Chapter 14 – The Temple Siege

"He will be secure here. This cell was designed to hold the strongest of fallen Jedi. Dooku would have been brought here, had he lived," a Jedi Master of the Medical corps told Anakin and Mace. In front of the three of them Palpatine floated in a tank filled with liquid. Normally that liquid would be bacta, but in this tank a special fluid, developed by the Jedi centuries beforehand to keep occupants in a state of deep unconsciousness, surrounded the Chancellor.

"This Sith Lord is more powerful than any we have faced for thousands of years," Windu said. "We must be cautious while we figure out what to do with him."

"Even if he somehow were awakened, the side of effects of the serum in the fluid would make it impossible for him to make full use of his powers for some time after. This formula has been tested multiple times," she said testily.

"Very well. Keep him asleep until we can recall the surviving members of the Council. Then we can decide what to do with him," Windu said. As he turned to leave Anakin was left unsure what he was to do.

"Come Master Skywalker, we have much to discuss. Let us speak in the Council Chamber," Mace said without turning around.

Irked somewhat at being given an order Anakin turned to leave with one last look at the Chancellor, floating in his glass prison, a breathing mask covering most of his face. He looked so weak that way, without his robes of office, in the cold light of the medical bay. He had tried to manipulate Anakin, of that Anakin was now sure. The flight back to the Temple had given him time to think. The voice in his head, whatever it was and wherever it came from, had spoken the truth. If Palpatine was the Sith Lord behind the war, that meant he had sent Maul to kill Padme, and then Jango Fett years later. But for all that he might be the only chance of saving her. That is, he was the chance to save her if he was not lying to Anakin. He had nothing to go on but the word of someone who had lied to everyone, including to him for his entire life. But at least he was alive. If he knew something there was still a way to find it out. He followed Master Windu to the elevator, still thinking of how he could find time to be alone with a conscious Palpatine. If he could find a way to do it, he knew he was capable of doing what was necessary. The Jedi did not approve of torturing their prisoners, but they didn't approve of being with those you loved either, so what did one more sin matter?

When the doors to the elevator closed Windu, while staring at the door, asked, "Why did not you not stay in the Council chambers, as I commanded?"

Anakin bristled at the lack of gratitude for having saved Windu's life, but did his best to keep his voice even as he said, "I felt something was amiss."

"You felt something was amiss with what?" Windu asked.

"With your arrest of the Chancellor," Anakin said, feeling somewhat confused with the question.

"Did you feel that something was wrong with the fact we were going to arrest him, or that something was going to go wrong with the arrest?" Windu asked.

Anakin shook his head, weary of Windu's suspicions. "Both," he said.

"Explain," Windu said with a surprisingly even tone.

"I won't pretend I wasn't conflicted about what was happening. The Chancellor was my friend. I thought he was anyway. And when you told me to stay behind…I mean, I know you don't trust me. But you need to understand that trust goes both ways. What would you have done if you could have defeated him without me?" Anakin said. "But I also had a…a feeling that something terrible was about to happen."

"This feeling, tell me about it," Windu said as the doors opened and they walked towards the Council Chamber. Unexpectedly Mace turned towards the exit unto the balcony, and Anakin followed.

"I heard a voice. I don't know whose it was, or where it came from, but it said I needed to go help. It felt true. I can't explain it," Anakin said as they walked out under the stars.

Windu was silent for a while as he looked out over Coruscant. Then he said, "Look at all these people, flying around, going about their lives with no idea what has happened, what is about to happen. Their lives were almost destroyed tonight. If we had failed, if he had managed to kill us all, I don't know that I can imagine how terrible the consequences would have been. And it could have happened, it almost happened. I think perhaps it was the Force itself that spoke to you, correcting my mistake. It would not be the first time the Force has saved me from myself. I did not expect that the most important salvation it offered me would come in the form of you, but I am grateful."

Anakin, shocked at what Master Windu had said, mumbled, "Thank you Master."

"You have proven Qui-Gon right. You have done as the prophecy said you would. You killed the Dark Lord's apprentice, and then, at the crucial moment, the point on which the fate of the galaxy turned, you stopped him. And tomorrow those people will wake to stunning news. Some will curse us for what we have done, but they will do so in freedom and peace."

