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Nexus HWR 24.6 Apprentice:
"They're falling back," Starkiller spoke. His voice came out low and was directed at the short Sith lord who had traveled to the battlefield with him. Stan Marsh looked to Galen in surprise and then back towards Ahsoka who he did not want to take his eyes off of for long. She had already shown her determination to kill the two of them and get to the rest of her comrades facing Darth Nihilus. The dark energy radiating off of Nihilus only made it more likely that she would not be able to control those worst impulses.
"So it seems," Stan responded in just as low a voice. "You should join them," he suggested at the Togruta woman who narrowed her glare at the shorter of her two foes. Ahsoka had many questions for the little Sith Lord who sounded like he preferred for her to run away rather than continue this fight. Part of that could be because his prosthetic left arm dangled uselessly at his side. She felt something else about him though that made her wonder why it was he wanted her to run. It was something she had no time to dive into during their fight as she was in too much of a hurry to defeat them and join her Jedi comrades in their battle against Nihilus.
The Dark Side of the Force radiating off of Nihilus only felt stronger than ever. Despite Stan egging her on to flee, the little boy gripped his red lightsaber hilt firmly in his right hand and bowed his head forward to glare up under the shadow of his red and blue hat. Starkiller and Ahsoka's grips tightened as well. The Resistance forces around them might have started pulling back, but just as the Jedi could not turn away from Nihilus, this trio could not just break off their battle either. Not one trusted that the others would not cut them down if they stopped for even a second.
"I have to stop you both. I cannot let you run down my comrades as they flee," Ahsoka was more determined than ever. In her peripherals she saw the retreating Resistance fighters who these two Sith Lords would cut to ribbons if they got past her. She could not flee from them. As much as she wanted to go join the fight against Nihilus too, these two had masterful skills with their lightsabers that matched even her own.
"Then, you will die," Starkiller's cold voice sent chills down Ahsoka's spine. She had heard those words before. "Then you will die." A pitch black helmet with a crack in it appeared in her mind, and she saw the eye of her old master. Her teeth bared that this Sith made her think of him, especially because it was not the first time. Starkiller's entire fighting style made Ahsoka think of the only man who had ever shown such skill before. The man who trained her. Anakin Skywalker.
Other former subordinates of Anakin Skywalker were committing to a fighting withdrawal as their General had called out. Fives and Echo were pulling back slowly, giving others around them a better chance to retreat while carrying injured over their shoulders or on their backs. A pair of clonetroopers went running by with a stretcher holding an elf on it, but the one in the rear got shot in his back as they fled. "Damn it!" Fives yelled. He fired his blaster back at the enemies who just shot their brother in the back, but he lowered his blaster a little as he saw who stood behind the blue forcefields that the enemy soldiers just held up in front of themselves like riot shields.
Echo stomped forward himself in rage. The clone with a black handprint on the chestplate of his armor yelled, "Fox! You stand with the enemy?!"
The clones in red armor did not flinch at the shout from Echo. Commander Fox glared coldly back towards the ARC troopers who puled out thermal detonators and threw them their way. "Hold," Fox ordered. Explosions rocked their plasma shields, but the clones who sided with the Emperor survived. They fought for Sidious all their lives and continued to do so on Nexus rather than with the Jedi they once betrayed.
Other clones found themselves facing the same dilemma. "You're pathetic, Crosshair. Even on Nexus, you went back to serving the Sith?" Tech sneered at their old brother and comrade on Clone Force 99. The Bad Batch sniper glared back at Tech and Wrecker, and he snapped his sniper rifle up and fired off a few shots at them.
"The new Emperor treats clones and Imperials the same," Crosshair remarked. "Things here are better for us who serve him."
Wrecker reached down and ripped a chunk of earth out of the ground that he held in the way of Crosshair's shots. "Hunter is dead!" Wrecker roared, and he punched his left fist into the back of the boulder he ripped from the ground. The boulder blew into pieces from the powerful brute who only got stronger on Nexus. Shards of the boulder slammed into stormtroopers and clonetroopers around Crosshair, but Crosshair himself managed to dive into a dodge-roll that avoided all the shrapnel. He snapped his head up as he came out of the roll and smirked towards his comrades.
None of the three of them wore their helmets so the other two saw that grin. "Good," Crosshair hissed, and Tech joined in with Wrecker screaming back in rage at Crosshair this time.
All the way up at the fourth trench line, or what remained of it, the farthest-forward Resistance forces started to pull back as well. Gray Fullbuster rushed forward and created walls of ice to create escape pathways away from positions that Leonardo Watch sent him to. Watch could see many of their troops' heartrates still showing up on his monitors.
"Viken!" Tucker called out in relief. His good friend, former Agent Washington, staggered out of the smoke with Mongol's right arm slung over his shoulder to help his unconscious comrade. Mongol's white armor was covered in soot so that it looked as black as Viken's did. "Carolina, we've got them!" Tucker called out over his shoulder. "How did you guys survive?" He wondered in shock while running up and helping Viken carry their comrade.
"Armor lock. Sigma completely burnt out keeping his up," Viken nodded at his unconscious partner whose AI was absent. "But it kept him alive." Not far from them, Mayan glanced to his own right shoulder as he swore he saw a twitch of the green AI figure standing on it. First Theta had gone dark when Roman was blown apart by the bombardment, and now Sigma too. Delta's holographic head bowed to hear it.
"Nice! Now we can get out of here, okay C?" The Epsilon AI of Church encouraged the woman whose shoulder he stood on.
Carolina bared her teeth. She did not want to flee. Not after they came so far. "If we could just commandeer one ship-" her armor locked up. "What… the…" she froze. Her whole body tightened up, and then her face twisted in rage. "Cleooo," she started in a warning tone, her voice rising in fury.
The Beta AI, once known as Texas, based on Carolina's mother Allison, entered into Carolina's armor and took control. "One chance. Turn around." Cleo's voice cut through all of their helmets. She vacated Carolina's armor and reappeared looking like a ghost of black armor standing in the bubble shield with the other space marines. Carolina's body vibrated as she fidgeted and twitched, sneering under her helmet but holding back from retorting or saying anything else about continuing on with the mission. Her mother AI did not make empty threats. If she tried to keep their team pushing forward despite their General's order to retreat, she would take over Carolina's armor and run away herself. Like a ghostly possession. A fatal flaw in their armor that they could be taken over, but their AIs protected them from any hostile takeover in usual circumstances. Epsilon 'eeped' inside of Carolina's helmet though, and she knew that he would not stand up to Cleo if she came back inside again and took over.
"Let's go," Carolina growled. She reloaded her rifle and backed up towards the east side of their bubble shield. The ship directly above them stopped firing down on the fourth trench line, restoring more of its power to its shields due to a battle going on inside the ship that threatened to damage its interior walls.
A half kilometer down the line from Carolina and her team's position, Bian landed with the Pink Bee Squad now that the fire had stopped obliterating the fourth trench. They flew through the flames and to the positions that Leonardo pointed out to them. "Commander!" Bian exclaimed in relief at the sight of the burnt arm reaching up out of a crack in the cratered bunker's foundation.
Leo gasped for air as Bian pulled him up with assistance from another of their Tontatta evac force. His own comms link was damaged in the bombardment, and the noise from the explosions had blasted his eardrums, so he could not hear Bian even as she yelled in his face. She spun to her team members, "He's shellshocked. We have to get him out of here!"
"WHAT?" Leo shouted up at the pink-and-black striped Tontatta who just shook her head back at him with a small smile showing her relief in his survival. "The team!" Leo shouted at her, and Bian's smile dropped. She glanced back and saw a few of her squad pulling other badly wounded Tontatta from the rubble, but they were very few and far between. Leo's face filled with shock as he saw only a couple of survivors among his entire vanguard assault squad. "No," Leo whispered.
"Wha- wait! We have to get the people here out first!" Mansherry exclaimed up at the darker-skinned girl who stepped away from the infirmary rather than towards all the injured people she was trying to save. Jo was heading back to the front lines, but these back lines were hardly any safer.
