A/N:No, I'm not dead! Just finishing up college math and working on music commissions. Also, the Grievous fight scenes were an utter pain to write.

Disney owns Star Wars, and they are apparently intent on running it into the ground. All shall fear the Mouse.

Ventress began casually approaching us in a Makashi stance as Ahsoka and I activated our lightsabers. I almost began to panic; the last time we fought Ventress, we barely survived, and even with our improved skills I somehow knew that we would never beat her in a straight-up fight. That's when I recalled Master Obi-Wan's teachings:

"Breathe. Let the Force flow through you, let it guide your blade to where it must go. A master of Soresu must be the calm at the center of the storm."

Closing my eyes briefly and centering myself, I stepped back into a defensive posture as the fight began; Ventress' skill was still deadly, and to this day I am absolutely certain that if she had been fighting us seriously we would both have died then and there. But by calming myself, I was able to think more clearly. As we were, neither of us could hope to beat her in a straight-up fight; then again, if Ahsoka and I played things right, we wouldn't have to. I continued to think on the strategy lessons from Master Obi-Wan as we defended against her assault:

"The Dark Side is powerful, but those who follow it pay a heavy price; the more they give in to the darkness within, the greater their arrogance becomes. Allow that arrogance to blind them while you remain safe behind your defenses. Let their rage clash harmlessly against your passive guard, and be mindful of your surroundings, watching carefully for any possible advantage or opportunity."

Ahsoka and I were holding out fairly well, allowing Ventress to "play" with us as I stretched out with my senses—my best and only real advantage over the Sith assassin—and searched for a way to turn the tide while allowing the Force to guide my blocks and parries for me. It didn't take long for me to see a way out; I spoke to Ahsoka telepathically.

We need to take five more steps back, then cut a hole in the floor beneath us.

She responded, her mind giving away her internal worry at our opponent. Why?

Three reasons: because a narrow hallway like this one serves her style better then either of ours, because that part of the floor has the fewest things between it and the next floor down... and because the room directly below us is a large mess hall. A large mess hall that currently has emergency lighting only.

Ahsoka nodded as we moved into position, carefully maintaining the illusion of fear.

"Hmph," Ventress pouted, her arrogance on full display. "And here I thought you'd give me at least a small amount of amusement. Sadly, it seems the Jedi have neglected to train you since our last encounter..."

Now it was time for us to smirk as we stood back-to-back, Ahsoka responding with the same cocky attitude she had clearly learned from Anakin. "You want to be amused? Let's play tag, then! Follow us if you can!"

Before the Sith could react, we span in place, cutting a hole in the floor before unleashing a combined telekinetic surge downward and causing us to fall to the level below before using the Force to soften the landing. With a larger area to maneuver in and a great deal of clutter and furniture to maneuver over and around, she would no longer have the terrain advantage she had enjoyed in the hallway above. As expected, Ventress followed, landing shortly after we moved out of the way and preparing to resume the fight.

"Clever, children. But if you think a simple change in scenery will save-"

She was interrupted by a large bowl full of abandoned food being sent flying in her direction, covering her in the now-curdled remains of an interrupted lunch.

"Tag!"

"Remember, Kevin, the Dark Side feeds off of anger, hatred, and aggression. This is the source from which its practitioners derive most of their power. But that power, like their anger, is easily turned against them; while you remain calm and centered in the Light, incite them and insult them, make them lose control of that anger, and you will gain control of them. You may then use that control to turn the fight in your favor. The Dark Side is its own worst enemy."

A low, bestial growl erupted from Ventress. "You... little... brats..."

I managed to cover my fear of her death glare with a mocking laugh. "What's wrong, Ventress? Didn't like that dish? Have another!"

