Chapter Nine- The Jig is Up
"Tell me again, my apprentice, how long has it been since my fall?" asked the crackling voice of the hunched and hooded figure as it stood up from the smoking prism.
"Er… over a hundred years, Master," stuttered Orkaan as he fell to his knees before the aged dark lord, "Nearly one hundred and fifty, my lord."
"Goooood," He chuckled hoarsely and lifted a withered hand into the air, making a fist.
Orkaan slowly rose into the air, of the Master's accord, and felt his throat tighten as though he was being choked. He gasped and tore at his neck in an attempt to remove the vice-like grip from his throat, though there was nothing to rend from his windpipe other than his own flesh. A spasm shot through his spine as his sight began to blur and fade. All he could hear was the malicious cackling of the Dark Lord he had restored to life. The grip was released and he fell to the floor in a heap of black material and limp flesh. He had served his purpose- there was no longer any use for him. The Master turned and left the chamber, sealing the door behind Him.
The Emperor had been restored to power. No longer would He rule over an empire, however. He'd claimed mastery over the entirety of the Universe. Now He was the Master of All. He had no need for such useless humans as Darth Orkaan- at least not for long. He would complete the fulfillment of the prophecy with His new apprentice- Darth Kamyra.
--
"Yes!" shouted L'anyn as she sat bolt upright in her lavish bed. Her chest was heaving and she was drenched in sweat. The dream had been so real… it was real. She knew it was real. The Master had told her that it was going to happen, and so it had. Orkaan was dead at the hand of the newly risen Master and she- L'anyn Oumarin- was his new personal apprentice. She couldn't be happier.
Her TC-13-2 unit bustled into the room, alerted by the sound of her shout.
"The Lady is all right?" it asked metallically as it checked the room for intruders.
"I'm fine, 13. Thank you," L'anyn rose from her bed and stretched, "Just a dream."
"The Lady is all right," The droid nodded mechanically and left the room as quickly as it had entered.
"Stupid heap of metal," she muttered while combing out her long ginger locks then pulled on her tunic and robes and left the room. "I could get a rancor to stand guard over my bedchamber and sleep with more peace than with that thing."
"The Lady had a guest this morning," the droid informed her while pouring a cup of hot spice-water and setting it on the table as L'anyn took a seat before her morning meal, "But I sent him away because of the absurdness of the hour and the Lady's need for more sleep than she has been getting since her return from Naboo."
"You stupid heap of metal!" L'anyn shouted, throwing the cup to the ground and leapt up from the table, "Who was it? What did he have to tell me?"
"The Lady's visitor was the padawan Ira Solaris," replied TC-13-2, "He simply wanted to speak with the Lady about a bad dream he'd had and was hoping you might aid him in the removal of cranial pains, so I sent him to the medbay. Though, he did say something about the side-affects of a memory wipe, as well."
"You better be glad I don't give you a memory wipe, you stupid droid!" L'anyn stormed out of her quarters and down the corridor toward the training room that she'd reserved for her day of training with Ira before the trials.
--
"A disturbance in the Force, I have sensed," Master Burke muttered to Allyah, "Master Lady L'anyn Oumarin to me you will bring, as well as the apprentice Ira Solaris."
"Yes master," nodded the young Twi'lek as she turned on her heel and stepped out of the chamber.
"Shrouded in darkness, her padawan is," he whispered as he sat down to meditate, "Question his mentor about this, I must."
--
"L'anyn, you wiped my memory!" Ira shouted accusingly upon L'anyn's arrival in the training room, "You practically asked me to join the Darkside, then you sent a Wookie after me, then you attacked me and wiped my memory! That's why I've been having all these headaches for the past two weeks!"
L'anyn stopped dead in her tracks, a stunned look plastered on her gentle features. "Wha--?"
"Don't feign innocence, Darth Kamyra!" he shouted, "I remember. You wiped my memory, but it all came back in my dreams. Your droid sent me to the medbay for my headache, so I went there… and do you know what the medical technician found? Scarring from the forced entry of a mind-probe used for memory extraction. You tried to make it all go away… but you failed."
"Ira, where are you getting these ideas from? Is this what you and your friends have been whispering about in the halls? My dark alias, Kamyra?" she fell back against the wall and held her forehead, a cry escaping her lips, "Is this what it has come to? My own apprentice accusing me of being allied with the Darkside?"
