Chapter 11 – "Perhaps Revan never fell. The difference between a fall and a sacrifice is sometimes difficult." (Darth Traya)
"So you are just going to give up? After all we have been through?" Luke could not believe it. Against the backdrop of peaceful open space what she had just said had sounded like a lie.
There was no way that the fifth fleet was gone!
"It cannot be done commander. I am sorry." She looked away out the window to the stars blinking back at them from the blackness of space. Her posture was stiff, but he could see her shoulders shake when she whispered the next words. "We have lost the war."
This was not new information. Silently, in his heart he had known for the longest time that this was the only way the war could end.
But no one had ever actually said the words before.
:::
'Damn it…what just…?.'
Luke rose to his feet. The cold touch of the stones lingered on his knees like a mild frostbite that itched more than it burned. 'When did I fall?' Luke thought, his head was spinning and so was everything else. He clenched his eyes together and concentrated on breathing.
'What just happened?' His head kept spinning and he threw a hand out to keep balanced on the ground that was moving like a sea in a storm. Sickness collected in his throat, he tensed and forced it down while he clung harder to the shoulder he was sinking his fingers into.
Images of a white room flashed behind his eyes, and three figures. One of them looked like- '… Father?'
"What…" Luke said, his hand felt clammy against his head, and the coldness of the touch slowly made the world stop spinning.
"Stay where you are!" A voice said so loud that to Luke's hypersensitive senses it sounded harsh and unbearably sharp, like a gunshot. A bright flash flared to life instantly and powered only by instinct did Luke bring his hand up in time.
The blaster shot went wide. It crashed into the forcefield formed in a mere instance, it was thrown wide by the force of the collision and disappeared into the crowd. A second after Luke heard something hit the ground, a voice went quiet in the force and the cold intensified in the air.
The dark side of the force fed on the pain and the anger and its presence became stronger, like a wound in the force had opened. Only then, staring into the barrel of several blasters did Luke realize what had happened. His connection to the force, to the force persuasion, it had been broken.
This riot was out of his hands
The sharp sound of the blaster shot roaring to the sky still echoed in his mind
"Surrender!" The Stormtrooper demanded. His face was hidden by the familiar white helmet, and there was nothing but a steeled mind echoing back to Luke through the force. It was the same with the five troopers that were with him. They were accustomed to battle, a hardened calm was all that was felt from them.
But their minds were like an open door. Their mental shields were practically non-existent and pathetic that it was like an open invitation.
It was barely a touch. It was nothing like converting the patrons of the bar to do his bidding. That had been difficult and had taken considerable effort on his part, this though… a macabre opening had been carved into their very force signature.
It was like they had been made to be ruled.
He stepped forward towards the troopers that had frozen in place. When he stepped in between them, they moved as one and formed a protective circle around Luke. He cleared his head, from the strange vision from before of the white room. This was not the time.
"Where is Palpatine?" Luke asked the Commander of the team of Stormtroopers. "Is he still in the senate?" Without turning back towards Luke the man nodded. There was a glimpse of blue in the crowd and immediately after, the blaster shot followed.
Luke caught sight of another swipe of bright blue to the side. He threw an arm out aimed in the direction of the flash of blue and gave a sharp order.
"Fire!"
The blue bolted away with an unnatural speed. Luke noted with a hidden relief that the Jedi made it out of reach.
"Where?!" He demanded more than asked of the trooper still keeping his back to Luke and firing into the crowd.
"They took him to his office in the senate." The trooper said like he was walking in a dream. "That is the last thing I heard."
Luke nodded, he caught a flash out of the corner of his eyes. A vibroblade lay abandoned on the ground, its edge was splattered in red and the sunlight reflected the light on the polished steel. His shadow fell on it and blocked the light when he bent down to pick it up. The blade was heavy but well balance and he clipped it to his belt.
Luke looked up and followed the blue sky until his eyes met the familiar tall building of the Jedi temple. Now that he had personally seen the very slums of the city he understood how easy it had been to nurse the hatred and the anger of the people that were now his puppets.
Luke opened and closed the fingers of his left hand, the lines bent easily and naturally like blood veins. They caved so easily, and he knew, if he applied a little more pressure, he would break them. It was ridiculous the care he had to wield for their minds to remain whole.
