Mustafar
The Zipper starfighter popped out of hyperspace above a burning, fiery planet.
"Anakin is down there?" Ahsoka asked with a hint of disbelief in her voice. She had never a seen a planet that looked so inhabitable, planets covered in fungi and swamp, but never lava.
"I believe so" came the voice of Obi Wan from his stern gunner seat. Unsure of where on the ungodly planet her former master was, Ahsoka began a scan. The systems on the Zipper were not designed to scan entire planets. Luckily Mustafar was only a dwarf planet, but it could still take hours before the scan was complete.
"This scan might take a while. I'm going to get some sleep" the young Padawan called out to the master. Obi Wan agreed and shut his eyes for the first time in what felt like forever.
The two Jedi were awoken about two hours later by a bleeping coming from the main console. Ahsoka blinked sleepily and looked at what she assumed was the completed scan, however, the screen said that the scan was only 97% complete. The alert was coming from somewhere else. She quickly scanned the dashboard and located the source of the alert. There was another ship coming out of hyperspace.
"Obi Wan…" Ahsoka called out uneasily.
Obi Wan's eyes sprang open to assess the situation. To his left he saw the ship pop into view.
"It's Padme" said Obi Wan, confused as to why the senator was here. He knew that Anakin and the senator were close, most likely closer than his old Padawan let on, but Padme Amidala was one of the last people he expected to see at a place like this.
"Hail her in, I would like to have a chat with her." Requested Obi Wan.
"Senator Amidala? This is Ahsoka Tano. I know what you must be going through right now, but Anakin isn't himself right now, please let us onboard so we can talk? I'm with Obi Wan, we just want to talk to you right now" Ahsoka pleaded over the transmitter to the signature silver royal starship of Padme Amidala.
A couple of minutes later, Ahsoka, Obi Wan and Padme sat around a table aboard the royal starship.
"What do you mean 'Anakin isn't Anakin'?" Padme asked. She was trying to stay strong but the shake in her voice was betraying her. Obi Wan nodded at Ahsoka to tell the senator. He decided that she would take it better hearing it from the Togruta, as they had always seemed to have a bit of a connection.
"Look, I kmow that this must be tough to hear but please let me finish before you make up your mind on anything. Okay?" Padme nodded in response to Ahsoka's soft spoken words. "Alright. I'm sure you know of the clones' betrayal, of how they hunted down the Jedi and slaughtered them. And you must know of Palpatine proclaiming himself emperor of the new galactic Empire. And you're smart enough to have figured out by now that Palpatine was not only behind the clones' betrayal, but behind the war itself. But what you probably don't know is that Anakin was behind it too." Ahsoka paused as Padme began to sob quietly, her fears being confirmed.
"Palpatine has played him. Just like he played all of us. He has twisted his mind until it is no longer recognisable. He's turned to the dark side Padme" Tears began rolling down Ahsoka's cheek as she spoke these words. It was not until she had said them out loud that she had really comprehended what had happened to her former master. He was like a father to her. And here she was, with his family. Padme the lover, Obi Wan the brother, and Ahsoka the child.
"He has killed Jedi, even younglings" Each sentence was getting harder for the young Togruta to say. Obi Wan patted her on the back as her head dropped into her hands.
"It's alright young one" Obi Wan tried comforting her, before picking off where Ahsoka left off. "I don't believe that it is too late for him though. If we can just talk to him. All of us together, then perhaps we can turn him back to the light. Maybe we can save him." Obi Wan's words were calm and unfaltering, giving much needed stability to the emotional conversation. His voice soothed the other two seated at Padme's table, and restored composure to the room.
"But if he's done all these things… These horrible things that you claim he has done, how do we know he won't just attack us, or worse, ignore us?" Padme asked.
"He won't attack you. If he doesn't know we are here then you will be able to talk to him one on one, hopefully that will be enough to bring Anakin back from the clutches of evil. But ultimately, we don't. All we can do is trust in the force, and hope that he does the right thing" Replied Obi Wan. The three were in agreement, they had to try and reach out to their friend.
Padme's royal starship touched down on Mustafar with lava billowing out behind it. They had landed on a landing pad out the front of what appeared to be the only building on the planet. Two walkways stretched out towards the building, one on either side of the platform. They had landed in the middle of the pad, with the bow of the ship facing a sheer black cliff, whilst the stern, and therefore the hangar door that they were about to exit out of, overlooked a massive drop, at the bottom of which a flowing river of molten lava could be seen. A hooded figure came running out of the building to meet them. As he got closer he removed his hood, revealing the face of Anakin Skywalker, his eyes glowing amber with the power of the dark side. Anakin had always been a touch arrogant, but the swagger that had now found its way into his stride took that arrogance to new level. The door of the ship hissed open revealing a pregnant Padme standing atop the ramp.
