Nexus: Heroes Will Rise

by tmb1112

Universal borders have been erased and beings from thousands of universes now live on the same world: Nexus. In the first Saga of Nexus, Awul was saved, but the mysteries of Nexus remain. Now our heroes sail across the sea to Aebrith to search for lost loved ones and save the world. MCs from DBZ, KH, Soul Eater, FT, Blue Exorcist, Bleach, 7DS, OP, Ben 10, SAO, HxH, and many more!

157. Nexus HWR 24-5 Planet Eater

A/N Hey everyone. Been a long time. I got a job last year out in Cali and been working long hours ever since. Haven't had much time to write. Just took a day off yesterday though and wrote a few thousand words of this to finish off the chapter. Might need to refresh yourself on the story so far (I know I had to reread a bunch), to keep up with what's going on here. Gray has invaded the Emperor's territory with an army at his back. That's where we're at. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the original media that I got my characters from.

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Nexus HWR 24.5 Planet Eater:

"We have to get back to our position!" Tech yelled over his shoulder. The clone in gray armor with a pair of black goggles on looked back at the remote control he had taken off the bulky pack on his back. He controlled four drones at the same time with his eyes darting around behind his goggle lenses. He winced as one of them got shot down by a Scout Trooper, but he kept the other three zipping about the battlefield ahead of them.

"Still covering, but hurry your ass up," Wrecker called back too but from closer to where Rex was digging through wreckage of a crashed gunship. Jo had managed to get these few clone troopers out of there in time, but Rex grimaced as he saw Hunter's body amidst the wreckage. They had gone back for their comrades. Rex glanced towards the two of the Bad Batch who he did not want to tell what Hunter's body looked like.

"Ack-kah-"

Rex heard coughing and spun towards a panel from the wing. "Hey! That you, Cody?" Rex pulled the panel off while his lieutenant and former commander pushed up as hard as he could. Rex got the rubble off the clone in white and orange armor who finally gasped out a breath of fresh air after having his lungs compressed under that heavy wreck. "Good to see you alive, my friend," Rex grabbed Cody by a forearm which Cody grasped back.

The two glanced around the rest of the wreck. Cody shook his head though, and Rex nodded. The two of them ran back towards the third trench that this gunship had crashed behind. "Where's Hunter?" Wrecker demanded to know as the officers jogged past.

"Dead. We need to keep moving," Rex responded. Tech and Wrecker each froze. They stared back to the wreckage themselves. Each wanted to go check it out. They needed to make sure… but they also did not doubt Rex. Wrecker screamed out a curse in frustration. Tech just focused on the drones to distract himself, killing as many Stormtroopers as he could in the next several seconds with rocket and machine gun fire.

Captain Rex ran out of the other side of the forcefield he only just got back into. "Look at Fordo," Rex said in amazement. Cody nodded in disbelief. Far ahead of the field for any other clone in their ranks, Captain Fordo stood in his red-plated armor. He was dual-wielding miniguns that he fired with such precision accuracy into the joints of the Dark Troopers that even those powerful robots were getting taken apart after several shots each. Rex and Cody sprinted to try and catch up with the legend even among the elite ARC troopers.

"You want some of this? Get some!" Pew pew! Steven Hiller fired the blaster he picked up off the battlefield he parachuted down onto. The crashed fighter pilot ran up to a bubble shield he saw a comrade pop open in between the trench lines. Stormtroopers fired towards him right before he could reach the bubble, but he dove forward and rolled into it, dodging by the skin of his teeth. "What?! I didn't know the Empire hired blind men!" Hiller cupped his hands to his mouth and taunted out towards his angered enemies who only just missed him.

"Why you-" A Stormtrooper who heard the insult stepped out more behind their own cover, and a bullet hit him straight in the forehead.

Steven Hiller grabbed two cigars out of his uniform's chest pocket and lit them up before recharging his blaster. "Nice shot," he admitted, stepping up next to the bald man in front of him who had gray stubble on his chin and a hardened expression on his face.

Mike Ehrmantraut grunted in response before firing another sniper round. The former cop and later hitman cursed under his breath then reloaded as he missed the next shot. He wore a suit of tight blue body armor that showed he did not have the muscular body of many of the other soldiers in this army, but the grizzled fighter calmly reloaded his rifle even as his golden bubble shield flickered.

"Got any more juice in that thing? Whoa!" Hiller had to duck as a red blaster bolt fired through the blinking bubble shield Mike had popped.

"Just about," Mike replied, glancing at the inside of his right wrist where the suit's power gauge was. "But I need it. Get down," he rose his right arm and the palm of his hand started to glow bright blue. The bubble shield came down. Hiller dropped flat to the ground, letting out a yell for Mike to give him more warning next time.

"Ahhh!" The Stormtroopers yelled out as a blue explosion ripped apart the chunk of earth they had hid behind for some cover. Mike just started jogging ahead towards the next line after blowing them away.

Hiller jumped back to his feet before chasing the older and more serious man ahead. He turned his upper body to the right as they ran, and he fired off rapid fire blasts behind other cover on line with the one that Mike had destroyed. The Stormtroopers there aiming out towards Resistance fighters farther east didn't react in time as Hiller gunned them down. The pilot grinned and puffed smoke from his cigar before yelling towards them, "Welcome to the Resistance!"

Hiller ducked just in time before a wrist rocket would have hit him in the head. It went past and exploded back where he and Mike just were and their bubble shield came down. "Oh? You want some?!" Hiller pulled a grenade off his waist and pulled the pin, throwing it towards the Super Battle Droids that turned towards them the closer they got. The pilot with quite an arm launched the grenade that landed in the middle of the robot cluster. BOOM! "Yeah! Look at you! Look at you now! Who's a pile of scrap, and who's the man?!" BANG! Pew pew!

"You're enjoying this too much," Mike grumbled in annoyance, though now it was his time to begrudgingly admit that his comrade was kicking Imperial ass.

Mike glanced down at the power gauge of his battle suit that the Resistance fitted him with. It was low on energy. He glanced behind him, but the sight of their fallen cruiser told him how much energy he'd have back there to refuel with. Then his gaze shifted past the flaming remains of their command ship and into the east. Like most of the Resistance, he had something to protect back there. Kaylee, Matty, Mike steeled his expression and refocused on advancing, not pulling back. His granddaughter and son relied on their victory. How could he let them down?

Mike aimed his sniper across the battlefield as he spotted a figure in a black cloak who did not appear to notice him yet. He rose the scope to his eyes and rested his finger on the trigger. Mike froze. The Resistance fighter lowered the barrel of the sniper a little, before lowering it the rest of the way. He had to lower it at first just to aim downwards for a better shot, but the kid in a red poof-ball hat looked too young to be a Sith Lord. Mike shook his head around and just jogged after Hiller who was now getting ahead of him. Even if he is…

Mike decided not to look back in that kid's direction where he might have had a change of heart. Stan bent down and curled his right hand around the lightsaber he found discarded on the ground. The young boy winced and tried to grab at his stomach that he knew was bruised, but his left hand did not work anymore. The prosthetic left arm was limp at his side from how hard Gray's attack buckled it.

"And I thought he was one of their weaker ones," Stan muttered to himself. He imagined all the insanely powerful people he had traveled down to the deep south with. He did not realize just how badly he was outmatched, simply because Gray did not seem all that strong when compared to the others from Awul. Stan hunched over and kept panting to try and catch his breath. He only managed to get back up because he pulsed out the Force right before hitting the ground when Gray launched him. The Force caught him and softened his landing, but the blow from Gray's ice itself had already been so damaging.

I talked a big game, but I didn't really try to hurt him. Stan closed his eyes. No! He's just stronger than I thought.

Why are you lying to yourself? I can feel it, how conflicted the Force is within me. Stan curled his lightsaber hilt tightly in his hand but pressed it to his chest while still un-lit. His head shook back and forth. No! I fought him because I made the choice!

But I wanted to face Gray. I wanted to face someone I thought would be really strong. Someone who would take me down, so that I could get away with fighting them without actually killing them. Proving that I fought on the side of the Sith, even if I lost. Stan's eyes opened and he glared darkly at the floor. His eyes shot up and glared off towards Resistance forces. And I'm the one who scolded Gray for looking for a cop-out? For wanting to ignore me and let me go fight his comrades? What a joke. I'm the one sitting on the fence. The one refusing to act like a Sith.

Stan looked ahead back towards the fourth line where Gray was fighting just outside of their shielded trench line against another powerful Sith Lord. Darth Daiman's elite soldiers had fallen all around him, but he was lasting much longer against the panting Fairy Tail mage who had been constantly using his magic since leaving his crashed command ship. I egged Gray on to attacking me, so that I could be disabled for the rest of the fight. I didn't want to kill anyone or be killed by anyone, but how weak is that?! How weak am I compared to every other person on this battlefield? Stan's teeth clenched furiously. Rage built within him, and the pain he was in started to fade as the Dark Side grew stronger.

How pathetic. All of them on both sides. Everyone so full of conviction. And here I stand, wishing I was hurt more so that I wouldn't have to get back up? A huge battle like this, and I wanted to just cower away? Weak. That's not how I get stronger. At this rate, I'll never have what it takes to kill Ichimaru Gin! "It's not enough," Stan snarled. I need to do more. Stan turned back the other way from Gray and scanned the battlefield. Become someone who the Emperor will actually take notice in and train himself! Someone… who kills a Jedi.

Stan's eyes locked on one man in a brown robe who made him flinch at the sight of. He quickly looked away from Qui-Gon Jinn, scanning for someone else, anyone else. There, Stan saw her fighting against another member of the crew from his own dropship. He started running, not even noticing that he did not feel the pain anymore as he ran towards them.

The Sith man with a short black crew cut moved quickly, but he had to against the dual-wielding Togruta warrior. The Togruta had red skin and long montrals- horns that curved around the side of her face and fell like hair in front of her shoulders. She battled the human Sith Lord whose fighting style was so familiar that she was struggling to get around it. Ahsoka Tano did everything she could to shift her own style of combat and get around her opponent, but every technique she attempted, he shifted his own stance to its perfect counter. Ahsoka slashed both of her weapons down but the man turned his horizontally and blocked against her, then pushed back and started bending her arms towards her with the strength behind his push. She yelled out and slashed outwards for a small gap, and she leapt away with the Force to help her create some distance.

The man did not charge at her when she landed, showing he was not foolish enough to think that her retreating for a moment meant he had enough of an upper hand to get sloppy. "Who are you?" Ahsoka asked. She had spent her early life in the Jedi Temple and knew from the holocrons many of the historical Sith they fought now. This man was a complete unknown to her though. He could have been from her future.

Galen Marek breathed heavily but steadied himself and just started circling the Jedi. As he circled her, he spotted another figure cloaked in black running up towards them, and he said nothing as the boy ignited his own red lightsaber. Starkiller shifted his stance back from the cautious one he fought in a moment ago into an aggressive stance that would work better having a second Sith on his side. Ahsoka darted her eyes back towards the young Sith behind her whose youthful appearance and height could be deceiving. She felt a huge darkness within him, so she did not doubt that he truly was one of them. Ahsoka held one lightsaber turned horizontally towards Galen and one back towards Stan. The two Siths each held their own red blades at their sides. Three disciples of Anakin Skywalker, ready to fight to the death.

"Should we help him?"

"No way. I'm staying out of this. And so are you," the Wizard King snapped at Professor Chaos. The two of them watched from the border they floated above on a flying couch, with Cartman's Fairy Godfather floating just over the fat boy's right shoulder. Cartman saw Juandissimo give him an uncertain frown, but Cartman ignored it and said, "Stan's a Sith. Not helping them or the Resistance. Not my problem." He crossed his arms and humphed at the mere suggestion.

Cartman looked over to another part of the battlefield farther back to the east. A smirk spread over his face, "That Tenebrous idiot was acting so arrogant too. What a dumbass! Ahahaha!" Cartman laughed at the demise of the Sith he and Butters had come up here to deal with in the first place. The two boys who had superpowers thanks to the fairy magic sat on a couch watching the battle like they were spectating a Broncos game. Complete with different camera angles and a great view of all the action. They had angles from the bridge of Tarkin and Thrawn's command ship, to a first-person POV of Gray Fullbuster, to aerial invisible drone shots galore.

"Sir, do you see this?"

Admiral Thrawn glanced over at one of the lower officers on his bridge. The blue Imperial leader rose an eyebrow at the sight of the floating couch one of their Tie Fighters just flew close enough to at the edge of the battlefield to send back images of. He shook his head around and refocused. "Ignore them," he ordered the Lieutenant.

Thrawn kept looking at the computers showing the southern stretch of the battlefield near the Wizard King however. While the main force of Sith and their most powerful soldiers descended onto the center of the front lines where the majority of the action was centered, the Resistance had attacked all along the trenches at once. A southern group of Resistance fighters made up of Tontatta and elves were actually making good progress down near the southern rocky outcrops before the Great Wall. The Resistance seemed to know they had traps and heavy ordinance stored in the cliffs just inside from the Great Wall, so they were staying primarily on the flatlands north of there. That furthest south group was advancing quickly though on an area of the line weaker in manpower than the rest because the Sith knew their powerful defenses were there.

"Send in my Nightsisters to the southern grouping," Thrawn ordered.

His communications officer replied affirmatively and contacted the holding bay of a nearby vessel. A force of twelve witches with creepy dark appearances rose their heads in unison. The Nightsisters of Dathomir responded to the Admiral they were loyal to. They then lifted off in a spookier ship than the rest of those in their same hangar. The rest of the Imperial forces stopped rushing around to turn and watch the ship rise off the ground silently.

