The Force Wills - Chapter 120

The beeping of a slow but steady heart rhythm filled the Royal medical infirmary.

Anakin felt like a permanent scowl had etched itself on his face as he stared at the unconscious form of Obi-Wan floating in a full immersion bacta tank, who still had the form and face of Hardeen, as the Royal doctors had flat out refused the idea of reverting or removing the nanotech alterations whilst he was injured to this extent.

Obi-Wan had by sheer instinct already induced himself into a healing coma, which was using the Force and the bacta surrounding him to work on the concussion, cracked skull, numerous broken bones and overpressure tissue damage to the majority of his back.

“You Jedi are something else,” General Panaka remarked, as the head of the RNSF walked into the opulent infirmary, carrying a datapad in his right hand. “Good to see you again, General Skywalker.”

“Likewise, General,” Anakin nodded, shaking the man’s hand. There were quite a few streaks of gray these days in the hair of Naboo’s senior military leader, a combination of age and stress. “Is that the forensic report?”

“Yes,” Panaka gazed into the bacta with hints of wonder in his eyes. “Our investigators released preliminary findings. The bomb was disguised within the lining of the sniper rifle carry case. It seems Dooku is harder to fool than the Jedi Council thought.”

“Clearly,” Anakin folded his arms. “What of the two RNSF soldiers?”

“Only one survivor,” Panaka said grimly. “General Kenobi seems to have used his own body to shield him. The other had to be reassembled into a body bag.”

Anakin winced internally as he imagined the scene. Obi-Wan, clearly sensing the indirect danger to himself and the two troopers mere moments before the blast went off, had to make the choice on who to save before the bomb went off.  

“The bounty hunters?”

“Their interrogations are still ongoing, but we have testimony from the kyuzo and frenk hunters that Dooku was indeed on Naboo. Whether that is still the case, is a matter of debate.”

“They could only have arrived here via cloaked ship, Dooku could simply be hiding, waiting for us to lower our guard or he has already left,” Anakin theorized.

“Precisely the issue,” Panaka nodded. “Your padawan has commandeered the RNSF bodyguard detachment for the queen, Senator Amidala and practically every other VIPs security currently still on-planet. She claims this was your direct order.”

“Correct,” Anakin said immediately. Typical Ahsoka, interpreting orders ‘creatively’ for maximum benefit. “She has personally fought Dooku before and with an army of bodyguards at her disposal will make it very difficult for the count to potentially take any hostages as a distraction. We must still assume that the chancellor,” Anakin gestured to Palpatine’s nearby bio bed, “is the primary target.”

Palpatine’s face was covered with an oxygen mask, aiding his body to filter out the nasty gas that was keeping him unconscious.

Anakin had to give Palpatine credit for the level of Self-Control the man possessed. The doctor’s examination had shown exactly what was to be expected from an old man exposed to weaponized anesthetic gas.

In the next bed, was a prone Mace Windu, the Jedi Master already in his own healing trance to rid himself of the gas effects. It would just be a few hours until the council member was back on his feet.

Anakin had stationed the dozen Red Guard outside the Royal infirmary doors, along with every Senate Commando doing randomized patrols on this level of the palace. They’d at least act to slow Dooku down somewhat and give him advanced warning of the Sith’s approach.

“I’ve also been asked by the queen on the possibility of resuming the festival, at least the public portions of it,” Panaka stated, clearly inviting Anakin’s opinion.

“Let me guess, she thinks that allowing it to be called off entirely is unacceptable and letting the enemies of Naboo win.”

“Those weren’t her exact words but it was the gist of it. My own opinion is that now that the bounty hunters are in custody and the immediate plot foiled, that we should allow the citizenry their festival.”

“There are the optics of this to consider,” Anakin sighed. He hated politics, but he recognized at least what a tool it could be when used properly. “All right, you’ll have no objections from me. I’m sure it’s what the chancellor would want as well.”

“We’ll keep our security tight, I’ve instructed the RNSF pilot corps to be on standby and do scanning sweeps for any anomalies. We might get lucky and spot whatever cloaked ship Dooku is using.”

“It’s your planet and it can’t hurt at this point, general.”

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I stared out the window, gazing down the main public plaza leading towards the palace, where more than a decade ago the parade celebrating Naboo’s victory over the Trade Federation had taken place.

Now it was again filled to the brim with people celebrating the Festival of Light.

It was generally held at night in the first place to allow for the fireworks, but the naboo demonstrated the resilience that had seen them through the invasion, adapting the festival on the fly to daytime and holding an impromptu fair; filled with demonstrations of local artists and performers, market stalls selling delicacies and merchandise. Even the pyrotechs had neatly pivoted their fireworks to deliver payloads of brightly colored powders that sent strokes of color into the sky like a giant brush sweeping across the airspace.

I saw all this, but the majority of my mind was devoted to keeping a watch on this floor of the Royal wing which held the queen and all the other dignitaries.

