Maybe? But then the question becomes where is he by the time of Return of the Jedi? I cannot imagine that Mace would not have been heavily involved in the Rebel Alliance. https://t.co/NGlTCOPGu1— MadCapMunchkin (@MadCapMunchkin) August 28, 2020
After I tweeted that I thought to myself, "Well, the series is called What If, not The Doctor Who Grand Funk Railroad Experiment." Besides, What If is an idea with so much potential around it that it really shouldn't be stuck to just one fandom or even one part of one fandom. Thus, I have decided to pull out the golden goose that Disney slit the throat of and had no idea that you couldn't do that and still expect it to do anything - Star Wars.
Also, yes, I'm aware that I've gone on record as saying that I'm not really a fan of the Mace Windu character. However, I know a lot of people are and I have a feeling I can make this work within the confines of the Star Wars mythos.
So, let's do some set up.
We're going to go with the events of the films as they happened up to this point. So, Mace Windu still takes the other three Jedi Masters with him to go arrest Palpatine and it goes about as well as you would expect - i.e., it doesn't. The other three masters get killed off in short order, Anakin arrives just in time for Palpatine to con him into helping him, Mace gets thrown out the window with his body being racked by electricity and is down an arm.
This all still happens, both Palpatine and Anakin presume Mace to be very dead as even as Jedi Master could not have possibly survived both an intense shock and being forced to fall that far. If he wasn't dead before the fall, he would have been when he hit the ground. In this scenario, though, he doesn't. As he's falling, Mace's body is screaming with pain as the Force Lightning has set every single one of his nerves alight. As fate would have it, Mace never actually makes it to the ground and instead falls into the open back of a salvage container. Collapsing into the metallic debris and wreckage, Mace falls unconscious from both the shock and from his injuries just as a figure comes into his field of vision, looming over him.
When Mace awakens, it's with a feeling of dread and despair as his senses are overwhelmed. Much like Yoda in Revenge of the Sith, he feels the great disturbance in the Force as across scores of worlds, on dozens of battlefields...
A group of Clone Troopers turn their blasters on their latest target...
A pair of ARC-170's zero in on the fighter in front of them...
A LAAT/i gunship drops off a company of soldiers that will lose one of their number before the battle even starts...
An A5-RX battle tank swivels it's guns and prepares to open fire...
...across the galaxy, in almost a single moment in time, Jedi die. Order 66 has begun.
In a more immediate concern, however, Mace finds himself in what looks like quarters of some kind. The place is a very dingy, dirty one: littered with scraps of robotics and electronics, clearly the home of some kind of tinkerer or maybe an engineer. It's also at this moment that he notices that his right forearm is a bit more solid than it was before - namely because he has a right forearm once again. From the elbow up, he finds that his right limb is now over 50% mechanical, rather like a certain former Jedi Knight he knows.
It seems that the salvage container he fell into after falling from the Chancellor's office belongs to a Duro by the name of Ram Sim. Ram makes himself known, asking him if the arm works well. Mace confirms that it does and thanks him for saving him. Ram isn't a medic, his expertise best is in programming and machinery, but he was glad to help where he could. The holonet is all chattering with news of the Jedi being traitors and are now enemies of the Republic.
Mace, needless to say, is devastated by this along with the destruction of the Jedi Order. He thinks that Ram is going to try and turn him over to the Clone Troopers, but the Duro merely shakes his head.
"I was at Jabiim. I'm alive today because of what the Jedi did there. I don't care what the Senate says or the Chancellor says. I know the Jedi. The Jedi couldn't have done what they're saying they did. I don't believe it."Sensing that Ram is telling the truth, Mace is a bit more relieved. However, he's lost with no idea of what to do or where to go. At the moment, for all he knows, the Jedi are dead and he has no idea where any survivors might be, if there are any at all. Tuning in to the frequency, he finds the message telling all surviving Jedi to return to the Temple. Naturally, he doesn't believe it for an instant.
His friends, his family, the Order and the Republic he served...all of them are gone in the blink of an eye, never to return. He is, for the first time in a long time, completely lost.
Ram offers to take him to a spaceport where Mace might be able to get passage off of Coruscant. Mace agrees, thanking him for his time and his effort in constructing a new limb. Ram, however, just says that he's paying it forward. He gives Mace some new clothing to replace his Jedi robes (the last symbol of his former life now that his lightsaber is gone), giving him a better chance of getting off planet unnoticed. At the spaceport, the two exchange a "May the Force be with you" farewell, although it's a bit more somber on Mace's part.
With some luck, Mace is able to arrange transport off of Coruscant in exchange for work. Despite some Clone Troopers poking around looking for any refugee Jedi, Mace manages to avoid detection and the ship he's on leaves for another world entirely. His first day on the job is cargo checking and moving some of the containers into designated areas. This job allows Mace to get a look at the Captain's personal fighter, which Mace files away for later use. In what passes for quarters on the ship, he mediates and seeks guidance from the Force. The Force answers him, though not in the way he expected.
"Hello, old friend. I am glad to see you are still alive."
"...Qui-Gon?"
Yes, Qui-Gon Jinn speaks to his old colleague from within the netherworld of the Force. Mace is astounding, seeing as it was believed that no one could retain their identity after becoming one with the Force. Qui-Gon imparts that he does not have time to explain as his time is short, but that Mace must make his way to a set of coordinates to meet with two of the other survivors - Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda. They're both still alive! There may be a chance to stop Palpatine and Anakin before it's too late!
Mace agrees, and ceases his mediation to go and speak to the captain of the ship...only to learn that the ship itself is being pursued by a Venator-class Star Destroyer.
They've been ordered to stand down and prepare to be boarded...it seems there's a Jedi among the passengers...
...and that's where we're going to leave things off for now. There's once more a glimmer of hope in the life of the former Jedi Master Mace Windu, but will it be enough? Will he be able to escape and reunite with Obi-Wan and Yoda? Let me know what you think in the comments below or tag me on Twitter with your thoughts. Until next time...may the Force be with you!
Star Wars is the property of Lucasfilm and Disney, unfortunately.
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