Hey, everybody. Here we are with the next chapter.

Let's get to it.

Chapter 10- Fortress Inquisitorius

(July 16, 1999)

In the cockpit of his Lambda class shuttle, Philip carefully monitors his systems. His shuttle is approaching the Mustafar system and is only moments from the end of its hyperspace run.

The last two weeks since his fight with the Seventh Brother, Philip has been preparing on his strike against the Fortress Inquisitorius. He had traveled to several planets in the time before launching his strike, trying to find an idea as to which Inquisitors are deployed across the galaxy and which are at Fortress Inquisitorius. During this time, he had traveled to the planet Bogano, where he learned the Inquisitor known as the Second Sister had seized a holocron that had been kept safe on Bogano. The holocron contained a list of Force sensitive individuals across the galaxy. Philip had accelerated his plans to attack the fortress after that, knowing he had to retrieve that holocron.

Philip had carefully planned out his assault. Intel showed that in addition to the Second Sister, there were two more Inquisitors at the fortress. With luck, his plan will work.

"Alright. Coming out of hyperspace in three, two, one," he mutters to himself before pulling back on the hyperspace throttles. As he does, the shuttle drops out of hyperspace, the Mustafar system coming into view. And directly ahead of him is his target: the moon Nur.

Philip pulls up the map of Nur, which includes the location of the fortress. He scans the ocean around the Fortress, finding a small island about a hundred miles from the fortress. Philip selects that as his landing site and flies down towards the island.

As Philip nears the atmosphere, he begins to hear radio calls from the Fortress, asking for his ID and his intentions. However, Philip intentionally ignores all of them. He's hoping that will draw their attention enough that may draw the Inquisitors out after him.

Philip carefully flies his shuttle down to the island he identified. Thankfully, no TIE fighters or other craft try to come meet him. His flight down is uneventful, and soon enough, he sets the shuttle down on the island in the middle of a thick grove of trees to hide it from sight.

Philip shuts down the shuttle before standing up and turning to his trusty droid. "R2, watch the ship. I'll be back soon enough.," he says calmly before walking out of the cockpit, R2's worried beeps fading into silence as he leaves the shuttle.

Philip walks slowly out into the trees surrounding the shuttle. He makes his way out of the grove and into a wide open clearing. Then, he sits down cross legged in the middle of the clearing and begins to meditate.

For about an hour, Philip sits motionless in the center of the clearing, just waiting to see if his plan is going to work. Then, he hears something. The sound of engines as a shuttle flies in and lands on the island. Philip remains exactly where he is, unmoving, still meditating, waiting for his enemies to come to him.

It's a few more minutes, before he senses a presence on the edge of the clearing. Philip slowly opens his eyes and looks at the edge of the clearing, where he sees two Inquisitors entering the clearing. They are being trailed by six purge troopers.

The group stops about 20 yards from Philip. The two sides just stare at each other for a few moments before one of the Inquisitors calls across the clearing, "The Crimson Blade. You would dare come to the world we call home base?"

"You'll find I'm unafraid of doing a lot of things," Philip responds, calm as can be.

"What brings you here?" the other Inquisitor demands.

"I think it would be obvious. They don't call me the Inquisitor Killer for nothing. My saber has the blood of three Inquisitors stained on it. I'm here to add to that tally," Philip says as he slowly gets to his feet. He then slowly draws his lightsaber, its blade springing to life, humming ominously.

The Inquisitors quickly draw their own lightsabers and ignite their blades. One holds his saber at his side as the other holds up her saber, beginning to spin the blades. At the same time, the purge troopers begin to fan out on either side.

A dark smirk crosses Philip's face as he readies himself to use a Force ability he learned about from a Sith holocron. Philip mutters, "See how you bastards like this." He then raises his hand and his palm begins to glow white. What almost look like whisps of white begin to flow through the air of the clearing into his palm.

The Inquisitors and their troopers are confused as to what's going on. Then, all of a sudden, they begin to feel the temperature drop. Not only around them but within their own bodies. All 8 of them begin shivering like mad as the temperature drops even further. Then, Philip hefts his lightsaber and throws it like a boomerang. The saber flies through the air, beheading three purge troopers before Philip summons it back to himself. He then repeats the process, killing three more purge troopers.

