Chapter 45: Insidious
He rarely had guests in the shrine. The cold, dank, and dark room was hardly fit for housing the living, but more importantly, there were very few alive who were worthy of gazing upon it. He had never called Maul to this sacred place, nor Tyranus. No, Tyranus was punished for his failure in a warehouse deep in the lower levels of Coruscant, where anguished cries and pleads for help fell on the deaf ears of a people with far too many problems of their own to get involved. This shrine was for him, and him alone, until very recently, when he had invited Lumis to share in the thrill of the Dark Side, a nexus so powerful that he had hoped it would drown Lumis, allow his rage to surface, allow him to arise as something new and far more dangerous. But it didn't happen. Lumis was different. Lumis was...special, which is why Sidious had taken him in to begin with. It may be that this shrine would only ever be seen by him and young Lumis, and one other, perhaps, if that avenue played out as he had intended.
Darth Lumis was so deeply entrenched within the Force, it was difficult to see where he ended and the Force began, and with his embrace of the Dark Side, it became even harder to tell, so difficult, in fact, that the distinction between his will and the will of the Force was beginning to blur. It was making the boy's mind clouded, difficult to see, and it displeased Sidious as much as it fascinated him. Once, it was true that the Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi had been a rare talent, powerful in the Force with a potential to become one of the greatest Jedi of the Order. That was swiftly crushed when Anakin Skywalker had entered the picture, a boy so brimming with the Force that he was considered a vergence, a thing so rare and so potentially powerful that he was in position to becoming one of the greatest Jedi of all time. Skywalker had come at exactly the right time for the Sith, for the exceptional career of the Jedi Kenobi ended when he realized that he would live in the shadow of a boy unfit to train, no matter how diligent he was, and regardless of his own potential, the Jedi cast him aside in favor of something stronger.
Imbued with the Dark Side, Lumis became his own Force nexus, though Sidious would never tell him so, and his potential became limitless. However, there were certain problems with the boy's training, and now, at long last, those problems were being resolved. Since the beginning of the Sith, their power was derived from ambition, not from loyalty, and in this sense, Lumis was lacking. Maul had wanted to kill Sidious, and it had made the apprentice stronger. Dooku wanted to kill him as well, and it had also made the fallen Jedi strong. But Lumis...accepted. Everything Sidious could think to throw at him, every torture he visited upon his body and mind, every new torment he could imagine, Lumis had endured it with calm and patience and gratitude. Like a Jedi. The loyalty was welcome, yes, but it was also repulsive, and while Sidious held his dear apprentice close, he also reviled him for this weakness.
Sidious had given the boy a long leash, allowed him to do as he pleased, for the most part, occasionally giving the boy tasks he considered near impossible in hopes of sparking the raw fury of the Dark Side, but instead, he found the assignments quickly completed. The Dark Side simply refused to forge the Jedi into Sith, no matter how hard he pressed. It was why he allowed Lumis to torment the extremely necessary Tyranus, in hopes of sparking a rivalry that would lead the boy to murder his competitor. It was why he had allowed him to keep the Mandalorian he had treasured as a Jedi, for one day, she may spark the flames that would drive him to greatness. It was why he had given Lumis a holocron, far before he was ready to handle such a power, in the hopes that the whispers of the Sith Lords of Old would spark a yearning for Mastery.
Sidious had felt it only a few days earlier. The change in his apprentice had shifted the Force, disturbed the Dark Side in such a way that Sidious could feel the cool, black, inky waters of the Dark Side swirl and rend and grow into vicious storms. It was time to call him back to this shrine. It was time to see the measure of the Sith he was, and the Sith he would be.
Lumis had come to him a shell of what he was, his body weary from a powerful manipulation of the Force, his mind weak from diverting so much attention to maintaining careful control. Sidious had broken him nearly instantly, his body weak, his defenses shattered, and for the first time, the Master looked on in sinister delight as the Dark Side, in all its raw, primal glory, grasped Lumis in its claws and made him an instrument of its will. He was strong enough to fight the tide, of course, powerful enough to cull the wrathful beast into submission, and as he did, he could feel the Dark Side thrashing against him, could see murder in his apprentice's golden eyes, could sense the burning desire to strike the Master down and reign as Lord of the Sith. Young Lumis was in no position to control this incredible power, not yet. But he would be, and when he was finally in control, Sidious knew that the Dark Side would belong to Lumis, and the apprentice's loyalty would return, the snarling beast caged by a being too powerful to break away from. Lumis' will would overshadow the will of the Force, and the boy would no longer be swayed to murder without cause, would no longer be slave to the passionate outcries of freedom from his Master. Each action he took would be planned, deliberate, just as Sidious' actions were.
