The Empty Grave
Part 3:- The Mausoleum
Chapter 2

The Tantive IV was classic Corellian design. Big, bulky and efficient. Their designers didn't believe anything should be done simply for artistic reasons. With it's powerful repulser-lift drive aerodynamics was just as pointless. The result was a blocky simple ship, it's massive engines made it faster than Padme's personal craft. Another point was, unlike her own peoples elegant ships, the parts were pretty easy to get a hold of. It was no wonder that ships like it were popular with a lot of people.

Especially those of Alderaan and other worlds whose shipyards were never extensive. Like most of his people Bail Organa hated violence and war but unlike the majority he knew that there were rare occasions it was necessary. This was his personal ship and unlike most Alderaanian ships it was armed. No match for a warship but enough to make the odd pirate and bounty hunter think twice.

The senator of Naboo looked out over the side of the ship as a small pod flashed out of hyperspace. It flew like a mayfly in spring, lazily spinning before aiming for the side airlock. 'At least one survived.' Bail said as he came to her side. 'I just don't understand how they did it. The Separatists I mean. Almost every Jedi dead. They were scattered across the galaxy, there's no way he could have killed them all at the same time. General Grievous must have operatives everywhere.'

Padme turned to her friend. 'I don't think it was the Separatists. Someone has been manipulating a great many things behind the scenes.'

Bail gestured and they left the observation room, down the white corridors to the airlock. 'Are you sure?' he tried not to glance at her stomach but she could read his expression, and something more. Ever since she found out she was pregnant things had been... stranger. The worlds she visited subtly different. The air, wherever she was, was muddy, like the oppressive atmosphere before a storm. At first she thought it was the impending motherhood crossed with the continuing war. Now, near the end, she was beginning to understand. Her children had given her a gift. The Force.

It was through that connection, like hearing someone shouting down from atop of a mountain, she could tell. 'Yes. Even my mind has been twisted to it. I can feel it. Why and when I cannot tell. Although it was a long time ago.'

'Perhaps the surviving Jedi...'

She held a hand up. 'No I can tell. His vision is clouded by the same thing. They all are, for years they've been blinded by it. Hiding, like a blazing sun at night. They cannot look for to go blind...' Padme snapped her head around. She hadn't said that. Or at least meant too. The words came to her lips even before she had the idea.

Somewhere, there was a link from the distance. That same mountain top she heard the Force from. Someone was talking to her, thought her. "Good," she heard it say. Their voice distorted but she could tell it was Anakin, somehow. "My love, listen to your heart. Your instincts will guide you but heed them with your passion your beliefs. They can not be changed or swayed so easily. Now go, Master Yoda is waiting."

'What?' Bail asked. Padme realised that only an instant had passed.

'That wasn't me. The last part. It was Anakin, I think... I think he's found a power even the Sith cannot comprehend.'

'How?'

'I don't know. What I do know is it's him, and he's set something in motion.' They turned a corner and came face to knee with Master Yoda and his escort.

The Jedi Master looked up with evaluating eyes. 'What "in motion" has young Skywalker set? Hum?' As he looked up at her she saw his eyes flick to her hand resting, as ever, over her children. His eyes widened briefly. 'Long it has been, since we last met senator. Much changed you have. "Set in motion", Would this be?'' He asked almost innocently.

She was about to answer when she felt it. The lights in the corridor suddenly powered down and they were all plunged into darkness. Out of the black came a light laugh, one she thought she would never hear again. Anakin's own, in good humour. Stripped of the gravity it had earned over the years of war. 'That and more Master Yoda. Collect Obi-Wan and meet me at the steps of the Jedi temple. There we will explain everything.'

'Possible, this should not be. Vision it is, talk to us you should not.' Yoda called out in the dark.