Despite feeling a little bit weaker from the effort of what he just did, Philip strides towards the Inquisitors, both of whom are still shivering but trying to stand up to Philip.

"An ancient Sith technique. Learned it from a Sith holocron. Looks like I know secrets of the dark side you don't," Philip says before charging the Inquisitors.

One of the Inquisitors move to protect the other. He blocks Philip's initial slash. However, Philip follows up with three more rapid slashes, forcing the Inquisitor onto the defensive. The Inquisitor, still suffering from the unnatural cold Philip inflicted, is slowly being forced off balance.

Finally, after another fierce blow, Philip forces their saber aside and kicks him in the knee. As the Inquisitor stumbles back, Philip steps forward and drives the blade of his saber through the Inquisitor's chest, ripping it out a second later and letting the Inquisitor's body fall to the ground.

Philip turns to the other Inquisitor, who was affected far more by Philip's cold attack. Philip steps forward, raises his saber, and beheads the Inquisitor.

Philip stands over the bodies of the two Inquisitors, reflecting on how lucky he was that this was so easy. These Inquisitors are some of the less experienced and powerful members of the Inquisitorius. Using this Force power takes a lot of him due to the level of power it takes. He knows he won't be able to use it again for a while, and that with some of the more experienced Inquisitors or the Sith themselves, this trick won't work so well.

However, Philip puts that aside for the time being. With the two Inquisitors dead, he's now ready for the second stage of his plan. Philip heads back to the shuttle, where he quickly powers up the shuttle and flies it towards the fortress.

As the shuttle nears the fortress, Philip looks back at R2 and says, "Alright, R2, you know the plan. Get me close for me to drop out, then take the shuttle away and keep it away until i tell you to come pick me up." R2 beeps a few times to show he understands.

Philip flies the shuttle carefully towards the fortress, halting a few hundred yards from it before he stops it in midair. "R2, take over," he orders as he leaves the cockpit and heads to the boarding ramp.

Reaching the boarding ramp, he doesn't hesitate to leap out of the shuttle. Immediately, R2 banks the shuttle away and flies it away from the fortress. Meanwhile, Philip skydives down towards the fortress before popping his parachute. Philip carefully glides down to the outside of the fortress, right up to a hatch leading into the fortress. As he lands and grabs hold of the hatch, Philip cuts away the parachute and lets it flutter down towards the water.

Philip draws his saber and cuts the hatch free of its hinges, using the Force to send the cut out hatch flying into the water. Philip then climbs carefully through the hole, holding his lightsaber in one hand and his blaster pistol in the other hand.

Philip has limited knowledge of the interior of the fortress. However, he figures that his target, the Second Sister will be up at the top of the fortress. Therefore, he begins making his way slowly up through the fortress.

Philip soon realizes that the fortress, at least this part, is not very inhabited. He quickly guesses that most of the fortress' garrison must be down on the main entry level or out with the Inquisitors across the galaxy trying to hunt him or Jedi down. As he makes his way up through the levels, he encounters only a few scattered stormtroopers, killing each one with ease.

Finally, Philip reaches a room right near the top of the fortress. As he enters, he sees a small bridge leading from the lift he just exited to a platform overlooking a pit. Philip carefully makes his way across the bridge until he reaches the platform.

As he reaches the platform, he sees a small console at the edge of the pit. He slowly walks towards it, wondering if this might be able to tell him something.

Then, he suddenly he hears a war cry and the sound of a lightsaber igniting. Philip whips to his right and sees the Second Sister, not wearing her helmet and lightsaber drawn, falling towards him. Philip doesn't have time to draw his lightsaber. However, as the Sister brings her saber down towards him, Philip raises his hands and catches the saber blade between his hands, using the Force to restrain it in midair.

