Chapter 7 – Sidious

Author's Note: Major plot twists ahead! I do not apologize for anything. Also, a reviewer asked me a while back if we'd get to see more about Anakin's relationship with the Force (or something like that; I don't remember exactly), and the answer to you is that yes, you will! :D

WARNING: Self-harm, suicidal thoughts/feelings, blood, and general darkness!

~ Amina Gila

"I am most impressed to see you have survived your injuries," Sidious intones. That voice. It sounds so… familiar for some reason, though Anakin can't quite place it. He has to wait. The Force will tell him when he should reveal himself.

"I used your training, Master," Maul answers, keeping his head bowed, "And I have built all this in hopes of returning to your side."

Sidious hums, and Anakin suspects that the Sith, too, can sense Maul is lying. "How unfortunate that are attempting to deceive me," Sidious spits.

"Master?" Maul queries, something like fear in his voice. That, more than anything, scares Anakin. If something is bad and evil enough to scare Maul, then Anakin knows that it definitely should scare him too. It does. Somewhat. All other emotions have fallen away, and here, in the Force's embrace, he is emotionless. He is one with the Force.

"You have become a rival!" snarls Sidious, lashing out and hurling the two Sith backwards. He pins them to a glass wall, pushing them against it with such force that the glass begins to fracture. Anakin finds that he can barely breathe, alternately torn between disbelief and terror. How can anyone be so powerful? How can he be expected to defeat Sidious? Can he? Or is this to be his death? He can't not try, though. He would never forgive himself if he walked away without at least knowing the Sith Master's identity.

Fear not, the Force comforts him. You are stronger than him. Is he? Is he? Well, yes, he probably is. Anakin already knows that he's the strongest Force sensitive ever, and in recent months, he's been learning how to hone his abilities, how to focus them and use them. Sidious has years of experience, and experience is useful, but Anakin has raw power. Maybe he doesn't need to try and overpower Sidious. Maybe he simply needs to outlast him. Maybe the calm endurance of the Light will outburn the passionate wildness of the Dark.

On Mortis, Anakin did what was thought to be impossible. He drew both the Light and Dark into himself, controlling and balancing both at once. It took a lot out of him, but perhaps he can do the same again here. Perhaps he can tap into the core of the Force like he did on Mortis, the wellspring of raw power buried deep within him, and use it to tame the Sith Master and bring him down. Perhaps.

Sidious cackles, cruelly and wickedly, as the Zabrak brothers struggle in his Force grip. Finally, he drops them, and they fall to the floor. Anakin tenses, preparing himself for the fight that he knows is coming. When it comes, perhaps Maul and Savage will accept him as an ally so they can defeat Sidious together, because Anakin knows they will fail on their own.

The brothers stumble to their feet, both igniting their lightsabers as they face off against Sidious. The Sith Master doesn't hesitate, pulling out two red blades of his own as he meets the brothers' attack. Now, whispers the Force, and Anakin yanks aside the grate, dropping from the ventilation shaft, igniting his lightsaber mid-fall, and blocking a blow which might have hit Savage. For a moment, none of the Sith move.

"Surprised?" Anakin asks lightly, though his voice hardly feels like his own. The Force is filling him, surging through him in a way it never has before. He never wants to think of himself as the Chosen One, not on Mortis, not here, and yet… what else can this power be?

For a moment, no one moves. "It is unfortunate that you are here, my boy," Sidious taunts, and Anakin feels the world around him shatter. No. No, that's not possible. Palpatine couldn't – he – he couldn't. Why – how could he? Despite the hood shrouding his features, Anakin can still make out Palpatine's face, expression twisted and malicious in a way he's never seen it before. He can see the murder written in the glowing yellow eyes of the man he had once thought of as a mentor. Betrayal rises, but the Force – the Force wraps around him tighter.

It's okay.

