Coruscant, Senatorial/Delegate Speeder Annex, (15 minutes later, 21.9 BBY)
Evening made Coruscant a place of long shadows. There was an abundance of artificial lighting, of course, but rather than really casting back the darkness, they simply created isolated islands of light. Surrounding these illuminated areas were larger territories of half-lit twilight. Places where colors were muted, and the exact dimensions of objects were difficult to discern. Neither was the situation helped by many of the walls and buildings in this portion of the world-city being gray, silver, or black. The monochrome surroundings naturally drawing the eye to those rare splashes of color which did exist in the gloom.
Like the cobalt blue armor worn by the trio of Senate Guards who seemed to be waiting for us. Watching while we drew even with the gateway separating the landing complex and speeder annex. The visors of their respective helms giving the trio an anonymous uniformity broken only by the two corporal's blazons on the right pectoral of the lead figure's armor. The sight of which bothers me enough my eyes flicked immediately to the right. Taking in at a glance the large guard booth sitting flush within the entryway, so all foot-traffic passing in either direction could be easily scrutinized by the pair of Senate Guards who were always on duty here. In addition to observing those moving in either direction for signs of anything untoward, the guards kept watch on the many security monitors within. Coordinating as necessary with the patrol which swept back and forth across the landing complex and speeder annex. A patrol I didn't remember seeing as we'd crossed the landing complex grounds.
The lights in the booth were on, so I can see the screens of the four security-monitors on the furthest arm of the C-shaped panel visible through the large rectangular panes of transparisteel were active, but there's no sign of the booth's occupants. While the pair of privates presently awaiting us could conceivably be the guards who normally serve at this duty-station, the presence of the corporal apparently in command doesn't track. There's a corporal assigned to the lieutenant who oversees the four-strong roving patrol, but I'm having a hard time conceiving of an irregularity important enough to justify said officer's detaching his second to take command of the pair from the guard booth, without said irregularity also justifying the summoning of additional reinforcements.
I can sense a distinct unease coming from Captain Typho. It tells me I'm not the only one who's noticed there's something out of the ordinary here. The Senate Guards don't deviate from their command structure without compelling reason, so the present situation isn't simply some easily ignored oddity.
Padme can't help noticing as Gregar moves from a couple steps behind her right flank to occupy a similar position on my left. When I drop back a couple steps until she's directly to my right, the slender, dark-haired woman murmurs almost silently out the side of her mouth "What's going on, Anakin? Those are Senate Guards, but the two of you are reacting as if we're among enemies."
Without looking at her, or allowing the relaxed smile I'm wearing to lapse, I murmur back "It might be nothing, but the guards have deviated from both their regular command hierarchy, and standard procedure. No one's manning the guard booth, and most of the legitimate reasons for redeploying the personnel stationed there would also be compelling reasons for making a call to S.G.H for reinforcements. It's possible we're overreacting, but then again, the assassin I am most worried about is someone who specializes in making people do things they would never otherwise do. In either eventuality, caution costs nothing, as my Master constantly reminded me."
I sense her concern increase, but the little fear the woman feels is crushed immediately. Behind the opacity of her mental shields, I can feel her mind beginning to race once more. Our shared reaction to potential danger waking her up, and spurring an increase in focus. The thought makes my smile a touch more genuine, as we cross the remaining distance, and I greet the trio of guardsmen. A casual looking run of my fingers through the hair on the left side of my head serving as cover to thumb on the filament-cam I'm still wearing. In this era of increased suspicion with regards to Jedi actions and motivations, I think it's only prudent to capture an objective accounting of the imminent encounter.
"Good evening, Corporal. I'm Anakin Skywalker, one of Senator Amidala's escorts tonight. Is there something we should be aware of going on?" I venture in a pleasant and courteous manner. The man's emotions were a turbid mire of anger and resentment bordering on active hostility, as were those of the guardsman looking on over his right shoulder, so I'm trying to be as diplomatic as possible.
Ignoring me entirely, the corporal addresses himself to Padme in an uncompromisingly flat tone. "Senator Amidala, you need to come with us, now. My men and I will escort you to headquarters, where a contingent of more senior guardsmen will take over. We received a warning from the office of the S.B.I's Director. The report indicates a Changeling bounty hunter is pursuing a death mark recently placed on you by an unknown party, and it emphasizes the bounty hunter isn't working alone."
