6
Anakin stared at his mirror image sitting at the desk. Ollo was an exact replica of Anakin in almost every way. From his long loose curled hair to hishaunting blue eyes. Ollo had no scar running along his face. The two stood for what seemed like an eternity simply gazing at one another.
Obi-Wan found himself to be double taking them over and over again.
"Remember me?" Ollo asked, standing from his leather chair.
Neither Anakin or Obi-Wan could bring themselves to speak. With a snap, Anakin's saber disappeared. He wasn't sure why he disengaged his last line of defense against the man, but he did. Finally after another eternity of staring at him, Anakin coughed.
"You're me...How is this possible?"
Ollo smiled, leaning with his palms placed on the desk. "Do you remember an event in our glorious Republic's history called the Clone Wars? If I remember correctly, you took part in that war, did you not?"
Anakin made a mocking smile at Ollo. "I think I remember something like that. Cut to the Chase."
Ollo glanced down and pointedat the brown glove that covered Anakin's right hand. "Do you remember the muscle tendons and flesh that were once there? Now it's nothing more than a compilation of nerve sensors electrodrivers and armor plating. But once there was true life in that hand." He paused, moving around the desk. "You remember when your flesh was so painfully taken away by Dooku?"
Anakin nodded. It was coming to him.
"Well, you see, your flesh wasn't lost amid dust and old memories in that hangar bay on Geonosis. Lord Sidious' forces recovered your lifeless hand. Though it was far from alive, with a little work from scientists on the Separatist's payroll, Lord Sidious brought forth life from the disgusting remains of your hand. That, in essence," He pointed to his chest. "Is me."
Obi-Wan grimaced. He was sick of standing there like a fool. "How did you survive? Sidious was defeated years ago."
"My old friend-."
"I'm not your friend," Obi-Wan retorted angrily. "You are not Anakin Skywalker."
Ollo sighed, fiddling with the light saber that hung elegantly at his belt. "In a way I'm not, and in a way, completely irreversibly, I might add, I am."
"It's most definitely reversible," Obi-Wan stated with clenched teeth. He ignited his light saber.
"No," Anakin said. "Wait."
Ollo sighed once again.
Anakin pointed at Ollo. "How did you survive? You owe me at least that"
It was then that Ollo smiled a sickening smile. One that made both Jedi's stomachs turn. "Do you remember when Sidious attacked the temple?"
The two nodded.
"Do you remember him mentioning a planet by the name of Malastare? I believe he called it a trap, if I remember correctly."
"You were the trap."
Ollo nodded. "And after my Lord fell at your unworthy hands, I was left without a Master."
Anakin's eyebrows dropped. "What about the Sith code?"
"Code?" Ollo asked innocently. "Oh, I think you are referring to the code of only two Siths at a time. Well, you see. Darth Annhil was, in most aspects, a decoy."
"A decoy?" Anakin questioned.
Ollo's expression made Anakin feel like an idiot. "Yes, a decoy. You didn't realize how easy he was to defeat? He wasn't fully trained in the ways of the Sith!Or are you not as powerful as my late Master perceived?"
Anakin's face dropped back into an angry stare. It appeared that whatever hot buttons Anakin had, Ollo was tapping on them like a drum. "Alright, Sith scum, shut your mouth. It's time to end this."
Ollo grinned evily. "You're right. It is time for this to end. But, as we're parrying blades I want you to ponder this. If you die, I will take your place at the helm of the Jedi Council, infecting it from within." He stopped, his face falling even deeper into the grin. "Hell, I might even spend some time with your wife. She'd never know it wasn't you."
The last comment sent Anakin over the edge. A blue-white blade other than Kenobi's came down over Ollo's brow, and effortlessly it was stopped. Ollo still leaned on the edge of his desk, holding his crimson blade against Anakin's.
With a simple manipulation of the force, Ollo knocked back both Jedi and took to his feet, parrying one final shot from Anakin's blade as he disappeared through the doorway.
Afe stood upon the smoking corpse of a landspeeder, it's former pilot lay bleeding to death in the drivers seat. She knelt over the dying man, feeling his presence in the force waiver. She had to get any information she could from him before he moved along to his ancestors.
"Who's in charge here?" She asked, pressing her hand against the hole in the man's throat, stopping the gushing torrent of blood.
