"And we are here." The commanding droid said as it dropped of the Jedi group.
"Thanks for the assistance." Qui-Gon thanked the droid as it then left with its squad, getting back to whatever they were supposed to be doing.
The group looked at the massive building before them all and they were in awe, as while they had seen alot of things, especially those that were older, that didn't mean they couldn't sense the scale of the building.
Couldn't sense the weirdness in the Force of this area in particular, as if there was something that blocked them from sensing things.
This was in fact Anakin's own energy-field he was starting to produce himself and one of its benefits was the frazzling of the peoples senses within the Force. Especially Force-sensitives, while not against those connected to him or he allowed to see through, it could affect them as well.
That was unless they had gotten the midi-chlorian upgrade, like he himself and Padme had gotten.
"Oh!? Well, if it isn't Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, and his former apprentice, now Master Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi." C-3PO made his appearance, and had come outside to see just who had come to the palace, when usually no one would come here.
"C-3PO?" Obi-Wan questioned as the droid was familiar to him, but it had been a while for him since he had come back to Tatooine. The only person who had been here at the latest was Qui-Gon and even he only here years ago.
"Yes, that is I. The first droid, personally crafted by his Master, Anakin Skywalker." C-3PO said quite proudly, because at this point Anakin had decided that it was about time that he made C-3PO come to life.
He had installed the non-organic version of midi-chlorians into the bugger and it was as if it had come to life. C-3PO did technically come to life in this instance, but it wasn't like it didn't already have a personality before and it refused to become a synth as well.
Believing that the first body Anakin had made for it was the best physical form it would have. Anakin would disagree, but he wasn't going to tell the exuberant protocol droid otherwise.
"C-3PO, why are you out here?" Qui-Gon asked the droid.
"Sir Qui-Gon, you see. I was tasked to bring you all inside. You all are quite late, and the Emperor was doing some other things in the mean time." C-3PO replied.
"Yeah, we got a bit lost..." Qui-Gon admitted as everyone else was staring at the droid, seemingly finding there was something off about it.
Anakin had mastered midi-chlorian manipulation to such an extent that he didn't have to worry about the backlash from the Force when he was granting C-3PO some life. He had also decided that he would do the same for R2-D2 as well, given that the astromech droid had helped him quite alot.
"Oh! Then that is no worries, the Emperor is free now. You guys appeared just on time, as he has just finished up with going over something very important." C-3PO said, which prompted everyone's interest as the Jedi were unaware of Anakin getting involved with the Republic.
He had after all, only sent the message towards Palpatine and no one else, and didn't publicize what he was wanting to do as there was much more to gain by going behind and then surprising everyone. Time it probably the biggest factor and benefit that Anakin would get out of doing it like this.
While Anakin doesn't really have to worry about his own time or the time of others 'running out,' that didn't mean everyone else was eternal.
"Thanks C-3PO." Qui-Gon said his thanks, also on behalf of the rest of the group and they went into the palace, which only further gave strange feelings within the Force. It was balanced, the entirety of the planet was balanced between both sides, the light and the dark, but that was not the only thing that was weird.
It felt like the whole building was living, it felt as if the entire planet was thriving and teeming with life. Which it was, and so was the planet as well. Alive that is.
No, it was more like an actual being capable of thoughts, sentient and sapient thoughts that would be able to be communicated. In fact, it felt somewhat like what the Force feels like.
Something that is alive, but not alive. Has emotion but no emotion and then there was other energy they all felt.
It was the Force but not the Force, in balance but not in balance, harmonic and chaotic, push and pull... It was starting to get extremely nauseating for a few of those within the group as they tried harder and harder to use their senses.
"Does everyone else..." Luminara started off before leaving off her sentence.
"Yes, you are quite right there Master Luminara. There is something that doesn't sit right." Quinlan said as he was starting to feel a bit nauseous, as all of them tried to forcibly better understand their situation.
"Fight not against you should." Yoda spoke up here, with a sentence that was a bit hard to understand but everyone realized they were all trying to fight against whatever was trying to block their senses.
It was successful in doing so and they hadn't even realized that they were knocking on something that would kind of change how one looked at the Force.
"Master Yoda, is there something you have discovered." Obi-Wan was most curious as to discover what was going on, especially since it seemed to be something that was the Force but it wasn't.
"This sensation. This place, like the Force, it is." Yoda nodded his head as he hobbled around with his walking stick.
"What does that mean, Master?" Obi-Wan further questioned the diminutive dwarf-like alien.
"Discover not we shall. Enter and talk to Skywalker, we must." Yoda had his mind on other things, specifically seeing what Anakin has gotten upto within the short separation they had all experienced.
It hadn't even been that long since, but those here that missed their former apprentices, or fellow Jedi were definitely going to catch up with them. Quinlan Vos had some words to speak of himself, as he was sort of like a father figure for Aayla, which would only be some trouble for Anakin as he would most likely have to explain himself.
Not that he would HAVE to, but Anakin wasn't one for unnecessary conflict and knew that fathers, or father-figures are usually protective of their spawn.
'Weird here, the Force is.' Yoda thought to himself as they had finally made it to the grand entrance towards the throne room. It was quite large, huge even that they all had to take a step back to perceive the full scale of it.
In the center there was something like a table, that was very, very large itself and spread itself across the place.
Anakin would talk with officials that personally came here where this table was. In fact it wasn't even a permanent fixture and instead was something that could be deconstructed and rebuilt. This is referring to the nanites, with which could be constructed to form objects or furniture of all kinds within the throne room.
