Chapter 41: Implications

Siri glanced up from her datapad at the sound of a door opening, not hers, but from the apartment next to her. She stretched out her senses, detecting Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon Jinn, Dooku, and Skywalker (she ought to name him Supernova until he learned to properly shield). There was a brief distracted acknowledgement from Obi-Wan, but the other three didn't seem to have noticed her quick pass. Which was curious, not that they had missed it, but that Obi-Wan had managed to pick it up. He was learning, in several areas now, interesting. Perhaps if he adapted enough he might just survive Sidious without her holding his hand, who knows.

But that was a thought for another time, what were they doing?

She closed her eyes and saw through the Force, outlines of their presences through the walls in her mind carrying boxes and plants.

Her eyes snapped open, eyebrow raised, a sly grin crossing her face. She walked over to the wall leisurely and knocked loudly, "Oy, am I getting a neighbor?"

She snickered at the exasperation she felt from Dooku; Obi-Wan called out an answer, "What do you think Siri?"

"Well, its either Dooku to keep an eye on me, or you to restart our so lovely chit-chats," she answered loudly.

"Considering you keep scaring away the mindhealers who are only trying to help you, guess," called back Obi-Wan.

Siri just laughs. "Oh goodie, try not to egg me into breaking your nose again."

She faintly hears him sigh before she moves back to the couch, picking up her datapad but not turning it on, just turning it over in her hands again and again. She'd be lying if she said she was looking forward to this again. She had liked portions of their talks in the cell, but considering how little into the past they had gotten through, there were things they were heading for she did not want to dredge up. At all.

She especially knew that Obi-Wan would be interested in her time with Ur Manka.

She exhaled through her nose and tilted her head back, staring up at the ceiling aimlessly as time ticks by until one by one, Obi-Wan's lineage leaves his new apartment. She turns her head, eyes slowly moving to follow his presences as he moves about, re-arranging and moving this or that before he settles into the center to meditate. Its getting rather late in the day, so he could be doing so before he turns in for the night, or he could still make a visit. She's not sure which she'd prefer. Their interactions aside from his general nagging haven't been much since they got out of the cell.

Then again, she did throw him across the room when she saw the video of her first senate session, might have made him a bit skittish.

But, lo and behold, once he is done, she follows his presence as as he leaves his apartment and makes for hers, entering.

"Ever heard of knocking?" asked Siri deadpan, "Its common courtesy."

He gave her a suspicious look. "And how often do you remember to knock before entering somewhere private?"

"Cute."

"Honest question."

"Are you sure you want me to answer it?" she asked, eyebrow raised.

He closed his eyes and sighed. "Is breaking and entering common for you?"

"As missions dictated," she answers, noncommittal, "I've done my fair share."

"For what reason?"

She gave him a bored look. "Theft. Extortion. Snooping around for blackmail. That sort of thing."

He looked skeptical. "You happened to leave out murder."

"Silly Jedi," she said, sneering, "I don't need to break into someone's home to kill them."

He went still, an odd sensation of sadness and grief from him rather than anger, and Siri wondered if he'd skitter out of the room or go all righteous on her.

Instead, his voice is soft, "No, I suppose you don't."

She doesn't like that tone directed at her. "Is there something you want, Kenobi?"

He looked around her room with an eyebrow raised, at all the furniture but the couch shoved to the outer parts. He didn't comment, merely going for a chair and pulling it over to face the couch from a few feet away. "We haven't really talked in awhile."

"Didn't we speak yesterday?" she said mockingly, "My how forgetful you are."

He gave her a look. "I mean like we did..."

She cut in with lethal sweetness, "When I was trapped in that little cell forced to talk to you or be put in complete isolation? That kind of talk?"

He closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. "Same vein, less pressure."

She scoffed. "I'm not sure you're ready for the kind of arena where I can properly can fight back."

"Must everything be a fight with you?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Yes actually."

"Well, its a common theme at least."

She snorted. "Cute."

"Me or the comment?"

She grinned; he was learning. "I dunno, I think I'd need a peak in the shower first to see if you meet standards."

That got a disproving look out of him. "Deviant."

