Chapter 6 – Do or do not. There is not try. (Jedi master Yoda)


Yoda had told him not to go. Yoda had told him to stay because he could not help his friends, and he had listened.

"I'm sorry." He said to the body crumbled at his feet. His knees hit the ground as his legs gave under him. With a sob strangled tightly in his throat, he grasped for one of the hands that were so very cold.

"Force I am so sorry." His eyes burned, his breath hitched and everything was so quiet now. He rocked back and forth and clenched the hand harder. His breath chocked, his fingers searched to find a pulse he knew wasn't there and his hands just wouldn't stop shaking. "Please wake up."

He shouldn't have listened.

"Please Han."

Why had he listened?

"Please."


The howl of the void swallowing up what was not bolted to the floor into the next room was so loud it made the metal door protecting Luke from its wrath seem as fragile as paper.

The others had escaped through the elevator. He had seen Obi-wan carrying Anakin over his shoulder and shoving Sidious inside the elevator before the glass gave. Luke had had to go for another way. There was no chance he would have made it to the elevators in time. Luckily there had been another door.

His heartbeat still hadn't calmed down after the close call. A part of him could not blame it. Every second beat felt too heavy and too sharp. It felt like knives in his chest that kept cutting every time he breathed.

Still the failure stung worse.

He did not know where he had ended up on this labyrinth of a ship. He fumbled through the force looking for the signature, but there was nothing but darkness answering the call. The room in front of him was just as dark. The lightsaber's green glow did little to reveal what had been in here save for a desk and a bed in the corner of the room. In all It was of little interest and he had no plans of investigating further.

All that mattered was that bright presence through the force that suddenly broke the darkness again. Confusion and disorientation was the feelings projected from it, before it settled into determination.

So Anakin was conscious again.

Damn it.

The wall was cold under his touch when he pressed through the opening to the other room that had all but collapsed. The bright presence glimmered in front of him in the force as he kept moving through the dark. The coldness from before was gone, he noted somewhat absentmindedly. Maybe it had just been an error in the heating system in that particular room.

His eyes caught sparks outside one of the small windows he passed, it gave an incredible view of what was left inside the gigantic room gently floating into open space. His foot dragged on the carpet consisting of some grey material, and he froze for a moment mesmerized by the sight.

It was beautiful in its own way, that destruction, but he had to be more careful from now on. The confusion shouldn't have taken him off guard like that, but it had, and he was left to search the ships many tunnels for the lost target.

He ducked under another broken opening he suspected had not been there a few minutes before. His robotic hand crushed the metal body of the droid on the other side aided by the massive force pressure of his force choke. He didn't turn to look at it when he continued down the hall.

Aside from the unlucky droid the hall was silent. Anakin's force presence was a beacon through the force just a little further…and where Anakin was Sidious would be as well. He knew how single-minded the Sith had been just before the fall of the republic.

But the series of rooms behind him were unexpected; it was too...human for an only droid inhabited ship. He remembered all the little lights that had went out suddenly, silenced in the very moment the explosion had rocked the entire ship.

Perhaps that had been all the life there had been on this ship, because he could fell no more people through the force aside from a handful specks of light at the other end of the ship.

There had been more life in the Sith's tomb.

It was close now, Anakin's presence, though for some reason it had stopped moving. It was close to the other presence that Luke suspected was Obi-wan and a third one that felt more like a void than a being. The anger flared up again.

He had to kill him.

He had to make sure that the future he came from did not happen.

Everything began and ended with Sidious and he was so close now. Anakin's force signature was coming from just around the corner. Leaning against the wall he threw a look down the hall and froze in place as his eyes widened in surprise.

'That is a lot of droids.' Luke thought.

Anakin with one of his companions at each side was marched between the cluster of droids in all shapes and sizes. There was also the particular nasty type that looked like a giant insect. The one that had that inconvenient shield that seemed to deflect even a lightsaber.

The green saber snuffed out before the procession came into view. None of them looked his way when they marched by. They wouldn't have seen anything even if they did. Cloaking himself in the force was a trick he had perfected through the years.

No one noticed the shadow following them, though at one point Luke was sure he saw Sidious look right at him.