Padme exited her bedroom, fiddling the last of her long hair into a large bun behind her head. She was dressed elegantly as if she was expecting to formally return to the festival; an embroidered creamy beige dress that bared her neck and shoulders, with a corset that while hugging her form tightly wasn’t pushing in uncomfortably. The direct sun caught her trailing dress and it illuminated the folds, changing the color into a bright white - a photosensitive fabric? Combined with my prescribed fitness routine for her… she was stunning, fit, gorgeous and Anakin would probably take one look at her and promptly divest her of that dress.

I made sure to properly memorize every detail… perhaps a painting?

She gave a complicated look to the back of my armored form.

“Ahsoka, did you get any sleep at all?”

“I managed two hours of meditation, but my vigilance cannot wane.”

“Would Dooku-”

I raised my hand to interrupt her question. “There is no certainty, but I would prefer the possibility to remain off the table. I know him well enough to say he will strike when we least expect and at a location no one would believe possible.”

“In the palace?”

I nodded, “The only question is when.”

“So going into the festival is out of the question?”  

“While there is a certain conventional wisdom in using the crowd to blend in, we are dealing with a Sith who can use the Force to track down anyone he wants to. The crowd would only cloud my own senses and give him the opportunity to grab you or any of the others. You can tell the queen and the others they can watch from balconies, but I need them where they are.”

“I’ll do so,” she nodded and came to stand next to me, looking out over the festival and her people almost defiantly celebrating in the face of adversity. “Seeing something like this brings relief and even hope to my heart.”

“The Naboo are a credit to the galaxy.”

She looked at the side of my helmet and her thoughts reached out. ‘Even though the most powerful Sith in centuries came from here?’

‘That the enemy is from Naboo is immaterial. It does not reflect badly on you or your people, Padme. The Dark Side when used properly can twist even the brightest light into darkness. Palpatine chose from a very young age to begin walking on that path.’

‘Really?’

‘His fall stemmed from a contentious relationship with his father, Cosinga Palpatine. You of course know that the Palpatine family is an old one among the Naboo. The family had settled in the Lake Country since Naboo’s original founding and colonization by humans. Young Sheev was already experiencing the early vestiges of his own strength in the Force. Whether his father and family were aware of it, I’m not sure, but as he was the eldest son, the name and wealth of the family would flow to Sheev. I’m sure Cosinga would not want his eldest son and heir to be carted off to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant as a foundling.’

‘Yes. I remember my grandfather speaking of Cosinga. He was a staunch isolationist and didn’t want Naboo modernizing and further expanding its interests into the greater sector and galaxy. The entire family getting killed in that starship accident except for… ‘  I felt Padme’s thoughts race as she made the deduction, given what she now knew. ‘Tell me he didn’t!’

‘I have to disappoint you, Padme. He did. Sheev, in his late teens, butchered his entire family and destroyed the family starship, portraying it as an accident. You see he didn’t want to be held back anymore by his backwards thinking father. At that time, he had already begun delving into Sith lore and was being recruited by the previous Sith Lord, Darth Plagueis aka Hego Damask II. Cosinga wanted his son away from Damask’s influence, but Plagueis bid his aspiring apprentice to undergo the rite of ‘Shedding the Chains’. It’s where they remove anything from their own lives they perceive as holding back their own potential for power or could act as a weakness, which includes family, friends or even a lover.’

She folded her hands together and closed her eyes. ‘Not exactly a topic or conversation I imagined having with you today.’

‘But necessary,’ I thought strongly. ‘It’s time that you know more about the enemy, since I’m confident you can protect yourself from his general scrutiny. You need to know who you are truly fighting against in the Senate, Padme.’

She stared into the jubilant, happy crowds below us. ‘Couldn’t we have this conversation on any other day?’   

‘The problem is that I can’t have this conversation with you at any other point in time safely. Coruscant is entirely his with the Shroud over it. I can’t keep an eye on the future there to monitor the probability lines whilst I speak to you. Whilst the enemy is here, I’ve been able to explore more and run some tests on him. I’ve also investigated his history here more. He’s clearly gone to some effort to erase the records and he’s been mostly successful, but most of the old families of Naboo keep their own vaults and records, separately from the central Royal archives and he can’t get to all of them.’

Padme felt a spike of anger and indignation, ‘That he destroyed Royal records shouldn’t surprise me at this point. Did he do this when I was queen?’

‘No, it happened before your time, during the reign of King Tapalo.’ Tapalo had been the last male monarch the Naboo had elected. The man responsible for opening the planet’s markets of plasma to the Trade Federation and the greater galaxy. That legacy combined with a few other controversies which saw Naboo rise to represent the Chommel sector in the Senate, was why the planet generally saw fit to elect female monarchs. ‘Incidentally, you can also thank Palpatine and Damask’s influence for Tapalo’s election to the throne.’

