Chapter 89

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Oliver Queen returned to his group and told them what that Laurel had tried to do. Buffy was angry. She knew it wasn't Oliver's fault, she blamed that Laurel for wasting their time. Buffy felt that Oliver probably shouldn't have spared her life. Ironically Anakin was understanding. During the Clone Wars Anakin had faced a number of decisions like that, more often than not he didn't show mercy towards his enemies. Perhaps if he had, he would not have fallen to the dark side of the Force. As they continued their journey they crossed into a number of mini-kingdoms. Some were ruled by old "friends" of Anakin. Emperor Palpatine, Count Dooku, Tarkin the cruel, all had their own mini-kingdoms here in Hell, any of them could still try to kill Anakin. Try as they might, they couldn't find anyone who knew where Dawn might be. If Dawn were being held as a prisoner, used as leverage against the slayer, it would be logical that this person would want it known that they had this valuable hostage. Despite this, noone seemed to know where Dawn might be. Then they found someone, someone who seemed to want Anakin dead. When Anakin fell to the darkside, and became Darth Vader, he had been wounded by Obi-Wan Kenobi. His injuries were so severe that he needed to be hooked up to machines, artificial organs, for the rest of his life. This part-cyborg was the image most people associated with Darth Vader, and it was this being who confronted Anakin and his group. It seemed obvious that this was another universe's version of Vader. Anakin told his group to leave, he would try and reason with this Vader himself. Still, Anakin had his lightsaber ready in case he had to defend himself.

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Vader: You did this to me.

Anakin: You did it to yourself. You made your own choices, as did I. But I changed, redeemed myself, so can you.

Vader; I will not.

Anakin: Together we can bring balance back to the Force.

Vader: And give up all I have worked for.

Anakin: And what has it gotten you? You're in Hell because you served the darkside.

Vader: And I will rule in Hell, rather than serve in Heaven.

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Anakin and Vader fought, and Vader seemed tobe the stronger fighter. Despite Anakin's best efforts to defend himself, and after an epic battle, Vader was ready to kill him. But then, our Anakin recieved help from a most unlikely source, himself. Another version of Anakin appeared to help him fight Darth Vader. Even combined these two were not much of a match for Vader, so they fled. They escaped and tried to rejoin Oliver and the others. As they did this, Anakin used this opportunity to question this other doppleganger.

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Anakin: Why did I get the feeing you knew this man?

Anakin 2: I did, once. We were both jedi knights, until he fell to the darkside of the Force.

Anakin: He became Darth Vader?

Anakin 2: Yes.

Anakin: I don't understand. In my world, I became Darth Vader.

Anakin 2: I've heard this. In several worlds I fell to the darkside.

Anakin: Please tell me, how did you have the strength to resist when I did not.

Anakin 2: If I have to pick a specific moment, I supposse it would be when I returned to Tatooine. I sensed that my mother was in danger, I tried to rescue her from the sand people, I arrived just in time to watch her die. I was enraged, started killing them. Then I saw this child, I knew if I didn't walk away, I'd probably end up slaughtering the entire village.

Anakin: I supposse that's it. I didn't walk away. I killed every man, woman, and child. After that, the Clone Wars began. Plenty of opportunities to succumb to the darkside in a war.

Anakin 2: That I understand all too well. I'd be lying if I said I always showed mercy towards my enemies. And chancellor Palpatine, he encouraged it. I didn't find out until later, Palpatine was grooming me to be a sith apprentice. He was planning to murder his own master...

Anakin: Wait a minute, Palpatine wasn't the master yet?

Anakin 2: No, his master was Darth Sidious.

Anakin: In my world Palpatine was Darth Sidious.

Anakin 2: In my world he wasn't. Ofcourse Sidious was also trying to recruit Count Dooku to replace Palpatine. No loyalty amongst the sith I guess. Anyway, I was secretly married to my beloved Padme, which was against the jedi rules. When she told me she was pregnant, I was overjoyed, but I was also terrified that she, and our baby, would die. Palpatine then revealed himself as a sith. He claimed, that if we were to overthrow Sidious, and I took his place as the new apprentice, together we could keep my family from dying.

Anakin: DId you accept his offer?

Anakin 2: No. It took all of my strength to walk away and inform the Jedi Council what I had learned. The Council arrested he chancellor, and we had to briefly take control of the government. That may have been our mistake, we thought the Senate would convict Palpatine, and maybe we could make peace with Dooku and his Confederacy of Independant Systems. But Palpatine's loyalists rescued him, including the man who would soon become known as Darth Vader. I guess I wasn't the only one that Palpatine was planning to recruit as his new apprentice.

Anakin: He probably wanted his potential apprentices to fight amongst themselves, leave only the strongest to still be standing.

Anakin 2: That sounds like his style. Anyway Obi-Wan and I fought Vader. We were both killed, but Vader was greatly injured, as you could see.

Anakin: Odd that he would still be suffering like that in the afterlife.

Anakin 2: Not really, makes him angrier, more prone to fits of rage, to the darkside.

Anakin: That I understand. What happenned after?

Anakin 2: Palpatine became the new sith master, and emperor. Count Dooku, who actually was a good man in my world, he lost the war and was executed on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Anakin: Was he guilty?

Anakin 2: It was war, so some of the charges yes. He may not have been a sith, but he succumbed to the darkside at other moments. Padme took our twins into hiding, she was forced to give Luke to my step-brother Owen. She didn't live to see the day when our children overthrew the Empire. And it seems that my Vader is still so consumed with vengeance, he will kill every last one of us and our loved ones.