Chapter 17

(Coruscant, Vaders Palace)

The whole group had exited the training room after the duel, and Viathan bid his master goodnight as he escorted his friend, the princess, back to her room, and Starkiller similarly asked his masters dismissal and Vader silently bid his apprentice a goodnight, and the boy quickly departed with PROXY leaving the two Sith lords alone in the hall.

As the two were left alone Kun looked around as if to see if anyone were spying on them, and when it was all too clear kun returned his full attention to an arms crossed Vader.

"You needn't be so concerned in my palace. The Emperor may still try to spy on us, but I have ensured my privacy here is upheld. He doesn't even know you, your apprentice, or the Alderaanian princess is here. Though not even I know why the daughter of Organa is here myself." Vader commented and Exar merely smilingly waved him off.

"That will be explained soon lord Vader. However, if you don't mind me asking how did the attack go, and when did you get back?"

"The battle fro Abregado-rae went well. The Moffs were beaten back in both orbital and ground campaigns. There is some mopping up to do of Moff units on the planets surface, but the stationed garrison will handle them." Vader informed with little care upon his, granted already hard to discern, voice.

Exar nodded in understanding though.

"Excellent, and your return?"

"I arrived perhaps an hour to an hour and a half ago. I contacted the Emperor and discussed the success of the battle with him, and returned here to the palace."
"That was a rather lame battle don't you think battle. I mean not to sound as if I know much of war in the here and now, but that battle seemed far too easy. It only lasted a day and a half at most!" Kun declared, but Vader once more seemed unfazed.

"True, the battle was very short, but I assure you tens of thousands are indeed dead on both sides. This was a feint Kun. The Moffs did not really think they could take Abregado-rae. They merely are distracting our Core naval forces. Trust me, I designed it!" Vader declared and Kun nodded his understandings.

"Ah. So you didn't quite trust Vellam to form his own attacks?"

"He is under orders to commit his expendable and outdate forces to feints such as these. I didn't know he would attack Abregado-rae per say, but I did know that after Bestine he would commit attacks like this, and knows they will be easily and brutally quashed. He is also assigning unreliable commanders to these attacks, thus rooting out any dissent within his forces." Vader went on, and Kun began to get the picture more clearly.

"Most interesting. I say, you got a lot done with this Vellam character. More so then even I thought possible."
"All the more likely any deception on my part will be cast aside. I simply did not have the schedule to coach the Grand Moff. At least that is what they shall think."
"They, lord Vader?" Kun questioned.

"Imperial Intelligence, Imperial Security Bureau, the Inquisitors, all of them. Don't take them all for fools Kun. There are some who will grow, if they aren't already, suspicious. We must be prepared at all times to confront awkward questions, and deny everything."
"Of course, of course." Exar replied a tad too dismissively for Vaders liking but the hulking Sith let it be for now.

Clapping his hands together Kun grinned as if he were about to begin a party.

"Now! With those questions out of the way, how about we get down to business of a more…personal matter." Vader behind his mask squinted his eyes into slits in a glare.

"What do you mean by that Kun?"

"No need to get all brooding on me, lord Vader!" Kun returned with a smirk.

Then his features with a striking suddenness became serious, deadly serious.

"Certainly you know what I mean Vader? You badgered me earlier today at the senate building about it."

Vaders eyes grew wide in shocking remembrance. "You…you mean that you have your-"

"Last piece to the necessary ingredients? Yes lord Vader I do, and it is right here in my pocket." Exar interrupted him his face now mildly smiling once more.

"Then…you can heal me? Now?"
"Now. Or if you're not up to it I can of course forget-"
"Enough with the games Kun!" Vader boomed and Kun put both hands up to placate the black clad Sith.

"Okay, okay calm down! Yes Vader. I brought all the things I need over in my shuttle. Alchemy is an art form my friend, and the ingredients are absolutely vital after all." Exar said smiling. "Shall I get them?"
"Yes, of course." Vader said in a strangely low voice, as Exar inclined his head and made quickly for his shuttle.

`Vaders hearts beat harder then he could ever remember it doing. Save for perhaps his wedding but… 'No! Don't think about that now! The time has come….soon I wont need this damnable suit. At last I'll be free of this mobile prison!' Vader thought as his breaths became shaky. The hulking dark lord looked down at his gloved hand, and just let all manner of thoughts run through him.

