Star Wars : Arise In The Future

"Killed...not by Clones", Yoda replied, his tone was equally saddened and hollow as Obi-Wan's. "This Padawan...but by a lightsaber..."

Obi-Wan knelt down to mourn one of the fallen Jedi, before turning to Yoda. "Who...who could have done this?"

...

Inside the control center of the Separatist bunker on Mustafar ... Wat Tambor was adjusting the gas mix inside his armor Poggle the Lesser was massaging his fleshy lip-tendrils—Shu Mai was fiddling with the brass binding that restrained her hair into the stylish curving horn that rose behind her head—San Hill was stretching his bodystocking, which had begun to ride up in the crotch—Rune Haako was shifting his weight nervously from foot to foot—While Nute Gunray spoke to the holopresence of Darth Sidious.

"Without Dooku and Grievous leading them, the rest of the Separatist leadership have no other options than them being led by Sidious", Luminara said, recalling their now leader-less struggle.

"At this point, they have no choice but to surrender", Plo Koon added.

"The plan has gone exactly as you promised, my lord," Gunray said to the Sith's hologram.

"Yes, indeed. Thanks, in great part, to you, Viceroy", Sidious told them, unknown to them that their usefulness has come to an end. "And when my apprentice Lord Vader arrives...he will take care of you"

"I don't like the sound of that...", Anakin uttered to whatever his future had in mind.

Yoda reluctantly nodded his head in pity for them. "Tools they were", he somberly said, knowing their unfortunate fates. "Discarded, they will be"

"But Anakin would just arrest them right?", Padme said to the other Jedi, but was simply met with unenthusiastic silence

"He'll arrest them...right?"

As soon as Palpatine's hologram disappeared, the door cycled open.

A tall cloaked figure, slim but broad-shouldered, face shadowed by a heavy hood, stood in the doorway.

"No...no...I despised the Separatists for all they were, but I wouldn't kill them...", Anakin uttered to himself in denial of looking at his future.

Mace however, wasn't buying it.

"Welcome Lord Vader! We have been expecting you!", Gunray enthusiastically greeted the Sith Lord. The cloaked figure stepped inside and made a gesture with a black-gloved hand. Blast doors slammed across every exit. The control panel exploded in a shower of sparking wires.

The cloaked figure threw back its hood.

San Hill recoiled, hands flapping like panicked birds sewn to his wrists.

"On behalf of the leadership of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, let me be the first to—"

"Very well. You will be the first."

A fountain of blue-white plasma burned into his chest, curving through a loop that charred all three of his hearts.

Everyone was stunned at the sudden callous murder, their mouths were left agape as they tried to register what was going in.

The Separatist leadership watched in frozen horror as the corpse of the head of the InterGalactic Banking Clan collapsed like a depowered protocol droid.

"The resemblance," Darth Vader said, "is deceptive."

...

Bail slipped into the rear of the Naboo delegation's Senate pod as Palpatine thundered from the podium, "The attempt on my life...has left me scarred and deformed...."

At Kamino, Clone Force 99 and an entire legion of clone watched the Chancellor's hologram, hearing his words with outward enthusiasm. "You can say that again!", Wrecker joked, glancing at Echo.

Many in the Council wanted to snicker or find humor in Wrecker's words, but couldn't if it weren't for what they are dealing with right now.

"But I assure you, my resolve has never been stronger!", he continued, as the crowd before him clapped in applause. "The remaining Jedi will be hunted down and DEFEATED! Any collaborators will suffer the same fate! The war is over! The Separatists have been eliminated and the Jedi rebellion has been foiled! We stand on the threshold of a new beginning!"

"All the patience and careful manipulation of the Sith have come to this...", Shaak Ti marvelled at the Sith Lord's machinations. "Along with the power and authority he wielded as a politician..."

"Ignorant we have become...", Yoda admitted. "Allowed Sidious to take over, we have..."

...

Within the Separatist leadership bunker's control center were dozens of combat droids.

There were armed and armored guards. There were automated defense systems.

There were screams, and tears, and pleas for mercy.

Everyone bristled at the horrific scenario that lay before them, while Anakin shook his head more further as he tried to shake off the memories he had gained from all these dark deeds.

None of them mattered. The Sith had come to Mustafar.

Poggle the Lesser, Archduke of Geonosis, scrambled like an animal through a litter of severed arms and legs and heads, both metal and flesh, whimpering, fluttering his ancient gauzy wings until a bar of lightning flash-burned his own head free of his neck.

Shu Mai, president and CEO of the Commerce Guild, looked up from her knees, hands clasped before her, tears streaming down her shriveled cheeks.

