Author's Notes: Alright, this was pretty much the first SW fanfic I ever wrote. I have a few more, but I want to look over them before I put them up. I don't own anything, as we all sadly have to admit it. This is AU, just to let everyone know, and is set just at the beginning of the Purge in EPIII. Enjoy!
The doors slid open before the robed Jedi, darkness flowing in behind her. The coarse robe around her heels floated over the marble floor of the Council chamber as she stepped in, her boots silent as she looked around. "Anakin," she called quietly, but she knew that he wasn't there, wasn't in this dark. But he was out there, in the sudden darkness of the Force, a darkness that seeped over the comforting power like oil over water. She could feel him, out there in the very center of it, the darkness almost spilling forth from him. It covered everything in a deathly pall, weighing down until the very Temple itself waited in the ominous gloom. The Jedi stepped over the marble patterns and stood before the wall of windows, staring out over the suppressed light of the city.
Far off in the distance, across the strangely empty traffic lanes and uneasily quiet populace, light flashed into the darkness. The Jedi caught her breath, staring out towards the building kilometers away where the hazy light of blades sprang into life. She reached out a hand to the transparisteel, her breath fogging a small patch of the smooth surface as she leaned closer to peer through the night with wide eyes. The window pane turned to ice beneath her touch as Kylie stood, frozen for an eternity, staring out at the lightning crackling in a sky that barely held a cloud.
She could hear it, echoing inside her mind like a holoimage. Lightsabers hissed into life, lightning snapped and writhed as voices cried out. A shiver of death spread out over the city, touching the lone Jedi standing high above in the Temple spire and sending a wave of dread down her spine. The Force grew as dark as the night as the lightning abruptly ceased, leaving cruel after images across her sight. She didn't need her eyes for what she saw next, though; the Force played it before her like she was standing in the room itself.
"I will do anything you ask," he said, his voice shaking with the terror of some unknown fate. His eyes shone strangely as he looked up at the man before him. "Just help me to save Padme's life." Anakin Skywalker knelt down, all trace of fear vanishing from his eyes as he committed to his path. Something began to change in him, some light behind his eyes dying along with his fear. The man standing before him, the shadows incarnate, spoke words that struck into the Force like the lightning had into the night only moments before.
"Rise, Lord Vader," the shadow commanded.
And Anakin Skywalker stood. The light, the very power of the Force, seemed to shrink away from the man.
Silence hung over the Council chambers, but it couldn't drown out the mad beating of Kylie's heart in her ears. Even that couldn't drown out those terrible words in her mind. The Jedi's hand fell numbly to her side as she stared unblinkingly over the suddenly freezing night. "Anakin…Anakin, no…" The words sounded hollow to her, as if someone else were saying them from a great distance. She couldn't move. All Kylie Jinn could do was stand and stare out at her world crashing down as Anakin rose to that name, rose at the command of the Sith they had all been hunting for so long. Vader…
"Master Jinn, what's happening?" A small voice pulled at that distant Jedi's mind, tugging on her numb hand. For an instant, she asked the same question. That Jedi, far away, looked down at the child staring up at her anxiously, waiting for her to do what only she could. "Do not hesitate; show no mercy." And that slammed Kylie Jinn back into the body of that not-so-distant Jedi. Her blue eyes gazed down at the child holding her hand, and suddenly they weren't so hollow anymore; sorrow and resolve spilled into them through the broken dam of her heart, mingling into a desperation that shoved aside the unbearable weight of the darkness.
"Wait here," she murmured, her voice still sounding detached. She placed a hand on the youngling's arm as she tore her eyes from the vision that would forever be seared into her mind, pushing him towards one of the council seats. "Stay hidden," she said, and she spun on her heel and walked out of the room, her cloak billowing out behind her
Silence fell behind her like a shroud as she hurried through the Temple, but she couldn't hear it; unwavering eyes followed her, but she couldn't see them. All Kylie could picture was her world crashing down as her best friend succumbed to the darkness inside himself. Show no mercy echoed in her mind until she expected the very walls around her to crack beneath it. How could this be happening? The spider-web fractures Kylie expected to see began spreading through her own spirit. How could Anakin…? The man she had sworn would never meet death at the hand of the Sith…He was coming to destroy the Jedi…
Kylie slowed to a halt, looking down at her hands. She couldn't seem to make her fingers stop trembling. A small laugh, bordering on the edge of hysteria, threatened in her chest -- the apocalypse was hanging over her head, and all she could do was tremble -- but it died away feebly as her eyes slid out of focus again.
