Author's note: Another long wait, I know, but I proudly present the next chapter in the story. There might still be some time between updates in the future despite my best intentions, but rest assured that I have no plans of abandoning the story.
A huge thanks goes to Shinigami Merchant for taking the time to Beta the chapter. :)
- Scamasax
Chapter 10 - I have waited a long time for this moment (Darth Sidious)
It felt final… being in this place, like a door was slowly sliding shut even as he sat here.
'He looks even smaller now' Luke thought and looked to the side to spare himself the sight of the ancient Jedi for a few precious seconds. Despite what had happened, he could not be pleased by this sight. He had seen too much death to celebrate it in any form.
He breathed in deeply and felt the cold air travel down his throat into his lungs as he looked out the window. The only thing visible to his eyes were the dark forest beyond that had always held more questions than answers. Unwillingly he felt his shoulders tense instinctively.
He had never liked the trees surrounding Yoda's house.
They had an eerie resemblance to crooked spines.
"Back, you are." Yoda finally said and broke the heavy silence between them. It sounded painful for him, just speaking those three words and in the force something bright was growing steadily dimmer. Luke dragged his eyes away from the haunting collection of trees and looked over to the man he had come here to see one last time.
Luke only nodded softly to the statement because he did not trust his voice.
It would betray him.
'Yes, but for what point and purpose?' Luke thought to himself. In truth, he had hoped to avoid this meeting altogether and he had been deliberately slow in getting here because of it. But this last confrontation was unavoidable as he had known it would be, even before he started the journey.
Yoda made no sound, but looked back at him with an unreadable expression. The regret Luke had felt from the old Jedi when he came here was carefully hidden. It was unnecessary because Luke already knew what Yoda regretted, but he appreciated the gesture.
'You know now you picked the wrong one, don't you?' Luke thought. The truth of it still tasted bitter in his mouth. Yoda had chosen the wrong student from the very beginning. 'You choose the wrong twin.'
Still, there was some comfort in the fact that Yoda used what little strength he had left to hide his regret. It was as close to an apology that Luke was likely to get. Luke fought back a heavy sigh and instead allowed his frown to deepen. Defiance was easier to handle than regret.
"You are dying." He said. The vulnerability he felt did not escape into his voice to his immense relief, but as a result the words sounded hasher than he meant them to be.
But not by much.
"I am." Yoda said like it was the most obvious thing in the galaxy and he sounded almost amused at the thought. Luke blinked, lightly startled at the honesty of that feeling. "Surprised, you are."
"I thought you would be dead by now." Luke said with the familiar feeling of dread that he tried his best to ignore. "You told me as much when I left here."
Yoda did not answer that.
Luke had found, that there were many things Yoda did not answer.
"I suppose you already know this, but it's over." He said with as little emotion as he could, but the words still burned on his tongue. "The war is lost."
"Always in motion, the future is." Yoda said with a pensive look in his eyes, like he was remembering a lesson from long ago. "Set in stone, nothing is." There was a wistful expression on his face when he said that.
Luke silently disagreed, though he kept the words behind his teeth. Nothing could be done now to change anything. He wanted nothing more than to find a way out of this and somehow turn this war around.
But there wasn't a way out.
Not this time
'Maybe it was always meant to end like this.' He thought. He had played all his cards and that was what the emperor had done too. He sighed and brushed his hand over his face and felt the tiredness bleeding into his bones.
Maybe he should just do as Lando had suggested and find a reclusive corner on the edge of the galaxy and live out the remainder of his life there. He might even manage to live a full life before the empire caught up to him.
Yoda breathed in a dry heaving gasp that had a liquid quality to it. Luke reached forward and adjusted the worn blanket draped over the thin form.
Despite Yoda's weakened state Luke knew he should still feel some small measure of anger for what the Jedi had done. But there was no anger as Luke looked down on the crumpled form.
'He only did what he thought was the right thing.' An inner thought said carefully. Luke sighed and shook his head. Luke could not fault Yoda for what he had done no matter how much he wanted to. What Yoda had done was a horrible mistake, but he had had good intentions.
'And he is not the only who has made mistakes in this war.' Luke reminded himself painfully. Still, just looking at the Jedi hurt in so many ways, because Yoda had cost him so much. So many things had happened, so many horrible things, and they could all have been avoided had Yoda just-.
Not lied.
