Anakin is at Vader's right side, hood pulled up over his head, eyes glowing yellow from the Dark Side coursing within him. The Jedi turn instantly, and the clones raise their blasters when they see them. In truth, the trap was planned perfectly, though Anakin has to wonder why Vader even allowed the retinue to get inside the Citadel. Would it not have been easier to capture them while they were still in carbonite? Vader hadn't explained, and Anakin hadn't asked either, content to let the elder handle it.

But now, he wishes he had asked. He isn't ready to face Obi-Wan or Ahsoka again, and worse yet, Windu is here too. It was one thing to run off with Vader when he didn't expect to encounter the Jedi face-to-face while ending the war and destroying Sidious. It is quite another to have to fight them, much less Windu himself. Anakin has always been driven by the yearning to prove himself to them, but if anything, he's only proved why they should never have agreed to train him in the first place.

The clones open fire, but before Anakin can reach for his lightsaber, Vader is stepping forwards, respirator cycling faster than normal in anticipation of the coming duel, holding out a hand. A Force shield blocks the blaster bolts, and Anakin can only gape at him in shock and awe. This is what he'll be capable of in the future. This, and so much more. The blaster bolts fly harmlessly into the durasteel walls, and with a sharp twist of Vader's wrist, all of the clones' blaster are ripped from their hands and hurled down the hallway behind them. There is no way the clones can get their weapons back without passing them and the droids will ensure that doesn't happen.

Anakin reaches out with the Force as well, shoving the clones to the side, slamming them into the durasteel blast doors on either side as he clears a path to the Jedi. Their lightsabers are already ignited, but Vader does not move for his own blade. Nor does Anakin. They share a look, and Anakin takes that as his cue to speak.

"You should surrender," he informs the Jedi pleasantly, ignoring the way Obi-Wan and Ahsoka are glaring at him. "You are impossibly outnumbered. You will be defeated if you choose to fight."

"I think not," Obi-Wan retorts sharply, spinning his blue blade. "There are only two of you." He hesitates before stepping forwards, though not to attack. "You don't have to do this, Anakin," he urges. "You can come back. We can defeat Vader together if we try."

A hysterical laugh escapes him before he can stop it. He himself has no idea what Vader is capable of, but he is more than a match for every single person in this room, including him. If he truly wanted, he could kill them all. He won't, but he could. "You underestimate his power, Obi-Wan, if you really believe that," Anakin refutes, shaking his head. "No, my place is at Vader's side, and that is where I will remain."

Anakin senses a flicker of amusement from Vader which is mingled with warmth and affection. The Dark Side might be wreathing around him, waiting for him to command it to attack, but he is still very capable of experiencing positive emotions. Vader reaches out to Anakin through their bond, though he's careful to keep his presence shielded so no one recognizes him. Anakin lowers his own shielding slightly, entangling his Force signature with that of the Sith next to him. They'll be stronger like this, drawing from each other's power, anticipating each other's moves. It hurts, in a way, because this is what he and Obi-Wan have always done in the past when facing Dooku or other Dark Siders. Except this time, they're on opposite sides.

Obi-Wan's expression darkens almost imperceptibly, but it's all Anakin needs to see to know what is about to come. Without hesitation, he pushes back his hood, letting the Jedi see his yellow eyes as he tosses his robe aside, unclipping his lightsaber from his belt. The red blade hisses to life in tandem with Vader's. Everyone reacts, as Anakin knew they would.

Ahsoka's eyes widen slightly, lips parting soundlessly. Windu's eyes narrow, something threatening flickering across his face. Obi-Wan's grip on his lightsaber tightens, his disapproval and dismay clear to Anakin – and Vader. Vos's lips turn down into a frown as he looks decidedly displeased.

"Anakin..." The tone makes Anakin flinch, something which he knows no one will fail to notice – except perhaps Ahsoka – but he doesn't back down.

Vader's fury swells, and he gestures to the Jedi – and the clones who are now standing again – with his lightsaber. "You have made your choice," he says harshly, stepping forward, the power in his Force presence crashing against the Jedi in a clearly deliberate intimidation attempt. Anakin doesn't know if it works. He turns his helmet, looking at Anakin. "Together, Anakin." It seems to be a deliberate spurn of Obi-Wan, Anakin suspects, because Vader can be that petty, especially in his protectiveness.

