Back, with chapter two...and I'm not one to beg, but feedback would be nice. Especially since this is a continuing fic, rather than a oneshot. Anyone who follows my Naruto story, Reign In Blood: A Song of Severed Spirits, don't worry; it'll stay on its usual Sunday/early-morning Monday once-a-week release schedule.
Let's get this trainwreck moving.
As it turned out, using Jabba the Hutt's name did get you almost anything. Watto had gladly given all needed wares to the Jedi after meeting Vader, though the Sith Lord had been sure to pay him for them; call it a sense of gratitude. After all, he wouldn't have escaped in this past were it not for his vast knowledge of machinery.
He rolls out from under the damaged craft, lifting himself off of the board and placing his wrench down. "All the cosmetic stuff is done, so we just need to bind the cables and wires together. Normally, that would normally take another day or two, but..." Vader looked to the pair of Jedi across from him. "We have some capable Force-users with us."
It goes unspoken that he is also one who wields the Force. As the Chosen One, as Darth Vader and as a man who has spent his lifetime studying and using the invisible energy, his vise-like grip on the Force is unquestionable. While Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan reach out with no great amount of subtlety, Darth Vader merely flicks his finger or rolls his eyes in order to accomplish what they must do together...having the power of being spawned by midi-chlorians tends to give near-unmatched control over the Force, with the exception of Yoda, and Vader is free to abuse that here.
The engine comes to life with a sudden roar, and the majority of the people in their group board the ship; among them are Anakin and his mother, who have had their slave-chips removed by Vader himself. While the Jedi obey their strange moral code of uninvolvement unless hired, the Sith Lord has no such compulsion and instead takes pity on his mother and younger self...and the only ones who fail to board the ship are the Jedi, as well as Vader. They know what's coming, thanks to the warning of the past, and it allows for them to get the drop on Darth Maul as he arrives.
Five lightsaber blades are ignited, and Vader must give the Sith apprentice credit; not many can stand up to him alone in a lightsaber duel, let alone two others who fight with him. The man does, however, his anger showing. There were supposed to be two Jedi, one a Knight and the other a Padawan! It was supposed to be easy, or as easy as killing a Jedi could be! Nothing was ever said about a Sith who was protecting the Queen of Naboo, especially one who used a blade that was as tall as he was!
After half a minute of confrontation, Maul leaps back and calls his speeder to himself. He can't stand up to this level of fighting for much longer, no matter his training, and so he runs. Vader could pull the vehicle back, or at least stall it, but that would accomplish very little. After all, he doesn't care who knows about him. Hell, Palpatine could always try to rout him; Vader would welcome the challenge that his former master might present, now that he has no fear of death and holds the confidence that he would win.
In any case, they manage to take off with no problems. The journey through hyperspace is fairly quick, though it takes Vader a second to remember that the bane of his existence awaits on Coruscant: the Jedi Council. Yoda, at least, has no doubt already sensed a disturbance in the Force; of that, Vader is certain. What he does not know, however, is whether they will manage to arrive before word of his existence reaches Palpatine. Similarly, he wonders about his younger self's fate...what will happen? Will he be given to his "older brother" to train? Will the Council still deny him?
He'll find out soon enough, he tells himself.
Unlike last time, Palpatine isn't waiting for them when they arrive. He's likely in his office, Vader assumes, plotting this "new" Sith Lord's death. Perhaps he'll even invite Vader over.
"Master Qui-Gon, young Kenobi, Queen Amidala..." Mace Windu sees Shmi, Anakin, the elder Padmé and Vader, but cannot come up with a suitable phrase for them. "Honored guests. Welcome to Coruscant."
Yoda looks to Vader, and something in his eyes connects; this is either the Yoda from the future, from his time, or the aged Jedi Master has drawn the correct conclusion that Vader is the cause of the Force's disturbance. Either way, Vader cannot bring himself to care. Perhaps he'll get his first chance to cross blades with the ancient humanoid whose stature belies his true power...but, then again, perhaps not. It wouldn't be that bright of an idea to attack the Jedi, after all, especially when that was the cause of all his problems in the first place.
"Yes, welcome. Welcome you I do, all and one. Though with you," Yoda raises his cane to point at Darth Vader, and it's all the Sith can do to repress a smirk. "I would in private speak. How went your mission?"
"Successful at long last, Master Yoda." So this is the Yoda from his time, but he replaced his past self instead of forming alongside it. "I'll give you more details about it later."
"Master Yoda, you know this man?" Mace Windu questions, shooting a concerned glance at the diminutive creature before his gaze locks on Vader's.
"Know him I do, very well. Jedi Knight Skywalker, this is, though red his lightsaber is colored. Brave and powerful he is, though rash he can be."
"I'd like to think that those qualities have left me, Master Yoda." Vader responds. "Over the course of my journey, and the many years it's taken me, I believe that I am now almost fully adherent to the Jedi path."
That was, of course, almost a lie. He was still in love with Padmé, his wife and only love; he had no second thoughts about manipulating the Force for personal reasons; most of all, he could say that he had become (and still was, he might argue if he was pushed,) the greatest Jedi-killer in history. But that's what the half-truths and riddles were for: deception that could not be detected, because it wasn't entirely true or false.
