Chancellor Palpatine's expression was one of worry that day when he met with Anakin. Anakin knew that now he would complain about the Jedi to him again.
"You must see that the Jedi are planning to betray me. And now they've roped in Padmé too!"
Palpatine's sentence hit Anakin like a thunderbolt.
"I know that she initiated the Petition Of The Two Thousand in the Senate," Anakin tried to placate his chancellor friend with his hands raised. "But she means well. And the Senate is exactly the body that...
"Right now we can't afford these disagreements in the Senate!" Palpatine abruptly interrupted Anakin's defense of his secret wife. "I can't afford them. Not right now. And right now Padmé stabbed me in the back. Now…when the war could soon be over," he said in an accusatory voice.
"Padmé could never..."
"Yes, she can!" Palpatine thundered.
Anakin stood frozen in shock.
"But you can too," the Chancellor added with a tempting smile.
"What can I?"
"Whatever you want," Palpatine replied simply.
"Really everything?" Anakin asked incredulously.
"You can do and have whatever you want," Anakin heard the calm and powerful voice of his Chancellor friend.
He looked down at himself in confusion for a moment, then looked at Palpatine: "I... actually only want one thing. And you know what."
A touch of confident composure crossed the Chancellor's face.
"I know, my boy. I know. And I can help you with that."
Anakin saw and felt the hand that Palpatine, who was one head smaller, placed gently on his shoulder. Tension began to crackle in the room.
"You remember the legend I told you at the opera?"
"Darth Plagueis the Wise – of course I remember," Anakin assured him, eager to hear more.
"It's not just a legend, Anakin," Palpatine said, his voice lowered.
Anakin swallowed. He had suspected it.
"Darth Plagueis really lived," Palpatine revealed to him.
Anakin was relatively certain of this, but he refused to believe it until he had the final proof of the truth of this supposed legend. And this final piece of evidence came right … now?
"Really?" Anakin whispered.
"Darth Plagueis was my master. He gave me access to his power before I killed him," Palpatine confessed to his young friend.
Anakin had known this all along, ever since Palpatine had told him about it at the opera. However, he would never have believed that Darth Plagueis had existed, at least in time, so close to his own life. But now it was another Sith who had come far too close to him, not only in time but also in space.
Anakin was suddenly wide awake again. His blue blade suddenly came to life and found itself under Palpatine's chin.
"You! ... it's you! "It's been you all along!" he snapped at Palpatine, who seemed as stoic and calm as ever in the face of this shimmering blue danger.
That was scary for Anakin. Was the Chancellor so sure of himself? Or was their bond already so strong that Palpatine thought he knew he couldn't do it? The fact was that Palpatine had been deceiving him the whole time. Literally. He had kept his Force sensitivity, his true identity, a secret from him - from him, a Jedi - his friend, for all of thirteen years! Was Palpatine his friend? That the shrouded Sith revealed himself to him now, when Padmé and his unborn child were threatened with death, and lured him with a straw that Anakin assumed was poisoned by the Dark Side, was... unbearable!
"I should kill you... I will kill you!" all the hurt burst from him.
"Why?" Palpatine asked back simply and innocently.
"You are a Sith Lord!" Anakin hissed at him.
The accusation came to nothing. At least Palpatine didn't seem particularly impressed by it. His watery blue eyes seemed clearer to Anakin at that moment than ever before. "I just told you that you can get anything you want. Do you think I spared my life?" Palpatine said, exposing his throat a little more as if to prove his offer.
"But you... you're a Sith?" Anakin asked, taken aback. "Sith only think of themselves," he recited what he knew.
Palpatine smiled a calm, sublime smile. "And I am your friend. Become my apprentice! And I will help you save Padmé... If you let me."
Anakin hesitated. It would be so easy – like Dooku. And yet …
The tip of his lightsaber trembled in front of Palpatine's chin.
So simple... only to become even more complicated.
Anakin deactivated his lightsaber.
"I... I hand you over to the Jedi Council!" he replied hastily.
"Yes ... you probably should," Palpatine said, with a strange, bitter slackness in his words.
