Disclaimer: See first chapter.

Chapter 5

Anakin Skywalker and Leia Organa shrugged off their outer robes and drew their lightsabers. Anakin only opted to remove one of his lightsabers for the fight, but the other still hung from his belt in the event he felt he needed to use it. Darth Sadus removed her outer robes and ignited a blood red blade. Anakin and Leia activated their lightsabers and charged at the Sith Lord.

Darth Sadus smirked as she met the Jedi head on. Anakin came on fast with his Djem So style while Leia complimented his attacks with her mastery of Soresu. But the Sith Lord was no slouch in combat. Anakin's orange blade flew towards Sadus's midsection, but she sidestepped the blade and retaliated with a wide staccato cut. Anakin would have been cloven in two if Leia's blue sword did not parry the attack.

Sadus rapidly retracted her blade before Anakin could take advantage of the opening, avoiding another blow from the orange blade. With a flawless Juyo move, Sadus channeled her aggression into a sharp swing in front of her upper body to knock away Anakin's blade. She then quickly turned her attention to Leia to parry one of the younger Jedi's thrusts.

Sadus snarled as she used the dark side to feed her Force Rage. She moved around the Jedi and attacked the Chosen One from the side. Anakin gave ground before Leia came to his defense. Red met blue once again before the warriors withdrew their blades.

"I expected the Chosen One of the Jedi to be a much better fighter than this," Sadus taunted.

"Ask Count Dooku and the Emperor about my skills," Anakin retorted. "I'm only getting started."

Anakin surged forward, clashing blades with the Sith once again. Sadus met the Jedi blow for blow as their lightsabers cut deadly streaks through the air. Sadus could defend her head, her side, and her torso from Anakin's ferocious strikes. Before Leia could join the fight against Sadus, the Sith Lord leapt onto the stairs.

"Take the other flight of stairs," Anakin ordered as he removed his second lightsaber from his belt. He activated a second orange blade with a snap-hiss. Then, ignoring his past experiences, Anakin called on the Force to guide him in his leap. He somersaulted over Sadus and her blade barely missed the Jedi.

Anakin landed on his feet behind Sadus, but she quickly whirled around, swinging her blade in a wide arc. The Chosen One caught the blade with both sabers and pushed against her. Sadus used a Force push to temporarily knock Anakin off balance. It only succeeded in breaking the saber lock and Sadus began to ascend the stairs.

Leia met Sadus on the balcony at the top of the stairs and quickly engaged the Sith Lord. She only parried a couple of blows before a Force push slammed her into the wall. An enraged Anakin quickly fell upon Sadus with his lightsaber blades flying like a tornado. Sadus used all her talents as Anakin pushed her back towards the wall. Where one blade would be met, another came from another direction. It was only a mastery of Juyo that saved Sadus.

Sadus sidestepped a blow towards her chest and responded with a thrust of her own. Anakin was forced to parry with both blades. Sadus gave him little time to adjust as she quickly retracted and swung her lightsaber towards his neck. Anakin again parried with both blades, but did not realize his error in time. Sadus withdrew her weapon and slashed at the Chosen One's abdomen. Anakin backed away far enough so that the tip of the Sith blade only singed his flesh.

Anakin screamed and fell back as Sadus attempted to capitalize on her opening. But Leia returned to the fight just in time, throwing all her weight into a kick that sent Sadus flying off the balcony and onto the first floor. Anakin and Leia jumped down from the balcony to face Sadus again.

Sadus held out her left hand and blasted Leia and Anakin with Force lightning during their descent. Neither Jedi was prepared for the assault and were hit with the totality of the Sith Lord's fury. The Jedi hit the wall and dropped their lightsabers.

"My master said he only wanted Skywalker, but I'm sure he'll be pleased I've brought his daughter as well," Sadus said.

"Nobody's taking anyone prisoner today!" Han growled before he began firing blaster bolts from the doorway.

Sadus whirled around and easily deflected the blaster bolts with her lightsaber. When Chewbacca joined Han with blasts from his bowcaster, Sadus never showed any signs of effort as she easily countered them both. Even Winter's shots were nothing against Sadus's skills.

Holding her lightsaber in one hand, Sadus extended her left hand and blasted the intruders with Force lightning. She showed no emotion on her face as she easily overwhelmed her enemies.

"Winter!" Anakin screamed as he observed his wife thrown from the doorway with Han and Chewbacca. A familiar cold fury swelled in his chest as he called his lightsabers to his hand and connected them end on end, making a double-bladed lightsaber. Just as Anakin activated the blades, he felt invisible hands gripping his throat.

Sadus lifted Anakin off the ground with the Force. "Even the mighty Chosen One is nothing compared to my pure bloodline," she said before she slammed Anakin into the wall.

Anakin hit the wall and slid to the floor. He lay next to his daughter, gasping for breath. Leia lay unconscious, completely oblivious to the coming threat.

Sadus walked towards Anakin, holding her lightsaber in one hand. "Poor little, Ani," Sadus said. "Even you fall before me. If you can't defeat me, you don't stand a chance against my master." The Sith Lord knelt before Anakin and lifted his face so she could look into his eyes, a pair of eyes almost identical to hers.

Sadus stared directly into Anakin's eyes for a moment before releasing his face. "Who are you?" she asked.

