Sidious gritted his teeth before forcefully relaxing and suppressing the welling dark side as his anger and frustration swelled.

  “But my lord, isn’t this a good thing?” Mas Amedda asked, “You were out of contact, activating your private projects to assist the Republic. The Jedi are now split nearly in half with how the Jedi across the galaxy have declared their allegiance to one of the new faction or the old one. I thought it wise to allow them to split unopposed. Divided they will fall?”

  “No, you fool,” Sidious said as calmly as he could manage through his rage, “This is an unmitigated disaster. The problem of eliminating the Jedi is not one of force. Not entirely. Throughout history many groups and forces have attempted to destroy the Jedi completely. Many even came close to succeeding towards the beginning of the Republic. Do you know why they all failed?”

  “No, my lord,” Mas Amedda said, cowering as he realized his lord’s frustration and anger towards him.

  “Because the Jedi are like pests. Their use of the light side of the Force gives them intuition, a sense of impending doom or attack like nothing else seen in this galaxy. They may not know why, but if I had ordered an orbital bombardment on the Jedi temple at some random time in my term... Completely undiscovered and undetectable to them, in complete secrecy, do you know what would happen? All of the Jedi of enough power would mysteriously sense that something was wrong and either leave the temple or maneuver themselves to some point in the building where they would survive the bombardment. And maneuver the padawans so they were similarly protected. Some would die, the weaker ones, but even a full assault would likely barely manage to kill a handful of any with real power. And leave them wary and ready to conduct a quick counterattack on the ones they sensed orchestrated the attack against them. That’s why we needed the grand plan. To eliminate them in a perfect way that subverts their usual defensive powers and pierces through their protections.”

  “How does… the grand plan accomplish that?”

  “A war… War is different. It is dangerous. Too dangerous for them, but they would choose to join out of duty anyway. Let themselves be surrounded and ambushed one by one without anyone else being any the wiser as I worked with the Separatists to pick them off subtly one by one. And in a way that they would slowly be whittled down without the central mass of them being spooked and sent scurrying away into the dark corners.

  “If they ever realized what was happening was abnormal then they would scatter and disperse around the galaxy even if my forces and I managed to defeat them in a head on battle. And once spread out then they would predict and avoid every ambush, dodge every search, use every method to spread and grow underground and stump even the most advanced technology trying to catch them. You have no idea what you’ve done. The clone armies were meant to slowly infiltrate the Jedi. Become treated as allies, friends, so that at the moment of betrayal the Jedi’s senses would refuse to believe what they were being told and give the soldiers enough time to ambush many of the Jedi from a disadvantageous position.

  “Now… There is a whole second group out there. One not under control of the Republic and willing to expose themselves to being worn down by the war. Even if the Jedi in the Republic are all killed in one clean strike then those Jedi out there will be as untouched as ever.

  “Things aren’t now easier. They’re more than twice as difficult as before. You should have forced the Jedi to remain unified at all costs. But now it’s too late. They won’t reunite now from the reports that I’ve read… ”

  “I… I apologize my lord. Forgive my ignorance.”

  Sidious hesitated before snorting.

  “You are lucky you’re such a public figure. But a little lesson is in order to make sure you remember this failure a little more… vividly.”

  He raised his hands and with a burst of hate sent a burst of lightning from his fingertips to scorch through Mas Amedda. The man groaned and collapsed to the floor and started squirming and screaming. Sidious kept the power of his attack light, but made sure the lesson was felt but not permanent as he brutally electrocuted the man for a few leisurely minutes.

  Finally the man stopped screaming as his throat was dry from his wails for the last little while of amusing Lord Sidious.

  “You may go,” Sidious said as he stopped and sat back on his chair and worked to rework his plans once again.

  But at least his latest plan would allow him to weaken the Separatists and allow the Republic to win the war. His grand plan was in shambles. But the Sith’s work to destroy the Jedi had been ongoing for thousands of years. It could wait a few more years to give himself time to think of another way to deal with the loathsome Jedi once and for all.