The sense of smell, touch, his features returning to normal. No longer baring the horrid scars of Mustafar. By the force, it made his shake in agonizing excitement and anxiety.

'The look on that old mans face when he sees I don't need this suit. When he sees the face untarnished by the flames of that hellish world. How sweet that will be.' Vader thought as the dark side crackled about him. The force was practically singing about him. As if telling him that, yes, this was going to happen, and it was his time to be free of the suit that made him doubly a monster.

The sound of boots and footfalls brought Vader from his contemplations as he looked up to see Kun surrounded by eleven Massassi warriors, and a case of luggage in his hand, and for a moment Vader grew confused, but Exar cut him off.

"So. Where is a good open space where we wont be bothered? Especially seeing as some of your guests may walk in without your wanting?" With that reminder of the three teens in his palace Vader realized the training room wouldn't do. If one of them walked in on him while this was happening the embarrassment, and anger that would come from him may cause him to do something rash. So seeing Kun's wisdom Vader gestured down a neighboring hall.

They reached a turbolift, all of them crammed into it, and made their way at least five floors down, before Vader motioned them out, and made his long and excitement driven stride towards a singular door that they came face to face with. Indeed once the lift opened the only thing Kun saw was a single hall, just as grey and sterile as the rest of the palace that led to a single door, that Vader had to personally key in a security code to open.

Inside Exar could see it was similar to the other floor of the palace. Only there was one hall again, and it split off into four doorways, no windows or viewports adorned the walls, only light fixtures, and Kun immediately thought it Vaders personal floor in the palace of his. So the dark lord and his Massassi followed Vader as he swept into the hall and keyed into another door that Vader motioned them all into. Vader was the last to enter and ensured the door was locked behind him.

Bright white lights suddenly blasted on and revealed an even bigger training room than the one on the other floor, and Kun had to nod to himself at its impressiveness. Along the walls was an odd assortment of lightsaber hilts, and even a workshop to the side to make more sabers. Though kun didn't see why he would need more judging by the hundreds he had here.

"Now what do you require?" Vader asked, and Kun swore he sensed hesitance coming from the man that dealt fear and terror into the galaxy. So Exar smiled, and shook his head. "Nothing right now my lord Vader. Just stand there and, well relax for a minute." Exar said almost laughingly, and was again surprised to sense Vader merely accept what he said and stand in silence. 'My, is he anxious! Best not keep him waiting too long. Lest he snap from pressure or something.' Kun jokingly thought to himself and began barking out orders to his Massassi.

"Mattizz! Order your brothers into a circle, and tell them to open up fully to their lord. I need to get the other pieces of my ritual into place." Exar said as he opened up his luggage case and heard his ever loyal command bark in Massassi to his kin.

"To what reason do you need your Massassi here Kun?" Vader finally asked.

"Do you know how I became a bodiless spirit lord Vader? How I ripped my very soul from my body but kept all potency with the force?" Exar asked this seemingly off topic question and Vader shook his head.

"Well it was not my greatest moment." Kun laughed in reply as he took out a small bowl from his case and set it on the floor before him as the Massassi got into a perfect circle directed by Mattizz.

"The Jedi under that vile woman Nomi Sunrider, had me cornered on Yavin IV. My location betrayed by my ex-apprentice and ex-ally Ulic Qel-Droma." Kun went on as he then grabbed a seemingly useless saber crystal from the luggage and put it into the small metal bowl fro before.

"I had several choices, but ultimately I decided to put the children of my loyal Massassi minions into a great sphere of force power that has been called the "Golden Globe," because of how it looked. Indeed all Massassi I have now are the children of the last generation of my Massassi servants who have long since died over four-thousand years ago. Do you know how they died? How the species became extinct? In what the Jedi call a genocide on my part." Exar said the last sentence with what could only be described as a slow, low, and deep fit of giggles. Even Vader raised a brow from behind his mask.

"No Kun I don't know any of this. It happened long ago, and the Jedi records, the best records for such things are not open to my reading because of my master."

"Mm, thought as much." Exar replied smoothly as he grabbed now a small knife from the luggage and closed it, apparently getting all the materials he needed out of it.

