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"No, chancellor, no!"
Anakin couldn't believe his eyes. It was horrible, and he couldn't prevent it. That monster, the Zillo beast had chancellor Palpatine in its ugly claws. He watched Yoda and Aayla run across its back, their lightsabers marking their positions, but they wouldn't be in time to save the chancellor. The senate guard shot his blaster at the monster, trying to draw its attention, but the bolts bounced harmlessly off its hardy scales. The Zillo didn't even care.
The giant monster opened its many-teethed jaw, and Anakin saw the small figure of the chancellor fall, straight into the reptile's mouth.
There was nothing he could do. There was no way he could save the chancellor. That monster ate him. The Zillo beast closed its maw and Anakin watched with horror as the beast swallowed. Even the force itself seemed to recoil. He felt a great darkness gathering. Storm clouds moved over the beast's head.
Anakin had never felt such hatred, but it wasn't the beast. He didn't understand what he sensed, but something was hating, something wanted destruction... The Sith? Here? On Coruscant of all places, when a giant monster had escaped of all times? Everything was so horribly wrong, like he was having a nightmare, but Anakin knew this was horrifyingly real.
Thunder resounded across the plaza, yet the sky was clear. The monster roared, for a moment it seemed in pain, but then instead it grew three sizes more. It was already giant, but now, after its sudden growth spurt, it was even more so.
And suddenly, Anakin knew the chancellor was dead.
He couldn't sense him anymore. The chancellor had been eaten by a great big monster and probably suffocated to death in its stomach. How could Anakin have let this happen? How could he have failed so? It'd been his responsibility, his failure to protect Palpatine. He had failed him.
Palpatine had been his friend, he'd been like a father to Anakin, and now he was dead. His heart burned with pain and grief as he remembered his mother, how he'd been there when she'd breathed her last breath, tortured by Tusken raiders. He couldn't save her either, and now his mentor was dead as well. Who was he going to lose next? Would the war take Obi-Wan, or would he fail Padmé when another assassin would come for her? Anakin couldn't protect his mother, he couldn't protect the chancellor, who would be taken from him next?
And that beast! That monster had the audacity to climb on top of the senate building and curl up! It had the audacity to make a noise like a purring tooka! It stopped its rampage, curled up like a lizard in the sun, and it almost looked like it was going to take a nap.
The gunships hung in mid-air, their guns silent as their pilots figured out what to do. The clones and the senate guard seemed frozen as well. The only movement Anakin saw was Yoda and Aayla carefully started their climb down the senate building to their position, their lightsabers doused and stowed. Padmé and Anakin meanwhile waited, running through what they'd just seen, processing, realizing what'd just happened. Chancellor Palpatine was gone. He was really gone.
A single gunship still moved through the sky. Obi-Wan and Mace Windu were making their way to them too, and by the time Yoda and Aayla had dropped down to their position, they were disembarking too. Unlike Yoda and Aayla though, Obi-Wan and Windu looked quite pleased, almost happy with the proceedings. Had they not seen what that monster did? Hadn't they sensed the chancellor's death?
"Well done, Anakin," Windu said, apparently oblivious, "I don't know what you gave that beast, but it calmed right down. With its rampage stopped, perhaps the chancellor will let us take it to a reservation planet instead. Coruscant is no place for such a beast."
"Master Windu," Anakin forced the words through his teeth, "it ate the chancellor."
He saw the gears turning in Windu's head. He frowned, then his eyes went wide and his mouth hung open, then he finally spluttered into words again. "The Zillo beast ate supreme chancellor Palpatine? Are you sure?"
"I saw it happen!" Anakin cried, "I saw him dropping into the creature's mouth and I sensed him die. He's dead. Palpatine's dead!"
"It grabbed Palpatine," Padmé added, "Anakin had almost gotten him out, cutting the ship in half, but it grabbed him when we tried to run for it."
"That is... A setback," Windu said, stroking his chin, "but the beast has quieted down, which is a positive."
"What will we do now?" Obi-Wan asked, "If the chancellor is gone, a new leader must be elected, but with the war..."
"Traditionally the vice-chair would take the role," Padmé said, "but Mas Amedda is..." She hesitated, "He is a bit of a pushover. He might not be able to lead during such difficult times."
"Guide the senate you could?" Yoda asked, looking up at Padmé with a sparkle in his eye, "Trusted by many you are, and well known your moral and dutiful actions are."
"I will not unilaterally take the chancellorship," Padmé fiercely declared, "we might as well throw aside democracy!"
Yoda nodded sagely. "Indeed, and that is why trusted you are. Ensure a new chancellor gets elected properly we must, and your help we need for that."
Anakin turned away. They were right, a chancellor was needed and Padmé was the best choice, but he hated this discussion. He shouldn't hate, he was a Jedi, but it felt disrespectful. The chancellor's memory deserved more respect than to squabble over his title while his corpse was being digested by a giant monster using the senate building as a nest.
When count Dooku Serenno got out of bed he put on his fluffy slippers and his warm bathrobe, preparing for another day of destabilizing the galaxy and directing his separatist armies to kill more people. It was truly a tragedy, but the greatest tragedy was that they couldn't see what they were dying for. Those insolent Jedi most of all should see what their deaths would lead to, but if they hadn't been so blind, they wouldn't have to die.
A glass of fine Chandrillan wine in his hand, Dooku started going through his early morning reports. The trade federation was starving more people, Grievous had burned down another mid-rim planet, and chancellor Palpatine had been eaten by a giant monster.
