Chapter 7
Luke clenched his teeth as his saber locked with his sister's blade. The younger Jedi was not well versed in Makashi, but his sister was the undisputed master of the form. But she was the one on the defensive and not he. It was a battle he did not wish to fight, one he did not want to see to its inevitable conclusion.
A Force push broke the saber lock. Luke was forced back further than his father. Anakin recovered quickly to parry Apostas's swift strike for his abdomen. He worked his orange blade underneath the crimson plasma and pushed upward. Just as Luke was about to charge into the fray once again, Apostas used her free hand to blast Anakin with Force lightning just as his blade was too high in the air to move against her.
Anakin flew back and slammed against a tree. His lightsaber fell useless from his hand. Luke held his lightsaber up to guard his body in anticipation of what was to come. Darth Apostas channeled more Force lightning from her left hand.
Lightning tendrils collected around Luke's green energy blade. "You're grown very powerful, Leia," he told her.
Apostas smirked. "As have you, brother," she said as she recalled the lightning
"We don't have to fight, Leia," Luke told her. "You don't need to serve the Emperor."
"With you by my side, we'll never have to serve anyone," Apostas said.
Luke assumed a standard Djem So ready stance. "I'll never turn to the dark side!" he affirmed. "Not even for you!"
"Then so be it," Apostas said. She shifted her blade to low guard before rushing towards her brother. She pivoted her wrist and in a surprise Ataru move, turned her body swiftly and struck The attack would have taken off Luke's wrist if the Jedi had not quickly turned to catch the blade at an odd angle, initiating a saber lock.
Saber locks were a specialty of Djem So stylist. Without a tremendous effort, Luke pushed forward, unsettling his sister's balance. Apostas took a step back as the Jedi came forward, striking with each step. Her wrist turned and popped as she tried to keep up with the kinetic nature of Luke's offensive. His green blade seemed to move everywhere, underneath, above and across.
Apostas was stepping back towards the landing station, but she was guiding her retreat. She spun around her brother to make him move parallel to the building. Then, she caught a wild thrust with her red blade. Calling on her dark side reserves, Apostas used her temporary advantage to force her brother to stagger backwards.
Luke realized his sister was not fighting to kill. Apostas was fighting to dominate, to disable. From what Kyle told him, she was just as proficient with Djem So as she was with Makashi. He tried to remember what Yoda taught him, a way to distract and overwhelm an opponent.
Luke drew back as his sister's blade flew soared towards his head, catching the weapon with a flawless Shien move across his blade, a position that left Apostas wide open to attack. It was a move he learned from his father. The next ones, he learned from Yoda.
Apostas tried to get away from Luke's blade. First, her brother pushed forward, batting her weapon away. Then he surged forward with a set of swift Ataru cuts. One nearly broke her wrist from the force of the blow, earning a yelp of pain. The next attack disarmed her, sending her lightsaber flying through the air.
Luke called it to his left hand with the Force and activated the crimson energy blade. Desperately, Apostas blasted her brother with Force lightning from both hands. The young Jedi tried to get the blades in place to protect himself, but he was quickly overwhelmed. Apostas poured enough power into her assault to launch Luke into a tree.
Apostas called her lightsaber back to her hand and she reactivated the crimson plasma. The last thing Luke heard as he hit the ground was, "Take him to my shuttle. Leave the other one."
"Wake up, Anakin," Qui-Gon Jinn's ghost asked Anakin.
The Jedi Knight opened his eyes to see the deceased Jedi's apparition staring down at him. "Qui-Gon," Anakin gasped. "She beat me so easily."
The first Jedi Anakin ever knew knelt before him. A smirk appeared on Qui-Gon's face. "Get up," he said. "You're not ready for what has to be done, but we have no choice."
Anakin sat up slowly, realizing he was no longer on Endor. He was in a strange cave, but the biting cold reminded him where he was. Anakin could never forget Ilum, the icy hell the Jedi revered. It was a dream, but one in which he could be a player.
"Master Jinn, why have you brought me here?" Anakin asked.
"You are incomplete," Obi-Wan said as his ghost materialized. He appeared as the old man slain by Darth Vader.
Mace Windu appeared next. "Perhaps it was inevitable," he said, "that our Chosen One be divided in two."
"Still sense much fear in him, I do," Yoda said as he materialized next to Anakin.
"Does this have something to do with the nightmare I had?" Anakin asked the Jedi Masters.
