Everything was very - well, weird. It was rather blurry. Sheev Palpatine. Chancellor, Darth Sidious, Sith Lord, Emperor was no more. It always seemed like the final quest of a Jedi would be to reach the climax of defeating the Sith. But things felt rather anticlimactic presently, instead.

Anakin walked towards the bridge of the ship; Admiral Tarkin walked a few steps ahead. Down in the decks, people, the officers looked at Anakin in terror, although some looked with rage and fury as well.

But it was Tarkin's word that Anakin, Lord Vader was now Emperor. And there was no way for them, even in unison, to defeat Anakin. Even if it is held that superior numbers could defeat even the most powerful, there were very few clone troopers present. So the officers sat in their posts, rather dazed and their minds and hands far removed from thinking or doing their assigned work.

Anakin just stood there for a while, gazing at the white stars in the black space from the bridge. He was the Emperor. But he did not feel like it. What awaited at Coruscant was uncertain.

There was an empty seat at the front of the bridge. Anakin sat there.

A young officer walked towards him. It seems she was gathering some courage.

"Permission to speak freely, My Lord."

Somewhat surprised, Anakin nodded. She sat down - she had brought a small stool with her - right next to him.

"General Skywalker -" she used that title instead - "I don't understand you. You slaughtered the Jedi Order and now you have murdered the Emperor."

Anakin answered honestly - his ego or pride were not being hurt at all.

"Well, the facts speak for themselves."

"Why?"

Anakin did not want to get into this conversation right now, so he asked,

"Who are you?"

"Lieutenant Rae Sloane."

"Who was your commandant?"

"Pell… Baylo."

"Well, he's not here right now."

"Yes…"

"I was wrong to do what I did." Anakin said; there was no way he'd get into the intimate details of his lie and his personal reasons, so kept the discussion moral. "Perhaps I was young and foolish… And I sought power, like many others. I really am lucky I got to the see the errors of my way so fast."

"No you weren't." Rae Sloane began getting empathic. "The Chancellor tasked you to get rid of the Jedi and their unconstitutional coup. Now, you yourself have successfully performed the same coup."

"I have never cared about legalities," Anakin answered. "Do you think I ever spared separatist war criminals because of the laws of war! Palpatine manipulated the systems for his own ends. And so he had to go."

"But the Empire could bring order to the systems after this devastating war!"

Anakin sighed and smiled (very weakly and faintly) at the same time. "The Clone Wars were engineered by Palpatine. Dooku was his stooge, as was Grievous. I don't suppose you'd know that."

Rae did not believe this. Why should she?

The both of them just sat in silence for a while. Maybe a few hours. They would get to Coruscant soon.

Anakin never really was a thinker; he was always a fighter and warrior. A man of action. Ever since his premonitions, he had been locked and trapped in a toxic, somewhat repetitive loop of negative thinking.

This time he sat - but thoughts were far from clear or formed now. Everything was blurry. The last clear thought he had was to do the thing that had to be done. Remove the Sith Threat. And he had done that. Now he knew he had to Return to Padme.

And also someone else. He felt some new affection and relief. Ahsoka.

Rae had an intuition - and Pell Baylo had always trusted and affirmed her intuitions - that at this point, Anakin, who really was still tired as well - may not be able to summon the best of his reflexes.

She had a gun in her holster. And Anakin was looking the other way. They were sitting too close for him to deflect the plasma blade with his lightsaber; and it'd be too late for him to react.

Tarkin would probably assume command of the Empire. He would convince the Senate - easily she knew - to reaffirm its new organisation. And the Order and Peace Ideal of hers would remain intact. Also, Lord Vader was a traitor who assassinated the Emperor. There was no reason he ought to go unpunished and have his way after treason.

But she did not act, and Anakin got up and walked away; he was always restless.