Part 17 – Medical Assistance – Part 4
"After that, it was just a matter of keeping the clones of the 332nd and the surviving crew members of the Tribunal going in and out of the med bay," Vekkif said, "And then once we had them going in and out of the med bay those that weren't as badly wounded received treatment from the medics on standby. When Masters Skywalker and Kenobi returned, we told them everything that had be recounted to us by survivors, and continued to count the number of those that were going in an out of the med bay."
"Those that survived and those that didn't make it?" Master Luminara asked.
"Yes, master." Vekkif said.
"And after that?" Master Windu asked.
"Following what I assume was Master Skywalker and Kenobi's conversation with the chancellor, they joined me and Bruce in the hanger," Vekkif said, "And we had informed the two of them that the number of deceased had gone down to 317. After that, we returned here."
"Nothing else to report?" Master Secura asked.
"Nothing." Vekkif said.
"We have 317 witnesses to his escape." Master Plo Koon said.
"And a sudden rejuvenated push by the droid army." Master Luminara said.
"Padawan Kirkwood passed along an idea to Vice Chancellor Organa," Obi Wan said, "He made the suggestion that a few probe droids be sent to Dathomir."
"A wise choice of actions." Master Windu said.
"We agree." Vekkif said.
"Thank you, Padawan Idrunni," Master Windu said as he gestured toward Master Kenobi.
Vekkif bowed before the masters and walked over to stand by Obi-Wan's side before Master Secura interjected, "If I may," she said, "Dathomir is closer to Felucia than Coruscant. I could bring my soldiers there, and we could find out."
"We still wouldn't know where to start looking," Master Kenobi said, "And if what we've heard is true, then Maul has probably established Dathomir as his seat of power. He'll have an army of droids waiting for you. Not to mention how many Nightbrothers are on the planet. With all due respect, it would be safer, and would provide more information to send probes rather than risk you on a mission when Felucia is still under siege by the separatists."
"Agreed," Master Windu said, "We will support the chancellor if he sends probe droids to Dathomir. In the meantime, we should turn our attention back to the separatists' renewed offensive. But in the meantime," he looked over at Vekkif, "Padawan Idrunni, would you excuse us? Your presence is no longer required."
Vekkif looked down at Obi-Wan who spoke, "Head to the library," he said, "Pick up on where you and Bruce were at before we found the Tribunal."
"Yes, master." Vekkif said.
After he departed, Obi-Wan turned to the council, "No one told him about Chancellor Palpatine's true identity?" Master Plo Koon asked.
"No," Master Windu said, "And nobody will. The secret of Chancellor Palpatine's identity is a secret that does not leave the walls of this room, or past anyone who was there."
"Take to our graves, this secret shall be." Yoda said.
"Agreed." Master Windu said.
"Yes," Obi-Wan said, "But we're all thinking the same thing, aren't we? About the recounting of Maul's breakout?"
"He felt the Chancellor's death," Master Luminara said, "It drove him over the edge, and he broke out."
"Or maybe something else," Obi-Wan said, all eyes fell on him, "Maul was Palpatine's apprentice, and we don't know much about the Sith's teachings past what was looted from the Sith archives during the last war. Palpatine could have planned for Maul to succeed him as a backup plan all along. Dooku and Grievous were obvious choices, but he could have planned for the possibility that the two of them would fail and leaving Maul alive would have left him at least one potentially worthy successor."
"It's a possibility," Master Plo Koon said, "But as of now, we have nothing to go on. If we send anyone after Maul, we could be sending them after nothing."
"Agreed," Master Windu said, "For now, I say we hold the line, and wait to see sending the probe droids to Dathomir provides us with any useful information. All in favor?"
"I." Master Plo Koon said.
"I." Master Luminara said.
"I." Master Mundi said.
"I." Master Allie said.
"I." Master Billaba said.
"All opposed," Master Windu asked, no one spoke up, "Very well. Is there any other business the council requests?"
"Yes," Master Plo Koon said, "I would like to raise a motion concerning Padawan Tano."
