A Long Time Ago, in a Galaxy Far, Far Away...
Utapauns cowered as scores of Droids swarmed the streets of their once peaceful cities...
On Geonosis those winged alien's factories remained standing, churning out new droids all the time. And on some other, distant world, a Mandalorian Bounty Hunter of great renown went about business as usual, flamethrower unleashing a punishing stream on his latest quarry.
Magnaguards and Destroyer Droids flooded the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, blasting structure and sentient alike to pieces without mercy as at last the old Order was swept away in a sea of mechanized murder.
On Tatooine, a forsaken but still living Zabrak Sith Lord prepared his next move.
On Coruscant, a greater Sith Lord mused over how he had won, if in a manner different from what he had originally intended.
On Mustafar, yet a third Sith Lord cut down the greatest threat to his continued prosperity and status in a merciless storm of Force Lightning.
The Separatists had conquered the Galaxy.
Utapau
General Grievous stood stiffly at attention staring at nothing in particular from his place in the Utapaun hangar. Since the end of the Clone Wars, the place had become his new official base of operations. Why not? It was here that he had cut down one of the few Jedi who could have possibly hoped to challenge him. With Obi-Wan Kenobi's death, General Grievous had to admit to feeling a good deal safer.
A Battle Droid Officer walked up to him and gave him a report: "General, all of the natives have been accounted for. Our armies have rooted out the last hiding places and spots of resistance on the planet."
General Grievous nodded his understanding. This sort of micromanagement bored him. But, now that victory had been assured, there wasn't much left to do besides it.
Oddly, that made him sad. Or, as close to sad as he could now feel in his present cyborg state.
"What should we do with them, General?" The Battle Droid officer asked. "Process them? Liquefy them?"
General Grievous shook his head. "No. Keep them contained for now. Lords Tyranus and Sidious will figure out what to do with them at a later date."
The Battle Droid Officer saluted and walked off to give these orders. General Grievous for his part examined the new lightsaber in his collection that he was positive would become his new favorite, if it wasn't already. He activated it's summer sky colored blade, and examined it as he would a rare specimen in a zoo. To think that had things gone differently, this very lightsaber could have been his death instead of his prize.
General Grievous gave it a few good swings and thrusts to test it out as he thought to Lords Sidious and Tyranus; he'd have expected them to be elated that they'd won the war and crushed the decadent Republic and Jedi Order at long last. And yet instead, they'd been unusually quiet. Silent, even. They hadn't given him any new orders ever since it was announced that the war was over and the Separatists were triumphant. Were he the type given to concern and worry, General Grievous would be nervous right about then. But instead he was merely perplexed and curious. What were they up to?
General Grievous shrugged. So long as they didn't try to cast him aside, he could live with their strange period of inaction. And he was sure he could find ways to keep himself amused in the meantime. The war might be over, but many Jedi rats hadn't gone down with their ship. His role as a hunter and slaughterer of Jedi would continue for some time more...
Coruscant
Palpatine wasn't happy.
Not that true, genuine joy was something he had the capacity for in any case, but even the kind of sadistic, chest-puffing sense of accomplishment that he did feel when he won was being denied to him right at the moment.
And that was because, even though Darth Sidious had won, nothing, and he meant nothing had gone according to plan.
This wasn't how it was supposed to be. Darth Sidious fumed silently as he sat in what had once been the Jedi High Council chamber, tainting it's one pure presence with his darkness and perverting the very ground he stood on with cold contempt. No, this wasn't how it was supposed to go at all.
Ever since Darth Maul had not met his defeat at Obi-Wan Kenobi's hands as Sidious had foreseen some thirteen standard years ago, things had just not followed his meticulous, grand design; the Clone Wars had still happened of course, but the Clone Army the Kaminoans had made for him proved horribly inadequate to beat back the droid armies, even with the Jedi reinforcing them. Sidious wasn't sure if the Droid Army had just been made better and more powerful than he'd anticipated, or if the Clone Army had just fallen far short of the Kaminoan's and their progenitor Jango Fett's lofty expectations, but either way they hadn't been able to keep back the Separatist onslaught on the Galaxy like Sidious had been counting on. Sidious had been so frustrated in fact that he'd discreetly ordered the Mandalorian's death just to take his anger out on someone, but Jango Fett had evaded those attempts and was still at large somewhere in the greater galaxy, along with that son of his...
A pity no Jedi ever took his head off during the war. Sidious thought bitterly. As for the aforementioned Kenobi, his duel with Darth Maul had left him with both of his legs severed, though his connection to the Force had been strong enough that he'd kept himself just barely alive long enough for help to arrive. Forever after, Kenobi had been saddled with mechanical legs just as his one-time apprentice would later get a mechanical arm. Limb loss seemed to run in the line.
Well, at least Grievous killed Kenobi, or so I've been told. Palpatine thought. Of course, that hadn't been part of the plan either, but Sidious couldn't claim at all to mind that one of the greatest members of the obsolete Jedi Order, those most hated enemies of his, was now out of the way. And it's not as though Sidious would have let him live had things gone as they were meant to.
