Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars.
There Is No Death
Anakin Skywalker had lived through many things in his life, enough for one hundred lifetimes of a common man.
He had started his life as a slave on a desert planet, mistreated daily by his masters, yet was loved by an adoring mother.
Somehow, through the will of the Force, he had been given the opportunity to travel the Galaxy and see the stars. He saw so many of them; not all like he had wished. But so, so many.
He had seen worlds in every color, he had seen sunrises and sunsets so different and yet so similar. He had seen moons of all sizes rising up through the night sky from the far away horizons.
He had been in places where one sun rose after the other set, places that had no night.
Anakin saw places where there was no day, because the sun had been constantly covered by a moon in a never-ending eclipse.
He became a Jedi Knight. He had helped so many people. He had saved children from dying, he had trained villages of farmers to stand up for themselves, he had freed slaves, he had stopped wars from happening and saved entire planets from certain doom.
He became a husband. He had made love to his beautiful wife, he had caressed her cheek and kissed her temples, he held her as she cried and laughed when she laughed, he had created life with her.
His life had been so incredible and so overwhelmingly significant, that the fear of losing all that he had accomplished had slowly crept in and taken a hold of all of him; and only now he realized that he had everything he ever wanted.
All of Anakin Skywalker's dreams had come true. He saw the Galaxy, he became a Jedi, he had a family who loved him.
How many people in the Galaxy could say that all their dreams came true? Possibly only a handful among all its immensity. And he had been one of them, one of the lucky few who had seen his life before him shape according to his every whim.
Then, a little manipulation nudged his fear. Anakin was Anakin no more. He became a Sith and he destroyed it all. In his want for more, in his fear of loss he had shattered his dreams and his accomplishments.
He allowed the Dark Side to invade him and wreck everything in its wake.
He stopped being able to see the stars with his own eyes; he destroyed the Order that raised him and he separated his family, almost killing them all.
He stopped saving worlds in favor of destroying them; he stopped helping children and instead slaughtered them. He had believed his entire family to be dead and he had lived blinded by the darkness for too long.
And there was no point denying that it had been him. It was all him. It was another part of him that had been ready to burst at any moment, but still him.
Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader were just two sides of the same coin.
And even so, the Force had found it in it to give it all back to him; to forgive him for his misgivings, to bring him back to his own self. To help him destroy the side of him that was broken; to fill him up with its grace and light again.
As his hands were being secured by shackles as soon as he left his ship on the hangar of the Emperor's Palace, he reminded himself he was not a slave anymore.
Not a slave to Gardulla. Not a slave to Watto. Not a slave to Sidious.
Anakin Skywalker, bound and unarmed as he was, had never been freer.
He wondered when it had all started. When he left Tatooine, leaving his mother behind? When the Jedi refused to train him, only to go back on their decision because his Master would not take no for an answer. When his mother died? When he slaughtered that village of Tusken Raiders? When he married Padmé?
So many things had gone wrong. So many things had happened like they weren't supposed to happen.
But it all led him to this place; to the moment that he was living right then. All of his bad decisions; all of his selfishness and his feelings of powerlessness; but all of his goodness too and all of his love.
His fear had brought him here.
His fear had finally abandoned him.
Stoically he received a blow to the stomach from a stormtrooper.
"Traitor!" He called him. He was a traitor; but a traitor to a different cause. He had betrayed not the Empire, but the Force who had created him for a single task.
Perhaps his existence was merely that; maybe he was just a tool to accomplish a single purpose.
Maybe it was more.
It did not matter. Only one thing did: to follow the will of the Force; whatever it might be.
The armored fist met his jaw. It hurt. But that pain also did not matter and he didn't fight it. Nothing would deter him from what he had to do.
Everyone knew that when Anakin Skywalker had a mission, he would see it through. Whether it be it as a Jedi or as a Sith or as neither.
Fifteen men had led him up the stairs to the Palace. It was the old Jedi Temple; the place where he had grown up, the place where his Master held him after a nightmare, where he had put a cold cloth on his forehead when he had a fever, where he taught him how to wield a lightsaber and how to move an object with the Force.
They had laughed in there. And they had cried. They had recovered from battles and injuries; they had consoled each other like brothers in arms and in heart.
And then he had destroyed the place, like he had done to everything else.
It would only be fitting that he would do away with the Sith in the same place where he had ruined the Jedi. It was actually quite ironic. He was sure that, if it wasn't so sad, even Obi-Wan would have laughed at the joke.
