AN: I really couldn't make up my mind how to resolve the situation with Mundi so I rolled a dice. He got 98 of 100 for the course of actions that he would take.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed or Star Wars. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not created with commercial aim. I make no money from it.

Phase 16: Revenant

=RK=

Part 3

=RK=

Med Bay G-3

Republic cruiser Shinning Light

hyperspace

Ki-Adi-Mundi looked at the impassive helmets of the Clones, sensed their emotions and knew they didn't understand; they couldn't. They couldn't perceive the Force and the world as a Jedi or a Sith could. There was a voice in the back of his head insisting that they were already corrupted by the Sith, turned to his merciless way of thinking, however Mundi dismissed that notion for he finally understood the truth.

Veil didn't need to turn the common soldiers. All he had to do was continue putting them first, especially the Clones. Where a Jedi would risk his men to preserve civilian lives, both Republic and Separatist alike, the Sith had no qualms of sweeping the latter with orbital fire and call it a day. It was wrong, cruel, evil.

Yet, why wouldn't the soldiers approve, when doing so could save their very lives, allow them to go back to their families intact. It was in fact a logical for them to support someone who would do whatever it took to preserve their lives. That was what his mind told him and the Jedi couldn't logically argue with that conclusion. It was obvious.

Nevertheless, it was wrong. Every fibre of his being screamed that truth. The Force did as well. How could it not be so when the alternative was Bothawui?! Nothing could justify that, nothing!

Mundi could still hear the screams when he closed his eyes. He felt dirty from being present when Veil fed them all to the Dark Side. He felt its savage joy and boundless hunger. After that, there was no place for doubt in his mind nor in his heart – the Dark Side, the Sith and anyone else who willingly used and facilitated it were evil. Irredeemably so.

He also knew that put in a similar situation, Veil would not even hesitate to murder another world. Billions, perhaps trillions would die by his hands before the war was over and once that was done... How could a Jedi condone such a man having any say in how the galaxy was run? The mere thought of Veil having an influence over the Chancellor of the Republic, not to mention the Mandalorians, made him sick.

The Clones wouldn't, couldn't stop him. Admiral Holt, she seemed to have heart in the right place, however, he could feel her loyalty to the man. Did he promise her to do anything that it took to liberate Corellia? She would probably follow the Sith straight to the deepest darkest of her people's hells if he could deliver and he probably could. But the price?

With Veil at the helm of this war, whoever won, the galaxy would lose. The only peace a man like him could bring forward would be one at the gunpoint. It would be hundreds if not thousands of years before the Republic experienced anther era of prosperity... If the Sith allowed for the Republic to continue existing.

Mundi had many reasons to strike now, while Veil was vulnerable. Such an opportunity, the Jedi doubted he would live to have another like it. Duty bound him to stay his hand, yet at the same time it drove him to strike now, while he still had a chance. If he acted, his actions would be vilified and used to persecute his fellow Jedi. Taking out Veil would give the Separatists better odds of victory and they would pave their way over the corpses of the innocents. Nevertheless, if he did nothing, if he let this chance slip through his fingers, more innocents were going to die anyway – by the Sith's own hands. That much he didn't doubt.

No matter what he did, people would suffer because of his actions. What was the lesser evil? Frankly, at this point, Mundi had no idea. He knew Veil was evil, an amoral monster. The same could be said for the people running the Confederacy. He had no idea who would kill more people if they were allowed to continue as they were.

He was damned no matter what he did and Mundi found that he was all right with that. What he couldn't contemplate was a future where people like Veil decided what was right and wrong and shaped the next generations of Force Sensitive, like his own children. The very thought of the Sith getting his hands on them made Mundi's blood boil.

In the end, making the choice turned out to be much easier than he anticipated. It was liberating. Ki-Adi-Mundi was a Jedi even if now, at the end, he faltered. He knew he was acting for the wrong, selfish reasons, yet that was good enough for him. He opened himself to the Force, let its light illuminate all he was and chase the taint of a murdered world away.

"General Veil, I can not allow you to murder another world. Your actions betray everything the Republic and those sworn to protect her stand for." Mundi spoke in a serene voice. His mind drifted to his wives and children, he let himself experience the forbidden emotions he felt for them all and at that moment power surged through him, warm and welcoming. Mundi focused on his love, his duty and determination to protect what was precious to him and the Force responded, filling him with more power than he had ever felt before in his life.

