Chapter 18 - When It All Falls Down

Author's Note: In which the battle draws to a close... :)

~ Amina Gila

Aniya Skywalker

All this is doing is wearing us out, and we can't have that right now. I reach deeper into the Dark Side, letting the strength of the nexus flow through me as I fight off our attackers. With us, and the clones, we still have an advantage, but I'm sure there's still more.

But somehow, through it all, I can feel Plagueis' presence everywhere, as though it's permeating everything. Probably because it is. He's controlling everyone here, after all. It's sickening. (And terrifying.)

The Sith seem to have little qualms about cutting through everyone attacking us, but it's not like we have much other choice right now. I swing my blade up to block those of the several people going at me, fighting in unison alongside Obi-Wan.

It feels like the Dark Side is pressing even more strongly against me now somehow, and it's a sharp reminder that it's Plagueis we need to be going after. It's him I need to focus on. Maybe I can leave the others to handle the remaining mind-controlled minions. For all we know, they might never end.

I take down the one I'm fighting, turning to face the throne again. Plagueis is still watching, looking so satisfied, and all I can think of suddenly is how it's time to end this. Maybe I'm being irrational by attacking him now, but waiting won't help.

I start for the throne, holding my lightsaber ready in front of me, noting only now that I'm closer how much the smotheringness of the Dark Side is increasing.

"Wait," Sidious warns, but the warning comes too late.

I'm only a few paces away from the throne when it surges around me. It's pressing against my mind, slithering through my mental shields, and I can't make it stop. It's been doing that all along, actually, but I didn't notice until right now – when it's suddenly so much stronger.

The urge to hurt and destroy is burning through me, so strongly I can't stop it. Except it's suddenly not Plagueis I want to attack. It's – it's everyone else. They're the real threats, and I don't understand why or how, but they need to be stopped. (This is wrong it doesn't make sense. This isn't me.)

I spin around, lightsaber in hand, to face the others.

Obi-Wan takes a visible step back, shock written all over his face. He knows what's happening, doesn't he? But it doesn't matter. I don't think about that. Instead, I just lunge at him. I'm used to it – to the knowledge that people need to be stopped and put down because it's for the greater good, and I react practically instinctively when I know that.

"Aniya, snap out of it!" Obi-Wan yells, raising his lightsaber to parry my blow.

I can't, though. He needs to be stopped. (I need to find Anakin, I know he can help me, but I don't know how.)

My blade clashes against his again and again on repeat, and it's like – like the last time I fought him, knowing this was the only way. If he's going to destroy the Sith Master, the plan in the making for so long, I have to stop it.

"General?" Appo asks, warily, "What are you doing?" I lash out, throwing him across the room in response.

It's right then that the door to the throne room slides open again, Alema, Jinx, and the rest of her group racing inside. They all skid to a stop, taking in the scene. Anakin, Ahsoka, and their group are close behind, finally, but something keeps me from instinctively turning to my twin like I always used to.

"What's happening?" Alema asks, voice rising.

Obi-Wan shoves me back, but I lunge for him again, nearly taking his head off. "She's being controlled," he calls, backing away from me.

Alema moves closer, and I don't hesitate, attacking her. "Master, snap out of it. This isn't you," she protests. (I don't want to do this. I can't hurt her, but I can't make it stop.) If she's one of them, she has to be stopped, my former padawan or not. (No she doesn't.)

"You did this," I retort, suddenly remembering how it all started. It was back when she left, when she and Ahsoka walked away. That was what started this.

Alema's eyes widen, and she stumbles back, barely blocking it when I slash at her again. "No. I didn't. None of us did."

I slash at her again, unable to think of anything except how she's a threat and needs to be stopped, even if there's a part of me screaming at the sheer wrongness. "You abandoned me."

"I was always right there –"

She's cut off when Anakin jumps between us. "Aniya," he says, levelly. I can see the anguish in his eyes, and it pulls at my heart, cutting deep and twisting, yearning to be back with him and be myself again.

But I can't stop it and –

I feel him reaching for me. It's instinctive for me to reach back.

**w**

Anakin Skywalker

Nothing could compare to the sheer panic I felt when Aniya's presence suddenly felt dimmed, muted with the Dark Side, before we even got here. And it's worse now, staring back at her burning yellow eyes, knowing this isn't her.

