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Obi-Wan had said she would be safe. Grim knew he was wrong.
He had left to go fight Grievous, and she had been told to remain at the Jedi Temple - little did he know that was nothing more than a death sentence. She could try to get away now, and if she did she could be far away from the planet before Order 66 was even executed, and yet she refused to leave the Temple.
Windu and the others had left to confront Palpatine not that long ago. She wanted to apologize for never telling them, but Windu was likely the only one still alive by now. She knew Sidious would make quick work of the rest - and she hated that the most.
She had wanted to go with them, as some sort of way to make up for her mistakes of never telling them. Windu most of all because he had once directly asked her if there was anything to know about the Chancellor. Instead she had been told to stay at the Temple - again. Except she was told specifically to stay in the Council Chambers with Anakin.
So now she sat in her Master’s seat with a million thoughts running through her head as she watched Anakin struggle with his own conflicted feelings. Maybe it was better this way, she could stop him, or at least stall him, from leaving, which would give Master Windu the time he would need to kill Darth Sidious.
Anakin began to head to the exit. Grim stood up, “Skywalker, where are you going?”
“I have to do something,” he replied, vaguely.
She knew Palpatine had just spoken to him. “Master Windu told us to stay here.”
He left anyway. She chased after him. He nearly made it to the hangar by the time she caught him, grabbing onto his sleeve. “Don’t do this, Anakin!”
“Let go of me, Grim,” he said, with a threatening air to his voice.
This scared her enough to do as she was told even just subconsciously. She saw Vader in him, and in just a few minutes that’s exactly who he would be. She had already lost him. He didn’t say anything more and got into his starfighter, leaving her behind.
She could chase after him, hop into her own and stop him. But she knew better, she would never be able to outfly Anakin. He would reach Palpatine’s office before her and then she would be trapped with two Sith Lords. She could use the chance to escape instead, but then she would be leaving her family for dead. Instead she would stay, and hope she could alter a few more things.
She would likely die. She didn’t know anyone who was at the Temple and later lived. But she wouldn’t let her last moments go to waste. There was nobody at the Temple left that knew about her secret, which would make warning the Jedi difficult, but she hoped not impossible. A preemptive warning would give them a fighting chance. It wouldn’t guarantee survival, she knew that, but anything that would help.
She ran to find someone and as she did she was suddenly hit with a massive empty feeling. Her eyes went wide, Anakin had fallen. She picked up her pace, running to find someone, anyone to warn about the coming attack. It wouldn’t take long for Anakin to arrive with the 501st.
She found another Jedi. “There’s about to be an attack,” she said, her eyes were wide and she was panicking.
“Where?”
“Here.”
Just then blaster fire began in the distance. Grim’s heart stopped. It had begun.
She ran, not trying to escape, and not to the source of the commotion. Instead she ran and grabbed a holo-recorder to make a message. After that she found a place for herself to hide. She took a deep breath and told herself to keep steady and calm, she had to do this. It wouldn’t fix everything - it was beyond repair now, but maybe she could stop some of the damage. Or help to heal some of the wounds. She began to record.
“Master Yoda, Master Kenobi, if you’re seeing this message then I am dead.”
There was blaster fire in the distance followed by screams. She turned her head to the source. She took a deep breath, they hadn’t found her yet. “I am one with the Force, the Force is with me,” she reminded herself in a whisper. She continued her message.
“You came back to the Temple to leave a warning for the survivors, and you hoped to learn what had happened. I shall tell you, I should have told you years ago and I am very sorry that I didn’t. Anakin has betrayed the Jedi, he has fallen to the dark side. He is a Sith now, Darth Vader. He is attacking the Temple with the 501st as I speak. I will confront him soon in the hopes to hold him off. I know I can’t save everyone, but if this can give anyone a chance to escape and survive I will take it. Even if I won’t. And if you’re seeing this I didn’t. But I will be okay with that. I died to save people. The Chancellor has been behind all of this from the start. He is Darth Sidious. He is declaring the Republic as an Empire as you hear this message.
“Anakin will not be on Coruscant when you see this. He is on Mustafar. That is where you will find him, and I hope telling you this information will save Padmé.” She took a shuddering breath. She could hear the footsteps and blasterfire. “The clones are getting closer, I don’t have much time left. Masters, I am sorry, for everything. I am so glad you let me be a part of this family, being a Jedi was the best thing to ever happen to me. And Obi-Wan, I know this news hurts you the most. You have lost both your Padawans in one day, but don’t give up hope, I beg you. You have always been my hope when I had none. In time a new hope will emerge, I can promise you this because I have seen it before. This story is only the prequel, and the next has a happy ending, I promise you. The Jedi will survive.”
She gave a soft smile despite her fear. “May the Force be with you, always.”