"Anakin" Padme muttered, lost for words.
"Padme" Anakin smiled at her. "What are you doing here".
Padme sprinted down the ramp to her husband and embraced him. "I've heard horrible things about you. Th-that you've turned to the darkside, that you've betrayed the Jedi." At the mention of thi, Anakin grew stiff with rage.
"The Jedi are evil, Padme. They betrayed us. Everything that has happened, everything that I've done, it has all been for you" Anakin tried to justify his actions, to convince his wife of hos perspective.
But Padme was repulsed. She pushed him away, disgusted by what she was hearing. Padme couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"How could you possibly think that I wanted any of this. I just want to go back to how things were. I love you Anakin… But I hate what you have become". Padme had started crying again, barely comprehending everything she was saying. Yet it was all true, she could never be with someone who kills for his own personal benefit.
"You don't know what you're saying" Anakin replied, "come inside with me and we can talk things over" Anakin pleaded, beckoning for her to come back to him.
"No… I can't" Padme whispered.
Anakin's rage began to return.
"I said, come with me". Anakin's voice had grown angry, and his voice, which had started at normal volume, had become a scream by the end of his sentence. Padme was shocked at her lover's sudden rage, and froze where she was.
"Fine" Anakin said and raised his hand up in the air. Slowly, Padme began to feel a tightness wrap around her throat. She couldn't believe what was happening. She tried to scream at Anakin, plead for him to put her down, but no noise would come off. Her hands came up to her throat, trying to pry the invisible hands off her throat, beginning to grow faint. "If you won't willingly follow me, I'll have to force you to"
"Anakin!" A calm, familiar voice yelled from the ship that Padme had exited just minutes earlier. Anakin looked up to see two figures standing at the top of the ramp. "What do you think you are doing? Take a look at yourself for crying out loud. You don't want to hurt her, not after all that you have been through for her."
Anakin hated the words he was hearing, but knew that his master was right. He reluctantly loosened his grip on his wife, allowing her body to crumple to the floor, and moved his attention to the Jedi standing atop the ship's ramp. Ahsoka sprinted down to Padme's motionless body, to check for signs of life. Obi Wan continued "it's not too late to come back Anakin. We can fix this, please come back." Obi Wan pleaded with his Padawan.
"You think I want things to go back to how they were?" Anakin scorned back. "No, I don't think so. I hate you, and you will pay for what you have done!". With that Anakin ignited his lightsabre, and performed a jump of incredible power. Propelling himself towards Obi Wan, who had not yet drawn his weapon. Anakin had his blade over his head, and as he landed in front of his previous master, he thrust downwards, using both the full power of his body, but also the power of his landing, to slam his lightsabre down onto Obi Wan. But Obi Wan had seen it coming, and in the split seconds between Anakin's leap, and his landing, Obi Wan used the force to draw his blade, and block the Anakin's attack.
"You don't truly think that Anakin!" Obi Wan grunted whilst he fended off his attacks. "Palpatine has twisted your mind."
Anakin relented on his downwards hacks at the master, and strafed around him, attempting to attack his side. But Obi Wan was matching him blow for blow. Anakin's aggressive, powerful fighting style allowed for an advantage in close quarters engagements, so now that Anakin had moved away from the exit, Obi Wan took the opportunity to jump out of the ship, and onto the landing spacious pad. Anakin stopped for a moment, to star down at his former friend, now enemy.
"He's the only one that can save Padme! All that the Jedi want is to tear us apart. He listens to me! That's more than anyone at the Jedi Order could do for me!" Anakin yelled at Obi Wan. He began walking ominously down the ramp towards his adversary, his lightsabre scraping up sparks on the floor as it hung from his hand.
"Save her?" Obi Wan said in disbelief, "Anakin, it is he who started this war, endangering everyone, and him who has tried to assassinate Padme on multiple occasions. You don't honestly think he cares about you do he? He's using you!" Anakin was having none of it. With a shake of his head, to tell Obi Wan that he was wrong, Anakin picked up his pace and began running towards his master. He swung right, once again only to meet his master's blue blade, but quickly swung left. But Obi Wan was still blocking his strikes perfectly. Up, down, left and right, his swings couldn't break Obi Wan's impenetrable defence. He swung again at Obi Wan's head, forcing his blade against Obi Wan's, slowly inching closer to Obi Wan's face.
