It is Your Destiny…
Naboo
Anakin Skywalker looked upon his only daughter and even through the filtered vision of his helmet, he could see the Dark Side fire burning behind her big brown eyes as it appeared to eat away at her very soul. What had happened to her, he could not fathom. He only knew that Yoda had been right. Only, he hadn't been able to accept or believe it until this very moment. But now he knew, for certain. He knew exactly what must be done. And it was with great sadness, yet an even greater determination, that he finally resigned himself to his apparent fate.
She slowly approached him, his daughter, holding her lightsaber pointed down toward the ground at her side.
"I will dispatch her myself," he said to Thrawn and Jade and the other foot soldiers that were standing beside and behind him.
"You heard him," Thrawn said to the others in way of his answer. "No one intervenes unless by my order."
"It will be by my order," Anakin corrected, walking further away from the crowd.
"Very well," Thrawn answered and Anakin could hear the amusement behind his words.
His amusement shall be short-lived, Anakin thought. For he would put an end to all of the Empire's Dark Side plans here today with the help of his daughter and eventually, he could feel it, of his son as well. He was The Chosen One and it was his destiny to bring balance to the Force. He only hoped that his actions would indeed save Leia. That would be a leap of faith. But if Yoda had been right thus far, he put his faith in the Force that the old Jedi Master's predictions would continue to prove true.
He stopped. They were standing very close to one another now - he and his daughter. Even though he had held her in his arms as a newborn baby and would always look upon her with the love of a father's eyes, she looked absolutely menacing to him at that moment. He could see the sunken cheeks and the tell tale paleness of her already pale skin. The darkened veins running up her neck and across her face. The lust for murder in her eyes. He thrummed his own lightsaber to life, deciding that this, as hard as it was to see, had made it easier for him. For how could he have ever drawn his weapon on his own child if she had looked any other way?
"Tell me," Leia said to him. "That you had nothing to do with the massacre on Coruscant."
Anakin swallowed down the urge to reassure her, concentrating only on Yoda's words and the task he had set out before him. "I cannot do that," his deep voice, one that even he didn't recognize, answered her.
She raised her lightsaber, placing it between them in an offensive position. "Then I have been called here for one purpose and one purpose alone," she growled.
Once again, Anakin hoped with his entire being that Yoda's predictions would prove true as he mirrored his daughter's offensive position with his own weapon and replied, "As have I."
The Millennium Falcon set down in the field next to Leia's X-wing. As Han, Chewbacca and Luke quickly descended the lowered ramp they saw in the distance two figures in the middle of a fantastic lightsaber duel. There was a small crowd standing by and watching them, among them was an unmistakable blue-faced chiss and a woman with long, flowing, fire-red hair.
"Leia!" Luke called as he approached his sister and recognized her as one of the two beings fighting with lightsabers and Force moves. She was fighting a large, cloaked man wearing a sloping, menacing helmet.
"Stay back, Luke. This doesn't concern you," Leia replied through gritted teeth as she picked up a large rock with the Force and flung it at the caped man.
Han and Chewbacca stood back and watched, Luke could see Han's gaze grazing over the tableau set out before them, taking stock of the number of people standing by - where they were located and how heavily armed they were. Chewie growled something, low and questioning.
"Do it," Han whispered back and Chewie stepped back and began to circle around and behind the Imperial Cruiser.
"Leia, don't do this," Luke said to her as he approached, his lightsaber at the ready in his hand. "This is what they want. Don't let the Dark Side seduce you."
"It's too late for me, Luke. It's all too late. Go," she said, glancing at him. "Leave while you can."
Luke turned on his lightsaber. "I'm not leaving you, Leia."
Almost instantaneously, as Luke's lightsaber thrummed to life, the red-head produced a lightsaber as well. She Force-leapt toward him, held up her red blade and immediately engaged him.
Han dropped and rolled behind a piece of the rock that Leia had thrown and began shooting at the soldiers flanking the chiss officer.
