Chapter 10 - Breakthrough

DISCLAIMER: We (unfortunately) do not own Star Wars. :P

Author's Note: Vader's POV is fundamentally screwed up, okay?

Also... Sidious is crafty and clever, but he can make mistakes as well. :)

WARNING: Suicidal thoughts!

~ Amina Gila

Seething isn't even a strong enough word to encompass how Sidious feels knowing the truth. Because he knows now that he's right. Somehow, someway, Vader manages to time travel. It seems impossible, and he doesn't even know exactly what made him wonder.

Perhaps it was the fact that Vader knows of his secret hideout in the Works, one known only to Dooku and Maul, though Plagueis had known as well. Perhaps it was the strength of the other Sith's Force signature. Perhaps it was the way he was able to take Anakin and turn him with naught more than a request. Perhaps it was the way Vader killed Dooku and seized control of the Separatists with no difficult, manipulating events in a manner only he himself has. Perhaps it was the way his armor is designed, imbued with Sith magic and constructed from arcane knowledge which only Sidious knows. Perhaps it was the way Vader lashed out at the prospect of having a master, acting in much the same way Skywalker did as a boy.

He was always so prone to lashing out, so determined to protect himself and assert his freedom, so terrified of being free. Sidious sensed all that in Vader, and it was as if the puzzle pieces fell into place. Of course, a time traveler, especially one who is what Skywalker was meant to become, would be able to get the boy to join him. It's brilliant, and he might laugh at the thought that the Jedi are now facing two of their precious Fallen Chosen Ones, if not for the fact that Vader is trying to destroy him.

That, he will not allow to happen. He was so distracted in attempting to uncover the truth about Vader that he… became sloppy. He forgot to maintain awareness of his surroundings, and as a result, he was cornered. He is cornered, surrounded by clones on all sides, his two lightsabers a whirlwind of red around him as he deflects the blaster bolts meant to end his life. If he had any doubts about Vader's identity, he doesn't anymore. Only Dooku knew of the inhibitor chips and how they worked; well, the Kaminoans did as well, but Sidious highly doubts that Vader would have known to go to them much less that they existed unless he did get knowledge from the future.

He draws on the Force, using it to throw the clones backwards. They don't stop, of course, ones in the back moving forwards to take their comrades' places, never ceasing the barrage of blaster bolts for even a moment. Sidious leaps upwards to a safer place, unleashing a lightning assault on the clones. They fall by the dozens, but they keep coming. Vader wasn't playing around. He sent them to kill, but Sidious refuses to go down that easy. He means to keep his promise; he means to hunt down Vader and torture him to death, forcefully ripping the information from his mind. His death will be the final straw which will break Skywalker. It will be glorious.

Perhaps he might have been able to escape, but then, as he climbs through a window to the exterior of the building – to face even more clones – he's attacked by a squadron of fighters. The laser fire tears up the surface on which he's standing, knocking him off his feet. A Star Destroyer is overhead, dropping down towards the surface as the cannons open fire on him. Sidious throws up a Force shield, holding off the attack with naught but his mind as he reignites his lightsabers, tearing through the clones like they're nothing, bodies and limbs falling all around him.

They don't stop, even if they know that they're walking to their deaths. They keep on coming. Oh, how Sidious would have loved to see this, loved to see them turning on the Jedi. It's too late now, too late for him to go back. The Jedi can feel him, he knows, and they'll be coming to investigate. He was confident before, but as the fighters come around for another attack, destroying part of the building he's in, he's no longer so certain.

Sidious reaches out with the Force, crushing one of the fighters with the Force, ducking falling debris and dodging behind a crumbling pillar to avoid the incoming clones. They won't stop, and there are far too many of them. Most of the Coruscanti guard was here, and that Star Destroyer… Sidious thinks it might belong to the 41st Elite Corps, which serves under Luminara, if he remembers correctly.

