Chapter Seventeen
Inquisitorial Fall
Gor-lak never felt more alive. Finally free of the confining body of the human wretch and possessing something more fitting of his power and ancestry. The metal bonds holding the body to the table broke under the tiniest flexing of his muscles. Leaping to the powerful feet of the beast he had created, Gor-lak felt like his old self once more.
Granted, it took several moments to orient himself to being returned to a proper height and reach, but soon enough he was tearing through the metal door and pursuing the Jedi that had forced him to take on this form sooner than he had desired. If he did not complete the ritual correctly, with the deaths of powerful individuals, the body would waste away within a day and he would be all but destroyed.
Powerful claws dug into the stone, pulling himself along as he ran upon all fours, testing the full range of his power even as the voice uttered words of his original language, incomprehensible by the tongue of humans and other slave races. Spells and power flew from him to no end, layering defenses and preparing for the battle about to come.
He erupted from the facility in a fury, dashing aside the last remaining troopers that had survived the Jedi and their escape, and tore after them through the forest, tracking the pair through scent and magic.
He would not be denied this, even as he felt the touch of the ultimate darkness approaching. The Emperor was here, on Dathomir, and only by proving that this form was more suited to him did Gor-lak hope to be spared the wrath of the man.
Thus, he did his best to herd the Jedi closer to the Sith academy, and still close his distance between them, so that he arrived to them long before they reached the small patch of civilization that existed in the wild, remote world.
Alas, he did not expect the Emperor to start toward his facility as well, and when he did finally catch up to the Jedi, they were already engrossed in a fight with the black guards of the Emperor, probably stalling for the man himself to arrive.
They would not steal Gor-lak's moment. The beast-like body leapt high into the air, crashing down like a localized storm of power. Magic blasted in all directions, plowing over the Jedi and the royal arcanamach in equal measure, and he went into a pure frenzy.
Lightsaber blades were powerless against his reinforced hide, genetically created from several different and highly specialized creatures' hides and carapaces. He was nigh invulnerable to damage. He also had specifically engineered a certain resistance to the Force, to make his life easier when he at last defied the Emperor, once all opposition was crushed beneath them, and strove at last to return the orks to their rightful place in the universe.
Accessing the full might of his sorcery, Gor-lak could feel the crackle of his balefire flowing through him, focusing the lightning of his wrath upon the dueling figures, forcing them to scatter and flee from before him.
Unsurprisingly, each group turned on him immediately, but Gor-lak wouldn't have had any better a test for his new body. The fools that served the Emperor were first to try and lash back with saber and their power over the Dark Side, and Gor-lak allowed the toughened hide of the beast to take the brunt of the attack, permitting him to proceed with his offence, crushing one underfoot and knocking another backward into a patch of highly poisonous nettles. The screams of that one's passing were glorious to hear.
"My power knows no limit! Now, die…." Gor-lak said, rising up to tower over the other fools that dared oppose him.
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Luna had known true terror before, when she had faced the Emperor himself in combat. That time, the fear had stemmed from the monster himself, radiating outward and affecting every living thing on his flagship, and Luna had had no choice but to flee before his wrath.
This… this was different. She felt the fear in her own heart. The abject horror that that which she had worked for so long to acquire might slip from her grasp, and fall back into the wretched hand that had first procured it. Ist would not flee, as she had the heart of a Jedi, unable to feel or sense the insurmountable challenge ahead, and willing to lay down her own life for even a spark of hope.
Luna had been that way once, but age and experience had taught her hard lessons. She was willing to go to her death, even now, but more to see her apprentice once more in the Force rather than for something as intangible as truth or justice.
All she knew was that the precious objects that they had gained must escape this place, and make it back into the hands of those who would resist evil, and not allow it to taint them as it had tainted Luna.
So she threw herself at the monster that Gor-lak the Cruel had unleashed, ducking the swinging claws and dodging the flaming breath that the beast conjured. Ist was trying to find an opening, but Luna knew that their time was up the moment she had seem the black robes of the Royal Guard.
He was here, and between the Emperor and this beast, there would be no victory, no escape for her.