The little Tontatta Princess could not hear the messages that the vanguard squads and Leonardo started yelling into the fighters' ears though. Star Destroyers unloaded a new volley down on the front line. It was less devastating than the surprise attack Tarkin launched when he first dropped the fourth trench's shields, but Jo could hear screams coming from their elite fighters who would not last long and could not evacuate on their own.
"Sure you're up for this?" Jakku wondered at the girl who he knew was on a short time limit now. They had under ten minutes before Mansherry's power would wear off and Jo would be out for the count, and her dandelixers would not work on Jo again after that.
Jo had already cast aside her emotions after the loss of Kid. She nodded at the squad leader who grinned back at her and stomped up at her side with his elbows sharpening and glowing with green magic again. "Alright then!" Jakku Za Rippa exclaimed. "Bring us out there already," he snapped at her. "And don't get shot," he joked.
Jo hummed affirmatively and nodded. Jakku was grinning like a madman again, but the taller lanky captain of Kappa Squad glanced down at the top of the girl's curly haired head. He hesitated even as she created a purple portal for them to jump through together. He just egged her on, but he thought of the serious man who he had bickered with the whole way here and fought alongside through the start of the battle. He had heard the callout about Knov getting caught in the enemy bombardment. He died without my protection. He cracked the joke at her, but he swore in his head, I won't let this one die.
"I'll cover you. Get out there," a female voice spoke up behind the pair of them. Jo and Jakku glanced back to see Fubuki getting back up off the one knee she knelt on next to the little blonde Princess. Fubuki floated off the ground with a powerful aura re-surrounding her. "Ten minutes, General," Fubuki reminded Gray over their comms.
The bombardment coming down from the Star Destroyers froze in midair and fired back up at the ships that had to redirect more strength into their shields again. The weaker second bombardment was because the Imperial commanders in the sky like Thrawn and Tarkin were not taking the risks of Moff Gideon though, and Fubuki's counterattack did not break through any of their shields.
"Everyone together! We've got to hold the bubble shield!" Alpha Church shouted out from Carolina's helmet. He, Epsilon, and Beta all went into her suit and used their own energy to power her enhancements, including the bubble shield that was protecting them from the blasts that got through Fubuki's psychic barriers.
"We need to find a moment to slip out- or not," Mayan chuckled as the dilemma was resolved with a purple portal appearing on the inside of their bubble shield.
Gray fought off a trio of Sith Lords who were as powerful as any he had already faced. He was pulling back while battling them though, and none of the three wanted to advance very far since it would mean getting closer to where Darth Nihilus was sucking the force out of even more Jedi. Neither Malak, nor Odion or Daiman, dared get any closer. They starting pushing to the north first before advancing to give Nihilus a wide berth. Gray heard the report from Jo and Cleo that she had managed to evacuate to a safer distance one of their frontline squads with most of their members still alive. A brief moment of hesitation made Gray wonder if he should reconsider pushing the attack. Imperial vehicles were landing all over the central zone between trenches as the Sith sent in another wave to crush the retreating Resistance, so they could still commandeer ships and leave on them.
Even if Gray could get through the three Sith he was facing though, he saw the children of Vitiate behind them. Those three had been part of their father's half of the Sith but joined the current Emperor after Vitiate's assassination that Yaddle told him about. He had already faced off against Arcann and Thexan, and he thought a member of Kappa Squad might have defeated them, but he saw Taizo Hori's corpse off in the left side of his vision and knew who won their battle. I'm sorry, Mr. Driller. Gray felt uneasy about their sister too, as Vaylin looked as dangerous as either of her brothers, all wielding yellow lightsabers.
What am I even thinking about? I'm practically out of mana, and Nihilus is killing everyone! Gray just hated the idea of fleeing. Losing. He was so used to their string of victories that defeat had felt impossible coming into this. In that moment, Gray realized that since Port Royal, he had never truly lost a battle. They defeated the Heartless and then chased down Ansem and defeated him on his home turf too. They crushed the Underworld at every base they went to. They freed Metropolis from its corrupt government and defeated all but one of the Underworld leaders who was forced to flee anyway. Then they traveled across the Great Ocean and crushed every powerful enemy in their path...
Even on Aebrith, they crushed Lords and High Lords alike. He took on the League of Assassins and won. As long as he had his comrades by his side, he was unstoppable. Or so he thought. Natsu's no stronger than Teru. Nami can't hold a candle to Ahsoka. Kid Cosmic is stronger than Ben without his watch! Was, stronger. Gray's right hand trembled at his side. Darth Daiman tilted his head back and laughed confidently as he saw his opposing General shake like that. Gray was not shaking in fear of these Sith Lords. Nor was he shaking because of the pure evil he felt behind him radiating from Nihilus- well, part of his shaking came from that, as the despair he felt over his defeat was amplified from the Planet Eater's malice.
Even if we beat Nihilus. Even if I could stop all those Sith and take those landing craft. We couldn't steal a Star Destroyer. We don't control the skies. We'd be blown out of the air in seconds. Fubuki is exhausted and soon to be out for the count. Teru is MIA. Jo won't last long. We couldn't take Rivendell from a small stationary force that Pre Visla left behind. Even when Gray called his retreat, he still had some hope. The cracked hope that shattered and caused him to believe that they would lose, turned into a full-on rout in his head. He tried to think of ways out of it. Ways they could evacuate his army without slaughter. Are we all going to die here? I have to call in reinforcements, but is the Emperor going to tell the other High Lords when we pull our forces away from those battlefields, and my failure here will mean an all-out assault on the Resistance?
A shadow cast over Gray's face. The sky was cloudy and dark. Darker every second. "Master Yaddle!" Qui-Gon shouted in anger. Even the sage old Jedi found himself getting twisted in Nihilus's darkness. As the tiny green Master who led their Jedi team got grabbed by a Force Pull from Darth Nihilus, Qui-Gon Jinn rushed in to save her. Yaddle's shaking eyes bulged and darted towards Qui-Gon who she remembered training from when he was a child. Her eyes begged him to stop, but it was too late for Qui-Gon who tried skidding to a halt only to find Darth Nihilus Force Pulling him and using a Push on Yaddle instead who he sent flying off.
"Master Qui-Gon!" Ahsoka screamed towards him.
Stan could have capitalized on her distraction. Starkiller certainly tried to, but Starkiller also relied on Stan forcing her towards him with a slash at her legs as the boy looked to be going for. Her shout made Stan twitch though. He did not follow through with his attack. His head shifted sideways, and his eyes filled with shock and then flashed with sadness as well that he tried to hide.
Darth Nihilus's shadow hand curled around the throat of the Jedi master who could not break it free. Qui-Gon found strength inside though and plunged his green lightsaber forward… The blade went through Nihilus's armor and out the back of his cape. Wind flew by and ruffled that ripped cape, and shadows seeped out of the armor around the cut. The blade retracted into Qui-Gon's lightsaber that fell from his grasp while the Jedi reached up to his throat and tried prying the dark fingers off his neck. His skin paled. The Force sucked out of Qui-Gon Jinn and into Darth Nihilus who used it to seal his own wound.
In the last moment, Qui-Gon lifted a corner of his lips, and then his body faded away from the grasp of the Planet Eater whose fingers curled in and his hand swiped through open air. Darth Nihilus snapped his head back and forth, the dark eyes of his skull mask seemingly searching for where Qui-Gon Jinn went. He did not find him. Qui-Gon was gone. Body and all. His soul was not though.
Qui-Gon's soul remained in the vicinity. Even after his death, he did not go far. I am one with the Force, Qui-Gon thought. His soul was given human form as it floated up from the battlefield. It was given shape too. Clothing. A near transparent human form in a robe that floated into the sky and then stared down from the dark clouds at the terrible battle below. And the Force is with me. If only, it was not also with my enemies.
"No, Master," Ahsoka Tano whispered with a flinch while holding back Starkiller's red lightsaber using both of hers.