When he wasn't taken immediately to the Emperor and was locked in a cell the Force said patience. And patient he was.
With his mechanical hands bound in front of him and long disposed of both his lightsabers, he knelt on the dirty floor and closed his eyes, reaching to the Force; and he waited there, amongst all its light and beauty, ignoring the stench of the Dark Side that was polluting that once sacred place, and knowing it would give him the strength to do what he must, at last.
He opened his eyes and rose to his feet even before the door slid open.
He took another punch to the stomach, but did not allow himself to fall down, steadying his mechanical feet firmly on the ground.
Two stormtroopers held his arms and dragged him along, the rest covered their rears and front.
Anakin almost felt like laughing. He wouldn't be there if he had wished to run.
Silently they guided him through the Palace's walls. Anakin looked around him. He had been there so many times, before and after his transformation. There was nothing of the Temple he once knew. It was now dark and unwelcoming. But, what he hadn't seen in so many years, were the remnants of light that still lingered, memories of fallen Jedi who had brightened those halls like drops of shining suns.
They passed a corner and he recognized a place where he once had seen a group of younglings no more than five years old playing with the training lightsabers they had surely snatched from the training rooms.
He looked at a wall where he had once found two young Padawans sharing what was probably their first real kiss, only to blush immensely at the sight of him and stand at attention, pretending that nothing had happened.
The stormtroopers took him up a flight of stairs and he saw the place where, once, Obi-Wan had caught him after missing one of his lessons. He had crossed his arms and stomped his foot, made a very fake annoyed look. But as he showed him the droid parts he had felt through the Force that his Master really wanted to smile.
So many more memories came rushing through his mind. There was a flicker of light in every corner where hundreds of thousands of Jedi had lived for millennia. That couldn't just be smothered; every single surface of that building had been bathed in light at one point and it only took a ray of sunshine to crush the night completely.
Anakin Skywalker smiled and felt at peace, despite knowing that those could prove to be his final moments.
They reached a familiar door. It had once been the Council Room. Anakin had stood there so many times, often uncomfortably, often angry. He remembered Ahsoka's last day; how he had hated the Council then.
He couldn't help but recall that, on the very path where he stood, his Master asked him to spy on the Chancellor. He had felt so offended, but couldn't deny, now, that there was wisdom behind the request.
But he also reminisced on the day he knelt before his Master and he cut his Padawan braid and the moment when he stood in the corner of the room and watched proudly as Obi-Wan, still a young man, received the rank of Master.
Why did it all seem so bad, at some point?
The door opened without a sound and one of the stormtroopers gave him a slight push inside. Anakin needed no such encouragement. He walked in slowly, passing by the two imperial guards at the door. He felt them leave behind him and then the door closed on his back.
The room was silent and dark, only illuminated by the lights that shone in from the buzzing capital city.
The council chairs were long gone, replaced by a black stone throne. It stood on an equally black raised podium, with six steps. The Emperor sat there in his dark robes with his face hidden by the hood, only the tip of his nose and his mouth were visible; yellowed teeth peeked through his humorless sneer.
Anakin looked across the room before reaching the front of the throne. He saw Luke and Ahsoka, bound and kneeling in the corner to the right side of the Emperor.
His son shot his head up at his father's arrival; but he did not look glad to see him. He felt a flash of anger reach him through the Force, reverberating as his son's gaze followed him.
He knew the truth, discovered it in the worst possible way, like Anakin feared it would happen. Sidious had begun his poisoning.
But the Sith would not leave that room alive.
Ahsoka had probably been beaten; she seemed to have no strength to raise her head. But her life still pulsated strongly in the Force.
He stood before the throne and looked up at the Sith. The Dark Side, he thought, was like a bad smell. If one lives with it for too long, one tends to get used to the stench.
But Anakin was no longer used to the Dark Side, not in the way it emanated from his former Master. It reeked of putrefaction and hate. And he wondered, for a moment, when had that man become so? Had he ever been a happy child? Had he ever loved anyone?
Probably not. Anakin pitied him. For a man with such hunger for power he had no idea what it was, immersed as he was in the Dark Side. He knew not of the power of seeing with clarity, of loving with all one's heart. He knew not of the power of the light; its courage and determination. Its justice and righteousness.
He would never know.
Anakin ignored the Darkness and held his head high, setting his gaze on the man and seeing both his lightsabers on the armrest of the chair, the Emperor's filthy hand patting them with a gentleness that contrasted with all of his being.
The silence weighed down the already thick air of the room.
