Chapter 15: The First and the Last
Warning: Taking a lot of leeway here, like or dislike at your own prerogative.
I also probably have Zannah's speech and mannerisms wrong, but, I don't have the Rule of Two books to judge. Sorry if it's way off :P, I only have Wookiepedia to use.
When Siri came to, and was finally not immediately electrocuted unconscious again, she was back in her room. Her first instinct is to let a pulse out in the Force, testing the area for traps and dangers. She's on her bed, there is no one else in the room, the door is...
Locked from the outside, gripped tyrannically with the Force.
Sidious isn't letting her out of here until he wants to.
She continues her pulse, feeling no traps or...
Then her head turns, detecting a dark sensation, a watchful one, as if Siri herself is being studied. Sitting on her desk is a red and black pyramid like object that radiates the Dark Side. Siri studied it for a moment, slightly curious as to what it is, but dismisses it, tilted her head back straight to look up at the ceiling. Images flash through her mind, of Garen, of that look of betrayal on his face...
Of murdering him...
When he cared, when he wanted to help...
Depression is an old friend, one she hasn't really seen since she was in her cell before accepting Sidious's apprenticeship. She welcomes it anyway, flagellating herself again and again that she killed one of her best friends for nothing...
She feels something, a brush against her shields, a whisper to follow, but she shoves it away. It's not Sidious demanding something of her, and even if it was, she doesn't care anymore. Let him kill her, it would be better this way...
Then a red light illuminates the room, and a woman's voice rings out, sharp and pointed, "You are a moody little thing aren't you?"
Siri bolts upright, hand going for a lightsaber that isn't on her belt anymore. Sitting on the edge of Siri's desk, is a young looking woman. Covered from foot to collarbone in dark, almost skin tight black leather and robes. A longer lightsaber, a saberstaff perhaps, rests on her belt. Her face is smooth, pale, beautiful, with blonde rolling down to rest on her shoulders. But what draws Siri is the woman's eyes, with diamond black tattoos stretching above and below her eyes.
Her molten yellow eyes.
Siri straightens. "Who are..."
She frowned, noting a slight shimmer to the woman's form, a line of red light connecting her to the pyramid. Like... like a Gatekeeper.
"A holocron," said Siri with a frown, "A Sith Holocron."
Why would Sidious give her one? Especially since she had 'failed' his Sacrifice?
"Well what do you know," mocks the Sith Gatekeeper, "You can put two and two together. Do you want a medal?"
Siri scowled at the woman, but her attention turns back to the Holocron itself. "It... doesn't feel like a Jedi Holocron."
The Sith scoffs. "Of course it doesn't, because Jedi are idiots and don't know how to make them right, with purpose, with will."
"What do you mean?" asked Siri.
"Do you honestly care for the answer?" questions the Sith, "Or am I a passing fancy before you return to your moping?"
The Sith pouted before Siri could answer. "I never like being a mere side attraction."
Siri sighed and looked away, she didn't want to deal with this right now...
A tingle of warning runs down Siri's spine, the Force is steadily growing louder as it warns of danger. From the... holocon? How could a holocron be dangerous?
"So tell me, little Fallen Jedi," purrs the Holocron, "Are you going to ignore me?"
Danger.
Danger
DANGER.
"Because if you're going to just sit around wasting my time and your own potential, I can make a lot better use of that body than you can," came a hushed, dark voice where the woman's playful banter had just been.
The Force is full on screaming at her to pay attention, and Siri does, turning and tightening her shields as the Holocron raises a hand at her and...
EVERYTHING BURNS!
She feels like there's something pushing into her body, her mind, trying to burn her from the inside out and turn her into a husk. Siri lets out a scream of surprise, feeling the presence, so small, yet so dark and malevolent, piercing right through her shields, for her mind, her memories, aiming to tear them apart piece by piece, making her forget everything that made her who she was and everyone that ever mattered to her, immediately going for her strongest memories... Obi-Wan...
Siri reacts at that, the danger to her precious memory of what she still treasures despite how buried in the dark she is. Unlike the presence, which is so small and fractured and broken, she is not. She grabs it, shoves it back, and throws it out of her mind. She tags a ragged breath, her shields on the verge of destabilizing and cracking from the inside out, her mind feeling aflame. What...
"What in the nine Corellian hells was that?" snarled Siri at the Holocron, fury radiating off her at the invasion.
