Before everyone starts getting confused, Kya summoned the Anakin from the universe she got dumped into – the nine-year-old Anakin that I mentioned would be coming back to play a big part. And here's the big part.

Also, I'm getting tired to typing in "Drakale/Sidious" every time, so now he'll simply be Drakale. If there are any questions, Drakale possessed Sidious, imposing his spirit upon Sidious's.


Chapter Fifty-Two

~ Kya Ranor ~
Anakin Skywalker stood in front of me. Silver light made his outline glimmer faintly, the same way the dark energy made the outline of Drakale fuzzy. He looked so young that he looked out of place.

And in a way, he kind of was. The confrontation between Sidious and Anakin wasn't supposed to take place until Anakin was in mid-forties – but now circumstances would have it be that the confrontation was taking place now – when Anakin was merely nine years old.

"Hello, Anakin," I said wearily, standing. The energy needed to summon someone had taken a lot more out of me than I'd expected.

"Kya?" Anakin asked nervously. "What's going on?"

I heard a snap of fingers from Drakale, and the shadows rushed forward to cloud over the images of my lover and my Master, shielding them from Anakin's view.

Anakin whirled around, alarmed, as Drakale stepped into the light.

I crossed my arms sourly. "Stay out of this, Drakale."

"No. Now that you've brought the boy here, I might as well address his . . . options," Drakale said, his voice turning smooth and oily and persuasive.

"What options? Who are you? What are you talking about?" Anakin demanded, the questions flowing from his mouth like water flows down a stream.

"Patience, my apprentice, patience," Drakale crooned, holding up a hand.

"You're not my Master!" Anakin fired back. "Don't 'patience' me! Tell me the truth!"

Inwardly, I smiled. So, Anakin's natural tendency towards rebelling against orders finally found its use. I was also glad at Anakin's instant defense of Qui-Gon; that too was a good sign.

Drakale glared at me. Obviously, he had sensed my amusement.

But he covered the glare instantly. "I call you that because when you see what I have to offer, I am willing to extend the offer for you to become my apprentice," he said smoothly.

Anakin snorted. "I already have a Master. And a good one. One of the best in the Jedi Order. Why do I want some old creep like you?"

Drakale's eyes flashed in anger, and Anakin cringed as Drakale allowed the dark Sith yellow to taint his blue-grey eyes. Then, fast as lightning, Drakale reached out and shoved in the Force, creating a powerful shock wave that threatened to knock Anakin head over heels.

I couldn't allow that.

I waved my own hand, and the shock wave of shadows slammed into a wall of silver mist and stopped short. As soon as it made contact, the shadows hissed and retreated away while the silver mist coiled protectively around the boy.

"Don't even think of it, Drakale," I warned, taking a step in his direction. "You know the mandate of the Walkers. And you know that I will follow it."

Drakale growled something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like a curse. "You were always a meddlesome Jedi," he spat finally.

"Yes," I agreed calmly. "And now I am a meddlesome Walker. I see little difference; my mandate is unchanged."

Anakin started, and the movement caused Drakale to focus on the boy once more. I folded my hands into the sleeves of my robes calmly. This was Anakin's choice to make right now. While I would protect him and possibly even plead with him should Drakale resort to trickery, I would not participate otherwise.

I was not the hero, after all.

"I am offering you the chance of a lifetime," Drakale was saying to Anakin. "The chance to do all you've wanted and more. You can free your mother. You can save her from a horrible death that awaits her."

A trace of longing entered Anakin's face, and I knew he was thinking about his mother. And then horror struck when Drakale's words rang home.

"Death? She's going to die?" Anakin whirled to me. "You knew this? Why can't you save her?"

I shook my head sadly. "She is not mine to save, Anakin. She is your mother."

"I'm not strong enough. Please, Kya!" Anakin begged.

"She won't do it," Drakale hissed. "No Jedi would. They would only hide behind their precious Jedi Code, forbidding love, forbidding attachment. She will only tell you to let go, that all things die."

"Save her!" Anakin pleaded.

I didn't answer. I wouldn't, even though I wished with all my heart that I could. But the Force was coiling around me, sealing my throat and blocking the words that rose, words of comfort and wisdom. Words that would tell Anakin everything he needed to know.

Words that would make him understand that in the end, he was the only person who could save his mother.

Anakin's face darkened at my silence. He turned away coldly. "Perhaps . . . Perhaps you're right," he said to Drakale.

I could only stare incredulously. How did he convince Anakin that fast?

