Chapter 16 – The Jedi Rebellion

Bail Organa, Padme and his Jedi guests waited at the airlock while the Consular cruiser docked with the Tantive III, with Padme in front and Ahsoka standing just behind her and keeping an eye on her pregnant friend, who appeared not entirely steady on her feet. While she knew it was likely Padme's advanced stage of pregnancy, Ahsoka suspected that the bright lights and shockingly white walls of the ship's interior had something to do with it. How the Alderaanian crew avoided chronic headaches she could not understand. A sound of the scraping of metal against metal drew her attention away from her annoyance at the aggressive plainness of her surroundings. The ship had docked. When the door opened the darkness on the other side, which seemed deeper due to the whiteness of their ship, was for a second troubling. She had a vision, for the briefest of moments, of a terrible, towering figure in black waiting in that darkness.

But there was no terrible being entering the ship, just the sound of many tiny feet hitting the floors as the Jedi younglings rushed through the airlock toward the one face, green and wrinkled, that they all knew. Behind the children, moving more slowly, was the robed figure of Anakin Skywalker. His face seemed to Ahsoka grim and weary, like someone who had been awake for days and was intent on not giving into sleep anytime soon. The severe expression on his face softened only when his eyes hit upon Padme, but a quick look around the room then brought his guard back up. Ahsoka turned to her right and saw in Padme's face the counterpoint to her Master's. Ahsoka was not sure she had ever seen her friend's face so happy, or so proud. Padme rushed to Anakin, who brought her into his arms almost without thinking as her hands went up to his face. When he reached up, as if by habit, to push her hands away she whispered, "They know."

Ahsoka was not sure anyone else heard the exchange over the cacophony of the children's arrival. Seeing Yoda and Obi-Wan seemed to have been, for many of them, the confirmation that they would be alright. Their tension left them in the form of excited screams and shouts from some, and tears from others. Bail Organa seemed particularly overwhelmed by the noise, but to Yoda the sound was the greatest possible relief. Obi-Wan seemed at first not to know what to do as several children reached out to touch his robes to make sure he was real, but when he saw the fear melting from their eyes he looked up at his former Padawan with a sad smile. The two locked eyes and Obi-Wan gave the slightest of nods, one which Anakin returned, with a sad smile of his own. Padme, who was on the edge of tears, turned so that she stood at Anakin's side as Obi-Wan walked through the crowd of younglings towards him, no doubt thinking of the days when it had been Anakin running around with his Padawan braid. When the two met Obi-Wan held out his hand and Anakin took it before Obi-Wan brought his second hand down to wrap around Anakin's. There they stood silently, needing no words to share their feelings. Obi-Wan had told Anakin before that he was proud of the Jedi he had become, but it was in the halls of the Tantive III, surrounded by a gaggle of noisy children trying to yell their fears away, that Anakin truly felt the acceptance and appreciation that lay behind those words.

But Obi-Wan was not one to allow too much time to go by without a witty comment, and so said, "It turns out I did quite a good job training you, don't you think?"

Anakin chuckled and shook his head before locking eyes with Ahsoka. Obi-Wan stepped aside so Master and Padawan could speak.

"I was worried about you, Snips," Anakin said. "I was hoping you were still on Mandalore when this started, so you could get their help against the clones."

"No such luck Master, though I did get some help," she answered. She was about to explain about Rex and the droids in response to Anakin's puzzled look when Yoda started to speak.

"Senator Organa, have a place for these younglings do you? Rest they need, and deliberate the Council must."

"Well things will be a little tight, but I am sure we can find places for them. With your permission Master Skywalker," Bail said, turning to Anakin, "I would like to send some of my crew over to your ship to man it. We should have the two ships uncoupled in case Republic forces show up and we need to jump to lightspeed."

Anakin nodded and said, "Thank you Senator, for your assistance, with this and…other matters."