That moment, the moment when acceptance and acknowledgement had finally come from the most suspicious of Jedi, felt so strange to Anakin that he had nothing to say in response. He looked out over the cityscape as well and up at the few stars that could be seen in the sky. Most of the lights in the night sky were actually ships in orbit. Many of them were stuck in high orbit, waiting either for their chance to land or for a ship from the surface to come offload whatever cargo they had. Such ships looked like stars moving too quickly across the night sky. But the ships in low orbit, especially the bigger ones, could be seen with the naked eye. Ever since the recent Battle of Coruscant there had been restrictions on how close such ships could get. The only big ships he could see were a couple of Venator class ships flying patrol above, but something was wrong. They were too low, Anakin thought. Too low and descending.

"He made them, they belong to him…," the voice said, returning unexpectedly and intruding on what should have been Anakin's moment of satisfaction. He did not understand what it, she he supposed, meant at first, and the voice continued, "Remember Fives."

Fives. The clone who had claimed that there was some conspiracy. A conspiracy involving Palpatine, and a clone going crazy and attacking Jedi. Everything fell into place quickly in Anakin's mind. Why had Palpatine risked telling Anakin? No doubt he had hoped Anakin would join him with the intention to save Padme, but he had to know it was possible he would resist. He would have had backup plans. If the Jedi discovered his identity and moved against him who could hope to protect him? What power in the galaxy could stand against the Order? Only one. The army the Jedi had spent years leading and training. The army that had been created by Dooku under orders from his master; from Palpatine. It was a trap. The whole thing, the entire war, was a trap.

"We have to activate the Temple's security systems, recall the guards!" Anakin said quickly.

Windu opened his mouth to ask why, but seeing Anakin's terrified look thought better of it, and immediately gave the order into a communicator he kept in his robes. "What do you think we face?" he asked Anakin.

"The clones," Anakin said.

"They only fired on us out of confusion," Windu said.

"No, I mean he made the clones. He had control of the process that made them. They belong to him!" Anakin said. Just then Anakin noticed the lights streaming out of the Star Destroyers above them. They were releasing landing craft. Windu noticed it too.

"Get to the doors, I will bring everyone I can!" Windu shouted as he bolted for the elevator. Anakin chose a different route. He closed his eyes and leapt off the tower, flipping end over end many times before, at the last second, he used the Force to slow his descent enough to land on the roof of the main section of the Jedi Temple. He could see the Clone troopers forming up in the distance. He started to run and jumped just before he reached the roof's edge. When he landed he began to slide down the inclined side of the Temple wall, lightsaber held up and behind him. He leapt from the wall just before it came to the ground, flipped into the air and landed on the steps running down from the Temple entrance. For the moment he was alone, watching as the Clones began their advance. As they came closer he was able to recognize their insignia. They were the 501st. He had fought besides these men for years, led them into battle, saved their lives and had his saved by them. How could they do this? How could they turn on the Jedi? Then he remembered something he had heard one of the Clones say, the one who had killed Tiplar. 'Good soldiers follow orders.' As he looked out over the advancing enemy he realized they were all of them, to a man, good soldiers. They would do as they had been commanded, and he could not allow them to succeed.

"I am sorry," he said to the oncoming soldiers, knowing they could not hear him, as they lifted their weapons and took aim. With a slight motion of his hands he caused the four bronze statues behind him to break from their pedestals. He lifted them into the air, stopping the clones in their tracks for a moment. When they saw the statues hurtling towards them they opened fire, hoping in vain to destroy the massive statues before they were crushed by them. But the blaster bolts did nothing but darken the giant blocks of metal before they each rolled over dozens of troopers.

"Turn back!" Anakin shouted. But he knew they would not listen. They were brave men, and all the more dangerous for it. They would not turn back, and so he could not hold back. One by one he lifted the pylons with their carved depictions of past Jedi Masters and threw them at the clones. Each did terrible damage, but each hole in their lines he created was immediately filled by reinforcements. He could see more units forming up behind the 501st and new that he would not survive long out in front exposed as he was, especially as he was running out of pylons to throw. He retreated quickly, picking up the last two pylons and dropping them in front of the Temple entrance, hoping to delay the clones' inevitable entrance into the Temple itself. A single shot from one of the ships above would have sufficed to destroy the obstacle, but the deflector shield protecting the Temple was probably the most powerful in the galaxy. And besides, Anakin reasoned, they wouldn't risk it when the Jedi had the Chancellor. The clones would have to break the pylons up using their blasters and then pull them out of the way.

