They could feel the enemy gaining, rage carrying him on. They entered the citadel lab and slammed the door behind them, casting every piece of furniture in front of it they could find, with the Force.
"There are bound to be other ways in." Ahsoka said, as they left it at the run.
"There better be other ways out." Luke said, his eyes widened. "Father! I can feel him!" They raced past a room open with shattered components and fallen droids, a hint of pain and rage filtering out. They both checked stride and looked at each other, then continued on, past an ominous room of bottles and drugs. Racing around the corner together they found the others looking around a huge cloning chamber and lab.
"Father!"
"Anakin!"
"Are you all right?" Luke gasped. "We felt…we thought…"
Anakin turned from the young woman.
Ahsoka flung her arms around the Jedi for a moment before pulling back.
He flushed. "I'm sorry. It was really close. They used a Sith drug on me, and they…"
"Were torturing you." Luke said, eyes wide with worry.
Anakin smiled weakly and motioned to Artoo. "Fortunately our secret weapon rescued me."
The droid gave a distracted beep.
Ahsoka looked over his shoulder and gasped. "Scout? Oh no..."
The other woman's head cocked and she frowned, her agitation fading somewhat.
Han was kneeling by the door, trying to short circuit the lock of the cell.
"Listen he is right behind us, whoever he is."
"That's what Artoo is trying to find out."
"I think it…he, is one of these experiments. Something about that cloning cylinder drew me. Whatever it is, only the Emperor had access."
They were all silent as a storm of fury flickered in the Force. Loud crashes and bangs sounded in the hall.
"He's coming." Ahsoka said. "We blocked that entrance, but…"
Anakin's lips tightened.
"We really thought…." Leia said, ashamed.
Anakin shook his head. "I can't blame you. I may not have been attacking you in that black suit, but I was close to letting him loose." He shuddered. "I keep hearing Palpatine's voice in my head."
"Impossible."
"Yes, that's the problem."
"Maybe your hallucinating out of panic." Han snorted. "I really wish I believed that." Anakin replied, to Han's surprise. "I've got a feeling it's much worse."
A horrifying crash and storm of sheer power was right outside the hall.
"You guys really think this is a good place for a fight?" Han was looking around at the array of strange things in the tanks. "What if he looses these things and they're on his side?"
Anakin looked down at the monsters on the lower level. The tanks were so large they reached to the ceiling on this one.
"Good point. We should face him out there. Artoo, keep plugging away. See if what they did to those two prisoners and if we can free them without killing them. Leia…would you and Han please stay with him? And you too Kabarakh?"
Han grumbled, still struggling with the cell door. So far he wasn't making any progress. The security was top notch. But Leia nodded. The noghri looked reluctant, but Anakin's eyes met his and slid to Leia. Reading the meaning, the grey creature nodded.
She looked at Han as the others raced out. "Did you really want to face that….fake Vader?"
"No. I just hate knowing the trouble is right around our corner."
Anakin, Ahsoka and Luke charged into the hall. Anakin was feeling stronger now, more focused, more in control of his emotions. His lightsaber activated and he leaped forward, blade out as he hit the outer wall. The fake Vader leaped back, chest panel smoking from the swipe. It growled in fury. It charged at Anakin, who was now in a corner. But as it moved Luke shot around the side and attacked from the rear. Now besieged on two sides, it spun the other way, toward the cloning chamber only to have Ahsoka forming a blade wall against the flurry of saber strikes. Suddenly the black gloved hand lifted away from the sword and as Anakin swung from behind, blasted Luke with Sith lightning. He went flying back down the hall, skidding on the floor as his lightsaber deactivated. He managed to hold onto it though.
But the fake Vader had taken advantage to whirl from under Anakin's attack, away from Ahsoka and toward Luke. Before Luke could get into position to block he darted through another door, which led to wide passage and ended in a balcony over a wide atrium. As they charged after, another Force blast lifted Ahsoka and threw her over toward the ground. Anakin yelled and reached for her with the Force, preventing a fatal crash. The armored enemy blasted him with Sith lightning, but Luke's lightsaber danced into it's path. Ahsoka having landed safely, Anakin lunged at the enemy's side. The red blade countered with one hand while still blasting Luke with the other. Luke pressed forward, ignoring the lightning licking his fingers. Anakin got a blow in at the legs but the other leaped onto the rail, flipped and landed below.
Ahsoka had just picked herself up and barely got her lightsaber up in time to block the overhead attack. Luke and Anakin leaped over the rail after him. The circled the enemy on three sides. Anakin's eye slid to the outer area, a flicker of movement worried him. Enemies coming, one with a scout walker. And there was a bridge out there over a chasm leading to a tower across the way.
