Fated Origins: Chapter 7: Ambiguous Revelations
A/N: Once again, thanks to my reviewers and readers. Hope you enjoy this update, and selected review responses are at the bottom.
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"Equality is a lie…A myth to appease the masses. Simply look around and you will see the lie for what it is! There are those with power, those with the strength and will to lead. And there are those meant to follow—those incapable of anything but servitude and a meager, worthless existence."
-Darth Bane
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Unknown Date, Day One of Cadmus' Return, Nymphadora Tonks' Flat
Pop.
Pop.
Pop.
Cadmus froze.
"Well, hello there, Riddle."
..:O:..
The gruff, male voice continued without omitting a beat.
"It was a stupid choice to come here, Riddle. Activated Tonks' wards. The entire force is on their way, right now. Your little crime spree is over."
Spree? Who dare paint a Sith Lord a common felon? Cadmus spun around to face his impudent challenger.
Challenger-s. Three humanoid men stood before him, wands held purposefully in their outstretched hands and vindication etched into their countenances. Their defensive stances portrayed combat training of some sort. They were dressed in the same dark robes as the one he currently wore, the oversized garment that Tonks had retrieved from the large, black-skinned man.
Local law enforcement. Again. This planet would pay direly for its imprudent actions against the Empire.
"Not so fast, Riddle!" the peacekeeper on the left shouted. "Don't move another inch!"
Like an onslaught of molten lava, anger coursed through the veins of Cadmus. Again these insolents order him? The Galaxy bows to the Empire!
His robes began to billow about slightly as his anger bonded with the Force, congealing in a heated, vehement aura. Around them, the air appeared to thicken and grow heavier, as the lighting dulled into a dim glow. Shadows in the now darkened space looked as if to twist and be animate, like convulsing sheets of black matter. The orange of his Sith's irises seemed to illuminate in the absolute energy of his power.
One of the officials' eyes widened faintly, and he took a hesitant step backwards. "What in Merlin's-,"
With a resonant crack, the speaking man's head suddenly swiveled a swift half-circle. His spinal column snapped like brittle matchwood, and his limbs instantly slackened at the loss of nervous control. Like a teetering tree split to the very edge of its trunk, he took another unconscious step backwards and fell. His large body hit the carpet listlessly, his wand tumbling to the floor like just what it was, an ineffective twig.
The Dark Lord of the Sith had not even stirred. Too simple.
"Williamson!" the middle one frenziedly shouted. "You ruddy bastard! Stupefy!"
Cadmus was unaware of the magic curse even hitting him; all that it brought about was the sensation that somebody had dealt him a blow to the abdomen. Cadmus roared; a half-angered, half-amused sound that echoed in the enclosed space.
"Foolish magicians!" the Sith growled. "Now, know true power!"
In a mighty motion, he drew back and then thrust out his arms, a powerful wave of the Force emitting on command. Both adversaries were tossed like mere leaves to the rear, one colliding with the wall, and the other the table.
Cadmus' aura now a wrathful tempest, he lashed out in the Force, attacking the prostrate officer nearest him with a vicious, internal strike. He was defenseless against the Sith's Force attacks; incapable of wielding the energy to block him. The man screamed like a dying rabbit, gripping his torso with both hands as Cadmus ruthlessly tore at his sinews and capillaries with an invisible hand. Convulsing as his inner systems were dismantled by the very seams, he vomited a spray of crimson blood, which splattered like erratically-tossed paint on the nearest wall.
With a final manipulation of the Force, Cadmus tweaked the man's heart, causing it to explode like an overripe fruit in the sun. His misery ended; Death took him, desecrated, and he immediately went motionless. Cadmus whipped around to locate his cohort….
The other attacker had recovered.
"Bombarda!"
With barely a moment to react to the obvious hex, Cadmus propelled himself sharply to the left with a burst of Force energy, and he watched as a hole was blown clearly through the wall he was standing before seconds ago. Night sky became visible through the breach, stars twinkling and a moon hanging low.
"Petrificus Totalus!"
Cadmus dodged the enchantment like a nimble fox. The being that had fired it was several paces in front of him, a somewhat portly man with a strange, mechanical eye that pivoted about wildly. His forehead had a significant lateral laceration, no doubt inflicted by Cadmus' attack. Without pausing, the odd-eyed man began to wave his wand in irregular motions, and akin to a blaster pistol, began to fire red bolts of light from it.
