The Chosen One

Introduction:
This story happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
It is already over. Nothing can be done to change it.
It is a story of love and loss, brotherhood and betrayal, courage
and sacrifice and the death of dreams. It is a story of the blurred
line between our best and our worst.
It is the story of the end of an age.
A strange thing about stories-
Though this all happened so long ago and so far away that
words cannot begin to describe the time or distance, it is also happening
right now. Right here.
It is happening as you read these words.
This is how a twenty-five millennia come to a close. Corruption
And treachery have crushed a thousand years of peace. This is not
Just the end of a republic; night is falling on civilization itself.
This is the twilight of the Jedi.
The end starts now.
The skies of Coruscant blaze with war.
The artificial daylight spread by the capital?s orbital mirrors is
Sliced by intersecting flames of ion drives and punctuated by star-
burst explosions; contrails of debris raining into the atmosphere
become tangled ribbons of cloud. The nightside sky is an infinite
lattice of shinning hairlines that interlock planetoids and track er-
ratic spirals of glowing gnats. Beings watching from rooftops of
Coruscant?s endless cityscape can find it beautiful.
From the inside it?s different.
The gnats are drive-glows of starfighters. The shinning hair-
lines are light-scatter from turbolaser bolts powerful enough to
vaporize a small town. The planetoids are capital ships.
The battle from the inside is a storm of confusion and panic,
of galevened particle beams flashing past your starfighter so close
that your@#$%pit rings like a broken annunciator, of the boot-
sole shock of concussion missles that blast into your cruiser,
killing beings you have trained with and eaten with and played
and laughed and bickered with. From the inside, the battle is
desperation and terror and stomach-churning certainty that
the whole galaxy is trying to kill you.
Across the remnants of the republic, stunned beings watch
in horror as the battle unfolds live on the HoloNet. Everyone

