Author's note:
Hi everyone Happy Halloween :) Here is the next chapter.
A special thanks goes to Shinigami Merchant for taking the time to Beta.
Chapter 13 -"What greater weapon is there than to turn an enemy to your cause?"— Bastila Shan
"I still doubt that you will be able, to commit the act, when the time comes." The Sith was pleased sharing this, Luke could tell by the way there was a spike in the force.
"Don't look at me like that." The smile widened enough to show a glimpse of yellow teeth "There is little shame in it, many have failed before." The Sith moved its right hand restlessly, as if the hand had lost its purpose without the knife, even if there were still dark lines painted on the skin of his hands between the fingers, heavy and dark like scars.
"You don't need to worry about that." Luke said, thankful for the unexpected gift. The pleasure of telling the Sith what he was going to do to its face. "I am not who I was before." He continued and knew this was the true path. Anakin's attraction to the dark side had to be strangled in its cradle. "I have killed over a million people".
And he had been happy about doing it. He had had every right to be. Left to roam, the Death Star could have wiped out entire civilizations in a heartbeat. In time it could have destroyed entire systems, and carved a void into the galaxy.
But there had been consequences despite his best intentions. Because intentions did not matter in the force. There were no grey areas. There was the dark and there was the light. Evil, was evil.
And he was the most famous mass-murderer in the galaxy.
"And I came here with the intention of killing at least one more."
Luke had travelled back in time for a second time.
He was sure of it.
He blinked again, assured that his eyes were playing games with him, but the scenery did not change. The bar the clone trooper had finally stopped in front of had looked like nothing special… until he went inside.
The only other time he had seen so many white armours and grey uniforms in one place, was a battlefield. The sound was deadening and distorted but even in the coloured flashing lights there were no mistaken those uniforms.
He felt like he just gate-crashed a party on a Star-Destroyer.
There were that many soldiers.
He caught himself staring too long at a naval lieutenant who stumble past, clearly already drunk even if it was still early in the evening. The man's uniform was a mess, but for a moment Luke could not take his eyes off him. He had rarely ever seen an imperial officer this close. Alive that is. He had caught plenty of storm troopers during the war, but extremely rarely an officer.
They usually… made sure they weren't captured alive. Having met Vader, Luke somewhat understood that choice. He had had a similar reaction himself.
He shook his head and slipped through the crowd, 'Don't notice me' whispered through the force as his eyes wandered in the search of the trooper that just slipped the hook. It was like finding a needle in a pile of needles. A seemingly impossible task.
But he had done the impossible before.
"Run this by me again Rex." Anakin said, he couldn't wrap his head around it. "I have never heard of anyone using force persuasion like this…"
"Theoretically it is possible." Obi-Wan cut in. Anakin felt the frustration move under his carefully constructed façade, but he allowed the interruption. This debriefing was going nowhere knew, just like Obi-Wan should, that what Vader had done should be impossible, but they had both seen it happen this day.
"It would take an extreme amount of control and a considerable potential in the force to back it up, I know." Obi-wan continued addressing everyone in the room. At the end he shifted his gaze to Windu and Yoda. "But it is possible."
"In your own professional opinion?" Windu asked, his expression a constant frown like always. Anakin could not for the life of him remember ever seeing him smile.
Ever.
"I have never heard of it being done on this scale, and for so long." Obi-Wan answered carefully. "But it should be possible, as we have just seen the evidence today."
"Indeed." Windu replied, somehow able to pronounce the word as a question with his eyes shifting to Rex. The constant frown deepened.
"Maybe he wasn't doing it on his own." Obi-wan speculated out loud. "There was something about Vader's force signature that felt...off." He made a weak gesture. "It is hard to explain, but it was like his signature in the force was out of sync with his own body."
"Felt this too, I did." Yoda commented, his expression folded into a thoughtful one. "Peculiar, young Vader feels." His eyes strayed to Anakin, and he knew exactly what he was thinking of "Meditate on this, I must."
The holo in the middle of the room repeated its cycle. The image of Anakin clashing with Vader replayed for a second time before them. Or rather…. Anakin's duel with the civilian Adrian Walker, a mildly force sensitive bartender. He had had no training in the force whatsoever.