His glass fell from his hand, shattering on the hard floor and splattering his most comfortable slippers in speckles of blood-red wine. Chancellor Palpatine was eaten?? It was nauseating. The holonet journalists had no idea of the true significance of his death, disgustingly important though they already made it. Darth Sidious, the one true lord of the Sith was dead? Eaten by a giant monster?! How could that have happened??
Yet in his heart, Dooku knew it was true.
Chancellor Palpatine was dead. Darth Sidious was dead. Everything had changed. All their plans, all their schemes, everything was now up in the air. The future they'd envisaged together was no longer a certainty. The Jedi weren't going to die to their own soldiers without the chancellor to trigger order 66, the republic wasn't going to slide into a dictatorship without the chancellor to gather more and more power, the empire that would bring peace, justice and security to the galaxy would never exist without chancellor Palpatine!
This was a major setback.
He took a deep breath, put on his fanciest cloak, and contacted Grievous. The menacing cyborg was crude as ever, punching a B1 droid out of the way as he strutted towards the holoprojector, but he showed appropriate reverence. Dooku had been thinking about how to have him killed, pinning all the crimes of the separatists on that lower lifeform and leaving him in the clear, but those plans would have to change. First, he would have to make good use of him.
"Have you seen the news, general?" Dooku asked.
"What news?" Grievous growled, "Has the republic found our-" His words were interrupted by another annoying coughing fit, "-tests with the defoliator?"
Dooku sighed. "Skywalker was there, Grievous, they already know, and they have deployed an electro-proton bomb on Malastare in response. No, I'm talking about the death of chancellor Palpatine."
Grievous looked stunned for a moment. To think he was a genius tactician and the greatest general in the confederacy. "If Palpatine is dead, this is our chance."
"Indeed," Dooku said, "remove all restraints on your arsenals, general, destroy the republic with no remorse. Kill them all."
"But lord Sidious-"
"This is an order from lord Sidious," Dooku calmly interrupted. Grievous had never learned his master's secret identity, and Dooku thought it best he never would. "We will destroy the republic and the Jedi, and we will rule unopposed."
"Yes, count Dooku," Grievous said with a bow. He let to another series of ugly coughs, and broke the connection.
The republic had to die, and Dooku would build an empire from the confederacy in turn. He only needed to ensure his plans wouldn't be disturbed by the Jedi. They would be a much greater threat without Sidious to destroy them.
There was a mantra in the Jedi order when someone died. Rejoice, for they are one with the force. Anakin always thought it stupid, how could he rejoice for someone's death? Still, he understood something. He could not avenge the chancellor's death. It was not a separatist assassin or an arrogant bounty hunter that'd taken the chancellor's life, but a nigh impervious monster that was currently nesting on top of the senate building. Anakin had to let go of his anger, the way he couldn't on Tatooine when his mother died, and he would have to mourn the chancellor's death in a healthy, non-violent manner.
Together with Padmé, Jar Jar and many other senators, he'd made a small memorial in the chancellor's office. Windu didn't approve - he was functionally incapable of approving of Anakin - but still he took part. Palpatine had been a mentor to him, and the senators approved of the Jedi showing their face. It was only appropriate to mourn, and Anakin would mourn his trusted friend.
In the late chancellor's office he ran his hand over the desk. He could still see the chancellor pushing himself up to welcome him. He could still see his smile and hear his laugh. He ran his hand over the chair, it turned a lot smoother than you'd expect from something that size. Palpatine must've had its bearings lubricated regularly. He liked looking out the window, often when Anakin arrived he had to turn his chair to greet him.
Anakin ran his hand over a statue. Palpatine always loved art and had several pieces of origins Anakin didn't know displayed in his room. The statue he knew though, Palpatine had told him it was a statue of one of the sages who founded the republic. It was a fitting decoration for the chancellor.
Click.
Click?
Under Anakin's hand, something had shifted, like a hidden mechanism had activated. A secret compartment in the chest of the sage had opened up, popped out like a sliding drawer in a cockpit dashboard. Inside, Anakin found a lightsaber. It was ornate, fit for a human hand, covered in aurodium and decorated with elaborate filigree.
He ignited it, and the blade was red. Red light spilled across the chancellor's office, casting everything in an ominous glow. Anakin's heart sank. Why would the chancellor have a red lightsaber? Why would he keep it hidden? What did this mean?
Quickly he took out his comlink and dialled the only person he could think of. Obi-Wan. He always had the answers, annoying and sassy though he might be. "Master, come to the chancellor's office, we need to talk."
"Anakin, we've been over this," Obi-Wan said, "I'm not going to tell you off for joining the senators in mourning. I know you were friends, and while occasionally your attachments cloud your judgement, I do not think your grief unreasonable. We all need-"
"Obi-Wan, get over here!" Anakin shouted, "You need to see this! I found a lightsaber in the chancellor's office."
"A lightsaber?" Obi-Wan asked, "As a piece of art or a..." He paused. "Palpatine always loved art?"
"I think he is the Sith we have been looking for."
Obi-Wan had no reply. For a solid minute he remained silent as he processed Anakin's words, and Anakin wasn't surprised. He still struggled to internalize what he had just said, what that lightsaber meant. Perhaps someone had gifted Palpatine that bust. Perhaps it was an old plan of Dooku that'd never come to fruition, trying to frame the chancellor. Perhaps it explained what Anakin sensed when the Zillo ate the chancellor. Then Obi-Wan finally replied.
"I'll be right there."