Chapter 22: The Rule of Two

Darth Plaguies.

Pinned to the wall by the crushing power of a Dark Lord of the Sith, all Siri can do is laugh at it all. "You're... you're Sidious's master, aren't you? He took an apprentice before he killed his master."

"I am," said Plaguies, studying her reaction, "And he did. This amuses you?"

"Not in a good way, I assure you," she drawled.

Inwardly, Siri is about ready to freak out worse than she ever has before. The Force is screaming at her that she is going to die without a miracle. She'd come to far, and done to much, to die now. There is literally only one thing she can do, and for once, she prayed Sidious actually felt possessive enough of her to challenge his master. She blockades her mind as heavily as she can, and reaches out down the bond to her master for what is perhaps the only time she has ever willingly done so. She comes up against his iron shields and slams into them. She can feel his annoyance, and him attempting to brush her away. She doesn't stop, she slams into his shields again and again until he finally allows her an audience.

"What is it Apprentice?" snarled Sidious down the bond.

"DARTH PLAGUEIS!" she all but screams, "Is about to kill me because you didn't bother killing him before you took me on!"

There is a moment of silence before a hiss of rage echoes down the bond. "He dares take what is mine?!"

Siri's eyes flickered to the elder Sith, taking his time in slowly approaching. "Yeah, he's about to."

"Stall," ordered Sidious before cutting the connection.

"So, was Sidious always this much of an ass?" she drawled, "Because he's been a prick my entire apprenticeship, and this really isn't as surprising as it should be."

Plagueis gives her a look of bemusement. "Are you always so insolent?"

"Yeah, kinda," she answers, "I think its one of my better traits."

Plagueis scoffed. "Sidious could have at least enforced more discipline and respect in his would-be apprentice."

Plagueis finished closing the distance and narrowed his eyes at her. "I am curious, why he would defy me like this, for an insignificant specimen such as you."

"What can I say?" she said with a lazy smile, "I'm charming."

Plagueis backhanded her. "Mind yourself, I am not so indulging as your Master."

Siri wrinkled her nose, feeling blood trickle out of it. "I'm not sure indulgent is a word I'd use to describe Sidious. Zannah maybe, but not Sidious."

Plagueis frowned intently. "That was the Holocron he gave you? He complains about sharing power, and then he gives you that Holocron? I expected him to grant you the Holocron of a lesser lord, not a true Dark Lord of the Sith."

"Well, he's kind of sexist," admitted Siri, "I have the feeling he wasn't expecting much."

Plagueis scoffed. "Underestimating one half of the galaxy may be his undoing one day. I taught him better than this. I taught him everything he knows, and this treachery is how he repays me?"

Siri raised both incredulous eyebrows. "Treachery is the way of the Sith."

"Treachery, and the Rule of Two," spat Plagueis, "Is archaic. Barbaric, and to be thrown away."

Siri just stared at him. Is he for real?

"We were to rule the galaxy together," ranted Plagueis, "To share in all knowledge and power, destroy the Jedi, and bring about an eternal Sith Empire."

"Do you even know your apprentice?" she asked incredulously.

"Decades more than you," he answered.

"Then you're not paying attention, or you're willfully blind," spat Siri, "If there is one thing I know and understand about Sidious, it is that he does not SHARE power. He was never going to rule by your side. The moment he sees his chance, he'd betray and kill you."

Plagueis... doesn't immediately respond, a dark scowl on his face. Instead he raised a hand at her and...

She was screaming. Her insides felt like they were on fire, being poked and prodded and tugged and yanked around.

"A slightly above average specimen," mused Plagueis, "Your midichlorian count isn't that impressive, so that's not what he sees in you."

"What...," she rasps, "Are you doing?!"

"Midichlorian Manipulation," explained Plagueis, "The ability to control, alter, and, obviously, manipulate, life itself."

"Sidious," she rasped, a tremor in her voice, "Didn't happen to mention that was something one could do with the Force."

"Didn't he?" mused Plagueis mockingly, "As you said, you apparently know him better than I do. Did you expect him to, share, this knowledge?"

