"You don't have to do this, Maul.", Ahsoka called out after her attempt to slice through his prosthetics had failed. "Even Vader managed to see what a monster Sidious was. You have to set yourself free from him."
Maul didn't even blink and continued his vicious attacks. "You know nothing of the sith, Jedi.", he spat. "I do not serve him, I wait to take his place.", he continued. "There will be nothing left to take!", Ahsoka said incredulously.
"There will be no empire, no throne, no sith.", she said while she blocked the red blade coming for her head. With her second saber she tried to slice through his legs again, but he dodged her in time.
"You're even more foolish than I thought if you believe so. The sith are eternal.", the zabrak promised almost maniacally, his fury very audible in his voice. Ahsoka wondered what had happened to Maul for him to fall into darkness like this.
The next moment a few dozen stormtroopers came marching through the transition. Ahsoka couldn't concentrate on both the clones and Maul, so it didn't take long until he had disarmed her and forced her to her knees.
"I will definitely enjoy killing you.", he ensured as his crimson blade hovered right next to her neck. "It that case, you will be disappointed.", a voice stated. It didn't take long until the clones started flying through the hallway.
Ahsoka sighed in relief as Maul took down his saber, readying himself for battle. It was Anakin who came stepping over the dead bodies, his red lightsaber throwing a subtle scarlet light onto his face.
Maul tensed and prepared to attack his new and unknown opponent. When he made the first Step away from Ahsoka she called her lightsabers to come back to her and went for his feet. Maul noticed early enough and kicked Ahsoka in the face.
She crashed into the wall behind her, but quickly sat up again. "You must be Vader.", Maul greeted Anakin coldly. "Once.", he only retorted. Maul narrowed his eyes and growled menacingly before launching his first attack.
Anakin dodged it with ease and proceeded to attack his opponent from behind. Maul was quick to twirl around and block Anakin's lightsaber before it severed his flesh from his legs.
Maul's power was far superior to the royal guard's. But not close to Anakin's. The zabrak had reached the peak of his strength before he had been defeated by Obi Wan, now he was no match for Anakin.
Yet he had to admit that Maul had a very strong connection to the dark side. He could feel his hate and anger pulsing through the force, and Maul was quite able to use them to his advantage.
His rage gave him focus and his hate gave him strength. Anakin threw glances to Ahsoka from time to time, during the duel. She was stumbling around on wiggly knees while trying to free the twins from the metal pieces that looked like droid debris.
Relief flooded Anakin once he had seen his children. He had feared the Emperor had had them brought away in precaution. Maul started another series of vicious slashes, that Anakin blocked.
"You are completely consumed by the dark side, there is not a piece left of you.", Anakin noticed. Maul only sneered over the remark. His attacks only grew more and more ferocious.
After a while, Maul was the first remotely worthy opponent Anakin had to battle in a long time. It took a while until Anakin had managed to slice through Maul's right wrist, which was followed by an aggravated scream.
The zabrak's hand, covered by a black glove fell onto the floor, splattering blood around it. Maul didn't even attempt to continue duelling Anakin with a single hand.
Within a moment, Maul had dashed into one of the escape pods. Ahsoka jumped forward in an attempt to stop the pod's ejection manually, but she was a heartbeat too late. "He's gone.", Ahsoka sighed, before kneeling down to the twins.
"Are you alright?", she asked, which was answered by a mere nod and a little less crying. "Can you handle the clones until the jedi come?", Anakin wanted to know, while crouching down next to her.
"Yes, I can. Go and hurry, Padmé is alone with the Emperor." "Not for long.", Anakin snarled. His jaw flexed before he got up and resumed racing towards the throne room.
Padmé had lost track of the time. Ahsoka and Maul had left what what felt like an eternity ago, and she grew more nervous with every second. Probably it was a good sign that Sidious had heard nothing of Anakin's or Ahsoka's defeat.
