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Vader let his hand drop down to his side, his gaze still locked on the remains of the pillar as the gravel slowly settled across the marble flooring of the Great Hall. As the ruble finally slid to a halt, he deactivated his lightsaber, which he had kept down at his side, and turned his gaze away from what was now yet another Jedi's gravesite.
He had felt Serra, calling out to someone with such an intensity right before her death. But he hadn't been able to pinpoint exactly who she was trying to contact before the pillar had crushed her, extinguishing her life. All he knew was that it was a Jedi.
And such a waste… If she could have been turned, she would have been invaluable in establishing peace across the Empire…
The word Empire struck a cord with him, and Vader's eyes closed as his mind began dissecting the word.
All of my life, the Jedi have taught me that an empire could only lead to anarchy and civil disarray… But no, they were wrong… They have always been wrong! With the establishment of a Galactic Empire, I could eliminate all the corruption that the Jedi have implanted in one fell swing; I could bring planetary dictators from power and bring the planets into a newfound sense of security; I could establish peace across the entire galaxy…
I could be with Padmé, always, without any kind of fear of resentment from anyone…
Vader's eyes flashed open then, and he took in the entirety of the Great Hallway below him without really seeing anything.
And the Jedi are all that stand in my way…
Vader leapt off from the balcony, easing his fall in the force as he landed on one knee upon the marble flooring of the Great Hall. He slowly stood back up, hooking his lightsaber onto his belt and surveying his surroundings as he did so.
The main engagement between the Jedi and clones had taken place in the Great Hall, and the destruction that had transpired was clearly evident. Flames were dancing their way across the various tapestries that still hung from the walls, licking their fiery tendrils up to the roof, and the stone walls themselves were scorched black from blaster fire. What had once been massive stone sculptures and architecture now lay on the floor as ruble and debris.
Bodies of both Jedi and clone troopers alike littered the ground, and after the short, vicious fight that had transpired, the clones had overcome the Jedis' counterattack and had moved forward, scattering out into the Jedi Temple and eliminating any remaining Jedi they encountered.
Vader walked forward, into the center of the great hall, and then stopped before a semicircle of three dead Jedi Masters. He tilted his head down to look at them, and memories began flashing through his mind.
He had slashed his lightsaber down in a vicious diagonal strike, breaking through the Jedi Master's double-bladed defenses, and he had heard a strangled cry as his blade had found its target.
The Jedi Master had then slumped to the ground, joining the two Masters beside him, and he had come up onto his knees as his dual-bladed lightsaber deactivated and tumbled out of his convulsing hands.
With an effort, the Jedi Master had lifted his head to look him in the eyes, his mouth carved into a grimace of pain as he starred horror-stricken at him.
"You're a monster," the Jedi had managed through a hoarse choke of blood, his voice coming in pained gasps due to the slash across his chest.
Vader had deactivated his lightsaber and had come around so that he was directly in front of the Jedi Master, gazing into his eyes as he might gaze upon his next meal.
"And you're dead," he had said, his voice a parody of kindness.
As the Jedi's face contorted to become even more horror-stricken, he had slammed the pommel of his lightsaber's hilt up hard into the Master's already-scarred chest, warranting a gasp of pain in response, and then he had ignited the weapon.
A blue, sapphire blade had sprouted from the Jedi Master's back, and the Jedi had let out a gurgled cry before falling silent and slumping over onto the floor, joining the Masters beside him.
Vader shook his head in disgust, wiping the memory away.
Three Jedi Masters, three of the most powerful individuals in the entire Jedi Temple, and they couldn't even stand up to a single Sith…
Vader raised his left hand out in front of him, as if holding an invisible orb, and he flexed his hand experimentally, as if stretching his fingers. A streak of blue-white lightning suddenly danced from his thumb to his forefinger, lighting up his palm for a second before evaporating into nothingness. Vader smiled.
The dark side has always been stronger than the light, the Jedi have just been too blind to see it…
Vader turned back around as he sensed one of the clone troopers of the 501st approaching him. Like all of the 501st, he wore the basic white armor of normal clone troopers with an added blue stripe across the helmet, chest plate, and shoulder pads.
"Sir," the clone said as he came up beside Vader, snapping to attention. "We've successfully activated the beacon that notifies all remaining Jedi to return to the Jedi Temple immediately, and that the war is over. Ambushes are being set up as we speak, and there is next to no chance of a Jedi escaping once he has reached the Temple."
Vader nodded.
"Also, sir;" the private continued, a note of uncertainty creeping into his voice. "We've had reports that a Jedi has been able to penetrate our upper-level defenses. They reported him as having exceptional skill with a blade, and that he is most likely coming for the Jedi younglings that have taken refuge inside the High Council Chambers."
Vader nodded again, his mind tumbling over the information in his head.
