Sith Gothic 3 - Gotham

"To we who dwell in the Force, normal life is little more than pretence. Our only actions of significance are those we undertake in service to the dark side" –Darth Tenebrous.

Part 3

Wayne Manor. Outskirts of Gotham City.

One of the reasons why I'd survived for decades when so many of my peers, such as the Sith who'd trained with me at the academy on Korriban were now dead and long forgotten, was my ability not to assume that I could simply handle any situation I needed to deal with thanks to my talent with The Force. In short, I wasn't an arrogant twat, well not most of the time.

When going somewhere important I liked to do a little research so that I could be better prepared for what I might encounter. For example, I knew that Wayne Manor was the ancestral home of the Wayne family since 1914. The Queen Anne-style colonial manor lay on the outskirts of Gotham and featured lush woodland within its perimeter, a pool, greenhouses and a long gravel drive ending in some secure looking wrought-iron gates.

Another thing I knew was that Bruce Wayne had lived there with his parents, Thomas and Martha, and their butler Alfred Pennyworth. Following the murders of the elder Waynes, Bruce and Alfred lived here alone. The Manor had also been infiltrated a number of times and was later destroyed by explosives put in place by Jeremiah Valeska during the No Man's Land event which took up nearly all of the last season of the Gotham show.

Ten years after Gotham's reunification with the mainland, at the end of the last series, Wayne Manor had been rebuilt, but given my presence, that last part was unlikely to happen. It didn't suit me at all for the no Man's Land even to happen, not when I planned to spend years making this city a bastion of dark side power.

I could already understand how Selina and a bunch of other people so easily got to Bruce Wayne his security was lacking. With a little help from the Force, I'd easily made it over the fences that were around the property and from there it was simple enough to get to the house. Given the size of the grounds, it wasn't a surprise that I didn't run into the gardener, but I'd been prepared to deal with such a person should our paths crossed.

As it turned out I didn't need to bother using those methods until I was actually inside the house and I came across Alfred Pennyworth. Using the blaster in my hand I quickly stunned the butler, it was best this way as he was a lot more dangerous than he looked and I didn't wish for there to be any sign that I was ever here.

Once again using the power of The Force I reached into Pennyworth's mind and used it to blur his most recent memories before sitting him down in a chair. When he woke up he wouldn't remember sitting down or seeing me and should believe that he'd simply gotten tired. This was important because I didn't wish to interfere with Bruce Wayne's life unless I really had to. Knowing how his future played out was an advantage to me that I didn't wish to deprive myself.

After placing the manservant in a comfy chair I moved on while reaching out with my senses to locate the boy billionaire, as expected I was easily able to sense his presence even if he was sleeping at this time. His mind was in turmoil and I used my powers to calm him before ensuring that he'd sleep for a few more hours before I took a blood sample. Not out kindness I just didn't want him waking up while I was here.

As to why I'd come here to get a blood sample that had to do with Midi-chlorians were microscopic, intelligent life forms that resided within the cells of all living organisms, thereby forming a symbiotic relationship with their hosts. Detecting them wasn't easy unless you knew what you were looking for. Some sects of Force-users believed that The Force spoke through the midi-chlorians, allowing certain beings to use the Force if they were sensitive enough to its powers and that sensitivity increased the more midi-chlorians you had in your cells. So in order to gauge an individual's potential in the Force, blood tests were used to estimate the number of midi-chlorians within the subject's cells

The device I'd used was able to do this and I soon discovered that Bruce Wayne had a high count, higher than Selina's while remaining lower than mine. Not a shocker since I'd suspected that there was something more to the man that become a costumed crimefighter than simply training and a lot of will power. Also, this sample would be more than enough for me clone Bruce Wayne if I so wished, not that cloning those strong with the Force was normally a good idea, but it was good to have such options in the future.

Given that Bruce Wayne was clearly stronger with The Force and had a lot more resources than Kat it might seem the better idea to take him as a student, but there were more factors involved than mere potential and money. Selina was more isolated than Bruce, she had no guardian or any friends, and Bruce Wayne at least had Alfred Pennyworth and James Gordon looking out for him. Both Selina and Bruce had already been hardened by life, and I could use Bruce's desire for revenge to turn him to the dark side, but Selina had more to work with, she wanted power, wealth, respect and while she'd never would have admitted it to anyone, she did want someone to guide her. She could survive on her own, but for her, that simply wasn't enough.

