After what felt like too long, the healer exited the room, walking up to a tense Anakin and Obi-Wan. Before she could say a word Anakin spoke. "Is he all right? Will he live? Is he going to make it?"

The healer hesitated, and anguish ripped through Anakin at the sight. She was trying to figure out how to lightly break the news to them, he just knew she was.

"We...have done what we can. Only he can decide that now. It seems his survival is now an...internal affair, would be the best way I can describe it. His will to live is the only thing keeping him tethered to us right now."

Deep concern was etched into Obi-Wan's features. Both Anakin and Obi-Wan had heard the hesitation in her tone; there was more. "And..?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Darkness. It's almost like the dark side is leading an assault against him to break his will and seal his fate. We can't do anything more for him. This...internal battle is one only he can fight."

Despair filled Anakin's expression. "Is there nothing we can do?"

The healer shook her head. "I am afraid not; he will be in a basically comatose state until he is able to pull through or..." she trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence.

Anakin spoke up immediately. "May I see him?"

"You will not be able to communicate with him."

"I understand that, but still, please let me see him."

She nodded. "Of course, Skywalker. Go on in..."

Anakin stepped around her, and he duly noted that Obi-Wan stayed behind to allow Anakin to be alone. Anakin made sure to shut the door behind him, the click echoing in the room.

Luke's deathly still form was laid out on the bed, his skin ghostly pale. As quiet and slow as he could be, Anakin took a seat by Luke's bed. His eyes grazed over the puncture wound in Luke's neck were the dart had struck home, and he grimaced, his anger rising once again. Why had Luke been a target? This killer, whoever he was, had been a professional. Anakin had felt no disturbance in the Force, nothing that was out of the ordinary until Luke had already been poisoned. This hunter had known how to shield himself

Then there was whoever had hired the assassin. Why had Luke been their target in the first place?

He sighed, suddenly feeling tired despite everything that was rushing through his mind. He needed to rest right now. He wanted to hunt down the assassin and make him pay for what he had done, but Anakin was in no state to do so; he would have to wait until tomorrow before he started on an endeavor like that. He was in no condition to be taking on an obviously well-trained assassin capable of killing a Jedi.

Anakin searched Luke's face at the thought. It was smooth and expressionless, but when Anakin reached out to him through their Force Bond...he was met with a flurry of pain, fear, weariness, and an assault of foreign darkness from an indecipherable source.

Anakin grimaced, retreating to himself at the onslaught of darkness. Sympathy filled him for the young man. As if being poisoned with such an agonizing substance wasn't enough, now he had to fight off such a strong darkness in this weakened state.

"You'll be all right, Luke, just hold on. If you really are as stubborn as me, you can't give up. Hold on," Anakin said firmly but softly, even if Luke couldn't hear him.

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Sidious stood in his own private living quarters, his eyes roaming the city without really seeing the buildings before him. His mind was...elsewhere. The Force had changed rapidly in the short few hours that had passed, yet the Jedi's Force Signature was still present. Sidious was furious at the discovery, more so when he felt The Hunter leave Coruscant. No matter, the filth would get what was coming to him. Right now, Sidious would focus on finishing the job himself.

The boy was completely defenseless, and so Sidious had taken the opportunity to reach out and strike through the Force, taking care to keep himself shielded from any prying eyes in the process. In Luke's weakened state, the boy was unable to fight the darkness that Sidious sent his way to break his will. If he could smother out the boy's will to live, Luke would die, and Sidious would be able to move forward with his plans.

Sidious felt the boy's life slip away a little more and he smiled, continuing to press the darkness in on the boy. That's right...cave...it is pointless to resist.

Soon, Luke would be no more.

Luke had been through many terrible things, but this was a new kind of agony.

*********************************************************************************

The sensation of fire running through his veins from the poison burning him from the inside out had faded away, and for quite some time Luke thought that he had died. However, what came next had pushed those thoughts away.

For a moment, Luke had felt himself surfacing, sensing his father's presence and Obi-Wan's not too far from him. However, it hadn't taken long for the darkness to attack, settling in all around Luke in a suffocating sheet, wrapping around and constricting him, cutting him off from everything else. This was a new kind of pain, a never-ending hopelessness that consumed his very being and drug up every painful memory and fear as Luke struggled to cling to life. He wanted to curl up into a ball and give in to the crushing, suffocating feeling the darkness was bringing, but he couldn't.

Luke could sense the sinister presence that lurked behind this merciless assault of darkness; he would recognize it anywhere. This realization, however, only made him feel worse. Luke tried to call for help from anyone who could hear him, but his effort was cut off by the darkness before he'd even fully gathered his voice, and he was kept far under inside the darkness. Luke trembled, wanting free from the oppressive, suffocating presence that he was being crushed by.