By now, Ahsoka had made sure Padme was alright, and was ready to join the fight against her own master. She took one last look at Padme, and then turned to face the battle she was about to enter. The two Jedi were swinging ferociously at each, at incredible speeds that Ahsoka knew she could not match. Suddenly the repetitive noise of swinging lightsabres clashing against each other over and over was replaced by a constant hum, as she saw Anakin press his lightsabre against Obi Wan's, inching their blades closer to the Jedi Master's face. She knew she had to do something. She pushed out with both hands, sending the strongest force push she could muster at her master.
Anakin was caught off guard. He had been so focused on Obi Wan that he had not noticed his former apprentice enter the fight. The force push slammed into his side, picking him up off the ground and sending him hurtling through the air, towards the edge of the landing pad. He skidded to a halt, mere inches from the edge of the platform. He glanced down at the massive drop into the flowing lava below, and the returned to the task at hand. His lightsabre had landed nearby. Outstretching his bionic hand towards his weapon, and leapt to his feet. He stood strong, holding his lightsabre in both hands, ready to defend himself from the attacks that he was sure were about to rain down on him. But to his surprise, his two foes stood where they were when he had first been thrown of his feet. Their defences were lowered and they showed no intentions of attacking him.
"Anakin, please. Lower your weapon. This is not a fight you can win, let us talk this out" One final plea came from Obi Wan.
"As always master, you underestimate my powers." Anakin replied, his voice filled with hatred. He had gone too far to back down now. With amazing speed Anakin threw his lightsabre, like a frisbee, towards Ahsoka, and sprinted towards Obi Wan. The lightsabre flying towards Ahsoka Tano forced her to dive out of the way, rolling along the ground and then standing back up with her lightsabres at the ready, expecting to have to deflect a blow from Anakin. Instead she saw the sabre flying off in the opposite direction, towards Anakin who was now almost on top of his former master.
Once again blue clashed with blue. The intensity of Obi Wan and Anakin's duel had increased another notch. Strikes were being dealt with ferocious speed, yet every blow was still skilfully blocked by Obi Wan, who was still reluctant to swing back, unable to bring himself to harm the man he had once thought of as a brother. This defensive mind set was forcing Obi Wan to constantly be on the backfoot, and gave Anakin a definite advantage.
Ahsoka charged in, hoping to give Obi Wan a break from the onslaught he was receiving. She darted up to her master and struck at him, knowing that he would block her, but ensuring that he would be forced to switch his attention to the Togruta.
Ahsoka had never felt anything like the energy that her old master was emitting. His strikes were filled with hatred. The fast and powerful strikes were beginning to be too much for the young warrior, but her brilliant reflexes and nimbleness made her able to dart around the blows, and fend them off with her lightsabres. Anakin swung a powerful blow towards her upper body, forcing her to use both lightsabres to block his attack. Ahsoka pushed her hands down, forcing Anakin's down along with them, and leapt back in order to create more space between her and her attacker.
But Anakin had other ideas. He caught her in mid-air with the force, and began closing his grip around his young Padawan. Obi Wan had caught his breath by now, and broke Anakin's concentration with a precise swing at Anakin's thigh. Anakin sensed the attack, and stepped out of the way, but not in time to avoid a small cut on his leg to sizzle as Obi Wan's lightsabre scraped by.
Ahsoka dropped to the floor on all fours, gasping for air. She raised her head to see Obi Wan and Anakin back at it. Holding his lightsabre in one hand, Anakin was unleashing attack after attack all down the left-hand side of Obi Wan's body. The strain in Obi Wan's face was clear as he struggled to fight off such a rapid attack. He had to slow it down, so he waited for Anakin to swing another low blow, and then grabbed Anakin's wrist, stopping him in his tracks.
Anakin may have had one hand immobilised by Obi Wan's grasp, but his bionic hand was still free. He used this to lay a strong blow across Obi Wan's face, causing him to stumble backwards onto the bridge connecting the platform to the building that Anakin had come out of. Anakin strode towards him and swung with his lightsabre before Obi Wan had time to recompose himself. Obi Wan got his lightsabre up just in time for him to block Anakin's attack. From behind him, Anakin heard the footsteps of Ahsoka Tano running towards him. A sound that would have once comforted him, and given him hope, now caused anger in his heart. Anakin kicked out at Obi Waan's chest, using the force to assist his kick. Obi Wan was sent crashing into the outside wall of the building, his head whipping backwards and smashing into the wall, knocking the Jedi unconscious. Satisfied that he had subdued Obi Wan, at least for the time being, Anakin switched his focus to the Togruta making her way towards him.