Padme glances from the guardsman to me ever so briefly, and the instant our eyes meet, it's like a thick veil of black fog parts. In my mind's eye, I can see her beginning to fall. One neat, perfectly circular bullet-hole punched above the inner arch of her right eyebrow, then a second round making a ruin of her nose as it smashes into it's bridge.
The hook of my right arm snaps tight like a trap about her midsection as I reach her. A pair of sharp reports reaching my ears as I blur past. The gunshots are so close together, they seem like one drawn out sound. My momentum yanks Padme off her feet like she's fired an ascension gun at the nearby wall and engaged the reel. I concentrate on strengthening my outstretched left arm, as my semi-controlled dash fetches us up against the wall at speeds which by rights should turn my arm into a jellied mass of splintered bones. I can feel the jarring impact through my entire body, but my furious denial of the assassin's actions has given me a perfect clarity of focus I hadn't believed possible before this moment. My eyes flick sideways for the briefest instant to assess the slender woman as I set her back on her feet, then I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding. Other than a few locks of missing hair, and a flimsi-thin line of red slowly oozing drops of red down her right temple, she's entirely unharmed.
For an instant, I'm as staggered by the near-miss and hitting the wall, as I am by the fact the faint awareness of her in the hindmost quarter of my mind has suddenly become a significantly more pronounced presence in my awareness. A development which seems to have coincided with the woman presently pressed so tightly against me beginning to process what very nearly just happened. There's no time to focus on anything but the next threat to her life, however. Keenly aware of the now seething rage in the two men already turning to face our new position. Both men beginning to bring their blaster rifles to bear. I push Padme behind me as my lightsaber comes to hand a tick before either can do so. A part of me which feels simultaneously alien and frighteningly familiar actually aching for them to fire.
"It will be no one's fault but their own, when these traitors get a couple of blaster-bolts bounced back through the visors." A vicious voice whispers in my mind. One which reminds me pointedly that these men were undeniably complicit in the attempt on Padme's life I'd just thwarted, as it emphasizes their obvious willingness to pick up where the sniper's failure had left off. I know there's something wrong with this assessment, but the icy fury demanding I end the vermin who have betrayed everything they were supposed to stand for is making it difficult to think of anything except punishment and retribution for their enormous crime.
It doesn't help that I can hear the murderous intentions foremost in the minds of both men, as they dash out wide of the wall with their weapons raised. The resolve to murder the woman in my keeping so complete, it's like the killing fury has become a firestorm of all-consuming flame within each man. Burning away everything which isn't the denied predator seeking the ecstatic release that comes with the moment of the kill. Yet for all that a horrifyingly atavistic part of my mind is insisting these beasts should be made to beg for death's sweet release, I'm revolted to my core by the thought of becoming what I beheld in both of them. The thought of a truly visceral vengeance for trying to snuff out Padme's pure bright flame is sweet enough to tempt me to an unforgivable abuse of my power as nothing else ever had, but even as my hands tighten until my knuckles are white around the hilt of the lightsaber held in Shien's initial ranged-guard, there's enough sanity remaining to whisper urgently of the price for the moments of black rapture I've envisioned.
"This is not who I am. This is not what I want, not truly" I find myself gasping beneath my breath. Feeling as if I've just run a hundred kilometers, and it's only now that I find myself wondering why I couldn't feel how frigid with resentment, how thick with with disdain, how oily with festering rage, and full of unalloyed hatred the air around me seems until this very moment.
All of this flashes by in one sliver of a second. I might be constrained by the need to stay close enough to the wall the sniper occupying an unknown vantage won't be able to intervene, but now that I've fought my way back to detachment, I know it will be a simple matter to reflect the killers' blaster-bolts back at their weapons. I'm prepared to do just that at this point, but after focusing so completely on preparing my response, I end up surprised by what actually happens. It takes a moment after everything grows momentarily still, for me to even realize I hadn't actually seen anything at all in my Third Sight. Not since the warning which had saved Padme's life. It's a revelation which leaves me feeling even colder, as the overarching implications of my struggle with the fury which tried to consume me attempts to pull my attention from the tableau right in front of us.
