Chapter 11

"General Kenobi, we have secured the separatist fort. What is the statist with those AA-guns?" Jedi Master Shaak Ti asked her old friend via holo-com. She looked around and saw the clones carry away the last of the dead, and medics taking care of those who were injured. She noticed her former Pad-wan, Aayla Secura, giving orders to see if they can find any extra Intel. The com-link started to beep and soon Shaak Ti heard the familiar sound of blaster fire and a Light saber deflecting the deadly beams of energy.

"We have met some heavy resistance from separatist forces; the droids have managed to destroy our tanks. I sent Anakin with a small team of clones inside the AA-gun towers, Anakin is confident he can shut down the guns from the inside. It will take time but by the time we are done, we might be able to get the AA-guns here to target enemy aircraft." Shaak Ti was a little worried for her friend.

"Please be careful these droids, are being commanded by mercenaries. The mercenaries themselves are capable of stopping our plans. We have suffered many losses on my side before the mercenary escaped." More blaster fire was heard being deflected, and the sound of metal falling to the ground echoed through the com-link. "Explains the tactics the droids are using. Whoever these mercenaries are, I hope Anakin doesn't underestimate them." Obi-Wan replied.

Inside the Main AA-gun tower.

Anakin lead his group of clones up the stairs of the tower with little resistance, any droid they came across was turned to scrap before their sensors noticed them. "Seems like whoever controls these droids ordered all of them to take out our tanks." One of the clones said. "It's almost too easy." Anakin said as he came up to a door.

"Seems like we found the control center." Anakin said with a smirk, the room was spacious and had many monitors and hard ware. "See if you can find anything interesting, I'll work on reprogramming these turrets. "Right away sir!" the five clones soon walked to a different piece of hard ware. It was about a few minutes later that Anakin finally found the main computer drive. "Now let's see what we got here…." Anakin felt a disturbance in the force and turned around immediately turning on his light saber. Anakin's eyes were wide opened to see a heavily armored figure in red in black armor, with a full helmet painted with no visible visor, only the color red.

"Who are you?" Anakin asked before realizing the clones were all on the ground with blaster wounds "when did you?" Anakin's only response was the triple barrel pistol in the man's right hand aiming at him. Anakin reacted quick thanks to his training, but was caught by surprise, for one the blaster was one hundred percent silenced. Second that the strength of the blaster was as strong as a sniper shot, knocking the light saber out of Anakin's grasp, forcing the young Jedi to dodge the next shots. Jumping behind one of the many computer drives as cover, Anakin used the force to withdraw his Light saber. 'This guy killed the clones without me knowing. Shit I didn't even notice until the force told me he was standing in front of me.' Anakin peeked over the large computer drive he was using for cover and notice the figure was nowhere to be seen. 'Where did he go?' once again the force told Anakin to move and not a second too soon. Anakin back flipped away to see a very faint outline of a figure the light refracting of an invisible surface. "He's invisible!" Anakin said in surprise forced to dodge and then redirect the blaster shots.

Vincent was surprised, that the Jedi was able to sense his presence. No one has ever sense his presence. His new master Fenrir always knew when Vincent was in the room, but never knew was his exact location was. Now here is this Jedi Knight who can do the same thing. Vincent kept firing his blaster, not only giving away his position but also forcing his active camouflage off. Vincent watched as the Jedi adjusted his grip so he could deflect the blaster shots, and started to run toward Vincent. The Jedi swung his blade trying to cut Vincent's hand but the mercenary easily side stepped the swing, but was forced to lean out of the way of another swing.