"Well I needed to survive to see my vision of a Sith golden age through, and if that meant the death of my loyal minions then so be it. I assured their kin would continue to serve me and fight another day after all." Exar went up as he came to a full stand and put the knife in his belt, and looked at the Massassi. He seemed pleased with their positions, and called Mattizz over to him. "you have done you part my loyal commander. Now please leave this room, and don't enter into the force until I leave. Do you understand Mattizz?"

Kun instructed and Mattizz bowed deeply.

"Yes, lord Kun. As you will."

"Good now go." Kun said with a prideful smile, and Vader quickly keyed the Massassi brute out, and re-keyed it locked again as the other ten Massassi stood standing utterly still.

"You see Vader I sacrificed literally millions of Massassi warriors, their families, and their species itself in one fell swoop. As the entirety of their species, save their children, ritually gave themselves to me. For I am their very god Vader. They believe and worship me. So when I tell them to internally give themselves to me they do it without a second thought, and as such I sacrificed their whole race to sever my body from my soul, and thus I lived and they, tragically, died." Exar said as he closed the distance between them.

Vader had to admit he didn't know exactly how Kun had remained, and this revelation did send an odd creep through Vader, but he was quick to dismiss it away.

"What is the point of this story Kun? And what does it have to do with my question, which you failed to answer." Vader reminded, and Kun shrugged.

"Quite simply lord Vader alchemy is a very precise art within the force and what you ask of me, while not impossible, requires a certain level of sacrifice, and a willingness to sacrifice." Vaders eyes widened ever so slightly as he looked over the Massassi once more, and realized their force essences were completely open to Kun. They were, sacrifices, and they were willing to die for whatever Kun asked of them.

"Ah, I can tell you have caught on lord Vader." Exar intoned, and Vader gave a curt nod.

"Surely you don't have reservations to sacrifice and death lord Vader?"

"No. I just didn't realize-"
"Realize that it was necessary? Didn't realize the loyalty of my Massassi warriors? Didn't realize the depths I can and am willing to go to fulfill my end of our bargain?" Kun nearly badgered Vader who didn't respond.

"Trust me lord Vader they don't mind. They are happy to die for their lord and master in fact! They will compensate for the will of sacrifice. Their blood, their essence, and their mild affinity to the force will make this whole process…easier." Exar declared as he came to a full stop before the hulking Sith.

"Now Vader. Let's get something straight while we're here." Kun causing Vader to slightly glare at him in confusion.

"I offered to do this under the condition that we are partners in our mutual endeavor to topple your master. Do you think me a fool? I know you will gain back some power of your once healed, or rather, you will finally believe yourself open to more power once healed, as I don't think your powers are limited save for what limitations you, yourself put upon yourself, but nonetheless I am doing this." Exar went on.

"So tell me this lord Vader. Are we partners in this pact to rid the galaxy and Empire of your master Palpatine?"

"Yes, Kun." Vader in an irritated manner replied.

"Then do me the honor of indulging me once more before I heal your body. Once I have completed my end of this bargain and you see that I did indeed uphold my end, do me a favor and trust me when I say we are allies until your master is destroyed, publicly, and personally. Trust me a little more after this, and I shall do the same for you. No plotting behind one another's backs, no preemptive double crosses until Sidious is destroyed, and even then we don't drag the galaxy into this. When he is gone, it is you and I. We settle our differences on who should lead after Sidious ceases being in the equation, and the galaxy firmly under our power. Full partners for as long as we need to destroy this Emperor and bring about our visions of the Sith, depending on whom is the ultimate victor in this conflict." Exar went on grandiosely, and Vader was for once stunned. A true rarity.

The question on whether it was wise to trust another Sith after what Palpatine had done was something Vader was not jumping to do. However, Vader had to begrudgingly admit that Kun had been holding up his ends of their deal. Kun was not in any apparent way making move against Vader. Indeed e was always forthcoming to Vader and his questions, save for the ones he said would be revealed after his healing. If Kun upheld his end, and truly did heal him. How could Vader not allow him his trust? How could Vader not agree to a full partnership of necessity between himself and Kun that entailed not plotting against the other until the time when Sidious was dead and gone?

