Chapter Thirteen: One Down, One to Go.
When they reached Mustafar, Damien was tense and upset. Outwardly, Harry was calm and focused but inwardly he felt a lot like his apprentice looked. Sighing he closed his eyes and forcefully shoved his nervousness and tension to the back of his mind, he couldn't allow anything to interfere with his connection to the Force at this point, nor his connection to Anakin. He needed to be calm and focused if he was to defeat Vader without killing Anakin in the process.
When the ship landed the small group spotted a dark figure running towards them and they all recognized Anakin, or rather, Vader. Harry sighed once more and rose, pressing the button that would drop the boarding ramp. Looking round at his passengers, and especially hard at Damien he said, "Stay on the ship. I cannot stress this enough, you MUST stay on the ship. If you go outside you might be hurt and I don't want that. I'm here for one thing only, retrieving Anakin, and that is unfortunately going to include a duel. No matter what happens though, stay here. Understand?"
Everyone nodded their heads before Damien launched himself at Harry. Harry caught him and just held him, understanding that Damien needed this reassurance that Harry was OK at the moment. When Damien disengaged his arms, Harry let him go. The Padawan looked at him and then said, "I'll stay Master. I won't go outside I promise." Harry nodded, knowing that Damien was just reiterating that so that Harry wouldn't be worrying about possible disobedience when he needed full concentration for the fight.
Harry was about to walk down the ramp when he felt a tingle of magic flow over him. Turning back he saw Severus tucking his wand away and raised an eyebrow at him. Snape shrugged. "Video charm Potter, it will allow us to watch the fight if we wish to." Shrugging, Harry turned and walked down the ramp, the video charm activating automatically upon his leaving the ship. A rectangular screen of sorts formed on the wall of the ship and the group inside turned to it to watch. Snape flicked his wand and the audio clicked on as well. They settled down to watch the greatest battle in the history of the Order, that of Chosen One vs Chosen One.
Harry walked determinedly down the ramp of the Marauder, his eyes fixed firmly on his former Padawan. He could feel Anakin struggling to get out and that only fuelled his determination to fight Vader into submission and then get rid of him once and for all.
Vader smirked at him. "I see you're here to try the same thing your apprentice did. Unfortunately you won't succeed. You Jedi are too afraid of the Dark to properly fight it and that is why Anakin will never be free again."
Harry snorted and replied caustically, "Who said I'm afraid of the Dark Vader? Just because I don't use it doesn't mean that I don't know how to fight it. I almost destroyed your precious master, and then Anakin almost did the same before you were brought into existence. That makes your precious Master rather weak if he couldn't handle first me then Anakin."
Vader snarled in fury, his power spiking round him in an erratic light show which was a testament to his loss of control. Anakin's aura was always tightly controlled and focused, as was Harry's. Snarling again, Vader slowly started to circle round towards Harry, who moved away from him so they were circling the landing platform, each keeping their eyes on the other.
Harry smirked and said, "You know, you really are a bit pathetic. I mean, letting yourself be kicked in the nuts by a fourteen year old? Even initiates know to jump into the air when an opponent tries that. I suppose it's a good thing that Anakin's already sired children, his ability to do that might have suffered a bit if you know what I mean."
Vader growled and then replied, "Only a Jedi would be so weak as to believe that the Light is the strongest side."
Harry shrugged. "Actually, neither is stronger, in order to have harmony the Light and Dark need to be in balance. That job falls to Anakin so if you'll just release him I'll be on my way."
Vader now laughed. "You think it's that easy? The answers no, if you want him, come and get him."
Harry's eyes hardened. "I came here for one purpose and one purpose only, freeing Anakin from the clutches of your weak, pathetic little Master. I intend to do that, and you won't be able to stop me!"
Inside the Marauder, James, Lily, Severus, Padme and Bail watched with equal parts awe and horror as Harry and Vader exchanged insults. Damien had been petrified by James and Severus as he had had trouble sitting still and watching, and it was felt that he might be tempted to break his promise to Harry. This thought had earned them a glare from Damien, whatever other stuff he might get up to he never broke a promise and he didn't want to be outside anyway, it was far too dangerous for him.
