“Please, Anakin. Why are you doing this?! There is good in you.” Padme screamed at him, her screams being gurgled from her blood. Her nose had been shattered and her forehead cut leaving a bleeding mess all over the bridge of his ship. Wonderful, now they would need to call up a janitor droid to clean up the stains.

  “Leia, why did you bring her here?” Anakin sighed, turning his back too the viewing deck of his capital ship to instead face his daughter. His sweet little Leia, was just now beginning to become her own woman, just barely being an adult. She was getting to the point where she would start making her own decision, he just wished it didn't involve holding her mother by the hair as she dragged her through his ship.

  “The bitch should see her precious Republic burn.” She sneered, an malicious gleam sparkling in her eye.

  Anakin rolled his eyes at his daughter’s antics and turned his attention away from his ex-wife and daughter. He found less disgust in the planetary view before him. Coruscant was burning, their ships were nothing more than scrap metal floating by his own. What remained of the Republic's main fleet was as ruined as Courscant as what was once a prized jewel was now rubble and scorched earth. The siege had been going… acceptable. It wouldn't be long till the Planet finally fell, at most a year and depending on Luke's recovery, it would only be a couple of months.

  Palpatine had no doubt fled the planet by now, the Sith had hundreds of methods of escaping Coruscant, and no matter how hard Anakin tried he would not be able to shut them all down at once even if he did know all of them. Still, this would be chalked up to a success even if Palpatine did survive. This would ensure the end of the Jedi order, and maybe even the Republic as a whole. Palpatine would no longer have the strongest military in the world backing him. He would either have to flee to Hutt space or deep into the unknown regions.

  Would Palps give up this century? That would certainly be a nice thought, to have a couple of decades just so Anakin could wipe out the rest of the Galaxy’s resistance and the remains of the Republic. When Anakin usually destroyed the Republic Palps would either create a brand new empire in the unknown regions or create his own version of the Rebels. The new empire would be difficult, but Anakin had grown used to war, he probably had spent more of his life in war than out of it. Walking into a battlefield has become second nature to him, like going for a brisk jog in the morning to normal people.

  “I do hope he doesn’t do the rebel thing. Guerilla tactics are so tedious, not to mention the irony is not lost on me.” Anakin sighed to himself. He was getting tired. The Chosen One looked at himself in the reflection of the window of his battleship. How many more loops could he handle before he broke again?

  He didn’t look ugly, in fact, he had gotten many many many marriage offers from planets asking him to be the king of their planet, even though he was known throughout the galaxy as ‘Death’. Just Death. No more no less. It was a fitting name considering Anakin had essentially crippled the core of the Galaxy. Many planets are left beyond repair, no longer capable of housing anything besides ash. Children, Planets nor any being was safe from Death. Anakin had not fought against the title, it was just so much less hassle to admit being a Dictator then not too.

  Still, the Darkside had done a number on his appearance. His hair had whitened, his eyes bright yellow, and the only reason why he hadn’t ended up a wrinkly disgusting mess like Palpatine was simply his age. Though with him being so deep in the Dark this loop it wouldn’t be long till he started looking like a raisin, like his Master often did. Perhaps he should consider creating the cloning vats early to prepare for transferring his essence. This eternal war with Palpatine will last longer then a lifetime and this body will only slow him down eventually.

  “Please Leia, you can’t do this. My beautiful daughter, can’t you see this is wrong?” Padme begged, her pleads being slured by her broken nose.

  Leia made a loud annoyed groan. Poor Padme, she just didn't understand her daughter this loop. Leia was many things, evil, tyrannical, slaver, and planet ender. What she wasn’t was sentimental.

  Anakin closed his eyes as he felt the familiar hum of a lightsaber and the even more familiar sound of a dead body hitting the cold ground.

  “I wanted ‘mother dearest’ to suffer but fuck that she can whine. Sorry Daddy, I just couldn’t help myself. If you like I can bang some random guy, and you can kill him. Then we’d be even.” Leia purred. She even while corrupted by the Darkside always was his little girl.

  It really was a pity to see Leia like this. A necessary sacrifice, however, for the greater good. For the Galaxy to finally be saved, he would be the necessary evil. The Whills had made it clear, that for the Galaxy not to end Palpatine MUST die. It was never stated Anakin had to be the light bringer, the Jedi’s chosen.

