Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars. Please don't sue me as I have no money.

The Reprisal of the Force

Chapter 1

They say the Force works in mysterious ways. Though you cannot see the bigger picture from an initial glance, or even deep scouring, does not mean it isn't being painted before you. Centuries of actions and reactions led to this moment, the final duel against good and evil; the light and the dark.

Vader could feel the darkness battling for dominance within his son, Luke Skywalker. Its tempting power pulling down defences as Vader's mocking words did their malicious work on his psyche. Each slash grew more aggressive, each jab aiming closer and closer to the delicate machines keeping Vader alive. It was working, his efforts to turn his son were finally barring fruit-

And just when success was within Vader's grasp, it was snatched away to dark amusement of his master. Luke snapped, his words finally doing their necessary work and shattering any reservations held by the boy. With a face, so like his own and Padmé's, twisted in unrestrained rage, Luke unleashed a torrent of unrelenting strikes against Vader's weakening defence. For the first time in the duel, Vader was retreating, barely able to slow the onslaught. He was forced across the observation deck all the way down to the catwalk. Vader toppled, barely holding himself up with the guard rail as he tried to reclaim the advantage. It was not to be, as Luke, with a masterful swing, slashed Vader's hand free.

The pain receptors in the mechanical hand fired in a panic, but Vader was too stunned to properly notice and react to it. Luke stood over him, his face mirroring the rage and turmoil his presence held.

Luke could strike him down here, finish the reign of Darth Vader, but it would be his downfall. Perhaps he would serve Palpatine, perhaps he would kill the Emperor and take control of the Empire or whatever survived this battle, perhaps he would die against Sidious. All that mattered what that Vader had failed, and looking up at the boy, the child of Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala, Vader could only see his self in those eyes.

Palpatine applauded Luke's performance, grooming him as Vader's replacement as he had done to Anakin following the death of Count Dooku. Vader cast his mind back to that time, aboard the flagship of General Grievous. Only, this time, he was in the position of the bested Sith and Luke in the place of the troubled Jedi. Vader knew how this ended, of course, for the siren call of the Dark Side could never be ignored forever. Luke would follow in the footsteps of his father and replace Palpatine's final apprentice.

Yet again, Luke defied expectation to Vader's immense disbelief. His fury and fear vanished, replaced by a morose acceptance. He turned to face Palpatine and tossed aside his lightsaber, it green blade vanishing like the anger in his heart. Luke did something Vader never could, something the Dark Lord thought impossible…

He denied the call of the Dark Side and Palpatine. He tasted its vast power and refused it. It couldn't be… that was impossible! Vader knew that better than any other, the Dark Side was not resisted, it was an inevitability! Still, his very existence running contrary to a lifetime of beliefs, Luke remained defiant of the Emperor to the very end.

Sidious did not show surprise and how disturbed he likely felt that his machinations had failed, at least not in a manner familiar to any other sentient species. Instead, he latched onto the one emotion he knew better than any other, one he had used to control and manipulate foes for decades: hate.

Vader watched in muted horror as Sidious launched torrents of blue force lighting, purposely torturing Luke in the more painful manner he could conjure. Vader, who had suffered under such attacks before, could only watch as his son, his only son, was tortured before his very eyes. He could not act, he could not release himself from the control of the Dark Side. He was not as strong as Luke, he was weak… So very weak…

Luke cried out to him now, and Vader wanted to move. To save his son, to save the last memory of Padmé before Sidious took even that from him, but…

No…

Vader had sat by and watched everything taken from him; his mother, his wife, and now his son. His choices, his weakness, his susceptibility to the Dark Side had cost him everything. Vader could not destroy the hate that had ruled him for over two decades, but he could direct it.

"No." Vader growled, storming forwards despite his wounds and grabbing Palpatine; his mentor and tormentor, and lifting the deceivably frail man overhead. Palpatine was too lost in his hate and madness to even properly realize what was going on, still cackling madly and lashing out randomly with his dark powers. Thankfully, the target was no longer Luke, and Vader had suffered far worse.