They all sucked in a breath as Vader smiled cruelly and said, "You will try" before leaping at Harry, his lightsaber ignited. A flash of silver met his blade and the fight was on. Strike for strike the blue and silver blades clashed, with Harry being driven backwards initially before he rallied and forced Vader onto the defensive. The video charm captured all of the fight and Damien was in awe as he watched his master and Vader pull out all the stops in an all out fight. He also shivered as he thought that he would stop making requests for an all out sparring match with Harry until he was a senior Padawan at least, if not a Knight.
Harry and Anakin entered a hallway and fought down it until they entered what was obviously the command centre for the station. Both were sweaty with the heat given off by the molten lava river below them, and the exertion, but neither were giving up. Harry kicked Vader in the jaw, forcing him to take a step back and allowing Harry to breathe for a second. Vader recovered fast and was on top of him again, giving Harry no room to maneuver really. Harry took advantage of that and started using the Force to send different items from round the room crashing into Vader. He was rudely shocked when Vader destroyed them all and then attacked him again. Sighing, Harry resorted to blocking Vader's attacks, hoping that Vader would tire himself out and let Harry capture him.
Vader however, had access to all of Anakin's memories of Harry's fighting style so that approach was quickly shot down. Growling, Harry then drew his wand and started casting curses and hexes at Vader, getting closer and closer as Vader was driven backwards by the veritable hailstorm of spells that were coming at him. Not all were hexes or curses either, some were transfiguration spells, and some were charms.
Vader didn't have any knowledge of how to deal with this attack so he deflected them, but he had neglected to stop Harry's advance, and as such he was caught by surprise when Harry punched him in the nose. Snarling as best he could, Vader said, "You'll pay for that Potter!"
Yawning, Harry replied "I've heard that so often it's lost it's meaning for me I'm afraid. Anything else you'd like to say" he mocked before jumping backwards as Vader lunged at him. Harry fought Vader around the room a bit, before trying to Force shove him away. Vader had had the same idea and the two were locked in a stalemate, with two opposing forces colliding and neither willing to give up. Finally both were blasted backwards across the room, and landed painfully on their backs. Vader recovered first but his downwards stroke hit the control panel, not Harry as the Jedi Master had rolled out of the way and was now attacking from the side.
The two fought their way along a walkway that led to one of the lava collection arms, and Harry did everything he could to get through Vader's defences but they were too good. Snarling inwardly he continued to fight, vowing once more to defeat Vader no matter what it took.
Inside his mind, Anakin was both thrilled and terrified. Terrified that Harry might decide to relieve him of a limb or two in the process of defeating Vader, and thrilled that, despite the unfortunate circumstances, he was finally getting a chance to fight Harry at full power, full strength, no holds barred. He smiled as he tried again to free himself from the prison he was in and to his delight the wall seemed a bit weaker than before. With no further encouragement needed he set to work on chipping away at the wall while his body remained in mortal danger from his former master's lightsaber blade.
Vader laughed as Harry leapt onto the collection arm itself and followed both cautiously striking at the other while keeping their balance. Harry jumped off first, and landed on a wider section of the arm. Vader followed once more, stepping up the pace again so that a fast fight to begin with became almost super humanly fast. Just then, Harry surged forward, raising his lightsaber blade to strike Vader's torso. Vader moved forward at the same time and both caught each other's arms, turning it into a physical show of strength rather than lightsaber skill. Both were summarily distracted by a spray of lava that came up and landed on the collection arm itself, causing the metal to buckle and weaken. Temporarily forgetting their fight they ran to the end of the arm away from the lava and took shelter from the raining chunks of molten stuff that was hitting everything around them. Once the lava shower had ceased, they had a more immediate problem as the collection arm groaned and began to give way, falling towards the lava river. Exchanging another glance, they ran up towards the now broken off end, as the collection arm fell into the river with a splash.
Glaring at each other, Harry and Vader fought while on an upright, floating pole in the middle of a river that would kill them in minutes if they touched it. Vader was lower down and tried to cut off Harry's legs. Growling, Harry climbed further up and aimed for Vader's lightsaber arm. Looking downriver Harry saw a lava fall and decided that he didn't want to be on this thing when it went over. Looking round for options he spotted a cable and beyond that, a floating platform of sorts that had its own motor source and was heading upriver.
