Okay, lots of battles, lots of taking plots further, and even more fighting. Crap is literally hitting the fan, so any plotlines that I want to create must be fathomed, any plotlines I need reaching conclusion must be fleshed out, and anything that is still in the store must go! (90% sale! :D)

Outside of the brain farts, I have had two problems with the chapter thus far. HK and Obi-Wan.

HK, I want to have as awesome, hilarious, epic, and still useful. I put him in a little cleaning droid box for the hilarity, and also to keep him from messing around too much in the plots where he would kill everything before it's time. (I didn't want him killing Maris, as I knew he could otherwise.) but I also don't want to take away his usefulness at all. In the Sequel, HK returns in it's full glory with gusto and lots of death while shooting off cheesy one-liners, but the story hasn't been at the point where I want a droid running around killing stuff. That's why I've kept him on the back-end not managing to actually do anything right yet. The relationship is important between Varus and HK, as it resembles Starkiller/PROXY in my own way, but I feel I may have made HK useless. Thoughts would be nice. I don't mind changing things or ideas.

Obi-Wan, I want to create another plotline with for the sequel surrounding Visas Marr, Padme, Revanchist, and later Anakin, but I feel I may have made him a bit too… cynical in this chapter. To be honest, I have trouble pinpointing him down, probably because I haven't played around with him enough. Obi-Wan is a naturally serious person who also has a lot of mirth to himself. In other words: An average person. He cares for Anakin like a brother or son, and is hiding the guy's marriage from the other Councilors. Beyond that, he is a very supportive person by nature who also understands the seriousness of situations. He is a very balanced character, which is difficult for me to work with. I have trouble with people who are… balanced. Who are average. Which might be why 99% of the people I invent are INSANE! :D or have very OBVIOUS overriding characteristics.

ORIGINALLY! (yes, another note) this was meant to be a single part-er. But as I wrote it, I found fleshing it out properly was too lengthy.

So Episode 18 is a 2 part-er! :D

The second part won't be as long

Also (I need to stop coming back and adding more notes…) I have finished the rest of the story. The only thing left is the epilogue, which isn't completely crucial. It's the epilogue, it comes AFTER the story.

Anyway, on with the show.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Not even the clothes on my back.

Episode 18 - A Matter of Truth Part 1/2

This is stupid… no, correction, this isn't stupid, this is crazy. Completely different. Stupid people make stupid decisions. Smart people make crazy decisions as if often the border between intelligence and insanity is thinned by one's perception of reality. Now, as my perception if reality is questionable at best, Mother Hen is suffering and doing a good job hiding it, and Tree-Hugger is just crazy to begin with, not to mention HK, our combined sanity is not particularly accurate. We are also intelligent. So: at the end of the equation is the simple conclusion that we are doing something completely and utterly crazy.

Good thing we like crazy.

Tree-Hugger flew us straight into the hanger of the first Sith Star Destroyer amongst the group heading for the Temple. The four of us jumped out seconds before the transport crashed into the far wall. The following impact shattered the wall and continued on in a path of destruction before being impaled in a pipe and halting.

The 'landing zone' is we may call it so was largely empty. The ship had already sent out its fighters in the orbital battle leaving the hanger with only a minimal security staff, and in the sudden craziness of Tree-Huggers plan to fly into the hanger at maximum speed and leap out beforehand, the defenders were either dead or disoriented.

I had no idea what to expect from the Sith fleet. I only know the Sith by reputation and memories of what I could do as one. As one could imagine, I expected to die within moments of landing to enemies that could very easily tear me apart with their mind. What I encountered as I landed, lit my lightsaber, and rushed my first kill, was simple soldiers with rifles dressed in tight black armor. I cut the man's rifle, spun, and with my momentum cleaved him entirely in half.

Now, it's fair.

Three soldiers struggle to their feet after having collapsed not ten feet away, and with a quick Force gesture, I send some debris into them. The three soldiers don't stand a chance as they are barreled over by a large metal frame.

The rest of the battle in the hanger is a blur of movement, cutting, and flowing with the Force. I see within the Force the trajectory of every laser bolt and every burst of flame or scrap of metal to come my way, and what I recognize as my Sith instinct tokes hold of that knowledge, frames it, and uses it to stay completely clear. The enemy misses not only because the Force keeps me aware of everything, but because my influence within it fills them with fear, and thereby their accuracy and hesitation. I appear as a specter to my own perception, nothing more than a shadow moving with the chaos around me, and to them I appear as a demon beyond sight and battle.

It is… exhilarating.

HK zooms around me trying, and failing, to be helpful, but the company is appreciated.

I narrowly evade a bolt aimed for my neck and sight a sniper above me. I pull Force energy to my hand to throw a ball of energy at him, but stop. The ball of energy is black and laced with lightning. It's pulling on my darkest core for power… immediately the monster inside bangs on its cage and I have to force myself to not draw on it.

I don't want that, I need something else… Until I can kill this monster inside me, I can't draw on it. It's like poking a bear. It will eventually awaken and… I don't need that again.

-Come to me.- Words appear in the my head. The words briefly mess up my concentration and I narrowly manage to not mess up my footwork and trip over a body.

The… voice, if it could be called that, was empty of emotion, desire, or feeling. It was nothing more than empty words, but it flowed smoothly as human speech rather than robotic. The idea that any living thing can be devoid of that much emotion sends a shiver down my spine, not because it feels new, but because it doesn't. I know this voice. It reminds me so much of the man who pretended to entice Galen Marek, me, into betraying his -my- people, and… following him!

The monster in me lashes out and I roar in anger and pain. A pulse of energy ripples out of my hands into the overhead ramps. The ramps shake with the impact and collapse, killing the sniper, but also collapsing onto Mother Hen.

I skid to a halt in cold horror and head in her direction. Why did I snap, again! I got a reminder of what I did as a kid, and my betrayals, and I stopped paying attention. Stupid Varus! You should have seen she was there!

"Mother Hen!" I yell. I jump onto the collapsed ramp and run down its length. Mother Hen moves out of cover to my left.

"Yeah?" She answers. I stop and let out a breathe I didn't realize I was holding. Thank God!

"False alarm." I laugh, despite the explosions and death.

She rolls her eyes. "Pay attention, Varus!"

"Right." I nod, but she's already on the move to continue clearing the hanger. Tree-Hugger heads for the remaining doorway to secure it. Between the two of them the remaining soldiers are cleaned up.

-Varus, Snips, it's clear. Let's move on.- Tree-Hugger says mentally.

We gather around the doorway out. "That was too easy. They were foot soldiers and slaves, not Sith." Mother Hen reflects.

"Agreed." I say. Where are the Sith?

"Angry retort: I didn't get to do anything!" HK inserts.

Movement out of the corner of my eye makes me smirk. Tree-Hugger and Mother Hen follows my line of sight and locks on to the target. They smile too. "HK." Tree-Hugger says. "I never thought I would say this, but I would like you to do something." Another small floor scrubbing droid stops at our feet and buzzes in annoyance at all the work we gave it to do. It looks exactly like HK.

"Excited inquiry: At last! I do not answer to you, Meat-Bag, but I will take any task in the service of the master!" I can practically see his tail wagging.

Windu stood in the center of controlled chaos.

