Chapter Nine:

Reality


"My Lord, the boy fell through the Veil. He is lost forever. You have succeeded."

Lucius was aiming for a proud statement but it came out sounding like a question.

"You're right of course, Lucius," Voldemort said softly because the first rule of being a leader as Voldemort was it was to never show weakness. The Dark Lord had a deeply...disturbing feeling. The prophecy said either must die at the hands of the other, and Voldemort had in no way caused the boy's death. Part of the Dark Lord's mind, a part disturbingly reminiscent of Dumbledore, said he was surely being paranoid. It was all over. He'd won. The other part told him that he'd thought it seemed that he'd succeeded several times before, but Potter had always slipped through his fingers. But more concrete in what remained of the Dark Lord's mind was not the twisted logic of the prophecy, but the feeling that wherever Harry Potter had disappeared to, he was not dead.

Not yet.


It was dark and quiet, depressingly so. All of Harry's senses were on edge, centered, anchored, and yet stretched outward and away. Beyond himself. Harry didn't know where he was exactly, only that it felt right. Like this was where he was supposed to be all along, where he was meant to end up.

He was walking alone, slowly, quietly, intent on his goal.

The windows cut into the dark hallway gave a breath taking panoramic view of the galaxy. Huge, ominous-looking planets loomed among innocent twinkling stars. Harry never slowed in his advance. Steady and invisible, a silent breeze.

Harry sensed he was getting closer and, as if on cue, the hallway suddenly ended and gave way to a cavernous hall. A throne room for the most cruel and malicious dictator, the Emperor, the Master of the Sith

The huge chair slowly began to turn around. Harry braced himself, for what he was not sure. But, he needn't have bothered, the chair was empty. For just a split second, Harry was confused, thrown off balance. In an instant, he had whipped around.

Red.

Red lightsaber? Red eyes?Both?Harry couldn't be sure. The only thing that mattered was the red hot pain, and his need for it all to end.

Harry awoke abruptly the next morning and had a major panic attack. Harry's head whipped from side to side, his eyes quickly scanning his unfamiliar surroundings. Where am I? He asked himself, jack-knifing into a sitting position and groping for his glasses. Where's the dormitory? He barely stopped himself from calling out for Ron and Neville and Dean. Then he remembered.

He could have laughed at the fact that just two standard days ago he had woken up in his bed at Hogwarts and gone to class. Since then, so much had happened; so much had changed. Harry felt a strong and sudden sureness that some things would never be the same. He gave a tiny shudder that had nothing to do with the temperature, but the details of his dream were already fast slipping away from him.


It was a dream. Of this much, Anakin was sure. But it was not an ordinary dream. His rarely were. In the unfettered realm of his sleeping mind, Anakin had seen visions of things that had been, things that were, and things yet to be.

Some of the same stars that shone in Harry's dream twinkled through transparisteel viewports and, while Anakin felt them in the Force as he felt everything else around him, his attention was somewhere else entirely. The stars were as beautiful as they always were, but Anakin was rather more focused on the Sith Lord in front of him. That and, you know, fulfilling his destiny.

He must have known Anakin was there. He'd employed all his stealth to silence his footsteps and not give away his position, but a Force signature could not be silenced. Speaking of Force signatures, the Sith's was an odd one. Anakin hadn't given much thought to meeting and murdering the SIth Lord, but he thought when he did there would be an aura of "evil" about it all. The cloud that hung around the black-robed figure carried a disconcerting sense of familiarity.

The Sith still had not turned around. Anakin was incensed that he did not fear or respect him enough to even face him. The young Jedi drew and activated his light saber, hearing the familiar buzz and taking strength from the warmth of the handle in his hand. The Sith didn't as much as flinch. Anakin felt the waves of amusement rolling off him.

"You can put that away, young Skywalker. You cannot defeat me." The words sent an icy stab of fear through his heart even as they set his veins aflame.

"Who are you?" Anakin asked, furious at himself for how small and scared his voice suddenly sounded. Even since he was a slave child on Tatooine, he'd taken comfort in the thought that he'd always be in charge of his destiny, now this Dark Lord was taking away that surety.

The Sith laughed, a deep rumble. "You already know who I am young Skywalker. That is the reason for your fear."

All of Anakin's remaining confidence deserted him in an instant. With a bravery he didn't feel, he commanded, "Turn around and face me, you coward!"

At the word 'coward', Anakin felt a change in the Sith; he'd elicited more than mere agitation or anger. The Sith was furious. Anakin's keen eyes saw the Sith's hand make the tiniest movement to his lightsaber. The feeling was not released into the Force but taken deep inside the SithPower to draw upon later; a valuable weapon. In the next moment, the Dark Lord composed himself and was once again cool, calm and in control.

There was that disconcerting laughter again, then: "As you wish, young Skywalker."

Just as the man began to turn, Anakin's eyes flew open and he sat up in bed, whip-crack fast. His heart was pounding and he was drenched in sweat. For just a moment, he was a boy on Tatooine, waking from a bad dream and needing desperately for his mother to tell him everything was alright. The next second, he was a Jedi padawan, trying to forget his morbid fear and fascination and trying to release the dream into the Force like so many before it.


Author's Note: So, there you go. Not a whole lot of plot development ( or was there?). Next time, hopefully we'll get a glimpse of what's going on on the other side of the veil. Until next time, read and Review!

La Nanita