Anakin hurried out of the Chancellor's office faster than he had ever hurried from it before. Palpatine watched Anakin leave with a calm expression. Then he smiled. Finally the time would come...
When he arrived at the Jedi Temple, Anakin was relieved to meet Mace Windu. Finally he was no longer alone with these things.
༺═───═༻
Anakin Skywalker couldn't take it anymore. Every minute that he spent pointlessly sitting here in the temple could be a minute too many. Perhaps the very minute that could cost Padmé her life if Mace Windu and the other three really decided to kill the Chancellor... as he himself had just been considering... instead of bringing the exposed Sith to justice to be taken into protective custody later. Anakin would never know how Darth Plagueis the Wise had managed to save and to spare from death those who had been close to him... just as Padmé was close to him.
But he knew full well that Mace Windu wouldn't care at all. This hardliner only knew his Jedi principles. He had certainly never loved anyone and he'd always emphatically branded such moral fallibility as a flaw in front of all Jedi who wanted to hear it or not. And now Mace Windu had condemned him to wait here until the dark-skinned Korun master returned from the Chancellor's office with his three companions. But Anakin Skywalker didn't want to wait. No longer!
And even the tall, slim Togruta, who was now sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of him to block his path, would not prevent him from reaching his goal. Yes, Shaak Ti was a true model Jedi on the outside, but he, Anakin Skywalker, knew her dirty secret!
And now, of all times, Shaak Ti was tipping the scales as to whether Padmé, the love of his life, would live or die. And their child with Padmé. Not that Anakin couldn't have defeated Shaak Ti in battle and simply taken what he needed. But it was still too early for that. Palpatine would certainly reprimand him if he found out about it afterwards. And first Obi-Wan! So Anakin decided not to think about Padmé when he made his wish to the Togruta. She could read his mind and assume lower motives. And deny him the glider he so desperately needed! No, he would be thinking of someone this model Jedi definitely didn't know. He allowed himself an inward grin, then he spoke to her.
༺═───═༻
Shaak Ti sat cross-legged with her eyes closed next to the hangar attached to the central tower of the Jedi Temple, which housed the spaceships and gliders reserved for emergencies and urgent missions. She herself had been present at the Council meeting when Mace Windu, representing Master Yoda, who was staying on Kashyyyk, had selected the three other seasoned Jedi Masters to investigate Skywalker's urgent suspicions. Now it would only be a matter of time before Mace Windu, Saesee Tiin, Agen Kolar and Kit Fisto would manage to depose Chancellor Palpatine and bring him to justice. Then finally her life would be like it used to be. She would finally put Grievous' attack behind her and go on a mission to Kamino again. She already had a new lightsaber.
It was Anakin Skywalker himself who revealed his fatherly friend to Master Windu as a Sith - that's what Mace Windu had explained at the hastily scheduled council meeting. Shaak Ti wouldn't have thought Anakin could do that. On the contrary, she had had doubts about Anakin six months ago, when the High Council was debating whether Skywalker was mature enough to be made a Jedi Knight. The man from Tatooine was too careless, too impulsive, Oppo Rancisis said at the time, thereby eloquently expressing her own doubts. But now the young Jedi had allayed their fears. Anakin Skywalker had unmasked and revealed the second secret Sith Lord! The one the Jedi had been searching for for the entire thirteen years since Darth Maul appeared on Naboo. He was truly the Chosen One! Qui-Gon had been right!
And now the Jedi had taken action.
Shaak Ti still vividly remembered Mace Windu's worried expression from two hours ago. The Jedi Master, who was six years her senior, had given her good advice to keep an eye on Skywalker and to make sure that he stayed in the temple. Until his Jedi colleagues had successfully completed the mission in the Chancellor's Office. Skywalker was extremely confused and therefore needed peace and seclusion, the Korun Master had told her. Then he had wished her that the Force would be with her - with her, who was now entrusted with the security of the temple in Yoda and Mace Windu's absence. Of course, she had wished him the same for his mission, as was the custom among Jedi. And of course Shaak Ti wanted to follow his instructions. Right now, when she felt a presence approaching.