The Second Sister growls as she tries to force the saber downwards, trying to overwhelm Philip, while Philip holds it at bay. He then slowly pushes the saber a few inches back before he lets go through the Force as he ducks and does a combat roll, rolling past the Sister's left leg. As he does, he draws a small knife and cuts the side of her leg, returning the knife to its sheath a second later.

The Second Sister growls as she feels the knife blade slice into her skin. She turns around, and sees Philip rolling back upright and onto one knee, drawing his lightsaber and igniting it, its crimson blade humming.

"The Crimson Blade. You dared to come here?" the Second Sister says.

"I dare to go wherever Inquisitors can be found," Philip responds before charging her. He spins a 360, slamming his lightsaber against hers. The blades crackle as they clash.

"Your dedication the dark side will be your death, Second Sister," Philip snarls as their baldes crackle against each other.

"No, dark one. I will be the one to finally slay you and win the approval of Lord Vader," the Sister responds before forcing Philip's blade aside and slashing at his side. However, Philip easily brings his saber into its path, blocking the blow. Philip leaps back and throws his saber at the Sister, who deflects it with her own saber. Philip summons his saber back to him in time to block another blow from the Sister.

The Sister slashes multiple times at Philip. However, Philip blocks every blow aimed at him, his saber flashing about him in a blur of red. The Sister tries spinning the blades of her saber rapidly while shoving the saber towards him. However, Philip does a backhand spring as he deactivates his saber, then reactivates it as he throws a grenade at the Sister. The Sister tries to deflect it, but it explodes before it gets too far away. Philip charges at the Sister as she is trying to recover from the explosion. His saber flashes brightly as he brings it down towards her head, which the Sister barely manages to block. The Sister then uses a wave of Force energy to send him flying back across the room, separating them by about 20 feet.

Philip regains his feet and looks across the battlefield at the Second Sister, who is trying to recover from the grenade explosion, having sustained a few light shrapnel wounds. Philip and the Sister slowly circle the edge of the platform, staring each other down. Finally, Philip says, "You have something I want, Second Sister."

The Second Sister laughs a bit despite her light wounds. "You mean this?" she says as she pulls out the holocron Philip wants. She laughs again before returning it to its spot in a pouch on her belt before returning her hand to her lightsaber. "You'll never get out of this place alive."

"Took the words right out of my mouth," Philip says. He spins his saber once in hand before both of them charge each other, meeting in the middle, their sabers clashing against each other.

The Sister holds her saber against his for a second before spinning and slashing at his head. She follows this up with a slash at his leg before leaps up about 8 feet into the air, bringing her saber down right at him. Philip easily deflects the first two blows, then ducks and rolls aside to avoid the leaping blow.

The Sister growls and throws her saber at Philip, but he deflects it off his saber. The Sister pulls it back to her with the Force just in time to block a slash from Philip. The Sister tries to slash at Philip's shoulder, but Philip grabs the opportunity. He starts spinning to the left as he brings his saber up, blocking the Sister's blow and forcing the Sister's blade upwards. He keeps up the momentum, still spinning around, as he readies his saber. Then, as he spins back to face the Sister, he stabs his saber forward, past her guard and into her upper chest.

The Second Sister cries out in pain and drops her saber as she falls to her knees. Philip stands over her and reaches out his hand. He uses the Force to grab hold of the holocron in the pouch on the Sister's belt, summoning it right into his hand. He then puts it away in his backpack.

Philips stands over the Sister, deactivating his saber and drawing his knife. "Your name was once Trilla, wasn't it?" he asks, having learned the name from the files he had stolen long ago on the Inquisitors. She looks up at him and nods in pain.

"You were once a Jedi. But you turned your back on them. All to take the easy way out of your pain. You're nothing but a coward," Philip says. He then grips his knife tightly, ready to kill her.

The Second Sister, or Trilla as he also knows her, looks up at him. Then, both of them feel an unearthly chill fall over them. They begin to hear a strange hissing and a thud. Instantly, Philip sees the fear come over Trilla's expression.

Then, Philip begins to hear heavy bootsteps. He looks up at a small platform overlooking them, and a second later, through the mist, the menacing form of Darth Vader himself appears. Philip feels a bit nervous, recognizing that his is the Sith Lord he's heard of, Darth Vader.