It makes him feel better slightly, taking the edge off his pain. He doesn't want this. He never has, but Obi-Wan – and Ahsoka – will never accept his words. They don't trust him anymore, and that hurts. It hurts because he doesn't know if this is something he can ever fix.

Obi-Wan moves first, swinging at Anakin, unsurprisingly, he supposes. Anakin raises his blood-red blade to block the blow, absorbing the impact easily as he strikes back at him. With a cry of rage, Ahsoka lunges at Vader. He sidesteps her with a pointed "sloppy" that only seems to enrage her further. Windu and Vos clearly take that as their cue to attack, moving in on Vader from two sides.

Anakin feels fear seize him, but he knows that Vader can take care of himself. If either of them needs protection, it's him. One of the blast doors on the side opens, droids spilling through and opening fire on the clones with stun bolts – Anakin's request. Over half of them go down within seconds before the rest realize what's happening and begin to fight back.

And Anakin... Anakin is being torn apart inside, because this is – this is his former master, his best friend, his father. They ought not be fighting like this, and the pain dampens his aggression, even as it feeds the Dark Side. He lets himself focus on defending more than attacking, and when Obi-Wan realizes what he's doing, he picks up the pace of his attacks, forcing Anakin backwards, away from Vader and the others.

Their lightsabers crash repeatedly, neither of them really gaining any ground, so well do they know the other. Red against blue. Sith against Jedi. Anakin backs away, putting some distance between them and the others, wondering what Obi-Wan wants with him, wondering why his former master is trying to separate him from Vader. Strategically, it makes little sense, since Vader is the more dangerous target, and Obi-Wan is a master of Soresu. Windu will be able to hold his own, but Vos and Ahsoka won't last.

Anakin focuses all of his energy on the duel at hand, ducking a blow that could have injured him, slamming his blade against Obi-Wan's as their lightsabers lock together. Despite the clashing of lightsabers and the sound of blasterfire, Anakin still hears Ahsoka's cry of pain, and his head whips towards her. Vader's saber grazed her upper arm, and a stray stun bolt took her down to her knees for a moment.

"Vader, if you don't mind, I'd like my Padawan back in one piece!" Anakin calls to him, tone teasing.

"Noted," Vader replies, effortlessly parrying Vos' green blade before meeting Windu's blow with one of his own.

Ahsoka screeches, anger flaring through their bond, when she hears his words, and in a flash, she's lunging down the hall towards him. This is... bad. Anakin knows that he and Obi-Wan are almost evenly matched – Obi-Wan might even be better than him now – but with Ahsoka being here too...

He's scared. Never before has he been scared of Obi-Wan, of Ahsoka, of what they might do to him. He hates it. He hates that he has to fear him, fear that – that they might hurt or kill him – them, because if he dies, so does Vader. That fear empowers him, pushing him to reach new heights. He isn't going to play around anymore; he's going to fight back. He has no choice if he wants to live. This is more than a sparring session. This is a fight to the death, and Anakin remembers all too keenly what happened to Vader on Mustafar.

This planet has lava on it too, and he wants to laugh at the irony. He doesn't, instead dodging Obi-Wan's blade as Ahsoka swings at him, eyes blazing with anger. "I'm not your Padawan!" she yells furiously. "You left me!"

"To end the Clone Wars, yes, I did!" Anakin retorts, backpedaling as Obi-Wan comes at him again. He's not stopping, and he's not fooling around either. Anakin knows the look in his blue-gray eyes – a look which means he's intent on killing – but he never thought he'd see it directed at him. "I did what I had to do! I didn't want to drag you into it, Ahsoka, you have to understand that. I didn't want to put you in harm's way."

"You betrayed me!" she rages. She's doing more flailing now than actual fighting, because of how angry she is. Perhaps Anakin can use that to his advantage.

"You are certainly free to join us if that's what you want to do," Anakin counters, "And yes, I guess I did betray you." It hurts to admit it but denying the truth won't help anyone.

"Why?" she demands, angry, but also hurt. "Why did you do it?"

"The Son showed me the future," Anakin replies, catching Obi-Wan's eyes for a moment. "Vader gave me the chance to change what I saw." He doesn't remember what the future held, but he doesn't need to anyways. Looking at Vader, seeing how broken and lonely the elder is... Anakin is happier not knowing.

