Author's note: For people who are like the last chapter is fast, that is the point. War is a quick, brutal thing. As is the Dark Side. As long as the Battle of Naboo, just like the Clone Wars, is a sham run by the Sith, it practically doesn't matter if anyone on either side dies; the same goes for the loss of any soldier or fleet. Things would change if any of them became legitimate, but at that point, any future events those people might have played a part in OTL would be irrevocably altered anyway. Luke capturing the Trade Federation's Viceroy, while admittedly an impulsive decision, was what he wanted to do to prevent any of the problems Naboo had in OTL. Instead, they caused even worse problems. The Trade Federation, as did Sidious, got more paranoid. As a result, the Federation no longer wants Padmé to sign that treaty. They want her DEAD. The tragic time traveler trope comes into factor. The traveler's attempts to make things better only end up making things worse. I try not to play favorites with any character.

Feel free to join my Discord server: . disc ord. gg /3b3B xdHQKG (delete the spaces). You can talk about whatever you want in there. SW and RDR channels are in there as well.

Chapter 15

Luke Skywalker honestly didn't expect Aurra Sing.

No, he had anticipated Maul.

But Sidious, in a moment of wisdom, employed Aurra Sing instead. The Sith likely used Sing to monitor him as closely as possible without crossing sabers themselves. He couldn't entirely fault them for this. They were analyzing a threat before coming into close quarters. The Sith wouldn't want to waste all that time and effort they've placed in their servants. It was a wise decision that Luke could admittedly understand.

The Sith knew that Sing wouldn't quit until defeated.

"Whatever Sidious offered you, you'll be disappointed," Luke said, catching onto the way her eyes widened a fraction when he'd mentioned the Dark Lord. "You were brought into his servitude not as a trainee but as a servant. I'll say it again. You will never be a Sith."

"No," Sing responded, her dark eyes leering. "The Sith have promised to train me to destroy that pathetic Order, starting with you."

"The Jedi wronged you, Aurra Sing. I can help you turn away from this path if you will just allow it. Inside, you're a girl screaming for help." Luke responded patiently,

The Palliduvan snarled, "The Jedi live in failure and hypocrisy. I will help the Sith rule the galaxy!"

Disappointment surged through him. What had the Sith promised her exactly? At best, she rivaled Jerec or Flint, and that wasn't even accounting for her attachment to the Force.

"Do you really believe you can defeat ten thousand Jedi at once?" Luke spoke in disappointment.

"Of course not, but getting a shot at the Jedi whenever I can will always be the best!" Sing boosted.

The bounty hunter shot up a hand, attempting to get the drop on him. Luke reacted, gripping her blaster through the Force and flinging it behind him. She angrily hissed, drawing her newfound power in his direction. It obeyed. She was successful... at billowing his robes, but his feet remained grounded in place.

The bounty hunter took one step, and another, activating her scarlet lightsaber. She swung it around in the stance that Luke recognized as Juyo. Untrained and undisciplined.

"Don't you see, Jedi?" she laughed maniacally. "This palace will be burned to the ground!"

"I don't want to fight you, but I won't let you put anyone in danger here." Far too many times he made that mistake throughout the years. "If you won't stand down, you'll have to be subdued."

Sing grinned between her teeth. "Go ahead and try. I won't be sent back to the life I've lived!"

Luke gripped his hilt and ignited his lightsaber, raising the weapon in the air and aiming it at the Dark Jedi, fingers outstretched in Soresu.

"Very well, if you're truly a Sith, show me what you've learned."

"Challenge obliged!"

Scarlet met green in a glorious clash of blades. Sing charged while Luke waited, their lightsabers interlocked with one another. She strained while he didn't even take a step back, attacking with mad, rapid strikes. Luke merely absorbed her lackadaisical attacks.

Sing sprang again and attacked with an overhead swipe. Luke, simply and easily, blocked the attack, and the one that followed it, and the one that followed that. The Palliduvan scoffed in annoyance and paced around, stabbing the lightsaber closer without making much impact, trying to intimidate him.