"Flee! Run from this place," she pled with Ist, even as the beast's claws sent her skidding backward, dirt and debris flying from beneath her boots.
"I will not leave you!" the Bothan said, her pure light radiating outward from her powerful heart.
"You must!" Luna demanded, sensing the black tide that was rapidly approaching. Soon there would be two monsters rampaging through these woods, and Luna was not about to throw everything away just for a valiant last stand for the pair of them. "This is my fight, not yours!"
"I will stand with you!" Ist insisted, and Luna growled low in her throat as she threw herself backward, propelling Ist away from Gor-lak's crashing fists with the Force.
Luna quickly realized that as long as she lived, Ist's hope of their escaping together would thrive. And try as she might, Luna would not be able to slip back into the shadows this time, not with Ist, nor her rebellion, not with anyone. The Emperor had sensed that she was alive, and would burn the Galaxy star to star in order to find her.
She had to allow herself to die, so that Ist, and her rebellion, might live.
Turning to look at the monster of the High Inquisitor, rampaging with the last remnant of the vanguard of Veneficus, she knew what she had to do. This monster would not live to serve the Emperor, even if it took all that Luna had to slay it.
Tapping into what was left of her love for the Galaxy, that pure, unbridled light that she had kept contained for so long, she let go of her fear for the future, placing it squarely into the hands of the female Bothan who stood not twenty feet from her.
"You will do what is right, and save the Galaxy," Luna felt impressed to say, even as she took hold of her weapon in both hands, and charged the beast head on.
Gor-lak roared, stomping madly and swinging the saber deflecting claws in a wide low arc, but Luna was consumed by the power of the Light, allowing it to guide her actions. She leapt, arcing over the beasts head and landing on its back, before driving her saber downward as hard as she had strength to do.
A rush of power surged through her, guiding her blade squarely into the crook of the hardened plates that made up the armored hide of the beast, scoring deeply and burning inward, digging into the square of the beast's back, toward the heart.
Gor-lak howled and reared back, clearly intend on smashing Luna against whatever it could find to dislodge her, but Luna could not let go of her weapon. The added momentum as her body struck an outcropping of rock punched the blade even deeper, and through the Force Luna sensed the violet plasma strike the heart of her foe.
The beast twitched violently, flaling forward and flinging Luna from its back. Her blade clattered to the ground, and Luna felt the weight of the world sink in upon her. Something was broken inside her, she could feel it, and there were parts of her that would not respond, even as Ist shrieked for her to get up.
Luna knew what had happened. The beast was dead, and the Emperor had arrived. Even as Gor-lak's disembodied spirit rose once more from the corpse, Luna silently prayed for a quick death and for Ist to escape.
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Veneficus looked on at the scene unraveling before him. Things couldn't have gone better for his arrival. Gor-lak, caught red handed in some sort of betrayal and definitely dead, his incoporial spirit notwithstanding, and more importantly Lovegood, broken and unable to escape, but still very much alive.
The woman still, even now, shone like a beacon of light in a sea of the Dark Side, and even the sight of it sickened the Eternal Emperor. "Well, well…" he said, working hard to contain his excitement. "It seems that everything had finally come full circle."
He stopped just short of Lovegood's fallen body. From the angle of her legs, it was clear that there was spinal damage, and she would not be standing anytime soon, but at long last he had her where he wanted her. But… now that he had what he desired, a swift outcome of death seemed not sufficient for him.
"Master…." The ghost of Gor-lak whimpered, struggling to remain in this world, although the Emperor was well aware that the ork had made multiple safety nets iun case of his untimely demise.
"Enough, creature," Veneficus said, holding up a hand and grasping the ghost with the Force, "I've heard well enough of your excuses. You were sent to find the rogue Jedi, and here I find a plot to empower yourself above that which I have allotted to you…"
The creature seemed well enough to handle a few more transfers from body to body, and Veneficus wondered if Gor-lak would dare to attempt to possess the body of the Emperor, but when the ork spirit did nothing, the Sith Lord smirked.