By the time he had pulled the pylons flush against the doors Master Windu had arrived with support. The non-Jedi militia assigned to the Temple had taken up their positions at all the other entry points, various landing pads and tunnels around the Temple that the Clones would likely try to use. Windu was accompanied by most of the adult Jedi left in the Temple as well as the Jedi Guards, led by Master Cin Drallig.

"Is this everyone?" Anakin asked.

"Almost. I assigned some of the guards to lead the various squads of militia. Jocasta is sending out a message about the attack to the rest of the Jedi. What are we facing?" Windu said.

"The 501st is here, all of it that isn't with Ahsoka anyway, and has already started its attack. I saw two other legions forming up behind them. I am sure more are on their way," Anakin said.

It was then that several of the Jedi, Anakin and Windu included, grabbed their heads. Feelings of fear and pain washed over them, and at first none of them could make out what was happening. It was Mace who was able to sift through the feelings first. Looking up at Anakin, who realized the truth shortly after him, Windu said, "The Jedi across the galaxy are being attacked, killed. The Clones are turning against us everywhere."

For a moment no one said anything and all that could be heard were the concentrated blaster shots of the Clones attempting to break through outside. A few seconds passed before the Jedi Guards started receiving transmissions from the other areas of fighting.

"They are attacking every point of entry at once," Cin Drallig said darkly. "I don't think the militia will be able to hold them for long."

"They'll be through my little obstacle in a few minutes," Anakin said.

Mace Windu took several steps towards the doors, stopped and then stared at them. After a moment he turned back around to face the assembled Jedi.

"We will not be able to hold the Temple, not against the forces that will be brought to bear against us, and there is no relief coming," he said.

"What do we do?" a Jedi asked.

"Anakin, I ordered all the younglings to be gathered together with their teachers, as close to the center of the Temple as possible. I want you to go to them and take them to the hangar. You are the best pilot we have. Get them on a ship, and get them away, to safety," Windu said.

"You need me here!" Anakin replied.

"We need the Jedi Order to survive! No one who stays in this Temple is going to live. Our job is to keep the Temple clear as long as we can, so you can do what must be done. Take some guards with you," Windu replied before he bowed and said, "And may the Force be with you."

Anakin stood locked in place for a second, unable to believe what was happening. He looked around at the grim faces of the Jedi around him, and each in turn nodded at him. They were ready to die, that he and the children might live. Cin Drallig made a quick hand motion and four of the Jedi Guards stepped forward to join Anakin. The rest of the Jedi moved to flank Mace Windu, who had ignited his purple lightsaber.

"Go Master Skywalker. We will keep them in play," Windu said. Anakin nodded and turned to go. As he left he heard Windu say, "You two, go to the medical bay. The Clones must not be allowed to awaken the Chancellor."

Anakin looked back to see that Windu was talking to two Jedi Guards. He could not see the faces behind the masks, though those faces would have done him little good, as he knew none of the Temple guards personally. They were kept anonymous, even to the other Jedi, for a reason. When the time came that a Jedi needed to be restrained, hunted, even killed, it was easier if it was not friend chasing friend. So their faces were kept hidden, though the masks could not hide that one of the two had the distinctively narrow skull of a Pau'an. But they were both strangers to him, no personal plea could make any difference. They were going to kill Palpatine. Was there any way to stop that now? Was there any chance, after all of this, that Palpatine would help Padme even if he lived? Only if he was under Anakin's power, and how could that happen now? He had missed his chance. There was nothing left now but to get out of the Temple alive with the younglings, and make sure Padme got off Coruscant as well.

With that in mind he contacted R2. After hearing the familiar whistles and beeps he said, while running, "R2, I want you to go to Padme. Leave the Temple through the access tunnels, the ones only droids use. Tell her she has to get off Coruscant tonight. Tell her to use our channel to get in touch with me."

Sensing the flicker of suspicion from the guards he said, "The Senator from Naboo will not be safe here if the Chancellor manages to escape."

"How would he manage to escape? Two of our brothers have gone to silence him," one of them said.

Just then blaster fire strafed across their path, though Anakin and the four guards were able to block them with their sabers. There were Clones firing down at them from one of the mezzanines several stories above. A few fell from redirected blaster bolts, and Anakin Force-pulled the rest into the air and let them drop. Their armor managed to prevent the impact from killing them, but it was not enough to stop the yellow and blue blades cutting through them as Anakin and the guards ran by. One of the upper level landing pad exits must have fallen to the enemy. There would now be units of Clones throughout the Temple. The five Jedi made their way through the maze of hallways until they found the training room where Master Windu had ordered the younglings to congregate with their teachers.

