Chapter 7 Parabellum Part 2
Jedi Hangar,11pm, Coruscant.
The younglings and sleepy initiates were all led into separate ships for the convoy to safety, although only Yoda knew that they would likely not be returning. He gave a holopad of instructions to Kit before he launched and bade the master a safe journey. Master Nu and her aides had left a bit earlier. Yoda watched as they staggered out the ships one at a time to avoid suspicion and felt when the last one had made the jump to safety. He had read Master- well, Grandmaster- Skywalker's holocron. Unfortunately, Luke was unaware of many details due to the Empire's destruction of many documents and his own bare education on the subject. He did, however, include the name of the Sith Lord and the details of Order 66. They were, indeed, caught in a trap. Yoda could piece together what Luke could not. Dooku had been involved in the creation of the Clone Army, which meant the Clones were compromised by the chips that would force them to attack their friends and allies.
Having the final piece did not help the situation. In fact, Yoda saw how the Order would have been caught no matter what choice they had made. Had they not joined the war effort, the Clone army would have been ordered to attack them in the Temple for treason to the Republic, probably after the attack on Coruscant. Jedi across the galaxy on various planets would have been attacked by troopers, or even the Droid army. However, by leading the army, the Jedi would have little to no warning before they were shot in the back. They were caught between the proverbial rock and hard place. Yoda sighed. His enemy had not won yet and the future of the Jedi was now a little more secure than it had been. Based on the holocron, he believed he could time the arrival of Order 66 to within a half hour. Sidious was not the only one with tricks up his sleeves. He could only hope it would be enough time to play his last card.
Chancellor's Office
Palpatine's frustration was increasing. His spies and assassins had been set in place, but the Force was starting to get cloudy even for him. It was almost like there had been a slight rebalancing, only enough that you would almost not notice. But he had made it a point to notice certain things and on the cusp of his victory he was not going to get careless now. He had an increasingly sinking feeling that his plans for Anakin were slipping out of his fingers. If Maul got lucky and killed him somehow, he would make him pay. More likely was the nagging feeling that Skywalker would not return before he issued Order 66. He would have to make a special order to keep troopers from killing him, but accidents could still happen. Skywalker was prone to leap into starfighter combat whenever he could.
Frustration gnawed at him. He was typically patient, but time was running out. He wanted desperately to know where Skywalker was, and his little green friend was ignoring his questions about his location, saying only that he was on an important mission.
Palpatine had for years dreamed of the day he could shoot lightning at the ancient Jedi master but his encounter with him 6 months ago had proved the prudence of the previous 900 years of Sith Lords in keeping the troll far away. Tomorrow he would order his armies to attack Kashyyk. It would take two days for his troops to attack the planet. At that point he would give the Council the location of Grievous.
He could wait no more. The Grand Plan was in danger if he waited any longer, he could feel that. Time to cut his losses for the moment.
Outer Rim Sieges
Jedi Master A'Sharad Hett was perhaps the most powerful and formidable warrior in the Jedi Order not on the council. He had been passed over for promotion for Obi-Wan Kenobi, due the latter's knowledge of leading others into war and his reputation for killing a Sith Lord. Hett, however, was not an overly ambitious person and had no desire to sit back and drink tea on the council. He certainly had no grudge against Kenobi. No, out here in the field is where Jedi should be, as his own father before him had been. He had even befriended Obi-Wan's apprentice early in the Clone War when many believed Kenobi had died at the hands of Assaj Ventress. As a fellow native of Tatooine, he had taken it upon himself to reach out to the young Jedi. He still kept tabs on him when he could, though he had not spoken to him in several years. He had often reflected that, had Skywalker been accepted as an initiate, he would likely have taken him on as his own apprentice. It was to some surprise to Hett while going through hyperspace in his fighter on a hit and run mission that he received a rather disturbing Force vision of what appeared to be the near future.
The pictures were vague, but it appeared to be himself and several Jedi running from an unseen foe, Skywalker somehow rushing in at the last second to save them. He saw the twin suns of his home world. Skywalker and he were on Tatooine together and he sensed a balance come into place.
With the Clone Wars coming to an end, he had hoped he could rest a bit and go explore the galaxy for a while, doing the job a Jedi was meant for, namely helping the individuals of the galaxy on a more personal level. What he saw did not lead to that right now, though he must finish the Clone Wars. With that resolve he turned his attention back to his fighter's display, despite the bad feeling he had about this.
Tython, 1 Hour before Sunrise
Rex was the first to realize that dawn did not come so early on this planet as he relit the fire of his and his brother's campsite. Jesse awoke at the same time, refreshed by the extra sleep he had received. Tython's two moons were setting on the western horizon- one white, the other red.
