Chapter 88: Masters

"Your plan is in motion?"

"...soon, Master."

Sidious circled his apprentice, watching him carefully through sharp, golden eyes. It was dark in the underground temple, as it always was, the Dark Side thick and still, the calm before a storm, even in the presence of the increasingly powerful Darth Lumis. It was fortunate that this power only came to him after he had lost everything, leaving him deprived of purpose or motivation without the Sith. It had guaranteed Lumis' loyalty to Sidious, keeping his desire for murder, but removing the will to follow through. Lumis truly hated everything, and it was so consuming that even Tyranus had contacted the Master to voice his concern. Sidious had brushed it off initially, claimed that it would pass as he grew used to the new power that grief had provided, but then came Ord Mantell.

Sidious didn't think it was possible, that Lumis had the ability, but the young Sith had exerted his influence, whipped his followers into a frenzy, and gone and destroyed a planet, consuming it in the fires that he had sworn to bring to the galaxy. Not just the planet, but the entire system, and while the system was small, while only the main planet of Ord Mantell could support life, anything that could be burned was consumed by the wrath of the Sith. It was enough for Sidious to have to reach out and bring his apprentice to heel. Dooku's warnings of the man's insanity seemed to be well founded, and while Sidious wasn't necessarily object to Lumis destroying the scum that would come to be purged from the galaxy anyway, it seemed far more likely that Lumis would see the galaxy burn so he could rule the ashes.

Destruction was not the point, was not the plan. The Sith would bring order to the galaxy, and destruction was a means to an end, not the end itself. Lumis had to be recentered. Refocused. Which is why he was here now, hours before his plan was to be executed, stripped to the waist and kneeling on the cold stone of the ground, his head bowed, his breathing deep and even, for the most part. Occasionally, Sidious would feel the Dark Side rush to the man as his breathing quickened to near hyperventilation, his shaky hands sliding into his hair, his eyes tightly shut as the visions he was so accustomed to tore through him. They were more frequent here, as if one Dark Side nexus was responding to the presence of another, and when the Force entered Lumis' mind, so did Sidious.

It was chaos within his mind, and not just there, but in the Force as well. Alight with flames, the visions came in fast, turbulent bursts, firestorms in a rough, blackened sea, and Sidious understood how his apprentice was driven to madness. Lumis' longtime ally the Force had turned, swept him away in a flash flood and drowned him with the wrathful power sprung from hatred and grief. While it wasn't the Force itself that was tormenting him, the very touch of it upon his vengeful mind was like striking a match, and the man's mind was consumed with fire and flames and burning until he could think of nothing else. He needed to be tempered and controlled, lest the Dark Side take ownership of Lumis and never give him back, and Sidious had set to the task immediately, his calm, controlling presence in the Sith Lord's mind and slowly, slowly catching the flames and dousing them.

"Skywalker is after you," Sidious said, his voice smooth, calm, even. It had been part of the plan, after all.

"...yes, Master," Lumis replied, his gold eyes heavy-lidded as his mind struggled through the fog of the Force and his Master's touch, the closest thing to rest he had gotten since Mandalore fell. Sidious' eyes narrowed as he examined the thin, gaunt frame of his apprentice, each scar deep and dark upon his pale form, each line of his powerful muscles clearly seen as they shifted and tensed under paper-thin skin. Dooku had been right. The boy clearly hadn't been eating.

"He is chasing you now," Sidious growled dangerously, but the apprentice didn't show any sign of noticing, any sign of caring about his displeasure. "Burning Ord Mantell has put him on your trail. His Admiral knows your plan exactly, and if you continue this path, they will catch you."

"They are no match for me, Master," was the icy reply, and Sidious scoffed, circled behind the kneeling man, dragged his fingers along the long, burning welts that his lightsaber had inflicted earlier. Lumis didn't flinch. Even when the red blade had lashed upon him earlier, Lumis showed no indication that he could even feel the pain of it.

"I'm not saying they are," Sidious hissed. "I'm saying that burning your way across the galaxy will destroy all we worked so hard to achieve. I did not begin this to rule over the dead, Lumis, and if you burn everything around you, you may find yourself without an escape." Sidious snarled viciously. "And before it comes to that, I will slay you myself."

