Vel slowly stumbled through the wreckage, following the sounds of battle. The winds howled in her ears and the sand assaulted her wounds as she continued moving through the scrapyard. Her orange cloak flailed violently as the winds blew past and incidentally, knocked her down into the sand. She groaned, trying to collect herself, but unfortunately saw the decapitated head of someone staring at her. She yelped, startled at the dismembered head and scrambled back, ignoring the shooting pain throughout her body.
Once she caught her breath and was able to get up, she saw the entrance of where the body had emerged from, hearing the sounds of clashing sabers within. Slowly, she moved in, seeing what remained of an uneven fight. She saw Imperials and Rebels alike scattered within. She saw a spot where there should have been a body, but instead a pair of feet surrounded by red. She continued to stager into the wreckage gazing upon the carnage that lay before her, but stopped when she say the still body of Scoo. Gasping for air, she rushed to her fallen ally, falling to her knees with tears beginning to build up in her eyes. She wrapped her arms around Scoo's cold body, holding him close to her, staining her robes red with his blood. Her tears ran down her face, stinging her cuts and falling down to Scoo's fur. She wept for a moment before the clashing of sabers grabbed her attention.
Standing a few feet away from her and atop some wreckage was Master Fre'Dell, keeping two sabers at bay with his own. The amount of effort he was putting in to hold his saber up showed on his face: his teeth grinding and a grunt coming from his throat. Vel focused on his assailant and saw the red robot, someone she had believed dead for some time. General Grievous leaned in to the struggle, making Fre'Dell slip slightly. Once the Jedi realized he was looking his ground, he leaped away, landing next to Vel. He panted as he caught his breath, looking down to the young padawan. "It is good to see you still draw breath, young Vel." He said throuth inhales. Vel nodded as she locked eyes with her master, but both of their attention was drawn back to Grievous, who had put away his sabers and was clawing at his mask. One of his claws scratched the metal over his right eye, creating a jagged gash on the face plate.
Fre'Dell was stunned to see that the right eye was no longer that painful yellow, but rather an emerald green; his pupil shifting between a slender shape to a more human circular shape.
"Master?" Vel said, her voice filled with concern. Fre'Dell had no answer for what was happening, but what ever was happening, he had to take the chance. He ran towards Grievous' incapacitated body and raised his saber, prepared to swing down on the hated General.
----------------------------
William punched the body of TS-14, sending the droid falling on the so called floor. The droid collided with the floor, though there was no solid ground to fall on. The two figures were fighting for control, and William had awoken from his coma and was now fighting the Invader for his body.
"This is your mind no longer, weakling!" TS-14 shouted, getting up with ridiculous speed, throwing a punch at William. The Ex-Imperial Captain leaned back, avoiding the punch only slightly. He then kicked the robot's leg, breaking the knee joint and causing the robot to fall.
"Then explain why I'm still here?" William said, walking over to a console that appeared to show the outside world: Grievous had been staring at two injured looking beings, and was about to strike before William had knocked the droid out of the pilot seat.
"You are a pathetic mortal! You blew yourself up to destroy a droid! What makes you think you can fight a real Jedi!!" TS-14 shouted, his leg slowly reforming itself. It was all in their head after all, there was no serious damage to TS-14 save for emotional scars.
"I don't think that. I'm hoping this new body can take the hits." William replied, sitting in the chair and preparing to fight: the so called jedi ran towards him with his saber raised in the air.
"This is the death of me..." TS-14 muttered, lowering his head against the floor, a metal clank ringing in the void of this reality.
----------------------------
Fre'Dell swung the saber down, hoping that the robot's head would cut cleanly.
Unexpectedly, one of Grievous' hands reached out and caught the saber, stopping it from connecting to more sensitive circuits. Fre'Dell gasped in shock, looking past his saber and to Grievous' face, only seeing that his eyes had changed. Now both eyes were emerald green, lids slanted in anger and frustration. Grievous' body stood up, his hand still holding the saber. "That smart droid put the beskar on this armor. Nice." The body of Grievous said, but it was not Grievous' voice. Fre'Dell was only growing more confused when Grievous yanked the saber to the side, sending Fre'Dell flying into a piece of rubble. The Red robot then reached into his cloak, not pulling out a light saber, but the beskar blade, the metal shining as he drew it.
Fre'Dell struggled to recover from his fall, pressing his fists into the ground and trying to push himself up. He finally managed to get up only with the help of the Storm trooper, who lifted him. "Jedi, that voice, that is Captain William. I don't know how this is possible. The last I saw of him, he was just like me. Now he's this monster."
Fre'Dell, gazed into Grievous' green eyes and sensed the turmoil within. "No, not quite at least." Fre'Dell commented, gathering the strength to stand firmly. "Captain Jaeger!" He shouted, causing the General to stop and loosen his posture.
"That would be I." the General replied, tapping his sword against the sand. "Although now I suppose you can call me General Jaeger." He paused, looking to his left arm, studying its new robotic form. "I guess you can say I got a promotion." He turned his gaze back towards Fre'Dell, his eyes showing that he was angry.
"What happened to you, sir?" The trooper asked, slowly approaching the General.
