At Anakin's booming voice, Sol and Padme looked to the landing ramp of the Naboo skriff. With his feet spread apart, Obi-wan Kenobi stood in the opening of the ship with his hands on his hips. His eyes held a hard stare at the sight of what his ex-Padawan had become, and his lightsaber was visible on his utility belt by the way his arm held back his over robe.
'You brought him here, Padme!' Anakin seethed and glared at both the stowaway and the senator who was inching back towards the landing ramp. 'You brought him here to kill me!'
'No-'
Padme's cry in defense was stopped as Anakin's gloved hand rose to cup her throat through the Force. Sol looked between Anakin's dark stare and her friend, who clawed at her throat with her mouth gaping in an attempt to plead her innocence. A panic overcame Sol and she threw her hand up to counteract the dark energy that flowed from Anakin's hand.
'Anakin, stop!' she cried, feeling her call to the Force collide with his. But what she hadn't anticipated was the intensity of Anakin's hatred, and the power that flowed from his signature flame. Her attempt to pierce through his energy to free Padme was weak, and Sol felt her hand shake at the burning of his power.
'Let her go, Anakin!' Obi-wan ordered as he descended to the platform.
Anakin looked to Sol, who clenched her teeth in her attempts to free Padme. He could feel her white power trying to smother his hand, but its softness wasn't enough to stop him. The sounds of Padme's chokes continued and Sol frantically looked back and forth between her friend's purpling face, and the man who she loved.
'Anakin, please!'
Sol felt the release of Padme from the Force. Anakin's cupped hand dropped to his side and Sol sucked in a needed breath at the relief she felt in her muscles. Her neck turned in a quick snap to watch Padme fall to the floor, and she rushed to her aid without a second thought. Without any splutters or coughs, Padme fell unconscious and went limp on the platform floor; her cheeks flushed and her lips pale.
'You've turned everyone against me!' Sol heard Anakin yell over the sounds of the rushing lava river.
'You have done that yourself!'
Obi-wan stepped away from the skriff's ramp as Sol lowered into a crouch beside Padme. She placed one palm against the floor to lean forward and pressed two fingers against the unconscious woman's pulse. The light panic that ate away at Sol was soothed at the feeling of Padme's constant heartbeat. She went to gather the petite senator into her arms when she caught sight of a pair of space boots standing beside them.
'I'll take her back into the ship,' Revan whispered to Sol as he crouched down on the opposite side of Padme's unconscious form. Sol went to speak but was cut off by yet another angry exclamation.
'You will not take Sol from me!'
Sol shot up from her crouched position and gulped at Anakin's angled glare. As Obi-wan threw off his over robe, Anakin frantically paced with his eyes unmoving from the man who challenged him. His steps fell in a stomp and his head was tilted downwards to look up through his brow, allowing Sol to see the dark lines underneath his shadowed eyes. It was obvious that Anakin felt threatened at the arrival of Obi-wan and it appeared that he was suppressing the extent of his rage by walking back and forth to busy his legs.
'You have allowed this Dark lord to twist your mind until now... until now, you have become the very thing you swore to destroy,' Obi-wan said with strength in his voice. He stepped to walk around the middle of the platform, but was counteracted by Anakin's step to the right, making the two begin to circle each other.
Revan gathered Padme into his arms and rushed back into the skriff. The senator's gloved arms swung at his quick pace and with her out of harm's way, Sol was able to focus on the showdown that was occurring in front of her.
'Don't lecture me, Obi-wan,' Anakin growled as he took steps away from his ex-Master. 'I see through the lies of the Jedi. I do not fear the dark side as you do, as either of you do!'
Anakin switched his attention to Sol, who he was coming increasingly closer to. Sol wanted to shrink away from his angled expression and his imposing presence. It pained her to admit that she felt the same ache in her chest that she felt when she was in the presence of the evil Chancellor Palpatine. As Anakin stopped mere feet from her, she tried to plead with her eyes. She didn't want to watch Obi-wan fight Anakin. She wanted him to realise that he could come back if he only shed the hold that the Sith had over him. But when she saw the flash of yellow in his eyes, it became increasingly obvious that Anakin could not be changed.
'I have brought peace, justice, freedom and security to my new Empire!' Anakin turned to face Obi-wan again as he stopped in his prowl.
'Your new Empire?' Obi-wan repeated loudly, his face showing bewilderment.
'Don't make me kill you...'
Sol could not believe that she reached for her lightsaber from her belt. The threat held no exaggeration and now that she had seen what Anakin had become, she didn't doubt that Anakin would stay true to his words. From behind him, Sol looked at Obi-wan from across the platform. He too was realising that there was no arguing with Anakin to see the wrong in his doings.
'Anakin, our allegiance is to the Republic... to democracy!' Obi-wan cried.
'If you're not with me, then you are my enemy...'