They harried the enemy, who threw things at them with the Force, spun in furious juyo style attacks and alternated with sith lightning.
"Fools. You've traded power for weakness. You'll never leave here. I'll leave you to suffer and rot in the experimental wing. I won't even grant the mercy of death."
"Dream on." Anakin fired back at the eerily familiar voice.
"Talks a lot, this one." Ahsoka snorted, striking with an overhead, overhanded leap.
The battle carried them outside toward the bridge. Anakin's eyes rolled up to the scout walker across the way. It fired a blast and Ahsoka just dodged it. They had to stay in close to the foe, or risk getting shot. Even as he thought it, the battle drifted away and a shot aimed at him, forcing him to block. Heat washed over him and he had to anchor himself in the Force to keep the blow his lightsaber countered from slamming him head over heels.
Anakin allowed himself to feel a surge of power, through his legs, sprang up high, flipped, altering speed in the middle and landed right behind the false Vader in time to swing the sword down at the face. The mask shattered, smoking and the being cried out. But it kept fighting, if anything, madder than ever.
"Who are you?" Anakin demanded fiercely.
"I am your master and your breaker and your bane! I am the Sith!" The voice was Palpatine's. As he got a good look, he gasped. The yellow eyes bored through the smoke and dazzle of battle, face slightly wrinkled, sneering, hair gold but redder…
Anakin reeled a half step at the face and even Luke and Ahsoka started.
"Uh." Ahsoka blinked at the face of her old master…almost. It was subtly different, not just due to rage. It had a hint of Palpatine in the forehead, hair…but it was shaped like Anakin's face, his brows, his chin... Palpatine's voice…
Artoo shrieked in outrage when he found the file. Anakin would not be happy!
"What! What'd you find!" Han demanded. He hurried to the console, glancing back at Leia who moved slowly, as if she was seeing something else.
The noghri hissed. Han looked down at the holo and the files. "Oh…my…."
Leia finally came out of her internal view of the battle in the Force. "What…oh my word. They did a cloning experiment, splicing Anakin's and the Emperor's DNA?"
Artoo burbled in distress.
"I agree, got a feeling he is not going to like it. Why would he do that?"
"Already not liking it." Leia shuddered. "But it makes some sense. Obi-Wan said Anakin was the strongest Jedi ever born. We don't know Palpatine's midichlorian count, but he may have hope to gain some of that extra power.
Artoo wailed a warning. He showed the security cam, more guards coming.
"That's it. Let's go."
"But the girl?"
"Artoo, can you get her out?"
The droid gave a negative beep followed by an explanation they couldn't follow.
"We'll circle back." Han said. "Preferably with someone with a lightsaber to cut through that door."
"I'm not sure even a lightsaber will cut that."
Anakin had already figured out the truth and he had to fight a sense of outrage as well as the external battle. Even three on one the battle was intense. Force lightning crackled, blades crashed and this Sith replacement had sheer speed and ferocity of a wild thing. But the battle was to become more complicated as yet more of the Royal Guards poured from the nearest barracks. Some in black robes, some red, some Force trained. Anakin ducked a force pike blow to his back, kicking without looking and sent the guard flying. But he'd hit the pike itself and his leg shivered, nearly going numb. He staggered. The new Emperor made a violent series of swings at him, simultaneously blocking Luke and Ahsoka, who were distracted by the incoming guards. . Luke's eyes went wide as a red haired woman bearing a lightsaber charged him. They tangled in ferocious combat and a sudden fierce pain lit his arm as she pulled out a blaster one handed and shot his hand. He lost his grip with that hand but compensated with the other.
Anakin had been blocked his attacker but was knocked to the ground in the process. He saw Mara and yelled, "It isn't the Emperor! Look at his face! It's a trick, Mara! You always believed in justice, you are fighting for a lie!"
"You're the liar!" Mara fired back, her blade threatening to take Luke's knees, but he jumped over and back. His father believed in Mara. The thought flashed through his mind. He wanted to reach her. "We can prove it! Just look at him!"
"What kind of fool do you take me for?"
"Search for feelings Mara! You felt the Emperor die!" Anakin yelled, scrabbling on his back, blocking the blows from above and trying to get room to stand.
Mara cast a glare his way as her blade locked with Luke's. "You betrayed him!" Suddenly Leia, Han and the noghri appeared. The noghri charged forward. Kabarakh threw a knife. The enemy spun, not looking and the blade shot back at him. Leia yanked him back with a Force pull just in time to prevent him being skewered.
