Chapter 51

The Board is Set

Author's Note: About Mass Effect New Origins, I have not abandoned it, I merely have been neglecting it due to the fact that I really want to finish this story, what with the end drawing so near. To be honest, that story makes me angry sometimes. In my honest opinion, I think Fighting for a Purpose is a much better story, yet New Origins at one point had nearly as much reviews as Fighting for a Purpose, yet only half of the chapters, to be blunt I'm frustrated that this fic is being neglected, what with all of the work I've put into it. But enough of my complaining, you want the chapter, here you go.

"We need to think our next move through carefully," Paterson said. She, Vadmare, Hanson and Thel where all standing on the bridge of the Twilight, where they were debating on how to respond to the actions of the Republic, or rather, the actions of the Empire.

"From what I have heard of the Sith," Vadmare said "They are prone to conquer. While Palpatine may have said he only wished to rule this galaxy, we can hardly accept his words as the truth, he has lied to the people of this galaxy for decades."

"I agree," Hanson said. "Sooner or later, once the Jedi are gone or maybe even before that, Palpatine will most likely be gunning for us."

"What do you propose Admiral?" Thel asked "A full scale invasion of Coruscant? The destruction of the factories that create the clone armies of the Republic?"

"I have an idea that just might work," Vadmare said. Everyone looked at him. "From what I have learned of the clones from Aayla, they are trained from birth to be loyal to the Republic, to follow the orders of it's leaders without question. Most likely this is the reason that the clones betrayed the Jedi in the first place."

"Where are you going with this Fleetmaster?" Thel asked curiously.

"If we can eliminate Palpatine and Vader, and expose them to the Senate for who they truly are, we may be able to stop them now before they have a chance to invade us." Vadmare looked at Thel, "We learned from Padmé that Vader is traveling to Mustafar in order to eliminate the CIS leaders. Most likely now that he has formed the Empire, Palpatine no longer needs them. With any luck, Palpatine will travel to Mustafar to check on Vader's progress, and we may be able to eliminate both of them."

"There are risks in your plan Vadmare," Thel said "But I fail to think of anything that is more structurally sound. Do you two?" he asked, looking at Paterson and Hanson. They both shook their heads. "Very well," Thel said "As you all know, as soon as we were able to, we sent out messages to all Allied Species forces in this galaxy to abort their current missions, and to save any nearby Jedi. Those within a reasonable range were ordered to move to this location, while those who were too far away were ordered to fall back to the Milky Way. Within 12 hours, we will launch an invasion of Mustafar."

"Councilor," Hanson said, looking at Thel. "How many Jedi do you believe will survive this massacre?"

"You mean what do I estimate?" Thel said. "From what I have heard there were 10,000 Jedi in the Order. If I was to make a guess, I would say...500, at the very most."

"That bugs me," Paterson said. "There were 10,000 Jedi at the beginning of this war, why are there only two Sith?"

"The Sith believe that numbers are a weakness," Vadmare replied "They believe that with only two, the can truly wield the power of the Dark Side."

"Somewhere Charles Darwin is crying his eyes out," Hanson muttered.

XXXXX

"Exactly how big of a deal is it that Ramore gave you his energy sword," Ahsoka asked, as she and Aaron sat on the bed in Ahsoka's room.

"Pretty big," Aaron said as she looked at the inactive blade in his hand. "Even among themselves, Sangheili rarely give their swords to another, but then again most Sangheili only have one sword, while Ramore had two.

"You know," Ahsoka said, holding up her light saber. "When we get some spare time, I could teach you had to use that. It might take some time, but you'll probably be able to take on a Jedi if you train with that long enough, mostly thanks to your SPARTAN genes.

"And how long would that take?" Aaron asked. "A year? Two years? Three?"

"Maybe," Ahsoka replied. "Still the end result would be worth it."

"Yeah," Aaron said absentmindedly. "Until we get the time to do that, I'll just have to adapt knife wielding techniques to it. It's a technique they teach you at Boot Camp, but it's better than nothing." He glanced at Ahsoka, who was staring at the wall ahead of them a little too hard.

"How are you holding up?" Aaron asked. He didn't need to tell Ahsoka what he was talking about, she already knew.

