Introduction
With the release of Star Wars-The Clone Wars Season 7, I felt an urge to finally sit down and try my hand at a Star Wars story. As a life long fan, I know that a full story in the Star Wars universe takes some time to think about and create. I decided to narrow my focus to one chapter of a particular scene in order to not overwhelm myself, although I do have an idea how to expand this project into a longer novella or novel. For this scene I was inspired by Dave Filoni's depiction of Order 66 in the second last episode of Season 7. That whole arc was masterfully done, but that episode of the Siege of Mandalore took my breath away. Please give my scene a read and let me know what you think. A sincere thank you goes out to Dave Filoni and the entire Clone Wars Team, Disney, and the man who started it all, George Lucas.
Prologue
“Every single Jedi, including your friend, Obi-Wan Kenobi, is now an enemy of the Republic.”
His new master’s words hit Anakin with a finality that he knew in his soul marked the end of his old life as a Jedi. There was no going back after this.
“Do what must be done, Lord Vader.”
“Do what must be done…”
Anakin knew what must be done. He felt it. The crushing weight of his decisions settled on his shoulders as if his Venator-class cruiser had crashed down atop of him. The distant sounds of blaster fire and the electric hum of lightsabers barely reached his ears as he stepped into the open doors of the elevator that led up the central spire of the Jedi temple. A faint scream bounced off the numbness. A flicker of dread brushed softly against his mind, his only warning as the elevator began to close behind him.
Instincts born out of years of battle saved him in that moment as he reached down, unclipping his lightsaber from his belt. He thrust his arm above his head and bent it down towards his back as he ignited the blue blade. The force of his blade meeting another almost uprooted his balance causing him to step forward just a little. The heat of his blade meeting another washed over and enveloped him. He sensed something from within that heat, a similar feeling multiplied a thousand fold passing into and through his body. It felt almost painful, yet distant and far off. Shaking off the feeling, Anakin flicked his wrist in a circular motion as he spun on his heel, his Jedi cloak billowing as he parried the attacking blade, turning in one smooth motion to face his attacker.
The pale tan and unfeeling face plate of stumbling Temple Guard greeted his sight as the elevator was illuminated by the yellow glow of the dual bladed lightsaber pike that had almost managed to take him by surprise. The ancient guardians of the temple had been all but absent during his and the 501st’s march up the temple steps. Anakin had been on high alert as he entered the vast main hall of the temple waiting for these silent sentinels to offer the most token resistance to his advance. None, but the lone guard on the steps of the temple, had shown themselves during the attack until this moment. He had dispatched that traitor with the slightest of effort. At last, the rest had come to die.
Another tingle toyed with his senses as he took up a guard position while staring into the narrow black slits of the guardsman’s mask where his eyes should have been. A faint vision swam across his sight. His vision blurred and his eyes stun, raw and devoid of all moisture. Two red orbs descended upon his sight as his blue blade wavered within his grip. He could just make out the faint letters and symbols within the orbs as if he was looking through the eyes of a droid. Anakin’s breath caught as he struggled to inhale. He couldn’t breathe. In desperation Anakin thrust out his palm towards the Jedi Guard, pouring all of his sudden terror into the motion and sent a wave of force energy into the advancing guard’s chest.
Anakin’s vision cleared. He could breathe again. Letting his rage replace the momentary terror that had seized him, he stepped out of the elevator ready to attack, but was greeted with a sight he did not expect. The guardsman floated limply in the air, the glowing tip of another yellow blade thrust out from the front of his throat. The guardsman’s body fell to the ground with a dull thud as more blaster fire echoed through the halls nearby. A hooded temple guardsman stood there looking down at the body of his slain comrade
A growl escaped Anakin’s lips as he rushed forward to meet this new foe, but he was once again taken aback as the guardsman deactivated the twin blades of his lightsaber and dropped to one knee, head bowed.
“Skywalker,” he said as Anakin slid to a stop in front of him, the tip of his blue blade inches from his hooded head.
A nudge from the force caused Anakin to hesitate. The guardsman lifted his free hand off the temple floor, reached up to his face and removed his mask. Lifting his head up Anakin could now see his face more clearly within his hood. The guardsman’s milky white eyes met his own. He was humanoid. The skin of his skeletal face was off white in color, almost gray in appearance. Pale red lines ran down from his eyelids, past his angular cheek bones, stopping short of the curve of his tense lips. He had no hair that Anakin could see under the shadow of his upturned hood, but he recognized his species as that of the Pau’an of Utapau. The force called to him again showing him an image of another Pau’an in stately red robes speaking to his former master, Obi-Wan. Shaking his head slightly, Anakin banished the image from his mind.