A soft groan echoed around the walls of the cavern, and Sidious' pale yellow eyes fell on the body on the ground, the black boots scraping on the cold, unyielding stone, his back arching as he struggled to breathe, the golden eyes distant as the Force took him, filling his mind with a rush of visions. Sidious reached out with the Force to plunge into Lumis' unguarded mind, and the man hardly seemed to notice his Master's touch within him. He hadn't noticed for days. Sidious had torn the boy's mind apart, trying to find the cause of his murderous intent, but like Lumis himself, the cause was wrapped up in the will of the Force.
The tipping point, it seemed, had come from an argument with his lover, but the cause had come from somewhere else entirely. He had reached out to grasp the reason, only to find the Force itself repel him, a bright, shining point in the Sith Lord's mind that Sidious was unable to see, unable to touch, and completely unable to compel into divulging its secrets. This was no secret of Lumis, no hidden thing he willingly kept from his Master. Lumis lay open to him, his defenses hopelessly shattered, his mind ravaged and raped of anything and everything that held interest to the Sith Master. No, this was something the Force itself was hiding from the Sith Master, and Sidious couldn't help but feel that the Force may have been striking back against him for a transgression he may have committed, or will commit.
Surrounding this untouchable thing, Sidious could see the shadows of beasts, the distinguishable armor of clones, the bodies of dead Jedi, the form of the woman Lumis loved, and through it all, he could hear the whispers of Ancient Sith, just loud enough for Sidious to hear the language, but too quiet to hear the words. Sidious wielded dominion over the powers of the Dark Side, and that this power did not yield to him could only mean one of two things. The Force was guarding Lumis, or the Dark Side within the fallen Jedi was as stubborn as the boy it served.
In the nexus of Dark Side energy, with his mind so painfully exposed, Lumis suffered persistent and repeating visions in between his periods of consciousness, and Sidious made certain he was present for all of them. They were vague, yes, but over time, they would become more clear. The visions flitted between the field of dead Jedi, the shadows of two that remained in the carnage, the sinister face of Darth Maul, a boy Sidious assumed was Lumis' progeny, a Jedi and a Sith locked in battle on a world on fire, and at the end of every vision was the face in flames, burning and screaming and shifting and completely unrecognizable. There were others as well, many others, but they were less clear, shifting more often, changing as the vision progressed. For a brief moment, Sidious had caught a glimpse of what appeared to be his own death, a bright green lightsaber in the hands of the one who caused it, a vision that he himself had never received, and it solidified his need to keep Lumis by his side as an ally. With patience, Sidious would discern the meaning and avoid this, compelling the Force away from this outcome, but he'd need Lumis to do it.
With a sharp intake of breath, Lumis began to breathe regularly again, his hazy gold eyes focusing as the Force returned him. He didn't move, but Sidious could feel the Dark Side immediately rush to his apprentice, the Force raging and snarling as it defended the fallen Sith. There was no control, no restraint, and those golden eyes burned with hatred and anger.
"Do you want to kill me, Lumis?"
Kenobi tensed, snarling in rage and muscles tensing as he fought for control, and Sidious delighted in the struggle. When he finally answered it was almost is if the Force responded with a deep, smooth, "Yes."
The Master nodded. "Have I told you about my Master, Plagueis?" Lumis nodded his head, closing his eyes tightly and swallowing hard, shaking in an effort to regain control of himself. Perhaps this time, he would succeed before Sidious broke him again. "In my formative years as a Sith," Sidious began, "my Master tortured me, threw me into the sea of the Dark Side and hoped I'd drown. He told me the Dark Side would kill me, only to resurrect me as Sith. The Dark Side, he said, is drawn to those who lust for power, and go to any lengths to obtain it. It was true for me. It was true for Maul and Dooku, and now, it is true for you as well."
