On the ground, Anakin felt the power of Palpatine's lightning from where he stood. He watched the purple streaks stretch across the sky into space, and light up the massive temple. Just when he thought things couldn't get any crazier, as he brought his gaze back down to the ground, his eyes stopped on Asajj Ventress. Then Darth Maul. And finally, a young and in his prime Count Dooku.
Obi-wan said, blue lightsaber drawn, "Maul, you don't have to do this to yourself! I killed you before and I can do it again!"
"To be revived is one thing, Kenobi," Maul said excitedly, "we both have a chance to duel once again. I for one will not back away from this chance!"
Qui-gon moved in, lightsaber ready, and replied, "Of course."
"Dooku," Anakin said, "Palpatine betrayed you at the end of the clone wars just as he's betrayed everyone else. You don't have to be on his side anymore. The same for your Ventress! You left the sith-"
"The sith left me," she corrected, "but they've asked for my return so here I am." She glanced at Dooku.
He explained, "All those years ago I tried to get Kenobi to see my point of view. I realize my mistake now. I see I should have turned you instead, Skywalker. You saw the jedi's corruption and the republic's failings first hand from a young age."
"You're right," Anakin replied, "but I've also seen how a republic works better than an empire."
Dooku prepared his lightsabers for a fight. As with Obi-wan, Anakin knew he had killed him before and he was ready do it again. Although as far as the republic was concerned with his oath he wasn't about to.
The fights were on. Everything happened so quickly, Sevriko could hardly keep up. The First Order ships blasted away at the jedi on the ground. Sevriko kept trying to redirect the blasts as he had seen in old footage, but unlike everyone else he was surrounded by, he had no true combat or real fight training. Blasts went in every direction, including into the crowd of jedi he was trying not to harm.
Ahsoka saw him struggling and said, "Redirect upwards," she guided, moving his lightsaber, "always up and back. Up and back. That way you won't hit anyone in front of us." She showed up him over and over.
"Thank you," he said, "Ahsoka."
"You know about me?" she asked.
"I've watched every piece of clone wars footage I could get my hands on," he explained, "it gave me courage to leave my father's grasp."
Meanwhile, fighting Dooku, Anakin knew he had to get to Palpatine sooner rather than later. It was only a matter of time before he turned the death star onto him and threatened him to rejoin the dark side and he knew it.
Every swing, up and then down, every step Anakin chased him he matched. Then he wondered, if Dooku wasn't really alive to begin with, could he die again or would he have to wait for the incantation to wear off? He spun and cut into Dooku's arm. It cut deep, but not all the way through. Although his wound glowed, he was a clear lightsaber cut, meaning this short-term rival could be made shorter.
He turned and cut off Dooku's hand right where he himself once lost a hand to the sith lord. When Dooku tried to turn and retaliate, Anakin cut him short-literally.
It wasn't done out of hatred or anger like the ways of the sith, but out of necessity like the ways of the jedi. He couldn't stop and contemplate this choice, however, because of what he sensed happening inside the bridge of Palpatine's ship.
"You've had less training than your father did when he faced me on the death star over 30 years ago," Palpatine taunted, "and even he couldn't stop me."
Ben replied, "But my grandpa did, so will I!"
As Palpatine threw lightning around, Ben made sure to deflect it away from Rey and out towards Exegol and the fighting going on the ground. He hoped some of the strikes would hit some members of the First Order, perhaps slowing them down even slightly, but he knew the chances were slim.
Rey moved in close between the two of them and tried her best to cut off his limbs, even going for his heart, but he turned with the force and used his own red lightsaber and cut off her right hand. Her lightsaber went flying as she screeched in pain and shock.
"No!" Ben shouted as he moved in front of her. He stopped directing the lightning and moved in for the kill, but Palpatine was faster. He cut through Ben with ease. First his arms, and then his legs.
He fell back and watched the cracked ceiling of the ship above, showing space. Was this it?
"BEN!" Anakin screamed from the ground. He needed to get up there! He turned to the jedi around him, and said, "Get that ship out of orbit!"
Anyone who was free, from Luminara to Ahsoka to Ki Adi and Mace and Obi-wan, those who were in his proximity stopped deflecting blasts from above and held both hands toward the ship. Sevriko, Yoda, Kit, Aayla, and more noticed and did so as well.
With the force, everyone together stopped the ship and pulled it directly into the ground in front of them, nose first. Clone troopers ran out of the way as he crashed in front of them.
BOOM! BANG! SCREE!
The metal broke against the stone ground and windows cracked everywhere. Terrified First Order soldiers stood in bewilderment. Were they really taken out of the sky with the force?
Anakin didn't stop to thank anyone, although he knew they felt his sentiment. He leapt up high and landed on the broken nose, still faced more downward than horizontal, and used his lightsaber to cut through the glass and march inside. Palpatine threw lightning at him, but he dodged and deflected back at him.
Palpatine stopped and taunted him, "My old servent has returned."