The walk was long, and to his surprise none of the three seemed at all worried at being captured. Anakin even smiled at some point. It was disturbing on a personal level, seeing that complete carelessness in the face of such danger. There was nothing funny about being caught by the enemy, he thought and his wrist burned in phantom pain.

Nothing.

The clanking of the many marching steps was so loud he considered not silencing his own steps, but decided against it. He had not come this far to ruin it by taking stupid chances.

The scars though had muted now, numb in a way that made his skin fell dead. He supposed that meant he was safe for now. Of course he could not be sure.

Before long the march slowed into a crawl. The insect-like robots broke off and sped down a corridor to the left. Still, neither Obi-wan nor Anakin made a move to resist their bindings with their now much smaller guard, and when they were ushered through a door they followed quite willingly.

It was a tight fit but Luke slid into the room just before the door closed.

It was a cockpit. With all the little different coloured lights it could be little less. Again he stared at the two Jedi with growing wonder. 'Why are you not doing anything?!'

Then he saw what they were staring at. It looked like a droid, but it had a heartbeat and a presence in the force, a cold presence.

'Another Sith?'

But there was only supposed to be two!

"Ah… the negotiator, general Kenobi." The not-droid spoke. The way its voice sounded, reminded him of Vader. "We have been waiting for you." If a robotic voice could mimic glee, this was what it sounded like. Luke shifted to the side as one of the droid in the guard pushed past the others with a muttered' sorry' and went to its leader.

"That wasn't much of a rescue!" The droid with the heartbeat continued its monologue, snapping a hand forth to the smaller droid and taking something from it hands. Luke recognized it immediately, it had been his for more than three years before he lost it.

Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber.

"And Anakin Skywalker." It continued, ignoring something the smaller droid muttered to itself. The leader closed the distance between them, walking straight past Luke without noticing anything but the captives in front of it. "I was expecting someone with your reputation to be a little…older."

"General Grievous." Anakin replied looked extremely bored. "You are shorter than I expected."

Despite himself and knowing no one could see him Luke still shook his head in disbelief. That was the second time in just as many enemy encounters that Anakin had brought up height. For someone that tall he sure was fixated on it.

Grievous, he now knew what the general was called, just coughed in response. But if eyes could kill…

The annoyance in the general's eyes somehow reminded Luke of aunt Beru for a moment.

"Jedi Scum." The general scoffed and turned away.

"We have a job to do Anakin try not to upset him." Obi-wan commented looking even more bored than Anakin.

There was in response a very familiar beeping, and Luke forgot everything else in the room when his snapped his eyes down to follow the sound.

R2?

He was hit by massive wave of homesickness when he looked down at that familiar friendly form. He had known that R2 would be around somewhere back in this time, but seeing him suddenly like this, how he used to be, alive and well was-

"Your lightsaber's will make a fine addition to my collection." The general said and forced Luke to focus on the present.

"Not this time." Obi-Wan spoke up, finally with some determination in his eyes. "And this time you won't escape."

Before Luke wondered exactly how they would go about that with both of them bound and weaponless, Anakin shouted R2's name.

For lack of better description R2 responded to the command by exploding. Every little trinket he had under his casing activated at the same time including a rather sinister looking electric charge.

Everyone jumped back, everyone but Obi-wan. The lightsaber sped past Luke on its path to its owner and within seconds Obi-wan was free, along with Anakin.

"Crush them!" Grievous ordered behind Luke. "Make them suffer!" The General finished and the tall droids that had been flanking him activated what looked like a poorly constructed copy of a double-bladed lightsaber.

Unseen by all Luke was already moving.

Luke crossed paths with Obi-wan when he moved to pursue the general. Anakin was busy fighting one of the tall droids alone. Before Luke could reach them, the door leading out had opened when two of the smaller droids tried to drag Sidious off to somewhere.

Anakin followed.

In a shift and practiced move it was over. The tall droid lay broken on the floor, with a slash carved all the way through it. The melted metal still smoked when the two smaller droids joined the other on the floor in pieces.

"Stay at your stations!" The general yelled. Anakin turned eyes focused straight ahead into the cockpit. Luke followed the look with his eyes and witness Obi-wan decapitating a droid that kept fighting regardless. Anakin moved into the room, leaving Sidious unguarded.