The black ship had thorned spikes sticking out of it. Wisps of green and purple gas came off the vessel like a poisonous aura. The witches from the southwestern city of Laira flew out of the bay's glowing blue barrier exit and soared southwards. It descended on the battlefield lines closer to the cliffs and opened the bomb bay doors. The witches floated down towards the surface. They chanted incantations and released their powerful and creepy magic down on the unsuspecting Resistance forces below.

Butters shivered at the sight of the magic that made a group of elves start clawing at their eyes that foamed and boiled over. "Ughh," Butters recoiled at the gruesome deaths.

"Whooaaa, that's sick dude! Eww. Oh man, they got fucked up!" Cartman flinched back but was grinning and laughing as he did at the epic fight below. Whether it was Sith or Resistance, the carnage was entertaining as anything he had seen all week.

Thrawn hummed and nodded to himself as he watched his elite personal guard do their jobs to perfection. He glanced over to the back of the bridge where Tarkin stood next to the deceased choked-out body of another officer who Tarkin sent to go call the Emperor. The Emperor had not responded, but Darth Sidious's menacing figure did hover in a blue hologram staring down at Tarkin as they discussed something of great importance. The loss of this many Star Destroyers was a nuisance to the Emperor, the other officer's lifeless corpse was proof enough of that.

Sidious finally nodded back at Tarkin. "You have my permission," Sidious responded. Tarkin hesitated for another second, and Sidious ground his teeth before hissing, "And the permission of the Emperor."

"Understood, Lord Sidious," Tarkin replied. The Grand Moff of the Empire would never disobey Sidious. However, this weapon was something that only one man could order him to use. If Sidious was saying the Emperor had condoned it though, then the Emperor had given him that authority. Not even Sidious would dare say so otherwise.

Tarkin turned from the hologram machine once Sidious's visage disappeared. There was an eerie quiet over the bridge behind him, and Tarkin could see out his peripherals all of the other officers and crew watching him with trepidation. Beads of sweat dripped down faces. Lumps bounced in throats. The Grand Moff even saw Thrawn's lip twitch, because the Grand Admiral saw the expression on Tarkin's face that told him that permission had been granted.

Inside of a Star Destroyer closer to the main battlefield than where the Sith's command ship pulled back to, a shadow in a dark room lifted off his knees.

Gray flinched. Darth Daiman and Darth Odion were two of the most powerful Sith he had faced so far, and they both suddenly changed attitudes. The looks on their faces unnerved the Fairy Tail mage who darted his eyes up to follow where the two of them just looked with sweaty and nervous expressions.

"How foolish," Malak muttered. The bald powerful Sith standing ten meters behind Daiman and Odion bellowed, "Fall back!"

Gray's heart rate sped up. "Prepare for a bombardment!" He yelled out his orders to the rest of his army. The way the Sith glanced up at the ships first made him suspect that the Star Destroyers above were about to launch a devastating attack on the surface. Gray punched his flesh fist into an open ice palm and rose it above himself, creating a shield of ice that he called many of his comrades to run underneath.

"I won't let you," Teruki Hanazawa declared. He flew straight through the holographic blue barrier into the Sith fleet's command ship.

The entire vessel shook as Teru entered, and Tarkin stumbled on the bridge before spinning to the blinking red lights above one of his subordinate's stations. "Intruder, sir!" His commander called to him, but Tarkin could already see that.

Teru curled his fingers out towards the walls on either side of him. A small smirk spread on Tarkin's face for a moment as their interior walls flared with bright yellow light. The esper in their hangar stared in surprise and confusion at the interior shielding. Just as he and Fubuki had not been able to crush the starships from the outside, which was why Teru kept flying into them before damaging them, this command ship also had shielding on the inside of the walls that prevented him from doing what he did to much of the rest of the fleet.

The psychic lifted his gaze to a camera in the corner of the hangar while Stormtroopers and pilots surrounded him. Tarkin's brief smirk wiped from his face at the sight of all those soldiers' weapons getting ripped from their hands. Then the camera exploded, and he lost sight of the grinning esper in their ship who was going to find another way to take them down.

"Alert the Sith on this vessel to his presence. Do not allow that boy to leave here alive," Tarkin demanded.

Teru chuckled and ran out of the hangar into a long hallway. He flicked his hands back and forth, tossing aside all personnel in his way as he ran for the engine room, or the shield generators, or anything he could find to help him down the Grand Moff's ship. Just hold on a few more minutes, Gray, Teru promised in his head. We've still got this.

Zapp Renfro leapt into the air and over a trio of battling lightsaber-wielders below him. He sliced open his own right palm while soaring over their heads, and he shouted, "Big Dipper Blood Battle Style!" A sword of blood swirled to life in his grasp. "Blade One: Homuramaru," he slashed down into a pair of Dark Troopers that each tried firing up at him even as they were cut. The white-haired warrior twisted his body in midair to dodge the shots, then he landed and slashed behind him, taking out their legs while the damaged Dark Troopers tried turning to continue firing at him. The powerful robots dropped to their knees, then finally got decapitated by Commander Klaus's top subordinate.

Zapp frowned after taking out those two robots though, because the effort he had to put in just to destroy a couple of enemy grunts was not sustainable on a battlefield like this. He looked around and saw that hundreds of enemies had become thousands. Enemy reinforcements sent dozens of robots just like those Dark Troopers, as well as hundreds of other droids as well into the fray. Those three Sith he leapt over turned to give chase after him too.

The man who led his own group of Resistance reinforcements into battle targeted one group of enemy forces he saw just disembark from their own reinforcing vessel. He heard Gray's order to take cover, but this group of enemies were not reacting like the Sith Lords or Jedi like those he just leapt over. "You there! Fight me!" Zapp demanded of them.

The blood elves ahead of Zapp turned to the wild human sprinting towards them. Then they looked beyond him to another group of elves who were about to listen to Gray but who saw these enemies and charged them instead. "Traitors!" The free elves yelled towards the Sith's subordinate elves.

The group of elves that Zapp glanced back towards looked like they had been through the wringer. Malfurion Stormrage was missing among the party, and Alleria and Vereesa both felt pain in their hearts at the loss of their comrade to Darth Malgus back behind them. That Sith Lord was now battling the powerful mech, the Arbalest. Sousuke screamed out in blind rage that reverberated out of his mech's speakers, "YU! I'LL AVENGE YOU!" The ace of the Special Operatives, and Sagara Sousuke's partner in his Arbalest, Yu Ominae, had just been cut down by the powerful Sith Lord as well. Malgus remained eerily calm despite the roar that came from the giant mech.

Queen Azshara had been defeated, but the fight took out many of the powerful group of mages, warriors, and paladin elves who raced towards the blood elf contingent. "You should have come with us rather than join the Emperor!" Alleria scolded their enemies who were traitors to all of elf-kind.

Kael'thas Sunstrider and Lor'themar Theron ordered their own troops forward. The two older men with long white hair commanded their followers to attack. Lor'themar bellowed back at the young women who fought against them, "It is your rebellious attitudes that lead elves to fight to the death on this battlefield. You could have accepted Sith control and submitted, rather than this foolish fight to the end like Elrond's hubris led him to."

"Fleeing with Galadriel was shameful. Yet you return here to condemn us?" Kael'thas wondered at the pair who led their forces into battle with Zapp who looked very out-of-place among all the elves.

"You don't just get to live here," Vereesa sneered back at the old men. "You are forced to fight for your overlords or get wiped out when you are called on, isn't that right? You don't fight us because you wish to, you fight us because you are SLAVES!"

"We are not slaves," a feminine voice countered the young woman. Alleria and Vereesa Windrunner both flinched and then got hit by glowing red arrows of light that neither could dodge. The women were thrown backwards, distracting their soldiers who were shocked to see the powerful pair hit so hard and without being able to dodge.

"Ughh, is that-" Vereesa could not believe her ears.

Alleria already knew but dreaded the sight. She leaned up and looked past the co-commanders to the true Lord of the Forsaken Plain. "We are allowed to live freely at all times other than when pesky Resistance brats come to disrupt our High Lord. Disrupting the peace we attained through compromise." Sylvanus Windrunner declared. Even some of the Resistance elves who were still fighting backed up. They stared in disbelief and then panic at the sight of the former Warchief of the Horde. The leader of the Forsaken. The Dark Lady. The Banshee Queen.

Alleria bit down on her bottom lip at the sight of her younger sister, and Vereesa let out tears to see her older sister there. The middle and most powerful sister of the Windrunners who fought for the Sith announced, "All elves are welcome back in Elvengard. Rivendell is gone. Ruins. A fortress for the Emperor. We don't need it." Sylvanus waved an arm to point behind her, "There is no need to fight anymore. Come back home, as we have built a new capital. One under Sith control. But still, a land for the elves. All elves. And we just- oi!"

Sylvanus raised her bow and blocked the blood sword that Zapp slashed down at her. The grinning mad-lad pressed harder and harder down, and Sylvanus's knees shook as she pushed back, before dropping down to one knee as he slashed down on her. "I don't care about what's going on here! You're our enemy, and you're going down!" He twisted his body and yelled, "Giant Serpent Halberd!" The red sword extended out at the end with his blood control, the tip of the blade turning into a pointed whip that curled around the bow Sylvanus blocked with. The former Warchief was quick though and managed to pull her face away, only getting slashed across her left cheek instead of pierced through the skull.

Alleria and Vereesa struggled back up to their feet. "Syl," Vereesa whispered.

"Steady yourself, sister. Our sister fights for evil," Alleria declared. She rose back up her own weapon, "And we will not let her get away with it!"

Back a hundred meters from Zapp and his elven battle, the trio he leapt over before continued a hard-fought lightsaber duel. It was difficult to call it a duel, when both Stass Allie and Foul Moudama fought together against Pong Krell. "You have lost your way, my old friend," Allie told her former fellow Jedi.

"The Jedi lost their way long ago," Pong snarled back.

"The stories of what you did during the war were horrendous," Foul Moudama grunted. The furry Jedi from a species that could only speak their own language in their universe found the restrictions of his species' vocal cords were not a problem here on Nexus, for some reason. His voice was gruff and deep, and he belittled Pong Krell, "Defeated by the soldiers you turned on. Captain Rex is here now, as is Dogma. Perhaps we should bring them here. Have them take care of you again?"

Krell got distracted. The four-armed fallen Jedi looked away, and that briefest of moments was all Stass and Foul needed. He got distracted thinking of the clone troopers who defeated and killed him. The pair crossed over each other while rushing at Pong Krell, and the overwhelmed Sith struggled to slash his double-sided lightsabers quickly enough back and forth to block the two of them.

A green lightsaber slashed through Pong Krell's side when he thought he dodged it. Allie had let go of the hilt of her weapon though and Force-pushed it out to drag along the side of her old comrade, catching Krell off guard and making the Besalisk man drop down to one knee. The lightsaber cut deep and Pong was bleeding fast. He coughed in pain and strained to stay up with his lightsabers raised to keep his enemies from finishing him off. His head lifted and his eyes shook as he darted them back and forth at the two Jedi just staring down at him.

Foul Moudama just shook his head though as he saw what Pong Krell expected from them. "You have spent too much time around the Sith, my old friend," Foul remarked. The two of them had been raised in the Jedi Temple together. They were younglings, and padawans, and knights, and masters together. Foul barely recognized Pong Krell now. "The Dark Side has made you weak."

"The Dark Side is strong-"

"Strength alone means nothing," Stass Allie remarked back to the larger figure who they just bested. "You knew that, once upon a time."

Pong dropped to a second knee. He flinched. His Jedi opponents did as well. They all felt it already, but this was so much worse than last time. The thoughtful and almost ashamed look spreading over Pong Krell's face wiped away. The right corner of his lips curled up instead. "Heh. I thought I knew that, but then… I saw what strength really is."

A blue beam of light shot out of the sky and slammed into the battlefield. The starship closest above them dropped the beam right in the middle of the battlefield and only a few meters away from where Pong Krell had just faced off against two Jedi at once. Dust flew up in the air when it hit, but the beam did not seem like a powerful one that Gray was expecting to demolish the surface. Resistance fighters who rose their arms to shield themselves lowered them back down and looked into the middle of that fading beam.

Pong Krell's smirk wiped from his face. His heart sank in his chest. He was already bleeding heavily and panting for breath, but he could not breathe any longer as he turned his head sideways with his face pale. Krell felt the strength leaving his body. "W-Wai…" he could not make out even that single word, before his body drained entirely of the Force. His skin shriveled up and lost color. His body crumpled. Pong Krell collapsed face-first into the ground, dead.

"Releasing him," Darth Malak growled while staring over from a half mile away. He felt his own Force waver, and he hardened himself to keep it all inside. Malak cast a quick glare up farther away towards the command ship and the man he knew must have given this order. "Damn you, Tarkin."

"We must finish this quickly," Stass Allie shouted at her comrade. Foul Moudama nodded back. They could both feel the tug on their cores. They looked towards the dark figure inside the settling dust who stepped forward towards them. He was in a black cloak that had the hood up shadowing over his face. That man's head lifted though as the Jedi ran forward. His hood rose and revealed the face underneath, or rather, the skull mask that kept his face hidden.

Both sprinting Jedi skid to stops and leapt as far as they could backwards. Sweat drenched their faces and their entire bodies. "Ahhh!" Stass Allie screamed in terror, but the Force Pull that grabbed onto her yanked her back towards that shadow while throwing her lightsaber the other direction. Foul reached towards her, but a Force Push sent him flying even farther away from his friend. Stass Allie got dragged right up in front of the Sith who had every Force-sensitive person on the battlefield frozen and staring in horror towards him.

Even those who could not sense the Force had bad feelings looking his way. Even the Sith who did not just see Pong Krell die, like Stan, felt their stomachs turn over. Stan muttered, "I feel a disturbance in the Force." Starkiller and Ahsoka felt the same way but just stared over towards this figure silently instead.

