The Storm before the Calm

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Anakin looked around at the depressing setting. He never remembered waking up, nor could he remember passing out. It had seemed as if he were in the Infinity one moment, and then here the next. Of course, that brought up the next question.

Where was here?

It was a desert. That much was obvious. Sand pelted flew through the air, propelled by a cool wind. The grains seemed to pass right through him.

"Wait a minute..." he said aloud, noting that he seemed to be alone. "I know where I am. This has to be Tatoonie." And then he remembered the bad part of it. He began walking, heading up the nearest sand dune. Sure enough, his fears were confirmed.

A Tusken Raider camp sat in burning ruins, the inhabitants laying slaughtered in the sand. As far as he could remember, this was Anakin's first act that set his turn to the dark side in motion. The loss of his mother, the need for revenge, and swearing to protect Padme.

He sighed, fighting off all of the haunting memories that were attacking his thoughts. At the time, revenge had been sweet, but it was the first step toward the Dark Side.

The sandstorm became larger in its power, as if it was throwing the whole desert at Anakin. But the sand harmlessly passed through his body.

Anakin noticed that there was still one hut standing, with the tent flap wide open. Flashes of light emitted from within the inside of the tent. He began carefully towards it, and slowly entered it...

...and stepped out on the capital ship of the Separatist leader General Grievous, the Invisible Hand. He stood in the observation deck, where the headless and handless corpse of Dooku lay on the cold hard ground. This was his next step to the Dark Side. He had listened to the Chancellor, and executed the Sith.

"Why?" he asked aloud, hearing his distorted voice echo in the room. "Why did I listen to him?" Anakin released a regretful sigh, and looked for another door out. Deep down, he feared what he might find behind it, but he knew that he had to go through it if he wanted any chance of escape from this nightmare.

Thoughts swirled around in his head, trying to figure out what hellish memory he would be forced to face next. The door that he and Obi-Wan had entered through all those years ago was the only door in the room. He had remembered others, but those were gone, faded into the gray walls.

He took a shaky step toward the door, his pulse elevating at the mere thought of the uncertainty that this door held. Anakin forced himself to the door, but his hand wavered over the open button.

"Don't be a coward, Skywalker," said a disembodied voice, echoing throughout the chamber. The Jedi tensed at the sound of it. He knew it to be his own voice...so that meant Vader?

He mashed the button, and stepped through.

UNSC Infinity Infirmary 23-B
October 30th, 2557 3:32pm

"So, that's it?"

Obi-Wan shrugged. "It has to be. What else would it be?"

The UNSC Infinity had dropped out of slipspace mere minutes ago, and was waiting near the superweapon. The weapon was ringed shaped, much like a Halo, only smaller. The architecture was Forerunner, with patches of slapdash human and Covenant construction.

"Doesn't look like much," Mace remarked. "What's it supposed to be? The Sith's giant hula-hoop?"

Obi-Wan didn't reply. The more he stared at the weapon, the more uncomfortable he became. There was this strange feeling about it... "Do you feel that?" he asked Mace.

The former Jedi shook his head. "No, I don't really pick up on feelings, senses, emotions or whatever. I left the Order when I first arrived here, and I haven't needed it since." He tilted his head. "Well, sometimes I still pick up faint feelings, but nothing important."

"It's the Dark Side," Obi-Wan realized. "The Dark Side powers the weapon."

"It always comes back to the Dark Side, doesn't?" Mace sighed. "Can't we ever come to something peaceful? Like ponies or unicorns or something like that?"

Obi-Wan turned to him, and half-amused smile on his face. "God, Mace. You really have left the Order. No self-respecting Jedi would be caught dead saying something like that."

Mace shrugged. "Well, whatever." He held up the stone in his hand, looking down at his reflection in the polished white surface. "We have this stone, and that's it. Things look a little bleak."

"Padme," Obi-Wan said, "we need to get this 'key' to her, since she is the 'lock,' whatever that means."

"She shouldn't even be here," Mace said, tossing the rock to Obi-Wan, who managed to snatch it out of mid-air with Jedi reflexes. "She wasn't a Jedi. It wouldn't add up."

"The Force sometimes defies basic understanding," Obi-Wan told him, packing the stone into his pocket. "It can work differently in different worlds, I presume. Perhaps Padme found an alternate way though."

Mace remained silent, letting the topic drop. "So, what do you think it's for?" he asked instead, nodding to the ring the distance. "It's not a Halo, that much I know."

"It could be anything," Obi-Wan replied. "The base for a new Death Star or maybe even a microwave."

"Thanks. That's helpful."

Rebellion Fleet in orbit of Sullust

October 30th, 2557 (UNSC Calendar)

Admiral Akbar stared out the viewscreen. "What are they doing? They're just sitting there."

An Imperial fleet sat off in the distance, making no move to attack the incoming Rebels. "They're most likely waiting for something," replied Mon Mothma's hologram, staring at the ships.

The Imperial fleet consisted of hundreds, if not thousands of Star Destroyers and easily twenty or thirty Super Star Destroyers. It was the largest fleet in the known history of the galaxy. The Alliance had first detected the fleet months ago, but was unable to send in recon due to some skirmishes with the last remaining Imperial supporters.

"But what are they waiting for?" Akbar asked. "There's nothing out here."

Mon Mothma sighed, lightyears away on Coruscant. "I don't know. But there is one thing that we can't deny, and that is that whatever it is they're waiting for, it's going to have to be important for them to have waited this long."

Akbar nodded. "Agreed. How long before we'll get the reinforcements?"

"Another couple of days, at the most. I've had to reroute several ships from peace talks on countless planets. The Imperials will still out number you."