Stan's red lightsaber trembled in his one working hand. This is what it means to be a Sith. Fighting, and killing Jedi. Stan's eyes rose up from the way his head just bowed there for a second in despair. The strong darkness coming off Nihilus erased more of the doubt in the child who glared at his dual-wielding Jedi foe. Stan slashed at the ground, then slashed back the other way and kicked up dust in front of him. He rushed through the dust and slashed at Ahsoka who had to take one lightsaber off the parry against Starkiller to block Stan instead.
His lightsaber cut through hers though. Ahsoka had to twist her body backwards to avoid getting cut in half. She used the pressure down on her other lightsaber from her taller opponent to give her extra momentum in pushing her down and below Stan's blade. "Your lightsaber is unnatural," Ahsoka snapped. She leapt off the ground in a spin while holding both of her lightsabers out. "How is your light stronger?!" It did not make any sense to her. It's not like Stan turned off his lightsaber and turned it back on, a cheap technique called Tràkata. She saw that his blade never turned off even for a second, and yet it passed straight through hers.
Eric Cartman laughed from the distant floating coach. "Stan's getting some use out of it after all! Look! I made that for him."
Juandissimo glanced sideways past Cartman to Butters who gave the same side-eye back to the fairy who really made that for him. Cartman did not notice the look the two of his henchmen gave each other. He was too busy eating more popcorn and sipping on his extra large soda. "Get 'er, Stan!" He cheered his Sith Lord buddy on.
Stan swiped at the older woman who slashed back down at him with both of her lightsabers. Right before they were going to connect, she created a Force barrier in between their blades. When her green and blue lightsaber slashed into the barrier and Stan's collided with it too, the young boy was frustrated as his blade did not cut through despite hitting straight on. Ahsoka held out two fingers from each of her curled grips around her lightsabers, and she amplified the Force she was pushing down into him. It knocked Stan's arms down, pushing his lightsaber out of the way. Ahsoka let the Force drop. Her lightsabers now had a clear path.
A different red lightsaber changed its course and slashed up into the two blades she tried to cut down into the boy. The Force pushing down into Stan still knocked him over after the connection broke and sent him stumbling away. Starkiller skid in front of the Jedi and blocked her from taking out his fellow Sith. Ahsoka's eyes widened more because of that action than from Stan's lightsaber cutting through her own. "A Sith, saving another," Ahsoka grumbled through clenched teeth. She groaned and stepped backwards. Ahsoka was pushing down on both of her lightsabers, but Galen Marek pushed even harder back up and then back down on her as she leaned backwards with both of her lightsabers crossing.
"Unngh, stop-" Ahsoka's right knee bent. Starkiller leaned over their crossed blades. He glared down through glowing yellow eyes that Ahsoka swore she saw turn brown for a second there when he saved the other Sith. Her arms were shaking. Her legs started shaking too, while red sparks came off the crossing point of her blades and the Sith who lifted his other hand and slammed it towards the back of his lightsaber. She had to quickly open her hands too halfway and push the Force right back into him, keeping an almost even playing ground, though her right knee that was shaking hard fell fully to the floor when the Force Push hit her. Her eyes squinted nearly to a close as the blades got pushed down even closer to her face. "Haaaa!" She screamed out while pushing as hard as she could upwards.
Stan cursed under his breath at the struggle to get back to two feet after trying to use his left hand to get up but failing. He had to push down on his injured right with his lightsaber still grabbed in it. He glared forward furiously at Ahsoka who now had her lightsabers and her Force preoccupied with Starkiller. Chance!
In the sky above the battlefield, Qui-Gon Jinn stopped himself from disappearing into the Force. It was difficult. Especially after being drained near the end by Darth Nihilus, he almost did not know if he could do it. The Force was strong in the air though. His body regained shape in the sky around the same height as the remaining Star Destroyers.
"Master," a voice spoke to the newly appeared Jedi Force ghost.
Qui-Gon turned his head and watched as two floating spirits moved towards him. One was facing him and smiled for a moment at their reunion. Qui-Gon already knew. He had spoken with this apprentice before since Obi-Wan's death. However, he could not smile back, as he was saddened to see the other who appeared who he did not know was deceased. "Anakin," Qui-Gon spoke.
Anakin Skywalker was not looking at the Jedi who once found him and took him from slavery. He stared down at the battlefield with such grief over his face. The Force ghost radiated similar darkness that was coming off of Nihilus. Whether it was from the Planet Eater's influence or not, Obi-Wan nor Qui-Gon knew. "Master," Anakin's voice came out low and distracted.
Qui-Gon looked down himself after the three of them reunited for the first time. "Ah yes, Stan. He mentioned you trained him, when we last saw one another." Qui-Gon stared down regrettably at the child stomping towards Ahsoka and pushing through the Force collision of the other two.
"Ahsoka and Starkiller as well," Obi-Wan added. The Force ghost scratched his chin and shook his head at the sorrowful sight. "I am so sorry, my friend."
"I… I can't just sit here and watch." Anakin Skywalker curled his ghostly fists in rage. Despair overcame the rage for a second though as Stan took another step and rose his lightsaber higher. The Force pushing back against him made him skid a few feet backwards, and Stan yelled a curse and slashed at the ground in anger. Dark shadows crept across the ground and curled around his legs, around Ahsoka's, and they started to curl around Galen's but stopped. The shadows emanating from Darth Nihilus curled back as they touched Starkiller. "Something is clouding his mind," Anakin whispered as he watched.
"Galen redeemed himself. He helped found the Rebel Alliance," Anakin shifted his glare towards Nihilus. "Something must be clouding Galen's mind that reverted him back to his Sith ways. Ways that Darth Vader drilled into him…" Anakin clenched his eyes shut again. Obi-Wan reached out and put a metaphysical hand on his friend's shoulder. Anakin bemoaned softly, "I cannot do anything. I put them on this path."
"Why can you do nothing?" Qui-Gon wondered.
Obi-Wan's grip on Anakin's right shoulder tightened. Anakin opened his eyes and looked to his right at his master, then to Qui-Gon once more as the wise Jedi ghost floated just in front of him. "Have you tried?"
Anakin looked back down towards the surface. The dark energy below was so intense the surviving Jedi were struggling to breathe, let alone fight. Ahsoka was still trying though. Anakin saw it as well, there were moments of hesitation. Where Stan stopped. Where Galen's blades stopped pushing down so hard. If those two were going to come to any kind of revelations though, it could not happen while the Planet Eater was so close to them.
Obi-Wan patted Anakin on the shoulder and gave him a nod. "Do what needs to be done."
"I…" Anakin hesitated for another second. His expression got stronger though with the encouragement from his masters. "I can try-"
"Do or do not! There is no try." A voice shouted towards the three of them.
Anakin spun around in shock. Obi-Wan laughed and called out, "Master Yoda! Have you been there this whole time?"
A floating ball of light flew over and turned into a tiny green Jedi Master who the others had not seen since coming to this world. "Hehehehe! Caught me, you have. Go. Master Skywalker, go to your pupils."
"Do it, Dad," a voice encouraged from behind Anakin. He did not turn around, but the corners of Anakin's lips curled up. The darkness that was hanging over him shredded away. The brightest light shone over his shoulders. Luke reached out a hand and put his palm on Anakin's back, and he pushed.
Anakin flew down. "With you, may the Force be!" Yoda called after him.
"Now then," Obi-Wan lifted up a ghostly lightsaber.
"I believe we are needed," Qui-Gon agreed with his old friend.
"Can't let them stop him," Luke floated ahead between the other two. He ignited his green lightsaber. Then he shot forward at the front of the other three Jedi Masters. "Let's go!"
Darth Bane swirled into existence out of the dark shadows rising from the surface. "Stay out of this, Vader," Bane snarled up towards the Force Ghost diving towards him. Anakin ignited a blue lightsaber. "You're on the wrong side," Bane reminded him.
"Don't stop," Obi-Wan called out as he spun around Anakin in a ball of light and reappeared as his humanoid self, slashing his own blue lightsaber and connecting it with Bane's before Anakin could. "Get to your apprentices!"
