The jagged arcs of Sith lighting blind him as they wizz past his head too fast to track. The buzz of meeting lightsabers is so powerful and so quick that it fills his long ears entirely. But as he battles the long hidden Darth Sidious, all Yoda can see and hear is the end.
Because it was exactly that which he was staring down now; the end of the Republic, the end of the Jedi, the end of his faith in himself. Past the clash of his green lightsaber and Sidious' red one he can see the podiums of the Senate Rotunda; empty, the people's power stolen and vested in the hands of the very Sith Lord he dueled now. This was his fault, a failure so glaring it might have been a star, a dark celestial body shining a spotlight of innocent blood upon him. He had trained Jedi for eight hundred years, learnt the innermost secrets of the Force, taken pilgrimages to forgotten moons and learned how to return from beyond the grave.
And for what?
It was under him that the Jedi were brought to ruin. It was under his tutelage that the Chosen One fell to the dark side and rose again, black hearted, as a Darth; that democracy and freeom for the galaxy be destroyed at the hands of the Sith. Eight hundred years as a Jedi, only to be the one who finally ended them. With his own hubris, his own obliviousness.
Yoda spins, so fast the world around him becomes a blur, and then abruptly his and Sidious' blades meet again. The power he and the Dark Lord exuded was palpable. The Force explodes from them, invisible tendrils ripping durasteel and wiring from any surface they could and crumpling them. Senate podiums begin to screech and whine as their surfaces cave in, the raw Force strength of Yoda and Sidious crashing upon them. Their sabers meet and Yoda concentrates, diving into the Force and feeling his own self lessen. The mad laughter of Darth Sidious is far from him, but it is when he uses the Force that he truly sees the human for what he is.
It was like he was torturing it. Yoda sees the Force cry out when Sidious calls upon it, his senses so in tune with its suffering that his body continues to fight almost on its own. He stabs at Sidious and with wrathful speed the attack is blocked, the man's hatred so immeasurable the Force convulsed around him, as though he were a black hole. In nine hundred years Yoda has never seen anything like him before. Sidious presses his attack and the bloody glow of his lightsaber lights his melted face in crimson shadow. His cackles echo in the huge Rotunda. The room's acoustics bounce the laughter back and forth as if every podium in the building were occupied with another duplicate of the Sith Lord, all of them pointing at Yoda, their hatred overwhelming him, the shine of their sabers and lightning bathing him in shame.
But his eyes, by the stars . . . the dark side had hollowed them out.
It was a monster in front of him now; an unholy thing born of pure evil and flayed ambition. Sidious pressed his attack, his laughter growing. He leaned in to his saber strikes, and it felt as though his Force abilities were outpacing Yoda's. Sidious' red blade is uncounterable, a spear and a hammer and a blaster bolt all at once. The Force burned through him, Sith lighting lancing along his black nano-silk robe and sizzling along the blade of his lightsaber. His arms and legs are longer than Yoda's and his reach is greater. Yoda struggles to keep up his whirling defense and Sidious can feel it. Like a hungry Corellian slice-hound awaiting a meal, the dark side surrounds him.
Yoda is alone. He is failing as he failed everything and everyone he cared about. Soon that red blade will find a chink in his decaying armor and cut him down. And that will be his legacy : death amid the ashes of the Republic.
He is alone.
Then there is a nudge against his tired back from nowhere. A warm hand graces his shoulder. An androgynous voice speaks soothing nonsense into his ear. A blue wave washes away everything. Yes, he had failed. He had been foolish and inflexible and it had cost the galaxy greatly. But he could end it, right here, finish the terrible story of the Empire before it ever began. Destroying Darth Sidious was his last hope.
Yoda had failed. But it will not happen again. For he is no longer alone. He was a Jedi, and never is a Jedi truly abandoned.
The Force would be with him, always.