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Chapter Text

Past Timeline – Location Unknown

’Are you sure?’ The deep voice asked one final time. ’There will be no going back once this is done.’

"I knew someone who did." Luke cannot stop himself from replying, turning slightly to keep the other in his vision. It was possible to turn back from this road.

He had seen it happen.

’And how is he now?’ The voice inquired mercilessly. ’The dark side of the force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be… unnatural.’ The figure stopped its pace and tilted it head slightly. Luke could not see its eyes under the heavy hood, but he felt the gaze on his skin as an uncomfortable cold sensation. ’But there is no going back once you start.’

The figure reached out a hand dipped in shadows. Like fog, darkness collected around it and trailed all the way down to the dusty stone floor in a curtain of the darkest black.

’Do we have a bargain?’ The voice finally asked, as the fingers on its out held hand stretched eagerly towards him. Shadows curled around it in a way that reminded him of the last smoke from a burned out fire. Smoke around something that was almost gone.

His heart skipped a beat, and his mouth suddenly felt dry. He did not want to do this… but what choice did he have?

This was the only pathway left. His last remaining choice.

He had to do this, but still he could not bring the words over his lips.

He felt a gentle tug, a pull back to the open door behind him. He wanted nothing more than to obey it. Despite the fact that he knew it would be selfish, and the fact that he knew there was nothing up there he could return to.

This was the only way, and the last chance he would get to set things right. In comparison, the price was…

Fair

He took one last shaking breath that unwillingly made his heart skip a beat, and held out his hand.

’Remember, Jedi. The voice cautioned mockingly, as its owner's cold fingers closed around Luke's wrist. ’If you tell anyone who you really are, I end this little game, and the price remains the same.’

***

Timeline the Galactic Republic era  - Location Invisible Hand

It did not feel like falling back into something that once was. It was nothing as comfortable as that. It felt like stone fingers closing around him and dragging him through a storm of knives. Wind that was not wind ripped against him, and blades of ice dug into his skin.

He was pulled down, not back, and the darkness became deeper and deeper.

It was hard to breathe.

Then it felt like he was thrown. The ground rushed up against him, he heard something crack, a scream, and then everything stilled. The hands were gone, and the wind died.

’Remember the rules’. A disembodied voice warned at the back of his mind. ’You only have one chance.’

Then he opened his eyes.

The first thing he noticed, aside from the stinging smell of burned metal, was another stench; almost like it, that he would recognize anywhere. Blaster fire. The hum of his lightsabre registered a second later, activated on instinct.

The green glow lightened the dark hall he found himself in.

He frowned, and lowered the green beam looking beyond it to the sea of droid parts that laid scattered all over the floor. He had come late to the party it seemed, wherever this place was. He narrowed his eyes over the green blade with an uncomfortable twist in his chest.

He was here.

It had worked.

The lightsaber was brought low to light the nearest parts of mechanics he had only ever heard about in history books, or found in ruins on his many travels.

Almost nothing of this ancient technology had survived to his own time. Even ripped apart before him, he could recognize the design. These were battle droids dating back to the clone wars. Only they all looked new, or had been moments before.

He lifted the saber over his head, casting light upon the ceiling and the many wires above. The engines hummed gently beneath his feet, and little light-bulbs of green and red blinked back to him from the dark above.

He was on a ship, he realized.

Then the ground moved, a rumble echoed all around him. Everything tilted, the parts slid past him on the floor, ramming into the wall in a deadening metallic chorus.

An explosion.

The battle was still ongoing.

He threw a look back into the dark, the meagre light from his saber revealed only a blank and empty room as far as his eyes could see. He turned ahead, to the path littered with broken battle droids and walls blackened with blaster bolts… and burned carved scars that looked like it had been made with something...

Something that could literally cut a path through steel. His eyes widened, then fell on his lightsaber.

Of course.

He took off into the dark, and left the hallway empty. He had to hurry.

There was so little time.

Chapter Text

’Are you sure you know what you are asking?’ The figure leaned almost casually back against the stone monument, its edges looking sharp as a knife's edge. ’This has never been done before.’

"If you can't do it." Luke snapped, sending the dark figure a glare. "Say so and stop wasting my time."

He knew the agony from what was left of his right hand was making him short tempered but it was difficult, so difficult, to stay composed.

The assault of feelings that the figure projected were overwhelming.

The anger, the fear and the hate.

It felt…

Cold.

’Oh! Such anger from a Jedi!’ A laugh rumbled from the figure. The smile under those yellow eyes was entirely too wide and showed many teeth. ’I did not say I wouldn't do it, but this is a dangerous game.’

The figure pushed away from the monument and closed the distance between them.
The cold that had felt like a distant chill, became colder and colder as the figure closed in.

Just like last time he faced a Sith.

When-

Luke grimaced as the memory returned full force. The memory of the sounds, the horrible smell, the pain, the dark and the terror when she-

No!

Don't think about that now!

’What we are about to do.’ The figure suddenly explained as it leaned in far too close for comfort. Close enough to make Luke's skin crawl. 'Is the darkest side of the Force. If it is not done exactly right, it means the void for the both of us.’ The dark figure narrowed its eyes.

’I would not even consider it, if not for the prize you are offering.’ The figure opened and closed its hands while the silence fell back around them in the enclosed space that had not heard a living voice in an age. ’There are many rules to this and many things that can go wrong.’ Then as if compelled by an afterthought, it added.

’I will survive. At any cost. Will you?’

***

The hall had become completely empty, if not for a few droids in bigger or smaller pieces that were scattered all over the floor. Luke walked faster and faster, but the hall seemed endless.

His hurried footsteps echoed against the walls in the oppressive lifeless darkness. Nothing living had crossed his path yet, not a droid or a humanoid of any shape.

He was alone in the dark

'Maybe this is not the past', a treacherous part of his mind added unhelpfully to his unease. 'Maybe this is just some empty underworld. Maybe this is not real.'

Then mercifully, there was an opening in the wall. It revealed another path, a walkway that cut across the one he was in. He walked closer and came to a full stop in front of the wide opening. It resembled a tunnel, the celling was lower, but the light was much brighter than the hall he had woken up in.

The lamps ran in pairs in the ceiling over a floor that was for every third step replaced by a see-through iron grating. He was careful not to get caught in the glow that came up through them when he threw a look back down, but he saw nothing moving beneath.

Still… his cloak dragged after him on the floor as he stepped around the grating, and walked closer to the wall where the grating did not reach.

He wouldn't risk something suddenly coming at him from below.

Then he heard it.

His head snapped up, eyes staring down the pathway. Violent sharp sounds rumbled in the enclosed
space, appearing out of nothing. The sounds of shots fired, and it was very close.

He took off as fast as his feet could carry him. The lights rushed past him. Relief and anxiety warred within him when he sent his force focus ahead, and zeroed in on a blinding force presence up ahead.
It was familiar, but still so very different.

Old Ben.

Only, he didn't feel old, Luke realized without slowing the pace. He had remembered Ben as a bright presence of light and comfort… but it was nothing compared to the strength of the presence he was closing in on.

Ben's signature was nothing next to this younger version of him. Ben had been more broken by what had happened than Luke had ever realized back home in his own time.

Luke's brow furrowed in determination. That future would not come to happen.

Not if his scheme succeeded.

It was only when he saw the flashing of blue, that he felt the other presence. A presence he did not recognize at all, because it had been destroyed around the time he had been born, but Luke knew who it belonged to.

Anakin Skywalker

A man Luke had never met.

Not really.

But he was the man Luke had come this far to save.

Chapter Text

The stones didn't seem to be really stained by the blood, Luke noted almost absentmindedly. The colour suited the ancient stones a little too much, like the floor had been made to mimic this exact shade of red. He narrowed his eyes at it, needing the distraction from the cold around his wrist and the knife.

He resisted clenching his fingers at the sticky feeling of warm liquid slipping between them.

'It had already feasted.' The figure explained calmly and cut again. 'That before was just a formality. A precaution.' The hand around Luke's wrist pulled him closer. Compared to those unnaturally cold fingers, the knife's edge felt warm. 'We start on the cloak now and this will be the hardest, no one has ever tried taking a Jedi back through the ages before.'

"I thought you said no one had ever tried doing this before at all." Luke said, and hissed at the pain when the knife's edge bit him again.

'You are putting words in my mouth. I did not say no one else had tried, because many have tried before. I said no one had done it. Succeeded' It looked up briefly from its grim work. 'But it is true that no one has ever tried with a Jedi. This is heresy what we are about to do, according to your order.' It lowered the hand and cut once more, deeper but slower, and with greater care.

"Why should it complicate matters that I am a Jedi?" Luke asked, equally disgusted and shocked by the precision of those lines. He did not want to know how long it took to get such skill in such a grim craft, or how many people that knife had tasted. "This ritual is designed to take a force user back. What I am should change nothing."

'Yes and no. There is nothing preventing a Jedi from going back, but it does complicate matters.' The figure paused in thought and continued after a breath. 'The issue is that only a Sith can perform the ritual, and sustain It.' The figure stroked Luke's shaking wrist gently in mock comfort. It made Luke feel sick. 'And there is only so long that the dark side can directly power someone, without them… turning.'

Luke did not imagine the eager smile that ghosted the figure's lips.

"I am stronger than you think." Luke said with a conviction he had not felt for the longest time, and grimaced when the pain returned.

'Not that I am one to advocate for the light side, but I do hope so.' The figure said in a voice so calm it was eerie, considering what its hands were doing. 'Because if your signature changes too much, I will no longer be able to hold on to it, and we both know what happens then.'

Luke nodded even if he did not really understand the concept the figure kept repeating. The void. It just sounded like another way to die. Not that he was not afraid of death, but there were worse things than dying.

'This ritual can only take one back within their own existence.' The figure continued. 'And only if they are covered by another's force signature the entire time from this time-line. In this case, mine.'

The cold fingers around Luke's wrist tightened to point where it for a moment became more painful than the knife digging back into his flesh. 'My force presence will cover yours and hide it. Everyone you meet will not sense your presence at all, they will only feel mine.'

The smile widened again under those yellow eyes. 'And I am no Jedi.' It paused, letting the words sink in.

"…You are telling me." Luke said slowly with his face carefully blank, but his heart beating faster and faster in horror. "That when I go back I will look like-"

'A Sith. Yes.'

***

The flashing of blue against the assault of blaster fire was gone from one moment to the other when the steel doors slammed shut. Luke's heart missed a beat when muted sounds of combat sounded from the inside.

The droids on this side, the big, unfamiliar and hulking things continued shooting a moment longer, as if they had no registered that the targets were out of reach for now.

It was frustratingly confusing trying to make out what had happened on the other side of the door in all that noise, but the two bright spots in the force remained, as far as he could sense, safe and unharmed. The sounds on the other side of the doors stopped, he noted with relief.

Finally, the droids stopped firing at the exact same second, as if compelled by some unspoken command. Still as statues, their aim remained on the door that had been scorched black and dented brutally under the heavy assault.

Somehow the complete silence that descended now was even more deafening.

Luke pressed close up against the wall, shielding his borrowed force presence in case they could somehow feel him. It was unlikely, but he was not about to take anymore stupid chances based only on his instincts. They had been a very poor guide so far.

The lightsaber was at the ready, the green blade was sheathed, but waiting eagerly for the command. It was an eagerness for battle he had never felt before, and words the Sith had told him echoed as a grim reminder in his mind.

'There is only so long, that the dark side can directly power someone, without them… turning.'

An old terror seized his heart, accompanied by the image of a tall dark figure with a sinister flash of red, and he forced himself to put the lightsaber away.

No!

He would not turn

He closed his hands, pressed his fingers hard into his palm to give him another focus as he battled against the cold sensation that was suddenly everywhere. It felt like frost spreading out from his chest. It was a stinging pressing sensation that made it hard to breathe.

It was not supposed to be happening this fast.

He was supposed to have more time than this!

He willed the feeling away. "There is no emotion, there is the Force." He whispered, and slowly, ever so slowly, the coldness bled away.

For now.

The clicking of metal against metal ripped Luke out of his panicked thought. The clicking signalled the droids departure a second before they moved… The same way R2 hummed slightly just before he sped off to somewhere, Luke remembered with a painful ache in his heart.

However, that was the only comparison between the two.

The way these things moved, reminded him of insects. Giant and dangerous insects. Until they snapped closed, transformed into a round shape and sped down the corridor. They practically flew past him close enough had he reached out his hand he could have brushed their hard shells with his fingertips.

The gust of wind in their wake was strong enough to blow a few errant strands of hair away from his face, but he barely noticed.

He followed the three shapes with his eyes all the way down the pathway with his hand hovering over the lightsaber, until the droids finally reached the end, turned the corner and disappeared from his line of sight. Then he turned his attention to the door.

...or what was left of it.

Even parts of the floor had been scorched black by the heat of the lasers. His footprints stood out disturbingly clear as he made his way to the gate his father and Ben had disappeared behind. He knew the hallway was empty, but the clear evidence that Luke had been here made him throw a look over his shoulder. The comforting light suddenly felt too revealing.

Like something was watching him.

Ignoring the prickle at the back of his neck, he kneeled down to the terminal at the side. Hacking it was so easy he for a second wondered if he had messed it up. Nothing had been this easy in the longest time. He had gotten used to everything being insanely hard.

Remember you are from another time. He calmed himself. This might be the best of the best technology right now, but you have gotten used to the ones back home. A lot of technological advancement can happen in twenty years.

The nothingness that met his eyes after the doors slid open was therefore strangely soothing. Difficulty, irritating as it was, also had a calming effect on him if only because it was familiar by now. Ripped out of his own time like this, right now he needed familiar.

The doors had revealed not a nothingness, but an elevator shaft he realized looking into the hollow space.

He leaned in just enough to look down into the open blackness beneath. The hole went further than his eyes could track in the darkness down there. Looking up, the same darkness looked back, but beyond, through the force, he could feel the two Jedi… and another colder one he did not recognize.

Then one of the two bright points in the force was snuffed out, and Luke's heart just about stopped. There was a roaring flash of anger through the force, and not from the cold presence, but from the presence belonging to his father.

This must be the moment, where it all started. When his father had started down the path to the dark side.

This could not happen again!

The elevator beside the empty one yielded even faster than the first one. The doors had barely begun to open before he was inside, pressing the buttons that would take him up to his father. He mentally urged the elevator to move faster, but otherwise his entire focus was on the battle he could sense through the Force. A battle that got more and more violent.

The coldness was almost overwhelming and felt like needles down his lungs even from this distance.

Was he already too late?

When the elevator finally came up to the right level, Luke's patience was at an end. The doors did not move fast enough, so he helped them. The doors crashed up against the walls and Luke flung himself out of the massive hole he ripped through the metal doors. The green lightsaber flashed into existence before his feet hit the ground.

He did not even know where he had ended up on this enormous battleship. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw other elevators to the side, but forgot them as he came into the biggest room he had seen so far in this place.

A gigantic window encompassed the complete far side of the room, giving full view of the battle fought outside and the rest of the room was covered with a grey almost black metal. Before the middle window was a pair of enormous red lamps that resembled trees slightly. Between them rested a large chair with a person was bound to it.

Just in front of it was a sight that made him come to a full stop.

It was his father, holding two lightsaber's to someone's neck. One of them was a friendly blue but the other was the terrifying recognizable red of a Sith. The man kneeling at his feet sat frozen, with what was left of his hands in his lap.

Only the man didn't have hands any more.

Luke's mouth went dry and felt an uncomfortable pain at his right hand, or rather, where it used to be.

This was where it had started.

This was where Anakin's slide into the dark side had truly began.

Luke felt the coldness in his father intensify as it grew stronger with every second. His father's arms tensed, readying for the kill. Anakin was going to do it, Luke realized and his stomach clenched.

Then he moved.

So intent on the kill, Anakin Skywalker did not feel the newcomer rush towards him until the very last second. A flash of surprise echoed in the force so strong it almost made Luke stagger. The blue lightsaber was thrown up in the fastest block that Luke had ever seen.

Luke's ambush would have been stopped, faster than it began

If Anakin had been the target.

The unnamed Sith hit the floor in a boneless heap. The green saber hovered above the man it had just killed. Anakin took a cautious step back, the blue lightsaber lifted between them.

Luke moved his Lightsaber into a controlled fighting pose and tightened his hold around the lightsaber so much his knuckles turned white. He forced himself to look past Anakin and too keep focus on the real target. The man in the chair that suddenly did not look so confident any more.

Darth Sidious.

One down, he thought and shifted the weight of his feet.

One to go.

 ***

To be continued

Chapter Text

"The mark  will  change you." The voice said as the shadows grew deeper. "And not in a way you will like." The figure repeated. "It would be easier for the both of us if you just let me-"

"You think I am that naïve?" Luke snapped. "I will not trust you with that."

"I'll behave, Jedi." The voice reassured calmly, but there was a nasty edge in its eyes. It looked hungry. Eager. "Without it, I am afraid this will hurt. A lot."

"I am not a stranger to pain." Luke said with as much anger as he could afford to feel. The dark memory from that day tried to return to the forefront of his mind, and Luke let it. He needed to remember why he shouldn't feel. "But… not as obsessed with it as you are."

He noticed with a spark of satisfaction that the figure's shoulders tensed and the hands occupied with cleaning the knife suddenly paused.

"I was just stating fact." Luke said to the glare beneath the hood.

"Pain is important" The anger collected around the voice, but it was muted, like a visible scar that was already a whitened line against the skin. "It is the centre of all things. It makes you aware. Makes you focus." The figure frowned at the Jedi, finally adding with ill-disguised disgust. "Jedi are not accustomed to it. Their distance to all emotion makes them incapable of handling it for long."

"I told you before." Luke says with grim recollection. "I am not a Jedi." if he had been, then things would have gone so very different. If he had been a true Jedi, he would never have needed to step into this dark place, and he would never have had to face the monster in front of him.

"Oh but you are." It disagreed. "More so than any other Jedi I ever met." It tilted its head inquisitively. "There is no emotion there is the Force." It recited as if it was reading the words aloud from a book. "That senseless dogma the Jedi always preached. You are the embodiment of those words." It stepped around him, forcing Luke to move to keep it within his vision.

"I can sense all living things. A gift, if you will, from the dark side." It explained casually, coming to a stop beside the dead creature lying on the ground. The eyeless serpent that Luke had killed coming in here "A little experiment of mine." The figure picked the creature up "The recreation of something magnificent."

Then Luke realized the creature was not dead yet. It arched up weakly at the touch and tried to press closer. The pathetic mew that came from it caused a painful clench at his heart before he forced it away. The thing had attacked him first, but it was hard to remember as it whimpered when the cold fingers holding it stroked it gently.

"I feel more from a life as little as this one than I do from you." The figure explained looking up from the creature in its hands. "I feel nothing at all from you. It feels similar to a wound in the force, simply more contained." it looked down the creature nuzzling into his hands. "It is fascinating."

Then the figure suddenly moved fast, turned and flung the creature into the dark. Luke heard it hit the ground, and whimper in the dark out of sight.

Seconds later, that darkness came alive with shrieks of terror.

Without realizing it, Luke had reached an arm out to catch the creature. He only barely registered it before cold fingers curled around his arm and turned him away.

"Oh I am not upset about you killing it." The figure said pulling Luke with it by the upper-arm. "It was a crooked little thing, so loyal and needy for affection. It was too weak to last." It brushed its fingers in its cloak as the shrieks became more frantic and growls rose like an unnatural rumble. "It's brothers and sister would have devoured it eventually anyway."

Luke swallowed, clenched the hands tight into fists at his side and struggled not to let the monster beside him see. He felt like throwing up. It took all his willpower not to wrench himself free of the figure's oppressing hand on his arm, and just run.

But he couldn't do that.

He had to do this

He  had  to

The macabre chorus faded behind them as they walked through the dark. The air felt colder, the longer they walked. When they finally came to a stop, he could still hear what was happening behind them. He had to struggle not to look back.

The figure took a heavy breath in, stood for a moment like it was relishing in the atmosphere of this place, and perhaps it was. Luke had never felt the dark side so keenly anchored to a place. There was little light, so there wasn't much to see, but he had never been so cold before.

The monument to the side was just within his vision and he instantly wished it wasn't when he saw the gruesome depiction. Then the figures hand landed on his shoulder as the other gestured in front of them. Luke could not see it from here, but he knew what was hiding in the dark.

He had known from the very beginning.

He shouldn't feel fear now.

Behind him, the shrieks suddenly snapped off. Stopped. The echoes lasted longer, thrown back against the walls fainter and fainter until it faded to nothing. Luke looked back, he couldn't help it, the ripping and tearing in the darkness behind him sounded louder now that the shrieks were gone.

"The weak will always be victims. That is the way of the universe." The figure said with little emotion. "The strong take what they want and the weak suffer at their hands."

Its yellow eyes looked down at Luke with an eagerness that made his skin crawl. "It is inevitable."

Anakin's eyes flickered from Luke to the dead Sith at his feet. His brow furrowed. The familiar blue lightsaber remained in guard position and the eyes above it narrowed. The red blade in his other hand brought back memories Luke didn't want to think about now.

It was difficult for Luke not be overwhelmed at that sight. He had only ever know his father as a man more machine than human. He had of course known that Anakin had not always looked like that, but knowing was different than staring the proof right in the face.

A heaviness fell on him. It was like watching an old dream come to life. It was almost too much to bear. The man in front of him looked nothing like Vader, didn't move like him either. Vader had had a heavy walk as if every step was a struggle, but the man in front of Luke now moved with ease and the steps were light.

Ben had been right from the beginning. Vader and Anakin were two very different people, and one of them had been dead for years.

But still…

Luke could not stop the longing that always hid in the darker corners of his mind from curling around his heart. He locked his eyes on the person that he had never gotten to know. The connection to the force unfurled slowly, driven by that old ache.

For one golden moment, he saw a strong bright light through the force.

Then agony exploded in his mind.

He twisted back from at the vicious attack that came flooding through the connection. Pain was everywhere within and without all at once. It was worst in his hands. It felt like he had shoved them into boiling water and under the scars there was… something alive twisting and turning under his skin.

He ripped away from the assault and slammed connection violently shut. His hands shook uncontrollably, the breath escaped past his lips in pants and his muscle ached to the point where it bordered on pain.

What just happened?! Was the only thought that registered through the shock. He had never experienced pain like that, not even when-

"Who are you?"

Luke snapped back into focus. He shoved the shock away forcefully and tightened his hands around the saber to make them stop shaking.

Anakin had leaned back on his heels, the lightsaber falling slightly from the guarded pose, as he looked Luke up and down. Measuring the threat. There was somehow a practised ease to how he did it. Like running into random force users was an everyday affair to him.

Maybe it was in this age.

Luke took a deep breath, steeling himself. 'Concentrate'. He told himself. 'You can end this right now.' His cloak dragged on the steel floor, making a soft sound behind the gentle hum of the lightsaber as Luke stepped to the side. Anakin sensing the change in the atmosphere leaned forward again into his stance. Both lightsaber's one red and one blue lifted into position.

There was a laziness to it though. It somehow appeared sloppy.

Unfocused.

Luke shifted the weight of his feet thoughtfully. 'He is underestimating me', Luke realized. To be continuously underestimated was a gift in situations like this, but a gift that after countless repetition had become ... irritating.

Looks could be deceiving, as his father would learn.

Luke tensed his shoulders, getting ready. He had always been lacking in physical power partially due to

his height, or rather lack thereof.

He made up for that in speed.

He saw Anakin's eyes widen in surprise, their eyes locked for a second when Luke's green blade rushed at him. Anakin ripped his blades up and blocked at the last second. Luke threw a force blast forward propelling him back out of reach of Anakin's counter attack.

Luke flew several feet back, he saw the room fly past his vision but his feet had barely touched back down on the ground before Anakin had caught up. The strike was so fast Luke only saw it as a blur. The second blow from the red blade Luke would not have seen at all if not for his connection to the force.

He blocked and sidestepped the blow going in for the attack again, keeping up the pressure. The force powered his steps, making him unnaturally fast as he flung around the blue blade coming back. To Anakin it must have looked like Luke simply disappeared, only to reappear behind him.

Anakin threw himself flat to avoid the blade going for his back. He stumbled forward. Luke collected both hands in front of him and threw a force push after his stumbling opponent. He didn't stay long enough to see if he hit his target. Luke turned on the heel and bolted in the other direction, towards his last target.

Towards the monster who had destroyed everything

He saw the glint of yellow in Sidious' eyes, and the sight of purple force lightning coming to life at his fingertips was agonizingly familiar. So was the smell of it.

But this time would be different.

He allowed himself to enjoy the fear that lighted up in the Sith's eyes. Sidious wouldn't be able to call on the lightning in time. By the look of his face, he knew that too.

The blade rushed down.

A shadow moved between them. The stroke for the vulnerable neck was cut short by a blue saber that moved in between them so fast it seemed as though it had appeared out of thin air. The block that met his was so fierce that he stumbled back.

Anakin followed.

This time he wasn't pulling any punches.

It was the single most intimidating duel since Bespin. The blue lightsaber danced around Luke, nicking him when he only barely managed to block in time. The red blade followed like a shadow, forcing Luke on the defensive.

There was no counter-attack that could get past those furiously moving blades, blocking alone was near impossible. Ben had said that Anakin Skywalker had been the best duelist he ever knew, but... reflexes like this were inhuman!

I should have gone for Sidious first.

Horror settled in his heart, when a block came too slow. The red blade rushed for the opening, straight for the heart but stopped at the very last moment when it suddenly couldn't push any further. An invisible force was locking it in place.

The force extended from Luke's lifted hand prevented it from getting any closer.

Luke grit his teeth and pushed back harder, but Anakin wasn't giving an inch. Luke could see the strain caused Anakin's tense arms to shake slightly from keeping up the pressure against that invisible force blocking his path.

But as impossible as it was for Luke to push him back, it was just as impossible for Anakin to break through. Luke curled his fingers slowly, feeling the force close tighter around the blade, but his eyes were on the second blade that was still very much a threat.

But the second strike didn't come. After a moment that seemed to last forever Anakin took a half step back. The blades made a circular motion in Anakin's hands and moved back into the now recognizable stance without removing his attention from Luke. There was a newfound seriousness in his eyes.

Luke had just become a threat.

Luke moved back to, to get his bearings. He swallowed thickly, his heart felt like it had evacuated to somewhere halfway up his throat. He almost died there. If not for that little trick, Yoda taught him so long ago, his father would have killed him.

Anakin knew that too, by the look in his eyes and Luke doubted he would fall for the same trick again.

Then without warning, the blades rushed forward again and Luke struggled to keep up.

This was nowhere near the skill his father had shown when he fought him the first time back on Bespin a lifetime ago. It was the same attack pattern, but this Anakin had not been broken by age or restricted by injuries that forced him to live all his days only through a life-support system.

He was not dueling Vader, Luke thought as he sidestepped a swing that would have taken his arm. He should have realized that already from the precision and speed Anakin had shown in that first block when he thought Luke's blade was going for him.

The only reason Luke was keeping up was because he had fought his father before, knew his movements, his attacks, knew when to block and fall back.

But it wasn't enough.

Anakin looked nowhere near winded, but Luke was struggling to keep up. He threw himself back and barely avoided an impossibly fast strike aimed at his hand.

If it had not been replaced with an artificial hand years ago, he was sure he would have felt the heat of

the blade on his skin. With sickening dread, he realized the truth.

He could not win like this.

The blue and green clashed again in another last minute block. Then there was flash of red at the edge of his vision rushing for his neck. Luke knew he could not stop it this time, he could already feel the burn of the blade against his throat. He flinched expecting the pain.

And nothing.

The red blade had stopped just short of Luke's unprotected neck.

Anakin met his eyes. "Drop it."

Luke hesitated instinctively. He did not want to be defenceless, not in front of this man. He took deep breath in. Clenched his hand at the phantom pain at his wrist.

"I said drop it!" Anakin stepped closer, and blade pulled a little nearer, close enough Luke could feel the heat of it as a painful sting "Now!"

There was a soft metallic sound as the green lightsaber snuffed out in his hand.

Luke reluctantly uncurled his fingers and with a hollow metallic sound the handle of the deactivated lightsaber hit the floor.

Chapter Text

"When you get there, do not go sightseeing." The voice explained slowly as if to a dim-witted child. "Your time is extremely limited."

Luke nodded, but nausea rose in his throat. This was it. There was no going back now.

"How long can you hold it?" he asked instead of acknowledging the fear.

"I already told you." The voice said and sighed deeply, but because it was pressed through clenched teeth it sounds more like a hiss. "That depends on you." There was a slight pause, a hesitation as brief as a blink of the eye. "I cannot promise that it will be right beside him, but you will land close to him. I advise you to end it as fast as you can." It finished and lifted the hand.

The gleam of the knife was too much.

"Wait!" He snapped a hand out and locked around the wrist. "How do I know when time is running out?" His heart thundered like he had just run a mile, and skipping every second beat as if it was threatening to give out.

The yellow eyes above him were disturbingly calm.

"Oh, you will know." The voice said with a hint of grim humour. "What Vader did to you..." The figure tapped lightly at the robotic hand before it peeled Luke's fingers off its wrist one by one. "What  that  felt like, is  nothing  compared to what  will  happen when the connection starts to break."

The figure peeled off the last finger, and lay the robotic hand down beside Luke as if nothing had happened but there was a warning tightening of the fingers around Luke's wrist before the figure pulled back.

"You and he are the same." Luke said to delay for just a few more precious moments, and just enough time to strangle the fear. "Why are you doing this? Helping me?"

The seconds moved past in the unbroken silence for so long that Luke started to think that he was not going to get an answer. The presence then moved slowly back narrowing its yellow eyes at him from above the knife.

"He and I are nothing alike." It finally said. "And I am not helping you." The deep voice rumbled softly. "I am helping me."

When the lightsaber's metal handle hit the floor, the metallic sound carried mercilessly far into the empty room. It shouldn't have sounded that loud was the first thought that registered in Luke's mind. Somehow it sounded like a door slamming shut behind him.

In a way it was.

Anakin's hand lazily reached out and dread clawed at Luke's heart, when his lightsaber seemingly by its own will jumped into Anakin open hand. Suddenly all he could hear was that mocking voice inside his head.

'Your time is extremely limited'

The scars on his arms already burned stronger now in a silent warning. He swallowed thickly, and tried not to look at it, when Anakin clipped his lightsaber to the belt along with the one he took from the dead Sith. The blue saber remained activated in Anakin hands, and kept Luke very still.

The phantom pain in his wrist increased, but he dared not move. He knew from experience not to antagonize his father.

How much time did he even have left?

"That's better." Anakin remarked dryly and Luke wanted nothing more than to punch that mocking smile off his face. Anakin must have seen his frustration, because he quirked an eyebrow and the smile widened.

Anakin took a more relaxed stance, and slowly lowered his guard. As a small mercy Anakin moved the blade back so the heat of it no longer stung the soft skin of Luke's bare throat. But the deadly blade was still humming softly too close from comfort. He eyed the lightsaber at Anakin's belt. He had to get that back.

But how?

"Who are you?" Anakin asked from the other side of the gentle blue light, looking at Luke with the same contempt Leia had reserve solely for Han when they first met. Anakin looked him up and down, with a bored expression.

Luke had the uncomfortable feeling of being judged and found wanting. It wasn't exactly flattering, and to his surprise he could feel his cheeks redden in embarrassment.

"Isn't it customary to introduce yourself first?" He bit back, doing his best to pretend that there wasn't a lightsaber inches from his throat. Through the force he felt Anakin's signature increase and reach carefully for Luke torn shell of a force presence.

The attempt was muted through the 'cloak' that hid his real force signature. The touch was light and cautious, as though Anakin thought if he was careful Luke wouldn't notice the intrusion, but he did. Luke tried not to react to it, but for some reason it called forth the image of cold deadened skin and yellowed teeth.

"You don't know who I am?" Anakin asked almost as if they had met in a more peaceful setting, as Luke felt his presence pull back again, and with it the slight taint discolouring the edges of his father's bright force presence. Because the taint of the dark side was already there, suppressed, but there.

Was it already too late? Or had a part of Vader always been in there somewhere like a dormant nightmare just waiting for the right moment to come out. Luke's heart sank, and there was an aching disappointment to it.

He recognized the same feeling he had gotten on Bespin.

It tasted like defeat.

Vader...Anakin how much were they really the same person? Through all this he had somehow convinced himself that Vader and Anakin were two very different people, but this disturbing switch from one personality to another made him doubt. It was disturbing how complete the shift had been from the murderous rage to the calm appearance of a Jedi knight.

The change had been so instantaneous and so smooth that it seemed practiced. As if he had done it before.

"Anakin Skywalker." The Jedi in front of him introduced, taking Luke's silence for ignorance. "I am surprised you don't know me. I am also called the her-

"Hero without fear." Luke finished for him, with another stinging twist in his chest and added before he could stop himself. "You were supposed to be different."

So very different.

"What? Taller?" The smirk was back, accompanied with a cocky attitude that didn't fit at all with what Luke had imagined his father to be before the fall. Luke turned his head to the crumbled body not so far away from them. The nameless Sith that was missing more limbs than were still attached. Anakin frowned and followed his eyes.

"…Dooku?" He said sounding halfway insulted. "You killed him."

"When I kill someone, I don't mutilate them first." Luke replied just above a whisper, feeling more disappointed than he thought he could still feel. His robotic right hand throbbed and he stretched and curled his fingers as a self-reassurance. Apparently the limb-cutting part of his father's personality had been there before Vader.

He wasn't sure what he felt about that.

"Trust me, he had it coming." Anakin said with a ghost of the anger from before and his eyes darkened. "And as for you. Tell me why I shouldn't kill you?" He continued, and the anger staining his force presence with a cold touch grew stronger. "You tried to assassinate the chancellor."

"I thought the Jedi didn't believe in killing their enemies." Luke recited from a text he had read somewhere in the chaos after Bespin. Aside from that sentence the text had been a useless thing. It had been all about ethics with nothing close to resembling combat technique. It had been so void of conflict of any kind that it had been painful to read. "Or does that only count for you when Obi-Wan is looking?" he added.

"So you know him."

"He has a better reputation than you." Luke stared at the place where his old teacher had fallen. Kind, patient and loyal. He mused with a melancholy thought. He was everything you would want in a teacher and a friend…even if he was always a liar

"Liar?" Anakin for the first time looked startled and Luke's heart missed a beat when he understood to his horror that he had spoken the last words aloud. "Who are you?" The lightsaber came close again, too close.

Luke looked back into the waiting eyes of the man he had only ever wanted to save since he learned the truth. There was a painful clench at his heart when he looked into his father's eyes. The taint was already there to, in Anakin's, natural blue.

The yellow.

Vader's yellow.

"Vader." The word escaped Luke unwillingly. Was he already too late? How far could you go down the path of the dark side and still come back whole?

"…Your name is Vader?" Anakin asked.

Hearing that name, spoken by him… Something in Luke snapped.

The force rushed to Luke, and threw outwards. A violent storm erupted out of nothing, rushing to all sides at once. The ground gave and the power of the blast ripped through everything around him.

Anakin threw his saber up in a block. His arms strained under the enormous pressure, but against all odds he held on. Astonishment warred with the fury within Luke at the impossible sight. No one should have been able to block that, no one had ever done before!

But Anakin was not only blocking it, Luke saw his opponent shift his weight and the grip move to another angle. He was going in for the counter attack. Luke couldn't afford to let him. He stretched his connection further into the force to that barrier he never wanted to break.

His hand came up to support the other, feeling the power rising and rising to a breaking point, he met Anakin's eyes for a split second, and unleashed the power. In what happened next, Luke could only describe as what he imagined it must feel like to be the centre of an explosion.

Cracks as wide as his arms tore the floor apart and flung pieces of the bended metal into the air at breakneck speed. A great piece of metal ripped from the floor and thundered against the great glass wall. The ferocity of the storm pulled at him, making him stumble to the side to avoid falling.

He saw his father get slammed back violently by the sudden force, saw Anakin's eyes widen in surprise before the back and his head hammered into the wall with a sickening crack.

And everything was suddenly very still.

In the wreckage of the once pristine room, Luke fixed his eyes on the crumbled form, half expecting him to get up again. Sparks flew from the control station Anakin had rammed into, the small burning lights rained down on the still body. It remained still aside from his chest moving in shallow breathing.

Luke gasped in relief and exhaustion. His lungs were convinced he had just run a mile and air heaved in and out through Luke's clenched teeth. His muscles shook and his lungs burned. For a terrible moment the world blurred out of focus and it finally came back everything was spinning. A clammy hand found his forehead, he closed his eyes breathing in once, twice, and then he forced himself to move.

The first step was a stumble. 'Too much'. He thought, trying to make his steps steadier. He had used too much energy on the wrong target. Still the force was ready when he called it again, pushing his stumbling walk into a sprint.

With a horrible taste at the back of his throat Luke bolted past the fallen Anakin. His eyes fixed ahead and away. His hand swung to the side as he passed, he felt the familiar touch of the lightsaber as it flew back to him and settled in his palm. It was comforting in a way nothing else was these day, just as pleasant as the sound of it coming alive in his hands.

It almost made the sickening taste in his throat disappear and almost made him feel safe.

Almost.

The room blurred around him and his feet moved faster and faster. The lightsaber turned between his fingers, coming forward in his hands to stretch in front of him and leading the mad dash towards the monster that had destroyed everything.

Lightsaber leading, he attacked, but this time Sidious was ready. Both Anakin and Obi-wan were down and out. There was no one still aware that the hidden Sith had to put on a show on for.

Luke heard the cracking of lightning before the purple light stung his eyes. The cracking of the lightning bolted past where he had just been moment before. He kicked out, sending him back and out of its deadly path when another wave shot out scorching the floor black in seconds.

A pillar of lightning tore loose from the Sith's hands and Luke threw the saber left to block it. The

lightning rammed into the saber, the force of it threatened to rip it right out of his hands. It shook and twisted under the assault.

Then finally the roaring lightning died in Sidious hands, and the attack stopped.

"Who are you?" Sidious had risen from the chair. The bindings were gone, and he stared a Luke with all pretences gone. Lightning danced between his fingers, but he did not attack again. Luke didn't move, recognizing it for the wordless threat. "I know everyone in this little game." He said and narrowed his eyes at Luke and then to where Anakin had fallen. "And yet here I am in the dark."

The lightning around his fingers grew to cover his hand and twisted and turned around them like a poorly reined beast. His fingers curled and uncurled around it like the legs of a dying spider.

The question hung unanswered between them and Sidious expression darkened. Luke crooked his head at the man before him, using the break to judge the distance between them. That force lightning was a problem. It was not only impossibly fast but it had a nasty bite to match.

This was the situation he had hoped to avoid. Despite his best efforts there had been no knowledge of Sidious close combat abilities. There had not been a single eye-witness account to be found anywhere in his own time.

Not one.

He did not want to think too much about why that was.

Sidious brow furrowed and he took a step forward in the long robes. It was not ideal wear for close combat, but he did not look worried at all.

"You are going to tell me." He said with the conviction of a man used to getting his way with everything he put his mind to.

Maybe because he was used to it, Luke mused and followed the enemy with his eyes as he began circling him. Sidious had after all been ruling the republic for some time already. Sidious looked smaller than he remembered though, Luke thought to himself as he mimicked Sidious circling path.

The unusually cold air turned his breath white when he breathed out. Something must have broken on the ship, it was so cold now it felt like a thousand needles on his skin.

The Sith moved lightly over the dark metallic floor, seemingly unhindered by the cold, his age or the long thick robes draping all the way down to the ground. The arms held lazily down his side were empty. He had not gone for his lightsaber yet, assuming he had one on him.

Green spun in his vision as Luke moved into another stance. The saber hummed just in front of him. It was the first stance he was ever taught and also the one that he always returned to, it was after all the only technique he was sure he did right.

Sidious eyes widened for the fraction of a breath before his face once again was emotionless.

"Who is your master?" He asked, a split-second after there was a flash of purple and then everything happen very fast.

Sidious moved with insane speed and then it was already too late. The sting of the force lightning was as agonizing as it was familiar. Another bolt of lightning ripped through him. The pain was overwhelming and his muscled twisted so violently out of his control that it felt like they were ripping off his bones.

Something cold hit his cheek, he twisted uncontrollably, and everything burned. His hands open and closed, clawing against the cold thing before Luke recognized what it was through the pain. It was the floor, he realized. He had fallen and somewhere, someone was screaming.

But it was alright.

Luke had trained for this

The force rushed to him though the darkness that had closed in around him. Looking like small stings of pure light the force rushed to him, curled over him, under him and on both sides.

Then the pain was gone

When he opened his eyes, he saw the Sith through a blue blur. His heartbeat thundered in his chest so frantically that he could feel it all the way up his throat and he could hear nothing else but its furious drumming. He gaped, and to his shame he couldn't get up. Not right away.

The coldness of the floor and the air that felt colder than Hoth had that night so long ago. The force shield started to flicker as he gained his feet grasping his lightsaber as he pushed himself up. The barrier was already dying before he stumbled to his feet. The blue shield flickered around him, keeping up for a few more moments, and then the light died.

Sidious yellow eyes greeted him from the darkness on the other side.

"Impressive." Sidious curled his fingers lazily as another stream of lightning was called to his hands. "But I don't have time for this. You cannot be more than an apprentice. Who is your master?" He repeated and the lightning jumped from his hands.

In a flash it was too close, but this time Luke was prepared.

He pulled the force to him, feeling the rush of it as it fell on him like a wave collecting at his hands. The lightning shot towards his heart the purple light bathed everything in its flickering hue and the electric cracking.

It reached his out held hand terrible fast.

And stopped.

In his mind it felt like a warm light caught in his hand, but the pain of it was intense.

"I do not have a master." He said and tightened the grip around the lightning trapped in his hand. The rush of having so much power in his palm was indescribable after so many years of running. He lifted his shaking hand ignoring the lightning biting into every nerve and held out the ensnared Darkside

power in front of him aimed at Sidious. "I am not a slave." He said, enjoying the fear in those yellow eyes and let go.

Suddenly, in that same moment, the entire world tilted and the shot went wide.

Through the force there was a choir of screams, thousands of little light went out and there was a rumble so loud that even from this distance it blasted against his ears. His back slammed against the wall but he barely felt it, he jumped back up to his feet startled.

The entire room had turned almost all the way upside down.

"Chancellor!" Someone shouted from the other side of the room. "The glass!"

Luke turned just to see a battered Obi-Wan run to Sidious who once again looked the picture of innocence. Luke had already moved to intercept, when an ominous sound rose behind him. Obi-wan's words echoed in his mind when he threw a look back and saw what was happening.

The glass barrier that had given a view of the battle taking place just outside was littered with a spider web of cracks. A huge line carved the wall of glass almost in half. At its centre was a large piece of metal. It the very one that Luke's blast had ripped from the floor. A dry hard sound came from the glass wall, and it grew louder as transparent fragments rained down from it.

It was breaking apart.

And there was nothing but empty space on the other side.

Chapter Text

Yoda had told him not to go. Yoda had told him to stay because he could not help his friends, and he had listened.

"I'm sorry." He said to the body crumbled at his feet. His knees hit the ground as his legs gave under him. With a sob strangled tightly in his throat, he grasped for one of the hands that were so very cold.

"Force I am so sorry." His eyes burned, his breath hitched and everything was so quiet now. He rocked back and forth and clenched the hand harder. His breath chocked, his fingers searched to find a pulse he knew wasn't there and his hands just wouldn't stop shaking. "Please wake up."

He shouldn't have listened.

"Please Han."

Why had he listened?

"Please."

The howl of the void swallowing up what was not bolted to the floor into the next room was so loud it made the metal door protecting Luke from its wrath seem as fragile as paper.

The others had escaped through the elevator. He had seen Obi-wan carrying Anakin over his shoulder and shoving Sidious inside the elevator before the glass gave. Luke had had to go for another way. There was no chance he would have made it to the elevators in time. Luckily there had been another door.

His heartbeat still hadn't calmed down after the close call. A part of him could not blame it. Every second beat felt too heavy and too sharp. It felt like knives in his chest that kept cutting every time he breathed.

Still the failure stung worse.

He did not know where he had ended up on this labyrinth of a ship. He fumbled through the force looking for the signature, but there was nothing but darkness answering the call. The room in front of him was just as dark. The lightsaber's green glow did little to reveal what had been in here save for a desk and a bed in the corner of the room. In all It was of little interest and he had no plans of investigating further.

All that mattered was that bright presence through the force that suddenly broke the darkness again. Confusion and disorientation was the feelings projected from it, before it settled into determination.

So Anakin was conscious again.

Damn it.

The wall was cold under his touch when he pressed through the opening to the other room that had all but collapsed. The bright presence glimmered in front of him in the force as he kept moving through the dark. The coldness from before was gone, he noted somewhat absentmindedly. Maybe it had just been an error in the heating system in that particular room.

His eyes caught sparks outside one of the small windows he passed, it gave an incredible view of what was left inside the gigantic room gently floating into open space. His foot dragged on the carpet consisting of some grey material, and he froze for a moment mesmerized by the sight.

It was beautiful in its own way, that destruction, but he had to be more careful from now on. The confusion shouldn't have taken him off guard like that, but it had, and he was left to search the ships many tunnels for the lost target.

He ducked under another broken opening he suspected had not been there a few minutes before. His robotic hand crushed the metal body of the droid on the other side aided by the massive force pressure of his force choke. He didn't turn to look at it when he continued down the hall.

Aside from the unlucky droid the hall was silent. Anakin's force presence was a beacon through the force just a little further…and where Anakin was Sidious would be as well. He knew how single-minded the Sith had been just before the fall of the republic.

But the series of rooms behind him were unexpected; it was too...human for an only droid inhabited ship. He remembered all the little lights that had went out suddenly, silenced in the very moment the explosion had rocked the entire ship.

Perhaps that had been all the life there had been on this ship, because he could fell no more people through the force aside from a handful specks of light at the other end of the ship.

There had been more life in the Sith's tomb.

It was close now, Anakin's presence, though for some reason it had stopped moving. It was close to the other presence that Luke suspected was Obi-wan and a third one that felt more like a void than a being. The anger flared up again.

He had to kill him.

He had to make sure that the future he came from did not happen.

Everything began and ended with Sidious and he was so close now. Anakin's force signature was coming from just around the corner. Leaning against the wall he threw a look down the hall and froze in place as his eyes widened in surprise.

'That is a lot of droids.' Luke thought.

Anakin with one of his companions at each side was marched between the cluster of droids in all shapes and sizes. There was also the particular nasty type that looked like a giant insect. The one that had that inconvenient shield that seemed to deflect even a lightsaber.

The green saber snuffed out before the procession came into view. None of them looked his way when they marched by. They wouldn't have seen anything even if they did. Cloaking himself in the force was a trick he had perfected through the years.

No one noticed the shadow following them, though at one point Luke was sure he saw Sidious look right at him.

The walk was long, and to his surprise none of the three seemed at all worried at being captured. Anakin even smiled at some point. It was disturbing on a personal level, seeing that complete carelessness in the face of such danger. There was nothing funny about being caught by the enemy, he thought and his wrist burned in phantom pain.

Nothing.

The clanking of the many marching steps was so loud he considered not silencing his own steps, but decided against it. He had not come this far to ruin it by taking stupid chances.

The scars though had muted now, numb in a way that made his skin fell dead. He supposed that meant he was safe for now. Of course he could not be sure.

Before long the march slowed into a crawl. The insect-like robots broke off and sped down a corridor to the left. Still, neither Obi-wan nor Anakin made a move to resist their bindings with their now much smaller guard, and when they were ushered through a door they followed quite willingly.

It was a tight fit but Luke slid into the room just before the door closed.

It was a cockpit. With all the little different coloured lights it could be little less. Again he stared at the two Jedi with growing wonder. 'Why are you not doing anything?!'

Then he saw what they were staring at. It looked like a droid, but it had a heartbeat and a presence in the force, a cold presence.

'Another Sith?'

But there was only supposed to be two!

"Ah… the negotiator, general Kenobi." The not-droid spoke. The way its voice sounded, reminded him of Vader. "We have been waiting for you." If a robotic voice could mimic glee, this was what it sounded like. Luke shifted to the side as one of the droid in the guard pushed past the others with a muttered' sorry' and went to its leader.

"That wasn't much of a rescue!" The droid with the heartbeat continued its monologue, snapping a hand forth to the smaller droid and taking something from it hands. Luke recognized it immediately, it had been his for more than three years before he lost it.

Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber.

"And Anakin Skywalker." It continued, ignoring something the smaller droid muttered to itself. The leader closed the distance between them, walking straight past Luke without noticing anything but the captives in front of it. "I was expecting someone with your reputation to be a little…older."

"General Grievous." Anakin replied looked extremely bored. "You are shorter than I expected."

Despite himself and knowing no one could see him Luke still shook his head in disbelief. That was the second time in just as many enemy encounters that Anakin had brought up height. For someone that tall he sure was fixated on it.

Grievous, he now knew what the general was called, just coughed in response. But if eyes could kill…

The annoyance in the general's eyes somehow reminded Luke of aunt Beru for a moment.

"Jedi Scum." The general scoffed and turned away.

"We have a job to do Anakin try not to upset him." Obi-wan commented looking even more bored than Anakin.

There was in response a very familiar beeping, and Luke forgot everything else in the room when his snapped his eyes down to follow the sound.

R2?

He was hit by massive wave of homesickness when he looked down at that familiar friendly form. He had known that R2 would be around somewhere back in this time, but seeing him suddenly like this, how he used to be, alive and well was-

"Your lightsaber's will make a fine addition to my collection." The general said and forced Luke to focus on the present.

"Not this time." Obi-Wan spoke up, finally with some determination in his eyes. "And this time you won't escape."

Before Luke wondered exactly how they would go about that with both of them bound and weaponless, Anakin shouted R2's name.

For lack of better description R2 responded to the command by exploding. Every little trinket he had under his casing activated at the same time including a rather sinister looking electric charge.

Everyone jumped back, everyone but Obi-wan. The lightsaber sped past Luke on its path to its owner and within seconds Obi-wan was free, along with Anakin.

"Crush them!" Grievous ordered behind Luke. "Make them suffer!" The General finished and the tall droids that had been flanking him activated what looked like a poorly constructed copy of a double-bladed lightsaber.

Unseen by all Luke was already moving.

Luke crossed paths with Obi-wan when he moved to pursue the general. Anakin was busy fighting one of the tall droids alone. Before Luke could reach them, the door leading out had opened when two of the smaller droids tried to drag Sidious off to somewhere.

Anakin followed.

In a shift and practiced move it was over. The tall droid lay broken on the floor, with a slash carved all the way through it. The melted metal still smoked when the two smaller droids joined the other on the floor in pieces.

"Stay at your stations!" The general yelled. Anakin turned eyes focused straight ahead into the cockpit. Luke followed the look with his eyes and witness Obi-wan decapitating a droid that kept fighting regardless. Anakin moved into the room, leaving Sidious unguarded.

Luke's heart skipped a beat. No one was watching the Sith. Sidious was alone

This was his chance!

The cloak fell from him the same moment the lightsaber ignited. Right behind Sidious. He hesitated to strike, not liking the idea for cutting someone down from behind, not even him. Thankfully Sidious solved that problem himself when he by some instinct turned on the heel and froze when he saw the lifted green blade.

"Goodbye." Luke said regretting that it would have to be so done so fast. It was more than he deserved. But speaking up had been a mistake. It wasn't the neck his blade tasted when the strike fell. It was a familiar blue blade.

NO!

NOT AGAIN!

"You again!" Anakin roared and all pretences of being bored vanished. "You persistent bastard!" Anakin swore going in for the attack. He hit like a hammer. The blow Luke just barely blocked would have taken his head clear off in one clean strike. He backed up, back into the room, pressured by the strikes raining down him from all sides.

How could someone that strong also move so fast?

"Don't bother with them! Keep the ship in orbit!" The general yelled somewhere, a little too close for comfort. He dodged another strike, tumbling over a console and found himself at the very front of the cockpit.

It was only by sheer luck the green lightsaber intercepted Anakin's lightsaber in time.

"You are not Dooku's apprentice." Anakin's voice rumbled past the interlocked lightsaber's. "Your fighting style is nothing like his." He increased the pressure to the point where Luke's arms started to shake under the immense force "And you killed him in cold blood."

Dooku's apprentice?

Whatever had given him that idea? Luke was just about to deny it when he stopped himself. He might as well go along with that explanation. It was a better one than he could come up with right now, and

Obi-wan was moving in from the side.

He needed a distraction, and he needed it right now!

"The rule of two. One to hold the power and another to crave it." He said, digging up the knowledge of the Sith he had managed to find. That rule had always been there, in every single text. "In the end, the apprentice always kills the master. It is the way of the Sith." Luke added grasping for straws as he saw Anakin's go from enraged to furious, and went for the jugular. "Not the way of the Jedi though, is it?"

And Obi-wan who had already lifted his lightsaber to strike stilled completely.

"Oh, he didn't tell you?" Luke continued pushing out of the block while trying desperately to catch his breath. "While you were out, your little apprentice was about to cut off my master's head." He added with as much venom as he could manage in this stressed situation.

"Ani-" Obi-wan looked nothing short of horrified

"I am a knight now, and it's called padawan. Not apprentice"

Oh.

Another word he didn't know.

"Same difference." Luke snapped, even if he in the same second was beset with overwhelming self-doubt. There was another thing he didn't know, basic knowledge that any Jedi should know.

"You lose General Kenobi!" The General suddenly shouted right behind him. Luke turned just to see the imitated double-bladed lightsaber hit the glass, heard it crush. Then the ground disappeared under him and he was torn from the floor and flung into the darkness outside the ship, into open space.

He knew though the fear that he should try to hold his breath, but the panic overruled reason. The force didn't react to his feeble attempts to command it. The control slid between his fingers like he was trying to catch smoke with his bare hands.

He couldn't breathe!

The open space loomed all over. His lungs burned, his eyes felt like they were exploding inside his head and everything was turning dark.

He couldn't breathe!

Then he hit something, and hit it hard. But suddenly there was air! Sweet wonderful air! He coughed, gasped and curled up on the cold surface he had landed on. Strands of his damp hair stuck to his face, but he didn't care. All that mattered was that he could breathe again. He heaved air back into his lungs, gulping it down in huge gasps as the world slowly slid back into focus.

Somewhere over him, he heard the sound of an airlock snapping closing, and he tilted his head up and regretted it immediately. General Grievous' yellow eyes were staring down at him. Before he could move Grievous ignited the lightsaber in his hand and the beam stopped just short of Luke's eyes.

Luke had to turn his head away, to protect his eyes, even if that meant exposing the throat. Grievous crooked his head slightly keeping the lightsaber in place as he leaned forward. To his horror Luke saw the general flip the torn garment away from his right arm, revealing what the robe's thick sleeve had been hiding.

"That's some very interesting scars you got there."

Chapter Text

Luke's smile was thin and painful, like a papercut.

"Why I want this particular slave is my issue." He said, and wanted nothing more than strike the disgusting excuse of a creature down where it stood. If the slaver had known that, he would not be smiling so eagerly at the purse in Luke's hand.

"Oh, but this one has a reputation." The slaver argued. "I have slaves that far better understand their role. This one always needed…special care."

Unseen by the slaver, the hand at Luke's side closed into a tight fist.

"That I believe is my problem." He said fighting to keep balanced through the force, mentally pushing away the coldness that drew closer from all sides. "As I was told, he can no longer fight in the arena. He is of no further value to you."

"Value can be found in many different areas." The man countered. "I have many different customers." The slaver added and leaned back on his heels with a lazy smile playing on his lips, like he was enjoying Luke's discomfort. "But I must say that you do not look like my usual clientele." His eyes slid up and down Luke's frame, the same way a trader would judge the value of a piece of livestock.

It made Luke's skin crawl.

"So should I take this as your way of saying that you are not intending to sell?" Luke asked, and the force felt colder around him.

"I did not say that, I-"

"So get on with it!" He snapped and felt the force tremble with his anger. "You are wasting my time." Some of the intense emotion must have carried, even to the pitiless creature in front of him, because for a moment there was a glimpse of fear in those eyes before the expression became blank and guarded.

"This way..." The slaver gestured to the darkened passage behind them, to where the scream had come from earlier.

Luke marched past sending tendrils of the force in front of him into the dark and satisfied to find no ambush waiting there. He would rather do without having to use the force for more than subtle manipulation. It always resulted in unwanted attention these days.

Someone always noticed.

He tensed beneath the hood of the thick robe, when they got further into the passage. The stench of decay was only overshadowed by the sense of despair radiating through the force.

"If you are in need of something more than a bodyguard, we have a wider selection that covers almost any taste." The slaver commented in the same moment that the anguish from the cells around them became too hard for Luke to bear and he slammed his connection to the force shut.

The doors to each little cell had a small opening that Luke did everything in his power not to look at. This whole place stank of fear, and through one of the doors he just passed, he heard someone crying.

A young someone

"You have really let this place go." Luke commented with barely contained fury. He remembered all too clearly a time when he was the one looking out between those bars. He gritted his teeth and forced his eyes ahead.

He could not stand to look back into those few brave eyes looking back at him through the dark. It had been a living nightmare here before, but now the place appeared even more sinister in its dilapidated state. He had not thought it possible for this place to get any worse.

"You have been here before?" Surprise lit up in the force from him, and Luke sensed the man becoming pensive, likely trying to remember if he had seen Luke before. "…For the market?" He asked and the same time sounded unconvinced of that possibility.

"No, I was not here for the market." Luke replied and stepped over a thick chain abandoned in the middle of the passage. The chain stretched into an open cell. Luke's eyes were drawn to the blackness in there as he continued.

Luke felt a small tug as his cloak dragged over the chain. It dragged for a moment after him, under his cloak clicking metallically against the stone floor until he took another step and the chain slid free of the cloth and lay still and abandoned behind them.

"The arena then?" The man questioned. "I remember. It was quite the sight in its glory days. Grakkus always bragged that there was not a single thing in the galaxy that had not died in his arena." He eyes looked wistful for a moment, and a real smile played at his lips. "…He died the very same place, so I suppose that is true." He added and the smile became wider

"Sound like a charming guy." Luke said and meant not a word of it. In response the man made a snort.

"Trust me." The slaver looked down at him with the smile still playing on his lips, but a haunted feeling came from him through the force. It felt like sorrow. "No one will be missing him." He turned back, eyes locked into the dark, and the force around him darkened further.

"And that makes you in charge now?" Luke asked, feeling the conflict under the man's cold expression. It was impossible to actually see the emotional turmoil in the slaver that was beaconed from him through the force. Luke could not help to be slightly impressed to see a slaver have his emotions so tightly under control.

It was more than he could do himself these days.

"Well… in a way." The slaver answered with a crooked smile, and through the force, Luke felt the blackness of sorrow replaced by a blank grey. "After Grakkus, there has been a shift in priorities. After all slaves are worth so much more in trade, than they ever were in the death battles."

For a moment Luke thought he would say something more, but in the end the slaver just shook his head to himself and turned around.

"It is this way." He threw over his shoulder and went inside a passage to the right. "But seriously though." He continued. "I imagine you have heard about the slave from his time before the arena. As I was told, it took Boba Fett himself to trap him."

The lighting in the pathway dimmed as they turned another corner, and their steps echoed loudly against the cold stone walls of the corridor.

"But his time here has changed him." He said with as much emotion as if he was talking about the weather. "The injuries he has sustained here have almost crippled him, and he reacted very poorly to prolonged isolation. I have another slave that-"

"I understand, but it changes nothing." Luke broke him off. "The Wookie." He added firmly and resisted the urge to pull his cloak tighter around him. He had been colder than this, even before all this happened. The daytime on Tatooine had always been extremely warm and the nights were equally cold, but this was a different kind of cold.

Dampness drew into his lungs with each breath and with it the coldness. He didn't know how anyone could endure this for long.

"Have it your way." The answer was an overbearing scoff. "But I warn you, it's a waste of credits."

"I'll be the judge of that." Luke replied. His feet almost sped up on their own accord when they turned another corner, because ahead of them, he felt a very familiar presence.

It was all he could do not to break into a run.

They stopped at a door, made of some blackened material that looked both unbreakable and imposing at the same time. The key was shoved into the lock it took only seconds to twist the key and open the door, but it felt like an age had passed when it finally swung open.

Luke didn't know what he had expected what was on the other side when that door opened.

But not this.

Never this.

In a split-second he was kneeling by Chewbacca, all pretences of posing as an indifferent slave buyer were gone as he reached for his friend. The hand that stretched forward trembled.

Luke hesitated, the hand paused between them, before it almost by its own accord lowered to Chewbacca's shoulder. The Wookie had always been twice his height just as he was now, but he seemed diminished and though the force there was… a hollow.

Chewbacca was breathing, but he wasn't moving.

Luke's hand connected gently on the broad shoulder. The strands of hair in the fur were sticking together, it felt rough on his fingers where it used to be almost soft, and beneath the fur, Chewbacca's shoulder felt even colder than the room.

"Chewie?" Luke asked, and his voice broke. His heart felt like it had stopped, when Chewbacca finally started to move for the first time since Luke entered the room. He lifted his head in short little movements that looked almost mechanical, and when Chewbacca revealed his face Luke felt sick to the core.

His friends face was disfigured. There were so many scars and the fur hand been burned off in patches, as if he had walked through fire. The smell of ash still clung to him, even if it was faint.

Worst of all were the unblinking eyes staring blindly at nothing. Chewbacca´s eyes were fixed somewhere over Luke's shoulder on the blank wall behind him.

"Chewbacca it is me. It's Luke." He tried again, softer this time, in a whisper. "Please look at me."

Chewbacca kept his eyes fixed on the wall.

He did not move again

"I know for a fact you are lying, little Jedi or whatever you are." Grievous said, and the blue lightsaber in the general's grip hummed ominously close to Luke's neck. The yellow bloodshot eyes looking down on him did so with surprising intelligence for something built like a destroyer. "It is true that Dooku took another apprentice after Ventress but-."

A nasty dry cough cut the sentence off. It racked the entire body and when Grievous once again could breathe, it sounded dry and painful. The free hand clutched over the heart for a few more moments before the breathing evened out again.

"I know that because I am his apprentice." There was a small pause and the eyes over him narrowed into slits. "Which leaves the question of, how you got here, and who you are working for?"

"Why do you think that I work for anyone?" Luke asked, pressing further back against the floor to escape the blade that pulled just a little closer. Above, Grievous did not dignify the question with an answer.

"Is it Maul?" He asked instead, crooking his head just a fraction to the side. "I have suspected for a long time that he is still around somewhere!" There was special venom in those words, and through the force there was only one emotion. Hate. "No…" He added finally after a long pause. "He does not have the skill for this"

"I do not work for anyone." Luke insisted. Grievous only stared back down at him with a blank expression. Then the general moved. A sharp sting crawled into his shoulder in a flash and made him snap a hissing breath in.

The saber had stopped just short of connecting to his shoulder, but only just, and from that close proximity the pain was extreme.

"So you carved that on you own arm?" The General asked with a nod to the carvings. "They do not look like they were made for decoration." The blade descended again and agony exploded in Luke's shoulder. The air smelled like burned flesh in an instant.

It was only by sheer force of will that he did not scream.

"Skywalker called you Vader, but that is not your name is it?" Grievous asked horrifyingly calm and he kept up the pressure. A numb pain registered in his other shoulder when the claws of Grievous' hand dug through the skin. "I know what people look like when they lie." His voice sounded strained from the coughing, but his hands were steady when he pushed the blade down.

"St- stop!" The words were ripped out between Luke's clenched teeth as he tried to twist away from the burning blade. He couldn't tell! He couldn't. If he told anyone who he was, he would break the bargain and then all of this would have been for nothing!

