"It's just a report to the Chancellor," Anakin stated, frowning at Starkiller's insistence of joining.
"I know. I just wanted to talk to my sister while you tell him Grievous and Obi-Wan are fighting," the boy stated.
"It's going to take a minute or two at most."
"Oh, come on, Anakin. I promise I won't be any trouble."
"....Why do I still bother trying to argue with you people? Fine, but keep up."
The kid looked relieved at his words. The Jedi couldn't help but wonder why.
Or why something in his gut was rolling in turmoil that had nothing to do with Obi-Wan's current danger.
And it only got worse when they made it to the Senate Building to find Zilla—decked out in her armor once more along with an additional lightsaber—waiting for them. She and Starkiller shared a single look.
"What's going on?" Anakin asked, looking between them with a frown.
"I have found myself with the need to speak with Lucy," Zilla answered. Her voice was hoarse, as if she'd been using it too much while her neck and bottom half of her face—the only parts of her body that weren't covered and that he could see with any relative ease—were flushed bright red. Her eyes looked different too, but the shadow of her hood prevented him from being able to figure out why.
"Are you—"
"Anakin, you have a chancellor to meet, do you not?" she interrupted before he could finish, turning around and heading away.
"I'll meet you back here," Starkiller muttered quickly, looking rather uneasy as he headed off after her. Anakin watched them go until they'd turned down a hall before trying to shake himself out of his concerns and heading towards the Chancellor's office.
It didn't work. Zilla had never shown up at the Senate Building before, and Anakin had that weird feeling again—same one he had when she had first appeared.
That something was seriously wrong with her. But it was worse this time. A lot worse.
Without even realizing it, Anakin found himself in front of the door to Palpatine's office. He entered with a sigh before quickly finding the Chancellor seated behind his desk studying a holo.
The Jedi would do this real quick, then drag Zilla kicking and screaming to the Temple if he had to. He didn't know who she was trying to fool, but she needed help.
"Chancellor, we've just received word from Master Kenobi. He has engaged General Grievous," Anakin announced as Palpatine's chair spun to face him.
"Then I hope Master Kenobi is up for the challenge," Palpatine responded. The Jedi gave a small nod in agreement, a new concern now tumbling about in his gut at the reminder that his best friend was probably blade to blade with the infamous Jedi killer by now.
"I should be there with him."
"I am upset the Council doesn't seem to fully appreciate your talent. Don't you wonder why they don't make you a Jedi Master?" the Chancellor asked. Anakin didn't respond at first. Yes, he wondered, but at the same time he knew some of the reasons.
"I'd assume it's because they believe me to be too rash."
"They don't trust you, Anakin," Palpatine stated as he stood before walking forward. The Jedi looked up at him with a partial frown. "They know you are loyal and will not bow down to what they are planning to do. They see your future. They know your power will be too strong to control," the man continued as he placed a confronting hand on the Jedi's shoulder and began to lead him up the stairs and into a private hall to his other office. "They wish to use you for your power, wield you to keep the galaxy and Republic in line. You must break through the fog of lies the Jedi have created around you. Let me help you."
This time, it wasn't just the words that made Anakin frown, but also the Force. That misdirection feeling again, though this time it was more noticeable than it had been before. He could feel it warning him about another feeling that was trying to push him into believing Palpatine's words.
And then that sinking feeling he'd had in his gut all day suddenly transformed into a bolder.
"I wanted to spy on Sidious. You spy on Palpatine; you spy on Sidious as well," Zilla had said just after he'd been accused of spying by Palpatine.
"What do you mean?" Anakin asked, eyes temporarily revolving around the area to double check what he already knew. They were alone. Palaptine's private chambers were empty.
"I wish for you to share with me your truth. It's quite simple in the end: Just break through the indoctoration and lies the Jedi have force fed you these many, many, years to your innermost desires and ask for what you want," Palpatine responded with a calm smile.
"I don't understand."
"I am offering you....anything," Palpatine replied. "Ask, and it's yours. A glass of water? It's yours. A bag full of Corusca gems? Yours. Just pick something, and it's yours."
"Is this some kind of joke?"
"The time for jokes is past, Anakin. I have never been more serious. Pick something. Anything."
"All right," Anakin replied, still as confused, silently thinking of the most ridiculously expensive thing that would pop into his head. "How about one of those new SoroSuub custom speeders—"
"Done," Palpatine said before the Jedi even had a chance to finish.
"Are you serious? Do you know how much one of those costs? You could practically outfit a battle cruiser—"
"Would you prefer a battle cruiser?"
