Spectre: I have failed you, everyone...I have failed you...I didn't get to update at May 4th and I haven't even reached as close as Anakin vs Obi-WanBut all those aside, next chapter is here. And I'm receiving suggestions that I set up a Account, but I'm still unsure of that.Also, I've been doing College Modules Lately, so I haven't been exerting time and effort at the fic. So I hope you understand.
Interlude 2.0: Utapau and Mandalore, Part 1
The four bodyguard droids spread out in a shallow arc between Obi-Wan and Grievous, raising their electrostaffs. Obi-Wan stopped a respectful distance away; he still carried bruises from one of those electrostaffs, and he felt no particular urge to add to his collection. "General Kenobi!", Grievous greeted in a rather amused tone, laughing menacingly as he and his droids began to close in to the Jedi General. "You are a bold one!"
"Quite an entrance, Master Kenobi", Yoda complimented with an amused expression shared by some members of the Council.
"Probably has spent too much time with Skywalker, that's for sure", Master Fisto jokingly said.
"I assure you, I have my own ways to be unpredictable", Obi-Wan jokingly said.
"General Grievous," he said, "you're under arrest.".
The bio-droid general stalked toward him, passing through his screen of bodyguards without the slightest hint of reluctance. "Kenobi. Don't tell me, let me guess: this is the part where you give me the chance to surrender."
"It can be," Obi-Wan allowed equably. "Or, if you like, it can be the part where I dismantle your exoskeleton and ship you back to Coruscant in a cargo hopper."
"A bold one indeed, Master Kenobi" Luminara admitted.
"We can trust that Commander Cody and his men are waiting for his signal to attack at the right time", Mace stated as he observed the Stewjon Master's current predicament. "He would simply need time to stall Grievous"
"I'll take option three." Grievous lifted his hand, and the bodyguards moved to box Obi-Wan between them. "That's the one where I watch you die."
"Of course he has...", Mundi muttered, a little ominous from the memory at Hypori.
Another gesture, and the droids in the ceiling hive came to life.They uncoiled from their sockets heads-downward, with a rising chorus of whirring and buzzing and clicking that thickened until Obi-Wan might as well have stumbled into a colony of Corellian raptor-wasps.
They began to drop free of the ceiling, first only a few, then many, like the opening drops of a summer cloudburst; finally they fell in a downpour that shook the stone-mounted durasteel of the deck and left Obi-Wan's ears ringing. Hundreds of them landed and rolled to standing; as many more stayed attached to the overhead hive, hanging upside down by their magnapeds, weapons trained so that Obi-Wan now stood at the focus of a dome of blasters. Through it all, Obi-Wan never moved.
"Last thing we need here is Grievous retreating like a coward, like he always does...", Windy snarked.
However, Grievous had a varied war record from time to time to those who fought against him. Mundi and Shaak Ti remembered him as the one who slaughtered four out of seven Jedi back at Hypori and were needed to be rescued by Commander Fordo and his ARC Troopers.
While others such as Obi-Wan and Kit Fisto remembered him running away from battles whenever the General saw that he was failing. To which understandably caused confusion among the Jedi Council.
"I'm sorry, was I not clear?" he said. "There is no option three.'
"Grievous shook his head. "Do you never tire of this pathetic banter?"
"I find it unlikely with Master Kenobi...", Plo Koon stated, but inwardly admitted its effectiveness due to its use of psychological warfare from time to time.
"He was not called the Negotiator for nothing", Mundi added.
"I rarely tire at all," Obi-Wan said mildly, "and I have no better way to pass the time while I wait for you to either decide to surrender, or choose to die."
"That choice was made long before I ever met you.''
Grievous turned away. "Kill him."
"Of course, he would rather have his Magnaguards do his work", Obi-Wan mused.
Instantly the box of bodyguards around Obi-Wan filled with crackling electrostaffs whipping faster than the human eye could see—which was less troublesome than it might have been, for that box was already empty of Jedi.
The Force had let him collapse as though he'd suddenly fainted,then it brought his lightsaber from his belt to his hand and ignited it while he turned his fall into a roll; that roll carried his lightsaber through a crisp arc that severed the leg of one of the bodyguards,and as the Force brought Obi-Wan back to his feet, the Force also nudged the crippled bodyguard to topple sideways into the path of the blade and sent it clanging to the floor in two smoking, sparking pieces.
