Gatherings
Chapter Two: Dark Side
Disclaimer: See chapter one.
Well, hello everyone. Welcome back to the chaos that my brain came up with. This time with Sith Lords and Dark Jedi and such.
Hope you enjoy it.
One with the Show:
A standard galactic week after the major celebration at the Jedi Temple, another special gathering took place on the Sith homeworld and tombworld of Korriban, also known as Moriband. Darth Sidious aka Emperor Palpatine had called for this gathering. Unlike the Jedi Temple celebration, this was more of an informal hangout for all of them.
Mara Jade, in her Emperor's Hand outfit, stood next to her husband, Luke Skywalker. Luke was dressed in the dark robes he wore during the Dark Empire crisis. Luke felt like a non-sentient fish out of water being there, considering the fact that he was a Grand Master of the Jedi Order. It took both his wife and his father, or rather the dark half of his father, Vader, to get him to come. Also the fact that Sidious had sent the invitation to both of them also helped. Mara's eyes shifted over the gathered darksiders, mostly looking for those that she had talked to at the Temple on Coruscant last week. She saw them on different ends of the room. Grand Inquisitor was talking to several of his underlings and High Inquisitor Jerec was talking to a human female Inquisitor, the other members of the Seven Dark Jedi were scattered about. Sarris was off talking to her father, Lord Shadowspawn or Lord Cronal. To her surprise a bit, she recognized the woman as the Jedi that Jerec had introduced her to last week. It was his former Jedi Padawan. "Wow, Like Master, Like Apprentice," Mara remarked about that one. It also made sense that Jerec was where he was, being away from Vader.
Luke found it a bit funny as Lords Revan, Malak, and Sion had to pull Lord Nihilus away from the snack table, to make sure there was enough for everyone. Revan then got into an argument with Vitiate, who was dressed as Valkorian about his comment to the Outlander that they were the only one to evermerit his full attention. Darth Marr had a few things to say to Valkorian as well.
Darth Bane had lined up the thirty or so members of the Order of the Sith Lords, also known as the Banite Sith. He was walking up and down the line, judging them. He patted Zannah's and Cognus' heads in praise of their dedication to the Rule of Two. He stopped in front of Millenial, and shook his head. "There is a reason why I developed the Rule of Two, and got away from the Rule of the Strong. When we numbered as many as the Jedi, we would plunge our blades into each other as much as we killed Jedi, which is why the old ways needed to go." Millennial opened his mouth to speak, but Bane moved on. He did not have much to say for most of the line until he got to Darth Vectivus. While he praised Vectivus for the Force Phantoms ability, he was disappointed in him for dying in his bed surrounded by friends and family, and lack of ambition. He also was disappointed in his apprentice for not challenging him for the title. This was the case for a lot of them.
When he got to Darth Gravid, he did not say a word to him. Merely raised a fist and punched the man full force in the face. Gravid went skittering along the ground a few meters. Bane then thanked his apprentice Darth Gean for getting things back on track. Darth Ramage was also slightly praised for trying to learn how to use the Dark Side to time travel.
Darth Tenebrous stood between his Twi'lek master and his secret second apprentice, Venamis. Plaguies preferred to stand next to his own apprentice. When Bane got to the Biths, he was not pleased. He knew what the next group from Tenebrous on did, in violation of the Rule of Two. He mocked Tenebrous' belief that the Jedi would just disappear if the citizens of the galaxy were provided for. Venamis, Bane merely shook his head.
Bane set a hand on Darth Plagueis' slender shoulder, and sighed. Darth Plagueis was a most interesting case, both praise and disappointment were heaped on him. Darth Plagueis was one of the most powerful Sith Lords who ever lived, and yet he fell so easily. Disappointment for not challenging his master, but glad that he took the opportunity when it presented itself. He was praised for his abilities, but also ridiculed him for wanting to live forever. Praised for setting in motion the last phase of the Grand Plan, but ridiculed for trusting an apprentice, especially one he named Sidious. Also, getting so drunk that he fell asleep with said student still in the room did not help.
Sidious was praised for completing the Grand Plan, but also mocked for taking apprentice while he was still an apprentice. As well as for his attempts to live forever, and the idea of the Rule of One. Not Krayt's Rule of One, which was a different argument, no, it was Palpatine's desire to be the sole Sith Master forever. He had almost nothing to say about the two Zabrak brothers, other than they were merely weapons to be used by their masters.
Tyranus and Vader got the disappointment treatment from Bane on the secret apprentices. Tyranus also got one for the idea that he would replace the Jedi Order with a Sith Order. Lumiya was just stared at for a moment, then Bane shook his head before moving on to her apprentice. Caedus was mocked for thinking that he could be a Sith Lord without having to sacrifice that which he loved. Be a Sith and remained loved by his family. As long as he had a lover and a child, they were limits, chains that needed to be broken.
After Bane was done with this process, the group split up. The only Sith Bane wanted near him were Zannah and Cognus. Lumiya walked over to Luke and Mara with Cadeus bringing two glasses of alcohol for the two of them.
"So, are you more loyal to Sidious or Vader?" Luke asked the other Emperor's hand. Lumiya was not expecting that to be the first thing Luke asked, then again as a Jedi Grand Master, there was a bit of a lack of subtlety about him.
