Note: I ACCIDENTALLY OVERWROTE PART 1 WITH PART 2! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! I really hope I have a backup somewhere...

Episode 6 Part 2 - Kneel

What are you doing?! Follow it up! Do not allow him a moment to breath! Nihilus pressed.

"One moment!" Anakin fired back. "I've never done this before."

Anakin had levitated rocks and chairs and other objects before, but never had he levitated himself. Not truly. He might have hovered about a foot off the ground in meditation sessions, but never had he levitated himself high in the sky with the wind beating on him. It was... difficult to hold himself steady. As such, Anakin found himself spinning in the air or being pushed to the side by the heavy winds with no practice in self-levitation bordering on true flight.

Valkorian popped his neck, stood to his feet, and watched as Anakin struggled to steady himself.

If you are having so much difficulty, then let go. Stop struggling.

Anakin stopped moving, and instead found himself moving subconsciously. The void armor around him moved of its own will and Anakin shook his head as the two of them straightened out.

"Thanks."

Less talking more punching.

Anakin didn't know how he would necessarily 'fly' down there. All he had managed to do was levitate himself to a single place, and even then he needed Nihilus' help to keep from being tossed aside by the winds.

Valkorian though, didn't seem up to giving him time, as he flew up with practiced ease and moved around Anakin in a circle. Anakin could only turn his head and watch as the Emperor moved around him. He tried to turn or move, but it was a difficult thing to figure out. He had to constantly focus on just levitating as it was.

Valkorian mused, "The combination of he-who-was-born-by-the-Force fused with he-was-born-by-the-Force's-wound. Interesting. I never would have imagined such a combination. But then, the Lord of Hunger is the perfect parasite."

Is that a compliment? Tell him I said thanks.

Valkorian extended his hand, and Anakin felt something invisible hit him in the side like a cannonball. It knocked him away too fast to keep up with and he felt ship rubble crack as he flew through metal at a velocity that tore it apart. Anakin felt himself come to a stop, colliding into a fallen dreadnought. The dreadnought turned, groaning as the impact moved it. Metal flew into the air like dust.

"Ow." Anakin groaned.

Don't be a crybaby. I absorbed it all. You didn't feel any of that. You only think you did. Wake up, he's coming!

Anakin's eyes widened. Valkorian was already just in front of him again. Valkorian raised his hand again. Anakin tried to pry himself free of the metal he was thrust into. He felt the metal bend to his will and Nihilus' strength, but he didn't have time before another shock-wave hit him.

Valkorian's second shock-wave shattered the dreadnought, a ship approximately 1500 meters long, into pieces and catapulted Anakin through every bit of it into the land on the other-side. The ground shook and a crater formed where he landed.

Finally having the ground under his feet, Anakin stood, raised his hands, gripped the millions of metal shards in the air in the wake of the explosion through the Force, and threw them at Valkorian. It was difficult to control, nah, impossible to control so many separate shards, so instead Anakin tried something else. He made Valkorian the center of gravity. The gravity would do the work for him. He felt his own feet lift off the ground, but Nihilus held them back as gravity reversed itself intensely.

Valkorian weaved and dodged them with relative ease, at first, but he quickly realized 100 million kilograms of sharp metal, approximately the weight of the dreadnought, being thrown at him is a fair bit. He released shock-waves in various directions, but Anakin threw so many at him from every direction Valkorian wouldn't make do. Valkorian released a massive shock-wave in every direction at once, disintegrating everything within a mile save for Anakin.

You may want to try harder.

"For one who says 'less talky more punchy', you haven't stopped talking." Anakin whispered.

...

"That's what I thought."

Valkorian floated down towards Anakin until his feet met the ground.

Anakin smirked, "Looks like I got you."

Valkorian, curious, checked himself. He saw cuts on his arms and felt blood on his back. His body would heal quickly enough, but all the same, Valkorian nodded. "So you did. Good job. Now I am impressed, but I do find myself questioning your choice. What prompted you to throw aside the moral high-ground to obtain power through this parasitic relationship?"

"I use the Light, the Dark, and consider you a far greater threat both to me personally, but to the universe, than Nihilus. Nihilus is a parasite to the galaxy. You are its doom. I did it because you are a far greater threat. Besides, I leave that high-ground stuff for my old master. He's always having to keep ontop of me."

"Teachers often find themselves in that position." Valkorian mused. He raised a hand to Anakin. Anakin/Nihilus disappeared into the Void and reappeared next to Valkorian, evading a shockwave Valkorian sent at them.

"Give me a blade!" Anakin hissed.

