Shadows of the Sith

Disclaimer: Disney owns everything and I make no profit from this.

Chapter 4

Two Jedi and a Sith. Trapped inside the Sith shrine and forced to fight for their lives against the mysterious Alchemist, a former scientist of the late Emperor Vitiate, Anakin and Revan unleash the power of the Dark Side and work together to avoid a terrible fate…

Warning: For those who have not read my story "A Messed Up Destiny: Before the Dark Times", it is needed for context of what's going on here and for the other side stories I plan to write that will take place in the same universe. So I suggest you go read it or you'll be completely lost here.

Note: This chapter contains detailed descriptions of Decapitation, Force Choking, Electrocution, Force Drain, Force Corrupt, Mind Shard and the Force Crushing of internal organs (plus implied torture). Please proceed with caution and if any of the above are triggers for you then feel free to skip the beginning of this chapter (up to the first bit of dialog) since a recap will be included in the finale (chapter 5).

Coruscant, Sith Shrine, Darth Vader's point of view:

Standing beside Revan and with an ignited blade in hand I glanced around the room, almost making it look casual as he would later admit. The Alchemist had gotten back up on his feet and looked ready to explode in anger, but neither Revan nor I paid him any mind. Our focus was on his soldiers, the undying Sith spirits that had been a nuisance ever since we had entered the shrine, now all gathered up in one room, weapons aimed right at us.

My eyes were glowing yellow once more as Revan's shone a bright brown, though it was barely visible through the lens of his mask, which now looked more…Sith, for the lack of a better explanation. The powers of Darth Vader had now fully returned to me –through what I suspected to be Battle Meditation from Revan- and I was ready to fight to the death if I had to.

As I finished glancing at the troopers, who had not yet tried to attack us, I heard the Alchemist snarl at Revan, who chuckled in response to the spirit's anger. He was certainly having fun with this. The Alchemist ordered his troops to attack us and the men immediately descended upon us, opening fire and tightening their grips around Sith daggers and crimson lightsabers. A blast of Force Lighting from my partner sent a good chunk of them to the floor as I twirled my blade in the air, looking for someone to kill.

The aforementioned wish was granted rather quickly as one of the enemies –an assassin by the looks of him- tried to jab at me and was quickly decapitated after he failed. His head rolled to the floor, stopping at the Alchemist's feet before turning to ash with the rest of the body. Another assassin tried to attack me, but was met with a Force Choke and quickly drew his last breath as his neck was crushed to pieces in my grasp.

Blocking yet another dagger I stole a glance at Revan, who –having no saber to fight with- was swerving around and between the troopers, occasionally striking one with a Force Push that sent him or her straight into the wall. Purple Lightning was flying everywhere, with streaks of red energy being drained from the troopers and going to Revan, fueling his powers further as his victims collapsed to the floor and turned to ash.

After dodging a blaster bolt that nearly took my head off I snapped a few more necks with the Force and focused on one particularly irritating assassin who had been throwing daggers at me for what seemed like ages, blasting him with Mind Shard and making him believe that he was on fire. The trooper instantly fell to the floor and started screaming for someone to put out the flames and I gladly complied by cutting his head clean off, ending his suffering.

Seeing as not too many troopers were attacking me at the moment I stole another glance at Revan –or at least tried to-, but was interrupted by a tendril of energy narrowly missing my side. Revan was at one end of it, a trooper at the other, and energy was being drained from the latter's body, giving Revan the power needed to unleash a massive wave of Force Lightning, turning all but two troopers into ashes.

I was about to throw my saber at them, but I could sense him disapproving of it, so I left their fates up to him as I moved towards the Alchemist, who was cowering behind an altar of sorts and screaming for his men to get up and protect him.

"It's over.", Revan declared, and I could see him holding the aforementioned troopers still with the Force. "No one is coming to save you. They didn't then, and they won't now."

The Alchemist didn't seem to be listening, instead mumbling something incoherent before it turned into shouting. "No! My Lord! My Emperor! My Master! Save me! Save me from him!", he screamed and I took a step back, knowing that this was between Revan and him.

