Author Note
Thanks to James Pratt for Beta Reading this chapter.
Sith Gothic 3 – Gotham
"Two there should be; no more, no less. One to embody the power, the other to crave it" - Darth Bane
Part 8
Streets. Gotham.
While her guardian might imagine that Kat wasted all of her generous allowance on junk food and whatever else took her fancy, this was far from the truth. The former street kid rarely paid for anything. Instead, she gifted most of her money to those kids who hadn't been as fortunate as her. Kat felt sure that for all his talk, her teacher wouldn't judge her too much for giving away her cash. It wasn't as if he didn't donate to charity, and if they really needed some money, there was no shortage of crooks and scum bags in this town to steal from. Besides keeping some of her old contacts in her debt had its advantages, she might live in a big fancy penthouse these days, but she would never forget where she came from. She had a wide range of other kids around the city who fed her information about what was going on about town. Most of the info didn't have much use to her, and then there were days like today when she learned some useful stuff.
"Are you sure about this Ivy?" the young Catwoman asked.
Ivy Pepper wasn't the first person that the young Sith in training had spoken to today about this matter, and she wouldn't be the last. Kat trusted her friend. She just needed to be sure.
"I didn't see them," Ivy told her.
The red-headed girl spoke she watered one of her many plants around the tiny room she was squatting in. Kat had to admit with all the plants in here it did smell a lot better here than most places in the city, and the feel of all this life in The Force felt quite calming. Unlike the other kinds of Sith, the Order she belonged to had no issues with drawing upon the light side.
"It's just something I heard about," Ivy said to her friend "The Child Snatchers are back, but they aren't grabbing groups of kids off the streets. This time they are grabbing people who are on there own. There's a new clinic in town and not everyone who goes in comes out again."
Kat questioned her friend further.
"Tell me about this clinic" she requested.
Ivy did just that.
"They take blood samples and get the older kids to donate blood for cash," the plant-loving girl said "Some of the older kids who aren't in rough shape get offered a lot of money to do drug trials. And we never see them again. It has to be the snatchers, who else would care to find out who the healthy ones are".
Ivy had more to say.
"I spoke to one of the girls who managed to escape back when those snacter people were grabbing kids off the street" informed the redhead "She heard a few of the people at the clinic talking about what it was like working for a guy they called the Dollmaker".
Upon thinking over what Ivy had told her, Kat fought to control her anger at what was happening. Control of self was everything, only once she could control her self could she hope to control anything else. Gothic had beaten that one into her head hard in his lessons, just not in the literal sense, along with horror stories about Sith who failed to control the Dark Side and were consumed by it.
Selina had learned from her mentor that some times it was easier to reach your goals by working within the system rather than going around it. Thinking on it she realised that if someone did set up a free clinic to help street kids, would anyone really question it? Doing something like that would be expensive and take a lot of paperwork, so there had to be plenty of money involved. Maybe the snatchers had gotten involved in a real charity that had been around for a while and was making use of it for their own ends.
It wouldn't surprise Kat to find out that the real charity did nothing at all. Gothic had taken her to several fundraising events since she had moved in with him. She'd never seen any of that money make it's way to the streets. So someone had to be making use of all that money for something. Not that it would make much difference even if the money was spent on the people who lived on the streets. It wouldn't do anything to solve the underlining problems that plagued the city.
After thanking her friend, and making sure she had enough cash for a few hots meals, Kat quickly climbed out of the third store window and quickly scaled up several stories up the side of the building, quickly reaching the roof. Standing on the roof, she looked over the city and enjoyed the rarely visible sunset the city was enjoying. Climbing was something she'd always been talented at and now it was easier than ever thanks to her training in The Force. It had always been there, it was just that now she could control it and understand this power much better. It was becoming even easier to use, to feel it, as she trained more under her mentor.
At times some of the things she'd done with The Force and seen her teacher do, felt like magic to her. Gothic laughed at her the one time she had asked about it and he'd explained to her that magic was very real, but a very different form of energy to use. He had laughed even harder at the look on her face when he told her magic was real. He'd promised that in time she would learn about that too.
Absently Kat balanced one of her stiletto blades on the tip of her finger, keeping the metal tip perfectly balanced while she thought. She could feel the deep darkness the city was generating with a surprising amount of light mixed in with all of that darkness. Making the light stand out all the more brightly in all that darkness.
While Kat knew she couldn't solve any of Gotham's social problems at the moment. The thought did occur that if she ruled Gotham, then one day, she could make the changes necessary to fix these problems. Shaking her head at those thoughts, they were for the future, far in the future she was nowhere near ready for that. Many years of training and growing up lay ahead of her.