What the hell is going on here? Anakin asked himself, more confused and unsure than ever. He decided to just test, see how far it would go before....
Before what, the Jedi didn't know.
"How about the Senatorial Apartments?" Anakin asked.
"A private apartment?" the Chancellor questioned, his voice mild.
The Jedi shook his head, watching Palpatine's eyes closely. "The whole building."
Palpatine didn't even blink. "Done."
"It's privately owned—"
"Not anymore."
"You can't just—"
"Yes, I can. It's yours. Is there anything else?"
"All right," Anakin muttered softly, trying to think of where the line had to be drawn. So far he supposed it was....more or less hypothetical, Palpatine couldn't be serious....
Then again, the Jedi had already had one too many hypothetical conversations that both he and the person he was talking to knew weren't hypothetical.... At least Anakin was pretty sure they weren't. Sounded like he was right when he talked to Zilla, but Starkiller had made a good few points in the other direction.
"Corellia. I'll take Corellia," the Jedi said. There. That had to be the line. It wasn't possible for anyone to turn over an entire planet just because they wanted too—especially when there was hardly any direct jurisdiction.
"The planet, or the whole system?" the Chancellor asked, not missing a beat.
Anakin stopped walking and could only stare in disbelief.
"Anakin?" Palpatine prompted, pausing and turning halfway back as though to wait for the Jedi to join him.
"I just...." The Jedi shook his head trying to make sense of the situation. "I can't figure out if you're kidding, or completely insane."
"I am neither, Anakin. I am trying to impress upon you a fundamental truth of our relationship. A fundamental truth of yourself."
"What if I really wanted the Corellian system? The whole Five Brothers—all of it?"
"Then it would be yours. You can have the whole sector, if you'd like. Do you understand, now? I will give you anything you want."
"What if I went along with Padmé and her friends? What if I wanted the war to end?"
"Would tomorrow be too soon?"
"How can you do that?" Anakin asked in disbelief.
"Right now we are only discussing what. How is a different issue; we'll come to that presently."
"....there will be a price to pay, as nothing is given without a cost," Zilla's voice said, echoing in Anakin's head.
"And in exchange?" the Jedi asked, voice cautious. "What do I have to do?"
"You have to do what you want."
"What I want?"
"Yes, Anakin. Yes. Exactly that. Only that. Do the one thing the Jedi fear most: make up your own mind. Follow your own conscience. Do what you think is right. I know you have been longing for a life greater than that of an ordinary Jedi. Commit to that life. I know you burn for greater power than any Jedi can weild; give yourself permission to gain that power and license to use it. Let me help you, Anakin. Let me help you learn the subtleties of the Force."
Anakin's heart stopped. "How do you know the ways of the Force?"
"My mentor taught me everything about the Force. Even the nature of the darkside."
"You know the darkside?"
"Anakin, if one were to understand the great mystery, one must study all its aspects. Not just the dogmatic, narrow view of the Jedi," Palpatine stated, even as Anakin found that they had started circling one another, as if preparing for a duel while that recognition of Force misdirection was practically buzzing in his skull, telling him something wasn't right with the conversation—besides the obvious of course. "If you wish to become a complete and wise leader, you must embrace a larger view of the Force. Be careful of the Jedi, Anakin. Only through me can you achieve a power greater than any Jedi. Learn to know the darkside of the Force, and you will be able to save your wife from curtain death."
"What did you say?" the Jedi breathed, even as everything suddenly began to somehow click despite the fact he'd felt as though the world had dropped out from under him. How a power Sith were known for using had all the sudden started appearing in his daily conversations. How Palpatine knew about Plagueis and why Anakin would be interested in the first place. Why he would have tried to create a split between him and Padmé. Him and Obi-Wan.
Why Zilla would have gotten ticked off at Sidious and her reaction being to give the Jedi Council a feed into the Chancellor's private meetings and in the process prevented Obi-Wan from asking Anakin to spy as Palpatine had originally predicted.
And Lucy's avoidance—there was only one place that girl wouldn't follow Padmé and it was into Palpatine's presence. And Starkiller always tagged along when Anakin went to the Senate Building despite all the other things he could be doing.
....Why only after Zilla had fully alined herself with them she had told Anakin and Padmé what and who she suspected had caused the woman's death. A Sith power from the only Sith who knew how to use it.
"Use my knowledge, I beg of you," Palpatine pleaded, though now that Anakin was looking—knew what to look for and why—he could see what the Force was warning him about.
Trust. The Force was trying to misdirect his trust, to make it stronger than his other beliefs.
"You're Sidious," Anakin breathed, eyes narrowing even as he began to reach for his lightsaber. "You're the Sith Lord."