"Who do you think you are?" Kyle Katarn asked as he ran into the mansion.

Sadus whirled around to stare at Kyle and glared at him. "I don't have time for this!" she growled.

Kyle activated his lightsaber and assumed a Vaapad stance. "That's too bad," he said. "I've got a whole week off. We've got all the time in the galaxy to play. Of course, we could avoid this if you just surrender to me right now."

Sadus ran towards Kyle, swinging her blade upwards at a forty-five degree angle. The seasoned Jedi Knight countered the blow with relative ease. Vaapad was a more refined form of Juyo and Kyle quickly adapted to her technique. Both warriors kept their blades close to their bodies as they tried to rely solely on forward momentum and the Force to guide them in their attacks. It was a close combat situation where the lightsabers barely had enough room to make any sort of reliable thrust.

Sadus used a Force push to widen the gap. Kyle staggered backwards, but recovered quickly. He brought his blade up just in time to prevent from losing his head. Using his strength combined with the Force, he pushed against the enemy blade, edging the saber lock closer to the face of the Sith Lord. Kyle stared into his enemy's eyes with a fierce determination.

Pushing against the saber lock, Sadus called on the dark side to strengthen her. When she gained position against the Jedi, Kyle retracted his blade quickly and slashed for her legs. Sadus leapt over the blade and somersaulted over Kyle. The Jedi tried to pursue, but was knocked off his feet by a Force push. Sadus fled the mansion without accomplishing her goal.

"Twins?" a black robed man asked Shmi Skywalker. "You conceived twins?"

Shmi Skywalker stared at the dark man as he leaned over the cribs. It was difficult enough being a slave on Nar Shadda without having intruders coming during the night.

"Yes," Shmi replied, unsure of what the man wanted. "You can't kidnap them. Sirus Hagen owns us all."

"Sirus and I have a little arrangement," the dark man said. "My apprentice told me about you and I had to see it for myself."

Shmi grimaced at the mentioning of an apprentice. A Muun named Darth Plagueis visited her more than once, but never returned after she conceived. He claimed to be the apprentice of a great alchemist. After years of experimentation, Plagueis succeeded in coaxing a conception. When Shmi awoke the next day, she was a prisoner of Sirus Hagen. She was no longer the slave of a Sith Lord, but once again condemned to be a servant.

The dark man retrieved the female child, who remained asleep even as he lifted her from the crib. "I'm not yet ready to take your son, but your daughter will make a powerful student in the ways of the dark side," he said.

Shmi rushed to her daughter's defense, but quickly found herself held in an invisible spiderweb. The dark man was holding her in place through the Force. "Don't take Eris away from me!" she pleased.

"You won't even remember her after this night," the dark man said before he left Shmi alone with Anakin.

At that moment, Shmi tried to recall her daughter's name, but it escaped her. Soon, she forgot that she ever had a daughter.

Anakin opened his eyes slowly after the dream ended. The Chosen One could not recall dreaming about his mother in years, but something was odd. It was the same dark man he saw with Darth Plagueis outside the Crystal Palace. There was also the matter of a child named Eris, a name he could not remember his mother speaking.

His musings ended when he heard bacta tanks. Suddenly, the memories of his confrontation with Darth Sadus returned. She easily defeated Anakin and Leia before turning her fury against Han, Chewbacca and Winter. "No," he said as he sat up from his bed and grabbed a robe at the side of his bed.

"Master Skywalker, you should not be moving around," said a 2-1B surgical droid.

"Like hell I shouldn't," Anakin said as he pulled the robe around his body. "Where's my wife?"

Anakin observed his wife floating in a bacta tank at the far side of the medical center beside tanks that held Han, Chewbacca and Leia. He probed each of them with the Force before he sighed with relief. They would live. Theed possessed impressive medical facilities and Naboo medical doctors once boasted they would be competing with Coruscant in the future.

"Mistress Winter will be removed from the tank soon, Master Skywalker," the droid said. "Until then, you should rest."

The door to the med center slid open. Kyle stepped into the room with Kyp and said, "You took quite a beating there."

"Kyle," Anakin said. "What are you doing here?"

"You know my master," Kyp said. "He looks for trouble."

"I resent that!" Kyle said. "Besides, they would have been dead if it hadn't been for us. I seem to recall you getting Han, Chewie and Winter to safety all on your own."

"I did my duty as a Jedi, Master," Kyp stated.

"I don't think she wanted me dead," Anakin said before he returned to his bed. Even bacta could not heal all the effects of Force lightning and he was already beginning to feel the familiar strain.

"What do you mean?" Kyle asked.

"Just a feeling I have," admitted Anakin. "There's just something about her."

"Yeah," Kyle said. "It's called the dark side of the Force."

Anakin stared at the ceiling. "Who are you?" he asked.

Darth Sadus came out of hyperspace in the Horuset System, returning to Korriban after her failed mission on Naboo. Her ship was a modified TIE Interceptor equipped with shields and a hyperdrive. As skilled as she was in combat, Sadus had few peers when it came to flying. It was a trait her master did not possess, leading Sadus to believe she was born with it.

Just as she prepared to hail the Remnant fleet, Sadus heard a distant voice.

Who are you? it asked.

Sadus quickly slammed her mental walls to protect herself from intrusion. She gripped the controls of her fighter tightly, trying to ignore the question.