Hey, I'm not dead and my plan is to finish this story this week. I know, finally. Well enough of me talking enjoy and happy May the 4th!
"I told you, you should have stayed behind to keep your family safe. Now their fate will be the same as yours."
"No." Anakin struggled to remove the cuffs, feeling the shock run through his body. He grunted as Palpatine walked around him and laughed.
"Did you truly think you could change what has been set in stone? You thought young Luke would grow up to be a Jedi with his heroic father by his side? Or Leia would grow up with the qualities of both you and her mother? Strong in the force with a strong voice and heart for politics? As you and Padme grew old together, finally getting to live the life you both wanted. A life without secrets or lies. A life of no war separating you both. A chance for you to finally be together." Palpatine gave him a sad look before smirking and laughing slightly. "I never thought of you as naïve or foolish, Anakin, but those dreams, those hopes, even you must have known it was never going to happen."
"My lord we found the Senator and the twins. She seems to be unarmed and alone." a voice over the intercom informed Palpatine.
"Good. Kill her, but I want the children alive. I have plans for the two of them." Palpatine informed the clone.
"NO!" Anakin shouted feeling the shock from the cuffs running through his entire body. He clenched his jaw and tried to break free. He looked next to Palpatine seeing his lightsaber sitting there on his desk and called it to him. He ignited the blade and sliced off the cuffs around his wrists.
He looked up glaring at Palpatine with such hatred. Noticing he was unarmed, he jumped forward with his lightsaber coming down before being blocked by Palpatine own blade.
"I was waiting for you to stop playing prisoner." Palpatine's eyes lit up with glee as everything was following right into place.
"How many times are we going to be in this same situation, Kenobi? Attacking each other for years with the same outcome." Maul asked eyeing up Obi-wan, waiting for an attack.
"Maybe if you didn't run away like a coward every time, this could have ended years ago." Obi-wan huffed feeling the battle waring down on his body. "Or if you just stayed dead, that would end this as well."
"Always quick with the remarks, if only your skills were that impressive." Maul leaped over Obi-wan as Obi-wan nearly grazed him but missed. He spun around blocking Maul's attack.
"It didn't have to be this way. It still doesn't" Obi-wan stepped back as Maul sent more attacks.
Maul glared. "Don't try and convince me there was another path for me. You Jedi decided my faith long before Sidious, long before I even had a chance."
"You honestly think Palpatine is going to keep your around? He was desperate for an apprentice and choose you. Once he fines something better he will replace just like Dooku and Anakin." Obi-wan found himself pleading. "It's not too late."
Maul laughed before smirking. "For you is it." He striked down grazing Obi-wan leg.
Obi-awn grunted and fell to his knee.
"Pathetic really. I expect much more of a fight after all our years together." Maul spun his lightsaber with a cocky grin.
Obi-wan shut his eyes and saw the face of Satine smiling at him stroking his face and the face of his master, smiling down at him encouragingly, proud of him for completing one of his trainings.
Obi-wan opened his eyes and as Maul stepped forward he pushed him forward with the force and stuck his lightsaber right through his midsection.
He heard Maul gasp as his lightsaber fell next to the both of them. He watched his legs give out on him causing him to fall on Obi-wan. Obi-wan slowly laid him down.
Maul slowly blinked realizing he failed yet again. "Tell...tell... my master...I'm sorry." He breathed out before shutting his eyes fully.
Ob-wan stood up trying to not put weight on his bad leg. He watched Maul's chest stop moving and he felt a sadness. A sadness he wasn't sure why he felt. This was the man that took so much from him after all these years. This was the man whom just mere seconds ago was about to kill him and wouldn't have felt the sadness Obi-wan is filling now.
Tell my master I'm sorry.
This last words. Just another pawn in Palpatine's twisted game. Another person like the thousands, himself included, that were tricked and manipulated for years.
Obi-wan looked down at him one more time, thinking how this could have been Anakin, how it was Anakin at one point.
Anakin... PADME.
He quickly ran as fast as he could hoping to find Padme and the twins hoping it wasn't too late.
"Red Four, he's right behin-" Ahsoka started to say to what used to be an x-wing but was now nothing more pieces of an x-wing. She shut her eyes, it was down to only her and Rex now. An entire army finished in mere minutes. Quickly she opened them, this wasn't the time for that. She had to focus. It was up to her and Rex to complete the mission.
"This is too small of a space to even try and maneuver around anything." Rex shouted out trying himself not to get shot at by a tie fighter.
"I know" Ahsoka sighed, gripping the handles to the ship tight. "I know. We just have to keep trying."
"I'm with you until the end, Commander." Ahsoka smiled slightly at the familiar name, reminding herself of a different time, a different battle they were fighting. Also fighting it seemed she was during. There always seemed to be some war or battle or enemy that needed to be defeated.
She noticed an opening up ahead leading into a much larger space within it holding the main reactor in the center.
"This is it." She smirked as her and Rex swung back around ending up behind the two tie fighters that followed them. Both shooting both of them causing a small explosion. "We got them."
"Let's just hurry up before more of them come." Rex said flying around the reactor.
"Are you ready? Once we shoot the missiles, we will have limited time to escape the Death Star. There won't be a second to waste." Ahsoka looked over at his ship, seeing him in the cockpit.
"I told you, I'm with you until the end." She nodded back and both of them hit the button to send out their missiles.
The moment the missiles made contact the whole room lite up and started to send explode after explode through-out the whole Death Star.
She barely even had time to look before her and Rex jetted out of there, maneuvering though all the same obstacles they avoided on their way in.
She noticed the flames from explosion getting closer and closer to them. She also noticed the darkness of space just up ahead.