A shiver ran down Sol's spine when Anakin inched his head to the side to use one yellow eye to look at her behind him. If Sol didn't know any better, she would have thought that she was saying this to her as well as to Obi-wan. But when Anakin didn't turn to step to the side and face both of his closest friends, Sol read Anakin actions differently to what most would.
Anakin stood in between Sol and Obi-wan to keep his ex-Master away from his love. Sol almost thought that it was in protection, and maybe, just maybe, Anakin sensed the unborn twins within Sol. Maybe by standing with his back to her, Anakin was showing that he didn't want to fight Sol. But Anakin must have known that Sol wasn't going to stand back and let him and Obi-wan fight with the goal to kill the other. No one in the trio wanted to fight, but at the rising heat of the air and the flaring of their Force signatures, it was obvious that it was inevitable.
A Master was faced with a painful choice, and a lover was faced with the awful thought of the outcome. Their friend had fallen; a friend that had made the three of them inseparable. Obi-wan had lost a brother to the dark side, and Sol had lost her soulmate. With his yellow eyes ringed with red, and at the anger that consumed his signature, Anakin was gone, and Darth Vader had taken over.
'Only a Sith deals in absolutes...' Obi-wan sounded crestfallen but reached for his lightsaber none the less. 'I will do what I must.'
'You will try.'
The hiss of three lightsabers igniting sliced through the air. Anakin was the first to attack and after leaping into a spin with the Force's guide, he landed in front of Obi-wan and pulled the man into a battle. The two blue blades collided and Obi-wan was immediately on the defense to stop the powerful swings of Anakin's weapon. There was an obvious difference in the way each man fought, as Obi-wan was working on backing away from the ship, while Anakin was focused on advancing towards his friend with the intent to kill.
Sol went to leap into the fight but was stopped by the sound of familiar beeps. With her activated lightsaber in hand, she turned in a hurry to see R2-D2 rolling towards her. She assumed that he must have come from the tower that Anakin had also appeared from. As Obi-wan and Anakin drew further away in their battle, Sol quickly joined R2 who was frantically calling her name.
'Artoo! Where have you been?!' she cried, glancing over her shoulder to make sure that Anakin and Obi-wan were still in sight.
'Master Ani brought me here and hasn't told me anything!' the droid cried. 'What's going on?! Why are Master Ani and Obi-wan fighting?!'
'I don't have time to explain!' Sol said and caught movement in the corner of her eye. She felt a small rush of relief at the sight of Revan rushing down the ramp and in her direction.
'She's okay! I've attached her to an IV just in case-'
'Stay here! Explain everything to Artoo!'
'What-'
Revan was helpless as Sol turned to head off after the distant fighting figures. Revan stood bewildered with the R2 unit. He had only seen the droid accompanying the man who they had come to Mustafar to kill in the temple, but through his confusion, Revan let Sol run off and leave him with the domed droid.
'Will you please just tell me what is going on?!' R2 cried, but to Revan, it came out in some forceful beeps and boops.
'Sorry, I don't speak Binary.'
R2's silver and blue frame began to rock from side to side in utter frustration.
---
Sol slowed her run as she reached another tower that was attached to the long running platform. She saw the scorch marks below her feet and she knew that Anakin and Obi-wan had not slowed in their battle. Her skin was already slick with sweat from the closeness of the lava that ran underneath the platform, and the last thing she wanted, was to fight the one man who she had been prepared to leave everything behind for. But when she entered the tower and saw the mayhem, Sol knew there was no turning back now.
Anakin and Obi-wan were fighting in what looked to be a control room. Bodies of separatist groups littered the floor, alluding to the past actions of Anakin after he had first arrived on Mustafar. The bodies had already started to rot thanks to the humid atmosphere, and the smell was immobolising. But Obi-wan and Anakin continued to thrash their lightsabers around, and Sol urged herself to join the fight.
Obi-wan leapt up on to a table that was in the middle of the room and tried to head to the end. As Anakin went to follow him, Sol took advantage of his distraction and crept up behind him. She raised her lightsaber and tried to take Anakin, who stood at the end of the table, by surprise. She flung her weapon down with slight hesitancy and was somewhat relieved when Anakin whipped around to block her attack.
Their lightsabers collided, so did their eyes. Their blades hummed as they buzzed against each other in an 'x' formation and Sol and Anakin looked at each other from underneath their raised weapons. Anakin's glistening face was doused in the blue of his lightsaber, but it didn't blanket the darkness in his features. Sol gulped as his narrowed eyes stared into hers and she didn't want to pull her lightsaber back in fear that she would be forced to attack him again. But judging by his unmoving stance, Sol was conflicted at what to do next, because it seemed that Anakin thought the same.
'Don't make me hurt you, Sol,' he growled beneath the glow of their lightsabers. 'You're not match for the dark side.'
