Part 7 (1/2)

I won't let her die. I won't.

Soon after Anakin's meeting with Yoda, Palpatine confided to Anakin that he feared the Jedi Council wanted more control than they already had in the Republic. Anakin found this difficult to believe, but agreed to become Palpatine's personal representative on the Council. Because only Jedi Masters served on the Council, Anakin a.s.sumed that his appointment would guarantee his promotion to Master, and felt insulted when the Council insisted that he remain a Knight. After his first awkward meeting with the Council, Anakin learned from Obi-Wan that the Council wanted him to report on all of Chancellor Palpatine's dealings. It seemed that Anakin was the only Jedi who trusted Palpatine.

Palpatine suspects the Council is up to something, and the Council wants me to spy on Palpatine! Who should I trust? Anakin tried talking with Padme, but when she expressed her concern that democracy no longer existed in the Republic, he accused her of sounding like a Separatist. Is she turning against me too?!

Later that night, Palpatine summoned Anakin to meet him in the Chancellor's private box at the Galaxies Opera House. There, while watching a troupe of Mon Calamari perform a zero-gravity ballet within immense spheres of s.h.i.+mmering water, Palpatine informed Anakin that Clone Intelligence Units had discovered that General Grievous was hiding in the Utapau system. After dismissing his aides from the box, Palpatine further confided that he had come to suspect that the Jedi Council wanted to control the Republic, and was plotting to betray him.

Palpatine said, ”They asked you to spy on me, didn't they?”

Squirming in his seat beside the Chancellor, Anakin replied, ”I don't, uh .. . I don't know what to say.”

”Remember back to your early teachings,” Palpatine continued. ”All those who gain power are afraid to lose it. Even the Jedi.”

No, that's not true, Anakin thought. ”The Jedi use their power for good,” he insisted.

”Good is a point of view, Anakin,” Palpatine said calmly. ”The Sith and the Jedi are similar in almost every way, including their quest for greater power.” That'snot true, either. ”The Sith rely on their pa.s.sion for their strength,” Anakin said. ”They think inwards, only about themselves.”

”And the Jedi don't?” Palpatine asked, lifting his eyebrows high to convey his belief that the answer was as plain as his face.

”The Jedi are selfless,” Anakin countered. ”They only care about others.”

There was applause from the audience, and Anakin and Palpatine directed their attention to the performers. Palpatine said, ”Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise?”

”No,” Anakin admitted.

”I thought not,” Palpatine said smugly. ”It's not a story the Jedi would tell you. It's a Sith legend. Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith, so powerful and so wise he could use the Force to influence the midi-chlorians to create ... life.” He slowly turned his gaze to Anakin before he continued. ”He had such a knowledge of the dark side that he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying.”

Anakin thought immediately of Padme, and of his most recent nightmares, and felt a tingling sensation along his spine. He said, ”He could actually ... save people from death?”

”The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.”

Anakin thought about Darth Plagueis, wondering just how much of the legend might be true. He said, ”Wh - What happened to him?”

Looking away from Anakin, Palpatine answered slowly, ”He became so powerful, the only thing he was afraid of was losing his power, which eventually, of course, he did. Unfortunately, he taught his apprentice everything he knew. Then his apprentice killed him in his sleep. It's ironic. He could save others from death, but not himself.”

Because the Chancellor was such a learned man and had discussed the ongoing hunt for Darth Sidious with members of the Jedi Council, Anakin wasn't curious about how he might have learned such a bizarre story about the Sith. Anakin only wanted to know one thing.

”Is it possible to learn this power?” he asked.

Raising his eyebrows, Palpatine turned to once again lock his gaze on Anakin and said, ”Not from a Jedi.”

INTERLUDE.

Twenty-three years after the end of the Clone Wars, Darth Vader had no difficulty recalling Anakin Skywalker's meeting with Supreme Chancellor Palpatine at the Opera House. Although he had not yet realized that Palpatine was really the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, it was at that particular moment that Anakin Skywalker decided he must learn the secrets of the Sith.

At the time, Anakin had convinced himself that he only wanted to gain the powers that would help him save his wife. He hadn 't wanted to take the path to the dark side. In fact, he had continued to behave n.o.bly after that meeting at the opera. When the Jedi Council insulted him yet again by selecting Obi-Wan to hunt down General Grievous on Utapau, Anakin apologized for his arrogance. And after he learned that Palpatine was the Sith Lord who had slain Darth Plagueis, and realized that the Chancellor had no intention of stepping down from his position of power after the death of General Grievous, Anakin reported his discovery to Mace Windu, who led a team of Jedi Masters to apprehend Palpatine. Anakin had done the right thing.