Bail nodded and then set about his work. He liked having discrete solvable problems that he could address in practical ways. Padme walked with the Jedi towards the conference room for a while before telling Anakin she needed to rest. He stopped walking and his face showed his worry clearly, leading her to say, "It's been a long day and I am far enough along that I shouldn't be pushing myself like this. It's going to be fine. They have a full medical facility on Pollis Massa if anything happens."

Anakin promised to come to her immediately after talking to Yoda and Obi-Wan and the two parted. By the time Anakin caught back up the others were in their seats. Yoda and Obi-Wan looked exhausted and saddened, the thrill of seeing the younglings safe having worn off. Ahsoka was looking around, clearly unsure whether she was really supposed to be here. Anakin knew that Yoda and Obi-Wan would want to talk about what happened on Coruscant and that such a conversation would immediately lead to questions about his relationship with Padme. To avoid that he started speaking before even taking his seat. "Have you heard from any other Jedi?"

"No, no word," Obi-Wan said.

"Perhaps they are simply hiding out, scared to make contact. None of the rest of them know about the Fulcrum channel," Anakin said.

"Survive some perhaps do," Yoda said slowly. "But not many. Felt them go I did. Passed into the Force they have."

No one responded to Yoda's announcement, because no one knew how to do so. Their thoughts all went to the friends they knew who they would likely never see again. For Obi-Wan and Ahsoka such thoughts were augmented by the first-hand knowledge of the sickening feeling of shock and betrayal when the clones you had served with, trained, saved and been saved by, turned on you.

It was finally Obi-Wan who broke the silence, asking Anakin, "And what of the Temple. We still don't have a great idea of what happened there. At least I don't. Any hope of survivors?"

"As you know, there weren't many Jedi left at the Temple. Most were on assignment with the clones. Master Windu gave everyone assignments, all of them designed to make it possible for me to get the younglings off of Coruscant. It was all about holding them off at chokepoints as long as possible, but by the time we got the hangar, there were clones everywhere. I was able, for a moment, to get a view of the entryway, where Mace and the strongest of the Jedi at the Temple made their stand. Master Windu was still fighting, but I think he was alone," Anakin said.

Yoda's body shook almost imperceptibly at this news. "Shared my burdens he did, as weakened with age I became."

"He will be remembered in the annals of the Order, an Order he, and you Anakin, saved today," Obi-Wan said. "Rescuing the younglings was nothing short of a miracle."

Anakin said a weak thank you, and seemed to Ahsoka about to say something more, but hesitated.

"So you arrested the Chancellor?" Ahsoka said. "That is what started this?"

"Yes," Anakin answered. "We brought him back to the Temple. Master Windu considered killing him after we incapacitated him. I talked him out of it. I think…"

Anakin trailed off but left little doubt in the minds of those listening that he was about to say he thought he made a mistake.

"Long planned this attack was. If kill him you did, no telling what would have happened," Yoda said.

"Quite so," Obi-Wan said. "But how did you come to arrest the Chancellor in the first place?"

"We became aware that he was the Sith Lord we had been looking for. Dooku's master," Anakin said.

"We guessed that much. But how did you find out?" Obi-Wan said.

Anakin weighed his answer carefully, but took so long that Yoda said, "Revealed himself to you he did?"

"Yes," Anakin said. "Not all at once, but over the course of weeks. Ever since you had me keeping an eye on him. He started dropping little hints, about…about what he could do for me."

"Like what?" Obi-Wan said.

"Advancement at first. I didn't do a very good job hiding my frustrations I suppose. With the Order I mean. But over time he changed focus to…"

"To Padme," Ahsoka said.

Anakin nodded. Obi-Wan and Yoda glanced apprehensively at one another but neither spoke.

"I had been having dreams, dreams that she would die. Like the dreams I had about my mother before she died. I told you about them Master Yoda," Anakin said. "Well Palpatine told me stories about Sith from the past who could use the Force to heal."

"A Sith? Healing? With the Dark Side?" Obi-Wan blurted out incredulously.