The corporal had gone down after only getting a couple of shots off with his rifle. Neither of which came nowhere near hitting anyone, because he'd been hit by a blaster-bolt square between the shoulder blades as he opened fire. His partner in crime had begun to wheel after seeing his accomplice go down, but a second blaster-bolt had taken him just beneath his left arm. Sending him to the ground with a single spasmodic twitch of the limb whose hand had been on the rifle's stock.
The third guardsman stood shaking perhaps ten meters away. Already having dropped the blaster used to gun down the traitors. Now, he fell forward onto his knees. Every portion of his body seized by convulsions as sudden as they were wild. With my Third Sight entirely fogged out, and a sniper capable of two head-shots in rapid succession occupying an unknown vantage, I force myself to resist the urge to rush out, grab, and carry the stricken man back to our position hard against the wall separating the landing complex from the speeder annex. It's obvious the sniper had been given more than ample opportunity to silence the seizing man forever, so it's equally apparent the soldier is being used as bait. I'm certain of this, because it's exactly what I would do, had I chosen to sell my soul for credits.
There was a great deal more to what was going on, as the horrifyingly belated realization that this was all the work of a Dark Side adept far more accomplished than I'd ever believed continues to wash over me, but I shove such thoughts from my mind for now. Reaching out suddenly with the Force, I suddenly push rather than pull the guardsman's thrashing form. Hoping to throw off a shooter who almost certainly has their cross-hairs occupying a spot fifty centimeters to the right of the soldier's present position. A bullet tears a hand-sized pockmark in the black duracrete of the tarmac just behind the sliding body, as I yank the tumbling form into a sudden lateral skid our way. With only maybe five meters until the sniper's latest would-be victim slips into the shadow of the wall and safety, I allow myself to hope I'd win this macabre race.
The hole appears in the back of the guardsman's armor high on the right side without warning. Followed a split-second later by a second hit maybe five centimeters lower. Making of the gaping holes one hideously contiguous wound that announces the inevitability of my failure to save a good man's life.
There's no way for me to know what I suddenly do, but this doesn't shake my certainty in the content of a message being sent me in an innocent man's blood. Now, dropping to my knees beside the soldier vomiting blood in what are certainly his final moments, it's as if I can hear the killer's voice. "That's for spoiling my first shots, Jedi."
Pulling the man's helmet off with hands which still want to curl into fists, I push my anger into the Force, then place my palms against the guardsman's temples and lock eyes with him.
"There is no pain. There is no fear. There is only peace, guardsman." Bringing every iota of my will to bear in drowning his natural panic, I do my best to calm whatever mental chaos has been inflicted on him by the dark side adept. I would have liked to pluck his name from his thoughts, so I could address the private with greater familiarity in his last moments, but the pall of the dark side still suffuses him. It's everything I can do under the circumstances to create a semblance of peace and painlessness even for what little time he has left.
It seems reasonable the sudden absence of panic and pain would allow the dying man to calm, but I'm surprised to feel the rise of another determined surge in his mind. The guard's left hand lashes out and catches my right wrist in a bruising grip, before he turns his head aside, then spits out a great deal of bright blood with surprising strength. Craning his head back in my direction to lock eyes with me before a new gout of blood can choke him anew, the courageous guard successfully chokes out in ragged, uneven gasps "Anzat, Li...sabers. Changeling, real."
The hand on my wrist tightens even further. The gray eyes set in blood-covered features belonging to a man in his early twenties boring into my own. Desperately seeking confirmation that he's managed to pass on the information he's so intent on communicating.
Leaning in very close, I nod sharply several times. Letting this brave and fiercely committed young man see that I've heard his warning. It doesn't seem like there's time to get Padme over here so he could see for himself he hasn't died in vain, so I bend down even closer, and speak directly into his ear "Senator Amidala is alive, thanks to you, guardsman. She'll be protected, and those responsible for this will be brought to justice, I promise you. You can rest now." Hearing footsteps behind me, and seeing the dying young man's weak blood drenched smile, I realize I was mistaken. Padme's moved to where he could gaze up at her. but as I hear her draw breath to say something to him, the light behind those intense gray eyes finally fades. His head lolls limply to the right, as one final choking gasp escapes his lips.