But because Anakin believed that the only way he could save Padme was by gaining Palpatine's arcane knowledge, he had been unable to let Mace Windu kill the Sith Lord. And so he had allowed Palpatine to unleash Sith Lightning on Mace Windu, and chose to betray all the Jedi on Coruscant, and pledged himself to Palpatine. As the Sith Lord's new apprentice, he had taken the name Darth Vader before he set out to kill every Jedi who remained at the Jedi Temple. Now, so many years later, Vader reflected on all the Jedi he killed that day. Remembering the stunned expressions of Mace Windu as he fell from Palpatine's office window and the screams of the Jedi younglings and their teachers, he felt no remorse. Just as he believed he had done his best to be a dutiful Jedi, he believed his actions as Palpatine's apprentice were even more righteous.

Smoke had been still billowing from the Jedi Temple when Vader traveled to the volcanic world ofMustafar to kill the Separatist leaders in their hideout. Meanwhile, Palpatine initiated an order for all off-world clone troops to kill their Jedi generals, and then informed the Senate that the Separatists had been defeated and the Jedi rebellion had been foiled. Joyous cheers had accompanied Palpatine's declaration that the Republic would be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire.

After killing all the Separatist leaders, Palpatine's new apprentice had stepped outside the mountain fortress on Mustafar to gaze at the blazing lava rivers below. He would not mourn for the lives he had taken. But for the loss of his former self, the boy who had dreamed of becoming a Jedi, he was unable to hold back the tears that streamed down his cheeks.

Anakin Skywalker was gone. Or was he? After all, Padme had fallen in love with Anakin, not Darth Vader. He had not antic.i.p.ated that Padme, traveling with C-3PO, would follow him to Mustafar and refute the righteousness of his actions. Nor had he foreseen that Obi-Wan would survive the Jedi purge, and that the deceitful Padme would bring him with her. Despite his powers and years of attunement to Obi-Wan, his rage had blocked his ability to sense his former Master's presence on Mustafar until he saw the Jedi standing in the hatch of Padme's star s.h.i.+p.

He also never imagined that Obi-Wan possessed the strength to bring him down so brutally.

CHAPTER 12.

”You were the Chosen One!” Obi-Wan shouted down at what was left of Anakin Skywalker, who writhed at the bottom of a slope of black sand at the edge of a lava river on Mustafar. Their exhausting duel had carried them far from the landing pad where Padme's s.h.i.+p had arrived, and where Anakin had used the Force to choke his seemingly treacherous wife.

But now the duel was over. With a single sweep of his lightsaber, Obi-Wan had severed his former Padawan's legs at the knees and also his left arm.

As Anakin straggled to raise his head from the smoldering sand, his eyes blazed with fury as he glared at Obi-Wan. I won't die like this! I'm still stronger than you!

”It was said you would destroy the Sith, not join them!” Obi-Wan continued. ”Bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness!”

Feeling the intense heat permeating his torn tunic, Anakin sighted his fallen lightsaber lying a short distance away. Too stunned and dazed to focus his powers, he watched with rage as Obi-Wan bent down to pick up the lightsaber, then took it with him as he began walking up the slope.

”I hate you!” Anakin roared, keeping his eyes focused on the departing figure.

Obi-Wan stopped in his tracks and turned one final time to face the ruined, seething monster. ”You were my brother, Anakin,” Obi-Wan said. ”I loved you.”

Anakin's clothes caught fire, and he was suddenly engulfed in flames. His screams were filled with anger as well as pain, not unlike that of any entirely helpless creature. His instinct was to roll and put out the flames, but because of his wounds and the red-hot stones beneath his ravaged head and torso, all he could do was burn and burn.

Obi-Wan walked off, leaving Anakin to die. Somehow, through his agony, Anakin felt one last flicker of Obi-Wan's presence before the Jedi receded from view.

Anakin kept screaming.

The flames finally burned out. Anakin's mechanical right arm dug into the sand. He pulled, and slid a few millimeters up the slope. Again!

With each movement, hot volcanic shards sc.r.a.ped and tore at his roasted flesh. It took all of his concentration to s.h.i.+ft his scorched remains up the slope and away from the lava river.

He moaned. Only his powers kept him from blacking out.

Again!

Only his hatred for Obi-Wan made him want to live another day.