Chapter 138
Taylor:After all these years, it’s with no small bit of irony that I take note of the fact that Mandalore… of all places, houses one of the strongest of the Jedi Enclaves and temples now available to us.
There was Kashyyyk, of course, and Alderaan, both now becoming bastions for the Jedi in and of themselves. But Mandalore, the seat of one of the Jedi’s most ancient enemies, it wasn’t something any would have expected years and years ago, I think.
Time and circumstances can make for strange bedfellows.
It was just a short stop on our return trip to Coruscant. Just for half a day, to resupply the men and refuel the ships.
As the two Jedi Masters we’d visit the temple and Master Fay in due, course, but I couldn’t really begrudge Anakin this one small detour
“Annie!”
The venerable and revered Jedi Master smiled, and in that instant he looked like that farm boy I remembered meeting a decade ago now as he spread his arms wide. “Mama.”
Shmi stepped forward, enveloping her son in a heartfelt, warm embrace, one that Anakin returned enthusiastically.
I allowed them their moment, with both pulling away after a second with mutual kisses to the cheek. “Miss Taylor.” Shmi nodded in my direction, her own, small little smile looking soft but still lighting up her entire expression. “Is it only you two?”
I nodded. “‘Fraid so.” I said. “Everyone is on Coruscant.”
At that, her expression grew sombre and serious. “Lady Hannah and Master Aras have been called to the Duchess’s side by Lady Alexandria. Also on Coruscant.” Her eyes shifted between the two of us, but lingered on Anakin. “Something… dangerous… will happen there, won’t it?”
Anakin tried to hold to his smile, and I could see the lie forming on his lips before it was caught between his teeth as his mother settled this look on him.
He sighed, his shoulders slumping. “There is… a slight possibility… that there is danger. Yes.” He hedged, very carefully.
Shmi closed her eyes, taking a breath. “ Lady Hannah and Master Aras left me instructions in a sealed envelope, one I haven’t opened yet, in case I do not hear back from them. It seems to be much more than a slight possibility, son.”
Anakin winced and offered me an apologetic look. “Give us a second?”
I nodded. I did feel like I was intruding a bit, so marching past the entry hall I made my way towards the living room. I could sense Jen and Daryan towards their rooms. Brushing across their surface thoughts, Jen was working on homework-
Daryan, however, surprised me.
‘Mom, dad, you have to come home.’
The thought was laced with anxiety. A tinge of fear and a child’s desperate plea for his parents.
I considered staying where I was. Hannah and Aras were my friends both, but would this be overreach? I knew that ‘messing with’ other people’s children, especially without permission, was a huge no-no. If anyone did the same with my crechelings, or Iskt and Karla, saying I was pissed would be an absolute understatement.
But still, the ‘taste’ of the brushing thought lingered in my own mind and before too long I sighed, making my way through the familiar halls and quietly knocking on the door.
“Come in!” Daryan called wondering if it was Jen or Shmi.
I let the door whoosh open, and watched the boy’s surprised face turn into one of delight. “Auntie Taylor!”
His shout alerted Jen in her room, who I could already feel approaching, her own door whooshing open to find me standing there as Daryan hopped off his bed to march his way over.
“Hey, kids.” I said as Daryan hugged my leg and I ruffled his hair, patting his sister on the head with my other hand.
Jen looked behind me. “Where’s Auntie Vicky?” The perpetually serious girl asked.
“She’s not here this time. Uncle Anakin and I were just stopping over on Mandalore for some supplies, and decided to visit you.”
“Uncle Anakin’s here too?” Daryan asked, turning to look down the hall.
I sensed more than saw Jen’s disappointment, brushing my hand over her own surface thoughts.
‘Dad would’ve come if Auntie Vicky came.’
Not necessarily. Alexandria had asked that Aras be released from his duty as the 707th’s second to guard the Duchess, something he himself wanted because Hannah was also assigned to the same duty.
Vicky had acquiesced.
But the kids didn’t know that.
I knelt down in front of the two. “While I’m here…” I said quietly. “And it’s just us three, is everything okay, kids?”
They both looked a bit confused at the question.
“I just get the feeling…” I continued carefully. “That you guys are worried about your mom and dad.”
I hit the nail pretty much on the head. Jen’s lips thinned, pressing together, but Daryan flinched. Of the two, he was always the one who wore his heart on his sleeve.
