The forest was pitch black except for the red glow of a Sith's lightsaber, the air was silent except for that sinister chuckle, and the Force was still except for the unforgettable presence of Darth Sidious.

I'm dead for sure this time, Anakin realized. What else could Sidious possibly want? Surely he had given up hope of convincing Anakin to become his apprentice. Sidious had left him alive last time, and quite on purpose. He probably wouldn't be so merciful again.

There would be no running away from this. If Sidious had found him already, trying to hide would only delay the inevitable.

The red light from his lightsaber was just enough to reveal his grim smirk from underneath his hood. "I have one question for you, Anakin. What have you accomplished since I last saw you? Oh, I already know the answer. Nothing. Absolutely nothing."

"My accomplishments are none of your business," Anakin retorted, reaching for his lightsaber.

Sidious went on as if he hadn't heard him. "You have done nothing but run. Run from your true self. Tried to hide who you really are, because you fear the Dark Side! And now you are little more than an empty shell, who is incapable of saving your wife and children, and your pathetic Rebel fleet.... And yourself."

Anakin barely had time to activate his lightsaber before Sidious lunged at him, and their fight began.

Just like last time, Sidious' strokes were fast and complex and difficult to keep up with. It almost felt like there were four Sith in his place instead of one; first he appeared in front of Anakin, then behind him, then to his left, all within milliseconds.

Was this as powerful as the Emperor got? Or was he holding himself back?

Maybe, Anakin thought, the Dark Side can help me here.

But which was worse? To die and abandon his family, or to live only through the power of the Dark Side?

That decision would have to be made quickly. He could not keep this up forever.

And using the Dark Side would be so easy... The passion and energy required to activate it was right there, bottled up and ready to release. Anakin vividly recalled the raw power of the Dark Side, the adrenaline rush, the mental clarity. Last time, it had saved his life and enabled him to save Leia, when he had been so close to death. One thing was certain: the Dark Side really worked.

Just thinking about it was pushing him over the edge. The Dark Side was taking over his mind once again... maybe it would be futile to resist.

As the fight went on, an image came to his mind. One of Ahsoka in her home on Shili, surrounded by her brightly colored walls and dim lamps and shimmering jewelry. "There is a middle ground in the Force," she said.

But what did that mean? Surely there were only two sides of the Force. The Light, which was weak, and the Dark, which was evil.

No, there had to be a third option: both the Jedi and the Sith were wrong. What if the Light Side and the Dark Side were meant to work together?

As Sidious came down with a particularly heavy lightsaber stroke, Anakin became aware of a whole new dimension of the Force: one of the Light Side and Dark Side existing together, not separately. Allowing both sides to mix felt energizing, but stable. The Dark Side gave him the strength to block Sidious' powerful blow, and the Light Side kept his movements grounded and precise.

From there, the fight went in a completely different direction. Sidious was no longer gaining ground. Anakin was on the offense. The Emperor's moves were no longer so hard to predict. If he randomly appeared somewhere, Anakin was already there, ready with an offensive stroke.

Sidious' face hardened, maybe with concentration or anger or something else entirely. Anakin didn't dare entertain the notion that he actually had the upper hand against this powerful Sith- it seemed far too good to be true.

They continued like this for a long time- at least twice as long as they had in the last duel. Sidious was not wearing out, but neither was Anakin.

A bright light flashed in the sky, so bright that it looked like a flare that was sent up nearby. But actually, it was the Imperial Star Destroyer, suddenly going up in flames.

They did it, Anakin thought. The Rebels just won their first battle!

"We shall have a very interesting discussion about this," Sidious said through clenched teeth. "But, not today!"

As he spoke, he produced a surge in the Force which sent Anakin flying backwards into the side of a cliff. He barely noticed the impact- all he knew was that by the time he got back up, Sidious was gone.

But there was no time to think about this. A couple of small, blinking red lights in the sky grew bigger and bigger, and the humming of a quiet motor indicated that this falling object was an escape pod. Not only that, but there was also a new presence in the Force- that of Padmé, Mon Mothma, and maybe a couple of other people. After a few seconds, the dark silhouette disappeared behind the treeline, where the sun was just starting to come up.

Anakin realized with horror that Sidious was still lurking about. What if he had left because he had also sensed Padmé and Mon, and wanted to kill them? And he had the head start... Anakin took off running as fast as he could, his heart pounding with dread.

The forest was dark and full of tree roots and tall weeds. Only through the Force was it possible to navigate efficiently. Anakin felt like he was going nowhere, heading in circles around a never-ending path. But the presences in the Force kept growing clearer.

By the time he stumbled into the clearing where the escape pod had landed, he found Padmé and the others chatting lightly as they gathered supplies. Sidious was nowhere to be seen.

Surely he would have gotten here first. Where, then, had he gone? And what was he after?

Anakin was so startled to find this peaceful scene where he had expected a horrendous one, that he jumped when Padmé spoke to him. "Oh, what good timing!" she exclaimed. "We were just about to go looking for you."

