Spectre: Here it is people! My early Christmas present! Honestly, I was planning to release this on the 25th here in the Philippines, but since many are gonna be busy with all family gatherings and whatnot, I decided to go along with it to show my gratitude for all your support!

This has got to be the hardest chapter I've ever made, since I have to use two devices to make it which is a phone and a laptop. Also mixed both movie and novel to give it a more defined scenario in one of the most iconic if not THE iconic moment in Star Wars! Without further Ado, let's begin!

Chapter 40: Battle of Heroes

As fast as a blue lightning bolt, Obi-Wan concentrated all his focus onto his form, parrying each of the Sith's furious flurry of strikes in each moment as he backed away carefully by Anakin's opening offensive. Every move that his former apprentice made came from ferocity, aggression and skill that was met by the grace, serenity and focus amidst the infernal abyss that shrouded the planet's surface. Each opening that could be exploited by the fallen Jedi was quickly closed by the Master's unbreakable defense. However, a kick from Lord Vader sent Kenobi flying from a small distance, but he quickly regained his bearings as he parried another vicious strike from the fallen Jedi.

All those who are present in the Council Chamber were astounded, and even impressed on the ferocity and speed that the two former Master and Apprentice had displayed. Nothing from what they had witnessed from their sparring sessions could compare to the finesse and concentration that defined their way of dueling.

"Incredible...", Master Fisto marvelled at the spectacle before him, trying to keep up with the movements of the two's lightsabers. Not even he could match up against either the of two. "Master Kenobi's form is keeping up with Skywalker's aggressive, yet very fast finesse fighting style"

"I have never seen duels reaching the likes of what we see here", Mundi said, equally astonished as the rest of the Jedi present. "Not even Count Dooku or Jedi who came before them have displayed the same vigor as they have here"

"Master Kenobi was the most familiar on how Skywalker fought, given their previous practices and challenges over the years", Windu voiced out his observation, noting that the fallen Jedi's fighting style was most likely ingrained by the power of the Dark Side, which was shielded by Kenobi's faith with the light. "As such, only he had the capacity to fight Skywalker in even terms, unlike many who tried and failed within the Temple"

"Master Kenobi's use of Soresu proved to be a wise counter from Skywalker's use of Djem So", Saesee Tiin added. "In addition to memorizing the patterns on how they fought one another during their sparring sessions"

Anakin couldn't comprehend what he was trying to look at here. He wanted Obi-Wan to win no matter what, but would he ever bare see and let his Master go through the pain of needing to finish him off? He felt that each strike were the faults and bouts of anger that he bottled up for all his years as a Jedi and as a General for the Republic. Every move that his fallen future made were like each blaster bolt targeting him from within.

For Obi-Wan, every parry he made was how many times he wanted to deny that his brother and apprentice have fallen. As well as the many wrong decisions and flaws that he and the Jedi were made to their own kind, that led him to this. Every memory of friendship and brotherhood kept flashing before him like a phantom in the dark, where Anakin's charismatic and passionate smiles during their sessions in the past were replaced by the endless rage personified in the near future.

Padme held her chest, painfully struggling of accepting what Anakin had become. All that she knew at him was the kind-hearted man who looked out for his friends, vowing to protect everyone he cared for no matter what. Her Anakin in the present and the Anakin on the screen before her, do not share the same qualities she had known. A part of her knew that Obi-Wan must stop Anakin for what he had become, but at the same time. She did not want to see him harmed in any way; deep within the Dark Lord he had become, a fragment of the Jedi Knight she loved, is still within. Trapped by his own desire to save everyone he had cared about.

Ahsoka watched in anguish as she witnessed the two closest familial figures she ever had, fought to end the other. They were not just her superiors, but they were the family that she never had alongside with the friends she made in the 501st legion. And every time she witnessed the two drawing their lightsabers, they were always meant to be for sparring with playful banter that sometimes ended with one helped up the other. But she never thought that it would end this way, not when they always had the closest bond that was a rarity within the Jedi Order. As for Rex, he watched the very man he gave both his life and loyalty, fought the man of whom he had the greatest respect for, for all their experiences with one another. Even he could not imagine the two raising their blades against one another.

Blade-to-blade, they were identical. After thousands of hours in lightsaber sparring, they knew each other better than brothers; they were complementary halves of a single warrior. In every exchange, Obi-Wan gave ground. It was his way. And he knew that to strike Anakin down would burn his own heart to ash. Carefully and skillfully, Kenobi parried every single strike landed onto him, not minding that the two are slowly making their way from the fiery balconies inside the Separatist Control Room. Realizing they are inches with one another, Obi-Wan restrained an arm belonging to the fallen Jedi, where he raised his blade for an impending strike, only to be parried by Vader at the last moment. Returning back to their form, sparks engulfed the corridor entrance as their lightsabers collided with their walls at each strike and parry that persisted along the way.

"This is nothing like the fight that we had witnessed back at the Death Star", Depa spoke out in sheer fascination of the speed and precision that the two displayed before her. "Both of them are in their prime at this stage"

The memory of Anakin, who was now the mechanical monster, Darth Vader of the Galactic Empire striking down Obi-Wan Kenobi came flashing before them. Vader had displayed both brute force and sheer power compared to the finesse and speed that Skywalker possessed against Kenobi at Mustafar.

But still, every second of the footage felt like hours to those who knew the two very well. And they could not tell if they are still willing to see through all of this.

There came a turning point in the clash of the light against the dark. It did not come from a flash of lightning or slash of energy blade, though there were these in plenty; it did not come from a flying kick or a surgically precise punch, though these were traded, too.

