AN: Gotta say, I didn't expect some of the responses I got last chapter. People commenting that they hoped Harry would commit Genocide and destroy the entire earth? Or about being drug into the war and it being Dumbledore's fault? No, this is plan is solely Tonks' doing, not Dumbledore's. He's actually been trying to fix things while preparing the next generation if he doesn't live long enough to see it done.

Shadow of the Force

Chapter 30

-Annakin-

Cutting the power to his speeder, Annakin dismounted, his boots crunching in the sand as he gazed at the ruin that had once been the Lars family farm. He'd had the machinery, what few parts could be salvaged, removed and repaired as a new moisture farm was opened. This place, where his mother had been buried and Luke had been raised was kept private, special.

Approaching the graves, Anakin laid flowers on each stone. Flowers were a luxury on a desert planet like this, but he felt that Shmi Skywalker and the Lars family deserved that respect. As he knelt in silent vigil, he felt the small grains of sand carried by the wind slide across his skin, getting caught in his hair. When he was younger, he had loathed sand, hating the coarseness and how it got everywhere. But after twenty years confined to armor, risking death to even feel a breeze across his skin? Now he relished the small sensations, the little feelings no matter how unpleasant he might have once thought them.

"Hey Mom." Anakin's fingers traced the name Shmi Skywalker that was carved into the rock, "I…it's been a long time. I'm sorry that I didn't visit sooner." He couldn't, not when he was Darth Vader. He had refused to defile his mother's resting place with his presence as a Sith Lord.

For now, he remained by their graves. He told Shmi and the Lars family about the changes he was making to Tatooine, told them about Luke and Leia. How proud he was of them, how they were growing into better people than he was.

"You'd have loved them, Mom." He rose to his feet, making sure to clean off any dust or sand from the graves "And I know they'd have loved to have grown up with you in their lives." Halfway back to his speeder, his messenger went off, Lumiya appearing as a projection above it as he secured the device to his vehicle.

"Master," Lumiya's projection nodded "I did as you ordered and started collecting various people who could fill positions of authority on Tatooine."

"Good work Lumiya." He nodded as the speeder took off, zooming across the barren sands as he made his way back to what had once been Jabba's palace, "I will go through them personally upon my return."

"As you say, Master." Even though she bowed respectfully, he could tell she wanted to say something else.

"Speak your mind, Lumiya." Anakin ordered her, rather getting any potential issues aired and dealt with lest they fester.

"I fail to see why you're doing this Master." Lumiya relented, "You rule Tatooine, your rule is prosperous. I don't see why you need others to handle tasks you are seeing to without issue."

"The answer is twofold." He told his apprentice, "First, it is a precaution should the worse come to pass. I would not want to leave Tatooine in chaos should anything happen to me, and it also gives a support network if anything goes wrong when I'm off planet."

"I see." Lumiya calmed down slightly, expression thoughtful as she considered his words. He left it at that for now, not wanting to have her grow paranoid. What he'd said was true but there was another factor, that through the force he could feel a great change was brewing. A choice would have to be made eventually, and he wanted everything secure before he had to make it.

-Obi-Wan-

"You know, I really regret leaving Cere to handle the hospital wing." Obi-Wan sighed as he wrenched his foot from the thick mud of Dagobah, "She's nice and comfortable on Mandalore while we have to trapse through a swamp."

"You know, I really don't remember you whining so much back in the old days." Kota snorted, the force helping the blind general still tell where he was going.

"Please don't refer to it that way, I feel my age enough as it is." Obi-Wan sighed, following the distant signs of flight in the dark swamp "But twenty years of living as a hermit on Tatooine I feel warrant a least a little whining. I used to think Anakin was exaggerating when he would go on tangents about how much he hated that place. No, if anything, he was underselling that sand ball of misery. It's a death world that breeds lunatic survivors like Anakin just like how Naboo breeds Sith Lords."

That remark had Kota stagger in place, almost falling face first into the muck "What in blazes are you talking about?" Kota looked at him like he was crazy, "Naboo was a peaceful world, how is that 'a breeding ground of Sith Lords'?"

"Naboo was a planet that not only had a long-standing system of electing literal children to be the rulers of their Planetary Government; but they further had a history of assassinating said children with such sufficient frequency that dressing up a group of other children as decoy targets had become standard operating procedure." Obi-Wan ranted at the absurdity he'd never taken the time to really think about during the Clone Wars. Say what you will, but Tatooine didn't leave much for one to do but survive and think.

"The Emperor sadly makes more sense in that context." Kota sighed as they grew closer and closer, the shape of Yoda's home starting to grow clearer, "But let's leave that for now. We have an old friend to visit, and hopefully drag back to society."

"Yes, society that has showers, and fewer swamps." Obi-Wan moved quicker, eager to be out of this place as he reached the door of Yoda's mud and stone hut, knocking on the ramshackle door.

Or he would have, if Yoda's voice hadn't called out before his knuckles ever reached the wood "Know you are there, I do. Come in, old friend, you will."

"I hate it when he does that."

