Eclipse

Chapter 10- Betrayal Is Splitting (Part 2 of 2)

When Anakin came too, he heard voices.

"Fascinating, but how?!" The raspy voice sounded so familiar, a mix of anger and awe. The tone was of bewilderment.

Still somewhat out of touch, Anakin groaned as he lifted himself up to rest on his forearms. Vague, incognizant memories washed over him and with it, a barrage of emotions. He rubbed his eyes sleepily as if awakening from a dreamless slumber, wondering what happened that he ended up somewhere eerily familiar. He was surprised to still be laying on a floor of bloody colors, usually he woke to the annoying stark white of a medcenter, surrounded by Padmé or Obi-Wan these days, and they were amazing!

This awakening party however, was not quite so welcome to his scolding, sore eyes.

To his right, there was a black helmet, the color of space in all its void likeness. Upon squinting for a better look, he noticed a relatively large dent at the top where the lenses stared at nothing. It rested on its side, and if he really chose to listen, he would hear the breathing of a servant.

But he didn't listen. He never did. Why start being attentive now when there was more in this scene that crackled with intensity.

Right in front of him, albiet a few feet away, there were two beings, both were cloaked, however one knelt over the other. The one laying down seemed to be unconscious. One of them felt like the chancellor... sort of. However the force signature of the other was clouded with something Anakin couldn't begin to decrypt.

"Master?" Anakin asked groggily, hoping Obi-Wan was nearby to shake him and tell him he dozed off during a lecture. But it was not Anakin's day today as he was instantly fixated on with a hot yellow glare. It was furious and puzzled, but most importantly, it was shocked.

"How..." The man began, but was curtly cut off by Anakin's frightened yelp. He rapidly woke up, scooting away from his position on the ground, chest heaving with bemusement, and unsure why he wasn't trying to stand. He was after all, in danger. Why wouldn't his kriffing leg work?! Now was not the time to go into shock!

Screaming and a lightsabers trademark buzz cut through his haze, drenching him with memories that rammed into his skull by the millisecond.

"You're... you're the Sith Lord!" Anakin wheezed, hating how feeble he sounded in such a demonic presence, but too puzzled by the feeling of fire closing around his throat to stop himself from stumbling into a cold wall, which he used to find his footing.

Sidious still remained at the unknown figures side, though he did stand up to spare Anakin a gaze that spoke louder than any word. Eventually though, he did speak his baffled mind.

"But you're Skywalker..." He murmured, "How can you remember who I am when you're awake?"

But Anakin wasn't listening. He was too occupied with the abhorrent deeds he dealt over the last few months. None were pleasant. Emotions of evil encompassed his head, terror, fury, detest and suffering coursed through his body as if the feelings were his own. But they were not... were they?

Infants stared up him with clueless glee, unaware they were in danger until their lives were thrown into the force. Children, young and old, adolescence nearing adulthood, adults becoming parents, parents becoming grandparents, all their deaths played for him like an insidious slideshow. He was forced to kill them. All of them.

Not just men, but the women and children too. But unlike the Tuskan's they were not animals! Force! Even the Tuskans were just practicing their culture, they didn't know any better. Mindless slaughter was all they knew, but they didn't deserve to die! He couldn't find a single death that was justified, all of them merged as a single ball of innocence he slain, ending with images of a beautiful brunette grinning with radiance and a blue-grey gaze crinkling with a fatherly smile.