"We were promised a reward,'' she gasped. "A h—h—handsome reward—"

"I am your reward," the Sith Lord said. "You don't find me handsome?"

Kit Fisto was horrified at this Dark sense of humor. "What kind of twisted insanity has the Dark Side done to Skywalker?"

"If there is anyone that Skywalker could have hated..." Plo Koon began, realizing what this meant for Anakin. "That would be the Separatist Council for all they had done since Geonosis"

"Please!" she screeched through her sobbing. "Pleee—" The blue-white blade cut into and out from her skull, and her corpse swayed. A negligent flip of the wrist slashed through her column of neck rings. Her brain-burned head tumbled to thefloor. Wat Tambor and the two Neimoidians scampered along a hallway toward a nearby conference room.

The Sith Lord was in no hurry to pursue. All the exits from the control center were blast-shielded, and they were sealed, and he had destroyed the controls.

The conference room was, as the expression goes, a dead end.

"Is this how far you have fallen you have, Skywalker?", Windu spoke up in anger towards the Jedi Knight. "Relishing the suffering of others for the sake of the Dark Side's power?"

Anakin only buried his eyes in complete regret and self-loathing, uttering to himself that he never wanted any of this to happen.

...

Within the Senate, Palpatine continued his address to the crowd before him, releasing unmatched vigor and determination. "In order to ensure the security and continuing stability... the Republic will be reorganized... INTO THE FIRST GALACTIC EMPIRE!"

"And this is how the Empire is born...", Obi-Wan uttered in disbelief. "Out of careful planning as well as lies and manipulation"

"And so is the Sith's Grand Plan to rule the Galaxy", Depa reluctantly added.

Padme couldn't believe what she was hearing. Everything that she, Senators Organa and Mothma had fought for, died at the hands of a tyrannical dictator.

"So this is how Liberty dies...", Padme lowly professed with Bail beside her. "With thunderous applause..."

"And everything that we had fought for generations", Saesee Tiin added as a hollow reminder of their failure to stop the Sith.

...

"I have recalibrated the code, warning all surviving Jedi to stay away", Obi-Wan said, as he worked on one of the consoles in the Archives.

"This should warn the others on what is happening at the Temple", Plo Koon remarked in relief.

"But then, we have no choice but to stay in the shadows...", Shaak Ti somberly added.

"For the clones... to discover the recalibration a long time it will take", Yoda said to his fellow Jedi. He began to leave the area, until he heard Obi-Wan calling for him.

"Wait. Master", he said, walking over to one of the holorecordings. "There is something I must know"

How much more he would have to suffer for a I have done?, Anakin thought to himself, bracing for the revelation.

"If into the security recordings you go, only pain will you find", Yoda warned him, but Kenobi continued on.

"I must know the truth, Master", he insisted.

He played the recording, only to be met by a gruelling sight as he watched his own apprentice dueling and eventually killing Serra Keto, followed by Cin Drallig. "It can't be", he uttered in complete disbelief. "It can't be."

"You have done well, my new apprentice", Sidious praised as Anakin knelt down before him. "Now, Lord Vader... go and bring peace to the Empire"

Anakin clenched his fist as his rage was focused onto the man who had manipulated him for years, taking all kind of self-restraint to not march into his office.

"I can't watch any more", Obi-wan said, turning off the recording.

"Destroy the Sith we must", urged Yoda, thumping his cane, but Obi-Wan was not willing to do so.

"One of them will have to take the other..", Mundi pointed out. "Which would leave Master Yoda going against Darth Sidious while Master Kenobi deals with Skywalker"

Both Anakin and Obi-Wan shook their heads as they could not picture fighting themselves to the death.

"Send me to kill the emperor", the bearded Jedi asked Yoda, not wanting to fight his own apprentice. "I will not kill Anakin."

"I would not advise you to do so, Master Kenobi", Kit Fisto told his fellow Council Member. "If Kolar, Tiin and I could not, I cannot imagine you besting Sidious for all your skill in Soresu"

"To fight this Lord Sidious, strong enough you are not.", Yoda pointed out.

"He is like my brother. I cannot do it."

"Twisted by the dark side young Skywalker has become. The boy you trained, gone he is. Consumed by Darth Vader."

All the good memories that Anakin and Obi-Wan had together came flashing back before them, desperately hoping that there could be another way. Of all people, Ahsoka and Padme never imagined that these two would try and kill the other, as their brotherhood was what defined them the most.

Relenting, Obi-Wan continued. "I do not know where the Emperor has sent him. I don't know where to look"

"Use your feelings, Obi-Wan, and find him you will", Yoda said to him.

...

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