Gently closing eyes which had grown sightless with my right hand, I climb to my feet, then glance ahead at the guard-booth which had been commandeered by Captain Typho as the shooting began. I'd seen him preparing to open fire on the suborned guards, prior to the private's intervention. Now, the faint, rapidly repeating eee-on, eee-on of C.S.F klaxons are growing progressively louder as the various units approach. I glimpse a pair of P.C.B.U's racing along behind the swarm of faster police units converging on the area from multiple directions. The swiftly flashing red and blue lights lining these airspeeders, as well as all the other units prompting a sense of relief. The bulk of my attention returns to our immediate area, as I keep up my watch until I know for certain the danger is past.
Not that I truly believe there will be another attempt on Padme's life right now. Between my slowly clearing Third Sight giving me clues as to how the approaching police-units were going to establish their cordon around this location, and the renewed clarity of the Force Sense which detects the fast approaching Force-presence of Master Jinn, there's good reason to believe the one responsible for drawing the dark side's veil over this place has already withdrawn.
The chill I'd gotten after realizing I'd been influenced to forget the likelihood of all three Senate Guards being victims of Force Compulsion, and this despite the fact that very suspicion had been uppermost in my thoughts only moments prior to the attempt on Padme's life, persists. According to my former Master, my mental shielding against such influences was equal to that of many Jedi Masters by this point. Meaning whoever this Anzat with the lightsabers turns out to be, they're a frighteningly practiced Dark Jedi. Their demonstrated capacity for twisting the thoughts and feelings of others makes them formidable enough, but they also seem to possess a comprehensive capacity for Force Stealth they were able to extend to their Clawdite accomplice. Otherwise, I'm confident I would have sensed the confrontation with the three guards was simply a diversion from the real assassination attempt.
Padme's voice pulls me from my grim musings concerning this latest brush with the dark side. "You did everything you could to save him, Anakin, and you gave him peace in his final moments." Her voice is sympathetic as she watches me try to shake off the anger still clinging to me like droplets of tar, but I can feel how shaken she is by what just happened.
Before I can frame a reply, or even ask if she's all right, I feel Qui Gon's Force-presence. Striding up to us through the entryway connecting the landing complex and speeder annex, his face is grim as death, as he immediately insisted "Take the airspeeder I left in the nearest of the northern spaces and get out of here, Anakin. I don't understand how it's happened, but this place has grown so thick with the dark side it may have to be quarantined to prevent violence until the effect subsides. You need to get beyond the boundaries of this contamination as soon as possible though. C.S.F isn't going to allow anymore civilian vehicles into the cordon they've established until their search is complete, but I've arranged for the Senator and I to catch a ride with one of their units headed for the S.G.H. We'll leave as soon as you do."
There was a great deal more I wanted to say to Padme, but one look at the Jedi Master's face showed me he wasn't going to budge. Worse, I knew he was only speaking from a place of concern, and more than that, he was right. Looking at the dark-haired beauty for a long moment, I pushed my concern, affection, and relief along the Bond. I wanted to heal the small cut on her head with my extremely meager talent for healing, but I was honestly afraid to touch her with the Force in this choking miasma of death and hatred. Finally, I simply bowed deeply to them both, then replied "I will carry your request for protection to the High Council, Senator. After I explain what happened here, I'm sure the Council will assent."
Warmth, caring and concern flowed into my awareness from the dark-eyed, dark-haired beauty, before she answered with warm consideration "This is three times now you've saved my life, Jedi Skywalker. You have my sincere thanks, gratitude, and complete confidence in your concern for my safety. Now, please do as Master Jinn requests. It would bother me more than a little, if you came to harm on my account after everything you've done."
"You might also want to change before facing the Council, Anakin" Qui Gon added after a moment. Eyeing the copious amounts of blood covering my leggings and spattering my tunic with an inscrutable, but not unkindly expression.
There was nothing more to say to that, so I simply nodded, bowed once more, then started off.
The Council could punish me later, if they liked, but I had bigger fish to fry with them right now.
A/N: I was experimenting with tenses, but I don't think it turned out so well. Sorry we still didn't get to the Council meeting, but this was the Chapter I seemed to have a need to write. Sorry if the clinging to present tense fucked it up. Feedback extremely welcome.353