No, it's not. It will never be okay again, not when the Chancellor is the Sith Lord who started the entire war. In retrospect, it all makes sense now, and Anakin finds that he does not feel the least bit regretful anymore for having been avoiding Palpatine recently. He knows, intuitively, what it is that Palpatine wanted from him; he wanted Anakin to be his apprentice, and though Anakin would like to think that he would never have fallen victim to it… he also knows that the entire galaxy has been falling apart at Palpatine's whims, so no, he's not nearly as sure of anything as he would like.

"Together," Anakin says to Maul, not taking his eyes off Sidious. "He's a threat to both of us."

"I don't need your help," Maul growls, throwing him a nasty look.

"Perhaps not," Anakin agrees, "But for all of our sakes, we'll do best if we work together." He can't believe he's even saying it, but it's what the Force is telling him to do. Obi-Wan would be horrified, and for good reason, if he knew Anakin was making an alliance with Maul, but these are trying times, and Anakin instinctively knows that they have the best chance of survival if, and only if, they work together. That doesn't mean he has to like it.

Sidious hisses angrily, swinging at them, and the moment is broken. Anakin and the Zabrak brothers work together in tandem, deflecting Sidious' strikes and even getting in some of their own, but the Sith Master is a whirlwind, spinning around them, flipping out of the way, and generally moving with far more agility than Anakin ever thought possible. He will feel the pain of this betrayal later, but right now, he is one with the Force. Ironic how Obi-Wan's deception has actually made Anakin even more unlike the Jedi; it's made him learn to blindly trust the Force even more, something which the other Jedi don't seem to understand.

Anakin ducks back, but not fast enough, and one of Sidious' red blades hits his arm. To his surprise – even though the Mandalorian had assured him – the blade is repelled by his vambrace. Huh. Nice. He can definitely use this to advantage. If his armor can't be affected by Sidious' lightsabers, then it'll be a little easier for him to avoid serious injury. Pain might be useful to help him focus when he's too emotional, but when he's one with the Force like this, emotions cannot touch him. It – it's as if he's a part of the Force itself. He is no longer his own separate person, and Anakin can't help but wonder if other Jedi ever feel anything like this. He doesn't think so, but he doesn't really know either.

The duel is fast and furious, forcing Anakin to rely more on the Force than on his eyes. His senses are meaningless to him, because of how fast the Sith are moving. Thankfully, however, Maul and Savage seem to have grudgingly accepted Anakin's words about needing to work together, since neither of them attempt to attack him. They aren't covering for him either, not that he'd expected them to, but they're not trying to hurt him either.

The fight carries from the throne room, further out into the palace, and a gesture from Sidious sends Maul flying through a window. Anakin uses the Force to shove Sidious after, and he and Savage follow, landing lightly on the walkway many feet below the window amidst broken glass. It takes only a moment for all four of them to draw their lightsabers again, and this time, Maul pulls out a second: the Darksaber. Anakin has heard of it, of course, but he's never seen it, not until now. The blade glows black, crackling in a way that is both similar and different from a normal lightsaber. It's important to the Mandalorians, and Anakin is abruptly reminded that defeating Sidious is only half the challenge.

But he banishes those thoughts as he immerses himself in the Force, lunging forwards at Sidious once more. The Sith Master shoves Savage suddenly, and he tumbles down a flight of stairs. While he's recovering, Maul and Anakin face off against Sidious alone. Blue and black meet red, lightsabers crackling as the two push at Sidious from opposite sides. The Sith is cackling manically, and Anakin gets the distinct impression that he usually absorbs the negative emotions of his opponents, using them to fuel him.

In the past, before Hardeen, before everything changed in some undefinable way which Anakin can't explain, he would have been furious. He would have been raging, pain and betrayal simultaneously seething within him. When this is over, he'll probably feel it all, but he doesn't, now. Instead, he's strangely calm. It's a fake calm, existing only so long as Anakin gives up himself to the Light, but it's real. He knows that if he stays like this, he'll be able to defeat the Sith Master, hard though it will be.

Now you understand, hums the Force. It seems pleased in much the same way a parent might. It's soothing, somehow.

"You can still join me," Sidious offers to Anakin. "Stand by my side, and you will live."

