Chapter 43: Patch Up Job
Oh, Siri felt like a kriffing speederwreck.
There was the beeping of medical equipment nearby, she was aware of an IV in her arm, and the bed she was in sure wasn't the one in her gilded cell. She did detect Obi-Wan sitting next to her on a chair though, that was okay to wake up to if nothing else. At least she didn't have Vokra Che, or Bant, here at the moment.
"Well, after that broadcasting, I imagine they will be in short order," came Obi-Wan's slightly pained voice, "Shields will need to be your first order of business."
Oh not again...
Siri tried to open her eyes, but found they only hazily lifted. What in the...
She struggled to even frown, her body twitched, eyes opening a little more, but not fully.
There was a hand on her shoulder. "Easy Siri, you had your mind ripped through, and there was a... collapse of the compartmentalization of your memories from the damage Darth Plagueis did before. There's been a few complications you're going to need to work with the healers to fix."
Siri blinked. What in the hell was he talking about? What compartmentalization? And who the kriff was Darth Plagueis? And what complications? Why the KRIFF couldn't she properly move?!
"Shields Siri," hissed Obi-Wan, "Shields shields shields."
Siri wanted to growl, but it only came out as a weak slurr from her lips. She warily reached for the Force; there were the beginnings of fear. If there was enough damage to her mind to inhibit physical control of her body, she needed to tread carefully. She prowled the edges of her decayed walls, nudging carefully the outer grounds, slowly erecting at least the outer parts back up. She noted they weren't destroyed, just neglected and fading without her continual input, that suggested she had been in the Halls of Healing for awhile, a month at least. She remembered Sidious's assault. He hadn't destroyed her walls, he had sliced with surgical precision and slipped through. She was going to need to plan on how to counter that for the future.
When she was done she again struggled with fully opening her eyes, and then shifting her head to loll at Obi-Wan, who was staring down in worry. "You don't remember the compartmentalization, or Darth Plagueis?"
"Nnnmnnn," was all that escaped her lips.
Oh Force...
She better not be stuck like this.
She'll rupture her own brain before she's stuck like this for the rest of her life.
"Okay, I'm going to take that as a no," said Obi-Wan, frowning intently, "Well, that answers what memory Sidious hit. But why that? It's already known. Its already passed onto the Chancellor."
He studied her skeptically. "Unless you didn't tell us everything there was to know about Plagueis."
She gave him a blank look. She still didn't know who Plagueis was. Had Sidious kept a second apprentice or something? She wouldn't put it past the bastard.
"To answer your previous question," said Obi-Wan, "Darth Plagueis was Sidious's master until you killed him. As I understand it, he had ripped through your memories of your time in the Jedi Order in such a way that you compartmentalized the damage."
Sidious hadn't even bothered to kill his own kriffing Master before taking her on? Really? And wait, how the hell had she killed a Sith Master? Huh... wonder if that made her one then.
Probably not.
She ought to be freaking out a bit more about that, but she had better things to be doing. She tried to frown again, not succeeding very well. Not having access to her Jedi memories didn't bother her, hells, that might even be useful to not have them. It was what Obi-Wan had said about the other Sith that agitated her. If this was known information, then it wasn't what Sidious had been targeting. It was a byproduct of eliminating his true target. Then question is then of course: What was the target? She needed more information.
"Whhren," she slurred, her agitation growing, "Hhhreen."
He blinked at her.
She lowered her shields enough to full on shout. "WHEN?"
He clutched at his head. "GAH! Siri come on! Unnecessary and uncivilized."
She glared at him.
"You told us it was in the middle of the Naboo Incident," he said before holding up a finger, "And don't. Do not start trying to go through your memories without a healer present. You could make things catastrophically worse. Bant's said that they've bandaged your mind together, it is not a permanent or well put together fix, your head is to booby-trapped to properly heal without you to guide them through it."
Siri swallowed thickly. Oh that wasn't good. So Sidious had tried to...