"Many secrets the Sith had. Stayed alive in the shadows a long time they did. Beyond our knowledge they likely progressed, in some areas," Yoda said.

"Anyway, he eventually just came out with it. Told me he could save her. Told me the Jedi were going to kill him and I needed to save him, or Padme would die," Anakin said.

"And then?" Yoda asked.

"I returned to the Temple, told Master Windu that Palpatine was the Sith Lord. I…I didn't tell him how I knew, but he was ready to believe. He told me to wait for him and the Council to return after they confronted the Chancellor," Anakin said.

"But you said, 'we brought him back to the Temple'," Obi-Wan said. "How did you come to be involved in his arrest?"

"I went to the Council room to wait, and I felt…doubts. Fears. Fears for Padme, for her…for our child," Anakin said, looking Obi-Wan right in the eye as he did so. To admit what had been hidden so long, even in the context of that eventful day, was a difficult thing.

"Leave because of your fears did you?" Yoda asked.

"No. I think I was heading that way. My thoughts were moving quickly. Too quickly. I wasn't seeing things clearly. But then I heard a voice," Anakin said.

"A voice? Whose voice?" Obi-Wan asked.

"I don't know. I didn't recognize it. A woman's voice. It felt familiar somehow but I couldn't place it. It wasn't Padme's voice; it wasn't my mother's. It certainly wasn't yours Snips," Anakin said with a slight smile. "But it pointed me in the right direction. Made me think of all he had done, all the lies he had told. And then I realized that I had to disobey Master Windu's orders, not to help the Chancellor, but to help the Council. By the time I arrived Palpatine had already killed the others. Only Master Windu remained. He and I were able to subdue Palpatine and bring him to the Temple."

"This voice, heard it since have you?" Yoda asked.

"Yes, once. After we arrived at the Temple, Mace and I were talking. She told me that clones were Palpatine's. And…," Anakin cocked his head to the side as he tried to remember.

"And what?" Ahoska said as a slight swoosh of air signaled the door to the conference room opening. Anakin was so focused on telling his story that he failed to notice it.

"The voice told me to remember Fives," Anakin said.

"Fives?" came Rex's voice from the doorway. Had Anakin given Rex time to react to his attack, there would still have been nothing the clone could have done. Anakin shot up from his chair and reached a hand out. Rex was lifted from his feet and thrown against the wall behind him. He lifted his hands to his throat as though trying to remove something from around it, but his fingers found nothing there but his own neck.

"Anakin stop!" Ahsoka shouted, but Anakin did not listen. It was not even clear he heard. It took Obi-Wan and Yoda pushing Anakin back for him to stop choking Rex, who fell to the floor sucking in air as he struggled to regain his breath.

"What is a clone doing here?" Anakin yelled as Ahsoka ran over to make sure Rex was alright.

"If you had let me tell you how I got here you would know!" Ahsoka yelled back while kneeling over the clone.

Ahsoka tended to Rex as Obi-Wan quickly explained to Anakin how she had gotten off her ship. When Rex was standing Anakin said, "I'm sorry Rex. It's been a long day and forgive me, but everyone else with your armor and your voice has been trying to kill me recently."

"You said 'Fives'," Rex said haltingly, his voice hoarse.

"Yes, a voice in my mind. I don't know where it came from. But it warned me, told me to be suspicious of the clones," Anakin said.

"And did you do anything with the warning?" Rex asked.

"Yes, I suppose. We weren't taken by surprise. Master Windu had time to plan the defense. It was only a few minutes extra time, but you know battle Rex," Anakin answered.

"Sometimes a few minutes of planning can make all the difference," Rex said grimly. He turned to look at Ahsoka and said, "So…he didn't die for nothing. It's not just me. All the Jedi who made it out of the Temple. Fives saved them all?"

"Yes, he did," Ahsoka said, squeezing Rex's hand reassuringly. A tear began to form in the clone's eye before he shook his head roughly.

