Kaleidoscope
26, Prodigal
The deepest circle…
Once upon the time, the boy who was born Naboo had known the darkest emotions. Or so he believed. He also believed he had mastered them. Mastered the poisons that saturated the soul and made the body omniscient in life. In life. What is this place?" He whispered, his scared child's voice strange in his ears. "Do you not recognize it, old friend?" The leaping flames, the demon faces. "Or would you prefer not to?" "This is a dream." The familiar cynical smile was incongruous on the young face of the Serronian. "Have you forgotten our lessons? Sith do not dream. They have visions." "Where else did you think you would end up in?"
''
Naboo
Palpatine's power seeped out of the open wound like the gushing red blood. His fingers grasped, trying to hold it in, but it was a pointless gesture and only made his death come faster.
"You… fool."
The fire in Vader's eyes had died, and he watched his Master's death with a clear blue gaze. There was a thin sheen of perspiration on his face, his body half-bowed over the durasteel sword he held in his left grip. He looked the picture of casual exhaustion, which was a laughable understatement of the reality. For the old Sith Master always died with the bond intact, and the Apprentice 'died' in a sense, along with his Master.
Died and was reborn as Master.
As Emperor.
"Do not go gracelessly into the night," Vader said to Sidious, smiling through his pain. He felt like if his bones were being crushed into fine powder and then remolded. "Rejoice in the unbroken line of the Empire."
"You d…" But he was too weak to speak. After a moment of glaring, the old man's eye fell short.
Vader closed his own and braced himself for the Death.
You do not do this for the Sith!
The Apprentice almost fell out of his pose. His eyes flew open to Sidious's malicious one-eyed gaze.
Do not deny it. You do it for Her
Vader snarled. "You die too slowly, old man." And he ran the blade through the single eye, until it had pierced the floor underneath.
The Dark side opened like a vortex around the old Sith Lord and Vader sank into oblivion.
''
One demon face pressed right up against his own and a forked tongue beckoned to him.
"Leave him be," the Serronian snapped. "I am not finished with him." It retreated, hissing. "There are cadres here, then?" the Naboo asked, clinging steadfastly to shrewdness, ignoring the fear and disgust. The old smile again. "In a manner of speaking. Do you know which you belong to?" "Higher than you, no doubt." Laughter. It frightened the demons. Sent them shrieking into their caves… or holes… or pits...? "But you forget, dear Palpatine. I was never a Sith."
''
Naboo
The pale, colorless eyes watched the gentle fall of water on the landscape. The rain brought with it the sharp cold smell that heralded the winter solstice. When that day came, it would be fourteen days since his apprentice had disappeared.
A gentle footfall broke his contemplation.
Sidious smiled.
"Welcome back, Lord Vader."
"Master."
He didn't need to turn around to see that elegant genuflection, the sharp, proud bow.
"Rise."
He could sense it in the Force. Could sense the less than graceful ascent of his apprentice. Sense the hairline fissures in the muscles of Vader's chest. The microscopic cracks in the aura of Dark power than pervaded the younger Sith.
"Come, Lord Vader and stand beside me."
Vader did so. For a moment, the two Sith merely basked in the gentle spray of rainwater through the open window.
"The Hands have been searching for you."
"You would have been disappointed if they had found me, my Master."
Sidious chuckled. "Yes, I would have." At once his smile vanished. "Explain. Yourself."
Vader's response was prompt. Too prompt.
"In the process of hunting down Jedi Kenobi, I was captured by the Jedi and imprisoned. I have only just escaped."
"Hunting down Jedi Kenobi?" The Emperor's voice was a deadly whisper.
"Jedi Kenobi was a fugitive from the dun-"
"I am aware of that, Lord Vader," Sidious rasped. "I am also aware that you hired a bounty hunter named Jango Fett to find the Jedi Keeper Naberrie. I am aware that the day you disappeared, you had a rendezvous with this Fett."
Vader stared stonily at the falling water. The sunlight glinted off the thick droplets, forming an unsteady mirror. In the reflection, his dark frame glinted with transient light like a strange sword made of shadow and black steel.
"Lord Vader?"
"Master?"
"What have you to say to this?"
"I did not hear a question, Master."
The Emperor's fingers crackled with barely suppressed rage.
Vader locked eyes with his own reflection. "Master, you know I can keep no secrets from you."
"And you resent that, don't you? You hunger for the day when your mind will be your own."
Vader watched the sword and shadow man smile. What kind of a Sith apprentice would he be if he did not long to overthrow his Master?
"Have you forgotten the Oath, Lord Sidious? The apprentice's loyalties to his Master come after his loyalty to the Sith Empire, and even that comes after his first loyalty – to himself."
''
"Does he kill me?"
A disbelieving look. "Does an apprentice kill his Master?" "No… No. I mean – does he kill me for … a lesser reason? Does he betray us?" "Us?" "The Sith! The Empire! What we've stood for seven hundred years." Tired smile. "You cannot deny that you were not forewarned. You had the Jinn, did you not? But you did not listen. In your arrogance, you thought he was yours to control." Dooku's laugher had died down a some time (a few minutes? an eternity?) ago. The demons were back (had they really left?), hissing and snapping, trying to break into the conversation, envious of the one time peers' exclusiveness.
''
Naboo
The trail had led to Tatooine, to the graveyard of two ships, and…
"ashes… and a human skull… we fear the worst, Lord Sidious…"
But Vader had survived long after the crash. He, Sidious had felt the apprentice. Felt his Force-child struggling against the power of a greater fate. He had felt him.
Then he had gone. Like a supernova in the Force, the bright star of Vader had died. The bond between Master and Apprentice had been severed. For all eternity.
For a moment, Sidious let himself mourn the loss, the waste of it all.
Then his mind settled into its usual pragmatic state.
Jinn had had misgivings about the man who was Skywalker. Perhaps it was all for the best.
''
"Sow how did you/i end up /ihere?"
"I will not be here for long, old friend." "We were never friends." "You may not have been my friend, but I was certainly yours." There was no lie in this place. The truth was plain and shocking in the boy's face. "Why?" "I admired you. So perfect. So cold. So completely without conscience. You were so sure of your destiny. So ruthless in fulfilling it." "And you doubted yours until the end," Palpatine sneered. "And here we both are." "For a time." The other was unruffled. "My penance will soon be over. And I shall move on. But you… you are bound here forever. "I am finished. He is all yours." The child-Dooku inclined his head towards the demon faces, and for the first time Palpatine recognized them. Even with their enfant forms, it was a wonder how he had failed to do so before. Bane. The Ancient One. His own Master Plageius. They looked… displeased. "Welcome home, Darth Sidious."
''
Naboo
"You lost the Sith Empire. You have the whole of eternity to explain why."
The shadows of the chamber seemed to shriek and hide as the Sith Master opened his eyes. He lay on his bed, staring up at the fresco on the wall, thinking on the vision, and trying to understand the strange emotion that made his body shiver in the warm Naboo night.
You see, it had been so long since the Sith Master felt fear that he failed to recognize it.
TBC
Thank you so much Naberrie Skyler, sue, Ann Jinn, Fialleril, Padakin, and GalaxyPink for your feedback in the last chapter! Yes, the Grandmaster is (mirror!)Dooku (cookies to those of you who guessed before then) and he used to be a Sith called Tyrannus. And yes, the crazy/evil guy was (mirror!) Qui-Gon Jinn. It's through a mirror darkly, after all!