"It's not being a deviant to ogle your significant other."

"I'm pretty sure we're not that."

She sighed with mock regret. "You Jedi always wanting to move so slow."

"How do you always seem to turn everything into a stab against the Jedi?"

"Very carefully."

He gives an exasperated sigh; she just looks sly. "If the Jedi didn't have so many issues and flaws I wouldn't be able to this so easily."

He raised an eyebrow in challenge. "And the Sith don't? I seem to recall you saying your Order did have failings, though you didn't happen to mention them. Or are you taking that back now that you have that Dark Side poison in your veins again?"

She narrowed her eyes at him, a flame in her chest starting to burn. "Watch yourself Jedi. I meant what I said, and the Dark Side is no more poison than the Light is."

His chin tilted up. "Is it?"

"The Light affects its user just as the Dark does, changing them, warping them in its own way," she said, teeth baring at the end, "Jedi aren't anymore natural than the Sith."

"At least we're not mass murdering psychopaths," he bit out, "Its where you would have ended up if we hadn't rescued you from..."

"Excuse me? Rescued?" Must not break his face. Must not break his face.

"You are no longer directly under Sidious's thumb at the moment," he answered.

She wrinkled her nose. "Your definition of rescue needs work, a lot of it."

The silent stare down they go into makes her itch to have her lightsaber in her hand.

"So then, what are the issues with the Sith you will admit to?" he asked pointedly.

She's not deaf to the emphasis on 'admit', it raises her desire to throttle him. "You are assuming I wouldn't admit them all?"

He studied her. "You'd definitely downplay most of them."

Her lips peeled back into a sneer. "As if you wouldn't for your precious order?"

"Is that a challenge?"

"It is."

"Alright then," he said, crossing his arms, "One failing for one failing."

"Considering you get more out of it then I do, I get to lead," she demanded.

"Fine, but you go first."

She nestled snugly into the couch. "I think that the Sith generally try to recruit by making their chosen apprentices fall is stupid and dangerous."

That utter gobsmacked and confused look across his face is so utterly satisfying; "I don't understand, ALL would be Sith fall."

She shook her head. "Idiot. There is a difference, a key difference in my opinion, between a Turn, a Fall, and a Descent or Seduction."

He looked at her blankly and slowly pulled a holopad out of his pocket, she assumed to take notes on. "You are going to have to explain that."

"Perhaps other Sith wouldn't agree with me, and probably not the Jedi either, but...," she clears her throat, "I define a plain turn to the Dark Side as a conscious choice, keyword conscious, a willing thought out decision. Perhaps you do it for power, or hungering for knowledge. Perhaps you've lost faith in the Light and turn towards its opposite. For whatever reason, you choose to turn."

He nods slowly, typing away on his datapad. "We're taught that a fall is always a choice."

She scoffs. "Idiots, the lot of you."

She feels a stirring of old angers and hate, of anxiety that she crushes as she continues onto the next topic, "A fall is an unconscious choice. It is an uncontrollable spiral down into the Dark Side, a speeder wreck that will be disastrous without critically timed intervention or a carefully guided hand. Whether prompted by torture, mind rape or control, extreme suffering, extreme emotional upheaval, or the pain of loss, perhaps multiple causes, you fall. You fall quick and hard and fast and there's little chance of stopping it once it's begun. It can destroy you and everyone around you. The worse a fall, the worse the Sith, to the point where it would seem like before and after were two completely different people, to much was destroyed or smothered in the fall and its aftermath."

"I was a fall," she said sourly, "I was a complete and utter emotional mess when Master Gallia died. The training bond snapping and bleeding out into my head sure didn't help. There was no conscious decision. I didn't just magically decide to fall, I didn't even realize I was fallen until Sidious pointed it to me and showed me a recording of my fall. I just... well... I fell and that was it."

Obi-Wan's eyebrows are furrowed in thought; it doesn't mask the sadness in his gaze. "I am sorry about her death."

Siri shakes her head. "Her death was her choice, it was illogical. She should have let me die and taken that beast out from behind when he was killing me."

Ignoring that Sidious would have killed Galia regardless.

"It's called love, Siri."