"Vitiate. Is. Dead!", Revan shouted in response, his mask's visor now glowing a faint yellow. He took a deep breath, then exhaled. "It's over. You've lost.", he repeated, the words seeming much more final than before.

Revan then turned to me, his visor no longer glowing at all. "Anakin. It's long past time I teach you of an ability called Force Light.", he said, and my mind flashed back to what he was trying to tell me before he had disappeared.

"No! Please have mercy! Mercy!", the Alchemist begged, no longer seeming threatening or powerful. Now…he was just broken.

"Silence!", Revan demanded, screaming in the spirit's face. He took another breath. "Now, as I was saying… Force Light was a technique commonly used by the Ancient Jedi to dispel the Dark Side from people and places. In the case of a Sith Lord, a powerful Jedi or a group of them can work together to rid him of his abilities for long periods of time, or even permanently if it's done right, but in the case of places, such as this shrine, it's much more simple." Revan let out a loud sigh and I pretended not to notice him looking at the two remaining troopers, who were probably the first ones we had encountered, Revan's own men.

"Force Light can be used to significantly weaken or even dispel a Sith Lord's connection to the Dark Side of the Force, as I mentioned just now. By using it, Jedi can either contain or entirely purge Dark Side manifestations or Nexus Points and to sever the bonds between a Sith Battlelord and his or her followers. By channeling the Force into withering blasts of Light-Side energy the darkness and be permanently destroyed or dispelled from a person or location, which makes it a vital skill to have in these times.", Revan explained and I found myself questioning how I hadn't heard of this before.

"I assume you know it?", I inquired, hinting at my extreme interest towards the power.

"Of course I do. I was trying to tell you when I faded into the Force, but the message must not have gotten through since you had no way of knowing what it was.", Revan replied, but I could sense he just wanted to be done with this ordeal.

"Does he count as a Sith Battlelord?", I asked, pointing at the Alchemist.

"Any Sith with followers does, regardless of the number. So long as there is a bond between the Sith Lord and those who serve under him or her, they count as a Battlelord.", Revan said, almost happy at the momentary distraction.

"Now…", he continued, "follow my lead.", Revan said. "Feel the Light and let it surround you, work in synergy with the Force. Allow it to direct you as you have done before and channel these energies into the room. Feel the warmth and fill the shrine with it.", he added. I was doing as Revan had instructed and could already feel some Light entering the room, but it was slow going, which caused the Alchemist to cackle at the lack of progress.

Revan sighed at this, disappointed, but not at me. "Here, let me help you.", he said softly, doing his best to ignore the madman cackling next to him. Knowing that I was better off with his help, I tugged at his Force Presence, trying to get him to fell what I was doing. Revan immediately synced to my action and the warmth of the Light Side soon filled the room, making the Alchemist start breathing heavily, as if drowning in it.

I stifled a laugh at the spirit's –unintentional but very amusing- antics and continued the process, my eyes now shinning a near-blinding blue as Revan would later tell me. The Alchemist's breathing became more raged and heavier as time went on and in the end he was screaming, the dark mist that had surrounded him when I first awoken as his captive now gone up in smoke, quite literally, in fact.

He seemed weak and fragile as Revan and I guided one last burst of Light-Side energy straight at him. The energy went into him and he began glowing brightly, a white light shining through him. The Alchemist began screaming, as if being burned alive, but neither Revan nor I paid him any mind, instead choosing to focus on the task at hand.

Finally, a blinding streak of Light was emitted through the entire shrine, completely cleansing it from darkness and severing the bonds between the Alchemist and his men, causing the piles of ashes on the floor to fade away much like Revan had, only this time, it was permanent.

Revan and I were exhausted, but we took one last look at the Alchemist, who was now slumped over, unable to move or speak and not feeling at all dark, no more than a Jedi at the very least. Saying that he looked like death would be the century's biggest understatement and Revan let out a laugh at the spirit's sorry state.

I didn't do the same, but I felt no pity for him either. The Alchemist was a coward who hid behind others and had done things to Revan that I'd never even begin to think about, though I wasn't about to laugh at him. Then again, things would have certainly been different if it had been Sidious slumped over and about to die. Of that, I was certain.