"Will you not kneel before your Master, Lord Vader?" The Sith said, shattering the quietness.
The Chosen One gave the old man a crooked smile. "You are not my Master. My Master's name was Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi."
The Emperor laughed. "Well, then your Master is dead!" He spat the last word, amused.
But Anakin only smiled as he remembered his Master, glimmering blue, with a peaceful and hopeful look on his eyes. "Have you not heard? There is no death, there is the Force."
Darth Sidious released a sickening low snarl. "Look at you. What you were and what you have become. You were the man who inspired fear in millions; the man whose power destroyed entire cities. Now you are weak. Now you are powerless. Where is the anger that brought you to me? The hate that made you invincible? Tell me Darth Vader."
"My name is Anakin Skywalker. And my only weakness was to give in to you and let myself be enslaved by you. But no more, Sith. No more."
"You denounce me, my apprentice, and yet," the Sith Master said, "You still carry the weapon you used to do my bidding." He carefully patted the lightsabers.
Anakin said nothing. He pulled his mechanical wrists inside of his bounds and broke them with his mechanical strength and the aid of the Force; they fell onto the floor. The Sith did not seem surprised. He reached out his hand and called both lightsabers to him, making them fly in his direction, and Sidious made no move to stop him. Anakin caught them in both his hands.
His blue lightsaber he clasped to his belt. The crimson one he held on his open gloved palm.
Anakin closed his eyes for a moment and it levitated slightly, and then, before him, the parts that composed it began separating, red offending crystal in the middle, it circled around itself, exposed. He closed his fist and the metallic components smashed under the pressure of the Force. The crystal fell on the ground at his feet. Anakin kicked it to the side and looked again at his former Master.
His mouth was not smiling, but his eyes were.
Sidious released an exasperated sigh. "You've always been a foolish boy. Take your place back at my side, my Apprentice, or I shall have to consider a more suitable replacement."
"He will never join you Sidious. Nor will I." Anakin knew the Sith wished to replace Darth Vader with Luke. Such raw, untainted power was too good for Sidious to pass on. Greed would be his undoing.
Darth Sidious stood and began descending the stairs from his throne, his arm reached to his right side and beckoned Anakin's son to come to him. "Come here, my boy." His tone reminded him of when he was young, of the time when he used Anakin's own greed and fear to make him believe that he was loved and give him the acceptance he so longed for.
They were nothing but lies.
Luke stood and walked towards the Emperor on steady feet. His gaze never left his father. The boy stopped next to him, facing Anakin.
"Do you see now, Luke? Do you believe me now? He deceived you, Luke." The Sith spoke in that beguiling tone he used when he wanted something for himself. Many moons ago, Anakin had loved it. Now, he merely shuddered at the warnings of deceit that the Force was sending him.
"Liar!" The boy barked at his father. "How could you keep this from me?"
"Did he hurt you?" Was all the father asked.
"Answer me!" Luke's cheeks burned red as he screamed. A wave of anger was sent through the Force, almost blinding Anakin. But the young Jedi wished for no answer. Not really. "You all lied to me! You, mother, even… even my Master." A flash of pain crossed his features. And a greedy grin settled on the half hidden face of the Sith.
"Luke…" Anakin started, softly. But was interrupted again.
"And now he's dead! And all of you lied to me!" Tears began running down his face, tears of pain and anger.
Anakin begged the Force. Don't let him fall into darkness. Please. Please.
He would have offered him a phrase of wisdom; but it wouldn't work. The Jedi had done that for him in his youth and it led to nothing but more anger and frustration. So he sighed, thinking carefully of his next words. "You're right. We lied. It was wrong." He offered calmly and he knew his tone was upsetting him even further. But anything he said would have the same effect. So Anakin stretched out his hand. "I just want to take you home, Luke. Please, come home."
Young Skywalker let out an unamused chuckled that mingled in between breathless sobs. It was heartbreaking. "With you? You're a monster! All I ever wanted was to be like you! They all said you were the greatest Jedi who ever lived; the greatest warrior this Galaxy had ever seen. But you're just a monster and a traitor!"
Anakin's heart shuttered a little more, but he ignored it. What he felt was of no importance, so, with a deep breath, he released his pain into the Force, reaching out to it to ask for strength to save his son. "I don't want you to be like me, Luke. I want you to be better."
