Chapter 46 - The Lion's Den
DISCLAIMER: We do not own Star Wars or any of the characters in it, though we wish we did. xD
Author's Note: I didn't have time yesterday, so you get this today instead. Enjoy the cliffhanger! ;)
~ Amina Gila
Dooku strides further into the Temple, scanning ahead with the Force. He can sense Skywalker's tension; he's gripping his unignited lightsaber hilt. The fear he's unwilling to admit to hovers around him faintly. Dooku pushes it away, focusing instead on locating Sidious within the Temple. Up ahead, he doesn't sense him, he senses his former Sith apprentice. Halting he raises a hand, bringing everyone to a halt.
"I sense Savage ahead," he warns the others, turning specifically to the clones. "Continue your search of the Temple and secure it. Sidious has locked himself deep within the Temple. Let us handle the Sith." He reaches out again. "Grievous is up ahead as well."
Kenobi glances around. "Let's continue," he urges after a moment of heavy silence.
The four continue, approaching a metal door which has been sealed closed. "There's more than one way in," Skywalker decides, after trying in vain to open it.
"Two ways, in fact," Dooku corrects him, raising his hands. Once in his grasp, the doors slide open, unable to resist the will of the Force.
"Yes," Skywalker concedes. "You were right." He keeps his right hand poised, ready to ignite his lightsaber at a moment's notice. The room beyond is enormous, ceiling stretching up for at least forty feet, and Dooku immediately knows that it was chosen due to its resemblance to an arena. Inside, Maul and Savage pace back and forth, while Grievous watches them with distain. At the sound of the door opening, all three turn to face the newcomers.
This is a test – a challenge. Whoever survives here, will be left to confront Sidious, and they cannot afford to lose a single person. Last time, the Sith was toying with them. This time, he'll be seeking to kill, and Dooku expects that – whatever the future holds for the duel – it will end quickly if all four of them are there.
"Hello there!" Kenobi announces with fake cheer in his voice as he strides forward, the first willing to enter the arena. Not to be outdone, Dooku stalks in slightly behind him.
"Kenobi," spits Maul. "I have been waiting for you."
"My sincerest apologies," Kenobi quips in reply. "I didn't mean to keep you waiting."
"Enough talk!" growls Grievous, words followed by a hoarse cough. "We didn't come here to socialize with one another."
"No, we didn't," agrees Savage, unclipping his double-bladed lightsaber with an unnecessarily dramatic flourish.
"This will end with bloodshed," warns Maul. "Surrender now, and perhaps Lord Sidious will show you mercy."
"Yes," Skywalker murmurs, feigned casualness in his tone as he steps forward to stand side by side with Kenobi. "It will, but don't be so sure it will be ours."
Maul snarls, his double-bladed lightsaber hissing to life. Savage follows him. As one, Dooku and his companions ignite theirs, the glow casting shadows around the dimly lit room. Four versus three. Dooku has no doubt that Savage will be the easiest target, having gotten the least training, and Skywalker and Kenobi were some of the finest duelists in the Jedi Order. He can only trust in the Force that they will be fine.
Tuning out everything around him, Dooku leaps towards Savage, the blue and red blades clashing together. Speed and efficiency are the most important. They don't have time for useless chatter, not when every second wasted gives Sidious a chance to create a last-minute plan to have the galaxy bowing at his feet.
Savage still fights with much of the same brutality he did when Dooku first started training him, though his style has been refined immensely. Unsurprising. Sidious and Maul would have seen to it, but he's still no match for Dooku. He hasn't wielded a lightsaber most of his life, and he certainly hasn't developed a refined style. The Sith's yellow eyes narrow as he swings his lightsaber, trying, in vain, to land a hit. Dooku block him with precision, his blue blade dancing around him always being in the right place at the right time.
Snarling in fury, Savage throws the Force at him, sending him flying backwards. He catches himself, springing to his feet before going on the offensive. Too much time has been wasted in defending. As he gathers the Force around him, Dooku lunges towards Savage again, catching the Zabrak off guard. Their sabers lock together, the stalemate being broken only when Dooku throws Savage backwards, slamming him into a wall.
He gathers in the Dark Side, far more strongly than he ever has before, extending his left hand as he catches his opponent in a Force choke. Savage struggles against the grip, eyes glaring fiercely at him as a burst of lightning envelops his body, sending him writhing to the ground. Not sparing a moment, Dooku leaps towards him, his blue blade stabbing through Savage's chest. He spins around, taking in the scene. Of everyone, Kenobi is faring the worst as he fends off Grievous, so Dooku springs forward, shooting electricity at him as he tries to flee on four limbs.
**b**
Obi-Wan spins his lightsaber as he approaches Grievous, sensing Anakin and Ahsoka engaging Maul behind him. "General Kenobi, you are a bold one," sneers Grievous. "Surely you realize you are doomed."
"Your move," Obi-Wan retorts coolly.
"You fool," growls Grievous, as he throws off his cape. His arms split as he withdraws and activates four lightsabers. "I have been trained in your Jedi arts by Darth Sidious himself. Attack, Kenobi."