The more Vader asked himself this the more he couldn't find a reason to not, and more begrudgingly than he had ever felt before as a Sith lord Vader nodded finally to the expectant Kun.

"If you uphold your end here, tonight, and don't prove a failure, don't attempt to kill me here and now. I will grant you my trust until the when my master is no longer in the equation."
"Kill you? Lord Vader, you disappoint me." kun replied, but with humor on his voice.

"You control Moff Vellam! How in the name of the force could I get to him without you?! No my dear lord Vader. I am afraid I need you aid as much as you need mine."

Exar admitted and Vader nodded his understanding and agreement.

"Very well Kun. Partners. Until Sidious is gone, then-"
"Then, all bets are off, and we can freely try to kill one another!" Exar happily declared and forcibly shook Vaders hand. Much to the larger Sith lords annoyance.

"Now, lord Vader. It is time." Kun intoned dramatically.

"Stand in the center of the circle created by the willing Massassi." He ordered and pointed to, and Vader with hesitance followed his order.

"Massassi!" Kun called loudly and they stiffened before Kun spoke a series of words Vader didn't understand and assumed to be Massassi. His assumptions were proven right when all ten kneeled down and got to their knees as they then prostrated themselves to the floor with their foreheads touching the metallic floor beneath them.

Vader then witnessed kun pull from his belt something he could barely make out. A thin, near miniscule hair.

"Whose hair is that Kun?" Vader asked in utter confusion.

"All will be made clear after this hair is put to good use, my lord." Exar said with no trace of lie about him. So Vader merely curtly nodded, and returned to silence.

Exar silently levitated the saber crystal into the air above Vader, and informed Vader it was used to focus the energies into his body. Then he pulled out the blade and placed the hair into the bowl.

"Now lord Vader. Do you understand that you are about to commit to transmutations that would not have otherwise happened if I were not here?" Kun asked and Vader thought it an oddly obvious and stupid sounding question. 'What is he? A spiritual lawyer?' Vader thought with a grim and annoyed look behind his mask, but decided better of protesting.

"Yes."

"Do you understand that you are trading your current body for that of a newer, yet past one?"

"Yes." Vader again replied.

"Do you accept the sacrifice of blood, of essence, and give your body for the time that the process is taking place over to the one whom is performing this ritual?"

Trepidation flowed through him but Vader decided that it was either now or never.

"Yes. I do."

"Then by pact of blood," Kun declared as he took the blade and cut his hand and allowed his blood to drip into the bowl. "I assign what once was into what shall be, and take what is no longer desired into the crystal. Let it absorb, transmute and enact as I command. By the power of the force! I am Exar Kun, and I command thee!" Exar declared dramatically, and in a flash the crystal connected streams of electric tendrils into the ten Massassi and they cried out in pain. Indeed it sounded like horrid and unbelievable pain, and yet Vader could still sense their willingness, their devotion to Kun, and so they suffered.

Then in a boom the crystal shot out a tendril towards Kun whom used his hand and the force to direct it to the bowl. There the contents were seemingly evaporated into nothingness, and Kun grinned a near maniacal looking grin and his grey eyes widened in glee as his plan went swimmingly into motion.

"Now my lord Vader, be reborn!" Exar declared with arms flung out in a grandiose and mad manner. Then Vader jerked his head up and saw the crystal spin unbelievably fast and seemingly pull the tendrils from the Massassi forcibly. Who lied dead afterwards, as the tendrils retreated into the crystal and seemingly…ate their very essences within the force.

Then a massive and brilliant beam of light hit Vader, and by the force it was Mustafar all over again!

Searing hot pain coursed through him! Every inch of his skin boiled, or felt as if it were, every inch of him cried in pain, and Vader let loose a howl of pain, and collapsed to a knee. The force screamed into his ears, into his mind, the force was light, then dark, then neither, then both! He couldn't tell anymore, and felt as if his life was flashing before his eyes. Never had he experienced something so unbearably intense, never!

