Mandalore has long been a planet in a state of constant political turmoil. For a time the Death Watch ruled with an iron fist. There was a brief return to democracy under the leadership of Prime Minister Satine. But peace never lasted long for the Mandalorians. And it was never quite clear which side of the Clone Wars they stood on. Only one cast his lot with the Separatists, he was the Galaxy's most notorious Bounty Hunter: Jango Fett. Asajj Ventress had been trying to find a safe place to conceal her presence since attempting to assassinate Count Dooku, but she knew Dathomir was not a place she could ever return to. The Sith would no doubt search for her there, and she didn't want to put lives of her fellow Night-sisters in jeopardy. So she traveled the Galaxy as a Bounty Hunter, and found herself on Mandalore. Little did she realize that the Sith had never stopped searching for her, and she would soon be found.
"I can feel the Emperor searching for me. Mandalore has been somewhat safe for me, but I can no longer stay here. If I'm to escape his grasp, I'll have to constantly reroute my course through the mid-rim."
As Ventress began packing her few possessions, Melinoe was landing an unmarked shuttle provided by the Imperial Navy in the farthest outskirts of the City she could find. When she was sure no one had noticed, she piloted the speeder bike from the Imperial Outpost on Corellia in search of her prey.
"I can feel you through the Force, Ventress. Like Barriss, you will meet your fate."
During her years of traveling the Galaxy, Ventress had perfected masking her presence from other Force users. So it was a shock when she felt someone invading her thoughts. She knew that this person was coming for her, and at first she thought it was Kenobi. But delving deeper into the Force, she could feel that the power was nothing like what she felt when they last battled. The energy was dark, and possessed of a hatred like none she had ever felt before. Quickly gathering the remainder of her things, she stepped through the door of her residence, and found herself staring at yellow eyes and a sinister smile, lit up from the glow of red lightsabers.
"So, you must be the Emperor's newest assassin. I am disappointed it took you this long to find me."
"He always knew where you were. You were a fool to think you would ever escape."
"Your voice, I know it from long ago. Be wary, the Emperor will betray you when he finishes with you, as he did with me. You would be best on your own Ahsok…"
Ventress couldn't even complete her thought as Melinoe cuts through her predecessors' neck. Both lightsabers cut simultaneously, and that is one more betrayer who has met their end at her hands.
"Ahsoka Tano is dead, Ventress. And so are you."
She quickly steps over the assassin's body, kicking it in the process. She only has one more task to complete before leaving. As she makes her way through the hostel, a quick search results in the retrieval of the lightsabers given to her by Dooku and Palpatine at the onset of the Clone Wars. As she departs, Melinoe can feel a Jedi searching for her. She's been many steps ahead him for several months. Their confrontation will come soon enough, and at a time of her choosing. She was off of Mandalore a week before Jase arrived. The Force led him to where Ventress had been slaughtered, her body still laying at the foot of her doorway.
"How far you've fallen Ahsoka. Wanton destruction, and only chaos remain where you go. You know I am coming for you, but I must now accept that you are too far gone to ever return to the light. A clash between us is inevitable. When we next meet, one of us will die."
When Melinoe returned to Coruscant, she presented Palpatine with the lightsabers before being sent on her next mission. Darth Vader was clearly the Emperor's main enforcer, but the Galaxy knew to fear him. The sight of his personal Star Destroyer immediately caused any Rebels he came across to fight him, but always in a losing battle. Melinoe's task was far more discreet. She was sent across the Galaxy to hunt down anyone with Force sensitivity. Jedi or not, they all met their end at her crimson blades. She quickly became referred to as Dark Fire. Wherever her ship landed, darkness preceded her arrival and the last sight anyone who opposed her saw was twin red blades. Over time, the name became whispered in every corner of the Galaxy. Her reputation was beginning to overshadow that of the Emperor and Darth Vader. Secretly, Palpatine was pleased, and he knew he had done his job well; Ahsoka Tano had been completely corrupted by the Dark Side. He also knew a time would come that she would try to take his place on the throne. So he decided it was time for them to set the trap for the Jedi they all knew was inching ever closer to finding her.
"You have done well carrying out my orders, Lady Melinoe. But you have felt the presence of the Jedi Master searching for you."