It bothered Anakin still. Adrian's force signature was a little above average, but still so little that it should not have been able to produce the fighting manoeuvres he had displayed under Vader's possession.
"Commander, I know recent this is, but describe how Vader controlled you, you can?" Yoda asked, and stared for a moment longer at the projection before he moved his eyes to meet Rex's exhausted ones.
Rex's stiff form relaxed minutely when Yoda spoke to him. Yoda always had a calming effect on the troopers, Anakin had noticed this on more than one occasion.
"It was strange… most of the time, I did not notice something was wrong. It was like Vader had convince me that he was my friend. " Rex paused and added quietly like he did not really mean to "I actually believed he was." He shook his head and his eyes strayed to Anakin. "It was first when I talked to you, sir that the fog lifted for a moment."
"How much do you remember?" Anakin asked trying not to sound angry, but he could feel the frustration he was barely containing within. Too much had already happened this day. He needed to get Vader and close this investigation fast, so he could move to deal with the really important thing that had happened today.
He sighed inside and breathed in to centre himself. Just the thought of Padmé released some of the heavy tension in his shoulders.
"All." Rex answered like he had just taken an injury, unaware that Anakin's mind had drifted. Anakin forced himself to concentrate. Rex released his breath in a huff. "So feel free to ask away, sir."
Obi-Wan stared at the holo projection, there was a slight frown forming between his eyes. Anakin instantly didn't like it. That expression had become entirely too familiar on his old mentor. The expression he always had favoured before only left little lines at the corner of his eyes.
Anakin did not know why he only realized this just now. He watched as Obi-wan sighed, looking older than he was and straightened."Rex, where do you think Vader-"
"Why stun?" The question escaped Anakin suddenly, unbidden, and sounded a lot stronger than he wanted it to. Obi-wan shot him a look, but he did not say anything to the interruption.
"Sir?" Rex asked, but the moment after he had spoken Anakin could see the sudden realization in his eyes. "He ordered us not to kill, sir" And added as an afterthought. "He was very insistent on it. Just as he insisted that we stayed alive at all cost."
"Why?" Mace Windu, moved from his position against the wall, his steps measured and seemingly marred by a suppressed wrath. "What could he possibly get out of that?"
"I don't know, Sir. He did not tell me." Rex shifted on his feet, uncertainty shone back at Anakin through the force.
"Anything you can tell us about Vader is important." Anakin said, trying to reassure the veteran soldier and to his satisfaction he saw the uncertainty start to fade.
"It might not mean anything. But he looked like he was mortified at what he was doing to us and…" he sighed an odd sense of resigned hopelessness echoed in the force from him. "He apologized to me… and he meant it."
"Lied, Vader could have." Yoda said, but only presented it as a possibility, he did not look like it was what he himself believed.
"I know what people look like when they lie, sir."
"Bail Organa told me Vader had yelled at him for being irresponsible." Windu said suddenly like he did not like his own words. Windu had never liked things that did not make sense, neither did Anakin if he was honest. Windu shook his head and the frown that had taken up permanent residence on his face deepened. "Senator Organa said Vader appeared genuinely furious about it."
Anakin's thought came around form another loop of reasons that Vader could have to do this, and once again came back empty. None of the threads connected.
A separatist agent on an assassination mission would not stop the clone troopers from shooting each other full of holes. That would be immensely stupid. A Sith, whatever his allegiance, would also not care about casualties. Furthermore, a Sith would certainly not apologize for using the dark side and mean it.
And why actually yell at Senator Organa like that?
Despite himself he felt a little on the old eagerness alight inside his chest. He always enjoyed a puzzle, if only the stakes had not been so high this time. It was so long since he applied his detective skills like this.
"Stop." Obi-wan was suddenly at the controls to the holo, his fingers moved fast as the holo rewound, and froze. Anakin was on the ground face down, above him was Vader, the vibro blade in his hand raised like an executioner's axe. Obi-wan straitened "Watch, what Vader does." He said and set the holo to play again, but in slow motion.
Anakin stepped into the blue light, it reflected on the lightsaber in his belt as he leaned in, prepared to catch the obscure detail Obi-wan must have picked up. Only the detail presented itself quite boastfully, like it was somehow proud that it had avoided detection after so many repetitions.