Akbar nodded. He stared back out at the Imperials. Their fleet was large enough to conquer every planet that the Alliance had pried from the cold dead hands of the Emperor. Why hadn't they attacked anything yet?

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Anakin found himself in the place of his greatest betrayal. The Jedi Temple. It looked as it had on that one fateful day, with wrecked pillars, piles of burning rubble, and bodies everywhere.

He didn't like the looks of this, and his hand wandered to his hip, where he was surprised to find that the hilt of his lightsaber was still there. Anakin pulled it out, feeling a sense of security with the weapon in his hand. That's when things got scary.

The bodies suddenly began moving, slowly pushing themselves off the ground and moaning in a dead anger. Each one of them had a lightsaber in his or her hand, and the Temple was soon filled with the sound of blades igniting.

The last blade was Anakin's. He began backing away from them, his blade in front of him ready to protect him. They moved fast for dead.

All of them had disfigured faces, like those of zombies. Anakin raised his lightsaber in a defensive position, ready to take them all on if he had to. He backed slowly through the ruins of the Jedi Temple, never taking his eyes off of the figures following him.

"Where are you going, Skywalker?" asked another figure, standing atop a broken pillar. "The party's only getting started."

Anakin looked up at the voice, only to stare into the cold, dead, yellow eyes of Darth Vader. "Why are you here?"

"This is my realm," Vader answered. "The realm of your haunting past."

"If you want me dead, Vader, then do it right here right now yourself. Don't let these things do it for you."

Vader chuckled. "That, I can not do. While I am able to kill you, it will only kill myself instead. I am in your head, you know."

Anakin contemplated what the Sith had said. And he did have a point. "And then suppose I kill you? If you're in my head, it won't affect me."

"You can't kill me. You can't kill the one thing that gave you the power to do all that you did." The zombie Jedi were now stopped, mindlessly watching the conversation. "And I'm here to remind you of what you shall become again."

A black hole suddenly erupted in the scene, sucking Vader and Anakin into it. Anakin found himself flying through his past as Darth Vader. He saw everything. The Jedi he'd hunted down. His secret apprentice, the Death Star destroying Alderaan, cutting off Luke's hand...

IT went on and on, playing out of order from there. Each scene made Vader laughed manically, and Anakin want to vomit. He'd lived through this hell before, and he'd never been proud of it since. Suddenly, Vader feel silent, as if listening to a sound. "Even here, she meddles with my affairs..."

A speck of white light, brighter than anything he'd seen before. Despite the fact that he had no real body, his eyes burned and he had to squeeze them shut. "...Chosen One," called a long forgotten voice. Anakin realized that it was that of the one who claimed to be the Force. "Listen to me."

"I'm listening."

"I'm here to free you. To get you back to the realm of reality."

Vader cursed. "Like hell you will, bitch!" He lashed out at the light, unleashing a viscous wave of blue lightning from his hands. The light absorbed it, and then grew even brighter.

"Skywalker, there's something that you must know."

"What?"

"Obi-Wan has claimed that Vader was killed. It is not so."

"Um...how?"

"Arrogant fool!" shouted Vader. "How dare you not recognize who I am! What I am capable of!" His body was now encased in a shadow aura, with flashes of red. His eyes were yellow.

"Do not listen to him," the Force went on. "He is but the fool. I am predominate in your mind, thus giving him no power over you." There was a pause, and Vader screamed out obscenities. "Listen now, for I will tell you how to win the battle that looms ahead."

Anakin listened, and nodded once she finished. "Okay...if that's what it'll take, then I'll have to do it."

"Good, then I will now return you to consciousness."

Anakin suddenly felt more. His heartbeat, breath leaving his body with every labor of the lung, and the cold air in the room. Vader said one last thing to Anakin before the Jedi...

...before the Jedi shot up in his bed, covered in sweat. He saw that Mace and Obi-Wan were standing in his room, looking at him with a great deal of surprise. It didn't even register that he hadn't seen his master in years. Vader's words echoed in his mind.

"That bitch you were talking to, she has no sense at all. You should join me. Join me, and I'll allow you to have your wife back, and for the two of to live forever in peace."

And in those simple words, Anakin realized something.

Vader wasn't a master of the Dark Side.

Vader was the Dark Side.

On the Finale of From Dark to Light;

"Anakin." Obi-Wan looked at Anakin as the Jedi put on his ODST helmet, and headed to the airlock. "May the Force be with you."

Anakin paused. "You know, it's the first time I've heard that in a long time," he admitted, turning back to his Master. "Look, there's something I should tell you."

"What?"

"The chances of me coming back from this are very, very slim."

Mace groaned. He hated this prison cell. The battle was progressing outside the Infinity, and he felt every vibration from every laser blast. He had no clue where Anakin was. He had no clue where Obi-Wan was. All he knew was that Dooku knew that they were here. He was the only shot to take out the Sith.

On a table on the opposite side of the room, Mace's items were spread out. His ammo clips, his pistol, his grenade, a few performance enhancing drugs, and his one piece of memorabilia. He sighed. It was out of reach, and his Jedi powers were long gone.

Weren't they?

Slowly, he reached toward the object, closing his eyes and focusing...

Chapter Recap;

Everything is set up for the final battle, and Anakin knows how to win.

Response to Reviews;

Roger509: I think I PM'd you earlier. I hoped I cleared that up.

Guest: That's a fairly decent thought, but I really can't explain the real reason as of yet. It'll be told in the next chapter.

Gh0st3: Well, I've actually been planning a Halo/Fallout story, and then I might do a sequel to this story. Most likely though, I'll keep going with the other stories I have to clear up some of my messes.

Well, the end is near. But, I'm not sure when I'll actually be able to finish the chapter. So it might be a few weeks before we see the end. Or it could be tomorrow, if I suddenly get some inspiration.