"If I do that," Anakin snaps back, "You will burn the galaxy to the ground and force me to watch. You will destroy everything and everyone I love. I will not let you." It's a promise, a certainty vibrating through the Force itself.

Let go, the Force tells him, pushing him to do something, though he can't quite yet understand consciously what that something is.

"So be it," Sidious replies darkly, a Force wave blasting outwards, hurling all three of his opponents backwards.

Anakin hits stone, hard, and if he wasn't wearing armor, he knows it would hurt far more than it has. He hardly has a chance to register anything as lightning arcs into his body. It's intense, powered by the Sith Master's burning rage, his fury over Anakin's choice. It's stronger, more painful, than anything he's ever felt before, even at Dooku's hands. It's so overpowering that he can't even scream, can't even draw in the air he needs to breathe, and he realizes that he is probably going to die here.

No! The Force is protesting that resignation, pushing him to do something, and suddenly, he understands. In truth, his life and the lives of those close to him are nothing when compared with the extent of the Force with the lives of all of those beings in the galaxy. Sidious means to destroy that. He means to crush out the Light in the cruelest way, torturing the Force until it breaks and shatters. The Jedi have tried to stamp out the Dark, but it still exists, in the Force, there is no Light or Dark.

There are two sides to everything; there have to be for the galaxy to endure. Death and life. Creation and destruction. The Force is both. The Force is everything. It is something far greater than what the human mind can even comprehend. Even Anakin, who has been called the Chosen One, the son of the Force, is unable to fully grasp the enormity of it. All he knows is that the Force has granted him a power that is just as much a burden as it is a gift. He has long tried to ignore it, shun it, because he didn't want to accept what it means. But now, he has no choice. The Force is showing him what will happen if he dies here; it cannot intervene, but it can and will guide him to victory if he is willing.

And Anakin Skywalker is willing.

Show me, he whispers to the Force, to the energetic entity that birthed him. Show me what to do.

Something shifts within him, and he can feel the Force vibrating within him, untouched by the lightning searing every inch of his body. The Force is everywhere, in everything. It binds all life together. Mandalore may not be Mortis, it may not have such a concentration of Force here, but Anakin has tapped into the full extent of the Force before, and he can do it again. Mortis showed him how.

Anakin digs deep inside of him, reaching inwards for the power that lies dormant within him. He has never truly learned how to use it – it's too strong for him, too overwhelming for his mortal body – but he can learn to manage it perhaps, in time. The Force floods through him, and for a moment, he can see everything. He can feel life so intimately that it takes his breath away, and he brings the Force up in front of him, forming a shield of energy, deflecting the lightning that has hitherto been killing him.

Sidious growls, angrily, but Anakin isn't afraid. He is, strangely enough, completely at peace. Is this what it feels like? He's never felt like this before, not even before what Obi-Wan did. It won't last, but it gives him something; it gives him hope.

Slowly, shakily, Anakin pushes himself to his feet, hands outstretched as he catches and deflects the electricity Sidious is hurling at him, sending it all right back at the Sith Master. Sidious is a maelstrom of hate and rage, and compared to that, Anakin suspects that he's glowing with Light. He could use his pain, he could take it and channel it into anger and hate and Darkness, but that would mean turning against Obi-Wan, against the man who raised him, and – and Anakin can't do that. He won't do it. In another lifetime, he might have, but that is not to be the case in this reality. Not now. Not ever.

"You'll never win," Sidious taunts, but Anakin is above that.

He is in a place where no doubts or fears can intrude, because in this moment, he is the living embodiment of the Force's will, and the Force very much wills Sidious to die. Light versus Dark. It's a battle where the conclusion is inevitable, because when the Dark has outburned its energy, the Light will be there to sweep it away.

And it does.

It could be minutes or hours before Sidious' barrage first falters, and when it does, Anakin calmly strengthens the shield protecting him, sending the energy back at the Sith who used it. Sidious is caught up in the whirlwind of it, and when he begins to weaken, electrocuted and hurt by his own anger and hate, Anakin reaches out with the Force, willing the lightning to hit the parts of the Sith's body where it will cause the most damage.