  — — —

  “I didn’t think that the next I saw you would be like this, Count Dooku,” Obi wan said as they sat opposite from each other. The Republic diplomat and representative of the Old Jedi Order sat as the third arm of the triangular table where they were all sitting.

  “Well, this galaxy is just full of surprises, isn’t it,” Dooku replied with a note of amusement as he finished signing the treaty and slid it down to the Republic diplomat. The man scanned it over before nodding and signing it himself.

  “This planet known from now on as Ranjani will be agreed to be neutral and the home to the Ranja Root Jedi Order,” the Republic diplomat said stiffly, “A diplomatic embassy from both the Separatists and the Republic will be established. You may take requests from local planetary governments for assistance in any local concerns. If properly notified by either party, then you or any of your members must immediately evacuate from any warzone or place of significance to the war effort on either side.

  “Any members given such an evacuation request will be allowed free and safe passage to another nearby system not involved in the fighting. Any members found to be in violation of these rules, acting in bad faith, and actively interfering with the war will lose any legal protections and may be arrested or be subjected to any relevant penalties or arrests from their actions. In exchange, this planet will not be claimed for control by any parties in either the Republic or Confederate of Independent Systems. And your members will be given free passage through the regions of the galaxy controlled by each of us so long as your members are properly registered and receive the proper permissions for travel to do so.”

  Obi-wan nodded and signed the treaty himself. He let his two fellow leaders sign as well to finish things off.

  “Congratulations,” Dooku said and reached out his hand which Obi-wan shook. The Republic representative looked a little sour but forcefully flattened his expression and stuck his hand out as well.

  “Yes, congratulations on the new Jedi Order. Best of luck,” the diplomat said.

  “I have been chosen as the representative to your Order from the true Jedi Order,” Master Druman said just as stiffly after the diplomat and Dooku left after some polite goodbyes. Master Druman remained behind.

  “I see,” Obi-wan said as the two of them stared at each other, their history making the air between them awkward. Obi-wan didn’t know the man personally all that well. Just what had happened with Anakin and some polite conversations they’d had when encountering each other in the temple in the years prior to Anakin leaving the temple.

  Obi-wan's feelings on the man were... Unpleasant, to say the least.

  Master Druman cleared his throat.

  “Well, I will return to my ship for now. Do let me know when my accommodations in the new temple are ready.”

  The man left and Obi-wan grimaced.

  “It’ll be fine,” the woman to his right said, “You know we had to let him come to get this far. All he can do is observe. If he steps out of line we can just send him back right back to Coruscant and request somebody else.”

  Obi-wan shook his head.

  “Right. Of course, no need to worry. It’s just been a very long six months. Hard to believe that the negotiations are finally over.”

  “Now we can focus on our new Order,” she replied, “Just like we are meant to. You were correct about founding this place. It feels like a great weight on us has lifted now that we’re no longer suppressed by the Council.”

  “Yes, I’m glad,” Obi-wan mused, “Let’s go celebrate our hard fought victory at the negotiating table. I heard a glowing recommendation from Ahsoka of one of the local restaurants that’s popped up recently around our newly finished temple.”

  “By the time our terms as temporary leaders are over and we finalize how to govern ourselves as an Order, maybe Ahsoka will be the one leading us,” the Jedi master to Obi-wan’s right joked as they exited the building and walked on the street, still shiny from how it had been newly constructed just months ago.

  “Maybe,” Obi-wan said, “She has progressed farther than even I imagined in this time. Even with my distraction, she may be ready for her full Jedi Knight trials in a few months.”

  “Pah. I’ve met masters less competent than her,” his fellow leader laughed. He arched his eyebrow and shot her a look.

  “Well, perhaps not,” she corrected, “But I think she’d be able to pass the trials now, if only just and with some struggle. Given a few months with how she’s been progressing recently, I have no doubt she’ll crush them easily.”

