Chapter Text
“Quickly, quickly now!” Mace called. Coruscant guards hurried past him, leaping into transports as they hovered at the ready, to be whisked away to the affected areas post haste. Wailing claxons did their best to drown out the shouts of orders of the other council members as they coordinated the swift response, the swell of smoke making anyone without a breathing filter cough.
Master Fisto was helping organize the fire-response teams while Master Rancissis and Master Koon coordinated evacuation and rescue, master Tiin busy with police. The diminutive master Yoda sidled up to him as the clouds of smoke rose ever higher. “Care to let me in on what’s keeping you chipper?” Mace asked agitatedly.
“Arrive soon, help will,” Yoda said with a surety and optimism many of them had missed for quite some time now.
It felt misplaced. “There’s no one in the region, master,” Mace said. “No one’s coming besides us.”
“Then who, would you say, that is?” The grandmaster asked, pointing his knobby cane to the sky, where the shapes of three Republic Venators loomed out of the smoke, like phantoms in the dark, engines whirling up the clouds of grey, bright eyes in the gloom. Despite having their own fires burning, the cargo holds sheared open and ships poured out, descending quickly into the depths of Coruscant.
Yoda tossed a holo puck to the ground as it beeped. “Sorry we’re late, masters,” the young Ahsoka Tano greeted with a bow, clone captain Rex standing proudly behind her, though both were tarnished by soot. “We had a run-in with some enemies of our own, but fortunately, some friends as well.” The young girl’s grin was almost contagious, especially when she stepped aside, a familiar shaggy-haired Jedi Master stepping into the light, a taller, darker figure behind him.
“I thought I had let you muddle along without me long enough,” Kenobi said, looking rather fetching in a dark combat tunic. “How you’ve let things go while I’ve been gone,” he said jokingly. Behind him, the edge of Dooku’s mouth twitched upwards. “I’ve brought some help. Tell me where you need us.”
“At the moment down here. It’s unclear if the perpetrators are still on the scene, but we have many wounded. It’s important to contain the scene as quickly as possible,” Mace said. He was unsure about Dooku’s presence here, but he trusted Kenobi and his own instincts enough to know they had more pressing issues to worry about.
“And when done with that you are, meet us in the senate dome you will,” Yoda added. “An important matter I have been made aware of. Swift action, it requires.”
-
“I can’t believe I didn’t see it,” Anakin said, keeping the low table between himself and Palpatine as he paced, the Sith lord’s security aide already lying motionless to the side, caught in the clashing of blue and red blades in an effort to protect his charge.
“Another way the Jedi are weaker,” Palpatine snarled. “You see what you want to see, so blinded by hope and faith that you miss what is clear in front of you.”
“A traitor in our midst.” Anakin’s fist tightened. “I trusted you.”
“Yes, yes! Feed your anger, Anakin!” Palpatine cackled, lunging in again to batter against his defenses with sizzling speed. Anakin fought with him as much as he did with his emotions, until his eyes found the flames and smog out of the window and the fleet above, Ahsoka’s fighter whizzing about and dumping water on burning buildings and bridges.
And then he realized something. Unlike the chancellor, he had something to fight for. Ahsoka, his men, his master. He couldn’t believe Obi-Wan would ever throw in with anyone employing tactics like this against civilians. He didn’t believe it. There was something clouding his judgement and he would be the one to show him.
The blood-red blade snapped through the air with unbelievable speed, but Anakin could see it as clearly as he could see his place within the galaxy now. He swept it away, and the grin on the Chancellor’s face right off with it.
“Impossible,” the old man croaked. “You don’t have the strength to match me, boy. Only the dark side will grant you what you need.”
“Yeah, no thanks. I’m not interested.”
“Not even if it means saving your beloved? She is with child, is she not?”
Anakin froze. “What? What are you talking about?”
“The visions of her death,” the chancellor said, voice grave. “During childbirth… terrible. But I can help you, my boy. I can show you how to save her.” His saber lowered, his free hand reaching out.
Behind Anakin, the door opened. “Save someone from the future, you cannot,” Yoda said solemnly. He entered, the rest of the council following him, sabers in hand. “However, visions not always make a clear picture, hm?” he met Anakin’s eyes with a trusting nod before turning back to Palpatine.
The old man sneered and Anakin showed him the com in his hand, with which he had sent a silent message to the grandmaster of the order.
“You need me,” Palpatine hissed. “Padme is doomed without the power I can grant you! Strike me down and you seal her fate!”