Anakin took the momentary advantage to leap up and forward, trying for a ground to sky sweep. The other blocked him and slammed his fist into his face crackling with electricity, which Anakin ducked under and sprang away. He was backed onto the bridge now and the foe was between him and the others, but then, the guards were on the other side too.
They battled back across the bridge, while the scout walker took occasional shots at his allies. Ahsoka's lightsaber twirled madly as she backed toward the bridge. Anakin's heart slammed into his throat and he yelled as the scout walker fired. Ahsoka leaped forward back into the middle of the guards as the bridge cracked and shook violently. The first part of the span crumbled. Anakin's distorted image gave a wicked grin and his speed increased. Anakin was backed toward the walker, past it. He tried to veer aside only to find another scout walker firing a line of death at him. He was being driven. Anakin knew he was being steered and driven toward the tower. They entered the door and Anakin whirled trying an avalanche assault which was blocked, shifted into a side attack and manage to leave shiim mark on the others arm but went flying as the other bound his lightsaber blade one handed while striking with Sith lightning with the other. Anakin crashed dizzily to the ground and far wall. The other might have taken him right there, but Anakin's eyes lit on a switch and he flicked it. The floor lifted him up to the upper levels, leaving his enemy's roar of fury in his wake. Breathing hard, he rolled off and slammed his lightsaber into the elevator electronics. They shorted and sizzled just as it started to go back down, but still, he sensed his foe rising. He must have stairs nearby.
Artoo Detoo jetted over the bridge during the chaos, and went largely ignored unless someone fell over him. He hurried to the tower, circling from another angle to avoid the scout walkers tromping along the path.
Luke's eyes held Mara's. "Why are you doing this? If you believe in justice, why serve a man whose rule is based on murder and lies?"
"It's not! He saved the galaxy from chaos!"
"He created the chaos so people would think he was needed to save the galaxy! It was an excuse!"
"Vader has fed you lies."
"No. The Emperor fed him the lies! My aunt and uncle were murdered, just for buying a droid!" Luke blocked her attack and was forced to drop, roll and slice the legs out from under a security droid. He came back up. "They didn't know anything and they were slaughtered! And what about Alderaan? Do you honestly believe everyone there was a rebel?"
"Alderaan was Tarkin and Vader's doing."
"You are being willfully blind." Ahsoka, was at Luke's back now, defending him from oncoming guards. The Emperor knew what he was building and why. We can prove our position. The Force can prove it to you."
Mara ground her teeth, leaped and planted a kick that sent Luke flying. He bounced up, rubbing his chest.
"Let go of your fear." Ahsoka advised her.
"I'm not afraid."
"Aren't you? How old were you when the Emperor took you? Do you remember your parents? The Jedi would've given them a choice, did the Emperor give that choice to them? Have you known anything else?"
"You are stronger than this Mara Jade." Luke said firmly, putting his faith in his father. He could see potential in the woman too. "Stronger than your fear. You aren't a cold blooded murderer. You served for justice. Well, step back and face the truth." Luke stepped back, withdrawing from the fight. She stepped after him. Ahsoka kept defending Luke, allowing him room to talk. "You don't have to live in the dark Mara. You would be welcomed elsewhere." He cocked his head. "You know, if you take time to sort it out, even if we're lying, we'll still be around for you to try and kill later."
Mara glared, teeth grinding. She glanced back at the tower. She backed away from Luke and Ahsoka, eyes half shut and reached into the Force. Shock, despair and anger crossed her face.
"If the Emperor is dead it's because you and your father killed him!" She advanced.
Luke backed away. "He ordered the destruction of the entire Jedi Order, right down to the younglings and he tricked my father into doing it for him! We can prove it…Artoo has it recorded..." Suddenly realization hit. "Where is Artoo?"
"If your referring to the droid, it went that way." Mara motioned with her head to the tower.
Luke's eyes met hers. "Care to come with us and see that proof?"
Mara glanced around, noted that, for the moment, there were few guards left. Her eyes flickered with surprise. Leia came up alongside Luke, looking at Mara. "We need to hurry."
Luke edged to the side of the chasm, flinching as laser blasts from the scout walkers sent up molten metal and smoke. Mara staggered as the blast rocked her.
"They don't seem too concerned about your welfare." Leia yelled over the noise.
Mara glared at her. Ahsoka broke into a run, slid to a halt further along the rim in the shadows, broke into a run again and leaped. She hit the bridge rolling and started dodging and weaving past the laser blasts. The rest of the bridge rumbled and rocked behind her.
"Ahsoka!" Luke yelled, startled by the sudden charge.
"We have to get over there!" Leia yelled.
to be continued