Vader leaps down to the platform they are standing on, and Philip immediately reignites his saber, holding it ready at his side. Vader stands up and walks up behind the Second Sister. After a second, he says ominously, "You have failed me Inquisitor."

As Vader's saber ignites, the Second Sister looks up at Philip and says just two words, "Avenge me." With that, Vader cuts the Second Sister down with a single stroke.

Philip narrows his eyes as he settles into a more combat ready stance. Vader now faces Philip, saber held at his side. "The Crimson Blade. I think it would be wise for you to surrender," Vader says.

"Fat chance, Vader," Philip says before charging at Vader, slashing at him with a fierce blow. Vader easily blocks the blow. Then, Philip feels a crushing force press down on his entire body, restraining him and beginning to choke him.

"Submit!" Vader demands. However, philip is not about to give up. He looks up and sees a massive piece of machinery above him. Philip uses the Force to reach out and pull it free from the ceiling towards Vader, but Vader easily holds it at bay. He then sends Philip tumbling away.

Philip is not ready to give up, however. He charges back at Vader, ripping part from the ceiling and sending them flying at Vader. Vader deflects them all before bring his saber up to block Philip's strike.

Philip presses his attack, slashing several more times, each time Vader blocking his attacks. Vader then tries to use the Force to crush him to the ground. He manages to press Philip into the ground, but Philip responds with a quick burst of Force lightning that causes vader to cry out in pain and fall to one knee.

Philip realizes that he's not a match for Vader. He has a lot more training to do before he's strong enough to take on Vader. He then uses the Force to rip out the floor panels to form a wall between him and Vader. Philip then turns and sprints away from Vader.

Vader quickly recovers and sends panels flying in all directions. However, by now, Philip has made it to the bridge. Vader tries to tear the bridge apart with the Force, but Philip manages to use his own power to keep them together just enough for him to get back to the lift. Philip enters the lift and quickly hits the button for the floor he entered the fortress on. As the doors close, he feels a sense of relief, hoping Vader can't catch up with him.

As the lift makes its way down to the selected floor, Philip gets on his commlink. "R2, it's time. Bring the shuttle back to the fortress."

It doesn't take long for Philip to reach his intended floor. As the lift opens, Philip sprints out of the lift and down the hallway. It doesn't take him long to reach the hatch he cut out. As he reaches the hatch, Philip sees that his shuttle is already hovering beside the fortress. Philip takes a flying leap out of the fortress, boosted by the Force, managing to land on the boarding ramp.

Philip sprints into the cockpit, settling into the pilot's seat. "Alright, let's get out of here, R2," he says.

As the shuttle begins flying up through the atmosphere, Philip pulls out the holocron he retrieved. He looks at it for a second before he slams it against the floor, shattering it. He has no real use for its information, and those individuals whose names were in it are better off if the holocron is gone.

(Short time later)

"We have scanned all neighboring systems, but we have found no sign of his shuttle," Vader says.

In front of him is a hologram of the Emperor. The Emperor is quiet for a moment before he says simply, "So, the Crimson Blade has escaped again."

"Yes, master," Vader responds.

"He has killed multiple Inquisitors, including one of our strongest. This Crimson Blade is growing stronger. We must find him, my friend," the Emperor muses.

"I will find him, my master," Vader says. The Emperor nods before cutting the transmission. Vader looks into the middle distance, wondering how he's going to finally find this dark warrior.

And, I'll end the chapter there. I hope you liked this one.

So, Philip has now killed half a dozen Inquisitors, and he isn't about to stop. He'll add multiple Inquisitors to his tally before this story is over. And, he will have a rematch with Vader.

For those wondering, the Force power I had Philip use is basically one from Legends called Force cryokinesis, but with a bit of my own twist. Because, he uses the Force to suck all heat out of his surroundings. I'm not sure I'll have him use it again, as it does take a lot of him, especially the more enemies/bigger area he has to use it against. But, he may use other crazy Dark side powers before this story is over.

Next chapter will be up soon. Until it's up, please leave a review, and stay tuned!