When Vader's blade dove, its sharp edge was gleaming in the sunlight, but Anakin instantly saw what he could not have seen the first time with his back turned. "Did he just… turn the blade?"
The image froze. Standing there in clear view was Vader striking down at Anakin's exposed back, but the blade had been deliberately turned so that if it had hit him, it would have been with the blunt harmless side instead of the deadly sharpened one.
"That does not make any sense." Anakin said, shaking his head and not believing what his eyes were telling him. "That's…" The unfinished sentence hung in the air. He had felt murderous intent from Vader, even if he now had to admit to himself that the feed-back that he had got from Vader had felt distorted. Like static on a frequency, that blocked part of a message out.
"A Sith that does not kill…" Windu mutters more to himself than anyone else. "And here I thought that I had seen everything.
"Wait." Rex was suddenly there beside Anakin. "Play it again, sir." Obi-wan's fingers moved fast over the controls and the fight started again from the beginning. Rex's gaze was fixed on Vader as they ran though the now familiar fight pattern. "The way he moves… is that not familiar to any of you?"
There was shock coming from Rex in waves, through the force.
"Should it be?" Anakin asked but turned back to the fight replaying on the holo. It was a strange mix of most of the Jedi combat forms. It should not have worked as fluently as Vader somehow made it do. "What are you seeing Rex?"
A click and the recording stopped. The image of Vader clashing with Anakin was suspended frozen between them. "The way he fights, moves and strikes. I was taught the same thing."
"Excuse me?" Obi-wan stares at Rex as if he suddenly sprouted a second head. Anakin doubts his own expression is much different.
Rex is unmoved by the stares, there is only certainty glaring back at him defiantly though the force. It is not a comfort and Anakin does not like the sudden stillness in Windu's posture.
"Rex-"
"This is the way I learned to fight in close combat. It is the way all clone troopers learn to fight" Rex starts the recording again. Vader on the screen dodged a strike and follows up with a counterattack in a move that suddenly looks uncomfortably familiar. "Aside from a few Jedi moves, he fights exactly like a clone trooper."
"Rex, that's impossibl-"
"Exactly like a clone trooper, sir." Rex's expression was carved in stone, but in the force Anakin could feel the implication of that possibility sink in. The thought of an unknown traitor crossed Rex's mind, and the though was lined with guilt. Rex had a habit of blaming himself, even for something out of his control.
Anakin considered this thought. A traitor trooper. But what would the point be of training a Sith to fight like a combat soldier in close combat? The Sith had their own combat training.
There was a nagging in the back of his head, it was the feeling he got when he had missed something, something important. Whatever it was, it kept itself hidden from him.
Instead he was only getting more questions
"So, I guess the 501st are back on Coruscant." The door closed behind him and his heart thundered loudly into his ears. He had to make this work. If he could only get in contact with the commander and explain this-
"Oh yeah… we just got back from Ringo Vinda, strangest thing happened out there." The trooper still has his back to him, staring at himself in the mirror.
"Yeah.. I know." Fives says, trying to find a way to explain now that the time has come. He knows how insane this will sound. 'How can I possibly explain?' He thinks, and the panic starts to move again. Then the soldier looks up and spots him through the reflection in the mirror.
The man moves like he was hit by lightning, spins around and freezes on the spot.
"Fives?"
Luke was getting nowhere
The room was so poorly lit that it was a struggle to identify one person from the other. It was a sea of uniforms under the many screens littering the walls. The red neon light carved into the ceiling was mixed with blue light giving everything a purple tint. The stench of alcohol and spices lay thick in the air.
The dancefloor was packed, even if only a few had any dancing skill worth mentioning. Luke stopped against the wall taking in the sight and scent, the force looking for the man he followed here. The noise of the voices talking was louder than the music, that was a simple monotone bass that echoed everywhere in the room.
The naval officers were easily recognized and they were filtered away from his search with hardly a thought. Their minds were not hard to locate. The minds of the clone troopers on the other hand felt exactly the same with their gaping open force signature. It made it hard to tell one from the other.
A warning spiked behind him in the force and he quickly slipped into the shadows. A second later five clone troopers walked in through the entrance. Their armour was white but painted red in places that must have marked them as something different than the regulars. Luke did not know what that signified.
