Luke overlooked the scene outside the base. No wonder the storm troopers were never allowed outside, he looked on in horror at what he saw.
Rows of rows of people from throughout the galaxy chained up and forced to work under the First Order's oppressive regime. How could they have kept this covered up? He recognized some species from the planet he knew had joined the First Order willingly years earlier, but others he knew were supposed to be from neutral systems.
There were hundreds chained in lines, digging, moving water and other supplies, and some building starships and weaponry. First Order officers in uniform watched over them, elcrowhips in hand, prepared to use them at the slightest inclination at escape.
The despair he felt from them collectively was all so overwhelming he could barely take it. His communicator flashed away, giving his son's location. He couldn't stop and gape at slaves. He went there for a reason. Ben!
He turned back inside the base and ran through the hallways at breakneck speed.
Inside Palpatine's chambers, Anakin moved in quickly, lightsaber drawn. Palpatine decided to amuse himself and draw his own red lightsaber as well, knowing he could easily strike down his old apprentice with his lightning. His mechanical body would rip apart with ease and he'd die quickly, but he didn't want that yet.
As Kylo pulled himself back up onto the walkway, he watched as his grandpa marched on.
Palpatina taunted, "That body of yours made of spare parts isn't made for fighting."
"The one you gave me wasn't either," Anakin insisted, going for the first swing.
The last time the two of them were together, Palpatine was over 80 and Anakin was 45. This Palpatine was just over 30, and Anakin was now well over 70. To Anakin's surprise, the old emperor was much more agile and quick on his feet, while Anakin still had trouble lifting his arms over his head even with the better mechanical arms he was given.
Han made his way around the different walkway paths and said, "Stay back! I can hit him!" He readied his blaster and reigned down shots. Chewy followed from above, but even 3 on 1 Palpatine easily deflected the blasts from both directions and Anakin's slowed swings.
Han made it to Kylo and pulled him back.
"Get off of me!" Kylo shouted, "This is for the best!"
"The best for what?!" Han demanded.
Kylo tried to pry the blaster out of his uncle's hands, "For the galaxy! You'll have to see it to believe it! Without the force you don't know."
Han asked, "You're 19, how do you know what's best for the galaxy!?" He shoved him away and aimed his blaster at Palpatine once more. Still he managed to block and dodge him and Chewy still firing away. Anakin just barely missed getting shot multiple times.
"What is going on?!" Luke shouted as he finally made it to the room from behind Palpatine and Anakin.
His father answered, "Palpatine has returned!"
"You're behind the First Order," Luke said, incredulous, "why have you enslaved thousands of people from across the galaxy? What are you planning!?" He readied his lightsaber and moved in on the attack.
Palpatine asked, mid-fight, "Why don't you tell them, Kylo?"
"It's how the galaxy remains in balance!" he answered in the distance, still pushing away from Han, "There are those who are born to lead and those who are born to serve, and if you can't decide which category to fall into, then a leader will decide for you!"
Anakin couldn't fight anymore, not after hearing that. It was rhetoric he had heard growing up on Tatooine. It was said to keep those who were born into slavery down, and those who were forced into it made to believe they would never escape subjugation. "No," he muttered as Luke swooped in to take over.
Palpatine had just about every piece moved to where he wanted. He had one final step to make, and his plan would be perfectly in motion. He quickly spammed Luke with lightning and caused him to recoil and struggle to hold his lightsaber against it.
"Ben, you don't understand what you've said!" Anakin insisted.
"Don't claim I'm too naive to know the true potential of the galaxy," he shouted, "if I am, who made me that way?! Not Snoke that's for sure!"
Lightning burst and split all around them. Now it was Palpatine's chance. With Luke knocked off balance he hit the ground hard. Even with Chewy making shots, Palpatine dodged them once more and moved in faster than Anakin could move in his mechanical body.
"How does it feel to be too weak to move, my friend?" Palpatine taunted, "Don't you wish you had the energy and the power you had before your own master nearly destroyed you?"