"By joining him and destroying the Republic?" Obi-Wan asks incredulously. It's the first time he's said anything since their duel began, and his scorn is almost more than Anakin can bear.

Anakin thinks, for a moment, about what he remembers of Mustafar. He thinks about the way Vader hates himself with a deep and unfailing passion. He thinks about how Sidious was controlling everything, about how he twisted Vader into his slave. "You will not believe me, but I had no choice," he replies, backflipping when the blue and green lightsabers come too close to him. "Vader was – is the only one I can trust to do what needs to be done."

Ahsoka splutters. "But the Jedi –!"

"Are corrupt," Anakin interjects, voice steel. They do not deserve to be destroyed, but they will have to be if they cannot fix their ways. "The Republic is falling, and you just can't see it." He punctuates each word with a lightsaber strike. Now, he is fighting to – to injure, not kill. Never kill. He can't kill two of the few people he cares for more than anything.

"You're destroying it! You're destroying everything!" Ahsoka cries.

"Anakin," Vader calls, keeping him from spiraling too deeply into his thoughts and emotions, the conflict tearing him apart from the inside, even as his loyalty demands that he stay with the one person who needs him most. "I need you in the here and now. You can speak with them later."

He's right, and that's the only thing that keeps Anakin from responding to Ahsoka and saying something he might regret later. Even if he had wanted to answer, she spins away from him with an outraged noise, flying at Vader in a blur of green. She's way too exposed, and any other Sith would have taken advantage of her openings to cut her in half. Vader doesn't. He doesn't even turn to look at her as he shoves her backwards with the Force, clenching his hand and lifting her in a Force choke while blocking Windu's blows with only one hand.

Obi-Wan slams his lightsaber into Anakin's, distracting him for only a moment. "Let her go, Vader!" Anakin calls, knowing how the panic filters into his voice.

"I would rather choke her than have her maimed or dead," Vader bites back, throwing her into the wall hard enough to stun her. If she wasn't already out cold, she certainly would have been when one of the commando droids on the sidelines stuns and cuffs her, dragging her out of Anakin's line of sight, probably to join the imprisoned clones.

Anakin hates that he feels relief at her capture, but he also suddenly understands Vader's reasoning for allowing this confrontation to even occur. It's because it gives both of them a much-needed way to wind down from the stress they endured while confronting Sidious and planning the trap for him. He appreciates that more than he can ever express. He wouldn't have wanted to be picking fights with Vader while on the way to Coruscant because of his stress. They both need to have a clear head, and this is the best way, loath though he is to admit it.

As Anakin continues to fend off Obi-Wan, he grows increasingly exhausted – he knows he's not the only one – so he begins working his way back down the hall towards Vader. At least if they're in close proximity, they can cover each other. Vader clearly grows tired of playing with the Jedi – he absolutely is playing with them, and he and Anakin both know it; there's no other way that Vos is still standing, sporting only a few relatively minor lightsaber burns – because he shoves Vos backwards, slamming him into the wall. He falls to the floor, momentarily stunned, and Vader brings his red blade down for the kill.

In an instant, Obi-Wan has leapt across the room, moving faster than Windu as he blocks the downwards strike. Everything pauses for a moment, before Obi-Wan shoves Vader's blade upwards, pushing him back as he positions himself to protect Vos. Something longing and bittersweet pangs in Anakin's chest, because that is something Obi-Wan would do for him if the situation was dire enough and if Anakin was unable to protect himself.

Anakin can feel the emotions coiled in Vader: the pain, the fury, the desperation, the... yearning. And he understands. All he can do is watch in a numb horror as Vader backs up a step before unleashing a devastating assault on Obi-Wan, pushing him backwards mercilessly, leaving Vos unprotected thereby allowing the droids to arrest him as well. When Windu moves to stop them, Anakin intervenes, crossing blades with the Korun master for the first time.

Unlike Obi-Wan and Ahsoka, Windu does not have even a hint of disappointment in his dark brown eyes. Instead, they're filled with a steely determination, and Anakin knows what that means. Windu sees him as a threat to be destroyed. This will be the fight of his life. His only advantage is that the Jedi has been worn out by Vader. It should make it easier for Anakin to stand up to him, though he has no doubt as to who will be victorious in the end. It won't be him. Not yet. He's not strong enough. But if he draws on Vader's power...