He felt a familiar presence brush against his own, one filled with concern and fear, composed of light with some streaks of darkness in it. Luke felt a surge of hope as he recognized his father's Force Presence reaching out to Luke in the darkness. Had Anakin come to help him? Luke reached out to Anakin, but Anakin had already retreated, and Luke could tell that he had been overwhelmed by the pain, fear, and darkness that Luke was swallowed in right now.

His heart sank. He was all alone in this. At least he knew that his father was there, worried for him. Luke would have to pull through this one for him, no matter how close to the edge of death Luke felt. For Luke sensed the precarious situation his life was in as well, fragile on the thin line between life and death. It wasn't that hard to figure out Sidious was trying to push him over the line towards death, of course.

A fresh wave from the darkness slammed into Luke and he retreated, slipping down into his depressive state yet desperately holding on to his thin resolve.

******************************************************************************

"Anakin, wake up."

Anakin jerked out of his slumber, blinking tiredly as he tried to register his surroundings. He was in the medical wing...in Luke's room.

He slumped a little when the night before returned to him, and he glanced at Luke. "I didn't mean to fall asleep...did anything happen?"

Obi-Wan hesitated, but Anakin had already caught the hesitation, so there was no point in trying to hide anything from him. "He nearly passed a few times, but he's stayed with us..." Obi-Wan told him solemnly.

Anakin sank into the chair, running his hands over his face and through his hair. Why was this happening? Why did it have to be Luke?

Obi-Wan sighed, putting a hand on Anakin's shoulder. "Anakin...I woke you because it's time for the Council Meeting. You had news on the war you were going to deliver..."

Part of Anakin screamed no, that he wanted to stay with Luke, that he had to make sure the youth would be all right. However, he knew he needed to get that information to the Council as soon as possible. Reluctantly, he stood up. "Very well; but I'm coming back here as soon as it's over," Anakin said in a weary tone.

"It's what I would expect of you, Anakin. I'm sure if something happens in the short time that we're gone, we will be informed of it."

He looked back at Luke. "All right, I'm coming..." He had a specific request for the Council now, anyway.

*******************************************************************************

"...and the chancellor also request that I be the one to go after Grievous," Anakin finished. He was sitting in his chair in the Council Room, delivering Palpatine's information to the other Council Members.

"No. Someone with more experience, we shall send," Yoda said.

"I understand, Master. I have...a different request I'd like to make anyway," Anakin said, slightly hesitant. By now he couldn't care less about who went after Grievous; he had a more pressing, important matter to attend to.

"Track down young Luke's attacker, you wish, hmm?" Yoda asked, a knowing twinkle in his eyes that unsettled Anakin.

"Yes I would, Master."

Yoda sat back, thinking for a moment. Windu took the opportunity to cut in. "Are you sure that would be wise? Skywalker tends to be rash and irresponsible when it comes to cases that involve people he knows."

Anakin felt his irritation and anger roused when Windu spoke as if he wasn't there, and so lowly of him as well. He steeled his expression, keeping it indifferent to Windu's attitude. "Someone needs to track this assassin down; he knew how to shield himself from being detected through the Force, he knew what to use that was too quick to deflect, and then there was his employer. Who would want Luke dead?" Anakin argued as calmly as he could.

"We can put someone else on the search," Windu retorted easily.

"I know what he looks like. I saw him close up when he tried to keep me from getting Luke to the Temple," Anakin pointed out, hiding his annoyance.

"Find this assassin, you shall. Be careful, you must. Not a small threat, I fear his employer is," Yoda said.

Anakin nodded, hiding a smile at Windu's annoyed expression, feeling a rush of relief and vengeance mixed together. "Thank you, Master; I will."

Anakin sat back, thinking of what he was going to do once he found this Hunter; he was going to enjoy this.

However, Anakin's attention was called back to the meeting when he heard something that made alarms go off in his mind. "Send Master Kenobi, we shall."

Obi-Wan was going to go alone to capture Grievous? It wasn't that Anakin doubted Obi-Wan's skillset, just that he knew Grievous would be no small task. If anyone was to be sent to help Obi-Wan, it should be Anakin; the pair of them were formidable, and it was almost guaranteed that Grievous would not escape.

*******************************************************************************

As soon as the Council ended the meeting, Anakin hurried to Obi-Wan's side. "You're going to need me on this one, Master."

Obi-Wan looked rather concerned. "I agree Anakin, I'm not too happy with the choice the Council made. Though at the same time it will probably end up as a wild Bantha Chase."

"I know, but you shouldn't be going alone," Anakin argued.

Obi-Wan smiled. "Yes, but you are needed to protect the chancellor and find the assassin that tried to kill Luke."

Anakin couldn't argue with him on that point. "Still..."

Obi-Wan clasped Anakin's shoulder. "Come on; we should go see Luke again before we get started on these missions."

Anakin sighed. "Yes, we should..."

