Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or Stargate SG-1.
A/N: The Athena character in this story is the same as the one in my An Extraordinary Journey story (background on her would be spread on chapters 104 to 110).
The Starship Destiny.
The Alterran starship, Destiny, was silent as it sped through a modified hyperspace tunnel. At least the interior hallways of the ship were silent which was not at all surprising since the ship was unmanned. The Alterra who were supposed to board the ship never did, especially since they started to focus their research on another new area of interest, Ascension, soon after its launch. The silence around the ship was exactly what Athena desired as she walked through the dark hallways of this ancient vessel built by her ancestors millions of years ago. The ship's internal sensors didn't register her presence, and she wanted it that way since any attempt by the ship to initiate life support systems would take away power from the hyperdrive engines which were pushing the ship through the modified hyperspace tunnel towards another galaxy. And as it was, the Destiny was nearly through the galactic void and into the next galaxy - one which was billions upon billions of light years away from where the ship was first launched; the planet her people once called Terra in the galaxy of Avalon.
Now known as Earth, the people were back to a primitive state when compared to the Alterran civilization. Yet, it was a world where Athena created a simple life for herself after her people left Atlantis following their defeat in the war against the Wraith in the Pegasus Galaxy. It would be years later, after what she would consider to be one of her greatest mistakes and the darkest stain to her very soul - the creation and later loss of nearly 35,000 living weapons for the Shadow Men on Earth. These Shadow Men desired the fulfilment of a prophecy of the Slayer, one girl in all the world... a Chosen One... who would battle demons and vampires. Athena wanted to prevent the Shadow Men from taking Sineya, the girl who would eventually become the First Slayer; so Athena offered the Shadow Men about 35000 living weapons - superhuman clones - in exchange for Sineya's freedom from the prophecy. Instead, the Shadow Men betrayed Athena... they siphoned off the energy and essences of the living weapons and funneled it into a Shadow Demon which would be later forced into Sineya. Athena blamed herself for the loss of the 35000 living weapons and Sineya herself. It was her greatest mistake, and it was only through a journey of redemption and forgiveness, that she achieved ascension into another plane of existence.
As she walked through the hallways of the Destiny, she gave off a faint glow to light her way. The Destiny AI was running the ship, and it was charged with following the Seed Ships responsible for constructing and depositing Stargates into the worlds of different galaxies. These Seed Ships would then signal those locations back to the Destiny for cataloguing. Then there was the other reason for the construction of the Destiny. Athena could recall her history lessons on Atlantis so long ago; that it was not long after the creation of the Stargates that the ancient Alterra discovered a pattern in the Cosmic microwave background radiation. The Alterra of that time realized this pattern could not have been natural in origin, and so they hypothesized its very presence suggested an order to the universe never thought possible. 'I was taught the early Alterra believed it was a message of some kind,' Athena thought to herself. However, the message was fragmented and could not be recovered fully. To that end, they devoted the efforts of an entire generation to the construction of Destiny with one of its purposes being finding and reassembling these fragments, and thus completing the message. Athena was truly awed at the knowledge the ship must have collected over the tens of millions of years after it was launched, 'will you ever be done?'
Walking through the dark and silent hallways of the ship, Athena suddenly came to a halt with a look of surprise on her face when she heard a 'screech' before there was a flash of white and blue light all around her.
'That was the hyperdrive, it stopped,' Athena thought to herself before she took a step forward. As she did so, she simply thought about the Destiny's viewing gallery. Just as if she stepped through a door, Athena found herself with her arms folded, one over the another, on her chest in the viewing gallery staring out into space. With unused chairs and tables all around her, Athena walked towards the railing at the end of the large room. She looked out at the disc-shaped galaxy stretched out in front of her and frowned.
'There is something odd,' Athena thought to herself just as the ship started to bank to the port side and away from the galaxy, 'did no seed ships travel to that galaxy? Are there no Stargates anywhere on any world?' The Seed Ships, launched nearly twenty years before Destiny was completed, were supposed to construct and deposit Stargates to every world which supported life. So, the Seed Ships completely avoiding an entire galaxy was very unusual. 'The Destiny is following the path taken by those Seed Ships. So, a Seed Ship must have stopped here, just outside the galaxy, and then made its way to another galaxy?' Athena pressed her lips together to a thin line before she teleported herself out into space with the massive ship behind her.
Athena looked back over her shoulder as the Destiny finished moving away while the rear engines glowed a bright blue. It wasn't long before that there was a blue and white hued cloud forming several meters in front of the ship caused by a rip in space; the rear engines then flashed bright blue before the ship shot into that rip. Once the rip in space closed, Athena gave a small smile at the thought that Destiny was continuing her journey. Turning back towards the galaxy in front of her, Athena tilted her head upon noticing something unusual. She could make out what appeared to be a blue hued energy field that covered the entire galaxy. The energy field extended out towards the edges of the galaxy but not beyond, 'that's really unusual'.
