Author's Note: Happy Weekend! I hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy. My kids are off school for 4 weeks, but working in healthcare things are just as busy as usual for me. So next update will be next weekend.
We do have a special treat for you though - two chapters today! Chapter 25 is short, but I didn't want to leave everyone in agony, hoping instead to leave things with a hint of hope until the next update. Thank you to JenniferLadyBug for being consistently awesome with her illustrations. As always leave a comment on these chapters, let us know what you think!
Calsyn swept into the room a short time later to help Rey back to her quarters. The woman fretted over her until she'd had a good meal and had settled in for a fitful sleep between the most sterile set of sheets she'd ever touched.
The next day Rey holed herself up in her quarters to complete the build of her saber. It hadn't taken long, and only minutes after she'd sealed up the last piece of casing, Darth Malak had arrived to inspect her progress.
Now, the Sith Lord stood before her, holding the finished weapon in front of him, scrutinizing the unstable hiss and spit of the crimson plasma blade.
His brows drew together, cutting deep lines in his forehead between them. "It's cracked."
Despite the robotic monotone, his modulator still managed to convey a touch of displeasure as he gave the blade another sweep in the air before bringing it close to examine it. "Your crystal is cracked. I thought you said the bleed was successful? This weapon is not stable."
"It was successful." Rey said, unable to hide the venom lacing her tone. It would be so easy to thrust her saber straight through his chest and be done with all of this. "It bled didn't it?"
His icy grey eyes locked onto hers and didn't release her for a long moment.
"Come," he finally said, "bring both sabers. We will begin your combat training."
He straightened again to his full, looming height and strode quickly through the door, cape flowing over his broad shoulders and Rey had no choice but to fall into step behind him. She was reminded of the power he commanded, as crew tripped over their own feet to leave him ample space as he passed through the narrow corridors, each turning to salute him respectfully until he was out of view.
Rey did, indeed, have much to learn.
It wasn't long before he turned into a doorway. Rey followed into what was less a room, and more a hangar of sorts. Except there were no ships or vessels of any kind to be found here. Rey labeled the space a hangar based on its sheer size alone. High ceilings stretching at least four levels up and a huge expanse of gleaming durasteel floors spread out before them. The sharp chemical tang of disinfectant filled her nose, or maybe it was floor wax. Rey based this guess on the thickly glazed sheen on the paneling beneath her feet, so shiny it reflected the bright lights above as though she were standing on the surface of a black lagoon.
He led her to the center of the space. "I have set my lightsaber to low power." He drew his weapon and gripped it tight in his palm, igniting it with a flick of his thumb. "I have no desire to slice into you again. But you will learn, my apprentice, to respect me. Do not think I haven't sensed your traitorous thoughts." He cocked his head, daring her to deny the accusation.
Rey's body tightened, a painful wrenching of every muscle all at once, as she fumbled for something to say, some excuse.
"Bastila once thought as you did. And before she could realize her full power, she fell back under Revan's spell," he said. "I will not allow you to make the same mistake. If you want to achieve your full potential, you must submit to my teachings."
Rey looked up to meet his stare again. "What must I do?"
"Give him up, Rey. He and your friends still hold onto your strings, and if you don't cut them, you will always be their puppet," he said. "You must stop thinking of them. You must call me, Master."
Something twisted inside of her and Rey realized, he was right. Though she had bled her saber, though she accepted Malak's training to some degree, a tiny thread of herself still belonged to him.
Malak's saber was against her neck before she realized he'd moved.
He laughed, an unnatural wheezing clank through his modulator. "You are distracted by him even now. You are dead, apprentice."
Malak reset his stance and Rey pulled both sabers from her belt and stood at the ready, realizing that she had not set her weapons to low power as he had done. "Aren't you afraid I'll take off your head?"
"If you get anywhere close, I do not deserve the title of Master." He held his own blade vertically, indicating his readiness for a duel with a nod.
She gripped both lightsabers tighter, the hilt of her unstable weapon warming in her palm. It was glowing, flaring with heat around the unstable plasma blade. She ignored her burning skin, focusing instead on the darkness churning around her. Rey harnessed that power, letting it fuel her first attack as she lunged with everything she had, bringing both sabers down hard in a sweeping strike across Malak's left flank.
He sidestepped easily, raising his weapon to parry. Plasma sizzled between them and Rey attempted to pull from the pain, still so close to the surface, to add strength to her arms as she pushed hard to thrust him away.