Each step felt short, and the distance to the nebulous pit that the observation deck sat on felt like it was kilometres away, yet Vader still reached it. With one last display of his failing strength, for Vader could feel his remaining mechanical limbs shutting down under the concentrated power, Vader pitched Sidious into the depths below before, finally, collapsing.

Palpatine's inhuman shrieks could be heard all the way down, finally seeming to realize he had been betrayed. He toppled end over end before evaporating into the energy source so far below. The power backlash, either form Palpatine or the core, nearly threw Vader backwards.

It was over, the dark power of Palpatine was destroyed once and for all, and the galaxy was free.

Vader collapsed to a knee as he felt a weight that had been pressed down upon his shoulders for so very long dissipate. It was a momentous occasion, almost covering the abject agony Vader was feeling at the present moment.

Luke was by his side in an instant, and for that Vader was beyond touched. Had their positions been reversed, Vader would not have been so kind… But, Luke was stronger than Vader or Anakin ever were, his heart a vast ocean for which even someone as evil and reprehensible as Darth Vader had a place-

No, Vader did not have a place. Anakin Skywalker did.

And on that failing battle station, surrounded by the last vestiges of Palpatine's evil, Darth Vader died, and Anakin was reborn, but it was a shortlived rebirth. Anakin did what he had dreamed of doing so long ago, and looked upon his and Padmé's child with his own eyes. It was there that Anakin had died, so full of regret yet at peace, for he had found salvation in his child.

He did not beg the Force for another chance, as he had done before, for there was no forgiving what he had done. The Force, however, works in mysterious ways, and it would not lose its champion.

"Anakin?"

Anakin could still see his son's face, even as he closed his eyes. The boy had his mother's soft, kind features, but the sharp eyes of his father… His mother's boundless kindness, but his father's impulsiveness. Oh, how Padmé would have loved him… Anakin wondered for the first time if it was her that named Luke, or the actions of the late Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, or Bail Organa?

"Anakin? Can you hear me?"

Perhaps Owen or Beru had been the ones to name him? What strange thoughts one has in their final moments, but Anakin couldn't complain. It was certainly better than the nightmares he had suffered through for over two decades-

Something nudged his shoulder, dragging Anakin from the depths of his thoughts and back into the present. He noted immediately that he wasn't dead, he was breathing steadily and could see as clear as day-

Perhaps that was not a very apt statement, wherever Anakin was currently was dim and his eyes, so accustomed to the red of his mask that he struggled to breach its darkness. The second thing he noticed was the Force around him. It felt different, less… Dark. Anakin had become too accustomed to the Emperor's malignant presence that he had forgotten what the Galaxy had felt like without him. Anakin hadn't felt this… free since before the Clone Wars.

"Anakin, if you are done daydreaming, I was speaking to you." A calm but exasperated voice reached Anakin from his right. Anakin blinked a couple of times before turning, carefully, to study the speaker.

"Obi-Wan?" Anakin spoke before he could stop himself, his voice breathless and confused and… so very young? Something was wrong here and as Obi-Wan recoiled with his own surprise written across his face, Anakin could feel a trickle of danger. Something was happening beyond the door behind them, and the Force wanted so desperately for Anakin to stop it.

"Danger." Anakin's voice took a hardened edge, his hand shot to his hip for the familiar weight of his lightsaber. It was cool against his grip- Cool? Since when had he been able to feel temperature through his mechanical limb? Anakin looked down and, gleaming in the meagre lights flickering through the darkness, he saw pale skin where a black gauntlet had been for more than two decades. What- Later, danger now.