Somehow, Plagueis is controlling her, and I have no idea how he's capable of that, but he is. It's not the same as the others, though; I can tell from how her mind doesn't feel nearly as blank. And that has to mean it's not as far-gone as it was for them, does it?

There has to be a way to break this. Aniya will not share the same fate as Barriss.

And... even if it is our destiny to die here, destroying the Sith and balancing the Force, it's not going to be like this.

I can't accept that we're going to die from something like this, or at all. I know it's possible, but I can't believe that our lives will really end here, that we'll never get to spend time with our children like we should or have the family that we've always wanted. I cannot, and will not, accept that this will be the end. Even if I know every time I've tried fighting, it has never worked to protect those I care for, but I can't... not act, either.

I have to try.

Now, I understand what Aniya had been trying to tell me, that we can't give up, no matter how hard it is. That we have to try, even if it's easier not to. But this is my twin sister, and I – I can't not act. But I killed Barriss when I broke the control? What if it does the same thing to her?

I reach out for her mind, anyway, because I know, without a doubt, that she would much prefer to die before hurting anyone in our family. I would, too.

But even now, she's fighting like herself, and she's deadly. By far the most deadly adversary we've ever had.

Aniya Force-shoves Alema away from her and jumps at Ahsoka. I can only watch for a heart-stopping moment, knowing I will never get there on time, almost entirely certain that this will be the end, when her blade suddenly is frozen mid-air. There's a sudden stillness in the air, and I turn around, to see a very familiar, tiny figure entering the room.

"Master Yoda," at least half the people in the room chorus, stunned.

I didn't even realize he was still alive.

"At an end, the Sith Order is," he says, and what almost scares me is how true those words ring in the Force.

At the far side of the room, Plagueis still appears unconcerned, but I can't help but wonder for a moment if it's partly a ruse. Of course, if his plans began to fall apart, he would never show it. He has to have many... back-up plans.

But firstly, I need to break Aniya free from this. She's still fighting against Yoda's grip, the anger coursing through her clearly not her own.

I take that as my cue, reaching out for my sister's mind instantly. She reaches back again, and I feel her through the haze on her mind. For what feels like the first time in years, I feel the bright, soft presence, untainted by darkness and war that is still deep inside her, the core of who she is.

"Come back," I send to her, reaching farther, harder. It's a struggle, and part of her is fighting, but the barriers are crumbling faster and faster the more I reach through our bond. "Come back to us."

She doesn't respond immediately, but I can feel her fighting back, trying to shake free the control Plagueis has on her mind. This deeply immersed in the Force, I can tell he's doing something with holocrons and maybe... I don't know, but it doesn't matter. All that does is that I can break Aniya free.

We're at one of the strongest Dark Side nexuses known, and that's making it easy for Plagueis, but we're still children of the Force, no matter who made us. It doesn't change the amount of sheer power we have, and if he can use the strength of the Force to his advantage, so can we.

Finally, Aniya touches me back, and I violently shove back against the strength of the holocrons holding onto her mind. "Hold onto me," I urge silently, and she does, slowly but surely pulling free from it.

Behind us, I can hear the sound of fighting again, the others still dealing with the rest of the Sith Master's minions. I wish there was something I could do to free them, but there's not. I don't know how many of them even have a mind left at this point, anyway.

Right now, it's time to end him.

Our presences' are still interlinked closely, more intimately than we ever have done in the past.

I can feel her, and her me. The power is overwhelming, but we've always had – and been – each other in a sense. I don't understand it, but it feels like we've... always been able to do this. That it's always been a part of who we are. In this moment, with as intertwined as we are, we're One. Seeing out of two pairs of eyes, being in two bodies at once is... strange, and unnerving, but we lock eyes for a moment, then turn to Plagueis.

"You made a mistake by bringing us here," I say – though I'm not actually sure which was me, or which was her. I sound different though. Like my voice is echoing, the same way it was on Mortis.

Here, on this Dark Side nexus, I can see far more of the Force than I ever have in the past. It feels like we're drowning in it, but we reach deeper, farther, trying to find more. We need more, if we're going to stop and defeat him.

As we reach deeper, I'm almost certain I sense a familiar presence, but it has to be my imagination right? Maybe it's just that I'm so far in that the barrier between life and death is thinning, unless –

"Anakin," Qui-Gon's familiar voice calls. It feels so close, as though he were right here, even though he's gone. But those who are gone pass into the Force, don't they? They're never truly gone.

"Qui-Gon?" I ask, uncertainly, though I'm hardly sure if I say it out loud, or if the thought merely echoes into the Force.

