Chapter Eight

"Do you know where you want to go yet, old man? I'm getting impatient."

"That's not saying much."

"Just shut up and tell me where you want to go, " Han couldn't believe he had accepted this trip for only 200 credits. He had to be insane.

Montu Kiljek opened his eyes. "The faster I can concentrate, the quicker I will be able to locate my padawan. So you just ... stay quiet for awhile."

--

Anakin's lightsaber flashed left and right. He had been training for three hours now, and with no sign of pain in his chest. As he deflected bolts his mind began to wander, and his actions were no more than instinctive reactions to the blaster droids. He reached into the Force, and found Obi-Wan's signature. And ... no, it couldn't be ...

"Master Yoda?" he gasped in shock. While he was distracted a blaster bolt struck him on his left shoulder. He howled in pain as the bolt, set to medium voltage, rendered his arm useless – his entire left arm was now numb.

Anakin shook his head, and deactivated the blaster droids. He then decided to try something else. He tried to reach toward the Death Star. He tried to find Tarra's Force signature.

--

Tarra jolted awake. Something was wrong. She could feel it. She could sense something was not right. She reached for her lightsabers, but then relaxed her hands. It wasn't anything around her. It was ... inside her.

Tarra. Tarra, can you hear me? A familiar voice called out to her in her mind.

"An-Anakin?" she gasped in shock and horror. Quickly she put up her mental barriers, slamming Anakin Skywalker's presence out.

She sat on her bed, perfectly still, for a long time after that. So many questions reeled through her head. Why had Anakin tried to contact her? How could Anakin have been working for Palpatine? How could Palpatine do that to all the Jedi? And why was she completely oblivious to all of this until now?

--

"We must help him, Master Yoda!"

"Help him we must not ... wait for young Luke we will."

"Anakin is powerful! And he's perfectly in position to –"

"Powerful, heh! Yes! He's powerful in the Dark Side! Told you he killed Imperial officers in cold blood, did he?"

Obi-Wan fell silent. There was no excuse to that. "Master," he blurted. "Anakin will always have part of the Dark Side in him! Qui-Gon once said –"

"If confront Palpatine Anakin does ... I fear return to the ways of the Sith, he will."

--

Anakin, with the help of his droids, shed the last pieces of his suit, and was dressed in his old Jedi clothes once more.

"I'm free. Finally, I'm free," he almost squealed in delight. He reached for his gloves with his black metallic left arm. His right arm was golden, and he flexed those fingers, watching the mechanisms. He placed his gloves on both arms, then looked at his black, metallic legs. The legs of Darth Vader.

He strode through the corridor, watching the astonishment of his men as they watched their lord Vader without his mechanical suit for the fist time. His blue eyes gazed at all of them, and he smiled warmly.

Yes, Anakin decided that being nice was better than ruling by fear. The past Vader could keep his men on schedule with sheer fear of losing their lives. Now, Anakin could encourage his men to work harder, giving monetary incentives and granting leaves to his troops, so they could return home every now and then.

Even better, Anakin could, every once in awhile, glare at his men, threaten to kill a couple, and inflict the old fear within his men. He had achieved the perfect balance of kindness and strictness.

Anakin had to admit, he was a bit harsh on his men when he first re-boarded the Executor. Those two officers had been good men, simply unsure of their alliegances. All the same, they had refused his order. And they were punished. "They deserved it," he growled, trying to convince himself more than anyone else.

But that wasn't true, and he knew it.

Anakin smiled inwardly. Yoda had once said, "Once the path of the Dark Side you take, forever there you are," during Anakin's training.

"I guess that's true," he said, before he reached the bridge, his black cloak swishing behind him.

"Captain Ozzel, have the subordinating ships been recovered yet?" he spoke, referring to the Super Star Destroyer's small fleet, including two Star Destroyers and a few battle cruisers.

"Yes, sir. The Executor and her entire fleet are under our control, sir."

"Of course the Executor is under our control, please, captain, think before you speak."

"Yes, sir. Oh, sir, I almost forgot, sir ... I found this astrodroid in the main cargo hold after we refueled at Hoth."

"Artoo!" Anakin grinned, "Good to have you back!"

Artoo toodled and beeped.

"What was that? Go to the Dagobah system? Why?"

Artoo whistled something that sounded distinctly like "Yoda"

"Master Yoda's there ... interesting. I thought I sensed him earlier."

Anakin smiled, and turned to Captain Ozzel. "You have done well. Maintain present course. Prepare my ship. I trust you have taken good care of it during my absence."