Vader turns and claps a hand down on Anakin's shoulders, smiling. "Bet you didn't think your brother was a Jedi, huh? I'll see you around, Ani."
His Padmé follows him, while the younger one stays with Shmi and Anakin; Shmi looks at her "elder" son as he walks away, unknowing of what will happen, but she's more than willing to bet that he'll be at the epicenter of the galaxy's future.
Vader, meanwhile, follows Yoda on a path that he knows very well. It leads to a duel chamber, where students and Padawans could challenge one another without doing their opponents any true harm. Sometimes the Jedi who had disputes with one another would settle them here...Once they are inside, Yoda throws a practice-saber to Vader and takes one for himself. "Settle this here, we will, Darth Vader. When sent back I was, prepared I should have been for your arrival. Ready yourself!"
The Jedi Master leaps forward, levitating with the power of the Force; it's something that Vader couldn't do, even if he tried, as he is simply too heavy. The practice blades crash against one another twice, thrice, five times. Ten times. Fifty times. In the span of a few seconds, they know that the other matches them evenly. Yoda drops, trying to get a kill-strike on Vader while he falls, but the Sith Lord is no fool. Even if Yoda has milennia on him, he has been out of practice for years...but Vader never allowed his skills to dull.
They push against one another with the Force, and Vader is slightly stronger. Yoda flies back, though he manages to avoid crashing into the wall, and moves his fist. A bullet-like punch of Force energy slams into Vader's gut, and he does hit the wall before unleashing a hell of lightning onto the field. It launches from his whole body, and speeds through his metal trappings; the heated wall is easy to escape from, though he notices that Yoda remains untouched...he refuses to let it irk him, however, and instead charges back into their battle. It's the most fun and entertainment that he's had in years, and he allows himself to sink into that joy while he fights against the Grand Master, the leader of the Jedi Council.
Dodge, slash, duck, kick, leap, spin-and-slash, block behind the back. Thrust, counter, parry, jab, guard, block, sweep. Slash, jab, switch hands and punch, switch back and slash, leap over sweep, slash again.
They're reading one another perfectly, relying on feelings instead of senses. If they were blindfolded, the results would still be the same; Darth Vader has never felt so alive, except in the moments before his death, before now. It excites him to know that there is someone who can rise up against him, truly fighting him on even ground. He pushes out with the Force once more, sending Yoda into the sky, before he steps back. "It seems we've developed an audience for ourselves, Master Yoda."
"Indeed we have, Anakin." Vader knows that Yoda only used his true name because they're no longer alone in the room.
The whole of the Council is standing there, along with his younger self, mother, Obi-Wan, and his Padmé...where the younger went to, he could not say. Several various Jedi are there as well; each of them is struggling, and many are failing, to keep their jaws from dropping in shock. Here stood a man unknown to them, young though he was, and he could hold his ground against Yoda in a lightsaber duel?
The only one who was unsurprised was Padmé, who simply smiled. This was her husband, her one-and-only, who she has known to have good somewhere inside of him. He hopes he hasn't disappointed her with his holding back, though he knows that Yoda was restricting himself as well; if the elderly Jedi had been serious about their fight, real lightsabers would have been used...not that it would have made too much of a difference, though Vader's blade would have been almost three times as long as Yoda's, given the way that they were essentially equals in combat. Vader did have the edge over the Jedi Master in the Force, but that was only in raw levels of power; Yoda was a much more finesse-oriented person, compared to the way that Vader simply steamrolled everything.
A difference of opinion, as it were.
"The Council hereby grants Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker the rank of Master and a seat on the Council. In addition, you are allowed to take your brother as a Padawan...you and Qui-Gon, as well as your apprentices, are to go to Naboo to end the fighting there."
"Yes, Masters." Qui-Gon, Vader, and Obi-Wan respond in unison. Anakin doesn't know what to say, so he simply stays silent; in the course of a few days he has met a Jedi, learned of a long-lost brother, been freed from slavery, learned that his brother was a Jedi as well, found out that his brother is as strong as Master Yoda, who leads the Council, and now fulfilled his dream of becoming a Jedi; it was all a little much, to be honest.
"Will the Queen and her body double be going with us?" Vader asks, attempting to get a sense of how hard he will need to fight.
"Yes."
He will need to fight very, very hard. He doesn't know what kind of impact will happen if people continue living when they should die, as Vader hopes to be the case with Qui-Gon Jinn, but he has a distinct feeling that premature deaths will alter the original timeline and his own memories.
"Very well, Masters." He replies, knowing and not truly caring about what will happen next...though not caring really means trying to change the outcome without truly looking to change the outcome.
That was an outright lie, though. He knows what will happen, and so it is up to him to ensure that neither Padmé's younger or older self, or either of his selves, dies. He has time to come up with a plan, though, so perhaps he'll manage to go on something better than the paper-thin tale that got him as far as here. He must continue on, as he did for so long, but a hand squeezes his as he boards the ship for Naboo; he is no longer alone, and never will be again.
He'll make sure of it this time.