Thank you for reading and for your continued support~ Please enjoy!

Chapter 19

Anakin crawled to the console and climbed to his feet. The computer had been completely destroyed, but its command remained. Under the sparks and exposed wires ripped out of the ceiling, a panel displayed the charges as they filled. One after another.

"Anakin!" Obi-Wan's voice echoed in Anakin's head, but he sounded far away.

Vision after vision pounded Anakin. An explosion. Bombs. Leia and Bail dead and swept into the vast emptiness of space. Alderaan destroyed, blown apart by the Death Star's superlaser. Here and now. It was a choice—one, but not both. He could stop the Death Star if he tore at its internal workings—if he stripped it from the inside out. But Leia would die. He could save Leia, stop them before they reached the bombs, but he wouldn't be able to save Alderaan.

A choice. The Force had given him a choice. Anakin would choose wrong. He stood, paralyzed. Four charges of the eight crystals. Five.

Leia's cries grew louder. Visions of her death overwhelmed his sight, overwhelmed his thoughts. In twenty years, he'd hold her here as Alderaan blew apart. Crying. She was just a little girl—Padmé's beautiful girl.

He had to save her. He couldn't fail again—not like with his mom, not like with Padmé. He couldn't.

But he couldn't choose darkness this time, either. One or the other. Not both.

Anakin turned and sprinted to the door.

"Anakin!" Obi-Wan's voice tripped him up but didn't stop him. "Anakin, don't!"

Leia's scream.

Then another cry. Not Leia, but another little girl. Anakin stopped between the door and the computer. Just one little girl. A child from Alderaan, he didn't know how he knew. Someone else's daughter who would die in the blast. Then another scream, this time a little boy. Someone's son. He heard the scream of a man who loved his wife. Heard the cries of a mother as her children died.

Another cry, and another, and another, a cacophony of voices in his head. He felt their lives as though they were his own. People who lived and breathed, who fought for peace and justice, who hoped and dreamed. He felt it all as though he'd lived their lives and could see through their eyes.

An entire planet of people who loved and were loved. Millions of individual lives worth saving.

Tears streaked Anakin's face as he turned to the computer. As he looked to Alderaan and saw the six crystals charged, only two left to fire. He closed his eyes, raised his hands, and focused into the Force.

"I'm sorry, Leia."

Anakin dove into the deepest workings of the Death Star, using his visions of the future as his guide. He tore down into the crystals and to the parts that would make the superlaser fire, and he pulled with all the strength he had left in him. His mind sank into the wires, into the circuits that made the whole thing tick. But the eighth crystal charged, and the superlaser erupted to life.

Too late.

He couldn't stop it, and so he built with his mind and the Force a barrier against it, a wall that stood between the Death Star and Alderaan. The laser fired in a violent and blinding flash of white, and it struck the barrier with its full, planet-destroying power. Anakin let out a cry as the pain ricocheted off the shield and into his bones, coursing through his veins. He staggered and grabbed the console as the deluge hit.

His barrier cracked, and the laser continued to blaze.

Anakin pushed into the Death Star's internal workings, all while holding up his shield. He couldn't waste time finding the right bundles of cords or circuits. Instead, he grappled at the entire generator core he'd attempted to pummel with his ship. He caught it as if in one hand while he wielded the barrier with the other. He pulled.

He ripped the generator core and all its intricate pieces out of place. Not far, but enough. Wires and significant frameworks snapped under the shifted weight. Lights flickered and went out across the bridge, and the superlaser died. The destruction of the generator core ignited a string of explosions that reverberated through the Death Star.

Leia. Rex. Bail. So many lost.

Anakin released his grip on the core and on the barrier, and he fell to his knees. His heart throbbed in his chest. Words whispered behind him. Not whispering, he assumed, he simply couldn't hear them over the blood in his ears. He stared ahead at Alderaan.

Safe.

He used the console to leverage himself to his feet. Emergency lights blinked throughout the bridge and offered some visibility. Voices carried behind him.

"Shut this thing down," Master Windu ordered. "Destroy that laser and don't let it have any opportunity to reactivate. Go!"

"Sir!" a chorus of troopers answered.

"Are you all right?" Master Windu spoke again.

"Well enough," Obi-Wan said, though his words came out breathless. "The others?"

"They'll survive."

Now you understand, Qui-Gon said, and a presence like a warm hand settled on Anakin's shoulder.

The voices behind him twisted and distorted, and Anakin's pulse thundered in his ears. The sounds echoed inside his helmet, so he clawed it off his head. Tried to breathe, but even without the mask, he couldn't catch any air. His head hurt. His muscles ached. Pain radiated through him, but somehow it felt far away. Detached. Like he wasn't even in his own skin.

What would they tell Padmé?

"Sir," said a trooper's voice, but the inflection was familiar. "Senator Organa and the others have safely been evacuated onto your ship. Awaiting orders."

Anakin turned. His heart skipped several beats. It may well have stopped.

Rex spoke with Master Windu in the doorway to the bridge as injured Jedi and troopers were hauled out on stretches. Rex, with his helmet at his side, cast Anakin a glance before returning his attention to Master Windu.

Rex had been with Bail, and Rex was alive.

Master Windu answered Rex, but Anakin went deaf to everything but the roar in his ears. He dropped the helmet of Vader and ran. He shoved between Rex and Master Windu and skidded out the door before running down the hall in the direction where they took the injured men, to whatever ship Master Windu brought.

It couldn't be.

He ran, and no one stopped him. He reached a hangar bay where a large Republic vessel had stationed itself. Countless people came and went from the ship. He heard the cry. Not from his nightmares, but in that hangar bay in the present. Anakin slowed, and breathlessness crushed his chest. Hope stirred anyway.

Leia cried.

Anakin passed a heap of crates and stopped.

Bail stood with a group of many others, including a woman. Breha Organa, he assumed. He'd seen this vision. He'd seen this before. Bail held a wailing Leia in his arms.

It couldn't be.

Bail spoke with the people before he turned and noticed Anakin. He stopped, as did the others. Momentary hesitation passed over Bail's face, and he frowned. Anakin couldn't decipher the emotion: anger, fear? Bail passed Leia to Breha.

Anakin had seen this. It was his vision, too. It couldn't be. It was a choice between two futures, but not as Sidious had said.

"We saw what you did, Skywalker," Bail said, but his voice distorted like through water. He frowned at first, and then he offered a relieved smile. "I don't know how you did it, but…"

His voice faded behind the roar in Anakin's ears. The roar-the ringing-it was so loud. Anakin's chest hurt and he still couldn't breathe. Red tinged the already dismally lit hangar bay. He blinked several times.

Anakin had seen this, too. Everything went red.

Bail's soft expression contorted into yet another frown. And then he was running towards Anakin, but Anakin still didn't know why. He'd seen all this. Bail shouted, but unlike his vision, Anakin heard the words loud and clear.

"Get a medic!"

Bail went sideways.

No. Anakin went sideways. And everything turned red by the blood in his eyes that streamed down his face and wet his cheeks. He coughed on blood. Anakin collapsed into the crates and tried to grab them, but they slipped out of his hands. Bail closed in on him before Anakin hit the floor.

"Get a medic, now!" Bail shouted. The sound wobbled and faded. "He isn't breathing… I can't find a pulse! Get a medic!"

Anakin faded from consciousness.