STAR WARS Infinity
-The Chain Breaks-
By The Master Commander
A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away...
Betrayal has shattered an ancient order, and in so doing, begun the overture to the slaughter of the Republic.
"I need him alive!" Skywalker shouted. "I need him to save Padme!"
Mace Windu hesitated for a brief moment, before his lightsaber arched toward the fallen Chancellor. Suddenly an arc of blue sheared through his wrist, Anakin's lightsbaer was blue, Mace thought stupidly as his hand and lightsaber tumbled away. Then he screamed, in a mixture of betrayal and rage, until Palpatine roared back to his feet and a storm of Force Lightening from the Sith Lord struck him full-on.
As Mace fell through the shattered window, the dark lightning carrying him, he realized his mistake. He had been so intent on Palatines shatter point that he'd never thought to look at Anakin's.
Destinies are fulfilled.
"I give myself to you. I pledge myself to the ways of the Sith. Take me as your apprentice. Teach me. Lead me. Be my Master." Anakin said, voice low, his body cold but inside his heart there was a raging inferno.
Sidious raised the hood of his robe and draped it to shadow the ruin of his face. "Kneel before me, Anakin Skywalker."
Anakin dropped to one knee, his head lowered. He hated being on his knees, submitting to the will of another, and he found joy in finally admitting that even if only in silence. In all of his time among the Jedi Order, before he asked to join the Sith, Anakin would never have acknolwedged such hatred.
"It is your will to join your destiny forever with the Order of the Sith Lords?"
There was no hesitation. "Yes."
Darth Sidious laid a pale hand on Anakin's brow. "Then it is done. You are now one with the Order of the Dark Lords of the Sith. From this day forward, the truth of you, my apprentice, now and forevermore, will be Darth..."
Anakin could feel the way Sidious reached into the Force, questioning it about something. The Force seemed to answer the old Sith, and Anakin heard him say it: "Vader."
"Thank you, my Master." Vader intoned, unsure if he meant the Force or the man touching his head. It didn't matter; I am Darth Vader, he said within himself. Abruptly Sidious removed his hand and swept away from him, crossing the darkened office before speaking.
"Every single Jedi, including your friend Obi-Wan Kenobi, have been revealed as enemies of the Republic now. You under stand that, don't you?"
"Yes, my Master." Vader said as he rose, drawing himself up to his full height but he didn't see his new Master, nor the planet-city beyond, nor the galaxy that they would soon rule. He was seeing for the first time the very reality that surrounded him, as if a fog had lifted from him: I am Darth Vader, he repeated firmly, exterminating the dread-dragon that had haunted him all his life.
"The Jedi are relentless. If they are not destroyed to the last being, there will be civil war without end. To sterilize the Jedi Temple will be your first task. Do what must be done, Lord Vader."
And Fates unfold.
With Anakin's grip on his wrists bending his arms near to breaking, forcing both their lightsabers down in a slow but un stoppable arc, Obi-Wan let go of everything. His hopes. His fears. His obligation to the Jedi, his promise to Qui-Gon, his failure with Anakin-
And their lightsabers.
Startled, Anakin instinctively shifted his Force grip, releasing one wrist to reach for his blade; in that instant Obi-Wan twisted free of his other hand and with the Force caught up his own blade, reversing it along his forearm so that his swift parry of Anakin's thundering overhand not only blocked the strike but directed both blades to slice through the wall against which he stood. He slid Anakin's following thrust through the wall on the opposite side, guiding both blades again up and over his head in a circular sweep so that he could use the power of Anakin's next chop to drive himself backward through the wall, outside into the smoke and the falling cinders.
Anakin followed, constantly attacking; Obi-Wan again gave ground, retreating along a narrow balcony high above the black-sand shoreline of a lake of fire. Mustafar hummed with death behind his back, only a mo ment away, somewhere out there among the rivers of molten rock. Obi-Wan let Anakin drive him toward it.
It was a place, he decided, they should reach together.
Anakin forced him back and back, slamming his blade down with strength that seemed to flow from the volcano overhead. He spun and whirled and sliced razor-sharp shards of steel from the wall and shot at Obi-Wan with the full heat of his fury. He slashed through a control panel along the walkway, and the ray shield that had held back the lava storm vanished.
Fire rained around them.
Events rocket toward a linchpin in time, a keystone on which the future of a galaxy balances. A future made, event by event, into a living chain linking all living beings together.
