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58.42% Star Wars : Arise In The Future / Chapter 52: Star Wars : Chapter 52: What? III

Chương 52: Star Wars : Chapter 52: What? III

Yoda widened his eyes in alarm, noticing Anakin's growing aggressive stance against the Count.

Dread, Dooku surmised, of himself. Of what might happen if he should ever allow that furnace he used for a heart to go supercritical.

...

Dooku slipped aside from an overhand chop and sprang backward. "I sense great fear in you. You are consumed by it. Hero With No Fear, indeed. You're a fraud, Skywalker. You are nothing but a posturing child."

He pointed his lightsaber at the young Jedi like an accusing finger. "Aren't you a little old to be afraid of the dark?"

Skywalker leapt for him again, and this time Dooku met the boy's charge easily. They stood nearly toe-to-toe, blades flashing faster than the eye could see, but Skywalker had lost his edge: a simple taunt was all that had been required to shift the focus of his attention from winning the fight to controlling his own emotions.

The angrier he got, the more afraid he became, and the fear fed his anger in turn; like the proverbial Corellian multipede, now that he had started thinking about what he was doing, he could no longer walk.

Dooku allowed himself to relax; he felt that spirit of playfulness coming over him again as he and Skywalker spun 'round each other in their lethal dance. Whatever fun was to be had, he should enjoy while he could.

"Isensegreatfear in you, Skywalker", Dooku mused with a smile. "You have hate. You have anger. But you don't use them"

"He's provoking Skywalker", Depa observed with a scowl. "What is he trying to do to him?"

"Drawing him closer to the Dark Side, he is..", Yoda admitted, seeing that Palpatine may even have Dooku provoke Anakin in using the darkness within him, not just to prove the Jedi Knight's worth, but to dispose of his tool.

He and Skywalker paused for one single, final instant, blades locked together, staring at each other past a sizzling cross of scarlet against blue, and in that instant Dooku found himself wondering in bewildered astonishment if Sidious had suddenly lost his mind. Didn't he understand the advice he'd just given? Whose side was he on, anyway?

And through the cross of their blades he saw in Skywalker's eyes the promise of hell, and he felt a sickening presentiment that he already knew the answer to that question. Treachery is the way of the Sith.

A starburst of clarity blossoms within Anakin Skywalker's mind, when he says to himself Oh. I get it, now and discovers that the fear within his heart can be a weapon, too.

It is that simple, and that complex.

And it is final.

Dooku is dead already. The rest is mere detail.

The play is still on; the comedy of lightsabers flashes and snaps and hisses. Dooku Skywalker, a one-time-only command performance, for an audience of one. Jedi and Sith and Sith and Jedi, spinning, whirling, crashing together, slashing and chopping, parrying, binding, slipping and whipping and ripping the air around them with snarls of power.

And all for nothing, because a nuclear flame has consumed Anakin Skywalker's Jedi restraint, and fear becomes fury without effort, and fury is a blade that makes his lightsaber into a toy.

The play goes on, but the suspense is over. It has become mere pantomime, as intricate and as meaningless as the space-time curves that guide galactic clusters through a measureless cosmos.

Dooku's decades of combat experience are irrelevant. His mastery of swordplay is useless. His vast wealth, his political influence, impeccable breeding, immaculate manners, exquisite taste-the pursuits and points of pride to which he has devoted so much of his time and attention over the long, long years of his life-are now chains hung upon his spirit, bending his neck before the ax.

Even his knowledge of the Force has become a joke.

It is this knowledge that shows him his death, makes him handle it, turn it this way and that in his mind, examine it in detail like a black gemstone so cold it burns. Dooku's elegant farce has degenerated into bathetic melodrama, and not one shed tear will mark the passing of its hero.

But for Anakin, in the fight there is only terror, and rage.

Only he stands between death and the two men he loves best in all the world, and he can no longer afford to hold anything back. That imaginary dead-star dragon tries its best to freeze away his strength, to whisper him that Dooku has beaten him before, that Dooku has all the power of the darkness, to remind him how Dooku took his hand.

How Dooku could strike down even Obi-Wan himself seemingly without effort and now Anakin is all alone and he will never be a match for any Lord of the Sith-But Palpatine's words rage is your weapon have given Anakin permission to unseal the shielding around his furnace heart, and all his fears and all his doubts shrivel in its flame.

When Count Dooku flies at him, blade flashing, Watto's fist cracks out from Anakin's childhood to knock the Sith Lord tumbling back.

