The final chapter has arrived. As promised I will be publishing the first chapter of the sequel minutes after this so feel free to check out "Treachery – Emperor's Hand"

I do not own Star Wars nor its characters etc.

(CORUSCANT/JEDI TEMPLE/AHSOKA POV)

I found it hard to breathe.

The statues lay in pieces amongst the rubble. The holocron vault had been completely emptied of all its secrets which now were in the hands of the enemy the Jedi had been searching for.

Chancellor Palpatine, now Emperor Palpatine, was Darth Sidious. Count Dooku's master, the real leader of the Separatists was also the ruler of the Republic. The entire war had been a game to place himself in absolute power and to exterminate the Jedi Order. Had I still been a Jedi I most certainly would have been amongst the number of the dead.

Barriss saved me from this.

I looked at her, standing beside me also contemplating what had happened to the Order and all that it stood for. Apart from Tarkin and his escort of troopers the temple was deserted. All bodies had been collected and taken away.

"A new beginning for us." Barriss's hand clasped mine, "No more Jedi rules to obey. We have our victory, and thus our freedom."

I turned my head to look at her, the cruel smile on her face didn't seem to faze me as much as it should have as she recited not the Jedi code, but the Sith code.

"Peace is a lie, there is only passion.

"Through passion, I gain strength.

"Through strength, I gain power.

"Through power, I gain victory.

"Through victory, my chains are broken.

"The Force shall free me."

She was right about everything. The Jedi way was corrupt after several thousand years in power with no Sith to oppose. A fresh start was needed, after a purge of the infested. The younglings, the teachers, the masters, all needed to be erased for a new way to be shown.

The Sith way.

The Sith had brought peace to the galaxy while the Jedi sat and watched it burn around them.

The Sith was now the complete power while the Jedi were all but extinct.

The Sith was where my trusted stood. Now so did I.

Upon arrival to Coruscant we had intended to meet the Emperor, but apparently he had left after sensing Anakin was in danger.

Speaking of which.

"They are returning." Tarkin announced after receiving an update, "They are on their way to the emergency medical facility."

Without a word Barriss and I turned to follow the admiral to our transport. Dark clouds were blanketing the sky while rain lashed down with the roars of thunder and flashes of lightning.

It was so fitting to symbolise the light of the Jedi being extinguished against the storm of the dark side.

(IMPERIAL MEDICAL FACILITY/LANDING PAD/AHSOKA POV)

We watched as the emperor and an armed escort accompanied the medical capsule containing the remnants of my former master: a charred piece of flesh with a mechanical arm.

As the capsule passed by his yellow eyes caught mine and I felt a sense of relief from him before the pain quickly engulfed it. Then he was gone through the doors and into surgery. The emperor followed while Barriss and I stood by a window to watch.

His screams and yells of pain and agony as medical droids started implanting cybernetics into what remained of his body, which would once have sickened me, now were riveting.

Slowly but certainly the deformed body was rebuilt with mechanical arms and legs. The torso enclosed in a medical suit with nutrient spikes piercing directly into what remained of his organic matter.

A menacing black helmet was the final touch with a respirator to pump oxygen into his lungs. As it clicked into place and the surgery fell silent an eerie rasping sound filled the air to replace it as Darth Vader drew his first breath. Anakin Skywalker had fallen with the Jedi.

The operating table rose to a vertical stance so the patient was standing upright, though bound by restraints to ensure he could recover awareness first.

Our emperor moved from the shadows to stand beside his apprentice.

"Lord Vader, can you hear me?"

The respirator's hiss continued to chill the air and the reborn Sith answered, "Yes, master."

Barriss and I started to smile at each other, until his next words reached us.

"Where is Padme?" his helmeted head turned to Sidious, "Is she safe? Is she alright?"

Sidious moved back slightly, "It seems, in your anger… you killed her."

A cold sharp pain tore through me and at that moment I knew that the Sith could not love any more than the Jedi could. We could never allow weakness… and Vader had destroyed his.

"I, I couldn't have… she was alive I felt it." Vader protested.

The room started to shake. Medical droids and equipment imploded as Anakin's pain fought the power of Vader. The conflicting creature tore itself free of the restraints, gagging and choking at the realisation of what it had done.

A low painful wail of sorrow echoed through the facility while the emperor grinned in delight.

"You must do it as well, Ahsoka." Barriss whispered, "You must break your shackles."

If I was to be strong enough to face my new future, I needed to destroy the last remnants of my past.