He goes down to one knee when the barrage of laser fire from the Star Destroyer's cannons breaks through his Force shield. When the next bolt hits the pillar behind which he was standing, he's ready, flipping through the air and landing atop the incoming fighters. Instantly, the cannons aim at him again and score a hit. The fighter explodes, and he's hurled through the air, slamming hard into the burning rubble below. Two blaster bolts tear through his left arm before he manages to electrocute all the nearby clones, knocking them out.

Their fear fuels him, feeds him, powers him, but they are under the control of the inhibitor chips, so they feel very little fear right now. What Sidious can feel from them is determination, and that is not useful. He can't goad or manipulate them, defeating them the way he's become accustomed to defeating his opponents. All he can do is fight, and it's a losing battle. He accepts that with grimness, but if he will go down, it will be with a fight.

The fighters come around again, firing down at him with proton torpedoes. He barely has a chance to flip away, racing across the roof of a nearby building and leaping to another before they explode, the shockwave throwing him over the edge. He falls down, catching himself on the side of the building, swinging up the side to the top with laughable ease. The Star Destroyer is the real problem, he realizes, when a cannon blast he didn't manage to deflect in time hits his side, burning it badly.

Whirling, Sidious unleashes lightning, electricity pouring from his fingers at a greater intensity than ever before. It crackles against the shields initially, but his will is stronger. The shields give way, lightning electrifying the entire ship. He can feel the hundreds of clones dying, and he cackles madly, using that pain – and his own – to fuel him. It was a miscalculation. His need to destroy – coupled with his rage at Vader's deception and betrayal – off-balanced him for a moment. He didn't take into consideration what would happen if he did manage to obliterate the Star Destroyer.

He runs as fast as he can, but it's not fast enough. The reactor explodes, debris falling everywhere, including right where he is. Sidious ducks the worst of it, blocking it with the Force. A stray, flaming piece of rubble smashes into the building on which he's standing, the few remaining fighters flying back around to open fire on him again. He falls over the edge, lightsabers lost somewhere along the way, crashing down hundreds of feet amidst the ruins of the Star Destroyers.

Thousands of clones have died already, and perhaps if he'd calculated differently, the end would have been different. He wasn't ready for the attack; he hadn't planned for it, and even a master manipulator can make a mistake, loath though Sidious is to admit it.

His legacy, whether he likes it or not, and he really truly doesn't, ends here.

**w**

If not for Vader's armor – and the fact that he is already sitting – he thinks that his legs would have given out entirely. He's rarely been this terrified before, and he knows, oh he knows the kinds of things which his master is capable of doing. Sidious is nothing if not a sadist, and he has long viewed Vader as his. He knows what the price is, what it means for himself, and he knows the cost of resistance. Sidious knows. It doesn't even seem real, because not even the Jedi know. Not even – not even Obi-Wan knows. Force, this was a mistake. He should never have thought himself capable of deceiving Sidious. What was he thinking?

"It'll be alright." Anakin's voice breaks into his spiraling panic, and Vader jolts back to reality, turning his helmet to look at the younger. Anakin is terrified as well – he's shaking slightly – and… well, there's nothing they can do until they know if Sidious will survive. If he does, Vader knows that he'll likely have no choice but to disappear, taking Anakin with him. It doesn't matter what he has to do to protect Anakin from Sidious: he'll do anything. The Sith Master will not lay one finger on Anakin. Not again. Never again.

He stands, and surprisingly, or not, his legs support him – they are durasteel, after all, he supposes – and he moves towards Anakin. "Perhaps," he concedes, "But perhaps not. He should not have been able to figure it out."

"How did he?" Anakin wants to know.

"I do not know," Vader replies, laying a hand on Anakin's shoulder.

The younger takes that as permission to move closer, so he does, wrapping his arms around Vader. Not for the first time, Vader wishes that he could feel it. He wishes he could take as much comfort from the embrace as Anakin himself is. It's not fair, and that thought sends familiar anger bubbling up, smothering the fear which is drowning him. If his master finds him, he will never know anything but pain for the rest of his short existence.