No, if he had tried to kill her, she would be dead. He had tried to eliminate a specific memory until THIS IDIOT RIGHT HERE decided to have a mental fight inside of her kriffing head. If some of the damage wasn't from that confrontation she'd eat her left foot. Stupid, ignorant Jedi. One single wrong move and HE, not Sidious, but Obi-Wan, could have left her brain dead or insane for the rest of her life. Hells, if Sidious hadn't tried to avoid the fight she probably would be, and she hated owing Sidious anything. When she has control of herself again, she's going to break Obi-Wan's nose, he's had it coming for awhile now.
"I take it our patient is awake then," came Vokra Che's dry voice as she entered the room.
"She is, and displaying an inability to properly speak or move herself," said Obi-Wan tensely.
"As I said, it was a likely possibility, once most of the mental pressure has been alleviated and we've had a chance to fix recent and long-term damage that's been left untended," said Che, glaring at Siri, "She should be functional with, at most, perhaps a little physical therapy to make sure she has everything in order."
She pointed a finger at Siri. "Don't give me that look, it is unavoidable at this point. Compartmentalizing damage is never the answer, it only makes it more difficult to deal with later."
The scowl Siri tried to give came out lopsided.
"You have two choices as I doubt you have the training to properly handle this anymore," said Che, "Me or, since she volunteered, Padawan Eerin."
Why would Bant offer? Siri had admitted to murdering Garen, why would Bant want to have anything to do with her anymore? On principle though, while Vokra Che was better trained and could probably do it quicker and safer, she'd also be more difficult to fight against if Siri let her in and she went where she wasn't supposed to. Bant on the other hand was still a Padawan, a senior one most likely by now, not as skilled, but much easier to toss out of her head. Obvious choice there, she was getting sick and tired of people doing whatever the kriff they wanted in her mind.
"Bant," Siri projected at her.
Che twitched a little. "Motor control should be one of the first things worked on I imagine, being projected at by a darksider is... unpleasant."
"Bite me."
Obi-Wan made a choking sound. "Siri!"
Che just gave her an unamused look. "I'll send her in. Obi-Wan, out. Healers only during the process."
"I suppose I'll let the council know she's awake," he answered, giving Siri a hesitant and brief nod before moving to the doorway, "Bant, I don't know if it will complicate things, but she doesn't remember when she had to compartmentalize the previous damage."
Bant frowns a bit. "It might, we'll see."
Che whispers to Bant quietly for a moment before leaving as well, Bant is left standing near the doorway, staring at nothing for a long few minutes as she collected her thoughts. Finally she turns and moves to the bed, pulling the chair Obi-Wan had been sitting on closer. "Good morning Siri."
Siri doesn't bother giving a garbled or projected response, just lolling her head to the side to stare at her.
Bant took a deep breath and slowly let it out, her large Mon Calamri eyes blinking at the same pace, even and controlled. "First, we need to properly assess the damage. Since you do not remember the incident before the last, we may have to cautiously explore. Please lower your shields."
Siri gave her a stink eye, waiting until she tapped against her shields before latching on and dragging her in behind them rather than dropping them.
"Rude," Bant commented mildly.
"I'm not having my shields down for anyone nearby to get a whiff of what I'm feeling or re-living," snarled Siri back.
"As you wish," Bant answered, "Now, I think we should hit the original damage that you had to compartmentalize, best to build on the foundation before we do anything else. Try to recall your earliest memory, carefully please."
Siri rolls her eyes, it couldn't be that bad. She reached back, trying to recall, probably something silly from her days in the creche and yanked it forward...
Her body writhes and seizes, her vision fills with spots, her head pounds with pain, and she blacks out in seconds...
"You're worse than Obi-Wan is I swear," complained Bant, "Take it slow and steady and listen to the damn healer! Yesterday was the third time I've been trapped in your head when you knock yourself out and it is NOT a comfortable place to be for a few hours."
Siri rolls her eyes and slurs, "Snhut up."
"I don't get why you are so set on rushing through this, it just risks more damage and setting yourself back further," grumbled Bant.
"Sss past," muttered Siri, "Snot her anymore."
Bant gave her a puzzled look.
"Mm Siri, buu not shat Siri," slurred Siri, "Nother life, nother me, not me nymore."
"You're going to have to explain that," said Bant.