She opened her eyes.
Anakin Skywalker stood before her, as agitated and restless as she had often seen him before … and yet somehow different.
"Anakin. Thank you for what you have done. The Jedi Order is in your debt - even the entire galaxy," she said with quiet gratitude in her voice, trying to calm him down a bit.
"Shaak Ti. Get out of my way!" she heard Anakin's impatient voice.
She swallowed. What was Anakin planning? She was now more than certain that Mace Windu's warning was completely justified.
"The temple is on lockdown, Anakin. A security code protects the door," she replied with a shrug, as if that could really prevent the Chosen One with his outstanding technical and improvisational skills from breaking in or out of any door.
"I really need a glider. The mission in the Chancellor's office is in danger!" she heard him shout excitedly.
Shaak Ti realized that more was required than lulling calm and perseverance. She rose from her cross-legged pose and stood in front of the younger Jedi.
"Why, Anakin? The four are the best masters of our order. What could you do?" she asked, holding out both hands to him defensively with open palms.
"If I don't go to them, there will be blood in the Chancellor's office!" Anakin shouted loudly.
"I have orders to keep all companions here in the hangar until Master Windu and the others return from their mission in the Chancellor's Office," Shaak Ti replied, her purple eyes radiating a calm, firm determination.
"Don't you understand?! They'll all die if I don't go to them!" Anakin almost screamed as he hurled those words at her.
What was happening? Shaak Ti read the mind of the young Jedi before her and what she saw amazed her. Anakin Skywalker was really thinking about Darth Plagueis. How come? She could imagine that Palpatine had certainly told him all sorts of things during their shared hours when Anakin was alone with him. And if Palpatine was a Sith Lord, as Anakin had claimed, then he certainly knew this legend too!
But she knew it also! And just as Hego Damask had told her that legend back then, that Sith called Plagueis had been primarily concerned with saving or preserving lives beyond the search for a disciple. There had even been people close to him that Darth Plagueis had worried about. So she could hardly blame young Anakin for these thoughts. She further saw that Anakin was truly concerned with saving lives in that moment. Of course - he wanted to help his Jedi friends. Against the Sith Lord. That was the only reason he was here now and wanted a glider.
Shaak Ti stepped aside.
Anakin quickly grabbed the nearest glider and sped away with it in the fast, abrupt driving style that everyone knew from him. Without thanking Shaak Ti for her courtesy. At that moment the Togruta began to doubt whether she had done the right thing. She sat cross-legged again and meditated. The Force sang a confusing, indefinable melody that she did not understand. This had already been the case when they and the other council members had meditated on the visions of Master Yoda in which Qui-Gon had appeared. But now the melody of power rose to a shrill crescendo that deeply disturbed Shaak Ti.
The cacophony in power grew worse. Shaak Ti decided to seal off the hangar and went back to her chamber to await the outcome of the special mission of the four, now five Jedi.
༺═───═༻
Ashla was in the temple library when she sensed that her master needed help. She immediately left the spacious library hall to quickly walk through the corridors of the temple.
"What's going on?" Mari Amithest asked, who came towards her.
"Oh, I'm just going to get a few drinks and then I'll be back," Ashla replied quickly.
Finally she left the temple and emerged onto a street in one of the lower levels of Coruscant. She hailed the first taxi that came along. The taxi driver, a Nimbanel, saw that the somewhat pale-looking Togruta girl needed help.
"Well, little one? Where do you have to go?"
"To the Senate. That's where my father is," Ashla explained.
"To the Senate. All right, get in," the yellow, brown-flecked taxi driver replied casually.
They drove for a while.
"Your father is the Senator of Shili, huh?"
"Something like that," she replied, slightly bored.
"Why do you look so nervous? We're out of the lower levels now. And we'll be at the Senate in a moment, it's definitely not dangerous there," the Nimbanel said with a grin, his two huge, yellow cheeks lifting slightly.
"Don't talk so much! Hurry up!" Ashla said annoyed.
"Hehe, is your father such a big shot that you are so impudent?"