Vader moves his right arm, stroking Anakin's curls and wistfully remembering the days where his body was whole. If he ever manages to escape this walking prison, he'll never take anything for granted again. They only have each other now, and Vader might be terrified out of his mind – he is – but if they're together, they'll survive. He can't let himself be pessimistic, not when it means that instinct will take over, instincts which scream at him to crawl back to his master's feet and beg for his nonexistent mercy, instincts which tell him to submit himself to whatever punishment his master might concoct.

He – he can't go through that again. He came here to escape, to be free. He has always deluded himself that he was free, that he was acting of his own free will under Sidious, even as a part of him has known the truth, has known that he has never been more than his master's pet attack dog. He is the slave. Sidious is the master. That's how it's always been, and he wanted out. He wanted it so badly that he threw caution to the wind and took the first opportunity he could to escape. He'll never admit that a sick, twisted part of him actually regrets it, regrets betraying his master, regrets trying to kill him, but that's a part of him which he'll die before admitting to having.

Anakin is scared, but he's scared because failure could doom them and the galaxy. For Vader, failure is… it's literally comparable to signing his own death sentence. Anakin doesn't know the horrors which Sidious is capable of, and Vader wants to keep it that way. He doesn't ever want the younger to know the pain of being operated on while fully conscious, the pain of being electrocuted until he can't walk because his prosthetics have been destroyed. Sidious is a cruel, vengeful master, and if Vader is being honest with himself, he would rather kill Anakin himself than allow him to be subjected to a servitude of that nature.

He wants to break the silence, but he doesn't know how to do that anymore, so it remains, lingering until it begins to feel strained. Anakin remains quiet, face pressed into Vader's armor, clinging to him like the world itself might collapse around him if he lets go. They're both scared, and with such close proximity, their fear is being amplified, but it's better than being alone. It's better than suffering in a corner of a room that is no longer a bedroom – and never can be again, because its occupant cannot live like a human does anymore – too scared to leave, mind locked on early memories, following the ingrained behavior of staying quiet and staying small to minimize his Master's anger.

It happened, once, and Vader was horrified by his own behavior when he finally came back to himself. He hated himself so much in that moment that he hysterically considered driving his lightsaber into his chest and seeing how long it would take before his ruin of a body shut down entirely. That was the moment when he had no choice but to accept the truth before his eyes: he had sold himself back into slavery; he had become the kind of slave that all slaves hate, the kind who cares about his master too much to leave, who is too broken to even consider the slightest rebellion, who will do anything for even a semblance of caring.

The hatred that had been born in him then has only grown and become more twisted in the passage of time. At times, it threatens to consume him. At times, it drives him to consider the most horrifying, gruesome death which he could inflict upon himself, but he's too much of a coward to carry through with it. Besides, he thinks bitterly, if he failed in that too – another failure, always a failure, see why no one wants you? – his master would make him regret it so thoroughly that he shutters to think of it. He probably doesn't deserve to escape from his miserable existence anyways; he brought it on himself. He deserves it and so much more.

He hopes that Anakin will never realize how fundamentally dark and twisted and broken his mind is. If he ever learns, he'll run and not look back, not that Vader could blame him.

"Whatever you're thinking, stop," Anakin orders lifting his head. "I can't read your thoughts, but I can definitely feel the… hatred."

Vader would huff, if he even could anymore, but he obligingly forces his thoughts to screech to a halt before he does something rash and focuses instead on the purely light presence next to him. Anakin is good, light where he is dark… and Vader doesn't deserve him. He doesn't deserve to see the person he could and should have been. He regrets now, with a sharp, stabbing pain, trying to make Anakin embrace the Dark Side. He doesn't ever want to feel that Force signature as conflicted and devastated as it was earlier. Maybe – maybe he should let Anakin do what he needs to do, as if either of them even knows what that is anymore. But that is a thought for another time, he supposes.

The Force ripples, two things shifting at once. Sidious is dead, Vader can feel it, and he has never been so relieved in his life. It's as if a tremendous weight has disappeared, the specter of his master finally, finally disappearing. Secondly, the Jedi come out of hyperspace.