"Am I...going to die?" He asked, his gangster facade fading away. Fear was evidently flowing into the wound as the blood fled from it.
Afe could only nod grimly. "Now do me a final favor and you will be forgiven for your crimes. I will consider you a hero of the Republic if you give me the leaders name."
Tears flowed from his face. A wave of pity hit Afe through the force, and she could feel her own eyes swelling beneath her goggles. "Ollo," He gasped, shaking violently.
As she felt his final moments drawing to a close, she took a deep gasp of air, closed her eyes, and removed her mask. She gave the dying man a final caress and a kiss on the brow.
"You've done well. I consider you a hero. Go to your ancestors with honor."
She replaced the respirator to her face and climbed off the smoldering speeder. The man seized, dying before he could finish the words: "Thank you."
After a moment of regaining her composure, she turned to see the Skywalker twins staring at the lifeless body. They had been witness to it all. A look of horror was smeared across their faces.
"The force is a wide, never ending circle of life," She said, bowing her head. "Though his life force has extinguished, you can rest assured the birth of another will soon replace him in his absence."
It was the first time the two had actually witnessed a being in the throes of death. They had, of course, seen and killed many, but never witnessed the final moments of a life. Prior, all the deaths were either quick or at a distance. For the rest of his life, Luke realized the vision of the poor man would stay with him.
Anakin and Obi-Wan rounded a corner, following Ollo's force presence. They scrambled down a corridor that opened into the main hangar bay of the hidden base. The sight of it brough back horrifying memories of Obi-Wan's past. The hangar looked sinisterly like Naboo's royal palace hangars where he confronted Darth Maul. With a choked back shudder, he continued at Anakin's side into the hangar.
Ollo stood directly in front of them, showing now signs of trying to escape. He waited silently with his crimson saber humming in the cascade of false lighting. Behind him sat the whining preliminary engines of his Sith interceptor, waiting for it's master to escape in. As the two Jedi galloped down the final ramp into the hangar, Ollo tapped the buttons on his gloves, igniting the light shields on his wrists. It was time to see how efficient they were.
"Your life ends here, Sith." Anakin shouted at his clone.
Ollo smiled indignantly. "I think not." He paused. "Actually I'd like to take the time to correct you. I'm not a Sith Lord. Not yet. It shan't be long before I find the final scriptures I need to complete my training."
Obi-Wan decided it was his turn to play the arrogant bastard card. "Well, whatever you are. I hope you'll understand that our mandates require us to stop you. If you're going to find those final scriptures, I suggest you do it rather quick. In fact," He said mockingly. "You have about a minute before you're dead."
Anakin grinned, basking in the fact that his former Master could easily battle in wits as well in swords. He patted him on the shoulder.
Obi-Wan didn't look at him, but whispered: "You're rubbing off on me Anakin."
Ollo began to walk toward the two, red blades screaming. He twirled his saber and sped up.
The first attack was easily blocked by Anakin, who spun Ollo's blade around, bringing himself on the opposing side of the Dark Jedi. Ollo was now sandwiched between the two. It didn't really matter to him.
Obi-Wan's saber came crashing down upon Ollo, but was blocked easily. Ollo began using a tactic never seen by any Sith or Dark Jedi. He was using the two Jedi against each other physically. With a simple flick of his wrist, he directed Obi-Wan's blade to connect with Anakin's incoming attack. The two blue blades slammed into each other while Ollo slipped out from between them.
Anakin looked at his former master with disbelief as Ollo backed away with another grin on his face.
"I hate that grin already!" Anakin grunted, disengaging himself from Obi-Wan's saber.
Obi-Wan spun his saber in his hand, bringing it back to defensive position. "I've had to live with that grin for the last twenty years!"
Ollo returned to the offensive, bringing his crimson blade across in an attempt to cut Obi-Wan's legs from him. Obi-Wan easily parried it, and backed away. The Dark Jedi allowed him to do so, but not without a high dose of resistance. Five rapid-fire attacks came at Obi-Wan's frame. As he fought to deflect the attacks, he couldn't shake the sickening thought of fighting his own apprentice. In almost every way Ollo mirrored Anakin. As the final strike came at him, Obi-Wan shook it from his mind. He vaulted Ollo's blade away from him, but the Dark Jedi didn't lose grip on his saber.