Padme stared at me with wide eyes and had she not had my training, I’m sure her jaw would’ve hit the floor. Instead she just turned back to seemingly admire the festivities below. ‘The Sith wanted Naboo brought out of its isolation, just so we could be the flashpoint?’

‘Good deduction, Padme. Yes. The entire dynamic of Outer Rim exploitation by uncaring megacorps and the Republic turning a blind eye, was precisely a situation encouraged and engineered by the Sith in secret since the beginning of the Ruusan Reformation. In Naboo, Damask and Palpatine found the spark that would light the flames of the war we’re fighting now.

‘To return to Palpatine, you’ll note he’s never referred to by his actual first name. That is deliberate, as he sees the name as something from Cosinga, therefore to be cast off. In his formative years, he bounced from prestigious academy to academy on various worlds across the galaxy, but was usually expelled within a few years for some petty misdemeanor or issue. His father’s money and influence was always there to smooth things over. Even when his family was dead, he used the sympathy generated from the tragedy to manipulate things to his favor. This led him to dispense with any conventional notions of morality. He wanted to be on a pedestal above all others, with his own unique code of ethics, as he defines it.’

‘So we can’t even approach understanding him until we know that code.’

I nodded, ‘Which boils down to two things; firstly, in preservation of himself, there is no cost that he isn’t willing to pay or make others pay. Secondly, in pursuit of greater power, there are no boundaries, with an addendum that the power and knowledge must always be his and no one else’s.’ 

Her mind struggled to even imagine such a person, let alone that the kind Palpatine she had known from her youth was such a monster in the first place, ‘How do you even begin to approach fighting someone like that without becoming like them?’

‘That is a question whose answer I’m still searching for, Padme. Of his early political life, I don’t need to explain much, it’s a matter of public record that he didn’t do well. Losing elections and missing many positions of potential influence, but this was entirely by design. It meant he could disappear for months and even years at a time, explained as him going on sabbaticals to learn from his failures. Actually, he was directly under the tutelage of Darth Plagueis on a variety of worlds, honing his skills in the Dark Side but also his political skill and other historical education.’

‘Finally, Darth Plagueis saw that the galaxy and the Republic had reached the required levels of decadence and corruption. He ordered his apprentice to enter into the Senate and they did so by assassinating the current senator of Naboo at the time, Vidar Kim.’

Padme’s lips pursed and I could feel her shock. ‘Kim’s death was his work?’

‘Instigated by Palpatine, arranged by the assassin Sate Prestage and actually done by a faceless, contracted Maladian assassin on Coruscant. That’s another signature of Palpatine, his actions always have at least three layers of separation between himself and the deed, sometimes even more. He also plans for each layer to be sacrificed or cut off the moment it begins to be investigated by anyone, ensuring that he’s never identified as the true mastermind.

‘So he stood and was elected as Naboo and the Chommel sector’s representative in the Senate. He also began his first of many friendships of influence, the first of which was the very son of the man he had just killed. Jedi Knight Ronhar Kim, who incidentally should’ve been killed by the Maladian, but the Jedi managed to defend himself. Instead of trying to finish the job, Palpatine approached the young Jedi under a mask of condolence and instead offered an ear to listen and became a confidant. Sound familiar?’

‘Anakin,’ she nodded in understanding.

‘That’s another pattern, he becomes a close ‘friend’ to his enemies or anyone he needs something from or to manipulate. He’s a listener, a seemingly non-judgemental figure you could imagine yourself saying anything to, no matter how personal or confidential. It’s a persona and skill that’s served him well, as history has demonstrated. Now he occupies the most powerful office in the galaxy, which he is steadily maneuvering to make more powerful. Do you see what’s at the end of that road, Padme?’

She was silent for a few moments, her clever political mind journeying down the path I had given. ‘The same thing as the CIS Parliament. We’ll become a powerless, toothless machine that gives lip service to representative democracy and sign off on anything he says out of fear for what he’ll do if we don’t.’

‘Eventually, yes. Can you go further down that road? Logically, what’s next?’

She tried but was unable. ‘Sorry, I can’t imagine it.’

‘Dissolution.’

‘But… but how? With no Senate to control-’

I answered her by sending her visions of two key moments in time.

… a fleet of star destroyers, pummeling the surface of a planet to slag as a Base Delta Zero order is carried out…

…the Death Star, sending out its super laser, blasting the surface of Scarif, creating a chain reaction of events to render the planet uninhabitable… and eventually Alderaan… the perfected laser overcoming the gravitational binding energy easily and scattering the planet into an expanding asteroid field…

Padme hugged herself and a treacherous tear leaked from her right eye.

‘Fear, Padme. Sheer naked fear is how he will mold the galaxy to bow to his whim. Palpatine currently only has the GAR, which he will transform with his New Order into a force to his own liking. Casting off any legacy the Jedi may have left on it. The final weapon you saw is something that both sides of this ‘conflict’ are working on separately. Yes, it’s as big as you saw.’