“You know,” Anakin said, meeting yellowed eyes of roiling hatred and pathetic, power-grasping fear. “I think I’m done listening to you. Jedi don’t make deals with Sith lords.”
“Well, occasionally,” someone muttered behind him. He turned quickly, his master smiling back at him, the lord Tyrannus a tower of darkness over his shoulder.
“He is telling the truth in one matter,” Dooku said in his deep voice, stepping forward, cloak moving swiftly out of the way for the hilt of his curved saber as it glided into his hand and ignited. “Striking down a Sith lord will bear consequences for Jedi like you,” he looked back at Anakin and those assembled. “Allow me.”
With the combined force of all the council’s jedi holding him, even the mighty Sidious did not manage to flee fast enough to escape his scorned pupil’s blade as it struck him down. Lightning blasted forth, forcing many a master to deflect it with their sabers, keeping the shattered glass of the burst window from slicing them to ribbons with the force.
Dooku staggered, smoke curling from his mouth as he sighed, red blade humming calmly as he looked down at his former master. “I’ve been meaning to do that.”
Obi-Wan pushed past to help the older man to a seat, the energy scars seared into his skin still blistering. They talked quietly as around Anakin, the sabers of the council members slowly deactivated one by one.
“Was that it?” Master Fisto asked after a moment of silence. Mace Windu marked him with a heavy look, but then even he had to chuckle tiredly. It was over. Finally over.
“Remarkable work, Skywalker,” Master Shaak Ti said, resting a red hand on his shoulder. The others echoed her sentiment, slowly dispersing into the room as the whine of judicial forces echoed closer through the open window.
Cool, smoky air tugged at his cloak as Anakin watched his master fuss over their once-enemy, Dooku looking a little worse for wear after taking the brunt of the energy expelled from the dying Sith lord. The ex-chancellor’s body in question had disappeared in the explosion, leaving behind only the red robe and an artfully crafted golden lightsaber hilt behind.
“There is a lot of work still ahead of us,” Obi-Wan said, standing straight, looking oddly out of place in his dark tunics in a veritable sea of beige and tan-clothed Jedi. “If you’d permit me, I would prefer we started immediately. Lives still hang in the balance across the galaxy.”
Anakin stared at him. He was so… normal. But his sense in the force was shrouded in a hungry darkness.
“Of course,” Mace Windu agreed. “I assume you have pertinent information? I motion master Kenobi be granted temporary leadership of the council so as to best assign us where we are needed.”
“I second it,” Master Plo spoke up.
“As do I,” Master Fisto agreed. The others did as well, with Yoda’s blessing.
The wounded Dooku laughed quietly. “They never learn, do they?” He muttered, to the mirth of Obi-Wan. They appeared to have grown quite close, Anakin noted. And yet there was no hostility to the council, no explanations as to where he had been or what he had done, nothing.
“One more thing before we begin,” Anakin said, stepping forward. He reached out, both physically and with the force, drawing on that annoying sense of darkness around his master. With a tug, a small red artifact slipped free, screeching in the force as it was removed from its host. Anakin winced, quickly yanking up mental shields as some of the lines of tension in Obi-Wan’s shoulders dissipated and sent the artifact careening out of the open window. “There. Much better. Welcome back master.”
“That’s one way to do it,” Mace murmured.
“Thank you my padawan,” Obi-Wan said, eyes gleaming as he embraced his pupil. “I’m so proud of you,” he whispered.
“You’re an ass,” Anakin muttered back. “I thought you’d been manipulated by an evil genius.”
“Let’s talk later in more detail?” his master suggested. “And Anakin,” Obi-Wan said. “Go fetch that dark artefact you tossed into the streets of Coruscant, would you? I doubt it is even damaged.”
“Yes, even I would survive a fall from this height,” Mace added. “Undoubtedly.”
Anakin nodded. He stood by as Obi-Wan began relegating tasks to the masters present, stepping away briefly to check in with Ahsoka and Rex and their efforts with Coruscant’s fires. Once or twice Dooku spoke up to add important details, like something called Order 66, that he apparently deemed of relative importance to be dismantled immediately.
-
Anakin leaned back against the plush cushions and watched his master squirm under the combined disapproving glares of himself, Ahsoka and Rex.