Captain Ozzel nodded. "Yes, sir. At once, sir." He bowed before retreating from the room to carry out his orders.

"Oh, and captain?" Anakin spoke, causing the officer to stop short and turn around. "Get this droid in the ship to replace the other one," he said, jerking his head at Artoo-Detoo.

"Yes, sir."

--

The Emperor was angry. With many things, actually. For instance, how did the Executor and her entire fleet managed to simply disappear from his control station sensors. They couldn't have been destroyed – the Rebel fleet had nothing as powerful as that ship.

He was also displeased with his new apprentice. In the beginning she had learned well, and had done everything he had asked of her. Recently, however, she had become less respondent of his wishes. She hesitated. And the Emperor could not tolerate this.

He smiled, and allowed his anger to take over him. To let the Dark Side flow through his old bloodstream, energizing him, all eighty-plus years of his existence melting away – he had lost count at 84. His eyes burned with the need to inflict damage. To kill. To stop this Rebellion before it began to grow. And the anger in him wanted to completely crush the rebellion ... he wanted nothing more than to destroy ... to kill ...

The Emperor turned to an aide.

"Activate the ... weapon. Aim it at that planet."

The aide protested, "But your excellency, that planet is ..."

The Emperor snapped at his aide, "DO AS YOU ARE TOLD!" He then turned to the viewscreen of the Death Star.

"Yes sir."

Moments later, that viewscreen lit up with a green blast, which was followed by a huge explosion.

Palpatine smiled. It was good to be Emperor.

--

Montu Kiljek closed his eyes, searching for his former padawan's Force signature. She was in contact with a Sith Lord, and he knew it. Could it be Lord Sidious? He hoped she wasn't. He'd hate to find her dead.

"Are you gonna decide where to go yet, old man?"

Master Kiljek stood up, then activated his green lightsaber. "Don't," he warned, "try my patience. I've had enough of you and your complaints."

Young Han Solo glared at the Jedi Master, then sat at the cockpit seat, mumbling about who's patience was being tried.

Master Kiljek closed his eyes, and began to meditate once more.

The Millenium Falcon floated, motionless, through endless space.

--

Anakin's modified Jedi starfighter streaked through the stars. "That's the Dagobah system? That's where the great Master Yoda lived for three years?" Artoo toodled. Anakin sighed and prepared his ship for landing. The planet was basically a giant ball of dense swamp.

--

Anakin hopped off his starfighter, and Artoo-Detoo launched himself, landing ungracefully in the mud, splattering mud all over itself. Anakin jumped backwards to avoid the drench, laughing.

Artoo whistled an angry tune.

"Glad to see you made it, Anakin. We were beginning to think you weren't coming," said a voice.

Anakin smiled. "Hello, Obi-Wan."

"Come in, we have much to discuss."

--

"Not ready for a strike, we are," Master Yoda intoned solemnly. "Wait, we must, for son of Skywalker."

Anakin frowned, turning to Obi-Wan. "You never did tell me where my son went."

"And your daughter."

"We had twins?"

"Padme had twins before she died. She named them 'Luke' and 'Leia'."

Anakin lowered his head, and said "We named them," softly, remembering the night they had sat up in bed in the wee hours of the morning trying to name their children.

"Ken?"

"No, too stiff. I want something that sounds ... brave, but ... kind."

"Well I'm out of ideas, maybe we could ..."

"Anakin? Hello, Dagobah to Anakin ..."

Anakin snapped out of his trance. "Sorry," he mumbled. "So ... where is my son, and where's my daughter? And ..." he stopped himself.

"Your son's in Tatooine. I promise, your brother and sister in law are taking good care of him. I saw to that myself. As for your daughter ... Bail Organa took her under his wing. I'd expect she would be going to a top-flight school at the moment."

Anakin nodded slowly. "If my children survived ... then ... I didn't kill Padme in Mustafar ..."

Obi-Wan shook his head slowly. "You did kill her ... from a certain point of view ..." Noticing Anakin's confused look, he put an arm on his friend's shoulder. "Come, let's go inside. We have ... much to talk about."

Yoda chewed on his gimer stick, hmphed, then closed his eyes in deep meditation.

--

"First of all, Anakin, I should apologize to you ... on behalf of the entire Jedi Council."

"... or what's left of it."

Obi-Wan frowned. Anakin could be so dense sometimes. "Right. Anyway, we should not have left you on Coruscant ... we could have helped you alleviate your problems, and we didn't. We weren't good friends."