She ended the recording, unclipped her lightsaber from her belt, and put the recorder in its place. She activated her lightsaber and left the safety of her hidden spot. Clones were shooting at her the moment she did. She quickly deflected the blaster bolts and decided she would give no qualms about killing them. They had been her family and her friends, but now they were trying to kill the Jedi, and even if they had no say - her mind argued that less clones gave more Jedi a fighting chance. Although her heart broke at the thought.
She ran to the front of the Temple. Anakin was still there, killing Jedi without mercy. She used the Force to lift him up and threw him back as hard as she could. She then ran in front of a group of younglings that he had been approaching. “Run!” She told them.
They looked at her, and then did what she said. Running away from the Sith. She just hoped that they would be able to survive the clones easier. Even so she felt she had changed nothing for them. She shook the thought out of her head - she had to focus now. It was that or die, and while she doubted her chances of survival, she wouldn’t go down without a fight.
Anakin stood up and brushed himself off. His hood had fallen back so she saw his face clearly. He reignited his lightsaber. The blue blade sickened her. He had no rights to a Jedi’s weapon when he was no longer one. He began to walk towards her. Grim gripped her lightsaber tightly in her hands and braced herself.
Anakin moved fast. It had come suddenly, but she had anticipated the attack and was able to quickly block it. Their lightsabers clashed together. And so her last stand had begun.
The two fought. He struck at her as she blocked.
He was gaining ground, she had to push him back. She started going more offensive trying to push him back.
He didn’t allow that, she tried to stab him, and he grabbed her arm. He began to bend it back and she bit back a scream. She kicked his leg, and squirmed free.
Anakin kicked her in the stomach and it sent her falling back. She grunted as she hit the floor, she didn’t even have the chance to stand when he attacked her again, she blocked the attack, and he continued to press down. Their lightsabers were getting dangerously close to her neck, with her free hand she used the Force to push him away. It sent him flying back and gave her the chance to stand up again.
This time she went to attack him, hoping to hit him before he could stand. He got up before she could, and they continued to fight. She was trying to push him back, away from the others. To stop him from killing any more Jedi - or at least, to stall him.
She was forced to face the fact that he was far more powerful than her. He had years more of experience. They were both trained by the same Jedi, but he had also helped train her at times. So he knew her fighting style.
She was left at a million disadvantages, her one advantage was that she knew he was coming. That was gone now.
For a million times she had considered lightsaber combat as a dance and she had danced through a thousand battles. Whether her enemy had wielded a blaster or a lightsaber, each one was a dance. Even her battles with Sidious had been a dance of some sort - although messy as they were. This however, was not a dance. There was no grace to this, even the hum of the lightsaber in her hand, and the clashing of the blades, no longer sounded like a song.
Where she had once found peace, even within combat or in the raging battles that the long pointless war had brought - and they were pointless, this very battle proved that. Every sacrifice she had made had been so, because she had sacrificed for a pointless struggle, she had lost before she had begun. There was only emptiness, not even a broken coldness, it was only empty. Even in her bright sacred home, it had become empty, the lights flickering out until she was left with nothingness.
Anakin had never been as bright as others had been to her. He had been a dim conflicting light. While others were stars, Anakin was a dying one. And now he had burned out completely, but instead of coldness, it was only empty.
This was the way she saw the Force. She never felt the dark, only the light. So as it died she was left feeling nothing. It seemed as if she was being shut away from it, because without the light she could hardly feel. Death was everywhere - it sounded them as they fought.
The clones were still shooting down Jedi as if they were nothing. Others too tried to make a stand, she knew, but she could not keep her focus on them. She had to keep it on Anakin Skywalker - no, that man was dead - Darth Vader was who she fought, even so they were the same man.
She was far too used to battle. She had to give very little thought to it now, it was in her blood. War had become a part of her in the years since she had appeared. She had not just become a Jedi, she had become a soldier. Even still she was a child. Not that it mattered to Anakin - he had killed children before she had ever even met him.
Three years ago she had lost her life, in its place she had lived only in a war. It was almost as if it was all she ever knew. Even still, she was tiring, it was harder to fight and she was being overpowered by the Sith. She tried to keep his focus on her.
One more time she pushed him back with the Force. She ran at him, desperate to end this.
She didn’t stop herself in time.
Anakin had moved his lightsaber into her pathway to him and she had run directly into it. He pushed her up against a pillar before deactivating the blade.
She coughed, and looked up at him with tears swimming in her eyes. “You’ve lost,” she told him. Her lightsaber tumbled out of her hand and hit the ground. She slid down the pillar.
Anakin looked at her for just a moment. Then he walked away, not giving the Padawan another thought. She was just another corpse in the Temple.
Using the last of her strength Grim grabbed the recorder and wrapped it in her hand. She moved it over her stomach, and looked at the entrance way. Obi-Wan and Yoda would come, and they would find her. She would be dead, but they would find her, and they would get her message.
Maybe she had given people enough time in her fight with Anakin, and maybe her message will save Padmé. She hoped it did. She hoped her death wasn’t in vain.
With her last breath she whispered an apology to the galaxy, and then she joined with the Force.