Chapter Three

The Voice

"You won't find me, Darth Vader," Obi-Wan's voice said.

"Reveal yourself, Jedi. It's only a matter of time. I will find you Jedi. You can't hide from me forever. I've destroyed more like you. I will destroy you; you will pay and be brought to justice swiftly."

"Justice. Hardly. You know better than I what the Emperor's idea of justice is."

"It's not what I thought it would be. Maybe you were right. Death and vengeance can never breed peace."

"Did I say that?"

"Yes, Obi-Wan," Darth Vader said sighing.

"Face up to what you have done. I can help you."

"It's too late for me. Someday, I will be the Emperor."

"Anakin..."

"That name no longer has any meaning for me. Look at me. Obi-Wan look at me. I'm a Sith Lord and a monster. One day I will be the Emperor, I will fix the galaxy, and I will put things back to how they should be. To how she would want them."

"Anakin Skywalker is my friend, my former padawan. A man who saved my life nine times."

"Ten," the figure of Darth Vader corrected, a smile forming on scorched lips that had forgotten how to smile. Becoming aware of this Darth Vader wrapped the shadow around him like a security blanket, shutting out the light, shutting out Anakin.

"For what it's worth, Anakin. I'm sorry, but I had no choice. You did the same thing to Count Dooku, to Ventress; the Jedi in you knows I had no choice."

"I'm not a Jedi. Perhaps the Council was right. I never should have been trained."

"I never thought I would hear Anakin Skywalker filled with regrets."

"Alot of things have changed since the days of playing the Skywalker Kenobi game."

"I know, Anakin. One more time."

"I can't. It goes against what I have become."

"You had become everything I had devoted my life to destroying. Murderer. Traitor. Fallen Jedi. Lord of the Sith. Still I loved you."

"You turned me into this monster."

"I can heal you."

"You can't make me whole again. If it could be done, the Emperor would have done so."

"Would he? Are you so sure? Would he allow you to become more powerful than he is?"

"Treachery is the way of the Sith. One day I will kill him and take his place, he knows this. It's what he has taught me. He would be disappointed with anything less."

"Will you let me help you?"

"It won't change anything. I'm still the same monster. I'm still Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith."

"Qui-Gon disagreed."

"Qui-Gon was killed by that Sith," came the cold mechanic reply. Darth Vader removed the mask and Obi-Wan could have cried looking at his friend's pasty white flesh. Those blue eyes held sadness and pain, regret. There was no hair on his head and a long jagged scar on the top of his head. Obi-Wan flashed back to Mustafar and remembered the hair burning off of his hair and the molten lava. Oh, Anakin he thought sadly. There were no eyebrows, or eyelashes. Obi-Wan remembered a mission they had been on when Anakin was thirteen. There were these kids that couldn't get better because they were been poisoned, they weren't allowed to get better. The Emperor was deliberately poisoning Anakin for years, keeping him weaker. Obi-Wan wondered if maybe Anakin could breathe on his own, that the Emperor had done something to keep him weaker. Obi-Wan was almost sure of it.

"It won't bring Padme or the baby back."

"You knew about the baby?" Obi-Wan gasped. A smile creased Anakin's old looking face. He appeared older than Obi-Wan, nearly as old as Master Yoda, and it broke Obi-Wan's heart.

"I felt the baby kick. You should have seen her face when she told me. It was the happiest day of my life. I told her it was a girl. She swore it was a boy. She ordered the droid not to tell her, she wanted it to be a surprise. That was before the nightmares began."

"Nightmares?"

"That is none of your concern. Obi-Wan, that's enough confessions for now. You know more about this Lord of the Sith than anyone except the Emperor. Obi-Wan, I've captured Ferus Olin."

"He's still alive?"

"For now." He had been thinking of the past alot lately, and capturing Ferus Olin, one of his old friends, hadn't helped. They had been padawans together, had been knighted together, and had made him transgress. Any other Jedi with the exception of Obi-Wan and he would be dead. After Mustafar his connection to the Force had diminished. He wondered if Obi-Wan He wondered how Obi-Wan planned on making him whole. Part of him was afraid, that he would be connected to the Living Force, that he would no longer be able to gaze at life from a distance.

When Ferus Olin was arrested, Darth Vader had gone to him and had been rewarded with the same cocky voice from the past, "Once a good guy, always a good guy. What can I say? But you wouldn't know anything about that would you?"

Darth Vader had smirked as his mechanical voice replied. "You'd be surprised at what I know about that. I know you, Ferus."

He saw the saw the shocked look and the truth of it reflected in Ferus's eyes and wished he could retract that statement. "I know your type," he tried to correct as he strode away ordering high leveled troopers to guard him, some that weren't so weak-minded.

"Anakin," Obi-Wan's voice snapped him out of recent memories.

"Anakin is dead. Stop talking to him. He's only a ghost. He doesn't exist anymore. Leave him alone," Darth Vader roared.