"But you've finally brought the one Jedi I have most desired to bring to heel before me, so I suppose there can be a bit of restraint to your punishment for failing me…" he said, and sensed through the Force as both of his intended victims flinched.
Oh yes, Lovegood wished for death at this point, but that lovely little light was not snuffed out just yet, and it wouldn't do to just kill her anymore. She had caused far too much damage to him personally, and for that she had to suffer quite a deal before Veneficus would allow her the release of death.
"Commander," Veneficus said, opening a channel to the leader of his flagship, "bombard the settlements and all spaceports. I do not want a single ship ever leaving this world again. Dathomir is under quarantine, and if a forbidden world from now on."
"Yes, Your Majesty," the response came, and only several seconds passed before laserfire rained down from the skies, striking the various academies and spaceports that were scattered throughout the system. There would be no technology left on world to allow these two to escape, unless Veneficus knew of it.
"Now, for the pair of you…" he said, allowing Dark Magic to hiss forth from his hands, covering the ground in a dark miasma, "I will deal with two birds at once."
Reaching out and snaking a string of magic around Gor-lak's form, he dragged the struggling ork spirit from the air, ritually sacrificing the blood of the hulking beast and his own dead guards to form a new pact for the spirit to bond with… in Lovegood.
The Jedi Master shrieked as the ghost started to be forced into her body; cohabitating with her already damaged and very light spirit. Veneficus smirked at the mutual agony that they shared, and would yet share for years to come. A flick of the wrist and the woman's spine was healed, and Veneficus stepped back as she arose shakily.
"What… What have you done?" she asked, her voice now reverberating with the sound of Gor-lak's behind it.
"Why, my dear… I've given you a gift…" Veneficus said sarcastically. "I've preserved you alive, and added to your already considerable power…"
He stole away her saber at that moment with the Force, twiddling the handmade hilt in his hands, "Although," he said, as though only just thinking of it, "You might not like the full benefits… An ork spirit sharing host with a human female… one light, the other dark… oh the conflict it will make, and with all technology that could get you off this rock gone, and none coming… I suppose you'll both be in excellent company for a nice… long… time…" he added, walking away.
He knew the moment that the pair tried to act separately, each in turn wanting to attack him. A sudden explosion of power rocked the glade, splintering trees and liquefying rocks, but Veneficus strode away confidently. He had his revenge. Lovegood would not need to die, as she would wish for it in due time, and Gor-lak would be there to prevent it.
Each would be the jailor for and prisoner of the other, until the balance shifted. And Veneficus knew that, in due time, Lovegood would fall completely to darkness, unable to cope with the evil spirit of the beast within herself. Only when that happy day finally happened would he return and finally kill the pair of them.
It was an exquisite form of torment, and something that he was very glad had been provided to him by the Force itself. Even as Veneficus took the last shuttle left on the planet and returned to his orbiting fleet, he could still sense the powerful surges in the Force as each prisoner struggled to have a measure of control over their shared body without the other's interference.
"What are your orders, my Lord?" the helmsman asked as Veneficus arrived on the bridge.
Breathing deeply, and thinking for a long moment, he shook his head. Other matters could wait, "Return us to Coruscant; I have work to resume, now that this matter is finally dealt with once and for all…"
"Yes, your Majesty," the man replied, forwarding the orders as the Eternal Emperor took his seat on the bridge, overlooking the busy workers as the entire ship started for Lightspeed.
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Severus smirked in triumph. According to what research he had done, and the calculations that he had painstakingly underwent to prepare this powerful poison, he felt strongly that it was ready. The only problem was the lack of anyone to field test it on. Should everything go as planned, it would possess the power to eat away the magic of the Emperor, and any of his millions of followers that happened to be magical.
Namely, that meant the royal Arcanamach, who guarded the man's palace on Coruscant day in and day out. If this poison worked, they had a way to punch through the most elite guards in all the Empire, and have a momentary chance to strike at the Emperor himself. Of course, that was all in speculation. He had little idea how well it would function on a live subject, even if his blood samples showed the effective ruthlessness of the potion on a micro scale.