"Jedi aren't supposed to have friends. They aren't supposed to have any attachments."

"Which is why I'm not as perfect a Jedi as you thought I was."

Anakin looked up. Obi-Wan Kenobi, the perfect Jedi, telling him that he wasn't?

"I have attachments of my own. The Troll was a good friend of mine."

"Cin Drallig ... Obi-Wan, I'm sorry—"

"Don't be ... because you are the attachment that I will never be able to rid myself of."

"You said that, in some fashion, on Mustafar," said Anakin, softly, "You said I was your brother. You said you loved me."

"And I wasn't lying. But that's not really what's important. I want to truly understand why you fell to the Dark Side ... so I can help you ... as a friend."

"It's complicated. Things were so complicated. Everyone was pressuring me. The Jedi were ignoring me. They feared my powers!" At this, Obi-Wan opened his mouth to speak, but Anakin rambled on, talking to himself more than to his former master. "And ... my dreams ... they haunted me ..."

"Dreams?"

"Nightmares. Like the ones of my mother I had told you about earlier. I dreamed of Padme dying. In childbirth."

Obi-Wan nodded. Everything seemed to tie together.

"And ... I was stuck between the Chancellor and the Jedi Council ... the Council never trusted me ... they never had faith in me ... but the Chancellor was kind. He was ... a friend. The only one I had in those days."

Obi-Wan was hurt by those words. "What about –"

"What about you, I know. You were on Utapau, busy killing General Grievous. And I was alone. You can't imagine how grateful I was to have the Chancellor seem to understand me. He was my friend. He gave me whatever I wanted.

"Then I found out he was a Sith Lord ... and he told me had had the power to stop death ... you don't understand, because ..." Anakin broke off. "Padme was my life. I couldn't lose her. Even after three years ... I still can't ..."

Obi-Wan remained silent, sadly listening to Anakin's tale of his fall. To be his friend's lighthouse in a storm. To be a friend.

"In the end, it was between the Jedi ... and Palpatine and Padme on the other hand ... the two people I loved most in the world, next to you. And ... I realize now that they were lies ... but Palpatine told me that you were corrupt as well ..."

"I can see that, you tried to kill me a few years back."

Anakin looked at his former master with blue eyes full of remorse, full of regret. "And so ... I chose the way of the Sith ... and in doing so ... I killed ... I killed ..." he couldn't get the words out. He wasn't worthy of speaking her name.

"You killed Padme, the one you had fought to save. Anakin ... Anakin ... why didn't you tell the Council? We could have helped you."

"Because I would have been expelled from the Order! You don't understand! Being a Jedi was important to me! It was the toughest decision I had to make ... to betray the Jedi and to become a Sith. Believe me, I never wanted to be Darth Vader ... I wanted to learn how to save Padme ... and if that meant killing Jedi ... so be it."

Obi-Wan nodded once again, finally understanding the full weight of what Anakin Skywalker had felt throughout the Clone Wars. His inner struggle. He realized, now, that the Anakin Skywalker he had known for years ... did not have a shatterpoint.

He was the shatterpoint. Every second he lived he was in danger of choosing the wrong path.

Anakin's eyes drifted to the floor, then snapped back, focusing on Obi-Wan's face. "I want to have my children back with me. I want Padme's children with me."

Obi-Wan nodded. "Yes ... yes, that would be good for you."

"No." A voice spoke. "See young Luke, you will not."

Yoda walked slowly into the room. "See Luke, you cannot ... "

Anakin was furious. "Why not?" he exploded. "Is it a crime to see my own son?"

"Our last chance he will be, if you fail."

"I'm the Chosen One!"

"No difference, that makes. Let go of your son, you must. See your daughter, on Alderaan, I will allow."

Obi-Wan put a hand on Anakin's shoulder. "Calm down, Anakin. You're going to see your daughter."

Anakin was close to tears. "My ... my son ... I will never ...?"

"If you defeat Palpatine, you can do whatever you want. But now ... there's too much of a risk. You have to understand."

Anakin reached into the Force, tried to calm himself.

"C'mon," he said after a few moments, to Obi-Wan. "We have a ship to catch."

Obi-Wan grinned, then turned to Yoda. "You coming?"

Yoda shook his head. "Wait I will for young Skywalker."

--

A/N: Sorry for the long wait, guys! Keep reviewing ... you're awesome. Will probably post responses to reviews soon.