When with all the power that the dark side can draw from throughout the universe, Dooku hurls a jagged fragment of the durasteel table, Shmi Skywalker's gentle murmur I knew you would come for me, Anakin smashes it aside.

His head has been filled with the smoke from his smothered heart for far too long; it has been the thunder that darkens his mind.

On Aargonar, on Jabiim, in the Tusken camp on Tatooine, that smoke had clouded his mind, had blinded him and left him flailing in the dark, a mindless machine of slaughter; but here now, within this ship, this microscopic cell of life in the infinite sterile de sert of space, his firewalls have opened so that the terror and the rage are out there, in the fight instead of in his head, and Anakin's mind is clear as a crystal bell.

In that pristine clarity, there is only one thing he must do.

Decide.

So he does.

He decides to win.

He decides that Dooku should lose the same hand he took. Decision is reality, here: his blade moves simultaneously with his will and blue fire vaporizes black Corellian nanosilk and disintegrates flesh and shears bone, and away falls a Sith Lord's lightsaber hand, trailing smoke that tastes of charred meat and burned hair.

The hand falls with a bar of scarlet blaze still extending from its spastic death grip, and Anakin's heart sings for the fall of that red blade.

He reaches out and the Force catches it for him.

And then Anakin takes Dooku's other hand as well.

"He has done it!", Ki-Adi called out, though he did not feel any sense of both relief or triumph for the Jedi. Something was wrong here, and he looked at Mace and Yoda, who knew what was going to happen.

"If Dooku dies here, any chance of our future in knowing the identity of Sidious dies with him", Mace pointed out, though it doesn't really help since they already knew him firsthand.

"Taken the first step, Skywalker has...", was all that Yoda could say at the moment.

Dooku crumples to his knees, face blank, mouth slack, and his weapon whirs through the air to the victor's hand, and Anakin finds his vision of the future happening before his eyes: two blades at Count Dooku's throat.

But here, now, the truth belies the dream. Both lightsabers are in his hands, and the one in his hand of flesh flares with the synthetic bloodshine of a Sith blade.

Dooku, cringing, shrinking with dread, still finds some hope in his heart that he is wrong, that Palpatine has not betrayed him, that this has all been proceeding according to plan-Until he hears.

"Good, Anakin! Good! I knew you could do it!" and registers this is Palpatine's voice and feels within the darkest depths of all he is the approach of the words that are to come next.

"Kill him," Palpatine says. "Kill him now."

The Jedi Council gasped, now that they are about to witness the Jedi Knight ready to execute the Sith Lord. They needed him alive, in order to learn more about Darth Sidious.

But even now, they knew that Palpatine played his cards well. His friendship to Anakin and his political position made it very easy for him to get what he wanted for the Jedi Knight.

In Skywalker's eyes he sees only flames.

"Chancellor, please!" he gasps, desperate and helpless, his aristocratic demeanor invisible, his courage only a bitter memory. He is reduced to begging for his life, as so many of his victims have. "Please, you promised me immunity! We had a deal! Help me!"

And his begging gains him a share of mercy equal to that which he has dispensed.

"A deal only if you released me," Palpatine replies, cold as intergalactic space. "Not if you used me as bait to kill my friends."

"Bastard!", Kit Fisto finally shouted in dismay, while the rest contained themselves in expressing their resentment towards the Chancellor to who he is and what he had done to both Anakin and to Dooku.

"Scheming scum...", Depa lowly said, using all self-restraint not to have an outburst.

And he knows, then, that all has indeed been going according to plan. Sidious's plan, not his own. This had been a Jedi trap indeed, but Jedi were not the quarry.

They were the bait.

"Anakin," Palpatine says quietly. "Finish him."

Years of Jedi training make Anakin hesitate; he looks down upon Dooku and sees not a Lord of the Sith but a beaten, broken, cringing old man.

"I shouldn't-"

But when Palpatine barks, "Do it! Now!" Anakin realizes that this isn't actually an order. That it is, in fact, nothing more than what he's been waiting for his whole life.

"Anakin, don't!", Obi-Wan vainly pleaded, even knowing that he couldn't hear him. His apprentice, and his brother. Though he had avenged his defeat at Geonosis, by killing Dooku, he had placed himself as the next candidate for the Rule of Two.

And he was blaming himself. To all the failures and blunders that he and the Council had made to distance himself and of his values.

Permission.

And Dooku-As he looks up into the eyes of Anakin Skywalker for the final time, Count Dooku knows that he has been deceived not just today, but for many, many years. That he has never been the true apprentice. That he has never been the heir to the power of the Sith. He has been only a tool.