'That's good enough' Harry thought as he cut the cable and swung outwards. Not to be outdone, Vader grabbed another cable and swung after him. The two played lightsaber tag for a bit until Harry let go and landed on his platform.
Inside the Maurauder the rest of the group were watching with varying degrees of awe, horror and hope as the fight progressed. They winced along with Harry as they watched the collection arm go over the fall, the figure of Vader still faintly visible as it went over the edge. It was not to end there however, as Vader ran back towards the fall and leapt on top of a small droid that began moving upstream towards Harry.
The two exchanged blows for a while before Harry tried again to bring out Anakin in the Sith that had taken him over. His attempts failed and Vader instead leapt over top of him and landed on the other end of Harry's platform, wobbling for a moment before his balance stablised and the two engaged in a deadly version of the exercise performed in the Jedi Temple when Padawans were learning to fight in close quarters with another Jedi. It was both beautiful and terrifying to watch and Damien was heard to mutter that he now knew why Harry insisted he practice that skill at every given opportunity.
"It will save your life someday" he muttered. "Right." None of the adults replied as they were still fixated on the fight happening on the lava riverbank. Harry had just leapt onto the bank while Vader was left on the floating platform.
Harry smirked tiredly. "Game's over Vader" he called. "I won. You must know, surely, that the person with the high ground wins?"
Vader's response was a snarled, "You underestimate my powers!" Harry shook his head sadly. "You try what I think you're about to try and you won't be able to move for a while" he warned. Vader shook his head and leapt into the air, gracefully somersaulting over Harry's head, expecting to land on his feet and then put an end to the annoying Jedi that had plagued his Master for so long. It wasn't to be though.
As he came over top, Harry swiftly dialed down the power on his lightsaber so it wouldn't cut right through. He then moved his blade so it left nasty gashes on both Vader's legs and then the return of the blade to the guard position caused a nasty wound to Vader's arm as well. The Sith crumpled to the ground and rolled a bit down the slope, in agony from the wounds. The lightsaber landed near Harry and he picked it up, absently clipping it to his belt for safekeeping. With that done he shut off his lightsaber and went down near the stricken Sith. Drawing his wand he cast a series of spells that had Vader wrapped up tighter than an Egyptian mummy and also gagged as he didn't want to hear the obscenities that Vader was spouting as he levitated him back up the path. As an afterthought, Harry cast a cooling charm on Vader's front, the lava bed had been fairly hot after all and it was more so that when Anakin came back he wouldn't be in too much pain than it was to relieve Vader's discomfort.
When he reached the ship he merely wordlessly floated the bound and gagged form of Darth Vader inside and locked him in the cargo hold, conjuring a set of handcuffs and putting a Force suppression collar on Vader just in case. With the door to the cargo hold secure he walked back to the common area and said, "He's secure for now but don't open the door. He's still Darth Vader but we need to get out of here before we meet Sidious. I'll deal with the mental war after we've got to a safe place."
"Medical centre in the nearby asteroid field" Bail said immediately. Harry thought for a moment and then nodded. "Fine. What are the coordinates?" Bail told him and Harry swiftly put them into the navicomputer before entering hyperspace. He then sat down and explained to Padme what he would need to do, and where he needed her help. He then led her in a brief meditation and created a temporary link between them which would help in the coming mental war. With that done he opened his eyes and went to Damien. Again wordlessly, he gathered the Padawan up in a tight hug, sending across the bond how proud he was that Damien had done what he was told even when it must have seemed too hard to do. Damien didn't say anything back he merely hugged Harry hard, pleased that the physical part was over. Now it was just the mental part to go and he'd have his brother back which was what he wanted.
After Harry let Damien go he looked at the others and said quietly, "Any communication from anyone that was in the field when that damnable Order 66 was invoked?"
Lily nodded. "Yes. A few didn't get to use their portkeys but the majority did. Obi-Wan and Yoda both survived and are on Yavin 4 at the present moment. She looked towards the cargo hold and then back at Harry, seeing the pained, hollow look in them. Moving towards him she hugged him, and then sat down as Harry abruptly collapsed. A few moments later silent sobs coursed thorough him as he surrendered to the torrent of emotion that wanted to flow out of him. Damien was about to go to them when Ginny gently took his shoulder.