It ends abruptly, Sidious' life force flickering and giving way as his heart and brain shut down, overwhelmed by the electrical stimuli, and he crumples to the ground, lifeless.

Then, only then, does Anakin fall back into his own body. He staggers, falling to his knees, panting heavily, on the verge of blacking out. But he holds on through sheer willpower, knowing that he could kill Maul and Savage both with a snap of his fingers. It terrifies him because this is not a power he wants. It's not a power he's ever even asked for. Killing the Zabraks would be justice, but… there is always another way, and the Light – the echoes of the Daughter which will always be there – pushes him to take it.

"I could kill you both," Anakin says, and somehow his voice is steady, "But I won't. I'll give you a choice. You can continue on the path you're on and be destroyed, or you can leave, both of you. If I wasn't here, Sidious would have killed you. Probably both of you. You have a chance now to be a family without being the shadow of the Sith. Go to the Outer Rim. I don't care. Leave Mandalore alone and leave Obi-Wan alone. That is all I ask of you."

When Maul looks at him, there is a grudging admiration in his eyes. And there's fear there, too. Even if Anakin seems about to collapse, it seems the duo both realize that he's too powerful for them to take on and defeat when he single-handedly destroyed Sidious. "If we do not leave, you will kill us," Maul states neutrally.

"I will." It's a promise.

Maul and Savage exchange looks. "Kenobi –" he begins, his hatred obvious.

"– did nothing worse to you than you did to him," Anakin interrupts with finality. "You killed his master, and he attempted to kill you in revenge. Be grateful you're still alive." He holds out a hand, calling the Darksaber to him. It flies to his hand, and he clips it to his belt alongside his own lightsaber hilt, slowly pushing himself to his feet through sheer willpower. "Now, leave."

"We should go, brother," Savage urges, uncertainly.

Maul growls. "I will be back to have my revenge," he vows.

Anakin smirks, even though the Force is whispering that to be a lie. The brothers will leave; they will go their own way and find their own path. "I will be looking forwards to it," he replies dryly, watching as they leave together, stalking away like predators. He turns, planning to head back to the throne room to contact Obi-Wan with the news as a wave of dizziness and exhaustion washes over him. He staggers, legs buckling as he blacks out.

**w**

When Anakin opens his eyes next, it's to see the all too familiar walls in the Halls of Healing. The lighting is dim, for which he's thankful, because there's a sharp pain stabbing through his skull. What… happened? The last thing he remembers is…

It comes back slowly, far more slowly than usual, but he remembers fighting Sidious. He remembers being electrocuted by him, and then, it's all fuzzy. He knows, can feel, that the Sith Master is dead, and that is simultaneously relieving and painful. He – he thinks that he might have killed him, but he doesn't really remember how, but he feels exhausted, drained in a way he hasn't ever felt before. What happened?

"You're finally awake!" Ahsoka's voice breaks through the fog in Anakin's mind, and he turns his head to see her sitting there at his bedside. Seeing her instantly calms him, but that calm evaporates as soon as he spots Obi-Wan on another chair some distance away, working on a datapad. Pain spears through him, and he harshly buries it.

"Yes," he agrees, clearing his throat. "What… happened?"

Obi-Wan looks up, and Anakin notices that he seems tired. "A lot. You don't remember?"

"I – um… sort of," he admits. "I know Sidious is dead."

"Thanks to you," his former master nods, but he doesn't seem happy. If anything, he's more upset than anything else. "You nearly died, but somehow, I don't know how, you overpowered Sidious and killed him. The Republic is in chaos, and everyone is blaming the Separatists for Palpatine's disappearance. No one knows the truth except us, the Council, and a few people on Mandalore. Duchess Satine and Bo-Katan helped dispose of the body and evidence, so no one will be able to learn the truth."

Anakin is quiet for a moment, processing all of that. "How is Mandalore?" he asks finally, because that had been the whole reason behind their trip.