As for the here and now, she might be able to do something about the Child Snatchers, or her guardian could at any rate. Kat would just need to present her argument to him in such a way that he would see how it benefited him to do something about the Snatchers. She needed to lay out a plan to the Sith Lord that showed how removing the snatchers from the city was a good thing for his many schemes.
Kat stood there for several minutes quietly, looking over the city and turning several ideas over in her mind. She freely admitted that before she had met Gothic, planning things out hadn't been her strong suit. But he had been firm in making sure that she learned to map things out and to always think about the results of her actions, and how to get others to do what she wanted without them realising they were carrying out her will.
Gothic had given her several books worth of material that were copied from older texts that been written by many different Sith Lords. She had only started reading them out of boredom more than anything else as she learned much better from her mentor directly as he knew how to demonstrate in real life how the ways of the Sith would aid her. Some of the accounts of the long-dead Sith Lords turned out to be very interesting if kinda horrifying reads, however, they could be instructive.
She knew she was a long way from matching wits with Gothic, but that wasn't really the point. He would want her to come to him with a well thought out plan along with a decent argument on why they needed to interfere in this matter. Even if her ideas didn't really serve his long term goals, he would be pleased by her willingness to put in the effort and would reward her for showing cleverness.
After thinking about it, she figured this would be pretty simple to appeal to his desire for control. He wanted to control this city and therefore he couldn't let outsiders come here to take his people. A simple argument, but not one without merit.
If not for the gang war going on, Kat imagined the cops would have done something by now if only to make themselves look good in the papers. She didn't think tipping them off would do any good, unless she could prod them into action with an easy win, say by gathering some evidence of wrongdoings, and just dropping it on their desks. The cops shut down the clinic while The Sith cut off the Snatchers at the source.
Satisfied, she turned and leapt off the rooftop. The lengthening shadows were quick to embrace the young thief as she made her way home.
Penthouse Suite. Gotham.
"Thank you, Oswald," I said before I put down the phone.
As soon as my conversation with the future king of Gotham's underworld was over, he'd been updating me on his schemes to keep the gangs weak and in conflict with each other, I turned my attention to the other person in the room. She had been waiting for me to finish without saying a word.
Isabel, or Ravager to use her Sith name, hadn't needed long to sort out matters with Stellmoor International before coming to Gotham City with the completed contracts, which as expected didn't favour me at all. This wasn't much of an issue as I didn't intend to let anyone know how little I was actually getting as then I could move some money around and add to my accounts wealth taken from crooks under the guise of it being profits earned from my plasma cutters. A little creative accounting would need to be involved, and I had someone to handle that for me.
As for Isabel, she had brought something to my attention that caught my interest far more than profits from a patent. A military supplier had already brought te design for my improved plasma cutters as part of their effort to retool some old factories. Not odd in of its self, it was just that Ravager hadn't been able to find out what they would be making for the military. Also, a large number of my power cells would be shipped to these factories.
From this, it was easy to deduce that they would be building something that would run on my power cells, only this didn't help much in figuring it all out as my power cells could power almost anything. The Applied Sciences Department at Wayne Industries were always working on improved versions of the power cells, and the armed forces wanted them all for something big. I felt for certain that this project would change how war was waged on this world.
"I might have to go and take a look at what they're working on at some point," I said to Ravager,
She showed me the paperwork that she had managed to dig up on the military's project.
"Whatever they are building they want it bad and they want it quickly," she told me.
While they might just be building new vehicles, built around the use of power cells rather than the combustion engine, this seemed like a lot of effort and secrecy for such a simple thing. It wouldn't be too much work to simply phase out older vehicles over time or do some minor alterations to existing forms of transport to have the power cells work with the combustion engines. They were designed to be that easy to use.
As far as I knew, the US armed forces didn't need to up their game as there were no significant threats out there. The first known meta-humans were still years away from becoming public knowledge, even in Smallville, the freaks weren't drawing any attention to themselves yet. Aside from that, the only real threats to America were China and terrorists, at least according to my sources.
I might need to look closer into the military as a whole because if they knew that something I didn't that at putting me at a disadvantage. I hoped that there was no alien invasion on the way as that would interfere with my plans. Although I felt reasonably confident that The Force would have warned me about something on that level. Perhaps the armed forces had some idea of incoming threats coming in the future and wanted to so then I really needed to find out what they knew, but first, I had other important matters to deal with.