"Oh, I like you," drawled Siri, trying to withhold another scream, "Sass is good in a Sith Lord."

He raised his hand higher, and the burning in her body lessened...

...only for him to rip through her mental shields like they were butter, earning a screech of agony from Siri as he plowed into her mind, brushing aside her defenses like they weren't even there, her traps and illusions dismantled or scattered with childish ease. "Now, lets see if I cannot find understanding in Sidious's madness. Why would he risk our plans, upset our balance, over you?"

"Are... are you jealous?" she panted.

"Hardly," said Plagueis, starting to pick through her memories, "Disgruntled would be the worst I'd describe my state. Perplexed. Academically, this choice makes no sense."

Unlike the last time she had a Sith Lord go through her mind (Bane had hinted at Plagueis now that she thought about it, hadn't he?) Plagueis made no pretense at being even slightly gentle. Siri didn't even think about trying to eject him from her mind, focusing in try to not let herself fall apart and keep her mind intact. Damage control, and if she was still alive later on, meditate and repair. Plagueis was methodical in his search, he went for the older memories first, trying to see what had drawn Sidious's interest in her.

She could feel his distaste at her time in the Jedi Order, and he discarded those memories carelessly. Siri couldn't help the tears of agony running down her face, as he shredded through her early life. It would take a long time to fix this... if she even could... so she instead focused on holding onto what memories that still, even as dark as she had become, were treasured. Obi-Wan, Master Gallia, Bant, Vos, Garen... her former friends in the Order... she let him rip through everything else. Finally, he came to her fall, and he studied it, examining the memory from every angle, and to her surprise, he re-ignited it.

The memory would forever be burned into her mind, but, memories withered with age, lost some of their focus. In an instant, that degradation was gone, it was like she had fallen yesterday, he restored the memory to pristine condition, and then took another look at it. She hissed, the rise of that old fury and hate of her fall bubbling to the surface with renewed vigor. She snarled, both aloud and in her mind, focusing that hate, grabbing Plagueis, and brute force shoving him from her mind.

The Elder Sith blinked once, his only indication of surprise that she had managed to beat him back, and then he went back in, crushing her fight and continuing his research. "Hmm... your fall preludes some potential, I can agree with this. Had both you and Sidious been the same age and experience when I found you, perhaps I would have entertained pitting you against one another to see who was worthy. I doubt you would have won though."

"Thanks... for the vote of confidence," she hissed.

He began to sift more carefully through her memories now, focusing on what Sidious taught her, how she learned, what he had her do. "Did he learn nothing from how I taught him? He desires you as his apprentice, yet hardly gives you enough to function as one. He makes no sense."

"Like I said... doesn't share," she rasped.

His hand was suddenly on her throat when he found her time with Siolo Ur Manka. "You almost returned?"

He squeezed tightly. "He should have eliminated you then and there. He did not punish you nearly enough, so allow me in his stead."

Siri's world turned red and she howled as her insides burned and...

Her pain shifted as a familiar shock of Force Lightning washed over her. Plagueis dropped her to the ground as he shifted to shield himself, raising a hand to catch and negate the energy. "Sidious."

Siri blearily raised her head, blinking to try to get rid of the blurring, sighting her Master's dark form approaching, trembling in pure rage. "You should not have touched what is mine, Plagueis."

"Is this a game to you, Sidious?" snarled Plagueis.

"Yes, yes it is," said Sidious with a hunger that could not be misplaced, for his Master's death, "A game you lost the very day you chose to train me to rule by your side, or rather, under your thumb. You were my teacher, yes, and for that I may be grateful, but my Master? Never."

Siri let out a small, weak chuckle. "T-told you."

Sidious scowled down at her. "Get up apprentice, you look pathetic."

"C-cant...," she rasped, "He kinda ripped... through my shields... and my body."

Force, she could hardly feel any part of herself at the moment.

He gripped her with the Force and tossed her backwards away from the confrontation. She landed hard against a wall and winced.

"I will be most displeased," said Sidious dangerously, "If you wasted the last eight years of my time by permanently marring my apprentice."