“W-well.” The boy began. “Before they left this time, Mom and Dad said we needed to listen to Auntie Shmi.”
I got the feeling that wasn’t the whole story, so I looked at Jen.
The little girl’s jaw was stubbornly set. “We know there’s gonna be some big fight. But it’ll be fine!” She said, as though her words alone were enough to bend the whole world to her will. “They’ll come back. Daryan’s just being stupid.”
“I am not!” The boy said, affronted. He opened his mouth, then stopped himself, his thoughts loud and clear for me to all but see through the Force, a fragment of a memory.
“If your mother and I do not return, protect your sister. Obey Shmi. You’ll be the man of this household.”
Oh…
I kept my own sadness from my expression, pushing the reaction into my swarm as I deduced what had happened. Aras had likely taken Daryan aside to talk to him privately and spoken to him a bit more… frankly than what he and Hannah had for his sister.
I understood. I understood the reasons, the logic. Even the why. Aras had always been a realist. He’d always been straight forward and honest. Even when the honesty sucked.
It just made me sad. That a piece of this twelve-year-old’s innocence might be gone like so many Padawans and crechelings. He had to hear it from his own father - that his parents weren’t invincible.
Daryan looked to be working himself up to say something to his sister, likely something he’d regret later. Before he could I brought my hand up, settling it on the boy’s head and bringing his attention back to me.
“Its not stupid to be worried.” I answered Jen for him. Looking into his eyes, I spoke with all the truth I could will into my words. “I promise when that big fight happens, I’ll be watching your parents back, so they can both come home quick, okay?”
For just a moment, it looked like he could see past the niceties, see past the facade of confidence and self assurance.
But then he smiled, something soft and grateful. It made me smile back.
“Thanks, Auntie Tay.”
—
Alexandria:
Coruscant stood on a literal knife’s edge.
The civilians might not see it, oblivious senators might not see it, but she could. Hell, she could almost feel it, right down to her bones.
The Jedi and their clones stood like a fortress upon the horizon. The clones, still shackled and chipped, patrolled the halls of the Senate and the surrounding streets. White armored lieutenants marched through the population as auxiliaries to the Coruscanti police force, all the while the legionnaires looked at their coruscant opposites like utter strangers rather than brothers.
Jedi walked through the streets of the city among the populace fully armed and armored, and senators arrived in the senate building with fully armed complements of guards for themselves.
The tension was thick in the air. Suffocating.
It's the deep breath… before the plunge.
The quote seemed fitting right now.
Her days were filled with layers upon layers of obfuscation and redundant precaution.
Satine had arrived from Mandalore and had been briefed.
And so, her security needed to be overhauled. But she couldn’t simply recall Aras and reassign Hannah, no. Because Palpatine would catch that sudden reshuffling.
So instead, a general personnel change needed to be ‘ordered’ between the Royal Guard and the clone legion Mandalorian auxiliaries, so Aras could be transferred in the shuffle. Death Watch reports needed to be fabricated to obfuscate Hannah’s presence as the operation commander leading the task force responsible for capturing Death Watch operatives.
Furthermore, in Satine’s schedule, important meetings needed to be hidden by mixing them with ‘useless’ ones.
The Jedi needed to be consulted constantly, albeit discreetly, in order to quickly and quietly vet any potentially trustworthy senators from potentially compromised ones, or brazenly bought and sold ones. In the last month, she’d heard more from the Jedi Shadows and Investigators than she had for over a decade. The Order was, for all intents and purposes, scrambling.
She used as much influence and resources as she could to mask the Jedi’s movements in evacuating their vulnerable, non-combat personnel offworld. Fay herself, Alexandria had learned, had quietly spirited away the majority of the data in the Jedi’s archive with the help of Jocasta Nu, spreading the vast repository of knowledge across hundreds, if not thousands of hidden worlds and the other Jedi Enclaves.
Palpatine himself had not been idle, either… nor had the Separatists.
“-to Lexi?”
“Hmm?” She made a sound, turning her head to raise a questioning eyebrow. “Councilor?”
The bridge of Dallon’s nose wrinkled at her formal title. “You must’ve really been out of it. I was saying ‘Earth to Lexi’.”
