What If... Anakin Skywalker Never Turned to the Dark Side?
"Chapter 1"
Time seemed to stand still for Anakin Skywalker. Sitting in the Jedi Council chamber, the troubled Jedi Knight held his head in his hands as he contemplated the happenings he had pushed into action. Anakin had just informed Mace Windu of the revelation that Chancellor Palpatine was, in fact, the Sith Lord Darth Sidious who had orchestrated the entire Clone War.
Anakin stood and strode to the window of the Council chamber, gazing out to the Chancellor's office. He could see the lone LAAT gunship zooming towards the landing pad, kicking up dust as it hovered over the zoned area. Anakin sucked in a sharp breath as he turned his gaze to another building connected to the Senate, but in a much more personal capacity.
Senator Padme Amidala's apartment.
Anakin felt a tear run down his eye as he considered the options placed before him. Master Windu had ordered him not to join him in Palpatine's arrest, that he was too conflicted. But Anakin just had a feeling that something was going to go terribly, terribly wrong.
Things had begun to be so much clearer now. The entire inhibitor chip crisis discovered by ARC trooper Fives, who told Anakin and his clone captain, Rex, that all clones had been outfitted with chips that could control the entire army to follow certain orders. It had seemed incomprehensible then, but now—things were so clear.
But there was one glaring problem. Padme.
Secretly, Anakin and Padme had wedded, an act forbidden by the Jedi Code. Palpatine knew of Anakin's secret, and told the young Jedi that only he could save Padme when she gave birth to her twins, an act that would happen soon. This complicated things—if only Palpatine could save Padme, how could Anakin stop him? Wouldn't he essentially be killing Padme?
No. Anakin could not let that happen. He had sworn an oath to serve the Jedi and the Republic, and Palpatine had compromised that trust, their personal friendship. Anakin fought back the tears, but they had already broke through and began to drip down his face.
What could he do? If he arrested Palpatine, he would essentially be signing his wife's death warrant. But he couldn't knowingly help a Sith Lord and betray the Jedi.
Then, he felt it. More like heard it. A familiar, soft voice that said, Go, Ani. Help them. Anakin glanced up, through the tears, to Padme's apartment. The words had to have come from—no. How could they? That was impossible . . . unless.
It was no matter. Anakin had made up his mind. Turning with a whirl, Anakin's cloak flowed behind him as he strode out the Council chamber, his mission imprinted on his mind.
Mace Windu ducked to block the strike directed at his head from the man before him. His arrival at Chancellor Palpatine's office was met with a response he wasn't quite expecting. No, he didn't imagine Palpatine would give himself up for arrest, especially if Anakin Skywalker's revelation that he was a Sith Lord was true, but he wasn't expecting the howl to escape the peaceable-looking man who sat in power in the Republic, and then for him to leap across the office, red lightsaber flaring.
Agen Kolar and Saesee Tiin didn't even know what had hit them before they were run through by Palpatine's red blade, and Kit Fisto fared only a little better, parrying a few attacks before he too was killed. Now, Mace was left to fight the Sith Lord alone. The fate of the galaxy depended upon him.
Palpatine whirled, twirling his lightsaber to clash with Mace's amethyst blade in a flash of sparks. The two weapons locked as Mace shoved away, swinging his lightsaber to keep Palpatine at bay. The Sith Lord held his weapon up, aiming it at Mace's chin. The stoic Jedi Master returned the gesture as the two circled before Mace continued to hammer away with his lightsaber. Palpatine blocked the attacks easily, but he was still driven back. Mace thought he had the upper hand until a wicked smile crept across Palpatine's face.
What in blazes? Mace thought to himself until he felt it, too.
Skywalker.
Mace took quick opportunity of Palpatine's apparent distraction and swung his lightsaber, shattering the glass window overlooking the Coruscant skyscape. He continued to beat away before he was able to knock Palpatine's red lightsaber free from his hand and send it flying into the roaring city below.
