Darth Vader walked slowly forward, activating his lightsaber.
"Remember me, Grievous?" Spoke the baritone voice, behind a menacing steady mechanical breath.
"It seems I am making many unexpected reunions today, so where might I have seen you before?"
Grievous' hands span as four sabers activated from their hilts.
"I was the man they called Skywalker."
Grievous would have raised his eyebrows if he had any.
"Skywalker?"
"Formerly Skywalker."
"Very well, Formerly Skywalker, let us see how your new cyborg body goes against my experienced one. And our secondary objective is to see what your breath vent looks like with a saber jammed through it." The pair was circling now, each one contemplating their tactics against the similar foe.
"Not exactly comedic material, Grievous, not when you must surely realise that your fate is sealed whether you kill me or not."
Grievous followed the hint, and his eyes glanced upwards towards Palpatine, his expression unfathomable. Did he have so much power to be a threat? Grievous, shamefully, did not want to find out. His ponderings were interrupted.
"Ha, your thoughts betray you."
"I feel no fear."
"Then you are a fool." And with this final comment, Vader stepped forward, bringing his saber into an elegant slash against Grievous. Grievous noticed how different a foe he was fighting since Obi-Wan. This would be a pushover.
"You haven't had much practice in this new body, have you?"
"With your mediocre skill, you are practice." Vader replied tauntingly as he brought his saber again in another swoop. Grievous snarled. The Sith taunt was getting at him.
"Then can you handle this?"
And he jumped, brandishing and spinning all four sabers. The Mataru user would not be able to handle this. That was where Grievous was wrong.
Vader stopped him in mid air, his left arm held out in front of him, the thumb and fore finger in a pincer motion.
"Speed and agility do not make the lightsaber wielder."
He released Grievous to the floor, and stepped forward, holding his lightsaber high and smashing it down against one of Grievous' sabers, raised just in time.
Vader raised his hand again, Grievous quickly getting up. Vader decided that he would have to up the battle a bit. Time to show who was boss.
He held his saber up, and slowly, but surely, a metal box (had it been there on purpose?) came from the shadows, and hit Grievous squarely from behind. Grievous cried, and fell back against a corner of the room. The box had knocked his bad breathing in, and he came forward, now gasping.
"I see you are now at my speed. I will enjoy this fight."
Grievous choked. Darth Vader certainly was enjoying this.
"I am still the cyborg I was, Darth." And with that, he came forward, bringing all four sabers into a combined slash. Vader likewise blocked the attack with a slash across himself, and in the process cut off one of Grievous' hands, rolling into the shadowy darkness. Vader smiled behind his mask.
"You really should look after those."
Grievous snarled.
"A warrior like you should be taking this battle seriously!"
"I do not have my life to fear, why should I take it seriously?"
With a cry of wound up rage, Grievous ran forward and span all of his sabers into action, pounding all of his sabers at Vader. The Sith was beginning to feel the pressure of Grievous, and now his hands were going everywhere trying to block Grievous' attacks.
For a split second, Grievous paused, and Vader immediately struck, slicing off another hand. Grievous barely noticed however, which surprised Vader, and immediately began the attack, catching the Sith off guard.
Vader was now fighting against less of the wily tactician, and more against the hardened rage filled warrior. Grievous' anger had gone into overdrive. His anger against the situation he had been put in, the treachery of this entire affair, the simple taunts which Vader so cleverly used to create doubt and hot headedness. But the doubt and hot headedness had developed effects that were not to Vader's advantage, and he now found himself helplessly trying to deflect every slash and stab. Grievous was more machine than living thing, but at this point, even more so.
And it was with a final unseen, defenceless slash that Vader's saber hand was cut away, revealing the various circuitries and wiring that worked it.
Grievous stepped back, surveying the chaos and damage he had caused, and liking it.
"Well, Vader, it appears, that you are finally going to meet an untimely end. And at such a young age. I feel desperately sorry for you, but that is the way of life. The higher must defeat the lower."
He stepped over Vader, and his two remaining hands began to spin, like deadly saws. This time, against an immobile enemy, the tactic would work.
Grievous turned to Palpatine.
"Say goodbye to your apprentice, Palpatine, Sideous, or whatever your real name is, and then I shall make good my escape. Then you will hear of Grievous again, and it will be an angry Grievous. A Grievous that wants you dead. Or I could kill you after this, if the time is right."
He turned back to Vader, and brought his sabers down.
They never made contact.
From the other side of the room, Blue electricity lit up Vader's armour and it reflected brilliantly. But that was not it's purpose. Instead, it hit Grievous squarely, and he fell back, dropping his two sabers. The creator of the electricity was of course Palpatine.
Palpatine stood up now, forcing his hatred into every volt, his teeth clenched. Grievous was kneeling on the ground, his head to the sky, and his arms held out before him. Electricity blasted it's way through all of his workings, and it eventually found it's way into the head. Electricity seemed to pour out through the eye holes, and orange flame was now visible flitting around Grievous' body.
Finally, feeling his power starting to weaken, Palpatine ceased the electrical barrage. Grievous was now no longer blue, but orange, he staggered around, almost drunk. But somehow he could still see. He strode over to Palpatine, shakily but with definite power. Palpatine's eyes widened to this seemingly impossible spectacle. On fire, but still alive? Grievous was tougher than expected. Suddenly, he found Grievous face to face with him. Half of his mask had now cracked off, and so his burnt husk of a real face, albeit on fire stared at him. Part of Palpatine told him to defend himself, but he was too much in awe at the spectacle. He barely acknowledged that Grievous had now clung onto his robes. And then the thing that had been Grievous spoke, it was a slobbering, barely possible to understand set of growl and grunts, coupled with a lot of coughs. But Palpatine could understand. And the message was not a good one:
"IN MY DEATH YOU WILL DIE ALSO!"
Abruptly, Grievous began shuddering, and then Palpatine realised, he was going to go off with a bang, and Palpatine would be a sticky mess on the wall if he was this close when it happened. With an angry cry, he pushed Grievous back with the force, catapulting him into the centre of the room. With a final scream, Grievous, Kaleesh warrior and last of the Separatists, exploded, sending fire and various parts of him around the room. Palpatine sighed. He was safe, at least. Now to tend to Vader.
He walked over to Vader, and helped the heavily breathing cyborg apprentice to stand up, but that appeared to not be the first thing he wanted to do. Instead he knelt.
"I apologise master, I have failed you. I should have been more skilful and have killed Grievous, not the other way around."
Palpatine raised Vader up, and began walking towards the room's secret exit, which would leave to private passage to the now Imperial Palace.
"It was not your fault that Grievous over powered you. That was your first real fight in your new…attire."
"Your mercy is gladly received, Master." Palpatine smiled what he hoped was a reassuring smile. In his head, he was worried, however. If this was how his new apprentice fought, would he really be as useful as he thought he would be. Vader would be serviceable, but it looked like that upon getting him, he'd already need to replace him. He'd have to keep his eyes peeled for new blood…