The field erupted with the bark of gunfire and the thrum and hiss of lightsabers as they cut through the sky and crashed into one another. Vader parried as Leia hacked and slashed at him, a fire simmering in her eyes. Luke and Mara, almost evenly matched, lunged and attacked one another with fluid moves while Chewie and Han were making quick work of the foot soldiers.
"Don't make me kill you." Luke screamed and Leia looked over to him. The red-headed woman was pressing her advantage against him.
"Finish me," Darth Vader whispered to her as she watched.
Luke leapt and parried, his lightsaber slicing through the air fantastically. But the red head was just as good if not better than him and Leia watched as her brother began to lose more and more ground.
"Leia!" It was Han's voice and he was loping towards her over the tall grass, shooting and diving from cover to cover as he approached.
"Stay back," she growled and Han stopped, seeming surprised by the way her voice sounded.
"Finish me now, Leia," Darth Vader said again, "and you can help your brother. Hesitate any longer and you'll both die."
Luke screamed and Leia turned and watched in horror as Mara Jade's red blade sliced her brother's hand off at the wrist. Leia looked back over to her father, her brown eyes turning a molten red.
"Leia, don't," Han warned, but she held her palm up to him and sent him flying across the field where he landed with a deadly thud.
She swung her lightsaber and her father met it. Her movements were quick and devastating, she felt possessed while the dark figure struggled to match her hail of blows. He held his lightsaber up, meeting her slashing attacks. Quickly utilizing the force of his parry, Leia performed a Force-enhanced back flip swinging her lightsaber around, landing on her feet and crouching as she sliced at her father's legs and watched him crumple to the ground.
Truly possessed now, her movements came from somewhere deep and dark inside of her and she sliced at her father's arm that held his lightsaber, the weapon falling silent as it and her father's severed hand fell to the ground. Standing over him, breathing heavily, she looked down at the stoic, black helmet with its large, blank eyes shining back at her like anthracite. Leia felt something, a strong and intoxicating pull. The anger and hatred buried deep inside of herself called to her, beckoning her into this void as black as that helmet's eyes where there would be no more pain, no more suffering and nothing and no one would mean anything to her any longer. She heard the sound of her brother's lightsaber behind her and Chewie's growls over the bark of gunfire.
"Leia!" Luke called to her, holding her there, teetering on the brink of that inviting abyss.
Slowly, she turned her head to look at Luke. He was on his side, trying desperately to fend off the attacking Sith, raising his good arm up over his head and meeting her vicious blows with his lightsaber.
"It's..the only way," her father said to her, and she was unsure if he had even spoken the words aloud.
Leia looked down at him. At this masked man that was her father. She reached for that place inside of her where lived the fond memories of a happy childhood filled with a father that loved her more than anything. Of riding upon his back as he carried her across this very field. Of the four of them, together and happy. Of the warmth and love that painted his face as he had tucked her into her bed at night. And of all the hopes and dreams he had ever instilled into his little girl's heart.
"Luke!" It was Han's voice now. And as she quickly looked his way, she saw him as he lay propped up on an elbow on his side where she had thrown him, blood covering his face and neck as he tried to aid her brother with some cover fire. Luke continued to struggle as he feebly met Mara's crushing blows.
Leia turned her attention back to the figure beneath her, dismissing the warm thoughts and memories that had stalled her hand just moments ago. Shedding them and tossing them aside easily, as she imagined this thing might take off his menacing cape and let it fall to the ground at his feet.
"You are not my father," she whispered, as she lunged and sent her weapon through the circuitry on his chest and deeper. The conflicting emotions of anger and hatred versus love and sadness struggled for dominance inside of her. She fell forward with exhaustion, letting her weight press her blade down further and further and deeper and deeper until she heard a muffled gurgle of pain through that indominatable mask.
There wasn't any time for Leia to think about what she had just done. Han was struggling to sit up as he continued to provide cover fire to Luke. Chewbacca was holding his ground with Thrawn, he and Han having dispatched all of the soldiers. Leia Force leapt to where her brother was clumsily defending himself. She immediately gave the red-head a Force push, removing her from her position over Luke and engaging her in combat.