"Ah, that voice sounds slightly familiar. You served under me for a time before getting into an argument with..." He almost finished his sentence before he remembered Draxacon. He turned away for a moment and Fre'Dell could see some of the yellow return into those pools of green. He shook his head and faced the trooper once more. "Long story short, Vader tried to kill me and I ended up blowing a crater into the surface of Mygeeto."
Fre'Dell looked to the side slightly when he saw Daf'Nee and the last Inquisitor quietly approach Vel and urge her to move. Vel nodded, her attention not moving away from the General as the three girls moved towards the Wreckage's only opening. He now understood why the trooper was questioning Jaeger: She was distracting him.
Unfortunately, he had predicted this, for a number of red commando droids flowed through the entry way, blocking their escape and aiming their blasters to the three injured force users. General Jaeger looked back and Fre'Dell thought he heard a chuckle. "Yeah, I summoned them once I got control of my body back. I may be more reasonable than the collector up here-" He tapped his forehead with his left claw, "- but I may be less honorable than him." He then raised his sword to the Storm trooper. "Go join them. I have a proposition for blondie here." The trooper looked to Fre'Dell, then complied, raising her hands and joining the other three.
Fre'Dell gave the General his full attention. "So, General, what is your supposed proposition?"
"I want to take all five of you as prisoner, but the undead robot is screaming that he wants you dead at least." Jaeger's eye twitched, revealing a flash of yellow before it settled back into green. "So, We have a duel. You win: I let you take those five away and you can go join another rebel cell. I don't really care about the rebellion right now, my quarrel is with the Empire." Fre'Dell watched as his eyes seemed to begin fighting against one another, shifting from green to yellow then back again. "If I win, well..." Jaeger began to laugh, his voice sounding more and more like Grievous as he laughed. "I'll be adding your blade to our collection." Jaeger's gaze returned towards Fre'Dell, but more specifically, his light saber.
Fre'Dell's grip around his light saber tightened, and he began to prefer Grievous' rage over Jaeger's sadism. "What will happen to them if you win?"
Jaeger shrugged, looking towards the four women. "As I said, prisoners. At least the three force users. The trooper I could possibly make use of." Jaeger turned back around and shrugged once more. "Hopefully all four of them will aid me in time. I intend to kill the Emperor." Hearing this sent a chill down Fre'Dell's spine. If this guy was so against the Empire, why had he attacked both fleets then.
"If you intend to end the Emperor and his tyrannical rule, why not join the Rebel-"
The speed that Jaeger had moved with was insane. One moment, the droid general was standing several feet away, the next his beskar blade was pressed up against Fre'Dell's throat. The Jedi froze, studying the blade then looking to the General's face plate. His eyes were shaking; unsteady and violently vibrating as they switched from green and yellow once more. Finally, Jaeger removed his blade and slowly backed away, giving the Jedi some distance before their fight. "I hold no regret in destroying Rebels. It's what I did when I worked for the Empire. To simply join them..." His shoulders began to tense up. "...Unthinkable." Jaeger then took a fighting stance: legs evenly spread apart and holding the beskar sword in front of his body with both hands. "Now, shall we begin?"
Fre'Dell thought about it for a moment, weighing his chances. This Jaeger may not be as violent as Grievous, but he may be more tactical in his fighting style. Perhaps he could come out of this duel on top. Then again, who's to say that he won't just pull another speed move and cut straight into him. The Jedi took a breath, then mimicked the General, looking to the red robot past the blue glow of his blade.
The two then slowly began to move sideways, keeping the same position as they did. Their feet shifted the sands, causing everyone around to focus on the two. The General's cape began to billow as the winds began to pick up. Fre'Dell's own robes began to rustle against his body, smacking against his wounds. Fre'Dell knew how this would end, so he stopped to conserve his strength. The General stopped as well, his claws sinking into the sand.
The wind howled as the two stared each other down, holding their blades steady. Fre'Dell's grip was staggering as he built up his strength in his legs. His plan was to jump towards him and cut him in half. Hopefully his mid section was not as defended as the rest of him. Panting, he began bending his knees slightly, ready to pounce. He saw the General's own legs bend as well. He knew this was the end.
He jumped forward, as did the General. Fre'Dell felt his saber cut something as was impaled; the beskar blade's hilt pressing against his abdomen. He groaned in pain and looked at where his saber had cut, becoming disheartened when he saw no signs of damage on the robot's body. His cape began to burn and fell apart, leaving a large portion of the cape to burn in the sand.
As he breathed his last, Fre'Dell turned to face his padawans, Daf'ee screaming in pain and falling to the floor, struggling against her captors' grasp. The trooper lowered her head and the Inquisitor began to tear up. He was certain those tears were more for herself rather than for him. The last thing he felt before falling to the sand was the General's metal claws ripping his saber out of his hand.
The General removed his blade from the dead Jedi, allowing the body to fall, and sheathed both weapons. He turned to look at the four women who appeared defeated. "Send those three to the brig. The Storm Trooper..." He approached the soldier, noticing her injuries. "Comes with me." The Commando droids all nodded simultaneously and began moving the prisoners. The massive army of droids began marching back towards the drop ships and loading up, preparing to return to their ship. Jaeger looked up to the sky, spotting his new vessel. The flagship that will blow the Imperial Palace off the face of Coruscant.
The Imperial Bane.