"Aaron, this whole thing is overwhelming," Ahsoka said sadly. "I've known Anakin for years, he's been a little brash but he's never shown any signs of becoming a Sith."

"What about when he hit you," Aaron asked, barley keeping the anger out of his voice as he gently stroked the bruise on Ahsoka's face.

Ahsoka froze. "I didn't even think about it that way," she said. "Damn it, I could've seen this coming."

"Don't even think about blaming yourself about this," Aaron said in a stern voice. "It caught us all off guard, I didn't see it coming Vadmare didn't see it coming, even Obi-Wan didn't see it coming, and he was like a brother to Anakin."

"I know," Ahsoka said somberly. "You know that there's a lot of talk that Gray Team is going to be sent to take down Anakin."

"You know," Aaron said "If you want to you can probably be pulled off of the mission. I doubt that anyone will blame you, I know I certainly won't."

Ahsoka gave a weak smile. "Aaron, I know that your heart is in the right place, but this isn't something I can run away from." Aaron looked puzzled as Ahsoka continued to speak. "If Anakin really has turned to the Dark Side, I need to face it head on and I need to accept one fact. Anakin Skywalker, the man you trained me, he's gone and Darth Vader is all that's left of him."

"Your telling me that once someone embraces the Dark Side they're lost to it forever?" Aaron asked.

"Not necessarily," Ahsoka said. "There have been several Sith that abandoned the ways of the Dark Side and became Jedi, but they all were remorseful about the horrible deeds they had committed, and even then they preformed penance for what they did. Aaron, Vader led an assault on the Jedi Temple and probably slaughtered everyone there, including the children. I can not think of another Sith, with the exception of Palpatine, that has committed that much evil, let alone in one day. I seriously doubt Vader has any intentions of asking for forgiveness."

"Not to mention even if he did, and that's a big if, I doubt many people will be willing to give it to him," Aaron said. For Ahsoka's sake he didn't add "Myself included". "But Ahsoka," Aaron said "Are you sure, if you go on the mission, you could end being the one that...the one that makes the finishing blow. Are you sure that you can handle that?"

"I don't know," Ahsoka answered truthfully. "I know for a fact that it'll be hard and it might tear me apart, but I can't back down."

"Is there anything I can do to make this easier for you?" Aaron asked. "Besides backing you up on the mission, that's already a given.

Ahsoka looked at Aaron, uncertainty in her eyes. "Aaron," she said slowly "After all of this is over...can we get married?"

Aaron smiled as he put an arm around Ahsoka's waist. "Of course," he said, as he leaned in and kissed Ahsoka.

XXXXX

Vader did not say a word as he deactivated his light saber. He was standing in the CIS command room on Mustafar, surrounded by the dead leaders of the CIS. The fools had actually welcomed him with open arms, thinking that he was an embassy of peace, they were sadly mistaken. Under Sidious' orders, he had used the command terminals sent out an override code that would deactivate all CIS droids in the galaxy. Sidious had several good reasons for doing this, mainly to unite the galaxy under one banner, and to increase public his opinion, considering the fact he would tell the general public that the CIS had fallen while the clones were under his command.

He had to give the CIS credit, Mustafar was an excellent place to hide. Just one month ago, there had been a major battle between the CIS and the Allied Species here. The Allied Species had succeeded in driving the CIS off, they had no reason to suspect that the CIS were hiding here. It had been extremely bloody, with both sides sustain heavy casualties, both in orbit and on the ground. Apparently it had also been very vicious, there had even been a UNSC frigate that only had one half left. The destroyed Allied Species ships had been rather close to the planet, but it wasn't in any danger of crashing onto the planet's surface unless some sort of external force was applied.

Vader produced a holographic projector from within his robes and activated it. "Master," he said as a hologram of Sidious appeared. "It has been done, the CIS leaders are dead, and their armies deactivated."

"Good," Sidious said. "Very good Vader. I have left Coruscant, it is too risky there. Should the Allied Species declare themselves my enemy, they could attack the planet and finish the job that the Extremists started. We will be using Mustafar as a base of operations until further notice. I will be arriving with my fleet shortly, afterwards we will begin to fortify the planet."

"Fortify it my lord?"

