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Sixth Story: The Unassuming Pseudo-Jedi

It all started with a tragedy.

Every story has it. I can tell. No matter how cliché it is, angst is a pretty good hook factor to get a lot of readers interested. But then again, I can't really say that this story is cliché or anything, though it is true that it's tragic and full of angst.

I was standing at the large entrance of the Temple.

The Jedi Temple, residing in the planet Coruscant.

Before anyone can ask what the hell I was doing in this galaxy far, far away, just let me say that it's a long story which would include a long-ass prologue to explain; one that a simple one-shot would fail to tell in full detail.

But anyway, there I was.

Coruscant's night sky really was beautiful. I stared at the brightly-lit horizon and admired its ethereal beauty. It was said that Coruscant at night is a lot more beautiful than it is at noon, and now I see why that's the case.

…

"*Sigh*…this kind of escapism attitude is just like me."

With a forlorn look, I said so depressingly. It wasn't like I didn't want to focus on the matter at hand, but my mind tend to wander off whenever I'm confronted with stressful problems. Unlike in most cases where I can afford being so laidback, it was no time to be daydreaming (though, since it's already night, is it called night-dreaming? Isn't that, like, normal dreams?).

Rumor has it that Anakin Skywalker defected.

Well…defected isn't really the correct word. He turned. For some reason, that word holds a lot more malice than it should in normal context.

But those were the last words of Master Windu. Those were the last words he said to me before he died.

"He's turned…Anakin Skywalker has turned…"

Us Jedi (I can't really say I'm a Jedi, though) know the real meaning of the word 'turned'. We are taught of the ways of the Force as our most basic teachings. And like all things in life, the Force has two sides to its coin.

Anakin Skywalker was a Jedi; a warrior of light.

To say that he has 'turned' meant that he has turned to the dark side; that he became a Sith.

I honestly couldn't believe it at first. It hasn't been long since I first came to the Temple to train, but I know for a fact that Anakin is supposed to be the Chosen One, meant to bring balance to the Force. To say that he has become a Sith Lord contradicts that prophecy completely.

But even if he wasn't the Chosen One, it would still be hard to believe that he'd become a Sith.

I've met him several times. A stubborn, sometimes sardonic guy with a strong sense of justice; he's the type of guy delinquents from all high schools would idolize. In general, he's a good person. With a lightsaber, he's my worst nightmare since being shit on by a wild Bantha.

Still, he's a good guy. So, like I said before, it's hard to believe he turned to the dark side.

-!

Something tugged on my heartstring. Senses honed by countless hours of training in the Force warned me of an upcoming danger.

He's coming.

The collective sound of rhythmic footsteps reached my ears just as that realization dawned upon me. Not a moment later, the sight of hundreds of clone troopers entered my vision, their rifles held valiantly in front of their armored chests. I should've felt relieved by the fact that those Kaminoan clones appeared, but as they stomped closer and closer in their Mandalorian-style armor, I felt nothing but dread.

This time, they were not my allies.

It was made clear by who was leading them at the time.

"…Anakin."

Swathed in his Jedi robes, Anakin raised his face and stared. Initially, I would have never believed that he had actually turned a Sith. I knew him; a friggin' Sith was never something he wanted to be. Heck, he'd quickly go back to Tatooine and exile himself before that ever happens.

But those eyes spoke of the truth.

The yellow eyes of a Sith shone differently from how I remember his usual eyes used to.

"…Oh? So you're here after all," Anakin uttered, sounding more amused than surprised. His mouth turned into a smirk as he looked at me with narrowed eyes; an expression I've grown accustomed with, honestly. He'd always have that kind of look every time we spar, like a youth enjoying a back alley fight. It just never occurred to me that it would look so Sith-like in this context.

Just then, his smirk dropped a tone as he peered closely towards the entrance of the Jedi Temple behind me. I know he was trying to reach out to the Force and sense the presences of the many Padawan learners in the chambers, and honestly, I wouldn't have any doubts that he could detect them all. But that happened to be what I expected of him.

"I know why you're here, so here's an advice: drop it. You're not going to reach them."

A chuckle escaped Anakin's throat after my revelation. He should have realized it by now, too.

"Oh, I see. You must've caught wind of what happened in the Chancellor's office somehow. Evacuating not only the Padawans, but also the Jedi Masters in such a short notice wouldn't have been possible otherwise."

