Chapter Four
For a while after sending Arden Lyn on her mission, the Emperor had a slight suspicion that Lord Vader would send somebody to spy on her. His lack of faith in her abilities all but encouraged that line of thought in his Master whether he knew it or not. But when Kadann reported that a young boy who had confessed himself to be Lord Vader's apprentice, that thought was confirmed. "Lord Vader, why do you send a boy to spy on Arden Lyn during her mission?" Palpatine demanded immediately.
"Who dares accuse me of such a crime?" Vader replied. At that point, the Emperor showed his apprentice the hologram where Jedgar brought forth Starkiller and the boy confessed his allegiance. "We'll allow him to go this once on condition that he never again follow your servant or sleep with our Prophetess Merili. He has already agreed to stay away on those terms and we await your approval of those terms, Lord Vader," Jedgar said in the recording.
"I told him he could have his message recorded and I would deliver it to you. Now it is up to you how you reply to him, choose wisely. They could destroy your apprentice and possibly you without a second thought if you are unwise in your response," Palpatine warned before leaving Vader to think. That should teach him not to question my judgement in my future decrees Palpatine thought with a sadistic smile.
His faith in Arden Lyn had led to the revelation of an unfaithful Vader sending a spy, possibly to distract her only to fall into his own hormonal temptations. If Vader's going to send someone to spy on Arden, it should be somebody who could actually resist Merili's temptations. Like perhaps, Inquisitor Tremayne Palpatine thought, recalling Tremayne's hatred of Arden. Naturally, who could blame him after all, she had killed his friend and forced him to replace one of his lungs and both his legs.
However, due to the constant need of the Inquisitors to look for lost Jedi to either kill or lure to the Dark Side, neither he nor Torbin were available for that. Instead, Palpatine would have to trust that Lord Vader would not send out another one of his servants to spy on Arden Lyn. However, quite frankly, he had the feeling that Vader would not be able to do it in time even if he wanted to. Victory was Palpatine's as far as spies observing Arden's activity was concerned and he was proud of that.
Starkiller was glad that Jedgar and Kadann had chosen to spare him severe punishment and return him to Vader. However, he was not looking forward to what his Master had to say or do about his failure to keep an eye on Arden Lyn. After all, he had been seduced to the chambers of a member of the Prophets and was going to pay the consequences for sleeping with her. Arriving to Lord Vader's chambers with the erect posture of a responsible young man, Vader's disappointment was obvious.
"What happened to keeping an eye on Arden Lyn?" the Dark Lord asked. "I arrived and immediately went looking for her. But Merili came and before long, I was pulled to her chambers and forced to make love to her," Starkiller answered immediately. Vader said nothing, his breathing was all that could be heard as he thought about how he could respond to that reply.
Then Vader extended his hand out in a manner that Starkiller was all too familiar with: Force Choke. "You have failed me in a manner that cannot be forgiven but perhaps there is a chance at redemption," he said after a while of strangling Starkiller. "What way is that, Master?" Starkiller asked when he could recover his breath at last. "You'll find out soon enough but for now, you are dismissed," Vader answered, disappointed completely in his apprentice's affront to him.
Starkiller rubbed his neck and bowed to show his submissiveness to Lord Vader before turning around and heading back to his chambers. But along the way, he kept his head down in shame knowing full well that he had let his Master down in a way that might not be fixed. For how could he possibly mend the fact that he was no longer a virgin adolescent boy and satisfy his Master's design once again? If there was a way to make it up to Lord Vader, he would take it but for now, he chose to remain in meditation for the rest of the day... it served him better than anything the day had presented him so far.
At first, nothing but darkness surrounded Arden Lyn after she entered the Temple dedicated to a Sith Lord named Darth Vitiate. She wondered if the Dark Side was called it because those who came after her and used it also favored darkness like this. Reaching out with the Force she sensed a shaft that she could use like a torch and used the side of one of her lightsabers to spark the fire. After that, she tossed the weapon aside to begin making her way down and down into the bowels of the pyramid.
