"Anakin Skywalker (22 BE - 1 YE) was a Jedi Knight extremely active during the Clone Wars. He was the youngest to ever join the Jedi Council, and he famously defeated and killed Count Dooku in the Battle of Coruscant. Much mysticism surrounded his existence. The Jedi believed he had been born of a virgin, and that he was the chosen hero of an ancient prophecy. These notions were ultimately proven false, however. According to official Imperial records, the Jedi general was among those killed by Darth Vader during the Destruction of the Temple."
-Pollux Hax, Accounts of the Fates of the Jedi
The Tale of Anakin Skywalker, or the Sith's Tale
ORDER 67 Part II
The rains had come slowly over Coruscant. It started off as a blue sky and puffy white clouds and a cool breeze, and at sunset the breeze kicked up into a chilly wind, and gray clouds loomed in the far distance, in a corner of the red and pink sky. And there was the small and remote sound of thunder, though you could barely hear it over the noises of the city. And that night the clouds came and swallowed up the yellow and white glows of the light pollution. And finally came the rain.
It didn't rain hard at first. The water in droplets pattered like tiny mice feet, pricking the sides of buildings and the tops of syncloth umbrellas. And then the pattering gave way to the sounds of heavy rain, like stampeding insects and swarms clacking their wings, and then the rain poured, and Anakin Skywalker stood in the middle of it and amid the lightning and the wind and the murky echoes of thunder.
The man no longer used that name though, hadn't in a long time, and everyone knew him as Darth Vader. And he stood in front of his black star fighter, waiting, and his cape flapped behind him like a great flag, and his deep mechanical respirations added a slow rhythm to the rain, and in the stormy darkness and surrounded by the bright neon lights of the city he appeared as a terrifying shadow.
Clones in blue-marked armor - the clones of the 501st Legion, known as Vader's Fist - appeared out of the darkness and foggy sheets of rain to meet him, and with them was Jar Jar Binks. The senator appeared calm, evenly slightly detached.
"Have you brought me here to kill me?" Jar Jar asked.
"Come. We're leaving," Anakin said.
"Where?"
Anakin didn't say, just walked to his star fighter and hopped into the cockpit. There was an open co-pilot seat behind him.
"Here. Now," Anakin said, and though he was monotone there was an impatience and severity in his voice.
Jar Jar didn't budge. "I'm not going with you. If you're going to kill me, do it now."
"I'm trying to save you. Get in."
Jar Jar was confused by this. He looked at the blue-marked clones shoulder to shoulder around him, and he had been assuming he was going to die and had prepared for it, and now Anakin was telling him he was going to live.
"Jar Jar, I had my men bring you here to help you escape. But there are more clones coming, clones that aren't mine, and they will be here soon. You have to hurry."
Jar Jar clenched his jaw and grimaced. He relented and climbed into the back seat of Anakin's interceptor.
"I still don't trust you," Jar Jar said.
"I know."
And with that Anakin pressed tiny squared buttons and flipped tiny switches, and the cockpit's glass airlock closed over them, and the rain hammered the glass as the ship rose. They felt the rumbling of the engines burning to life, and they heard the exhaust fire roar behind them. They blasted into the lighting scratched sky, into the clouds and then breaking them into the atmosphere. Below, the clouds were white and milky, concealing their black underbelly, and above were the stars, real stars, unobscured by Coruscant's light pollution.
"Would you look at that," said Jar Jar, admiring them. He hadn't seen stars in a long time.
Anakin remained silent, just piloting, and there was only the sound of his robotic exhales and inhales.
"We're being followed," Jar Jar said.
"I know. They're with us," Anakin said, glancing back at the ships briefly.
There were four ships in total, all ORC-1 star fighters, and they were painted black. They caught up Anakin's interceptor and flew beside him in formation.
"Your infamous Black Fang Squadron," Jar Jar observed.
"They're the best pilots from my squadron. The Four Fangs."
"Lord Vader, this is Fang One. Do you copy?" a voice said over the interceptor's comlink. The voice was rasped and shadowy in the radio frequency.
"I copy, captain," said Anakin.
"We have a hyperdrive ring waiting for you on standby. Follow our lead, sir."
The four ORC-1s jetted past Anakin and careened away in unison like fish in the sea, and Anakin followed them to the hyperdrive ring. His star fighter wasn't designed for long-distance space travel, and he would need the hyperdrive ring to take him where he wanted to go. He maneuvered into the ring and locked it to the ship.
