Hello dear readers, I have returned!
It has been a while since I posted anything on this site, and I find that I have sorely missed it. However, rather than coming up with a whole new story, with Star Wars: The Force Awakens' release date drawing ever closer, I decided to have a look through my published pieces and found this one, and after having a read through decided to have a go at rewriting it to make Return not only more canonical, but also to enhance the storytelling and characters to be more of what I originally wanted them to be.
I hope you all enjoy, updates hopefully weekly!
The Son used his future to turn him, but the Father made him forget. Though it was meant to be his downfall, Anakin's dark future is just what the Force needs to save him from himself.
Set directly after the events in Revenge of the Sith when Chancellor Palpatine reveals his true identity to Anakin, The Chosen One informs Mace Windu of the Sith Lord hiding in plain sight. As Mace races to arrest the dark Chancellor, Anakin waits.
PROLOGUE
The wind on his face did nothing to quell the flow of tears down his cheeks as Anakin Skywalker raced towards 500 Republica. He had been betrayed, had his heart tugged out of his chest and set alight by one who had claimed to be his friend. That friend, in reality, was everything he had sworn to destroy, a Sith and a traitor, but Anakin's two minds were at odds. He needed sanctuary, he needed reassurance, and the Jedi Temple offered him neither. He released a shaky sigh as he pulled up to the opened terrace, wiping futilely at the track marks on his tanned face as he saw his wife rush from the upper window. Anakin stepped out of his speeder as Padmé approached him, her expression falling instantly into one of worry when she saw the unshed tears glistening in her husbands' eyes.
"Anakin?"
He choked back a sob and sniffed at her words, and she opened her arms to him. He pulled her tight to him, resting his face in the hollow between her gorgeous neck and shoulder, seemingly made just for him. Even through her voluminous dress he felt his child kick, reaching out for him, and he was suddenly wracked with sobs. Surprised and confused, Padmé tangled one hand in her husband's hair at the nape of his neck while the other rubbed his back soothingly.
"Oh Anakin, what's happened?" she begged, her voice shaking with anxiety. The last time she had seen him so distraught, he had confessed to the massacre of a small Tusken village in his mother's name. "Please, Anakin."
"It's him," he breathed. Padmé's grip on her husbands' body tightened at the anguish in the small whisper.
"What's him?"
"The Chancellor," he said with a bit more volume in his voice, his sobs having subsided as he pulled out of his wife's embrace to face her deep brown eyes as he revealed to her the greatest betrayal. "The Chancellor is the Sith Lord we've been looking for. He orchestrated the Clone Wars to gain power, manipulated us into carrying out violence in the name of peace, and…" Anakin paused, placing his hand absently on Padmé's cheek as she stared up at him. "… and he knows about us. About the baby."
Padmé gasped and brought her hand protectively to her stomach. "Anakin, are you sure?"
Anakin nodded slowly, another silent tear sliding down his face. "In not so many words, he told me he has the power to save you, power the Jedi don't possess."
"Do you believe him?"
Anakin's gaze fell to the floor as he moved past her to the couch just inside the living quarters. "I don't know," he admitted before sinking into the cushions and letting his head fall into his hands. Though his leather glove no longer felt strange, against his face, now it suddenly felt foreign as his mind raced. Everything within him screamed that what Palpatine had said was true. He was powerful, he was dangerous, and he was evil. But the part of the young conflicted Jedi that refused to be silent was his fear, his fear that he would lose Padmé as in his dream, and that all he had to live for would die with her. In response, Anakin's intuition screamed back, insisting that just as the Chancellor had manipulated a galaxy into fruitless war, so was he also using its greatest warrior – the Hero with No Fear who in fact feared the most deeply.
As a headache began to manifest itself, Anakin felt the softest of touches on his hands, slowly prying them from his face, and the fearful Anakin screamed again. He looked at the beauty that was his moon and stars, his Angel, and he knew he couldn't face a galaxy without her.
"What are you going to do?" she asked silently. Anakin looked down at their joined hands and grasped hers tighter, his flesh hand bringing one to his lips. He couldn't live without her, but even if Palpatine was telling the truth about his power, could he live knowing he owed that liar and false mentor his life?