With that, Ahsoka and I began alternating roles, one of us engaging her in bladework while the other pelted her with anything that wasn't nailed down, thus keeping her attention divided and preventing her from going for a straight-up kill while simultaneously adding to her growing annoyance, which further increased her distracted state of mind; that being said, her skill level was still high enough above ours that this amounted to little more than a stalling tactic that, in the long run, would only delay the inevitable. Fortunately, Soresu and Shien/Djem So (both being excellent defensive styles) were great at stalling tactics. The fight continued in this manner, at least until a "stray" plate struck the panel controlling the emergency lighting, sending the room into complete darkness save for the glow of our lightsabers.

Ventress chuckled slightly, her anger still simmering underneath as we continued the barrage of plates and food. "Heh. You think darkness is your ally? Foolish child. I was BORN in the dark." She took advantage of a brief lull in my offense to force me onto my back foot and take the initiative.

Now, one particular thing about using the Force to see instead of using your eyes is that unless you are either a sensory prodigy, a Soresu specialist, a god-tier duelist, or have absolutely amazing control, if you're in an actual fight and are already dealing with attacks from several different directions at once then your Force Sight is mostly limited to knowing THAT things are coming your way rather than actually seeing specifically WHAT is coming your way, as you have to focus most of your attention on not getting killed. Thanks to my strong sensory powers and the multitasking skills I had developed under Master Obi-Wan's tutelage, I could "see" her just as clearly in darkness as I could have in full light, even with the whole combat thing going on. But I also knew that she couldn't "see" me nearly as well outside of what our lightsabers illuminated, which was essentially just a couple of feet or so in front of us, if that.

Which meant that she also couldn't see that the reason for the aforementioned lull in my offense was that I, not Ahsoka, was now pelting her with plates while simultaneously defending with my lightsaber.

Or that Ahsoka herself was currently taking advantage of the distraction by preparing to throw something much bigger. Like, for instance, the large and rather heavy chunk of ceiling/floor that we had cut out.

Makashi is good at many things, but geared toward stopping massive impacts it is not, a point proven by the shocked expression on her face as the debris smashed into her like a wrecking ball, sending her crashing through an exterior door. That may not have been enough to remove her from the fight completely—as evidenced by Ventress' shriek of rage as she got back to her feet, the rain falling upon the balcony on which she had landed soaking her to the bone—but the bruises and blood were apparent, and the deranged look on her face told us all Ahsoka and I needed to know.

Ventress had lost control of her anger. But the fight was far from over.

"Don't let your personal feelings get in the way of the mission." That was something that Obi-Wan had drilled into Anakin as often as he could; little did Skywalker know that the reminder was as much for Kenobi as for him. For all that Kenobi had professed concerning a Jedi's need for impartiality and a lack of attachment, deep down Obi-Wan knew that he had become attached to his first apprentice as almost a little nephew, and later a younger brother. Now a similar attachment had grown towards his newest apprentice, but with more paternal undertones, an attachment he knew Anakin had for Ahsoka. Now that he no longer hid from that truth, however, he found himself struggling alongside Anakin to resist the temptation to rush to the aid of their padawans.

But non-Jedi soldiers have to struggle with that sort of temptation all the time, Kenobi reflected. If they can feel such attachment, admit such attachment, draw on that attachment as a source of strength, and not have it jeopardize their duty or compromise their morals... then so can the Jedi.

It was that thought that allowed Kenobi to maintain his usual exterior calm as he directed the defense of Kamino, still not-quite-recovered from his brief "swim" and subsequent discovery of/narrow escape from the enemy's hidden fleet of assault craft.

"Master, I can't find a good spot to land—"

"We need you in the air right now, Anakin!" Obi-Wan spoke hurriedly into the commlink while deflecting blaster fire. "Keep up the runs against the assault craft so that we don't get completely swamped here!"

"Ahsoka and Kevin are down there somewhere with Ventress! They're not ready for that kind of fight!"

"I know, Anakin. But if Kamino falls, then we all die anyway. We will just have to trust in their ability to follow what we've taught them so far."

Anakin remained silent for a few moments; Obi-Wan was briefly worried that his former apprentice would give in to temptation and chase after Ventress, battle or no. It wouldn't have been out of character in the past, so it came as a major surprise to hear the eventual reply.