The Lord of the Sith waited in silence, watching as Lumis' shoulders slumped, the corded muscles of his back and shoulders trembling, but the man did not respond, which was uncharacteristic of the apprentice, who had only ever sought to please. Sidious walked around and knelt before him, hooked his finger under the bearded chin, and forced his head up, and he hissed in irritation when he saw the younger Sith's eyes to be white, the golden irises rolled back into his head as the Force took him. Sliding his gnarled fingers into the man's sandy blond hair, Sidious entered his mind, Lumis offering no resistance, no reluctance in his submission.

The winds of the Dark Side whipped at Sidious' robes and carried blackened ash and glowing embers into the turbulent air. The sky was dark, stormy with clouds and distant lightning, the surrounding landscape blackened and charred, and glowing coals at the edges of his vision allowed small flames to lap at anything it could touch, the smouldering veins of red and orange within blackened wood threatening to erupt into a blaze once again at the slightest provocation. But for now, it was contained. The peace was tenuous, yes, but it was no longer the inferno it was before, the smoke and flames having obscured even the Force from the Sith Master. Though the threat of being once again consumed lay above him, the vision was clear, and with a deep breath, Sidious stepped over the bodies of a thousand dead Jedi to come and stand next to his apprentice.

"You are troubled," the Master said, folding his arms into the sleeves of his robes. It wasn't a question, and certainly not one that demanded a response. Lumis lifted his hand and pointed over the blackened, burned expanse of the vision to a shadow, lithe and thin and slowly, cautiously creeping closer.

"She's different," Lumis whispered. "She has always been so far off, so far out of my reach, but now..." He sighed, shut his eyes tight, the coals around them beginning once again to rise into flames, but a soothing touch on his back forced a shuddering breath from his lungs and the tension in his body released, the flames receding. "She used to be clear, than her figure became shadowed, and now..." He reached out a hand, and slowly, the girl walked toward him, and Sidious squinted, saw through the haze of the smoke that rose from the ash that she was Togruta. She was nearly close enough to touch, and slowly, the shadow reached out for the Sith Lords.

"Have you deciphered the meaning?" Sidious asked, and Lumis shook his head.

"She's a Jedi. Or, was one. I captured her Master, made him accept the Sith. Perhaps this is why." His eyes narrowed, his fists balled by his side, and flames began to rise. "But the Force lies. False visions and betrayal!" He felt his Master's hand on the back of his neck, the older man pushing down on him with far greater strength than a man his age should have, and Lumis fell to his knees in the ash, his ragged breathing slowing as Sidious subdued the flames.

"The Force is ever-changing, apprentice," Sidious said softly, his hands raking through Lumis' hair, dragging against his scalp, the cool touch sending shivers down his spine and chilling his feverish skin. "It lives and breathes and changes as events unfold. And what's more, the Force is on our side." His hand tightened in the sandy hair, though Lumis didn't utter any complaint. "The visions we have give our plan focus. We see what the Force has in store for us, and it is up to us to use that knowledge to manipulate our surroundings to see a desired outcome, or take steps to alter one we find unfavorable."

"No," he hissed, bitter and angry, but the tight hand in his hair, the other sliding down to gently stroke the beard on his cheek, kept the coals from erupting into flames. "I see my son. All the time, I can see him, I-"

"Just because you do not understand a vision doesn't mean the Force lies," Sidious hissed. "And nor did the Force betray you. Your visions, or lack thereof, led you exactly where you needed to be. Her death, Lumis, was your failure, and that it came to pass was the will of the Force. It was your destiny to lose her, just as it was your destiny to betray the Jedi and join the Sith." He could feel Lumis tremble as his anger rose, felt the heat around him as flames blazed around them, could feel the ground tremble, then violently shake beneath them, and before he knew what was happening, Sidious found himself thrown from his apprentice's mind, and he was back within his physical form, Lumis' face clutched tightly between his hands and the Dark Side rending the peace of the silence around them as it roared in fury.