“Why did you help me?” he asked curiously, but still on guard for any sort of deception that arise in the moments to come.
“The force,” the Pau’an replied. “It called to me. It brought me here.”
“That’s not good enough,” Anakin said, a hint of a threat lingering in his voice as he moved the point of his blade closer to the guardsman’s face. “Where are the others? Where are the rest of the temple guard hiding?”
The Pau’an’s eyes went blank for a moment, as he looked past and through Anakin, remembering something Anakin couldn’t see.
“I killed them,” the guard replied.
Surprised, Anakin asked, “Why?”
Choosing his words with care, the guardsman replied, “ The Jedi are done. I have felt it in the force. Their time has come to an end…but long now has my faith in the Jedi waned.”
Anakin waited, listening closely, his interest peaked.
“It never felt right,” the guardsman spoke as if to himself, looking past Anakin with glossy eyes.
“For years there was something inside…a void, something missing that I could never fill. I thought that perhaps I could fill this emptiness with knowledge…I grasped at anything I could to feel like one of my Jedi brothers and sisters. It all came so easy to them…”
“Get to the point,” Anakin snapped, beginning to lose his patience. He brought the tip of his lightsaber closer to the guardsman’s throat.
“General!” a voice rang out to his left accompanied by the screech of a discharged blaster bolt.
Shifting by instinct, Anakin swept his blade past the kneeling guardsman’s throat and intercepting the blaster bolt just before it reached the guardsman and deflected it harmlessly into the wall next to him.
“Hold your fire!”
The clone trooper who had come around the corner stopped his advance mid stride with a crisp nod. Turning away, he took up a defensive position as he scanned the length of the hall for additional Jedi.
Turning his blade back towards the still kneeling Temple Guard, Anakin again asked, “Why? Why did you turn your back on the Jedi?”
Looking somberly at Anakin for a moment, the guardsman’s face twisted in disgust. He bared his pointed teeth as he replied, “The Jedi denied me. They denied me of a family. Like all Jedi, I was taken from my family in my infancy. The temple never felt like home. The Jedi, cloaked in their pious light and self-righteous ways denied me the knowledge I sought to fill the void. That arrogant librarian…”
“Jocasta?” Anakin asked, hanging on to every word.
“Yes. Jocasta Nu,” the Pau’an said. “She denied me access to the deeper mysteries of the Jedi Archives. Those secrets, the ones I thought could help me discover the reason for my emptiness, were for Jedi masters, and the masters alone.”
“You are on this council, but we do not grant you the rank of Master…”
The memory of Mace Windu’s smug reply came unbidden into Anakin’s mind. Another memory surfaced, one more recent, of Windu’s bestial howls as tendrils of blue lightning snaked their way into his eyes, ears, and gaping mouth. The scent of Windu’s blistering flesh was still fresh. He could still smell the charred, sickly sweet aroma of cooking flesh. Anakin’s stomached heaved at the memory of the smell. He could still see the illuminated skull of Master Windu, flickering in and out of existence from under his ebony skin, as his body was lifted off the ledge of the great window in the Chancellor’s office and hurtled into the infinite lights of the city below. He could still feel the shame of those moments gnawing at his resolve.
“Padme,” he reminded himself, steeling his will against the useless emotion that tried to rise up within him. “This is all for her…”
A jarring scream from his left and the sounds of a combined war cry cut his thoughts short. Turning towards the sounds, Anakin saw the still helmeted head of the trooper that had been guarding the hallway come rolling towards him; the trooper’s dismantled blaster and smoking forearm lay on the ground near the headless corpse. Three Jedi, two knights and an older padawan that Anakin didn’t recognize, barreled down the hall pursued by a small squad of Clone Troopers. The blue and green light of their blades causing the shadows of the walls to shimmy in time to their dance of death.
Lunging forward, Anakin flicked his wrist up as he ducked under two green blades aimed for his throat, seizing the clone trooper’s dismembered head off the ground with the force and slamming it into the face of the padawan who brought up the rear. The force of the impact stunned the surprised padawan long enough for two blue blaster bolts to take him in the back. He never even got a chance to scream.