As Athena wondered about this energy field and why it was that this was the first galaxy she had seen this phenomenon, she could sense the eyes of the Others staring at her. She suspected they were watching to see what her next move would be. Their rule was non-interference in the lower planes of existence. And Athena was very well aware of the dangers in interfering with the natural evolution of mortals and supposed immortals in the lower planes of existence. However, despite the great non-interference rule of the Others, Athena was curious by nature. Her figure glowed a bright white while being formed into a shapeless form before shooting towards the galaxy laid out in front of her.
Even though she was formless, Athena imagined her lips pressed together as she took in the surroundings after piercing through the blue energy field pressing against the edges of the galaxy. Although no one, not even any cosmic force, should be able to discover her presence; Athena could feel everything that was happening around the galaxy. Ordinarily she would be at one with any galaxy she travelled to, but this was different. She felt as if there was a heightened perception of what was happening all around her. And she never felt anything this heightened during her travels. She could sense hatred, rage, grief, greed, evil, and even more negative emotions in what could only be described as an invisible miasma of an all-encompassing darkness that was currently leeching out into the galaxy from various points. She could already sense a very distant part of the galaxy already shrouded in darkness… the blue hue in that location was so dark that it could be very well a blackness where no light could escape. Her heightened awareness told her that the darkness in that area of the galaxy was small relative to the rest of the galaxy. But the largest darkening of the blue field surrounding the galaxy seemed to be emanating outwards from a single planet; this darkness was nearly just as raw and turbulent as the other dark areas of the galaxy.
Athena was also aware of the turmoil caused by numerous battles and wars taking place all over the galaxy; it reminded her of another galaxy several million light years away. That particular galaxy was at war as well; and it had gotten so violent that by the end… out of a population of trillions, only a handful survived. Athena could recall walking on the blood-soaked streets of the capital planet as ships flew overhead firing spheres of plasma at the buildings which housed the leadership of the very people who started the war of genocide. Conditions on most of the planets in that other galaxy were very similar- fields and fields of bodies whose blood stained the grounds they lay upon.
Pushing the situation in the other galaxy to the back of her mind, Athena continued towards the world which seemed to be one of the heaviest sources of this darkness. As Athena neared the planet, she was awestruck. From orbit, the planet was like a shining jewel in space. However, the closer she got to the planet, the more she could see various debris of ships and bodies that were orbiting the planet.
'There must have been a great battle in orbit of this planet,' Athena thought before she entered the atmosphere and located the source of the darkness… in fact there seemed to be two sources of the darkness. Athena made her way to the first location on the top floor of a very tall building. The light blue energy field of the galaxy was already a darker shade upon appearing in a large office – a place she sensed was a source of this darkness. Athena found herself staring at the back of an old man with combed grey hair staring out the window at the numerous flying vehicles zooming past. She could make out the waves of darkness emanating from the man; waves that were spreading out into the open space around him. The energy then flowed outside his office and seemed to darken the blue field of energy that covered this planet.
"Senator," he spoke in a calm and measured voice that belied the anger Athena sensed from him. Athena slowly walked around the man, his back to her line of sight, until she got a good look at the earpiece, "I can assure you I have no intention of holding onto the powers granted by the Senate longer than I have to. Once General Grievous has been found and defeated, I will implore the Senate to begin an immediate reversal of the emergency powers granted to me."
Athena turned away from the man who continued speaking into his earpiece. Her eyes glanced at the paintings on the wall, as well as the numerous sculptures before settling on a statue of red and blue armour to her left. All the while, she could feel the dark energy in the large room trying to 'stick' onto her body like mud. However, it was unable to even pierce the shield around her body that prevented anyone from sensing her presence. Sighing, Athena sensed everything around her was contaminated with this darkness… from the carpet covering the floor, to the walls, to the table and the papers on the desk, the desk itself, and the tablets on the desk, to the ornaments on the walls, to the paintings, the sculptures, and even the armour. She could sense the whole planet was already contaminated with this darkness emanating from the old man and from the second source.
She was feeling sickened from just staring at the darkness in the energy field all around her. Athena took in a deep breath while changing her perception of the world around her. Now she was seeing everything as a normal human; she could not see the swirling dark blue energy field around her. However, she could still feel its presence, and it was very strong as it was pressing against her personal shield.
Athena was about to turn away from the armour when she felt a surge of anger. And just as she felt that surge, she heard a 'snap-hiss!' followed by a BUZZZZ! before there was a glowing red blade of light that pierced through her chest. It was then she heard a voice full of malice and hate whisper just behind her.
"Who are you?"
Athena was surprised. No one should be able to sense her, especially not any human.