Stass Allie's body writhed around as she hovered in front of the cloaked figure. "Master Allie-" Ahsoka took a step. Neither Stan nor Starkiller were going to move to stop her, but she stopped anyway. Master Allie's body stopped thrashing. Her skin shriveled up. Her body turned into a withered husk, and the Sith dropped her Force-less body to the ground.

A dark aura spread around that figure and then pulsed out across the entire battlefield. The sky darkened overhead, dark clouds getting in the way of the suns and then swirling about in a twisting pattern. Master Yaddle's green fur stood on end. The tiny Jedi Master dreaded what she was about to see, but she looked towards that dark figure and saw the skull mask he wore. There was no doubting it. "The Planet Eater," she whispered.

---

Yesterday

"I appreciate your wisdom, Master Yaddle," Gray thanked the short Jedi Master only up to his knees. She nodded back up at the young man and the pair behind him who Gray had called in. The leaders of the Elite Squads, Fubuki and Jakku, also stayed quiet to listen to the respected master's message.

"It is little known to us how the Sith became one under the current Emperor," Yaddle began to the three before her. "However, we are aware that at some point on Nexus, there was a Sith Civil War. Just as there was in our universe. The most powerful Sith from all of time came to Nexus. They could not all co-exist without first seeing who would lead them."

Yaddle continued after setting the scene, "Only one had the power to unite a resistance against this Emperor, and that is the one who we once called the 'Sith Emperor.' Tenebrae. The Immortal Emperor- Valkorion. Otherwise known as, Darth Vitiate. None could compare against his raw power. Supposedly, not even the current Emperor, whose identity still remains a secret to us."

"If the Emperor we know couldn't compare to him," Fubuki began. She trailed off though and nodded in apology to Master Yaddle, as the old Jedi Master was getting to that.

"The Emperor of today and Vitiate had each gathered allies among the other Sith to face one another. It would have been disastrous for them all had the two sides clashed," Yaddle explained.

"That would have been nice," Jakku joked. The idea of the Sith all wiping each other out did sound nice to the rest of them too.

Even Yaddle nodded in agreement at Jakku's joke. "However, the battle never came. Because the Emperor assassinated Darth Vitiate, with the help of perhaps the only other Sith in all of history to compare with Darth Vitiate. One Sith who is so powerful that I am afraid there may not be a Jedi alive who can take him. Nor any single Force user."

"You think he is even stronger than the Emperor?" Gray wondered. He was not expecting that. He knew the Emperor would be a Sith like no other, but that there may be another like him was an unsettling idea.

Yaddle did not respond immediately. "I do not know," she confessed. "Without more information on the Emperor, it is impossible to say. The Emperor did need him to defeat Vitiate though. The fabled Sith that was nicknamed in my time as the 'Planet Eater.' His name, is Darth Nihilus."

"Nihilus," Fubuki pondered and hummed. She thought of the list of enemy Sith Lords they had information about, but his name had just been another on the list without anything special written about him. "Is he really so dangerous?" Fubuki questioned.

Gray also had not heard of Darth Nihilus doing much on Nexus. Yaddle explained that too, "We believe that Darth Nihilus resides at the Order of the Sith as the protector to the Emperor. Perhaps as his apprentice, even if Darth Sidious is the second-in-command. Nihilus has extraordinary power and is not to be taken lightly. My suggestion, General Fullbuster, is that you save the MPC for him."

Gray's eyes bulged at the Jedi master's suggestion. She was completely serious though. "He's just one Sith," Gray began.

"He is more," Yaddle countered solemnly. "He is a monster. One that craves Force energy like sustenance. An endless hunger that he cannot sate. He chose the title as the Lord of Hunger in the Sith Triumvirate. His need for devouring the Force led him to consume entire planets. Whole worlds drained and left barren. Nihilus became so powerful that his physical form could no longer sustain him, and so he infused his robes, his armor, and his unique mask designed as a skull, with his own soul. He is more a force of nature than a Sith Lord."

"I got it, I got it," Gray held up his hand for the Jedi Master to stop. Her words made him shiver, and Gray shook off his jitters before nodding at the Jedi. "I understand." Yaddle's explanation was more than enough to scare the three into being better prepared in case they came across him. "Thank you, Master Yaddle. I will take that into account and plan a contingency. No 'single' Jedi can defeat him, right?" Gray asked, reiterating what she said before and seeing if she would correct him.

Yaddle nodded back. She even smiled at the young man who looked like he had come up with a plan already. "Thank you, General. I will take my leave." The three humans all bowed to the Jedi Master who walked away and left the war room in the temporary base east of the border.

They waited for a moment after Yaddle left, then Fubuki let out a long exhale and wiped some sweat from her forehead. "So, what do we do?" She wondered to the General.

"I'll take him on," Jakku declared. He was pissed at himself for even being frightened for a moment there by Yaddle's explanation.

"No. We should use the MPC like Master Yaddle says," Fubuki countered the foolish mage.

"Ehh?"

"If Darth Nihilus is really at the Order of the Sith like we suspect," Gray began. The two squad leaders listened to their General who faced them while theorizing, "Then we should be okay to use the MPC earlier if it becomes necessary. If we are forced to use it, we'll spend extra time in Rivendell catching our breath before starting the final stage of the invasion. Give ourselves time to recover, as well as time for the MPC to recharge."

"And if we use the MPC, and then Nihilus winds up facing us on the first battlefield while it's recharging?" Fubuki questioned skeptically, looking down her nose at the younger man who was being too reckless.

"You heard Master Yaddle," Gray corrected Fubuki. "No 'single' Force user can take him on."

Fubuki hesitated but started nodding back at him. Jakku grumbled to himself but accepted the plan anyway. It sounded like that was what Yaddle was hinting them towards too if the MPC was out of play. Gray was glad to see no further argument from them, and they went on with their planning…

---

Present

"All Jedi on the battlefield, join Master Yaddle immediately to face Darth Nihilus!" Gray shouted out his orders.

"Where do you think you're going?" Stan flipped backwards and landed in front of Ahsoka Tano where she just started darting to. She skid short then leapt up herself to dodge the red lightsaber that she sensed coming at her back. The red blade Starkiller slashed down at her scraped the floor and sent a wave of dirt and dust spraying up after Ahsoka's feet.

She slashed both lightsabers down below her while twisting her body, blocking as Galen Marek sliced back up after cutting across the floor. Stan hesitated while watching the pair of them clash. Ahsoka put her weight into the double-slash. Along with the gravity pushing her down, and her own strength, and her Force, she made Starkiller's knees bend while a circle of dust rose up around his legs and pulsed out away from him. Stan Marsh stumbled backwards and struggled to even hold his lightsaber up in front of him using only one arm, the other still broken down at his side.

Stan had to use the Force to keep his hat from flying off. He stopped Ahsoka by getting between her and the area where the rest of the Jedi on the battlefield were running towards. The dark presence of the monstrous Sith he could feel in his soul back behind him kept Stan from turning around. But facing forward towards Ahsoka and Starkiller only made him bite down in even more frustration and building rage. The gap is so huge. I would have lost to Ventress and Barriss without this new lightsaber. I lost to Gray. I'm nowhere near as strong as either of them! Stan watched as the other two parried off one another then slashed back and forth into each other's familiar fighting moves over and over again. They were so fast. Stan noticed something though as they fought. His eyes were moving to their next moves before they even started swinging. Am I getting faster too?

He realized it and felt a surge of pride. His heart raced. He felt his strength coming back, and he ignored the pain in his left shoulder where the broken metal prosthetic was dangling. Stan lifted back up his red lightsaber that cast a red glow over his face, and he ran towards the other two who slashed and collided all three of their lightsabers down low near Starkiller's left leg and Ahsoka's right. Her two blades pressed against the one of his. Both of them saw that move coming but had to do it next, it was the only one that flowed smoothly from their fighting styles. Ahsoka darted her glare from the point of their collision to the thoughtful and semi-confused look on Starkiller's face. She had no time to ponder its meaning though, as a twinge of the Force and a faint red glow she saw in her peripheral vision caused her to leap up in the air, narrowly dodging the slash of the young injured Sith boy behind her.

Ahsoka frowned at how young the boy looked as she flipped up through the air. She could feel the darkness within him though. She saw the boy's dark eyes tracing her up through the air with murderous intent in them. Perhaps he only looks like a child. It was some consolation, and Ahsoka needed that. It would make this next part easier.

Brmm- Ch-CRACK! Thunder boomed above the battlefield. The sky had already darkened but finally started to rain. The rain specifically fell over where the clouds were thickest. Stan, Ahsoka, and Starkiller got caught up in a part of it, but the real downpour came down on the rest of the Jedi who faced their strongest foe.

It was fourteen to one. Nihilus had Jedi on all sides of him. The other Sith had backed away. Only a few other Jedi remained on the battlefield caught up in their own fights like Ahsoka was, while the rest tried to obey their General's orders. They rushed to Master Yaddle's side to face Darth Nihilus. The small green Jedi master's fur pressed close to her body as the rain drenched through her cloak. Qui-Gon's ponytail dripped behind his head, and Foul Moudama snarled with rain and spit spilling off his furry chin too.

Foul's close friend Stass Allie's withered corpse lay at Nihilus's feet. The Sith monster stepped forward, and her skull collapsed under his foot. "RAaaaa!" Foul yelled. The Jedi lost his way in his anger.

"Don't!" Tiplar yelled towards him.

"Everyone move in," Yaddle ordered instead. If they all stood back and watched Foul sprint at Nihilus on his own, they would only be wasting his life. She doubted she could calm down the four-eyed Jedi who charged with the rage of a Sith behind him. There was something in the air. She did not think Foul himself really just lost it in that moment, but the dark aura that came off of Nihilus that pushed him. It could affect any of them. If he falls here, it will only scare the others even more. That fear will lead to anger like his, hate like his, and create another casualty charging forward like this. Yaddle had her Jedi sprint at Nihilus together while the Sith was raising one hand towards Foul.

Yaddle's quick thinking made Nihilus lower back the hand he was going to drain Foul Moudama with. That hand curled down towards his waist, and a hilt flew up from under his cloak and into his hand. Red light cut through the shadows around Darth Nihilus. The dark gray clouds above and the pelting rain shrouded him even more than his dark aura already did.

A haze of black exuded from the shadowy figure. Was there a face under the skull mask? None could tell. Was this the disembodied spirit of Darth Nihilus that imbued his clothing with his own Force? Or was there a man in there? Jedi sprinting towards him from all sides holding green and blue lightsabers intended to find out. They each planned to slash their blades through his cloak and see if he bleeds.

Static electricity filled the air far away from Nihilus. Branches of lightning shot out of the clouds above him and a few hit the ground, but other bolts hit Tie Fighters and knocked the Imperial ships out of the air. Blue shields flashed on the Star Destroyer Nihilus had been beamed down from as bolts hit the ship that was too protected to be damaged by the shifting weather.

Gray stared towards the section of the battlefield where Nihilus faced the Jedi all by himself. A Force Push expelled from him and sent the Jedi flying backwards at different speeds depending on how strong each of them were. While a few only stalled and just kept running forward, showing the strength of the Jedi, Nihilus looked unperturbed. The push just made it so all the Jedi were not reaching him at the same time now. They reached him at staggered moments, and the Sith legend batted one away while focusing a more condensed Force Push towards another. Lightning sparked from the tips of his fingers and shot after the powerful human Jedi Master who was just sent flying backwards, and Ven Zallow let out a yell of pain as he got electrocuted.

"Master!" A distracted Aryn Leneer yelled. A flash of red filled the corner of her vision. In the moment she was distracted, suddenly that shadow was only feet away from him with his lightsaber raised.

Yaddle curled her right hand into a fist. The curl of her fingers yanked Aryn backwards. The tiny green Jedi leapt forward and slashed her green lightsaber down at the Sith Lord who missed his slash into the younger woman Yaddle saved. When their blades clashed, Yaddle knew she had none of the power to be able to press back into his blade, so she had to twist her wrist and flip aside to strike again. Her blows came fast and quickly moved on to the next each time. Every touch of their lightsabers only lasted a brief moment before she slashed again, bouncing her feet in the air with little Force hops. She flipped around and touched down behind Nihilus, slashing around her back and trying to cut through his legs.

Master Yaddle's eyes widened as her lightsaber cut through thin air. The shadowy form had vanished during her flip over him when he was out of her view for a second. She spun back and forth, seeing Qui-Gon and Tiplee as confused as she was. The two who had run towards Yaddle spun one-eighty degrees and looked back towards a furry four-eyed man who was snapping his head back and forth in a flustered manner.

"Master Foul!" Qui-Gon yelled out a warning.

Sweat helped the rain soak Foul Moudama's fur. Cal Kestis was only ten meters to the master's right side, and he turned left after hearing Qui-Gon's shout. Cal was confused, because nothing was over here… The human Jedi with light skin dropped his jaw and then fell backwards onto his butt. Foul Moudama started turning his head, swoosh-sqlch

Foul's four eyes trembled in terror and pain as he looked back into the skull mask staring down at him. His arms moved in towards the arm reaching out with a lightsaber imbedded deep in his torso where Nihilus stopped slashing it. The Sith could have cut all the way through him, but the figure stopped before the blade would have reached Foul's heart. Nihilus reached his other hand forward once Foul's lightsaber had slipped through his grasp.

Cal was trying to push himself back up on his feet. He heard his fellow Jedi yelling at him to get up. They were running his way in his peripheral vision. But his heart jumped into his throat and his arms felt like jelly, as he watched Nihilus grab the top of Foul Moudama's head and then pull upwards. A translucent shape of white aura pulled out of Foul's head. As if Nihilus was tearing out the Jedi's very soul. Others nearby on the battlefield screamed at the sight. Darth Nihilus ripped the Force from Foul Moudama, and then he pulled that essence towards his mask and devoured it. The soul pulled together towards the bottom of Nihilus's mask as if getting sucked into a funnel.

