"Master Windu…" Palpatine whispered.

A smile crawled slowly across his face. He was a mess to look at. His features had been marred beyond healing during their last encounter, when Mace had been so close to destroying him. He wore the usual long black cloak of the Sith Lords, adorned only by the golden glint of a lightsaber hanging at his belt.

"We are…honored…to have you join us today. Lord Vader, please come."

From a doorway behind Palpatine, Mace saw a dark figure emerge. The face was entirely covered by a metallic breathing gear, and a long black cloak draped the figure's shoulders. The Sith's breathing came in static rasps, filtered by his mask. Mace stared at him aghast, and mildly horrified.

"Skywalker?"

The figure walked slowly up to its Master's side. Palpatine smiled even more broadly.

"Yes, Master Windu, you still see things well. Young Skywalker here has chosen his true path. His true destiny."

"What in the Force happened to you, Skywalker?" Mace muttered.

The figure did not respond. Instead, it simply inclined its head towards its Master. Mace sensed, rather than heard, Palpatine whisper.

"Yes, kill him now."

Within a split second, Anakin lit his weapon and leapt forward, straight at him. Mace ignited his own saber and leapt forward himself. He tried to exert inner control over his emotions, as a red spot of anger erupted in the back of his mind. Anakin would use his hate to try and defeat him. He mustn't allow himself to do the same. The two figures collided and midair, the lightsabers clashing violently against each other. The two men fell to the ground but were up in an instant. Vader swung his blade but Mace parried his blow, counterattacking with fierceness. The two engaged in a lethal struggle, blades swinging faster than the eye could track, lashing out at each other with such might anyone watching would surely cower in fright. Palpatine however stood were he was, watching his Apprentice do battle with the Jedi Master, a faint smile over his lips, savoring every moment of it.

Mace parried blow after blow, holding his own, yet he could find no weakness in Anakin's defenses. "His hate has made him strong." He thought. But hate wasn't enough. The two of them fought with ever increasing vigor, until Vader placed an unexpected blow. Holding Mace's saber at bay with his own, he swung his heavy boot around, which connected with Mace's jaw. The Jedi Master was sent off balance, and crumpled in a heap near the windowed bay. He got up just in time to see Vader hurling at him with another kick - this one sent him flying straight out the window. A single thought crossed his head as his body moved through the shattered glass, as if in slow motion. Not again. He flew out of the bay and crashed heavily on a landing platform a dozen meters beneath the window. He got back up groggily, and ignited his lightsaber just as Vader landed beside him. He swung his blade but the Sith ducked, and made an attack of his own. The battle pursued with renewed vigor, observed silently by Palpatine, who stood on the edge of the shattered bay, admiring the two men as they fought it out. Night was falling over Coruscant, and the wind blew hard on the landing platform. Mace dealt Vader a blow that forced him backwards several steps, but did not pursue him immediately.

"Why Skywalker?" He screamed.

The masked figure did not answer. It simply stood there, saber held low by its side, as if checking him out.

"You have betrayed all that you once stood for! To what avail! Look at what you have become! A monster of metal!"

This time Vader's rumbling metallic voice came back in response.

"You are in error Jedi. I have become greater that any man in this galaxy. I have ascended to supremacy."

"Your once brilliant flame has been extinguished, Skywalker." Mace panted. "You have been consumed! Consumed by evil and the dark side!"

"I will not lecture you as I have Obi-Wan, master Windu. Your narrow mind cannot possibly comprehend all the horizons that are now open to me. All the possibilities. Everything, infinity. Can you imagine what it feels like, Jedi, to have the galaxy resting in the palm of your hand? To have the power to let it live or die at your heart's desire? No, you do not, you cannot. I am all-powerful, Jedi."

"You are a monster!" Mace yelled back "You slew those you loved! Your friends! Your masters!" he paused "your wife."

Vader stood as if he had been changed to stone.

"You…shouldn't…how…"

Mace sneered at the Sith Lord. The figure seemed not so mighty all of a sudden. The face was downcast, the shoulders slightly slumped. The humming red blade hung loosely at his side.

"You slew her, Anakin. For a man who had promised what he could not deliver. You killed her for power. You should have known it. You should have sensed it. You slew her for evil, Anakin."