"So, do you think they had it planned out for the extra sleep?" Jesse asked.
"I'm getting the feeling more and more that those two know exactly what they're doing," Rex replied.
"That story Master Solo gave about them being married- do you think it's true?" Jesse asked.
Rex shrugged "The Correlian Jedi are known to allow marriage amongst their members, so that's probably where they're from. They both kind of act Correlian."
"I would have thought she was Mandalorian personally," Jesse mused. "I get the nasty feeling she is especially good at killing people."
Rex just shrugged his shoulders. While troopers typically refrained from talking about superior officers, the two Jedi had not been introduced by rank, so he was a little unsure of whether that rule applied to them. Master Solo was nice enough, but Knight Khai acted a little too dark -not to the point of Pong Krell, but anything down that line had his troopers especially wary. That was what had Jesse on edge. Both Jedi knew a little too much about everything and everyone and that had Rex's guard up. He was also certain they knew about Skywalker and Amidala. Knight Khai certainly had more respect for him and his brother than Krell did, but he couldn't help but notice she was constantly watching them over her shoulder.
Perhaps the direct approach would work, but he didn't think it was yet time. Perhaps a few days together would get everyone to loosen up.
Ahsoka came over to the campfire.
"Good morning, Commander," Rex said.
"Morning," Ahsoka replied.
"Restful night?"
"Not really. Not after the excitement in Anakin's cabin," Ahsoka said.
"What happened?" Rex asked, alarmed that he had slept through a crisis.
"A Jedi thing. Apparently, he has been under attack by the Sith. Knight Khai was able to put it at bay for a time," she said as she watched the moons dip below the horizon and the eastern sky start to brighten.
"That's good," Rex said slowly. Jesse nodded noncommittally.
"Yes, I imagine we had better join the others if we want breakfast," Ahsoka said, not noting the suspicious looks the troopers were giving.
Village Community Center, Tython.
The building was nice enough, despite the fact there had been no occupants for the previous millennia. Obi-Wan was curious about how the buildings had been left relatively intact for such a long period. These thoughts were running through his mind as he sipped a cup of caf from a caf machine someone had had the foresight to install in the building. Probably Rex, he decided. Anakin and Padme walked through the door. With the pair knowing they were officially busted, Anakin grimaced as he trudged over to his master's table.
"Good morning, Anakin. You might try the caf. I hear it's great for when babies are up all night," Obi-Wan said, all too happily.
Anakin groaned. "I was going to tell you, but I only found out after the Battle of Coruscant."
Obi-Wan raised his eyes. "Really? I thought you were married on Naboo several years ago. I assume my invitation got lost in the mail?"
Anakin again groaned. His brother was apparently now deciding to have the fun he had obviously been holding back for several years. "With you joining the Council, I thought it would be best not to rock the boat," he said, wanting the earth to swallow him and now realizing what a dumb excuse he had made at the time. "I didn't want you to get into trouble."
"Hardly trouble. You're not the first Jedi that up and married, even in the last few decades. Generally, they either quit or are quietly transferred over to the Green Jedi." Obi-Wan sipped his caf. "In your case I figured you would go with the transfer, especially with a couple dozen Green Jedi joining the ranks for the Clone Wars."
"What about you?" Anakin asked.
Kenobi sighed. "I told you a long time ago I would go with you, even if you left the Order. In this particular case I likely would have waited until the Clone War was over. If Satine hadn't died…," Kenobi trailed off.
Padme arrived with two of cups of caf.
"Ahh, Anakin's hero," Kenobi said, turning his thoughts to happier things. "Just in time to save him from more humiliation."
"I didn't realize there was a pipeline to Correlia," Anakin said.
"I didn't either until I joined the Council, but it's been in place for centuries." Kenobi said. "It's definitely not promoted, but it's the reason you have never heard of anyone being removed as a Jedi over marriage."
Further grilling of his former padawan was halted by the arrival of Ben and a few minutes of small talk, it was time to begin.
"There's been a change in plans, due to last night's incident," Ben explained. "I will need a private talk with Anakin before we go deeper into training. Vestara can get you started on the more hands-on aspect of fighting Yuuzhan Vong warriors."
Kenobi nodded and left with Vestara down to the beach, followed by Rex. Jesse and Ahsoka volunteered to guard Padme.
Ben and Anakin reached the top of the hill right as the sun crested the horizon. They sat down and watched the sunrise for a bit in companionable silence.
"Now then, let's start with your dreams," Ben said, "obviously they have you shaken."
Anakin looked at him. "What more do you need to know? Your wife identified them as an attack by the Sith Lord."
