I just noticed that the website didn't recognize my double spacing in Microsoft Word, so I have inserted breaks into places where they are necessary. I am very sorry for any previous confusion. Hopefully the story will be much more clearer now.
Chapter 7-The Nature of the Darkness
Most of the Sith Temple was pitch black, save for the few that let the outside lightning flash brief glimpses of light into the building through windows. To navigate through the Temple one had to rely solely on the Force. Though he was already familiar with the place Anakin still moved with extreme caution, finding his way to a hexagonal room that he had always been quietly avoiding. The moderately large room was located at the center of the building, connecting two hallways with doors on opposite ends. It was illuminated by a small window on the ceiling. He did not know what it had been used for a millennia ago, but he had a feeling that this place was the heart of the Temple. A vortex of confused darkness swirled about in the room, a microcosm of everything that was the planet. He and Padme would depart on a brief respite later, but before he left Anakin felt that he had to give it one more try. He made his way into the room and sat down to meditate, hoping to find the clues that led to the still elusive and unknown answer he was seeking.
He focused on the thought of Padme. She was so happy today that she almost glowed. There was hope in her now, hope that she would escape the nightmare that he had dragged her into, hope that she would hear news of the children that she could not be allowed to see. He turned his thoughts to Leia. She was happy. She was in a nurturing environment with the wife of Organa. Perhaps Leia thought of her as her own mother now. Would she remember Padme? And how would her adopted mother feel when he and Padme were lucky enough to take Leia away from her? And how would Owen and Beru feel when…
LUKE! Danger! Anakin sensed a darkness surrounding his son. He reached further outward and felt that the immediate danger had already passed, but the darkness was still relentless in its pursuit of Luke. And it was closing in.
Anakin felt nothing but anguish and fear. His son was going to fall only because of the misfortune of being the son of Skywalker. Everything he touched he destroyed. He hadn't been able to save his mother. He almost killed Padme, and even now forced her to live in a world of darkness away from her children. He had betrayed Obi-Wan and destroyed the Jedi Order. And now his son. He couldn't let it continue anymore. He had to save him!
Anakin opened his eyes and leaped up from his meditation. There would be a change of plans; they would not go to Chandrila. Before he could move, however, he felt an eerie presence and heard an ominous sound of painful attempts to breathe. A dark figure stepped into the room from the entrance opposite him. He wore a black armor and a sinister domed helmet with a dark cape following his trail. Anakin was horrified as he felt the identity of this villainous figure. It was himself, the epitome of the dark deeds he had committed and the darkness that still lay within him. It wasn't Anakin Skywalker that destroyed all that he touched, it was this dark figure. Anakin would vanquish it and make everything right.
"Darth Vader", he said. He lit his lightsaber and simultaneously his opponent did the same.
The ship itself was blackness traveling through the void of hyperspace, occupied and driven only by a shadow. The Emperor had not informed anyone of his departure or destination, as he was not beholden to any authority. The Empire would survive his absence for a few days.
He knew his apprentice had failed. It was not unexpected. Palpatine had taken a risk with the young man in pitting him against an experienced Jedi Master. Had he followed Palpatine's advice there was no doubt that he would have succeeded, but Darth Sidious knew of the nature of Darth Rache. Whatever he may have been as a Jedi, the Dark Side had taken away his discipline.
The young man's failure was disturbing, but fairly inconsequential in the long run. Apprentices such as he could be replaced. What truly mattered was that the galaxy was closing in on the Skywalkers, and Darth Sidious knew that their reappearance in the tide of events was imminent. The betrayal of Anakin had been most disturbing to the Dark Lord. He knew something of significance occurred on Mustafar, but he could not grasp exactly what had happened. His deepest meditations on the subject had brought only vague traces of light followed by a blinding vision of colors. For the first time in ages Palpatine felt events spiraling beyond his control as he felt uncertainty surround him. The Chosen One prophecy loomed menacingly in the shadows of his mind despite the fact that he dismissed it as an old Jedi tale.
In drawing him out of hiding, Darth Sidious knew that he would have to face his former apprentice. Perhaps Anakin had grown more powerful, but Sidious had no qualms about a showdown between the two, for he knew that true power lay in knowledge of the enemy. Darth Sidious knew Anakin's mind as well as his own, and he would still be able to manipulate the boy. He would have a Skywalker one way or another. The Chosen One may already be lost to him, but Sidious salivated at the prospect of training another Skywalker from infancy.