Standing up from behind my desk, I motioned for Isabel to follow me. She fell in step without a word. Moving to the lift we both got in. Ignoring the buttons, I reached out with the force and pushed several select buttons built under the lift floor, which then zoomed us both down to my labs and work areas, which were several stories below street level. Walking through the lab areas without stopping, I took her to my ritual room located at the building's deepest point. No light had ever touched this room. I'd had to carve the Sith Runes in the dark by hand while I infused each one with my power. The room's primary purpose was to act as a battery, over time it drew and stored the Dark Side energy's that the city above generated that got drawn to this tower.
Isabel followed me without pause into the room even though it looked very creepy and her connection to The Force might not be strong enough for her to feel the purpose of this place. Nor would she know that the symbols on the walls were those used by dark lords of past ages.
Walking without pause into the middle of the room, I turned and faced Ravager in the darkness.
"Kneel before me Ravager," I ordered.
She got the wrong idea about this and started undoing my belt, only for me to stop her.
"You've served me well," I told the young businesswoman kneeling at my feet "It is time for me to reward you."
There were ways to increase a person's connection to The Force as long as they were already Force Sensitive. They weren't even that complex once you learned how. They just took a lot of power, which was available here, and a skilled touch as this ritual could wrong.
For obvious reasons, not many Sith would wish to empower an underling to the point that they could be a threat to themselves. Also, few Sith Lords lived as long as I. Learning the techniques to reshape minds and body's with the necessary delicate touch had taken me a lot of experimentation and time, the time most Sith lords put to trying to rule the universe and such. I'd never cared much for that kind of people as for me such direct rulership would be a burden.
There were limits to how far a body could be pushed, though I was always surprised how far I could push some people. Ravager would soon discover that she could endure much and gain from that experience.
The hardest part of the ritual involved gathering the necessary power which was what the room was for and why when I'd moved into I'd craved Sith symbols into the walls of the penthouse. Once the room had been set up I'd just waited while the room drew in enough power and now I would use that power to flood a Force Sensitives body with the raw power of the Dark side. This would force the midichlorians in a person body to rapidly multiply as they tried to save their host from burning out from the massive flood of power pouring through them. It was a fine line I had to walk. It could easily burn her out and kill her if I pushed too hard to fast during the ritual.
Lucky for Ravager, while she didn't have the midi-chlorian level that the Jedi or Sith would take note of, she was strong in both mind and body, and the training I had been putting her through had only made her stronger. I felt sure that she would not only survive this, she would also grow stronger. Much like how the Darkside Elite who served the clone of Palpatine was elevated by him, only he seemed to be able to achieve this with far less effort.
I placed my hands on either side of her head before reaching out to the energy stored in the room and letting it flow through me. I was sure that my eyes must be glowing yellow in the darkness as I bent the Dark Side to my will. Looking at Ravager in the dark, I could feel her awe as she felt my power, the energies that I was gathering to use on her.
"You have served me well Ravager. Drink deep from my power and be reborn!" I declared.
The words echoed around the room and into The Force itself. I knew that over on the other side of the city, Selina would pause in what she was doing, look towards the penthouse and wonder what had caused such a massive disturbance in The Force.
Ravager trembled but did not scream or move as I forced a tidal wave of energy through her. We both stood there in the dark for an unknown amount of time. I looked at her with The Force as the midichlorians started to multiply before I pushed more energy through her, forcing them to multiply even quicker than before. They were strained and yet they kept going, moving, spreading, dividing as needed. Life found a way.
When I thought she could take no more, I pulled back, releasing her head. I could see her swaying but she stayed upright even though I could feel her body screaming in pain. As time passed she looked more drunk than tortured, she was indeed strong.
Shakerley she stood up and I could tell by her reaction that my eyes were still glowing yellow in the darkness Looking deeper with the force, I could see that now she would be considered a minor Jedi or Sith rather than a mere Force Sensitive. A Sith warrior or Jedi Knight would be able to defeat her quickly, but she'd be able to handle a Padawan or Sith Apprentice of Kat's level with proper training, of this I felt sure. To put it simply she was Dark Jedi, a step above an acolyte, but lower than a Sith Apprentice.
"This power is a gift, and I can give you more," I told Ravager "Just remember where it came from, if I die your new power will quickly fade."
This was a lie. But it served my purposes for Isabel to think that her increase in power came from my power alone and not from the dark energies that this city seemed to be soaked in. I wanted her to think that should anything happen to me, she'd lose her sudden increase in her power, if I died it would hardly matter if she figured out the truth.
"Thank you, Master," she said while bowing.
It was good that Kat was out gathering information for me from the people on the street about the Child Snatchers she wanted us to deal with, as there was no way she would have missed what I had just done if she'd been here in the tower. Even across town she might have still sensed some of what happened here, she was powerful but still undisciplined, I'd ask her later see if she felt anything and make sure that she'd suspect the truth.