"I sensed it as well," Obi-Wan, or whoever this doppelganger was, drew a lightsaber of his own. Twin flashes of blue filled the small space, drawing another moment of deep confusion from Anakin before he pushed it aside to deal with later. The door separating them and the danger opened with the press of a button, revealing a… bedroom. Anakin scoured it with his still adjusting eyes for a moment before he spied the danger. Two serpentine-like creatures wriggling across the prone form of whoever was sleeping in the bed. Anakin could never clear that distance fast enough, so he did the next best thing. Drawing on the force, he dragged both creatures across the short space between himself and the bed. A skilful swing of his lightsaber severed one… and completely missed the other. Anakin, so used to the weight and sluggishness of his arm, swung far too early and only got the first creature by mere luck. The other bounced, unharmed, off of Anakin's chest, which lacked the armour Anakin was so used to, and onto the ground. Luckily, he had the presence of mind to bring the heel of his boot down on it before it could escape, but it was near thing. The Obi-Wan look-alike dove out of the window, again shocking Anakin. One, because he just leapt out of a window, and two, because that was what the real Obi-Wan did in a situation eerily similar to this one. Pieces were beginning to come together, and as ludicrous as those pieces seemed, Anakin was left with the undeniable truth being made before him.

All thoughts of discovering just what in the hell was going on were quickly lost as Anakin stood, rooted to the spot. The lights to the room flickered to life, revealing a droid looking almost exactly the same as R2-D2, and furthering Anakin's suspicions. However, it was not R2s miraculous appearance that stunned Anakin to silence. That occurrence was part in thanks to the young woman now seated on her bed, looking around blearily in confusion and exhaustion. Even in this dishevelled state, however, she was as beautiful as the day he remembered.

Padmé Amidala, Senator of Naboo, his wife.

Anakin couldn't move or think, for his suspicions regarding where, or more specifically when, he was had just been proven in their entirety. The feeling of cold air on his skin could be an illusion, the R2 and Obi-Wan lookalikes could be faked, even the location could be a set, but her? He had seen her time and again in his dreams, those freed from nightmares of regret and self-hatred, and she was as beautiful as he remembered.

He also remembered the last time they met, her fear and horror at his actions, at his killing her…

Get out, he needed to get out, he needed to breathe. At that moment, a trio of her protection detail stormed the room with blasters raised.

"Master Jedi, what-" The lead guard started, but Anakin managed to school his face (something he had not had to do since the last time his could breath unassisted) into a neutral expression to hide his panic.

"Watch the Senator," His voice was still young sounding, as it had moments before, but it held some of the authority he wielded as Darth Vader. Enough so that the guards acted without further direction and moved to assist the frazzled Senator.

Anakin strode form the room, deactivated lightsaber held tightly in one hand as the other clenched into a fist. His thoughts were a mess, lingering on Padmé and the situation that led him to be here now more than anything else. Was this the will of the Force? Merely a final, fevered dream before his dying mind finally expired? Everything felt so real…

Anakin compartmentalized those thoughts for now, he needed time to meditate and make sense of his tumultuous emotions. If this was the event he remembered, then he and Obi-Wan had just thwarted an assassination attempt against Padmé… Which meant Obi-Wan was-

The damned fool, he was hanging onto the drone that delivered the would-be assassins. Anakin reached out with the Force to sense his former… current Master. The man's equal parts annoying and calming presence was moving quickly away form the building, and would soon be lost in the mess that was Coruscant. Anakin, not for the first time in his life, cursed his limited body-

Before remembering it wasn't really all that limited at the current moment. As Darth Vader, moving at anything faster than a brisk walk was out of the question, but this was not the same body. He was lighter, weaker, and had a pair of functioning legs.

Tentatively speeding up his movement speed, Anakin began an awkward jog. Though his body was capable and used to moving at fast speeds, his mind was not in the same condition. However, his strange jaunt soon became a job and that, in turn, evolved into a sprint. It was liberating to be able to move in such a way that he hadn't for years. Despite the serious circumstances, or how devoid of joy Anakin had become in his later life, he allowed himself a small smile.