"True; however, even that has not removed your fear that they might be true. They, after all, involve your wife," Ben countered. "It would be best to give me the details and let's see if there is any pattern to them. Or perhaps a pattern the Dark Lord wanted you to act on."
Anakin watched the sunrise and sighed. "The dream shows Padme dying in childbirth."
Anakin sees Ben turn pale.
"Are there any details in the dream, anything at all -places, locations, people?" Ben asked.
"Very little, Master. I see Padme on a medical bed, and she is screaming for me to help her. I hear a baby crying, and I see her die. I cannot even see if the child survives."
Ben closes his eyes and stays silent. Anakin watches him do the same thing Master Yoda did and waits patiently. Since Knight Khai did whatever it was the night before, he indeed did feel better. The edge of his fear had been removed.
"Show me," Ben said suddenly.
Anakin looked at him strangely. "How, Master?"
Ben sighed. "We shouldn't be doing this so soon, but understand what we see is only a possibility that may give us some piece of information that could be vital."
"What are we doing?" Anakin asked, concerned
"We are going to see if we can see more of what's happening. Do not attempt this on your own," Ben warned.
"Very well, Master," Anakin said, confused.
"Very well. Sink into a trance and let me guide you. I will do all the work- just let it flow," Ben instructed.
They did so and Anakin, unlike most times he did this, saw people and images around him. He also saw the Jedi master's true Force signature. It shocked him to realize the Jedi master was more powerful than any Jedi he had ever seen.
"Mind on our task, Anakin. My directions from my Council were to keep a low profile," came the mild chiding.
"What do we do now?" Anakin asked in awe.
"Put your thoughts on the dream you saw, but do not allow your fear to intervene. We must stay objective to glean any useful piece of information."
Anakin did so and suddenly Ben and Anakin were standing in the med room with a screaming Padme. Anakin turned white.
"Anakin, remember, this isn't happening. Don't let your fear override us," Ben said calmly.
Anakin nodded. "What are we looking for?"
"Anything of use," Ben said. He walked to a computer and looked at the data. Anakin watched as Obi-Wan was holding Padme's hand, begging her to hang on.
Tears welled up in Anakin's eyes at seeing the scene before him.
"Anakin," Padme said.
He rushed to her and stretched out a hand, but the hand went right through the vision. "I'm here, Padme."
"Anakin, that's it," Ben said.
Anakin looked at him. "You have something."
"Yes, what's missing here?"
Anakin looked around. At that moment the scene switched. He saw a droid come up to Obi-Wan and apologize, saying there was nothing physically wrong with her, but they were losing her anyway.
"Master Solo, is there any power you know of that I can learn that can help her?" Anakin asked with tears in his eyes.
"Wouldn't help," Ben said
Anakin looked at him angrily. "Why?" he growled.
"Where are you in this picture?" Ben said.
Anakin froze and looked around.
"Looks to me like in this possibility something happened to you and she has lost the will to live," Ben said quietly. "So, to stop this possibility we simply need to keep you safe."
Anakin blinked. "I would have been on Coruscant when this happened."
"Likely you had an encounter with a Sith Lord that went poorly," Ben said. "Remember, this is only the possibility of your worse fears coming true."
The image faded but not before Anakin spotted through his teary eyes that the child was being taken care of by Obi-Wan.
Moments later they were back on the grassy hill of Tython.
Anakin continued crying for quite some time and Ben stayed quiet.
Finally, Anakin spoke through his tears "The child survived. Obi-Wan was taking care of it."
"That's good news. In the unlikely event of a worse case scenario, your child lives," Ben said.
Anakin nodded.
"Anakin, it's somewhat obvious this has you shaken. The fact that the Sith Lord is capable of influencing your dreams suggests he has some sort of connection to you that you may be unaware of," Ben said gently. "With your permission I will attempt to break that hold over you, when you're ready."
Anakin nodded, still sniffling. "Today, if we can."
"I don't want to push you too fast," Ben said. "We can take a break if you need one."
Anakin sighed. "Let me go talk to Padme and I'll be back."
Ben nodded. "I'll be here."
Ben felt a worried feeling over his bond with Vestara.
"I may have pushed a bit quick," he sent over the bond
"What did you do?"
"I let him think we were seeing more of his vision that he couldn't see, but his dreams were identical to what R2 showed us."
"So?" came the tense response.
"So, I might have actually flow walked us to see the birth of my dad and aunt. He, of course, was thinking we were seeing a more detailed version of his dreams," Ben answered.
"Did anything slip that maybe shouldn't have?" Vestara asked.