We headed back to the lift and back up to my offices. Neither of us spoke on the ride back to the office, though I could feel Ravager reach out with her increased power feeling everything around us with a sense of awe at what she could see and feel now. As we got back to my office, I gave her the contracts that she needed and I could see she was still a little unsteady on her feet.
"Go get some rest, wait for me at the apartment," I commanded "Tomorrow we'll be heading out to handle an important matter. Contact your superiors and let them know that you've discovered that I'm working on some other projects that might benefit Stellmoor International in the future. Tell them that you want to spend more time with me so I'll sign them to Stellmoor when the times comes"
Which suited me just fine as I wanted Ravager to rise up the ranks of Stellmoor until she was running it for me. Once there, I could perhaps elevate her level of power some more, and once the dark side energies here had recharged, perhaps some elevate others as I had done for Ravager. There were several important individuals with a connection to The Force greatly than those of others who were still young at this time and would be easy to sway to my side. Food for thought later.
Before I could think more on that, Lee came into the penthouse passing Isabel as she was leaving, which I knew would cause trouble if I didn't smooth things over as Lee did have every right to be jealous.
"Who was that?" Lee asked.
I acted as if I'd barely realised that Isabel had been here.
"She was just someone from Stellmoor International," I answered. "She dropped off the contracts for my plasma cutters that Stellmoor is buying."
The lady doctor looked towards the closing elevator doors.
"She seemed pretty," Lee commented casually.
lI wisely just shrugged, Dark Lord of the Sith I might be, but there are some places even I fear to tread. A woman's jealousy was not something I wanted to deal with.
"They must have been thinking that a pretty face would have an easier time getting a good deal out of me." I said to Lee before changing the subject "So there's something I want to talk to you about".
Before she could say anything about that, I decided that now was the time to request Lee to move in with me. With the illusions in place, she'd never find anything she wasn't supposed to see, and Kat knew better than to mention anything about what I got up to. Lee reacted as expected, and the subject was soon changed to what we would be getting up to this evening.
Wayne Manor. Outside of Gotham.
Leslie Thompkins considered herself to be a fortunate woman. She had a good job, the respect of her peers, and a romantic partner who had just asked her to move into his very nice penthouse. Lee didn't have much time for friends or to visit family, so it was nice to have a proper partner. Attending events such as this latest fundraiser were a lot more pleasant when she didn't have to come alone.
There was no ring on her finger, something her sister would no doubt point out the next time they saw each other, but that would come in time she was sure. Lee didn't want to drop any hints too soon and scare off her man with demands for more commitment, not when he clearly had plans for their future that didn't need to be rushed. She'd have her house in the countryside with the 2.4 children in due time.
For now, she was content to work at the hospital and to have a partner who didn't mind her working long hours as he kept busy with his own business, his inventing, and he made time for her whenever she was free. He wasn't the kind of man she'd imagined she'd end up with. Oh, she didn't mind his looks and the fact that he had enough money to make regular donations also helped, yet there were things about Tony that sometimes made her wonder if she was making the right choice.
That he had an adopted daughter already didn't bother Lee. If anything, him taking in a poor street kid and giving her a decent life only proved to her that he'd be a good father. No, what bothered her, if it was actually a bother, was that Tony didn't seem to be like other men. He wanted things to happen a certain way, and they just seemed to work out for him. He didn't need to yell commands to anyone, yet he got his way when he wanted it. Sometimes she wondered if the world went out of its way to met his demands.
She was no different. As the butt plug in her ass proved, she'd not been expecting her lover to tell her to bend over as they were getting ready for tonight before he inserted a rather expensive accessory inside her. She'd never been prudish about nudity or sex, she saw people naked all the time and she'd cut open corpses, so little about the human body would ever bother her. No, what concerned her, if again that was the right word, was that he'd expected her to simply go along with what he wished and she had.
It wasn't a bad thing, if anything standing here in a black dress that wasn't suitable for this event, with a reminder of how she was going to have anal sex later, was actually a bit thrilling. It was totally wrong given the sober event going on around her, yet she didn't feel mad at her man because she'd realised that she would do anything he wanted and be happy about it. This was not something she'd expected, given that she'd always the strong and independent woman.
Taking a sip from her champaign she looked across the crowded room at her lover, who was right now talking to his ward Selina, and from what Lee could make out, he was directing her to go make friends with the only other child in the room, the young boy Bruce Wayne, the poor lad who had seen both of his parents gunned down in front of him. He and Kat were the only children here as anyone else with kids had left them with a babysitter or to look after themselves. Tony instead took the time to share his life with Kat and to mentor her.