The force crackled all about Vader. Shots of lightning shot down out of the ceiling from seemingly nowhere as the force exploded with power, as it worked to commit itself to the actions Kun beseeched it to. Kun embraced the thrill and electric potency the force was whirling about the room. Vader was on a bended knee and one of his arms was holding him up on the floor as he cried out in pain that through his helmet sounded like a mechanical wail of a dying machine, but Kun knew that the machine was dying. This cyborg Vader was dying, and from the ashes will come forth the real lord Vader, and no matter what end he and Vader's partnership would eventually come to, Kun took pride in the fact it was HE who healed this broken body!

Suddenly the crystal began swirling even faster and the tendrils shot out once more in random directions as if searching for something that wasn't there, and they spun much as the crystal was, and lightening shot from nowhere and all about the room, as power, pure, raw, and unadulterated power burst forth from the crystal as it linked its essence with Vaders.

"Wait...this wasn't supposed to happ-" Kun was about to comment but in an incomprehensible burst of power was thrown violently back into the far wall of the room. Exar was knocked out cold as the force busted forth from the palace of lord Vader out into the galaxy.

In the great palace of Coruscant Sidious's eyes shot open as the force passed through him and his palace with an unmistakable surge of potent energy that he couldn't tell where it came from. Only that it caused the old man to shutter at the unbridled power that coursed through the force. "What is this! Where is that coming from!" Palpatine cried out loud to the empty throne room and stared out one of the massive viewports as he reached out to find the source but was quickly rebuffed by unseen and unknown power. All the old man knew was that for the first time in many years he felt a pang of…fear creep along his spine.

On a far off swamp world, hidden away from most in the galaxy and considered unbelievably unimportant a small green figures eyes burst open from his meditations, and Yoda immediately jerked his head to the skies above. A feeling so familiar to him, it was. Felt this power before, he had, and tried to understand where and what it was and came from he did.

"Fear I do, that more powerful the Sith have become." Yoda quietly whispered to himself as he closed his weary eyes in returned silence. The old Jedi did not know what lay in the future. Only that whatever had just happened, it was certain to change things forever.

Further out in the galaxy on a desert covered world an old man shot up in his bed as he felt a presence he had not felt in a long time. Obi-Wan Kenobi looked about his room as if looking for someone to be standing there waiting for him, but he saw no one. The force however screamed in his ear, and sent a thrill through his body, almost coursing through his very bones.

'Anakin?' Obi-Wan thought as he recognized, without a doubt the signature, raw power of his old apprentice, his old friend. By the force, the power that radiated off him was so immense that Kenobi swore he were in the very room with him.

"What have you done Vader?!" Kenobi, like Yoda, asked quietly to the nothingness, and as usual the force was silent on this matter to him. Once more clouding over with uncertainty.

On that same world a small blond haired, blue eyed boy thrashed about his bed as images coursed through his sleeping head. A man horribly immolated by fire, and coursing with hate that radiated off him in waves towards an unseen other man standing away. 'No! Please stop!' Luke silently cried unheard as the man burned in fiery hot pain.

The scene changed to that of a hulking black creature that rasped in every breath as he choked the life out of many unseen, and indiscernible faces. Planets burned, peoples died, and the monster stood before it all without a hint of regret or sorrow.

Yet, then the scene calmed and a cooling sensation flowed over Luke as he stood in an open and green meadow. A waterfall in the distance and a beautiful star shinning on him.

"This sure isn't Tatooine." The thirteen year old commented and suddenly saw a blond haired man standing far off to the side from him. The man didn't notice look but was instead smiling down on a woman that again, Luke didn't recognize. Luke thought her quite pretty and smiled at her, and was shocked when she turned her brown eyes on him. Smiled and waved, while the man seemed oblivious to her.

This brown haired woman, calmed Luke enough that his dreams returned t peace, and all the horrors and nightmares shied away from his mind as the great burst of force energy faded from the Lars homestead.

A woman of dark hair and dark glaring eyes, glared even more as she felt the sudden burst. Kellia snarled as she felt the dark side emanate off this presence whoever it may be. "The Force grows darker, and I as well." She commented wryly as she felt rage course through her at this power burst. Shaking her head sadly Kellia looked upwards towards the nearing night of Geonosis. 'What is becoming of this hell we call a galaxy?' She thought in deepening sadness and returned to a fitful meditation. The future only seeming more bleak.

