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Chapter Eighteen.
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Display-screens pierced above Aiden. Maps of the underworld, system directories, and an outside-view of Palpatine's loft filling the blocks of indigo.
He saw none of it. Flashes of green and swirls of black fabric filled his vision. His mind, memories. Something.
It had been so real. The open feeling inside him, and then the... snap. The change. The whatever-it-was.
The darkness of the room falling away, replaced by the murk of the underworld. Luminara standing across from him, eyes bearing down on him from behind an emerald blade. His own saber clenched so tightly in his hands.
His diamond-inked hands.
Her hands.
What the blazes is happening to me? He snapped out of the memory and stared down at his palms as the open feeling hummed inside him stronger than ever, and finally, he shook his head. Hearing Barriss was one thing, but this?
Am I even the one doing this? Or was this some weird, Jedi-thing Barriss was doing? He hesitated and looked across the darkness of the room, and then, with a tightening of the lips, touched the open feeling.
The room vanished in a rushing flash as the darkness fell away, and suddenly, the interior of a Jedi speeder surrounded him, dank air whipping his face beneath an onyx hood as he sped through the underworld. Racing to get to... him.
To get to... Me.
He snapped back to himself with a gasp, and darkness surrounded him once more, murky depths and spires replaced by artificial blue stabbing from every screen—From the monster displays on the walls, all the way down to Dak's data pad sitting where he left it on the main console.
There were answers he may never get. But this was one that couldn't wait anymore. 'Barriss...' How could he even word this? 'Look, I know this isn't the right time, I do, but, I have to know. What is this? And I know you know exactly what I'm talking about.'
How could she not?
Her sigh seemed to come from within himself. 'I'm sorry, Aiden. I didn't want this, but I had to choose, and I chose you. Again.'
Huh? He furrowed his brow. 'That made no sense, Barriss. Look, why... How are we talking like this? How did you hear me in that transport cockpit that first time? How am I hearing you now? And how, in the blazes, am I...' How could he even describe it? '...Seeing through your eyes...'
But it was more than that. The standoff with Luminara... her emotions, her thoughts... He hadn't just watched it go down. He had been there. He had lived it. The remembered feel of the damp saber-hilt clenched in his fingers whispered across his palm, and he closed his fist and then relaxed it again.
Finally, Barriss spoke. Her tone one of reluctance. 'We... share a bond, Aiden.' Then she added quietly, 'A strong one.'
The crease of his brow deepened. 'I like you too, Barriss, but what does that have to do with—'
'No, I don't mean...' She sighed. 'Look. Maybe it would be best if I just show you.'
The open feeling surged like a current of electricity inside him, and a tingle raced across his skin. He gave a small start. What the...
'Look to your left,' she said.
Now this was getting really weird. But he did as she asked, turning his head toward the console and monitors.
'The main screen is the Chancellor's loft, but the Chancellor himself is not visible. The others are maps and directories... And you really shouldn't leave Dak Landon's data pad lying out in the open like that; Dooku could return at any time.'
How in the—
'Because of our bond, Aiden,' she said before the thought had even formed in his own mind. 'It was faint in the beginning, but... it's grown stronger since then. And now, it's grown again.'
The open feeling. The constant hum that had been steadily growing inside him since meeting her. 'So, this thing inside me. It's... you?'
'In a manner of speaking, yes.'
That... actually made him feel a little better about it. 'Okay, but, why? I may not know a lot about Jedi, but I've never heard of one forming a bond with someone. Why did you form one with me?'
'I didn't form a bond with you, Aiden—A bond formed between us. There's a difference.'
Okay... 'Then, how did a bond form between us?'
She was quiet for a moment. 'I don't know,' she said, finally. 'I think I know when it happened, but I still don't know why. Bonds like this aren't supposed to happen outside of the Order. Even then, only between two Jedi who share a deep connection, like a master and padawan.'
'So you can talk like this to your master, and see what she's seeing too?'
Another pause, this time longer. When she did speak, she hesitated. 'No... I've never experienced... or heard of anything like what's happening between us.'
And just like that, he didn't feel too great about it again. 'What does that mean?'
'I don't know.' Her voice was as quiet as he had ever heard her, and he frowned.
Ding! A chime from Dak's data pad shattered the surrounding darkness, screen flashing from its place on the main console.
'Access granted. Welcome, Slug.'