'I never thought I would hear that from you, Ani...'
Sol thought she saw him grimace. But it didn't last long, as Obi-wan appeared on the edge of the table and raised his lightsaber. Anakin sensed the attack and at the fear of being cornered, he Force pushed both Sol and Obi-wan with a rush of the dark side's power. As Obi-wan let out a yelp, Sol instinctively put her free hand to her stomach as her feet skid against the tiles of the control room. She called to the Force to halt her momentum across the floor and she was able to stop herself from toppling over.
As she regained her stance, Sol looked up to see that Anakin and Obi-wan were pulled back into their dual on the tabletop. She watched as Obi-wan went to Force push Anakin away from him, Anakin threw his hand forward to do the same, and the two were sent in opposite directions. They collided with the control panels that were wrapped around the room and their crashes caused sparks to fly from the dented screens.
Once again, Sol hesitated in attacking Anakin. She could have run around the table while he was distracted with the ache in his back and attempted to disarm him. It took time for Obi-wan to heave himself off the control panel and involve himself in the fight again, and Sol could have taken over to give him a moment to rest. But when Sol stopped in front of Anakin as he readied himself to fight, the swing of her cyan lightsaber lacked any momentum.
Anakin's attack was much more forceful as he parted his feet to be able to power the swing of his weapon. It's throttle sent Sol's lightsaber into the panel beside them and more sparks flew at the 1000° blade. The strength at which he swung caused Sol to follow her lightsaber's plunge into the sparking screens, and she was thrown off her feet. With a grunt, Sol's attempt to fight Anakin was pitiful and Obi-wan appeared to bring Anakin away from the control panel.
'Sol!' Obi-wan cried, before Anakin's boot was slammed into his stomach. It made him stumble, but he regained himself and blocked the blue lightsaber that tried to strike him down.
'This isn't your fight! Go back to the ship!'
Obi-wan and Anakin made their way out of the control room while in their battle. Sol ignored Obi-wan's order and heaved herself off the panel with a groan. She followed the two and arrived on a balcony that overlooked the river of running lava. The air appeared to be moving from the intense heat, and it made an intake of breath unsatisfying with its suffocating density.
Pushing aside the uncomfortable air, Sol stepped out onto the balcony as Anakin cut the railing that held a control panel. The shields that had been invisible round the tower fizzled away and nothing stood in the way of the destructive, molten lava. It's vibrant red and rusty browns sunk into the steel structure, and without the shields, the tower began to crumble. The liquid's heat swallowed its base and Anakin and Obi-wan were forced to halt their fighting to escape the sinking balcony. Obi-wan was the first to jump onto a thin pole that ran across the river, and began to head towards a shielded building by tightrope-walking. But Anakin wasn't finished, and jumped onto the pipe behind him, making Obi-wan turn to fight while attempting to keep his balance.
Sol felt the balcony begin to sink below her and she shifted her feet to try and make it towards the pipe after the two Jedi. But she anticipated that it was too far, and one minor step could result in her plunging into the flaming river. She looked up to Obi-wan and Anakin that tightrope-walked the pole while trying to cut at each other in a horrifying balancing act.
'Go! Go back, Sol!' Obi-wan yelled in between buzzes of his weapon colliding with Anakin's. He tried to look down to the woman who wasn't moving from the sinking balcony but was continuously brought back into battle by Anakin's forceful attacks.
Sol had no choice but to sheath her lightsaber and attach it to her belt. Before the balcony could fall and be completely submerged by lava, she powered the Force to her knees and leapt into the air. She directed her jump to the riverbank nearby and as soon as her boots sunk into the safe dirt, Sol spun around to look for a way to rejoin Obi-wan in the fight.
She was frustrated to see that they had somehow made it onto the side of tower that was being swept away by the lava's tide. The constant moving of electric blue showed that the battle hadn't ceased, and the two worked towards the tower's top. Sol's shoulders heaved from the heat that had made her short on breath and she knew that there was no way that she could rejoin the fight while on the riverbank. The lava was too fast and leaping onto an already sinking structure wasn't a stable enough structure.
Sol was left defeated. She watched the bright blue lightsabers grow smaller and couldn't bare to think of what could happen in her absence. She had wanted to prevent Obi-wan from killing Anakin, but at her hesitancy in her attacks, it was obvious that Sol would be no help. She thought that she could put aside her feelings and at least be able to disarm Anakin, but she couldn't even perform a basic technique to work towards that. Unlike Obi-wan, Sol couldn't fight Anakin; not even with the aim to help him.
'Ani...' Sol said through the Force and hoped that he would be able to hear her through the dark voices that crowded his crimson flame. 'If you can hear me, please come back to me. Please... I can't do this without you. I love you...'
With a heavy heart and a tremble in her step, Sol turned away from the river and headed back towards the ship.