A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

STAR WARS EPISODE III:

THE DARK REIGN

The Clone Wars rage on tearing the galaxy apart. After capturing Alderaan, the Imperial Alliance grows desperate spreading terror wherever they go. The Galactic Republic and the Jedi work together to desperately capture the remaining Sith with the Sith Lord's identity unknown.

Newly elected CHANCELLOR PALPATINE works closely with the Jedi Order to increase security and surveillance within after the interior attack. Meanwhile ANAKIN SKYWALKER and OBI-WAN KENOBI hunt relentlessly for the Sith tracking them to the planet Utapau.

Will the Sith be captured here…

A Republic Star Destroyer flies through the dark crevices of space with other destroyers with fighters on patrol in the surrounding space. Republic Soldiers inside the flagship inspect each other's equipment; walker engineers perform maintenance and the Jedi stand in the briefing room with Admiral Tarkin conducting the briefing in his cold, calculating voice.

"So once you confirm that there is an Imperial Presence, you'll inform us. For now though, you will conduct your hunt for the Sith and we will not interfere. Master Yoda gives you unrestricted rules of engagement."

The two Jedi depart from the room and towards the hangar. Both enter their small, nimble star-fighters. They launch from the large destroyer and go into hyperspace. The fighters appear near Utapau and start descending towards the green and brown planet. They descend lower towards the planet towards a giant sinkhole with a city dug into the sides of the sinkhole. One fighter descends to a landing pad while the other flies deeper. The fighter landing was red and out comes Obi-Wan.

A Pau humanoid approaches the Jedi, "Greetings Master Jedi. What brings you to our sanctuary."

Obi-Wan approaches him slowly, "Unfortunately the war."

"There is no war here, unless you brought it with you."

The Jedi Master replies, "With your permission I would like to conduct an investigation."

The official nods and waves his hand towards the security.

"I apologize Jedi, but unfortunately our people would be troubled if we were to let a war mongering symbol of the Republic among us."

Obi-Wan nods, "I understand."

Before Obi-Wan turns though, he senses the alien coming closer but also sense not with hostile intention. He's afraid.

The alien whispers, "We're being held hostage by a Sith Lord. 10th Level in the Penthouse."

Obi-Wan nods and states very loudly, "I apologize for the inconvenience. I will not trouble you again."

Obi-Wan boards his fighter and takes off. In the distance on another level stands Darth Maul glaring down towards the landing pad. He turns away once he confirms the fighter is away.

Meanwhile Obi-Wan contacts Anakin, "I do hope you know what you're doing."

"What do you have to worry about Master?"

Anakin smirks as he hears a sigh on the other end. He's inside of a cave climbing up the cave walls. He looks down to find his ship being devoured by a large lizard like monster. The astromech droid screeches desperately only for the beast to quickly silence the panicking droid. Anakin winces as the ship gets destroyed.

Obi-Wan sighs again, "Anakin, you didn't get yet another fighter destroyed did you?"

"To be fair Master, I wasn't flying it."

"Anakin how many times…"

"That's nice, good bye." The Knight quickly ends the transmission with Obi-Wan groaning as he flies the fighter aimlessly above the planet's surface.

Anakin continues to climb up the wall to finally make it to the city's sewage tunnel. After that he finds a ladder that leads to the streets. He climbs up the ladder, but not before pulling his red hood up to blend in with the rest of the populace. He climbs up and rises out of the sewer grate closing it and quickly joining the rest of the crowds blending in.

Anakin recalls to himself, "So to 10th Level in a Penthouse. He must be a really charming guy."

Darth Maul remains in his armor, but with no cloak as he paces around with a holographic image of Darth Plageus before him still shrouded by his hood.

"I assure you Master, I sense Skywalker coming this way."

He quips, "Good. Everything is proceeding as planned then. Either you will slay him and prove your worth…or I have another apprentice to accomplish what you were too weak to do."

"I will not fail, my Lord."

"Remember Maul, only the strong can be a part of my new order. May the Force be in your hands."

The transmission cuts out as Maul waits in his dented Sith armor, meditating.

