Title: One Must Stumble
Author(s): Jedi Linewalker
Timeframe: ROTS
Characters: Anakin, Mace, Palpatine, others
Genre: vignette, angst
Keywords: Anakin, Mace, Palpatine
Summary: The thoughts that race through Anakin's mind after being told Palpatine's true identity, leading up to his fall
Notes: Beware, ROTS Spoilers abound
[b]One Must Stumble[/b]
Anakin's breath caught in his chest, and he stared at the man that'd been a second mentor to him, another good example to learn from for the past twelve years. His ears still rang, and burned hot, from Chancellor Palpatine's words, the things he said assailing Anakin's mind and heart with the fury of a thousand lightsabers. His knees felt weak and he could barely speak, so constricted was his throat.
The Chancellor had calmly turned around, his face a mask of serene quiet, while Anakin's breath became labored and harsh. The young Jedi stared at the older man in disbelief, the incredulity of his words still echoing in his mind. "You're the Sith Lord we've been looking for?" His tone made it sound like a statement, but just barely. It was actually a shocked question wrenched from his very soul.
His lightsaber sprang to life, the distinctive snap and hiss of the blade roaring like the wind in an air speeder in Anakin's ears. The weapon hummed softly in his hand, a slight vibration reverberating through its metal casing as he held it downward still, eyes boring into the back of Palpatine's head. His mind screamed at him what to do, but he was also prepared for the fight he knew must come. But why had Palpatine revealed this to him was the question that burned in his heart at the moment.
"Are you going to kill me, Anakin?" asked Palpatine with feigned calm. This was a risky play he was making, revealing his true nature to the young Jedi, and he knew it. Anakin could just as easily engage him in combat, and he may even find a way to defeat him. Palpatine knew his mastery of the Force and his skills were more advanced than Anakin's, but the boy's sheer power and potential is what gave him pause.
"No," replied Anakin in a far away sounding voice. Was it doubt, indecision, or simply shock that the Sith was hearing in his voice? "I should arrest you," he continued, his voice still sounding somewhat uncertain. He felt hot, sweaty, and uncomfortable. Anakin felt his mind bouncing around with uncertainty, flowing with indecision and insecurity in his decision-making ability.
"But you won't?" asked the politician with an almost snide tone to his voice. It was pitched just right that its true intonation was very hard to interpret. He turned back towards the young Jedi, his eyes alight with the knowledge that he had young Anakin Skywalker on the uncertain side, had him off balance. "What [I]will[/I] you do, Anakin? You must do [I]something.[/I] Or must you?"
Palpatine's wheedling voice was getting to him. He wasn't able to think straight, and his mind was clouding over heavily, and doing so quickly. He glowered at the politician a moment, his smoldering eyes meeting those of Palpatine. "I'm going to inform the Council," he stated, in a much firmer and in control voice than he actually felt at that moment. "They'll decide what's the best thing to do, decide if you're evil or not."
"Yes, yes," encouraged Palpatine with an almost eager air about him, his smile returning. "You are indeed wise, Anakin. That's precisely what you should do. There's little room for error that way." The older man clasped his hands before him loosely, calmly, further acting to confuse the young man before him.
Anakin stared at him a few moments longer, then extinguished his lightsaber and turned, leaving the Chancellor alone. When the boy was out of sight, Palpatine laughed softly to himself, and walked towards his desk, the smile still prominent on his face. "Very good…everything is proceeding precisely as I have foreseen it. Before the dawn, Skywalker will be mine."
The young Jedi named Anakin Skywalker practically ran out of the Senate building to the landing pad and to the waiting air speeder that he'd driven over to the Senate. He leaped into its cockpit and lowered the hatch, shifting the controls on and taking off from the building at a fast clip.
His mind raced as the vehicle zipped between other vehicles, and took dangerous turns and dips along the way. He felt as if he'd just smashed into a duracrete wall at full speed, and his entire body ached with the pain of disbelief and despair, because he knew it was true, no matter how much he disbelieved it.
[I]How could I have been so blind?[/I] he raged at himself as he swung the speeder in a dangerous arc, moving under the main flow of traffic, and bypassing a jam ahead at a cross section. [I]It should have been so obvious, especially for me! All that talk about not being able to learn that power from a Jedi…all the obscure references, all that knowledge he shouldn't have had…it was staring me right in the face and I missed it![/I]
The speeder howled as he sped down and around a corner and then took a sharp turn upward, skimming along the surface of a building, edging back out into traffic again, the Temple in sight ahead. [I]Something has to be done. He's my friend, a mentor…but I can't allow him to continue his…his…evil. What in the name of the Force do I do? Do I stop him and allow Padmé to die, or do I learn the secret from him and save Padmé, and then arrest him?[/I]
He banked the speeder around and slid into the space for it at the Temple, leaping from its cockpit and walking hurriedly into the immense building, robes flowing. His thoughts continued to rampage through his mind as his feet carried him hurriedly towards the Council chambers. His stomach knotted up because he wasn't going to like this, he could already tell, but it had to be done. It must be done, he knew.