When they reached the medical wing, a healer stopped them before they could enter the room. Anakin was immediately annoyed and almost caused a scene, but Obi-Wan cut in.

"Has he flat lined again?" Obi-Wan asked seriously.

The healer nodded and Anakin suddenly felt sick, his heart jumping into his throat. "Is he going to be all right?"

She sighed. "As I said earlier, this is all up to him. When he flat lines we don't know if he'll come back or be lost to us."

Anakin, not wanting to hear any more, brushed passed her towards Luke's room despite her protests. However, he knew better than to try entering the room, so he looked in through the glass wall, grateful the shades weren't drawn.

It was horrible to see Luke so helpless, unable to do anything to help the youth. The sound of the flat line coming from within filled Anakin with an insurmountable misery.

Please Luke, please; don't die on me, he thought. Desperately, Anakin stretched towards Luke through their Force Bond, though when he found the pain and suffering he'd found last night, he did not draw back this time.

The flat line sound stopped and Anakin felt Luke latch onto his presence as if it was the only thing keeping the youth alive. With a start, Anakin realized he probably was. Even while he was standing here thinking about it, Anakin could feel some of Luke's suffering ease, relief and hope leaking through to Anakin from the physically unresponsive person.

That was when Anakin got a taste of what was causing Luke so much pain.

A heavy, crushing darkness suddenly assaulted Luke, but the two of them managed to cling to each other. Anakin knew for a fact in that moment he was acting as a lifeline for Luke.

Surprisingly, he caught some of what was in the assault at the same time.

*****************************************************************************

"You are not a Jedi yet."

"No, I am your father."

"No! No! It's not true! That's impossible!"

"How did my father die?"

"A young Jedi named Darth Vader...betrayed and murdered your father."

"I will not fight you, Father..."

"You're thoughts betray you, Father; I can feel the good in you, the conflict."

"There is no conflict."

"You couldn't bring yourself to kill me before and I don't believe you will destroy me now."

"You cannot hide forever Luke."

"Yes...your thoughts betray you. Your feelings for them are strong. Especially for...sister! So, you have a twin sister! Your feelings have now betrayed her, too. Obi-Wan was wise to hide her from me. Now his failure is complete. If you will not turn to the dark side, then perhaps she will!"

"Never!"

"Never. I will never turn to the dark side. You failed your highness. I am a Jedi, like my father before me."

"If you will not be turned, you will be destroyed!"

"Young fool, only now at the, you understand."

"Your feeble skills are no match for the power of the dark side!"

"Father, please, help me!"

"No! You're coming with me! I'll not leave you here, I have to save you!"

"You already have Luke, you were right. You were right about me. Tell your sister...you were right..."

"Father...I won't leave you!"

The whirlwind of so many crushing emotions was so much for Anakin to handle. There was the pain of a severed limb, the pain of a discovery that caused such misery, fear for so many lives, the pain of fighting a loved one, fury at the threat towards another cherished loved one, and oh the agonizing pain of Sith Lightning, repeatedly striking. Then, at the end...the pain of loss; such a deep loss when what had just been restored was painfully ripped away...

********************************************************************************

However, instead of giving in and retreating from the suffering, Anakin sent waves of reassurance Luke's way in an attempt to ease the youth's pain. Anakin could sense Luke clinging onto the feeling, the youth's only reprieve, and Anakin stretched out further to try and give him more of an escape.

"Anakin, are you all right?"

Obi-Wan's voice broke through Anakin's concentration, and he came back to reality with a harsh bump. Taking care to keep sending Luke the feelings of reassurance and comfort, Anakin met Obi-Wan's concerned gaze, which only deepened when he saw the expression on Anakin's face. "What's wrong?"

"He's in so much pain...reliving all of his worst losses and injuries, his worst memories," Anakin murmured. "And there's darkness everywhere; its suffocating."

"You can break through to him?" Obi-Wan asked curiously. When Anakin nodded, Obi-Wan took in a sharp breath. "Perhaps you should stay here and help him; let someone else find the assassin."

Anakin gave him a sharp look. "The assassin is mine. I will deal with him...though I should stay here and help Luke as well. I will have to do what I can from here. When Luke's stabilized again, I'll work on hunting this assassin down."

Obi-Wan sighed again. "Get in there Anakin...He needs you."

Anakin nodded silently, walking in as the healers who had been tending to Luke while he flatlined left the room. Once inside, he returned to the seat he'd taken earlier at Luke's side, gazing at the youth in concern.

"You're going to be fine, Luke, I promise," Anakin murmured, holding onto their Force Bond and sending as many positive emotions to Luke as he could.

He simply received a pained yet thankful sensation from Luke in response before Luke seemed to mentally curl into himself to withstand another onslaught from the darkness.

Whoever was doing this was going to pay; Anakin would make sure of it.