The Avatar Strikes Back

by MegaBob452

A contaminated world, a menaced empire, brought together by mutual interference. A year has passed since the saiyans departed, their actions still leaving their mark on the galaxy at large and one little blue marble in particular. Earth is unprepared for the nightmares ahead, while the Empire finds wonders in an unexpected place.

60. The New Master

Chapter 60: The New Master

Sensing that Darth Vader survived the Death Star's destruction and crash into Earth, Luke hurried from the Visage's bridge to its hangar. Rebel troops from Ackbar's ships were still working to clear the Star Destroyer of stormtroopers and incapacitate the crew, a task that would take days even in ideal circumstances. So there was the occasional fight on his way through the ship, but it wasn't anything Luke couldn't handle. From the hangar he took an imperial transport into the void, trusting in the Force to keep the tiny ship safe even as the battle continued in space.

As he flew the ship Luke started a transmission to Home One. "Put me through to Leia."

It only took a few seconds for his call to be connected, and Leia's voice came through the radio. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

"I'm going where I'm needed," Luke answered. "Right now that is Earth."

"We need you up here too, you know," Leia scolded.

"You and Ackbar have the fight covered," Luke said. He looked out the window and saw a renegade Star Destroyer break apart into large pieces. "I'm going after Vader. He survived the crash."

"Luke, you can't fight him alone," Leia said.

"I know I can't beat him that way," Luke admitted. He turned his gaze back to the planet directly ahead, and all the people that lived down there. "I'm going to get as much help as I can before I face him."

"That's why I'm sending fighters down for escort," Leia said. "And don't be afraid to call an orbital strike.

"I'll keep that in mind," Luke promised. By now the transport was hitting the edge of atmosphere. "Got to go, I'll call again if I need you."

Even as Luke took the transport away from space, the battle went on in orbit. The few loyal imperial ships that remained intact this long had fled, and those that were too badly damaged to flee were surrendering to the renegade imperials. In turn they were instructed to fire on the rebels, now mostly composed of Admiral Ackbar's ships. All of Leia's ships were either heavily damaged or outright destroyed, save for Home One having suffered relatively minor damage. Rebel ships that couldn't fight anymore were ordered to retreat, if their hyperdrives were still functional.

If it wasn't for the captured Star Destroyer Visage, the rebel fleet would have been forced to retreat. The imperials were focusing their fire on that ship, insulted that it fell into enemy hands, determined to destroy it rather than let it stay in rebel control. But Han and Lando and Chewbacca were not making that easy, using every piloting and tactical trick at their disposal. They had the ship spinning on its long axis, something no imperial commander would think of, since it could tear the ship apart. It did allow the Visage to alternate between dorsal and ventral shields and turrets, cutting the stress on both in half.

Observing the smugglers as they made the ship spin faster and faster, R2-D2 anchored his legs into the floor and made an alarmed series of beeps.

"Don't go praying to your maker just yet," Han advised. He was pushing the ship's thrusters to maximum, and there was no drag in space to slow it down. "Round and round she goes, where she stops, who the hell knows?"

"Anyone else feeling a little lighter?" Lando asked.

The centripetal force of spinning the ship grew with its rotational speed, and it was starting to overcome the artificial gravity in the outermost sections. The burden of withstanding enemy fire was now dispersed across all of the ship's shielding, no longer concentrated in any particular area. Half the shots aimed at the Visage's command tower missed outright, as it was difficult to compensate for the nauseating movement. Granted, this made it difficult for the Visage to get a target lock on anything, but Chewbacca had something to compensate for that.

With the main engines firing at full blast, the Visage flew straight into the middle of the imperial fleet, spinning like a drill that pierced the void. Every blaster the ship possessed was firing wildly, no effort made for proper aim. It didn't matter when the Visage flew in between other Star Destroyers, a portion of the shots fired at random would hit. The Visage took a pummeling during this maneuver, though the command tower was spared most of it by the spinning. It inflicted considerable damage as it passed through the imperial fleet, coming out the other side relatively better off.

"Alright Chewie," Han said, inputting coordinates into the ship's navigation computer. "Punch it!"

Chewbacca roared as he slammed a fist down on a large red button.

As the Visage made the jump to hyperspace, Lando was already thinking of all the possibilities for a stolen Star Destroyer. "All we need now is a crew and we're set."

R2-D2 was beeping a frantic question.