She shrugged. “Just considering.” The two of them were standing in a high rise plaza of a high end restaurant. As much as she’d upped security in both her office and home, one could never be sure, and her frequenting the Jedi Temple would have raised far too many questions. Arranging these meetings was another headache. Random locations, usually incognito Councilors. This was simplified; just two friends from the same homeworld ‘catching up’.
She decided to press on with the subject. “What news from Zygerria?” She asked as a Nautolan server returned with their drinks.
Dallon crossed her arms. “Tay and Anakin made planetfall, it’s been pacified.”
She caught a hint of displeasure there, something akin to reproach behind the lines of her face. Hebert did something.
“You’re displeased.”
Victoria frowned. Unlike her partner, the girl was an open book. Hebert had done something. Something… Hmm… Backsliding?
The younger woman sighed, shaking her head. “It’s nothing. Just something done to bring the campaign to a close that… doesn’t sit well. Either as a Jedi or a hero.”
Knowing Hebert’s profile, terror tactics were the likely culprit
Still. “As long as they’re pacified, that’s what we need. The Jedi need as much concentrated power and viable contingency points cleared. Losing an entire enclave to a rebellious world, or wasting full legion strength for months, isn’t something we can risk.”
Dallon nodded, sighing. “I get it, but I came to find out what progress we’ve made on the political front.”
“Quite a bit.” She answered. “Have you heard of the Delegation of Three Thousand?”
Dallon made a ‘so-so’ gesture.
“It’s a delegation, spearheaded by Organa, Mothma, Amidala, myself and a few others. It has several aims, and with the Separatists on the backfoot and losing leadership, one of them is to demand Palpatine to relinquish his emergency powers. Several of the members that constitute it I’ve vetted personally. Also, when the time finally comes and the evidence is laid out, they’ll vote to remove and arrest Palpatine.”
“How many, though?” Vicky asked. “In order to impeach a chancellor-”
“A Vote of No Confidence only requires a 55% majority to succeed.” She answered, “Inside the delegation we don’t reach that high, and even with some elements in the Senate I can’t quite account for and potential defections from Palpatine’s cronies, we’d be around 47%, give or take.”
Dallon’s lips pursed. “That’s still an eight point difference that needs to be made up.”
“True, but that’s not the important part.” She answered. “Alderaan, Corellia, Chandrila, Duro. These are all cornerstone Core worlds in the Republic and even if the vote itself fails, it would be easy to gain a compromise to flatly remove his emergency powers via legislation pending a full investigation at that point.”
Dallon’s nose wrinkled in thought.
“The Vote of No Confidence is a distraction.” Alexandria simplified. “The big jangling keys to draw attention. But it’s the emergency powers we care about. Remove his control of the banks, the courts and the media, and you’ve defanged the tiger in terms of public control. Once you do that, the narrative can turn much more decidedly against him.”
“You think he’ll just let that happen?”
“No.” She chuckled. “He’ll make a move long before we get to that point. Likely a deadly one, but that will expose him.”
“So you’re basically using this… Delegation of Three Thousand to draw him out?”
She nodded. “Basically. But as I said, also vetting potential allies, people that when the dust settles will see things our way and won’t try to baselessly persecute the Jedi or anyone else for brownie points. Nor will they let the Separatists off the hook.”
Dallon’s eyes widened with surprise and she leaned forward with interest. “You’re planning for the aftermath then?”
“Only way we can beat whatever tricks he has left as a potential dead man switch.” Alexandria shrugged. “Satine is also proving extremely useful in bypassing many of Palpatine’s allies in the Senate and appealing directly to their respective planetary rulers where applicable. Sure, Palpatine controls the senator, but he has far less control over the ruling monarch or equivalent of a planet.”
Victoria nodded. “I get the logic, but how much pull can a planetary leader have?”
“On some worlds, the ruler can bypass the senator outright, such as on Mandalore. In others, while they might not be able to do that, the senator is more afraid of the ruler than of Palpatine. A useful bit of counter leverage. All that being said, Palpatine is aware of this. And those overtures can’t be made subtly enough for him to have not picked up on what I’m doing.”
Dallon raised an eyebrow and she had to credit the girl for catching on quick. “He’s gonna go after them… so you want the Jedi to provide protection.”
“Good.” She complimented with a nod. “I can provide the Jedi a list. High priority VIP’s that will need to be protected, both in the Senate and in their respective governments.”