A few seconds of that followed before Sing lunged forward, jaw tight in aggravation. Luke blocked the blow effortlessly, absorbing another series of assaults. Skywalker's defense was impenetrable; Sing was fighting against a losing battle. The Dark Side howled and demanded for her to give more. She feinted an assault, attempting to drive her free fist up to stun him for a moment. Luke successfully dodged this assault and merely countered.

How ironic, the roles have reversed.

In the past, the Sith or Dark Jedi would have given chase against the lone Jedi, cornering them until they fell to the Dark Side, died, or were triumphant.

Backflipping over and sending a pipe at the door's controls, the bounty hunter backed away. Luke kept his green lightsaber at his side in his mechanical hand as he approached. The Palliduvan took several steps back, rotating her lightsaber up to the man, scarlet blade twirling. The Jedi Master provided no attacks besides minor counters and stabs at Sing.

"Fight me!" The Palliduvan snapped. "Stop holding back!"

"I don't want to fight you. I just want to enlighten you. The Dark Side is destroying you. Darth Sidious is destroying you. Consider your path. That's what the Dark Side does. It tarnishes everything that defines a person."

"Don't lecture me!" she wailed, her fragile calm cracking. If only she would listen... "You're a pathetic coward!"

"So it is strength you seek?" Luke asked sympathetically. "You're not evil for this. The Jedi have wronged you, and I'm so sorry for that, Aurra Sing. But the Sith and the Dark Side will provide you with no completion to this. Just emptiness. They're monitoring us, watching this battle, observing me from afar because they fear me. Do you think that is the embodiment of strength and power?"

Sing sneered. "You have no knowledge of strength and power. None of you Jedi do."

"Don't I?" Luke asked rhetorically. "Those two attributes don't just come with performing well in combat. It took me years to understand that. Talent without training is nothing."

"Show me, you all wise one!"

"I want to help you, Aurra."

"I don't need your help! If you don't fight me, I will find that bitch of a Queen and make her watch her planet burn, and give her to the Sith!"

Skywalker's eyes hardened. No one threatened the woman who would be his biological mother. She wasn't going to die a premature death, not with him around. "Very well," he said.

Luke outstretched his right leg and kicked her in the chest. Before Sing could even recover, the time traveling Skywalker attacked, centering his attack on the blade and not the body. Masterfully, he altered from Soresu to Form V, Djem So, and bits of Form IV, Ataru, driving the Palliduvan back. Now, the Palliduvan was forced to counter, sending her lightsaber up, riposting, gasping as she attempted to bolt away from the aggression suddenly displayed.

Desperately, Sing angled the blade to cut at the Jedi's knees, which were parried, and she spun around, kicking him in the chest. This did little to wind him. The Palliduvan looked at him before at the ray shields behind her and dashed away, with him following behind.

She eyed the bottomless pit, clearly debating whether to jump before turning around to look at Luke Skywalker, positioning her blade in an abhorrently flawed Soresu stance. Luke raised his lightsaber in the stance of Djem So as well but didn't press the attack. He looked down at a small protrusion in the wall in the shaft and telepathically sent it flying at Sing. The Palliduvan swiped at it while Luke pressed the attack, moving around and meeting her blade with several strikes as well.

Luke looked. Wires nearby detached with electricity sparks and flew at Sing, deactivating the ray shield. Sing fell back, gripping her forehead and falling forward. More wires detached and flew at Sing, this time going over her head. Luke poised his lightsaber down in front of him, gripping an abandoned crate with his mind, and sent it flying at Sing, slamming against her chest.

Frustration took hold. With a primal yell, the Palliduvan lunged at him again, her lightsaber whirling a blur of deadly arcs and slashes-her movements swift and predatory. Luke met her aggressive attacks with a measured stance and composed. Their lightsabers danced through the air with fatal ballads, one held back, while the other pressed on.