The pain increased.

Though the agony the force called to him and Luke grasped for it like a drowning man. Lightning

jumped from his fingers in an uncontrolled storm what flung outward in all directions. If Grievous had not been this close Luke would have hit nothing.

Lightning exploded outward and died in an instant, but the force of it sent Grievous airborne. From the odd angle on the floor he did not see the moment when Grievous hit the wall, but he heard the impact.

Blackness fell all around him.

"I am not telling you anything!" He yelled between clenched teeth. He pushed back against the floor with shaking hands, stumbled to his feet and threw himself backwards so fast he only discovered that he couldn't get any further when the cold metal wall hit his back.

He narrowed his eyes through the dark. He could feel Grievous through the force, but he could see nothing through the blackness. He gasped, at sudden pain and grasped for the shoulder. A relieved breath escaped him. The wound was painful, but it was superficial. He could still fight.

He straightened and heard a crushing sound under his boot. Glass covered the floor, the same transparent glass that had covered all the lamps in the celling.

"Bold statement." Grievous voice rumbled from the dark. Luke heard a loud noise followed by the heavy stomps of robotic feet. "But I know someone who is very good at asking questions." He coughed heavily. "He is even better at getting them answered."

The lightsaber in his hand activated as if to emphasize the threat in those words. The red blade gave off a most sinister light in the hall where all other lights had gone out. Somehow it made the shadows seem darker.

"You have no reason to do this. You are not the one I am after." Luke lifted his empty hands, and felt the force gather around him. In seconds, an unseen a shield was woven tightly in front of him, between the armed droid general and himself.

It was an explosive display of force power. Anyone with even a flicker of force sensitivity would have felt it, but Grievous did not even blink.

'A pretender then.' Luke mused and eyed the fallen Sith's lightsaber in the right hand of that mountain of a droid. The way he wielded it was with a familiarity that Luke could not help but to envy. 'A pretender who knows lightsaber combat.' He pulled the force tighter around him.

"We will see" The red blade lowered down into battle position "I think Sidious would like to ask you personally." Grievous' claws of his left hand dug into the opening of the side chamber that he had been thrown into in the blast. It left deep scars in the metal when they withdrew with a metallic sharp noise.

The lighting was poor, but the room behind his enemy was very small, just big enough to stand up in. Grievous moved another step closer and as a consequence revealed more of the room from behind his bulk. Luke's eyes widen in surprise when he recognized the design.

It was an escape pod.

Grievous took another step into the hall, closing the distance. His shoulder moved up slightly, and the grip on the saber changed. He was moving into battle position. Just when Luke thought he was going to strike, the general suddenly snapped his head to the right.

A sense of danger screamed at Luke through the force, and then everything moved. The hall bolted past him as he was thrown violently to the side. When he hit the ground it is shaking and twisting under him like a wounded beast.

A siren howled through the ship out of nothing. Then the ship started to tilt. The metal floor slid away under him as he the floor tilted too much for him to hold on.

He grabbed for an edge, anything to hold on to as he descended into the dark. He threw a look over his shoulder. There was nothing but darkness beneath. It was a great black pit. He didn't know how long the hallway was. If the drop was too long it would kill him.

He clawed at the ground, kicked out with his feet, but it did not eve slow his fall. With his heart raising a sudden idea came to him. Before the ground turned completely, he raised his robotic arm and slammed it clean through the upper layer and held on, and not a moment too soon.

The ground disappeared under him, and his feet dangled over drop. The hallway was not to each side anymore, but above and below him.

He hung on, dangling over the emptiness beneath. He gasped, looking up for the enemy that had not passed him when the ship went upside down. As above so below. There was nothing but darkness looking back at him.

He clenched his grip on when his eyes suddenly locked on something right outside a window in the side of the ships wall. A part of the ship floated past at break neck speed.

A big part.

It looked like half the ship had just broken off!

"Time to abandon ship." Grievous voice sounded from just above him. Luke stretched his head back upwards and turns just in time to see a door slam shut. A second later through the window Luke saw the escape pod speed off into open space.

Then it was followed by all the others.

He hung on a moment completely frozen, startled into shock and saw the little red lights of the escape pods disappear out of view. Grievous had activated all the escapes pods, he realizes with horror. There was no way off now.

As a macabre answer to his panicked thought, the ship rocked violently. 'This is it,' Luke thought. He could see just enough out the window that with the ships current path it was going to hit the atmosphere with its side. The impact would rip the ship apart.

He knew what ships looked like just before they crashed.

The ship twisted under him once more, and then somehow, impossibly, the ship started to turn back on the right course. Slowly ever so slowly, the hall evened out, and Luke fund himself flat on his stomach gasping for breath.

His heart beat frantically halfway up his throat. His hands push back against the floor and he is back on his feet in an instant, and he cannot understand how it happened until the ship moved again. It moved slowly changing course in a move that was to smooth for a thing that enormous and that broken.

Someone was still trying to land this thing.

The halls were abandoned on his path back up to the very front of the ship. The only things that disturb his furious run were the toppled furniture and the parts of destroyed droids that lay abandoned everywhere.

The lightsaber Grievous had dropped was clutched tightly in his own hand regardless.

The halls sped past him as he ran. The Force pushed at his back, and made his steps longer and faster. The pace was way beyond anyone not aided by the force or technology. It was a foolish move to make on a ship that might have enemies around every corner, but he did not have the luxury to be careful.

The distance was long though, and when he finally reached the cockpit the ship was just about to enter the atmosphere.

"Open all hatched extend all flaps." His father's voice sounded from the far front of the cockpit. Luke took another step into the room and the signatures he had been following here now came into view.

Anakin cursed at no one and moved his hands to the steering controls. Anakin fingers were everywhere on the control panel, no doubt doing what he could to keep the ship on course.

He was likely the only reason why they were not dead yet.

Obi-wan stood just behind him, supporting himself against a control panel that was throwing yellow sparks into the room. At the back, closest to the door stood Sidious with his back turned, alone.

This time Luke did not feel any regret, when the red lightsaber came to life in his hands. Luke felt a flicker of disgust when he saw the colour of the lightsaber Grievous had dropped. Worse was another feeling, a pull at his arms where the scars were.

Was it just phantom pain again? Or was it the sign that time was running out?

At the sound of his blade all of the three in the room turned to him. He tightens his grip on the saber and focuses on Obi-wan. Anakin would be out of commission when he had to pilot the-

He throws his saber up in a guard just in time to stop the blue lightsaber from biting into his neck. The eyes that stares back at him through the blue glow is not Obi-wan, but Anakin. He gasped at the same time Obi-wan shouted Anakin's name and the ground started to shake.

No one was controlling he ship.

"Out of my way!" Luke roared. The lightsaber clashed with another, once again blocked from its target. It was infuriating. A sidestep was once again caught, and frustration got the better of him. He threw his body weight forward trying to break the block with sheer force.

He might as well have tried to move a mountain.

Anakin was not giving any ground.

"Anakin I need you here!" Obi-wan shouted from the controls, Luke didn't have to look to know how fast the ship was spinning out of control. He could feel the immense pressure pushing him to the side, the howling sirens drowning out almost all other noises and the ship moved like a stormy sea under him.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Obi-Wan frantically trying to work the controls, somehow managing to pull the ship back up from its spin, but not completely. They were nearing the atmosphere at a wrong angle. Without Anakin at the controls, Obi-wan could not keep the ship on the right course on his own.

Luke narrowed his eyes at it, but he could not afford to pull back now.

He had not come this far to fail when he was this close! He reached forward and saw the shock in Anakin's eyes when Luke's free hand closed around Anakin's wrist and pulled. Anakin moved with it. Forced out of balance he just barely threw himself back in between Luke and the monster that would destroy everything.

It was sickening, that desperate attempt to protect something so ugly.

"Listen to me!" Anakin suddenly yelled blocking another furious attack. "If I do not take control of this ship right now, we all die!"

The red lightsaber remained lifted but Luke hesitated. Then, behind Anakin, he caught sight of Sidious staring back at him over Anakin's shoulder. That calculating look was all it took for Luke to steel himself. So many horrors had happened because of that Sith. He needed to die.

Luke lowered the blade back into attack position and called to the force.

"I am not afraid to die." He said and purple lightning flickered into life in his hand.

Chapter Text

"I have always valued power greatly." The Sith replied with poorly disguised superiority. "It is with power you shall win this, if you can." The stones beneath the figure darkened as it moved in front of the only light coming from the door.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

It felt final… being in this place, like a door was slowly sliding shut even as he sat here.

'He looks even smaller now' Luke thought and looked to the side to spare himself the sight of the ancient Jedi for a few precious seconds. Despite what had happened, he could not be pleased by this sight. He had seen too much death to celebrate it in any form.

He breathed in deeply and felt the cold air travel down his throat into his lungs as he looked out the window. The only thing visible to his eyes were the dark forest beyond that had always held more questions than answers. Unwillingly he felt his shoulders tense instinctively.

He had never liked the trees surrounding Yoda's house.

They had an eerie resemblance to crooked spines.

"Back, you are." Yoda finally said and broke the heavy silence between them. It sounded painful for him, just speaking those three words and in the force something bright was growing steadily dimmer. Luke dragged his eyes away from the haunting collection of trees and looked over to the man he had come here to see one last time.

Luke only nodded softly to the statement because he did not trust his voice.

It would betray him.

'Yes, but for what point and purpose?' Luke thought to himself. In truth, he had hoped to avoid this meeting altogether and he had been deliberately slow in getting here because of it. But this last confrontation was unavoidable as he had known it would be, even before he started the journey.

Yoda made no sound, but looked back at him with an unreadable expression. The regret Luke had felt from the old Jedi when he came here was carefully hidden. It was unnecessary because Luke already knew what Yoda regretted, but he appreciated the gesture.

'You know now you picked the wrong one, don't you?' Luke thought. The truth of it still tasted bitter in his mouth. Yoda had chosen the wrong student from the very beginning. 'You choose the wrong twin.'

Still, there was some comfort in the fact that Yoda used what little strength he had left to hide his regret. It was as close to an apology that Luke was likely to get. Luke fought back a heavy sigh and instead allowed his frown to deepen. Defiance was easier to handle than regret.

"You are dying." He said. The vulnerability he felt did not escape into his voice to his immense relief, but as a result the words sounded hasher than he meant them to be.

But not by much.

"I am." Yoda said like it was the most obvious thing in the galaxy and he sounded almost amused at the thought. Luke blinked, lightly startled at the honesty of that feeling. "Surprised, you are."

"I thought you would be dead by now." Luke said with the familiar feeling of dread that he tried his best to ignore. "You told me as much when I left here."

Yoda did not answer that.

Luke had found, that there were many things Yoda did not answer.

"I suppose you already know this, but it's over." He said with as little emotion as he could, but the words still burned on his tongue. "The war is lost."

"Always in motion, the future is." Yoda said with a pensive look in his eyes, like he was remembering a lesson from long ago. "Set in stone, nothing is." There was a wistful expression on his face when he said that.

Luke silently disagreed, though he kept the words behind his teeth. Nothing could be done now to change anything. He wanted nothing more than to find a way out of this and somehow turn this war around.

But there wasn't a way out.

Not this time

'Maybe it was always meant to end like this.' He thought. He had played all his cards and that was what the emperor had done too. He sighed and brushed his hand over his face and felt the tiredness bleeding into his bones.

Maybe he should just do as Lando had suggested and find a reclusive corner on the edge of the galaxy and live out the remainder of his life there. He might even manage to live a full life before the empire caught up to him.

Yoda breathed in a dry heaving gasp that had a liquid quality to it. Luke reached forward and adjusted the worn blanket draped over the thin form.

Despite Yoda's weakened state Luke knew he should still feel some small measure of anger for what the Jedi had done. But there was no anger as Luke looked down on the crumpled form.

'He only did what he thought was the right thing.' An inner thought said carefully. Luke sighed and shook his head. Luke could not fault Yoda for what he had done no matter how much he wanted to. What Yoda had done was a horrible mistake, but he had had good intentions.

'And he is not the only who has made mistakes in this war.' Luke reminded himself painfully. Still, just looking at the Jedi hurt in so many ways, because Yoda had cost him so much. So many things had happened, so many horrible things, and they could all have been avoided had Yoda just-.

Not lied.

"You lied to me." He said, with his eyes fixed down on his hands folded in his lap. He could not look at the Jedi master when he finally asked the only question he really wanted answered. "Why?"

Again, Yoda did not answer just like Luke expected him to.

"It was a mistake." Luke said. There was an old bitterness hidden under those words, but it was more directed at himself than it was at Yoda. As much as Luke would like to blame it all on the Jedi, he knew that he carried most of the blame for what had happened in this terrible war.

Just not for what had happened that day on Bespin.

That was Yoda's fault.

Anakin saw Obi-Wan disappear out of the room with the others. The departing Jedi council dragged their shadows out of the room behind them and their running steps faded quickly into complete silence. The room became empty in seconds.

In the span of a breath, he was the only one left in the room

Him, and Yoda

The quiet that arrived to keep them company in the room was somehow more deadening than the sound of the departing steps.

He looked down to meet Yoda's eyes with a frown carved deep between his brows. It was a battle all in itself for Anakin not to pull his arm free of Yoda's hand and rush after the others, but he reminded himself that Yoda always had his reasons for everything he did.

Always

Anakin trusted Yoda with this and so much else, that the aging hand around his wrist might as well have been an iron chain. He had never doubted Yoda's word, and he would not start now.

"Master?" Anakin asked, noting the brief look of doubt flicker over Yoda features.

The sounds of the battle outside sounded louder and almost lured him to the door. Almost. Battle had become almost second nature to him after fighting in a seemingly endless war. It felt wrong not to help if he could, and he was glad to do it if it meant someone else didn't have to.

Still he trusted Yoda's decision.

"What do you need?"

"Very important it is, to stop the Sith's connection to these people." Yoda said calmly. Slowly, like he was reluctant to do it, he let go of Anakin's arm and the area felt colder. "Disturbing is this act by our unknown enemy, put a stop to it quickly, we must."

As if to stress the truth of the Jedi master's words, the noise outside became even louder than before. It sounded like the voices of hundreds of people raised in anger, but the words sounded distorted even from here, as if it came from rabid animals rather than people.

But he could not hear any blasters being fired.

'Not yet at least.' Anakin thought, but he doubted that small mercy would last for long. He had seen what Vader was capable of in close combat. He was not eager to know how far Vader's abilities stretched in other skills of the force.

He remembered all too clearly the extreme power of the force blast that had knocked him out in his first confrontation with Vader. It had been like staring into the blinding heart of a supernova.

'And I have only felt the same power from one other person.' Anakin thought with another look at the Jedi in front of him.

Vader was powerful and his role in this was still unclear, which in turn made him more dangerous. 'He is clearly not a friend of the republic.' Anakin thought. But from Vader ruthlessness against General Grievous forces on the battleship, it was clear that he was not an ally of the separatists either.

He somehow had his own agenda in all of this.

"What do you need me to do?" Anakin asked Yoda and dragged himself free of the pull. It was still there though like a burning stare at his back.

"Met him before, you have." Yoda continued and the sound of his voice helped Anakin pull completely away from the almost overpowering urge to dive deeper into the force. "For you, easier he will be to find." Yoda explained and walked slowly over to his chair where he sank into the soft seat.

"Remember his presence in the force, you do?" Yoda said, and gestured at Anakin to take a seat.

'You think I would just forget something like that?' Anakin thought, but said instead as he sat down in front of the Jedi master. "Yes. I do." Then he dared ask. "Why do you ask, master?"

"Feel him at all, I do not. Only a void, I sense" Yoda said and his brow wrinkled. "And to stop this, find him I need to." Yoda turned his eyes up to meet Anakin's. "Block him for a time, I can. Stop his control of the people, it should."

'Should…' Anakin thought with a stab of unease. He breathed in heavily, more affected by the great disturbance than he would admit.

There was a… calling from the vortex of sound and discord the force had become. It was getting harder and harder to ignore, and for some reason all he could suddenly think about was Tatooine and a little white house that was burning.

Disturbance or not, it felt like something was calling out to him.

"How do we do this?" Anakin asked and wrestled his focus back to the conversation and trying to ignore the calling that became louder and louder. The image of a towering figure, dark tunnel and a red lightsaber danced behind his eyes.

"Close your eyes and remember your meeting with Vader, you must." Yoda said and finally threw a brief look outside the window. "Show me his presence. Then stop him from controlling these innocent people and end this, I will." Yoda said with an almost chilling finality, like it was already done.

"Alright, I'll do it" Anakin said and then with a final look out the window, he nodded

"Meditate. Find him, but reach out to him, do not." Yoda said and he had barely finished speaking before Anakin was settling into the meditation. The Sith, Vader, appeared easily to his inner eye. "Let him see you, do not."

Anakin nodded and carefully opened his connection out to the force. He dug into his memories, trying to remember the dark presence he had felt only moments before. Then he looked into the force, but his searching inner eyes found nothing.

There was nothing but the deadening ocean of fragmented noise that force had become. Anakin had never before felt such a great disturbance in the force, and there was something underneath the roaring chorus of twisted and crooked sounds.

'Why can't I find you?' Anakin thought and blocked the strange feeling out. He felt nothing from the dark presence he knew was out there, even the memories of him were somehow inconsistent.

He remembered Vader's anger, and the determination in his yellow eyes. He remembered Vader's presence, but he could not feel it.

Vader did not feel like a presence.

'He felt like a void' Anakin thought, with the memory of the disarmed Vader staring back at him with the strangest look in his eyes. If Anakin had not known better, he would have said for a moment there was a soft kind of pity in Vader's yellow eyes just before Anakin had pressed closer with the lightsaber.

Then they had been wide open in fear.

Anakin grimaced and renewed his effort in the search. Despite what the Jedi Masters said about recognizing a force presence, Anakin had never felt the emotionless 'imprint' they spoke of. To him everyone felt like a unique collections of dominant emotions.

Padmé felt like a warm kindness mixed with pure devotion, Obi-Wan felt equal part stress and worry, and Ahsoka had felt like joy and determination. Windu somehow felt like he suffered from chronic disappointment in everything, and Yoda…always felt tired.

Vader in comparison felt like an absence.

Like he did not exist.

But for a moment there had been a glimpse of something else. Something beneath the cloaked anger. 'Something darker' He dove deeper but the disturbance raged around him like a storm.

It was so hard to focus.

'What was that feeling?' Anakin strained to remember that strange feeling he had felt a second before Vader had knocked him out. When he had said Vader's name. 'What was it?' Barely had he ended the thought before he felt something

He stretched his senses hesitantly into the vortex searching for Vader presence.

Then, he felt him, Vader.

Here.

Now.

Vader did not sense his presence. His mind was focused elsewhere. It was centred on the chaos he was creating no doubt.

'How can he not sense me?' Anakin still thought in wonder fearing a trap, because Anakin knew the power of his own presence. Even a Padawan would have sensed his presence this close, but he felt nothing from Vader aside from an intense concentration on the waking nightmare he was creating with his power from the dark side.

Vader's presence on the other hand felt like blood in the water, an exposed neck. It was an open invitation. There was a lot of damage that Anakin could do to an unprotected mind. Even from this distance.

He ignored the small stab of guilt he felt and quieted his force presence from the man sitting in front of him in the physical world.

Yoda would not notice what Anakin was about to do before it was already over. Yoda would not approve, and neither would Obi-Wan. 'But this is the right thing to do.' He thought. Who knew what the consequences might be if the Sith was not stopped now? 'Vader might even strike a fatal blow to the Jedi order.'

The force in Anakin's control spread out and rose at his bidding.

'I cannot risk that.' He halted, barely more than a breath away from tightening the noose. 'Sorry Obi-Wan. I know the Jedi do not believe in killing their enemies.' He thought and remembered the look of horror on Vader's face when he stared at Dooku's dismembered hands. 'But I cannot risk it.'

A picture of Padmé smiling face and a hesitant hand at her belly steeled his mind. 'I cannot afford to allow you to live, Vader.' He reached out with the force, and in the very same moment sensed a presence rush towards him.

It moved like a snake and looked like a shadow.

Everything changed, all at once. There was a distinctive feeling of not just being tugged towards something but the feeling of cold fingers digging into his arms and ripping him away.

An endless fog rushed forth and around him, blocking everything out. Anakin could not see anything, feel anything. His lips where heavy like they had turned to stone. His world turned black and all sounds muted.

'Yoda?' He called out into the dark, or he wanted to but his lips did not move at his command. His beating heart thundered quicker and quicker in his chest. His body felt like lead. He could not move anything. 'Master?' He called and listened, but nothing answered, the darkness surrounding him was unbroken.

Then Anakin felt eyes on him

'Who?' Anakin thought, and felt a singular presence where everything else had become a blurred violent entity. It was the architect of this mess somewhere in the dark. The presence that he had chased all the way here.

It had been a trap.

"Chosen one." A familiar voice rumbled inside his own mind.

'Vader' Anakin thought. He knew that presence, it was so tainted in the dark side that Anakin had to resist reacting to it. Vader was radiating anger, pain and despair so sharp and powerful that Anakin could swear he felt it bite against his skin.

Vader was not just tainted by the dark, but swallowed up by it completely.

Vader was a darkness that moved.

"How rude of you Skywalker, to look into someone else's mind like that." A voice said. The words echoed in an eerie way that made it sound like two voices were speaking rather than one. One of them sounded like Vader, but the second one didn't. It rumbled beneath Vader voice like caged beast.

Anakin tried to reply but he could not move his lips or even master enough control to answer through the force. He strained against the heavy pressure, trying to find a weakness in the iron control but he found nothing. Fear spiked within him as the battle against his bonds seemed more and more futile.

His heart drummed quicker and quicker in his chest. It was all for nothing. He was trapped. Trapped inside his own mind.

Vader's presence felt even more sinister than it had before, when he confronted him on the battleship. And as if there had been some unsaid command, the world suddenly returned around him when Vader opened Anakin's eyes.

Yoda was standing and the grip around his cane was tight.

'He does not feel dark.' Anakin thought as he felt Vader look back at him in the force. 'It feels like he does not have any force presence at all.' Anakin struggled against the sickening power keeping him still. The cold grip only tightened and coldness spread till it lay thick in the air. 'He feels like a force wound.' Anakin thought. 'A wound that is spreading.'

As if he had read his mind, Vader suddenly smiled. Anakin felt his lips curl into a smile that was a mockery of his own.

"Master Yoda". Vader voice said, but the words passed through Anakin's throat. "I had hoped I would get the chance to meet you." Anakin felt his head move into a polite light nod, despite Anakin trying everything he could to resist it.

He might as well have been beating his bare hands against a mountain.

The fear hit Anakin like a hammer. Anakin's hands felt clammy, his mouth felt dry and his breathing was strained and shallow. He tried not to let the Sith feel just how strong the fear grew within him. But how could Vader not know? The terror was practically screaming from the walls of his mind.

How was Vader even capable of doing this?

This was not even possible!

"Release knight Skywalker, you will." Yoda stared right into Anakin's eyes "Now."

Vader presence replied first with cold silence, then he moved slowly, pulling Anakin's body on a string until it stood tall and towered over Yoda. The darkness draped around Vader's presence was so deep it felt sinister just to look at it.

The darkness was so complete it felt eager and… sentient.

Like it was alive

"Don't think you have any control over what is happening, old man." Vader's voice said. Anakin knew he did not imagine the lazy amusement he felt through the force from the Sith. "You are playing by my rules now, and I have only just begun."

"Many years ago since the rule of the Sith ended, it is." Yoda said, his voice was calm and seemingly unmoved by the threat. "That power, the Sith no longer has. Empty, your threat is." Yoda straightened, and fell into a posture Anakin had only seen once before many years ago, and at that time, he had been looking at Dooku.

Anakin could feel the power in Yoda build, the force rushed to him and collected around him. Anakin waited in the tense silence for Vader's reaction, but unlike Yoda he did not make any move to defend himself, despite the fact that Anakin's own lightsaber was well within reach.

Then Vader laughed

"Go right ahead Yoda, attack me. I will not defend myself." Vader threw out Anakin's arms in a surrendering pose. "Why should I? This is not even my body."

Vader's smile felt like bared teeth in Anakin's mind when the Sith continued. "And I warn you, do not try to force me out, Jedi. This is an ancient discipline and very difficult to maintain without… damaging the host." Vader said and smiled with Anakin's lips at the old Jedi. "Push me out, and I will rip his mind out with me when I go."

Yoda said nothing, but he paused, and the force collecting around him stilled. "If destroy Knight Skywalker's mind, you do. Kill you, I will."

Looking through his stolen eyes, Anakin did not doubt Yoda for one second and by the darkening for the force that held him, neither did Vader. But just before he felt his mouth open on its own accord the anger had been muted.

"You dare threaten me, Jedi?" Vader said, ripping the words from Anakin's throat like a puppeteer. Then he continued with words that were so soft and wondering that it sounded eerie. "You, who are the very reason why I am here?"

That was true, Anakin discovered with a shock.

He could feel the truth of it resound through the very force.

"Your own choice, this is." Yoda said with finality. His eyes were fixed on Vader's eyes, but somehow seemed to look beyond, at something Anakin could not see. "Met you before, I have not."

"Are you sure?" Vader said sounding like he was hiding a nasty secret behind his teeth as he threw a look outside the window. "I must say, I am disappointed. I expected this to be much harder." Vader said without a flicker of disappointment felt from him. "But I suppose it just proves that the old teachings are true. The force was never meant to be shared"

"The rule of two, you speak of?" Yoda asked, but it did not sound like a question and there was something…strange about it. Anakin could not put a finger on it, but he had known Yoda long enough to see there was something… off about the way he acted.

"Twisted, that belief is. Matter to you, It should not." Yoda looked at Vader like he was a puzzle he could not figure out.

Then as he saw a shadow move in the reflection of the glass Anakin realized.

Yoda was stalling

"One to hold the power and another to crave it." Vader said like he was remembering a pleasant memory. "No more."

"Foolish that is. Disagree, I do." Yoda said, and Anakin had never in all his life seen the Jedi master look annoyed. But now the emotion was carved between Jedi's eyes in a frown. "A gift, the force is. Sharing that gift, greater joy and understanding to us all, it brings."

"The dark side is by far the superior to this…" Vader paused, his sentence faded between them as Vader's mind went searching for the right word to describe the Jedi order from a Sith's perspective. Even trapped as a captive audience Anakin was reluctantly impressed by the enormous size of Vader colourful collection of curses.

In the end, the word he chose was relatively mild. "…Abomination, that you have created master Yoda."

"Tested and broken before, the rule of two, has been. A long time ago."

"Well, clearly." Vader said with the strangest glee. "Someone has not been paying very close attention, have they?" Vader had the nerve to let the question sound innocent as he made soft gesture towards the window behind him. "Do I have your attention now?"

Anakin knew he did not imagine the sinister pleasure Vader felt at uttering those words aloud. He strained against the hold one more, but the chains that bound him through the force were as unforgiving as they were strong.

He felt the bonds tighten even further. But inside, underneath the panic and the frustration he felt hope. It was only a whisper in the force, the presence that was closing in behind him. It was to so skilfully suppressed in the force that it was barely an imprint, but Anakin could feel it shorten the distance. The Jedi was almost there…

'A little longer', Anakin thought

'Just a little longer.'

"So this, your scheme is?" Yoda asked, but it didn't sound like a question. It sounded too firm to be that. "Return the dark side to the galaxy, you intend?

"Return?" Vader said and managed to sound mildly insulted "I do not merely plan to return. I intend to rule-"

Anakin felt the chains binding him crack. A startle in the force told him Vader noticed in that same moment. But by then it was too late. Mace Windu's force grip was unyielding, and like ripping flesh from bone Vader was being torn off his victim.

There was no pain, Anakin registered, halfway caught between shock and gratitude. Not for him anyway.

Vader was another matter entirely.

"Well played Yoda." Vader gasped in agony, the voice was even deeper than before and sounded unnaturally animalistic, like a wounded beast. Now there was only one voice speaking, the one that did not sound like Vader, and somewhere in the back of his mind Anakin thought he heard someone screaming.

Vader fell to his knees, collapsing in on himself under the pressure of the combined power of Yoda and Windu.

"But I am curious." Vader's superior expression was strangled by the pain, but the hate strengthened in the eyes that narrowed at Yoda even as he fought against the Jedi Masters' power.

"Will you be able to live with yourself…" Vader said gasping, his words barely louder than a whisper and his teeth bared in a wide smile that stretched further because of the pain Anakin could feel Vader endure. "…Knowing what you have made him do?"

Vader was barely holding on. Anakin could feel him fighting fiercely to remain in control and failing. The dark force dug in with its sharp presence, clung to its victim for one more agonizing second. Then Anakin felt a rush of hope as he could feel the grip slipping.

Then Vader went for the throat

"I know Skywalker won't." Vader said. All his strings ripped from Anakin as he was flung away into the dark vortex the force had become.

Chapter Text

"So you are just going to give up? After all we have been through?" Luke could not believe it. Against the backdrop of peaceful open space what she had just said had sounded like a lie.

There was no way that the fifth fleet was gone!

"It cannot be done commander. I am sorry." She looked away out the window to the stars blinking back at them from the blackness of space. Her posture was stiff, but he could see her shoulders shake when she whispered the next words. "We have lost the war."

This was not new information. Silently, in his heart he had known for the longest time that this was the only way the war could end.

But no one had ever actually said the words before.

'Damn it…what just…?.'

Luke rose to his feet. The cold touch of the stones lingered on his knees like a mild frostbite that itched more than it burned. 'When did I fall?' Luke thought, his head was spinning and so was everything else. He clenched his eyes together and concentrated on breathing.

'What just happened?' His head kept spinning and he threw a hand out to keep balanced on the ground that was moving like a sea in a storm. Sickness collected in his throat, he tensed and forced it down while he clung harder to the shoulder he was sinking his fingers into.

Images of a white room flashed behind his eyes, and three figures. One of them looked like- '… Father?'

"What…" Luke said, his hand felt clammy against his head, and the coldness of the touch slowly made the world stop spinning.

"Stay where you are!" A voice said so loud that to Luke's hypersensitive senses it sounded harsh and unbearably sharp, like a gunshot. A bright flash flared to life instantly and powered only by instinct did Luke bring his hand up in time.

The blaster shot went wide. It crashed into the forcefield formed in a mere instance, it was thrown wide by the force of the collision and disappeared into the crowd. A second after Luke heard something hit the ground, a voice went quiet in the force and the cold intensified in the air.

The dark side of the force fed on the pain and the anger and its presence became stronger, like a wound in the force had opened. Only then, staring into the barrel of several blasters did Luke realize what had happened. His connection to the force, to the force persuasion, it had been broken.

This riot was out of his hands

The sharp sound of the blaster shot roaring to the sky still echoed in his mind

"Surrender!" The Stormtrooper demanded. His face was hidden by the familiar white helmet, and there was nothing but a steeled mind echoing back to Luke through the force. It was the same with the five troopers that were with him. They were accustomed to battle, a hardened calm was all that was felt from them.

But their minds were like an open door. Their mental shields were practically non-existent and pathetic that it was like an open invitation.

It was barely a touch. It was nothing like converting the patrons of the bar to do his bidding. That had been difficult and had taken considerable effort on his part, this though… a macabre opening had been carved into their very force signature.

It was like they had been made to be ruled.

He stepped forward towards the troopers that had frozen in place. When he stepped in between them, they moved as one and formed a protective circle around Luke. He cleared his head, from the strange vision from before of the white room. This was not the time.

"Where is Palpatine?" Luke asked the Commander of the team of Stormtroopers. "Is he still in the senate?" Without turning back towards Luke the man nodded. There was a glimpse of blue in the crowd and immediately after, the blaster shot followed.

Luke caught sight of another swipe of bright blue to the side. He threw an arm out aimed in the direction of the flash of blue and gave a sharp order.

"Fire!"

The blue bolted away with an unnatural speed. Luke noted with a hidden relief that the Jedi made it out of reach.

"Where?!" He demanded more than asked of the trooper still keeping his back to Luke and firing into the crowd.

"They took him to his office in the senate." The trooper said like he was walking in a dream. "That is the last thing I heard."

Luke nodded, he caught a flash out of the corner of his eyes. A vibroblade lay abandoned on the ground, its edge was splattered in red and the sunlight reflected the light on the polished steel. His shadow fell on it and blocked the light when he bent down to pick it up. The blade was heavy but well balance and he clipped it to his belt.

Luke looked up and followed the blue sky until his eyes met the familiar tall building of the Jedi temple. Now that he had personally seen the very slums of the city he understood how easy it had been to nurse the hatred and the anger of the people that were now his puppets.

Luke opened and closed the fingers of his left hand, the lines bent easily and naturally like blood veins. They caved so easily, and he knew, if he applied a little more pressure, he would break them. It was ridiculous the care he had to wield for their minds to remain whole.

It was like holding a wounded bird in his hands and if he put a little too much pressure on it, its little bones would snap. It was tempting to do so, despite his morals raging against it.

Why had he not tried this before, back home?

"Do you have more soldiers under your command?" Luke asked, watching the soldiers usher him into shelter as if he had suddenly become their main priority. 'You actually believe you weren't their main priority after what you did before?' a malicious part of him asked and Luke had not the energy to quiet it down.

When the Stormtrooper nodded, it was twitchy abnormality, but then in essence, so was the soldier himself. Were these soldiers not just clones of each other?

Copies.

A voice nagged at the back of his mind, the words got lost and Luke did not care to listen to it.

This had to be done, then only after could he worry of what his bargain truly entailed. But in his heart he already knew. He had known almost since the beginning that there was only one way this could end.

"Call them to me."

:::

"Commander Fox, Answer me!" Commander Cody shouted over the comm system as if he had been speaking with a subordinate rather than a fellow commander. "What is going on?" He waited in tense silence, and stared down murderously at the communicator as if it was personally responsible for what was happening.

Obi-Wan fully understood Cody's uncharacteristic anger. Obi-wan had eyes too, even if he did not believe them right now. It was not every day one witness Clonetrooper's turn on their brothers-in-arms, and never in these massive numbers.

In seconds the riot he had thought they were finally getting under control had been plunged into a new level of chaos. The combat soldiers in their easily recognizable white armoured uniforms were in disarray, their formation broken. Because now the enemy was everywhere and the soldiers where firing at each other.

Cody could not sense what was really going on, but Obi-Wan could. It was like the force had been thrown into a black pit. 'I truly am a fool', Obi-Wan berated himself. He had actually dared to believe that they had been winning this horrible war and it was only a matter of time before the separatists were beaten.

"Obi-Wan!" A voice sounded from behind him, and he turned to find Mace Windu closely followed by-

"Anakin! By the force!" Obi-wan was at his side in an instance. He looked like death warmed up. Thick black lines under his eyes made his glassy eyes appear even more sickly. Anakin looked like he had been haunted by a fever for weeks, but he had been fine minutes before. "What happen to you?"

"Vader did." Mace Windu answered for Anakin with a short look at the man that was not exactly worry, but it was close enough.

"Vader?" Obi-Wan eyes swooped to the entrance, but the gate was well fortified. "But he can't possibly be anywhere near-" he stopped himself. He sensed the eye of this storm in the force very clearly, but had not felt a shift that would signify that a long distance force attack was being attempted. That in itself was worrisome.

"Are you all right?" He could not stop himself from asking. Anakin nodded, but Obi-wan had never in his life seen a less convincing lie. If he had been Anakin's father, he would have shoved the man inside and demanded him to stay until the battle had been sorted out.

But he did not have that power anymore.

"Casualties?" Windu asked Cody in the background

"None yet, the defectors are using the stun setting and I have ordered my troops to do the same."

"…Curious" Windu said to himself rather than anyone else. He stood back with his fellow Jedi while Cody was still trying desperately the situation under control. "Are you sure you have not met this man before Obi-Wan?"

"Pretty sure, why?"

"According to Anakin, Vader called you a liar."

Obi-wan turned to his old Padawan who looked like a little boy who had been discovered doing something he shouldn't.

"It was back on the ship." Anakin explained and took great care to keep his eyes fixed on the battle. "It sounded personal. I am sorry, I meant to tell you but with everything that happened… I forgot."

"That doesn't matter right now." Mace interrupted before Obi-wan got his words past his teeth. "The only things that matter is, do you know him Kenobi?"

"I have never seen that man before in my life." He paused. "But I have been many places. Maybe he remembers me for something that happen early on in the war?"

It was the only plausible explanation.

But it didn't ring well in the force.

"It sounded like he knew you." Anakin added in a distracted tone. "Personally." His eyes looked doubtful when he added. "He is not old. Maybe you met him when he was a kid."

'Like you met me on Tatooine.' Was the sentence that lingered unsaid between them. Obi-wan suspected that Anakin's past would never really leave him. It was one of the reasons why the council had opted not to take him into the order.

Personally Obi-wan had always thought Anakin's experiences as a child was a strength, not a weakness. 'There is no emotion, there is the force' was an important lesson. It taught one to try to look at any conflict from an outside perspective and not to be seduced by ones' own emotions and act carelessly.

Secretly though, he thought that this lesson had been take to the extreme these says. By only allowing babies into the order, he feared the Jedi order in time would be become stale. The Jedi had become far too remove from the many troubles of the galaxy.

He had been in the order long enough to watch the objectivity of the order become apathy. The teaching of the force taught distance from attachments, not distance from the galaxy itself.

And then of course there was the matter of the new Sith.

Obi-wan's brow wrinkled. I had been a long war, but was extremely unlikely that he would have forgotten a man like Vader. Not even if he had been a child when they met. He never forgot a face. Never. It was one talent that he liked to think he had gotten from one of his parents whoever they had been.

"Maybe" He answered instead of admitting his doubts. He believed the lie as little as when he had said it the first time. If he was honest with himself it was not the apparent hole in his memories that vexed him most. He knew it was childish, but he did not like to be known as a liar.

He omitted a truth here and there when it was strictly necessary, but he never lied.

"And master Yoda?" He asked instead of acknowledge the thought.

"He is trying to find the Sith." Anakin said, with a renewed purpose in his eyes. Obi-wan knew that fire, and welcomed it. He had not cared at all for the stale look in his old padawan's eyes. "He knows his presence now." Anakin said and as if bidden by those very words, the force changed.

"He will mark Vader for us."

Obi-wan closed his eyes, when he opened them again he turned his head and looked into the crowd. Yoda had lit Vader's presence up like a beacon. "There."

Luke felt a brief respite before he closed his eyes, he allowed the warmth of the light side to embrace him for a long wonderful moment. He had used too much of the dark side for too long, but he knew he had to use it just a little more before this was over.

But that was for later.

The light side of the force rushed to him like a long lost friend and the pain he had felt constantly ever since coming here was blissfully numbed. It felt like it had been an age since he had last meditated.

The wind pulled at him and the sound of the engine was calming. He breathed in and let the clean air into his lungs. His heart rate slowed down and the tension slowly bled out of his strained muscles. Even the scars now, hardly caused him any pain.

'There is a change in the force' Luke thought. 'And it is not just me.' The disturbance drew nearer. He could feel it. He breathed in once more and for a precious moment felt one with the force. Then the light was driven from him when the dark came rushing back.

He already knew what he would see when he opened his eyes. He knew two of them, and the third presence was the one he had caught a glimpse of after the ship crashed.

'Showtime.' He thought and reached out to the force. The coldness of the shadows was a pleasant distraction until his mind settled. The cloak was heavier than usual and his limbs under it were almost numb after sitting so long in the same position. The hood was a pleasant weight on his head though, as was the cool touch of the shadow that fell from the hood onto his face.

It was almost a comfort.

He kept that thought at the forefront of his mind when pushed off the cold stone pavement. His feet were unsteady on the ground, but he willed them to be strong no matter how much the muscles shook and resisted. He opened his eyes just in time to see them. The three he felt before.

He remained motionless until three different lightsaber's cut into his 'volunteer' vanguard. 'savage' he thought. 'Are these soldiers not supposed to be people they know?' Then one of the blue sabres broke through, and the time for thinking was over.

The blue saber followed a familiar pattern, but it was slower than it used to be. Like Anakin was already exhausted before the battle had barely started. Luke's blade rushed out to meet it. The steel of the vibroblade held fast against the blue lightsaber that had been Luke's too once.

Anakin's teeth were bared and there was only barely restrained anger shining from him in the force and beneath it, a shadow of fear.

But from what?

Anakin first broke the parry and the lightsaber rushed in a move more dominated by strength than skill. Sparks flew when Luke's block came up faster than the blue lightsaber could move. The stench of burned metal hung thick in the air as the blue saber came down again with more fury than before.

The block was harder to hold, but Luke was close enough to hear Anakin breathe heavily under the strain and the fingers holding the saber up in a strong parry were already shaking. The second attack was a mistake. Anakin was off balance.

Luke ripped his right hand off the vibroblade and moved it forward in an openhanded punch. He heard his opponent gasp in surprise the moment before the massive power of the force-push blasted from his hand.

Thrown back and further off balance, Anakin stumbled, trying desperately to gain his feet. Luke did not give him the chance. The force threw him forward in a quick dash with the lightsaber at the front. The clash of the vibroblade and the lightsaber was brief, Luke twisted the blade in his hand stabbed it towards Anakin's foot.

The lightsaber barely connected in time and it was only allowed to be in the way because the ankle had not been Luke's real target. He tipped back on his heel and heaved the vibroblade back up and stabbed it forward. Anakin' eyes widened and Luke heard the startled gasp the second before the thin edge connected.

Then impossibly Anakin's hands snapped up and his finger closed around the blade. The blade should have cut straight through his hand, But Anakin did not even flinch when he tore it away from the bleeding cut at his brow.

Anakin already had a cybernetic hand!

Luke felt the pain of the Lightsaber before he saw it. The ground rushed up to meet him and the world span around him as the enormous force of the blow sent him crashing against the ground. The shield he barely managed to get up in time saved his arm, but the stench from the burned wound hung thick and repulsive in the air.

The cloak dragged around him as he kicked off the ground to gain some distance between them, however it was not enough. The sound of the fast stomping steps registered in his mind just before the blue blade dove again.

He fell back, and the lightsaber rushed so quickly and so closely past him that the saber only appeared to be a flash of light. He pulled the force to him, drawing strength from its power. Blaster shots fired loud in the background but Luke could not see how little time he had left.

He fell back, desperately trying to defend himself under the assault. Anakin's lightsaber was moving so fast there seemed to be three of them. He leaped back, striking forward at the same time and was nicked by the lightsaber following him as he tried to gain some distance.

The stone railing he landed on was cut clean through a second after he threw himself forward and over the charging Anakin. Powered by the force his jump hurled him through the air and landed behind Anakin. Without thinking and with his heart thundering faster and faster he swung his vibroblade around for another attack.

His feet left the ground as Luke threw himself forward. There was a sharp pain in his ankle, he noted with gritted teeth as their blades clashed again. 'I must have landed wrong' He ignored the pain and called the force to him.

The blast went wide and he just managed to see Anakin condescending smirk when Luke clenched his hand into a fist and the massive power he had collected whipped back around. Anakin threw himself flat and the force blast sailed over him. The blast only missed him by an inch.

It might as well have been a mile.

Luke did not give Anakin the time to recover. He hammered the vibroblade down against Anakin's unprotected back. He twisted it at the very last moment so he would not hit with the sharp edge but instead the flat harmless side.

But the blade did not make it there.

Anakin in the blink of an eye was gone, on the retreat. Now on the offensive, Luke pressed forth, trying to end it with powerful blows that hit the lightsaber with such a strength that he could not have hoped to accomplice without the force as his ally.

Anakin's back hit the wall he had not realized he was being backed into. The blades hissed in between them, locked in a heavy parry, but Anakin was on the defensive, with Luke channelling so much force power that Luke was stronger than him.

Anakin grit his teeth, locking eyes with Luke then a grim look darkened his eyes and he moved. Luke was so focused on keeping the block up that he did not see what happened next. The fist that shot in between the lightsaber and the vibroblade connected, and everything exploded into blinding pain.

The punch sent him stumbling back and the world twisted sideways when everything in his sight toppled. The cold stone of the pavement slithered up through the hood and everything was spinning. At the last moment he felt a shadow passing over him and a flash of blue. He snapped his hand against the ground, the force ignited from his fingers and the blast tossed him to the side like a ragdoll. Out of the reach of the lightsaber.

He heard the tiles crack under the force of Anakin's strike, as he rolled around again and tumbled to his feet. The vibroblade by some mercy was still in his hand. Horror descended on him like an icy wind on a winter's night and he could only stare at Anakin. He was still kneeling on the ground with the lightsaber embedded straight where Luke's head had been moments before.

Almost lazily Anakin turned his eyes to watch Luke out of the corner of his eyes before he slowly pushed a hand against the ground as he stood, taking the lightsaber with him. He threw a look to the side, at Obi-Wan and the other Jedi trying to get to them. Then he turned to Luke.

And a shadow of all that darkness Luke had felt before focused only on him

Luke's own heavy breathing was all he could hear and when he stepped further back and was immediately ashamed at the intense relief that flooded all his senses when Anakin allowed the small retreat.

For a moment all he could do was breathe, heave air back into his lungs. The hood felt heavy and clammy around him, but Luke was grateful that it was somehow still in place after that intense duel. If it hadn't been, this game would already be over.

Anakin did not look winded at all. He just stood there with the blade at his side and that constant frown carved into his face.

"Are you getting worried, Vader?" Anakin said like they were two strangers making casual remarks about something insignificant. But he was tense as a wire. He could attack at any moment, Luke could feel the force was screaming the warning at him "You look worried."

Luke tightened his hand around the vibroblade, it stopped them from shaking. He stood up straight, his breath finally calming at the same time his heart beat stronger and faster in anticipation as he said. "You were a lot worse last time."

"I know how you move now." Anakin moved slowly to the side one step after another circling him, and Luke was forced to follow too keep the Jedi at a distance. "I knew a Padawan like you once. When he fought, he had the same pattern as you."

"He believed it would make him harder to fight, unpredictable." He continued like he had not noted the limp that Luke could not hide completely. "What he didn't realize was that by trying to master all the forms, he mastered none."

'This is not going to be easy.' Luke thought. This was not the same man he had duelled on the battleship. Something had happened in the meantime, that was obvious even after such a brief exchange.

There was something else there. Something that had not been there before. It felt like an equal measure of hope and fear in the force and…love. There was the brief impression of a woman before it disappeared behind Anakin's mental shields

Anakin knew then.

He knew he was going to be a father. What else could it possibly be? Luke could not travel outside his own life time and he had pushed it to the very limit with his bargain with the Sith. In every other attempt there had been to travel in time the travellers past was already born in the past they had travelled to.

But if Luke had waited that long, the war would be over.

"So you are telling me you don't like my fighting style. That it is wrong?" Luke kept Anakin well within his vision as he circled the other. "It has served me well enough. I already beat you twice, haven't I?" He stopped, tired of the game now that he had his breathing under control. "and it seems like it worked out all right for that other guy too." The vibroblade raised in his hand.

"Him?" Anakin said and had the gall to look condescending as he also stopped walking but the lightsaber was lowered at his side. "He died years ago." The comment was monotone but Luke felt the truth of it "He didn't even get off the drop ship in his first battle. Got hit by a blaster just as he was walking down the ramp." He shrugged with that condescending look still on his face. "Somehow he just didn't get the big picture."

Then a lightsaber hummed behind him and it was only then Luke realized that the gunfire around him had stopped.

"Put the blade down." The unknown voice said behind him. He had lost. He did not have to see Anakin's nasty grin to tell him that. But knowing he was going to lose in the end never had stopped him from fighting before.

But the second blade humming to life behind him didn't give him any other choice. He held his arm out to the side, vibroblade still clasped in his finger. "You are making a mistake." He said more because he wanted to say the words rather than the three Jedi around him needed to hear it. "Back off."

"I am not going to ask again." The warning rumbled again, but Luke did not let go. He did not think he was physically capable of surrendering anymore.

"Neither am I." Luke turned his head just enough to catch a glimpse of the purple lightsaber held at his back along with the man holding it. He hesitated on purpose. Maybe it was a masochistic side of him that he had yet to discover, but he genuinely wanted to see what they would do.

What would a Jedi do in such a situation?

A hand closed around his wrist. Luke's eyes snapped back and found himself staring back into the eyes of Obi-wan. His old teacher twisted the hand firmly, not enough to force the blade out of his hand, but enough for Luke to get the point. Luke huffed, and allowed his hand to open and the blade to fall into Obi-Wan's hand.

This didn't really matter anyway.

He had bought enough time.

Then suddenly Anakin was there grapping his shoulders and dragged him violently back to the wall he had been trapped against himself during the fight. Luke's ankle protested when he was harshly knocked back against the wall, but he didn't mind. The coldness of the stone wall behind him helped him focus.

Anakin tore the hood off and in the same second anger was replace by shock.

Luke wanted to gloat in the face of that surprise. He had had barely half a year's training if he was being extremely generous and he still managed to fool three fully trained Jedi. But the victory felt hollow in his chest when he looked up into Anakin's eyes and saw the horrible flicker of yellow.

Anakin froze, the words he had been planning to say died on his tongue with the unanswered question that had lined themselves neatly up in his mind.

It was not Vader under the hood. It was a man in his mid-twenties with blond hair, just like Vader. Only… it wasn't him. The face of a man barely halfway through his second decade stared back at him. The eyes that looked up at him though were yellow.

Anakin could not help but to grit his teeth and clench his hands harder on the lightsaber while he tried to swallow the frustration and absorbing the reality that Vader had slipped through his fingers…Had played him.

Again

Obi-wan saw the anger and Vader must have seen it too. Why else would that bastard suddenly smile?

"Vader?" Anakin asked, in a question that formed itself into an accusation when it got past his teeth. Because the yellow eyes that looked back up at him…Those eyes Anakin would know anywhere.

"I thought you said that possessing someone was hard." He said, sounding more surprised than he wanted too. He had actually believed Vader when he said that. Believed the words of a murderer and a Sith.

Vader tilted the man's head slightly, and he hesitated for a moment too long. "Not if you are willing to pay the price." Vader said over the man's lips. He sounded confident as always, but there was a lie in there somewhere. Anakin could feel it.

'Why do I get the feeling that you don't have any idea what I am talking about?' Anakin thought when a shade of confusion passed over Vader's presence.

"I overestimated you, Hero without fear." Vader's voice passed over the unnamed man's lips and stood straighter leaned up against the wall. "I thought you would be here earlier." Vader said, and the yellow eyes stared back at him. The blue blade so close to his face did not seem to bother him in the slightest.

'And why would it?' Anakin thought and pulled his blade away from the defeated form. 'He is not the one who is going to suffer the consequences.' Anakin very being itched to end him. 'But this is not this man's fault.' He thought and was suddenly ashamed of the bruise already blooming on the unknown man's face and the blood he could see dripping slowly from the fingers.

"Where are you?" Anakin asked and scanned the crowd for the Sith.

Vader crooked the man's head slightly exposing the throat lazily as if he was actually considering the question. He leaned slightly back against the wall and looked up at Anakin through the damp hair that was not his. "I could tell you." Vader said, and his words sounded weird coming from this person's mouth. "but… I just don't want to."

'Immaturity…' Anakin thought and filed that information away for later. Vader might even be younger than he first thought. It took everything he had not to punch Vader in the face.

'…Why am I so unhinged?' He could feel himself how the force was in an uproar around him. How? 'I have never been in so little control before.'

"Why stun?" Was the question he asks instead, trying to calm himself down. Vader was out of reach for now and the only thing he could do now was get as much information as possible from him. The more he knew, the easier Vader would be to find.

And he would find him.

Anakin had never been more certain of anything else.

Vader was a very violent person, and violating peoples mind certainly didn't seem to push his moral boundaries. Not setting the blasters to kill made no sense.

Avoiding killing anyone… there was no advantage in it for him. Quite the opposite. Vader could easily have made the clone troopers kill each other in battle and decimated their forces in an instant.

"I didn't want to give you any more excuses" Vader said and laughed, but it was a hollow thing.

It was the weirdest thing Vader could have possibly said. Anakin snorted despite himself, but the hopeless laugh that twisted from his throat withered when the eyes that stared back at him didn't waver.

"What is that even supposed to mean?" He said, and because he was confused the words that came out were angry.

"The Jedi don't believe in killing their enemies." Vader said with a tired expression, like they were sharing a private joke, but there was a tightening around his eyes that looked like pain. "But they still do it, if they have to. It does not mean that you have to-." Vader said, a pained sound escaped from him and he moved the left arm closer to himself. But that made no sense, Anakin had not hit him there.

"Enough." Mace Windu said and stepped closer. At first, it looked like Vader's possessed puppet was going to say something, but at the end of it, the figures simply stilled in such an instant complete way that for any living creature would be unnatural.

The smile it painted over its teeth were as real as its face.

"A newcomer, with something to say?" Vader said, like he was delighted by the interruption if not for the odd glances he threw towards Anakin. Anakin noticed the attention with a frown, but he did not interrupt Windu as he walked up beside him.

"The strings you use to control this man. They leave a clear trail to you in the force." Windu said like he was bored. "I will see you soon."

"No you won't." Vader said and his hand moved. He froze when Windu's lightsaber flashed up in a guard so fast, it looked like it had simply appeared in the blink of an eye. Vader's hand remained frozen on the wall where it rested, but his only answer was a smile that was nothing more than a display of teeth. "There is only one way this can end, I have already seen it."

The yellow eyes moved to Anakin. There was a question in those narrowed eyes.

A dare.

Then Vader struck like a viper. The fingers dug into each of Anakin's shoulders and he was ripped forward, close to the Sith. He was already moving for his lightsaber when Vader words whispered secretly into his ear.

"I wonder. What will they all say when they discover your secret?" Vader whispered and leaned even closer. The warm breath made Anakin shiver when it ghosted his ear. "Daddy."

To Anakin, in the moment that word escaped into the air, the entire world stopped. Everything stopped. All that existed came to halt and all there was were him and the Sith leaning into him

'How does he know that?!' He thought and his mind looped and looped again for a reason why. He found nothing. This Sith shouldn't know, couldn't know. This Sith that had not even existed in Anakin's world until a few hours ago should not know.

'That Sithspit cannot possibly know that!' he thought, but the yellow eyes were firm and the words inescapable. This Sith knew about Padmé.

Vader knew!

"Anakin!" Obi-wan was suddenly there, beside him shoving Vader back against the wall and placing himself physically between Anakin and Vader. "What did he say?" Obi-wan's eyes had not looked at him that worried in years and Anakin wondered how freaked out he must have looked to make Obi-wan act like that. "What did he do?"

Anakin felt a change in the force and snapped his eyes back to the Sith that was pinned to the wall by Windu. The purple blade hovered over Vader's heart.

From beneath Vader's stolen hand curled up on the wall, another hand appeared. The fingers whiter than bleached bones ghosted up between Vader's stolen fingers, curious and reaching and the very force was splintering with a screeching high-pitched sound.

Anakin's eyes zeroed on the hand and the unnatural white fingers that snaked up between the man's fingers. He could not feel them in the force at all. They should not be real. Could not be real.

Then Vader's hand turned.

And the yellow eyes turned into a soft brown.

Luke breathed in deeply and untangled himself from the presence of the man. His entire body felt weird and shaky when his mind returned to where it belonged. It was like he had just run a hundred miles in the span of the last two minutes.

He rubbed his hand on his coat in an attempt to warm them, but the cold lingered like a handprint even after the hand that had left it was banished again.

Still.

A win was a win.

He shook the hand once more and brought his other hand up to curl around it, as he stared down on the streets flashing past below. The wind was strong and cold, but it did not bother him because this was a different kind of cold. It was natural unlike the touch that lingered stubbornly in his fingers.

'Please do something stupid, father.' He thought and looked back to the Jedi temple fading in the distance. 'Let them see what is happening to you. Maybe they can help and still stop it.' He thought, and wished that he could do so with greater conviction.

If Luke managed to do what he had set out to, Anakin would still need help to purge the dark side that was already tainting his presence.

The dropship suddenly shook under the strain and the engine rumbled louder as if in protest of the pace.

"Faster." He told the pilot and looked back out. He dropped the hand and focused his attention on the building in the distance that was closing in. The hood was flung from his head as another strong wind blew past, but Luke hardly noticed, just as he did not really feel the warm touch of the sun on his face. His attention was elsewhere.

The senate reached for the sky in an impressive display of architecture that made his mouth taste sour with the memory of the slums. He did not care at all for this enormous contrast between rich and poor in this civilized age.

He resisted the urge to rub the impressive bruise on his face that he knew he would be sporting soon. His father had a nasty right hook. But then again, he already knew that, just like he knew this brave new world looked a lot like the old one he had come from.

'No, it doesn't just look like the one I came from' he thought. This was exactly like home. It was the same rule, with the same soldiers in the same uniforms. It was even the same emperor wearing a different name.

The empire was already here even if no one else could see it.

Maybe that was why the Sith in his own time had laughed. Luke tightened his hand into a fist, closed his eyes in a long blink. He had to do this. He had burned all his bridges coming here.

'This is the end.' He thought and looked back to the senate that came closer and closer each second, and with it came the cold presence that never stopped haunting him. 'Finally.'

To be continued.

Chapter Text

This world was very beautiful.

There was so much more to see than the dusty outback he had grown up in. This enormous world that had opened up to him after he walked up the ramp of the millennium falcon, had endless possibilities.

It had hundreds of planets and star-systems. Planets made of an eternity of snow, forest or water with so many different cultures and people. It was an infinity of wonders just waiting to be discovered

In the time that followed he had only found one constant rule in the many worlds that were littered between the sea of stars. Just one.

This world was beautiful…and very cruel

"So if we do this, I can fix everything?" He asked not truly believing the words himself, he had in time learned not to. He could not afford any more mistakes. "The galaxy will go back to how it was before? To what it would have become?" It was everything he ever wanted, had begged for during these long days and nights, and yet he was hesitating in taking this offered hand.

There had to be a catch. Nothing in this world was ever given for free.

Or given at all.

'You were not listening were you?' The creature said from under the hood, the teeth that framed the sentence were bared in a smile. It shifted the knife in its hands in a slow hypnotizing way, but the yellow eyes never left Luke. 'Life is not something you can simply undo, and time is not something that can be manipulated on a whim. Once something is written, it cannot be unwritten.'

To Luke's senses it did not feel like a lie.

For once.

"Then what exactly are you offering me?" If he could not change anything, then what was the point of this? "I have made it very clear to you why I am here and what I want."

The Sith hesitated, its long fingers drummed on the knife making the oddest little melody that sounded kind somehow. 'Time is a linear thing that is intertwined in everything.' The Sith finally said, he sounded for a moment more like a scholar than a Sith. 'Time is a cruel mistress and she rarely changes her mind, but there is a way to do this'

"So what must I do then, when I go back?" Luke said, following the explanation and envisioning a calm stream in his mind like he once saw on a planet they visited briefly. "Do I create an alternative way for time to flow?"

'Time does not flow, it is not a stream. It is a web with thousands upon thousands of threads.' The Sith interrupted with more patience than Luke would ever had given it credit for. 'Threads that are all woven together for a singular purpose.' The knife in the Sith's hand suddenly stroked forward and Luke's breath caught until he realized it was not an attack.

The knife had separated a line in the air that had not been there before. Luke could feel the illusion now as much as he could see it dangling in the air. It shone, in a way, like faded moonlight but the light felt eerie, unnatural and the light side of the force withdrew from it.

It looked like a spider web, if spiders were the size of TIE fighters.

'And strings can be cut.' It said like the thought was somehow amusing. Luke found himself hypnotized by the illusion. It looked so real. He resisted reaching his hand out to touch it because of the slight fear that it would be solid.

The string the knife had cut in half fell down to the sides and hung dangling over the floor cut high enough not to reach it. The way the stings hung limp in air looked so very real, just like the rest of the gigantic web that was so tall that the top of it disappeared up in the darkness above them.

If Luke had not known it was an illusion, he would not have believed it to be anything other than real.

'Time can be changed but only by cutting the right strings.' The Sith continued, and either did not notice Luke's silent wonder, or simply did not care. The Sith walked closer to its own design and made two sharp movements.

The core of the web was ruined, and the strings fell around the carved openings like wilted flowers. 'Cut these ones in the middle and sure, you have damaged the natural design.' The Sith said and pointed at the damage it had created. 'But you have to be a lot more surgical to make the entire thing collapse.'

The knife moved pointing upwards to the strings that clung to the walls.

There was no way the knife could have reached that far, but obediently the spider web caved in on itself. 'Not real' he reminded himself and watched with a strange detachment as the web crumbled, only held up by a single remaining thread attached to the celling.

"This is… we were going to change things, mend it…. not." Luke paused grasping for words that a Sith would understand. "This would be… breaking it."

The Sith turned to face Luke again with the strangest look in its eyes. If that look had been borne by any other, it would have looked like wonder.

'… you have a very romantic way of looking at this.' The Sith answered after a long pause. 'Changing time is not something gentle.' The knife disappeared back into its robe, and the illusion behind the Sith flickered out leaving the room darker than before.

'You forget this is the dark side. You cannot create something new without breaking something of equal value.' The words left faint echoes that had faded completely before the Sith's words again rang out in the dark. 'Do you understand now?'

"It won't come to that" Luke denied the image and even took a step back to distance himself. The words sounded false even to his own ears.

'We shall see.'

"Don't land." Luke ordered, silencing the demons in his mind with louder noise. The roar of the engine was a blessing. He could feel the long knives of his regrets clawing at his mind, but the deadening noise drowned them out.

The head of the hood muted the noise slightly and he ripped it off his head. To his relief the deadening noise around him reached another higher level of discord impossible to block out.

He revelled in it.

He learned to like noise, to crave it even. The louder the better. It was silence that was cruel, it always made him overthink everything. It made him doubt, not only the thing he was doing, but also the things he had done in the past.

There was only endless silence on Tatooine. Always.

Until that day

"But sir." The commander said with disbelief, Luke noted that the man almost had to shout to be heard over the roaring engine. That could not be practical in combat. A smile crawled up on his lips and made them crooked.

It was nice to stumble upon such a glaring flaw.

"That is the only way in." The soldier protested mildly and pointed for good measure at the door far below them. Despite the Clonetrooper's misgivings about the order, the dropship instantly stopped its descent.

"Going that way would take too long." Luke said and stepped closer to the edge of the dropship the wind howled around him and mercifully drowned out everything, even the name hiding in the darkest corners of his mind. "Bring us up." He gestured upwards and the ship started to rise in the same moment.

The sky was blue above them. It was a clear blue that he only ever saw in one other place and his stomach clenched painfully.

"Where to, Sir?"

"Do you know where the chancellor's office is?" He asked, but his eyes were still held captive by that endless blue. Enthralled and imprisoned equally.

"You see." He said and leaned over the side and his eyes pulled down to look at the ground far below. The edge he was standing on was truthful in that it was painfully obvious that a fall from this height could have only one merciless outcome. The ground was very far away, so far that the people moving beneath were little more than black spots against the pavement. "I prefer a more direct approach."

He had an inexplicable urge to test if the jump was fatal. In theory, he should be able to slow his descent with the force. Or so he had read in a text once. He was not sure if one could survive if they were dropped from here, force or not.

He leaned closer over the edge, drawn in by the sight, teasing the demon hiding behind his eyes with the threat of death.

"Why knock on the door if you have a key?" He said fixated on the long drop and the pulling sensation that urged him come closer. To jump. For a moment an old memory stole his eyes and instead of the street in broad daylight below him, there was a bottomless pit surrounded by black walls.

"Sir?" Came the hesitant question, finally.

"Commander, how precise is your aim with the cannons on this thing?" He asked, and used the sound of his own voice to drag himself out of the memory he had dug himself into.