Luke's heart skipped a beat. No one was watching the Sith. Sidious was alone

This was his chance!

The cloak fell from him the same moment the lightsaber ignited. Right behind Sidious. He hesitated to strike, not liking the idea for cutting someone down from behind, not even him. Thankfully Sidious solved that problem himself when he by some instinct turned on the heel and froze when he saw the lifted green blade.

"Goodbye." Luke said regretting that it would have to be so done so fast. It was more than he deserved. But speaking up had been a mistake. It wasn't the neck his blade tasted when the strike fell. It was a familiar blue blade.

NO!

NOT AGAIN!

"You again!" Anakin roared and all pretences of being bored vanished. "You persistent bastard!" Anakin swore going in for the attack. He hit like a hammer. The blow Luke just barely blocked would have taken his head clear off in one clean strike. He backed up, back into the room, pressured by the strikes raining down him from all sides.

How could someone that strong also move so fast?

"Don't bother with them! Keep the ship in orbit!" The general yelled somewhere, a little too close for comfort. He dodged another strike, tumbling over a console and found himself at the very front of the cockpit.

It was only by sheer luck the green lightsaber intercepted Anakin's lightsaber in time.

"You are not Dooku's apprentice." Anakin's voice rumbled past the interlocked lightsaber's. "Your fighting style is nothing like his." He increased the pressure to the point where Luke's arms started to shake under the immense force "And you killed him in cold blood."

Dooku's apprentice?

Whatever had given him that idea? Luke was just about to deny it when he stopped himself. He might as well go along with that explanation. It was a better one than he could come up with right now, and

Obi-wan was moving in from the side.

He needed a distraction, and he needed it right now!

"The rule of two. One to hold the power and another to crave it." He said, digging up the knowledge of the Sith he had managed to find. That rule had always been there, in every single text. "In the end, the apprentice always kills the master. It is the way of the Sith." Luke added grasping for straws as he saw Anakin's go from enraged to furious, and went for the jugular. "Not the way of the Jedi though, is it?"

And Obi-wan who had already lifted his lightsaber to strike stilled completely.

"Oh, he didn't tell you?" Luke continued pushing out of the block while trying desperately to catch his breath. "While you were out, your little apprentice was about to cut off my master's head." He added with as much venom as he could manage in this stressed situation.

"Ani-" Obi-wan looked nothing short of horrified

"I am a knight now, and it's called padawan. Not apprentice"

Oh.

Another word he didn't know.

"Same difference." Luke snapped, even if he in the same second was beset with overwhelming self-doubt. There was another thing he didn't know, basic knowledge that any Jedi should know.

"You lose General Kenobi!" The General suddenly shouted right behind him. Luke turned just to see the imitated double-bladed lightsaber hit the glass, heard it crush. Then the ground disappeared under him and he was torn from the floor and flung into the darkness outside the ship, into open space.

He knew though the fear that he should try to hold his breath, but the panic overruled reason. The force didn't react to his feeble attempts to command it. The control slid between his fingers like he was trying to catch smoke with his bare hands.

He couldn't breathe!

The open space loomed all over. His lungs burned, his eyes felt like they were exploding inside his head and everything was turning dark.

He couldn't breathe!

Then he hit something, and hit it hard. But suddenly there was air! Sweet wonderful air! He coughed, gasped and curled up on the cold surface he had landed on. Strands of his damp hair stuck to his face, but he didn't care. All that mattered was that he could breathe again. He heaved air back into his lungs, gulping it down in huge gasps as the world slowly slid back into focus.

Somewhere over him, he heard the sound of an airlock snapping closing, and he tilted his head up and regretted it immediately. General Grievous' yellow eyes were staring down at him. Before he could move Grievous ignited the lightsaber in his hand and the beam stopped just short of Luke's eyes.

Luke had to turn his head away, to protect his eyes, even if that meant exposing the throat. Grievous crooked his head slightly keeping the lightsaber in place as he leaned forward. To his horror Luke saw the general flip the torn garment away from his right arm, revealing what the robe's thick sleeve had been hiding.

"That's some very interesting scars you got there."


To be continued