thisavrou | video; backdated to 05/20; locked to Padmé, Satine, and Zam

Entry tags:

star wars: satine kryze

video; backdated to 05/20; locked to Padmé, Satine, and Zam

[ Returning from Amissis-Re, Obi-Wan has never been more relieved to be riding with Anakin — a feeling altogether foreign most other times. At the moment no one is piloting transporter 002 in any meaningful way. They are, in fact, taking the long way back, and by way of abusing Skywalker's status, which affords them a little time to formulate a crucial warning.

No doubt, they both feel the heaviness of certain burdens. The trip through the Alter-Ingress had been both terrifying and sobering. The information they now find themselves in possession of is like a great mountain atop their shoulders — more so Anakin's, it seems, if his distant expression is any indication. It's why Kenobi doesn't hesitate to take the lead. ]

If you can spare a moment, we— Anakin and I have discovered information we feel is necessary to be shared and further disseminated going forward. Please, it's important.

[ On a locked frequency, the message is only for a very select few — those who would be most greatly affected by the information. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm listening. What's going on?

We've just returned from Coruscant. From our time, a few years after you've gone. There's been a- a massacre at the Jedi temple. And... the Chancellor is behind it.

[ Obi-Wan sounds extremely troubled and he very purposefully avoids bringing the brooding Skywalker into the conversation. ]

He is a Sith Lord. He has turned the Republic's forces against its own people.

[ An educated guess, although the pieces are beginning to fall into place. Will Zam even care? Obi-Wan hadn't considered that before contacting them. ]

[There’s a pause on Zam’s side of the conversation as she tries to process what she’s just heard. It sounds like complete nonsense, but Obi-wan’s tone makes it clear it’s anything but.]

I don’t understand. The Jedi are supposed to be the Republic’s allies, aren’t they? Even if the Chancellor’s a Sith-- [Which is outlandish enough by itself.] --how could he get the rest of the Senate to cooperate? He can’t have made a decision like that all on his own. [Unless the Jedi had done something to unite the rest of the Senate against them as well. Even to someone who had only ever encountered Jedi under hostile circumstances before her death, that sounds extremely unlikely.]

[Anakin's "trying" to concentrate on flying and not listening in on the conversation at all, but...when has that ever worked?

The response is punctuated by a great heaved sigh.]

Because he is the Senate. You think anything goes on there he doesn't know about?

[Zam wasn’t expecting the other Jedi to join the conversation, at least not with her, but she isn’t fazed for long.] So you’re saying all it took was one man giving the word and the rest of the Senate turns a blind eye while he wipes out the Republic’s own allies in the middle of Coruscant? [Zam may not be the most politically astute person in the galaxy, but even she can tell this isn’t how the system should work. Why attack the Jedi when the Republic already had the Separatists spoiling for a fight? It was like cutting off your own hand when you already have a blaster pointed at your head.]

That can’t be the whole story. Either the Chancellor staged some sort of coup or… [Or the Jedi did something to provoke the attack. Given current company, probably best not to repeat that particular suspicion aloud.]

It isn't the whole story. We don't have the whole story — we were too late for that.

[ The only reason Obi-Wan believes this could be the obvious outcome to their future (two-thirds of their futures, at least) is because the pieces fit together almost perfectly with all of the other information he's received from credible sources. As credible as he believes them to be, at least. ]

We now know the Chancellor is a Sith Lord. We engaged several aggressive clone troopers that appeared to be following orders to kill us. We've seen the Jedi temple in ruins.

I think a coup is the obvious answer, but the underlying mechanisms—

[ He'll need to think on that, mostly because he hasn't had a second to weigh his memories of Palpatine against this new information. ]

Clone troopers? Since when does the Chancellor have clones at his beck and call? [This just keeps getting more and more bizarre.] You're sure this was our galaxy, right? Not some fusion or... I don't know, alternate version? [She herself has been visiting fusions almost exclusively in the past few jumps. It would certainly explain the strangeness of everything the Jedi is describing.]

I had initially believed that to be the case, but there are certain similarities I can't ignore.

[ The Force hadn't changed, and as much as Obi-Wan would like to think it permeates all universes in the same way, he already knows from his time on the Moira that isn't the case. ]

We learned of the creation of a clone army not long after your death. I traveled to Kamino where they were commissioned.

[ Kenobi shakes his head. The timing wasn't convenient, it was planned that way, he realizes far too late. ]

The Kaminoans cooperated, but I did chase their prototype to his eventual end. He seemed to have something to hide.