And with that, a furious mêlée inaugurated. The Sith Lord moved like grace incarnate, sprightly bobbing and evading every magical enchantment the man of girth cast at him. In turn, Cadmus unleashed a devastatingly powerful stream of Electrical Force from his fingers, the blue strands of pure energy erupting from the tips like jets of jagged water. But the man was resilient, conjuring up a protective shield of magic, which managed to barely withstand the raw power of the Lightning. Cadmus felt the shield quickly weaken under the unfailing attack and the man accordingly grow alarmed at this display of strength…
The safeguard broke. Cadmus suspended the Lightning, drawing in his intensity. Time seemed to become a dying crawl, as Cadmus raised his arms into the air and brought them down again like two powerful hammers. He struck the duo of limbs against the floor, and consequentially, the air seemed to detonate. The big man was blown backwards at the shockwave of utter power that was released, straight through the wall, which too came loose. An uproar of dynamic ambient energy pulsated through the tiny room, demolishing and sullying everything and anything that was ill-fated enough to be present.
In a moment, it was finished. Cadmus stood, torso heaving in his power, the air amidst crackling with the live energy of it. The flat had been subsequently ravaged; the wall the man had been blown through completely shattered, the sparse furniture scattered and broken. It appeared as if someone had let off an explosion in the space. Truly a wonder that the building was even still standing, reduced now to a chaotic hull.
He remained there like a colossus, the fresh saccharine of victory dousing over him like water over a raging fire. His unparalleled skill was a glorious sight; the full culmination of everything that encompassed a true Dark Lord of the Sith, beheld in a single act of capability. Eyes aflame with the dark passion of the Force's Shadow, he turned, and with a sweeping motion of his long arms, blew out the rest of the partitions. Each blew apart like frail chalk, the rubble scattering in all directions, until nothing was left but the home's frame. With a gleeful cackle, he flicked his extraordinarily long fingers upwards, and the flat's roof was torn from the skeleton. He simply held it there for a moment, suspended, before flinging it like a weightless stone into the night.
The expanse of the shrouded sky was laid bare before him. Stars hailed his power, and the moon seemed to distantly pay its respects. This planet would bow before him of their accord or by coercion, surely, but somehow he vaguely felt a sense of kinship with this astral piece of rock. It appeared to welcome him, as if he belonged here. Perhaps, it would not needlessly be destroyed…
A shrill moan pierced the recently-established tranquility.
Tonks.
With a commanding gait, Cadmus strode through the exposed doorframe and into the following room. There, in a heap, Nymphadora Tonks lay lightly rousing, beneath a row of smashed, wooden cabinets. In three paces, Cadmus was before her, heaving her off of the ground by her hair. She yelped numbly.
"You betrayed me, Tonks," he hissed, eyes flashing like pools of magma. "But, because of these strange circumstances, I cannot kill you. I still require of you. Be grateful, you foolish girl; I should have you torn limb from limb at the gnarled hands of a Rancor in the Death Pits."
She said nothing, most likely due to the fact she was still half-unconscious.
"Not even good for simple communication," the Sith muttered.
With one arm, he hauled her up and onto his shoulder.
And without another glance about the ruined flat, he proceeded through the uncovered side of the building and into the alien night.
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July 16, 1996, Day Two of Cadmus' Return, 4:00 A.M.-Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
"Albus, we're doomed-"
"Relative of You-Know-Who, kidnapped Nymphadora Tonks and that Healer; who the bloody hell knows what he could be doing as we speak-,"
"We need international help-,"
"He could be anywhere, for Merlin's sake-,"
"Enough!"
The last exasperated order silenced all the jumbled voices.
"We cannot reach a solution with several opinions being put forth at once!" the timeworn speaker said resolutely. "So, if I may, I would like Alastor to kindly tell-,"
"But Albus-,"
"Quiet Severus! You will have your turn soon enough," stated Albus Dumbledore firmly. His kind, wizened face was not its usual state of lightheartedness; rather it seemed fraught with the weight of an immeasurable burden. "Now, I would like to ask you, Alastor, to please tell us the specific events of last night. It is necessary that we be acquainted with all we are able to about Riddle."
The grizzled old Auror, Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody, who was sitting in an old chair in the corner of the Headmaster's Office, nodded once. His eye swiveled about wildly, no doubt observing the room warily in his paranoia.
"Went a little something like this," he began, his gruff voice somewhat withdrawn. "I had been at the Ministry, around ten o' clock, on duty, when Gawain Robards had called for me, John Dawlish, and Desiderus Williamson. Told us Riddle had been located, after activating the wards at Tonks' flat. He wanted us as first-responders, and assured us the rest of the Force would be right on our heels. So we went, and to our own damn shock, found some kid, barely twenty, beating the living piss outta' Aeschylus Venerata. The Healer from St. Mungo's. The one he kidnapped." he paused, looking atypically anxious. He swallowed, and then continued, voice low.