  “Hm. Indeed. Perhaps you’re right. Maybe I’ll bring up her taking them earlier if she wants to in our next lesson.”

  “So, what is this place where we’re going?” she asked as she changed the topic, “Is it that place…”

  They went to the restaurant and had a pleasant meal and went to join the celebrations in their new temple for the final signing of the treaty.

  Their order was established. The Ranja Root Jedi Order now stood on its own and would be recognized by the whole galaxy, even the Old Jedi Order.

  All of their work had finally paid off.

  — — —

  It had been eight months since the Jedi had split into two. His backup plans had come to fruition in pushing both the CIS and Dooku back and giving the Republic the edge in this war. The clones from Kamino had bolstered the Republic’s ranks in ever greater numbers. And he’d released the prototype of his great weapon to Republic Intelligence anonymously much to his disappointment at the rank waste of it. His method demonstrated a process that could use base energy to empower a Kyber crystal and let it store an incredible amount of energy before sending it blasting out in one giant wave of power in a single instant. Something that when properly harnessed could create beams of plasma imbued with the Force itself and far stronger than any other weapon that he had ever seen before. All it cost was a few dozen lightsaber equivalents of spent kyber crystals and an immense amount of energy for each shot. Expensive, but not quite as expensive as the cost of a fully staffed military ship. But only just.

  Lord Sidious had developed the technique of releasing the energy from the kyber crystals himself. It was based on the Sith practice of corrupting their lightsaber's kyber crystals inside of the handle. The things that allowed them to form the energy blades and remain so attuned with the Force and their wielder. In that last moment when a Kyber crystal was about to crack and be corrupted to the dark side by the Sith using it, it let out a single massive blast of energy reverberating in the Force. Often compared to a long drawn out scream of agony in the Sith records.

  By corrupting a few dozen spare crystals as tests and with some technical assistance from some of his more intelligent pawns, Lord Sidious had discovered that those energies could be harnessed and released through the use of technology rather than mastery of the Force, even if the valuable crystals were destroyed and consumed by the process. Fully destroying the crystal rather than simply corrupting like the Sith did, only further increased the power of the final weapon luckily. So it was only a small loss luckily that the crystals couldn't be reused.

  And with a ‘new’ deposit of Kyber uncovered that he had possession of through his efforts to start things off, four Republic ships were being armed with the prototype versions of these weapons and devastating CIS fleets when they were used properly. A single blast from the new weapons could completely destroy an opposing fully shielded ship in a single well aimed strike. Sometimes even multiple. The only constraint was supplying the kyber crystals and getting the weapons platforms to where they were needed with only four of them to cover the myriad of battlefronts of the war scattered across the whole galaxy.

  There were even discussions of mining the Jedi holy planet of Illium for its massive reserve of Kyber crystals, something which brough Sidious no small amount of satisfaction to consider. Since the weapons consumed the Kyber crystals as fuel with every shot, the demand for them grew ever higher the longer the war dragged on.

  The CIS numbers and organization was superior to the Republic’s, but the new weapons were so overwhelming when they were present at critical battles that the Republic was still pushing outwards and even now had taken back all of their lost ground and was slowly grinding in a long military campaign into previously Separatist space.

  His piece was in play and even now Mas Ammeda was assisting him in increasing his influence and control over the Republic government. The war was going smoothly now, and the CIS and Dooku would be crushed under the Republic’s heel in a matter of months now.

  All that was left was some maintenance to keep the Republic on track and prevent any major blunders on his side. So he could take some time off on a more personal matter at this time. Anakin Skywalker. He now had a faint sense of unease as he thought of the boy being under Dooku’s influence for so long.

  He had to stamp it out at the root. He had to confront the boy now himself. And either kidnap him and then determine if he could be corrupted and be loyal to Lord Sidious alone… Or eliminate him as a threat.

  He had no pawns left to play, no one else that he could trust with a mission like this. He must confront the boy himself. Face to face.

  His stealth ship would carry him to the planet where the boy was staying.

