Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars or any of the Sith. I just play in George Lucas's sandbox. ;)
A/N: Obi-Wan got to say his goodbyes to the last remaining Jedi in HttE. I wanted to write a mirror piece for Anakin's farewell. And Lumiya and Flint are both from the Marvel comics.
The dull pressure of something urgent chased her out of a dark, dreamless sleep.
For a split second, the Dark Lady kept her eyes closed as she tried to reorient herself. Behemoth. She must be on Behemoth. But no, this was not the comfort of the command suite on her flagship. Eyelids still down, she stretched out around her with her other five senses. It was rugged - definitely outdoors - and somewhat unfamiliar. Yet it held the lulling comfort of home, as if she were back on Coruscant or the Devastator with Lord Vader.
The mist began to clear from her mind. This was the Valley of the Dark Lords, the final resting place of the mighty Sith lords of the past. Once the home of a great civilization, the planet Korriban now stood crumbling to ruins, deserted save for the valley that was the haunt of the ancient spirits.
The towering apparition of Darth Bane had revealed himself to Lumiya and her apprentice, Flint, yesterday. Although the famed progenitor of the modern-day Sith had been somewhat skeptical of this self-proclaimed Dark Lord, the psychological bandying between the two of them had allowed Bane to satisfy himself that she was indeed worthy of the title she had taken.
Lumiya had solicited the advice - and the help - of the Dark Lords. She knew that her job was to maintain the balance of the Force to the best of her ability. In that respect, she had already failed. On Yavin 4, the Jedi were running away with themselves. The numbers in their ranks grew seemingly exponentially. The Son of Skywalker had yet to understand the grave importance of preventing a situation like the one that existed shortly before Palpatine had declared himself Emperor. Now, she and Skywalker and everyone else were being set up for a fall as the balance shifted more and more. Something had to be done.
She had already broken with tradition by training multiple apprentices. Most of them were surgical tools of a sort, with one job and one job only. And there was Flint, the man to whom she was slowly transferring her legacy - the Sith legacy. Someday he too would be welcomed in the Valley of the Dark Lords.
The Sith together would make a powerful army. A force to be reckoned with. But there was something about the idea of conducting a second Jedi purge that Lumiya knew was not what destiny demanded of her. Rationalizing, she had said an all-out war would prove too costly for both sides, and it might tip the balance even further. But more importantly, it seemed to go against the will of the Force. She couldn't explain why. She thought there must be another alternative. But the Dark Lords were excited at the prospect of reenacting the Sith war and getting it right this time.
So here she slept in the hallowed valley on this night. Meanwhile, the Dark Lords deliberated, hidden from her. At her request, Flint was waiting in the shuttle, far enough away that he wouldn't be too easy to sense. So in a way, this was the closest to being alone that she could get. And as many years as had passed since the Battle of Endor and the death of Palpatine and the man she had admired most, she still felt very much alone.
The Empire was still declining. Lumiya had fumed with anger and old hatred as she watched so-called warlords retreat further and further into the backwaters of Imperial space. The ideals of her beloved New Order were being snuffed out before they'd even truly been realized. Palpatine had allowed his philosophizing to fall by the wayside in favor of his damnable megalomania. Those like her, who had really believed in his plans for a new era of prosperity and order, were becoming fewer and fewer. But she would not give up. Someday she would become powerful enough to reunite the Empire, to return to the military, to lead it to victory over the Rebels. She would fight until her last breath to make sure that the ideals of the New Order would live on. Maybe someday the galaxy would be ready for them.
It was a small comfort for her to know that she would always have an undisturbed home on Korriban. Even if the Imperials fell back from this part of space, the Rebels would be afraid to incorporate this world into their Republic. Afraid of what knowledge, and what mirrors of their true nature, they might find here.
The dark woman allowed her eyes to open. She was in a clearing, surrounded by woods on all sides. The pristine black sky above her had become vaguely tinged with purple, announcing the imminent arrival of daybreak in this unspoiled place of virgin beauty.