All around him the Order set to work preserving what they could. The Temple was about to be sieged, and the defense forces had run to the lower levels to hunker down while the Senators fled. Reinforcements would not arrive in time. They needed to get the younglings, Holocrons, and archives out, in that order. A battalion of clones led by Commander Cody offered their help. Meanwhile, in the distance three Sith dreadnaughts loomed in closer, being held back by the few Republic ships too stubborn to leave.

The Sith's attack was imminent. It was predictable, too predictable. He mused, "We should have seen it coming. The Sith stopped their constant fighting and pushing against the battle lines and fell back to their home world. They disappeared, and now they reappear the day we capture Darth Sidius." The only Council member by him was Obi-Wan. The others were organizing the efforts from other parts of the temple. "No! Not the statues!" They stopped the troopers from taking a statue. "The statues do not matter. Younglings, Holocrons, archives, nothing else. Go." The troopers saluted and left to return to the effort.

"Some overzealous Knight must have ordered them to get a statue…" Obi-Wan sighed. "Your right. Its coincidental. Almost too coincidental… Too perfectly timed. It feels planned. Sidius was toying with us and didn't resist being revealed."

Windu scrunched his brows in thought before a dark thought came to him. "The Revanchist came to me and suggested I look into Palpatine's office. I didn't think anything of it at first, but it nagged at me until I took a chance." He held silence a moment before growling. "They were specific. Very specific."

Obi-Wan turned to face him fully, his eyes contemplative. "The Revanchist gave me the files on him to begin with… Could they be leading us along?"

"Right now there are too many coincidences for me to know what's going on anymore." Windu turned again to the Sith. "But I don't trust them."

"Sithspit!" Obi-Wan concluded. Windu glanced at him in amusement at the curse. The Master had picked up a number of Skywalker's traits. "The Revanchist fooled us! I never should have trusted them, this is all my fault!"

"Consider your words, Master Kenobi. This is the fault of Sith, not of you. You trusted them. Whether they are in league with the Sith or not, the Sith are here."

Obi-Wan forced himself to calm. "We aren't going to get them out in time. We have people split too much. We should leave the archives."

Indeed, the Sith were too near. "Agreed. Let everyone know to drop the archives. The clones have transports. We need them protected. We will make a stand here." Windu walked down the steps toward the front door. "I'll make sure of it."

Obi-Wan departed to push the escape faster and Windu stood before the front open doors of the temple. "Let's close these doors!" He barked. "I need all clones on the ledges and top of the stairs with a firing line! Commander Cody, I'll leave the rest of the escape effort to you." The Clone commander saluted firmly and departed. The clone passed by Yoda. The little green Jedi walked tenderly down the many steps with his stick and a limp.

"Begun to gather, Jedi, I have." Yoda said. "Hold the line, we must!"

Obi-Wan argued, "You do not need to be here, master. (While being equals, Yoda was his senior, and calling him 'master' was habit.) I'm sure we can manage."

Yoda chuckled. He jumped up onto a stair pillar beside the mustache-man and whacked him on the head with his staff. "Old I may be, but not so old. One good fight in me, I still have."

"I do not mean to say otherwise." Obi massaged his head and grumbled. "But you will be greatly missed if..."

Yoda nodded knowingly. "Many battles and wars, I have seen. Exist the old do, to provide a look back. Not the time to look back, now is. Time to prepare for the future, now is." The green munchkin sat down on the waist-high pillar and started meditating.

Windu said nothing, secretly thankful for his fellow Master's help in providing reassurance. The three of them sent out the echo of a call into the Force, and immediately the Jedi started gathering. People of all races and worlds assembled for a common purpose: To hold the barbarians back in defense of the young, to keep their hands off the power of the Holocrons, and out of the knowledge of their archives. The temple originally was born as a library to combine knowledge of the Force from all across the galaxy, and then later to protect it.

It was time to do so.

HK zoomed down the steel colored halls as fast as its wheels could go. Undesirables ran by it in response to actions of its master and its master's master. HK's programming dictated it must make action against the undesirables, but other portions of its programming turned those functions off for the time being. The Master desired stealth, and it had a mission to do beside end undesirables.

HK took a left and bumped into another cleaning droid looking exactly like it. It wanted to bark or ram into its rival and knock it aside, but it had to pretend to be 'normal'. HK resorted to making an annoyed sound and continued its way down the hall. Before long HK came across a map on the side of the wall near a set of elevators. Putting it's camera up toward it, it found the brig and memorized the path to it. HK could not use elevators, but could use ramp-stairs. HK wheeled to the stairs door, knocked it open, and, with only minor difficulty, set its wheels on the ramp going up alongside the stairs. It was a ramp designed for very small droids like it, and HK ran into another one on its way. (This one HK knocked down the stairs and cackled in joy.)

Reaching the desired floor, HK pushed the door open and looked around. Four Sith troopers stood around panels or in pathways as guards. To it's left was the elevator, and to it's right was the brig. HK wheeled down the brig, making sure to use its 'cleaning' hardware to keep up appearances, and entered each brig room possible under the continued guise of cleaning.

The only individual in the brig was an insubordinate Sith trooper, and it was the only brig.

HK radio'd the master and said, "The target is not here. Heading for the escape pods."

"Thanks, HK." I return. Turning to Tree-Hugger I say, "Padme isn't here. Do you sense her?"

"No." Tree-Hugger frowns.

"She must be in one of the other ships." Mother Hen offers.

Tree-Hugger nods. "The ship is still loaded with Sith. I can sense them..."

I nod. I can sense them too. We have yet to encounter any from where we hid. All of the Dark Side energy is from the same area of the ship: the largest hanger. It isn't rocket science to speculate they are loading into transports and will be attacking the temple en masse. If Tree-Hugger's wife isn't here, then we will be moving onto Plan B. Blowing it up.

"Let's move." Tree-Hugger runs out of the broom closet and we follow along. Two troopers are caught off guard from our sudden appearance and cut down immediately.

We run down the path like a Force stampede. Anything that moves is Force Pulled, Pushed, and cut down. They are nothing but engineers and troopers anyway with all of the force-using Sith preparing for invasion. After several minutes we come across a miniature command center and we 'secure' it. Four corpses later, we close the door and Tree-Hugger hacks into a terminal.

"How do you plan on us bringing it down?" Mother Hen wonders.

"We'll see... Oh... Snips, question: What are the four forces needed for flight?"

"Push, gravity, resistance, and lift." Sounds more like Force skills. Maybe there's a connection?

He nods. "Guess what happens when we turn off the lift."

"We crash."

"Bingo." He says a little too jovially. He presses some buttons and runs his fingers over the screen. "Okay, the escape pods are two minutes away down two lefts. We're going to jettison them manually except for one. When it's time, run."

"How will we know when it's time?" I ask.

"Trust me, you'll know."

"Really?"

The word is barely out of my mouth before an explosion shakes the room and I fall to the ground. Alarms blare and rotating red light replaces the normal yellow LED lights. The alarm is so loud I can barely hear the others, but the sight of them scrambling out the door is good enough. We run and collapse and scramble our way down the hall as fast as we can go, our robes flapping in the wind. We make it to the escape pods and Tree-Hugger Force pulls everyone away into the wall. Ahsoka slams a fist into a panel beside each escape pod except for the one Tree-Hugger jumps into, and we follow in. I turn to see a Sith with a lightsaber running at us from a distance. I wave with a smirk and punch the panel. The door shuts and we launch seconds later, barely giving me time to strap in.

