3rd Person

Practice makes perfect... or so they say.

For every technique, art, or trade in existence, there exists but one method to cultivate such skills.

Persistent, tireless effort.

Focus.

...

The universe is unfair, cruel even.

Everyone is born into different circumstances, different environments.

Some are born with higher intelligence.

Some are born with better looks.

Some are born with greater talent.

And...

Some are born with none of those things.

There is but one way to overcome such inequity.

Persistent, tireless effort.

Focus.

Even so...

To say that focus always defeats raw talent...

To say that hard work always pays off...

That would be a lie.

Our lives are merely blips throughout existence, after all...

One lifetime of focus isn't always enough.

Regardless, that's all we can do, right?

Keep trying.

Practice.

Even then, practice is just that... practice.

Despite all the preparation, the countless hours of uninterrupted focus...

Finally executing your craft in the moment...

It's another beast entirely.

Anakin

"Anakin! You've got more company!" Obi-wan shouted through my communicator.

"I'd better go welcome them, then." I replied humorously, steering the nose of my spacecraft toward the vulture droids.

It wasn't long before I engaged the incoming duo.

And, after intercepting the fresh batch of aerial drones...

"BOOOOM!" "BOOOOOM!"

It wasn't long before I turned them into dazzling blasts of combustion and debris.

But...

I wasn't quick enough; before succumbing to my laser blasts, one of the drones let loose a single bolt from its blaster cannons.

That single bolt enflamed the ocean's fury.

Ignited by the bolt of energy, the layer of flammable toxins atop the waves burst into flame.

Tall, monstrous tongues of flame swiftly overtook the ocean's surface.

The sky was now clear, albeit turbulent... but the sea...

The sea had gone mad.

The vast ocean had been set ablaze...

And I...

I was powerless to stop its wrath.

Obi-wan POV

"Gurrroooohhhhh!"

The colossal creature released an anguished roar as its murky shadow grew closer.

Behind it, the raging, all-consuming inferno was in hot pursuit.

So... that had been his plan.

Of course. Explosives... incendiaries...

Why would Grievous bring what had been here already?

What a fool I'd been.

...

The six of us were utterly dumbfounded from the sudden turn of events... staring blankly ahead as the living timebomb careened toward the factory.

"Ksssh!" "Ksssh!"

I broke the spell of shock first, cutting through a magnaguard after a brief exchange of sabers.

One by one, my fellow Jedi followed suite.

"Ksssssshhhh!" "Kssssh!"

"nnnnnnnnn."

Master Luminara pierced through the chests of two magnaguards simultaneously.

"Ksssssh!" "Ksssssh!" "Ksh!" "Ksh!"

Barriss and Ahsoka joined together, ripping and tearing through their own duo of droids.

"kkkkkkkk."

My communicator crackled.

"Obi-wan, what can I do?!" I heard Anakin plead through the channel.

"Stay where you are, Anakin... don't come down. We'll have to handle this." I replied with a measured tone.

...

"Stay alive, master... and keep an eye on Ahsoka for me." he requested, obviously worried.

"Of course." I assured him optimistically, ending our brief dialogue.

...

Anakin had always gotten... distressed when the people around him were in danger.

I noticed it early on in his training, and those feelings of distress only grew stronger after... after it happened.

I was only a fledgling Jedi when our journey as master and apprentice began. Sometimes I wondered if a more experienced Jedi could have tempered his rebellious antics sooner.

Regardless, that was all in the past. Anakin was no longer my padawan... he was an admirable Jedi Knight.

He was a good friend.

And... he was the best air support anyone could ask for.

...

"Ksssh!" "Kssssh!"

With two fluid slashes, Master Gallia liberated a magnaguard's head from its shoulders.

"Master Kenobi..." she voiced, obtaining my full attention.

Without speaking, she pointed at a metal dome across the factory's roof.

The protrusion marked the reactor room's location.

"If that creature so much as breaths on the reactor, it's all over." I affirmed to her, our minds having come to the same conclusion.

...

Soon, the last of the droid general's metal enforcers were destroyed.

"HAhahahahaha!" Grievous cackled, initiating a tactical retreat.

As the six-limbed cyborg began scuttling away, I set my sights on the reactor room.

It was on the opposite side of the manufacturing plant...

We had to act quickly if we were to quell the impending doom.

Ahsoka

"Ahsoka! Come with me." Master Kenobi ordered, pulling me away before I could pursue Grievous.