The other factor came into gathering enough of the rarer materials to actually mass produce such a toxin, and the risk that carrying so much of it around would cause. That was why Severus never had more than a single vial's worth mixed at any one time, and was extremely cautious with it every moment that it existed.
However, with Ms. Granger having just recently returned from establishing their new base, Severus felt it was finally time to share this discovery with the only other one that the Potions Master could trust to keep a secret this vital for their success.
"What have you called me for, Severus, we're running rather tight on time as it is with the new base, so I don't have long…" the woman said as she swept into his chambers, uncaring if Severus was in the middle of an experiment or not. But that brashness was exactly what drew so many to their cause, and so Severus forgave the abrupt intrusion.
"Trust me, Ms. Granger," he said, straightening up from examining the latest sample of blood being eaten away by the poison, "You'll want to see this…"
He offered the observation device to her, and stepped abck as Granger leaned in to look for herself. "I've been working on a very specialized potion…" Severus started, moving around the table and putting several loose tomes away, "Taking some of my blood as a sample, I've been researching the specific bodies within our systems that allow us to harness magic at its source…"
"The blood…" Granger breathed, looking closer, "It's dying…"
"Yes," Severus affirmed, "I figured that if Potter stopped us from healing with magic, then I should turn to the opposite. And develop a poison that only affects those with the same bodies in their blood that grant access to magic."
Granger stepped away quickly, as though the experiment had burned her, "You can't possibly mean that this could kill magical beings?" she asked, starting to sound affronted. "We cannot resort to such methods."
"…and I would agree," Severus said, cutting her off, "if the entire galaxy was filled with those who were also magic users. But that is not the case, as there is only a small handful of the Empire that has magical blood."
Granger's eyes widened as she understood, "The Emperor and his guards…"
"Precisely," Severus replied, seeing her mind already spinning with how they could end the madness with this poison. "with this we could easily infiltrate the Imperial Palance and remove the head of the Empire from his throne forever."
"It won't work…" said another voice.
Severus whirled, wand in hand and a curse already flying at the intruder. The helmeted figured dodged out of the way inhumanly fast, and Severus had a shot of dread course through him.
"Shade!?" Hermione shouted, her blasters in hand and aimed at the operative, "how did you come here?" she demanded.
"I smuggled myself aboard your ship, after I realized that you had no intention of speaking with me regarding any of your designs." The being said, tilting the helmeted head, "and now that I see what you both are concocting, I understand the secrecy."
"We cannot allow you to leave here now," Severus said, asserting himself as authority in his own lab. A flick of his wrist and the unknown operative was bound hand and foot, although the being managed to remain upright.
"It matters not, your plan is a good one, but it won't work on the Emperor or his guards," the operative continued.
"How would you know that?" Severus demanded, moving the being with his magic to sit in a chair.
"Remove my helmet and find out why I know…" the being replied calmly, and Severus was all too happy to oblige, vanishing the shroud that prevented them from knowing the unknown benefactor of so many years.
"As you see, I have very important inside information," the human said, his face drawn and tired, but very much recognizable.
"Blaise Zabini?" Granger breathed, "That's not possible…"
"Trust me, Director Granger, it is more than possible," Zabini said, his dark eyes already glinting with a small amount of amusement. "I mean, there are roughly a hundred of me running about under the service of the Emperor."
"A clone…" Severus said, leveling his wand on the revealed man.
"True, but one that has finally met a mutation that allowed me to break away from the yoke of bondage that Veneficus placed so thoroughly on my brothers…" Zabini affirmed, twitching slightly to a more comfortable position as his bonds would allow.
"We cannot trust anything he has to say," Severus said, turning to Granger, but Zabini just chuckled.
"Oh, Severus, you were so quick to trust me before, and look what that trust has so far achieved. Your poison would not have come this far without my help, so why balk when I want to nudge it along a bit further?" the man said, looking almost bored in his restraints.
"It's true," Granger added, not taking her eyes off the clone, "he has not betrayed us so far, and even now he could have attempted to reveal our location, and has not done so…" she turned to face Severus, "We might just be able to trust him."
Severus snarled, unhappy that this was unraveling so quickly. "Fine, then why won't my poison work?" he demanded, turning on their now prisoner.
