"The chancellor "asked" you to bomb the Jaw sky high?" Anakin asked, surprised but not at all skeptical.
"You sound like you have no problem believing that, Ani," Padme noted with wry amusement as she leaned against Vader's ship with her arms crossed. "Were the Jedi aware of how dangerous the situation was becoming?"
"The Council and many masters were well apprised of the matter," Vader answered knowingly. "But none knew the true extent save the Jedi that were verifying their own suspicions. The Grandmaster and Windu were not even consulted until they were sure of what they had found."
"Okay, that's a black hole's worth of bad signs," Anakin said with an uneasy look about him. "What did they find?"
"Something in the Jaw has mutated and evolved in a most unexpected fashion," Vader explained. "One or more creatures can hunt for those strong in the Force and, in some manner, sever their connection to the Force."
Anakin was stunned into silence, while Padme looked thoughtful and uncertain.
"Severing their connection?" Padme asked curiously. "Is that...possible, normally?"
Anakin let out a deep breath, running a hand through his hair. "I've read... some stories about that, but they're old. I might be wrong, but if there was a way to sever the force, the Jedi seem to have forgotten it," he said uncertainly.
"There are ways and methods, but a creature able to do so? That is alarming," Vader stated before turning his attention to the fourth member of their group. "Ghazbak. Report."
The Noghri looked up in surprise before looking at Padme and Anakin uncertainly. Anakin gave a half wave while Padme raised an eyebrow.
"It is nothing they will not know in time," Vader stated firmly.
"As you say, Mal'ary," Ghazbak accepted after a moment. "This Jaw, what you told me was mainly populated by creatures called Corridor-Ghouls and Cthons, with rarer threats and oddities. But what you have just said is true. The warriors trying to combat these creatures are strained, but adapting. Yet there are various subspecies of their enemies now. Some that are smaller and faster, others that are larger and stronger. And strange horrors that I know only the names of, only names. More importantly, they are breeding. Rabidly."
"Do you mean rapidly?" Anakin asked morbidly.
Ghazbak shook his reptilian head. "That was the wording I heard them using."
Padme scowled. "How long does it normally take for these creatures to...breed and grow?"
""Faster than humans, but not that much faster?" Anakin answered uncertainly.
"They reach adulthood within ten to fifteen years," Vader simplified. "Or that was their rate before the Jaw."
Ghazbak growled thoughtfully. "These creatures multiply quicker now, I fear. Three to five years until they are deadly. Breeding age is hard to say, but if they are not breeding earlier, they are breeding more. Many of their expeditions into the Jaw have been to find and destroy the nests."
"They have nests?" Anakin asked in alarm. "Or are they hives?"
Ghazbak glanced at Vader briefly before answering Anakin. "The warriors here use the word Nest, but by what I have gleaned? Your term seems more true."
Vader tilted his helm downward at the stealthy being. "You ventured into the Jaw."
It wasn't a question, but Ghazbak nodded all the same. "I managed to learn the location of a destroyed nest. I found it. The ruins alone tell much about these creatures. Mal'ary? I do not believe it will be many years before these creatures overwhelm this containment and spread far from here."
There was a grim silence over them.
"How is this only a problem now?" Padme asked bluntly. "These creatures have been lurking and populating the lower layers of Coruscant for longer than anyone would really want to know. The Storm creating the Jaw should have just exposed the surface to them. But this...?"
"The Dark and Light Side of the Force have opposite natures," Vader remarked. "One can debate the virtue and dangers of each, but that much is true. Stripping away all pretense and bias, the Light Side inspires stability and the Dark Side inspires growth. For better or worse, on both accounts."
"In the simplest term?" Anakin continued with a sigh. "Places strong in the Dark Side tend to...accelerated evolution. And what Sidious did five years ago was like flooding the area with the Dark Side."
Padme quirked her head. "You have experience with this, Ani?"
Anakin raised his hand flat, wiggling it back and forth. "I've seen planets strong in the Dark Side, where the animal and plant life have been evolving from it over generations. It's nothing comparable to the Jaw, but it is the same basic idea."
"And I'm not naive enough to think this kind of effect can just be willed or washed away without side effects," Padme accepted, looking at the pair. "But is bombing Coruscant the best option?"
"I do not know," Vader admitted, his blunt admittance surprising them just a bit. "I came to this planet to observe the situation. I did not imagine such a request when I arrived. But it is a clever one."
"Clever?" Anakin asked curiously. "How is bombing the situation clever exactly?"
"He means it's clever that the Supreme Chancellor asked Vader himself," Padme answered while staring at Vader, clearly already having an idea of where this was going. "You believe that he is using this as an excuse to make you reveal some of your firepower directly, to the whole galaxy."
"And in doing so, he laid a trap for me," Vader said with a hint of approval. "The Chancellor does not trust me, nor should he. But in inviting me to aid in this fashion, he is openly tempting me to attempt to take Coruscant, the Heart of the Republic. I have no plan to, but the Jedi will fear and suspect that as my intent."
