Chapter 55: Second Fracture

Several months later...

Somethings wrong.

Siri slowly sits up from her spot on her couch, a frown on her face. Its not Anakin having another meltdown over life in general, he's not in danger, Obi-Wan's not in danger either. Its not a premonition or anything like that. Yet something scratches at Siri's attention, something familiar. She stretches out her senses further and further, searching...

Then she locks onto a familiar presence.

"So, Yoda's finally done with his pity party," she muses to herself, sensing the old troll's bright presence entering the atmosphere.

She's not the only one. Its like a wave of brightness and relief rolls over the temple as one by one Jedi sense the return of their grandmaster. Yet... why would that rub her wrong? She reaches out again towards Yoda's presence, around him...

Then a chocking nose escapes her, because she recognizes the feel of the Scimitar anywhere. That ship was stained in the Dark Side like any Sith relic ever was, and even shrouded as it was, she would always find it. But, HOW THE HELL DID THE JEDI FIND IT?! Dread fills her, as much as she loved her ship, it was replaceable. What was on that ship, or rather who, wasn't. Because if they had found the Scimitar, they had found...

"Zannah," hisses Siri, locking onto the Holocron's presence.

A holocron surrounded by the presences of Jedi trying to keep her contained.

Siri is half way through the temple towards the hanger by the time Yoda lands, blind panic and grim determination running through her. Obi-Wan is trailing after her a ways behind, evidently feeling the storm of her emotions. She finds the paths between the archives, or more importantly the vaults, and the hanger, being quartered off. She didn't know if they would store her or destroy her there, and even if it was storage, how would she ever get Zannah out? The Holocron Vaults, especially where they kept the dark ones, was one of the most tightly locked down areas in the entire temple. If they put Zannah in...

"By decree of the council," says a Temple Guard to those walking the hallways, "The halls must be vacated while a Dark Side artifact is being brought to the vaults to be sealed away."

Jedi nod their heads and move away, its likely not been the first time, and it wont be the last. Siri just barrels past, barely short of a run, ignoring the 'Stop!' from the guards. She can't stop, even if she has no idea what she's going to do. This was not what she wanted dropped on her head all of the sudden, she was just finally getting herself situated and settled being dark-but-not, and now there's this.

She comes across the procession as it rounds the corner, Yoda at the lead, several of the council and a few other masters slowly walking through the halls, levitating but not touching Zannah's Holocron with the Force. They come to a stop as they spot Siri, tension suddenly in the air.

Master Yoda, his robes dirty and muddy for some reason, clasps his hands over his stick and leans on it. "Mmm, good to see you again, it is, young Tachi, heard much I have, of these last few years."

"Drop the formalities," said Siri tensely, "And drop her."

Yoda's ears flicker as his head shifts to glance back at the Holocron. "Oh ho. Not one of Sidious's holocrons this is, one of yours, it is."

Obi-Wan stops a ways behind her, other Jedi and temple guard with him. "Siri, what are you doing?"

Damn it damn it damn it...

"Drop her, now," said Siri in rising tone, slowly and carefully beckoning the Dark Hound in her mind to rise from its sitting position and be ready.

"Important this is to you, why?" posed Yoda, "Holocron of what Sith Lord, it is?"

"Her name is Zannah," gritted out Siri.

There was a sharp intake of breath from Obi-Wan. Shit, she had mentioned Zannah by name once, but only once, he remembered that?

"Mmm, heard of this Sith, I have not," said Yoda.

"You wouldn't have," said Siri sharply, "I'm not going to ask again, Yoda."

The Grandmaster studies her. "Strong you are, young Tachi, but not that strong. Risk everything you have progressed, you would, for this object?"

"She is more than an object to me," snapped Siri, calling on the the dark and let it flare in warning around her, thinking of what sorcery and incantations she'd need to pull this off. Dammit... roughly four years and now she was going to be on the run for the rest of her life. She would NOT lose Zannah.

