Part 1: Pleasant Reunions
He had watched it happen. He had felt his lightsaber snap in his hand when it activated, had heard its familiar hiss and buzzing as clear at it ever was before. He remembered the helplessness, the desperation to stop. But he only watched. He heard the innumerable screams of fear, the cries for help, the pleas for mercy, all echoing in his ears like nails on a chalkboard. He saw lasers fired from all directions, hit their targets, then these fall lifeless on the floor. He felt the Force growing dark and opaque, felt the panic and chaos, the death and extinguishment of all light around him.
His whole world, all that he had known was slowly collapsing before his very eyes. And he just watched as it happened. That was all he could do. Simply watch as his life was torn apart bit by bit, by himself.
He had tried to stop. With all of his might, he truly did try. But he wouldn't yield, not even to himself. It was a loosing battle, which he couldn't win from the position he was in.
How could there have been so much rage within him? How could he have let that Monster unleash it all? How could he have lost control over himself so completely?
But he knew how all too well. He had been loosing himself for years; but it was now that the Sith had found the opportunity to awaken the lost him. It was now that the poison from that Monster's words and the anger gathered in his soul reached there pinnacles and exploded; pushing what good judgment he had left to the farthest back of his conscious.
And now, here he was, watching as He annihilated their cherished world and life. Here, in this inferno of a planet, Mustafar, looking out into an ocean of fire, minutes after slaughtering the enemies of his new master's Empire, once the Republic he had sworn to defend. The Republic that he had helped destroy.
"Are you done now, then?" asked Anakin.
Vader grinned at his other self's question. "Of course I'm not done."
"Who else could there be left for you to murder?" continued Anakin. "The Jedi are destroyed and the Separatists are dead. Who else is there?"
"All who oppose our Master," answered Vader, as if saying why the sky is blue to a child. "I'm quite sure there will be a number of them for us to deal with."
Anakin felt his face go hot, hotter than it would be in a planet like Mustafar. "How many lives are you willing to end before you're pleased?! How much of this purge could you want?!"
"All that are necessary", said the new Sith, making the mind equivalent of a push on Anakin to silence him. "And why do you want to talk to me now? You have been quiet ever since the Temple - ...Well, well. Look who decided to drop for a visit..."
Anakin raised his gaze to the sky as Padme's sleek Naboo Skiff crossed over toward the landing platform. His heart would have skipped a few beats had he still control over it. "Padme, no..."
Vader snickered at Anakin's reaction to their wife's arrival. Padme's ship landed softly on the platform and the ramp lowered a few seconds after. "I might as well welcome her here to Hell."
"Stay away from her!"
Vader pushed him back again with annoyance. "Stop your babbling. I'm rather starting to miss the quiet you."
Senator Padme Amidala walked down the ramp of her ship and looked towards the Main Control building, searching for any trace of her husband. She saw him dashing to the landing platform from the building's outer walkway. The mother-to-be ran into his open arms and wrapped her own around his back.
"Padme, I saw your ship" whispered Vader, holding her tightly against him.
Padme pressed her face into her husband's chest. "Oh, Anakin."
"It's alright, you're safe now" Vader assured her tenderly.
Anakin pressed himself to the edge of their mind furiously. "Let go of her!" he roared. "Padme, it's not me!!"
"Be quiet," ordered the Sith, ramming Anakin back. He held Padme back by her arms. "What are you doing out here?" he asked her.
"I was so worried about you" she said, looking up into his restored cerulean eyes. "Obi-wan told me terrible things."
Anakin rose up at the mention of his master's name. "He knows..." thought the Jedi, his hopes rising again.
Vader continued to push his other self back. "What things?" he asked, trying to stay stolid in front of Padme. Obi-wan was supposed to be dead. The clone troopers should have killed him on Utapau. How could his old master still be alive? What had he told his wife?
Padme seemed to be considering what to answer him. "He said you have turned to the dark side" she said, her voice uncertain. "That you killed younglings."
"He knows!! Padme, it's all true! You have to believe him!" cried Anakin desperately to death ears. Padme would never hear his screams.
Vader was silent for a moment, numb struck that Obi-wan had found out what he had done. "Obi-wan is trying to turn you against me" assured the new Sith, regaining thought outside of that of Obi-wan knowing what had transpired.