"Imagine: my master is currently bringing down a Sith Lord there in the Senate!" Ashla explained proudly. She had been pleased that her Master had taken her into his confidence before he drove to the Senate with the other three Jedi Masters.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm a taxi driver, girl. I hear stories like this a lot. Just imagine: A clone told me two months ago that people are created specifically to kill their friends and leaders. And they don't know anything about it. And then he just got out when I dropped him off at the clone bar as requested. Without paying! And on top of that, his buddies sprayed my taxi with their cheap beer... But your father - master will pay, right?"
"If you keep annoying me like that, he won't," Ashla hissed back.
"Then I'll throw you out of here right now, little one!" the Nimbanel replied angrily.
"Not so fast, we have to get over there, to the window of Chancellor Palpatine's office!" Ashla instructed the taxi driver.
"But… that's forbidden! The airspace in front of the Chancellor's office is being guarded!"
"Then wait behind that billboard," Ashla suggested, making a certain gesture. Obediently and calmly, the taxi glider driver directed his vehicle behind the billboard shown by Ashla.
Behind the large front window of Palpatine's office, Ashla's sharp eyes could easily see her master's purple lightsaber. A red blade crossed with it, which was... wielded by the Chancellor! Her master had been right. Now she saw Palpatine drop his red lightsaber, which instantly flickered out. Mace Windu pushed the traitorous Chancellor into the corner of the office. If it weren't for the pane, he would fall out of the window with a little push, thought the young half-Togruta. Ashla found that the window glass was immaculately polished - that transparisteel was apparently devoid of any mirror effects, so crisp as she could see the action.
But down there, there were a few cloudy, sharp spikes on the edge of the window. Only then did Ashla realize that there was no longer a window. Someone must have destroyed it before. The two men were so close to the abyss.
'It's almost over now,' Ashla thought.
She wondered where the other Jedi her master had mentioned to her were. She remembered Mace Windu's rule of combat that it was often more advisable to fight one-to-one than to have too many companions getting in each other's way in an attempt to destroy a single enemy. So had Mace simply taken the others with him to prevent the Sith Lord's escape, and they stood outside the doors of the office while her master bore the brunt of the fight?
Ashla saw blue Force lightning shoot from the Chancellor's fingers. A strange tingling sensation took over her. It looked beautiful – powerfully beautiful!
"Well, little one? Which of the two is your father – master?" she heard the condescending voice of the taxi driver next to her.
"Certainly not the Sith!" Ashla hissed back.
"But … there are no Sith. It's all just old legends," the taxi driver objected.
"Just be quiet!" Ashla snapped at him.
"Hey, little one - this is still my taxi!" the Nimbanel hissed back.
Ashla had enough. Using the Force, she opened the door on the taxi driver's side, took him into the Force's stranglehold and catapulted him onto the roof on which the billboard was mounted.
"You're even worse than that stupid clone!" she heard the Nimbanel complaining from down on the roof, while his taxi glider just floated on.
Ashla left the taxi driver to his own devices. She climbed up to the driver's seat, took the wheel and floated slightly towards the Chancellor's office, always seeking cover between buildings or other gliders. Now she saw the Sith's Force lightning gone. Now her master would complete it.
Anakin Skywalker came up from behind. Ashla saw her master talking to the younger Jedi while Palpatine continued to sit limply and idle in the corner of the massive window frame. Good! Ashla thought. Apparently two Jedi are better than one. Skywalker's blue blade came to life with a spinning whirl, while Mace Windu's purple blade faded.
At that moment Ashla felt that nothing was right.
Force lightning shot from Palpatine's hands again - stronger and more powerful than ever before. And now this weapon of the Sith had lost all beauty for Ashla, as she saw her master flying out of the window wrapped in that blue braid - without his right hand and his lightsaber, as she only now realized in shock. She drove the stolen glider a little closer to her falling master, risking a quick look at the window of the Chancellor's office. Palpatine had stood up and seemed completely occupied with Anakin.
Good!
Using the Force, twelve-year-old Ashla pulled her master, who could no longer use the Force to cushion his fall without his right hand, until he came to rest on the roof of the glider. Now she glided quietly and slowly away with her injured master, stopping in a side street where Mace Windu climbed from the roof of the taxi glider to come inside.