This little deadly dance went on for a few more swings until Anakin got frustrated, once again failing to hit the target the Jedi knight force pushed the mercenary, who not only flew in mid air, but flipped and twisted his body so his feet hit the wall. Time slowed down for Vincent once his feet touched the wall, using his experience in combat from the Gaian war, the mercenary jumped off the wall with all his strength, while at the same time shooting three bolts from his gun, one for each barrel, and activated his jets flying right behind the bolts. Anakin was not prepared. First he was in shock of how quickly the Mercenary recovered from the force push; second he barely had enough time block the blaster shots. His next surprise was that three shots hit his light saber at the same time, having enough momentum to knock the weapon out of Skywalker's hand. The next thing Anakin knew was that something gold entered his field of vision, and introduced itself to his face. Anakin flew back into one of the screens, shattering it on impact. Looking up he saw the red and black mercenary's left hand, what looked to be a golden prosthetic arm. Anakin felt that his face was swollen and reached for his cheek only to see blonde graze his finger tips.

"You certainly are a hard headed individual. Most people either die or get knocked out from that punch." The voice of the man was filtered through the helmet, but it didn't sound like he was talking to Anakin, it sounded more like he was thinking aloud. Anakin didn't have time to ponder on what the man said instead, he was forced to dodge another blaster shot. Using the force to regain his weapon Anakin, ducked and weaved past the blaster fire, using the force to try and increase his speed with each step, unknowing that he was doing so. Anakin moved so fast that he actually managed to get in close enough to cut his opponent. Anakin swung his blade hoping to at least destroy the man's blaster. Vincent noticed that the Jedi was going to destroy his blaster, and by instinct raised his left arm to attempt and block the light saber.

Just as the light saber hit Vincent the doors opened to reveal Obi-wan and some clone troopers, and what they saw was considered impossible. Anakin's eyes opened wide in shock, as Vincent held the destructive blade of the light saber in his golden hand. Vincent on the other hand was still acting on instinct, after grabbing the blade he pistol whipped Anakin across the temple, and quickly turned and fired upon the two clones and Jedi master. By the time Anakin fell to the ground unconscious, two more clones died while Obi-wan Barely Deflected the blaster shot. Vincent quickly ran off and activated his cloak leaving Obi-wan stunned and concerned for his former Pad-wan. 'That man just grabbed a Light saber.' Obi-wan thought in shock as he looked over Anakin and more clones got into the room, some already trying to locate the mercenary.

Shaak Ti's fort

"We did a full sweep of the fort, the place is now fully operational, and there seems to be some extra ammunition and medical supplies. I already have distributed the medical supplies. All we got left to do is waiting for Obi-wan to take those AA-guns and for General Fair to give us the command to march." Aayla reported to her master, "Oh and we did manage to find some information on the mercenaries. Seems that there are only two and both are Gaian. One seems to be a former small time bounty hunter while the other has served in the last Gaian Great Wars. They both are here as body guards to a separatist agent 626. We also confirmed that this agent 626 is one of Dooku's acolytes, the same one we fought on Geonosis." Shaak Ti looked at her former Pad-wan, 'Cloud is here?' Shaak Ti felt her heart speed up slightly, her emotions for cloud being too strong for her to control, especially from the way they left things on Geonosis. Aayla looked at her master in worry, knowing full and well how important Cloud is to her, it was one of the reasons she agreed with Anakin not to tell anyone that Cloud was still alive. But now looking at her master, Aayla wished she hadn't over heard her master speak to Obi-wan.

Just then Shaak Ti's com-link was beeping, "Shaak Ti, I need you to relay my repot to Zack, I have got some disturbing news." Shaak Ti nodded and went inside the fort were they set up communications. Connecting to Zack's ship Shaak Ti and her apprentice waited until the hologram of Zack and Ki-Adi-Mundi. Soon another holo gram of Obi-wan came through with Anakin who had a bandaged over his left cheek, and his eye seemed to be slightly swollen.

"We have managed to take control of the AA-guns, we should have better control of the air space now, and my team has taken heavy casualties we lost both of our AT-ATs and half of my clones leaving me with about 40 men. We have encountered a Mercenary who was heavily armored and used advanced weaponry." Obi-wan stated. "The mercenary had a blaster pistol with the fire power of a sniper rifle, and it was silence."