From a distance, two lightning bolts blitzed one another; one green and one red. Darth Sidious and Master Yoda, the embodiments of dark and light respectively fought for the ultimate fate of the galaxy at hand. Landing at the Chancellor's podium, their exchange of strikes caused it to activate, and the dome leading up to the Senate Chamber was opened, where all the seats lay empty. Even without the physical presence of the Senate, it was dead in all but name, with the power of the state had been vested to one man; the Emperor himself.

Padme could only look helplessly at the very symbolism she was looking at. Democracy was dead, replaced by the authoritarian Imperial regime that was forged from the man who manipulated the very institution she defended vigorously, for his own ends.

"It is just as ferocious as their apprentices", Luminara uttered out in complete astonishment of the fight between the leaders of both the Jedi and the Sith. "And yet it differs in so many ways, as the Masters"

"The Sith have hidden for far too long in order for them to strengthen and adapt", Plo Koon spoke out in a hollow tone, slowly beginning to to realize what had become of the two orders. "While we remained rigid for the years we believed them to be extinct"

Sidious' offensive was halted however, and Yoda forced him into a blade-lock. The Sith Lord struggled, to break the parry between them, though partially succeeding as the Grandmaster's speed and agility made him a very difficult opponent to kill, despite Palpatine's own.

"Master Yoda is out-dueling the Emperor!", Kit Fisto called out, realizing the Grandmaster's growing advantage against the Sith. "Sidious is beginning to struggle against him!"

"Confident, you must not be", Yoda advised the Nautolan Master. For all his wisdom and skill, he knew that Palpatine had plenty of tricks under his sleeve. "Settled through the lightsaber, this is not"

It came as the battle shifted from the holding office to the great Chancellor's Podium; it came as the hydraulic lift beneath the Podium raised it on its tower of durasteel a hundred meters and more, so that it became a laserpoint of battle flaring at the focus of the vast emptiness of the Senate Arena; it came as the Force and the podium's controls ripped delegation pods free of the curving walls and made of them hammers, battering rams, catapult stones crashing and crushing against each other in a rolling thunder-roar that echoed the Senate's cheers for the galaxy's new Emperor.

Landing in one of the Senate's Repulsorpods, Yoda had looked up to find Palpatine cackling as he levitated two Repulsorpods through the Force, before hurling it to the Jedi Grandmaster. Dodging the two pods, Yoda jumped towards another as they collided with the others. However, to his dismay, Yoda looked up to see another four being levitated and subsequently hurled against him.

"Of course, Palpatine would use another method instead...", Anakin angrily uttered out against the Sith Lord, desperately hoping that Master Yoda would still succeed.

However, Yoda did not carry any sort of enthusiasm as he began to slowly realize something. He was never meant to win against Sidious. It came when the avatar of light resolved into the lineage of the Jedi; when the lineage of the Jedi refined into one single Jedi. It came when Yoda found himself alone against the dark. In that lightning-speared tornado of feet and fists and blades and bashing machines, his vision finally pierced the darkness that had clouded the Force.

Yoda had seen the truth.

This truth: that he, the avatar of light, Supreme Master of the Jedi Order, the fiercest, most implacable, most devastatingly powerful foe the darkness had ever known... just-didn't—have it.

He'd never had it. He had lost before he started. He had lost before he was born.

The Sith had changed. The Sith had grown, had adapted, had invested a thousand years' intensive study into every aspect of not only the Force but Jedi lore itself, in preparation for exactly this day. The Sith had remade themselves.

They had become new.

While the Jedi—The Jedi had spent that same millennium training to refight the last war.

The new Sith could not be destroyed with a lightsaber; they could not be burned away by any torch of the Force. The brighter his light, the darker their shadow. How could one win a war against the dark, when war itself had become the dark's own weapon?

He knew, at that instant, that this insight held the hope of the galaxy. But if he fell here, that hope would die with him. That hope being Luke Skywalker himself.

Maul looked up when two clones rounded the corner and raised their rifles. Raising his arms, Maul started choking the both of them, raising them into the air as he strangled them to death.

Rex bristled at the fact that, these two were shinies to begin with. Their lack of experience in the field made them easy targets for the Zabrak Crime Lord.

Leaving one corpse to fall to the ground, Maul continued levitating the surviving clone until he made it to his destination, the hyperdrive core. Once the door opened, he tossed his passenger towards a clone guard stationed on the catwalk, sending both of them tumbling over the sides to their deaths.

When the other Clones noticed him and started shooting, Maul sprinted forwards and used the force to blow his way past them, leaving death in his wake. When a clone tried sniping him from above, he waved his hand once and forcibly redirected his aim to shoot down his comrades instead before ripping him off his perch and letting him fall.

"For someone who relies on the Force rather than the lightsaber, Maul had proven himself to be a formidable foe forged by Sidious", Luminara reluctantly commented on the Sith's tenacity in surviving against troopers bred for war.

After clearing out all hostiles in the area with him, Maul's insane grin widened as he got to work. All around him, machinery sparked and screeched as the force tore them from their housings. Alarms blared and smoke began filling the air as Maul systematically demolished the hyperdrive generators.

"This is bad...", Caleb uttered in fear, knowing what Maul had done to the ship where Ahsoka and Commander Rex were stationed. "At this rate, the ship is not going to last long"

"He would use this to his advantage to escape Sidious' clutches", Depa agreed with her apprentice. "At the cost of everyone aboard"

When more clones arrived, drawn by the alarms and damage, Maul brought his arms down, dealing a fatal blow to the generators and dropping them right on top of the clones, crushing several and sending the rest falling into the abyss when the catwalk gave out.

Explosions rocked the ship as the Venator was instantly pulled out of hyperspace. The destruction of the hyperdrive and the sudden forced exit was causing the damage to cascade through multiple subsystems of the stricken ship. The engines would tear themselves to pieces soon enough and the ship would be dead in the water, perfect time to find a way off the sinking boat.