"Hey, that little maneuver turned the guns the wrong way," Han answered. He was reversing the ship's thrusters, so that it would stop spinning. "Leia will have at least a minute to exploit that."

Back in the space around Earth, Leia was employing the only sensible option left.

"Get us out of here! Behind that large moon!"

With the loyal imperials falling in line to the renegade fleet, concentrating their attention on the rebels, the battle was already turning in their favor. The smugglers' seemingly suicidal stunt had provided an opportunity, and Leia wanted to use it to save as many rebellion ships as she could. They weren't going to win this fight, not without more reinforcements, but Leia wasn't ready to abandon Earth outright, again. The planet's moon was large enough to offer some protection, but still close enough to monitor the situation around the planet, and could be reached in the short time they had.

The ships still in shape to make the trip did so at their maximum speed, even if it left a trail of debris as damaged parts fell away from their hulls. The ships with engines too badly damaged to make the trip instead turned toward Earth, letting the planet's gravity pull them in for an emergency landing. Ackbar's ships provided cover for Home One and the rest of Leia's remaining ships, taking the brunt of enemy fire once the imperials had their blasters pointed the right way. But the imperial ships did not follow away from Earth, and the rebel ships made it to the relative safety of the moon's shadow.

Once the ship stopped shaking Leia sat back in the captain's chair, finally able to relax after a long battle. "Someone get Ackbar on the horn."

Soon enough a hologram of the old admiral appeared in front of Leia, similarly relaxing in a chair. "Well that went about as well as I could have hoped."

"Death Star destroyed, both imperial fleets heavily damaged, and some of us made it out alive," Leia summarized. She glanced at the short green man standing next to her, and then back to the hologram. "And while I can't confirm it, all signs point to Emperor Palpatine dying with the Death Star."

"We will need to search what's left of the wreckage," Ackbar advised. He put a webbed hand to his chin and thought about it for a moment. "Still, I can't explain it, but I have a gut feeling you are correct."

Yoda nodded in agreement. "The Emperor possessed a dark presence in the Force. It was so large that, in its absence, even those not attuned to the Force will notice."

"Some physical proof would be nice," Ackbar said. "For the propaganda victory if nothing else."

"Yeah… I don't see that happening," Leia said, certain the Emperor's body would have been vaporized. "Footage of the Death Star's destruction will have to do. You made your own recording, right?"

"Several, from a variety of angles," Ackbar answered. "I've already dispatched transports with copies of the footage, just in case those Star Destroyers decide to finish us off."

"Mon Mothma will make good use of it," Leia said. "We could finish this right now if she brought reinforcements here."

"I'm sure she's still busy with her battle," Ackbar said.

"We will have to make do with what we have," Yoda surmised. "Vader still lives, and with him the Empire will continue. And we will never get a better chance to vanquish him than right now."

"That's what Luke had in mind," Leia said. "We're just going to have to trust he can get it done."

Meanwhile, virtually unnoticed in all the chaos in orbit, the transport was diving into Earth's atmosphere. Luke saw the walled city far to his right, keeping the large impact craters near Ba Sing Se front and center, coming down early in local morning. Vader was still there, Luke could sense that through the Force, though it seemed he was taking time to rest. Luke couldn't blame him for that, between overpowering the Emperor and then surviving the fall from space had to have taken his full power. Even Vader had limits, though they were beyond anything Luke could fathom.

The transport was still a kilometer up when Luke spotted a white blob moving against the wind. "Oh good, help is already on the way."

Flying from the city to the impact craters, Appa was carrying as many people as he could and still move quickly. Sokka was at the reins, eyes wide as he surveyed the damage done to the vast landscape, glad to have the light of dawn at their backs. Katara and Haru were manning the forward turrets mounted on the saddle, while the rear turrets were operated by Suki and Zuko. They could all see the smoldering wreckage of the Death Star in the two largest craters, wondering how the large fragments could have survived the crash when everything else had been obliterated.

Sokka pointed when he spotted something on the rim of a crater. "There he is!"

Katara looked over her turret to where Sokka was pointing. "Is he meditating down there?"

Taking a look, Haru offered a second opinion. "Looks like he's napping."

"Can't fault him either way," Suki said. "Not after everything we saw him do last night."

"I think he deserves it," Zuko said.

Sitting on the crater rim was Aang, legs crossed and hands on his lap. It appeared that both Katara and Haru were right, Aang had been meditating but had been so exhausted he fell asleep. Aang needed all the rest he could possibly get, and now seemed like the last chance he had. He slept through the landing of the sky bison, being that tired he barely noticed the loud thud on the ground next to him. Even when everyone in the saddle climbed out Aang didn't move, so deep in sleep that he might as well be dead to the world.