"No sound what so ever. He manages to kill a squad of clones with me in the same room and I didn't even notice." Anakin took over. "I tried to hold him off, but he surprised me with his blaster's fire power, and his ability to turn invisible when he isn't firing his gun."

"This is some bad news, first the mercenary at the fort with a sniper rifle that can kill our gunship pilots. Now another who can kill in complete silence?" Ki-Adi-Mundi said.

"That's not all." Anakin said, "He also managed to grab the blade of my light saber." All Jedi present were either shocked or in denial. "It seems that the metal his left hand is made of is capable to withstand a light saber."

"To add on to that I found that the mercenaries are Gaian species, one is light bounty hunter while the other was a veteran in the Gain great war." Aayla added quickly.

"It could be that the one Anakin faced was the Veteran," Zack stated

"How do you know," Anakin asked.

"I may not have been raised on Gaia but I was interested to learn about my home planet. It is possible that the one you fought lost his arm in the war and received a Gaian gold prosthetic arm. Gaian gold is the toughest most indestructible metal Gaia has, and it's now proven to be the toughest in the galaxy. But it's so rare that the Gaian government restrict the use of the gold only to replace the limbs of royalty or those who done a favor to the king."

"So the mercenary is a war hero. What is he doing here?" Obi-wan said. Raising his hand to his beard trying to think.

"I can answer that," Aayla said, "When we searched the fort for Intel we found out that the two mercenaries are here guarding a Separatist Agent 626, A.K.A the dark acolyte Fenrir. The same acolyte that was on Geonosis that fought Shaak Ti, and cut Anakin's hand off." Obi-wan's eyes widen along with Anakin, only Ki-Adi-Mundi and Zack were focusing on the information. Obi-wan and Shaak Ti shared a look and Anakin glared to Aayla. 'He may be the friend of our master, but he cut off my arm, this time I'll beat him down.'

Separatist droid factory

"I see." Fenrir stood his robes still hiding his figure. The hood and mask covering his entire head, Fenrir had his back turned to the entrance of the room. While he held out a small holo-communicator. Vincent who made his report via holo-call was shown in full armor as he rode a speeder. Yuffie was busy cleaning her weaponry, still having all of her armor on. She sat at the table in the center of the room. General Grievous was standing not so far to her right pacing back and forth; it was obvious to see the droid commander was upset. On the opposite end of the Table Fenrir was getting a report from Vincent.

"Your allies have failed you; I knew I should have intercepted the Jedi from taking over." Grievous said moving his way to the table in anger, flipping the table over, causing Yuffie's cleaning supplies on it.

"Hey I was using that you stupid droid!" Yuffie stood up and was about to get into the general's face when she was pulled back by the force in time to avoid the light saber that would have cut her head off. Yuffie landed on her butt a meter in front of her master, she turned and gave her thanks. Fenrir ignored her gratitude and made eye contact with Grievous. "Learn to respect your superiors next time or I will let him cut your head off next time." Fenrir said as Yuffie gave a nervous chuckle. "And as for you grievous if you have a problem with my allies you will have to take it up to me."

"Do not test me Fenrir, you may have won our last duel but you and I both know it was due to luck." There was a silence that filled the air. Cloud didn't want to admit it but the Cyborg was a better swordsman than he was. Their last duel was a few weeks ago and the general had improved leaps and bounds from the first time. The only reason Cloud was thanks to his force powers, letting him "see" the strike coming from his blind spot.

"You fail to realize something grievous, I sent my allies to slow down the Jedi, not stop them. Yuffie what was the total amount of troops killed at the fort."

"The republic lost 3 AT-ATs an estimate of 100 clones on the frontal assault, and about ten gunships carrying and estimate of 150 clones. The only survivors were about 30 clones and two Jedi." Grievous wasn't convinced but he knew that the republic lost a lot of resources.

Fenrir nodded, "And Vincent has taking out about 150 clones five AT-ATs and left a little surprise for the republic." Seeing the confused look on the two in his presence Fenrir waited till the door opened to reveal Vincent.

