Chapter 13
Odessen
Shyre's dramatic announcement was met with confused stares.
It was Obi-Wan who took the plunge and asked, "Who or what is Vitiate?"
Shyre sighed, and took another sip of water. "Vitiate is the most powerful Sith you have ever heard of," she said. "In my time, three thousand years ago, he was the Sith Emperor, and already had been for over a thousand years."
"When you call yourself the Emperor's Wrath," Obi-Wan surmised, "this Vitiate is the Emperor you speak of."
"Yes," Shyre said. She thought back to her first day out of the cave on Aloraga. "When we stood before your Council," she said, "Saery told you I was the Sith Emperor's personal enforcer. That's what that title means."
"Not glad are you of this discovery, I sense," Yoda commented.
"Right," Shyre said flatly. She finished her meal bar, then tossed the empty ration box off to the side. "To understand the danger the Emperor poses, you need to understand that his goal is immortality, even at the expense of every other living thing."
"If he is here, on this planet, after three thousand years…" Obi-Wan said. "It seems he has something of the sort already."
"But at a cost," Shyre said. "Vitiate gains power from death. When things die near him, he gets stronger. He gets to live a bit longer, I don't know - I don't know how it works exactly. But he is strongly in favor of war and destruction because these things fuel him."
She began to pace, nervous energy needing an outlet. "Worse, he's capable of draining an entire planet of its life force. I've never seen it for myself, but… Saery has."
"And you let him be your Emperor?" Obi-Wan asked, faintly incredulous.
Shyre stopped, and looked away. "We were fools," she admitted. "The Emperor rarely took an active hand in the administration of his Empire - that's what the Dark Council was for. Few thought to wonder what he was doing with his time. Few got to interact with him directly."
"Except you, as his Wrath," Obi-Wan guessed.
Shyre shook her head slowly. "No - for the majority of my time as his Wrath, I received my instructions through intermediaries. Then, he was struck down by a Jedi, and lost his physical form, at least as far as any of us knew." She scratched her neck. "Saery would be in a better position to explain what happened next. The short of it is, there was enough death for him to recover, and then… a whole business with a whole other Empire that I don't know anything about."
"Then…" Obi-Wan said. "If Vitiate is here, what does that mean for us? Must we evacuate?"
Shyre hesitated. "No. At least not yet. I might be wrong. He might be long dead and gone."
"And if he's not?"
"Then we'd better hope he doesn't feel like draining another planet to recharge, or Palpatine won't be the only Emperor running around we have to worry about," Shyre said, and then she had an idea.
It was an uncomfortable night spent in the cantina with no power or heat, so it was a good thing that Saery and Ahsoka returned to Odessen before a second local sunset.
Shyre met them on the landing pad, arms crossed, but standing ready to attack if someone she didn't recognize stepped off the freighter she didn't recognize. Thankfully, she spotted Saery's green skin and white hair first.
"Shyre," Saery said in greeting and with mild surprise. "What happened to your cloak?"
"One of the locals disapproved," Shyre said.
"Of your cloak?" Ahsoka asked, distracted by pulling a large crate down the ramp.
"Of me slaughtering his entire colony," Shyre corrected. She looked at the crate as Ahsoka passed. "So you found supplies after all?"
"Some," Saery said. "Mostly weapons, but we should also be able to get this base running again, if we can hook up the generators."
"Let the others worry about that," Shyre said. "You and I need to go for a walk."
Saery looked at Shyre's serious expression for a second, then nodded. "Ahsoka," she called, "get Master Obi-Wan to help you get the power going. Shyre and I will be out for a bit."
"Sure," Ahsoka called back agreeably, and then disappeared down the stairs to the cantina.
Saery turned back to Shyre with raised eyebrows, waiting for an explanation.
Gesturing for the Jedi to follow, Shyre wandered over to the railing and looked out at the landscape of the surrounding area. "I met an old friend here on Odessen," she said.
"You - what?" Saery frowned at her. "What do you mean?"
Shyre drummed her fingers on the railing. "Yesterday, after clearing out the barracks, I made my way outside," she said. "And, by the way, we'll need to plug that hole somehow, or more monsters will get in."
"I'll… make a note of it," Saery said.