"Should we wake him up?" Haru asked.

"No," Zuko insisted. He took a few steps to stand behind Aang, and looked into the crater. "We're going to need him at his best."

"Yeah," Sokka agreed, not liking the bad feeling he had from looking at the wreckage. "Even a few minutes of rest could make all the difference."

Haru glanced at everyone around him. "Was I the only one that got a full night's sleep?"

"I'm surprised you slept at all," Suki said. "All that burning rubble falling down on us was very loud."

Meanwhile Katara was looking out in the direction they came from, spotting movement heading their way. "You know, Toph can move really fast when she wants to."

Off in the distance the blind earthbender was riding on a moving mound of dirt, propelling it forward with each thrust of her legs. Toph wasn't alone, carrying Azula and Mai with her across the land. A smaller and slower mound of dirt trailed behind them, propelled by Kori while carrying Ty Lee. While the two earthbenders weren't as fast as a sky bison they still kept a decent pace, and they made it to the crater twenty minutes later. It took them five more to ascend the rim, and they came to a stop near Appa.

"Alright, we're here," Toph said. She stepped down from her mound of dirt, setting foot on the crater rim to get a lay of the land. "And that is… big… really big… okay how did something that big survive the fall? Everything else got smashed to bits."

"Don't look at me," Mai said. "I don't understand the physics involved."

"Something slowed it down," Azula speculated. "And we all know only one way to do that."

"The Force," Suki surmised. "Which means Vader is here."

"Maybe he didn't survive the crash?" Kori asked, though the gut feeling told her otherwise.

"I don't know…" Ty Lee muttered. She was staring off into the distance, and pointed at the other large crater with wreckage at the bottom. "She seems to have made it down in one piece."

Standing on the rim of that crater, having climbed up from the wreckage, was Mara Jade. She had not survived unscathed, as her left arm hung limp at her side, wrapped in crude bandages stained with blood. Her hair was a tangled mess clotted with blood from a gash in her scalp, some of it covering large bruises down the left side of her face. Her left knee wobbled as she took another step, before her leg gave out from under her, dropping onto that knee and catching herself on her right hand. She was struggling just to stay conscious, needing every bit of willpower to stay upright.

"I am not going to die here…" Mara grumbled. She tried to get back on her feet, but lacked the strength in her wounded leg, and settled for taking a moment to rest. "Not like this."

She still had one task to complete, though in her state she wasn't certain how she would pull it off. Her master was dead, and she had to get revenge on the man responsible, as demanded of any apprentice whose master was slain by the hand of another. Although there was a part of her that was glad her master was gone, and thus she was freed from his control, this was not the way she would have wanted that freedom. Vader had to die, Mara was set on that, on principle if nothing else. Even if she couldn't do the deed personally, she had to make sure it happened somehow.

Looking at the wounded woman from afar, Sokka had a sinking feeling at the thought of anyone crawling out of the wreckage. "Crap… if she lived through all of that…"

"Something's moving," Toph warned. She had a hand on the ground, feeling the vibrations that were shaking the crater and surrounding land. "And it's really big."

"Yeah, we can see it," Mai said, looking at the wreckage in the crater in front of them. "Even from here we can see it."

Even from a distance they could see a slight rumble in all that crumpled metal, growing into an obvious shaking as the Death Star fragment began to tear itself apart. Layer after layer, deck by deck, the fragment split open like ball of tin foil, exposing the interior to the morning light. It only stopped when a path to the center was revealed, and a solitary figure emerged from the shadows. Although he lacked the distinctive armor everyone present knew him by, there was no mistaking this person's identity, given the chills running down everyone's spines.

"Yup…" Zuko muttered. "That's Vader alright."

"Someone got a makeover," Ty Lee commented.

"Or that's what he looked like all along," Mai said. "You know, under that helmet."

"Nope, he wasn't like that before," Toph said. All the vibrations had given her a good view of him, even from this far away. "He was mostly metal before. Now he's got a lot more fleshy bits."

"Good, there's more of him that can burn," Azula said.

"I doubt it will be that easy," Kori said.

"It never is," Sokka grumbled.

A ball of light appeared in Suki's hand. "Shall we get started?"