"You're about to do something very stupid, General Mundi. Stand down." Veil's voice sounded exhausted, weak.

It was now or never.

"Mundi, stand down!" Admiral Holt shouted.

A good woman, doing her best in impossible situation, just like him.

"There's no death, there's the Force." The Jedi smiled. The power filling him reached a crescendo. Its gentle turned into furnace ready to cook him from within and Mundi let it out.

"Brace!" Veil shouted.

Mundi felt the Sith throwing a weak barrier between him and the Clones. It would commendable, if it wasn't all a desperate attempt to save his own skin. Mundi unleashed the power within though a titanic telekinetic pulse that slammed into Veil's shield and shattered it. The Jedi was already moving forward with the Force singing throughout his whole body, making him feel invincible before he could actually see the efects of his opening move.

To the Clones' credit, Veil's warning and feeble protection did help. Those wearing heavier armour locked their magnetic boots to the deck and braced forward. His tremendous telekinetic push threw more than half of them into the nearby walls. Others flew right into their heavy armoured comrades and the combined momentum and mass was enough to dislodge them and sent them crashing away. Mundi idly noted that Rex grabbed Admiral Holt and pulled her into a protective embrace just before both of them were thrown away, but then he had no more time or concentration to spare for anything but his task. He sprinted forward with speed enhanced by the Force, used his power to summon his lightsaber and ignited it just in time to intercept a wild burst from the closest Clone who remained on his feet.

The soldiers were a mere distraction of no real consequence. They were in his way so Mundi either cut them down or used the Force to brush them away. Sonic blasts slammed into his armour and their sickening resonance would have brought him to his knees if it wasn't for the protection that the Light granted him. A distant part of the Jedi's mind regretted the death he caused. Those people were merely misguided, doing their duty as they understood it. It was tragic really, yet another tragedy because of the Sith. Why couldn't have they all remained dead?!

Mundi cut off the arm of another heavy trooper and unleashed more of the burning power threatening to consume his body. The incoming fire faltered when his telekinetic pulse threw away more Clones and suddenly there was just one soldier between him and the door. The Jedi felt a pang of regret as he tore him from the deck and slammed him head-first into one of the medics who had moved between him and Veil, sending both of them crashing into a nearby bed.

The Sith used the other doctor to steady himself in a sitting position and pointed his hand at Mundi. The Jedi knew what was coming and moved his blade to interpose it between himself and the lighting that the Veil unleashed at him an instant later.

The attack was much weaker than he expected, a testament of how weak the Sith was right now. This was it, the moment of truth. The Clones would recover soon and he had no doubt reinforcements would arrive any moment. Mundi used the Force to twist away Veil's arm, thus sending the Sith lighting arching inside the Med Bay and away from his body.

The Force told him what was about to happen – there were too many Clones aiming at his back and they were about to overwhelm his straining shields, armour and the warm protective field granted to him by the Light Side, but not soon enough. Mundi concentrated, enveloped his lightsaber in a sheathe of concentrated Force energy and threw it at Veil. It took all he had to make sure it flew true despite a powerful telekinetic push that the Sith sent.

Everything appeared to slow down as Mundi struggled to keep his blade on target. He saw the remaining medic move, faster than he had any right to and knew Veil drew him as a human shield. The Jedi felt regret at yet another senseless death, yet he didn't interrupt his attack. His lightsaber flew like a spear, pierced through the medic and the Force surrounding it gave it enough momentum to throw the poor Clone back and right at Veil. The Sith raised his hands in the last possible moment and it appeared he tried to grab the live blade to keep it from his vitals. Mundi could sense Veil channelling the Force in a desperate attempt to keep himself alive, however he was weakening fast. Just a few more moments... The Jedi used what little concentration he could spare to try and choke the Sith in an attempt to break his own concentration.

Time was up. More and more Clones got back their bearing, and ignored broken bones and internal injures to pump shot after shot in the Jedi's back. The protective field surrounding Mundi fizzled, followed by his shields. His armour held for a heartbeat under the onslaught and then it was up to his Force saturated flesh to resist repeated blaster hits. By any right he should have been dead the moment his armour got burned away, yet the Force was with him. Mundi had one last task and he couldn't die before it was done! He had to end it!

