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Chapter 34
"Obi-Wan!" Anakin screamed.
Power shot out from him. A wave of energy like a shield erupted around him, tore through the ground, and shattered stone in a wide radius. It slammed into Sidious and blew him several meters away and did likewise with all nearby Jedi.
Anakin was up and running before he realized it, before Obi-Wan had time to fall. Anakin caught his Master in his arms and went to the ground with him. He shifted onto his knees and held Obi-Wan. He drew a Force shield in and covered them both, and he tore up a storm of boulders to twist and twirl in a vortex around them. Protecting them.
"Master! Obi-Wan," Anakin said, and his breath caught. Tears filled his eyes as he searched for the wound—clean through his stomach. His hand covered it. "Hold on, Master. I'll heal you."
He wasn't skilled at healing. Never had been. He tapped into his shared memories with Obi-Wan, to Obi-Wan healing him a short while earlier. Energy pulsed through him, though Anakin didn't know from where since his reserves felt so depleted, and warmth trickled off his fingertips to the wound. So slight, so pathetic, his abilities.
"Anakin," Obi-Wan said, quiet. In that little shield, nothing else existed, so Anakin heard him loud and clear. "Anakin, it's all right. Save your energy."
Anakin could only shake his head. Obi-Wan raised his hand to Anakin's face.
"You will win, Anakin. I know you will." Obi-Wan smiled. "Everything will be different this time. I feel it. Everything is different."
"Please stop, Master. Save your strength," Anakin said as he continued to heal him, as he pushed more and more energy into the wound. He felt vessels connecting, muscle fibers piecing back together, organs restoring. He felt it all, but it wasn't enough. "Please hold on, Obi-Wan. Please." His voice broke.
"I am so proud of you," Obi-Wan said, and the light in his eyes dulled. Tired. He looked so tired. Anakin continued to focus on healing but drew his Master close. "So proud, Anakin…" Obi-Wan's hand went to the back of Anakin's head, in some weak attempt at an embrace. "You are my brother, Anakin… I love you."
Anakin's heart skipped a beat. Echoes from another life, but different. Present tense. Unconditional.
"I love you," Obi-Wan said, clear, but his voice faded. His eyelids slid shut and his fingers slid from Anakin's hair to the ground.
"Obi-Wan…"
Anakin pushed more energy through the Force. From his body to Obi-Wan. Anything and everything to fill the hole Sidious had created. Obi-Wan's heart beat. He breathed, but faintly. Anakin did not have the strength to save him.
"Obi-Wan, please don't die!"
Force, do not let him die. Obi-Wan was meant to survive. He was meant to live until all the hairs on his head went gray. This life was supposed to be different, but better. Everything was meant to be better. Anakin pleaded with the Force, and he did the last thing he could do with his waning strength: he drew in the shield and covered Obi-Wan with it, and he slowed Obi-Wan's bodily processes through the Force to a near state of death. Stopped his blood from pouring into his wounded stomach, stopped his heart from failing so rapidly. Stopped what he could, and then he rose.
Someone else had to have the strength to save Obi-Wan. The Temple healers had to be around. Or Coric could come. Obi-Wan would not die. Anakin would end Sidious and destroy the weapon. Then someone could save Obi-Wan.
Anakin knew what he needed to do but didn't know how to win. He didn't have the strength to defeat Sidious. Not as Sidious grew stronger and Anakin's strength failed him.
Sidious was now an all-powerful Sith Lord. What was Anakin compared to him? A slave boy from Tatooine. A Jedi Padawan, Knight, and General. A no one in a mask. A Sith Lord named Darth Vader.
He was everything and nothing at the same time.
Do you hear him? Bail Organa's words echoed from the recesses of his mind, drawn up by something in the Force. A familiar touch: Qui-Gon? Here is a man who has stood in the space between—between us and the Jedi, between us and the Sith, between us and the forgotten—listen to him.
Everything and nothing. Something in the space between.
Anakin closed his eyes and sank into the violent whirlwind of the Force. To the thing, the place, that he both loved and hated. That hurt him and helped him. That destroyed him and gave him strength.
Anakin Skywalker, a child of the Force and of flesh. A Jedi and a Sith. A hero with no fear and a villain that fears all. Joy and suffering. Love and hate. Anakin stood in the in-between place. That was the point.
