Thanks Katie Ladmoore, DragonRider2000, and Moonstar 11 (welcome aboard!) for your reviews!

Nightwish's "End of All Hope" is with the 1st scene and Josh Groban's "Remember When It Rained" is for the 2nd…

The End of the Beginning

"Well, well, Silvereyes," Raina continued, twirling her not-yet-engaged lightsaber with her fingers. "It looks as if we get to do this all over again. Once again, I'll have the pleasure of killing you."

"What are you talking about? You are Kelly Skywalker, not Sheba Bladerunner! And I'm your sister, Elaina Jinn, not Turanga Silvereyes! You don't have to do this!"

With that, she began circling the slightly older girl, who had reached the center of the open space on the platform.

"My master has brought to light so many similarities between me and Sheba that I might as well be her! Unlike her, however, I will not turn against my master."

"Your master was Mace Windu, a wise and kind man, not this twisted force of darkness."

"He never cared for me any more than any of you did," the Sith corrected, continuing her loop. Elaina simply stood there looking at the ground, her hands at her sides.

She was indeed quite a pretty sight. Instead of the usual boots, Elaina wore soft brown leather shoes that didn't even reach her ankles. Aside from her ring, she wore no jewelry, only an elaborate off-white dress.

The bodice of it was the girl's habitual nearly-revealing corset. The skirt, coming directly from the bodice, was of a thick, lace-like material that nearly reached her ankles; however, on the right side, the seam lifted it to her knee. Finally, the sleeves, of the same fabric as the skirt, were similarly elegant, splitting at her elbows, while the neckline was delimited only by the sleeves' and corset's attached borders.

Finished with her observations, Raina stopped her pacing in front of her enemy.

"Always one for fashion. Now, enough of this blabber of pointless conversation." The moment she ignited her weapon, a crash was heard from the station as the shield keeping the lava contained was shut off. "Shall we?"

Elaina engaged and raised her defense just as the Sith attacked, leaving them momentarily face to face.

"Your eyes are black. Fitting, I suppose."

"And your hair now only has blond streaks. Pathetic."

The real fight then commenced. Raina used the Force in pushing her foe backwards, nearly throwing her off-balance; however, Elaina quickly recovered, took one look at Padme, and raced full-tilt towards the lava river.

"Soresu was always a pure weakness!" she called after the coward. "Another thing you and Obi-Wan had in common."

Charging forward, the Darth launched herself across the lava flow, using the Force to propel her, landing just behind her fleeing twin, who, after stumbling to her knees, had already regained a standing position.

"Kelly, this isn't what you want!"

Raina smirked. The great Jedi mistress was desperate.

"I didn't really expect you to be such a coward by running away; however, I suppose that only shows how far I have come."

For a moment, they simply stood looking at each other, Raina impatiently gloating until her past friend sighed.

"Kelly, I don't want to hurt you, but my orders were clear. You cannot be allowed to wreak havoc upon the innocents of this galaxy. As a Jedi, it is my duty to stop you."

With quick succession to the boring dialogue, she once again attacked, raining dozens of blows upon her foe, who continued the usage of the defensive Form III method. The technique only furthered Raina's already fired-up anger. Was the girl mocking her by using such an archaic style, or had the younger woman simply gained that much power? Of course, nothing was a match for the blinding Form VII.

She twirled her lightsaber to the right and faked a stab before suddenly changing positions and aiming for the enemy's head. Elaina, however, somehow anticipated the move and ducked down, aiming for the legs of Raina, who in turn leapt over the girl's head, landing behind her. Sparks flew as purple clashed with green again and again with fearful ferocity. Slowly but surely, the Sith began backing her adversary downstream along the stone beach. With each step, she began losing her grip on her actions, only caring about killing the traitor in front of her.

Elaina, meanwhile, maintained, for the most part, an impassive façade that could easily be seen through. She was going to lose. It was all coming out as planned. Finally, Raina paused. If the clothes hadn't been leather, they would have stuck maddeningly to her skin for all the heat and exertion. She ignored though, and settled on wallowing in the oncoming victory, pointing her weapon forward.