At first, she was wondering if the sources were wrong about there being traps that killed the previous spies. In fact, she began to wonder if they had fled in cowardice after delivering a false report of their deaths though an act such as that would be difficult to pull off. Plus there was the fact that according to Palpatine, such reports can be traced for signs of forgery and called on it. But what confirmed that they weren't kidding were the skeletons she was seeing at the beginning of an entrance.
Because its trap wasn't that it was a labyrinth, she guessed that there were devices set to kill along certain sections of the path. Of course it is, you nitwit! You were told that before you left for this mission she thought to herself. She had arrived at the beginning of a passage that was most definitely filled with skeletons from what she could sense.
However, she had no way of knowing what caused their deaths aside from the blades stuck in the chest of many of them. That had her wondering how the blades worked and how it was possible for them to have done this to these soldiers of the Empire and of other Sith in times past. But such things encouraged ingenuity as she decided to throw her torch across the passage and see what caused it. As she watched the little beacon of light fly right by, she watched as several harpoons ejected their heads.
They missed the torch with only one even scratching the wood and Arden knew that she might not be so lucky if she wasn't careful about it. Using the Force, she tracked the movement of the gears and wirings in the traps thus pinpointing where she needed to apply her Force power if she could. But the inner workings of these traps were too strong for her to break with her telekinesis abilities. So she determined that the best thing to do was use bursts of Force Speed when she knew they would spring.
Readying herself by taking several breaths in the direction of exercise, Arden began with a slow jug and then built up speed as she applied Force power to her movement. The traps themselves just barely missed her even when she applied Force Speed, nicking her clothes a little in the process. Beyond that, she had no problem getting through that and she managed to rescue the torch before it went out. Once she passed that, she remained unopposed for quite a ways until she came upon more skeletons though not as many as she had seen before.
Granted, there was only a small difference but it was noticeable to the ancient warrior nonetheless. She suspected that the traps would come differently this time around and as such, threw the torch across the hallway in a different fashion. Instead of throwing it straight as she did before, she threw it from the side to see if there was any difference in the angles. The result was that the harpoons shot from beneath the ground instead of behind the walls and she knew how to best dodge this trap.
She would jump across the sides of the walls rather than run across the floor as she had done before. Aiming her course carefully, she picked only points in the wall that would allow her room for bouncing off to the next point in her path. Running in the same manner that she had done before, she lunged out with her feet ahead and landed hard on the first pillar in her planned course. Then she accumulated enough Force energy whilst remaining suspended there to little spring off in seconds.
The harpoon heads erupted forth from the ground in an attempt to intercept her movement but she was too quick for even her clothes to be nicked as they had been before. Hopefully that's the last of those that I will have to see for at least a little while if I have to see it again she thought silently. Then she continued following the path of the spiraling stairs and the winding passages as they led her ever down to the heart of the Temple where the holocron lied. But suddenly, a spurt of fire burst from nowhere and nearly singed her skin and clothes, the closest it came to her life being taken.
It didn't matter in the long run though as she continued to run down the hall, dodging flame spurts whenever they came up though she eventually found a way to undo it. By the time she did though, she was already more than halfway down to the heart of the temple where the holocron was sure to be. The rest of that hallway and the next sections were of no consequence to her as they had no challenges so she guessed that she had survived all three of them though she couldn't be sure. In fact, she wondered if the blades were all part of one test and the flame spurts were part of yet another one.
Then she arrived at the chamber that held the holocron within and she began to wonder if she had been right in her first suspicion. It isn't too late, control your rage and let go of your vengeance she heard a voice say that she could've sworn sounded familiar. All too late, she recognized the voice as belonging to her father and when she tried to reach out to him, she was electrocuted by Force Lightning. "Not in millennia has one come this far to die in my temple but now another soul shall scream my name before it's destroyed!" exclaimed the source.
Arden turned around to see that the source belonged to a human man that seemed shriveled as though he had relied too much on the Dark Side power to live a long life. "Now you shall tremble in the name of Kashi Mer!" the soul added. The spirit of the Talisman, probably an illusion meant to fool me Arden thought to herself. "This is just an illusion and you are dead!" she shouted aloud.