From the sight of the front window, we fly horizontally across Coruscant before crashing into a building wall. Fire erupts all around us, and the pod shakes and releases a metal scream in defiant refusal to halt, but slowly, inevitably, we stop.

I release a shaky breathe and laugh. "That was fun."

The other's don't respond, but unstrap themselves and step out. "No one was hurt in our crash. The building was evacuated." Ahsoka breathes.

"Good." Tree-Hugger responds. He helps me out of the escape pod and we walk to the hole in the wall to look at an amazing sight. The third Sith dreadnaught rocks back and forth slightly in the wind before plummeting down. It's nose dips down and in a loud boom it crashes into a series of skyscrapers. The front quarter of the ship crumbles like a crushed soda-can while the rest of it detaches in chunks or explodes with micro-explosions. A huge chunk of the ship's back end explodes and the entire thing plummets down to the planet's core, scraping its way down leaving deep fiery scars in the skyscrapers around it. On the way down, the dreadnaught separates into a dozen pieces.

"Wow." I gasp. These things are a lot more fragile than they look.

"That went better than expected. The missile compartments imploded." Tree-Hugger says heavily. "Padme must be on the other two, and shielded from my sight. I can't sense her at all."

"Bit far for you to be sensing her." I reply. He shrugs.

"Master, while it was a good guess to begin with, I'm having my doubts the Sith got to her. The lightsaber scars could be from defenders rather than attackers." Mother Hen suggests.

Tree-Hugger glances at her and he briefly considers it. "Maybe... but I can't sense her from the Temple either. I'm used enough to her life signature to know where she is in a crowd, even from a distance like this," he says to me.

I point, "Not to sound unconcerned for her or anything, but I think we have bigger concerns now."

The other two dreadnaughts continue heading for the Jedi Temple, unabated at the sight of the sister ship falling. A huge swarm out of ships fly out of every crevice of the dreadnaughts and head for the temple. Red bolts appear in rivers of death and fire against the building while the larger ships land.

The Temple is officially under attack.

Tree-Hugger clenches his jaw angrily, and the conflict is clear in his eyes. I know it was a longshot to try for the dreadnaught we 'invaded' in search of the Senator, but we didn't go in without a plan to ALSO bring it down in the aftermath. Now that we have no clue where she is, we are left with one thing left to do. Well, technically two.

"So. Fight or flee?" I wonder.

The other's look at me out of the corner of their eyes. Right. Like I even had to ask.

Nihilus stood before the grand door to the Jedi Temple. It was closed shut despite efforts to open it by his men. His fighter's did little against the shields erected around the Temple walls, and the doors were closed shut against explosives and 'minor' efforts to open it. Not that opening the door was beyond him, if anything it was an amusing obstacle. The mortal means to hold him back might have been strong in his life, but now it was just something to stop and look at curiously, like watching ants scurry. Little things sometimes offered amusement.

Pushing aside the fleeting emotion, he turned his host's dying eyes to the assembling army. More than six-thousand Sith were landing or already were marching up the steps just behind him. It was insignificant compared to the whole of the army, but it was all that made it this far through the Republic and Confederacy lines. Carth Onasi had put up a valiant effort, and in a sense Nihilus felt... remise that he didn't have a chance to see the man's skill himself. The Separatists on the other hand were a handful for sheer numbers. They were a mass of pawns to be used and cast aside. It was what Palpatine would have wanted anyway. Sidius saw little use for the machines and army more than the design of his temporary plan, and Nihilus saw them as even less. Still, destroying both armies had taken some work for the Sith to do after they had been done tearing each other apart. Even now, the Confederacy fleet engaged in battle with the Sith fleet while trying to retreat back to their home territory, that would no longer be there's by the time they return; the Republic were in full retreat-and-regroup mode, preparing for a return attack, and the Sith, such as it was, was at a standstill. Only these six-thousand made it through. Even then, this was all of the Sith had to offer anymore.

It was a fanatical last stand for the Sith, perhaps even stupid in a sense, if it wasn't meant to be so by design. "Let me ask you a question." Nihilus mused with the Sith general beside him.

The general, a red-eyed human who's skin had darkened from overuse of power, sneered. "Ask."

"What is balance of the Force?"

Considering the words, the Sith snarled, "Where the Dark Side returns to reclaim its place in the galaxy!"

"Wrong." Nihilus shook his head. A small piece of skin fell off his forehead into his eyesight, and he ripped it away. The body was beginning to fall apart. "Again."

The Sith scoffed. "You don't mean to say you buy the Jedi's rhetoric of the Chosen One?"

"No, of course not. The whole idea is a paparazzi effort to say they have made up for the loss of Revan, but there is still truth to the idea of the Force needing balance."

"Then what would it be, Master?"

Nihilus looked down at him with black eyes and said, "Where both are equal in strength and number, and can achieve peace. There are but a few Sith remaining, general, and many Jedi. Even if you all take one with each of you, balance will not be restored, truly, as you will be wiped out. There is only one thing that can achieve balance and peace between them now."

The general looked to him curiously. Nihilus nodded knowingly, and extended his hand. With a pulse of energy, the Jedi Temple's doors exploded off their hinges and flew into the opposite wall, crushing Jedi, commoners, and soldiers alike before becoming imbedded in the stairs and walls like a blade. "Death." Nihilus said simply. "Both sides must die and start over... You know what this means."

The general looked him in the eyes knowingly, before grinning like a hungry mad man, nodding, and charging into the temple with a guttural cry born of pure bloodlust.

Nihilus stood stock still as the tide of hatred and Sith swept over and around him, clambering like a flood to enter the doors and exact time-told vengeance on the Jedi. He cast his eyes over the city of Coruscant and noted the amount of death here. It was neither pleasurable nor evil in his sight, it simply was. This city, the jewel of the galaxy in its own way, was also the source of its corruption. Some things needed to be done. When a forest grew too tall, a fire was imminent and natural. When people grew too tight, disease would come of its own accord. When people grew complacent and allowed corruption and laziness and ignorance into their hearts, death and destruction was a wakeup call from those intelligent enough to take notice.

He closed his eyes and felt the presence of his apprentice coming closer and closer. It was... not exactly what he wanted. Right now Nihilus was tending to matters that did not concern his apprentice, and did not want him directly involved. Still, it would be nice to see his face again.

The battle in the temple erupted into a heightened furor and a huge chunk of a temple statue fell just in front of him, breaking him from his thoughts. Turning his face toward the battle, he decided to entertain himself for a time. He calmly and purposefully walked through the temple doors with his lightsaber ignited and placed his mask on his host's face. His every step was met with decayed stones, and the consuming nature of his aura ate away at the light around him turning the air colorless and dim. The fires died down as their own consuming nature paled in comparison to his own, and he swept in like a shadow.

Anakin ran, fast as he legs could carry him, to the street in hopes of finding a ride to the Temple. The temple was far too distant, and the need far too pressing, for them to just run or jump around. They needed transportation of some kind, and while he ran with his two Padawans on his heels, he thought gloomily.

