- "Say rather, Darth Sidious, alone in all the galaxy, knew most intimately the dark springs that ran through creatures' hearts. He was an expert in personal disintegration - in the ways one came to betray oneself." - musings of Count Dooku, as quoted in Dark Rendezvous.

The night Before, Anakin rode the lift to the Chancellor's office to see Palpatine once more. He didn't tell Padmé, he didn't tell Sereine, he didn't tell anyone. He had constructed a new lightsaber, and he didn't believe Palpatine would attack him.

He wanted to be sure he was doing the right thing.

The old man looked up from his work without raising his head. "If it isn't the prodigal Sith," he said coolly. Then the harshness of Sidious grated against Anakin's ears: "What do you want?"

Anakin hid his hands in the sleeves of his old Jedi cloak. "I wanted to ask you a question."

An impatient sigh erupted from a face that looked the same as the day the war started. "Ask."

"That day in the subbasement. What you said to me, as we fought."

Palpatine raised his head. Two yellow eyes bored into Anakin's, glowing...waiting. "Yes?"

"Why were you saying all that? After all these years, you sounded like you wanted me to hate you. Like you wanted me to kill you!"

"Yes."

Anakin thought his ears might fall off.

"After twenty years of trying to take over the Republic, you wanted me to kill you in the basement? How are you supposed to kill all the Jedi if you're dead? Are you crazy? You're insane! For thirteen years you want me to care about you and now you want me to murder you?"

Palpatine sighed and ruffled his robes like an angry black bird. His glowing eyes snapped at Anakin. "Are you finished?"

"I don't think I'll ever be finished. This doesn't make any sense at all."

"I did what I did, and said what I said, young one, because it was necessary. Because hating me, and wanting to kill me, is the only path to true apprenticeship. It is the one way to tap deeply into the power of the dark side." Palpatine folded gnarled hands on his desk.

"Me killing you, and removing you from this life, is the true way to the dark side? But then you would be dead! How were you supposed to train me? And don't tell me you wanted to die!"

Anakin jumped up, flailing his hands, unable to contain himself. He saw the Master's mouth tighten and tried to calm himself. A phrase Sereine used came into his head.

"Chancellor, help me understand." It was his old name for Palpatine, before everything, and somehow it seemed to be the only thing to call him.

The old man eyed him grimly until he sat.

"Try not to be obtuse, Lord Vader. Not the fact of your actually killing me, but the fact that you wanted to - that is the true path."

Anakin tried to force himself to slow down and think. "But you didn't hate Plagueis. You didn't want to kill him."

The Master grinned an evil clawfish grin, showing teeth that had yellowed noticeably in the past two weeks. "Didn't I? Why do you think I killed the third Jedi, and didn't tell him?"

"But you loved Plagueis!" Anakin exploded again. "He was your grandfather! You felt sorrow at his passing! You can't convince me you didn't! It was in your eyes! It was in your voice!"

"A flaw common among Sith," Palpatine purred. "One I alone have overcome. Lord Vader..." The old man leaned forward. "I lied."

Anakin snorted. "Right. You don't care a thing about him at all. If he were standing here right now - you'd kill him again. Just annihilate him, not even take him to the Temple."

The silver eyebrows twitched. "Well - Lord Plagueis did have something I need. After he shared the secret of immortality - then I'd kill him again."

"What for? He'd never hurt you!"

"He tried to destroy our Order - as you have!" Palpatine half-rose, snarling across the desk. "He could not be trusted any more than you can!"

"But he saved your life! He saved your life, because he loved you! If that isn't trustworthiness, what is? He wasn't dark, and you're here. If that isn't good, what is?"

"Only good for me," said Sidious. "It wasn't good for Plagueis, was it?"

"Only because you were the one who couldn't be trusted!"

Sidious settled back, folding his hands. "Exactly," he said. "Always there is someone who cannot be trusted. Therefore, it is imperative to always be the stronger."

"But, Chancellor - " Anakin's eyes roved helplessly around the room, casting about for an idea - anything. "What do you think about people who are happy, and have family and friends? How is it possible that some people trust and like other people - and have a happy life, with twins and a beautiful wife?"

Two yellow eyes stared into his, unblinking. "They are fools."

"But a lot of people can be trusted, and that's why some people are happy - because they're willing to find out which ones can be trusted. You've just decided to eliminate the entire universe of sentient beings!"