Which was apparently Zannah's cue to act, the Holocron fed off Siri's darkness, a ripple pulsing off it that made the Jedi drop her and back away from the dark taint in the Force. The holocron bleeds red, and from it, Zannah's form springs up in a black and red fog. She smiles at Siri with icy nasty sweetness. "Siri darling. WHAT. THE. KRIFFING. HELL!"

"Zannah," muttered Siri, wincing.

Oh she was pissed.

The gatekeeper's eyes flicker across the various Jedi for a moment before narrowing her eyes at Obi-Wan. "Oh. I see. You know Siri dearest, I felt it for a moment, when you achieved your potential on Naboo. I also felt it die. Now I see why. It was your little infatuation. Funny how I thought you'd nipped that in the bud."

Obi-Wan narrows his eyes back at Zannah. "Infatuation. So, it wasn't Sidious, it was you."

Zannah grins with malice. "Oh? Did Siri tell you all about how she..."

"Not the time Zannah," gritted out Siri, cutting her off, eyes on the tense and watchful Jedi around them.

Zannah turned her attention back to Siri. "Of all the things I imagined for you Siri, to find you mingling with Jedi, turned away from the Dark was not one of them, and no, merely holding its reigns like you're doing now isn't the same don't you even try to argue that with me."

"Its close enough!"

"Hardly, can you even call yourself a Sith anymore?"

"I damn well can if I so choose, or did you forget that not all who lived in a Sith Empire who called themselves that were actual Sith?" Siri snapped back, "The entire point of me choosing to stay in this state rather than returning to the Dark Side was to choose, to make a decision in my life about what I want without anyone else's damn input. That includes you."

Zannah regards her for a long moment, before a slow smile spreads. "The Dark is patient Siri, and it always wins in the end. If you have to come to that realization on your own, fine, I know you, I know what you'll chose eventually. Willingly this time without any possible excuse..."

Yoda cleared his throat and tapped the floor with his stick. "Mmm, so certain are you, hmm?"

Zannah tilts her head towards the troll. "Guaranteed."

"Hmph, in absolutes, only a Sith deals," said Yoda with a shake of his head, "But a wise master, told me once, that a weakness, does the dark have. Know it do you?"

Zannah's lips peeled back into a sneer. "And what is that, little Jedi?"

Zannah's form flinched and wavered as Yoda's pulsed with light through the Force. "All that needed to hold back the dark, a single candle is."

Darth Zannah growled, gathering herself and fixing her image. "I could battle ideology with you all day, Jedi, but that's not why either of us are here, is it? Chance is a fickle thing, the Force is not. A bumbling gungan running into a cloaked ship is far to much of a coincidence for any of us to believe. The Force wanted me here, so here I am. It may have forced my hand and put me in a precarious situation, but that's fine, I've always lived dangerously with high stakes. My apprentice and my own continued existence only surpassed by the day I succeeded Bane as Dark Lord of the Sith."

Something in Siri shivered at the possessiveness, at Zannah claiming her openly infront of all the Jedi to see. A mixture of desire and yearning, for what they used to have together, for almost never being judged for who she was (save for what she felt for Obi-Wan)...

"You... you care for it, for the Holocron," said Obi-Wan in disbelief, fishing down the bond, "Just about as much as you care for Anakin..."

"Who the hell is Anakin?" said Zannah, exasperated, "Siri darling, less attachments, not more."

"He's literal Force-spawn, human with no paternal DNA," rebutted Siri.

"He's what?!"

"Claim to be her master, you do," interrupted Yoda curiously, "Yet claimed Sidious had been her master, she had."

Zannah shifts focus away from Siri and back to Yoda. "Sidious claimed ownership and initiated her, that is true, he holds that official claim, but it is I that taught and molded her, and knowing this, I yet wonder why the two of us are still here. Do you truly favor your infatuation over me, Siri? Over the years we spent together? Me teaching and you so eagerly learning..."