Anakin waits in the public transportation, a monorail going through the cityscape spiraling up the walls towards various stops. Anakin looks over to see the remnants of a Trade Federation core abandoned in the industrial sector of the city. Once getting past the poor neighborhoods the monorail finally enters the financial district of the city, tall buildings reflecting the glory of this city. Even the power stations demonstrate their respect for aesthetic appeal. Anakin parts from the monorail and into the crowds looking up at a tall sky-scraper looking like a stretched out manor, windows on the top.

"Looks like I have a job in room service."

The lobby of the building is decorated with red carpet and gold colored marble along with brass to give the building a sense of glamor. Out of the kitchen comes a masked employee, but with blue eyes unlike that red eyes of the Pau. He carts a cart full of delicious smelling food. He enters the turbo-lift pressing the up button.

He reaches the top level of the building and approaches the hall heading towards the penthouse. The employee knocks on the door.

"Excuse me sir, your food is here."

The door opens with a silver-colored protocol droid answering.

"I apologize sir, our client isn't feeling so well."

The employee insists, "That's ok because I'm a doctor."

"Oh, wonderful! This'll be great news."

The employee takes off his shroud to reveal Anakin, "Just let the desk below know, ok?"

The droid backs off startled, "Oh my…very well then…"

Anakin enters the room to find it brightly lit. He steps down towards the center down some stairs. He ignites his lightsaber.

"Come on, Sithy boy. Come out and play." The Jedi tauntingly sings out.

Anakin proceeds towards the dark bedroom with no lights. Suddenly a lightsaber ignites and the Jedi swings. His lightsaber makes contact and metal gets sliced. He looks up to see a smoking bit of armor sliding and collapsing towards the ground. He takes a moment to observe it was a distraction. He looks back to see a pair of yellow eyes out of the darkness igniting a lightsaber to reveal the same monstrous vision he seen at Yavin.

The Sith ironically answers, "Time to play!"

Anakin gets Force pushed out of the room causing him to fly out of the room.

He sneers, "I knew Sith were ugly, but this takes the cake."

"This is the image of power foolish Jedi!" The man snarls to reveal a black and red tattooed zabrak with horns on his head giving him a very satanic appearance. He ignites the other end of his lightsaber.

"Come, fight me. Perhaps you'll do better than that pathetic Jedi I killed."

Suddenly the confident bravado that was in the Jedi's eyes immediately mutates into a glare of fatal rage. Anakin's body clearly tenses up, including his mechanical arm. The Sith front flips towards Anakin who Force Pushes him. Maul recovers by landing his feet on the wall and leaping towards his opponent. Anakin spins out of the way lunging at Maul's landing form. Darth Maul quickly brings his saber up in time to block Anakin's downward strike. The Sith rolls backwards getting back on his feet, but before he continues anymore a mechanical arm grabs Maul's lightsaber. He tries to yank it from the grip only to have a more powerful grip yank and snap the saber in half. His weapon is now useless as the shell of a Jedi approaches. Maul senses the hatred and he smirks.

"Yes, use your anger…I sense the raw power building and…wait! We can do it together!"

The man snarls in a voice that wasn't his, "Do what?"

"We can defeat the Sith Lord together. Join me, Skywalker and we can rule the galaxy. Just think we can put an end to this war! We can make things the way we command them if you just join me!"

This man glares right into Maul's yellow eyes to reveal yellow eyes glaring right back at him. He reaches his hand out causing Maul to float in the air choking. However Darth Maul wasn't going to accept defeat and launches lightning from his hands screaming. Anakin's body takes the lightning, but only does this fuel him further. He shouts in fury as the lightning bolts hit him, causing scars all over the place receiving skin burns any man would succumb to.

He glares back at the Sith Warrior and continues forward raising his hands to capture the lightning, dropping his lightsaber and grinning wickedly as he proceeds forward. Maul's eyes widen as his opponent proceeds closer.

The Sith shouts, "You fool, we'll die if you come any closer!"

The man cackles, "No, you'll die! Only the strong live."

He applies his own lightning…purple lightning clashing against Maul's weaker lightning. It overwhelms him causing the Sith Warrior to scream in agony, but he stills launches lightning from his hands as the purple lightning overwhelms his body. His eyes become burned by the lightning, the powerful dark side energy, the channeled hatred flows through Maul's body until…

The city rumbles which sounds like a star destroyer cannon and the sinkhole rumbles like a tremor. People look around in panic to see that the tallest building in the city's roof is smoking, engulfed in flames. The people panic as emergency response teams rush towards the building with sirens echoing.