It was like holding a wounded bird in his hands and if he put a little too much pressure on it, its little bones would snap. It was tempting to do so, despite his morals raging against it.
Why had he not tried this before, back home?
"Do you have more soldiers under your command?" Luke asked, watching the soldiers usher him into shelter as if he had suddenly become their main priority. 'You actually believe you weren't their main priority after what you did before?' a malicious part of him asked and Luke had not the energy to quiet it down.
When the Stormtrooper nodded, it was twitchy abnormality, but then in essence, so was the soldier himself. Were these soldiers not just clones of each other?
Copies.
A voice nagged at the back of his mind, the words got lost and Luke did not care to listen to it.
This had to be done, then only after could he worry of what his bargain truly entailed. But in his heart he already knew. He had known almost since the beginning that there was only one way this could end.
"Call them to me."
:::
"Commander Fox, Answer me!" Commander Cody shouted over the comm system as if he had been speaking with a subordinate rather than a fellow commander. "What is going on?" He waited in tense silence, and stared down murderously at the communicator as if it was personally responsible for what was happening.
Obi-Wan fully understood Cody's uncharacteristic anger. Obi-wan had eyes too, even if he did not believe them right now. It was not every day one witness Clonetrooper's turn on their brothers-in-arms, and never in these massive numbers.
In seconds the riot he had thought they were finally getting under control had been plunged into a new level of chaos. The combat soldiers in their easily recognizable white armoured uniforms were in disarray, their formation broken. Because now the enemy was everywhere and the soldiers where firing at each other.
Cody could not sense what was really going on, but Obi-Wan could. It was like the force had been thrown into a black pit. 'I truly am a fool', Obi-Wan berated himself. He had actually dared to believe that they had been winning this horrible war and it was only a matter of time before the separatists were beaten.
"Obi-Wan!" A voice sounded from behind him, and he turned to find Mace Windu closely followed by-
"Anakin! By the force!" Obi-wan was at his side in an instance. He looked like death warmed up. Thick black lines under his eyes made his glassy eyes appear even more sickly. Anakin looked like he had been haunted by a fever for weeks, but he had been fine minutes before. "What happen to you?"
"Vader did." Mace Windu answered for Anakin with a short look at the man that was not exactly worry, but it was close enough.
"Vader?" Obi-Wan eyes swooped to the entrance, but the gate was well fortified. "But he can't possibly be anywhere near-" he stopped himself. He sensed the eye of this storm in the force very clearly, but had not felt a shift that would signify that a long distance force attack was being attempted. That in itself was worrisome.
"Are you all right?" He could not stop himself from asking. Anakin nodded, but Obi-wan had never in his life seen a less convincing lie. If he had been Anakin's father, he would have shoved the man inside and demanded him to stay until the battle had been sorted out.
But he did not have that power anymore.
"Casualties?" Windu asked Cody in the background
"None yet, the defectors are using the stun setting and I have ordered my troops to do the same."
"…Curious" Windu said to himself rather than anyone else. He stood back with his fellow Jedi while Cody was still trying desperately the situation under control. "Are you sure you have not met this man before Obi-Wan?"
"Pretty sure, why?"
"According to Anakin, Vader called you a liar."
Obi-wan turned to his old Padawan who looked like a little boy who had been discovered doing something he shouldn't.
"It was back on the ship." Anakin explained and took great care to keep his eyes fixed on the battle. "It sounded personal. I am sorry, I meant to tell you but with everything that happened… I forgot."
"That doesn't matter right now." Mace interrupted before Obi-wan got his words past his teeth. "The only things that matter is, do you know him Kenobi?"
"I have never seen that man before in my life." He paused. "But I have been many places. Maybe he remembers me for something that happen early on in the war?"
It was the only plausible explanation.
But it didn't ring well in the force.
"It sounded like he knew you." Anakin added in a distracted tone. "Personally." His eyes looked doubtful when he added. "He is not old. Maybe you met him when he was a kid."
'Like you met me on Tatooine.' Was the sentence that lingered unsaid between them. Obi-wan suspected that Anakin's past would never really leave him. It was one of the reasons why the council had opted not to take him into the order.
Personally Obi-wan had always thought Anakin's experiences as a child was a strength, not a weakness. 'There is no emotion, there is the force' was an important lesson. It taught one to try to look at any conflict from an outside perspective and not to be seduced by ones' own emotions and act carelessly.