'But this one did,' Athena thought as she looked down her chest at the red glowing blade which continued to buzz violently as it pierced her chest, 'interesting, very interesting.'
Palpatine, a few minutes ago.
It was on a conference call with the group of senators calling themselves the Loyalist Committee that had Sheev Palpatine, the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic, doing everything in his power not to strangle them through the dark side of the Force. All they were concerned with was the current situation regarding General Grievous and when the Supreme Chancellor would be giving up his powers. They were also pestering him on the timing of new elections for a new Supreme Chancellor. Oh, how he wanted to execute Order Sixty-Six then and there so that, once the Jedi were out of the way, he could take control of the entire Galaxy and then do away with these very Senators who were annoying him. He would see the Jedi fall… he would see the Republic fall; it was the final endgame of a grand plan from the time of Darth Bane, a plan that would see fruition under Palpatine's rule of the Republic. He would see it all replaced by a Galactic Empire with Anakin Skywalker as his appentice.
Palpatine pressed his lips together as he stared out the curved transparasteel wall of his office and watched as the numerous speeders passed by while he spoke with Senator Mon Mothma. His voice was reasonable and calm while at the same time he revelled in the thought of the Senator's face turning blue as she was slowly strangled to death. Ah, how he looked forward to that day, especially if she and her fellow senators did not accept his rule. Honestly, he would be surprised if they did… especially after all the democracy speak which they spewed. He could only make out the other Senatorial voices in the background of the call screeching at him while he used the Force to locate them.
A few moments later, he found the location of the so-called Loyalist Committee. '500 Republica,' the old man thought to himself as a wicked smile formed on his face while he spoke now to the Senator from Alderaan, Bail Organa. Just as Mothma's voice came back on his earpiece a few minutes later, Palpatine narrowed his eyes at the sight of 500 Republica in the distance before looking up to the sky with a confused look on his face. He furrowed his eyebrows at the ripples he could sense through the Force as something shot through the atmosphere and towards the surface of Coruscant. It was as if a stone was dropped into a body of water… the stone causing ripples as it fell towards the bottom while water curved and twisted around it and left a trail behind. He could not see the disturbance, but he felt it as it turned… all the while causing ripples to move outwards as this mysterious phenomenon fell towards the planet.
"Chancellor?" Mothma's voice rang in his ear just as he felt the disturbance come to a sudden stop behind him. And just as a stone stopping at the bottom of the body of water, there was a slight surge in the Force. He continued speaking as the Force rippled – only this time it was very slightly as if the object or a strange being behind him – was slowly moving towards the statues that adorned the walls at the rear of the office to his right.
"Senator," he said as he flexed the fingers on his right hand which focusing his eyes on his reflection hoping to get a glimpse of the intruder. But there was no reflection of whoever it was that entered his office. He pulled his lightsaber to him from the compartment under his desk and gripped it tight. How dare someone or something try and sneak up on him… he was the Dark Lord of the Sith; he was going to be the most powerful of them all and the one to completely annihilate the Jedi. So how dare something try and surprise him. He hid his growing anger… it was something he was very good at after all… as he spoke to Mothma, "I can assure you I have no intention of holding onto the emergency powers granted by the Senate longer than I have to."
There was silence on the other line for a few seconds before Mon Mothma's voice came through, "very well, Chancellor. We expect to be briefed on the continued search for General Grievous."
"Of course," Palpatine responded with a feeling of rage permeating his body while thinking, 'how dare she try to command me.' He continued by saying, "until then, Senator. Have a good day."
Palpatine touched the earpiece and disconnected the call while he stood staring at the flying speeders darting past the window. His eyes focused on his reflection and then onto the reflection of his office space behind him. There was no one there, but he could sense someone moving. He could tell this being was not within the Force – this fact made it even more useful to capture and study this possible assassin.
He knew that the Force permeated every living thing, so having sensed someone outside the Force, yet moving through it like a stone in water, was unusual. True, there were beings that could hide themselves in the Force – Palpatine considered himself to be one of those very powerful beings through the use of his Force Cloak ability. But what he was sensing now was unusual since he could only sense a presence but nothing else. Palpatine turned around and eyed a hidden compartment on the left side of his desk. He called on the Force, using it to open the compartment and then pull the hidden lightsaber to his awaiting hand.
His eyes were focused on the empty space several feet in front of him, he could feel the ripples caused by the unknown entity moving away from him. 'It does not see me, nor does it sense me?' Palpatine thought as he slowly walked towards the source of the ripples in the Force. 'What assassin would not take their chance now?' Palpatine mentally chuckled knowing that an invisible assassin would not even have a chance to try killing him unless he allowed it.