"You betrayed me! For years I trusted you! All I ever received was more disdain from the Council and more lies from you."

"I would never lie to my sister. Darth Raina might be a different situation, however. She is consuming the sister I swore and failed to protect. Kelly, you have to fight it! Think of what Mother would say…will say!"

"She has nothing to say anymore, Mistress Jinn. She's dead!"

"What?"

There was an opening and she took it. Her downward slice didn't have quite the effect she had desired, but it was equally gratifying. As the woman's blade came down, Elaina attempted to execute a duck that would have apparently been followed by a backward retreat. It didn't work out quite that way.

As the former Council member bowed down, her extremely lengthy hair flipped around after her. Instead of flesh, the blade hit the voluminous tresses. It almost made her feel guilty seeing the soft locks fall to the ground and begin to blow down the hill in the gentle, toasty breeze. Her attention was brought back to reality as Elaina scrambled to her feet, grabbed her weapon, engaged it, and held it in defensive readiness. Her hair was evidently singed at the tips and hardly went past her ears.

After the moment of shock, the duel recommenced. While they would one second be struggling in a perfectly matched and immovable stalemate, the next they were chasing each other, always downstream, with few variants. If they had been fighting on a forest planet instead of the literal melting pot, not a tree would be standing at that moment due to the nearly constant cascade of sparks.

They were so busy with their own battle that they had failed to notice their male counterparts' passing a few seconds before.

Finally, in the process of one of her quick retreats, Elaina tripped on a protruding rock. When she attempted to lift her lightsaber to protect herself, Raina viciously used her own to knock it away. The young woman's short cry of agony alerted the Sith that she had taken more than just the out-of-commission heirloom. While holding her right hand tightly against her left side, Elaina raised her right hand, clearly intending to do something with the Force.

"You've lost, Elaina," she warned, holding her weapon a bit more loosely. "There's no use in continuing this contest when we know who is better. Perhaps my master will have mercy and allow you to join us."

The only response was a sudden shower of pebbles from the surrounding area being launched in her direction from behind the other girl. Prior to impact, however, Raina sent a power-surge of her own, reversing the projectiles' direction and sending them on a successful collision course with their first commander. Several hit their mark, but that didn't stop Elaina from trying something else, without achieving it, obviously. The fighter never did discover what her sister's intentions had been, but it didn't matter to her at the moment. After this stroke, her revenge would be final.

The blurred light of her weapon sent the pitiful Jedi crumpling to the ground.

"You lose," Raina stated as the one at her mercy tried sitting up without touching her practically carved back to the ground. Without medical attention, she would die; but recovery was an excellent possibility since the victor had been incredibly careful not to give the privilege of a quick death. Between the severed thumb (of all things) and cut back, Elaina wasn't going anywhere. That was made clear as she completely failed in raising herself beyond a prop on the elbows, an occasional moan escaping through the clenched teeth and her forehead completely creased in pain. She seemed to relax a bit, however, when looking behind the Sith…probably only some hallucination brought on by the pain, but it was something in that look…no matter.

"Kelly…by following Palpatine…you will only hurt yourself more than anyone."

"Ha…still trying to 'turn me back', huh? It's not happening. Every promise you made, you broke. You promised to never leave me behind in the order; look who became a Council member and who didn't. You agreed that Obi-Wan would be mine alone if he chose me. Who has been chasing him since he did 'choose' me?"

"Obi-Wan loves you, Mother love…loved you, I love you, Anakin loves you, if he is still capable of that, Padme loves you, we all love you, Kelly! No dark lord of the Sith, no matter who he is, can diminish that knowledge from you twisted mind."

A distant cry of anger and pain caught their attention.

"Anakin…"

"Yes, he is not all powerful with the dark side and neither are you. Come back to us, Kelly. Without you on our side, we will fail in returning the Republic and the order to their former glory. We need you. Most importantly, Obi-Wan needs you. You should have seen the agony on his face when he saw the recording of you in the temple. Kelly, I think he may love you even more than I do."

