Chapter 1 – Place of Legends

Plot: Despite his personal feelings, Anakin Skywalker is forced to return to Korriban to take the Sith trials. He leaves with cryptic messages and more fears than he came with. The vision he has of killing Dooku upon his return is only the beginning. Is it the future? Or one which he averted? Darker forces are clearly at play, but Sidious is dead, or is he?

Author's Note: This is the sequel to Trial of the Times, but you don't technically have to read it might. I mean you'll be a tad less confused... Lol. I'll just summarize. Essentially, during the Deception arc, Dooku finds Anakin on Coruscant and asks him to join him. He does, and eventually, after a lot of struggle, Anakin, Dooku, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka defeat Sidious and his allies. The four begin a new Sith Order where individuals learn to balance the Light and Dark Sides. :P

This should be updated every other week along with the rewritten version of Trial of the Times. Enjoy! :D

~ Amina Gila

"You could have been a monster." The disembodied voice is harsh, and though it echoes over and over in the tunnel, it still sounds unmistakably female.

"Tell me something I don't already know," Anakin mumbles under his breath, exhaling as he pauses to wipe the sweat from his forehead and check the wound on his side. It's not bleeding anymore, but it still stings horribly if he moves wrong. Shortly after his arrival on Korriban, he'd been attacked by a pack of Sith hounds. One Tuk'ata had managed to get a swipe across his side, and its claws had been long enough to pierce through his armor.

He shudders with revulsion at the sickening threads of the Dark Side curling around him. He uses the Dark Side freely now, but it feels oppressive here. If only it were easier to pass the Sith trials. No one has a map of this ancient Temple, so Anakin has been meandering around, hoping to find the center for the past – Force knows how long it's been.

After killing most of the Sith hounds, he'd successfully retreated into the Temple, leaving the rest to yap outside with displeasure. After entering into the inner sanctum, he'd chanced upon the opening leading to the bowels of the building with no small amount of help from the Force. A token is needed to prove your worth, but to take, one must also give. Dooku's words echo in his mind. The Count wouldn't explain anything more, because apparently, the Temple itself would decide the rest. That sentence was the only guidance he could offer.

"Bound in chains. Beaten. Enslaved," murmurs another voice. And that's the other thing. The deeper Anakin gets into the Temple, the more the Sith spirits harass him. The attacks on his mind is something he needs to learn to resist to pass the test. He knows this, but that doesn't make it any easier. It's only been one week since they defeated Sidious on this very same planet. He hadn't heard the spirits then, but apparently, they'd been watching. They saw the fight. They know his weaknesses.

"Chosen? For what?" A spirit mocks him. It pauses dramatically. "Say chosen for Falling."

Anakin curses silently. They're intentionally trying to annoy him – apparently, they've gotten bored without anyone to needle or harass. He won't give them the pleasure of knowing how much they're unsettling him. Cautiously opening a durasteel door using the Force, Anakin sighs when he sees the room – or pathway – beyond is pitch black. Already, the light streaming in from outside is scarce, but he's been reluctant to use his lightsaber, because it will give away his position. He'd rather sneak up on whatever may lay within.

"It's spooky isn't it," chuckles a spirit, and Anakin feels his lightsaber move. He instinctively grabs the hilt so none of them can run away with it. He hadn't thought it possible initially, but apparently, they can still use the Force.

Sighing, he ignites the lightsaber, holding it up to light his path as he steps through the doorway. It slams shut behind him, and he jumps slightly. Ghostly laughter reverberates through the room, hinting as to its massive size. Whatever this place used to be, the structure is still magnificent, Sithly or not. As he's moving cautiously along the floor, Anakin senses that the Force is moving strangely in here, almost as though it's above a nexus point. Nexus point. Perfect. This is just where he needs to be. Now, how does it find a way to the lowest levels?

"Put away your lightsaber." This voice is deeper than all the others and holds an air of authority to it. Anakin knows that resisting wouldn't end well, so he reluctantly extinguishes the blade, gripping it tightly in his mechanical hand as the cavern is once more bathed in darkness.

There's a heartbeat of silence which is so acute Anakin can feel it. Do they want him to do something? "Tell me what you want," he hisses finally, voice vibrating with a suppressed fury. No, it's fear. They're powerful, and they're persistent. A week ago, Sidious was in his mind. He's not exactly comfortable around Sith spirits who are trying to wear him down mentally.

"Listen," a female voice whispers, so Anakin does.

At first, he doesn't hear anything, but then, after a moment, he hears something. He can't quite make out what it is until it grows louder, the sound resonating throughout the room. It sounds oddly like a respirator. "What –" Anakin begins, when he hears the sound of a lightsaber igniting. Whirling, he sees a red blade, gripped in the black glove of a cyborg. He blinks in confusion, especially when he recognizes the armor. It's his armor.

"Young Skywalker," the vocoder rumbles, lightsaber casting an eerie glow behind Vader.

"This is insane!" hisses Anakin, throwing out an arm in disbelief. "What are you doing to me?"

"It is not me, but rather yourself," Vader replies cryptically. "Search your feelings. You know the truth in your heart."

Anakin might as well have been told that he's a shapeshifting non-human. "What truth?" he manages to demand, keeping his voice steady.

"What you are," Vader answers promptly. "What you were. What you could be. Everything that has been and has yet to be." Okay. That does not sound like something he would ever say, so Anakin decides he can safely assume it's either a Sith spirit trying to confuse him, or an actual vision from the Force itself.

He opens his mouth and closes it again, staring warily at the apparition before him. "Explain," he tries cautiously. There's something here… something… he's not sure what, but something seems off. Whatever it is, it's being masked by the sheer power located in this area.

