• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Palpatine waited until he was certain Anakin was finished. “My boy, I don’t know that it’s healthy to have a foot in each world. Soon you may have to make a choice.”

Anakin nodded. “I’m ready.”

Palpatine smiled again. “But back to the matter at hand. It sounds to me as if the recapture of Tythe could prove very important toward ending the war. I don’t understand all of it. The Jedi Council is being very secretive with me.”

Anakin fought the temptation to reveal everything about the search for Darth Sidious. He glanced at R2-D2, as if expecting commiseration, but the astromech only swiveled his dome, his processor status indicator flashing from blue to red.

Finally Anakin said: “I don’t know what to do, sir.”

Palpatine adopted a sympathetic expression. “It’s decided. I shall prevail upon the Council to order you back to the Core. No one needs further proof of how intrepid you are, or how committed you are to defeating our enemies.”

In time you will learn to trust your feelings; then you will be invincible.

Palpatine’s advice to him, three years earlier.

“No,” Anakin said in a rush. “No. Thank you, sir, but … I’m needed on Tythe. Dooku is there.”

I’m sorry, Padmé. I’m so, so sorry. I miss you so much—

“Yes,” Palpatine was saying. “Dooku is the key to everything just now. Despite all our victories in the inner systems … Do you suspect he and General Grievous may have some secret strategy?”

“If they do, Obi-Wan and I will defeat them before they can implement it.”

“The Republic counts on it.”

“Safeguard Coruscant, sir. Safeguard everyone there.”

“I will, my boy. And rest assured that I will call on you if I need you.”

Obi-Wan was in the MedStar’s docking bay, waiting for the shuttle that would take him to the light cruiser Integrity. His arms were folded across his chest, and his small rucksack was sitting on the deck.

“Did you get through to him?” he asked as Anakin and R2-D2 approached.

“Well, I spoke to him.”

“That’s what I meant. And?”

Anakin averted his gaze. “We both decided that my place is here, Master.” He sounded on the verge of tears.

Obi-Wan merely nodded. “For a moment I thought you were going to leave it to me to retake Tythe.”

Anakin looked at him. “I know better than that.”

“You don’t think I’m capable?” Obi-Wan asked around a forming grin.

“I know you’d be willing to die trying.”

“There is no trying—”

“Yes, there is,” Anakin cut him off. “And you’re living proof of it.”

Obi-Wan smiled, then glanced out the hold’s magcon transparency. “The shuttle’s coming.”

Anakin’s eyes tracked the approaching light. “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.” He still wasn’t smiling.

Obi-Wan closed his hand around Anakin’s upper right arm. “Anakin, let’s get Dooku and end this.”

Anakin swallowed and nodded. “If it’s meant to be, Master.”

With assistance from the probe droids, the discolored panels at the end of the corridor unlocked and parted. Brown robe swirling behind him and lightsaber in hand, Mace barreled through the doorway, with Shaak Ti and the commandos close behind.

By rote the troopers spread out, quickly and efficiently, but also unnecessarily.

“Surprise,” Shaak Ti said flatly. “Another corridor.”

“Another corridor closer,” Mace said, determined to put a good spin on it.

The tunnel the team had followed from the hidden niche had led them through a maze of twists, turns, forks, steep climbs, and sudden drops. For stretches the dark corridor had been wide enough to contain a speeder; then it grew so narrow that everyone had had to edge through. For two kilometers, walls, ceiling, and floor were damp from water that had trickled down through Coruscant’s layered surface. There, the prints of their prey had disappeared, but the probe droids had managed to pick up the trail farther along. Some of the prints were so recent and well preserved that Dyne had been able to calculate the human’s slipper size.

Human.

That much the droids had determined from smudged fingerprints found on the speeder bike’s steering grip