The truth was, his mind was an internal mess of so many conflicting ideas.

Padme was gone, and he couldn't sense her anywhere. All of his married life he had been able to sense her, even across the galaxy. It was less about pinpointing her, and more about feeling her existence inside. When he was on the same planet, he could feel the general direction she was in, and when she was within a few miles, he could figure out the approximate location down to a few meters. Today, there was none of that. His heart lurched into his chest and the Beast raged madly at its cage, demanding he stop wasting his time and find her. He wanted so badly to stop everything he was doing, tell Varus and Snips they were going to find her no matter what, grab the nearest transport, and bang out of there; but in as much as he was a husband, and desperate man, he was a Knight and a General. Death surrounded him and overwhelmed the planet in a dark fiery atmosphere filled with smog and explosions. More and more cruisers, dreadnaughts, assault ships, star fighters, and missiles fell to the planet, and more than a few times he wondered if it wasn't divine providence that kept them from falling on him and his Padawans, as close as they came many a time.

The Jedi Temple, the home he took up after forsook Tatooine and his mother, was under siege. A small part of him was fine with it; the Jedi were strong, they would endure, they would return, they would prosper, they would seek justice and put the Sith down like the animals they are; but the rest of him was angered at the Sith's attack on his home. It was like some person setting fire to his backyard and killing his dog. He was infuriated. He was not going to put up with it. He was ticked off, and he had no intention of holding that fact back. This was beyond war, this was genocide.

He caught Varus and Snips give him worried looks, and paid them no mind. He knew he had issues with his inner Beast, it was something that had dogged him since his mother died. He didn't need their sympathy to help him realize that fact.

If anything, he had to worry about Varus and his inner Beast and anger. Varus… he had no idea what to think anymore. Varus was never supposed to remember he was a Sith. He was never supposed to use his power from before. Instead, Varus did use his power, which was frightening in its scale.

"Do-does it make me… a Sith?"

But now Varus was questioning everything. Anakin wasn't stupid, short-sighted, dumb, or slow. If Varus had no memory to back up the words Maris threw at him, he would be blowing it off as nothing. If Varus had no memory to back up the power he threw at them, okay, he would be frightened, but he wouldn't be questioning his Sith status. This lead Anakin to the frightening conclusion that Varus was remembering. How much? Varus wasn't letting on. He might be remembering just enough to scare him, or he might remember everything. Either way the last thing Anakin wanted was for him to remember.

It was forgetting that killed Starkiller and gave birth to Varus.

What would happen if he remembers everything? Would Starkiller return? Would Varus become a new Sith? Would Varus understand the fact that the Jedi Order didn't give him the decency of an execution, but instead enslaved his mind.

Technically, the orders were from Palpatine, or rather… Darth Sidius. The thought enraged Anakin further, but shoved it aside. The Order was under the influence of politics, and subsequently, a Sith Lord, against their will. They chose to do something Anakin felt deep in his gut was WRONG for the right reasons. He wasn't against execution, if anything he considered it necessary, but he felt it wrong that a system existed where a person would be executed and instead give birth to someone who had to bear the weight of the former's sins and face, and have a chance of gaining memories of crimes they have not committed. How would some woman like it to wake up one morning next to her husband and suddenly have the memory of murdering her child? She would be freaking out.

The method was a time bomb… It was unstable against outside influence, as Varus's growing investigations and desires for information have proven, and in time he worried it would crash down around them. As it was, it was a wonder Varus wasn't going Sith-crazy on him for what they did.

Which only hinted at how little he knew, but Varus was also somewhat reclusive in his thoughts. His emotions were easily seen, but the exactness of them could be anything with his wild imagination. Did Varus know much? Did Varus know little? Anakin had nothing to work on. All he knew was to watch the signs, but that wasn't enough anymore. He needed to take proactive action. He needed to get Varus with the psychiatrist again to figure out exactly what he remembers and what to do about it, but the universe had a way with timing.

They were under attack. He couldn't exactly stop by a road-side stand and ask for a head-shrink. He couldn't mossy on up to the Jedi Council, say hi to his ex-mentor and brother-by-oath, Obi-Wan, and ask for the Council to inspect the mind-wipe for holes.

Varus was potentially slipping. But how fast? How slow? Anakin couldn't say. In the end of the day there were only a few things he knew.

He needed to get to Padme.

He needed to get to the Temple.

He needed to protect Varus, and hope Varus knew how much they cared and how much his life had to offer, if it all went wrong.

When things settled down he could afford to have the boy's head inspected.

He might even ask the Council to come clean to him. On second thought, that is exactly what he would do! The Council had committed a crime, as far as he was concerned, and expected him to pick up the pieces. The sheer fact that a Sith Lord, again he winced as his heart burst at the thought, was the one who suggested and pressed it should be enough proof for them to think again on what position to take on the mind-wipe. In fact! Windu ORIGINALLY told Anakin that he had misgivings on the whole thing! They had to come clean. They had to sit Varus down and explain to him every single thing, and do it in a civilized manner with care and gentleness, otherwise it would blow up. Varus had been taking great strides in his growth, and Anakin felt he could take the truth now.

If they didn't, he would. Anakin was done with the lies. He was done hiding it from Varus. He was done hiding it from Ahsoka, who, to her credit, hadn't taken to blaming Varus despite figuring out 90% of it. She hadn't said a word, but her actions and interactions showed Anakin that she wasn't taking things out on Varus or thinking of him as a Sith. She was being forgiving. She may not know of the mind-wipe, and just be assuming it was a miracle that brought Varus into their lovable little team.

In fact, it was high time he sat Padme, Varus, and Ahsoka down, all four of them, and revealed all their little secrets that actually everyone already knew! Padme would be TICKED at him for what they did to Varus, but she would help get the motherly-caring part down with explaining it slowly. Of course, Padme wasn't there, but that didn't change anything.

He was done with the lies.

"Master!" Snips yelled.

Anakin stopped and turned around. Snips raised an eyebrow and pointed to a hover car on the street they just got to. Varus was already in the side seat honking the horn with his foot while reclining back. Ahsoka scooped up HK (HOW DOES IT KEEP FINDING THEM!?) and put the droid on the backseat before strapping in herself. Anakin had been so deep in thought he ran right by it. Varus honked the horn again with his heel. He held it down for a good ten seconds as Anakin ran back.

Anakin grumbled and hopped in at the wheel. "Bit slow on the uptake, eh, Tree-Hugger?"

"Shut up, Varus."

The immediate clash of the Sith into the Jedi lines was nothing short of explosive. The collision of Force energies made the building shake and the more intensive Force Users released a wave of energy, fire, lightning, and flying debris into the front lines. The Sith and Jedi not expecting the burst of power were blown away like leaves in the wind. Dust filled the room as pieces of rubble and debris, and shaking infrastructure, shook dust into the air.

The clones opened fire into the back lines of the Sith funneling through the door, hoping to avoid friendly fire, but a few Sith jumped high into the air, landed amongst their ranks, and immediately took to slaying them. Only one of them landed alive, as the rest were pushed aside by Jedi watching out for their allies. The survivor did not last long, but he still cut down three clones before falling to hundreds of laser bolts and being impaled by half a dozen sabers.