Elsewhere…
As Bruce was waiting outside Ahsoka's room, he heard footsteps and saw Jesse walking up to him, "Lieutenant," he said standing up to greet the clone, "I wasn't expecting you."
"I came to give you the numbers on the survivors," Jesse said before pointing at the door, "And to visit her. How's she doing?"
"Still in surgery," Bruce said, "No word yet. What's the latest?"
"Good news, all those we saved from the Tribunal are alive." Jesse said.
"And the bad news?" Bruce asked.
Jesse exhaled strongly, "Quite a few of them are either going to require intensive surgery or risk becoming cripples for the rest of their lives," he said, "A whole lot of them need replacement limbs."
"Great," Bruce said, "Just great. What about Rex?"
"Rex is expected to recover shortly," Jesse said, "He'll still need a while in a bacta tank, and he also is in surgery. The explosion scorched most of his upper body below his throat, and he'll probably have to deal with a concussion for a little while."
"Alright," Bruce said as he slapped Jesse on the arm, "Thanks for letting me know."
"No problem," Jesse said, "I'll go see to the others."
"Before that," Bruce said as he grabbed Jesse's shoulder, "Why don't you find a place to rest? You were up all the way back to Coruscant. You're exhausted."
"Maybe I do need to find a place to rest." Jesse said.
"Thanks for the update." Bruce said.
"No problem." Jesse said.
After Jesse walked away, Bruce sat back down, and leaned back against the wall before exhaling strongly, "This is going to be a long wait," R2 gave a few whistles, "Please tell me you just said, 'you're not lying'," R2 beeped happily twice, "We're getting there, buddy."
Bruce sat there for two hours and was bored out of his skull sitting there with R2, he had resorted to following the lines on the walls and trying to remember the drum rhythm to his favorite song "The Heart of Rock & Roll" by playing it on his knees but failing miserably.
While he was waiting, his mind then wandered back to Earth, more questions about back home, "How far into the past was he?" "Were his brothers behaving?" "How many times would someone say to the members of his family 'I'm so sorry about Bruce' or 'I'm sorry, he was so young'."
He also wondered what his family would say if they could see him now. Would his father be proud, or would he complain about the fact that he wasn't the top student at the academy? Would his mother try and go out of her way to try and visit him? Then again, with the code preaching no contact, he would highly doubt his mother could. But when it came to his mom, come hell or high water, Bruce doubted even a seasoned Jedi Master like Yoda could stop her from seeing him. Ok, maybe not Yoda, but maybe Master Windu.
He didn't have to think long about his boredom though as the door opened to reveal the GH-7 who came flying up to Bruce.
Standing up and straightening his robe, Bruce raised the question, "How is she?"
"She'll be fine," the GH-7 said, "We've managed to fix the damage."
"Give me the details." Bruce said.
"She will have a concussion," the GH-7 said, "But it should be minor, thanks to the time that she stayed in the bacta tank. Unfortunately, the bacta was unable to repair her internal damage. We had to remove about five feet of her small intestine and about a foot of her large intestine. Her lungs were damaged, but we repaired them as best we could, and she shouldn't need any therapy."
"What else?" Bruce asked.
"Not much else to say," the GH-7 said, "She'll need to rest for a while."
"Any idea when she'll wake up?" Bruce asked.
"Not at the moment," the GH-7 said, "She could wake up in the next few minutes or it could take her a few days. If I were you sir, I'd be there in case she wakes up. A familiar face might help with her recovery."
"Thank you," Bruce said as he gestured for R2 to follow.
Bruce and R2 entered Ahsoka's room to see the Togruta asleep on the medical bed, the bandages on her face didn't subtract from how she looked.
R2 beeped happily as he wheeled passed Bruce to stand next to the bed, the beeps that followed seemed to be an expression of, "Good to see you again."
"Happy to see a family member," Bruce asked, R2 looked back at Bruce and beeped happily, "Just don't try and rouse her, ok? She needs her rest."
R2 beeped once in what Bruce hoped was him saying, "Perhaps you're right."
Bruce took a seat on the couch that was provided in the room, definitely more comfortable than the chair back at the temple library.
Of course, sitting down came with pain as he suddenly felt something poking him where his back pockets would be.