Standing at the edge of the wreckage, Vader finally noticed the onlookers on the crater rim. The assorted collection of locals would normally be beneath him, but this encounter was hardly ideal. Through the Force he sensed that some of them were masters of their elements, the sort of benders the Empire never managed to coerce into service. And then he sensed the sleeping Avatar among them, whose presence stirred something within Vader, his other half that desired a vengeance just as personal as the one he got in orbit.

"Raava…" Vader muttered, knowing the name of the spirit that dwelled within Avatar Aang. "You've come to me. Now I won't have to hunt you down."

The others standing around Aang were not important, and Vader wasn't about to sully his hands with fighting them up close. They didn't matter in the grand scheme of things, and if they couldn't deal with something simple then they weren't worth his time. Vader raised one hand upward, and the Force tore apart pieces of wreckage above him. Warped deck plating, severed power conduits, ruptured pipes, mangled bodies, everything that happened to be facing this side of the crater. Hundreds of these wreckage pieces were flung at the crater rim, a barrage of metal that filled the air.

"Take cover!" Sokka shouted.

The three earthbenders raised a thick wall of rock from the crater rim, catching the first wave of metal pieces that crashed into it. Cracks spread through the wall, but the structure held, and earthbending patched the damage as quickly as they were made. Dividing up the work amongst them, Haru focused on holding the rock in place, Kori repaired the damage with fresh material, and Toph turned their defense into offense. She fragmented the outer layer of the wall to launch pieces of rock into the metal barrage, the impacts diverting the pieces and making them crash somewhere else.

All the shaking from the various impacts roused Aang from slumber, and he looked up to see his friends and associates standing around him. "I'm up… I'm up."

Sokka ducked to avoid a rock coming down on his head. "Did you have a good nap?"

"I wish," Aang admitted. He took cover behind the wall with everyone else. "Had a dream, but you know, just started the good part when I woke up."

"Not the time for small talk," Katara said.

"Right," Aang said. He opened a small hole in the wall, saw Vader hurling pieces of crashed space station at them, and closed the hole. "Okay, that is going to be tricky to get through."

"We can't stay pinned here forever," Kori warned. She pulled up more rock to patch the wall, just as a very large piece of metal nearly broke it down. "We've got to move!"

Aang punched the ground and created a deep and wide pit. "Divide and conquer. Some of us go down, some up, and around."

"Works for me," Haru said.

He dropped into the hole, and was followed by Toph and Zuko. Aang went the other way, leaping onto Appa on a gust of wind, and was followed by Katara, Sokka, and Suki. Kori created a landslide and rode it down the crater, taking Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee with her. Tunneling through the side of the crater, Haru and Toph burst out near the bottom, beneath all the flying metal and shrapnel to attack from below. Aang took Appa into the air, which drew attention away from Kori's landslide, letting her group slip away underneath the barrage.

Vader directed his assault toward the sky bison at first, and the people on Appa responded with rapid turret fire, and the blaster bolts obliterated much of the incoming wreckage. Then he noticed the other two groups, currently riding waves of rock in different directions, so he directed a portion of the barrage to them as well. The firebenders in both groups were hurling fireballs at the moving debris, destroying the pieces that might have hit them. The rest were allowed to hit the ground behind them, as the earthbenders were keeping them moving fast enough to avoid much of the bombardment.

Riding the rocks and going to the right, Toph took her group along the bottom of the crater. Although she couldn't see the incoming debris, she had Haru to point them out for her, and Zuko to hurl fireballs at them. The pieces that got through the flames were stopped by blocks of stone, Haru's work allowing Toph to focus on keeping them moving. In a few moments they reached the Death Star wreckage, and stopped underneath a mangled deck that was little more than an overhang now. Yet the barrage continued, the pieces curving around what should have been shelter, even where Vader couldn't see.

"Cover Me!" Toph yelled.

Haru obliged her with a thick wall of rock, which began to crumble immediately as pieces of metal struck it. "Whatever you're going to do, do it fast!"

Toph had her hands on the wreckage, feeling for earth impurities within. "Duh!"

Normally, imperial steel was too pure to metalbend, even for the inventor of the art. But thousands of tons of earth had been dredged up in the impact, and the heat released had made the metal permeable for a short time, which allowed much of the earth to mix with the metal. As such Toph could tear the contaminated steel apart with her bare hands, and she slammed the torn pieces into the ground to form a makeshift barricade. When Haru's rock wall collapsed the metal barricade took the bombardment instead, and it was sturdy enough to hold for at least a few minutes.