This time it wasn't a light laugh. Now, distorted again, Anakin chuckled. Three little red lights began blinking in the dark, too close to be built into the wall. She could hear heavy breathing, rasping and mechanical. 'All life is connected master Yoda.' You could hear the scorn dripping off the word "master". 'And on the astral plane distance is nothing.' For a moment Padme felt him look at her, she could feel...

The lights flashed on again and everyone looked around. Anakin was gone. Padme touched her face and felt the tear roll to her fingers. 'Oh Anakin. What happened to you?' she tried to whisper but her voice caught in the back of her mouth.

---

Obi-Wan pulled the captured Droid bomber up and landed in the belly hold of the Corellian transport. The doors closed behind him and he landed with a light thud. This thing was nowhere near as graceful as his old fighter. By now it would have been stripped down for parts by Cody.

It still amazed him that the clone commander had rebelled against him. They were almost friends having fought many a battle together, they knew each other and what they would do. Heck, as General Kenobi he could even tell the different personality Cody had from his fellow clones. All this and more, still the clone trooper had tried to kill him.

The hanger had re-pressurised and he got out. Master Yoda, Padme and Senator Organa were at the door waiting for him. 'Senators, Master.' he sketched a bow, a bit too rushed to do a proper job of it. 'Any news of the others?'

'All lost. Of the Jedi, no other has responded. The last we are, I believe.'

'But how? What of the temple?'

Unknown. Mysterious, the fate of those in the temple is. Message we have received, strange it was. From young Skywalker. Powerful vision, concerned I am.'

They were walking to the bridge, Obi-Wan knew that much at least. 'So what brings you two out here looking for us?'

Padme smiled knowingly. Impending motherhood had made her somewhat motherly to all around. 'The Jedi Temple was approached by clone troopers. They were stopped by a great Coruscant storm that came from nowhere.

'Doubt that, I do. Source of the storm, Anakin I sense.'

'Master Yoda, No Jedi has that power.' Obi-Wan just couldn't believe it. 'I have seen several Jedi working together produce a sunny day and rain but never a full storm. Not one big enough to stop a whole clone army.'

'It did, I saw it.' Organa bowed his head. 'Landing craft plucked from the air by cyclones. Blood red lightening bolts dancing down columns of clones. Something was guiding them. It wasn't something I would want to see again.'

'It was Anakin.' Padme announced. They had made it to a briefing room and she strode around the table. 'He did it to protect the temple. You said, Master Yoda, that you were attacked by clones. Why would they be advancing on the temple if not to attack it?'

'Know the answer to that, we do not. Suspicion suggests you are correct. Nothing more.'

Obi-Wan ran that through his head. The Jedi Master was warning them that it might just be a coincidence. That was the thing about Yoda's grammar, it wasn't that he couldn't talk straight, he wanted you to think it out for yourself. 'I'm sorry Master, only I think she's right. Why else would they be there?'

'Why would the Sith help the temple? That we not know. Correct you are, no Jedi has the power of storms. Too much rage one needs to unleash. Anger and hate, the Dark side they are. The Dark side I sense in young Skywalker.'

'I refuse to believe that.' Padme slammed her hand on the conference table. 'Anakin would never willingly turn to the Dark side. He doesn't have it in him.'

Obi-Wan felt the anger roll off her, and more. The air was charged with energy, Padme's anger was channelling the Force. It couldn't be, she had been screened as a child. If she had any aptitude in the Force it would have been discovered long ago. Then he realised, the children. Anakin was one of the most powerful Jedi around. His connection to the Force was beyond even Master Yoda's, his children could inherit that power. Even the smallest fraction would be more than enough to make them immensely powerful.

He looked to Yoda, the master looked back. they had both realised it at the same time. 'Senator; do you know what you have stumbled upon here?' Obi-Wan asked.

'I do Master Obi-Wan.' she smiled.

'To be, this should not. Trained you must be. For this new power unleashed could spell doom for us all.' Yoda cautioned but Padme just looked at him.