Obi-Wan flipped in the air and let the Force bring him to a cat footed landing. An adder-quick stab of his lightsaber disabled the platform's guidance system, and Obi-Wan was able to direct it back toward the shore with a simple shift of his weight. He turned to watch as the collection plant shrieked like the damned in a Corellian hell, crumbling over the brink of the falls until it vanished into invisible destruction.
Obi-Wan lowered his head. "Good-bye, old friend." But the Force whispered a warning, and Obi-Wan lifted his head in time to see Anakin hurtling toward him out from the boil of smoke above the falls, perched on a tiny repulsorlift droid. The little droid was vastly swifter than Obi-Wan's dodgy old cargo platform, and Anakin was easily able to swing around Obi-Wan and cut him off from the shore.
Obi-Wan shifted weight one way, then another, but Anakin's droid was nimble as a sand panther; there was no way around, and this close to the lava, the heat was intense enough to crisp Obi-Wan's hair despite the protection of the Force. Anakin, growing frustrated jumped from his droid to the cargo platform and his sudden weight nearly sent them both tumbling into the lava before balance returned.
"This is the end for you, Master," Anakin said, lightsaber hissing as he twirled it at his side. "I wish it were otherwise."
"Yes, Anakin, so do I," Obi-Wan said as he sprinted into a leaping dive, making a spear of his blade.
Anakin leaned aside and deflected the thrust almost con temptuously; he missed a cut at Obi-Wan's legs as the Jedi Master flew past him. Obi-Wan turned his dive into a forward roll that left him barely teetering on the rim of a low cliff, just a few feet above the soft black sand of the lava flow. Anakin snarled a curse as he realized he'd been suckered, while Obi-Wan turned to address his former pupil. "It's over, Anakin. I have the high ground."
The tiniest alteration to this event splinters the chain, and Life forges it anew, as a new future is born...
"You underestimate my power!" Anakin spat, using the Force to leap after him. Only the power behind his jump shifted the droid as he rose, leaving Anakin to fall short of the narrow cliff.
Obi-wan closed his eyes to fight back his grief, picturing with perfect clarity the man he considered a brother on the black sand below. Anakin's concentration would have broken and the protective shell of the Force that had kept Anakin safe from the intense heat and toxic fumes would fail. Only, Obi-wan thought as his eyes snapped open, if that was the case why then had there been no scream?
A careful look at the edge of the cliff revealed that Anakin had, at the last moment, managed to grab an outcropping with his mechanical hand. But his grip was too powerful for the fragile black rock, it was trying to crumble beneath Anakin's durasteel fingers, even as the Sith attempted to hold it all in place with the Force. Anakin was displaying a level of power and determination that Obi-Wan was sure he would never be able to match.
Still the ground was begining to tremble between the laws of physics and the Force, the glove covering Anakin's hand was begining to smoulder. Staying much longer would put Obi-wan in great danger of being destroyed along with Anakin when the cliff finally gave way, but doing so left things dangerously unfinished: A flash of metal through the sky, and Obi-Wan felt the darkness closing in around him.
He knew that ship: the Chancellor's shuttle. Now, he supposed, the Emperor's shuttle. Yoda had failed, leaving Obi-wan as the last Jedi. With a calm understanding, Obi-wan knew that he had ran out of time and options, so in the end, there was only one choice. It was a choice he had made many years before, when he had passed his trials of Jedi Knighthood and forever swore himself to the Jedi Order. In the end, he was still Obi-Wan Kenobi, he was still a Jedi, he would leave it to the will of the Force.
He turned and walked away.
After a moment, he began to run.
Tantive IV...
The conference room was silent, the sadness nearly palpable to those who sat at the conference table. How could it not be considering that not an hour ago, one of the most honorable women to live had just passed away. There was little comfort in the legacy she had left behind, a legacy that had been tainted by the actions of her husband.
"He didn't just Force Choke her," Obi-Wan said, his voice tinged with despair "he was crushing her whole body. According to the Medical Droid it was only thanks to my arrival that she survived long enough to give birth."
"Price of the dark side, this is." Yoda said, hands clutching his cane tightly "A price he will not pay again, I believe."
"I agree. Anakin is slow to learn a lesson, but he does not make the same mistakes twice." Obi-Wan admitted with a frown "After this he will realize the need to control his rage."
"More dangerous the situation becomes." Yoda agreed before closing his large eyes "To Naboo, send her body. Pregnant, she must still appear."
"And the remaining child?" Bail Organa asked, flushing slightly at the attention of the Jedi.
"Difficult is the answer, the Force resonates with sadness for the lost child." Yoda answered before peering into the distance as if parting the Force "Protected, he must be."