"I wandered out a bit further than intended," Shyre continued, "and felt… something." She tried to pick out the route she took to get back to the base, but everything looked different in the daytime, not to mention from high up.
"And felt something," Saery echoed hollowly.
"You're not making this easy," Shyre snapped. "I felt the presence of the Emperor. Vitiate. I felt him here, on Odessen, and he spoke to me."
"You what?" Saery exclaimed. She abandoned her dubious demeanour and instead looked at Shyre, eyes sharp and calculating. "Tell me the whole story," she demanded.
Shyre nodded. "As we walk," she said, and she vaulted over the railing and dropped over the cliff. She got to enjoy Saery's startled curse, then landed on the ledge halfway down that she remembered from her climb up the night before. From there she jumped easily down to the ground.
Saery caught up a few seconds later. "I am getting very tired," the Jedi groused, "of all these long drops and hard landings."
"It's efficient," Shyre said, then turned and started off in the rough direction she thought was right.
The pair walked in silence for a few minutes, though Shyre could feel Saery's struggle to remain patient. In a different context, it would have been highly entertaining.
"I would've expected a lot more shade stalkers," Saery eventually said for the sake of saying something. "Did you really kill them all?"
"All of the ones in the barracks," Shyre confirmed. "I haven't seen any out here." She snorted softly as a thought came to her. "Maybe I wiped out the last of the species."
"Who knows," Saery said, then glanced back at the cliff receding in the distance. "So, where exactly are we going?"
"To where I felt the Emperor," Shyre said, "so you can tell me if I am right, or if I am simply delusional."
"Forgive me for saying so," Saery said, "but I rather hope it's the latter."
Shyre grunted. "Somehow," she said, "I do too."
They were silent for a few more minutes before Saery said, "You said that Vitiate spoke to you. What did he say?"
"Mostly just that it's been a long time," Shyre answered, frowning. "But he called me his Wrath."
"I see," Saery said. "Which just confirms that either it's all in your head, or it really is him. There aren't exactly many other evil spirits who would know to call you that, even dishonestly."
Shyre nodded, glad that Saery had understood so quickly. "Yes, exactly." she said. "Hold a moment." They had reached a particular tall tree that she remembered from her trek back. She jumped up to grab a branch, then swung herself up to the top and looked out. There, in the distance - unless she was mistaken, that was the tall hill she had climbed last evening. "We're going the right way," she called down.
"That's good to hear," Saery said as Shyre hopped back down to the ground.
"If I'm right," Shyre said, "and the Emperor really is here, do you have any ideas on what to do?" She paused for a beat, then added, "Because I do."
"Let's hear yours then," Saery said resignedly.
"We know that Palpatine is a powerful Sith Lord," she said, "who is now calling himself the Emperor. We know that Vitiate is a powerful Sith Lord who once called himself the Emperor. What happens if we put the two of them on the same planet?"
Saery stopped in her tracks and stared at Shyre. "I think you really must be delusional," she breathed. "Why would you ever believe that would be a good idea?"
"They would never work together," Shyre continued blithely. "Palpatine wants to rule the galaxy, but Vitiate just wants to destroy it for his own gain. Best case scenario, they destroy each other."
"And worst case scenario," Saery said, "Vitiate destroys another planet or two, overpowers Palpatine, takes control of the new Empire, and leads the galaxy to its annihilation completely unopposed."
Shyre considered this for a moment. "Yes," she agreed eventually, "that would be the worst case."
"If Vitiate is truly here," Saery said, "then we certainly can't stay. We can find another base more easily than we can protect ourselves from him."
"Perhaps," Shyre said non-committally. She still thought there was some merit to her skeleton of a plan.
Saery sent her a sharp glance and said, "Let's just get going. The sooner we determine the truth, the sooner we can decide how to react."
"This is it," Shyre said after another standard hour of walking in silence. "This is where I felt him." She was sure now that something strange had happened to draw her this far without her even realizing it - but since the blame probably lay with the Emperor, she wasn't going to wonder too much about it.
Saery walked in a circle around the area, staying alert for odd sensations in the Force. "I don't sense anything," she said.
"I don't either, right now," Shyre admitted. There was nothing out of the ordinary on the rocky slopes of the hill. "Maybe he only comes out at dusk. Or only after killing dozens of shade stalkers."