"What are you talking about? On the off-chance that the Temple is to face an invasion from outer aggressors, the Padawans are to quickly retreat to the escape shuttles while anyone ranked Knights and above fend off said aggressors. …Though, honestly, I hope that even the Masters have already fled by now. You should've expected this kind of outcome. And if you really have trained here, you should've read the rulebook too. Helps you get Master Mundi off your back about it."

"…Those rules were such a pain, though."

"It still is, Anakin." I corrected. "It still is."

"Not anymore," He let out another mirthless chuckle. "It's no use. I've turned my back on the Jedi path. The dark side is where I stand now."

He said those things with such a logical ease that I lost my words.

Anakin raised a hand, signaling to a clone commander to prepare their weapons. Their rifles cocked and ready, the clone troopers took aim almost systematically.

I'm not confident enough to say that I could stand up to a whole battalion of clone troopers, nor do I think I would ever be able to. They were different than the training bots used in blocking training; hardened soldiers armed to the teeth with the will to follow orders until death or glory. And they use real bullets. My single lightsaber felt seriously insufficient all of a sudden. Not to mention that I lack talent in Form III Soresu lightsaber style to even think of escaping a gunfight unscathed.

Should've asked Master Obi-Wan to train me some.

"Look at yourself, Zeke. You're standing here, alone, endangering yourself even when you could've fled along with the others, and for what? So you can buy some time for them? So you can protect them? You're willing to stand and protect even Jedi Masters who are evidently stronger and more capable than you are? Why are you even going that far? If only you knew about how corrupt the Jedi have been, you wouldn't be so dead-set on protecting them."

"I'll be the judge of my own opinions, thank you very much," I felt my knuckles pop as I clenched my fists. "It's true that the Jedi might have done some wrong things. I won't say that each and every decision they've made up until now are entirely correct, either. And their creed of theirs contradicts what there is in life, as well. Giving up compassion for peace? In all honesty, if there's no difference between the two, I'd rather go Sith rather than leading such a strict life as a Jedi.

"But my life is here now. The things that make up my world today are on this side of the Force, and I want to protect them. I don't care about the Jedi or Sith! I honestly don't give a shit if you want to turn into a Sith and rampage across the galaxy! But if you're going to destroy my world, if you're going to hurt those around me, then you better clench your teeth. There's no way I'm letting that happen!"

I had no intent on sounding pretentious.

In fact, I didn't want to let myself think I was such a great existence. Up until several months ago, I was just a simple university student, all but ignorant of my father and mother being former Jedi Masters. I'm not a big player in the wider board this conflict was brewing upon.

But I do know one thing.

I have my own things to protect. And goddammit, I'll be damned if I let this guy destroy them!

"…Huh. So be it, then." Anakin said whilst drawing out a tube-shaped object; his lightsaber.

VMMMM!

A light blue-colored beam hummed to life.

"How'd you say it? 'The things that make up my world are in this side of the Force'? How ironic. I'm standing on this side of the Force simply because what makes up your world is destroying mine. Sounds like a clash of selfish ideals, doesn't it?"

Anakin had a point.

Seen from that perspective, what he was doing made slight sense as well. Even though he had turned evil, he wouldn't be some easy demon king that I can fight without hesitation.

Undoubtedly, he was fighting for his own world; his own sense of justice, as well. Going against someone like that had the difficulty of fighting against another hero in a PvP contest. In other words, defeating him would likely be harder than anything, given our similar standing.

'But that changes nothing.'

What we needed to do was underwhelming in its simplicity.

We have our own worlds to protect. We just have to protect it the best we can, and see which one survives afterwards.

"It's no use! You're merely preventing the inevitable. There's no stopping what my master has willed to happen. The Jedi will perish. And I am going to see to it myself. I'll kill every living Jedi with my own two hands, even if I have to burn every star system down to find them!"

Even though the clone troopers around him was enough to overwhelm and defeat me with their assault rifles, Anakin raised his own hand with his palm facing me. Already I could feel the darkness lurking in-between the Force gathering around his hand; a tell-tale sign of him calling forth a Sith Lightning.

Despite all that, I could feel myself grinning.