"Hmph," grunted Yoda, slowly starting towards the holocron, "Believe you do that take you and escape, she could?"

"I know what Siri is capable of," hissed Darth Zannah, the gatekeeper glowing ominously with a black and red aura pulsing strongly, "So much of what she knows she learned from me. She does not stay here because you force her to, but because she chooses to."

"It was her agreement with the Courts, we don't force her...," began Obi-Wan.

"Really? If you trusted her agreement, then why are there a pair of guards standing a few feet behind her with itchy saber-fingers?" asked Zannah pointedly, making Obi-Wan's mouth snap shut.

"She stays because of her infatuation," she said, glaring at Obi-Wan hatefully, "It doesn't matter if she's alone, or in the middle of your little council. She is more than capable of taking me and escaping if she wants to. I know several ways that she could do so, that I taught to her."

Siri's throat constricted as Zannah's eyes flickered towards her.

Master Yoda stopped walking forward, his eyes turning towards Siri, both of his hands resting on his gimer stick, watching, waiting.

Both of them with their own expectations.

The eyes of everyone in the hallway.

Of Obi-Wan.

She had come her for Zannah, blindly in a panic, but now it really hits her and settles in. The choice, the decision; it makes her throat constrict as she whispers, "Don't... don't you dare force me to choose."

There is a choice here, between Obi-Wan and Zannah.

And there are not words for the resentment she feels building towards both of them for it.

"Inaction is as much a choice as taking a side," said Zannah in a deadly calm, "You do nothing, they take me and lock me in their vaults never to be seen again, if not kill me."

"Kill a holocron, can we?" said Yoda in hypotheticals.

"She's not just a holocron," snapped Siri hotly, "And if you try to kill her, you will force my hand in a way you will not like."

If the Jedi tried to kill Zannah, she would be forced to choose. As much as she absolutely does not want to leave Obi-Wan, she won't let them kill Zannah. Let them lock the Holocron away maybe if it comes down to it, and she'll hate them for it, but never kill her. This is something she will not budge on. She can see it the moment Yoda recognizes this, and others do as well if the tension rising nearby means anything.

"What do you mean it's not just a holocron?" asked Obi-Wan.

Siri's lips peeled back into a sneer. "Sith don't make them the way Jedi do. That holocron as you call it, is made with a fragment of the soul it represents. So allow me to introduce Darth Zannah, the first apprentice of the Rule of Two and the line of Bane."

There is a moment of stunned silence, and then horror.

"Rip from your own soul, to make this, did you?" whispered Yoda, appalled and horrified at Zannah, "Do this why would you?"

"To live long enough to see the Jedi dead," the Holocron snaps.

"Deep personal hatred, do you hold, not just as a Sith," said Yoda slowly, curious, "Why hate the Jedi, do you?"

Zannah sneered at Yoda. "Because your order is weak. It is corrupt. Stagnant."

Yoda scrutinized the Gatekeeper. "Rote recitation that is, from many a darksider, have I heard that."

"Maybe because it's true?" said Zannah snidely.

He pointed his stick at her. "Why hate the Jedi, do you?"

Siri felt... something in the air, from the Holocron, a dark, open, bleeding wound, something Zannah had skirted around over the years but never answered: about her own fall, "Because you are all hypocrites. You preach compassion, but you're killers just as much as a Sith ever is. Even worse since you preach otherwise."

Yoda studied her for a moment before waddling forward, walking through the Gatekeeper, making for Zannah's Holocron. "What are you doing you old troll?"

Yoda placed a hand on the Holocron. "If full answers you will not give, then find them, I shall. Thank Padawan Skywalker later for the idea, I will."

"What...," began Zannah.

Light rippled from Yoda, into the Holocron, and Zannah screamed. Her gatekeeper form fell to her knees, flickering wildly. "STOP!"

"Why hate the Jedi, do you?"