"I knew it was right to take you as my Padawan. I'm proud of you, Ashla," Mace Windu said, dazed and moved.
"We have to go to the hospital immediately!" Ashla replied, as if she was embarrassed by the praise.
As they flew to the hospital, Mace Windu tried to reach Master Yoda. But the green grandmaster didn't answer his comlink. Mace Windu left him a message.
They finally arrived at the hospital.
"You need a new hand, Master Jedi," the doctor said after examining the wound. "You as Jedi hurt each other?" he wondered.
"Oh, it's better not to ask," Mace Windu said.
"This one should fit", the doctor explained with a smile. "It's the same model that Master Skywalker does wear."
"Then I'll take it," Mace Windu replied with bitterness in his eyes, knowing that it was precisely this artificial hand of the so-called Chosen One that had taken his own right hand.
As the operation took place, Mace heard his comlink buzzing. He accepted the conversation with his left hand and finally heard the familiar voice of Yoda.
"At least you still reach – I can. What the situation in the temple is?"
"I'm not in the temple. Skywalker came to me this morning to tell me who the second secret Sith Lord is. I then flew to the Chancellor's Office with Saesee Tiin, Agen Kolar and Kit Fisto to confront him."
"Palpatine - the Sith Lord is?" Yoda asked incredulously.
Mace Windu nodded. "I saw his red lightsaber - how he used it to kill the other three Jedi. Skywalker is now with him and on his side. Ashla is with me and we are waiting for my new right hand to be ready."
"Return to Coruscant - I soon will. Stay covered and away from the temple - you should … until contact you - I will!", Yoda instructed Mace Windu. "One more thing – trust the clone troopers – anymore you can't!"
With these words Yoda ended the connection.
"How was that?" the doctor asked, irritated.
Mace Windu began waving his left hand in front of the doctor's face. "You didn't hear anything," he said to the medic in an imploring voice.
"I didn't hear anything," the doctor repeated obediently.
"You've been adjusting my new hand this whole time," Mace continued in a commanding voice.
"I've been adjusting your new hand all this time, Master Jedi!" the doctor repeated mechanically and Ashla smiled sideways at her master.
༺═───═༻
Less than half an hour had passed when Shaak Ti felt an even greater unrest in the Force. Something hurt again. Jedi had died! No, that's not why she had given Anakin the glider! Another half hour later she sensed an approaching wave of disaster. Right here in the temple. Someone had broken into the Jedi Temple - someone who had just been here and who hadn't.
Her comlink buzzed. Master Yoda himself appeared as a blue hologram image to tell her from Kashyyyk: "Skywalker – right he was. Palpatine the secret second Sith Lord – he is."
Shaak Ti's eyes widened in horror.
"What about Kit Fisto, Saesee Tiin, Agen Kolar… Mace Windu? They should confront him!" the Togruta asked, dumbfounded.
She preferred to keep to herself the fact that she had allowed Anakin to take a glider to the scene of the incident.
"One with the Force - they are - except for Master Windu," Yoda replied with a fatalism that frightened Shaak Ti.
"And … Skywalker? I can feel him... here in the temple. But it's… different, darker."
"On Kashyyyk, the clones turned against me – they have," Yoda explained. "Against me and against Jedi everywhere in the galaxy. Trust the clones - any longer you can't. Defend the temple, even against Skywalker – you must!"
Shaak Ti took a deep breath at this warning and then exhaled very slowly.
"But the clones are always on our side …"
The connection suddenly broke off; Shaak Ti was alone again with herself and with the turbulent, alienated Force right at the heart of the Jedi Order. She listened into the resulting silence. There was a big, mean darkness approaching.
A few padawans and younglings suddenly came running into her room. Fear and terror appeared on their young faces.
"Master Shaak Ti. There are just too many. Skywalker and the clones - they kill all the Jedi. What are we supposed to do?" asked one of the young people, a small human boy no more than six years old.