I had once more thing that I needed to before I left and that involved getting down to what past as the Batcave in this version of the DC verse. In order to this I took out a hand scanner, one of the little toys I'd picked during my travels, and once I found what I needed with a wave of my hand I triggered the mechanism that caused the fireplace to move.

Thanks to last night meditation session my memories of watching the show were very clear in my mind so I knew the password and quickly gained entry. I ignored most of what was down here and went right to the computer. The machine was password-protected, but this meant little to me since I'd picked up some slicing skills over the years (what people on his world would call hacking) and using a data spike I was easily able to get a copy of all the information on the computer. There should be enough here to at least lead me to Wayne Enterprises darkest projects. This might help me destabilise the company or aid me in taking it over should that become part of my plans, or at the very least I could use it to attract the attention of the Court of Owls.

I did consider finding the remote for the fireplace and destroying it so that young Batman never finds it, I'd be doing him a favour, but despite my actions so far I'd not de-railed the overall plot and right now there was no need to as knowing the future gave me an advantage over everyone. Besides Batman was years away so and I could always deal with Bruce Wayne if I had to.

Now it was time to cover my tracks and leave. No one ever needed to know that I was ever here. Besides, I had a date with Lee Thompkins this evening and I should double-check my dinner reservations after picking up my dry cleaning. On the way out I started to wonder if I should get myself an underling. Sure I might soon have an apprentice, and while it wasn't odd for their masters to send them on important missions they weren't meant for running errands so I do with some henchmen, it was something to think about.

(Line Break)

Bamonte's Restaurant. Gotham.

This place was the eatery owned by one Don Maroni which served as a base of operations for the crime family he ran. It was also a well-known Italian restaurant so there was nothing odd in me booking a table here for my data with Doctor Thompkins and getting a table hadn't even involved a single mind trick as in this town money had a lot of power.

I wasn't just here for a date, although that was part of it as dating someone seemed like a good cover in case anyone started wondering what I did with all my time. My main reason for coming here this evening was so that I could scout out the restaurant. It might look like a typical Italian joint, but that was just the surface impression it gave.

While looking around I saw no sign of Don Maroni, nor did any of the faces I saw trigger any memory about any of his underlings. Not that they really mattered as I had someone else in mind who could take care of them. I didn't need to do anything myself about them, soon I'd have a minion for that and perhaps more in the near future.

Aside from being a base of operations for the Maroni crime family, this was also the place that the Penguin would come to when he began infiltrating the organised crime organisation for Don Falcone. Either Oswald Cobblepot hadn't yet gotten a job here or he had a night off as I saw no sign of him in the kitchens. Not that this concerned me because I'd been keeping an ear out for news of the Balloonman and so far no one had been sent up into the atmosphere by a weather balloon, and if my recollections were correct that's about the time Cobblepot started working here.

So it looked as if tonight I'd be able to focus on Lee Thompkins who turned up late to the surprise of no one. Given that she was a doctor and therefore had an important job it was safe to assume that her running late was not one of those head games women seem to enjoy playing with men. In my experience females of many different species seemed to enjoy annoying men with such things.

I normally didn't bother with traditional methods of romance, since I was a Dark Lord of the Sith I had other ways of getting any female I desired to share a bed with me. I didn't need to mind control them as they were just drawn to me and I could enhance such desires. Below the surface, all humanoid females are drawn to powerful men because on an animal level they know that such men can project and provide for any offspring they have. Not that I engaged in any long term mating practices. I'd gone to bed with hundreds of females of many different species during my wanders and I'd no doubt sired a few dozen bastards as well. Once upon a time, I would have cared about such things, but I no longer did.

"So what's good here?" Lee Thompkins asked me as we inspected the menu.

Since I'd never been here before I had no idea, and because I'd gotten here first I'd already decided what it was I wanted. Money was no concern to me, at least not when it came to eating out, so I cared not for what she ordered and I found the wines here on Earth to be rather poor when compared to vintages I'd sampled on other worlds.

Soon we'd made our orders and while waiting for our food we began to talk. I had my cover story already in place and I'd discovered during my long life that the best lies are the truth. In some sense, I was a tech-consultant with Wayne-Enterprises who was making a fortune because the military kept snapping up the designs for the power cells I was helping the Applied Sciences Department over at Wayne Enterprises.