Siri grumbled, reached out, and tugs Bant's presence under her shields, deeper and deeper until a facsimile of Bant dropped into Siri's mental landscape. She glanced around, curious, but refocused on Siri. She hadn't pulled Bant in this far before, but she wanted this conversation in a place where she could talk clearly and express it just as plainly.
"Who do you see when you look at me Bant?" demanded Siri, "Do you see who I used to be and you all want me to be, or do you see me for who I am?"
She doesn't give the fish-face a chance to respond, summoning up a memory of a much younger Siri running through the room of a thousand fountains with her creche-mates and points at her. "That little girl is dead. I may be Siri Tachi, but I am not that Siri Tachi anymore."
"Do you have identity dissociation?" asked Bant worriedly, clearly not understanding.
"Oh for kriff sake," spat Siri, "You, Obi-Wan, all of you are hopeless and idiots. You do not listen."
Bant closes her eyes and sighs. "Then you can try to explain it to me, again, later. We should get back to fixing..."
"No," snarled Siri, pointing a finger at her; she is not in the mood for games or playfulness, "Do you think I don't feel it? That sickly, disgusting hope when we go through my old memories, when we put them in order and patch them up? Do you know how utterly aggravating having your emotions go off in my head is? I don't even know why you'd want it. You know what I am, you barely know the beginnings of what I've done, you k-know..."
She forced the choking out of her voice (Why? Why did she still feel it?), "You know I murdered Garen."
"No one who feels regret for what they've done is truly lost," said Bant softly.
Honestly the gall of this Jedi! They had been friends, but they certainly hadn't had feelings for one another like Siri and Obi-Wan had. Where did she think she even had the right or the desire to try? To be this familiar with her when they've hardly spent any time together since they were both young padawans? A few hours over the last few days hardly counted. Obi-Wan she could understand, but...
Oh, Obi-Wan. Of course.
"You've been spending time with Kenobi," spat Siri in disgust, "Far to much time. Did Garen's life truly mean so little to you?"
Bant's lips pursed. "I ask you the same in turn, but considering you can still feel guilt for it wrapped up in this much darkness I already have my answer."
Siri snarled, the area around her pulsing black inside her mind. Bant's in her head, feeling what she feels, she can't exactly deny it. She can't deny or hide the ache she feels when she views the older memories either. But its not the reason Bant would think. She doesn't miss being a Jedi, of that she is dead sure of. She misses... she misses... blast it she can't figure it out. What about that young bright eyed little girl does she miss? What does she envy her for? This is why the past should stay dead, she craves for things she doesn't understand and couldn't have even if she did.
Bant tenses, but she doesn't back down. "Are you going to argue it?"
Siri spit on the ground, she'll think on her past later if she must, and muttered, "Whatever happened to every Jedi parroting Yoda's asinine sayings? According to him, once you go dark you're doomed forever or something like that."
"Well, there's also the saying that 'through the Force all things are possible'," said Bant, shrugging, "So... those are both two conflicting phrases."
Siri snickered. "Well look at that. A Jedi spotting a conflict in their own teachings."
"Nothing and no one is perfect Siri," said Bant, "Its something we all should know and understand, its something that is especially been hammered in while you were out and the Jedi were investigating your claims."
It takes Siri a moment to recall, and a sadistic grin spreads across her face. "Oh? What did the Jedi find? Hmm? Just how much did your Order's complacency cost you?"
"Fifteen thousand Jedi lives and climbing since the Ruusan Reformation," said Bant quietly, with ache and loss, "Or so last I heard based of missing person reports and casualties implied by odd mission reports or witness interviews put into the archives. The investigation is still ongoing. There is also a margin for error on what may or may not have been incited by the Sith."
That... oddly doesn't fill Siri with the dark glee she thought it would. She merely chooses to slowly sit down, propping a leg up and hanging an arm over it, she eyed Bant thoughtfully, the Dark ripples in hungry anticipation, its almost like its eagerly thrilled at the prospect of what Bant is saying. "So the Jedi have at last started to realize their folly have they?"
A better Jedi is a better challenge to overcome. Perhaps that's why the dark is eager. Who knows. She'd have to see how they were reacting and IF they were actually adapting or not.