Zuko looked up at the hole Toph was making in the wreckage, surprised that she could pull this off. "You're going to have to tell me how you're doing that when we get out of this mess."

"I'd like to know that too," Haru said.

"First thing after we win, I promise," Toph said. She bent more of the metal into a set of stairs that let up into the wreckage. "But right now, let's move it!"

Meanwhile, Kori was taking her group along the side of the crater, riding a wave of rocks halfway up the slope and going to the left. Azula was hurling blue fireballs at incoming metal fragments, destroying the ones that could have hit her. Mai and Ty Lee were staying behind Kori and Azula, staying out of their way since they couldn't attack just yet. They had blasters in hand, but even Mai couldn't get a clear shot, there was just too much moving debris in the way. So they waited, riding the moving ground as long as needed, until Ty Lee spotted an opportunity.

Ty Lee tapped Mai on the shoulder. "I'm going in."

There were several large pieces of metal, support beams and bulkheads and deck plating and so on, hurling toward them now. Ty Lee leapt from the moving ground to the closest piece, ran down the length of it, and leapt to the next one. Said pieces of metal were destroyed by blue fireballs shortly afterward, but both Azula and Ty Lee knew what the other was doing. Ty Lee leapt from one metal piece to the next, following the path they made back to their source, crossing the crater without a care for the great height from the bottom.

"Is she insane!" Kori yelled.

"No, just a really good acrobat," Mai answered. She watched as her friend leaped to a moving support beam, halfway across the crater and high above the bottom. "I'll let her know you called her that. She'll take it as a compliment."

"Just keep us moving," Azula insisted. She started moving her arms in circular motions. "And faster, I need a moment to charge this."

High above the crater, Appa nimbly avoided the debris hurled at him, while the people at the mounted turrets blasted apart anything that got too close. Aang was focusing on steering Appa, Katara was on lookout for dangers he might have missed, while Sokka and Suki were on the turrets. They were directly above the Death Star wreckage now, flying in a haphazard spiral down. As such any shots that missed incoming debris would hit the wreckage instead, breaking apart the makeshift ammunition before it could be hurled at them.

As they dived Sokka spotted something strange about Vader. "He's just standing there, hurling all this stuff at us with his mind. Is that really all he's going to do?"

"I think he's testing us," Aang answered.

"That or he's overconfident," Katara speculated.

"I'd prefer that one," Suki said. "At least then we could exploit something."

Aang nodded in agreement. "We're not going to hit him from afar. We need to close in on him."

"Won't he just cut us apart with his lightsaber if we do that?" Katara asked.

"I didn't say it would be easy," Aang said.

"Nothing ever is," Sokka grumbled.

"Like you expected it to change now?" Suki asked. She paused to fire the turret at an incoming piece of deck plating, breaking it apart into itty bitty shards that flew by harmlessly. "Let's take him down!"

Appa let out a mighty roar in agreement.

Vader intensified his assault, tearing ever larger pieces of the wreckage to throw in three directions. Entire rooms were torn out intact and hurled away, along with entire computer servers and power stations larger than the sky bison. He was pulling material from well within the wreckage now, steadily hollowing it out bit by bit, but enough remained to last all day. The bison was his priority, and he sent the bulk of his ammunition at that target. If his foes couldn't deal with this, well then they deserved to be crushed by the debris.

Watching all of this from the rim of the other crater, Mara was impressed that the earthlings lasted this long. Granted, they had Vader's attention divided three ways, but Vader was clearly powerful enough to deal with them. Mara wondered if Vader was testing the earthlings, or himself for that matter, either way it was going to push the earthlings to their limits. It seemed like Vader's power was limitless, or at least it felt that way through the Force. The fact that the earthlings fought on anyway was inspiring, and Mara wished she wasn't injured so that she could contribute.

Mara took out her lightsaber and stared at her weapon. "I really should have grabbed a blaster…"

Although Vader's eyes were on the sky bison, he sensed the presence of others moving through the wreckage. "You really think you can sneak up on me?"

A patch of contaminated steel burst open next to him, with Toph coming through to attack from behind. She was followed by Zuko and Haru, wielding their respective elements, while Toph had fashioned clubs of metal around her arms to strike with. Flames, rocks, and metal were hurled at Vader, but he simply turned and waved a hand to divert them all with the Force. Vader thrust his hand to push all three of them with the Force, slamming their backs against the wreckage, even while continuing to hurl pieces of debris at the other two groups.

Sensing a presence behind him, Vader reached with his free hand, catching the acrobat in the Force just as she finished the crossing. Ty Lee grasped at the invisible grip around her neck, legs dangling inches above the metal, gasping for air just out of arm's reach from Vader. He wasn't even bothering to look at her, for Vader's attention was now on the three benders before him, swatting aside more earth and fire and metal thrown at him. But even as her vision began to fade, Ty Lee noticed a lack of flying debris now, and her forced smirk tipped off Zuko to what was coming.

Zuko tapped Haru and Toph on their shoulders. "Off the metal, now!"

That was when Azula fired a bolt of lightning, aimed right for Vader's back. He turned and thrust a hand at the incoming lightning, and it splintered into several smaller arcs of electricity that curved away from Vader. They slammed into the wreckage all around him, and conducted through the metal indiscriminately. Haru and Toph had gotten stone beneath their feet and Zuko's as well, insulating them from the electricity surging through the floor. Vader simply floated up a few inches, using the Force to hover there until the danger had passed, then touched down afterward.

Still holding Ty Lee in the Force, Vader held out a hand toward the other three benders. "Die."

Violet electricity shot from his fingertips, Force Lightning lashing out to strike at all three of them at once. In the split second he had to react, Zuko moved by instinct, reaching out with his left hand to catch the lightning. It followed the path of least resistance, all of it going down Zuko's arm instead of hitting Toph or Haru, taking all the risk of harm for himself. Going around his heart, down to his stomach, then back up the other arm, the Force Lightning was redirected and fired from Zuko's right hand back at its source.

Surprised by this tactic, Vader was struck by the redirected Force Lightning. The electricity surged through him, highlighting the metal parts within him as flashes of light passed through his flesh. He let out an angered scream as he endured the pain, though it was short as the lightning quickly passed, leaving him disoriented and quite infuriated. Vader's concentration wavered as he recovered from the counterattack, and Ty Lee was released from the invisible grip, and she landed on the edge of the wreckage.

Ty Lee dashed forward, reached Vader just as the Force Lightning dissipated, and jabbed her fingers at his right arm. Several key spots were struck, but then she recoiled in pain, having hit hard metal instead of soft flesh. That wasn't a normal arm Ty Lee struck, but one with Vader's cybernetics merged with organic matter. Vader grabbed Ty Lee by the throat and lifted her off the floor, deliberately using the arm she meant to paralyze. He looked up at the girl struggling in his grip, amused by her attempt to disable him.

"Pressure points…" Vader commented. "Adorable."

He was about to crush her throat, but then a very angry sky bison flew so close it almost slammed into Vader. Appa only missed because he couldn't get any closer, and the gust of wind in his wake pushed Vader off his feet. Aang had leapt off the sky bison, and he came down with his staff in hand, swinging it down over Vader's head. A red lightsaber ignited and rose up to counter, but Aang twisted his arms to avoid having his staff cut in two, and a gust of wind followed. It nearly blew Vader off the edge, and he let go of Ty Lee, dropping her over the side.

Aang landed in front of Vader, followed by Katara and Suki behind him. They heard Ty Lee screaming as she fell, but it was cut short when Sokka had Appa catch her. Aang spun his staff rapidly to create more wind, and Vader felt his heels slip into open air. Vader lunged forward against the wind, lightsaber swinging at the spinning staff, but Aang leaped back to stay out of range. Katara flung a stream of water at Vader, only to bounce off an invisible barrier of the Force, and when Suki fired energy blasts they were intercepted by Vader's lightsaber, with explosions that disrupted the blade for brief moments.

Vader threw both arms out, and a Force shockwave pushed against everything around him. The walls warped outward, just before everyone slammed into them, clearing out twenty feet of space. Then he reached for the floor, and the entire wreckage began to shake violently. Walls suddenly bent back the other way, clamping down on the two groups of three people, requiring them to scramble out before they would be crushed. Aang leapt out and unfolded his glider, catching Katara and Suki after they jumped after him, while Toph metalbent an exit into the floor and took Haru and Zuko out with her.

Those three came out fifty feet down, and a quick maneuver from Appa let him catch them all in the saddle. The sky bison then caught the glider and everyone on it, and despite the weight of everyone Appa flew up anyway. All of the wreckage was moving, collapsing in places and expanding in others, with Vader seemingly absorbed within it. A portion stretched outward, and came down over the sky bison, narrowly missing as Appa maneuvered around the enormous mass of metal. Appa kept flying upward, barely keeping ahead of the moving metal expanding upward.