Secretly though, he thought that this lesson had been take to the extreme these says. By only allowing babies into the order, he feared the Jedi order in time would be become stale. The Jedi had become far too remove from the many troubles of the galaxy.
He had been in the order long enough to watch the objectivity of the order become apathy. The teaching of the force taught distance from attachments, not distance from the galaxy itself.
And then of course there was the matter of the new Sith.
Obi-wan's brow wrinkled. I had been a long war, but was extremely unlikely that he would have forgotten a man like Vader. Not even if he had been a child when they met. He never forgot a face. Never. It was one talent that he liked to think he had gotten from one of his parents whoever they had been.
"Maybe" He answered instead of admitting his doubts. He believed the lie as little as when he had said it the first time. If he was honest with himself it was not the apparent hole in his memories that vexed him most. He knew it was childish, but he did not like to be known as a liar.
He omitted a truth here and there when it was strictly necessary, but he never lied.
"And master Yoda?" He asked instead of acknowledge the thought.
"He is trying to find the Sith." Anakin said, with a renewed purpose in his eyes. Obi-wan knew that fire, and welcomed it. He had not cared at all for the stale look in his old padawan's eyes. "He knows his presence now." Anakin said and as if bidden by those very words, the force changed.
"He will mark Vader for us."
Obi-wan closed his eyes, when he opened them again he turned his head and looked into the crowd. Yoda had lit Vader's presence up like a beacon. "There."
:::
Luke felt a brief respite before he closed his eyes, he allowed the warmth of the light side to embrace him for a long wonderful moment. He had used too much of the dark side for too long, but he knew he had to use it just a little more before this was over.
But that was for later.
The light side of the force rushed to him like a long lost friend and the pain he had felt constantly ever since coming here was blissfully numbed. It felt like it had been an age since he had last meditated.
The wind pulled at him and the sound of the engine was calming. He breathed in and let the clean air into his lungs. His heart rate slowed down and the tension slowly bled out of his strained muscles. Even the scars now, hardly caused him any pain.
'There is a change in the force' Luke thought. 'And it is not just me.' The disturbance drew nearer. He could feel it. He breathed in once more and for a precious moment felt one with the force. Then the light was driven from him when the dark came rushing back.
He already knew what he would see when he opened his eyes. He knew two of them, and the third presence was the one he had caught a glimpse of after the ship crashed.
'Showtime.' He thought and reached out to the force. The coldness of the shadows was a pleasant distraction until his mind settled. The cloak was heavier than usual and his limbs under it were almost numb after sitting so long in the same position. The hood was a pleasant weight on his head though, as was the cool touch of the shadow that fell from the hood onto his face.
It was almost a comfort.
He kept that thought at the forefront of his mind when pushed off the cold stone pavement. His feet were unsteady on the ground, but he willed them to be strong no matter how much the muscles shook and resisted. He opened his eyes just in time to see them. The three he felt before.
He remained motionless until three different lightsaber's cut into his 'volunteer' vanguard. 'savage' he thought. 'Are these soldiers not supposed to be people they know?' Then one of the blue sabres broke through, and the time for thinking was over.
The blue saber followed a familiar pattern, but it was slower than it used to be. Like Anakin was already exhausted before the battle had barely started. Luke's blade rushed out to meet it. The steel of the vibroblade held fast against the blue lightsaber that had been Luke's too once.
Anakin's teeth were bared and there was only barely restrained anger shining from him in the force and beneath it, a shadow of fear.
But from what?
Anakin first broke the parry and the lightsaber rushed in a move more dominated by strength than skill. Sparks flew when Luke's block came up faster than the blue lightsaber could move. The stench of burned metal hung thick in the air as the blue saber came down again with more fury than before.
The block was harder to hold, but Luke was close enough to hear Anakin breathe heavily under the strain and the fingers holding the saber up in a strong parry were already shaking. The second attack was a mistake. Anakin was off balance.
Luke ripped his right hand off the vibroblade and moved it forward in an openhanded punch. He heard his opponent gasp in surprise the moment before the massive power of the force-push blasted from his hand.