Luke twirled around and slammed his foot against her lower abdomen. Sing swung her lightsaber blindly at his head, but he dodged. Right there, he could have stabbed her, but he pulled back, aiming for her weapon instead of her person, his saber brutalizing her defense and kicking her in the spine once more. Sing closed her eyes and grunted.

Sing stared at him with agonized eyes, the hilt trembling in her hand as being kicked by Luke threw her off-guard. For a brief moment, he felt pity. Just what had the Jedi done to this girl, and the Sith aggravated? This show of cruelty by both parties infuriated Luke.

As they stared at one another, Luke searched deeper and recoiled slightly, troubled.

'Use the pain. Twist it into anger. Kill Luke Skywalker.' He heard the Sith's words spilling into her mind. A command, he realized a nanosecond later. All too familiar from afar.

Users of the Dark Side thrived on pain, using it to fuel them further. The cancerous sensation of the Dark Side gripped the Palliduvan unmercifully. Another cautionary tale of how addictive the Dark Side was.

Dark blue energy unleashed across her hands and then launched at him in an uncontrolled net of unrestrained power. He outstretched a hand and caught the raging energy to himself, moderately draining it away. Doing so to proper Sith lightning would require tremendous concentration, a difficult thing to muster in combat. Insanity was coming closer and closer to her. Skywalker knew he had to end this if he wished to salvage anything from the girl.

Skywalker swung his left hand and unleashed Electric Judgment directly at the Palliduvan. Caught off-guard, Sing was sent flying back, but the assault winded her more than hurt her. It was an ability she hadn't obviously heard of in her limited time as a Jedi. It was frowned upon by the Jedi Order, but naturally a Light Side ability.

Skywalker didn't attack any further but stated.

"In the name of the Jedi Order and Naboo's people, you're under arrest. Lay down your weapon and I promise. You will not be tossed into a cell indefinitely."

Her leg now clearly sprained, the Palliduvan shakily recovered. She gripped it and drew on the pain, allowing the Dark Side to flood through her, and shed it away, before charging forward.

But he effortlessly blocked the attack. Her saber never even rose. Sing's blade was held mere inches from Skywalker's throat by the power held singularly through Luke's raised finger. Throughout all of this, the time traveler maintained eye contact with her, undeterred.

"Don't you see?" Skywalker sighed and bowed his head as if Sing was a belligerent child. "The Sith controls you, festers upon you. The Dark Side whispers to you seductively, tells you unachievable promises. You use it and it'll dominate your destiny. Consume you. The Dark Side doesn't provide an alternative to a lifetime of enslavement and destruction. The Dark Side corrupts those of the weakest. It provides you with a short-term answer, gives you all that you want, but it has no loyalty. It's nothing compare to the power of the Force. Open up. Let me show you what the Force could do."

And then she smirked and began to laugh. Luke frowned in concern. The Force rippled in that moment, screaming a warning in his direction. Sing's cackle descended from a peal of normal laughter to a darkening laugh, and it wasn't her voice that came out next...

And she broke free of the trance, gravitating over to him slowly, her legs barely meeting the ground...

She opened her mouth and started to speak, but it was... different. "Such... enlightening words, Skywalker. Unfortunately, it will not be enough to save Naboo."

Skywalker sensed it instantly. Her skin peeled back, revealing deep, dark orbs with rings of red. Her voice grew more and more poisonous, tainted by droplets of contempt and dark satisfaction.

Controlled by another from afar.

"Of course, I lament not being there in person to see your potential, Skywalker."

He clutched his hilt even tighter. The next word escaped Luke's mouth.

"Sidious..."

"Form up with me, Siri," Adi's voice commanded again. "We need to take out that control ship."

Siri's gaze snapped to the massive Trade Federation control ship that loomed in the distance, its surface bristling with turbolaser batteries. It was the nerve center of the droid fleet—without it, the Trade Federation's forces would be left in disarray.