We'd come up with more effective designs very quickly, as I'd designed the prototype with that in mind, and every design was quickly brought by the military with the sole rights to production. I could understand why as the power cells would allow for planes to stay up in the air for longer, for tanks to be driven further, but why they wanted to keep them out of civilian hands so badly was a mystery. Did the American Military-industrial complex have something against people being able to buy improved hybrid cars?

Not that I dwelled on this as I knew better than to talk about myself too much on a first date. I let Lee bore me with her talk about things I couldn't care less about while faking interest in her words. Later I'd look into what was happening with my power cells.

(Line Break)

The Falcone Mansion. Gotham.

Don Falcone didn't turn away or even flinch as the gun went off filling the air with a bang just before a body hit the floor of his study. The blood could be cleaned away just like the body, what mattered was that he'd been strong when he needed to be. The man now dead on the floor had been the one in charge of the armoury and while it might not have been his fault that the cash reserves were gone, as the Don he'd needed to make someone pay for the insult to the family.

The heads of the family were all here, and they'd done nothing other than looking a little shocked when one of their own had been executed in front of them. Carmine wasn't foolish enough to assume that the looks of shock hadn't been faked, but all of them had seemed surprised by the news that the armoury was now empty, so perhaps they hadn't been involved after all.

As for who the most likely suspect was behind this attack on the family it seemed likely that Sal Maroni had made a move, but Maroni was not the most subtle of people and the red hood gang had made no mention of him, claiming even with their dying breaths that they'd planned and carried out the operation by themselves despite him not having the information or the intelligence to carry off such a heist. Besides, it had just been a robbery then why burn most of the money? Why not take more or just leave the rest if they'd underestimated how much was in the armoury?. Carmine figured that the money hadn't really been the point, the person behind this wanted to weaken his organisation. If so some greater mind was behind this.

The gang must have had a powerful backer, someone clever who was working behind the scenes, someone who had a great deal of knowledge about the Falcone crime family. This is what made Carmine Falcone think that it was an inside job, but destroying most of the cash reverses hurt the whole family so it didn't make sense for one of the family to have done this, not if they'd planned to destroy the cash as it was the family's money.

"The loss of our reserves is a blow," said Carmine "but we can recover from this and we will do so together, so until the reserves are replenished your taxes will be increased by twenty percent".

Not everyone was happy with this, and to Falcone's mild surprise Fish came to his defence, speaking words of support.

"Any word on the man with the sword whose been killing our people on the street?" Falcone asked of the other heads of the family "I know the police have been useless, but you all have your ears to the ground".

Somehow no one knew anything of substance and so Carmine Falcone could be forgiven for thinking that they were all conspiring against him, but he wasn't going to keep himself up at night worrying about that, not when he could take action.

"Spread the word to all of your people" Falcone ordered, "Tell them that I'm placing a half a million-dollar bounty on this masked killer, and another half a million to whoever finds out who was behind the robbery at the armoury".

This would cost the crime family quite a lot in terms of cash, but they couldn't let anyone attack them like this and walk away even if the masked killer hadn't done much in the way of harm to the families operations. The Falcone crime family couldn't afford to look weak or its rivals would destroy them and the city would descend into chaos.

(Line Break)

Apartment. Gotham.

Perhaps there was something to this sedate lifestyle so many people enjoyed here on this planet. Here I was eating breakfast, reading the paper while listening to some music, and for once I had nothing on my mind, no plans to go through, no concerns for the future, only a lazy morning spent eating some nice food and listening to what passed for music on this planet.

The newspaper was interesting, I'd killed again last night, just some random drug dealer, and while no one had seen me this time my M.O. was recognisable as not many people used swords in this day and age. The papers had picked up that story very quickly, in time to make the headlines. Did anyone sleep in this town?

Soon enough something else got my attention in the form of a news report on the radio which reported the first victim of The Balloonman. Soon Detectives Gordon and Bullock would stark tracking down a Vigilante who has begun killing corrupt Gotham citizens by attaching them to weather balloons. That should distract from me for a while and I'd have to do something big soon if I wanted to spread fear and chaos.

