My first fic! Brilliant!
I need reviews. Please? Anything that pops into your head, I would be so very grateful.
On the topic of reviews... anyone who has guest reviews that sound like they came from your grammar teacher... yeah... they're probably mine, sorry.
Disclaimer: Shockingly, I own nothing, not even the original characters. Lucas can have them to; I'm not selling anything.
The empress raised a thin pale hand, revealing it from the black silk and jewels of her robe.
"Ladies and gentlemen of the Imperial Senate, I am proud to present to you, my master, my husband, Dark Lord of the Sith, and Emperor of the Sith Empire, Darth Revan!" The senate erupted in applause as Revan strode down the bridge, past the files of saluting apprentices, to the central platform. As he saw their grey uniforms, and the violet blades of their lightsabers as they ignited them in salute, he was reminded of an old line, still lodged in him memory. "Savior, conqueror, hero, villain. You are all things Revan… and yet you are nothing. In the end you belong to neither the light nor the darkness. You will forever stand alone." That was the wisest thing he ever remembered Malak saying, and nothing of the memory of Malak, or Alek, bothered him more. Because it was true. He was the undisputed Dark Lord of the Sith; Malak was dead, the Sith Emperor Vitiate was dead, and the Sith Triumvirate was dead. He, or his minions, had defeated them all. Now he reigned as the most moderate Dark Lord in history.
And it had to be Malak who said it! Malak, who's name he had made a synonym for dangerous "dark side radicalism". Hatred and anger and love for Bastila fed him, yes, but he ruled with measure, refusing, for the greater good, to cross certain lines into the sadistic or the tyrannical. He was dark, not grey, but only just. Bastila bowed reverently to him and stepped behind him. I turn my back to her when I know she is armed. He thought. Malak would never have allowed that with her, or with Bandon, and I would never have allowed that with him. If I had seen one of my Sith allow that in the old days, I would have killed them on the spot for their foolishness. He made a small sigh in his mask. "How times have changed,"he murmured, and took his position on the platform.
"I send you greetings senators, and I send greetings to the loyal citizens of the Sith Empire who you represent. We stand now in a golden age of the galaxy, when I, the Dark Lord of the Sith, stand supreme. Under my leadership, we have struck down the Jedi archaism and Malakist radicalism that brought chaos and destruction to the galaxy!" he paused for applause, "and I continue to work to repair the damage they have done, and strengthen and enrich the people of the Empire. Telos IV and Taris have been almost completely restored, dissidents on Onderon, Dantooine, Kashyyyk, and Nar-Shaddaa have been silenced for good, and with the mighty and glorious armed forces of the Sith Empire maintaining peace, interstellar commerce has reached an unprecedented volume." Applause started, but he waved a hand, silencing them.
"But despite these leaps and bounds," his voice hardened, "there are those among the citizens of the empire who still are unable to accept the blessings that I have brought unto them, Jedi fundamentalists who insist that I can do no good, simply because I do not conform to their eternally inalterable, regressive ideals of the light side of the Force. These don't concern me; I have fought against them my entire life. But I have heard also that there are Malakist elements that say that I have 'betrayed' the very nature of the dark side. My security forces have thwarted a recent attempt on my life by these lurking weaklings." Gasps passed through the senate chamber. "I ask you, should they be allowed to strike at this galaxy's lord and master again?"
A boiling turmoil took hold of the room. Most of the senators cried "No!" at first, but many others were silent in caution, sensing the ploy, still more cried, "Yes!" Many of his admirals and generals cried "Yes!" exposing their resentment of Revan as a Sith Lord of politics more than war. Atton Rand, head of the Sith Inquisitor's Board, was among the most vocal, but his wife, Secretary of the Imperial Navy Meetra Surik Rand, silenced him. Sullen and reserved, Senator Mical of Dantooine, the chairmen of the senate, hid behind his steely façade, waiting for the next move on the dejerik board. The tumult took a new turn, now arguments were erupting, calling each other weak or disloyal.
"Silence!" Revan boomed. He was not heard.
"Shut up!" He shouted louder, and this time he shot lightning into the air, and they were silent in the bathing blue and purple light of the angry, writhing claws force energy.
"So many of you think that I have become soft, and detached from the life a true sith should lead, always open to attack by my subordinates. That I have made myself immune to the dangers of the system which I created." He said. "Now see how wrong you are." Two platforms rose from the distant senate floor.
"Rather than kill all of you, I will show you what it means to oppose my might; that I can defeat any one of my enemies with my own blade." The platforms rose to the bridge's level, on each there was crate and a guard at its side. At a gesture from Revan, the guards on the bridge departed. Revan walked to the center of the bridge. The guard on one of the platforms opened the door of the metal crate, and a simply clad, middle-aged human stepped out. At his belt hung a saberstaff.
"Behold jedi master Zez-Kai Ell, one of the few jedi leaders who has alluded until recently." The predictable outpour of boos and curses came. Revan allow it to run its course, and let them see the jedi kneel in peaceful, obstinate meditation. He turned.
"In a moment you will meet Ta-Rien, one of the few Malakist radicals to escape the chaos of the fall of Dreshdae." The crate opened and with the blaze of two red sabers as female Zabrak tore out, killing her guard as she came onto the bridge. She sneered at him, the hate rolling off her. She came at him, and the jedi him whipped out his own saber. Their sabers were red and blue, colors that he had made labels of extremism, of the ruin of the past wars.