Once Kat was off trying to make conversation with the Wayne heir, who seemed very awkward around the young girl as she started talking to him. Lee went over to Tony as there was something she'd meant to inquire about.
"You never told me why the Asylum means so much to you," Lee asked while taking Tony's arm in hers.
Lee had been offered a job at the reopened Arkham Asylum, and if she'd been single she would have taken the position as she wanted to help people. Being a good girlfriend, she'd run the idea past Tony first, who hadn't been a fan of the idea due to the danger of such a job. She'd had to agree with that, with a promising future ahead of her it was a needless risk.
"I just want to ensure that Gotham has a better future," Tony told her.
Lee had no idea just what kind of future her lover envisioned for this city. If she had, the Doctor would undoubtedly have not gone along with his plans. Since she remained ignorant of the truth she just smiled and felt thankful that she'd found such a wonderful man.
GCPD Headquarters. Gotham.
Ever since my apprentice had come to me with news that the Child Snatchers had returned and were working out of a free clinic that was meant to help kids, I'd agreed with her that it was time to deal with Dollmaker. I couldn't have him abducting people from my city, and I wanted to find out exactly what he was doing with all the people he took. I knew that he was using them as unwilling organ donors, most likely to keep his wealthy clients supplied with replacement parts. However, I suspected that there was more going on.
In different versions of the DC universe, the Dollmaker was far from some simple doctor who catered to the rich. He was a serial killer who turned people into dolls, sometimes that involved killing them and in others, it could be something even worse.
I dimly recalled the Doctor Dollmaker of this DC verse could do stuff like replace whole eyes, something that I felt sure was beyond current medical science for this world. This meant that Dollmaker was using something aside from medical science to aid him, such as magic, or had access to technology that was denied to other medical professionals. He might even have discovered some new methods that were ahead of everyone else. I wanted these methods for myself as I had plans for the meteor freaks that Smallville was producing.
While I could ensure loyalty to myself via altering their minds and enhance the body with drugs that had been enhanced with Sith Alchemy that might not be enough for my plans. The good doctor could have something new which I could use, it wasn't hard for me to clone organs but possible body enhancements were a bit tricker and plan aside I wouldn't mind learning more about that science.
World domination wasn't my goal at the moment. It simply wasn't practical given Earth's vast armies and stockpiles of nuclear weapons as well as its other defenders such as powerful magic users. Any overt war would ruin the planet and perhaps even kick off the superhero wave earlier than I expected, which was the last thing I wanted. But I wouldn't mind having an elite team of super-humans under my command. Ones that I had enhanced with science and The Force.
Not that World domination was impossible. I'd need to return to the Star Wars galaxy and gather up a small fleet as well as an army, but that was something to consider doing far in the future as I had a habit of going off and trying something new once a decade, so for now I'd focus on turning Gotham into the centre of my web and making sure that I could guide the future of this world by pulling on the strings of the web I was building. Perhaps one day, rather than invade Earth, it would be this world invading other planets that could be fun. I'd have to wait and see if my efforts to advance and guide this world into a suitable future worked out as hoped.
For now, I needed to deal with the Child Snatchers, and for that, I needed the help of the police as they could deal with the clinic while I dealt with Dollmaker directly. Walking through the Chaos that was the GCPD, I went up to Detective Gordon's desk.
"Detective Gordon, Detective Bullock" I greeted "I have some information that you might find interesting. It involves those people who have been adducting kids of the streets for the last few months."
Bullock didn't care to hear this and carried on reading his paper.
"That case is done and dusted," he stated from behind his paper.
Yeah, not so much.
"Have we met?" asked Gordon.
Of course, a sharp man like him would remember.
"Yes, we have," I said "I'm Tony Stark, I work with the Applied Sciences Department at Wayne Enterprises. You enlisted their aid in something to do with a murder weapon if I recall".
Nothing had ever come of that because I'd covered my tracks to well, and this was Gotham, so other matters would have come up to divert their attention.
"But I wasn't involved with that project," I was now saying "I'm here because I took in one of the kids who was nearly taken out of the city, and she told me about this Free Clinic that's been testing kids some of whom get offered a chance to make money with drug trials".
Gordon quickly caught on to what I was talking about. Soon he looked both worried and confused.
"No one does drug trails on teenagers," he said.
Not legally anyway.
"I think that the trials are just a cover to get the kids to go somewhere without causing a fuss," I told Gordon "According to my ward's friend the kids chosen for these trails are never heard from again."