But Darth Malak was an immovable obstacle in the Force, cold and unyielding. And when she felt the way he wrenched the Darkness into his grasp, drawing it from her, sucking it from the very air around them to fuel his power, she knew whatever was coming was going to hurt.
He unleashed it all at once, sending her soaring across the room. Then just as easily as he'd thrown her, like a force of nature unleashed, he caught her in his frozen grasp, lowering her gently to the floor just before her bones were shattered against the wall.
"You are an unbalanced child," he drawled, boots pounding the floors as he approached. "Unstable, just like that weapon. Let go of them, Rey."
But Rey was not finished. His mercy had only angered her and she could feel the scream of darkness, now boiling up in her chest and there was no stopping it. A warning cry tore from her throat and she came at him again, crimson sabers ablaze.
This time, she was closer, with one saber she forced him to parry, while she brought the other down in a low arc to take his feet out from under him. The hilt of the unstable weapon was now blazing so hot in her palm, it took everything Rey had to focus on turning the pain into power.
Malak raised his off hand, stopping the blade's momentum. And then, it was only their Force. She pressed against him with all of the strength she had and still he held fast. A wash of dread preceded Malak's next move as Rey realized he'd been holding back. He opened the floodgates and Rey was again thrown back with the icy current of his Dark Force, and taking no pity this time, she was tossed with a gut-wrenching thud to the floor.
"Wielding two sabers is splitting your attention. Especially when one of them is so unstable. I can see your every move before you make it. I do not believe you are practiced with this style," he said matter-of-factly.
Rey tasted acid as she was forced to consider that he was right.
"I used a staff," she muttered, pushing herself to stand again, rubbing at a sore spot on her back, imagining the purple bruise that was probably blooming there already. Just when the wound in her thigh had stopped throbbing so incessantly, Malak was going to punish her failures by bringing on new injuries.
"Put that one away," he commanded, jabbing a gloved finger at her unstable weapon. "And turn those last threads of Light into Power."
She obeyed, stowing her unstable saber at her waist, and stepped into ready position again. This time, she focused on stripping all of the light from her heart, using the pain to tear away anything that wasn't darkness. She lowered her head, baring teeth, and charged across the room.
"If anything, you are persistent," he said with an amused incline of his head before stepping easily into her attack and blocking her.
But he hadn't anticipated the Force of her attack and stepped back to maintain his balance. With a single saber, her strength was more concentrated, fixed on the point where their blades met and she was able to get some leverage against his much larger, more muscular form.
She snarled, pushing him back again as she crashed her saber into his training blade over and over, forcing him back with each blow. She wrapped her darkness around his Force, keeping it contained, remembering the pain of the durasteel floor and not allowing him to push his Dark energy against her again.
But she'd forgotten to consider one thing.
His physical power.
Because as she was focused on his Force and his blade, he crouched slightly and kicked a sturdy leg out, sweeping her feet out from under her and sending her crashing onto her rear end with an embarrassing squawk of disbelief.
He looked down at her, a self-satisfied gleam in his eyes as he held his saber to her throat. "That was better, apprentice. You have recognized your weakness. But you are still dead."
And for the first time, Rey felt a strange sensation as she looked up at Darth Malak. It was not one of pure disgust, but grudging recognition of… something. His power? An appreciation of his ancient understanding of the Dark Side? Whatever it was, Rey was made to face the fact that he knew things that she needed. She swallowed hard.
"Still, apprentice, you underestimate your opponent," he said. And Malak flicked off his blade, reaching out a gloved hand to her.
It hung there between them, gleaming black leather under the too-bright lights of the hangar, like an anchor promising to tow her deeper into the powerful depths of the Dark Side.
And this time, Rey took his hand, not for lack of a better choice, but because she wanted to. He was a powerful duelist, with a steady grasp and an ancient appreciation of the Dark Side, and if Rey wanted power, he would teach her how to find it.
"Yes, my Master." Her voice was an icy drone as if she too, wore a voice modulator. She straightened, shaking off her embarrassment and met his expectant gaze. "Show me again."
And she knew Darth Malak would have smiled in that moment, if he could.
