The Tragic Jedi | Anakin Skywalker

𝓢𝓬𝓮𝓷𝓮 𝟓𝟑

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Anakin and Obi Wan hurried down the Separatist ship with Chancellor Palpatine just behind them, all of them tense as they made their way to the ship's hangar to escape the rapidly deteriorating Star Destroyer. 

Anakin was still reeling from what he had done to Count Dooku. He'd just murdered Count Dooku in cold blood, using his own lightsaber and the Count's very own crimson lightsaber to behead him. 

Just minutes before as the Count had kneeled before him in defeat, Anakin had gazed into Count Dooku's fear-filled eyes and sensed through the Force the Sith's disbelief at being bested in lightsaber combat. Count Dooku had always been applauded as the best lightsaber's combatant, yet Anakin, a twenty-three year old Jedi Knight, had just beaten him. 

 And Anakin had done what no Jedi should ever do. He'd allowed his anger and hatred towards the Count to get the best of him, feeding it with his furious, dark thoughts, listening as Palpatine had urged him, "Do it. Kill him."

Obi Wan had been knocked unconscious twenty feet away, having been Force pushed by Count Dooku into the wall during their fight. Obi-Wan had knocked his head hard against the wall and then on the metal floor as he crumpled to the ground, so he was out like a lightbulb. On top of that, a few metal debris had fallen on top of his former master. Anakin hadn't been sure if Obi-Wan was still even alive after such injury. 

So, when Anakin faced the defeated Count Dooku, Obi Wan hadn't been there to stop Anakin, to reason with him, to remind him of the Jedi Code, to tell him as he'd always told Anakin to be mindful of his feelings and his thoughts. 

Anakin had nobody to turn to for guidance when he knew, himself, that his thoughts and feelings were the terrible thoughts of a Sith, so Anakin had listened to the next reasonable voice: Palpatine. 

And when Palpatine had hissed, "Do it," once more, he'd given Anakin the permission he'd been seeking. Anakin allowed his anger to consume him like a roaring fire, and then he did the very thing his heart-- but not his mind-- had been screaming and urging him to do. 

With two swift slices of the plasmic blades-- one blue, the other crimson red-- Anakin had killed Count Dooku in cold blood, mercilessly. The instant Anakin had done it, the Count's decapitated body falling to his feet, he'd regretted it, realizing at once what he had just done. 

From where he'd sat chained to a chair, illuminated by a circular window behind him that showcased the raging battle around them, Palpatine had simply congratulated in a congenial voice, "Good, Anakin, good. I knew you could do it. He was too dangerous to be kept alive." His voice took a more aggressive tone as he said, "Now, free me from these chains." 

Anakin had done what Palpatine had told him to do, using his lightsaber to free the Chancellor's wrists from the chains bounding them, even as he internally berated himself for killing a defenseless man, for breaking the Jedi Code. 

Palpatine had wanted to leave Obi Wan behind as the Star Destroyer shook with the force of the impact of Republic fire, saying there was no time, but Anakin had refused. There was no way he would leave Obi Wan to die. He had already betrayed the Jedi Code; he would not betray his friend. So, Anakin had simply hefted Obi-Wan over his shoulder before sprinting out of the shuddering room with Palpatine on his heels.