Sidious remained calm, cold, commanding as he threw his apprentice to the ground, the boy's body flailing in protest in unison with the thrashing of the Force, and with the swiftness of a much younger man, Sidious pressed his hand against Lumis' chest, keeping him pinned to the ground as he reached out to take command of the Dark Side. It roared in rage as it was grabbed, thrashing against the cold touch of the Master of the Sith, but Sidious remained unmoved, all his hate and anger focused into a weapon that lanced through the apprentice. The thin body tensed in sharp pain long enough for Sidious to swing his leg over the thrashing man and sit upon his stomach, using the Force to increase the weight of his body to keep the powerful Lumis pinned to the ground. Sidious wrapped his hands around the other Sith's pale neck, and with cold, wrathful detachment, tightened his grasp, choking the life out of the body that the Force was in possession of.

Strong hands shot up and began to claw at Sidious' arms, drawing long lines of deep, red blood even through his thick, black cloak, but the Master held fast, eyes closed and muttering in Ancient Sith under his breath to sooth his apprentice as he commanded the Force to obey. The heels of Lumis' boots scraped against the ground as he struggled, bucking against the Master that sat unmoving upon him, but he fought against the weight of the Force as well. As the body became deprived of oxygen, the brain deprived of blood, Lumis' movements slowed, his eyelids fluttering over the whites of his eyes, the gold rolled far back into his head, his frantic kicking becoming no more than occasional spasms. The Force calmed, was tamed as the thin, pale body became sluggish, the brain long past the point of unconsciousness, and any movement, and resistance was simply residual twitching of his muscles, moved by the Force in a final effort to resist. Lumis' body stopped moving, and Sidious felt the Dark Side roll over, showing him the belly of the mighty beast, it's quivering throat exposed as it surrendered to him. His hands loosened on the pale throat, and with a deep breath, the Sith Master filled his apprentice with the Dark Side he now commanded and reentered his mind.

The vision was gone, and Lumis lay in ash, clutching his throat against an invisible hand, the flames culled into softly glowing embers, and he tensed when his Master's hand slid back into his hair, a desperate, wanting moan torn from his chest when the pressure on his throat lifted and he felt his Master's pleasure and his pride. "Good, Lumis..." Sidious drawled, satisfaction and enjoyment in his voice that made the apprentice shiver. "Hold on to that anger, that hatred. But focus it. You let your wrath consume you, and it has made you strong, but the Dark Side will kill you if it senses any weakness. Your lack of control is weakness, and I will drive it from you. We are Sith. We strive for perfection, for strength, and by achieving such, we will have power."

"...yes, Master." Sidious smirked when he felt the resignation in his apprentice. At the very least, it was the beginnings of control over the raging boy, and deprived of his previous motivations, Sidious was left with an apprentice that had nothing left to lose but the Sith. It left him with an unshakable loyalty, far greater than what he ever had exhibited before.

"Do you know who I am?" Sidious asked, and he could feel Lumis shift, tense with uncertainty.

"You are my Master."

"But what's my name?"

Lumis finally looked at the man that knelt beside his prone form, his hand in his hair almost affectionately, and he felt his heart ache. "Darth Sidious."

"Darth Sidious..." the Master repeated, a low growl of satisfaction in his voice. "Darth Sidious, yes. But not to everyone. Not to all. I am Palpatine to most, so let me ask you again, apprentice, who am I?"

The tired eyes looked up at the Sith Master, searching his face for understanding, trying to discern what it is he wanted, what answer it was he wished to hear, and slowly, he came to realize there was only one answer. "...you are Darth Sidious," Lumis said after a long pause. To his satisfaction, the Master nodded.

"I was born Sidious, trapped in a body that struggled to contain me, until my Master saw the Sith Lord within the boy called Palpatine, and through his teachings, he freed me. There was never any Palpatine. He is a mask. A cage. And once free of that cage, he could be used as a tool." The Master carefully, almost lovingly, stroked the man's bearded cheek, a cruel mockery of a lover's touch, and the apprentice shivered, a pained whimper ripped from his throat as he shut his eyes tight. "Do you understand, apprentice?" Sidious asked, and the man nodded his head.

"I understand, Master."

"I saw Lumis within you on our first meeting, and since then, you have been freed of your former self. You now strive to achieve your full potential." The gnarled fingers wrapped in his hair and pulled his head back, a cruel, displeased look on the Master's face. "Do not squander it. We still have use for Obi-Wan Kenobi, and will continue to have use for him so long as the Jedi exist. Do not burn your tools, my friend."

