And here's the newest chapter! Thanks so much to all who've read/reviewed.
Smiles, Lou.
Luke was definitely in over his head.
For a few seconds at the beginning of the duel, he was fighting Palpatine on his own, and he was losing horribly. He was losing horribly even thought his opponent was quite clearly baiting him. He hadn't gotten in a single strike of his own since beginning the fight- just parrying the red saber inches before it sliced his head off.
And then there was the place on the floor where some fleeing officer had spilled caf.
Luke slipped, because even in the middle of battle he was only somewhat immune to the laws of physics, and then there was a giant flare of red light headed exactly for the center of his head and he couldn't block it and-
Vader parried, two red blades meeting inches from Luke's alarmed face.
The Jedi scrambled to his feet, and there were at least twenty frantic seconds of fighting, the room filling with the hisses of lightsaber blades. Luke could barely think, instinct guiding his saber, and his mind filling with at least as many hisses as the room was.
It occurred to him that he did not like lightsaber fighting as much as he had originally thought he would that day on Tatooine when Ben had handed him Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber.
Actually, he would be quite happy never to do this again.
Luke managed to remember a small bit of training from Yoda, leaping and flipping to land behind the Emperor. He thought for a very brief moment that perhaps he now had the upper hand- or at least the element of surprise- but then Palpatine's lightsaber came flying through the air.
Luke's determination to never get into a lightsaber fight again was now in conflict with a desire to learn how to throw things at his enemies.
Enough to distract them, apparently, while said enemy sent a blast of Force-lightning at Vader.
-
Anakin was blurry-eyed. The room he was in didn't seem completely real anymore- a haze of bright lights and computer screens, with shouts and hisses and a clash of light and dark.
He wasn't even sure if he was seeing it or not, or if it was all in his head.
Maybe this had all been a dream, and he'd wake up next to Padmé.
To be honest, he'd settle for having Obi-Wan shake him awake on some miserable dusty battlefield with rocks carefully positioned under all sleeping areas.
No such luck.
"Anakin!"
Or maybe there was.
"Five more minutes."
"Anakin, listen to me! Get up!"
"Go away, Obi-Wan." Now the room was getting even blurrier, just flashes of red and green with clouds everywhere.
"Anakin!"
The voice was as faint and hazy as the room.
Maybe now they would let him sleep.
-
"Anakin!"
It was no use. Obi-Wan's time traveling friend was not answering him. "Anakin!"
"Fight his own battle, he can. Fight for himself."
Right. Fight for himself. Fight for himself against Obi-Wan until the lava of Mustafar consumed everything. Fight the nightmares by himself.
But it was true. Anakin could fight for himself. It was all he'd really ever done, because Obi-Wan had been such a fool, and never even thought to consider that maybe he needed real help, or real advice, or someone to confide in about a secret marriage.
There was no argument there that Obi-Wan could think of that would stand a chance of convincing Yoda of anything.
"Part of the plan, your return is not," said the Master with an air of finality.
And that was when Obi-Wan Kenobi snapped.
"Part of the plan? The plan? What plan, exactly? The same one where I told Luke that his father killed his father because I didn't trust him to handle the truth?"
Yoda made his incredibly annoying humph noise. "My plan, that was not, and-"
"He's not a tool, Yoda, he's Anakin! And he needs all the help he can get, now let me go!"
"No," said Yoda.
For a second the two Jedi glared at each other, Obi-Wan's transparent fists clenched at his sides and his face turning an interesting purple color.
-
Palpatine smiled.
Vader was not dead yet, and that was not his intent. The boy could kill him, and perhaps future apprentices would learn a thing or two about putting family above galactic domination.
For the second time that day- though this one was part of the plan- a Skywalker yelled something incoherent and blocked some lightning.
Excellent. With a casual flick of the hand not being used for lightning purposes, the Emperor summoned his lightsaber from where it had been rolling around the floor.
