, no, but for whatever might have caused a reaction like that. Someone, many someones perhaps, would be dead or worse.
With the Chagrian gone and the office secure, Sidious rubbed a hand over his face. If he didn't take a moment, he might destroy his entire office right now. He was a breath away from killing Amedda just for speaking.
But what he sensed, it was unfathomable. Even the Force itself seemed to rebel against it. But there was no denying what he felt.
Anakin Skywalker. The so-called Chosen One of the Jedi Prophecy, the Hero of No Fear, and one to potentially be the Greatest Sith Lord to ever grace the galaxy. And he was dead.
Sidious was not stupid, or idealistic. He knew that Skywalker could easily die in this war. And he was prepared for that loss, to settle for an inferior apprentice if it came to that.
But not this, no, he could not have foreseen, could not have imagined this. Anakin Skywalker was slain in the Jedi Temple. He felt it. And he would know if any other Dark Siders had infiltrated this planet and that temple. It could have been a bounty hunter, but surely not? No bounty hunter would be able to hide their intentions so cleanly as to infiltrate the Jedi Temple. Let alone on Anakin himself.
He found his desk and the various items on it shaking with his rage.
Something had happened, something he needed to discover. Pragmatically, this was important to his plans. Anakin's death would need to be addressed as the Chancellor and he might have to have Dooku take credit for it.
But more than that, personally, he wanted to know. He needed to know. He must know. Who was it, that robbed him of his perfect apprentice, the final flourish of his masterplan!? Who robbed him of that boy, before his potential was truly awakened?! Who-?!
Sidious stopped cold in his thoughts. It couldn't possibly be that, could it? No, but it made sense. More sense than anything else. After all, what did Skywalker broadcast in his last moments of life? Shock, Pain, Anger, and...Betrayal.
An enemy can't betray you. So he wasn't slain by an enemy.
Anakin was betrayed in the Jedi Temple.
Sometimes, the easiest answer was the right one.
Anakin had been slain by his fellow Jedi.
Sidious balled a fish and something broke in the room. He didn't know what, and he didn't care to look.
If he was mistaken, something interesting was at play, something that needed his attention. But if he was right? If Skywalker had been betrayed, and slain by another Jedi?
He would have a very, very long "talk" with the guilty parties.
For now, he had to wait and plan, to prepare himself.
It was well known that Anakin Skywalker and the Chancellor had a close friendship. He had to craft his response perfectly, he had to temper his rage and mix it well with shock and sorrow.
Most of all, he had to be very aware and at his best when it was time to speak with the Jedi about this tragedy. He had to observe and figure out how the Jedi would react to this.
There was an opportunity here, a marvelous one, he knew that intellectually. He just had to bind the furious storm within him, so that he might see it through the clouds of rage and hate to actually grasp and act on it.
But deep in his vile heart, Sidious swore the darkest revenge in the name of Anakin Skywalker, and the Dark Side growled in support of this.
Meanwhile
Across the vastness of space, a Torgunta suddenly fell to her knees.
She couldn't hear anyone or anything around her, couldn't truly see any of them.
All she sensed, all she knew was pain, loss, and sorrow.
"Master," she whispered, her body trembling as tears began to form in her eyes. "No."
Even after leaving the temple, and leaving the order, her bond to him had always been present. And she felt the bright, horrible flash from it before...
Nothing. Emptiness. Death.
He was dead.
Her master, the only one in the order that had truly fought for her.
He was dead.
Her master, the hero with no fear.
He was dead.
It was not only her that felt this wound, she knew. She could feel it in the Froce itself, a deep, horrid grief and sorrow.
She heard the stories, about how Anakin had no father, sired by the force itself. Anakin was never sure of that.
But as Ashoka peered into the aching grief of the Force, she believed it now.
The Force mourned its own child, betrayed and butchered.
Ashoka felt her fists curl, and she was sure the Force looked upon her.
At that moment, Ashoka knew the Jedi were wrong.
Fear didn't lead her to Anger.
Sorrow did.
End of Chapter
First in a series of Star Wars oneshots, hope you enjoyed it. Was going to call this Ides of March, but thought I should save that for another oneshot. So, yeah, idea here is that some of the Jedi Order killed Anakin. Who and why, nobody knows. But, well... Cruella said it best; "denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance...But I'd like to add one more: Revenge."
Anyway, if I make this into a fic, it'll get really dark in some ways. You have a very dangerous scenerio where Palpatine, Obi-Wan, Padme, Ahsoka, and more will all get on the same page; find and punish whoever killed Anakin. That is a DANGEROUS list of enemies to make, no matter who you are in the Order. Not to mention the PR nightmare this would be for the JEdi, the public already have less than stellar opinions of them.
Anyway, hope you all enjoyed tihs. Oh, and happy Thanksgiving!