The first few seconds were past, and the thrown debris and exploding energy settled down and was replaced by dust thick with moving lightsabers. The only hints as to who was ally or foe was the color of their lightsaber and the direction they were pushing in. A few from both sides took the initiative in changing color lightsabers to fool the enemy.

"Frags!" A clone yelled. In response, laser fire held and was replaced by a wave of grenades being thrown into the Sith backlines. A few were pushed back into the clone's faces by the Force, and resulted in mini-turrets and clones being overcome in fire; but most landed at the Sith's feet unnoticed (or hitting them in the face like rocks) and exploding all throughout the room.

Yoda was invisible. Not that he used Force invisibility, but his small size made him unnoticed as Sith were not bothering to look down. He cut Sith off at the legs, waist, and performed acrobatics unheard of for a male of his age, and jumped on their heads like rocks in a puddle.

Kit Fisto and Obi-Wan were back to back on the front lines holding the line and being wary of Sith using special techniques. They were both solid in their defense and patient in waiting for a weakness to show. Between the two, they held ten Sith off at once until the Jedi lines managed to catch up to them.

Windu was a special force of nature comparable to fire. He cut down Sith by the numbers and pressed into the enemy until he found himself alone and isolated, but even then did not rest. He found himself with the freedom, once alone, to utilize techniques such as Force Pushing entire groups of Sith away in a pile, or throwing his lightsaber while grappling one from behind. His lightsaber swathed through the Sith like wheat before returning to his hand and gutting the Sith trying to wrestle him to the ground. Of all the Jedi his style was the most chaotic and dangerous, and he was in the perfect situation to let loose.

The Sith as a whole were wild and powerful. They had no caring for their self-defense, but pressed forward with single minded purpose. While they were taking heavy losses in the process, they were succeeding. A number of Sith Sorcerers scattered throughout the lines released a wave of lightning into the Jedi on the stairs, narrowly missing the clones.

Nihilus strode through and watched as events played out. He cut down a Jedi that came for him and turned off his lightsaber. He disappeared as though he was nothing more than a shadow.

We barely have two seconds to land before we leap out of the hover car with our lightsabers out and run down the ramp into the Temple. I point back at the hovercar and order HK to stay. He will be completely useless today I think. He may have the programming of an assassination droid, and the hardware of a little cleaner box, and the desire of a protector, but I don't plan to be losing any friends today. And that means HK has to sit in the car like a good dog.

The first thing I notice is a stream of kids is running down the hall in one direction while adults run in the opposite direction, and a few clones stand in the corners directing which way the kids should be going. "That way! Get to the evacs kids!" "Go go go!" "THIS WAY, THIS WAY!"

One of the kids trip of her friend's feet and a small crash occurs, but the clones standing not five feet away immediately get them up and moving. A bit roughly perhaps, but every second counts and the kids thank them as they run.

The energy in the air is chaos. Light and Dark exist in a tornado of power all around us. It makes it difficult to draw either and I feel a bit like I'm suffocating. What was once a temple that was a little suffocating in atmosphere has become a tomb to me. Death exists in such power that it's like walking next to a black sun. It radiates out into everything. Even the air looks like an empty black and white.

"This way!" Skywalker says needlessly. The three of us run in the direction of the battle along with the running adults.

Nihilus surveyed the situation and noted the number of dead Sith compared to dead Jedi. The Jedi had suffered larger casualties, but still not enough in his mind. Both sides had to die, but it would be preferable for the Sith to come out more on top, as they were more… cooperative.

Nihilus reached out into the Force to the corpses, and threw them into the Jedi lines like rocks. The wave of bodies failed to kill anyone, but succeeded in smothering them in a pile of two-hundred pound individual bags of flesh. The Sith rushed in with renewed vigor to take advantage of the chaos.

Windu ducks under the body of a fellow Jedi coming at him, and looks back. The Jedi were knocked down all around him. A brief stun, but it was enough to gain the Sith ground and put them in a perilous position.

Whoever used the Force to do such an… abomination to the corpses was vile. It was effective solely because it was unthinkable to see. Who would know what to do when a friends cold corpse is flying in your face? Do you cut it down? Send it flying back? Or just stare dumbly?

Even Sith weren't this cold. They were evil and hot-headed, undoubtedly, but even the Sith had a sense of culture and respect toward the dead enough to not use them in a form reflective of brief necromancy.

Windu released a wave of energy into the Sith before him and gained visible sight for several feet. Down the lines of red lightsabers, red eyes, and hateful faces, was a shadow moving in between the lines and influencing the battle subtlety.

Nihilus nodded in satisfaction. With his not-so-subtle influence, the Sith had managed to push in and take the bottom of the stairs. With all of the Jedi and clones at the top of the stairs and their height-advantage, it would be suicide to push through the bottleneck the stairs formed. Rather, he nudged the Sith into spreading out. While the stairs provided access to the inner-most temple with its libraries and hidden archives, they were not what he was interested in.

The Sith flooded outward into the left and right and entered the outer sections of the temple. In time every hall would become a battlefield and the Sith would infest every single corner of the temple. The Jedi continued to flood in from the archives, but could do little to stop the Sith from spreading out.

"Sidius!"

Nihilus turned to see a small group of Sith get knocked away by a Jedi Master. Windu stood in the empty space huffing from exhaustion and focused anger. His anger was close to Sith-like, but the Jedi, to Nihilus's mild interest, was managing to keep it carefully controlled and contained. This wasn't a wild Jedi turning rogue in his core, this was a Jedi Master who knew how to control his emotions from experience and use.

Windu pointed his purple lightsaber at him. "You will not escape this day. I don't know how you escaped your prison, but you won't receive the benefit the doubt, again."

The Sith around moved in to take advantage of his openings, but Nihilus, with a sweep of his hand, knocked them back again. Nihilus stepped forward. "You overestimate yourself, Jedi. This isn't a t.v. drama, and this isn't a little fantasy of yours. This is war. With a single gesture of mine, you will be crushed in a flood of hatred and lightning and shadow. I have no need to answer your challenge. However, you have a reputation for combat, Jedi. I will allow your grandeur to meet honorable combat. If you prove entertaining, I will make your end worthy of respect."

He motioned for the Sith around to step away, and a small clearing in the middle of the war appeared. A circle of Sith ensured the two combatants would not drift, and the Sith as a whole flowed around the clearing, or stopped to watch.

"I don't want your respect, Sidius!" Windu declared.

Nihilus allowed his body to make the physical expression for disappointment: he sighed. "Still you are ignorant, Jedi. Let me make this blunt enough even for you to understand." He pulled his mask from his pocket and placed it on his face. "I am Darth Nihilus, Lord of Hunger and the Shadow Incarnate!" His own lightsaber (not Sidius's) appeared on his hand, and flicking it on, he moved into his own (Not Sidius's) battle stance. He was done with the acting. Sidius had proven his purpose.

Windu's eyes expanded in naked surprise and shock briefly, and in that moment Nihilus found himself disappointed. He knew he was moving in the background elusively as he worked towards the Jedi's end, but he expected better. Perhaps Sidius's illusions placed over the Jedi was far stronger than he expected.