He smiled uneasily as he approached the group. "I'm glad it was me that found you first, and not the Emperor. He's around here somewhere."

"Emperor Palpatine? Here?" Mon said incredulously.

"He attacked me after I landed. For some reason, he fled in the middle of the fight. I assumed he was going after you."

Sidious' presence was gone by now, but that didn't set Anakin's mind at ease. After all, the whole Jedi Council hadn't been able to sense that the seemingly-benevolent Chancellor Palpatine was actually the infamous Sith Lord they had been looking for.

"If he's around, we'd best get out of here quickly," Padmé pointed out. "I'm guessing your ship isn't flyable, Anakin?"

"No, it's beyond repair. We should arrange a rendezvous with someone from our Cruiser."

He had barely finished speaking when some of the other Rebels pulled out a commlink and got online with one of the other pilots. They managed to arrange a meetup point a few miles away. That wouldn't be nearly as bad for walking in the desert at midday for an hour.

As they waited, the Force remained calm and stable. Could that mean that Sidious was gone? That all this was finally over?

* * *

Getting back to Yavin IV proved to be rather hectic, with all the travel logistics that had to be done. A gunship took them to the cruiser they had just saved, and from there they had to find a shuttle to take back to the Yavin system. Padmé barely had time to talk to anyone, much less process her own thoughts, until they got back.

The base was asleep by the time Padmé was walking down the hallway with Anakin, on their way back to their apartment. Finally, the majority of the Rebels sent out on a mission had come back alive. The only tragedy was that a few had fallen, instead of having most fallen and all failed. Padmé had nearly forgotten what winning a battle actually felt like. It was as though a massive weight was lifted off her back. She felt light, giddy, finally able to think.

"I can't believe we won," she mused, half to herself. "The plan worked, sending all the reinforcements we had. We all thought it would take so much more than what we had to fight off the Imperial fleet, but what we had... worked!"

Anakin nodded in agreement. "The Rebels have spirit and determination. The Imperials are just following orders. That's the difference between us and them." He paused and stared off into the distance before looking Padmé straight in the eye. "You should be proud, Padmé. If we win this battle, it will be easier to win others. All this... so much of this is your doing."

She felt herself flushing at his words. The Rebel Alliance had always been like a child to her, but she had never expected it to grow up and make her proud so quickly.

In response, all she could think to say was, "That's sweet of you, Ani."

"It's true," he coolly replied. "I guess all we have to worry about now is the Emperor."

"Oh, we'll always worry about him as long as he has his Empire. But I don't think he's an immediate threat right now. You know what I think?"

"What?" Anakin's face was still tense and anxious; the Emperor was still clearly at the front of his mind.

"He left because he needed to salvage his fleet. And he couldn't keep up with you forever."

Anakin shook his head and laughed softly. "Me, a match for him? Impossible!"

"Maybe he just underestimated you. And, up until now, you have underestimated yourself."

Then, they arrived at their apartment door, and Padmé cringed when she heard the noise coming from inside. "Apparently the droids didn't manage to put the kids to bed," she whispered, opening the door.

Luke and Leia, upon hearing the door open, came racing up with their faces flushed and their eyes sparkling. "Mommy, Daddy!" Luke shrieked. "Come in quick, we have something to show you!"

"Yeah," Leia said. "We tried to tell you earlier, Mommy, but you weren't listening."

"Well, keep your voices down, our neighbors are asleep," Padmé scolded them, following them into the living room. What she saw made her gasp- a teenage boy bound and gagged in the living room corner.

But before Padmé could say anything, Anakin spoke angrily to the boy. "Han Solo! I was hoping I wouldn't have the displeasure of seeing you again. What in the galaxy are you doing here?"

Leia pulled the gag off Han's mouth so he could speak. "I was really hoping to not see your lousy face again either," he said dully. "But I actually didn't mean to come here. My navigating computer malfunctioned and I crash landed here. Then your insane kids and their droids tied me up like this!"

"He's a scumbag, Mommy," Luke explained, observing the bewildered look on Padmé's face.

Leia nodded in agreement. "He's an Imperial Pilot, that's why we can't let him go."

"Oh, dear," Padmé sighed. What a mess this was, having a lost Imperial Pilot accidentally showing up here, and now knowing where the base was.

"Here's what we're going to do," Anakin announced. "Lock him up in a jail cell until the Empire falls or he converts to our side."

Padmé winced at the thought; those jail cells were inhumane in her view. And this young man had arrived by accident. He seemed misguided, but not malicious. "No, that will be unnecessary," she said. "I'll take him to the security office and we'll have him get a job here. There's so much work to be done around here... I'm sure he'll never be bored."

* * *

For the next couple of days, Leia seemed to be obsessed with hovering over Han as he worked as a mechanic, teasing and taunting him until he snapped at her, and she always came back angry and red-faced. Anakin did not understand why she was doing this to herself. Was it out of desire to have someone to make fun of? That couldn't be healthy.