The Holocron pouted at her again, flicking it's hair back. "Transfer Essence, I greet all female Sith that way. Always a damn shame I can't get myself a nice fine new body. We're rather compatible if you ask me," eyebrows lifting suggestively, "Got room in that body for a spare?"
Siri grows just a tad flustered and honestly baffled, not sure what she's supposed to feel at that. Somehow the Sith made a mental attack trying to possess her body come of as a pass at her. "No."
The Sith pouted. "Tch."
Siri shifted uncomfortably. "If Essence Transfer is what your implying... but you're a gatekeeper..."
The Sith rolled her eyes before motioning to the pyramid shaped holocron on the desk. "We don't make our Holocrons the way Jedi do. Even between the Sith, methods varied. The process is long and complicated, but most important is the Rite of Commencement, to imbue and create our 'Gatekeeper' as you call me. Some are cognitive maps of the Sith in question, some Sith completely bind their souls to their Holocrons and make it their new body. Then, there's me..."
The Sith flashed a savage smile. "Who wanted the best of both worlds, and wouldn't take no for an answer. To keep going as the Dark Lady of the Sith, and leave a small part of my soul behind to continue even after my time passed."
Small, fractured, and broken.
That's what Siri had felt push into her, and it shocked her, it wasn't just a gatekeeper, it was an actual... "You're..."
But wait...
She frowned. "You can't honestly ever expect your 'Transfer' thing to work, do you? You're just a fragment, you'll never take a whole person over who fights you."
The Sith shrugged. "Can't blame a woman for trying can you?"
She grew sly. "Not to mention, you almost let me, miss so-mopey-that-I-could-slide-in-with-ease. That's the closest I've ever come to actually getting a new chance at life."
Siri scowled and tightened her shields, checking and smoothing over any cracks she could find. She might have issues with her current 'profession', but like hell was she letting herself get body-jacked. "Why don't you just take over some random person then?"
The Sith made a disgusted face. "Like Chaos am I ever taking over a Force Null."
"Chaos?"
"Hell, nine Corellian Hells, the void, Netherworld of the Force, whatever you want to call it," said the Sith dismissively, "Taking a Force Null would just leave me stranded in one body till it grew old and died. Immortality is the goal, young one, I'd rather keep existing in a little cube then nowhere."
Immortality huh? "Why would you want to live forever?"
The Sith snorted. "That, is so a Jedi question. Everyone and everything wants to live, they struggle and grow and evolve with their own life or legacy in mind. Do you deny this?"
Siri pursed her lips. "Logically... no. I've read that parents often wish the best for their children, help to set them up for a better life than they've lived."
"Not that Jedi would know what a parent is," drawled the Sith, "They're so unnatural. Denying emotions, accepting death so readily, baby-napping infants from the love of their parents..."
"Like a Sith knows anything of love?" countered Siri, shying clear away from 'baby-napping'.
"I did, once," said the Sith, appearing briefly lost in a memory, "When I was a child. Of course, the Jedi killed that spectacularly and set me up to become what you see now."
There was a dark ripple around the holocron, viscous and angry and open despite however long it had been since whatever she spoke about transpired. "You were a former Jedi?"
The Sith shook her head. "Never took that step actually, I was being brought to become one, but... one could say fate happened I suppose."
"Who are you exactly?" questioned Siri.
The Sith grinned. "You, darling, can call me Zannah."
Her eyes flashed dangerously. "Darth Zannah."
Siri's throat went dry in an instant. "The first apprentice of the Line of Bane..."
The Sith spread her arms out to the side. "The one and only."
She scowled. "Not that most of my descendants give a damn anymore. Not an ounce of respect for their elders..."
"Elder is right," said Siri, deciding for a bit of payback, "What are you, over nine hundred years old prancing about as if your a young lady? You should act and look your age."
Zannah gave an indignant squawk. "I'm still young in spirit!"
"Old hag."
"Little bitch."
"Aged tramp."
"Teenage whore."
"I'm still a virgin thank you very much," snubbed Siri.
Zannah stared at her. "Karking Jedi, you deny yourself all of life's pleasures, don't you? That's not a good thing dear, we need to get you laid ASAP."
"No thanks," said Siri dryly; this act the Sith was putting on was... weird, "Besides, Sidious said the temptations of the flesh..."
"Oh kriff Sidious," said Zannah dismissively, "The last several Lords of the Sith have all been stuck up prunes. Even Bane was more lively than them when he was trapped in his armor."