Palpatine's lust for power could hardly be subdued. He cackled as he opened up his arms. "Such anger, such hate! He lied to you. He is a nothing but a killer! Did you know he killed younglings in this very room? Take your weapon and strike him down, Luke. Rid the Galaxy of him and you will be invincible! You will be ten times de man your father ever was. Better. Much better than him. Stronger!"
Anakin watched as a lightsaber flew across the room, from a hidden corner and into his son's hands. He grabbed it tightly and flashed green, giving the room a sapphire tint that reflected from the black and perfectly polished marble walls.
"He's lying, Luke!" He said. "There is power in the Dark Side, but it will bring you nothing but sorrow, son." Luke stepped towards his father, lightsaber secured tightly in between the fingers of both his hands.
Anakin stepped back and held both his hands in front of him. "I will not fight you Luke."
"Why not?" The boy cried out. The Emperor laughed. "Why not kill me? How many has it been, father?"
"I don't know, Luke. Unfortunately, too many too count." He said as he kept stepping away from his son; they would soon be at the wall and there would be no escape. "At the Emperor's bidding." He completed. "But that's not who I am now. And it's not who you are. You're better than this. You don't need to become better than me. You already are. Give me your lightsaber Luke." He put his hand out again.
"He's lying, Luke. There is no coming back from the Dark Side. Take your father's place beside me. You will know the true power of the Force. Together, we can bring peace to the Empire." The Sith's voice was poison itself, the kind that festers and kills slowly.
"Was all of it a lie?" His hands on the lightsaber faltered and Anakin saw it.
He shook his head. "No, it was all real, Luke. I love you, your mother loves you. Obi-Wan loved you. He still does. Please son, please. Don't let him break you, like he broke me. Please." Anakin pleaded, sending waves of love and calm through the Force and took a step forward as he sensed Luke's fingers loosening further on the saber's hilt. He outstretched his hand further.
"You do?" The boy asked, meekly.
"With all my heart. More than anything."
"And you won't lie to me again?" The tears kept running from his cheeks. He was just a boy.
"I promise." Anakin said and he heard the hiss of the lightsaber disengaging and its warm metal resting heavily on his palm. He grabbed it before his son let go and pulled him in his embrace.
"I need you to get Ahsoka and run." He whispered in his hear, his heart was beating fast in his chest. Then the Force sent him a cold warning of danger and he pushed Luke away, almost throwing him across the room. The lightsaber remained in the boy's hand; he might need it. And the blue lightning hit him square on the chest. With no time to defend himself, it threw him across the room and into the stone wall; his head banged hard onto it, blinding and deafening him momentarily.
He tried to get up, but it was of no use. His body was not responding. He shivered as he felt his hot, sticky blood trickling down the back of his neck, soaking the collar of his tunic.
Unable to function, he felt the pain of the lightning again. This had not been the first time he had been struck by it. As Darth Vader he had endured it many times, during his Master's rages. It was an odd feeling of heat and cold that ran through his whole body, a rancid smell of the Dark Side stuck to it. It took one's breath away as it travelled through the body and into the organs, faltering their functioning.
"You fools!" he heard the Sith, as if he was at the end of a tunnel, so far away.
"Now you will both die!" And he heard another scream, not his. A young one. His son's voice in agony; his pain was echoing across the screaming Force.
And he heard his Master's voice again.
Stand up, Anakin.
Or maybe it was his own, mirroring Obi-Wan's words.
Stand up, Anakin.
"Father! Help!" Anakin's eyes finally fluttered open and he saw him; Luke, being struck by that foul blue lightning that was sucking the life out of him.
"Stand up, Anakin!" he told himself. And his mechanical legs obeyed at last, despite the dizziness. He breathed in and let the Force flow through him; all its light engulfing him, calming him, pushing him through.
The Emperor gave the boy some respite to let out a crazed laugh. And Anakin leapt between the two.
Again! The Force warned. This time, he was not unprepared. The lightning came and, instinctively Anakin stretched out his hands, the Force travelled through the metal of his limbs and into his fingertips. The lightening stopped and concentrated into a dancing sphere of light between his hands. The Force flowed through it, killing the darkness. The light brightened even further.
"Run!" he yelled at his son as he threw the lightning back at its owner. Sidious startled and leapt away from it.
Skywalker took in his bearings as he felt Luke kneeling next to Ahsoka behind him. He sent his right hand towards the throne. The upper half broke loose and the Force shoved it against the Emperor who was only half able to escape the attack, falling onto the ground.
He felt his back now completely soaked in the warm, thick liquid that was coming out of his head and Anakin knew he didn't have much time before his body finally betrayed him.