New Sith ghosts who fell in the very battle they were spectating through the Force emerged out of the shadows rising from the Planet Eater. "The Dark Side is strong here," Darth Venamis snarled up towards the Jedi. "It is no longer your place to interfere!" The Bith Force ghost chided the meddlesome Jedi.
"Struggling with just one, Master?" Darth Zannah chided as she slashed her lightsaber into Qui-Gon's, preventing him from attacking Darth Bane's ghost from behind. Zannah and Bane floated back to back, facing Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn. The two were prevented from chasing after Anakin Skywalker though, while two other Force ghosts shot past them to continue towards the ground.
Darth Revan did not say a word but shot up in the air like a missile. One of his lightsabers ignited deep violet and the other a crimson red. He radiated power that cut through the light of the Jedi Masters diving his way. "With your father, remain," Yoda told the Jedi he once trained like all of the Jedi ghosts flying with him. His final apprentice at his side nodded back. Yoda sped down and did a front-flip while igniting his green lightsaber. He slashed it down and clashed with Darth Revan in a brilliant flash of bright green and of dark red and purple.
Even to the mortals fighting on the living plane, some started to notice that the darkness radiating off of the Planet Eater was shaking. Like solar flares ripping out of a sun, the Force in the air had suddenly become much more violent and colorful. As if the Force itself was fighting itself. Ahsoka felt a surge of strength that she used to push back against Starkiller and then Force Push Stan away right as the boy was reaching her. She leapt in the air and threw a lightsaber towards the younger boy who managed to flip off of one hand while rolling back and jump over the green lightsaber that nearly cut him in half.
Starkiller curled his left hand at his side and collected a swirling ball of the Force that radiated dark wisps. He punched his arm forward and sent that Force flying up at Ahsoka who tried blocking with her blue lightsaber, but it was too strong and sent her flying back through the air and the lightsaber out of her hand.
Stan landed then immediately Force Sprinted towards where she was coming down. She was no longer holding either of her lightsabers. Starkiller pointed his now-free left hand towards her green lightsaber's hilt where it stuck out of the ground near where Stan landed. That second blade flew into his free hand. He spun them around and held both lightsabers in reverse grip while sprinting towards the Togruta Jedi himself. Ahsoka recovered after the tough blow that had her cough up spit, spinning around in the air and swinging her right hand towards her blue lightsaber still falling out of the air not far from her. She caught it and twisted her body around so she could come down with a hard slash.
"I'll be too late," Anakin gasped. He was just above the thickest point in the black cloud of the Dark Side closest to the ground. It had spread so far from Nihilus that his Padawans were all inside it.
Darth Malgus arose through the shadows and ignited his red lightsaber for the first time as a Force ghost. "You will not interfere!" He was angry. The Sith was furious by his defeat at Gray Fullbuster's hands. This was his first shot at getting vengeance, and he took it. Malgus shot at Anakin. "Don't slow down," a voice spoke directly into Anakin's head. "May the Force be with you, Father."
Anakin did not slow. He did not need to. Luke flew so fast that his ghost moved through his father's back and emerged out his front. He went head-first into Anakin's back, then he ignited his lightsaber as he appeared out the front of his father. Anakin became newly filled with light as the Force from his son expanded the light within him, not for the first time in his life. Anakin flew down past Malgus who could only roar in anger as he was blocked by Grand Master Luke Skywalker.
Anakin saw them. Just in front of him-
"Not so fast!" Venamis sneered. The Sith re-emerged out of the darkness and slashed his red lightsaber at the side of the Force ghost who forgot about him. The Bith Sith fell in battle against his Jedi counterparts before Nihilus was released on them. He was a powerful Sith Lord though who Anakin could not just avoid, but he had no time left! Venamis swung his lightsaber at Skywalker and smirked, the skin flaps of his face under his huge beady black eyes curling up at the edges.
Anakin thought that was it. A flash of light in the corner of his eyes caused Venamis to turn though, and the Sith had to spin around himself and block the lightsaber that just ignited and slashed down at him. It caught Venamis even more off-guard than Anakin was by Venamis's appearance. The Jedi who appeared also made Anakin's eyes bulge even wider than the Bith's already were. "Not a mother fucking word, Skywalker," the man with his purple lightsaber pressed against Venamis's snapped.
A bead of sweat dripped down Anakin's ghostly face as he continued to fly down. He still sounds bitter about our past life, Anakin admitted to himself. "Thank you, Master Windu," Anakin thanked him anyway. He kept it under his breath though, because of how Mace Windu just warned him not to say a word. "For this chance," Anakin continued…
Stan rushed at Ahsoka who slashed at Galen who was slashing up both of his blades at the same time. Stan leapt up in the air. Ahsoka slashed down. Starkiller swept up both of the blades- CRASH!
A bolt of lightning struck in the middle of the three before they could kill each other.
"Enough!"
A voice all three of them recognized bellowed. Starkiller took a second longer to realize who it belonged to. He had never seen this figure outside of his black armor. A shockwave blasted out from the point the lightning bolt struck the ground though. With the Force Lightning from the ghost came a pulse of Force energy that collided with Starkiller and made the glow of his yellow eyes fade back to brown.
"Master?!"
"Master!"
"Master?"
The three who spoke that word froze after saying it. Stan was in disbelief. All this time since his master's death he had not seen Anakin once. The sight of him in all his ghostly glory put the kid on his ass as he stumbled on his landing and fell onto it. Ahsoka was shocked Anakin appeared, not that she was shocked to see him as a Force ghost. That he would appear in the middle of this situation blew her away.
Starkiller was more confused than the other two though. His mind felt hazy. A fog over his entire mental state cleared when the Force emanating off Anakin's spirit slammed into him. Still, he was clear enough to realize what had just been shouted by the two he was fighting with.
"'Master?'" They each repeated a second time. The three apprentices looked at one another. Realization spread over Ahsoka's face as to why none of her techniques seemed to be working on them. Starkiller frowned deeply at Ahsoka but then confusedly at Stan who seemed to recognize this version of Anakin and not Vader, despite being a Sith. Stan felt a moment of disappointment himself, because he had thought he was keeping up with the other two out of his own skill. Now he realized, he was only seeing through their moves because both of them had been taught by the same master he had.
Stan shook his head around though and got over his disappointment quickly. "Master! How are you… why are you here?" Stan was asking in relief at first but then his confusion and finally anger won over. Anakin was not alive. His body was translucent and gave off a ghostly glow. He knew what his master was.
"Vader," Starkiller growled. He shook his own head around and dropped Ahsoka's second lightsaber, reaching up and grabbing at the side of his head in agony. "Ahhh- AHHHH!" Starkiller dropped to his knees and screamed. A wave of Force pulsed out of him. "No! What is… happening?!"
Anakin stared down in regret at his apprentice from the time he was a Sith. The one he himself betrayed. "Fight the Dark Side's pull, Starkiller." He turned his head and flashed a small smile Ahsoka's way on another point of the triangle of apprentices surrounding him. "Get out of here, Snips. I've got them."
Anakin turned from her and to the last of the triangle. Starkiller was screaming and thrashing about. Inside his mind, Anakin could feel a darkness that was still powerful and clawing its way back. Part of the reason why it was still so strong was obvious. Anakin looked at Stan and then past him over towards the dark shadow in the heart of darkness. Nihilus turned from the Jedi themselves all around him and looked straight at that tasty Force ghost, with more power in it than any of the Jedi or Sith on the battlefield.
"The Chosen One," the Planet Eater's voice hissed out through the darkness.
I was so far gone when I hurt you, Galen. I will do what I can to save you, Anakin looked back from Nihilus to Vader's agonized apprentice once more before looking to Stan. "Why are you here, Stan?" Anakin wondered to the boy on his butt looking up into his master's eyes. "Why do all this?"
