Warning: I kind of eeked myself out here, not in detail, but conceptually… but next chapter is happy. I just don't half ass my Star Wars villains. Sidious and Plagueis are evil.

KEYnotes: Rey never asked about red sabers before despite seeing them in visions. She is still wary of Maul. Also, that was the third time they've met and she does not know he was tracking her movements. His seeing her in the news is expected as Sheev is a senator. And Maul will NOT have a dyad with Rey.

Chapter 21 - The Carrion Crow

There was a tradition on Naboo, whatever wished to be called, whether their birth name, surname, nickname, or own imagined name then that was what the person was to be called.

So being called Sheev was something of new development.

A development brought about by the recent confusion of Rey Palpatine consuming the media.

His child who he had unknowingly sired and who he had been punished for.

Sidious would admit, his handling of his Master's belittlement had not been prudent, but that didn't mean the whatever trust his Master had forged between them hadn't been broken.

And he was now more convinced than ever that his Master had other plans, was possibly training others, the Muun's experiments growing bolder and bolder.

Experimentation at the risk of exposing the Sith.

But perhaps that didn't matter as much as it once had, he thought as he sat down in his study in his largest estate to look over recent events.

The Jedi had been active.

More than active, the plans he and Plagueis had painstakingly laid in place had been overturned almost entirely.

The Jedi were doing their normal damage management of promoting temporary peace between the Republic's disasters, but now they had put their hands in the Senate.

Where the Jedi had scorned all dabbling in the political arena, now Sidious was finding story after story of Senator after Senator, minor governors, and even small planets populated of unremarkable species turning to the Jedi.

Turning to the Jedi not for a hired saber to slice through their problems but to the scholars among them. The Jedi archives, which were closed to the public, seemed to have a back door. Master Jedi names fell down in lists with the names of Senators who had looked to ground their motions in history and past deeds.

Civilisation seemed to be growing with an unprecedented increase.

This had been happening before Sidious's disappearance, but now it was all coming to fruition with disturbing speed.

He had criticized the Jedi for not taking leadership of the galaxy when they had the power to do so. Now it seemed that they were more than willing to take control, more so than he had ever believed. But not with the power the Force granted them but with the weight of centuries of hoarded knowledge and histories.

Well respected, their influence was overtaking the fear and chaos Plagueis and he had been orchestrating across the galaxy for decades.

At the heart of the trouble: Council member and Count of Serreno, Master Dooku.

The man would have made an admirable Sith, his techniques were ruthless and he wasted no action -great or small. He always acted at the precise moment to effect the most damage or change. He debilitated his foes with cold logic. And instead of uniting the Separatist movement against the Republic, he and the Jedi Order had facilitated the easing of the Republics hold on them. While at the same time, bringing other voices that had been hushed under the weight of their debts to the Trade Federation and Banking Clan to the front, or simply those voices who lacked the economic importance to be heard.

Dooku had also made the choice to align the Outer Rim planet of Serreno into the fold of the Republic, meaning that though he was certainly a voice for the Jedi, he represented a political voice of an entire planet. He was probably the first Jedi in memorable history that had represented both his own interests and the Order's goals.

No wonder Plagueis had tortured Sidious with such zeal, such rage.

He suddenly considered himself lucky to be alive.

And perhaps Plagueis had truly intended his death, if not for his daughter…

Sidious stood, pacing, he couldn't understand what had gone wrong with her. It was as though she knew him and was furious for his inability to remember her, when he knew he had never met her before.

And to his frustration, she was such a powerful Force sensitive; so emotional, so young, so ripe for the taking, but all that emotion seemed to be directed at him.

He checked with his sources about the development of his droid armies.

He nearly shattered the screens, the manufacturing had all but stopped.

It took him several minutes to access information about the Kamino clones, which too had halted.

Sifo-Dyas had contacted the cloners and the Jedi had stated in no uncertain terms that an army of clones would violate the Republic's sovereignty. The Damask holding account had been frozen.

Sidious hissed, what had Plagueis been playing at?