Were they some sort of elite?
"Have you seen this clone?" Luke hears them question a man standing by the entrance. A holocom lights up in the trooper's hand. That is not what catches Luke's attention though. It is the man in the middle of the room that freezes at the sight. Luke is only more sure when the man reaches a hand up, seemingly to straighten his hat, but really is just a move to hide his face.
"Erhhh… No Sir." The man answers at the entrance, but it is only background noise to him now. "I haven't seen him."
There was a flicker in the force that made him completely certain this was the same trooper he saw hours before. That, and the fact that no clone trooper he had ever heard of had worn the uniform hat of a naval commander. 'One that was sober that is' He thought when his eye caught something in the drunk crowd that he doubted he would ever forget.
He never knew that clone troopers could be that flexible.
Correction: he didn't want to know clone troopers could be that flexible
He visibly shook himself and followed the trooper out, keeping his eyes fixed on the man that made quick work at slipping past the newcomers. If it had been Luke leading the team, then the trooper he was following would not have left the bar, but the team in the red uniform had not even posted a guard at the entrance.
A beginner's mistake.
Cold air brushed against his face as he followed the man back outside. Then he realized his mistake when he spotted one of the troopers in the red uniform right outside. He was in conversation with two other clone troopers.
The trooper Luke was following noticed the man too. Luke could tell easily, because the man stopped halfway through a step and eyed the speeders lined up at the entrance.
Luke watched as the man neared the speeder, his intent could not be clearer in the force. Luke resisted reacting to it.
He wanted nothing more than to end the chase here and find out why this man was so important, but the same urge that first told him to follow this trooper made him hesitate now. The force told him to wait.
Understanding little, he allowed himself to trust in the force one last time.
The trooper in the red markings stopped, his head snapped around to keep the clone trooper in his sight. His hand is already reaching for the holocom when Luke's hand falls on his armoured shoulder.
"That is not the clone you are looking for." He says extending his force presence gently.
"…that is not the clone I am looking for."
"I can carry on."
"You can carry on." The clone trooper dismissed Luke as unimportant with a slight wave and yelled at a pair that was leaving the bar. "You two! Stop!"
Not wanting to ruin his good luck, Luke made his way to one of the taxis parked a few steps away. It was a long line and the taxi waiting at the front looked like it had been through a war as long as the one Luke came from. But there was some charm to its damaged appearance.
"Are you going to pay?" The taxi driver spat out like anyone else would have in a curse. He did not even look at Luke as he took a seat in the back.
"No." Luke answered casually while getting more comfortable in the backseat. "But you won't mind."
"I won't mind!" The alien twisted in his seat his eyebrows raised so high that they seem a part of his hairline. "What do you think this is-"
"Follow that speeder." Luke ordered without looking at the driver. The man stiffened, then turn back facing the steering-wheel and obeyed. During the drive Luke's control on the alien's mind was constant, it had to be. When he tried to relieve the pressure a bit, he could feel the aliens mind rebel against his leach.
That was worrisome.
Either the alien's mind was strong, or he was getting tired.
The short time he spends in the speeder was largely uneventful; he did not really bother to study the city around him as he did not plan to stay much longer anyway. He didn't want to notice anything that might prove to be a distraction.
The taxi stopped besides an older building. It looks an industrial area, if the large grey buildings are anything to judge by. It is not one of the finer ones by his guessing, the walls just beside him is damaged by the elements and the smell that hangs in the air is one of mild decay.
The lights on the taxi are both broken and for that Luke is grateful. The trooper could otherwise not have avoided seeing them. But in the end the trooper sees nothing as he disappeared inside a large storage building, and leaves his stolen vehicle outside.
'Not used to being on the run' Luke noted with a silent observation, not sure what to do with that. The clumsiness was almost endearing.
Almost.
"I will leave you now." He told the taxi driver. "Thank you for your time. Go back where you came from." He waved the man with little care, their time spent together is already forgotten.
Then Luke feels a resistance in the force.
"Your mother is a droid!" the taxi driver bites and takes off with a roar of the engine.
'What-" Luke startled and could for a moment only blink and stare after the departing taxi. The insult hung unanswered in the air. Luke collected himself, scoffed and shook his head as he then turned to the building. Despite the force control the man clearly managed to speak his mind.