Sidious opened his mouth to respond, only for another voice to interrupt.
"In the name of the Galactic Senate of the Republic, you are under arrest, Chancellor," Mace Windu's voice boomed as he appeared at the end of the hall. Anakin looked back at the man, both immensely grateful for the Jedi Master's timely arrival and instantly confused. What the hell was going on? What the hell was he supposed to—going to do?
"Under what—" Sidious began, appearing shocked and surprised as well.
"Oh, only orchestrating an entire war, plotting to overthrow the Republic, repeatedly plotting to stop or destroy peace efforts, I could go on all day, but it does narrow down to one simple word: Treason," a second voice said from the hallway's other entrance. Anakin looked over to find Zilla flanked by Starkiller, trapping the Sith Lord.
"You," the Sith Lord growled in fury as he spotted the Sith apprentice.
"Yes, me. Honestly, you of all people ought to know that if you want someone dead, you do it yourself, your lordship."
"How could you do this?" Palpatine—Sidious—growled "Betraying your—"
"A Sith's legacy is betrayal," Zilla purred as she came forward, lightsabers swinging on her belt while her eyes—an animalistic gold—seemed to glow from beneath her hood. "Of course, at least I can say I'd never kill my own Master in his sleep—I'd betray him in the open and fight him to the death were I to wish his death. Your's is a coward's way. But you would know all about cowardness, wouldn't you? Always running away and hiding in the darkness's comfort, always making things a win-win because you couldn't allow the blow to your ego if you lost."
Those were fighting words if Anakin had ever heard any. What the hell was she trying to do?
"Eclipse—" Windu began, his voice warning.
"You said you will only do what's necessary. We came for a fight," the Sith apprentice hissed, her Force presence flaring out unhindered for the first time since she had appeared. It was dark, like a massive nebula of pure empty darkness. And there was this rage, pure fury and hate mixed with agonizing pain that radiated with power. Anakin could feel it bearing down on him.
Yet it only cooly caressed his presence, flowing away and around him with the gentleness of a stream's current allowing him to remain in touch with the light with ease while violent rapids had formed around Sidious as if trying to beat him down.
"Quite brave of you," the Sith Lord stated. "Pity you won't be able to back it up."
"No, the true pity is the fact you're stalling," Zilla stated, even as Anakin felt something sing through the Force—a darkness somehow darker and slicker wreaking of sickness and death rather than the clearness of Zilla's streaking through the Force. Red flashed on as two things went flying over Starkiller's, who ducked, and Zilla's heads—though the Sith apprentice's ruby blade destroyed one of the projectiles and left the pieces to clatter to the ground. Palpatine snached the whole one from the air, and Anakin realized too late that it was a lightsaber.
"Do not resist," Windu warned, even as Sidious activated the saber—something the Jedi Master followed the act of. Anakin found his blue blade in his hand as well—though he didn't know when it had gotten there.
"You all have made a grave error," the Sith Lord hissed, glancing from the two learners to the Knight and Master. Anakin could feel Sidious's confusion and utter hate not to mention understanding....
Understanding. The Jedi Knight was realizing it at the same time—the light of the Force offering sudden clarity to everything. Sidious had wanted an apprentice and was targeting Anakin—had been for years.
And Sidious had just realized that the Jedi wouldn't be joining him. Years of careful planning, gone to waste.
And he was vengeful for it.
And his target....
"Watch—" Anakin began, as Sidious's calculating eyes landed on Zilla and Starkiller, but he wasn't quick enough.
However, the Force was. Ruby clashed against ruby while emerald went for the opening. The blade lock was over before it had begun and in moments the Shadow and Jedi were being pushed back into the office behind them as Sidious let his own presence lose in what felt like icy gale through the Force—overwhelming Zilla's almost comforting cool one. Anakin rushed forward—dully noting Mace Windu following—before he too engaged and joined Zilla and Starkiller in trying to fight off Sidious.
Now if there was one thing Anakin could say he was thankful for in that moment, it was that for whatever reason, he and Zilla worked together like a battle machine when dueling Sith Lords. Sidious was nothing like Dooku—he was unpredictable and the Force misdirections were everywhere—yet they still worked in harmony. The Jedi didn't even realize when he noticed the cool darkness giving him a secondary view of what the Force was telling him as he and Zilla almost shared everything they sensed through the Force as she too needed the light to tell her the lies. She—he didn't know how—took his anger at Palpatine's betrayal, at the danger he posed to Padmé and his unborn child, and wielded it into her own weapon allowing his mind to remain clear and the emotions out of his way without him needing to feed on it or find something else to do with it himself.