"Readying for hyperspace launch," Anakin said, running his hands fast over the console. The engines of the hyperdrive ring hummed.
"Copy that," said Fang 1.
"Ready now," Anakin said, and he pushed the throttle forward, and he and the four ORC-1s beamed into hyperspace. They raced past the stars of the galaxy, and it looked like a tunnel of white streaks flying past them. Jar Jar felt the velocity press his body hard against the seat. And soon they were out of hyperspace, and the stars stopped zipping past them and suddenly froze in place, and they were hovering over a green and brown planet orbiting a red star.
"Where are we?" Jar Jar asked.
"It doesn't have a name. It only appears on ancient Jedi star charts," Anakin said.
Anakin disengaged the interceptor from the hyperdrive ring, and he and the Four Fangs flew in formation towards the planet. They hurtled through the atmosphere like comets, and fire licked their ships and their windshields glared yellows and tangerines, and then the fire dissipated, and lush and endless jungle swept below them. It was nothing but jungle, broken by a snaking brown river that branched off into countless tributaries.
"There's nothing here," Jar Jar said.
"Looks can be deceptive," was the only response.
The ships found a small clearing in the jungle, a speck of a prairie, and landed there on long, hair-thin grass. Soon Anakin, Jar Jar, and the Four Fangs all stood together outside their ships and in the piping hot jungle air.
"It's quiet," said a clone. Fang 2.
He was right. The jungle - the whole planet, it seemed - was noiseless and utterly still. The grass didn't stir, leaves didn't so much as quiver, there were no sounds of insect buzzes and bird whistles and animal cries. And above was a red sun squatting in a red sky.
"So much life and yet this planet somehow feels dead," another clone said. Fang 4.
"Let's go," Anakin said.
The clones grabbed large backpacks from their star fighters and loaded them onto their backs. They were about to leave when there suddenly came loud beeping and electric chirping. Everyone looked back and saw it was Anakin's black astromech droid, F4-LN, slotted inside the interceptor.
A clone laughed. "It looks like the droid wants to tag along."
The droid beeped more.
Anakin ignored it and turned and left it there with the ship, and he and Jar Jar and the clones entered the jungle. They passed thick gnarled trunks and drooping vines and vine-scrawled boulders and gurgling streams, and it wasn't long before they reached the gray stone walls of a ruined temple. They approached the temple's mouth, and in it was only black.
Anakin activated his red light saber and beckoned the others to follow him, and he used the light saber as a torch. The others followed, and the only sounds were their footsteps and the humming of the light saber and Anakin's mechanical breathing. And the red glow of his light saber cast their shadows on the stone walls.
Soon they were in the temple's heart, inside its main chamber. There were cracks and rifts in the stone ceiling, and the light of the red sky and the red sun dripped through, and in the grim light they could make out their surroundings.
The chamber was small, but its walls were tall, stretching above the jungle canopy. At the back of the room were two altars or chests of stone, laid side by side, and they were simple and had no designs engraved on them. And in the center of the chamber was a pool, cut deep into the stone floor, and in it were fish. The fish were small and brown, and they idly circled each other.
"What is this place?" said a clone.
"It used to be a Jedi temple. It was abandoned eons ago, before the days of the Republic," said Anakin. He then turned to Jar Jar and said: "You'll be safe here."
"Sir," began a clone, "this isn't a temple. I think it's a tomb." The clone was bent over the two stone altars studying them. "There's an inscription here. Here lie the Jedi of the Sun and the Jedi of the Moon. Whoever they were, I think they're buried inside these altars."
"It'll have to do. This planet doesn't appear on any Imperial records, so this is the safest place in the galaxy right now," Anakin said.
The clones unloaded their backpacks. Using their supplies they built a make shift bed for Jar Jar, along with a make shift kitchen complete with pots and pans and cooking and eating utensils. They placed down medicines and bandages and tools and a blaster. Soon the backpacks were emptied of their contents, and Anakin and the clones were ready to return to Coruscant.
"It's not a lot, but it'll do alright," said Fang 1, observing their fast work.
"It's lonely here," Jar Jar said.
"What do you expect, after those things you said in the Senate Arena? Be grateful you're still alive," Anakin said.
"Those things needed to be said."
"Don't be so vain. Your speech changed nothing. There's still an Empire, and there's still Imperial Peace. You threw your life away to prove to a point."
