6: Closing Stages
After about an hour of sitting cross-legged on the couch and floor, the three humans heard Yoda grunt in a surprised and yet somewhat pleased tone. They all turned to him and saw his eyes were open, as were his lips, as if he were ready to speak yet could not exactly figure out how to phrase it best. Anakin looked back down nervously, wondering what doom would ensue. He could just picture it now, Yoda telling Obi-Wan that he should be killed, all three of his friends turning against him with their light-sabers drawn... all because of this idiotic child. He found himself believing Luke's story less and less as the tension mounted inside of him. What reason would he have for joining the dark side? Padme wasn't even pregnant! And that was another thing, Luke hadn't even mentioned Padme, but Anakin knew he would never bear to be without her. He would do anything to be with her forever—anything at all.
"Take a pilgrimage, young Skywalker must," Yoda said to Obi-Wan. "Search himself for weakness and sort them out, is necessary for his reunion with the light side of the Force."
Pilgrimage? Away from Obi-Wan and his home? Another thought thudded in his stomach like a lead ball. Away from Padme. He suppressed a gasp and saw that both Luke and Obi-Wan were nodding solemnly. Oh, that brat thought he was wise now, did he? Mimicking his master seemed very noble indeed, leaving Anakin to be the odd one out once again. Is that was this bastard was up to? Yes, that was it. A shroud of darkness soon glazed Anakin's eyes as he realized what this Luke was truly attempting to do: he wanted Anakin out of the way so he could have Padme and Obi-Wan all to himself! As for his cock and bull story, he was sure that was all rubbish anyway. The older Skywalker assured himself that the imposter was not going to get away with this.
"Do you agree to this, Anakin?" Obi-Wan asked, a look of attempted worry on his face. The younger Jedi knew it was fake now; this whole thing was a setup, of that he was sure.
He took in a deep, shuddering breath, staring his master right in the eyes. "I do not."
Obi-Wan felt himself go cold at the look in his apprentice's stare while the response was given. It was not much the answer as how it was said—full of enmity that he had never heard Anakin express. His shoulders drooped as he looked to Yoda.
"Perhaps Anakin and I could go off on our own for a little while. Make the pilgrimage together?"
The young Jedi looked hopefully to the olden advisor who nodded shortly after. "Work that might. My approval, have you."
So it was settled. Obi-Wan and Anakin were to set off for a remote planet in a few days and Luke was to stay with Master Yoda. The morning they were to leave, the son of Anakin was invited into their abode by his father. The darkness swallowed them with pointed teeth—for Luke could immediately sense a bitter energy in the silence. No lights were turned on in Anakin's room when he ushered his son inside of it. Before the small boy could react, his father's robotic hand was wrapped around his neck and the darkness was given light by the inside of his eyelids. He winced but found he could not cry out, Vader's fingers digging into his throat while he was lifted off of his feet.
A light-saber would have been too easy, Anakin thought while the child squirmed in his grasp. This was much more personal; much more satisfying. What enjoyment could he get out of it if the youngling was not to suffer? This was not weakness, as Yoda had called it. The dark side was in fact the very opposite; it was the Jedi who were too weak to seek out true power and seize it for their own. This only he and Chancellor Palpatine seemed to realize. For as frail as the Jedi were, with it also came dimness.
"Goodbye—" Luke whimpered in an airless voice, before he went limp in the air. Anakin knew to not let go until a few more minutes had passed. For one of two things might happen if he did so immediately; oxygen took at least fifty seconds to thoroughly leave the body when the person was killed in this fashion, or more probable, the kid might be faking it. Sure enough, about half a minute later the body gave one last jerk and at last was rendered inert.
Anakin grinned in the dark, but then felt something very strange indeed. The dead weight that should have hung from his hand was nothing! He might as well have strangled a feather, for when he reached out with his other hand, there was nobody there.
Shaking his head, he turned on the light switch to see if perhaps he had dropped Luke in his excitement. Yet no child was there to be found. Only a faint glimmering of light where the boy had hung only a moment before. Like the man in black, Luke Skywalker was now gone. ((Back to his own world, we are to assume))