"What?! Why?" I protested, witnessing Barriss and her master give chase to the scurrying cyborg.

"The reactor room, do you remember the emergency switch?" Master Kenobi pried, looking ahead to the other side of the factory.

As I recalled the events of the previous day, the image of a purple lever popped into my head.

"It should be right ahead, right?" I pointed out.

"Precisely. Ahsoka... to save the factory, as well as everyone here, we need to pull that lever!" Master Kenobi avowed, a look of determination etched upon his face.

Understanding his line of thought, I picked up the pace as if my life depended on it...

It did.

Briefly glancing back, I got a full view of the oceanic titan as it grew closer.

The serpentine sea dragon was covered in a black, tarry substance dripping from its scales.

Evidently, years of residing in the afflicted sea water had tainted, as well as infected its hide.

The result was a living, breathing explosive.

I did a double take as something caught my eye...

Zevon...

He'd frozen up, exactly where we'd been moments earlier.

"Zevon, come this way!!" I screamed, terrified.

I don't think he heard me.

Adi

Multitasking, I fumbled with my communicator as I trailed Master Luminara and Barriss.

"Captain Rex, come in!" I barked into the device.

"kkkkkkk."

"Do you have more orders, General?" the captain responded.

"Yes, captain. Before you continue preparing the containment cell, I need both you and Lieutenant Burst to get out of the factory!" I ordered sternly.

"Of course, General Gallia... might I ask why?" the captain asked calmly, ever the level-headed soldier.

"There's no time to explain, just make sure you exit through the east side! Keep the containment cell, we'll need it." I reiterated, cutting our communication thereafter.

"Tap."

"Tap."

"Tap."

My frantic footsteps reverberated through the rough metal exterior of the factory.

Grievous, as well as Master Luminara and Barriss, had gotten far ahead of me.

The droid general's troops had been reduced to zero, effectively. Capturing the slippery cyborg was now within our grasp.

Even so... it's not like that would matter once we'd been blown to smithereens by the beast.

No... that wouldn't happen. As long as the gargantuan sea dweller continued to outpace the wall of fire, we had a chance...

Someone just had to reach that lever, and I knew exactly who would do so.

He knew what do to.

He was my padawan, after all.

Zevon

As my companions dispersed, I found myself standing alone.

Master Gallia had immediately raced after General Grievous... she hadn't even looked my way.

Ahsoka and Master Kenobi were charging toward the reactor room.

The wind was howling.

The sea was on fire.

Atsuminagi was approaching.

...

What were my orders? What was I to do?

Ahead, I could see the misshapen metal bulge that housed the reactor room.

It was so distant, yet so close...

As if I could reach out and grasp the circular window's rim.

Should I use it now?

...

Looking back to review the leviathan's looming shadow, I realized a horrible truth.

The beast was mere moments away from breaking through the barrier.

Ahsoka and Master Kenobi... they wouldn't make it in time...

Not even close.

They weren't fast enough.

My stomach lurched.

It was now or never.

Crouching down, I assumed my runner's starting position.

I began channeling the force all throughout my body, letting it guide and enhance my physical form.

I prepared to push off, and....

I hesitated.

'Can I do this?' I thought.

'What if I fail?' I thought.

'I'll just hurt myself again.' I thought.

'There's no point.' I thought.

'I'm always going to fail.' I thought.

Legions of insecurities, like a thousand needles probing my mind simultaneously.

I froze up...

"Zevon!" I heard my master yell forcefully from afar.

Whipping my head around, I locked eyes with Master Gallia.

She'd stopped... why, exactly?

Her brown robe was flapping in the turbulent winds.

"What, master?!" I shouted back, panicked.

Wordlessly, she gave me a sharp nod, refusing to break eye contact.

...

'Understood.' I acknowledged silently, refocusing on the circular window in the distance.

...

"Tap."

"Tap. Tap. Tap."

"Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap."

I accelerated instantaneously, flashing forward like a bolt of lightning.

"Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn."

My footsteps became so rapid, it was nigh impossible to distinguish them apart. Rather, each individual sound morphed together, creating a droning hum.

"Woooooosh."

I ran against the wind, feeling the force of the gale against my face as I shot past Ahsoka and Master Kenobi.

Their expressions of pure shock were simply blurs of color to me.

"Crasssshhhhh!"

The deep, resonant sounds of beams buckling, metal deforming, and brittle materials shattering heralded the leviathan finally achieving impact with the facility.