"I, um, came to tell you all that they announced Palpatine is making a declaration to the Senate in a few moments. It's being broadcast across the galaxy," Rex said.

All of them returned to their seats at the table, now joined by Rex. Anakin thought about letting Padme know, but decided it was more important she rest. Obi-Wan turned the holographic display on and a countdown message popped up showing only minutes remaining. No one spoke as they waited, the quiet broken only by Bail Organa entering the conference room and taking his place with Rex, standing behind the seated Jedi.

When the countdown reached zero the message was replaced with the image of Palpatine's office. In the place of the shattered window a temporary translucent plasteel barrier had been erected, but otherwise the office looked exactly as it had when Anakin and Mace had left it, carrying the Chancellor's unconscious body with them. Palpatine now sat at his desk wearing the familiar robes of the Chancellor. Bruises could be easily seen on his face, and while Anakin knew they were real he was also quite sure they had been enhanced with makeup to stand out more clearly.

"Fellow citizens," he began. "I speak to you now from my office in the Senate Hall, a building that has long stood as a monument to freedom, to democracy, with the signs of an attempt to end that democracy quite evident. Yesterday evening, shortly after I received word that the Grand Army of the Republic had found, engaged and defeated General Grievous and his army, all the members of the Jedi Council who were still on Coruscant broke into the Senate building and abducted me. I was taken, unconscious, to the Jedi Temple here on Coruscant. Through the gallant sacrifice of the Republic troopers stationed here at the capitol after the last attempt to abduct me, I was rescued, though at a great cost to our soldiers."

The image cut to video of the aftermath of the battle at the Temple, where the bodies of clone troopers could be seen everywhere. Most showed signs of having been killed by Jedi, their bodies separated from their limbs, their bodies cut in two, their heads taken off. In some places their bodies seemed to have piled up as they died. Ahsoka turned away from the carnage and looked at Rex, who stared at the hologram without blinking.

Palpatine's speech began again, speaking over the images of from the Temple. "Why the Jedi did this was, at that time, a mystery to me. But after my rescue and the flight of the remaining Jedi from Coruscant, Republic forces were left in control of their Temple, including their archives." The projector showed clones walking through the Jedi Archives, clones at the terminals, and clones connecting cables to the main data storage units.

The imagine came back to Palpatine's face. "What I tell you now will come as a shock to you, I am sure. It came as a terrible surprise to me when I was informed only a few hours ago. What we found in the Jedi Archives was evidence of a plot so sinister, and so foul that it nearly defies belief. But the evidence is incontrovertible. The evidence, which I will be making available to the Senate when it comes back into session later today, shows that it was the Jedi who were behind the Clone Wars. It shows that more than a decade before the war began, it was a Jedi Master, called Sifo-Dyas, who commissioned the creation of the Clone army. What reason could there be for such a decision? What reason is there for an army, other than to fight a war? But of course there was no war at that time. This was before even the events on my home planet of Naboo which set in motion the processes which led to the formation of the Separatists."

"It is clear now that the Jedi intended to create the war. The Jedi arrange for the creation of an army. Later the Jedi send representatives to Naboo for what they claim will be a negotiation, but which quickly turns into an attack by the Jedi on the Trade Federation ship. This in turn frightens the Neimoidians into launching an invasion. This invasion, with its terrible cost in lives on Naboo, provides the Jedi an excuse to deepen their involvement. They claim to encounter a Sith Lord there, but almost no one sees this figure other than the Jedi and they claim to be the only ones able to tell the difference between the Sith and themselves. After this so called Sith Lord is dispatched, the Jedi immediately begin what they claim is their search for another Sith Lord, the master of the one they claim to have killed. And it turned out that this secret Sith Lord was none other than a man who was a member of the Jedi Order up until the Naboo crisis, Count Dooku. It was Count Dooku who convinced the Separatist alliance to secede from the Republic, and to build up their droid armies, thus creating the need for the clone army the Jedi had already arranged to be created."