"Even if we wanted to test that," Saery said, "we haven't seen a single one." She started up to the peak of the hill. "I guess we wait, then."
"Wait?" Shyre repeated. "For dusk?"
"As much as I would like to declare you paranoid and be done with it," Saery said, "the risk is simply too great. We cannot return to the base until we are sure, one way or the other." She knelt down at the top of the hill and closed her eyes.
"So you're going to meditate," Shyre said incredulously.
"Yes," Saery said. "You can go kill innocent wildlife, if you prefer. Maybe it will even help."
Grumbling under her breath about stubborn Jedi, Shyre stalked away from the hill, though she was careful to keep in mind which direction she was going and how to get back. The last thing she wanted was to get lost again.
The problem with killing wildlife was that none of the wildlife wanted to get anywhere near her, and she certainly wasn't going to start chasing down little critters that, from the sound of things, were the size of her foot.
She spent about a quarter of another standard hour circling around the hill, then gave up and started the climb to rejoin Saery. "No luck so far," she called up as she neared the top. "How about for you?"
But, Saery did not respond.
When Shyre reached the peak, she saw that the Jedi was still kneeling, eyes closed. She was sweating, and her fingers were clutching the front of her robes, as if in fear or pain. Her green skin seemed a bit sallow, or whatever the Mirialan equivalent of pale was. Shyre snapped her fingers in front of her face, and got no reaction.
"Wonderful," she said out loud, then sat down to wait for something new to happen.
Her guess was that Saery was having a vision - maybe a vision of Vitiate, though Shyre couldn't sense her former Emperor anywhere near the hill. It didn't seem fair, that the Jedi should have the vision while the Emperor's Wrath had to sit and wait, but she knew the only person who would be receptive to that complaint was herself, so she stayed quiet.
It was a few more minutes for Saery's eyes to snap open. She looked around wildly for a moment, then focused her gaze on Shyre, who was sitting casually, leaned up against a rock.
"Welcome back," she drawled.
"Bad news," Saery said. "You're not delusional." Her voice was a bit thin.
"You saw him, then?" Shyre said, satisfied at being right but also worried about the consequences.
"I saw him," Saery acknowledged grimly. "I spoke to him. We need to get back to the base."
Shyre stood. "Are we to evacuate after all?"
"I'm not sure," Saery said evasively. "But we've wasted enough time out here as it is. I need to hear if Obi-Wan and Yoda came up with any decent plan while I was gone."
"I never got around to asking them," Shyre admitted. She carefully jumped down the hill, then waited for Saery at the bottom. "And what of Vitiate, in the short term?"
"Nothing we can do," Saery said, peering out towards the cliff where the base was hidden. "Continue as if he isn't here and hope for the best, until we think of a better idea."
Shyre frowned. That was a markedly different attitude than the Jedi had displayed on the way up. What had she really seen in her vision?
Nevertheless, the two of them started the walk back to base.
Shortly after, Saery's comlink chirped. She pulled it out and answered. "Yes?"
"Master Dusklight." It was Ahsoka's voice. "You will be pleased to hear that Master Obi-Wan and I have managed to hook the generator into the base's electrical systems. Simple functionality is restored."
"That's excellent news," Saery said, sounding appropriately pleased. "Good work, to both of you."
"Some of the computer banks even turned on," Ahsoka continued. "But access is blocked behind an authorization code."
"As it should be," Saery said. "Shyre and I will return soon, and I can see if my old code still works."
"Understood," Ahsoka said. "See you soon."
"And if not?" Shyre asked after Saery ended the call. "Does your Jedi training include slicing, too?"
"Mine certainly didn't," Saery said. "But the computer systems are the least of our concerns at the moment."
Right about then, there was a tremor in the Force, a darkness in the sky that Shyre could feel even from hundreds of kilometers away. She knew instantly what it was. She stopped and stared up at the evening sky, searching for the tiny speck that would be the approaching ship.
"What is it?" Saery asked, oblivious to the danger but not to Shyre's sudden tension. "What's wrong?"
"You brought a friend," she informed the Jedi brusquely. "You were followed, or tracked. Either way." She looked Saery in the eyes. "Either way. Palpatine is here."