Anakin opened his eyes, but his mind stayed focused on the Force and on his purpose. Focused on why he had been born, on why he existed. He took Obi-Wan's lightsaber and slid it into his sleeve, and he waved the storm of shining black stones away. They thundered to the ground and revealed Sidious on the other side.
"I've been waiting to put a hole in him for a very long time," Sidious said with much glee.
Anger rippled through Anakin, but it felt distant. The Force covered it and left only clarity.
"I feel your anger," Sidious said, but the twisted grin on his face faltered. Something strange flashed over his yellow eyes. Fear? "Take it and use it, Anakin. Use it to kill me, and in doing so, you will become the very thing you claim to hate."
"I will not become a Sith." Anakin marched towards Sidious, his steps slow and steady across the lava-splattered stone. "I know the pain that path will cause. I know the harm and the suffering. I will never choose it."
Jedi raced towards Anakin from behind. He swept them into the air and held them with only a thought. They swam in the air, trying to reach him, but he restrained them. Another jolt of concern crossed Sidious' face.
"You have no other place. The Jedi have rejected you. Your hands are too filthy for them and for the path of good."
Anakin paused for a beat, and then he stepped forward. Faster. Resolute.
"I am not a Jedi," he said with such strength and conviction that he even surprised himself. "Because I was meant to be different." He lunged without hesitation. "I am different."
Anakin slammed his lightsaber down over Sidious' head, and the Sith Lord barely caught the attack. Speed had never been Anakin's greatest strength, so he poured all of his efforts into heavy, powerful blows. He hit with such power that Sidious slid back on the rocks under each hit.
More Jedi rushed from across the lava fields, summoned by Sidious, and Anakin met their blades in a flurry of swings. He saw every movement, every action, before it came. His senses so in tune with the Force that time seemed to slow. When he batted away the impending blows, he caught and threw those Jedi into the air, too. Restrained them.
Sidious thrust at him from behind, and Anakin twirled to meet him. Blue clashed with red from above, then the left, then the right.
Sidious no longer grinned, but his body glowed with power. Lightning flickered through his eyes. Another storm swirled overhead and dropped bolts of lightning across the plains. Anakin jumped and rolled to avoid, and he caught one of the bolts on his blade. Sidious attacked as he dodged, and more Jedi arrived.
Anakin could not win. Not like this. Not while the Jedi remained enslaved, not while Sidious drained their power. As he ducked and parried, as he threw the Jedi away, he reached and grabbed neither the holocron nor the weapon itself but the entire platform on which the weapon sat. He tore it from its scaffolding.
"I think not," Sidious said as he slashed at Anakin. He grabbed the weapon and steadied it, his mind against Anakin's. Sidious won.
Anakin kicked Sidious away and ripped the ground apart beneath them. Lava oozed out of the black ground. Sidious jumped over it and pummeled Anakin with powerful swings, with raw power fueled by his hatred and rage. Oh, how Anakin remembered. He flipped backwards and turned the ground under Sidious, and Sidious jumped aside.
Out of the corner of his eye, Anakin caught a glimpse of flashing sparks. It drew his attention to the weapon he still wrestled into the air. Sparks spewed from frayed wires from the areas he'd torn. Lights blinked out along the consoles where Gubacher had worked.
Gubacher, who specialized in machines, like Anakin.
Anakin countered several more blows from Sidious, somersaulted to avoid another lightning blast that shattered the ground, and suspended several more Jedi in the air. He probably restrained half of Sidious' army. His focus returned to the weapon.
Though it was an ancient Sith weapon, and an ancient Sith holocron, the basis of the weapon was nothing more than a giant broadcasting station amplifying whatever noise the holocron produced. A big, ugly machine. And Anakin knew machines.
He ducked and rolled under Sidious' attacks, fell back and evaded.
In his mind, he sank into the machine. Disappeared and left his body to instinct. He dug into the machine's intricate parts, its circuit boards and cables.
All computers, all droids, all such things had one main source of power. One line that gave it strength. One course that determined everything. One piece that, when taken out of place, would change everything. Anakin found in that machine the one wire that connected everything, and he tore at it with all the strength he could muster through the Force. He felt the surge of energy through the frayed ends as they ripped, felt the heat of flames as they caught.