"No, in fact, it may have helped. Padme died because she lost Anakin. He saw that and I may have inferred he probably came out on the wrong side of an encounter with a Sith Lord."
"Vader, though he inferred Sidious, no doubt," came the reply. "Listen, Obi-Wan Skywalker, we should keep the 'certain point of view' thing to a minimum. We're on thin ice already. You may not have noticed, but Obi-Wan's suspicious that something is up and so are the troopers. Rex is no fool as Ahsoka can testify. It's also only a matter of time before Padme gets objective, despite her fears for Anakin, and starts snooping."
Ben agreed. He opened his eyed and watched his despondent grandfather walk down the hill to the community center.
Sensing his padawan in distress, Obi-Wan excused himself from the training he was receiving. It was quite physically demanding. Apparently, their foes fought with extremely dangerous staffs oftentimes laden with poison. He met Anakin at the bottom of the hill next to the community house. Anakin collapsed on Kenobi's shoulders, crying like he hadn't seen him do since he was a small child.
"Are you alright, Anakin?" Kenobi asked, once he had calmed down a bit.
"Thank you, Master, for always being there," Anakin sobbed. "I have been unappreciative of your training and many other things."
"Anakin, you are strong and wise, and I am very proud of you. I have trained you since you were a small boy, and you have become a far greater Jedi than I could hope to be," Kenobi said softly.
"But you are always there for me and will forever be," Anakin said, still sobbing.
Kenobi was distressed by this point. One didn't often see Anakin break down like this. His fear often led to anger rather than tears. Something had broken his apprentice down.
"Forgive me for asking again -Anakin, what's wrong?"
Anakin got himself together. "Master Ben requested me to show him the dream from the dream attack. By the way, he is much more powerful than we were originally shown."
Kenobi noted the observation but realized it was also being used as a stalling tactic. "So, you showed him the dreams?"
Anakin nodded.
"Using the Force?" Kenobi asked.
Anakin nodded again.
"Only, Master Ben was able to get more of the reality to show itself to us. I saw you trying to comfort Padme. She didn't make it, but the child did," Anakin said blinking through his tears. "I wasn't around. Ben thought, based on what Padme was saying, that in this future I had not survived the battle with the Sith Lord. Either way, I caught a glimpse of the future as the vision was ending. You were taking care of the child."
Kenobi blinked, concerned. Anakin falling against a Sith Master would be his worst nightmare, one he had envisioned on many long nights since the Battle of Naboo. "Still," Obi-Wan said, trying to calm him down, "remember what Knight Khai said about this particular vision, that it was only a way to make your worst dreams come true."
"True, Master, "Anakin said, "but I know you would be there for the child if I couldn't be."
"Let's try to keep that from happening. I'm not sure I could survive raising another Skywalker," Obi-Wan said, trying to raise the spirits of his padawan. "But, yes, I would do that for you, if it was ever necessary."
Anakin hugged him tighter after this. "We're going to try to break whatever bond this Sith has on my mind."
"I think I will join you when you do this," Kenobi said.
A couple of hours later, to Ben's surprise, Anakin and Kenobi both came up the hill. Ben truly had suspected what Anakin had seen that morning would keep him from trying anything else that day.
"I want to get whatever the Sith Lord has done to me out of my head," Anakin said.
"Very well," Ben said. "I will tell you he has likely been at this for years, so eliminating his influence will not be the work of a day or possibly even a week."
"The dreams only started a few weeks ago," Anakin pointed out.
"He wouldn't start with that; he would almost certainly start smaller with slight nudges, nothing big that you or the Jedi around you would even notice unless you were actively looking for it. The dreams indicate he was trying to engage in an endgame plan to drive you to desperation."
"Ahsoka told me you believe that the Sith Lord has been working on a long game to get him to fall, including the bombing incident and Mandalore," Kenobi said. "Do you suspect that his plans were almost ripe?"
"Sidious apparently believed so," Ben answered. "But the important thing is that once we start, we see this to the end no matter how long it takes. It will possibly be uncomfortable and perhaps dangerous at times."
Ben knew Anakin's face all too well. It was the stubborn Skywalker "going-to-do-it-no-matter-what" face.
"Sidious, you're toast. You just don't know it yet," Ben thought to himself. He knew that look and if Anakin kept that determination, the Dark Lord wasn't getting his hands on him anytime soon.
Author's Note
Apologies for the delay due to storm damage i have not had power wifi or water since last Thursday. An event i had not anticipated or i would have posted last Thursday. For my readers I will attempt to post this chapter and I will try to post Fridays chapter Friday or Saturday as I still don't have power or cell it might be delayed as well.
Apologies for the