No, there was no way she could defend the temple with these young Jedi. 'How could it come to this?' the Togruta asked herself. The clones had always fought on the side of the Jedi. On the side of the Republic. That's what they were created for. That's what Master Yoda had told her two years ago. And the Jedi were also the Republic. Were they still? Not anymore if the nominal commander in chief of the clone army, Chancellor Palpatine, suddenly saw things differently. But the clones were also people who felt and thought like other non-cloned people. How could they shoot at rational beings who had just before been their objects of protection, their brothers in arms, their comrades? Something wasn't right here.
"Come with me!" she said, leading the younglings and padawans down a hallway, away from the noisy blaster shots of the killing clones, who suddenly didn't seem to be themselves anymore. Finally the small landing platform at the back entrance was reached. Shaak Ti unlocked it and the door hissed open. Two small spaceships stood ready for urgent travelers.
"Ganodi, you can fly that ship," she said to a young, green Rodian. "J.K. Burtola, you control the other one. Hide somewhere and never come back here again until this spook stops! You know the emergency frequency!" she ordered the young people.
Shaak Ti waited until all of the youngsters and Jedi entrusted to her care had climbed into the two ships. The two small ships quickly took off from the hangar. Shaak Ti left the hangar and thought of Ashla. She could have asked the young men about her. But she was afraid of hearing what she didn't want to hear. However, she could still have hope within her. Until she would see Ashla again. And if not, hope would live on in her as long as she lived.
Would Skywalker now have yellow eyes like the Sith she had heard and read about during her training? Shaak Ti walked alone through the deserted corridors, getting closer and closer to the fighting. She remembered her first encounter with the clone troopers on Geonosis. At the time, it seemed as if these white-clad fighters had always been there to assist the Jedi. As if someone had pressed a switch, told them to do it, and they immediately internalized it. Everything the clone troopers did and said seemed so natural to her back then.
Pressed a switch. The thought struck her like a blinding bolt of lightning. What if Arc Trooper Fives had been right two months ago with his claim, which everyone else dismissed as a crazy conspiracy theory? What if this chip, which was supposedly implanted in the clones to inhibit aggression, served a much more monstrous purpose than the friendly Kaminoan Nala Se had so lullingly claimed to her at the time? And she, Shaak Ti, hadn't believed Fives either, she had even led him to Chancellor Palpatine to clear up all the ambiguities... and thus to a certain doom.
She imagined with horror what had really happened in Palpatine's office while she and Nala Se had waited cluelessly outside. Had Nala Se been clueless? Now the Kaminoan's stonewalling, her drug injection for Fives, Chancellor Palpatine's support for the Kaminoan's suggestion that the chips and Fives be taken to a Republic hospital suddenly made sense. Was that perhaps the only reason the clone army was created? For this very moment? To wipe out the Jedi after they had become so accustomed to their white comrades - after they had been lulled by their reliability, their military prowess and, above all, their unwavering loyalty?
Why didn't Hego Damask, a well-meaning citizen, know this when he commissioned the clone army? Why hadn't he realized that Palpatine wasn't what he claimed to be if the two of them were really as close as he had claimed to her back in his apartment? But when even all the Jedi who had constantly dealt with Palpatine hadn't realized this, how could the Muun have figured it out? Or had he even figured it out and had to die because of it? After all, he had been to the opera with Palpatine the next day. A cold shiver ran down her spine at the thought.
She heard the clone troopers getting closer and closer. She heard the hiss and cut of a lightsaber blade.
Skywalker!
She stood there resolutely. Her first instinct was to catch the traitor. But a voice in her head told her that this was wrong right now. No, she wouldn't face Skywalker! Not like that! Their new mission was to keep the Jedi Order alive. She had given herself this mission. Just now! And this mission would be impossible if she single-handedly defended the temple filled with corpses in a losing effort.
Now, however, she wanted to check whether another of Hego Damask's promises would come true.
'Will it become that bad?' she remembered her innocently astonished question to the Muun thirteen years ago.
'We won't hope so,' her inner ear heard Hego Damask's friendly answer, garnished with an enigmatic smile behind his perspirator mask.
