Disclaimer: All non-original characters and ideas mentioned here is SW material, not owned by me. Like countless others, I'm just playing in the Lucas Universe, inspired by Episode 3. Only the five Forgotten characters were created by me, along with the planets Ichosar, T'Gottok, and Whrede. I made up the name Darth Malevolence off the top of my head, and Darth Vulcanus is actuallyfrom Bob and George, the best online comic strip ever.
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Ten: Freudian Showdown-
The eyes of Lon the Wise's last protector seemed to shine as brightly as his blue lightsaber through the mist that was the prelude to the return of another departed consciousness. Seeing young Ventress struggling back to her feet, Darth Vader searched the obscuring cloud with every sense, searching for the mind of his final test.
Now he fully understood the special power of Lon the Wise- he could raise the departed, albeit temporarily and without their bodies. Even amongst Jedi, this was a miracle, but undoubtedly the one that had gotten him expelled from the order forever.
If money was of any real concern to Vader, he would have bet his entire fortune that this final defender was another raised consciousness. What he sensed with the Force was incomplete in many ways, so that he often found his own memories and feelings where he should have found the defender's. Exactly how the resurrected entity was wielding a lightsaber was a question on it's own.
A figure from the past, he reminded himself. And a powerful one, strong enough to surprise my apprentice. But he is outnumbered and outmatched here- Lon is helpless on his own now, drained of all his strength.
Bit by bit, the mist cleared, first revealing Lon's shriveled face, which had since regained its previous confidence. Wait a little longer, creature, and you will pay for playing with my feelings like this.
Then he saw Lon's strongest servant. An old memory awakened. Ages old, crusted over, but still somehow as fresh as the day he'd seen it. The premonition of danger he'd felt even as a boy when the Sith Lord known to the galaxy as Darth Maul had first appeared, and viciously attacked the two men responsible for protecting him.
He'd felt it again, much later, personally this time. One attuned to the Force as he was could not ignore the crackling aura of power surrounding Count Dooku. The man had been obviously very dangerous even to the untrained eye. Since that day, his face would slide into a blank slate whenever danger of this magnitude rose, an emotionless expression that showed no mercy in the battle, but promises aplenty.
Now, he saw that face, mirrored perfectly, on the combat-hardened face of his adversary.
As the mist reached its climax, Lon the Wise couldn't suppress a slight chuckle before backing off to let the fight begin. "You see, Lord Vader? A true master is prepared for all contingencies. I have forseen that Anakin Skywalker will help me to destroy Palpatine and take back what's mine! One Anakin Skywalker… or another."
-
Still viewing the growing blue glow from his seat, Gran Lassau followed the two Sith below him in sizing up the new individual whom Lon the Wise had seemingly pulled from nowhere.
So this is what he was working on, Lassau secretly marveled. First Padme Amidala, and now Anakin Skywalker reborn as specters of their old selves. While he was not the most knowledgeable of beings on the subject, Lassau knew Anakin as one of the heroes of the Clone Wars. He felt no surprise that he was dead after what he had heard of the Jedi purge, but seeing the man in the flesh, so to speak, gave him a very different impression.
Demonstrating that he was not merely there for show, Anakin moved independently of Lon, stretching out one hand in concentration and somehow blasting young Rattatak Gran had come to know as Asajj Ventress out one of the castle's many window frames.
Beneath his disguise, his eyes widened. I still have a great deal to learn of this power Lon calls the Force. After seeing what it can do, I would be a fool not to. Asajj's shriek as she fell seemed to have snapped Lord Vader out of his torpor, and back to the business at hand.
For Gran, the miracles just kept getting bigger- now Anakin spoke. His tone was deadly serious, without a hint of the weakness Lassau would expect from someone raised from the dead.
"I've had enough", Anakin said tersely to Vader, pacing him aggressively for an opening stroke. "You're me, and I've seen enough of the darkness- I want my life back."
For some reason, Vader found this slightly amusing. "You jest. I have changed for the better since the days when I answered to your name. You are nothing but a collection of stray memories given life and form!"