"You lied to me." He said, with his eyes fixed down on his hands folded in his lap. He could not look at the Jedi master when he finally asked the only question he really wanted answered. "Why?"
Again, Yoda did not answer just like Luke expected him to.
"It was a mistake." Luke said. There was an old bitterness hidden under those words, but it was more directed at himself than it was at Yoda. As much as Luke would like to blame it all on the Jedi, he knew that he carried most of the blame for what had happened in this terrible war.
Just not for what had happened that day on Bespin.
That was Yoda's fault.
Anakin saw Obi-Wan disappear out of the room with the others. The departing Jedi council dragged their shadows out of the room behind them and their running steps faded quickly into complete silence. The room became empty in seconds.
In the span of a breath, he was the only one left in the room
Him, and Yoda
The quiet that arrived to keep them company in the room was somehow more deadening than the sound of the departing steps.
He looked down to meet Yoda's eyes with a frown carved deep between his brows. It was a battle all in itself for Anakin not to pull his arm free of Yoda's hand and rush after the others, but he reminded himself that Yoda always had his reasons for everything he did.
Always
Anakin trusted Yoda with this and so much else, that the aging hand around his wrist might as well have been an iron chain. He had never doubted Yoda's word, and he would not start now.
"Master?" Anakin asked, noting the brief look of doubt flicker over Yoda features.
The sounds of the battle outside sounded louder and almost lured him to the door. Almost. Battle had become almost second nature to him after fighting in a seemingly endless war. It felt wrong not to help if he could, and he was glad to do it if it meant someone else didn't have to.
Still he trusted Yoda's decision.
"What do you need?"
"Very important it is, to stop the Sith's connection to these people." Yoda said calmly. Slowly, like he was reluctant to do it, he let go of Anakin's arm and the area felt colder. "Disturbing is this act by our unknown enemy, put a stop to it quickly, we must."
As if to stress the truth of the Jedi master's words, the noise outside became even louder than before. It sounded like the voices of hundreds of people raised in anger, but the words sounded distorted even from here, as if it came from rabid animals rather than people.
But he could not hear any blasters being fired.
'Not yet at least.' Anakin thought, but he doubted that small mercy would last for long. He had seen what Vader was capable of in close combat. He was not eager to know how far Vader's abilities stretched in other skills of the force.
He remembered all too clearly the extreme power of the force blast that had knocked him out in his first confrontation with Vader. It had been like staring into the blinding heart of a supernova.
'And I have only felt the same power from one other person.' Anakin thought with another look at the Jedi in front of him.
Vader was powerful and his role in this was still unclear, which in turn made him more dangerous. 'He is clearly not a friend of the republic.' Anakin thought. But from Vader ruthlessness against General Grievous forces on the battleship, it was clear that he was not an ally of the separatists either.
He somehow had his own agenda in all of this.
"What do you need me to do?" Anakin asked Yoda and dragged himself free of the pull. It was still there though like a burning stare at his back.
"Met him before, you have." Yoda continued and the sound of his voice helped Anakin pull completely away from the almost overpowering urge to dive deeper into the force. "For you, easier he will be to find." Yoda explained and walked slowly over to his chair where he sank into the soft seat.
"Remember his presence in the force, you do?" Yoda said, and gestured at Anakin to take a seat.
'You think I would just forget something like that?' Anakin thought, but said instead as he sat down in front of the Jedi master. "Yes. I do." Then he dared ask. "Why do you ask, master?"
"Feel him at all, I do not. Only a void, I sense" Yoda said and his brow wrinkled. "And to stop this, find him I need to." Yoda turned his eyes up to meet Anakin's. "Block him for a time, I can. Stop his control of the people, it should."
'Should…' Anakin thought with a stab of unease. He breathed in heavily, more affected by the great disturbance than he would admit.
There was a… calling from the vortex of sound and discord the force had become. It was getting harder and harder to ignore, and for some reason all he could suddenly think about was Tatooine and a little white house that was burning.
Disturbance or not, it felt like something was calling out to him.
"How do we do this?" Anakin asked and wrestled his focus back to the conversation and trying to ignore the calling that became louder and louder. The image of a towering figure, dark tunnel and a red lightsaber danced behind his eyes.
"Close your eyes and remember your meeting with Vader, you must." Yoda said and finally threw a brief look outside the window. "Show me his presence. Then stop him from controlling these innocent people and end this, I will." Yoda said with an almost chilling finality, like it was already done.