"You've tested it on mage-born blood alone," the man said, "but the Emperor is more than a mage-born. He is a Force user as well, which means his blood is different from anything else in the Galaxy… unique if you will, and he used his alchemy to make me and my brothers the same. One part mage-born, one part Force user…"
"Simple then, we use your blood and alter the poison even further, and it removes the majority of the risk…" Severus said, starting to smirk once more.
"Again, not quite." Blaise countered. "Oh yes, my blood will perfect your poison for the Emperor, but it will also work on any derivation of the blood that goes into it… your poison will kill any Force user, Mage-born, or combination of the two if you use my blood as its base."
"But will it kill the Emperor?" Severus pushed, stepping closer to the bound man. Everything would be worth it if the madman was finally put down.
"It will certainly weaken him, given his current state, but you have an unknown window…" Blaise said, "As we speak, and since the war ended, Veneficus has been searching for the key to true immortality. If he is not stopped, I fear that he will eventually find the answer that he seeks. He will truly become the Eternal Emperor…"
"What do you mean 'his current state'?" Severus pressed, momentarily wondering if any of this freely given information could even be trusted.
"The Emperor has been in a state of necrosis since the final battle of the war, forced to resort to strange and downright secretive means to preserve his youth and vitality." Blaise replied, and Severus nodded, understanding.
"The Philosopher's Stone." He said at last, "He's been drinking the Elixir of Life…"
"The very same object that you sought information on how to create your own…" Blaise added, which sparked a sense of suspicion in Severus. He hadn't told many the specifics of that mission, not even the illusive operative.
"How do you know that?" he demanded.
"I have eyes and ears still within the loyal ranks of the Emperor's guard. I am sure you discovered very quickly that he had foreseen and countered such an attempt." Blaise replied quickly, "I had hoped, and have then been proven right, that you would find something else to use against him."
"Severus," Granger started, speaking softly, and the Potions Master realized that he was white knuckling his wand in his tenseness and suspicion. "I think he has more than proved that he is no longer on the side of the Emperor, although I do not agree with him remaining in this base any longer than he has."
"By all means, I'll gladly go back to the new base," Blaise said, "I just wanted to make sure that what I had started was yielding fruit."
"You will be leaving a sizeable blood donation here before you leave," Severus informed the bound operative, "If what you say is true, then I need to run more tests and potentially develop a variant poison."
"You will do what you must, but I will continue to help fight against the madman that bred me and my brothers into loyal killing machines." Blaise affirmed, and Hermione flicked her wand to release him.
Severus shot her a glance as she turned to leave, clearly telling the Director that he still did not fully trust their subtle friend any longer, now that they knew of his past loyalties.
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Ist ran as swiftly as the Force allowed her. The sheer terror of the Emperor, and the hideous torment that Luna was undergoing was sufficient to send her speeding through the undergrowth, bound for her ship and to escape back to Rebel controlled worlds.
Luna had been right all along. Ist had had no chance of bringing the esteemed Jedi Master with her back to the rebels. She would be lucky just to escape with the Royal Fleet in orbit over the planet, apparently knocking out every major spaceport and source of technology on the planet.
The fact that Veneficus would throw away an entire planet, complete with an academy and loyal followers just to eliminate Luna was testimony to his obsession to eliminate the powerful Jedi.
Ist clutched the package of items that she had been given by Luna, knowing in her heart that these things needed to reach their leaders back on Hoth, if the Jedi Master's last act was to serve fighting the Empire. Ist wouldn't let Luna's sacrifice be in vain.
Even as she reached the small clearing where her ship was hidden, there was a tremendous blast of Force energy, carrying a shriek of purest pain and torture, and Ist had to shield herself from the power behind it. Something unnatural and downright evil was happening, and Ist could only imagine what fight Luna was putting between herself and the Emperor to buy as much time as possible for the Bothen to escape.
The Imperial freighter pulled up slowly, gaining momentum as it lifted out of the trees, but there was a problem. A massive Imperial cruiser loomed overhead, just past the cloud line, and Ist had no means of outrunning it or its fighter vanguard.