Back at Vaders palace his apprentice shot out of his meditation and fell over in surprise before coming to a stand and looking around for the source of this great burst that sent chills along his skin. A dull throbbing pain coursed through his head as the force practically yelled in power. Like a vice it grew more painful, and soon he was rubbing his temples as the pain continued, and when it did fade, Starkiller felt unusually drained, and had to sit down. He scanned the room, and stretched out his sense but found that the whole of Coruscant pulsated with this strange power. Try as he might he could not push past the surface and decided to stop trying after a while deciding that once it faded he would search out his master.

Viathan was worse off as the power hit him, and his mind exploded with pain. 'Force!' The scream of power was unbearable for him. The voice within him added to the pain as it too seemed to feel this pain! Was it the voice feeling pain, or he feeling the pain of two at once?! Viathan didn't know, he only knew that it felt like his head was being put through one of the Emperors worst vice grips of a torture device! He doubled over in pain as he clamped both hands over his head, and cried out in a muffled cry of pain, and when it passed for him like the others. He found himself unwilling, or even unable to move from his position on the floor on his side. All horrid and brutal memories of pain came flooding to him, and Viathan curled himself into a ball as the force continued to ebb away carrying the burst. Leaving the traitorous Emperors Hand afraid on the floor. The voice that ridiculed him now doubly screaming at him, and he let it.

'I am weak….pathetic.' He thought and closed his eyes. Sleep took him there on the floor after some time.

Leia cried out when the burst hit her. Forcing her awake from a fitful sleep where her incoherent dreams had troubled her. Now, however, she too shared waking images of scenes she didn't recognize. A man being burned, a woman crying, being choked by an unseen force. Darth Vader killing and destroying on a whim. A sad man with blond hair suddenly beaming with happiness at the sight of the woman from earlier. The woman smiling and calming this man, and then turning and comforting Leia just by looking at her.

Neither Skywalker child knew that they had seen their mother. Neither knew what was to become of them in this now forever changed galaxy.

Leia this night found herself drained of all her energy inexplicably, and quickly found herself wearily drifting back off to sleep.

All throughout the imperial palace, and other places of Coruscant the Hands, dark side agents, and Inquisitors stiffened where they stood, sat, or slept. This energy in the force frightened them all whether they would admit it or not. For it had eclipsed the Emperor and all else on Coruscant itself. It blotted out Imperial Center in the force until it receded and faded away with none of them being capable of pushing past the veil and finding the source. Eyes wide, many of them fitfully went along their ways, and did their assigned duties. Now they only looked over their shoulders doubly paranoid as ever before.

Back in the very room where all this power emanated from. It all went deathly and suddenly. The only sound being ragged and distorted breaths from Vaders respirator machine. His mask was pointed to the floor and his eyes through the lens of the red of his masks viewports stared dumbly at the metallic and now charred floor beneath him as he was still on bended knee. His breaths were ragged behind the mask, and Vader required a moment to realize he was till alive!

Picking himself off the floor to a full and shaky stand Vader looked about the room. "Kun?" He blurted out to the silence not seeing the other Sith lord anywhere.

"Kun, where are you?" Vader demanded and turned. Finally he saw the face down and unconscious figured, robed in all black and purple lying on the metallic floor. Exar groaned to Vaders loud baritone voice and lifted a hand in the air without raising his head.

"Give me a moment lord Vader." He called and forced his hands to push himself up to his knees.

Vader nodded and looked about the room once more. He saw that all the Massassi were indeed dead. Only now that he looked at their corpses he could see they were oddly charred and burned all across their bodies. The tendrils had apparently burned them beyond recognition, and killed them before taking their essence in the force. Though that was an educated guess on Vaders part as he didn't quite understand how Force alchemy, or better yet, Sith Alchemy worked.

The red crystal Exar had used as the focusing device was now lying on the metallic floor. However, Vader noted that it had an odd glow to it now. It seemed to bristle with a hidden power that he did not understand, and something, a small voice in the back of his mind warned Vader, to not dare touch the crystal.

Vader shook his head at the mess and stretched out his arms in weariness….wait, 'My arms?' Vader had forgotten all about what they were doing, and now stared dumbly at his outstretched arms as he twirled and stretched out his individual fingers in stunned silence. They reacted to him immediately and easily.

