Mustafar Confrontation (December 26, 2016)

Arriving on Mustafar, Padmé Amidala confronted Anakin Skywalker. Padmé was distraught by Anakin's transformation. She pleaded for him to return from the dark side. Unknown to Padmé, Obi-Wan had stowed away on her ship to find him. When Kenobi emerged from Amidala's ship, Anakin was consumed with rage. Anakin accused Padmé of betraying him, and he reached out with his hand and began to telekinetically strangle Padmé. She gasped for air before collapsing, unconscious, on the Mustafar landing platform. In his rage, he would bring about the death of his wife, fulfilling the terrifying vision that prompted his turn to forbidden knowledge. Kenobi witnessed the evil in Anakin, and attacked his former apprentice.

The lightsaber duel that followed was the stuff of legends. The two incredible warriors crossed blades throughout the barren industrial facility on Mustafar, oblivious to the volcanic danger surrounding them. The spectacular lightsaber duel worked its way through the Mustafar collection complex. Through the course of their battle, the protective shields were deactivated, and the facility was exposed to the planet's full geological fury. A geyser of lava erupted, dropping molten rock on one of the outrigger collection arms of the facility where Obi-Wan and Vader dueled. The arm collapsed under the heat and strain, plunging into the lava river. Before the severed collection arm succumbed to the pull of a lavafall, Vader and Kenobi leapt from the doomed structure onto a nearby worker droid and harvesting platform, respectively. Their duel continued on these automated platforms floating on the molten rivers of lava. The duel returned to solid ground as Kenobi leapt to the black-sand shores of one of the lava flows. He had the high ground, the tactical advantage. He urged Vader not to press on in a fight he could not win, but the Sith Lord's arrogance got the better of him.

Anakin leapt towards Kenobi, and in a single swipe Obi-Wan's blade sheared from him his lower legs and his left arm, and his crippled body tumbled onto the searing black sands of Mustafar. Anakin's maimed body rolled down the embankment, towards the river's edge. Obi-Wan was crushed. The supposed Chosen One was no more, but only after wreaking so much destruction on the galaxy. The Jedi were gone. The Chancellor now ruled the galaxy, and the young hero he had come to regard as his beloved brother lay dying on the charred gravel of a hellish world. The heat from the river washed over Anakin, and he caught fire, and Vader was severely burned all over his body. His last words professed his utter hatred for Kenobi. Kenobi then picked up Skywalker's dropped lightsaber and returned to Padmé's starship, leaving the Dark Lord to die on the Mustafar river banks.

Darth Sidious sensed Vader's anguish, and arrived in time to rescue his fallen apprentice. Sidious took Vader from Mustafar to an Imperial rehabilitation center where he was rebuilt. Maimed and mortally wounded by lightsaber and fire, Vader required cybernetic enhancements and replacements to sustain him. Vader was reconstructed as a cyborg and encased in a black protective life supporting suit. His pure innocent self seemingly lost forever, he abandoned his former identity. Darth Vader cast a dark pall over the galaxy, as he was one of the foremost agents responsible for the spread of the Emperor's draconian New Order.