"All of whom would kill me, if they knew what I was."

"Then stop being it!" Anakin jumped up again, unable to contain himself. "If you hurt people enough, don't you see that they've got to stop you?"

Palpatine's mouth twisted in bored impatience, and Anakin could see that he was losing. "Palpatine - you're breaking my heart. Can't you see that nobody can ever be happy this way? Not you, not anyone!"

"Power is happiness, young one. The only happiness there is. And you'll discover that I'm right by and by when your precious loved ones betray you."

"It's interesting," said Anakin icily, "that the only person to betray me at all - is you."

They stared at each other. Anakin's fists clenched, seemingly of their own accord.

And then Palpatine's eyes softened, and he spoke to Anakin in a dreamy whisper that stole into his very bones.

"Yes..." he said, his yellow eyes burning hotter. "I can feel your anger. It gives you focus...makes you stronger." His whisper caressed Anakin's ears, wrapped itself around his heart. "You feel the difference, don't you, young one? You want that power, don't you...? Why not? Why not allow me to show you what is really there for you? You've tasted it...allow it, Anakin. Taste it once more..."

The dark side swirled in the room, as strong as the night Palpatine had knighted him a Sith.

But Anakin knew now that he didn't want that power, and he knew why.

"There's no love in this, sir...no companionship. No comfort. No warmth. And that's not real happiness!"

Sidious growled from behind Palpatine's yellow eyes, rising and stalking to the window, his black velvet robes furling fitfully behind him. He turned. "Your 'real happiness' is weakness, boy! Weakness - and death."

Anakin stood up, holding out both hands. "Sir - people can be trusted! I can be trusted! I could have killed you - and I didn't! Sereine - Sereine can be trusted! She loves you!"

"Sereine!" spat the old man. "She knows everything about me now - and she's ruined me, exactly as I knew she would. She's ruined you. You simply do not yet realize it!"

"Ruined you?" shouted Anakin. "You lied to her, used her, cheated on her, abandoned her - and then you used everything she helped you attain to start a war! And you know what? Tomorrow, she's coming with me to help me save your life - again! And you're telling me you can't trust her!

"Palpatine, describe to me a person you could trust. A hypothetical person - describe this to me. I want to hear it!"

But the Sith's attention had pivoted on the word, "tomorrow."

"Where are you going, 'tomorrow?'" The yellow eyes narrowed.

Anakin paused.

"To make a believer out of you," he said, and turned and swept from the room.

Master Windu apparently hadn't been told yet, from the looks of him - and from the way he still followed his habit of naturally taking the lead.

"Anakin," he said. "We were pleased to hear of your wife's recent victory in the election."

"Thank you, Master." Anakin bowed. "We're still waiting for the results of the recount. It was a slim margin, but from what we hear so far that margin is actually widening, not narrowing."

"Pleased we are, to hear of this," said Master Yoda. "The best candidates, Senator Amidala and Senator Organa were."

Sereine, standing on Anakin's right, gave Yoda a small curtsy. "And we were most grateful for your help, Master Jedi."

"We've been given to understand," said Master Windu, "that the two of you were instrumental in discovering the identity of the Sith lord."

Anakin caught Sereine's eye, took a deep breath, and stepped to the center of the circle.

Mace Windu leaned over his armrest, dwarfing Master Yoda, who stared up at him on his left.

"And you knew this?" he rumbled. "You knew this for two weeks, while I was searching for Darth Sidious on the Outer Rim? Strange that the information that sent our team out there, all came from you."

"A difficult situation, this was," said Yoda, without even a twitch. "Certain of anything, we were not. Apologize for our actions, Master Kenobi and I do. But change them, we would not."

Windu's eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared. Anakin had never seen even the tiniest display of antipathy directed personally at Master Yoda until now - not in the confines of this room. His mind flipped back several months to his own display of temper in this chamber, and he managed to stop himself just before he cracked a smile.

This is an awful thing to think, he told himself. Stop it.

Still, one corner of his mind couldn't help but notice his harshest critic behaving, yes, worse than Anakin himself had, considering Master Windu's age and experience.

Across the room, Master Koon spoke. "As of tomorrow, after the swearing-in, Darth Sidious no longer has two armies and a prototype battlestation." He threw up his hands. "Spare him? Forgive him?" he sneered. "Punish him not? Assuming that Senator Amidala assumes power without incident - "

"She will." Anakin could not resist interrupting. "We expect an attack at Padmé's inauguration. We have a plan in place."

