Note: Ok, that exciting stuff is down. Now for some realizations, plotline pushing, and hospitals.

I hate needles!

Randomy: I couldn't agree more. No one but Varus can screw up that badly right after one-shot-ing the main boss! Bad Varus! *slaps hand*

Your idea behind the 'evil boss' was interesting, and frankly sounds like a barrel of laughs. Could wind up being similar to Naruto/Demon-Fox in relationship, but unfortunately the purpose of the Holocron was planned out from the very beginning. :P I don't want to make a change that big.

Holocrons, in this story, do not contain the living consciousness of the person. Memories, thoughts, and so on, yes. But you need a lot more than that to create a more… 'interactive' experience.

I'll just use that as my excuse and just carry on with what I planned to do with the Holocron. BUT DON'T WORRY! The Holocron will still royally screw with his head in humorous ways.

swemanD47: I am pleased you continue to like where this is going. Grabbing the Holocron will make things a loooot more interesting now.

It will also make things more serious. I do try to keep up the humor and antics, but I do need to flesh out the main part of the story more and more now. The Holocron was the beginning episode segment to the main plot.

A LOT more mini-plots will be presented, over time before coming together for the final half of this fiction.

(I'm laying it out like a tv-series in my head.)

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Not even the clothes on my back.

Episode 4 - Images part 1/2

Summary:

Following a lead from the former Sith, Starkiller, the Jedi searched for what might be Darth Sidius on Coruscant. One team per Master was assigned for a week.

Skywalker and his team, assigned by Windu, conducted a quick search and investigated a possible location. What they found were hostile droids unlike anything Skywalker recalled the Confederacy producing and skeletal remains.

A final skirmish with a group of the droids joined together into a much larger form was ended when Varus unknowingly tapped back into a part of his Sith power. He remains ignorant of the nature of his power, but Skywalker has reason to be concerned.

Deeper inside the droid facility was the object being guarded, a Sith Holocron. In usual Varus fashion, he walked right up to it and touched it.

Followed by him promptly fainting.

Where am I? My head hurts… I'm on a ship, I know that much by the hum of the engine and gentle rocking. The lights flicker periodically, but it is not ghostly or cursed. The ship is full of life.

I see before me a man brazen in scars. He wears large heavy armor and a large Gatling gun on his back. I don't know him, but at the same time I do. I am shaking his hand, and though he was my enemy in some ways, he was also my most trusted friend and rival. He was a man of his word no matter how vulgar or barbaric his words may be. Canderous Ordo.

I don't remember him… I don't know him. Yet why is he nodding at me with reverent respect? Why am I laughing with him? Why is he telling me stories of great battles and sharing drinks with me? I don't even drink.

I leave the room. My head hurts.

I see a tall Cathar. A source of my guilt, but also resolve. She sees me as many things: Master, murderer, savior, one-sided lover. None of her emotions are mine to return and she understands. She stays by my side as a reject no matter of our past. I hold her to no contract but that which keeps her by my side day after day, yet I know she will never leave me. She is as much my teacher as I am hers. She stands as a symbol and living reflection of the mistakes I have made, but also my drive to fix them. Her sheer existence having given me the drive once to do what lesser men would not. Juhani.

Why does she look at me with this love and respect? I don't know her. I never hurt her or her family.

I see an old man tagging along to find his way again. He talks awful and with barbs, but there is an underlying respect.

A droid stands at attention in the corner of the room every hour of the day waiting for orders. If I say go, it will go. If I say stop, I will stop. If I say kill, it will laugh in glee, pull out a stupid one-liner I programmed into it as a joke, and relish every scream it can inflict in my name upon 'undesirable meat-bags'.

Zaalbar. The Wookie servant who I let go to revive his people in their war with the poachers. I never mistreated him, and he came to love me in his own way once he saw my honor. He left believing himself a better Wookie having been cured of his hatred of outsiders. Mostly.

Vao. Dear little friend. Naïve and yet street smart at the same time. Refused to have fallen into the darkness of the heart so many in gangs find themselves in and held onto an inborn innocence. She left me to actually run her own ship. So far as I know she spends the majority of her time helping Zalbar's clan with their economic issues. She left with a wink, a surprise peck on the cheek to rile everyone up and laugh at, and a promise to get me a drink when she is old enough.

She looks amazingly a lot like Ahsoka… Except one giant shade of blue. But why is everyone smiling at me in their own way? I don't know them! I don't know this ship I'm standing in!