"Anakin," Obi-Wan continued regardless, " I need you to concentrate. Focus on your lungs I can't regrow your lungs but clone technology can regrow your limbs. The force will heal your face, your lungs, unless you have someone here who looks after these sort of things who won't let the Emperor know."

"What if I let the Emperor know?"

"You and I both know if he suspects that your power is stronger than his, he will kill you."

"I can't die. I'm the Chosen One. You should have killed me. Why didn't you?"

"I couldn't."

"Weakness," Darth Vader scoffed. "Or perhaps you wanted me to suffer. It would have been merciful to kill me. I wish you had. Go back to that Wasteland you crawled out of. I will kill you, Obi-Wan."

"Compassion, Anakin. Reverence for life, even yours," Obi-Wan replied. He knew there was a war going on inside Anakin's head, and that he was the cause of it. Part of Anakin, hated him and wanted to kill him. There was another part of Anakin who felt ashamed of what he had done, of what he had become, and that was the part Obi-Wan was hoping he could reach.

Darth Vader pushed a button and droids appeared. "My own personal droids. They report solely to me. Trust me; I've looked into their programming. "Obi-Wan smirked as he appeared, Anakin didn't trust Palpatine.

Anakin stared at Obi-Wan's new figure, "You look old, Obi-Wan."

"Aging is a natural part of life."

"Along with death right, Obi-Wan. My mother, my wife, my child."

"I'm truly sorry, Anakin."

"The droids will take orders from you."

"Anesthesia," Obi-Wan's form ordered and Darth Vader was put under. They were mechanisms in Anakin's chest that were keeping him from breathing. Obi-Wan had them remove them, and waited for Anakin to awake.

"Padme, I have to save you," Anakin whispered. "I want more but I know I shouldn't. I'm not the Jedi I should be."

"Anakin, wake up."

"Obi-Wan, I didn't ask for this. I didn't ask to be put on the Council. You're going to need me on this one."

Tears filled Obi-Wan's eyes as he listened to Anakin.

"Master Windu, I need...to...talk...to Obi-Wan," Anakin's voice was filled with pain. "You don't understand. Only Obi-Wan..." Anakin's voice trailed off. If Obi-Wan had only stayed.

He shook Anakin lightly. "Anakin, wake up."

"Master, how's Padme? Is she alive?"

A punch hit Obi-Wan's gut with that. "Anakin wake up."

"Yes, Master," came the voice in reply as he brushed the grime of sleep out of his face. Obi-Wan wished he could hide his face and be back on whatever mission Anakin thought they were on.

While Anakin was still asleep and feeling like Anakin rather than Darth Vader he concentrated and healed his face, his eyelashes and hair would now grow back, once Anakin knew about the poison in his bloodstream. Making Anakin powerful again could be dangerous.

"There's still good in you, Anakin. Those were Padme's last words."

"Padme," came the whispered reply. "Master," he coughed, "it's not what you think. I didn't," Anakin coughed again. "I married her," Obi-Wan knew then that Anakin knew exactly where he was and everything that had transpired since the days of Skywalker and Kenobi.

"I know, Anakin. When I found out about her condition. I knew you had married her. I never thought for one second that you had abandoned her. I just didn't realize that she had confided in you her condition. She wanted to protect you."

"That was my job. I was her husband, I was a Jedi. The Chosen One, the Hero with No Fear."

"What do you want out of life, Anakin?"

"Power. A sense of duty. Peace for the Emperor. One day I will become the master and I'll train an apprentice, peace for the galaxy. Now, Kenobi, stop calling me Anakin. He's as dead as she is."

"Anakin, you have to take the first step back to the light."

"Anakin doesn't exist anymore."

"Yes, he does."

"I slaughtered them. All the Jedi, and that's not all. Nute Gunray, all the Separatists leaders. They were all unarmed. It was cold blooded murder. They were unarmed. You are right about me. I'm nothing but a murderer, Obi-Wan. You never asked me why I went to Tattooine with Padme when I should have been on Naboo protecting her. You want to know, Obi-Wan. The Tuskan Raiders had kidnapped my mother. She was weak, beaten, and bloody and she died in my arms. So I drew my lightsaber and I killed them all, men, women and children. I killed them."

"Anakin, you aren't some heartless monster."

"I've destroyed entire planets at my whim."

"Yours? Or the Emperor's?"

"We're on the same side."

"We used to be on the same side."

"Things change Obi-Wan."

"I know." Obi-Wan said disappearing and giving Anakin time to think and figure things out. Darth Vader looked in the mirror he'd had brought in. He could finally breathe and the air was stale. Darth Vader sneezed. He had been fed through tubes for more than a decade. Food. He could eat again. He hadn't eaten since the nightmares about Padme's death began. Darth Vader looked in the mirror and saw Anakin stared back at him. "Now where did you come from?" Darth Vader said staring at him. "I thought I buried you."

"Nope. You've just hidden me. I'm going to win."

"You don't understand the power of the dark side."

"Dark side, it doesn't impress me."

"Checkmate," both voices said as he fell asleep.