I am nearly certain this is going to be a long chapter, so for those of you who enjoy long chapters here you are, but this'll suit those of you who like action too, as will the next chapter.

Chapter 15: The Top of the Temple

The rebels were beginning to wonder if the Empire would actually attack at all, after the small battle with the probe droid the Imperials should practically be on their doorstep. Tension was as think as solid duracrete in the old Massassi temple the rebels used for a base. They waited for the Imperials. Their out turrets were primed to kill anything that moved, there had been several false alarms as they targeted the jungle creatures. Each time the rebels had jumped and discovered it wasn't the Imperials, after that they were relieved. This happened about five times and now the tension was starting to ease, ever so slightly. Only one knew for sure that the Imperials were indeed coming. He stood on the top of the temple, clothed in a white tunic and trousers, all draped over by a brown cloak whose hood would not stay on as the Yavin breeze blew, ruffling the man brown hair which had many streaks of gray/ white in it. Obi-wan Kenobi.

I wish Yoda were here, or even Mace Windu. He thought as he sensed the Imperials come closer, but Yoda was on Dagobah and completely out of touch, maybe even dead, and Mace Windu was dead, that was for sure. He sensed the Imperials draw closer. It was defiantly a sizeable force. They would overrun this temple like water through a cave. He sensed a presence behind him and turned to face Bail Organa. He did not age very well. His hair was still jet black with only a tiny triangle of gray at the tip of his forehead. He wore a grayish blue Alderaanian robe and cloak. It was tied around with a black leather belt that holstered a small blaster pistol at his side. Covering his feet were black leather boots, matching the belt.

"Master Kenobi?" He asked rather loudly as the wind whistled through the cracks of the temple.

"Yes Bail?" Obi-wan asked, so used to calling him Bail now, even though the last time he had seen him was when he was a senator.

"Are they coming?"

"It is inevitable." Obi-wan answered gravely, stealing another look at the nearby jungle. "And Darth Vader is with them, and so is someone else."

"Darth Vader?" Bail asked, the slightest, slightest hint of nervousness in his voice. "We are doomed now."

"Not you Bail," Obi-wan replied. "Go to the second temple with Lady Mothma and board the three transports. Take as many troops and supplies you can, I'll stay here with the defense of this temple."

"But you'll die."

"Better me than you Bail, I fear the possibility of overthrowing the Empire is now slim. Luke is probably dead…"

"And Leia is with those monsters." Bail snarled, anger evident in his voice.

"I will die by Vader's hand as it was meant to be today. All we will have left is…"

"Yoda."

"He is a slim chance for the rebellion at best Bail. He's too old now, like me, and he's practically unreachable on Dagobah."

"If I can, I will get him."

"If you can…" Obi-wan muttered, not finishing. He turned back to the jungle as he head a tree fall and crack loudly. Bail looked too, a trickle of sweat dripped down from his right temple. "They are coming. Go Bail."

Bail nodded. "Goodbye Master Kenobi, you are a great Jedi."

Obi-wan turned to Bail and smiled. "Goodbye Bail, you were a great senator, as were Mon Mothma, and Padmé."

"The Rebel Alliance will not die Master Kenobi. Your sacrifice will not be in vain."

"Let us hope so my friend, let us—"

But Obi-wan could not finish his sentence. There was a hydraulic hiss, followed by the sound of a discharging laser cannon and a horrendous boom as an auto turret along the perimeter of the temple exploded. Obi-wan turned back to the jungle quickly, in time to see dozens of AT-ST walkers break out of the line of trees and open fire on the temple. Bail was already gone. Now all Obi-wan could do was wait, wait until the AT-ST's eliminated the feeble defenses of the temple and stormed in. The rebels were outnumbered and outgunned ten to one, but they would fight, and die for the safety of the rebel leaders. Really their only hope was the rebel fleet and Admiral Ackbar. Obi-wan pulled out his comm link and dialed in a channel frequency as more AT-ST's poured out of the jungle and opened fire.

"Admiral Ackbar, this is Obi-wan Kenobi, do you read? Repeat Admiral Ackbar this—"

"I read you Master Kenobi." Admiral Ackbar's gravelly voice answered, though the transmission was interrupted by soft bursts of static.

"The time has come Admiral. Bring the field out of the nebula and engage the Imperial fleet. They're already attacking the temple."

"My… sensors… jammed from the… bula… I don't… how many there… re."

"You have to distract them at least until Mon Mothma and Bail escape. Then you can retreat."

"What… if… have…an Interdictor Class… destroyer? The gravity well generators… keep us… escaping."

"Then we will all die for the safety of our leaders."

"Very… Ackbar… t."

Obi-wan switched off the comm link as the AT-ST army came fully out into the open, blasting away at the feeble auto turrets that could not pierce their armor anyway. Several potshots crashed into the temple itself sending hunks of burning brick flying away. Thankfully one managed to lodge itself between the joint and the motivator of one of the AT-ST's legs which had caused it to fall and crash but that was the only loss they had taken. Obi-wan sighed as the last of the auto turrets exploded sending burning flak into the temple walls.

