Finding Palpatine was easy. All Anakin had to do was turn himself in to the clone troopers stationed at the front of the Jedi temple. The clones only nodded and wordlessly led Anakin up to the top of the temple's central spire.
Stairs led up to a hulking black throne which faced a wide round viewport. As soon as Anakin entered, the seat began to swivel around gradually to face him. Palpatine's face was pale and scarred just as it had been in the holo, his eyes a sick shade of yellow. It was the face of a monster, Anakin knew. The mask of a man was now gone both literally and figuratively. And in the force something horrendous - so rancid, so horribly unnatural. It had always been there, Anakin now realized, but now it was as if a dense fog that had hidden the horror just out of sight had lifted. How could he ever have thought this man was a friend?
"Ah, my apprentice," Palpatine said, his voice mockingly pleasant. "So nice of you to join me at last."
Anakin gave no response but to attempt to glare more intensely.
"You did not of course return to me out of loyalty, as I would have hoped, but out of fear," Palpatine continued. "But it makes no matter. We will soon do away with this ridiculous notion you have come up with that you have a choice in whether to obey me, Lord Vader."
Anakin still determinedly said nothing. The plan will work. I only have to stay here and keep him happy until the clones are free, he told himself.
Palpatine smiled a horrible smile as if he knew exactly what Anakin was thinking. "I've no doubt you are plotting against me even now, Lord Vader. Such is the way of the Sith. But I assure you, it will come to nothing. You would do better not to resist."
The worst thing was a voice deep inside told Anakin that what Palpatine said was true. That resistance meant pain, for yourself and for anyone you cared about. Anakin had been only 10 the last time he had really tried to escape. He had been working on the scanner for almost a year when Watto had found it. The thing had never even worked, but that hadn't mattered. It had still earned Anakin a beating unlike any he had ever experienced before. He had thought that Watto might actually lose control and kill him that day. His mother hadn't fared much better even though the whole thing wasn't her fault at all. It didn't matter.
It was five years later by the time Anakin dared again to do anything other than precisely what he was told. On that occasion, he had been shocked with a bantha prod then drugged into a more compliant state. The girl too had been punished, even though she had done absolutely nothing wrong. The look she'd given Anakin right before the bantha prod hit her had been thoroughly annoyed and unimpressed, and Anakin had never gone to the trouble to resist an order again. He knew that it would get him nowhere. The only real alternative to life as a slave was death.
But I did escape in the end, Anakin reminded himself. Not on his own, but Obi Wan and Ahsoka had helped him escape, and he was free. He would just have to trust that they would be able to help once more.
Palpatine let out an exaggerated sigh. "No, I do not think you quite understand yet, but you will. Now, I wish to speak in private, Lord Vader. Kill these clones."
Anakin gaped at him for a moment. He didn't know how he could still be surprised by anything the vile creature in front of him did, but the command was just so senseless. So ridiculous.
Even worse was the fact that the two clones that had escorted Anakin up here didn't even seem to react to the fact that their deaths had just been ordered. They made no motion to flee or to fight, just solemnly stood there waiting for him to kill them. If Palpatine had told them to jump out the window to the street thousands of feet below, they would have still done it, Anakin now realized. The chips in their brains gave them no choice. Somehow, the thought made Anakin all the more determined that he did have a choice and was not going to give into Palpatine's cruel whims. "No," he said firmly.
Palpatine laughed, and before Anakin could react, the two clones were thrown back at the wall behind them, their necks snapping instantly from the impact. "Let me be more clear. When I order someone's death, that person will die irregardless of what you think. Any defiance on your part will only make the situation worse. Now, send in two more clones," he said, speaking the last sentence into an intercom that was built into his throne.
"At once, my Lord," a clone's voice replied. The clones arrived seconds later. They glanced at the dead bodies of their two brothers, but made no sign of it if they had any misgivings upon entering the scene.
"Now let's try again, Lord Vader. Do not fret, if you fail again, there are plenty more where they came from. I'm planning on replacing them with a new line anyway, so it's really no matter to me how many we go through," Palpatine said with a smirk.
Anakin was seething inside, but he understood the choice he was being given. Either he killed these two clones or he refused, in which case Palpatine would kill them anyway, and he would have condemned two more innocent clones to death. It was really no choice at all. Igniting his lightsaber, Anakin stepped forward. The clones each fell dead with a quick thrust through their hearts. It was as quick and painless as he could make it, but Anakin felt sick. They were slaves. Slaves who couldn't even fight back and he had killed them. He stumbled forward trying to get far away from the bodies of the men he had just killed while simultaneously not wanting to be any closer to the vile thing that sat at the other end of the room.