Plo Koon paused, with a pointed look at Anakin as if to say, Have you finished? Anakin stopped, and the masked alien continued.

"Assuming that Senator Amidala assumes control without incident, what possible reason could we have to do what the two of you are asking?"

Sereine walked forward, throwing her hands out in a theatrical gesture. "No reason," she said. "There's no more war. No more risk to yourselves. No more risk of mass genocide against the Jedi Order. You don't have reasons here, Masters. You do have opportunities."

She turned to take in the other side of the room. "You would have an opportunity to solve a one thousand year mystery. What makes people turn to the dark side in the first place? You would have the opportunity to establish whether one can ever be turned back. You could learn once and for all how to turn one back!" She made another quarter turn. "Because I promise you, if you can turn Lord Sidious, you can turn anyone!"

Nice thought, but something had been nagging Anakin ever since they had prepared for this discussion, rehearsing it with Finis and Padmé. Suddenly it hit him, and he stepped forward, caught Sereine's eye, and took the floor.

"There are reasons," he said, spreading his hands. "Because we're an enlightened people. Because we understand that people do what they do because they're hurting, they're afraid, they don't see any better way. Because they think they have to. And because we understand that they have souls, and they suffer the entire time they're doing evil.

"Because we're compassionate, and we don't want anyone to suffer. And we know that if Sith and people like them didn't suffer anymore - if they knew how to stop, they'd stop passing their suffering on to everyone around them. Because the Sith have so much to teach us, my masters, if only we would look and listen!"

Sereine made another quarter turn and took up where he left off, with remarks neither of them had rehearsed. "And because we know that these people have beauty in them, too. We do - we know the beauty in Palpatine. And if we could only set that free somehow, and he could live in it, what an incredible thing that could be. And we'd have learned how to work miracles.

"You can give up on Palpatine if you want to, High Masters, but Anakin and I know him. We aren't."

Jedi Master Windu looked at Sereine with eyes as hard as flint. "Lady Valorum. You're wearing a back brace, aren't you?"

"I am right now, yes." Anakin could hear the words, Oh, no, just beneath her tone.

"How did you hurt your back?"

She stared Windu down admirably. No one could have guessed that she was lying. "I - fell."

"I don't mean just now. I'm speaking of your original injury. How did that happen?"

Whew.

"We really don't know about that. I was in Finis's office, and I bent over to pick up a box of records from the floor, and the next thing I knew, I was on the floor."

"And when did this happen?"

Master Allie interrupted. "Master Windu, due to the length of this session - "

Windu raised his hand to her, in an arrogant manner, Anakin thought. "I know something of Lady Valorum's condition. I would finish this line of questioning."

Master Yoda blinked. "Lady Valorum."

"It was about the time..." Sereine paused to think. "Around the time we touched on earlier, when I became aware of - and misinterpreted - Senator Palpatine's prior activities."

"Did you confront him with what you had discovered?"

If we have to discuss that, we're sunk, Anakin thought. And, Is she really going to lie to Windu? We know what happened now.

To one who didn't know her, Sereine would have appeared calm and unruffled. Anakin could hear the note of false bravado in her voice. "Yes."

"Were you angry?"

"Of course."

"Was he angry?"

"Yes."

"So you were angry at one another. You suffered an unusual injury, didn't you?"

"Unusual?"

"You broke a spinal vertebra bending over to pick up a ten pound box. Isn't that unusual?"

"Well...I was told you can herniate a disk that way, but usually not break your back, no. I was born with a lot of congenital problems. The droids said I may have had a bone defect."

"But they never found any evidence of one, did they?"

"No."

Windu leaned forward. "Tell me, was Senator Palpatine anywhere in the office suite when this 'injury' occurred?"

Anakin felt an iron weight sink his stomach to the floor.

Sereine answered, "Yes."

"How did he behave, when you fell to the floor? Was he concerned, at all?"

"Well..." Anakin could hear her fumbling. "He called the medical team, I was told."

"But other than that?"

"I didn't really see him for a while after."

"Lady Valorum, we can never know if this is really true, unless someday he admits it, but - for the sake of argument, let's suppose. Let's just suppose that Darth Sidious saw an opportunity to exact revenge on you for what you'd just done. Let's suppose that he saw you bending to pick this up, and inflicted this injury on you. You were paralyzed for a while, weren't you?"