Neither detective seemed eager to go looking into this, and I'd expected that they wouldn't be. Which made sense as they were homicide detectives, and no one had been killed as far as anyone knew. I wanted them on this because Gordon would become a major player in this town, and it would be good for me if he thought I was on his side.
"I mentioned this at the Wayne Foundation party just last night" I was now saying "And since you two were involved last time I figured that you'd want to finish what you started before young Mr Wayne takes this to the papers and maybe the mayor".
That got Bullock to pay attention. He even took the file that I'd put together using information Kat had gathered.
"There's no need to get the mayor involved or the press," he said "We'll go run this by the captain and get a warrant to check out the clinic".
Going through official channels might result in the people at the clinic getting tipped off, but this wasn't a real concern as I planned to cut this problem off at the source. I'd been looking for a chance to test out my prototype super soldiers and this would be it.
"Excellent, I'll leave it in the hands of you professionals," I told the detectives "I'll be to assure both Mr Wayne and my ward that it's being dealt with".
Earlier in the day, I'd grabbed someone from the clinic to find out where their base was located and I'd found out that it was an island that was far out in international waters. Once I got everything I needed, I'd wiped the man's memory and sent him back to work with no memory of ever meeting me so that no would one suspect that anyone was on to them.
"Before I go I was just wondering how the manhunt for that masked killer is going. Any luck?" I asked.
I could tell that there wasn't any, from the feeling of frustration I could feel flowing of both men.
"Everyone's looking for him, but we've found nothing," admitted Gordon "The investigation is still ongoing".
I'd heard about the bounty that had been placed on me it was an impressive amount of money, even if no one other than Selina knew who they were after. I sometimes wondered if she'd sell me out to the mob one day. It would be a very Sith thing of her to do. Only I didn't think it would happen any time soon, Kat had seen some measure of my power and knew that they would be no match for me, and I would find her in short order if she betrayed me.
"If by some chance I hear anything I'll let you know I told the officers.
With that, I left as I had a trip to plan.
Landing Pad. Dollmaker's Island.
Isabel, or Ravager as she called herself in her mind now, had always known that she was special, meant for great things. Yet until recently, she never understood how true that was. She couldn't have imagined that she'd end up in the service of a real Sith Lord, something that should be confined to the fictional worlds of Star Wars, yet The Force was real, and she had it. She could feel the increase in the power granted to her by the man she called Master, and she knew that with this power and his teachings, she would rise to the top and have her revenge. Robert Queen was dead, but that didn't mean she couldn't destroy his legacy.
That had always been her intention, and even after all the things her Master had done to her, that goal hadn't changed. Darth Gothic, Dark Lord of Sith and true ruler of Gotham had been inside her mind. He'd changed her, elevated her. Soon she would be able to fight beside him. As a true warrior, she could feel her excitement at the thought of the coming battle.
In her view, Lord Gothic was the only man worthy of following. She would do anything he asked, no matter what, because he was the path to the power that she craved so much. When he had increased her connection to The Force, she'd felt like she was drowning in his power. It still amazed her that he kept so much power hidden away all the time. How could the sheep not see that they had a wolf among them?
Tonight he would prove his power again by destroying the Dollmaker, a man who was as close to a mad scientist as real-life could allow. Ravager didn't care that this Doctor was the reason why children were being abducted off the streets. They were weak and meant nothing to her. It was just that he couldn't be allowed to interfere with Gotham, her master kingdom, once he had done that he'd began living on borrowed time.
Ravager hadn't thought much about Dollmaker's fate while on the way here because she'd discovered that her Master had his own space ship. It didn't look like much, and while Isabel was no expert on space travel, she knew enough to reason that comparing Lord Gothic's ship to the space shuttle would like be comparing a formula one racing car to a moped. His ship had made it up into space within moments and had returned down to Earth, close the Dollmakers island just as quickly.
Being a businesswoman, she at once saw the value in this ship beyond its ability to transport people around the world in record time. If taken apart, it's technology could advance the world by hundreds of years, something her Master was sort of doing with his patents. His way would be a lot slower than how she'd have done it. Yet he had his reasons for not rapidly advancing the technology of this world. He had explained that it would cause unforeseen problems which he might not be able to control.
The ship settled on the helicopter landing pad, and then everyone did a final weapons check. Right now, she needed to focus on what was happening on this island. Her Master had brought her here along with a dozen of his experimental super-soldiers. She found them quite fascinating. They had all been random street thugs, who Gothic had somehow moulded into elite unquestioning soldiers. They would serve as expendable muscle for the coming assault as their effectiveness was tested in a real fight.
