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| - Artoo stood on watch while Anakin and Obi-Wan were engaged in some dispute at the back of the ship. The little droid whistled softly, his dome rotating back and forward. When there was no response from anyone he cooed worryingly to Threepio as the droid sat examining his plate armour for additional dents. “What do you mean we are emerging from hyperspace?” Threepio retorted. “Master Kenobi said we wouldn’t be arriving on Coruscant for several more hours.” Artoo tittered in response. “Don’t get technical with me,” Threepio remarked. “You must be faulty, we couldn’t possibly—” Threepio was then interrupted by an alarm going off on the control panel, at this Obi-Wan and Anakin emerged into the cockpit. “I didn’t touch anything!” C-3PO shrieked. “Please, I don’t know—” “Get the droid out of here!” Obi-Wan ordered, as Anakin dragged the mumbling droid out he studied the controls. The hyperspace counter was nearing zero, this couldn’t be right. “What happened?” Anakin slid into the pilot’s seat. “We’re coming out of hyperspace,” Obi-Wan told him. “So soon?” the question was innocent enough, but Obi-Wan knew his Padawan too well to trust the façade. “You meant for this to happen, didn’t you?” Obi-Wan demanded. “Entering realspace in ten,” Anakin said, reluctantly Obi-Wan sat in the co-pilot’s seat. “Cut the sublights.” Obi-Wan compiled, inwardly fuming at Anakin’s disobedience. When they emerged into realspace he gave his apprentice a hard look. “Imbroglio,” he remarked dryly. “Should I be surprised?” “Master, we couldn’t just go and leave—” “You deliberately disobeyed me when I specifically ordered you to plot us a course to Coruscant,” his Master admonished harshly. “Very well then Anakin, since this little excursion is of your undertaking you will explain your actions to the Council on our return.” “Master,” Anakin protested, “I was trying to do the right thing.” “I know you can do the right thing,” Obi-Wan lamented, “it’s doing what you are told that I'm worried about.” Anakin was about to argue when Padmé’s words came back to him, of how the only reason that Obi-Wan was so critical was because he cared. He hadn’t believed it when she told him, but now he did. Obi-Wan wasn't really angry, more like…disappointed. “Anakin, turn us around,” Obi-Wan ordered. “But Master—” “Anakin, are you going to disobey me again?” “But LOOK!” Emerging from the side of the moon, like insects swarming over a carcass, were the familiar outlines of Trade Federation ships. There were others too that Obi-Wan could identify, the Corporate Alliance, the IG-Banking Clan… “What in the name of the living Force?” Obi-Wan murmured, hardly believing what he was seeing. Dooku had been telling the truth! They were closing the net fast around the Loyalists, would Mace and the rest be able to get here in time? “So,” Anakin said casually, “do you still want to turn around?” Deep within the shadows of Caldera, Padmé sought through the Force to locate the disturbance she had sensed. It was closer now, not far from where she was standing. Closing her eyes, she tried to probe it, aiming to discern its origin or even to just get a sense of what it was. Yet every time she tried to touch it with her mind she seemed to slip off the side, much like her grasp of the Force had been years ago. I need to relax, she told herself, I need to approach this tentatively. Breathing deeply she proceeded towards it slower, pausing to sense her surroundings before taking the next step forward. Finally, she saw it before her, a whirling mass of dark energy. It couldn’t be another Jedi, aside from the darkness she sensed from it contacting another Jedi through the Force was almost an effortless process even if one did not know the other Jedi personally. This is something much darker, Padmé said to herself, trying to ignore the thought at the back of her mind that it was a Sith not unlike the one she had encountered ten years ago. And she was the only Jedi around at the moment. With the smallest amount of penetration Padmé probed the disturbance again. For a moment, she managed to stick on the surface, whirling around with it and absorbing such a rush of sensations and thoughts that it was almost a relief to slide off even quicker than before. When she opened her eyes it was not small surprise that she was now lying on the floor. Shakily, she got to her feet and quieted her mind. She was just outside the conference room and it was somewhere before her. Whether it was a threat or not Padmé needed to know even if it did being away from the senator longer than she intended. When she came to the gallery above the conference room, Padmé stopped again. It’s here, she touched her lightsaber under her cloak to make sure it was there. Could it be a Sith? She wondered, another apprentice, or perhaps the Master. “Yes, the Jedi are on their way here,” said a disturbingly familiar voice. “Everything will be proceeding as you have planned, my Master.” “You have done well, my apprentice,” said another familiar voice. “But be cautious, Lord Typhon, none must discover you identity or there will be more delay.” “Delay or not, Master Sidious,” said Typhon, “it is inevitable that the Sith will once again control the galaxy.” Padmé stepped out of her hiding place, she had to see who was speaking as they could not be identified through the Force. Yet the recognition was instantaneous, while the one called Sidious was rapidly disappearing into a holoprojector she blurted out the other’s name without thinking. “Master Nju!”
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