Disclaimer: I once again do NOT own Star Wars or any characters but my own made up ones

Chapter 13- Hope and a Pawn

She woke up the next day, saw the body of her padawan, and broke down again. She slid to the nearest wall and curled up in a ball and started saying that it was all her fault. Then she saw a Padawan pass by heading to the door. He got out ok, but before he got to a speeder that was parked there in front; the clones shot him down.

"It is my entire fault. Kill me," she begged a nearby clone.

"I am sorry, your highness, but your father commands that you remain alive and well in our care," replied the clone.

"Where is my lightsaber?" she questioned.

"It is with your father until you are mentally stable, Princess." he replied.

In the vast misty gloom of the Room of a Thousand Fountains, one of the clones from the cleanup squad caught a glimpse of someone moving beyond a stand of Hylain marsh bamboo. "Halt!" he shouted. "You there! Don't move!"

The shadowy figure darted off into the gloom, and the clone turned to his squad brothers. "Come on! Whatever that was, we can't let it get away!"

The clones pelted off into the mist. Behind them, at the spill of bodies they'd been working on, fog and gloom gave birth to a pair of Jedi Masters.

Obi-Wan stepped over white-armored bodies to kneel beside blaster-burned corpses of children. Tears flowed freely down the tracks that hadn't had the chance to dry since he'd first entered the temple. "Not even the younglings survived. It looks like they made a stand here."

Yoda's face creased with ancient sadness. "Or trying to flee they were, with some turning back to slow the pursuit."

Obi-Wan turned to another body, an older one, a Jedi fully mature and beyond. Grief punched a gasp from his chest. "Master Yoda – it's the Troll…"

Yoda looked over and nodded bleakly. "Abandon his young students, Cin Drallig would not."

Obi-Wan sank to his knees beside the fallen Jedi. "He was my lightsaber instructor…"

"And his, was I," Yoda said. "Cripple us, grief will, if let it we do."

"I know. But…it's one thing to know a friend is dead, Master Yoda. It's another to find his body…"

"Yes." Yoda moved closer. With his gimer stick, he pointed at a bloodless gash in Drallig's shoulder that had cloven deep into his chest. "Yes, it is. See this, do you? This wound, no blaster could make."

An icy void opened in Obi-Wan's heart. It swallowed his pain and his grief, leaving behind a precariously empty calm.

He whispered, "A lightsaber?"

"Business with the recall beacon, have we still." Yoda pointed with his stick at figures winding towards them among the trees and pools. "Returning, the clones are."

Obi-Wan rose. "I will learn who did this."


Yoda shook his head sadly.

"Know already, you do," he said, and hobbled off into the gloom.

They got close to the room that contained the beacon, they discovered Stephanie in the hallway asleep curled up.

"Master Yoda, Stephanie's alive and there are no blaster or saber wounds on her, but she looks a little beaten up," said Obi-Wan kneeling down by her.

"Right you are, see if woken up she can be," said Yoda.

Obi-Wan shook her gently and she woke up screaming. "Calm down, Stephanie, it is just us not the Emperor." said Obi-Wan, quickly covering her mouth until she calmed down.

"Obi-Wan, Yoda, I thought every Jedi was killed except for me and one other," she said looking between the two Masters in disbelief in her expression.

"We heard about last night into this morning. We didn't think anyone survived the attack," said Obi-Wan. "Who did this?"

"I…I…I can't tell you, Master Kenobi. I just can't."

"I will find out by other means then," he replied.

"I am sorry that I failed you, Masters, He found out where I hid all the children and he took my saber with him to keep me from killing myself, and I need advice on what to do now," she said.

"Go to Sidious you should, pledge your loyalty to him, need we people inside of his capital. Request also a ride to Alderaan with senator Organa, and brief you on this mission I shall. If fail I shall," said Yoda.

"Yes, Master Yoda. May the Force be with you both," she said while bowing and left them to do what they were going to do.

She drove a speeder to the capital building and got there right after the emergency meeting. She went to her father's office and bowed to him. "Ah, my daughter came to join me," he said.

"Yes, father I am going to pledge loyalty to you and the Empire. I am requesting a holiday to go to Alderaan and my lightsaber back," she replied.

"Yes, I will grant your request on one condition," he said.

"Name it father," she replied she said calmly.

"You will help Vader find any Jedi left alive from order 66," he stated.

"As you wish, Father," she said putting a lot of empathies on the word father.

"You may go with senator Organa to Alderaan, and here is your lightsaber." he said holding out her lightsaber out to her. She felt resentment towards him as she took her lightsaber back. If the senate did not believe him about the Jedi plot, she would have struck him down where he stood, and she really wanted to but she smiled, bowed, walked out of the room, and went to find Senator Organa.

"Senator Organa, Wait" you yelled running after him. He stopped and looked afriad to see you comming but then he relaxed a bit.

"Stephanie, Yoda said you might be comeing along with us." he whispered.

"It is not wise to say that name in this city, Senator," you answered also in a whisper, "And yes I got my father's permission because He told me to."

"Good, that would not really complicate matters. Now let's get a move on." he answered.

An half an hour of driving around they heard Yoda's voice over the comlink saying that he had failed to kill your father. Then Senator Organa told him to activate his homing beacon and her to get in the back seat.

After they boarded the Tantive IV, she sat right next to Yoda and said, "My father was the Sith lord and I never felt that. It is my entire fault. I should have known. He used the order like a big bunch of pawns. I should have known."

"Stephanie, sometimes you see your loved ones as you want see them, not as they are." Organa said.

"I hope, fail Obi-Wan did not." Yoda said then added, "A dark shroud has fallen on the Republic. The condition for you to leave was?"

"Only track down all remaining Jedi and turn them over, at least he didn't say kill them." you answered.

Then Antilles pointed the ship for a medical facility in the asteroid belt of Polis Massa.