Anakin approaches a pile of ash right in front of a broken lightsaber. He retrieves his own lightsaber, his eyes slowly returning to their normal blue hue. He smirks picking up the dust, the yellow starting to slowly return around his pupil. He grins wickedly as the wind blows the dust from his hand. He looks around to see the whole roof of the building gone. Slowly he returns to himself to hear the comm beeping.

"Anakin, what is going on down there? Anakin, Anakin!"

He picks it up, "I'm alright Master, I just ran into a complication."

"Complication…what happened down there? I hear their communications responding to a terrorist attack!"

Anakin rolls his eyes sighing, "Oh, well you know what happens."

"No, I don't! That's the third time something like this has happened!"

Anakin groans, "It's a war Master, what do you expect from me?!"

The Jedi sighs, "At least I know you're ok. Are you retrieving the data?"

"On it…." Anakin comments as he goes through the fire and towards the bedroom bringing up a holocron. He activates it to find ship log entries. He finds the ship's docking bay and…its departure…Korriban. That name rings a bell, that's because Korriban was the home of the Sith Empire. It could be possible this is where they hid all this time and finally he has this information.

"Anakin?"

"His ship is in Docking Bay 94, Master."

"Did you find anything else?"

Anakin looks at the information but he smiles closing the holocron and placing it in his own pocket, "No master, that was it. The holocrons must have had self-destruct functions."

"Blast, it figures. Well meet me at the Docking Bay and we'll bring some transportation."

Everyone is in the Star Destroyer celebrating as Anakin and Obi-Wan approach the bridge. They approach Admiral Tarkin who is speaking with Master Yoda who is displayed on the holotable.

"General Kenobi, General Skywalker, a pleasure to see you once more. How goes the mission?"

Anakin states, "The Sith Warrior called Darth Maul is dead. All that remains is the Sith Lord and his apprentice if they haven't recruited anyone else."

"Let us hope, the case it is not. Good job, you two. The Force was with us today. Celebrate you will, when you get home."

Obi-Wan nods, "Very well, thank you Master."

Anakin speaks up, "Master, wait."

Yoda leans in, "More to say, Skywalker?"

"What of the other Sith? Won't they attack in our position of complacence?"

"No more intelligence do we have on the Sith. Play by ear, we must. Relax, you should. When 12 months deployed, look as good you will not.", the master chuckles.

Anakin laughs back, "Perhaps you're right, Master."

"Good job, on dealing with the Sith."

The transmission cuts out with Obi-Wan sighing, "Well Anakin, should we start resting now."

Anakin nods, "Sure Master."

Admiral Tarkin speaks up, "A word with General Skywalker before he joins you…it is strictly confidential."

Obi-Wan crosses his arms, "I'm sorry Admiral, I believe what you're telling Anakin you can tell me. I am a Jedi Master after all."

Anakin looks over, "I'm sure it's not a big deal Master, you can go ahead."

Obi-Wan looks at Tarkin who returns his usual cold gaze back. Anakin smirks, "Calm down, Master. Like Yoda said, we need rest. It'll only be a moment."

The Jedi nods leaving the room. Anakin looks over at Tarkin and nobody else is in the room.

"The Chancellor recognizes your skills as a Jedi. You show quite an impressive record."

Anakin crosses his arms looking back at the Admiral skeptically, "Well that's not normally how humans start a conversation."

"All I'm saying General, is to keep an eye out. Times are changing and it's preferable to be the strongest in those times. The Chancellor is hand-picking volunteers to be a part of the new Homefront Security Legion. Elite Jedi, picked out to prevent incidents like with Master Windu."

Anakin nods, "I see…what about you?"

Admiral Tarkin smiles, "How do you think he knows about you, General? I both admire and envy your style of leadership among the troops. It will prove to be quite useful in the changing times."

A tinge of yellow starts to appear in Anakin's irises as he smiles, "Does this mean more assignments on Coruscant?"

Tarkin shows a smile, something nobody comes to see, "Absolutely."

"Then you may tell your contact to keep me informed." He turns walking towards the door.

And so the dark reign begins...