'Out of the many questions I would like to know is who would order this assassination,' Palpatine thought to himself as he neared the source of the disruption in the Force. Whatever caused the ripples in the Force, it was no longer moving. Palpatine resolved to question this invisible being under the harshest of conditions just as he stopped inches away from the source. He was staring at a statue against the wall in the direction of the source before he swiftly ignited his lightsaber and then stabbed what he believed was the back of whoever was in the room with him.
However, much to his surprise, there was no screaming just as there would be when any other living thing was cut by the superheated blade of a lightsaber. There was silence in his office as he stared at the open space in front of him; the lightsaber in his hand pointed outwards away from him with the blood red blade stabbed into empty air.
It wasn't possible. He swept the blade through the air to his right and didn't even feel the weight of the handle get fractionally heavy – a usual occurrence due to the resistance when the plasma blade cut through a body or an object. Suddenly he felt the ripples in the Force once again from the same point in front of him.
There was something there, Palpatine was absolutely sure of it. He stabbed the open air in front of him once again and then, to get a better sense of what he was facing, channelled the dark side of the Force through the handle and then the blade of the lightsaber.
And to his surprise, there was no reaction. He could sense the being in front of him, yet there was no reaction to the dark side of the Force flowing through the blade. He furrowed his eyes at the empty space in front of him, the red plasma of his lightsaber blade stabbing into nothingness.
"Who are you?" he hissed.
Athena
Athena frowned at the plasma blade sticking through her chest before she harmlessly stepped to one side and then turned around to face the old man. She had felt him trying to push the very same dark energy surrounding them into her, but she was able to divert that energy back into the surrounding area. She slowly circled the man, who was slowly turning around in her direction as well.
"Speak!" the old man growled out his order. Athena heard his voice take on a darker undertone as his eyes flashed yellow and his face turned a deathly pale for an instant. To Athena, it seemed as if the man could sense her general direction while she moved. And when she stopped moving, the man hesitated for a few seconds before stabbing her again while pushing dark energy through his blade.
Athena frowned as the energy simply flowed through the blade instead of through her.
'What are you trying to do?' she thought to herself.
The old man sneered before he pulled back the blade and then deactivated it. Athena stared at him impressed before her eyes gazed at the hilt of the energy blade. She wondered if a weapon like this blade of light could have help the Lanteans of Atlantis during the war with the Wraith. Her expression turned to one of curiosity as she turned her attention back to the old man who was glaring in her direction while feeling her surroundings constrict around her. "You are trying to hold me in place," Athena said as she heard the old man huff while he tensed.
"I have you," he snarled. Athena could see the darkness around her tightening against the shield surrounding her; a shield meant to prevent anyone from sensing her. She could feel the dark energy against her shield being forced to bind her body in place.
She scowled at the man, 'what are you trying to do?'
Athena was curious as she tilted her head at the man whose eyes were looking around the room.
"Who are you?" he growled while slowly spinning around, his eyes searching for any disturbances in the Force.
She could feel the dark energy around her continuing to tighten against her shields in a bid to either restrict her or locate her. Sighing, Athena decided she had enough. She couldn't feel the eyes of the Others on her, which was unusual. However, she put that discovery to the back of her mind as she dropped the shield around her and made herself known to the man in front of her. Just as she appeared out of what seemed like thin air, the old man jumped back – no, more like he leapt back with an agility that belied his age. Almost immediately, Athena could feel the dark energy all around her permeate her body. She felt it digging into her very being as it flowed through her… no, not just through her, it was grasping a hold of the darkness that lay within her.
"Such darkness… such power," the old man whispered as his eyes, now yellow, and his blackened lips curled upwards with such malice, "who are you?"
Athena stared at the man as she sensed cold fingers trying to dig into her mind. She knew the old man was trying to read her mind, that he was trying to force the darkness in her soul to grow. She could feel the dark energy swirling around her arms and legs… the energy trying to bind her in place while more of the darkness was forced into her.
"No matter," the man said as he waved his hand, "I…"
"You seek to hold me?" Athena said as she forced the swirling dark energy away from her with a wave of her hand, much to the old man's surprise. She then stepped forward just as he ignited the device in his hand. Athena then pushed away the strange energy which sought to grab a hold of the darkness within her while, at the same time, she waved her right hand to force the glowing weapon out of the old man's hand. The weapon deactivated and was thrown across to the far wall which it hit with a THUD before falling down to the carpeted floor.
Athena stared at the weapon before turning towards the surprised old man and then waved her left hand and mentally pushed him against the wall behind him where he was held a few inches over the floor. Athena could see the look of rage on the old man while striding towards him. At the same time, he continued to try forcing the dark energy in the office to push back against her… but Athena pushed aside those efforts. Now just inches away from the man, Athena placed a hand on his chest and spoke while tilting her head, "hello, child…" Athena smirked at the man's sneer as she began pushing aside the darkest of shield around his mind, "now tell me everything I need to know."
TBC.