‘Was that… Alderaan?’ I could acutely feel her raw anguish and in that moment I hated myself for showing it to her, even as I felt similar anguish at the planet’s destruction that wormed through my gut and heart.

‘Yes.’

For a while we both just stood there, staring out at the lively festival, standing in stark contrast to our dark, anguished thoughts.

‘We will find a way.’

Her emotions rallied, replaced with an unyielding determination that might as well have been as strong as neutronium.

‘We will, Padme,’ I agreed. ‘Yet remember, his defeat, however it happens, will just be the first step of a long, bitter process. The Republic will have to also unfrak itself, redressing the faults that the Sith took advantage of and the dangers in that are just as deadly.’

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“Excellency, this isn’t a good idea,” Anakin said belatedly.

It was late evening in the palace and Palpatine had finally woken up, seemingly recovered from his ordeal.

“Nonsense, my boy. I’ve been off my feet long enough after the attack and I refuse to waste precious time lying in bed on some doctor’s orders,” Palpatine said dismissively, as they strode with a serene pace through the magnificent halls.

The chancellor was clearly enjoying the walk with a small smile on his face, eyes ranging over everything, as if he was fixing the moments firmly into memory.

“I’d also feel much better about your safety if we had some Red Guard here as well.”

“You are much too humble about your own abilities, Anakin. At this moment, you are all the security I need. As well trained they are, there are times when their presence is onerous. Now, as I was saying, we will leave as soon as Queen Neyutnee’s banquet is complete tomorrow evening. I also want to say goodbye to Senator Amidala, since she has consultation duties on Naboo that will keep her here.”

Anakin frowned as his own limited foresight flared to the forefront. “That’s a pity. Though Padme didn’t mention any banquet on the itinerary.”

“It is something of a surprise. The Naboo have not forgotten you and the role you’ve played in saving this planet numerous times now. It would be foolish of them to let you go back into the galaxy without holding a banquet in your honor, now that you’re here. Do try to act surprised when it happens.”

Anakin chuckled, “I will try, excellency.”

“Good. Now I won’t get in trouble with the queen,” Palpatine smirked with a good natured mischievous look in his eyes. “Now, while I have you here, I must congratulate you on your masterful strategy. Sending Master Kenobi undercover was rather inspired.”

Anakin behind his many masks, grumbled in annoyance at the unfolding events. Even as he’d been warned it was coming, actually living it now was trying his patience. How could Ahsoka stand living like this?

He shook his head, “That plan was not mine, excellency.”

“Oh?” Palpatine raised a surprised brow.

“No, it was Mace Windu’s. For a long time, I was kept in the dark by the council. It was only as we neared Naboo that I was informed.”

“Really? Interesting. I was under the impression that the Jedi always worked as a team. Ah, here we are.” Palpatine turned at the next intersection and approached a tall set of doors. “Good to know my memory of the palace is as sharp as ever.” They parted obediently at the duo’s approach.

Beyond was an expansive room that he knew Ahsoka would drool over, as it was a classical library filled with traditional paper books bound in leather on numerous shelves adorning the walls and movable stacks. The center of the room was filled with a few dozen study desks made of wood with chairs tucked in behind each.

Half standing on a small ladder to reach higher was Prime Minister Sio Bibble, idly browsing through an open book in his hands, whilst off to one side a tall, burly, RNSF soldier was clearly acting as bodyguard to the minister.

“Ah, Minister Bibble, catching up on some late night reading?” Palpatine asked pleasantly.

Before Bibble could even answer, Anakin had thrown and activated his lightsaber, sending it surging towards the soldier in a blur of spinning blue.

It surged blade first into the soldier’s chest before he willed it to move down and spin in a circle, effectively bisecting the RNSF soldier…

… the holomatrix disguise failed as the two smoking halves of a Magnaguard droid clattered to the floor.

The lightsaber returned to Anakin’s hand in the next moment and he was already stepping in front of Palpatine, pointing the tip of the blade at the shocked Bibble with a dark scowl on his face.

“Drop the act, Dooku,” Anakin sneered.

‘Bibble’ started chuckling, closing the book and putting it gently back in its spot on the shelf, before his entire form flickered and flashed with blue residual light as the holomatrix was shut down, revealing the intrigued face of the count of Serenno.

“That was remarkably quick, young Skywalker,”  Dooku complemented, unclipping the holodisguise device from his brown tunic. “Out of curiosity, what gave it away?”

“You might be able to hide your presence in the Force, Dooku. What you can’t hide, even with that holo disguise, is your height. Bibble is many things, but he’s not over 1.9 meters tall. Nice try using the ladder to obfuscate it.”

Dooku held up the small holo device before pocketing it, “A useful technology that the late bounty hunter Sinrich has donated to the cause.”