All he could see was the Sith's snarling face. Two sick yellow eyes glared defiantly at him. Smoke rose from both the skewered Clone and Veil's hands, his neck bulged as invisible fingers choked the life out of him, yet that stubborn mosnter wasn't giving up!

Mundi was already dead. He knew it, the Force knew it, the Clones who continued to shoot him in the back had to know it and he was sure even Veil was well aware from it. Yet, his body still held on, burning slowly but surely from both within and without. It was then that the Jedi pulled all the Force energy from within himself and threw it like a lance at the Sith. All he had to do was make him falter for a moment and it would be all over and he could rest. The world shifted and Mundi knew his body gave away. He wasn't watching through his own eyes any longer but through the Force. He saw his last attack, a compressed lance of shimmering light approach his nemeisis. It was about to skewer him when a ghostly image overlaid itself over Veil. It was that of a Chiss woman whose crimson eyes glared defiance at him. Mundi's attack slammed into her and blew her image away, yet nothing but light breeze touched the Sith. Then the Light took him and he knew no more.

=RK=

Mundi's last desperate attack shattered itself over a crude shield that my Apprentice's Force Ghost created. If it wasn't for her lending me her power willingly and helping, I was sure the Jedi would have done me in.

"That was close, master." Aria's tired voice whispered in my mind and her presence retreated deeper in my psyche to rest.

It was over. I smiled and watched the Jedi's torso disintegrate under a ceaseless barrage of blaster and sonic shots. Finally, the energy pushing his lightsaber at me dissipated and the weapon switched off. It fell to the ground along with the medic I used as a shield. I looked down at my hands and winced. My left palm was a charred mess. Not only the flesh was burned to the bone but the bones themselves were cooked. My other hand was nicely burned too – red and blistering. It was bad enough that there was not enough nerves in my left hand left to feel the pain. Instead, it was as if I just put my wrist into molten metal. I had to grit my teeth not to scream.

For a moment I took a stock of the situation – it was all kriffed up. I glared at Mundi's burned remains. "Misdirected passion... such a waste." I growled at the corpse for one last time. "Get more medics in here!" I snarled to the Medical Droids that hovered behind me.

A pair of electronic chirps answered me and one of the machines came to see to my hands with the other moving to the closest casualties. It was a testament to how exhausted I was that the droid treating me managed to jab me with a syringe before I knew what it was doing. Warmth spread up my left arm and the world darkened.

=RK=

The next time I awoke, nothing hurt. I was warm, comfortable and thirsty. I tried to get up only to feel dizzy and get pushed back by a metal appendage belonging to a Medical Droid.

"What's the verdict?" I asked the machine. Or at least I tried. All that got out of my throat was an initeligible croak. I got a straw connected to a cup shoved in my mouth and slowly drank the offered warm water – it tasted simply divine.

"General, it's good to see you awake." A Clone in a doctor's uniform come to hover over my face.

"What's the damage? How many did we lose?" I asked.

"Eight dead, twenty-three wounded, ten in critical condition. You should be dead, again, but instead only need a spare left arm. Your right is covered with Bacta bandages complete with light painkillers, the same goes for the stump on your left arm. As far as the fleet is concerned, as far as I know, we're laying low in dark space."

"Is Joanna alive?"

"She's sleeping off after her concussion got better and has multiple broken bones to mend, otherwise the Admiral's fine."

"Good. Rex?"

"In critical condition however we expect him to recover."

"Not as bad as I feared then." I sighed in relief. "Now get me whoever is in charge of the fleet."

"You're in no condition to do anything but rest, General."

"I'll rest when I'm dead."

"Rumour has it that you didn't want to rest while dead so you came back."

I snorted at that. That infernal Medical Droid came at me wielding another syringe. "Just tell the acting fleet commander to plot course for Nal Shaddaa and plan to get there once I'm on my feet. I have a few contacts there who can arrange resupply and some up to date intelligence." Hopefully.

"I'll do so, sir. Now go back to sleep."

Before the bloody droid could jab me with a sedative, I drew on the Force and managed to put myself into a healing trance, only then did I drift off to sleep again.