A Jedi Knight was walking away from Mace Windu when Anakin finally reached him. Mace's eyes narrowed a bit as he watched the young man come to him, and out of reflex, he was prepared for anything. His fingers curled slightly, ready to call his lightsaber to his hand at a given thought, should it be required.
"Master, I must speak with you," said Anakin in a tight voice after the Knight was out of sight. His manner and presence were deeply disturbed, Mace could tell. The younger man's eyes seemed to almost glow with moisture, and it was plain he was barely holding his emotions in check, a dangerous thing, to be sure. "It's urgent, Master, please. In private, if possible."
Mace frowned, but didn't sense any danger from young Skywalker. He nodded towards a side chamber. "Very well, Anakin. In there," he said, pointing at the doorway. He got up from where he leaned against the wall and walked with the younger man into the small room, a meditation retreat of sorts, one of many in the Temple's halls.
The door slid closed behind them and Mace stopped just a few paces inside the room. Anakin walked past him and stared out the window a moment, his body rife with tension. Finally, he turned. "I've just come from speaking with Chancellor Palpatine," he began, his voice quavering slightly. His eyes seemed almost haunted. Mace watched him, an expectant expression on his face. Anakin sighed heavily, looking down, almost in defeat. "He's the Sith Lord."
"What?" asked Mace incredulously, his dark gaze seeking out Anakin's. His brows furrowed deeply over the bridge of his nose. "What makes you say something like that?" he asked, knowing of little else to ask. It seemed preposterous, ridiculous, but he knew he'd heard the boy correctly.
"He told me!" Anakin almost shouted, nearly cutting the Jedi Master off, but he regained control of himself quickly. "He told me a lot of things. I didn't want to believe it, either, Master, but it's true. He is the Sith Lord." His head dropped and he turned, looking back out the window again, his emotions threatening to run away with him. He wanted to save Padmé, but he knew this was his duty. He knew this is what Padmé would do in his place, just like he told Obi-Wan two years ago, when the same situation was brought up.
"He's a politician, Anakin," began Mace, his brows continuing to furrow. "Being a Sith is much like being a Jedi. It requires specialized teachings and training, rigorous and hard training." This wasn't making any sense to the Jedi Master, and he scowled, watching the young Knight carefully.
Anakin turned again, his expression earnest, and his tone almost desperate. "He knows the ways of the Force," he said with slightly more force than necessary. "He knows ways of the Force the Jedi do…and ways that no Jedi knows. Powers, secrets…I don't know how he knows them, I just know he knows them!" His fists were clenching and unclenching tightly, the sweat on his brow growing by the moment.
"If you're right about this," began Mace, gathering himself, preparing himself mentally. "He must be dealt with, and quickly. He must be arrested, now." He stepped closer to Anakin and met his gaze with his steady one. "Stay here, in the Council chambers, until we return. We'll handle this."
Anakin's head jerked upwards at his words, eyes flashing. "No!" he exclaimed, not in defiance, but almost in desperation. "Let me go with you! You can't take him alone, I know it, I can feel it. Let me help you!" Anakin's voice was pleading, sincere, and full of conviction. When Mace turned back around, and he could see his eyes, he shook his head, the tears threatening to spill down his cheeks. "You don't trust me. Still. Not even now."
The dark skinned Master stared at him for a long moment, finally finding his voice. "Anakin, listen to me," he said softly. "If you're right about this, he'll be expecting you there, and look for some way to turn that to his advantage." He sighed and laid a hand on Anakin's shoulder. "If you're right about this, you'll have earned my trust. Without doubts or reservations. I need you to understand, I can't afford any unforeseen variables."
They stood there, looking at each other for a long moment, and finally Anakin nodded, unable to speak. Mace turned and left, heading directly for an air speeder, while Anakin went the opposite direction and entered the Council chambers. The room, usually comfortably sized and possessed of an ambient spirit of compassion and warmth, was vast and cold with him alone.
The young Jedi settled into his seat, his chin in his hands, staring across the room into nothing. Wan sunlight filtered through the window towards him. Outside the sun was setting slowly over the horizon. With a sigh, he stood and walked to the window, staring out it, across the many streets and air ways, towards the building he and Padmé had an apartment in. He could almost feel her presence, he thought, and he laid his hand lightly on the transparisteel window.