A year and some months had undone all their progress. Their plan was nothing now. Somehow the Jedi had managed to adapt, change.

Sidious switched to every news story he could find on Rey Palpatine, the child who had incited this change, the girl who had killed the Sith shades, who had saved his life, who-

His motions stopped.

She had saved his life.

He scowled, thinking back to the suspended time on Bandomeer. She had healed him, given him her essence.

He let himself feel his own presence in the Force. He was unchanged, but something had changed.

He hadn't let himself explore his thoughts on the matter too closely while the Jedi were still on Naboo, Rey's overprotective Master and fellow Padawan had been on high alert and he hadn't wanted to risk alerting them in slightest by lowering his shields.

But now, he allowed himself to review it all.

She had been his equal, hardly trained, a tornado on a tether.

Her energy had poured to him so easily, and when she had thought to pull back, he had pulled from her.

In the process, revealing both the weakness of the Light and their connection.

He couldn't have pulled that power from Maul, not without a fight, but from Rey, it had been like drinking fine liquor. And the Light had not warned her of her danger, the Force wanting them to join, not caring if she died.

He needed her. She was a part of him, his other half. Had Jinn not stopped him, then he would have bonded them together as a true dyad in the Force.

The Rule of Two was a poor substitute, a way to search for one's equal.

Darth Plagueis was too much for Darth Sidious to take on, his knowledge exceeded his capabilities, but if he had his daughter, if they became a dyad then no one, no one would be able to stand against them.

He would have ultimate power in the galaxy, the Jedi Order would fall to its knees.

So what if the Grand Plan had fallen through.

The problem and the solution lied in her closeness to the Jedi High Council. Quite clearly, the Order, the High Council in particular, was protective of the girl, but her closeness to them could be their downfall.

If she turned, she would be in the perfect position to kill Yoda, Windu, and Dooku.

Yoda's murder would topple the Order into chaos, if Windu died, precious few would be able to pick up the pieces after Yoda's demise. And finally, if Dooku died, all the rapid change he had invented in the Republic would crumble.

United, Sidious and Rey - Darth Carrion, all would fall before them. He would be Emperor and she would be his Carrion crow who feasted on the corpses of all who opposed him. His little scavenger.

He would break her, then refashion her in his image.

His mind was whirling with plots and threads he would need to pull into place when a message came through on his screen. Taking a moment to re-adjust his thoughts, he allowed the call from the Queen through.

"Padme, my dear, I was beginning to worry you had forgotten about me," he greeted with false fondness in his voice. The traitorous bitch and her gaggle of frivolous handmaidens had aligned themselves, aligned Naboo, solidly into the palm of the Jedi.

"This is not a social call, Sheev Palpatine," she said in the most toneless voice he had ever had the displeasure of hearing.

He knew droids who had expressed more personalities in a series of beeps.

"By all means," he said with charm, "I would hate to waste your time, and I am as eager to get back to work myself. I apologize that my unforeseen absence must have caused you a great deal of difficulty."

"Your absence was an unforeseen benefit. Senator Sabe has been able to get a great deal done without your-" and here a line of emotion spilled into her voice, "interference."

He would have gaped at her if his expression had not frozen. He replayed the words in his head. He couldn't have heard her correctly, "My Queen, surely-"

She spoke over him, "As such, you shall not be reinstated as Senator of Naboo, Sabe has finished the orientation and is far more suited to the current direction the Republic is taking."

He blinked.

He wasn't angry.

He was so furious it translated to a cold rage.

His voice was artic when he remarked, "Was that all, Amidala?"

"No, Sheev," she said.

Had they been in person, he would have snapped her neck, consequences be damned.

He barely heard her next words, his ears felt as if they were ringing, "You have been requested at court on the 28th. You have been called as a possible suspect in your family's murder as recent information on your family's demise has been unearthed. I am to inform you that you are no longer permitted to travel off Naboo until after the judge has reached a verdict, leave and you will be found guilty. It will be an open trial in Theed, so I would suggest you contact your lawyers."