"And you", Anakin replied, pointing in accusation, "are me, except ensnared by dark power, and crippled. I can't guess how that happened, but I know this isn't what I want to become in life! You were a mistake!"
Now completely clear in his new purpose, Vader raised his own saber, a burning red to match Anakin's clear blue. "Fool. You've already become it. We'll just see how 'crippled' I am now."
Finished with all attempts at reason, the two crashed together, saber against saber. In all the time he'd consorted with the Forgotten, Lassau had never seen lightsabers move so quickly, or clash with such strength behind them. Both warriors seemed to be trying to rain down as many consecutive blows on the other as possible, shying away from any long exchanges while trying to find paths around the other's defenses. He'd worked with Trasshk long enough to recognize a sword master when he saw one. And Vader and Anakin, without a doubt, were masters.
They'd circled the throne room during the first salvo, and now Vader had his black cape to the throne Lon had sat upon moments before. Among other things, Lassau was amazed by how similar their techniques were, almost as if…
-
Once again, Asajj Ventress couldn't help but think. Once again, death and oblivion misses me by micrometers.
It was the décor that saved her. For some reason or another, the high castle of Jomark was layered by a row of small statues shaped to resemble the gargoyle-face of a Schintian. Catching one of these, she had hung there on the desolate stone wall, the encroaching pain flowing to her twisted arm the best sign that this was not a hallucination.
Yet, she couldn't deny what she had seen. Skywalker, of all people, had appeared up there and blasted her with a telekinetic wave that had overwhelmed all defenses. Impossible… unless the man I have come to know as Darth Vader is someone else entirely?
No. That was foolishness- she'd recognized the posture and aura of Skywalker the moment she'd laid eyes on him at Chorax. True, his feel had changed, matured and darkened since Yavin 4, but it remained unmistakable.
The sound of footclaws on broken stone drew her full concentration to the present time. Lon the Wise was running away from the battle upstairs, but it only took one acrobatic swing through a lower window to catch him off guard with a double kick to the chest, knocking the old creature into a dusty stone wall.
Whatever pretense of manner he'd feigned in the throne room was gone- this time, the second son of Korriban was only trying to get out of this alive. This was reflected in the gaze of feral reaction he directed to Asajj, along with several large pieces of debris that lay strewn about the hall.
"Apologies, young one", the elder snarled quickly through the assemblage of statues. "You have to die now."
She could only laugh at the telekinetic threat. "First, Skywalker killed me on Yavin 4. Then General Kenobi, Dooku, and then your buddy Trasshk killed me. Just now, Skywalker killed me again. My life is on an expense account that would blow your mind, you festered little imp. Take your best shot."
-
Now Darth Vader understood some of what it was that he'd brought to bear on the many rivals that had challenged him in the past few years. The intensity on the other man, or phantom, or whatever's face betrayed few signs of future moves, only a raw sense of focus. Anakin Skywalker looked the same in combat as he would in a complicated game of Dejarik.
He never had been very good at Dejarik. But he was very good at slashing other people to bloody chunks with a lightsaber, no matter the color. The rapid chain of slashes he'd rained down upon his larger opponent had driven him backwards into the throne, nearly bending him over. Summoning the strength and muscle he had accumulated since before the Clone Wars, Vader erupted back into the duel with a steadiness his younger counterpart could not match.
He was settling into a different game now, understand that the one he'd tried to play before- the one where he matched his enemy move for move- was only going to get him killed. Despite the fact that he was for a great many intents purposes dead, Skywalker moved with an endless wellspring of vigor that was the exclusive province of the young and hotheaded. He was faster, lighter, and more nimble than the black-armored cyborg he was intent on killing. As if to demonstrate this fact, he fled one broad swing with a flashy leap that took him over and around to the other side of Vader.
So he played a different game. Conditioned by years of training, Vader slowed his pace down to a static defense, only expending the bare minimum of energy needed to survive Skywalker's rapid-fire attacks. As he soon learned, a simple guard could ward off several of the quick strikes, since they were mostly made without consideration, for the sole purpose of overwhelming the opponent with numbers and blazing speed.