"It is what I do for a living, sir." The soldier said with professional pride like he was talking to a superior and not an enemy that had enslaved his mind. "I never miss."

"Good." Luke said reassured, the cold handle of the lightsabre found its way into his hands. "Aim the guns at the windows."

This had to work. It had to.

The chancellor would listen to him.

The soldier looked down the slight sting in his arm had faded long ago, but the threat of what it had been lingered. What had she given him? And why?

He felt a tingling at his fingertips but he did not know if it was due to the drug or the nervousness that made his heart beat faster and faster in his chest.

The two people flanking him were silent, but he could feel the animosity thick in the air from one of them and frim determination from the other. He chose to focus on the latter, it calmed his mind a fraction.

Then the door slid smoothly open with a soft hissing sound and the one he had come this far to meet turned to face him.

The brown eyes looking back at Obi-Wan were wide and terrified. The man pressed closer against the wall as if it could swallow him up and he could escape from this scene.

He looked at Obi-wan like he was a Rancor about to eat him.

"It is no use, Vader is gone." Obi-Wan said and leaned back to appear less intimidating to the unnamed man, but he did not let go. The man looked just about ready to bolt… or faint. Obi-wan threw a look at Windu for conformation who nodded in agreement.

The answer was practically shouted back at him though the force. There was no lie in those eyes, only fear.

"I'm sorry. I don't-" The man stuttered, his fear spiked and the panic flared. "I didn't-." He looked away again, and he shifted the weight of his feet. Obi-Wan wanted to use force persuasion to make the man tell them where in the world Vader disappeared to, but the man's mind was already damaged, forcing his will on the man could leave lasting wounds.

In the end it is Anakin that acted first.

Somehow it was always him.

"Relax." He said in a way that sounded both comforting and firm as he gently gripped the man's right arm and guided him to a nearby bench. "Sit down, I need you to keep your weight off that ankle." He pulled the man down to the bench quickly enough to make the man emit a startled sound.

"Hand up over your heart. It will slow the bleeding" Anakin says and visibly tried not to look at the blood still dripping from it. "What is your name?" Obi-wan's old Padawan asked without missing a beat as he pulls a med kit out

At first it did not look like the man would answer. He sat completely frozen at the bench staring wide-eyed at Anakin.

"I-" He began finally and the word choked halfway up his throat. "Adrian Walker." Was the name he whispered creating a small puff of white smoke when his warm breath collided with the frosty air.

Obi-wan felt that cold to, but not just in the air. It was like it had settled in his very bones. The Dark side was powerful now, even in the absence of a master. The imprint of the dark side had been cut off from its creator but it had grown on its own, feasting on the pain and fear. The presence was practically a leviathan now, and it was still growing.

To clear the dark from this area would be an enormous task.

"Adrian." Anakin repeated finally and the soft sound of the bandage stopped and Obi-Wan turn back just in time to see Anakin finish the bandage on the hand. "What is the last thing you remember?"

"I-." he shook his head and the unwounded hand came up to cradle his face. "Sorry."

"Breathe in." Anakin said to the young man while keeping his voice very even. Doing what he had been taught to appear calming and less intimidating. "And out." He paused until the order was followed. "Again."

And finally Obi-wan was able to shake himself out of the stupor that had descended on him.

"I am sorry." He said and joined his old apprentice down on eye-level with the young Adrian. "But we need to stop the man that did this to you. Every moment counts."

Anakin sent him a displeased look that made his normally frowned eyebrows draw even closer together. His hand made a motion warding off Obi-wan. He was not surprise about this reaction, he had seen it before when Anakin was extraction information from someone. He had never really mastered force persuasion it had never really seemed like it interested him at all. He preferred to do it his own way.

Obi-wan dispelled the faint traces of that old disappointment into the force.

"I was going – I was going home, but then there suddenly was all this commotion." Adrian said, looking nervously from one Jedi to the other. "I figured it was a riot, so I... I tried to avoid it." He stuttered, but he looked much calmer now that the panic had dimmed into worry. "I had almost gotten around it when I ran right into this man. He had yellow eyes." Adrian paused and looked down with a worried expression.

"Go on."

"He just- walked up to me and raised his hand." Adrian's eyes narrow slightly and called the attention of the premature lines already folding out from the corners of his eyes. The signs of a hard life in one so young. "That is the last thing I remember."

"He…" Adrian stumbled again over his words. "I can't be sure" he bites his lip and looks away. "But it looked like he was leaving with a group of clone troopers when I-"

"Vader left with Clonetrooper's!" Anakin said a little too sharply in surprise and the man flinched back. The hand in his lap curled up as he too curled in on himself, to make himself look smaller. Anakin grimaced and his anger died in the force as though it was swallowed by a flood.

"He was with a lot of soldiers." Adrian said quickly, breathlessly. The fear was back in the man's eyes and Anakin must have seen it too because he visibly restrained himself and motioned for the man to continue with an exaggerated slow gesture. "...It looked like they were following his orders."

"How many are missing?" Windu asked the trooper at his side, who had the familiar light of a holo bathing his white armour in the soft colours. "Everyone is accounted for, except-" the clone trooper halts and listen intently to the message coming over the comm. "except..." He repeats and hesitates with a quick look at Anakin.

Anakin is on his feet in a second. Anakin ripped the holocom out of the Clonetropper's hand, and demand the answer from the other side of the line. In the next second his whole body froze on the spot.

"Rex!"

This was not going as it should. He had been in enough negotiations to know when a deal was going south. But he did not understand why.

"Chancellor, I must object" She walked closer to the chancellor, her face was carefully blank, but there was something beneath it. He had known the Jedi master for long enough to know when something was bothering her. She would walk even straighter than she usually did and her face would become as expressive as a clay mask.

Just seeing that made his shoulder tense.

"Master Jedi, trust me, I will not be alone." Palatine answered. Unlike the Jedi, the chancellor was the very picture of calm.

The soldier could not put his finger on it, but there was something that just wasn't right about it.

"I have my security here." Palatine continued gesturing to commander Fox lingering behind him in the shadows. The presence of another clone should be a relief. It wasn't. "I want this soldier to feel he is having a fair say in this matter."

The soldier watched her leave the room with a feeling of dread growing in the pit of his stomach. The sight of her back leaving the room took all the remaining warmth he had in him.

The glass cracked under his boot and shards scratched against the white stones of the floor as they were dragged behind the heavy cloak.

"You are right." Luke commented and stepped around what was left of what must have been a glass table. "You are an excellent shot." He tried with a careful smile at the soldier. He knew he used to be charming. Leia had always said that he had a very endearing smile.

The man did not answer as the rest of the mind-controlled soldiers fanned out around them. But then, why would he? It had not been an order. He had been forced to be here by an enemy that was pulling the strings on every move he made. If Luke let go of his concentration for just one moment, he was sure he would find a pair of hands around his neck or a blaster at his back.

Still there was a twinge of disappointment when the smile wasn't returned, and in a weak moment he stretched his senses towards the soldier, to force the reaction. He dropped the attempt immediately after a breath and continued out the door.

'Stop tormenting yourself.' He thought, berating himself for almost indulging such to such base desires.

"The chancellor is clearly not here." He said shaking himself out of the moment of melancholy and addressed the commander directly as he fell in line behind Luke. "Where would they take him?"

"To the safe room most likely, but it does not make sense," The trooper answered in a professional manner. "They had no idea we would be here. They should not have moved him." The helmet tilted slightly, Luke's only clue to the man's thoughts.

"We just blasted a hole in the wall." Luke comments with a raised eyebrow before he could stop himself and resisted biting his cheek. He held no love for these sarcastic outbursts. They were a throwback to a person he used to be. Such things did not fit him now.

The soldier huffed. "Now they know, but we flew below the radar." He tilted his head towards Luke, but with the helmet on Luke could only guess at his expression. His voice though was professional and firm. "It is very unlikely they would have seen us coming in time to evacuate."

"Then where is he?" Luke asked forgoing questioning the commander on how he knew this. Under Luke's influence he knew the soldier could not work against him. Luke kept the leash tight.

"I don't know..." The soldier answered with slight hesitation. "But not the safe room yet, I think." He sounded as certain as Luke had felt these past days. Which wasn't saying much. "You attacked the temple not the senate, there was no need to move him yet."

"Then what do you know that can help?" He asked, trying to bleed the sarcasm from his words all the while rechecking the bonds he had on the man through the force.

"We need to find him before he reaches the safe room." The soldier followed Luke through the door into the hall and in a gesture commanded his troops in front of them. "If he gets in there, then we can't touch him. It was designed to with stand almost anything."

"Almost anything?" Luke repeated and savoured that last word with its many possibilities. It was a truth he already knew.

Everything could be broken.

"That does not sound like-"

"Stand down, or I shoot." The cold end of a blaster pressed firmly against Luke's temple and the sudden hand around his neck was unyielding. Through the corner of his eyes he could only see a blurry impression of the attacker.

The soldiers, that had moved at once when the voice shouted through the empty hall, halted almost in the same moment, looking to Luke for orders, which was a slow gesture. He dared not do anything else.

"Move an inch." The man dared and a hand shot out to pull Luke back into the alcove with him. The cold hit him before the dark, and the door that slammed close behind them. "You are the Sith that tried to kill the chancellor!"

"That door is made of wood." Luke said in a light tone, completely ignoring the words. "You think it will keep combat soldiers out?"

The man turned around and pushed Luke back against the door.

"Tell them to shoot then." The blaster moved from his temple to rest right between the eyes. "I dare you." The man said with a calm like he was a soldier himself, even it was clear by just one look that he was not.

He looked like a senator in his soft pristine clothes and neatly trimmed goatee. Luke instantly hated him, and it was not because of the blaster resting point-blank between his eyes.

He laughed. He could not help it. It was too ridiculous. Luke had faced more than one destroyer of worlds. The fact that this soft politician was actually threatening him was hilarious.

"What the hell are you laughing at?!"

"You will not fire at me." Luke said, and leaned casually back against the door. "In fact, I think you want to drop the blaster now."

The man froze and hissed in a breath. The hand holding the blaster was shaking violently, but he held on to it, if only barely. Reluctantly impressed, Luke let his mirth die.

"Drop it." He repeated, and he felt the mind war against his will. "Now."

The blaster was only halfway to the ground before it whipped into Luke's hand by a sharp command through the force. The man looked horrified, his hand immediately reached down for his belt and-

"Stop." Luke ordered, and watched the man do just that. Stopped everything. Luke briefly considers ordering him to stop breathing. He suppressed it violently and pushed the dark side at a distance as he breathes in heavily. "Open the door for me."

'Pull yourself together!' He thought and stepped back into the hall and the soldiers waiting for him.

"Where is the Chancellor?" Luke asked the new puppet with the empty eyes

"He went in the direction of the docking halls." He says in a detached voice. "Hall A I think, he said there was someone he needed to meet and that it could not wait."

"Why do you know this?"

"I am a senator." The eyes of the man were blank now, any sign of independent will was gone. "We were supposed to have a meeting and the chancellor cancelled at the last minute."

"I think the two of us are going to be great friends." Luke said pleasantly ignoring the futile resistance he met in the force. The man was strong willed. "Senator." He repeated. "Name?" It was a habit that made him ask, but the answer makes his heart miss a beat.

"Senator Bail Organa."

"…Organa?" He missed a breath, and his chest clenched painfully. In the dark corner of his heart he was starting to understand why the Sith in his own time had laughed. In a macabre way this was hilarious.

'It was not your fault.' A gentle voice told him from the memory he avoided like the plague. Luke did not believe it.

He had long since learned the consequences of telling lies to himself.

"What were you thinking?" Luke said rounding on the man with a sudden spark of hate. People were so eager to throw their lives away in this time. "One soft senator against how many professionally trained soldiers." He didn't understand why he was suddenly this angry, the words flooded from him like they had taken a life of their own "Are you truly that arrogant, that irresponsible?"

That is as far as he got before a loud beeping rose from the commander's belt. Luke started and stared down at it with eyes narrowed, like the interruption was entirely the devices fault. The possibilities of who might be calling from the other side flashed briefly in his mind. None of the scenarios he stumbled upon dispelled the nervousness curling in his gut.

He held up his hand, warning the soldier not to obey the trained reaction to answer the call immediately. "Leave it-" He said. After a small eternity the insistent beeping finally stops and he breathed around the frustration as it faded with the noise

"What is the fastest way?" He asked banishing his anger even if the frustration lingered on. He knew the basic layout of the place, but the building was a monstrosity in itself and he could not for the life of him remember the location of docking halls.

There had been so many things that he needed to learn before coming back here to this time. The mappings of the battleship he knew he would end up on, the combatants he could risk running into and first and foremost the power and skill of the Sith he would risk encountering… and the Jedi of course, even if the latter had been difficult reading.

Luke had never enjoyed tragedies.

"You stick to this level at first" Organa said. "And then-"

Then the incessant beeping started again, and Luke's brows grew closer in a frown. He gritted his teeth and blocks the irritation of the noise out.

"Sir?" The leader of the troopers tries to call Luke's attention but Luke waved it off.

"Go on." He says with hard won patience but barely had he spoken, before the beeping started again.

"If I don't answer this. They will know for sure." The soldier said with little room for negotiation. Luke felt the rising frustration he could not keep from showing in his eyes, shifting his weight on his feet and strengthened the bonds on the soldier to the point where it should be physically painful, but he could not afford a slip-up now.

"Tell them everything is fine, that you tried to pursue me, but lost me in the streets." He said and backed out of range of the blue light of the holocom that flashed on with its soft artificial light. The shape that appeared was all too painfully familiar.

He resisted the temptation to glare when the shape of Anakin Skywalker emerged as a figure in the blue light, but he barely fought off the sudden helpless urge to laugh. He ground his teeth together, the force pulled at him as if to get him to move and he wanted nothing more than to obey.

His frustration did not spike as he expected it to as he witnessed the conversation unfold before him. Perhaps he simple could not feel more frustrated than he already was.

Maybe there was simply no more room for it in his head.

The door slid closed and blocked the light from the room.

"Now" Palpatine said, his voice turned into a low rumble as he circled the soldier. "Where were we?"

"Why is he not answering?!" Anakin mumbled to himself and pressed the button to repeat the call. A second time the tone started and stopped, and left him in unbearable silence once again.

"Rex, I swear by the force! If you do not-"

The blue light that rushed to fill the holocom silenced Anakin immediately by its mere presence, but the figure had barely been formed by the light by the time Anakin's questions were in the air.

"Where are you?" Anakin demanded. He knew he was letting his frustration and worry show, but the tension he felt in the force only grew and grew. It was like the very air was splitting apart.

"Everything is fine, Anakin." The image of Rex answered calmly, uncaringly, saying his first name like it was nothing.

Except Rex never used his first name.

The holocom groaned under the pressure when his metal hand close firmly around it. 'What have you done now, Vader?' He thought and stared at the outliers of the projection, there was no sign of Vader, but that did not mean that he was not there, hiding in the dark like a coward! There was nothing he could see in the holocom that supported the growing feeling of wrongness in the force.

But he trusted his instincts. Vader was there on the other side, listening in.

"…Anakin?" He hears Obi-wan repeat behind him, but his eyes cannot detach from the projection of Rex looking back up at him.

"We tried to pursue the Sith into the streets, but we lost him." The reply was unflinching, but the sense of wrongness was so thick he felt like he should be choking on it.

"Where are you now?" He asked hopelessly. He knew it was a stupid, but he had to ask.

"We are coming back right away, Anakin." Rex said sounding as certain and reassuring as he always did. Only he repeated Anakin's first name again, the name that Rex refuses to use even in private. He even put a little extra pressure on it.

The holocom went out and Anakin was left with a cold sinking feeling.

"Does Commander Rex usually call you by your first name?" Windu asked when Anakin handed the holocom back to the clone trooper, but with the tone of his voice it did not sound like a question.

"No." Anakin and pressed his hand into a fist. "Damn it." The answer had been staring him right in the face and still he had allowed his anger to cloud his mind and had run like a fool towards the distraction that was dangled so temptingly right in front of him. "… a distraction." Anakin said in a whisper, as the horror of that realisation really sunk in. "I know where they are."

"What?" Obi-wan was beside him again, but the question was nothing more than background noise. Anakin was already moving before Obi-wan's hand locked around his upper arm. "Anakin-"

"What is the only thing Vader has been trying to do since we met him?"

"He tried to kill me." The soldier could hear Palpatine's damning words behind him, his mind was reeling with the implications of what the chancellor had just told him on his own volition. Their leader was a traitor. "It was so sudden."

This was a massive deception. The nightmare scenarios his mind had conjured up on the way here did not even hold a candle to the truth. This was genocide waiting to happen. It could mean the end of the Jedi. He had to find somebody that would believe him.

Anyone.

Something was wrong.

Luke could feel it. It was a nagging in the back of his mind, the feeling of doubt.

There was a stab of something that felt like a warning through the force the minute the blue light of the holocom flickered off. He told Organa to stay in the broken office, he could not bear to look at him, and they left the hall behind at a brisk pace.

The suspicion persisted, and became even more stifling as they travelled the abandoned halls.

He tried to ignore it. 'You are getting paranoid, Luke.' His mind supplied unhelpfully and he followed the soldiers down another hall. The short exchange between his father and the soldier whose name he now knew to be Rex replayed over and over again in his mind.

Rex had said exactly what he had ordered him to. Still, the doubt persisted, like a high pitched scratching at the back of his mind.

He increased his pace down the abandoned hall. His senses went to all sides to catch a glimpse of the elusive sith. The more times the response that came back to him a blank nothing, the harder his heart pounded. His eyes strayed to a silent clock hanging on the wall as he passed it, he had barely looked before he regretted it.

Why had he even done that?

The way to the lift was as short as it was worrying. The absence of people became increasingly louder in his mind. There should be people around but this entire floor was cleaned out. He turned his hand towards a camera as they bolted past and crushed it into oblivion without breaking his run.

He wondered what eyes were looking at them from the other side of those cameras or if anyone was looking at them at all. 'What is going on?' He just blasted the chancellor's office to pieces and no one batted an eye?

Then finally, he sensed a presence in front of them. The very one he almost snuffed out twice now, but it was far away. He rechecked the bonds he has on his escorts, and wished he hadn't a second later. His control was already fraying at the edges, and all he had done thus far was running around.

Then there are steps, and the sound of blaster fire in the distance. Luke forced himself not to count his puppets again.

"Cover." He said to them instead of doing what he really wants to do, run ahead and finish it.

'Patience' he commands himself and the force gathers around him. Barely a minute later a man bolted past them. It was a clone trooper with no helmet, and his eyes are wide and unseeing. Luke lets him run. He waits for the second one in line that must come running.

But no one followed.

The hall was empty.

The holocom beeped again, and Rex moved to answer it before Luke could command him not to. For some explicable reason, he took his helmet off.

"There has been an attempt on the Chancellors life." Rex said with a straight face, like that is not exactly what they were about to do.

"We haven't even gotten there yet." He protested. As if Rex has not heard him, he continued.

"They say it is a clone trooper." There is a look of disgust in Rex's eyes.

Luke whipped around after the trooper that disappeared down the hall. 'They say it is a clone trooper.' Echoed once again in his mind once again.

The force screamed back at him suddenly, the sense of wrongness coming from the force was so thick he felt he might just be able to cut through it with his lightsabre.

"Put down your weapon!" Rex yelled his hands was almost faster that his words as his gun was up at the level of his eyes in a movement so quick that Luke did not see it happen. The other hand shoved Luke behind him, out of reach of the enemy that had just entered the hall.

She was a silhouette against the light coming from the bright lamps in the ceiling on the other side of the hall, lamps that for some reason were more brightly lit than the rest. 'Jedi' his senses told him, and one with considerable power.

What was more worrying, she was an unknown, one of the hundreds of Jedi forgotten to history after the clone wars. He knew nothing of her, but he had fought the others, Jedi or not, that had.

She should be no problem.

"Sith" She breathed as he pushed Rex aside.

"Shall we shoot, sir?"

"Can you from here?" Luke asked without moving his eyes a fraction from the Jedi. He somehow doubted the effectiveness of a blaster against a Jedi because even with as little training as he had had, blasters were a nuisance more than a threat.

"If she is distracted, sir."

Luke nodded in understanding and stepped out of the half circle formed by the soldiers. He tried to ignore the feeling of comfort that rose from having someone to stand at his back, even if it was someone who was forced.

'Kriff!' He swore at himself. By the force he had become pathetic! He kept the frustration clear in mind as he walked up to the Jedi. He stopped when there was still space between them.

She appeared calm in the force, this unfamiliar Jedi, but it was like it was painted on rather than soaked through her entire being.

"I don't know who you are stranger, but there can be no doubt about your allegiance." Her saber rose in a guard. Luke had mimicked it before he registered his hands doing it. It was the same thing (the same move) that Obi-Wan had made when he met Vader.

He registered a sound, the click of something metallic snapping off and then there was only pain. A numbed spike in his shoulder as his world tilts and the ground rushed up to meet him. The pain flared and he choked on air trying to just breathe as his fingers clawed and twisted against the ground and his back to where the pain was blinding

'My back!' He breathed around the pain but the very air in his lungs was liquid fire 'They shot me in the back!'

Then there was nothing.

The celling was suddenly staring back at him when he opened his eyes, it moved above him until it came to a harsh stop. There was blaster fire, but it sounded like it was worlds away and he was hearing the noise through water.

What had just happened?

His eyes closed slowly, and he felt weightless.

"They are locking down the building." He heard Rex above him and thanked the force that he had held on to the connection so tight. His strengthening focus wrapped around that thought and the weakness that was already showing in his control of the soldiers became as it had been before "If we don't go now, we won't get out."

Luke knew it was a lie. The force told him so even before he managed to get his shaking limbs under him. The hailstorm of blaster fire fell hard. He knew no one was getting out. He had been in enough lost battles to know this.

His hand reached back, the pain was numbed for now and there was no wetness found by his searching fingers. It was a stun they hit him with. Luckily. It was a clean shot. If it had been live ammo he doubted he would have survived it.

"For what it is worth. I am sorry." He said to Rex as he painfully got his breathing under control. "You will not surrender, not for anything." He ordered and felt a part of himself detach and bleed away from his very self. It sounded like cracking glass, but softer. "You will cover my escape until you are no longer capable of doing so…or until I am out. Set your blasters to stun"

'Do you understand now?.' The memory of voice whispered loud and demanding. Luke let the voice drown in the sea of voices he barely contained.

'It will not come to that!' He insisted in his mind at the gleeful voice.

It would not

Chapter Text

"I still doubt that you will be able, to commit the act, when the time comes." The Sith was pleased sharing this, Luke could tell by the way there was a spike in the force.

"Don't look at me like that." The smile widened enough to show a glimpse of yellow teeth "There is little shame in it, many have failed before." The Sith moved its right hand restlessly, as if the hand had lost its purpose without the knife, even if there were still dark lines painted on the skin of his hands between the fingers, heavy and dark like scars.

"You don't need to worry about that." Luke said, thankful for the unexpected gift. The pleasure of telling the Sith what he was going to do to its face. "I am not who I was before." He continued and knew this was the true path. Anakin's attraction to the dark side had to be strangled in its cradle. "I have killed over a million people".

And he had been happy about doing it. He had had every right to be. Left to roam, the Death Star could have wiped out entire civilizations in a heartbeat. In time it could have destroyed entire systems, and carved a void into the galaxy.

But there had been consequences despite his best intentions. Because intentions did not matter in the force. There were no grey areas. There was the dark and there was the light. Evil, was evil.

And he was the most famous mass-murderer in the galaxy.

"And I came here with the intention of killing at least one more."

Luke had travelled back in time for a second time.

He was sure of it.

He blinked again, assured that his eyes were playing games with him, but the scenery did not change. The bar the clone trooper had finally stopped in front of had looked like nothing special… until he went inside.

The only other time he had seen so many white armours and grey uniforms in one place, was a battlefield. The sound was deadening and distorted but even in the coloured flashing lights there were no mistaken those uniforms.

He felt like he just gate-crashed a party on a Star-Destroyer.

There were that many soldiers.

He caught himself staring too long at a naval lieutenant who stumble past, clearly already drunk even if it was still early in the evening. The man's uniform was a mess, but for a moment Luke could not take his eyes off him. He had rarely ever seen an imperial officer this close. Alive that is. He had caught plenty of storm troopers during the war, but extremely rarely an officer.

They usually… made sure they weren't captured alive. Having met Vader, Luke somewhat understood that choice. He had had a similar reaction himself.

He shook his head and slipped through the crowd, 'Don't notice me' whispered through the force as his eyes wandered in the search of the trooper that just slipped the hook. It was like finding a needle in a pile of needles. A seemingly impossible task.

But he had done the impossible before.

"Run this by me again Rex." Anakin said, he couldn't wrap his head around it. "I have never heard of anyone using force persuasion like this…"

"Theoretically it is possible." Obi-Wan cut in. Anakin felt the frustration move under his carefully constructed façade, but he allowed the interruption. This debriefing was going nowhere knew, just like Obi-Wan should, that what Vader had done should be impossible, but they had both seen it happen this day.

"It would take an extreme amount of control and a considerable potential in the force to back it up, I know." Obi-wan continued addressing everyone in the room. At the end he shifted his gaze to Windu and Yoda. "But it is possible."

"In your own professional opinion?" Windu asked, his expression a constant frown like always. Anakin could not for the life of him remember ever seeing him smile.

Ever.

"I have never heard of it being done on this scale, and for so long." Obi-Wan answered carefully. "But it should be possible, as we have just seen the evidence today."

"Indeed." Windu replied, somehow able to pronounce the word as a question with his eyes shifting to Rex. The constant frown deepened.

"Maybe he wasn't doing it on his own." Obi-wan speculated out loud. "There was something about Vader's force signature that felt...off." He made a weak gesture. "It is hard to explain, but it was like his signature in the force was out of sync with his own body."

"Felt this too, I did." Yoda commented, his expression folded into a thoughtful one. "Peculiar, young Vader feels." His eyes strayed to Anakin, and he knew exactly what he was thinking of "Meditate on this, I must."

The holo in the middle of the room repeated its cycle. The image of Anakin clashing with Vader replayed for a second time before them. Or rather…. Anakin's duel with the civilian Adrian Walker, a mildly force sensitive bartender. He had had no training in the force whatsoever.

It bothered Anakin still. Adrian's force signature was a little above average, but still so little that it should not have been able to produce the fighting manoeuvres he had displayed under Vader's possession.

"Commander, I know recent this is, but describe how Vader controlled you, you can?" Yoda asked, and stared for a moment longer at the projection before he moved his eyes to meet Rex's exhausted ones.

Rex's stiff form relaxed minutely when Yoda spoke to him. Yoda always had a calming effect on the troopers, Anakin had noticed this on more than one occasion.

"It was strange… most of the time, I did not notice something was wrong. It was like Vader had convince me that he was my friend. " Rex paused and added quietly like he did not really mean to "I actually believed he was." He shook his head and his eyes strayed to Anakin. "It was first when I talked to you, sir that the fog lifted for a moment."

"How much do you remember?" Anakin asked trying not to sound angry, but he could feel the frustration he was barely containing within. Too much had already happened this day. He needed to get Vader and close this investigation fast, so he could move to deal with the really important thing that had happened today.

He sighed inside and breathed in to centre himself. Just the thought of Padmé released some of the heavy tension in his shoulders.

"All." Rex answered like he had just taken an injury, unaware that Anakin's mind had drifted. Anakin forced himself to concentrate. Rex released his breath in a huff. "So feel free to ask away, sir."

Obi-Wan stared at the holo projection, there was a slight frown forming between his eyes. Anakin instantly didn't like it. That expression had become entirely too familiar on his old mentor. The expression he always had favoured before only left little lines at the corner of his eyes.

Anakin did not know why he only realized this just now. He watched as Obi-wan sighed, looking older than he was and straightened."Rex, where do you think Vader-"

"Why stun?" The question escaped Anakin suddenly, unbidden, and sounded a lot stronger than he wanted it to. Obi-wan shot him a look, but he did not say anything to the interruption.

"Sir?" Rex asked, but the moment after he had spoken Anakin could see the sudden realization in his eyes. "He ordered us not to kill, sir" And added as an afterthought. "He was very insistent on it. Just as he insisted that we stayed alive at all cost."

"Why?" Mace Windu, moved from his position against the wall, his steps measured and seemingly marred by a suppressed wrath. "What could he possibly get out of that?"

"I don't know, Sir. He did not tell me." Rex shifted on his feet, uncertainty shone back at Anakin through the force.

"Anything you can tell us about Vader is important." Anakin said, trying to reassure the veteran soldier and to his satisfaction he saw the uncertainty start to fade.

"It might not mean anything. But he looked like he was mortified at what he was doing to us and…" he sighed an odd sense of resigned hopelessness echoed in the force from him. "He apologized to me… and he meant it."

"Lied, Vader could have." Yoda said, but only presented it as a possibility, he did not look like it was what he himself believed.

"I know what people look like when they lie, sir."

"Bail Organa told me Vader had yelled at him for being irresponsible." Windu said suddenly like he did not like his own words. Windu had never liked things that did not make sense, neither did Anakin if he was honest. Windu shook his head and the frown that had taken up permanent residence on his face deepened. "Senator Organa said Vader appeared genuinely furious about it."

Anakin's thought came around form another loop of reasons that Vader could have to do this, and once again came back empty. None of the threads connected.

A separatist agent on an assassination mission would not stop the clone troopers from shooting each other full of holes. That would be immensely stupid. A Sith, whatever his allegiance, would also not care about casualties. Furthermore, a Sith would certainly not apologize for using the dark side and mean it.

And why actually yell at Senator Organa like that?

Despite himself he felt a little on the old eagerness alight inside his chest. He always enjoyed a puzzle, if only the stakes had not been so high this time. It was so long since he applied his detective skills like this.

"Stop." Obi-wan was suddenly at the controls to the holo, his fingers moved fast as the holo rewound, and froze. Anakin was on the ground face down, above him was Vader, the vibro blade in his hand raised like an executioner's axe. Obi-wan straitened "Watch, what Vader does." He said and set the holo to play again, but in slow motion.

Anakin stepped into the blue light, it reflected on the lightsaber in his belt as he leaned in, prepared to catch the obscure detail Obi-wan must have picked up. Only the detail presented itself quite boastfully, like it was somehow proud that it had avoided detection after so many repetitions.

When Vader's blade dove, its sharp edge was gleaming in the sunlight, but Anakin instantly saw what he could not have seen the first time with his back turned. "Did he just… turn the blade?"

The image froze. Standing there in clear view was Vader striking down at Anakin's exposed back, but the blade had been deliberately turned so that if it had hit him, it would have been with the blunt harmless side instead of the deadly sharpened one.

"That does not make any sense." Anakin said, shaking his head and not believing what his eyes were telling him. "That's…" The unfinished sentence hung in the air. He had felt murderous intent from Vader, even if he now had to admit to himself that the feed-back that he had got from Vader had felt distorted. Like static on a frequency, that blocked part of a message out.

"A Sith that does not kill…" Windu mutters more to himself than anyone else. "And here I thought that I had seen everything.

"Wait." Rex was suddenly there beside Anakin. "Play it again, sir." Obi-wan's fingers moved fast over the controls and the fight started again from the beginning. Rex's gaze was fixed on Vader as they ran though the now familiar fight pattern. "The way he moves… is that not familiar to any of you?"

There was shock coming from Rex in waves, through the force.

"Should it be?" Anakin asked but turned back to the fight replaying on the holo. It was a strange mix of most of the Jedi combat forms. It should not have worked as fluently as Vader somehow made it do. "What are you seeing Rex?"

A click and the recording stopped. The image of Vader clashing with Anakin was suspended frozen between them. "The way he fights, moves and strikes. I was taught the same thing."

"Excuse me?" Obi-wan stares at Rex as if he suddenly sprouted a second head. Anakin doubts his own expression is much different.

Rex is unmoved by the stares, there is only certainty glaring back at him defiantly though the force. It is not a comfort and Anakin does not like the sudden stillness in Windu's posture.

"Rex-"

"This is the way I learned to fight in close combat. It is the way all clone troopers learn to fight" Rex starts the recording again. Vader on the screen dodged a strike and follows up with a counterattack in a move that suddenly looks uncomfortably familiar. "Aside from a few Jedi moves, he fights exactly like a clone trooper."

"Rex, that's impossibl-"

"Exactly like a clone trooper, sir." Rex's expression was carved in stone, but in the force Anakin could feel the implication of that possibility sink in. The thought of an unknown traitor crossed Rex's mind, and the though was lined with guilt. Rex had a habit of blaming himself, even for something out of his control.

Anakin considered this thought. A traitor trooper. But what would the point be of training a Sith to fight like a combat soldier in close combat? The Sith had their own combat training.

There was a nagging in the back of his head, it was the feeling he got when he had missed something, something important. Whatever it was, it kept itself hidden from him.

Instead he was only getting more questions

"So, I guess the 501st are back on Coruscant." The door closed behind him and his heart thundered loudly into his ears. He had to make this work. If he could only get in contact with the commander and explain this-

"Oh yeah… we just got back from Ringo Vinda, strangest thing happened out there." The trooper still has his back to him, staring at himself in the mirror.

"Yeah.. I know." Fives says, trying to find a way to explain now that the time has come. He knows how insane this will sound. 'How can I possibly explain?' He thinks, and the panic starts to move again. Then the soldier looks up and spots him through the reflection in the mirror.

The man moves like he was hit by lightning, spins around and freezes on the spot.

"Fives?"

Luke was getting nowhere

The room was so poorly lit that it was a struggle to identify one person from the other. It was a sea of uniforms under the many screens littering the walls. The red neon light carved into the ceiling was mixed with blue light giving everything a purple tint. The stench of alcohol and spices lay thick in the air.

The dancefloor was packed, even if only a few had any dancing skill worth mentioning. Luke stopped against the wall taking in the sight and scent, the force looking for the man he followed here. The noise of the voices talking was louder than the music, that was a simple monotone bass that echoed everywhere in the room.

The naval officers were easily recognized and they were filtered away from his search with hardly a thought. Their minds were not hard to locate. The minds of the clone troopers on the other hand felt exactly the same with their gaping open force signature. It made it hard to tell one from the other.

A warning spiked behind him in the force and he quickly slipped into the shadows. A second later five clone troopers walked in through the entrance. Their armour was white but painted red in places that must have marked them as something different than the regulars. Luke did not know what that signified.

Were they some sort of elite?

"Have you seen this clone?" Luke hears them question a man standing by the entrance. A holocom lights up in the trooper's hand. That is not what catches Luke's attention though. It is the man in the middle of the room that freezes at the sight. Luke is only more sure when the man reaches a hand up, seemingly to straighten his hat, but really is just a move to hide his face.

"Erhhh… No Sir." The man answers at the entrance, but it is only background noise to him now. "I haven't seen him."

There was a flicker in the force that made him completely certain this was the same trooper he saw hours before. That, and the fact that no clone trooper he had ever heard of had worn the uniform hat of a naval commander. 'One that was sober that is' He thought when his eye caught something in the drunk crowd that he doubted he would ever forget.

He never knew that clone troopers could be that flexible.

Correction: he didn't want to know clone troopers could be that flexible

He visibly shook himself and followed the trooper out, keeping his eyes fixed on the man that made quick work at slipping past the newcomers. If it had been Luke leading the team, then the trooper he was following would not have left the bar, but the team in the red uniform had not even posted a guard at the entrance.

A beginner's mistake.

Cold air brushed against his face as he followed the man back outside. Then he realized his mistake when he spotted one of the troopers in the red uniform right outside. He was in conversation with two other clone troopers.

The trooper Luke was following noticed the man too. Luke could tell easily, because the man stopped halfway through a step and eyed the speeders lined up at the entrance.

Luke watched as the man neared the speeder, his intent could not be clearer in the force. Luke resisted reacting to it.
He wanted nothing more than to end the chase here and find out why this man was so important, but the same urge that first told him to follow this trooper made him hesitate now. The force told him to wait.

Understanding little, he allowed himself to trust in the force one last time.

The trooper in the red markings stopped, his head snapped around to keep the clone trooper in his sight. His hand is already reaching for the holocom when Luke's hand falls on his armoured shoulder.

"That is not the clone you are looking for." He says extending his force presence gently.

"…that is not the clone I am looking for."

"I can carry on."

"You can carry on." The clone trooper dismissed Luke as unimportant with a slight wave and yelled at a pair that was leaving the bar. "You two! Stop!"

Not wanting to ruin his good luck, Luke made his way to one of the taxis parked a few steps away. It was a long line and the taxi waiting at the front looked like it had been through a war as long as the one Luke came from. But there was some charm to its damaged appearance.

"Are you going to pay?" The taxi driver spat out like anyone else would have in a curse. He did not even look at Luke as he took a seat in the back.

"No." Luke answered casually while getting more comfortable in the backseat. "But you won't mind."

"I won't mind!" The alien twisted in his seat his eyebrows raised so high that they seem a part of his hairline. "What do you think this is-"

"Follow that speeder." Luke ordered without looking at the driver. The man stiffened, then turn back facing the steering-wheel and obeyed. During the drive Luke's control on the alien's mind was constant, it had to be. When he tried to relieve the pressure a bit, he could feel the aliens mind rebel against his leach.

That was worrisome.

Either the alien's mind was strong, or he was getting tired.

The short time he spends in the speeder was largely uneventful; he did not really bother to study the city around him as he did not plan to stay much longer anyway. He didn't want to notice anything that might prove to be a distraction.

The taxi stopped besides an older building. It looks an industrial area, if the large grey buildings are anything to judge by. It is not one of the finer ones by his guessing, the walls just beside him is damaged by the elements and the smell that hangs in the air is one of mild decay.

The lights on the taxi are both broken and for that Luke is grateful. The trooper could otherwise not have avoided seeing them. But in the end the trooper sees nothing as he disappeared inside a large storage building, and leaves his stolen vehicle outside.

'Not used to being on the run' Luke noted with a silent observation, not sure what to do with that. The clumsiness was almost endearing.

Almost.

"I will leave you now." He told the taxi driver. "Thank you for your time. Go back where you came from." He waved the man with little care, their time spent together is already forgotten.

Then Luke feels a resistance in the force.

"Your mother is a droid!" the taxi driver bites and takes off with a roar of the engine.

'What-" Luke startled and could for a moment only blink and stare after the departing taxi. The insult hung unanswered in the air. Luke collected himself, scoffed and shook his head as he then turned to the building. Despite the force control the man clearly managed to speak his mind.

"Droid…" he mutters and shakes his head again.

The moon is high above him, lighting up the night sky in a pale blue light, which makes the night seem colder than it is. Not as cold as the wall that feels like it is covered with frost.

The frost bite against his skin as he scales the building easily enough. Red light shows his path as he steps down on the roof and ignites the lightsaber with a causal movement. The glass gave compliantly under the blade as he cuts through one of the windows of the roof.

The cut was swift and certain and formed a clean unbroken line. The cut up piece floated up to meet his open hand that curls around it. He discarded it on the roof beside him, it landed slowly and carefully on the surface, not because he cared for the glass in any way other than the sound it could make if it broke.

The night was darker on the inside of the building when he left the light of the moon behind. The ground he has landed on is a wide beam that stretched across the hall. In this darkness he cannot see where it ends, Reflections of small yellow, green and red light shone back at him from below in the greater cargo hall.

It was the trace of cold fear in the force that drew him to the lone silhouette in the middle of the cargo hall. If the pacing was anything to go by the soldier was more than just a little bit nervous. The fragility of it stirred something within him, but he could not act on it.

He avoided emotion at all costs. It made him act recklessly.

The feelings broadcasted from him through the force is misery and fear. Underneath there is the tiniest feeling of hope.

Luke watched as the clone trooper suddenly turned walked swiftly to a console on the other side of the room. He bent down and collected something that was out of Luke's sight. He caught a glimpse of a square black thing that did not look at all like a blaster and he did not feel any aggression from the man at all.

Luke resisted scratching his head because it just might give him away. The trooper was twisting around to every sound. Luke judged the distance, wondering how he was going to get closer withou being detected when he felt someone approaching.

Two someone's.

The clone trooper noticed a moment after Luke and dived into the closest hiding spot, clutching the little black box like his life depended upon it. Luke kept his attention locked on the door. There was something about one the two presences he felt through the force. One of them felt like a supernova, like he could barely contain all the power he had.

Then a shadow fell through the gap of the door and a figure walked in. It was another clone trooper, but the man walking behind him wasn't.

It was Anakin!

They are on edge. Luke did not need the force to realize this. Their movements are tense and hands never strayed too far from their weapons. The opening in the trooper's mind was clear and Luke calls the force to him. The power lingered at the tip of his fingers while his eyes follow the two's traverse into the dark hall.

The agitation and fear only grows from the opposite side. The fear so intense that he can feel it like an uncomfortable itch on his skin. The cold handle of the lightsaber is a great comfort in his hands as he crouches down.

The steps click against the floor. The echoes against the walls try to fool the listener into believing that there are more than just the two pairs of marching feet. The sound has a clear effect on the trooper. The fear is so loud that Luke can almost taste it.

From his position above them, Luke could see the entire scene. The clone trooper he followed here grabbed something and dove behind a large crate.

Anakin and the clone trooper are ready to grab for their weapons. They come nearer the trooper hiding in the dark. Luke can feel the determination spark in the force from both Anakin and the clone trooper when they closed in.

Luke missed the first words when the troopers' voice rings out against the walls. He rises slowly to his feet and starts walking carefully down the beam, his feet make no sound at all. The force collected around him blocked the noise out.

"We have." Anakin's recognizable voice answers from the dark as Luke starts to move ever so slowly closer to the inevitable confrontation. They are just below him now, just on the other side of a large shelf filled to the brim with boxes of different shapes and sizes.

"Put down your weapons then." Is the sharp reply from the trooper. The fear that Luke feels from the trooper cannot be heard in the quick command.

'He is a soldier.' Luke reminds himself. 'He is trained to work in stressful situations.' Luke lowers himself slowly off the beam, his feet brush the box before he lets go and lands with little sound. The cold surface is so cold it stings his hands when he crouches down.

"I don't think so, Fives." Anakin answers. Luke sneaks a peak over the box he is hiding behind and catches a glimpse of Anakin and the commander standing back to back. Their eyes scanning the dark surrounding them.

"Please sir." The voice yelled back now more subdued "I am unarmed."

Luke narrow his eyes at that, a nervous eagerness had suddenly replaced the thick fear in the force. A second later the light disappears when the blue lightsaber is turned off.

"Alright, I am putting my pistols down." The man says and there is something about that voice that Luke cannot put his finger on. Like he heard it before. He sees the shape of the trooper that came here with his father walk to a nearby box with two pistols held over his head. He hears the click when they are left on the metal surface.

'Rex!' Luke thought, recognizing the figure in the force. He remembered very well the strength of the mind and mind-control was always harder the second time around. 'No matter.' He thought and willed away the doubt. 'He is still no match for me.'

"What are we here for Fives?" Anakin asked. He sounded calm and felt calm through the force. Anakin must trust this man, despite the current circumstances.

"I need your help." The trooper that Anakin called Fives answered, just below Luke on the high shelf. Luke resisted the urge to look down, he knows he will see nothing from this angle and the force is a much better guide than his eyes in this darkness.

"I know you do." Anakin says with such a light air that it sounded close to condescending, even if that was not Anakin's intent. "We know you are not well… it has been rough for you theses couple of days-"

"I am not crazy!" The desperation in those words spiked so violently that Luke startled on top of the shelf. His hand slipped forward on the surface until he regained himself and ripped it back. He swallows.

'That made a lot of noise!' He thought in panic, and his heartbeat was suddenly so loud it was impossible that the three below could not hear it. 'Did they-'

"Just, Please, please." Fives continues from beneath and Luke breathed out in relief and he relaxed his clammy hands. "Hear what I have to say." Fives said.

A shadow moves beneath Luke, it reached out towards Anakin and Rex. Soon following after is the trooper he had followed here. 'Fives', he reminds himself.

"We are here to help you Fives, just come with us. Let us take you back to the temple"

The noise is slight. If Luke had not already been focusing on the spot he would not have heard the beeping sound coming from just beneath him.

Luke gasps and clings to the shelf. A forcefield jumped from the celling just beside him in a flash of white. A roar that sound like a distorted 'NO!' echoes from the inside.

Anakin's raised fist leaves no delusion about where that roar came from. The anger in the force was sharp and almost painful in its intensity before it is numbed into restrained irritation, but there still no fear.

The absence of any fear in such a vulnerable position made Luke unwilling raise an eyebrow in wonder and an uncomfortable tight feeling start clenching in his chest. He banishes the feeling violently into the memory he never dares visit.

"I just need you to listen to me!" The voice of Fives said below, and it becomes louder as the man pushed free of his hiding place as he stepped out into the open. "Please."

"I am not really sure that we have any other choice!" The anger from Anakin is unavoidable to feel in the force and it expresses itself in his violent gestures. Unseen by them all, Luke starts to move. His hands move to the edge and he begins to descend.

"I was framed. Because I know the truth."

'That is not a lie' Luke thinks and feels the honesty undeniable in the force before the words fade between the many rows of racks reaching all the way to the celling. He continues the climb down, careful about where he places his feet as the conversation continues below.

"The truth about a plot. A massive deception."

"By who?" The trooper besides Anakin ask. He sounds firm and serious, but not angry.

"A sinister plot-" the words drown out against the racks. "Jedi." Is the only word Luke can make out from the voice that sounds more and more breathless. Panic is starting to set in.

"I have proof of it!" Fives almost yells now "I can prove that everything I know is true beyond the shadow of a doubt!"

"Show me the evidence." Anakin demands back more calmly than before. Luke descend the final distance until his feet touched the ground without the slightest whisper of a sound

"The… evidence is… here." Fives stutters then his voice lathes on to some hope and it becomes firmer, more assured. "It is in here. It is in all of us, in every clone."

"What is it?"

"Organic chips built into our genetic code." He sounds calmer now, more sure, and there is only truth beaconing through the force. "To make us do whatever someone wants. Even kill the Jedi." It's all in here."

'Even kill the Jedi' the words loop in Luke's mind along with what they mean.

Luke feels the cold of the floor bleed though the clothes from where his knees rest against the ground. He sees Fives with his back to Luke pointing at his own head. The trooper inside the forcefield touches his own head in wonder. In horror Luke reacted before he registers doing in. He reaches out, searching the truth of the words from this unhinged person.

Truth is the only impression that roars back at him.

Fives is not lying, no matter how mad he seems right now. 'Even kill the Jedi' he thinks again like it is stuck replaying in his mind in a constant whisper. This was why there was no one left 20 years from now.

Genocide.

"Let's just get you some help first." Anakin says moving his hand in a slow placating gesture. "We will review everything. You will be okay Fives, we will sort this out."

That on the other hand was a lie, and Luke did not need the force to know that.

Neither did Fives.

"YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME!" Desperation and panic mix together in a choir so loud through the force that Luke only just managed to stop himself from covering his ears.

"Fives we are listening to you... We only want to help."

"How do I know you are not tricking me? Who do I know it won't be a trap? The chancellor tried to kill me. I promise you that!"

"The chancellor?"

'Someone is coming!' The warning screams through the force. With his force connection wide open like this it was like someone was screaming directly into his ear. He shook his head and turned it solely in the direction of the new threat. He dared only move very slowly as his hand moved toward his lightsaber.

"He is in on it. I don't know to what extent but I know he orchestrated much of it. He told me in the medical bay." Fives continues, but Luke does not dare move back to look. There are many force signatures closing in, at least Five of them. They had the same mutilated force signature of clone troopers.

'The red troopers then?' He thought as his hand close around the cold handle of the blade. The saber is still too unfamiliar, and somehow too small for someone who had become used to wielding a weapon made for a much taller fighter. 'Fine. I will deal with you first.'

"He told you?" When you tried to assassinate him?!" Anakin's voice is loud and angry. "You have gone too far Fives. The chancellor is incapable of doing what you claim!"

'Interesting.' Luke crooked his head despite himself, honing his powers for a moment to focus on his distraught father. Under the sudden anger, the hidden reaction to the trooper's words was a gnawing fear.

Then there was movement in the dark. Luke freezes, and his fingers tighten around the handle of the blade. His heart starts hammering in his chest and the force struggle against his iron control.

"He is!" Fives were practically screaming. "I tell you sir! You have no idea!"

The three had seen nothing when a voice roar through the hall. "STAND DOWN!" Not before Fives whip around just to see the five soldiers rushing down towards him. Their red armour glaring through the dark. In this dim light the red markings look almost like blood. "GET DOWN ON YOUR KNEES!"

"No…NO!" Fives screams the last and suddenly there is a gun in his hand. "Stay back!"

"Don't do it soldier!"

"GET AWAY FROM ME!"

Red flashes to light from the soldier's gun, it alight like a supernova in the blackened hall and the shot closes the distance in the blink of an eyes. The path is unmistakable and the smell of death and burnt flesh is only a second away.

The red light glaring from the shot bathes Fives face; tightened up in the fear of pain, the sizzling sound is loud and it sound like thunder as it echoed against the walls. Fives raises his hands in defence, the gun in his hands forgotten.
Seconds pass.

The pain does not come.

Fives shaking hands lower, and the deadly shot is there, still, hanging in the air as if it was on a string. It is barely a hands length away from his heart.

"What?" Fives steps back from the frozen blaster shot, almost enough to hit his back against the force field.

"Don't move." Suddenly there is a shape between Fives and the blaster shot. Luke stood there like he had materialized out of thin air, his hand is still raised as he comes up to the force field. Fives stumbles back, out of reach realizing too late he left his weapon on the floor.

"Who the kriff are yo-"

"Stop." Luke commands in a voice not much louder than a whisper. Fives freezes immediately like he had just turned to stone. So did the red troopers.

On his order, they stopped moving, talking… everything. Like silent statues the stand motionless in the dark. The dark side of the force devoured their fear like a starving beast. It is macabre, and the sound it makes in the force is like bones cracking. A sound that is both dry and wet.

It is nauseating.

"Vader." Anakin' face reflect the disgust and anger Luke sensed from him. Luke had looked at someone like that before. But only one person. The person he had believed at that time had killed his father.

'Vader…' He thinks and stops the thought. He is not certain what he should do with that observation, but if nothing else he could appreciate the irony.

"Chosen one." He responds, but he does not recognize his own voice. He never used to sound like this. Like Yoda had sounded when Luke left Dagobah. 'Father.' He thought and closed his shields around it so it wouldn't show in the force. "We meet again."

Chapter Text

What…

What just…

The Sith moved so fast. He had not even seen the blow, so quickly was it over and then he was on the floor, the cold from the hard steel floor clawed at his back.

His right hand burned like he had shoved into a burning inferno. He could barely stomach the sickening smell alone. He struggled against the feeling of nausea that rose in the back of his throat and his hands just wouldn't stop shaking.

His left hand reached for the right one, instinctively trying to protect it and curl protectively around it. He stilled, a breath locked halfway up his throat and his heart stopped. His searching fingers had found nothing where his hand should be. There was nothing at the end of his wrist.

He held his shaking arm up above him.

Where his hand should have been, there was nothing. Luke recoiled from the thought in horror. His breath quickened and he could feel his heart hammering in his throat.

He couldn't move.

Why couldn't he move?

Above him, the red lightsaber drowned the darkness in a hellish red was held in the hand of a man with a signature even darker than the pit below. It hung there over him like an executioner's axe and above it stood the dark figure silent and unmoving as Luke's sight slid in and out of focus.

Vader

"I have a cell with your name on it." Anakin leaned in so close that the force field just about brushed his face with its burning sting.

"Oh, I am sorry. What did you say again?" Luke said. The first words were more a startled sound than a word until Luke got his voice under control. He could not help it, his heart had skipped at beat when he looked right into the hate in Anakin's eyes "I couldn't hear you over the sound of force field." He mocked tapping at the force field.

It distracted Anakin long enough for Luke to make his fear bleed back behind his mental shields.

He would never be a prisoner again.

Never.

"It will only be a matter of time." Anakin walked the edge of the field like a caged beast. It was nothing more than a few steps back and forth, but the irritated huff that came from Anakin when he gave up and stopped was a very comforting sound. "No one has ever gotten away from me."

"Right." Luke said and couldn't help his lips crook into an old expression he had almost forgotten. "Because I didn't just do that… is it three times now?" He smiled like he meant it but the look in his eyes was as crooked as his smile. "I am afraid I lost count."

"Cute." Rex says.

Luke had almost forgotten about the clone, but he was very grateful for the interruption. It drew him forcefully out of the conversation with his farther immediately.

'Why do I always get tunnel-vision when he is around?' he berated himself.

"Thank you for the compliment, Rex." Luke side-stepped the laser, that was still hovering in the air. "But you are not my type." He clenches his hand into a fist with a fast and violent move, like he is crushing something. Immediately the blaster-shot twists around and disappears into the dark. The crack of the shot when it hits something in the hall rises and dies in the span of a second.

Power returns to him, now that it is no longer bound to the blaster-shot. But it is like giving a glass of water to a starving man. Luke has already exerted himself too far. Exhaustion makes his finger shake until he draws on the power of the force surrounding him and the energy soaks mercifully into his strained muscles.

"Why did you follow us here, Vader?" Anakin said. He was very close to the force field again, trying to tower over Luke from the other side. He looked angry, but he didn't feel it in the force. He felt more… curious? "And how is it you are you working with Fives?"

The scars burn against his skin, as if in warning, but Luke did not need the reminder. He remembered the bargain very clearly.

"…I followed you?" He said and let the sentence die and decay into nothing between them. Anakin's eyes narrow a fraction and Luke can feel the careful touch of his force-presence. 'Amateur.' He thinks. Anakin's attempt at gauging Luke's intentions, was the indelicate touch of one not used to hiding his powers at all but one used to carrying it around like a torch for all to see.

He ignored the envy that sparked under his carefully built control.

"No…" Anakin says, but it sounds like a question. He does not seem to understand, his face is an expressionless mask, but there is a spark of realization in the force. "You followed…" His narrowed glare slip towards Fives for the fraction of a second before it snaps back to Luke. "Why? I thought you were only trying to assassinate the chancellor!"

There was a whisper in the force, a warning, and the instinctive response died on Luke's lips. He drew back folding his frustrations with the man around himself like a shield.

"Indeed" He answered with a rare touch of pride. "The force is my ally." He explains vaguely, trying to avoid the question "There must be a reason it brought me here."

"Your ally?" Anakin repeated like that fragment of the sentence was important and there was a flash of…something in the force. Luke let it lie, he did not need another distraction. He drew his gaze away from his father painfully.

"Sleep." He says and in the force five different signatures becomes dormant. Luke heard the noise clearly when the soldiers fell into an unnatural sleep so deep that not even the impact with the floor woke them back up. Out of the corner of his eyes, he caught the sight of Rex's right hand that snapped to his waist, forgetting that he had surrendered those blasters moments before.

"And the clone?" Luke continued and drew back a little under the pressure of Anakin's scrutiny through the force. "I have never met him. I don't even know his name." With a flick of his wrist Fives collapsed into a boneless heap on the floor. "But it was a very interesting story he just told."

"Leave him!"

"Why do you care?" He keeps his eyes on Fives, but he can feel Anakin's burning glare. It follows Luke when he closed the distance between himself and the fallen soldier. Worry and anger warred for dominance in Anakin's force presence, along with something else.

Doubt.

"You didn't believe him…" Luke says carefully, weighing every word. He needed to cultivate this sudden fragility from Anakin and break his trust in Sidious. "...and I need to know if he told the truth. If all your little soldiers can be controlled."

"That is impossible!"

Luke notes with a small measure of hope Anakin's uncertainty. The sudden doubt could only signify that Anakin considers there might be something to Fives words now that Luke has shown an interest… Or so Luke dearly hoped.

"Maybe." He extends his hand again and the unconscious Fives lifts into the air, the feet are dangling limp just low enough to scrape lightly against the floor. "Maybe not." The words are as merciless as the expression he painted on his face. He tugged at something invisible and as if pulled on a string Fives floated within reach, his boots dragged against the floor.

"If you touch him with that hand, be prepared to lose it." Anakin said from the other side of the force field, as intimidating as a caged rancor could be. Even with the blue light of the lightsaber shinning out from behind the force field it did not worry Luke, not when the remote Fives had used was resting neatly on the floor on this side of the field.

"Now, now Anakin." He says without looking back. "You are hurting my feelings"

"I will hurt more than your feelings when I get out of here!" The light blue saber flashed forward and had a taste of the force field in a shower of sparks. "Let him go!"

"Quiet." Luke said trying to latch on to Fives mind, but the clone's thoughts was in such a delirium that it was impossible to make sense of any of it. "This is very difficult."

"Stop it!" Anakin steps closer to the force field, close enough for Luke to see the desperation in his eyes.

It is not so intense though as the full blown terror in Fives mind

Luke tried to sooth the panic and the fear that was running rampant in the clone's head, but even unconscious like this, his mind was unreasonable and nothing but a vortex of desperation, fear and despair. "Show me." He said forming it like a request in the force, the mind of Fives was already too damaged, there was so little left intact and he dared not make it a demand. It might just shatter what was left of the clone's mind.

Fives presence drew away from him and Luke forced himself to slow down, and be very, very careful. 'I am a friend.' He told Fives. 'The chancellor is my enemy too.'

"STOP IT!" Anakin raises his hand no doubt trying to reach Luke with the force but the field must muzzle Anakin's force presence because Luke feels absolutely nothing despite Anakin's obvious anger.

There was hesitation in the Force from Fives, but he stopped moving away from Luke's attempt at contact. 'You… believe… me?' came a voice lower than a whisper. The desperation of it was a sharp sting to Luke's heart.

'I do.' He told, but kept his signature as suppressed as he could in order not to further damage Fives mind. He extended his power elsewhere trying to repair the edges of fives tattered mind and attempting to strengthen Fives. The poison in his blood was strong, but Luke's extended will was stronger and the poison started to give way before him.

'…Why?' Fives voice whispered from the great divide between them.

'I know Palpatine and what he is capable of.' he said and hesitated, looking for the words he would be allowed to say. I know his plans'. There was a gnawing pain in the scars. A warning. But Luke pressed on continuing to battle the poison. 'I can stop him. With your help.'

There is a flash of elation that manage to break the panic and the fear for a golden moment. Then Fives signature in the force dimmed drastically, and the last contact is severed. In the shock of it, Luke lost his concentration and the clone falls like a limbless doll to the floor.

Luke panicked for a long horrible moment, but then he felt Fives presence and he breathed a sigh in relief. The clone was out cold, but not dead. His presence in the force was burning steadily. His body was still in the grip of poison, but not as much as before.

"I SAID LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Anakin yells in the same moment. Luke can see the blue glow of the lightsaber before he turns back to his father. The blade is deadly, but it is held uselessly in Anakin's hand when the force field is between them. Kneeling over the collapsed Fives, Luke has no illusion what it must have looked like when the clone-trooper suddenly crashed to the floor.

Luke sighed and let Fives lie on the floor. Fives was far too gone now to communicate with in an effective manner, too much of him was gone. Luke would have to get rid of the poison first, and there was no chance of doing that here.

'This just makes things a thousand times more complicated.' He thinks.

He knows he could not purge the poison here. There were simply too many things he had to focus on at once. It was hard enough as it was to keep the soldiers sleeping.

"He has done nothing to you!" Anakin said, trying visibly to centre himself, but worry is screaming from him in the force so intensely that for a moment it looks like the dark side of the force.

"And you have done nothing for him!" The sentence escaped Luke's lips like a starving chained hound, hurting and wanting to hurt someone else.

"What was it then?" Rex's voice is strangely vulnerable under the hard façade. "Is there a way to control us?"

Luke was seconds away from just saying 'yes'. He would have done anything to turn things around in his favour, but at the last moment he remembers Anakin who it is staring him right in the face, or rather what he might know.

Luke knows how to fake a truth, he has plenty of experience but he had never lied to a Jedi before, and he knew how easy it was for himself to spot a lie in the force.

And he had to get that skill from somewhere.

'How do I play this?' To buy time he looks down on the fallen Fives, with a slight frown carved between his brows. 'Do I tell the truth, that I am not sure if the man is delusional or do I try the lie and say yes?' None of the options felt right. Even if he told Anakin the truth his father would not believe it, because Luke was the Sith who tried to kill his friend.

There was no way

Unless…

"Seems like you were right, chosen one." He sighs in mock disappointment. "There is no chip." He says and the lie tasted sweet when it crawled over his lips. "It is not possible for anyone to control the clones against their will. This one is merely delusional." He gestures at Fives for good measure.

He feels the sudden pressure of Anakin's force presence, and it is all he can do not to smile. He was right, Anakin would never believe a truth from him. But a lie?

That was another thing entirely

"Well… thanks." Rex looks doubtful, but Luke's suddenly honest expression seems to convince the man. Luke cannot really blame him for it. Luke has had a lot of experience looking sincere when he was busy lying through his teeth. "All things considered it is good to know-"

"He is lying!" Anakin's eyes never leave Luke.

"Am I?" Luke smiles carefully now that Anakin is on the hook.

Then there is a shift in Anakin and the emotion that replaces the anger is more calculative.

Maybe that last question had been a bad idea.

Anakin opened and closed he free hand in a restless unwilling move that gave away the same feeling of unease broadcasted in the Force.

"What is this to you?" He made a gesture with his right hand and as a consequence drew attention to the lightsaber still locked in his grip. "This war." He explained dryly. "I have never even heard of you before. Grievous didn't seem like he knew you either, and he is about as close to high-command as you can get."

"Maybe I am a secret agent?" The question the sentence formed blurred the lie before it imprinted in the force.

"Are you?"

A warning pain bled into the scars on Luke's lower left arm

…Careful Jedi.

"You tell me."

The frustrated look should not have been so satisfying, but in a macabre way it was. He had spent so much time trying to outrun the terror Anakin had become that it was hard to remain unaffected. Vindictive, as he knew it was, it was hard to resist. It was simply a reaction to, for once, having the upper hand in an endless string of defeats.

"So when did you lose the hand?"

The smile bled away slowly. He resists the urge to look down at the hand his father mutilated. "An old enemy." He said and the voice does not sound like him, it is too calm. To indifferent. "You would have liked him. He also liked to mutilate his enemies."

"You keep saying that like I do it all the time! Dooku had it coming! He was the one who-." Anakin flexes his hand and stops himself, his eyes slide to the side to look at Rex. Then the steel is back in his voice. "And who are you to say anything? You are Sith!" He says in a justified way, like he has the moral high-ground and therefore did not need to argue.

Luke always despised arrogant people like that. It was the same way people used to call him 'farmboy'. Like he was inferior just because he hadn't had their fancy upbringing. The fact that Anakin thinks he stood in front of a Sith did little to quiet that old hurt.

But then instead of rising to the challenge, Luke hesitates. There was a glimpse of… something in Anakin's eyes. An expression with a sinister edge ghosted across his father's face. He couldn't tell what the exact expression was, but it looked ugly.

'Why are you suddenly so eager to talk?' Luke thought. Anakin was no longer pacing the force field, in fact he had taken a step back and that made the alarms go off in Luke's head. His already strained force presence rushed out into the room, searching for a trap and there is a stab of panic at what he finds.

'…I see.'

There had been eight soldiers in the red armor.

Not five.

'Trying so hard to distract me.' Luke thinks without letting the thought linger long enough to make an imprint in the force. 'You are good.' He reluctantly admitted. Even now when he has his senses focused on the soldiers it is hard to keep locked on their presences, like they had training in deflecting force- users. 'I am better.'

