a.n. - hi! This is my first story I'm putting on here, so let’s see how this goes. Please be kind, and if you have any suggestions or improvements, let me know!
Warnings: This does include death and spoilers for Revenge of the Sith (oops). Some events may not be canon or if it is canon it may not be canonically correct.
Summary: After serving in the Clone Wars as the co-general of the 501st Legion alongside Anakin Skywalker, you thought the war would be over. But Anakin falls to the dark side, and you go into hiding. After you go into hiding for 10 years, Darth Vader finds you for one final fight.
You would think the destruction of the world would be loud. The destruction of my world was silent. There were no loud sirens or news items telling everyone that the end of the world was upon us. There was no warning. It just…happened.
It was just a normal day at the Temple, it was peaceful even. After completing the Outer Rim Sieges with the 501st battalion - my battalion - I thought I had found some semblance of peace. Obi-Wan had left to defeat General Grievous, and Anakin having killed Count Dooku, I thought this war would be over.
A war that had defined me. A war that had changed who the Jedi were. We were no longer the peacekeepers that the galaxy had leaned on. We were war machines. Younglings were turned into soldiers overnight. Padawans were promoted to knights, some nowhere near being ready. The Republic needed generals, and the Jedi had run out of time.
We didn't know what this war would bring, but it took everything from me. I started to doubt the council. I started to doubt that we were on the right side of this war. I started to wonder what this was all for.
We were told that this was our duty, that we were defending freedom. They couldn't have been so far from the truth. Freedom does not come from ambushes, or stealth attacks, or blaster bolts. I thought we were defending democracy, protecting those who couldn't be protected.
I have never been so wrong.
Anakin Skywalker was my co-general. A brave soldier, and a better friend. They called him The Hero with No Fear, The Chosen One. But I saw past the legend, the myth. He was reckless, of course he was. Bold to the point of madness. But he was also kind in ways people never saw. He remembered every trooper’s name. He made time to comfort children after battles. He challenged the Council not out of defiance, but out of conviction. He sat with me on those late nights in the war room, where I couldn't see the point of all the pain war brings.
But he always carried a darkness, subtle at first, always just under the surface. He didn't trust the council and hell, he wasn't wrong to be skeptical. He always had felt everything – too much, perhaps – and it weighed on him.
I had taken a squad to finish off a battle on Kashyyyk. It was simple, an easy mission. I thought I could go home, take a break from the war that has taken so much from me. Little did I know there was no home to go back to.
I heard a soft whisper of a voice behind me, coming from a hologram. The voice was chilling, sending a shiver of apprehension down my spine.
It had never been so silent.
All of a sudden, there was a circle of my troopers – my brothers – surrounding me. No words were said, only the raise and click of their blasters could be heard.
“What are you all doing? What kind of game is this?” I said, a tone of apprehension and worry in my voice, my dual purple lightsabers ignited in my grip.
“Just following orders, sir. Nothing personal.” Dogma, one of my closest friends during this war, said with a chilling tone of voice.
“Good Soldiers follow Orders. Kill the Jedi.” They repeated in unison.
My face contorted into one of shock and horror. Then the shooting started.
I had never run so fast in my life. Trees whipped into my face, the rain had started to pour, and I wanted to get out.
The trees and the greenery helped conceal me from the clones – my clones – to keep them from finding me.
I found my ship, so I immediately boarded and got off this hellish planet. I fell against the wall, absolute shock going through my body. What happened? Why did all of a sudden the clones have the need to kill the Jedi? Then I felt it.
I heard the screams, I felt the excruciating pain.
A hologram came through, revealing Obi-Wan Kenobi, a trusted friend and mentor of mine.
‘“Obi-Wan, what is going on? My clones just tried to kill me.” I said, my voice slightly breaking.
“The Republic has fallen. We have lost, and there is now a purge of the Jedi.” He said softly, as if it hurt him to speak those words.
“Who is behind all this?” I asked softly.
“The Chancellor, who we also know as Darth Sidious.” My eyes widened in shock. I always felt that the man was too smart, too naive to truly have no idea what was going on. I'll give it to him, he put on a good act.
“Surely he can’t have done this by himself, Obi-Wan.”