Over the next few days, Rey requested parts to fashion her two sabers into a double-bladed staff. What parts she couldn't find, she rigged from odds and ends. She'd needed a way to vent the unstable plasma away from her hilt, to keep from blistering her palm, as she'd done on that first training day. Not only that, but Malak had been correct when he'd observed that duel wielding did not come naturally to her. So, Rey returned to what she was good at. With a staff she could unleash the ferocity of the Dark Side without losing focus.
She knew she needed to vent the extra energy through the rear, like an over-heating speeder's exhaust. So, she'd added vents to the crystal chamber, funneling that exergy into a secondary chamber at the other side of the battery. As plasma flowed through the secondary channels, the pressure would be equalized.
Between builds of her staff came meetings, briefings, and more training with Malak.
Ben tried to appear to her several more times over those few days, and each time she thrust him away. Clinging to him was only weakening her, as Malak had demonstrated.
Power. That was all that mattered.
Power to open the World Between Worlds. For what? To free him? That was why she was doing this, wasn't it? Even that objective became a bit muddled as time passed, as power became her single-minded pursuit. It seemed to swell in her consciousness until every other feeling, every other desire fell away.
The days wore on and when Ben continued to call upon the Bond, it ripped less at her heart to push him away. Finally, when he'd come to her this morning, she'd pushed a wall up so solid, he didn't even have a chance to speak before she'd blocked the Bond completely. It was so much easier if she didn't have to hear his voice.
Now, Darth Malak stood at the door to her chambers, having arrived for another lesson. He glanced to her worktable, and finding it empty, he spoke. "You've finished your saber staff?"
Rey nodded and the icy touch of his Force brushed against her mind, sensing and searching her emotions.
"You've done well, my apprentice," he said. "I sense nothing but Power this morning."
She looked up at him, accepting the rare words of praise her Master offered. "I have done what you commanded."
Rey had finally submitted herself wholly to Malak's teachings after tasting the power they had bestowed, and she had reaped its rewards. Her control over the Dark Side had grown to the point she'd forced her Master to work up a sweat the last time they'd dueled.
"You have, and the Acolytes have some questions," he said simply. "Come."
He gestured for her to follow and she took her place at his side, walking with him toward the command floor of the Derriphan. Her leg and shoulder wounds had scabbed over well, the angry red ooze of her cut now calm and healing into shiny granulated tissue at the edges. She could even walk without a limp if she focused on it. And she did so now, as dozens of groveling eyes followed their strides as they made their way across the ship to meet with the Sith Acolytes.
The Acolytes had shared their secrets over the last few days, slowly, as her Master obviously didn't trust her completely yet. What she had managed to glean was that they had physically restored both Nihilus and Maul by channeling their life Force contained in artifacts of importance to them. Nihilus' mask for example and Maul's lightsaber. Maz had mentioned the Sith artifacts to her on Corellia, so it wasn't exactly new information. Still, they'd gone into great detail about the mechanics of it all, which Rey could not follow.
When her Master had mentioned the Acolytes were close to physically restoring several other Sith Lords, her interest was piqued again.
"What is the point of bringing them back, if they will only contest your power?" Rey asked, standing before the command array of the Derriphan, looking out at the field of stars before them.
"If we have Sith stationed across the span of time, there will be no room for the Light or the Jedi to surface. No dispute to our power."
Rey nodded, understanding his vision. "So, when we restore a path from the World Between Worlds, the Sith who have achieved their physical forms will be stationed in other eras."
"Yes. But should any choose to rebel against this plan, we will show them what happens to our enemies." He looked down at her, hard grey eyes holding knowledge that spanned centuries.
"Yes, my Master," Rey droned, her hollow voice carrying across the bridge.
A turbolift hissed open behind them, revealing three robed Acolytes, one female Nautolan and two human males. The expressions of the humans revealed a touch of shock upon seeing Darth Malak, as though even they could not believe he'd been restored, only understanding it now that they'd seen it with their own eyes. Rey had seen the same expressions countless times over the last few days.
The tentacled Nautolan, however, showed no reaction, obviously an Acolyte of much higher rank.
"My Lord," the Nautolan purred her greeting as she and the others got down to their knees. She nodded to Rey, yellow tentacles nearly skimming the floor as she bent her head. "Mistress."
"Rise," Malak said. "It is time to reveal what you know of the World Between Worlds for Mistress Palpatine. She is ready to channel the Dyad and break through."
This was new. In their other meetings there had been no talk of the World Between Worlds. So he felt it was time, then?