Zannah's Holocron was a dark side artifact, carried a soul fragment of a Dark Lord of the Sith, but a fragment was all that it was, and before Yoda, and the light he poured into it, that meant little. Zannah's form flickered and... changed, both in image, and how she felt through the Force. Instead of the Sith Lord that had been there moments before, there was a little girl. Ruffles of blond hair, innocent, pained and tormented blue eyes. She bore a baggy white shirt, blue shorts with a strap keeping them up bound over her shoulders, with no shoes on. Poor looking. So young...

She screamed at Yoda in tormented mad torrent, her voice young and high pitched, her presence feeling like she was burning alive from the light, "BECAUSE YOU JEDI DID THIS TO ME! You took us! You took me, Tomcat and Bug! You stole us from our home and families with lies of being heroes and Jedi! We were children! And you took us to war! To Ruusan! To throw our lives away against the Sith! And when it was over, you kept killing! You didn't stop!"

Tears were streaming down her tiny face. "YOU JEDI MURDERED LAA! SHE SAVED MY LIFE AND YOU MURDERED HER RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!"

Hate roiled through the air, so deep and entrenched, etched with pain, and then... it was gone, leaving a deep ache, a burned out fragment of a soul, and having gone through what Zannah was going through, she knew exactly what was about to hit the soul fragment. "I fell and killed them for it. Bane found me, and I... I was never free."

Siri stared at her, stunned and horrified, both by what she said, and by what was happening to her. Just what the hell had Yoda done? That was not what Anakin had done! He had pulled her out, not pushed light in! "Zannah..."

"Rain," the little girl mumbled, curling in on herself, "Bane made Zannah a monster, I'm just Rain... m'-all that's left..."

Yoda ears drooped, his eyes downcast. "Failed you, the Jedi did. So sorry, I am."

Rain curled tighter, and then vanished, her Holocron, no longer growing red and black, but... a kind of translucent light, snapped closed and turned off, retreating inward. Yoda picked the Holocron up, a deep weariness etched into his face. "Many failings, the Jedi Order has. Create our own enemy, in her. Enable Darth Bane to find an apprentice in a young soul that tarnish, we did."

He walked over to Siri, and levitated the Holocron into the air. "Feel I do, that saw a kindred spirit she did, deep down. Stay together, you will, perhaps help eachother, you still can."

Siri is... honestly absolutely stunned and bewildered that Yoda is giving her a Sith Holocron to keep inside the Jedi Temple unrestricted, regardless of whatever he just did to it. But she is not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. When the protests start rising, Siri takes Zannah, Rain, whatever the hell she calls herself now, and bolts for her room, Holocron held protectively to her chest...

"Master Yoda, have you lost your mind?!" exclaims Master Jorus C'Baoth.

Obi-Wan purses his lips, just a tad in agreement with him, but never admitting it aloud.

Yoda turns to look at C'Baoth, "Neutralized, the holocron is."

"Maybe in presence, but not in knowledge," said C'Baoth spreading his arms wide, "And maybe not even for long in presence, after all, the barely restricted Sith Apprentice constantly fluctuates between dark and not as it is, and that Holocron, nay, that actual spirit of a Sith Lord, has absolutely no reason to!"

"Master C'Baoth," interrupts Master Windu, "This conversation should be taken elsewhere...

"No," said C'Baoth, pointing firmly at him, "Not this time. For years now, the Sith Apprentice has been given near free reign! Walking our home, eating within our halls, constantly belittling our ways, making a mockery of what we stand for..."

"Even harming the one she supposedly loves multiple times with barely any repercussions," pointed out Knight Krell, moving to stand a bit behind C'Baoth.

"...it's madness!" agreed C'Baoth, "You even allow her to slither her way into the Chosen One's graces and taint him! Its gone on long enough! If you won't do what is necessary, then we will!"

There is a number of Jedi, more than Obi-Wan had realized supported him, nodding in agreement with C'Baoth.

"I must admit Master Yoda," said Master Tinn quietly, "He is not wrong on some of his points."

