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Star Wars - Fruits of Betrayal Episode Nine: Once Started Down the Dark Path….
By
Celgress
19 BBY
Jedi Temple on Coruscant one day after the Separatist Attack, morning
"Destroy the Sith we must. Urgent the need for their demise has become." Grand Master Yoda said addressing a full sitting of the Jedi Council, which included many new faces in light of recent losses. Amongst these where Luminara Unduli, Aayla Secura and former Jedi renegade newly promoted Quinlan Vos. "Locate General Grievous are top priority it is. Find Grievous and learn the fate of Senator Amidala and her twins I sense we shall."
"Grand Mast Yoda I have a question." Quinlan Vos interrupted not waiting for the elder Jedi to finish his statement. "Why would Dooku's apprentice this Darth Cyrin target Senator Amidala and her new born babies? Surely the Seps can't possibly think the Republic will negotiate anything advantageous for their safe return."
"We have reason to believe ransom isn't their motive." Plo Koon said answering in Yoda's steed.
Master Plo Koon had hesitantly been appointed Second in Command of the Jedi Order following both Mac Windu's and Shaak Ti's deaths seemingly at the metallic claws of, the more notorious than ever, cyborg monstrosity General Grievous. It was a position he neither sought nor desired. He trusted in the will of the Force that he'd be thrusted into said position for a reason. That he could serve an important purpose during these crucial, dark times. He had no idea what that purpose may be, but he was ready to answer the Force's call.
"What is their motivation if not ransom?" Aayla Secura asked.
Obi-wan took a deep breath before speaking, best to get this over with. What a distraught Anakin had revealed over the past twelve hours was nothing less than shocking. Facts he had yet shared with Yoda and none other. He only hoped Anakin would one day forgive him for breaking Anakin's confidence. At present however the Council needed to know what exactly was happening. If they were to deal with the emerging crisis as best they could.
"Anakin is the father of Senator Amidala's twins, Luke and Leia. He and Padme have been married since he was a padawan shortly after the First Battle of Geonosis which precipitated the Clone Wars." Obi-wan said using the names recorded in their official birth record by the attending medical droids shortly before their abduction by Darth Cyrin.
You could literally hear a pin drop in the Council Chamber. No one uttered so many as a single syllable for nearly one standard minute. Finally Luminara Unduli broke the suffocating silence with an uncharacteristic chuckle.
"Surely you are in just Master Kenobi." She said praying to the Force she had read the situation incorrectly.
"I wish I were Master Unduli." Obi-wan said with a great sigh. "Everything I've said is true I'm afraid."
"Good for Anakin, scoring a major babe like that." Quinlan Vos genuinely laughed slapping his leg. His in bad taste action earned him dirty looks from Aayla Secura, Luminara Unduli, Plo Koon and several other Council members.
"Believe stolen the children the Sith have to raise them as future apprentices we do. If inherited their father's connection to the Force they have then disastrous the situation could prove." Yoda said his long ears drooping slightly.
"Follow masters what shall we do regarding Skywalker after the present crisis has passed?" Luminara Unduli said. "His serious infraction of the code must be dealt with appropriately."
Unobserved by all present save Yoda and Plo Koon, Obi-wan shot a withering gaze at Unduli. His expression, which thankfully passed over his features but briefly, was filled with distain, anger and a touch of sadness. What made it all the more shocking however was that it came from such a normally unflappable source, the very poster boy of the Jedi Order. The great negotiator who never lost his cool, Obi-wan Kenobi best of his vaunted Order, the man who while still a padawan had defeated a Sith Lord. The first Jedi to perform such a feat in centuries, yet here he was reduced to childish sneers. What a sorry spectacle indeed Yoda thought.
"Rest assured Master Unduli it shall be, when time allows." Plo Koon said. "However as you have so keenly observed there are other, more pressing, matters that must first be dealt with."
"But Dooku is dead." Aayla Secura pointed out returning the focus of the debate back where it belonged. "Do Cyrin and Grievous on their own know enough of the Dark Side to properly indoctrinate the children, when they come of age?"
"Sensed have I Dooku the primary master he was not. Another leads the Sith." Yoda said shaking his head sadly. "Cut off the head of the snake we have failed to do."