Lumis' eyes narrowed, his jaw clenched so tightly it was painful. "I have endured your torture before, Master."
"And not once have you desired to kill me, despite my best efforts."
"You...want me to kill you?"
Sidious laughed, cold and harsh. "No. You cannot anyway. But the desire to murder the Master is intrinsic to the Sith. My power fuels your envy, my wisdom fuels your desire to learn, All I have done will make you crave for what I have accomplished. That is what will make you powerful in the Dark Side, and it is that which will make you worthy of the name of Sith Lord. If you do not lust for what I have, than you will stagnate. There are limits upon you, Lumis, if you do not feel the burning desire to be the Lord of the Sith."
"I do, I want it!"
"I know..." Sidious purred, his voice low and soothing. "I can feel it within you. I feel your desire to rule, to dominate, to subjugate. But you still have much to learn," he said sharply, sending a new wave of pain through the boy that shattered the defenses he had managed to rebuild, leaving him to collapse upon the ground, the Dark Side howling in rage, but Lumis was unmoving, his golden eyes sharp and clear and focused on Sidious.
"All of this, Plagueis taught to me very early on, but I was naturally ambitions, naturally a killer. Most unlike you. He said he would elevate me as high as he could, he would become my torturer to see me rise to his heights, and then, together, we would break the dynamic that Darth Bane had set into motion. We would need each other in the new Sith Order we would create. The Bane line ended when my Master killed his Master, you see."
Lumis sucked in a harsh breath and slowly let it out, control slowly reestablishing itself. "He was wrong..." he quietly choked.
Sidious grinned. "He was. He never imagined that I would kill him. No longer did the apprentice need to be more powerful, just more clever, and I was both. You, Lumis, are neither." The hatred swelled, and once again, Sidious brought the force of his will crashing into the apprentice's mind, the hapless man whimpering softly, not in pain, but in resignation. He no longer could feel the pain. "I am the culmination of the Sith Initiative, Lumis. The Jedi will end with me, and our revenge will be complete. I have seen your visions, and you have seen this as well Do you deny this?"
"...no, Master..."
"And so the line of Bane ends with me. Plagueis was right about a great many things, my apprentice, but he was wrong about who would rule the galaxy. His time was too late, but he readied me to take power. With me, the thousand years of Sith secrecy, suspicion, and betrayal will end. We have broken the Rule of Two, Lumis. We simply must break the rest to form a new galactic order. When the Empire rises, there will be no further need for the ways of the Ancient Sith. We will need each other, Lumis, to fulfill the destiny of the Sith."
Lumis's shuddered, his breath catching in his chest as he gasped, the golden eyes wide and sightlessly darting back and forth as the Force took him once again. Sidious knelt beside him and roughly grabbed the blond hair, his presence entering Lumis' mind with no complaint, no resistance. The visions were more of the same, except for the image of a young Republic officer with sharp, severe features, his hands outstretched to hold a small representation of a beautiful planet which promptly faded to dust. Sidious frowned, withdrawing from the boy's mind. Usually, the Force would send visions that had some meaning to the individual, but while Sidious knew this officer, Kenobi had never met him. Could the Dark Side be using Lumis as a conduit to show Sidious visions that pertained to himself? And if so, why not just give them to him directly? He was no stranger to Force visions, had used them to carefully navigate his way to see the visions bear fruit, or work to alter an unfavorable outcome. So what was the meaning of this?
Lumis would require a cautious taming, now that the Dark Side had turned its gaze upon him. But if Sidious could cull that violent temper, teach Lumis to exert his full control over the overwhelming powers of the Dark Side, what a ferocious ally he would make in his new world. Maul had failed to control the Dark Side, and he had died for it. Dooku had the control, but he was little more than a place holder. But Lumis was young, strong, inherently loyal and resilient with so much potential. Sidious was no fool. He had learned from the mistakes of Plagueis, knew that trust and loyalty were difficult for the Sith, and especially perilous for the Lord of the Sith. He needed Lumis to trust him, hone is murderous intent into a weapon that could be directed elsewhere, but the trust could never go both ways. Lumis' awakening, his desires and ambitions were necessary. The timing was just inconvenient. But if he could succeed in taming Lumis, ensuring his infinite power, his endless loyalty, than perhaps he would have no need of Anakin Skywalker.