Spinning around, Anakin brought his blue blade up to attack at the backs of the two knights that had sailed past him. Instead, he was welcomed with the sight of twin yellow blades passing through the necks of the two unaware knights. The thud of their limp bodies hitting the floor and the suction and clatter of their falling lightsabers, as they powered down, hit his ears a moment later. The Pau’an Temple Guard stood there with his lightsaber pike thrust out horizontally in front of him, a snarl painted on his ashy lips, and a yellow light flickering in and out of existence in his milky eyes. The clatter of boots and armor assaulted Anakin’s ears as the clone troopers surrounded the lone guardsman in a circle with blasters raised and ready to fire.
“Sir,” a clone trooper said on Anakin’s right. “On you command.”
Staring at the doomed guardsman as he disengaged his lightsaber pike, Anakin raised his free hand to hold the company’s fire. A pull from the force seized him. The image of his master’s freshly scarred face crept into his thoughts. The vision of the disfigured and unnaturally haunting smile of the old man, the friend he once believed in, the tool he would use to save his wife, passed in and out of existence in that moment.
“Take him to the Chancellor’s office,” Anakin said, still staring at the spot where the guardsman stood and his vision had appeared. “My master will decide his fate.”
“Right away sir!” the trooper replied. “Men! Secure the prisoner! Move out! Ace! Ram! Cover out flanks!”
Deactivating his lightsaber, Anakin stood still, hooded and cloaked in shadow amongst the bodies strewn on the hallway floor listening to the soft thud of the troopers retreating boots.
“Do what must be done, Lord Vader.”
Palpatine’s chilling words snapped Anakin out of his silent meditation. Settling his eyes on the still open elevator doors that lead up into the council chambers, Anakin walked softly towards them. The doors whooshed close behind him. Touching the controls with a thought, he felt the elevator start to climb as he steeled himself for the confrontation the force told him awaited him at the top.
In the span of a few breaths he was there. The doors slid silently open as Anakin stepped out into the small antechamber beyond the doorway. With two quick strides he was in front of the council doors. The memory of their insult at his denial to the rank of Jedi Master rankled anew stoking the flames of his rage in an instant.
With a small gesture he touched the controls to the doors with the force. They opened with a small whoosh. In the darkness of the circular chamber sat the twelve familiar chairs of the masters in a ring around the fern-patterned floor. The high transparisteel widows let in the faintest light of the city below. Small shapes moved amongst the shadows of the room. Anakin stepped inside sealing the doors behind him with the faintest thought.
The shadows moved. One came out of the darkness towards him. The shadow transfigured into the form of a small sandy haired boy with pale blue eyes full of fear and a glimmer of hope at the sight of a familiar face. An infinite dread seized Anakin by the bones. The shadows were Younglings.
“Master Skywalker,” the sandy haired boy said as he approached Anakin. “There are too many of them. What are we going to do?”
Terror gripped Anakin tightly as he glanced around the room. There were little more than a dozen younglings coming out of the shadows towards him.
“Every single Jedi…is now an enemy of the Republic.”
His master’s voice came unbidden within Anakin’s mind. The terror gripped him tighter.
“Do what must be done, Lord Vader.”
Anakin’s lightsaber ignited in the palm of his left hand. He hadn’t felt himself press the activation button. The fear rose up within his stomach swelling and mingling with the dark presence that joined it.
“Do not hesitate.”
“Anakin!” a disembodied voice called out to him as the shock of the sandy haired boy’s face touched Anakin’s eyes.
He slashed his blade across the boys face. His tiny body left the floor for the smallest of seconds. High pitched screams assaulted his ears.
“Do what must be done, Lord Vader.”
“Anakin!”
Thrusting out his hand, he seized a girl with bobbed black hair with the force and lifted her easily off the floor. The dark monster swelled within his very core.
“Anakin! Stop!” the disembodied voice cried out.
The screaming of the children intensified.
Anakin heard the sick wet crunch of the younglings neck snapping under the slightest nudge of the force.
“Show no mercy.”
“Do what must be done, Lord Vader.”
He was Vader. Anakin was dead. Amidst the screams and the sobs he knew that now.
“Anakin,” Padme’s voice called out to him from somewhere within the fading light of his soul as he took a step forward. The hum of his lightsaber was his only solace.
“Only then will you be strong enough with the dark side to save Padme…”
Vader let thoughts of his wife consume him. He seized another youngling by the throat in the force. His lightsaber left his hand, spinning in the air and across the room with a fatalistic hum. The sound of shattering transparisteel downed out the screams as he sent the youngling crashing through with a thought into the night.
“And we shall have…peace.”