But nowhere was the course of events that had unfolded more frustrating and disappointing to Darth Sidious then the situation with his apprentices; the mere fact that there were now three Sith at a time in flagrant violation of the Rule of Two was unacceptable enough, but Tyranus had ended up doing what Sidious had neither expected nor wanted; he had killed Anakin Skywalker.
Skywalker was the one I wanted. Sidious fumed. Skywalker had the power, the potential, and the darkness inside him. I could have molded him into the greatest Sith Lord and killer of Jedi to ever live...besides myself, of course.
But, that ship had left the hangar now. Anakin Skywalker was dead, and Sidious was stuck with Darth Tyranus, who was powerful and skilled to be sure, not to mention having the charisma and reputation for integrity that Darth Maul had sadly lacked, but even so he wasn't as ideal. Especially when, in fact, he was even older than Sidious himself. Even if Sidious never realized his goal of immortality, there would be no doubt that he'd outlive Tyranus. And after Sidious had..."released" Darth Maul from his service, he knew that he could not count on the Zabrak to come back to him either. He would need to find someone else to set up as his third apprentice in lieu of the late Anakin Skywalker.
Perhaps... Sidious considered. ...Skywalker's children?
Because Sidious had been aware of Anakin Skywalker's secret marriage to Padme Amidala of Naboo. He had been aware too that she had since become pregnant. With twins, if he was not mistaken. He had actually intended to keep her in his custody, but she seemed to have escaped Coruscant before Separatist droid forces had seized the planet completely and set up a blockade so as to keep the world under perpetual quarantine.
Yes... The more Sidious thought about it, the more the idea appealed to him. Any children of Anakin Skywalker would have almost assuredly inherited at least some of his power if not all of it. And being as they were only infants, he could do with them as he had done with Darth Maul; turn them into perfect living weapons from day one, and mold them into the ultimate Sith Apprentices. Well, one of them anyway. After all, the Rule of Two still needed to apply. Not only did he fully intend to get rid of Darth Tyranus if he meant he got a child of Skywalker's in exchange, but the final "test" for the two children would be to fight to the death, the winner becoming his right-hand enforcer. The act of slaying their own twin sibling simply because he had ordered them to and because love was not the way of the Sith, would be the final thing that would forever cement the surviving Skywalker's position as an agent of evil. An agent of the Dark Side. An agent of him.
Sidious smiled. Yes...perhaps some of the sloppiness and unfortunate outcomes of his messy victory could be salvaged after all. In the meanwhile though, he'd have to content himself with being Emperor of a Galaxy that feared him as the conqueror, rather than embraced him as the false savior, as he had wanted.
I suppose... Sidious thought wistfully. ...it shall have to suffice for now.
Tatooine
Amid the crowded, noisy, and ever-active interior of a lonely cantina, Darth Maul sat in contemplative meditation.
He had sensed the dramatic turn of events in the Galaxy recently; the Dark Side now consumed it, standing triumphant over the Light Side now that it's prime defenders had been pounded so fiercely they'd been reduced to ruin. Maul had savored the Jedi deaths that he'd felt in the Force, but was also just a little miffed that he hadn't been the one to send them into the Force's embrace himself.
No matter. Darth Maul thought. The Sith's greatest enemies are at last gone. Gone or in hiding. Now all that remains is my own revenge.
Darth Maul had spent some time on Tatooine now. He'd been hopping from planet to planet throughout the Galaxy for years ever since Sidious had tossed him aside like a broken blade. A betrayal Maul should, in hindsight, perhaps have seen coming. Treachery was, after all, the way of the Sith. All the same, Maul had thought that years of loyal, unquestioning service might have entitled him to something more than being disposed of so readily.
Apparently, he was wrong.
Tatooine was Darth Maul's current hiding place. He'd been evading his former master's agents as well as Droids and Clones for years now, and every attempt to kill him had failed. Maul took some grim satisfaction in that; how Sidious had trained him to be an assassin so well that now he could not readily be assassinated himself.
Of course, he had kept Darth Maul running, for which the Sith Lord was none-too-appreciative. He'd killed so many assassins, hitmen, and Clone Troopers sent after him that he'd lost count, and just as many Separatist Droids too. On Tatooine though, the population was so diverse, and the inhabitants so listless and disinclined to pay attention to the comings and goings of most, that in conjunction with the planet being so far out of the way, Darth Maul at last had found a place he could lie low on with less fear of being attacked again. That his command of the Force was such that he could effectively mask his presence and become effectively invisible to the inhabitants of Mos Eisley helped as well.
"Your second round, sir." Came a Bith bartender who handed Maul his glass of liquid. From the Bith's altered perceptions, he saw Darth Maul as an unassuming Moisture Farmer, rather than the Sith Lord he truly was. Everyone else in the Cantina did too for that matter, and that was just how Darth Maul intended to keep it. If Treachery was the way of the Sith, so too was deception.