But I'm almost certain I see him standing here with us, his figure strangely translucent blue. But it almost feels like we can see the currents of the Force right now – with two pairs of eyes – so it's hard to say what's real and what isn't.

"The Force will always be with you. The moment has come to fulfill your destiny, to bring balance to the Force."

"Is it our destiny?" Aniya asks, "Is that what we are?"

I know she's thinking of what the Sith told us, of our true origins. But somehow, I think in the currents of the Force, Qui-Gon can sense our last doubts and thoughts perfectly.

"Some things are far stronger than blood," he reminds us, "A thousand generations live in you now, but this is your fight. You have everything you need."

And for the first time in my life, I think I believe him. I do believe him. We have everything we need, and we can do it. The Light of his presence guides us as we reach deeper into the Dark, but Sidious is right that Plagueis is too powerful to die.

Powerful enough that he's destroying the very thing that creates the universe – the nature of energy reforming and flowing away into the Force.

If it goes too far, this can undo the entire universe. Now, I... I understand. For as much as it hurts, we have to let go. We can't... stop it. We can't stop death. No one can. Only the Force controls that, and to hold on is only hurting everyone more. At least that's what the Sith master is doing – refusing to let go and accept that he should have already died a long time ago. He's trying to reverse his aging, because he's so afraid of dying.

And his lust for power has consumed his very soul, and I... pity that. Truly. For the first time in my life, I can feel something other than hate for him. He will never know what it means to live, because he's destroyed that for himself.

He destroyed that for Sidious, too, though I – I think, even for the former Emperor, there is a small chance that he can become... more. He cares about Aniya and me, no matter how selfish and twisted it is.

Now that we're so deep into the Force, I can feel the way the bond Plagueis and Sidious has is... unnatural. I have never been able to place exactly what it is, until now. It's... it's something twisted, and I can't imagine what could have formed it, but it's like they tried to merge their presences to become one, like how Aniya and I are.

I don't know what it would take to make something like that. Something... personal, no doubt. I don't want to know. Thinking of some of the things Sidious' said and Plagueis has, even to Aniya, I suddenly can't help but wonder, even if I can't even imagine such a thing. I can't imagine Sidious being hurt in such a way, in the same way I knew too well that Aniya or the padawans could've been hurt on Zygerria, but considering how Sidious shuns the bond as much as possible and Plagueis often uses it, and how he's drawing off Sidious's strength, it's easy to see which of them chose and wanted it.

But the things Plagueis has been doing are perverting the Force, the galaxy as a whole. I can feel the way the Force has been off-balanced for so long now, and how what he's doing is beginning to unravel the galaxy at its seams. And all those shreds of darkness come from one source – the Sith Master right in front of me.

I don't... want to kill him, not in this form. My human form craves it, but here, I'm so much more. Here, I'm one with the Force and I want whatever the Force wants. It's hurting, and I need to stop that. And with how he's living, it's not a way for anyone to live.

Aniya and I reach deeper, traveling to the center of his presence and rip it apart. It's hard to grasp, with how much he's fighting, with how he's trying to use Sidious's presence to shield himself, but he can't hide from the very thing that flows in his veins, that he's been so obsessed with.

I claw my way to the very center of it and rip, tearing out the life I feel and drawing it out into the Force, letting the unraveling edges smooth and refasten and renew.

And then there's... nothing. He's gone. I feel it when the rest of the darkness is ripped out, floating on, and shifting out from darkness to light.

I hit the ground on my knees, and I vaguely register everyone else crowding around Aniya and me. I'm exhausted, now that I can actually feel my physical body again. Ahsoka is the only thing stopping me from outright face planting.

When I look up, I almost expect to see Plagueis, though he's completely gone. The center of the nexus is... charred and blackened. I don't even want to know what happened there. Instead, I see a strange blue glow cast across us, and Qui-Gon is standing in front of us. He's not... real, but it's still him, even if he's partly transparent and glowing. I sense his presence, even if it's slightly elusive.

"Master?" Aniya rasps.

"I'm here," he replies. I'm too exhausted to feel the drowning emotions that I would've otherwise.

"How?" Obi-Wan asks, and I see him moving forwards. Dooku is, too, shock radiating off them both.

"I have always been here," Qui-Gon answers, "I preserved my consciousness when I became one with the Force."