"How in the galaxy are we going to locate either General Grievous or Darth Cyrin?" Quinlan Vos said running his hands through his shaggy hair. "Using secret hyperspace routes, like the one they used to launch the surprise attack against Coruscant, those scumbags could be anywhere by now."
"Trust in the will of the Force must we." Yoda said
"With all due respect Grand Master Yoda why not try a more proactive approach to this latest crisis?" Aayla Secura asked.
"What have in mind do you Master Secura?" Yoda said his expression neutral.
"Perhaps we should seek out this Darth Sidious, confront him." The younger Jedi Master offered enthusiastically.
"Yeah, once we capture their master Cyrin and Grievous will come running to his aid." Quinlan Vos said leaning forward in his seat a smile on his roguish face.
"Skilled enough with the Force to successfully captured Darth Sidious I sense the two of you are not." Yoda stated bluntly causing Aayla Secura to hang her head in shame.
"I concur." Plo Koon said his tone grave. "This particular Dark Lord has eluded our collective grasp for some time, perhaps decades. His skill must truly be great. It is highly doubtful any, save the most experienced of masters, could match him in battle. Even then there would be no guarantees."
"We should at least try." Quinlan Vos challenged defiant as ever.
"Enough decided the matter has been." Yoda said with great force. "Until further notice the Council is adjourned."
After everyone else had left a dejected Aayla Secura departed the Council Chamber. Waiting for her in the hallway was her former master Quinlan Vos. A warm smiled on his face.
"For what it's worth Aayla I think your plan has merit." Quinlan Vos said falling in step besides his onetime pupil as they headed towards the Room of One Thousand Fountains.
"Grand Master Yoda doesn't agree." Aayla Secura said avoiding eye contact with Quinlan Vos.
"How long are you going to keep avoiding me Aayla?" Quinlan Vos asked a note of hurt detectable in his voice. "We need to talk about what happened between us."
"Nothing happened between us, only in your mind Quinlan." Aayla Secura said hurrying her pace.
Quinlan Vos gently grabbed Aayla Secura's arm. She turned around to confront him. "Please let go of me. Nothing will happen no matter what we feel. We are Jedi that will never change."
"You don't love me as I love you?" Quinlan Vos said softly his gaze meeting Aayla Secura's own.
"It doesn't matter what I feel." Aayla Secura said. "Attachment is forbidden by the code."
"Damn the code. It wasn't the code that made me crawl back from the darkness it was my love for you Aayla. If not for our connection I'd be an errand boy for the Dark Side. When Dooku ordered me to kill you that was when I found the strength to overcome him, nothing else could have broken my chains." Quinlan Vos said letting go of his would be lover's arm least he inadvertently harm her in his building rage his voice raising with each word. "Anakin didn't adhere to the blasted code."
"And he'll in all probability be expelled from the Order for that decision." Aayla Secura pointed out. "I can't do this anymore Quinlan. If you truly care about me save us both, let me go." Aayla Secura ran off tears in her eyes before Quinlan Vos could further protest.
One Month before Ahsoka's return to Coruscant – Ylesia System, dusk
Ahsoka and Lux Bonteri said on the otherwise deserted beach watching the sun slowly sink over the hazy horizon. The past few months had been amazing for the young couple. They'd traveled the space lanes together hopping from one adventure to the next. After a tight escape from Hondo Ohnaka and his pirates the pair had taken a few days rest on the unspoiled world of Ylesia Prime.
"Our time together has been wonderful." Ahsoka said.
"Indeed it has." Lux agreed.
"Do you love me Lux?" Ahsoka asked her eyes glued on the setting sun.
"I do." Lux said without hesitation.
"I wonder, enough to give up your vendetta against Count Dooku?" Ahsoka said.
"Dooku must pay for my mother's death Ahsoka." Lux said leaping up from his seated position. "I will be satisfied with nothing less than his death at my hands." He paced back and forth along the white sand beach.
"I see." Ahsoka said calmly as she got to her feet. "Have these past few months meant nothing to you?"
"Of course they have." Lux said. "You're not being fair."
"It is you who are being unfair Lux." Ahsoka said placing herself directly in Lux's path. "Be warned I will play second to none. Unless I come first our relationship is officially over. Come stand by my side. Together we can remake the galaxy into what we want. Dooku will not always be around. His time is nearly at an end, trust me. Let the Force decide his fate."