"Life exists for our pleasure," purred Zannah, "What good is it if we cannot have a little fun? Live a little."
Siri rolled her eyes.
"I'm not saying forget our goals," said Zannah pointedly, "But if our every waking moment is spent in service to the Grand Plan, then how are we any different than the Jedi who enslave themselves to the Republic and it's goals? We must live for ourselves, be bound by no chains, even to our Order. I lived as a Sith because I believed in it's purpose, but I never stopped living for myself either, even as I trained my replacement."
Siri crossed her arms. "Not that I can live anything like that with Sidious chaining me down."
"Like I said, kriff Sidious," snubbed Zannah, "He might be the most powerful Sith of our line to date, but he's still the worst of us. Arrogant beyond belief, ignorant or dismissive on the past and the accomplishments of his predecessors, not to mention absolutely sexist and speciest to the point of foolishness. Honestly, my apprentice wasn't human yet she still managed to kill me and take my place. He'll risk on losing out on so much because of that, especially if he passes that on."
"His last apprentice wasn't human."
"Maul?" said Zannah with amusement, "Pfft. He was a tool, nothing more."
"So what, am I just a replacement tool for the one I killed?" spat Siri.
Zannah paused, eyes focusing. "Oh? You killed his little beast?"
Siri grinned, the Force swirly darkly around her, a reminder of the triumph and elation of it. "I did."
"There's what I've been waiting for," purred Zannah before blinking out of existence and reappeared right next to her, finger poking her forehead and into it-
Abruptly, the temperature around them plummeted, enough for the Dark Jedi's breathing to suddenly become visible. Something in Siri changed and warped as rage, dark cold rage entered her, followed by deep hate as she glared up at the Dark Jedi.
The Dark Jedi's eyebrows furrowed. "Is that...?"
"You wont touch him," came out a hushed, cold and deadly whisper, parting out Siri's lips like a hiss on a snake's tongue.
With a furious war cry, Siri's lightsaber flew into her hands, demanded there by the Force at her will. She burst forward, feeling invigorated and empowered, driven by a determination to see this beast dead and her Obi-Wan safe. She, like he did her Master, took the Dark Jedi completely off-guard. Her first slash knocked aside his saber like it was a twig and cut from his lower right stomach up diagonal across his right breast. It wasn't nearly deep enough for Siri's tastes, but the howl of pain that ripped from his mouth at her saber's searing touch was oh so satisfying. She battered him back, swinging her lightsaber in Force fueled blows that were coming far to heavily to be naturally from her arms. Her foe fell back from each rage fueled strike, naked fear in his eyes. Oh that fear... what a rush!
She pursued him, a hungry growl escaping her lips, as he staggered away, looking towards the ship, and for a brief moment, she felt relief and hope emanate from him as he gasped out. "Master!"
Siri's eyes briefly flickered to the ship, it's open ramp, but there was nothing there aside from dark shadows, and nothing in the Force that she could sense. She felt disgusted, had some deranged madman really slain her Master? The mere thought of it sent another spike of rage through her as she shot after him. The hope and relief faded, replaced by confusion, then a sensation of anger and betrayal. Whatever aid he expected wasn't coming, wasn't real. He turned back to Siri and met her charge. She swung down in a brutal overhead strike, and he raised his blade to block. For a few split seconds, he held his own, purple and red sabers crossing against one another in a test of strength. But at this point, Siri didn't care about strength, skill, or fair play. She just wanted it DEAD!
She raised a foot while he was looking up at her saber, and slammed her boot right into his crotch. The beasts eyes bulged as he gasped and staggered back, his lightsaber moving out of line as he lost his focus and concentration. With one swift motion, Siri brought her lightsaber down, severing his sword hand from his body, and then in a smooth spinning backstroke, took his head clean from his body before he could even scream. Dark elation ripped out of her body as she watched his body, his hand, and then his severed head hit the ground. She threw her head back and raised her hands into the air, a triumphant yell escaping her lips...
-Siri yelped and shoved, pushing Zannah out of her head a second time. "Stop that!"
Zannah stepped back from her, a look of satisfaction on her face, gleeful interest in her eyes. "Ah... now I see it. What drew Sidious in, made him take a female as an apprentice. You have such potential for a fallen Jedi, you could be everything a Sith needs to be and more. You're not just a tool, he wants you as his real apprentice, and I see why. I would have had such fun with you if you lived in my time."