Darth Maul took the glass and drank, as he did continuing to reflect on the recent turn of events in the Galaxy; he was not content with merely hiding forever like a coward; he desired revenge on Sidious for casting him aside, and his own piece of the power the newly christened Emperor now wielded. Of course, any kind of direct attack was a fool's errand; Maul knew that he could grow in power for decades and still never come close to matching his master; the Dark Side of the Force was simply not as strong within him as it was within Sidious. And in any event, one Sith was pointless anyhow. As Sidious himself had told him many a time, a Master without an Apprentice was a master of nothing.
So the course was clear; Darth Maul would need a Sith Apprentice of his own, and not just any Sith Apprentice, but one who could, with time and training, become more powerful than Sidious himself.
Darth Maul allowed himself just the tiniest of smiles. An Apprentice, yes...but who?
Maul considered; he had sensed how strong the Force was in the boy from the very planet he was on now. He had suspected that Sidious had had an interest in him (part of why he looked back on the betrayal he had suffered as not so surprising after all). But that boy had gone on to become a Jedi hero who's life had been ended along with the rest of the Order, robbing Maul of the chance to corrupt him.
Darth Maul frowned. The answer was out there somewhere; the apprentice he was looking for would reveal themselves to him and his Force senses in time, he was sure of it. And when they did, Darth Maul would get out of them a Sith Apprentice powerful enough to lay low his own treacherous master...
Elsewhere on Tatooine, a brown cloaked figure shuffled about with little purpose. The joints of his mechanical legs groaned in protest, old machinery that they were. He probably ought to have them upgraded or replaced with newer, better models, but money was not something a Jedi had in abundance. Least of all now.
He sat down at last, and watched without interest those who passed by; humans, aliens, droids, and beasts of all types went by without paying him any heed at all, but that was just how the broken Jedi preferred it.
He instinctively reached for his face, before pulling his hands away, the sensation of the cold duranium of one hand touching the now horribly scarred face filling him with an overpowering revulsion. Scars from lightsaber blades and from the fall.
Obi-Wan Kenobi had lost everything; his master, his apprentice. His lightsaber, the Order he'd served using it for so long. Even his legs, forearm, and face had been ruined by the lightsaber blades of his enemies.
Obi-Wan sighed. How had it all gone so wrong? How had all the peace and order in the Galaxy been so thoroughly destroyed? He shook his head. The Jedi and their new Clone Army had fought to preserve the Republic, but they had failed. And now Obi-Wan Kenobi, though still alive, found himself almost wishing that he wasn't.
He knew not how many other Jedi had survived or escaped, but he knew it was too few. There had not been enough Jedi to protect the Republic without the Clone Army, and now after both had been routed there would certainly not be enough to liberate the Galaxy from the Separatist Alliance.
At least Master Qui-Gon did not live to see this dark day. Obi-Wan thought solemnly.
However, as Obi-Wan Kenobi thought this, he realized that he sensed something; a light in the Force that was familiar to him. Very familiar, and very strong...Anakin's?
Obi-Wan shook his head. No, that wasn't possible. He'd sensed Anakin's death in the Force. But what then? Because it was a similar signature to Anakin's. Similar, only different...it felt in some ways even brighter than Anakin's, untainted by pain and loss. Almost like the innocence of...
Obi-Wan's good eye widened in surprise. No...it couldn't be...could it?
Anakin had...offspring?
Dagobah
"So sure of this course of action, are you?" The venerable Jedi Master Yoda asked with a raised eyebrow.
Padme Amidala nodded. "I am, Master Yoda. Bail will raise Leia as a Senator in the new Empire so that she can do good in the same spheres I used to do good in. But I'm not a fool; I know that if the Sith are to be overthrown, it must be by a Jedi. The Jedi Order can't die with you, Master Yoda. And I cannot return to either Coruscant or Naboo because I'm too well known. Nute Gunray alone would have me killed the moment he saw me, or else slowly tortured to death. So I think it's best for Luke and myself to remain here with you."
Yoda considered this. "Hmmm...like it, I do not. Grow up on Dagobah, cut off from the Galaxy, a child should not be."
"That's why I would stay." Padme pointed out. "You'll be Luke's Master, I'll remain his mother. You'll teach him the ways of the Jedi, I'll be the one to teach him everything else."
"Hmmm...still do not like it, I do." Yoda said, thumping his gimer stick for emphasis as he did. "Grow up attached to you, your son will. Not the Jedi way, attachments are."
"Perhaps that should change." Padme said, giving no ground. "I'm not abandoning my son, and you said it yourself, he needs to learn about the Galaxy beyond Dagobah, not just the ways of the Jedi. I'm sorry, Master Yoda, but I think this is the best way, even if neither of us is completely happy with it."
Yoda considered that for a long time. But, at long last he said: "Argue passionately, you do." The several centuries-year old alien gave a nod. "And see no better alternative I do." He nodded again. "Very well. Train your son in the ways of the Jedi, I shall...and remain here with him as the boy's mother, you may."