But the uncertainty drove Padmé crazy. Suddenly she heard blaster fire from outside the door. some of the red cloaked guards moved towards the noise and readied their weapons. Two of them kept flanking Padmé. After a few heartbeats, the gunfire stopped.
In tense silence, nothing happened in a while. Then the gate flew open and the first red guards collapsed dead. Padmé looked at Sidious who didn't rise from his seat and only observed. Like she had expected, it was Anakin who entered the throne room.
He gripped his red lightsaber and his eyes met hers immediately. "Vader.", Sidious greeted him after showing his guards to stand back. "How surprising to meet you in full youth again.", he continued.
"As if it didn't please you to see me suffer.", Anakin snarled. Sidious only smirked. "You wound me, my friend. Surely you see how it is solely Kenobi who is to blame for your injuries." Anakin sneered in disgust.
"And you're a fool if you believe your plain manipulations will stop me from killing you." Sidious cackled. "You might have been a promising apprentice, Vader. But you can't sincerely expect to defeat me.", he grinned.
"I have gained more strength in the last weeks than you could possibly imagine. Not only my health, but also a reason to live." Palpatine rolled his eyes. "Ever the dramatic. You really are the same fool you were when you decided to betray me."
"I betrayed you?", Anakin demanded angrily. "You lied to me, about everything. You made promises you never intended to keep and tortured me with false guilt. I became a traitor when I severed Windu's hand."
Slowly, the Emperor rose from his seat. "Did you really think I would believe your death, Vader? I knew you would try something as pathetic." Padmé expected the old man to ignite his own blade and engage Anakin in battle, but nothing of the sort happened.
"Why do you think I kept her alive?", Sidious continued while pointing to Padmé. He waved his hand slightly towards the guards on Padmé's side. Within a moment, she was pushed onto her knees and a humming Vibroblade was held next to her neck.
Anakin stared at her silently, and Padmé noticed how his empty hand clenched to a fist. "Part of the imperial army is currently invading the Rebel base, but only to prevent anyone from fleeing. At the moment a group of jedi approaches in order to stop that."
Sidious handed Anakin a data pad before he resumed explaining his plan. "As soon as The jedi will gain an advantage, you will give the order to bomb Dantooine from orbit. You will annihilate the rebellion along with most of the remaining jedi.", he finished.
"The deed should be enough to complete your journey back to the dark side, Vader. You will resume serving the empire, and never again forget that you are mine.", he added. "The alternative should be obvious.", he stated with a glance on Padmé.
"Safye!", Ahsoka called out as the Iktotchi was speeding past her. "Ahsoka?", she answered and stopped for a moment. Suddenly her eyes widened, as if she had remembered something. "One of the rebels got in.", she hurried to say.
Ahsoka frowned at her, still cradling both of the twins in her arms. "He defeated me with a far inferior fighter, and he has a bloodied lightsaber." Ahsoka only stared for a few seconds. "That's not a rebel, you know. It's Vader."
Safye began panting as if in shock. "Does that mean he came to kill the three of us. To reclaim his position." Ahsoka spontaneously decided to tell Safye the truth. "No. He consciously left the Emperor. He came to kill him. And to free his family."
The confusion grew obvious on Safye's face. "When Vader was still a jedi, I was his student. I was never on the Emperor's side." Safye backed off a little. "Like a spy?", she asked cautiously. Ahsoka nodded. "Why do you tell me?", Safye demanded suspiciously.
"Because I know you're not lost.", Ahsoka stated. "You came because of fear. Fear of destruction and pain." Ahsoka offered Safye her hand. "If you fight on our side now, renounce Sidious, you won't have to be afraid any longer."
Safye began shaking her head slowly and backed away even more. "Listen to me!", Ahsoka pleaded. "Living as Sidious' pupil, can't offer you safety, Safye. Nor humane treatment. You'd be no more than a slave to him."