The Temple security system recognized Anakin as a Council member and opened. Inside there were several dozen younglings of ages running from teenagers ready to become Padawans to young children, even an infant in a floating pram.

One of them, a young boy with blond spiky hair who looked much like Anakin had as a child looked up at him and said, "Master Skywalker, what are we going to do?"

In all the violence and uncertainty something about this situation filled Anakin with a sense of relief and joy that he could not explain. He knelt to look the young boy in the eyes and said, "We are going to get out of here." Looking around at all the scared children he said, "All of us. All of us will make it, if you listen to your teachers and do exactly what they say precisely when they say it. Do you understand?"

He saw nothing but scared faces looking at him. He stood back up and said, in a deep and booming voice, "We are leaving. Now. All of us. Do all of you understand?"

He saw flickers of hope in their eyes as they nodded. He smiled and then turned to the youngling's instructors and their guards. "I will take the lead," he said. "I want two of the guards with me, two in the back. Any of you with very young charges need to stay with them in the middle. The rest of you join the guards in the back. We make for the hangar. We get there and we hold the door while we get the children on a ship. Then we all go."

"Go where?" one of the Jedi instructors asked fearfully.

"Wherever we can," Anakin said. After saying this Anakin heard the sound of explosions and blaster fire on the other side of the door. "We have to go now!"

Anakin opened the doors slightly and saw no clones in the immediate vicinity, and so beckoned to the others to follow. The safety of this central location meant that they had a long way to get to the hangar, but in the tight hallways down which Anakin intended to lead them he was confident of his ability to hold off any number of clone troopers they came across.

Their journey turned quickly into a fighting retreat. Anakin was able to quickly dispatch the clone platoons in front of them, but several of the Jedi instructors had already fallen to blaster fire when Anakin stopped dead in his tracks. Seeing no obstacles before them one of the guards asked, "What is it Master Skywalker?"

Anakin looked up. He had felt a cold enter his heart. For a moment he could not recognize the source of the feeling. When he did he started to run faster.

"What is it?" the same guard yelled out as he ran to keep up.

"Palpatine is awake!" Anakin yelled back. "We have to get out of here now." The remainder of the journey to the hangar was chaotic. There were now clone troopers seemingly on every level. Several times Anakin had to wait for the younglings to catch up with him, and every time he did he saw fewer and fewer of their instructors remained, until at last the only adults who remained were himself and three of the guards. He sent the two who had been in the lead with him back to guard the rear for the last leg of the race.

When they finally got to the hangar they found it free of Clones. Anakin did a quick survey of the ships available and decided the only ship that would hold all the younglings was a regrettably bulky Consular class cruiser which had been refitted with weapons and armor. He dearly wished his old ship the Twilight had not been destroyed, for he felt far more confident of its handling than he did the much larger ship towards which he was directing the younglings.

The ship was so large Anakin was not sure how he was going to get it into orbit without being shot down. A smaller ship could fly between buildings, maybe even get down into some of the lower levels where effective scanning would be impossible. But none of the ships in the hangar were both large enough to take all the younglings but small enough to do that. This ship at least had weapons, armor and a deflector shield. As they entered the ship the remaining guards stayed back with the younglings and Anakin headed towards the bridge. When he got there he sat down in the pilot's seat, and had an idea. He hit the intercom and yelled, "Everyone strap in!"

Just then he heard an explosion behind him. He turned on the rear cameras for the ship and saw that Clones had blown open the hangar's internal doors. There were dozens of them there. The ship was not even warmed up yet. He needed time to get it ready to go, and he couldn't run the startup procedure if he was fighting off clones. For a second he tried to figure out whether anyone else on board knew enough to get the ship started and then saw that his remaining Jedi guards had guessed the problem, and were dealing with it their own way. Through the camera display he saw them charging towards the clones, who had been readying an attack with shoulder mounted rocket launchers. The assault by the Jedi guards forced the clones to drop them to defend themselves. Anakin saw the attack for what it was, a sacrifice to buy him time to get the younglings to safety. So many noble Jedi had died today. So many more would. But not these children. Anakin channeled his anger into focus on the task at hand.