Padme smiled and hugged Yoda tightly. "Oh, thank you, Master Yoda! Thank you!"
But she could see that Yoda was unhappy, his expression crestfallen and the look in his eyes one of near despair. Padme knew why; she was feeling that same deep unhappiness herself.
"I'm so sorry..."
"As am I." Yoda said. "Heavy on my heart, recent events are. Fear greatly for the future, I do." Yoda shook his head before looking up at Padme and smiling. "But faith in your son, I have. Capable of overthrowing the Emperor with proper training, he is."
"Let's hope so, Master Yoda. For everyone's sake, let's hope so..."
Coruscant
"You wished to see me, my master?"
"Yes indeed. Come stand by me, Lord Tyranus."
Darth Tyranus, formerly Count Dooku of Serenno, did so. Ever since killing Skywalker on Mustafar he'd had just a bit more a spring in his step, though he could tell even as he approached that his master was not pleased.
"We've done it, my Master." He said, trying to remind him of their victory in a desperate attempt to brighten Sidious' mood. "We have brought down the Republic and the Jedi Order. I admit it feels...well, quite satisfying, I must say."
"It did not come about as I had planned." Darth Sidious noted, and Tyranus could indeed sense the deep dissatisfaction in his voice. "We were supposed to end this war appearing the saviors of the Galaxy, Tyranus. Not the conquerors. The nature of our victory will inspire rebellion throughout the Galaxy."
Tyranus though merely scoffed in the face of this. "Please. Our Droid Army defeated the Clone Army and the Jedi too. They exceeded our expectations of them. I have every confidence they can handle whatever meager insurgents rise to challenge us. In fact, Master, if I may be so bold, I think that that could actually benefit us; having to crush a minor insurrection every now and again will keep us sharp and our new Empire feared."
But Darth Sidious was unconvinced. "The seemingly weak enemy has a way of surprising you, Lord Tyranus. Especially if they think they have nothing left to lose." He shook his head. "And not all of the Jedi perished, did they? I sense that some survived."
"If you are referring to Master Windu, I have the entire Separatist army and navy looking for him, and have had a bounty placed on his head for good measure. I may even have Grievous go on the hunt personally. I'm sure he'll love getting the chance to have a rematch with him, and the opportunity to add Mace's distinct amethyst lightsaber to his collection."
"See to it that you do." Sidious said simply. Tyranus could still sense the annoyance in his master however, Sidious making no attempt to conceal it. Guessing what it was about, and that it was likely the real reason Sidious had summoned him in the first place, Tyranus said: "You still disapprove of my killing Skywalker."
"He could have been a great asset. Would have been a great asset. The boy could have become the most powerful Force user to ever live, even more than Master Yoda or myself."
"Which..." Tyranus said as slowly and diplomatically as he could. "...is why it might have been just as well that I killed him when I did. He could have been a threat to us otherwise."
Darth Sidious scoffed in the face of this, and Tyranus could practically smell the contempt that oozed out of every one of his master's words. "Don't be a fool. I spent years winning his trust. Getting him to believe in me, to hang on my every word. I could have controlled him, even as he grew in power, I'm sure of it."
Tyranus didn't argue. He personally didn't agree, thinking that his master might be overestimating himself, or else just underestimating Skywalker (perhaps both), but he knew better than to utter a word. His master had killed people for less. So instead Darth Tyranus went the diplomatic route. "I am...sorry, master. I should have defeated Skywalker without killing him, then allow you to finish corrupting him."
"Yes, you should have." Darth Sidious said, and Tyranus nearly shivered at the icy venom in his master's voice. "You failed me, Lord Tyranus. I do not forgive failure."
"I know, Master..."
"Count yourself fortunate then, that I still have a use for you. You will eliminate Master Windu either personally or through Grievous, and you will root out and eliminate whatever Jedi may have survived, along with the ever-elusive Maul. You will also manage much of the Empire's day-to-day functions, including the new Imperial Senate." He waved a hand dismissively. "That will be all, Lord Tyranus. I shall summon you again when I have further use for you."
Darth Tyranus nodded and took his leave, all the while silently considering his prospects; his master hadn't even tried to be subtle with making it clear just how precarious his position now was. Tyranus had his uses as Sidious had noted, but he was no fool; other people could do the tasks Sidious had assigned to him, and he now had no doubt that Sidious would brush him aside the moment he could find adequate replacements. He was already seeing that pompous Tarkin character who had sold out Republic positions when it became clear that the Separatists would win the war.
Darth Tyranus shook his head. Not so. He would not take it lying down. If Sidious planned to throw him to the Nexu, he'd start taking measures of his own. The battle-lines had been drawn, and Tyranus was determined to either emerge the winner, or die a defiant loser.
And he knew just who to contact in preparation...