Most of the time, this table wasn't even there and the entire room acted as one massive projector. Meaning Anakin could connect and use any point of it to project himself to anyone within the galaxy, when setting up a connection that is.
It is also a way for Siri to enable herself and appear as a proper physical being, even when she didn't have a body she could fake it through virtual and holographic manipulation. It was even capable of fooling Anakin, that was if he didn't have access to the plethora of abilities he had access too.
It would even go on to fool the Jedi as well.
"Greetings." Siri appeared from around a corner, as Anakin wasn't here at this moment and she was tasked with keeping them busy for a minute or so.
"Hello there." Obi-Wan said first, given that everyone else seemed to be more interested about the buildings interior or other things.
"Hello there?" Siri titled her head.
"Yes... Hello there." Obi-Wan nodded his head, but was a little freaked out as the woman before him was both coming back to his sense as both a living and non-living being.
"Obi-Wan, she is an it." Quinlan seemed to know that it wasn't a proper living being and had come to the conclusion that this was some form of advanced artificial intelligence technology.
"O-OH! My bad." Obi-Wan said this, but there really wasn't anything to apologize for.
"The Emperor will be here shortly." Siri said before disappearing from their view, well, at least the view of those that were looking. She believed that she had much better things to spend her time on, like interacting with one of Anakin's thought processors like she usually did.
Especially with her own artificial mind that was built with thousands, if not millions or trillions of processors herself.
[]
Anakin wasn't so rude as to leave his guests waiting, as he was doing something. Specifically he was trying to bring everyone else, the girls to come along and greet their former Jedi buddies.
He was sure that they would appreciate seeing some familiar faces, preferably ones that were somehow, in someway their family. Even if the family was dysfunctional in many aspects.
"Hello?" Anakin called out as he entered the throne room, expecting to see the Jedi that had requested to come, but he was surprised that even Plo-Koon was accepted in coming. "Hello everyone." Anakin greeted them all, as they were just doing their own things.
"I hope I didn't keep any of you waiting for too long." Anakin had entered all by himself, as the girls were also off doing their own things. Well, that was until he said they had some visitors from the Jedi temple and practically all of them wanted to come, even Padme wanted to see them.
"Master Skywalk-Oh... Wait, I apologize, but I guess you go by Emperor now, dont you?" Luminara was the first to approach while the others also followed along getting a better look at Anakin, and nothing had really changed much.
Even his attire, which was something not liked within the Jedi, but accepted just as they had accepted Aayla's attire was the same. It spoke of regal grace and all of these other words that would be perfect for describing someone that looked like some sort of royalty.
Not just any royalty however, but it was something fit exactly for Anakin and everyone else here were thinking to themselves that it fit him way too well. As if he had planned to come back to the Empyrean all along...
"Well, yes, but everyone here, I am sure can just call be however they like." Anakin didn't mind however people talked about him, as the words of others didn't really affect him. It did start to affect his reputation however, as people were believing in him as some sort of god, but he was past the point of trying to change it.
"Your citizens would seem to tell us otherwise." Mace spoke as he gazed at his former apprentice.
"Don't mind them. It has become somewhat a part of the cultural and religious aspects of my Empyrean." Anakin replied.
Anakin and this group would talk about many things, as Anakin had told them to wait for the arrival of everyone else. He had said that they were being silly because they were being late and because of this they had a good conversation with Anakin.
He hinted to them all that he would be having some form of effort in helping the Republic, through the use of a new contract between the two factions. He wouldn't hide it as at this point it was becoming clear that they were losing clones and that they needed some way to recover from this.
Then came the rest of the girls, Ahsoka, Barriss, Aayla and Shaak. All four of them present, but there was some others as well, specifically Padme whom also wanted to see some old friends.
It was like some sort of reunion.
Aayla was emotional at seeing Quinlan Vos, her sort of father-figure and went up to hug him. Something that he did not dodge, while Ahsoka being the perky personality she was went right up to one of her long time friends, Plo-Koon.
Then there was Shaak who had decided to get along with and talk with Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan as she was aware of and knew of these two. There was really not that many people she was close to within the Order, but because she was close to Anakin, she had befriended both Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan.
Barriss of course went towards Luminara, one of her own masters as well, because she also kind of saw Luminara as a big sister like figure.
That only left Yaddle, Yoda, and Mace, whom these three would start to discuss some things with Anakin and Padme.
Of course, not everyone stayed within these groups and everyone intermingled with each other better, where they all caught up with each other on things that were happening. Not that the girls weren't aware of things, it was just they liked being able to see what could be considered family as well.
As distant relatives, but still relatives nonetheless.
"So, Master Yoda." Anakin began as it was only the five, Mace, Yaddle, Yoda, Padme and Anakin that was within hearing range of their conversation. Conversation that would be considered important for the Jedi, as there were things that were going on that needed them to be aware of certain things. "What is it exactly that has brought all of you here?"
"Cannot say for everyone, but here, to know of your Order, I am." Yoda stated as he looked upto Anakin, that was a veritable giant compared to himself.
Everyone within the room could feel Anakin's energy-field, something that Anakin was aware of them discovering, but they had grown used to it by now. Specifically they were starting to not be able to distinguish his energy-field from the Force itself and that is because Anakin took his time getting here for this specific reason.
Of course there was others, but this was important as it would definitely raise some questions.
"You wish to know more about the 'Empyrean Order?'" Anakin asked as he looked around, seeing that Yaddle, Yoda and Mace were interested in knowing more about it.