"Master Windu is apprehending the Chancellor now," he finally said. "I was told to wait, but I have such a bad feeling that everything is going to crumble, Padmé." He lifted his watery blue eyes to hers. "I can't lose you, but I just…"
Padmé squeezed her husbands' hand and threaded their fingers together. She took a deep breath, knowing that her next words would be those he needed, but not ones he wanted. "You're not going to lose me, Ani."
He sighed, agitated by her refusal to take what he felt was reality seriously. Why couldn't she see that if he did nothing that she would die, and he with her? She wasn't done.
"Don't live by 'what ifs' and 'what might be', Ani," she said in her best Senatorial voice, the one she used when she needed to make an opponent see her way, and it almost never failed her. "I'm here, and I'm not going to leave you. If the Chancellor is what you say he is, then you need to go, bring him in, and end this." Padmé brought her hand to Anakin's cheek, turning his gaze back to her from where it had fallen. "I know Obi-Wan tells you this all the time, but trust in the Force."
Despite the situation, he chuckled at her, allowing himself to revel in the calm she brought him. He leaned in and gave her a tender kiss, resting his hand on her stomach, and he felt his child move. His calm gave him clarity, and though he feared the repercussions of his actions, Anakin couldn't deny the tug from the Force that beckoned him where Master Windu had bade him not to go.
"I love you," he said softly, pulling away as he placed a kiss on his wife's forehead and leaned down to rest his forehead momentarily where her body sheltered their child.
"And I love you, Ani."
"I have to go."
She simply nodded as he stood, the tears suddenly appearing unbidden in her eyes as she watched him walk back to his speeder. She leapt up, calling to him, and he turned, catching her as she flew into his strong arms. "Be careful." He nodded against her mass of curls, pressed a kiss to her lips, and stepped into the vehicle that was still running, looking at her one last time as he sped towards the Senate Rotunda.
Immediately upon his departure, the calm she had given him began to dissolve, and the familiar fear and doubt began to set in once more. His recently clear thoughts clouded as Padmé's helpless screams from his dream reverberated through his head, and Anakin felt his mind tear between Jedi wisdom and human fearfulness, as the Rotunda grew closer. If one thing was clear to Anakin as he pulled up and jumped onto the docking platform, it was the cold of the Dark Side from within and the still veiled tug from the Force growing stronger, pulling him into the Chancellor's office.
The door swooshed open, and Anakin was assaulted by the stench of death. Looking down, he saw the still and dismembered bodies of Masters Fisto, Tiin, and Kolar, and he stiffened in his tracks, his anxiety spiking. These were three of the strongest, wisest Jedi Masters Anakin knew outside of Yoda, Obi-Wan, and Mace, and to be cut down by this Sith caused Anakin's stomach to turn. Palpatine was indeed powerful.
"You are under arrest, My Lord." Mace Windu's voice pulled Anakin from his mournful thoughts, and the young knight took in the sight of the Vaapad master towering over the seemingly defeated Sith Lord, who lay perilously close to the edge of the shattered window. As Anakin approached the pair, he felt the Force, which side he couldn't tell, digging into him, and the pain in his head spread from his neck to his forehead.
"Anakin!" Palpatine sounded relieved to see his mentee. "I told you it would come to this. I was right. The Jedi are taking over!"
"The oppression of the Sith will never return," Mace countered, his violet blade steady in his hand. "You have lost."
Anakin breathed deeply as the Dark Side began to spark, almost drawing his breath from his lungs with its power, alluring in its intensity, and the Sith let loose a violent attack of Force charged lightning the likes of which Anakin had never seen. However, he couldn't deny the strange sense of déjà vu overcoming him ignited by the powerful sparks as Palpatine and Mace declared each other to be traitors. Something was screaming at him to help, but which one of them he couldn't distinguish, and his heart pounded with conflict.
"I have the power to save the one you love," Palpatine wheezed, appealing to Anakin's weakest part – his fear. "You must choose!"
"Don't listen to him, Anakin," Mace barely pleaded as the lightning continued to assault him, held at bay by only the master's will and blade.