I look around trying to see where I am and lock eyes with a man in the clothing of a rogue.

Carth Onasi… At once a combination of respect and hatred. The wounds I dealt in the past were too close to his heart for him to ever truly forgive, but he still came to respect me and forgive at least a little bit. To the end of my days I know I will still see the pain in him and the conflict in his eyes every time he looks at me. The desire to understand I am a new man, but yet still wears the face of the old.

I don't know how I know him. I just do. He left to become a general for the Republic but came around periodically to share drinks with me and Bastilla.

Bastilla… I see a woman. Her face lights up at my presence and she relaxes into my arms. Always so uptight. Always so filled with conflict. Around me she just… lets go. She knows I will always pick her back up, even when she fell to the Dark Side and tried to kill me.

Bastilla… My head hurts.

Wait! Wait, wait wait… Why is she in my bed!? I don't know this wo-…

I'm standing in a room of Jedi Masters. They are yelling stuff. The irony is not lost on me. After all, the mantra of Jedi is: There is no emotion, there is peace.

I'm a Sith. I'm a Jedi. I am young. I am old. I wear a red mask. I let my mocking smile be my mask. They declare me a hero, yet want me exiled in secret. They declare me a monster and abomination, and yet they want to erase me to give me a second chance. Bastilla is by my side. My Padawan is by my side. Tree-Hugger is by my side.

I see beside me in the council chambers standing before them a man. Around him is ghost images of both Bastilla and a man I don't recognize but know to be his Padawan. I look to the man and see a pair of lightsabers. Red and blue, as well as some backup greens and purples. He wears a dark cloak and a red mask over his face. Even with the mask on I can see his deep scars across his face and the deeper ones within his soul and heart, being healed by the love of his family yet rejected by the ideals he returned to.

The man turns to look at me.

Within his eyes is planets and war. My head hurts.

I see planets. Hundreds of planets. I… him… have fought and bled on most of them. I see battles and ships.

One ship in particular stands out. It is one in pieces held together solely by the power of the Sith who occupies it. I see the Sith himself. He wears a black cloak over his body and a mask that leaves all in horror. He is no longer mortal, but a specter held together by his own power just as much as the ship.

I see the specter with a boy. The boy is ordered to kill. To murder. When he refuses, he is punished. When he does it too slowly. He is beaten. When he shows a moment of weakness, he screams as the specter torments the child's mind. The specter looks at me.

In the specter's empty eyes I see stars. He lunges at me with his hands outstretched to take my life, then all of it disappears.

The stars spin like soup and I manage to focus on six of them that stand out most of all.

One star formation resides within a tomb of Korriban.

One resides within the caves of Tatooine.

One within the waters of Manaan.

One in the darkness of Kashyyk.

And one on a destroyed ship in Malachor V.

I see a cocoon of metal by a star.

I've never been there… so why can I see them so clearly?... By the Force my head hurts…

Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker sat on the edge of Varus's bed watching him. The young man twisted in turn and groaned. He was sweating and murmuring nonsense. As though the physical signs weren't enough to show he was having a nightmare, the Force energy around him was in chaos.

Force usually acts at a wave type or "flavor" that can be distinguished from one person to another as their personality affects the energy directly without their knowledge. Right now, it was though the Force couldn't decide what kind of person it was laying in the hospital bed. Anakin was not sure what was going on, specifically, but he knew that there was a war being played out inside Varus.

The 'war' obviously could mess with the mind-wipe Varus already had planted over him, but he felt there was something else at work.

By his side stood Ahsoka. She had a bandage over her head and she wore a hospital gown. She was relieved earlier that day after a week of examination. Her concussion had spiked, but she was in the care of people who could react quickly and there was no damage. All she had at most was no memory of being hurt at all and a headache. Everything else was positive.

She observed the war playing out alongside him.

"Will he be alright?" She finally asked.

Anakin had no answer for her. He smiled up at her. "Let's go to the gardens. It will do us no good to worry and waste away. I am expecting Chancellor Palpatine and Master Windu later."

"Is it that bad?"

"Yes and no. I was already expecting to talk with them both in person. I would leave to meet them, but I was told to stay in the hospital myself. Rust penetrating the body apparently warrants shots." He shuddered.

They entered the garden and started their routine of forms, meditation, and sparring. Today everything was wrong. Not only were they injured, which was expected, but they had not been able to do it like this in a while. Having Varus inserted into their team had thrown off their timing. They were off-balance.