"I told you not to go," Dooku says tightly. I can hear the emotions in his voice. He sounds strained. I can't imagine how he must've felt when he felt it. Qui-Gon was his padawan. If I lost Ahsoka, I can't imagine how I would feel. Then again, Dooku has never cared for people as much as I have, clearly.

"It was where I was meant to be," Qui-Gon replies, "You must let me go."

"Thank you," I find myself saying, "For helping us. For everything."

"Of course," he responds. I look up at him, meeting his gaze. I don't have anything else to say, though. He's always been right here with us, helping us. He'll always be here, and as much as it hurts, I can accept that now. I felt it.

Aniya and I glance at each other, and that's when I realize that Sidious isn't here. He's still alive, but he... must have left amidst the chaos.

"I'll be back," I promise Ahsoka, pushing myself back to my feet, even if I'm swaying unsteadily. I see Aniya reassuring Appo and Alema of the same, and we both move outside.

Something about his presence feels different now. Everything feels different, still in chaos, and I can feel that we're just short of losing consciousness. But we need to deal with this, first. We can't trust Sidious. We're not stupid. Even if he hasn't betrayed us yet, that doesn't mean he can't still cause serious damage.

He's standing a good distance away, and I suspect he was expecting us to come out here.

"Sidious," I call – not Master. Not anymore. We're free. We don't have a master. We serve the Force because all beings do, not a person – or maybe we chorus it, I'm not quite sure.

He's standing facing away from us, silhouetted against the darkened landscape, hood over his head, his cloak blowing in the wind, even if something about the atmosphere feels calmer. Maybe it's just that I'm so exhausted.

"What did you do?" he demands at last.

"The war's over," Aniya answers, "We won."

"Had he died, I would have as well. He ensured I couldn't kill him years ago."

That's when it finally dawns on me. "Whatever he did, it failed. It wasn't real. Aniya and I have the bond we do because we were born with it. Whatever it was – it wasn't real. You're free." Make the right choice, I want to ask. I don't want to hurt him. That almost surprises me, considering everything he did, but I... don't. I guess no matter how much I hate him, I will never be able to forget what he once meant to us. I'll never forget everything he did for us, and he... made us.

We owe him everything, no matter what he's done.

When he turns around, his eyes are blue. It's been a very, very long time since I saw them like that.

"Where will you go now?" Aniya asks.

"You will stay with your... family." It's an assumption, and definitely the correct one.

"Yes," I reply, because we will, whether he wants us to or not. I will fight to the end to go back if I have to. We promised to come back, and we will.

"There's a whole galaxy that needs our help," I continue, "But I think... we earned this. And our children deserve better than to fight for what we have been. They deserve peace. They deserve the childhood we never got." And that's all I care about – trying to give them the life we never had, a life where they never have to worry about pain or loneliness or... any of what we have.

I'm not sure what he's going to say for a few moments. "I spent years planning my master's demise. In the end, he brought it on himself."

"If you want vengeance, destroy everything he stood for," Aniya says, "The Empire is gone, but there are countless other places in the galaxy where your skills can be used." This is... so strange. When we were younger, he was always the one to comfort us when we needed it. Now, I... think we're the only people who have ever cared for him enough to try doing the same for him.

The only people he hasn't been able to chase away.

But that's really the question – if he can ever become anything other than what's been done to him.

To us, it wouldn't be hard.

But he's always lived a privileged life.

Sidious has always been part of a wealthy family. He wouldn't – couldn't – know what it means to work for something to live.

"The chaos in the galaxy was not of the Sith's making," he replies, "We merely used what was already there."

"Maybe," I concede, "But the Empire was only fueling it. It was to rule the people, not make it better for them." I still believe in an Empire, I think, just not the one there was. I don't know if there's any leader I'd truly trust to be an Emperor, right now. Maybe Padme, but I know she would never want that.

And I can't believe I'm able to... bring myself to talk to Sidious like this, but somehow I'm not really afraid to right now.

He's studying us in a contemplative silence. "You have let go of the Dark Side." He doesn't sound... angry, like how I might've expected. I can't really read his tone at all, actually. Frankly, I'm mildly surprised he's willing to let this... go, so easily, but perhaps it's because, on some level, he already did. He believed for weeks that he was going to die. That we would stay with our family, and likely let go of the Dark Side was inevitable, really.

"Yes," Aniya says, "We are not Sith anymore."

I don't know what we are – labels don't matter, do they? We only serve the Force now. We're free.