"You are allied with the Darkside!" he glowered, approaching her, a new lightsaber in hand, "You and that Wookie… you're in this together. You're trying to destroy the Council from the inside! Everything that you've been accused of in the past five years is true!"
Tears flowed freely down L'anyn's cheeks, her shoulders shaking with her sobs. She covered her face with her hands and slid down the wall onto the floor and hugged her knees to her, rocking back and forth. "My own apprentice… has… turned on… m-me!"
"Quit trying to make me pity you, L'anyn," Ira sneered, "It's not going to work. You've lost my trust and won my hate."
Her head snapped up at the sound of the word 'hate'. She wore a cruel grin, and there was a cold glint in her suddenly steel-gray eyes. "Hate, you say? How wonderful… simply marvelous. Ira, you truly are ready for the trials of the Order. We leave tonight."
"I'm not going anywhere with you, Kamyra," he growled, glaring at her with all the hate he could muster, "You're not fit to be the mentor of anyone but an aspiring Sith-- which I am not."
"You say this now, Ira," she stood up slowly as her eyes reverted to their usual blue-green hue, "But tonight, you will go to the Order's Cloister of Trials and you will complete the task set before you-- and it will be of your own accord."
"You're only fooling yourself," Ira replied firmly and flipped on his latest saber- a violet blade extending from the finely crafted gold hilt, "I'll never join you and your Order. This ends now."
"As you wish," she smiled calmly and pulled out her silver-hilted azure saber then took her dueling stance.
--
"Master, the Lady is not in her quarters and her protocol droid, TC-13-2, says she stormed out rather early in the morning after having a fit of some sort," Allyah returned to the chamber in which Master Burke was meditating, "The droid seemed to express some concern for the mental health of her master, the Lady Oumarin."
"Quite unpleasant this turn of events is," Master Burke commented from his seat on the ground, "Look into the Lady's activities we must."
"Yes, master," Allyah turned and began to leave the room once again, planning to visit the training room reserved for the mentor and padawan in question.
"Allyah, please, a moment," Burke stood up from the floor and beckoned the young girl back, "Investigate with the greatest delicacy we must. Fragile is the relationship between master and apprentice. Ruin the bond between the Lady Oumarin and Ira Solaris we must not."
"Yes, master," she nodded curtly and continued out the door.
--
"L'anyn," Ira panted, his back pressed into a corner; his front faced with L'anyn's sapphire blade and his own violet, which had been removed from his grasps rather forcefully, "Kill me now, because I will never join you."
"Why should I kill you now, Ira?" she asked, stepping away from him and switching off both the blades, "You'll only regret the decision tomorrow, and then it'll be too late."
"I will never join the Darkside," he stepped slowly out of the corner, still wary of his mentor's saber skills, but feeling much braver nonetheless, "I'm fighting against the evil and scum of the universe, not joining it."
"Ira, it all depends on your perspective of the situation," she explained coolly, "For example: to a Dark Sith Lord, the Jedi are the evil scum of the universe and that's what they're fighting against. Then, on the opposite side of the spectrum, you've got the Jedi, who are fighting the Sith whom they consider to be the scourge of all creation. Then, smack in the middle, you have bounty hunters who simply go where the money is."
"Then what are you, L'anyn?" Ira asked, his curiosity finally getting the better of him, "If you're neither Jedi nor Sith, what are you?"
"I am, simply put, one part of something much greater. I may be invisible to everyone, but I am important in this universe," she smiled almost smugly, "You might even say I play a pivotal role in the existence of everything."
"Right, because that's not conceited," Ira managed not to laugh at the vanity of his mentor, "Not conceited at all."
L'anyn shrugged casually, "I know my place in the universe- that's all there is to it."
"Master Lady L'anyn Oumarin, Master Burke requests your immediate attendance in his private meditation chamber," Allyah burst into the room, completely out of breath, "He would like to speak to you and the apprentice Ira Solaris."
"Of course, Allyah," L'anyn nodded and motioned for Ira to follow her, "Come along, Ira. No need to keep Master Burke waiting like you did Master Schorn."
"Yes… master," Ira replied through gritted teeth and followed dutifully.
--
(A/N: Okay, this was a rather long chapter, so let me remind you of a few things: the Master is the Emperor- aka Darth Sidious/Senator Palpatine- who has been reincarnated by his loyal servant Darth Orkaan. He killed Orkaan because he was a weak minded fool and would have been useless to the Master's plans.)