Chapter 17: The Power of Two, the Betrayal of One

The Jedi and now possibly former Sith Lord charged up the steps at Darth Traya and Darth Sion, sabers lit and raised, ready to kill. Sion was unfortunate enough for Yoda, Xen, and Qui-gon to attack him. Traya got Mara and Anakin who at this point were angry ticked. Sion smiled as he parried one handed everyone of Yoda's seemingly random flipping hits, Xen's somewhat robotic tactics, and Qui-gon's clumsy acrobatic strikes.

There was not way he could keep up with three however. He parried a swipe at his feet from Yoda, held their sabers there and Force pushed Qui-gon and Xen in unison with one hand. They tumbled down the steps and were somewhat to dazed to stand up. Now he had just Yoda, for the time being. He turned his attention to the Jedi master and extended his free hand, sending out a powerful wave of Force lightning. The Jedi barely dropped his saber in time to catch the cackling death wave. It balled up in his hands making a flashing orb of blue. He held it, for a long time. This distinctly reminded him of his first duel with the Emperor, which hadn't ended well for him. He was going to die. He knew it. He was far to old for this, but perhaps he could hold Sion off for just long enough for Qui-gon and Xen to rise.

Sion kept sending out wave after wave, never stopping and laughing all the way. Yoda was blocking so much of it the ball of lightening in his hand was as big as a life support tank in a small fighter. Sion kept sending the lightning and finally Yoda could not hold it anymore. He had to stop. He moved his hands to the right and the lightening went with them hitting the metal platform and scorching it badly. Sion growled in rage and with both hands pushed Yoda at the circular view port behind the chair.

While Yoda was flying in mid air Sion balled up a fist and the view port shattered. The everything flew toward it, including Yoda. Traya held her place firmly on the ground with the Force, Anakin and Mara held onto the handrail of the platform so tight their knuckles were turning white, Xen had magnetized her cyborg limbs to the ground and Qui-gon was clutching onto her right led for dear life. Yoda began to do a series of uncontrolled back flips before he was finally sucked into the airless realm of space. He went down below the window and he never came back up. Finally a ray shield closed the hole of the missing window.

Sion cackled horribly. Xen, Qui-gon, Anakin, and Mara each took a millisecond of silence for Yoda and continued their attacks. Sion was standing up very well to Xen's Shien form which she tended to turn into Soresu at times, and Qui-gon's clumsy acrobatic Ataru was nothing compared to his form VII Juyo/ Vaapad.

Traya was also doing well. Mara had somewhat adopted the saber form Makashi, but she had turned away from it in her becoming a Jedi and was now a more form VI Niman. It was a diplomatic form and was well rounded, not excelling anywhere so her attack was as great as her defense and she was more on the defensive then offensive. Her own form Makashi was a perfect stand up though she had also mastered Shii-Cho as well as some Vaapad which she had to tap into to counter Anakin's furious attacks, it would be hard to get him of her back.

The raging duels went on as did the battle outside the ships, the Gorgon shook violently on occasion but did not phase the battling Jedi and Sith. Amazing, the power of two against the power of four, but before there were five, and the fifth was dead. The Gorgon shook violently again. Seconds after that there was a huge muffled bang, but it sounded from space and then Admiral Daala's voice crackled over the speakers of the ship, filled with glee.

"The enemies ship Phoenix II has just collided with the enemy Accuser, all gunners to their stations, concentrate all fire on the super star destroyer."

Anakin cursed as he doubled his attack on Traya. Daala had taken no losses!

The battle raged on for another five or so minutes until Xen dropped her guard momentarily, letting Qui-gon attack. Sion kicked him in the shin and turned around and stabbed Xen in the heart. She fell down with a smoking hole in her chest, the smell of burning flesh and charred leather filled the air. Qui-gon landed behind Sion who flipped his saber backwards into the Jedi's back. The red end came through in the middle of his chest. He gasped, sputtered and fell. Sion smiled and walked up to where now an extremely furious Anakin and Mara were fighting Traya. His master silently signaled him through the Force not to interfere.

Anakin attacked with fury, Traya was able to counter every move. He struck at her head, she parried and the two lightsaber spit white light and yelled at one another. Mara struck at Traya's feet but she didn't parry. She spun, saber outstretched, and sliced into Mara's stomach, she fell down and her saber deactivated, it was only then Anakin noticed Traya's saber headed toward his stomach as well. He wasn't fast enough and her blood red blade sliced into his stomach, he fell down by Mara and both passed out from the pain.

Sion came to Traya's side and laughed.