Rhen Var
A blaster shot later, and Jango Fett's latest target was down. As he flew in on his jetpack to intercept said target and get his body ready for transport back to his client, he found the way back blocked by a raging blizzard. Jango Fett stood still and frowned behind his helmet. It wasn't natural. He could tell by the way the winds and snow were moving. Someone was telekinetically affecting it. And he thought he knew who.
"Wasn't ever expecting to hear from you again after Geronosis." Jango Fett said as the raging, frozen winds parted temporarily to reveal the form of Count Dooku, as expected.
"Truth be told I hadn't ever counted on recruiting you again." Darth Tyranus admitted. "But circumstances have changed. I have need of your services once again, Jango."
Jango Fett scoffed. "If this for another clone army..."
"Do hear me out before you say no." Darth Tyranus said simply before continuing: "Now then...as I was saying, my circumstances in life have recently changed. I've...shall we say, fallen out of favor with my master. And I wish to take steps to protect myself from his eventual wrath."
"How do you expect me to help you with that?"
"Because I can sense the unrest and unhappiness among the Galaxy's population; when one tries to take freedom away by force, those in danger of losing it resist. They fight back. Rebellions are being formed, Fett. Rebellions that I want you to aid in the creation and training of and that I will secretly finance, support, and manipulate. Simply put, the Rebellions that will rise to fight my master's Empire will serve as my Dejarek pawns now as the Separatists did until very recently. And I intend to bring additional allies into this as well. But I want your assistance in this."
"And what's to stop me from just blowing the whistle on you to your 'master' after I leave?" Jango Fett asked with a raised eyebrow. "I could say yes now only to turn around and sell you out."
Darth Tyranus made a dramatic show of suppressing a yawn. "Spare me your hollow attempts at treacherous pragmatism. Such an act would be quite unbecoming of a man of your honor and integrity, Fett. I know you won't betray me if you give me your word."
"Then I could always just say 'no' now."
"Yes, and then I would have to kill you, which I'd rather not do, as I respect you immensely. You're one of the few sentients in this Galaxy who I find even remotely interesting, Fett."
"Thanks for the flattery." Jango said, even though he didn't sound very happy about it. But nevertheless, he said: "I'll think about it."
"That's all I ask for now." Darth Tyranus said with a smile. "But I think in time you'll come to see things my way..."
Bespin
It had taken him a few years after that fateful meeting with Jango Fett on Rhen Var, but Darth Tyranus had managed to finally locate Darth Maul as well. And now that he'd convinced the forsaken Sith Lord that he did not, in fact mean to deliver his head to Sidious, the two were now together in Cloud City on Bespin. A sufficiently remote part of the Galaxy that Sidious' new Empire hadn't discovered it...yet.
"You are certain this plan will work?" Darth Maul asked.
"Nothing is certain these days, my friend." Darth Tyranus said. "But I do think that with Jango Fett now assisting us and my wealth secretly financing them, the new Rebellion that has been formed by Senators Bail Organa, Mon Mothma, and Garm Bel Iblis has a chance of succeeding. If nothing else, they'll keep Sidious busy while we continue our search to find a worthy Apprentice."
"And what happens when we do?" Darth Maul asked with a raised eyebrow. "You know as well as I do that there can only be two."
"I think we're already past the point of breaking the rule, my friend." Darth Tyranus said, before adding quickly: "I am aware that sharing power is not in either of our natures. I am aware also that a day will come when we will face each-other for the right to carry on the legacy. But in the meantime though, we need each-other. So I advise that we maintain our alliance for the time being."
"Hmm...very well." Darth Maul said, though Tyranus could tell that Maul still didn't like the arrangement. Tyranus couldn't actually blame him though, because neither did he. But, compromises had to be made if they wanted any chance of succeeding against Sidious. Especially when Tyranus remained unsure of what said General Grievous would ultimately take, and was sufficiently against testing it that he hadn't yet let Grievous in on his plot.
"This had better work." Darth Maul hissed, to which Darth Tyranus shrugged. "Suppose it doesn't; wouldn't you still rather die fighting like a true Sith than alone and in hiding?"
"True enough." Darth Maul conceded with a nod. "But all the same, I'd rather emerge victorious in this."
"As would we all. Hence our alliance."
Darth Maul nodded silently in agreement. They both knew that a proper apprentice was still key to their victory; the Rebellion they and Jango Fett pulled the strings of could distract and vex the Empire as much as they could, but Palpatine himself was a dark colossus not so easily laid low. Even together Tyranus and Maul did not have what it took. They would need a third player, one who had the power they could only dream of.
Little did they know that such a worthy candidate was out there, training for the very purpose of overthrowing Darth Sidious. But not for the sake of Tyranus and Maul.
Dagobah, years later
Yoda and Obi-Wan both nodded approvingly as the ten-year old Luke managed to telekinetically lift up all of the rocks and other objects placed in front of him. All of them. Clearly, the boy had indeed inherited his father's exceptional talent.