Skilled with a lightsaber, and coming to rescue the Jedi younglings… It could only be a Jedi Master, and only a few Masters are left…Could it be Shaak Ti? Has she survived for this long, and is even now trying to…
Vader closed his eyes, stretching his senses out into the force, trying to sense who this Jedi could be. He felt touches, glances of light that indicated a powerful lightside presence trying to mask itself within the force, but he could not identify who it was.
Finally, Vader's head snapped back to the private and he said, "Issue all of your men to stand down, should they come into contact with this Jedi, and tell them to evacuate the area as soon as possible." Vader's eyes locked on the passageway at the end of the hall that read Room of a Thousand Fountains, the room just before the High Council Chambers. "I'll be handling this one personally…"
"Yes, sir," the private saluted crisply, as all clones did, and then turned away from Vader and walked off to issue his new commands.
Vader turned back to the hallway that led to the Room of a Thousand Fountains, and then began slowly walking toward it as he drew his hood back up over his head and effectively hid his features within its dark embrace.
His dark cloak billowed out behind him as he walked, and his long, dark blonde hair was ruffled into a mess of curls. His face bore a single, vertical scar across his right eye, born from a duel between him and Asajj Ventress, and the scar only added to his intimidating presence.
He rounded the circular passage to the hallway, and stepped into a brightly-lit hall that had only a few marks of battle upon its walls. Some of the Jedi, when they had realized that they could not win in the initial counterattack, had attempted to fall back into these hallways, only to be gunned down by the many clone troopers that had been behind them.
Vader continued forward, dodging the body of a clone or Jedi here and there as he made his way down the hallway. He passed massive scorch marks in the wall, indistinguishable from either a blaster bolt or a lightsaber, and then made a sharp right turn as he came into the enormous Room of a Thousand Fountains.
His pace slowed as he walked forward, his feet crunching under the grass beneath him, and he cast his gaze around the entire room, looking for a sign of danger.
The Room of a Thousand Fountains had, as its name implied, a thousand fountains dotted amongst it's almost outdoor-like landscape. Various types of flora littered the area, making the room a kind of enclosed garden, and waterfalls fell from the room's many rock-like outcroppings. The ground underneath was grass, mixed with stone walkways and pottery, and meditative areas could be seen as great big round open areas amongst the diverse plant-life.
And yet, despite the many natural themes that the room held, it was blended in with the clean whiteness of technology that the Jedi Temple contained with amazing grace. White durasteel bridges and crosswalks lined the place, melding into the beauty of trees and fauna instead of detracting from their presence. The Room of a Thousand Fountains was definitely a wonder amongst the Jedi Temple, and it was one of the few places on Coruscant that imitated the natural plant-life of Coruscant before it had been colonized.
This place has not known a fight …Vader thought as he finished scanning the room.
And, sure enough, there were no blaster marks marring the natural beauty of the room. Though clone trooper's footprints could be seen imprinted throughout the grass from when they had spanned out earlier searching the Temple for Jedi, it looked as though no major battle had taken place in the Room of a Thousand Fountains.
Yet…
Vader began striding forward, toward one of the open meditating areas amongst the plant-life. He could feel the force in the room, an ever-changing sphere of power, but he also felt a kind of elusive lightness, dancing beyond his grasp. And that could mean only one thing.
A Jedi…
Vader continued his slow stride to the center of the meditating area, below a latticework of crosswalks that stretched out above him, and then stopped, casting himself out into the force while his eyes took in the surroundings. The Jedi Master was here, somewhere, watching him, but he could not pinpoint the location.
You cannot hide from me, Vader called into the force, his own voice a dominant sleuth of dark side power compared to the fleeting presence of light that was the Jedi.
A few seconds went by in silence, and then the light spoke. And yet, I appear to be doing just that…
Vader's eyebrows crossed, his scar crinkling into a jagged line across his eye. The voice was familiar, as if he had known its speaker well, and yet his mind could not work out exactly who it was that had just spoken to him.
His face was still drawn up beneath his hood, shadowing his features, and if he had not faced this Jedi already, than the Master might not know that he had once been the famed Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker. He could use this deception to his favor. After all, deception was the way of the Sith…
He kept his face hidden, his head tilted downward, and then he said into the force, You know that this only prolongs the inevitable… I will find you, no matter what, and the lies that you and your kind have infused into the minds of the innocents will finally come to an end…
Vader stood motionless in the center of the meditating area, the sides of his cloak flapping up in the artificial breeze that the Room of a Thousand Fountains generated. He waited for a response.
Silence.
As the seconds began to drag by without answer, a thought began to form within Vader's mind.
Could this Master really be such a coward as to try and flee, to try and escape his own doom while leaving the younglings and other remaining Jedi trapped within the Temple's walls? Of course he would, he is a Jedi, and the Jedi are …
A switch suddenly snapped in the back of Vader's mind, and by reflex he called his lightsaber to his hand and ignited it in the same fluid motion, bringing it up high above his head.