"A Jedi does not love," she spat.

"Neither does a Sith."

"Then I guess we're both piss poor examples of our Orders," she said, nose wrinkling.

There is silence for a long moment, his eyes lingering on hers, before he goes back to jotting down on his datapad.

"What Sidious intended for Dooku was a Descent," explained Siri, watching Obi-Wan both flinched and honed in on her words, looking up at her sharply, "Alternatively you could call it a Seduction, it really depends if it happens with or without someone else intentionally edging you into it. Sidious intended to slowly reel Dooku in and tempt him, to push him closer and closer to the Dark Side while alienating him from the Light. The further he chased me into the darkness, going over the dark trinkets and scriptures left for him, the further he let his morals go to chase after me, and of course, if Qui-Gon had died on Naboo. You lose your reasons to stay light, and delve into the Dark, sometimes without even realizing it."

She pauses to breath. "A natural example of this would be say... if a Jedi was continually exposed to horrific missions and surrounded by death, a war perhaps. All throughout history there have been examples of Jedi losing themselves to the Dark Side in the middle of various wars. We spoke of Revan and Malak in the cell, they are an example of a Descent, at least until they bungled into a Sith Emperor's domain."

"I don't know, maybe it's just bantha-shit pouring out of my mouth," she admits, "But I've given it thought from time to time," especially alone in that infernal cell, "I hate Sidious, I don't want to end up as a female version of him. I want to be better, I want the Sith to be better, rather than stuck in this tens of thousands of years old pissing match with the Jedi. If I ever were to take an apprentice, I wouldn't want them to have fallen, I want it to have been a conscious decision that they made knowing the consequences."

"This isn't a life for everyone, or for most people," she said, "Its harsh and unforgiving and full of suffering. A Sith will never be seen as a hero, to be fair, most probably aren't one. It isn't something you should be tricked or forced or fall into."

"So you wouldn't have chosen this for yourself?" he asks.

Figures he circumvents half of what she said and focuses on what he wants to hear.

She shoots him a withering look. "As a Jedi Padawan? We both know I never would have. As I am now? There are much better ways it could have been done."

If she's honest, while Zannah had said once she would have loved if Siri had lived in her time, she's not stupid. If Siri had never fallen, she probably would have been a small roadbump, either a Jedi that the Sith either killed or ignored. Even if Zannah hadn't overlooked Siri, the Zannah she knows is just a fragment, would the true Zannah have acted as she did now? Or would she have conscripted Siri to the Dark Side as Sidious had? She heavily doubts it would have been left to chance or free will if Zannah set her eyes on turning her in such a scenario.

She wonders if any Sith have given that much free will to their would be apprentices. Not just the choice of Turn or Die or some other shitty alternative.

"You've... given me a lot to think about," Obi-Wan says quietly, glancing back down at his datapad, "Do you mind if I share what you've said?"

She shrugged. "I don't care."

He gets up from the chair, glancing towards the door...

"Oh no you don't," she says sharply, "You sit your ass back down, it's your turn."

He looks sheepish for a moment and does so. "Alright, shoot."

Siri thinks about it for a moment. Trying to think of what she's already needled him on in the cell. She recalls calling out the Jedi on creating their own enemies, though she could always harp on that more. On indoctrination. On emotion. On that stupid 'Your lightsaber is your life' saying. On their failing reputation. On them overlooking those who truly needed their help and letting themselves be directed by the senate. Perhaps she could challenge him on the Order's Compassion VS Detachment (had she done so yet? She couldn't honestly remember). She could always go on about the Senate connection, she already mocked them for letting the Sith have such influence in the Senate, but not on them basically doing Sidious's bidding and getting sent out to die...

Oh.

Oh yes.

Now there was an idea.

Had any of them made that connection yet?

She could do that now, but why do it alone when she could have an audience, press a point, undermine Sidious, and absolutely freak out the Jedi?

Oh hell yes.

"I've changed my mind," said Siri, a wide predatory smile on her face, "I'll let you off the hook for tonight."

He looks at her with suspicion. "Why the change of heart?"