"See, that wasn't so difficult," Palpatine taunted. "You're quite a natural at killing. It is what you were made for after all. But now I have another task for you. A bit more challenging perhaps."
He pressed another button on his seat, and a hatch opened in the floor, and through it rose a small platform upon which a small figure lie shaking and muttering in soft tones. The poor creature was a deep shade of green that Anakin first attributed to illness. That is, until he also took in the distinctive pointy ears and three fingered hands. "Master Yoda!" he gasped, rushing to the Jedi master's side. Yoda didn't acknowledge him or even look up but just kept on muttering, his eyes rolling around in his head.
"Yes, he's in quite a state, isn't he?" Palpatine remarked, coolly. "It is quite difficult to fully suppress force abilities in a being as powerful as our friend here. Honestly, I don't think I could even manage it with you. Not without causing permanent brain damage at least. But that doesn't matter anyway. You will remain loyal to me without the need for such crude measures. Anyway, between the useless state I have to keep him in and having to keep him out of sight of all the clones lest they attempt to murder him, I really think he may be more trouble than he's worth as a prisoner. But alas, he may yet have some purpose."
Anakin mostly ignored Palpatine's words, focused as he was on trying to get Yoda to snap out of it, to wake up, anything.
Palaptine smirked. "Send in a medical droid," he said into the intercom. Palpatine laughed at Anakin's look of surprise. "Well, we have to at least give him a fighting chance, don't we?" He pulled a small lightsaber hilt from inside his robes and threw it harshly at the Jedi. "Give him a half dose of the antidote," Palpatine told the medical droid when it arrived.
Despite his misgivings about the situation which was obviously some sort of trap, Anakin stepped aside for the medical droid to do its work. A moment later, Yoda's eyes stopped spinning, and they focused on Anakin. "Skywalker…" he said softly.
Anakin rushed forward and helped the Jedi master to his feet, passing to him the lightsaber Palpatine had thrown at him. "Yes, I'm here, Master Yoda," he said.
Yoda smiled slightly. "Came back, you did," he said softly.
Anakin didn't know how to explain that he hadn't exactly come back to rescue the Jedi Master, and he was in fact just as much a prisoner as Yoda was. Now didn't seem like the time. "Yes, I'm here," he repeated.
For some reason, Yoda chuckled. "Yes, here, you are. But less important, that is. Back from the dark side, you came."
Anakin looked at Yoda, momentarily stunned, forgetting all about Palpatine and the precariousness of his present situation. The moment didn't last though
"Well, Master Yoda, I see you are back to spouting your usual bantha fodder, so you must be in reasonable health once more," Palpatine sneered. "Now, Lord Vader, you will duel this Jedi and put an end to the Jedi Order once and for all."
No, Anakin thought. He wouldn't. Yoda had always been kind to him, one of the few Jedi Anakin had ever counted as a friend. Palpatine was his enemy, not Yoda. Anakin did not move.
Palpatine smiled in a way that was anything but pleasant. "No? Well, let me remind you first of what is at stake and then you can rethink your decision." Another platform rose out of the floor at his command. Another figure sat on this platform, not much bigger than Yoda, but this one at least wasn't shaking.
"Arlo!" Anakin shouted, rushing to where the child sat cross legged. But before he could get there, a torrent of lightning poured from the monster's fingertips. Anakin jumped in front of it as fast as he could, but not before the first stinging sparks struck Arlo. The little boy started to scream and cry, and it was all Anakin could do to keep from screaming too as the remainder of Palpatine's storm struck him.
The moment he regained control over his muscles, Anakin pushed himself upright and pulled a sobbing Arlo to him. "Shh, it's going to be alright. I've got you," he assured the child. He knew the words were empty, but still, he couldn't stop them from pouring out.
"Either you kill the Jedi or the child dies," Palpatine said, practically gleeful.
And Anakin understood, he did. Perhaps Yoda would even forgive him. Regretfully, he let go of Arlo and stepped forward, lightsaber in hand. Under normal circumstances, Anakin knew he wouldn't have stood a chance against the grand master, but given Yoda's still weakened state, he could probably manage. He took another step forward. Yoda didn't even pick up his lightsaber. Anakin froze. He was only inches away from his victim now. How could he do this? To someone who had been nothing but kind and understanding to him, even now after everything he had done. But he had no choice.
Yoda closed his eyes for a moment then gazed sadly at Anakin before looking up at Palpatine. "Be a pawn in your sick game, I will not, Lord Sidious," he said before stepping forward suddenly, right into Anakin's outstretched lightsaber.
Anakin gasped and belatedly tried to pull the crimson blade away. But then he saw to his surprise that the lightsaber did not pass through the Jedi. Instead, Yoda simply disappeared, leaving nothing but a small brown robe in his place.