The air around them grew darker still. "He's getting stronger the more of us he defeats," Qui-Gon warned.

"Do you need assistance?"

Qui-Gon glanced up the battlefield. Far too few of the Resistance had made it close to the fourth line of trenches. The Sith looked to be the ones moving forward more than the Resistance now. Despite the General's shouts about how he picked this army for offensive operations, the enemy numbers kept increasing and overwhelmed several squads of forward-fighting Resistance forces. The voice that spoke back to Qui-Gon came from the General himself who was close to a shimmering blue forcefield that had a sleek Imperial transport jet landed behind it.

Gray looked past the three Sith who remained between him and the grouping of Sith soldiers hiding behind them in the forcefield. Those soldiers stopped firing on Darth Malgus's orders, even though Gray Fullbuster stood over the bodies of two Sith already. He was panting, he had powerful enemies before him, but he could feel the static in the air. He heard the shouts of pain and loss from Jedi in Master Yaddle's ranks who had lost another comrade. I already used Ice Make Unlimited twice. It failed against Ra's al Ghul. I defeated Darth Revan with it, but is Nihilus closer to the first or latter? Would it even work at my MP as I am now?

He darted a glance towards them and saw Master Yaddle bouncing back and forth around Nihilus whose red blade shot back and forth to match her at every step. The dark monster leapt up in the air and pointed both hands down at Yaddle with lightning sparking on the tips of his gloves. Tiplee and Tiplar ran forward and crossed their lightsabers in front of the older master as she was still landing from her last parry with the Sith beast.

The Mikkian twin sisters skid backwards as the strength of the lightning slammed into their lightsabers. Both needed to hold their hilts with two hands in order to hold it back, and the lightning crawled up the light towards the hilts. Both winced then started to scream "Ahh-AHHHH" as the electricity raced up their arms. Yaddle ducked under the lightsabers faltering in front of her and slammed both of her green palms towards Nihilus while he was landing himself, and Qui-Gon yelled for the others to do the same all at the same time.

Cal Kestis retracted his lightsaber and slammed both hands forward and curled towards Nihilus. The Force that emitted from him and the other Jedi made the rain falling around them push back up in the air, so that for a second, it stopped raining. Nihilus got sent flying backwards and tumbling across the earth from the power of all those Jedi's Force Pushes at the same time. But the Sith flipped himself over as he skid, slamming his lightsaber into the ground and dragging himself to a stop. "Grrrrr…"

The sound that came from the dark form's skeletal mask could only be defined as an animalistic snarl. A disturbance in the Force shook the Jedi who felt their skin crawl. All of them were panting from the battle, and they all lifted back up their lightsabers instinctively in defensive stances as Nihilus rose back to his steady legs.

"Focus on acquiring those ships, General," Qui-Gon replied to Gray. Despite the tough situation the Jedi found themselves in, Qui-Gon did not feel that they were so overwhelmed that they would have to draw in the General too. If we need everyone to fight just one of theirs, we've accepted defeat already, the wise Jedi master admitted to himself. "Focus on the powerful ones before you," Qui-Gon warned as well, because Nihilus was not the only evil Force-user who Qui-Gon was wary of on this battlefield.

Gray was already focused back on the men before him. Darth Malgus stepped forward between the other three Sith who moved out of the way for him. "Darth Angral, Darth Acina," Malgus looked down behind Gray's legs at the bloody corpses of powerful fallen Sith Lords. "Angral led the sack of Coruscant, though it was I who burned the Jedi Temple that day. And Acina, once the Sith Empress of all the galaxy. Gray Fullbuster, you never cease to surprise us." Malgus sounded impressed, but Gray held his Haki-enfused ice blades cautiously as he stared down the dark lord.

He killed Stormrage, and the ace of our Special Operatives, Yu Ominae. As well as Yu's friend Yoshino Somei. She wasn't the best of the Special Ops- no. But she was still important. They all were. Gray could see the smoking remains of the Arbalest in the right corner of his vision. While he managed to save its pilot Sousuke at the last second and have Knov teleport in to evacuate him, Darth Malgus had been on a spree of disabling or killing many of his strongest fighters. He could not pull back with Knov just to allow Malgus to go fight others on the front lines. Not like I did with Stan.

Gray bit down furiously. He had seen Stan when he glanced back towards the battle with Darth Nihilus. Seeing one of their strongest Jedi in Ahsoka Tano caught up fighting two Sith at once, unable to go join her comrades in facing Nihilus, Gray could not help but feel guilty. I should have cut him down. Finished him-

"His wrath shall know no end," Malgus remarked to the young mage whose entire body tensed up. Malgus's dark yellow eyes bored deep into Gray's.

"My wrath will know no end." Those were Darth Bane's final words. Why? Why- "Why do you say that now?" Gray hissed. He seethed it through his teeth in anger. Does he know Bane said that to me? How?! Is it just something Sith say?

"I am now third in command of the Sith," Malgus replied to the General of the enemy army. Behind Malgus, the other three Sith walked to his right and left to start making a semicircle where Gray would have an equal distance to every Sith. He recognized two of them. He tried to focus on what he knew about these enemies while still listening to Darth Malgus. "You and your comrade destroying the League of Assassins slowed us down. Our plans to expand east were frustrated by your efforts in the north. The League, and our Sith contingent under Darth Bane, all defeated by you two brats. The other of whom will also die soon, so deep in our territory."

Gray's breath hitched for a second. He calmed himself down. Malgus is just messing with me. Why would Kirito be in Sith territory? How would Malgus even know something like that?

Gray snapped his gaze to the left as a second lightsaber ignited in the hands of Lord Adas. Once known as King Adas in their universe. The Emperor made him a Lord after his support against a rival of his, who we now think was probably Vitiate. And Vitiate was the same Sith Emperor who Darth Malgus's master, and his master, both followed. Gray refocused on the primary threat. Adas was a well-renowned menacing figure in his gray suit of armor with a glowing red bulb on the center of his forehead. The black slits in the gray mask hid his eyes that bored into the ice mage. Darth Vowrawn also glared furious out his glowing red eyes at Gray for Gray's killing of Acina, Vowrawn's master. Gray didn't recognize Vowrawn's own apprentice in Haresh, but he only looked at the two of them for a second more on his left side before snapping his eyes solely onto Malgus.

Malgus killed both his own master, Darth Vindican, and Vindican's master Darth Ikoral. They did not side with the Emperor, so he eliminated them both. Now he's cutting straight through my forces. I'm not surprised he took Darth Bane's spot. Gray let out a deep breath that hung in front of his face. "Your mind games won't work, Sith Lord," Gray coolly replied to Malgus's mysterious comments.

"What mind games, Fairy Tail?" Malgus replied. This time as he said it, the other Sith all cracked small smirks that made Gray's fists clench even harder around his ice blades. What's with their reactions to me being Fairy Tail?! What does that have to do with anything? Stop it! Gray scolded himself for thinking any deeper on Malgus's words that were definitely just to mess with him.

"You may have made a few good maneuvers," Malgus complimented his foe. "But we and the Fire Nation did enough damage before our losses that the Resistance still retreated to the south. Despite our momentary weakness, Sozin burned Pon. Your Commanders are dropping like flies. Now that Gaara has joined Jon Snow in death."

"You will soon follow," Malgus pointed his red lightsaber ahead at Gray. The other three Sith standing with Malgus pointed theirs at the mage as well. Gray's black body armor was thinner than the armor that the Sith wore, though Gray trusted it was as powerful as their own. Still, he knew those lightsabers would cut right through it. He already had a few shallow cuts from the Sith he'd faced along the way. "Your intelligence is worse than our own," Malgus mocked in a low dark tone. "Even though we had to pause construction of the starships after the Supernova went missing, as we used it for electricity across Sith territory, we had far more already built than you knew. Everywhere you've gone, Fullbuster, you have messed with the Emperor's plans. Yet here, you bit off more than you could chew."

"You came straight at the Emperor, and your entire army will be annihilated here," Malgus finished. Then he rushed in. Gray considered mocking the Sith back. The way Malgus worded it, the Sith did not know what happened to the Supernova. He held his tongue, as it was foolish to give away more information to an enemy who already sounded like he knew more than Gray did. He also held his tongue, because he could not focus on continuing their conversation while four powerful Sith charged in at him on all sides.

Gray punched his fist into an open icy palm. A magic circle appeared under his feet. The Zabrak Sith apprentice, Haresh, was the slowest to stop his charge in at Gray. The light blue magic circle expanded ten meters away in radius from Gray's feet. Ice spikes shot up behind Haresh when the Sith tried jumping backwards. His Force warned him, and his red-skinned head protruding tiny brown spikes started turning to the side with wide eyes as the spike that shot up there got in the way of his retreat.

"Haresh!" Vowrawn yelled back towards his apprentice, changing the direction of his leap halfway to Force Jump his way back towards the circle of rising ice spikes. Vowrawn cut through one of them with his lightsaber while reaching out to yank Haresh towards him. Gray Fullbuster was faster. The ice mage had already sliced through Haresh and put both of his feet against his own ice spike on the other side of the weakest of the four Sith Lords. He pressed his feet against that spike and redirected himself towards the spike that Vowrawn was in the middle of cutting through, and Vowrawn only had a second to gasp and raise his lightsaber halfway. The red lightsaber sliced the sword in Gray's artificial left hand in half, which automatically started to regenerate back to its full length, but not before the sword in Gray's right hand had finished slashing around and lopping off Vowrawn's head at the shoulders.

Gray landed down on a foot and one knee. He panted heavily but snapped his head up and glared at Adas and Malgus. The bodies of two Sith dropped behind the young mage who once told Darth Bane he knew the Sith's weakness. The same weakness he exploited over and over again. "You Sith are slow," Gray growled. Even tired. Even after fighting his way here. The gap between the speed of these Sith Lords and the Fairy Tail mage had not decreased nearly enough to equalize them. "And predictable," Gray added, and he stopped panting while standing back up to full height. Observational Haki or the Force? As long as I can see predict at least as far ahead as they can, all these enemies really are, are weak espers with light swords.

The wind knocked out of Gray and he flew backwards into an ice spike behind him that had risen twenty-five feet tall. The spike broke into pieces that fell on top of the mage who tumbled back through the raining debris. Not that weak! Adas and Malgus lowered the palms they had risen towards him. The two rushed at the mage who dragged himself back to his feet. Both of his enemies used Force Sprint, and they were upon him in a second. Not that slow! Gray reminded himself, and he had to roll backwards then spring off his palms up into the air to dodge a lightsaber throw.

Adas only released one, and he leapt into the air before pulling that one back to him, slashing at the dodging mage who twisted away only to see Malgus slashing straight into that spot from right behind him. He only saw that in his mind though, his Observational Haki warning him that a blade was about to cut him in half. Gray warped his body into an awkward position that put his left side in the way of Malgus, and his entire left arm got chopped off at the shoulder. The slash came so close that the blade burned through Gray's actual scarred skin underneath the ice coating between his torso and the fake ice arm he made.

As soon as his left arm was disconnected, Gray tried to reform it. But again, Adas and Malgus each rose a palm while in midair with him, and they Force Pushed so hard that Gray plummeted back down into the earth. The ice arm he started creating cracked apart. A dust cloud rose up above him while the other ice spikes that had made a circle around Gray's initial position all shattered into pieces. Lord Adas and Malgus dove down into the dust after the mage who they could sense getting back up in there, slower now than ever before…

"Master Ven!" Ahsoka yelled. Her frustration amplified as Starkiller jumped into her way again, preventing her from sprinting towards Darth Nihilus and the Jedi Master who Nihilus just impaled.

"Master! NO!" Aryn Leener screamed and rushed in. Tears splashed off the sides of her face, and she completely ignored Cal who yelled at her to wait and ran after her to try and save his friend from certain death.

"Halt, ack-kah, you two!" Yaddle tried screaming over to them from where she was gasping for breath between Qui-Gon's legs. The human Jedi Master had Force Pulled her away from a death blow a minute ago, allowing Master Ven Zallow to take her place. Ven put up a good effort, but Nihilus caught him off guard with a move that no one could pull Ven away from in time. Yaddle reached out for the younger Jedi who rashly rushed in while Nihilus was busy devouring the Force within his impaled target.

Ven Zallow was very powerful though, and the surge of Force energy that entered Nihilus from devouring Ven made both Aryn and Cal behind her stumble and panic for breath. The air got thicker with the evil of the dark side. Cal tripped and faced the floor where his trembling fists curled into the dirt. He found his strength and pushed down hard, snapping his head up angrily to try and recover- His heart fell in his chest. Darth Nihilus looked like he stood fifty feet tall from this angle. Cal stared up at the menacing shadow's skeletal mask that glared down at Aryn who was also gasping for air down on her knees only feet in front of Cal. Nihilus didn't look like he even did anything, but a white aura ripped out of Aryn's body and sucked into the mask over Nihilus's face.

Another one, Ahsoka cursed to herself. Her fellow Jedi were struggling to keep facing Nihilus, and she knew she could make a difference if she could get over there. "I don't have time for this," she said. Her voice was darker. The dark side in the air coming from Nihilus could be affecting her, or the fact that she no longer considered herself a full Jedi in the first place. She didn't know. She recognized the dark feelings though of anger, frustration, and even hatred. She glared murderously at Starkiller and Darth Marsh. "Move or die," she ordered.

"Only a Sith deals in absolutes," Stan mocked the Jedi before him.

Ahsoka did not flinch at the young boy's words. It was an immature taunt. Not nearly as effective as some Sith she had come in contact with. Her expression darkened in a way that Stan did not think Jedi could look like. Even facing a child, her face was cold. The way she gripped her lightsabers while shifting her glare from one to the other showed that she was not playing around.