knows the war has been going badly. Everyone knows that more
Jedi are killed or captured everyday, that the Grand Army of the
Republic has been pushed out of system after system, but this-
A strike at the very heart of the republic?
An invasion of Coruscant itself?
How can this happen?
It?s a nightmare and no one can wake up.
Live via HoloNet, beings watch the Separatist droid army
flood the government district. The coverage is filled with images
of overmatched clone troopers cut down by remorselessly pow-
erful destroyer droids in the halls of the Galactic Senate itself.
A gasp of relief: the troopers seem to beat back the attack.
There are hugs and even some quiet cheers in living rooms across
The galaxy as the Separatist forces retreat to their landers and
streak for orbit-
We won! Beings tell each other. We held them off!
But the new reports trickle in-only rumors at first- that
The attack wasn?t an invasion at all. That the Separatists weren?t
Trying to take the planet. That this was a lightning raid on the
Senate itself.
The nightmare gets worse: the Supreme Chancellor is miss-
ing.
Palpatine of Naboo, the most admired man in the galaxy,
Whose unmatched political skills have held the Republic to-
gether. Whose personal integrity and courage prove that the Sep-
aratist propaganda of corruption in the Senate is nothing but lies.
Whose charismatic leadership gives the whole republic the will
to fight on.
Palpatine is more than respected. He is loved.
Even the rumor of his disappearance strikes a dagger to the
Heart of every friend of the Republic. Every one of them knows
In her heart, in his gut, in its very bones-
Without Palpatine the, Republic will fall.
And now conformation comes through, and the news is
worse than anyone could have imagined. Supreme Chancellor
Palpatine has been captured by the Separatists- and not just the
Separatists.
He?s in the hands of General Grievous.
Grievous is not like other leaders of the Separatists. Nute
Gunray is treacherous and venal, but he?s Neimoidian: venality
and treachery are expected, and in the Chancellor of the Trade
Federation they?re even virtues. Poggle the lesser is Archduke of
The weapons master of Geonosis, were the war began: he is ana-
lytical and pitiless, but also pragmatic. Reasonable. The political
heart of the Separatists Confederacy, Count Dooku, is known for
his integrity, his principled stand against what he sees as corrupt-
tion in the Senate. Though they believe he?s wrong, many respect
him for the courage of his mistaken convictions.
These are hard beings. Dangerous beings. Ruthless and ag-
ressive.
General Grievous, though-
Grievous is a monster.
The Separatist Supreme Commander is an abomination of
nature, a fusion of flesh and droid-and his droid parts have
more compassion than what remains of his alien flesh. This half-
living creature is a slaughterer of billions. Whole planets have
burned at his command. He is the evil genius of the Confederacy.
The architect of their victories.
The author of their atrocities.
And his durasteel grip has closed upon Palpatine. He con-
Firms the capture personally in a wideband transmission from his
command cruiser in the mist of an orbital battle. Beings across
the galaxy watch, and shudder, and pray that they might wake up
from this awful dream.
Because they know that what they?re watching, live on the
HoloNet, is the death of the Republic.
Many among these beings break into tears; many more reach
out to comfort their husbands or wives, their crèche-mates or
kin-triads, and their younglings off all descriptions, from children
to cubs to spawn-fry.
But here is a strange thing: few of the younglings need com-
Fort. It is instead the younglings who offer comfort to their el-
ders. Across the Republic- in words or pheromones, in magnetic
pulses, tentacle braids, or mental telepathy-the message from
the younglings is the same: Don?t worry. It?ll be all right
Anakin and Obi-Wan will be there any minute.
They say this as though these names can conjure miracles.
Anakin and Obi-Wan. Kenobi and Skywalker. From the be-
ginning of the Clone Wars, the phrase Kenobi and Skywalker has
become a single word. They are everywhere. HoloNet features of
their operations against the Separatist enemy have made them
the most famous Jedi in the galaxy.
Younglings across the galaxy know their names, know every-
Thing about them, follow their exploits as though they are sports
heroes instead of warriors in a desprate battle to save civilza-
tion. Even grown-ups are not immune; it?s not uncommon for
an exasperated parent to ask, when faced with offspring who
have just tried to pull off one of the spectacularly dangerous
bits of foolishness that are the stock-in-trade of high-spirited
younglings everywhere, So which were you supposed to be, Kenobi
or Skywalker?
Kenobi would rather talk than fight, but when there is fight-
ing to be done, few can match him. Skywalker is the master of
audacity; his intensity, boldness, and sheer jaw-dropping luck are
the perfect compliment to Kenobi?s deliberate, balanced steadi-
ness. Together, they are a Jedi hammer that has crushed Sepa-
ratists infestations on scores of worlds.
All the younglings watching the battle in Coruscant?s sky
know it: when Anakin and Obi-Wan get there, those dirty Sep-
aratists are going to wish they stayed in bed today.
The adults know better, of course. That?s part of what being
a grown-up is: understanding that heroes are created by the
HoloNet, and that the real-life Kenobi and Skywalker are only
Human beings, after all.
Even if they really are everything the legends say they are, who?s to say they?ll show up in time? Who knows where they are right now? They might be trapped on some separatist backwater. They might be captured, or wounded. Even dead.
Some of the adults whisper to themselves, They might have fallen.
Because stories are out there. Not on the HoloNet, of course-but people hear whispers. Whispers of names that the Jedi would like to pretend never existed.
Sora Bulq. Depa Billaba. Jedi who have fallen to the dark. Who have joined the Separatists, or worse: who have massacred civilians, or even murdered their comrades. The adults have a sickening suspicion that the Jedi cannot be trusted. Not anymore. That even the greatest of them can suddenly just . . . snap.
The adults know that legendary heroes are merely legends, and not heroes at all.
These adults can take no comfort from their younglings. Palpatine is captured. Grievous will escape. The Republic will fall. No mere human beings can turn this tide. No mere human beings would even try. Not even Kenobi and Skywalker.




Reference: Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover