The Chosen "One"

[Lord_Xerxes]

The sounds of war echoed duly inside his skull. He remembered the whumpff whumpff of the repeating blasters as they spewed a firestorm of death out across the killing fields. The steady thudding footfall of the walkers as they raced to meet the opposition. The sound of gunships racing in to deploy troops or pick up the wounded.
Begun, this clone war has…

The war had robbed him of who he was. Stripped away what he’d cherished and loved and replaced it with a cold bitterness that seemed endless, like the plains of Hoth. It seemed to him that there were no good memories left to recall. There was only the dull pain as he tried to recall the beauty and livelihood of her face. He was alone now, beyond the reach of those he had once considered friends. Floating in his haze of remembrance and pain, as his body struggled to recover, he closed his eyes and remembered all that had brought him to this point…

I can’t remember anything…
Can’t tell if this is true or dream…

The very ground was steaming beneath the soles of his boots. Anakin Skywalker gazed down at the lightsaber within his hands. His Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi stood across from him, lowering and powering down his blade after dispatching Count Dooku. Anakin remembered feeling the pain and anger blossom within him as Obi-Wan took this away from him. He barely remembered the words he’d spoken to his once-friend.

“You took everything from me. He was mine to kill……Now you shall take his place…”

Deep down inside I feel the scream
Nothing is real but pain now…

Obi-Wan had barely enough time to raise up his lightsaber hilt before Anakin was on him, breaching the distance between them with a powerful Force leap, his crimson blade sneering through the sulfury air to slash at his throat. Obi-Wan pivoted on his foot back a half step while bringing the hilt up to intercept, the blue blade hissing to life at the last possible moment. His own azure blade lay mere inches away from his sternum, and Anakin pressed to move it closer still.

Obi-Wan reached into the Force for strength, feeling it’s power flow into the muscle tissue of his arms. He threw the blades back, nearly doubling Anakin over with the surprising effort. He took another step back himself, keeping his feet squared and balanced, his lightsaber resting in the Chulan position: hilt centered in front of his body at his waist, with the blade angling up at 35 degrees so that the tip would be pointed towards Anakin’s neck.

Anakin weighed a gaze of boiling hatred and darkness at Kenobi, raising his blade up to the shoulder stance of Hasho, his crimson blade casting a fiery light across his angered face. Anakin took a step forward and right, his arms extending away from his shoulder in a feint to attack at that side, and as Kenobi’s blade moved up to intercept, Anakin spun his blade back and lashed at the opposite side. Light exploded off the two blades as they met, Kenobi having made the correction the moment the Force warned him of this new threat.

Obi-Wan wished not to fight his apprentice. But the words that left his lips fell on deaf ears. As Kenobi flicked his blade father to the side in hopes of trying to get within Anakin’s guard and perhaps disarm him, the boy retaliated. Anakin’s anger swelled out, and as Kenobi tried to press his blade down, he rotated it around and swatted Obi-Wan’s blade towards the ground, pinning it down, at the same time v-stepping in towards his old Master. Anakin’s backhand struck Obi-Wan clean across the face, sending him sprawling back at the stunning display of power.

As Kenobi stumbled back, trying to regain his footing, Anakin pressed forward, slicing his blade through the night air towards Obi-Wan’s exposed knee. The Jedi found the Force guiding him as he leapt up over the blade in a short hop, and brought his own blade crashing down towards Anakin’s left shoulder. Once again, Anakin stepped aside, and Obi-Wan’s blade cut only the air, and Obi-Wan felt a new burst of pain spread through him as Anakin sent him sprawling with a Force-speeded leg sweep that brough him crashing to the steaming rocky ground. His lightsaber spun away from his grip at the sheer force of the impact.

Anakin stood over his old master, his lightsaber pointed down at the man’s chest as a dark grin spread across his visage. Without a second’s hesitation or speech, Anakin thrust the blade down towards the man’s chest, seeking to impale him. Obi-Wan called the Force to him instantly, rolling away from the blade, but not completely away from its touch. He felt a fresh jolt of pain as the blade grazed the side of his stomach. He was prone here, and knew now that Anakin truly wished to destroy him. It saddened him deeply that his old friend was so far gone…

As Anakin flicked his blade up to bring it back down at the man’s chest once more, Obi-Wan leveled a concentrated Force-push at the boy’s mechanical hand. The blade went wide, and Obi-Wan rolled to his feet and called his lightsaber back to his hand once more. The hilt slapped into his palm and was blazing once more before Anakin dealt yet another blow at the kneeling Obi-Wan. The two blades flashed with contact once more as Obi-Wan’s caught Anakin’s strike, then a second. This time, Obi-Wan seekd to push Anakin himself back with the Force.

Anakin let the energy of Obi-Wan’s push soak into the area around him, dissipating it before it had any effect on him, and felt the disbelief in his old Master. He lashed down at him once more, and Obi-Wan snap-rolled forward to Anakin’s right side, bringing his own blade up beneath Anakin’s and slamming it up high and wide. As Obi-Wan brought his elbow in across Anakin’s face, he felt the acceptance of the pain within the boy, and felt it only empowering him more.