When the Force gave Lumis back, Sidious' hand was in his hair, not grabbing, but gently stroking, and while the Dark Side growled its objection, Obi-Wan craved the soothing, easy touch. He was no stranger to pain and suffering, not anymore, but he had always been mentally strong. His Master wasn't the one who had broken him. His was simply the final push. Obi-Wan had been wrecked by the Dark Side, though he couldn't begin to imagine why he suddenly drew it in like a vortex. Before, his relationship with the Dark Side was like digging a tributary off of a mighty river. But now, the river had changed corse, diverted to wash right over him, and he was left to attempt to dam it.
"What is it you want, Lumis?" Sidious had asked softly, and the Sith Lord shook.
"...a great many things, Master."
"Such as?"
Kenobi closed his eyes, his focus returning as he slowly began to pick up the pieces of his defense. He needed his control back, and he needed it before the Force or his Master decided to simply break them again. "I want power, Master."
"You have power."
"I want more," he growled, and Sidious chuckled.
"You cannot handle the power that has been drawn to you. Power is simply a means to an end, a necessary component in our ultimate goal. You are out of control, a slave to the whims of the Dark Side."
"Then I need control, I want control."
Sidious nodded. "I can teach that to you, my apprentice. You have the rage and the hatred, and now we must hone it, so we may point the full power of the Dark Side at our enemies." Sidious stood, the golden eyes of his apprentice looking up at him. "Ten years it took for me to fully master the control of the Dark Side, and Plagueis considered me gifted. You are still a fair ways from the time I spent learning. I forget you have not been Sith for long."
"I...forget as well, Master..." Lumis laughed weakly. "Perhaps that's where my...frustrations are coming from."
"They come from your relation with the Force," Sidious snarled, watching as Lumis pushed himself up to his knees. "You are one with the Dark Side, Lumis, but not the way you should be. You treat the Force as a companion, but it is a tool to be used. Jedi call upon the Force for help. We cull it into submission and make it serve us."
Obi-Wan could feel his chest tighten, the feel of the Force itself objecting, the Dark Side rising up and hissing its displeasure at the Sith Lord. The Force bites back, Kenobi thought. But it doesn't bite me. "I disagree, Master," Lumis whispered, and Sidious scoffed, peering down at him with disgust.
"As you would. Is that the Force you are giving voice to, or is it your own will? If you are not able to bind the Force to your will, you will be a slave to it!" Sidious lashed out again with the Dark Side, entering Lumis' mind to shatter his defenses, but this time, they did not break. This time, the Force seemed to grab his ethereal hand in a crushing grasp and held him in place, shooting pain through the Force bond they shared and lancing Sidious with agony. His yellow eyes grew wide with the pain as he looked down at his apprentice, Lumis' own gold eyes blank and distant but narrowed in anger and trained right on the Sith Master, seeming to look right through him.
With a pained snarl, Sidious extended his hand, lightning leaping from his fingers to strike the young Sith, and while Lumis' presence left his mind, the boy did not seem to react to the pain in the least. The Master drew away, felt Lumis' considerable Force presence, and felt it calmed, the Dark Side drawn to him not only to feed on the rage and the pain, but to support and heal him. He would need to remain cautious of Lumis in the future, and his loyalty needed to be ensured now. Killing him briefly crossed Sidious' mind, but he quickly rejected the idea. His apprentice was far too useful to simply discard, and certainly not because he did not yet fully understand the nature of the power that gripped the young Sith. Still, caution must be observed while he tamed Lumis. The Force, clearly, was willing to strike out against the Lord of the Sith over the matter of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Sidious watched as Lumis slowly calmed, bringing his being under control, building his mental walls. Once, for a moment, he trembled, the Force gripping him with visions, but Lumis had the strength to brush them aside, and, groaning, rose to his feet. Sidious couldn't help but grin with delight. "Good, my apprentice...the Force is your strength. With powers like yours, you and I will be able to shape the future."
"...is that what you want, Master?"