My talent was not in the ways of the lightsaber. I've barely gotten around using Form II, but even then that was the only form I know that fits my average stamina. I'm not Master Cin-Drallig who specialized in high speed movements or his disciple Sera whose dual-wielding was the scariest form I've ever seen, and I'm not like Ahsoka, Anakin's very own Padawan apprentice, who was a monster with her Form IV.

But that doesn't mean I was powerless.

If I said so, well…that personification of the Force might come and kick me in the ass again.

Thus, I reached out to the source of energy encompassing all life around me.

I reached out to the Force which my talent solely resided in, taking it and molding it with the most powerful tool ever known to sentient, intelligent beings; imagination.

Closing my eyes, I pictured what I wanted to do with the Force at hand.

"Of the dead, I shall sing,
A poem of their glorious upbringing.
To the living, I shall recite,
A tale that shakes the heavenly night.
The weak, the strong,
The fallen, and the victorious.
Lend thy blades and fight with me."

The easiest, most efficient way to strengthen one's visualization of their mind was either through drawing a picture of it or going through a series of audio-visual stimulus related to their thoughts. In my case, a quick recital of a chant, of an aria, which brought to my mind a scene of that one ability in an anime I have watched, was the one thing that stimulated my imagination the way I wanted it.

Yes.

I doubted the Jedi, the Sith, or anyone in this star system for that matter, knew anything about otaku culture. That happened to work in my favor. Let's see how well they handle this 'bone of my sword'.

"So hear my prayer…Infinite Sword Call."

I can feel them.

Hanging in the air behind me, blanketed by the shadows, concealing themselves from the naked eye. All at once, they ignited, chasing away the darkness with their bright colors respective to the crystals empowering them.

Lightsabers.

I couldn't count them all even if I wanted to. The number was too great it almost felt like they were part of Coruscant's dazzling night light.

"You don't really think I came without preparation, do you?" I asked aloud. "Even I'm not that stupid. Heck no, against you, there's no way I'm going half-heartedly. Someone like you wouldn't stay down unless something like an overcharged Grandrey Cero exploded in your face, after all."

The countless rows of lightsabers behind me wasn't merely a weapon. Each and every one of them symbolizes the faith that the other Jedis have placed on me. For one Jedi that escaped, one lightsaber was entrusted to me. For every sword hanging behind me, a promise to protect them was made.

Metaphorically, perhaps, I was carrying the weight of the world I want to protect on my back. Sounds like Atlas of Greek mythology, huh? But if I remember correctly, wasn't he carrying the Heavens originally? …Meh, so much for a good metaphor.

"Let me say this again, Anakin. I've got a world to protect. So if you really think that you can defeat me, then prepare yourself. I'll show you just how fragile those claws and fangs that you're pointing at my world really are!"

Somewhere deep down, I know I might not be able to win.

Infinite swords or not, my opponent was still the strongest Jedi the world has ever seen. Him becoming a Sith didn't change that. In fact, since he had something he want to protect so badly that he'd turn to the dark side, it was safe to say he had gotten even stronger. But all of that didn't matter.

I might not win.

But I'll be sure to give this Chosen One a satisfying right hook to the face and teach him a lesson.

Yeeaaah…sorry 'bout that.

You guys should know that I got a LOT of beef with how the Star Wars went in the third episode. This especially grinds my gears because a lot of my favorite characters got killed there. There's Mace Windu, the young Padawans (apparently no one in the Sith taught about how wrong child homicide is), and Anakin Skywalker. Because, yeah, Anakin is dead the moment he turned into Darth Vader (unless his redemption in episode 6 means anything at all).

So, yeah, insert convenient OC right there :P

It's like I wasn't satisfied with replacing Obi-Wan with Kamijou Touma for the battle in Mustafar on Chapter 1, but now an anime-savvy OC with a strong 'connection' with the Force (yeah, that quotation mark is intentional) arrives on stage. Seriously.

To those who noticed, yeah, I tried to bastardize Archer/Counter Guardian EMIYA's Unlimited Blade Works here. But hey, can you really blame me? The dude rocks. Heck, the Fate series, Kinoko Nasu, and Ufotable, all of them rocks.

P.S: Later on, this teaser oneshot might actually become an official one, depends on when I finish my other fics. Until then, feel free to adopt! Actually, no, even if it becomes official, you're still welcome to adopt!

…Oi, doesn't this make me look like I'm gonna be a bad parent?