~ Anakin Skywalker ~
The Force tugged at me, speaking of power unknown. Power I had carried with me all of my life. Power I had only begun to taste under the training of Qui-Gon Jinn. Power that I knew, with training and experience, would one day be all mine.

But now here was the opportunity to take it all, to utilize everything.

To make things right.

"Anakin, please, listen to – " Kya began pleadingly, stepping towards me with one hand reaching for me.

I whirled on her and sent her flying back with a powerful Force shove. "You won't save my mother, even though I begged! I pleaded! Now I will save her."

Kya gasped in pain as she crumpled to the ground. Blood began to trickle from a wound I couldn't see. "I can't save her," she said breathlessly, her breaths coming in uneven pants now. "I can't."

I growled.

"Use your anger!" Drakale said encouragingly. "Kill the liar!"

Kya's eyes flashed, and suddenly she seemed taller than both of us, filled with a greatness that surpassed even my own. "I do not speak lies, traitor," she said, her every words ringing in my ears with power. "No true Walker ever lies."

"But you do not tell the truth either!" Drakale shot back.

"He already knows the truth!" Kya turned to me, her eyes pleading with me. "You have but to look inside of yourself, Anakin, and you will understand!"

"You can become the most powerful Jedi in existence. You can marry Padmé. You can rule the galaxy," Drakale said encouragingly to me. "Don't listen to her."

"Anakin, just think! Use the Force! Look inside of yourself!"

I reached out to the Force and let it fill me. My perceptions blurred momentarily . . . and then they cleared. The world became a beautiful crystal, glowing scene, glittering with the Force that swirling around me, through me, in me.

All I had to do was reach out and use it.

In Drakale I sensed his true purpose – to use me, and then dispose of me. In Kya . . . Kya too had an ulterior motive. But I couldn't sense it. It was full of emotion, full of power – it was something that drove her . . . and it did not seem like the guidance and motivation came from the Force.

"Liar!" In a blur of movement that I didn't even recognize, my hand came up and closed into a fist. "You're with him! You brought him here to kill me!"

The Force responded instantly, and the silver mist swirling around Kya hissed and vanished as shadows settled around her throat. She gasped and choked, her hands flying upwards – but she was injured, tired, and under pressure. She may have had greater training and more power, but right now it was all useless.

I whirled on Drakale and sent him flying back too, to crash into the walls nearby. My training lightsaber – the same one that Qui-Gon had given me – appeared in my hand as shadows closed over Drakale, pining and binding him in place.

I stood over my enemy and activated the blade.

I could kill him.

I could end his life.

I could bring an end to the evil that he was.

All I had to do was bring my blade down and burn a hole right through his heart.

"Stop!" he wheezed.

He snapped his fingers, and a shimmering image of my mother appeared. She was tied to some sort of structure . . . and she was dying. Blood – old and new – was all over her. Her eyes were swollen, her back covered in injuries.

"Mom!" Against my will, I hesitated. She was so close . . . and she needed me. . .

"I can save her," Drakale panted. "I can show you how to save her from this. I can give you everything you want."

I paused.

And then there was a thunderbolt through the room. A powerful tidal wave swept through the room, roaring past my barriers like a desert storm punches holes in people stupid enough to wander during one. The Force sang with power, a power that was an ancient as it was unnatural.

The power jolted me from my trance, and the shimmering hologram paled as Drakale's control wavered and showed its true nature as a fake.

I ignited my blade again. "You're the liar." I raised the blade high, ready to plunge it into him. "And now you will die."

And then the Force screamed, and another wave swept through the room, a thousand – no, a million times stronger than the last.

Kya's voice spoke in my mind, strong, unyielding, powerful – and full of compassion.

No, Anakin. Killing someone in hate will only make you as bad as them.

"He deserves it!" I tried to protest.

Who are we to say who deserves and who does not deserve what fate and the Force has in store?

The words rang true, touching an ancient wisdom that rose in my body from a place I hadn't even known existed.

I turned off my blade.

"I will never join the dark side. I am a Jedi." I took a step back. "You've failed, Lord Drakale."

I expected him to start screaming. I expected him to summon up more images of the ones I loved to try and bargain with me. At the very least, I expected him to lash out at me with lightning and the Force.

He did none of these things.

He started screaming, writhing on the ground as if he were the one being electrocuted. Darkness bubbled around him as light began to shine – brilliant, powerful, good light that outshone even the darkest shadows in the room.

Finally, with one last scream, one last bubbling of darkness, one last blast of light – and Drakale was gone.