His whole life-all his victories, all his struggles, all his heritage, all his principles and his sacrifices, everything he's done, everything he owns, everything he's been, all his dreams and grand vision for the future Empire and the Army of Sith-have been only a pathetic sham, because all of them, all of him, add up only to this.

He has existed only for this.

This.

To be the victim of Anakin Skywalker's first cold-blooded murder.

First but not, he knows, the last.

Then the blades crossed at his throat uncross like scissors.

Snip

The Jedi watched in horror as Dooku, a very wise and esteemed Jedi Master, and now, nothing more than a tool to Sidious, had died right before their eyes. And no one could find solace to the fact that all chances of learning about Sidious through him had died with the Count as well.

And all of him becomes nothing at all.

Murderer and murdered each stared blindly.

But only the murderer blinked.

I did that.

The severed head's stare was fixed on something beyond living sight. The desperate plea frozen in place on its lips echoed silence. The headless torso collapsed with a slowly fading sigh from the cauterized gape of its trachea, folding forward at the waist as though making obeisance before the power that had ripped away its life.

...

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...

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p atreon.com/Darkness013


Chương 53: Star Wars : Chapter 53: pregnant I

The Council watched the holovid in complete silence, watching as the they saw Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Sidious made a fiery landing onto Coruscant after Grievous made his escape from his flagship.

For a while, most of them, begrudgingly, felt sympathy as to what had happened to Count Dooku, where Palpatine continued to manipulate both him and Anakin until it was time for him to go, after his usefulness had ended.

Not just Dooku, but the other Seperatists who were manipulated by Palpatine just as he had done with the Republic, by taking advantage of the instability from within.

Which further gives them suspicion that Palpatine used the war to increase his power further, with the help of his own inner circle that involves people like Mas Ammeda and Sly Moore to pave way to his position as Emperor.

And furthermore, the Jedi's constant heeding to the Senate had indirectly turned them into Palpatine's pawns, using their constant interfering with politics to his advantage until he found the right time to strike.

And, as much as they hate to admit it themselves, they already felt like imbeciles after realizing what was going on.

Because while he has been away, everything has changed. Today, here in the hallway of the Senate Office Building, shebrings him news of a gift they have given each other—a gift of joy,and of terror.

This gift is the edge of a knife that has already cut their past from their future.

For these long years they have held each other only in secret,only in moments stolen from the business of the Republic and thewar; their love has been the perfect refuge, a long quiet afternoon,warm and sunny, sealed away from fear and doubt, from duty and from danger.

But now she carries within her a planetary terminator that will end their warm afternoon forever and leave them blind inthe oncoming night.

She is more, now, than Anakin Skywalker's wife.

She is the mother of Anakin Skywalker's unborn child. After an all-too-brief eternity, the kiss finally ended. She clung to him, just breathing in the presence of him after solong, murmuring love against his broad strong chest while hemurmured love into the coils of her softly scented hair.Some time later, she found words again.

"Anakin, Anakin, oh my Anakin, I—I can't believe you're home. They told me..." She almost choked on the memory. "There were whispers... that you'd been killed. I couldn't—every day—"

"Never believe stories like that," he whispered. "Never. I will always come back to you, Padme."

Obi-Wan watched with a hidden smile that is covered by his right hand at the lower part of his face, having seen Padmé as the real bridge between him and of the Jedi Order. While he was devoted to the ideals of the Order, he wouldn't sink low as to turn over Anakin to the Jedi Council, as he was already happy when he felt the same.

After all he too violated the ideals of the order in a few instances, first to Siri Tachi and then to Satine, so who is he to judge?

"Master Kenobi, do you have any clue as to what Skywalker has been doing that we do not know?", Mace inquired, to which Obi-Wan mentally told himself to be careful at his next choice of words.

"Unfortunately no, Master Windu. Anakin neither told the truth about him and Senator Amidala nor he ever lied about it", he said, as he wasn't really lying about that one either.

"If Skywalker has to face any repercussions for his escapade, I vote that we withhold our verdict until we can find a more suitable solution that could harm neither party", Shaak Ti suggested, with the other members pondering of the idea thoughtfully.

And also wondering whether or not his fall was partly due to their decisions and not just Palpatine or the Senator.

"I've lived a year for every hour you were away—"

"It's been a lifetime. Two.

"She reached up to the burn-scar high on his cheek. "You were hurt..."

"Nothing serious," he said with half a smile. "Just an un-friendly reminder to keep up with my lightsaber practice."