So the defense remained. The frenzied blows made his enemy became analogical to several dozen starfighters deliberately crashing into the azure shields of a heavy cruiser- each hit consumed far more resources and energy than they took away from the behemoth. Vader was not sure if he liked the heavy slashes and guards that Trasshk had inspired him into using, but he could not doubt that they were more effective in the hands of a more intelligent fighter than a Trandoshan giant.
After a storm of these strikes, the Skywalker phantom seemed to get wise. He began working his way around the strong guard without much heed to his own. While Vader initially took the opportunity to slash at Skywalker's unprotected arms and legs with relish, he drew back in a mix of shock and fury when the limbs reformed, as though they had been nothing but a part of the fog cloud that still enveloped the room.
Tightening his focus, Anakin drove him through a different window, this one leading directly out onto a slanted roof that had to be the top of the cathedral. Footing was less than ideal, but both red and blue sabers continued to slam into each other as if nothing had happened. For once, Vader could survey the dark brown leather armor he knew so well, upon the enemy's body. It reflected the austere glow from the blood red sun as well as Vader's black armor, casting multiple shadows across the shingled rooftop.
"Our feelings are mutual", Vader managed to rasp angrily over the fevered clashing of blades. "You represent everything my master has helped to excise. What future lies upon the path of the Jedi we once cherished? Nothing but empty servitude to the masses!"
"Better that", his phantom countered, "than servitude to one man! Face it- Palpatine is every bit as bad as Dooku!" He punctuated these words with actions, spinning his saber as a bright blurry pinwheel, fast enough to catch and dislodge any kind of saber guard no matter how strong.
Recognizing the trick, he leapt back across the roof of the cathedral, the black cape flapping behind him and adding distance. Only from that range did he feel it safe to drop his weapon for even a millisecond. "This is not servitude, Anakin Skywalker, weak, despised puppet of the Jedi… it is ascension!"
Truth be told, he was as surprised as Anakin at what happened next. The door his rage had thrust open was pure power. He could feel it reemerging, condensing… and appearing, as another phantom image of it's former self.
Anakin's eyes widened as he beheld the specter of a man, bald, with gray skin and what looked like red battle armor covering him all the way up to where his mouth would be. Though he held no weapon, the phantom still radiated both dark menace and power.
More came on, a flood unlocked by Vader's opening himself to pure rage, arranged in a circle of both men and women from the past.
"Malak." Vader said, pointing out and identifying the first specter his rage had summoned. "Traya. Ruin. Vulcanus. Bane, Nihilus, and Malevolence! Many more besides. I honor a dynasty every bit as old and powerful as that of the Jedi!"
Anakin could say nothing, still surrounded as he cast his gaze to each of the imposing creatures, each radiating their own unmistakable aura hatred and greed. From the sneer on Darth Kreia's red lips, to Darth Ruin's sagging form of cracked stone, to the freakish network of trauma scars tracing across Darth Malevolence's entire body. The circle of thirteen Sith Lords ended back at Vader with Anakin at its center, and not even the glow of his saber could escape it.
No way to escape… except for downwards. Acting quickly, before any of the Sith could react, he slashed at the floor beneath his feet, causing the entire structure to collapse on itself.
Vader took the plunge without regret, without fear of losing the silent support of the legacy of Sith standing behind him upon the timeline of the Universe. He knew what had to be done.
-
Asajj Ventress tried to ignore the heavy heart sounding in her ears as she sprinted down a spiral staircase after Lon. After coming this far, there was no way she was going to lose him now, even if she had to chase him out of his own castle.
She should have known better. Every attack Lon had launched, bereft of his own lightsaber, had been to buy himself time to escape. She'd avoided two near-fatal obstacles thus far into the chase, the first being a weak section of stairs that had buckled up to crush her, the second being a collection of rubble arranged to look like a wall covering a passage to the third floor.
Don't stop, she commanded her legs. He's an old man, there's no way he can outrun me.