All the hair stood up on Stan's back. She's going to cut me! NO! I have to try! Nihilus terrifies me. She scares me too. Fear is not something to be afraid of though. Darkness makes me more powerful. I won't get stronger by running! The boy bared his teeth back and rose his lightsaber by the side of his head, pointing it forward at the woman in a stance meant to counter the one she stood in.

Such familiar styles. Both of them, Starkiller thought. Galen held his hilt down at his right side using both hands with his lightsaber pointed straight up instead. Nihilus's power behind him caused a wind to whip up in the area that rippled his black cloak and waved the head tails of the Togruta alien facing them.

I need to help the others face Nihilus. I cannot be distracted though. These two can see through my moves. So I will be faster, and I will cut them both down here. Ahsoka took in a deep breath. She ran forward, and both of the others did the same. They all had the same look in their eyes. They all rushed in for the finishing blow.

"Ice Transformation: Frozen Dragon!" Gray roared out, "RAAAA!" His head covering in ice blew out icy breath from the long snout of a dragon the extended from his face. Giant ice wings snapped out of his back while talons curled out from his hand and feet. His second arm reappeared and grew larger to become an entire ice dragon's arm.

"Still so much magic," Malgus muttered in surprise while leaping backwards himself. He had just charged at the young man who he and Adas sent crashing into the ground so hard that his reforming left arm broke into pieces again. And yet here Fullbuster was, using another incredibly powerful technique that Malgus's own Force warned him to be wary of.

Gray flapped his wings and kicked off the ground at the Sith in mid-leap away from him. Lord Adas had a similar feeling as Malgus and retreated away from the Ice Dragon, but Gray did not focus on his weaker enemy this time like he did with the other two Sith. If I am low, I need to at least finish Malgus here before finding Mansherry for a boost! Gray slashed his right talon and then pointed his head in the direction Darth Malgus Force Jumped over to.

Breaking the laws of physics, Malgus suddenly had propulsion moving him to the right and away from Gray's talon. He slashed his red lightsaber in front of him too. The bald Sith Lord pushed hard into the freezing cold breath that Gray blew at him. The icy wind split in half on Malgus's blade and melted in a cone in front of his body. Icy wind still blew past Malgus on his left and right sides, but it all missed the Sith himself. Malgus yanked his head to the right though, and an ice spike still slammed him in the right shoulder, though another missed under his right arm and one flew harmlessly past his head.

Gray's dragon tail that whipped around the side of his body fired all the spined-spikes going down it from his mid-back to the tip of his tail. Malgus avoided most, but the one that hit him in the right shoulder pierced through and stuck out his back. He used the Force on it and ripped it right back out, while Gray closed his mouth and flapped his wings hard in front of him to reverse his momentum. He intended to fly forward and finish the Sith Lord there, but his Haki kicked in and made him snap his head up instead while avoiding backwards.

"Damn it!" Darth Karrid cursed while slicing her own lightsaber down and only cutting a small slash through Gray's left wing. The jetpack on the green-skinned and darker-green-haired woman's back ignited brighter and kept her from falling all the way to the ground. Her body twisted around and she aimed her free arm at Gray. He was going to attack again, but he had to fly off and avoid attack after attack as she fired a flurry of blue beams out of her left arm cannon.

"You're late, my apprentice," Malgus scolded while dropping down to the ground. He pointed his lightsaber towards himself and pressed the blade to the gaping wound in his shoulder. Without even a wince, Malgus cauterized his wound. Then he curled the blade over his shoulder and sealed the smaller wound on his back too where the tip of the ice had protruded out of.

"Apologies, Master," the fallen Jedi replied while hovering down to stop just above her Master's head and on his right side. Her eyes glowed white, her dark green hair fell in a long straight ponytail, and much of the left side of her body and her back were made of metal parts. In fact, it wasn't actually a jetpack she used to slow her fall, but Gray could see that the jets were sticking out of her metal back plate itself. "To rectify that, allow me to kill the enemy General myself."

"We'll do it together," Malgus countered his arrogant apprentice. He had no time to scold her for thinking she could defeat Gray on her own, nor did he want to counter her that he did not need her assistance. "He just used up much of his mana on that failed maneuver. Hit him now!"

Adas thought the same thing and rushed at Gray from behind. He threw his lightsaber while Gray was curving to fly back at Malgus and his apprentice. Gray had focused on the two in front of him after it appeared like Adas had ran off before. In the corner of his eye he saw the red glow coming, but his Haki also kicked in about the Force users in front of him. He crossed his arms and twisted his body. His right wing was still slashed fully off by the lightsaber throw, and much of the thickening ice armor on his front shattered from the dual Force Pushes that hit him in the chest.

Gray gasped as the wind was knocked out of him. His ice armor broke apart and fell in huge shards all around him. Those shards acted like mirrors, reflecting the images of three approaching Sith all shooting towards him from angles he could not discern in his disoriented state. They appeared to be coming from everywhere as their images bounced off the ice.

"Look out, General!"

"For Yu!"

Melissa Mao's Arm Slave burst through the wall of ice before any of Gray's enemies. Melissa's mech fired her cannons at the two Sith in front who reversed direction to pull back again. Tea Flatte leapt off the back of the Arm Slave she caught a ride on without climbing back into the cockpit of. She fired her guns at Adas who initially deflected multiple shots, but he pushed himself backwards and then leapt even farther away as giant shadowy beasts burst out of ice shards falling around this mysterious woman. Tea's long curly black hair waved around her face and made her look more disheveled. The normally-cool collected figure looked enraged after losing two of her teammates.

Melissa felt the same way after losing Kurz and Belfangan. Gray had saved Sousuke though, even if his Arbalest was a smoldering pile of rubble. She caught her General in the right hand of her Arm Slave while dropping down on her metal feet.

"Ah, I see. Illusions," Adas walked through the monstrous black flying lions with wings that Tea Flatte sent flying at him. He waved an arm and dispersed the illusions, before raising his red lightsaber in front of his horrifying mask. She caught a glimpse of his eyes through the slit in it, and even through her rage, she felt an uneasy feeling. Tea had lived for a very long time, yet she knew that many of the Sith had lived similarly long existences to her own. The fact that he could quickly blow away her illusions annoyed her more than anything though.

Tea disappeared. She vanished from in front of Adas's eyes and appeared behind the Sith. She rushed at him, raising one hand up that she curled his way while firing the other holding a pistol full of tranquilizer darts. Adas spoke, "Foolish child." His helmet only turned partly to the right. His eyes narrowed at her. She curled her hand to deflect his lightsaber that she wanted him to throw at her like she saw him throw it at Gray before. Her powers could allow her to do such a thing, but her Space Continuum twist did not work on the magical energy of the Force that grabbed her by the throat.

"We need a plan. We're all dropping like flies-"

"Help your partner," Gray ordered Melissa. "I will take care of Malgus. Throw me." Gray recreated his broken arm and two swords that he quickly coated in dark purple Haki.

Melissa ground her teeth but obeyed her orders. A glance over her shoulder showed her that Tea just got caught and was clutching at her throat, and her feet lifted off the ground. Far behind Adas, she saw several large ships emerging out of nowhere and dropping more Walkers onto the surface to join the fray. "Damn," she cursed under her breath. "Don't let us down, General," Melissa spoke softly. She curled her hand, wound up for the pitch, and she flung Gray at the Siths who jumped different directions right before Gray slammed into the earth between where they were just standing. He slashed both swords down and cratered the ground, and then giant ice spikes burst up all around him. Melissa spun around and flew back for Adas and her teammate, pulling up a giant rifle and firing at the Sith Lord who had to drop the Resistance Special Operative to instead dart away using Force Sprint and occasionally slash his lightsaber to deflect a red blaster beam.

"Focus our fire on the enemy mech," Adas ordered his troops.

Leonardo Watch stared at his drone screens in shock at the Sith Lord keeping up with and pressing back against Tea and Melissa. Gray may have considered him weaker than Malgus, but Adas was a Lord who controlled much of the Emperor's northern territory. Leonardo glanced at the information page that he pulled up next to his screens and read it aloud for his comrades up ahead who had to face Adas and the reinforcements who pulled up behind him. How did Adas get into the fight so early when the rest of his forces are only just reaching the battlefield? Was he here already, or did he get here that much faster than the others and just rushed in? "Lord Adas, once King Adas in the universe of the Force, ruled Korrigan- the homeworld of the Sith- for over 300 years in his time. He controls the northern territories and administers most of the Emperor's new gains in the past four months."

A Morte-Class Corvette flew in the middle of the northern-approaching enemy army. It was flanked by several dropships for men and tanks. The Corvette was smaller than the Star Destroyers but still had a small hangar inside that enemy jets started flying out of along with Pokémon that had a distinctive dark aura around them. Those Pokémon had been kept inside of Dark Balls, increasing their power and obedience to the maximum, but making them entirely evil.

Dropping from tractor beams under the Corvette descended forty AT-TE tanks. Jets blew out blue flames under the four feet of the low 4-legged walking tanks, known as All Terrain Tactical Enforcers. Each silver tank had a huge cannon pointing off the front of them, and those tanks started firing back at Melissa and putting her onto the defensive. Adas's elite forces and a mercenary team under his employ also emerged from his ships and raced south to intercept Resistance Forces trying to push from the third line of trenches into the final fourth line.

Some of those cannon shots not fired at Melissa Mao's Arm Slave targeted the no-man's-land between the trenches. The explosions they made forced many Resistance clones and elves to fall back to cover in the third trench after just trying to join the Elite Squads and their equivalents on the final line. Fubuki was exhausted but kept her focus on the fire coming from above and rescuing comrades, and she could not add the tank fire on to her responsibilities. Her eyes darted up for a second above the burning rubble of a few starships to the ones still flying up above, Teru.

One of those AT-TEs went up in flames in a fiery explosion though. Then five others. Captain Rawlings spun his sticks to the side and dodged a beam of light, then he nosedived under five tornadoes that the Pokémon that turned towards him attacked him with. Half the tanks pointed their cannons up in the air too, but the fighter ace spiraled off and led the Pokémon and his enemies attacks off to the east and high in the sky, away from the rest of the Resistance army.

Steven Hiller let out an impressed whistle while casting a look back towards the one pilot they still had up in the air who could distract such a large chunk of their enemies. "Keep it up, Rawlings." He ducked back down under the edge of the third trench he had to dive into when those tanks started blowing apart the middle ground. Another explosion went off and caused the forcefield to tremble, and he glanced back at the shield generator he was worried might go off with all these quakes and the damage it suffered from the fighting in here earlier.

"Keep it up, men!" Leo called out. The little Tontatta dwarf waved his rapier in the air and then pointed it at the remaining Imperial forces in a corner of their bubble shield. He jumped up onto a leg of the tall metal device in the middle of the trench between the destroyed turrets, then he jumped again in a blur to stand on the point of its tower. "The shield generator is ours!" He leaned forward and pressed his feet against the edge of the pole closer to his enemies who aimed their rifles at his men.

Leo sprung off the generator's tower and in an instant was behind the Imperials in their gray uniforms. Those men slammed into the ground and struggled to move but failed, finding that their clothes and bodies had been sewn to the floor by Leo's Stitch-Stitch Fruit. "First!" He yelled with a look to his right.

Carolina bared her teeth behind her cyan helmet and bent her legs twice as far. "Watch it," her mother warned. Cleo darted a glare from her own black helmet towards the redhead behind her who she knew just heard Leo and the Tontatta's cheers that followed.

"Speed to 300%, Church," Carolina ordered. The armored super soldier turned into a blur much as Leo did in another shield generator bubble farther south down the fourth line of trenches. She punched and kicked the Stormtroopers and Commando Droids that tried to face off against her. One of those Commando Droids had a machete lifted up and was about to stab down into an injured Roman who could not defend himself.

"Thanks, C," the freelancer formerly known as North Dakota mumbled under his breath.

Mayan, formerly York, saw Roman's head nod back down and wave back and forth like his friend was losing consciousness. He got back on his comms and called in again, "Knov, we need an evac up here! Come on!"

Knov was exhausted. The amount of time it took to open each portal now was getting longer. He held up a palm to Mansherry though back at the infirmary area near their crashed Summer-class cruiser. "Save it," he told her. The white-haired man pushed the glasses up the bridge of his nose and took in a deep breath. "I can keep going for now…"

Gray was doing what he could. He heard his Elite Squads taking the fourth trench, but they would not be able to hold it as long as this central area between the third and fourth line was still firmly under the control of the Sith. The enemy firepower was still too overwhelming. Darth Malgus and Lord Adas were coordinating attacks and reinforcements on the ground, and they had pushed back most of his regular forces to the third trench, or killed them. He slammed his flesh palm into the ice fist he was using and created a huge blue magic circle in front of his shirtless body. His armor had been discarded not because of excessive damage to it, but because of the General's own foolhardiness in stripping it off a minute ago.

Leonardo face-palmed back near the infirmary where he was maintaining a communication line and command structure for the Resistance's side. He had been focused on other theaters of their battle and missed his General removing his armor as he had warned Gray not to do before. Now he looked back and saw their shirtless leader's muscular back through one of his surveillance drones he had flying over the battlefield. That drone only gave him view for another second before a passing jet shot it down. "We've almost lost the sky," he relayed.

Gray's magic circle flashed brightly and then ejected a huge blue fist of ice that punched towards Malgus. "Ice Make: Titan Punch!" The Sith planning on slicing through or Force Pushing whatever came out had to leap backwards instead. The fist was coming too fast and it was too large that he could not block or destroy it. Malgus almost raised high enough to get over it, but the bottoms of his legs got caught and sent the Sith Lord spinning out through the air. He did manage to flip himself back over with the Force though and land, skidding across the floor and raising his free left palm to pick up debris all around him. Gray swung both of his arms to the left and made the giant ice fist take a ninety degree turn towards Malgus. "Culverin!" Gray yelled, smirking the left corner of his lips up imagining Luffy seeing him use this technique with his Ice Make magic.