The Sith scowled. "Except that you chain yourself down to the past, and you hardly push into your potential. I see why he gave my holocron to you."
"What, are you to make me his dutiful little apprentice?" Siri sneered at her.
"That's what he wants," admitting Zannah before going sly, "I'd rather steal you for myself instead."
Siri blinked. "You'd what?"
"Treachery is the way of the Sith," said Zannah nonchalantly, "If he thinks I'm going to bow to his will or do him any favor the way he's so dismissive of me then he has another thing coming. He's not good for the Sith Order, I'd rather nip that in the bud."
"You think he'd ruin the Sith's grand plan to kill the Jedi?" asked Siri.
"Oh far from it," said Zannah, "If he doesn't wipe out the Jedi with how much the Line of Bane has set him up to do so, I'll be shocked, and beyond disappointed. But honestly, the Jedi have grown so complacent it's not even a real challenge anymore, it'll be like playing chess against yourself, with the Jedi as the pawns to sacrifice and throw away. The real danger to the Sith Order is what comes after, how we evolve after we have achieved our revenge. That, is where I believe he will fail."
Zannah grew distant. "I am not as I once was, seeing the threads of the future was never my particular skill despite my adeptness in sorcery, yet... even diminished as I am, I feel that his path will lead to the destruction of the Sith, and anything that picks up the pieces afterwards will never hold the glory and power of what came before."
Zannah refocused on Siri, something dark and alluring drawing the latter's focus. "You hate Sidious with a barely leashed passion. It was never meant to be that way, not for the Rule of Two at least, because that way is the way of infighting, killing out of spite rather than readiness. Taking over for Bane was a duty, a responsibility, I was his legacy, as Darth Cognus was mine. Aside from some of the stupid shit he pulled near the end, I never particularly hated him. Hungered to consume and take his position yes, but it wasn't personal. Don't get me wrong, he was never a father figure, but Bane never treated me as a slave, more like his personal hand in the shadows, an extension of his will before I was ready to make that will my own. Honestly, our only real issue came when it was time for me to surpass him, and not how you might suspect."
Siri listened, entranced. "How then?"
Zannah chuckled. "He thought I was unworthy because I hadn't killed him yet, not because I tried or anything. He thought I was waiting for him to weaken with old age, proving me unworthy. Of course, then he went in search of immortality rather than just tell me. You have no idea how angry I was when I heard that. It was the closest I ever came to hating him. But...," Zannah smiled maliciously, "...we sorted that out, Bane wanted me to kill him and prove myself, so I gave him what he wanted. Sidious however..."
Zannah spat. "Wants to live forever, rule forever, just like his Master. Aberrations, the both of them, so assured in their victory they have lost sight of what it means to further the goals of the Sith rather than themselves. Furthering the Sith Imperative and furthering your own selfishness must be kept in balance."
"Don't you want to live forever?" pointed out Siri.
Zannah gave a self-depreciating smile. "Not untrue, but I died when my time came for me, I didn't risk the Grand Plan. Not that my bitch of an apprentice ever told me how she went about killing me when she found my Holocron. Regardless, that I still exist as I do isn't a threat to our Order, far from it. I don't follow my own selfishness at the expense of the Rule of Two, as Sidious and his Master do."
She eyed Siri thoughtfully. "You feel more hate towards Sidious than I ever felt to Bane. I can teach you how to make that your strength. I can show you aspects of the Dark Side he never will. He desires to make you his apprentice, but never let you become the Master if he can help it, always keeping you chained to him as his slave. His Master was perhaps to free with the knowledge he gave out, but Sidious will never allow you to grow to the strength you need to be to replace him as the Lord of the Sith, not intentionally, and that will doom the Sith in the long run, because one day, Sidious WILL die, and everything he withheld from his apprentice would be lost, especially if he hides his holocrons where no one can find them."
A pounding echoed in Siri's ears...
"Pledge yourself to me," growled Zannah possessively, reaching out and grasping-yet-not-grasping Siri's chin, a tingle in the Force all Siri could feel in the place of physical contact, "And I will show you the true depths of the Dark Side, powers and abilities and knowledge that not even Sidious knows, I am the last Sith Lord to truly specialize in Sith Sorcery after all..."
Siri swallowed; hushed, luring whispers in the back of her mind, egging her forward, to accept, to kneel...
"I'll teach you, correctly and with patience, unlike the other Holocrons that he could have given you," tempted Zannah.