"That's one", Kit Fisto said. "And a few more to go"
The remaining three pressed the attack, but more cautiously; their weapons were longer than his, and they struck from beyond the reach of his blade. He gave way before them, his defensive velocities barely keeping their crackling discharge blades at bay.Three MagnaGuards, each with a double-ended weapon that generated an energy field impervious to lightsabers, each with reflexes that operated near lightspeed, each with hypersophisticated heuristic combat algorithms that enabled it to learn from experience and adapt its tactics instantly to any situation, were certainly beyond Obi-Wan's ability to defeat, but it was not him who would defeat them; Obi-Wan wasn't even fighting. He was only a vessel, emptied of self.
In the Force, he felt their destruction: it was somewhere above and behind him, and only seconds away. He went to meet it with a backflipping leap that the Force used to lift him neatly to an empty droid socket in the ceiling hive. The MagnaGuards sprang after him but he was gone by the time they arrived, leaping higher into the maze of girders and cables and room-sized cargo containers that was the control center's superstructure. Here, said the Force within him, and Obi-Wan stopped, balancing on a girder, frowning back at the oncoming killer droids that leapt from beam to beam below him like malevolent dura-steel primates. Though he could feel its close approach, he had no idea from where their destruction might come... until the Force showed him a support beam within reach of his blade and whispered, Now.
His blade flicked out and the durasteel beam parted, fresh-cut edges glowing white hot, and a great hulk of ship-sized cargo container that the beam had been supporting tore free of its other supports with shrieks of anguished metal and crashed down upon all three MagnaGuards with the finality of a meteor strike.
Two, three, and four.
"Most impressive, Master Kenobi", Yoda praised the Jedi Master for his performance.
Oh, thought Obi-Wan with detached approval. That worked out rather well.
Only ten thousand to go. Give or take. An instant later the Force had him hurtling through a storm of blasterfire as every combat droid in the control center opened up on him at once. Letting go of intention, letting go of desire, letting go of life, Obi-Wan fixed his entire attention on a thread of the Force that pulled him toward Grievous: not where Grievous was, but where Grievous would be when Obi-Wan got there...
"Anytime now, Cody...", Obi-Wan uttered to himself, knowing he wouldn't last long with that the total amount of blaster fire delivered to him.
"As Master Windu said earlier, he would have his droids do the work for him...", Saesee mused.
Leaping girder to girder, slashing cables on which to swing through swarms of ricocheting particle beams, blade flickering so fast it became a deflector shield that splattered blaster bolts in all directions, his presence alone became a weapon: as he spun and whirled through the control center's superstructure, the blasts of particle cannons from power droids destroyed equipment and shattered girders and unleashed a torrent of red-hot debris that crashed to the deck, crushing droids on all sides. By the time he flipped down through the air to land catfooted on the deck once more, nearly half the droids between him and Grievous had been destroyed by their own not-so-friendly fire. He cut his way into the mob of remaining troops as smoothly as if it were no more than a canebrake near some sunlit beach; his steady pace left behind a trail of smoking slices of droid.
"Keep firing!" Grievous roared to the spider droids that flanked him. "Blast him!"
"Is that fear I sense in you, Grievous?", Kit Fisto wondered.
"It is quite noticeable that Grievous knew that his situation was not to his advantage...", Depa observed.
"The Clones will come in to help, right?", Caleb asked, worried.
Obi-Wan felt the massive shoulder cannon of a spider droid track him, and he felt it fire a bolt as powerful as a proton grenade, and he let the Force nudge him into a leap that carried him just far enough toward the fringe of the bolt's blast radius so that instead of shattering his bones it merely gave him a very strong, very hot push that sent him whirling over the rest of the droids to land directly in front of Grievous. A single slash of his lightsaber amputated the shoulder cannon of one power droid and continued into a spinning Force-assisted kick that brought his boot heel to the point of the other power droid's duranium chin, snapping the droid's head back hard enough to sever its cervical sensor cables. Blind and deaf, the power droid could only continue to obey its last order; it staggered in a wild circle, its convulsively firing cannon blasting random holes in droids and walls alike, until Obi-Wan deactivated it with a precise thrust that burned a thumb-sized holt through its thoracic braincase.
"Wow...", Caleb remarked, marvelled at the sight of Master Kenobi's flawless performance against dozens of droids. "Would I be able to fight like that, Master?"
"If you want, I could give you pointers once we have sorted out what is going to happen to the future", Obi-Wan offered, to which Depa gladly gave her approval.
"General," Obi-Wan said with blandly polite smile as though unexpectedly greeting, on the street, someone he privately disliked.
"My offer is still open."
Droid guns throughout the control center fell silent; Obi-Wan stood so close to Grievous that the general was in the line of fire. Grievous threw back his cloak imperiously. "Do you believe that I would surrender to you now?"