The moment that thought crossed her mind, it was rewarded- she had just entered a ramshackle atrium at the top of the castle, shaken further by a sudden tremor nearby. Lon the Wise was standing near one of the largest windows, preparing to take flight and leave both her and Vader behind.
"No!" she cried, flinging her saber by instinct and desperation to stop him. She saw the weapon flashing end over end, closing on the middle of his back just his wings stretched outward…
Her aim was true, and Asajj was rewarded with seeing the Schintian cough up blood, falling backwards out of the window and onto the dusty floor. Yet even before he hit the ground, another noise drew her focus- something that sounded like breathing into a wet tube.
Before the liquid poison hit her, she had tried to serve in time to see and dodge the new threat, and now freezing in that posture toppled her as fast as Lon. All at once, her arms, legs, and lips were as pliable as rubber.
Descending from his perch, Gran Lassau hit the floor and studied his prey in delight. Asajj's eyes lacked the nerve control to even widen in shock, but he sensed it all the same.
For Gran Lassau's hood had fallen backwards, blown by the wind of his jump. The alien was tall- his thin head bore a slashed mouth with ill-kept teeth, and two asymmetrical eyes, the right eye- the one that had always reflected every ray of light that fell upon it- was still closing.
His lone real eye narrowed, looming over the paralyzed Ventress. "It's called a Plaeryin Bol", he mocked. "You implant it in your eye socket. It spits venom when I tighten it, and… well, I'm sure you're feeling the results right now."
A new shock hit Ventress' heart, and she thought it would burst with help from the poison. She had been unable to detect anything from this new attacker, despite having her Force-sense extended in all directions. She had felt nothing from this one. An empty space where a life should be.
This was the face of the enemy. This was an agent of the threat Zurxix had bid her warn the galaxy about. This was the ultimate enemy of creatures that drew upon the Force…
"Know… you…", she managed to whisper weakly, quivering as she felt the poison shut down all feeling in her lower body.
"I doubt that", the hoodless alien replied chillingly. "I am Nom Anor. Know my name, for I have killed you."
-
Anakin's explosive entry into the pavilion of the castle's cathedral had kicked considerably more dust and debris than either fighter could have anticipated. It still hung in the air, a dark cloud obscuring anything more than five feet from Vader's face. Undaunted, he slowly prowled through the wreckage, brushing aside sacred altars created to ward off evil spirits and demons.
"Your so-called dynasty is paved with dead innocents", Anakin's voice suddenly echoed from everywhere at once, failing to reveal his location. "Sith have never known true love as we have!"
"Wrong", Vader replied to the dust clouds, remembering his lesson to Asajj, "passion, anger, and glory are the strongest weapons of the Sith. The Jedi teach you calm, they teach you to silence your emotions and become a heartless droid! But these feelings open the way to true power!"
Taking a wild guess, he annihilated another statue with a swift swing, but Anakin Skywalker was nowhere to be found in the debris.
Instead, his voice seemed to come from above. "What about the Jedi? This path will end their history forever, the legacy of thousands of Masters!"
Vader didn't shout back, knowing that his goal was close. After a brief silence, he looked upwards through the cloud to see Anakin standing on an ornate marble pedestal connecting the first and second floors to one another, his saber unlit.
"Yes", he finally agreed soberly. "That is our choice, our turning point. No matter what we decide, a millennia-old legacy of power will end today. But I have seen them both from the inside… and I see more. It is easy to see, just which one is more deserving of continued existence!"
With that, he literally flew at Anakin, crossing the distance between them in the time it took for him to re-ignite his blue saber and block with it. The block became an upwards thrust, directed at the center of Vader's chest. Knocking it aside, he slid his own weapon along Anakin's block towards his neck.
He'd gotten too aggressive, trying to end the duel in a single cumulative stroke. Anakin propelled himself backwards to escape, and, bouncing off the stone pulpit just behind him, came back with a slash aimed at Vader's blade handle, destroying the weapon before it's wielder could react.