"No," the woman denied, weakly shaking her head and reengaging her idle lightsaber, "…no, I saw the two of you only a few days ago…"

"…talking," was the interruption. "We were only talking…arguing even. Your conclusion was rashly too quick. Obi-Wan and I have hardly gotten along since he 'chose' you."

"You lie!"

More distant screams…first anger, then of unimaginable pain.

"Does pain lie?! Ask Anakin if he can still even think beyond whatever he is going through, mental and/or physical. Please, Kelly! Don't follow him down the path of darkness to where you will never be able to turn back!"

"No, I don't believe you. Anakin is too powerful…"

"He is not, Kelly! The dark side has its weaknesses just as we do. They think irrationally, often making mistakes; we, if trained well enough, think things through…sometimes to where we take too long in making decisions, as the Council often did. If not for my sake or anyone else's, come back for Obi-Wan…for yourself!"

Unexpectedly, Obi-Wan came slowly walking over a hill some distance away along the river, practically dragging his feet.

"Kelly, thank heavens you're here!" Windu called. The debate went back and forth as Kelly studied Palpatine's face. It was deformed, yes; but it brought forth some features she hadn't noticed before. There was something deceiving about it, more so than she had originally thought.

All doubts of the man's innocence, however, were dashed away as Windu raised his lightsaber for the final blow.

"No!" she cried. She almost regretted siding with the Sith for a moment upon seeing the piercing look on his face just before Palpatine flung him out the window with his Force lightening.

Betrayal, sorrow, despair…

--

"Obi-Wan!"

The familiar address caused the man to look up from the ground and towards the sound. There they were: the two women who had caused a good chunk of his joy and sorrow over the past several years, one standing and the other lying on the ground. As he approached, Obi-Wan only had eyes for Kelly, the one who had called. The offensive lightsaber had been placed in her belt and her frighteningly black eyes were a bluish-green, sometimes one, sometimes the other.

"Kelly?" he queried cautiously. "Is it really you?"

"It's alright, Obi-Wan," Elaina gasped from her prone position.

That was confirmation enough as he quickly diminished the space between himself and Kelly. She limply fell into his embrace upon contact.

"What have I done?" she weakly asked.

"What you did has nothing to do with who you are now, Kelly," he kindly chided, holding her head against his chest. "Darth Raina is gone. You are Kelly Skywalker, now and forever."

"Uh, people?" the injured woman put in. "I hate to break up this wonderful reunion, but…what happened to Anakin?" He didn't know how to answer that question. "Obi-Wan?" She was getting fainter, but none the less determined. "What…happened?"

"The Force will decide his fate."

"Wh…but…" She was cut off by her own cry of pain. Apparently, it was worsening. When he released his hold on Kelly, they both ran to Elaina's side and held her up before she could collapse completely.

"What happened to you?"

"Raina used me as target practice."

"Very funny!" the younger twin sarcastically protested. It seemed that things did actually have a chance of somewhat recovering. "Alright, little invalid, let's get you to a medic."

"At least it won't be one of those confounded clones! The last one that tried to patch me up almost got me killed!"

"Good, your humor's still intact."

Since she was closer to Elaina's height, Kelly was the one responsible for supporting her sister in the slow procession back to the ship. After those few precious seconds of lighthearted conversation, the group took on a more somber air. Anakin was probably dead; and if he wasn't, he would hunt them down with unquenchable vengeance. The Emperor, if Yoda had failed his mission, would bring terror and destruction to everything they knew. People everywhere would obey the new government simply for fear of it. Finally, the guilt of their own failures would hang over the heads of all three companions. Apparently trying to break the ice as they boarded a small collector/ferry to cross the river, Kelly piped up.

"So, El…what were you seeing a little while ago? You seemed quite interested at what was behind me, though I didn't care at the time."

A knowing and confidential smile appeared on the woman's face as she stared into space prior to replying.