Through gritted teeth, he said, "What a kind suggestion."

"Not kindness. I was legally obligated to tell you that," she said, before she hung up on the hologram on him.

He let out a full throated scream.

He had to fight himself to keep from destroying the room with the Force.

In one fell swoop, he had lost Naboo and now he faced the prospect of a public trial.

Queen Padme Amidala would pay for this. For her insolence.

So would Naboo. This was no longer his home, if his people wanted to turn on him then he would annihilate them.

Just as he had done to his family.

oOo

In the end, Sidious was forced to contact his Master.

"The evidence was destroyed, apprentice."

"Apparently, something slipped," Sidious countered.

"What exactly?" the Muun asked.

"They know I was on the ship. They know also that it was a slaughter."

"You said nothing?"

"I did as you told me," Sidious hissed.

"How will you handle this?"

"Was this your test?"

The Muun sighed through his mask, "You didn't kill the guards quick enough. A call for help was intercepted before my people could clean up your mess. The guard said only that they were under attack and that Consigna Palpatine and his son were being assaulted."

"I didn't know this," Sidious said, trepidation filling him.

The courts would know in fact that he had been on the ship.

"Perhaps you should have double checked the official records then," Plagueis taunted over the hologram.

Sidious felt like snarling as his own apprentice would have, "You paid people off to not investigate further into this, didn't you?"

"Of course."

"Do they have enough evidence to prosecute me?"

"If you cannot spin a convincing tale, then I suppose so."

"Do you want me to fail?"

"I want you to prove yourself worthy of being a Sith, Sidious. I had thought you would die when I gave you to the Bounty Hunter Cad Bane, but if you survived, if you were strong enough, then you might be worth something after all. But I hear you were saved by not your own powers, but that you owe your life to a Jedi."

"My daughter is one of us."

The Muun turned his head, "You have foreseen this?"

Sidious didn't have to call up the image of his daughter cloaked in black, a double sided saber not unlike Maul's in her hand. Her dark eyes pitiless, her teeth morphed into sharpened points, a physical manifestation of the mass amount of the Dark Side she could wield.

"Darth Carrion will be one of us," he said with finality.

"Interesting. The scavenger from a Tatooine becomes your carrion crow. It will take decades to convert then train her."

"The Grand Plan is finished, when you pulled me out of the Senate, you let it all fall to ruin."

"Your crow has caused more damage than you realize," Plagueis said in turn, "We should have killed Qui-Gon Jinn. But it is too late for that now, his death would only draw attention to us.

"The Jedi are changing things too fast. We will use it to our benefit, apprentice, once you regain your seat in the Senate you will help me finish what the Jedi have started. I have already begun changing who the IBC supports. The Jedi may be bringing systems together, even changing the very nature of the Separatist movement, but they are also alienating others. This galaxy still runs on greed and fear.

"And the Jedi are now spreading fear among even the Outer Rim. And it isn't the simple minded they terrify, but the powerful."

Sidious nodded, "When I convert my daughter, she will do the same to the Jedi Order."

"Excellent. I trust that you do not need my aid in your trial?"

"No, not if you're sure they only know that I was on the ship and survived a horrific attack."

"My word."

"Then no, this is merely a hassle."

"It will taint your name. Possibly damage your popularity as the Senator of Naboo."

"I have been informed that I will no longer be reinstated as the Senator of Naboo."

Plagueis's eyes narrowed, "Then how will you be of use to me on Coruscant, apprentice?"

"Because I reached out to another planet in the Outer Rim that is wealthy enough to represent in the Senate but unstable enough to not have a significant political footprint."

"Which your own connections will substitute, benefiting them at next to no cost. What planet have you chosen?"

"Telos."

Plagueis paused for a moment, thinking through the name before he laughed, "Not a poor choice, but you lack subtlety."

"Jinn and I will never be friends. And one way or another, I will ensure that he will lose another apprentice."

"I do hope you overcome, Darth Sidious, I put far too much work into you to have you fail now."

The call disconnected and Sidious sneered at the empty space where his 'Master' had been.