"Let's finish them."

"No, let them die here." Traya said. "As you will."

Before Sion's face could so much express the slightest hint of confusion Traya's lightsaber extended and burned a hole in his chest. He fell to the ground, eyes open and mouth ajar. Traya smiled.

"Now all that is left are two Jedi children and a new mother." She walked down the steps and headed for the bridge of the Gorgon, she had to find out where Padmé was, what better way then asking someone who knew her. Perhaps the chancellor herself. All she needed was a shuttle, and she would leave Daala to do as she pleased. She strode out of the throne room and left Anakin and Mara to suffer, a mistake perhaps.

XxX

Daala turned from the viewport on the bridge of the Gorgon to the sound of crushing throats. Two storm troopers guarding the entrance to the bridge were holding and tearing at their necks as though an invisible hand were choking them. She had seen this once before, and only Darth Vader had done it, and he had boarded her ship. Had he defeated Darth Sion? But to he surprise an old woman, hooded and cloaked stepped into the bridge at the two guards fell. Daala pulled out her blaster.

"Who the hell are you?" she asked, barrel trained on the old woman's hooded head.

"I am Darth Traya, master of Darth Sion, he is dead and so are the Jedi that killed him." Traya said. Daala nodded and put away her blaster.

"Well in that case welcome Lady Traya. We are concentrating all fire on the Executor, its other two ships are gone, our Hydra is however badly damaged."

At that moment a piece of burning hulk flew across space in front of the viewport.

"We've lost the Hydra!" an officer cried.

"Concentrate all fire on the Executor's bridge tower!" Daala shouted.

XxX

Piett watched out of the viewport in horror, the Phoenix II soared to the right, bright gasses expanding off of it like waves of fire. The Accuser, his old ship was now spinning and its bridge tower began to pull itself away. The thing crashed into the Executor's hull cracking it, storm troopers could be seen, like tiny mosquitoes flying out, heads exploding inside the white helmets. The bridge shoot violently as another turbo laser smacked into it.

"Shields up." Piett said. "Divert full shield power to the bridge. We have to wait for Lord Skywalker."

"We can't sir!" Cried a tactical officer. "Statistics show that the bridge tower could break up at any minute."

"We have to wait!"

"We cannot transfer the shields!"

Just then the bridge itself shook violently and several consoles exploded, sending sparks into the faces of controlling officers.

"Sir! We've lost the command deck!"

"What?" Piett cried. He looked to the right of the view port, several officers were now flying out in space. Just then a pot shot from one of Daala's star destroyers glanced off the huge crack where the Accuser had smashed into the ship. That was it, the Executor buckled and split in two. The smaller half of it flew down toward Telos, sucked in by its gravity. A bead of sweat trickled down Piett's cheek. They had to get out.

"Abandon ship!" Piett cried. He and the other officers ran out of the bridge for the turbo lifts. Piett go in first along with the comm officer and he shot down a few floors to get to an escape by. When she stepped out of the turbo lift there was a huge bang and the entire bridge tower shuddered, there was silence for a mere second and then and then it was replaced by a horrible metallic screeching sound as the entire top of the tower ripped off. Piett felt the ship shudder from the loss of the bridge. He paused for a moment and then continued to run, passing frenzied storm troops.

He ran through the white halls as the lights failed as power was rerouted to life support which wasn't really necessary. Piett kept running, one more turn…. Piett took and found himself in a narrow dim hall filled with circular hatches near the floor that led into escape pods. Piett jumped into the nearest one and sealed the door behind him. He sat down on the gravitized seat and shot the escape pod away. He felt it jolt as it left the Executor. He looked out of the small viewport in the escape pod, the remaining stub of the bridge tower was ripped away exposing the main reactor. Then seconds later a green turbo laser blast streaked into the hole and hit the main reactor. The Executor exploded in a plume of ionized gasses. Piett took off his cap in honor of his fallen ship, and his fallen commander Anakin Skywalker.

Another tragic cliff hanger. And I am truly sorry for killing off Yoda, Xen and Qui-gon. I really could care less about killing Xen because I have killed her a few times before and this would be the second time I have killed Yoda but it hurt to kill Qui-gon, he was my favorite Jedi in the prequels. I was mad when he died! Also for those of you who have read my fic the unknown son where Sidious finds Luke and gives him to Vader to train him as an apprentice I am definatly going to redo it. It was an awesome idea and t whipped through it and ended it far to fast. I am coming up with an entirely new plot for it, only the basic outline will remain.

Next Chapter: The Call of the Empire