"Five months.'' It was almost a moan. "Five months—how could they do that to us?"He rested his cheek lightly on the crown of her head. "If the Chancellor hadn't been kidnapped, I'd still be out there. I'm almost—it's terrible to say it, but I'm grateful. I'm glad he was kidnapped. It's like it was all arranged just to bring me home again..."

His arms were so strong, and so warm, and his hand touched her

hair in the softest caress, as though he was afraid she were as

fragile as a dream, and he bent down for another kiss, a new kiss, a kiss that would wipe away every dark dream and all the days and hours and minutes of unbearable dread—

But only steps away, the main vault of the Atrium still held

Senators and HoloNet crews, and the knowledge of the price Anakin would pay when their love became known made her turn her face aside, and put her hands on his chest to hold him away.

The Council watched cautiously, though some were not so approving of the sight. The others, however, saw this was one of the rare moments that Anakin was actually himself. And it was his bond with Master Kenobi and to his Padawan that could be held responsible as to why he was the Hero With No Fear.

"Anakin, not here. It's too risky."

"No, here! Exactly here." He drew her against him again, effortlessly overpowering her halfhearted resistance. "I'm tired of the deception. Of the sneaking and the lying. We have nothing to be ashamed of! We love each other, and we are married. Just like trillions of beings across the galaxy. This is something we should shout, not whisper—"

"I cannot help but wonder, how long has Skywalker been married or how did he managed to hide his marriage from the entire order?", Luminara asked out loud the question that most members do have in mind.

"We cannot know, but I have to admit, he did it very well...", Kit Fisto complimented the Jedi Knight.

"No, Anakin. Not like all those others. They are not Jedi. We can't let our love force you out of the Order—"

"Force me out of the Order?" He smiled down at her fondly

"Was that a pun?"

"Anakin—" He could still make her angry without even trying. "Listen to me. We have a duty to the Republic. Both of us— but yours is now so much more important.

You are the face of the Jedi, Anakin. Even after these years of war, many people still love the Jedi, and it's mostly because they love you, do you understand that? They love the story of you.

You're like something out of a bedtime tale, the secret prince, hidden among the peasants, growing up without ever a clue of his special destiny— except for you it's all true. Sometimes I think that the only reason the people of the Republic still believe we can win the war is because you're fighting-

"And it always comes back to politics for you," Anakin said. His smile had gone now.

"With the war raging on, they have their own respective duties to fulfill", Plo Koon observed.

"But it certainly didn't hinder their bond at any way", Depa added. "And I could say that is how strong it truly is

"I'm barely even home, and you're already trying to talk me into going back to the war—"

"This isn't about politics, Anakin, it's about you."

"Something has changed, hasn't it?" Thunder gathered in his voice. "I felt it, even outside. Something has changed." She lowered her head. "Everything has changed."

"What is it? What?" He took her by the shoulders now, his hands hard and irresistibly powerful.

"There's someone else. I can feel it in the Force! There is someone coming between us—"

"Calm down, Anakin", Obi-Wan playfully commented.

"You described him in just three words, Master Kenobi", Mace pointed out.

"Not the way you think," she said. "Anakin, listen—" "Who is it?

Who?"

"Stop it. Anakin, stop. You'll hurt us."

His hands sprang open as though she had burned them. He took an unsteady step backward, his face suddenly ashen.

"Padme—I would never—I'm so sorry, I just—" He leaned on the pillar and brought a hand weakly to his eyes. "The Hero With No Fear. What a joke... Padme, I can't lose you. I can't. You're all I live for. Wait..." He lifted his head, frowning quizzically. "Did you say, us?"

She reached for him, and he came to meet her hand. Rising rears burned her eyes, and her lip trembled. "I'm... Annie, I'm pregnant..."

Luke, was the name everyone had in mind when she said those words, meaning their last hope is not yet brought into the galaxy.

"Do you think Skywalker would've allowed Luke to be trained as a Youngling within the Temple?", Mundi asked, a thought that Obi-Wan dismissed immediately.

"If he would want to, that is", Yoda finally spoke. "Force him, we shall not"

She watched him as everything their child would mean cycled through his mind, and her heart caught when she saw first of all the wild, almost explosive joy that dawned over his face, be cause that meant that whatever he had gone through on the Outer Rim, he was still her Annie.

Obi-Wan smiled in approval, internally wishing that he could've helped him when no one else could.

It meant that the war that had scarred his face had not scarred his spirit.

...

Hey guys I would really appreciate it if you could throw some power stones to help elevate the ranking.

...

if you want to read ahead of the public release, you can join my p atreon :

p atreon.com/Darkness013


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