The crushing sound from the blasters exploding in the hands of their owners' sounded like hellfire when the walls screamed the sound back into the room at impact. It was not as loud though as the sound of their startled yells when the weapons in their hands self-destructed.

The broken fragments collect and rush back to Luke, swirling around him in a storm of razor-sharp knives.

"Did you really think that would work?" Luke said and a dark laugh that was not his own reached out from under his iron control and into the sudden silence in the room.

'The dark side' came a warning from nowhere. It sounded like Leia and it made the anger in him burn brighter. In their desperation the clone troopers tried to charge and get Luke within reach. Luke stopped them with ease.

It was pathetic, their last effort to rush him. They seemed more like helpless children than grown and trained soldiers when the dark side sunk its teeth into them. They were fools even to try and fight the power he bound them with. Their bravery was morbid in contrast to the force that they had no chance to challenge.

'…Luke?' A weak voice whispered and faded back into memory where it belonged. The silence it left in his mind highlighted the nasty crack when the last clone trooper hit the ground landing on his back. The life did not go out in the force, but it dimmed.

'You have to stop!' A voice that was not here anymore yelled at him in desperation, just like it had done that night, but it didn't change anything then. 'Can't you see what this is doing to you?'

And it wouldn't change anything now.

He sees the fear in the last conscious clone trooper's eyes when he rips the helmet off him and lifts him into the air. 'Wise soldier' He thinks darkly holding him meters over the floor his hand extended up and away from him. An eternity stretches. 'You should be afraid of me.' He thinks and then he snaps the hand down.

The trooper's head hits the floor first and then there is nothing in the force and he pauses despite himself and looks down at his hand. That had felt… surprisingly good.

It gave such a lovely cold touch.

"No more witty comebacks?" He said finally and looked up from his hand over his shoulder to Anakin. Then his smile froze and his eyes slid away as he tried to avoid the horrified eyes of his father. "Where did all that spirit go?" He says with a hollow tone; he suddenly felt sick… and very cold.

He suppressed a nervous laugh that felt nasty and pathetic in his throat, and turned back to Fives. He kneeled down beside him and reaches forth to the limp form tortured by the poison running in his veins and his mind delirious with pain, but still somehow conscious. The mind is an open book to him, the mental barriers cannot stop his descent into the haunted and weakened mind.

"Tell me what you know." He says, drawing heavily on the dark side. "Tell me!" He reached into the mind but the care from before was gone. If he had to rip Fives mind apart to get what he needed, he would. There was so much at stake. The very fate of a galaxy.

There was a cold feeling in his hands, the fingers felt numb and there was a sound like twisting winds inside his head. There was nothing in Fives mind at first, then mercifully, he felt Fives mind start to collect itself, bring itself back from the very brink. Sensing his chance Luke flooded his power into Fives. It was power he could not spare, but Fives needed to live along with the secrets in his head.

Then a warning screamed through the force and he drew his mind back and snapped his eyes open just in time to see the red flash. It was too late to stop it. He knew even as he commanded the force to form a shield around him.

Slamming through the half-formed shield, the blaster shot flashed forward and passed without hitting him. Going up to disappear somewhere in the ceiling.

A miss.

He was on his feet in an instant, and the trooper's arm holding the blaster snapped with a loud crack.

"That was stupid." He said with the fear of the almost death sending all his senses into overdrive. The man was screaming, but Luke did not really notice it until the gun he had missed the first time crumbled into an unrecognizable mess when the weapon imploded under the power of the dark side. "Very stupid."

Luke had closed the distance, and froze when he looked down on his almost killer. There was no fear in his eyes. He was smiling.

What?

There was a rush through the force. He snapped around just in time to see the force field flicker out and Anakin's lightsaber lift into attack position, and Luke felt a very familiar stab of terror.

Oh no

Vader was a monster.

Even after all he just did, he still had power enough to match General Skywalker in battle.

With the sound of lightsaber's slamming together behind him, Rex ran to his guns and reclaimed them in an instant that took too long for his liking. He hears the sound of lightsaber's clashing again and again behind him and it urges him to move even faster.

The sharp sound echoes against the walls somehow just as loud as the real strikes as the weapons clash in an insanely fast pattern and makes the red and blue light flash through the dark. It seemed the battle was unfolding everywhere.

With the blaster leading the way, Rex turns and faces the fighting. The Jedi and the Sith move fast. He has seen this before, how force-users fight, but this… is on another level. Even with his lifelong experience and practice, it is hard to get a clear shot and he is too old a veteran to chance a shot when he is not certain.

The light dance on the walls and the high racks and the light makes the shadows seem even deeper. The flickering light of red and blue rises and dies like sparks from a fire. Then they separate and their weapons stop for an endless moment. The lights of the red and the blue bathe the room as the two foes measure each other.

He catches a smile from General Skywalker, but Vader expression is grim, focused and Vader's hands are shaking. His lightsaber is reaching out in front of him, held more like a spear than a sword while Skywalker's blue is held overhead, like frozen half-way through a strike.

It is Vader that moves first.

Then very air collect around him and throws him forward, Fives felt the rush of air push past him when the Sith attacks. Vader's blade moves faster than his eye can catch, but somehow, Skywalker intercepts it until a strong blow blasts forward and General Skywalker is flung back.

Skywalker retreats and regroups. He sidesteps a strike meant for his eyes and attacks with a sharp strike that should have removed Vader's heart. Instead Vader's blade dance around the fatal strike and rips upward in a strong move that almost take the blue lightsaber from the general's hand.

Vader is on the offensive. Rex watches in horror as Skywalker is pushed violently back. A hailstorm of blows strikes down upon him and he is forced to give ground. The attacks are insanely fast but Vader shows no sign of slowing down, when the red blade dives again and again at an insane speed. The blue lightsaber is more a shield than a blade and it barely catches the eager red sword in time.

Then in a move almost too fast to follow, Skywalker strikes back flinging the blade forward in a move that intercepts the darker lightsaber rushing after him.

They lock together, even from this distance Rex can see Skywalker's arms shake under the pressure from Vader's powerful blow. The gasp and the tense shoulder coming up to strain against Vader's strength tells Rex all he needs to know.

He aims, and the trigger gives away willingly.

Vader never saw the shot.

The red blast slips past Vader's guard and even then he knows his shot is a lucky one. Vader dodges a strike from Skywalker and backs directly into the shot. Rex hears the startled scream and he notes with elation that Vader's face twist in pain.

Skywalker moves fast. The red lightsaber is suddenly in the air and the light snaps out. He can hear it land somewhere in the dark. Then the blue lightsaber goes out too and plunges the room into complete darkness. The battle does not stop. By the sound of it, it only intensifies.

There is crash somewhere, the sound of something huge hitting the ground hard. He steps forward, the gun leading the way in his hands and the trigger already drawn slightly back. A blue light flicker on again, and Rex snaps the gun in that same direction. Then he registers what he sees and releases the trigger.

"Tough bastard!" Skywalker swears from the floor. The lightsaber rest heavily in his hand, pressed down and only inches away from the back of Vader's neck. "Stay down!" He yells at Vader who just won't stop resisting. A blast of force lightning roars from Vader's free hand and rips the darkness apart long enough for Rex to catch a glimpse of his brothers that are lying lifeless on the ground.

He closes the distance between them in an instant.

"We will bring him back to the chancellor" Skywalker hisses trying to keep the resisting Vader down with great difficulty. Vader is twisting and turning like a man possessed, it looks like darkness itself is gathering around the Sith and the air is so cold is stings the skin of his face. "Rex, give me the binders!"

Rex instantly moves to do just that. He unclicks the binders from his belt. It was binders that had originally been meant for Fives and he doubted it would keep the Sith in control for long, but this is the best they have right now.

He kneels down beside his general and Vader's moves become more and more frantic. The air stink of burnt flesh and Rex sees instantly the burn marks on the back of Vader's neck. It is like Vader does not notice the pain and the damage he is doing to himself. There is a wild look in Vader's yellow eyes.

Rex puts the gun down and reaches for Vader's hands. The binder clips easily around one of Vader's wrist, but then another more foreboding clicking sound ring out very close to his temple.

"I am sorry." A voice says, a familiar voice, sounding more broken than he ever heard it. "But I have to stop this… stop him."

Then the world goes dark.

He blinks his eyes open. Everything blurs in and out of focus. Vader is still underneath General Skywalker but he has twisted out of his grip and around to face him. There is a sharp purple light reflected on the walls, and Vader's hand is digging into General Skywalker's short hair.

The general is screaming

Rex struggles to rise, but he cannot move his arms, legs … anything. His eyes blink in and out of focus again. His world goes dark and when he can finally open them again, the general lies lifeless on the ground and a pair of yellow eyes are looking down on Rex. There are hands searching him and the chain of the binder is still dangling from one of Vader's wrists.

'…the key.' He thinks with a faint smugness that bleeds through the strange numbness that had overtaken him. The Sith won't find the key, Skywalker had it, but Vader does not seem to think of it. Rex laughs in the Sith's face and sees the surprise in his eyes. Then a heavy hand press down on his forehead.

Then the lights go out.

And Rex knows nothing more.

Chapter Text

Luke held onto the small holocom in his hands a little while longer.

It was a comfortable weight in his hands even if it was a little battered thing and the surface was rough under his fingers. It was visibly worn around the edges to the point that it should have cracked and damaged the message recorded on it.

It was only sheer luck it hadn't.

He could not help but wonder what this little thing had suffered through before it ended up in Grakkus the Hutt's morbid collection. He ran his fingers carefully down the edges that he feared would crack if he held onto it too tightly. But when he looked at the image that rose up at his gentle touch it gave him the strength he needed.

He sighed and stared into the darkness in front of him, then back over his shoulder to the world that was now almost as dark. There was no moon this night but the stars blinked bravely up there alone. He breathed in deeply once more.

This was it.

Anakin stood back up from his kneeling position. The cloth was carefully placed into a plastic bag for analysis. Aside for the carnage, this small cut piece of cloth was the only proof that Vader had been here at all. He had Rex to thank for that proof, the soldier's shot had given Anakin the edge in the battle with the Sith.

A fight he lost.

'All right, now that's done.' Anakin thinks as he closes the bag. He didn't usually collect the evidence himself, but Vader was a special case, and most of the troopers were still recovering from the ambush. There were no causalities, 'thank the force!' But Fox's arm was clearly broken and while the trooper didn't say anything it was still very obvious that it was extremely painful.

But the biggest clue in all of this had not been the piece of cloth he just collected, but a sentence the Sith had spoken. "The force is my ally." Anakin repeated, still mystified by it. "Have you ever heard a Sith say that?" He asked Rex.

"I don't understand what you mean, Sir." Rex replied in his usual matter-of-fact way. In the time Anakin had known him, he had always been like that.

"It is a teaching of the Jedi and perhaps the most important." He said while still trying to understand why a Sith would say that. There had been no mockery in the words when he spoke them, but it was against their teachings to regard the force that way. "The Sith are opposite." He explained to Rex as simple as he could. "To the Sith the force is a tool. Nothing more."

"Maybe he was just trying to fool you." Rex said. "Sith are not usually known for telling the truth."

"He wasn't lying." Anakin said. "I felt it. He meant every word."

"…What does that mean, sir?"

'Force, if I know!' He thought before he said "Maybe nothing…"He dared not speak it, but maybe this Sith he had been chasing around… was no Sith at all? Was it possible to use the dark side of the force without being Sith? Then his eyes widened in shock. "He healed Fives." He muttered out loud before he could catch himself.

"Sir?"

"He used both sides of the force." Anakin said in wonder, replaying the memory in his mind. "Healing is a light side ability. 'About as light as is gets.' The thought nagged at him. Every lesson he had ever had concerning the dark side had made it very clear that the dark side was almost impossible to resist and when people turned… there was no going back. It was a pit that waited on the edge of every Jedi's life, always ready to devour them whole.

"Isn't that impossible? To use both" Rex said trying to be analytical about it, because he really did not understand the meaning of this discovery.

'Yes' Anakin thought immediately, it was impossible. Using both the light and the dark side of the force could not happen. But he had seen it. 'It should be.' He thought upon reflection, with the doubt creeping in, but said instead. "Apparently not." He hesitated. "I will have to speak to Obi-Wan about it."

He put his hand up to his face and tried to still the raging thoughts in his head. Too much of this wasn't making any sense.

Suddenly Rex's Holocom made a short sound, the sound of an incoming message. Rex quickly stepped away and accepted the call. When he answered, his voice was not raised above normal speech-level but the words were loud as blaster-shots in the otherwise silent room.

There was a great silence in the hall from all others, but it was a quiet that did not exist in the force, where feelings of humiliation and frustration rang louder than thunder. Anakin did not doubt that those very same emotions also came from him. He grimaced at the thought. He had been so close he could taste it.

'I had him!' He thinks and the admission tastes terrible in his mouth. He had had Vader in his grasp and the Sith somehow still managed to gain the upper hand. When Rex snapped the cold binder around Vader's wrist he thought he had won. 'Fool!' He berates himself and grimaced at his own stupidity. 'I should have known it would not be that easy!'

But in his defence, how could he had known that Fives would turn on them like that? Anakin still couldn't wrap his head around it. Fives never seemed like a traitor, but his actions were speaking against him. First the mess he had made on Kamino, then the attack on the Chancellor and now… siding with a Sith.

If anyone had told him this about Fives yesterday he would have called them a liar. Now…

He shook his head to himself and regretted it immediately when pain stabbed him in the back. The sting of the force lightning was still an uncomfortable reminder down his back where the worst of the damage was. While Vader's reluctance to kill had shown itself once again, and Anakin no longer believed it a coincidence, Vader was certainly not pulling his punches. Vader had hit like an ion cannon.

'Next time it will be different.' Anakin promised himself. Anakin knew the technique Vader used to be so much more powerful than he had been in their previous fight. It was a risky method, but it had done its job. Vader was gone. He drew in a tight breath and forced the frustration out of his system with a heavy exhale.

Acting out of emotion would not help him catch this Sith.

"Sir!" came a voice suddenly over the crowd and Anakin had to block off the feelings broadcasted at him through the force. Rex had ended the call and walked up beside him, his expression was strictly controlled.

"Yes, Rex?"

"They just sent word from the Temple. They are giving us reinforcements."

Anakin nodded, swallowing his pride. He knew Windu would be among them.

"We are not going to wait for them." He said and Rex looked like he had expected that answer. There was not even the ghost of surprise to be read from him through the force.

"The trail is already getting cold." Rex agreed. "Can you get a read on him?"

"Give me a moment." Anakin said, and closed his eyes. His connection to the force deepened as he breathed in slowly and exhaled. The force shone back at him when he opened his connection completely. He could sense the troopers on a deeper level and that they, despite their confrontation with the Sith, were largely unharmed.

This was a peaceful place in the force, he could tell that it was a place not usually disturbed. Vader's damage to it had luckily been minimal, but his marks were still very distinct and his presence was still a shadowy touch in the hall.

"I can track his presence." Anakin said. "But only to a broader area, I won't be able to pinpoint his exact location."

The massive force power Vader had used within the hall lay thick in the air. Even a non-force sensitive would feel the cold of it. Ironically if Vader had not been so powerful his trace would be long gone by now.

"You won't need to sir." Rex said and pulled something from his belt. It was a small tracker. "He might still wear the binder I got on his wrist. If we can get close enough, I can use this to track him."

"How precise is it?"

"Very."

Anakin did not even try to suppress his smile.

"Then that is our plan." He said and locked in on Vader's force presence. He could still feel the power that Vader had wielded in their battle. Anakin now recognized the technique Vader had used to reach this insane power. It was a double-edged sword.

With the technique the force-user would draw energy directly from the force and make it possibly to push past their normal boundaries, but it had consequence. Vader would burn like a supernova for a while, but eventually his body would not be able to sustain the immense strain of the technique. A collapse was imminent.

And Vader was already tired.

"You stay with Commander Fox." Anakin ordered one trooper before he turned to face the others. He did not need the force to recognize the determination in their eyes. "The rest of you are with me." He said with certainty he had learned through experience. The chase was on.

Vader would not escape

Not this time.

Fives only realized he had blacked out when he opened his eyes again. The frost was heavy in the air and his warm breath turned into small white clouds. He tried to collect his thoughts. He did not remember this place that had a nasty smell of burned flesh. The damp of the ground has long since bled up into his armour, a clammy coldness he is familiar with.

But he did not understand. Was he not on Kamino?

"..What?" he said and regretted it the moment he spoke. The word was unbearably loud. Fives touched his head, the whole world was spinning.

"You fainted." A voice from above supplied helpfully but he did not understand. He was… on the floor? His mind struggled with it... Then everything snapped into focus when he saw what was leaning over him. A pair of yellow eyes stared unblinkingly down at him.

All the little dots in Fives mind do not connect. He had helped Vader! Why in all that was sacred had he done that! He tries to recall the reason, but the poison made everything so hard to focus on, and even those resent memories were only blurred shadowy images.

Then he remembers. It all came rushing back, Tup's death, the obedience chips and Chancellor Palpatine.

The man, Vader, pulls back his hands and they leave a lingering warmth on each side of Fives' face where they had been resting just moments before. Fives tries not to dwell too long on that uncomfortable observation.

The air is thick between them and the tension heightens in the complete silence. Unease creeps in on Fives and Vader's heavy stare is not even broken by blinking. Fives tries to ignore it, but it is hard when Vader is kneeling right in the middle of one of the few lights coming down form the streets above.

It is not a lot of light on second thought, barely even brighter than the darkness around them both, but it is the only light in the alley. In contrast to the almost pitch black shadows at the roots of the walls it appears a lot brighter than it should.

Fives pushes back to gain some distance from the kneeling Sith. Vader follows the retreat with his eyes but does not move otherwise. Fives throws a look around and does not recognize anything. It looks like any dark alley in the bad end of the slums. It is impossible to judge a more detailed location.

"Why did you bring me here?" He asked and the words rose and died alone, unanswered.

Vader stared back at him from under his hood. It was drenched and looked uncomfortable and heavy. The shadow the hood cast did not improve the dark circles around Vader's eyes, the man looked beyond exhausted. It was very little comfort, because Fives knew from experience that desperation and exhaustion was an unstable mix at best.

Fives knew what men looked like when they were reaching their limit and the thought sparked an idea in his head.

Fives eyed the end of the street. It was far, but maybe he could-

"Please don't run." The Sith says, and the trooper realizes how young he looked with shadows carved heavily under his eyes. The grim look in narrowed eyes reminded Fives that youth did not necessarily mean innocent. He had met many young enemies and allies and they could be just as dangerous as men and women twice their age

"It took a lot out for me to drain your system of the venom." The Sith explains and cocks his head slightly. His eyes stared unblinkingly at Fives. It was unnerving. "I am exhausted, and in a very bad mood. Don't make me chase after you." The promise in those words formed into a threat in Vader's unnaturally yellow eyes.

Fives had fought Sith before, but none of them had yellow eyes like this one.

They looked like poison and decay.

"Who says I am gonna run? maybe I am gonna fight you instea-"

The world blur out of focus, the memories of the recent horrible days flash before his eyes, like he was watching an old holovid but with his own memories playing on the screen. He shook his head and felt like he pushed back at an invisible force. When he regained his senses, the Sith was drawing his hand back.

"Obedience chips." The man whispers in wonder. The Sith looks down at his hand like it is its fault. For a moment it looked like there was a tremor in the Sith's hand. Then Vader-s eyes snapped back to Fives and he reaches forward again. This time though his reaching hand did not connect to Fives forehead because of the backhand colliding with it halfway there.

"Hey, Hands off!" Fives shout and pulls himself further back, as far as he can until his back hit a dead end when it is pressed flat against the wall.

"I need to know." The Sith insisted with narrowed eyes, he flung his hand out and struck faster than a snake. Fives felt most awful sensation, it feels like nails, nails scraping for purchase inside his head and suddenly a memory was ripped right to the front of Fives mind. It was the memory that had not stopped for one moment to haunt him ever since he stood in front of Palpatine.

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" Fives hand strikes back out but a strong force wraps around it before It can connect. It is just Vader's hand wrapped around his wrist but the hand feels more like it was made of stone, the grip is unnaturally strong. 'The force' he thinks with dread and he freezes on the spot, he suddenly remembers the sound of Fox's arm snapping like a twig.

He swallows, trying to master the sudden stab of fear and stared back at the darkness that has collected impossibly deep around the Sith. It gathered around Vader like a cloak that draped thickly around him and it flows down his shoulders like black smoke.

"I can force you." The sith makes very clear with an intense look in his eyes as darkness snaked up between his fingers like it was a living being." Do not make me."

Vader reaches forward again, this time Fives is sure he can see the shake and he can hear the chain dangling from his wrist clink softy as it swings softly back and forth. "I need to know where they are." Vader said like it was an apology and he was so intendent on completing this objective that Vader did not realize his mistake until it was too late.

The click of a safety snapping off breaks the silence like a roar of thunder,

"I don't think you want to do that." Fives said behind the blaster he just took from Vader's belt. Vader's eyes widen and his hand freezes instantly between them. Fives grins. Vader was a fool to simply place the blaster where Fives could reach it.

The Sith's hands lift slowly, palms open before him and the darkness breaks away like it was never there in the first place. It leaves the alley almost as dark but a lot warmer than before. Now the air does not sting the inside of his throat like a thousand needles every time he breathes.

"Now it is my turn to ask the questions." Fives pushes himself up, surprised at how revitalized he feels. All the hurts that had been bothering him after the mission and the intense episode that happened after were all completely gone. He felt ten years younger.

The Sith was a good healer…and wasn't that in itself weird?

"Why would you want the obedience chip?" He asked and eyes the Sith still kneeling on the ground "They are probably destroyed by now anyway."

"Why do you think they have been destroyed?" The Sith asked instead and pushed himself up on his feet. Fives knows he does not imagine the small stumble when Vader stood up even if the Sith tried to cover it. He suppresses a satisfied sound when he realizes that Vader does not reach his eyelevel. A short Sith is a lot less intimidating.

"Don't move." He says and takes the lightsaber from the Sith's belt and clips it to his own. There is no other weapon on him. Through the quick search, the Sith stares unblinkingly and does not move. Not Yet.

Fives takes a small step back.

"Why?" The Sith repeated condescendingly.

Fives considered the question. He did not know what kind of thing the chips were, and exactly what they could make the troopers do against their will. Maybe the chips controls could be commandeered by the enemy they could make the clone troopers do whatever they wanted.

'His brothers…' Fives thinks and his mind stumbles over the horror of that possibility.

"It is what I would have done." He answers quickly to ward away the images and pushes the blaster forward so heavily that the pressure against the Sith's chest pushes him back against the opposite wall.

A strange look crosses in the Sith's yellow eyes, and it pulls at something in Fives memory. There was something familiar about that expression, like he had seen it before but he cannot place it. Then it clicks "Stay out of my head!" Fives orders and a subtle pressure he had barely noticed pulled away. "Why are you even interested in the chips anyway?"

The Sith looked at him with an unreadable expression. The silence stretched for so long that Fives knew whatever came out of that mouth next would be a lie or a half-truth. The Sith leans back against the wall in what Fives has no doubt was supposed to look casual and unworried, but he was leaning to heavily and his breath is too quick.

"Believe me when I say that it is in both of our interest that you help me." The Sith finally responds carefully and bites his lip. "I am trying to prevent something horrible, and in order to do that chancellor Palpatine needs to go." The Sith says his voice is calmer but he seems nervous now and he keeps looking down on his left arm.

"The chips just proves that Palatine cannot be allowed to continue." Vader say and Fives did not manage to say anything to that before the Sith continued "Palpatine needs to die, it was the very same thing you tried-"

"No, I am not trying to kill him. I am trying to expose his plans!" Fives said and his words are heavy with denial "The Jedi do not believe in killing their enemies."

The Sith just stares like Fives just sprouted a horn between his eyes. "I'm not a Jedi…" He says slowly, like he is fearing Fives would not understand. "…and neither are you."

"I can't just kill somebody like that." Fives snaps back ignoring the words. "There's is no proof of how much the chancellor is in on, it could be that he is merely-."

"So you are going to let him force your fellow soldier into killing their friends?" He pauses then narrow his eyes and goes for the throat. "You would do that to your own brothers?"

"I won't come to that!" Fives tries to ease his frustration, but he was failing to hide it and he knew it. The Sith was very skilfully getting under his skin, but Fives couldn't help it, all the bottled up fear and desperation finally had a target. "I told you. I am going to do this the right way. I am going to find proof and then I'll-"

"Show it to Skywalker? Because that worked out so splendidly last time-"

"Shut up!" the gun is at Vader's throat now, digging into the skin so hard it had to be painful, but the Sith did not react to it at all. There was no trace of pain in his face.

"Just tell me where the chips are hidden, and you don't need to do anything else." Vader said very calmly for someone with a gun aimed at his neck. "I will take care of it for you."

"You?" Fives does not try to mask his sarcasm.

"I know Palpatine far better than you do." Vader said and actually leaned forward against the deadly gun uncaring that it digs mercilessly into his neck. "When Palpatine only kills his enemies, it is as close to mercy as he can get."

Fives did not like how honest that sounded. He relieves the pressure but keeping his finger on the trigger as he considers the Sith in front of him. "What are you talking about?"

"You don't know what that bastard is capable of. He will kill the entire- ." Vader stutters, his mouth gasp in a silent scream and he pulls back again with pain suddenly carved into his eyes. His breath catches and his hand sudden grip his left arm. His shoulders tense up and Fives is close enough to see Vader's entire body tremble.

Just how far had Vader pushed himself?

"What… do you think he…" A painful gasp cuts the sentence off before Vader manage to finish "H-he would do… with that power?"

"If the chips are not already destroyed" Fives says and back another step away while Vader was trying to collect himself from whatever fit he was having. "And that is a big 'if'." He adds keeping his eyes very carefully on Vader who seemed to get the trembling under control "They will be in Nala Se's possession, but I doubt she is stupid enough to carry them around with her. They are most likely in her private rooms in the senate."

"…in the Senate?" Vader breathes, and it sounds like merely bringing the words past his clenched teeth was painful. The darkness around him flickered, like it was touched by some persistent unseen light. "Why? She is a doctor not a Politician"

"No. She is not. But as one of the chief engineers of the clone army, she has a permanent room she stays in when she is on the planet."

Vader seemed to deflate in front of him and for a split-second there is a look of such hopelessness on his face that it makes something uncomfortable clench in Fives chest. "All right." Vader whispers so lowly that Fives almost didn't catch it.

"Thank you." Vader said and it was like the words was an unsaid command. Suddenly the darkness is back and the entire world around him is cold. So cold his breath become white puffs of white smoke again. "That was just what I needed to know" Vader says and pushes away from the wall. He no longer shakes and his movements are bold and strong.

The darkness moved with him.

"Hey." Fives points the blaster at Vader "I have the blaster remember? You are not going-"

The blaster ripped out of his hands. A rumble like thunder tear though the silence and the blaster hovering in the space between them crushes in on itself. It falls to the pavement as only an unrecognizable lump of metal.

"Figured you would be more willing to talk if you thought you had all the cards in your hand." Vader said with a casual air that does not match the heavy yellow stare that carries little to no emotion at all. "I suggest you find a place to hide until this is over." And with that Vader hold out his hand and the lightsaber in Fives belt jumps willingly into the open palm. Vader puts it back in his own belt before he turns and takes off at a brisk walk down the alley, the end of his cloak brush against Fives shins when he passes.

Stunned, Fives could first only stare after him. At first he is flooded with relief, then the mental image of his brothers suddenly springs to mind and the horrible things the chip might make them do.

He screams at his body to move.

"Wait!"

Vader does not react, does not stop. There is not even a halt in his steps

"I said wait!" His hand close around Vader shoulder and pulls the Sith back around. He feels a rush a wind and a powerful impact. He stumbles back, crossing his arms over his chest but the intense lash that hit him disappeared along with the wind.

"Careful." Vader says and lowers his hand again to his side where it came to rest on the hilt of the lightsaber that Fives can barely glance under the heavy cloak the Sith was wearing. "I am done playing around."

"So am I." Fives says and close the distance between them. He only stops when Vader start lifting the lightsaber out in warning. "Listen to me! If we are going to do this we are doing this my way, there is no way that someone like you can-" he should perhaps have dialled down on the attitude, because it made the Sith snap.

"Someone like me!" The Sith says like Fives had just insulted his mother. Then he leans forward and actually pokes Fives in the chest with sharp motion. "And for the record there is no 'We', you ungrateful son of a Hutt! You would be dead without me!"

"And you won't get into the senate without my help!"

"Your help!" The Sith says like he is choking on the words and he suddenly seemed very much younger without the controlled emotionless mask he had worn ever since Fives first met him. The Sith was not taken aback for long though. "You can't even help yourself! You don't know-"

"I know you won't get far with this thing on." Fives says and snaps a hand out to tug at the chain dangling from Vader's wrist.

"This thing might have been made to block the force if it was placed correctly, which it isn't!" Vader swipes his other hand out at Fives and the trooper immediately let's go of the chain. "It blocks nothing of my power." Then Vader adds with a sinister undertone. "Do you perhaps want me to demonstrate this for you?"

Vader is frightening like this, standing with the growing darkness at his back, but if Fives had been a stranger to fear then he would not have come far as a soldier. He knew better than that. Bravery was not the absence of fear but the courage to act in the face of it.

"If it does nothing, then why haven't you taken it off yet?" He says without backing down. 'Bullseye'' he thinks with triumph when Vader suddenly look less certain and his eyes shift away.

"If you must know, then it does not block the force from me, but it makes my control of it…" he pauses and adds finally. "Imprecise." The word is sharp like a gunshot, like he is ordering Fives not to ask about it but Fives never was great at taking orders from Sith.

"…so in other words, if you try to break that binder off, you will take the hand with it?" He asks and Vader disgruntled twitch in his otherwise blank expression says everything. "What will you do about the tracker then?"

Vader mouth opened and closed in a moment that would have been comedic in any other setting. Whatever words he had wanted to say were forgotten as he lifts his hand to inspect the chain.

"We had them installed in case a prisoner escaped from custody during transport." Fives explained but he seems largely forgotten by Vader. The Sith was already inspecting the chain closely. His fingers ran over it, no doubt trying to locate the tracker. He took half a step back underneath one of the small light that came from somewhere above as he lifted the wrist up close and into the ray of light.

"You won't get into the senate." Fives says with a greater calm, now that Vader is no longer looking at him. "Not without my help." He adds with more force and Vader finally glances at him over his inspection.

"I will figure something out. I always do." Vader replies with a sceptic tone that leaves little room for argument and his eyes slide down again to the chain with his brow furrowed, but the anger in him seems to have gone, and there is less of the foreign pressure in the air.

"If I had not held a gun to Rex's head, you would be sitting prettily in an interrogation room right now." Fives said. "You still might get there, if we do not get rid of that." He says and gestures at the binder.

"…what do you suggest?" Vader says like it was painful as he straightened from his search of the tracker to give Fives a searching look.

"I suggest we work together." Then without asking for permission he reaches forward and tugs the chain closer and the startled Vader along with it. "We will have a better chance of unveiling this conspiracy than we do on our own."

Vader seems completely dumbstruck by Fives rash move and stands very still in the seconds it takes Fives to unlock it. "Universal key" Fives comment and throws the chain into the nearest pile of trash. Vader follows its path through the air with his eyes to where it lands and he rubs the place around his wrist where the binder had been before.

"I don't know what history you have with Palpatine, but there is no need to kill him." Fives says holding up a hand "Wait! Hear me out." He pauses for a moment, but the only ripple on Vader emotionless expression is a slightly raised eyebrow. He crosses his arms across his chest in a very stubborn pose, but he keeps his silence.

"You obviously think Palpatine will do something with those chips. Correct?" Fives asks and receives a blank stare from Vader, not about to be discouraged Fives press on. "Wouldn't disabling them solve your problem?"

Vader drums the fingers on his one hand restlessly on his arm. "Go on..."

"If we get to Nala Se, we can take the chips and have them analysed. That way we can figure out how to destroy then or turn them off." He explained to the Sith. "Palpatine, whatever his role in this is, will be without this hidden weapon leaving him powerless. You won't have to kill-"

"I will kill Palpatine." Vader says and for a moment there is an odd pressure in the air and Vader's words resound like they are echoing against the walls of an empty room. It sounded like there was more than one voice speaking. The effect is gone before Fives can be certain he heard it right or if his mind were playing games with him, because it is no trace of it when Vader continue. "That is non-negotiable."

"And how has that worked out for you so far?" Fives says back with just as much determination as the Sith. "The man is the leader of the republic, a republic that has been at war for years now. If it was easy to kill him someone would have done that by now."

The Sith looked like he just swallowed something disgusting and couldn't quite decide if he should throw it up or try to stomach it.

"…I have almost killed him twice." Vader says in a quiet opposition, but it sounds more like a stubborn teenager than a dangerous Sith. Vader realized that too if the lines deepening under his eyes are any indication. He looks vulnerable enough that it makes Fives pause.

"Almost, being the keyword in that sentence." Fives persist ignoring the fragile expression on Vader's face he does not want to see before it disappears behind a blank mask when Vader got himself under control. "Look." He said and bled enough sincerity into his voice to be believable. "I can get us into the senate. Unseen."

Vader looked to the right, as if searching for a response out there, in the dark. His brows pulled together in a collected but fatigued expression before he throws a look down the alley behind him. He breathes out in a huff, then looks back to Fives with something that looks like resigned regret in his eyes.

"…Alright." The Sith says with a sharp undertone. The strict calm Vader wears like a second skin is back, and his expression betrayed none of the feelings he might have hidden behind it. "Our interests are aligned."

"Deal?" Fives says cheekily and holds out a hand. A look ghosts over Vader's eyes. He looks at the hand as if it is a poisonous snake about to bite him. Fives hand was already dropping when Vader's hand closed around his in a firm handshake. The hand didn't feel right, it was cold and felt like unyielding stone.' A robotic hand' Fives realized when he closes his hand around Vader's.

Vader must have seen his shock, because he grins in a way that does not reach his eyes before he agrees.

"Deal."

Chapter Text

"You know…" Han's voice suddenly said very close and Luke pushed out from under the lid of the engine of the x-wing. "I've been thinking."

"…That sounds comforting." Luke says with a short smirk and steps away from the engine. Han is leaning up against the x-wing like he owns it. 'You wish' Luke thought with a bigger smile creeping up on his face and he threw a look at the millennium Falcon at the other end of the hall. There was no reasonable explanation why that things still held together, but fly it did, somehow.

He had long suspected that the major explanation for that was Chewie.

"You don't look much like a Jedi." Han said suddenly, he gave Luke a searching look, and sighed like he was disappointed.

'What?' Luke thought but didn't get enough time to put words to the thought before Han continued louder than before.

"And aren't they all supposed to be old wrinkled guys?"

"Han are you serious-" Luke could feel his left eye starting to twitch as visible sign of his astonishment.

"And wearing those smelly robes, like the old man-"

"Did you really just come all the way down here to insult me?" Luke says with a crooked smile of his own with a little more edge to it. Leia temper must be rubbing off on him. He wipes his hands on an oil-stained cloth. It is so cold that Luke really wants to wrap it around his hands rather than put it down on the box. "Or are you just hiding from Chewie?"

Luke knew Han was a good pilot, great even, but the Millennium Falcon always seemed to return a little worse off than it had been on departure. It had given Luke a great respect for Chewie's skill as an engineer. Nothing less than a master at the craft would keep that old scrapheap in the air.

"Ouch, kid." Han fakes looking hurt so badly that it takes all of Luke's limited Jedi training not to bark out a laugh. Han's grin gets even more crooked and he lifts his hands in mock surrender "I was only asking."

Luke taps his fingers on the box a few times, unsure how to answer. Han always seems to know what to say and Luke would rather spare himself any debates with the smuggler. He was tired of always losing them.

"It didn't smell that bad-"

Han raised an eyebrow

"…Yeah okay, it was a little… worn." Luke relented. He had liked Ben, but the robe was old and it showed. "Han, is there a point to this? because right now I cannot see it." He crosses his arms over his chest and appeared impatient, but secretly grateful for the distraction.

He was bored out of his mind! He had not thought there existed a planet in the galaxy that was more boring than Tatooine. Then they had found Hoth, and Luke had found himself corrected.

The constant danger of frostbite aside it was a planet filled with snow and little else. Nothing to do and nothing to see. One of these days he might even try to borrow one of the tautauns, no matter how much they smelled, just to get out of the base for a while. He was starting to go stir crazy.

"Just stumbled on this." Han said and pulled out something he had hidden on his back. "I know you can't really use it here, but we won't stick around forever in this ice cube." He threw it to Luke that just managed to uncross his arms in time to catch it. It was a large piece of black cloth. He looked back at Han that just grinned like he just stumbled upon an inexperienced first time criminal with a huge coin purse.

'Then Luke unfolded the thing and realized what it was. "This is a-"

"Couldn't find it in brown, but black looks cooler anyway." Han said with a nervous gesture while watching Luke's reaction out of the corner of his eyes. "The ladies like it too."

Han had given him a Jedi robe.

"Where did you even find this?!"

"Hey, smuggler here." He opened his hands in front of him with his palms out in a wide casual gesture. "It's a secret of the trade. I can't just tell people how I do my job."

"But why-" Luke held the robe close to himself, the warmth from it folded tightly against his chest that seemed to chase the cold completely away. He looked down, he brushed the dark cloth with his thumb and swallowed thickly.

A Jedi robe.

His  Jedi robe.

The impact of it, and the thoughtfulness behind it left him grasping for words when he looked back at Han, but Han seemed to understand anyway, because his smile was suddenly very soft.

"Well you won't listen to sense will you? And if you want to be a one of those religious types so bad you might as well look the part."

"… it's called a Jedi, Han." Luke said, mildly insulted, but there was no sting to his words when he pulled the cloak up for closer inspection.

There was a sudden lightness to his heart that he could not explain and he could not suppress his wide smile if he tried.

"Sure." Han said and grinned. "Happy birthday, kid."

"I am not worried Anakin. I have complete faith in you and your abilities." Palpatine said and watched the Jedi make a small nod and ended the call. The blue light of the holocom faded and left the room darker in the faded light he preferred in his office when it was this late.

He leaned back in the chair and the soft padding convinced his strained muscles to finally relax. It had been too long since he had been in combat, but he still shouldn't feel this exhausted after such a short battle.

But in his defence this had been an… eventful day.

The plan had been a great risk, he knew that when he arranged his own kidnapping, but the reward had been too great to pass up. If successful, he would have finally started the end game. Instead he had not accomplished anything at all, because a new player had entered the game.

Someone who knew and controlled the dark side of the force.

Palpatine turned the chair around and looked out over the city he had known for a long time would be his, for the last year it had seemed like a scripted inevitability and one he had looked forward to. Now it seemed his ambition had run away with him and another obstacle to his ultimate goal had blindsided him.

If the chosen one had not acted in his defence, then this game he had been planning for over half his life would have ended pitifully. Pitifully and unknown. He was still unsure which one of those were the most distasteful to him.

He placed the glass back on the table and the reddish liquid shifted softly back and forth in the glass before it finally stilled. Palpatine looked out over the city's many lights as his mind ran through the possible motives of this new enemy. The answer eluded him because the few clues he had led in opposite directions.

Vader knew who Palpatine was under his guise. It was a luxury Palpatine did not share as he knew nothing of Vader before the moment when he sliced off Dooku's head.

The enemy, this Vader, was a Sith but that in itself was impossible. There could not still be any Sith left in the galaxy. Palpatine had personally seen to that he was the only one and before his master had been notorious for nurturing the rule of two. It was one of the few things that still made Palpatine think fondly of his old master.

It meant that Palpatine had a lot less enemies to deal with now.

But then apparently, there was someone that his master had missed because, out of nowhere, comes this new Sith called Vader and the infuriation question of 'who' he was still remained unanswered.

He tapped a finger thoughtfully on the surface of the table, lost in thought. Vader had been too close too many times, but it was obvious that the man was not a Sith lord. Judging from his use of the force and his lack of technique he was an Sith apprentice at best.

The humiliation of almost being killed by someone so unworthy made his jaw tighten in anger. But it also presented another problem. Because if Vader was the apprentice, that would mean that Vader had a master lurking out there in the galaxy.

A Sith lord was a powerful enemy, and this one already knew who Palpatine was.

It was the real problem now that Vader had revealed himself. Sidious had complete faith that Anakin would take care of Vader for him. A smile crept up on his lips at the irony of that setup.

This unknown Sith lord should know better to send his poorly trained apprentice when Sidious' own apprentice was far more capable and far more powerful.

Calmed by this thought Sidious indulges and allows himself another sip of the drink that burns comfortably all the way down his throat.

Then he almost chocked on it when the holocom on his table signalled an incoming call.

Sidious coughed, the burn of the drink stung and wetted his eyes. He drew in a hissing breath and spat out the rest on the floor. He cleared his throat, forced the unnatural open and welcoming expression on his face, until he sees who was calling.

He sets the holocom to voice-display only and answers the call.

"Grievous."

Anakin watches with hard-fought patience as Rex picks up the binders from a trash can. He could not even bring himself to be disappointed. It was like a part of him has expected this outcome. He could feel that Vader had been here recently because his presence still hung in the air, but it was nothing more than the weakest of imprints.

He doubted he could follow it.

There was also a spike in the force that signalled that some demonstration of power had happened, but it had occurred without marking the force with the cold touch of death. 'Maybe Vader is becoming unstable?' Anakin thought. The Sith was using a dangerous technique.

He sighed despite himself but it did not relieve the tension in his shoulders. The Chancellor had taken the news of his failure very graciously, and it made the guilt of failing in catching Vader feel even heavier. It was also the reminder he needed. Vader had shown a determination not to kill anyone in all of the battles Anakin had faced him, but with one notable exception.

Palpatine.

"So they are working together then." Anakin says when he sees that the binders are undamaged. He was surprised inwardly how much sting there still was to that realization. He would never have thought that Fives of all people would turn on his brothers, on the republic.

"Or Vader took them from him." Rex answered like Anakin knew he would and there was more hurt than anger in that tone.

"You believe that?" he found himself asking, secretly hoping that Rex's could come up with a plausible explanation for this. He had liked Fives. He did not want to discover that his friendship had been a lie.

"Fives wasn't in his right mind. He clearly under the effect of… something" Rex continued, but it looked more like he was trying to convince himself rather that Anakin "You know him, sir. Would he ever side with a Sith against his brothers?"

"If you asked me that question yesterday the answer would be clear… but now?" He sighs. "I don't know Rex, you saw what he acted like." His foot catches on something hard as stone and he looks down. The strange object looked like melted metal. He crooks his head at it.

'Is that a blaster?' he thinks and barely has the thought registered before he realizes the truth of it. He shares a look with Rex then nods.

"Seems they had a discussion." Rex says like it proves something, Anakin does not let his doubt show but he remembers clearly what Fives had tried to do to earn the warrant on his capture. As a detective, he could not believe that Vader's attempt at Palpatine life, that happened on the exact same day!, was a mere coincidence.

There were no coincidences.

"Orders, sir?"

"They are still on foot and won't have gotten far." He said with a certainty given by the force. "Set up patrols to lock down the area."

It was a battle in itself for Luke not to look back. He knew that his father was there, not far behind him. It was so hard to convince himself to continue because the urge to turn around and try to make Anakin understand what was happening was almost overpowering.

But Anakin would not understand.

There was a heavy lock on the words that Luke needed to say to explain all of this and without them, Anakin would either think him a fool or a mad man…

He shook his head to himself and instead he followed this stranger this… Fives… into the labyrinth of smaller alleys and pathways slim enough that if he had found himself in the wilds he would have called them part of a hunter's trail. They were certainly not used often given all the discarded things he had to sidestep.

He strode down the darkened alley, following close after his new and unexpected guide. Fives had made it clear that they should not stick around and wait for the search party that he knew would be coming.

He didn't argue Fives point, because, despite his desperate wish to reason with Anakin in his heart he knew it was impossible, and he was not sure he could beat Anakin and his soldiers a second time. It was more luck than skill that had gotten him out of that situation the first time around.

At that thought he glanced briefly at Fives walking ahead of him. An ally that had been as unexpected as it had been welcome. He brushed a hand over his forehead and breathed in deeply.

This game had just gotten more complicated that he had thought previously. He had only come here to put an end to Sidious in the most direct way possible. But what was the point of killing Sidious, if someone else could just pick up whatever remote that controlled those chips and ordered the republic's entire army to kill the Jedi anyway?

If what he had just discovered had been done in the true past, then it was this order that killed off the entire Jedi order along with any hope the galaxy had for a peaceful future.

'Those chips… why had no one known before?' Luke thought. 'How can something so big just be hidden like that?' And how could the soldiers afterwards look themselves in the mirror knowing they had committed genocide. Killed their friends and allies in cold blood.

He rested his eyes a moment longer at Fives' tense back and then turned his attention behind them and the force he had spread out to watch out for the wolves at their heels.

He could not be angry with them, he realized. The clone troopers were as much the victims as the Jedi. He knew very well what it was like to carry the responsibility of having taken a life. It was not a burden he would wish on anyone.

Water splashed his boots when he passed a puddle he didn't try to step over. The boots were already ruined anyway. He cast a look at Fives that silently pointed down yet another dark alley. Apart from their steps, the silence was so thick that it felt like a physical pressure in the air.

Luke had not expected to find an even more forceless place than the alley he dragged the trooper into, but he found himself macabrely impressed with the state of this place.

He had seen more welcoming tombs.

He again tested the surface thoughts of Fives but found no deception. Still, it made Luke's skin crawl to trust someone other than himself especially given the circumstances. The chips were an event he had not foreseen.

Who knew how many knew the trigger to the chips, whatever it was, that made the troopers obey any command?

Even if he did manage to kill Sidious in time, would his father instead die by some cruel twist of fate in combat against another enemy? And even if he didn't then there was a great chance that the empire would come to exist anyway, just with another sitting on the throne.

…this was… a complication he did not need. He brushed his hand against the still aching arm, his finger brushed the black cloth. Back in his own time he had come to like the colour because it gave him anonymity when he needed it. But wouldn't it stick out like a sore thumb if he even got near the Jedi temple.

He might as well hold a sign over his head with the letters 'very suspicious person!' written on it.

He curled his fingers in the cloth, sapping the comfort it gave him and pulled the hood to cover his face more as they climbed another flight of stairs and a pair walked past them followed by a lone figure that ducked his head when Fives turned to look.

Luke pretended he hadn't seen them and kept his silence under the hood. He liked the security of anonymity it gave him, and it had also turned him from 'farm boy' into a Jedi in the eyes of others in his own time.

He scoffed at the memory of it and the boy he used to be. He had wanted so much to be… something… anything in those days. To be somebody that people would listen to and when Obi-Wan came out of blue and told him that he was 'chosen' and meant for so much more. Luke did not hesitate for one moment.

He knew better now. As painful as it was to admit to himself… he should never have left Tatooine. There was nothing out in this galaxy that he needed to see.

He pulled at the hood again when it started to slide back and kept his fingers on the coarse wool a moment longer than needed. He was grateful for it and the anonymity it provided in these streets, even if it still made him cringe to see his own refection in the store windows after-.

'Store windows?-' He cut the thought off and stops. 'Where were they?'

This was no rich area, but it was not poor either. Somewhere during Luke's thoughts, Fives had lead him out of the slums. Or beginning to at any rate. Fives had walked almost twenty steps before he noticed Luke had stopped.

"What?" Fives asked. He still felt genuine and honest through the force, but there was something nibbling at the edges. Something dark.

Luke retreated into his cloak, wrapping it tighter around him and eyeing the surroundings.

"Where are we going?" He asked. Before he had simply thought they had chosen any direction that lead 'away' as fast as possible. Now it seemed Fives had a destination in mind.

Luke straitened his spine at the same time his distrust curled in on itself inside him. It was an old and ugly little thing that twisted around itself, but it had served him well in the pasts years.

"I told you before. A safe place." Fives not-answered the question. "It is only a little further ahead-"

"No." If one could dig their heel into hard pavement, that was exactly what Luke would do.

"It is only a –"

"No." Luke let the word stand on its own.

Fives made a quick motion like he was chewing on the words he wanted to say then he closed the distance between them after a quick look on a small group of people that passed by. When Fives next spoke, his voice was lowered into a whisper. "What is the problem all of a sudden?"

"This is not the way to the senate." He decided to say honestly, he was never a good diplomat and any desire to pursue that path had died a violent death years ago.

"…The Senate? We are not going there right now. The security level would be as high as it can get after today. Going there now would be suicide." Fives says with clear irritation discolouring the careful blank mask that had hidden the intense disgust Luke had felt coming from him during the entire walk. "We need to get off the streets as soon as possible and lay low."

It sounded reasonable and Fives looked like he knew what he was talking about.

But Luke was too stubborn just to let it go and the distrust still ghosted at the forefront of his mind. He had trusted before and been punished for it more times than he cared to admit.

"Out of the question." He said and brushed Fives reasoning aside. "Nala Se would be a fool not to destroy the chips after she learns you escaped." Luke said and made a gesture that indicated the trooper. "I will not waste time by hiding like a coward."

"Look, I agreed to this because I thought we were better off together than alone." Fives said, he sounded like a commander Luke once knew. He was a man with a strict facade but it had turned out once Luke got to know him, that he had cared a lot more than he let on. The man had died in the field two days after Luke finally learned his first name.

Luke didn't really care much for first names after that.

"We don't help anyone but Palpatine by being caught easily." Fives tries to argue. "We will need disguises and security passes. I know where to get both" He stops searching for the words that might convince the Sith "Just… trust me on this, alright? I know what I am doing"

Fives sighed when Luke did not move an inch. "Let's try this then." He stepped closer right into Luke's personal space.

"What are you doing?" Luke said and couldn't keep his surprise out of his voice. He raises a hand on instinct to push Fives back but the Trooper resist Luke attempt. "Fives, what exactly are you-"

"The Jedi can feel if people lie. I guess you can do the same." Fives say and must have taken Luke's silence as confirmation because he nodded to himself. "Whatever our differences, I will work with you to save my brother's and I will not betray you to them or the Jedi." He said and added. "Even if you do deserve it, Sith."

"Am I lying?" Fives asked as he leaned forward and stared daringly right into Luke's eyes. The intensity of the stare made Luke feel uncomfortable.

"Ever heard of personal space?" Luke said and pushed the trooper away and this time backing it with a hint of the force. Fives steps back without resisting it, probably knowing that he could not best that. "…and I don't sense lies better just because you are standing this close." Luke continued without completely keeping the annoyance out of his voice.

"Am I lying?" Fives asked again but it sounded too demanding to be a question.

'Are you?' Luke thought. he could not feel any deception from Fives, only the almost overpowering devotion to his brothers but that did not mean it wasn't there. Strong emotions like devotion could sometimes drown the other emotions attached to it. 'I don't know.' He admitted to himself.

He never knew for sure.

He felt the pure intentions from Fives unstained by any doubt, but there was something else, the imprint of another emotion. It looked like hate. The old kind of hate that had to be nurtured over time to be this intense, and with the hate was the thing he didn't want to see.

Fives was lying.

'…this is not going to work.' Luke realizes even as he focuses on the weak ghost of anger he can barely trace over the intense devotion. But the anger is there and it is so dark it is almost pitch black. Luke knew alliances based on hatred had its uses and could be quite strong, but they never lasted long and Fives anger was not directed at Palpatine… it was directed at Luke.

"Where is this place then?" Luke asked and hiding his wariness behind an uncaring front.

"Not long from here." Fives adds as if he can feel Luke had seen through his facade. "It is safe."

'For who?' Luke thought, his agitation building.

Then a warning spikes in the force. Fives gasp when Luke robotic hand closes around his arm and drags Fives with him around a corner. Voices sound behind him in the same moment Luke's back hits the cool wall. The force presence was strong, not as strong as Anakin's, but contained and… loud.

"They came through here recently." A deep voice says at the same time that the sound of running steps stops. The steps are heavy and Luke does not have to look to know that it is soldiers. There is a strange light source in the dark street now. Luke can see a purple light that reflects off the white wall in front of him.

He leans forward, sneaking closer to the edge to catch a glimpse of his pursuers. A force stops him. He looks back to see Fives' hand locked around his arm. "No'" Fives whispers harshly, catches Luke's eyes and shakes his head. He motions down a narrow pathway that is so slim that it was completely hidden in the sparse light before Fives had pointed it out.

This was Luke's chance.

He could get rid of Fives right now and try to do this on his own. Fives was a grenade waiting to go off, and the lie was glaring back at him in the force… but Luke didn't know this city and if there were more patrols like this one wandering the streets looking for him, there was a good chance he would get caught or killed.

Luke grimaced but he would have to take the risk and trust Fives this once. 'Then I will get rid of him as soon as I can.' he promised himself and hoped was making a fatal mistake. He clenched his hands into fists at his side in frustration.

"Come on!" Fives whisper with agitation. There is a rough pull at his arm."Before he sees us."

'Damn it!' Luke thinks, pushes off the wall and slips down the alley with Fives following close behind. They had barely come out at the other side before Fives takes the lead again. He breaks into a run and Luke follows.

The run silently through the streets taking seemingly random turns down the many streets that were strangely devoid of people.

Luke has lost all sense of direction when they finally stop. aided by the force, Luke barely broke a sweat. Fives looks less rested. He was bent over, his hands resting heavily on his knees, breathing heavily.

"Who was that?" Luke asked. He recognized the strong presence from the Jedi that had arrived with Obi-Wan and Anakin when he possessed the civilian in front of the Jedi temple.

"G-General Mace…. Windu" Fives gasped "You do not want to… f-fight him."

"Really?" Luke replied with another question. He doubted the unknown Jedi would be any threat despite his impressive force presence. Only Anakin, Yoda and Obi-wan survived the war after all. The other Jedi had been too weak to survive. "What makes him so different from Skywalker?"

Luke had already beaten 'the chosen one' in this time. Aside for Obi-Wan and Yoda, Luke doubted he would meet much worthy resistance in battle.

Fives just sends him a long look and he breathed in heavily in and out. "Most… only fight Windu... once."

Luke didn't try to hide his disbelief. After fighting Vader in his own future, he doubted anything else compared to that horrifying experience.

"Couldn't you have…" Fives breathed in heavily once more and pushed his hands again his knees to get up. "Used the force to help me too?"

"Yes." Luke smiles, faking a surprised expression, like he only realized this. "I could have." He allows himself a grin vindictively at Fives offended expression until he turns his focus to the immediate surroundings.

His heart misses a beat

It was beautiful. It was a small square with a little spring in the middle with fresh water blinking in the moonlight and surrounding it in a circle… trees. He hadn't realized how much he had missed trees before now and a whisper of a sound escaped him. He caught Fives watching him out of the corner of his eyes, but the trooper did not comment on it.

Instead the footsteps were loud in the silence when the passed the long row of trees. Luke reached out secretly when the passed a tree and he let a fragile leaf brush his fingers with a delicate touch. He knew it was a morbid indulgence. Fragile things never lasted.

But the beauty of simple things never ceased to surprise him.

"Never seen a tree before?" Fives said with a mocking tone Luke did not care for.

"It's been awhile." Luke says letting go of both his anger and the gentle hold he had on the little green leaf but the shame of showing this weakness tasted nasty in his mouth. He almost ripped his hand away, but that would have emphasized the image that Fives was already forming in his mind

'Focus!' He berated himself, and made very sure to keep Fives within eyesight. He straightened his back. "What way from here?" He asked as a poor distraction, but Fives gestured to the right, down another alley and fell into step beside Luke as they left the small square behind.

Luke was silently surprised at the quiet here in the middle of a city that had so many millions of citizens. Even if it was so long since he left Tatooine, it was still hard to grasp the thought of so many people living in the same place.

Unbidden his eyes slid upwards and took in the sight of the many lights blinking back at him. There was the constant sound of vehicles crisscrossing the sky above, but it sounded very far away down here.

Still he marvelled at the silhouettes of them against the many lights that he knew were all artificial. Deep inside the sight brought back the old ache, the old homesickness, that had never really left.

It was in memory of the only thing he really missed about Tatooine now that aunt Beru and uncle Owen weren't there anymore. It was the same reason he knew he would never come to like this planet, he enjoyed watching the stars too much, and this planet didn't have any.

"Give me a moment." Fives says and stop by a door that looks like it has known better days, but unlike the others they passed on the street this one was the only one not made of wood. "We need to get through here. He kneels down and starts working on the lock.

Used to these kinds of jobs Luke turns and he faces the street so he can quickly get a clear view of both directions. But he had already stretched the force behind him and into the building. Staring ahead he focused all his attention on searching for danger in this 'safe house'. At first he found nothing.

He used more strength on this than he really had to spare on a second search, but he would not risk walking right into a trap. Still after a third intense search he found nothing. It seemed Fives didn't mean to betray him just yet. He kept his guard up regardless.

"Why do you fight for the republic?" Luke asked breaking the silence that was only disturbed but the sound of Fives quiet workings on the lock.

"I would like to think that all people deserve freedom." He snaps like Luke's question had been an accusation that is entirely too loud for Luke's liking and he throws a quick look down and up the street. "Unlike the Separatists." Fives continues behind him a little lower like he too though he had been too loud.

"The Separatist faction fight to free themselves from the tyranny of the republic." Luke said in reply it was part of what little information about the clone wars. There had been almost no information to be found about the clone wars aside from the position that Palpatine got out of it. "They are fighting for freedom too, but apparently another…version than yours?"

Fives scoffs but does not answer the question. A word that sounds like a curse of some kind escapes him and Luke can hear him shift around.

"Got it." Fives says roughly as he stands back up. He avoided looking at Luke and he was trying very hard to suppress a heavy emotion Luke couldn't identify. The door opens with a light push from Fives. He stepped over the threshold without further ceremony.

Luke rubbed his arm from where the scars still stung painfully and moved to follow. The heavy door slid back close with a heavy hollow sound and Fives gave it an extra push for good measure.

"Is this the place?" Luke asked. He narrowed his eyes but he could not make anything out in the dark that descended after the door blocked the light of the moon outside. It made him instantly tense.

His answer is a soft click when Fives flips a switch and a small light ignites in a lamp in the celling. A trail of small lamps lights up one by one above him until the room is bathed in a clear but faded light that leaves the dark corners still covered in shadows.

But the place was empty, the force reassured him of that.

"Cosy." Luke says in a dry comment. It looked like a smaller version of the warehouse they just left. It seemed Fives had a preference for the places he used as hideouts.

"It looks worse than it is." Fives says sounding a little defensive. "It will a good place to lay low while things calm down."

Luke spots a chair and he cannot remove his eyes from it now that he has seen it. He resisted the urge. 'Don't show any more weakness.' He thinks to himself refuses to surrender to the fatigue, and sit down. "Won't somebody come eventually?" He asked to distract himself and tries to look relaxed when Fives throw him a searching look.

"Not for a while." Fives said and looks down the shelves as if he was searching for something. He moves in between the rows and opens a box. "This is one of the old warehouses. They are in the process of being shut down."

'Convenient.' Luke thinks, but keeps the thought to himself. "And how do you know about this?" he asked and drops his head down in his hands to close his eyes for a moment. By the force he was exhausted, but before Fives looks back up Luke pulls himself together and forces himself to stand up straight.

"How do you know?" Luke repeated. It seemed a little out of the usual that a soldier would know about a place like this.

"I know many things." Fives says with an uneven smile. "Like I know that we won't get anywhere dressed as we are now." He digs through the crate and pulls something out. "Catch!"

"What is-" Luke looks down at the thing he just caught out of reflex.

"Disguises" Fives says with entirely too much spirit for Luke's taste.

Vader does not look excited at the disguise. In fact, he couldn't look less enthusiastic about it if he tried. He looked down at the pile as if it was something nasty he just found under his shoe.

Fives suppresses a grin. Vader would be even more disgruntled when he found out what it was Fives had picked out for him.

"I told you I would find us disguises." And adds a little more gleefully than he really has to. "Sorry, the dark and broody robe has to go. It is not really your colour anyway." Vader just narrows his

eyes to that remark as his free hand dug its finger into the dark cloth.

Fives sighs inwardly, missing his brothers. Vader didn't have any humour at all.

'It is just for now.' Fives reminded himself, until he got the proof he need to convince General Skywalker. The Sith was probably already thinking of a way to get rid of Fives. The Sith had a long tradition for treachery.

Vader looked at the cloth again and released a heavy breath before he turned on his heel and walked away behind some of the higher rows of shelves. "No looking!" He says loudly before he slips out of sight.

Fives scoffs and goes to put on his own disguise. 'Cheeky bastard' Fives thought "Don't flatter yourself" He mumbled. He shook his head, took his own disguise and moved a little away from the door but didn't hide behind one of the racks like Vader had.

He didn't have the same modesty the Sith had. In the army such silly things as bashfulness never lasted long, Fives reflected as he started putting on the uniform of the local security guard

It was the uniform of the security personnel of the entire senate district. It was a rare find that he had been more than a little lucky to get his hands on here. He had also found the uniform of the service personnel in the senate that he had folded neatly on the shelf, but he couldn't use it just yet. There was somewhere else they would need to go first.

He began putting the uniform on quickly, but he had barely managed to get the pants on and started reached out for the jacket, that was still folded on the box, when he heard footsteps behind him.

"I take this is funny to you?" The voice was calm but when Fives turned to face him he was startled by the anger. Vader posture was calm, but he had never looked this furious, not even when he had faced General Skywalker.

Apparently Vader didn't like the Jedi robe Fives had given him.

Fives barely suppressed a smile.

"It is just a disguise." Fives says, but he doesn't hide his inner glee at putting the Sith in that particular uniform, because Vader looks practically enraged. "Come off it. Everyone with even the smallest connection to the force would be able to recognize that you are a force-user. If your wear anything else, you will only attract unwanted attention."

"Hah!" Vader responds mockingly. "As if a force blind would notice-"

"I noticed right away." Fives countered. "It is in the way you act and talk, like you are aware of everything around you… it is hard to explain but very easy to see once you know what you are looking for." He said and then added to cement his point. "And now I am not even counting the Jedi, who will notice no matter how much you try to hide it."

"I refuse to wear this." Vader stated finally and stared briefly at the cloak in his hand as if it was a venomous snake, but there is something in his eyes that looked like horror. "They will know I am not one of them." Vader says with utter conviction. He pauses and looks at Fives in a certain way that makes him pause as well.

"They won't know." Fives says slowly as he tries and fail to recognize the odd look in Vader's eyes.

"There are many Jedi here, and not all of them know each other. This place has the largest concentration of Jedi in the entire galaxy. You will blend right in." He says calmly, beating down the rising frustration on the inside.

"This will fail." Vader says and after a breath he reveals with a reluctant expression. "This is not the first time I have been hunted. I have more experience in this than you do."

"From this side of the chase perhaps." Fives agrees. "But I know what tactics they will use to try and trap us, because I have been trained in using those same tactics too." He says and gives a little more ground now that the edge had gone out of Vader's eyes.

It is Vader's frustration talking right now, Fives knows this through his own experience and training. Vader had worn himself thin and was not really being rational because of the exhaustion he was trying very hard not to show.

"No one would ever believe that you, a Sith, would disguise yourself as a Jedi." Fives reasons.

Vader just stare back at him, the fire from before had gone out. Suddenly Fives regretted doing this. He cannot explain Vader's reaction to this, but there is clearly more to it than what Vader says.

Why else would he suddenly look so defeated?

"You overestimate my capabilities in this… This disguise of yours will only work as long as I do not speak." Vader admitted and the blank expression fought its way back into place on his face. "I know nothing of the Jedi. As soon as I open my mouth they will know."

"Well you must know something." Fives argues having seen the proof of that with his own eyes. "You couldn't have battled General Skywalker like that if you didn't." It was the truth. Very few could fight General Skywalker like Vader had.

