"Aha!"
Kirei glanced up from her daily poisoning of Luke and rolled her eyes, knowing the stupid Jedi healer would call for her in 3...2...1...
"Kirei!"
She groaned, administering a higher dose of poison into Skywalker and watching him jerk in unconscious pain. "Coming!" She cried back.
She glared at Luke, his uneven breathing getting fainter and fainter but not stopping. His vital monitor was on high alert, warning her of slow death approaching the patient, but she simply flicked it off.
"Can't you just die already?" She hissed.
Sighing, she gathered her tools and went to see the doctor. When she entered the other room, she was startled to see the Jedi Healer look up at her with a broad smile.
"I found it." He said simply, as if she was supposed to know what it was.
"Found...what, sir?" She asked.
"A cure! I've been scrounging all night long and I finally think I've got the correct match to the poison Starkiller was administered!" The doctor cried with a smile. "I must contact Knight Skywalker. He would want to be the first to know."
Kirei froze, her heart stopping for a brief moment. She looked at the vial of antidote in the doctor's hands and contemplated her options. She could blow her cover and destroy the antidote, but she would also complete her mission of eliminating Skywalker.
Or, she could keep her cover but most likely die at Sidious' hands for failing him.
The idea came at her in a rush and she lightly used the Force to make the vial tip over and shatter to the floor.
The doctor whirled from his comm and gasped. Cursing, he scrambled to the ground, gathering the pieces of glass.
Kirei faked a gasp, trying to look surprised.
The doctor sighed. "It's alright. I made two batches just in case."
That made the spy pause.
She desperately searched the room for such a vial but found none. Panic overwhelmed her as the doctor approached the comm, contacting Knight Skywalker and happily letting him know that they could save Luke.
Kirie swallowed.
'I'm going to die.' She thought with a large helping of fear stabbing her in the gut.
•••
Anakin's commlink beeped frequently but he consistently ignored it, watching his wife pace back and forth with her hand over her swollen belly.
They were back in the medbay again, visiting whenever they could. Luke's condition hadn't gotten any better, only continuously worse, which wasn't a good sign.
However, when they had both gotten the message that an antidote had been found...it was too good to be true.
Of course, the medicine was still being tested, making sure it wouldn't affect Luke badly instead of in a good way. However, Anakin felt impatience welling up in him as Luke's vital monitor continued to beep ominously.
"When are they going to help him!?" Padmé cried, running her hands through her hair in frustration.
"I don't know." Anakin admitted, frustrated himself. He took Luke's hand again, squeezing it to reassure not only himself, but Luke as well, even if the boy didn't feel it while unconscious.
Padmé sighed. "What about Obi-Wan? Have you heard from him?"
Anakin shook his head. "That's probably who's comming right now. But I'm sure if it was an emergency he would contact the Council. He'll know if I don't answer that I have a good reason."
"I guess." Padmé said, wincing as her baby continued to kick her stomach with brutal force, which it had been doing ever since Luke had been hospitalized.
A knock on the door startled them both and they whirled to see the doctor enter with Kirei behind him. She looked pale and radiated terror, but Anakin couldn't seem to figure out why.
"He's ready for operation. We'll have to ask you both to leave." The doctor said firmly.
"Of course." Padmé and Anakin said in unison, walking out of the room with last worried glances at Luke.
When the door cut them off, Padmé held back her tears, surprised to see Anakin wiping away some of his own. "He'll be alright." He whispered.
Padmé was hesitant before she answered. "Of course he will."
But how could she believe her own lie?
•••
Luke found some form of consciousness amongst the darkness once more, still hearing the faint voices of friends, family, and even enemies.
He still hoarsely called for his father, wondering what was happening and when he would die.
Or was this already death? A never-ending blackness for all eternity? If so, he didn't like it at all.
"Help!" He cried weakly, feeling coldness and poison seep more and more through his veins.
Scenes and blurred images shifted around him, some of the past, some of the present, and some of the future.
He saw Han and Leia again, but only briefly, no contact made with his twin the second time.
He saw Obi-Wan fighting Grievous to the death, killing the creature right after he revealed Luke's big secret. Luke wasn't sure if that had happened already or not, but he really hoped it hadn't. He had already gained his father, mother's, and former mentor's trust, and he didn't want to lose it just yet. Or ever for that matter.
Speaking of his parents, he constantly saw them visiting him, looking all the more weary and nervous as their visits rose in number.
Lastly, he saw a young woman he recognized as the healer who had helped him when he was still affected from the electrocution.
She looked as if she was doing standard medical procedure on him, helping him heal, but he focused and noticed that a needle filled to the brim with poision was being injected into him.
He felt nauseous at the sight of his own pale, fragile, sunken, weak, and thin body cascaded over the cot.
He called out again, the pictures shifting to his time as a boy on Tatooine, major battles against the Empire, people he had yet to meet in his own future, as their faces were unknown, and just all of time melded together in one tiny place.
He fought incessantly against the cold and dark, wondering if he would ever escape and save his father from the dark side like he planned. After the attempt on his life, he now knew exactly how to defeat Palpatine.
The only way to get to the Sith Lord, however, was to survive, which seemed almost impossible at the moment.
Biting cold, even worse than the ice wastes of Hoth, attacked his senses and he shivered, still sorting through the darkness for something to grasp onto. He felt his father's Force signature and brushed against it, his mental fingers just barely reaching it before he was pulled away rather violently.
'We're losing him!' Someone cried, and there was many shouts, beeps, and also lots of pain.
Luke felt delirious and disoriented from the mixture of sounds and the blinding pain combined with it.
However, before he could give into the cold completely, he felt the strange sensation of floating and heard the eerie whistle of a flatline.