[There’s a palpable silence on Zam’s end of the conversation after Obi-wan mentions Kamino. Slowly, the pieces start to fall into place. The massacre at the temple. A clone army from Kamino. And a bounty hunter with a decades long grudge against the Jedi.

Zam had known the Kaminoans were using Jango’s DNA for something, had even known that it involved clones. She can still remember, of course, the cruel trick Jango had played on her, using a cloned child’s body to convince her, just for a moment, that he had killed his own son. But not even she could have guessed the scale of what he’d taken part in.

Her voice is quiet when she speaks again.] Jango Fett… He was the template, wasn’t he?

[ The pause is reflected back, Obi-Wan's silence as telling as can be. He sits forward, closer to the transmitter, his voice turning grave but still curious. ]

Yes. [ And then a further thought: ] You were closer than originally suggested. Was it just a job as you'd originally said, or is there more to it than that?

[Zam’s already bristling before he even gets to the question.] That’s really none of your—

[She cuts herself off with a scowl. Except it is his business now because Jango had to go get involved in… whatever this was. Clone armies. The Chancellor. Genocide.]

He didn’t tell me about any of this. But he’d been living on Kamino for the past few years and had reason to hate the Jedi. Wasn’t hard to guess he was the template. [She had thought he had chosen to live on Kamino because it was isolated – a safe, unknown place to raise Boba without any of his enemies even knowing of the boy’s existence. But it seems that had only been a sliver of his true intentions. If he had been hiding this under her nose the entire time, she must have been even more a pawn than that she had realized.]

[ Well, that answers his question, doesn't it? ]

What reason did he have? Do you believe he— He wasn't wittingly applying himself to this scenario, was he?

[ Now there are some further implications he doesn't want to consider. How could that potential hatred have been duplicated? Obi-Wan doesn't think so, but the Kaminoans are the cloners, not him. ]

He couldn't have known the Jedi would be targets, not all along...

I don’t know for sure. But Jango Fett of all people just happening to be in a position where an army wearing his face would massacre the Jedi a few years down the line? That would have to be one hell of a coincidence.

[It’s possible, of course. But what snippets of information she could tease from the bounty hunter about his past make it hard to believe that this could have been an accident. Not completely, anyway.]

Jango Fett isn’t -- wasn’t a simple man. Even if he sometimes acted like it.

He wasn't very simple as he tried to blast me to pieces on Kamino, so I don't have a problem believing that.

[ And then, a further thought: ] He had a boy with him at the time. An unaltered clone, they told me. I'm not sure what happened to him.

[Zam knows. Her recent trips through Amissis-Re’s Ingress had provided her with answers: namely, that Boba and his father had been chased off Kamino and that Boba had successfully evaded Republic capture for at least a number of months. It occurs to her now that Obi-wan is likely the one who did the chasing. She feels an instinctive anger at the Jedi, just as quickly followed by scorn for the emotion. Why should she care what happened to her killer or his son? They weren’t her family, not really. And yet...]

He doesn’t know anything. [Zam doesn’t know if it’s true, but she says it with practiced certainty.] Jango wouldn’t have told him anything that would make him a target.

[ Obi-Wan isn't entirely certain he's willing to believe that, especially after having some direct contact with Boba. He very vividly remembers nearly being blasted apart on Kamino. And let's not talk about that whole prison altercation... ]

Regardless, Jango appears to be central to this entire endeavor. If I have more questions in the coming days, may I bring them to you?

[There’s a pause as Zam considers. And then:]

On one condition: whatever you learn, you share it with me.

[Woah. Look, whatever he might think about this: and it's nothing great, that's a massive request, regardless of the context.]

If it's pertinent.

["Whatever" means a lot. Come on, Obi-Wan, how is this an equal exchange here?]

[ Obi-Wan tsks over the audio feed, but cuts back in smoothly. ]

Of course. I'll be in touch.

[ Notice he didn't say we'll be in touch. ]

[Zam frowns at the other Jedi’s grumbling protest in the background, but fortunately Obi-wan doesn’t seem to share his companion’s reservations -- at least, not out loud.]

Thank you. [There’s the faintest hint of smugness in her tone, despite everything. Just for you, Skywalker~] Hopefully, we’ll both get some answers out of this.

[ Padmé is biting down on her thumb when she answers, eyebrows rumpled in thought. She's already solemn from the trip into the Alter-Ingress with Anakin, the world they found in there and its implications turning her stomach. She has a bad feeling that Obi-wan's message is just as unsettling.]