"Well done, Luke." Obi-Wan had said. Thanks to Padme's remaining connections, Obi-Wan had managed to finally get newer, better mechanical legs and arm, and they felt as nice as they looked, helping to soften somewhat the blow of missing all but one of his original limbs. He was still blind in one eye though from the lightsaber scar on his face, and he had declined a cybernetic prosthetic. "Your eyes can deceive you, don't trust them." Was what he was always telling Luke after all.
"Thank you, Master Obi-Wan." Luke said with a smile.
"Remember always..." Yoda said. "...a Jedi's strength flows from the Force."
Luke nodded. "Yes master. And I also remember to always beware of the Dark Side."
Yoda nodded approvingly at this, and then Padme's voice called out: "Luke! Luke! It's time to eat!"
"Coming, mother." Luke said before bowing respectfully to his two masters and running off to go be with his mother for dinner. As Obi-Wan and Yoda watched him go, Obi-Wan said: "And to think we've always discouraged Jedi from remaining attached to their families. But it doesn't seem to have hindered Luke at all."
"Convinced it proves the old traditions wrong, I am not." Yoda said, shaking his head. "Not how I would have preferred to train the boy, this is."
"All due respect, Master Yoda, I'm afraid we are no longer in a position to be choosy."
"True." Yoda replied, shaking his head as he did. "Sense it, do you?"
Obi-Wan nodded. "I do, Master Yoda."
"Actively hunting for the offspring of Anakin Skywalker, the Sith are. The Emperor, yes. But also his two forsaken apprentices; Maul and Dooku."
"I know, Master. But so long as we remain hidden here, Dooku will probably be dead before he has a chance to corrupt Luke."
"Perhaps, but remain, Maul and Sidious would. Still in danger, Skywalker would be."
Obi-Wan shook his head. "That boy is still our last, best hope of stopping the Sith."
"No..." Yoda said. "...there is another..."
Bespin
"What is it, Dooku?" Darth Maul asked as he stepped into the room where the now quite elderly Count was waiting for him. He didn't like being called away from his affairs; the Rebellion he and Tyranus had been discreetly supporting for years now had been coming along nicely, but Maul didn't like the thought of leaving it alone for any serious length of time. So for the old Count's sake, the news he had for Maul had best be good.
Tyranus slowly turned to regard Maul: "I did."
"What is it?"
"I've found him. At long last, I've found the Apprentice we've been searching for."
This got Darth Maul's attention immediately. "Really? Where is he?"
"Dagobah. With my old Master."
Darth Maul raised an eyebrow at this. "Dagobah?"
Darth Tyranus nodded. "Yes. It took me years, but my connection to my old master's not entirely lost even now; he is on Dagobah, I am certain of it. He must have retreated there after the fall of the Jedi Order. And that is where the apprentice we've been searching for is. Being trained by him to keep the Jedi Order on the brink of death, no doubt."
Darth Maul considered this, as he did looking at Darth Tyranus; the passage of ten standard years did not show in Tyranus terribly visibly, but Maul could sense how weak he was becoming with the passage of time. How weak he had become, actually. Though the Force extended the lifespan of a sentient to a point, it did not keep back death indefinitely, and Force or no Force, Tyranus did not have much longer to live...or did he?
Suddenly, Maul was less sure. He could see Tyranus pace nervously, as if worried about something. Maul realized that Tyranus seemed to be sensing danger.
"We...should go to Dagobah personally. Together, I think. My old master is even more ancient now than before. I can sense that age and the triumph of the Dark Side these many years have both taken a toll on him. Together, we should be able to overcome him."
There it was. It was as Tyranus said this with far less conviction than he ought to that Darth Maul perceived the danger Tyranus had sensed: his death. His death at Maul's hands.
Deciding to bide his time though, Darth Maul nodded and said: "Very well. We'll go to Dagobah...together."
Dagobah
Yoda nodded approvingly as Luke pulled off the Ataru moves he had taught him flawlessly; not a stroke, leap, or kick out of place.
"Well done, Skywalker. Proud of you I am."
Luke smiled as the green blade of his lightsaber shrank away. "Thanks, Master Yoda. I'm glad I've been doing well."
Yoda's own smile faded for a moment as he sensed a dark presence coming to the planet rapidly. He didn't need to think long to know who or what it was.
He also knew that Luke ought not to be anywhere close when it came.
"Go to your mother you should." Yoda suggested. "Missing you, she will be. Spend time with her, you should."
Luke nodded. "Alright, Master Yoda." He said, before running in the direction of the hut he shared with Padme. Yoda smiled sadly as he watched the boy go before sitting down up against a tree and waiting for his foes to come.
They came some hours later, when night had fallen on Dagobah once more.
"Maul. Dooku. Expected you both, I have."
Crimson blades shot out of Darth Maul's long ago rebuilt double-bladed lightsaber. A similar fountain of blood colored light spat out of Darth Tyranus' curved hilt.
"We have come for the boy." Darth Tyranus said simply.
"Allow you to leave with him, we will not." Yoda said simply.
"We?" Darth Tyranus asked with a raised eyebrow.