Vincent walked behind Fenrir and kneeled. "My lord I have successfully left the bombs in place, they are ready to explode on your command." General Grievous calmed down a bit, "You plan on setting those guns to explode when our reinforcements arrive."

"Exactly right now we have a separatist fleet above in atmosphere fighting the republic cruisers, and since the republic now has the AA-guns they believe the guns will take out and of our reinforcements. And well nothing demoralizes troops than false hope."

General Grievous let out a dark chuckle, "this is why out of all the acolytes in Dooku's shadow you have always been the most tolerable. So tell me what the next step to your plan is."

Fenrir walked towards the General and placed a hand on the taller man's shoulder, "You and I draw the Jedi away from their clones, while Vincent sets up the defenses and crushes the clone army." Vincent stood up and took off his helmet.

"This wouldn't be my first time commanding an army General." Grievous stared into the Gaian mercenary and found that the man was a true warrior. "Let's get to the fun." The General said to Fenrir, as the two made their way to the speeders.

The wreckage of the first republic fleet.

Grievous stood next to his fellow acolyte, watching in silence as the former jedi checked one of the Jedi corpses. "Do you plan on activating their com-links?" Fenrir didn't replied favoring to listen to what the force was telling him. Then he noticed something, "you said you killed how many jedi here?"

"I killed four jedi." Grievous then noticed there were only three corpses. "Where is the Whiphid?" Just as he said that cloud felt something in the force. "Come out, Jedi I can sense your fear." Grievous was surprised and immediately activated his light sabers. Sure enough a Whiphid came out of one of the wreckage severely injured. "Ah if it isn't the Jedi master K'kruhk, and you seem to be severely injured. Let's make a deal." Fenrir said spreading his arms wide, the mask hiding his smirk.

Before the Jedi could speak Fenrir used the arcane Sith heart stun, causing the Jedi to collapse. Grievous looked in surprise "what did you do."

"The same technique I used to keep you alive after the explosion of your ship, it's a Sith technique that Dooku taught me. It stuns the heart to put the organs in a stasis state. Now that we have our bait, we can set the trap." Grievous chuckled already liking the idea.

"Activate the com-link and show them that K'kruhk lives." Fenrir ordered.

"And what will you do?" Grievous questioned not liking that he had to do the work.

"I will hide in the wreckage that way the jedi think you are the only one here… unless you want me to take up your fun." Grievous would have smirked if his face could show it. "Have I said how much I love the way you think?"

Republic ground HQ, former separatist fort.

Zack made his way to the war room where the other Jedi waited for him. Opening the door to the room he noticed that Obi-wan and Shaak- Ti were having a deep conversation, while Kai-Adi-Mundi was receiving a report from a clone. Anakin and Aayla were off to the side holding a friendly conversation. Zack made his way to the table that was in the center of the room, just as Kai-Adi-Mundi received a holo-communicator from a clone. "Friends it seems I have received some good news and bad news." The Cerean Jedi said gathering the attention. The Jedi master placed the holo-communicator in the center of the table. "We found out that one of the Jedi master's that we reported KIA is still alive, Master K'kruhk. But he is barely holding on."

"Well let's go get him before he dies." Aayla said while Mundi shook his head.

"The problem is this recording. "Activating the holo-communicator, the thing revealed general grievous holding the Whiphid jedi by the hair. "Dear Jedi scum, your friend here still draws breath, but not for long. If you wish to save him face me without your clone army. I want all Jedi present; if any clones appear Master K'kruhk will die." The Video showed the General laughing and it ended.

"It's obviously a trap; the general probably has a legion of droids to back him up." Obi-wan mumbled

"But we can't just leave him to die; Master K'kruhk is a valuable member of the jedi order, not to mention a good friend." Zack said. "I say we go, and let the troops invade the droid factory."

"But what about the mercenaries? They alone are skilled enough to stop the invasion." Shaak-Ti through in.

