This is the beginning of the end; this is the death of Count Dooku.
There's silence after Sidious cries out, "Don't fear what you're feeling, Anakin, use it! Call upon your fury. Focus it, and he cannot stand against you. Rage is your weapon. Strike now! Strike! Kill him!"
It, the silence that is, is heavy like the suit he'd been condemned to endure in another life. (A Jedi did not commit revenge yet he's been left to burn until there was nothing left but hollowness and hatred. Knowing his former Master, Vader was sure that Obi-Wan surely twisted his view, like he often and infamously did with his words, that leaving Vader to burn instead of simply killing him was an act of his so called love Obi-Wan had for Anakin instead of what it truly was. Revenge because that was surely not love.)
Vader allows the pause between battle, their locked lightsabers sizzling in protest, as Dooku realizes his fate or rather the fate of any apprentice of Master Sidious. It's the least Darth Vader could give to his predecessor before he kills him. (It's out of norm for Vader to give anything but death and misery despite his name but he's hollow monster that's been stuffed into a man so nothing is of the norm here even by standards of the force.)
This time when Vader decides Dooku is dead already and the fact the Count is merely alive is merely a mere detail there's no promise of hell in Vader or rather Anakin Skywalker's eyes. That makes Dooku arrogant and Vader was born in arrogance, revenge, the lava of Mustafar, and from the weak man's corpse so he of all people knows how arrogance can kill. It doesn't matter though, Vader thinks as Count flies at him, because Dooku was already dead even before he let arrogance take over him.
Like trapped animal the Count fights not just with his decades of combat or mastery of swordplay but with the passion of needing to survive and willing to do whatever it takes to survive. Dooku hurls jagged piece of the durasteel table at Vader only to have it tossed aside before it's even in Vader's eyesight.
Despite being in a undamaged body without the need of life support that weighs down and traps Vader's very life there's still a moment of pause when it comes to using it because Vader hasn't been able to fight (to be free) in years. That doesn't matter though. Vader is more in-tuned with the force itself than his enemy could dream of and that is what matters.
First is Dooku's hand. It's same hand the Count had taken from Anakin, Vader notes absentmindedly. There's a hiss as Vader's lightsaber shears the hand from Dooku and then a thud as the severed piece of the Count's body falls to floor.
The smell of the smoke and burnt flesh would be revolting anyone but Vader is not anyone and hasn't been anyone even when Anakin Skywalker was just a child (just a slave).
Next is Dooku's other hand. The smell is far worse this time but like before Vader pays to mind even though being able to breath on his own should be overwhelming. Instead he focuses on his opponent who crumbles to the ground. The man's knees make a louder thud than what had been his hands.
"Good, Anakin! Good! I knew you could do it. Kill him. Kill him now," Vader's Master orders him and for the first time in his life Vader's victim isn't desperate and helpless because of him but rather their Master. Dooku's famous composed, aristocratic demeanor is gone and in its wake is a betrayed fool begging for his life.
"Please, you promised me immunity! We had a deal! Help me!" Dooku cries out desperately to the Master who only knows treachery. Perhaps Sidious knows it more than any force user who became a Sith. It doesn't matter though; Sidious like Dooku was dead already even if the action hadn't already been carried out.
Because this time Padme and their child will live. Padme will love him and know who he is even if Vader isn't weak, isn't Skywalker.
"Anakin finish him," Vader's Master orders him and manages to pull Vader from his thoughts.
And, despite the fact Dooku's eyes are the same of his had once been at realization he'd been deceived and lied to for years, Dooku's head falls to the ground. His pleading eyes still opened as they stare into Vader's as blood comes out from the decapitated head. The stain is a sign for what's to come.
A/N: You may thank The Haunting Hour for this. Crossposted on archive of our own.