  The Lightside was just too weak. Anakin knew it was ultimately better for the Galaxy for the light to prevail. And really, all he was doing was replacing Palpatine with himself as a tyrannical dictator. A sacrifice the Galaxy that he himself will have to make. When his time is up, he will accept it graciously, sure Luke and Leia might try to continue his Empire but even then that might only last a few thousand years. Eventually, his Empire would crumble and the Galaxy would return back to its cycle of light and dark, constantly taking turns ruling the Galaxy. An eternity without him.

  “It’s fine. Besides, we are sending the next wave and I want you to lead the assault. Luke’s assault on the Planetary shield generator has failed and he lost a hand against Windu. The Jedi are beginning to show weakness and I cannot let up on the assault just cause Luke is injured. The Jedi and whatever is left of the military on Coruscant has retreated to the generator, knowing that once it’s destroyed, we’ll glass this planet and end this war once and for all.”

  Shield generators were an important thing for planets to protect during sieges. Usually Planetary bombardment was considered going too far even by most empires. The point of war was to rule over the planet, and take its resources. War was expensive so wasting most of the economy on destroying a planet for good was considered taboo even for most tyrants. Better to throw waves of soldiers and take the planet’s resources for themselves than to waste it all in a display of power.

  This wasn’t about improving Anakin’s Empire though, this was about crippling Palpatine's.

  “Ha! The arrogant arse lost a hand?” Leia laughed.

  “Don’t get cocky, you of all people know how powerful Luke is,” Anakin warned his daughter. Did he love her? Yes, he supposed he did. Even when she took glee in killing children and slaughtering families, he couldn’t blame her. It was his fault, he raised her to be that way. Leia was a kind person if raised right, but tainted by the Darkside she had become something Anakin hated… hated but necessary, which is why he taught her so and would expect her horrid actions as his own. There sins was his to bear.

  “The Jedi are all but a handful, they won’t pose a threat. All but Yoda and Windu. Aim for Yoda, he’s stronger than Mace but in duel against the Darkside Windu becomes a monster even greater than the green toad.”

  “Mmmm,” Leia pretended she was in thought. “Do you think Windu could beat you?”

  “No,” Anakin said, not even boasting. Right now he was the strongest being in the Galaxy. He had fully drowned in the Darkside, becoming more powerful than Palpatine by a noticeable margin. He was probably the strongest Darkside user ever, not including different versions of himself.

  His answer seemed to make Leia burst with joy as his daughter gleefully wrapped her arms around her Dad. Proud that her father was still the strongest in the Galaxy, something she was very fond of telling everyone.

  “You should join me then Daddy, with you we could kill those two pathetic Jedi.”

  “The core worlds are preparing an assault on our siege. They know this is the final battle, I need to be commanding our ships when the attack happens. Unless you would like to lead the naval battle?” Anakin raised a brow, knowing the answer. Leia always enjoyed killing face-to-face rather than with ships. Luke was more the tactician in that regard.

  “But I love seeing you kill. It’s so cold and heartless. I can’t even do that, I enjoy it too much. But you? It’s like you don’t even have to think about it and yet you do it so perfectly.”

  “Leia,” Anakin scowled. “Focus.”

  “I am!” She whined. “Blah blah blah, save brother’s sad pathetic butt. Blah blah blah, destroy shield generators. Blah blah blah I’m your favourite child.”

  “I never said that last part.”

  “But I know it’s true!”

  Anakin rolled his eyes again, “Take the Teddy Bears with you, this siege has gone on long enough.”

  “The Teddy Bears?” Leia tilted her head pursing her lips. “Come on do you really have so little faith in me?”

  The Teddy Bears was something of Anakin’s own personal creation. After creating a death arena on Kashyyyk he forced the Wookies into a death arena to produce the strongest warrior he could find and cloned him, creating a small personal force of powerful Wookie soldiers. The Teddy Bears may not be the smartest name for a dicator's super soilder military force. Unfortunatly, Luke and Leia had been quite young and had given them th name of Teddy Bears, so now the Galaxy lived in fear of a group called the ‘Teddy Bears’ visiting their planet. Armed with quality high weapons and armour the Teddy Bears could pose a threat to even Jedi.

  “Leia… I love you.” His daughter gave him a big hug. Something he didn’t return in front of his soldiers, and honestly, he was certain she liked it more when he didn’t. “But take them with you, along with the rest of the soldiers and finish this war for me.”

  “Of course Father.” She kissed his cheek. With a small bow, she left the bridge of his capital ship, going off to muster the army he had waiting for her.