The Councilor closed her eyes, thinking. “He’s just one guy, and right now all he has left is Komari as his go-to assassin. They can’t be everywhere at once. Assigning two knights or even two senior Padawans to each protection detail would be enough, and would even let us evacuate the Temple faster than we have been.”
Alexandria nodded and pressed a few keys on her datapad. “Transfering to you now.”
Vicky’s own wrist mounted device chimed. “Received. I’ll deliver it to the Council.”
“You should know,” The invincible woman continued. “Amidala is on that list.”
Victoria nodded, not looking surprised. “You still think she’s not in his pocket?”
The Senator nodded. “I do, though I hear your ranks are sharply divided on that question.”
“They are.”
Alexandria couldn’t fault the Jedi for their caution. As it was, there was no way that she could vet every single one of Padme’s staff, or even her bodyguards. So there was that angle that Palpatine could use to hurt them through Amidala, but as for the young woman herself… no. Alexandria did not believe she was in Palpatine’s employ at all. She genuinely loved democracy. Warts and all.
Even so… “Have they at least considered a guard?”
“They have.” She answered. “We’re holding off on assigning them just yet. Us suddenly giving her a troupe of Jedi to follow her around after years will risk tipping our hand so we want to assign them when we’re just about ready to make our move.”
“And how is that looking, evidence wise?” She pressed. “I can arrange political moves until the heat death of the galaxy, but it won’t do anything without evidence.”
“The bastard has covered and is covering his tracks well. The Investigators and Shadows have brought in more and more circumstantial evidence, much more than before, but not enough and… we’ve lost several people trying to pursue fresh leads.”
“He did it?”
Victoria nodded. “Yes. Same method he used on Dathomir. If we send more and he kills them, he’ll only grow stronger.”
“Hmmm.” That wasn’t good. The last thing they needed was a Glaistig situation where it snowballed beyond their control. Glaistig always had Contessa as the thing that could deal with her, Palpatine didn’t have that.
Well, except for her, perhaps.
Still, there must be some limit. Otherwise there was nothing stopping the ancient Sith from devouring whole worlds and ruling the Galaxy after they’d become strong enough to just destroy all their opposition.
“You mentioned it earlier, but how is the Temple’s evacuation proceeding?” She decided to ask.
“Slower than we’d like, but smoothly. The crechelings have mostly been moved, only the most senior staff of the non-Jedi corps remain as a skeleton crew. Right now, we’re just slowly transferring out the Padawans and most junior Knights.” She took a breath. “Another month. And the ones left will all be combat veterans and ready to fight.”
“Risky.” She didn’t have to say it, Dallon’s face said enough on how much she agreed with the word. “If things go wrong, then-”
“The Order is risking losing the vast majority of its most senior and experienced veterans and leaders. We know.” She deadpanned. “Not much choice for it, though.” The younger woman looked around, lips twisting. “You know, you should have brought Miss M on this. It’d be nice to catch up with her, too.”
Alexandria’s lips twitched, in spite of herself. “What, am I not good company?”
“Nah,” She cheekily answered. “You’re a depressing conversationalist.”
The long time heroine snorted out a laugh.
—
Taylor:
“I had to promise I wasn’t saying goodbye.”
Anakin’s voice was soft, almost timid in its admission. I almost didn’t hear it over the soft hum of the speeder’s engine thrumming through the walls.
“It’s not. We’re going to get through this.” I promised him.
“And if it's not?” He asked. “If we lose?”
I cast a look his way out of the corner of my eyes.
His head was thrown back, leaning into the seat. The knit of his brow, the twist of his lips, I knew him well enough to understand how worried he was.
He had more to lose than most Jedi. His mother, Amidala, the baby on the way. It wasn’t necessarily their loss he feared, I think, but rather, the fear of failing them, failing everyone. More than once people still whispered about him as the ‘Chosen One’. Infrequent it might have been… but infrequent wasn’t absent.
The legacy of Master Plo, the weight of expectations. Even his own, self imposed standards.
“Then we’ll deal with that too.” I answered simply.
Anakin snorted, a smile tugging at his lips, wry and bittersweet. “You’re not as good at pep talks as Victoria.”
“We’re going to see Master Fay in a few minutes.” I consoled. “She’s probably got a cupcake or something to make you feel better.”
He laughed.
I wasn’t joking, though… She really did make good cupcakes.