Deep within him, Lumis couldn't help but feel that Sidious was wrong. Obi-Wan Kenobi was someone else, a different man. A weaker man, and a fool that loved too deeply when he knew full well that life was fleeting. He had tasted the darkness, reveled in it, embraced the pleasures it had brought to him, but didn't understand the full measure of the Dark Side until the red blade of Maul slew him, burning the very heart out of him until there was nothing left but death and flames. For a moment, everything fell away as he sunk deeper into the Force, the pain, the suffering, the hate, even the image of his Master beside him, his strong hands in his hair, faded into nothingness. Lumis stood, engulfed in darkness and breathed deeply, felt the Jedi Temple above him, the billions of lives on Coruscant, each a tiny light in the Force, but their light couldn't reach him. They were nothing, and would always be nothing.

He squinted, his eyes glowing in the oppressive dark as he looked out to a small, faint point of light, so faint he was uncertain he actually saw it, but he followed it anyway, and though he couldn't see himself moving, couldn't feel it, the light grew brighter, stronger, closer, until it took shape, and Lumis froze, not daring to draw any closer. It was a vision, it had to be, or else a sharp, painful memory. There he knelt - not him, Kenobi - cradling the gutted Satine in his arms, one hand covering the bleeding wound so close to the swell of their son, the other cupping her smooth, pale cheek, his golden eyes dull and pale, his shoulders slumped, his face despondent, and Lumis felt himself tremble, not in rage or anger, but in grief. He hadn't felt it before. It had always been anger, wrath consumed by flames the Force itself burning as it touched him and filled his visions with fire, driving him far past the point of insanity. But now, in this darkness, in this vision, if that's what it was, he couldn't feel the flames. He just felt...empty.

"I feel it too," a deep, soothing voice said from behind him, and Lumis whipped around reached for his lightsaber, only to find that it wasn't there, and he looked into the eyes of his former Master, the aging man ghostly and pale.

"My Master can't even reach me here," Lumis hissed, backing up quickly and stopping suddenly when he felt grief creep into him as he drew nearer to the ghosts that lay before him. They were ghosts. All of them where ghosts. "How can you be here?"

Qui-Gon snorted. "I'm one with the Force, Obi-Wan. There aren't many places I can't go."

"Obi-Wan is dead," the Sith growled, pointing behind him to the couple, the dead, the ghosts. Qui-Gon leaned sideways to look around Lumis, a small smile on his lips.

"Really. He doesn't look dead to me."

"He is."

"He just looks like he is grieving," Qui-Gon said with a shrug. "As are you. As am I. Satine was a good woman."

"Don't you dare speak of her, don't you dare say her name!"

"Why?" Qui-Gon asked, offended, drawling back and crossing his arms over his chest, his face stern and his disposition admonishing. "And what are you going to do, hurt me? Kill me?" He chuckled. "I don't believe that you will, and even of you would, these is nothing you can do to me here, within the river of the Force." The Sith Lord snarled and turned his back to Qui-Gon, his breath hitching when he found himself looking at Satine, at himself, at the grieving lover as he stroked back pale blond hair from her sharp, angular features. He shut his eyes. He couldn't look at it. He reached out a hand, tightly held the Force around him and commanded it to kill the shadow of his former self, to put the miserable wretch out of his misery, but nothing happened.

"You can't kill him, Obi-Wan," Jinn said, rolling his eyes. "He is you, as much as you wish to deny it."

"He was weak," Lumis growled. "He was foolish, and his failure killed Satine, he-" He stopped, choking on his words as he felt the sting of tears in his tired, burning eyes, and he quickly blinked them away. Why was this happening? He was angry at Satine's death, beyond livid, he wasn't sad. The Sith took pain and grief and turned it into power by focusing their rage, and he had done that, just as his Master commanded. So why did he still so keenly feel empty? He had filled it with flames before, but now, Sidious had done his work to quell it, tame it, and this far into the Force, even the consuming fires that drove him to madness couldn't reach him.

"For a long while," Qui-Gon said softly, "when I closed my eyes, I saw you. The Padawan I lost, murdered by the Sith, driven to destruction by actions that were mine." A sad smile crossed his lips. "When I look at you now," he said, pointing to the pair on the floor, "I see that. My old student, grief stricken over the loss of the girl he had loved since he was sixteen years old."