"Alright, I'll do it" Anakin said and then with a final look out the window, he nodded
"Meditate. Find him, but reach out to him, do not." Yoda said and he had barely finished speaking before Anakin was settling into the meditation. The Sith, Vader, appeared easily to his inner eye. "Let him see you, do not."
Anakin nodded and carefully opened his connection out to the force. He dug into his memories, trying to remember the dark presence he had felt only moments before. Then he looked into the force, but his searching inner eyes found nothing.
There was nothing but the deadening ocean of fragmented noise that force had become. Anakin had never before felt such a great disturbance in the force, and there was something underneath the roaring chorus of twisted and crooked sounds.
'Why can't I find you?' Anakin thought and blocked the strange feeling out. He felt nothing from the dark presence he knew was out there, even the memories of him were somehow inconsistent.
He remembered Vader's anger, and the determination in his yellow eyes. He remembered Vader's presence, but he could not feel it.
Vader did not feel like a presence.
'He felt like a void' Anakin thought, with the memory of the disarmed Vader staring back at him with the strangest look in his eyes. If Anakin had not known better, he would have said for a moment there was a soft kind of pity in Vader's yellow eyes just before Anakin had pressed closer with the lightsaber.
Then they had been wide open in fear.
Anakin grimaced and renewed his effort in the search. Despite what the Jedi Masters said about recognizing a force presence, Anakin had never felt the emotionless 'imprint' they spoke of. To him everyone felt like a unique collections of dominant emotions.
Padmé felt like a warm kindness mixed with pure devotion, Obi-Wan felt equal part stress and worry, and Ahsoka had felt like joy and determination. Windu somehow felt like he suffered from chronic disappointment in everything, and Yoda…always felt tired.
Vader in comparison felt like an absence.
Like he did not exist.
But for a moment there had been a glimpse of something else. Something beneath the cloaked anger. 'Something darker' He dove deeper but the disturbance raged around him like a storm.
It was so hard to focus.
'What was that feeling?' Anakin strained to remember that strange feeling he had felt a second before Vader had knocked him out. When he had said Vader's name. 'What was it?' Barely had he ended the thought before he felt something
He stretched his senses hesitantly into the vortex searching for Vader presence.
Then, he felt him, Vader.
Here.
Now.
Vader did not sense his presence. His mind was focused elsewhere. It was centred on the chaos he was creating no doubt.
'How can he not sense me?' Anakin still thought in wonder fearing a trap, because Anakin knew the power of his own presence. Even a Padawan would have sensed his presence this close, but he felt nothing from Vader aside from an intense concentration on the waking nightmare he was creating with his power from the dark side.
Vader's presence on the other hand felt like blood in the water, an exposed neck. It was an open invitation. There was a lot of damage that Anakin could do to an unprotected mind. Even from this distance.
He ignored the small stab of guilt he felt and quieted his force presence from the man sitting in front of him in the physical world.
Yoda would not notice what Anakin was about to do before it was already over. Yoda would not approve, and neither would Obi-Wan. 'But this is the right thing to do.' He thought. Who knew what the consequences might be if the Sith was not stopped now? 'Vader might even strike a fatal blow to the Jedi order.'
The force in Anakin's control spread out and rose at his bidding.
'I cannot risk that.' He halted, barely more than a breath away from tightening the noose. 'Sorry Obi-Wan. I know the Jedi do not believe in killing their enemies.' He thought and remembered the look of horror on Vader's face when he stared at Dooku's dismembered hands. 'But I cannot risk it.'
A picture of Padmé smiling face and a hesitant hand at her belly steeled his mind. 'I cannot afford to allow you to live, Vader.' He reached out with the force, and in the very same moment sensed a presence rush towards him.
It moved like a snake and looked like a shadow.
Everything changed, all at once. There was a distinctive feeling of not just being tugged towards something but the feeling of cold fingers digging into his arms and ripping him away.
An endless fog rushed forth and around him, blocking everything out. Anakin could not see anything, feel anything. His lips where heavy like they had turned to stone. His world turned black and all sounds muted.
'Yoda?' He called out into the dark, or he wanted to but his lips did not move at his command. His beating heart thundered quicker and quicker in his chest. His body felt like lead. He could not move anything. 'Master?' He called and listened, but nothing answered, the darkness surrounding him was unbroken.