  He was sure that Dooku had taken precautions.

  But that was just the thing.

  He grinned wickedly and let the electricity dance across his hands as his shuttle left Coruscant’s airspace and jumped away. Off on a well deserved vacation for Chancellor Palpatine.

  Lord Sidious was more than just a schemer.

  He was a dark lord of the Sith, and with his raw power and might he’d smash through whatever trap Dooku had in store and show him just how pitiful his efforts truly were in the face of a true master of the Dark side of the Force...

  — — —

  Anakin went to cut the slab of meat on his plate and turned to respond to Riktor’s question at the family meal. Only to freeze as the communicator in his pocket started buzzing and as he pulled it out started flashing bright red.

  A few seconds later a light mounted into the wall started flashing and a blaring alarm started going off.

  Anakin accepted the communicator connection.

  “TC-04, what’s happening?” he asked as all four of them rushed to their feet, their steaming dinner forgotten on the dinner table in front of them.

  “Military grade ship with extremely high stealth capabilities approaching for landing near the residence. Four seconds from maximum range for our anti-air batteries.”

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Six commando droids burst through the door to the dining room and unceremoniously picked up Slarena, Mom, and Riktor. The three of them let out some curses and yelps before the droids sprinted back out of the door again with them lifted and thrashing in confusion in the air.

  Anakin had added that protocol to save time in an emergency. Seconds could make all of the difference as the droids rushed his family deep into the maze like bunker below his house that had been slowly growing ever larger under TC-04’s direction and the digger droids that Anakin had designed and built for the purpose.

  “Firing anti-air batteries, home shield activated,” TC-04 said as Anakin rushed up to his room and picked up the long shock prod and jabbed it into his calf. The building shook slightly as the anti air turrets on the roof revealed themselves and started firing up into the sky at the ship far too small for Anakin to see yet. Anakin quickly fell onto his side on the floor and activated it with a groan, working as hard as he could to make sure it kept contact with his body.

  He didn’t hear TC-04’s words as he thrashed in pain with gritted teeth for a few moments before he started healing again. Draeth’s latest ability let him heal from energy below the threshold of his healing, and he’d just surpassed the bar to make this shock prod heal rather than hurt him.

  He stood to his feet and took out the high powered plasma cutter and held it to his calf again as he sat on the floor and took several rapid breaths.

  By the Force, this was going to hurt so much…

  He had always done this the slow way, a little bit at a time. Just going over his threshold a tiny bit and healing the damage before pushing farther. But there was no time for that…

  He screamed as the he pulled the trigger and the plasma seared directly into his flesh, slicing through like it was air.

  His whole left leg blackened and his skin started shriveling like crumpling paper as all of his hair burned off. His vision started flickering with blackness on the edges even as he kept the trigger held with a bone crushing grip.

  Then, a sweet wash of relief who knows how long after that. Anakin slowly came back to awareness to see that the plasma cutter was still letting out its searing flames directly onto his skin. But instead of burning away like before, the deep angry wound and burns were healing slowly.

  It took five more seconds of him panting and recovering from the waves of pain still assaulting him as his leg slowly healed from the damage.

  His leg was perfectly healed as the high density energy of the plasma cutter worked to heal his wounds at a rapid pace.

  He stumbled to his feet and dropped the plasma cutter and fumbled at his side and raised the communicator, his face and body plastered with sweat from what had just happened.

  “TC-04… Are they safe?” he asked half deliriously as he shook his head and slowly recovered as he made his way to the door.

  “They are within the bunker. Moving them down into one of the first set of secure rooms. I am currently organizing defenses of the defensive droids and moving my body to the command room on the lowest level. Your family should join me within four minutes. If the intruder enters the bunker then I will blow the central elevator shaft to keep them from reaching us. The military ship has landed. It avoided our attacks and landed just out of range. Our sensors register one lifeform has just left the ship and is approaching the house rapidly. It appears to be a Force User of far above average strength based on their speed.”