Meanwhile, future crimelord Oswald Cobblepot would have returned to Gotham and as part of his plans, he would soon get a new job close to an influential figure in the underworld, that of Don Maron. This pleased me as I had important plans for Oswald Cobblepot and just last night I'd taken a certain attractive lady doctor to the very restaurant that Sal Maroni owned and often ate at, so I knew where he would be and that would make it easy for me to grab him. Right now he was vulnerable, but he would not remain that way for long.

I needed Cobblepot alive and well as he would be king of Gotham's criminal underworld for me as I didn't wish to deal with the day to day crap that would involve. Besides he knew that world better than me and once he was my puppet I'd have access to all those resources while at the same time I could enjoy the high life as an inventor and as a consultant for Wayne Enterprises.

There was good news on the second front. There was already military interest in my power cell and they'd offered millions for exclusive rights. While this meant that no civilians would get to use any of my power cells any time soon it didn't really matter to me if the primitives of this world wanted my help in killing each other as long as they didn't go nuclear.

Thanks to my deal with Wayne Enterprises, I now had a lot more income heading my way and so I planned to move to the penthouse of a rather attractive looking black tower that had gold edging. It was the same place Theo Galavan would move in to, but I'd gotten there first and I wouldn't be moving out for such as him. Once I was set up in the penthouse I'd have a space for a proper lab set up and then I could get to work 'inventing' some more cool tech so that I could keep myself in the kind of lifestyle I desired. There was no need to rush as I had other ways of making cash when I wanted it and I needed to make it look as if I was actually inventing new technologies.

While there was really no rush I would move into that penthouse soon, as it was only a matter time before someone tracked me back here and it might be the cops or someone more dangerous, as such it would be best to on. I didn't have the resources to keep the law off my back like most of the major crooks did in these parts, at least not yet, once I had more income I'd see about getting a good lawyer and brainwashing him or her so they'd be loyal to me.

"Good morning," said a voice.

I turned on my stool to see Lee Thompkins entering the kitchen, she wore the dress she'd been wearing last night, and while I felt sure that she'd not intended to end up having sex with me that was what had happened. I'd not needed to do anything to her mind, at least not intentionally as I could form what was called Force Bonds and influence a person's behaviour through them without the need for crude mind control.

They were common between Jedi Masters and their apprentices, and a strong Force bond was a link through which two Force-sensitives could influence each other. It allowed the communication of feelings, thoughts and images across distances and granted greater coordination in battle. When it came to non-Force-Users the Force-user could alter those who couldn't make use of the Force turning people who should be hostile into allies even to the point that strong Force-users were able to direct a measure of control over entire armies. Revan had been rather good at that.

As for me, I tended to form connections who would be useful to me as the bonds were as much the will of The Force as they were my own doing. The fact that one was starting to form with Lee Thompkins meant that our fates would be intertwined and that she had some role to play with my plans for this world. This made sense since she was a doctor and might still end up working at Arkham or the GCPD, and both places were important to the future of this city.

"So are we still on for the hospital benefit?" asked Lee.

I was fairly sure she was on about the event that the Joker wannabe gets killed at in season 2, the event was annual so I figured that in a year from now the Maniacs, or whatever they were called, would be up to their mischief. Not that I intended to let Galavan get a foothold in my city as Gotham belonged to me.

"Yes I plan to make a generous donation" I informed the sexy doctor just before she left to go back to her place "I'll meet you there".

It was always good to present a kind and generous face to the public.

(Line Break)

Bryant Park Hotel. Gotham.

Oswald Cobblepot was a man with plans, most of which only he knew anything about, and those he had shared with others, such as Don Falcone, were just the tip of the iceberg. Oswald, or The Penguin as he was often called, intended to be King of Gotham's criminal underworld, to replace Don Falcone with himself at the top.

Those plans still existed within his brilliant mind, and he'd already taken the first steps on the path he'd chosen for himself, but now none of what he'd do in the future would be for himself, rather he and everything he did from now on would only serve the wishes of the great master who had so changed him. The mere idea of him not serving the master, whose name he'd been told never to speak, was an idea his mind simply wouldn't process. This hadn't always been the case until he'd woken up in this dark room he'd been a selfish creature only working for himself, he had no desire to return to that state of being.

