A few seconds earlier...

The Sister paid no attention to Tyrannus but responded to Skywalker alone. She stood up straight and held one end of her lightsaber beside her. "If he means so much to you, then fight for him."

"I will," threatened Anakin in a low voice. He turned away from Dooku, and although the Sith wanted to kill Skywalker he did not try to stop the fight. He would let Skywalker kill the Sister, and then he would get back to the plan, right after he dealt with the other Jedi.

Anakin stared at the Togruta standing in front of him, his head pounding, his heart racing. The Inquisitor would die for threatening the Chancellor, nothing would hold him back from killing her now. He pointed his lightsaber at her, and she ignited the other end of her lightsaber.

The end that was pointed directly at Palpatine's chest. He gasped for air, and Anakin felt something in his head freeze.

No, not him too!

Anakin wanted to scream, but he couldn't move. His limbs were still, and he could have sworn his heart slowed down. The Chancellor looked down at his chest, saw the red blade piercing it, and stared up at the Inquisitor, who had turned to face at him and was no longer looking Anakin.

"I promised you," she said slowly, "I would see your plan through...to the END."

As he stared at Palpatine, at his dying body, Anakin felt his fear, he felt anger, his wrath, his disbelief. As he opened his mouth, the word that slipped out was barely audible, but Anakin would never forget it because only he knew the word that was supposed to come after it.

"You..." ...traitor.

As the Chancellor took his last breath, and he slumped over to the side. The Sister deactivated both ends of her lightsaber and turned to the other five occupants in the room. She bowed and muttered but two words: "You're welcome." And she meant it.

Unfortunately, her voice broke the spell cast on the others by Palpatine's death. Anakin snapped out of his daze and narrowed his vision at the Inquisitor. "You...how could you?" His voice was tainted with Darkness, with hate, with fear that wasn't altogether his. All he knew was that she deserved to die for what he had done.

The Sister knew this and wasn't about to wait for it to happen. She reactivated her lightsaber and threw it at the window behind the desk. It shattered the glass and she jumped after it, removing herself from the late Chancellor's office.

Anakin screamed and sprinted after her. She wasn't about to get away that easy. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" He shouted after her, but the Inquisitor didn't bother to respond. She needed to get back to that ship before Tyrannus came to his senses.

After the Inquisitor left her Sith Fire died down, and the Jedi Masters were free to move about the office. They encircled Dooku and tried to trap him, but he ran after the runaways seeing no other option. He couldn't fight three Jedi Masters, not without Sideous. He had to escape, he had to get back to his ship.

His ship. The Inquisitor was going to steal it.

As he fell to the ground and caught himself with the Force, he fumed, his anger building inside. The Sister may have taken his glory, his pride, and his master, but she would not take his ship, not while he had breath in his lungs. He ran after her, and immediately realized a few problems with that plan.

One: His master's death had weakened him. He had depended on his power for too long; now that he was gone, his strength was limited. Two: The Sister was much faster than him, in his weakened state, there was no way he could catch her. Three: Skywalker was also chasing her, and Tyrannus was very reluctant to follow his master to death. Sideous had always said that death was the only thing worth being afraid of, which was why he had spent so much time trying to learn how to live forever. If death could take his all-powerful master, then what did that make Tyrannus, his apprentice?

As he ran towards his ship, he realized that he was no longer an apprentice. I am the Dark Lord of the Sith, now. The throne is mine. The thought numbed him, his new authority leaving him dumbfounded. I have no master; I am my own master. I do not have to take orders any longer, but now I am free.

What should I do with my new freedom?

The idea that his life was his own to live was too foreign, too massive for him to comprehend, especially while he was so winded, so he put aside the thought for the moment and he finally came within the site of the jail. He saw Skywalker dueling the Sister, and Tyrannus saw his only window to escape. If he could slip by without either of them noticing, he was as good as free. A Dark Shadow ought to do the trick, and he cloaked himself as he rushed to board his ship.

Farewell, Sister, he thought and spared one last moment to curse her before he left: May you die afraid and alone, and in the most painful way possible for what you have done to my master.

The Sister had held the lead on Anakin for most of the dash to the jail but there was no way for her to board the ship without risking that he might come on too. Chances were Tyrannus had probably disabled the ship before they had left it, anyway. The Sister spared a glance behind her and saw Skywalker right on her heels and she knew that she wouldn't be able to get out of this without a fight.

The question was, would she live through it?

She turned and faced Skywalker, who was charging at her full speed. He leaped into the air and came crashing down on her with his lightsaber, and the Sister barely managed to block the strike with her own.

"You'll pay for what you did to him!" He growled, and he pushed her back with the Force. He didn't wait for her to regain her balance, but rushed at her and cut across her stomach, which she barely avoided. They exchanged stroke after stroke, with Anakin pushing her back every single time.

Anakin's guilt, his grief, and his pain all sharpened his hatred towards her. He used his full strength attacking her, his lightsaber moving almost as fast as hers spun. At first, he tried to use some of his most difficult and dangerous tricks, but as he fought, his form morphed into pure brutality, and he started grunting and yelling with every strike he brought down on the Inquisitor.