"You're not wrong," Anakin agreed without pause. "But I don't think you will."
"It is not my goal, I would be a fool to attempt such in this situation. Anyone would be. Doing so could turn this splintering republic against the aggressor and unite them in self-preservation," Vader continued. "I will give credit. This Chancellor is more cunning than I anticipated."
"That only leaves one question," Padme stated keenly. "Why tell us any of this?"
"Because I had no reason to withhold such information," Vader remarked. "Skywalker would learn of it in time, and you, Amidala, are merely here in concern of this matter having pertained to the political instability of the galaxy. It does not, innately."
"And here is the only other question?" Anakin added in. "Are you going to do it?"
Vader remained silent, his breathing the only noise in the area, save the wind.
"The fact that you're still considering it tells me you genuinely had no idea of the situation being this bad," Padme said with a sigh. "Is there anything else to share, Vader?"
"There is not," Vader answered, looking at Anakin. "Skywalker. I trust you to escort her safely back to her ship."
"Me?" Anakin said in surprise, glancing to Padme and back to Vader. "Ummm, sure, I can do that."
"Won't Qui-Gon get worried if you don't show up soon?" Padme asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Your first mistake was presuming his teacher is aware of his current location," Vader corrected.
"I feel just a little insulted," Anakin said sheepishly. "By the way, Padme? Where is-"
That was as far as Anakin got before the air was filled with ozone and the igniting of two lightsabers.
Padme, to her credit, pulled her weapon the instant Anakin's unlit lightsaber moved. She turned and backed away from Vader's ship, her sight on a white blur of teeth and claws that leapt from the top of the craft. She fired, shooting the predator twice before it crashed into the ground as a lifeless heap. Her attention went to Anakin and Vader, fighting several of the creatures that were trying and failing to snap by the lightsabers without being cut down.
She lost sight of Ghazhak, until she saw him taking on more creatures on top of the wing of Vader's ship. She fired at one that tried to creep up in from the underside, and the humanoid reptile returned the gesture by throwing a knife into the neck of one that tried to slip by Anakin and go after her.
She shot several more, at least three that tried to slip by the force users, before the fighting came to a half. There was a calm as the creatures laid dead and they caught their breath.
"So," Padme started, her weapon still firmly in hand as she scanned for any more surprises, before looking down at one of the bodies. "I take it those are the Cthons?"
It was some kind of bone-white beast, with red and black marks along its spine. Its pale skin was taut and tight on its quadrupedal form, and its tail was long and vaguely serpent like. It had moved and stood almost like some kind of feline predator, but the limbs were too lanky while the head and mouth were all wrong, more like a bat with very long, pointed ears and fangs that looked genuinely too large and too sharp for its own mouth.
"Corridor ghouls, actually," Anakin said as he bent down to examine it. "But they normally don't have markings. Or hunt on the surface, not in the day."
"They are indeed evolving," Vader stated as he holstered his lightsaber. "You should both leave this location. More will be coming."
"Mal'ary!" Ghazhak called from atop the ship, Vader barely turning his helm in acknowledgement. "I can see them. The beasts have not mastered stealth in the daylight. They are circling to the west."
Vader looked to Padme and Anakin again. "You should both leave, before they attempt another attack. Skywalker?"
"I'll make sure she gets back alive," Anakin said, glancing back to Vader's spacecraft. "What about you?"
"I have nothing to fear of these creatures," Vader stated, as if it should be obvious.
"I meant about you...helping, with this?" Anakin asked carefully.
"He means, have you decided if you're going to accept the request to bomb Coruscant?" Padme clarified with a bit more bluntness.
"I have not," Vader admitted, turning to walk towards his ship. "You shall have to suffice with letting the Chancellor be the first to know my decision."
Padme nodded in acceptance, turning to climb into the craft. "Come on, Anakin. We might get there in time for you to head back to the temple with Obi-wan."
Anakin did so, eyeing Vader curiously as he got into the passenger side.
Vader didn't enter his ship until they had left, keeping his senses tuned for any more attacks.
"Mal'ary?" Ghazhak spoke carefully as he followed in as well. "That boy that just left?"
"I am aware, Ghazhak," Vader said knowingly.
"His scent though? It was..." Ghazhak trailed off in unnerved suspicion.
"Ghazhak," Vader interrupted sharply, his helm turning just slightly towards the Noghri. "I am aware of what your senses are telling you. They are not misleading you."
Ghazhak swallowed thickly, looking outside in the direction of where Anakin and Padme had flown off. The nose of a Noghri was very, very powerful; powerful enough to smell a bloodline relationship between two different scents. What he smelled off the Skywalker Padawan was NOT a familial likeness to his lord, but in fact, the scent of Vader himself…which should be impossible.
Impossible, if they hadn't time-traveled into the past.
The implication was almost dizzying for the Death Trooper, the image of that Jedi boy clashing with that of the lord he served right before his eyes.
"Mal'ary, should I tell the others? Should we try to...protect him?" Ghazhak questioned uncertainly.