"Why are you fighting this war, Kylie?" Obi-Wan asked from behind her, drawing her to a stop. She glanced at him over her shoulder as she thought, eyes searching his face as she sought for the right words.
"Because," she finally said slowly, pulling her eyes up to meet his cerulean ones. She forced the intangible into words. "Because I love three men, Obi-Wan, and I would do anything to keep you and Anakin from meeting the same fate as Qui-Gon." He looked at her for a long time after that, that faint wisp of a smile coming to his lips until he nodded in silent understanding.
A strange heat came to Kylie's eyes when she realized that she would not see that smile for a very long time.
A cold wind picked up, making the Jedi aware for the first time that her steps had carried her all the way to the entrance of the Temple. Pale steps descended from the plateau on which she stood, holding her breath as the entire planet seemed to stand still. Doom waited to pounce on all of them out of the darkness beyond her sight.
In the beginning, it was very quiet: the distant roll of thunder sounded by the boots of thousands of silent marching troops. The cold wind added to it, not only whispering dreadfully in the Jedi's ear, but carrying to her the soft creak of armor and weaponry battalions strong. Slowly, the faint, familiar touch of the Force reached her, and she lifted her head. Climbing up the steps, shadowed by the hood of his cloak, appeared the man present in nearly all of her fondest memories, the Sith of her nightmares. Behind him marched on the endless stream of the army, but they vanished next to him.
"Anakin." Her voice sounded faint on the bitter wind, carried away in an instant. He came on, the shadow trailing on his heels as his tall figure stalked across the plateau. She shifted, her cloak fluttering around her form as she stretched out a hand to him, the tremble beginning to intensify against her will. "Anakin, stop."
The man drew parallel with her, his face veiled in deep shadows as he halted beside her. Kylie peered into that unrivaled darkness, her hand still reaching out to him. An arm gloved in black suddenly snatched her hand, wrenching it backwards as his hood swiveled to face her. Tears stung the corners of Kylie's eyes as his mechanical hand gripped her wrist, yet her gaze didn't waver from his hood.
From beneath that hood stared out a face she knew so well, devoid of any emotion. A single bloodshot eye, stained a feral gold, fixed on her from beyond the curve of his robe. For the first time, Darth Vader faced Kylie in the shadow of the darkest night the galaxy had seen in millennia. "Don't make me fight you, Kylie Jinn," he said darkly, and a glacial touch crept its way up her spine again. He addressed the troops behind him, his empty gaze never leaving hers.
"She dies last." Vader dropped the Jedi's hand and stalked into the Temple, his black cloak flaring out behind him, leaving Kylie numb in his wake. She stared after him for a long time, the pristine troops marching past to the drums of their own boots. It took a long time for that endless drumming to breach the deafening boom of her heart, but when it finally did, Kylie stared around her in dismay. The troops marched on without a glance at her, faceless soldiers following orders.
Show no mercy. The Jedi's hand found her lightsaber without thought, and the emerald blade cut through the air with a sizzling hiss. She stared after Anakin like a diver after the last breath of air, and then she turned to face the troopers. From a seemingly infinite distance, she pulled the strings of her marionette body and crouched down, drawing a deep breath before her eyes opened to the scene. The faceless troops melded under a single name: enemy, and then Kylie Jinn tore into them. Troops fell like wheat before the green scythe of her blade.
Ignoring the hiss and cry of the battle of the pathetic Jedi he couldn't bring himself to destroy behind him, Anakin stalked through the Temple with shadows chasing his heels. He left corpses behind him, and death began to sniff at his heels along with the shadows. The two were one, and Vader was the master of both. The blue light of his saber was like ice on his figure, and its cold aura didn't even begin to penetrate the darkness beneath his hood. The dead star dragon that had for so long whispered threats of death and fear to his heart was long gone; instead, he had become the dragon, spreading death around him. Anakin was only a figment of a memory and a name on that doomed woman's lips.