Nevertheless, she had a new mission, and trusting in the Force to guide her, she gunned the engines, hoping that all the time she spent in simulators would be sufficient to see her through this.
She still jumped slightly at the first sign that she was being shot at, as several sith fighters zoomed past her. They weren't even trying to get her to land, just shoot her from the sky. The only mercy was that the freighter had some relatively strong shields, and would easily take a beating from the fighters before failing.
She just had to stay out of range of the massive capital ship, and she might make it. Keeping to a straight course that angled toward one of the few blind spots that Imperial ships held, Ist hoped that the Empire hadn't corrected that little defect in the time between her simulations and now.
The fighters buzzed her again, and the shields fell into the yellow, a warning light indicating that they wouldn't stand up to too many more direct hits, but Ist knew that the massive cruiser was the bigger worry, and held her course. Even as the mighty ship started to turn and put her in its field of fire, Ist angled once more to stay just inside the sliver of blindness that had been drilled into her for any sort of infiltration mission on a capital ship of that size and firepower.
Soon she broke the atmosphere, and sucked in a breath of fear as two more cruisers started toward her vector, clear intent to trap her in a pincer between their trajectories. She wasn't far enough from the gravitation pull of the planet to jump to Hyperspace, but she started the computer plotting a course nevertheless. The moment she was in range she wanted to punch it without delay.
More fighters appeared, and Ist struggled to keep on course, the smaller ships were desperately trying to make her veer to the left or right, and puller her into the range of the weapons of the pursuing ship.
"Just a bit more, come on…" Ist urged the battered ship, even as her shields fell into the red. Another warning signal flashed, and Ist saw the problem. A fighter was on a direct collision course with her, desperate to prevent her getting any farther from the planet.
The Force called to her, and she harkened, letting go of the physical world and tapping into the raw potential that existed around her. Scarcely aware of her actions, she veered to the left sharply, barely missing the fighter, before immediately hauling the ship back into the safe line from the cruiser behind her, just as she sensed herself reach the outer edge where Lightspeed was possible.
The ship lurched forward as the shields failed at last, but Ist's hand was already on the controls to make the jump, and the stars blurred all around her, even as she escaped to safety. Following standard procedure as established by Commander Flitwick, she stuttered her jumps, bouncing around at least five times before making her way back to Bakura, and the safety of the defensive fleet of the rebellion.
As she passed through a complicated series of jumps, Ist meditated on what she had learned and what possibly the Rebellion hoped to gain from Luna's sacrifice. Pulling the bag out and looking at the contents, Ist personally had little idea what any of the items were. They were magical, to be sure, and therefore she felt that Director Granger or Professor Snape were the only qualified individuals that she could deliver these to, but she ought to make a report and mark the demise of Luna Lovegood to the Council.
Many would be saddened that the champion of the Light had fallen, but the fact that she had survived this long would also hearten them. If one Master survived the purge of the Jedi and the fall of the Temple, perhaps others had as well.
Ist took comfort in that, however unlikely it might have been. Luna was in a category of power all her own, and conflict was where she had thrived. Most of the other Masters had not been so lucky. Still, Ist was happy that she had at least met her one last time before the great Jedi had fallen.
Soon enough, the haze of Hyperspace faded away for the last time, and Ist quickly sent down the access codes for landing, so that her ship wouldn't be targeted on sight as an Imperial shuttle. She suspected that most of the other had already arrived long ago, and wondered if she would find Shade again, or if the operative had already moved on to his next assignment.
"I need to remember to thank him," Ist said aloud, even as her ship came in for a landing. She recalled that it had been against her better judgment to go after Luna, and it was Shade that had encouraged her to go so deeply into enemy territory and investigate.
Looking down at the bag once more as she prepared to depart the ship, Ist just hoped that the diversion had been worth it.
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Zhar grimaced as the Basilisk emerged from Hyperspace over the Khar Delba system. He could already sense the mad Togruta from orbit. The fact that Ocraadi Nuhok's presence could be felt from that far away in all its shuddering slime was disturbing. Zhar would typically avoid this entire section of the Empire as a rule, except for the extenuating circumstances.