"Get away from them!" Anakin demanded as he ran up to the higher platform. He sensed Ben exactly in the same prediciment he himself was in over 50 years earlier. The only thing missing was lava. "...Ben," he kneeled down beside him.
"I'm sorry..." he whispered, "I should have stayed on Naboo..."
"Ben, no," Anakin said gently, "I'm sorry I couldn't save you." He knew his grandson wasn't filled with enough hate to keep him going. He was fading fast.
Meanwhile, outside, things weren't going much better for the jedi. They were only alive temporarily. The incessant blaster fire from all sides was quickly becoming too much. Sevriko watched as more troopers and jedi fell around him. Their bodies vanished as they died, disappearing back to the force from which they came.
Few First Order ships fell in the attacks. Sevriko exclaimed, "There's too many of them!"
Just then, he felt a shift in the force and looked up beyond the stars. Hundreds upon thousands of ships throughout the People's Republic instantly filled the skies. Old allies banded together for one final stand.
Luke and Mara lead the way. Through the force, they could sense what had happened to their son and immediately took a smaller ship to the surface, leaving Leia behind in her starship.
"You made it!" Sevriko exclaimed in joy.
Not wanting to mince wordes, Luke asked, "Where's Ben?"
Sevriko pointed to the falling ship, nose down, "Probably in there where Anakin just ran."
Luke and Mara used the force to leap up and land gracefully on the nose of the brokendown ship. They deflected blasts from the First Order with ease and saw what they feared was true. Ben was in pieces on the floor, Anakin hovering over him in sadness and despair.
"No, Ben!" Mara cried.
They managed to say their last goodbyes before it was over. He was gone.
In pain, Rey got back to her feet and grabbed her lightsaber in her remaining hand. "How could you?!" she demanded, "He pledged his loyalty to you!"
"Rey," Anakin warned, feeling her shift to the dark side, "keep it together! Don't kill him out of anger!"
"Kill me?" Palpatine taunted, "Please, Anakin, the chosen one couldn't manage that, and the jedi insisted that was your purpose, yet here we are, the two of us, once more."
Anakin stood up and said, "Not that again." He made sure to keep himself between Palpatine and Rey's growing anger. He knew one wrong move and she was headed for the dark side.
"If it is as the old jedi order claimed," Palpatine said, "and you were born of the force itself, why couldn't you fulfill their precious prophecy?"
"You slithered around it," Anakin explained, "you said so yourself, I killed you when I threw you into that reactor shaft and the death star exploded. This body you're in, this new First Order you created, they're new problems with the galaxy that have nothing to do with the high republic or the jedi order. You're well aware of that!" He knew he couldn't let him get inside his head. He wasn't going to turn again. He wasn't going to throw lightning or hurt anyone else he cared about.
Palpatine threw more lightning, and Anakin kept it away from his family. "I told you long ago that Plagius created you-" he taunted.
"If he did!" Anakin said, "Then why haven't you done it again using his method?!" He stopped the lightning and lunged for him.
Palpatine turned and used the force to throw the entire railing of the higher level of the bridge at Anakin. He spun it around, twisted it and tore it apart to make it more effective, and threw it back at him. Mara deflected more shots with her lightsaber and pushed Palpatine back and into the floor.
Anakin asked, "Rey, are you alright?"
"I want him dead!" she shouted.
"Your hand," he said, "you have be careful! You're injured! Focus!"
"NO!"
"We all want him dead!" he explained, "I know you're related to him, but this bigger than you and your family! Do you understand?! Rey!" He tried to hold her back, but he didn't want to injure her further.
Instead, Rey went on a rampage and tried to swing her lightsaber against Palpatine's. He kept up with every slash.
The energy and the anger kept the pain at bay. Anakin, Luke, and Mara all tried to get involved, but Palpatine managed to bypass or deflect them every time. Finally, Palpatine turned and cut through Rey's foot. She went down hard.
Anakin used the force to grab her lightsaber-his old lightsaber-from her hand as it fell, feined going for Palpatine's head, before slicing him across the middle of his chest.
Palpatine gasped as the life left his lungs and his body fell into two pieces onto the floor.
The silence caught up to all of them. The ship creaked and shifted violently toward the ground. The blasts going off around them echoed as they felt jedi and soldier alike die in the battle going on outside.
"Is he...?" Mara asked, hopeful but scared, "Is it real this time?"
Luke said, "It was real last time."
"He's dead," Anakin said, "but these First Order soldiers have no idea. I doubt the announcement will stop them, they seem to be enjoying themselves too much." He turned but he couldn't bear to look at Ben's dead body.
Rey cried out, "He killed Ben!" She sobbed. "Losing someone is way worse than being alone!"
"I know," Anakin said to her softly, remembering what he told her not long after they had first met, how he hoped she would never understand what it meant to lose someone she cared for, "I know."
Mara said, drying her tears over her son, "I'll get her into some bacta water and help with her pain." She went over to her side.
Luke asked, "What are we going to do with everyone out there, Dad?"
"I'll stop them."
Luke added, "I'll help."