"Why are you doing this?" Lumis whispered, trying to sound strong and commanding, but it had failed him entirely.

"Because you are broken, Obi-Wan." He scoffed. "The Jedi certainly wouldn't approve of this. They are taking this opportunity to hunt you, after all, but this isn't about them anymore. This is about you." He smiled softly. "I see her in my dreams. Tahl, the woman I loved. I see her die, over and over again, I feel my own brush with the Dark Side. I feel the burn of revenge upon me, and I heard her words calling to me through the Force to keep me in the light."

"Satine would never do that!" he hissed. "Satine believed in the ideals of the Sith, she-"

"I know, Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon said firmly, holding up his hand. "I know. I'm not here to sway you. I'm not here to drag you into the light. I'm here because you are hurting."

"I don't want your sympathy, Jedi. Pain makes me stronger, it has always made me stronger!"

"I know." Qui-Gon sighed heavily. "You know I lack the gift of foresight that you have. I choose instead to follow the Force where it takes me, and it leads me right to you every time. And if the Force wants me beside my fallen, Sith Lord student, than this is where I will be."

Lumis looked over the man carefully, averting his eyes when he looked too close and the light began to burn. He could see the despondent Obi-Wan looking at the Jedi out of the corner of his red-rimmed eyes as well, though the ashen man said nothing. "The Jedi will have something to say about your involvement with me," Lumis said, his breathing easier, his tone lighter, and with a gasp, he recoiled when he felt the comfort of the Force wash over him, as burning and revolting as it had been before. He pushed it away.

"The Jedi are wrong about a great many things," Qui-Gon said slowly. "But most of all, our handling of you. We have lost our way. Before the war, we never would have met a grieving man with violence. And..." Jinn said, his voice stuttering, and Lumis watched the struggle play upon the man. "Perhaps there are those that deserve what I am sure is coming to them."

"You hardly sound Jedi!" Lumis said triumphantly, laughter in his voice, and the Master crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the gleeful Sith.

"When have I ever sounded like a Jedi, Obi-Wan?" Lumis bristled, his hands clenching into fists, and he called the Dark Side to him, whipping it into a ferocious storm that tore at his robes, but the Jedi stood calm and cool and unaffected.

"Don't call me that! I am Darth Lumis, I have always been Darth Lumis!" he shouted, recalling the words of his Master, but as he did, he recalled his doubts as well. The words felt hollow. Looking at the man that held Satine's body, he knew it wasn't true, felt it wasn't true.

"Obi-Wan Kenobi," Qui-Gon said softly, "was a talented student, quiet and studious, frightfully intelligent, and defiant, if the occasion called for it. He followed the rules to the best of his ability, believed in the Jedi Code, trusted in the Force."

"And he was a fool," Lumis snarled.

"And," Qui-Gon said, ignoring the Sith, "he loved a woman so deeply that for ten years, it never faded. He and Satine grew powerful together, created a life together, and now she is dead and one with the Force."

"Shut up!"

"You say you aren't that man," Qui-Gon said softly. "And for a while, I believed it. I reached out to you through our connection and felt nothing but fire." The Jedi pointed a finger at Lumis' chest, and the touch burned, but the Sith didn't shy away from it. He would accept this pain, like all pain. "There is darkness in all of us. You have embraced that darkness, but that doesn't mean who you are is dead. Obi-Wan loved Satine. It is he that suffers from her loss. Do you mean to tell me you do not suffer?"

"...no."

"I know what grief does to a man," Qui-Gon said softly. "I've experienced it myself and I see it in you." He sighed, ran a hand through his long hair. "Satine is dead, and it is a tragedy, but if you kill Obi-Wan, she will truly be lost to you. She will just be the dead love of another dead man, and of what significance are the dead to Darth Lumis?" The Sith was silent, hardly breathing as he looked at Kenobi, his lover clutched tightly in his grasp, but his dead eyes focused on the Jedi Knight. "For you," Qui-Gon said softly, drawing nearer, "grief will lend you pain to fuel your anger. The memory of her will make you stronger, as I am certain she would want. Your path is one of pain, Obi-Wan, but in time, even this too shall pass."