Then Anakin felt eyes on him
'Who?' Anakin thought, and felt a singular presence where everything else had become a blurred violent entity. It was the architect of this mess somewhere in the dark. The presence that he had chased all the way here.
It had been a trap.
"Chosen one." A familiar voice rumbled inside his own mind.
'Vader' Anakin thought. He knew that presence, it was so tainted in the dark side that Anakin had to resist reacting to it. Vader was radiating anger, pain and despair so sharp and powerful that Anakin could swear he felt it bite against his skin.
Vader was not just tainted by the dark, but swallowed up by it completely.
Vader was a darkness that moved.
"How rude of you Skywalker, to look into someone else's mind like that." A voice said. The words echoed in an eerie way that made it sound like two voices were speaking rather than one. One of them sounded like Vader, but the second one didn't. It rumbled beneath Vader voice like caged beast.
Anakin tried to reply but he could not move his lips or even master enough control to answer through the force. He strained against the heavy pressure, trying to find a weakness in the iron control but he found nothing. Fear spiked within him as the battle against his bonds seemed more and more futile.
His heart drummed quicker and quicker in his chest. It was all for nothing. He was trapped. Trapped inside his own mind.
Vader's presence felt even more sinister than it had before, when he confronted him on the battleship. And as if there had been some unsaid command, the world suddenly returned around him when Vader opened Anakin's eyes.
Yoda was standing and the grip around his cane was tight.
'He does not feel dark.' Anakin thought as he felt Vader look back at him in the force. 'It feels like he does not have any force presence at all.' Anakin struggled against the sickening power keeping him still. The cold grip only tightened and coldness spread till it lay thick in the air. 'He feels like a force wound.' Anakin thought. 'A wound that is spreading.'
As if he had read his mind, Vader suddenly smiled. Anakin felt his lips curl into a smile that was a mockery of his own.
"Master Yoda". Vader voice said, but the words passed through Anakin's throat. "I had hoped I would get the chance to meet you." Anakin felt his head move into a polite light nod, despite Anakin trying everything he could to resist it.
He might as well have been beating his bare hands against a mountain.
The fear hit Anakin like a hammer. Anakin's hands felt clammy, his mouth felt dry and his breathing was strained and shallow. He tried not to let the Sith feel just how strong the fear grew within him. But how could Vader not know? The terror was practically screaming from the walls of his mind.
How was Vader even capable of doing this?
This was not even possible!
"Release knight Skywalker, you will." Yoda stared right into Anakin's eyes "Now."
Vader presence replied first with cold silence, then he moved slowly, pulling Anakin's body on a string until it stood tall and towered over Yoda. The darkness draped around Vader's presence was so deep it felt sinister just to look at it.
The darkness was so complete it felt eager and… sentient.
Like it was alive
"Don't think you have any control over what is happening, old man." Vader's voice said. Anakin knew he did not imagine the lazy amusement he felt through the force from the Sith. "You are playing by my rules now, and I have only just begun."
"Many years ago since the rule of the Sith ended, it is." Yoda said, his voice was calm and seemingly unmoved by the threat. "That power, the Sith no longer has. Empty, your threat is." Yoda straightened, and fell into a posture Anakin had only seen once before many years ago, and at that time, he had been looking at Dooku.
Anakin could feel the power in Yoda build, the force rushed to him and collected around him. Anakin waited in the tense silence for Vader's reaction, but unlike Yoda he did not make any move to defend himself, despite the fact that Anakin's own lightsaber was well within reach.
Then Vader laughed
"Go right ahead Yoda, attack me. I will not defend myself." Vader threw out Anakin's arms in a surrendering pose. "Why should I? This is not even my body."
Vader's smile felt like bared teeth in Anakin's mind when the Sith continued. "And I warn you, do not try to force me out, Jedi. This is an ancient discipline and very difficult to maintain without… damaging the host." Vader said and smiled with Anakin's lips at the old Jedi. "Push me out, and I will rip his mind out with me when I go."
Yoda said nothing, but he paused, and the force collecting around him stilled. "If destroy Knight Skywalker's mind, you do. Kill you, I will."
Looking through his stolen eyes, Anakin did not doubt Yoda for one second and by the darkening for the force that held him, neither did Vader. But just before he felt his mouth open on its own accord the anger had been muted.