"Go to sleep Obi-Wan," she suggests sweetly, "Because tomorrow, you are going first in the sparring."

He frowns a little but nods and rises. "Very well."

She watches him go before getting up, hips swinging wide as she walks smugly satisfied back to her room. She is going to so enjoy tomorrow...

Siri is smiling with preemptive dark satisfaction as she's led into the same sparring room as before. Her eyes wash over the gathering of Jedi in a quick pass; less than before. She doesn't recall individual faces, but, she does note a far lesser amount of Padawans in the room than last time, maybe a few more knights and masters. It doesn't matter, though Skywalker is yet again there. She enjoys the subtle reactions of the Jedi to her mood; hints of apprehension, concern, and wariness abound, less fear than before with a majority of the younger padawans gone. C'Baoth's Padawan is still there she briefly notes before walking to the center and taking her Lightsaber from Dooku again.

She turns and directly stares at Obi-Wan, eyebrow raised in challenge. When Windu clears his throat to begin and asks for the first volunteer, Obi-Wan doesn't back down, he strides forward, ignoring the sudden hush and focus in the room. Well now, that's not a reaction she got from her duels last time. Interesting.

She ignites one end of her lightsaber and assumes her normal opening stance... only for Obi-Wan to do so as well, both of them beginning in Soresu. She is amused. "It would seem you were serious about learning Soresu after all."

"A Jedi is an eternal student," he says humbly before admitting, "I'm still terrible with it though."

"And you think to bring shoddy Soresu into these spars?" she asks mockingly, slowly adjusting away from a Soresu opening, considering if she really wanted to fight primarily with Makashi, its something she hasn't revealed to them yet. She supposes it doesn't matter, because the first time Dooku steps into one of these it's going to come out.

As she begins lightly testing his defenses with a few light jabs and thrusts, she speaks, "Last night, I challenged you to answer me on failings of your Order after I admitted to one of mine."

Obi-Wan frowned. "Really Siri? Now?"

"Oh yes Jedi," she says, jabbing sharply, forcing him to deflect and scurry away, "Now is the perfect time."

"You just like causing a scene," he accuses, glancing down quickly as he adjusted his footwork.

Force, how much practice had he with Soresu yet? You don't do that mid spar. Rather than respond, she takes him for a ride, choosing an arcing slice at his shoulder before deactivating that end of her lightsaber and coming up at his other side activating the other. He cleverly uses the momentum of him raising his saber and twisting his body to block the first strike in order to spin out of the way of the second. He gives her lightsaber a disgruntled look.

"That is devious."

"I know," she says smugly before focusing, slowly circling him, "Your blind obedience to the Senate is the fault I choose."

She can feel the bristle from around the room, though there is also rapt attention. Not to mention exasperation from the Council for her doing something like this with an audience again.

"I'd hardly call it blind...," he began.

She cuts him off with a rapid flurry of strikes and stabs, driving him back, "You do their missions without question. When is the last time a Jedi refused a mission from the Senate? When is the last time, outside of your shadows and acquisitions and undocumented ones, that the Jedi decided their own missions and priorities?"

"That," said Obi-Wan, struggling to maintain his defense before suddenly changing to Ataru, leaping overhead and away from her cornering him towards the edge of the dueling area, "Was decided during the Ruusan Reformation. That the Jedi Order needed to be accountable to the government, and to alleviate public fears after the war with the Sith."

She sneers at him, lowering her lightsaber to hiss against the floor, "Fool, you are all blind fools. Ignorant of the dangers of this, of pandering to the whims of corrupt politicians that who would use the Jedi to carry out their own designs..."

She glances over at Dooku. "Just ask your Grandmaster about his own experiences in that matter with Galidraan."

If looks could kill, Dooku would disintegrate her on the spot.

"But besides that, it also leaves the Jedi Order open to being directed by things far worse than a politician," mocked Siri.

Obi-Wan hadn't lowered his lightsaber, but he does narrow his eyes. "What exactly are you saying?"

"What I am saying, Jedi," hissed Siri, "Is that the Sith have been influencing missions you have been sent out on for a very long time."

"And what proof do you have, Sith?" called out a Jedi, "That you are not just fear mongering and trying to turn us on the Republic?"