Well at least the AT-ST's were done. Where was Vader? He could sense him just behind the line of trees with an army of storm troopers. Why wasn't he attacking? The answer became evident when the AT-ST's split into groups of three and began concentrating fire on different pars of the temple. One on the north and main blast door, which led into the hanger and the other two blast through the walls of the east and west. The temple shook as part of its walls were blown away. Then everything was silent, that is until lines and lines of white armored storm troopers sliced through the tree line, at the head of them holding a red glowing bar of energy which Obi-wan recognized as a lightsaber was Darth Vader, to his right walked another, hooded and cloaked also grasping a blood red Sith blade. This must be Vader's new apprentice, though he was no where near as dark in the Force as Vader himself. Perhaps he had joined the dark side half heartedly, Obi-wan could use that to his advantage. A slight, slight smile crept onto his face but was replaced with a frown when more and more storm troopers steadily poured out of the jungle. Finally, about a minute later they stopped and began separating into three groups while the AT-ST's patrolled the outside perimeter of the temple. Obi-wan's comm link buzzed. He fished it out of his pocket an excepted the call.

"Yes?" He asked.

"Master Kenobi," Acknowledged a calm voice on the other line. "This is General Crix Madine, the storm troopers are headed for three different entrances. We cannot defend them all. What should we do?"

"Put a legion of troops on the ground floor to defend, take the others up to the second and third floors and seal every blast door on the ground level that you can, the shut down all power on the level."

"Yes sir, Madine out."

Now all Obi-wan really could do was wait.

XxX

"Yes, I sense it much more clearly now." Ravan replied to Vader's question.

"It is Obi-wan Kenobi." Vader stated. He pointed to the top of the stair step temple. "He is up there."

"Why?" Ravan asked curiously.

"I confess that I do not know. Maybe just so he can look upon the battle."

"Shouldn't we just have someone snipe him now?"

"No, it would be useless. He is a Jedi after all, we must deal with him personally. Commander!" Vader called. A stouter, more muscular storm trooper answered Vader's call. Commander X-4325 the second original dark trooper, he was a very seasoned storm trooper and very capable, as well as the only living prototype organic dark trooper. They had now progressed far beyond that and dark troopers were now somewhat like androids.

"Sir!" He acknowledged, saluting and snapping to attention. "Take your company to the east. I will take mine through the main door. The others will go to the west."

"Yes sir!" The trooper replied. He ran away quickly and began to give the orders through his helmet's internal comm system. Soon they were ready to go. Vader and Ravan led their company straight to the temple. The blast door was blow straight open, giving them a clear way inside. Vader was first to enter, the hanger was dark, he noticed several X-wings and other ships there. His masks eyes quickly began to adjust to the darkness. The lit up the whole room just in time for Vader to see some rebels at the opposite end. A few opened fire. Vader raised his saber, and angled it down over his shoulder in a very good Djem So ready stance. Several bolts flew at him, on up and two down. In one flipping motion he deflected them all back into the rebels that shot them. The other bolts whizzed past him and were either deflected by Ravan or hit storm troopers. Vader made his way toward the rebels as his company entered the hanger and opened fire, lighting the place in an eerie red flickering glow and sending blaster shots echoing for a few seconds. Vader reached on of the rebels and beheaded him, another to his right opened fire. He spun and did a jumping spinning back kick, his foot collided with the rebel's cheek making a bone breaking crunch. The rebel fell to the ground. Vader neatly sliced his chest and brought his saber into an uppercut which sliced through yet another rebel's face. The troopers and Ravan had pretty much killed everyone else.

"Move out." Vader called. Half of his company followed him and Ravan through the main door to the hanger, the other half went through the east door, Vader heard muffled blaster shots when they were all out of sight. He found himself in a dark hallway, every glowbar had been deactivated. That was stranger. He heard electronic humming as the troopers behind him clicked on their night vision. Ravan took a pair of goggles out of a belt pouch and put them on. Vader needed none of the things since his suit's eyes automatically adjusted to darkness. The hall was empty or rebels, nothing. As was the hall after that and the one after that. It was as though all the rebels were on a different floor, and at that moment Vader's comm link buzzed making all the storm troops snap to attention and hold their guns at the ready. Vader hissed through his mask and accepted the call. Commander X-4325's voice filtered through the mesh speaker.

"Lord Vader we require your presence in the turbo lift hall at once."

"I'll find it." Vader answered and shut the thing off.

XxX

The turbo lift hall was just as dark as all the rest. The glow sticks on the walls of the temple were all turned off. Through his helmet eyes Vader could see a small teem of storm troopers busily trying to slice their way in.

"What is the problem?" Vader asked. The commander turned to him and his team, the rest had split off the secure any other rooms on this floor.

"Haven't you noticed?" The commander spat, making a spark of anger go off in Vader's belly that threatened to burst into flame. "The rebels shut all the damn power off on this level! We can't get up there."

"All of it? Isn't there any way to turn it back on?"