"They were waiting for us." Rex exhaled as he watched his brethren form up in front of the shuttle. Anyone trying to get to the ship would have to go through them first.

Jesse..., Rex, Anakin and Ahsoka mournfully thought for the ever open-minded Clone trooper. Desperately, they hoped that Jesse could still be convinced despite the chip inside his brain.

ARC Trooper Jesse stood in front of the legion, waiting. Rex exhaled softly and closed his eyes, of course he'd be there ready for them. It just wouldn't be him if he wasn't.

"Oh no…" Obi-Wan closed his eyes with a small sigh.

"So what do we do? Fight our way to the shuttle!?" Rex asked, a note of panic seeping into his voice.

"There are too many." Ahsoka said after a pause.

"Besides, I don't wanna hurt them."

"…I hate to tell you this, but they don't care! This ship is going down, and those soldiers, my brothers! Are willing to die to take you and I along with them!" Rex started raising his voice and waved his hand towards the army outside angrily.

All the Jedi who fought alongside with their Clone troopers for years could not help but grimace their ultimate fate. They were not droids that are programmed, the very beings they had fought for years. They were human, and even if they all shared the same face, their personalities and friendships are what made them unique to one another.

Anakin and Ahsoka had always thought of Rex and the 501st were not just brothers-in-arms, but are brothers in all but blood.

Plo Koon looked at the 104th as the closest people he could call as sons.

Shaak Ti watched over with both pride and joy as they grew up to defend the Republic from any threat, as well as giving them motivations to succeed, akin to that or a maternal bond by itself.

Obi-Wan saw Cody and the 212th as the group that he could always count on. Shared more than a few good memories with them even.

Then his stance slackened and his shoulders slumped, looking away from Ahsoka as though ashamed by his own outburst. He didn't resist when Ahsoka reached up and removed his helmet. Rex wasn't able to meet her eyes as angry tears continued streaming down his face.

At the same time, Rex's eyes began to water and it wasn't long before he began to shed tears, realizing what he was truly made for. "My life...and that of my brothers...were all a lie...", he choked in realization.

He felt two arms circling behind him, as Ahsoka embraced him in an attempt to console him of the terrible revelation before them. "The Chancellor may have done so...but the friends that you made weren't...",

"It's killing him inside to have to fight his brothers." Padme said in a low tone

"As is ours, Senator...", Plo Koon added.

"You're a good soldier, Rex." Ahsoka said as she placed a hand on his shoulder.

"So is everyone of those men down there. They may be willing to die, but I am not the one who is going to kill them."

A moment of silenced passed between them before Rex spoke again. "So we're just going to surrender? Admit defeat? Is that it?"

"No." Ahsoka said.

"Well I don't see any other option." Rex lowered his head.

Ahsoka stared out at the army lying in wait for them as the gears in her mind churned. Slowly a plan began to take shape, it was a long shot but far better than a suicidal charge or just waiting to die in the crash. "I have an idea."

Amidst the bodies of the murdered Separatist leaders, their blades struck one another within the bunker, which allowed the fallen Jedi to force the Master into a bladelock with one another, to which Skywalker forced their sapphire blades into one of the control panels. What Kenobi did not expect, was a hand gripping down his throat and threatening to break it entirely.

"Obi-Wan!", Anakin cried out for his master, watching both in fear and anguish on what he witnessed before him.

Several times he had gripped so many in sheer agony throughout the war, but the thought of his Master being one of them never crossed his mind. It was clear that the rest were immediately distressed at the sight of Master Kenobi being held by the ropes. Any wrong move would mean a fatal one at that.

Anakin sneered as he slowly tried to force his former Master's own blade down to his throat. But this attempt was foiled when a hard kick struck his back, forcing the fallen to let go of him. As Kenobi tried to regain his focus, he felt a kick struck his abdomen.

Getting up, Obi-Wan forced Anakin to the table by kicking him by legs. Reaching out to the Force, Obi-Wan retrieved his lightsaber as he prepared to strike down his former apprentice.

Ahsoka's eyes widened in horror as she tried to calm down Padme, trying her best to make sure that she was still in both her physical and mental capacity because of her ongoing pregnancy that could escalate way further than expected. "Anakin!", she cried out for him.

Reacting quickly, Anakin reached out for his lightsaber where he parried the incoming blade in time.

"Sir, we think Maul might be headed your way." Jesse's communicator pinged as one of the clones tracking the Sith's rampage through the ship gave his best estimate of Maul's destination based on the units he was butchering along the way.

Before Jesse could reply, a loud shout rang out in the hangar. "HOLD YOUR FIRE!"

He looked up and saw a captured Ahsoka being escorted towards them at gunpoint by Rex.

"Wait, since Commander Rex outranked all of them, then he could convince them right?", Caleb asked in a hopeful tone.

Saesee Tiin shook his head. "That could be a problem by itself, if we are going to refer to what Commander Rex told his men before they started the search for Padawan Tano. I do not think rank would matter as long as the orders are executed"

Everyone, particularly to those who were close to their respective battalions, were horrified at the lengths they would go just to fulfill the Sith Lord's orders, not even caring for the well-being to the comrades they refer to as brothers.

"Hang on, we have Tano and the Commander. Send all remaining troops to my position." Jesse said into his communicator as the Clones raised their weapons and took aim at the new arrivals.

"I said hold your fire Jesse! I have the situation under control." Rex ordered.

"You have your orders sir, now execute it or I will." Jesse urged him but held fire for the moment, allowing Ahsoka and Rex to close in.