"He cares about us" said Padme.
"Us?!"
She nodded. "He knows...He wants to help you."
Vader stared at Padme, anger starting to build up inside of him again. Who did Kenobi think he was?! He didn't need nor want anyone's help, and most especially not a Jedi's. Either way, Obi-wan wouldn't help him; he would help Anakin retake their body. He wouldn't allow that to ever happen.
"What does Obi-wan think he can do?" asked the Sith.
"He will stop you," said Anakin from the back of their mind. "If I can't, then he will."
"Is Obi-Wan going to protect you?" Vader asked Padme, letting go of her. "He can't...he can't help you. He's not strong enough."
Padme moved closer to him. "Anakin, all I want is your love."
"Love won't save you, Padme" declared the dark lord. "Only my new powers can do that."
"At what cost?" cried his wife. "You are a good person. Don't do this."
"I won't lose you the way I lost my mother!" said Vader, trying to convince her. "I've become more powerful than any Jedi has ever dreamed of, and I've done it for you. To protect you."
"Killing everyone that crosses our path won't save her," stated Anakin. "Palpatine won't help us. Why would he?"
"He promised us!" snarled his captor, pinning him back. Anakin struggled, but couldn't free himself from Vader's hold.
"Come away with me. Help me raise our child. Leave everything else behind while we still can" pleaded Padme, holding her threatening tears back.
Vader took her by the arms and held her tight. "Don't you see? We don't have to run away anymore. I have brought peace to the Republic. I am more powerful than the Chancellor. I can overthrow him, and together you and I can rule the galaxy. Make things the way we want them to be."
Padme moved away from her husband's hold. She stepped back away from him, tear now flowing freely from her eyes. "I don't believe what I'm hearing" she said, breathing hard. "Obi-Wan was right. You've changed."
Anakin fought against Vader's restrain. "Padme, I swear I haven't! I'm still here!" The Sith silenced him, pinning him deeper.
"I don't want to hear any more about Obi-Wan" he ordered her viciously. "The Jedi turned against me. Don't you turn against me."
Padme's face was distorted with grief. "I don't know you anymore. Anakin, you're breaking my heart" she croaked, shaking her head in denial of what was happening. "I'll never stop loving you, but you are going down a path I can't follow."
Anakin would have given anything to be able to cry as well. How could he have done this to his Padme? How could he have ever caused her such pain? "Angel..."
"Silence!!!" Vader crushed him back into the depths of their conscious. "Because of Obi-Wan?" he asked Padme, his voice tense from the erupting anger beneath his shell.
"Because of what you've done!" she answered, almost yelling. "What you plan to do. Stop, stop now. Come back! I love you!"
Anakin watched his Angel breaking down in grief. Grief caused by him. "Let me talk to her," he pleaded; begged his oppressor. That's all he wanted. To hold her in his arms, to kiss her soft lips, to smell the rosy sent of her smooth hair, just for a moment. "Just let me talk to her..."
Vader ignored Anakin's pleas and stared into Padme's cocoa colored eyes with intensity. He wouldn't stop now. He wouldn't come back from what he had reached. He wouldn't return the power he now held at his fingertips. And he wouldn't let her go back either.
He was about to speak when he saw a familiar figure looking down on them from the top of the ramp. His old master, Obi-wan Kenobi, stood in the doorway of the cruiser. He had come with Padme. His wife had lead the Jedi to him.
"LIAR!" roared the Sith lord, walking around Padme to stand before his former partner and new enemy.
Anakin saw his friend from his entrapment. "Obi-wan!"
"No!" cried Padme, turning from Obi-wan back to her husband, her eyes wide open in fear.
"You're with him" said Vader. "You've betrayed me! You brought him here to kill me!"
Padme shook her head. "NO! Anakin. I swear...I..."
She could say no more before Vader reached out his arm at her and started choking her. Padme grabbed her throat as she fought for air.
"A-Anakin..." she shrieked weakly, her eyes darted on his enraged face.
"NO!!! LET GO OF HER!!!" yelled Anakin, struggling against Vader's holding restrain in desperation. The force bounding him to the pits of his mind strengthened beyond his power to repel. There was nothing he could do. He was helpless to free himself, helpless to protect Padme. Helpless to do anything but watch as his life was choked by his own hand. "LEAVE HER ALONE! LEAVE HER ALONE!!!"