"That was… a battle, that I know..." Vader stops and looks out into the dark like the words he was searching for were out there. "But their traditions? Customs?" Vader made a helpless gesture. "Before I came here I didn't even know what a Padawan was."

That takes Fives by surprise.

"How could you not know that?" Fives says, trying and failing to hide is astonishment. "Surely you must have at least heard of basics like that."

"I tried." Vader said with a shrug "But there wasn't really much left to find after the purge that Darth Sidi-"

Vader flinched back like he was struck. He grabbed his arm in a painful soundless gasp and stumbled back and up against the tall rack.

The impact sent boxes crashing to the ground along with Vader when he collapsed up against it and hit the ground hard.

Then Vader was screaming.

"Vader!" Fives rushed to him his eyes darted around, but he could see no attacker. He kneeled down, he pulled at Vader trying to turn him around see what was causing this. "What is happening!"

But there was no response from Vader. He was twisting on the ground, completely incoherent. He clawed at his left arm and he wouldn't stop screaming.

Vader resisted Fives' frantic pull at him, his eyes were wide open, but he didn't seem to register Fives at all and his whole body was shaking.

Fives could see Vader was trying to stop screaming. He bit at his arm to strangle the sound, but the sound only muted for a second until another rough spasm tore through him and the strangled scream ripped his clenched teeth apart.

'What do I do!' Fives thought desperately, searching for some injury that could explain this.

Anything!

"Vader! Tell me what is happening!" Fives practically yelled in frustration and helplessness. The screams were horrible to listen to and Vader face was torn in intense pain. But there was no visible wound, no injury that explained this extreme reaction. Nothing.

'What do I do!' Fives thought with horror. He was panicking. He knew he was panicking, but he couldn't help it in the face of this unexpected attack.

Then suddenly Vader stopped.

He stopped screaming, moving… stopped everything, and his hand that had clawed at so desperately at his arm wilted limply to the floor.

The room was silent

Vader did not move again.

"Skywalker?" Mace Windu stops to look back at Anakin who stood frozen on the spot halfway through a step.

"Sorry I just…" Anakin looked out over the city and the unnerving feeling he had felt for a fraction of second was gone. "… for a moment there I thought I felt something."

It took hours before Vader woke back up.

Fives suppressed a relieved sigh when the cloak he had draped over the Sith started sliding off when Vader finally moved. A look of utter confusion stared back at him when Vader opened his eyes. He blinked at Fives with an open expression that made him seem very young. Then the constant frown was back and the look in his eyes darkened.

"You okay now?" Fives asked, not moving from beside the pallet he had placed Vader on.

"Yes… It has passed." Vader said, but the words sounded like a lie. Fives let the lie escape unquestioned between them, reasoning that in Vader's position he would have lied too. Vader shifted a little under the robe, trying to sit up and failing.

"What was that?" Fives asked and reached out a hand. Vader eyed it silently until he, after a breath, accepted the hand. Vader fingers felt colder than the air around them when Fives pulled him up to a sitting position.

"An old injury." Vader explained shortly "It acts up now and again." He leans forward and rest his arms on his legs. It was not really an answer, and Fives did not want to think about what could cause an injury that reacted so violently.

"Who did that to you?"

Vader does not answer. He blinks silently up out in the dark, his expression blank and carved out of stone. Fives waits long enough for the seconds to become minutes, and still no answer comes from the Sith.

"Did you kill him?" Fives ask and there is a sudden anger in his own voice that he does not understand. Vader still doesn't answer, but slowly, like the act took momentous effort, Vader turned his head towards him.

"Are you actually worried about me?" Vader asked with a smile that Fives thinks was meant to look cheeky, but with the exhausted line around his eyes it appears tired instead.

'So that is a 'no' then?' Fives thought. A Sith would generally boast about such things in his experience so the person that had done it was probably still around. "Don't get too used to it." He said instead of questioning Vader about his old enemy. He probably wouldn't get a straight answer anyway.

"Why did the robe bother you so much?"

"I am not a Jedi." Vader replied with narrowed eyes and a slight frown, but there was some other feeling attached to it, only Fives couldn't identify it. "You keep telling me that, but why does that matter so much to-" Fives stops himself there. Something inside him doesn't want to know the answer to that question.

It is better to keep things the way they are.

"Look…" Fives says after a moment of hesitation. When Vader had said that earlier, about the Jedi would know immediately that Vader was not a Jedi, he had not looked angry, he had looked… hurt. "If you really hate the robe that much we can find something different."

'You are too soft Fives.' Fives berated himself, trying to recall that a few hours earlier he had every intention of turning on Vader the first chance he got, but he never was really good at seeing people in pain, no matter who they were.

"No, you are right, it is the best choice." Vader seems to draw some power from his own words. He drags the robe that Fives had draped over him like a blanket over his shoulders as he sits up straighter with difficulty. He puts the robe on quickly, a little too quickly for it to look uncaring, but Fives supposed if one of the Jedi had to disguise themselves as Sith he would see the same reaction.

"So, how do I look?" Vader asked. He gently brushed a wrinkle out of the clothing and looks up at Fives. There was something about that image, Vader in a Jedi robe, that struck some cord within Fives. It was like he had seen it before today.

"Do I pass?" Vader says that with a smile that was clearly crooked and forced but there was something in his eyes that looked… hopeful?

"You, pass for a Jedi?" Fives said with a huff and looked away suddenly uncomfortable. "In your dreams."

Chapter Text

"This is not your fault." He said little above a whisper. He did not recognise the voice that crawled past his teeth and he could barely hear his own words over the deadening sound of the alarm.

Maybe it was because he didn't want to hear the words himself.

"I should have protected you better. Kept you safe." He said with a weak smile as his eyes burned and a lump formed in his throat. He squeezed the limp hand gently. "There are some fights you cannot win no matter how brave you are."

"You have news?" Palpatine asked in an uncharacteristic show of impatience, but he could afford to wait no longer. He had to be the one to deal with Vader before the jedi found him and made him talk.

Before he unveiled what Palpatine really was.

"I have sent our best operatives to track him down."

"But found nothing" Sidious said as the answered was glaring back at him in the force before Grievous could speak it. He reined the irritation in with a monumental effort and restrained it like he rarely did his fury. Anger would not aid him in this. "With all due respect to your men, General. I need this matter to be solved in a speedy manner."

"I assure you, they are working as fast as they can, lord Sidious." The general said and Sidious noticed a hint of offence at the dismissal of his men. Sidious chose his words carefully now, he could not afford to alienate the general at this crucial moment, especially not now when Dooku was gone.

"I do not question the abilities of your men, but this city is vast and they are behind enemy lines. I am merely suggesting that you seek the aid of people more familiar with the territory… and the hunt."

"Bounty hunters?" Grievous obvious distaste was only rivalled by the undisguised loathing in the force.

"Dooku too, hired bounty hunters when he saw the need." Sidious reminded him diplomaticly and to his silent relief saw a significant measure of Grievous anger drain from him.

"I will find out who the count employed." Grievous finally said after a pause. "it will be fitting that Dooku's murderer is dealt with by Dooku's own men."

Sidious sours instantly at the sound of that. Griveous condition should have prevented him from feeling any sort of attachment to anyone, but it was too late to change that now. The damaged had apparently already been done.

"Lord Sidious?"

"I prefer him alive, General." Sidious reminded his general. He picks is words carefully. He weighs them in his mind, trying to find a way to make Grievous use more productive emotions than the regret that has such a tight hold of him. Palpatine almost smiles when his wandering thoughts suddenly pinpoint the cause of Grievous anger in the force.

"You want to avenge Count Dooku?" Sidious say and fakes a short pause as he draws fake wonder into his tone. "I did not know you had been so… close"

"It is only to boost the moral." The cyborg denies, but he was never a good liar before and the force is coloured black with the General's ill hidden deceit. "It has not recovered since the death of Count Dooku."

Sidious nod, but whether it is to Grievous words or some thought of his own, the general wouldn't know. He considers the odd attachment again, wondering for a moment how he had not seen it form, but then he dismisses it. For now, he would use Grievous ill-place loyalty in his favour.

"There is one question I need Vader to answer. Then you can do with him what you want" He pauses. "Is that agreeable to you General?" with that the transmission ended and Grievous was once again alone in front of the console

If Grievous body had not been mutilated to the point where only his eyes and lungs were his own he would have smiled.

It was only battle and violent retribution these days that created any calm within him

'There is too much of his father in him' a voice that sounded too much like Owen whispered like he had stood just beside Luke. Luke ignored the fathom as he had ignored the memory of the words ever since he learned the truth. Since the day he had learned his father's legacy was not something he should be proud of.

Rather the opposite.

Luke had not really put much thought to Owen's words back then. When he lived on Tatooine, he had thought that Owen simply… Luke sighed

'….What did I think Owen meant back then?' he thought. It was hard to remember, not because it was uncomfortable, which it was, but that person he had been back then seemed very far away now. 'Or maybe I am just getting old.' He thought with another sigh.

He had most likely though that Owen's comment had just meant that Luke had been adventurous like his father, because Owen was, put simply, the exact opposite of an adventurer. Luke had always longed for something… new, and that often came in conflict with Owen, who was the uncrowned king of backwards thinking.

'You are too much like your father.' Luke thought and it sounded like Owen in his mind. Luke remembered that he had been secretly glad whenever he could get Owen to say that sentence. It had been own personal badge of honour. That changed a long time ago on a planet named Beispin when that old pride cracked and left something heavy and cold in its place.

Shame.

Because he had never heard what Owen said and what the words really meant.

Too much like his father

Too much like Vader

Luke pulled the cloak closer around him and craved their borrowed warmth. The new cloak Fives had given him was softer and newer than the one he had worn before and less torn with age and use.

Luke already hated it.

Because this robe was not his, not in the way the old he left back in the hideout was. That had been a gift. This one felt so much warmer heavier around his shoulders, but the shadow from the hood felt colder.

"A museum?" Luke asked standing in the shadow of the building he was leaning up against and addressed Fives who stood stubbornly out in the evening sun as if the heat didn't bother him at all. He was not fooling Luke. The sun was practically baking the street in a strangling heat. It was so warm that it bothered Luke, and he was raised in a desert.

"Seriously?" Luke asked and pulled the cloak further down over his face.

He didn't like being out in the open like this, it made his skin crawl and wearing this Jedi robe…

He felt like a fraud.

"Can you think of a better hiding place for a smuggler?" Fives asked and sounded exactly like someone who had repeated the words more than once. "Look, it already told you. we need those security passes and this is the way that we get them, trust me-" Fives stopped suddenly, like he caught himself saying something he shouldn't, and Luke agrees wordlessly. Because of course he doesn't trust Fives.

"What is this place anyway?" Luke asked and threw a look around. The large entrance room looked like it could fit the millennium falcon with ease.

There were statues lining the wall. Most of them look like Jedi. A small indoor spring was in the centre of the room. There was a sense of peace to the place had the opposite effect on him.

This entire place was so peaceful and so tranquil that it felt fake.

"The galactic library…." Fives said and sounded more uncomfortable with this than he had been describing his plan to get into the senate. "Only the biggest collection of knowledge in the galaxy." He said with dismissing wave and adds with a condescending edge. "But I suppose your master didn't think it important enough to teach you that."

Luke didn't care for the tone, but the anger he sent out was distracted and muted, like his heart wasn't really in it.

"They did not." He answered the not-question to get rid of the bile he suddenly felt. "I was only told what they needed me to know."

"Can't say that surprises me." Fives said with his normal perceptive straightforward manner. "And what was it they needed you to know?" Fives pried

"The name of a traitor." Luke said unable to keep the almost wistful expression of his face. "I was supposed to kill him." He said as they memories came rushing back. It had been so much easier back then when the world was carved so neatly into black and white. He smiled a crooked smile at the thought. He then shook his head and the default blank expression returned.

"And did you?"

"Why do you think I am here?"

Luke looked to his reluctant ally but he wasn't getting anything he could use from the mask that covered Fives face. It was impossible to gauge his expression under the strange armour Fives had said belonged to the underground security force on Coruscant. It covered Fives completely.

The blue uniform with the yellow markings on the shoulders was clearly created for close combat even if it was just made of leather and not something stronger.

"Palpatine is the traitor then?" Fives said, and even without the force Luke would recognize the ill-disguised disbelief creeping over the vocoder.

"No." Luke said and barely supressed a hopeless laugh when there was a sharp warning pain from the scars of his left arm.

Fives turn his head towards him. The mechanical eye coverings that shone back out at him made Fives eyes menacing red. Luke was secretly grateful it was red and not yellow, the uniform already reminded him too much of Darth Vader.

Maybe that was why he was so on edge right now.

"I don't think you chose the right disguise for this." Luke said honestly, more to change the subject than for any other reason. This place didn't seem like the spot where criminal contacts would hang around. It didn't look like a place that needed special security for that matter.

Fives had confidently said that the uniform belonged to the underground law enforcement. Luke himself still did not see how it would fit in here. Fives and he were clearly not underground and this looked like a peaceful part of town.

Unlike the slums he had crossed through when he just landed.

"Believe it or not, but the underground security department come to this library quite often. It has an extensive section about law." Fives said as is he could see the question in Luke's mind. Without slowing down as the crossed the giant entrance room. "Personally, I think it is because they want to keep themselves update on how much they can get away with."

He made a discreet turn as if to catch Luke's reaction to this. The revelation might have shocked him if he had not grown up on Tatooine. Lawmakers there usually did whatever they wanted regardless of the law itself. As far as he knew, no one usually bothered to know what was actually written in the law. Who was going to hold them accountable anyway?

If Fives had any reaction to Luke's indifference, it was a mere ripple in the force that died as soon as it rose into existence.

"And are we meeting one of them here?" He asked. He would not be surprised to find that officers of the underground security department were corrupt as well as ruthless. He had found that to be the rule rather than the exception in all the worlds he had visited.

"What? No we are -" Fives stop himself and straightens. "Wait… There he is. Finally!" Fives exclaim with relief rising in the force. "See that guy over there?"

The man Fives indicate stands alone in the open room, close to a big fountain. The water from the delicate spring is thrown meters into the air in a graceful arc. He cannot stop himself from thinking that back on Tatooine people fought and died to claim water resources that were smaller then the amount than was used for this… decoration

He is equally awed and sickened at the sight of so much water used so uncaringly. The sight of it is almost macabre.

Luke shook his head. 'Focus' he thought harshly and quickly located the man Fives spoke of. He was standing right beside the fountain.

The man was wearing bright colours that were just as painfully cheerful as that of the surroundings, but his signature was a different creature altogether. It was worn and flayed at the edges. A dull echo is all that comes from his mind. It is unnaturally muted and fragmented. It was difficult to see how something so broken could help them.

'But most broken things have their uses' He reminds himself and the memory of who said that sentence first is still as sharp and painful as it was when he heard it the first time. Even watching that horrible memory still feels like swallowed glass.

"Him?" Luke asked and pulled his senses away from the memory he could not forget. He tries instead to focus on the man by the fountain, their target.

He is a thin man with a thinner smile. The smile is a not-thing and there is no imprint of it in the force. "He does seem like the type." Luke added as an afterthought and ignore the memory that still feels like cold sharp nails down his back.

"What exactly have you promise him?" Luke asked and stretched his senses to gain some comfort from the force. It took much more effort than it should to connect to the force and that is despite the fact that the light side of force comes rushing to him willingly and envelop him in a gentle warmth. Luke is grateful for calm it gives him, and finally the last shreds of the memory passes. "Types like that don't do anything for free." He muttered as he tried to stay focused.

The force gathered tightly around him like it had sensed his distress, and its closeness felt uplifting and warm like sunlight. There was a constant gentle…presence, that was hard to explain since he has nothing to compare it to. This entire planet feels rich and plentiful and the force feels young and whole in a way he had never encountered before his journey back in time.

And in this place the force feels even more serene… sacred even.

He almost didn't want to touch the force here. He does not wish to taint it with the darkness from the doomed future that must have blended into his own signature. But it was too hard to resist when it was beaconing so sweetly for him.

It was like he imaged it would be to touch the heart of a supernova, so vibrant and alive did it feel.

In comparison, everything he had felt before was a poor imitation, like the force in his own time was only a shade of the real thing.

He did want to reflect on that and instead allowed himself, for a brief moment, to open his force connection completely to the force. Immediately he felt a rush of relief that bleed the pain from him and his mind was at peace. He basked in the intense warmth and comfort that sunk into his troubled mind.

After what happened last night he had felt diminished. When he had woken up he had felt like he couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag and hours later he still felt like he had been… hollowed out. It felt like there was a little less of him now than there had been yesterday, like a part of him had been gutted out.

"He owes me a favour." Fives explain with a low voice and steps a little closer to Luke to keep their conversation private with so many people about. "He has also a tendency to be more curious than is good for him."

"He is the one that will get us the security passes to the senate?" Luke asked

"He…. Is the one that will get us in contact with the guy who makes them."

"Great." Luke says and means the opposite. He barely suppressed a sigh. Suspicious criminals with their endless precautions were and had always been exhausting.

"Are you even sure these security passes will get us through the gate, after what happened yesterday?" Luke said.

"They will." Fives said and sounded very certain and that was good. Luke needed at least one of them to be certain about this. "This particular gang have a very impressive reputation."

"Answer me this." Luke asked as he fixed his connection in the force on the anonymous figure. "If you know about what he is doing and who he is working for, why is he still… in business?"

Why leave such an obvious danger wide open?

"You need proof before you can convict somebody." Fives says like it is a lecture. "That is how our democracy works."

Like that wasn't also the case where Luke came for. Or at least it had been…

In the beginning.

"Like they did with you?" Luke said, with a hard look. He felt a flicker of regret at the startled hurtful feeling in the force, but in the end, he did not care. He was tired and his patience had been worn thin by watching Fives' disgust and hate stare back at him in the force. The relief the light side of the force gave him could not drown that frustration out.

"How is that working out for you?" Luke asked nastily, leaned forward towards the trooper and stares at those two red spots where he knows Fives is staring back.

He had had it with Fives superior attitude!

"That is different. I know exactly how it looked like to the general, and with the poison I-" Fives starts and stops and in the force, the sentence doesn't finish either. There is a weak image of Luke in the force from Fives perspective when he woke up back in the alley after the ambush. Luke almost starts at how worn he looks in that memory. The memory blinks out in a second.

But the cold touch of it lingers like a nightmare in this mind. Did he already look that bad? In the force, there was suddenly not the now familiar anger from Fives, but a different feeling. It is frail and weak and it tries to devour itself. Luke turned his inner sight away from it in disgust and his head rip away from Fives as if pulled by a sharp tug.

The only sound between them is the slight noise of mumbled conversation around them and the gentle sound of the water from the fountain. Luke stands up straighter and narrow his eyes at the trooper. Luke needed to show strength, he could not let Fives see his own doubt.

He did not want to know what the trooper would do with it.

Despite Fives helping him yesterday, Luke still did not know if he could trust him. Especially not when Fives thoughts of betraying Luke had survived the night. But he could not forget either, how genuinely worried Fives had been when Luke had woken back up.

Fives was a difficult man to read.

"What do I need to do?" Luke ask, more to break the tense mood than anything else.

Fives stare at him, like there is something he wants to say, but the sentence never comes. Out of the corner of his eyes he sees Fives shoulder sag and shortly after his words breaks the tense silence between them.

"let me do the talking." He said strongly in a way that left little room for argument. "You just need to… make him do it." Fives say, and the hesitancy on the last words did not go unnoticed. Luke saw the hidden worry Fives shot his way in the force. It was a hidden worry that Luke could refuse that kind of mind violation.

Fives worried for nothing.

'You would have refused to do that once.' Luke reminds himself, but shakes the thought off him instantly. That was a long time ago, and he was no longer so soft. He had long since crossed that line, and many others like it, on the long way down in pursuit of an impossible victory.

He says nothing of this to Fives. He just nods and starts walking.

Then he stops hallway through a step. There I something moving in the force, many somethings. It does not register as a threat. They are all bright and small, but Luke's unease makes him stop all the same.

What was he sensing? This was not like sensing a jedi. It was… wilder, younger but just as bright. Then he spots something out of the corner of his eyes and he understands

"Is there something you want to tell me Fives?" his hand tightens around the hilt of the lightsabre. His unease colouring the force dark. "Why are there jedi here?"

"What?"

"The fountain."

"Wait!" Fives whisper and there is something that looks like horror in the force. Then he follows Luke's eyes "…a padawan!" He says agitated. "There should not be a padawan here."

'Padawan.' His mind registered as his eyes fell on the figure Fives indicated 'Jedi apprentice.'

Luke threw a look around and makes himself very small in the force. The force is now muted to him like this. It is like feeling something cold through a glove, but the trick hides him for now.

"If I use the force now, he will notice." Luke said like he knew this for a fact. The certainty of it lay thick and unavoidable in the force. "and maybe also the others."

"The other's?"

"We are not alone here." Luke felt this with certainty. A padawan would not wander here alone. where was the padawan's master? Luke knew what he was capable of doing but he had had less than a few months of training put together and Jedi in this day and age were trained almost from birth.

A jedi master no matter how little in power might prove more than he could manage simply because he or she had more experience.

"Are you trying to get rid of me, Fives?" Luke said, realizing the brilliant setup this would be. If he used force persuasion here then he would give himself away and slip a noose willing around his own neck. "…and here I thought we were getting on so well."

"No!" Fives was suddenly in front of him, catching Luke's eyes with a desperation that was sharp in the force. "I swear on my brothers! I did not know they would be here!" He lowers his voice to a whisper. "They should all be confined to the temple with a sith in the area."

He adds like an afterthought. "It is standard procedure."

And Luke feels both the desperate conviction of that sentence along with Fives' genuine confusion so sharp in the force that is has to be real.

"You cannot convince your friend without my help?" He asked slowly.

"Unlikely." Fives said and it sounded like an apology.

But that did not make the problem go away.

'Now what?' Luke thought and searched the surroundings with a steeled look but found nothing.

"Do you see his master?" Luke asked, because that was the real problem. He could deal with the padawan, his force signature was pathetically weak, but a Jedi master would complicate things significantly. He reopened his connection to the force carefully, keeping his presence low and hidden as he had practiced for so long.

There were little lights in the force, but they had moved further away deeper into the library from this open circular room that seemed to form the centre of the library. 'More padawans?' he thought. But in either case they were far enough away that a simple mindtrick should not alert them.

The one padawan near the fountain, on the other hand would notice. He seemed to have separated himself from the others and his force presences was heavy with shame for some reason.

Even from this distance Luke could tell the padawan was very young, hardly more than a child.

"I don't see any master." Fives said but sounded as doubtful as Luke himself felt. "But that does not mean there isn't one." Fives sounded like he spoke from experience and Luke could not help but be cautions himself.

'There had to be a master around' Luke thought 'Surely, the jedi did not permit them to be out like this on their own with things as they were?' He carefully stretched his sense a little further, for a hidden Jedi.

He found nothing

"I don't sense anyone strong in the force aside from a few back there." He told Fives and kept his focus solely on the Padawan. "If I am careful they might not notice anything at all." He hesitated for one moment. "but there is no getting around him." he said with appointed look at the Padawan at the fountain.

"We'll then get rid of him!"

"What!" Luke couldn't hide his shock. "What can I do about it!"

"You are a jedi master!" Fives said and pointed for good measure at the robe Luke was wearing. "He will listen to you!" When Luke just stared blankly back at him Fives looked away and scratched the back of his neck. "Just… be strict. Tell him to go back to his friends. He shouldn't be running around on his own anyway with everything that is happening."

"And how do you suggest that I do that? Fives, I already told you. I don't know anything about-." He bit the words back and let the sentence die. He didn't want to admit to that weakness a second time, but Fives must have understood anyway, because he suddenly looked... diminished.

"He is just a kid." Fives said slowly like that changed anything. "Just tell him to re-join the other kids. He won't suspect anything. "If Fives hadn't looked genuinely uncomfortable about asking it, then Luke wasn't sure he would have tried and even with it he is not sure he can do it regardless.

Fives confused him. The troopers hate and fear was genuine, he could feel the certainty of that in the force, but at the same time he could feel a more vulnerable feeling that felt… kind. How could one person feel such conflicting feeling at the same time?

"All right." He said, but secretly he would rather have fought Anakin again, Vader or the man in black he met the first time on Hoth, the same man who-. Luke gritted his teeth and banished the memory that tasted like frost. He started walking towards the innocent child that was lost in the lowliness inside his own head.

The look of the padawan was as genuine as it was heart-breaking. He didn't need this reminder of what his life might have been like if Palpatine's empire had been killed before it rose from the dark.

Luke's borrowed cloak dragged over the floor, as he closed the distance between them. He could not tell much from the padawan who sat with his back turned, but his presence in the force was relatively strong. His shoulders were hunched and his mood in the force equally so.

Luke stopped and took a long breath, steeling himself. What should he say? What would Yoda had said? He sighed 'pull yourself together!' he thought in self-disgust'Yoda isn't here.'

"You should be with your brothers and sisters, Padawan." Luke said, making the tone strict as Fives had advised. The irony of taking instruction from a clone-trooper on how to act like a jedi was not lost on him.

Startled the boy looked up, his green eyes were wide there was a brief moment of panic in them before the Padawan gaze shifted to the robe. Then his force presence became wary in a different sense and Luke could already feel the apologies and excuses lining up when he continued. "You should return to the group."

"I…" the Padawan stuttered "I just needed somewhere to practice...alone" He tried to excuse himself.

"I see… but that does not change the fact that there is a sith running around. It is very irresponsible of your master to simply leave you here unprotected." Luke said and saw a glimpse of worry in the force that he instantly used to his benefit. "What is your master's name?"

"Please don't tell her, I already argued with her today! That why she sent me here with the others….and I was supposed to stay with them, I just-" The panic was almost endearing in comparison to the emotional roller-coaster Luke had been through in these last horrific days. He was careful not to show that though. "But I- I just needed to practice. There are- I needed to practice on my own, where no one sees it- no, I mean… distracts me"

"There will always be distractions. You need to focus through them."

"Don't you think I try! I always fail. Always. And then the others think it's so funny, they- " the padawan shuts his mouth like he had said too much. The frustration was real and weighed heavy on the Padawan's mind. Luke could see in the force that the child instantly regretted his outburst. "Sorry, I-"

Luke just waved the apology off. "fail?"

"I should be able to levitate things with the force by now, everyone else in my year can do it." the padawan sighed. "I do alright in the lightsabre forms, but I just can't make this work." He made a quick gesture with his hand that suddenly made him loose his grip on the little item he held in his hand.

Before Luke thought about it, he had already moved the force to catch the object before it landed on the floor. To Luke, the strange little item looked like a holocron, only smaller and more compact.

"…Rub it in my face, why don't you?" The Padawan muttered and plucked the item from the air with his right hand. "Everyone makes it look so easy."

"How are you trying to do it?" Luke said by some unknown urge and sat down beside the padawan on the edge of the fountain. Maybe if he solved the problem the padawan would go on his own accord and that would draw considerable less attention from the surroundings than an upset child would.

"I… I just think about how much I want to lift it." He said.

"That doesn't work." Luke said reminded of his own poor attempts in the beginning. "Don't demand it like the force is not already in your control."

"Huh?"

"Make it feel more… natural, like the force is just an extension of you."

The padawan's dark brown brows pulled together in a questioning expression. "Like a tool?" He said. "But that is not what master Yoda said. He said the force is an ally."

"And it is, in a way, but on a deeper level. The force is a part of you." He paused searching for the words to explain what he had been doing for years. "Would you call your body a tool? Your body is a part of you too, but it is not everything you are" Luke said "Think of the force as a part of you on the level that your body and your spirit is. You and the force are not separate entities. You are one."

"Like this." Luke said and once again lifted the tiny cube-like item ease before it floated back into the padawan's hand. "Now you try it."

There is hope in the padawan's eyes when he turns to the cube with an intense look of concentration on his face, but despite the fierce attempt the cube did not lift. "It doesn't work." The padawan said and his disappointment and misery is a crushing weight in the force.

"Are you sure? I think I saw it move a little." The lie passed easily past Luke's lips, because it serves an important purpose. The cube would never move because the boy did not believe he could move it. It was the first lesson Yoda taught him.

"You did?" The padawan's spin his head back around to the cube in his hands. Hope is once again there in the force, bright and fragile. The vulnerability of that young hope makes something painful clench in Luke's chest.

"Try again, but this time don't think that the force is something you reach for." He said, translating the things he had done for so long and never before put words to. "It is already with you. You just need to open the connection."

The boy turned back to the cube, agitation blasted from him in the force, but so did his determination. He breathed in heavily and reached forward with his right hand. Luke nudged the boy's force presence carefully in the right direction. He is careful, very careful, because he feared to accidentally hurt the boy whose force presence felt incredibly fragile.

The boy did not notice Luke's gentle help in the force, so intent was he on the cube in his hands. This time, with an invisible hand guiding the boy's force power, the cube moved a little.

The boy gasped and look up to him. In his surprise, the connection was broken and the cube fell lifeless. "Again." Luke said with a smile and pulled his own force power back to himself. He felt the boy's signature in the force when he reached out again. Where there before had been only dejection and doubt, there was now determination.

This time, by some miracle, the cube did not only move but hoovered gently over the boy's hands. Luke does not know who is more surprised, himself or the Padawan.

"It worked!" The boy cheered a little too loudly, and his bright smile is so wide it almost split his face in two. In the force, his presence is suddenly blazing. "It actually worked!" He turns to Luke and suddenly he is caught in an embrace. "Thank you!" The arms squeezed tighter. "Thank you so much!"

Luke just freezes at the unexpected contact until the boy let's go again. He is taken completely off guard and his mind is still grasping for straws when they both stand up, even if his heart feels weirdly lighter and he could still feel the tight hug around him.

Maybe it was because of the stress.

"My name is Caleb. Caleb Dume." The padawan says. Caleb makes a slight bow and look expectantly up and Luke knows he will have to give a name as well. Just not his own. It has to be one that no one knows.

"Solo." He said as the first name he can think of that no one would know. "Just call me Solo." He resists the urge to shift the weight on his feet because of the open admiring expression that looks back up at him. "And now you should re-join the others, just to be safe."

Eager to please, the boy is quick to do as he is told. "Thank you again Master Solo." The boy waves and rushes off in the direction of the other presences Luke can feel in the force. Calab's force presence is still buzzing with excitement.

'Master Solo' he didn't know to laugh at the absurdity of that or do the opposite. Han would have thought it was funny at least, 'Or he is rolling in his grave.' An unbidden thought added dryly. But at least now that problem is dealt with, without any incident-.

"That is not you real name, is it?"

Fives voice almost make him start. He had to force his body not to jump at the sudden presence of his unwilling ally.

"The problem is dealt with." Luke says and was inwardly angry that he had been caught off guard like that. "We should move before someone else comes around."

"Is it your real name?" The trooper persists.

"Of course not."

Somehow Luke knows Fives does not really believe that without listening to the secrets the force whispered around him. "Someone you knew then?" The perceptive trooper asked with his eyes fixed to catch Luke's reaction.

"Let's just get this done before your contact leaves." Luke snaps in reply and does exactly that when he sets off for their contact that is standing only a little distance away.

Their target smiles at them with his slimy not-smile as they stop in front of him. There is a wariness and a question behind the brown eyes as if the man could somehow sense the danger standing in front of him. The thought is silly of course, because there is not even a speck of force-sensitivity in him.

Still the weariness turns into all out terror when Luke lifts his hand.

The man does not even manage the warning yell that is almost at his lips when the force crushes down around him. Luke is not careful, there is no time for that.

The question in his mind disappears in the struggle that is surprisingly strong for someone blind to the force. The man's mind is resisting but Luke is old to this game and after a short struggle the mind cave under the pressure. There is the sound like breaking glass in the force and all struggle seize at once.

The man stiffens as if frozen in time. In the timespan of a heartbeat he does not blink and he does not breathe. Then he deflates and the man looks back up at Luke with an open gentle expression.

The smile feels weaker but at the same time it was more vibrant in the force than the other smile was before when the man was in control of his own body.

That fact is more unsettling than he wants to admit.

The shadows had grown long again before they returned with to the temple. Windu had not spoken a word all the way here and Anakin did not feel like talking either right now, so that suited him just fine.

Obi-wan was waiting for them. Barely had he laid eyes on them before the hopeful expression fell. Their success… or lack thereof must have been practically written on their faces.

"Still nothing?" Obi-Wan asked and stood up from the chair and out of the blue light of the projected video in front of him. The recording from the warehouse's cameras kept playing silently until Obi-wan quickly froze it with a quickly typed command.

Anakin shook he head, and knew he looked more defeated than he really should so early in an investigation. "Rex is following a lead right now, but I doubt it anything." Anakin said, feeling the tiredness like a heavy weight on him after a long night searching for Vader and Fives. Despite this he would have been out there with Rex if he wasn't sure it was another dead end.

Because Vader being spotted hanging out at a library in the upper districts was laughable. What the in the world would a known sith do there? He couldn't remember when he last heard something so ridiculous!

"We will find him in time." Windu said, putting an intentional stress on the second word like he was trying to convince the Jedi beside him, and maybe he did.

Obi-Wan closed the distance to them. He wore the worried expression on his face that Anakin hated.

It is the same expression his old master seemed to wear constantly these days, and Anakin is well aware that he is part of the reason. He knows he is a bundle of nerves and his old master knows him well enough to see it the second he walked through the door.

"We searched every part of the area, within the blockade." Windu says with a tried look. He brushed a hand across his face and sighed. "Vader must have slipped past us somehow."

Obi-Wan glances at Anakin, who in turn looks at the paused recording for a long moment. It gives him an excuse to get a hold of himself. It had stopped right after Vader had made his entrance and taken out most of the clone troopers.

"He is more skilled than we first estimated." Windu just say and Anakin is silently grateful that Windu does not showcase the magnitude of Anakin's failure last night. It was bad enough that he knew he would have to go over that recording multiple times.

But it shouldn't have surprised him as much as it did. Despite their differences, he knew that Windu was never the type to stoop to mocking someone for their failures. He was bigger than that.

"He might well be an equal to Dooku, but his area of expertise is different." Mace says and watches with narrowed eyes the recording replay itself. He then straightens and turns to Obi-Wan."He relies heavily on pure strength of power and not as much on technique."

Mace looked thoughtful for a moment before he added. "We have widened the search, if Vader even pokes his nose out into the street we will have him." Mace Windu said and sounded certain. "I trust security is heightened both here and in the senate, have been improved as well?"

Obi-Wan nodded. "He will not get in here again. All he had the first time was the element of surprise and he has already spent that." As compelled by some unseen urging, Obi-wan added. "And I trust you will find him very soon." Obi-Wan says with a certainty that Anakin allows himself to bask in for a moment until he sees Obi-Wan give him a strange look. "Right, Anakin?"

Anakin tries to mask his uneasiness in the force, but the damage was already done and the worry remain in Obi-wan's eyes.

'Obi-Wan must think I am worried about Vader' Anakin thinks 'that is part of it but-' A memory springs to mind unbidden, as recent as it is beautiful. Padmé's belly is well hidden beneath the flowing dress and veils Anakin's greatest joy and greatest worry.

Anakin couldn't tell Obi-Wan the true reason. He wouldn't understand. Vader's words still haunted him. 'What will they say when they discover your secret…?' it was a terrible question, and it had been looping in his mind ever since the confrontation with Vader. What would they say?

Anakin was going to be a father.

But the Jedi could not be fathers.

That was simply not how the world worked. No one had ever broken this rule, as far as he knew, until now. And what would the order do if they found out? Exile him? What would-

"…Anakin?"

They were both looking at him expectantly.

What had they been saying?

"Sorry." Anakin said quickly, panic and embarrassed warred against each other at being caught like that. "What were you saying?"

"I have analysed the lightsabre you took from Vader." Obi-wan said and was polite enough not to sound like it was the second time he said it. "I wanted to identify the Jedi he had taken it from."

"And have you found out who it belongs to?" Mace cut in.

Obi-Wan nodded.

"Excellent, then we might return it to-"

"He is dead." Obi-Wan said and there is a rawness to the words that made Anakin pause.

"What?" Anakin said in shock. He had been so sure that Vader's reluctance to kill was a fact. 'He is a killer after all.' He thought and surprised at the bitter disappointed taste that gives him. 'He lied.'

"Who is dead?" Windu broke in, his frown is deeper than usual, twisted by concern. "I have heard no such news."

"It is because it isn't news. This Jedi have been dead for years." Obi-Wan answered cryptically and sighs like the words are hard for him to voice. Anakin cannot help but notice that Obi-wan avoids looking anyone in the eye. "I know that for a certainty because I was there when he was murdered." He pauses before he continues in a lower voice.

"This lightsabre belonged to my old master, Qui-Gon Jinn."

Fives wasted little time and asked the necessary questions. Soon the man nods in agreement and his eyes smile brightly like he was greeting family or two old friends. It moves something uncomfortable within Luke and it takes all the control he has left to shut it out.

The man reaches into his pocket and draws out a small holocom. Luke finds himself reluctantly impressed by the technology. It is almost on the same level as the more advanced technology back in his own time.

"it is just a small favour." Fives says like it is indeed just that and Luke makes their contact agree and show this with a nod.

'This is for the greater good' He tells himself as Fives keeps up the chatter with their target who responds readily at Luke's command. The strings of his free will is in the palm of Luke's hand as the man tells whoever is on the other side of that holocom that he has to clients willing to buy.

The man in helpless to resist, not that he knows he should resist anymore because his mind is dormant now, gone, and all the while this happens there is that old disappointed voice whispering in Luke's head. It is the same words over and over.

'There is too much of his father in him.'

It makes Luke feel sick. but If any of these people, like the padawan, were to have any future he needed to go through with this.

Still…

In the heat of battle earlier, when there had been so many strings, so many faces, it had been easy to forget what he was doing. But now? In this quiet scene and with only one puppet caged in his power?

He was not as good at lying to himself as he used to be.

'This is for the greater good.' He repeats with more of the false strength that had pushed him this far and the ice in his eyes go even colder. Fives visibly notice, but he does not comment on it.

'There is too much like his father in him' The voice inside insists, louder than beforeand he straighten his spine in defiance.

So be it.

Luke suddenly feels the small presence of Caleb the padawan from before, and Luke is already repressing a frustrated reaction when he feels someone else with the Padawan. Someone stronger, a lot stronger. Someone that feels just lik-

'No!' he thinks in denial cursing his eyes. It is like being thrown into Ice cold water. 'Not him!' not the only one Luke knew for a fact he would have no chance against.

He rips his hand back and the man crumble to the ground. "We need to go!" He says and grasp Fives' arm in the same moment he makes a straight line for the door.

"Wait!" Fives protest. "We are not done!"

But Luke is and he has already pulled Fives with him through the door and halfway through the entrance hall. His heart is hammering in his chest and his feet move faster and faster.

"What is the big hurry!" Fives demand and pull back to reclaim his arm. In that same moment the game is up.

"Stop!" A voice comes from behind and the entire force shakes with the order. Luke's feet disobey him the moment the word register. He struggles against the order that rumbles through the very core of the force but before he rips the order off him, he has already been turned around.

In front of the Padawan known as Caleb Dune stands the person Luke never wanted to see in this time. There is no sight of the lightsabre yet but the pressure in the force is monstrous.

"M-master Yoda." Fives gasps beside him.

All around Luke the force is screaming back at him one single word.

Run!

Chapter Text

Luke leaned heavily against the wall. His breath shook and everything seemed to move around him as he clung to the wall as best he could. He could taste the blood in his mouth every time he breathed.

He could not trust his legs, the moment he stepped away from the cold metal wall behind him he knew he would fall.

The fingers on his left hand was still numbed by the intense cold that had assaulted him mercilessly underneath Cloud city but the numbness was better than the nothing that was screaming back at him from the right hand. He could not bring himself to look at it because he was too terrified of what he would find there.

He  knew  what he was going to see where his right hand was supposed to be and just the thought of facing that reality made him feel sick.

Desperately, he tried to seek refuge in the force and draw on the calm serenity he always found there, but his reaching senses found nothing but a howling pit.

The force... it was flooded by a great darkness. His senses were muted. Something was blocking his connection to the light side.

Everything felt eerie cold.

The light side was gone he could not find it in the force. He only found an endless darkness staring back at him. It was cold like nothing he had ever felt before but its touch was almost gentle. That moving darkness in the force beaconed sweetly for him.

It was a clear deception.

Hidden just underneath the surface he could sense the truth. The lie was bold and obvious like a hand of stone hidden in a silk glove. The dark side was trying to lure him in. He gasped and recoiled from it before the relief it promised became too much to resist.

'Join me.' A memory whispered mockingly into his ear and suddenly, In front of him was no longer the Millennium Falcon, but at dark room only illuminated by a red glow. An enormous black figure was looming over him. 'No Luke, I am your Father.'

Luke's breath quickened and he could feel his heart hammering in his throat. He tore himself out of the memory with all the power he had left.  But the eerie sensation remains thick and angry in the air.

He could not block the reaching darkness out.  He could not breathe right. The very air clawed and bit all the way down his throat. The taste of blood was there when he swallowed and his skin felt wrong. It like a thousand bugs was crawling and biting just under his skin. The feeling of it was horrifying in itself but in the force he could actually  see  something move.

He could not look further down, he didn't want to see it. He could barely stomach the sickening burned smell alone. It was the same gagging stench that had poisoned the air on Tatooine on  that day,  when he had followed the black smoke all the way home only to see-

'No!' he thought violently. He clenched his fist and looked ahead to the man leaning against the wall on the other side of the corridor.

His eyes burned, he couldn't breathe, and everything hurt. He had never before felt so unhinged. He could not get himself under control.

"How could you just leave them there!" Luke said desperately and fell back against the cold steel wall that separated the inside of the Millennium Falcon from open space. His head shook in twitchy uncontrolled movements seemingly as if out of its own will, and his breath were shallow little gasps.

He didn't feel  nothing  anymore, suddenly he felt too much and there was no relief in the force or in his own mind.

"You gave them to him!" He wanted to yell but when it came out it was hoarse and barely over a whisper. To his shame, he heard his own voice shake and the wetness in his eyes blurred his vision.

His legs gave, and he hit the floor with his legs bundled awkwardly under him, but he did not move and remained still even as his legs started to numb.

Arms reached out to him hesitantly, but before they got anywhere near him he flung his hand out in a furious punch that missed its target by a pathetic inch.

"Stay away from me! You didn't warn them! They trusted you and you just let Vader-" The words caught in his throat and it felt like he could not breathe.

Lando looked back at him. His posture was hunched in on itself, but his expression was unreadable in the dark.

"I understand you hate me right now." Lando said, and his voice sounded rougher than it should have been. As if he had been yelling, or crying, for hours. "But you need to let me look at that hand. You are going into shock."

"Why do you care?" Luke said vindictively but the sudden hurt look in Lando's eyes was too much for him to look at. He looked away with shame crawling up his spine. Lando had risked himself to save him. Lando had no reason to put his life on the line like that. Luke was a stranger to him. He had only done it because Han was his friend. Han who-

Luke hid his face with his only remaining hand and the reminder that the other hand was gone cut into his soul. Was this really all he was capable of?

All these promises of what he would be able to do as a Jedi. After all those high tales of grandeur and might from both Obi-wan and Yoda, after all his training… he could still only watch as everything he loved was taken away from him.

What useless kind of Jedi was he?

Was he even a jedi at all?

He tried to compose himself and detach himself from the fear that blocked everything else out. It was dragging him into a despair he could not afford. There was still Leia, Chewie and R2… he could still save them if he just found a way.

But as much as he tried to rip himself free of the oppressive feeling, the ice-cold touch did not leave him. It lingered like an old wound and dug its claws into his mind. The image of Han on the floor, of Leia screaming in rage and fear, and that red colour in the hands of greatest enemy… it was too much.

Vader was his father

'He betrayed and murdered your father.' Obi-wan had said.

Liar!

Obi-wan had lied to him… from the beginning. Both him and Yoda… they had been training him to commit patricide without him even knowing it. To cover their true intent they had filled his head with dreams. He didn't care how they justified it. There was no justifying this.

He knew he would never be the same after this. He could never go back there and face the jedi. He could never trust either of them again. Not after this. Death, Betrayal, Mutilation… and so much fear was his reward for his faith and his trust.

All the horrors he had just faced was a part of him now. It had only just happened, but Luke already knew that it would always haunt him.

In his head, he would never leave that room.

"…Luke please, I didn't have a choice." Lando said, and there was such a heartbreaking feeling from that sentence in the force that it drowned out even the darkness around them." We could not save them. No one can stand against Vader. He is too powerful for anyone." Lando said and he was clearly trying to act strong but his force-signature feels like an open bleeding wound.

Lando hands opened and closed in front of him like he was only just holding himself back from helping Luke.

Luke swallows dryly, but cannot respond. He feels like he is spinning down into a gaping maw he will never emerge from again. His eyes are glassy and seeing Lando trying to suppress his own sorrow was almost too much.

"We could have done nothing Luke, we would just have-"

"You don't know that! Maybe we could have done something! Maybe we could-" Luke whispered as his eyes burned. He did not want to admit to himself that it was his own voice. It sounded too small, too weak. "How could you?" He said, but his heart wasn't in it, because it wasn't Lando's fault.

This was all Luke's fault

Because he had trusted Yoda.

Luke stiffened and force rushed around him like a shield between himself and the old Jedi master. It was an instinctive move, he had no illusion that the flimsy protection would not make any difference if Yoda attacked. The air felt heavy and tense at the same time, like he was standing in the middle of a thunderstorm. It was like the very force was holding its breath.

Luke could not take his eyes off the Jedi Master. He desperately tried to figure out a scenario where he got out of this, but he could think of nothing. All that he knew about Yoda argued against Luke fighting him in any form. Yoda was the greatest Jedi master in recorded history. Yoda had more than 900 years of training himself and he had trained countless of Jedi. Yoda had even taught Luke.

Almost every skill Luke knew had been taught by Yoda.

And Yoda was now his enemy.

'RUN!' An instinct shouted in his mind. 'WHAT ARE YOU DOING? RUN! That is Jedi master Yoda! there is no way you can win against him! RUN! RUN NOW' He was panicking. He knew he was panicking. But he could not run. Yoda would catch him, trap him and find out the truth that Luke had no choice but to hide.

It was so stupid. He had gone through so much just have it end here like this.

His heart was beating harder and harder as his eyes locked on the deceptively frail Jedi master.

'GET OUT OF HERE!' all his instincts screamed at him. 'RUN YOU FOOL!' Luke breathed out a shaky breath as he closed his hands harder around the lightsabre, but the weapon did not make him feel any safer. He felt cold all over and his heart was beating so loudly that he could feel it in his throat and hear it over his own quick breath.

'RUN!' The instinct insisted even louder.

What could he do? How could he possibly-

Then Fives suddenly spoke.

"Master Yoda, sir, I can explain this-"

"Do we have what we need here Fives?" Luke said to interrupt that conversation before it began. He could not risk that Fives unwillingly gave Yoda any information. Luke stepped in front of Fives very slowly, his whole body was tense like a wire and he watched Yoda's every move.

He almost didn't dare to blink.

Yoda survived the war when everyone else died! He had to be insanely powerful in this time. He was undoubtedly the greatest threat in the galaxy. Luke tried to swallow but failed. He tightened his fingers around the lightsabre till his knuckles became white. Could he defeat Yoda? No, of course not, if even half the stories he had heard were true then he could only lose this fight. But if he didn't find a way to defeat him then everything ended here.

Everything.

"Yes." Fives answered Luke's question and gasped when a loud pained yell sounded somewhere behind Yoda. Then is stopped and the silence it left behind was roaring in Luke's ears.

There was a crunching sound in the force and the man Luke had controlled inside the entrance hall of the library faded to nothing in the force. The damage Luke had just done to that man's mind was inescapable. Memories for the last days even perhaps the last few weeks was lost, destroyed with a sharp surgical move. Luke could not risk that the criminal would tell Yoda why Fives and Luke had come to meet him.

Yoda could not know about the security-passes, that would ruin Luke's last remaining plan to save everything Palpatine destroyed in the future.

Luke's swift action happened so fast that Yoda could not react in time to stop Luke from doing it, but now the pressure of Yoda's force presence was overwhelming.

The Yoda in his own time had been broken by time and grief, but this Yoda was younger and had a strong unyielding force presence. The boy beside the Jedi master said something to him, but Luke could not hear it over the sound of his own heart that beat so hard and fast in his chest that it actually hurt.

"No." Yoda answered the question Luke couldn't hear and he pushed the boy back behind him as he reached out to the crumbled form with the force. and in the force Luke saw something bright and gentle wrap around the unconscious man.

It was strange to see something so powerful be so gentle, it seemed unnatural compared to his own future where might was right.

But he would not feel ashamed of what he just did. He gutted the flicker of guilt he still felt when Yoda's eyes looked back on him. He could afford to have his mind in two places when he stood in front of Yoda.

Because he was doing this to save all of them, along with everything else that Palpatine destroyed right in front of the entire Jedi order. How much else had the jedi allowed to happen because of their arrogance and pride?

"Dead he is not." Yoda said to the boy and looked back at Luke with a muted contempt that Luke found that he shared. "A horrible violation, it is."

"He will live." Luke said, after trying to keep his voice even, but the simmering hatred won out. He could not forget what Yoda had done back home in his own time and if the presumably all-knowing Yoda had been a little more perceptive in this timeline, then the republic might not have fallen at all.

…and every horror that had become Luke's reality might have stayed faceless nightmares.

Luke knew he was being unreasonable, but he did not have any more forgiveness in him. He clawed the force to him and strained his connection to the breaking point to catch any move from Yoda before it happened.

"Vader, you are." Yoda said and sends Luke a look that feels like can see anything, but Luke knows it has no power over him here. Yoda has no power over him anymore because Luke no longer believe his lies.

"That is what people call me." He said flippantly and made a show of brushing the robe a little aside with a gesture that revealed that his other hand that was resting heavily on the hilt of the lightsaber he stole from Dooku.

He was stalling, he was not going to be the first to attack and Yoda knew it, because Yoda did not even look at the lightsaber in Luke's hand.

"But you name, is it not?" He presses, and Luke could feel a movement in the force.

If he lied now he was certain that Yoda would know, and that might lead to a lot of other questions that Luke could answer, because if he revealed too much then he would break the bargain and all he had fought for so desperately would be lost, but he cannot fight Yoda either.

He remembers the stories Obi-wan told of Yoda. The Grandmaster of the jedi order is a challenge too far for him. But what else can he do? Yoda is not about to let him go.

"It is good enough for now." He dodged the question poorly, he could see as much in the force. He tried to measure Yoda's true force potential, but it was blinding to look at. 'What do I do?' He thought desperately while scanning the surroundings. 'I can't fight him. I will lose."

But if he stayed Yoda would find out the truth with the force and then the bargain would be broken.

'what do I do!'

"And later?" Yoda asked, and has the gall to look completely relaxed.

Luke did not answer that. There was really no answer. Whatever answer he could form, would only be a lie in the force and then Yoda would call him out on it.

Because he could not tell the truth.

That was part of the bargain.

"The youngling …. Learned much from your little lesson he did." Yoda said after it became evident that Luke would not answer. Yoda indicated Padawan Caleb Dume behind him, a boy that now looks at him in fear. Luke notice that with a painful clench in his chest.

Why did that hurt? He should be tougher than this by now.

"Good teacher you are…." Yoda said and gave Luke a long searching look that made him stiffen unwillingly under the scrutiny." With the light side of the force, familiar you are."

Luke's fingers curled tighter around the lightsaber. There was a sharp sting at the scars crisscrossing his arm. He tried to calm down, but his heart was beating to wildly to stop and his throat feels dry like sand.

Yoda could not find out! That would mean the end of everything he worked so hard for!

"Light or dark. The force is just the force. Turns out the fault was not with the student but the teacher." Luke snapped, trying to look for an angle to rattle the Jedi master. He had to get out of here. Fast.

"Best learned alone, some lessons are." Yoda said like it was the truth, but Luke does not believe it. He knows that it is a lie, but before he can collect himself enough to answer, Yoda spoke again "Know that, if fully trained jedi, you were."

'Fully trained…' Luke thought in horror and it felt like something was slipping through his fingers.

This was going wrong too fast!

"Like you are not teaching him?" Luke almost hiss, when an old anger takes hold of him. Luke could not help his bitterness, and now finally, his anger and fear had a target. Yoda presence was suddenly quiet. It felt like a calm before the storm, and Luke's heart skipped a beat.

"Rejoin the other's, young Caleb." Yoda said.

"He will stay." Luke says with finality. The Padawan would obviously warn the others of his presence. He could not deal with anymore enemies right now. Yoda was more than enough on his own. The boy was afraid, Luke could feel it. He tried to suppress that observation or shove it behind his barriers, but he failed on both attempts.

"Under my protection, he is." Yoda said but sound thoughtful and calm. Too calm. "Trained as a Jedi, you were." Yoda repeats like he knows. He crooks his head slightly, like he is listening to something Luke could not hear. "But not for long." He finishes, now sounding uncertain, like something does not add up.

Again, Luke does not answer, but he increased the connection to the force in a wordless threat. He projected a calm strong front, but his panic was running away with him. How could he possibly beat Yoda? Was that even possible? Even the emperor feared Yoda and that was after the many years of exile that had broken him.

But the Yoda of this time? Could Luke even do that, with his back against the wall like this?

"But great control, you have." Yoda praised and moved a little to the side to put himself completely between Luke and the Padawan."Rare to find that in someone not jedi, it is."

"Big bad sith" Luke said and pointed to himself in a mock gesture. "Haven't you heard?"

"Listen to rumors, I do not." Yoda stepped closer to Luke and Luke resisted taking a step back and instead pulled the lightsaber out with his finger lying heavy on the activation button. "….Afraid of me, you should not be." Yoda said, and it sounded like he meant it.

It feels like he means it too, in the force, and Luke almost falter in the face of that gentleness. Why does he mean that after all Luke has already done? In that moment, Luke wanted nothing more than to break down and tell Yoda everything. But the memory of Bespin flashes behind his eyes and it chokes the words in his throat. "I am not listening to you anymore." He said and stands tall and defiantly.

"… Listened to me before, you have?"'

Pain flashed through the left arm through the scars. In panicked response, he activates the lightsaber in an act that is more accident than intend. He steps completely in front of Fives. "Watch for an opening." he said in a whisper.

"But can't you-"

"I will not win this. Be ready to run."

The lightsaber hum gently as in mockery of the desperate situation when he moved it into position of his most practiced guard-stance. It is a simple fighting form, but it is the only one that he feels that he has mastered.

'Come what may,' He thought and tried to calm his breathing. He could not risk breaking the bargain by handing Yoda the answer in accident. Yoda was just too smart. 'Maybe I can win…' He thought and pulled the force to him. Luke had never been this strong in the force before. In this time he is powered both by the force and the curse that moves with him and it might give him the edge he needs.

'That sounds like wishful thinking' a stray though disagrees, and it sound like Leia.

"My enemy, you are not." Yoda said but the lightsaber was in his hand. The other hand lifted above his heart "But brought him here with you, I think you did." Then Yoda reaches forward with the force that moves like a tidal wave and a vortex slam around Luke. Yoda's force power is overwhelming and everywhere. The shield he constructed is already cracking under the strain.

Luke draws the darkness to him, he needs the power desperately. His heart is beating wildly in his chest, and in horror he realizes that he will lose. Yoda's power is too strong. The shield is cracking fast. It drains all of Luke's power in an instant, but it is not strong enought to keep Yoda out. It is patheticly weak in comparison to Yoda massive power. It is like putting a paper-wall up to stop a hammer.

He breathes in a terriefied gasp when the shield dies and Yoda's power falls on him.

The world goes dark

Fives disappears, the world disappears and the living hell that is his memory descend upon him.

Somewhere, someone is screaming.

The knuckles on his right hand stung and the left burned like he had shoved into a pile of scorching coals.

'What is?-'. Luke said, but sounded more like a thought and the world moves around him in a blurr.

His breath quickened and he could feel his heart hammering in his throat.

'What is this?'

He could not look down and left, and see the damage he knew was there. He could barely bear the sickening smell alone. It was the same gagging stench that had poisoned the air on Tatooine on  that day,  when he had followed the black smoke all the way home-

'No!' He thought violently.'Not this!' He clenched his fist try to rip away from this horrible, horrible nightmare. Why was he back here? This was a memory. He was not supposed to be here like this!

There is a body at his feet.  He does not look down at it. He knows exactly who it is and it is already too late to change what happened.

Then there was a presence close to him and the roar of memories he would never see again quiet down to a whisper. Somehow that was worse, because now the voices sounds like-.

'What is happening?' He ask desperately and to his surprise there is an answer just beside him.

'Did this to you, who did?" Yoda asked and his voice came from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

Then the scene shifted and Luke's heart clenched in recognition of the sight that greeted him.

And then there is…

Him.

The sith looms over him. To Luke the sith had always looked like a gaping void in the force. Cold and eternal. So much like the void itself that he fears so much.

"What have you done, jedi!" The voice cut like knives and Luke could feel his own force presence give under the immense pressure. "Have you forgotten the consequences?" Suddenly there are fingers around his arm. they are thin to the point where it looks like the dry skin was stretched over bare bone, but the grip was strong and as unyielding as if the hands were made of iron.

Panic, all Luke could feel is panic. His heart thundered so loudly in his ears that it downed out any other sound than his quick heaving breath. He called the light side to him and it eased the pain enough for him to speak.

This close, the rage from the sith is overpowering.

"NO!." To Luke's great shame his voice breaks when ice cold pain rip through the scar under the merciless brutal grip. "I didn't! I-"

"Brought myself here, I did." A familiar voice speaks and then everything freezes.

"… Yoda?" Luke did not mean to speak the jedimaster's name but like it was some sort of spell of protection, because the sith almost ripped his hand away in that same moment. Then Luke follow the sith's startled eyes and sees his old master. Where the sith was a open void, Yoda is a beacon, a supernova. Yoda is suddenly right next to them as if he had been there the entire time.

Yoda stares at Luke with a strange expression, like he had never seen him befroe this moment. In truth hadn't seen Luke ,not like he did now in this place, where Luke was undisguised by the sith's curse. For the first time in his life Luke sees the ancient Jedi master make a double take.

"Skywalker…?" Yoda moved almost exaggerated slow but his signature in the force impossibly increases. "The taboo."

Yoda knew.

Why was there so much horror in his eyes? Luke was trying to save everyone!

"There was no other way, I am sorry Yoda. I-" Luke said and startled when an arm draped possessively over his shoulder. It lay there cold and heavy like that of a dead man.

"Enough of that." The Sith speak and he was close enough that Luke could hear his heavy breath when he leaned over his shoulder. "It is too late Master Yoda." The sith said and there was a laugh following those words. It was as cruel as the look in his eyes. "He is mine now." Luke felt the fingers dig into his shoulder

"No." Yoda said.

"No?"

"Draw you out like sickness from a wound, I will."Yoda said and the truth of it is a beacon in the overwhelming darkness of this place. "Defeat me you cannot."

There is a moment of wild hope. Even with the sith this close, there was an unwilling desperate hope that somehow this was going to be okay. The sith grinned and Luke could feel it's laughter rumble in its chest.  Fear dug its teeth into Luke's soul and all he could think of was that this bargain he made was going very wrong.

"I don't need to." The sith said and Luke's heart sank. Because that was a truth in the force. "You are here now." The sith said and there was a stirring in the force. Something old, ancient, was moving out there in the dark. Something cold. It was like a pair of eyes was watching him. There was something moving out there in the force, Luke could sense it, but it did not feel alive.

The void around them felt like a gaping maw of an unnatural beast ready to swallow him whole . The pressure in the air kept building to the point where it was hard to breathe in the presence of it.

"And now you will never leave." The sith said and smiled like an old friend.

Then the darkness moved in from all sides at once.

"Yoda! watch out-"

The whole world suddenly moved. The darkness at the edge of this place rush closer and the light that is Yoda is consumed. Luke sees his presence light up the dark in a blinding fierce light. A tidal wave of darkness descends upon him, it feels  thick  in the force and moves like it is sentient. at the same time it felt like an absence of all things, like death itself.

The light from Yoda is blinding in the complete blackness and for a wonderful moment it looks like the darkness is backing away from the Jedi master. The sith standing beside him stiffened and takes a cautions step back, for the first time since Luke met the sith he sees actual fear in his eyes. 'Yoda is winning!' Luke thinks and his heart soars.

But then the light flickers, the dark deepens and then the blackness swallowed the light whole and there was nothing where the light had been before. He turned and threw a look to all corners but there was no sight of the ancient jedi.

Yoda was gone

Only darkness stared back at him from the void

"No! that's not-" He said desperately searching the force for some sign of life but where the darkness had moved before there was only a cold damp stillness and the beacon that had been Yoda's presence was snuffed out.

Gone.

Luke knew this emptiness in the force well, he had felt it once before a lifetime ago on Dagobah and Luke can only stare into that darkness in shock.

'No.' He thought as the horror began setting in.

This was not happening.

This was not happening!

"How?" he said in denial."You are not anywhere near strong enough-"

The words dies on his lips when he saw the sith's wide smile.

"Me?" It asked innocently, but the smile showed too many teeth. "I did nothing to your master." The smile widened."but the void is a very unforgiving beast. Have you forgotten how risky I told you this is?" The smile fell a bit, but the eagerness in the sith's eyes only intensified."That same fate waits for the both of us, if we slip for just one moment."

The leaned away again and looked out into the void that had devoured Yoda.

"You lost master Yoda, already before this game has really begun." The sith said suddenly to that void. There was an undercurrent of regret hidden under the demeaning words . "I am sorry I didn't kill you myself."

And those words were more that Luke's flayed control could bear.

"We had a deal!" Luke said. He snapped around and fisted his hands in the sith's dark cloak. "What have you done! We agreed that no one would die!"

The sith quirked a cunning smile . "Did we?"  the sith leaned forward looking down intently on Luke as if the sith wanted to savor every detail of Luke's horror.  "I said that if you did this right, then no one  had  to die... and for the record, I didn't do anything. Yoda was a fool to try to stand against the void that devours everything."

Yoda...was. Those to two words echoed louder and louder in his head.

"You didn't do anything? You filthy liar!" Luke yelled and moved forward only to discover that something was holding him against his will. He twisted in the invisible hold, but he could not tear himself free. "This, all off this, is part of your twisted game!"

"Well I must admit that I have no had such fun in years." The sith praised mockingly gentle and The sith narrowed its eyes over the lazy cunning smile "I never dreamed, that you would bring me so much excitement. This bargain of yours has started to become very entertaining."

"You are a monster." Luke said, and the words brought clarity to something he should have considered from the start. All this time he had acted on the assumption that the sith would uphold its end of the bargain, but what guarantee did he really have?

He was bound to this bargain with blood.

The sith was not.

"Flattery will get you nowhere." The sith said and patted his shoulder in mock comfort and Luke felt so sick with that touch that he for a moment thought he was gonna throw up."Thank you for that treat, little Jedi." The sith said and finally let the vindictive smile fall. The sith extended his right hand and locked the fingers around Luke's left arm."Now."

"Let us proceed."

And the darkness closed around Luke and dragged him down

(The Jedi temple, moments earlier)

"This is Qui-Gon's lightsaber." Obi-Wan said with a heavy expression, like he did not really believe the words himself.

"…But you kept that." Anakin said. He remembered very well the time and care Obi-wan had taken in the past to keep the old lightsaber in prime condition. "Did Vader steal it?"