"Droid…" he mutters and shakes his head again.
The moon is high above him, lighting up the night sky in a pale blue light, which makes the night seem colder than it is. Not as cold as the wall that feels like it is covered with frost.
The frost bite against his skin as he scales the building easily enough. Red light shows his path as he steps down on the roof and ignites the lightsaber with a causal movement. The glass gave compliantly under the blade as he cuts through one of the windows of the roof.
The cut was swift and certain and formed a clean unbroken line. The cut up piece floated up to meet his open hand that curls around it. He discarded it on the roof beside him, it landed slowly and carefully on the surface, not because he cared for the glass in any way other than the sound it could make if it broke.
The night was darker on the inside of the building when he left the light of the moon behind. The ground he has landed on is a wide beam that stretched across the hall. In this darkness he cannot see where it ends, Reflections of small yellow, green and red light shone back at him from below in the greater cargo hall.
It was the trace of cold fear in the force that drew him to the lone silhouette in the middle of the cargo hall. If the pacing was anything to go by the soldier was more than just a little bit nervous. The fragility of it stirred something within him, but he could not act on it.
He avoided emotion at all costs. It made him act recklessly.
The feelings broadcasted from him through the force is misery and fear. Underneath there is the tiniest feeling of hope.
Luke watched as the clone trooper suddenly turned walked swiftly to a console on the other side of the room. He bent down and collected something that was out of Luke's sight. He caught a glimpse of a square black thing that did not look at all like a blaster and he did not feel any aggression from the man at all.
Luke resisted scratching his head because it just might give him away. The trooper was twisting around to every sound. Luke judged the distance, wondering how he was going to get closer withou being detected when he felt someone approaching.
Two someone's.
The clone trooper noticed a moment after Luke and dived into the closest hiding spot, clutching the little black box like his life depended upon it. Luke kept his attention locked on the door. There was something about one the two presences he felt through the force. One of them felt like a supernova, like he could barely contain all the power he had.
Then a shadow fell through the gap of the door and a figure walked in. It was another clone trooper, but the man walking behind him wasn't.
It was Anakin!
They are on edge. Luke did not need the force to realize this. Their movements are tense and hands never strayed too far from their weapons. The opening in the trooper's mind was clear and Luke calls the force to him. The power lingered at the tip of his fingers while his eyes follow the two's traverse into the dark hall.
The agitation and fear only grows from the opposite side. The fear so intense that he can feel it like an uncomfortable itch on his skin. The cold handle of the lightsaber is a great comfort in his hands as he crouches down.
The steps click against the floor. The echoes against the walls try to fool the listener into believing that there are more than just the two pairs of marching feet. The sound has a clear effect on the trooper. The fear is so loud that Luke can almost taste it.
From his position above them, Luke could see the entire scene. The clone trooper he followed here grabbed something and dove behind a large crate.
Anakin and the clone trooper are ready to grab for their weapons. They come nearer the trooper hiding in the dark. Luke can feel the determination spark in the force from both Anakin and the clone trooper when they closed in.
Luke missed the first words when the troopers' voice rings out against the walls. He rises slowly to his feet and starts walking carefully down the beam, his feet make no sound at all. The force collected around him blocked the noise out.
"We have." Anakin's recognizable voice answers from the dark as Luke starts to move ever so slowly closer to the inevitable confrontation. They are just below him now, just on the other side of a large shelf filled to the brim with boxes of different shapes and sizes.
"Put down your weapons then." Is the sharp reply from the trooper. The fear that Luke feels from the trooper cannot be heard in the quick command.
'He is a soldier.' Luke reminds himself. 'He is trained to work in stressful situations.' Luke lowers himself slowly off the beam, his feet brush the box before he lets go and lands with little sound. The cold surface is so cold it stings his hands when he crouches down.
"I don't think so, Fives." Anakin answers. Luke sneaks a peak over the box he is hiding behind and catches a glimpse of Anakin and the commander standing back to back. Their eyes scanning the dark surrounding them.
"Please sir." The voice yelled back now more subdued "I am unarmed."
Luke narrow his eyes at that, a nervous eagerness had suddenly replaced the thick fear in the force. A second later the light disappears when the blue lightsaber is turned off.