"The order was to execute the Jedi for treason against the Republic. The problem is, Ahsoka Tano is no longer a Jedi, hasn't been for some time." Rex argued back, keeping the clones' attention on them while Ahsoka's droids snuck past to carry out their tasks.

Anakin and Obi-Wan were hoping that at least logic would have been enough for Jesse and the other half of the 501st to be convinced, but one could not express his hopes, as he analyzed the situation more thoroughly. "Left the order, she may have. In all but in name, a Jedi she is", Yoda professed for the former Padawan.

"Considering how Sidious first contacted Commander Cody, it would make sense that he wanted to go after to those Anakin was closest, and that includes Padawan Tano", Kit Fisto supported Master Yoda's claim.

The ARC Trooper was silent for a moment, before he continued. "…Sir, you said yourself. We're under special orders from Darth Sidious to eliminate Ahsoka Tano and any other clone who disobeys Order 66." Jesse parroted the orders that the Commander himself had given.

"Just keep him talking a little bit longer." Ahsoka whispered as her droids still needed more time.

"Jesse! Jesse, listen to me, we've known each other a long time, if we don't get this right, we'll be the ones committing treason! Not her!" Rex yelled back at Jesse.

The ARC Trooper fell silent, but not before raising his pistols again.

Rex's face fell in a grimace but that was always how it was going, with the inhibitor chip inside them, there was no way Jesse would be able to disobey Order 66.

"Commander Rex, you're in violation of Order 66. I accuse you of treason against the Grand Army of the Republic. You'll be demoted in rank from commander and subject to execution along with the traitor Ahsoka Tano!" Jesse's words cut deep into Rex, it hurt more than any physical injury he'd every sustained in his life.

The Clone Commander looked away in sheer regret, seeing himself as helpless in helping his own brothers within the 501st.

"Ready." Ahsoka whispered as she saw the signal from her droids that they were good to go.

"Yeah well, I never much liked being a Commander anyway." Rex replied

"Now!" Ahsoka started moving the instant her droids dropped the lift platforms the clones were inadvertently standing on. The bulk of his troops fell to the fighter storage deck below, leaving a greatly diminished opposition force for Rex and Ahsoka to deal with. When Jesse turned to see what happened to his men, Ahsoka force pushed Jesse over the edge to join the rest down below.

While the clones were reeling from the surprise attack, Rex tossed Ahsoka's lightsabers over and started blasting immediately, stunning the closest troops. Ahsoka herself began deflecting incoming fire and slicing apart the blasters of nearby clones.

Landing on one of the Repulsorpods, Sidious frantically looked around for the Grandmaster, until a small silhouette jumped towards the pod where he was in, where Yoda re-ignited his emerald blade. Acting quickly, Sidious extended his hands to conjure a burst of lightning, knocking Yoda's lightsaber out of the way, as it fell to the ground below them.

"This is not good...", Master Mundi uttered for the Grandmaster as he realized the extent of their entire duel. "At this rate, Master Yoda will have to rely only to the Force instead"

"But isn't Master Yoda more powerful than Sidious since Master Windu could defeat him?" Padme asked, alarmed for the elderly green midget in the audience.

However, Yoda shook his head, to the bewilderment and concern to everyone inside the Chamber. "Evolved, the Sith had. Stagnated, the Jedi have been. Aspects of the Force and of the Order, they have mastered. Our undoing, our ignorance had been"

The shadow unleashed its lightning while the creature was still in the air, and the little green freak took its full power. The shock blasted him backward to crash against the podium, and he fell.

He fell a long base of the Arena was a hundred meters below, littered with twisted scraps and jags of metal from the pods destroyed in the battle, and as the little green freak fell, finally, above, the victorious shadow became once again only Palpatine: a very old, very tired man, gasping for air as he leaned on the pod's rail.

Everyone inside the Chamber couldn't believe their eyes. Yoda had failed? This has to be a cruel nightmare that they could not wake up despite their attempts. The Sith has grown more powerful in the period they had hidden under the shadows. But they never thought that the Grandmaster himself is unable to prevent the Sith from rising again, as they had always seen him as the most powerful Jedi they had known for decades.

"Master Yoda...lost?", Anakin spoke first, almost speechless upon seeing how powerful the Sith had become to dislodge the best among them. When he watched the two of them, he was desperately hoping that he would somehow best Sidious in any way he can, or at least inflict lasting damage that could somehow aid his son should the time come. "But how?"

"What chance do we have if we have against someone like Sidious?", Shaak Ti in a rare occasion, fearfully uttered. Sure Master Windu would be able to overtake him, but he is only one man against an army of sleeper cells programmed to terminate all Jedi at his beck and call.

Master Windu couldn't believe it himself. Even with all his skill in Vaapad against Sidious, Yoda had always proven that he was more powerful than him by any means. However, by analyzing the situation further, Sidious had an edge due to the environment and of his use of the Dark Side. It didn't help the fact that the Coruscant Guard or any other available Clones within Coruscant to arrive at any moment to assist him.

"If Master Yoda could not...then what chance does Luke have against him if he ever faced the Emperor?", Rex uttered out.

Said Grandmaster could only close his eyes in regret, seeing that his failure to detect the Sith had led to the Order's downfall.

Inside the Control Room, two sabers blitzed with one another in a seemingly never-ending pattern of strikes and parries that came against one another. Both men continued to clash valiantly as they tried to overtake the other. Focusing their energy in a series of twirls, they both attempted to land a clean strike towards one another, only for it to end in a saber-lock. Using their free hands, Kenobi and Skywalker called upon the Force in an attempt to push the other, but this ended with both of them being pushed over the edge of the control panels.