•••
"Shavit." Obi-Wan cursed as Anakin would not answer his comm. He knew that if his former Padawan wasn't answering, then something was very wrong with Luke.
Closing his eyes, he reached through the Force for Anakin's supposed time-traveling son and almost fell backwards at the boy's pain. Quickly, he reached for the boy again, trying to give him energy, but a cold cut snip pushed him back and he stumbled once more, this time in horror.
"No..." Obi-Wan whispered.
He saw Commander Cody look at him nervously, but he was vaguely aware of it. "Sir? Is everything alright?"
Then Anakin's grieving flashed across their bond and he knew it to be true.
Luke Skywalker was...
•••
...dead.
It couldn't be true.
Anakin was staring numbly at the too still and too pale corpse on the medical table. The doctor and nurse looked solemn, as they slowly began to disassemble the equipment.
"I'm afraid the antidote didn't work fast enough." The doctor whispered.
Padmé was sobbing into Anakin's shoulder, heaving and rasping.
Anakin just stood still.
•••
...dead.
Palpatine smiled as he felt the boy's demise finally come. He prepared to contact his spy to congratulate her on actually succeeding when a message came from multiple Senators, asking for a meeting the next day.
He fought a groan. But Luke Skywalker was dead and he could move on with his plan to turn Anakin to his side.
Order 66 danced around his mind and he smiled when the ever approaching time would come when he would rid the Jedi of the universe.
•••
...dead.
Leia felt it with alarmingly clarity as her twin was snapped from her. She screamed, catching much attention and barely noticed Han kneeling beside her, frantically asking her what was wrong.
She didn't answer him as she searched and searched for a brother that was no longer there. Lost to whatever had killed him...and she would never know.
•••
...dead.
It wasn't what Luke expected, but he was pretty sure it wasn't actually death. It felt more like comatose as he floated between reality and his subconscious. The Force was crying, pushing him back towards the living as his heart protested the idea.
The pain was gone at least, but he still could reach out for his loved ones even if they couldn't feel him.
'Luke...'
Luke glanced up to see...
"Father?"
Floating in front of him was Anakin Skywalker at what Luke guessed was how he should have looked if he hadn't gone to the dark side and had aged through time.
'Son...it's not your time. Wake up, the universe isn't done with you just yet.' Anakin said with a crinkling smile.
"But how, father? How can I just resurrect myself?" Luke asked.
Anakin just continued to smile warmly. 'Death is not the end. I know you will save me...I love you...'
"Wait! Father!" Luke cried as Anakin faded away, back into the shadows. Lights peeked into the darkness slowly and Luke suddenly flew and flew and flew until he was sitting dead upright, staring at four shocked faces.
Then he smiled. "Miss me?"
•••
Kirei visibly paled, staring at Luke in disbelief.
'But I killed him! I made sure of it!'
She remained frozen in shock and horror as Anakin and Padmé rushed forward, tackling the boy in a crushing hug.
"Luke....oh Force, we thought we lost you." Anakin whispered.
Luke smiled. "It's okay...I'm alright Father."
Anakin and Padmé stiffened. They backed away and stared at Luke's loving eyes.
"Sweetheart?" Padmé asked, feeling Luke's forehead.
"Doctor, I think he's hallucinating." Anakin said worriedly, wondering why Luke had called him his father.
Luke just smiled, brushing away their concern. "No...it's nothing. I know it's you Anakin."
"But you called me-"
"Well you are like one to me, aren't you?" Luke asked with a smile.
Anakin blushed. Kirei stared at Luke, who kept glancing up at her.
'He knows. He knows I poisoned him. So why isn't he saying anything? And why would he tell Anakin about his true identity?'
"Well, it's a miracle, but I think I can let you out tomorrow after some bed rest." The doctor said.
Luke looked relieved. "Thank goodness."
"Don't worry, we'll be close at all times." Anakin reassured, just glad to see Luke alive.
"I'm not worrying." Luke eased, smiling at his parents.
"Alright, enough action for the day. Senator, Knight, I must ask you to leave now so Luke can get the rest he needs from his body fighting off the poison so relentlessly." The doctor said.
Anakin and Padmé nodded and left the room. The doctor let Kirei out and she caught Luke's sympathetic expression before the door closed behind her.
She wondered why he looked sympathetic until she remembered she had to contact her Master.
Taking a deep breath, she opened the commlink and contacted the Chancellor. The man stared at her with glowing gold eyes, fury radiating through him.
"I thought you had succeeded, but now I know you have failed me, Kirei. And I don't accept failure." Palpatine growled.
Kirei gasped as an invisible hand gripped her throat and she rose from the ground. She choked and coughed, pleading her Master through her eyes before a sickening snap rang through the empty med hall and Kirei Barizaan fell dead.
"If you want something done, you've got to do it yourself." Palpatine snarled, staring at the dead girl's body through the message with an emotionless glare before shutting off the call and preparing how he would kill Skywalker once and for all.
•••
A/N
If you thought I would actually kill literal cinnamon roll, Luke Skywalker, you were very mistaken.
I could never harm a hair on that adorable baby's blonde head.
How can you kill Luke Skywalker?
It's like kicking a puppy.
Worst. Crime. Ever.
So yeah...Kirei's dead, I've had that planned the whole time, so no surprise, Obi-Wan knows about Luke but he can't get the information to Anakin, and Luke is cured!!
But we still have Palpatine hovering around and stuff so...don't get your hopes up.
:)
Love you guys!
PS - Like my drawing at the top? I'm not sure what scene in the book it is but it looked cute when I finished it so...XD
May the Force be with You,
- lucky_ducky_123