Anakin had a look to his face, "It is possible that Grievous doesn't know how many of us there are. They could only confirm four Jedi. So why don't we send four Jedi to face grievous and leave two to lead the clones."

"Grievous was capable of holding back seven jedi and successfully kill three of them." Aayla said worried.

"Don't fret Aayla, I agree with Anakin's idea. I say we leave our former Pad-wans to lead the clones while we face grievous." Zack said. Obi-wan nodded.

"That seems as the best course of action, hopefully while we distract grievous and whatever trap he lays in store, Anakin and Aayla should have enough time to lead the rest of our ground teams against the Factory."

"Right let's get on a move, Grievous doesn't strike me as a patient person." Zack joked. "Wait for the last of the gunships to bring in more troops and don't forget to use airstrikes." He reminded the former pad-wans. While the jedi Master's headed towards one of the gun ships.

"I'll fly the ship." Shaak Ti volunteered.

"So I guess we should round up our men." Anakin said, walking out the room to locate the nearest clone. Aayla stayed behind looking at the exit. "I fear a great darkness awaiting my master." The Twi'lek quickly exited and tried to catch up to Anakin.

Republic wreckage.

"Rahhh" The Kaleesh General roared in frustration as he tossed the near lifeless body of the Jedi master aside. "The Jedi are taking too long." The general turned his head to what seemed to be an engine of a cruiser, the engine being a bit hollowed out and was currently being used as a hiding spot for our secret Sith lord.

"Don't worry they will arrive, so try not to kill the captive till they get here" the General just grumbled and paced around for about a minute. "Make sure they can't sense you I don't want you interrupting, I plan on making a collection of light sabers from the jedi I slay."

"I will interfere when they start to over whelm you." Fenrir said. Cloud was meditating in his hiding spot using the force to hide his presence so when the Jedi arrive they can't sense him.

"Overwhelm, ha no Jedi can stand against me."

"Then I suggest you get ready I sense they are near." It didn't take long for the Jedi to arrive on a gun ship. Grievous stood at full height as the ship landed and opened up to reveal three Jedi walk out with the fourth following shortly after.

"Glad you can finally make it, I wasn't sure how long I could keep your friend alive." Grievous laughed darkly while the Jedi all activated their Light sabers. Grievous laughter died down, as he activated four light sabers each arm holding one. The sight was an intimidating one, all the Jedi stood in their own defensive stance.

"Whatever you do don't lock sabers with grievous, you have to keep moving!" Ki-Adi-Mundi said as he charged ahead leading the assault with Shaak Ti and obi-wan following and closing in from behind.

Grievous didn't even flinch, Mundi came to his right flank and the droid general parried his attack. The next split second after, Grievous used another light saber to block Shaak Ti and in the same instant Obi-wan flanked the right, only to find another light saber blocking his attack. Time slowed down for Grievous, he predicted and countered the moves easily, getting engaged in a four man dance of death. A small hurricane of light flashing showed that Grievous swung his blades like a buzz saw in a full rotation, a move only he could do because he was part machine. Obi-wan Shaak Ti and Mundi backed away in time but before they could reengage against grievous Zack leaped in with a powerful overhead swing. Out of instinct, the General found himself using all four blades to block the strike and what shocked him was that he was struggling against the strength. It took a second for Grievous to make a leap back as he realized who he was facing.

"General Fair, it's a pleasure to meet your acquaintance." Grievous let out a small chuckle, "Not many people get a chance to kill a Gaian Jedi." Zack frowned for a second as he recalled that his younger brother was murdered by his own master. Zack had trouble keeping his cool just at the sight of the count. But Zack's frown quickly changed to a smirk as his fellow Jedi positioned themselves around the droid general.