"Maul and Savage disappeared," Obi-Wan reports, looking rather displeased, "But Duchess Satine and her sister are working out an agreement to have a joint rulership. Since Bo-Katan has taken the Darksaber, she is recognized as the Mand'alor, and Satine is planning to – reluctantly – allow warriors on Mandalore again. It will be alright as long as Maul and Savage don't get involved again."

"On the bright side," Ahsoka chimes in, nudging Anakin's arm, "It should be easier to bring an end to the war now that Sidious is dead. I still can't believe that you fought him all by yourself."

"I didn't," he replies. "Maul and Savage were there. It was… an alliance of necessity. I imagine they must have run away after I killed Sidious." It still doesn't seem real. Conceptually, it makes sense, but the implications haven't sunk in yet. For that matter, not much has. He feels distant and far away, probably, in part, because of the drugs that are flowing through him. "How long's it been?"

"I brought you back to Coruscant a week ago," Obi-Wan answers, expression tightening. "You're fortunate to still be alive. The lightning damage was… extensive as was the stress from Force overuse."

Huh. So that probably explains why he can't really remember the details of what happened anymore. Maybe he will later. You will, the Force promises, and Anakin simply accepts that as truth, like he has all this time. "When will I be cleared to leave?" he queries finally, probing at himself with the Force and confirming that yes, he has extensive lightning scars across his body now, far more numerous and evident than the ones he ever got from Dooku. In some ways, that's probably a good thing, because no one will blink twice about small, new scars showing up on his left forearm.

And Anakin knows with certainty that when everything which has just happened finally sinks in, it is going to hurt. Sidious – Palpatine – is dead because of him. That isn't nothing. Anakin killed him, and Palpatine, the one person who he thought would never betray him, betrayed him. He was manipulating him; it's so obvious now in retrospect, because, of course, Palpatine never truly cared about him. Why would he? Anakin is – he has nothing overly special to offer to anyone, especially not now that he's… not entirely stable.

If not downright unhinged. What sane person derives any sort of satisfaction from hurting himself – or herself?!

Thankfully, Obi-Wan's reply interrupts his train of thoughts before Anakin can fall too far down the spiral of self-loathing. "I'll have to talk to the medics, but if your condition is entirely stable, probably in a day or two. I imagine you'll have a week of recovery time before you'll be cleared for duty again, though."

"How's the war?" he wants to know, not because he cares – well, he does, of course, because he cares, maybe too much, about all the many, many lives which will be lost – but because it's his duty. He needs to know, since he's a general.

"Still going on," Ahsoka answers, "But it will be much harder for the Republic now that the Chancellor is gone." Her eyes are bright, and if anything, she seems excited, unlike Obi-Wan, who seems rather apprehensive. Unsurprising. The entire galaxy as they knew it is gone, and nothing will bring it back. Sidious' death should make peace easier, but there's no way of knowing anything for certain.

Yes, it will be harder, but it also might be easier. Without Sidious to play both sides, the Republic won't suffer from his machinations, but the effects of his control will go on for a while. It won't be easy to heal, especially not with Dooku still out there and the war still going on. More than anything, Anakin wishes that he could bring peace as easily as he killed Sidious. He'll have to talk to Padme about all of this, because she won't learn the truth from anyone but him. It will be a far from pleasant conversation, since she had, once upon a time, respected Palpatine very much.

"What will we do now?" he inquires, ignoring the pain pulsing through his head. It's normal for him to experience such symptoms after being electrocuted badly.

"First of all, you need to recover," Obi-Wan answers, "And then, it will be back to the fronts for all of us. At least now, thanks to you, we have a chance of actually winning." He finishes that with a smile that is warm and sincere and rare. Anakin can't even remember the last time he's seen it, much less directed at him.

He doesn't know what to say to that, so he only smiles back at his former master, and for a moment, it feels as if the aching gap inside him fades the slightest bit. It doesn't go away; it never goes away. But… perhaps, someday, it might. Anakin doubts it, but he recognizes that it's not impossible. It takes him a moment to recognize the strange feeling. Hope.

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