"It gave you power," he objects.

"Perhaps," I allow, "But it also blinded us." In our fear, in our guilt, in... everything, really. "And there is more to life than power." I don't know if that's something he even could understand, though, when he spent his entire life seeking it. Because he's never truly had anything else.

"I made you to be more than ordinary Sith," he says, at length, "We were to be the last Sith."

I can't quite decipher the meaning behind that statement. "... you expected to live forever like Plagueis?"

"Had my master lived, perhaps."

Because of their bond, I suppose he probably would have. Maybe. I don't know how that would've worked. I don't want to think about what our lives would've been like, had this not happened. In the end, it was Plagueis messing with the Force to the point of trying to stop death and apparently bring people back from it that led to his own downfall. If not for what happened with that... Twi'lek, I don't know where we'd be now. "I suppose we still are the last Sith," Aniya says, finally. "I don't think there's going to be much chance the Order continues after us, anyway."

For a few minutes, we just stand there. This is goodbye, I think, but I don't know how to say it. Not to him.

I'm expecting him to say something, but he doesn't. Instead, he reaches out with the Force, lightly touching our presences one more time before turning away and disappearing into the darkness.

Silently, I can't help wondering how many other than us would ever come to accept that he's anything other than the monster he's tried so hard to make himself be seen as.

**w**

Obi-Wan Kenobi

I haven't seen Qui-Gon since I walked out on him back after I found out he embraced the Dark Side. I was angry enough that I couldn't think about anything else. I couldn't think about how he has raised me and that I should be grateful for that. We were always close, even if it's nothing like the bond I now have with the twins.

That was the last conversation I ever had with him, and then, he... died.

I had come to accept that he was gone anyway, but now, he's standing in front of me again, ghost or no, almost as though he's still alive. And I don't really know what to feel about it.

"Master," I say finally.

"Obi-Wan," he replies. He hides his emotions well, but still, I can hear the emotion in it. He still cares.

"How can you be here?" I inquire, "Those who pass into the Force fade away."

"The Jedi of old had the same knowledge, though it was lost over the years."

I don't mean to be antagonistic, but I have to ask. "How could you do this when you're not a Jedi?"

"I learned it long ago, Obi-Wan, and I let go of the Dark Side before I died."

His presence feels the way it did when we were younger. Back when... a long time ago. Somehow, that just makes this hurt even worse. "How?"

"The Dark Side comes easily, Obi-Wan. We have all had struggles with it, but it takes strength to let it go. In the end, we all must accept our roles in the galaxy, and that the Force is what controls us."

This is way more like the master I knew. If I had tried finding him, would I have seen him as a Sith, or as the Jedi that trained me? Wondering won't rewrite time, though. He's right that I have to accept it. That doesn't mean it'll be easy.

I'm not that fazed by seeing his ghost, though. Not after I just saw the twins glowing a few minutes ago.

"You are still needed, Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon continues, "And I am not the only one to let go of the Dark."

"The twins?" I ask.

"They have," he confirms, "But nevertheless, they will need your help in finding balance. They have been through... a lot."

I'm not sure how I could do that, considering I've already tried, but I don't have time to ask before his image fades away, leaving me standing there. The fight is over, and Sidious is gone, and though we can't let him get far, I'm more worried about Anakin and Aniya right now. I turn around and leave the building, following the beacon of light that they are in the Force.

The twins are standing together outside, alone.

It's been so long that I no longer know how to talk to them.

"Are you alright?" I query at last.

Anakin twitches, as if finally blinking himself out of whatever it was. "Yeah. We are."

"We should leave."

"Let's go back to the base to regroup," Aniya says, "The fight is over. We can rest, and then... we can work everything else out from there."

It seems fitting, in a sense, I think. And we need the rest.

"Then, let's go."

Final Notes: Reviews are always appreciated! ^-^

Come hang out on Discord (delete spaces), discord . gg / nqSxuz2 or find us on tumblr at fanfictasia (our more serious blog which does have controversial posts on it; I won't be offended if you choose to block it, promise), and disastertriowriting (which is our fun blog with crack posts or incorrect SW quotes)

We've got a YT channel for tributes! (delete the spaces) youtube channel / UC_g1M5rSCxJUzQCRS29B6pA

ALSO: We have SW gift request forms for General, Anakin-Clones-centric, and Bad Batch fics. :D (delete spaces) bit . ly / CourtesyTrefflinFicRequests