With shocking suddenness, cold spray splashed over Anakin. He gasped and got a partial dose of the gas, but the mask was already lifting away. Coughing and gasping, he sucked in ordinary air tinged with smoke. Blinking frantically as the room swam into view, he fell as the scaffolding manacles released him. He hit the still warm but soaked floor of the platform with a heavy thud. For a long moment, he folded in a fetal position on his side, coughing as if he'd hack his lungs out. Suds were soaking him, cooling and stinging the minor burns. Suddenly another mask dropped and he shied away in fright, only to hear a reassuring series of beeps. He blinked, recognized Artoo holding out a medkit mask with real oxygen and medicine.
He took it, cautiously inspected it and sucked in a deep breath through it. He wrapped his arms around his knees, still holding it and just breathing. He wiped his eyes on his sleeves, tearing from emotional agony rather than smoke. He was still shaking, adrenaline rattling him. Still afraid and angry, no, outraged. His family was still in danger.
"Artoo." He finally found strength to whisper. "I need an antidote for what they injected me with and I need it fast." It was enough challenge to fight his own emotional angst. He couldn't compete with the drug too.
The droid beeped and spun toward the IT-0, plugging into it. It rocked, resisting the intrusion but Artoo persisted. Discovering the drug was only half the solution. After he dropped the IT-O, he spun toward the lab computer and plugged in, rushing through files faster than the human eye could hope to follow. He finally let out a triumphant beep, turned to look at Anakin who still shook, shuddering, feeling his rescuers horror in the Force. Anakin rose, looked at the name of the drug flashing on the screen and it's location. Artoo gave a disturbed whimper when he saw Anakin's eyes and their yellow hue. Striding through the lab, Anakin left the main area that Artoo had wrecked and followed him to a storage room full of medicines, drugs and poisons. Finding the right one, he paused, chewing his lip. What if the file was wrong? What if it was a misdirection?
As if summoned, the Emperor's voice rose in his mind. "There is no cure, apprentice. Nothing will wash the blood from your hands. Do you really think I'd make a drug to counteract such a glorious effect?"
Anakin looked at Artoo, trembling. "Artoo…files can be altered. Are you sure this is right? Everything depends on it."
The voice whispered, "Why try? Use your power, save your family...the drug will wait."
He shook his head. Right now the dark side clouded his vision as the stress and chemical caused fury interacted with his powers. Once he made a choice though, no drug would undo it.
The droid gave a confident beep and Anakin filled a syringe, swallowed, banished the voice and took the shot. The room swam and his legs gave out. For a few minutes the Force itself seemed to vanish. This was almost a mercy, as even without the forced view screen image he could feel the battle with his family in the Force. He felt their confusion, hurt, fear and sense of betrayal.
"Go to the others, Artoo. Tell them that it's not me their fighting. Get help."
The droid squawked in distressed objection.
"Lock the door behind you. I'll follow when I can."
Artoo moaned reluctantly and rocked. Reaching into his chassis with a gripper, he pulled out Anakin's lightsaber and offered it. Anakin just stared at it. Artoo, determined, dropped it in his limp hand before hurrying out the door and locking it behind him.
The droid hurried off in the direction he knew the others were coming from. He'd seen that in the computer while searching for cure. Soon he saw the bewildering clash of the false Vader's red lightsaber against Luke and Ahsoka's green ones. They were working in concert, both distressed and shocked. Leia and Han were behind, frantically shooting at the royal guards. Several were down all ready. Leia had abandoned her training saber in favor of one of their own force pikes and kept flattening them.
Artoo wailed as he reached her, grabbing her with a pincer and bumping her.
"Not now, We're busy! Someone turned on us…" Han snarled.
Artoo screeched a negative, determined to drag Leia off. She finally looked at him. The droid rocked and bounced desperately. "Okay, okay, I'm coming…" She glanced at Luke and Ahsoka's fight, scowling. She'd just about let her guard down and trusted him! Still, there was something off.