Windu overcame his brief shock into grudging acceptance and transitioned to his own battle stance. The two looked to each other, Windu to Nihilus within Palpatine, and waited for the other to make the first move.

We run down a hall. Not much more to say than that. We run, a lot. One hall transitions into another. I would take the time to make a snide remark about how mundane the running is, but the boredom and tension dissipates as soon as I sense a presence come out of a corner and Mother Hen goes 'ack!'.

I skid to a stop and turn to see a very large man with red eyes holding her by her… her hair tentacles? Not sure what those things are, but he takes her hair and swings her into a wall.

I know that my first true kill, since I lost my memory, was rough and made me a bit skittish when recollecting; but this is different. I don't need to take the time to analyze squat to realize this is a Sith. A Sith that is trying to kill my friend.

Mother Hen falls to the ground and lifts herself up with difficulty. Her eyes are dazed and blood is going down the back of her head.

I see red and the world slows down.

The next thing I remember I am in the man's face bringing my lightsaber up faster than I ever recall. My legs and arms respond to my every thought smoothly. My eyes see every detail around me in slow motion. I see his jaw tense, his shoulder cringes, and then his arm lifts in a motion symbolic of coming back down on me; but I already see it. I'm so focused, and the world is so slow, that I can see the wings of a fly move up and down in great detail. I see every muscle in his body move, and I react before the move ever comes to completion.

I cut off his hand. I see his mouth open to scream, slowly, but I'm already behind him. I bring my leg around to kick him in the back of the knees. His balance falls backwards and he starts to fall onto his back, but I'm already on the move. I bring my lightsaber up into the back of his neck while he's falling, and his head goes flying.

I see Tree-Hugger gape in surprise slowly (not sure why… I'm too focused and full of energy to contemplate it) and the Sith's partner further down the hall intersecting us grits his teeth in anger. He raises his hands in my direction in a gesture that shows that lightning is about to hit me.

With a flick of my hand, the body of the Sith I just beheaded goes flying into his partner, but the other Sith moves out of the way. When he looks back at me, I'm gone. I'm actually in his face. I see his eyes open in surprise over several seconds and I bring my saber forward into his chest. However, as my saber moves forward, his fingers glow blue. I see both happen, and I know that his lightning will appear first, so I change direction of my lightsaber, but I'm not in time.

Lightning hits me square in the chest.

I go flying back and my back hits the wall. I fall to the ground and my back hurts like mad. Electricity crackles across my skin, but it actually doesn't hurt. If anything, it only fills me with more energy. I feel even stronger. I feel exhausted from the sudden snap from my adrenaline-filled-focus into real-time again, but I didn't take any damage from the lightning attack as far as I can tell. I jump to my feet.

Judging from the tension of the Sith's jaw, I'm not supposed to be alive and jumping and kicking and feeling good. He shoots more lightning at me, but I'm prepared for it. My body reacts of its own accord and its own instinct and knowledge. I pull the Force out into a technique just in front of my palms that pulls the lightning into a pair of spinning orbs. The lightning continues to come my way, and I continue to collect it. Before long, the pair of orbs spin faster, shimmer brighter, and scream of clashing energies. Just before it's too late, I bring the orbs together before me and they explode outward with all the energy collected in addition to their own.

Everything down the hall is instantly disintegrated and large chunks of the walls crumble.

The dust settles and after a moment, the only thing I hear is the sound of my own heavy breathing. Tree-Hugger is gaping at me like a fish, and Mother Hen is wincing in pain when she touches the back of her head.

I just kicked the ass of two Sith Lords like they were nothing. I'm totally badass! Even Tree-Hugger is amazed.

Focus, Varus!

I get down beside Mother Hen. "Hold still." I order. She holds still a bit while I look at the back of her head. There's a small cut but nothing bad. A rag for a bandage would work fine, if that. The biggest concern is brain damage, because I have to be an expert on that subject by now. I put up two fingers in front of her. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

"You can't be serious…" She mutters.

Okay, truthfully, I have no idea what I'm doing. I put them down. "Never mind."

Mother Hen grabs my shoulder and lifts herself up on wobbly legs. After a moment, she manages to stand straight and tall and with a shake of her head, she looks like she had just tripped. "I'm good." She says. Tree-Hugger turns her around to inspect the damage, and with a stern nod, he gives the 'all-clear'. Or maybe it means 'good job, Varus!'. I'm going to assume the second one just because.

We head off again, and it turns out the Sith are everywhere now. Every corner we go around, there is a Sith fighting another Jedi or Sith killing kids or Sith doing this and Sith doing that. Tree-Hugger jumps in with gusto and directs the battles, Mother Hen does her 'mother hen' thing and directs kids and safeguards people while defending them, and I do what I do best. Be a human wrecking ball.

Techniques come out of my hands and mind that I have never thought of. I make one Sith's lightsaber explode in his hand. Another one I side-step his attack by inches and cleave him in half. To a third I do a simple Force Levitate on his own feet unexpectedly, trip him, and let Tree-Hugger finish the job. The Sith are simpletons… But that isn't what is making them powerful, its their undeniable hatred and thirst for killing.

A growing pit appears in my stomach with each kill I claim. It's too easy. They are so easy to kill that it takes barely anything out of me. They aren't worth giving my attention, they are but empty faces on my way to another objective, and that thought makes me sick, but it's not just that… They're like me. I was a Sith. Granted, I am happy to not remember too many details, but I still remember the basic points. I killed Maris's master as a Sith. I became a Sith's apprentice. I caused the slaughter of my people. Not necessarily in that order, but I was a Sith too, and now I'm killing Sith.

I see myself in them. I kill their mocking faces as they taunt me with what I was, and before long I'm covered in burns and blood. My own blood. Blood of fellow Sith. Blood of people I don't pay attention to as I move from one to another because it's simply too easy until my black clothes are brown from the combination of red and black. Just as brown as any Jedi… I don't even hear their screams.

"Varus!" Tree-Hugger yells, and I stop. I turn back to look at them, and… what I see scares me to my core. Mother Hen's frightened, and the kids we're escorting are filled with terror, but not of what they should be. They're scared of me.

I stop to look down at me. I'm holding a man's entrails in my hand. I'm surrounded by no less than ten Sith in various forms of death and mutilation. I'm shaking and sweating from exhaustion, but my mind is racing. I'm so far in the zone, so full of focus and concentration on simply killing one after another, that I haven't taken stock of myself.

"Drop it." Tree-Hugger says cautiously. I do so and fall on my butt. My hands move up to my head of their own accord and my mind continues to freak out. Every color and detail is crisp, every motion is slow, every sound is clear and loud, every light is blinding, and every touch makes my hair stand on end. I feel the cloth around me, smothering me and smelling of smoke. I feel the blood caking it and on my hands. Its goopy and sticky and doesn't let my pores breath, like I'm swimming in a thick mud.

And all the while my body wants to move. My body wants to find more more more and continue tapping into the darkness I opened up on Kashyyyk.

It's all too much, my head hurts.

If there was ever a doubt that Starkiller was a Sith, it was abolished now. Anakin had seen a lot of fighters in his time, but few compared to the sheer savagery Varus unleashed. He wasn't screaming for blood or demanding their deaths or making stupid one-liners, he was silent and focused and faster than Anakin had ever seen. He was a machine in single-minded purpose, and overpowering in his recklessness.