As he cut down yet another of the traitors, he smiled wickedly at the thought of her. Vader would bask in Kylie Jinn's death. He could still feel the fragile bones of her wrist beneath his hand of durasteel, and that hand tightened on the hilt of his lightsaber at the thought of how easily crushed they could be. For only an instant, Vader felt a stirring deep down, an echo of the cold dragon trying to force memories of his friend to the fore. The Sith lord batted away the wisp of its ashes contemptuously, and he continued on through the doomed halls his former self had known so well towards the peak of the Council spire.
The world blurred into a continuous nightmare of death and darkness. The green glow of her lightsaber became the only constant of Kylie's horror, besides the white armor of the troops. Jedi fought all around her, falling as often as standing their ground. She found herself working her way purposefully through the corridors, batting away scarlet bolts like gnats. Where she was going, she had no idea, but she let the Force guide her.
Suddenly, the Force whispered to her to look to the right. Turning as she deflected a bolt into the clone standing in her way, she saw a Padawan pelting recklessly down the intersecting hallway. The boy couldn't be older than thirteen, and his eyes were wide with fear as he flew over the carpet. Behind him rushed at least half a dozen troopers. An idea flicked impetuously into her mind, and she screamed down at the boy. "Faster!"
The Padawan looked up, catching Kylie's eye with the faintest glimmer of hope. He pulled at the last of his reserves and sprinted head long down the hall, the clones closing in behind. Kylie deactivated her lightsaber and dropped the hilt, waving her hands in the air as if she were grappling a handful of cables. "Come on," she growled under her breath, urging the boy to run faster. He came careening down the marble, and at the last instant Kylie pulled with all the strength the Force could give her. The Padawan skidded beside her, and the hallway gave way behind him. The troopers vanished in a haze of smoke and crumbling plaster.
Kylie covered her mouth with a sleeve, gasping as she doubled over to regain her breath. The boy stared up at her with wide eyes, panting just as hard as she. They stared at each other for a minute, and then a master came hurrying down the hallway towards them. "Jason!" she cried out, and grabbed him under the arms to help him up. The Padawan grabbed Kylie's lightsaber before he was pulled up and pushed it into her hands.
"Keep…going," he panted as his master tugged him towards the opposite hall. Kylie ignited it as she watched him point towards the Council spire, and then the pair disappeared around the corner.
She stood for a long moment, still catching her breath. Blinking sightless eyes, she spun with her cloak whirling behind her and rushed onward, fear beginning to eat into her that she would be too late.
Vader stood in the silence of the Council chambers. His blue blade hung low to the ground as he surveyed the scene of immolation. Heartless yellow eyes flicked from one small, still body to the next. The younglings had never stood a chance against his merciless blade.
The sound of sprinting boots reached his ears, and he looked to see her turn the corner and freeze in her steps. Her hair hung loose around her face, pulled from her braid, as she stared stricken at him; Vader only stood and watched her carelessly.
"Anakin, no!" she cried breathlessly. His cold eyes never blinked. She unconsciously moved towards him, staring at the death he had caused. Her mouth moved soundlessly as she stared in horror. "They're only younglings," she whispered dreadfully, finally forcing words into the heavy silence. She couldn't even bring herself to kneel down in the massacre because her locked knees were the only thing keeping her up. She brought her eyes to meet his. "Anakin…What have you done?"
"Only what is needed." Vader turned away, stalking silently out of the chamber and into the hallway. A malicious grin spread over his face as he crushed the whimpering of Anakin Skywalker beneath his iron fist. He had only done what he must to save Padme, to save the woman he loved. Nothing else mattered to him next to her: not the lives of younglings, nor the friendship of Kylie Jinn.
Kylie's protests broke through his thoughts again. "But…you're a Jedi, Anakin. This is against everything you believe. This is murder. They never did-"
"I won't be fooled by your Jedi nonsense anymore, Kylie," he said over his shoulder, never pausing. "They've all betrayed me."
"I have not betrayed you, Anakin," she called back. He could almost hear the tears in her voice. The emotion stirred something in him again, and he furiously pushed it away. That was why he hadn't been able to kill her at the steps; Anakin couldn't justify it. Kylie hadn't betrayed him; she had been his friend for the longest time. They had trusted each other. She had never pushed him or demanded of him beyond his abilities. Not until she and Obi-Wan had asked him to spy on Palpatine, that was. The two of them had betrayed him that moment, even though they had tried to refuse the task for him. But Vader had given her the chance to run, and she had refused.