Thrown back and further off balance, Anakin stumbled, trying desperately to gain his feet. Luke did not give him the chance. The force threw him forward in a quick dash with the lightsaber at the front. The clash of the vibroblade and the lightsaber was brief, Luke twisted the blade in his hand stabbed it towards Anakin's foot.
The lightsaber barely connected in time and it was only allowed to be in the way because the ankle had not been Luke's real target. He tipped back on his heel and heaved the vibroblade back up and stabbed it forward. Anakin' eyes widened and Luke heard the startled gasp the second before the thin edge connected.
Then impossibly Anakin's hands snapped up and his finger closed around the blade. The blade should have cut straight through his hand, But Anakin did not even flinch when he tore it away from the bleeding cut at his brow.
Anakin already had a cybernetic hand!
Luke felt the pain of the Lightsaber before he saw it. The ground rushed up to meet him and the world span around him as the enormous force of the blow sent him crashing against the ground. The shield he barely managed to get up in time saved his arm, but the stench from the burned wound hung thick and repulsive in the air.
The cloak dragged around him as he kicked off the ground to gain some distance between them, however it was not enough. The sound of the fast stomping steps registered in his mind just before the blue blade dove again.
He fell back, and the lightsaber rushed so quickly and so closely past him that the saber only appeared to be a flash of light. He pulled the force to him, drawing strength from its power. Blaster shots fired loud in the background but Luke could not see how little time he had left.
He fell back, desperately trying to defend himself under the assault. Anakin's lightsaber was moving so fast there seemed to be three of them. He leaped back, striking forward at the same time and was nicked by the lightsaber following him as he tried to gain some distance.
The stone railing he landed on was cut clean through a second after he threw himself forward and over the charging Anakin. Powered by the force his jump hurled him through the air and landed behind Anakin. Without thinking and with his heart thundering faster and faster he swung his vibroblade around for another attack.
His feet left the ground as Luke threw himself forward. There was a sharp pain in his ankle, he noted with gritted teeth as their blades clashed again. 'I must have landed wrong' He ignored the pain and called the force to him.
The blast went wide and he just managed to see Anakin condescending smirk when Luke clenched his hand into a fist and the massive power he had collected whipped back around. Anakin threw himself flat and the force blast sailed over him. The blast only missed him by an inch.
It might as well have been a mile.
Luke did not give Anakin the time to recover. He hammered the vibroblade down against Anakin's unprotected back. He twisted it at the very last moment so he would not hit with the sharp edge but instead the flat harmless side.
But the blade did not make it there.
Anakin in the blink of an eye was gone, on the retreat. Now on the offensive, Luke pressed forth, trying to end it with powerful blows that hit the lightsaber with such a strength that he could not have hoped to accomplice without the force as his ally.
Anakin's back hit the wall he had not realized he was being backed into. The blades hissed in between them, locked in a heavy parry, but Anakin was on the defensive, with Luke channelling so much force power that Luke was stronger than him.
Anakin grit his teeth, locking eyes with Luke then a grim look darkened his eyes and he moved. Luke was so focused on keeping the block up that he did not see what happened next. The fist that shot in between the lightsaber and the vibroblade connected, and everything exploded into blinding pain.
The punch sent him stumbling back and the world twisted sideways when everything in his sight toppled. The cold stone of the pavement slithered up through the hood and everything was spinning. At the last moment he felt a shadow passing over him and a flash of blue. He snapped his hand against the ground, the force ignited from his fingers and the blast tossed him to the side like a ragdoll. Out of the reach of the lightsaber.
He heard the tiles crack under the force of Anakin's strike, as he rolled around again and tumbled to his feet. The vibroblade by some mercy was still in his hand. Horror descended on him like an icy wind on a winter's night and he could only stare at Anakin. He was still kneeling on the ground with the lightsaber embedded straight where Luke's head had been moments before.
Almost lazily Anakin turned his eyes to watch Luke out of the corner of his eyes before he slowly pushed a hand against the ground as stood, taking the lightsaber with him. He threw a look to the side, at Obi-Wan and the other Jedi trying to get to them. Then he turned to Luke.
And a shadow of all that darkness Luke had felt before focused only on him
Luke's own heavy breathing was all he could hear and when he stepped further back and was immediately ashamed at the intense relief that flooded all his senses when Anakin allowed the small retreat.