It took Darth Maul nearly half an hour to get around all the cameras installed on Darth Sidious's estate.

When he finally got in through his Master's bedroom through to the study, Sidious was furious.

He hadn't expected otherwise. Maul had watched the coverage of his Master's trial on Theed.

His Master had spun a pretty tale, one of trauma and unspeakable gore, of a family foe who had stowed aboard, and 'in self defence' poor little seventeen year old Palpatine had been forced to defend himself.

He hadn't spoken of the incident because the 'horror' of it had filled him with too much 'sorrow'.

The judge had granted him a pass on there not being enough evidence to convict him.

Maul had then watched the subsequent news pundits go wild on Coruscant with some amusement.

Humiliation wasn't only found in physical torture.

"What took you so long?"

Maul bared his teeth, "Your estate is under surveillance."

"What?"

"Your estate is under surveillance," he repeated lazily.

"They can't do that!"

Maul wanted to laugh, but he didn't dare. It was rare to see his Master so unsettled. Unasked, Maul went to the man's computers and began running scans. "They have your transmissions logged, so they know how long you spoke with the IBC, the Queen, and the Trade Federation, as well as several transmissions to Telos and Coruscant, but not to who exactly."

Sidious cursed, "What else do they know?"

Maul said nothing as he scanned through files and data codes, "Nothing, only incoming and outgoing calls. But I would have your droids checked or get them replaced entirely."

"Is the interior of the estate-"

Maul shook his head, knowing Naboo's legal system almost as well as his Master did, "I doubt it, the surveillance is one thing considering your 'abduction', the tracked calls could be written off as hackers but internal bugs could get someone a life sentence."

Sidious paced, and Maul let himself be happy about his Master's irritation.

The Force was chuckling at Maul's shoulder.

Sidious came to an abrupt stop, and swung around to face him.

Maul brought his shields in tight around himself.

"Something about you has… altered, my apprentice," he said threateningly, his eyes narrowing on him.

Maul didn't move, not letting his thoughts stray on even hoping his Master didn't realize he was wearing contact lenses, ones he had specially made after Rey had pointed out that his eyes had returned to their natural colour.

"Have you had any success tracking my daughter?" Sidious asked finally.

"I've been training her at least one night a week when she is on Coruscant."

Maul was pleased by his Master's obvious shock.

"You've been training her in the Dark Side? Has she succumbed so easily?"

Maul sighed, shifting his gaze to one of the art pieces on the wall. Sidious liked it when people admired or envied his art.

Maul didn't give a shit about the man's art, especially not this minimalistic garbage, but not meeting his Master's gaze made it easier to keep his thoughts his own.

"She has a tendency to laugh at my teachings. But she can be highly emotional, and the Dark calls to her. Of late, she has been channelling both without realizing it."

Maul heard the sneer in his Master's voice, "And what, if not the teachings of the Dark Side, have you been doing with my daughter?"

A thrill went through Maul at the implication, he kept his gaze on the half morphed sculpture.

Sidious would of course hate the mere idea that any descendant of his would have any sort of carnal interest in a Zabrak.

Racist bastard.

But Rey was the most monkish person he knew. He had been convinced that she was in love with her Obi-Wan, until he learned they shared a room and that they were somehow related.

The woman was oblivious to any sexual or romantic overtures that anyone paid her when they walked the streets together or ventured below ground.

"Answer me, apprentice," Sidious commanded.

"I've been teaching her Ataru. She uses a double bladed staff and I'm the closest person to her that has a double bladed lightsaber."

Sidious cocked his head, "She knows you have a red lightsaber."

"Yes," he said, not elberating on it being an actaul staff as well as a saber.

"She knows you are a Dark Sider."

"Yes."

"That you are Sith."

"No, and before you ask, no. Her Masters seemed to have forgotten to explain to her that red light sabers are 'bad' and that only a fallen Jedi or Sith would use a lightsaber. I think she is under the impression that the Jedi are not the only major sect of powerful Force sensitives in the galaxy."