"If that's what you want to call it," answered Bant.
Siri rolled her eyes. "Call it what you wish, but the point still stands that Jedi arrogance and complacency got all of those Jedi killed."
"Really," said Bant, deadpan, "Not Sith machinations?"
That got a dark smile out of Siri. "The Sith wouldn't have managed half that number if the Jedi hadn't made it so easy to do so."
"And do those lives lost mean nothing to you?"
Siri eyed her for a long moment. "I didn't know them. Out of fifteen thousand Jedi, how many did I personally know of that I am sure the Sith killed? And out of those, only three actually mattered heavily to me. How can I be expected to care for those I never knew? Who lived so far before my time?"
Bant stared at her for a few minutes, thoughts and emotions swirling but just out of reach before she spoke, "Garen, Master Galia, who is the third?"
Siri froze.
Bant's head tilted. "Well?"
"None of your damn business that's who," said Siri in a cold, snarling voice, struggling to keep the name away while in the depths of her mind.
Bant slowly shook her head. "You shouldn't need to know people to grieve for their loss, for their senseless murder. Especially in such numbers."
"It was never senseless," said Siri, sneering at her, "Every kill the Sith made or orchestrated over the last thousand years was all aimed at the culmination of the death of the Jedi."
"And yet Obi-Wan has told me you didn't much care for your sithly 'Grand Plan'," commented Bant.
"Obi-Wan should learn to keep his mouth shut before I break his nose again," seethed Siri, "And its not that I don't care for it, Jedi, I'm indifferent. Whether your Order lives or dies, I'll go on."
She smiled grimly. "Assuming Sidious doesn't kill me and the Jedi don't decide to change their minds and kill me while they can."
"So long as you don't go and murder someone you wont be harmed here," said Bant firmly.
She eyed Bant, predator to prey, and the Jedi instinctively went still. "Silly girl, I don't care enough to kill the Jedi unless they are in my way. You see Bant, do you know where I think the Sith screw up that I don't want to get caught up in? Its not in their teachings or their way of life, well, some of them I could do without, but its their obsession."
Her lips peeled back in distaste. "Not with power, no, but with the Jedi. It's always the Jedi, and the Republic by extension. The Sith can't just move on with themselves, noooo, they have to get stuck and fixated on revenge. How many Sith Empires and Sith civilizations have fallen because they picked a fight with the Jedi and the Republic all the while their own culture had them fight against themselves as well? Had the original Sith Empire kept to its own, I wonder if they'd still have been around today."
Honestly, no Sith faction had ever really been able to help themselves, had they? A little self-restraint and patience could have gone a long way to not encouraging their own eradication. But saying that wouldn't help her argument, now would it? Hee hee.
She shook her head. "Well, maybe they would have anyway if the Republic and the Jedi hadn't committed genocide against the defeated Sith Empire and worked to eradicate any evidence that they had ever existed, but I digress, the Jedi and the Republic are always the good guys. They don't generally go out of their way to stamp out any hint of the Dark Side and slaughter its users."
She sneered. "Right?"
Bant blinked slowly at her. "Obi-Wan was right, you are terrifying when you go on a tangent."
Siri snorted. "Ignore my words then, whatever."
Bant shrugged. "I'm a healer, Siri, not a historian or a debater. I can't really refute or confirm what you say. Arguing this with me is pointless..."
"Yet, you were so quick to lament the death of Jedi, what about the death of countless Sith who were hunted down and exterminated so many thousands of years ago? By your logic they should mater as well, hmm?" poked Siri before going acidly sarcastic, "Or is it not convenient when the argument isn't in your favor? Anything for trying to turn me away from the Dark into what you all want is okay, anything boosting the Jedi is fine, but anything for the Dark or the Sith and lets ignore it."
"My point is simple," said Siri before she had the manifestation of Bant by her throat, lifting her up, "I am who I am, stop trying to convince me otherwise. I tolerate Obi-Wan doing so because of who he is and what he means to me. You have no such consideration. You were my friend once, and for that, you have leniency from me. I don't particularly want you to die. But do not think it gives you anything else, are we clear?"