At every moment have passed, only nervousness, anxiety and fear shrouded Rex, Ahsoka and Padme. None could bear to see the other harmed because of the actions of the other, even with the need for one of them to be stopped. For Obi-Wan, even with the man he faced was everything he had devoted his life to destroying: Murderer. Traitor. Fallen Jedi. Lord of the Sith. And here, and now, despite it all...he is still the brother that he had raised and loved as an Apprentice to a Knight. And he could not live knowing he had a hand on the death of his brother.

For the other, even when they often had their disagreements and disputes, Anakin could not bring himself to resent or hate the man whom he had for a parental figure when he had lost his mother continously. Because by the end of the day, he could still reach out to him whenever he needed him.

He slid Anakin's following thrust through the wall on the opposite side, guiding both blades again up and over his head in acircular sweep so that he could use the power of Anakin's next chop to drive himself backward through the wall, outside into the smoke and the falling cinders.

Anakin followed, constantly attacking; Obi-Wan again gave ground, retreating along a narrow balcony high above the blacksand shoreline of a lake of fire.

Mustafar hummed with death behind his back, only a moment away, somewhere out there among the rivers of molten rock.

Obi-Wan let Anakin drive him toward it.

It was a place, he decided, they should reach together. Anakin forced him back and back, slamming his blade down with strength that seemed to flow from the volcano overhead. He spun and whirled and sliced razor-sharp shards of steel from the wall and shot them at Obi-Wan with the full heat of his fury. He slashed through a control panel along the walkway, and alarms began to blare around the Control room.

"That is not a good sign...", Saesee Tiin uttered for his fellow Jedi. "The Ray Shields protecting the facility has been deactivated, and its foundations could cause the entire structure to collapse at any moment because of the extensive heat"

"Meaning they have to escape or to separate to fight another day", Plo Koon finished for him, but none are so enthusiastic of the scenario.

Fire rained around them.

Obi-Wan backed to the end of the balcony; behind him was only a power conduit no thicker than his arm, connecting it to the main collection plant of the old lava mine, over a riverbed that flowed with white-hot molten stone. Obi-Wan stepped backward onto the conduit without hesitation, his balance flawless as he parried chop after chop.

Even with all their experiences throughout the Clone Wars, none of them could reach to the level such as Mustafar. The fiery inferno meant death was hovering both above and below them, and the fact that most of them never faced an actual Sith Lord themselves, which would add to their psyche when confronted by one.

Caleb could not help but marvel the entire scenery as if this was straight from a holo-movie when two of the most formidable duelists were fighting for the fate of the galaxy.

Most of the Masters have conceded that they never reached Anakin nor Obi-Wan's level of dueling, as this was nothing that they had ever seen with their lives, even with encounters of Dark Jedi such as Ventress. Not even their encounters with Count Dooku had escalated to this level.

Anakin came on.

Out on the tightrope of power conduit, their blades blurred even faster than before. They chopped and slashed and parried and blocked. However, a backhand struck the Jedi Master's face as he looked at the Sith Lord's enraged visage, as if he was egging him for a fight.

"Look out!", Anakin cried out for his Master, no longer caring what will happen to himself. His son needed Obi-Wan to watch over him, to protect him from the monster of whom he called his father.

Raising his blade towards the Jedi, his wrist was grabbed by Kenobi, just as he tried to do the same against the fallen Jedi, who in turn grabbed the wrist that held the lightsaber. Neither of the two minded the huge pillar of lava that erupted between them below, as they struggled to overpower the other.

Lava bombs thundered to the ground below, shedding drops of burning stone that scorched their robes. Smoke shrouded the planet's star, and now the only light came from the hell-glow of the lava below them and from their blades themselves. Flares of energy crackled and spat.

"They are just as determined to end one another, even with the dire circumstances regarding the environment around them", Master Mundi uttered in complete disbelief at the lengths they are willing to go through.

Silently, Padme and Ahsoka were already begging for the two to stop fighting already, given how the structure will collapse at any moment now. But they felt helpless that they couldn't do anything about it.

Obi-Wan backflipped from the conduit to a coupling nexus of the main collection plant; when Anakin flew in pursuit, Obi-Wan leapt again. They spun and whirled throughout its levels, up its stairs, and across its platforms; they battled out onto the collection panels over which the cascades of lava poured, and Obi-Wan, out on the edge of the collection panel, hunching under a curve of durasteel that splashed aside gouts of lava, deflecting Force blasts and countering strikes from this creature of rage that had been his best friend.

"The climate, the intensity, and the significance is not like any other for all the years I have served in the order", Plo Koon professed in sheer astonishment for the former Master and Apprentice.

The lake of fire, no longer held back by the ray shield, chewed away the shore on which the plant stood, and the whole massive structure broke loose, sending both warriors skidding, scrabbling desperately for handholds down tilting durasteel slopes that were rapidly becoming cliffs; they hung from scraps of cable as the plant's superstructure floated out into the lava, sinking slowly as its lower levels melted and burned away.

"They have to do something, and fast", Rex said with urgency as the structure them collapsed.

Anakin kicked off from the toppling superstructure, swinging through a wide arc over the lava's boil. Obi-Wan shoved out and met him there, holding the cable with one hand and the Force, angling his blade high. Anakin flicked a Shien whipcrack at his knees. Obi-Wan yanked his legs high and slashed through the cable above Anakin's hand, and Anakin fell.

Every moment caused Padme and Ahsoka's breaths to be taken away, as one mistake would lead to either men falling to a fiery death. By this time, their emotional psyche was getting fragile at every moment have passed. Not when Mustafar was a completely dangerous environment.