Stumbling backward with his burgundy blade to the side, Anakin leapt back into the battle, hoping to catch his duplicate off guard. As his blue saber approached Ollo's mid-section, the right wrist of the Dark Jedi flexed down, blocking it from splitting him into. They are handy, Ollo thought.
Ollo led them into a corridor filled with multiple boxes, barely leaving room to walk in. He planned it out, luring the two Jedi into the corridor. As the two blue blades passed the boxes, Ollo came charging at them down the hallway. Anakin and Obi-Wan didn't budge, hoping to trap the twin. As the two Jedi braced for impact, trying to sever Ollo's chance of escape, Ollo did not attack, but leapt high into the air, somersaulting over the metal crates. As he flipped overhead, they struck out at him with their light sabers, but only caught the tail of his tunic.
Ollo landed on the ground and never looked back. As he charged for his waiting ship, he reached through the force and sent each of the boxes flying at the Jedi. It was now Anakin and Obi-Wan who were trapped in the corridor amidst a heap of metal crates.
As Ollo stepped upon the first inch of the loading ramp of his Sith interceptor, he stopped and turned around.
"We'll have to continue this at another time, my friends. Master Kenobi, I'd like to personally inform you that you two have five minutes before this entire base explodes."
With another flick of his wrist, the base's self-destruct sequence initiated, echoing upon each data center outlet along the hangar's walls.
"I'll catch you guys later!" Ollo shouted, disappearing up the ramp.
Obi-Wan immediately called through the force to Afe to get herself and the Skywalker twins as far way from the base as possible. If he and Anakin were to die, he thought, there would be no sense in having the others die also.
The timer dropped to four minutes and thirty seconds. They needed to come up with something and quick.
Anakin's light saber blazed through the boxes, but could not penetrate through all of them.
"Follow my lead," Obi-Wan said. He reached through the force, channeling its power into a wall. Anakin could easily feel him doing this, and quickly did likewise.
The hangar's hatch, made of thick duracreet began to open like the top of a cardboard box. Ollo's fighter blazed by the two doors as they opened wide enough to let him pass. The doors began to slowly close behind the escaping craft.
With a final grunt, the two built up enough channeled power to throw the heavy metal boxes into the air. They took to their feet, running back into the hangar before the metal crates could fall back to the ground.
Along the walls the data computers announced "twenty seconds."
Obi-Wan groaned. "I hate narrow escapes."
The hangar doors were growing ever closer to shutting. Anakin frantically looked around for a possible method of escape. In the corner under a heap of random machinery lay a swoop bike. It seemed outdated and tarnished. That might do the trick, Anakin thought.
He said nothing, nudging Obi-Wan via the force, and ran to the bike. With a panicked look on his face, he threw the random metal parts off the bike, stood it up, and straddled it. Obi-Wan was instantly behind him on the bike.
"You have a way with machines, Anakin. Do something."
"Let's hope this works." Anakin said, reaching deep within the machine's pistons repulsors and circuitry with the his mind. As if raising the dead, the engine growled to life.
5
They shot off like a bullet for the closing hangar doors. It only lacked ten feet between each duracreet wall.
4
Obi-Wan grasped Anakin's waist tightly, looking down at the blurred marble floor. He didn't want to know what was going to happen next.
3
"May the force be with us!" Obi-Wan shouted at Anakin through the furious wind.
2
Anakin let out a scream of fear and excitement. One that Obi-Wan knew well.
1
The swoop carrying the two Jedi burst from the hangar as the door's teeth came to a shuddering close. Behind them through the deafening rush of wind they heard the enormous explosion of the spice facility. Tongues of flames burst from the cracks in the hangar doors, reaching out at the two. The swoop was too fast, though, and it soared through the crisp early night air, diving into the thick undebrush of the forest. After blazing through countless meters of deep forest, they skidded to a halt.
Obi-Wan watched as a monstrous mushroom cloud grew over the facility. Pieces of debris were being thrown into the forest around them, crashing into the green landscape. Duracreet walls collapsed upon each other in a catastrophic cacophony. Both Anakin and Obi-Wan could feel blast after blast of heat waves rolling through the thick woods.
"It's not so hidden anymore," Obi-Wan said with a smile. Suddenly he smelled something. The odor of burning fabric filled his nostrils. He quickly found the origin of the stench.
"Blast! My shirt's on fire!" He yelped, slapping the glowing fabric around his shirt tail.