"Shield yourself," he tells Anakin, wrapping the Force around himself so tightly that he doubts even Anakin could sense him if not for their bond. "The Jedi are here. Let us go to the prison level to greet them."

**w**

The first stage of the plan goes without a hitch, and before long, Obi-Wan finds himself leading his fellow Jedi and their clones down the halls of the Citadel, careful to avoid any droid patrols as they move towards the prison levels. Hard though he tries to keep his mind focused on the plan and situation at hand, he can't help but miss Anakin's presence. This is exactly the kind of mission which they would have been sent on together, and Obi-Wan wishes he was here. He wishes that he didn't have to walk these halls, filled with the perpetual fear that his best friend will be here and will attack him.

As much as that worries him though, a part of him is far more concerned about Ahsoka. He had let her come, because he knew that she needed it; she needed a difficult task to distract her from what happened to her mas- to Anakin. Obi-Wan is in desperate need of a long meditation session – Ahsoka too, for that matter – because he genuinely has no idea how he feels.

Anakin, his best friend, his former Padawan, is a Separatist, and he's actively working against the Republic. It seems so ludicrous, so absurd, and yet, it's the truth. Even now, Obi-Wan doesn't understand. Anakin had said that he was trying to end the Clone Wars, but was he lying? Or was Vader deceiving him? He naturally hopes for the latter, but with how much everything is changed, Obi-Wan no longer knows, and that hurts.

Strangely enough, there are not many droid patrols on the way to the prison level. Something in the Force is… off, but he can't pinpoint it. It's as if the Force has been thrown into a turmoil and is struggling to rebalance.

"Something has changed," Windu tells him in a low voice as they dart around a corner to the last corridor before the prison cells where Piell should be. There is no other secure place to hold Force sensitives here unless the prison has been changed dramatically by the Separatists. "The Force is… unbalanced, and the Shatterpoints have suddenly shifted."

"Do you know what happened?" Obi-Wan asks as Vos slips past with Ahsoka to check the prison cells. The clones wait at the end of the hall, blasters ready.

Windu shakes his head. "I am unable to pinpoint it for some reason. The Force is clouded and… elusive."

They might have kept talking if Ahsoka hadn't come rushing back, expression drawn in consternation. "There is no one there," she tells them in a rush. "I can sense Master Piell's presence in one of the cells, but it's empty."

Obi-Wan and Windu exchange looks, both knowing what that means. "We're too late," he says grimly, a feeling of hopelessness washing over him. Without those coordinates, the Republic is doomed if Vader keeps up his offensive, especially with Anakin at his side.

Windu glances at the group once before turning around. "Then we had better hurry and leave before we're discovered."

No one objects, and the mood this time is far more somber and depressed than it was when they came in. Whatever hope the Republic had has now diminished dramatically. As they leave the prison level, Obi-Wan notices an oddity: many – actually all of the blast doors along the hall have been closed. He's positive they were not like that when they came in.

The Force twinges in warning, and suddenly, the blast door at the end of the hall slides shut, effectively barring their primary exit. They're trapped unless they turn around and go back; cutting through the doors will take far too long when they have no idea how far they need to go. At that very moment, alarms begin to blare, the bright lighting in the hall flickering and dimming to a more reddish hue. The same second, an all too familiar respirator echoes down the hallway as two brilliant Force presences – one lighter and one dark – make themselves known. It was a trap.

Final Notes: If you want to join our Discord to receive updates or just hang out, here's the invite link, and please delete the spaces! :) discord . gg / nqSxuz2

We also have a tumblr account (and delete the spaces): fanfictasia . tumblr . com

And! We have a YT channel for tributes! Please delete the spaces in the link. :D youtube channel / UC_g1M5rSCxJUzQCRS29B6pA

Finally, if you're interested, you can submit a SW gift fic request via the following form (delete the spaces): forms . gle / rmXWtRomMMaULuPa6