"No sir. It seems all the power controls are in the upper levels and we cannot use the stair case because the AT-AT's blasted to far above it and caused a rockslide. They're all jammed in there pretty good and we don't dare risk blowing them out or the entire section of the wall might collapse.

"Stand aside. You'll never get it open with a powerless terminal."

"We could always send for a demolitions team."

"No, I'll do it myself." Vader hissed. The spark in his belly had ignited a flame which was slowly, but steadily burning away his control. With a loud and quick snap hiss Vader activated his crimson lightsaber blade and plunged it into the left side of the turbo lift door. Easily he brought it up, to the side, down, let, up, and stopped. Spinning backwards and extending his foot he landed a kick in the center of the door. It fell inward and landed in a turbo lift. Vader growled in fury.

"That thing is in our way!" He pointed at the turbo lift. "I can't cut it off."

"We could send for a demolitions team now sir."

"Yes, do that."

"Yes sir." The commander replied. He slipped out a comm link from his belt and flicked it on, dialing in some frequency, seconds later he spoke into it. "This is commander X-4325, requesting demolitions team at sector five one five."

"Acknowledge Commander X-4325, this is demolitions team captain. We're on our way, should be there in about three minutes."

"Very well, X-4325 out."

He slipped his comm link back into his belt pouch. Vader was not thrilled, and was impatient but when the demolitions team came down it began to drizzle in his belly, making the anger dissipate. The demolitions team all stepped into the turbo lift, placing one small explosive in each one of the top and bottom corners where the lift was held.

"Step back." They ordered as they came out of the lift. Everyone followed orders and sank back into the hallways to the left or right of the lift. Vader watched as the team captain took out a small control and pressed a small red button. Then there was a giant boom that echoed throughout the whole temple. The rest of the door that Vader had not cut through came flying away from the turbo lift doors, it shot down the hallway and hit a wall with an echoing clang. The next sound that came was the sound of screeching metal followed by a crash. The demolitions team stepped up to the lift first.

"It went down a level." They said. "Probably to where the tomb is."

Vader stepped behind them and looked down about a story. There was a twisted hulk of metal lying on its side and resting of the shafts ground. Several wicked looking spikes were jutting up from it.

"Excellent." Vader said. "If there are any rebels down there they will be trapped. Now all troops will need to go onto different floors with rappel lines except the top roof. Move!"

The troops busily began loading their pistols with rappel lines and the commander called in more. Ravan and Vader stood back as wave after wave of storm troopers shot their lines up the turbo lift shaft and disappeared. Finally X-4325 handed each of them a pair of pistols and shot himself up. Vader and Ravan each stepped to the edge of the turbo lift shaft and looked upward just in time to see the commander's legs disappear in darkness.

"Aim for the middle so we can get all the way up."

Ravan nodded. Both he and Vader aimed and shot, the rappel lines flew up and as soon as Vader was sure they had attached to something steady he clipped the line onto his belt as did Luke. Both jumped into the turbo lift shaft and the auto pull function activated yanking them up. Air rushed past the quickly but lasted for only about thirty seconds and they stopped, inches away from the very last turbo lift door. One handedly Vader cut through it and it fell inwards past them and into the darkness. Light flooded the shaft, they were staring at a small probably five foot by five foot room with a stair case leading up to light. The roof. Both Vader and Ravan jumped into the room and sprinted up the stairs. They stopped on the roof of the pyramid shaped temple, at the edge of the roof stood a man facing them with a blue lightsaber humming in his hands. He had almost entirely white/ gray hair with streaks of its old brown still left in it. It was cut short and gelled back, he had a slight beard that was entirely gray and he wore Jedi clothing. Ravan recognized him as old Ben Kenobi who he had met a few times and who had lied to him about his father. He activated his lightsaber and held it at the ready in a stance the Emperor had taught him. Vader's lightsaber already active was also being held at the ready.

"So we meet again Obi-wan, for the last time."

"So then," Obi-wan began looking sadly at Ravan. "Luke has joined you."

"That's right Ben," Ravan replied softly. "And it is Ravan now."

"And soon Obi-wan we shall rule the galaxy as father and son."

"So he knows?" Obi-wan asked sadly, he looked to Ravan apologetically. "You realize why I could not tell you now I am sure?"

"You didn't want me to join him?" Ravan asked with smile on his face. Obi-wan nodded.

"Now you're failure is complete old man. And now you die along with your pitiful rebel friends."

"You're starting to sound like the Emperor Vader."

"I soon will be." Vader hissed.

"We'll see."

And then the fight began.

This is by far, the longest chapter I have ever done, it is three thousand and seventeen words long, without the author's notes and it is five pages in length. I typed this over the course of two days by the way… and I seem to have left you with a cliff hanger, well the Obi-wan vs. Vader and Ravan fight will be in the next chapter. I am going to try and make it as original as possible. You might, for those of you who have read it remembered the fight I wrote between my evil character Xen and Anakin and Obi-wan in catwalks above a throne room? I will try to make it as original as that, after all it is on the top of a temple...