"I am still willing to take you alive." Obi-Wan's nod took in the smoking, sparking wreckage that filled the control center. "So far, no one has been hurt."
Grievous tilted his head so that he could squint down into Obi-Wan's face. "I have thousands of troops. You cannot defeat them all."
"He would have to be far-sighted if he is convinced that Master Kenobi came alone", Plo Koon said.
"I don't have to."
"This is your chance to surrender, General Kenobi." Grievous swept a duranium hand toward the sinkhole-city behind him. "Pau City is in my grip; lay down your blade, or I will squeeze... until this entire sinkhole brims over with innocent blood."
"That's not what it's about to brim with," Obi-Wan said.
"You should pay more attention to the weather."
Yellow eyes narrowed behind a mask of armorplast. "What?"
"Have a look outside." He pointed his lightsaber toward the archway.
"It's about to start raining Clones."
Grievous said again, turning to look, "What?" A shadow had passed over the sun as though one of the towering thunderheads on the horizon had caught a stray current in the hyperwinds and settled above Pau City. But it wasn't a cloud. It was the Vigilance
"Just in the nick of time!", Kit Fisto said in relief.
"Now, the real battle has begun!", Saesee proclaimed.
While twilight enfolded the sinkhole, over the bright desert above assault craft skimmed the dunes in a tightening ring centered on the city. Hailfire droids rolled out from caves in the wind scoured mesas, unleashing firestorms of missiles toward the oncoming craft for exactly 2.5 seconds apiece, which was how long it took for the Vigilance's sensor operators to transfer data to its turbolaser batteries.
Thunderbolts roared down through the atmosphere, and hailfire droids disintegrated. Pinpoint counterfire from the bubble turrets of LAAT/i's met missiles in blossoming fireballs that were ripped to shreds of smoke as the oncoming craft blasted through them.
LAAT/i's streaked over the rim of the sinkhole and spiraled downward with all guns blazing, crabbing outward to keep their forward batteries raking on the sinkhole's wall, while at the rim above, Jadthu-class armored landers hovered with bay doors wide, trailing sprays of polyplast cables like immense ice-white tassels that looped all the way to the ocean mouths that gaped at the lowest level of the city. Down those tassels, rappelling so fast they seemed to be simply falling, came endless streams of armored troopers, already firing on the combat droids that marched out to meet them.
Streamers of cables brushed the outer balcony of the control center, and down them slid white-armored troopers, each with one hand on his mechanized line-brake and the other full of DC-15 blaster rifle on full auto, spraying continuous chains of packeted particle beams. Droids wheeled and dropped and leapt into the air and burst to fragments. Surviving droids opened up on the clones as though grateful for something to shoot at, blasting holes in armor, cooking flesh with superheated steam from deep-tissue hits, blowing some troopers entirely off their cables to tumble toward a messy final landing ten levels below.
When the survivors of the first wave of clones hit the deck, the next wave was right behind them. Grievous turned back to Obi-Wan. He lowered his head like an angry bantha, yellow glare fixed on the Jedi Master. "To the death, then."
Obi-Wan sighed. "If you insist."
The bio-droid general cast back his cloak, revealing the four lightsabers pocketed there. He stepped back, spreading wide his duranium arms. "You will not be the first Jedi I have killed, nor will you be the last."
"Here it is.. ", Shaak Ti uttered in complete anticipation.
"I could only hope that I wouldn't be too much of a mess after this...", Obi-Wan said to himself.
Obi-Wan's only reply was to subtly shift the angle of his lightsaber up and forward. "Your move!"
"Form III it is then", Yoda observed with a keen eye.
"He is not just a master of the form, but the Master of Soresu", Mace admitted.
The general's wide-spread arms now split along their lengths, dividing in half—even his hands split in half—Now he had four arms. And four hands.
And each hand took a lightsaber as his cloak dropped to the floor. They snarled to life and Grievous spun all four of them in a
flourishing velocity so fast and so seamlessly integrated that he seemed to stand within a pulsing sphere of blue and green energy.
Caleb widened his eyes. " F-four?", he paled, to which Depa began to calm him down
"You fool!" he said. "I have been trained in your Jedi arts by Count Dooku!"
"That's good! What a curious coincidence," Obi-Wan said with a deceptively pleasant smile. "I trained the man who killed Count Dooku!"
"Grievous would likely not need a bacta tank after this", Kit Fisto said, impressed on Obi-Wan's rebuttal.
"For the record, scrap metal would not need bacta tank", Saesee added.