"I showed everyone in the Senate that any person - even a joke like me - can stand up to the Emperor. That we don't have to be afraid."
Anakin was quiet for a moment. "You were never a joke, Jar Jar."
"What do I care what you think? You murdered innocent people. You murdered children. Anakin Skywalker died a long time ago and I don't know you. You're just a cyborg that killed all your friends and now you're feeling guilty and trying to make up for it by saving me, because I'm the last friend you have."
There was suddenly the sound of footsteps coming from shadows outside the chamber. Clones in white and red armor burst into the chamber. The Emperor's Eye, and at their head was Warden Fox.
Anakin ignited his light saber, and there was a snap and a hiss and a red glow like magma. He spoke coolly.
"Return to Coruscant, Fox. The Gungan is not your concern. You're far out of your jurisdiction."
"Sorry, Lord Vader. I have my orders straight from the mouth of the Emperor. The senator comes back with us."
The Four Fangs poised their guns at the warden.
"You heard Lord Vader. Leave," said Fang 4.
Fox gave a short whistle, just a flicker of two notes, and the clones of the Emperor's Eye shot and killed the Four Fangs.
"Your Fangs may dominate the voids and mists and asteroid belts of space, but my men rule the soil," said Fox.
"How did you find us?" Anakin said.
"Your astromech droid sent your coordinates. We found your ships and followed your tracks here. Now stand down. That's an order from the Emperor."
"Is that a threat?"
"We kill Jedi regularly, sir. A Jedi in a black helmet makes no difference to us. Our loyalties lie with the Emperor first."
"I've also killed my share of Jedi. I can handle ten pawns."
"You don't understand. The Emperor is here."
Anakin stopped. "He's here? Now?"
"Yes sir."
Anakin's breathing slowed. He gazed down at the hilt of his light saber, at the silver metal and black matte of it, and the metal caught the red gleam of the blade. Suddenly he felt Jar Jar's hand on his arm. Anakin looked at him, but Jar Jar didn't look back. And he approached Fox with his hands held out.
"Go ahead and have me," he said.
"They'll kill you, Jar Jar," Anakin said.
"Don't pretend you care. Besides I'm not scared to die. I knew what would happen when I gave my speech."
"Jar Jar."
Fox cuffed him.
Jar Jar sighed. "Let me go. I'm sad and alone and I want to see my friends again. And when I die I'll be a part of the Force and I'll see them all again. I'll really see them, and I miss them."
And the Emperor's Eye took Jar Jar away, back to the small prairie with the ships, and Anakin and Fox followed behind.
"A red sun," Fox mused. "I like it."
They reached the ships, and among them was a hulking Delta-class shuttle, white and pristine. And outside the shuttle stood the Emperor waiting, accompanied by six Immortals.
The Emperor's Eye loaded Jar Jar Binks into the shuttle. It was the last time Anakin Skywalker saw his friend, and Jar Jar never looked back.
Fox walked up to the Emperor and saluted.
"Four clones died during the extraction, my Lord. It was unavoidable."
"I suppose they were Vader's men, then."
"Yes sir."
"Very good, warden. As you were."
Warden Fox saluted and disappeared into the shuttle with his men. Meanwhile Anakin saw his astromech droid F4-LN still nestled inside his star fighter. Without moving or so much as glancing at the droid, he used the Force to crush its head, and the metal shell of it crumpled into tiny folds, and wires busted and spewed out of the metal compartments like jungle vines, and the droid screamed an electronic shriek and sparks flew, and then it stopped. Smoke slowly rose from the metal carcass.
The Emperor was unamused.
"You have disappointed me greatly."
Anakin didn't answer, and there was only the indifferent sound of his breathing. The Emperor closed his eyes for a moment.
"I know the clumsy frog creature meant a lot to you. He was the last surviving connection to your past life. Maybe he gave you hope, that somewhere deep inside you, Anakin Skywalker still lives. Maybe you even hoped Anakin could come back. But Skywalker is dead. I made you stronger. I made you Vader. There is no going back after what you've done, my apprentice."
The Emperor returned to his shuttle, escorted by his Immortals. The shuttle wings lowered and the ship rose and soared off into the red sky, leaving Darth Vader alone among the hair-thin grass and the ancient trees and the unnatural jungle silence. And Vader stood there listening to the sounds of his own breathing, and he felt cold.