"You don't want me to kill him?" inquired Palpatine.
The boy, his face twisted in righteous fury, didn't answer at first.
Good.
"No."
It was said with perhaps more conviction than the Emperor would've preferred, but that was inconsequential.
"He maimed you, killed your family- he is much better off dead, boy."
Skywalker's eyes flicked involuntarily towards his mechanical hand. If Sidious had wanted to, he could have killed him then, when his attention was distracted, but then there would be a significant dearth of apprentice candidates.
"No," repeated the boy, his voice less sure.
This was much easier than it really had any right to be.
-
"We need to go this way." Leia's voice was sure.
Han gave her an odd look. "Luke went that way."
Leia shook her head, trying to dispel the fogginess. "It's just a feeling. We've got to go this way."
Han in all probability wasn't going to follow her, was he? She supposed it made some sense. Luke's unexplainable lightsaber abilities had pretty much coincided with a strange need to rescue the forces of evil from the other forces of evil. Any unexplainable abilities on her part were liable to incite suspicion.
"Are you sure?"
She looked him full in the face. "I'm sure."
And then he took off ahead of her.
Following him, unable to completely suppress an urge to laugh, Leia felt that maybe everything would be alright in the end.
-
"Yargh!"
It was the oddest noise Obi-Wan had ever heard Yoda make, including that unfortunate singing incident.
But, then again, it was under incredibly odd circumstances.
"Run!" yelled Qui-Gon.
If the situation had been any less dire, Obi-Wan probably would've stared for quite some time at the unexpected sight of his former Master acting on his long professed urge to tackle Yoda "and get him to understand that there is more to the Force than the Council's rules."
In fact, Obi-Wan was tempted to do so now. It was just so ludicrous. He wanted a portable hologram of it to give Anakin.
But that was not an option if he wanted there to be an Anakin.
"Sorry, Master," said Obi-Wan, not completely sure whether he was apologizing to the frantic Qui-Gon or the irate and stunned Yoda.
Then, relieved to be able to leave at last, the force-ghost headed at high speed for the corporeal plane.
-
Anakin wasn't sure where he was. It was cloudy, and odd, and didn't feel very real at all.
And he was fairly sure he wasn't alone.
Flickering in and out of existence in much the way he seemed to be, there was another figure, who also seemed to be himself.
Anakin wasn't sure whether to hope the whatever-it-was was future-self or not.
"Hello?"
The thing was still now, but still flickering. So was Anakin. He felt like a broken hologram, and wondered for a second if perhaps he was dead.
His eyes met that of the other figure, and he was relieved beyond measure that they were not the sickening yellow he'd seen for a second in that weird meditation chamber.
And then they were.
And then they weren't.
Anakin decided that this was very, very annoying. "My eyes aren't doing that too, are they?"
It didn't answer him.
Anakin tried a new tactic. "I think we need to get out of here."
There was a moment of brief surprise on the thing's face. Maybe it hadn't seen him before.
"I really think we need to get out of here."
From very far away, there came the sound of a scuffle.
"Run!"
"Sorry, Master!"
It sounded like Obi-Wan.
"I don't want to be dead," said Anakin, trying to hold the attention of the thing in front of him. "And I don't want Luke to be dead. And I think we need to get out of here."
Finally, finally, the thing- it may have been himself, it may not have, and he really didn't care right now- actually nodded.
"Let's go."
-
Leia had managed to overtake Han, sprinting at full speed down the hallway. She could see the closed doors that she knew she had to open now.
Before she could do anything, though, they flew open of their own accord. Beside them stood Obi-Wan, rapidly sweeping one transparent hand through the air.
A silver cylinder- a lightsaber- flew through the doorway and into Leia's hand.
General Kenobi smiled.
Luke was bowing his head, his eyes flickering from the Emperor to his father.
In wherever-he-was, Anakin began to feel world shift from the cloudy place to the haze of lights again.
Then Leia moved in.
"Get away from my brother."