Behind the two Sith, the sound of a lightsaber blade sprang to life. Maul and Tyranus whipped around to see Obi-Wan standing there, hood of his brown robe pulled down to reveal an aging face, and his new green lightsaber held out at the ready in his typical Soresu stance.
"Leave now." Obi-Wan said with grave finality. "You will be given no additional warnings."
Tyranus scoffed. "If our prior history in lightsaber duels is anything to go by, I hardly think I shall need any." Tyranus gave Obi-Wan the usual Makashi salute. "And considering what happened to your legs, I doubt you could take Maul here either." He turned to Darth Maul: "Deal with Kenobi. I shall handle my old master. I sense that he is weaker than ever now."
Darth Maul nodded and moved in to engage Obi-Wan. Tyranus went in the opposite direction, right after Yoda. But before he could bring his red lightsaber down on Yoda, the old Jedi Master raised his hand, and there was a blinding flash of light.
When Tyranus opened his eyes, he was back on Geonosis, surrounded by the bodies of Clone Troopers and Geonosians from the first battle of the Clone Wars. "You took this into my mind." Darth Tyranus noted. "Clever, Master Yoda." He turned to see that Yoda was still there and went at him. "But not clever enough!"
Back in the physical world, Darth Maul and Obi-Wan locked lightsaber blades for the first time since Naboo over twenty standard years ago. But in that time, Obi-Wan's skills, though having deteriorated from what they'd been during the end of the Clone Wars, were still formidable. He expertly blocked every strike Darth Maul sent at him, and replied in kind with perfectly timed blows that Maul barely deflected every time. Loathe as he was to admit it, Kenobi would not be as easy a kill as he'd hoped, and Darth Maul knew that Obi-Wan could easily kill him if his attentions were diverted for even a moment.
Meanwhile, on the astral plane, Tyranus found his kill strike aimed at Yoda blocked by a familiar amethyst blade.
"Ah. Master Windu. Or rather, a phantasm of him."
"Phantasm perhaps, but your own phantasm of him he is." Yoda said. "Still hurt you, he can."
And as if to prove it, the vision of Mace Windu swung his amethyst blade at Darth Tyranus. He managed to deliver a glancing blow that cut part of Tyranus' sleeve and damage his armor-weave cloak. Scoffing with contempt, Tyranus struck sideways at the apparition and hit it, causing it to disperse.
"A Sith Lord's life is pain. Ghosts of past Jedi will not deter me."
"Always a Sith Lord, you were not." Yoda countered, unfazed as now a ghostly manifestation of Ki-Adi Mundi appeared and traded blows with Darth Tyranus. Tyranus cut him down too, but not before he delivered a strike to the leg that, had this not been a vision would have severed the limb. "Once my Apprentice, you were. A great Jedi Master, you once were."
"A long time gone, Master Yoda." Darth Tyranus said simply before going at him again. A green lightsaber slamming into his back in such a way that it should have cut both his armor-weave cloak and himself in half got his attention, and Tyranus whipped around to strike at none other than an apparition of his old apprentice, Qui-Gon Jinn.
"A shabby trick, dragging Qui-Gon into this."
"Still miss him even now, you do." Yoda said. "Sense it, I can."
The apparition of Qui-Gon hit Tyranus again, but Tyranus retaliated with a slash that would have decapitated Qui-Gon if he'd been real. "Qui-Gon couldn't see that the Jedi Order's time had come." Darth Tyranus said simply. "But I saw it. Darth Sidious showed me the truth."
"And then betrayed you, he did. Cast you aside as a failure, he did. Alone now, you are."
"Once I take your apprentice as my own, that will cease to be the case." Darth Tyranus said, before at last delivering a crimson slash that, this time, was not parried by any more Jedi specters.
The fatal strike delivered to Yoda shattered the illusion Tyranus had been trapped in and returned him to the reality of Dagobah. As Yoda's body crumpled to the floor, Obi-Wan and Darth Maul ceased in their up-to-that-point even duel to see it.
"NO!" Obi-Wan shouted, a moment of distraction that allowed Darth Maul to sever Obi-Wan's last flesh-and-blood limb and then blast his body away with a blast of crimson lightning from his black gloved hand that caused him to hit a tree so hard it would have shattered a normal human's spine. With Obi-Wan subdued, Darth Maul walked over to stand by Darth Tyranus.
"It is over..." Tyranus noted, but he didn't get to finish his thought, because it was then that Maul drove one of the crimson blades of his double-saber into Tyranus' back, burning a hole in both his armor-weave cape and his torso. Darth Maul twisted a few times for good measure before pulling the blade out. He watched Tyranus' body fall without a drop of pity. His successful, literal backstab had been proof enough of what Maul had already suspected, namely that Tyranus had grown old, decrepit, sluggish, and worst of all, expendable. Otherwise he'd have been able to sense when and where Maul intended to betray him, and then Maul would be the one lying dead on the ground.
But that was neither here nor there.