"On your wing, Master," Siri responded, pushing her Starfighter to maximum speed to catch up with Adi.

The two Jedi Starfighters streaked toward the control ship, their engines roaring. A squadron of droid fighters moved to intercept, but Siri and Adi cut through them like a pair of twin lightsabers. They spun and twisted through the enemy lines, their Starfighters moving in perfect sync, each covering the other's blind spots. Siri could feel Gallia's presence in the Force, a steady and reassuring presence that gave her the strength to push forward.

As they closed in on the control ship, the turbolasers began to fire, filling the space around them with deadly energy. Tachi's Starfighter rocked as one blast came perilously close, but she stayed on course. There was no room for fear or hesitation—not now.

"Target those turbolaser batteries!" Gallia instructed, her voice steady and calm.

Siri locked onto one of the turbolasers and fired her torpedoes. The weapon detonated on impact, sending shockwaves rippling across the surface of the control ship. Gallia followed suit, disabling another battery in quick succession. The control ship's defenses were formidable, but together, the two Jedi were more than a match. Their reinforcements most certainly did help.

"Captain Olié, we're making a run for the main hangar," Siri called into the comm, her eyes locked on the looming structure. "Can you cover us?"

"Roger that, Jedi," Olié's voice responded. "We'll give you a clear shot."

The Nabooian pilots surged forward, their Starfighters cutting a path through the descending droid forces. Tachi and Gallia used the opening to dive toward the control ship's hangar bay, their ships skimming dangerously close to the surface.

As they approached, Siri could see the hangar bay doors beginning to close, the Trade Federation desperately trying to seal off the entry point. But it was too late. With a final burst of speed, the two Jedi shot into the hangar, their fighters' landing gear barely skimming the floor as they came to a halt.

Siri quickly jumped out of her cockpit, her lightsaber igniting in a flash of purple light. Adi still beat her to the punch, her own scarlet blade cutting down the first wave of battle droids that rushed to meet them.

"Let's move quickly," Gallia urged, her voice calm yet urgent. "We need to reach the control center and disable the army."

Siri nodded, following her Master deeper into the heart of the enemy ship. The sounds of battle echoed behind them as the Nabooian pilots continued their assault, keeping the droid forces occupied. But here, inside the belly of the beast, it was up to the Jedi to strike the decisive blow.

As they raced through the corridors, Siri could feel the tension rising. The fate of Naboo was in their hands. She drew strength from the Force, from her training, and from the presence of Adi Gallia beside her. Whatever lay ahead, she was ready to face it.

Dashing down the corridors, they did well to avoid droidekas, focusing mainly on small droids that were easily dispatched. Gallia stabbed the doors with her lightsaber and began to cut a hole into it, stopping with a frown when the lightsaber no longer made its impact.

She repositioned herself and stabbed again. Siri's attention was stolen by footsteps behind her. Metallic footsteps. Most of their patrols have been diverted to the surface, meaning that Skywalker, Jinn, and Kenobi would have to deal with them.

The droids raised their weapons and fired, hoping to get Gallia's exposed back. Tachi deflected without hesitation, dropping them one by one.

More continued to fill their place, occupying Siri's defenses. A few came too close for comfort. Tachi couldn't help but feel the worry that filled her.

'Oh come on Gallia! Come on! You're going to get us both killed!'

Finally, Gallia cut through and pushed the door in. The Jedi Master came to her side, deflecting all of the blaster bolts back at them. With the assistance of her Master, the reinforcements were cut down with significant ease, relieving them. Both dashed inside and aimed their lightsabers threateningly.

Siri looked at Daultay Dofine's form, unsure if she could hide her glare of disgust at what she felt from the surface. Adi managed to fare much better in that regard and commanded with authority, proving to have the patience of a well-trained Jedi Master and Council member. "Call off all attacks on Naboo now."