I'm listening, Master Kenobi. Please continue.

[ She should trust her instincts — this isn't bound to be pleasant. ]

We've discovered the identity of the Sith Lord and the— [ A breath here. ] —and the name of his apprentice as well.

[ Obi-Wan is keeping a level head. Or, at least, a semi-level head considering, but still he finds himself a bit breathless at all the implications — all of the implications of implications. He frowns and keeps his focus squarely on her. ]

It's the Chancellor, Padmé. He's the Sith Lord.

The Ch- The chancellor?!

[ The shock makes her stand, pushing her chair back. It couldn't-- She wondered sometimes if his intentions were more to his own benefit than the republic but for it to go this far...? ]

How- With all the Jedi with him every day, how could he have hidden that?

[Anakin's laugh his wry, clipped, and frankly...upset. It's not much of a laugh at all, but the idea of the Jedi Council listening to anyone on the subject is laughable enough to warrant it. For an elite grouping of Masters who were theoretically the best of a neutral order, they seemed--still seem, even, so far away from home--to excel in personal bias.

If he sounds distracted, he is. But trying too hard to be so, focusing on controls that don't need fussing over.]

By leaving all the blame on his apprentices instead. [He scoffs, offended. It makes so much sense now, why he'd been so insistent on Dooku's death as he'd watched the man easily lose on Grievous' broken flagship.] He played all of us like idiots.

[ Kenobi shoots his friend a warning look, but it doesn't have the same spurs as it might normally, mostly because he doesn't really know what it's like to experience such a betrayal, only what Anakin must feel about it in this moment.

He crosses his arms, hands burying into the wide sleeves of his tunic. Kenobi can't keep himself from going back to the clones. ] A portion of this was done in plain sight, but I believe we were lacking in context to have really understood the implications at the time.

[ And then, somewhat abruptly, he scoffs. ] Dooku warned of this.

[Anakin looks over at Obi-Wan through the corner of his eye, disbelief only apparent right away through the length of the movement, not over the network, though his tone more than makes up for it.]

He warned you. The bastard warned you, and you were going to say this when?

What he suggested— [ Defensive. He's being defensive. Obi-Wan closes his eyes and takes a short breath, trying to center himself, to smooth down frazzled nerves. ] At the time, all he'd said reeked of desperation. It was a story of a story and it made no sense.

[ Whiiiich is not answering the question, but hey, let's not focus on that. ]

[It's the only thing he can manage other than anger. It gives his resentment a direction, and as much as Obi-Wan doesn't deserve it, he's the only one in the room.]

Is that you talking, or the Council?

This isn't helping. [ And then, as to be expected, he softens a bit and sighs. ] We can talk about it later.

[ Perhaps not what Anakin wants to hear, but Obi-Wan gestures to the screen and offers Amidala a thin smile. ]

I'm sorry, Padmé; we'll endeavor to maintain ourselves with a little more decorum going forward.

From my own...

[ Padmé sits down, as if her strings have been cut. How could she be so blind? She never even considered.... How did Master Yoda not know? Even with the attention being diverted to his lessors, for Yoda to not sense it...]

How did you find this out? Was it back on that ship?

No! [Anakin quickly cuts that one right off before he has to explain that in the middle of still trying to sort through how he feels about the Chancellor.]

No. It was... [he clears his throat roughly and looks over at Obi-Wan for a split second, grasping for some kind of mental grounding when he can't see her.] The temple. We were in the temple.

I brought back a security recording. It's badly damaged, but I'm hoping with a little time we may be able to recover more substantial information.

I'd also like Arnot to take a look. [ That said to Anakin, although Kenobi only tips his head in his former apprentice's direction. ]

And...The Chancellor was on that tape? Admitting to being a Sith?

[ She pauses, before standing up, going for her jacket. she has to see this recording. ]

I will meet you in the hangar when you arrive.

Edited 2016-05-27 20:43 (UTC)

It was unmistakable.

[ He doesn't expect Padmé will disagree when she sees the recording herself. The Chancellor's voice is still haunting him in this moment, every memory like a new revelation. ]

We should be too long. We'll see you then.

[ Padmé makes it to the hangar in record time, the memories of the last time she was here alone with Anakin just brushing her consciousness, too worried about her home to dwell on it. She prides herself on her patience and restraint, but both are in short supply with such harrowing news, and the senator finds herself pacing while waiting for their ship to return. ]

[ This may be one of the few times that Obi-Wan doesn't have the heart to complain about flying. Instead, he disembarks and waits for all the shutdown procedures before following Anakin out into the hanger bay. ]

There's Padmé. [ As if it needs pointed out. Still, he figures it's permission to seek out that familiar comfort he knows Anakin needs, even if he doesn't say it. ] You go ahead and I'll catch up after I've signed the ship back in.