Ahsoka, being the snippy, straight-forward girl she was, wasn't one to just let things lie. "I miss this…"

"Sparring?" Anakin asked before wiping sweat off of him. They had only just started and he was almost ready to call it quits. The shots were wearing down his stamina to boost his immune system.

"Sparring. Meditating. Us practicing… Just… us. All of it. Is it wrong that I am disheveled? Is it wrong that I'm… I'm…" She stopped and looked to him earnestly.

"Jealous?" He guessed.

She refused to speak. The answer was there.

Anakin wondered where he had gone wrong. He recalled how he introduced the two, and while it was less than favorable, there was understanding as to why. She knew that Varus needed extra attention to help start him off. Even now he needed it. She knew beforehand that Varus would be joining them. She understood the need, the orders, the… But then again the heart is not so understanding. It is unreasonable at most times. Love and feelings are things that can't just be explained like physics or numbers.

The Knight sat on a bench and checked his bandages. They hadn't loosened. He motioned for her to join him.

"It is not wrong to be thrown off and out of sync, Snips." He finally answered softly. "We were a team of two. Before, it was just us. We grew in sync in that. Varus's addition is naturally going to shatter our teamwork, our system, our sync. But it is not gone, Snips. It just needs to make room for him. You and I are still a team."

"Yeah…" She rocked her feet back and forth gloomily. "I know… I know it is wrong to be jealous, but I can't help wishing for the way things were."

Anakin said carefully, "Jealously is a very broad term with many meanings and ways it can develop. Not all are wrong. Jealously in its basic form is first an acknowledgement of what you do not have in comparison of another. It may be wisdom, strength, credits… The question is what you do with it. Would you kill Varus to restore us?"

"No!" She replied in shock.

"Would you go against the wishes of the Council and have him moved to another?"

"No… I… It might be wise to find him a teacher who has no Padawan, so he might have the attention needed, but I do understand why they would put him on you. Teachers are short right now."

"Exactly. If you wouldn't get rid of Varus to fix our 'sync', then what would you do?" Anakin finished.

Ahsoka sighed. The answer was obvious enough. They would need to start their sync over. "I'm sorry for my jealousy…"

"Don't apologize for having a brain, Snips… You were able to see a difference in how things were and how things are. But just because things were strong once doesn't mean it can't be so again. Strive for the future, not the past. Most of all take the time to think about what to do with your feelings instead of letting your emotions stew. The problem with emotions is not when you have them, but when you don't deal with them appropriately."

"But… There is no emotion." She recited from memory. It was more a confused question than a statement.

"Yeah… I know." He wasn't sure what to say about that. It felt wrong to him, but he couldn't put his finger on it. The Jedi Code was all he knew.

"I trust you are better, my friend?"

Palpatine entered the room to see Anakin, Ahsoka, and Mace Windu sitting at a small table in the Knight's hospital room. They were all drinking something of their choice.

"Much!" Anakin confirmed. "Senator Amidala came by earlier to wish us well."

"Ah, so that is what kept her! I wanted to inquire with her on some funding that is late from Naboo, but she wasn't in her office." Palpatine pulled out a bench and sat at the hover table with them. The gangly man groaned as he lowered himself down. "Ooph… I am getting much too old."

Palpatine nodded to Ahsoka. "How are you little one?"

"Good." She smiled formally. She knew Palpatine through her master well, but he was still the Supreme Chancellor. She couldn't help being uptight and tense.

"That is good. Would you be so kind as to leave us to a private discussion?"

"Yes, Chancellor. I mean, no! I mean… Uh…"

Palpatine laughed. "Just leave then, if you are content to do so."

"Yes, Chancellor." She bowed to everyone and left to return to her room in the hospital. Anakin picked up her tea and put it aside.

"This report has been coming much too late." Windu started after sipping his drink.

He looked to Anakin. "When you returned badly off, Kota gave his perspective to the Council. Did you read it?" The Knight shook his head. "I see, well, he presented to us some of your physical findings and we gave them to others to be analyzed. The results should come in tomorrow. He told us of the battle, and how the new droids fight, but what is most peculiar is their later behavior. They grew desperate the closer you came to your own end, then suddenly stopped and returned home. He followed them to the end of the complex and found hundreds of the droids at attention in a room. They attempted to sabotage the collective, but their numbers were replenished instantly through a form of atom-energy replication. Attempts to limit their numbers is ineffective, but they also are not resisting. I believe the droid's behavior to be no coincidence in comparison of what you encountered on your end. A giant snake form 'baller', as they have been dubbed, and a dead Sith Holocron."