"I'm hearing a lot of noise!" Toph yelled, over the sound of screeching metal battering her ears. "Someone tell me what's going on down there!"

"He's moving everything down there," Sokka described. He passed the reins back to Aang, and took position at one of the turrets. "So yeah, I think he's done screwing around."

Ty Lee was at another turret, already shooting at the closest portion of the moving metal. "Less talking, more shooting!"

Haru scrambled into position, manning a third turret and firing wildly. "Working on it!"

The fourth turret was being operated by Katara, and she glanced at the other three people in similar positions. "Hit it with everything!"

Appa continued to swerve around the moving metal that reached toward him, even as it spread out into the shape of a massive hand. Four turrets unleashed their firepower on the enormous target, their barrage of blaster bolts chipping away at the sheer mass. Zuko and Aang added to the damage with all the firebending they could muster, short of entering the Avatar State. Suki was using her energy blasts to destroy large chunks of metal at a time, going for maximum destruction even if it would exhaust her after a few minutes.

From the ground Azula was doing her part to assist in the destruction, throwing blue fireballs at the moving wreckage, for all the good it would do. All of it was moving, and the parts that were destroyed seemed miniscule in comparison. Kori and Mai could only watch as the wreckage stretched out into a vaguely humanoid shape, with arms that reached up at the sky bison and legs that threatened to stomp on the moving mound of earth. It even had a head, roughly shaped like the helmet Vader used to wear, completing the look of the old Vader as a metal giant.

"You guys are gawking," Toph said. "What exactly are we dealing with?"

"Massive, metal, man," Sokka described. "And it's trying to swat us out of the sky."

"Hang on!" Aang shouted, yanking on Appa's reins as the giant's hand closed in around them. "Appa, give it every yip you got!"

The enormous metal hand shrouded them in shadows, but then an explosion broke off the middle finger, and Appa flew through the gap to escape. More explosions followed elsewhere on the giant, created by ship-grade blasters and torpedoes striking from above. A glance upward let them see ships flying in their direction, the first being a tri-winged imperial shuttle, leading a formation of rebellion X-Wings and Y-Wings. These tiny ships were unloading every bit of ordinance they carried, obliterating large chunks of the metal giant on the first pass.

"The cavalry is here!" Suki announced. She collapsed from exhaustion after all the energy blasts she let off, only having enough strength left to hang onto Appa's saddle. "I'll take it."

"About time Leia sent someone down to help," Sokka said.

Aang was steering Appa away from the giant, now that the ships were providing a distraction. "That looks like an imperial ship leading the charge. Anyone want to bet who's flying that thing?"

The shuttle and the fighters finished their first pass and flew past to turn around for another go, avoiding the enormous arms of the giant to get to clear skies. During the turn Luke saw the sky bison making a similar maneuver, the people on its turrets still firing at the giant. Given what he sensed from Vader inside that enormous mass of moving metal, it was impressive that Aang and the others with him had lasted this long. He lost sight of them as the shuttle turned, bringing the giant back into view for the next volley.

"Concentrate fire on the upper torso," Luke ordered, having a channel open to all the fighters behind him. "That's where Vader is. Don't bother with the head of that thing. Hitting it won't make a difference and will just waste your shots."

The pilots of those ships followed the order, and when the volley began they all targeted the same spot on the giant's torso. Their blasters and torpedoes tore into the giant, and for a brief moment Luke thought he saw Vader in the new hole. But then material from around the hole moved to fill in the void, before the smokescreen of the explosions could even disperse. This wasn't some machine that could be disabled by select destruction, but sheer mass held together by the Force, its structural integrity limited only by Vader's concentration and raw power.

But then Luke sensed something different about to happen. "Evasive Maneuvers!"

The arms of the giant shattered into thousands of pieces, which were flung out in every direction at high speed. The shrapnel assault was dense enough to threaten everything in the air, leaving only very small gaps that were few and far between. Only seconds to react, Luke swerved for the closest gap, and had to use the Force to pry it a little wider. Even then the shuttle shook under the strain of the maneuver, and a sudden jerk to the side sent it spiraling out of control. The starboard wing had been torn clean off by an impact, and the rest of it fell behind the wave of shrapnel.