Malgus was about to throw the debris towards Gray, but he had to throw it back the other way instead and into the fist of ice that he thought he had mostly avoided. He bent his legs to try and dodge again at the same time. "Nnc," he winced. The force from the Titan Punch damaged his legs more than he realized. His eyes slammed shut in the moment he felt the fractures in his shins. Then they opened back up, just in time to see the chunks of earth that he threw in the way of Gray's turned ice fist get blown to bits by the Culverin that only sped up faster. Then, the knuckles of that Titan Punch flashed black, as Gray coated his magical giant fist in Armament Haki.

Malgus rose his lightsaber in front of him and slashed down. He had no stable balance on the torn-up ground though and while standing on wounded legs. He cut into the fist, slicing through Haki and ice, but the speed and size of the fist were too much. The fist did not get split far to either side, and both halves of it still slammed into Malgus just past the hilt of his lightsaber. The Sith's bones cracked on the fist in a dozen places. He gasped, blood splashing out of his mouth. Darth Malgus's feet lifted off the ground. Then, the Sith went flying. A twinkle in the sky far to the west behind enemy lines was all that anyone could tell where he had gone.

Grand Moff Tarkin and Admiral Thrawn each spun to the left and looked out the windows of their bridge. The entire ship shook a second after while the crew of their Star Destroyer were in panic trying to contact Malgus whose comms cut off while none of their cameras could find him. "Sir! We lost him!" The communications officer spun and called up to the Grand Moff.

"The fourth trench is being taken, sir. Our forces on the ground cannot contend with their most elite. Jakku Za Rippa just took four of our positions at once. He's one of their Squad Captains."

"The intruder on board is getting closer to the bridge. Sirs, it may be time for you to evacuate-"

"Lieutenant," Grand Moff Tarkin ordered towards one of his men who was not freaking out or considering evacuation. The woman at the panel off to his left glanced over her shoulder at him. "Drop the shield generators across the fourth trench. All forces, focus fire on the fourth line of defense."

"Sir?" The communications officer leaned back in surprise and horror. Others looked back at Tarkin in utter confusion, while some nodded along and started preparations.

Even Admiral Thrawn glanced sideways at Tarkin for a moment before cracking the smallest of smiles. "I presume even your commandos did not know of this contingency?" Tarkin said nothing in response. Thrawn theorized anyway as Tarkin's trusted lieutenant pulled up the master controls for the shield generators down on the ground. The secret fourth trench that had been unknown even to Moff Gideon had special forces commandos controlled by Tarkin inside, but only the engineers and Tarkin's command staff knew of this function. "Impressive foresight, if I may say so myself," Thrawn admired.

"You may," Tarkin replied. "Drop them," he ordered.

The Sith and Resistance forces in the fourth trench of the battlefield all froze at the same time. The Resistance forces had been doing their best not to destroy the shield generators. The Imperial forces inside those generators also knew not to let them fall, as they had seen what their air support had been doing to the areas of the first three lines where the enemy had taken positions. All along the third trench, shield generators remained up and running, protecting the forces inside them. Even though those positions had been taken by the Resistance, the Star Destroyers above had no power to assault them.

It was that false sense of security that caught the Elite Squads of the Resistance completely off guard. They had taken the fourth line and knew they were in defensible positions. Knov just teleported inside the barrier that Cleo's squad had taken, knowing that he would need a minute to bring Roman through and back to the infirmary. He had that minute, even behind so many of the enemy, because he was inside of a shield generator and fully protected by enemy attack due to that.

Leo and his tiny men waving their arms up in celebration for having taken another position dropped their jaws as the glowing forcefield around them vanished. Grand Moff Tarkin had his methods. Engineers sworn to secrecy. A failsafe in the shield generators that all in their ranks knew could only be deactivated from inside the shields.

Jakku wiped the blood of a dead Sith Lord off his elbow blade and onto his green crop top. The lanky squad captain with an exposed midriff glanced up at the fading light of his shield generator. He looked up, straight at a Star Destroyer up above that had fifty of its lower cannons aimed straight down towards him. Those cannons glowed red.

"Captain!" Jo yelled. She jumped through a portal and appeared on top of Jakku. She threw both hands up in the air and created another portal above her and Jakku's head. She made it larger, and larger, and larger. Her whole body was shaking and her arms creaked as the beams of red light slammed into the ground around them too and obliterated everything. The heat from those explosions was intense, but it was all splash damage as no direct hits connected.

Jakku and Jo were the lucky ones. Leo and Cleo's teams were directly under the fire and most of their comms cut off instantly. "Captain!" Bian screamed. The leader of the Pink Bee Squad sped out of the third line of trenches and screamed, "Evacuation squad! Get them out of there!" Now that all of the enemy fire was targeted across the fourth trench, the faltering forces of the Resistance back in the third line rushed forward.

Gray had taken down Malgus. The fourth trench was falling. Enemy landing craft were abandoned all around that fourth line which meant the Resistance would have vehicles to advance with. No Jedi had fallen against Darth Nihilus in minutes, and they were concocting a plan on how to stop him. Mansherry had even gotten some of their injured back into the fight. In seconds, however, Tarkin's brutal tactic flipped the board.

Many of the Emperor's men were still in those trenches as laser fire rained down upon them. A line of explosions ripped apart the fourth trench without discrimination. Cleo spun towards the closest ally to her and kicked. Formerly agent Texas was the strongest of the freelancers. The robotic woman in black armor kicked full force into Lavernius Tucker's side. The soldier known as Sangheili had just picked up a little green elf too. Cleo's foot lodged in his side and he felt all the pain of it despite his armor. Tucker got launched while holding Elfo close to his chest to try and protect the little guy. Both of them got kicked into the smaller bubble shield that burst to life around Carolina as she punched her fist into the floor, protecting Mayan too who dove in next to her.

"Cleo!" Church yelled. The Epsilon AI appeared on Carolina's right shoulder and yelled out of the bubble shield towards where Cleo's body was just ripped apart. Both Cleo's AI and the AI of Alpha that supported her like Epsilon supported Carolina, suddenly appeared inside of the bubble shield too.

"Ah! Ghosts!" Elfo exclaimed in panic at the sight of the two full-sized AIs in suits of battle armor.

Alpha Church in his white armor and Beta Cleo in her black armor no longer had a body to assist their team with. The two of them just stood as translucent AIs that could have passed for ghosts. "This is not good," Alpha admitted in a shaky voice. It was what Epsilon wanted to say too, but he was too busy groaning as he maintained the power output in Carolina's bubble shield.

"Roman," Mayan whispered.

Carolina looked back and past her gold-plated friend into the bright red explosion just outside her bubble shield. "Knov got him out," Carolina declared firmly.

"No," Mayan replied. He said it in a low voice not just disagreeing for the sake of it. "I saw. They didn't make it. Knov was still there too," Mayan's tone was grim. Everyone in the army knew how important Jo and Knov were to their tactical, operational, and strategic success. Losing one was tantamount to an entire battalion. It was as bad as losing Teru or Fubuki.

Fubuki herself collapsed in no-man's-land between the third trench and where the fourth just got annihilated. She tried stopping the attacks. She only managed to slow a few beams, but the intense pressure was too much and she had to release. She was exhausted as it was. "I'm, sorry," she wheezed out. Teruki, where are you? Fubuki groaned while shifting her hazy vision up towards the lead Star Destroyer.

One of those forcefields where the beam had hesitated above it for just a second thanks to Fubuki's attempt was the one that Metal Bat and many of the later reinforcements had been assaulting. Baddo stared wide-eyed and in fury towards the explosion ahead of him that he had escaped from not of his own doing. Blood spilled down his forehead and got in his eyes, making his vision even redder and to remember a different blood that just flashed in front of his eyes.

"Captain Zapp!" One of the men next to Metal Bat screamed in mourning.

Metal Bat remembered it. In that last second as the beam hovered above their shield-less position, and the Imperial forces screamed, only Zapp Renfro had fast enough reaction time to move. His blood sword had turned into a whip that he swung and wrapped around his comrades with. Zapp even smirked a victorious smirk and screamed out cheerfully and he threw his comrades to the east and out of the blast radius. "Fight-" He yelled, right before a beam of disintegrating light enveloped him.

"Into the cracks!" Leo screamed to his own men as the beam over his trench had also faltered. His fellow dwarves were not as fast as he was, but he saw some of them reacting after his scream and did so himself as the beam pressing against an invisible forcefield of their espers got through. He curled inside the crack in the foundation of the enemy's position damaged by an earlier explosion to make himself even smaller, but the beam still reached him and he screamed in agony, "AHHhhhhh!"

The barrage of lasers from up high was too much. Gray dropped down to one knee while panting from fatigue. Fighting a powerful enemy like Darth Malgus right after all the other Sith he had been fighting was one thing, but seeing his most powerful allies all crushed and going dark like that was beyond disheartening. All the enemy dropships near that fourth trench blew up in a chain of explosions too, giving them no way forward or back. Their last chance, destroyed.

Gray's heart fell in his chest. He was low on MP. His legs felt like jelly. Why are their ships still up there? Teru?

His last hope was the enemy dropships they could commandeer to move on. After that last hope got suddenly extinguished, the new last hope was the sole soldier he battling the enemy starships. The boy who had taken down multiple Star Destroyers on his own so far. Hanazawa Teruki. Yet since he had boarded Thrawn and Tarkin's command ship, it had been radio silence from their esper on board. I need to send Knov or Jo up there to get him out. Whatever mess he's in. I just need one of them to get him out of there. Gray lowered his gaze towards the fourth trench line, wondering if his portal users had managed to save his elite forces and gotten out with their lives. A green-skinned enemy charged screaming towards him. He pushed down hard on his shaky arms, as Malgus's apprentice Darth Karrid was sprinting at him now. Adas had both Tea and Melissa tied up, allowing Karrid to rush in for vengeance for her master.

Reports of the fallen started filling Gray's head. He could hear the shouts from his allies who Leonardo put in his ear. Knov, Stormrage, Brock, Ominae, Kid Cosmic, Hunter, Mav and Goose. We're losing way too many. Forces I can't afford to lose. Too many that I can't expect to take Rivendell with what's left, could I?

That's not necessarily true. The Lord of Elvengard is here on the battlefield, along with most of his forces. If we take down Pre Visla, we'll only have to deal with the stationary defenses in Rivendell. The resistance at the city must be weak. We can defend it too while more reinforcements come. I can push through. Even… even with these losses. As long as I can take that Star Destroyer! Gray created a new ice blade and struggled but covered it in Haki to face Karrid with. I just need to believe in Teru! Whoever he's fighting up there, I need to believe he can do it!

Hanazawa Teruki understood the urgency in his fight. He boarded the enemy command craft with knowledge that taking down the Grand Moff and the fleet's Admiral would change the course of the battle. When he tried to buckle in the walls from the inside though, yellow light flashed on the walls and showed him how the Sith had advanced their shield technology to make it impossible for him to just crumple the ship in from the inside. He also did not know where the source of power for the shield generators was. He knew where the controls would be though. On the bridge.

The Star Destroyers were massive. He'd flown kilometers around hallways of the ship and up through elevator shafts. Blast doors continued to drop down in his way though and then flashed with the same yellow shielding when he tried to break them off. All enemies who got in his way, the blond teenager managed to defeat with relative ease. He was closer now to the bridge. Yet the blast doors that were dropping in his way got more frequent, and when he hacked the control panels next to them and forced them open, (as the boy considered himself a tech genius as well as a powerful esper), he was met by only another short stretch of hallway before the next blast door. That hallway was full of Droidekas and Super Battle Droids, and behind them were Dark Troopers- both mechanical and manned.

Teru swung his arms up and pinned the hallway full of enemies to the ceiling. Those droids that did not break apart right away, aimed their blasters down best they could and fired from the ceiling down towards the boy who crossed his arms and created a barrier around him. The light beams scattered across his forcefield and slammed into the walls around him. "Haa!" He uncrossed his arms and sent the barrier slamming forward into the falling droids and Dark Troopers behind them that he released from the ceiling. The barrier caught most of his enemies, but a few of the Dark Troopers turned on jetpacks at the last second and flew closer to the walls. They were the farthest from Teru in the first place and both least affected by his first attack and farthest from the psychic barrier flying towards them.

Four Dark Troopers fired wrist rockets at the kid who pointed his index and pinky fingers on both hands out at those four rockets. All four erupted in midair, but the rockets had made it far enough from the Dark Troopers first that the explosions did not catch them in the blasts. Two of the enemies came flying through the explosions that were midway between Teru and his foes. He ran forward at the same time though and cut the distance between them, so when the first Dark Trooper was through the smoke, Teru was already jumping up right in front of him and slammed the sole of his left foot into the man's helmet.

Teru swung his left hand across the front of his body and dispersed the rest of the smoke as well as pushing away the beams fired by the two Dark Troopers who stayed farther away. One of the Super Battle Droids he had mostly destroyed in the first raise to the ceiling, self-destructed on his left side. Boom! Teruki crossed his fingers on his right hand and protected himself again, which also protected him from the rocket fist punched from a mechanical Dark Trooper that just ejected its left arm with jets firing out from below its elbow joint.

Hanazawa uncrossed the fingers on his right hand and curled his hand towards himself instead. The force at which he yanked towards him tugged those two farther Dark Troopers across the hallway and tore up the weakened or semi-destroyed droids in between. Then he swung both arms down, and he flattened his remaining enemies to the floor. A few more explosions went off, but Teru had no time to even double check if all of these enemies were really down. They're blocking my comms, but things can't be going well outside. I've spent too much time on this ship!