Walking slowly, the hands of Grievous upper arms begun to spin like a powerful fan of death, causing Obi-Wan to slightly back away from him cautiously.
" I seriously doubt Dooku taught him to use his lightsabers like that...", Depa observed with a slight frown to the General's unorthodox method.
With a convulsive snarl, Grievous lunged.
At the meantine, Clone Troopers of the 332nd evacuate the civilian population of Sundari in safe shelters while Rex, Tano, and Bo-Katan watch from the royal palace's balcony. Several citizens grumble at the current situation while LAAT/is flew above Sundari.
"That's it. Let's go! Watch it, watch it!", one of the Clones said to the civillians, who were not so compliant of their word.
"We don't take orders from Clones."
"You can't hurt us"
"You need to leave"
"All citizens move to the shelter location", the Clone again announced to the Civilian populace.
"I suppose this takes place as the same time as Master Kenobi's hunt to Grievous...", Shaak Ti observed.
"Mandalore has always been the renegade state, never ceasing to stand up against the Jedi or the Republic", Plo Koon mused, recalling their history with the Jedi that spanned millennia.
Obi-Wan looked down. Satine had tried to lead Mandalore in a safer path, but this was thwarted by fanatics such as Pre Viszla and of the Death Watch. Something that Maul had most likely taken advantage off.
Bo-Katan had an uneasy expression as Republic forces guide the civilians to the shelters, seemingly concerned over the well-being of her people. She left the balcony, and theb towards the throne room with Ahsoka and Rex following after her.
"This occupation cannot last much longer", Bo-Katan said, agitated. "The people will not stand for it. I will not stand for it"
"You asked for our help", Rex firmly countered. "My men don't want to be acting as a police force"
"The Republic forces will depart once we capture Maul", Ahsoka assured her. "When you will have your opportunity to lead"
"All I see in her is a power-hungry hypocrite...", Obi-Wan said with a slight frown towards her.
"I'm sorry, Master Kenobi?", Shaak Ti could not help but wonder why was he a bit off. The other Masters noticed his change of demeanor, and were intrigued by this.
"Nothing, Masters..", Obi-Wan quickly assured them.
Entering the Throne Room, they are greeted by Maul, who sat on the throne with a bound Jesse, who knelt beside him.
"I agree", Maul said.
The Jedi were tensed at this. While Ahsoka had promise when she was still a Padawan to the Jedi, she was still more than capable of being potentially stronger than an average Jedi Knight. However, this was Maul they were looking at, the apprentice of Darth Sidious, the future Emperor of the Galactic Empire.
Bo-Katan charged at him with her blasters, but this only amused Maul, who redirecte her shots away using the force, before levitating her with an almost crushing grip.
"My lady, is that any way to treat your rightful ruler?", Maul mockingly asked towards Bo-Katan, who gave him a defiant look at the ex-Sith Lord. Maul eventually released her, with Ahsoka and Rex rushing to her side, and helping her recover.
"And now, as a show of good faith, I return your comrade in arms to you", Maul proclaimed, using the Force to release Jesse from his binders before sending him back to Rex. The ARC Trooper was shaken, defeated, and broken as he slowly made his way to his companions.
"Something does not add up here...", Kit Fisto observed. "Why would he release ARC Trooper Jesse all of a sudden?"
"He may have told him what he wants to know...", Mace suggested. "But it is strange as to why Maul would be willing to release prisoners without killing them.."
"Ulterior motive, perhaps?", Yoda suggested, and the Jedi mentally agreed with that point.
"Run along", Maul told the ARC Trooper. "There you go. Back to your brothers"
"Are you all right, Jesse?", the Commander urgently asked his comrade.
"I'm sorry, Commander", Jesse said in an apologetic tone. "I couldn't help it. I told him everything"
"It's okay", Ahsoka assured him, then turning to the actual Commander. "Rex, get him out of here"
Rex complied and escorted Jesse out the Throne Room while gunfire broke out outside the palace. Ahsoka, Bo-Katan and Maul watch through the windows as they caught sight of the warzone happening outside in the streets of Sundari.
"Uh, one of you might want to deal with that", Maul observed in a slightly mocking tone.
Ahsoka turned to Bo-Katan. "You should go. Your people need you"
"Don't stay on my account. We'll be fine", Maul assured her, standing up from the Throne and approached the windows.
Plo and Obi-Wan were now worried for her, but internally. There was something off about Maul that they could not explain at the meantime.
"Go", Ahsoka told Bo-Katan, prompting the Mandaloroan to put her helmet on before heading towards the battlefield, leaving Ahsoka alone to deal with Maul.