"Behind every step towards war, the Jedi can be found. At every turn you find a Jedi escalating a crisis. And then the war comes, and what do we find? Jedi in positions of authority all over the galaxy. Jedi leading the army they created, in the war they arranged, holding dictatorial power over almost every planet in the Republic. A Republic that is increasingly so in name only. It is my great shame that every expansion of government power which I sought to defend the people of this Republic from its enemies was actually being used by the Jedi to destroy that Republic's liberty. For the Jedi do not love liberty. They are a religious order in which all power is held by the Masters of the Jedi Council. In their world children are stolen from their families, indoctrinated to serve without question, made to devote their whole lives to their leaders. Imagine the contempt they must have for the rest of us, for our loving homes, our everyday concerns, our voting for leaders, our diversity of opinion. And up until very recently they had most of the Republic under their control. They were slowly changing us to become something else, a galaxy divided up into petty little Kingdoms, and ruling each Kingdom a Jedi General. The greatest of whom was, of course, Count Dooku himself."

"For years they kept the war going, so that their authority could continue, so that we would all become used to Jedi, surrounded by soldiers, telling us what to do, where we could go, who we could speak to. Have you never wondered how it was that a single Jedi was able to elude all the rest for so long? How Count Dooku was able always to slip through their fingers? Because every time they met, every supposed battle between them, was actually nothing but a meeting between allies. But even they, with all their supposed power, were capable of mistakes. More and more systems were rejecting Separatist rule. The mighty army the Jedi created was too strong, and the war was ending sooner than they wanted. So they launched their attack on Coruscant, hoping by kidnapping me to force concessions from the Republic that would allow the war to continue. And then, when that attack failed, they tried again, this time not bothering to act through Count Dooku, but doing it themselves."

"But now, citizens of the Republic, we see their true face. We know who our enemy is. We know who it is that threatens our liberty. In the days to come I will submit for the Senate's consideration a set of measures designed to give us the ability to fight the Jedi threat. While many of them were, once their treachery was uncovered, dealt with by the soldiers of the Republic, and while a small handful, unaware of the schemes of the Jedi Council, have turned themselves in and volunteered to join the Republic's forces against their former masters, we should not underestimate the difficulty of what we must now do, which is crush this Jedi Rebellion. The Jedi can blend in anywhere, have secret facilities they have been building all over the galaxy for thousands of years, and of course the mysteries kept secret by their Order. Who knows what other plots they put into motion to destroy our democracy? Perhaps new armies of their creation await us in the future. It will take all our strength, all our vigilance, to counter this now exposed threat. I know I can count on all of you to do your part to save our society from this menace in the shadows. I know that I can call on all of you to work, to sacrifice, to save our future and our sacred liberty. Long live the Republic and long live its people!"

When Palpatine's triumphant face was replaced by another message about the program to follow, Obi-Wan flicked the holoprojector off. Silence reigned for several minutes afterward, as each considered what they had heard.

It was Obi-Wan who eventually brought an end to the contemplation, saying, "He means to hunt us."

"No," Organa said. "He means the whole galaxy to hunt you. He is going to use you to extend the apparatus of the security state. They have been making gestures in that direction for months. The threat of a Jedi rebellion will convince enough Senators to go along with a rapid escalation of those policies. Even the people who don't really believe him are going to want the Jedi found, if only because they think it will mean the lifting of the controls and restrictions he is about to put in place."

"Controls and restrictions that to stay in power he will use," Yoda said with a nod in Bail's direction.

"Then we must attack him now, eliminate this threat while we still can," Obi-Wan said. He turned to Anakin and asked, "You and Master Windu were able to defeat him?"

Anakin nodded and Obi-Wan turned back to Yoda, saying, "The four of us will certainly be able to do it then."

"He will be surrounded by clone troopers now," Rex pointed out. "After a close call like that, do you really think he is ever going to present himself as a potential target again?"

"And if fail to defeat him we do, who will train the younglings?" Yoda said.