The Force twisted in the room and the library door slammed shut under Dooku’s power, whilst another Mangaguard emerged. He stepped off the ladder and brought the hilt of his lightsaber to hand.

“Chancellor, do try to stay back,” Anakin advised, as he insistently pushed Palpatine to stand against the door.

The undisguised Magnaguard rushed forward, twirling its electrostaff as quickly as the machine could, attacking high and low.

Anakin deflected both hits with a visible contemptuous ease, before lifting the droid with the Force, immobilizing its arms and a single upward slash sent two long smoking sections of the war droid to clatter to the floor.

He stepped forward, lifting his blade into the overhead ready stance of Djem So.

Dooku’s red blade activated with a snap-hiss, bringing to his right side in classic Makashi. “Not even going to try to use the pieces of those droids to attack me, Skywalker?”

“What would be the point?”

“Wise,” Dooku acknowledged.  

They slowly advanced on each other, studying, searching for weaknesses in attack or defense, the two blades humming through the air.

The study desks in the way would be rather annoying and channel the fight.

The library doors suddenly opened, revealing another Magnaguard disguised as an RNSF soldier. It didn’t break Anakin’s focus, even as the droid grabbed the surprised Palpatine by the arm.

“Ah, unhand me,” grumbled the chancellor with annoyance.

Anakin began the fight, tapping into the Force, attacking the Sith’s left side, channeling kinetic energy along the blade

Dooku raised an intrigued eyebrow and deflected the attack with the minimum effort possible, redirecting the Force attack as well.

The residual kinetic energy hit one of the desks, flipping it over to smash into a nearby bookcase, sending tomes spilling out onto the floor.

Dooku retaliated with a twirling strike towards Anakin’s head.

The deceptively elegant movement belied the power that the Jedi had to counter as he intercepted the strike with a diagonal block across his body.

Anakin pushed with the Force and his blade, overpowering Dooku briefly and launching into a series of hard probing slashes, aiming for the Sith’s head and left arm. 

This kept Dooku’s blade and right arm in the inner ring and across his body, forcing the count back toward the open library door.

Anakin threatened a blade lock as he blurred into rapid attacks for Dooku’s throat, pushing hard on the Sith’s blade.

Dooku had enough of retreating though. Their joined blades threatened to push uncomfortably close to his chest.

The Sith unleashed a sudden Force Push to break the lock, catching Anakin only slightly as he countered with a gestureless Push of his own.

It did the job of creating some space, but Anakin was having none of it, charging in again, channeling more strength in the Force.

Dooku interrupted the charge by sending a wooden desk shooting towards Anakin’s side.

Anakin stopped the desk cold with his own TK before it could impact, ducked underneath it and sent it screaming off to the side.

Getting into a kinetic battle with the Force over debris was the last thing he wanted here. 

Dooku had other ideas, lifting two desks and a storm of books from the shelves.

An indirect Force Push shunted aside the desks as Anakin continued his blurring advance, whilst he charged straight through the books, willing a simple kinetic shield in front of him.

Far from being a simple kinetic attack, Dooku had the books flipped open with pages stiffened with the Force, acting like blades.

Anakin jumped into the Falling Avalanche and stabbed his blade straight towards Dooku’s chest with the strength of a Force Wave behind the assault.

The Sith’s eyes widened but he managed to counter with his own mastery of the Force; cutting through the majority of Anakin’s energy, sending it to either side of him, where it missed Palpatine who was being manhandled into position behind Dooku.

The Wave remnants slammed into the inner library walls, the permacrete shuddered and cracked under the assault.

The entire room trembled with the residual energy and it rang the entire palace’s structure like a bell.

Dooku stopped Anakin’s blade by letting a heavy wooden chair take the piercing lightsaber blade.

It only just managed to stop the tip a few centimeters from Dooku’s chest.

Anakin stepped forward, pushing with body weight and the Force.

Dooku’s teeth gritted, his beard rippling as his eyes glowed dark orange as he pulled on more and more of the Dark Side to resist, yet he was still being pushed back.

Palpatine was pulled aside by the droid, allowing Dooku more room.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Palpatine’s expression.

His face was flat, his eyes wide with fright and apprehension at the fight happening so close to him, naturally fearing for his own life at the displays of power. Yet Anakin managed to catch the slightest glimpse of a satisfied, eager glint in those eyes.

It vanished in the next moment and returned to the mask of a frightful old man.

Dooku raised his hand and countered with his own Force Wave.

Anakin felt he could counter and cut through the attack, but he had a deception to maintain.

The Wave smashed through his defenses and he felt himself picked up into the air, sending him flying backward to meet one of the unyielding structural pillars of the room.

He immediately bled away the momentum into the Force, flipped into a backward somersault to land with his feet against the pillar.

A quick flex with the Force, shooting a Push from his feet sent Anakin hurtling back in a blur of Force Speed.