"Don't. He needs this time to grieve for what's happened, and that this fight was necessary at all." Damien looked at Harry for a few moments before he too sat down abruptly and muttered, "If it weren't for my insistence that Anakin go to help then neither of them would be in this situation." He looked up as Ginny abruptly shook him slightly.
"Don't you start that self pity party too. I've had enough of it from Harry over the years that I can quite easily recognize the signs. It wasn't your fault that Anakin chose to go and help, he could still have refused to go and we could have stopped you from going too. In that case your master would almost certainly be dead and we'd all be a lot sadder than we are now. This way, yes it hurts but both Harry and Anakin are alive and once Harry recovers he's going to beat Sidious and give him one hell of a headache hopefully."
Damien nodded and looked towards where Harry and Lily were sitting. They had been joined by James and the two elder Potters were attempting to comfort him, while Harry himself merely indulged in letting his parents shoulder the burdens for a while while he let go and let everything out that needed to be let out. Once the emotional storm had passed he looked up to find himself the object of everyone's attention. Refusing to be embarrassed, he stood and said, "I needed that. Now I'm ready to go kick that scaly slimy excuse for a Sith out of Anakin's head. Coming Padme?"
Padme rose and walked behind him to the cargo hold. Pausing at the door, Harry looked back and seemed to be considering something. Finally he called out "Severus. Would you like to help too, or at least be present in case something goes wrong?" Severus thought about this for a minute before agreeing. The trio silently opened the door to the temporary holding cell and closed it behind them. An unnatural silence from the room indicated that a silencing charm had been raised to prevent any noise from getting out to the common area of the ship.
Bail looked at James, Lily and Ginny and then finally at Damien. "Now what?" he said. Damien smirked. "Now we wait" he said and settled down to meditate. Ginny followed his example before cracking an eye open. "Want to learn?" she offered. At his surprised look she smiled. "It's very relaxing, even if you're not a Jedi." Bail shrugged and sat down on the floor for his first lesson.
Inside the cargo hold Harry had propped the still bound and gagged Vader up against the wall. Furious blue eyes met his and Harry merely stared into them without a shred of mercy visible.
"Time for you to leave Vader" he murmured before looking at his allies. "You remember what to do?" he asked. They nodded and all three closed their eyes, briefly, connecting with each other. Then Harry opened his eyes, while Padme and Severus kept theirs closed. Harry reached out over the remnants of the bond between him and Anakin, swiftly rebuilding it enough to bridge the gap between them. He soon found himself at the edge of Anakin's shields and stopped. Padme and Severus were with him and they probed the shields, until Harry saw a small hole at the bottom. Heading for it he squeezed his mental presence through, helping Padme and Severus through as well. They stood up, their mental presences having created images of their physical bodies inside Anakin's mind, and were greeted by Anakin himself.
"Harry!" the Knight yelped in shock at the unexpected appearance. The two embraced in a rough hug, before Anakin drew back, and muttered, "Sorry about all this. I, I couldn't stop him from killing those Padawans, but I'm glad that Damien survived, even if my balls likely didn't."
Harry smirked. "Let's deal with all that later and focus on ejecting Vader out of your head shall we?" he asked. Anakin nodded but then looked confused. "Er, he's part of my personality Master, how are we going to eject him from my head?"
Harry smirked. "All Sidious did was tear down that wall you keep round your aggression and anger and give it a name before controlling it. We need to break out of here, break that control and then while we fight Sidious you can rebuild that wall. Without the anger and aggression feeding him, Sidious' hold on you will be weaker and weaker and we can toss him out, and keep him out easily. Got it?"
Anakin nodded and led the three to the prison wall. They could see that Anakin's chipping away at it had weakened it slightly and Harry smiled in anticipation. "Let's tear this down shall we" he asked. His companions nodded and all focused together, with Padme, Severus and Anakin using Harry as their anchor. A bright beam of light shot out of their hands and struck the wall. It buckled slightly and Vader came to see what the noise was about.
"Stop that you fools, it can't be broken" he growled. Anakin snarled back and said, "You will never keep me prisoner forever. I'm going to get rid of you for good!" With that he redoubled his efforts and with Harry and Padme joining him, not to mention Severus, he broke through with one almighty crash. Vader looked stunned for a moment before gathering himself.
