Chapter 92: Sacrifice
A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!
Tylo uses Talk no Jutsu. It's... super effective?
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Maybe Tylo is right. Maybe it’ll just make things worse. Annie hesitates for a moment, resisting the overwhelming urge to close the cross and slice off Dooku’s head. In doing so, she gives her lover a moment to continue on.
“We need Dooku alive, Annie. It’s the only way to end things peacefully. The galaxy is on the brink of total war. Palpatine’s death might have saved the Republic from falling into tyranny, but it doesn’t solve everything. If Dooku dies as well, he becomes a martyr for the Confederacy, a reason for them to keep fighting. But if we keep him alive, we can force the Separatists to the negotiating table.”
That was… a very good point. Annie grinds her teeth, almost hating how good of a point Tylo was making. Hell, it was true on a more specific level as well. From what Rex had said, they were outnumbered and outgunned outside of this ship right now. If Dooku died here, they all died with him more than likely. But if he lived, if they forced his surrender, then they could get the Separatist Fleets to back off.
Under the given circumstances, Annie might have considered just killing Dooku and then dying in a blaze of glory as well. Even with Tylo here, she might have still considered it. But… Padme was here as well, looking at Annie with not an ounce of fear in those big brown eyes of hers. Instead, the Senator is gazing at Annie with concern and worry of all things, clearly trying to figure out a way she can help.
… Damn it all. Glaring down into Dooku’s eyes, currently shaded in red and blue from the sabers, Annie snarls. She doesn’t see a Fallen Jedi in front of her. She doesn’t even see a Sith Lord really. Just… just a tired old man bereft of his hands, having come face to face with his complete and utter failure.
KILL THE JEDI! KILL THE JEDI! KILL THE JEDI!
And yet, she’s still going insane. Dooku might not be a Jedi… and truthfully, Annie knew Ventress wasn’t either. But… Tylo was. And even now, she felt twitchy in his presence. Even now, her hands refused to move.
“… I can’t shut off the sabers, Tylo. Not when there’s still a Jedi in the room with me.”
Tylo at least has the good sense not to think she’s still talking about Dooku. She needs him to leave. Or maybe she needs to leave. Fuck, she doesn’t know what to do. Will she even allow him to go if he tries? Will she be able to force her body to leave the room with a Jedi Knight mere feet away from her?
“There are no Jedi here, Annie.”
What? For the first time, Annie pulls away from Dooku. The blades sizzle against each other as she draws them away from his neck, holding them to either side and ignoring the defeated old man so she can turn to face Tylo properly.
“What are you talking about?”
Look at me, Annie. Really look at me. Things have… changed.”
She hadn’t paid much attention to the armor before. He was still wearing parts of his Jedi Robes over it, and most of the Jedi who had become Generals and Commanders in the Grand Army of the Republic had quickly started incorporating armor of some kind into their day to day attire. Those who didn’t, tended not to last long on the battlefields they were sent to. A lightsaber could only do so much when you were up against an unrelenting, unending droid army.
Even Obi-Wan had taken to wearing some slivers of clone armor in solidarity with his troops, and Annie herself had some basic defensive attire done up in black.
But Tylo… now that she’s actually looking at him, she realizes it’s not the same where he’s concerned. His armor isn’t incorporated into his Jedi Robes… rather, his Jedi Robes are covering up parts of his armor.
Shucking them off, Tylo lets the accoutrements of a Jedi fall to the ground in a heap around him, revealing the full body Mandalorian Armor he’s been wearing all along. Annie might not know her Mandalorian as well as Obi-Wan does, but she’s pretty sure that’s beskar too, not plastoid plates like the clones wore or like some of the separatist droids were made out of.
Deactivating his blue lightsaber, the saber he’d made as a Jedi all those years ago, Tylo passes it off to Ventress, who hands him a distinctly Mandalorian Helmet at the same time. Annie can only stare in disbelief as Tylo puts the perfectly fitted helmet upon his head, sealing it shut.
“You’re not looking at Knight Vondin of the Jedi Order right now Annie. You’re looking at Tylo Vondin… Head of Clan Vondin. And…”
He pulls another saber hilt from a compartment on his armor and turns it on. As the blade extends with a snap-hiss, Annie can only stare in disbelief at the strange saber. It’s nothing like a Jedi or even a Sith Lightsaber. Instead, not only is it somehow a pitch black that also paradoxically manages to glow, but it’s also flat on one side and sharp on the other, in a way that shouldn’t make sense or mean anything, but seems uniquely… dangerous.
That right there is a Mandalorian’s lightsaber, if something were to be said to exist. And given Annie is staring right at it…
“This is the Darksaber. A Mandalorian Clan called Clan Vizsla has held it for centuries, and claims whoever wields it has the right to be called Mandalore. I won it in a duel against a man named Pre Vizsla… and was declared the new Mandalore by both the former Mandalore, Janga Fett, and the current ruler of the Mandalorian People, Duchess Satine Kryze.”
Annie’s eyes grow wider and wider as he explains himself. By the Force! She could swear she, Padme, and Tylo had all checked in with each other like… a week or two ago at most! How the fuck had that much happened in such a short amount of time?!
Then again, look at what had happened to her in just as short an amount of time…
“As such, when I say to you that I am confident my status as a Jedi Knight is heavily in dispute right now Annie, I think you can believe me. And… I think it would be best for all involved if I relinquished my claim to the title. I cannot be a Jedi Knight and Mandalore at the same time. So I suppose I’m no longer a Jedi Knight.”