Anakin attacked with a slash again to Dooku’s left side as he landed within range.

The Sith snarled with annoyance and angled his blade to the floor for a reverse block.

Anakin riposted off the block, attacking his enemy’s head, forcing Dooku into a high guard in the middle ring of defense.

“Go,” ordered the Sith, as they began trading rapid strikes, slashes and stabs into each other’s defenses.

The disguised Magnaguard began pulling Palpatine out of the library.

Dooku turned into a bastion of absolute defensive Makashi as he also retreated out the library, absorbing Anakin’s intensive offense with visible effort.

Anakin grit his teeth as he probed left, right, high and then suddenly low as he attacked and chased after the Sith.

‘Skyguy, VIPs getting attacked by disguised commando droids and magnaguards,’ Ahsoka warned. ‘All conventional RNSF reinforcement that could be sent to you are also engaged or killed, FRAK THIS… die you bucket of bolts!’

Dooku just stepped out of range briefly to avoid his feet getting cut off.

Their fight carried them down the corridor and up a wide flight of stairs that was leading outside the palace.

Anakin took advantage of the uneven footing as they traversed their fight up the steps.

He changed abruptly to Soresu, dodging a side slash from Dooku across his body, and twirling his blade in a single hand to bat at the retreating Sith’s blade, adding a ton of force and speed to the blow.

The abrupt change of style was just enough.

Dooku’s blade was totally out of position and unable to stop Anakin from a blurring kick to the inside of the Sith’s shin.

“Argghh!” 

The count screamed in pain as his balance was completely lost and it was all he could do to prevent his right leg from simply shattering under the blow.

Dooku took the pain, further empowering himself through the Dark Side and managed to raise his own blade to defend another Force empowered Falling Avalanche that shattered the surface of the marble staircase all around his prone form.

Anakin pushed down hard into the blade lock, his lips pursed and eyes a storm of fury.

The joined blades screamed as they competed against each other into the gloomy halls of the palace.

He twisted his blade, smoothly transferring the grip to his left hand, letting his bionic right arm surge forward and grab Dooku around the neck.

Anakin began to squeeze.

The Count of Serenno was left with only one option to save his own life.

Force Lightning erupted from his left hand that was futilely trying to pull off the inviolable grip.

The range was so close that there was no way for Anakin to intersperse his own lightsaber to absorb or deflect.

Dooku’s mouth twisted in triumph as he poured the lightning out to envelop his enemy’s entire form with the energy empowered by the Dark Side.

Anakin had no choice but to release the Sith’s neck, both his hands coming to rest on his lightsaber blade, even as the pain wracked his form… as Dooku hastily tried getting back to his feet-

The Jedi erupted with the river of the Force, taking the lightning, wresting control of the energy straight from Dooku’s grasp.

With the energy now his, the agony gone, before Dooku could even think of cutting off the flow-

Anakin tore his hand in a claw across his body, taking the lightning…  and sent the Emerald Judgement straight back at Dooku.

The Sith was reduced to using his own lightsaber for the Tutaminis, taking Anakin’s green tinted lightning and pulling it in.

The fallen Jedi Master was no neophyte though and instantly saw the loop for the trap it was. There would be no outlasting Anakin, not with his raw strength and endurance in the Force. It galled Dooku to admit that in this aspect he was clearly the lesser to a Jedi Knight like Anakin.

He immediately cut off his own Force Lightning and, empowering his own physicality, got back to his feet.

Anakin cut off the lightning a moment later, but took advantage of the few moments Dooku had to deal with the last remaining streams of energy.

His right hand shot out and made a fist.

The Magnaguard droid shuddered, its holomatrix winked out and it was crushed from seemingly every direction.

Palpatine was left with a lifeless metal limb clenched around his right arm, but most importantly, he was free.

“Sorry, excellency,” Anakin apologized quickly, before he as gently as possible used an indirect Force Pull on the old man.

Palpatine was flung into the air and tumbled down the stairs.

Anakin blurred forward, his lunging blade aiming straight at Dooku’s heart.

The count snarled outwardly in anger as he deflected and guided the stabbing blade aside, maintaining the facade that the plan was failing. He continued his retreat and they emerged into the cool evening air.   

The large balcony was meant as another place to offer a beautiful view of the landscape outside Theed’s plateau. Now it served as the perfect escape route - as a Sheathipede-class shuttle hovered there with its rear open and waiting.

Anakin felt his frustration clawing at his focus and sensed that time was running out, as he tried every attack he knew to breach the Sith’s guard. High, low, left, right, feints, layering repeated attacks to induce expectations - Dooku saw through it all and their respective blades were blurs of red and blue as they competed for advantage.

The inevitable happened when Anakin found himself a moment late in a riposte and having to fall back to outright blocking.

Dooku pounced, managing a Force Push straight into Anakin’s face that sent the younger Jedi flying backward to crash straight through the glass doors.