"You dare threaten me, Jedi?" Vader said, ripping the words from Anakin's throat like a puppeteer. Then he continued with words that were so soft and wondering that it sounded eerie. "You, who are the very reason why I am here?"
That was true, Anakin discovered with a shock.
He could feel the truth of it resound through the very force.
"Your own choice, this is." Yoda said with finality. His eyes were fixed on Vader's eyes, but somehow seemed to look beyond, at something Anakin could not see. "Met you before, I have not."
"Are you sure?" Vader said sounding like he was hiding a nasty secret behind his teeth as he threw a look outside the window. "I must say, I am disappointed. I expected this to be much harder." Vader said without a flicker of disappointment felt from him. "But I suppose it just proves that the old teachings are true. The force was never meant to be shared"
"The rule of two, you speak of?" Yoda asked, but it did not sound like a question and there was something…strange about it. Anakin could not put a finger on it, but he had known Yoda long enough to see there was something… off about the way he acted.
"Twisted, that belief is. Matter to you, It should not." Yoda looked at Vader like he was a puzzle he could not figure out.
Then as he saw a shadow move in the reflection of the glass Anakin realized.
Yoda was stalling
"One to hold the power and another to crave it." Vader said like he was remembering a pleasant memory. "No more."
"Foolish that is. Disagree, I do." Yoda said, and Anakin had never in all his life seen the Jedi master look annoyed. But now the emotion was carved between Jedi's eyes in a frown. "A gift, the force is. Sharing that gift, greater joy and understanding to us all, it brings."
"The dark side is by far the superior to this…" Vader paused, his sentence faded between them as Vader's mind went searching for the right word to describe the Jedi order from a Sith's perspective. Even trapped as a captive audience Anakin was reluctantly impressed by the enormous size of Vader colourful collection of curses.
In the end, the word he chose was relatively mild. "…Abomination, that you have created master Yoda."
"Tested and broken before, the rule of two, has been. A long time ago."
"Well, clearly." Vader said with the strangest glee. "Someone has not been paying very close attention, have they?" Vader had the nerve to let the question sound innocent as he made soft gesture towards the window behind him. "Do I have your attention now?"
Anakin knew he did not imagine the sinister pleasure Vader felt at uttering those words aloud. He strained against the hold one more, but the chains that bound him through the force were as unforgiving as they were strong.
He felt the bonds tighten even further. But inside, underneath the panic and the frustration he felt hope. It was only a whisper in the force, the presence that was closing in behind him. It was to so skilfully suppressed in the force that it was barely an imprint, but Anakin could feel it shorten the distance. The Jedi was almost there…
'A little longer', Anakin thought
'Just a little longer.'
"So this, your scheme is?" Yoda asked, but it didn't sound like a question. It sounded too firm to be that. "Return the dark side to the galaxy, you intend?
"Return?" Vader said and managed to sound mildly insulted "I do not merely plan to return. I intend to rule-"
Anakin felt the chains binding him crack. A startle in the force told him Vader noticed in that same moment. But by then it was too late. Mace Windu's force grip was unyielding, and like ripping flesh from bone Vader was being torn off his victim.
There was no pain, Anakin registered, halfway caught between shock and gratitude. Not for him anyway.
Vader was another matter entirely.
"Well played Yoda." Vader gasped in agony, the voice was even deeper than before and sounded unnaturally animalistic, like a wounded beast. Now there was only one voice speaking, the one that did not sound like Vader, and somewhere in the back of his mind Anakin thought he heard someone screaming.
Vader fell to his knees, collapsing in on himself under the pressure of the combined power of Yoda and Windu.
"But I am curious." Vader's superior expression was strangled by the pain, but the hate strengthened in the eyes that narrowed at Yoda even as he fought against the Jedi Masters' power.
"Will you be able to live with yourself…" Vader said gasping, his words barely louder than a whisper and his teeth bared in a wide smile that stretched further because of the pain Anakin could feel Vader endure. "…Knowing what you have made him do?"
Vader was barely holding on. Anakin could feel him fighting fiercely to remain in control and failing. The dark force dug in with its sharp presence, clung to its victim for one more agonizing second. Then Anakin felt a rush of hope as he could feel the grip slipping.
Then Vader went for the throat
"I know Skywalker won't." Vader said. All his strings ripped from Anakin as he was flung away into the dark vortex the force had become.
To be continued