The Battle

Sidious grinned, his yellow teeth peeking from behind his wrinkled lips.

"So, here you are again," he croaked. "Come to finally kill me?"

"Enough talk, Sidious. You are going to pay for all the Jedi you killed."

"Ha! This conversation sounds familiar."

Anakin bit his lip.

"This fight won't end the same way," growled Obi Wan. "This time, the Sith will end."

"You are so sure," laughed Sidious. "Now naïve you truly are."

Sidious black cloak floated as he jumped, his blood red lightsaber twisting in a spiral. He let out a quick, guttural cry as he struck, his blade making contact with Anakin's, green sparks shooting out of their blades. Ahsoka quickly brought her blade down on Sidious, who blocked quickly and pushed her away with the force. Then Obi Wan swooped in, his blade slicing through the air just beneath Sidious' neck. He roared, and spat as he returned the blow, and Obi Wan was knocked back by the force of the blow. Anakin rushed in, just as the door behind him was forced open. A battalion of clones poured into the office, blasters loaded. Obi Wan and Ahsoka quickly retaliated, deflecting blaster fire, and cutting down clones.

Anakin pressed back against Sidious, his saber swinging quickly. Red and blue light flashed between them, and their lightsabers let out little bursts of sparks and crackles with each strike.

"Master," Ahsoka yelped as she deflected another blow. "Master, help!"

"I'm kind of busy, Snips," retorted Anakin, making another swipe.

"Kenobi."

Silence fell in the room, as everyone stopped fighting for a moment. Anakin could not turn, but he knew who stood in the door.

Draped in a black cloth, the Zabrak stood on prosthetic legs, and black markings covered his whole body, head to toe. Several long and sharp horns protruded from his skull, and his mouth was turned down into a permanent grimace. His irises glowed golden yellow, and the whites of his eyes were completely black.

"Master, shall I dispose of them," he calmly asked.

"Yes, Maul. Kill them, but leave Skywalker to me."

Anakin gripped his lightsaber tightly, beads of sweat running down his forehead, as Maul ignited his saberstaff. He heard Maul's quiet laugh as he sprung forward, grunting as he struck. Ahsoka yelled as she blocked, a blast of light striking out as their blades clashed. Sidious smiled arrogantly, and challenged Anakin with his gesture. Filled with rage, Anakin took off, flying over Sidious' head and to his back, drawing his blade to strike. Sidious flung out his hand, blowing Anakin backwards and through the broken window, tumbling to the ground several stories below.

"Anakin," screamed Obi Wan as his friend was pushed out. He moved to help him.

"Obi Wan," cried Ahsoka.

Obi Wan couldn't let Ahsoka die to save Anakin. He gritted his teeth and turned around, his blade angled to strike. Maul smiled a crooked grin, poising to jump.

"No," grunted Ahsoka as Maul jumped, and then jumped out of the window, following Sidious.

"No!" Obi Wan ran to the window, and peered over the windowsill, looking for any sign Anakin had broken his fall.

"What happened to Anakin," Ahsoka worried.

Obi Wan sighed. "He fell."

"No," she gasped. Without a second thought, she threw herself off the window, plummeting to the ground like a rock. Gracefully, she gripped one of the cables they had used to get up the side of the building, and slowed to a stop just before the ground. Anakin lay there, knocked out again, blood seeping from a wound on his head.

With a thump, Obi Wan landed to her left.

"Not again," he sighed.

"Is he alive?"

"Of course." Obi Wan folded his arms, and rolled his eyes. "What a drama queen."

Ahsoka punched him in the shoulder. "You jerk."

He laughed. "How many times has this happened, Ahsoka, as far as you can remember?"

She snorted. "Too many times to count."

"Exactly."

One week later.

Anakin's head pounded, his heartbeat ringing in his ears.

"He's waking up," exclaimed Ahsoka, who stood expectantly over her master's gurney.

"Hey, Snips," groaned Anakin, grimacing out a smile.

"I don't get so much as a hello?" Obi Wan walked over, his arms folded tightly.

Anakin laughed. "Hello, Master." As he sat up, a twinge of pain ran through his head. "What happened?"

"The Sith got away," explained Obi Wan.

"I thought you said Sidious killed Maul."

"We thought he had," Ahsoka said. "But it looks like instead, they're working together now."

Anakin sighed. "And Sidious pushed me out the window?"

"Yeah," laughed Obi Wan. "That seems to happen more often."

A sudden knock at the door snapped their attention away. Padmé stood in the doorway, Luke and Leia in her arms.

"Hey there," she smiled. "The kids wanted to see you."

Anakin grinned from ear to ear, taking Leia from Padmé's arms. "Hey there, princess," he said, hugging her close.

"We can talk about this later," mumbled Obi Wan, taking Ahsoka be the hand, and leading her out of the room.

Luke giggled, as Padmé placed him on the gurney. Anakin scooped him up with his robotic arm, squishing their faces together. He screamed with joy, and grabbed Anakin's finger, sticking it in his mouth.

Anakin smiled, kissing his kids again, before tickling them.

Padmé laughed, scooping the kids up again, then kissed Anakin one more time before she left, flicking off the light behind her.

"Good night," she called.

Whisps of fog and smoke floated low over the cold, rocky ground. Tiny engravings on each little stone were all that was left of the once proud civilization. Tiny, brittle bits of bone protruded from in between the rocks, all of them split in jagged edges. Black stones and tiny black and red pieces of cloth told the story of what happened.

Sidious grinned, remembering the story his master told him.

Once, a very powerful Sith Lord took an apprentice rumored to be the chosen one, who would bring balance to the force. He raised his apprentice to be weak, so that he could overpower and destroy the chosen one, but the apprentice was cunning and learned the way of the force without his Sith master, and lived in perfect harmony with the Sith race.

Finally, one night, he took his revenge on his master, and killed him. But because of the power that had been pent-up inside him, he went insane, slaughtering the entire Sith race, leaving him as the sole survivor and the first lord of the Sith, giving himself the name Darth Primus.

The story was true, of course, and anytime a Sith was killed, they were buried with their masters, in the Hidden Tombs. Sidious' master, Darth Plagueis, had been buried there as well, hundreds of years ago, although rumors had been floating around that Palpatine had kept his master's cremated ashes in a large urn, which he kept on his office. But this was not true.

Plagueis, while he was alive, found a way to lengthen his life, from a normal lifespan to Aeons of life. After he killed him, Sidious had used his master's power to elongate his life.

But now, he needed his master's help.

Darth Maul walked silently behind Sidious, his face downcast. As they opened the door to the tomb, maul stayed very quiet, careful not to speak. Sidious knew why. If Maul spoke, it was certain that the respect of Plagueis would never come to him, and he would be killed.

Together, they lifted the lid of Plagueis' coffin, which had been poured from the molten rivers of Mustafar.

The force reached out to Plagueis, and he rose again. His eyes opened, his bright yellow eyes shining with an intensity like fire, his long, flat face greyed even further by decay, flakes of skin peeling from his face. His hood didn't reach far enough to cover his face, which was twisted into a permanent scowl.

"Darth Sidious."

"Lord Plagueis. I need your help."

"You are not powerful enough to do this thing? How can you call yourself a Sith Lord."

"Do not forget, Master, that I killed you. I am more powerful than you."

"What is it that you want?"

Sidious grinned. "I need you to kill Anakin Skywalker."

Story Thanks to Emmaisdafawesomeboss