Disclaimer: Am I going to get sued if I stop repeating that I DON'T OWN ANYTHING?
Author's Note: Sorry for the lack of review replies. I'm back in college, and just getting the chapters posted is pretty difficult. Hang with me, please!
Sorry for the problems with format and editing. I posted the version that I hadn't finished editing--just the wrong document. Sorry, it's fixed now!
Anakin T Skywalker: In this case, Ventress is actually doing something good.
SpiritedEstel: I'm very much enjoying paternal Obi-Wan, too. The shot of him in ROTS with Luke just makes me melt every time.
mokakenobi: I can make no promises about Anakin, but then again I won't say I'm killing him, either. :) Thank you very much for the review, though—I appreciate it very much.
Dawn of Time: Using the speed of the Force, I bring you this update. :)
Hermione Solo: Yes, I do agree—they need their daddy.
pronker: Once again, I really appreciate the detail of your review. I always find your feedback useful to pick out what I'm doing well or need to improve on. In this case, I'm especially glad Ventress's characterization is working. It was tough to pass her off as an actual Jedi
ObiBettina7: Anakin is indeed known for his crazy stunts...
Feedback: Yes, please.
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For Anakin, everything comes down to this moment.
He will not turn. He will not. He won't allow himself to even think about the possibility. Failure is not an option until he starts considering it as one. So, he will not consider it.
But Sidious is, and Anakin fears that, eventually, he may too.
When the doors to the room slide open, Anakin doesn't turn around. He doesn't want to see Obi-Wan being hauled back in for another round of what he's sure is absolute agony. It may seem cruel not to look, but he knows his former master would understand... just as he will understand how Anakin will not turn, even if it means Obi-Wan's death.
He desperately hopes he has the strength to keep that conviction, because he knows that's what Obi-Wan would want.
Oddly, Sidious doesn't look quite as smug as Anakin would have thought. Instead, he looks almost... surprised? Something's not right. "Guards," he snaps, his upper lip curling in an expression reeking of displeasure. "What is this?"
The sound of a lightsaber humming to life, followed by the noise of what Anakin has come to recognize during his time as Darth Vader as bodies falling the floor lets him know that, whoever this person is, it's not Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan didn't have a lightsaber, and even if he did, he'd be more inclined to wound than kill.
Anakin turns around.
The figure in the doorway is shrouded in a dark cloak, their face partially obscured. The fine details don't matter—he can see the eyes, and that's all he needs.
"Ventress?" he breaths, hardly daring to believe it. "Get out of here. Go help Obi-Wan—"
She smiles, a dark sort of predatory look, as she shrugs off her cloak and lets it slip to the floor. "Kenobi," she murmurs smoothly, looking entirely too pleased, "is already off this ship and entering hyperspace as we speak."
In the Force, Anakin feels a wave of dark rage rush forth from Sidious, inundating every part of the room. For a moment, he feels as though he's drowning, reaching for the light, finding nothing and then finally—finally—connecting with it. The light is precious now that he knows what it's like to be without it.
"You lie," Sidious spits out furiously. Slowly, he begins to move across the room, the robes of his dark clothing barely brushing the floor as he walks, every step entirely deliberate. He reminds Anakin of a purii cat that's about to go in for the kill.
Ventress calmly arches an eyebrow and pulls her shoulders back a bit more. Anakin never before questioned her bravery—only her sanity—but any doubts that he might have had are banished before he can even begin to formulate them. She's looking at Sidious with zero fear. She's not afraid.
"Then why are you so angry?" she asks, her tone curiously like a lover's, soft and lilting. Still, there's something hard there; there's strength behind everything that she does.
Obviously, she's not lying. Sidious can feel it, and as Anakin begins to search, he realizes that he can feel it as well. Obi-Wan is gone.
Obi-Wan is gone, and Sidious is livid.
"You're going to regret this!" he rages, whipping back a hand and sending a wave of the Force hurtling towards her.
Ventress manages to block it, but she still staggers. Oddly, that only makes her smile widen. "I'm not here to fight you, Sidious. I know I can't beat you, no matter how much I'd like to. Instead, I'll simply have to settle for helping the one who can."
With one last darkly-amused quirk of her lips, she tosses her lightsaber to Anakin.
"Do your worst," she quietly tells Sidious, laughing with her eyes. She's daring him. One last taunt for a woman who never seemed to have anything else on her lips.
Sidious takes the challenge.
"Fool!"