Palpatine himself was born to become a Sith. His father Darth Plagueis moonlighted during the day as the Duke of Theed. His vast inheritance and aristocratic title gave him the freedom and resources to pursue his dark studies. When the need for an apprentice arose Plagueis ventured into the mountains of Naboo and stole a young girl moderately sensitive to the Force. Her name was Chadre, and she bore him a son even more powerful than the father. Darth Plagueis foresaw his son as the most powerful Dark Lord of any age, but still beholden to him through blood.
Palpatine had been a child once, growing up in a dark palace under the ever-present eye of his Sith Master. The lessons were cruel and drained his very soul at times. He respected and worshipped his father for his great powers, and hated him for his cruelty, especially towards his mother.
The Duke of Theed kept Chadre under lock in a basement dungeon, subjecting her to the worst tortures that could be inflicted by a Sith Lord not for his own sadistic enjoyment but as a lesson to his son whenever he displayed love, affection or sympathy for his poor mother. Palpatine was forced to watch the consequences of love and was forced to feel the pain that his mother suffered as a result of his love. Still, there was no way he could deny his love for his mother. The more his overbearing father punished them, the more he turned to his mother as his only refuge in the darkness.
Chadre accepted the pain as part of her fate, but her heart ached at the fact that her son had to witness and feel her pain. On a rare night when the Duke of Theed left to attend a royal function Palpatine found his way to her. The two of them shared a rare moment to themselves, and Chadre told her son of a Nubian shroud made of the P'lui silk, a shroud that women of her village traditionally wore on their wedding day. The P'lui shroud was one of the thinnest garments in the galaxy, the silk woven so closely together that the fabric was sturdy enough to reflect light, giving the bride a radiant glow on her wedding day.
She told her son to hide his feelings for her in a P'lui shroud so dense that his father would never detect it. Palpatine formed an image in his head of a black shroud, so dark that it was invisible not only from the human eye but also from the Force itself. He placed all that he was into that shroud and from that day on forever dwelled in that refuge. Never again would his father be able to read his feelings and punish his mother for them.
There were no celebrations for Palpatine on the tenth anniversary of his birth. His father led him down to the dungeons and made him face his mother. Darth Plagueis then with his left hand ignited his lightsaber and pointed it at his son's throat. With his right hand he handed Palpatine a lightsaber. There were but two choices for the boy: either he would kill his mother, or his father would kill him. Darth Sidious was born when he chose himself over his mother. When he chose darkness over love.
As he pledged his loyalty to his Master over the body of his mother, Darth Sidious vowed vengeance on his father, a vow that he would wait patiently for twenty years to fulfill. He hid his resolve under his shroud, in a place so dark that no light to penetrate into it. He had no qualms about his vow. The Dark Side was thicker than blood. The shroud was his home now, and Darth Sidious foresaw the day when his dark shroud will encompass the entire galaxy.
The two silent figures circled each other around the room, and it was Vader who struck first, hacking his saber at Anakin, who in a defensive stance fended off each blow. He swore that would not give any ground to this enemy. Without warning Vader jumped with a startling agility and Anakin barely was able to defend a strike towards his backside. As Anakin turned around Vader jumped over him again tried the same tactic. Anakin again twirled around just in time and realized that he had to change strategies. If he kept to a defensive strategy Vader would just leap around until he wore him down.
As Darth Vader shifted to his side Anakin struck with a new fury and advanced. He feigned strikes, switched hands holding the lightsaber, and struck as hard as he could, but the Sith anticipated his every move and matched his strength with equal power. The more his offensives failed the angrier Anakin got. As he drew strength from the Dark Side and attacked with an increasing ferocity his opponent responded with even more powerful counterattacks, several of which almost got through.
No, I can not attack him with the Dark Side, it'll only feed his strength. He backed off and calmed himself. Vader approached somewhat hesitantly and tentatively struck at him. Anakin had no problem meeting his attacks as he pondered on how to defeat him. How does one fight himself? Vader knew every move he was going to try on him, and vice versa. Was he even real? It didn't matter. The crimson lightsaber slashing at his heart seemed real enough.
