Author's Note: Well, as it's Star Wars Day, and during the 40th year of Star Wars no less, I thought that now was as good a time as any to share this with you all. But first, a story about the story:
This began back towards the end of last year I think it was, when I just sort of spontaneously decided to do a Star Wars story for the heck of it. I'd been watching some fan-made videos on Youtube and had been struck with inspiration. So I sat down and started writing (or typing as it were). But now, this story has ended up becoming a full-length epic, as these sorts of things usually do with me, since for the life of me I can never seem to write short stories. Oh well.
For the context, this story takes place after TFA but is not canon with Disney's continuity on the account of how the events here basically replace Episodes VIII and IX. Think of this as sort of an "alternate timeline" if you will. One that also will include a TON (and I do mean a ton), of references to the original SW continuity, now known as "Legends". So basically, think of this as being a bit like the "middle ground" between Disney's Canon, and the Legends Canon. It has elements and characters taken from both.
All that explaining out of the way, I hope you enjoy. And May the 4th Be With You!
Chapter 1: Echoes in the Darkness
Somewhere…
They'd finally found it.
Surprisingly (at the time), the blasted thing had been on Naboo. He'd ordered his men to search Byss a thousand times, and he'd had spies and agents on Coruscant poking about and around any of the countless buildings there that had once been major seats of power for Palpatine, or places he frequented for some other reason. Everything from the Jedi Temple turned Emperor's Palace, to the old Senate building and the opera house Palpatine oversaw the construction of, and where he spoke of Darth Plagueis to Anakin Skywalker. Even his old lair on the outskirts of Coruscant where he'd schemed as Darth Sidious during the Clone Wars was located and searched. And all of them had yielded their share of treasures, trinkets, and items he could make use of at a later date. But it was on Naboo that they'd finally found the last of Palpatine's Sith Holocrons.
It's always the place you least suspect.
Then again, Sheev Palpatine was born there, and his family had been one of Naboo's rich elite before their untimely deaths, so perhaps it wasn't the last place he'd have suspected.
Kylo Ren paced back and forth unsteadily, ill at ease in spite of himself. It was all over and done with. The tedium, the searching, the thought that he might never find Palpatine's last treasure. He had. He had found it and it was his to make use of as he saw fit.
He held the holocron, inspecting it and turning it over in his black leather gloved hands. The former Emperor had not skimped on intricacy or aesthetics; the holocron was a tad larger than most others, and was of the pyramid shape that Sith Holocrons favored (Jedi holocrons, conversely, favored a cube shape). It's design could perhaps be called ostentatious, but it was well made and well-designed; mostly a bold crimson that Sith in general and Palpatine in particular were partial to, with the entire border of the thing plus all of the edges being in solid electrum gold (the same electrum that all of Palpatine's lightsabers had as a decorative feature). Each of the sides of the pyramid plus the base featured additional gold designs.
What secrets are you hiding, I wonder?
Kylo Ren held out the holocron with one hand, and with a wave of his other hand called on the Force to open and unlock the holocron. It flatly refused to open. Frowning behind the ink-colored helmet that paid homage to his grandfather's alter-ego, Kylo Ren set the holocron down on a small pedestal in his room designed for holding them. Then he sat down and looked at the holocron long and hard.
I've studied the holocrons of all the great Sith of the past; Marka Ragnos, Naga Sadow, Exar Kun, Darth Revan, even Darth Bane himself. And all opened to me. None resisted my calling. They all knew I served the Dark Side. Why will this one not open? Does it consider me unworthy somehow?
Kylo Ren knew that was a possibility. The Emperor had been in life the purest manifestation of the Dark Side known to the Galaxy, and it was quite feasible that only one as committed to the cause as him could be allowed the privilege of accessing whatever dark secrets the holocron contained. And Kylo Ren, well…
I admit...I have been...feeling it again. That damnable call of the Light. Urging me, nagging me. Beckoning me to come to it and embrace it. Never. I will not surrender to it's pull. The Supreme Leader and the holocrons of the great Dark Lords of the past have taught me what I need to know. They've shown me the strength of the Dark Side.
Kylo Ren was interrupted by the sound of a knock on the door. He rose to his feet and answered. On the other side was a well-dressed First Order officer who introduced himself with perfect suavity, as Lieutenant Usher. He had come to Kylo Ren to inform him that the last piece of the missing map to Luke Skywalker had been found. Some backwater desert planet named "Jakku" was where it had been tracked.
As Kylo Ren got up to leave, he shot a brief look over at Palpatine's holocron, still sitting on the pedestal. Almost beckoning him to come back and try again. Daring him to. Taunting him, even.
We're not finished. Kylo Ren thought darkly as he looked at the holocron before going out to handle the situation on Jakku personally. We're not finished at all. I'll come back again when I'm worthy.