He sheathed himself immediately in a low level TK bubble, preventing any shards from cutting his skin or finding any weak spots in his low-profile armor.

A Force Push shot outward from his back, cancelling out his uncontrolled flight and he landed properly on his feet.

A burst of speed and he was back outside only to see Dooku standing on the embarkation ramp of his shuttle, which was now hovering ten meters higher and the Sith was staring gravely down.

“Well done, Knight Skywalker,” Dooku sneered, his voice cast downward through the Force. “You have come a long way in a short time. A worthy adversary in the blade and the Force, but you still have much to learn.”

The Sith extinguished his blade and stepped back, letting the ramp close.

The shuttle’s entire form shimmered and wavered before being hidden by its cloaking device.

Anakin felt Dooku’s presence also vanish from his senses and the blast of displaced air as the cloaked shuttle sped off into the sky was the only trace of the count of Serenno’s departure.

He sighed with frustration, extinguishing his blade and hurried back into the palace. 

Palpatine was seated on the bottom of the stairs, clearly favoring his left side and in visible pain, given the way his face was twisted.

“Excellency, are you all right?” Anakin asked urgently, adopting a dozen masks worth of extreme concern.

“Think I may have a cracked hip, my boy,” Palpatine gave him a pointed stare.

“Again, apologies-”

The chancellor waved him off, “Relax Anakin, I realized you were left with little option to otherwise remove me from Dooku’s grasp. A little pain and a few hours of bacta bath is a far preferable price to pay than to be at that man’s mercy, not to mention being used as a hostage by the Separatists.”

Anakin showed a hint of relief at the forgiveness from Palpatine in his eyes, before tapping his comlink. “Ahsoka, report.”

“All VIPs are safe, master. There are still some pockets of holo commando droids putting up resistance but Master Windu has arrived and is leading the efforts to root them out.”

“I need a medtech at my location immediately.”

“That’s not going to be easy, master. It could take hours before the palace is secured enough. I need to remain with the VIPs to ensure no commando droids try to double back and infiltrate us again.”

“Fine, we’ll do this the hard way. Alert the Royal infirmary to expect me and the chancellor.”

“Yes, master.”

Anakin composed his focus and carefully reached out with the Force, lifting Palpatine carefully into the air, effectively giving the chancellor the kinetic equivalent of a deck chair.

“Oh my,” gasped Palpatine, looking down at his impromptu hovering flight. “That is impressive, my boy. Your powers in the Force have certainly progressed in leaps and bounds.”

“That they have,” Anakin admitted.

“That’s twice within a day that you’ve saved me and I can’t thank you enough.”

“Only doing my duty, excellency.”

“That may be, but don’t hesitate to ask if I can, in some measure, repay you, Anakin. Yes, the Jedi do not accept such things for their service, but I’ll not take no for an answer. Loyalty must be rewarded.”

Inwardly, he was aghast at the naked manipulation that Palpatine was employing here, not to mention the clear test the hidden Sith was probing him with.

“I’ll… give it some thought, excellency.”

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The people of Naboo had never experienced such a swift reversal of mood.

From the highs of celebratory joys during the Festival of Light, even with its interruption to the deep low of mourning that hearkened back to the days following the Federation invasion.

The city crowds were back in the public square before the magnificent palace, now dressed in the dark colors of mourning the fallen.

Emerging from the palace were twenty-three floating caskets, covered in Royal colors and RNSF insignia, holding those fallen guardsmen who had given their lives in the battle to secure the palace. Escorting each casket were four RNSF guards in their finest uniforms, gleaming in the mid-afternoon sun.

Queen Neyutnee, wearing the full decorative splendour of her station, adjusted to reflect the mourning period, trailed behind the procession with a stoic General Panaka by her side. Both honoring those who made the ultimate sacrifice for the monarch’s safety.

In contrast to what I knew of most cultures with any form of martial traditions, no matter how minor, the Naboo had no somber music to play during these occasions. There was only solemn silence observed and the only music was that which nature itself gave. 

Anakin and I stood in no place of prominence, nor did we want to have any part of this ceremony. This was for the Naboo alone and we simply stood as one of the multitude who had come to pay their respects for the funeral. Mace Windu would stand as the sole representative for the Jedi and he walked behind General Panaka.

‘Think the cover story will hold, Snips?’

‘For a while, the RNSF brass knows that it would only cause more problems that it would solve to reveal the existence of these holo commando droids. Never mind the paranoia this is going to cause back on Coruscant. I don’t need foresight to see there are going to be many panicked meetings at Republic Intelligence in the coming weeks.’

The Naboo public had been told there’d been a hidden secondary CIS special operations team that had used the initial bounty hunter kidnapping attempt against the chancellor as a smokescreen and diversion.