"On the contrary Arden Lyn, I was revived by the powers of the holocron you seek and turned against you. And thank the Force for my luck in that matter too, I have grown so strong from those Yuuzhan Vong souls that I might have broken out of the Talisman were it not for your meddling," the spirit replied. "You are not the real Talisman spirit and you are just an illusion of a long-dead warlord whose time had long past," she mocked. The phantom flickered a little, Arden's words weakening it to such a point where it began to become irrational.
"I will destroy you Arden Lyn and then I will take over your body and use it to exact my revenge against the galaxy!" Kashi Mer vowed. "Maybe next time," Arden retorted before throwing him into a portal growing behind him with the Force. "An impressive display against such a weak-minded fool," another familiar voice said to Arden. Shivering, she turned around to face the source of the voice only to see that it was Xendor.
"Xendor? How... how can this be?" she asked. "The Force offers many possibilities and I have exploited one of them," he answered. "But... you were..." she began. "No longer, I'm alive because of you Arden and you are the love of my existence," he interrupted.
Arden deactivated their lightsabers and tried to touch Xendor though this was apparently another illusion which gave way to reveal the shade of the man who had created the holocron. "You are but a blind insect contemplating all that you have lost before without knowing what you could gain. My return has been inevitable from the day I perished to now. You shall be the hostess of my return and all that is good shall be gone forever!" Vitiate vowed.
"Never!" Arden screamed as she ignited her lightsabers once more and attacked the Sith Lord. He easily countered her with a lightsaber of his own, the red blade glowing with a dark, bloodthirsty passion that stained its light an even darker red than normal. "A Jedi? No, your aura is too dark and ancient for that," Vitiate asked.
"I am Arden Lyn, fallen leader of the Legions of Lettow in the First Great Jedi Schism and lover to Xendor. You, my friend, are just another asshole aspiring to inherit the legacy that we ourselves could barely have comprehended when we began studying the ways of ancient Bogan," she answered. The spirit acted as though she had gravely offended him but it was all the distraction she needed to attack. At first, it could do nothing against her punishing barrage of Jar'Kai and it looked as though she was going to push it into the portal as well.
However, Vitiate saved himself by creating a phantom of Xendor that made Arden hesitate at the moment of truth. The result was that she was Force-pushed away from the spirit that then turned back into its original form and continuously switched between that and the form of Xendor. Whenever Vitiate switched into Xendor, Arden found herself unable to do anything except defend herself from harm. No, what are you doing Arden; this is only an illusion of the man you love, it's not real! the voice of Depa Billaba exclaimed.
With that motivation, Arden's resolve renewed with the combined might of Force Valor and Battlemind coursing through her blood. It was Force power that she was glad to use against this Sith Lord who protected his holocron so diligently. You'll not use illusions against me! she mentally screamed as she continued to fight the phantom before her. "You cannot defeat me, not here in my temple where I can draw upon the power of all the years of Dark Side energy gathered here," he warned.
"If you think that then you are a fool, I was the beginning of the Dark Side thanks to my husband's sacrifice. Together, we attempted to study Bogan and hopefully see if it could be revived for good intent with the promise to leave it alone if it couldn't be. If we had not done that, I highly doubt that you would have your power right about now so you should be grateful I did what I did!" she said. "The Force works in favor of those willing to make sacrifice, I would have found the Dark Side even if you had not," Vitiate said before continuing the fight.
Arden couldn't take much more of his nonsense any longer, she began using her more powerful Force abilities from Kinetite to Force Storm. It began to slowly overwhelm the Phantom of the former Emperor of a Sith army that had come very close to toppling the Old Republic. "No, you must die, you cannot be allowed to take the holocron from here!" he exclaimed. "And why can't I take the holocron if I have earned it from you in fair combat?" she inquired.
"The price to be paid from the extraction of the holocron is more dangerous than you know," he explained. "Listen Lord Vitiate, I was placed in a trance for twenty-five thousand years, more than long enough for not even dust to remain of those I love when I awoke. I was forced to hibernate for fifteen years in an escape pod in the Void of the Universe and I meditated in grief for six months. In my time, I have paid a deeper price for my existence than any pathetic holocron is going to extract out of me!