There was no response. Vader stared for a moment at his own booted feet. Mace could sense him struggling inside. Grief was washing in great waves against the bastions of anger and hatred in his mind. Within his office, Palpatine's smile faltered slightly. Without warning, in a sudden and unexpected movement, Vader's hand curled into a half-fist which he seemed to throw out in front of him. Mace was sent flying across the platform. He landed with a crash on the very edge, and scrabble as he might at the platform, his body weight pulled him off. He was left there, holding on to the edge with both hands, dangling there, with below him, a bottomless abyss, certain death. Vader came into view, gazing down at him.

"I win, Jedi."

But he did not lift his saber. Instead, he shut off the energy blade. What was he doing?

And then Mace heard it. A low rumbling sound. The sound of a rapidly ascending ship. Mustering all his strength and aided by the force, he leapt out of his predicament and landed mere meters away from the Sith Lord, who was standing there, still gazing downwards. The rumbling sound increased until it became a roaring all around them, and then Mace caught sight of the ships. Three Republican Gunships rose from the lower levels of the streets and came to hover before them, fully armed and ready for battle. Trouble, Mace thought. He ignited his blade just as the first salvo was shot, and parried the beam, but the force of it was such that it nearly knocked the weapon from his hands. The three gunships encircled him, and cords were dropped from each one, upon which many clone troopers began descending in rapid succession. Vader on the other hand, leapt lightly up into the cargo hold of one of the crafts, and hung on with one gloved hand. He threw the Jedi Master one last glance before the vessel began to take distance, and finally disappear amid the traffic lanes of Coruscant. Mace had no time to stop him. He stood firmly in the center of the platform, wielding his saber with incredible might, deflecting shots by the dozen as they came in at him and were sent back. The clone troopers were apparently serving the sole purpose of delaying him. He made quick work of them however, and turned to see the last gunship begin to depart. He leapt with all his might and managed to hook one hand on the edge of the cargo hold. He clambered into the hold and took out the clone who came rushing out of the cabin to challenge him, sending him screaming down into the streets of the city. He sliced the door apart with his saber and climbed in. The pilot was still strapped in, and seemed bewildered to see a stranger inside his cockpit in mid-flight.

"Hey! You're not sup-agh!"

The violet blade passed right through the chair, and Mace sheathed it as he pulled it out again. He got rid of the pilot's limp body and leapt into the chair, as the gunship was beginning to drift dangerously towards the lower left. He looked around for a few seconds at the controls. He wasn't familiar with flying, least of all a large ship like this one. He noticed on an active radar panel two red blips among a sea of blue ones. The other gunships. Mace gunned the reactors and the ship shot forward at a terrific speed. He decided the best way to catch up would be to avoid flying in the traffic lanes, so he dropped some altitude and sped on, beneath. Before long, the second gunship came into view. It was weaving its way through the traffic, slowed by it. Mace could not sense Vader aboard. He must be on the first vessel. The ship's targeting system automatically aligned the other vessel and locked. A small red button began flashing. Mace hammered it. The gunship's lasers spat green beams of high-energy death, which shot straight into the reactors of the other ship. Reactors, fuel tanks, and missile racks exploded within the other vessel, which began plummeting like a rock, trailing heavy black smoke behind it. Somewhere below in the city, alarm klaxons began sounding. Mace sped on. He felt he didn't have much time.

Palpatine averted his gaze from the city streets as the three ships disappeared from view. Master Windu had climbed aboard the third vessel. Why had Vader not slain him there and then, when he had the perfect opportunity? He knew the clones were unreliable in such small numbers. With anger bubbling inside him, he triggered his communications device.

"Prepare my shuttle for immediate departure. No crew, no pilots. Automatic pilot programmed for the Despayre system. And scramble all fighters in quadrants 1 through 4. I want that those gunships destroyed immediately." He rasped. "Both of them."

