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Chapter 36
Obi-Wan couldn't remember the last time he'd felt like vomiting. Cold and flu season always passed over him without incident. Food poisoning hadn't struck him since his adolescent years. So when his stomach convulsed in Sidious' lair, with Padmé minutes from giving birth and Anakin's blue eyes showing tinges of yellow, he was paralyzed.
Not that he wouldn't have been anyway. It was hard to move when your bones felt like they'd all evaporated.
"The negotiator is at a loss for words, for once!" Sidious cackled.
To say Obi-Wan was outnumbered, outwitted and outplayed was the biggest understatement of the millennium. He deactivated his lightsaber; it was pointless to wield it any longer. Had Anakin not sold his soul, the two of them might – might – have stood a chance of taking Sidious. It'd have taken all their will and then some, but it could have worked.
Not now. Not with this cataclysmic defection. Instead of two blue-green blades against one red, it was only Obi-Wan, unarmed except for the simplest of weapons: his words. Which, as Sidious just pointed out, he was running short on as well.
"A prudent choice, lowering your weapon," the Sith commended. "You always were a prudent one, Kenobi. Which is why you'll not interfere with us here today."
"Just because I know my physical limits doesn't mean I've given up."
"Oh? Lay one hand on the senator and I'll scorch your sorry carcass to a crisp. Or have you been untouched by Sith lightning so long that you've forgotten?"
"I've forgotten nothing," Obi-Wan recharged his courage. "Just as I haven't forgotten the valiant, honorable Jedi you were, Anakin! This can't be what you want!"
Anakin's lightsaber was still held at an aggressive angle. "As if you ever knew or cared what I truly want!"
"Justice, peace, and harmony… you sought these alongside the rest of us! For thirteen years, Anakin!"
"I sought them under false pretenses, under your hypocritical guidance!"
"Hypocritical? What on earth do you mean by that?"
"Don't play innocent, master. Your idea of justice is selling secrets to the highest bidder. Peace is having me out of the way while you steal the spotlight for winning the war. And harmony means criminalizing love and family!"
Obi-Wan didn't even know where to start. "You've lost me completely! What was that about selling secrets?"
"Spare me!" Anakin spat. "All Padmé asked was for you to keep your mouth shut, and you couldn't even do that! Where does your spite end? Oh, I know – with selling our hidden location on Naboo! That's probably where I'd stop too."
"Anakin, I did nothing of the sort! The only thing that's been sold is your soul!"
"Liar!" Anakin's face was almost as flushed as Padmé's at this point.
"Who told you that?"
"It doesn't matter. Remember what you said the day you learned of me and Padmé? 'The walls around your secret life have just crumbled, and the first thing you ask is how it happened? All that bothers you is how a damn fool like me could have possibly uncovered the truth.' How the tables have turned!"
He would remember my advice, word-for-word, at a time like this! "Pay attention to those last two words: the truth. What you've accused me of contains none of it! Including the belief that I exiled you just to have the war victory all to myself! Honestly Anakin, where is this coming from?"
The quickest, most fleeting glance between Anakin and Sidious was all Obi-Wan needed for an answer. Of course. Who else could it have been?
The next question was how long he'd been feeding Anakin lies of this nature. But Obi-Wan already knew that answer too: Too long. Perhaps longer than what could be undone by logic.
"What has he offered you?" Obi-Wan dropped his voice as if in defeat.
Palpatine grinned anew. "Massive, incomparable power. A dynasty that will rule until the end of time."
Obi-Wan nodded. "Power founded on fear and brutality, no doubt."
"It's more than you'd have ever offered me!" Anakin shot back, disliking the other's calm composure.
"That's where you couldn't be more wrong, Anakin. Until you pulled this stunt, I was actually leaning toward reinstating you. Possibly even promoting you to Master!" the Jedi exclaimed. "How sad you never questioned his lies! Not once did you think to verify his assertions! Now look where it's left you – used and deceived, with nothing but the same on the horizon!"
Mentally stumbling on the Master comment, Anakin blinked himself back to his senses. "I feel no more used or deceived than during my Jedi years."
But no less, either? Obi-Wan mused with renewed hope. "Let's compare your choices then, if it's all the same. Even if I am a liar, and I never intended to promote you, all you've lost is pride. The Jedi won't put a bounty on your head or hunt down your family. You may be disgraced, but you'll be safe – and you'll owe nothing to anyone."