Had Vader been in the Jedi temple without anyone realizing it? and if he had why go through all that trouble to steal a dead jedi's lightsaber? Then in the same moment another memory fell at the forefront of his mind. "But… You never removed it from your rooms."

Obi-wan does not say anything at first, then he sighs with a small nod. "…I thought the same thing." He pulls a hand beneath his robe and drags something out and lay it down beside the lightsaber. It is Qui-Gon's lightsaber.

Another one.

"What?" Mace says and steps past Anakin. "A copy?" Windu ask and leans forward to study the two lightsabers on the table.

"It seems so." Obi-Wan said like it was painful to admit and Anakin thought that it probably was. Obi-Wan's old master had always been a sore subject. "I studied it closely. There are a few changes here and there, but the core design in the exact same as Master Qui-Gon's" Obi-wan said and his tone was mystified.

"Why would Vader make a copy of Qui-Gon´s lightsabre?" Anakin asked and voiced the question they were all thinking. It made little sense that Vader would have made this lightsaber with the purpose of fooling the Jedi, because that meant he would have made the lightsaber with the sole purpose of losing it.

Lightsabers were not cheap to make, especially not to anyone outside the order.

And Kyper Crystals were insanely hard to acquire since the Jedi controlled the only known mine, the Crystal Caves, that was located on the ice planet on IIum mine.

"I can honestly say that I have no idea…"Obi-Wan said. It is the kyper crystal in particular that baffles me. It is a twin of Qui Gon's." Obi-wan said. "It is exactly the same stone as Master Qui Gons'."

"That is not possible Obi-wan." Anakin said and tried to sound diplomatic. "No sith could ever get close to that mine. The Jedi guard it"

"The crystals are exactly the same." Obi-wan insisted and his tone was firm. "All the way down to the smallest scratch it has sustained. The only difference between them is that the lightsaber you took from Vader, is a lot more damaged." Obi-Wan showed no emotion in his voice of his expression when he said this, but there was a spark of hurt in the force. "I took the crystal to Yoda too. He confirms that it is the exact same."

"What is the chances of a twin?" Anakin said and lifted the one that Obi-Wan indicated had belong to the Jedi master Qui-Gon Jinn. The other lightsaber, on closer inspection, looked exactly the same.

But Vader's looked older.

"It is not entirely unheard off… "Windu said and reached out a hand for the lightsabre than Anakin Quickly handed to him. "But it is extremely rare." He pauses. "and the crystals will have to be from the same mine."

Anakin looked from one lightsabre to the other. Then Vader had gone to Ilum somehow, but what was the purpose of this scheme? He felt the beginning of a headache press against his temples. Why go through that trouble? What was the game here? "Can you get anymore from it?" He asked to try and diffuse the rising frustration.

"Vader's lightsaber" Obi-Wan pointed at the one in Windu's hand. "Has sustained a lot of damage. It looks like it has been the centre of an enormous electrical assault at point blank range, almost like-."

"Force lightning?" Anakin guessed.

"It is too soon to say, but by my estimation…" Obi-Wan answered hesitantly but he nodded silently in conformation. "It seems like it." He added. "And as far as I can see, the damage is very recent."

"How recent?"

"Only a few days." Obi-wan said with a knowing look. "Dooku might not have been the only sith on that ship aside from Vader.

"Another sith on the ship?" Anakin repeated, trying and failling not to let the surprise bleed into his voice.. "Then why were they fighting each other?"

"The rule of two, a master and an apprentice." Windu said. "We might be in the middle of a sith power struggle."

Anakin did not want to think too deeply on the implications of that because, despite Vader's great skill, he doubted Vader was the Master and if that was true, then… there was another Sith. Vader's master had to be powerfull to leash an apprentice the Vader's skill and strength.

"I know no one wants to hear this, but there is a very real possibility that we are looking at a new third side in this war. A new enemy." Obi-wan said and the room became deadly silent. Anakin would swear he felt a sudden pressure in the air that was somehow disembodied from the force.

'A new enemy!' a voice in Anakin despaired before he managed to shove it away to some dark corner of his mind. 'Would this war ever end?'

"That is a bold statement Obi-Wan." Mace said carefully, but his expression was thoughtful "There is little to support it."

"I have more concrete reason to doubt Vader's allegiance." Obi-wan returned to the console and his fingers danced over the control panel. "Give me a moment." Was his insufficient explanation.

The recording of Vader from the warehouse speed up until it suddenly froze in the very moment when Vader had risen from reading Fives' mind. That night, Vader had had his back to him and Anakin could not see the expression that was so clearly on display in front of him now. The recording of Vader stared down at Fives crumbled form revealed Vader expression and what it was startled Anakin.

'Fear?' Anakin realized when he suddenly recognized the sharp expression that was displayed to openly on his enemy's face. Vader looked like a man who had just seen a living nightmare. 'What did you find in Fives mind that made you look like that?' Anakin thought, because at this time during the ambush Vader must have thought he had won. He didn't know about the other troopers trying to ambush him yet. There was no need to put up an act.

"It is clear to me that he discovered something in Fives memories that he did not expect." Obi-wan said. "He saw something that was shocking enough to provoke that reaction."

Vader had seemed devoted to his evil deed, but Anakin had seen hesitations, and felt flickers of regret from Vader too many times for it to be coincidental. 'But this?' he thought. 'Why would he react that way?' He stepped one step closer to the blue image and searched Vader's expression for some clue. 'What did you see that made you so afraid?'

The memory of that moment was so clear in his mind that he could easily remember the cold expression Vader hard worn when he turned around, but Anakin also remembered the long moment it took for Vader to speak. He had hesitated for so long, that Anakin knew it was a lie Vader would tell him even before the words slid past Vader's teeth.

"It seems like you were right, Chosen one" Vader had said with a wicked smile. "There is no chip." And as he said that there was no trace of the fear that had been there before. The sentence of course was a lie. Anakin had barely bothered to check with the force what he could see with his very eyes was a poor deception.

'Deception...' He thought and that word made him remember that night again more clearer. Especially this part... but, what was it Vader had lied-

Then he remembered. Anakin would not stop the gasp from escaping even if he tried. It felt like cold nail down his back as he stared at Vader's face and the ice-cold realisation sunk in. Why had he not thought of this before? Had he truly been so distracted by Vader's games that he completely had forgotten this part?

Vader had lied.

He had deliberately lied about the chips that Fives swore were real.

"Does that mean that Fives-" He asked. The sentence broke and he locked eyes with the other Jedi one after the other until Obi-wan answered the unspoken question.

"We don't know. It requires further investigation"

Then with a last few clicks from Obi-wan's moving fingers the projection of Vader disappeared from view as the blue light flickered out, but in his inner eye he still saw the sith staring hopelessly out into the dark like an unimaginable horror had appeared before his eyes.

"Through my contacts I have also been able to find this." Obi-Wan said and a new image replaced the old one. "It has been up since an hour after we crashed the battleship in the slums."

"That is just the warrant for Vader's arrest. We had-"

"It is a warrant, Anakin, but not ours." Obi-wan said like he did not believe his own words, like he could not believe it. "This is a bounty for the death of Vader issued by separatist high command."

Anakin leaned forward and now actually read the bold text. It was a warrant, but one from the separatists. He looked up briefly to his old master and then returned his attention to the warrant.

It gave no reason for the bounty not even 'enemy of the cause' as it said on the chancellor's standing bounty. Just the words that specifically demanded that the sith should be killed on sight. Then Anakin's eyes fell on the reward offered. "Three million! That's even higher than their reward for the chancellor's capture!"

"... I don't understand." Windu said, his face was deceptively blank, but his shoulders were beyond tense. "Why would the separatists place a bounty like that on one of their own people?"

Obi-wan did not answer that, he just sat there with a muted look in his eyes. He didn't need to answer the question, they all already knew the answer to Windu's question. The separatist high command would not make a warrant like that on one of their own people.

"Maybe I am a secret agent?" Vader had said with confidence on the other side of the force-field, and he had worn such a condescending smirk that it had made Anakin want to punch Vader in the face.

"Are you?" He had replied to Vader, mostly because he needed to say something to this infuriating sith that made Anakin feel like an inexperienced Padawan again for the first time in years.

"You tell me." Vader had answered

"You tell me" Anakin muttered to himself. 'What does that even mean?' He thought with growing frustration. Vader's emotions had been a muted nothing when he said that, like there was some sort of shield hiding him from Anakin's force powers "He is not on the separatists' side….Then who's side is Vader on?" Anakin asked looking to both Jedi masters for answers.

He hoped against hope that they could see some pattern here.

From Obi-wan there came a heavy sigh. He turned over Qui-Gon's old lightsabre in his hands and his shoulder's sagged a fraction.

"That is exactly the right question." Obi-wan brushed a hand over his exhausted expression and for a moment covered the lines that were deepening around his eyes.

Suddenly Obi-wan threw himself out of the chair as if it had burned him. His force presence projected shock… and fear?

Then Anakin felt it too.

A strong presence flashed brightly in the force, then it flickered and died.

'Yoda?' He thought and then something snapped in the force. It felt cold and dry, like old bones cracking, and it sent shivers down Anakin's spine. it felt unnatural... and evil.

Around him the Jedi masters stood frozen.

"Master Yoda!" Obi-Wan Kenobi felt the stillness in the force loud as a cannon blast. The entire force moved, diminished, and shattered when the calm center from which the force orbited suddenly shrank… splintered.

First the blinding light of Yoda's presence became a shade.

Then it became nothing.

Every jedi on the planet felt this moment, when the light of the old jedi master Yoda suddenly went out.

When the darkness cleared Luke was back in the entrance hall.

He was shaking uncontrollably and the air was so cold that he could see it as small puffs of white smoke. The floor was cold as well, but not the lingering unnatural cold that had tainted the air. He pushed his hands against the ground to sit up, and he was startled by how much effort that took. It felt like his head was made of lead, and it was almost impossible for him to get into sitting position. His hand should not be shaking so much and it should not hurt so much just to breathe.

It was only when he managed to lift his head that he could see that Fives was yelling at him, but the man's voice sounded so far away. The soldier was kneeling right beside him, but Luke could barely hear him and he could not understand a single word he said.

Luke lifts his hands from the floor to push back at the clonetrooper but then stopped when he saw what was lying still on the floor in front of a him as he looks over Fives' shoulder.

The unmoving body of Jedi master Yoda.

"No…" Luke was already starting to rise, his shaking arms reached out to the limp body on the ground, but he did not make it there before another force ripped him back. The hand fisted in his cloak pulled him violently to his feet and dragged him away from the man Luke had once called master. "...I didn't."

As if he was under water, he heard the muted sounds of the Padawan screaming for help and Fives yelling something at him. He let himself get pulled back roughly, he knew that he should help, but it felt like his body was not his, like he was paralyzed.

His eyes seemed incapable of moving from the Jedi master.

The padawan was pulling at Yoda's limp body and shaking him with desperate tears streaming down his cheeks. Luke stared, looking for even the smallest move, for anything revealing that the Jedi would be all right, but he saw nothing. Luke could not even see Yoda breathe, and the fear he felt intensified when he looked into the force.

Yoda's presence in the force was a gaping void.

"No This is not…" He said in denial and didn't recognize the voice as his own as he was dragged harshly back out of the door and into the streets with the sounds of the screaming Padawan fading into the distance.' This is not happening!' He reached out again for Yoda's presence in the force.

Nothing.

In the force, there was only a howling silence where there once stood a giant. The force had become a shadowed whisper that had curled in on itself as if in silent agony. The force felt diminished, tainted, and a great emptiness closed around the brightest presence in the force.

There was nothing now.

Yoda was…

Yoda was gone

In another place, a man stood overlooking the cityin a lonely room. A twisted smile rose on his lips and exposed the teeth they hid beneath them.

The death in the force was so loud, so loud in fact that it echoed deep in the force. It echoed so deep that it even touched the waters of the dark side where Sidious drew his power. It was like watching the death of a supernova, because all it left was a memory of greatness and a gaping void.

There was a delicious beauty to it. Seeing something strong die and crumble always left a pleasant cold feeling within him as it settled comfortably in his bones. It was no different this time when he now watched Yoda's presence in the force rot away before his eyes.

At the same time he could not quite expel the hollow feeling of disappointment in his gut because all the careful plans he had made through the years now became useless. Jedi Master Yoda was his greatest enemy and for him to be killed by another. It was...

… anti-climactic.

He turned, tipped his glass and looked into the liquid with a thoughtful expression before he looked back over the city with a slight frown carved into the skin between his eyes. It seems there was more to this Vader than just a mere sith apprentice.

If Vader was strong enough to have gotten the upper hand on Yoda then he was more skilled than Sidious had previously thought. It was a strength remarkable enough to make certain… alterations to his plans.

He bit at the thought and like the taste of it as the force presented him with many new possibilities. Sidious had never been a great follower of the rule of two. He saw of course the advantages of that sith tradition, but he was not as fanatic about the rule of two as Plagueis had been.

Vader's master of course had to die. There was only room for one Sith Lord in the galaxy Sidious was envisioning after the takeover that he had worked so tirelessly on for years.

But perhaps he could find another use for Vader

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

The stars above filled the sea of darkness with an infinity of light.

Under that soft light he allowed himself to believe, for a single fragile moment, that everything, his entire life, had not been split apart and broken into pieces. A merciful moment he could believe that nobody won the war, and everyone he loved was still alive and safe.

He knew he was lying to himself, but right now he didn't care.

He needed this.

He needed this stolen moment of self-deception before he could acknowledge the glaring fact that everything he ever fought for was unraveling and the last chance of turning this war around had slipped between his fingers.

It was a difficult thing to admit to complete and utter failure.

The kindness, the love and the hope that had collected into his life and had made up his entire existence after Tatooine… it was over. He knew now that he had been incredibly lucky in meeting these rare people that were driven by pure ideals, hopes and the belief in a better future.

The people making up the Resistance…He had never seen such brave and beautiful people before in his life and he knew for a fact that he never would again.

He had lost the war.

It was over, and everyone he had loved was gone or better left for dead.

'…Some hero I turned out to be.' He thought bitterly.

The only consolation prize was that they were no longer around to experience this entire catastrophe. Their endings had been horrible, but at least it had ended for them. This was the last bastion that he clung to in his mind, it was the fact that their pain was over.

They would not bear witness to this macabre aftermath. They would not be a part of this funeral of freedom and democracy. They would never mourn the future that was stolen from them.

This horrible darkness that had swallowed up all the known worlds was something they would never bow down to and acknowledge as a reality.

Not like he did.

He envied that.

This was not over for him, yet.

His enemies were everywhere, and his hunters were tracking the many worlds for his shadow every second he remained breathing. Still, under this light from above, alone and defiant, he could forget that his enemies were searching the galaxy for his name.

The hunt was on.

Everyone was chasing the last true threat to the Empire.

He had seen so many of his hunters already, the faceless crowd, with minds twisted by propaganda.

They did not think they were bad people. He knew that because he had overheard them speaking to each other more than once. They had called him a criminal, a warmonger and a murderer.

What right did they have to call him that? Wasn't it their future he had been fighting for?He had been fighting for democracy, for freedom and for humanity.

This new world order that Sidious had created for the sole purpose of drowning the galaxy in complete darkness was not one he would ever want to be part of.

Did they think that he wanted to continue this poisonous circle of war, horror and death over and over? Did they think it was easy seeing the people of this galaxy looking at him as if he was the worst in all of creation?

How dare they!

How dare they leave their fight to someone else and then not just abandon them when they fail but help the enemy hunt them?

It was all he could do not to be overwhelmed by despair.

There was nothing left fighting for anymore, the people he had been trying to save had abandoned him to a life on the run, after all he had tried to do for them.

He breathed in, breathed out, but the heavy feeling pressed down on his chest and there was a tightness in his throat. Inside him, anger steadily spread like a poison. All these years of war, of fighting… and it ends like this?

It was so unfair.

If it had been Leia standing here alone in his place where all things ended, she would have forgiven them, he knew that. If it had been her waiting for the end alone, she would have been kind. If she had been there in his place, she would have found it in her heart to redeem her enemies of all their sins, no matter how they deserved to feel the consequences.

If...

But she was not here anymore and Luke was not empathetic like his sister.

He could not forget.

And he would never forgive.

As much as he had wanted to change it, Luke was not a forgiving person by heart. What he felt was not what a Jedi should feel. A Jedi should not feel this overwhelming RAGE. Every single moment, it felt like he was seconds from giving in to the dark side.

Not that he ever would.

He knew the terrible cost of turning to the dark.

But he was only human. He was weak to his own desires. That was the same reason why he had left that trap for the Inquisitors snapping at his heel. He had wanted them to pay. To hurt. To fear.

He had only stayed long enough to make sure the Inquisitor with the red hair died, despite knowing it was a needless risk to stay that long… but he had wanted to see that viper die.

He knew what crooked cause Sidious' people were fighting for and it felt right to make sure that his agents were made to feel the full consequences of thinking Luke as an easy target. If he had to admit it to himself then it was also a matter of pride.

Luke had not lasted this long to die at the hands of such inferior people.

It was an old part of his personality that had been growing in strength for a while now. It had to be a remnant of the culture of his home world. He thought he had left it behind when he left Tatooine.

But he had been mistaken.

Tatooine was an unforgiving place that was home to predatory people. The only way for predators to coexist was to establish firm boundaries and a single universal language that was easy to understand.

The universal language on Tatooine was not diplomacy. It was violence. Why else would the planet so readily accept slavery of sentient beings like it was nothing?

On Tatooine, mercy was for the weak or the dead.

On Tatooine, there were the strong and there were the dead and that was all there was to it. Might was right. It was that simple. The weak deserve to suffer at the hands of the strong, it is the way of that world.

A willingness to commit to violence was the greatest quality one could have, and it was praised to the sky when an individual demonstrated that… ‘ability’.

He remembered one tale above the others. The act itself had happened before he was born, but when he was a child he had grown up to tales of a stranger, that came off-world, that had slaughtered an entire Tusken tribe.

This stranger was still spoken of as a hero.

Luke knew that the Tusken tribe deserved their fate. No one mourned their dead, in fact, everyone was overjoyed that the Tusken Raiders had been slaughtered. For a good reason. Only good things happened as a consequence of that nightly attack.

For ten years following, no person had been stolen from their homes in the dark of night never to return. Still…Violence and death should not be celebrated as it still was on Tatooine, regardless of what the Tusken had done.

He knew in his heart that not all in that nomadic tribe had deserved to die, but he still did not care about them. He was still glad that they were all gone.

He was glad they were dead

He knew it was wrong, to approve of what was in fact a genocide. He knew that, but he simply could not bring himself to care when he remembered what the Tusken Raiders had done to the ones they didn't acknowledge as 'people.'

He knew it was a primitive way of thinking. Perhaps a part of him had never left Tatooine, and their violent culture had somehow become a part of him without him realizing it.

Maybe that was the reason why he simply didn't care anymore.

He understood mercy and practiced it when he could, but he did not forgive easily after Bespin. It was like that ability had been ripped from him. Mercy was something he had to force himself to apply because after Bespin it never felt natural.

But he was supposed to be a Jedi, and Jedi should not think such things.

Jedi were supposed to be the guardians of peace and the paragon for empathy and forgiveness. In many ways then, it was too bad that Luke had been born too late into a galaxy that had outgrown those outdated values.

He was not a Jedi, he knew that for a fact, and he never would be.

Pretending like he was a Jedi, while adhering to the almost primal culture of his barbaric homeworld, was nothing short of self-deception. He didn't believe in the code of the Jedi and pretending to didn't make him a Jedi Knight.

It made him a hypocrite.

Maybe that was why he lost everything, because he was just acting out a part he had been given by an old liar a lifetime ago. He had tried so hard to become an ideal of a hero, to play a role he could never truly embody.

No one could anymore.

Only Leia, but she…

He shook his head to get rid of the thought while the old lesson from Tatooine rose like an unbidden curse. 'The weak and the dead.' The old lesson whispered as if it had taken physical form.

The age-old lesson from Tatooine was cruel but undeniable.

It had been proven time and time again after he left home. Mercy had indeed turned out to be for the weak and the departed.

He was all that was left and no matter which direction he went from here, it would end in the same manner. He felt the truth of that statement in the Force. What was even the point of continuing onwards, when he couldn't change anything no matter what he did from now on?

No .

He could not afford to think like that.

There had to be something that he could do to turn this war back around, even if he had to start a new rebellion himself!

He could not be a part of this new future under Sith rule that was so distorted and completely barren of basic human kindness. He refused to accept it! He would not stop fighting as long as he was alive!

And if the worst happened and he failed…so what? There was nothing left in this world that held any value to him anymore. All the people that he loved were long gone. He had nothing left to lose at this point.

The worst thing that could happen to him, was to die fighting on the losing side of a war.

Just like his mother had before him.

::::

Fives was good at pretending to be confident, but his Force signature betrayed him. Luke could practically feel the ill, hidden deception glare back at him in the Force.

"It will be fine," Fives assured with that frustrating conviction he always had. Luke clenched his teeth from stopping the sarcastic reply that almost managed to escape him. Fives looked confident, his back was straight and his tone steady.

Luke still did not believe a word of it.

He could sense that Fives was nervous about doing this and the trooper's poor attempt to reassure him was getting on Luke's last nerve. He wanted to tell the trooper to stop treating him like he was made of glass, but at the same time he just wanted to get this over with.

He had a bad feeling about this. The Force was eerily silent and it made him nervous. It felt like a giant spider was crawling on the back of his neck.

He had been around for long enough to know that his luck was as rotten as it came and fate wasted no time hitting him with a hammer when the opportunity presented itself.

How else did he end up in this kind of scene?

The many bright lights on this street that they had made it to after crossing a lot more dilapidated streets made this place seem almost luxurious. It seemed like some sort of party district. There were painted faces, laughter and loud music. Intoxicated people came and went from the brightly lit buildings.

They were happy and seemingly unbothered by a massive fleet battle that had almost just taken place at their doorstep. People intermingle with causal ease as if they were not in the middle of a galactic war.

What kind of place was Coruscant exactly? It was barely a day after a major attack on the city, and a battleship crash-landed not far from here, but the people were acting like this was just another weekday.

The door before him was bright and colourful. It was the entrance to the place that Fives said he had a contact for the security-passes for the opera.

The intense yellow frame around the oval door was so cheery looking that it felt a little bit like an insult to look at. As if it was mocking him with its brightness.

He instantly hated it.

He had not even crossed the threshold yet and he already could not wait to leave.

Luke didn't like it. There was something about this cheerful-looking party area that gave him a foreboding feeling. Like the Force was warning him that it was a mistake to go in there.

Maybe he was just being paranoid.

… maybe not.

It was unnerving to venture into completely uncharted territory. Luke liked to have a plan about everything before he went out on a mission of any kind. He had not been like that in the beginning because everything sorted itself out somehow and events turned to his favour so often that he had started to expect it.

That had changed when his luck had eventually run out. Then everything started to go south and now, he never left anything to chance. Maybe that was the real reason why he hesitated right now even if he had decided that Fives could be trusted.

Maybe because he didn't think he could take another defeat.

"It is just in and out," Fives said in that gentle way that made Luke feel like that the trooper was more focused on convincing himself than Luke. It made his skin crawl and the doorway suddenly looked imposing.

Luke did not know what to say, instead he kept his silence as he kept pace with Fives when he started to move, lengthening his strides a little and, Fives unconsciously, slowed a little down from the brisk walk of nervousness that had driven him forward, so that Luke could keep up at a normal pace.

Luke notes that with a slight frown. Since when had he synchronized like that with Fives? He had not felt that natural companionship with anyone since-

He shakes his head, and banishes the thought before it gets a chance to form. Darkness falls over him as he steps through the door, while following in Fives shadow. The room they stepped into was crowded, very crowded, it was hard to see how many people were there since it was only dimly lit.

It was some type of bar or club though, the sour smell alone told him as much, and somewhere there was music playing a tune he never heard before. Many screens with different competitions and games lines the wall. One of them looked like some kind of race.

There was a long silence from Fives as they made their way through the crowd that parted in front of them fast, like the pair of them had carried a deadly plague with them. Luke tried not to be affected by it, but he could sense that Fives signature in the Force became more agitated.

Luke allowed his eyes to wander, to see if it was something that had caused that sudden increased nervousness, but there was nothing that immediately caught his eyes.

"Something wrong?" He asked in a voice no louder than a whisper. He had to lean in slightly in order to avoid someone picking up his words.

For a moment he thought that Fives would not answer, but after a few more steps he finally dragged his eyes away from the surroundings to Luke. "It might be nothing."

"But?"

"It is more packed than usual…" Fives added finally and his voice was hesitant, like it was bad luck to speak his observation aloud.

"We can turn back?" He offered, perfectly willing to do that since he really didn't want to go forward with this plan in the first place. "There must be somewhere else we can go?" He said and grimaced as he heard how pathetic his own words sounded. He hadn't meant for it to sound like a question.

"No, this is the best option," Fives answered and sighed. "It is probably nothing," he added slowly, but he did not sound as sure as Luke would have liked him to be.

That fact did nothing good for his nerves.

'Great,' Luke thought, something was already looking suspicious and they had barely passed the threshold into this place. He instantly disliked it, because it reminded him of another place like this that he had been to just before he first met Grakkus the Hutt.

What followed that event, was a lot of bad memories.

The music is obnoxious, and the room is too cold for the clothing the dancing patrons of the club were wearing. The only good thing about this place was the fact that Luke would only see it once and then never again.

Fives reaches the bar a few steps ahead of Luke and says something low to the bartender that does not carry far in the loud noise of the music. Luke turns around, leaning back against the bar to let his sense slip through the crowd, checking for Force-sensitives or worse, Jedi.

Fives talks to the bartender behind him, but Luke cannot hear a single word of it, so instead, as the conversation continues beside him, he makes sure there is no threat in the immediate surroundings.

It never hurts to make sure that there were no people with ill intent hidden in the crowd, and maybe looking through the crowd with the Force would dispel the intense feeling of dread that had formed like a stone in his gut. It felt like he was standing on a bomb about to go off.

Then, to his surprise, there is recognition peeking back at him through the Force and Luke is so shocked that he startles. Fives throws him a strange look over his shoulder that Luke barely registers because his sole focus is already searching the many different faces in the crowd.

Who was that he felt just now?

There is someone in this place that he has met before- back home. He knew he had felt this person before, but he cannot place the recognition. He has felt this person before…but when?… where…who was it?

Why couldn't he remember?

He searched the crowd with the Force more and more intensely, pouring so much of his focus into it that it feels like he has a thousand eyes at his command. At first the presences avoid his attention, then suddenly he finds them and he latches on to the presence with the Force by the neck.

'There!' he thinks the moment he located his target.

Drawn to the presence, his eyes narrow on a small shape at one of the tables. A shape that is barely visible in the changing-coloured light. The boy, for he is that, stares back at him with a calculative expression for one so young.

Luke knows for a fact that he has never seen this young face before, but there is something deeply familiar about the boy still.

Why was that?

Did he perhaps only meet a relative of this boy in the future, or did he meet this glaring child when he had grown into a man? It would make sense; Luke met new people every day at the height of the Resistance and as much as he tried, he never knew them all by name.

Why do you feel so familiar? Luke thinks, and tries again to place the boy in his memories somehow, but there is nothing that he can remember. For some reason he gets an impression of Obi-Wan's house back on Tatooine… and a fight.

But when did he meet anyone there, that wasn't R2D2 or Obi-Wan?

The narrowed eyebrows were the same dark colour as his hair and it was cut into what looked like a military style. It looked odd on someone that young. Beside him sat a male Thrandoshan, Luke had only seen another once before, a lifetime ago.

That species did not have a good reputation on Tatooine.

Not anywhere else for that matter.

Fives lays a hand on his shoulder and Luke removes his focus from the boy. Luke stares a moment longer at the stranger, but then abandons the thought. Whoever that boy is …. it's not important to him now. There were more pressing things that demanded his attention other than some half-forgotten memory from a planet he was never returning to.

"We are going to the back." Fives explains quietly, in a voice that is barely noticeable over that sound of the heavy music. The bartender gestures to a door behind the bar with a subtle move and without further ado Fives motions for Luke to follow. Luke throws a last look at the unknown youth, but then moves with Fives towards the backroom.

Behind him, unseen, a figure immediately stands and heads for the door.

::::

Boba stared at the door that the yellow-eyed Jedi had disappeared though. He had planned to have been gone already from this place by now, but there was something about the way the Jedi had looked at him that made him pause.

From his reaction, the Jedi clearly recognized him, but then why did he just walk past? Shouldn't a Jedi's first reaction be to try to make an arrest of a fugitive that just escaped from prison? With a member of the underground police walking right beside him, there was no way that he did not know about the prison break.

So why hadn't he done anything?

He tapped his finger on the table and looked again to the door. There was something about this that made him hesitate and he had learned to trust his instincts. He was not about to bolt for the door as he had seen another few people do as soon as the Jedi had left the room.

And since when are Jedi allowed in that back area of the club? Those rooms were not used for 'official' business.

Why would a Jedi even be here anyway?

The entire Jedi order was in a state of confusion after the temple got attacked by that huge riot that had been all over the news. So why was the Jedi in this place when so many more pressing matters demanded Jedi attention?

Boba cannot remove his eyes from that door. There is something about this situation that doesn't feel right. It was not like he was particularly interested in that random Jedi, but any information about what was happening in the Jedi order might earn him some easy credits.

And he needed credits, badly.

He preferred greater challenges in his work, but beggars could not be choosers. He needed fast credits so he could leave this planet before the Jedi got organized enough to start hunting the escaped prisoners.

He should not just sit here and waste valuable time like this.

Still, despite the sound reasoning of that thinking, he did not leave.

'I must have missed something,' Boba thought. He narrows his eyes and presses a few buttons on his holocom. The blue light lit up his face as he quickly brought himself up to speed. His heart just about stopped when he saw the face of the current highest bounty.

A very familiar face.

'What do we have here?' He thought and didn't even try to suppress his smile as he stared down at the picture of the yellow-eyed Jedi, because it was undeniably the same Jedi that just went into the back room. He had to bite his tongue when he saw the size of the bounty. It was difficult not just to grab his blaster and chase after the Jedi immediately.

This was his lucky day!

He was right to trust his instincts, with that kind of bounty, he could make a name for himself overnight and resolve his financial situation!

'Condition of delivery: capture alive,' he read that condition with little feeling, it didn't really matter to him, there was only one Jedi in the galaxy that he needed to kill eventually, and he would kill that person for free.

'What have you done to the Separatists to place this impressive bounty on your head, Jedi?' He thought as he read the information with discreet glances at the door if the Jedi reappeared. He noted with surprise the title: 'Darth…Vader?'

::::

The noise mutes blessedly when the door closes shut behind them. The room was a lot bigger than he thought it would have been, somehow the interior of it looked more luxurious than the club they just came from.

A newcomer motions for them to follow and Luke steps in beside Fives as they are shown across the room. There are many tables lined up, so many that they have to make their way around them as they walk across the room. There are people sitting at the tables doing some kind of work on different screens, but the light is low so Luke can't really get a good sense of what they are doing.

The scene disappears behind them as they cross into a hall just as dark as the one they just left.

They are led to a flight of stairs where the walls must be thinner since the sound of the music playing in the club sounds louder. The flight of stairs brings them up into another area and he is grateful to notice that this place has windows even if they have been darkened to keep outsiders from looking in.

He notes the walls were made of metal. It was clean, and orderly, the floor was not wood or steel, but the same kind of stone floor one might find in the back room of a slaughterhouse. The kind that is easy to keep clean.

He is not sure he likes that detail.

Discreetly he looks down. The floor…It looked worn, like it had been cleaned a lot, and often. There was something darker, some substance close to the wall, he cannot see what it is from here, but he does not like the image that it conjures up in his head.

He cannot help but gaze back at the door and judge the distance.

Then he collects himself with a stern thought. He had decided to trust Fives, now was the time to follow through.

'Fives knows what he is doing,' he thinks and he feels in the Force that Fives is calmer now that the wait is over. Luke does his best to imitate it with a discreet breath and fails. Then he violently tries to strangle the rising tension he can feel in his very bones as he follows Fives steps into another room, and there he sees her. The person they came here to see.

The bounty hunter sits in the middle of the room at a round table.

The room was dark, the light in the ceiling was barely enough to light up the table where she was sitting. The round table in the middle of the room looked like an island in an ocean of darkness.

She waved them closer, flanked by two bodyguards. The guards are heavily armed and Luke turns his focus to each of them, trying to gauge their threat should this turn violent.

It is not because he doubts Fives' skill so ruthlessly, but he has yet to enter a bar and leave without some level of violence. As if immediately guessing Luke's thought, she held out her palms in a calming manner.

The woman, because it was a woman that greeted them, "Security measures, nothing more," she said with a look to Luke and the undrawn lightsabre.

The guards at her side look on edge, because suddenly they are standing very straight, tension is visible in both of them and he can feel their unease in the Force. He sees them steal a look at the lightsabre, visible on Luke's belt, even if he had yet to make a move for it.

'Good,' he thinks mercilessly and narrow his eyes.

Their boss though looks calm. She too threw a look at the lightsabre, but in her case it was more nonchalant, as if it had been done merely as an afterthought because there is no nervousness attached to her Force signature.

"I must say after the prison break yesterday, we have been extraordinarily busy… but this is quite the picture," she said, when they had closed the distance so only the surface of the table separated them.

She meets his eyes with the lazy curiosity of an old predator discovering something new, then she turns her attention to Fives.

"Why is it that a Security officer and a Jedi have a need for such things as security passes?" Her features were partly hidden by the poor light, but there was something… off in the way she moved. It was unnatural.

Like the shape of the person didn't fit the Force presence he feels from here.

What was this?

"Who says I am security personnel?" Fives asked and sat down at the table across from her. Luke remained standing, there was an eerie air about this place that made it creep coldly up his back.

"And he is a Jedi?"

'It is part of the plan,' Luke thinks to himself as a reminder and an attempt to calm the rising tension. Despite himself he feels an uneasiness dig its claws into his nerves, it felt like a cold touch on the back of his neck. He swallowed dryly and resisted reacting to the uneasy feeling.

He had to trust Fives knew what he was doing, because everything Luke had tried to do so far had only ended in complete and utter failure. He could not afford to fail anymore. He was out of time to waste because he was too prideful. He could not sacrifice the future of the galaxy on that altar.

"I didn't just come here to get security cards," Fives says leaning over the table. "I came here to talk to you Cato Parasitti."

'What?' Luke thought. He blinked and his steeled eyes narrowed first on Fives then on the woman leaned back in the bone-white chair. Her reaction was a nonentity, she drummed her fingers on the table with the same uncaring attitude she had worn since they entered the room.

Luke was too tired to analyze what was going on here. Obviously a lot was left unsaid, but he was not about to call it out and reveal his ignorance.

He could not remember ever being this exhausted, it felt like he was barely able to drag one foot in front of the other and his Force-connection physically hurt. He could not afford to be outnumbered like this when he was this weakened.

So no one in the room would see any sign of weakness from him.

He was inescapably aware that he was outnumbered. There were three people in this room that might very well turn hostile, and they were all armed. If it came to a fight, he was not certain he would be able to protect himself… and to protect Fives as well on top of it?

Luke did not like the doubt that answered back from the Force.

"How did you know it was me?" The woman asked without commenting on Fives words, like she had already suspected the truth before they stepped in here.

Luke had no idea what the two of them were talking about.

"Is this not your usual haunt?" Fives says with a sudden superiority, that is so strange to hear that Luke almost reacts to it. It doesn't sound like Fives anymore. His signature in the Force is… different. Colder. "After the prison break yesterday, I figured the first place you would go was here."

"Fair enough," she said and something moved around her. Luke already had his hand on the lightsabre before he realized it was not an attack. It was an illusion falling apart. Then recognition dawned.

Fives had brought them to see a shape changer.

The illusion fell apart around her like ashes on the wind. She was not human after all. She was a Clawdite, Luke realized. It was a people that he had never encountered except from a few times in passing. He had never actually had any dealings with them in his own time.

As if he needed things to be even more out of his control.

"Why are you looking for me?" she asked like it didn't really interest her to know the answer. But her signature in the Force betrayed her. She felt… eager, and the eagerness had a hint of darkness attached to it.

Was everyone in this time affected by the dark side? It felt like it was everywhere on this planet and it was especially dark in the undercity.

Every second it felt like he was breathing in a fatal poison.

Why did no one else notice? It was all Luke could do not to react to it. It was almost as if the light side was aware of his distress, because it collected around him like a barrier between him and the dark world surrounding him.

Little good it would do.

He too had carried the dark here with him. He could not have avoided it and still hoped to change anything. Everything had a price that was true for both this world and the one he came from. There was no sanctuary.

"We have need of your… talents," Fives said and made a short pause that Luke, was certain had been made only for effect. Then he removed the helmet and placed it down on the table with a little too much force.

'So much for that disguise,' Luke thought but kept his silence. He wanted to see how Fives was going to play this part out.

Cato for her part did not react and her Force signature was very… still. Like she was waiting for something.

"You are calling yourself a Separatist, then… Fives is it?" Cato questioned instead of answering. Fives name rolled off her tongue as if she had practiced this moment. Maybe she had, because she had clearly already known who Fives was before they came into this room.

By the looks of it, she did not believe that Fives would agree with her statement. Heavy doubt was thick in her voice and it reflected too in the Force. "I admit I am mystified by what reason a loyal soldier of so many years would turn on his supreme commander, but if you are not a Separatist agent, why else would a Clonetrooper attempt to kill the Chancellor and betray his own brothers?"

"I am not a Separatist and I never will be and I will never betray my brothers," Fives answered with real anger in his voice. "It is for them that I am doing this."

He pulled a chair out and sat down in front of the bounty hunter. Luke made no move to follow but remained on his feet and close to the door.

"The Chancellor betrayed me first," Fives continued with a bitterness that was very real, "and I am done paying for this war with the lives of my brothers."

Cato's fingers of her right hand drummed slowly on the surface of the steel table. Because of her long nails it sounded like the steps of a giant insect. "…Go on," she said after a long pause.

"I intend to stop this war and give my brothers the freedom that they deserve," Fives says with a serious expression. Luke knows it to be a lie, he can feel it in the Force and that does not change when Fives continues. "To ensure their freedom. There is someone I need to… talk to. "

"Have you ever heard of Nala Se?" Fives askes in a quiet tone looking like he barely resisted looking over his shoulder. "She will be visiting the opera tomorrow night, and I need an opportunity to get close to her."

"I don't understand how this connects… does she have some power over your soldier-brothers?"

"That is something I cannot tell you," Fives answered, unwilling to reveal the secret that was nestled inside the skull of every living clone soldier.

"Fair enough," she said, but her scrutiny was intense when she shifted her narrowed eyes up to meet Luke's eyes as waiting for him to say something. When the silence was kept unanswered her lips drew up into a crooked smile. The fingers on her hands finally stopped moving and remained flat on the table.

"Keep your secrets then, it is after all none of my affair," she continued with the crooked, not-smile carved on her face as her fingers drum impatiently at the table. "But why should I trust anything you say? How to I know that you are not trying to fool me and this is just some elaborate plan to capture me?”

'Excellent question,' Luke thought but kept his mouth shut. 'How are you going to answer that, Fives?' He thought, ready to intervene when Fives little act failed. She had absolutely no reason to trust anything Fives said. If Luke was in her place, he would not have believed a word of it either.

What was Fives proof that he could be trusted? Luke couldn’t think of anything that might convince her.

But maybe Fives was just counting on Luke to use the Force to 'convince' Cato in the same way that Luke had mind controlled their last contact? He sighs inwardly while trying to suppress his rising frustration. What was the point of making this alliance if he was the one doing all the work?

"See that guy," Fives asked and pointed backwards with his thumb over his shoulder, right at Luke and it made his heart skip a startled beat. "Don't you recognize him?"

:::

"This Sith is a popular guy," Bossk said and sounded genuinely surprised.

Boba didn't reply but silently agreed. It was an impressive bounty this unknown Sith had earned in such a short time on Coruscant. The bounty the Republic had on General Grievous was higher, but admittedly not by much.

Lord Vader sure knew how to make friends in a hurry!

"Every bounty hunter in the system must be looking for you…" he mumbled to himself, "but the price the Separatists have put on you… that is something else."

"It has been years since I last saw a bounty that big as the one that is on his head," Bossk breathed in like he was savouring the words, but at least he had the good sense to keep his voice down.

A picture of the yellow-eyed Jedi stared up from the wanted poster he just found. It was a picture of the Jedi in front of the Jedi temple, only, the man was no Jedi. Boba narrowed his eyes and focused on the limited text beneath the photo. Designation: Sith Lord Darth Vader. Threat level: Extremely dangerous. Status on delivery: Alive.

It was extremely fortuitous that he should stumble over such an opportunity just after escaping prison. Perhaps too fortuitous, given it was the people he was running from that had put forth the bounty.

If Vader just had just shown up earlier, then he might altogether have avoided his unexpected stay at the prison. Why had he not heard about this person before? Vader must have been a part of this conflict even before Boba had been locked up.

He had never been blindsided like this before and he could honestly say he was embarrassed.

He had not been that long out of the game, the fact that a new player had entered the scene of war like this made him pause. He had prided himself of knowing everyone of relevance in this war. Everyone. Despite this, out of nowhere, comes a Sith Lord with enough power to assassinate Jedi Master Yoda.

How was he supposed to be a bounty hunter like his father when he could not even keep track of the central figures in a war on this scale?

He rechecks the page and then, driven by an afterthought, he connects to another source he had also used more frequently, and one that he can actually pursue with his current status as wanted by the Republic.

He makes a few clicks and then he freezes.

"Look at this," he says and pushes Bossk with his shoulder. Then he clicked another button and the warning on the Republic news shifted away to be replaced by what looked to be a message. The text itself was irrelevant. The Separatist's logo and his picture left little to the imagination, especially considering the number of zeroes on that number beneath the picture.

He didn't know what to think, because that simply did not make any sense. If the news reports were true and Vader had tried to assassinate Chancellor Palpatine… then why would this bounty even exist?

The Separatists should be happy that someone was trying to do their job for them.

The bounty itself was higher than that for a Jedi. The number was an obscene amount that just about made his mouth water. If he had been new to this, he would not hesitate and rush right through that door to claim that reward for himself. But he was not new to this.

Vader's bounty was just too good to be true.

The fact that both factions had placed their bids like this would make any experienced bounty hunter pause. Alienating any one of the two factions was just plain bad for business under normal circumstances.

Though… Boba's name was probably already carved into the pages of Republic's black book of undesirables. So really, why did he care about that part?

He sighed and directed a calm stare at the screen. He was more interested to know what was this supposed to mean for him going forward? If Vader wasn't sent by the Separatists, then whose side was he on?

Was there a third side he was unaware of?

Or was there something else going on?

"What do you say to this, Bossk?" Boba asks with a stiff look zeroed on the picture of Vader."If he is on the side of the Separatist faction, then why have they put a bounty on him?" He asks and unknowingly expresses Bossk's own doubts.

"I know that Cato Parasitti will like seeing that bounty," Bossk answered as he sent a look at the door that Vader had disappeared though and added. "Like it a lot."

'True' Boba thought, and immediately acted to ensure that that opportunity was barred from happening. There was absolutely no reason to give her the chance to steal Boba's prize before he got there.

The system's security was abysmal, and it barely took more than a few moments before the glaring bounty disappeared from the site. He knew that it would be fixed soon, perhaps already tonight, but it would buy him enough time to snare Vader as soon as he left here.

Of course, there was no accounting for the ones that had already seen it. But that was another problem, for another time. First, he had to wait until Vader left, then he would follow him and his companion. The latter would be dealt with fast whether he was an actual officer or just some random guy in a good disguise.

The undercity was a dangerous place, and in the small streets it was not uncommon that people disappeared. Another disappearance among the many others would be nothing special.

He scrolled down the page to see where he was supposed to deliver this Sith Lord. 'Why that remote planet?' he thought.

"Where to?" Bossk asks.

"Utapau."

:::

Panic flashed within Luke when Cato's stare reached him.

'This is part of the plan?' The thought registered again, but the thought still sounded horribly unsure. There was something moving in the Force, something sinister. Luke's heart kicked up an intense pace under his stone-cold expression. 'Keep calm!'

"Him?" She said innocently, but a smile twists the corners of her lips. "The Sith assassin every Jedi on the planet is looking for?" She asked mockingly and far too calmly, like she already had known even before they showed up, then she pressed a button on the table and his warrant from the Republic stared back at him from the surface.

The tabletop had a screen implanted into the surface, it was quite advanced, even by the standards of the future Luke came from.

"The Republic has promised quite the reward for your capture," she pointed out, unnecessarily, since the numbers over the warrant from the Republic were glaring at him in the face. His image was taken from the footage from the Library…'incident', right when Master Yoda had confronted him.

The Force around her was coloured a sickly yellow. Greed. "Come to trade?" she asked and looked back at Fives as Luke's heart missed a beat despite the fact that it was part of the plan.

'Stay calm,' he reminded himself and hid his uneasiness behind a blank expression.

"No," Fives answered, as he spoke the word loud and hard. " As I Said, we are here to ask for your unique set of skills. I know you don’t trust me because I have always fought for the republic. But he is the proof I am not anymore." Then he breathes in before he continues.

Cato is not convinced, but Fives is not done.

“Would I be working with a sith if I was still on the side of the Republic?” Fives continued and the uneasiness Luke feels from him in the Force only materialized as a deep frown. "Would I have tried to assassinate the chancellor just to get into this room with you? You are many things Cato, but you are not that arrogant."

Cato raises an eyebrow and taps her fingers again on the surface of the table.

She was very interested, but clearly made an effort to disguise that fact under a blank expression. The Force betrayed her feelings.

Fives plan was working.

She was on the hook.

::::

"This is the place?" Rex asked. He knew he could not quite keep the wonder out of his voice. Somehow, even after all these years, he kept expecting something grander than reality. Military life was not what you believe it was in the movies.

The tip had been too good to pass up when the call came a moment ago. An eye witness reported the sighting of a Jedi in the company of a member of the underground police-force. It was a normal sight in the undercity, to see Jedi and the police patrol together, and under normal circumstances, Rex would not even have investigated it.

But these were not normal times.

After the attack on the Senate, there had been a temporary change of patrols, but none had been moved to this area. Not a single one.

And the report said that Jedi's eyes had been yellow.

'It might be nothing,' Rex thought, because he knew it was unlikely that Vader would come here of all places.'It could be a coincidence.'

But what if it was Vader?

Then Rex would get the chance to pay back the Sith for what he had done when he hijacked his mind along with his men. He was not sure he would ever be able to swallow the shame of being used like a puppet. It was so humiliating!

But being the one to catch that blasted Sith that was responsible would certainly help.

"Yes, Sir."

The club didn't look like much, it was just like any other random club in the immediate area and there were many other ones just like this on any street corner in this level of Coruscant.

But this was the place from the report. He signed inwardly and ignored a tired ache at the back of his mind with the hopeful promise that this might be the end of the chase.

"Deploy the drone," Rex ordered. "If it is Vader, I don't want him to know we are here."

:::

"It is a pity that I am not on good terms with the Republic. "She said with a smile directed at Luke that would look fitting on a snake. "Your bounty is quite impressive, My lord." She said with a hungry look at Luke and it made his skin crawl.

 "No matter. My father always told me, if you are good at something don't do it for free… and my talents are expensive. How are you planning of paying for my services, Fives?" Cato Parasitti asked, and feigned a bored expression.

It was a good act, it might even have fooled Luke if it had not been for the yellow greedy interest that projected from her in the Force.

'Excellent question,' Luke thought but kept his silence. 'How are you going to answer that, Fives?' He thought. His own pockets had been emptied for so long that they must have forgotten what it was like to have credits to spend. He knew he did.

"Information," Fives answered, with self-assurance. "I know a lot of interesting facts and secrets from within the Republic military," he said and the lie was as loud as the blast of an ion-cannon in the Force.

It was bold and extremely loud to his senses and it took all Luke had not to flinch. Because what information would Fives reveal to these shady characters that could potentially harm his brothers?

Nothing, that was what.

'Is it really so much against Fives morals to pretend to be a traitor?' Luke thought, gritting his teeth and trying to bear the loudness of it, because he did not want to pull away from the Force and thereby risk missing something important. 'Fives… have you literally not thought through that you have to believe your own lie to make it not register in the Force?'

He was suddenly very grateful that the bounty hunter did not have a spec of Force sensitivity. The presence of the lie in the Force was violent and to his strained senses it felt like the statement was practically screaming into his ears.

'By the Force, that's loud!' he thought. If he had been in a position to cover his ears like a child to make it stop, he would have, his new reputation as a Sith be damned.

Fives was quite possibly the least subtle liar he had ever met.

And that was pretty bad considering that he had known C3PO.

"Why would I keep the secrets of a Republic that has only used me?" Fives asked, and made a dismissing gesture. Thankfully, his bluff was more believable than the violent presence in the Force that was getting so large that it was hard to pretend he didn't notice it.

"I trust whatever information I have will be adequate payment." He made a weak gesture with his hand before he placed it back down on the surface of the table. "After all, the Republic has many enemies that would pay handsomely for any information that could give them an advantage."

Cato leaned back in her chair and a silence followed.

Her face revealed nothing, but the greed in the Force grew.

"They are clear," a third guard said. He had been so preoccupied with the screen some ways from them that his presence had missed Luke's attention when he first entered the room.

"What took you so long?" Her words are sharp.

"There was some interference on the line, but the bounty on them both issued by the Republic checked out."

"And… the other contact?"

The man looks down on the screen in his hand. "There is nothing. I just checked it. Three times. There was some difficulty at first, but now the connection works again."

With those rather cryptic words released into the otherwise silent room, Cato stands. There was a flicker of…something in the Force, but Luke cannot tell for sure, it somehow both like relief and disappointment.

He does not know what to say to that strange display, so in the end he says nothing.

"This is dangerous. The risk is considerable…," were the words she finally uttered and there was an uneasiness to her body language now that Luke found very unappealing.

There was something moving in the Force. Something he almost couldn't sense, but it made him tense up. Because he recognized it immediately; it was the resolve to act.

The will to fight against the Republic.

"You don't mind our target?" Fives asked.

That question was unnecessary. Luke already felt the ghost of Cato's decision in the air, just as he saw the feeling attached to it. It was not just business that made Cato want to do this, it was a darker, hollowed creature that was made a long time ago.

He could not see the root of that pain, it was too old, but he could feel the cold touch of despair.

Then a feeling of wrongness suddenly got stronger in the Force. It felt like danger, but not from Cato. His eyes darted around, but there was nothing to see in the room. It was empty aside from the table and the chairs in the middle of it.

"Why would I?" She asked with honest disgust. "The Republic as a general rule never did anything for anyone that could not do something in return. It was a long time since they were not ruled by the financial interests of a selected few."

"The Separatists share that opinion… It is brave of you to say it so boldly in the heart of the Republic," Fives says in the tone Luke had come to recognize as a forerunner of his defensive stance on the Republic. Luke had only known him for a short time, and he was already getting tired of hearing it.

The Republic was clearly corrupt, and had likely been that way for years given the fact that Darth Sidious was the current leader.

Why else did this entire planet feel like it was infected with the Dark Side of the Force?

"I am not a coward. I stand by my ideals. I will not be silent just because it is not the popular opinion," she said, and there is a faint echo of hurt in the Force before it is smothered violently.

Luke sensed that there was something more to this conversation, But he had no intention of getting wrapped up in the politics of this time and the uneasiness kept growing. It felt like the faintest of pressures in the air.

But it was cold.

It was a sinister feeling that was hard to describe, but it felt dark and threatening. Like an unseen predator had just found his tracts and he, on an instinctive level, could sense it closing in on him.

"So…" Fives says and leans back in the chair like he owned the building. "You are in?"

"Not just yet," she said dryly and there is a guardedness in her expression that is so familiar to her face that it had drawn little lines in the skin. "I need more information." For the first time her expression betrayed an eerie brand of curiosity, like a spider catching a new type of prey.

Luke straightened suddenly while the conversation continued in front of him.

What was that sound just now?

It was an odd sound. A buzzing.

He threw a look in the direction the sound came for and narrowed his eyes at the window at the other end of the room. For a moment there he thought he saw a shadow, but when he reached out with the Force, he felt nothing.

Then the sound stopped.

'Strange,' he thought and wanted to investigate further, but he could not afford to be distracted at this moment. The Force was cold and still when he forced his attention back to the conversation unfolding in front of him.

:::

The light of the holocron went on in Anakin's hands and he accepted the call immediately as soon as he saw who was calling. He held his breath when Rex delivered the news.

"Ani? What is it?" Padmé asked from beside him.

"They found him."

:::

Chapter Text

The city lay broken beneath Luke's flagship.

It had been stripped of its defenses. All remaining opposition hid like cowards in the narrow streets, overwhelmed by the might of his navy. It was a total victory. The fight had been much harder than anticipated; Theed's defenders had shown remarkable tenacity against Luke's fleet. He expected nothing less from the 501st Imperial Legion, yet he reluctantly admired the defenders' bravery against the odds. But it had done them little good. It had ended in Luke's favor regardless.

Underestimating him had been a foolish mistake, and he had ensured they regretted every moment of it. The victory tasted sweet, and he wasn't about to deny himself that satisfaction. He could feel the jubilation in his officers through the Force, and he let them indulge in it a little longer. They deserved this moment.

For the first time in a long time, the Resistance had the upper hand.

All that remained of this battle was the official surrender. A surrender that the Imperial commander stubbornly refused to give. That bastard was still leading the remaining forces hidden down there.

It was a senseless show of bravado since the fortune of war could not be overturned at this point. The enemy was beaten. It was useless to resist.

So why was he still nervous? There was an eerie, quiet threat in the air that made no sense. The enemy had been undeniably crushed, so there was no explanation for this lingering cold feeling of dread.

As it stood, he didn't need their surrender; he could force them out. The only thing stopping him was the fact that it would make the victory far more costly in human lives than necessary.

And he was running out of soldiers.

"Their answer?" he asked the female officer, though he already knew what she would say, judging by the stiff expression on her face.

"They refuse to surrender," she said, as expected. But there was more; he could feel her eagerness through the Force.

"And?" he prompted. She felt a surge of pride as she answered.

"We've locked onto their location. The refusal to surrender came from the city center."

That information was both good and bad. It made for an easy target if the city had been emptied of civilians before the fighting, but it hadn't. To be fair, it might have been impossible for the Imperials since they hadn't been given time to evacuate or prepare for battle.

That was generally the point of a surprise attack.

"Then… we don't have a clear shot," he murmured more to himself than to her. "Is there any way to reach them while avoiding civilian casualties?"

"I'm afraid not, sir. They picked their spot well. It seems the Imperials are deliberately hiding behind civilians. They must believe we won't fire as long as they use civilians as a shield."

Luke narrowed his eyes at her words and held out his hand for the datapad, which she quickly handed to him. He absorbed the information swiftly.

It was an impressive amount of intel she had collected about the enemy's current location, even if he was displeased to see how many of the 501st had survived. He had expected far more casualties, considering how hard he hit their defenses. But these weren't regular stormtroopers.

These were Vader's men.

And that wasn't the only issue.

There were several civilians between him and his target—too many. He couldn't see an outcome where he could resolve this situation without innocent people dying as a consequence.

It wasn't right to strong-arm this situation when, for once, he wasn't in the upper hand.

Showing mercy to the enemy would be the right thing to do, what a Jedi should do. However, experience had shown time and time again that fighting regular Imperials was one thing, but facing Vader's chosen was another. The 501st was an entirely different beast. If only they had surrendered. The fight was lost for them, whether they continued or not. At this point, they couldn't hope to beat Luke's forces.

…but they weren't stupid enough to think that…

The enemy was waiting for reinforcements. He knew they had gotten a message out before the Resistance jammed their communications.

Or so he wanted them to think.

In truth, Luke had allowed that desperate call for help to escape because letting that message get out was part of the plan from the start.

How else could Luke lure his true prey out from behind his iron wall of soldiers?

He needed to draw Vader to him, and what better way to do that than by taking the one thing from him that he still cared about: his reputation. The 501st was Vader's extended presence on the battlefield, and delivering them a crushing defeat would humiliate their commander.

If there was one thing that Vader hated, it was being humiliated on the battlefield. And the attack had the added benefit of breathing life into the Resistance's morale. As much as he hated to admit it, the Resistance needed a win.

Defeating the 501st on Darth Sidious' homeworld was certainly a way to achieve that, though he had no idea why the legion was on Naboo to begin with. The planet was usually uninvolved in the conflict, and its defenses had been pathetic.

But he supposed it didn't really matter why they had temporarily stopped here. He had been given an opportunity, and he had seized it with both hands. The biggest threat in this war was Vader, and this was his chance to eliminate him.

Luke couldn't reach Vader behind Imperial lines; to even attempt it was suicide, and he couldn't afford to die now. Too many people depended on the strength the last Jedi in the galaxy had to offer. Even if he was an inferior version of the Jedi of the past. Even if he was no Jedi at all.

The people standing with him now believed he was a Jedi, hoped he was a Jedi, so he maintained the deception for their sake instead of denying it.

They all needed a little hope during this trying time, and Luke had hidden bigger lies. The biggest of those was what happened to Leia. What would the people around him do if they knew they were led by a traitor?

He shook his head, banishing the thought. It was unnecessary speculation at this point.

Besides, he had a Sith to hunt.

Vader was most likely already on his way, and in a direct confrontation, Luke had no illusions about the outcome. He needed to end Vader, but not like this. He needed to end this siege quickly and lure Vader to a battlefield of his choosing.

This was the only way he could think of getting to Vader—by luring that old monster to him. It was all part of the plan, but if he stayed here much longer, they would be slaughtered if the city wasn't taken by the time Vader arrived.

Maybe that was why the feeling of danger lingered so strongly in the Force. It was as if it were trying to warn him to get away from here, like a knife against his back. Clearly, it was a warning; how could it be anything else?

He wanted to obey the soundless command in the Force, even if he couldn't make sense of it. However, the 501st had barricaded themselves in Theed, and he couldn't see how he could break them without suffering significant losses himself.

Ordering a ground assault was an option, but he already knew it would cost the lives of too many of his soldiers. Lives he couldn't afford to lose, given the odds stacked against the resistance.

The fourth fleet under his command couldn't endure another major hit. He had no way to replace the ships or the soldiers he'd lose.

Among the common soldiers, there was a tasteless joke that the reason it was called the fourth fleet was that they only had four starships left with enough firepower to take on a Star Destroyer.

It was a tasteless joke because it was the truth.

However, he couldn't afford to leave the 501st legion here to join up with Vader when he eventually showed up. The 501st legion was a force on its own, but under Vader's direct command, it was possibly the strongest force in the Empire.

He needed Admiral Ackbar and his fifth fleet to deal with the living nightmare that Darth Vader was.

He just needed to find a way to break the 501st before Vader got here.

"Commander?" A lieutenant suddenly called from Luke's right. "We just received a message from Admiral Ackbar."

'What now?' he thought, annoyed, as he strode over to the console, hoping it wasn't another complication. "What does he want?"

"The fifth fleet is calling for backup," she said. At the same moment, the Force felt staggeringly cold around him. The shock of it made Luke's heart skip a beat; a sharp breath escaped him. Thankfully, she didn't notice.

Why would there suddenly be such a strong reaction in the Force?

Was Vader already here?

"What's happening?"

"The fifth fleet is about to engage an enemy fleet—a major force."

That made absolutely no sense. There were no enemy forces here; he knew that because he had made absolutely sure before choosing that spot as the battlefield where he would face Vader.

He looked over her shoulder to read the message on the screen. "The Imperial Navy has nothing near Ackbar's position. That's why we chose that location in the first place," he said calmly, more to project a calm he didn't really possess, while scanning the page for an explanation as the Force felt colder around him.

"It's an unknown fleet to our intelligence. According to the trajectory they've reported here, this new Imperial fleet must have come from the Unknown Regions."

Why would there be a fleet in the Unknown Regions? He stared at the information presented on the screen, but he could only draw the same conclusion that his officer had. It did look like the fleet had arrived from the Unknown Regions, however strange that was.

What could Sidious possibly hope to gain by sending Imperial forces out there when he was in the middle of a galactic war? Why would he waste the resources? Did he really underestimate the Resistance that much?

Surprisingly, Luke found himself insulted.

"Who commands them? Do we know?" he asked, a sudden unease curling in his gut. The Force felt darker around him, tense and deadly, as if a predator had just stepped into the room.

"It's… it's…" The lieutenant's eyes swiftly moved back and forth, scanning the report. "It says it's…" She typed quickly, the sound louder than it should have been in the room that had descended into a grave-like silence.

"Here, sir." The lieutenant said, and Luke looked over her shoulder, fixing his eyes on the name that had appeared on the screen. He read it aloud. "Grand Admiral Thrawn?"

Thrawn. The name echoed in Luke's mind, and he suddenly felt a cold wave of foreboding. "Never heard of him," he added harshly, his mind drawing blanks as he smothered the unexplainable unease that wrapped around his throat. "He can't be anyone important," he dismissed the threat, mostly for the benefit of his officers but also, secretly, for himself.

He had never heard of this man before, and he knew all the major players in this war. So this 'Thrawn' was probably not very important—a newcomer, perhaps, or someone with so little skill that he had been promoted only out of seniority or nepotism.

But the Force disagreed with his thoughts.

The Force felt sticky and cold around him, drenched in an icy chill—colder than the nights ever became on Hoth. The only other time he had felt like this was when Vader was close. So why now? Why was the Force suddenly projecting warnings like this, as if his life hung in the balance at this very moment?

Who was this Thrawn?

Ackbar was a capable commander; he should be able to take care of this fleet himself, even if it was unexpected.

So why wasn't he?

And then the officer spoke again, confirming Luke's fears.

"The Imperial fleet is already engaging Ackbar's. They're taking heavy losses. Ackbar is requesting backup. Now."

"What?" The word escaped between his clenched teeth, almost hissing.

"Immediately."

Ackbar is… losing? Luke's heart pounded harder in his chest. No, that cannot happen! He could not afford to lose the fifth fleet. It was the largest fleet the Resistance had left after the devastating defeat at Hoth. If he lost the fifth fleet, he didn't even want to think of the consequences.

Why did this have to happen right now?

He almost had Vader exactly where he wanted him!

And now he might lose Ackbar!

He couldn't afford to fight on two fronts alone—not when one of them was commanded by Darth Vader. But that was the reality he would have to face if he didn't rip out the spine of this new Imperial fleet, and fast, before the fifth fleet took too many losses!

Luke knew nothing of the Grand Admiral Thrawn commanding that fleet, but he would regret stepping into the conflict at this stage. Depleted or not, Luke's forces were experienced and more than formidable in combat, and Luke himself was a skilled tactician as well.

The weight of the decision pressed on Luke like a crushing force. He was no stranger to difficult choices, but this one felt different, heavier. The lives of thousands, perhaps millions, hung in the balance of a single decision. He could not afford to make the wrong one.

He was in no hurry to repeat past mistakes.

That meant he couldn't afford to leave his back open.

He had to destroy the 501st here before rushing to Ackbar, but the price was one he didn't want to pay.

With no time to spare, the only other choice was an aerial assault. However, no matter how skilled the bombers were, there was no way to avoid hitting civilians. His morals rebelled at the thought of it.

He had always targeted military objectives, but the 501st had barricaded themselves in the middle of Theed. There was no way he could hit them without extensive collateral damage. He knew what he wanted to do, but he no longer had the time to take the city. They would fight for every street, and he had no time for that anymore.

"Sir?" The officer said, looking away from the screen with a worried expression. "They need help now. They're losing so many. I don't... they need help right now."