Stan's right fist shook on the hilt of his lightsaber still turned on and he gripped it tightly. He pushed off his ass and got to one knee, then the other. "I did it, for you," Stan snarled. His own head shook around in anger. Spit splashed from his lips, a deranged expression on his face. "Because he KILLED you! GIN!" Stan roared. He slashed his red lightstaber through the dirt at his feet and let out a scream, "HAAA! I hate him!"
Ahsoka stepped backwards. She looked over towards her Jedi comrades who were yelling out and screaming at Nihilus. The darkness was so intense. The Dark Side felt stronger than she had ever felt it. The second of her lightsabers that Starkiller dropped shot off the ground and into her open hand as she spun around. She darted towards her comrades. Just one last look over her shoulder at the glowing bluish-white back of her master's ghost.
"Now! He's distracted!" Yaz yelled out.
Tiplee nodded her head. The Jedi Master's eyes snapped up from the body of her sister Tiplar. They locked on Nihilus full of rage. "Let's go-"
"Stop!" Ahsoka skid in front of the two and swung her arms out to the sides. "We were ordered to evacuate. Now, while Anakin has him distracted. We need to go!"
"Anakin?" Tiplee whispered. She turned and looked outside of the circle of dead and living Jedi surrounding Nihilus. The Mikkian blinked a few times in amazement, then she lifted her head and dropped her jaw completely. In the sky over her head, only just now realizing what Master Yaddle was already looking up at in amazement, Jedi and Sith ghosts were duking it out. She saw relics of the past fighting heroes of the future. Spiritual clashes over a cloud of darkness that started to twist shape into a giant demonic face.
"Fucking space wizards," Mike Ehrmantraut muttered as he reloaded. On his right side, the cigar fell out of Steven Hiller's mouth because his jaw had dropped too far. "Stop your gawking and keep pulling back, kid," Mike elbowed the pilot and continued pulling away towards the second trench, firing the occasional pot shot back up over the third trench at the advancing enemies.
"Whoa, another AI?" Tucker wondered as he looked back with his fellow fleeing space marines.
The full-sized AI version of Church appeared next to him looking like a translucent floating form himself. "Nope," Church admitted anxiously. "This time… it actually is a ghost." The AI and his best friend gulped at the sight of it.
"Stan you-"
"You were the only thing I had! And he took you!" Stan screamed at the ghost. So much rage. So much hatred.
Anakin stared at his pupil and felt failure. Even more though, he felt those same feelings Stan just shouted driving him. His head snapped up. The Force ghost glared towards the skull mask of the Lord of Hunger. The Planet Eater let out a breath of yearning for the ghost that felt itself getting tugged towards him. "Find yourself, my apprentice. There is more to this world than vengeance. Look for it, and you'll find I am not all you have. I'm sorry." Anakin allowed the tug to take him.
The Planet Eater sucked in the Force ghost across the battlefield. He was not far from where Nihilus stood already, but Anakin did not resist at all. He flew past the bodies of fallen Jedi and found the rage building even more. The Force ghost of Anakin Skywalker shot straight towards Darth Nihilus's mask, and then he vanished. Consumed into the darkness.
"Master!" Ahsoka shouted back in shock and horror.
"What the hell was he thinking?" Zhar Lestin whimpered. The Jedi Master from thousands of years before Ahsoka and Tiplee's time shook his head in disbelief while stumbling backwards himself. "You cannot face the Planet Eater!" He spun around. "It was foolish of us to try!" He sobbed as he ran.
Nihilus turned his body towards that Jedi and rose an arm after him. Zhar Lestin froze and then lifted off the ground as the Force gripped him. "No! Ahh, not again!"
"A recognizable taste… what- rrrggh- AH!" Nihilus's arm shook and then snapped to his head. His body yanked to the left, then right, then hunched forward as dark tendrils ripped out of his back and into the ground and in all directions. Zhar was dropped and continued sprinting away in fear without questioning why he was still alive. Meanwhile, the Sith Lord thrashed and let out a ghastly scream, "EEaaaOOORRAAAAAAhhhh!"
Grand Moff Tarkin leaned towards his console and slammed his hands on the counter. "What?!" He had not seen everything that was going on down through the dark smoke enshrouding Nihilus, but that black cloud suddenly faded away. All of the darkness filling the atmosphere around Nihilus seemed to suck back into his body or just dissipate into thin air.
Darth Nihilus stopped thrashing. The dark lord fell still, eerily so. His body was still hunched over, but Nihilus had stopped desperately trying to push out the consciousness within him. Instead, Darth Nihilus's body went limp as his form went inside his mind, where Anakin Skywalker awaited. "I will put an end your slaughter," Anakin declared. His body had mass inside of Nihilus's mind. He did not look like a spirit in the void space that Nihilus appeared inside of.
The Planet Eater growled back, "Your Force is strongest of any I have consumed. Give me your SOUL!"
Nihilus flew towards Anakin. Waves of pure evil shot in at Anakin Skywalker from all directions. A pulse of pure Force energy shot out of the Chosen One and blocked the Dark Side. He ignited a blue lightsaber in his right hand. Dark wisps crawled up Anakin's legs. They snaked around him even as his Force pushed away most of what Nihilus tried to surround him with. Those wisps stopped crawling up Anakin's legs though and sucked into them instead. A second, red lightsaber, ignited in Anakin's left hand. He rose both blue and red lightsabers vertically in front of his body, and then he shot towards Nihilus while letting out a furious scream unbefitting a Jedi alone, "HAAAA!"
Nihilus's real body started to shake and thrash once more as a battle went on inside of the Planet Eater's "body." The armor and cloak of the dark lord that did not house a true humanoid form was made clear as his mask started to snake out of his hood and trailed behind a long pillar of black smoke. His body looked to be losing its concrete form.
"Now," Tiplee whispered. "Now is our best chance!" She stopped pulling back as she saw how Nihilus was struggling to keep his body together while at the same time fighting Anakin from within.
"No, Master! We need to pull back," Ahsoka pleaded towards her as Tiplee started running the wrong direction.
"Give her cover!" Captain Rex shouted as he spotted his friend and fellow teacher at the Hero School. He ran forward and unloaded his blaster rifle towards one of the two battalions storming across the no man's land between the third and fourth trenches. With the new wave of Sith and their soldiers pushing across the battlefield, the Star Destroyers above had started focusing their fire farther back on the Resistance lines than the front where they would catch too many of their soldiers in the bombardments.
Fordo and Cody ran up behind Rex and unloaded towards one battalion or the other. Other clones ran up behind their officers and did the same to assist the Jedi, as well as the apprentice who started chasing after her despite Ahsoka's shouts not to. Darth Dramath lifted his left arm and shielded his face as a thermal detonator went off near him and blew apart several of his battle droids.
Darth Marr saw what the clones were trying to do. "Ignore them. The Planet Eater needs no support. Steer clear of him," Marr warned his compatriots who ruled the Dark Council with him in his time. Darth Mortis and Darth Decimus nodded and took off while giving Nihilus a wide arc. One more Sith stood just behind him from the new arrivals who had joined his division of ground forces. "Lachris, take the fourth company in a sweep to the south," Marr ordered his old apprentice, now a Sith Lord herself.
"Without delay, Master," Lachris responded. The humanoid light-skinned woman of thirty-six did not disobey the more powerful Sith. His orders sent her sprinting southwards and tapping a few buttons on a control wristguard that had the Super Battle Droids at her back activating their jetpacks and flying after her.
Ahsoka saw the Sith behind Nihilus ignoring the fact that Tiplee and now Yasmina also running back to try and cut down the dark lord while he was preoccupied. Maybe, the Sith are just afraid, Ahsoka thought hopefully.
"Those arrogant, ambitious fools," Tarkin slammed a fist down on his console in frustration. Nihilus was clearly weakened. He could tell that much just from the fact that he was able to see Nihilus's struggle to hold together now instead of just a thick dark cloud. "They wish to move up so badly," Tarkin growled in fury at the Sith who he assumed just wanted to let Nihilus fall, even though it would be a devastating blow to their Empire and infuriate the Emperor.