Zack had a bright smile and let out a single laugh, "And you must be this General grievous. Tell me how much money it cost the count to create his own servant droid. Considering all the upgrades he added, self defense protocols, and not to mention your joyful personality. It must have cost at least half of the separatist funds." Grievous let out a growl as the general charged to attack the Jedi who dared call him a droid. Zack reacted quickly blocking and dodging the attacks with his own purple bladed light saber. Grievous was to focus on attacking Zack that he almost failed to realize he was being lured into a trap.

The Jedi stuck like a Nexu on fresh meet, but the General was a swords master. Reacting quickly the General disengaged Zack and used his blades to block the incoming strikes of Shaak Ti and Kai-Adi-Mundi. Grievous locked blades with the two Jedi he had beaten earlier that day, but he failed to notice Obi-wan flanking his side and swing ing the Light saber managing to cut off Grievous left hands before the general backed away, now only able to use his two right hands.

Zack smile as he watched the success of his plan. On the short ride to confront the Droid commander, Zack told the group his plan to try and out maneuver the General. Tricking grievous to not only attack in blind rage by insulting the Cyborg, but trying to get grievous to lose track of at least one of them. Now they handicapped the General to only two light sabers on his right side. Now all that was left was to attack the man's left side while one person lingers back till they see an opening to cut off the right hands.

Grievous was not pleased, instead he chose to lose himself in anger and charged obi-wan, the Jedi master was caught off guard by the speed of the droid commander and was caught by Grievous's foot and is now currently pinned underneath the General.

The former Kaleesh warrior was about to cut off Kenobi's head when Zack used the force to push grievous away. Grievous was forced off of Kenobi but quickly held firm to the ground with his feet. Zack stopped using the force and intercepted the General while Shaak Ti and Mundi check on Obi-wan. Grievous found himself on the receiving end of the aggressive and incredibly hard to defend against style called Vapaad, the saber technique mastered by Windu and Zack. Grievous brought up his blades to defend only for his arms to recoil against the impact of Zack's Vapaad and before the General can recover Zack used all the force he could muster to launch the Kaleesh Cyborg into some debris. Grievous made impact with what seemed to be a engine from a cruiser, right next to the hollowed entrance.

Grievous was seated on the ground while he blinked the black spots out of his eyes. The general heard the sound of an light saber igniting, and with a small sense of fear stumbled to his feet and raised his own in defense only for his vision to clear up and show a cloaked figure standing before him, a crimson blade in his right, the man's second blade still on the belt. "Seems like I had to interfere after all my friend." The figure said with dry humor. Grievous said nothing as he stood side by side with the stranger. The grunt the Kaleesh made letting the figure know that he accepted his help albeit regretfully.

The Jedi looked on in shock as they saw the second acolyte come out of the shadows of the engine right next to were grievous landed. All four of them felt a sense of dread, but for different reasons. Obi-wan and Shaak Ti weren't looking forward to facing their old friend so soon. Zack felt something familiar through the force and his heart seemed to ache, but he had no idea why. Mundi looked straight into the mask and only saw the darkness it contained.

"The Name's Fenrir, now would you be so kind as to die?" Fenrir said as his left hand opened using the force to draw his second light saber, igniting the quick silver like color. The act causing two of the Jedi to flinch and another's eyes to open.

Zack almost lost his breath at the sight of the weapons, "Were did you get those?" His voice almost sounded fragile. Fenrir let out a maniacal laugh, sounding similar to a mad man, the man's body twitching from how hard he was laughing. Nobody was able to move, even Grievous was lost. Then after what seemed like a few minutes, The figure's laugh slowly died out until there was silence. There was a sudden darkness that everyone present felt, and it made them shiver.

"I pried these weapons out of the hands of the man you let die by my master's hand; I stole these from the grave of Cloud Strife." The voice used by Fenrir was sharp, sinister, and most shocking off all, void of emotion as if a dead man was talking. It was at this moment that both Obi-wan and Shaak Ti knew they wouldn't be fighting Cloud Strife. They would be fighting Fenrir, the beast of legend rumored to bring about the end of the world as we know it. What stood before them was catalyst to the republics destruction.