Ventress never stood a chance without a lightsaber. Perhaps she never did even with one. Ultimately, it really doesn't matter: Sidious assaults her with Force-lighting. She never attempts to block. She simply takes it in the chest and falls, arching backward with surprising grace for the amount of pain she's in.
She hits the ground, and he attacks again. Anakin can see the energy snapping all over her body, and he knows how much that hurts, but even as he jumps forward to defend her, he also knows that it's over. She wasn't trying to protect herself. She knew she couldn't beat Sidious, and whatever she wanted to accomplish, she's done it, and she's satisfied. Death holds not fear for her.
It's likely that she even welcomes it.
That, at least, Anakin can understand. She has no one. No one cares for her. In her life, she's lost everyone she loves. As alone as she is, he can understand why she really has no more reason to live, beyond her need for vengeance on the Empire. If he lost Obi-Wan and the twins, he's almost certain he'd be the same way. Living for himself would hold no appeal. Living would hold no appeal.
Sometimes, even the loss of Padme is almost enough to make him wish he were dead.
Almost. He still has children who need him, and a friend to support him.
Still, he can sympathize.
"You thought I was done the first time," she manages to croak out as Anakin comes to stand over her. "Back when you and Kenobi found me on Boz Pity, you thought I was ready to die. I wasn't. I had more to do. But now—now I am ready."
"Why did you do it?"
The cocky smiles returns, though it's far weaker this time. "Ask Kenobi. He'll tell you."
"You're assuming I survive this?"
"You have to," she mutters, her eyes flickering closed. "I promised... I'd send you home. That's an order, Skywalker. Kill this son of a Hutt... and go home to... to the people who... love you."
He's seen death before. He held his mother when she died, but no matter how much he sees, he knows he'll never get used to it. Never. The way the body goes limp, the life passing out of it—it's eerie and disturbingly beautiful, all at the same time.
The sound of Sidious's footsteps behind him brings him back to the task at hand. "That, my apprentice, is where weakness will get you."
He's so wrong. Everything about that statement is wrong.
"Ventress was many things," he mutters, slowly pivoting around, his boots squeaking on the durasteel floor, "many of which I didn't like, but she was never weak. And I'd say she ripped your plan apart pretty well, didn't she? Could someone weak do that? Or are you just losing your touch?"
Ever so slightly, Sidious clenches his jaw. "Don't you see how weak the ones you love are, Lord Vader? Kenobi fled and left you."
He laughs. "Do better. You're not going to make me doubt Obi-Wan. There's nothing about him that's cowardly, and if he left, you can bet he had a damn good tactical reason for doing so."
"Perhaps."
The lightsaber feels comfortingly heavy in his hand. Hopefully, keeping up his training with Obi-Wan on Tatooine will pay off. "We've done this once before, Sidious, remember? You used my feelings for people against me. My wife? Remember her? You didn't deliver on your promise to save her, did you? So why do you think I'll listen to you again?" Pausing, he lets the lightsaber slip down until it's in the grip he learned when he was little more than a youngling. "You won't turn me, Sidious. So give it up."
Sidious pauses, sneering. "There is still much darkness in you, Lord Vader."
"And there always will be. But I'm strong enough to overcome it. I will not turn."
And finally, he sees the acceptance on Sidious's face. It's swept along by malice and hate, but the realization is there, fueling hatred as he's forced to admit that he's failed. The man he made Darth Vader is truly no more.
In his place, there is only Anakin Skywalker.
"If you will not turn, I will destroy you."
He clutches his lightsaber a little more tightly. Anticipation is coiling in his gut, mingling with the talent he knows he has. Once, he called that power; now, he recognizes that it is only what he uses it as. His natural abilities are only power if he thinks of them that way.
"You will try," he says quietly, remembering a very different situation where he used those words. Everything about Mustafar was wrong. He was entirely misguided, largely due in part to the man in front of him. On Mustafar, he fought the man who truly was his master. But this time... this time it's right. This man is not his master.
He's simply a monster.
"I will succeed!" he snarls, igniting his red blade.
Taking a deep breath, he raises his lightsaber. "Death would be better than the dark side. And I will never turn."
"Then you will die as Skywalker."
The first strike comes like a flash of red lightning, streaking down at him in a deadly arch. He catches Sidious's blade on his, pushing it aside, only to be met with another seconds later. Sidious's onslaught is fierce, but Anakin recognizes what he's doing—he's attempting to overwhelm and intimidate, but in his pride, Sidious has forgotten one thing.
Anakin Skywalker is not easily intimidated.
He is courageous to the point of being foolhardy.
He pushes the limits until he either succeeds or loses—nothing in between.
