The Chosen One(s) | Anakin Skywalker x Reader

Chapter 67 - Darth Vader

*A/N - I'm sorry so much of the last two chapters has been mostly content from ROTS. Please hang in with me. After this chapter it becomes a lot more of original content again. Also I know you guys are gonna hate me for this chapter but pls don't I'm sensitive.😂*

Anakin's POV:

I can sense the disturbance in the Force growing more pronounced with every running step I take towards the Chancellor's office. A battle between light and the dark.

My lungs burn. Every beat in my chest drums like a warning, but I run anyway, as if speed could outrun the fear that sits in my gut. I told them. I told them he was a Sith. I did everything right—why does this feel like punishment? The corridor blurs and the Force feels like a knot tightening in my throat.

I hear the familiar whirl of lightsabers, the clashing noise that accompanies each strike. And as I enter the room, I find it in a complete disarray. Shattered glass from the large oval window lays all over the carpeted floor, scrunching under Ki-Adi-Mundi and the Chancellor's feet as they battle. And the now exposed wall lets in howling winds from the night sky.

It's dark aside from the cityscape of Coruscant's apartments and the glow of their weapons. Blue against Red. Light against Dark.

The Chancellor snarls, attempting to strike Ki-Adi-Mundi as they fight all too close to the edge of the broken window seal. But Ki-Adi-Mundi manages to get the upper hand, kicking Palpatine in the gut with a force that knocks him onto the ground and begging and gasping for his life.

The Jedi Master points his blue blade towards the Chancellor's neck, backing him into a corner.

"You are under arrest, my lord." Ki-Adi-Mundi proclaims.

My chest tightens until I can hardly breathe. This is it. He's cornered. They'll end him and then—then what? I resist the urge to step forward and keep the blade from striking but I want to keep this from being a killing. A Jedi cannot kill the unarmed.

The Chancellor looks at me helplessly. "Anakin, I told you it would come to this." He cries, holding his injured abdomen.

He looks small, hurt, and something in me softens in spite of myself. He told me he'd help. He told me he understood me. He told me he could save her. The memory of his hand on my shoulder, the way he always made me feel seen, chafes like an old wound.

"I was right. The Jedi are taking over!" He exclaims.

"The oppression of the Sith will never return." Ki-Adi-Mundi declares. "You have lost."

You have lost. The certainty in Ki-Adi-Mundi's tone should steady me. It should be comforting. Righteous. Instead it sharpens the panic inside me. You're wrong. If he dies, there is no one left who can save her. You have to think—think!

"No. No. No!" The Chancellor snarls, his voice a slithering hiss that I've never heard come from him before. "You will die!"

A lightning crack — sudden, terrible — lashes out from Palpatine's hands. It strikes the air with a harsh, electric smell. Ki-Adi-Mundi deflects it with his lightsaber but with every beam of light aimed towards him, he struggles to hold on.

Power. The Chancellor has power I've never seen before. Dangerous, terrible, powerful. Part of me wants to pull back, to shield myself from what he is. Another part of me is mesmerized by the promise in that power: control where I've had none. What that power could do for Y/N.

"He's a traitor!" The Chancellor screeches.

Ki-Adi-Mundi groans, trying to fight the lightening. "He is the traitor!"