"I can take the boy, Master Yoda and train him as Anakin should have been trained—"
"No." The ancient Master lowered his head again, closing his eyes, resting his chin on his hands that were folded over the head of his stick.
Obi-Wan looked uncertain. "But how is he to learn the self-discipline a Jedi needs? How is he to master skills of the Force?"
"Jedi training, the sole source of self-discipline is not. When right is the time for skills to be taught, to us the living Force will bring him. Until then, wait we will, and watch, and learn."
"The Queen and I- well, we've always talked of adopting a girl. But, in light of things-" Bail said, then paused as the gazes weighed on him "I know little about the Force, but I do know something of love. If you have no objection, I would like to take Luke to Alderaan, and raise him as our son."
Yoda tilted his head, ears twitching "A noble offer, and no happier fate could any child ask for."
"It is a generous offer," Obi-Wan admitted, stroking his beard before shaking his head "but the dangers are great. Luke would be a prince, he'll become invovled in poltics, which will expose him to both Vader and the Emperor."
"Hmm, a serious danger that is." Yoda agreed, glancing at Obi-Wan "to Tatooine you would take him?"
"Cliegg Lars still lives there — and Anakin's stepbrother... Owen, that's it, and his wife, Beru, still work the moisture farm outside Mos Eisley."
"As close to kinfolk as the boy can come," Yoda said. "But Tatooine, not like Alderaan it is deep in the Outer Rim, a wild and dangerous planet."
"I know the dangers represented by bringing him to Alderann, but do you think it is really better for the child to be raised in such a place?" Bail objected, looking between the two "We can keep him far from the Senate, I'm sure of it."
"Hmmm, diffcult is this decision," Yoda admitted before glancing at Obi-Wan "Too dangerous it would be to hide the child in either place, I fear. Instead to Dantooine he should go."
"Are you sure that's wise?" Obi-Wan asked "Who will raise him?"
"Old friends," Yoda said, his bulbous eyes turning to Obi-Wan "To the Khoonda plains, you will take him. Seek the family Mata, you will."
"As you wish." Obi-Wan said, inclining his head "I will remain as well, to keep watch over Anakin's son. I can't imagine a better way to spend the rest of my life."
"I suppose that leaves me with a heavy task then." Bail said standing, his eyes downcast "Masters, you may hear... disturbing things... about what I do in the Senate. I must appear to support the new Empire, and my comrades with me. It was... Padme's wish and she was a shrewder political mind than I'll ever be. Please trust that what we do is only a cover for our true task. We will never betray the legacy of the Jedi. I will never surrender the Republic to the Sith."
"Trust in this, we always will."
With a faint bow, Bail moved to the door before he stopped, looking back "Master Yoda, do you think Padme's son will be able to defeat Palpatine?"
"Strong the Force runs, in the Skywalker line. Only hope, we can. Until the time is right, disappear we will."
Bail Organa bowed, and vanished into the corridor.
When Obi-Wan moved to follow, Yoda's gimer stick barred his way. "A moment, Master Kenobi. Training I have for you. I and my new Master."
Obi-Wan blinked. "Your new Master?"
"Yes." Yoda smiled up at him. "And your old one."
AN:
1) This started from a random plot bunny that's been bugging me for a while (well one of two): basicaly what would happen if Anakin didn't end up more machine than man. I think this is a common thought and it is interesting. The concept of using Ahsoka as a Sith (or even a Dark Jedi) is another idea that's both common and one that's been at the back of my mind for a while.
2) I borrowed the format for this 'prologue' from the Star Wars comic book seires 'Infinites' (Which incidentally seemed to fall back on 'Leia saves the day' a lot). I chose this style for the chapter because it was the best suited toward establishing the nature of the story.
3) I have nothing against Leia, her death was randomly chosen by flipping a coin. As for why, I decided that since I was breaking the 'chain' that I would go for broke. As for Padme, at least now there's a better reason than just 'she didn't have the will to live', which also lowers the survival rate of a succesful birth.
4) Just so we're clear on this: I am a Star Wars fan, a causal one would be the best way to describe me. I do not have the whole universe memorized. I will make mistakes, I might get information wrong (there's only so much you can glean from an article on Wookiepeida after all), please don't hold this against me. Also, please feel free to point this out. But do so in an un-bastard like way.
5) Most of this chapter makes use of the noevlazation 'Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith' by Matthew Stover. There is a reason for this, and it is simple: I liked the book a lot better than the movie. Don't get me wrong of course, there were awesome moments in the movie, but the book was just better overall. Notably the Dooku fight toward the begining. I did do some editing for a better flow and of course to allow for the changes in plot.
Thank you and enjoy.