The evening breeze gusted heavily around him, shattering the facade of tranquility Thales strove to maintain as Chancellor, the wind pouring through the opening he'd created when he defenestrated Master Seteth. His breath was heavy, not for exhaustion but for exhilaration, as the plan he'd spent countless years enacting was finally coming to fruition.

Returning to his desk, he opened up communications and began to broadcast to his various pawns, first to his apprentices, then to the clones.

"The time of the Jedi is over. They have been bled dry, raked over the coals of our machinations, burnt to cinders in the fires of our ambition. At long last, vengeance is finally at hand!"

"Execute Order: 66."

With the enemy's guns gradually falling silent, now was the time to breach their stronghold. Rodrigue led his troops to charge, his blue lightsaber raised inspirationally as they followed him into the breach, just as they always did.

The sounds of trailing footfalls came to a halt, and Rodrigue turned in confusion to see his clones standing apart from him, rifles raised and ready to fire… at him.

Sudden realization washed over him and he snapped his saber around to deflect the first blaster shot that came at him, then the second, then the third. But the fusillade pounded on, and it only took a single blast to shatter his concentration before the volume of fire cut him down.

.

Judith led her troops across the loamy forest floor, boots stomping over the mud as she led her clones in the necessary task of battlefield cleanup. Approaching the quagmire where they'd bombed the Separatists into retreat mere hours ago, she ordered her clones to form up.

The Force screamed at her in warning,

Her yellow blade shot out, but it was too late. Bolt after bolt slammed into her, and the Hero of Daphnel crashed to the mud.

.

Randolph pulled hard on the yoke of his fighter, fighting for control of the flaming craft as he began spiraling. The clone pilots that had shot him down broke off pursuit to let gravity confirm their kill for them. As warning klaxons blared in his ears and smoke began filling the cockpit, Randolph swallowed thickly and his final thoughts turned to home.

'I'm sorry, Fleche… I won't be able to take you to the gleaming spires of Taris after all.'

His Starfighter crashed into a watchtower and the clone pilots reported their success.

.

As his clones pulled back on their jumpspeeders, Gilbert demanded to know why they broke formation.

His answer was a laser cannon to the back.

The fallen Sith lay crumpled on the ground, his breathing heavy and slowing as the pall of death began to claim him. And yet despite his circumstances, a satisfied grin was on his face, a genuine but painful chuckle emerging from his throat.

"And so I have met my end," he observed, hand loosely covering the area where he'd been broken by Byleth's attack. "It is a good death. One that I… can be proud of…" He turned to look at his killer. "Thank you for fulfilling my truest desire. I sincerely hope… you survive the purge to come."

The Jedi knight frowned as she deactivated her lightsaber. "Purge?"

Jeritza nodded. "Yes… The master has long laid plans for destroying the Jedi Order." He hacked up a mouthful of blood. "Using the war to whittle them away… before finishing them with his acolytes… and the clones."

"The clones?" repeated Byleth in shock.

The self-styled Death Knight nodded weakly. "Every clone has an inhibitor chip embedded in their brain… When triggered, they will act upon their secret orders… and kill the Jedi." Jeritza looked to the sky then, his life force nearly extinguished. "It has already begun," he promised ominously.

Byleth shivered involuntarily with horrified understanding of the impending genocide. "Who is your master?"

He sighed. "Lord Thales, though you know him as Chancellor Arundel..."

"Arundel…!" Byleth could scarcely believe such an outrageous claim, yet she detected nothing but honesty from the dying man.

Jeritza closed his eyes as the numbness set in. "Good night, little Jedi… and good luck."

"Traitor!" thundered Catherine as she crashed her saber against Edelgard's. "All this time you've been with the Sith! I will carve your eyes out!"

Deftly parrying her opponent's strikes, Edelgard offered a calm retort, even as the Jedi lashed out with a kick that sent her into a controlled tumble. "Such anger is unbecoming of a Master Jedi," she scolded tauntingly. "You wouldn't want to fall to the dark side."

Her words only fanned the flames of Catherine's wrath. "I will tear your head off and hang it from the gates of the Temple!"