For a moment all he could do was breathe, heave air back into his lungs. The hood felt heavy and clammy around him, but Luke was grateful that it was somehow still in place after that intense duel. If it hadn't been, this game would already be over.
Anakin did not look winded at all. He just stood there with the blade at his side and that constant frown carved into his face.
"Are you getting worried, Vader?" Anakin said like they were two strangers making casual remarks about something insignificant. But he was tense as a wire. He could attack at any moment, Luke could feel the force was screaming the warning at him "You look worried."
Luke tightened his hand around the vibroblade, it stopped them from shaking. He stood up straight, his breath finally calming at the same time his heart beat stronger and faster in anticipation as he said. "You were a lot worse last time."
"I know how you move now." Anakin moved slowly to the side one step after another circling him, and Luke was forced to follow too keep the Jedi at a distance. "I knew a Padawan like you once. When he fought, he had the same pattern as you."
"He believed it would make him harder to fight, unpredictable." He continued like he had not noted the limp that Luke could not hide completely. "What he didn't realize was that by trying to master all the forms, he mastered none."
'This is not going to be easy.' Luke thought. This was not the same man he had duelled on the battleship. Something had happened in the meantime, that was obvious even after such a brief exchange.
There was something else there. Something that had not been there before. It felt like an equal measure of hope and fear in the force and…love. There was the brief impression of a woman before it disappeared behind Anakin's mental shields
Anakin knew then.
He knew he was going to be a father. What else could it possibly be? Luke could not travel outside his own life time and he had pushed it to the very limit with his bargain with the Sith. In every other attempt there had been to travel in time the travellers past was already born in the past they had travelled to.
But if Luke had waited that long, the war would be over.
"So you are telling me you don't like my fighting style. That it is wrong?" Luke kept Anakin well within his vision as he circled the other. "It has served me well enough. I already beat you twice, haven't I?" He stopped, tired of the game now that he had his breathing under control. "and it seems like it worked out all right for that other guy too." The vibroblade raised in his hand.
"Him?" Anakin said and had the gall to look condescending as he also stopped walking but the lightsaber was lowered at his side. "He died years ago." The comment was monotone but Luke felt the truth of it "He didn't even get off the drop ship in his first battle. Got hit by a blaster just as he was walking down the ramp." He shrugged with that condescending look still on his face. "Somehow he just didn't get the big picture."
Then a lightsaber hummed behind him and it was only then Luke realized that the gunfire around him had stopped.
"Put the blade down." The unknown voice said behind him. He had lost. He did not have to see Anakin's nasty grin to tell him that. But knowing he was going to lose in the end never had stopped him from fighting before.
But the second blade humming to life behind him didn't give him any other choice. He held his arm out to the side, vibroblade still clasped in his finger. "You are making a mistake." He said more because he wanted to say the words rather than the three Jedi around him needed to hear it. "Back off."
"I am not going to ask again." The warning rumbled again, but Luke did not let go. He did not think he was physically capable of surrendering anymore.
"Neither am I." Luke turned his head just enough to catch a glimpse of the purple lightsaber held at his back along with the man holding it. He hesitated on purpose. Maybe it was a masochistic side of him that he had yet to discover, but he genuinely wanted to see what they would do.
What would a Jedi do in such a situation?
A hand closed around his wrist. Luke's eyes snapped back and found himself staring back into the eyes of Obi-wan. His old teacher twisted the hand firmly, not enough to force the blade out of his hand, but enough for Luke to get the point. Luke huffed, and allowed his hand to open and the blade to fall into Obi-Wan's hand.
This didn't really matter anyway.
He had bought enough time.
Then suddenly Anakin was there grapping his shoulders and dragged him violently back to the wall he had been trapped against himself during the fight. Luke's ankle protested when he was harshly knocked back against the wall, but he didn't mind. The coldness of the stone wall behind him helped him focus.
Anakin tore the hood off and in the same second anger was replace by shock.
Luke wanted to gloat in the face of that surprise. He had had barely half a year's training if he was being extremely generous and he still managed to fool three fully trained Jedi. But the victory felt hollow in his chest when he looked up into Anakin's eyes and saw the horrible flicker of yellow.
:::
Anakin froze, the words he had been planning to say died on his tongue with the unanswered question that had lined themselves neatly up in his mind.