But this was not the end of it. Vader stepped forward as his saber disintegrated into scraps of singed metal, directly onto the path of Anakin's saber so that it skewered him on the left side of his gut. This move surprised Anakin so much that drew back involuntarily, staring at the blue beam impaled in the machinery over Vader's chest.
He waited two seconds, then pulled Anakin's blade from the wound. It had only damaged mechanical components, and nothing critical. Once he took another large step forward, Anakin realized that the black cape gliding behind his dark half turned the alcove at the top of the cathedral into a filthy trap- there was no way for him to escape from his own weapon, now turned on him.
"You told me before, that I was a mistake, Skywalker.", Vader spoke, his damaged rebreather sounding like an immortal's heartbeat as he prepared for the killing stroke. "A cosmic accident. Now I return those words to you. You were the accident. You were the mistake. You, phantom, never should have been… and now, I correct that!"
Finally, raising the burning blue blade, he slashed it into Skywalker's head, dissipating it along with the mist that had shrouded the altar, only now allowing the sunlight to enter.
-
Vader did not have to search far to find Asajj Ventress. Her consciousness remained a flickering candle in the Force, ever dimming, but still there.
The sight that met his eyes brought echoes of Mustafar back to his heart once again. Asajj Ventress, splayed down on the floor, without the tiniest bit of the guise of raw fury and anger she had always worn wherever she went. The time for blindly raging at Nom Anor had long since passed, and now he sensed that her mind was in a sedated state for the most part.
"Ventress", he said, "can you hear me?"
"S-S-Sky…", she coughed, "Skywalker?"
"No. He is gone. Who you did this to you, Ventress? Was it Lon?"
Asajj shivered, trembling with the effort to speak further with body parts that were dying so quickly. "Not Lon. He's-"
She entered into a raucous coughing fit, and Vader saw what she meant. Lon the Wise had died just a few feet away from flying to his freedom. His body was in even worse shape than Asajj's- severed at the spine, by the look of it.
Regaining some control, Asajj spoke again. "Th-the… alien. Gran Lassau, but… not real… name. It's what Zurxix-"
A bubble that had to be some of the poison popped at the roof of her mouth, and she laughed deliriously at it. "I suppose this… is my fate. One can only die… so many times."
"No", Vader said, remembering Padme. "You were to be my apprentice. Do not allow something as simple as a neurotoxin destroy you! Please."
"-Bile, and rage, given form", she continued, ignoring him, still chuckling weakly while staring straight up at the sky and the stars beyond it. "Haha… T-that was what the damned Jeds called me. I get my reward after all."
Vader grabbed her crumpled body violently, knowing now that she was beyond saving. "Tell me then, Ventress. Who did this to you? What is his real name?"
"It… was…" her mouth kept trying for it, trying to form the name of her murderer, but gave up any attempt to make sounds when the throat would not cooperate. Instead she just sat there, mouth closed, with only her eyes under control.
For a moment, Vader felt pure wonder. Every shield of arrogance, hatred, or sadism that Asajj had developed over her life of violence and death had simply evaporated. What was left behind was only what she had begun life as- a child. A scared, even innocent little girl that could still marvel at the wonders of the universe.
Her time to be angry with the one responsible had long since subsided. But that was merely summer rain to the storm that now boiled in Vader's brain. Once he was certain that all life had deserted her, he shut both eyes with a black glove that refused to stop shaking.
Knowing that another outburst of rage like the one he'd indulged in before would likely destroy the High Castle of Jomark for all time, he slowly picked up the woman's limp body, leaving Lon the Wise's corpse on it's own.
-
Only after traveling some four-hundred light years out of the system did Nom Anor permit himself to truly breathe. Reaffixing his hood to shroud his face in shadow, he stared out at the questionable safety of Hyperspace- another infidel contrivance he had yet to become fully used to- and waited for the last of his hired crew to leave him in peace.
He breathed out again and again, basking in the exhilaration. He had done it. Mission accomplished, and better yet, he had not died in the process. Anyone who might know his real identity was dead.