The factory groaned, struggling to support the weight of the beast as it frantically clambered across the obstacle in its path.

Behind me, organic matter slid against inorganic material as the creature desperately tried to escape the all-consuming inferno.

Up ahead, the reactor room still beckoned to me.

I was only a third of the way there...

As usual, what little ability I had was never good enough.

I had to force it out.

Putting every ounce of my concentration into force speed, I began moving even faster.

'Breathe in, breath out.' I silently command myself. Pure habit.

In truth, breathing no longer mattered. I'd long since exited the realm of aerobic exercise.

I was moving so fast that my blood couldn't even maintain a balance within my body.

As a result, my thoughts became foggy... my vision blurry.

So, when I set foot on a downward slope, I didn't prepare myself...

My braced leg crumpled, and I tumbled.

...

The rumble of the approaching doom was even more deafening now.

...

My mistep left me bruised and battered, but eventually...

I saw the light.

Still sliding down the smooth metal surface, I corrected my tumble.

Then, I reinvigorated my pace, sprinting uphill this time.

Up ahead, the circular window... my final destination.

This was the final stretch.

I leapt skyward, spiraling through the wind...

My cloak billowed throughout...

Finally, the soles of my boots connected with the circular window.

Ultimately, the sounds of glass shattering were drowned out by Atsuminagi's rampage.

Regardless, I crashed through the window with little resistance, little space, and little time to spare...

As I soared across the room, as fast as a speeder...

I grabbed the purple lever mid-flight, promptly shutting down the reactor.

Then... Atsuminagi collided with the reactor room.

I pushed off of a wall, attempting to steer myself east so as to evade the destruction.

I stuck out my legs, hoping to use them to absorb some of the impact...

Then, I smashed into the east wall and blacked out.

Ahsoka

As soon as the blackened, draconic leviathan collided with the facility, every other noise became inaudible due to the rumbling.

I couldn't hear Master Kenobi, I couldn't hear my communicator... I couldn't even hear myself.

The factory was supposedly impact-resistant, which was proven true.

Though the beast made more than a dent in the facility, the devastation was at least minimalized to the top, which the beast slithered over.

Behind it, the leviathan left a sticky, oozing trail of tarry contaminants. No... that was an understatement, globs of flammable toxins had been scattered everywhere across the facility.

Something to be cognizant of.

As the creature's underside crashed into the reactor room, Master Kenobi and I brace ourselves for the worst...

It never came.

Then... he really did make it!

Reality soon hit me.

Seeing the reactor room be completely reduced to fragments, my heart stopped.

I held my breath, thoughts of horror dominating my conscious.

Where was he...?

There!

High up in the air, I saw Zevon's body arcing through the air, along with a sizable amount of jagged debris.

"Quick! Master Kenobi, gimme a boost!" I demanded.

Though he'd been put on the spot, the Jedi Master obliged.

"Just like Anakin." I heard him grumble to himself.

With a vigorous force push from Master Kenobi, coupled with my own force jump, I soared upward through the scattered fragments of metal.

Finally, Zevon fell into my arms.

Funnily, I nearly dropped him.

Baggy Jedi robes were very good at concealing muscle, apparently.

"You're pretty heavy." I commented in jest, still sailing through the air.

"Shut up." he countered weakly, to which I laughed, relieved.

Before we hit the ground, Master Kenobi slowed our descent with his telekinetic powers.

Zevon was clearly disoriented, unable to stand... so I kept him in my princess carry.

Had he experienced more head trauma...? That couldn't be good, not after the concussive blow Grievous had dealt him earlier.

The shallow laceration to my back looked ugly, but his wounds were far more serious...

Suddenly, I saw his head stir again.

"I think you impressed Master Kenobi, but it'll take more than that to impress me." I joked, being snippy.

Master Kenobi raised an eyebrow at me, then turning his attention to the leviathan.

It was now swimming away from the factory.

"I do recall that honesty is one of the first things taught at the temple." Master Kenobi quipped, calling me out lightly.

"No, really... that was incredible, Zevon..." I admitted, proud, as well as ashamed.

Athina

During the journey back to our village, I saw the ocean ignite from afar.

We all did.

Now, nearly every one of us was gathered on our shores.

My brother Levi, Mister Ryoshi, everyone...

We watched the spreading inferno with awe, as well as horror.

When Atsuminagi came into view, it had already run its course through the factory.

What that meant for our livelihoods completely evaded us for the moment, because...

Now, the vengeful god was headed straight for us.