Anakin blacks every strike, disliking being on the defensive, but knowing that Sidious has had years to hone the technique he's using and that to attempt to beat him while he's in top form would be madness. No. He needs to wait. Sidious is an exceptional fighter, but even the best tire eventually.
Sidious aims a strike towards his legs, but he jumps it, countering with his own swing, which Sidious blocks high, thrusting aside. His style is largely aggressive, capitalizing on his power in the Force, but it's understated with finesse, and with a skill that Anakin has seldom—perhaps never—seen matched. Most likely, Sidious usually overpowers opponents in the early minutes of the duel, but in the case that he does not, he can catch them in his more subtle maneuvers as well. He's a superb, well-rounded fighter, who doesn't have many weaknesses.
Already, Anakin can tell that Sidious is not like Dooku. Dooku's fighting was more of a dance—it had a far more elegant quality to it. All his movements were precise, expending minimal energy. Sidious, though he's still controlled, fights with less obvious restraint—he's far more raw and harsh. He is, Anakin suspects, a master of all the styles, leaving him to pick and choose and ultimately merge his fighting into something all his own.
Dodging a quick thrust, Anakin ducks to the side, avoiding being backed into a corner. Quick on his feet, he slips a few feet to the right and attempts to cut down at Sidious's legs, but is stopped by a quick parry. Over and over their blades meet, catching on each other, forcing the other away, and always darting back in, looking for an opening. All it will take is one mistake. Only one.
Ducking back, Anakin takes a half second to settle himself. This isn't a battle he can win on pure, raw power. Sidious has more of that than he does. He has to find another advantage.
Taking a deep breath, he centers himself in the Force, and begins to think.
He has always fought more like Sidious: he tries to overwhelm opponents. His style is harsh and seeks to turn his opponents own attacks back on them. He defends and then immediately attacks, dominating the duel. He likes to control the momentum of the fight from start to finish.
But against Sidious, that may not be entirely possible. Maybe it doesn't need to be.
Sidious fights with the same momentum that Anakin himself utilizes. It follows that he'll have some of the same weaknesses.
Maybe, all he needs to do is figure out how others have beaten him.
He's been beaten enough times—especially when he was younger and only starting training—to know that he's not invincible. He'll never forget the time he sparred with Mace Windu back when he was still a padawan. Cin Drallig also comes to mind. Even Ferus Olin beat him once or twice, though he loathes admitting that.
Unfortunately, those incidents won't help him much. They are either too isolated or they aren't well-defined enough in his mind for him to remember them blow-by-blow. When he stops and thinks about it—though, he never actually stops moving—there are really only two people who might give him insight into how to beat someone like himself.
Obi-Wan is, naturally, one of them, simply because Anakin fought him so often. Day in and day out they sparred together—both in armed and weaponless combat—until they knew each other's strengths and weaknesses as well as they knew their own. He knows exactly how Obi-Wan was able to defeat him: when he won during their sparring matches, he beat Anakin by wearing him down. He took and took and took and then, in the space of a moment, turned Anakin's own mistakes—often times the only mistake he'd make in the entire duel—back around on him to win. He waited for Anakin to make a mistake first, and then he capitalized on it... and he was entirely too good at using Anakin's own weaknesses to maneuver him into situations where he'd make a mistake.
Mustafar was a perfect example. Luckily for Anakin, Obi-Wan couldn't bring himself to capitalize on the mistake he pressed Anakin into making.
Dooku beat him because he left himself open. He was a fraction of a second too slow, and Dooku used his efficient, sharp style to make him pay. Because he didn't make wide sweeps with his blade, he was able to take the smallest opening and make it a duel-ending opportunity. More importantly, he used Anakin's arrogance. Anakin was sure he could win—was sure he was better than he really was.
It's a certainty that Anakin is beginning to suspect Sidious shares.
Unfortunately, he really might be that good.
He won't focus on that. Talent or not, arrogance is still a flaw to be exploited. He would know. It's still not one of his better traits.
Slowly, Anakin backs up the stairs towards the chair where Sidious was previously sitting. He's got the high ground right now, but Sidious is being careful, working only to deflect his attacks—he's not counter-attacking at this level. Anakin isn't going to get anywhere with the way things are going, and he knows it.
Sidious knows how Anakin fights. He's watched him for years. He knows his style.
But what if he could... alter his style, just slightly?
