| abstract
| - In a curious way, it was similar to when Padmé and Anakin first fought on Naboo. Their styles were almost unchanged. Anakin with his brash, powerful and almost arrogant way of manoeuvring against Padmé’s lighter, quicker and more agile form. Yet where Padmé was completely immersed in the living Force, Anakin used his anger as fuel for his attacks. So in a way the fight was different. Before it had been intense, but not deadly, almost playful. There was nothing light-hearted about the way they clashed now or about their intent. Several times their blades intermingled, neither one gaining an advantage. But it was not long before they were both at it again. Anakin used brute force to augment his attacks, spinning his lightsaber close to his body before making a single, strong lunge at Padmé. She twisted out of his range, her lightsaber moving with are as she turned and then attacked him from behind. But Anakin was quick to intercept her attack, blocking her quickly. Left, then right, then left again, pressing the blue blade hard against Padmé’s green one. Padmé span out away from him, her blade in a trail behind her as she moved. Anakin moved with her, his movements mimicking hers. She stepped back again, then spun her lightsaber around and thrust the blade forward with a thrusting motion. It took a moment for Anakin to move out of the path of her blade, and another one for him to bring his lightsaber blade up to lock with hers. They stared at each other, not speaking, yet within seconds they were at it again. With her lightsaber low beside her leg, Padmé turned further away, giving ground and forcing him away from where Sidious continued to sit. Anakin rounded on her, trying to gain the upper hand and lead the fight where he wanted it to go, but she didn’t let him. And when he turned around to block her way, Padmé brought up her lightsaber against his and then flipped over his left shoulder. Furious, Anakin span after her but Padmé was on the offensive, her lightsaber everywhere at once and all he could do was deflect it. She then withdrew again, coming to a stop a short distance away from Anakin with her lightsaber in a low guard position. Anakin attacked, making his lunge as wide as he could to trap Padmé and force her to move the fight his way, but she didn’t. She simply fell back again, and Anakin could see she was running out of ground as behind her was a large flat table. Eventually she would have to take the offensive, eventually she would have to force him back and he would somehow gain the upper hand. The blue lightsaber blade snaked dangerously close to Padmé’s body, she twisted out of its path but she could only hold her own blade up as his blade continued its swing. The two blades were locked, and with Anakin’s body blocking the other side, Padmé was trapped. For a moment her eyes caught his, both of them remembering the last time they had both been in this position, and what had happened after that. Anakin’s eyes narrowed, that didn’t matter now, as Palpatine had said, Padmé cared nothing for him. “What was that you said about old tricks?” he snarled, his mouth forming a grim line. Padmé shook her head. “You still haven’t learned,” she said, smiling sadly at him. Using the Force to give her attack strength, Padmé batted away Anakin’s lightsaber with her own and then jumped onto the table, her feet impacting with Anakin’s knees as she ascended. She landed with her knees slightly bent, above him and with a greater advantage. With a howl of rage Anakin jumped onto the table with her, narrowly missing Padmé’s lightsaber as he did. He threw her back with both the Force and his weapon letting his anger and frustration give fuel to his attack. Once, twice, three times, Padmé tried to respond to his blows with several of her own, but each and every time he was ready with a speed and power that was nothing short of astonishing. When Padmé tried to retreat, jumped to the other end of the table away from Anakin, Anakin responded by slicing the table in half so the two pieces tilted away from each other, one part taking Padmé with it. Anakin attacked her again just as Padmé was falling against a wall, she felt the hardness against her shoulders and the middle of her boots was just touching the severed middle of the table. Frowning in concentration she pushed the table back again with the Force, feeling it tilt towards the other half while she was still standing on it, her lightsaber held to the side to deflect anything Anakin might put her way. This did not impress Anakin, in fact it added fuel to his fury as he attacked for the third time, this time forcing Padmé back to where he wanted the fight to be. On the other side of the room Sidious watched as the two combatants neared, smiling as he noticed Anakin how had the advantage. Padmé may have been more than a match for him, but Anakin was clearly the