"I have felt him, My Master."
"Then it is time to set the trap we have had planned for so long. You have grown strong in the ways of the Dark Side. You will now go to Mustafar, and he will follow you there. Show him no mercy; my young Apprentice. As he falls, so too will the last remnants of the Jedi Council."
"It will be done, my Lord."
As she left for the docking bay, Vader stepped out from behind the Emperor's seat. They both knew what would come if she was successful in this mission.
"You have sent her to her death, Master. But should she succeed, she will be strong enough to defeat us in battle. When she realizes this was your plan all along, she will come for us."
"It is of little consequence, my friend. Lady Melinoe has served her purpose. This will be her final test, and either she, or the last Jedi will die. The Death Star is nearing completion, and then the Rebellion will be crushed."
With the Imperial Navy engaging Rebels across the Galaxy, Darth Vader departed the Throne room to embark on a personal mission of his own. If Palpatine knew of what his apprentice had planned, he made no effort to show it. Vader was unimpeded as he piloted his own shuttle towards Mustafar as well. He gave Melinoe enough time to have made the jump to hyperspace before following. When she arrived, she set the beacon in her shuttle to send a distress code to any vessel traveling through the system. Ever since Vader wiped out the Separatist leaders, preceding his climactic battle with Obi-Wan, the planet held an abundance of Dark Side energy and all travelers stayed away. Even with the distress code his communications arrays had detected, Jase could feel the presence of the Force on the planet below him.
"Ahsoka has gone unchallenged for months, while she stayed steps ahead of me. I can no longer allow this to continue. Mustafar, the planet matches my visions. It is no coincidence that she chose this planet. Obi-Wan my friend, I hope that I can succeed in ending this."
The Jedi Master pilots his vessel down to the surface, and can see the destruction caused by the previous battle between Jedi and Sith. As the distress call gets stronger, the beacon leads him to a compound where an abandoned Jedi fighter still remains. There is no sign of another vessel, but he knows he must be on his guard, appearances are deceiving. After finding a somewhat stable landing place on the dark plane of ground behind the facility, Jase calmly entered the building. As he made his way through halls, there were several broken battle droids and the skeletal remains of separatists. Their bodies long since decomposed, it was impossible to tell what species they had been. It was the control room where he came to the end of his search.
"You have traveled far across the Galaxy in your search for me, Jedi. Are you that eager to become one with the Force?"
The dark figure sat in front of him, shrouded in her robe. He was unable to see her face, but the Dark Side completely enveloped her. Even now, Jase Togar still held out hope that he could free Ahsoka from the evil path she has been walking. Aalya Secura had recovered from the Dark path, and returned to the path of the Jedi until she was cut down during Order 66.
"If I must become one with the Force, I accept that fate. But I refuse to believe that you can't come back to the Jedi, Ahsoka. It's not too late."
"Then you are a fool. It was too late when no one came to look for me. It was too late when the Jedi expelled me from the Order for a crime I didn't commit."
As she spoke, Melinoe stood up and slowly walked forward. She had yet to remove her robe, and her hood still covered her appearance. If he hadn't been trained since his early youth to know what facing a Sith would be like, Jase would be intimidated. The one mistake even he admits that the Jedi made is that they believed the Sith could not return.
"It was too late for me a long time ago, Master. And now it is too late for you as well."
The Sith stopped walking when she was five feet away from him. She slowly lowered her hood and then removed her robe. Both Barriss and Ventress had shown signs of fear at her appearance. Jase Togar just shakes his head and sadness fills his eyes. This woman he had met when she was just beginning her apprenticeship was always so full of life and hope. Now he can see nothing left of the promising Jedi she could have been, he can't even see any of Ahsoka from when he encountered her again for the first time in fourteen years just a few months ago.
"I didn't want to believe it Ahsoka. I couldn't allow myself to believe you had fallen so far. You had so much potential, and now you've thrown it all away. You could have been so much more. But your loyalty to Anakin always did run deeper than your loyalty to the Jedi."
For a brief moment, Melinoe looks down. This small action is just enough to make Jase believe he has gotten through to her. That somewhere deep inside, Ahsoka is still alive, and fighting what the Emperor made of her. But when she speaks, her voice little more than a guttural growl, he knows he was wrong.