"I don't know if they will listen to me," Dofine said, doing well to hide his fear in the face of two Jedi. "I'm not Haako or Gunray," he added, his voice steady but his heart racing.

"Well, try," Siri inputted.

Dofine eyed them both.

She pressed her lightsaber closer.

"Padawan," Gallia said under her breath.

Siri didn't listen per usual, "Cease all attacks on Naboo and lower the shield. Final chance. This occupation has failed."

Dofine reached for his comlink, clearly having some self-preservation in that twisted mind of his. "Cease the deployment of droids now and lower the shields."

"What?! But sir, they have us outnumbered." A voice protested from the other side, clearly under intense heat.

"We have already lost," Dofine said, resigned. "Let us not end this in further blood. Just do as I say."

"I-I can't do that, sir."

Dofine looked at them as if to say "I told you so".

"Think of something," Siri enforced.

"Please, Master Jedi," Dofine looked like he was swallowing back vile, "be reasonable here."

"We will be as reasonable as you were to Naboo," Siri stated.

"But Lord Sidious-"

Both Jedi exchanged troubled stares. In that moment, that confirmed in Siri Tachi's mind, the truth of Luke Skywalker's words. Two truths: The Sith had never gone extinct and a Darth Sidious existed. Based on what she felt from Gallia, she recognized that too.

Something beeped, cutting through her musing.

The two tensed up.

The beeping increased in ferocity...

"The Sith is going t-" Dofine started, shock, betrayal... and horror flaring.

Siri frowned in concern, the Force humming dangerously. Her eyes widened. At that moment, a shockwave exploded from the bridge. The radius caught both Gallia and Tachi; though the former was able to deflect in time, the latter wasn't as fortunate, only throwing up her shields at the last moment.

Debris of molten shrapnel and wide gushers of flames filled the bridge, sparked from the controls, flying towards her...

She didn't have time to prepare as something hit the right side of Siri's face, and she collapsed to the ground, shouting in agony.

"Siri!" Her Master cried out in concern, pushing aside the flames away from her...

She didn't even have to focus on the flames to know everyone here was dead...

So was she...

Her vision became hot white. She blurred in and out to see she was being lifted down corridors. When she felt herself being lowered onto a seat of some sort, she felt blackness dawning over her.

Darkness.

Light.

Darkness again...

Simultaneously, a voice shouted from beyond.

"SIRI?!"

Obi-Wan...

Her thoughts lingered on the man she loved. His baby-face. His beautiful blue eyes. The man who she should have never avoided, she recognized now...

She had to tell him. Had to make sure he knew before her death. She reached out to him and managed...

"I love you, Ob-"

She couldn't finish. She just couldn't.

Alas, her world turned black, and Siri Tachi knew no more.

Author's note: Siri is not dead by the way. Just blacken out with critical injuries. I don't have any hate in my heart for Satine, but Siri just always felt like the one for Obi-Wan, and that's speaking from someone who knew of Satine longer as I watched the Clone Wars before I even knew Siri Tachi existed. Satine just feels like she was created to be Obi-Wan's love interest. Siri feels like her own person. To me, she and Obi-Wan had no chemistry. But the worst part is none of it was actually depicted. We're told that he was willing to leave the Jedi for her (something they took from the Siri relationship, which was handled better in my opinion), but seeing as we see them without any knowledge of the past, it doesn't feel right. That, and let's face it, her purpose was pretty much to perish and get a cheap emotional scene out of it. With Siri, we actually saw them develop together as friends and had every reason to wish that Siri lived. That's just not something that can be intimated by just mentioning they were in love.

I know that the fight with Sing was a little long, and let's be honest, Luke could have ended that fight in a mere two seconds tops, but he didn't want to kill her. He wanted to enlighten her that one can be attuned to the Light and still be a warrior through the Force. It probably would have worked too, but Sidious didn't exactly give her a choice. We know how petty the Sith gets when their plans are foiled.

May the Force be with you all always.