“He didn't. He had help from his new apprentice, Darth Vader.”
My eyes widened as a shiver of trepidation fell down my back.
“Anakin is gone, Darth Vader has replaced him. He has pledged himself to the dark side. I tried to save him, I tried to reason with him, but he wouldn’t listen.” Obi-Wans voice broke, small tears tracking down his face.
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. How could he have fallen so far?
“I don’t understand Obi-Wan. How could he have done this?” My body trembled. The adrenaline has started to wear off.
“I don’t know, but we have failed him. We all have. He is currently at the military base on Coruscant, and I am worried to see what will happen when he goes to the temple. The council has issued an emergency evacuation, but I fear it may be too late. Those who were on missions with their clones have perished. Nothing will stop the rage of the dark side.” Obi-Wan looked and sounded utterly distraught. I knew what I had to do. Yes, it may be foolish. Yes, it may cost me my life. There is no other way I would go other than defending those I called family.
“I am going to the temple Obi-Wan. Get out while you can, I’ll try to get the remaining Jedi out of the temple.”
Obi-Wan tried to talk me out of it, distraught that he was going to lose the one he considered a daughter. But he knew how stubborn I was. And he knew I would stop at nothing to save others.
“May the Force be with you. I hope to see you again someday.” Tears fell down the man's
cheeks. I had never seen him cry. He was always so composed, so put together.
“May the Force be with you, Obi-Wan.” I sniffle, as I end the hologram, and set my destination for Coruscant.
I ran as fast as I could.
I ran up the Jedi Temple steps, screams and fear was emanating through the Force. I tried to get as many as I could out. I found Bail Organa, the senator for Alderaan, and convinced him to take the younglings to Alderaan for safe keeping, and I promised to come and help them after.
After helping the younglings onto a ship set course for Alderaan, I watched them disappear from the atmosphere. They deserved to live their lives.
All of a sudden, I heard the familiar clank of clone armor coming up the stairs. There were maybe hundreds. At the front and center, was a tall figure in a cloak.
I knew that man anywhere. It was someone who I fought alongside this entire war.
I turn and face them, stumbling backwards, his eyes locked on me.
Ones that were as blue as the seas of Kamino were now an ugly yellow.
Ones affiliated with the Sith.
He used the force to push me back and I flipped to catch myself, my lightsabers now ignited.
“Anakin! This isn't you.” I yell to him
“Anakin is gone, I am what remains.” He seethes in anger.
“A Sith Lord? You have become the one thing you sought to destroy!” I yell, begging him to see the error in his ways.
But in the back of my mind, I knew he wouldn’t.
The Chancellor had manipulated him.
Obi-Wan and I weren’t powerful enough to stop him.
“This is the way, join me or perish.”
“No! I will not become a Sith.”
I shook my head and I ran.
I felt him following me, I felt his anger.
I heard his yell of anger. I felt the air of blaster shots next to my head as I ran to my ship.
Now it was time to go into hiding. Because the Jedi have fallen, the Order is no longer. I am now a wanted fugitive and he will stop at nothing to make sure I am killed. I will not let that happen. Order 66 may have shaped my past, but I won't let it shape my future. I stare out into the atmosphere of Coruscant, what used to be my home. Now it is time for new beginnings under the oppression of the Empire.
Across the stars, Jedi were falling—betrayed by the very soldiers we had fought beside.
It wasn’t just a massacre.
It was erasure.
Records purged. Temples burned.
It was not war. It was genocide.
TIME JUMP - 10 YEARS LATER
I became no one. I watched the Empire rise like a steel storm. The Empire hunted us with brutal efficiency.
Not just with inquisitors and probes—but with propaganda.
We became villains in their story and when a lie is repeated enough, it becomes the truth.
For years, I lived with the weight of survival.
Every Jedi who died… could have been me and every day I lived… was a reminder of that cost.
For years, we were hunted like animals, erased from history, hunted by the very soldiers we had once fought beside. The Empire’s shadow stretched across the galaxy, swallowing the stars.
We were few. We were scattered.
But we were not broken.
I spent years in exile, in hiding. Watching the rise of the Empire and wondering if the galaxy would ever know peace again.