"Don't ever call me Ahsoka, again."
She looks up and her eyes are filled with rage, and she has her lightsabers in hand. The crimson blades spring to life as she rushes forward to engage her enemy in battle, but she is stopped mid-charge as if she ran into a wall. Jase had sensed her intentions and raised a hand, holding her back with the Force.
"It doesn't have to go this way Ahsoka. Please, don't fight me."
"AHSOKA IS DEAD!"
Melinoe screams, releasing all her anger through her power and the Jedi is thrown back against the wall. He is only momentarily dazed, and ignites his own lightsaber to meet her blade to blade. Jase can feel the strength behind each strike she makes, and he strikes back in kind. Their weapons continue to clash as they circle each other, trying to gain the upper hand. The flash of blue against red would be blinding to anyone watching this dance to the death. The room is far too small for the battle to continue at their pace for long, so Melinoe quickly begins to pull back, searching for wider surroundings.
"It matters not where we battle, young one. The end result will be the same."
"I agree, the result will be your death."
The fight moves out of the compound onto the black rock plains behind it. There is lava all around them, continuing to expand the land they fight on. Even with the heat from the molten liquid scorching their clothes and skin, neither of the adversaries is willing to admit defeat. Jase has centered himself on the Force, letting it guide him in deflecting her attacks. Melinoe lets her rage increase tenfold, all the while making each swing of her twin blades more brutal. She knows this battle is just another test, she had faced Darth Vader and lost, she had fought Barriss and Ventress, triumphing in those instances. Now she was facing a Jedi Master, and when she wins, she knows she will have become strong enough with the Dark Side to defeat Vader and Palpatine. This thought drives her forward, makes her fight harder, and soon enough she has the Jedi falling back.
"You never should have come here, Master. The moment your ship landed on this planet was the moment the Force abandoned you."
"The Force has never abandoned me. Even if you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can ever imagine."
The battle has raged for the better part of two hours, and neither Sith or Jedi has seemed to tire. But Jase knows he doesn't have much left. He has been holding his own and keeping pace with Melinoe, but every time she came close to having him beaten, he would draw upon reserves of power she couldn't fathom him having access too. These sudden bursts of power forced her into an unparalleled rage, and she could finally feel him faltering. His last attempt at disarming her, ended with his reach being over extended. With the opening she blocked his lightsaber with one of hers, bringing her other one to bear, cutting up from underneath. In one swift motion, the hilt was cut in half, and his hand went with it. When Jase fell to his knees, she leveled one lightsaber at his throat.
"You have lost, Master. You knew it was foolish to seek me out, and yet you persisted. Why?"
"Because there is still good in you; Ahsoka. I can feel it, the Emperor hasn't driven it from you completely."
"There is no good left in me. There is only the Dark Side. And now, the Jedi Order is finally finished."
"No, there will be another. He will…"
Jase is cut off mid-sentence as Melinoe pushes her blade through his heart. She slowly turns away as the body falls. But as she walks back through the former Separatist compound, she doesn't notice his physical form fading. Her mission is complete, and it is time for her to return to Coruscant. Even if Jase's words were true, and there is another Jedi out there, he will meet the same fate as those that came before. Darth Vader had set his shuttle on auto-pilot orbiting the planet. He could feel the entirety of the battle below him. When his own ship detected Melinoe's, he only had a matter of time to return to Coruscant before her. He arrived before she did and delivered a preemptive report to Palpatine on her victory. Meanwhile, as the Ghost is passing Bespin, Andros fell to his knees when he felt his Master's death. This was what Jase had wanted, and he has become one with the Force. But the sense of peace Andros can feel from this doesn't erase his pain. He's still on his knees when Kanan and Ezra enter his quarters.
"Master Togar is gone, Kanan."
"And if you want to honor his memory, you need to train. If Ahsoka is the Sith, you're the only one who can stop her now."
"And I will."
Kanan extends a hand out, and helps Andros to his feet. There is a determination in his eyes, and both of his companions can feel his strength in the Force flowing off of him. The three of them walk towards the makeshift training facility in the larger docking bay. When they arrive, lightsaber combat training begins again.