So be it. Obi-Wan spins his blade again, pointing towards Grievous with the hint of a smirk on his face. The droid general snarls, eyes narrowing to slits as he begins dramatically and rapidly spinning his lightsabers. They cut into the floor, causing sparks to fly, as he stalks closer. Obi-Wan slowly backs away from the seemingly crazed cyborg until they're standing in the middle of the room. If they move any further, they'll risk running into Maul, and Obi-Wan really doesn't want to get a lightsaber stuck through his spine.
Obi-Wan lunges forward, swinging his lightsaber at the top two which Grievous doesn't have stuck in the floor. Grievous yanks the others free, spinning them towards him, so he leaps over the cyborg's head, attacking him from behind. Grievous whirls around, lightsabers flailing wildly as he tries to decapitate Obi-Wan. He draws on the Force, ducking skillfully and blocking the blows as they come. He quickly realizes that Grievous has had little training and seems to rely on the number of lightsabers which he possesses. He's not even Force sensitive.
As the duel progresses, Obi-Wan finds himself being challenged, as he ducks, blocks, and evades, but he isn't known as the master of Soresu for nothing. Defense is his specialty, and if he can't defeat Grievous alone, he can hold him off until someone can help him. Obi-Wan feints to one side, and as a green lightsaber is turned to block him, he changes direction, slicing off one of Grievous' hands.
The cyborg stares in horror at his missing hand, before charging forward with a roar of rage, lightsabers flailing wildly in every direction, forcing Obi-Wan to make some rather unconventional moves to about them. Grievous is only dangerous because he has so many lightsabers and towers over most of his adversaries. Falling back to the defensive, Obi-Wan slowly backs away, parrying any strikes which come to close to his body.
They're caught in a saberlock, as Grievous tries to overpower him, failing when Obi-Wan cuts off a second hand, sending the lightsaber clattering to the ground. Raving mad, Grievous slashes at him with the two remaining lightsabers, a strike which Obi-Wan hastily blocks. Again, and again, the droid general strike, raining blows towards his chest, legs, arms, any body part which is open, but Obi-Wan's blade is there every single time as he backs away.
Grievous pulls back for another strike, giving Obi-Wan the opening he was looking for. Drawing on the Force, he throws him backwards, sending him skidding across the floor. He doesn't realize until a second too late that it was a mistake. With one final snarl, Grievous turns and runs away on four of his limbs like the coward he is. Obi-Wan lunges after him, silently cursing his mistake. The clones will have no way of stopping him if he reaches them.
Just as he fears he'll never stop him in time, electricity blasts from nearby, striking Grievous and sending him to the floor, growling. Dooku steps into view, blue lightsaber held in front of him, eyes tinged with yellow at he stares the cyborg down. Grievous stands up, anger radiating into the Force even more powerfully as he ignites his two lightsabers once more. Obi-Wan and Dooku approach him from opposite sides, caging him in between them.
They lunge in unison, blades crashing into Grievous'. After a few more slashes, the trio find themselves trapped in a saberlock, which ends when Grievous raises his left foot and unexpectedly grabs Obi-Wan's neck, tossing him to the side like a rag doll. He lands hard on the floor, breath knocked out of him from the impact. He stands back up, sprinting towards Grievous just as Dooku slices off a third hand.
Grievous doesn't even stand a chance. He slashes towards them again with a howl of anger, but Dooku throws him back into the wall, keeping him pinned there with the Force as he runs him through with his lightsaber. The body collapses to the floor, life rapidly fading away as Obi-Wan and Dooku spin to face the duel on the other side of the room. Maul is the only one left standing, and he's losing fast – or at least it looks like he is until he swings his lightsaber towards Ahsoka's prone body for what will be a killing blow.
Final Note: Just giving a bit of self-promotion to the Starlight Chronicles. I'd love if you checked them out. :P
Remaking the Future - In an unexpected turn of events, the Starlight sisters appear on the Invisible Hand, during Chancellor Palpatine's rescue by Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Somehow, they seem to have entered a new dimension. Being Force-sensitive, they get dragged into the action as events unfold before them. Individually, they all make one promise: even if this is a dream, they will do whatever they must to prevent the fall of Anakin Skywalker.
Three Starlights - The Star Wars Universe was nothing like the three Starlight sisters had expected, but now they're back home in the aftermath of their adventure. Perhaps they succeeded in saving the galaxy and perhaps not. They don't think they'll ever know. As they try to return to their daily lives, they are burdened with questions about the alternate dimension, questions which they attempt to forget, because they doubt they will ever return. Whether for better or worse, the Chosen One has other plans, but forcing a pathway to open between the dimensions can have unforeseen consequences which really may not be worth the risk.
The Rogue Jedi - Even though the Starlight sisters have been knighted, the Jedi Council has decided they need more experience before getting Padawans of their own. Ariana is sent with Obi-Wan Kenobi on a mission to track down a Jedi who mysteriously disappeared, while her sisters go with Anakin Skywalker on a mission of their own. What should have been a simple investigation becomes a lot more when both teams stumble across secrets which had been carefully kept. The Starlights find themselves questioning if their seeming victory over Sidious could even have been called such when the Sith seem just as powerful as ever.
The next chapter of The Rogue Jedi will be out tomorrow. :)