Anakin's glare didn't lift, but neither did he make a retort. His lightsaber remained raised, though with a fraction less animosity.
"Then there's the Dark Side. Your soul, and that of your entire family, belongs to Palpatine now. Those are his unspoken terms of contract. And should you ever breach that contract, I promise you won't want to pay the fines."
"There is no danger of breaching," Anakin avowed.
"You speak for yourself. Can you speak for Padmé and the twins with equal certainty?"
Anakin stiffened. "I'll only warn you once, Obi-Wan – don't meddle in what isn't your business!"
"Meddle? I'm merely asking a basic question that, quite honestly, you should have already asked yourself."
"I don't need to! Our fate is sealed, and it will be glorious!"
"For some of you, maybe. But what if one of them grows to hold different ideals? What if they don't appreciate the glorious dynasty you chose for them? What then?"
Something clouded Anakin's face for a split second. The yellow in his eyes receded ever so slightly. "I… I'll make them appreciate it!"
"What if you can't?" Obi-Wan pressed, stepping toward his old apprentice slowly. "If your children are half as strong-willed as you, Anakin, they won't be forced into anything." He stopped just four feet away from the lightsaber that had dropped several inches in the past minute. "And if they can't be forced, there will be consequences. So I ask you again, are you willing to pay that fine?"
Anakin winced and pinched his eyes shut. Something unpleasant was happening to the vision he'd seen earlier. The throne room looked the same, but instead of Darth Ferno and Lady Isis lounging in comfortable arrogance, the former was standing in defiance to Sidious himself – who was seated next to Anakin's consternated future self.
He couldn't hear any of them speaking, but he didn't have to. The air was thick with tension and the reason was obvious. Ferno was declaring his independence. He wanted to extricate himself from the dynasty. His moral conscience compelled him to do so.
Sidious bared his teeth in response. "Let it be as you have chosen, Jedi," Anakin read the emperor's lips – and then watched him turn to his future self, communicating more with one look than a thousand words could have.
The son's disobedience was the father's to discipline.
It made sense. He who raised the boy was responsible for failing to indoctrinate him.
And so it was he, not Sidious, who flung Sith lightning at Ferno without a moment's hesitation.
The scream Anakin tried to release was trapped in his throat. There was no closing his eyes or averting his gaze from this torturous scene. His soul burned as if the lightning had also struck it, but the only visible victim was Ferno, whose pain and misery defied description. The boy's suffering flooded the chamber in which Anakin was emotionally drowning.
He was shaking by the time Ferno's form went limp, gray wisps of toxic smoke unfurling from his corpse. Anakin couldn't even look at his future self. Sidious was grinning with unmatched, unprecedented pleasure.
Please, let it be over…
In stepped Lady Isis in a final guest appearance. Hair bound so tightly she looked almost droid-like, she paused just inside the door and mutely assessed the room. Glancing first at Ferno's body, then Sidious and lastly future Anakin, she cocked her head as if bemused.
"One less to argue with now, I suppose."
The echo of her words sent chills though his bone marrow as everything faded. Just as he had two weeks ago in that twilit apartment at Padmé's side, he fell to his knees. He could barely breathe. His spirit felt ravaged to the point of madness.
Slowly, agonizingly, he planted the sole of one boot on the ground and raised his shaking frame. All traces of yellow had vanished from his eyes. Breath returned to his lungs, as did mental clarity.
Those two vacant thrones were never for him and Padmé. They were for him and Sidious.
Which explained why Ferno and Isis were his only offspring.
FORCE.
Obi-Wan was right. Palpatine had done nothing but use, manipulate, and deceive him from the beginning. Those were the family values he'd have imparted on his soulless children. Children who'd have grown up motherless. Loveless. Morally and spiritually bankrupt.
"You – you KNEW that was Tetromethide!" he roared at full volume, swinging his blade toward Palpatine as the Sith ignited his red one.
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And so, just as in ROTJ, Luke's suffering was the deal-breaker. Anakin could embrace tyranny and an "ends justify the means" mentality only until it crossed the line. That's what it took him to snap him out of it.
It was too easy and tempting to include Anakin's "Liar!" line, so I did.
And notice I never refer to Anakin as Darth Vader. Only Palpatine does. That's to indicate he was never truly, fully converted to the Dark Side at any point.
Now for the finale...