Sidious was quiet for a long moment, "That is convenient."

Maul said nothing. It was convenient. He also knew that if the majority of the Jedi didn't make her feel like such an outsider, he wouldn't have that opportunity to teach her.

"Does she trust you?"

"A little more each time we meet."

"So fool enough to be alone with you, yet not foolish enough to trust you completely?"

Again, Maul said nothing.

"Answer me."

"She isn't a fool, she could kill me if she wanted to. The Force speaks to her. She would know the moment I tried, know if I truly planned to turn on her."

"Such faith you have in this?"

Maul sighed, "If I truly wished to kill her, I could find a way."

"But she is stronger than you."

"Yes."

"Does that not make you jealous?"

The Force hummed around him, and Maul felt the Force's anger at the Sith, at the beings that tried to rest control from it.

Maul bared his teeth, "It is not in my power to become what she is."

He felt the back hand coming, and he let himself be hit, let the blow drive him to the ground.

The Force swirled around him like a concerned friend.

He hushed it, burying his connection to it lest Sidious discover that his core nature was changing.

He abased himself before his false Master.

"She will never be ours unless you lead with example."

Maul kept his gaze on the thick rug, "How do I do that without chasing her away?"

"Make her fear the Jedi."

"How?"

Sidious was quiet for so long that Maul chanced a glance up at him.

His Master was smiling down at him.

"When she comes to you for help, apprentice, lead her to the Dark."

oOo

On his way back to Coruscant, Maul received a call from one Hego Damask.

Maul bowed deeply to Darth Plagueis.

"Report," the Sith ordered him.

Maul told him everything that had transpired.

"Sidious seems confident that he can sway her."

Maul did not answer the absent question, his own fear a metallic taste on his tongue.

"He calls her Darth Carrion, do you think she could become one of us, Darth Maul?"

Maul restrained his flinch, both at Plagueis using his title and the idea of Rey being a scavenger bird.

She was more than that. How dare Sidious name her before she even considered joining them. He would not allow her to become either of these lords' pets.

"If she became a Sith, she would be formidable."

"Would she be loyal? Sidious is attached to the idea of the Rule of Two, but I am not."

Maul considered it, realizing that it didn't matter if she could be turned or not, he had only one answer to give if he wanted her to live.

"She would not betray us if she became one of ours," he said with absolute conviction.

"Then continue to earn her trust. Be her friend, her confidant. Leave breaking her to Sidious and me."

"Yes, my Lord."

The Muun signed off and Maul slumped into his seat.

He hated the Sith.

The Force growled its agreement.

On wings of ebony black, she soared amongst the dense foliage.

She flapped harder despite the wind holding her aloft in the sky.

The leaves on the trees began to shutter, shimmering like bells caught in a breeze. Soon the sound was like rain, or like thousands of stones trembling down a bank.

She beat her wings harder. Fear entered her racing heart.

She opened her beak to shriek a warning.

Her dry caw didn't rise above the shrieking of the wind.

She turned her black head to look up at the sky.

The cobalt blue was being eaten away by grey storm clouds. So dense and rolling she knew lightning would follow soon, even as thunder cracked against her senses.

She reached for the Force.

Her wings caught against a mighty gust. Fear overtook her every thought as her strength failed her. Wings snapped shut close to her body she was plunged into a dive as if she had been shot from the sky.

She reached again for the Force.

It didn't come.

But she knew it was there, so she didn't ask, she grabbed hold of it, pulling on its strength to give her a chance a surviving.

She cawed wildly as at the last moment, she was able to unpin her wings. She swooped back up, the ground brushing her clawed feet. And even as she flew back into the storm, she struggled to hold onto the Force.

The Force had always been with her, but now she had to grapple with it, like holding onto a metal linked chain left out in the sun all day.

Burning hot, heavy, and unforgiving.

Take it, a familiar voice whispered to her, take it all, the pain, the power. To hold it you need both.

A bolt of lightning nearly hit her. Her wings flapping frantically, she lost a few feathers.