"Among other things, yes." He reached out to sense the younger Sith's feelings and found him to be uncertain, confused, struggling with his control of the Dark Side, attempting to separate where his own will ended, and the will of the Dark Side bled through. "This began after your murder of the Jedi," Sidious said, and Lumis nodded.
"Perhaps before that, Master. When I had the idea to murder Jedi. It...gripped me, and it wouldn't let go."
"What brought this about, I wonder?" Sidious drawled, probing slightly to see if Obi-Wan himself could access that Force protected piece of his mind. If he did, Lumis showed no indication of it.
"I don't know, Master. Perhaps..." He bit his lip and looked away. "Perhaps it is simply being in this war."
"The war has drawn the Dark Side out, yes. Perhaps." Sidious crossed his arms. This wasn't it. Lumis was grasping at straws. "Dooku told me you have been displeased with your involvement. He says you begged him to send you to Ryloth." The Master's eyes were narrowed in anger, and Kenobi swallowed hard and looked away, all his previous rage toward his Master diverting to a fury aimed at Dooku. They had an agreement.
"I did say that to him, Master." Kenobi said slowly. "But...I am uncertain if that was my will. I was...gripped at the time."
"So you do not want to be sent to Ryloth?"
"It may not be prudent, Master. We...should observe what the Jedi do, now that I have stood against Yoda."
Sidious grinned when he felt the Force shift within his apprentice, away from mindless rage and toward the cold, detached logic he had possessed in such abundance before his instability. "The Jedi Temple is right above us. Can you sense them?"
Lumis closed his eyes and breathed deeply, Sidious watching as the focus brought the apprentice further into control. He may have been approaching Lumis in the wrong manner. He was not Sidious, nor did Lumis have his temperament, his natural desire to kill, something Plagueis had to work hard at tempering and controlling. Nor was he Maul, the wrathful beast that needed to have his rage curbed and forged into a weapon, which he never fully succeeded in doing. Lumis was...unique. Wherever the desire to murder his Master had come from, it was beyond Sidious' reach, and it was, in any case, necessary to stoke his powers. Now that Lumis gripped the Dark Side with the hands of a master, he needed to be reeled in.
"I can feel them, Master," he said softly. "They are...conflicted. Again."
Sidious nodded. "I will use that when I see them tomorrow. I want you to decide your own involvement in the war."
Golden eyes shot to Sidious, and the Master smirked when the Sith cautiously said, "Do you mean that?"
"I will send you on assignments, of course, but you have proven your worth, Darth Lumis. You may choose your own battles in the conflict, if you remain patient and diligent." Sidious took a step toward the Sith Lord. "I trust you to do what is best."
"I won't fail you, Master," Kenobi said gently, kneeling before the Lord of the Sith, the Dark Side purring in satisfaction. The Master's hand slid into his blond hair, and Kenobi sighed. He hadn't been with his Master since he delivered the holocrons before his battle on Haruun Kal, but the trip had been very short, and he had been praised for his efforts from a distance. He felt foolish for his weakness, for turning on the Master that had taken him in after the Jedi had left him to die. He would not forget this loyalty again, not when his Master needed him most. Not when he only stood to benefit from his Master's rise to power. Not when he could rule the galaxy at his side. Not when he still had so much to learn.
Not so long as Sidious had use to him.
"Will you go to Ryloth?" Sidious asked, and Lumis shook his head.
"I'll go to Mandalore. I have something to fix there."
Sidious smirked, slipping into his apprentice's mind with ease, the man allowing him unrestricted access, but the Force was not so kind. He had no more access to the protected space in his mind than he did before. The Master had hoped that it would have faded when Lumis was controlled and relaxed, but there were some things that were beyond even the Lord of the Sith. But not for long. Sidious was patient. He would wait. "Is Satine a problem?"
"No, but..." Kenobi bit his lip, and the Sith Lord frowned, feeling the passion roll off the man. He was undisputably in love, and like the Jedi, the Sith had no use for the emotion, its compassion leading to weakness more often than not. However, in this case, he was willing to make an exception and encourage this. Obi-Wan Kenobi did not fall for love, and Darth Lumis wouldn't suddenly turn from his course for it. If anything, this had focused him in his quest for power, and if it came down to it...the loss of love was a powerful motivator for keeping someone on the dark path.
"More trouble than she's worth?" he offered, and the younger Sith laughed.