[I]Padmé,[/I] he thought, his tears finally falling down his face. [I]I've got to save you, got to keep you safe…and a Sith Lord is the only one who can teach me how. If Master Windu kills him, that secret will be lost forever, and so will you, and I'll never forgive myself.[/I] He shuddered a bit, furrowing his brows deeply. [I]Yet, if he kills them, it'll definitely mean war between the Sith and the Jedi, and I'll be responsible for their deaths…and I'll never be able to forgive myself. What do I do?[/I]
His forehead fell against the transparisteel window, and he closed his eyes, fighting to resolve the irresolvable situation within his own mind, to no avail. No matter which way the tide turned, he would end up feeling much pain. He shook his head to clear it of the faint, brief visions, blurry glimpses into what was to be, that came unbidden to his mind's eye.
Anakin's rapid footsteps were silent coming down the corridor in the Senate building, towards Palpatine's office. He was urged on by the desperate feeling that things were already too far in motion, too firmly set into place, and that all was lost. He'd obeyed Master Windu as long as he possibly could, what felt like years, but finally he had lost the battle, gave in, and rushed to the Senate building.
Running through the Chancellor's door, Anakin entered a nightmare, chaos unleashed and unbound, and set free upon the galaxy. His hair whipped about his face from the fierce winds blowing in through the shattered transparisteel window that dominated the majority of the office wall, allowing the incredible winds found this high above the surface in. Around him lay the dead bodies of at least three Jedi Masters, and directly ahead, beside the window, Palpatine was on the floor on his back, trying to stave off Mace, with his purple bladed lightsaber bearing down on him. The air was alive with purplish blue sparks of lightning traveling back and forth between Palpatine and Mace.
At that moment, the entire universe seemed to slow down and become something else entirely. Anakin felt incredibly heavy, and sound traveled so slowly as to be totally indistinguishable from any other sound. Voices melded into other sounds and became nothing but noise. He was conscious of the fact that Palpatine spoke to him, pleading, and that he, in turn, pleaded with Mace, who refuted them both, and the cycle began all over again.
Reality lost its cohesion. Anakin no longer knew what was real and what wasn't. His eyes registered the fact that he drew his lightsaber and ignited it, slicing off Mace's right hand. His ears heard Mace's yell of pain, and the sadistic laughter of Palpatine as he increased the power of the lightning at his fingertips to blast the dark skinned Jedi fully in the face with the full power of the lightning. He could see that Palpatine was incredibly scarred and disfigured from his earlier attempts to electrocute Mace with the Force lightning.
The figure of Mace disappeared over the edge of the window, and he fell back, sitting on the desk, murmuring softly, "What have I done? What have I done?" He was numb, unfeeling, everything seemed so distant and disconnected. Nothing seemed real anymore. His mind was frozen, barely able to move, barely able to think. His lightsaber fell from insensate fingers, thudding on the floor.
Palpatine stood and straightened his robes, his eyes flashing the hatred that Anakin dazedly wondered how he'd missed when looking into them before. He pulled the hood up over his scarred, disfigured visage, and turned to face the young Jedi. With a sneer, he regarded Anakin a moment, looming over him. "Kneel, my young apprentice," he rasped, his voice filled with evil and hate.
Anakin numbly sunk to his knees, staring up at the Chancellor, but staring more through him than at him, it seemed. Palpatine simply cackled softly and fixed Anakin in his cold gaze, his lips turning up in another sneer as he spoke, "Do you swear to follow my teachings and obey my commands, to accept me as your complete and total Master?"
As if in a cloud, Anakin found his voice, speaking slowly, his eyes slowly gaining more awareness as he spoke. "I swear," he choked out, his throat constricting on his words. His fate was sealed. He'd killed Mace Windu. There would be no going back to the Jedi Order after such a mistake. "I swear to do whatever I must do to save Padmé, to learn the secret that will save her life."
The older man laughed a chilling laugh, briefly. His eyes were bright with the evil inside him. "I don't possess that secret, my young apprentice, but we shall discover it together," he said, standing over Anakin, who didn't seem to even blink at his words. The wind whistled through the office especially hard for a moment, billowing his robes and hood while he stared at the broken Jedi before him. "But good…then, henceforth, you shall be known as Darth…Vader."
Anakin felt his heart quit beating at those words. His breath seemed to stop. Everything seemed to be frozen in time, and then cease to exist. All at once, he felt the heart begin to beat again, but in a different rhythm, the breathing was different somehow, yet they both were his. Hot tears stung his eyes and face, and he felt the last of himself sliding away, sliding back, to allow this new [I]thing[/I] he was becoming the front. He barely heard Palpatine croak out, "Rise, Lord Vader," but he rose, a new shadow looming in the twilight of the Jedi.