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A ghost. Yes.
Anakin Skywalker was a ghost.
Although he stood before the Jedi, wearing his new armor and wielding his red lightsaber.
Anakin was a ghost.
Except if Anakin was a ghost then what was Vader? Grim supposed it didn’t matter.
The Jedi twirled her lightsaber around. She entered the opening stance of Soresu. The form her and her Master had so often favored during The Clone Wars.
She glared up at him, her emerald eyes blazing with a fire. The fires of Mustafar had never left her.
They had never left Vader either.
Vader was the first to move.
Perhaps neither of them had left Mustafar that day.
The dance they performed seemed nearly identical to the one that had taken place all those years ago. Lacking the segment where, in a desperate hateful grief ridden state Grim had tackled Anakin to the ground.
That now would be foolish, Vader’s armor would make the move impossible. Not to mention their difference in height had only increased since they had last seen the other.
Yes besides this the fight seemed to go on the same. Although Grim was no longer in a hateful and grief ridden fog of fury, her deep resentment for Vader had not faded, and the grief she felt for the ones who had died that night had only grown.
Including for the ghost.
Vader made the same move that had cost Grim her arm in their last battle. This did not play the same either. Grim moved out of the way, but not before the armor on her arm had been sliced off, revealing her prosthetic.
It had been the same side where, painted on the pauldron, was the symbol of the Jedi order.
Damaged, but not gone. Much like the Jedi. Much like Grim.
She chuckled, smiling despite herself. “Thanks for the new look, it’s proof that I survived, as I know others have.”
She twirled her lightsaber. Unaffected by the damage to her armor, uncaring of it.
She moved to attack Vader.
This was not the same dance as before.
Previously it had been an echo of the performance between a ghost and a dying star.
Now it was a dance between a Sith Lord and a Jedi Knight.
This dance was far more elegant. The concentrated hate of the Sith, and the calm peace of the Jedi flowing together like a river meets an ocean.
Not a balance, certainly not, the dark was the very opposite of that, but for the two of them it was a tragic harmony.
Sith and Jedi were nothing alike. The Sith were all of evil while the Jedi were all of good.
Vader and Grim were too alike. Both had walked the near same path, but when the ending had been reached they had gone in different ways.
Vader was the mirror of all the evil in Grim.
Grim was the mirror of all the good in Vader.
Both were proof of the other’s ending.
For how different they were now — one thing was the same. Their endings and paths were both bound in tragedy.
Their lightsabers clashed against the other’s. Red and purple illuminated the night.
Vader was slowed by the damage that had been dealt to him on Mustafar.
Damage that I caused.
No, damage he had caused by his choices.
Grim was not as hindered however. To make up for the significant height difference between her and the Sith, as well as to combat Vader’s brute strength Grim moved constantly.
This was not the typical style of the form she preferred, it was more in line with Ataru, the style that Master Yoda had used. Although in times like these, it was needed to adapt.
As a Padawan she used Soresu, a form of defense. Then, it had been her goal to defend. To save as many lives as possible.
Now, as she battled against Vader she found herself switching to Ataru, a form of attack.
Now, it was her goal to attack, to attack the Empire. To fight the Empire to stop its evil.
Grim managed to find a rock to boost her higher. She leapt onto the rock and used it to propel herself upwards.
As she did the Jedi brought down her lightsaber on Vader’s mask.
Revealing the face of a ghost.
I caused that. I was there, and I watched. I did nothing.
Her face had gone pale, her eyes wild and wide.
Vader smirked, only half visible. “What’s wrong, Grim?” he asked her. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Anakin…” Grim gasped. A broken sound. Tears filled her eyes.
I caused that.
“Was a ghost before I killed him,” replied Vader.
“You killed him before you fell,” she replied
“So when did the ghost die, since you know me so well?” Vader asked her mockingly.
“He died when he tasted the dark side, I only knew the ghost, I only knew you,” Grim told him.
This response surprised Vader but he did not allow it to show.
“Are you happy, Anakin? All that has become of the galaxy is the result of your actions. You are no longer the only ghost we know,” Grim said, her voice quiet.
“I have the whole galaxy, Kennet,” Vader told her.
“Do you? Or do you have an illusion of the galaxy? And is that illusion worth all we have lost?”
“I have lost nothing.”
“No. You have lost everything.” Grim deactivated her lightsaber, and turned her back to the Sith.
“We all have. You’re not the only ghost Skywalker.”