"It has everything to do with it," an unfamiliar voice said. A new Force ghost appeared. He wore the armor of a warrior and a crimson cape flowed behind his body. He wore a helmet like the Mandalorians, but carried a lightsaber at his side. "Like you, I was divided in two. If I had not faced what I was, I would have been destroyed."
Anakin stood slowly and stared at the newcomer. "Lord Revan, I presume," he said.
"You could not defeat your daughter because you have not accepted who you truly are," Revan told him. When he stood in front of Anakin, Revan towered over the Jedi. "You never took the Trial of Spirit and you are not prepared for what you must face."
"But I'm a Jedi Knight," Anakin argued. "I did not have to take that trial."
"If I had not pushed for your promotion, you would not be in this situation," Obi-Wan told his former Padawan.
"But I don't have time for this!" Anakin shouted, not caring what the Masters would say. "My son is in danger. Darth Sidious is very powerful."
"No time?" Qui-Gon asked him. "Darth Sidious is powerful and you know how he works. He will twist the darkness in you until you forget your purpose."
"Remember your failure in his office," Mace stated.
Anakin cast his gaze towards the floor. "What would you have me do?" he asked.
"Remember who you are in this trial, Skywalker," Revan said as the other Force ghosts disappeared. He took a few steps back and disappeared in the shadows. "In here, all that exists is what you bring with you."
And from the shadows, Anakin heard the mechanical breathing from his nightmares. Instinctively, Anakin grasped the lightsaber at his belt. He backed away from the shadows as Darth Vader emerged. The Dark Lord held a red glowing blade, its hum resonating harshly in Anakin's skull.
Anakin activated his orange energy sword with a loud snap-hiss. He closed the distance between them to make the first move, a swift Ataru cut for the Dark Lord's side. Vader caught Anakin's blade on his own and pushed forward.
Anakin quickly retracted his blade and countered Vader's thrust. "You!" he growled. "If only you didn't exist!"
"I am as you made me," Vader replied coolly. "I am the product of your greed, your failure. We are bound."
"No!" Anakin screamed as he slammed Vader with a mighty Force push. Vader responded with an equally powerful push of his own, sending both men flying across the cave.
Anakin hit the floor hard and clenched his teeth. He pushed himself off the surface and prepared for another offensive from Vader.
But Vader only stood and did nothing. "Your move," he said.
Anakin remembered Revan's words at that moment and deactivated his lightsaber. "Only what I bring with me," he said before returning his lightsaber to his belt.
"I was just your placeholder," Vader said. "But now my time has ended. You are not Darth Vader, Anakin Skywalker."
Darth Vader disappeared, leaving Anakin alone in the cave. Revan's Force ghost returned holding an amulet in his right hand. He threw the amulet to Anakin.
The Chosen One caught the ancient relic. He inspected it curiously, not sensing the dark side from the object. "What is this?" he asked.
"It belonged to your ancestor," Revan told him. "It will help you neutralize the Sith amulet."
"The time is now, Anakin," Qui-Gon said. His ghost never appeared.
"The prophecy," Anakin said before he donned the amulet, feeling a strange familiarity overcome him. "Who was she?"
"A woman who ensured the prophecy would never die," Revan told him. "She was Alera Skywalker, the Jedi Exile."
"Alera," Anakin said the name slowly. "The holocron only said so much. Why did you give it to Kyle?"
Revan approached Anakin and opened his glowing right hand. "I offer you these memories," he told Anakin. "Use them to defeat the Emperor."
Before Anakin could react, he felt Revan's hand plunging into his body, infusing him with the ancient memories. The sensory overload was enough to make him black out.
"Leave the other one," Apostas said to her troops. The Stormtroopers were about to collect Luke when Anakin rose from the ground.
"Belay that order," Anakin said. He stared intently at his daughter. "Take me instead."
Apostas grinned. The Emperor would not be pleased with her idea, but she nodded her head. "You would make a great prize," she said. "I'm sure we could find a use for you."
"I surrender myself," stated the Jedi.
Stormtroopers surrounded the Chosen One before an officer placed stun cuffs on his wrists. "You Rebel scum," the officer spat.
"If only you knew," Anakin told him before a Stormtrooper shoved him forward with a blaster rifle. He watched as the other soldiers gathered his son as he walked towards the landing platform. It would be daybreak soon and the battle for the future of the galaxy was about to begin.