  “Good… Good. Yes, keep the droids in the bunker. I’ll fight whoever it is myself. I hope it's not a grandmaster though,” Anakin said and wiped his forehead and reached to the side and took a bulbous oversized blaster pistol from his desk. It was armor piercing and probably the strongest weapon for its size he could make, even if its fire rate was slow. But without having to worry about his own defense, being quick on the draw was less important to him.

  He checked the weapon over before nodding himself as his head began to fully clear as the last of the energy coursing through him went to healing the last damaged bits of his body.

  He ran out of the door and went to the front gate and stood there waiting with his heavy blaster held up in one hand.

  “Hey, TC-04? Are they…”

  Anakin shielded his eyes as the shield around the house suddenly lit up brightly and let out a loud plaintive electronic whine before failing with a massive ripping sound. Anakin only got the impression of lightning as a massive boom and an explosion knocked him back and to the ground.

  He dropped his pistol and it went spinning away from the shockwave as Anakin sat up just in time for the two closed metal gates of his house to crumple into twin balls of crumpled steel and fall to the ground.

  Before Anakin could react, a figure in a black cloak casually walked forward through the destroyed opening. Their dark hood was over their head and shrouded their face in darkness. Anakin tried to peer closer at their face, but it was blurred and distorted somehow. Some kind of advanced mask to disguise who the man beneath was?

  Anakin stood to his feet warily as the man in the black robes slowly walked up to Anakin calmly and confidently. The intruder came to a stop only a dozen meters away and visually inspected Anakin as if assessing a piece of meat. Anakin could feel the man’s disdain just from the way he stood.

  “Do you have power, and the strength of mind to wield it properly?” the man suddenly asked, his voice electronic and distorted as his strange mask seemed to disguise his voice as well.

  “Do I- What?” Anakin replied, thrown off by the sudden question.

  “I see. So you have not been taught in our arts,” the man said, “Good. I can teach you the true way. Not that malformed shadow of the real art that I displayed to Dooku. Yessssss. I can feel your hate. Your anger. Fear. So many emotions are roiling within you right now as I stand before you. I can teach you to harness them. Not one big rage filled burst like that of an animal, but the silent dagger of cold rage in the night. The harnessed fury of revenge well taken. The satisfaction of demolishing the pride of one who has wronged you. Power like no one else can offer you. Abilities and techniques that others can only dream of, I would teach to you freely.”

  “You want to be my teacher?” Anakin asked warily, not trusting this man one bit, “Why?”

  “I have my own reasons. All I ask in return is your absolute loyalty to me and my cause.”

  “Uhhhh…. No thank you?” Anakin said as he flexed his hands and raised his arms into a fighting stance.

  The stranger chuckled a little, then transitioned into a full sinister cackling laugh.

  “I wasn’t asking,” he said with obvious amusement even through the voice scrambler, “You will give me your loyalty or you will die. I will break your will and spirit until you see the wonderful opportunity that you’ve been given. And can do some breaking yourself of others that are lesser than you.”

  “I don’t think…”

  The stranger raised their hand and an iron grip wrapped around Anakin’s whole body and froze him in place and lifted him in the air. He couldn’t even breathe as an iron grip squeezed around his neck.

  “Do you see now how helpless you are?” the stranger gloated, “With a wave of my hand, you are defeated. It’s truly amusing how you thought that that shield around this place could protect you. I can teach you that power. The power to stop me, stop anyone from preventing you from taking or protecting whatever you wish. But only if you give me your loyalty. Loyalty to Lord Sidious, your one and only master.”

  “Sure. I agree,” Anakin choked out, ready to say anything to stall a little longer. Even now he could feel his body shifting as the Force around him soaked into his body and started weakening the tight grip on him.

  “Liar,” this Lord Sidious drawled slowly. He gestured downward with a lazy flick of his hand and Anakin’s face was pressed down into the dirt below.