Nihilus reformed the armor around Anakin's hand into a long blade and Anakin extended his fist, trying to at once punch and stab him. Valkorian leaned back away from it. Again and again Anakin tried to stab or swipe at him. Using a fist-blade was remarkably different from a normal lightsaber, but he could adapt somewhat. Nihilus formed his other hand into a similar blade and Anakin spun while extending his hands, allowing twice as many attacks to force the Sith on the defense. Valkorian evaded them mostly, dodging them narrowly one after another, but as a few slowly came closer to hitting them, he was forced to bring up his hand and knock the attacks aside. Finally blood flowed as Anakin succeeded in cutting Valkorian's chest lightly. Valkorian's eyes narrowed, he brought his hand up and released a shockwave into Anakin's face. It was a much smaller, sudden shockwave, so Anakin/Nihilus could withstand it and hold their ground, but Anakin still felt he would be having a giant bruise later.

"Grab him!" Anakin barked.

Hearing him, Valkorian leaped back before Nihilus extended from Anakin as hundreds of tentacles, but Nihilus was persitent and grabbed hold of Valkorian's hands in tight ropes.

We really need to work on our communication. You can't go around advertising our attacks like that.

"If you haven't read my mind so far-!" Anakin rushed in, building up as much power as he could in his hand, a much greater concentration of Force energy than prior, and shoved it point-blank into Valkorian's chest. Nihilus's hold tore apart as Valkorian flew back in the explosion. Nihilus returned to covering Anakin. "Then we don't have many options." He finished.

Valkorian flew a short distance, hit the ground hard while rolling, and slid to a halt. The Sith Emperor shook his head, chuckled, and rose to his feet. "Much better!" The clothes he wore was fairly well torn now, showing Anakin had managed to penetrate his Force aura, and his hairless chest was slightly reddish. Not burned, but perhaps removed the first layer of skin at most or would give a large bruise.

'Well, that's at least progress.' Anakin thought.

Valkorian looked up and raised a hand to the sky. Anakin looked up as well. At first he saw nothing. He expected to see the Sith Emperor pull a ship out of the sky or perhaps throw a moon at him. Instead the blackness of space became abnormally easy to see... Anakin could see stars and the sun more clearly.

The sun!

He's cutting the atmosphere!

Anakin jumped away, and as that wasn't fast enough, he used the Force to levitate and throw himself back as fast as he could. Nihilus straightened him out as they flew back.

The ground around them grew black with radiation and Anakin felt through the void armor that he was being burned. Valkorian opened the atmosphere, shooting the direct radiation of the sun onto Anakin/Nihilus. Anakin managed to get a bit of a hang of Force flight, but he still wasn't fast enough to outrun radiation shooting down from the sun. The void armor on Anakin's skin turned purple as plasma built up in it.

Hold up!

"Ack!" Anakin choked.

Nihilus sent out a tentacle as they flew by a wreckage, grabbing hold of ship plating, and suddenly changing their trajectory, yanking Anakin back without warning. They landed on the ground beneath the ship hull.

Ship hulls are designed to withstand radiation.

"Good thinking."

I have a plan. Now that I am fed, I can pull it off, but I need to focus. Try not to die.

"Wait! What plan?!" Anakin asked. He didn't get an answer. Instead a great deal of the void armor around him disappeared. "Hey!... Shit." Anakin hissed.

The ground exposed to the sky grew dark and Anakin felt his skin get incredibly hot. He ran up against the hull shell. From there the hull absorbed more of the radiation, but he still felt like his entire body was setting on fire. He clenched his jaw, struggling not to scream. The seconds ticked by. Anakin felt Valkorian's presence slowly come closer.

The hull crunched the ground before slowly lifting. Lava flowed down the open passages of the inner ship as it shifted, and Anakin felt the ground beneath him rise as well. He rolled down briefly before falling onto the hard ground below. Radiation poured over him and Anakin opened his mouth to scream. It only lasted a moment as Nihilus shielded him again, but Anakin still knew his body was suffering from burns.

Valkorian lifted the ship hull with the Force and tossed it aside like it was a toy, exposing Anakin/Nihilus. Valkorian was unaffected by the sun's rays that poured over both of them while Anakin/Nihilus stood in the direct rays. Anakin's void armor continued to take on a purple sheen as Nihilus absorbed the radiation. It was no doubt a great benefit to the spirit that it was incapable of feeling pain normally.

Nice to see you aren't dead, yet.

"Care to inform me of your master plan?" Anakin whispered. "We can't just keep running."

Do you remember how I have been telling the fleet to aim at the cannons? How we have jettisoned them periodically?

"Yes, you left quite a graveyard of crippled ships without weapons."

Speaking of which, you may wish to hunker down.