It was not Vader under the hood. It was a man in his mid-twenties with blond hair, just like Vader. Only… it wasn't him. The face of a man barely halfway through his second decade stared back at him. The eyes that looked up at him though were yellow.
Anakin could not help but to grit his teeth and clench his hands harder on the lightsaber while he tried to swallow the frustration and absorbing the reality that Vader had slipped through his fingers…Had played him.
Again
Obi-wan saw the anger and Vader must have seen it too. Why else would that bastard suddenly smile?
"Vader?" Anakin asked, in a question that formed itself into an accusation when it got past his teeth. Because the yellow eyes that looked back up at him…Those eyes Anakin would know anywhere.
"I thought you said that possessing someone was hard." He said, sounding more surprised than he wanted too. He had actually believed Vader when he said that. Believed the words of a murderer and a Sith.
Vader tilted the man's head slightly, and he hesitated for a moment too long. "Not if you are willing to pay the price." Vader said over the man's lips. He sounded confident as always, but there was a lie in there somewhere. Anakin could feel it.
'Why do I get the feeling that you don't have any idea what I am talking about?' Anakin thought when a shade of confusion passed over Vader's presence.
"I overestimated you, Hero without fear." Vader's voice passed over the unnamed man's lips and stood straighter leaned up against the wall. "I thought you would be here earlier." Vader said, and the yellow eyes stared back at him. The blue blade so close to his face did not seem to bother him in the slightest.
'And why would it?' Anakin thought and pulled his blade away from the defeated form. 'He is not the one who is going to suffer the consequences.' Anakin very being itched to end him. 'But this is not this man's fault.' He thought and was suddenly ashamed of the bruise already blooming on the unknown man's face and the blood he could see dripping slowly from the fingers.
"Where are you?" Anakin asked and scanned the crowd for the Sith.
Vader crooked the man's head slightly exposing the throat lazily as if he was actually considering the question. He leaned slightly back against the wall and looked up at Anakin through the damp hair that was not his. "I could tell you." Vader said, and his words sounded weird coming from this person's mouth. "but… I just don't want to."
'Immaturity…' Anakin thought and filed that information away for later. Vader might even be younger than he first thought. It took everything he had not to punch Vader in the face.
'…Why am I so unhinged?' He could feel himself how the force was in an uproar around him. How? 'I have never been in so little control before.'
"Why stun?" Was the question he asks instead, trying to calm himself down. Vader was out of reach for now and the only thing he could do now was get as much information as possible from him. The more he knew, the easier Vader would be to find.
And he would find him.
Anakin had never been more certain of anything else.
Vader was a very violent person, and violating peoples mind certainly didn't seem to push his moral boundaries. Not setting the blasters to kill made no sense.
Avoiding killing anyone… there was no advantage in it for him. Quite the opposite. Vader could easily have made the clone troopers kill each other in battle and decimated their forces in an instant.
"I didn't want to give you any more excuses" Vader said and laughed, but it was a hollow thing.
It was the weirdest thing Vader could have possibly said. Anakin snorted despite himself, but the hopeless laugh that twisted from his throat withered when the eyes that stared back at him didn't waver.
"What is that even supposed to mean?" He said, and because he was confused the words that came out were angry.
"The Jedi don't believe in killing their enemies." Vader said with a tired expression, like they were sharing a private joke, but there was a tightening around his eyes that looked like pain. "But they still do it, if they have to. It does not mean that you have to-." Vader said, a pained sound escaped from him and he moved the left arm closer to himself. But that made no sense, Anakin had not hit him there.
"Enough." Mace Windu said and stepped closer. At first, it looked like Vader's possessed puppet was going to say something, but at the end of it, the figures simply stilled in such an instant complete way that for any living creature would be unnatural.
The smile it painted over its teeth were as real as its face.
"A newcomer, with something to say?" Vader said, like he was delighted by the interruption if not for the odd glances he threw towards Anakin. Anakin noticed the attention with a frown, but he did not interrupt Windu as he walked up beside him.
"The strings you use to control this man. They leave a clear trail to you in the force." Windu said like he was bored. "I will see you soon."
"No you won't." Vader said and his hand moved. He froze when Windu's lightsaber flashed up in a guard so fast, it looked like it had simply appeared in the blink of an eye. Vader's hand remained frozen on the wall where it rested, but his only answer was a smile that was nothing more than a display of teeth. "There is only one way this can end, I have already seen it."