The X-Wings and Y-Wings were not so fortunate, as all of them were hit by the flying debris despite their best maneuvers. Half of them were destroyed outright, head on collisions resulting in clouds of shattered metal falling to earth. The rest had one or more wings torn clean off, and their pilots did everything they could to survive a crash landing, and those that lived were in no shape to exit their ships. The sky was cleared of all ships that could do any significant damage, and all it cost Vader was a third of the scrap metal he was using.

Even Appa was hit by the debris, though it was a glancing blow that tore off half the saddle and two of the turrets. Sokka and Ty Lee were nearly thrown off with the wreckage, but the acrobat grabbed Sokka with one hand and Haru with the other, and they nearly took the earthbender away with them. Katara and Suki grabbed his legs and held on, keeping everyone in what was left of the saddle, even as Appa fell out of the air. Everyone held on for dear life as Appa plummeted, screaming all the way down, until the sky bison crashed into the ground outside the crater.

Rubbing his head after the impact, Aang looked around at his friends. "Is everyone alright?"

"I think I popped my back," Sokka grumbled, currently lying on top of Ty Lee and Haru. He pushed to get off of them, only to clench his teeth in pain and drop back down. "Ow! Ow-Ow-Ow-Ow! Something's broken. Something is definitely broken."

"Can you move your legs?" Haru asked.

Slowly, Sokka slid his feet over a little. "Yeah, hurts though."

"Then it's not your back," Haru said. He gently pushed Sokka off of him, ignoring the grunts of pain as he got out from under the other guy. "You'll live. Now please get off me."

Ty Lee managed to get out from under Sokka first, and had to pop her shoulder back into place. "Okay… that's going mess up my balance all week. Unless one of you guys has a spare blaster, I won't be doing much from here on out."

"Fair, that's totally fair," Katara said. She was currently tending to a bruise on her leg, coating it in water that glowed with the healing ability. "You're not the only one out of it. Looks like Appa's had enough."

Appa raised his head, made a roar that was more of a whimper, and laid back down for a nap.

"You did good up there buddy," Aang said, even though the bison was already out cold. "Come on, we're not done yet."

"That's an understatement," Toph said. She had gotten off Appa and had a hand on the ground, getting a lay of the land around and in the crater. "Because Vader certainly isn't finished with us yet."

Everyone else looked up at the metal giant, now missing its arms and much of its chest. Then the upper torso seemed to simply fall apart, like the invisible glue holding it together abruptly vanished. The legs and waist coalesced into a solid pillar of metal, and standing atop it was Vader, allowing himself to be seen now that the aerial assault had failed. Some of the falling wreckage was halted mid-fall, and brought together to form a ramp to the rim of the crater, closest to where the imperial shuttle had crashed.

Luke had pulled himself out of the crashed wreck, and now he saw Vader walking down that ramp toward him. "Well that's a new look."

It was strange to see him without the armor or helmet on, and even stranger to see the metal embedded in his flesh. No longer more machine than man, Vader was now an equal blend of both, and far more powerful than he had been before. If it wasn't for what Luke sensed in the Force, or the feats displayed right in front of him, he wouldn't have recognized this person as Darth Vader. Luke watched as Vader walked down the ramp, letting the metal fragments fall away behind him, gazed fixed on the Jedi-in-training below.

When he reached the crater rim Vader let the rest of the metal fall away, and he stood on the high ground above Luke. "There is no need for you to oppose me. The Emperor is dead. I have taken his role as Sith Master. As such, I am in need of an apprentice."

"You cannot be serious," Luke said. He took out his lightsaber, but didn't activate it just yet. "After last time, do you really expect me to work with you again?"

"There is no one else I would consider," Vader said. He took out the older lightsaber from his belt, ignited the blue blade and held it out for both of them to observe. "Did Obi Wan ever tell you where he acquired this weapon?"

"He told me it was my father's," Luke answered. It was a surprise to see it in Vader's hand, not knowing how he could have found it. "And he told me you killed him."

"The first is true," Vader confirmed. And now he could confirm a suspicion he had for some time. "And the second, well that depends on your point of view."

Luke activated his lightsaber, insulted by the suggestion that Ben had lied to him. "What do you mean?"

Vader turned off the blue lightsaber, so that its hum would not distract from his words. "I built this lightsaber. It belongs to me."

It took a moment for Luke to piece together the implications there, for the first owner of any lightsaber was its creator. "That's impossible. You're lying."

"No," Vader said, letting that sink in for a moment. "Search your feelings and you will know the truth."

There was only one answer available, but Luke refused to believe it. "You can't be…"

"I am," Vader said. "Son."