"May the Force be with them." Shaak Ti said, hoping that the group succeeds in liberating the planet from Maul's grasp.
Back in the throne room, the two individuals watch as the battle for Mandalore raged in front of them. "Look at them. So blissfully ignorant", Maul mused in a sing-song tone.
"Care to tell me what this is all about? Or would you rather save it for the Council?"
"Oh, no, no. You are the one that I wish to speak with", Maul casually replied, folding his arms behind his back. "Were you not cast out of your Order?"
"I left voluntarily"
Plo Koon, Obi-Wan, and Yoda were disheartened to be reminded of the Council's errors that prompted a promising Jedi such as her to leave the Order, which serves as an example to their flaws.
"Yes, but you were motivated to leave by the hypocrisy of the Jedi Council", Maul added further insult to injury, causing Ahsoka to look away, a terrible memory coming to her mind.
"You don't need to remind us twice, Maul..", Kit Fisto groaned, having seen the later results of it firsthand. After all that has been revealed, the others could not help but feel at fault for what has happened into the future, though some remained neutral, or at least adamant of the results of their actions.
"We were both tools for greater powers"
"I am here to bring you to justice", Ahsoka replied.
"Justice is merely the construct of the current power base", Maul said philosopichally. "A base, which, according to my calculations, is about to change"
"And Darth Sidious is behind it?", she guessed.
"He is behind everything. In the shadows, always", Maul answered. "But soon, very soon… he will reveal himself"
"We have known who he is...", Luminara observed. "But he is referencing on how we could not have known who he truly is..."
"Hence the words, blissfully ignorant", Mundi pieced out, though unenthusiastically.
"With your help, the Jedi can stop Sidious before it's too late"
"Too late for what!? The Republic to fall!? It already has, and you just can't see it!", Maul snapped. " There is no justice, no law, no order, except for the one that will replace it!"
The Jedi's eyes widen in complete alarm. "Does Maul...", Depa began in realization.
"Know what was going to happen?", Obi-Wan finished in disbelief.
Everyone knew that Maul was referring to the Empire's rise to power, and the eventual end to everything they had known.
"The time of the Jedi has passed", Maul proclaimed. "They cannot defeat Sidious. But, together, you and I can. Every choice you have made… has led you to this moment" He offered a hand towards Ahsoka, who processed everything that Maul told her just now.
"Maul is against Sidious...", Mundi observed. " He was trying to stop him with Tano's help..."
The Jedi were trying to convince themselves that a Sith, even though he was no longer one, was telling the truth. They wouldn't have accepted it at first, but with the truth displayed to them, it was far from being a blatant lie.
An explosion caused the windows of the throne room to shatter, a shower of broken glass falling between them. "I will help you.", Ahsoka conceded. But you must answer one question"
"You have but to ask...",
"What do you want with Anakin Skywalker?"
"Does Maul also knew what was going to happen to Anakin?", Kit Fisto asked in disbelief.
Obi-Wan was apprehensive, thinking that his archnemesis had something in mind for his brother.
Maul was silent for a moment. "He is the key to everything."
"To bring balance to the Force?"
"To destroy. He has long been groomed for his role, as my master's new apprentice"
The Jedi immediately realized what Maul was telling them. Palpatine spent years in his friendship with Anakin as a means for the Jedi Knight to trust him to the point that he could always turn to him.
"Close with Palpatine, young Skywalker was", Yoda said with a slight frown. "His distrust with the Council, and his bond with him, serves as proof"
Ahsoka looked at him with disbelief and countered. "You lie"
"I'm afraid not. In fact, I was so certain of his fate that I orchestrated this war to lure him here with Kenobi to kill him. Thus, depriving Sidious of his prized pupil.
"And unfortunately, Palpatine's 'kidnapping' at the hands of Grievous threw a wrench to that plan", Mace pieced out the information to everyone.
"At this rate, Palpatine kept outplaying everyone in a some sort of strategy game, under his own terms", Luminara admitted.
"I know Anakin", she firmly disagreed with him and ignited her lightsabers, setting her stance to Form VI. "Your vision is flawed"
The Jedi tensed at what they were witnessing. Two duels that could provide the information they so desperately needed now if they are going to stop Palpatine and his plans.
"I see the Padawan needs one last lesson", he remarked in a rather annoyed tone.
With that in mind, he drew a long metal tube, the hilts on both sides ignited to reveal a pair of Crimson-colored blades. After a few twirls, he lunged at the Togruta.
Spectre: Only this for now! The full duels will be posted at the next chapter.