Pockets of gas boiled to the surface of the lava, gouting flame like arms reaching to gather him in. But Anakin's momentum had already swung back toward the dissolving wreck of the collection plant, and the Force carried him within reach of another cable. Obi-Wan whipped his legs around his cable, altering its arc to bring him within reach of the one from which Anakin now dangled, but Anakin was on to this game now, and he swung cable-to-cable ahead of Obi-Wan's advance, using the Force to carry himself higher and higher, forcing Obi-Wan to counter by doing the same; on this terrain, altitude was everything.

Simultaneous surges of the Force carried them both spinning up off the cables to the slant of the toppling superstructure's crane deck. Obi-Wan barely got his feet on the metal before Anakin pounced on him and they stood almost toe-to-toe, blades whirling and crashing on all sides, while around them the collection plant's maintenance droids still tinkered mindlessly away at the doomed machinery, as they would continue to do until lava closed over them and they melted to their constituent molecules and dissolved into the flow.

A roar louder even than the volcano's eruption came from the river ahead; metal began to shriek and stretch. The river dropped away in a vertical sheet of fire that vanished into boiling clouds of smoke and gases. The whole collection plant was being carried, inexorably, out over a vast lava-fall. Obi-Wan decided he didn't really want to see what was at the bottom. He turned Anakin's blade aside with a two-handed block and landed a solid kick that knocked the two apart.

"MASTER/OBI-WAN!", Ahsoka and Anakin cried out in terror, but barely managed to remain calm when both turned out fine.

Before Anakin could recover his balance, Obi-Wan took a running leap that became a graceful dive headlong off the crane deck. He hurtled down past level after level, and only a few tens of meters above the lava itself the Force called a dangling cable to his hand, turning his dive into a swing that carried him high and far, to the very limit of the cable.

And he let it go.

As though jumping from a swing in the Temple playrooms, his velocity sent him flying up and out over a catenary arc that shot him toward the river's shore. Toward. Not quite to. But the Force had led him here, and again it had not betrayed him: below, humming along a few meters above the lava river, came a big, slow old repulsorlift platform, carrying droids and equipment out toward a collection plant that its programming was not sophisticated enough to realize was about to be destroyed.Obi-Wan flipped in the air and let the Force bring him to a catfooted landing. An adder-quick stab of his lightsaber disabled the platform's guidance system, and Obi-Wan was able to direct it back toward the shore with a simple shift of his weight. He turned to watch as the collection plant shrieked like the damned in a Corellian hell, crumbling over the brink of the falls until it vanished into invisible destruction.

Relaxing his stance, Obi-Wan gripped his weapon, gazing at the hateful eyes that his former apprentice shot towards him. And he found the courage to look at them once more, as well as the bitter truth that he had been denying for far too long.

"I have failed you Anakin...I have failed you"

And just like that, Obi-Wan's emotional battiers had fallen apart. The truth of those cruel words carried the memories of time he, as a his Master that he promised to Qui-Gon, failed him in more times than he could ever count. And he allowed a few tears to flow from his already anguished eyes, seeing his failure to become the mentor that Anakin needed the most.

No...master, Anakin emotionally struggled to register those words in his mind, seeing the pain that the man he had for an older brother had went through. I failed you. And all of you.

Those words never mattered to him, his anger towards him and the Jedi blinded him from seeing reason. "I should have known the Jedi are plotting to take over!" he spat at his lack of vision.

The Jedi came to realize the times that they had made mistakes on not just Anakin, but to other members who uphold their principles of all their lives came crashing before them. Dooku, Prosset Dibbs and Barriss Offee all had laid their life for the order, only for them to see the flaws that the order did nothing to change, which turned them away from the light and causing their own faith to be shattered.

Thinking whatever insanity that got through him, Obi-Wan persisted. "Anakin, Chancellor Palpatine is evil!"

"From my point of view, the Jedi are evil!", Anakin angrily shot back, uninterested to whatever lies that the Jedi would spew at him.

Yoda felt his own heart being shattered upon hearing those words that came from among the most faithful members of the Order he had lived for centuries. For all their faith in the light, their compliance to whatever the Senate tells to do rather than what the Light tells them to do defined their narrow-mindedness to what the others had told them. Their inability to adapt or to change during the course of both the war as well as their arrogance and ignorance had made them unwitting tools of Sidious that gave him all the reasons why the Jedi are the enemies of the Republic.

The rest of the Masters who have fought alongside Anakin, never imagined how it would come to this. But it was clear to them, that it wasn't just Sidious who gave him and many the others the reasons why they are evil as they viewed, it was the Order itself. Their refusal to allow anyone to have any sort attachment outside their lives caused them to resent them for what they stood for, and even became what they feared the most; a Dark side user.

Realizing that he could no longer be convinced, Obi-Wan shouted back at him. "THEN YOU ARE LOST!"

And just like that, Obi-Wan suppressed a sob, seeing that he himself had given up any hope for his brother to come back to the light. He just wanted it to end already, he couldn't bear to see himself raise his blade over the child he befriended at Tatooine. Who had so much promise and potential as Qui-Gon had envisioned of him.

As for Anakin hearing those words caused his head to sink as he buried his face in despair on what he had become. Padme tried desperately to hide her grief for the two people who were brothers in all but blood.

As for the rest, it was disheartening to see the two bickering, yet formidable duo, to become sworn enemies for all they were. Yoda closed his eyes in regret, realizing the truth in Dooku's words about the Jedi.

The Sith Lord was unfazed at the harsh declaration. All that he wanted to do now, was to clear out one more obstacle in the way, that being Obi-Wan Kenobi. "This is the end of you, my master", he proclaimed, without hesitation.

Those words caused Anakin to crack down, desperately hoping that Obi-Wan could still fight on to take Padme out of harm's way.

Jumping off the worker droid, Anakin landed onto the floating platform, keeping his balance as he moved ahead and continued to trade blow for blow against the Master of Soresu.