"Alright, I am putting my pistols down." The man says and there is something about that voice that Luke cannot put his finger on. Like he heard it before. He sees the shape of the trooper that came here with his father walk to a nearby box with two pistols held over his head. He hears the click when they are left on the metal surface.
'Rex!' Luke thought, recognizing the figure in the force. He remembered very well the strength of the mind and mind-control was always harder the second time around. 'No matter.' He thought and willed away the doubt. 'He is still no match for me.'
"What are we here for Fives?" Anakin asked. He sounded calm and felt calm through the force. Anakin must trust this man, despite the current circumstances.
"I need your help." The trooper that Anakin called Fives answered, just below Luke on the high shelf. Luke resisted the urge to look down, he knows he will see nothing from this angle and the force is a much better guide than his eyes in this darkness.
"I know you do." Anakin says with such a light air that it sounded close to condescending, even if that was not Anakin's intent. "We know you are not well… it has been rough for you theses couple of days-"
"I am not crazy!" The desperation in those words spiked so violently that Luke startled on top of the shelf. His hand slipped forward on the surface until he regained himself and ripped it back. He swallows.
'That made a lot of noise!' He thought in panic, and his heartbeat was suddenly so loud it was impossible that the three below could not hear it. 'Did they-'
"Just, Please, please." Fives continues from beneath and Luke breathed out in relief and he relaxed his clammy hands. "Hear what I have to say." Fives said.
A shadow moves beneath Luke, it reached out towards Anakin and Rex. Soon following after is the trooper he had followed here. 'Fives', he reminds himself.
"We are here to help you Fives, just come with us. Let us take you back to the temple"
The noise is slight. If Luke had not already been focusing on the spot he would not have heard the beeping sound coming from just beneath him.
Luke gasps and clings to the shelf. A forcefield jumped from the celling just beside him in a flash of white. A roar that sound like a distorted 'NO!' echoes from the inside.
Anakin's raised fist leaves no delusion about where that roar came from. The anger in the force was sharp and almost painful in its intensity before it is numbed into restrained irritation, but there still no fear.
The absence of any fear in such a vulnerable position made Luke unwilling raise an eyebrow in wonder and an uncomfortable tight feeling start clenching in his chest. He banishes the feeling violently into the memory he never dares visit.
"I just need you to listen to me!" The voice of Fives said below, and it becomes louder as the man pushed free of his hiding place as he stepped out into the open. "Please."
"I am not really sure that we have any other choice!" The anger from Anakin is unavoidable to feel in the force and it expresses itself in his violent gestures. Unseen by them all, Luke starts to move. His hands move to the edge and he begins to descend.
"I was framed. Because I know the truth."
'That is not a lie' Luke thinks and feels the honesty undeniable in the force before the words fade between the many rows of racks reaching all the way to the celling. He continues the climb down, careful about where he places his feet as the conversation continues below.
"The truth about a plot. A massive deception."
"By who?" The trooper besides Anakin ask. He sounds firm and serious, but not angry.
"A sinister plot-" the words drown out against the racks. "Jedi." Is the only word Luke can make out from the voice that sounds more and more breathless. Panic is starting to set in.
"I have proof of it!" Fives almost yells now "I can prove that everything I know is true beyond the shadow of a doubt!"
"Show me the evidence." Anakin demands back more calmly than before. Luke descend the final distance until his feet touched the ground without the slightest whisper of a sound
"The… evidence is… here." Fives stutters then his voice lathes on to some hope and it becomes firmer, more assured. "It is in here. It is in all of us, in every clone."
"What is it?"
"Organic chips built into our genetic code." He sounds calmer now, more sure, and there is only truth beaconing through the force. "To make us do whatever someone wants. Even kill the Jedi." It's all in here."
'Even kill the Jedi' the words loop in Luke's mind along with what they mean.
Luke feels the cold of the floor bleed though the clothes from where his knees rest against the ground. He sees Fives with his back to Luke pointing at his own head. The trooper inside the forcefield touches his own head in wonder. In horror Luke reacted before he registers doing in. He reaches out, searching the truth of the words from this unhinged person.
Truth is the only impression that roars back at him.