-Palpatine-

Reclining back on his throne, Palpatine observed his 'apprentice' making her way towards his throne room on the security cameras. The stupid girl, to think he wasn't aware of her little scheme with the Rebels. He was well aware of what she would try, especially after he'd finally cultivated beginning of a sliver of hatred in her.

A sith needed to hate, but his pawns had to know their place. Jade would never amount to anything more than a tool, a place holder until he could acquire a true apprentice.

It was part of why he had been so determined to capture those women. To breed a new human apprentice, one who could take over the empire…when Palpatine allowed him to. But, for now, he'd let Jade have her moment of 'triumph'. It would make the truth all the more painful for her, and all the sweeter for him.

Waving his hand to have the security feed vanish, he relaxed as the grand doors to his throne room opened, Mara Jade striding in carrying the severed head of Mon Mothma.

"My master, I have returned." Jade knelt before his throne. He could feel the hatred in her, even if her face impressively showed none of it. The seed of hatred he'd planet into her had bloomed in the short time she was away dealing with rebels. But with that blooming hatred, the surge of the dark side, and her paltry 'victory' she had grown overconfident.

"I can see that." He let her believe him fooled, for now. Rising from his throne, and ignoring the cracking of his bones from having remained so still for so long, he drew his lightsaber "You have completed the task set before you, and as such your 'reward' is earned." The blade ignited but held to the side, clearly not being brought forth as a weapon.

"Yes, my master." The woman's eyes gleamed with eager greed as she knelt, the severed head of the rebel 'leader' dropping to the ground with a wet splat.

"Henceforth," his rasping voice echoed in the otherwise empty throne room "you shall be known as Darth…Chrysalis."

"Thank you, my Master." The newly named Darth Chrysalis only felt satisfaction.

"Rise." He gestured dismissively, "You have work to do." She would serve her purpose until the remaining rebels were stamped out. But then, he knew she would play right into her 'true' fate. He did so love irony.

-Marcus-

"Bombarda!" Marcus shouted, flicking his wand at the Death Eater who had aimed their own wand at Susan, the tip glowing sickly green letting him know just what spell they'd been trying to do.

"Good shot Marcus!" Hagrid roared, the Half Giant's face twisted with rage as he worked to shield Marcus and Susan. The School's Groundskeeper grabbed a conjured wolf, throwing it like a bludger at the conjurer as Marcus heard the loud distinct sound of snapping bone.

"How long," Susan ducked under a spell and shot a spell to transfigure the dirt under a group of death eaters into quicksand "until the aurors show up?!"

"I don't know!" he shouted back, transfiguring a bunch of grass around some of the murderers into a swarm of wasps.

"Get down!" Susan shouted, tackling him as a piercing curse sailed over where he'd been, the spell having slipped past Hagrid who responded by hurling his axe at the caster.

The plan had been surprisingly cunning, given the usual examples of Slytherin house he'd had to deal with. He and Susan had been visiting with Hagrid when the school got placed on Lockdown, a group of the Death Eaters having been spotted outside Hogsmede, moving to some other location. Given the potential of it being their base, the majority of the strike force had been sent with the aurors to get the escapees, the rest staying inside the castle to protect the students.

The issue was that Hagrid had to escort him and Susan back to the castle so they would be in said protective area, and a different group of the escapees had been waiting in ambush.

"Stop holding back you useless bastards!" an emaciated Death Eater shouted, "Crucio!" Marcus saw a flash of the spell heading his way before Hagrid leapt to intercept it, the half giant's screams carrying across the grounds.

The answering howl of rage from the castle let him know that his Uncle had seen what was going on and was pissed.

-Tonks-

Frowning, Tonks looked around the various assorted Death Eaters restrained and waiting to be moved back to prison. Officially, she was making sure none of them tried to escape into the Forbidden Forest to apparate once past the wards. Those that could still walk after having been set upon by a wrathful Defense teacher.

Unofficially, she was pointedly avoiding looking at Marcus Potter and Susan Bones. The sight of a Gryffindor with black hair and green eyes being so close to a Hufflepuff girl was bringing up some old memories and unpleasant feelings, the Bones girl and Potter boy fretting over Hagrid and each other.

Checking that all the captured Death Eaters were still unconscious for the fifth time, Tonks let her thoughts wander to the ritual she'd found in the Vault. Not wanting to just trust a single old book that had been forgotten in the archives, she'd taken the name and done more research into it, wanting to know how viable it was.

The ritual was apparently something originally designed to forcibly reclaim runaway heirs who hadn't wanted to go through with arranged marriages, using it to forcibly bring them directly to the wedding. The method had fallen out of favor as arranged marriages stopped being quite as common, and as ritual magic itself grew out of favor.

Given the amount of rituals Voldemort was known or rumored to have done, many started viewing ritual magic with the same stigma that Parsletongue received. It would still fit what she needed perfectly, bringing Harry back to her from wherever the Veil had sent him.

The ritual did admittedly have some drawbacks. Along with how it would only work on a person one time before they became immune to that specific ritual, most of the reagents were distinctly rare and the steps more on the complex side.

It would take her at least a year to be able to afford all the reagents, if not longer. But she'd do it, and nothing would get in her way.