Maybe she didn't know how to hide it, although as a politician he doubted that, Obi-Wan felt a wave of pity and even contempt roll off her. He didn't need the Force, you could see it written across her face. 'You are afraid of unborn children? Your Order has failed Master Yoda, it lies dead at your feet. An Order based on peace and you jumped to war. You're supposed to respect life, that's what this is. That's what love is. Being alive, but you don't know that do you?' Her smirk took on a shade of the Dark Side. 'I pity you, the great Master...'

Then suddenly she changed, just as quickly as she started the senator gasped an blinked. it honestly looked like someone had fired a stun round into her 'No,' she said breathlessly. 'I'm not afraid. I'm not.' And then she collapsed.

---

Anakin snapped back to the Temple. 'What happened?' he jumped to his feet. He and the strange Jedi were in the council chamber, the only place high enough not yet to be touched by the changes.

'You happened Anakin. Your wife is in a delicate state.' The black armoured Force user turned away. He looked out over the city and the cordon of troopers surrounding the Temple. 'Pregnancy is not as simple as incubation. Her body chemistry is wildly erratic.'

'I know that. I'm not a fool.' Anakin knew better than to get angry and lash out. First this guy could probably feed him his own legs and second it wouldn't help anything.

'And now she as access to the Force. It's currents and tides, with no experience of how they can sweep you away. So what did you do? You sent her visions, showed her truths she was not ready for. Tell me Anakin, would you solve a wildfire with thermal detonators? Perhaps remove a splinter by severing a whole arm? Are you so blind you you can't see what you are doing?'

'I have to save her... My visions...'

He turned back and began removing his helmet. 'I know all about them.'

'How can you...' Anakin trailed off when he saw the face under the mask. His name, Vader, wasn't a coincidence.

The room was silent and just outside you could hear the younglings playing...

---

Palpatine looked at the holo-monitor. The floating readout listed the reports of dead Jedi, he ignored it. Another screen showed the Jedi Temple as it was. Surrounded and blockaded but totally impervious to attack.

The storm had passed and even he, a Dark Master of the Sith, was impressed by the rage used to summon it. Someone had stolen his moment of victory, another Sith? It was possible, as much as he had devoted to finding every last person with the temperament some could have slipped through. Especially if they had training. He looked at the final screen.

The final screen showed recordings of the storm. A few still images of the one who summoned it hovering around. 'Who are you?' Palpatine asked the images showing a black armoured warrior absently obliterating clones. 'Where did you get this power and what are you doing at that Temple?'

'High Chancellor.' Palpatine's horned aid entered with a bow. 'The senate has gathered. Do you still wish to address them?'

'Of Organa and his cabal?' Of course he knew. He welcomed it, fresh separatists. As soon as they started their little "Rebellion" he would denounce them as such. Keep the lesser worlds occupied and the larger ones afraid. Looking to him for guidance, leaving him in power. It would also be the first step in driving a wedge between the humans and non-humans. Leading to more fear.

'All but Organa and the senator from Naboo are here. We know he left the planet but is returning at speed.'

'With a first hand account of the Jedi's destruction. Most likely.' Palpatine chuckled. 'Postpone the announcement. Tell the senate that Senator Organa is returning with a vital report for them but has been delayed. Forward the message to him, personally, let him know I, no we, expect a full report.'

'But High Chancellor... If any Jedi survived.'

'They may have met with him. He may be escorting them here. I am aware of it. What do few Jedi matter to me? I care about that.' He pointed a hooked finger at the Temple. 'And so will they. Concerned for the children they will rush over there. While my enemies fight each other the cruisers Vindictive and Vile Seed take up position and destroy the Temple from orbit.'

His assistant smiled. 'While you explain your actions in the same speech which makes you High Emperor.'

'Of course. Now be gone, I will use the time to meditate and polish my new speech.' He left with a short bow and Palpatine grinned. One thing was left, what had happened to young Darth Vader?

End chapter 2