Yoda grunted. "Hmph, and yet murder, the answer is? Not the way of the Jedi, that is."

"Tachi," spat C'Baoth, "Has been given chances time and time again. Even when the Chosen One pulled her from the Dark, she still resists the call of the Light, still shuns it. She will return to the dark, she cannot be saved! Better to end her now outside of the Dark Side and allow her to become one with the Force than festering forever in Sith hells. It would be a mercy fitting of the Jedi."

"Or if that is not acceptable, she can be remolded as Darth Revan was once long ago, made to be a Jedi again," suggested Krell.

Obi-Wan looked at them both in absolute disgust. "Can you hear yourselves right now?"

Krell sniffed at him. "And you, Kenobi, need lessons on the Code and its views on attachment, especially to a Darksider, a Sith! You ought to have been expelled the moment it was revealed you were a Sith Lover."

"Enough!" shouted Windu, "All of you, control yourselves!"

"No," said C'Baoth again, straightening himself up, "The time has come to make a decision, for the Jedi to make a decision. Are we servants of the Light, or slaves of the Dark? Will we allow the dark to fester and infiltrate and corrupt us? Or stamp it out?"

"Kill Tachi, you will not," said Yoda sharply, "Said it before, it has been, murder, the Jedi way it is not, and murder, it would be."

"Like all the lives she has murdered?" said C'Baoth pointedly, "Completely unrepentant? She cannot be saved, Master Yoda, I had been hoping your seclusion would have brought you much needed clarity, but I see it has not."

"Agreement, between the Jedi, the courts, the Republic, and Tachi there was," said Yoda firmly, "In stopping Darth Sidious, united we will be."

"She's outlived her usefulness in that regard," said C'Baoth dismissively, "We have no further need to keep her alive and defiling our temple."

Obi-Wan slow blinked, stunned. Had... had a Jedi Master really just said that? Outlived her usefulness?!

Yoda stared at C'Baoth as if he was a complete stranger, like he couldn't believe what he was saying, slowly repeating his warning, "Kill Tachi, you will not. If try you do, stopped you will be, expelled you will be, for you it is, who no longer follow the Jedi path."

A look of victory briefly danced across C'Baoth's face, a tint of malice in his eyes before it was gone. "Expelled? Over stamping out a Sith?"

C'Baoth slowly shook his head, resigned. "I see that there is no use, no saving the Jedi. You've already been influenced and tainted, just like the Senate, the Republic has been."

"Master C'Baoth!" protested Windu, "That's absurd! The Jedi are not tainted, and the Republic is not yet lost! Not if we have anything to say about."

"Oh but it is Master Windu, it is," said C'Baoth sadly, "And there is no more waiting, we must go before we too are taken in by this madness."

He turned and spread his arms wide to the Jedi behind him, charisma being forcibly projected through the Force. "Enough is enough, all that good need do to let evil win is stand by and let it live. No more! No more shall we tolerate evil and corruption any longer! If the Jedi and the Republic does not have what it takes to create a safe, prosperous, and light galaxy, I say that we make a new Order, a new government!"

Obi-Wan's heart turned to pure ice, he was saying... "What?!"

"We must shed the core!" shouted C'Baoth, "For is not the heart of the Veil of the Dark Side here in the capital of the Republic? We must move away from the influence of the Sith, and even more, was our mandate not to help all worlds, including the Outer Rim? Has it not been forgotten long enough by Senate greed?"

Windu cringes and clutches his head, wincing under what Obi-Wan imagines is shatterpoints going absolutely insane as the Force ripples and turns into a storm of chaos around them.

"All that have the will to make this a reality, to create a prosperous pure confederation of worlds led by those gifted and uplifted by the Force, who are tired of the Sith sovereignty the Jedi Council is enabling," spat C'Baoth, "Come with me. Those unsure, spread the word and debate it among yourselves, I will always be willing to take in those who come to their senses and reach for the light. Those who refuse, I'm sure the Sith will enjoy your complacency and corruption. When the darkness falls upon you, you'll wish you had come to your senses."