"You're right. I still don't like it, but I trust your judgement. Broadside, form on my wing, let's take some of the heat off the ground forces!"

Before Obi-Wan could properly register the bizzarely reasonable response from his former apprentice, a metallic blur shot out of the nearest landing craft and practically tore apart the nearby clone troopers before turning its baleful gaze upon the Jedi Master.

"Kenobi! How nice to see you again!"

A pair of lightsabers activated in unison as General Grievous taunted his prey. Obi-Wan remained unmoved by the display. "I'm afraid I cannot share the sentiment, General. You've made a serious mistake in attacking Kamino."

Grievous leapt forward, giving Kenobi little time to react before the Jedi Master became entirely preoccupied with defending against the hurricane of strikes, slashes, and stabs from Grievous' twin blades. Against any lesser Jedi, this barrage would be nearly instantly lethal; indeed, there were few Jedi even among the current Masters of the order who could claim to long withstand such an offense. Fortunately, two of those Jedi were on Kamino, and Kenobi himself was the greater duelist of the two. Remaining calm, he allowed the force to take control completely, trusting it to guide his actions and movements, thus freeing his mind to focus on his surroundings, as well as on utilizing his considerable tactical brilliance. The servos and microcomputers in Grievous' cyborg body allowed for up to nearly twenty strikes per second, each one unique and from a different direction, but all of them failed to penetrate the ultimate defense of Kenobi's Form III. Around them, the battle continued to rage; battle droids clashed with clone troopers, but all combatants regardless of affiliation gave the pair a wide berth lest they be caught up in a fierce duel that was beyond their ability to survive.

In an attempt to surprise Kenobi, Grievous engaged his second pair of arms while in blade-lock, grabbing the Jedi Master by the neck and preparing to crush his windpipe. Kenobi responded with a strong force-push to Grievous' midsection, throwing the cyborg back and forcing him to release his death grip. Sensing that further direct confrontation was unlikely to result in a victory, Grievous scampered off to find a more suitable battleground, with Obi-Wan not far behind.

The chase led them to a small supply shuttle landing pad attached to a walkway between facilities; as the two engaged once again, Grievous sent out a silent command over CIS channels, carefully playing the role of cornered prey. For once, Kenobi seemed to fall for the act.

"It seems your assault has failed, General," the Jedi Master said, gesturing to the large number of destroyed assault craft, the few that remained either fighting to the last or fleeing the planet. "I would recommend you surrender to me while you still can; I doubt you'll receive such an offer from anyone else."

Grievous paused as if to think it over, only to fail to keep his dejariik face intact when he received the reply from his subordinates that he had been waiting for. "Why should I surrender to a dead man?"

The landing pad shook from the blow of the attacking assault craft below, giving Grievous time to leap onto the lead gunship in a small squadron of them that had risen from the waves. "Time to become one with the Force, Jedi—"

A barrage of laser cannon blew through a good chunk of the squadron, sending their volley flying far off-course. Grievous barely managed to stay on board his own ship before Kenobi used the force to leap onto the gunship with him; as such, while his own counterattack kept him from immediate death, he was helpless to prevent Obi-Wan from destroying the droid pilot and slashing the control panel, crippling the aircraft.

Kenobi leapt off the gunship and onto a passing Jedi fighter, its own pilot giving him a salute and a sly grin. "Enjoy your flight, General!"

Grievous barely managed to choke out one last foul curse in Kaleesh towards the Jedi and everything they stood for before his world erupted in fire.

There is one important detail to keep in mind when fighting a Sith or other similar dark siders, one that surprisingly DIDN'T come up in Master Obi-Wan's lessons. Namely that, while angering them is a good way to trick them into losing control, it's also a good way to ensure that they get a pretty serious boost in killing power. Looking back, it's a rather obvious addendum, but it isn't until you see a seriously pissed-off Sith woman look at you like she wants to set you ablaze with her glare alone before devouring your finely-cooked liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti that you realize just how much trouble that strategy can get you in if you're not careful.