"Trouble, yes, but worth it." The golden eyes hardened and he looked up at his Master. "That's what I want," Kenobi said, his voice low and hungry. "I want to rule the Outer Rim. From Mustafar to Mandalore, I want it to be mine, and I want her beside me." The hand in his hair tightened, but he didn't show any indication of the pain he felt.
"This galaxy is mine, Lumis."
"And you think to rule it all by yourself?" Lumis scoffed. "The Core worlds, sure. Your reach may even extend to the colonies, but the Outer Rim?" He whistled. "That's a huge territory, Master, even for a Sith Lord. You're going to need sector governors and overseers that report to you on Coruscant." He grinned wickedly. "Why not instead have me rule in the Outer Rim for you? Two Sith Lords can maintain direct control over a larger area than just one. The Clone Wars will leave them broken and yearning for guidance, and if we don't give it to them, they will become problematic. But if I rule..."
"I see your point, Lumis," he drawled, nodding. His ambitions were large, yes, but they fit in exactly with his plans. Even better, Lumis didn't seem to have ambitions that put him into conflict with Sidious, not yet. His entire emotional upheaval could possibly be solved in an instant, and it was rooted firmly in a desire to be with a woman. If Lumis did not have this to center him, focus his rage, than the young Sith could be very difficult to control. "I will take this into consideration." Lumis bowed his head, sighing as Sidious' fist unclenched, the knobby fingers resuming their stroking. "And Satine figures into this how?"
Kenobi shrugged. "I would have her by my side, Master. We have talked about starting a new Sith Empire, yes? Someone must propagate the future of it."
Sidious laughed at that. "You would make a new line of Sith? Your children would surely be strong in the Force."
"And all of which would be instructed in the Dark Side."
Sidious eyed him cautiously. "And you would train all these gifted children?"
"Or you, Master, if one possessed the desired talent."
Sidious leaned down, golden eyes meeting. "You would give your children to me?"
"Of course," he said without hesitation. "This is about a legacy, Master. The Sith will not survive without the best instruction for those that will be our future."
Sidious touched his apprentice's forehead, sensing his longing, his yearning, his hate and his rage, but also his loyalty, which, at least for now, was guaranteed. "Begin immediately," he said softly. "This war will not last forever, and you have done nothing if not throw the Jedi into chaos. Within a few years, the Empire will rise, and the new Sith Order will begin. You will want your child ready for instruction by then."
Lumis grinned wickedly, and the Master could feel desire and yearning seep into the boy. "I will do as I can to serve you in this manner, Master."
"Your training is not yet complete, Lumis You are far from it. But in my Empire, you and I shall be...partners. For the strength and unity of the Sith, if we are to endure, we must be united in our dedication to the Dark Side."
Lumis didn't answer. The Dark Side did it for him. It was drawn to him in a rush of emotions, brimming with passion and desire and yearning, fueled by anger at his betrayal, wrath at the weakened state of the galaxy, and a craving for power that permeated deep within him. The lust for power was enduring in the Sith, but loyalty was not, and while Sidious could feel it from his student, he knew that he would have to remain vigilant if he were to keep it. The anger, the rage would have to be directed elsewhere, lest Lumis turn his ambitions higher. It shouldn't be a problem. The Sith would always have enemies, those that were simply rotting, decaying presences to the forces that drove to create order, and they must be cut away and destroyed if the Empire were to flourish. In this task, Lumis was a masterwork.
Now, all that remained was to break through the forces that guarded his apprentice and teach the boy how to coax the Force into giving him clear visions. Lumis' gift of foresight seemed to be greater than his own, and such a talent would be necessary in order to properly take steps to ensure certain outcomes came to pass, and certain outcomes did not. Sidious slowly came to sit in front of the other Sith, closing his eyes as he reached through the Force to the apprentice's troubled and turbulent mind.
"You and I have not meditated together for some time."
"...no, Master. Not since the beginning."
"We must make sense of your visions, Lumis. All of them. Show me, and I will teach you how to control and influence the world around you to change the outcome."
Lumis looked at his Master skeptically. "Do we have such power?"
Sidious grinned. "We are Sith, Darth Lumis. We have as much power as we are willing to take."