She ran after Artoo, Han swearing behind her. Fortunately most of the royal guards had already been dealt with. The noghri had fallen back in confusion, no longer knowing what to believe. One had fallen to Vader's sword. Kabarakh just missed being decapitated, but he was so close that his nostrils suddenly fluttered and his eyes widened in shock and anger. "You are not Lord Vader!" He cried. A Force shove slammed into him and set him flying. For a long moment he lay still, dazed, staring at the sky. Then he noticed the Princess race past. Scrambling up, looking between her and the fight, he followed.
"My lady! We must find Lord Vader!"
Han spun, blaster aimed at him.
"He found us, remember, and after we tried to save him!"
"No!" Kabarakh cried. "It is an imposter. It is not his scent!"
Han sputtered and whirled after Leia, nearly colliding with her as she slammed to a stop. She looked back at Kabarakh, frowning. Artoo, noticing they'd stopped, bounced with hysterical impatience. "Are you sure?"
He nodded.
"Lead on Artoo! Take us to him!" She turned back and chased after Artoo who took off at top speed.
Anakin's head cleared slowly. He was still angry and afraid, but persistent Jedi meditation pushed the red black cloud from his vision and clarity slowly returned. His eyes faded back to their normal blue. The Force was dark on this whole world. But he pushed it away from him. It might cut him off and isolate him, but he wouldn't let it back in. Feeling more than a little sick, he slowly rose. He reached with the Force past the door. No-one close, but distant alarms were screaming. Carefully he unlocked it and paused in the hall. His first instinct was to race to the far off battle between his look a like and his family. But something made him hesitate. Eyes scanning the corridor, he turned slowly toward a distant door. He carefully stepped to it, lightsaber ready but not ignited, and stepped in. Cloning cylinders lined the room. They ranged the gamut in size, the nearest ones about infant sized, the distant ones were huge. Even from here, he could see one of them bore something like a cross between a rancor and a krayt dragon. It writhed as if in pain in it's tank.
Slowly, he strode the aisle, looking at the experiments. Mixed breed cloning. Combining DNA of different species. Genetic splicing to make them meaner, more aggressive, or conversely, more obedient. Some looked human. Some looked like children or younglings and these gave him the worst shudder. Bred for evil, what could be done to prevent it? Kill them? Rescue them? What would best counter the dark side instead of feeding it? Then he looked closer and realized they were mostly deceased. Only one was alive.
Finally coming to a row of adult humans, in various states and combinations, he took longer, harder looks. One bore an exoskeleton like armor, but he could see veins in it, as if the experiment had gone wrong. Another rolled eyes that clearly could not see. "Oh…this is gruesome." He had been here before, long ago. But he'd never been interested much in these experiments, except as they might teach him how to heal the damage received on Mustafar. Finally he came to an empty one. It was in pride of place and he felt a strong connection to it. This one was important. Very important. He looked for any data on what it might have contained, but all he found was a sign labeled : Experiment Alpha Omega Zee Three Eight.
"Hurry back, Artoo." He muttered. He turned to the lab computers and started inputting data, searching for files on that tank. "Access denied." He tried his codes as Darth Vader. "Access denied." He paused, pulled up recent access data, hoping for a clue from who did have access. He hissed as he read it. Only the Emperor had had actual access to the files.
"I killed him. I know I did." He complained. So how did he hear the man's cursed voice in his head?
It suddenly dawned on him there might be other Jedi here for research. There was a list of unaccounted for Jedi. And he remembered with sudden horror having the agricorp Jedi brought here, and padawans, ostensibly for questioning. Some of those younglings back there were probably once padawans. He hurried through the cloning chamber, searching for others. As far as he could recall, all of the agricorp members fell to the dark side and ended up working in places like this one. But he couldn't chance missing something. The thought flickered that his family needed him and these could wait. He dismissed it. Luke and Ahsoka were trained knights. The noghri were warriors and Solo and the wookiee were anything but easy kills. And anyone out for Leia would've had to go through them.
Artoo twittered in dismay at the open door. He sounded very grumpy.
"Did you leave him here Artoo?"
The droid gave an affirmative beep.
"When?"
