Chapter 1 – Darth Vader / Anakin Skywalker
Darth Vader was rarely impressed. But he was today. Though whether with himself for seeing his project through or with the man who had made such impressive clones he was not entirely sure. He knew that he needed his privacy now though, for the final touches.
"Be gone now," he said, dismissing the man who had worked for him and lived in his home for the better part of a decade. The man only gaped for a moment before grabbing his final credits and walking away, not even bothering to collect his things from his room.
Vader waited until he heard the cloner's ship depart before walking toward the stasis chamber. He ran his finger over the glass and marveled that the two clones inside were perfect. Anakin Skywalker and Padme Naberrie both young and whole. And together. But still empty vessels waiting for him to complete them. He wondered again if it would truly work. He had tried in vain to draw the essence of Padme to him through the force. Sith can't love. Jedi don't form attachments. His only hope was that when he left Vader's body he could renounce the Sith within him, and any Jedi that remained. That he could love freely as his new whole self, and in doing so he could draw her back to this vessel.
It was a foolish hope of a foolish shell of a man and yet one he would not rationalize himself away from.
He slowly unhooked his light saber from his belt and held it out in front of himself. He pressed the hilt to his chest, knowing that all he had to do now was activate it. He supposed he could just turn off his life support, it would be less violent. But he liked the idea of Palpatine fretting about a rogue Jedi strong enough to kill him in hand to hand combat with a lightsaber in his own home. So he activated the saber and took his final breathes as Darth Vader.
The pain of the light saber cutting through his heart was nothing. The rush of emotions that overtook him as his essence flew into Anakin was something else entirely. Memories long left untouched and unexamined flew to the forefront of his mind. He had to relive each one of them without the taint of the dark side that had encompassed Vader's body. His own wilful blindness and atrocities were clearly revealed to himself as such, and as the light of the force burned away his demons it felt like his very soul was burning too.
The glass of the stasis chamber flew apart at his emotions, and the fluid leaked out around him slowly. He dropped to his knees begging for mercy from the force but it didn't come. It was too much and he desperately tried to draw the force inside himself, to master it again. He tried in vain to push it away, both the dark and the light, to rid himself of the force entirely. Then he finally gave up and surrendered himself completely.
Peace surrounded him for a brief moment. Until he finally opened his eyes again and his gaze landed on her. Padme's body lying prone on the ground of Mustafar.
No. No. No.
But then he remembered this wasn't a memory. The remorse he felt was for something already done and the body he saw now was just an empty clone. A vessel he was supposed to be drawing her essence into. But what right did he have to do so? To bring her back to this hell of a planet? To make her live his nightmare? To share a pain that was his own. Never hers. Death was not torture, it was a relief, like his total surrender to the force.
"I don't want this for her. She deserves peace," he yelled to the ceiling before it came crumpling down. The walls of his castle fell around him as his mind surrendered to sweet oblivion.
"Who are you?" the voice commanded.
He opened his eyes slowly as the voice pulled him back to consciousness. But he quickly blinked them shut again to block the red glow of his lightsaber now burning into his retina. Lying on the ground with his eyes closed, and a light saber at his throat he braced for her to finish him off. But instead of striking him down she seemed to be waiting for his answer.
It was a question he truly did not know the answer too.
"Am I alive?" he asked instead.
"I think so," she replied, withdrawing his saber from his neck. As the red glow faded he cautiously opened his eyes. He could not help staring at her. It was Padme's clone. And clearly alive. But her clone was not supposed to be sentient. It was meant to be….
"Who are you?" he demanded, jumping up off the floor to face her. While he studied her carefully she seemed to be doing the same to him. His heart lurched in his chest when he noticed the tear tracks running down her perfect face.
"I don't know," she responded finally, taking a cautious step back from him.
He looked away, her pain and grief threatening to tear him apart. Instead he studied the rubble of his castle scattered around them. There was nothing left of it, though they remained unharmed. His eyes finally landing on his corpse, Vader's corpse. Untouched as well. Other than the saber mark through his chest…. And the helmet that had been pried off his head.
"Did you kill him?" she asked, drawing his attention back to her as she held the saber out protectively in front of herself again. She kept it between them as she walked in front of him to take a step closer to the corpse.
Anakin took a deep breathe.
"What do you remember?" he asked tentatively. But she didn't answer his question, only looked from him to Vader carefully.
"Did you kill him?" she repeated more forcibly, anger flooding her features for a moment. She looked like an avenging angel for a moment, and it confused him.
"Yes," he replied without thinking.
"Why?" she asked, the anger in her tone seeming to suddenly give way to sad acceptance.
He watched in fascination as she made the rest of the way over to his corpse and sat down beside it. Anakin felt stunned as she ran her fingers across his dead face, softly closing his eyes before letting out a guttural sob.
"He doesn't deserve your tears, he's a monster," Anakin snapped in response, guilt flaring at him when he saw her flinch at his words. Guilt was his predominant feeling, would be for some time. And yet there was something else there too, a thin ethereal hope that flared within him at her actions.
"You don't get to judge him," she replied, taking her eyes off Vader to study him with those sad haunting eyes. "You're just a copy," she whispered.
Anakin's eyes widened.
"Oh Ani, who did this to you?" she whispered to Vader's corpse.
Anakin pondered her words in shock. Who did this to him? His traumatic childhood? Obi-Wan? The clone wars? The Jedi Counsel? Palpatine?
"He did it to himself," he finally answered.
End Chapter 1