Ahsoka charged at the stormtroopers to her left. She pulled her blades wide, catching four laser blasts at once and reflecting them back to her attackers. She somersaulted backward in an arabesque to face the troopers behind her. She brought her white sabers into an X in front of her. The blasts ricocheted to the walls. The smell of ozone stifled the corridor.

She looked back to the portal. Obi-Wan was right behind her when she jumped through earlier, but now, he wasn't there. 

As the soldiers ahead of her pressed in, the ones behind her fired. She twirled in a full circle and held her sabers parallel to the reflective floor. Bolts flew in every direction.

When she stopped her spin, the Togruta leaped onto the wall and then sprung past the troopers she had first engaged. Slicing diagonally, two rows of soldiers fell to her blades before the rest turned about-face and attacked.

She used a round house kick on the far right trooper's head. Then she cartwheeled over the two to the trooper's right. Pulling both of her sabers from behind her, she vivisected the pair with a coordinated swipe from ankle to head. 

She side-armed the farthest left trooper and then pushed him to the ceiling with the Force. The armored man crumpled to the floor. A dozen more troopers remained. 

She jumped up, swinging her sabers wildly, crashing down on the next row of four. Their helmets rolled from their corpses as Ahsoka swiveled once more, blocking the laser blasts from the middle row. 

Pivoting from one leg to the other, she altered her round-house kick from right to left to right to left. Each soldier fell to her feet. She held out her hands and pushed them down the corridor until they hit their heads on the far wall.

Four left. Ten meters away. 

Dodging their erratic blasts, the Togruta twisted and turned and leaped, attacking with handsprings. Two fled. She pulled her blades through both torsos, watching the top halves tumble to the floor. 

As the last two pounded away, she threw her blades. The white sabers tumbled end-over-end, scoring long marks through the backs of their armor. Ahsoka Force-pulled her blades into her hands and swiped diagonally through their backs as the final two screamed. "This is how cowards die." 

She holstered her blades while the two gurgled their last breaths.

"What kept you?" she asked.

"You seemed to have things under control," Obi-Wan said with a smirk.

Padmé stood beside him, her gun drawn. She looked down each side of the corridor while Master Yoda jumped out of the portal. Bail climbed out after Yoda

Anakin burst through the tunnel in a somersault and yelled, "Down!"

Blaster fire erupted from both directions. Instead of a two dozen troopers, they now faced two cohorts cutting them off from both directions.

Ahsoka flipped in an arabesque to face the ones approaching from the left. She flicked her blades wide and then crossed them in front of her. She deflected the bolts as they pushed her backward.

Obi-Wan said, "Back-to-back."

"Padmé stay behind me. Bail, behind Obi-Wan," Anakin ordered.

The Jedi blades slashed through the air, ricocheting the laser blasts. Once Ahsoka had joined the group, Master Yoda stepped forward. The stormtroopers stood a lightsaber's length away, but many had fallen from ricochets alone.

The little green Jedi Master said, "When outnumbered . . ."

Anakin, Ahsoka, and Obi-Wan said in unison as they all took a step toward the stormtroopers, "Attack!"

The Jedi twirled, sending the sabers in elliptical orbits, gaining momentum to cut swathes through four stormtroopers at a time. 

Master Yoda lifted himself above the soldiers. He spun in Ataru form and sliced through the second row as Obi-Wan took out the first.

Ahsoka somersaulted under Anakin's blade and came up in his second row. Once she had taken out that row, she flipped to the wall and bounced off the four-meter-high ceiling.

Anakin's strong swipes took out the first row. Padmé's accurate blaster shots took down two in the third row. 

Bail, not to be outdone, stayed in Obi-Wan's wake for protection. The senator fired once, then twice. Finally, a soldier fell down.

The mêlée continued. White dual blades, a green blade, and two blue blades swirled in mesmerizing patterns. They connected with their targets, never missing. 

Half the legion demolished. The other half, more vicious than before.

Ahsoka and Yoda returned to the group, ready to defend. 

With a battle cry, the remaining forces charged the Jedi. The first wave fired on the group as they rushed across the corridor. 

The Jedi held up their hands and pushed back their foes. They ducked and twisted to avoid the incoming fire. Padmé and Bail continued to fire, taking out the front line in four quick shots each.

Anakin and Yoda tossed the next wave back, sending them into the oncoming rows of troops. Three rows fell, but they quickly returned to their feet and pressed forward. The Jedi advanced, reclaiming their lost ground.

Ahsoka sprung forward. With a rapid swipe, two soldiers' heads rolled to the side. Anakin thrust the other two to the wall and choked them with the Force. Pressing on, he swiped through the next wave of soldiers.

Yoda and Obi-Wan moved in unison. Swipe up to the right, then down to the left. Their movements were so quick that Bail could not even register when they changed from one direction to the other. It was all he could do to fire and not ricochet off one of their blades.

As Anakin and Ahsoka advanced on their cohort, blaster fire increased. The front row lay on the ground, with the second row kneeling. The third row squatted, and the fourth row stirred. Blaster fire from sixteen guns at once was too much even for this pair. 

"Ahh!" Padmé screamed from behind Anakin. She clutched her right shoulder and fell to the floor with a thud.

Anakin glanced at her and let out a pitiful wail. "Nooooooooooooo!" He swiped his left arm to the right. All sixteen blasters scattered across the floor. He advanced on the front wave. He pushed out at the rear waves, sending them tumbling. 

When he reached the first wave, he pushed them down to the floor. No longer paralyzed with fear but paralyzed with the Force, the armor crackled under them as the intense pressure collapsed their rib cages and punctured their lungs and hearts.

The Chosen One moved forward, more a machine than a man now. He stepped on the armor, compressing the men further. The remaining soldiers's shots were no match for him. Anakin aimed each blast back into another soldier, no longer content with mere ricochets. 

When Anakin reached the captain of the cohort, he reached out with the Force and held the man above him. His Force-grip squeezed the man's trachea, but it did not collapse it. 

"Please. Have mercy, Lord Vader. Please." The man shook as his face paled.

Anakin looked at Padmé who rested against the corridor a few meters behind him. Bail held a cloth to her wound, but her head lolled. He stared the man in the eyes and tightened his grip. "You don't deserve it."

"Anakin!" Obi-Wan yelled. "Anakin, let him go."

Ahsoka cried, "Anakin, don't. Don't do this."

The man continued to gurgle.

Master Yoda merely stood, his hands crossed in front of his chest. "Trust you, I do, Anakin. You must do what you feel is right. Find the balance."

Anakin turned his face to the man. His eyes were bulging now. The veins on his neck protruded. The smell that now permeated the corridor confirmed that the man's bowels had emptied in the armor.

The black helmet tilted. Anakin extinguished his saber and attached it to his belt. With precision, he lifted his helmet from his head and tossed down the corridor behind the man. "I am Anakin Skywalker, The Chosen One." He relaxed his grip on the man's throat and lowered him to the tile. "You are free."

Anakin returned his attention to the still body of his wife on the floor. 

A blaster shot aimed for his back, but Ahsoka jumped in between the two. She crossed her dual blades, ricocheting the bolt directly at the officer's chest.