"That prisoner guy is so annoying," Leia grumbled one day, sitting next to Anakin and playing with his mechanical hand as he did some work on a data pad. "He keeps calling me 'little Princess.' In a mean sort of way. I'm not little!"

"Well, he's bigger than you are, so he's going to tease you for being smaller than himself."

"But, you and all the other grown-ups are bigger than me, and you don't call me little!"

"That's because we know you don't like it. He probably doesn't know."

Leia shook her head defiantly. "Oh, he knows. He just likes to annoy me."

"If he annoys you so much, why do you like to hang around him?"

Anakin looked at her pointedly. She scowled to herself and did not reply.

The silence dragged on for minutes as Leia got lost in her own thoughts and Anakin resumed his work. But he couldn't get that nagging feeling to go away, the one that urged him that this was the perfect time to tell Leia the full story of what happened at Coruscant.

"Leia," he said slowly, "do you remember when the Stormtroopers took you away?"

She nodded quietly. It was the first time they had really discussed this since the event.

"When I rescued you... I think there's something you should know. Remember how we talked about the Dark Side?"

"It was everywhere on Coruscant," Leia said softly.

"That's right. And... in order to find you, I had to fight a Sith first, and he made it so that it seemed like using the Dark Side, all by itself, was the only way to save you. So, I saved you, but I did some bad things along the way."

He watched her face carefully. There was no surprise or shock on her face, only a quiet sort of sadness. After a long moment, she spoke.

"I'm just glad I'm here with you and Mommy and Luke. I know that bad stuff happened, but... we're okay now. Maybe the Dark Side can be useful sometimes."

Obi-Wan would have corrected Leia immediately for saying something like that, but Anakin realized that this was what he had discovered in his most recent fight with Sidious. This was what Ahsoka had been trying to tell him. The Light Side and the Dark Side combined into one powerful element called The Force.

Was this the truth he had been searching for his whole life?

***

A few days after the battle, the Rebel Base had returned to normal. Padmé woke up early one morning to find Anakin and Luke having a conversation in the living room. Anakin was on his knees to be at eye-level with Luke, holding out his lightsaber to the wide-eyed little boy.

"Seriously? It's mine now?" Luke gasped, gently fingering the lightsaber as if it might randomly disappear.

Anakin smiled broadly and nodded. "It's all yours, Luke. I hear that you have to keep borrowing Obi-Wan's for your lessons, so I think it's about time you got one of your own."

Luke accepted the lightsaber and stared at it in awe. "Wow... thanks, Daddy! I can't wait to show everyone at school!"

"Well, I would only show it to one, or maybe two, people that you really trust. A lightsaber is a powerful thing. It can make you into a monster if you're not careful, or it can help you save your life. Either way, you shouldn't run around and brag about it. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah..." Luke shrugged and stared off into the distance. "I guess I wouldn't like it if somebody else got a lightsaber and started waving it around in my face."

Padmé smiled to herself as she watched all this. She hadn't been able to watch Luke in his first lightsaber session with Obi-Wan, but this came pretty close.

Luke noticed her standing in the doorway and came running up, holding the lightsaber in the air. "Mommy, look, do you see? I have my own lightsaber now!"

"Yes, Luke, that's wonderful!" Padmé handed him his lunch box and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead. "Just be careful with it, okay? Listen to any instructions from your father and Obi-Wan."

"I will!" Luke hurriedly put the lightsaber in his backpack and ran towards the door. "I've gotta catch up with Leia, she has the head start. Bye!"

As the door shut behind him, Padmé turned to Anakin, who was smiling more brightly than he had in years. She reached up and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Luke will treasure that his whole life," she said softly.

Anakin nodded, deep in thought. "I hope so. I certainly won't be needing it anymore!"

"Why, what was wrong with it?"

"It just doesn't really suit me now. The blue blade represents a Jedi Guardian, solely devoted to the Light Side. The style of my new lightsaber shouldn't favor one side of the Force over the other.... It should have a silver blade."

Padmé had never heard of an approach like this, of eliminating the concept of the Light Side and Dark Side, and she wasn't sure how she felt about it. But Anakin seemed, for once, truly at ease.

For no explicable reason, Padmé felt tears welling up in her eyes. Anakin noticed and took her gently in his arms. "What's the matter?" he whispered.

"Nothing! I'm just.... Look how far we've come. For the first time, I think, I'm confident in the Rebel Alliance, and I'm not worried about you."

"And I'm not so worried about you and the twins now. Padmé, I think... this might be what it feels like to be free. Really free."

Before Padmé could say another word, Anakin leaned down and kissed her, and when she closed her eyes, the world around them faded away into blissful silence.

It was one of those rare moments where the entire galaxy, war-torn as it was, seemed to be at peace... even if only for an instant.

(Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this final installment of Balance and Victory! I'm going to miss doing regular work on this one but I'm satisfied with it and excited to move on to other projects. To those who have been reading this since the very beginning, I sincerely thank you for making it this far! Please feel free to hit the share button to share this on Facebook or Twitter or other social media, or recommend it to a fellow Star Wars nerd. Thanks for reading and have a blessed day!)