Anakin arrived at the landing platform where a number of expensive speeders were parked. Out of a growing sense of curiosity, returned since his freedom from his suit, Anakin sought the same speeder he had used in the chase so long ago. His memories of the event were foggy for several reasons, but thankfully it was the only yellow, open-topped speeder of the bunch. A strange feeling of nostalgia fell over the fallen Jedi as he approached the speeder. Not for the vehicle itself, it was returned shortly after the chase. No, it was the events surrounding the chase, the simplicity of life following the incident on Naboo and before the Clone Wars. How had he never appreciated things as they were then?

Arrogance, of course, and a childish desire for adventure. As Vader, the notion of such emotions was pointless and a weakness, but as an Anakin reborn? He wished to enjoy that childish whimsy if only one last time, before war ripped the galaxy apart and forced him to be the Warmaster that he was.

Slicing the speeder was a small struggle, another of Anakin Skywalker's many skills forgotten when he was Vader. It was added, to the ever-growing list of things he needed to relearn, though far below rediscovering his old talent with a lightsaber and his ability to talk without sounding threatening…

The speeder took off as smoothly as one could make it when in a rush. Anakin gunned the engines and raced in the direction he could sense Obi-Wan. Weaving in and out of the oncoming traffic was almost child's play for someone with as much experience flying as he did. Despite the mess of airborne craft, Obi-Wan was easy enough to spot. A man hanging desperately from a probe droid was certainly hard to miss, especially since the civilian drivers were giving them a wide berth.

Anakin moved the speeder under Obi-Wan, who released the droid and landed almost gracefully into the passenger's seat. The man was damp with sweat from the effort of holding onto the floating droid but seemed in mostly high spirits.

"What took you so long?" Obi-Wan asked his tone a mixture of exasperation and amusement.

"Apologies. Where is the assassin?" Anakin answered tonelessly while wincing internally. That was not how Anakin Skywalker would respond, at least not as a young man. While, as Vader, he was not devoid of wit, it was far more focused on black comedy than friendly banter. That, like so many other things if Anakin was going to avoid anyone realizing who or what he was, would need work.

If Obi-Wan noticed this tone, he didn't show it. Leaning out of the cockpit, he scoured the fleet of vehicles for a moment before pointing out a distant one.

"There he is!" Anakin turned the nose of the speeder down and jetted after the rapidly fleeing assassin. The vehicle, like so many other things now, seemed vaguely familiar, bringing back long forgotten and buried memories.

Thus began a long, exhilarating chase. Anakin's vehicle of choice, as he soon learned, was not very fast nor highly manoeuvrable, unlike the speeder used by the bounty hunter. It was only through Anakin's skill as a pilot that he kept pace, making dangerous spins and close turns where the other pilot would not. Obi-Wan, of course, voiced concern over Anakin's flying. Anakin tactfully ignored him.

The Anakin of now had a singlemindedness his younger self never had. There was a time for banter, though in Vader's case there was never a time, and there was a time for focus. Many people, good people, died because Anakin had decided to crack a joke or some other distraction in the middle of a battle.

The chase led Anakin from the Senate District to the defunct Industrial District nearby, the would-be assassin trying desperately to lose Anakin through electrical fields and great plumes of smoke. Both, however, did nothing to fool the force. His… No, her fear was intoxicating, drawing Anakin's attention like a moth to a flame. The pull of the Dark Side was as present as ever, but for now, Anakin could ignore its promises of great power… For now…

Shaking those darker thoughts from his head, Anakin watched the bounty hunter dive down into a tunnel, vanishing alongside other speeders. Anakin stopped himself short of diving after it. A tunnel had to open up somewhere and, scanning the skyline, Anakin spotted a flow of speeders rising up and joining the main lanes. Turning his stolen speeder, and raced for the exit before the bounty hunter could reach it herself.

"Where are you going? He went that way!" Obi-Wan complained, pointing in the direction of the rapidly vanishing express tunnel. Had he been his younger self, Anakin would have been purposely vague about what he was doing to prove he was a more competent Jedi than Obi-Wan. Their pre-war relationship could be called frosty at best, antagonistic at worse. However, Vader had been a no-nonsense individual, and that was one of the few things that carried over to the reborn Anakin.