Hego Damask had seen some disaster coming. He had wanted to protect her from this disaster when he gave her the strange-looking comlink. When, if not now, was the urgent moment to pull out this comlink to use it? She collected her thoughts and let calm spread through her.
Shaak Ti then activated the comlink entrusted to her thirteen years ago.
"This is Commander Shade," she heard the familiar voice of a clone trooper.
"This is General Shaak Ti. Execute Order 69!" she instructed the unknown clone.
"Right away ma'am. We'll be with you in five minutes. Find a place to escape," the clone explained as if he had always known her.
Without waiting for her answer, Shade ended the connection. She hadn't even given him a location. Was Commander Shade able to locate her using this comlink?
,Yes! it was the chip! That's how it had to be. Fives had been right!' she thought with another cold shiver.
After five minutes, Commander Shade appeared as promised with a battalion of about thirty clone troopers. Two dark gray bird wings were painted on his helmet.
"Come with me, ma'am," the white-uniformed commander said to the Jedi Master in an energetic, optimistic tone. "You can rest and strengthen yourself on board the Overlord. You really need it," he said, clearly concerned for her well-being. Then he gestured for her to follow him.
"Straight to the battle?" she asked in disbelieving horror.
"Believe me, ma'am. If we sneak around furtively, we only make ourselves suspicious. That's not possible today," Commander Shade replied and Shaak Ti decided to believe and trust him.
As they walked down the central aisle of the temple, she saw two young Jedi, perhaps sixteen years old, lying in the middle of the hallway. The human's blonde head had been neatly separated from the torso with a lightsaber. The other, black-haired Jedi, a Kiffar with a yellow horizontal stripe on his bronze face, had died from two blaster shots, the bleeding wounds of which she saw in his chest. She suppressed a feeling of nausea by forcing herself to look away. She had to move on, had to move forward!
Anakin Skywalker came towards them. Shaak Ti saw that he was wearing a black cloak with the hood pulled quite low over his forehead. As if he were ashamed! And she could see his eyes glowing yellow beneath the edge of that hood. So the legend was true! The new Sith had his drawn blue blade in his hand, searching for victims, while a previously unknown clone commander walked beside him. Where was Rex, who had always fought with Anakin?
"Commander Appo, we just want to get through here," Shade took the initiative, saluting the higher-ranking officer.
"What is your authorization code to leave here with the Jedi where we got Order 66?" Commander Appo asked suspiciously.
"No offense, Commander. We're just executing Order 69," Shade replied routinely.
"Copied. I understand, sir. Then have a good trip," Commander Appo replied in a jovial tone.
"Hey, what's this?", Skywalker snapped angrily to Appo. "Palpatine didn't tell me anything about Order 69!"
"There's a lot you don't know about clones, sir," Appo replied. "Order 69 was issued after Order 66 and therefore in this particular case breaks Order 66. It is an exception subroutine implanted on Kamino that needs to be executed right now," Appo further explained.
At this declaration, Darth Vader looked grimly at Shaak Ti with his yellow eyes, who looked back proudly and stoically. But the new Sith did not dare to question the unknown order. He saw no sign in Shaak Ti's expression that she was in the least concerned about what was happening in the temple. Who could know what his new master planned to do with the Jedi Master? After all, Shaak Ti was the mother of the Force-sensitive daughter of one of his master's friends. So he let the little entourage go.
Shaak Ti turned away from him as the clones around her followed her and their commander. Anakin watched the tall Togruta as her silhouette moved away from him step by step and passed through the gate of the temple outside, becoming smaller and smaller as she went. Soon Shaak Ti was just a narrow line with two horns, which would disappear behind the horizon at any moment. Just like the other Togruta named Ahsoka Tano back then. Back then it had been a warm, bright red dusk that his former padawan had walked into when she left him. Now, however, Shaak Ti disappeared into the blackest, darkest night Coruscant had ever seen. Or so it seemed to Darth Vader.
Shaak Ti finally reached the Overlord with Shade and his men, which was ready for them as promised.
"Where do you want to fly to?" Shade asked, as if Shaak Ti had just won a trip in the lottery.