"Atom-energy replication…" Anakin murmured. "I am familiar with the concept. Some have managed to do it on a small scale for food and water in desperate places, but the energy required to fuel such a demand is massive. To do what you suggest it was doing… It would take the energy of our entire planet!"

Palpatine and Windu both nodded in agreement. Windu replied, "I do not doubt it, but let us leave this mystery for the engineers. What I want is your perspective from the beginning. Include everything you deem important, but most of all: Varus. It is no coincidence to me that he is at war with himself right now."

Palpatine stated his agreement. "Very well Master, Chancellor." Anakin bowed slightly. He took a sip to ease his dry throat and said his tale as best he could with a croak. Drugs has a way of drying his throat out.

When he was through they were struck silent. It was no surprise to the Knight. They had much to think over. He quietly rose, poured himself more water, and excused himself to lay down on his hospital bed. He inclined the head up and inspected his bandages again. He would need them replaced in about two hours.

Palpatine was the first to speak. "Let me see if I have this clear. Master Jedi, Holocron are devices of knowledge, more specifically, Sith knowledge?"

"A Holocron's force side reflects the force influence of the one to pour his or her knowledge into it. A Jedi can do it just as well, but this case would be Sith. The contents of a Holocron is the direct knowledge of the maker, sometimes their entire existence."

"Right, ok… and Varus… downloaded it?"

Anakin said, "It would be reasonable to assume so, Chancellor. Holocron's sometimes are strong enough to teach without contact, but direct contact is dangerous for that reason. The flood of information is like being hit by a hover train."

Palpatine nodded in thought. "I… see… Would it have a direct effect on Varus's prior mind wipe?"

At this they all went silent. Anakin hoped it wasn't so, but couldn't reject the thought. Windu was more factual and believed it would. Reading their mood, Palpatine murmured, "Well, that is just lovely…" He said sarcastically. "I thought these mind-wipes of yours were full proof!"

"They erase the physical energy that makes up memories. They do not account for when the Force shoves a lifetime of memories into you." Windu corrected. "There are some times we cannot account for! Chancellor!"

The Chancellor apologized. "Forgive me, I did not mean to speak rudely. I do not blame you, of course… … I see no way around it, we must wipe him again."

"What!?" Anakin and Windu both yelled in surprise. The former with less control than the latter.

"Chancellor!" Anakin started.

"Chancellor." Windu interrupted. "A second attempt will kill him and possibly injure those who try it. Not only would the process require us having direct contact with the very Sith information in him and risk decontamination of ourselves, but attempting to… there is no right way to say this… 'reformat' a mind entirely requires the mind first be stable enough to handle it without backlash. The first time was risky enough, the second is beyond what I am willing to consider."

"Then what would you suggest?" Palpatine asked. "I am open to suggestions, Master Jedi. But I must consider the people of the Republic. I cannot have a… compromised force user frolicking about! I don't know if he is Sith anymore, nor if he will awaken as one. But nor can I think he to be Jedi with the knowledge of a Sith overwhelming him."

"Suppress it."

Windu and Palpatine both looked to the Jedi Knight. Anakin continued, "Suppressing a memory is much easier and less damaging than wiping a memory entirely. Chancellor, It is… not common, but still a known practice. Varus cannot know what he used to be. But he can know he has a Sith inside his head NOW. If he acknowledges it, and can draws a line to distinguish it from him, then not only can he continue to be Varus, but he can be stronger for it and trust us more. In time, when he is more stable, we may even be able to pull it back out of him and reverse the process. We may even be able to learn from it!"

"What can we learn from a Sith?" Windu asked in disbelief.

"Well, for starters, what it was we found down there. Then how it is done. Where the droids came from. And finally who made the blueprints and how to make them ourselves. Those things are nasty in high numbers, Master. Fighting a lot of them individually is easy. Fighting them when they combine into different forms is like fighting a tank with the speed and reaction of a raptor. We have encountered a solo 'spider' form, a group of three in 'mini-tank' form, and a group of… I believe twenty or thirty in a giant 'snake' form. Those three alone are dangerous in their own rights. Who knows how many other forms can be created. I do not look forward to fighting them again, but I wouldn't mind having one of those snakes leading the charge into a Confederate encampment. Even if it takes years for Varus to be stable enough to give us the information."