Just a little bit closer. She pressed down harder on her controls trying to go faster. She wouldn't end this way, not when they were so close. Finally they broke though and she exhaled falling back in her seat seeing the Death Star fully exploding in the background.
"We did it!" Rex shouted.
"The funs not over yet." She smirked noticing that with the explosion a few enemy ships decided to leave probably trying to get as far from here as they could knowing they would be to blame for this, but a few decided to stick around. "This is where the fun begins."
Rex shook his head." You Jedi."
"Good, Anakin good. Use your anger." Palpatine laughed blocking Anakin's attack. "You still remember the power the dark side gave you. The strength it provided you."
Anakin kicked him back sending Palatine falling over his desk." I remember the pain, the suffering, the agony it caused. I remember hating every little thing about what was left of me."
Palpatine growled standing as Anakin swung his lightsaber at him. He blocked the attack, sending one of his chairs flying at Anakin. He watched Anakin step back only to be hit from the side with another chair. "You are weaker than I remember."
"Funny I was thinking the same thing about you." He smirked, quickly regaining his footing as Palpatine jumped over his desk and in front of Anakin with his lightsaber swinging down.
He blocked the attack, sending attacks. He ducked out of the way of an attack and swung his lightsaber hitting the window behind him sending glass flying all around. Anakin felt the breeze in his hair as he remembered being in this scenario before.
I have the power to save the one you love.
Don't listen to him Anakin.
I need him! NO!
What have I done?
"We have come back full circle haven't we." Palpatine waited for Anakin to make a move.
He looked up at Palpatine at the face he once considered a friend, a person he trusted more than most, a person who used and manipulated him for years, who made him become the very thing he swear to destroy for years.
"You took everything from me. You tortured me and mocked me for my failures for years. You made me trust you, made me think I could trust you over my best instincts and over the people who actually cared about me. You made me turn against them and give up this life I am living now. This life that has made me so happy." Anakin pictures all the tortures he had to endure, everything he did for this man. All the people he killed and the pain he brought on those he didn't. Everything he lost because of one bad decision. No horrible decision.
"I did nothing, you made every decision yourself. You were never destined for greatest, my boy. All your life they said you were the chosen one, but even with a second chance, I still won. I still destroyed the Jedi." Palpatine mocked him with sad eyes. "You have lost yet again and your fate will be the same."
"That's where you are wrong." Anakin lunged forward and Palpatine blocked all this attacks.
They both dodged and stuck attacks, both of them blocking each other's moves. Palpatine jumped over Anakin and as Anakin spun around he felt a sharp pain in his midsection. He looked down to see the red blade of Palpatine's stabbing him right in the midsection.
"What was that about being wrong?" Palpatine removed his blade as Anakin fell to his knees.
He failed. He failed everyone. The Jedi. Master Yoda. Obi-wan. Ahsoka. Padme. Luke. Leia. Everyone.
"Once more the Sith will rule the Galaxy." Palpatine cackled.
"You...you are wrong. Just cause I failed, doesn't mean I'm the last of them." Anakin felt himself growing weaker. "Doesn't mean you have won."
"You think Master Yoda or Obi-wan will be able to defeat me when the almighty chosen one couldn't? If you had any hope of your children avenging you and being Jedi, that won't be happening either. I imagine my troopers shall be leaving that pathetic rebel base with the twins here shortly and with them I will have two new apprentices. The children of the chosen should be just as powerful as you, well hopefully more." He chuckled at Anakin's failure.
It can't end this way. It can't. Not after everything.
Anakin struggled to stand only to be hit with force lightening that sent him falling to his back withering in pain.
"You are weak. You always have been. That's why you couldn't save anything." Palpatine stepped forward, watching the smoking rising from Anakin's body. "You seemed to have forgotten you are and have always been mine. Your whole life was controlled by me, everything that has happened has been because of me. You thought when Qui Gon freed you from that pathetic planet that you were free, boy you have never been free. You were born a slave and you will die a slave."
He continued sending lightening at Anakin as Anakin groaned out in pain.
This was it. This was how he was going to die. Imagines of this happening to Luke appeared in his mind. He wondered what was going through his mind. He knew he was probably afraid, but yet so brave and he was sure he never stopped believing there was still good in him. Even after everything he did to Luke, Leia, and their friends, he knew Anakin Skywalker was still somewhere in there.
Slowly, he tried to open his, trying to fight back the pain. He noticed his lightsaber thrown across the room. He clearly couldn't move and grab it, but he might still have a little bit in him.
He shut his eyes and focused as hard as he could until the pain stopped. He opened his eyes and noticed his lightsaber did exactly as he hoped it would. It flung through the air, ignited, and made contact right with Palpatine's neck.
He slowly chuckled but it caused more pain than anything. He laid on the floor wishing he could have seen the light leave his eyes or he could at least have some satisfaction of watching him realize that it was him that failed, that his cockiness yet again was his down fall. He killed Palatine once and for all. The galaxy and more importantly his family were finally safe.
He felt his eye slowly start to shut, but he didn't want to give up yet. He finally had a second chance with his family. He only had such little time with them, but he finally ,after so much years, felt such peace. A peace he had not felt, since the last time he died looking into his son face for the last time.
He finally gave in and shut his eyes. They would be alright, he made it so they would be alright. Obi-wan would protect them and Ahsoka. He knew they would. They would all be alright...
I would like to apologize for my lack of updating with this story. I thank each and everyone of you for sticking around. I've had a lot of mental health issues the past couple months and needed to step away and focus on that, but I plan on finishing this shortly. There will be one more chapter that I have already started writing so I hope you all continue enjoying.
I also just tortured myself with watching Revenge of the Sith so I need to start writing things with a happy ending haha.