Order 66: A Star Wars Story

The battlemaster

The smell of the battle within the sparring hall was beginning to overpower Vader's nostrils. Blaster bolts and the smell of burned skin was now taking over. On top of that, multiple explosions had erupted from the main hall and smoke began to pour into the sparring hall. In the midst of the chaos, many more Jedi had fell to Vader's blade. Each kill desensitised him more and more. The more he killed, the more powerful he felt in the dark side. He knew however that Sidious had been lying to him. When they spoke st the Opera, Palpatine had told Anakin the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the wise and how he was able to stop people from dying. Darth Plagueis "taught his apprentice everything he knew" and Sidious later told Skywalker that Plagueis was indeed his master. Implying, no, not implying, confirming that Sidious had the power to cheat death. Yet, when Anakin, newly appointed as Vader begged Sidious to help save Padme's life, Sidious made a massive error. His words to his pupil were: "To cheat death is a power only one has achieved but if we work together I know we can discover the secret." Right there, that told Vader he had been manipulated from the very start.
Instead of confronting Sidious and killing him for his treachery, he decided revenge would be much better suited. He would "pledge himself" to Sidious' teachings, allow Sidious to rise to the rank of Emperor, reach the apex of his power, and take it away from him in one final stroke. Then, when Vader became Emperor, he would announce Padme as his queen, have full access to the Jedi's destroyed temple and learn the secrets of immortality so that he, Padme and their child could rule the galaxy forever. However, first thing was first. He would do Sidious' bidding, bide his time, do the dirty work, let Sidious believe he is in control, then, he would act.
Cin Drallig was his main concern now.
The battlemaster took out another two clone troopers before retreating into the massive hallways that lead to multiple areas of the temple.
The hallways were decorated with red carpets covering smooth stone flooring, and bronze and gold statues were intelligently placed in different areas that had information about what the statues meant. Some where ancient Jedi and some were the original architects of the temple itself. Master Yoda has professed that the halls were filled with more history than most rooms they led to.
Vader saw Cin Drallig was about to leap from the catwalk multiple levels downward until reaching the very bottom of the temple.
'How funny that the "battlemaster" flees from battle.' Vader mocked, standing a few meters behind Drallig.
Drallig turned around, focusing his weathered features onto the fallen Jedi.
'I had great hopes for you, Skywalker. Your lightsaber skills and command of the force were unmatched.'
'And also wasted on the Jedi.' Vader interrupted.
'Do you think so? If that is true, do you think the dark side gives you power over all of us? Including Master Yoda?' Drallig challenged.
'Of course. But not without training. If one is to become all powerful, one must study all aspects of the force,'Admittley, Vader was quoting Sidious here. 'The Light and Dark.' Vader finished.
'Yet the dark has consumed you. It has blinded you because you have fell too far into it. Sacrificing the light in favour of the dark is weakness personified.'
'As is sacrificing the dark in favour of the light.' Vader countered.
Cin Drallig smiled. 'It's unfortunate things had to turn out this way.'
'If the Jedi had granted me what I needed, things wouldn't have had to be like this. All this?' Vader said, opening his arms up and looking around the smoke filled corridors of the battle damaged temple in exaggerated meaning, 'all this is the Jedi's doing. Not mine.'
'You poor deluded fool.' Drallig sadly replied.
'I was deluded, Drallig. Not anymore.'
The battle that started between them would be one of the hardest Vader would have in his life. Cin Drallig wasn't the battlemaster for posterity. The man could hang with the best of them. He was one of the few Jedi in the order to even contend with Yoda and give Yoda trouble. The only others known to do that were Mace Windu, Kenobi, and Plo Koon. Cin Drallig has mastered every form of lightsaber combat and could switch through them seemlessly. He will need that skill, Vader thought to himself.
Vader was the first to attack. Whilst he had not mastered all forms of lightsaber combat like his combatant, he did master Form V. Not only master it, but perfected it and his attack was almost unstoppable.
Three extremely hard blows followed by a flurry of attacks set Drallig on the back foot, but the battlemaster was prepared and defending excellently with Form III.
A good defense, but he's no Kenobi, Vader's mind said to him.
Vader attempted a fake out by pretending to slash at the battlemaster and then finally lunge at Drallig, but this proved to be a mistake.
Drallig saw an opening to Vader's gut and took this opportunity. He side stepped to the left allowing the blue blade of plasma to whizz past his face, singeing his grey hair, then ducked, spun and slashed at the Sith Lords stomach.
Vader realised his mistake and with much effort, jumped back hoping not to get punished too harshly for his error.
The tip of Drallig's green blade cut a perfect vertical line into Vader's black overtunic, barley missing his abdomen but the Dark Lord could feel the heat from the plasma.
'Sloppy, Skywalker.' Drallig boasted, his lips were tightly pressed together forming a thin smile.
'Don't be too confident, Drallig. This fight hasn't ended yet.'
Vader called upon his rage, thinking about many of the misgivings Anakin Skywalker has suffered through his life, and let that rage flow through his forearm down towards his wrist and through the palm of his hand. This act and slammed Drallig backwards, hard, crashing through the marbled railings built to prevent anyone from falling off the edge of the catwalk.
Vader could hear Drallig gasp out of shock and pain before falling.
At the edge of the catwalk, Vader looked down to see Drallig had landed safely on his two feet, and took down a plethora of clone troopers before looking up and meeting Vader's intense gaze.
'Why are you up there, Skywalker, when the fight is down here!' He said, trying to goad Vader into making any rash desicions.
It appeared to work because Vader became frustrated by the battlemasters survival of the fall.
He had jumped down and allowed the force to flow through him, cushioning his fall, almost as if he had only jumped from a small height when in fact, it had been around two hundered meters
    When he landed, he could see the battlemaster fleeing through a crowd of clone troopers that ended up falling before his blade.
    It was a tactical move on Drallig's part but would prove futile in Vader's eyes.