Hold my breath as I wish for death…
Oh please god wake me…

Kenobi came to a full stance now, resuming the Chulan and turning his blade horizontal to catch Anakin’s retaliatory strike. The jarring blow reverberated through Obi-Wan’s arms and shocked the Jedi. The sheer power of the strike was amazing, fueled by the energies of the Darkside. Kenobi once again pleaded with Anakin to concede to reason, but Anakin seemed to hear him not, as he sent a flurry of blows towards Kenobi.

Obi-Wan struggled to keep up with the attacks, parrying and deflecting as much as he could. But Anakin’s assault left him no room to riposte. And Anakin was slowly working him back towards the edge of the precipice. There would be no getting through to the boy. Obi-Wan could feel the totality of Anakin’s acceptance of the Darkside of the Force. It pulsed and swirled through him with a savagery that Obi-Wan had not seen since he’d fought Lord Maul more than a decade previous.

Anakin drew his blade up over his head into the Jolan position, striking down at Obi-Wan with a fierce slash that came with blinding speed. Obi-Wan grunted as he moved his own saber to intercept, and felt the two blades lock together. Obi-Wan had felt his strength waning with every jarring blow and every ineffectual counter strike he threw at Anakin. Anakin was forcing the blade down towards Kenobi’s throat, and Kenobi knew that Anakin had worn him down for just such a moment.

And in that moment, a clarity and focus that had eluded Obi-Wan since the beginning of the battle came to him within the Force. He slowly turned his legs to the right, twisting his body. The blades moved even closer down towards Obi-Wan’s throat, and he felt little time left to respond. With a groaning effort, Kenobi pushed the blades back away from his throat and feed his head from the center of the scissor-like positioning. But Anakin pressed back with equal strength, and the blades lowered back down towards the left shoulder and side of Kenobi’s throat.

And in that instant, Kenobi felt the Force flowing through him. It’s calmness and serenity guiding his actions and movements. In a blinding action, he cut the power to his lightsaber and turned aside before Anakin’s came down upon him. Anakin’s blade struck down into the ground, and he was now off-balanced by his own expenses. And with Kenobi’s hilt above Anakin’s and with Kenobi now inside his guard, the azure blade boiled to life as Kenobi flicked it up towards his old friend.

The blade slashed across Anakin’s head, cutting a deep jagged wound that made Anakin scream in pain. He stumbled forward, and Obi-Wan flicked is blade back around in a half circle, slicing through Anakin’s thigh before he’d realized what he’d done. Anakin stumbled, off-balance and without two legs holding his weight beneath him, pitched forward into the abyss of flame and lava.

Obi-Wan gazed down as his friend plummeted in, sadness spreading through him. He turned away, his lightsaber hissing as it recoiled back into the hilt…

Back in the womb its much to real…

As he floated within the bacta tank, Anakin remembered the agony of the flames consuming his body. He remembered the blinding pain of his old-Master’s cut across his head. He recalled his nostrils filling with the scent of his own burning flesh and hair. But he remembered most of all, who had been there to pull him back from the abyss. The one person who he’d always trusted.

Palpatine stood just beyond the glass of the tank, watching Anakin’s mangled body float within. He would live. The Force was strong in him. Stronger even than Yoda…

In pumps life that I must feel
But can’t look forward to reveal
Look to the time when I lived…

The sounds of war echoed within Anakin’s head. And the face of his lost love threatened to rise again. He closed his eyes, pushing it away. He did not know that anymore. He knew only pain, and anger. Hatred for those that brought him to this… He floated there, somewhere between life and death, knowing that all he was had been lost, and he would rise once more, like a phoenix from the ashes.

Fed through the tube that sticks in me
Just like a wartime novelty…

He dimly remembered when the removed him from the tank. Remembered the horror that some felt as they looked at what was left of his body. But they had their orders, and they fixed upon his body replacements and augmentations to give him life once more. He remembered first hearing the sound of his own breath through the respirators, and the sound of his voice as he spoke once more through the cold confines of the helmet they lowered over his scarred head.

Tied to machines that make me be…
Cut this life off from me…

“Rise, Lord Vader and claim vengeance for those that sought to destroy you.”

Vader gazed down at his hands, black gloved. He could tell no longer which parts of him lived and which were a facsimile of the living. He remembered clutching his lightsaber within his hand and knowing what remained for him to do. The Emperor had risen in the aftermath of the tides of war, and now he stood beside him. As Lord Vader stood before the transparisteel viewing port onboard the Star Destroyer, gazing at the stars he knew all that he saw before them was theirs. Vader reached out with his fist and clenched it, as if seizing those stars within his grasp. They would pay. They would all know the pain that he knew.

Darkness
Imprisoning me
All that I see
Absolute horror
I cannot live
I cannot die
Trapped in myself
Body my holding cell…

“I will find you Obi-Wan…”

…Has taken my sight
Taken my speech
Taken my hearing
Taken my arms
Taken my legs
Taken my soul
Left me with live in hell…

“And you will know this pain…”

written by Dameon Magus Garamond 11/15/02
lyrics of “One” by Metallica (of course)

[Kuja]

Wow. Incredible.

[Lord_Xerxes]

Thanks IG! Damn, you read that shit fast.

Some people were yelling at me for cutting off the last one before the big battle, so I decided to go ahead and do it.

[Kuja]

I'm a very quick reader. And no, I didn't skim.

Very well written.