Taking another deep breath, he stops backing up the stairs and instead holds his ground. Sidious won't be able to truly attack him in a position like this—he'll have to defend the attacks coming from the person in the higher position. But what if he, as odd as it sounds, pulls back, and makes Sidious attack him? That is, he leaves him the options of stopping the fight or attacking. Will it draw him out? Make him more vulnerable? Or will he fall back briefly to regroup?
He tries it. At first, he thinks it's going to work, but then Sidious looks and him and sneers, laughing cruelly. "You can't win, Skywalker." He seems almost gleeful as he uses the Force to carry himself back and to the side, then up onto even ground out of Anakin's reach.
Fine. He'll try something else. "The feeling is entirely mutual."
"You've been hiding for five years," he continues, coming forward at Anakin again. Their blades meet in a sharp set of blows, flashing high then low, a feint to the right, then a strike to the left, but always blocked, deflected at the very last moment. "You've been practicing against Kenobi. You think he could prepare you to fight me?"
"And who have you been practicing against?" he asks through clenched teeth, blocking another series of attacks. "The clones?"
Sidious doesn't answer—he only thrusts his blade forward. This one half-penetrates Anakin's defenses, burning through his tunic and into the skin of his side as he ducks. It's a small cut, and an even smaller escape—a few more inches, and that would have been his heart.
"Too slow," Sidious cackles.
It was close, but he won't be intimidated, even now. Instead, he smirks and, for the first time in a few minutes, goes on an offense of his own. "Too old."
Sidious takes every strike, knocking them harmlessly away. Anakin keeps coming, fast and heated, pushing him back, back, back...
...and then pulling back himself.
He fakes as though he's going for one final blow. Sidious's blade raises to meet it, expecting it to be another in the long line of vicious attacks that he's just delivered. But, instead of following through as expected, Anakin pulls back at the last minute, putting his blade entirely in his right hand, and pushing forward.
As intended, he catches Sidious in a saber lock in exactly the same fashion as Dooku did to Obi-Wan on Geonosis.
Only, unlike Obi-Wan, he lowers his blade a fraction of an inch, giving Sidious what looks like the opening Dooku—though it wasn't done is a saber-lock—gave him on the Invisible Hand. He is giving Sidious the opportunity to cut off his hand, just as he cut off both of Dooku's.
And Sidious, true to his over-confidence and arrogance, takes it, thinking it a mistake, because, in a duel, it would be folly for anyone to try what Anakin is about to.
He severs Anakin's hand at the wrist, just as Anakin, defying every order Obi-Wan ever gave him, drops his lightsaber...
...and catches it in his real hand as his mechanical one thumps to the ground, effectively severed.
As Sidious smiles in glee at what he thinks is a victory, Anakin uses his good hand to shove his lightsaber up into Sidious's heart.
A heart for a hand. Not a bad trade.
He shouldn't enjoy the way that Sidious's eyes go wide for a brief second, filled with the understanding of what has just happened before he crashes to the ground. He lies there for a moment, eyes on the ceiling as a froth of blood forms at his lips. Then, slowly, as Anakin watches, something vanishes—life vanishes. Like when a star burns out, there was immense power before, but now there is suddenly nothing. Where there was a star, there is now empty space; where there was life, there is now only an empty corpse. It will be a few moments before Sidious's eyes dull with the sickening sheen of death, but Anakin can almost see it already. As he continues to watch, Sidious's mouth flops open and his limbs give one quick twitch before going limp. He's dead. A lightsaber wound to the heart will do that—it's mercifully quick, and, as wrong as it is, Anakin wishes that he'd taken more time to make him suffer.
It's wrong, this desire for vengeance and pain. He knows it's not what a Jedi should be feeling, but at this point he very much doubts the Jedi want to claim him as their own anyway, so perhaps he shouldn't feel so guilty. Or, maybe he should. This joy in other's suffering—even if it is Sidious—is still wrong, Jedi or not.
It's a path to the dark side.
Gazing down at Sidious, he knows with absolute certainty that never again does he want to walk that path.
"I won't let you win," he says slowly to Sidious's corpse. "I am Anakin Skywalker—not Darth Vader. That will never change."
Sidious is spread out before him on the floor, arms at his sides and legs twisted in an odd angle that was brought on by falling. In his chest there's a gaping hole which has begun to ooze blood—not even a lightsaber can cauterize the heart, and while the heart has stopped pumping, that by no means prevents it from releasing the blood that was in it.
Frankly, Anakin is somewhat surprised Sidious even had a heart.
He's even more surprised that he managed to stab him and find out.