(ONDERON/ MOUNTAINS/LUX POV)

We weren't told much about what had happened to the galaxy. A sudden end to the war then Palpatine was declared as the ruler of the galaxy with all Jedi labelled as traitors.

I received a message from Ahsoka asking to meet here, the mountain where Steela fell to her death. Why she chose this place I don't know, perhaps she wanted to remember the life she couldn't save.

"Lux."

I turned, a smile on my face as I saw her approaching, "Ahsoka, it's so good to see you again."

As she took a step closer I felt an uneasy sensation in my gut. She did not look happy at all and there was something rather odd about the black cloak draped around her shoulders, "Ahsoka?"

"You liked her." She stated bluntly.

I frowned. Something was wrong. One hand held the cloak across her front; the other was hidden behind it.

"What happened to your transport? I was worried when you didn't arrive." I tried to steer the conversation to the here and now.

Her footsteps were slow and calculated, almost like a predator stalking its prey. Her eyes… her eyes! They were most certainly not yellow when I last saw her.

"I loved you, Lux." She whispered, "Did you think it was an accident that I let her fall?" a cruel smile crept onto her face, "She tried to take you away from me. What could a mere human offer you that I could not?"

Alarms were ringing in my head and I casually let my hand drift near my holstered blaster. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Ahsoka was a good person; she wouldn't let Steela die out of a fit of jealousy… would she?

"Those many times I saved your life, fought for you, suffered for you." Her eyes narrowed and her Togruta fangs were bared, "The power of the Force at my fingers and you chose her."

"Ahsoka." I protested, "That is not true."

She nodded fairly, "You did seem upset when I flirted with her brother to make you jealous."

"It worked." I muttered.

"Glad to hear it." She inhaled the fresh air deeply while lifting and thrusting her chest out provocatively, "Be honest, Lux. I am far more worthy of your affection than her."

By now I was seriously concerned, "Why are you here, Ahsoka?"

"Are you not glad to see me?" she tilted her head to one side coyly.

"Of course I am, it's just that your transport never arrived, then we received word about the Jedi being traitors and…" I shrugged, "I'm not sure what's going on."

"You have a choice, just like I did." She walked over to me confidently until my face was only inches from her own and her sinister yellow eyes…

The hand emerged from beneath the cloak clutching a lightsaber shaft, without any warning a blade of crimson energy emerged from the device and occupied the space between us. Despite feeling my skin tingle reflexively I didn't move away. Instead I kept my eyes focused on hers, "What choice?"

"Be mine." It sounded more like a command than offer, "Be mine and serve your Sith masters with all your loyalty… or perish with the Jedi."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing and took a step back, but only one as I had a sudden realisation that she had steered me to the cliff edge and another step backwards would be my own death.

"Once more the Sith shall rule the galaxy." Ahsoka giggled, "Emperor Palpatine, Vader, Barriss and I. No Jedi to stand against total galactic conquest."

Somehow I found myself with blaster in hand pointed squarely at her face not concealed by the lightsaber blade, "The Sith have destroyed the Republic." I could imagine what was happening right now. Palpatine's rivals either arrested or assassinated while his followers spread his laws on each planet. Military forces deployed in all systems for enforcement. Aliens rounded up for slave labour. Everything the Republic had stood against for thousands of years had all just become the way of the Empire.

"How could you accept this?" I demanded, "All that the Republic stood for? What the Jedi stood for? What you and I stood for? What Steela died for!"

Ahsoka didn't seem fazed that I was holding a blaster at her head. I knew that even without a lightsaber and both hands shackled behind her back she could still defeat me easily enough, "There will be peace, Lux. No Republic, no Jedi. Only the Sith, and our word as law, just as it was in the days of the Sith Empire."

"I cannot be a part of this." I lowered the blaster and dropped it onto the ground by my feet, "I will fight against it. If you must kill me," I spread my arms, "Then do it."

(AHSOKA'S POV)

I sighed. He would have been useful as an ally.

With a wave of the Force the blaster levitated into the air and pressed into his temple. A lightsaber wound would be too obvious. This way it could be interpreted as despair.

But…

I deactivated my lightsaber and clipped it back to my belt before wrapping my arms around his neck and giving him the most passionate and drawn out kiss I had ever fantasised about. He briefly hesitated before he returned with equal enthusiasm and emotion.

Taking the blaster in my hand I flung it over the cliff edge before returning the hand to grasping the back of his head to see how long I could make this kiss last. The warmth of his lips and flesh, my hands in his hair…

When at last we separated for air he looked hopeful, "Ahsoka?"

"I love you, Lux." I smiled back.

Then I pushed him over the edge.

The end.