"We both knew it would come to this." Darth Maul said to Darth Tyranus' body. "We both knew from the moment we made our alliance that only one of us could be the boy's master. Always two there are, of course. A master to embody the power..." Darth Maul looked out in the direction where he sensed the boy and his mother.
"...and an apprentice, to crave it."
A short trip later, and Darth Maul was at the hut where his future apprentice lay. He effortlessly ripped the door off with telekinesis, hurling it away. A blaster bolt fired out of the doorway greeted him, but Maul deflected it without an issue.
"Stay away from my son!" Padme roared, opening fire again. Again, Maul deflected the shot before casually disarming Padme of her blaster with another flick of his wrist.
"I remember you from Naboo..." Darth Maul noted before advancing. "Where is the boy?"
Maul got his answer when a green blade tried to run him through from behind. Darth Maul spun about and swatted the green lightsaber out of it's owner's small hands.
The boy had nearly gotten him. Maul should have been furious, but instead he was perversely elated. Already the child was proving himself exactly the sort of apprentice Maul needed to get his revenge on Sidious and take what had long been denied him...
He nearly didn't react to the shot from Padme's hold-out blaster before disarming her of that too.
"Wait! Stop! Don't hurt my mother!" Luke cried, holding out his hands. Darth Maul turned to face him. "What do you want?" Luke asked, clearly doing his best to not be afraid (and failing miserably).
"You, boy." Darth Maul said coldly. "I want you by my side. As my apprentice."
"If...if I go with you...will you let my mother go?"
Darth Maul considered that. His natural instinct was to kill her anyway, since mercy was hardly the stuff of a self-respecting Sith Lord. But, if he did, the boy might choose to join his mother in death rather than let himself become Maul's apprentice. Or worse, he could throw himself into the path of Maul's blade or Force attack in some stupid act of selfless protection. And he was too valuable an asset to Maul to lose.
So Darth Maul decided to play it safe. "Yes. I will."
"OK...I'll go with you."
"Good." Darth Maul said before blasting Padme into the wall of the hut hard enough to knock her out. "She'll live." He said curtly before grabbing Luke with one hand. "Come. We're leaving here."
Darth Maul fairly dragged Luke out of the hut, but stopped short when he saw Obi-Wan there, clearly in pain, but with his lightsaber nevertheless still drawn and held at the ready.
"Determined to die by my hand, are you?" Darth Maul asked with a raised eyebrow. "So be it." He let Luke go and went at Obi-Wan again. With only one hand and still feeling the stinging pain of Maul's lightning, Obi-Wan never stood a chance. Maul easily disarmed him, also destroying his green lightsaber in the process. As he kicked Obi-Wan to the ground, he prepared to spear him on one of his blades...
...before another fan of green energy sliced through his mid-section.
Darth Maul gasped in pain as he realized too late that he'd forgotten about the boy. As his top half slid off his legs and his life left him, his last thought was: "Pity...the boy would have made the perfect...apprentice..."
The next morning saw the burying of Yoda, Tyranus, and Maul. Once that was done, Padme and Obi-Wan took stock of the situation:
"We probably won't be able to stay here." Obi-Wan observed. "Not after what has happened. Darth Sidious will have sensed his apprentice's death, and likely Master Yoda's too."
"Where else can we go?" Padme asked. "Luke still needs to finish his training."
"I can think of a few different planets we can hide out on, you needn't worry about that. But we can't stay here. That much I know."
"I understand." Padme said, before her eyes fell on the stump where Obi-Wan's last remaining flesh and blood limb had been. "I'll be sure that Bail gets you another prosthetic."
Obi-Wan sighed. "I'm more machine now, then man. Twisted and broken."
Padme shook her head. "No, not broken. You're still a great Jedi, Master Kenobi." She smiled. "My son couldn't have gotten better teachers than you and Master Yoda."
Obi-Wan nodded. "Master Yoda's at last one with the Force now. Which means that your son and myself are now truly the last of the Jedi. Just us two." He sighed. "Two will have to be enough." The two old friends turned to see Luke still standing over Yoda's grave, looking despondent. Yoda's lightsaber was now Luke's to wield as a secondary one, the old Jedi's final gift to him. Obi-Wan shook his head at the sight, but he knew that he couldn't allow Luke time to mourn. Not with all that was still at stake and all that remained unresolved.
"Come. Gather your son and whatever you wish to bring with you. We still have a Galaxy to save."
Author's Notes: Well...that turned out way longer than I had planned. Oh well. I still enjoyed writing it.
I was inspired by Empire Strikes Back Infinites for the last scene, while the decision to give Obi-Wan a green lightsaber is based off of both the Star Wars miniature Obi-Wan Kenobi, Unleashed who has a green blade, and the Revenge of the Sith video game, where the Player 2 Ben Kenobi in dueling mode uses a green saber.
And no, there will be no Part 2 to this. The next chapter will be a different AU centered around the Republic winning Galactic Conquest. Then one more for the Empire.