"That is a one-way express tunnel," Anakin lied easily, to be honest, he wasn't really sure if it was one-way with one exit, he hadn't read its sign. In actuality, this just seemed like a better idea. Obi-Wan did display his surprise this time, visibly recoiling at Anakin so freely explaining himself and being logical, "The tunnel exits there."

"Oh… uh… Good job." Obi-Wan managed after a few moments of open-mouthed staring. Anakin let a small part of his sarcastic wit show.

"Don't act so surprised- Master." Anakin caught himself before he referred to Obi-Wan by either his first or last name. It felt strange to refer to the man he had hated for so long as 'Master' once again, but then again, he did the same thing for Palpatine for just as long. Maybe he didn't have much room to complain.

"I wasn't surprised, I was just…" Obi-Wan started before catching himself, narrowing his eyes as he stared ahead. The small twitches and frown on the man's face told Anakin that Obi-Wan was trying, and failing, to correct himself. It was strange that Anakin still knew Obi-Wan's ticks, why did that of all things have to remain, but not his old skill with a lightsaber?

"Surprised?" Anakin answered for him, looking over at Obi-Wan from the corner of his eyes and allowing the barest smirk to cross his lips. Obi-Wan tried to deny it yet again before sighing in defeat.

"Well… Yes."

"Your faith in me is staggering, Master." Anakin said with a scoff as he looked over the edge of his requisitioned speeder, keeping an eye for the distinct if the distant shape of the Bounty Hunter's speeder. Sensing her from here was something of a challenge, especially given the horde of civilian speeders zipping every which way, but he had managed it before-

There she was, flying between two larger speeders, but moving at a far more lax pace. Evidently, she was confident she had escaped. Alas, overconfidence was the bane of all would-be assassins.

"It is not a lack of faith, my young padawan, it is merely- ANAKIN?!" Anakin, however, was no longer listening and threw himself from the speeder and down towards that of the Bounty Hunter. Confident that Obi-Wan wouldn't crash and die horribly, Anakin dove for the increasingly larger spacecraft without an ounce of fear.

The landing was hard, as was to be expected, and Anakin nearly fell to his premature death due, again, to his lack of confidence in such an agile, intact body. By luck, or perhaps the will of the Force, he managed to hold on. The Bounty Hunter, evidently aware of the unintended passenger on her roof, swerved wildly to throw him off. This was not the Anakin of two decades ago, however, and as such he was more than capable of multitasking.

With one hand holding tightly onto the flailing speeder, Anakin extended his other and concentrated on the repulsor coils built into the left 'wing'. With a small amount of effort, he crushed the lot of them and was rewarded with a gout of flames and violent plumes of black smoke. The speeder lost all semblance of control and spun wildly back to the planet's surface, the Bounty Hunter doing all that she could to control their descent.

Anakin braced himself for impact, both hands now holding onto the speeder for dear life. Once they were a safe distance from the ground, he dropped and landed in an extremely sloppy roll. Alas, another issue with fleshy legs was that he couldn't land in the intimidating, and admittedly pretty cool, way he did as Vader.

He was on his feet in a flash, though, and raced to the crash site of the speeder. The Bounty Hunter was only just escaping the fiery wreck of her transport when Anakin reached her, his lightsaber flashing to life in a blaze of blue. She was an admirably fast draw, though, and pivoted on the spot with a blaster pistol in hand.

Anakin slowed his sprint, falling into a form of deflection he was far more confident utilizing. In time, he would readapt to the speed and agility of his younger self, but today was not that time. With practised, almost lazy swipes, Anakin bat blaster bolt after blaster bolt away, knocking them over the heads of the gathered crowd or in the general direction of the Bounty Hunter. Naturally, his aim was still rather off, but it was better to miss than accidentally killing her on the spot.

Anakin, in a few long strides, reached the increasingly desperate Bounty Hunter. She had retreated to the edge of the platform and, in a desperate bid to save her skin, tried to shove the blaster under Anakin's guard. Harry, with an almost negligent slash, attempted to cut the barrel of the blaster off. However, his clumsy movements and her speed led to the slash falling on her wrist instead of her blaster.