Lumiya turned her attention to the dull pressure she felt on a nub in the back of her mind, and her hand unconsciously started creeping towards the lightwhip resting alongside her bedroll. At last, she realized it was a nearby presence, and she drew her hand back when she knew it was a familiar one at that.
"So you stand at a crossroads tonight, my friend. And the decision is not the Dark Lords', but yours alone."
Lumiya's dark-robed form rose and turned in the direction of the voice. Her stomach knotted pleasurably before she was even able to see the faint apparition, although she was concerned by how weak and indistinct it seemed, as if coming to her from across a great distance. A crooked smile appeared across her features at length, as if she were struggling to remember how it should look. She was glad she'd finally reconciled with her old teacher and forgiven him for turning away from the Sith before his death. "Anakin. It's been a long time."
Anakin Skywalker nodded gravely and shifted in his brown robes. "It has. But I need to talk to you about an important matter."
Now it was the Dark Lady's turn to nod. Her eyes turned upwards with intensity, meeting a gaze perhaps deeper and wiser than her own. "The matter of... this potential purge," she began, low and hoarse. "I wonder if I was wrong in bringing it before the Dark Lords. They know I have a potential army under my command, and I think they have wanted war for a long time. Yet somehow this seems like the wrong choice to make. I don't know if I can do it."
Skywalker cocked one eyebrow, instinctively made suspicious by the lack of the decisiveness he had once associated with the fiery young woman he'd taught. "No," he said thoughtfully. "Maybe you can't..." He let his voice trail off dramatically, and she frowned angrily at his strange emphasis on the word you.
Lumiya's facial expression spoke volumes, and the matter was suddenly very clear to him. "Is it possible they're manipulating you?" he finished quietly.
Her eyes widened with the shock of considering something she hadn't been allowed to think about before. "What?"
Skywalker sighed significantly. "It wouldn't be the first time they've used a fellow Dark Lord for their own ends."
She broke eye contact, studying the trees around her. A steady pain was growing deep within her bowels. It couldn't be true. They'd accepted her... offered her a place among them. She abruptly drew her lips into a thin line.
Or maybe they had just played to her loneliness and frustration. "I see through you," Bane had said. The weatherbeaten creases on her forehead contracted.
"What should I do?" she gasped, suddenly fearful and embarrassed at having been manipulated so easily. She'd had a sharp mind once, like Flint's, but now she just felt tired and stretched thin.
"Remember what you've learned, my friend. Don't underestimate them," the former Lord Vader quietly replied, and as she had so many times as a young student, she felt dwarfed by his clear-sightedness. "I've seen this coming for a while. They are very powerful in numbers. And," he said, smiling, "they are far more experienced in this game than either of us, by a few thousand years."
Lumiya snorted, her eyes focusing on a distant point. "Never trust a bloody dead Sith Lord." She crossed her arms over her chest in a sulky posture, her increasing anger readily apparent. "They were the ones who called me to come here. But I am the Dark Lady of the Sith. I lead the Order now, and I will disobey them if I must. Or even if it just pleases me." Her face contorted further with hatred. "Bane expressed an interest in something I can never give him. He wants the Force-sensitive body of my apprentice, Flint... so he can use it as his own." She could almost see her apprentice's dark eyes watching her from afar. A peristaltic movement of angry muscle tension ran down her body. "I do not share loyalties. I'll never give him Flint."
Anakin's presence seemed to flicker as he stepped closer to her. "When are they going to give you their conclusion?"
"At sunup." She glanced around at the purple sky. "Soon."
He smirked slightly. "You always took pleasure in doing things precisely the way I told you not to, Shira. You can't give up on your maverick tendencies now. What kind of message would that be sending your apprentice?"
She returned a wolfish smile at his dry wit. She could still sometimes see Vader in Anakin the same way she had once been able to see Anakin in Vader. She was beginning to realize that the distinctions between light side and dark side were not so clear cut as padawans were often told. Maybe in another thousand years she would be able to understand one-thousandth of all there was to know about the Force.
"Why are they doing this?" she scowled suddenly.
Skywalker looked away, and his presence flickered again. "Maybe they've realized you don't belong with them."