Revan turned away from the defeated spirit, clenching his fist as he did so, and the Alchemist let out a low sound, one I couldn't identify, before crumbling into a pile of dark mist that faded away, cleansed by the light. The two of us then turned our attention to the troopers, the ones that had once been Revan's men and who were now the only evidence of a Sith shrine having ever existed down here.

The two were no longer emitting that dark mist, nor could I sense the Dark Side in either, so I made no move at all, leaving them to Revan as I had already decided to do. They seemed disoriented and confused, but had their faces been visible, they would have lit up when they saw Revan.

The first trooper fell to one knee, greeting 'his Lord' with compliments and other customary phrases, but the first appeared confused, almost startled by Revan's appearance. That changed along with Revan's armor and robes, which reverted back to white instead of the black they had just been.

"Sir!", the second trooper greeted. "Any orders?", he inquired, falling into patterns by the looks of his behavior.

"Stand down trooper.", Revan replied. "And tell your friend to get off my floor.", he added as a joke, but the trooper who had been kneeling took it seriously and jumped up his feet, startling the other.

"Forgive me my Lord! I meant no disrespect!", the soldier was quick to apologize.

Revan waved a hand dismissively. "That's fine.", he said. "Now, could both of you tell what's the last thing you remember?", Revan inquired and then waited as the two troopers seemed to think about it.

"I was cut down by Jedi vermin, my Lord!", answered the first, seemingly disgusted at the mention of Jedi.

"And I was shot by Mandalorian scum.", answered the second, only to appear perplexed by the first's answer.

Revan sighed and I felt that he thought this would take a while. I on the other hand, was intrigued by this development, since Revan had said these warriors couldn't be reasoned with, or had that only applied to them when the Alchemist controlled them?

"It has been a long time since both of your deaths. You died in battle fighting for your respective sides of the Wars, but your souls were corrupted by a zealot Sith Lord who was loyal to the Emperor. The zealot has been struck down and I give you a choice. You may choose to rest for eternity or you may choose to continue your servitude to me." There was a pause here, as if Revan was trying to pick his next words carefully.

"Force knows you've both fought for long enough and you deserve to rest in its Netherworld, though you may also wish to help me face a new threat.", Revan explained to the two troopers, who didn't hesitate before choosing to assist him. It seemed that regardless of his titles Revan was very much a leader, and it was nice to see it in person. I could only hope that the 501st's loyalty will have been earned by me to the same degree someday.

Revan was reluctant to accept the aforementioned assistance, but the troopers insisted, despite probably having a different view as to what assisting him meant. In the end, he relented and began explaining the situation with Sidious to the best of his ability. "There is a Sith Lord named Darth Sidious in the Republic's Senate, controlling it from the shadows. His apprentice, Darth Tyranus, has waged War on the Republic as a distraction for the Jedi, to kill them all before the final phase of his plan is enacted."

I let out an accidental hiss at the mention of what I knew to be Order 66, but Revan ignored me and continued. "Lord Skywalker and I are opposing Sidious, working with the Jedi to destroy him before he has the chance to prove himself worse that even Emperor Vitiate. Your task will be to guard this location, which shall act as our main base of operations on Coruscant. Do you understand?"

Both troopers let out a loud affirmative, agreeing to their new task without delay. This earned them a nod of approval from Revan, who reached his hand out in front of them, forming the same type of bond they had shared with the Alchemist, though this one was full of light and seemed to be similar to the temporary bonds formed by abilities such as Battle Meditation, though more concrete and stable.

Revan then dismissed them and led me away and to the entrance of the shrine, which would apparently act as a new base of operations. When I asked him about him, he simply shrugged and said that having the cruiser or my quarters be the base was foolish and easily traceable back to me, so he had simply taken the opportunity when he had seen it. We soon reached the exit of the shrine, but Revan seemed to want to stay behind.

"What's wrong?", I asked him, concerned.

"Nothing.", he said. "My mind is simply full of ideas regarding our new base and I want to get to work.", Revan then admitted, almost embarrassed.

"That's all?", I inquired, fearing that there may really be something wrong with him.

"Sorry.", he hastily apologized. "Sometimes I forget that you aren't going to tell me that I'm overworking myself. Everyone used to tell me that every time they saw me and yet…I never changed.", he mumbled, lost in thought.