"We ordered him to stop. Of course, we didn't expect much of a fight from this green-eared kid, even after hearing of what he did to Kingsley. Next thing I know, Williamson is falling to the floor with his spinal cord snapped so clean it looked like someone had cut it with a razor blade. The bastard hadn't even moved. John Dawlish threw a Stunner at him, but the bugger didn't even falter. In response, Riddle wielded some powerful wandless magic, and threw Dawlish and I back like toys."
He stopped once more, removing a small flask from his pocket and taking a hearty pull.
"I hit a wall, hard, and then fell to the floor. Not as quick nor as durable as I used to be, I picked myself up and found the bugger hitting Dawlish with a wandless curse of some sort. I first thought it was the Cruciatus, from the way Dawlish was screaming, but as I discovered later, it wasn't. It was something much worse."
His brown eye grew distant, and he looked troubled.
"When the Healers took a look at him, the said it was unlike anything they had ever seen. The ruddy bastard had ripped Dawlish up from the inside, like Riddle had taken a lawnmower to his internal system. Nasty, dark magic, it was. Well, subsequent that, I attacked Riddle with everything I could muster. Threw Stunners and curses as rapidly as I could summon 'em. But they did naught. Riddle moved like nothing I had ever been exposed to. No Death Eater or opponent I have ever faced could so gracefully shift about. He dodged everything I cast at him, and then utilized an incredibly strong spell to attack me. I blocked it with a Shielding Charm, but it broke through. Then, he performed such a prevailing act of magic that I was blown straight through a wall and knocked unconscious. I have no recollection of anything past that point until I came to."
"When I woke, Tonks' flat looked like it had been hit by one of those Muggle 'nuclear weapons'. All the walls had been blown out, and the roof had been torn off. Only thing left standing of the house was its frame. After checking the outside for signs of Riddle, I went in, and found Aeschylus barely alive, bleeding from every hole on his body. He told me some strange things. Information about Riddle. Said that Riddle was exhibiting signs of extreme insanity, that he was claiming to be someone named 'Darth Cadmus', and was inquiring about very odd topics, like the planet and technology. I left Aeschylus, and went to find Tonks…
"…but to no avail. Tonks is still missing, and Riddle is as well."
The aged Auror finished on that abrupt note, leaning back in his luxurious, velvet seat and gulping from his flagon. For a long, extensive period, nobody spoke. The sheer astonishing quality of the information seemed to inundate everyone's minds. Even Fawkes the phoenix sat unmoving on his perch, a queer look about its features.
Dumbledore was the first to break the lengthy hush.
"I shall say this, and I shall say this only once," he said, voice strained. "Under no circumstances will anyone go looking for Riddle. If you are to see the man, do not engage him in any way. He is powerful and highly dangerous. Furthermore, it is of the highest importance that this news does not reach Harry or any of the students, though I doubt it will be kept from them for long. The newspapers won't wait long to publish this, and we can only hope they consider the effect it will have on the populous."
He stood up, periwinkle eyes roaming over every face.
"I know these are some astounding revelations, but there is no time to deliberate upon them further. I wish to all of you a goodnight. There will be further discussions tomorrow, but for now, all of you should get some rest."
"But-,"
"No 'buts', Mr. Weasley. I shall see all of you tomorrow."
The collective teachers and Order members began to leave, but Dumbledore called out to one of them.
"Severus, please stay behind. I need to converse a matter with you."
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Chapter Six Selected Review Responses:
anon (I had to reply to this, it being my first flame/negative review): Let me begin by saying: this is not an imitation of Broken Chains, in any sense. Yes, some scenes may be similar to those in the story, but they are my own. They are different. Just look at my story! The entire plot is different, for God's sake. Furthermore: Cadmus is definitely not a Gary Stu, though I could see why you might think of him as one. He is an intensively-trained, powerful Sith Lord. That is all the reason you need. Plus, he has many character flaws.
GenoBeast: You know, your idea is actually quite good. I am really toying with that possibility. As for the Vader/Cadmus battle, you are correct, I simply needed some way to get Cadmus into HP 'verse. Thanks for your review!
darkangelmanz: No problem, your reviews are great! Yes, I see what you are saying. It just might be that Cadmus is so powerful and well-versed in the Force/magic, that he holds no need to use a wand. You will find out soon. As for your last question, yes I am. Cadmus will be wielding the Force as his main weapon, throughout the story, as well as hand-to-hand combat. Thanks for your review!