There was that tug again, more powerful than the last, and Anakin put his hand to his head as his headache intensified. Anakin vaguely heard the Chancellor claiming weakness, but as he reached out to him, the Force spoke only of deception. His lies continued to plague the encounter, and Anakin was only brought back to the scene as the lightning dissipated, looking at the victorious Jedi Master through the mist of his throbbing head to see Palpatine breathing hard and begging for his help. He was unarmed, and Anakin could sense his strength waning, regardless if his claims of weakness were lies.
"I am going to end this once and for all," Mace affirmed, and Anakin's head shot up, far from clear, but sure that the master's insinuation meant death for everything he loved.
"You can't," Anakin finally spoke, and though Mace was clearly shocked to hear his voice, he kept his eyes trained on the deceptive politician. "He must…" Anakin wavered, the pain of the Force's tug stilling his words and he shook his head in an attempt to quell the increasing pain. "He must stand trial."
"He has control of the Senate and the Courts," Mace argued. "He's too dangerous to be left alive."
"It's not the Jedi way," Anakin countered, hoping against hope that appealing to the master's sense of Jedi duty would buy Palpatine at least his life in a cell, one that he could visit and learn how to save his wife. His eyes began to water, as the pain in his head grew stronger and strangely localized, almost as though searching. It was unbearable, but Anakin kept his wits, barely. "He must live."
The conflict on Mace's face was lost to Anakin as his head began to swim, the Force's tug reaching its peak as the pain became excruciating. Out of Anakin's vision, Mace prepared a death strike. "I need…" Anakin whimpered, but before he could finish, he felt something burst open, and with a roar of agony, Anakin fell to his knees, holding his head that felt as though locked in a vice as unclear images from Force knows where assaulted his every sense.
Startled by Anakin's sudden scream, Mace paused his blade and glanced at the young Jedi, leaving Palpatine with an opening. More quickly than Mace could react, the Sith called his fallen lightsaber to his hand, the weapon ascending from its hundred story fall at breakneck speed. The moment it hit its master's palm, Palpatine was on his feet, and he Force threw Mace across his office, cracked his joints, and stalked the stunned Jedi Master. The violet and crimson blades crisscrossed once more as Anakin continued to rock in pain on his knees.
As quickly as they had flooded his mind, the images slowed and steadied themselves, becoming clearer to Anakin as the pain gradually subsided to a dull throb. He saw himself, two years younger, alongside Ahsoka and Obi-Wan in the cockpit of their ship approaching a strange, otherworldly looking object. Suddenly, they were on the surface of a planet engulfed in the blanket of the Force. He saw a luminescent sprite, the Living Force flowing through her, making up her very being. She was beautiful. Suddenly, her light was extinguished by nothing short of pure darkness, the face of which Anakin now met in a burning scape.
"Know yourself," the smooth voice of darkness beckoned as more images began to invade his mind. "Know what you will become."
A whispering in the Force told Anakin of the truth of what he was seeing as he realized that he was witnessing a past he had been made to forget: The Daughter, The Father, The Son, Mortis, and his own fall into darkness and despair.
The Son's future consumed him, and Anakin saw nothing but death and destruction. He saw himself, now, in the Chancellor's office striking down Mace Windu and pledging himself to Palpatine, who was freshly cloaked in the darkness he breathed. Anakin saw him and the 501st marching on the Temple, slaughtering every Jedi in their path, including the younglings he held so dear. The burning world returned and Padmé stood before him, begging for him to run away with her, but he would not listen, instead offering her power beyond her wildest imaginings, but not love. As Obi-Wan appeared at the gangplank of her ship, a great anger at her seeming betrayal caused him to raise his hand, seizing her throat in a death grip. Tears fell as he choked the life from her eyes, but Obi-Wan's stern voice made him release her.
The brothers fought, and Anakin fell, burned alive and beyond recognition as his old master shed tears and picked up his lightsaber from the obsidian ground. "You were my brother, Anakin," he sobbed. "I loved you." The new Emperor picked him up and encased him in a black suit that made his breathing mechanical and terrifying, but unlike The Son's visions, the Force wasn't through with Anakin yet.
Transported to a watery world, Anakin witnessed the birth of his twins and felt the despair and longing in his wife, as she died while Luke, his son, begged for his mother. Her death was because of Anakin, his darkness, his weakness to his fear. He had failed her.