I was on a planet I have never heard of. There was a Venator Class Destroyer here, rusting and abandoned from its service in the Clone Wars 10 years ago. Being on the run, alone, was a lonely, brutal existence.
There were whispers of Inquisitors, of Vader and at first, I thought they were ghost stories.
I felt him before I saw him.
I turned, my hood blowing off. All I could see was the red blade in the darkness.
I didn't say anything, and I didn’t run. I ignited my purple blades, and I waited for his first move. His saber connected with mine, a blur of brute force. I blocked high, turned, and pivoted on my foot – the sheer power behind his strikes forced me back, over and over again.
I remembered this rhythm. He had always fought like he had something to prove. Even as Anakin. But now the anger Anakin once fought with wasn't just heat, it was hollow. Cold.
“Why are you here?” he asked, the modulated voice sending chills down my spine.
I parried his strike and twisted my sabre toward his shoulder. He turned, deflected, and kicked me hard in the ribs. I skidded across the black rocks beneath me, the breath knocked from me, but I forced myself up.
“You came here to die.” He tilted his head, a mannerism so like Anakin, as he prepared to strike me again.
“No” I said, my breath coming out in pants. “I came to remind you who you were before you forget.”
He lunged at me and I met him this time. Our sabres clashing in a flurry of strikes, the red and purple blades clashing in a spectacular burst of light. Sparks flew and the floor cracked beneath us. He tried to overpower me, but I used his strength against him. I let him overreach, then I turned and slashed across his thigh. He stumbled, but I didn’t let go of my advantage. I flipped behind him, slashing across his backplate. He roared, a mangled monster of sound. I jumped as he slashed out at me with immaculate precision, and I landed a clean strike across his helmet.
The mask cracked. Not wide. But enough.
Through the dust and darkness, I saw his eye. Bloodshot, human. Painfully human.
For a moment, Anakin Skywalker was back. For the first time since the war, he looked…lost.
He said my name like it was foreign. A ghost. I couldn’t breathe.
“You're still in there,” I whispered, lowering my blades slightly. “You’re fighting him. I can feel it.”
He took a half step forward. His sabre lowered slightly. I thought – for a second – I had reached him.
“Anakin… come back.” My eyes watered, as I took a small step forward.
Then the breath returned. The harsh rasp of the respirator reasserted itself. His eye hardened, the yellow coming back.
“Weakness lives in memory.” He said, his voice cold.
He struck. I blocked. My arms were slower this time, my breaths were ragged, and my muscles burned. He forced me back, strike after strike. My defense faltered and he caught me in the side. It wasn’t deep, but it was enough, and I stumbled. My sabres flew from my hand and I tried to reach for the Force, but he was already on me. He pinned me to the ground, the red blade hovering just above my chest.
“You can kill me, but it won’t silence the part of you that still remembers.”
His voice dropped, almost a whisper as his modulator malfunctions.
The blade pierced my chest, and I gasped, blood trickling down my mouth. I wasn’t angry. I wasn’t filled with hatred or fear. I felt…peace.
I had fought for this galaxy. I gave my life for it. I had fought for the Jedi and I fought for the people who had lost everything in the wake of the Empire. My journey had come to an end and I fell to the cold stone beneath me.
Vader stood over me, his respirator hissing with each mechanical breath.
“I forgive you,” my voice fragile as I choke on the blood “I always have.”
For a brief moment, I felt the darkness around me lift, and I reached out into the Force. I found his presence. Not Darth Vaders, Anakins. Faint, but it was filled with struggle and loss. I whispered as he kneeled next to me.
“It was never your fault,” I choke on the blood before continuing. “We were all apart of the same tragedy. I love you Anakin, I always did. I’ll be waiting for you when you come back.”
And with that, as a few tears fell down my face, I drifted away. My body went cold. The pain faded. I was at peace.
Darth Vader grabbed my lightsabers, and he looked at them in reverence. He remembers the friend he once had. He was in too deep. But he couldn't help imagining for a moment a time where they would be happy.
But it wasn’t their time.
Anakin was loyal to a fault. but they failed him, we all did.
This story is a tragedy, because it didn’t have to end this way.
This story is a tragedy, because it was always going to end this way.
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