"Run, Kylie," he growled, his feral eyes boring into the walls before him. His grip tightened on the hilt again, its light now extinguished. She didn't matter next to Padme. Nothing did. His love for his wife outweighed the Jedi's friendship, yet he couldn't bring himself to kill her. The dark side didn't have so strong a hold on him yet to kill his friend. The shadows and their consort death nipped incessantly at his mind.
"You cannot save her, Anakin." Kylie's quiet whisper hit him so hard that it halted him in mid-stride. "This," she said softly, gesturing around her at the massacre of the Temple. "This cannot save her." She stared into his back, her eyes dry as bone as sorrow brimmed inside of her. Deep inside Anakin, the dead star dragon awoke, echoing her words.
All things die, Anakin, it whispered ice into his heart. He felt fear rise in his throat, choking off his air. Kylie was wrong; he was going to save Padme. He had to. The Jedi had tried to stop him from learning how, but he had overcome them; he had destroyed them. Anger smoldered in his vision, twisting the fear into hate. Rage boiled up inside of him, looming over everything else.
All things die, Anakin…
"I am sick of you and your Jedi LIES!" he screamed, spinning to face her as he raised the hilt in his hand.
Kylie didn't flinch when his lightsaber plunged into her chest. She didn't even blink.
Anakin, however, did. The malice in his eyes vanished as his blade receded back into its hilt. Realization of what he had done slammed into him with a stab of horror. He reached out and grabbed Kylie as she slowly sank to the floor, catching her in his arms. Kylie stared over his shoulder, the tears refusing to come now that she would have let them. For the first time in long years, she met Qui-Gon's eyes on the same side of beyond.
"Were we wrong?" she asked quietly. The sadness in her eyes was stronger than it had ever been. He reached out a hand for hers, and she gratefully dropped her own into his firm grip.
"You must ask yourself that," he replied simply. Qui-Gon watched her with his deep, patient eyes, forcing her to answer her own question. Kylie pulled back slowly, straining her exhausted body, and looked up into Anakin's eyes.
There was no yellow in them. The unbridled hatred that had burned in his eyes had disappeared, to be replaced by the passionate light she had feared was gone forever. Anakin Skywalker was looking at her, the same man that wanted to scream for what he had done, what he had become.
"Kylie…Kylie, I'm sorry," he stammered, pulling her close. He almost began to shake as the horrors of his actions crashed around him and the fear of the dragon grew stronger in his heart. He could think of nothing else to do but hold her close to fend off the tremors. The Jedi held him, resting wearily against his chest as she sighed in blessed relief. He was still alive; beneath the monster that had become Darth Vader, Anakin was still alive. She could still find him. She felt his hand tighten on her back as she leaned her weight on him.
"Don't be afraid, Anakin," she whispered in his ear because, for some strange reason, her lungs didn't want to fill enough for her to speak any louder. She hugged her arms around his neck before she looked up at Qui-Gon again. The Jedi Master reached out and took her hand again, welcoming her after an eternity. Kylie shrugged off the oppressive weight of her cloak and forgot about the horrors around her as she reached into the Force. Besides, there is no death, only the Force. With a last brush of her hands over his back, Kylie let go of Anakin. Her gaze burned with determination when she met her father's again.
"I will still save him," she pronounced, daring the darkness to defy her. Only Qui-Gon was there, though, and he rested a hand on her shoulder encouragingly.
"Of course you will, Kylie. We will still see balance brought to the Force." Kylie didn't think about how, but she knew that he spoke the truth. Somehow, someway, Skywalker would balance the Force.
Anakin stood in the abandoned hall, staring expressionlessly down at the cloak in his fist. All things die, the dragon hissed into his heart. You couldn't save her from yourself, just like you can't save Padme, it went on cruelly, its poison seeping into his very soul. You can't even save yourself.
And Anakin let Vader loose from the furnace inside of him to destroy the dragon again. The dark lord crushed it beneath his foot without a care, laughing malignantly. Vader finally looked back up, dropping the cloak from his durasteel fist as he spun on his heel and stalked from the tower. Death and darkness followed him like faithful hounds, never leaving his footsteps.
It was only much later, in the cold silence of his dreams and the burning torment of his living nightmare on the medical table that he felt the cool touch of the echoes of Kylie's words. "Don't be afraid, Anakin." But Anakin couldn't hear her. Only Lord Vader remained now, Anakin but a distant dream and words on a dead Jedi's lips.