Annie flinches as Tylo’s words resound not through the air, but also through the Force itself. It wouldn’t have been enough for him to just say the words. Not when her connection to the Force was do damn deep. She would have known him a liar instantly. And he’s not lying. He’s just cast aside all bonds with the Jedi Order. He’s renounced his claim to the title of Jedi Knight.
The lie, if there is one, could be said to be the WHY he’s doing this though. Annie’s eyes burn with unshed tears as Tylo looks at her from within that Mandalorian Helmet. She can feel him smiling at her, the damn bastard. Talking all that shit about how he couldn’t be the Mandalore and a Jedi Knight at the same time, acting like it had nothing to do with her.
They both knew that wasn’t true though. He’d renounced his claim as a Jedi Knight for her. Not to preempt the Jedi Order from kicking him out, not to keep them from having to make that difficult choice in the first place… but specifically to try to help her.
Kill the Jedi! Kill the Jedi! Kill the Jedi!
It was working too. If she was able to twist her own thoughts into letting her see both Ventress and Dooku as potential ‘Jedi’ kill targets for a bit there, it’s similarly easy for her to wrap her head around the idea that Tylo is no longer a Jedi. She doesn’t want to harm anyone that doesn’t deserve it anyways. And she’d felt it in the Force. Tylo has relinquished all ties to the Jedi Order, just to make this easier on her.
And yet… Annie still doesn’t shut off her sabers. Blue and red bars of concentrated, contained plasma jut out from either of her trembling fists. The tears in her eyes finally begin to fall as a broken smile spreads across her face. She realizes what she has to do now. She understands the only solution to this mess.
Tylo is right. Dooku has to be taken alive for the sake of the galaxy and the potential of a peaceful end to this war. But he’s also wrong. Because there is one Jedi left in this room.
“Annie…”
His voice comes through the helmet slightly modulated but nevertheless filled with a tone of warning. Annie swallows thickly. If not for Padme’s presence, she would just do it right then and there. But she doesn’t want to make Padme watch her kill herself.
Kill the Jedi! Kill the Jedi! Kill the Jedi!
“You were wrong, Tylo. There is a Jedi here after all. And… better that I die than anyone else, right?”
As expected, Padme isn’t happy to hear Annie come out and say it like that.
“What?! Annie no! You can’t!”
“Padme, I have to. For the sake of the galaxy. Please… go. You shouldn’t be here for this.”
It’s a testament to how little sleep Annie Skywalker has gotten that she doesn’t realize how ineffectual that request is going to be until after the fact. Rather than leave after a teary farewell, Padme’s eyes narrow, her teeth clench… and she rushes forward. Annie barely has time for her eyes to widen before Padme’s arms are wrapped around her torso and the other woman is hugging her tightly.
“Padme-!”
“No. You’ve listened to Tylo, now you’re going to listen to me, Annie. If you’re going to stab yourself, then you’re going to have to stab me too. If you’re going to die, we’re both dying. I won’t let you take your own life! I refuse!”
Annie could never kill Padme. She could no more hurt Padme then she could hurt younglings! Though given the voice pounding against the inside of her skull, that second option was far more possible than it had been previously, she realizes with a feeling of dread. But that was precisely why she needed to act now, to end the potential danger she represented to both the Jedi Order and the galaxy at large.
“Padme… I can’t let Palpatine win. I can’t let him use me as his weapon.”
“Then fight it, Annie! You fight it! And you don’t stop fighting it, no matter what!”
Padme looks at her with watery brown eyes and a ferocious, furious expression on her beautiful features. She’s not taking any of Annie’s excuses at face value it would seem. She refuses to give up on her. That makes Annie’s heart swell with happiness, truly it does. But at the same time…
“I’m not sure I can live like this. Even if I stay away from the Jedi for the rest of my life to lessen the impact… his voice is still there. Forever. Never ending, utterly relentless.”
Padme looks horrified on Annie’s behalf, and not entirely sure what to do or say. Which is when Tylo steps back in of course.
“I might be able to help you with that.”
Annie looks at her other lover somewhat incredulously. What?
“I’ve had my brushes with the Dark Side, Annie. Even learned from a Sith Lord for a little bit. And… well, lucky me, I’ve brought an example of my work along with me, haven’t I? You’ve already noticed Annie. I know you have. Asajj was thoroughly immersed in the Dark Side, but I was able to get through to her. I was able to help her. Now, she’s on the road to recovery… to finding a proper balance.”
The determination in Tylo’s entire body shines through despite the Mandalorian Armor as he gets ever closer. He’s in saber range now, but he’s unafraid of her, unafraid that she might stab him. To be fair, he’s wearing beskar… but also, she can tell it’s not only that. He trusts her, even as she is now.
“I swear to you on everything I hold dear that I will help you silence his voice, Annie. Even if it’s the last thing I do, I will help you cleanse his taint from every corner of your mind.”
His promise hangs heavy in the air for a moment before Tylo lets out an amused huff.
“Besides, I was right about what I said before. There are no Jedi here with us right now, Annie. Honestly, have you looked in a reflective surface recently?”
Annie blinks eyes that she knows are Sith Orange… and then barks out a laugh of disbelief. It’s a dumb joke… positively shit in fact. And yet, it works. Combined with his promises, combined with his and Padme’s love, Annie’s determination to end her life is shattered… and at long last, she turns off the lightsabers in her hands, letting them shut off with a snap hiss. Tylo takes them from her, both her saber and Dooku’s, which in turn allows Annie to wrap her arms around Padme and hug her back just as tightly.
Kill the Jedi! Kill the Jedi! Kill the Jedi!
Even now, Palpatine’s voice doesn’t stop. And yet, in Padme’s arms… its quieter. And Annie thinks that maybe, just maybe, it will be alright after all.
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