Duel of the fates

Chapter 40

Anakins POV:

I don't land near the palace. I have R2 cloak my ship and land it in a hidden cave off of a ravine. Cal and I had explored all around her home when we'd first met, I just felt blessed that at least this cave hadn't been found by whoever had invaded Lestrad.

I leave R2 with the ship and throw on a dark cloak. It was dusk when I landed and now that I'm ready to go, I have a veil of shadows covering me. I go to the entrance of the cave and look out to Lestrad which looks just as beautiful as I remember it, only now, there arent any welcoming lanterns hanging, wrapping the palace in a magical hue.

There's a mist clouding the castle eerily and it makes me uneasy. I sense a darkness, cold and strong. I run as soundlessly as I can, trying to find and assist my master.

I am close to the palace when I sense a darkness close behind me. I grab my lightsaber and ignite it just as someone jumps towards me from above wielding two red sabers. I block their strike and flip them over me but one of their sabers grazes my right eye. It burns and I yell in pain. Now that my sight is compromised I have to take a defensive stance.

From my left eye I see that the person who jumped me is a tall, thin woman. She has striking blue eyes and when I meet them she sneers.

"Well hello there, handsome" she says and smirks. I glare at her and wince in pain as the skin on the right side of my face burns. 

She tuts sarcastically, "Oh, you poor thing. Shouldn't have gotten in my way and I wouldn't have had to scar up that pretty face."

I scoff and attempt to open my eye but although my eye wasn't damaged, the skin around it is badly burned and I cant deal with the pain.

"Who are you?" I ask, trying to buy myself time, hoping Qui-Gon senses my need for his help.

"Aw, you want to get to a first name basis? How sweet." She says, mocking me, "Asajj Ventress, my sweet. And who might you be?"

"Skywalker." I say and continue to reach out to Qui-Gon through the force.

"Hmm, not a name I'm familiar with, but one I'd love to come to know," she says. She screams at me, startling me and kicking my feet out from under me. I roll away from her and just barely miss her slicing the ground where I had been laying.

I hurry to my feet just as she thrusts her blades down and catch them with my own. She's not trying to win or else she wouldve killed me by now, I think she's toying with me, but I cant understand why.

I've been steering us slowly back towards the palace, walking and blocking as I go. Asajj knocks me on my feet once again and steps on my robe. Her right blade stabs into the ground where my arm would be but I quickly slip off the robe and roll away from her. I, unfortunately, didn't realize how close to the edge of a cliff I was and roll off.

I catch myself but my saber drops to a ledge far below me. I look above me and see Asajj grinning. The light from her red sabers is bouncing off her bald head and glinting off her eyes, making her look pure evil.

I force it to my hand and ignite it just as Ventress swings her saber down towards the hand thats holding me up. I block it but unless I'm able to get back up on the cliff, she's gonna knock me down into the ravine below.

I stab my saber into the mountain and slide down, away from her blades. I'm wasting too much time with her, I need to get to the castle.

As I'm trying to plan my best course of action I hear lightsabers clashing above me. I look up to see hues of blue and red.

Obiwan.

I strain to see if there's a hue of purple as well, Cal must be here if Obiwan arrived so quickly. My heart warms, I've missed her.