Bant nodded, swallowing. "Clear."
Siri tossed her back. "Then lets get back to it, the quicker this is done, the better..."
It was like a big dark gaping hole in her memory.
Not when looked at as a whole, but when she tried to focus onto that specific period in time, she just drew a complete blank. She can remember nothing from when she returned to Coruscant after fighting Jinn on Tatooine, and remember nothing before she left Coruscant to return to Naboo. Its an entire kriffing day that's gone. To some, a day is a small, trifle amount of time. To a Sith? A day can mean so much; new avenues of control and power made, threats eliminated, discoveries made, and so much more. Siri's entire apprenticeship after the first year (after Ur Manka) had been intense because of how much was crammed into her schedule. How little free time (and sleep) she got if she didn't create it for herself.
She knew the value of a single day.
Especially when that day involved the death of Sidious's master.
Bant is carefully poking around the edges of the hole. "I don't think we can get it back."
"I'm aware," Siri answered dryly.
"The best we can do is smooth over it and restore the areas around it," commented Bant, "And... wait, what is that?"
Siri's attention followed Bant's train of thought as she traced a molten yellow frayed thread that oozed with the Dark Side out of the damaged area to another memory much farther back...
Siri hissed and clamped down on it the moment she recognized it as the memory of her fall. Except... it felt new, as if she had fallen yesterday, what the hell?
Bant said nothing to the brief flash of it she had got, poking and prodding it. "Its like someone... revitalized the memory. All things wear and tear with age, but this is like it is fresh... yet... I really don't like how the neurons around it keep firing endlessly. I don't think its a good idea to leave this going. That its been left this long already... there's a lot of disorders based on to much or to little neuron activity that this could lead into."
"Then deal with it," said Siri irritably, "I'd rather not have this come back to bite me down the road."
Yet... why was the memory rejuvenated like this? How was another solid question. She figured, since it originated from the damaged area, it was because of Plagueis, since the bastard had apparently ripped through her memories. The question was, why had the elder Sith gone through her head to begin with? The fact that he hadn't immediately killed her if he had only suddenly discovered Sidious had a secret apprentice eliminated a few possibilities (maybe?). There were a few theories going through her head. The most hopeful being he wanted to see if she was worth his time if he found Sidious lacking. Whatever the reason, it doesn't particularly matter anymore she supposes. He's dead and she's not.
She watches as Bant carefully pokes and prods the memory before admitting defeat, "I don't know what to do about this. The entire memory is oozing outside dark energy, and I don't know if I can negate it without risking damage..."
Siri sighed, reached for the memory with the Dark Side, and sucked it out, draining it away.
"That's really uncomfortable to feel while I'm in your head, but I guess it solves the issue, give me a minute to quiet the activity," commented Bant before going to work.
She doesn't really feel anything, but Siri assumes its a background kind of thing.
"Alright, lets finish smoothing over the hole and then give it another pass and you should be good," said Bant.
"Finally," complained Siri.
"Honestly, you all are big babies," scolded (mocked?) Bant, "Jedi or Sith you all don't want to keep me company down here in the Halls of Healing. Was a few weeks to do this really so bad? This was, really, record time for tending to this kind of damage."
"I'm not a Jedi, I didn't need you to baby me through it," said Siri snidely, ignoring the scolding, "I can take rough treatment."
The sensation of Bant rolling her eyes while in Siri's head was... weird, felt like a little bubble moving beneath her skin. Siri ignored it in favor of getting the last of the repairs done. She was ready to be out of this damn room. Though she wasn't ignorant to the fact that it would still be raw for awhile. She didn't need Bant to tell her that, her head needed to not be raided again for a good long while. Which possibly meant not pissing Sidious off enough to try again, though without the bond he...
Oh kriff...
She swallowed thickly, her awareness so carefully and briefly looking for it.
She still had the bond.
Oh Force...
Siri held back her fear and forcibly diverted her attention away, trying not to send any sensation down it that she was aware of it. She would have thought it would have been destroyed either by Sidious or by the Jedi while throwing him out of her head. She watches Bant pave over the hole in her memory in utter silence; it doesn't feel any difference without focusing inward with the Force, its still just a big blank to her, but its a big blank in a way that doesn't risk destabilizing her head later on at the first sign of more mental pain, which she's not stupid enough to think she wouldn't face.