"Fine, go than I don't need you or your talk of the almighty Force! I don't need anyone!" Lux fumed.
"Very well, the die has been cast." Ahsoka said bowing her head.
When Ahsoka titled her gaze back up a few seconds later her yellow eyes gleamed in the gathering gloom. A sinister smirk formed on Ahsoka's now hard featured face. Startled by his former lover's radical change in appearance Lux took a step face fearfully. His apprehension only increased when the familiar snap hiss of an ignited lightsaber pierced the still night.
"A-Ahsoka dear w-what are you, doing?" He stammered as the crimson blade held by her left hand was brought close to his throat.
"Something I should have been long ago." Ahsoka said in a low ominous voice, "cutting loose dead weight." Without warning Lux was pulled forward by the force and ran through by Ahsoka's blade which shifted to his torso. "Goodbye my first, but by no means last, love." Ahsoka said licking her tongue along Lux's left cheek before retracting her blade and unceremoniously dropping him to the sandy ground. "Thanks for everything Lux, I had a blast."
Ahsoka made her way to their ship after burning Lux's body with torrents of force lightning. She felt in an odd way she owed him that much. With Lux's body disposed of Ahsoka contacted her one true master the Supreme Darth Lord of the Sith, Darth Sidious. Kneeling before a life sized flickering blue hologram of her mentor and chief instructor in the ways of the Dark Side she gave a full report of her suitor's execution.
"Good, good," The hooded hologram of Darth Sidious cooed. "Stronger with the Dark Side you have grown since last we spoke my apprentice. Impressive it has been that your sojourn with the late Bonteri has not hampered your training or prevented your mounting accomplishments. These skills to live a double life while under close scrutiny will soon come in most handy Lady Cyrin. Within the month I plan on recalling you to Coruscant. Once there you shall henceforth serve directly under me and by my side. Be advised our long await end game approaches. Digression is our new watchword."
"I am honored." Darth Cyrin said pride surging through her veins and flooding her presence in the Force.
"You should be. Never before have, I offered an apprentice such a coveted position to directly serve as my right hand, in all matters. You had best not disappointment me." The hologram of Darth Sidious said.
"I shall not fail my master." Darth Cyrin said bowing her head in a show of respect and devoted to the elder Sith. "I am but a humble instrument of your will. I serve the Sith in all things."
"You'd best remember that." The hologram of Darth Sidious warned his yellow eyes shimmered menacingly from the deep shadows cast by his cowl. Sidious had long grown immune to the flattery of supplicants, no matter how talented their pleadings or seductive their promises were.
Detecting the hint of warning through the Force Darth Cyrin at once ceased her shameless flattery. "Yes master." She mumbled daring not to say anymore least she anger Sidious. A prospect she did not at all relish.
"I will contact you again with further instructions when the proper time is at hand. Meanwhile continue honing your skills. Until next we speak, farewell apprentice." The hologram of Darth Sidious said.
"Until next we speak, farewell master." Darth Cyrin said. Sidious' hologram then blinked out of existence leaving Cyrin with much to ponder.
Separatist Base on Utapau, evening
"Please General I beg if there is any decency left in you, release me and my infants." Padme Amidala pleaded with all her might from a position strapped to the wall of her makeshift holding cell. "We are not strategically important prisoners. We have little to no value, let us go."
"Ah but that is where you are mistaken my fair senator." General Grievous said. "My master is very interest in your offspring. He has great plans for them."
"Dooku wants my children, why?" Padme said with mounting dread.
"My ultimate master has never been Count Dooku." General Grievous said. "A fact for which you should give thanks, if Dooku were my actual master you and you're babes would have died back in orbit over Coruscant."
"I don't understand." Padme admitted crinkling her brow in concentration.
Grievous laughed a terrible, hollow mechanical sound a harsh parody of true laughter. "Our esteemed mutual acquaintance Count Dooku is no more. He was killed by your Jedi friend Obi-wan Kenobi on the Invisible Hand."
"If, if Count Dooku is dead than the war must also be drawing to a close." Padme reasoned.
"Hardly," General Grievous snorted.
"But with Dooku gone who is in overall command of the Separatist Forces? Surely not a political nonentity like Nute Gunray?" Padme reasoned. General Grievous snarled at the mention of his hated rival. Padme flinched in spite of being protected from the General's wrath by a force field.