The surge of Sith Lightning that Ventress unleashed at Ahsoka and me nearly killed us both; as it was, we barely managed to dodge the deadly spray of dark side energy before a strong telekinetic surge followed and almost took our feet out from under us.

"I'm going to take my time tearing you LIMB FROM LIMB!" Ventress shrieked. One lightsaber of hers had flown over the side of the balcony into the raging waters far below, but with the frenzied offense she was now unleashing that single lightsaber was more than enough to force us back. The speed of her strikes was impressive before, but now it was even more frightening, leaving us with little room to do anything other then defend and hope for her to tire out before we did; as the fight continued, though, it was clear that her reserves were greater than ours, and that if something didn't change soon we would quickly find ourselves cut to ribbons by the angry murderess.

That change came in the form of a stray turbolaser blast exploding a bit below the balcony, causing it to briefly shudder under our feet. Ventress recovered first, thrusting out her arm in my direction and sending me barreling over the side of the balcony; it took all that I had to direct my fall with the Force and find a handhold on an exterior wall a bit below and to the side of the platform, nearly letting go in a panic as the datapad with the evidence against Palpatine fell from its holster on my utility belt and was lost. I wasn't alone in my fear, though, as I could sense Ahsoka barely holding her own against Ventress several meters above me.

She won't last much longer... what do I do?

As I stretched out my senses, trying to find a way back up to the balcony, I sensed something strange; it was almost like a system of "cracks" floating around everything, all connected in a vast web. Following the system led me to lay eyes on one of the supports for the balcony platform; it had been damaged somewhat by the stray shell from earlier. To the naked eye, it would appear to have remained untouched—indeed, whatever damage had been done to it was small enough as to be microscopic—but the "cracks" in the force around it all converged onto a single spot, barely a nanometer wide. A sole, potentially devastating weakness in an otherwise strong structure.

Ahsoka! I let out a telepathic warning.

Kevin, are you okay? Hurry, I can't stop her!

Ahsoka, when I tell you to, leap back into the doorway!

I used my free hand to prepare a force push, one far more condensed than any I had done before, all focused on that single weakness.

AHSOKA, NOW!

With a loud "crack", the weakness in the support beam became a massive rupture; a second, less focused force push took it out entirely, causing the section of the balcony above to collapse into the sea with it, my mental warning giving Ahsoka just enough time to force leap to safety.

As closely as I was hanging on for dear life, I barely managed to spot Ventress' falling form slam hard into the surface of the water and vanish beneath the waves.

"Kevin! Ahsoka! I'm glad you're both safe..."

I turned from where we had sat down to rest to see our respective masters rushing toward us, giving a sigh of relief. "Since we're not surrounded by battle droids, I'm guessing we won?"

Anakin smiled. "Better than that. Dooku's going to have to find a new general; Grievous won't be bothering anyone ever again."

My eyes widened in surprise. "Grievous is dead?"

Master Obi-Wan nodded. "Indeed. I see you managed to survive Ventress."

"We did one better than that," Ahsoka said with a tired smirk. "She's with Grievous now."

It was now our Masters' turn to look surprised; Anakin sounded particularly impressed. "What? Are you telling us that you actually killed Asajj Ventress?"

"The last Kevin and I saw of her was when she was falling to her death."

Master Obi-Wan didn't look entirely convinced. "Perhaps, perhaps not," he said, furrowing his brow. "Ventress is notoriously difficult to kill; she's survived things that would have killed most Jedi. I personally wouldn't assume anything unless I saw her actual body."

Much as I wanted to think otherwise, I had to agree with Master Obi-Wan; Ventress was less of a Rattataki and more of a Force-sensitive Terminator fueled by hate. But that wasn't the only downer of the day. "Master Obi-Wan... I messed up."

"What do you mean, Kevin?"

"When I looked through the Kaminoans' database, I found evidence that could have changed everything... and I lost it in the fight." My only hope was that they didn't notice the alteration to the Order 66 programming.