Siri was not blind to the way the Force swirled through the room. Around each and every Jedi, and especially around her. The importance of this moment. That she needed to prove this. To show these stupid, foolish, arrogant, blind Jedi their folly. Yet the only way to prove it would damn her even more in all of their eyes. But then again, why should that matter? She's already damned.

"Because, several years ago, Knight Clee Rhara and Padawan Garen Muln were diverted into a mission by Sidious to serve as my first attempt at a Sacrifice," she said evenly, her face seemingly made of stone.

She need say nothing else, the implication that she killed them was already there.

There is horror, anger, and fury swirling around the room, rising and falling as the Jedi absorbed the information, reacted to it, and tried to release their emotions to the Force. She is keenly aware of Bant's presence staring at her in utter grief and sorrow.

"You're a monster," spat someone from circle of Jedi, a younger voice, probably someone who had known or known of her prior to her fall, "Wasn't he your friend?"

She ignored the question, eyes turning to Yoda whose ears had drooped in sorrow; so he hadn't known, Obi-Wan had kept his knowledge a secret. "So what will you do, Jedi? Will you still mindlessly follow the Senate when they yank your chain and order you to obey their whims? Will you follow Sidious's designs as he picks Jedi off one by one sending them to their deaths?"

Yoda adjusted his grip on his stick, ears flickering as he refocused. "A habit you have, of revealing important information outside of your sessions with the Council."

She smiled sharply. "Considering how long the Council takes to argue and waste time, I'm doing your Order a favor by letting them know. Perhaps this knowledge might save a few who might have perished while your council sat on their hands and did nothing."

"Many ramifications, can our actions have, careful deliberation must be made, but," rebutted Yoda, "When need to, move fast the Council can."

Siri snorted. "Sure."

She cracks her neck to one side, then the other. "The Sith have been picking off Jedi this way since well before my time, sending them to their deaths or disposing of them themselves. Altered mission reports that are changed either before or after the Jedi leave for the mission in question. Informing those who oppose the Jedi of their arrival. Sicking pirates or slavers or bounty hunters on them. Ambushes that leave Jedi dead or padawans masterless. All of that and more; the Sith have been slowly using the Senate to weaken and dispose of the Jedi over the last thousand years."

She laughs. "And that's only through missions..."

She decides to really hammer it in. "I DARE you, Jedi, go over legislation ranging from the end of the Ruusan Reformation to now. Look for any and all things that weaken your Order. Regardless of how small it seems, when added up, its a death of a thousand cuts. It wont all be from the Sith influence of course, but much of it will be."

Her lips peel back into a sneer. "Pay particular attention to how many cuts to Jedi Acquisitions funding you've taken over the years. Denial of a potential Jedi is the same as killing one."

She laughs low with sadistic glee and hunger, the Dark Side swirling and feeding at the emotions roiling through the room. There is much denial and disbelief, but to those it truly matters... she sees it in Dooku's eyes, on the paleness of Obi-Wan's face, Yoda's grimness as he clutches his gimmer stick, Qui-Gon's closed eyes and inched expression, the veins of Windu's head all but exploding, all of them and more.

Needless to say, she takes advantage and has Obi-Wan at saberpoint before he can recover from his shock, his lightsaber skidding across the floor from being disarmed. "Now, whose next?"

Something is happening.

Sidious can feel it from his spot overseeing today's senate session. The swirl of emotion from the Jedi Temple, his apprentice's dark glee, and the Dark Side's ominous warnings. Tachi just did something, she did something that he can feel the ripples and repercussions of rebounding through the Force. It whispers to him that she dealt him a blow, not unrecoverable, but still an actual blow. He can feel the future shift subtly; he is not thwarted, not even close, but he feels more light than there was before in the outcomes he is angling for. His lips purse, his fingers tap against the edge of his chancellor-pod in agitation.

What has his fool apprentice done now?