Nice to know he cared. Pah...

"I am far more displeased," countered Plagueis, "That you wasted your entire apprenticeship, every grain of knowledge and gift of power I gave to you, with every intention of betraying me. We could have ruled forever, instead, you will die, and be forgotten as nothing."

There was something savage on Sidious's face. "Funny, I was about to say something similar to you."

Lightning exploded from Sidious's hands; Plagueis raised a hand and ripped a piece of the street up to block it, throwing it at Sidious who leaped over it. Siri watched, wondering if she had gone loony, as they ripped apart the street and lobbed pieces at eachother, levitating them and leaping from one piece to another as they launched lightning, gusts of dark energy, and threw eachother with the Force. They weren't even fighting on the street anymore. The Force itself was a tidal wave of back and forth through the air, it took her a moment to realize, in her damaged state, that the two Sith Lords were containing their battle all the while trying to kill eachother. They were yanking back the ripples and distortions such a battle would have cause; which would have brought the entire Jedi Temple down on their heads sooner rather than later.

Siri winced as a shockwave of energy rippled through the area, staring up at a blindingly bright spot. Sidious was channeling his lightning at Plagueis with an intensity Siri had never seen before. Plagueis, held out his hands and negated the attack, catching it in a swirling bright and intense maelstrom that was causing the entire area to shake. Then...

Siri screamed as the energy exploded, drenching the entire area with lightning. Sidious and Plagueis were thrown from one another, and all the levitating parts of the street crashed down. She blinked a few times, the hair on the back of her neck standing straight up. They were even, dead even, or close enough that the difference was negligible. She took a ragged breath, and tried to sit up, her entire body screaming at her. She could not just lay around while they were fighting, she'd get killed in the crossfire.

She shakily dragged herself to hide behind a piece of debris, leaning against it as the two Sith stared one another with molten intensity. She closed her eyes tightly, focusing inward on her mind. It hurt... it hurt so bad to even touch. She had to struggle to not black out as she began to push and prod in her head. Kriff it, she didn't have time for this, it was a do or die situation. She carefully draped the Force over every agonized and disjointed memory before, with band-aid-ripping momentum, gathered them together, closed them off and shunted them away to deal with another time. She was gasping for breath and clutching her shaking head, a mixture of black and red in her vision as she struggled to bring her mental shields back up.

Snap-Hiss

She glanced around the debris, sighting Plagueis igniting a lightsaber, and Sidious pulling two from his sleeves. That cheeky bastard, he never let on that he know Jar'Kai...

"So uncivilized," mused Plagueis.

"Would you prefer one of us to lose control and alert the Jedi?" inquired Sidious with a mocking undertone.

Plagueis's response was to leap, spinning through the air, an inhuman howl escaping his lips-and then Siri lost complete track of them as they moved. Her jaw dropped. She had never seen any Jedi move like this, so fast they were a blur of red lightsabers and black cloaks. She couldn't get a read of what style they preferred, if they had any at all, what little she could read of the fight showed a mixture of every style.

"Kriff," was all she could mutter, "I have a long way to go."

A very long way to go... a true Dark Lord of the Sith was so unimaginably powerful... and they were keeping themselves in check here as to not tip off the Jedi. Even they couldn't take on the entire Temple, insanely powerful as they were. Kriff... just... kriff... she had no idea Sidious was this powerful, this skilled, it went beyond anything she had ever seen before. Forget a decade or two, she'd probably have to be fifty, sixty, before she had a real chance to beat Sidious. Hell, old as Sidious appeared to be, he might die of old age before she became strong and skilled enough to challenge him.

She ground her teeth in jealous rage. She wanted this power... she craved this power...

Sidious leaped over head, swinging down with one saber. Plaguies batted it aside and stepped backward. Sidious spun as he landed, his lightsabers digging into the street and leaving twin molten circles around him before coming up and slashing at Plaguies, who blocked both with his own. They pushed against one another, the air around them cackling with energy, the street shaking with the pressure through the Force. She watched a piece of the street levitate behind Sidious before surging at him. The apprentice broke bladelock and flipped away, Plagueis aimed a hand and released lightning of his own, Sidious turned midair and caught the Force attack with a lightsaber, landing and then thrusting out both his hands, shoving Plagueis back with the Force.