When Anakin tore the weapon, Sidious stumbled and jumped back in surprise. The ominous glow around him rippled, and the lightning in the clouds dimmed and faded. Something burned inside of Anakin. His strength did not rush back, but it was no longer bound to Sidious or his Sith weapon.
"How did you…" Sidious looked to his hideous Sith weapon, to the flames consuming it from the inside out. His grip on it relented, either because he realized it was useless or because he no longer had the strength to hold it.
Anakin slammed the whole of the weapon down. It crushed the scaffolding and the stone platforms that had supported it. It crashed in a great explosion as all of the mechanical parts and wires collided with stone. The weapon folded into the chasm and ignited in a brilliant plume of fire. Stone shattered around it, and lava tore paths through the fractured ground and poured into the chasm in great, flaming falls.
Anakin tossed the Jedi to the ground. Some rose again to fight but then stumbled. Others remained on the ground. Sidious might maintain some mind control over them, but they were strong. They would regain control as soon as their connection to the Force could be reestablished. Before long, Sidious would have an entire army against him, Jedi and troopers alike.
Sidious knew it, too. His face twisted in displeasure.
"You have doomed the galaxy, boy. You have done nothing but give the Jedi and the Republic grounds to stay the same. What exists does not work. Surely you know this."
"All it takes is one change," Anakin said, "for everything to be different." He marched towards Sidious. "I believe in people like Padmé and Bail Organa… and people like Obi-Wan. They will see that changes are made."
"They have tried and failed, you foolish child." Sidious retreated from Anakin but never took his eyes off him. "They existed even as the Republic and Order fell. You have seen a future that they allowed."
"The future is always in motion."
Anakin dove at Sidious and hit him hard. Sidious moved with the same speed and precision as before, but Anakin's strength waned. His muscles screamed, head throbbed, and vision blurred. He pushed anyway and landed blow after relentless blow against Sidious' blade. Sidious ripped the ground between them and tore the chunk of rock he stood on right off the shore of the lava river. Anakin jumped onto the flat rock as it bobbled and careened with the flow of lava.
He and Sidious met blades at the center of the platform, retreated to their separate corners to catch a breath, and struck again. They matched each other, blow for blow. Anakin knew Sidious well from the future, but Sidious knew him likewise. Sidious broke the platform in half, and Anakin jumped after Sidious. They locked blades on a small wedge of rock that tipped and turned, threatening to sink in the raging lava river.
Sidious snapped that one, too, and both jumped to the shore as the rock sank. Anakin followed him without relenting, pummeling him, searching for an opening, and finding nothing. His body dragged. They hammered at each other up a hill overlooking the river's shore.
High ground.
Anakin gave ground to Sidious and let the Sith Lord's lightsaber near. It seared through his shoulder, though Anakin deflected with his own blade enough that it only cut flesh and muscle. But it drew Sidious close. Anakin took the blow and dropped. He planted a solid kick into Sidious' stomach and sent him flying down the hill. Sidious flipped and landed on his feet at the river's shore.
Anakin stood over him at the crest of the hill.
"I invested so much into you," Sidious said with a growl rumbling from his throat. He waved a hand. Molten boulders rose out of the lava at his command, and lightning danced across his fingertips. "What a waste."
He launched boulders at Anakin, one after another, and fired Force lightning into their midst. Anakin twirled his lightsaber and caught the lightning, though the sheer strength of it sent pulses of pain through his head. He tossed away the boulders with mental nudges. They came so hard and fast that it took more concentration than he expected. One he had to slash with his lightsaber to sever it in two, and the pieces flew around him and shattered behind him.
Through it all, Sidious ran towards him. Expecting enough of a diversion. Expecting to be able to strike.
Arrogance and pride. The belief that one could not lose to someone they thought inferior. Anakin had once stood in Sidious' place.
Anakin deflected all of Sidious' projectile attacks with his lightsaber. He slipped Obi-Wan's lightsaber into his hand. Sidious moved out of sight, behind the barrage of molten rock and lightning, but Anakin could feel him through the Force. Could feel his darkness and his hatred. And for the strangest moment of Anakin's existence, he pitied him for all those things. Sidious jumped at Anakin from above, using a boulder to shield his approach.