Windu said, "I see your point. I agree we may have some to gain from allowing it to remain in Varus, but the risk is great. Even greater than it was before. Few who are targeted by Sith Holocrons can fight it. Not only are we risking Starkiller returning, but a second Sith."

"I know." Anakin said firmly.

"And you believe you can contain him? Contain what is happening to him?"

"I do not believe I can suppress what has been done to him. A specialist will be needed. But I can give him something else. He needs a place to be able to call home."

"Attachment is for-"

"Home in a generic sense, Master. I call the Order home. In our own ways we all do."

"This is back to how much trust and initiative we are willing to make in earning his loyalty and trust?"

"In some ways, yes." Anakin repositioned himself on his bed. "During my time with him I have come to learn of what he expects and how Darth Nihilus treated him. I believe him to have suffer a long term form of abuse."

Palpatine raised an eyebrow and looked between them in confusion for answers. Windu explained, "It is common practice in Sith Lords to abuse their students. One of the strongest ways to teach hate is to not only provide a target but to simply be abusive. Usually the abuse is raw pain, but there are times it is much deeper. Sexual abuse for instance."

"My word!" Palpatine gasped.

"Darth Nihilus was a specialist in Force that drew on the mind and life energy of his victims. I do not think he would have gone to other methods." Windu assured him.

"I can see that in Varus." Anakin agreed. "The abuse is not seen in his medical charts, but he still suffers. He draws on anger to defend himself because he feels permanently cornered. Every time he is injured or the slightest bit tired, he looks to me with the expectation that I will take advantage of his momentary weakness and hurt him. When he dealt with the snake and I put my hand on him to assure him he did well, he flinched like I was about to beat him. His instincts tell him to judge every action, every word, every detail and see if it is a threat or not."

Anakin cleared his throat and drank some more. "What Varus needs… is something to replace the abuse. It may have to be a minor attachment, it may not, but it needs to be something tangible enough for him to consciously latch on to. If we don't, he will drift away simply because he expects us to do everything in our power to hurt him. His memories may be gone, but his ghost's aren't. He needs our support. He needs empathy. Not someone to baby him, he will just view it as an insult and attack on his perceived weakness. Rather what he needs is simply a shoulder he knows he can lean on, someone whose voice understands him."

Windu looked to Palpatine a moment and sighed. He pinched his nose together in thought. After a moment he said, "I can understand where you are coming from, Skywalker, and I must agree, but not so strongly as for it to be an actual attachment. Empathy and understanding is important, but we must be careful for him to not overly focus his existence on any one thing or person. "

"Master!" Palpatine argued.

"But!" Windu interrupted with his hand up. "I cannot ignore what has happened to him. For the moment, he will be heavily guarded by four teams of Jedi Knights and work will begin for the Sith memories to be suppressed. If you can give me your solemn word, Skywalker, when you feel he is ready, then I will drop the guards."

"Thank you, Mast-"

"Under two conditions." Windu put up a finger. "First, I want him to have a psychological examination every week. I want one to join you on the battle cruiser, I want one to be here on Coruscant. Varus is not going anywhere without there being someone nearby who can be able to react if his mind collapses on itself."

Anakin considered it a moment. "May I approve the one examining him?"

"Yes."

"Then I have no problems. What is the second condition?"

"Namely information of the Holocron he sucked into his thick skull. The first clue to all of this is already passed to examiners, but the second clue would be the identity of the one who created the Holocron to begin with. We did not catch Darth Sidius…"

"Oh, yes! Pity, that…" Palpatine replied.

"But you did clear up an entire sector from a menace. We may have gained something out of this even if the original objective came up short."

"I will make sure to let you know as much as I can gather from him, Master." Anakin bowed from his seated position.

Windu stood up and put his chair to the side. "I will send the mission payment to your Senator friend."

Anakin blinked. "Why not me?"

"First off, you still live on her COUCH. Second, you are currently… indisposed."

Palpatine looked to Anakin in surprise. "You live on her couch?"

Anakin rolled his eyes. The cover story invented by the Master's ignorance was being flaunted too much in his opinion. "I am looking for an apartment… But I prefer having a roommate."

He was not about to say he was married to her.

"Ah! Well, so long as neither of you overstep yourselves. I wouldn't want to see either of you get into trouble." Palpatine smiled warmly and left him with a playful wink.

Anakin threw himself back in the bed and groaned.

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