Plagueis thrust a hand forward, and Sidious cringed, dropping a lightsaber and clutching his chest. Siri could feel Plagueis trying to break through Sidious's defenses and assault him through the Force. Sidious gave a roar and unleashed lightning at Plagueis again, forcing him to drop his attack and move. Siri narrowed her eyes, studying the back and forth, feeling their emotions rising, hatred and anger boiling higher and higher. Lethalness turned into absolute viciousness, lightsaber strokes filled with rage, sparking against one another or tearing through walls, debris, and objects that they threw at one another. Their Force attacks grew less controlled, more wild and powerful, climbing in intensity.

Tremors were starting to press against their range of control, they wouldn't be able to contain it much longer. Two Lords of the Sith clashing wasn't a battle meant for anything to be held back in...

She considered her options. She could just leave, let them kill eachother or draw the Jedi in and have them overwhelmed (though the Sith might just flee if it came down to that). But... she'd potentially lose access to either Dark Lord of the Sith's tutelage. She could interfere, though there was a very high chance she would get killed doing so. If she did try though... which way did she tip the battle?

On one hand there was Darth Plagueis. His ideology of the Sith was... interesting, and perhaps more along her liking. Not being held underfoot, power and rule being shared (if he was being truthful/if he would even offer her that). However, he made his distaste for her clear; even if she helped to kill Sidious and then pledged herself to him, he might kill her anyway. There was also the fact that she knew next to nothing about Plagueis, he was an unknown factor.

On the other hand was Darth Sidious. She hated his guts, he pretty much ruined her life. He was cruel and savage, if but possessively fond of her depending on his mood. He withheld so much from her, and practically made her steal scraps from a dinner table for any piece of knowledge he possessed. She wanted to kill him with everything that she was, and everything that she would be. She understood him to a degree, how he operated, what would elect what kind of response or punishment from him. Perhaps most importantly for this situation however, it was a guarantee that unless she betrayed him, he would keep her alive as his apprentice. She also wasn't sure stabbing him in the back mid-duel would be satisfying enough for her, she had dreams and cravings of how she wanted him to suffer. Though, it might be more practical to do it this way, she might never get such a chance again to make sure Sidious died...

She closed her eyes and reached out to the Force, half-begging, half-demanding, that it give her any hint. She hissed in pain at the backlash she received. It was in pure and utter chaos, the future in such terrible, inescapable motion. The Force didn't seem to even be able to give her a proper vision, images pressed into her mind that changed between Plaguies and Sidious so fast that she couldn't tell who was doing what. The message was however clear: Whoever won here would determine the fate of the Sith, herself, and the galaxy.

She was buffeted by a pressure of energy, her hood and hair flying back as lightning ripped through the air. She refocused on the fight in time to see Plagueis block the Force attack and...

She ogled what she was seeing. She couldn't tell if Plagueis's grip on his blade was slipping/being forced back, or if Sidious was literally bending his opponent's lightsaber with his lightning! Lightning refracted off the lightsaber, sparking along the street and igniting anything flammable in the area. Siri had to duck as it arced overhead, near singing her hair. She looked back up and saw a familiar bubble of energy surrounding the lightsaber and braced herself for another explosion of energy.

This time there was no containment.

An explosion ripped through the area, sending the two Sith flying from one another, debris blown from the epicenter, lightning surging in waves through the area, taking Siri to the ground crying out in agony. The Dark Side ripped and howled unrestrained from the Sith, and Siri felt the collective surprise, shock, and alarm from the Jedi Temple off in the distance. The countdown had begun until the Jedi swarmed the area, and neither Sith showed signs of caring. They rushed at one another in snarls and growls of fury, lightsabers clashing in one brutal smash after another, the Dark Side buffeting the area again and again.

Siri swallowed and then closed her eyes, struggling to come to a decision. It was do or die, she had to act. Either choose a Sith, or run...