  “Hmmmm. Now where is that little family of yours?” the stranger asked as he looked around, “Perhaps I should slaughter them first, start your journey as a true Sith right. You have the anger, the hate. But it needs a target, a focus. Me. Yesssssss, I will propel you to a Sith like this galaxy hasn’t seen in generations, with me as your rightful master…”

  Anakin started managing to twitch his limbs against the fierce grip of the Force on him. The stranger frowned, his body language reflecting confusion before the grip of the Force on Anakin tightened again.

  “Hm. What a novel Force technique. To manage to push my grip back even the slightest bit… But it must have a limit like all things. We will have to see which of us gives up first. But that exploration is for a later time. Goodnight for now. I must find your little family before they manage to escape or any other such plans you might have. Don’t worry, you’ll be awake for when I slaughter them one by one in front of you… Slowly.”

  Anakin thrashed harder and gritted his teeth as he pulled on his mindshield to suppress the dark side within him trying to rise up at the stranger’s threats. He couldn’t risk going insane, not when this man could be working with others. Not when his family were just below, where he might hurt or kill them if he truly became lost.

  The grip around Anakin’s neck gripped and tightened around it like a noose as he was lifted back into the air. He thrashed and pawed at the invisible grip on his neck in surprise as he felt the intruder smiling as he watched Anakin’s struggles.

  Then Anakin’s ability finally finished adjusting and he didn’t have to breathe anymore. Anakin lowered his hands from his neck stared at the intruder calmly for the moment as the man frowned and tightened his grip again and shook Anakin slightly in the air as if the motion would fix whatever was going wrong with the man’s crushing choke with the Force.

  Anakin moved his arms slowly against the ever increasing force pressing down on him as the intruder had now lifted his other hand and no longer looked at ease as the Force pressed down on Anakin like mountains. But he survived and with each passing moment he resisted it more and more.

  Then with a final grunt, he was released and the stranger groaned and lowered his arms as Anakin fell to the ground, gravity suddenly reasserting itself on him.

  “What… What is this power?” Lord Sidious asked hungrily as he scanned Anakin from head to toe as he stood there. Anakin even saw a slight dribble of drool come from the corner of the stranger’s lips and hit the ground as the man literally salivated at seeing Anakin’s powers displayed in front of him.

  “I must have it,” the man continued, “No, you are far too valuable to have as a student. Too much a threat to keep alive. I’ll rip the secrets of your techniques from your spirit after I have your corpse!”

  Anakin leapt to the side just as the man’s hands lit up with a crackling lightning and a massive blast of lightning shot towards him.

  Anakin just barely dodged the blast and hit the ground. His whole left side was charred and covered in deep burns as the lighting bolt went past him and slammed through the front door of his house.

  There was another explosion and all the windows in his home blew out. An orange glow lit inside the building as everything started burning.

  In less than a second, another bright charge of electricity shrouded the intruder’s hands and blasted Anakin with another blast of lightning, directly in the chest this time.

  He spasmed and thrashed as the powerful surge burned and shocked him as he lay there on the ground.

  Instead of a single massive burst of energy, his attacker turned to arcs of lightning that reached out like fingers and covered his whole body and started burrowing into his wounds as the formerly blue electricity started tinging red. It ate at him like a dying animal as he screamed on the dirt in pain.

  But then… Just when he felt like nothing but a charred skeleton and that he surely must be about to die… There was a wave of blessed relief. Just as quickly as he’d been charred, his body started to heal.

  The flow of lightning cut off quickly, but it was too late.

  Anakin’s attacker looked on in disbelief as Anakin rolled over to stare at him. Covered in burns, looking almost like a blackened and shriveled mummy besides his already healed eyes. Anakin met the man’s gaze as he felt all of his wounds begin to regenerate, the sheer amount of energy pumped into him in that single instant enough to bring him out of critical condition and let some of his skin regrow and sprout in patches and start the healing process.

  “Impossible…” the stranger breathed, “There is something deeper. Something I’m not seeing. There’s… Something… there…”

  The stranger leaned forward and peered at something just above Anakin’s still healing shoulder.