And in turn, she gave him her determination. Again, he didn't know how it worked, but somewhere deep and hidden in the dark nova of her presence, there was a star burning bright with a selfless light.
And she gave him access to it. Let him use her as a siphon for the light in a place anyone would least expect to find it so even when Sidious tried to stuff out the Jedi's access to the warmth light of the Force with the weight of his presence, it didn't work.
However, there was a small snag in their system as it seemed to require Zilla and Anakin the sole members of the fight against whoever. Therefore, there were two issues, A: Windu had turned into a weapon of nearly pure darkness—taking what was thrown at him and returning it to its source with little to no direction as to how it got back—and B: Starkiller, who while good wasn't at the same level as anyone else. Zilla had taken it upon herself to watch the boy's back, which understandably put a slight hitch in their otherwise perfect team work when there were two places she needed to be.
So it wasn't long until it didn't work. Sidious fainted towards Starkiller but instead ended up Force shoving Anakin and Zilla into a wall with enough force for the Jedi's breath to leave his lungs and lightsaber to leave his hand. Starkiller was quickly overwhelmed despite Mace Windu's presence and accidentally left an opening that resulted in the boy's emerald saber leaving his hand, him ending up on the ground, and a burst of Force lightning hitting the boy.
Or would have hit.
Except that the Force sang and a sapphire blade ignited, deflecting the lightning away.
Sidious growled at the newcomer as he paused, both Sith and Jedi taking a moment for light reprieve as each waited to see what the other would do. "And who might you be?" the Sith Lord growled as Anakin rolled onto his knees, trying to catch his breath and fight the pain to stand as he watched wide-eyed.
"Name's Leia," Lucy responded, glaring. "Get the hell away from my brother you monster."
And with that, she attacked with Starkiller pushing himself to his feet and quickly following. Anakin didn't even bother trying to be surprised at the name change, he was far too focused on getting back up and helping considering it looked like Lucy or Leia or whatever-her-name-was hadn't the slightest idea of how to handle a lightsaber.
And that's when he realized the only reason she had a lightsaber in the first place was because she'd summoned Anakin's saber to her hand and was currently using it to stay alive.
Didn't Zilla bring two? the Jedi thought to himself, eyes quickly scanning the area around only to find the Sith apprentice in question had landed about a meter from him and wasn't even trying to get up.
"Zilla!" he half hissed, hurrying to her side. She didn't respond, eyes clenched shut as tears leaked from the corners of her eyes. "Are you—"
Anakin was cut off, not by her voice but instead by the Force as she practically shoved the agony she was feeling at him. He felt the air leave his lungs again as suddenly everything hurt as though he'd been shoved into a meat processor and had litteral lava pumping through his veins. The Jedi wanted to scream, but didn't have the breath.
"Answer. Your. Self," Zilla growled, golden eyes opening as she glared at him before she cut her pain away so he no longer felt it.
"Stay down. You can't fight," Anakin ordered once he'd managed to get air back in his lungs and pushed back the memory of her pain—doing his best to ignore what it may mean—as he snached her spare lightsaber from her belt. A moment later he was standing and heading back into the fight—the dark cored saber in hand.
He arrived just in time to prevent Lucy or Leia—again he'd need to get someone to answer his questions sometime soon, namely Zilla, though if he had to corner Starkiller instead while she was recovering, he'd work with it—from losing an arm. Had Anakin not been busy re-engaging Sidious, he would have probably noticed the girl looking at him amazed for half a second.
Not that she had much time to do so or he had much time to notice. Sidious shoved Mace Windu back before nimbly jumping backwards to land on the windowsill of the enormous window behind his desk. The Sith Lord didn't waste a moment in sending an unending stream of Force lighting at the trio. The lightsaber in Anakin's hand bucked at the contact as he blocked, using every ounce of strength to keep it from moving back towards him. Starkiller crossed blades with his sister to try and put extra strength behind their resistance—as once again, she hadn't the slightest idea of what she was doing besides she was holding a long weapon that could cut through just about anything.
"Fools!!" the man cackled. "You do not know the true power of the darkside!"
"But I do," a voice whispered from behind them. Not a half second later, Sidious's lightning had cut off. Anakin didn't have time for a breath of relief as in the next moment there was a sharp clap of what might as well have been thunder that had enough force to push him to the ground. The Jedi had sprung back to his feet a moment later, only to stare in shock at what was before him.
The wind whipped violently through the room, causing light objects to go flying around two duelists connected only by a stream of pure lightning that stretched out between them, bonding Sidious to Zilla and impating at some sort of impasse in the middle where neither stream seemed to be able to fully bypass the other.