Anakin couldn't keep up, not with the lightning and not with the swings of his lightsaber. Palpatine was right, his new body was much lighter and easier to move in but it wasn't made for withstanding fights. It made him wonder how he knew. Ben must have told him.
Luke struggled to his feet after nearly getting blasted. It was harder to take now as a man in his 50's than when he was in his 20's. He knew he wouldn't be able to withstand another attack.
"Get away from him, Father!"
"That reborn version I created out of your DNA is for you, my friend," Palpatine continued, "all you have to do is tap into the dark side and channel your essence into the body. You know how. Remember the dark side!"
"I won't!" Anakin shouted at him.
He persisted, "Your own grandson believes some people are born to serve others. You know exactly what he means!"
Han yelled over the lightning, "Don't listen to him!" He may not be force sensitive, but even he could tell Anakin was waning under Palpatine's strength and the weight of his words. It couldn't be too late for him.
"You put those thoughts inside his head," Anakin said.
"Only because you're the one who's running from your own past," Palpatine replied coldly, "you've ensured his fall by doing so."
Anakin said, "He hasn't fallen!"
"Not yet," he answered in his signature rotten voice.
Down the hall, unaware of any of this happening, Rey had managed to climb the ladder into the base and tried to use the force to tell her which way to go. The only thing she could feel was turmoil and anger. It made her not want to go any further.
Instead she nearly bumped into something. She gasped and stepped back as she saw the bacta tank with a man inside.
"Oh," she said to herself, "that's odd." She looked over the vital signs on the monitors around him.
"Why do you seem familiar?" she asked herself aloud. She knew bacta tanks were for healing. Perhaps he had gotten injured somehow, but he didn't appear to be hurt.
Still inside Palpatine's chamber, he attacked Anakin blow after blow, watching him crumble easier and easier. Luke tried to move in, but the attacks were too fast, and lightning kept erupting out of him.
There was a small part of Anakin that wondered how true what Palpatine said was. His 30-year-old self was floating in a bacta tank down the hall. Was it possible to channel the dark side and become whole again? To leave what Obi-wan had done to him in the past? To have a real body that would move and breathe on it's own again? It seems so real, so possible. Perhaps he could try.
"I've never lied to you, Anakin," Palpatine said.
"You have!" he said, "What about Luke and Leia!"
"I didn't know there were two of them," he insisted, "and you didn't either. I thought for sure you killed your own child and you already know you killed Padme with your own two hands! Regular people cannot withstand a force choke hold. You knew that when you strangled her yet you did it anyway! You failed her!"
Kylo gasped, "Is that true?"
Palpatine moved and undercut Anakin right through his chest. The suit protecting his body quickly burned away. His flesh melted from the saber. The little natural vision he had left faded fast. Luke screamed out, "No!"
But he was angry. He couldn't believe what he had heard his own grandson say, and then to remember how he killed his own wife on top of that. Perhaps it was possible. Maybe he really could transfer his soul into that body floating mere feet away. He couldn't die. He knew this feeling all too well.
On Mustafar years earlier...he couldn't die then either...he couldn't die...he had to live. He had so much more to fight for.
Suddenly, he felt better than ever. His skin was alive and raw. His body was warm and wet. He opened his eyes and could actually see what was around him without assistance. He was inside a bacta tank, and the breathing apparatus wasn't giving him enough air. He couldn't breathe!
Rey watched as the man suddenly opened his eyes and quickly jolted awake. Startled she stepped back and watched him grab at his mouth and throat, desperate to take a real breath.
Anakin ripped it out of his mouth and throat and used the force to shatter the glass holding him back. Bacta water and shards flew in every direction.
Rey screamed in terror and ran into the wall as she was instantly drenched.
Meanwhile Anakin fell to the floor dramatically, face down. He coughed and choked and struggled to breathe on his own for the first time in over 50 years. The robe he was wearing barely covered him. The warmth he felt a moment ago dissipated as he shivered in the cold. For the first time in decades he'd have to regulate his own body temperature.