"Stand aside or be struck down Lord Vitiate, it's your choice and still can be made," she replied furiously. "I will not stand idly by while you still my most prized possession!" he vowed with zeal. "So be it," she said grimly. Then she Force-pushed him into a statue and repeated it when he tried to escape before using Force Speed to stand within centimeters of him and grab both shoulders.
She levitated them both up a massive statue that had been dedicated to Vitiate until her feet could be solidly placed on its head before turning around and throwing the Dark Lord down. It was at this point that she concluded the attack by using a spell she had learned from Xendor early on. A spell that allowed her to send a beam of destructive energy into the statue as its conduit, crumbling its inside. She jumped off it just in time to watch as the foundation gave way and the statue smashed Vitiate where he remained in place.
Looking back on what she had done, she was glad that she had not give him an opportunity to transform back into Xendor before she crushed him. But since nothing else seemed to come out and attack her, she walked over to the pedestal that held the holocron and claimed her prize. At last, my mission is complete and I have proven myself worthy to Emperor Palpatine! she thought. It was a victory that she would savor here in the darkness of this temple where at least she was alone, for once.
Palpatine sensed Arden Lyn's victory in retrieving the holocron long before he would need any report about it. His faith in her was well-placed as was his faith in most people that he recruited into the ranks of the Empire. "Lord Vader, do you sense what I have sensed?" the Emperor asked tauntingly. "Yes, that Arden Lyn has succeeded in the obtainment of the Darth Vitiate holocron," Vader answered calmly.
Beneath the regal exterior that Vader put up, the Emperor knew that Vader was spiteful of the fact that he had been proven wrong. Yes, the Inquisitors had defeated Arden Lyn in the duel on Irkalla and provided some merit for his arguments against her abilities. However, it ended at that and it wasn't about whether or not she could do it on the basis of her defeat in that duel. "It would seem as though I was right to presume that the Inquisitors had merely caught Arden off guard when they arrived," Palpatine stated.
"You win, she is more powerful than I had given her credit for being. She may yet serve our purposes well as the Emperor's Hand," Vader admitted. "Not the Emperor's Hand, an Emperor's Hand," Palpatine corrected. "I don't understand," Vader said.
"Arden Lyn was just an experiment a plan that I had envisioned for the betterment of servants of the Empire. Now that I know that she can do well, I am intent on adding warriors with a similar caliber into a new line of duty for the Empire and one less likely to be made obsolete than the Inquisitors are. The Emperor's Hand shall be the dubbing for those that are initiated and they will do what your Inquisitors are currently incapable of," the Emperor explained. "An interesting vision Master and what to do with the Inquisitors once this group is underway?" Vader asked.
"They will be of no concern, they can splinter off and form their own organization for all I shall ever care," Palpatine answered. I fear he may have lost it now Vader thought but didn't say. "And Arden?" he inquired. He hoped the Emperor knew what he meant when he asked the question concerning her.
"You fear how she will react to finding out she is not the only one to hold the title of Emperor's Hand?" Palpatine replied. Vader nodded and warned him that she could become aggressive about hearing that. "Who said she needed to know about the others?" Palpatine asked. "You mean to tell her nothing of them... and I suppose this shall help us control her better," Vader guessed.
It was crude but a valid guess considering what the Emperor had already spilled into Vader's ears. "Yes, she is strong in the ways of the Dark Side and has already been refined in many ways beyond my need to mold her. But she still has a relatively innocent mind though whether or not this is because of the time she was born in, I have no desire to know," Palpatine admitted with a nod. "Then what of your bargain to revive her husband Xendor?" Vader persisted.
"What of it?" Palpatine retorted. At first, Vader was at a loss for words, having never expected so blunt a reply from his Master who was always tedious with his words. Then he figured it out: Palpatine had no intention on following through with his end of his bargain to her. "I understand, Master," Vader said at last.
"Is there anything else you need concern me with?" Palpatine asked. "No sir, nothing at all," Vader answered.