An Unthinkable Alliance

Chapter 18

Nightmare's Land

Grievous exited the temple followed by his guards. The battledroids were already engaged in a huge fight with the clones. The front was huge, as Grievous could see his forces had been arranged in a line formation rather than a square. The Kaleesh were too fighting in the battle, fearless and without mercy, killing every damn clone they could get their hands on. The General noticed that the Republic had brought AT-TE to the battle. As if their numbers weren't high enough, he had to deal with 5 huge walkers that shot misslies at his base. His golden eyes were searching the battlefield for any Jedi, yet he saw no one. He looked confused and a familiar voice sounded behind him.
'So... this is the clone army. You weren't lying.
Grievous turned around and saw the spectral form of the Sith ghost behind him. He was stroking his chin with a lazy grinn on his face.
'Surprised?
'I thought you would leave me alone.
'I could but that wouldn't be to fun, would it? I guess I reconsidered your "proposition"... my beasts will attack the enemy from behind.
Grievous laughed darkly.
'See to it that the Jedi die or you shall forever know Darth Nox's wrath!
'Darth Nox?
'How ignorant of you... or your masters. I have been a dark councillor in the Sith Empire three thousand years ago... One of the last actually.
'I may have heard of you...
'I am sure the actual Dark Lord of the Sith knows. I must say he is a true mastermind, considering your future.
'What? You aren't making any sense?
'I say that you cause is... good, killing Jedi, but not under his command. You are played. You shall soon see it, as the end of this war is coming.
A missile exploded above Grievous and Darth Nox, making rubbles and dust fall on the ground.
'I have told you enough! If you are as cunning and strong as you pretend to be, you shall survive. Now, protect my shrine!
Grievous nodded and turned around. He jumped from the temple's entrance on some clones and crushed them with his talons. He ignited two lightsabers and started swinging and spinning his weapons, killing everyone around him. His magnaguards were close by, rotating their electrostaffs and making the enemy scream of pain all around them.
On the other side of the front... Shaak Ti was looking at all the droids and clones facing each other. They were at least 10 thousand soliders there, shooting and dying. A few meters away, Obi-Wan, Mace Windu and Commander Cody were monitoring the battle.
'Sir, they are mantaining their positions.
'I can see that, Cody! Obi-Wan retorted annoyed.
'I sense something troubling. The dark pressence I felt here, is in the temple.
The black Jedi informed them. We should target the building.
Shaak Ti approached them worried.
'I too sense something troubling, Master Windu. There are many beasts coming from behind us.
'What?Cody asked shocked.
'I guess this is his plan...Shaak Ti said sad.
A deep growl startled all of the Jedi who ignited their lightsabers. A large mumuu beast jumped at them , but everyone ducked away.
'What is this?
'It is a mumuu!Shaak Ti shouted.
'Cody, tell the troops to look behind and shoot the beasts! Quickly!
The mumuu attack Windu who jumped on the beast and impaled it with his purple lightsaber. It snarled angrily and shook the black Jedi off it. Cody had already ordered an AT-TE to shoot the beast and a missile ended the mumuu's life.
'That was too close.
Mace Windu wanted to say something but stopped abruptly. He turned to Shaak Ti.
'Master Ti, you should go on the eastern front and help the clones with the beast. Kenobi will go on the right one and I will defend the center. We shall be closing in Grievous and encircle him.
'Very well...
The Togruta ran towards the clones who were caught between the beasts and the droids. Obi-Wan wanted to follow her example but Windu stopped him.
'No.
'What?
'Shaak Ti seems to have a weakness for Grievous. I wanted her off so we can use our asset.
'You mean Qalisha?
'Yes. Bring her here and we shall clear a route to Grievous.
'I will return shortly!