Edelgard skillfully deflected another savage swing. "I hope you don't impart such foulness to your padawans. What would Dimitri think?" She dodged a blow from the berserker's blue blade that severed a support column, neatly skirting away to avoid the falling rubble.

"He would think his master knows best! Now shut up and die already!" Their blades clashed upon each other in a storm of aggression, murderous intent behind every strike as Jedi and Sith vied for supremacy.

A brief impasse was reached when Catherine Force-pushed Edelgard away, the Sith landing neatly atop a fallen support pillar. They traded glares, exertion evident on their faces.

"Get down here and finish this!" growled Catherine, barring her fangs.

Eyes narrowing, Edelgard responded. "As you wish."

She vanished.

Catherine's eyes widened in shock and she scrambled to locate her foe, to sense her through the Force.

It was too late. A blazing beam of crimson erupted from her torso and the Jedi Master fell.

As the energy slammed against her green blade, Constance's mind immediately turned to analysis. "Force-conjured electricity? Fascinating…"

The flow of lightning cut off abruptly as Hapi leveled a glare at her. "You think Force lightning is so interesting?" she intoned menacingly. She retracted her saber and cracked her knuckles, intent on putting on a show. "Then drown in it!" she yelled, sending forth a tide of electricity with both hands.

Powerful arcs of lightning coursed toward her, but Constance met the onslaught with an astonishing degree of grace. Moving her blade aside, the blonde prodigy held out her free hand and allowed the lightning to crash against it, channeling the energy as if it were her own with only the mildest display of discomfort.

The redheaded darksider halted her torrent with a disconcerted frown, brow furrowing in unease as she looked upon Constance's hand, pristine save for the wispy trails of dissipating smoke from where her lightning had struck. "What the hell are you?" she asked, genuinely disturbed.

A small smirk crossed the blonde's face as she preened in pride. "I am the Scion of House Nuvelle, eminent genius and foremost adept of the Force. Please hold your applause until the end."

Casually, Constance flicked her lightsaber into the air before slamming her hands together in a resounding clap, generating an overwhelming pulse of Force energy both kinetic and electric. The pulse slammed into Hapi, sending her flying as Force lightning lit up her nervous system before she crashed against the ground unconscious. The lightsaber landed perfectly in Constance's hand.

"Victory is mine!" preened Constance proudly. "Just as expected!"

The structure around them juddered suddenly, a firm reminder to the blonde that she still wasn't safe. Her face fell into a frown.

"How rude," she sniffed, disdaining the very walls for daring interrupt her triumph. "But very well. If greatness is unwanted here, then I shall simply relocate." She started off, but paused as she noticed the subtle rise and fall of her fallen foe's chest. After a moment of consideration, Constance sighed before reaching down to carry the redheaded darksider in her arms. "Fortunately for you, dear foe, Constance von Nuvelle is a gracious victor."

Dimitri howled savagely as he struck against the droideka's shield again and again, unable to penetrate the energy barrier as Felix fended off its blaster shots from across the bay. Nearby, Sylvain and Ingrid kept up the pressure on the MagnaGuard, their azure sabers continually descending on the formidable droid only to be beaten back with sparking blows from its electrostaff.

Though they were divided facing two different foes offering two different threats, the Jedi quartet worked as one, positioning themselves properly to go in for the kill.

As the MagnaGuard focused a strike on Sylvain, Ingrid used her moment of freedom to lift a barrel with the Force, hurling it at the droideka. The heavy impact sent the destroyer droid tumbling, its shield gone as it let off one last volley. As Dimitri slammed his lightsaber through the machine, Felix artfully deflected its last shot to the MagnaGuard, striking it off balance just in time for Sylvain to riposte with a neat bisection.

A final few stragglers happened into the action, but it wasn't long before they too were defeated.

As the last Separatist battle droid was cut down by the members of Strike Team Lion, the doors to the main elevator opened, letting a flood of dark side energy pour into the room.

"Yo! I heard you guys like fighting!" called Shez as she stepped out of the elevator, Lysithea at her side. She smirked confidently at the Jedi as four blue lightsabers snapped toward her, activating her own violet sabers with a flourish. "Mind if we join in?"

AN: Force cloak is a thing. More on that later.