When Bant is done, Siri doesn't immediately let her go. "Bant, I want you to summon Master Che, and the Jedi Council, Obi-Wan to I guess."
She could feel Bant's wariness. "Why?"
"My bond with Sidious is still active, and I want it gone," hissed Siri back, "I don't know how many people I'm going to need to sever it if he fights me on it."
"Wait, you have a... okay, okay is that how he attacked you?" asked Bant.
Siri was incredulous, how could the Jedi not realize that? How could they not have sensed the bond? "Now Bant."
Bant pulls away, but Siri doesn't leave her head. She watches that bond for any and all activity from a distance. She's irritated beyond belief, at any point Sidious could have come back to finish the job if he wanted to. It leaves her more and more infuriated, because its more than evident Sidious got what he wanted out of the memory wipe. But what was it? And if it was so important, why hadn't she already revealed it? Or did they perhaps weigh its importance differently? Maybe it was something she hadn't realized the importance of?
She doesn't know.
It really kriffing ticks her off though...
She stills when she feels Sidious peer down the bond, looking down straight into her focus. Siri swallows and steels herself, turning her full attention to it...
But he does nothing.
He merely watches her as she watches him.
Minutes tick by, and her apprehension builds, eventually, she can't really help herself from poking the beast.
"Got what you want you prick?"
There is dark bemusement from him. "Had you not forced my hand I would not have raised it against you. You have no one but yourself to blame. Perhaps next time, my foolish young apprentice, you will remember what happens if you test me. You are not nearly ready to challenge me for mastery, I look forward to showing you just how far from it you are. Do try to make this somewhat entertaining for me."
A lick of rage courses through her. "You think this is funny, Sidious?"
Ice coats the bond, his voice goes hard, tinted with wrath. "Oh no, far from it. I can't recall the last time I have been so continually enraged. Your foolishness has risked endangering the Grand Plan, a thousand years of effort and planning damaged out of spite."
"Hi pot names kettle have we met?" mocked Siri, "I'm pretty sure half the shit you ever did to me or had me do to others was out of spite."
"Everything I 'did to you' as you say, was a lesson," snarled Sidious, "Which you time and time again fail to learn."
Siri sneered down the bond. "Did I? Or did you fail to teach? I..."
She cuts herself off from shooting herself in the foot. Its best not to say how much she learned from Zannah, she doesn't want to give him any insight. Sidious was a sexist twit, he looked over it for her since she was his apprentice, he thought his influence and teachings overrode 'female weakness', but more than spoke his disdain for every other female. She knows he discounts Zannah's worth despite her having been Bane's apprentice, and a Sith Master. "I learned far more on my own than I did from you."
"Is that so," he says, not a question, just more amusement, "I'm disappointed my apprentice, you fail your mission and you flail around and run away like a child rather than return to me and face punishment. Perhaps I was mistaken to think better of you."
Siri growled, the Dark Side roiling around and through her. "I am no belligerent child, Sidious. I am done being your apprentice. I am going to ruin you. I am going to kill you."
"I will allow you to try," he said, tone dismissive and mocking, "We both know I could have killed you any time prior to now."
"And when I kill you, you'll know it was your own damn arrogance that did you in," she spat back.
"So you say," that dismissive tone still there, "But so long as you wear the carcass of Siri Tachi around you, Lord Tyrosus, you will never best me."
Before she can call him an idiot, he pulls back, eyes still on the bond, but no longer desiring to speak. She still fumes. There IS no difference. She realized that quickly in her time in the Force Suppressant Cell. Siri Tach is Darth Tyrosus as Darth Tyrosus is Siri Tachi. The fact that Sidious and every other Sith before him thinks otherwise is willful blindness, arrogance, and intentional dissociation from their previous life. There will come a day when she has to show both the Jedi and the Sith that the hard way, she feels it in her bones, but not yet.
She'll hold onto the dream of having Obi-Wan a while longer yet.