"They are already at their limit", Shaak Ti pointed, seeing that they have been exhausted both physically and of the Force. The rest of the Jedi caught wind of this as well, realizing one will have to fall soon enough.

"Any mistake will mean the end of one them", Windu added, foreseeing the conclusion. "For all of Skywalker's raw power alone, Master Kenobi had to improvise on what he had if he wished to survive"

Obi-Wan tried to shake off Master Windu's words from his head.

Slowly but resolutely, both men struck the other against their respective sabers. However, neither could harness their full capacity from the start due to the limited free of movement on the platform they are standing. Obi-Wan turned his dive into a forward roll that left him barely teetering on the rim of a low cliff, just above the soft black sand of the riverbank.

The two were now in a standstill "It's over Anakin!", Obi-Wan proclaimed, trying to dissuade the fallen Jedi from fighting any further. "I have the high ground!"

Everyone who watched Ahsoka and Kenobi facing off against Maul and Grievous were immediately wide-eyed in alarm, especially when they knew how Anakin does not take kindly to mockery especially when in battle.

"Is he...luring Skywalker in a trap?", Master Fisto uneasily asked.

"You underestimate my power!", the fallen Jedi proclaimed with a glare to his former Master.

Mace Windu knew this mannerism too well. "His arrogance..."

"...will be his undoing", Master Bilaba finished, reluctantly.

And this was enough for many to grow frightened of what is to come for the fallen Jedi Knight. "Anakin, please that's enough!", Padme was already begging him not to continue on with this mad quest.

"You don't have to fight anymore!", Ahsoka shouted at him, no longer holding back her tears. "Just stop!"

"Don't try it!", Obi-Wan urged him not to, to no avail.

"Anakin...don't do it...", Obi-Wan incoherently begged him not to as the pressure and anxiety inside him was about to explode. "Anakin!"

Said Knight finally found his courage to speak up, he couldn't take it anymore. Padme needed help immediately, and he could care less of his own fallen future. "JUST DO IT OBI-WAN!", he shouted at him, wanting to see himself stopped at any cost.

The fallen Jedi leapt off the platform at Obi-Wan's back— Half a second too slow.

Obi-Wan's whirl to parry didn't meet Anakin's blade. It met his knee. Then his other knee.

And while Anakin was still in the air, burned-off lower legs only starting their topple down the cliff, Obi-Wan's recovery to guard brought his blade through Anakin's left arm above the elbow.

"AAAAARGHHH!!!!"

He stepped back as Anakin fell.

Anakin dropped his lightsaber, clawing at the edge of the cliff with his mechanical hand, but his grip was too powerful for the lava bank and it crumbled, and he slid down onto the black sand, growling in pure agony as he tried to climb the surface with his one arm.

His severed legs and his severed arm rolled into the lava below him and burned to ash in sudden bursts of scarlet flame.

Silence and sheer terror overcame at the climax.

The intensity and pain of the confrontation ended in a cruel conclusion for those who had witnessed it. Master Kenobi had defeated and gravely wounded the fallen Jedi that was Anakin Skywalker, the same man he had fought alongside with for years.

Padme let out a large gasp that was followed by covering her mouth with both hands. She was already crying out of fear of what was going to happen to Anakin, and it only intensified when she saw what had happened to the man she loved. "Why...how did it come to this?"

Ahsoka Tano fell to her knees as she watch her Master's injuries, as her tears largen in complete helplessness and of terror. She should have been with him, but she didn't. And her fists balled in complete regret towards herself and for him. "Master...", she whimpered.

Rex felt his hear skip a beat upon seeing the General he served for years lay helpless in agony, feeling useless that he couldn't do anything for him. After watching his brothers turn against the Jedi they loyally served, General Skywalker's suffering was the last straw.

Obi-Wan's mouth was left open in sheer terror on what he had done, not realizing that he would go this far as to stop him. He had harmed him beyond what he could have imagined. How could he have told all of this to Luke when he couldn't bear to tell him the truth?

Anakin was struck silent, clutching both his legs and his remaining natural arm. He allowed himself to fall this far, and sacrificing everything he had ever known in the process. And for Sidious to poison his mind without knowing it.

As for the rest of the Jedi, all of them were shocked at the conclusion. Master Kenobi had indeed triumphed but at what cost? This wasn't a victory any means. Many of them have respected Anakin for his contributions and his charisma as a General for the Republic. They have seen his fall, and the subsequent crimes he had committed against the Jedi, and yet they could not find themselves to see his subsequent defeat as justice of any sort.

Master Yoda could only offer his sincere prayers on both Jedi for what had happened.

Deactivating his lightsaber, Obi-Wan heard the fallen Jedi's groans of agony as he looked up at him, pleadingly. Having mustered all emotions inside him, he called out to him.

"YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE!", he shouted a blend of agony, despair and grief on what the fallen knight become. "IT WAS SAID THAT YOU WOULD DESTROY THE SITH! NOT JOIN THEM!"

Anakin sobbed as he realized everything that people thought of him, became a twisted nightmare despite Qui-Gon's vision for him.

"Bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness!", he finally finished, struggling to coming to terms as he slowly backex away. And he turned back to pick up his fallen apprentice's lightsaber.

The people inside the chamber were now disheartened to know that, Luke had inherited his father's lightsaber after he was bested by the man who thought highly of him.

Anakin looked up, his face distorting to that of an enraged animal. And he roared with all the strength his lungs could handle.

"I HATE YOU!!!"

Yoda's eyes closed in complete surrender, to see how far Anakin had fallen to the Dark, with Vader completely consuming him as a result.

Obi-Wan began to sob more frequently, his brother was truly gone. Even if this was the future, he could not bear the pain that lies ahead.