On the other side of the battlefield, Grievous was still slashing and bashing every enemy he could. He made a corridor through the enemy lines that allowed the battledroids to pursue and offensive tactic. His duranium body, with a tint of green in the new scars he had and the blood of the Republic soliders was looking horrific. His dark cloak was bellowing behind him with many holes in it. He stopped his tireless attack to collect his thoughts. After a few seconds, he raised his hand and recognized Mace Windu running towards him with his purple sword ignited. The cyborg pointed his lightsabers at him. To his surprise, the Jedi didn't attack but stopped. Behind him, there was coming another familiar figure that made his rage to be almost too hard to control. He glared at the sight of Obi-Wan Kenobi. An AT-TE was advancing and pointed it's huge cannon at him.
'Greetings, General!Kenobi said.
'Grievous, I demand your surrender a second time!Mace Windu continued.
'Are you deaf? I will never surrender to you, Jedi filth!
'As expected.
'You may reconsider it...Mace Windu said and waved his hand. From the AT-TE , 3 persons climbed down. Grievous eyes were at first curious then wide with shock. Qalisha was flanked by two clones.
'So, what do you say?
'You spineless mongrels! Release my daughter immediately!
'We shall, if you stop your droids and surrender!
Qalisha , who was awake, couldn't continue watching his father in turmoil. He was really considering it , which made Qalisha's eyes burn with fury. She suddenly shook and kicked a clones in the head then punched the other under the belt and took his blaster. She pointed it at Obi-Wan. Everything happened so fast that the Jedi and Grievous were caught unaware.
'I will shoot , father!
Obi-Wan raised his lightsaber defensively while Mace Widnu frowned.
'Grievous, stop this madness , you know you can't win!
The General didn't know if to attack Windu or jump at Qalisha's side. He prepared his lightsabers and the tension began to rise. He took a desicion and coughing took a step towards Windu saying:
'I shall...
He couldn't finish his sentence as Qalisha shot Obi-Wan who deflected the bolt but another shot came , one which exited the Kaleesh girl's belly. She squeeled and fell slowly on her knees while Grievous was watching in horror the scene. Behind her, Commander Cody was keeping his rilfe pointed at the girl. Grievous watched as Qalisha took a final glance at his father and fell on the ground, dead. The General's entire brain was suddenly filled with so much anger and fury that the computer itself was overloaded. Grievous let out a furious roar and charged at both Obi-Wan and Mace Windu. He started spinning in a mid air jump, snarling like a crazy beast. Obi-Wan was parrying the hits as well as Mace Windu but both were caught by surprise when the General ran like a bullet towards Mace Windu , hitting him so hard that made him fall back. Obi-Wan slashed his lightsaber at Grievous shoulder and to his surprise, the General let him cut his shoulder armor and a little of his arm but his talons went fast to Obi-Wan's belly and took a grip on it. He rotated around , and trashed the Jedi on the ground, throwing him away in the dirt, with blood in his mouth. The General attention returned to Windu who returned to his feet. He raised his hands , ready to make a Force Push and to his surprise, , Grievous jumped 4 meters into the air, evading it, arriving right in his front and punching him with the lightsaber hilt in the chest. Mace took the hit and quickly used his lightsaber to try and swing it up, to cut Grievous in two, but the General backed away in the last seconds. The purple laser however, reached his lower part of the mask, cutting it away with his speakers and the bottom of his antennas. He wanted to growl but now he couldn't. He instead spinned his lightsaber and went again on full offensive. The Jedi was shocked by the huge determination and concetration his enemy was fighting with. Hits after hits, the numbers reaching 16 persecond was streching the Jedi Master to his full limits. A swordblock came and Grievous suddenly detached an arm and picked Windu by the face ,  and pushed him in the ground hard. The Jedi lost his lightsaber. However , Grievous didn't slash him dead, but kept punching him and kicking him with an insane fury in his eyes. He was Pushed away into a tree by Obi-Wan. The bearded Jedi ran to him, and Grievous charged at him, but Obi-Wan cautiosly stopped and stopped Grievous, then with a fast move, cut his hand. The Jedi was unprepared when the cyborg kicked him in the head with his mask, making Kenobi back away. The Jedi fell down, very wounded. Grievous spinned his lightsaber with the last remaining hand , coming to his archenemy like a laser razor, slowly. He was stopped when two missiles where thrown at him, making him fly in the air , his cape burning. He fell down hard, with  his face broken and his chest was crippled, pieces of it falling down. He stood up, shaking, and saw Shaak Ti with clones troopers coming to Obi-Wan's side. His eyes were sudennly filled with saddness and a little less fury. He couldn't hear what she was saying and barely see her face. It was the figure of Mace Windu that appeared behind her, pointing his finger at him. Another missile came and exploded, blowing the mask of Grievous away. Now, his last remaining face could be seen. Two golden eyes, surrounded by brown skin. Where his nose should have been there were some gaps which allowed him to breath and his brain was still covered by a sheet of metal. His mechanical brain was screaming for retreat, but Grievous wanted to kill his daughter's murderes and charged at Shaak Ti and  Windu. He immediately went for the black Jedi who , blood coming from his mouth and eyes, parried a hit and then, quickly cut his last hand. Shaak Ti ignited her blue lightsaber and instantly put it in front of the cyborg's chest, making Windu fail to stabb him in the heart. However, the purple laser did penetrate the armor and entered the green skin, destroying some tissues. The cyborg's vision went blurry slowly and he felt the touch the ground as he crashed into the earth. He closed his eyes, almost dead.
The remaining droid forces and Kaleesh widened their eyes at the sight of their God of War fallen. Karjal couldn't stop a tear to fall down his eye. He shouted at his comrades and ran away while droids were quickly obliterated. The battle was finished.