Lumiya frowned, trying to decide whether he was giving an honest opinion or just making another sanctimonious attempt at proselytizing, but before she could speak, Skywalker's broad-shouldered form straightened and he interrupted her. "But this is not what I came to talk to you about. I came to say goodbye."
Her eyes widened, but only briefly. She waited silently for him to go on.
"I've lingered here for a long time, perhaps longer than I should have. But they won't let me stay any more."
"Who?" Lumiya demanded.
He clasped his hands in front of his chest. "I'm needed elsewhere."
Anakin could see only the top of Lumiya's head as her gaze shifted downward. "I understand,"
she felt herself mumble, knowing full well that she did not. Not Anakin, not Anakin... she could not stand to lose yet another ally.
He gently pushed her head back up using the Force, then sighed. "You know, apprentice, had circumstances been different.... I cared for you more than I told you. Than I'd even admit to myself."
A weak smile touched the lips of his one-time apprentice. "I know." For a long time, they were quiet with the weight of the shared moment.
Anakin suddenly smiled again. "So don't look so glum. I have a feeling you and I might see each other... one more time."
The dark woman felt the corners of her mouth turn downward. She could hardly feel him in the Force at all now. "What do you mean?" she asked loudly, struggling to hold on to him for even a few more moments.
Anakin's shimmering form was no longer visible against the brightening horizon. His voice sounded as a distant echo resounding throughout the corners of her mind. "The Force will be with you. Farewell... my friend."
For a long moment Lumiya stood still, trying not to think of Anakin. Leaving her thick overrobe lying rumpled on the ground where it had served as her bedroll, the Dark Lady of the Sith staggered towards one of the larger rocks and collapsed. To lose him... again... With a scream she flung one hand out before her, hurling an invisible salvo downwards. Flames erupted from the ground in front of her, and soon completely surrounded her. Her head dropped into her hands as the fire raged on around her.
The ring of fire licked up to the heavens and yet still could not burn hot enough to cremate her grief.
At length, the crackling sound of the flames began to die away, and the silence of the wooded twilight surrounded her. Then, rubbing her aching temples, she felt the approach of another familiar Force user.
Lumiya twisted her head around to see a dark-haired man approaching, a far gentler expression on his face than the one he usually wore. Stepping over the ring of charred ground around her, Flint slipped off his own outer robe and draped it over her shoulders. He then slid over next to her on the rock.
"I told you to stay on the shuttle, apprentice," Lumiya murmured, trying to sound angry.
He nodded. "Yes, master. But there are also times when I need to use my own judgement. It seemed like I was needed, at least if I didn't want you burning down the whole planet."
She turned to face the young man, knowing he was studying her attentively, expectantly. She had always been open with him, treating him more as a peer and friend than as a slave, unlike Palpatine had done with Vader. Unfortunately, this was no time to change her policies. Lumiya sighed through her clenched teeth.
"I can no longer act in accord with the Dark Lords' wishes. Wars... purges... sacrifices... maybe there was a time when that was the necessary course of action to keep the Sith alive. But that time has passed, and I can make Bane see that. He reformed the brotherhood to support the demands of changing times. I will be doing the same."
Flint shifted quietly. "I was almost afraid they were using you, master," came his quiet admission.
Lumiya felt herself cool slightly. A pair of ice-blue eyes locked on Flint with angry intensity. "You knew? And you didn't tell me?"
He twitched under her gaze. "Only a hunch. And I've found I make less of an ass of myself if I don't question your authority when I'm not sure I'm right."
The Dark Lady sighed, pressing her lips together. When she spoke again, the earlier hint of menace in her voice had been replaced by something more profound. Flint frowned to himself. Sorrow?
Pain?
"Flint," she said, "in the future, if you think my judgement has been compromised, I need you to tell me. It helps me make less of an ass of myself."
She watched him wince as she finished speaking. "You'll have to promise not to use Force grip on me."
Her hollow eyes focused on him, as if in a far distant time and place. "I promise," she whispered.
Flint quirked one corner of his mouth upwards. The two of them sat motionless in the Valley of the Dark Lords, waiting for the sun to rise.