Fives is not lying, no matter how mad he seems right now. 'Even kill the Jedi' he thinks again like it is stuck replaying in his mind in a constant whisper. This was why there was no one left 20 years from now.
Genocide.
"Let's just get you some help first." Anakin says moving his hand in a slow placating gesture. "We will review everything. You will be okay Fives, we will sort this out."
That on the other hand was a lie, and Luke did not need the force to know that.
Neither did Fives.
"YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME!" Desperation and panic mix together in a choir so loud through the force that Luke only just managed to stop himself from covering his ears.
"Fives we are listening to you... We only want to help."
"How do I know you are not tricking me? Who do I know it won't be a trap? The chancellor tried to kill me. I promise you that!"
"The chancellor?"
'Someone is coming!' The warning screams through the force. With his force connection wide open like this it was like someone was screaming directly into his ear. He shook his head and turned it solely in the direction of the new threat. He dared only move very slowly as his hand moved toward his lightsaber.
"He is in on it. I don't know to what extent but I know he orchestrated much of it. He told me in the medical bay." Fives continues, but Luke does not dare move back to look. There are many force signatures closing in, at least Five of them. They had the same mutilated force signature of clone troopers.
'The red troopers then?' He thought as his hand close around the cold handle of the blade. The saber is still too unfamiliar, and somehow too small for someone who had become used to wielding a weapon made for a much taller fighter. 'Fine. I will deal with you first.'
"He told you?" When you tried to assassinate him?!" Anakin's voice is loud and angry. "You have gone too far Fives. The chancellor is incapable of doing what you claim!"
'Interesting.' Luke crooked his head despite himself, honing his powers for a moment to focus on his distraught father. Under the sudden anger, the hidden reaction to the trooper's words was a gnawing fear.
Then there was movement in the dark. Luke freezes, and his fingers tighten around the handle of the blade. His heart starts hammering in his chest and the force struggle against his iron control.
"He is!" Fives were practically screaming. "I tell you sir! You have no idea!"
The three had seen nothing when a voice roar through the hall. "STAND DOWN!" Not before Fives whip around just to see the five soldiers rushing down towards him. Their red armour glaring through the dark. In this dim light the red markings look almost like blood. "GET DOWN ON YOUR KNEES!"
"No…NO!" Fives screams the last and suddenly there is a gun in his hand. "Stay back!"
"Don't do it soldier!"
"GET AWAY FROM ME!"
Red flashes to light from the soldier's gun, it alight like a supernova in the blackened hall and the shot closes the distance in the blink of an eyes. The path is unmistakable and the smell of death and burnt flesh is only a second away.
The red light glaring from the shot bathes Fives face; tightened up in the fear of pain, the sizzling sound is loud and it sound like thunder as it echoed against the walls. Fives raises his hands in defence, the gun in his hands forgotten.
Seconds pass.
The pain does not come.
Fives shaking hands lower, and the deadly shot is there, still, hanging in the air as if it was on a string. It is barely a hands length away from his heart.
"What?" Fives steps back from the frozen blaster shot, almost enough to hit his back against the force field.
"Don't move." Suddenly there is a shape between Fives and the blaster shot. Luke stood there like he had materialized out of thin air, his hand is still raised as he comes up to the force field. Fives stumbles back, out of reach realizing too late he left his weapon on the floor.
"Who the kriff are yo-"
"Stop." Luke commands in a voice not much louder than a whisper. Fives freezes immediately like he had just turned to stone. So did the red troopers.
On his order, they stopped moving, talking… everything. Like silent statues the stand motionless in the dark. The dark side of the force devoured their fear like a starving beast. It is macabre, and the sound it makes in the force is like bones cracking. A sound that is both dry and wet.
It is nauseating.
"Vader." Anakin' face reflect the disgust and anger Luke sensed from him. Luke had looked at someone like that before. But only one person. The person he had believed at that time had killed his father.
'Vader…' He thinks and stops the thought. He is not certain what he should do with that observation, but if nothing else he could appreciate the irony.
"Chosen one." He responds, but he does not recognize his own voice. He never used to sound like this. Like Yoda had sounded when Luke left Dagobah. 'Father.' He thought and closed his shields around it so it wouldn't show in the force. "We meet again."
:::
To be continued