"Everything you have done has led you to this place," the cyborg answers as the respirator continues with its rhythmic cycling. "In another time, in another world, in another universe, you would not be here." Obviously. Anakin already knows that every choice can change the future. Always in motion the future is, as Yoda always says.

"I understand," he nods slowly, the feeling that he's missing something never leaving him.

"You do not understand," Vader snarls, stepping closer, somehow seeming even more menacing than he had a moment before. "Foes are friends. Friends are foes. Death and suffering. Pain and loss. Visions do not the future make."

Irritation surges through him. "Would you stop talking in riddles?" he snaps. The respirator cycles once, and just like that, Vader is gone. Everything is as quiet as it was before. If he was supposed to learn or understand something from that – that apparition, he didn't.

"Everything in due time," the female's voice breathes almost mockingly.

Fine. Fine. He's not going to play their game anymore. He's going to find the opening which he knows is located somewhere in this room. Anakin lowers himself to floor, forcing himself not to think about what things might be on it as he completely opens himself up to the Force. The Dark Side thrums through him, nearly irresistible with its power, but he knows better. If he bows to it, he will submit himself to slavery. That won't happen.

It takes longer than he expected, but he finally senses the trapdoor located several feet away. He doesn't need light to see anymore; he has the Force to guide him. Rising to his feet, Anakin resolutely strides towards it, prying it open with the Force and leaping down. He lands with practiced skill before slowly venturing into the unknown. The darkness is thicker here, however that's possible. It's almost suffocating in its intensity, and the strength of the Dark Side down here is enough to nearly take his breath away.

Even the Sith spirits seem unusually subdued. Instead of taunting or mocking him, they remain completely quiet with only the occasional murmur. It's as though they're hanging back, afraid of something within the depths of the Temple. "I have been waiting for you." The words are filled with a cold malice and dark satisfaction, but it's not the tone that makes Anakin jump, it's the sound. It had been completely quiet – even the sound of his boots was oddly muffled – until that voice spoke.

Him. Of course. "It wasn't my intention to make you wait," Anakin retorts, trying to keep his voice from shaking. He must hear Anakin's heart pounding. This isn't real. It can't be real. He's dead. Anakin is certain he is. It's another test, one of the many the Temple has given him.

The resulting chuckle is far from fond. "So much power," he muses thoughtfully, "And to think, you could have become the most powerful in the galaxy, my boy." No. Anakin will not stand here listening to reminiscing about the past. The past will stay in the past.

"You don't believe that," Sidious mocks. "The past is why you are here." Anakin flinches back at the sensation of something probing at his shields, the icy fingers stabbing like pinpricks into his mind. "That is why you are mine," he adds.

"No," snarls Anakin, his anger swelling up like a tidal wave and crashing out into the Force. "No. I am done with your games. I killed you, and you will not continue to mock me."

A sigh. One which is filled with condescension as though Anakin is some child which needs to be coddled. It's barely audible as Anakin clenches his fists. "My boy, you cannot truly believe me to be gone," Sidious responds. Each word pierces Anakin like an arrow. "You know in your heart –" Those words are an echo of Vader's, and Anakin can't help but wonder if it's intentional or another form of mockery. "– where you belong. Everything you have done has led you to this place," Sidious echoes, the words sending a chill down Anakin's spine. "You are only forestalling the inevitable."

Fear grips him in a vice. The words sound like the Sith's, but Anakin knows they can't be. He doesn't sense another living presence in here with him. Stupid. Of course, he doesn't. Sidious's body is dead, but perhaps his spirit is not. Is this to be his test? Facing the spirit and proving he can return unscathed? That doesn't seem right either. When Sidious had latched onto Anakin's mind, as he shook it away, he felt it slipping away and disappearing.

But the question remains, is Sidious truly and completely gone? It's the uncertainty which is scaring him more than the potential implications. When he realizes that, he forces himself to take a step back from his emotions and look at the bigger picture. Even if Sidious's spirit is still here, it doesn't matter. He is here to complete his trials. That's all. Up to this point, everything has been working to stop him. To succeed, he has to overcome his fear.

Easier said than done, but recognizing that he is, in fact, afraid is the first step. He'll never be able to forget the feeling of that cold presence trying to dominate his mind and smother him out of it. For a moment, he'd been afraid that his body would cease to belong to him. That invasive action has left him scarred and shaken, though it's not something he likes discussing. Obi-Wan tried to get him to open up a few times, and though they did talk about it somewhat, it didn't nearly do enough to restore Anakin's confidence in his own mind.

"I can feel the conflict within you," Sidious purrs. "Give in to your hate."

The words strike a chord deep inside Anakin, and he makes his decision. "Sidious is dead," he states decisively, "And his memory will haunt me no longer."

The air thickens before tangible shifting around him. A glow suddenly appears at the far end and looking towards the end of the room, Anakin gets the impression of looking at an alter of some sort. "You are right, of course," Sidious's voice agrees, filled with malice, "But you are still making a grave mistake, young Skywalker. Or should I call you Lord Vader?"

Anakin scoffs, turning to see a hooded being watching him from the shadows. The clothing and posture all resemble Sidious, who is dead. It must be a vision-like being, just like Vader was earlier. He's tired of fearing what Sidious did to him. "I am the Chosen One," Anakin hisses, yellow eyes narrowing as he draws in the Dark Side, lashing out towards the apparition. It flickers before disappearing as though it was never there.

Final Note: This is one of four things I'm releasing today. ;)

Astromech Shenanigans

Trial of the Times Prologue - Rewritten

The Unseen Chapter 22

MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU! :D