Lumis tried to answer, but found he couldn't. Again, he felt the comforting caress of the Force, warm and soft and gentle, and he made to push it away before he stopped, catching his bottom lip between his teeth when he saw Kenobi's dull gold eyes looking at him expectantly. He closed his eyes, reached out and lay a hand on his other self's shoulder, thin and bony under his touch, emaciated from the grief and the neglect, and when Lumis opened his eyes, Kenobi was gone, and Satine lay in his arms, peaceful and cold as she was when he laid her to rest on Mandalore. The Force flowed slow, soothing, comforting within him, and it burned him, hurt him, but he accepted it, took it within him, and made it his own. The pain would make him stronger, far stronger than if he pushed it away as he had been, focus and purpose sacrificed to feed the flames of his insanity that burned away his old self. The wound would always be there. Always, a constant source of grief and pain and power.

"They have stolen the heart from inside you, Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon said softly, his burning hand on the Sith's shoulders, and he winced at the touch. "Do not let this define you. You know who you are."

"I will destroy the Jedi," Lumis whispered. "The Sith will rise, and our revenge will be complete and there's nothing any of you can do about it."

"...I know." The Jedi patted the man's shoulder and turned from him, slowly walking away as he began to fade.

"Qui-Gon!" He heard himself shout it before he could stop himself. "You have always trusted the will of the Force, so tell me. How could this be what the Force wants?"

"I don't know." He smiled gently at his former student, his body fading, becoming almost like mist. "But I do know this. Satine is one with the Force now, as is your son. I think, if you listen very carefully, you will feel them guiding you. The Force hasn't left you yet, and Satine certainly never will."

He started to respond, soft and hesitant, but he felt himself gripped tightly, his chest depressing as air refused to flow into his lungs, and he was torn from the Jedi and the woman in his grasp, and moments later, he felt himself strike the cold, hard ground of the dark cavern, his eyes wide and his heart beating so fast, so hard that he could see the pounding through his bare chest. His eyes adjusted to the dark as though he were born to it, and while he could still see flames burning at the edge of his vision, he could see, a vast improvement from before when all he could see were flames, and all he desired was to watch everything burn. The air hurt his lungs, the back of his throat tasting of blood as he sucked in greedy gasps of frigid oxygen. His pale chest was covered in the familiar burns of Force lightning, tendrils of thin smoke rising off the spidering welts.

Above him stood Darth Sidious, his hood thrown back and his yellow eyes wide with anger and concern and relief. For reasons he couldn't explain, he felt as though he hadn't seen his Master in a very long time, as though he had been lost and alone and forgotten, drowning in a sea that threatened to pull him under, and Sidious had come to save him. He reached up and took the Master's hand in his, and Sidious almost gently lay his other hand over the one he held.

"I thought I had lost you to the Force, my friend," Sidious said quietly. "I could see nothing within you."

"I saw Satine," he said softly, answering the Master's unasked question. "And myself, and Qui-Gon Jinn."

"All things you have lost," Sidious pondered, stroking the back of his apprentice's hand, and Lumis involuntarily shuddered. "Can you follow through with your plan?"

The plan was simple, but the plan was also a betrayal of Satine, and the sudden stab of pain he felt made him flinch, and instead of fueling that pain into rage, he held on to it, allowed himself to feel it deeply, embrace the grief of his loss. It left him aching with overwhelming sadness, with a burning need to ease the pain, but also with bitter acceptance of his loss. Sidious had been right. It was the will of the Force, it was his destiny to lose her. Her death would give him new power, new purpose, new meaning, and even in death, Satine would guide him with the hand of the Force, just as she had always done in life. After all, the Force was with the Sith.

"I can, my Master," he said softly. "I...will make use of Obi-Wan." By embracing him. By accepting him, and all the pain he carried. He would not forget who he was again. He was Darth Lumis, Lord of the Sith, the Negotiator, now the Shadow King of Mandalore, and he had always been and always was Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Sidious nodded and handed the Sith Lord a card imbedded with a security chip. "The Senator's key. Don't waste this opportunity. We may only have this one chance. Her corruption will weaken her place in the Senate, and with Satine dead, Amidala has become quite problematic."

"She won't be for long, Master," Lumis said softly, twirling the card around his fingers as he grinned in delight as the Force began to howl, thrashing with the chaos and the panic of the Jedi in their Temple. Cad Bane had begun his attack, and it was time to get to work.