"We can't let him get away with these…these lies!" Obi-Wan shouted. "Everything he is saying about us, that was him! Do we give in to this?"

Yoda, seeming troubled, looked at Anakin and said, "Master Skywalker, a member of the Council you are, a position you must take."

Ahsoka looked bewildered at this talk of the Council, unable to comprehend why, with seemingly only four of them left, they would hold on to such practices.

"I was only ever on the Council by the will of our enemy, and I am no Master," Anakin said guardedly.

"A Master you are, if rejoined the Order young Ahsoka rejoined has. A Padawan she is no longer, and if a Jedi Knight she has become, a Master you must be," Yoda said.

"And yes Palpatine may have wanted you on the Council as part of his attempt to bring you to his side, but that failed," Obi-Wan said.

"I have violated the Jedi Code," Anakin said.

Yoda sighed, "You have. But those rules, designed to protect the Jedi from temptation they were. If resisted the temptation you did, while such attachments you have, their protection you do not need."

"Rules have their purposes, but there is usually more than one way to achieve a goal. You took a great risk, but you have achieved more than any of us could have hoped for. Now is not the time to turn our backs on each other. We need you Anakin," Obi-Wan said.

Anakin absorbed what they said and then turned to look at Ahsoka. "What do you think Snips? Do you want to be a Jedi again? Be a Knight?" Implicit in his explicit question were other implicit ones, whether she thought he still deserved to be a Jedi, whether she thought he should take part in this or whether the two of them should go it alone. Ahsoka looked at Obi-Wan and Yoda and was struck by how tired they both looked, how much older Obi-Wan seemed than he had even a few days before. She did not want to imagine them trying to carry the Order forward on their own. Yoda especially had seen too much, been through too much, to make him rebuild the Jedi from scratch. For the first time in her life she no longer felt herself looking up at Jedi like Obi-Wan and Yoda like demigods, but as people to be helped, to be cared for, to be protected. And when she looked at Anakin she saw something, an edge to him, a hardness. The uncertainty that she had seen so often in his eyes seemed to be gone. He wore now the face she had only ever seen when the two of them were in battle together, in battle when he had no questions, no defensiveness, no bristling pride. She saw his strength, focused and sharpened by the events of the past few days, and she knew that Obi-Wan and Yoda would need it. The younglings he had saved would need it. And so she said, "They need us. The galaxy needs us."

Anakin smiled softly and somewhat sadly. He thought for a moment and then said, "We have suffered a defeat. We need to fall back and regroup. We cannot let him win, but our best chance to defeat him is to rebuild our strength, to train the next generation and to protect them while we do. If we see an opportunity come up to strike him down, we take it. But we cannot risk everyone here to do that."

"So…what? We run?" Obi-Wan said.

"Return to the Senate you must, Senator Organa, before noticed your absence is," Yoda said.

"Agreed," Anakin said. "We need your eyes and ears in the Senate, and as close to Palpatine as you can get without him figuring out the truth about who you are."

"What about Padme?" Bail asked.

Obi-Wan opened his mouth to speak but Anakin cut him off. "She must never again be in his clutches. She cannot go back. He knows about us, and he has already tried to kill her more than once."

"We will need a new ship," Ahsoka said. "Republic intelligence is sure to have noticed you made off with that one."

"We will need several new ships," Anakin said, with a hint of threat. Ahsoka could tell a plan was already forming in his mind. "But Master Yoda is right, Senator Organa needs to return with this one quickly."

Just then a crewman rushed in to the conference room. He addressed himself to Senator Organa and said, "Senator, your guest, the Senator from Naboo…,"

"What is it?" Anakin shouted while standing up from his seat so quickly that his chair tipped over behind him and clattered on the floor.

The crewman took an involuntary step backwards but then composed himself and said, "She said she needs to get down to the surface, to the medical facility. She said her babies are coming."

"Babies?" Anakin cried out, shocked at the pluralization.