Mara Jade growled and began to meet Leia's blows. However, almost immediately, Leia sensed something was changing. That something was wrong. The woman who had been adeptly dueling with her brother began to stumble and swing her saber haphazardly, as if drunk. And, as Leia pressed her advantage, the woman switched from aggressively offensive to sloppily defensive.
"I don't," the woman said, her voice shaking. "Something's happening."
Leia thought she felt it, too. The red heat, that was the Dark Side, seemed to be struggling to stay lit inside of her, flickering madly like a flame deprived of oxygen. But Leia worked at feeding those flames, at keeping it alive inside of her. She had killed her father and all those people on all those planets and those Sith. She had tossed Han aside without a single thought for his wellbeing or safety. If there was a point of no return, she was sure she had passed it. She couldn't stop now.
She swung her lightsaber down onto the woman, tearing the fabric of her armor and reaching bare skin. Mara screamed in pain and her lightsaber tumbled out of her hand and fizzled out as it rolled away from her.
"Please," Mara screamed, scrambling away from Leia as Leia stalked toward her, relentlessly pursuing her prey.
"Leia," Luke called to her. "Stop, please."
Leia Organa held her weapon at the ready and looked around. Luke was holding onto his severed arm, blood covering his remaining hand and flowing steadily through his fingers. Chewie was securing the Chiss to a railing of the Imperial cruiser and Han was struggling to stand up, rubbing his head groggily, his face and neck covered in blood. And her father, the man in the black suit, lay dead or dying just a few steps away from her. And she felt...nothing.
Looking down at Mara, Leia stood there for a moment. Her lightsaber hummed with life against the palm of her hand. It would be so easy to swing it down, aiming for and glancing right along the collar bone. In her mind she could see the arc of her blade and the curtain of red hair flowing in the wind as the woman's head rolled to the ground. She raised her lightsaber up and over Mara's head-
"Leia," her father's voice croaked from behind her, stopping her and breaking the spell.
Leia blinked. That internal struggled warred inside of her once again. She breathed one, two and three deep, cleansing breaths and then...powered down her lightsaber. Mara, breathing heavily herself, shut her eyes and rested her head against the ground.
Leia turned and stumbled back toward her father's body. His respirator was still shooting sparks and wheezing as it struggled to provide oxygen to its inhabitant. She knelt in front of him and reaching to the back of his neck, she slid the helmet off of his head.
It was her father's crystal clear blue eyes that were looking up at her. There was no pale skin. No telltale dark veins crawling up his neck. There was nothing in those eyes but the love and acceptance that she had always found there. The cold ball of anger that had been growing inside of her slowly shifted and began to melt away. "Father," she whispered, tears coming to her eyes.
"It…," he whispered and then coughed. "It...had...to be...this way."
And then his head lolled back, lifeless and heavy in her hands. For a moment she could only stare at him in shock. The situation too surreal to completely absorb. And then she fell forward, fisting at the fabric of his outfit and screaming a cry of infinite pain against his chest. She had killed a man. Not a Sith. Not an enemy. But her father. She cried aloud again, this time low and miserably.
When she looked up she saw Han, wiping the blood from his face as he limped toward Chewie where the Wookiee was tending to the injured Grand Admiral Thrawn. The red-head was wrapping Luke's arm and her brother's face was pale and drawn when his eyes finally fell on his twin.
She began shaking her head in disbelief. "What?" She asked her brother, tears streaming down her face as she looked back down at the blood on her hands and her father's lifeless body beneath her. "What," she said again louder, her voice rising with every word. "What could've been so horrible as to be worse than this?! How could our lives have been any worse than this?!" Then she looked to the sky, as if someone up there had the answers and she cried, "Tell me! How?!"
But there was no answer. Not from the sky. Not from Luke. Not from anywhere within herself. She looked back at her brother, but he could only shake his head at her in return, his expression one of shock.
Leia looked back down at her father's lifeless body, at the blood drying on her skin and clothing and more of it pooling on the ground beneath where he lay. She took her blood stained fingers and shut her father's eyes as she whispered, "What could've possibly been worse than this?"