He had to go.

Ackbar needed his help now.

That fact was inescapably clear, the Force so cold now it was like knives digging into his skin.

He had two choices. One was sparing the city of Theed, leaving it in enemy hands while he moved his fleet to join up with Ackbar's fifth fleet.

The only fault in that plan was that the enemy forces in Theed would no doubt join up with Vader when he arrived, boosting his forces. If they did, Vader's fleet might prove too much, even with Luke's and Ackbar's combined forces.

His other choice?

Destroy the enemy hiding in the city of Theed with an aerial bombardment, right here, right now, without risking more of his soldiers' lives and preventing the forces here from joining up with Vader.

A Jedi wouldn't even think of the second option; they'd already be gone from here, searching for another way, a third way, to beat the enemy.

Maybe that was why the Republic eventually fell.

Because they were unwilling to make sacrifices.

"Naboo represents the best of the Old Republic," Leia had once said. He didn't know if that was true, but it was beautiful. Had he grown up here instead of Tatooine, he doubted that he would ever want to leave. It looked like everything Tatooine hadn't been—gentle, friendly, and bountiful.

'These people don't deserve this,' he thought. The cruelty of Tatooine had reflected in the people who inhabited it, and it was reasonable to expect that the people in this place also reflected the nature of their home planet. This place felt gentle in the Force, despite the fighting that had already taken place.

It didn't make his decision any easier.

The people of Theed didn't deserve to be caught up in this. Their only crime was existing in the place where Luke finally cornered the enemy he needed to destroy.

He could feel eyes on him on the bridge, but he didn't acknowledge them; his mind was fixed on the choice he had to make.

The darkness of the room was illuminated from outside by the fragile light of the rising sun, which draped the city below the battleships in a gentle light. It was a beautiful morning. The skies were colored in rosy and gold hues that stretched into the cloudless horizon.

Luke stared out at the city, the peaceful beauty of it clashing violently with the war raging in his mind. The people down there had no idea of the decision being weighed above them. They were living their lives, just trying to survive another day in a galaxy torn apart by war.

He closed his eyes, trying to feel for guidance in the Force, but all he felt was the cold. A creeping chill that told him this was not a choice that would leave him unscathed, no matter what he decided.

The world below looked so fragile, so innocent, sacred even.

But right now, while he wasted precious seconds, his people were dying fighting a new enemy.

He wanted to show mercy, to turn his ships away and never return to this place, to leave it out of the war. He never wanted to be a destroyer.

But he had to win this war.

He owed it to both the fallen and the ones still standing beside him. Everything he had sacrificed up to this point could not be for nothing.

"Admiral Skywalker?" The female lieutenant asked beside him. "Commander?" She said more softly, uncertainly; his rank of Admiral had, after all, been a recent promotion. The nervousness in her voice made him straighten his back, barely able to hide his own self-disgust.

They were all counting on him.

Counting on him to save them from the horror of the Empire. He was all they had. If he lost this war, then who knew what would happen to them? Execution, perhaps, if they were lucky. Darth Sidious was not known for his mercy.

No.

He would not allow that to happen. He crossed his arms and painted a blank expression on his face to hide his inner turmoil. He had to look strong now, no matter what he really felt.

He had been a naïve fool to think he could get through this war without any more sacrifices. He still had things he valued, still had people that he treasured, that he could drag up and sacrifice on that altar.

He had to win this war. No matter the cost.

Losing was never an option.

"Prepare the cannons," he said with his eyes fixed on the beautiful, fragile city below, his jaw clenched.

"Sir?"

He made himself remember every detail of that city bathed in the pastel light of dawn. It was the least he could do. Remember this, every detail of it.

"Ready the main cannons, target the enemy's position," he ordered.

"The main cannons, sir?" The young officer's eyes widened, clearly startled. "But that will level the entire city center! What about the civilians? We can't—"

"I gave you an order," he said, keeping his eyes locked on the city below.

First, there was silence. Then there was movement, the distant humming sound of cannons powering up, as loud as thunder to his senses.

'This is what you are now,' he realized with a quiet kind of horror. 'You are like him,' a thought whispered. He could not afford to waste any more time here and leave Ackbar to face the new threat alone. There was no choice if he wanted to save the galaxy.

This was the only choice, but it felt like at this moment, he was gutting out his own soul.

Owen had been right all along, hadn't he? Had Luke not turned out exactly like his father?

He breathed in.

Breathed out.

Luke stood at the edge of the bridge, his gaze locked on the fragile city below, now bathed in the delicate light of dawn. The beauty of Theed seemed almost sacred, a stark contrast to the horror he was about to unleash. He wanted to look away, to spare himself the sight of the devastation he had ordered, but he knew he couldn't. He didn't deserve that reprieve.

The cannons powered up, their hum reverberating through the ship, a sound that seemed to shake the very foundation of his soul. Around him, his officers shifted uncomfortably, many of them turning their eyes away from the viewports, unable to bear witness to what was about to happen.

But Luke stood firm, his eyes never leaving the city. He owed that much to the people below, the innocents who had done nothing but be in the wrong place at the wrong time. If he was going to destroy them, he would not turn away from the horror of his own actions. He would remember every moment, every detail of the city as it was wiped from existence.

The silence on the bridge was suffocating, broken only by the distant hum of the cannons. His hands clenched behind his back, his knuckles white from the strain, but he forced himself to remain still, to not betray the inner turmoil raging within him.

Then, with a voice that felt like it was tearing something inside him apart, he gave the final order.

"Fire."

The world below erupted in flames. The beautiful city of Theed, with its elegant spires and serene streets, was engulfed in a storm of destruction. The main cannons unleashed their fury, and in moments, the city center was reduced to rubble and ash. The brightness of the explosions reflected in Luke's eyes, but he didn't blink, didn't flinch. He watched it all—every building as it crumbled, every fire as it spread, felt every life as it was snuffed out.

Behind him, the officers averted their eyes, some bowing their heads in a mixture of sorrow and shame. But Luke did not look away. This was his doing, his choice. He would bear it, remember it, and carry it with him as a reminder of the cost of this war and the price of victory.

When the fires finally died down, and the city was no more, he still didn't move. He stared at the smoldering ruins, feeling the weight of his actions settle like a stone in his chest. He had won the battle, but it didn't feel like a victory. It felt like he had carved out a piece of his own soul and left it burning on the surface of Naboo.

Only when there was nothing left to see did he finally turn away, his expression as unreadable as stone, but inside, he knew he would never forget this moment. He didn't deserve to. This was the price he had paid, the sacrifice he had made. And it was one he would carry with him for the rest of his life.

Luke Skywalker, the Jedi, might have once looked for another way, but Luke Skywalker, the Admiral, knew that there was no turning back now.

"Set course for Ackbar's position," he ordered, his voice steady, devoid of emotion. "We move out immediately."

As the ship turned away from the burning ruins of Theed, Luke closed his eyes, shutting out the image of the city that had once been bathed in the gentle light of dawn. It was gone now, like a fleeting dream, replaced by the cold reality of war.

He had to win.

No matter the cost.

:

He lowers his hand from the blaster at his belt.

There was no one in the hall.

His prey was no longer here.

The darkness was thick and oppressive, wrapping around the abandoned storage hall like a shroud. The figure stood up from his kneeling position on the cold floor, the silence around him almost palpable. He would have been disappointed if the Sith Lord had been so easy to snare. It had been a long time since he last had a good hunt; prison did little to sharpen one's skills, and he yearned for a true challenge.

A Sith Lord was just the sort of challenge that he sorely needed.

Clone troopers were a decent distraction, but over the years, he had taken down so many that they rarely proved more than that. A Jedi would be acceptable… but a Sith Lord, that was a target worthy of his attention, even if he was young.

Vader was just a bit faster than he expected. A miscalculation that highlighted his own need for improvement. Vader must have more experience hiding his tracks than his age suggested.

He looked down at the cloth in his hand. Vader had been here. The black cloak was unmistakably Sith in design. He crooked his head. On closer inspection, the cloak was worn and patched several times.

Vader was not a rich man, then.

Aren't Sith Lords supposed to be wealthy?

Ahead of him lay the familiar parts of clone trooper armor. He frowned. It seemed Vader was not traveling alone. That would do Vader little good, but it was something he needed to take into consideration once he ran Vader down.

He scanned the abandoned building. Why had they come here? The many shelves lining the hall suggested it was used as a storage area, an old one at that. A perfect place to lie low since only someone within the military would know which storage houses were out of use.

This raised an interesting thought as he looked once more at the clone trooper armor. Maybe this was not merely a place that Vader and his accomplice had come across by chance, but rather one they knew would be available.

It appeared that a Separatist and a Republican were… working together?

How intriguing.

He turned his attention back to the abandoned items.

The Sith Lord's cloak had been carefully folded before he picked it up. It was placed just a little to the side so it wouldn't be accidentally stepped on in the dark. Similarly, the clone trooper armor pieces were placed with care.

It was clear that his target meant to return to this place. There was no reason to take care of these items if they had not been counting on returning here to retrieve them later. Which meant two things: one, his prey would return here on his own; second, the two were wearing disguises. The latter would complicate matters since he might not be able to spot Vader if his disguise was good enough.

On this thought, he went to the shelf closest to the black cloak. The shelf had little of interest as he scanned the boxes. It was mostly spare parts of smaller electrical equipment and... his pace stopped when he spotted something he would recognize anywhere.

A Jedi robe.

So that was Vader's disguise. Not a bad idea on Vader's part, given that the place was crawling with Jedi scum. But where would Vader be going with a disguise like that?

Perhaps there was something to be learned from Vader's companion. He looked over to the abandoned clone trooper armor. It was meticulously placed in the typically military orderly fashion. The shelf beside it was far easier to analyze, it barely took a glance. The uniform was easy to recognize, the underworld police.

Smart.

His prey was clearly of the clever sort. It would not be too farfetched to see two such uniforms together. It would be a little unusual, but he himself might not have thought much about it if he encountered them in the street.

If he were them, he would look for passage off the planet, and the underworld might be the only place to get that with the entire Jedi Order looking for them. He frowned at that realization, because it might mean they would not return here at all.

Maybe he should—

The blue light of his holocron on his arm lit up in a soft glow, signaling an incoming message. He raised his brow once he saw the sender. He moved to answer, and the familiar shape of an old accomplice appeared. He spoke her name.

"Cato."

"Listen, I don't have that much time, but I am about to have an important visitor. Someone I think you are looking for." She threw a look over her shoulder. "I am going to need your help with him."

"...Vader?" he inquired. It matched the discoveries he made here.

"How did you—" She moved her head again, seemingly reacting to something he could not see. "He is here now. I will stall him as much as possible."

"I'll be there momentarily," he promised and was heading to the door before the connection closed.

:

"Well, onto business," Fives leaned forward over the dimly lit table, his voice steady but his eyes betraying a flicker of apprehension. The room was small, filled with the scent of old metal and the faint hum of distant machinery, casting an oppressive atmosphere over the meeting. "What do you want to know?"

Cato, seated across from him, leaned back in her chair, a predatory smile playing on her lips. Her eyes gleamed with the kind of cold calculation that came from years in the criminal underworld. "What I want is to get into the good graces of the Separatists, and you can help me with that. Something that will help the war effort."

Fives clenched his fists under the table, his mind racing. "I am not going to tell you anything that might damage my brothers."

"You don't get my assistance for free, and I know you personally are in possession of information of great value."

"What?"

"The Separatists are very particular about their prisoners remaining prisoners." She smiled wider as Fives frowned, the tension in the room thickening. "A certain citadel... does Lola Sayu ring a bell?"

"That happened a long time ago."

"Don't dodge it. You know well that no one has gotten in before or since. And they would like to fix their little security issue."

Fives knew he had to sacrifice something when he came here. He just didn't think it would be something on this scale. His heart pounded as he considered the implications.

This... would have terrible consequences; he could already see it play out. The prison break had been an enormous success, not just in rescuing the prisoners, but especially in the fact that the Separatists never discovered how they breached the prison last time.

Suddenly, a shadow hung over him, and the room seemed to grow colder.

"Why are you hesitating?" Vader said lowly beside him. His expression was firm, but the yellow eyes were unreadable, glinting ominously in the dim light. His hand rested not too far from his lightsaber, a silent reminder of the potential for violence. "This is what we came here for. Did you come here with the expectation of not having to make a sacrifice?" Vader's calm demeanour, as if what she was asking was nothing, made Fives want to punch that arrogant expression off his face.

What would that Sith know about sacrifice anyway? Their kind were trained in deception, betrayal, and cruelty. This was no small matter she was asking.

If he were to give this information up, he could be ensuring that his comrades—Jedi, clone troopers, or others—could not be rescued from imprisonment in the future.

He would be responsible for whatever happened to them in captivity, and he had seen how they were treated there.

He might as well be their jailor.

And people were sometimes held there for years!

Then Cato spoke, breaking the heavy silence.

"Patience, my Lord." She was looking at Vader now. The lacy smile had an eager undertone. "Loyalty is quite ingrained in the clone troopers of the Republic. Not something your kind suffers from." The last was an offhanded comment, and Vader's eyes looked away briefly, slightly narrowed, and there was an expression of disgust before the blank expression returned. What was that about?

"It is so difficult to get a source of any kind from within those ranks," she continued mockingly.

"Do you have any idea how much the Separatists will pay you for that information?" Fives protested. "This is way too much to ask of me for such a small gain. You are just offering us identity cards to an opera house!"

"And my secrecy. I have never been this close to a bounty with so many zeroes. Make no mistake, if I were in any way capable of cashing in on it, we would not be having this conversation. There are others I could let know that don't have my current problem."

And through all that, Vader just stood there. The look in his eyes was far away, as if he were communing with the Force. Fives had seen that look enough to recognize it.

This was it. Wasn't it? He would have to throw his lot completely with this Sith that he knew nothing about, aside from a relentless hatred of Chancellor Palpatine. It was an unstable alliance at best, and Fives had nothing to fall back on. This was his only path that could save his brothers from a horrible future.

Why did he have to make this choice? He was a loyal soldier, not a—

A traitor.

But if he didn't do this, then he would be dooming his brothers to a fate far worse. There was no choice. He would effectively be a traitor to the Republic. There would be no going back from this point... he had to do this.

He swallowed, and it felt like defeat when he spoke.

"No... I'll tell you." He straightened his back in the shadow of the Sith standing there, unmoving. "This information for your silence and the passes."

"Deal."

:

Anakin was gone like a shadow on the wall, leaving her with unease curling in her gut.

There was something going on, more than what Anakin said.

She had known him long enough to know when he was hiding something. He had been restless, nervous, and hardly had any sleep since he came back from saving the Chancellor. Whenever she tried to pry it from him, he simply deflected, and it was frustrating.

She wanted to help with whatever it was that was haunting him, but that was impossible since he refused to tell her. And then it had gotten worse when Yoda...

Something had shifted in him, and not for the better. He had been talking about Vader as if he was a monster, but he refused to let her in on why he was more threatening than any other enemy they had faced before.

She sighed, but the nervousness remained. She wished Ahsoka was here, but she had not heard from her in a long time. She missed her; the last time she had seen Ahsoka was at that horrible trial.

She looked out of the window overlooking the city. Darkness had fallen, and the many lights from below reminded her of her heavy responsibility. There were so many lives affected by this terrible war, and there seemed to be no end to it. Now, with Vader, there was a new escalation to the conflict.

It seemed like the war was never-ending, but she had to be strong for all the people that she loved. They needed her more than ever.

If only her ploy to make a peace treaty with the Separatists had worked out. Then this would all have ended. She sighed; that golden opportunity was unlikely to ever return, thanks to the recent fighting. The people of Coruscant had had a front-row seat to the battle. Panic and terror were alive in the streets and in the parliament. The war had gotten awfully close today, so even starting to suggest a peace treaty would not be well received.

But there had to be a way, somehow, to start peace negotiations. War had not solved anything, and there seemed to be no end to it. Maybe there would be someone willing to listen.

Ambassadors from the Separatist systems were already planetside, from before the battle, and she knew some of them would join up to see the upcoming Mon Calamari Ballet tomorrow.

Her eyes narrowed, a plan forming. She might get the chance to talk to some of her old contacts there.

But first, she would find a way to contact Ahsoka. She should be aware of what was happening right now. The danger might reach Ahsoka out there, and it should not catch her unawares. She nodded to herself as she looked over the city. That was something she could start attempting.

Then she would make preparations for tomorrow evening.

She would not simply stand here meekly on the sideline while things were clearly spinning out of control.

She would make the Separatist ambassadors listen, somehow.

:

A shadow was moving.

Luke could feel it.

It was the familiar feeling of being watched, being hunted. At this point, he was not arrogant enough to ignore a warning when it came to him in such a recognizable form. Something was wrong; he did not know what exactly, but danger was closing in.

He had expected it walking in here; bounty hunters had never been known for their loyalty. This place, especially, was so drenched in deception and betrayal that the Force felt eerily sweet, like rot.

He had expected it, prepared himself mentally for it, and been ready to act with force to make it very clear that he was not one to be challenged by Force-nulls.

But this was different.

He let his hand fall slowly to the lightsaber at his belt, making the move agonizingly slow to avoid calling more attention to himself.

The feeling of danger... it was not coming from inside this room.

He knew this threat. He had felt it before enough times to be familiar. The impression in the Force was of a strong but clumsy thing. It felt like it was dragging its feet, trying to be quiet and stealthy in a way it clearly was not.

That was not reassuring.

He straightened discreetly as he honed in on that one threat. It was familiar, like an old enemy was familiar even after a long absence. He would recognize Darth Vader's specific signature in the Force anywhere, even if that living nightmare still hadn't achieved its final stage. Anakin Skywalker's signature in the Force was almost the exact same as the enemy that Luke had met on Bespin on the horrible day that changed everything.

There was darkness in Anakin already. Was it already too late to stop that devouring darkness from destroying his father?

Luke had seen that immediately upon meeting Anakin. The chosen one was bright, but the darkness in him was just as blinding. Luke had thought that the dark side would be absent from Anakin during this time… that had been a dangerous assumption.

Maybe some version of Vader had always existed and was simply suppressed until Sidious had unlocked its chains. If it had been Sidious at all. What if it had actually not been Sidious who had given the final push?

Because it had been that simple. Why had the Sith from his own past just not told him so?

There had to be something more to it, but Luke could not understand what it was. Anakin would not turn to the dark side for power; he was already a powerhouse of a warrior. Anakin would also not turn to the dark side to gain a powerful position; he was a revered Jedi Knight.

How could Sidious possibly lure Anakin to the dark side when Anakin had everything, even love? The woman Luke had seen in a glimpse of Anakin's mind during the duel in front of the Senate was someone his father felt strong emotions for. Love. Devotion. Protectiveness. All pure emotions and glaringly free from any lingering effect of the dark side.

And wealth? Luke almost rolled his eyes at that possibility. He hated everything about Darth Vader from his own past, for a lot of good reasons. The man was a beast in the guise of a man, completely devoid of empathy and compassion.

But the mere thought that he should have turned to the dark side over something as crude as wealth? Ridiculous; riches did not seem like something that Vader from his own past put any value in.

So what else was there?

What made Anakin turn to the dark side when he had everything a man could want?

That fact was still frustratingly unclear. It had to be something macabre. Why else would the Sith back in his own time find it so hilarious?

But there was… There was something more. An unseen horror lurking behind the noise that Anakin made so loudly with his signature.

It was the same unseen horror that infected the Force like a sickness.

There was something very wrong with the Force on this planet. In certain points, it was heartbreakingly beautiful, but in other places, like in this moment, he could practically feel the Force… unraveling.

He would not have noticed it if he had not been used to being hyper aware of the movements in the Force. At times in the past, it was the only thing that had kept him alive during the long defeat, where everything he fought for was crumbling.

He could feel it stalk at the edge of his perception, in the Force. It was a ghostly presence, barely the whisper of an echo from within the darkness, and the static that the Force had become on this planet had increased.

It felt weakened.

Like someone had wrapped a noose around it, strangling it, and taking their time with it… savouring the inevitability of it.

The decay.

He could sense it. The malevolence. It was a quiet thing, barely visible to his senses, even when he strained himself to the limit of what he could manage while keeping his own presence hidden.

But it was there.

He knew it to be a fact.

And it had got its hooks in Anakin, whatever it was.

He knew what the dark side felt like… looked like. He had known this for a long time, almost since the beginning. He had looked over the borders of sanity before, to the dark side and the blessed, uncompromising hollowness it promised, so he knew its face immediately.

Many would not think it, but the dark side of the Force was not frightening in itself the way a nightmare would be. It did not lie in wait or haunt your thoughts like an old regret… In truth, it was sweeter… sickeningly sweet, like a poison begging to be devoured.

As it was now, the threat that was the harbinger of the familiar disturbance in the Force was still distant, but that did not change the fact that he could feel the cold in the Force, aware and eager.

But he had to remember that it wasn't that old monster tracking his steps. The real Darth Vader was not here yet, only Anakin. In this time, Anakin was still young and inexperienced compared to what he would become later

… but Anakin in this time was stronger and younger and had trained his entire life to be a paragon of the light side… something that Luke could never be.

His enemies in this life were just as strong as the past he had abandoned to the dark. The cards were still stacked against him.

It made him tense up in anticipation, at the familiarity of the dread that rushed back to him now. He had seen this moment before. Lived it before. It felt deadly. Ready. Eager.

The hunter and the hunted as it had been before in the past he had left behind. His hands suddenly felt cold, and he could feel pinpricks on the back of his neck. The slow-rising panic formed a cold line down his spine.

Then there was a slight pressure, barely more than a second before it was gone again. But he felt it, he knew with horrifying certainty what that had been.

Someone had been looking for him in the Force.

Someone had seen him!

Anakin knew he was here!

He didn't know how, but Anakin knew. He knew that beyond the shadow of a doubt. He would recognize that presence anywhere, consumed by the dark side or not. Anakin Skywalker's presence always felt like the shadow of death.

They needed to go! They needed to get out of here right now!

He moved slowly, forcing his face into a blank expression while his heartbeat was beating so hard he could feel it hammering in his throat. It made him want to throw up.

"Change of plans." He said lowly but firmly, trying to make Fives understand with an unbroken stare that time had run out for this experiment that Fives had been so sure would succeed. Privately, Luke was not surprised it had failed this early in the process.

"What?"

"We are leaving."

"Problem?" Cato asked with her unmoving, focused stare.

Fives held up his hand, trying and failing to look unworried.

"Vader, we are not done with—"

"Fives, enough! He knows." Luke said lowly between his clenched teeth. His entire body felt like it had been flayed, and the many struggles had reduced him to the point where he drew power directly from the Force just to keep going.

It was a bad plan. He knew that the backlash of pushing himself past the limit would be steep. He also knew that he was in no state to fight Anakin right now. Or anyone for that matter; it was taxing enough just to keep going.

Fives' mouth closed so fast there was no way it did not look suspicious. But the loth cat was already out of the bag, wasn't it?

"I can sense him!" He insisted, resisting the urge to simply bolt out the door. He could not fight his father again this soon; he had no reserves left. It could only end one way. "Skywalker is coming here!"

"There is no way that they already—"

"Shh!"

Then there was that buzzing sound again, and this time his head twisted to follow the sound, trying to catch whatever made it. His lightsaber was already drawn; the air was so tense, so eager that it felt like spiders were crawling under his skin.

He heard the click of blasters being taken off safety.

A red light flashed past him, and the sound of a blaster echoed against the walls.

:

Rex had a hard time keeping his cool.

It was Vader, no doubt about it. He had only heard him speak twice before, but he could never forget that voice after having its whispers etched into his mind like puppet-strings. Rex had danced to that man's words, and he was going to make Vader regret it.

It was only more infuriating that it was clearly Fives leading the talk. He did not know how to put words to the immense betrayal. How raw it made him feel to have his friend, his brother, speak so casually about... treason.

The situation was so foreign to him that it was like his mind still could not understand that Fives was no longer on the side of the Republic... no longer on the side of his brothers. He shook his head, grateful for the helmet hiding his troubled expression.

He didn't want any of the others seeing him this off-footed.

It had to be that Vader was controlling Fives the same way that he had controlled Rex himself.

He refused to believe that Fives was a traitor. He simply refused. He trusted Fives more than that.

"What are they even doing here?" someone whispered to his left, and Rex silenced him with a gesture. The words were hard to hear, and even turning the sound up as much as possible made the conversation difficult to decipher.

"Can we get the drone closer?" Rex asked the operator. "Maybe get an image."

"He'll notice it if we do," the operator replied, his voice low and tension clear in his hands. "I tried before, and he almost spotted it." He turned on the recorder, trying to better the signal most likely. "Give me a moment, I might get it to work anyway."

"He noticed it from that distance?"

"He turned towards it. If there is something else that caught his attention—" He let the sentence die. The answer was obvious.

"Wait a minute, Vader sounds agitated." Rex turned his attention back to the recording. It was difficult to make out any words, but Vader's words were sharp and fast. What was he saying? It sounded like Vader was panicking, but what was he saying?

"I think I got it," the operator said and flipped a switch. The voices were now much clearer.

"Fives, enough! He knows!"

Rex frowned. Who was Vader feeling? There was no Jedi near enough his position for Vader to pick that up already.

"I can sense him!" Vader said sharply. "Skywalker is coming here!"

Skywalker, but he was still on the way here. It was impossible for Vader to sense the General at this distance. It should be impossible.

"There is no way that they already—"

"Shh!"

Then a shrill screech roared over the connection like a cannon-blast. He almost ripped the headphones off. The sound was so sharp he couldn't stop a pained sound from escaping despite his best intention.

"We have guests," the woman's voice sounded across the connection. "Sound the alarm. Immediate evacuation."

Then the signal died. A second later, the operator confirmed it.

"The signal just went off," the trooper said helplessly, trying to get it to function again. "They spotted it when we changed the setting." It was an unnecessary comment. Rex swore inwardly. Kriff it! If they had kept the drone as it was, then Vader might not have noticed, and they could have waited for backup. But now Vader would already be running.

They could not afford to wait longer.

He wanted to storm in there, but if he was going up against Vader, then he needed backup from a Jedi, and he already knew Skywalker couldn't make it in time. But there were other Jedi already in the area.

"Forgive me, General," he thought. He knew that Skywalker wanted to be the one to catch Vader, but he could not just stand here and do nothing while Vader got away.

Rex did not even hesitate when he went for the holocom with Mace Windu's signal already keyed in. He handed it to his second in command with a sharp order. "Get ready. We move out now. The general will join us when he arrives," he said as he kept a keen watch on the situation developing in front of him.

He clicked the safety off his blaster and turned to face the rest of his men. "We have one objective: the live capture of Vader, but not at the cost of your lives. If necessary, shoot to kill."

"Sir!"

The troopers moved with swift precision, readying themselves for the assault. Rex's heart pounded in his chest. The betrayal of Fives gnawed at his resolve, but he pushed it aside. There would be time for answers later. Now, they had to act.

With a deep breath, Rex led his men towards the entrance of the building, each step echoing the heavy burden of his conflicting emotions. The hunt for Vader had begun.

:

Luke turned towards the sound just in time to see a blur as Cato stepped past him, blaster in hand. A metallic shape fell from the vents, and Luke stepped closer, but the damage from the blaster was extensive. He could no longer discern what the machine had been. A few lights on it still flickered weakly.

"Seems that we have a guest," Cato said, her voice cool as she lowered her blaster, the red light flashing as she aimed. The drone—now nothing more than scrap—crumpled beneath her fire.

"Republican make," Cato muttered as she stared down at the wreckage, her voice tinged with disdain. She gave it a casual kick, but her demeanor was anything but relaxed. Her shoulders were tense, and a deep frown marred her face.

"Not too interesting, I hope?" Luke said, hating how his words sounded like something Leia would say.

Cato's gaze sharpened. "You have any Jedi following you?" she asked, her tone edged with a hint of suspicion. Before he could respond, she added, "Is it Kenobi?" The weight of that name carried a palpable chill, and Luke could sense a sudden shift in the Force, a coldness that made him shiver.

"He is one of them," Luke replied truthfully. He could sense the dark side of the Force swirling around her, though she was Force-null. Her emotions—anger and something deeper—left a stark imprint.

He reached out with his senses, trying to grasp the sudden change in her demeanor.

No, not anger. Sorrow.

Luke frowned, unable to understand why she seemed to have made up her mind with such sudden decisiveness.

"I've decided to help you," Cato announced, her tone light but the gravity of her words hanging heavy in the air. Her hand dove into a pocket at her hip and emerged with security passes.

It was only then that Luke realized what they were: the security passes they needed.

"It comes with a price, though." She held the passes lazily in her hand, but her casual posture belied the tension in her shoulders and the sharp look in her eyes.

"What price is that?" Luke asked, already prepared to refuse whatever unreasonable demand she might make. He couldn't shake the feeling that this was a game, one he might not want to play. It would be simpler to take the passes by force if needed.

Cato's nonchalance was unsettling. A bounty hunter should not be so trusting.

The hand resting on the hilt of his lightsaber twitched, a nervous reflex. She had two blasters—one in hand and one holstered—but at this close range, he could dispatch her easily. The only bounty hunter who had ever bested him was Boba Fett, and in this time Fett would still be an unskilled child.

His fingers hovered over the hilt, concealed under his heavy brown cloak. He envisioned the single strike that would incapacitate her.

This should be over in a moment.

"Don't worry, it's not a steep price. You already have it." She glanced down at the drone, her eyes flickering with a strange intensity. "A name."

Luke narrowed his eyes, his hand hesitating. "A name? I don't understand."

"Outside this establishment, a woman was murdered a few years back. Her name was Zam Wesell," Cato said, her voice carrying a note of grim finality. "Two Jedi appeared moments before she was shot from a distance. You will tell me the name of her murderer."

"How am I supposed to find that out right now?" Genuine curiosity edged his voice. He couldn't fathom why she would expect him to have that information.

"Not you," she said, her eyes turning toward Fives, who had just risen from the table.

"Jango Fett."

'Fett?' Luke thought, his mind racing. The name brought back memories of an ambush and a reputation he knew from his own timeline. The scumbag who took Chewie and wore an ugly helmet. 'Fett has family on Coruscant? So Boba is here too.' A vindictive urge flickered in his mind—perhaps taking down Fett could rectify some past wrongs.

The temptation was strong, an almost irresistible urge to crush the man who had caused so much pain. It was a cruel thought, a heartbreaking thought, and it left him gasping for breath.

He exhaled through clenched teeth, grounding himself. The price of deviating from his chosen path would be too high. Besides, Boba Fett was just a child now. The Fett responsible didn't exist yet.

The conversation drifted back into his awareness, the rage peeling off him like old, dried snakeskin in the sun.

"Rex told me a while back," Fives said, and the words carried an odd weight in the otherwise silent room. "It was a small part of what started the Clone Wars in the first place."

"Jango… Fett?" Cato repeated, her voice dark with barely contained emotion. The darkness in her eyes was familiar, one Luke had seen many times before in the heat of battle. It was fleeting, but intense. Her eyes snapped back to their default bored expression, though Luke could still feel her emotional turmoil through the Force.

"Fett is dead," she said, her voice carrying a sense of finality that seemed to echo in the room.

"Yes, years ago," Fives confirmed. In that moment, Luke sensed a peculiar mix of satisfaction and strange disappointment emanating from Cato. There was so much hate wrapped around that name; it must have been disheartening to know that the object of that hatred was long dead.

Still, if someone had dealt with the Emperor before all this horror, Luke would have been grateful, not resentful.

For a moment, Cato was still, her body frozen while her mind swirled with emotions. Then her eyes shifted toward her wrist, and she turned back to Luke, her expression now resolute.

"We really need to get going," she said, stepping closer to Luke and taking his hand. The suddenness of her movement jolted him from his dark thoughts. She pressed two white plastic cards into his palm with a rushed, almost desperate urgency, as if eager to be rid of them.

"A pleasure doing business with you," she said, her voice too casual, the underlying emotion barely concealed. It struck Luke that he wasn't the only one hiding behind a mask.

He examined the cards in his hands. He was surprised by the detail—they even had his picture! Then he saw the information listed under his home planet, and his mood soured immediately.

"Tatooine?" he said with disbelief. 'Tatooine?' Really? He seemed to have no luck at all.

"Know the place?" Cato asked, her crooked grin looking surprisingly genuine.

"Intimately."

"Family there?"

"Not anymore," Luke replied, his clipped tone betraying a hint of the old hurt he'd thought long buried.

Cato's gaze was heavy, and for the first time, Luke felt unsettled by her scrutiny.

"I admit it does make sense. You look like someone from Tatooine."

Luke couldn't help but be slightly offended. It must have shown on his face, because Cato's smile widened just a fraction more, clearly enjoying his discomfort. Then her expression shifted to something… undecipherable. Regret?

She glanced at her watch again.

"This concludes our business," she said, the weight of her words hanging in the air. "We'll be having guests soon," she added nonchalantly, but Luke's senses were on high alert. "Your friends, I believe," she said, giving a pointed look at Fives before turning on her heel and striding into the dark room behind her.

Luke's unease grew as he watched her go. The casual dismissal, the unsettling shift in her demeanor, it all felt... off. The sense of impending danger was almost palpable, and he could not shake the feeling that something was wrong.

"This way," Cato called out as she opened her holocron and moved swiftly, her voice filled with urgency. She muttered something Luke couldn't catch before closing the connection once more.

Luke's heart pounded as he followed, and the weight of foreboding heavy on his shoulders.

:

'Why is he still there?' Boba thought with rising impatience. There was no reason why the Sith was dragging his feet like this. What could he be asking of Cato that took this long? His fingers tapped on the cold surface of the table, and it took all his willpower not to stare down the door that had closed behind his target.

The wait was difficult to endure.

He must have been away from this game for too long. He usually had far more patience than this.

No matter. He just had to return to his old routine, and what better way to do that than with a new challenge? He had never captured a Sith Lord before, and the thought of that was immediately exciting.

'This should be easy,' he thought. Vader was alone and would not see this coming. Still, underestimating a Sith was usually a bad call. At least this Sith was an unknown, and that probably meant that he was less experienced than his more famous 'colleagues.'

A Sith, no matter his level in the hierarchy, was still a good way to restart his career and hammer through the point quite effectively that prison had not made Boba Fett soft.

The only thing that could have made this situation more perfect was if the bounty had been issued for Mace Windu.

But well… couldn't get everything, and there was no sense in being greedy when the fates had lined everything up so neatly for him today. With that thought, he leaned forward and caught Bossk's attention.

"As soon as he reappears, we follow them outside before we lose them in the small streets. You take care of the Sith's companion. I'll keep the Sith's attention on me while you take care of that, but I need you to be quick about it. I might need your backup. After all, we don't know how good the Sith is in a fight."

"I heard he killed Yoda," Bossk said, like that was enough of an estimate of the yellow-eyed Sith.

"That doesn't necessarily mean that he is strong. He might just have gotten lucky." Boba said with conviction, because he believed the words more than he believed anything else. An inferior fighter could get lucky; such things happened in war.

How else would Mace Windu still be breathing when he clearly shouldn't be?

"We go out back," he said, following a sudden instinct, and rose from the chair. He didn't know why, but suddenly it felt like a very bad idea to stay put.

The cold air of the darkened streets greeted them comfortably on the other side. The sting of the coldness was welcome as it raised his awareness. It had been too long since he had a proper fight, and he was feeling up to it. Bossk, too, was eager and did a poor job of hiding it.

Being cooped up in the prison had done nothing good for either of them. It was good to finally be back in action.

The streets were somewhat busy still, but mostly with the people that stuck to themselves. It was a particular type of street that would have Boba and Bossk walk together and look like they belonged.

They were easily heading down towards Cato's emergency exit. She had used it for years and thought that it would be unknown still to anyone. To most, it was, but not to Boba. He had had little use for that information before today.

Just before they rounded the corner, he thought he heard a gate close, but there was no one in the alley once it came into view.

It was well made in the sense that it looked like nothing of import. An old rusted gate in a wall that looked in similar disrepair. It was a front, though. The door was blaster-proof and might even hold up to an ion cannon, so well was it fortified. He did not know how Cato made it look so weak, but she knew many tricks.

He stepped into the shadows of a side street. His hand ready on the blaster as Bossk hid himself in a similar fashion a little further down the alley.

Vader would not even see them coming.

Moments passed, each second feeling like an eternity. Boba's eyes scanned the alley, every shadow and flicker of movement. Bossk's breathing was barely audible, a testament to the Trandoshan's own discipline and readiness. They were poised for the perfect ambush.

Suddenly, the sound of boots marching in unison broke the tense silence. Boba's eyes widened as he saw a squad of clone troopers, led by a familiar figure. Rex. Boba's heart raced with a mix of fear and anger. If they had left the club just moments later, they would have been caught in the open.

He signaled to Bossk to stay hidden. The two bounty hunters held their breath as the soldiers marched past, oblivious to their presence.

As the last of the troopers disappeared around the corner, Boba let out a slow breath. That had been too close. His eyes met Bossk's, and the unspoken agreement was clear: they had to move, and quickly. If the soldiers were going in, it meant their window of opportunity was closing fast.

"Let's move," Boba whispered, his voice low and urgent. They slipped from their hiding spots, shadows among shadows, and made their way towards the emergency exit. They had a Sith Lord to capture and no time to waste.

:

The holocom in Cato's hand lit up again as they exited the elevator. Its frequent flickering cast an unsettling glow on the narrow, shadow-filled hallways.

Luke could feel a growing unease gnawing at him, something he couldn't quite place. Cato had agreed to help them, upholding her end of the bargain by guiding them away from the fighting. The transaction had been made, and she had no reason to betray them now.

Yet, a gnawing suspicion lingered. The promise of safety seemed too convenient, especially given the size of the bounty on his head. Something felt off.

"What are you doing?" Luke asked, noticing her fiddling with the armguard once more.

"Updates. Clone troopers are storming the house," Cato said, her voice laced with an edge of something he couldn't quite identify—nervousness, excitement, or perhaps something more sinister. "I have full command of this place," she added, holding up the armguard with a flourish.

"They have a Jedi," she said offhandedly. Luke felt a cold shiver run down his spine at her casual mention. He sensed a Force presence, distinct from Anakin's, lurking somewhere nearby. Pinpointing its location was too risky; any attempt might lead them right into danger.

"We'll be out before they get here," she promised, but her hurried pace felt more like an urgent drive toward peril than an escape from danger. The air around her crackled with a hungry edge that grew sharper with every step.

Luke's instincts were screaming. Something was terribly wrong.

"Fives," Luke said, catching his eyes and shaking his head. Fives nodded, his expression grim. They had already fulfilled their end of the bargain. It was time to separate from their increasingly suspicious escort.

The darkness of the hallway seemed to close in around them as they followed Cato toward a door at the end. Fives whispered, "We're almost out. Be ready."

As they passed through the door into the darkened room beyond, Luke's senses heightened. The room was vast and shrouded in shadow, with only the faint light from the hallway revealing its edges.

"This door leads to the streets," Cato said, gesturing vaguely to a heavily armored door across the room.

Just as she said it, Luke's instincts flared. Fives' eyes widened in shock, and Luke's own gaze snapped back to see a blaster aimed directly at him.

"It's about time we conclude our business," Cato said, her voice now dripping with a chilling satisfaction.

Luke froze, his breath caught in his throat as the blaster's muzzle hovered between his eyes. The other members of their entourage, similarly armed, formed a menacing line, standing between Luke and the exit. Cato stood a few paces away, her smirk barely visible in the dim light.

Luke was weakened, true, but he would not be easily defeated. The thought of their challenge amused him despite the dire circumstances. Who did they think they were?

"Don't," Luke warned, his voice cold and commanding. "None of you are a match for me." He said, like the promise it was. No one had ever been his equal in battle aside from Darth Vader. The Jedi of this time were...difficult, but surely nothing he could not manage when he used his war strategies to turn the tables in his favour.

Arrogance was a trait everyone in this age seemed to possess.

Cato ignored him, her arrogance palpable. "I don't know how you managed to remove your bounty from so many servers. The Separatists usually have better security." She gave a slow, mocking nod. "Lord Vader," she drawled, savoring the title.

"Too bad for you, I intercepted it before you pulled it from the server." Her grin widened, her Force signature becoming an alarming shade of yellow. "I have the clone here too," she called over her shoulder into the darkness. "So there are two to deal with."

An ambush. The realization hit Luke with cold clarity. How traditional.

A deep voice rumbled from the shadows, sending a chill down Luke's spine. "I've taken down so many clones over the years. Once you figure out one, the rest are easy." The voice paused, then added, "You can have the trooper as agreed, but I'll collect Vader."

Luke's eyes strained to make out the figure in the dark. The speaker's face was obscured, but his fang-like teeth were visible, a stark contrast to the darkness.

"Collect me?" Luke echoed, his voice dripping with disdain. The stranger's nonchalance was infuriating, an affront to his abilities.

A void of nothing met his senses when he reached for the Force for guidance. The Force was eerily silent.

"I'm going nowhere with you," Luke declared, his hand reaching for his lightsaber, his other hand brimming with barely restrained Force energy. "I'd like to see you try. You're nothing compared to the power I command." He let a flicker of the Force display itself, a warning.

Despite his exhaustion, Luke felt confident that a bounty hunter could not possibly match him. Fives had already drawn his blaster, his finger tensed on the trigger.

The stranger remained unperturbed, his hand hovering lazily over his blaster. There was a sense of finality in his stance that made Luke's skin crawl. Cato, strangely relieved, was backing away toward the armored door.

Luke's focus remained on the shadowed figure, but Fives sudden look of fear broke his concentration. Fives, a battle-hardened soldier, was not easily frightened.

"Fives?" Luke began, turning toward the trooper. A strong hand gripped his shoulder, forcing him to maintain his gaze on the stranger.

"Don't move your eyes from him," the voice instructed urgently. A nervous breath followed, adding to the tension. "Not for one moment."

Luke remained fixed on the dark figure. The room's silence was suffocating. His senses were on high alert, his hand resting on his blaster, ready for whatever might come. Cato, now stepping further away, seemed eager to leave them to their fate.

To the unnamed bounty hunter.

The shadowed man wore protective armor beneath a heavy duster, his tall form barely visible. Tubes protruded from his neck, and his wide-brimmed hat concealed most of his face. Luke thought he saw a flash of red, but it could have been a trick of the dark.

The air was thick with tension, and the Force remained eerily quiet.

Luke's instinct screamed at him, an ancient, primal warning. The stillness of the room was oppressive, the only sounds his own heartbeat and Fives ragged breaths.

"Do you know this man?" Luke whispered, knowing that Fives must recognize the newcomer despite the low light.

The figure stood motionless, an unsettling presence in the darkness. The hand hovered near his blaster, his intent clear but unreadable.

Eerily still.

Tense.

Ready.

The Force remained silent, as if holding its breath.

No one moved.

"Fives?"

:

to be continued

Chapter Text

Chapter 22 – "Look out for yourself, anything else is weakness" - Cad Bane

(In the past timeline -  flashback)

"Again" that cursed voice said from above, removing the lightsaber from his throat.

Sand coated Luke’s sweaty skin on his face and stuck there when he managed to push himself up. Luke looked up at the other and never had he wanted more than to strangle a person. The thought of it tasted sweet, strangling the life out of that bastard!

The so-called Battlemaster was a demon in human skin.

"Up!" the man ordered. Luke stared up at him for a long moment, considering refusing to comply, but he did not want to be shocked again by the guards lining the arena.

It was nauseating how much of a spectacle these 'training sessions' had become. The last Jedi the galaxy had to offer was reduced to an amusement in his forced role as helpless battle-slave. The humiliation of it made his eyes burn.

Grakkus had already made a fortune on him these past months, and each fight Luke had been thrown into had been consistently worse. He won most of the fights but not all, but even when they cast him in front of unnamed monsters, they not been allowed to kill him.

Luke was too valuable of a slave. When he fought in the arena there were full seats. There was no other spectacle that could outshine his matches- a Jedi, the last of an extinct order.

At his worst he had prayed for death, but he had not been allowed to die. Win or lose, this nightmare never stopped.

He grit his teeth, swallowing the frustration and the humiliation burning in his eyes. If he at least could get the mercy of being beaten up without witnesses – but no! Servants and staff had taken it to be a treat to watch the daily humiliation. They were there at the edge of the arena in the seats and lining the walls, places they would never have afforded on an official battle day.

To his sheer mortification, he even saw a group enjoying lunch. The gall! The arrogance! His blood boiled at the sight. How could this ridiculous scene be what he had been reduced to! He was a Jedi! Not this. This humiliating existence could not be the rest of his life.

Please.

"Up, slave."

Luke thought of a thousand curses at the man as he pushed against the sand and stood. Every part of his body felt like it had been broken and his lungs burned. He knew he could not continue for much longer, but he had no say in it.

He had been pushed past his limits before, so many times in fact that he did not acknowledge the boundaries anymore. They no longer mattered. None of this entire catastrophe was within his control.

That had been made very clear.

"Good. Slave." The Battlemaster said while Luke's absolute rage at being called that vile word suddenly brought an amused smile on the bastard’s face. Luke tried to put the rage down, it always worked against him, but it was so difficult.

He was not a slave, he was the first freeborn in his family-line. Beru had told him that both his father and his grandmother had been born into slavery. How that fit into the narrative of his father eventually becoming a Jedi was still a mystery to him.

Perhaps he would never learn it? Maybe he would live out the remainder of his life as a battleslave in Grakkus Grand Arena, however long or short that life might be.

He is a better fighter now, better than he had ever been. He knows he is faster now, stronger now, yet somehow it was never enough to beat the battlemaster, the infuriating force-null.

He breathed in

Breathed out

The man in front of him was nothing. Luke would survive this and find a way to escape somehow.

He had been born free

He would die free

As he was about to force himself to move, to lift the lightsaber into a guard that would always, always, be too weak to stand against the demon in front of him... something moves. His attention drifts carefully outward at the corner of his eyes.

One of the many hooded servants lining the walls had stopped suddenly as if something had pulled her back with a sharp tug on her shoulders.

She freezes and something about her demands his attention.

There is something moving in the Force, bright and kind. She lifted her head minutely, giving him a glimpse of her face.

Luke blinked a few times, convinced it had to be a hallucination, another trick played by his exhausted mind. It couldn't be her. Not here. Not now.

His body screamed for rest, and though he was still standing, it felt as if every ounce of strength had been drained from him. Six months. Six long months of endless battles, blood, pain, and the slow suffocation of hope.

The last thing he expected was to see her here—in this hell, disguised as a nameless servant in Grakkus' cursed arena.

But it was her.

He could feel it.

Leia.

She risked herself for him.

His heart suddenly pounded against his chest, as if trying to leap back to life after months in useless hopelessness. For a moment, he forgot where he was and who stood in front of him. The infernal Battlemaster still loomed, his gaze cold, cruel, and filled with that same hateful intensity.

"Attack, slave!" the man commanded, impatience dripping from every word. The restless moves of the lightsaber in his hand speaks of an eagerness for violence that Luke had experienced many times before.

Luke's heart stuttered, not from exhaustion or pain, but from the terror now coiling in his heart. He couldn't let on. He had to pretend he hadn't noticed Leia, had to hide the wild surge of hope that now threatened to give them both away.

The Battlemaster would show no mercy.

If he saw even a flicker of recognition on Luke's face, if he had any inkling that the hooded figure across the arena was more than just a servant—Leia's life would be forfeit. This man was a monster, a brute who relished in suffering. Luke had seen what he did to those who dared to defy him.

Leia couldn't be caught.

Luke forced his gaze down, biting back the desperate urge to look at her again. The Battlemaster's eyes bore into him, as if sensing something had happened suddenly. Luke swallowed hard, his mind racing. He needed to act—now—before the Battlemaster caught even the slightest hint of his distraction.

"Attack, slave!" the man snarled, his patience running out.

Luke could feel the tension in the air, every second feeling like a lifetime. He had to move, had to do something before suspicion crept into the Battlemaster's cruel mind. But the weight of Leia's presence pressed against him, the knowledge that she had risked everything to come here—for him—was nearly overwhelming.

Slowly, he raised his hands into a firm guard, holding the lightsaber steady in one hand, the Force collected around him in the other hand. Every fiber of his being screamed to run to her, to protect her from the hell he had been trapped in. But he couldn't. Not yet. If she were discovered, if they knew she was here…

He couldn't even let his mind go there.

Luke clenched his fists, forcing his body to obey. He wouldn't give them a reason to look her way. He had to make it through this—just one more round, one more beating. He could get through it as he had so many times before.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Leia's slight movement, the finger pressed to her lips in a plea for silence, the blaster hidden beneath her sleeve. She was ready, waiting for the right moment. But it had to be perfect.

They had to be careful.

The Battlemaster sneered. "Slave. Show me what you can do. Maybe you might actually hit me this time."

Luke's stomach twisted at the word, his hatred for the man burning through him. But he swallowed the rage. He couldn't afford it. Not now. Not with Leia watching, with her life in danger.

He straightened, breathing shallow, every sense attuned to both his captor and the figure at the edge of the arena. The Force around him was tinged with something, it felt colder than it should but Luke did not deny it to curl around him. He needed all the power his weakened body could amass and to his surprise there was a strength there that hadn't been there moments before.

This might be the only chance!

The Force snapped around him and Luke blasted the explosive power of it ahead of him like a storm of blades.

:::

(Coruscant – present)

"Welcome Vader, I have been expecting you," the bounty hunter said evenly with entirely too much confidence. The stance, the complete stillness of it, it looked sinister. Luke had seen killers before, he knew the look of them well, even if this was another age.

It was clear in the Force that death lay heavy on this newcomer that stood before him. He was the harbinger of so much suffering that the dark side of the force collected around him, even as a force-null. It was a quiet form of destruction though, old and cold.

Luke didn't dare to move his eyes from him after Fives words earlier, but he knew that time was running out. They had practically been sprinting here to keep ahead of the clone troopers following at their heels. Every moment that gap would close, but the path forward was blocked by this Cad Bane.

He breathed out between his clenched teeth in annoyance.

This was all pointless.

All this accomplice was slowing him down, a little. Cato should have played her cards better. This little ambush was nothing, it would not stop him. These two bounty hunters clearly didn't know who they were dealing with.

The darkened figure did not speak further. The stillness of his body suggested a familiarity and experience that Luke had seen many times before in the arena. To most of them, it had done little good.

It was years ago, but he remembered it clearly. It was where he had learned to fight as he did now.

There was a simplistic cruelty to the arena, that had taken a part of him that he had never managed to regain. He felt tainted by it still, to have been forced to dance to another tune. If not so much misery had followed in the last days of the war, he would say that the arena was his darkest memory.

If only he had been so lucky.

In the arena-fights the difference between confidence and arrogance usually played out in the same manner, with the latter as the defeated. Most of the fighting had been death battles, after all, unless the gladiator was expensive enough- as Luke had been.

So, which was this one in front of him now?

The confident or the arrogant?

...It didn't matter really any other way. The stranger, Cad Bane, stood like a warrior, and soon he would fall like one, just like so many others had before when they met Luke in battle.

Luke would not show mercy.

As things were, he could not afford to.

It was a long time since he had the upper hand.

"That is Cad Bane," Fives spoke behind him. There is a heaviness to the words an unspoken foreboding as if the identity of the bounty hunter actually meant anything of significance. Luke tried to remember ever having heard the mentioning of a person called Cad Bane, but he found nothing in his memories.

Fives hand holding the blaster was just within Luke's vision out of the corner of his eye. Fives hand was deadly still, his finger heavy on the trigger. Luke did not miss the nervous look in his eyes. Suddenly, unbidden, Luke felt his anger rise.

"Never heard of him," Luke says provocatively loud to make sure the bounty hunter hears it. There is no immediate reaction but a further tensing of the man's posture. Good, Cad Bane's anger would work in Luke's favour.

"A bounty hunter is not a problem," Luke whispered to Fives, to assure him. The clone must have taken Luke's words earlier about being useless in a fight to heart. Luke had meant it, he could not face another Jedi as he was, but a mere bounty hunter was still within his ability.

Even in this wretched state, a bounty hunter was nothing but dirt beneath his boots!

He didn't care how infamous this bounty hunter was. Luke had fought Darth Vader and survived.

"You never heard of Cad Bane?" Fives spoke, the disbelief making his voice lighter.

"Am I supposed to remember every random Bounty hunter?" Luke asked and to his pleasure noticed the further tightening in the bounty hunter's shoulders.

"He can take out Jedi," Fives said, like it was a curse. "He has defeated both General Obi-wan and General Skywalker in the past." There is a pause. "Other Jedi he has killed."

"What!" Luke resists looking at Fives for confirmation, barely. What the trooper said had to be a mistake. But then... Luke had too been bested by a force-null.

'That can't be right,' Luke thinks to deny the words, but Fives sounded deadly serious. The shadowed man in front of him was nothing like the battlemaster though. That man had been a warrior in a way that one could immediately tell he was dangerous by merely taking one look at him.

Should he see similar skill in this Cad Bane, bounty hunter?

Unlikely.

Besides, even if Luke had been facing the battlemaster now, their situation would have been reversed. Luke was no longer a fledgeling warrior-slave, he was a battle-hardened admiral of the Rebel Alliance in full command of the Force!

"You are not the usual Sith Lord I've come across," The man, Cad Bane, says in a wondering way, and Luke does not miss the carefully measured tone. Seemed like he reined in his anger, Luke noted with regret, not a beginner then.

"There are not a lot of men like me," Luke replies trying to get a feel of the man through the Force, it is only the same frustrating nothingness looking back at him. The man is so focused on the moment right now, that nothing else has an effect on his Force signature.

"You have killed Jedi?" Luke asked, digging in with his Force to catch even the slightest lie. "How ever would you manage that, as a force-null?"

The response was dry. "Asking questions like that, you give away more than you think."

That was not an answer, and there wasn't anything either that could be sensed through the Force. His reaching senses simply didn't reach. The man was blocking him. But how?

There was a slight grin now, underneath that odd looking hat. "Jedi mind tricks don't work on me."

That was a sobering reminder. It hadn't worked on Obi-Wan either, back at the beginning of all this. He had relied heavily on these mind tricks in the past because they had always worked, but here in this time-line it was no longer a guarantee.

A Jedi resisting him, he could understand, but that a force-null could do that as well was worrisome.

What was this age really?

"A man of many talents," Luke offers, shifting the lightsaber in his hand to another guard, suddenly having to take the man seriously. "And what have I done to get this honour then?" He asked, keeping the condescension out of his voice.

He needed to know more. "Who put my name out?" It couldn't be Sidious, not officially. Who led the Separatists now that Count Dooku was gone?

"My client?" Cad Bane asked wonderingly as if it was a curious thing to enquire about. "Unfortunately, I do not have time to discuss this with you. But don't worry, you will meet him soon."

"You think so?" Luke shot back, making no effort to mask his condescension.

"You can count on it," Cad Bane says with eerie finality. "You are not much of a challenge."

Cad Bane looks him up and down, and something makes him pause. "One thing I can't figure," he continued, leveling Luke with an unblinking stare. "Makes sense that you are no ally to the Republic, but the Separatists too?" He narrowed his eyes. "What is your angle?"

"Why would I answer that?" Luke says and adds, "What do my motivations matter to you?" he stalls. "Unless, that is something your 'client' wants you to know?"

Bane, at first, has no immediate reaction.

Then Cato, a few paces away motioned at her armguard with the control pad. Something passes between them at the look they share. And Cad Bane's almost pleasant tone turns dangerous.

"You should both consider yourselves to be in my power." The hand hoovered deathly close to the blaster. "As long as you behave this should be quick and painless. You are lucky they want you alive."

Luke notices he only looked at him when Bane spoke that final part. He tensed, his eyes locked on Bane. Was he a quick draw? He must be, if he wasn't, he would be a fool not to have drawn his blaster before he made his presence known.

The time for talking was over, clearly.

Good, they were running out of time as it was.

He tightens the grip on the lightsaber; red light bathing his hand in the Sith red colour.

"I am faster than you," Bane warns, unmoving where he stands. "This isn't the first time I have beaten a Force-user, and that is going to happen now too." Then he adds, "There is no shame in it."

Luke scoffs in response. Bane was about to get a nasty surprise. Luke was nothing like the Jedi of this soft past. Whatever Luke had become had been forged in the fires of war. Bane had never faced anything like Luke before.

This double-cross of Cato's might have worked had he been a Jedi from this time. A Jedi of this age would have moral barriers to fighting back in such a small space given the likely fatal consequences.

Luke was never a Jedi.

He was backed into a corner, desperate and Luke had absolutely no reservations about killing the man in front of him.

He was a war-criminal and a mass-murderer long before this endgame began.

A bounty hunter was nothing to him.

"Stay behind me," he whispered to Fives.

Then he moved.

Luke threw his arm forward and a massive Force blast unleashed from his open palm. The power of the blast thundered forward and the ground twisted and turned underneath them like a beast in pain while the sound seemingly came from everywhere as the sharp sound was flung against the metallic walls.

The blast at impact was deafening for a moment, and Luke experienced being both blind and deaf. The pressure of the explosion slammed back at him and ripped back his hood along with his cloak. The light above flickered and broke, shoving the room into complete darkness.

The pull of it was so strong that he was forced to stop until seconds later then the assault died away, and the Force faded between his hands.

He hissed and moved his hand carefully, the sting of the drained forcepower felt strongly there.

He really was at his limits.

Good that there had been no need for more. His fingers hurt in a sharp way as if they had been broken and for a moment he was sure the ground moved under him. He coughed and shook his head to dispel the feeling of vertigo.

The world shifted, but then he felt a warm steadying hand on his shoulder. "You're all-right?" Fives asked, keeping his hand there and Luke was wordlessly grateful for it. For a moment there, it felt like he would have fallen.

He breathed out, still feeling nauseous.

"It's fine." He lied easily, but forced himself to add, "I can't do that again."

"Don't need to." Fives said and if he had any reservations about killing the bounty hunters in cold blood, he didn't say. But he did not put down his blaster. His hand lingered a moment longer, as if assessing that Luke would not collapse the moment he let go.

"Let's clear out," he said and stepped in front of Luke, still with the blaster lifted, heading where the door had been visible when the lights were on.

'That was that,' Luke thought and followed. The room was pitch black, but he didn't need to see the result of what he had done. That blast would have killed a rancor.

He knew that for a fact.

Nothing living would have survived that.

His heavy unsteady steps echoed in the empty room as he was steeling himself to stomach the sight of what was left of the criminals.

Instead, he almost walked straight into Fives who had suddenly come to a dead stop.

"Fives what are you-" then he saw it-a force field. A force field between him and a very alive bounty hunter.

"What-" Luke strangled the denial.

"Nice try," The bounty hunter said.

Then he moved.

Luke did not see the blaster shot, but he felt the sharp sting of it as it slammed into his shoulder that ignited in blinding agony. The pain was intense. He flung against the floor at the same time he threw a shield around himself.

It had only been up for a moment, but the shield was already flickering.

Luke had no more energy to spare.

He used a split-second to palm at his wound, trying to measure the damage in the complete dark. The hand came away wet and warm, but the wound was blessedly minimal in damage. It was just flesh-wound.

The floor was unyieldingly cold beneath his other hand as he tried to push himself up, fighting against the dizziness trying to drag him down to the floor again and the pain in his shoulder screaming at him to stop moving.

Bane had shot him.

Luke could not remember the last time he had been shot, and Bane wasted it with a stun. If that had been live ammo Luke would be bleeding to death right now! Why hadn't Bane just killed him? It would have been easy. Luke had been wide open.

If Bane had aimed for his head or his heart-

Wait, what had Bane said earlier.

'You are lucky they want you alive.'

Kriff!

Luke tried to reach for the Force, to find where Bane was, but his shield flickered dangerously. He could keep the shield up and locate the bounty hunter at the same time. Suddenly a sharp red blastershot slammed into the shield and it was all Luke could do to keep it up.

Barely.

Luke couldn't see the bounty hunter. In the complete darkness there was nothing he could make out, but Bane clearly didn't have that problem.

Cad must have night vision goggles.

Kriff.

Luke was blind here.

Then another round of blaster-fire came from the other end of the room. Leaving red trails of light after each that was gone in the next moment.

Fives.

Damn it.

He had to help him!

The shield fell at the same time Dooku's lightsaber flared to light in his hand.

The room was quiet.

"Fives?" He whispered, knowing he had made himself incredibly visible when he lit the saber, but if both Bane and Fives had night vision goggles, then it was only Luke that was blinded by the dark.

He cursed himself for killing the light.

Fives didn't answer.

Where was he? Had Bane managed to get to him?

:

Anakin felt the wind whip against his face, tearing through his hair as he pushed the speeder to its absolute limit.

The cityscape of Coruscant blurred around him, a whirlwind of flashing lights and towering buildings, but his focus was singular—Vader.

His hands gripped the controls tightly, his knuckles white, as he weaved effortlessly through the endless stream of traffic, guided by instinct and desperation. Nothing would slow him down. Not today.

His target lay ahead, a dark presence that loomed in the distance like a storm on the horizon. Rex had found Vader—that was all he needed to know. The other Jedi would arrive soon, but he had to get there first, they couldn't be allowed to intervene. Not this time. 

The Jedi didn't kill their enemies, it was against their code. The same that he followed.

He knew that.

But Vader had to be an exception.

Anakin clenched his jaw, his heart pounding in his chest. Vader wasn't just a threat to the galaxy—he was a threat to his family. Padmé. His unborn child. A future he had only just begun to dream of. And yet, the very thing that could destroy it all was out there, walking in the shadows.

Sith Lord Darth Vader.

He couldn't let the Council find out about Padmé, about the child. They'd strip him of everything. Jedi weren't allowed attachments, and if anyone found out, his entire life would unravel.

The thought sent a cold shiver through him. He had to kill Vader before the Jedi arrived, before they could take him prisoner, interrogate him, and expose everything!

His breath came faster, shallow and urgent. The thought of Padmé, so radiant with hope, believing they were safe, believing he could protect them... he couldn't let her down.

He wouldn't.

Not after everything.

His stomach twisted with guilt; he hated keeping this from her, hated that his life had become corrupted with lies. But this was the only way. Once Vader was dead, they could move forward—together. No one would ever know.

He would tell her then, once the danger had passed.

Stretching out with the Force, Anakin felt Vader's presence, sharp and cold like a dagger in the distance. He was getting closer. His hands tightened around the controls. Rex was there, closing in on Vader, there was still time but how long? If the Jedi arrived first...

The clock was ticking.

If only the speeder could move faster!

:

Finally, he was closing in on the scene. It had taken much longer than he had hoped.

He opened his holocom. "Rex?"

"Infiltration is going well, sir, but there is no sign of Vader yet," came the clone captain's crisp reply.

"Good. Alert me the moment you have Vader within your sights," he said, his voice steady but edged with urgency.

He closed the holocom and pulled the hood of his cloak lower over his face, shadows concealing his features. The city around him buzzed with activity, but he moved with purpose, blending into the throngs of beings that paid him little attention.

As he approached the building where the intel indicated the targets were, he could feel the remnants of a powerful presence in the Force where he stood. It was a strange mix of light and dark.

The presence was familiar, but not exactly the same presence he had felt possessing Skywalker. That presence had felt like a void but this one was more... muted? It might just be because it was a while since Vader was here and his signature was therefore faint.

He entered the dimly lit lobby, the flickering lights casting long shadows. Whoever had been in this bar previously had cleared out. Glass cracked beneath his boots, a testament to the windows that had been broken, most likely by the residents clearing the scene when Rex arrived with his command.

He moved through the room, heading towards the backdoor that Rex had informed him of. As he progressed, he reached out with the Force, sensing the echoes of a recent confrontation. Blaster scorches marked the walls of the corridor when he stepped through the doorway.