With her new senses, she could feel the corruption within each of the men, which her Master had explained was a drug he'd made that had come from another drug called viper that he had modified with Sith alchemy. It shortened their life spans considerably, so much that they had to be placed in stasis most of the time, but they would be very hard to kill when in battle. Lord Gothic had taken the thugs taken off the streets, and once modified to his liking he'd equipped them in cheap military surplus. They were meant to be expandable, so keeping them alive wasn't really a concern as he could always grab some more thugs from the streets. Gotham had no shortage of such scum.
At least her Master cared more for Ravager's well being. For her, he'd created a set of armour which he had based on another type called Reaver armour. He had made the armour using several pieces of advance technology along with Sith alchemy to improve its strength and it was customised for her form. It didn't look like it offered much protection because of how tight it seemed on her, yet it was more than mere leather, it had been explained to her that the advanced materials it was made from had been enhanced by Lord's Gothic power, making it much more durable than it should be. That her ass looked so damn sexy in it was just a bonus.
Clipping her helmet into place, her Hud came up, showing the armour was 100% intact. It wasn't likely that she'd come under attack, as her role here was to observe the troopers in action and learn what a Sith could do, yet she understood that it was better to be safe than sorry. Besides her master had invested a lot of power in her and wisely he wished to secure that investment.
Gothic flipped a few switches shutting down the ship's power before turning to her.
"We have a little time before the air force can send a plane out this far," said her Master with a grin "Assuming they can be bothered to chase a UFO. So I'll send the men to cleansing the island of all human life. You'll stay next to me as we look for the good Doctor. I want his files and whatever I pull from his mind".
Ravager knew very well what her Master could do to the mind, and it was just one of the things she wished to learn from him. She'd read up on Sith, using the information her Master had gifted her with and from what she'd gotten from sources otherwise considered to be fictional. Sith Lords have apprentices, and Ravager wished to earn that title. If he already had such a student, then Isabel might have to remove that person, but there was no rush. She was young, and her Master had promised to show her a way to extend her life far beyond an average humans life span.
"Always two there are a master and an apprentice" the words echoed in her mind.
"Once we're done here I'll use the ships laser cannons to level everything on the island. We'll leave no trace" said the Sith Lord "We must remain unknown to the world."
This would not be a conquest Ravager knew. Darth Gothic was not a warlord who would raise his banner on the ruins of his enemy's stronghold. He was the unseen power, the phantom menace, the puppeteer pulling the strings, the man behind the curtain. She was blessed to be one of the few in the world to even know he existed and like him, she would learn to change the world to make it fit her vision.
The buildings on the island were not a hospital. They looked more like a holiday resort to her as she looked out of the landing ramp. Not one meant for a family and it certainly wasn't warm enough for her taste, but she could see how it might appeal to the wealthy who valued security and privacy when they came here.
Lord Gothic had said to her the medical and research facilities were most likely underground somewhere or at very least secured so that the doctor's methods couldn't be easily stolen.
The soldiers quickly moved out in teams of three, silently spreading out to set points around the island. If she hadn't been enhanced as well, she knew that she would have been impressed with their speed. They might have been thugs once, however, this had clearly changed. Perhaps Lord Gothic had altered their minds as well. He might have even implanted some of his own memories of warfare into their minds.
Once all of them were in position, Gothic signalled them to kill everyone. There would no witnesses to this operation. The Sith must remain a hidden power.
She watched from a distance as the minions of Lord Gothic traded bullets with the island's guards. After a few minutes, the guards seemed to pull themselves together from the surprise attack and try to mount a counter-attack. Screams and the sounds of gunfire filled the night air. Clearly, the security forces here were better trained than Lord Gothic's thugs, but the drug-fuelled crooks would often take a bullet and just get back up again unless they'd been shot through in the heart or the head.
While the Sith soldiers moved around the island, she followed Gothic. Even with her new power, she struggled to keep up with him as they moved swiftly across the island towards where Gothic thought the Dollmaker would be hidden. Several soldiers got in their way towards the main building. Gothic didn't slow his pace as he cut down the Dollmaker's guard with either his sword or blaster pistol.
She should hate the man who used her as a sex slave, yet as she watched Lord Gothic effortlessly cut down anyone who got in his way, she couldn't help admiring his power. She was attracted to him and hoped that her Master would use her body before sending her back to work at Stellmoor even if afterwards she'd feel abused.
Besides, there were rewards for her service. Gothic had promised to forge her a Sith sword of her own and to one day teach her how to build her own lightsaber, when he deemed that she was ready, she couldn't wait. A shiver of pleasure rushed through her at the thought of what she could do with such a weapon. She'd seen all the Star Wars movies after all.