This victory, he realizes, as he turns away from Sidious and makes his way towards Ventress's body, is not entirely his own. The woman at his feet in front of him—she aided him. She brought him the lightsaber he used to kill Sidious; Dooku and Obi-Wan gave him the insight he needed to learn his own vulnerabilities, and thereby Sidious's; Padme, in dying, gave him the final push that he needed to turn from the dark; Luke, Leia, and Obi-Wan gave him the motivation to stay with the light; and so many others, in little ways, both good and bad, pushed him to this. Even in the physical fight, he was aided: he fought like—and lost like—others, keeping Sidious from expecting the tactics he employed.
"Thank you," he says quietly as he comes to stand over Ventress, because in this moment, he has no other words. There is nothing witty or sarcastic that he can say: all he can express is his true gratitude.
It's odd how, in the end, one of his greatest enemies ended up aiding him. Her actions were admirable, and though she was never his favorite person, he would like for her to have a proper funeral.
Unfortunately, he may not even be able to manage that.
Just as he's about to reach down to pick up her body, he hears the sounds of footsteps pounding down the corridor outside. The Force stirs around him, indicating that it's not an attack, but something else, something just as important.
With a quick flick of his wrist--the one that still has a hand--he summons Ventress's lightsaber from where it's still lying beside Sidious's body. Every part of him alert, he then makes his way towards the door.
The moment that he peaks outside into the cooridor, he realizes that something significant has happened.
People are running hurridly, up and down the cooridors, some shouting out destinations. Many of those directions are to battle stations. There's panic on a few of their faces, cold dermination on most of the others, and then the emtionless helmets of the clones. No one stops for him as he rushes out into the hallway, and that is the greatest indication of the level of chaos. They know who he is, but they simply to do not care.
"What's happened?" he demands, grabbing a clone at random and shoving him up against the wall with his remaining hand and the aid of the Force.
The man struggles for a moment, but, seeming to realize that Anakin has no intention of letting go, immediately reevaluates his plan, taking into account that the fastest way to be released is to answer the question. "The ship is being attacked. It's a large force--a rebel force, bigger than we realized."
Which, of course, means Anakin's on a targeted ship in the middle of an offensive.
He roughly shoves the clone aside, having gotten the information he needed. Now all he has to do is get to a hanger, because he has a sneaking suspicion that the rebellion doesn't have orders to wait until he clears the premises. They've got the plans Organa delivered, and they're putting them to use, regardless of Anakin's whereabouts. They'd probably even be satisfied if he was obliterated along with the Death Star and the emperor.
He needs to get off this ship. Now.
It bothers him that he won't be able to bring Ventress's body back for proper ceremony, but a body is only a body, and he'd like to think his life is a little more important. As he takes off running down the hallway, he spares a tiny, sarcastic inward laugh. Yoda probably wouldn't think so.
Yoda. He doesn't want to think about that hypocritical little green troll. Did he even have to confer with what's left of the high council before he launched an attack on a station with a Jedi still aboard? Probably not. More than likely, he was intending to use Anakin as a distraction--engage Sidious with the intention of keeping him too busy to notice the imminent attack on the Death Star. He has to wonder, did Obi-Wan know about this? Did he know they were going to attack with Anakin on board? Anakin somewhat doubts his former master was included in that discussion until much later, after it had already been decided. Even if he was included, he would like to think that Obi-Wan wouldn't have voted to blast his former padawan into oblivion.
No, he decides, racing around a corner. Obi-Wan wouldn't have gone along with it. If he had, then he'd have realized he'd be stuck raising two twins for the next fifteen or so years. It's an amusing thought.
Quickly, Anakin sobers. The idea of Obi-Wan trying to guide both Luke and Leia through their teenage years all alone might be funny, but everything else about this situation is not. He's on a ship that is very probably about to be destroyed. He needs to get off it.
His feet slap hard against the floor as he runs, whipping around corners as he hurriedly sorts through his memory in an effort to recall the way--or at least what seems close to it. Right, right, left, down, and then finally--finally--the hanger bay.
He's not picky about what he uses to get out of here. He grabs the nearest x-wing, simply because it's there. A few quick adjustments, and he fires up the engines. Already, the Force is stirring around him, warning him with a certainty that nothing else could give him.
If he's not off this battle station in the very immediate future, he'll never go anywhere again.
"Go, go, go," he mutters to himself, gunning the engine and shooting forward towards the doors, just as he feels the station rock under him. Something has been hit. "Come on--!" And, thankfully, the little fighter does: he shoots out of the station just as a breath of hot flame does the same. It singes his ship's sides, immolates the metal of the station just behind him, but he's out, and that's enough.
He's alive. He's alive.