Master Obi-Wan gave me a sympathetic look. "That is alright. What is important is that you are both safe. What did you find?"

Once again, the Force gave me the "bad idea" vibe... but this time was different. Somehow, I could tell that this was the last time it would stop me from saying anything. That the time to reveal the secret, all the secrets, was just around the corner.

"Not here," I said, keeping my voice low. "I don't want to risk the Kaminoans knowing what I found out. I promise I'll tell once we get back to the Temple, though."

As soon as we boarded the Negotiator, we found that we wouldn't be able to rest just yet; to my surprise, we had one more mission before we could return home.

"Saroth Outpost just went dark," Mace Windu said over the holocall. "And apparently a CIS strike force was reported in the area right as the main force attacked Kamino."

Anakin crossed his arms. "What's so important about this outpost?"

"According to reports, it was a secret facility used for covert weapons testing, but we've received word from the Senate that it was under suspicion of having gone rogue not long ago. They would have sent someone to investigate before..."

"But if they were wrong, they would risk exposing its location to the enemy," Master Obi-Wan said, following the logic. "Either way, this is definitely worth checking out; we need to see what the enemy now knows, or does not know."

Anakin looked more than a bit put-out, and I couldn't exactly blame him. "We should have been told about this place years ago, covert or not! What else is the Senate keeping from us?"

I barely managed to hide my reaction to that question. You have no idea... but it won't be long before you find out. Hopefully you won't go crazy when you do.

"That's a problem for another time, Anakin. Besides, the coordinates for this place aren't too far out of the way, so there is no reason not to investigate this immediately. You and Ahsoka can stay on the ship and get some rest; Kevin and I will handle this one."

A couple of hours later found me and Master Obi-Wan wandering through a suspiciously empty facility on a small asteroid; something about the whole situation gave me chills.

"No scorch marks from blaster fire... no signs of combat anywhere."

"That is indeed strange," Master Obi-Wan replied. "But it would make sense if the Senate's suspicion about this place going rogue were correct. The enemy must have used Kamino as a distraction to cover their evacuation of this facility and their theft of whatever was being tested here."

I raised an eyebrow as Master Obi-Wan and I activated the control panel for a large pair of bay doors; seeing how large those doors were, there was no way whatever was beyond them wasn't important. "So why didn't they just destroy the place once they got what they wanted out of here? Why leave it for us to look through and potentially find out what they stole?"

"That, my young padawan, is what worries me. I'm glad we have the Negotiator standing by; this can't be anything other than a trap—"

The doors opened to reveal a cannon-like object pointed directly at us, triggered by the motion of the doors opening. As the device began to fire, I got a new feeling from the force.

Now.

I didn't need to be told what to do; without warning or hesitation, I placed one hand on Master Obi-Wan's head, shoving every bit of knowledge I could into him before force-pushing him out of the way.

The world went white.

The world went dark.

A few days after Kamino found Dooku once again staring out over his homeworld. His calm demeanor did not change when a red lightsaber activated behind him.

"Ah. Ventress. It seems you survived Kamino."

The Sith Assassin stepped out of the shadows, still clearly recovering from her terrible injuries during the battle. "You traitor! Did you think I wouldn't find out about your disowning of me before I returned?"

"Hmph. I am shocked that it took you until after the battle to discover it. That only serves to prove your incompetence."

Ventress growled. "You can't just get rid of me that easily!"

"I can, and I have. The truth is, you had already been replaced months ago; the missive I sent out over the network merely made it official."

Before Ventress could respond, her head was removed from her body by an attack from behind.

Dooku smiled. "Come forward, my young apprentice."

A young human male appeared from the darkness, deactivating his lightsaber.

"You have proven your skill beyond my expectations at every turn; that you were able to hide your presence from Ventress now only confirms that you are her superior in every way. And now, it is time to begin our work. Kneel."

Marshall Dalton knelt.

"From this day forth, you shall be known as Darth Iudex."

Darth Iudex rose.