"To Hypori," she said weakly, still in complete disbelief at what had just happened. She knew that in this remote, inhospitable world no one would look for scattered Jedi like her.
"Hypori?" Shade asked back incredulously. "There are only wilderness, battle droids and Geonosians."
"That's exactly why," replied Shaak Ti confidently.
The Overlord quickly took off into the pitch-black night sky of Coruscant. Shaak Ti looked down at the Jedi Temple one last time. She could see the array of lights marking the temple's towers to keep gliders and other flying companions at bay. But these lights had competition. This huge complex that had been their home for so many years was in flames! She thought of the many corpses of her Jedi brothers and sisters that she had had to see during her march with Shade past Skywalker in the temple. Then her gaze wandered further west into the Manarai district, where she could easily make out the battlements of the tall Kaldani Tower, which were also illuminated. Who would now be staying in the apartment on the top floor where she had been so happy back then? She abruptly turned her gaze away from the capital planet.
Finally the time had come to rest, eat and drink, and let Commander Shade explain Order 66, which his brothers were currently executing down and across the galaxy. At that moment she asked herself why the Force had wanted Hego Damask to have managed to save her posthumously via Order 69, while he had not been able to save himself back then thirteen years ago.
༺═───═༻
It took a few hours until bones were artificially lengthened, nerve tracts were connected to the corresponding artificial lines, and finally the black glove with the cuff that fit the forearm could be put on. The operation was completed. Mace Windu had received a new right hand. Master and Padawan left the clinic to find a room in the Lower Levels where they could wait for the promised call from Master Yoda.
"I never thought I'd say something like that, but waiting is driving me crazy," Ashla confessed to her master in the small room with half-moldy walls, looking out the small window into an artificially lit environment. There was no way to tell whether it was night or day - a sure sign that you were in the lower levels of Coruscant.
"Restlessness and impatience are fruits of the Dark Side, which is now fully rising, Ashla," Mace Windu explained to his padawan. "Anakin Skywalker couldn't wait either, like I advised him. That's exactly why he's with Palpatine now and we're here instead of the temple."
This sentence was enough to make Ashla fall silent in resignation. Until now, the young Muun-Togruta had always been sure that even after a long wait, either training or an excursion would follow; she had known that at some point she would go on a real mission alongside her master. But this waiting for nothing or for disaster was clearly getting on her nerves.
"You are right, master. And yet we have to fight the Sith at some point," Ashla demanded with conviction.
"We will first wait and see what Master Yoda says when he returns from Kashyyyk and contacts us," Mace Windu dampened her enthusiasm.
༺═───═༻
When Shaak Ti reached the planet Hypori with the Overlord, she said goodbye to Commander Shade.
"Thank you very much for the flight," she said, touched and still in a daze.
"It was a pleasure, ma'am. And make sure you don't run into us again. We and our brothers can no longer do anything for you from now on," Shade replied with regret in his voice.
"I understand, Commander," the Jedi replied, bowing her montral-crowned head in farewell.
Shade climbed back into the Overlord, which quickly rose into the skies of Hypori.
Shaak Ti watched the ship speed away. So this is where her collaboration with the clone army finally ended. The've saved her two years ago on Geonosis and now they brought her to her new safe space Hypori. She stood motionless until the Overlord finally disappeared as a small dot in the Hypori sky. Then she looked around. Shade had dropped her off on a plateau in the middle of a collection of bizarrely shaped rock formations. There would be a few smaller animals she could catch and fry. But Shaak Ti didn't want to stay on Hypori for too long. She had once fought against General Grievous and his rascals on this inhospitable planet. And there were still enough starships left on the planet from Grievous' armada at the time, one of which she would now repair and get ready for takeoff. To cover her tracks forever. At least for the time of the Empire.
Author's note: The scenes between Palpatine and Anakin in the Chancellor's office and between the still-Jedi Anakin Skywalker and Shaak Ti in front of the hangar are partly taken from the novel "Revenge of the Sith" by James Luceno (2008)
The Nimbanel taxi driver also appears in "Orders", TCW Season 6 (2014). He drives Fives to the clone bar there.