Days later, following the Starkiller Base fiasco, Kylo Ren awoke to pain from the injuries he'd sustained from that blue lightsaber he'd so coveted. His first instinct was to break the neck of the medic overlooking him but he restrained himself out of a sense of pragmatism. He did however, angrily shove aside both the doctor and the medical droids that were all fussing over him. He awkwardly clambered off of the table he'd been on, landing just as awkwardly on his feet and realizing all at once that he hadn't taken the time to let his injuries heal fully. No matter. He just used his anger from the pain to fuel himself, grabbed his discarded black garments (which had been repaired along with his injured body), and stormed off down the hallway. He wouldn't put it off. Not any longer. He'd been so caught up in everything that had happened with the girl and her friend and the damned Wookie that he hadn't thought of it until now; he hadn't had the time.
He had done it.
He had gone and murdered his own father when offered the chance to go back to the Light Side. He had gone irrevocably from conflicted adept to being baptised in the Dark Side. Gone was the call to the Light Side, gone were his doubts. All of it. As though they'd never even been there.
And that meant that Palpatine's holocron would not refuse him now.
Entering his room, Kylo Ren tried again to unlock Palpatine's holocron after shutting the door. And sure enough, this time, it opened.
The ghostly blue image of Emperor Palpatine materialized, his hood covering part of his face as it so often had in life. Beneath the hood, the hideous cracks and sickening, corrosive effects of Dark Side corruption were readily apparent. Looking at them on the Palpatine hologram, it was only then that Kylo Ren realized his own flesh now felt different. Bringing his hands up to touch his skin, he realized that he too now had the cracks. Not as extreme as Palpatine's, but still present. A quick look in the room's mirror revealed that he had also taken on the pallor and disease-like appearance of a true Dark Side devotee. And while (again), not as bad as Palpatine's, it did go some lengths towards ravaging his once handsome face. His eyes were yellow now too.
I shall have to correct this with Sith Alchemy. The changes to the face may mark me for what I am, but sometimes, the deception a handsome face can provide is better.
"Ah, a Skywalker…" The holocron spoke. "I've been expecting one of you for some time…"
"How do you know who I am?" Kylo Ren asked.
"The Force has always run strong in your family. It was...easy to detect. Besides...I see much of Anakin Skywalker in you."
"Do you know what I've summoned you for?"
"Oh, yes. I sense you wish to continue your journey down the Dark Side."
"I have already proven myself committed to it. Otherwise, you would not have opened to me."
"True." The ghostly blue figure made a smile, the sort of positively unnerving smile that would make most people's skin crawl right off. But Kylo Ren was not most people.
"...but you do crave more power, don't you?" Palpatine's holocron asked with that same mocking smile upon his face.
"Yes. I just need your guidance."
"Oh, you don't need guidance. You do not yet understand this, as you are not yet the master yourself. But it is the apprentice or student's duty to learn all that they can from their master, just as it is the master's right to refrain from revealing all their secrets."
"The voice of experience?" Kylo Ren asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Indeed. My own master for instance, Darth Plagueis. He made the grave error of teaching me too much, and too quickly at that. The moment that he did, he became…'unnecessary'."
Kylo Ren didn't need the pause before the holocron said "unnecessary". He was certainly well-educated enough in Sith lore to know the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise.
"So then you have nothing to offer me?"
"I have plenty to offer you, but I shall not reveal it all. Some secrets and knowledge I forsee being quite useful to you, and to the Dark Side's cause. But other things you do not need to know of at this time."
"Then what can you teach me?" Kylo Ren demanded, rapidly losing patience.
Palpatine's holocron smiled. "Let us start with 'The Dark Side Compendium'. Beginning with the Book of Anger..."
Author's Note: Gonna come out and say it now: do not expect me to finish this story. I hope that I will be able to, but I can make no promises where that's concerned. Real life and it's many needs, demands, wants, and also pleasures keep me plenty busy, and I am also currently finishing up College, looking into getting a job, and working on original stories right now too, so between it all, I cannot regularly update on this site anymore as I did in my heyday here. But, I can still share as much of this story as I do with you. Hope you like whatever I do manage to put up on this site.
Some Trivia:
The Sith Lords mentioned here are all from the Legends continuity with the obvious exceptions of Palpatine, Bane, and Vader. Likewise, Byss is a planet from the Legends continuity that Palpatine spent a great deal of time on, draining away the life-forces of the planet's population until there was nothing left. That's right, boys and girls: Legends Palpatine Force-drained an entire planet. Yeah.
The Dark Side Compendium was divided into three volumes: "The Book of Anger", "The Weakness of Inferiors", and "The Creation of Monsters". They were basically the Reborn/Cloned Emperor Palpatine's magnum opus that detailed his very nihilistic and self-serving worldview that extolled the usual Sith virtues and disparaged most everything else. Yet another thing from Legends that I integrated into this story.
Electrum Gold is indeed a thing (at least in Legends), being the explanation for the fancy gold bits on Palpatine and Mace Windu's lightsaber hilts. They do not in any way make the lightsaber more powerful, rather the gold plating indicates a duelist of exceptional skill (of whom Sidious and Mace certainly qualify).