Well, perhaps. It's not something he wants to risk.

Anakin hasn't sparred with Windu much before, if ever, so this is an entirely new experience for him. Neither of them is very used to the other's fighting style. In many ways, it actually makes Windu a far less dangerous opponent than Obi-Wan. Windu's style, Vaapad, relies on challenging the opponent's Dark Side usage back at them, something which works especially well for those fighting a Dark Sider. Well, Anakin knows that the best way to withstand that form is to... not use the Dark Side. So, he doesn't. He actively lets go, drawing solely on the Light as he faces off against Windu, countering his strikes with some of his own.

Only a few feet away, Vader and Obi-Wan are fighting savagely, and when Obi-Wan tries to Force shove the Sith Lord backwards, Vader throws up his hand to block the attack. It all happens so fast. One moment, they're at a standoff. The next, they're being thrown to opposite sides of the hall, dropping to the floor as the Force backlashes. Anakin feels the impact as if it's in his own body, but Vader doesn't get up. Instead, their bond is suddenly flooded with fear, the likes of which Anakin only felt when Sidious guessed Vader's identity. Something is wrong.

"Vader! Answer me!" Anakin calls through their bond desperately.

There's no response, so he reaches out, probing his counterpart's mind, withdrawing just as quickly with a flinch. Something triggered Vader. Something has sent him spiraling into a flashback at the worst possible moment, and Anakin doesn't even know why. Obi-Wan rises, calling his lightsaber back to his hand as he lunges at Vader with the intent to kill.

No. Nonono. This can't happen. Anakin won't let it. "No!" he screams instinctively, the Force, the Dark Side, rushing to answer his summons as he throws out a hand towards his former master. The desperation, the anger, the pain he feels in that moment jolts through his arm, all the way down to his fingertips, flying from his hand in the form of lightning. He hardly even has time to blink before the blast connects with Obi-Wan, throwing him backwards. He falls to the floor, unmoving. Unconscious.

Anakin panics, calling Vader's lightsaber to his hand as he slashes wildly at Windu, Vader's blade finally slicing through the Jedi Master's right wrist. Windu stumbles backwards with a cry of pain, and Anakin blanches, though it doesn't stop him from Force shoving Windu backwards, knocking him out against the durasteel wall. What is wrong with him today?! Why does he keep hurting people? Yes, the Jedi attacked them with the intent to kill – and oh, how that hurts, because he never thought that Obi-Wan or Ahsoka would do that to him – but that doesn't mean that he needed to hurt them.

He pushes the guilt from mind, scrambling to Vader's side. "Vader. Vader, focus on me," he begs, laying a hand on the Sith's shoulder. He doesn't even know if Vader can hear him if he's recovered enough from his flashback in the past minute to receive awareness.

Vader groans, pushing himself up to a sitting position. "I am alright," he promises, reaching up to touch Anakin's face for a fleeting moment. "It was... unexpected, but I am alright now, thanks to you." Well, that means he did register what happened. Probably.

Anakin gives him one final searching look, checking through their bond to be certain before scrambling across the floor to Obi-Wan's side, guilt gnawing at him. He never meant to hurt him, not like that. He didn't even realize that he could produce Force lightning. Well, he knew it logically, of course, but to actually use it, and accidentally at that...

"Master," he calls, shaking Obi-Wan's shoulder, heedless of the fact that only minutes ago, Obi-Wan was trying to kill Vader, and very nearly succeeded. "Master, wake up." Behind him, the droids drag an unconscious Windu away.

A sound escapes Obi-Wan as he shifts, turning his head slightly as he forces his eyes to open. "'Nakin?" he mumbles.

"I'm here," Anakin replies. "I'm sorry, Master. I'm so sorry. I didn't – I didn't mean to hurt you." Behind him, Vader says nothing, a quiet turmoil whirling within him.

Obi-Wan finally focuses on him, and Anakin knows the moment his memory comes back to him. The fond, trusting look in his eyes vanishes, and they harden, becoming blank and distant. Anakin nearly flinches beneath the gaze, but he forces himself to hold it anyways, even though all he wants to do right now is cry. It's not fair. None of this is fair.

For a moment, neither of them moves, and Obi-Wan's expression shifts. Anakin knows he's about to say something cruel and biting which will hurt worse than anything else ever could. Vader must know it too because