Star Wars 2.0
Episode 4
Chapter 9
Darth Mawl's hateful red eyes burned toward their prey who was limping helplessly across the room. Mawl's head was lowered, as though he would charge and finish off the boy with his tiny horns. Anakin was still putting up a front, his lightsaber at the ready as though reminding his foe that he was still a threat. Not much of one, Mawl believed. He had just finished off the master; the student should be no trouble at all.
"Ready to die, boy?"Mawl asked.
Anakin leaned forward, beginning to shout, "You're not…" but it was all he got out. The question had been a taunt to get Anakin to do exactly what he had done; lean out past his guard. Now Mawl sprang at him like a tiger, barely visible from the speed. Anakin put his saber forward, but he was now off balance, and the red and black blur crashed into him, the staff knocking against the saber so hard it sent Anakin flailing backward. He swung his lightsaber wildly to keep his enemy back. Mawl came in under the blue haze and kicked Anakin in the stomach, sending him tumbling back against a wall from which he ricocheted and landed on the floor.
Anakin was wheezing now, gasping for breaths. But as Mawl flew through the air to finish him off, Anakin rolled away just as the lightstaff burned into the floor. He pursued the rolling Jedi across the floor, slashing down at him as Anakin blocked each blow. Mawl was surprised by a crate flying through the air, hitting him in the side and knocking him away. Anakin had thrown it with the force. And now he jumped to his feet, his saber at the ready.
Mawl prepared his as well. But the Jedi had supplied them both with ideas. The room was full of storage accessories. They both began moving them with their minds, and a moment later the room was like a tornado with heavy objects flittering about the room. Each of them were slicing the crates as they came at them, or dodging over and under or to the sides of them.
Mawl noticed a container which read "caution: explosive" on its top, and he hurled that at Anakin. It wasn't coming very fast, so Anakin held his ground and sliced it in two. The crate exploded in his face and he fell back hard.
As the room began to reform in his eyes, Anakin noticed that he had dropped his lightsaber. What was more, he had landed on the floor, his head had knocked against a wall, and Mawl stepped up before him, the red beam of the lightstaff pointing directly at Anakin's face. A greedy grin formed across the red face of his enemy, revealing a mouth full of rotten-looking teeth. He was going to enjoying killing Anakin. The lightstaff now maneuvered to his throat, just an inch away. There Mawl hesitated for only an instant to see if Anakin had anything to say. The young Jedi stared back at him with only contempt.
And then Mawl was enveloped in a ball of lightning whose tendrils stabbed and prodded him. He writhed in agony and dropped his lightstaff. He was lifted into the air inside the crackling blob. His screams were cut off by burning sizzles and more of his screams.
Anakin looked over to see the source of the spell. It was his brother Owen. Long strings of crackling electricity emerged from his splayed fingers. He pumped his arms, sending surges into the tortured body ofhis enemy, who screamed with every thrust.
Anakin rose and found his lightsaber across the room. He used the force to summon it to himself, and he heard the lightning bolts stop. He looked back to now see that Owen was holding out a hand with his fingers in a choking motion. Mawl was grasping at his throat, clearly unable to breathe. His eyes were wide with horror. He had no control, and was approaching death in tremendous pain. Anakin smiled. He felt no mercy for his master's murderer. He only hoped he would last long enough to feel pain that would follow him into death.
Then he looked over and saw his brother's expression. The smile across Owen's face was one of mania. His eyes were wide and lit up with delight with each stroke of pain he inflicted. His fingers tensed with personal vitriol, as if they were seeking for a way to inflict more agony.
"Owen," Anakin said, shaking his head. Owen didn't look at him, so Anakin shouted more intensely, "Owen!" That got through enough for Owen to look at Anakin, but nothing changed. He surged more electricity into his victim and his smirk grew into a maniacal grin.
Anakin now realized what Qui-jin had cautioned him about; how anger and vengeance led to the dark side. He could see that rage in his brother's eyes; the monster it was turning him into. The only way to stop him would be to fight him, and he wasn't going to do that.
So he lit his lightsaber and cut Darth Mawl in two.
Owen shouted, "No!" just too late, and he let both pieces fall to the floor. He turned his rage on his brother, clenching his fists and pushing them toward Anakin, his fingers splayed. Anakin returned his gaze with one of peace and serenity. Owen froze in place, sparks of energy crawling up and down his fingers. Anakin's lightsaber pulled into his hilt. He would not fight him.
Owen's eyes drooped and his hands dropped to his sides. The blue sparks disappeared, and his lips began to tremble. He was overwhelmed with the emotion of where his fear had led him, so he crumpled to the floor and wept.
The senators were being led down a grand corridor to the cells where they would be held until the Neiomoidians got whatever it was they were demanding. Prince Organa made his way closer to Prelat Fomii as they traveled. He tried to read the leader's body language as he did; attempting to gather some clue as to how he felt about what he was doing, and perhaps even why he was doing it. Fomii let off no such information.
Prince Organa was silent for a few steps before he spoke softly to the Neimoidian commander. "You can't think that you'll win against all the governments that will be coming for you," he said.
"There is no reason for us to fear," Fomii said. "We can hold out against any attack. Even if we have to fight the entire galaxy."