Teru flew to the panel just outside the next blast door. He was already high up in the ship, and he knew the bridge was not much farther away. "ERrrr ERrrr ERrrr ERRrrr…" Loud alarms blared through the loudspeakers. He had been destroying speakers and cameras all throughout the ship. He did not want the command structure on board to see him coming or to be able to relay information easily to the crew. The ship was massive though. He could not cut it all off.

The lights in his hallway suddenly shut off as he reached the control panel just outside the next set of blast doors. The panel itself did not turn off like the lights though. Just as the shielding on the walls did not cut off either. It's not a loss of power. That was intentional- Teru froze while tapping on the screen and starting to hack in. His eyes darted to the door itself. The blast doors on the ship opened from the middle, a diamond-shaped hole that expanded as the many panels of the thick door opened out to either side, up into the ceiling, and down into the floor. He started turning to the opening in the blast doors that up until now had not opened until he went through the long process of taking over the controls. His mind raced for a reason why they would open on their own this time. Then his mind stopped racing and filled with the one thought of: 'Ow!'

It felt like a train just hit him in the chest. Teru flew backwards off the ground and over all the sparking flaming parts of droids and crumpled bodies of the Dark Trooper elite soldiers whose armor he broke. The hallway was dark, but a red light flashed that Teru saw even in his squinted vision after getting hit so hard in the chest. The boy's body spun around in midair, dodging the double-sided red lightsaber that flew through the air spinning at his back.

As he was mid-twist away from the lightsaber that passed underneath him though, a hand grabbed Teru through his blond hair and curled around his skull. The Sith did not have his lightsaber in hand anymore, but the muscular figure in a thick suit of gray armor was still strong. Savage Opress smashed Teru's face down into the floor of the hallway and broke the floor panels around him. "Hah hah hah," Opress chuckled darkly while with a menacing grin over his face.

The brutish green-skinned Dathomirian with spikes sticking out of his skull and arms had heavy spaulders on his shoulders and a thick breastplate over the rest of his torso. He had thick gloves on his hands below the metal wristbands he worse as well. The brute's right hand curled tighter on Hanazawa's skull and pressed his face firmly into the ground.

Teru gasped in finally after the Force Push to his chest knocked the wind out of him for a second. He still had not breathed even while twisting out of the way of Opress's lightsaber throw. His head struggled to lift up even the slightest amount while his fingers curled into the ground at his sides. Blood trickled out of his nostrils and down his forehead from his hairline. His eyes darted up to the fingertips he saw at the top of his vision, as Opress was curling his large hand down onto Teru's face now too.

Part of Teruki wanted to just throw the Sith off of him. Another more strategic part realized that a Force Pull would not have hit him in the chest like the feeling of a freight train crashing through him. It recalled the door opening first, a door that Opress could not have come through to get behind him that quickly. There was another Sith here.

Clink clink, clank clank, clink-clik-clik… Metal legs tapping on the steel floor sped up as they got closer to this hallway. A red glow came from the hole in the blast doors to the next section of the hallway that also had its lights off. Two distinct red glows. A figure crawled into the room on four metal legs that each had points at the bottoms rather than feet. He looked like a spider, reminiscent of his brother on the other end of the hall. Teru felt cold as he looked towards this red figure with black patterns along his similarly Dathomirian body.

"Who, are you?" Teru groaned, not towards the man holding him down, but to the one whose Force was powerful enough to send him flying. These Sith appearing after so many fights was the last thing he needed. In this last hallway he only had to deal with Dark Troopers as elite forces, but even they slowed him down this time when earlier he just plowed straight through them. The Royal Guards had been the ones really giving him difficulty though. So many red-cloaked soldiers on board the flagship seemed to have special powers that were granted to them by the Sith's technology: armor lock, invisibility, super speed, jetpacks. The Dark Troopers had jetpacks too, but the fight against them only showed Teru how much he was slowing down.

The figure who just entered the room smirked far more maliciously than his brother. The red-skinned Sith tilted his head back and looked down his nose at the enemy fighter who had given the whole ship so much trouble. "You don't know who I am? I thought the Jedi would have told you of their most dangerous enemies. Perhaps, they did not know I was alive. None ever suspect it. I always live, however. ALWAYS! Maul survives."

The creepy Sith darted to his left and started crawling up the wall. His four metal spider legs dug through the steel and helped him crawl upwards, holding in both of his hands double-sided red lightsabers. One was his own, one belonged to his brother who held up his other hand not holding down the esper for his brother to throw back his blade.

Darth Maul did not throw back the lightsaber right away though. His eyes shadowed over even in the darkness only illuminated by the red glow of his lightsabers. "Cut down. Defeated. Betrayed. I return, more powerful than ever before…"

---

4 Months Ago…

Port Royal

"Boo-yah!"

"WOW! That was SUPER! Cy-bro," Franky posed with his arms over his head after the huge blue beam that Cyborg just fired. The beam passed just in front of the two Sith Lords who had to skid to a stop rather than sprint into the beam. It did not kill them, but that was not the point. These were their prisoners. Siths who Timmy Turner had captured because of their affiliation with the Underworld.

Franky smirked menacingly towards the two spooky Sith Lords. He punched a huge metal fist into his other open palm and wondered, "Where do you two think you're going?" He jumped down from the upper section of the Thousand Sunny and onto the grass floor of the main deck. "Without your little lightsabers, the two of you…"

Swoosh

Sllsh-slllsh Darth Maul ignited one end of his lightsaber then spun it around and ignited the other side.

Franky sweatdropped. Cyborg did too. Cyborg dropped down to the main deck next to Franky and kept his arm cannon raised towards the enemies who he fired past just off the port-side on his last shot. Cyborg wondered in an anxious voice, "Who left their weapons next to them? Why is that something that happened? We're not that dumb, are we?"

Count Dooku nor Darth Maul were going to give up their secrets. Dooku was not going to explain how he had used a mind trick to get one of the meager resistance to bring in their weapons to the sleeping quarters they were being held in as a makeshift brig. The two of them had been chained to the wall in there. Seemingly no way to get out. Yet Dooku had their lightsabers brought to them by an unknowing accomplice, and then the two men just waited patiently until a time when neither Timmy Turner nor Monkey D. Luffy nor the Grim Reaper were on board the ship. The epic battle going on outside was the perfect opportunity.

They knew there were still guards on board, but the two had to give it a shot before Turner could return and attempt to garner more information about their organization from them. "I'll take the big one," Maul hissed while starting to circle to his right, giving Franky a murderous glare and swiping his lightsaber down to ignite the grass of the cyborg's "Super" ship. Franky's lips curled into a deep snarl at the sight of that, and Maul smirked in a deadly way after egging him on.

Franky tensed up. The way Maul reacted gave away that the Sith understood the connection between him and the ship. The slash into the deck was meant to get him riled up. "Timmy defeated these guys in a second," Franky started under his breath.

"But we've got no idea how strong they really are," Cyborg agreed. He kept his cannon pointed towards the sterner-looking human male of the two Sith. "Sith Lords. I heard they're real bad news," Cyborg muttered.

Franky's eyes were mechanical. A HUD appeared in his vision that showed him a contact list. "Looks like Aokiji is nearby," Franky started. He rose his voice while saying it, confidence filling the cyborg once again. "Let's get him over here," Franky added, and he called the former Navy Admiral who was one of their strongest allies.

"Not so fast!" Maul swung his right arm at Franky and Force Pushed him back into the wall of the cabin, denting in the wood around the door inside.

"Franky! AHH!" Cyborg screamed out as Force Lightning shot from Dooku's fingers and electrocuted him. The white and blue robot who had brown skin on his non-metallic parts twitched and fell down to his right knee, but he kept his right arm raised and charged up another cannon attack.

"Aokiji. I know the name," Dooku admitted. He glanced towards Maul and watched his more reckless ally charge forward and start slashing at Franky who was more nimble than a large robot like him looked.

Maul slashed down though as Franky rose up his arm and popped open his big pink hands to reveal the space for a rocket to fire out of. "AHHH!" Franky screamed as Maul took off an arm.

The entire Thousand Sunny rocked to the left and a wave splashed up over the side. A beam of light shot into the sky from the sea outside. A huge breath of green dragon fire ignited the buildings and docks on shore. A massive octopus woman with a super-powered trident fighting a Super Saiyan caused the waves to splash back the other way and slam the Thousand Sunny into the dock. All the ship's current inhabitants stumbled around.

Dooku spotted other golden glows flying around the sky over Port Royal. His expression darkened and his eyes narrowed onto Maul's back again as the Dathomirian was steadying himself. Even if Aokiji is busy, I know his strength. I know the strength of those Super Saiyans. And Turner has gotten into your weaker mind and forced out information about our Underworld. Dooku approached behind Maul. "We should escape now, while we have the chance," Dooku started warning him.

He raised a hand and put it on Maul's left shoulder. The more aggressive Sith Lord shrugged it off harshly and stomped towards their downed cybernetic enemies. "Not until I-" Maul started. Swoosh! A red lightsaber slashed through Maul's right side and out his left at the waist. "Again?" Maul gasped out in disbelief, his upper body falling and twisting to the side with his horrified eyes filling with rage back at Dooku.

"If Turner catches us again, I cannot allow your feeble mind to put us at risk," Dooku declared. His voice was cold and calculating, and even the hero and pirate cyborg had to feel bad for the psychotic Sith who was betrayed so suddenly by his partner.

Dooku's show of concern for Maul and the light touch on his shoulder warning him about their need to get out of there, were solely to make Maul think that Dooku cared if Maul escaped with him. Dooku had already made his decision. The Count cut Maul in half and then rose his lightsaber to bring it down. Maul swung both arms towards Dooku. He had already dropped his lightsaber in the shock of being bisected. But he slammed his arms out at Dooku and Force Pushed the Count who crossed his lightsaber to block it but still skid back across the singed grass of the Sunny. The Force Push also sent Maul flying backwards off the edge of the ship. "Ahh-" Maul gasped out, blood pouring out the bottom of his torso.

He fell into the water. The waves were wild above him. The Sith Lord sank down into the sea. He sank deeper and deeper, screaming at the top of his lungs so bubbles shot up to the surface for several seconds, before water filled his lungs…

---

Present

"But I survived!" Maul yelled. "I always survive," he hissed in a victorious and proud tone.

"What are you, talking about?" Hanazawa growled into the dented steel floor under his face. Opress also gave his brother an uneasy look, because Maul did not share the flashback he just had in his own head but instead just shouted nonsense about 'betrayal' and 'lies' and 'I survive!' "Crazy, fucking, Sith," Teru pushed his hands down harder and dragged his knees up from under him too.

Opress lifted his hand holding Teru's head down and then slammed down again. This time though, a space between Teru's broken nose and the hallway floor blocked him. The teenager's face did not get smashed into the ground. A wave of psychic energy shot out of Teru's back too while a white aura surrounded him. Savage Opress got thrown off of the teen but managed to backflip in the air and land ten feet behind him. "Brother! My weapon!"

Maul threw the lightsaber down at Hanazawa while bending his metal legs. He sprang off the ceiling after the first blade while curling back his second, and he used the hand he just threw Opress's blade with to Force Pull Hanazawa towards himself. Teru thought he had another second before dodging or catching the lightsaber. His body was yanked towards the blade though that cut through his psychic barrier better than any of the blasters earlier could.

He had to use his full power to change directions and break away from Maul's Force Pull while also snapping his body backwards so only the front of his armor got slashed by the light blade. When he snapped back though, he also saw an upside-down image of Savage charging at him and catching the hilt of his spinning blade. Teru's feet caught on the body of a battle droid, and the kid who was once a great soccer player kicked up and launched the droid in between him and Maul who had to slash his double-sided lightsaber early to cut it in half. Teru kept flipping after kicking both feet off the ground like that, and he used flight as well to get over Opress's slash and tap down one foot on the green Dathomirian's right wrist. His other foot kicked Opress in the side of the head, and he spun their bodies around in the air with his esper powers to kick Opress towards Maul as Maul was slashing.

Maul cut off the red light of his lightsaber as Opress was about to hit him and get cut by his brother's own blade. Then the light reignited right away, and Maul did not even slow down before slashing down into where Teru started putting his palms down to created a barrier. Too close! "HAA!" Teru screamed out at Maul as the villain slashed his lightsaber into Teru's palms. The teenager crossed his fingers, "BARRIER!" A thick white aura burst out in front of his burning palms that had an aura already but too weak to protect him from Maul. Maul pushed forward harder though into the esper whose own power flickered as he was pushing back.

"What's wrong?" Maul wondered, his head cocking to the side and his body leaning forward farther. The white aura of Teru's barrier got pushed back into him and was stretching the skin of his face back to the sides like wind of a tornado slamming into him. Maul pressed the Force into the barrier and ripped pieces of it off wildly. Not one strong push, but like the Force was in the shape of claws that dug into Teru's power and ripped it away piece by piece. Teru's legs were shaking and his body bending backwards, his knees starting to creak and bend as Maul pushed his lightsaber harder and harder forward.

Opress got back up. The brutish figure slammed forward both of his palms, adding Force into the attack and making Teru skid all the way back down the hallway away from Maul who snarled as it happened. Maul's head shifted sideways and his glowing yellow eyes bored holes into Opress's skull. Opress and Teru both realized in that second that Maul believed he was only a moment away from carving through the esper's defenses so that he could cut him to pieces. "Apologies, my brother," Opress started back forward and marched up onto Maul's right side. "I will follow your lead," Opress assured him.

Maul smirked again and refaced his enemy who was panting heavily and looked worn out. Hanazawa did not like the look of this. Neither of his opponents had broken a sweat, and he was not recovering fast enough. Nor were they going to give him any time to recover either. He was so close. The bridge was just up ahead. These two Sith, maybe a few more Royal Guards and Dark Troopers, and he could take out the entire enemy command… "Take him. Now," Maul hissed, and he and his brother shot forward with Force Sprints that quickly closed the gap between them and the teenager.

