Chapter 2 - "Those who use the dark side are also bound to serve it." (Darth Revan)
'Are you sure you know what you are asking?' The figure leaned almost casually back against the stone monument, its edges looking sharp as a knife's edge. 'This has never been done before.'
"If you can't do it." Luke snapped, sending the dark figure a glare. "Say so and stop wasting my time."
He knew the agony from what was left of his right hand was making him short tempered but it was difficult, so difficult, to stay composed.
The assault of feelings that the figure projected were overwhelming.
The anger, the fear and the hate.
It felt…
Cold.
'Oh! Such anger from a Jedi!' A laugh rumbled from the figure. The smile under those yellow eyes was entirely too wide and showed many teeth. 'I did not say I wouldn't do it, but this is a dangerous game.'
The figure pushed away from the monument and closed the distance between them.
The cold that had felt like a distant chill, became colder and colder as the figure closed in.
Just like last time he faced a Sith.
When-
Luke grimaced as the memory returned full force. The memory of the sounds, the horrible smell, the pain, the dark and the terror when she-
No!
Don't think about that now!
'What we are about to do.' The figure suddenly explained as it leaned in far too close for comfort. Close enough to make Luke's skin crawl. 'Is the darkest side of the Force. If it is not done exactly right, it means the void for the both of us.' The dark figure narrowed its eyes.
'I would not even consider it, if not for the prize you are offering.' The figure opened and closed its hands while the silence fell back around them in the enclosed space that had not heard a living voice in an age. 'There are many rules to this and many things that can go wrong.' Then as if compelled by an afterthought, it added.
'I will survive. At any cost. Will you?'
The hall had become completely empty, if not for a few droids in bigger or smaller pieces that were scattered all over the floor. Luke walked faster and faster, but the hall seemed endless.
His hurried footsteps echoed against the walls in the oppressive lifeless darkness. Nothing living had crossed his path yet, not a droid or a humanoid of any shape.
He was alone in the dark
'Maybe this is not the past', a treacherous part of his mind added unhelpfully to his unease. 'Maybe this is just some empty underworld. Maybe this is not real.'
Then mercifully, there was an opening in the wall. It revealed another path, a walkway that cut across the one he was in. He walked closer and came to a full stop in front of the wide opening. It resembled a tunnel, the celling was lower, but the light was much brighter than the hall he had woken up in.
The lamps ran in pairs in the ceiling over a floor that was for every third step replaced by a see-through iron grating. He was careful not to get caught in the glow that came up through them when he threw a look back down, but he saw nothing moving beneath.
Still… his cloak dragged after him on the floor as he stepped around the grating, and walked closer to the wall where the grating did not reach.
He wouldn't risk something suddenly coming at him from below.
Then he heard it.
His head snapped up, eyes staring down the pathway. Violent sharp sounds rumbled in the enclosed
space, appearing out of nothing. The sounds of shots fired, and it was very close.
He took off as fast as his feet could carry him. The lights rushed past him. Relief and anxiety warred within him when he sent his force focus ahead, and zeroed in on a blinding force presence up ahead.
It was familiar, but still so very different.
Old Ben.
Only, he didn't feel old, Luke realized without slowing the pace. He had remembered Ben as a bright presence of light and comfort… but it was nothing compared to the strength of the presence he was closing in on.
Ben's signature was nothing next to this younger version of him. Ben had been more broken by what had happened than Luke had ever realized back home in his own time.
Luke's brow furrowed in determination. That future would not come to happen.
Not if his scheme succeeded.
It was only when he saw the flashing of blue, that he felt the other presence. A presence he did not recognize at all, because it had been destroyed around the time he had been born, but Luke knew who it belonged to.
Anakin Skywalker
A man Luke had never met.
Not really.
But he was the man Luke had come this far to save.
to be continued