His eyes widened, and he snatched the pad into his hands as if it might disappear in a cruel joke if he didn't act fast enough. A frozen image of Dak filled the screen, and his brow knit as the image flickered once, and then began playing, Dak's voice coming out garbled and crackly through the pad's speakers:
"I, this thing... I think he knows." Dak fidgeted like a deathstick junkie who hadn't had a fix in a while. "Someone's been following me. I don't know who, but..." He looked at something off-screen, his face hidden in a shadow, and then shook his head. "I think I need to be somewhere else until I figure this out. You still got that place down by Zora's, right?"
Through the speakers, the metallic grind of scraping metal pierced over Dak's voice, and Dak snapped his head up as light spilled into the space, and a new shadow fell across him.
"Who the—"
A blaster shot barked and the screen flashed white for a split second. Then again.
The camera-view tumbled and clattered to the floor.
A lanky figure under a wide-brimmed hat cut the silhouette of the doorway. He ran a finger across the brim of the hat as he dropped a smoking blaster into a holster on his thigh, and disappeared without even a glance back.
Numb weight settled in Aiden's gut. 'Barriss—'
'I saw, Aiden.' A strange, but soothing feeling filtered through the... the bond, and he found his grip on the data pad relaxing. 'Put it out of your mind, and focus. Make whatever preparations you need for the pad to be usable in our mission, and make yourself ready to leave quickly, I'll be there soon.'
He could do that. He ran the back of his hand across his forehead, and then paused. Actually, what they needed might already be on the pad...
With a quickness born of something vaguely resembling hope, he swiped away the video and made a virtual bee-line for the stored files. Be worth it...
It took him a second to figure out where Dak's files ended, and Palpatine's began. But when he did, before he could dive fully into Palatine's dirty laundry, the very last file Dak had saved before he died jumped out at him like it was lit up in spotlights:
'Chancellor Palpatine and Dooku?.vid'
What? He clicked the file.
The screen went dark, and then the inside of a very familiar crimson-draped office appeared, Palpatine standing next to an open niche, pulling the hood of a black robe over his head until his face disappeared in the shadow of its cowl.
Electricity shot across Aiden's skin, and his eyes widened. Dak, you magnificent son of a bantha... Dak was one of the slicers who beat him into the Senate's systems that night. He was the one in the system there, watching right along with him.
And he had the brains to record what they were seeing.
'Barriss.' He gripped the pad tighter. 'This is the night. This is what I told you about.'
Palpatine glided his thumb over the communicator, and Dooku materialized in his palm. Pale, blue light cast upon the shroud of Palpatine's hood as Dooku bowed, illuminating a faint smile on Palpatine's lips beneath the shroud's edge.
The summoned bowing to the summoner. The proof against Palpatine's testimony.
A sudden cold seeped through the bond, sapping away the comfort that had filled it just moments ago, and Barriss spoke. 'You never told me Dooku knelt before the Chancellor.'
The cold swept through him and against him, and he stopped short. 'What does it matter if a noble gives a formal bow to a head-of-state? Isn't that what they do?' A haunt of unease still whispered.
'That is not the expected bow of a noble to a monarch, Aiden.' Her breath tremored, and he felt it. 'That is the bow of a servant to a master.'
A light on Palpatine's desk flashed. And beneath the darkness of a shroud, two irises of lava turned to the camera, meeting his eyes in darkness, and in silence. And Barriss spoke the unease that no longer clawed for attention, but lurked quietly, staring up at him like yellow eyes beneath a hood.
'That is the bow of a Sith to his lord.'
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The seams of onyx rested easily on Palpatine's shoulders as he held the silken edges of the cloak's hood between his fingers, and let it fall gently into place over his head.
The screen emanating in the shadows of his sanctuary remained frozen with the image of young Offee. Below her image merely stated: Video Sent, in flashing words.
He slid his hands into his sleeves, and glanced at the main turbolift that would return him to his loft high above in 500 Republica.
With a twitch of a finger, a plain section of wall on the opposite side of the room slid away, and a black corridor stretched beyond him like an ever-darkening portal into the belly of Coruscant.
Many enemies made for many paths. Many branches in the road. One by one the branches had fallen, until only a single path lie before him.
Now, nothing remained but to walk it.
He cast a look toward the image of young Offee, one hooded form to another, and with a wrinkling of the nose, he stepped into the black, letting the shadows swallow him as he left Chancellor Palpatine more and more behind with each step.
Palpatine could no longer walk the path that lie ahead.
Behind him, steel grinded back into place, and what little light that filtered from the opening cut off, plunging the corridor into total darkness as he continued on, his step never faltering.
Only Darth Sidious could walk the road ahead.
END CHAPTER