better fighter. It would not be long before Anakin killed her himself, which was what Sidious intended all along. Anakin’s pain of his own actions would be enough for Sidious to turn him, and the galaxy would not stand a chance at what the two of them combined could unleash. And somehow, Padmé realised this. Deep in the midst of the fight, the noise and light not penetrating her concentration at all, she felt a subtle nudging from the Force. It moved her arms for her to block Anakin, and made her jump away from him and run towards Palpatine. “No! Padmé!” Anakin was after her, his lightsaber snaking dangerously close to where she was standing. She can’t mean it…Anakin though desperately…No… His heart gave out when Padmé rounded on Sidious, forcing Anakin back to give her room to attack the Sith Lord. “Padmé, NOOOO!” Anakin lunged at her wildly, his attack uncalculated and without purpose. For a moment their blades crossed again, the blue and green intermingling to form a bright turquoise. Padmé smiled sadly, she knew what she had to do next. “You’ll thank me later,” she whispered, stepping back and then attacked Anakin with such a blow that he was left reeling. While he was recovering she reached into the Force and hurled Anakin onto the other side of the room, colliding heavily with a chair. And before he recovered she confronted Palpatine, her green blade before her, her mind calm and collected. Sidious was furious. Padmé had somehow managed to get in his way again and still live to tell the tale. And again he had underestimated her, he had counted on the fact that her connection to Anakin was above everything else. But he had been wrong, before anything else Padmé was a Jedi. She won’t get away, Sidious vowed, curling his fingers as he gathered the dark side within himself, not this time, not this time . “You have been ruined my plans for far too long,” he spat, getting to his feet as Padmé’s blade inched closer. “Not even your Jedi weapon can save you from the dark side of the Force.” Sidious made a sweeping motion with his hand that threw Padmé back, she was on one knee near the floor but still held her lightsaber aloft. “I'm…I’m not going to give in,” she said in a shaking voice. “I’m not weak like Nju.” “More the pity,” Sidious snarled. “You could have been so much more.” He spread his hands and blue lightning shot from his fingertips, Padmé screwed her eyes shut with the pain, but was silent. “You know what it feels like, don’t you?” he taunted in a low voice. “You’ve felt it before, that’s why the dark side is stronger, it can destroy you from within.” “Liar!” Padmé spat, her hands fumbling for her dropped lightsaber. Sidious cast the lightning at her again, not a short burst like before but long and measured out. This time Padmé was on her knees, her hands grabbing the floor as the pain travelled through her. “You fool!” Sidious said, the tip of his boot finding Padmé’s chin and forcing it up. “Only now, only in the end, do you even begin to understand!” He let loose with the lightning again. Anakin, slightly winded and a little bruised, got to his feet and walked towards Sidious. Driven to exhaustion, Dooku was on his knees and knew his death would come within a matter of seconds. He knew not it Nju was still alive and cared little. He cared less if Sidious managed to turn Skywalker to the dark side or not. For the first time Dooku considered the possibility that he may have been wrong in giving up the Jedi. And he may have even been wrong for choosing the dark side of the Force. The very next moment was his last, several lightsaber blades extinguished the life left in him. But it was never known exactly who killed him. Inside his lightsaber cage Nju stared defiantly at Yoda. Bested, immobilised, but not defeated. He still had one move to make. “This is when you kill me, isn’t it,” Nju snarled. “For all your Jedi morals and codes, I know you want to do it.” Yoda shook his head. “To kill is not the Jedi way.” “But you know there is no saving me,” Nju argued, his voice was low and cold. “There are limits to compassion, even to yours.” Yoda did not answer, for a long moment he examined his former student. Where had he gone wrong in his instruction? Where had the light ended and the path to the dark side began? Yoda had his suspicions, but like with Nju’s treachery before the Clone Wars had begun, he had no definite answers. Yet Nju needed no answers, no explanations and no excuses. All he wanted was an end, and it was up to him to provide it. He held up the deactivated hilt of his remaining lightsaber. “You’ll never know, Master Yoda,” Nju told him as he pressed the end to his chest. “Even you, with all your knowledge of the Force, will never truly know what the dark side truly is and why it ensnared me.” He met Yoda’s eyes and smiled, then pressed the emitter.
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