"Obi-Wan...don't leave him...please", Padme silently begged the Jedi Master. She refused to believe he was all gone, that there is still hope for him. Rex placed a hand onto Ahsoka's shoulder in as he tried to comfort her. Similarly, they had the same mindset as the Senator.

Obi-Wan looked back mournfully at himm "You were my brother, Anakin...", the Jedi painfully added, a tear leaving his eye. "I loved you..."

Hearing those words were already a message to everyone. Anakin wasn't just an apprentice nor a friend for Kenobi, he was a brother in all but blood. Yoda grieved the loss with all his heart, Padme wanted to say the same to him, and both Ahsoka and Rex felt the same way for him.

"Obi-Wan...Ahsoka...everyone...I'm sorry...", Anakin tearfully whimpered as he wiped his already red eyes from all the trauma he had faced. "I'm so sorry..."

Their minds flashed all the way from the first holotape, during Kenobi's final duel against Darth Vader. Those muffled words meant something. They were memories from a terrible past that both tried to hide within them, or even bury.

The fact that they have given a clue on who Vader was, is a disheartening revelation for them, when he was formerly the heroic Jedi Knight who always looked out for his friends. Caleb saw him as a hero that he considered to be one of the greatest Jedi they ever had in the war, Plo Koon, Kit Fisto and Saesee Tiin saw him as a role model for the Jedi because of his bravery, Shaak Ti and Luminara admired his unending loyalty to his friends. And Yoda valued him as both a friend and a student, even if the two seldom spoke with one another.

But their train of thought abruptly ended. And what they saw next would leave a scar in their now shaken minds.

"AAAARGH!!!" Within moments, flames caused Anakin's clothing to ignite in in flames. And it didn't take long for it to engulf his entire body as he screamed in agony. All that he had left was beginning to turn to a charred husk.

To suffer a fate worse than death itself was enough for even the most serene of them to be horrified beyond measure. But to some, it had broken their spirit entirely.

"ANAKIN! NO!!!!", Padme shouted with all her lungs could handle in terror, only to be held back by the Jedi Knight in the present in console her. He could only look at himself regretfully for all that he had done for the Sith and to everyone he had known. "Anakin...no...no...!!", her muffled screams were heard even when she tried to embrace him.

"MASTER!!/GENERAL!!", Rex and Ahsoka shouted at the same time, both breaking down in tears as they embraced one another helplessly for their best friend. Both fell to their knees as they looked away from the screen. The Togruta sobbed profusely on Rex's armor, her cries were heard by every Jedi inside the chamber, so much so that it even disheartened even the most detached members of the Order. Rex, for all his years as a soldier, gritted his teeth as he tried to stop himself from sobbing for the General he trusted life to.

Caleb Dume's eyes were covered by Depa, knowing this was too much for the Padawan to bear, seeing his role model going through suffering beyond of what he could imagine.

Masters Yoda, Kit Fisto, Luminara, and Shaak Ti looked away in regret, unable to bring themselves from seeing the horrifying spectacle before them.

Plo Koon, Saesee Tiin and Master Mundi were struck silent, unable to remove their eyes from the screen as the image had mentally scarred them.

To Windu, all that he felt for Skywalker was pity. Everything he had done for the Senator only cost him everything, even in both body and spirit. "You should have ended him there, Master Kenobi...", he commented in a low tone. However, they knew that this was not laced with any hostility towards Skywalker. Even for a Sith Lord that destroyed everything they knew, Anakin did not have to go to everything he went through once he was defeated. A merciful, quick death was preferable to give as Jedi.

Obi-Wan Kenobi buried his face onto his knees as he profusely weeped from what he had done to his own brother. Several times, he uttered to himself how he had failed both Qui-Gon and Anakin as a Master. He couldn't believe that he too had lost Anakin, but by his own hand. He couldn't take it anymore. He only wanted to stop Sidious now to spare him from this cruel fate.

However, he felt a hand on his shoulder as he looked up to find Anakin's gaze, trying to tell him that everything was going to be alright. Embracing him, Obi-Wan welcomed the gesture, uttering apologies that Anakin didn't want to hear. "Anakin...forgive me...", he incoherently uttered.

"It's not your fault, Master...", Anakin assured him, trying to give him a sense of comfort. "It's not your fault..."

He was feeling calm, and clear, and he knew that to climb down to that black beach might cost him more time than he had. Another Sith Lord approached.In the end, there was only one choice. It was a choice he had made many years before, when he had passed his trials of Jedi Knighthood, and sworn himself to the Jedi forever.

In the end, he was still Obi-Wan Kenobi, and he was still a Jedi, and he would not murder a helpless man.He would leave it to the will of the Force. He turned and walked away. After a moment, he began to run.He began to run because he realized, if he was fast enough, there was one thing he still could do for Anakin.

Honor to the memory of the man he had called his brother, and to the vanished Order they both had served.

At the landing deck, C-3PO stood on the skiff's landing ramp, waving frantically. "Master Kenobi! Please hurry!"

"Where's Padme?"

"Already inside, sir, but she is badly hurt." Obi-Wan ran up the ramp to the skiff's cockpit and fired the engines.

Spectre: Yep...so much for a Christmas present. Hopefully I did managed to get through the emotional aspect of the duel, since I'm being worn out for all the work that I got to do. But I can't leave you guys hanging, so here I went.

Next chapter will be the end of Revenge of the Sith, as well as a new beginning for our viewers here, and I already made the outline of the final chapter. Could be good way to end 2021 despite it being a not-so good year, if you know what I mean.

Anyways, thanks for all your support and leave a review! (Those are my firewood in my chimney of motivation) I'll see you in less than ten!