  It would be heartbreaking when she would soon betray him. The Darkside would manipulate her to do it, and she’d probably do it out of love for him as well. Still, necessary sacrifices, if ending this loop meant being the villain, then so be it. He’d be the villain.

  Looking down at Padme’s lifeless corpse, he felt a bit of guilt. How many times had he killed her at this point? How many times had he killed everyone? At this point there probably wasn’t a single person in the Galaxy that hadn’t died at least in one of the loops that wasn’t caused by him.

  “Forgive me Padme, but hopefully you won’t have to wake up anymore after this.” He whispered, praying this would be the last loop. He had done awful things this time and he wasn’t sure if he could do this again… he would though. Time had a funny way of making his awful deeds seem dull. That he could be a villain and it wouldn’t matter, cause if he failed, then it would all go back. Still, this would be the last loop of he could help it.

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  “I’m sorry you had to get dragged into this. But, Luke and Leia are incredibly powerful and I need their strength.” Anakin had experimented throughout his loops. He had many many different children with different women. Some were weak, some were strong. Luke and Leia were high on the powerful end. Were they the strongest? Probably not, but they were still capable and they did have a special place in his heart for being his original children. Not that his other children didn’t matter to him, he loved all his children. But there was a special bond with Luke and Leia.

  “Can someone get my ex-lover's body off the fucking floor?!” Anakin, or rather Death, roared.

  ***

  Anakin awoke in a med room that wasn’t his own but one he was familiar with. It wasn’t the cheap metal that Hutts like to use, the room was actually clean and had a droid that was well-maintained.

  “Hello Vader, I see that you are awake.” The droid greeted. “I am pleased to announce have made excellent progress with your recovery. Initial assessment assumed you would be scarred all along the chest and have potentially nerve damage, but despite all expectations you have healed remarkably. No real lasting damage except for a few scars and the splints on your left fingers should be temporary. At the rate you are healing they can be removed in a week or two.”

  “Thank you.” Vader said, furrowing his brow. That was right he had been quite injured fighting against the Starweirds. They had broken his left hand and took pleasure in electrocuting him. He must have fainted after he confronted Dooku.

  “You have no need to thank me. It is my protocol. The patient always comes first, though I will have to report your conscious state to Senator Amidala.”

  That’s how he recognized this place. This was the usual carbon copy of Nabooian med bays. They were far from the best in the Galaxy but they were acceptable, especially the one for the ex-royalty of Naboo.

  Anakin leaned back into his medical bed, rather annoyed. It seems Padme has mistaken his actions as a kindness. Really, the only reason he had done what he did was because if he didn’t the loop would have ended early. He protected not out of kindness but rather out of necessity as so his break wasn’t ended early.

  Still, it was nice to be in a bed that he hadn’t ruined yet with alcohol and late night snacking. He could potentially actually get some sleep in.

  “Do you have any morphine?” Anakin asked the droid. “I’m feeling a bit of pain.”

  “Your sensors indicate no pain, I shall recalibrate the machine. Thought until then, I am legally required by Republic law to only administer over-the-counter pain killers.”

  “I suppose that will do.” He let his eyelids shut, enveloping him in a darkness. For now, he would enjoy his rest.

  Anakin awoke again two hours later, but this time he wasn’t the only organic in the room. Padme was on a chair beside his medical bed on a computer, scrolling though numerous files. The life of a Senator was always busy… well it was if you actually cared about your job. She had yet to notice his awake state and he was in no rush to make her aware, instead taking the opportunity to look closely at her.

  She still hasn’t been sleeping. Annoying girl was going to kill herself like this. With a flick of his wrist the computer shut frightening Padme but at least told her he was awake.

  “Arsehole! I was working.”

  “I know. You’re welcome.”

  “I see almost dying hasn’t killed your ‘charm’.” Padme sneered. Though he noticed the way her eyes lingered a moment too long on his rather bandaged form.

  “Nice try Senator. I know you care about me, look you’ve even gone through the effort to kidnapped me. If I didn’t know any better I’d say you were trying to take advantage of my vulnerability state.”

  Padme gave him a disgusted look visibly gagging at the thought.

  “Don’t flatter yourself. After… recent complications, I realised that my current guard is, not ineffective. But it’s-”

  “Not good enough.” Anakin said for her. She was too embarrassed just to say her guards were outclassed. Not exactly surprising, in the coming years, Padme will throw herself into the centre of attention and Nabooian guards aren’t exactly known for high-quality training. It was why she often had Jedi or Senate Guard with her.