"What? Why would I-" Anakin choked mid-sentence. His eyes growing wide in pure terror.

High in the sky, behind Valkorian, a giant plasma shot was incoming. Not just one, but hundreds. Thousands. Nihilus had rotated the floating cannons in distant space with the Force, designed for space combat between assault vessels and dreadnoughts, and somehow fired them. Anakin crouched down as low as he could. Nihilus reformed around him as a shield. Valkorian raised an eyebrow, then, feeling an ominous feeling through the Force, looked up.

"Oh-" Was all he managed to get out before the landscape was pummeled by hundreds of turbolaser cannons. Each projectile was comparable to a nuke as the cannons are designed for planetary bombardment as well as interplanetary combat between gargantuan vessels.

Everything within miles was destroyed. Mountains collapsed, ruins were reduced to dust, any fighters or aircraft in the vicinity exploded, and radioactive dust clouds filled the air to acculiminate with the rest rendering the planet surrounded in a thick poisonous smog. Under the blast of a few nuke-level turbolaser shots, the planet would survive, but as hundreds of high-capacity turbolasers fired round after round on their position, rapidly exhausting themselves of what power was stored in their power cells, the planet started to crumble. Seismic plates shifted and collapsed as tunnels and hole pockets deep in the planet collapsed. The planet shook, at first lightly but slowly gaining in intensity as the bombardment refused to let up.

A chunk of the planet the size of a large continent broke off in an explosion, sending asteroids and such out into space and exposing the planetary core. Massive cracks, miles wide, exploded across the rest of the planet's surface and other chunks exploded off, but not as far as to leave orbit like the first chunk did. Any ships on the planet surface or orbit fled into a more distant orbit while any soldiers or personnel who did not manage to garner transport in the evacuation died. Not that ships fleeing into higher orbit were much better as smaller asteroids, inevitably faster, hit them likes missles, destroying many of the smaller transports and vessels trying to ascend. The dreadnoughts did not escape damage either as smaller chunks struck their shields while a few of the largest shattered said shields and smashed into the hull beneath. The ships, ranging from smallest to greatest, were destroyed or crippled or fleeing within the immediate vicinity of the planet's fragmentation explosion. Thankfully the vessels beyond them were mostly untouched as those closest absorbed the projectiles.

As the planetary chunks blew off, gravity inevitably forced them to return. At first they merely slowed in their ascent, halted, but inevitably they returned home in earth-shattering impacts and quakes. Many asteroids spun before landing, forcing what was once ontop to be crushed beneath.

The many orbit cannons Nihilis had used to bombard Valkorian's position halted about this time, having run out of ammo, having run out of stored power, or by choking on their own waste without the proper support systems to ventilate their internal systems. A few still firing were destroyed by the ships in orbit, under Mandalore's infuriated order, to stop the bombardment.

Among the asteroids to ascend, spin, and return to the planet, was the one Anakin/Nihilus and Valkorian were on. The asteroid smashed them into the planet.

Anakin didn't know how long he layed there. All he saw was darkness. All he heard was the infinite nothingness of the void, a sound so loud his own heartbeat became ear-splitting. Anakin could hear the blood flowing in his veins, the gyration of his lungs as they expanded and squeezed, the creaking of his bones as he turned his neck. He thought his ears would burst from the echo just from him swallowing. The sound of his metal hand making clicking sounds in an endless rhythem made him want to scream. To be in absolute quiet was the loudest thing he had ever heard, and it was maddening.

All at once the egg opened and Anakin fell to the ground below. All he saw was darkness still, but the unmistakable feeling of earth, the crunch of soil in his ears, and the sounds all around removing his heartbeat from his ears was enough to make him burst out in laughter. So he did. He laughed a moment.

"Oh, Sith-spit... I am never letting you do that to me again!" Anakin opened his eyes. He blinked, opened his eyes again. Nothing. What the... he put his hands in front of his eyes and saw nothing as he waved his hands before his face.

Before you start to panic, you are not blind. We are underground.

"What are we doing underground?" Anakin rose to his hands and knees and tried to stand, only to bang his head on something hard for his trouble. Hissing in pain, he fell to his knees. He heard Nihilus sigh in his ear.

I do not know. There was too much happening around us. I... may have underestimated my plan.

Anakin reached into his pouch and pulled out a flare. He ignited it. Redness filled his sight as the eletric flare lit up the crevice they were in. It was a very cramped place, about the same dimensions as the egg Nihilus protected him in. To the side was a crack. Anakin kicked it. The crack expanded and crumbled, exposing a larger area to crawl into. He did so and worked his way through the tunnel into an area that was large enough to stand in. A bit further and he came to a drop. Anakin looked down, but saw no end to it.