Palpatine collapsed and twisted this way and that, until he sat with his back against the frame of the window, shards of glass pricking at his skin. The doors to Palpatine's office whisked open as footsteps sounded. Mace glanced over and saw Anakin Skywalker striding into the office. The younger Jedi looked with horror at the three bodies of the dead Jedi Masters on the velvet flooring of the office. He looked up to the scene at the window, his eyes glossy and flooded with confusion.
"You are under arrest, my lord," Mace spoke, holding up a hand to stop Anakin from drawing too close.
"Anakin," Palpatine began, his voice husky, out of breath, "I told you it would come to this. I was right. The Jedi are taking over!" He glanced to Anakin, his eyes pleading. Mace's eyes narrowed. He's trying to convert Skywalker . . . to the dark side.
"The oppression of the Sith will never return." Mace issued the sentence as a statement of defeat to the beaten Chancellor. "You have lost."
"No," Palpatine began, his hands beginning to stiffen as his fingers curled. Dark power began to fill the air as Mace held his saber at the ready. "No, no, you will die!" Blue lightning crackled from Palpatine's fingertips, spraying at Mace. Before the bolts could damage the Jedi Master, he spun back and held up his lightsaber, the purple blade absorbing the lightning and deflecting it back at the Sith Lord.
"He is a traitor!" Palpatine barked, the lightning wrecking his face as the blue bolts wisped between his fingers and the lightsaber.
"He is the traitor!" Mace yelled even louder over the lightning's cracklings, gripping his lightsaber tightly as he fought back the Sith Lord's power.
"I have the power to save the one you love," Palpatine continued, his voice breaking under the strain of the Sith lightning. "You must choose!" Mace glanced over and saw Anakin's face, in pain and anguish. The one you love, Mace thought to himself before it dawned on him. Padme.
"Don't listen to him Anakin," Mace replied, forcing the lightning back. Palpatine's face had begun to morph, until he looked undead. He looked like a nightmare. Anakin glanced from one to the other, as he contemplated.
"Don't let him kill me," Palpatine offered up, his head bobbling as the lightning began to wear down. Anakin shielded his face from the stray blasts of lightning and from having to look at Palpatine's horrid, ugly, disfigured face. "I can't hold it any longer. I can't, I-I'm too weak!" Finally, the lightning stopped. "Anakin, help me, help me!" He let his hands drop, and he fell back, his wilted, zombie-like face appearing dead. Mace kept his saber trained on the Sith Lord. "I can't hold on . . . any longer."
"I am going to end this, once and for all." Mace's words carried the weight of a man who meant what he said.
Palpatine waited, and he opened his eyes to look at the young Jedi. "Please, Anakin, don't let him kill me! It's not the Jedi way."
Anakin looked from man to man, and Mace glanced to him. "Listen to me, Anakin; you were right. He is a Sith Lord, and he is evil. If he lives, he will have control over the entire Republic, the Senate, everything." He looked back to the crumpled form of the wounded Sith Lord. "He is too dangerous to be left alive."
Anakin stood in silence, and Palpatine began to speak. "Remember, Anakin, only I can save Padme. The Jedi will not help her; they are against your union. Against your family. They will take it all away from you, son."
Anakin felt the tears come again, but he remembered Padme's voice, from the Temple. Help them. Finally, he pushed aside the tears. He knew what he had to do. "I can't. Master Windu is right." He inhaled sharply. "You're a Sith Lord. You've started this whole war."
Palpatine's face began to twist in anger. Anakin continued: "You are the cause of all the Jedi that have been killed." He gestured to the crumpled corpses of Fisto, Kolar, and Tiin in the office. "You have proven yourself unfit to rule the Republic. You are a Sith Lord," he repeated, and he lowered his hand. "What should we do, Master Windu?"
Mace held his lightsaber pointed at the Sith Lord. "He cannot live; he has proven that he will do what it takes to stay in power. But we cannot kill him in cold blood." Sneering, the Jedi Master ordered, "On your feet, Chancellor." Slowly, steadily, Palpatine climbed to his feet and kept his evil face focused upon the two Jedi.