I let out a laugh, glad that there was no problem after all. "I think you forget that Lord Vader doesn't know the meaning of 'overworking myself'.", I joked, causing Revan's own laughter to soon follow mine.

"Go to your Grandmaster and report back. We wouldn't want the old troll to get worried.", Revan replied.

"It's not like you're five times his age…", I teased him, causing Revan to –lightly- shove me forwards with the Force.

"In that case you should respect your elders and leave when they tell you to. This old man needs his rest after all…", he teased back.

I pretended to be annoyed, even though I was stifling my laughter. "Fine, fine. I'm going.", I said loudly. "From one old man to the other, it seems…", I added under my breath, but Revan still heard it and rewarded my teasing with another light push, causing me to laugh once more before heading for Yoda's quarters in order to inform him of everything that had transpired in the bowels of the Temple.

And…scene! There you have it everyone, chapter 4 of Shadows of the Sith and almost 800 words longer too! I do hope you guys enjoyed this one and in case someone didn't get it, the warning at the top was meant to be a joke since I wasn't about to violate the Rating System of the site.

Also, May the Fourth be with you! I know I'm late by a day, but this chapter took a while to write which is why I didn't do a one-shot dedicated to the Holiday. A surprise to be sure, and an unwelcome one because I really wanted to do something (maybe a reaction to Book 1 from the characters would be funny).

Now, onto our regularly scheduled exposition:

Firstly, the tons of editing that went into this chapter. This thing was very, very different when I had first written it, but after some research I figured out that the way I had things going was not at all accurate. Originally, I was going to have Revan's men resist the Alchemist when confronted by Revan, but that made no sense whatsoever lore wise. That's because the Alchemist is using an ability known as Force Corrupt, mentioned in the "warning" at the top of the chapter.

For visual reference, it's what The Son does to Ahsoka on Mortis, but it's more of a mind control that just turns the target into a mindless attacker that follows the user's commands. What we see on Mortis is likely a more powerful version that retains the target's personality, but that is not confirmed and remains a theory.

Theories aside, it's impossible to even begin resisting this effect if you don't have shielding and as we see in various Star Wars media, very few non-Jedi characters have those, with the prime examples being Padme and Bail Organa, not that the shielding was in any way strong. They still would have lost the mental battle, like many Jedi if they were in this situation, so for two regular troopers to resist and win…it just didn't make much sense to me.

Secondly, the fight scene. Basically during this whole thing Revan is using the Dark Side of the Force to fight and favors Force Lightning and Force Drain while Anakin cuts people down and favors Vader's infamous choke. They work in synergy and manage to defeat the Alchemist's forces, winning the day and cleansing the shrine…There really isn't much else to say here.

Thirdly, Force Light. For a more detailed analysis on the history and usage of this power, you may go on Wookiepedia and look it up. Just search for "Force Light". This ability will show up a lot and was originally supposed to be used against Ventress and Dooku in A Messed Up Destiny: Raging Wars, but I thought that Anakin using an advanced version of Force Absorption was a better choice. It won't be used against any Separatist since Palpatine might find out, but the shrine was just the beginning. As Revan said in chapter 2, this isn't the only Force Nexus in the galaxy, and there are any more Sith spirits that have 'leaked' into the realm of the living.

Fourthly, the trooper duo. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what to do with these guys. They don't even have names as of now ( feel free to suggest them, even nicknames so long as there is a backstory, something like the names of the Clones), so I don't have a plan for them. I have a few ideas, but I can't see them going anywhere long term expect for them to be part of the army (not the GAR), since Anakin and Revan could use all the help they can get. Maybe something to do with Darth Vader or Dooku? I'm not sure, but feel free to suggest ideas. They are always welcome on matters like these (and any others really).

Lastly, the banter. While writing this chapter I felt like I should end it on a lighthearted note, hence the banter between our (my) favorite Sith Lords. These two are just a category on their own, I swear.

Next time: Anakin reports back to Yoda and asks to be trained in using Force Light, but the two are interrupted by an unexpected visitor.

That's all for now everyone! Reviews are always welcome, whether it be to ask a question or to chat, and I'll see you all next chapter, but until then, May the Force be with you!