  “So why am I here? I assume Grakkus didn’t speak highly of me.”

  “No… no he did not. In fact.”

  Padme pulled out a small holoprojector. With a small click on the side of the disk a little blue hologram of Grakkus appeared.

  “Dear Vader, I regret to inform you that effective immediately you are no longer Hutt property. You are now a free-man as your freedom has been bought on behalf of Senator Amidala. As much as I will miss my own personal Jedi I will not miss your crippling alcoholism nor your displeasing additude. I can only imagine why Padme would ever want you in her service would be because you must be miraculous in bed as your unprofessional behaviour would have me sooner overdose on death sticks than ever recommend you. I wish you and your penis goodluck.”

  The blue hologram ended with Grakkus flipping the two of them off.

  “Um, that’s not why I hired you by the way. In hindsight, I probably should have done a little bit of editing before you woke up.”

  “Really? You mean you didn’t want to hire me to be a prostitute?”

  “With your STD-ridden body? No thanks.”

  “No STD’s were found.”

  “Thank you 2-1B.” Anakin nodded to the droid, who lit up from the praise.

  “Ugh,” Padme threw her hands up in annoyance. “I can’t with you two. It’s bad enough I have one cold unfeeling machine that always has to be right.”

  “A little droidophobic”

  “I wasn’t talking about the droid.” She smirked, he’d walked right into that one unfortunately. “Come now, we will be on this ship for quite some time till we arrive at Corellia. We’ll spend a few nights there, then finally arrive at Coruscant. In the meantime you need to sign all the Republic documentation to get you read for your new job.”

  “As what?”

  “My personal guard of course.”

  “Woah! Hold on, since when was this a thing?”

  “Since I found out you have magic space powers. If Dooku is any indication of your potential, then having you protect me isn’t a waste of my money.”

  “Dooku is NOT an indication of my potential.” Anakin scowled.

  “You don’t need to be as good just enough to compete.” That’s not what he meant. Dooku was joke compared to Anakin in his prime, calling Dooku’s potential similar to his own was just insulting.

  “I won’t do it. If you think just cause you bought my freedom that I ‘owe’ you, then you’ve got another thing coming.”

  “Okay.” She shrugged.

  “What?”

  “I’m not going to force you. You saved my life, I bought your freedom. Consider us even. You don’t owe me anything, I just thought that now that you are a free person you might want a job. You have ‘argueably’ experience in security, and I wouldn’t mind a personal Jedi-”

  “Not a Jedi.”

  “Force-user, I don’t care. But if you wish to be pragmatic, then I can’t nor will stop you. When we land in Corellia you can do your own thing.”

  “Fine.”

  “Fine.”

  ***

  Padme awoke to the sound of heat. She used to think heat didn’t really have a sound but she had been exposed to the sound of lightsaber so much in the last week that she could recognise the hum of air sizzling and the smell of ozone.

  Why was Vader up at this time? Back on Grakkus’ ship, it was a miracle that he was awake. The only time he was awake was when he was high, drunk or being a condescending arse. Shit, she knew putting a lock on the alcohol cabinet wouldn’t be good enough. She just didn't think he would just cut through he locks with what was essentially a weapon of religious significance. Silly her.

  “I swear to whatever God you believe in, Vader I will skin you alive if you melt my… cabinets.” He wasn’t in the kitchen? But… that’s where the alcohol is? If he wasn’t using his lightsaber to cut open locks what was he doing?

  Padme silently navigated around her ship in the dark. The hum of the engine did well to hide the sound of her steps as she snuck around. Vader and Dooku could apparently sense people but from the way they worded it, they implied that it was something they had to actively do. Like, even though you can see things in your peripheral vision unless you focused on it you wouldn’t be able to distinguish things. So she was hoping that Vader would be to focused on whatever he was doing to notice her.

  It was a rather small ship. Only her, a pilot and two personal guards, so it didn’t take long for Padme to soon find the blue illumination of a certain boy’s lightsaber.

  As much as she would’ve liked to jump around the corner and scream ‘ha, got you!’ she controlled herself. Whatever Vader was up to it was clearly no good, it was just in people’s nature. You can’t expect a carnivore not to eat meat, you can’t expect a baby to not be loud and obnoxious. You especially can’t expect Vader not to be a problem.

  This was the medbay, which means that he could only be looking for drugs. Why did she think Vader would be a good idea to bring on her ship? Stupid, stupid, stupid Padme. Of course he was going to do this. He was an addict!