[After all of this, the bodies, the clones, the revelation, attached to the secret he still holds onto in the back of his robes, Anakin wants nothing more than to be done. With responsibility, with knowing any of this, with this destiny, all of it. Everything he knows is attached to hurt, every breath he takes burns like he's still breathing in smoke.

He can't imagine a future worse than this. Let alone having to tell the people he holds most dear, dearer than even--perhaps unfairly--the potentiality of his children, that this is all there is left to look forward to. Death and betrayal in spades. And to make matters worse, Anakin suspects, given the timing, that the temple had been shown to them for a reason.

A reason he shouldn't have been able to come back from.

He nods numbly at Obi-Wan's instructions, not really looking to him at all, the floor almost seeming more welcoming than seeing Padmé on the horizon, the same worry and fear etched into an expression he can't console. If this betrayal hurt no one else more, it would be her.

The one person alone who deserves none of this hurt.

He stalks toward her slowly, steadily, trying to hide the shake that threatens in his good hand, the other tensing and locking up under the duress; his nerves aren't sure how to react, and the mechanics of the arm less so.]

I'm sorry. [It's all he can think to say. For all of this. For knowing it. For having nothing better to say. For dragging her into this at all.] Padmé, I--

[I'm so sorry. ~~I'll make him sorry.~~]

Edited 2016-06-01 03:37 (UTC)

I'm here.

[ And she's worried. This doesn't sound like it'll be good news. ]

[ He's relieved to see her face, although he's not as obvious about it as he could be. The comfort she offers is not something that has bearing on anything he's about to say. ]

We've discovered the source behind the Imperial uprising. [ They'd only touched on the subject, but the implications for Mandalore in this situation compel Obi-Wan to share. ] And the Sith Lord responsible for— [ —Maul ] —for... the war.

[ The scope is almost too vast to consider. ]

Who is it?

[ The obvious answer would be Dooku, but it would seem as if that isn't the case. Not with how Obi is acting. ]

Chancellor Palpatine. He was operating from within, using everyone as—

[ He comes to a halt, jaw tight. He presses on without looking back at Anakin, who is suffering the worst of this. ]

We'd had our suspicions, but nothing like this.

[ For a long moment, all Satine can do is stare as the enormity of this revelation sinks in. ]

I knew the Republic was rotting from within, but this is... I can hardly believe it.

[ And at the same time it makes such a horrible kind of sense. ]

[ Obi-Wan can hardly believe it himself. If he hadn't seen the recording himself, he might not have believed it despite his prior reservations about the Chancellor. It feels impossible, and yet... ]

We're returning to the ship now. We'll be meeting Padmé once we land to review the message if you'd like to be there.

I would very much like to, but I am unable to at the moment. I trust you will show it to me later?

Of course. [ He dips his head. ] I'll contact you with details later this evening.

Thank you, Ben. Please tell Anakin how sorry I am, this must be such a blow to both of you.

You know I don't somehow go deaf when I'm flying, right?

[Any other day, that would be an awful invitation for ribbing, and he can even hear Obi-Wan in the back of his mind huffing and asking why he doesn't follow orders if he can hear them. It's clipped when it shouldn't be, and more than just a little bit bitter. No one else here are the ones being groomed by a genocidal traitor for Force-only-knows what end.

He'll have time to be sorry later.]

You're not the one who needs to apologize.

[As if an apology would fix any of this in the first place. There's only one sort he wants right now, and it's at the end of a lightsaber.]

I know, Anakin.

[ She simply wasn't sure if he was listening, but she reckons he knows that. ]

I am not unfamiliar with betrayal.

[ It ultimately led to her death after all. ]

If you need a friend, you can come to me.

We appreciate your sympathy and understanding, Duchess. Thank you.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

video; backdated to 05/20; locked to Padmé, Satine, and Zam

audio;

audio;

audio;

audio;

audio;

audio;

audio;

audio;

audio;

audio;

audio;

audio;

audio;

audio;

audio;

audio;

audio;

offhand grumbling audio

audio;

audio;

Video;

Video;

Video;

audio interjection; hi hello

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

audio;

video;

video;

video;

action;

action;

action;

Video

Video

Video

Video

Video

Video

Video

Video

Video

audio interjection;

audio

video