He goes, Krell at his side, and other Jedi go with him. Master Tinn hesitates for a long moment, looking down at Yoda with disappointment, before going after them. More are sure to follow are word spreads. Obi-Wan wants to find a spot out of the way to collapse into, stunned and shaken by what just happened. Yoda stands where he was, gazing after the departing Jedi, ears flickering.

"Fallen, has the darkness already," said Yoda quietly, "For you, Master C'Baoth, for how long, I wonder."

"Master Yoda?" posed Master Mundi.

Yoda shook his head. "Blind we have been, so very blind."

He says nothing else though, wearily trodding down the hallways.

"Master Yoda," says Fay, revealing herself to have been watching from a distance, "I've been trying to handle C'Baoth and his dissidents carefully for the last few years, was this truly necessary? To enable him and a potential schism depending on how many go with him over a Sith and a Holocron?"

"Stop that, nothing would have," said Yoda sadly before he stops. "Needed here, she is. Insistent the Force is."

"You believe that the Force wishes the holocron, wishes Darth Zannah to be here?" posed Fay, openly incredulous for one of the few times Obi-Wan has ever seen her give a tell.

Not that he doesn't agree.

"Zannah?" questioned Yoda, "No, not Zannah, Rain. Yes, Rain. Hear the Force do you not?"

Fay's eyebrows furrowed.

"Come the gathering rain," whispers Yoda, "Lessons are there to be learned in the storm."

Author's Notes:

Quick chapter set-in to the next section: All about Zannah!

...

Okay, and the other stuff too.

Section will either be called Come the Gathering Rain (parts 1- x) or Lessons of the Storm (Part 1 - x). Not sure which yet. Or maybe some other catchy title, IDK. Anyway, it will focus on Zannah/Rain, the beginning of the Schism, Padawan Jinzler, Yoda, Sidious being an absolutely evil bastard (for at least one scene which will really set the stage for the Clone Wars :D), and more.

Sorry if this wasn't what you were expecting, but... there were three options:

A) This.

B) Zannah in containment and the Jedi try to use Siri to 'interrogate her' in the vault, but I can't really see them allowing Siri in the holocron vault, ever (or trusting her to do so). Not to mention Siri outright refusing.

C) Taking Zannah and running. Which has the entire galaxy after Siri, and while exciting and action packed, isn't where I'm aiming.

There's was no way Siri stays in the temple and gets ahold of Zannah unless she's somehow neutralized at least temporarily, even Yoda would have his limits there even with a newer perspective. It also finally is something big enough to send C'Baoth off to officially start the seps.

Also, 5 creds says you can guess the gungan who bumbled into the Scimitar.

Review Responses:

Cockneyweasel: That... was actually entirely a coincidence, I kind of forgot about it .. I'll go with a subconscious suggestion telling me to do it.

Nerdman3000: ...did Leia ever lose a limb? As for Sidious, Sith are drawn to power, whether to convert or destroy it doesn't matter, they can't help themselves. Sidious will swing back and forth on converting Anakin, for... reasons not to yet be spoiled. Sidious doesn't yet understand how Anakin did what he did (neither exactly does Anakin to be honest, he just acted and did it). Siri also let Anakin into her head to do it, greedy little grubber she was, Sidious sure as hell wouldn't.

Sith Lady VS Sith Lord, I believe Sith Lord is treated as a formal title which are used regardless of gender, like how Gallia and Windu would both be called Jedi Masters. I think.

I considered Ferus early on, but as of now I have a different idea that would be something Obi-Wan would do.

Caver Floyd: And now I'm taking it away for a little bit, noooooooooooooooooooooooo!

DarkSideVortex: Week? A week says you? Zannah waits for no one!

ReadAthon45: Ah... no.

Everyone else, thanks for the reviews.