At first, seeing Varus become more open to his past skill and experience as an assassin proved useful. He was skilled, far more skilled than Anakin had pictured. He almost wondered if he would have lived himself if Nihilus had sent his pupil after him.

But seeing Varus dispatch eight Sith like a possessed fast-as-death-itself reaper, stab the ninth man between the eyes with his lightsaber, and immediately take the same hand and pierce the last one's gut with it; and then reach all the way into his backbone, snap it, and pull his entrails out before sending the screaming Sith flying out the window: Anakin didn't see Varus, he saw Starkiller. At least until he smacked himself mentally, yelled to grab his pupils attention, and Varus snapped back.

The immediate result was all of his little 'please-don't-hurt-me' cowering moments and self-loathing like some pathetic minion he had at the beginning of his time as Anakin's Padawan returned. He shook. His eyes were downcast. He awaited punishment. He truly seemed to hate himself. All of the self-confidence Anakin had been helping him with, all of the learning of empathy and responsibility that formed Varus into a stronger self-controlled man who wouldn't kill a fly was gone. In its place was the shadow of a man that appeared in Varus's weakest moments at the beginning of his training. The shadow of a man nurtured and formed by Darth Nihilus.

Varus put his hands over his hand and started to rock back and forth slightly. He probably didn't even realize he was doing that. Anakin met his other pupil's eyes and saw her terror at what she had just witnessed, but also concern. She met his eyes back and nodded slightly, as if getting some unseen message. Truthfully, he didn't mean to give any messages, just surveyed the situation quickly. She knew what to do on her own.

Snips nudged the children away and helped one up off his hands and feet. This one had thrown up. Anakin snapped his eyes to a pair of clones in the corridor with their guns pinned on Varus. "Stand down." He ordered.

One of them looked between the Jedi Knight and the Padawan. "Sir? You sure?"

"Yeah!" The other one added, "How do we know he isn't a Sith too and will come after us! You saw his red eyes!" Varus flinches, but his expression is hidden.

"I said stand down." Anakin repeats more firmly, and after several tense moments: they comply.

"Hope you know what you're doing, General." They help take the younglings along safely back the way they had come, leaving Anakin with his broken Padawan and his first Padawan, and a lot of bodies.

Windu and Nihilus continued their duel. In Windu's mind, it was the best hope they had in both the short and long term. Death was everywhere as the Sith continued their attempt at preverbal genocide, and the Jedi retaliated, but it would all be for naught if Nihilus, the devourer of worlds, survived. Nihilus would go out into the galaxy and continue to strip worlds of life and Jedi on his quest for some kind of apocalypse, and he would begin with the center of light in the galaxy: the Republic Senate and Jedi Temple and all of Coruscant. Nihilus was also the leader and instigator of the battle around him, so ending Nihilus would shift the battle more into their favor.

Tactically, realistically, even conceptually, killing Nihilus was the best option before him, if it wasn't so hard.

Windu didn't claim to be the absolute best duelist, but he knew he was amongst the top hundred in the temple records currently. And along the way he had a great deal of experience in fighting different sword styles. Nihilus's style was unlike anything he had ever seen. He has seen drunken styles with their unexpected reactions and overly-exaggerated movements. He has seen people who fight like snakes with almost unnatural ways of bending their arms and legs. He has even seen people who are able to attack from any physical position and angle because they don't rely on center of gravity or stances. But never has he seen someone fight with all three at once.

Nihilus, in the body of the traitor, Palpatine, was the most unnatural fighter Windu had ever met. He bent completely sideways out of nowhere, brought up a stab toward Windu's face from the angle that made it just out of his line of sight, and bended his arm to evade the Jedi's block like a counter, all at once, and if Windu hadn't taken an extra step forward, he would have a red lightsaber sticking out of the top of his skull.

Windu moved to trip Nihilus, and succeeded, but Nihilus merely balanced himself on one hand while swiping at the Jedi's leg with the other. It was like the man didn't have a single bone in his body and wasn't concerned with whether he was upside down or right-side up or if gravity was pulling him sideways, back, or forwards.

The only recompense Windu had to his advantage was that Nihilus clearly was not that much of a duelist. He fought unnaturally, but it didn't strike Windu as that experienced or skillful; and slowly, but surely, Windu gained the offensive and the advantage in turn.

This was what a nice thing it was to be both a strategist, leader, and strong duelist. Nihilus was not all three, and it would cost him.

Nihilus returned to standing on two feet and swung his arm down to attack Windu from above, but Windu reacted first through instinct born in the fires of experience. He cut the man's arm off at the shoulder.

Nihilus's empty expression turned to blank surprise as he gaped at the stub on his shoulder. His husk of an arm fell to the ground and the red lightsaber turned off. The man didn't even appear to notice the pain.

Windu allowed himself a brief moment to take advantage of the Sith Lord's hesitation, and breathe, and collect his wits. He put his purple lightsaber up to Palpatine's sickly yellow eyes. "Any last words?" He asked. Warrior or not, his Jedi Code, even at the worst of battle, allowed for this one final request. Perhaps Nihilus would humor him and weep for all his sins.

"If you insist." Nihilus answered. The next moment, Windu felt his lungs and heart disappear. There was no pain. There was no burning sensation or metal stabbing or feeling of anything inserted into him. His chest cavity simply disappeared. He could no longer draw breathe and his limbs went numb over the course of several seconds.

A black arm of black smoke and shadow extended out from where Nihilus's shoulder stump was and pierced through Windu's chest.

"You have proved entertaining, Jedi. In life, you truly would have killed me. I have always been more of a strategist than barbarian. But now… let's see. What were your exact words to me? Oooh, yeeesss: You. Have. Lost." Nihilus whispered.

Windu could feel his life dissipating by the moment. It was now or never, and with that thought in mind, he pushed forward. He shoved Nihilus's surprised self into the wall of Sith behind him, pinned his arms down, used the last of his own energy to raise his own ten-ton arm and stab Nihilus through the clavicle down to his waist. Nihilus coughed up blood and the Sith around them stabbed Windu in the sides, as if that mattered anymore.

Windu chose to spend his last moment glaring in the Sith Lords eyes in defiance of everything that made them what they were. They murdered innocents by the droves. They enjoyed it, even, and they tortured and tormented people into becoming like them. They were nothing but hate-filled husks and shadows of men with singular purpose to kill and reproduce through the spreading of ideology and cycles of hatred.

Nihilus returned the glare with humor, and for the first time Windu had ever seen him, allowed a hint of pain to appear in his quivering lips. The man's expression was openly amazed. He chuckled and wheezed, "This was… worthy… of my respects… Jedi. Pity you never… followed Revan. I would have… wanted to duel you… in chess." Windu didn't move or change expression or anything. "Already… dead? Astounding. That you die… standing up."

Nihilus pushed Windu off of him with his other hand and the dead Jedi fell to the ground. With the purple lightsaber lodged in him from neck to hip, his body gave out as well. Palpatine, or what was left of him, was dead. The mask clattered to the ground off his face and dark robes collapsed onto it.

The mask and robes arose as something darker.