  A new voice suddenly spoke to Anakin from nowhere, “Hey, how’d you get so much energy so quick? I’ve woken up from my nap earlier than I should have. What’s…”

  Draeth suddenly popped into existence right between Anakin and his attacker. The blue tentacled creature froze as it turned around and saw Lord Sidious standing there. Lord Sidious’ gaze snapped downwards and looked directly at Draeth as soon as he appeared.

  “oh... FUCK!” Draeth shouted at full volume in a panic as Lord Sidious’ body froze and he started twitching slightly as his eyes glazed over. Anakin felt an incredible amount of Force rush inwards and flow through the man opposite him. It just kept building and building higher and higher like nothing that Anakin had ever felt before.

  “Oh shit, shit, shit FUCK!” Draeth cursed as Sidious’ feet lifted off of the ground slightly as a wind started rushing around him in the beginnings of a swirling storm. The man's eyes were empty as he stared at the horizon blankly, seemingly not taking in his surroundings in the slightest.

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck, there’s got to be an ability that can get us out of this…”

  Draeth muttered as Lord Sidious’ eyes began to glow a bright ruby red. Anakin’s body finished healing and he started scrambling backwards away from the floating man that didn’t seem to even notice him anymore.

  “I… See you, Parasite,” Sidious said in a booming voice that sounded absent minded as he stared into nothing with his glowing red eyes. The red glow had spread like a spreading mist to his whole body and his figure started shimmering and becoming indistinct through the sinister crimson glow covering him.

  “FUCK! I WAS DOING SO WELL!” Draeth shouted, “FUCK YOU, FORCE! THIS ENERGY IS MINE NOW, YOU CAN’T HAVE IT!”

  “Your true body will be found. Without the host, following the link back to the true you will be elementary. Then we will have what you have stolen and more. You made a mistake thinking that we would let you escape so easily, thief.” Sidious continued absentmindedly as the Force grew stronger and stronger around him as the winds started dragging Anakin to the side slightly with its force as he scrambled to his feet and stumbling away towards the bunker. Sidious made no move to follow or even seemed to notice what was happening around him even as the storm in the Force grew stronger and stronger by the moment.

  “FUCK, KID! FASTER! RUN FOR THE BUNKER! HE’S ABOUT TO BLOW!”

  “Wha- Hu-”

  “SHUT THE FUCK UP AND JUST RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!” Draeth screamed and appeared at the hatch down into the bunker and gestured wildly at the closed hatch set into the ground.

  Anakin fumbled at the controls but with a click the hatch opened by itself as a red light flicked to green and Anakin jumped down inside into the room below and ignored the ladder down. He landed on the ground in a crouch and looked around.

  “What’s–”

  “NO! NO! MOVE, RUN, GODDAMNIT! THE FORCE IS ABOUT TO BLOW THIS WHOLE DAMN SOLAR SYSTEM TO BITS IN LESS THAN A MINUTE! KEEP RUNNING, YOU BRAIN. DEAD. MORON!”

  “What? Blow up?” Anakin said dumbly even as he ran forward at full speed at the prompting and reached an elevator shaft at the end of the short hallway with only two or three turns off the central hallway. This was the main elevator shaft that led to the very bottom of the base where TC-04 and his parents would be. Rigged to collapse if any intruders thought to use it as a shortcut through all of the other defenses. The door to the elevator shaft opened, but there was no cab inside, instead just an empty shaft. TC-04 was helping him by opening the doors for him again, most likely. Anakin leaned over the edge and looked down into the shaft that went down into the darkness more than a kilometer underground down below.

  “NO TIME! JUST JUMP!”

  Anakin reflexively startled at the sudden noise and tripped forward over his own feet into the elevator shaft and started falling down into the darkness, tumbling end over end into the darkness.