"My Lord, we are receiving a direct channel from the moon of Khar Shian." The officer in charge over the communication array reported. Zhar swore under his breath. Of course the madwoman would sense him immediately upon his arrival and would wish to immediately gloat over his misfortune with regards to the coup by Feyd.
Sighing deeply, Zhar waved his hand in a permitting gesture. Within moments the hologram of Ocraadi appeared, the Togruta's smarmy grin spreaing across her face.
"Well, Well, Zhar Quelmok…" she said through her grin, "I would never have believed it unless the Supreme Prophet himself told me…"
"Lady Nuhok…" Zhar replied, trying to keep calm in the face of the insane being.
"You really ought to have learned that it was only a matter of time before the young pup started trying to destroy all those who were around before the Emperor rose to power." She added.
"So I take it that he has been layering pressure on you and yours as well?" Zhar asked.
"He can try, but I feel that he will have a significantly harder time forcing his way onto my system than he would with yours…" Ocraadi said, a bit of the madness starting to show through in her cockiness regarding the defense of her system.
"Nevertheless, I get the feeling that the Supreme Prophet's faction will start to push outward and absorb every other system, until he feels able to challenge the Emperor directly." Zhar said, steering the conversation toward his original intention for coming to this part of the Empire's core.
Predictably, Ocraadi laughed, the high screechy sound digging at Zhar's skull. "If that whelp thinks that he can stand against the Emperor, then he had another thing coming…" she said between barking laughs.
"Yes," Zhar said, "I agree that standing up to Lord Veneficus would be suicide, but still Feyd is foolish enough to think that he could make it happen. With this move against me and taking Korriban, it is clear that he is wishing to make the attempt, and I feel that the Emperor needs to learn the truth so that he can command us in what we should do regarding this betrayal from the highest level."
Ocraadi smirked, "You know that this will leave a vacuum in the Dark Council that will only be filled once again by directive of the Emperor himself." She said.
"I do, and I am willing to accept whatsoever outcome will be," Zhar affirmed. It was very likely that, in light of then dethroning of Feyd from the Dark Council by the Emperor would possibly elevate Zhar himself to the position in turn.
Ocraadi was not aware, at least not fully, how much Zhar did not want that level of authority within the Empire. The closer that he was to Veneficus, the less likely that he could escape when the time came for the madman to betray and destroy them all in his pursuit of immortality and absolute power.
But, at the same time, there was a level of sacrifice that would be needed to eliminate Feyd and his dictatorial rule. The Supreme Prophet would destroy Zhar and his plans to escape the madness of the Emperor when the time came. However, if he was Supreme Prophet, that would allow him to be in the best position to make preparations to escape without drawing attention to himself, Euka, or anyone else.
"So, will you permit us sanctuary on your world while we make contact with the Emperor, and protect us from the Supreme Prophet and his warpath that he has started with us?" Zhar asked, getting straight to the heart of the matter.
"Hmm," Ocraadi said, tapping her chin as she annoyingly pondered the request. "I don't know. It would be a great difficulty for us, on top of the potential consequences if the young pup found out that we were sheltering you from him…"
"But… it would grant you the potential contact with the Emperor, and reward for informing him of the truth that is occurring with his Empire." Zhar said, knowing full well that he was tempting her with the one thing that she desired most, the same as all of the fanatic loyalists to the Emperor desired.
"Well, if you put it that way," Ocraadi replied predictably, "I suppose that there would be some place for your forces that you've brought with you, and we have had a lack of communication from the Emperor lately, so I could see that out communication channels are available for you."
"That would be most agreeable with us, I thank you on behalf of those who are with me," Zhar said, his hand already itching to close the communication.
"We'll see you shortly, then," Ocraadi replied, and the screen went black.
Releasing a massive sigh, Zhar gave the direction for their ships to head for the spaceport of Khar Shian.
"So, this Lady Nuhok is quite an… interesting one…" Euka said, having remained silent for the entire exchange. Zhar didn't have the desire to even bother responding and just walked away grumbling at the mad Togruta and how he had to deal with her once more after so long.