  Slowly, she peaked her head around the corner half expecting Vader to be using his lightsaber to cook grilled sandwiches or using it as a glowstick to scour for any sort of pain meds on the ship in the dark. What she wasn’t expecting a very shirtless Vader to be swinging his lightsaber around in the dark with all the medical equipment pushed to the side so he continue to swing his lightsaber around without damaging anything.

  The ex-royalty wasn’t familiar with Jedi combat. Dooku had been so quick at killing the Starweird that it was just one swift movement. Yet, despite her lack of experience, she had watched the royal guard train from her palace. In her defence, when a large group of muscular men train for hours in the sun in view from outside her window, it’s only natural to take a peak.

  While her attention wasn’t really focused on their training, she did (eventually) recognise that they were performing specific movements over and over again. It was similar to what Vader was doing now, except while they were rigid and uniform, Vader was fluid and acrobatic.

  If what they did was an exercise, then this was an art. In slow, controlled movements he flowed from movement to movement. As minutes went by, these movements became more and more complex including summersaults and treating the lightsaber as if it was a gymnastic baton rather than something that could permanently disfigure him.

  Padme quickly lost track of time as she watched Vader perform. From grounded techniques that were disciplined and militaristic to something that looked like something from a circus rather than combat.

  “Are you done watching?” Vader growled, his eyebrow noticeably twitching in the blue illumination. The non-Jedi was in a rather interesting position, something Padme would admit she wouldn’t be capable of as he balanced himself in a one-handed handstand.

  “Oh, you noticed.” Padme blushed in embarrassment. “Yeah, I just came around the corner a few seconds-”

  “We are nearing an hour.”

  “Oh, so you knew from the start… I wish you had said something earlier.”

  “You seemed enthralled.” He smirked, Vader got down from his handstand using the Force to rearrange the room back to its original layout. “I would have hated to interrupt your show.”

  “I was just making sure you weren’t going to cut my ship to ribbons don’t flatter yourself.” She huffed. Like magic, a nearby medical bed flew across the room to gently come to a stop behind her as if it were asking her to sit on it. An offer she gladly accepted.

  “What are you even doing?”

  “I am running through the basic katas of all lightsabre forms. The first thing all Padawans know before specialising, I won’t cause any damage. But if it does bother you, all lightsabers come with a safety feature for sparring. Still burns like a bitch but it won’t cut through any furniture.”

  “Padawan, that’s like Jedi juniors, correct?”

  “Incredibly insulting to people dedicating the youngest years of their life to training but not a fully incorrect statement.” Vader shrugged.

  “I don’t get it.”

  “Don’t get what?”

  “You, one moment you insult the Jedi but the next you defend them. Dooku was the same.”

  Vader gave a displeased side glance at being compared to Dooku, but he slowly ran a hand through his hair as she saw the gears turn in his head as he tried to think of what to say.

  “It’s not so much that we dislike the Jedi. Well, we do. But we like the concept of Jedi, and what it should be. A group of people, unbiased by politics with the sole goal of improving life. People who exist purely to make society better. They answer to no one, obey no borders and fear no man. They can improve society because they act outside it.”

  “It’s not that already?” The Jedi were mostly a myth. A real myth, but a myth nonetheless. Half of the rumours of them sounded too fantastical to be true.

  “No. They are hypocrites. They preach love yet forbid it, they promise protection but only if you are in Republic space and they now listen to what their precious senators tell them to do rather than the Force.”

  “They are still good people.”

  “They try to be. But trying to be good isn’t enough, especially for the Jedi. They are responsible for the improvement of all life, and for promoting the growth of the Force by spreading love and peace. Trying isn’t good enough, they have to hold themselves to higher standards. Think about law enforcement, if the police only guarded the rich, then yes they are still doing a good thing, but it does not justify those in poverty suffering. By ignoring non-Republic space, the Galaxy has become a cesspool of crime and injustice.”

  “You’re being unfair.”

  “Unfair? Would you not say the same of your fellow politicians? Those in positions of power must hold themselves to a higher standard. Good intentions are worth nothing if those with them can’t achieve anything.”

  “Careful Vader, you almost sound like you actually care about something.”

  Vader rolled his eyes. “Go to sleep Padme.”

  “Make me.”

  Padme soon realised how foolish those words were as soon moments later Vader walked her through the halls of her own ship suspended in the air by the force, despite his best efforts to break free and threats of strangulation which was always met with ‘kinky’.