Kneeling beside one of the marks, he touched it lightly. Still warm. They were here not long ago.

Footsteps echoed from around the corner. He stood, hand inching towards the hilt of his lightsaber hidden beneath his cloak.

A squad of clonetroopers appeared, halting abruptly at the sight of the cloaked figure.

"You there! Identify yourself!" the lead trooper demanded.

He remained silent.

"Wait," another trooper whispered. "Is that... The General!?"

The first trooper hesitated then threw up a sharp salute.

He took a step forward, allowing a sliver of light to catch the lower half of his face—a stern jaw set with determination.

"Apologies, General. We didn't expect you here so soon," the trooper stammered. "We are holding the exit in case reinforcements come," he added as to offer an explanation.

He nodded slowly. "Carry on," he commanded in a deep, authoritative tone.

"Yes, sir!" The troopers said, relieved at being forgiven for almost firing on a superior.

He continued down the corridor, leaving the two clonetroopers behind, following the faint traces in the Force. The presence was stronger here, it felt largely untrained but strong. It resonated with potential.

It was truly a pity that Vader had chosen the dark side. Wasted potential.

A door at the end of the hall stood ajar. He pushed it open cautiously. The room was empty save for a few scattered data pads and an open window, curtains billowing in the breeze.

He approached the window, looking out over the sprawling cityscape. His communicator beeped softly. "Sir, we are closing in on Vader," Rex's voice warned.

"Understood. I'll join you shortly," he replied.

He paused for a moment, letting the breeze from the open window graze his skin. The Force stirred around him, growing faint as the presence he tracked moved further away. He closed his eyes and focused, sensing the ripple of energy left behind by Vader. But something was off.

The darkness wasn't as suffocating as he remembered.

Vader felt weaker.

And not as dark.

His brow furrowed as he considered the implications. The Sith Lord was notorious for his raw power, a force of destruction. But now... it was as if that terrifying presence was diminished somehow, like a flame guttering low. But that should not have made is presence feel… light as if the taint of the dark side had diminished too.

Still, Rex and his troopers wouldn't stand a chance against even a weakened Vader. They might have a tactical advantage, but against the Sith Lord's skill with the Force, it was only a matter of time before they'd be overwhelmed.

He couldn't afford to linger.

Mace turned from the window, his boots tapping lightly against the floor as he retraced his steps through the empty room. His instincts told him that following directly in Rex's wake wouldn't get him there in time. The fight was fast approaching, and if he was going to make a difference, he would need to get ahead of them.

His eyes swept the room once more before he headed back down the hallway. The shortcut. He knew of an alley that circled around to where the Force was strongest. He would intercept them there, where the surge of power vibrated in the distance like a low hum in his mind.

Mace slipped out of the backdoor, his movements purposeful but calm. Outside, the evening air was cooler, and the streets were quieter. As he walked, he stayed cloaked within the Force, concealing his presence from any nearby onlookers.

Rounding a corner, the alley opened into a narrow street that ran parallel to the building. He could feel it now—Vader was closer.

The oppressive weight of Vader's dark presence was returning. But Mace also felt the weakness still lingering, the flicker in the dark side's power. Something was wrong with Vader.

Without breaking stride, Mace tapped his communicator. "Rex, hold your ground. I'm coming. Stay out of close quarters. Vader feels weak, but he's still dangerous."

"Yes, General!" came Rex's strained response

Mace increased his speed, a dark blur against the city's neon glow. The surge of Force energy was closer now, the disturbance one Mace Knew very well.

Vader was fighting someone, and it wasn’t Rex.

What was going on in there?

Mace picked up the pace, laying his hand on the lightsaber.

It was time to end this, and get some answers from Vader.

:

The kick sent the lightsaber flying from Luke’s fingers.

Luke fell back, his blaster already in hand as he pulled the trigger at the advancing Bane. Bane sidestepped the shot, ducking under it, and suddenly the bounty hunter was behind him, with a hand clamped around Luke's wrist.

A blast of electricity flared from Luke's free hand. The purple lightning crossed so close to his own face that he felt the sharp sting of it, but it rushed straight at Bane, who released his hold to avoid it.

"Clever," Bane said, then vanished into the dark

"Coward!" Luke yelled, trying to provoke him. "Come out and face me!" The lightsaber rushed back to him through the darkness, landing securely in Luke's open palm. The blaster returned to his belt—he needed one hand free to wield the lightsaber.

the red light of his lightsaber flared to life giving Luke at least a little sight in the endless darkness

But Bane was gone

Then something moved out of the darkness, and Luke almost swung at it before he recognized who it was.

"Fives," he breathed in relief. Bane hadn't shot him after all.

"Holding up?" Fives asked, slipping behind Luke so they stood back-to-back.

"A bounty hunter is nothing," Luke replied, feeling his confidence rise. "Cato?" he asked.

"Dealt with. She's not as good as she thinks she is," Fives said dryly, his posture almost relaxed despite the fear he had shown earlier.

It must have been because he realized Luke was still able to fight. Why else? Bane was still out there. "I took care of the others. Only Bane's left."

Luke felt relief uncoiling in his shoulders. Only one left? He could manage that now that it was the two of them.

"Can you see him?" Luke asked, remembering that Fives had an advantage with his night vision goggles. The yellow lenses were barely visible in the dark. Fives said nothing at first, his eyes likely scanning the dark for the last bounty hunter.

"It's a big room," Fives said neutrally, probably hiding his disappointment. "I can't see far with these."

"Glad you're okay," Luke said, despite himself, feeling the relief as he spoke the words. For a moment, he had thought he was alone again. He hadn't realized how much he had come to depend on the clone, even though they had only just met.

He felt secure with Fives at his back, they would get out of this, together.

Fives turned his head and nodded. The yellow of the night vision met Luke's eyes for a moment, then he looked back into the dark, his blaster raised high. Looking out for the threat that was no doubt watching them in the dark.

The darkness was complete, effectively hiding Bane. Luke strained his ears, but he could not hear anything aside from his own quickened breathing. Cad Bane was surprisingly good in a fight. Like all he ever did was fight force-users.

Luke cursed his own arrogance. If Bane had not wanted him alive, then this fight would already be over and Luke lying dead on the floor.

Worse, captured alive, if not for Fives taking care of the other bounty hunters.

He was owing Fives more and more.

Luke glanced back to where he had last seen Bane. He strained his ears to catch any sound. Still nothing but silence. He tried to call on the Force but he could not connect. He breathed in, suppressing a sound, the pain only lessened when he again let go of his attempt to call upon the Force.

It was a gnawing unnatural pain that felt rooted in his bones. He knew what it meant – he had felt it so many times before but not this strongly.

He had gone over his limit.

He could no longer call upon the Force, he was too weak, too overspent.

The devastating realization felt like cold needles down his back. What was he without the power of the Force?

His nerves steeled with the knowledge that he was not alone now, as he had been before, Fives was with him, guarding his back against the attacks from the pitch-black darkness surrounding him. Whatever Bane was planning, one of them would see it coming. 

This would be over in a moment, as soon as Bane revealed himself it would be over. It was two against one. Bane had no chance against their combined strengte.

But something was nagging at him.

A thought he couldn't quite catch.

What was it?

The darkness was deadly silent, but he knew Bane was still out there. The only way out of the room was the door at the far end, and that would have been impossible to miss if it had opened.

Wait... Fives' night vision goggles were yellow?

...yellow…

Weren't they red before?

Then he felt it—Fives' presence in the Force wasn't right. It was difficult to feel, the force was almost outside his control but Fives presence felt off. It was... other.

Luke put in a painful effort, clawing enough control back to understand what he was feeling. With a shock the force bared the presence behind him

Red

Hostile.

Deadly.

Not Fives

Luke threw himself to the side, away from Fives.

It wasn't a moment too soon.

The blaster shot flew so close to his jaw that he felt the heat rush past him. Luke's heart leapt into his throat, and he swung the lightsaber up in a high guard between him at the figure that wasn't Fives.

But how? Who could make such a perfect disguise—

"Alive!" someone yelled. Bane.

Heavy footsteps rushed towards him.

A kick struck his hand hard, sending the lightsaber flying. Luke formed a fist, ready to fight. He was close enough to hear Bane's surprised gasp as the lightsaber dove for the bounty hunter on its own, guided by Luke's desperate command of the Force.

It felt like knives digging into his fingers.

He couldn't hold on.

Luke didn't like how much willpower it took to bring the saber back to him. He couldn't do that again—the Force felt weak in his grasp, like he couldn't close his will around it.

Blaster shots whizzed wildly around him, trying to pin him down. In the red glow of the lightsaber, he caught a glimpse of Fives—or was it Cato?

What?

Cato was a shapeshifter!

He realized it just before she disappeared back into the oppressive darkness. Then he stopped, holding his Lightsaber in a exhausted guard. Bane stood a few steps away, very still.

Where had Cato gone? Luke tried to keep his eyes both on the darkness surrounding him and Bane. Cato was out there somewhere.

But wait, if Cato was here….

His heart dropped, despair crept coldly and painfully up his spine.

What happened to Fives?

Was he-

He reached for the Force, but nothing responded.

He couldn't grasp it.

"You should never have come here," Cad Bane said, infuriatingly calm, not sounding as out of breath as Luke was.

"You already used that trick," Luke sneered, hiding his weakness as best he could.

He closed his hand firmly around the lightsaber, the red light bathed the two still combatants. No show of force though, Luke could no longer manage it, everything hurt, every breath he took felt like burning fire.

It was blood in the water, and Bane could sense it, because this time, he didn't retreat into the darkness.

He stood only a few paces from Luke, visible even in the dim light.

"Don't you have anything else?" Luke asked provocatively, condescendingly, as if he had nothing to worry about.

"Maybe, but I'm pressed for time," Bane said. "No sense hanging around here."

Then he moved.

Bane, the fool, charged straight for him.

Luke was going to make him regret it.

A shot blasted out of the dark, forcing Luke to throw himself to the side, now within arm's reach of Bane. Luke twisted, dodging a punch, and caught Bane's wrist, executing a throw he had learned a lifetime ago.

Bane hit the ground hard and stayed down. Finally! Got him. Luke pulled his blaster from his belt, ready to fire at the sound of footsteps in the dark.

There was still another enemy—Cato. He could hear her steps

His finger hovered on the trigger when he sensed movement below him.

He glanced down. Bane had one hand locked around his ankle. Why would he—

Then there was pain.

In a haze, Luke saw a surge of electricity flare from Bane's gloved hand. His vision flickered, and then everything went dark.

:

Vader was down.

Finally.

Cad Bane pushed his gloved hands against the floor and rose to his full height, his chest heaving with exertion. Vader lay motionless at his feet, the glow of his yellow eyes extinguished beneath heavy lids, hiding their corruption.

His fall had been sudden, almost anticlimactic after the brutal exchange, and yet... Bane felt a cold knot in his stomach. There was something unsettling about this, that even unconscious, Vader was somehow watching him.

More corrupted by the dark side than Maul, Bane thought, glancing down at the fallen Sith with something almost like regret.

It was strange. Never before had Bane seen a Sith with eyes so deeply tainted by the dark side, yet this one had fought with the precision of a sharpshooter. A talent for blasters? In a Sith? That was... unusual.

Every trick Bane had tried during the battle had only worked once—Vader had adapted to his fighting style as if he could read his mind. It was almost like the man was learning from him, turning his own tactics against him.

Bane shook his head.

Almost a shame to hand him over now. In his prime, this one would have been a formidable opponent. Even now, weakened, he'd proven resourceful, using the environment Bane had carefully prepared against him. And Vader had seen through Cato's disguise. That alone was no small feat.

But no matter.

Sith were like vermin.

Kill one, and another would rise to take his place.

Bane bent down and snatched up the red lightsaber at Vader's side, slipping it into his belt with a quiet click. The saber that killed Grandmaster Yoda. It would be worth a fortune to the right collector.

The lights flickered on, bathing the room in a harsh, sterile glow. The scene looked more clinical now, less ominous, but the tension was still thick in the air. Bane couldn't shake the feeling that something was watching him.

"That wasn't easy," Cato said, stepping up beside him. Her voice was light, almost playful, but Bane could hear the strain underneath. He said nothing, still catching his own breath, grateful he hadn't faced Vader alone. The man had been stronger than either of them expected.

"The bounty says alive," Bane remarked dryly, his eyes narrowing at the unconscious Sith. He wasn't entirely sure how alive Vader was right now.

But he was breathing.

Good enough.

The bounty said alive, not unharmed.

"I got a little carried away," Cato shrugged, but her smile didn't reach her eyes. Bane let it go. Fighting wasn't her expertise—she was good at slipping into shadows, not confronting enemies head-on.

"What about the clone?" he asked.

"Dead. Got him in the heart," Cato said, jerking her thumb over her shoulder at the crumpled figure of CT-5555 that Bane could barely make out int the dark. That was regretful that the clone died, he was worth more breathing. No matter. What significance had another dead clone?

 "We should get out of here. The troopers are on their way, and they've got a Jedi with them." Cato said, throwing a look over her shoulder even though nothing had revealed itself in the hallway leading to this room.

It was impossible to tell how long that would be, but probably not for long.

Bane's stomach twisted at the mention of a Jedi. He'd tangled with enough of them to know they were trouble, especially when paired with an army of troopers.

No sense in pushing their luck.

"No sense in outstaying our welcome," he agreed, unclipping a pair of binders from his belt. He glanced once more at the clone's body, lifeless on the floor. "Leave the clone. We've got the prize."

As Bane moved to secure Vader, he couldn't shake the unease creeping up his spine. The room felt too quiet, too still. His instincts were screaming at him that something wasn't right.

He glanced sideways at Cato, who was still  eyeing the door with nervous anticipation. "We need to move. Fast."

:

Chapter Text

Previous timeline – Flagship of the Fourth Fleet under the command of Admiral Luke Skywalker

Luke kept his eyes at the window revealing the galaxy in all its empty beauty. The peaceful view was only disturbed by the wreckage of the star-destroyer floating aimlessly, torn into pieces, flayed alive by the might of Luke's flagship.

It warmed Luke's cold heart to see it.

There were so few victories as of late.

The wreckage was a pleasant reminder that his new enemy in the Empire was not unbeatable. His forces could be picked apart when their new Grand Admiral was not there personally to direct the battle.

It was a soothing thought, that Luke was directly responsible for reducing the mighty warship to that pathetic state he was watching right now.

Sad fact was, that the military significance to this battle was miniscule.

The victory would have sat far more gently on his shoulders, had he not known that ripping that warship apart, while personally satisfying, had the military significance of removing a sand kernel from the desert.

His enemy was a legion outnumbering the stars.

The war was not close to over yet.

Because of him.

That ship had been one of his, the newcomer, the red eyed demon. The man they called Thrawn belonging to a race no one knew. Luke himself had never even heard of the Chiss before that man had made his bold entrance into the galaxy.

This had been a long war already, when this new player entered the scene and never had Luke met a more difficult commander on the side of the enemy. Luke sighed through his teeth and narrowed his eyes at the sorry remains of the battleship. The hate of its commander lingered in his mind like an infected wound.

That red eyed Admiral was a problem that Luke would have to deal with one way or the other, he knew, and he was more and more convinced that it would not be done on the battlefield. Luke did not care how that bastard died, only that he did, and soon. Before he devoured too much of the Republic forces at Luke's command.

But would an assassination even work?

Luke's spies had made it clear that Thrawn apparently, personally handpicked the personnel close to him, so getting someone in close enough to get a chance to end the man by assassination might be a mission doomed to fail from the start.

...might be.

It was worth a shot regardless. Luke was running out of ideas of how to deal with that living nightmare.

The cruel fact was that Luke could not keep fighting on two fronts. His forces were as stretched thin as he was, between the forces of both Thrawn and Vader, it was not anything he would ever admit to, but there was a limit to what he could continue to endure with the limited number of people he had at his command.

There were other ways though, less honourable, but so highly effective that it might give him the win regardless.

Thrawn could not be beaten on the field of battle, that fact was undeniable, but his commanders certainly could. This ambush had been a success, so all Luke had to do was to lure the smaller forces out alone where Luke's navy would fall on them.

It was a slow, dishonourable, method, but highly effective.

Luke would end the red eyes demon this way, slowly bleeding Thrawn's forces dry until there was nothing left in his arsenal.

Luke did not care for the rumors that would arise because of this. Pride was a poisoned cup and Luke had the war to end all wars to win... not a popularity contest. Besides, this merciless method only exaggerated his monstrous reputation.

In this regard, Luke was morbidly grateful for his past mistakes. They painted well the heartless monster that he needed his enemies to believe he was. They needed to fear him, it made him a bigger threat than he actually was. Fear, he had found, was a useful emotion to weaponize in propaganda.

He knew well that he had recently risen to be Thrawn's foremost target, but it would do Thrawn little good to analyze who Luke had been before. That naive child was a stranger even to Luke himself at this point.

That desert-born farmboy hadn't really understood the realities of war. Like the need of stalling events while his battle plan started making actual results. Impatience was his greatest enemy here.

As effective as it had proven to be, his new battle tactics worked only infuriatingly slowly. Thrawn's fleet was massive and Luke could not afford too many confrontations without risking the women and men under his command, and there was not a soul in his fleet that he could afford to lose.

That red eyed demon was inescapably good at a great many things, but loyalty from the people at his command seemed to be something he struggled with. Orders were disobeyed, flaws were made that could be exploited, and most important of all, there was a distinct lack of capable commanders when Thrawn wasn't present personally.

And Luke made a point of never being around when Thrawn was. That man could not be outthought on the battlefield. Luke would never forget the well-engineered trap he fell into in his rush to save Ackbar's fleet. He thought he had lured Vader, but in reality, it was him that had been fooled into a battlefield of Thrawn's choosing.

An unforgivable mistake.

The fact that Luke had somehow gotten away without losing his entire fleet was a miracle on its own. Luke had vowed never to meet Grand admiral Thrawn again on the field.

As humiliating as it was to know that Luke could never be a match for Thrawn as a commander, that hard fact was that Luke didn't need to be. If he could destroy the Imperial navy bit by bit by fighting the inferior commanders, then it did not matter that Thrawn was a better strategist.

There were other, less glorious, ways to win a war.

A strategist was nothing without an army after all, and as a soldier Thrawn would find himself outmatched when he finally faced Luke in combat.

Still...it gnawed at his pride to have to keep fleeing like this, dodging the Imperial that caused so much destruction, but was it worth Luke's own pride if that was the last thing he needed to sacrifice to win this war?

Pride was nothing to him now and personal pride even less, there was no room for those old-fashioned things in the galaxy that he was living in. He had wanted to be a Jedi of old, but it was clear to him now that this galaxy of now could no longer hold such ideals.

The galaxy was, somehow lesser now than before.

Justice

Morality

Honor

All these had become relics.

All these sacrificed for the greater good.

And there was always more to feed the fires of war.

:

Present timeline - Coruscant undercity - Alley outside Cato's base

He was being moved.

The world swayed unnaturally beneath him, like drifting between consciousness and the void. He was aware of being placed down, a cold surface pressing against his left cheek, stingingly freezing as ice.

His arms lay like dead weights, heavy and distant, like they didn't belong to him anymore. It was as if he were floating, or drowning—he couldn't tell. The Force... he couldn't feel it at all. His hands felt anchored, useless.

Why couldn't he pull them apart?

His lungs burned as though they were on fire. At least it was quiet now, mercifully quiet after all the noise. Everything hurt.

But he shouldn't be lying down.

He knew that.

So why was he? Why couldn't he remember?

When he tried to rise, nothing happened. His muscles betrayed him, unresponsive, and near him, there were voices—deep, unfamiliar, and arguing.

Strangers.

Where was he?

What was happening?

Everything felt muted, distant, like echoes bouncing off the edge of a dream. Yet through it all, a familiar shadow whispered to him, a dark presence calling with sweet promises, pulling at him from the depths of the abyss. The dark side. It beckoned with honeyed whispers of companionship, solace, offering power.

All he had to do was obey.

Luke grimaced, recoiled from it, resisting its embrace. He had done this before—resisted. He would do it again, then he hesitated when he saw the offer. It promised him belonging. A truth gnawed at the edges of his mind, sharp and cold as the coldness around him.

You don't belong anywhere, it told him. Don't you want that?

Old news. He knew that. He didn't belong anywhere. He had known that almost since the beginning. Didn't matter how much he wanted it, it was never going to happen.

Why was he thinking about this now? He tried to pull away from the coldness reaching for him, but it was hard to focus, the taste of smoke in his throat for a reason he could not remember, why was his mind filled with these old, painful memories?

Tatooine.

He hadn't belonged there. He had tried, stars knew he had tried, but all he'd earned was a reputation: "Wormie." An outcast. Even the only person who had talked to him regularly, Biggs, had not cared at all when he left Tatooine.

Biggs had had that far-off look in his eyes when he'd said goodbye to Luke—like Luke wasn't even there. As if saying goodbye was a formality that he just had to get over and done with. Then he left, just like that, without a single look back. Like Luke was nothing. The memory twisted in his chest, painful even now.

He had felt so small then. Seeing the figure of his one friend disappearing into the distance without a backwards glance. They hadn't been family. Not even close friends, when he thought about it, but when he was left easily like that, Luke had felt the sting of it—alone in the vast, unforgiving void that was Tatooine.

Left behind.

As though he didn't matter at all.

Luke knew It was ridiculous to feel that way, he knew that even back then. Such emotions were childish, foolish. But it didn't change the fact that a part of him—however small—had felt abandoned.

As embarrassing as that was for a grown man to admit.

So, he never told anyone, not even after he met Biggs again. Then Biggs died and it was too late to address.

Tatooine had had nothing to offer up other than disappointment after that and he could not stomach the thought of staying another year there. So, why not go as well? He'd reached for the only ticket out of Tatooine he could find.

The Imperial Flight Academy.

That was supposed to be the answer.

But then Ben showed up. Out of nowhere. Promising adventure, telling stories of a father who had been a hero. Filling his head with dreams of the Jedi, of purpose. And Luke had followed, grasping for that promise like a drowning man reaching for a lifeline.

And what did it get him?

Open space wasn't the rosy dream Ben had painted. Being a Jedi... wasn't what he thought it would be. Tatooine hadn't been the problem. He didn't belong in the Rebellion either. He had thought—after Yavin, after Bespin—that he was finding his place, but no.

He was still alone.

That changed with Leia and Han, with their friendship and unwavering loyalty. But it was wrong still because they loved him, despite his many faults. Loved him for what he was not. They hoped for a hero, for someone who could stand against the Empire.

For a beautiful moment he thought he could be.

Then they were both gone.

Because Luke had failed to protect them. Just like he had failed to protect Fives from dying, his one ally in this strange place where the Republic looked like the Empire, the man who would still be alive if Luke hadn't dragged him into this entire mess. Another loss on the list of endless failures.

He had only journeyed back into this strange past because of his mistakes. Had he won the war, none of this would have happened. Fail, as he did, no one could say that he hadn't tried, even when it was just him left in the end.

He tried to salvage what remained, the people that, like him, had come here hoping for purpose only to find an impossible battle. The people of the Resistance had looked to him with hope, they still believe that victory could be attained because they had Luke Skywalker on their side, the last Jedi Knight.

They were following a fraud. He was never the Jedi they believed in.

Never the Jedi he wanted to be.

Never a Jedi at all.

The truth of it was suffocating.

He was a poor imitation of a Jedi, fumbling forward in the dark, taking uncertain steps only to stumble back into failure. He tried—by the stars, he tried—but he knew that he failed more often than he succeeded.

He still tried, because what else was there? Giving up was never an option. He still believed—had to believe—that if he just kept moving forward, if he could hold on long enough, he would figure it out. He could feel the Force, that much Ben had taught him.

But no matter how hard he tried, it always ended the same way.

Failure.

Heart wrenching failure.

He hadn't given up. Not on Hoth, when the full might of the Empire bore down on him. Not on Dagobah, when every lesson showed him just how unskilled he was compared to the enemy. He had fought on, refusing to surrender.

And then Bespin happened.

Then Naboo.

It was at that moment that he stopped calling himself a Jedi.

No Jedi would have done what he had done.

As a cruel form of justice for what he had done, After Naboo, everything he had gained slipped away. Slowly, agonizingly slow. The hope of victory withered, died, little by little so he could savour every horrifying moment of it. And he could do nothing to stop it, because of him.

The red-eyed monster. His shadow. His mirror.

Thrawn.

That enemy, that came completely out of nowhere, knew his every move all the time. Every time they met on the battlefield, it was as if the monster could see inside his mind. Luke kept losing. In the end he was holding on by the tips of his fingers, by tricks and subterfuge, striking only when Thrawn was not around.

Regardless, his hold on the war was slipping and he knew it.

The war was reduced to a macabre man-hunt, where Luke only just managed to keep out of reach. Striking enemy forces and immediately scattering his own forces before Thrawn showed up, fleeing between the stars.

It made little difference in the end. He was just drawing out the defeat. All those people had counted on him. And he had failed them.

He had failed... everyone.

Resolve collected around him, he grasped for that one stubborn part of himself that would make him keep going. He tore the cold presence from him like the poison it was. He had failed once more, and this was his chance, there would not be another.

The voices around him suddenly grew louder, releasing him from the cold memories painting macabre scenes behind his eyes.

One of them... he knew?

The others were strangers, someone sounded angry. Something cold and hard suddenly settled on his back, over his spine. The coldness of it bled through the fabric and settled in his bones. Someone was really angry now... he knew that voice.

It belonged to someone that he hadn't known for long.

But that couldn't be right.

Because Fives was dead.

:

Rage simmered under Boba's skin. The door had been infuriatingly impossible to open. His prey was right on the other side and he was helpless to get through the door! The humiliation of it was hard to swallow.

Stopped, defeated, by a measly door!

The thermal detonator in his inventory could blast the door open, but he did not want to chance it, making the building collapse! It might kill Vader and he was worthless to him. Boba had shoved the detonator back into his pocket, and forced himself to think of other ways of getting through.

The panel was intricate, but he had no doubt that he could hack it and force it open with enough time. Time that he did not have. The clone troopers could be here any minute! He breathed, getting his temper under control before it ran away with him. He closed his eyes briefly trying to think of another solution.

Suddenly the entire earth shook, his eyes snapped open. The lamps in the street blinked furiously, he moved instinctively to look at it, then he heard the muted telltale sounds of blasterfire from the other side of the door.

His own hands went to his weapons, his hearing zeroing on the muted sounds from the other side of the door. It was difficult but for a moment he was sure he heard a lightsaber. Then yelling.

Then nothing.

The lamps in the streets returned to normal.

The silence was deafening, so was the realisation that formed in Boba's mind. He had been too late. There was another on the other side of the door that had acted before Boba could.

Whoever had gotten in before him had done as Boba had planned to do. Another bounty hunter. He breathed out through his teeth in annoyance, forcing himself to calm down.

It did not matter. Boba would simply adapt.

Moves and countermoves.

This game was about thinking ahead. It had been entirely too much to hope for, that he was the only one that had managed to snag up the bounty before they were deleted from the servers.

The fact remained though, that someone having caught Vader before him didn't matter, because this door was the only way out if they didn't want to run straight into the arms of the clone troopers storming the building.

This was the only way and that meant that the plan hadn't changed at all. He just had to place his ambush out here instead.

The alley was poorly lit, with many shadowed corners where one could lie in wait.

It was the perfect place for an ambush.

All he had to do was wait. Simple enough, yet patience had never been his strong suit. Silence hung heavy around him in the alley, almost deafening in its complete silence, broken only by the muffled throb of bass beats drifting from nearby clubs. The faint, rhythmic pulses lent a strange, disjointed soundtrack to the city's main streets, but here, in the narrow alley, the sounds were ghostly—out of place, out of sync.

Boba waited, his gaze fixed on the blast door on the other side of the alley, where he knew another bounty hunter was hiding. He'd seen them slip through that gate just as he'd arrived. They'd have to come out that way

soon

Boba's finger on the trigger itched for action, for battle, but nothing came through those doors.

Time dragged on-the minutes stretching long enough that they felt like hours. Just when he began to doubt himself, the door slowly started to open.

Boba held his breath, eyes narrowing as the blast door groaned and slid open. Two figures emerged, moving with an urgent caution. One of them kept looking behind them. At first, he could only make out their dark forms against the faint light spilling from inside. They were dragging something heavy between them, the shape limp and lifeless.

After a breath he realized what it was.

The prey.

Vader.

He could recognize the disguised Sith that had passed him within arm's reach, before Boba had known the man's value.

His breath hitched as he stared, pulse hammering in his throat. The figure was still, dragged between them like a broken puppet, limbs sagging, unmoving. Unconscious… or dead. From here, it was impossible to tell.

Boba cursed beneath his breath.

They hadn't killed him, had they?

The bounty had stated quite clearly that Vader was to be delivered alive.

One of the bounty hunters let go of Vader's form and turned back to the door, fiddling with something on their wrist—a control panel, maybe. A sharp, frustrated hiss slipped from the figure as they stepped closer, light catching their features just enough for Boba to recognize her.

Cato.

His mind raced, but before he could process her presence, his eyes caught on the other figure, the taller one who hadn't stopped moving. It moved with a cold precision and strength, dragging Vader's body as if it weighed nothing.

A flash of recognition seized Boba, his blood running cold.

No. Not him.

If his eyes had not adjusted to the dark already, he would still have recognised the tall form that dragged the Sith behind him like a dead carcass. A curse escaped Boba's lips, barely more than a breath.

Of all the people to run into tonight, why did it have to be Cad Bane of all people?

As Boba drew back, his pulse hammering in his ears, he couldn't shake the feeling that tonight, luck had well and truly abandoned him.

Boba's breath came quick and shallow. He pulled further back into the alley, muscles coiled tight. He had to remain unseen if he were to have a chance against Bane.

The distant streetlamp cast just enough light to illuminate the bounty hunter as he heaved Vader's form toward a waiting speeder hidden in dark, it turned on with a soft hum.

What was he supposed to do against Bane?

Boba watched from the shadows, muscles tense as Cad Bane moved with haste but also eerie calm, adjusting his grip on Vader's motionless form. Bane heaved the limp body up onto the back of the speeder without much gentleness.

Boba grimaced despite himself. That was no way to treat such a valuable bounty! It might diminish the worth. Worse, if Vader was wounded enough, the rough handling might kill him if he wasn't already dead. He had already looked like a dead man walking in the bar, his skin grey-pale and his eyes sunken hollows with the poisoned yellow at their core.

Boba squinted, heart pounding as he strained to catch any sign of life in the dark figure slumped on the speeder. A flicker of breath? A twitch of movement? He searched for anything to confirm that the Sith was still alive. The bounty had been clear—Vader needed to be delivered alive, or it was all for nothing.

Vader's body remained ominously still, limbs lying on the speeder with a morbid stillness. Boba felt a pang of panic twist in his chest. Had Bane killed him? Because of the cloak he could not see if Vader was breathing.

Was Vader dead?

It did not happen often, but Bane had been sloppy before.

Boba's gaze sharpened as Bane meticulously fastened heavy restraints, securing Vader tightly to the speeder. Each movement of Bane's hands was fast but meticulous, as if Vader were nothing more than cargo to be strapped down.

But that made one fact inescapably clear.

Why restrain a dead man? Boba suppressed an eager smile. Vader was still alive-he had to be and that meant that the bounty could still be collected.

If he could somehow get past Bane and Cato. No easy task, but not impossible, Bossk and he had the advantage of surprise.

From his hiding spot, Boba saw Cad Bane give Vader a quick, assessing look before turning back toward the alleyway as if sensing something. Boba stiffened, he didn't dare to move a muscle. He didn't dare to even breathe.

But instead, Bane's lip curled in a satisfied smirk, as he redirected his attention back to Vader. "Not much fight left in you, is there, Lord Vader?" He asked the unconscious man.

"Bane, I can't get the door closed again." Cato called in a loud whisper. Her fingers moved fast over the wrist pad, but nothing seemed to be responding. "Something must have broken when Vader fired off that blast."

"Leave it, it doesn't matter, we have what we came here for."

Boba's fingers tightened around his blaster, the weight of his decision bearing down on him. If he wanted the bounty, he'd have to act soon—before Bane could slip away with his prize.

But what to do? He didn't like his odds in a direct shootout with Bane. But he was not a coward, and the reward for pulling this off, somehow, was likely the biggest bounty he would ever collect. He breathed out, weighing his options.

A blaster shot suddenly ripped through the air, so close it lit up Cad Bane's surprised expression in the split second it flew past him and then hit the wall behind him leaving a dark mark smudged on the surface.

Boba instinctively pressed himself into the shadows, eyes darting toward the source of the sudden attack, but he could see no one.

It had come from the door.

Were the clone troopers here already? Then this entire ambush was doomed from the start.

"Not so fast," a voice growled from the dark, rough with exhaustion and pain. Cato suddenly stumbled away from the door that she had been clearly unable to close again. Boba did not move a muscle.

At first the darkness within revealed nothing, then there was movement. A figure emerged from the darkness on the other side of the door, clutching his blaster, his chest heaving with effort. He knew that face well, he saw it all the time spread around the entire galaxy.

His father's face

And the clones

It was a clone trooper but he was alone. His armor was scorched and dented over his heart, a streak of blood trailing down from a fresh wound on his temple. His breaths came ragged, but he raised his blaster with a steady hand, his gaze fixed on Bane.

"Don't move," he commanded, shortening the distance between them with unsteady steps.

The man was clearly wounded, but It was impossible to gauge the damage from here, aside from the heavy limp that made the clone almost drag one of his feet behind him.

It was an unfamiliar uniform on a clone thought since it was from the undercity police.

It must have been the man he had seen earlier that accompanied Vader in the bar. The helmet the clone had worn before must have been lost in whatever fighting that took place inside that gave the man that scorch mark on his chest.

It revealed clearly the identity of the only person that this man could be.

It was Arc trooper CT-55555.

:

Fives struggled to stay conscious, his breath coming in ragged gasps and every step was a struggle. His left foot, felt like he was walking on broken glass. His chest was worse, it felt... wrong.

There was something inside him, in his chest, that was moving when he breathed, the unnatural feeling of it was sickening. Whatever it was shouldn't be moving. He narrowed his eyes, trying to block the sensation out, to make it less intense.

He moved his focus outwards instead, towards the enemy. The targets were in front of him, that was all he needed to think about. He didn't care who they were. There were only two to deal with!

He was not dying here and he would not allow them to take his only ally away from him. He needed the Sith alive. He paused and breathed in a ragged breath.

Kriff everything hurt!

He put one foot in front of the other and came to a stop in front of the red eyed bounty hunter catching his stare over his blaster.

Why did it have to be him? Cad Bane was a major threat even to Jedi! Why was it him that Fives had to face on his own?

The pain from Cato's shot throbbed in his chest, it burned-like it was on fire, but his armour had absorbed most of the impact. If it hadn't he wouldn't be breathing right now, but if he had worn his real armour that puny blaster would not even have touched him.

But he did not have his real armour. It was abandoned in the warehouse when they began this ruse. Before everything went horribly downhill.

Fives gritted his teeth against the pain in his chest. The pain-stim had only numbed it lightly. Who would have thought that Cato was such a good shot?

He swallowed. Hopefully he hadn't broken anything, but the sharp sting coming from the same area left little to the imagination.

Kriff.

He must have broken a rib.

This was all his fault. He should have known that Cato could not be trusted, and would not uphold the bargain. He had given up damming intel for nothing! Fives had now become an irredeemable traitor, just to be fooled anyway!

That realization burned almost as much as the pain in his chest.

When he woke up in that room, he thought he was dead. He could have died then, if the armour had been just a little poorer in quality, it would not have shielded his heart from the lethal shot.

It was a hard truth to swallow.

Died.

In that dark room. Disgraced and forgotten. Without any of his brothers' ever knowing what was about to happen to them.

Thinking, believing, that Fives had betrayed them.

And hadn't he just done that?

He had only been called out of his stupor when the pitch-blackness was carved though by the light of the outside when the blast doors opened to the sight of the bounty hunter dragging Vader out. The sight of it had forced him to get his feet under him before it was too late.

He couldn't abandon Vader to an uncertain fate.

Vader.

The strange Sith character with an unknown past and an endless hatred for Palpatine. The only one Fives was able to count on in this horrible reality his world had become.

His only ally.

Unwise, as he knew it was, he shifted his gaze for a split-second to check on the Sith. His crumbled form was unmoving where it lay on the speeder and the Jedi robe almost swallowed up his entire frame. He looked smaller, lying there, restrained, and the poison yellow eyes hidden beneath his eyelids.

That was a mistake, to take his eyes off Bane, as suddenly he moved and when Fives snapped his eyes back he drew in a shocked breath.

He gritted his teeth forcing himself to calm down. If he wanted to get through this, he needed to keep his head clear, but it was difficult when the blaster in Bane's hand suddenly was pressing cruelly against Vader's spine.

"You don't want to do this," Fives growled, his voice tight with pain but steady with resolve. "Drop it, Bane. Or see what happens!"

A dark part of Fives hoped Bane would move, he really felt like shooting someone right now. The self-disgust and physical pain needed an outlet.

"Go ahead," Bane said, as if something was funny. Fives hesitated, his eyes flicking between Bane and Cato. There was a blaster already in her hand, the same one that had almost taken his life. Could he be faster than both of them?

The odds were against him, but he couldn't let them take Vader. Fives had brought him here; he would bring him out too.

Bane's blaster pressed down harder against Vader's spine, so hard that Fives knew it would leave a bruise.

But Vader didn't move.

Was he even still breathing?

"If you do that I'll kill you," Fives hissed. Bane didn't move.

Bane glanced at Fives, irritation flickering in his cold eyes. "You're not in a position to threaten me, clone."

"Am I not?" Fives replied, his finger tightening on the trigger, itching to return the favour of shooting the bounty hunters. "You're not getting out of here alive if you harm him. I promise you that."

"The bounty said alive," Bane answered calmly as if they were having some unimportant conversation. "But I am sure dead works as well." There was the ghost of a smile. "You need him alive though, don't you?"

Through the haze of pain, Fives saw Bane drag his blaster down Vader's back, trailing his spine almost gently with the lightest touch, there was a sadistic glint in his eyes. "Or what if… I hit him right here? Then he won't be able to run from me anymore." The crooked smile that stretched enough to reveal his teeth made Fives grit his teeth in anger.

"That would kill him."

"Maybe not, if the setting is low enough. I am good at my job." Bane said, drawing the words out as if he was amused by this situation, as if the blaster Fives had in his hand was a useless thing he didn't need to worry about. "Would Vader be worth anything to you then?"

The bastard had the gall to look curious!

The bounty hunter looked practically eager to act on his threat of permanently crippling Vader. "It is the same to me. Vader does not need the use of his legs to answer a few questions after all." Bane continued, his smile widening. "Alive was a requirement, but I do not need him to be… undamaged."

The alleyway remained eerily silent except for the low hum of the speeder. Bane's attention was entirely focused on Fives, his cruel smirk deepening as he watched the clone struggle to stay on his feet. Fives allowed the anger of that arrogance fill him, it gave him the focus that he sorely needed right now.

Fives calmed down his breathing, forcing himself to enter the durasteel strong focus that had served him so well in combat. All those times before he had his brothers' at his back. Now, in this moment he had no one, but the unconscious Sith that had trusted Fives to do this part of their mission.

To get to Nala Se and get to the bottom of this conspiracy.

Vader was his only ally in this living nightmare that his life had suddenly become. He could not leave without Vader, that was not an option. He had no chance of doing this all alone. This conspiracy had already cost Tup his life, he would not stand here and do nothing.

Who knew how many might die!

He had to save his brothers.

No one else knew of the danger. If he had died back there no one would ever had known that-

The thought settled. It wasn't just back then was it? It was also before, when he was a second from being shot dead. He was an old enough soldier to know that that shot would have taken his life if not for the sudden appearance of Vader. Had he not blocked that blastershot with the Force, then Fives would be long dead.

Fact was, he owed Vader his life.

He would have bled out uselessly on that cold floor. His life wasted, his enemies victorious and his brothers soon to pay the price from whatever awful thing that was looming on the horizon. He did not even know the scale of what he was trying to prevent, but Vader knew.

There was no mistaking the haunted look in his eyes. The catastrophe was something that Vader had already, somehow, seen before. He didn't know how, but Vader knew. Fives did not understand how Vader could have known about the conspiracy without having been a part of it at some point.

And for some reason this Sith had chosen to go against the plan, to try and stop it.

It made no sense and Vader's continued standoffish responses had given him no explanation at all, only more questions. It was incredibly frustrating to know so little about the only person he could reply upon.

And there was no going back. He had betrayed his brothers, he was not worthy of ever rejoining their ranks, if that was even possible, but he was a soldier in his own right, even if he was on his own.

The bounty hunter forgot who he was talking to. Fives was an Arc trooper! A soldier of many successful battles and survivor of many more. He carried the fates of all the people that he loved.

He was not backing down. He could not afford to die here!

"Release him," Fives demanded, his mind settling into its most comfortable set. The finger heavy on the trigger; a silent but lethal threat. His eyes keep going back and forth between the two bounty hunters.

Bane had underestimated him, and was a fool to move the blaster to Vader. The bounty hunter preserved his own life over everything else. He would not waste time firing at Vader, his valuable bounty, if Fives pulled the trigger.

Fives knew that well, Bane's reputation spoke for itself. He would not shoot Vader and risk his bounty, but Cato was there too, that trigger happy bastard, and she was ready. Her breath was quick and fast and her stare was heavy and unblinking.

His gaze went from one bounty hunter to the other, he was outnumbered, wounded and alone, not good odds under any circumstance.

He could not shoot fast enough for Vader to remain uninjured if Bane decided his words to be more than a bluff. It was evidently clear though if Fives lowered his blaster, then he would die. Cato had held his death in her hands, if not for the strength of the chest plate over his heart.

She looked like she had enjoyed the taste of that experience and the finger was ready on the trigger, her teeth almost bared in the eager smile ghosting at her lips. 'I killed you once' her eyes told him, and she was eager to reclaim the title.

Then there was Bane, the man that Fives knew was responsible for the death of Jedi.

Still, running was not an option. He had to save his brothers from a likely gruesome fate and he could not do that without Vader. There were only two of them fighting on this front against who knew how many were part of this conspiracy.

Bane sneered at Fives, his finger dangerously close to the trigger.

Fives was locked in indecision.

What could he do?

:

The muzzle of Bane's blaster pressed lightly over the back of Vader's neck.

Resting threateningly on his spine.

This really was Boba's lucky day if this played out exactly as he planned.

Bane sneered, his hand hovering over his own blaster as he eyed the wounded trooper with barely veiled amusement. "You really want to do this, clone?"

The smirk on Bane's face was cold, mocking, as he gave Fives a once-over, clearly noting the scorch marks and the blood trailing down his face. But the clone didn't waver. His finger tightened on the trigger, his aim precise and unyielding.

Boba's hand was also heavy on the blaster.

Boba knew very well how this would end for the clone. It had already been decided. There was no contest between them. The clone might be a soldier, but Bane was an expert duellist. Boba doubted that there had ever been anyone more accomplished.

Then there was the clone's hand holding the blaster; it was shaking badly and the clone did not have the presence of mind to watch Cato closely enough. Her right hand was sneaking towards the blaster in her belt.

This was the moment.

Boba had to move now, while they were both distracted. This was now or never. He was not going to let Cad Bane get away with the biggest bounty that Boba ever had the chance of claiming.

His heart pounded in his chest, but his hand was steady on the blaster. He signalled to Bossk, who nodded. It would have to be fast. It was a rare chance when one had a clear shot of Bane's back.

He stepped out carefully, trying to remain in the heavy shadows cast by the building. He breathed quietly, his steps ghosting forward. Still, Bane's attention was on the clone.

"You're not taking him anywhere," The clone spoke, his voice rough, probably caused by the pain in his chest. There was a grimace, his free hand moved towards his chest before the man visibly resisted doing just that.

Even from this distance, Boba could see the pain in his eyes.

Bane sneered, his blaster still in his belt, but his quick hand was hovering above it. "You really want to do this, clone?"

"Release him!" Fives ordered. His blaster aimed at Bane.

Bane was looking at him as if he was something disgusting he found under his boots. Then, there was some cruel realization awakening in Bane's cold eyes. Boba had seen that look before, knew that it did not bode well for the clone. Bane was ever cruel and merciless to anyone and anything standing in his way.

Boba slipped closer, his hand hovering over the trigger of his blaster, his eyes locked on Bane's still figure. He could hear the bounty hunter's arrogant words as he dragged his blaster along Vader's spine. Boba's jaw tightened.

The blaster was held at Vader's back.

A shot fired when pressed against his spine like that would kill the Sith on the spot.

Did Bane intend to kill him, just so the clone would not get a win? That was extremely petty! When Boba took jobs, he completed them. He did not let anything get in his way and he did not purposely break a contract like this.

That was like asking for a bad reputation.

Bane might treat that fact with arrogance, but Boba did not yet have such a stellar reputation that would allow him to jeopardize future jobs for the sake of these useless dramatics.

Bane could have shot the clone down easily as he entered the scene, and still could. Bane was apparently just playing with the man out of some sick form of amusement.

It was highly unprofessional.

But, regardless, it worked in his favour that Bane suddenly had a flair for the theatrics.

Boba waved carefully at Bossk, gesturing to him to stay a little behind him. Bossk was a good bounty hunter but woefully bad at stealth. If he got any closer then Bane might hear him.

Boba's armor blended with the darkness, and each step he took was measured, silent—years of training and survival honed to perfection. He got closer and closer, he almost didn't dare to breathe as he put one foot in front of the other. Bane still didn't notice, his back was still turned.

Boba's heart was hammering so loudly he was afraid it might give him away. His mouth was so dry it felt like sandpaper.

Another step.

He was within arm's reach.

Bane shifted slightly, preparing to fire a crippling shot at Vader, Boba made his move. In one fluid motion, he stepped out of the shadows, the muzzle of his blaster pressing firmly against Bane's back, a mirror of what he was doing to Vader.

"Drop it," Boba hissed, his voice cold and lethal. Bane froze, suddenly very still. Boba looked past him to see the clone's eyes widened as he recognized Boba, but he didn't waste time questioning the unexpected assistance.

Instead, he tightened his grip on his own blaster. The Clone looked far worse this close, he was paler than the armor he usually wore and it looked like he was struggling to stand. How was he still on his feet? He looked like a dead man.

Cato's eyes narrowed and moved quickly, ready to protect her ally, but the clone reacted immediately.

"Don't even think about it," The clone growled, his voice like steel. Cato hesitated, her blaster halfway between the clone and Boba, her eyes locking first with the clone then with Boba's. The tension escalated as she weighed her options. "Don't, you'll die," the clone promised and Boba did not doubt that murderous intent in his eyes.

So it was her who had shot him?

For a moment, the three stood there in a tense standoff, the only sound the hum of the speeder and the distant clatter of approaching clone troopers from inside the building. They would be here any moment.

The damned door was wide open!

"Bossk!" He called, not daring to look back even for a second.

The clone in front of him shifted his look between Boba and Bane, his blaster held uncertainty. Then he spoke, directing his look to Cato. "Drop it, Cato, or this ends badly for both of you." The finger on the trigger started pulling back.

She made an angry sound down in her throat and slowly lowered her blaster, her expression cold. "This isn't over," she hissed, letting her blaster fall from her fingers..

When the blaster hit the ground, the clone backed off moving slowly over to the speeder, his eyes shifting between all three bounty hunters. Boba could hear his strained breath from where he was.

This was a pleasant surprise that he was so wounded. The clone might not prove difficult to deal with on his own once Boba was out of here. The man might just drop dead without any assistance. And what if he didn't survive? No matter, it was not required that the clone was delivered alive.

This was turning out nicely. He just needed them both to get on the speeder that Bane had so kindly provided, and somehow disarm the clone if he didn't fall on his own. The man looked like he was minutes away from collapsing.

Maybe that was why he was in such a hurry to get to the speeder?

Boba did not try to stop it, because that was where he needed the clone to go anyway.

The clone approached, his blaster moving from Cato to Bane.

"Back off!" he ordered in a strained breath, as if speaking was painful. It might be, Boba had no way of knowing, but pain or not though, there was killing intent in his eyes and the finger on the trigger lay heavy.

A second passed then Bane, ever the calculating survivor, slowly lifted his blaster away from Vader and dropped it on the ground. "Kick the blaster away," Boba ordered them both; Bane as he carefully stepped around the Bounty hunter.

"I'm taking Vader," Boba said, staring dead directly into Bane's red eyes, he saw the clone shift his gaze to Boba. Bane's eyes narrowed.

"And how far do you think you will get before I run you down?" There was a sinister weight to Bane's words that Boba did not care for and his mouth suddenly felt dry.

"Bossk!" Boba called again while his heart picked up a beat.

Where was that guy! He could really use a little help here!

The clone shifted, his eyes suddenly snapping down the alley. His mouth opened in shock.

He heard the clone's breath in shock and saw his widen- directed at something behind him. Boba and he stole a look down the alley and his stomach dropped when he saw a familiar glowing light from a lightsaber.

And not just any lightsaber. The light cut through the darkness, casting ominous shadows across the walls. It was unmistakably purple.

No.

No. No. No.

This was not happening!

A sudden stillness descended; all sounds muted as if the Force itself was making way for the new arrival. Boba knew exactly who that was. He was the monster playing the leading role in his worst memory.

Jedi Master Mace Windu.

The monster walked toward them with the laziness of an old predator, confident in its own power.

"Quite the crowd," Windu said, feigning surprise, but with a clear underlying tension. His voice was low and unyielding.

The lightsaber hummed menacingly in his hand, its purple glow reflecting off the metallic surfaces around them.

But where- why hadn't Bossk-?

Boba's eyes darted to where Bossk lay slumped against the wall, unconscious. What had happened? Boba hadn't even seen anything. He clenched his teeth. He had already been to prison once, and he wasn't going back—especially not dragged back by the Jedi who killed his father.

Boba knew that one day he would kill this man.

He had to.

That might be the only way to make that horrible memory playing on a loop inside his head.

That murderer had already lived long enough. But no way he was going to be able to do that now. He had to get out of here.

But how?

"Arc trooper CT-55555," the Jedi said and Boba saw the clone stiffen. "I have been looking for you." The purple lightsaber hummed lowly as Windu directed it downwards, but there was no doubt about how quickly that could change.

"General Windu." The clone responded, sounding like something was strangling him.

:

Clone trooper CT-55555 had clearly seen better days.

He was armed, but the blaster was useless against him, so Mace did not bother to remove it from his shaking hand. The clone trooper was no threat to him, Mace could feel his indecision and his unwillingness to pull that trigger.

Fett on the other hand-

Mace lifted his hand in a small gesture and the blaster in Fett's hands crumbled to an unrecognizable lump of metal.

The sound when it hit the ground was deafening in the complete silence. No one moved, all eyes were on him. Good.

The bounty hunters watched him wearily, as they should. They both looked like they had been in recent combat and seeing the state of CT-55555 it was not difficult to connect the dots. The anger moved again within him and he suppressed it once more.

Anger would not serve him here.

It was about time to get some answers.

"Arc trooper CT-55555." he said, not even looking at anyone else in the alley. They were of little significance when it was the Arc Trooper that held the knowledge to the questions that Mace wanted answered.

He needed to know exactly what was happening, and more importantly why? Did it have any connection to the war effort or was this orchestrated by a third party?

"Surrender," he demanded.

"I am afraid I cannot do that, sir," Fives said. He had startled at the loud sound of Fett's blaster crumbling into nothing and his gaze lingered on the blaster twisted beyond recognition and broken under Mace's power, but he did not lower his own blaster even though he must know how utterly useless it would be against the Jedi.

The eyes lingered on the destroyed blaster, then he once again met his eyes. There was a long silence. The indecision lay heavy in the air. Then he continued to speak grimacing as if speaking itself was painful. "I can't."

Windu stared unblinkingly at the refusal. The Force was ready at his command but he reigned it in. The man in front of him might not be an enemy. He noted the state of the clone.

The wound looked painful and Mace was not without mercy. The clones' willing involvement in this entire catastrophe was still unclear. It made him stay his hand.

The clone had been a loyal soldier his entire life, there must be some explanation why that had suddenly changed.

"You are wounded. That needs to be seen to," He stated. Against his better wishes, when impatience clawed at his tightly held control. A great many things had happened recently that demanded explanation, and this clone was at the centre of it, but Mace was ever a Jedi first.

He needed patience to guide him in this.

Emotion would not cloud his judgement.

The fact that the arc tropper's despair hung heavily around him, encouraged him to act with care. He owed it to Master Yoda to get to the bottom of this conspiracy, and the clone was clearly distressed under the iron mask he had managed to wrestle onto his face. Had Mace not had the Force at his command he doubted that he would be able to see the despair that the clone felt so deeply.

The despair was only tainted by one other emotion, shame.

Something else had happened that Mace did not know of, something just recently, he could feel it.

"Sir, I can't. You don't understand what is going on." The blaster was still not pointed at him, after the display before he must have understood that it was futile to resist. Few had proven to be a match to Windu, and none of them that had, had been a clone.

Still, the blaster remained in his hand.

"I understand that you have allied with an enemy," He replied, allowing the clone to fully grasp the weight of his situation. Treachery was never a small matter, especially not those that had been made to serve the Republic.

Because that was exactly the impression that he was getting from the clone.

But there was something else of note.

CT-55555's presence felt like it had been flayed and afterwards someone, benign but unskilled in the act, had tried to mend the damage. The result was not a poorly done healing, but it left much to be desired.

The walls the Force-user had built around the clone's mind to compensate for the poor job was surprisingly strong and would be enough to block most Force-users, but a malicious Force-user with some skill could easily force the clone's will.

Was that what had happened here?

"Sir-"

"There is no trace of his presence on you. You are willing." A small pause. "Or fooled." A lie of course, he felt the presence of Vader clearly on the clone, but remarkably light, as if he had been the healing factor.

But that had to be a mistake.

Once someone had turned, the dark side was all-consuming, the light could not survive with it and was immediately devoured. A Sith could not command the light side. It was impossible.

Sith were many things but never healers. The dark side was incapable of it.

He looked once more down at the Sith in question. His presence was not a void, but almost. He would awaken soon. As it was, nothing could be gained from his presence, unconscious as he was, but he looked depleted.

Disgust made an unwilling expression on his face when he saw what the Sith was wearing. Those robes were earned through years of dedicated training, and it was vile to see them worn by such an unworthy foe.

It was disappointing and infuriating in equal measure.

This was the Sith that had gotten the upper hand on Grandmaster Yoda?

If Mace had not known this to be a fact, then he would have said that it was a bold faced lie. That man was far too young to be anything other than an apprentice.

Which meant that there was more to this than he had previously thought. Who was the master of this apprentice?

CT-55555 finally lowered the blaster to his side, as if that thing had ever been a threat to the Jedi, and held the other up in a surrendering gesture. A glimmer of hope moved in his presence. Frail and weak, and it made Mace doubt.

"Sir, maybe if you allow me to explain. There is something you don't know."

The desperation in that voice instantly calmed the rising anger. On some level, the arc trooper was clearly unwilling.

He breathed out between his teeth.

"Oh, you are going to explain everything. But not here." The Force collected around him and he reached forward towards the Sith to lift him off the speeder. The body does not move at his call and he realizes the reason when he sees the binders fastened to the vehicle.

The binders crush easily under his command and he flings them off into the dark. He reached again for the Sith, only for CT-55555 to step in between.

Something, some emotion must have escaped, because the clone's tone was lower, almost pleading. "No, sir, don't. Vader didn't mean to hurt Master Yoda he-"

"Stop speaking. This has gone on long enough."

Then comes the oddest sound. He feels it more than sees it when something falls from above. He throws the lightsabre up and blocks the thing that was aimed right at him. It is only a split-second he gets before he realizes the mistake.

The thing lies at his feet, but it is easily recognized.

"Thermal detonator!" Someone yells.

The bounty hunters' scattered like rats. Bane and Cato bolted back the way Mace had arrived. Fett rushed for the speeder. CT-55555's just stood there frozen. Weakened as he was. There was no way he was escaping in time.

Mace throws up his arm shielding his eyes and the Force collects around him in an unbreakable shield. In the split second before the explosion, he forms a second shield in front of the CT-55555 blocking the entire part of that alley from the explosion the second before it ignited.

Then the world around him disappears in a blast so massive that for a moment, he experiences being both blind and deaf.

The world around him is moving black smoke, there is nothing he can see. Objects fall around him and he has no illusion about the sheer size of the destruction that he would bear witness to once the smoke falls.

He waits with his guard high, expecting an attack, but nothing comes from the black smoke coloured purple by the lightsaber tightly held in his grasp.

He reaches out with the force, but CT-55555 is not where he was before. The speeder too, is gone, and Vader with it.

:

Anakin ducked, the Force aiding his swift movements as he sprinted across the rooftop, feeling the pressure of the impending explosion behind him.

With ironclad control, he suppressed his Force presence, becoming a shadow amidst the darkness. As the grenade detonated behind him with a thunderous roar, he leaped to the next building, landing silently before descending to the street below, slipping into the shadows.

He had made it!

No one had seen him.

His heart pounded with the adrenaline of the escape, but a flicker of triumph warmed him. His own beating heart was so loud that for a moment he could hear nothing else. He kept his eyes locked on that position. He didn't even dare to breathe.

Had he succeeded?

An eternity passed, then he saw it. A speeder rushed away and he felt that familiar presence aboard it.

Vader had escaped Windu.

A heavy weight fell from his shoulders.

The secret was still safe.

Padmé and their child were still safe.

He calmed his beating heart. He could still salvage this situation from turning into his worst nightmare. There was just one thing that he needed to do and this entire catastrophe could turn into nothing more than a bad memory.

His eyes narrowed as he recalled the speeder's trajectory. He had seen where the speeder was heading and the trail was fresh. He could feel Vader's presence strongly, he reached out and grasped at Vader's signature roughly even as it seemed somehow was trying to avoid him.

It was a wasted effort. Anakin had the trail now.

Vader was not far.

Anakin would catch up to them, and he would end this—once and for all.

Now he just needed to catch up to them himself, and end it.

:

Boba had made a severe miscalculation. That was inescapably clear to him now. Jumping onto the speeder before the explosion had been a grave mistake. Here he was outgunned and outnumbered, or he would be at least ... as soon as the Sith woke back up, which would not be long. He was already starting to move.

This was Boba's own fault, he knew that, and the mistake felt sticky in his chest. He should have paid more attention. If he had had, then he would have noticed that the clone was in better condition than he had thought, and now Boba was staring into the business end of a blaster.

How that clone managed to hold him at blaster point while piloting this thing at breakneck speed should not be possible either.

But here he was.

As they sped through the darkened streets, Boba could feel the clone's tense looks at him, that man was dangerous, but right now his focus was on the goal of getting away so Boba had become the second priority.

The clone was weaving in and out of traffic with one hand while the other was held over his shoulder, aiming his blaster at his unwanted passenger.

Boba no longer had his own blaster, that useless lump of metal was lying abandoned in the alley somewhere and would never be of any use ever again. It was infuriating. Right now, would have been the perfect time to strike, instead he was literally held hostage by the people he was supposed to capture.

The clone pushed the speeder faster, seemingly determined to get them as far away as possible. After a sharp turn, they left the larger streets for the ones deeper in the undercity. Boba held on during the quick twists and turns that got them further and further away from Cato's club.

At his feet, lay the Sith that has made such an uproar.

He didn't look like much.

"Is he alright?" The clone asked as if the question had been summoned by Boba's thoughts. It looked like genuine worry in his eyes, but he could not tell for sure, Boba was distracted by the blaster pointed right between his eyes.

Boba didn't know what to say and before he could muster a response the clone lost his patience.

"Wake him up," The clone demanded. "...but try anything," he added with his finger heavy on the trigger.

"He is breathing." Boba said, not too fond of being the one to awake a Sith and hoping the words would discourage the clone. All of these Sith types had a terrible temper and it would make his already bad odds infinitely worse to have both of them to deal with, unarmed as he was.

"Wake him!"

Boba cursed his luck once more. Why had he even gotten on the speeder? He had half a second of reaction time, but he already regretted doing it. In prison, he at least knew what to expect, but with these two nothing was certain.

How the Kriff had his Thermal detonator just decided to fly away from him? He had not even thought about reaching for it, and suddenly it was in the air above him!

How had that happened? There were no Jedi in the ally side from the Monster. Had he done it? It had to be him, there was none other in that alley capable of doing such things.

Kriff.

He had to figure that out later.

There were more pressing matters to deal with.

He had to somehow get out of this situation alive!

"Hey," He almost whispered, reaching for the Sith. He tried making his voice smaller in the hope it would not make the Sith react violently when he regained his senses. "Vader," he said, carefully shaking the man lying still on the floor of the speeder.

"Take off the binders," The clone demanded.

None too happy about it, Boba moved to obey. The ones that had practically bolted the Sith to the speeder had been broken by the monster, but the one around his wrists remained. He unlocked them unwillingly, it would be difficult to get those on Vader again, but he was held at blaster point so there was no other choice than to obey, for now.

"Vader," He spoke once more. The Sith moved a little, but there was no other immediate reaction. When he clicked the first binder off, the Sith stirred, his eyes opened for a brief moment before the yellow of his eyes disappeared once more beneath his eyelids.

The wind howled around them, carrying the chill of the night as Boba watched the Sith try to regain his bearings. In the darkness of the night the Sith's eyes almost look like they are glowing when they finally reopened.

"Vader?" The Sith asked in confusion "...where?"

The Sith straightened, but so unsteady and weakened that he had to push himself up on both arms just to sit up. It gave Boba the time to remove the other cuff, before Vader noticed it. Boba figured it was better not to aggravate him, before the situation was under Boba's control again.

There was not much of a reaction from the Sith. He looked at Boba, then at the clone but there was a hollow look in his eyes and he didn't seem to recognize the clone... It seemed like he did not even know where he was, not that Boba himself did right now, the surroundings were little more than a blur of darkness and light because of the speed they were travelling at.

The Sith had an empty look in his eyes as if he was not seeing what was in front of him, but his eyes were clearly scanning the surroundings for something.

"Where?" The Sith repeats and looks searchingly into the dark as if he was trying to spot someone...

Vader?

That made absolutely no sense.

"Where is... Vader?" Boba asked, not understanding and with the beginnings of dread rising within him. If Vader had been hit hard enough to forget his own name, then what use would he be as a bounty?

Probably nothing at all.

It was an unsettling thought, to go through all of this trouble for nothing, but maybe Vader was just momentarily confused. Boba asked carefully. "Your name is Vader... right?" he asked, feeling a strange pressure in the silence.

The Sith turned his yellow eyes to him for the first time, really focusing on him. His one hand pawed at his side where he would normally have the lightsaber, but who knew where that was now? Probably Bane had it.

Vader's brows carved into a frown and the yellow eyes zeroed on Boba.

"No, of course not... I'm Luke..." He mumbles and then suddenly he makes a pained noise and crumbles, grasping at his left arm in pain suddenly for no apparent reason.

What?

The Sith breathed heavily and for a second Boba thought the man was going to pass out again, but he pushed himself up in a daze, his movements almost frantic as he kept scanning the surroundings, looking for someone he dreaded by the look in his eyes.

It was the same way that Boba himself wore when he was looking for threats. And the Sith was looking for Vader?

He looked ahead and saw that the clone had turned his eyes to Vader, while the blaster was still aimed at Boba. His eyes were narrowed and his brow wrinkled in confusion.

He had clearly heard Vader's words too.

...no. Boba thought to himself.

Not Vader

...Luke?

:

To be continued