A sharp crackle followed by a light drew his attention up. High above them, perhaps a mile or more, was an object that flickered to life. It was like a round disc where within it shimmered the light of another sky. Around this disc was a highly damaged machine, and around it further was pieces and ruins of the fortress they had been invading just a little while ago.

"That thing is still functional?"

"I, too, am surprised."

Anakin jumped in fright and turned to see an alcove of crystals in the underground cavern nearby. Valkorian sat upon them looking up as well. His skin was darkened like he had been burned alive. All of his clothes were gone. His hair was gone. His eyes were crusted over. How in the galaxy he was still alive and kicking, Anakin had no idea. He looked like an ad for Dead Inc. Only Nihilus could possess a body looking this dead and still be remotely functional.

"I must congratulate you." The talking corpse whispered. His voice echoed and cracked. He turned his head down to them, and part of the black crust on his skin cracked and fell off, revealing white skin underneath. "I have not felt anything like that... not for one thousand years. Not since the Jedi bombarded Korriban into a desert. A few of my souls survived just long enough to give birth to me... and through them I remember. I remember how the fire lit up the sky... how it rained acid. how the air in their... my... lunges burned and ignited my-their cells into a fire that could never be quenched."

Valkorian wavered where he sat. Extending his hand he grabbed hold of the crystal to steady himself. He whispered, "I assure you, this pain, I will never forget."

Valkorian hovered into the air. He extended his arms and bent them with a sickening crunch. He popped his neck, his knees, his ankles. Every movement brought a sickening crack as the crust on his skin cracked and broke off. The skin beneath was freshly healed, freshly grown. In a word: perfect. Like a chick working its way out of its shell, Valkorian cracked off the flesh that was damaged and radiated. When he was done, he hovered before them with perfectly white skin, white hair that flowed down to his waist, eyes that shined with a thousand colors, naked and confident. Perhaps the only thing not perfect about him, but slightly unusual, was long and sharp finger nails.

"I assure you, the number of souls you just took from me, is more than you can ever know." Valkorian said.

Anakin stepped back. He sensed Nihilus waver. There was still a few more attempts they could make, but none that Anakin could think of that would be on the scale Nihilus had just thrown at this man.

What the Jedi saw in this man was more than the confidence of a king. A king would look on peasents and look superior. This king looked on demi-gods with superiority and took on their greatest attacks as if it was solely for his amusement.

"Wha-what are you?" Anakin asked.

"Once... I was a prince." Valkorian looked on in memory. "I was not satisfied and became a king, a lord of Sith. Still I was not satisfied and became an Emperor. Yet again, I was not satisfied, and became immortal... a being of spirit and flesh. Of Force and muscle. Of life and death. Perhaps a demi-god. Yet now... now that I have been tested with some i thought could be equal, I find myself again... unsatisfied. I seek to consume the Force, to replace it. It is only right as the heir to creation to become it, to become 'all'. I am no king. I am no emperor. I am a god."

"You are no god!"

"Perhaps not to an unbeliever."

Infuriated, Anakin ran at him, jumped off the ledge, and with a little bit of experience in self-levitiation now, charged into Valkorian. The two flew into the otherside of the cavern. He took his Void hand, drove it Valkorian's gut, and with a brief whisper to Nihilus, Nihilus splintered it. Valkorian coughed up blood as many void spikes protruded through his body. Anakin slammed his head into the man's face, breaking his nose. Anakin hit him with everything he had, all of the Force energy he could muster, all of the Force-infused punches and void-infused cuts. Anakin put his hands together, and with Nihilus predicting what he wanted, formed the void-armor on his hands into a giant hammer before Anakin slammed his fists into Valkorian's head. The Sith 'god' shattered crystals as he fell to the ground. Anakin charged at him again.

"Enough." Valkorian whispered. He spit out blood.

Valkorian extended his hand as Anakin flew at him, grabbed him by the throat, and slammed his head into the ground. Valkorian took flight and shoved Anakin/Nihilus into the cavern wall. Only this time, Valkorian did not stop there, but pushed them through the wall. He drove them into the crust of the inner planet deeper and deeper until they came out in another cavern. Here a crack exposed the sky above, illuminating them. Valkorian spun them around and threw them back into the wall they had just exited. He sent a shockwave into them. The earth crumbled and cracked for thousands of meters. Not done yet, Valkorian released another shockwave, a second, a third. Again and again he released bursts of energy into the wall until finally the wall crumbled exposing the first cavern to the second and the cavernous wall above started to collapse around them.