The yellow eyes moved to Anakin. There was a question in those narrowed eyes.
A dare.
Then Vader struck like a viper. The fingers dug into each of Anakin's shoulders and he was ripped forward, close to the Sith. He was already moving for his lightsaber when Vader words whispered secretly into his ear.
"I wonder. What will they all say when they discover your secret?" Vader whispered and leaned even closer. The warm breath made Anakin shiver when it ghosted his ear. "Daddy."
To Anakin, in the moment that word escaped into the air, the entire world stopped. Everything stopped. All that existed came to halt and all there was were him and the Sith leaning into him
'How does he know that?!' He thought and his mind looped and looped again for a reason why. He found nothing. This Sith shouldn't know, couldn't know. This Sith that had not even existed in Anakin's world until a few hours ago should not know.
'That Sithspit cannot possibly know that!' he thought, but the yellow eyes were firm and the words inescapable. This Sith knew about Padmé.
Vader knew!
"Anakin!" Obi-wan was suddenly there, beside him shoving Vader back against the wall and placing himself physically between Anakin and Vader. "What did he say?" Obi-wan's eyes had not looked at him that worried in years and Anakin wondered how freaked out he must have looked to make Obi-wan act like that. "What did he do?"
Anakin felt a change in the force and snapped his eyes back to the Sith that was pinned to the wall by Windu. The purple blade hovered over Vader's heart.
From beneath Vader's stolen hand curled up on the wall, another hand appeared. The fingers whiter than bleached bones ghosted up between Vader's stolen fingers, curious and reaching and the very force was splintering with a screeching high-pitched sound.
Anakin's eyes zeroed on the hand and the unnatural white fingers that snaked up between the man's fingers. He could not feel them in the force at all. They should not be real. Could not be real.
Then Vader's hand turned.
And the yellow eyes turned into a soft brown.
:::
Luke breathed in deeply and untangled himself from the presence of the man. His entire body felt weird and shaky when his mind returned to where it belonged. It was like he had just run a hundred miles in the span of the last two minutes.
He rubbed his hand on his coat in an attempt to warm them, but the cold lingered like a handprint even after the hand that had left it was banished again.
Still.
A win was a win.
He shook the hand once more and brought his other hand up to curl around it, as he stared down on the streets flashing past below. The wind was strong and cold, but it did not bother him because this was a different kind of cold. It was natural unlike the touch that lingered stubbornly in his fingers.
'Please do something stupid, father.' He thought and looked back to the Jedi temple fading in the distance. 'Let them see what is happening to you. Maybe they can help and still stop it.' He thought, and wished that he could do so with greater conviction.
If Luke managed to do what he had set out to, Anakin would still need help to purge the dark side that was already tainting his presence.
The dropship suddenly shook under the strain and the engine rumbled louder as if in protest of the pace.
"Faster." He told the pilot and looked back out. He dropped the hand and focused his attention on the building in the distance that was closing in. The hood was flung from his head as another strong wind blew past, but Luke hardly noticed, just as he did not really feel the warm touch of the sun on his face. His attention was elsewhere.
The senate reached for the sky in an impressive display of architecture that made his mouth taste sour with the memory of the slums. He did not care at all for this enormous contrast between rich and poor in this civilized age.
He resisted the urge to rub the impressive bruise on his face that he knew he would be sporting soon. His father had a nasty right hook. But then again, he already knew that, just like he knew this brave new world looked a lot like the old one he had come from.
'No, it doesn't just look like the one I came from' he thought. This was exactly like home. It was the same rule, with the same soldiers in the same uniforms. It was even the same emperor wearing a different name.
The empire was already here even if no one else could see it.
Maybe that was why the Sith in his own time had laughed. Luke tightened his hand into a fist, closed his eyes in a long blink. He had to do this. He had burned all his bridges coming here.
'This is the end.' He thought and looked back to the senate that came closer and closer each second, and with it came the cold presence that never stopped haunting him. 'Finally.'
:::
To be continued.
Author's note: A fast update this time, I will do what I can to upload the following chapters just as fast. A great thanks goes to Shinigami Merchant for taking the time to Beta the chapters. I would not be able to upload this quickly without this help and support.