Finally feeling like he could function normally again, he removed an item from a pouch beneath his robe, placing it on his desk. Even if his hired crew somehow found it, the villip would appear only a gelatinous fruit to them, totally harmless.
But it can bring harm, he mused with a small smile. It can bring harm to me, if I deliver bad news. Thank the Gods this is not the case.
The small being woke up after a few minutes, taking on a likeness Nom Anor had seen nearly a hundred times by now, and still could not look squarely in the eye- Kruu Anor, supreme head of his people's recon efforts. Every last one of his people in this galaxy answered to the massive, tattooed face before him, leaving it up to him and the Gods to coordinate what must be done next.
He also happened to be Nom Anor's own father.
"Report", Kruu rumbled in passable basic, easily avoiding any tone of sentimentality with him. "What is the status of your operation?"
Nom Anor permitted himself a toothy smile, and raised the data pad close enough for the villip to sense and display it. "A complete success. The Forgotten are all dead, but not before they gave me my pay- access to Kahl Gonak's network of smuggling contacts, along with enough of a fortune to recruit some of our own spies on infidel worlds."
Kruu's left eyebrow arched curiously, a trait he had actually developed by spending two years in disguise among the infidels. "All dead? Not by your hand, obviously."
The younger Anor refused to rise to the bait. He knew perfectly well how little his own father trusted in his abilities. "No, by the hand of the Emperor. He sent two of his lackeys to defeat the Forgotten."
Kruu Anor drew closer still to his own villip, causing his face to grow a dimension larger. "You were seen by these assassins?"
"No", he lied smoothly. "Actually, one of them did see my face, but I silenced her. There's no way the Emperor could know who I really am. My life in payment if I am wrong, father."
Kruu Anor sniffed, drawing back. "That would be unfair exchange. If he learns of one of us, he can easily find others. All the same, the Forgotten coup has failed despite our aid. This galaxy belongs to the Empire now, and we will simply have to deal with that. Meet with agent Yomin Carr at the Cha-Harla safe house, he will transmit the data to me and Warmaster Czulkang Lah."
Just like that, the villip everted to its original state. Either Kruu Anor was extremely busy in his intelligence-gathering efforts, or- far more likely- he had chosen to snub his youngest and most inexperienced field agent.
Nom Anor slammed the data pad down on his desk, for a moment not caring if he broke it. He is right about one thing- I need practice. He wasn't forgetting for a microsecond how much information Lon the Wise had deduced about his true masters simply by observing Nom Anor's habits in his disguise as Gran Lassau. Just as well that that little imp was dead now.
A faint tingling sensation in his right eyelash told him that his Plaeryin Bol venom was spent after just two sprays- he would have to find the appropriate creature to refill it once he got to the safe house. Perhaps a few dozen more successful missions after that, he would earn from his father the respect he had already achieved among infidel crewers.
After all, his people had very long lifespans. For the moment, he had nothing but time and experience to look forward to.
-
Somehow, it did not surprise Vader in the least that Captain Veers had received a demand for contact the moment he returned to the Devastator. Even though he expected it, the idea of direct holographic contact with the Emperor now turned his insides to ice.
So even at the risk of displeasing him, he waited a few minutes to prepare for it, to conceal a great deal of what he had learned and experienced on Jomark behind an iron wall of mental concentration. If he let the slightest hint of hostility slip through, the penalty would be instant death. His inner thoughts were as concealed and well protected as they could possibly be, even though the Emperor was still hundreds of lightyears away.
Finally, he bent over and switched the round dais on himself, generating the hologram of the man he knew now to be Darth Sidious, the first, and only remaining, son of Korriban.
"What is thy bidding, my master?" How did you know exactly when I had finished my task?
The Emperor's face revealed nothing but a note of satisfaction so far. "You have already done it. You have done well, Lord Vader, slaying the Forgotten quickly as you did. My full power is restored. All is at peace."
Peace is a lie. There is only- "Yes. Kahl Gonak, Reyne A'kla, Zurxix Azur, and Lon the Wise are now all dead. Trasshk has been driven into total insanity. He will not trouble us again." Five fewer players at the table, just as you wanted. No… six.