"Die!!" Sidious yelled, violent purple-blue flashing from his fingers and dancing across Zilla's body as sections of it slipped over her defense. Somehow, the Sith apprentice held firm.
"Only if I take you with me," she growled, her voice hard but somehow still weak as her own lightning shot out in nearly uncontrollable bolts before managing to bound from control panel to desk to the Sith Lord. Sidious cried out in anger as the purple light tore through him, almost seeming to melt his face away even as he increased the voltage he was sending Zilla.
"What in the name of...." Starkiller began from where he'd found his feet beside Anakin.
"Sith mask," was the only explanation the Jedi gave. "Stay here and keep out of the way. You only endanger yourself."
"She's going to die!" the boy argued. "Ana—"
"You and your sister can't fight him without getting hurt. Stay back," Anakin ordered, voice firm. Before Starkiller had the chance to argue the point further, there was a scream of pain tinged fury as another shockwave toar through the room, sending furnichure—and them, for what Anakin had decided was at least one time too many for the day—flying and shattering the glass window that looked out onto Coruscant—causing cool air of the near twilight to blow onto them as the last sliver of sun began to sink over the horizon.
Then again, maybe it wasn't wind, as it picked up the shattered shards of glass, spinning them around in the air as it formed a vortex around Zilla with the shattered crystals twirling harmlessly around her like light rain glimmering as it fell, just before lightning once again found its way into the Sith's contest.
But this time, the sharp shards flew forward with the Sith apprentice's barrage of light, shooting faster than the eye could track and catching Sidious off guard. The Sith Lord barely managed to abandon his lightning and raise his arms in time to protect his eyes as the broken glass flew at him and on through him even as Zilla's lightning continued to tear at his flesh and overwhelm the Sith's nerves, forcing him to the ground where the already red shards returned to dig into Sidious's flesh.
Vader's Shadow only stopped when the older Sith began bleeding heavily from the neck—one of the glass shards having apparently cut through an artery.
"Hurry. He will pull on his pain," Zilla's voice said, sounding strained as she slowly lowered her hands. Mace Windu didn't need any more of an invitation now that it was clear she was done with the lightshow for the moment, quickly moving to the Sith Lord's side and relieving Sidious of his head and his most likely agonizing pain. By that point everyone had more or less regained their feet.
"We did it," Starkiller's sister breathed in amazement as she scrambled to her feet weaponless while they all stared at the corpse. "We actually did it!"
They had, hadn't they? They had defeated Sidious, the cause of the entire Force forsaken war. Killed off the Sith forever.
It was surreal. Anakin could hardly believe it—well, there were a number of things that had happened in the last ten minutes or so that he couldn't believe, but still. Sidious was dead. The Sith Lord the Jedi had been hunting since Anakin had joined the Order was gone forever. It was like a dream come true.
And then there was a sound. It broke the dream. Caused reality to come crashing back to him as the last rays of sunlight slipped past the horizon. The horrible reality from the fact the man Anakin had looked to as a father had betrayed him to the fact the answer he'd been looking for all along had been right under his nose accompanied by other darker truths.
It was a simple sound. A dull sounding thud as a limp body made hard contact with the floor.
Anakin knew what—who—had caused it before he looked.
"Eclipse, what the hell were you thinking?!" Starkiller shouted, having somehow betten Anakin to the Sith apprentice's side. She didn't respond.
And.... And then the Jedi realized something as he slowed to a stop near the two.
That....
That now all the Sith were dead.
"She's already gone," Anakin muttered, knowing the fact deep in his gut without bothering to even check for signs of life.
Because he knew—knew with a sick certainty—that there were none to be found.
"No, no, no, that's not possible," Starkiller said shaking his head, in disbelief even as he reached out and touched the girl's neck—feeling for a pulse much like Anakin had done when she'd collapsed after the Battle of Coruscant—only for realization to dawn on his face.
"Luke?" a hesitant voice behind the Jedi Knight asked softly. Anakin glanced back to find the boy's sister had ventured towards them—looking concerned surprisingly enough.
"She's gone," he answered, bowing his head. "Leia, she's gone.... I promised him I'd bring her back—"
"You can't change what is already done," she said softly, venturing past Anakin to kneel at the boy's side, placing a hand on his shoulder. "She knew it was coming, there was nothing any of us could have done.... Let's go home, Luke."
"How?"
The girl who suddenly looked far too much like Padmé only gave a soft, sad, secretive smile as she grabbed onto her brother's wrist and the fallen Shadow's hand.
They were gone a moment later.