"Tell them whatever you deem necessary, but do so in your own tongue," Vader instructed firmly, his meaning obvious. It would be well to keep that information hidden, even amongst his own allies from the original timeline. "And do not treat the child by his scent. Time is not that fragile. His path forward will not affect the one I have walked."
Ghazhak nodded numbly. He had seen and done much in the service of the Mal'ary. This was not harder, merely...stranger.
Elsewhere, there was an awkward silence between Anakin and Padme as they flew away from the Jaw.
"So, you seem to not be worried about the part of the hovercraft that is ripped out," Anakin noted to break the ice.
"Hmm?" Padme looked to him in confusion before catching where Anakin was looking; to Padme's legs, or rather, the damaged part of the vehicle above her legs. "Ahh, that."
"I'm guessing that wasn't from the ghouls," Anakin mused.
"The vehicle came with a tracker," Padme answered wryly. "Darth Vader declined its services."
"That does sound like how he would deal with that," Anakin said, more to himself than anything. "So, what do you make of all this?"
"I am not a Jedi, Sith, or a scientist of any field. So, regarding the Jaw and the creatures within it? I have no idea what so ever," Padme admitted grimly. "Before Sidious's Storm five years ago, no one really talked about the monsters lurking below the surface of Coruscant."
"I believe the old phrase is out of sight, out of mind," Anakin remarked, crossing his arms with a troubled look. "Before, they were just a hazard on the deeper levels. Now? They're a problem at every level."
"Have you ever been below the surface?" Padme asked with interest.
Anakin nodded. "A few times. Master Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and I all went down there for a mission once. It's strange. Each level can feel more like visiting an entirely different planet."
"That's about what I heard as well," Padme said with a sigh. "As for the request for Vader to...bomb the Jaw? Five years ago, I probably would have seen this as a dangerous decision, one that could just as easily calm the embers brewing beneath the galaxy, or fan them into flames."
"The embers are getting very hot in some places," Anakin remarked with a scowl.
"I'm aware," Padme said in sympathy, wondering just what Anakin had seen amongst the Galaxy as a Jedi Padawan. "I worry we're reaching a point of no return."
"Padme?" Anakin asked suddenly. "What do you trust Vader to do?"
Padme furrowed her brow. "I believe I know your meaning, but for the sake of clarity?"
"I trust Vader to, well, be Vader," Anakin said with a shrug. "He doesn't believe the Republic will survive. He's sure a civil war will come. He declared a truce with the Jedi Order. He doesn't want to be the one to set the Galaxy on fire. He just wants to be ready when it does, preparing for anyone and everyone to be his enemy. Including me. Everyone else is preparing for it too, so it can't be said he's endangering the fragile state of things any more than anyone else."
Padme hummed. "I trust that Vader is, despite all his secrets, deceptively honest. For whatever reason, he deems me and Naboo his allies. I'm not sure what he truly wants, what final goal he works towards. He is ruthless and even in a more ideal age, I doubt he'd have much fondness or patience for democracy. And yet, I find that I trust that man. And I'm annoyed to say that though it is not limitless, I couldn't tell you the extent of it. Perhaps you have the right of it, Anakin. Perhaps I just trust Vader to be himself."
Anakin merely let out a long and tired sigh. "I am going to have so many younglings relapsing into nightmares if Vader lets loose with the Dark Side on Coruscant during all of this.."
Padme gave him a sympathetic smile.
Meanwhile
Plagueis was almost annoyed when he answered Vader's communication. "My friend, I am a tad busy with securing that item we discussed. I hope this is important."
"Chancellor Grebleips has requested I bomb Coruscant," Vader answered bluntly as he stared at the Munn through the hologram.
Plagueis was not often stunned speechless.
He was currently stunned speechless.
Finally, the Sith Lord nodded. "Yes, that decidedly would be important," he said, his expression turning grim. "How bad?"
"Worse than we ever thought possible," Vader admitted. "And, I fear that you may have made a mistake, Darth Plagueis."
The Sith Lord furrowed his brow, subtly checking his surroundings for any sign of a trap, an ambush, anything. But he found none. "What are you laying at my feet, Darth Vader, beyond not finishing Sidious myself before he could unleash that storm?"
Vader paused.
That concerned Plagueis more than anything.
"The creatures have mutated in a most...surprising way," Vader answered gravely. "They have developed the ability to detect those strong in the Force to consume and, if their victims survive, sever their ties to the Force."
Plagueis started at that, Vader's implication hitting him. The virus he had infected Sidious with; keyed to only work on his traitorous apprentice and to slowly destroy his connection to the Force. Could they be connected to this? Hunting those strong in the Force was not too rare of an evolution in creatures touched by the Dark Side, but to feed on and drain it? Very few had that. "Are you certain?"
"Of the foce severing, no," Vader admitted. "The Chancellor had not even told the leaders of the Jedi until this meeting. But I do not seen him as the type to make such a claim without believing it himself."
Plagueis took a breath as he briefly rubbed his head. "Tell me everything."