As the hours drag on, the sensation from the temple doesn't lessen, in fact, in increases. Something his apprentice did has well and truly riled up the Jedi. His first thought goes to the planned superweapon, but not, the Dark Side does not warn of a danger to that, not yet. Something else of impact then. His lips tighten as he slowly ticks off things she could have revealed that could cause such an shift in the Force, and he does not like the possibilities left. His anger is slowly building, to the point where once this pointless senatorial session is done he is going to cancel any further meetings for the day.

It is to blasted soon to call back Skywalker again. At least another day or so... unless he wants to touch on a compulsion to encourage the boy to call and ask. He is wary of using them so soon to alter anything or cause an obvious change in action or behavior. He's only just started weaving them into the boy, to use them early...

His control quarrels with his rage and ultimately, he reaches carefully for the boy's mind as the session ends and he is rather surprised to sense the boy is heading his way from the temple, he can feel Jinn's presence with him, curious. Most curious, there is an obvious connection to whatever is happening. He is, a little amused despite the fury building in him, when his secretary comms him and tells him the Jedi are here to see him.

Jinn offers a quick bow of respect before righting, the lines on his face are etched deep today. "I apologize for the disruption chancellor, but I was wondering if you might look after Anakin for a few hours."

"The Chancellor as a babysitter?" he asks in good humor, ignoring Anakins huff, "It's quite alright," he says, waving off anything Jinn was about to say, "The session I left was dreadfully stressful, the presence of youth would be a balm to my nerves."

"It is however," he adds, "Curious why you would come to me for this? I will never besmirch my young friend's company, but it is odd you would not ask a fellow Jedi if you were busy and needed someone to look after him."

Qui-Gon hesitates for an unusually long moment before simply saying, "Siri Tachi."

Sidious raises an eyebrow. "Has there been trouble in the temple? She didn't attack anyone did she?"

"No," says Qui-Gon, "But, she has... for lack of a better term, kicked the hornet's nest. For once, I defer to the Council and would rather you hear it from them."

Blast this Jedi beating around the bush. He'd get it out of Skywalker soon enough. "I see. Something troubling them."

"The implications are beyond massive," admits Qui-Gon, rubbing his face tiredly, he is visibly distressed and disturbed, "We've only just started trying to look into her claims, and its... to be honest, chilling even for me in for the depths of it from what has been uncovered so far. I don't think its good for Anakin to stay at the temple and be exposed to this from Jedi who should know how to shield their emotions better. The Creche is in an uproar over the negativity affecting the younglings as it is."

Oh whatever his apprentice had done was going to be bad. He was taking preemptive effort to reign in his rage for when Skywalker informed him of it, lest he reveal himself in an outburst. "Very well, I look forward to this with apprehension then."

Qui-Gon nodded curtly. "Again, thank you for taking the time to spare for this. I will return in a few hours."

The moment he leaves, he turns to Anakin and raises an eyebrow.

Anakin fidgets. "He asked me not to tell..."

"Anakin," said Sidious slowly, "Under normal circumstances, perhaps I would agree. But I am the leader of the Republic, and I would appreciate not being blindsided by whatever this is. I need to know what is coming to prepare for it."

Anakin hesitates, and then tells him.

Sidious is, for once, stunned.

Completely and utterly stunned.

Then his vision turns red, the Dark Side howls through him, he wants to rend and destroy everything in a several mile radius. It takes control, all of his control, to keep it contained. "Troubling... so very troubling young Skywalker."

Anakin nods timidly, "Maybe I don't get it all, but I get enough to know its bad."

Sidious is going to kill his apprentice.

If he could revive her after, he'd kill her again and again and again.

He cannot take anymore risks, she went farther than he ever thought she would go. She may even reveal the planned superweapon at this rate. He needs to nip this in the bud, immediately, before the day is out at most. "Forgive me Anakin, but I don't think I am going to be much entertainment today, I need to think on this."

Anakin nods, "I can be quiet."

He offers a quiet thanks and retreats to his thoughts. He weighs, yet again, after turning his rage into focus, whether to kill her or not. The bond still connects them, he could, with a viper's swiftness, reach down it and rupture her brain. She is not strong enough to stop such an attack yet. No, no immediate emotional reaction, think logically. He cannot afford a blunder. He taps his fingers on his desk in agitation. Killing her doesn't undo what has already been done, in fact, it will confirm to the Jedi without a shadow of a doubt that what she told them was correct. Though frankly any retribution would do so. It would prevent any further reveals however, though he would have to admit defeat in his apprentice being a lost cause (and admit she was enough of a threat to be forced to deal with her).