She watched them fall as her strength left her again.

She cawed, wondering if she had words to be heard with, wondering if there would be anyone to catch her when she fell.

Take hold of the Force!

She tried, but if she wasn't strong enough to keep flying, how could she dream of fighting the Force?

This time when she fell, she was pulled upward.

She was a rag doll in the wind.

Spun round and round, she was so dizzy that when the wind let her go, that when she hit the ground, she welcomed the pain.

So weak… that voice called to her sweetly, eat, child, eat.

She breathed in deeply, the smell of raw meat filled her nostrils. A part of her knew it shouldn't smell good, but she was hungry.

Scavenger.

She flinched, but tore at the strips of meat.

Carrion Crow, my sweet, little Carrion Crow.

Whose voice was that?

She knew that voice. But how could she know that voice when she didn't even know herself.

She tore at another piece of bloody muscle.

The meat hadn't been dead long. Still warm.

She had the oddest sensation.

I'm not a bird. Where are my teeth?

She stopped eating, coming to stand on a pair of human feet.

She was dressed in robes as black as her feathers had been.

The blood tasted foul on her human tongue. She wiped the back of her hand across her bloodied lips.

She stared down at her hands, trying to recall how she had gotten here.

Trying to remember who she was.

Darth Carrion.

She looked up, searching for the speaker of that voice.

Instead, she saw the corpse from which her feathered self had been eating.

Blue-green eyes stared sightlessly at her, a look of sorrow and betrayal frozen on his face.

Rey screamed.

She could forget everything else, but she would always know him.

Qui-Gon was supremely glad that Obi-Wan had managed to get the room next to his, because when he felt the bond between himself and Rey go quiet, it took him mere moments to get to her side.

Obi-Wan was trying to shake her awake.

"I can't feel her!"

"It's an attack," Qui-Gon said, kneeling by Obi-Wan's side.

To say it was difficult to cut off another Force sensitive from the Force from a distance was a supreme understatement.

But after a few more moments, Rey remaining trapped in her nightmare, he realized that she wasn't being cut off by an outside power. She was doing it herself.

"I am beginning to hate her visions," Qui-Gon said in a low tone, "Obi-Wan go get Sifo-Dyas. Hurry."

Obi-Wan sprinted from the room.

Qui-Gon focused on their bond, he drew on the Force and tried to send warmth and light through their connection.

"Come on, Padawan, it isn't necessary to give me quite so many heart attacks," he told her, knowing that his tone was more important than his words.

Sifo-Dyas came into the room a few steps behind Obi-Wan.

"We can't wake her," he told the man as Sifo-Dyas called on the Force.

Qui-Gon realized then just how powerful his Master's best friend was. He often didn't flaunt it, his strengths were neither in telekinesis or in lightsaber duelling. He touched fingers to Rey's forehead breaking through whatever trance she had trapped herself in.

She came up gasping for air, her eyes were completely dilated as if she were under the influence of some sort of drug.

"Shhhh, child," Sifo-Dyas hushed her as Qui-Gon rubbed her back. "It was just a nightmare."

Qui-Gon couldn't tell if she had heard him or not.

She was panting, but she finally seemed to regain control of her senses, her dilated gaze acknowledging.

But when she saw Obi-Wan who had knelt back by her bed, her expression changed and she screamed.

Qui-Gon saw something die in Obi-Wan's expression, at the fear he had somehow incited within her.

Rey covered her face with her hands and began to cry in earnest.

Qui-Gon was left deeply disturbed, and though by morning, she allowed Obi-Wan to touch her shoulder, she refused to tell them what her nightmare had been about.

Leaving Qui-Gon to wonder what was the nature of the vision, and worrying more because it was the first wedge he had ever glimpsed of coming between Rey and Obi-Wan.

The Master was almost certain by the second week, in which Rey had another vision and refused to discuss it, that this was much more than a recurring nightmare.

AN: Thoughts, reactions, pretty please? Next chapter is happier, I swear, everyone stay safe. Warm thank yous to the wonderful reviewers, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you.