Gothic paused in his slaughter for a moment as a guard was speared on his sword that the Sith Master had thrown across a room, and the man died with a silent scream on his face as the Dark Lord held his windpipe shut. An impressive display of his power and a reminder to Ravager of just how lethal he could be.
The Dark Lord spent a moment just looking at her, she couldn't see his face behind his mask or feel him in The Force because of how she was distracted, the moment seemed to stretch and then with a negligent flick of his wrist the blade tore itself free before the handle of the sword was back in his hand, and he was gone again.
The bloodshed didn't bother her at all. She no longer felt pity towards people. Nor she did feel any horror as they moved from room to room, killing anything that moved. From what she could see, the patients here were mostly old men and women who used their wealth to extend their lives by having parts of them replaced from those taken from kidnapped street kids. The weak should serve the strong, this was the way of the Sith. But these people had no real strength, they'd gained fortune due to being born into the right family rather than because they earned it, or they'd earned fame because they'd won the admiration of the fickle masses.
When she looked into the face of some old man, who was begging for his life even as she put a hollow point through his head, she remembered how her master's teaching said that wealth, like knowledge, was only means to power, not true power. Their high social status did not protect them when someone with true power decided that they were to be removed from this world.
As her lord and Master kicked down the door to the Doctor's office, Ravager aimed her pistol at the man who seemed to be calmly seated behind his desk. Only looking somewhat surprised at the two heverly armoured figures that had broken into his office. Ravager was surprised she felt no fear or worry coming from the man only a mild curiosity. This wasn't just an act, The Force wasn't fooled by a good poker face so Ravager could only assume that the doctor had taken something to keep himself calm. Perhaps something to help him resist torture? If so it wouldn't help.
While she'd been brought here to observe she kept one of his pistols aimed at the Dollmaker as she did her best to secure the room by making sure no one else was about. She hoped that her devotion to her duty pleased Lord Gothic as it allowed him to focus more on the Dollmaker.
Her Master had mentioned that in his Sith Order, there was a place for mercy and kindness as these were feelings also to be embraced along with the darker ones as a source of power at times when such things were appropriate, but they had no place in this operation.
"Greetings Doctor," said Gothic, his voice distorted by his mask.
The Dark Lord of Gotham felt no need to monologue, to boast about his power, and the Dollmaker never got the chance to ask any questions as Gothic, with a thought he ripped into his mind. Ravager noted the doctor's body went ridged behind his desk under the mental assault, his eyes rolled back in his head showing only whites and before long blood started streaming out of his eyes and ears. In less than a minute, she felt his mind crack under the immense power of Gothic's mind.
Once it was over the Doctor's body was slumped back into his chair, drooling and bleeding from the nose, the mouth, the eyes and the ears. As for Gothic, he was breathing hard from what he had just done. Tearing all of that information from the Dollmakers mind seemed to have been quite the strain on her Master. Ravager noted this, filing it away in her mind for later consideration.
In the meantime, she walked over to the desk and she used a device Gothic had given her that immediately passed all security protections on the computer. The computer was quickly downloaded and wiped. Then without needing to be ordered to, she took the Dollmakers laptop as it might contain information her Master desired.
Looking over at the drooling Doctor the Dark Jedi called Ravager wondered something.
"Can I kill him for you?" Isabel requested.
She felt like the need to prove herself to Gothic. She might have just realised that her Master wasn't all-powerful. Yet he was far ahead of her in knowledge and power, and more than worthy of her loyalty. For now, she thought. One day they would go their separate ways.
The Dark Side might have no limits but people sure did. Looking at her master who hadn't recovered from what he'd just done, she understood that while the use of The Force was something she was still far from understanding, that she had gotten closer.
"Go ahead," he said.
The Doctor was a drooling mess, so this could be considered a mercy killing and compassion did have a place in a Sith's life even if Ravager didn't feel it. Once the sound from her shot faded, she realised that she couldn't hear gunshots any more outside in the compound. The thugs had done swift work in clearing the surface levels. Looking at her wrist device, she could see they'd moved to the basement levels sweeping every room. If they were down the basement then it made sense that she wouldn't be able to hear the gunshots since that place would be soundproofed to prevent the unwilling donors from upsetting the paying patients.
"We're leaving," he said, "The troopers will be finished soon".
As they walked out through the compound the Dark Lord spoke to her
"I hope you paid attention one day I'll be putting you in charge of missions like this" he warned her.
She would do her best if called upon to serve him in this way as she felt confident that the rewards would be great.