The wrinkled face contorted. Had he picked up on that last thought? "At the same time, I confess myself disappointed, Lord Vader. Much has reached my ears regarding your exploits."
Yeah, I bet it did. "I assure you, I did not expect the Camaasi woman to-"
"Be silent", Palpatine said. "That is not it. My spies tell me strange tales. I know that you happened to run afoul of another woman in your travels, the Confederate assassin Asajj Ventress- an enemy of our Empire."
Our empire. You say it as though it's rulership was shared. "She said she was hired by an anonymous employer, master. After I defeated the reptile Trasshk, she begged to partake of our knowledge." And I wouldn't be surprised if you were her employer.
"Why did you not kill her then?"
Because… "Master, I confess that I saw her as potential to continue the cycle of the Sith. We will not live forever, and she could carry on-"
"And you thought to break the rule of two", the old man interrupted him sternly, his voice taking on a dangerous edge. "Unless of course, you sought to remove me."
"Of course not, my master." I hate you. I hate you I hate you I hate you.
The Emperor's eyes widened, still searching for the truth. "Perhaps you have developed an interest besides power then, hm?"
It took him a moment to figure out what he meant by that. The answer, as well as the mention of possibilities untold, shocked him. "Of course not. You know I carry a torch only for Padme. I never dreamed of any kind of interaction with her besides that of a mentor to their student." And regardless of what I think and say, you would never allow me to keep her anyway. You would make sure she died.
"Then I am… satisfied. A pity you had to lose her."
Are you talking about Padme or Ventress? Doesn't matter- you arranged both of their deaths. "Yes. A pity. Shall I return to the capital?"
"No", the Emperor replied. "You may now consider the Devastator your own personal ship. Consider it a gift. I wish for you to travel to the Unknown Regions. Evidently, some of the local species there consider themselves exempt from the Empire's laws. You will correct this by any means necessary."
Another world to crush then. "As you will, my master."
He didn't smile, but sank back under his violet-hemmed robes, once again confident that all was right with his galaxy. "Of that, I have no doubt."
THE END
-
M: Well, there you have it. Last chapter done! I'd like to thank all the reviewers I've seen so far, along (hopefully)with all those to come, especially Raven Nolan and Count Boobu! Thanks to you, I finally have a story with more reviews than Chapters, something everyone else seems to get easily.If I get enough, I may even submit this to the Distant Star (professional fanfic site). A couple of personal remarks follows.
Writing this last chapter in particular has made me realize that writing a good lightsaber fight is hard. Writing a good lightsaber fight with good dialogue is even harder. Anakin versus Vader was by far the hardest part of this conclusion to write. I would really like to know if Anakin and Vader's dialogue sounded epic or totally corny when they fought in and atop the Jomark cathedral. Then again, compared to Episode 2 Anakin (the one that was killed again here!), anything I write sounds like Pathos ;).
Not having read the 'Obsession' miniseries, I was never completely sure of how sympathetic I could make Ventress. Make no mistake, she was meant to remain a PMSwarrior until the end, and was certainly planning eventual betrayal like all good (bad) Sith. Still, Nolan tells me that I wrote her and Vader well. Just wish I could have kept some of the Forgotten alive for use in someone else's work.
As for good old treacherous Nom Anor aka Gran Lassau, I am not completely nuts about him like some fans of NJO (read: the novel reviews), but he does amuse me. One thing I made sure to do was show a bit more of his vulnerable side, since he is nearly fifty years younger than he is when we first see him in Vector Prime. Didn't have much room to characterize Kruu Anor, but he is basically in the same position Nom eventually claims, only he takes it far more seriously. One thing that turned out impossible to do was hide what Nom Anor really was after Zurxix's vision. Though I made sure never to mention their name, his people have such distinctive characteristics that it is easy to tell. Hopefully, I was able to conceal the who until the last chapter.
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Anyways, adieu for now, I will be doing the reviewer-summoning dance and playing Kingdom Hearts 2 until the end of April, sometimes simultaneously!