The Nautolan rose, eyes black and round as onyx gemstones. "We have investigated the cave under Ahch-To as you commanded my Lord," she said. "It appears that Mistress Palpatine is right. There is a point of vergence below the island."
Malak darted a glance to Rey. "Good, my apprentice will accompany me to this vergence tomorrow."
"There's more, My Lord," the Nautolan said. "There is a second vergence inside the Temple."
His eyes narrowed in thought. "It is no wonder the Jedi built their Temple at such a place. It appears Ahch-To's connection across time and space exceeds all others."
Rey's mind raced with the implications. Two vergence points. But that still didn't solve the problem of getting through.
"Yes, but without the key to the gateway," Rey said, "the vergence points are useless."
The Nautolan stepped forward, a smile curling her lip. "Oh no, Mistress Palpatine. With the power contained within you, as part of a Dyad, a power over space and time, nothing can keep you from your other half. You need but focus on it at the exact point of vergence to break through."
It could not be that easy. That struggle on Lothal at the gateway to communicate with the Daughter? The battle with Malak, Nihilus, and Maul? Ben's push to send her through the gateway? It had all been pointless? If she would only have focused on the Bond…
Rage pulsed its frozen power through her veins.
Malak cocked a questioning head in her direction as he pushed his voice into her mind. What has you so unsettled?
"I never thought the Bond would simply allow us to pass through," Rey whispered through clenched teeth.
"Oh yes, near a vergence with that kind of power, Mistress. The gateway should open if you only focus on the other end of the connection," the Acolyte said. "On the other half of your Dyad."
As the Acolytes began to discuss the power of the Dyad amongst themselves, Rey's thoughts wandered quickly to those lonely nights on Tatooine after Ben's death, on the desperate moments when Ben had been so close, but she'd been unable to reach him. She thought of the joy she'd felt as he'd broken through and she'd grasped frantically for him, held his hand…
"Mind your thoughts," Malak warned in a hiss, just loud enough for her to hear, "Purge your weakness and focus on the anger. There is no room for fondness or regret, only power."
And Rey steeled herself in that moment. Swallowing hard to keep her thoughts from wandering to how much she had missed him, and instead focusing on the way he'd feared her on Corellia, to the way he'd pushed her away, abandoned her. And instantly that ache was replaced with something else, something sharper and more protective. Pain and anger honed into a weapon.
Power.
"Better. The time to unleash your wrath will come," Malak said in a harsh whisper, before turning back to the Nautolan and interrupting their private conversations. "Please, continue for Mistress Palapatine."
"Of course, My Lord," he said, nodding politely, then turning his immense black eyes to her. "Once you have pulled Solo through to your side, you and Lord Malak will drain that power and channel it into the World Between Worlds. This should force each vergence open, giving the Sith access to every vergence across time."
"How do you know so much about the World Between Worlds?" Rey was suspicious, having read through ancient Jedi texts more than once, she still didn't have the same understanding of it that these Acolytes seemed to have.
The Nautolan's ridged brow raised with excitement. "Emperor Palpatine's advisor, Veris Hydan, studied the World Between World for years. We have all of his notes. Years' worth of data on the gateway at Lothal. Your grandfather's advisor had been seeking this power for some time. He was close, when the Jedi, Ezra Bridger got there first." She spat the name like a curse. "He locked the gateway underground."
This time, her Master spoke. "The power of a Dyad is something the galaxy hasn't seen in centuries. A power that transcends space and time. When channeled together, against the gateway, it will have no choice but to fall open to us."
The Nautolan paused, looking out over the endless expanse of the universe through the viewport. "Imagine it," she said, her tentacles quivering with her words, "power over time itself."
"He will never willingly give up the Bond," Rey said flatly.
"Then you must either find a way to convince him," Malak said, eyes glinting wickedly, "or take it from him."
"Suppose this does work. What will come of…" Rey paused, wanting to speak his name in that moment but finding herself physically unable to do so. She began again. "What will come of him when he is restored to the physical world?"
She'd successfully filled that void in her soul with rage, and now Ben seemed so far away. Like a memory that had faded with the years, he seemed distant. Though it had been only days since she'd seen his face, he was now so far away, she could hardly speak his name out loud.
"What becomes of him, my apprentice…" he said, grey eyes sharpening like honed steel, "will be your decision."