Palpatine, fresh from his bacta tank, had waxed poetic singing the praises of Anakin and myself to the galactic media. How instrumental we’d been in foiling the overall plot and the continued sanctity of the Theed palace, the safety of Queen Neyutnee and all the other VIPs.

Not a word about Windu actually being the one who had done the hard work in scouring the palace room by room, along with the RNSF palace guard and the Jedi Order in general.

‘Palpatine achieved every objective he had with this entire deception,’ Anakin’s thoughts had a distinct sour tone. ‘He watched me stalemate Dooku’s Force Lightning and turn it back on him.’

‘Hiding your development would never really be practical, Skyguy. It was inevitable that some or other critical event or situation would force your hand. You had no backup that would let you ‘play weak’ so to speak.’ The steady march of the funeral procession passed our position and I bowed my head in respect at the passing soldiers. ‘It is important that Palpatine should return from his trip from Naboo feeling that his machinations had achieved its objectives and now he’s feeling even more pleased. Even more important, this was my opportunity to run him through a Prescience blender and observe the results. What I’ve learned is critical and a significant piece of the puzzle to achieve his ultimate defeat.’

‘What is it? Or are you keeping that one to yourself?’

‘This is one that I will have to share with you. If I die, then its loss could be the difference between victory and defeat,’ I inwardly sighed as I tried to arrange my explanation into some coherency. ‘If you look at history, the common goal of the majority of Sith since the days of the Old Republic has been a way to defeat the ultimate enemy - death. That has not changed even in the current Banite Order. Palpatine’s own master had come the closest to successfully achieving a form of immortality. Both fortunately and unfortunately, depending on your point of view, Darth Plagueis was killed by Sidious before it could be fully utilized.

‘Sidious continued the work, however, and has built on it. If against all odds, he is killed, through the technique of Essence Transfer, his spirit will be liberated. His dead body will be consumed to empower another technique known as Fold Space, which will instantly transport the spirit to a planet that I only know for certain is somewhere in the Core or Inner Rim. There waiting for him is an entire facility with Spaarti type cloning cylinders and he surely has clones of himself waiting for him to take up residence in.’

‘No clue or way for you to determine where this planet is?’ Anakin asked hopefully.

‘In no future, no matter how loyal I am, does he trust me with its location,” I admitted, closing my eyes, trying in vain to forget the horrors of those probability lines.

He put a hand on my shoulder in comfort, ‘I’m sorry, Ahsoka… I- I can only imagine… If it helps you can share it-’

‘No, that is my burden to bear. I had to take this chance whilst he was away from the Shroud. I doubt he’ll leave it again until the fulcrum point is reached. All I know is that, much like Kamino was once removed from the Jedi Archives, this planet was also erased from astrogation records and planetary logs. It happened centuries ago and was most likely done by an earlier Sith Lord. It’s effectively an entire star system where he can hide anything he wants to, including the means of his resurrection and other nasty technologies he wants to keep for himself. It was only known by the codename, ‘Wayland’.’

What I didn’t tell Anakin was that I had a rough trajectory of the system from Naboo after witnessing Palpatine die in an aborted probability line. The margin of error was far too high to narrow it down to a single star, but I would in time get it down to a single sector with R3’s help…hopefully. Even then, there was still the matter of plotting a hyperspace route, which would have to be done from scratch.

I’d have to really begin brushing up on hyperspace navigation via the Force or bring in my old academy friend Gahyic from the Explorer Corps. His last letter had indicated they would be back on Coruscant for a few months whilst their ships were given service overhauls. Just how to bring him into Fulcrum was an interesting dilemma.

‘So essentially, it’d be pointless to try to defeat him until we find this Wayland. Do you have a plan on where to even begin?’

‘I’m tempted to send HK on an infiltration of Palpatine’s little Sith lair in Coruscant’s Industrial Works sector.’

‘You don’t need me to tell you that it will be catastrophically dangerous, Snips. If HK fails or alerts Sidious that it even happened…’

‘I know, but it’s the only lead we have. It might be that Sidious doesn’t even keep Wayland’s location and hyperspace route stored there. I just know that we need some kind of intelligence breakthrough.’

‘Perhaps from Savage?’ he suggested.

‘Maybe, his training is reaching a point where Dooku will begin sending him out into the field.’

Anakin’s gaze fixed itself on the last casket to pass us. I could feel his frustration soar and his hands curling into fists. ‘How many will he kill?’

‘Do you really want me to answer you, Anakin?’ I asked wearily in return. He knew that no number I gave would make any of this better or even worth it. There was a chance that the whole Savage gambit would fail utterly.

‘No.’

With the procession completely past us and slated to continue for a few kilometers to the Royal cemetery, the people around us began to disperse and head home.

‘Let’s go, Snips. We have another long journey to get Palpatine home ahead of us.’

‘Fun.’

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A/N: Deception complete ;-) Enjoyed, I hope you have. A great weekend to you and awesome you are.