"You cannot stop me. The dark side will never fall to the Jedi's weak, foolish ideals." Then, Mace saw from the corner of his eye, a statue in the office shift and a golden hilt of another lightsaber spun through the air, landing coolly in Palpatine's outstretched palm. The Sith Lord smirked as he held out his right hand, and, somehow, he recalled the lightsaber he had lost back into his hand.
Mace stepped back, his lightsaber held at the ready. Anakin backed away, and the snap-hiss of his lightsaber powering up sounded as he readied his own blue blade. "Easy, Anakin. Easy," Mace cautioned the young Jedi as they both eyed the Sith Lord with wariness.
Palpatine ignited both of his lightsabers, and the red blades speared into the open air. "You cannot stop my Empire from rising from the ashes of this foolish Republic. It has been connected with the Jedi for far too long." Darkness shrouded the yellow eyes of the deformed Sith Lord. "Once I have killed you both, I will trigger the end of this war, and the Jedi Order as a whole. Then, there will be no one left to stop me from founding the Galactic Empire."
"You haven't counted on one thing," Anakin said. "You have to defeat us first."
"It would be a pleasure," Palpatine muttered, his wicked grin growing all the more larger.
The Sith Lord spun ahead, directing his attacks on Mace, being the weaker of the opponents, having drained himself in battle. The moment Palpatine struck, Mace realized that the Sith Lord hadn't been attacking with his full might earlier. He was even more powerful, somehow, and as he spun the dual lightsabers, Mace ducked to avoid the swings, parrying blow after blow until Anakin charged into the fray.
Anakin and Palpatine exchanged blows, with Anakin gripping his lightsaber with enough play so that his movements weren't slow and robotic, while they were still tactical and powerful. The Sith Lord pulled back, eyeing both Jedi, warily, as he held both lightsabers at the ready. "You are both worthy adversaries," the fallen Chancellor murmured, his evil eyes searching both of the men. "Perhaps too worthy for even me to best." Before either Jedi could make a move, Palpatine extinguished both lightsabers and flipped backwards, through the shattered window.
The two Jedi exchanged a glance before rushing to the edge, looking into the skyscape. A speeder was flying away, piloted by a shrouded figure. But they could see Palpatine, and they knew the whole thing had been an orchestrated ploy.
Mace slowly turned his gaze to Anakin. "So . . . you and Senator Amidala are married?" he asked slowly, taking in the events that had transpired.
Anakin bit his lip, nodding. "Yes, Master Windu. Since the Battle of Geonosis."
Mace continued to stare, mentally berating himself for not realizing sooner that the two were a couple, and for not realizing that the leader of the Republic was a Sith Lord. How could Palpatine have fooled them all?!
"The Chancellor . . . er, Palpatine, must've wanted me to join him as an apprentice of sorts," Anakin mused. "I felt a pull to come to his aid, but I knew I couldn't. He is evil, and he has to be stopped."
Windu nodded, clipping his lightsaber to his belt. "We must find out his plans and call for a plan of action. We'll have to speak to the Senate and convene, find out a way to halt his advances before he takes over." As they walked to the doorway, Anakin froze and his mouth fell agape. "Skywalker?" Mace asked, stopping and turning to the younger Jedi. "What is it?"
"It's all beginning to make sense now," Anakin said absentmindedly. "The chips . . . all of it."
"What are you talking about?"
Anakin held up a hand. "A few months ago, one of my clone troopers told me and Rex something about inhibitor chips planted in the mind of each and every clone trooper, that they could trigger a chain reaction through the army and force all of the soldiers to obey the commands issued by one leader." He and Mace made eye contact. "I think Palpatine is that leader."
Mace's eyes widened at the thought. "Then that means . . . he could control the entire clone army to follow through on his every whim. If the whole army was to wage war against the Jedi, it'd be a massacre."
Mace started to jog towards the door. "Get to Padme and find some way to speak to the Senate; do whatever it takes! I'll try and contact as many Jedi as I can, see if we can help stop this crisis before it begins." Anakin nodded and ran for his speeder, hoping that he and Padme might be able to stop Darth Sidious before his plan could gain any traction.