Gates of Hell

Chapter 37 - No Light

Author's Note: Funny thing. I didn't realize how it might seem as if Obi-Wan stabbed Anakin until the screams I got in the comments. Lol. Anyway, I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint your expectations! :D

Next chapter: October 12th 

~ Amina Gila

Vader feels the pain searing into his side, and his heart drops into his boots as he knows what it means. Desperation fuels him, and he delves into the Force, tapping into the wellspring of power within him and shoving outward, hurling all enemies away from him as he leaps to the ground, to where Anakin is lying.

For a moment, he's frozen, flickers of visions and nightmares assaulting him, and then, he's moving forwards.

"Anakin!"

It's his worst nightmare come true, and he sees the culprit only paces away. Eeth Koth. He's one of the Council members, one of the Jedi who stayed, one of the ones who came with them to destroy the criminals. Vader doesn't even think, a violent burning rage sweeping over him, and he reaches out, shoving past the Jedi Master's weak shielding, wrapping a telekinetic grip around his neck and crushing. Bones crunch beneath his grip and Koth's dead body crumples to the ground.

Only then does Vader turn to Anakin. Obi-Wan is next to him, expression panicked and haunted, a hand pressed on Anakin's chest as he channels the Force into Anakin's body at a weak attempt at healing him. It's useless. Vader can see the knife in his side, buried in up to the hilt, and he knows that far too much damage has been done. Without immediate medical attention – something that's impossible in the middle of this battlefield – Anakin will bleed out in ten minutes at most, even leaving the knife in place to try and slow blood loss.

He drops to his knees next to him, reaching out to touch his forehead, a desperate, frantic litany of denials racing through his mind. "Anakin," he says again, and the younger looks at him. He looks so young in this moment, something terrified in his blue eyes, and it only makes Vader even angrier, guilt mingling with dread, because this is his fault. If he hadn't been so adamant about coming here, none of this would have happened. He ignored his visions, and look what happened? Anakin is dying anyway. Is there nothing he can do to save the people he loves?

But when Anakin dies, so does he.

Their lives are bound together, forever interlinked, and he can't imagine it any other way. He can't watch Anakin die, hold his body the way he held his mother's, knowing that he failed someone else. He can't – he can't do that again.

And that's when he realizes it, the only thing he can do. If he severs the bond between them, pours his life force into Anakin, Anakin will survive – with the cost of his own life, but it's a cost he's more than willing to make. If one of them must die, he would rather it be him. Anakin has too much to live for.

He reaches for their bond with intent, and Anakin's eyes widen. "No," he rasps, "No, don't. I'm not –" His voice breaks with a gasp, a wheezed inhale. "– Don't."

Vader reaches further and then drops his shielding. He's held it in place ever since he first came, so no one would know who he is, but now, it doesn't matter anymore. It doesn't matter if the Jedi all realize who he is, if Obi-Wan realizes who he is and rejects him. None of it matters if Anakin is dead.

There's a quiet, sharp inhale from Obi-Wan as he tentatively probes towards Vader's signature, feeling the way it mirrors Anakin, just dark and fragmented instead of light and whole.

"I will not let you die," Vader snarls, brushing his fingers gently through Anakin's curls, reaching further into their bond, ready and willing to subdue Anakin with his mind if he must.