"Yes."

"And until you were treated downstairs by our healers, you were afflicted with constant pain."

"Yes."

"You lost over sixty pounds in barely half a year."

"Yes."

"So you suffered very badly, didn't you?"

"Yes, I did."

"Now, just imagine for a minute that I'm right, that he did this to you. How do you feel now about what you've just said? Do you still want to forgive him? How easy is it for you to pretend this didn't mean anything?"

Sereine, who had held her patience admirably, now began to show irritation. She sighed, balled her fists, and dropped them at her sides. Anakin saw them disappear into the folds of the royal blue gown she had chosen for this visit here.

"Did he tell you this, Master Windu?" she said smoothly. The insinuation was too obvious, Anakin thought. He was afraid it might backfire.

"No, he didn't tell me this. The person I want to tell me something is you. Suppose you had remained paralyzed? Suppose you had never walked again? Suppose it was his fault? Would you still be here today, asking what you're asking of us?"

She opened her mouth and Windu cut her off.

"No - before you answer this I want you to take a minute and really think. Really put yourself back there, in terrible pain, not even able to move. And then you multiply that by the millions who have suffered just as much at his hands."

He stopped speaking, and a silence filled the room. Anakin could hear his own heartbeat.

"Do you think you could sit here in a repulsorchair, and still say all you've just said?"

The silence weighed heavy as stone. Anakin did not dare look at her, in front of all those evaluating eyes.

At last Sereine spoke. "I hope that I would." She turned to include part of the circle to her right. "I don't know that I would."

"From my perspective today, that injury was a long time ago. And, although I can look back on the pain and inconvenience, and on the fear of what would become of me, from the vantage point of some fifteen years, I don't feel it the way I did then. And I know that has to influence my answer.

"If it had gone that way, I know that I would have a much tougher time coming before you today and wringing these words out of my mouth. But it didn't happen that way, and therefore it's easier for me to have the perspective that I'm telling you now I believe is right.

"But I think we should look at that more closely, because of what it implies. In considering it this way, aren't we really saying that the right way to approach wrongdoing depends upon its outcome? Which doesn't make sense to me, because the intent would have been the same.

"Let's say, for the sake of argument, that this did occur, and that this brace I'm wearing is Palpatine's doing, as you suggest. Whether he permanently maimed me or not, his intent would have been to do so, and the facts that I see now would still be true - that he did it out of wrong thinking, that he still has the gifts I perceive in him now, that he has the same potential as any of you, and that by exacting revenge, we lose that potential and further the cycle of evil. Uninjured, I can see that.

"If, in being permanently injured, I couldn't see that, what would have changed about him? About what he's done? Nothing.

"The determining factor is in me, and in how I'm reacting to what he's done. I would hope that I would have had the ability to see this, no matter what my physical condition - although I acknowledge that that might not have been the case. But if so, where would have been the greater weakness? It would have been in me. The weakness in him remains constant.

"And I'm still of the opinion that the correct thing is to reach out to it and help it."

Anakin had an idea, and could barely stop himself from grinning. Taking to heart all he had heard during Padmé's campaign about showing your heart when you speak, he let his voice soften, pleading and earnest, and he turned to make direct eye contact with as many masters as he could. He put his hands out toward them.

"Masters, it's the Jedi Code that she's talking about. And even though I wasn't thinking about it the day Sidious revealed himself to me, I still acted according to its precepts, and that's how I can be here today to ask that you do the same. Without the compassion that inspired our Code, I would have fallen, like Count Dooku! I would have been Count Dooku! And, I admit, I needed help to stay on the path.

"But I didn't fall. I am here. I am a Jedi - " he smiled at Obi-Wan. "Like my master before me."

He paused and turned again. "Either what we hold to be right, is right, for all beings, regardless of their understanding of the Force - or it's okay, sometimes, for us to be Sith. That means we don't quit just because someone is making it very hard for us to feel compassion."

After they had made their final bows and been escorted from the Council chamber, Sereine glanced anxiously up at Anakin.

"What do you think? Do you think we made any impression at all?"

"I don't know. I think it went as well as it could have, but that's about all I can say."

"You sounded great in there. I was really proud of you, Anakin."

