Hey all. So sorry it took so long. I went away, and I have all the chapters on my computer so my apprentice couldn't post. So here's three new ones to make up for it.
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Chapter 24
Anakin ran into the Chancellor's office, skidding to a halt at the horror in front of him. Three dead Jedi lay around his feet, their blood still wet on the floor, and Mace Windu had the Chancellor at saber point.
"You are under arrest, my Lord." Mace Windu snarled at the Sith Lord.
"Anakin, I told you it would come to this!" The Chancellor panted, obviously winded. "And I was right! The Jedi have taken over!"
"The oppression of the Sith will never return. You have lost!"
"No. No, no, no, YOU will DIE!" The Chancellor croaked, his voice twisted and warped with the power of the Dark Side. Blue lightening shot out of his fingers, attacking Windu like living serpents of light. Anakin started. Someone creating electricity… Why was that so familiar?
"Get the traitor!" The Chancellor snarled.
"He is the traitor!" Mace shouted back.
In desperation, the Sith Lord played his final card. "I have the power to save the one you love! You must choose!"
"Don't listen to him, Anakin!"
"Don't let him kill me!" The Chancellor was obviously tiring. "I can't hold it any longer… I…I…I can't…I'm too weak. Anakin! Help me!" The blue streams of lightening stopped, and Mace leveled his saber at the Chancellor's throat.
"I am going to end this, once and for all!"
"You can't!" Revan! But what would make Windu back down? "He must stand trial!"
"He has control of the Senate and the Courts! He's too dangerous to be left alive!"
"I'm too weak! Oh, don't kill me, please!"
"It's not the Jedi Way! He must live!"
"Please don't!"
"I need him!" In slow motion, Anakin saw Windu's arm come up. He would kill his only chance to save Revan…
Anakin was in turmoil. He needed to stop the Sith. He needed to save Revan. He should kill Master Windu. He should kill the Chancellor. Suddenly, Revan's face floated to the front of his mind, her smile dazzling him, giving him the answer he so desperately needed to hear…
"Nooo!!" Anakin brought his lightsaber up and around, slicing clean through Windu's arm. Revan's face smiled at him again, telling him he'd done the right thing…
Then the Chancellor shot Windu with even more lightening, throwing him out the window and down, into certain death.
"What have I done?" Anakin asked softly, more of the Revan-image than of anyone else.
The Chancellor- no, the Sith Lord- stood, and walked in front of him. "You are fulfilling your destiny, Anakin. Become my Apprentice. Learn to use the Dark Side of the Force."
Revan's image still playing in his head, he could barely mutter, "I will do whatever you ask…"
"Good."
"Just help me save Revan's life… I can't live without her…" Even as he spoke, he could feel something reaching out, surrounding him…but it didn't feel cold and dark, like he thought it would. The Dark Side of the Force was warm, comforting…Even as he drank it in, embracing it, it wrapped him up even more…
But he'd felt it before! Whenever he'd sparred with Revan, whenever he'd used his emotions, this same power wrapped him and protected him with its presence.
"To cheat Death is a power only one has achieved." Anakin's mind protested Only one that you know of… "But if we work together, I know we can discover its secrets."
Something inside of Anakin, something that had been waiting for this day for so long, told him to slide from his bench to a kneeling position in front of his new Master. "I pledge myself to your teachings."
"Good. Goood. The Force is strong with you. A powerful Sith, you will become. Henceforth, you shall be known as Darth…Vader."
"Thank you…my Master." Anakin managed, feeling almost drunk with Dark Side Energy.
"Rise." His new Master commanded.
Across the city, Revan froze. So much Dark Side power had just appeared…Anakin had finally been turned! Revan's only regret was that she hadn't been there to see it.
"Because the Council did not trust you, my young Apprentice, I believe that you are the only Jedi with knowledge of what happened here. When the Jedi learn what has transpired here, they will kill us. Along with all the Senators."
"I agree. The Council's next move will be against the Senate."
"Every single Jedi, with the exception of Revan, of course, including your friend, Obi-Wan Kenobi, is now an enemy of the Republic."
"I understand, Master."
"But we must move quickly. The Jedi are relentless. If they are not all destroyed, it will be civil war without end." He turned to look at Anakin. "First, I want you to go to the Jedi Temple. You will catch them off balance. Do what must be done, Lord Vader. Do not hesitate, show no mercy. Only then will you be strong enough with the Dark Side to save Revan."
"What about the other Jedi spread across the galaxy?"
"Their betrayal will be dealt with." Sidious said, sitting down in his chair. "After you have killed all the Jedi in the Temple, go to the Mustafar system. Wipe out Viceroy Gunray and the other Separatist leaders." He stared at Anakin, stared deep into his soul. "Once more the Sith will rule the galaxy, and we shall have…Peace."