Mace's gunship roared through the traffic lanes, in hot pursuit of Vader's craft. Small green blips appeared on his radar as several ARC clone fighters fell on his tail. Something on the dashboard screamed a warning as one of them got a lock, and a split second later the ship rocked as laser beams impacted, nearly sending him off course. Thankfully, his shields held the blast. The fighters didn't seem in the slightest discouraged however, and kept on blasting away at him. Mace jerked back on the controls and the gunship ascended into the middle of the traffic lane. Too many risks of firing upon civilians, he thought. He was so wrong. Another blast shook the gunship and then another. They were mad! Mace pushed his reactors to maximum. At this speed he would catch up with Vader in less than a minute. The inconvenient part was that he would overheat in two. If he survived that long. A quick glance at his shield power gauge indicated they were almost half gone. The gauge dropped another inch as yet another beam found its mark on his vessel. He began evasive maneuvers, swinging the gunship between civilian crafts, but there was no shaking the clone fighters. He suddenly noticed the red blip drift away from the traffic lane. If he followed it the fighters would undoubtedly blast him into space dust. He followed it. Smashing his controls to the right he sent his ship into a zigzag course to intercept Vader's, the fighters still hot on his tail and blasting. He fired a couple of shots of his own at the other gunship but missed by a wide berth. At a glance, he saw his nav computer had Vader's ship's most probable course neatly planned out for him. The Abyssin district. Mace could not fathom what Vader had in mind. Maybe he was just trying to keep him in the air long enough to give the ARCs enough time to blast him. Well though luck, Mace muttered as his computer whistled a target lock. He mashed the buttons and two beams of brilliant green shot out from his ship's guns and impacted in the cooling vent of Vader's craft. At this speed he'll overheat in seconds. And so it seemed. The other gunship rapidly slowed, and Mace's computer confirmed torpedo lock. No. Not like this. This wasn't the way of a Jedi. Vader's smoking ship lost several hundred meters altitude in a few seconds, before crash-landing on a small cargo platform of some droid manufacturing company. Knowing he had no time to land, Mace instead slowed as much as he could in as short a time as he could, blew the cockpit hatch, and force-leapt out, lightsaber drawn. He landed beside the smoking ruin of Vader's gunship. Vader was alive, he could feel it.

A moment later, he saw the dark figure walk out as majestically as it could of the ruined ship. Its cloak was torn in several places and a deep dent marked its helmet. The blow would likely have killed any lesser man, Mace reckoned.

"So be it Jedi." Vader grumbled. "I have left you ample chance of surviving, yet you persist in attempting the impossible. There is no defeating me."

"You are diminished, Vader. It did not take much. Your Master has left you."

Vader gazed at him perplexedly for a few seconds, as if probing his own feelings, trying to assess if what Mace was saying was true or not. Mace had felt Palpatine's presence withdraw as they were racing in the gunships, and there was no concealing such a depression in the Force. He had departed from Coruscant.

"The Jedi Order is not dead, and it will survive as long as I stand."

"Then you will fall, Jedi."

And with that Mace held his blade in front of him once again.

"Fight, Skywalker."

Vader drew his saber and engaged yet again with the Jedi Master, but his strength was greatly diminished. The crash had affected his mental as well as his physical capacities. Mace could sense great crumbling in his mind, but he could not determine the cause. There was a tingling in the air, an almost electric feel as the two figures lashed out at each other. Something would happen soon. The Force itself seemed to be holding its breath. Before long Vader's rasping breaths turned to sickening metallic wheezes, yet Mace was relentless. He dealt stroke after stroke, Vader parrying him with increasing difficulty. Not for ever. With a yell, Mace swung a full circle and brought his blade swinging around with amazing force. Vader intercepted the blow but the combined force of Mace's attack and Vader's weakness ripped the lightsaber from his hands. He fell to his knees, wheezing. The mighty figure, the all-powerful Sith Lord knelt there, gasping for breath on a cargo platform, between his enemy and the ruins of his ship. Mace slowly walked up until he stood right in front of him. Vader looked up, and spoke in a rasping voice.

"Kill me now Jedi. Do it, and be over with."

But Mace just stared at him.

"Where has all your glory gone now, Skywalker?" He said, his voice torn between resentment, pride, pity and grief. "Where is the almightiness? Look at what you are, Skywalker. Look at where the dark side has brought you. You were a fool to let yourself be seduced by it. You have become an icon of Evil. A puppet of the dark side."

"You have…no idea…the power…" Vader turned his head up to face the Jedi Master. "I saw beyond your Jedi limits. The dark side…freed me. I did it…for her…and for…me."

Every word seemed to cost him an effort.

"Anakin Skywalker, for what you have done there is no redeeming." Mace said coldly. "You have betrayed the Jedi Order, your friends, masters, and democracy, and all that you once stood for. It there is no longer an ounce of good in you, Anakin Skywalker, I therefore condemn you to death for the cruelty of your acts."

Vader gave the slightest of metallic snorts. Mace lifted his lightsaber high over his head, and in one deft movement, brought it down upon the kneeling figure. Silence reigned as the Dark Lord of the Sith slowly toppled over and lay there on the platform, dead. A deep and penetrating cold seemed to grip Mace as he stood there, looking over his slain enemy. Skywalker, the one who had single-handedly slain half the Jedi Order, lay slain in his turn at Mace's feet. He sheathed his lightsaber and knelt beside the corpse.