"You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Oh, come on! At this point, I think I'd believe just about anything."

"I think…you will discover it when it is your time to know."

"Didn't we make an agreement that you wouldn't keep any more secrets from me?"

"I would remember if we did, and we did not."

"Humph…it was worth a try."

"Indeed it was, dear sister. Now that we have crossed this moat, shall we get going before my pain comes back full force?"

Once again, they started walking and eventually reached the landing pad. Even though it hadn't even been half of an hour since they had landed, years seemed to have gone by since the beginning of the fight. Padme was nowhere in sight; however, 3PO was.

"Oh, Master Kenobi! Oh! And the Mistresses Elaina and Kelly! We have Miss Padme on board. Please, please hurry. We really should leave this dreadful place." Patting the droid on the shoulder, Obi-Wan entered the ship and headed for the side room where the senator was laying a small cot. When he approached, she drowsily awoke.

"Obi-Wan…is Anakin all right?"

He was almost relieved when she drifted off again, saving him from giving a painful explanation. In the cockpit, he enjoyed another small reprieve as 3PO had already taken pilot's seat, allowing him to sit in the copilot chair and think for a moment. Kelly meanwhile had Elaina seated in one of the back benches, apparently preferring to stand herself.

"I couldn't find anything for pain, but I did find a little tranquilizer that ought to last about an hour," she said, I hint of sad humor on the edge of her voice. "How is Padme?"

"Not good, I'm afraid…I can only hope that we aren't too late." With that, he switched on communications and contacted the Polis Massa asteroid hideout. A few minutes passed again and they were in hyperspace.

"Obi-Wan?"

"What is it, Kelly?"

Kneeling beside him, the girl went on.

"Long ago, you made a promise to me. The Jedi going into hiding is only inevitable…"

The man cut her short.

"You're thinking that you, Elaina, and I can go off to some remote world and live out the rest of our lives (hopefully not that long, no offence) in quiet and peaceful hiding. You're right. I did make that promise and I intend to keep it. Kelly, I swear this to you: In the likely event that we do go into hiding, we will be together, no matter what."

"Maybe this day will end on a less depressing note after all."

"Possibly."

--

She was still rather groggy; however, Elaina managed to raise herself up and sneak away without the enthralled lovers noticing. Luckily, since the tranquilizer was still mostly in effect, the pain was minimal as the woman softly stumbled to the room where Padme was. Dropping down, she grasped the senator's limp arm with her good hand.

"A boy and a girl…they will have to be separated for their own protection."

"You can see the future?"

Padme's innocent, frail question rather shocked the Knight, but she answered calmly anyway.

"Only little fragments that are impossible to piece together. I only know that they are a boy and a girl and that they will have to be separated…nothing more. Everything else I could even possibly fathom is a muddled mess."

"Elaina, if it comes down to it, will you protect at least one of my children? It's a lot to ask, but I have the feeling from the look in your eyes that it will be necessary."

"What makes you think such things, Padme? You will be alright…however, if you must choose which child to attend the most…I will do what I can for the other…with my life. I swear that."

She then watched her friend slowly lose consciousness once more and a cold feeling hit her. The main events of the day were not yet over. She had a feeling.

Thank you for reading! You know the drill with reviews and all…

Katie Ladmoore: I know you wanted me to save Anakin and I am so sorry for not; however, majorly changing storylines like that in my writing just isn't my thing, no matter how much I want it to change (a good example being Boromir in LOTR…I HATE that he died).

Moonstar 11: I hope to continue capturing your attention…then, I can actually say that I have an average of three reviewers instead of two…every one counts for me. :)

To both Katie Ladmoore and DragonRider2000, I would like to thank each of you for your wonderful support throughout the bulk of this story. You are fantastic people! The truth is: this story wouldn't be the same without you.

Well, only one more chapter to go before I start the sequel. I WAS going to do just one story for all six movies, but I never fathomed this one being SO LONG. First, however, I hope you enjoy the rest of this one.