"Damn it!"

Back on the ground, Gray dove to his right side and just barely dodged a bolt of lightning Karrid fired at him. I moved Knov's protector when Kid went down. Jakku was needed for her, but Knov needed a new guard. I should've had a backup! Gray backflipped off his palms and then flipped away again to dodge a wave of Force Push he saw coming with Observational Haki.

"Alleria! NO!" Gray's heart panged with grief and regret again. He heard Vereesa's voice that Leonardo put into his headset to make sure that he heard it. The communications' officer did not give him any suggestions, but Watch was starting to freak out himself back near the infirmary that was overfilling with wounded now. Elves started pulling back as Alleria went down. Clonetroopers were making no progress forward, and those who did charge into the space between trenches were pulling back now.

Jo and Jakku appeared out of a portal inside the infirmary, and Watch reported to his General how the two were still alive, only for Jo to collapse as soon as she got back there. "Dandelixers. Now!" Jakku yelled down at the little blonde fairy who was sobbing her eyes out already as the dead comrades came pouring in.

Where is the hole? Gray desperately looked around. Melissa and Tea were on the retreat as speedy enemy landing craft fired on her Arm Slave. He did not see Lord Adas over there, but he had not heard word that the enemy had been defeated either. Gray swung his sword of ice at Karrid and sent a flying slash at her, but it was weak enough that the Sith woman was able to cut through the visible slash of air using her lightsaber. Where do I go?! Gray fought distracted. He was at the front of his forces, only behind the survivors in the fourth trench who he doubted numbered very high.

The bombardment had stopped for the moment, and he could only silently thank the sole fighter pilot up above and the Pokémon trainers who flew up there and saved Rawlings as he was about to get shot down. Rawlings had fired along the bottom of one of the Star Destroyed and blown up all its turrets, and the rest of the Sith fleet put back some of their power into their shields as the sky was not as fully-controlled as they had thought. "Hell yeah! Now get out of there, Captain Rawlings!" Steven Hiller yelled into his mic, and the Captain obliged. Staying above the battlefield here would get him shot down in a second after he took everyone's attention onto himself. He sped off with a dozen Sith fighters chasing after him and little support to speak of.

Fubuki managed to rip a wing each off of two of the chasing fighters. The ones she damaged spun out into others too, knocking out 5 of the enemy aircraft at once. She felt weakened and low on psychic power, but she targeted only the joints between the central cockpit and the outer wings. A more targeted attack than just creating giant shields for their army.

Clank clank clank clank

A wall of Terminators marched through the fire on different sections of the trench that had just been blown apart. More enemy landing ships dropped down where the previous ones just exploded. Fresh Sith troops emerged. New Sith Lords. Dark Troopers and even more Terminators. Enemies who would all take more than a blaster shot or two to take down.

A chill shot down Gray's spine and nearly made him flinch too hard that Karrid could strike him down. Fortunately, Darth Karrid actually did flinch, and that gave Gray the opportunity he needed, charging in at that moment and slashing as hard as he could muster with his ice blade. Gray let go of his sword and threw it at the woman who cut through his slash but then got hit by the ice blade and knocked backwards, her arms swinging out and her teeth clenching in pain. Her eyes shot open wide, as Gray had released his blade only to sharpen his left arm from an ice arm into an ice sword. He swung forward before she could recover her balance or get her footing to leap away, and he planted his left sword-arm of ice straight through her chest.

Then Gray turned. He suspected what the source of that evil chill was, but he was still not ready for it when he saw the horrific sight behind him. Darth Nihilus had been held at bay by circling Jedi who assisted Cal Kestis in his 1v1 against the dark lord. Qui-Gon and Yaddle coordinated the assistance from the other Jedi who leapt in and knocked around Nihilus by pushing and pulling him, even making it so the monstrous shadow of a Sith Lord got cut through his "right arm" during the fight. Inside of Nihilus's armor though, there was no man. The blood the Jedi hoped to see did not splash out. Darkness spilled out of his cloak where Cal had cut through, and even the enraged and powerful Jedi faltered at the feeling that came from his growling opponent who was more shadow than man.

Serra Keto ran forward and crossed in front of Cal with her apprentice just behind her. Yazmina had fallen and had blood all over her face, but she was awake again and full of energy despite her cracked ribs. The dandelixer Mansherry gave her had not healed her wounds, but she had a few minutes of extra energy where she could keep fighting.

Serra had to break off from her fight against Ventress despite having the assassin on the ropes. Master Yaddle had called all of the Jedi on the battlefield to join the fight against Nihilus, and they finally had him on the back foot too! She darted a nervous look towards Yaz though while right in front of Nihilus. A cold sweat broke out on Serra's face. Her whole body trembled. A brief instant of concern for her apprentice turned into a full-on meltdown in a second, and Serra fully spun away from Nihilus and dropped her lightsaber while standing only a foot in front of him. "Yaz!" She screamed, as a horrifying image flashed through her mind of Darth Nihilus splitting her apprentice in half vertically. The shadow surrounding her overwhelmed her senses.

Serra pushed her palms towards Yaz and sent the teenage girl flying… right before Nihilus's lightsaber sliced through her neck and removed it from atop her shoulders.

Cal had hesitated. He heard Yaz scream in horror and agony as she hit the ground and rolled away. His face paled whiter still, as he knew what his own fear meant. Master, Cal thought. The fear he felt subsided. It was about to take him. He could feel his own soul tugging at his chest, and in his head he could picture it ripping out like he saw done to so many of his comrades thus far. Cal remembered Order 66. He remembered master Jaro Tapal taking the blaster shots meant for him, and dying in his arms in the escape pod. He recalled his second master, Cere, ending in much the same way. Then he recalled both of them falling again right before his eyes in the Second War of the Gods. "I will not fail again," Cal declared. "I have kept fighting, all for this moment!"

Cal charged. "Wait!" Qui-Gon yelled at the rash but powerful Jedi who curled one hand at Nihilus and made the Sith's body look to vibrate and freeze in place. Cal leapt up high and changed his Force usage from freezing Nihilus into pushing him down towards the ground. Nihilus's knees bent, and a crater blew apart the earth below him, but he did not fall.

"Help Cal!" Tiplar yelled. She pushed towards Nihilus, and her allies all did the same around her.

Cal dropped down and slashed at Nihilus who managed to bring his red lightsaber up and block even with all the Force Pushes slamming into him and trying to keep his arms dragged down. The Planet Eater's skull mask looked horrifying, but Cal snarled down into it, "I swore to my masters that I would bring Light back to this world." Nihilus attempted again to suck the Force out of Cal, but Cal resisted and just pushed down even harder.

"Grrrr… GRR!" Nihilus's guttural voice let out a fierce snarl, and a wave of Force pulsed out of him and sent Cal flying back up in the air. All the Jedi encircling him stumbled back too or crossed their arms from the power that slammed into them. Many of them tried to get back to using the Force on Nihilus themselves, but something changed as they did. The dark figure was shrouded in a black veil. When they Force Pushed at him, they felt the Force attack weaken instantly.

"Hold on," Yaddle whispered as she tried to do the same but realized what was happening when her own life force started sucking away. "Everyone stop!" She exclaimed.

"Stop!" Qui-Gon similarly warned his allies.

Not all of them were fast enough or listened when their fellow masters warned them. A few were too scared to stop, knowing that Nihilus could charge at them if they did not keep pushing him away. Nihilus was not getting pushed though. The Force was colliding with him, and it was getting absorbed. Not from the source this time but just from the attacks. Nihilus was taking it in.

Cal flipped around in the sky above where Nihilus just sent him flying, and the Jedi's jetpack turned on to rocket him back down three times as fast as he would have fallen otherwise. Cal fired a rocket from the top of his jetpack, and he Force Pushed down into the ground in front of Nihilus first. The young Jedi knight spiraled around in his dive and pointed his blue lightsaber out in front of him. He looked like a drill-

A shadow five times the size of Darth Nihilus pulsed out of him and looked down at the falling Jedi who stopped spinning around and just fell with his head rising up in shock. Nihilus absorbed so much Force in such a short time that he created an illusion that would be difficult for even Naga Shadow to match at full strength. A dark arm reached out from the "illusion," and the Jedi were met with the harsh reality that this was not just a scary visage of a giant Darth Nihilus. His form was very much real. The dark arm he reached out, the very arm that Cal had cut off before only for this shadowy appendage to expel from his armor instead, passed through him.

A bright white light flashed in the middle of Cal's chest. Nihilus's arm even hesitated. Despite his size. Despite his power. Nihilus's arm trembled, and then it kept passing through. The Force was ripped out of Cal Kestis and left him lifeless. His corpse dropped out of the air and hit the ground hard. A ragdoll devoid of life. Nihilus absorbed the Force he stole from the powerful Jedi. Then, the dark monster's body shrank back down to a normal size.

No one was fooled. He was his normal size again, but Nihilus's power had never felt so malevolent, so heinously powerful. Cal had an amazing duel. He was a powerful Force user and a great lightsaber duelist. Against the force of nature that was Darth Nihilus however, the Jedi fell short.

Gray saw this when he looked back after defeating Darth Karrid. Serra and Cal's bodies were not the only Jedi corpses he saw. So many of them littered the battlefield near Darth Nihilus, and even more were about to join. He saw it coming. The Jedi saw it coming. All of them seeing it coming only made it come faster, as their dread fueled the evil Sith who drank in the dark emotions from Jedi whose comrades begged them not to lose hope or lose their Jedi teachings.

"Fear leads to the dark side!"

"Don't succumb!"

"Sister!" Tiplee screamed out.

Her anger, despair, fear, it was so real. They could feel it in the air. "Not again," Tiplee begged. The Jedi Master was held back by her friend Qui-Gon though, preventing her from rushing to a foolish death… and forcing her to watch as her green Mikkian twin sister get the Force ripped out of her body.

Gray locked eyes with Master Yaddle. Her face was grim. She had not given up hope, and she yelled out commands to her followers to keep up the fight, but he saw the guilt on her little green face. Was she wrong? Gray wondered. Was I, to think that the Jedi we brought would be enough for the monster she described?

Gray's eyes shifted elsewhere not far from the battle against Nihilus but not close enough to make an impact either. Or were we right? Gray thought while rage filled him momentarily. Guilt and regret, and sadness, flashed through his heart as well. If I had just killed Stan, then perhaps Ahsoka Tano would have defeated that other Sith she's facing right now and have been able to assist. She could have helped Cal. She's one of the strongest Jedi to ever live! And I let her be distracted, because I couldn't cut down… a child. A Sith! A Sith kid.

Ven Zallow, Aryn Leener, Foul… so many. Everyone. I've killed many Sith myself, but I can't keep this up. I'm dry. My mana is out. I can barely keep going, and even if I get back to Mansherry, I'll only be able to stay up for another ten minutes longer. If she's really gotten that strong and isn't boasting. What do I do? Alleria. Cal. Adding to the list of those who were already dead two minutes ago? I… I haven't heard anything from Teru. I have to assume he's dead. With him, goes all hope of reaching Rivendell.

The hope that Gray was desperately grasping onto faltered. He showed his faith in their plan through all of the mishaps. Every time something went wrong, he just kept fighting as if it were no big deal. It was the only way to make his men believe that they could still do this. Yet now, that hope he had, hope which cracks had already started to form in and spread, finally shattered. Gray's eyes bulged that he just stood there and watched Tiplar die, for nothing. They were fighting a losing battle with no hope.

Their landing ships were disabled though. Barely any remained functioning due to the fleet above targeting them. Tarkin wanted no survivors. The Resistance had to be shown the folly of attacking the Emperor. The straws Gray wanted to grasp at were out of reach. No portals. Weakened or missing espers. The MPC recharging. His whole command structure broken down. Elite squads were down members and the captains were wounded. "Retreat," the word whispered out his lips.

Leonardo Watch's glowing eyes bulged and snapped straight ahead. He was not sure he heard correctly- "Pull back! Withdraw. Leonardo, relay all of this! Fighting withdrawal. Retreat, but do so in an orderly manner!" Gray declared. He tried to keep his voice strong for his men's sake so they would not panic. But he was crestfallen. So many had died. Brock had died. For what? To gain nothing? To lose? He was okay with a loss?! He had to be. Fight another day. His eyes clenched tightly shut for a second, but the General of the Resistance army screamed out, "Fall back!"

I need to help my forces evacuate. "Leonardo, call in for emergency evac. All forces, pull back to the third trench, and then keep going to the cruiser's wreckage! Infirmary, break it down and get out of here!" Gray curled his elbows in at his sides and yelled out in fury. Ice armor wrapped around him, even though he thought a moment ago that he was fully empty of MP. If I can help just one more of my forces get away, I'll do it. To make up for my failure. I'll give my life on this battlefield.

---

A/N Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed. Darth Maul was last seen at the very start of Nexus, the original, when he and Dooku showed up for the rebellion meeting against the NEG but were discovered by Timmy Turner. We never actually saw how they escaped or how Franky lost an arm there before the assault on Castle Oblivion, but Maul survives being cut down by Dooku... like Maul always survives XD. He stops Teru before the esper can make it to the bridge to take down Sith command, while Tarkin's last resort effort cutting his fourth trench's shield generators wipes out most of Gray's assault force. Darth Nihilus has always been my favorite Sith Lord, him and Darth Bane, so using Nihilus here as the Sith's secret weapon was a fun thing to write. A lot of bodies falling across the battlefield, but finally Gray gives the order to retreat as he no longer sees a path forward. The next chapter is called Apprentice, so look forward to that one! I hope to get it out much sooner than the 11 months it took me to finish this one lol. Thanks again everyone for reading this through the years. I've been writing it since high school, and I hope to publish many more chapters yet. Enjoy!