The droid plugged into a console to deliver the important message. "While they were fighting the false Vader."
"So where is he?" Han flung his hands in the air. "You'd think if he knew, he'd come do something about it!"
"But we did not pass him, perhaps…" Kabarakh considered.
Leia closed her eyes, reaching with fledgling Force powers for the man she'd hated for so long. "Close. I think…this way." She hurried toward the distant door.
Leia gasped as she saw him, part relief, part confusion and part anger. "What are you doing? Your doppelganger is out there trying to kill Luke and Ahsoka!"
Anakin looked up, unable to stop a flicker of a relieved smile. "Good to see you too. I'm trying to find out who and what my doppelganger is." The smile vanished, eyes widening. "Something tells me he came out of there…" he motioned to the empty stasis chamber. "And...we should look for prisoners here. Artoo, can you break into these files? Even my access codes aren't working, and judging from the logs the only one who ever had access is the Emperor himself."
The droid gave a semi scolding "don't scare me like that"' beep and rolled up to interface with the computer.
"Oh, this place is creepy." Han said blinking, wide eyed as he finally caught up. Kabarakh was turning round and round.
"Are you all right, My Lord?"
Anakin flinched at the address. "Um. Yes. No, not really, but I will be once we take this impostor down."
"No ideas on who it is?" Leia demanded anxiously. She could sense Luke and Ahsoka's desperate battle in the Force.
"No."
Leia tried to signal Luke. No answer. "They're too busy fighting to answer. And they still think it's you!"
"Artoo?"
The droid gave an angry beep. He was doing the best he could.
"I know. I'm sorry…" Anakin hurried off into the large room again, poking his head into alcoves.
Han and Kabarakh trotted after while Chewbacca guarded the door. "What are we looking for?"
"People."
For a few minutes they found numerous odd creations floating in tanks. Mutations and cross species creatures, some malformed, many in pain ... then Kabarakh called out, "My Lord?"
Anakin hurried over, ignoring the honorific. He peered in where Kabarakh motioned. One alcove bore a tank and various cylinders on one side. On the other, a force cage. Inside a woman was bound, red hair filthy and tangled, clothes threadbare, a slave collar and cuffs on wrists and throat which were also chained to the cage. She looked like a wild creature herself. Anakin eyed her and carefully approached. She leaped back, teeth bared and snarled. He froze.
There was something vaguely familiar about her Force signature but he couldn't quite place it. She looked about Ahsoka's age. One of the padawans, for certain. For a long moment, Anakin wracked his memory. Yes. She'd been captured right before Endor. She'd been on Mandalore. Her name was...Ester something. Scout. The memory finally flared, bringing pain. "I'm so glad you aren't here to kill me." Whie Malreaux, her companion had said when they were rescued on a mission. But he had killed the boy. Palpatine had found her through sources of his own, working as a scientist and first aid medic. He had been interested in her. It was not because of her Force skills, which were far weaker than average. But because that combined with her science training suffering might make her breakable and usable for his work.
"I'm not here to hurt you, Scout." His voice was soft.
"Can we get her out? Or...if we let you out, you won't attack us will you?" Leia asked. The woman was wildly distrustful.
"We're breaking out too, so now is the time, Scout."
Luke and Ahsoka saw Leia and the others run. "Even your Princess has abandoned you, Skywalker."
Your Princess? Not your sister? Luke's eyes widened and in the midst of the clashing blades, he caught Ahsoka's eyes. She too, frowned at the comment. Then realization hit, confirming his own thoughts.
He almost said it, but the minute shake of her head, the warning in the Force, said not to give it up. Ahsoka flipped in ataru style over his head, spun from behind the dark being's lightsaber aiming for her back. She had no doubts now and no regrets. The red sword countered hers but Luke leaped at the same time, slamming into him with a Force shove as Ahsoka leaped and flipped again. The being sailed into the toxic stream with a disturbing splash. It carried him back, away from the citadel and the two Jedi turned and ran after Leia. Looking back once, Ahsoka saw the being leap free in a Force haze of fury. It pursued but they had a good lead.
to be continued