An emerald beam of light collided with his sapphire blade an instant later, and a crackle of sparks sounded as Vader was forced downward. The brilliant blue and green light from the blades was blinding, and Vader couldn't see anything beyond the glow of the two lightsabers.
With a grunt, Vader took his strength, tapping into the dark side as he did so, and shoved his blade up and around, knocking the Jedi's lightsaber down to his side as he staggered back.
Then, without waiting to identify his attacker, Vader threw his left hand forward, palm-out, and took in the hatred, the malice, the anger that he now felt for having been ambushed, and sent this power hurling outward toward his attacker in a massive force push.
The Jedi didn't have a chance to react as his body folded inward and was flung across the Room of a Thousand Fountains, impacting into a stone wall on the other side of a small lake that ran through a portion of the room.
Vader took a step toward the downed Jedi, meaning to follow up the attack, but before he could move again he felt another switch snapping in the back of his mind.
He spun back around, curving his sapphire blade through the air as he did so, and his lightsaber met an emerald blade as another Jedi landed beside him.
As the two blades clashed, Vader acutely felt the difference between this Jedi and the first one. For, instead of a highly trained Jedi Master, as the first one clearly was, this Jedi was no older than fourteen, and the braid hanging from his dirty blonde hair signified that he was still a Jedi Padwan.
As Vader looked into the young padwan's eyes between the glare of the two blades, he realized that he had known him. Or, more correctly, Anakin Skywalker had known him. He was the Jedi padwan Whie Melreaux, a gifted padwan which Anakin Skywalker and his former Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, had helped rescue from Asajj Ventress just a few months prior.
Vader stepped to his left, sliding his lightsaber down Whie's blade, and then lashed forward, cutting his sapphire blade up into a vicious diagonal strike as he did so.
Whie skillfully raised his lightsaber, trying valiantly to use his Jedi training to parry the blow aside, but Vader's speed had been too quick, and the young padwan's face froze into shock as a blue streak flashed across his chest. His green blade then vanished within his hands, and he slowly tumbled backwards, his back hitting hard against one of the stone steps that led to the meditating area.
Before Vader could attempt to think again, another danger sense sprouted in the back of his mind, and he whirled around again, bringing his lightsaber up to bare as he did so.
His sapphire blade impacted into another blue beam as his turn brought him face to face with yet another Jedi.
He recognized this Jedi as Bene, a slightly older Jedi padwan that Anakin Skywalker had met only briefly, and he could feel her anger permeating the force around him at the sight of her companion's death.
Vader flashed a cruel, twisted smile at her, and then swung his lightsaber around himself, hammering two blows into Bene's blue blade as he forced her to retreat backward.
She came to a stop a few feet away from him, her breath coming heavily and her lightsaber held shakily out in front of her, fear beginning to show through the cracks of her resolve.
Anger and fear… Vader thought, two of the most powerful allies of the dark side…
Vader shot his left hand forward, forming a kind of claw like shape with his fingers, and then called upon the anger and fear that the Jedi padwan was feeling. The two feelings came to Vader instantly, adding to his depth of his power, and he channeled this power outward, toward the Jedi's throat.
Bene made a kind of bulging-eyed expression of shock, and then her lightsaber dropped from her grip as both of her hands flew up to her neck. Slowly, Vader lifted his hand higher, so that she was now writhing above the ground, and he heard a choked cry escape her lips.
Vader's mouth curved up into a smile at her futile attempt to cry out, and then he felt his danger senses kick in for the fourth time in the last ten seconds. He jerked his head around to his right as he raised his lightsaber up one-handed, his left hand still holding Bene within its choking grip.
An emerald blade impacted into his azure blade right before his eyes, and though the flash of light that resulted was blinding, he knew instantly that this was the first Jedi that had attacked him. This was the Jedi Master.
The Master then attacked again, going down low for a strike, and as Vader countered the attack, the Jedi almost immediately followed it up with an upward strike to his head. Vader narrowly parried this one away as well, struggling to fight one-handed against the Jedi Master, and three more vicious strikes and parries followed.
Then, just as Vader thought that the Jedi Master's barbarous swings would break through his clumsy one-handed defenses, he felt Bene's life ebb away, and he instantly dropped her.
Before she even hit the floor, Vader took his own lightsaber in both hands and then swung it out in front of him horizontally as the Jedi Master's emerald blade crackled down against it in a vertical strike.
Vader's right foot arched backward as he struggled to gain leverage over the Jedi Master, and his teeth were gritted together as sweat streaked down his forehead. His dark hood was still wrapped up around his head, concealing much of his face.
And then, between the brilliant glare of the emerald and sapphire blades, Vader's eyes locked onto the Jedi Master's face, and he instantly recognized the man before him.
Qui-Gon Jinn.
Well... if this isn't a cliff hanger, then I don't know what is... Hope you guys enjoyed it!