He also knows that he is only going to get one chance at this, once he uses the bond against her, she is going to have it destroyed. In fact, he might have to destroy it himself lest he risk the Jedi trying to follow it to him. He doesn't believe they would be able to considering his own safeguards, but, to many things he didn't think would happen in regards to his apprentice have already happened. He can afford no slip ups.

The most severe and swift action he can do is kill her.

He wont even count doing nothing as the least punishing action, this demands a response.

The least severe thing he would consider is to wait for nightfall when he is alone and without responsibilities to go down the bond and scrub her mind of anything he does not wish revealed with lightning speed, not giving her a chance to respond. He should have done it prior to now, but his apprentices all consuming hate of him had been considered to be the problem. Encouraging more of it to prompt her into revealing more seemed counterproductive. It was obvious now that all bets were off the table. Tachi was going to do whatever the hell she wanted damn the consequences.

Force, if this is what she's like now off the leash, how much effort would it have taken to keep her reigned in as a full fledged Sith Lord had she passed her sacrifice?

It makes him both want to cringe, and yet crave the challenge of keeping her under heel and bent to his will. To subjugate and control such a beast. Oh yes, it is without a doubt had she become Darth Tyrosus in earnest that she would have immediately started to undermine and plot against him rather than simply obey and survive and learn. Matching wits with Tyrosus and keeping ahead of her as she continued to grow in strength, intellect, and influence would have been a delight.

Having to clean up Siri Tachi's mess however is an infuriating chore. She must be shown that there are consequences of challenging him like this.

And she will not like them...

Siri hums to herself as the day draws to a close, very close to being the most smugly satisfied she's been in her life. The utter chaos that was roiling through the temple earlier, and still is to a degree, was delightful. The Dark Side had been purring practically the entire day in her ear. A blow to Sidious, a blow to the Jedi's arrogance and pride, all in one. Not to mention smacking around a bunch of Jedi earlier. She lays down on her bed, crossing one leg over the other, chuckling to herself...

Then she bolts upright as pure ice pours down her spine, and before she can do anything else, its like someone's hand is underneath her skin gripping her spine and holding her in place. "Apprentice."

Her face pales at Sidious's voice in her head, the fury in his tone. She bites back the reflexive 'Master' and instead hisses out, "Sidious."

How is he...

She focuses on the sensation, the source...

Kriff.

KRIFF KRIFF KRIFF.

How could she forget the training bond?!

"You have made a grievous error," hissed Sidious, the dark side wrapping around them, deserting her and shielding anything that was about to transpire from the Jedi, "And you are going to pay for it."

Siri scrambles desperately, barricading her mind as heavily as she can in a moments notice and trying to clamp down on the bond.

It does little to stop him.

White hot pain splits down her head, and she can't even scream aloud. She sits there, completely paralyzed in his tyrannical grip, and one brutal spike of pain after the other, is whipped across her mind. Her vision blurs, she can feel blood trickling down her nose, and all she can do is sit there and take it. It feels like it goes on for ages, it feels like she's dying, her entire body feeling aflame, her consciousness starting to slip before Sidious stops.

"Oh no apprentice," mocked Sidious, "I want you awake for what comes next."

The hand gripping her spine fades away, and instead it feels like she's gripping her head with his hands, she can feel his molten yellow gaze boring into her from wherever he is. "Your mind, your body, and your soul belong to me, apprentice. You need to be reminded of this. You will lower your shields and take the rest of your punishment, begging for mercy."

"Like hell I will," she snarls back.

"You won't have a choice," he says, chuckling darkly.

She feels him reaching into the part of her mind nearest to the bond, for the nearest trapped fake-compulsion. He doesn't know, she realizes. He doesn't know she dealt with his compulsions a long time ago. She tenses to act, and the moment he touches it, it springs, sending a mental spike back at him that catches him completely offguard. There is a sensation of surprise and pain, his grip loosens for that one moment.