So she made her choice, and the next time the two Sith clashed and locked lightsabers, pressing against one another's strength, she vaulted over the debris she was hiding behind and sprinted towards the fight. Little old Siri, just a mere Sith Apprentice, an insignificant spec compared to the Sith Lords fighting, whom neither was paying attention to. Who neither sensed with the massive roil of the Dark Side bombarding the area, she ignited her lightsaber...

And drove it through Darth Plagueis's unsuspecting back.

Over his shoulder, there was a look of pure surprise and disbelief on Sidious's face as both he and his master stared down at the red blade going through the muun's chest...

And then Darth Plagueis exploded in a baying howl of the Dark Side.

Siri yelped and Sidous grunted as they were thrown back in an explosion of Dark Side energy, several nearby buildings toppling at the force of it. Siri landed in a heap and groaned, her senses and motor control completely fried by the Dark Side bombardment. She laid there in a daze, staring up at nothing, until Sidious loomed overhead, staring down at her silently.

She gave him a lazy, bleary smile. "So... since I killed him, does that make me the Master now?"

Sidious scowled at her, reaching down and plucking her off the ground, throwing her over his shoulder. "I ought to be furious you interfered."

"Love you too, Sidious."

"Insolent brat," muttered Sidious, taking off in a run.

"I did choose you over him," she pointed out.

"And that loyalty is the only reason you aren't dead right now," said Sidious thinly, "Is your comlink still functional?"

She struggled to even move her hand, reaching for her belt and bringing it out and studying it. "Yeah..."

"Give it to me, I need to order the research and development facility evacuated and scrubbed, it's to near the fight to leave standing," he ordered, "The Jedi will discover it if they look deeply enough into the area.

She did so, and then closed her eyes, sighing softly with weariness...

...and came to an undetermined time later, finding herself on her bunk on the Scimitar. She blinked a few times blearily. "What in the hell..."

She made to rise before feeling something fall off her stomach. She reached out and caught it, finding a holopad with a recorded message on it. She thumbed it with a frown, and watched as Sidious's visage sprang up. "The Queen's party left last night to return to Naboo, and my presence is required elsewhere as of the moment. You are to return to Naboo, take the travel time to recover and repair your shields. Your mission still stands. The Jedi are to die, and the Queen is to sign the treaty and then be killed."

She scowled. "I can't even get a kriffing day off after that karking mess?!"

Sidious's visage continued, "When you return... we have things to discuss, my apprentice. If you are successful in your mission, then, having proven both your loyalty to me, and your commitment to the Sith Order, perhaps it will be time for you to enter my full confidence, and attain another Holocron."

Siri's breath hitched for a moment.

Full confidence...

Sidious's true identity...

The machinations behind the Grand Plan...

Another Holocron to fuel her growth in knowledge and power...

She smiled with a malicious edge. "The next step in my path to power."

The message continued for a little longer, and Sidious seemed almost... disgruntled to say what came next, "You did well apprentice."

Then it cut out, and Siri just snickered at it. "Looked like it killed him to say that."

She pushed herself off her bunk, feeling a bit wobbly, but made for the cockpit. She prepared for liftoff, signaling the private hanger to open up, and then took to the skies. When she was out of the atmosphere, and then into space, she retreated to her bunk, and settled in to begin trying to assess and repair the damage Plagueis's did to with his invasion into her mind...

Author's Notes: There's no way one can do a battle between Sidious and Plagueis true justice, but I did what I could.

Review Responses:

Le0nidas: Well, Siri was kinda pinned for the begining of the chapter, couldn't run.

AlphaF34R: I haven't done something like this for awhile, where I tunnel visioned one story and use up most of my free-time writing. Last time I did this for was my Kingdom Hearts stories over a year ago I think. I already have most of the next chapter written (Had that mostly done before I even started the Phantom Menace part of the story, tee hee), just gotta finish and do a re-read. So hopefully I get that out tonight as well.

Nerdman3000: Hmm... I'll give the Death Stars timing some more thought, but, we'll see.