The Sith recovered quickly and threw his hands in the air. The glass behind him shattered into a million pieces and suddenly Anakin felt them coming towards him. He raised his metal arms to shield his face from the blow; but the Force push that came with it was too strong and Skywalker recoiled. But he did not fall.
He felt the floor slippery under his feet.
Was he bleeding that much?
He was. He felt himself weakening and his body screaming for him to pass out. Only the Force was keeping him awake; nudging for him to go on, to not give up.
"Master!" He heard a familiar voice behind him. Ahsoka was finally up on her feet.
"Go!" he said, as he retrieved his lightsaber from his belt and jumped toward his former the Lord of the Sith. Their blades crossed in insanely fast strokes. Sidous' were mad and filled with rage. Anakin's more subtle and calculated, but not weaker. Never weaker.
They parried as equals. Light against Dark. The lights, hum and clash of their blades filled the room.
But Anakin was tired, injured body faltering, and he felt the room spinning around him. His shoulder weakened for just a moment. His left hand was suddenly separated from his arm. The wiring sparked and hissed and the pain sensors screamed and screamed.
He fell, expecting another blow. But none came. He sensed the Emperor leap over him and just as Luke was reaching the door, he struck him again, blocking his exit and making him fall just before he reached the door.
Ahsoka fell at his side. He could see her screaming, her features laced with pain and powerlessness, but the sound was muffled by Sidious' insane laughter and the furious hissing of the lightning.
Anakin Skywalker smiled despite everything He always knew that greed would be the Sith's downfall. He would not relent and let any of them escape. That was his mistake: to think he could have it all.
He knew what to do.
Anakin called his fallen lightsaber to his remaining hand and moved behind Darth Sidious. He was so busy laughing he didn't even sense him. From behind he put his left arm around the Sith's neck and, suddenly, the old man knew what was happening to him.
His eyes widened as Anakin, taking the lightning from the Sith's body into him without flinching and ignored the immense pain it was causing him, put his lightsaber hilt at an angle against Palpatine's cloaked back and ignited it, piercing him right through his blackened heart.
"No more." Anakin whispered in his ear as he did it and the last thing he felt from him was surprise. Sidious had never seen it coming.
The Emperor fell down in a heap and took his last breath; his mouth agape from his astonishment. He really did think he was invincible.
Suddenly the Force around him rejoiced and brightened. The shroud of the Dark Side had been lifted and everything seemed so clear.
Anakin Skywalker's mission had finally been accomplished. He smiled at the sight of his son, rising from the floor and coming to him.
"Master." Ahsoka said.
"Hey Snips." He whispered, feeling suddenly so incredibly lightheaded. He felt his lightsaber slip from his hand and hit the ground, rolling away with a dull sound. But he couldn't find it in him to reach for it.
"We need to go, this place will be filled with stormtroopers soon." It was so good to hear her voice again.
"You go. I just.. I need to rest for a little bit." Anakin felt his words slurring. He couldn't think.
He fell to his hands and knees; his strength was leaving him.
Anakin was just so tired.
"Father!" His son's voice ringed in his ear and he felt his warmth as he knelt next to him. He was really cold; very, very cold.
It was an apt place to die. He remembered the lives of the children he took as he was standing in the exact same place where he now was kneeling. "They forgave me." He mumbled with the smile he could manage, but not sure if what he said was even audible. He remembered that beautiful song that he heard when the light rescued him. He wished he could hear it again.
Anakin tried to lift his head to look at his son and his Padawan one last time, but instead he fell on his back. He could see both of their grief-stricken faces over him. They were moving their mouths but he could not understand what they were saying; all the sounds were muffled by the sound of the Force. It was like a stream of clear water, running furiously against the rocks. Just so beautiful; he felt a tear run down his cheek.
He took in the Force around him; now free of the Dark Side's clutches it danced in white beautiful waves. It rolled around him like a warm blanket, cradling him in its softness. He saw his Master behind Ahsoka and Luke. He had a smile on his face; he looked happy.
Anakin smiled too and he opened his mouth to speak. "I love you both." That's what he meant to say, but he wasn't really sure it had come out. He thought he'd join Obi-Wan: the place where he was seemed so pleasant and inviting, he was sure he'd like it there.
He closed his eyes to let go but felt himself being hoisted upwards; a stab of pain ran through his body and he was thought he let out a scream.
Suddenly, it all went black.
A/N.: Here it is. The beggining of the end! :) Leave a review and stay tuned. There is an epilogue. :)