"You can't be serious. Just the governments that we personally represent are enough to…"
Prelat Fomii turned on the prince very suddenly, now a gun in his hand. "Enough. Your fleet currently in space will be decimated, as will every fleet that follows." This was, of course, a ridiculous argument. Even with improved weaponry, the Neimoidians alone could not hope to overcome every other government out there, especially those united under the senate; not to mention the Jedi.
But looking into Fomii's face, Prince Organa saw what could explain a lot. His eyes were fixed and glazed over. His speech was too even to be sincere. There was something about him that was unnatural. He was not completely there. Fomii then said, "Now move, or I will have you all executed right here."
Prince Organa, whose expression had switched from anger to pity, began to walk again, as did the other senators. They had not gone far when two figures appeared before them. The battle droids opened fire immediately. The figure in the front lit up a blue lightsaber and deflected the incoming shots; many of which bounced back to the droids. The figure in the rear waved his hands, and the battle droids on the other flank flew back into a wall. Fomii shot at the one in the back without a lightsaber, and the man raised a hand, catching the laser bolt out of the sky. He then pitched it back and the laser bolt shot into Prelat Fomii's chest, sending him sprawling to the ground.
Prince Organa recognized the front one. He had seen him before. "Aren't you Qui-jin's apprentice?" he asked.
Anakin's face seemed to drop as Organa asked, and he answered, "Yes sir."
"Where is he now?"
Anakin hesitated before answering, "If some of you can help me transport his body back to the Jedi Counsel, I would appreciate it."
A sigh seemed to emanate from the senators, both out of relief for their rescue, and sorrow over a fallen Jedi. It was a rare occurrence as little could challenge them. But now was not the time for questions or sorrows. Now was the time to escape.
The man with the heavy armor and his squad had Obi-wan restrained tightly. Any move from him would result in his death.
But not any move from Amidala or her troops. "Fire!" she ordered, and her palace guard opened fire on the commander and his troops. They had been so focused on Obi-wan that they had not taken the necessary precautions to protect themselves against the remaining security personnel. At least half of them went down in the initial barrage. The others ran for cover, and even their commander had to thrust out and escape.
This gave Obi-wan the chance to run out of the line of fire, then force pull a knife out of a soldier's sheath to bring it slicing through the wires binding him. The man in the heavy armor bore down on Obi-wan. He force pulled his lightsaber, grabbing it and lighting it up just in time to deflect the shots. He sent one back at the enemy commander, wounding him, and sending him fleeing. With their leader gone, all of the minions backed away as well, disappearing from the city, or surrendering to anyone who confronted them.
Anakin, Owen, and two of the senators carried a crate with Qui-jin's body onto Owen's ship. The other senators followed. As soon as they had set it down, Anakin hurried toward the controls. "We have to get out of here."
"Agreed," Owen said, hurrying past him to start it up. He knew his brother and that he would take control given the chance. He needed a reminder that this was Owen's ship.
Prince Organa closed the hatch, and made sure all the senators got strapped into seats. "Something tells me this is going to be a bumpy ride," he said eyeing the brothers now racing each other to the cockpit.
The liftoff was surprisingly easy, but as they approached the end of the atmosphere, they could see the dots of ships and the blinking flashes of battle. And as they drew closer still, they could see that the Republic was losing.
"Looks like we'll have to bypass them and go straight back to Coruscant," Anakin said.
"I can't argue with that," Owen replied.
"I'll get us through it," Anakin said, grabbing the controls.
"No, let go of that…"
"I'm used to space battles. You're used to sneaking…"
"This is my ship. Dammit, let go…"
As the brothers bickered, they each yanked the controls ahead of them in the direction they felt was best. The ship jerked accordingly, and the senators looked around them in alarm; all except Organa who knew human nature well enough to see what was coming.
At last Owen slapped Anakin's hand away from the controls and said, "I'll handle this. You… do your Jedi mind tricks or something."
Anakin thought for a moment, then remembered that Owen had a twin laser cannon turret he could use. "I'll get the gun," he said, hopping up and running.
"Yeah, you do that," Owen responded.
Anakin passed the alarmed senators and climbed up the ladder into the turret. It creaked and groaned, and he had to toss aside a little dust. Owen wasn't used to going into fights. But it powered up and was smooth to his touch. Anakin found a target and fired. Miss. He then closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. When he opened them he saw another enemy fighter coming in. This time it appeared as a trail. At one end was where it currently was at that moment, and the rest was where it was about to be. Anakin pointed the turret at the far end of this trail and fired, and the ship flew right into it.
Anakin didn't wait for the explosion to finish before he pointed the cannon ahead of another enemy fighter and fired. Another one down. In this way he was destroying a lot of enemies, but their path ahead was far more difficult as they were just coming upon the capital ships.
Then several more Republic ships appeared out of hyperdrive. On their own, it didn't seem like they would make much of a difference; but one of them had Jedi Master Tosho Shiro on board. Standing at the front of the bridge, he looked over the situation and had it all analyzed quickly. He then closed his eyes, dug deeply into the force, and began motioning like he was a conductor leading an orchestra.
Ahead of their ship laser blasts of every ship dissipated not long after they left their guns. Then several enemy vessels began to suddenly drift apart from the middle of the battle, creating a wide gap for Owen's ship to fly through.
Owen punched his overdrive and thrusted through the open area, not questioning why it had suddenly become so easy. As soon as he had clearance to go to hyperspace, he took it.
To be continued…