"No.", Safye whispered. "The Emperor will win, there is no escape." Ahsoka shook her head. "Vader is Anakin Skywalker. He is the chosen one. He can defeat the Emperor. When this is all over, there won't be an empire to fear any longer."
"No.", Safye repeated. "The empire is invincible. Defying the Emperor is suicide. I can't be persecuted again. I can't.", she stammered. "You won't be. I promise you.", Ahsoka said. "Where is Maul?", Safye demanded suddenly.
"He fled. He knew his master and he didn't have a chance.", Ahsoka answered. Safye nodded shortly, then she ran into the direction she came from. "Who was that, Soka?", Luke wanted to know. "I thought it was a friend.", Ahsoka replied.
Sidious had expected all of this. And he had prepared himself thoroughly. Anakin couldn't do it. He couldn't have the entire rebellion crushed, along with Obi Wan. But there was no way he would watch Padmé die.
The blade had not left the side of her neck, the moment he tried to free her, she would be killed. He hated to admit that Sidious was nothing if not resourceful. "Don't worry.", Sidious began as he sat down on his throne again.
"You don't have to choose right away. The jedi haven't reached Dantooine yet, you have plenty of time left to see reason." Anakin barely heard what his former master was saying, his thoughts still racing to find a solution.
How had Sidious foreseen the jedi coming to the rebel's help? Not even Anakin had really believed they would. The Emperor looked particularly pleased with himself. He had outmanoeuvred Anakin, and left him without options.
Probably, this had been his plan ever since Anakin had left his side. Suddenly Anakin noticed something. It sounded like Sidious thought all the jedi had went to Dantooine. He didn't know some where coming directly in his direction.
Shaak Ti had decided to lead the strike against the deathstar. She had to do what the force told her was right. The chosen one had saved her from certain death, aiding him was her only agreeable option.
Luminara Unduli had convinced most of the others to join her in breaking through the blockade to get to the rebel base. It hadn't bee hard. And who could blame them? Enforcing an army, fighting against mere clones was better than opposing Sidious himself.
It didn't take long until they saw the deathstar. It was the start of a gigantic metal sphere and there was a group of rebels, currently battling with some TIEs, not far from it. Shaak Ti knew that none of them was Anakin.
She lead her squadron around them, reaching the deathstar had to be their priority. Sidious had been holding his power for too long already, it was about time for the empire to end, and to finally restore democracy and peace.
"Fall back, we can't hold them!", one of the rebel officers yelled, as the front was about to be overrun by clones. It was true, the scarce rebel forces were no match to the imperial infantry.
Their only hope was that Anakin would be able to kill the Emperor before he could order the great gunships to strike. The rebels had been pushed back a long way, the stormtroopers had almost reached the main building.
A few heavy troopers with flamethrowers began scorching the first rebels. Obi Wan had to quickly seek cover, for unlike blaster fire he couldn't deflect the blaze. His ears were ringing from the consistent noise of gunshots and the occasional grenade explosions.
And one could barely see through the thick clouds of dust and smoke that were spreading over the battlefield. Obi Wan could only watch while dozens of rebels around him were engulfed in flames.
If the fight went on like this for only a little while longer, the rebel army would be decimated and it wouldn't need the gunships to destroy the base in the first place. Obi Wan was expecting one of the officers to order further fallback, when the inferno disappeared.
Obi Wan only had a second to wonder what had happened, before his question was answered by a familiar sensation, confirmed by the hum of ignited lightsabers. The jedi had reached the surface of Dantooine.
Obi Wan stopped crouching to resume deflecting laser bolts, and to throw a glance at the reinforcement. There were about two dozen jedi, a two dozen blue and green glowing blades that started to cut down stormtroopers.
It didn't take long until it were the imperials who had to fall back. Obi Wan couldn't help but grow even more nervous as the rebels stepped over many of the dead clones while they pushed back the ones that were left.
Obi Wan knew that it would only take one of their officers to send a message to Sidious and the battle would be lost in an instant.