Anakin ignited Obi-Wan's lightsaber to cut the boulder apart. Sidious landed on him expecting the boulder to occupy Anakin's lightsaber; his face fell at the sight of two blades. But he was already in motion, and so was Anakin. Anakin dove forward through the shattered stone and thrust with his own lightsaber. Nothing violent or flashy, just a solid, clean stab.
Straight through Sidious' chest.
Sidious froze, impaled on the blade. He looked at Obi-Wan's lightsaber and then Anakin's lightsaber. Lastly, his eyes met Anakin's eyes.
"Treachery," he said with a gasp.
"You ought to have expected it," Anakin said without malice or pleasure. "In this lifetime, I don't fight alone."
Anakin withdrew his blade in one swift motion. Sidious dropped and rolled down the hill to the river's edge. Lava splashed over him and caught his clothes. Flames devoured his cloak and ran over him.
"This is wrong!" Sidious screamed. "You belong to me! You have always belonged to me!"
Anakin shook his head. He felt nothing towards this man who had, in another life, helped to destroy him. A part of him wondered who had destroyed Sheev Palpatine.
Sidious screamed as the fire crawled over him. Screamed as Anakin had screamed. He had known this pain. He had relived it many times in his nightmares.
"Consider this a mercy," Anakin said.
He reached with the Force and broke the ground beneath Sidious. It gave with little effort. The rock and sand fell away into the lava. For a moment, Sidious drifted on a tiny island of rock, as though maybe the Force deemed fit to spare him as it had Anakin in another life. Then the rock cracked under the heat, and Sidious sank. Glowing yellow and red liquid swallowed him, and he screamed and reached out with a hand.
No one came to his aid.
Anakin stood by until even the puff of smoke that Sidious had emitted vanished into the hazy sky. The darkness that had suffocated Anakin for years, the darkness of Darth Sidious, snuffed out.
A flicker of pain ran through Anakin's head and chest, and all of his muscles burned. The pain was different, something connected to him but not quite a part of him. His face snapped towards the plains.
"Obi-Wan!"
He disengaged the lightsabers and fixed them to his belt as he broke into a Force sprint, jumping over lava and hills. He reached the plains that had been shattered by battle and all of its upturned stones and stray rivers of lava. Jedi and troopers covered the area. No one fought. Anakin's eyes scanned the far edge of the chasm where he'd left Obi-Wan. His shield had failed, but the gathering of Jedi in the area confirmed Obi-Wan's location.
Anakin ran. People shouted at him, but he didn't hear them. He halted at a slight distance from Obi-Wan, still on the ground, and found several Jedi healers at work on him. Medic troopers stood by.
The healers ceased their work and leaned back.
"Is he…" Anakin pushed past a few of the troopers into the inner circle.
One of the healers, Vokara Che, looked up at him. Sorrow washed over her face.
"I am sorry, Skywalker."
Anakin's heart fell into his stomach. Obi-Wan wasn't dead. He could feel his life. Weak, slipping away, but it remained.
"Move," he said, and he pushed everyone else away. He took Obi-Wan into his arms and placed a hand on the wound. "Help me heal him."
"It is too late, Skywalker," Master Che said, quite firmly. "It is the will of the Force. It is a wound that cannot be healed—"
"If it was the will of the Force, the Force wouldn't have put me here to try and save him. Now help me!"
Anakin closed his eyes and focused on healing. A skill not his own, but borrowed. He sank into the Force, into that loud and powerful place, and pulled at its power. It did not resist.
Several more sources of strength joined his own. The Jedi healers had decided to help him.
Strength gushed out of Anakin until he felt he had nothing left. When he opened his eyes, he saw the last traces of healing light evaporate from his hand and from around Obi-Wan. When Anakin removed his hand from the wound, he found a torn tunic but a healed belly. A medic checked Obi-Wan—and laughed.
"It worked!"
Several people let out shouts of exclamation, but their words muddled together in Anakin's ears. Dulled by the roar of blood and a throbbing pulse. Anakin's vision blurred, and his world went red. His chest hurt in a way it never had before.
He couldn't breathe. Couldn't even ask for help. He wavered, one arm still tight around Obi-Wan, and then he dropped.