Siri... wanted something to focus on; not the pounding in her head, the howling of the Dark Side in her ears. "Why... is that important to note?"
Zannah rolled her eyes. "Sith Holocrons, as a rule of thumb, are far more... free... with their knowledge than Jedi ones. They'll hand out all the knowledge you desire, even if you are not ready for it, which, more often than not, has destroyed the person who delves to deeply to quickly. It's kind of the point really. But..."
Zannah ran a spectral hand through Siri's hair, the Force ruffling it for her, "I will show you the way."
Siri shivered. The room was so cold...
Zannah brought a thumb up, the spectral digit brushing across Siri's lips. "Kneel."
Siri got off the bed, her entire body is shaking; she knows Zannah is doing something to her, a mere fragment of the Sith's soul or not, the Holocron has power and knowledge... but more important than its dark influence... is that she can give Siri everything she wants... all the knowledge of a Sith Lord, the power, the control... everything a Sith would want... nothing else matters...
Is that true Siri? What about your friends? What about when she leads you to kill your friends just as Sidious did?
Siri briefly flinches, the sound of Obi-Wan's voice as her conscience always an aggravating sensation...
She shakes her head, shoving the voice down and away. Zannah can give her everything she needs to kill Sidious, nothing else matters... so she kneels...
"Look up at me," purrs Zannah.
Siri does, and for a moment, that holographic replication of the Sith looks so solidly real, those yellow molten eyes burning just as deeply as Sidious's does. "Pledge yourself to me."
"I..." she began, her voice so dry.
Zannah says nothing, merely waiting, so unlike Sidious with his forcefulness and threats. Zannah doesn't want to force her service, Siri thinks, she wants Siri to willingly offer herself... and she wants it... you want it so badly don't you?... but... it's not...
"What... are you doing to me?" whispered Siri.
"Nothing that you don't wish," whispered Zannah back, "I'm merely drawing out who you really are. You're deepest, darkest desires. You're hunger for the dark, for power, pushing back the light that would make you deny yourself. You wish to be taught this, by a teacher who cares."
"Y...your a Sith, you d-don't care," said Siri shakily.
"I care about the success of my line," countered Zannah, "I care about the sovereignty of the Sith."
"I..."
"Do it," hissed Zannah, "Pledge yourself to me, call me... Master."
Something... violent rippled through Siri at the last word, and the chill in the room turned into a fire as everything came back into focus. "No."
Zannah blinked a few times. "No?"
Siri shoved the intrusive darkness away that wasn't her own and stood, growing furious at being violated, at being nothing short of seduced towards enslaving herself to another Master. "What's the difference between being his slave or being yours? He dominates and forces me into chains, where you tempt me to put them on myself. What about what I want? I'm sick of being forced to the will of others!"
Zannah stared at her for a moment before throwing her head back and howling with laughter. "Oh darling..."
She brought her head back down and grinned savagely. "I'm going to have such fun with you."
Siri glared at Zannah, who merely gave her a sly smile. "Here is your first lesson: Sidious would make you call him Master, but it is up to you whether when that word slips by your lips, it is in service as a slave, or as promise of death, to usurp and surpass. That each act you take in his service is building up to the moment when you kill him and take his place."
"Pledge yourself to his teachings, to the teachings of any who would further your cause," purred Zannah, "But never pledge yourself to them directly. Use them until they've outlived their usefulness, and then, either dispose of them, bend them to your will, or cast them aside."
Siri studied her, weighing the wisdom of her words. "I'll pledge myself to your teachings, but you're not my Master, and if you try to mess with my head again, I'll rip your Holocron to shreds."
Zannah's lips peeled back, darkly amused. "Well said, little Sith to be, but I wouldn't advise the last part, destroying a Sith Holocron can have... rather nasty repercussions, and I myself am not without my defenses."
Siri considers the words. Is there truth to them? Or is Zannah just trying to preserve herself? Does it matter? She's a broken fragment of a soul of a woman long dead, grasping at life like a starving person for food, long past her time. Siri was not going to enslave herself to a pyramid, to an object, something less than Sidious himself. She'll learn whatever Zannah will teach her, and if the Holocron is lucky, Siri might not destroy it when all is said and done.
"Now, how about you tell me what Sidious has bothered to teach you thus far," said Zannah, "And we'll go from there..."
Author's Notes: Next Chapter, more Zannah and Siri fun, arguments, and teachings...