He went through the process to prepare the ship for flight as quickly as he could while keeping an eye on the rear camera feed. He winced when he saw the Jedi guards fall before the ever increasing number of clones, but smiled grimly when he realized they had succeeded. By the time the last of them was shot down the ship was fully online and had already lifted off the hangar floor. Anakin turned it slightly so that the rear cannon was facing towards the doorway to the hangar where the clones had gathered and fired on them. The blaster designed to punch through ship armor was more than enough to blow a hole through the mass of clones, as well as through the wall behind them.

When they were all either dead or behind cover Anakin turned his attention to the doors leading out of the Temple. He knew that as soon as he left the deflector shield covering the Temple he would be fired upon by the far more powerful ships above. He also knew that he needed time for the hyperdrive computer to calculate the jump and that it would not be able to do so from inside the hangar. He needed time to fly, and he knew how he was going to do it. The Temple's deflector shield covered a significant area beyond the Temple. Anakin thought about the maneuver he was going to have to pull off and hoped the younglings had listened when he told them to strap in.

He increased power to the engines to create forward thrust while at the same time using all the smaller positional thrusters used to push them back, and then turned all the positional thrusters off at once, shooting himself back into his seat and the ship out of the hangar like a blaster bolt, into the soft light of dawn. The sky above him was still dark, but the horizon glowed a gentle gold. He then immediately banked hard to the left and started a spiraling path around the Temple. He couldn't accelerate as quickly as normal this way, but he was still able to pick up some speed while keeping the ship inside the Temple's deflector shield. After a few seconds he could see the blaster fire from the ships above hitting the shield and being absorbed. The hangar exit was on the opposite side of the Temple from the main entrance but it did not take long for them to fly over it. He could see the pylons and statues still lying where he had thrown them. He could see a huge hole that had been blown, presumably by explosives, into the front wall of the Temple. And through the smoke and the dust into which clone troopers were still charging, he could see a lone lightsaber in motion. It was a purple spike moving so fast it seemed to be a ribbon snaking through the gloom. Anakin did not know how long Master Windu could keep such a performance up, did not know if any other Jedi were alive in the Temple. But likely he stood alone, the last Master of the Order for all Anakin knew, defending the Temple that had been both their homes most of their lives. There was a part of Anakin that wanted to go down there, to join him, to charge headlong into the fray, to slaughter those who had desecrated and defiled that place. Could there be a better way to die?

But still he turned. The ship had already circled around the Temple once and Anakin wanted to do another full revolution before he made his move. When he came around again, significantly higher this time, he could no longer see the purple saber. Perhaps Master Windu had fallen, or perhaps he had only retreated into the Temple. Anakin figured he would likely never know, but he hoped Master Windu had seen the ship pass, had known that his sacrifice had not been in vain. As his second turn around the Temple came to an end Anakin could see that the ships above were chasing him with their fire, hitting the deflector shield just above and a bit behind him. He redirected all auxiliary power to the forward deflector shield and then pulled the nose up so that when he passed through the Temple's shield barrier only the front of the ship was presented to the enemy, and he turned the engines up to full. The blaster gunners on the ships above took too long to adjust to his change of direction and change of speed, and as he shot up towards space the streams of blaster bolts were falling down just to his right and left, meeting each other below him. It was going to be a race between their adjustment of their firing angle and the hyperspace computer making its calculations.

The computer won. Shortly before Anakin broke through the last layer of atmosphere the stars above him blurred into lines and the next generation of Jedi Knights escaped the fall of Coruscant.

Hours later, Palpatine received his first briefing from the clones regarding the siege of the Temple. All the Temple militia were dead or captured. Most of the Jedi were dead. One, a Temple guard Palpatine had been recruiting secretly for years, stood beside him. Several more had surrendered rather than fight to the end, and Palpatine knew that meant they could be turned; the fear of death was, after all, the very motivation which had guided him towards the Sith. But with every revision to the death toll, one thing remained constant. There were no children found in the Temple. And Palpatine knew without having to be told that Anakin Skywalker would not be found there.

Nothing had gone according to plan, and he could not understand why. Anakin had been ready to fall. He had felt it. Some power he had not accounted for had intervened, and rendered vain decades of careful, patient preparation. To many it would seem as though he had won a great victory. The Clones who had accompanied him from the Temple relayed reports of the stunning success of Order 66 across the battlefields of the war. Palpatine wished he had been able to give the order personally, but he had prepared an audio recording of the Order for a situation like this, though he had not planned on any outcome this terrible. Most of the Jedi were dead, but Anakin was alive, and seemingly his committed enemy. To an extent with which he had no prior experience, Palpatine knew fear.