The woman's resulting scream of agony and horror as she fell to her knees was a sign the battle was over. Anakin called the blaster to his hand before retreating a pace back. The woman bemoaned the loss of her hand for another minute or so before Obi-Wan finally showed up.

"Was cutting off her his… her hand necessary?" Obi-Wan asked, noticing the severed appendage lying on the ground as well as the former owner, who was curled up on the ground and sounding quite depressing.

"I was aiming for the blaster." Was all Anakin would say on the matter, deactivating his lightsaber and tossing the blaster over the nearby edge. Obi-Wan rolled his eyes, but did not reprimand his apprentice… Padawan… Whatever Anakin was at this point, and knelt before the fallen Bounty Hunter.

"You have caused quite a stir, Bounty Hunter," Obi-Wan commented lightly like he was discussing the weather with an acquaintance. The Bounty Hunter, showing an impressive level of self-control, glared balefully up at Obi-Wan and did not respond.

"Who are you working for?" Anakin demanded redundantly as he already knew the answer to that, still standing behind Obi-Wan with his arms crossed in what he hoped looked like an intimidating pose. The loss of several inches, a stone or ten, and a pure black suit certainly didn't help anything. The Bounty Hunter changed her glare from Obi-Wan to Anakin, though it was noticeably weaker and tinged by no small amount of fear. It wasn't every day, after all, that your speeder was destroyed by the Force and you were disarmed in the most literal sense by a Jedi… Though Anakin was still wary on referring to himself as such. He was not a Sith, nor was he a Jedi… By the Force, this was a confusing mess…

"Anakin, please," Obi-Wan said in a warning tone, not bothering to look back before addressing the Bounty Hunter again. Anakin held back a scoff and a small twinge of anger, now painstakingly reminded of how dismissive of him pre-war Obi-Wan was. Unbidden memories, both good and bad, flooded Anakin's mind and made him introspective for a moment. Long enough that he missed whatever Obi-Wan said to the Bounty Hunter and her response. He turned back in as Obi-Wan responded in kind.

"Well, Miss Wesell, I think you, my Padawan, and I will be taking a trip down to the Jedi Temple so we may continue this conversation. Anakin-"

But Anakin was no longer listening, for the Force screamed out a warning to the young Force User. Turning and igniting his lightsaber in the same motion, Anakin spied a distant, silver-and-blue figure on a far off building. With an almost instinctual swing, Anakin destroyed a small object attempting to race passed him. It vanished in a shower of sparks and a small shriek, but Anakin's eyes were on the figure.

Jango Fett, the father of Boba Fett and genetic donator for the Clone Armies on Kamino, stared back. His arm lowered, likely having been guiding the dart. No sooner had Anakin destroyed the weapon did Fett take off into the night sky, vanishing around a building and into the mass of speeders.

"Where did he go?!" Obi-Wan demanded, by Anakin's side in an instant and scouring the skies for Fett. Anakin, a scowl on his face as he realized he had just destroyed the only lead on Kamino, sighed and shook his head.

"He's gone. His armour looked like it was Mandalorian, though."

"Mandalorian, huh?" Obi-Wan murmured, scratching at his beard for a moment, "A rare sight… Take heart, my young Padawan. We may have lost the mastermind of this plot, but we did capture the assassin herself."

Both of them turned to face Wesell, who was still prone on the ground. Her face was twisted into one of horror, hurt, and loss.

"He… He tried to kill me…"

She did not resist as the duo led her to Anakin's appropriated speeder and sped back to the Senator's apartment. Anakin was dropped off, left with the task of continuing the watch over the Senator, while Obi-Wan raced for the Temple. Anakin had no doubt Wesell would prove useful, but did she know about Kamino or who Fett worked for? Or, better yet, who Fett's master worked for?

Thus ended the first night of Anakin Skywalker's, formerly Darth Vader, rebirth into the past, and already the winds of change were blowing…