While he was a tied to a metal frame of some kind he didn't feel concerned for the master was here and if it was the master's will that he be here than that was fine with him. He didn't remain chained up for long as his lord freed him with a gesture. Once free Oswald sat up on the iron frame and rubbed his sore wrists, he had a vague memory of thrashing about when he'd first realised he was here, not he could understand why he'd been doing something so foolish as to try to escape his lord's presence.

"What do you command my master?" Oswald asked as knelt.

As he did that he noticed that his legs had somehow been fixed, he didn't remember that part and he felt great gratitude for his master for fixing them even if it was just so that the Penguin could better serve him.

"For now carry on as you planned to do before" his lord commanded, "I'll contact you soon".

Oswald Cobblepot smiled and then made his way out into the world. He had work to do. All for the glory of his lord and master.

(Line Break)

Bryant Park Hotel. Gotham.

While this building had once been a hotel it had over the years been transformed into a series of residences for those who wished to live in style while in the city and thanks to some bribes, mind tricks and talks with the right people, I'd been able to get my hands on the penthouse as well as rather nice space down the basement that I would be able to keep secure.

The basement would serve as my lab, a place mostly used to work on technology, but behind that would be a workspace and from there I could work on more private projects such as Oswald Cobbletpot who mind I'd altered to serve my needs. There was no chance of his old personality returning because it no longer existed I'd replaced with what I needed it to be. I'd done some very good work on him while altering his twisted excuse of a mind, making sure to keep his smarts and total lack of empathy intact while installing a sense of total loyalty towards me that become a part of him greater than even his own lust for power. That had taken days but had been well worth it.

Here in the penthouse, which was all done up in black and gold as I rather liked these colours, at least for now, and I was decorating the penthouse with Sith symbols painted in red. All symbols were important, anyone who'd grown up in what they called modern civilization on this world had been bombarded by symbols from birth. They may take the form of corporate logos, government flags, sports emblems, religious icons, political posters, musicians' logos, etc, but they all have power over people.

Sith symbols had even more power than most since they could be used to channel the energies of the dark side. I had plans to turn this entire building into something like a Sith temple. A Sith Temple was a structure built by, or dedicated to, any of the various incarnations of the Sith, as well as their various allies. Such temples stood on countless other worlds with some association to the Sith. I knew this to be the case because I'd visited a fair of them during my life.

In my experience, Sith temples were normally pyramidal structures, as that was the best form for them to take, but other forms worked as well, it wouldn't be as effective, but once they'd been built Sith temples tended to last a good long time and had long term effects on their surroundings. Before the rise of the Galactic Republic, the ancient Sith Lords built a Sith shrine on Coruscant. The foolish Jedi Order later constructed the Jedi Temple over the shrine, hoping to neutralize its dark energies. However, the residual power of the dark side of the Force inherent in the shrine seeped out over the intervening millennia, weakening the precognitive abilities of the Order.

This city was soaked in the power of the dark side, and if directed correctly it could be used as part of a ritual. I had plans to increase the dark energies of this city over time. Before I left this city would be as strong in the dark side as some of the other sites I'd been to. It was would to be my legacy to this world, something that would endure long after I was gone. I would need to increase the amount of dark side power within the city, but that was going to happen naturally as the years went by. I knew this because I'd seen it happen in the show, and as such, I had plenty of time to prepare and Gotham would do most of the work for me. But I would still be able to tap into the dark side power of this city for some rituals.

"Wow, this is a sweet pad" I heard Selina Kyle say as she entered the penthouse.

Since I'd sent her an invite the last time we'd run into each other as such she'd known to come here.

"There's a room up there if you want it" I offered, gesturing at a spiral staircase.

It didn't concern which one she took or if she even slept much in it as I just needed her around some of the time so that I could start to train her.

"I'm going to live here?" Kat asked.

She sounded as if she didn't believe it. Not that I blamed her for this as street kids don't get invited into penthouse apartments. There was no catch because I'd already explained to Selina what it was I wanted from her even if she had no way of understanding where that path in her life would lead her if she walked it.

"So when do we start this Sith training stuff?" I was asked.

No time like the present, and lucky for Selina early Sith training involved a lot of sitting around and trying to connect with The Force. This could be boring, but it needed to be done, and it wasn't as if she had anything better to do. Her training would need to be more practical than mine had been at this stage, however before that she still needed to learn the basics.