Obi-wan moved down from the cruiser's ramp towards his former Padawan. "Let her go, Anakin."
Vader shifted his sight from Padme to the new arrival, a burning hate radiating from his pupils. "What have you and she been up to?" he asked Obi-wan.
Obi-wan moved around him in long steps. "Let her go!" he ordered again.
"LET HER GO!!" repeated Anakin, louder and more commanding.
Vader finally released his grip on Padme's throat, and her unconscious form crumbled to the ground.
Anakin stared incoherent at the two. "What have you done?" he murmured.
"She betrayed us!" answered Vader. "She brought Obi-wan here to kill us!"
"What have you done?!" cried Anakin again. He felt his heart pump heat from his blood. He had just done the unthinkable in his life! "You hurt her... You hurt her!"
"You turned her against me!" yelled the Sith, watching Obi-wan walk around him.
The older man stood in denial. "You have done that yourself." he said simply.
Anakin looked on from the dark lord's eyes as the two warriors began to circle each other. He found himself petrified at the fight that would ensue between them. Its result would mean his fate, to be a prisoner in his own body for the rest of his days, or to die here. He hadn't high hopes for either of those two.
"Don't fight him," he begged his other self. "Please, don't fight him. He can help us. We can trust him."
Vader ignored Anakin's words. He could only think of fighting for the right to Padme. Obi-wan had turned her against him. He had turned the one person he cherished more than anything in existence against him. Nothing would stop him from fighting his old teacher. The decrepit Jedi would pay for what he had done to him.
"You will not take her from me!" he declared, pulling his cloak off and throwing it back.
"Your anger, and your lust for power," answered Obi-wan, taking off his own cloak, "have already done that." And he tossed his cloak away.
They both kept circling the other as Obi-wan continued, "You have allowed this Dark Lord to twist your mind until now...until now you have become the very thing you swore to destroy."
"Don't lecture me, Obi-Wan" said the dark lord.
They stopped the circle when Obi-wan had reached Padme's side. He knelt down by her and placed his hand on her to check she was alright. Her life force was still radiating, and her pulse steadying. She would be okay as far as he could tell.
"I see through the lies of the Jedi. I do not fear the dark side as you do" continued Vader. "I have brought peace, justice, freedom, and security to my new Empire."
Obi-wan rose again and moved away from Padme. He couldn't believe what Anakin thought. "Your new Empire?" he asked.
Vader didn't reply. He stared piercingly at his former master, and best friend. It would be his Empire. Sooner or later he would take it from Sidious, when the time was right. Nothing would stop him from claiming his new destiny; not even Obi-wan.
"Don't make me kill you" hissed the dark lord deeply.
Obi-wan felt his Padawan's words like a stab to the chest, but he continued with forced steadiness in his voice. "Anakin, my allegiance is to the Republic…to democracy!"
Vader didn't care for the galaxy's useless democracy any longer. It could only bring corruption and chaos. He had known that since before he became Sith.
"If you're not with me," he said, taking his lightsaber in his hand, "you're my enemy."
"He's our Master! How can you call him Enemy?" cried Anakin, to again be ignored by his oppressor. "Don't fight him, please!"
Vader shoved him away like nothing, and waited for Kenobi to reply.
Obi-wan couldn't find anything else to say. Master Yoda had been right. There was no way to reach out to him. It was too late; his friend was lost.
"Only a Sith Lord deals in absolutes" he said, struggling to keep his tears unshed. He reach to grab his weapon and stopped, facing his adversary. "I will do what I must."
Anakin's heart sunk to the depth of despair as he watched Obi-wan's lightsaber ignite and point towards him. The only father he had ever known was about to meet his blade. The one person he had thought could save him was ready to kill him. Why couldn't he sense him? He was still here. How could he not see him?
"Obi-wan, no... I'm... still here..."
Vader couldn't care less. Part of him had hoped Obi-wan would see the logic in all he had done. He'd hoped his friend would join him, just like he hoped Padme would. But Obi-wan proved to be just like all the other Jedi, corrupt arrogant; a fading gleam in the shadows. He would do what he must, would he?
"You will try."