Thrawn watched more quietly however. The blue-skinned Grand Admiral watched one Jedi down below in particular and saw how Ahsoka Tano was not charging at their secret weapon despite his apparent weakness. "I would not be so sure," Thrawn mused.
Nihilus's body snapped backwards. His arms swung out to the sides. It looked like he was in agony. He even let out a roar to show it, "Grr- RRaa- GRAAAAHHH!" A wave of the Force blew out of him. The ground under his feet cratered down. Lightning bolts shot out of Nihilus so powerfully that each spot they hit the ground exploded.
Tiplee was shocked by the amount of power coming out of Nihilus randomly. Unfocused, pure Dark Side, struck all around her and tore up the surface she was running over. She still had a shot though. She darted left and right. If she could just- "AH!" A scream rang out behind her. Tiplee spun her head in shock and then guilt that flooded through her as she saw Yaz flying through the air with blood splashing out of her right arm that had been ripped off and was still disintegrating in the power of Nihilus's lightning.
"No!" Ahsoka sprinted back towards them. The bodies of their fellow fallen Jedi were getting shredded apart by the Force that Nihilus expelled. It was so strong that it disintegrated most bodies around him. She saw Cal's and Master Foul's burning away, and then she watched as Serra Keto was torn apart by the lightning as well. I won't let her die, Serra, Ahsoka promised her friend. She Force Sprinted straight underneath where Yaz was falling, and she caught the Force-sensitive foundling Serra had trained on Nexus.
"Master Tiplee!" Rex screamed out.
The Jedi Master overcome with guilt tried to fight it. She was not one to get so emotional so quickly, but the darkness coming off of Nihilus in that moment overwhelmed her Jedi training to face those emotions. Tiplee was already moving so fast to dodge the bolts of lightning coming off of Nihilus. She was too close to falter.
A powerful bolt of lightning carved a burnt scar through the earth away from Nihilus to the northwest. That bolt suddenly cut back the other way though as if with a mind of its own, straight at Tiplee in her blind spot. She spun and tried to slash through it at the last second, but the power of the Sith Lord was too strong. Even as he fought off Anakin Skywalker in his mind, Nihilus's Force Lightning sliced a diagonal slash up through Tiplee's torso from her waist to her left shoulder.
"Pull her out of there," Rex ordered his comrades and started running forward himself. A dozen lightning bolts shot out in all directions of the dark lord. Tiplee was pierced by one of them as she was falling, zapping the red Jedi who screamed out even as blood splashed out of the burnt gash cutting across her body.
Ahsoka saw three of the clones she was running past get hit and shred apart immediately. It showed the power of Master Tiplee that she was not incinerated too. Ahsoka spun even while holding one arm up over her shoulder to keep Yaz steady. She punched her other open palm towards Nihilus which hit the Sith who was not watching what was happening around him. The battle in his body was what was sending bolts of lightning scattering everywhere, but he could not defend himself from the Jedi who sent him flying backwards towards more of the Sith forces who themselves had to scatter as Nihilus came rolling their way.
"Get her and run!" A voice screamed out at the clones before Ahsoka could follow up her attack by yelling that herself.
The Jedi and the clones who picked up Master Tiplee spun their heads and watched as their shirtless General sprinted by with a spear of ice forming inside of his right hand. Gray stomped down his left foot and then leaned forward, his muscles bulging, steam coming off his freezing cold body around the heat from the lightning that just burned up the whole area. He kicked his left leg back behind him and released the lance of ice he threw hundreds of yards towards an enemy AT-AT Walker that just stomped over the fourth trench line far across the battlefield.
Gray's lance swept up the smoke around them and made Ahsoka's head-tails wave about as she leaned back away from him. The spear of ice pierced through the head of the Walker and all its controls and out the top of it. The control cockpit of the walker exploded, and the legs of the massive steel beast buckled out from underneath it. Stormtroopers were charging forward around the stomping Walker they had been deployed with, and they screamed and dove for cover before the AT-AT hit the ground. Ka-BOOOOM! The AT-AT's fuel storage exploded.
"They're surrounding our front lines," a soft-spoken voice mentioned behind the General who instantly grabbed his knees and started panting after his amazing throw. Gray was wiped. He looked back at the small green Jedi Master who walked up to him. Master Yaddle shook her head sadly while the young man looked desperately back at her for a sign that she had any ideas. "You need to continue coordinating the evacuation. You cannot fall up here. I will defend the front lines' retreat."
"Master," Ahsoka whispered and took a step closer to Gray and Yaddle.
"Protect our brethren," Yaddle ordered over at the younger woman who froze for a second before nodding painfully back towards her.
"Get your army out of here," Yaddle ordered back at her General. "Fight, another day."
Darth Malak fought on a northern section of the battlefield where his men just reached and took back the third trench line. He was about to march into the forcefield still up on this section of the third line himself but paused. He looked farther towards the center where the Sith forces were farther behind due to no one trying to get past Nihilus. After Ahsoka pushed him backwards, their forces were even farther back now. Malak shifted his gaze from the central battle to a different section where giant ice spikes had started to break apart.
It did not matter if his comrade thawed though, he had already sensed that Revan was no longer on this plane. His comrade had trained with him in the Jedi Temple before they each fell to the Sith. Darth Malak, once the Jedi Knight Alek, did not expect Revan to fall so soon. His gaze shifted back to the one responsible. The Resistance General was still here on the front lines. All he had to do was catch him off guard… Malak turned away. "Revan should have been more patient," he spoke without sentiment.
"We need to go!" Ahsoka yelled towards Gray. Rex staggered past her holding up Master Tiplee while Cody was giving him covering fire. Fordo had already evacuated the other clones nearby, though she saw Wrecker and Tech still just behind them and shouting for them to pull back too.
"Master, I'm-"
"Save your lamentations for those who deserve them," Yaddle countered Gray. Her own regret was as strong as Gray's. "I, truly believed we could stop the Planet Eater, if all of us fought together. All the Jedi we could muster were not enough, however."
Gray's eyes clenched shut again tightly. One of those strongest Jedi was just behind him. He knew what had kept Ahsoka tied up for so long during the fight against Nihilus. There was no time to think on that now though. He had to go. He stepped back again. "May the Force be with you, Master Yaddle." Gray spun and ran back to join the rest of his forces in withdrawal.
They quickly ran through the third trench line and then back up on the other side to get across the gap between the second and third trenches. Gray and Ahsoka looked back and forth as they ran. "The Sith are pincering," Ahsoka warned. Even with Master Yaddle staying behind to try to hold the middle, she could not be on the far north and south of their lines at the same time.
A fissure split apart a huge section of the battlefield to their south. Gray looked that way and dropped his jaw as an entire canyon just tore apart the surface. He expected to see Fubuki, but he spun the other way and watched as an entire squadron of enemy Tie-Fighters turned and flew into each other. The esper he spotted over there jumped backwards into a purple portal that appeared next to her after she took out a chunk of the enemy airforce. "Ack-kah," Gray heard Jo's voice over his earpiece.
"Back again- kah, ughh, once more," Fubuki also said, and Gray heard her weakening voice in his head as well.
"Dandelixers are wearing off," Leonardo Watch warned his General. "They can only use the one," he added as a reminder, one that Gray did not need. He heard an exhausted low groan fill his headset from Metal Bat who he spotted off in the south near that giant fissure, telling him who was really responsible for it and that it would not be happening again.
"Where are those reinforcements?" Gray demanded from his support staff officer. "Have the Commanders responded? Is evac on the way?!"
"I," Leonardo started. He hesitated. "I've received confirmation that support is coming. They should be here soon."
"What is 'soon?'" Ahsoka wondered to her General she ran with.
Gray wished he knew. Leonardo would have given him a better description though if the brass had given him one. He looked over his shoulder to see if anyone was chasing after them, but so far they were still in the clear.