What if I can't defeat myself? He had precious little time to think as he fought, but he had to, for he sensed that he could not defeat Vader. What if I'm not meant to defeat myself? Anakin made a dashing retreat to the edge of the room and turned off his lightsaber. His opponent did the same and stared with his mechanical eyes across at the cold stalemate.
Anakin looked at the physical manifestation of his dark side. Is this what it looked like, what I look like inside? This hideous creature? He searched within himself and found no answers. He suddenly wondered what was inside the armor of his doppelganger. The darkness met him with a little resistance but soon gave way. Anakin saw the pathetic remains of a man inside the outfit. A man with no limbs, no light, and no hope. A burnt and scarred man, one who was whose fragile state was not evident by his outward appearance. His visions from Mustafar came back to Anakin as he remembered the burning and the darkness afterwards, except this time the darkness afterwards was this machine-man Darth Vader.
Anakin took a step closer to Vader/himself. He saw him now not as an object to hate and destroy, but to pity. Vader stepped forward too, finding himself directly under the ceiling window and bathed in the meager light that flowed through it. Anakin felt his dark side's emotions and saw through the machine's eyes. He saw himself, his present self, with his deep blue eyes, his long blond hair still flowing down to his shoulders, and three of his limbs still natural. Through his eyes he felt Vader's intense hatred for Anakin, but it was more than that. He felt Vader's jealousy of Anakin, of how he yearned to be him, to be human again, to be good again, and his despair of the innocence and light that he had lost.
You don't need to feel that way, he thought to his darker self. I, Anakin Skywalker, am still a part of you and always will be. If that was true, however, that would mean that…and you are a part of me and always will be. He could never destroy the darkness that dwelled within him, for it was as much a part of him as all the good that he was. Balance. There must be balance. Anakin reached out his hand and felt a black glove take ahold of it. With man and machine touching Anakin looked beyond Darth Vader's mechanical eyes and into his own eyes inside the mask. The dark figure slowly vanished. Anakin took a step back and stared at where Darth Vader had been standing when another presence took its spot under the window.
"Qui-Gon." He had felt the old Jedi's ghost before, but this was the first time he actually saw him.
"You have done well, Anakin." Qui-Gon's face beamed with pride.
"What have I done? What was that?"
"You know yourself more than I do, Anakin."
"I…I refused to fight him…myself. I realized I could balance him…"
"You accepted him, Anakin. You accepted the darkness that is a part of your soul. Do not try to fight it, for it is not your destiny."
"I will bring balance to the Force within myself, right?"
"You will bring balance to the Force everywhere, but where else could you start. And only after acknowledging your darkness can you attempt to balance its desires."
"So what now? Can I face Sidious? And Luke's in danger, I have to rescue…"
"Slow down, Anakin. Let the Force guide you." Qui-Gon's apparition was starting to fade. Sensing his anxiety and confusion, Qui-Gon offered Anakin his last piece of advice. "Remember, Anakin, there are always more than two choices."
And then he was gone, and Anakin was alone. What to do now? He might as well follow Qui-Gon's advice. Let the Force guide him. Through what to start with? Anakin realized his first dilemma, minor as it was. There were two doors to exit the room. There it was! Two! It was most likely just a coincident, but Anakin felt that he had to look beyond these two immediate and obvious choices. Or maybe he was insane and should just pick a door and leave. Unsure, he looked back to where Qui-Gon had been standing, hoping he would appear again and give him the answer.
No ghosts appeared, but Anakin noticed something different about the floor under the window. He reached into the Force to feel that part of the floor and noticed that the area under it was hollow. It was a trapdoor of some kind, possibly, but he saw no way of opening it. Unless…Anakin used the Force to lift a solid piece of the floor up and into the air. Under it was a dark hole with steps leading down into the nether regions of the Sith Temple. Against the common sense of most Anakin stepped down into the darkness.
He couldn't see now, and again he had to use the Force to navigate his way through. He was underground now, he knew that. He also knew that he was in a labyrinth of some sort. There had to be a way out, he told himself. He tried to sense for any opening that led back up, any light at the end of the tunnel. He found something. A vague trace of light, yet it was powerful. He couldn't see it yet, but he walked through the pitch-black spaces towards where it was. This was something different, a different type of light, one that he had not yet encountered on this dark planet. It seemed…natural. He kept walked until finally he saw a dim glimmer of it in the distance.