Speaking of which, she detects him and others entering the room, followed quickly by a tap on her shields. She grudgingly lowers them and lets the Jedi in. She is quick to note however an odd amount of disturbance and chaos from them. Very few of them feel at all mentally balanced as they were when they threw Sidious out of her head. Something has deeply agitated the Jedi, and Yoda's presence especially feels heavy, almost depressed actually. Interesting... perhaps her revelation before Sidious's attack had more impact than she thought it would.
She's not going to poke at it yet though, not while they are in her head.
"Well," chimed Obi-Wan as they settled in, "I feel a lot of anger from you today."
"I'm always angry Obi-Wan," said Siri irritably, "Especially since Sidious is being a condescending ass."
Obi-Wan groaned. "Do you egg on him as much as you do us?"
"Of course."
"Before any of us were even here to prevent any damage if he attacked you again?!"
"Save the banter," warned Windu, "Where is the bond?"
Siri tugs on Obi-Wan's presence, and the Jedi follow him to it. She's not sure how they missed it, or perhaps they were to 'scared' to venture anywhere in her head to find it. The Jedi size it up, and she feels their presence surround it and ready themselves.
"Wait," ordered Vokra Che, "Since I doubt this is going to be a willing dissolution from the other Sith's end, preparations need to be made to ward off any potential backlash and damage."
"Wait we will," said Yoda, "But allow anything through the bond, we will not."
Yoda puts his presence firmly in front of the bond, staring down it silently into the dark storm that is Sidious. Her Master, former Master, doesn't acknowledge him. Siri still feels like his eyes are looking past him directly onto her.
"Do be quick about it Jedi," said Siri mildly, "I already dislike having others in my head to begin with, all of you at once grates."
The most acknowledgement she gets is exasperation from Obi-Wan as the Jedi healer goes about her business, poking and prodding...
"What is this?" hissed Che, "This is no mere training bond. It doesn't just connect you two him, it burrows into your mind, entrenching in like roots, like a parasite all throughout your psyche."
Siri swallows a bit, more than a little unsettled by that. "Sith bonds are, evidently, different than Jedi ones."
She feels a sense of mocking laughter from Sidious, watching them all with dark amusement.
"I suggest you brace yourself," warned Che, "Uprooting and removing the bond is going to hurt, and is going to be unpleasant."
"Everything involving Sidious is," commented Siri mildly, and a bit tiredly.
Her minds taken enough battering for a lifetime already, she's not thrill for anymore. But, as she locks eyes down the bond with Sidious, if it gets this bastard out of her head, then its worth it. Both of them say nothing, and do nothing, merely watching the other as the Jedi slowly begin to pry loose the bond...
Review Responses:
Guest: OKAY!
Nerdman3000: Mmm, I don't know about a Mandalorian Wars type response, maybe, maybe not. It could also go the opposite, if they think they've purged most of Sidious's influence and think the CIS must be destroyed to eliminate the Sith. It could egg them on instead. C'Baoth could also try the schism route, but IDK how effective that would really be. The Clone Wars are still a ways off, I'll think on it.
Sidious is xenophobic, but, he doesn't hesitate to use aliens as pawns if he sees fit to do so, especially pre-empire. Krell is mostly a bonus prize that comes with C'Baoth, a tool to kill more Jedi with. C'Baoth could leave Jinzler, or try to take her with him. He took her with him for Outbound Flight despite her being a knight at the time.
Sora Bulq is a good idea, no reason not to have that the same. Outbound Flight isn't happening in this.
Dolansosar: As of the moment, I don't have any particular plans for Jango Fett. So, currently his role is the same as in movie. Maybe since he's not working for Dooku he might gun for him instead, its a thought.
Guest: Nah, Anakin isn't staying on Mortis.
EclipseTobias: Perhaps I didn't read his page thoroughly enough, but I did think that C'Baoth did have a great deal of influence. Sareno might not end up CIS in this story, but other planets easily could. Perhaps ones that owe a great deal to C'Baoth.
Cockneyweasel: I can see the headlines now: Siri Tachi takes an apprentice; Jedi Council has a stroke.
Everyone else, thanks for the comments.