With a cruel laugh Vader hurled everything he could at them. Anakin who was bolstered by the love that Harry and Padme had for him, fought back with everything he had. Weakened by his fight with Harry earlier, Vader grew weaker and weaker until finally Anakin had advanced to the place where he kept his darker feelings and started reeling them back in.
It was with interest that Harry and Padme watched Vader literally unravel before their eyes. Anakin kept winding in all of his darker emotions and then locked them deep inside his mind once more. When that was done, they felt a tremendous assault on Anakin's outer shields.
Moving towards the outer shield they found Sidious just entering. Anakin firmly blocked his path. "Oh no you don't" the Knight said grimly. "You imprisoned me once, you won't do so again."
Sidious smirked at him. "How do you plan to stop me? Vader may be gone but I can still rebuild him." Anakin shook his head. "If you think that then you really are deluded. I have love on my side, that and a prophecy that says you won't succeed. So goodbye."
Anakin then put his best effort into his mental shove and Sidious went flying through his shields. Anakin and Harry quickly rebuilt them, but Sidious broke through, armed with anger and hatred. Anakin took a few steps backwards but a hug from Padme, and then another from Harry stopped him. Letting love flow through him he turned back to meet the Sith and get him out of his head for good.
"You know Sidious, it's really sad when a grown man can't admit that love exists. It's what is going to destroy you you know" Anakin said conversationally as he drove Sidious back, drawing on the love that Harry and Padme kept giving him in a continual flow. Sidious shook his head as they entered the first of the outer mental shields. "No it won't. Love is weak, look what it did to you."
Anakin laughed. "If it's so weak then why is it that I'm defeating you easily and you're busy hanging on by a thread?" he taunted. Sidious snarled and attacked one last time, but he couldn't stand up against the blinding white light of love that filled his victim. Shrieking in rage, Sidious fled and didn't return. Anakin and Harry spent the next 20 minutes rebuilding and strengthening his shields so that no evil got through again, mostly infusing the shields with the power that had blazed forth when most needed. Harry and Padme then retreated from Anakin's mind, Severus was already out, he had left when he saw that there was no real need for him to be there anymore.
Harry and Padme opened their eyes to see Anakin staring back at them. Filled with relief, Padme started crying and then hugged Anakin so hard that Harry had to remind her that he needed to breathe. Anakin tried to hug her back but was restrained by the handcuffs and gag. Seeing this, Harry swished his wand and all the restraints vanished. Smiling, Anakin hugged his wife back and then looked at Harry uncertainly. Padme stepped back, not wanting to be in between them.
"Oh come here" Harry muttered finally, pulling Anakin towards him. Embracing Anakin he wasn't surprised to find Anakin was much like he himself was earlier, only it was a bit deeper and more painful. Harry knew that there would be some memories that wouldn't fade for a long time, if ever, and one of those would undoubtedly be the murder of the younglings in the Council Chamber. Sighing, Harry sat down with Anakin leaning heavily on him, and just held him while he let out the grief, fear and guilt that was consuming him. Padme sat down on Anakin's other side and the three sat like that for a while just comforting each other.
On Coruscant, Sidious had destroyed his office in a rage. "THAT NEVER-TO-BE-SUFFICIENTLY-DAMNED-ENOUGH POTTER AND SKYWALKER'S WIFE!!!! THEY RUINED ALL MY CAREFULLY LAID PLANS!!! THEY WILL PAY IF IT'S THE LAST THING I EVER DO!!!!!!" Sidious screamed in helpless fury before he reached into his medicine drawer and withdrew a large headache reliever bottle. Opening the bottle he didn't pay attention to the usual dose, he merely drank straight from it, while planning revenge on the Jedi in general and Harry personally because he had managed to screw up all of Sidious' plans since he arrived in the Republic.
Sinking into his bed Sidious wasn't pleased to be visited by Voldemort. The dead Dark Lord hovered above the Sith and smirked. "Should have taken my advice shouldn't you. There's nothing you can do about it now, Potter is well and truly your enemy. Have fun dealing with him; I'll be waiting on your arrival in Hell in a year or two."
Sidious snarled and threw his now empty bottle of headache reliever at the spirit who merely laughed before vanishing. Thoroughly miserable and wondering where things went wrong, Sidious rolled over and went to sleep hoping that the morning would bring better news.