Chapter 68: Star Wars : Chapter 68: Regret I
Anakin's speeder shrieked through the rain, dodging forked bolts of lightning that shot up from towers into the clouds, slicing across traffic lanes, screaming past spacescrapers so fast that his shock-wake cracked windows as he passed.
He didn't understand why people didn't just get out of his way. He didn't understand how the trillion beings who jammed Galactic City could go about their trivial business as though the universe hadn't changed. How could they think they counted for anything, compared with him?
How could they think they still mattered? Their blind lives meant nothing now. None of them. Because ahead, on the vast cliff face of the Senate Office Building, one window spat lightning into the rain to echo the lightning of the storm outside—but this lightning was the color of clashing lightsabers.
Green fans, sheets of purple—
And crimson flame.
He was too late.
The green fire faded and winked out; now the lightning was only purple and red.
The Council's eyes widened in fear, knowing this could only mean one thing; Master Fisto had fallen to the Sith, leaving Mace alone to fight off Palpatine. Said Master could only close his eyes in denial and of faint hope, but it was already clear to him when he compared himself to Sidious. The Korun Master only gave him what seemed to be an apologetic look, for leading them to their deaths without any plan against Sidious.
His repulsor lifts howled as he heeled the speeder up onto its side, skidding through wind-shear turbulence to bring it to abobbing halt outside the window of Palpatine's private office. Ablast of lightning hit the spire of 500 Republica, only a kilometer away, and its white burst flared off the window, flash-blinding him; he blinked furiously, slapping at his eyes in frustration.
"That blast of that lightning made Count Dooku's own look like a mere spark compared to a storm". Plo Koon noted, the fact that his own version of the technique looked so miniscule compared to Sidious'.
The colorless glare inside his eyes faded slowly, bringing into focus a jumble of bodies on the floor of Palpatine's private office.
Bodies in Jedi robes.
"What...what am I doing there?", Anakin questioned, not having the details that were shown to the Council members and Anakin could see to his future that he was agitated, worried, afraid but for what? For once, he wanted to know the truth now, and keeping any more secrets is not an option.
However, the Council could not turn to give him the answers he needed right now. Right now, they have to see how this plays through.
On Palpatine's desk lay the head of Kit Fisto, faceup, scalp-tentacles unbound in a squid-tangle across the ebonite. His lid-less eyes stared blindly at the ceiling. Anakin remembered him in the arena at Geonosis, effortlessly carving his way through wave after wave of combat droids, on his lips a gently humorous smile as though the horrific battle were only some friendly jest. His severed head wore that same smile.
Maybe he thought death was funny, too.
Anakin's own blade sang blue as it slashed through the window and he dived through the gap. He rolled to his feet among a litter of bodies and sprinted through a shattered door along the small private corridor and through a doorway that flashed and flared with energy-scatter.
Anakin skidded to a stop.
Within the public office of the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic, a last Jedi Master battled alone, blade-to-blade, against a living shadow.
Sinking into Vaapad, Mace Windu fought for his life. More than his life: each whirl of blade and whipcrack of lightning was a strike in defense of democracy, of justice and peace, of the rights of ordinary beings to live their own lives in their own ways.
He was fighting for the Republic that he loved.
The Jedi were astounded as to how the Korun Master held his own against the Sith Lord when others could not, with Caleb and Ahsoka watching in awe as Mace managed to fight Sidious in a standstill, and all that they could figure, are blurs of crimson and amethyst blades in such speed that they could never match up.
As for Mace, he silently observed Sidious' movements rather than his own, studying his dueling style that he could almost certainly point out that he utilizes all seven forms of combat.
Vaapad, the seventh form of lightsaber combat, takes its name from a notoriously dangerous predator native to the moons of Sarapin: a vaapad attacks its prey with whipping strikes of its blindingly fast tentacles. Most have at least seven. It is not uncommon for them to have as many as twelve; the largest ever killed had twenty-three. With a vaapad, one never knew how many tentacles it had until it was dead: they move too fast to count.
Almost too fast to see. So did Mace's blade.
Vaapad is as aggressive and powerful as its namesake, but its power comes at great risk: immersion in Vaapad opens the gates that restrain one's inner darkness. To use Vaapad, a Jedi must allow himself to enjoy the fight; he must give himself over to the thrill of battle. The rush of winning. Vaapad is a path that leads through the penumbra of the dark side.
"Master, didn't you learn this style from Master Windu, too?", Caleb asked, seeing that if his master's master could be this powerful, then he was certain that Depa also learned this technique when she was under his tutelage.
"I did, Caleb", Depa answered him, but let out a resigning sigh. "But I was not worthy enough to use such a style, and it resulted in dire consequences to not just myself, but to several others"
Mace Windu created this style, and he was its only living master. This was Vaapad's ultimate test.
Anakin blinked and rubbed his eyes again. Maybe he was still abit flash-blind—the Korun Master seemed to be fading in and out of existence, half swallowed by a thickening black haze in which danced a meter-long bar of sunfire.
Mace pressed back the darkness with a relentless straight-ahead march; his own blade, that distinctive amethyst blaze that had been the final sight of so many evil beings across the galaxy, made a haze of its own: an oblate sphere of purple fire within which there seemed to be dozens of swords slashing in all directions at once.
"This is the true power of Vaapad...", Obi-Wan mavelled in complete fascination.
"Channel an opponents power back at them through the force", Yoda observed, impressed on how Mace's unorthodox dueling style managed to keep up with Sidious. "His judgement be clouded by the strong emotions. A Sith's greatest weakness once drawn to deep to the dark side"
Anakin watched in complete amazement as he heard Yoda's statement, confident that Mace should be able to destroy the monster of a Sith Lord that fooled him for years. And now, he is only wishing that his future self didn't do anything that could be considered as stupid.
The shadow he fought, that blur of speed—could that be Palpatine?
Their blades flared and flashed, crashing together with bursts of fire, weaving nets of killing energy in exchanges so fast that Anakin could not truly see them—
But he could feel them in the Force.
The Force itself roiled and burst and crashed around them, boiling with power and lightspeed ricochets of lethal intent. And it was darkening. Anakin could feel how the Force fed upon the shadow's murderous exaltation; he could feel fury spray into the Force though some poisonous abscess had crested in both their hearts.
There was no Jedi restraint here.
Mace Windu was cutting loose.
Mace was deep in it now: submerged in Vaapad, swallowed by it, he no longer truly existed as an independent being.
Vaapad is a channel for darkness, and that darkness flowed both ways. He accepted the furious speed of the Sith Lord, drew the shadow's rage and power into his inmost center— And let it fountain out again.
He reflected the fury upon its source as a lightsaber redirects ablaster bolt.
There was a time when Mace Windu had feared the power of the dark; there was a time when he had feared the darkness in himself.
But the Clone Wars had given him a gift of understanding: on a world called Haruun Kal, he had faced his darkness and had learned that the power of darkness is not to be feared. He had learned that it is fear that gives the darkness power. He was not afraid. The darkness had no power over him. But—Neither did he have power over it.
"Master Drallig would be impressed if he were here to witness this spectacle", Saesee Tiin spoke, his hopes placed in Master Windu at avenging their deaths and to stop Sidious.
"The Force is with Master Windu at this one...", Master Mundi spoke, placing his faith on the Korun Master.
...
Hey guys I would really appreciate it if you could throw some power stones to help elevate the ranking.
...
if you want to read ahead of the public release, you can join my p atreon :
p atreon.com/Darkness013
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone