The fist scene in the new fic “Eclipse of the Sith.” (I’m just so proud of it that I had to publish some of it here too):
Chapter 1: The Last Lesson
Leia stared at the Force ghost in her refresher.
Anakin Skywalker stood there. Not Vader. Not the broken man in the suit. The Jedi Knight. Young, whole, wearing simple robes with his arms crossed. Blue eyes steady on hers.
The father she'd prayed to as a child.
The Master who'd cut off her arm.
She didn't move. Didn't speak. Just looked at him.
"Empress," Anakin said.
Not Leia. Not Revaris. Empress.
Something about that word—the way he said it, flat and factual—made her anger spike.
"Get out."
"No."
"I killed you." Her voice was controlled. Dangerous. "Hours ago. You died. You don't get to come back."
"I'm dead," Anakin agreed. "Doesn't mean I'm gone."
"I don't want you here."
"I know." He didn't move. Didn't look apologetic or gentle, nor did he seem like he was going to back down. "I'm here anyway."
Leia's remaining hand clenched. "Why?"
"Because you're still in the Dark Side. And I'm the one who put you there." Anakin's voice was matter-of-fact. "That makes you my responsibility."
"I'm not your responsibility. I'm not your anything."
"You're my apprentice."
The word hung in the air between them.
"You dare?" Leia said. Her voice was barely steady, and the lights in the room started to flicker, answering her rage. "I killed you. That means I'm not your apprentice anymore. That's how this works. That's what you taught me."
"I taught you a lot of things." Anakin's expression didn't change. "Most of them were wrong."
"Then why are you here?" She took a step toward him. "To apologize? To ask for forgiveness? To finally be the father I prayed to all those years ago?"
"I'm not here as your father."
"Good. Because you never were one."
"You're right," he said. "I wasn't. I failed you before you were even born. I let fear control me. I fell to the Dark Side. I helped destroy the Jedi, helped Palpatine build an Empire on suffering. And when you needed a father—when you were nine years old and alone and terrified—I tortured you instead."
"Is this the part where you apologize? Where you ask for forgiveness?"
"I'm not asking for forgiveness. What I did cannot be forgiven." Anakin's voice was quiet. "I know what I did to you. I know what I made you into. There's no apology that could touch that. No words that could make it better."
"I don't care about your regrets or your guilt or whatever crisis of conscience you're having now that you're dead. You made me into this. You spent fourteen years making sure I'd be exactly what I am. So if you don't like what you see—"
"I'm not here because I feel guilty."
That stopped her.
"I'm here to finish your training," Anakin said.
Leia stared at him. "What?"
"You heard me." He uncrossed his arms. "I trained you for fourteen years. Made you strong. Made you dangerous. Made you into a weapon sharp enough to kill Palpatine. But I left the job half-finished."
"Half-finished." Her voice was flat with disbelief.
"You're powerful. You're smart. You're everything I made you to be." Anakin's eyes were steady on hers. "But you're still trapped. Still using the Dark Side because you think it's the only option. Still walking the same path I walked. And that path ends one way."
"I don't need another lecture about—"
"I'm not lecturing you." His voice was sharp. "I'm telling you that you're going to destroy yourself. Not because you're weak. Not because you made the wrong choices. But because the Dark Side consumes everything it touches. I know. I walked that path for twenty years. Lost everything. Became everything I hated. And now I'm watching you do the same thing."
"I'm not you."
"No. You're smarter. More careful. You learned from my mistakes." Anakin's expression was hard. "But you're still in the Dark. Still letting it shape every choice you make. Still thinking that power is the same as strength. And eventually it'll take everything from you the way it took everything from me."
Leia's jaw tightened. "Then what do you want? You want me to give up the throne? Give up my power? Become a Jedi?" She laughed, cold and sharp. "The Light Side is closed to me. You made sure of that."
"The Light Side isn't closed to anyone."
"You filled me with so much anger, so much pain—"
"And you think that means you can't come back?" Anakin cut her off. "I fell further than you did. I murdered children. Helped destroy the Jedi. Spent twenty years serving the man who betrayed everything I cared about. And I still came back in the end."
"Good for you. You want a medal?"
"I want you to understand that you're not trapped." His voice was firm. "You think you have no choice. Think you have to stay in the Dark because that's all you know. But that's a lie. You're choosing it. Every day. Every moment. And you can choose something different."
"I don't want to choose something different."
"Then you're a coward."
The word hit like a slap.
Leia went very still. When she spoke, her voice was soft—deadly. "What did you just say to me?"
"You heard me. A coward. And I did not raise you to be one." Anakin didn't back down. His tone was calm, steady, infuriating. "You're afraid. Afraid that if you let go of the Dark Side, you'll lose your power. Lose your strength. Lose everything that makes you dangerous. So you cling to it. Tell yourself you have no choice. But really, you're just afraid to try something harder."