An obviously angry Mace Windu glanced around the Council chamber, dark eyes snapping from one face to another.

"'Minimal restraint!' What are they thinking? 'Turn him to the light side of the Force!'" He rumbled like an earthquake. "If Anakin Skywalker can turn that Sith disease, I'll sponsor his name for Mastery myself!"

After a moment Master Kenobi spoke. "I'd sponsor him right now," he said.

He looked at Master Yoda, who nodded. "Not perhaps Mastery, this instant, but Knighthood, yes, Earned it, he has. Worthy of the title of Master, soon, he will be."

Ki Adi Mundi spoke in his cultured voice. "I may have a special dispensation to be married, but Anakin Skywalker does not."

Yoda shook his head gravely and tapped his stick. "See the problem, you do not. Foolish we were, to force the boy into hiding. Drive him away from us, we did, and therefore, crucial facts, we missed.

Obi-Wan sank down in his chair, one finger over his moustache, his blue eyes full of pain. "And he was right not to trust us," he said.

"That young Skywalker blundered into the right company, fortunate, we were. Wise and perceptive Chancellor Valorum and Senator Amidala have been, in their guidance of the boy. Our job, have they performed."

Obi-Wan blinked and bowed his blond head.

"Our job, must we resume. Our link with Sidious, Skywalker is. Trust us, he must. Even if, to achieve this, some rules, we must break."

Windu shot Yoda a look of almost pure hatred. "What is happening to the Jedi Order?" he demanded. "Allowing secular ties that distract Jedi knights from their duty? Lies and subterfuge, among members of the High Council? What is this? I demand further consideration of these matters!"

"Further consideration, there will be. Adjourn we will, and meditate on these facts we have learned. When no longer in power, Lord Sidious is, reconvene we will, and discuss the proper action to pursue."

"With respect, Master Yoda," broke in Master Kolar with a stiff nod. "Master Kenobi. Wise and respected though you are, you've still done something unprecedented in lying to this Council. Much as I regret it, I agree with Master Windu in this respect. How fit are the two of you to participate in the sort of momentous decisions this body must make, if you're capable of deliberately misleading the rest of us?"

"Masters, if I may speak?" Shaak Ti's voice shook. The apology was clear in her eyes as she looked at Master Yoda.

Everyone turned to look at her.

"Master Yoda...Master Kenobi," she said, looking to each being with a quick bow of her head. "Long have I held both of you in the greatest esteem. It has been an honor to serve with you on this Council. But - " here she almost lost her composure. She stopped, swallowed, and started again.

"If this involved any lesser Jedi, surely the issue of dismissal from the Council would be discussed. Even -" She stopped, blinked, and swallowed again. "Even a formal censure, even possible dismissal from the Jedi Order." She held up her hand, mutely pleading for patience.

"While I don't advocate going so far in this case, we all know that a formal hearing on this matter should be pursued."

Obi-Wan gave her a kind nod, as if to let her know that no offense was taken. He caught Yoda's eye. "I agree that we should be subject to a disciplinary hearing before this Council. But I don't wish to postpone a decision on Lord Sidious until our situation is resolved. I propose that Master Yoda and I, since we did discover this unprecedented state of affairs, be allowed to speak on the matter, but abstain from voting on this Council until such time as our case can be heard."

Yoda nodded. "Agree, I do...but one provision I have."

The others listened.

"Important is this matter of Lord Sidious. By all of us who qualify, this decision should be made. Meditate on this, we will, and until this decision we reach, speak of this to no one, we shall." He looked right at Master Windu. "And see or contact Lord Sidious, or confront him in any way, none of us may."

"Agreed," said several voices. Ten masters gave their assent with silent nods; Mace Windu sat as still as a statue.

Master Yoda, who usually dismissed meetings of the High Council, opened his mouth; then, remembering that he no longer held the authority, glanced at Master Windu.

"The results of the election recount are expected to be announced tonight, which means that Senator Amidala should be sworn in as Chancellor tomorrow," snapped Windu. "After that, Lord Sidious will no longer be in power. The day after the inauguration, we will reconvene in order to decide his fate."

He raised a disdainful eyebrow at Master Yoda. "Our hearing on the two of you will be scheduled at that time. May the Force be with us all."

As the twelve High Masters rose stiffly from their seats and filed from the room, Windu stopped Yoda with a look.

"I don't care what they decide. You and me have some talking to do."