"Varus." Tree-Hugger says in front of me.

I don't raise my head. Last thing I need is to see how disappointed he is, because, frankly, I doubt it could be more than I am in myself.

"Varus." He stoops down in front of me. "Despite how pacified the Jedi Code has made us, there is a right way to end a person's life. The law dictates who we kill, and who we don't. We can kill in self-defense, and in the defense of other's based on the circumstances. We're in a war zone so while it is lawful, even the worst criminals are owed a basic civil respect as their life is ended. Executions of even the worst scum are made to be painless and fast, and a few rights are allowed such as last words and a cigarette if they want it and a last meal of something nice. This is because they are alive. Everything alive must be respected as such. It is because life is finite, despite what other's may think. Finite means it has value. Finite means it must be respected. And one of the reasons it is finite is because there are laws that dictate times when it must be ended." He raises himself back up, grabs me by the shoulders and lifts me up.

I get the idea and stand on my own feet and listen, but I can't look at him. "I wish I could give a long lecture an hour long and have us take weeks of meditation and civil duty as punishment doing something laborious and disgusting, but we don't have time for that. We're in the middle of a war zone, so let us be clear on something. What you just did was not respectful by any lengths of the imagination! The Sith are our enemy and are murderers, but why are we fighting them?"

I look at him like he's crazy. Why? Why else would we have use power and weapons designed to end life. "We're fighting with the intent to kill them, not baby th-."

"No!" He puts a finger in my face. "We're fighting to protect each other and to PREVENT the murder of our neighbors and THAT is where the line is drawn. Yes, I'm angry at them, and you right now. Yes, we are going to end them. But we are doing it because they are forcing our hand! This isn't about inflicting pain. This isn't about making them regret anything or reaping vengeance! You try to stop them, and if they don't stop, then end them, get it over with, and move on and ensure the people they tried to kill are safe. You do NOT grab their insides and pull it out, send them in agony, and THEN kill them by shooting them out a window to go SPLAT like a bug on some poor man's windshield! No matter what we have to do, Varus, there are still ways of going about things that can make us abominations no better than them!"

Every word hits me in the gut, and the head, and slowly my head lowers as he talks. "Now. Varus. Warzone or not, I want you to give me your lightsaber, and you are not going to use any Force powers EXCEPT in extreme cases of self-defense."

I snap my head up. Take my lightsaber?! The one he gave me, taught me to make, stuck a crystal in that he gave me, and have kept on my side like a priceless treasure? "M-master?"

"You heard me." He says, but his eyes soften. "You're unstable, Varus. There hasn't been time to recover from Kashyyyk, but the fact is we cannot do that yet. When this is all over, the three of us are going to have a lot to talk about. Problems… secrets… the future of our team… (and no, I'm not disbanding it!) and we are going to be doing lower class work for a long time until you are centered again, learn more and continue down the path to being a responsible young man, are able to understand the idea of true defense, and not… do stuff like that… again."

Problems… secrets… future of the team. At once those phrases fill me with dread, but also hope. I have nothing to go on. A part of me screams that I should be hurt and angry, but out of the corner of my eye I see Mother Hen behind him, and her expression is reassuring.

Tree-Hugger isn't going to disband us and send me off alone into the galaxy with nothing, or have me imprisoned, but is trying to prevent me from making further mistakes… The lessons will have to wait till we have time to sit down and do it.

I take off my lightsaber and put it in his hands. He nods. "Good. I'll hold onto this for you and keep it safe. You have my word."

"Thanks…" I whisper. My thanks is probably a moot thing compared to the massive elephant in the room.

"Now." He puts the lightsaber to his waist. "Snips, take point. Varus, stay behind as support. Make sure no one sneaks up on us and keep this in mind always: Keep my friends alive. Do NOT think: Kill the enemy. Alright?"

I nod, rather weakly, but he's right. We don't have time for me to sit around a mope. What's wrong with me!? Focus, Varus!

Falon stood next to his master Kota at the top of the stairs and watched the battle. They were winning, and they would win within an hour or two. Battle wasn't something drawn out in seconds, but minutes and even hours if done right. The kind of battles his master was often involved in lasted days at a time while tactics were employed.

The thing that made the battle so interesting was the complete lack of strategy. A powerful offensive rode on the backs of a leader and could pierce into a strong defense like a spear. A powerful tactician would move pieces around based on what was needed where, as Kota wished he could do, but there too many equals for them to do much about it. 'Too many chefs in the kitchen', as the saying went. Everyone directed everyone, including themselves, and the battle was a mad house for both sides. The Jedi, so far as he could see, had not enough structure in the battle to properly coordinate, and the Sith's only strategy was run in head-first in pure mob fashion.

The Sith had the advantage in pushing power, and so gained the entrances to the outer wings of the Temple, whereas the Jedi held the advantage of height and a bottleneck. The Sith were out to kill people, and the Jedi seemed more concern with protecting knowledge. In this case, both sides were meeting their objective.

Which was unacceptable in his eyes. A true general ensured the enemy no quarter. Yet another problem Kota shared with him.

Of course, he was but a kid. He was a prodigy of battle field tactics and war and was trained by Kota to become a balanced fighter while still having a focus on strategy, but a kid. The 'grownups' were so focused on defending their lives that they can't see the bigger picture.

The Sith aren't here to take the database. They aren't here to take a few Holocrons. They're here to kill, and that's it.

And this was but the first wave. Two Dreadnaughts released a fleet of transports. This didn't count the hundreds of other dreadnaughts or the rest of the crew on the two original ones.

While the same could be said for the Jedi, many were still off and away on missions, that didn't change the fact that unless the Jedi structured themselves and put up a solid defense instead of losing inch after inch of ground, the Temple would be lost in the event of a second, third, or, god forbid, a fourth wave.

All Falon could do was stand in the far back by the door and watch as Kota did his best to direct what he could, and the other Jedi fought on. He was adamant about being present while the other 'younglings' (He was nine! He wasn't a youngling anymore!) were evacuated. He was allowed under the condition he doesn't throw his life away needlessly, like being on the front lines.

Steps beside him directed his eyes away. General Skywalker, Ahsoka, and Varus had arrived. Varus looked worse for wear and was covered in blood, Skywalker was limping slightly while putting on a strong face, and Ahsoka looked a bit banged up. They could have seen better days, but then everyone could have.

"You made it." Falon greeted them.

"Hey, Falcon. You enjoy stating the obvious?" Varus smirk. Falon gritted his teeth. His name was FALON! Not Falcon!

All of his thoughts came to a halt as the hair on the back of his neck rose, a dark power bloomed in the middle of the Sith army, and an ghostly scream echoed through the room. The Sith stopped and… bowed, the Jedi around him froze in amazement at the sound and echoing power, and Varus… his eyes sparked in horrific recognition.

"You know that sound?" Falon asked. That made no sense. How could Varus know it.

"I…" was all Varus could get out. His orbs were focused on the same thing everyone else was looking at, but with many times more horror. His eyes flickered in memory and what he saw made him shake and pale.

A massive robed figure shrouded in thick shadows hoverered in the midst of the Sith. The robe was wide open, but no flesh was within. Only a mask where the head should be.

I don't think I even have to ask you to review. This chapter is epic enough on its own.