"Raised me? Raised me?!" Leia's voice cracked into a snarl, and the air itself seemed to shudder. "You broke me!"
The lights flickered, then shattered one by one, glass raining down as the fixtures burst under the weight of her rage.
"You spent fourteen years making sure I was too terrified to be anything except what you wanted me to be!"
"Yes," Anakin said quietly. "I did."
He didn't look away. Didn't flinch. "And now I'm telling you that you survived it. You survived me. You survived Palpatine. You survived everything we put you through. So stop acting like you're still that nine-year-old girl I locked in a room on Nur."
His gaze met hers—steady, piercing, unrelenting.
"You're Empress of the galaxy. You have more power than almost anyone who's ever lived. And you're still letting fear control you."
"I'm not afraid—"
"You're terrified," Anakin interrupted. "Terrified that if you're not angry enough, not dark enough, not ruthless enough, someone will hurt you again. So you hold onto the Dark Side like it's a shield. But it's not protecting you. It's killing you. Slowly. The same way it killed me."
Leia's hand was shaking. "You don't get to do this. You don't get to stand there in your Jedi robes and tell me I'm afraid. You don't get to challenge me or push me or act like you're still my Master. You lost that right years ago."
"I never had that right," Anakin said. "But I'm here anyway. Because I made you into this. Because I filled you with darkness and pain and told you it was strength. And now I'm going to help you find your way out."
"I don't want your help."
"I don't care." His voice was flat. "I'm not leaving. I'll be here every time you use the Dark Side. Every time you make a choice. Every time you think you're alone in this. Not to judge you. Not to tell you what to do. But to remind you that you have options. That you're not trapped the way I believed I was."
"I am trapped. You made sure of that." Leia's voice rose. "You spent fourteen years breaking me. Fourteen years making sure the Dark Side was the only option. You want to know what I was thinking about before you showed up? Whether I should train an apprentice. Whether I should continue the Sith tradition. And you know what I decided?"
Anakin waited.
"I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to put another person through what you put me through. I'm going to be the last Sith—not because I'm noble, not because I've seen the error of my ways, but because you made the training so brutal that I can't inflict it on anyone else. That's your legacy. Congratulations."
"Good," Anakin said.
That stopped her. "What?"
"I'm glad you won't train an apprentice. Glad you'll let the Sith die. That's the right choice."
"That's it? The right choice? You're the one who wanted to make a Sith empire! To make the Sith Order rule the galaxy!"
"I was wrong. Which at this point should be obvious."
"I am not you! I know what I'm doing! This is not fear, this is strength!"
"Then prove me wrong." Anakin's eyes were steady on hers. "You're Empress. You have the power to change things. Really change them. You can be everything I was too weak to be. But only if you don't let the Dark Side consume you first."
Leia looked at him. This ghost. This Master. This man who'd destroyed her and now wanted to save her.
"Why Empress?" she asked. Her voice was quiet now. Controlled. "Why not Leia? Why not Revaris?"
Anakin met her eyes. "I killed Leia. That girl died on Mustafar. I have no right to her name."
"And Revaris?"
"I won't call you by a Sith name. I won't acknowledge what I made you." His expression was hard. "But I'll acknowledge what you've become. What you are now. Empress."
Something in Leia's chest twisted.
"I hate you," she said.
"I know."
"I will never forgive you."
"I don't want your forgiveness." Anakin's voice was steady. "I want you to survive. I want you to be better than I was. And I'm going to stay here until you understand that you can be."
Leia turned away from him. Looked at her reflection in the mirror. Young Empress. One-armed. Hollow.
"Why did you do it to me?" Her voice cracked. "What made you look at your nine-year-old daughter and decide that this fate was the one for me?"
"Because I was trapped in it. Darth Vader. I was convinced the Dark Side was the only path to strength." Anakin's expression was pained. "I told myself I was preparing you. Making you strong enough to survive. But really, I was just repeating the cycle—doing to you what Palpatine did to me. Breaking you down and rebuilding you as a weapon."
"And if I had died? Then it's better your daughter is dead? Because she is weak? Did you truly look at me and said it's better for me to die than be weak?"
"Your life was never in danger. Not once during your training."
Leia went very still. "What?"
"The threats. The punishments. All of it—I made sure you were never actually going to die. The pain was real. The fear was real. But death?" Anakin shook his head. "I would never have followed through. Even on Mustafar, when you were ten and I told you I'd kill you if you failed—I wouldn't have. Couldn't have."
"You cut off my arm."
"Yes. But I wasn't going to let you die from it. The medical droids were standing by the entire time." Anakin's voice was steady. "Even your early solo missions—I monitored everything. Made sure the situations were dangerous enough to push you, but not enough to actually get you killed. I was always watching. Always ready to interfere if things went truly wrong."
"That's supposed to make it better?"
"No. But I told you once, lies are the weapons of cowards, of weak men. I have not lied to you. I will not start now. You deserve the truth, for better or for worse."