Anakin/Nihilus' hand escaped the rubbled and pulled them up. They struggled, gasped for breath, wavered, and with a single stumble, collapsed to the ground.

Valkorian hovered to them and let his bare feet touch the ground. The atmosphere of the planet was all but gone now with all that had happened to it and the bare sun was openly revealed far above.

"You..." Anakin gasped. "Are not... a god. You are not... the Maker."

Valkorian looked down on them, and said, "Tell me, brother. What is the making of a god? Why is it that you claim I am not one?"

"Because... no powerful you are... it won't matter. You cannot kill... a god." Anakin's head wavered. It was heavy on his neck; he could barely lift it.

"Ah, so in your mind raw power is not the making of a diety... I can agree with that. The power of a god is not measured in such a finite fashion as something akin to magic, mana, fuel, power... it is not such a thing. It is authority. The Maker was the first, was the creator, naturally being the Maker, and as such He bore all authority. Enough so that He could will creation, and it was simply because he demanded it." Valkorian mused. "So. If I were to be the only one left. If all of creation was gone. If I was to not only consume, but kill both the Force and the Maker... If I was 'all' that there was, then I would truly be a god. And if I was to kill a god, then that would make me one, no?"

Anakin looked at him wide-eyed. While Valkorian said these things with the greatest calmness, it was the greatest madness to his counter part. How far did this man think he was? Anakin would happily say he was on a scale higher than him, higher than Son or Daughter or Plageus, higher than any but the greatest and most hidden of Force Presences that might roam the distant galaxies... but to claim godhood, not merely as a jest, but as a belief?! This... man... truly believed it. He wasn't leading a people into a delusion. He was the one deluded!

"So let this be the first sign to you, fourth-born." Valkorian said. He opened his palm and in it a glowing orb appeared. In the far distant space, the sun disappeared, as if someone had flicked a switch. Anakin fell back, only able to stare in mute terror at what Valkorian held in his palm.

Valkorian held the sun in his palm. It shimmered brightly between his fingers. It flared as suns do and he restrained it with seemingly ease, as if by his will alone the sun was tamed and resided in his hand. Anakin could only stare into the face of death and defeat as Valkorian lowered the sun to his face. Valkorian smiled. Whether Anakin knew it or not, he was on his knees, kneeling before the him.

"That's more like it."

With but a thought, Valkorian squeezed the sun smaller and smaller until it was barely the size of a marble. It was already shrunk heavily from its normal size to that of a baseball, but the size of a marble? There was only one logical thing it could do as its own forces struggled for release.

A supernova ripped its way out of the planet, consumed every ship in its path, and continued into space setting the system aflame in its path. Unlike most supernovas, this was not directed in every direction, but a single one. Valkorian did not allow it the explosion to be released back at himself.

In the wake of absolute destruction, Valkorian held a black hole in his hand. He contained it, not allowing its gravity well to extend. He gazed at it briefly, fascinated that the nucleas of the gravity well was the size of a grain of sand. A groan met his ears, and Valkorian looked down to see Anakin and Nihilus on what was left of the ground. The two had become seperated. Nihilus disappeared as a wisp of wind, his mask laying on the ground. Anakin, no longer with Nihilus' protection, collapsed to the ground suffering from the deepest burns Valkorian could imagine he could survive in. He could practically see the man's naked heart beating as the fire burnt him through to the ribs. Yet, for how he should be dead, Valkorian sensed the Force continue to sustain him. The Force would not give him up.

"Interesting." Valkorian murmured. If the Force would not give up its champion, then Valkorian would make do. He could use this. He stepped forward, took hold of the mask of Nihilus, and placed it on his own face. The Force around him screamed and Valkorian convulsed briefly in pain. The spirit of Nihilus curled up and screamed, tried to crawl away, but was sucked into the Sith Emperor.

The spirits within Valkorian appeared and looked amongst each other. Among them, Nitheal looked at himself.

"Do not be so hurt," The spirit of Marco Ragnos, chief among them, said. "This is what you wanted."

Nitheal tried to reach for his spiritual throat, could not move. Marco Ragnos looked at him, undisturbed. "You will learn."

Valkorian stepped forward and looked down at Anakin. The Jedi Master's metalic hand barely moved, a weak gurgle escaping what was left of his lunges. Valkorian stooped down, picked him up in his arms, and flying up floated near the ruins of the portal. Valkorian gestured with a hand, the portal opened again, and he entered it. The portal closed, the black hole released itself, and Valkorian smiled as he tasted the atmosphere of his capital world. He had great plans for him.

His smile briefly dimmed. Dead Sith surrounded him at what was supposed to be a heavily guarded position. Some were cut with lightsabers, others with claws.