The ensuing images of a future Anakin didn't think he could bear were a blur of death, screams, and blood spilled by his hand at Palpatine's whim, as he brought fear to the peoples of the galaxy. He saw his torture of a beautiful brunette that the Force whispered to him was his daughter, Obi-Wan's death at his hands in front of a young blonde man, Luke, and the maiming of his son before he revealed the truth of his parentage and the boy fell.
Consumed by the darkness he saw, Anakin felt like giving up as Padmé had, letting it all go and refusing to live this future. But, even as it showed him his dark fate, the Force soothed and continued in its quest, opening his mind to the reality of the Light's strength over the overwhelming Dark. He saw Luke again, older, stronger, a Jedi. He stood over his father who wheezed in defeat, and Palpatine commanded the young Jedi to take his place by his side. The conflict written on his son's face was powerful as he contemplated the mechanical hand his father had given him in conjunction with Anakin's own metal appendage. Never, not even on his wedding night had Anakin been so conscious of it as he was now as he watched Luke regroup, extinguish his emerald saber, and toss it at Palpatine's feet. "I'll never turn to the Dark Side," he said with a conviction not to be questioned. Luke took a step. "You've failed, Your Highness. I am a Jedi, like my father before me."
Anakin felt the Light pulse through his son, even as Palpatine let loose a barrage of Force lighting so powerful it knocked Luke to the floor. As Anakin watched the Sith Lord he called Master slowly work to extinguish the bright life that was his son, Anakin felt himself clawing his way out of his dark cage, willing himself to be engulfed in the Light once more as he picked up the Emperor and threw him to his death while sealing his own.
Slowly, the images faded, the fog of his inundated brain receded, and Anakin drew a sudden, sharp breath of air he didn't know he had been denying himself. He would do such terrible things, all in the name of saving a wife who didn't need saving as he had been led to believe, he saw that now. Carefully, Anakin stood from painful knees to shaky legs. The sounds of a vigorous lightsaber duel pulled him fully back to reality as he allowed what he had seen to resonate and sink in. He turned just as Mace Windu, battered but not yet broken, was disarmed by the disfigured Sith Lord, and Palpatine used his lightning to push Mace to his knees before him.
As Palpatine raised his crimson blade over his head, Anakin realized what he must do to keep his son from the future he had witnessed, he saw it shining before him as brightly as the twin sunrise on his home world, and he would not fail. With a surge of Light energy he had only ever felt when he brought Ahsoka back from the brink of death on Mortis, Anakin leapt forward just as Palpatine brought his saber down, and the Sith's blade only met azure resistance as Anakin blocked Mace from his grizzly fate. Teeth gritted, Anakin used Palpatine's surprise against him, and with a power only the Light Side could grant him, Anakin flung the Sith's saber up and away into his waiting hand and Force Pushed Palpatine against his desk, holding him captive as Anakin breathed calmly for the first time in hours.
"You fool," Palpatine thundered as Anakin stepped closer, bringing his lightsaber to bear on the enemy. "I could have given you everything at my side!"
Towering over him, Anakin's breath didn't falter as he raised his blade, Palpatine coiling in fear as he felt the Light pulsing through his would be apprentice, pushing away what little darkness was left. Before he struck, Anakin raised his chin and uttered the most important words he had heard tonight.
"I am a Jedi."
Striking true, Anakin sliced through Palpatine's neck, severing his head from his body, and the Dark Side fizzled with the loss of its greatest servant. Just as Anakin saw the Sith's head roll to the floor and his body collapse, he felt his head swim again, and a different kind of darkness overcame his body as his blue blade retracted and the hero of the Republic sank to the floor with a resounding thud.
Reeling from all he had just witnessed, Mace Windu clutched his wounded side and quickly made his way to Anakin across the floor. He turned Anakin from his face down landing onto his back, and as the master held the knight's head in his hands, he saw Anakin's blue eyes were rolled back in his head. Mace felt for a pulse, but found only a weak thudding at his fingertips on Anakin's throat. More calmly than he felt, Mace pulled out his comlink.
"This is Master Windu calling all healers. Anakin Skywalker is down and needs immediate medical attention." As the affirmative response came and Mace relayed their location, he dropped his comlink and placed his hand on Anakin's sweat drenched forehead. He reached into the Force, begging for Anakin's life as he waited for the healers to arrive.