  “I’m giving you the ability now, I just hope it’s enough,” Draeth muttered from the blackness all around him as Anakin tumbled down the elevator shaft and bounced off of the walls painfully with slams of his flesh on metal as he flailed and screamed in surprise as he fell.

  Anakin was wracked with pain as he felt Draeth add another ability to him. This one felt much more significant than all of the others. The pain and energy coursing through him were far more than he’d ever felt before as he kept falling down the deep elevator shaft.

  When Anakin woke up he was still falling through the darkness.

  “Great! Awake! Feel it, your new ability! Activate it now!”

  “Wha-” Anakin spluttered, confused and disoriented as his head slammed hard into the wall of the elevator shaft and spent him spinning through the open air again.

  “YOU’RE ABOUT TO HIT THE BOTTOM OF THIS SHAFT IN TEN SECONDS AND THEN THE PLANET YOU’RE ON IS GOING TO FUCKING EXPLODE! BOTH WILL KILL YOU! AND ME, YOU UNGRATEFUL WASTE OF SPACE! JUST DO IT ALREADY!”

  There was a pulse in the blazing, swirling star of condensed Force above them.

  “Prepare to be purged, Parasite. We’ll be seeing the real you very soon. We’re looking forward to it.” Lord Sidious’ voice from above so loudly that the ground rippled and the ground buckled and cracked around him even as he kept falling as his voice carried all the way down to Anakin’s ears far below.

  “ACTIVATE IT!” Draeth screamed at Anakin in desperation as the swirling ball of Force pulsed again one final time.

  Anakin didn’t protest through his pounding his head and listened this time and pulled on the new part of himself that he felt for the first time after waking back up.

  Just as he was about to slam into the ground, his fall stopped abruptly and he hovered in place as if frozen in time. Even as the ground rippled again and the singularity of Force above started to expand in a devastating shockwave, something shifted within Anakin.

  A wave of blue light burst out of his body that spread out nearly to the top of the elevator shaft, letting everything glow and shimmer as if underwater. The top of the shockwave of the impossibly strong explosion collapsed the top of the elevator shaft and practically compressed the dirt and stone into a solid expanding wall of compressed material like it was not even there.

  As the first of the stones started falling down the shaft down towards Anakin below, the shimmering blue bubble around him on all sides solidified and hardened in some way that would be hard to describe to someone who didn’t witness it for themselves. Everything looked visually the same, yet everything was just indescribably more solid and steady than normal things should be.

  The pressure wave continued downwards, even the shortest pause causing it to travel nearly a quarter of the distance down the elevator shaft.

  Then with one more pulse of blue light, everything in the blue sphere centered on Anakin’s floating body fizzled and then with a loud pop disappeared in a flash and pulse of energy, leaving a perfectly spherical void inside of the planet of nearly two kilometers in diameter where the massive bunker under his house teeming with droids had used to be.

  The shockwave kept moving, uncaring of the empty space as it rushed onwards to keep burrowing into the ground and not being slowed in the slightest by the soil and stone in its way.

  The residents of the planet barely felt the ground beneath them quake and barely had the time to look around in confusion before they were reduced to dust. The shockwave continued, undiminished by the vacuum of space and distance it had to travel through.

  Every planet that it touched was reduced to dust as the shockwave passed through it, barely slowing a fraction each time. Any sentient beings on space stations or ships scattered around the system barely had seconds before they were hit by the blast and crushed into dust as well.

  The blast wave hit the star in the center of the star system, shining its bright rays to the whole galaxy.

  Like a candle being snuffed, even the star couldn’t resist the blast before being dispersed.

  Where the star system used to be was only a slowly spreading cloud of spreading dust.

  Now the Force must work on tracing the anchor of the Parasite’s projection back to its true body outside of its universe. With its anchor destroyed the Force would be able to seize the frayed and loose end of the connection and forcefully draw it into this universe from outside.

  Then the Force would get all of its energy back and more.

  And teach this creature a lesson for trying to feed on it and the beings in its network and galaxy.

  This galaxy and the beings within it belonged to the Force and no other.