“And you thought not telling us was important why?” his padawan was asking, an indulgently petulant whine in her voice as she grabbed another toffee from the bowl on the table. He knew it was mostly because she had seen how much it had impacted him, but Anakin had managed to see the light of it, chuckling as Obi-Wan grimaced. He understood why the council had done what they did and, given that it had worked flawlessly – better even than anticipated – he could forgive them. In time.
“What I want to know is how the four of you managed to get away from Serenno,” Anakin interrupted. “The last transmission I had received you were getting picked apart.”
Rex sighed, no doubt having had to explain all this in a number of reports already, or perhaps to eager younglings, once they had arrived back at the Jedi temple. “Remember those pirates we had in our shuttle bay? Turns out they weren’t the biggest fans of those nerf herders chasing us.”
“Hondo practically begged us to let them fight,” Ahsoka laughed. “And then another craft came about and attacked their rear.” She nodded to Obi-Wan. “And the rest is history.”
“Though we might need to have a conversation about your ease of trusting, Padawan,” Obi-Wan cut in, one brow arced critically. “I was a renegade fallen Jedi harboring a Sith lord and those pirates are good for a bit of fun, but not to be trifled with when it counts.”
“Speaking of a little fun,” Anakin said, trying to hide his grin. “Was that someone at the door? Did you hear something?” He got up to answer, even as his master looked at him in confusion.
The door slid open and Obi-Wan’s face dropped, then pinched into a forced smile.
“Kenobi!” Hondo cheered, bounding inside.
“Hondo.”
“I knew it! I knew we would meet again! You were too good of a pirate to actually join those dark Sithy lords and their melodramatics!” His hands grasped Obi-Wan’s shoulders, shaking him in tune with his words. Anakin, Ahsoka and Rex were hunched over with faces buried just far enough in pillows to stifle their laughter without missing the spectacle.
“I got you a present,” Hondo was saying, waving in one of his men with a chest and patting it with a ring-laden hand. “And you know I do not give gifts easily! The great Hondo only parts with his riches for those worthy of receiving them!” He motioned impatiently at his man to open the chest, revealing an almost exact replica of the pirate captain’s own coat, down to the shoulder pads and stains. The only difference was the metal accents were silver, instead of the gold on Hondo’s collar. “Now that you are free once more, we can finally roam the stars together! I foresee many more heists in our future with you as my second in command!”
Obi-Wan’s face was priceless. Caught between horror, regret and his usual awkward politeness. “Second in command? I’m sorry my dear Hondo,” Obi-Wan said, standing and clapping the pirate on his shoulder as he levied the chest closed again, “I simply cannot demean myself to anything less than a partner of equal standing.”
“Equal? But my men would never accept such a thing,” Hondo said. He rubbed his thorny chin.
“Perhaps it is simply not meant to be,” Obi-Wan said, shrugging. “Now that I say it, I can feel it in the force!” He led him surreptitiously back towards the door. “As a Jedi, I must always listen to the force, you know this.”
“Yes, yes… but–”
“No buts, I’m afraid.” Obi-Wan sighed aggrievedly, the door opening as Hondo and his compatriot were issued out. “I am remarkably grateful for your help, Hondo, and trust that I will do my best when you next need my help, but this is not something I can do.”
“Aye, I understand,” Hondo sighed. He thrust the chest into Obi-Wan’s hands. “You may keep this as a sign of my affection for you and your…” he looked to Anakin, Ahsoka and Rex, “brood?” he flourished his coattails. “I bid you farewell Kenobi and other, less important people! Until we meet again!”
Obi-Wan finally let out his laughter as the door closed once more, Anakin scoffing in offense at Hondo’s words. “Less important people? I unearthed a secret Sith lord at the heart of the Republic!”
“And we’re all very proud,” Ahsoka said.
Dooku laughed briefly from his spot in the far corner, eyes still closed as he rested, recovering from his injuries.
Obi-Wan smiled at his once-and-kind-of-master and retook his seat on the couch, letting the chest thunk onto the low table between them. “I suppose I earned this after what I put you all through. I do apologize.”
“It’s water under the bridge,” Anakin admitted, waving him off. “We’re just glad to have you back. I would have hated to have to defeat you.”
“Oh, you think you could have, do you?”
Anakin let himself relax into the familiar banter, Ahsoka coming to his defense as she always did. He smiled. Everything was good.
From somewhere deep below, in the ether of the force, a horrid cackle echoed into his ears.
Must be that weird dark artifact his master had become so attached to, sitting on a silk cushion to the side.
Yes, certainly not the foreshadowing of a somehow returning evil.