Reaching back, he felt the handle of a lightsaber, and when he retrieved it, he remembered he had attached Ahsoka's sabers to the back of his belt and forgot about them.
He retrieved them and placed them next to him on the couch before sitting back on the couch, he looked over, and saw various speeders through the window above the door, it was very relaxing, so relaxing he could feel himself start to doze off.
After dozing off, he awoke to find that he was sitting on the couch, but R2 was gone, and so was the bed and Ahsoka.
"R2," Bruce asked, Bruce walked over to the door, and when he stepped outside, it was night, "R2? Where are you?"
He continued down the hallway, he noticed that marks started to appear on the walls, and it seemed that the marks had been made by a lightsaber.
As he kept going, he heard the sounds of a lightsaber duel ahead of him, and the sound of a loud-pitched astromech droid's squeal.
"R2," Bruce yelled as he ran around the hall that seemed to go on forever, but what distracted him was the large explosion he saw off in the distance toward where the Jedi temple was.
He looked over and saw the temple being ripped to pieces by a series of smaller explosions, and the sky suddenly turned from a peaceful night into a warzone as droid and clone ships started flying overhead, firing indiscriminately at each other, civilian speeders, and buildings.
Another high-pitched droid squeal drew his attention, and as he turned, the hallway that turned into a hallway in the temple that was filled with the lightsaber-scarred bodies of high-ranking members of the Jedi Order.
He ran ahead to see that the bodies started to turn into those he knew, the clones that accompanied him on the Tribunal, the clones on the Tribunal he saved, then Vekkif, Obi-Wan, Padme, Ashoka, and just ahead was C-3PO who had been cut into bits, and R2 who was smashed, shooting sparks from his broken right leg.
"R2," Bruce exclaimed as he ran forward, "R2, what happened?"
"He's… too powerful," R2 said in a surprisingly English, but heavily pixilated voice, "Can't stop him."
"Stop who R2," Bruce asked, "Stop who?"
R2 looked just over Bruce's shoulder, "Him…" R2 said before shutting down.
Bruce looked over his shoulder, and there standing over him, with an ignited lightsaber, carrying Anakin's decapitated head was Darth Vader.
"Look on your master, liar," Vader said as he threw Anakin's head past Bruce.
"It's your fault, Padawan," Anakin said, "You did this."
"NO," Bruce yelled as he wheeled around, but when he drew his lightsaber, the top of the saber was gone, as if someone had already cut it with another lightsaber.
Before he could move, Vader seized him by the throat, and with no effort dragged him over to a nearby pillar and lifted him above the ground.
"You stopped my accession," Vader said as he tightened his grip on Bruce's throat, "YOU prevented my birth, and I will have my revenge."
"You're not real," Bruce said, "You can't be."
Vader squeezed tighter, "Yes, I am," he said, "We both know you're not supposed to be here. But I am, and you stopped that. And I will do so by using you to destroy the order. We will tear the foundation apart and rebuild something better. Something that will enable the Sith to rule the galaxy as it should be."
"I won't let that happen." Bruce said.
"You can't stop me," Vader said before extinguishing his lightsaber and reaching up to toss the helmet aside, revealing Bruce's face where Anakin's would have been, "Because I am you," he then reignited his lightsaber, aimed it directly at where Bruce had been shot, and when he trusted it towards his chest, a sudden rush of water hitting his face drew him back to reality.
Bruce rolled off the couch and found himself back in the medical center on Coruscant, as he pushed himself to kneel, coughing out the water that had hit him, he heard Anakin's voice standing over him with a gentle hand on his back, "Bruce," he heard, "Bruce, are you ok?"
Bruce looked over to see a worried Anakin kneeling next to him, "I…" Bruce began, still coughing, "I don't know."
"Come on," Anakin said as he helped Bruce sit upright, "A vision?"
"More like a nightmare." Bruce said.
"You can tell us later." Anakin said.
"Us?" Bruce asked.
"Over here," he heard from over Anakin's shoulder, and saw Ahsoka sitting upright in the bed.
"Hi." Was all Bruce could say.
To be continued…