"Are you alright?!" Rey gasped, running to his side, "What were you doing in there?"
"Rey?" he asked, strangled for breath.
Shocked, she asked, "How do you know my name!?"
"It's me," he choked, "Anakin."
She didn't know how to respond to hearing that. "What?" she asked, "How?"
He coudn't catch his breath and there was no time to explain. "We have to..." he inhaled as much as he could tolerate, "get out of here! Go!" He coughed violently. He didn't remember breathing naturally being this hard. He pointed down the hall back the direction of the ship.
Anakin sat upright and the shards of glass mixed into his delicate fresh skin. He winced in pain. He was also barefoot and hadn't walked on two legs since he was 22. He couldn't rely on his muscles, instead he used the force to pick himself up onto his feet and tried to go from there, with Rey supporting his weight.
Luke watched as his father died, however, with the force, it was almost as if his presence was still around. As if he were in the hallway through the maze they walked to get there. Was he alive or was it wishful thinking?
Han took his chance to shoot Palpatine. The blast nicked him in the shoulder, and he went down.
"No!" Kylo shouted. He turned and without hesitation cut his uncle down. He gasped in horror as he did it.
"Han!" Luke screamed, "Ben, how could you?!"
Chewy roared with such intensity it echoed throughout the entire building, practically shaking it at its core. He leveled his weapon and shot it at Ben.
Ben screamed as he was hit in the hip. He fell hard and held his left hip in pain.
Luke ran up to both of them and examined Han carefully. It was over for him, he was gone. Luke used the force to drag him and commanded, "Ben, we're leaving!"
"No!" he said, defiantly, "I'm not going anywhere with you!"
"The old emperor isn't going to give you anything you want," Luke insisted, "he's only using you like he used your grandfather!"
Chewbacca came down and lifted Han up easy over his shoulder as if he weighed nothing. He roared at Ben. Luke understood, Chewy wanted to leave him behind and get out of there. The First Order troops were assembling outside, Luke could feel it. It would only be a matter of time before they were overrun.
"Ben, this isn't over!" Luke said as he ran out the door.
Palpatine added, "Your father is right Kylo, we've only just begun."
Ben looked down at his hands and exclaimed in shock, "I actually did it. I actually took a life!" What this what his grandpa felt all those years ago when he turned to the dark side? He couldn't ask now.
On Naboo, while Leia was speaking with the senate as usual, she suddenly stopped as she felt her world collapse. The force told her Han was gone.
"Are you alright, Senator?" her assistent asked.
"I'll never be alright again," she said sadly.
At the temple, the energy through the force shifted there as well. Mara showed the jedi students another way to swing a lightsaber when she suddenly stopped.
Jaina said, "I don't feel so good."
"What was that?" Anakin asked, "It's so cold all of a sudden."
Annika asked, "Did someone get hurt, Mom?"
Mara didn't know what to tell them. The only thing she could mutter was, "On no, not Han."
On Zygerria, Lando didn't understand what had gone wrong. All he knew was watching the First Order soldiers prepare for a fight so close wasn't what he wanted to witness.
Rey returned first, with a strange man he had never seen before.
"Who are you?" Lando demanded, blaster ready, "Rey, what are you doing here?"
"I snuck onto the ship before you left Naboo," she explained, "but he claims to be Anakin, and he kind of feels like he is."
Anakin still couldn't properly breathe. It was like his lungs didn't want to inflat. "I'm Anakin!" he insisted, "We have to leave." He felt Han die. He knew it was over for him and merely hoped Luke and Chewbacca were well on their way back.
"Take off!" they heard in the distance, "Go!" Luke yelled at them.
Together, the group of them managed to get off of Zygerria quickly enough that the First Order didn't shoot them down. Luke couldn't believe his eyes on board in the medical bay. His father was alive, 30-years-old, and had a breathing mask over his face. Han was dead. Chewy was devastated, and both Lando and Rey were confused as to what went wrong.