Yaddle walked closer to the Sith Lord who was not thrashing about as much again. She could feel the conflict inside his mind. Darth Nihilus was a creature she thought to be unstoppable once she finally fought against him up close. Seeing so many of her comrades die had demoralized her. She recalled once more what Qui-Gon had once told her and the Jedi Council when he first brought that young boy from Tatooine. He is the Chosen One. If anyone could stop Darth Nihilus…
Inside Nihilus's mind, the duel between Anakin and the dark lord continued. Violent flashes of blue and red exploded out around the Sith Lords battling it out. The darkness was so powerful that Anakin did not force it away. Instead, dark armor had wrapped around him. A black mask covered his face to match the skull mask on Nihilus's. The two pressed their red lightsabers firmly into one another, and then Anakin leaned forward and swept out his lightsaber so hard that he cut Nihilus in half.
Two swirling clouds of darkness broke off from Nihilus's bisected body and spiraled around behind him to reconnect into one mass. Nihilus reformed, and the dark lord sounded to smack his lips in satisfaction despite being cut in half. Anakin spun to his left and watched as Aryn Leener and Ven Zallow's spirits swirled past him. Cal Kestis and Stass Allie screamed out behind him. Tiplar, Foul Moudama, and Roron Corobb swirled about in a vortex of consumed Jedi who spiraled about Nihilus and then started pulling into his body.
Anakin swung both of his arms out. His left palm curled towards Nihilus while three fingers of his right hand left his red lightsaber which was the only one he held now, and he used the Force to stop those spirits from getting sucked into Nihilus any more than they already were. Anakin even stopped a screaming Pong Krell's visage from getting sucked into Nihilus's mask. The Planet Eater had just devoured so many Force users, it was almost too much for him to hold back.
The fact that Anakin could slow their absorption even a little made Nihilus even more excited though. "With the added Force of Anakin Skywalker- no, of Darth Vader," Nihilus corrected himself while the black mask over Anakin's face solidified even more, strengthening Anakin and allowing him to rip those Force bodies even farther from Nihilus. Nihilus snarled even louder though with his voice echoing around the void, "I would be far more powerful than the Emperor can dream of." The monster had a voice, and its intention was evil. The desire to gain more power than ever fueled the Dark Side in his mind even stronger.
Anakin felt a second presence that made Nihilus turn his head even in his mind, distracted for a second as a dark essence seemed to disagree against what Nihilus just said. Ignoring that for now, Anakin yanked his left hand towards himself and then re-drew his blue lightsaber. He shot towards Nihilus who roared back at him and turned his lower half into a black pillar of smoke. Nihilus raced at Vader and slashed at him with his red lightsaber.
Vader wore his dark armor from the time that he was a Sith, but he moved with the skill and speed of a younger man with no crippling deformities. He slashed back and forth and pushed Nihilus back. The Sith monster had powers inside his mind that allowed him to take different forms. A huge wolf-like beast, a raven with horns of a ram, an enormous skull. Lightning crashed around the spiritual form of Anakin Skywalker as he slashed through it all.
On the outside, Yaddle saw one other who stood this close to the thrashing Nihilus. She glanced towards the young Sith for a second but paid him little mind as she did not sense malice or intent to attack her. Stan stepped closer to Darth Nihilus and crossed his right arm in front of his face to block some of the wind that pushed out into him from the Sith's internal battle. "Mas-ter," Stan groaned as he tried to take another step towards him.
Thousands of miles east from the battlefield, the leader of the Resistance faced a holographic image of a young man frowning back at him. "It will no longer be your land," the boy on the image repeated. "You understand that?"
Quon hesitated. The young-looking leader of the Resistance who himself was a thousand years old grit his teeth in frustration. "I know," he responded though. "Please, if it's the only way, I don't care. We need to save our men. How long will it take to gather your forces?"
"They're already gathered." Quon's eyes widened at the response. The boy facing him on the hologram call just said softer after a moment, "We prepared for this eventuality." Quon flinched. The idea that their mission was doomed from the start would haunt him. He nodded back at the man he called for aid though, and the call went dead.
At the Order of the Sith, the Emperor watched the ongoing battle as did his second in command who was not inside the Order's temple itself. "You trained him well," the Emperor complimented his second-in-command who hissed frustratedly in response. Darth Sidious watched from a distant location but hovered as a hologram next to the Emperor inside the Sith's headquarters as they watched the battle together.
"Even as a Force spirit," Sidious remarked begrudgingly. "I did not think it possible."
Inside Nihilus's mind, the dark lord stepped backwards. The huge skull of darkness that surrounded him started to break apart into faltering dark wisps, and those wisps pulled towards the heavy-breathing black mask that surrounded Anakin and got larger and larger. The mask of Vader glared down at the shaking skull of Darth Nihilus. "Im-possible…" Nilihus sneered in disbelief. "You can't be this powerful. It's MY mind! My FORCE!"
"The Force belongs to no man," Anakin retorted in a deep voice mixing his own and the muffled voice of Vader that the mask signified. "It follows those who wield it strongest. You, are inferior." Anakin yanked his right hand towards himself and ripped the rest of the dark aura surrounding Nihilus away. Just as Nihilus on the outside did not have a human body, his inner mind's consciousness did not have a humanoid form either. After the larger aura ripped from him, even dark wisps inside of his armor and cloak started to pull out as threads of darkness that sucked into Anakin Skywalker.
Fear overcame him. Nihilus turned and tried to run, but the space between him and Anakin in his own mind halved. It got shorter, and shorter, and his cloak fell through empty space as the darkness inside it sucked completely towards Anakin. His white mask hit the ground and cracked.
On the outside, a crack split through Nihilus's mask. The Sith Lord stopped shaking about and releasing such powerful gusts of Force. Anakin looked out through the eye-holes of the Sith's mask. He felt that he did not have a body. He turned and glanced over towards Stan. He spun around though and glared up at the Star Destroyers above. They were unloading farther east on the battlefield where he felt Ahsoka was still running with the others.
All the darkness. All the power that Nihilus had absorbed. It was now under his control. The Jedi and Sith ghosts in the sky above Nihilus scattered from one another. The Sith Lords evacuated as Nihilus's mask lifted so that Anakin Skywalker was staring straight at them. "Retreat," Bane ordered his comrades. The strongest Sith who had died and maintained their personalities disappeared to avoid being affected by the powerful Chosen One.
As Bane faded though, his voice carried to the Jedi ghosts nearby who felt unsettled by his last words, "The Emperor will take care of this, personally."
Lightning dropped from dark clouds that filled the sky. Nihilus's power was more concentrated than the dark lord had ever shown it to be when Nihilus himself was in control. Rather than an unfettered rage and hunger for more Force, Anakin directed the power that Darth Nihilus consumed into the sky. The heavy fire from the Star Destroyers cut off as the commanders of each ship had to focus their full power into their outer shields.
The moment Anakin provided the retreating Resistance forces by focusing Nihilus's energy onto the Star Destroyers also allowed one boy in the flagship of the Sith fleet to rip a hole in the interior hull that lost power in its shielding. In that moment, Hanazawa Teruki ripped through the hull of Tarkin and Thrawn's ship, plummeting tumbling out of the sky for a few seconds before shaking around his bloodied face and curving his descent to fly towards the retreating Resistance.
"Teru!" Jakku yelled at the sight of his squad member diving towards them. "Get your sorry ass back here," Jakku scolded his Kappa Squad member, but Jo saw that he was grinning at the sight of Teru still alive despite their assumptions to the contrary.
"Master?" Stan whispered in amazement as he watched the stalled Star Destroyers getting rained down on by giant Force lightning bolts. Anakin used Nihilus's power better than the Planet Eater ever did himself.
Anakin glanced to his right back at Stan again. What do I say to him? Anakin wondered. He saw the vulnerable boy here in the midst of an insane battlefield. Nihilus's dark power was no longer affecting Stan's mind, but he felt no less conflicted than when he was screaming about his hatred only minutes ago.
Anakin started to turn towards Stan, when something invisible to everyone else including Stan appeared in the corner of his eye. An open palm, curling around him. He spun back and rose his arms- The hand curled into a fist and grabbed him. It did not grab Darth Nihilus's body of armor and mask, it grabbed Anakin's Force entity itself. Tearing him out of Nihilus and making the armor and mask collapse to the ground in a heap that stunned Stan even more. A second before Anakin had seemed unstoppable.