Lumiya felt herself under scrutiny from both her masters, she could feel both of them gazing at her back in question. She bit her 'lip' and looked into her glass of alcohol. Knowing the potential aftermath of answering this question it took her longer to answer than intended. "Your father, he saved me after you shot me down. He rebuilt me, he trained me. He named me his Shadow Hand. I only became an Emperor's Hand because Vader wanted an agent inside the Emperor's Hands. He gave me the crystal shards that power my whip. I was his apprentice." Sidious fixed his third apprentice with a suspicious look. How many agents of his did Vader have his hooks into? As he pondered the question, it did strike him that it was odd how many of Vader's apprentices and trainees were walking around the party. Lumiya, three Starkillers, Flint, Kharys, High Inquisitor Antinnis Tremayne, Halmere, Lanu Pasiq, Gwellib Ap-Llewff, Vost Tyne, Imperial Procurator Of Justice Hethrir. Basically, any Dark Jedi in service to the Galactic Empire that was not personally trained by Palpatine was trained by Vader, though few of them could claim to have been trained to be his Sith Apprentice. Sidious did himself no favors on the fact that he had Vader do most of the teaching for his Dark Jedi agents. That may come back to bite him at a later point.
"He wanted you as his heir?" Mara cocked an eyebrow at her rival. No wonder they never liked each other.
"Perhaps he did," Lumiya said, then changed the subject. "Jade, did you hear any of the rumors about High Inquisitor Tremayne?" Lumiya asked the other Hand.
"What rumors?" Mara asked her.
"That he is one of the Hands?" Lumiya clarified what she was asking.
"Is that true? if so, I wouldn't know." Mara shrugged, Palpatine kept her in the dark about the other Hands.
"That's right, Palpatine played special favor with you. Made you think you were his only hand. Vader told me everything, as far as every Hand he knew of." Lumiya sounded cocky saying that.
"Surprising that he could keep his mouth shut around me," Mara somewhat sarcastically threw back at her rival.
"I mean, he made Galen believe that he wanted to overthrow the Emperor with him as his apprentice, and kept that lie up for seventeen years," Lumiya pointed out.
"True, he did do that," Mara had to agree that despite the fact that Vader was the hammer of the Empire, preferring brute force, he could be crafty when he wanted to be.
"Now, I wonder, considering Luke as a thing for redheads," Mara began. Luke looked sheepish, wondering where his wife was going with this line of thinking. Caedus too was wondering where his aunt was going with this. She turned to face her husband as she continued her thought, "If Vader had raised you and Leia, or you joined him on Bespin, would he have tried to pair me and you or you and Lumiya?"
"Good question, considering if we managed to overthrow Palpatine, and that you had your connection to the Emperor, I think you would still try to kill me. Though, did you have any feelings for me, Shira?" Lumiya glared at Luke for using her former name.
"That depends too, on whether or not he shoots me down on mission, making me into this," she gestured to herself.
Something caught Mara's attention out of the corner of her eye, she turned her head to look at it. Noticing three Yuuzhan Vong standing in a corner, murmuring with each other, Mara tapped Luke on the shoulder to get his attention. "Luke, look over there. Do you recognize any of them?"
"Other than Onimi? Not really." Luke stroked his chin in thought.
"I sort of recognize the female of them, the one with the prosthetic right eye. Remember when I had to help rescue Kyle from her? The only name her apprentice, who is possibly around here, gave her is Vongrella." Mara was unsure about her, as they had never found her during that adventure.
"So, who is the other one, he looks like a One Sith member," Luke observed. It only made sense to be a One Sith as not many Vong were in the galaxy before the war began. Fortunately, Darth Krayt was walking by. "Hey, Krayt," Luke called out to the Sith Lord.
"Yes, Master Skywalker?" Luke almost teased the Dark Lord by referring to him as Master A'Sharad Hett, but thought better of it.
"That one Vong Sith over there," Luke pointed to the group, "is he one of yours?"
Krayt looked over to the group, his eyes widened a bit in recognition. "That's Darth Vua."
"Darth Vua? Wonder what his story is." Caedus piped up after a bit of staying quiet.
"You are going to have to ask him," None of the Jedi in that group felt comfortable going to ask Vong what their story was. "Though, word has it, he was actually the pilot that was carrying Alpha Red toward Zonama Sekot. The one that got flung into deep space by the planet."
"Really? Huh, interesting," Luke said, not sure how to process that information.
Darth Wredd stood in a corner alone. He hated the Sith just as he hated the Jedi. It was what led him to try to destroy the One Sith Order and return to the Rule of Two, only to fail at turning an apprentice, and then getting shot. Darth Bane walked over to thank him for destroying Krayt's One Sith Order, and trying to return things to the Rule of Two.
Once the gathering had run its course, every Sith Lord got out of dodge from each other as much as they could, scattering back across the galaxy to their respective dominions.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter of whatever this plot bunny was that started it. As always, always playing with the meta, like to make weird references to the lore and such. You guys know that if you have been around for a bit.
Not sure if I am going to continue again, as both Jedi and Sith have been covered, though I may be able to do something with the Mandalorians, or at least the Mandalores, the leaders as it will. We'll see.
See you next time in whatever I am writing.
The Emperor is out. Peace.