"Foolish human have you heard nothing I've said?" General Grievous said continuing to snarl. "Dooku and I both served the same master. Who is very much alive."
"Who," Padme said curiosity overcoming her fear of the General.
"Darth Sidious the true Dark Lord of the Sith." General Grievous said proudly.
"Sidious," Padme said. The name itself seemed dark, vile, evil.
"Don't worry senator you'll be meeting Darth Sidious soon enough." General Grievous said with another nasty laugh. "You and you're infants are accompanying the Separatist Council to their new base of operations on Mustafar. My colleague Darth Cyrin will be waiting for you there. I wish I could join you regrettably my presence is required elsewhere. Take her away." Grievous deactivated the force field and stepped back as six BX series Commando Droids stepped into Padme's cell.
Opera House on Coruscant, evening
Anakin sat desponded between his good friends Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and his former padawan and current head of the Supreme Chancellor's special security detail Ahsoka Tano. Although he knew Obi-wan would be furious with him Anakin had to get out of that stuffy Temple, get some fresh air. The last twenty-four hours were a blur and the young Jedi knight was a boiling caldron of pent up emotions. If he didn't soon talk with someone he knew wouldn't judge him he'd explode.
The moment Anakin had arrived in response to Palpatine's invitation the older man had noted Anakin's distress. Palpatine had promptly dismissed his entire entourage, save Ahsoka, from the Chancellor's private box. A gesture for which Anakin was extremely grateful, the last thing Anakin needed right ow was the false sympathy of semi-strangers.
When the first intermission began Anakin was about to get up from his seat and leave. Opera, especially in its classical form, was not his type of entertainment. He should be out helping in the search for Padme and his twins not sitting her wasting valuable time Anakin thought ruefully. Out of the blue Palpatine glanced first at Ahsoka then at Anakin and spoke the following intriguing words, words that stopped Anakin dead in his tracks.
"Tell me my young companions. Have either of you ever heard the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise?"
"No," Anakin said simply giving Palpatine a quick glance of his own.
"Can't say that I have, why do you ask sir?" Ahsoka respond her eyes remained focused ahead.
"I thought not." Palpatine said continuing his tale. "It isn't the type of story the Jedi would freely share within their ranks. It is a Sith legend as I understand. Darth Plagueis was a dark lord of the Sith so powerful and wise he could supposedly use the Force to make the Midi-chlorians create life." At this junction Palpatine gave Anakin a long look. "He had such a mastery of the Dark Side he could even keep the ones he cared about safe from all harm, including sickness, injury and even death. He could find those thought lost no matter where they were."
"Fascinating," Ahsoka said simultaneously looking at Palpatine and Anakin. "He must have been a true master of the Force. I've never heard of any Jedi healer achieving similar results."
"He, he could actually save those he loved from death and find them if they became lost?" Anakin said following a long moment of hesitation he looked at both his companions, his eyes searching Palpatine's face for answers.
"The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some considered to be perverted, unnatural, or so I've been told." Palpatine said glancing at Anakin and Ahsoka.
"What became of Darth Plagueis?" Anakin asked eyes now firmly fixed on Palpatine.
"He became so powerful he feared only one thing, losing that power. Which eventually of course he did," Palpatine explained to his enthralled audience of two. "Unfortunately for Darth Plagueis he taught his apprentice everything he knew. Then his apprentice killed him while he slept when the old Sith became of no further use." Palpatine finished the last bit of his story a faraway look came into his eyes as he briefly stared straight ahead. The tone of his voice changed obtaining a hateful edge his every word became a biting dagger. "Ironic, he could save others from their untimely fates but not himself."
"Can these powers be learned?" Anakin inquired of Palpatine hoping against hope his deep desire was not evident in his voice.
Both Palpatine and Ahsoka turned to stare Anakin in his eyes, sending a momentary shiver down his spine. Palpatine then spoke slowly his voice restored to its natural friendly grandfather timber. "Not from a Jedi."
When Anakin returned to the Jedi Temple later that night he had much to consider. If he could harness the Dark Side of the Force as Darth Plagueis had perhaps he could locate and save his lost family. Feeling better than he had since being information of Padme and their twins' abduction he collapsed into his bunk getting his first decent sleep in several days.
To Be Continued