"Master! Master?!" Stan shouted, looking around in confusion for the Force ghost to reappear.
Anakin felt the tug ripping him to the west faster than he could tear himself out of its grasp. It was so powerful. Far stronger than Nihilus had been, and he was exhausted himself from fighting Nihilus. He had just used so much of the excess power that defeating Nihilus gave him too to allow the Resistance more time to retreat, making it impossible to break free from the mysterious pull that was dragging him away from the battlefield.
Anakin turned his ghostly head back towards Stan though. I have no time. He knew he needed to help the boy, but he knew not what Stan needed. Master Yoda's words echoed in his mind though. He had to do it. "Apprentice," he knew his voice could still reach the boy even as he was so far that he could barely see him anymore. "Don't lose yourself… Darth Marsh."
Stan flinched. He did not know where his Master went. He looked all around but saw no remnant of Anakin's ghost anywhere. As Nihilus's body crumpled into a heap though, Sith Lords and their soldiers started charging unabated across the battleground towards the singular Jedi remaining in their path. Master Yaddle held her lightsaber up at her side and faced off alone against overpowering odds. She was not afraid. Stan was though. Fear filled him.
Where did you go? Stan thought. His fear for his master turned into despair that he could no longer talk to him. The one chance he had, he realized he had wasted it just screaming at Anakin. I'm sorry. Wait- Stan looked down at his feet. He called me, "Darth Marsh." Not Stan. Does he accept then my decision to be a Sith? Acknowledging the path I took. To look for vengeance? Or…
He also told me not to lose myself. Could he tell? Everyone can tell. I'm trying so hard to fit in with these Sith Lords just because I choose to be a Sith, but do I not need to do that? Stan wondered. It all feels unnatural. I desire vengeance on Ichimaru Gin, and I can find power with the Sith to do that! But why? Why did I help Timmy Turner? I did that naturally. It felt right.
What is "right?" At this moment, what is it that I want to do? Not for the Sith. Not for the Emperor. For me, what do I want to do? So that I don't lose myself, what do I need to do?
Stan turned and watched as Sith Lords fell upon Yaddle. He did not feel pleasure to see the small Jedi fighting so hard to save her comrades get cut down. It gave him no satisfaction, and he felt disgusted watching the Sith around her cheering and holding up her impaled body that they cut in half.
Red beams flew down over his head and slammed into the battlefield across the second and first trench line. The crashed Summer-Class Cruiser exploded even more. Screams of Resistance fighters joined the cheers and laughter of the Sith's forces closest to him. Stan looked past them and watched the entire landscape start exploding red from the renewed bombardment. The power that had stalled the Star Destroyers for a minute had let up now that his Master was gone, and the Sith's forces started a bombardment that would be the end to their enemies once and for all.
"Don't let a single Resistance scum escape!" An Imperial officer running by him shouted to his troops.
Droidekas rolled by Stan's side as Lord Adas marched on silently and powerfully after them. Another masked Sith in the forces moving with Adas on the retreating enemy called out though, "Show them what happens when they stand against the Emperor!"
"YAAA!"
A massive army dozens of times larger than the Resistance's moved on their retreating foes. "Push into their territory. Take more for the Empire!"
"Conquer the- what was that?"
"Hold!"
Stan started walking forward with the battle droids around him. His eyes locked on the explosions ripping apart the landscape. His heart was racing. What I want to do… He did not stop walking even as other Sith around him paused and a few even stepped backwards. Stan marched past Lord Adas who glanced down at the boy only for a second before raising his head and then raising it even higher.
"What is this?" Tarkin demanded from his flight crew. "What is going on?!"
"Multiple abnormalities in the- we've got ships coming out of warp!"
All of the cannons firing down on the Resistance stopped. Every Star Destroyer in the sky aimed their cannons upwards.
"Reinforcements?"
"No! It's-"
Ships dropped out of warp across the sky, all of them pointed towards the Star Destroyers and not in the same direction. They came out of warp from the northeast and east. Over thirty of them all at once. All of them firing their own lasers at the Sith ships. Gray gawked while lifting his gaze to the sky above where these ships just appeared all at once and without any warning.
Gray's eyes lingered on the edges of the white hulls and the golden plating that highlighted every single ship. There were massive ones as large as his Summer-Class Cruiser, as well as slicker smaller ones that interspersed the Heavy Sun Cruisers, with Light Sun Cruisers joining the fray as well. "Those aren't Resistance ships," Gray whispered in realization.
The mostly white hulls with golden highlights matched the white togas and golden armor of the forces who dove out of the ships the second they left warp speed. Every single one of the golden-armored warriors who dove off of the fleet had fiery hot-pink hair. Carolina lifted her head while fleeing with her squad of space marines, and she cursed under her breath at the sight of them. Mayan looked up as well and let out an amazed whistle. "It's the whole God-damn Fanalis Corps!"
On the bridge of the newly arrived fleet's flagship, the commander of the Fanalis Corps in heavy golden armor with a long black scabbard at his side marched towards the front windshield. He looked down on the battlefield covered in crashed starships and destroyed tanks, fighter jets and landing vessels. His arms were crossed and he hummed while taking it all in. The Commander of Leam's Armies, leader of the Fanalis Corps that he himself was a part of, and the second-in-command and co-King of the Leam Empire- Muu Alexius had arrived.
A/N Hope you enjoyed! Anakin steps in! He saves his apprentices with the help of Force Ghosts past and future. I'd mentioned at the start of this chapter (24) in the preparations for the invasion that Luke had fallen in the Second War of the Gods, whereas Yoda died in the very first chapter fighting against Doomsday. Obi-Wan and Mace Windu were important characters in the first arc of Nexus until they confronted Tetsuo with Superman but got killed. Hope everyone enjoyed seeing them again and the fun ghost battle that happened. Anakin takes on the Planet Eater. The fight with Stan, Starkiller, and Ahsoka is broken up. The Resistance is in full retreat, and the Leam Empire appears! What will happen next?! Review response time:
Espada-001 chapter 157 . Jan 7
I'm always glad to see a new chapter for this series. The surprise of Darth Maul reappearing isn't all that surprising. The guy just doesn't stay dead even when it seems like it should have been impossible for him to have survived.
The real surprise for me was that Galen Marek/Starkiller is serving the Sith. After all he was a founding member of the Rebels and was feared by Sidious for his potential in the force to rival his own even at such a young age.
I'd really like to know why he's fighting against what should have been his allies.
Or is this supposed to be one of the clones of Galen Marek/Starkiller?
Sorry for focusing on him he's just my favorite Star Wars character so I was excited for his appearance.
I'll have to go back and see if he was in a previous chapter because I honestly can't remember.
Well until next time I hope you have a good day and I look forward to reading your next chapter!
And I'm always glad to see your reviews! Appreciate the support :). Lol Maul surviving every death is just a part of his character. I realized a long time ago I was going to bring him back. At the time he died initially I don't think I would have, but that was back like 10 years ago (holy crap I've been writing this story a long time), back before all of Maul's returns. You actually got me thinking a lot more about Starkiller and I had to change up his story a bit. I'd never played those games where you play as Starkiller, and I had to do a long refresh on what he was like before writing anything more about him. I'm glad you brought up that stuff because he seems very cool and got a larger role partially due to that. What was the dark force clouding over his mind? Was it the same one Anakin and Nihilus sensed in his mind? Find out... soon!
strawhatfan chapter 157 . Jan 8
HE'S BACK ... AGAIN
Guess who's back, back again. TMB's back. Tell a friend.
Guest chapter 157 . Jan 18
This battle is absolutely peak
Thank you very much! Glad you're enjoying it so much, hope the newest chapter keeps the hype going! Thanks for the review, and thank you everyone who read the newest chapter, faved, followed, and especially reviewed on it! I appreciate you all still reading this over 10 years since I started writing it. As always, 'til next time!