As he pulled out his own violet saber, he could feel the senator's stunned glares. Has he gone mad? Facing an enemy in front and behind? Revan was happy to let them think him mad; it would make his victory sweeter still. He joined battle with of them cautiously, staying protected by a spinning, turning play on of Soresu augmented by his mastery of Force speed. He held steady while studying his opponents. The Zabrak had the unmistakable stance of a marauder, and she coupled this with the ferocity of Jar-Kai. The jedi too, was ferocious. His form was Juyo, erratic, giving little thought to defense. He understands that he's dead already, and hopes only to take me with him.
Revan put on a new burst of speed and switched seamlessly to backhanded Djem So. Ta-Rien went for his knee with her left saber, sensing Revan's shift in form, she kept her right to defend. He parried down and to the right, twirled right to feign an attack to keep the jedi back, and kept the momentum as he took the saber in both hands. He struck up hard, breaking her defense and knocking her off balance. He leaped over, improving his position. The crowd cheered at the triumph of their emperor. Ell backed away, cut off from his quarry by this enemy-ally. The Zabrak stood wild yet frozen, like a trapped animal. She struck at Revan's head and he blocked from the Djem So stance. He swung at waist height, and was parried with both blades. Revan took to defense stance again, but just for an instant. He appeared to make another heavy strike, but switched, letting go with his dominant right hand and allowing his left to swing more freely. He left a long, purposefully shallow black shiim in her thigh. As she screamed the Senate cheered. She opened for another attack, but she was met by force lightening. It pushed her back, hitting the jedi and knocking him off balance. Revan leaped, attempting a falling leaf, but Zez-Kai Ell pushed him in mid flight and caused him to fall short. He shot lightening again, longer and harder, as the jedi blocked it. Neither of them relented. Then, with a scream of cold fire, the Zabrak stabbed him in the back and charged at Revan. She was made stronger by the kill, tighter and less reckless. He engaged with Makashi, foiling, parrying, and flicking his blade. Then he performed a perfect sun djem, destroying her right saber, and then a cho sun, severing her left arm.
Then the Senate cheered louder than they yet had, and she kneeled, clutching her shoulder with pain. Revan retracted his saber. The crowd started to murmur. Revan stopped them prematurely, as he choked the life out of her with The Force, casting her into the depths. It was Dun Möch, the tradition of the sith, on a vast, political scale. Then he spoke with an articulate eloquence that would be the catalyst in crystallizing his point. "May the Force free you, and may the Force be with the Sith Empire!" He reflected on the statement as he left chamber, the cheers at his heels. The Force shall free me. Perhaps the senators would find alluding to the code of the sith blatant and insincere, not Mical of course, he was too perspicacious for that, and where Mical led, the others would follow. He wished freedom to the persons, sith freedom, won by passion and power and competition, and unity to the empire, jedi unity forged of discipline. That was his thesis on how the sith should function.
"You spent too much time fighting the radical, you played with her when the jedi received a swift death," was Bastila's obligatory criticism the moment they left the view of the senate.
"Well I didn't kill the jedi, the Zabrak did. If you have any problems, talk to her. By the way, I'm fine, thanks for asking."
"That weakens our position further, you accorded him greater respect. And don't be coy."
"I took him seriously. Zez-Kai held a seat on the council, while Ta-Rien was an unknown. Her presence was symbolic."
"Your forgetting how little the laypeople know about the jedi council, he was just as unknown as she."
"Bastila, we knew that was an uncontrolled situation, and it was a victory, by the way."
"Time will tell. In any event I have a meeting with the Out Rim senators."
"Cancel it. We need to lie low for a day at least. They need to stew with this experience, the people need to talk about it in the cantinas for awhile without anything distracting them."
"Then what shall we do in the meantime?" It was she who was being coy now.
"As for me, I have some paperwork to catch up on."
"You do not."
"Of course I do, with that new twi'lek secretary, the one who wears those bare backed dresses. Do you know her?"
"I know that I will have to kill her, and you to, perhaps."
"To our sparing room then?"
"Yes," and they departed to change out of their dress robes.
oOo
Revan leaned against the wall, dressed in a light combat suit without his mask, as he waited for Bastila. His face showed the lines of middle age, and a few grey hairs had appeared on his head and beard, but he was as driven and strong as ever in his life. For this was his era, the era of one Sith Empire.
"Interruption: Master, it warms my circuits to be in your presence again."
"HK-47! You're a sight for sore eyes old friend. How did Cala do?"
"Report: Your meatbag progenation proved to have many of your innate talents, master, but not so much that I found her easy to anticipate. Qualification: I did, however, manage to predict several of her moves, but she managed to allude me every time I encountered her. I did not engage in direct combat with her until she was near obtaining the checkpoint. At which point she destroyed several security droids that I reprogrammed to destroy her. She also incapacitated me."
"Excellent, she passes."
"Reminiscence: It stirs a feeling of what a meatbag might call melancholy in my behavioral core. When you ordered me to assist in training her to deflect blaster bolts when she was nine, I had never felt such a feeling of ennui. I fell into something of a depression, fighting an inferior meatbag who I knew I was not allowed to kill. But now I could not kill her if I wanted to. Paradox: Yet still I feel a sense of pride in this."
Revan smiled, "Wouldn't have pegged you as the parental pride type HK. Ever consider that we're just getting old?"
"Query: Master, why do you do assign such disgusting meatbag functions as aging and procreation to me?"
Revan laughed. "Where is Cala?"
"Answer: Resting master, I did manage to inflict a few wounds upon her. Query: Why are you here dressed for combat master? Is there someone who you want me to kill?"
"Yes, our esteemed empress takes an hour to get dressed even into her training clothes. You stand at the other side of the room and get ready to shoot her in the back."
"Query: Master as much as it would please me to eliminate her, I have the nagging feeling that you want me to set my rifle to training mode. Is this true?"
"Take a wild guess."
Can you think of a better wild and crazy uncle than HK-47?