She screams.

She screams aloud and through the Force her pain.

And feels the entire Jedi Temple startle. The ripple of hundreds of lightsabers reflexivly being activated, their kyber crystals humming.

"What?!" hissed Sidious.

"Arrogant prick!" she roared at him down the bond, "I found your little compulsions and weeded them out years ago!"

Sidious wastes no more time on torture and punishment, barreling towards her shields. Unlike Plaguies, he is not a brute force. He slices with such precision and slips through the outer mountain of her shields and into the storm. Penetrating through it and her shields with alarming speed. She clutches her head and screams again as Sidious drops all attempts to hide his actions, his dark and overbearing presence filling the air around her. Suffocating and drowning and all consuming and...

And there are physical hands on her head.

She looks up through agonized eyes to see Obi-Wan was the first to arrive, a pair of temple guards at the doorway, he brings her head down as he kneels in front of her, pressing his forhead against hers. He slides into her mind through a backdoor she creates and directs him through as she struggles to stall Sidious. Her Master is already more than half way through the layers of her shields in less than a few minutes time. He cringes at the pain, but moves to confront Sidious her, his Force presence pouring into her.

"Kenobi," rasps Sidious with pure and utter hate.

"Charming to meet you, Sith," replied Obi-Wan acidly, "Get the hell out of her head."

"Fool, you'd dare challenge me inside her mind?" demanded Sidious with contempt before he mocked, "And here I was thinking you cared. I suppose her sanity matters little to you."

"Fairly certain you're going to rip that apart anyway," bit out Obi-Wan, and Siri hisses in pain as Obi-Wan lashes out at Sidious.

Its a really stupid thing to do, and she's going to throttle him for it latter. She needs him to support her defenses, not attack Sidious. The Sith Master bats aside the attack, and Siri's vision tilts at the agony of the confrontation in her head. "Foolish Jedi, I understand how to breech a mind without incurring permanent damage, you, do not."

Sidious tries to go around Obi-Wan's presence, but the Jedi moves to intercept. Sidious growls in irritations. "Begone, Jedi."

Obi-Wan screams and is ejected from Siri's head with a searing mental blow, thrown across the room. Siri's throat constricts, she can't breath through the pain. Sidious makes another incision through her shields, and another, and another, going for her memories. She doesn't have the time to bring them all through her deepest shields. He is upon them a moment later, and begins immediately sifting through. He does not do what Plaguies did however and destroy carelessly, no, he's searching for something...

She gasps when she feels more hands on her now. Obi-Wan is back, and there are multiple Jedi Masters with him, Yoda among them. She grits her teeth, so helplessly infuriated at her fate being out of her hands, and lets them into her mind. She has a moment, as their presences rush for Sidious's, her eyes widening as Sidious finds what he was looking for. She recognizes Tally's face, the plans for the Sidious's fool superweapon being explained to her...

He hardly even looks at the memory. He identifies it, than she screams and screams and screams as he rips it and all surrounding memories to shreds.

There is blood gushing down her nose. Her vision blackens, and the last thing she is aware of before she passes out is Yoda's presence, backed by many a master, combined together more powerful than the Sith Lord, grabbing Sidious and throwing him out of her head...

Review Responses:

Sidious Personality - I like the arguments both for and against, it could go either way. You all also argue it better than I could. But, I will say that I like changing my characters and forcing them to evolve. I also will say that at this point I don't think Sidious is so blindingly arrogant enough to ignore a potential huge threat. Sidious saw a threat in Anakin, which is why he went to corrupt him in cannon, the complacency and arrogance came after he had all but secured Anakin. Sidious took a huge ridiculous risk with the whole Mace Windu thing, but banked on Anakin doing exactly what he did because he was so assured Anakin would. To Sidious, I doubt he saw the confrontation with the Jedi in the Senate as a risk at all, despite in reality how potentially game over it would have been had Anakin sided with Windu.

Nerdman 3000: Still in the air on Zannah. All I'll say on the matter of her getting a body or not is that it wont happen till at minimum after Mortis if it does happen at all in this story.