She knew better than to try and gain the upper hand. A year of training with Sith taught her to be wary and afraid when dueler abandoned form for ruthlessness, and she had burn scars to show for the lesson. She stayed entirely on defense and put all of her energy and concentration into not dying. She almost missed Tyrannus taking off in his ship out of the corner of her eye. There went her chance of escaping off-world. No ship would let her on board to leave, not now. Her face would be plastered onto news articles within minutes, right next to Palpatine's, with a bold headline of 'Murder in the Senate!'

The Dark Jedi was pushing the Sister into a corner, but she saw it coming and leaped up onto the railing above her. She decided against trying to escape to the city (everyone would recognize her there), and ran away, where there were no buildings and no people. Anakin followed and closed the minuscule gap she had created with her five-second escape.

He jumped ahead of her and tried to cut her off, but she just adjusted her path and started leaping sideways to get around him.

"You can't escape!" He called out to her. "You can't escape what you've done, not anymore!"

"I'm not escaping what I've done!" She declared. "I meant to kill him, and I don't regret it!" As she spoke, she and Anakin felt water droplets hit their heads. It was starting to rain.

"Why?" He shouted, his head pounding. Thunder rolled above his head. "He only wanted to win the war!"

"No," she insisted, and lightning lit up the sky. "All he wanted was power, and he didn't care who he hurt or killed to get it!"

"Oh, and you get to be the judge of that? You just killed him!"

"And believe me, you'll thank me for that one day!"

Anakin screamed and jumped at her again. He brought his lightsaber down on her head, repeatedly, over and over again, yelling out each time their blades connected.

"YOU! WILL! DIE! FOR! WHAT! YOU! DID!" He took a moment to catch his breath. "YOU! DE! SERVE! TO! DIE!"

The Sister blocked each of his blows, but she was losing her strength, and Anakin was fueled by his rage. Nothing, not even this puny thing could evade him forever. He would kill her, he would watch the life drain from her eyes just as she had done to Palpatine!

He looked behind her, just for a second, and saw a shaft leading to the Lower Levels. There, he could kill her there, and no one would ever find her body. She would bleed out and die if the impact of dropping down so far didn't kill her.

He stepped back and held her in a Force Choke, and threw her backward. Anakin leaped and struck at her neck, but she rolled out of the way, just in time, despite not being able to breathe. Quite frankly, she was used to fighting without air. She popped up and dodged a few more strikes, and parrying what she could. All the time, she was walking backward, right towards the shaft.

When the edge of her foot hung over the side, she finally turned and saw where she was. She couldn't back up anymore, and there was no getting around Anakin. He held her in another Force Choke, but harder this time and the Sister dropped her lightsaber.

He brought her close to his face so he could stare directly into her eyes as he spoke. "I hope you see him in hell, demon," he whispered deathly to her. "I hope you suffer far more than anything I could do to you, I hope you die in disgrace, I hope you DIE IN PAIN, I HOPE YOU KNOW THAT YOU DESERVE THIS!"

Anakin brought his lightsaber up for the fatal stroke, but the Sister used the last of her strength to push herself away from him. His swing didn't cleave her body in two, but it sliced her scarlet sash and she yelled out in pain. Anakin dropped her, but because of her Force push away from Anakin, she was over the edge of the shaft now. The push that had saved her from his lightsaber had sealed her fate, and she fell down, down, down, into the shaft until Anakin couldn't see her anymore.

His heart pounded in his chest as he stared into the Lower Levels, the rain plastering his hair to his forehead. He couldn't think, he couldn't concentrate anymore. All he knew was the Inquisitor was as good as dead. With a cut like that, even if it wasn't fatal, would prevent her from running, and to where could she run? She was on Coruscant, everyone would know about her. Her body would turn up soon but Anakin didn't care. He kicked her lightsaber down after her and walked away, back to the Jedi Temple.

Palpatine was gone. His friend, his Chancellor, the closest thing he had to a father, was dead! He had felt his fear, his fear of dying, his fear of the unknown. Anakin had felt his wrath, his fury at his death, his bewilderment at being killed. He hadn't seen it coming, no one had. One second, the Inquisitor was preparing to fight Anakin, and the next, the second end of her lightsaber was burning a hole in his chest. How had he not expected it?

Anakin went straight to his room, only after telling Obi-Wan briefly that the Inquisitor was dead. He didn't bother to talk, he didn't report to the Council, most of which was still at the gala anyway, he just went to his room and locked the door. He sat on his bed and fell asleep, submitting to the dreams he knew would come.

That was why he didn't know that Padmé had been asking for him all night.

That was why he didn't hear the Council's decision to wait until tomorrow to tell the Order that the Chancellor was dead.

That was why, when a group of clones came to move Palpatine's body, he didn't know that two elegant, but deadly, lightsabers fell out of the sleeves of his robes, and clattered to the ground.

And when the clones cautiously dared to turn them on, they were as red as the blood that stained his robes.

Scarlet red.