"Yes Vader," Sidious said, a bit of impatience in his voice. "If the Allied Species should declare themselves our enemy and find us here, we must be prepared to fight. Most likely they already have, as I have received several reports of them helping Jedi escape. For all intents and purposes, they are our enemy."

Vader bowed his head. "Of course my lord," he said as he deactivated the projector.

XXXXX

"Mistress," C-3P0 said as Padmé stepped onto her personal skiff "Are you that this is wise? Miss Colton, and Tano seemed very adamant that Master Skywalker is very dangerous right now To go to see him would be extremely dangerous, with a 97% chance of you being harmed."

"I know Threepio," Padmé sadly as she climbed onto the skiff. "But if it's really true, if Anakin really has become a Sith, I need to see it with my own eyes."

"Mistress, this is insanity," C-3PO said in an exasperated voice.

R2 rolled past C-3PO, letting out a series of beeps as he did so. "Oh you would agree with here," he snapped at the astrodroid, as R2 rolled onto the skiff. "Oh, we're going to die," C-3PO said, as he walked onto the skiff, the door closing behind him.

XXXXX

"This is all of the Council that's left?" Obi-Wan asked. He was standing on the bridge of the Glorious Victory along with Shaak Ti, Plo Koon, Yoda, Thel, and Vadmare, Hanson and Paterson had returned to their ships. 12 hours had passed since the Allied Species had learned of Vader's mission and massive amount of Allied Species ships had arrived, along with the Jedi they had rescued.

"I am afraid so," Thel said "We have received no word of any other Councilors being evacuated by Allied Species, we must assume the worst."

"How did this happen?" Shaak Ti asked, clearly in shock.

"The Chancellor had a plan, years in the making," Vadmare said bitterly. "From what I can tell, he controlled both the Republic and the CIS for the entire war, the whole point of which was to leave control of this galaxy in his hand. If the CIS won the war, he would rule this galaxy as the mysterious figure that led the CIS and conquered the Republic. If the Republic won, he would be hailed as the man who held off the conquering CIS," he glanced at the Jedi "And stopped the Jedi rebellion. Either way, he paved the war so that no matter what the outcome was, he won. Then there is also the fact that he managed to convert Vader to his side." Vadmare glanced at Obi-Wan at this point. His head was lowered, but he made no move to speak. "Clever, for an honor-less coward that is."

"Destroy the Sith, we must," Yoda said simply.

"I agree," Thel said. "We may be able to undo the damage that he has done, but we must act quickly."

"What do you propose?" Plo asked.

"We learned from Padmé Amidala that Darth Vader was sent on a mission to Mustafar, and with any luck his master will be there as well," Thel said. "If we launch a full scale invasion, we should be able to kill both of them."

"If Palpatine really is on Mustafar," Shaak Ti said "Then it won't be lightly guarded, most likely he will have turned it into a fortress, you may not be able to succeed if you attack it."

"Vadmare," Thel said, looking at the Fleetmaster "How many ships do we currently have, and how many Jedi are among the fleet?"

"At the last count, we had 268 ships, and a little over 50 Jedi," Vadmare replied. "This may be a risky move," he said, facing Shaak Ti "But if we do not make it, Palpatine may be forever out of our reach. Shaak Ti looked disapproving, but said nothing.

"Very well, the time for action is now," Thel said, as he raised his hand to his com unit. "This is Councilor Thel 'Vadam to all Allied Species ships, we are now departing for Mustafar. The ships under the command of Admiral Hanson and Fleetmaster 'Katar will depart first due the Forerunner upgrades that they received, and all over ships will follow through the wake that they left."

Thel paused before continuing. "Some of you may have seen the devastation the Empire inflicted on the Jedi Order and may be hungry for revenge, yet disappointed that there are only two Sith to kill. I find myself reminded of a similar situation in Human history and I feel compelled to use a similar quote to the one said at the time. A gravity hammer was taken to the Jedi, and now we are taking a needle to the Sith. But we will drive this needle directly into their heart."

Author's Note: The next chapter will mark the beginning of the final battle. In other words, this fic is now 130k words long, I wonder how far I can push it? Tell me what you think and please be patient for the next chapter.