Vader rolled his shoulders over as he would do when preparing for a duel, and found them following his ever wish, and they didn't hurt. They didn't sting with the usual pain that coursed through him. Behind his mask he exhaled a shaky breath as a smile came to him in stunned silence.

Looking down Vader lifted one leg off the floor and then the other as they moved effortlessly and easily. "No pain." Vader commented through his mask, and heard himself. With a sudden glare Vader grappled his helmeted mask with both hands, and forced the helmet t begin its process of removal with a hiss.

Vader didn't notice Kun groggily walking over and standing off to the side of him and waiting to see his work come to fruition.

When the helmet came off, Vader practically tossed it to the floor. Then quickly ripped the mask portion off. His eyes were closed as anticipation pounded through his body. Slowly he opened his eyes and surveyed the room. He had held his breath, and finally, shakily, almost timidly, Vader inhaled a large breath of air, and oh how sweet it was. Releasing the breath Vader laughed and smiled for the first time in a long while with a massive grin overtaking him. Taking in another breath Vader exhaled again and laughed.

Running his gloved hands along his cheek he felt no scarring. Indeed as he crawled his gloved fingers up his face he came into contact with the unmistakable feeling of hair. His shaggy blond hair was just as he remembered before Mustafar, before Kenobi burned him into a monster, a horrid charred walking fiend.

"By the force. I didn't actually think-"
"That I could uphold my end?" Exar commented dryly with a prideful smirk along his features as he realized he had succeeded.

"Yeah." Vader retorted back barely paying attention as he allowed his hands to flex and move all along his face, in what some may have thought a full show of narcissism, but both Vader and Kun knew that it was really disbelief and a need to verify.

"Kun?" Vader finally said, catching the other Sith lords attention.

"Hmm?" He replied in a hum, more than with words.

"Do you have any reflective surfaces on you?"

"You know what? I came fully prepared!" Exar declared happily as he walked to his luggage container and brought out a very simple mirror for Vader. It was simple and black, something Vader assumed Kun picked up from some random kiosk in one of Coruscant's many shops. Exar offered it to him, and Vader quickly snatched it up with eagerness, and brought it up to see himself in the mirror.

He saw that which he so wished to see. A head of shaggily blond hair. His facial features all as they once were only slightly older now but that was okay for him. Everything was there, and Vader had to stop for a minute as he could barely make out the oldest scar on his face still hardly noticeable along his right eye.

"Hmm, I suppose I cant be perfect, eh Vader?" Exar commented as he noticed Vaders look, but Vader laughed and waved him off.

"Think nothing of it! I will take one meaningless and hardly noticeable scar over what I was before any time!" Vader declared happily.

Vader even noted that his eyes were the brilliant blue that they once were, and he figured that was to be expected as he was nowhere near being in the thrall of the dark side. Vader could care less he was healed, and he had his body, and his power back.

"So you're blond eh? I didn't think that you were?" Kun commented off handedly.

"Why not?"
"Well…ah forget about it." Exar waved him off.

Vader gave him a critical look and with his older but familiar voice he retorted.

"No I shall not 'forget about it,' Kun. Why did you not consider the possibility that I was blond haired? In fact! Whose hair was that, that you used for your ritual?! Vader demanded as he handed the mirror back, and Kun took it with no fear upon his features.

"Listen to me Vader. I already told you that all will be told to you after the process, and it will, but I cant have you acting rash now that you are healed and the Emperor more than likely felling a disturbance in the force! So, as your partner I will tell you what I know in due time, but for now enjoy the fact that you are healed, and get used to your limbs once more! They may be working, but I think they will need a bit of exercise nonetheless!" Kun crossed his arms with a smirk on his face in defiance of anything that Vader may say in retaliation.

"After all. That of lesser value was transmuted into that which you consider of greater value lord Vader. Your old legs and arms, as well as body were replaced. You need to quickly get into tiptop shape!" Exar declared with a glimmer of humor in his eyes.

"Is that the purpose of that then?" Vader asked pointing lazily to the crystal, and noticing this Exar picked it up between his index finger and thumb, and brought it up to eye level between the two.

"Why yes actually. Don't ask for specifics because it's far too complicated but this holds the essence, so to speak, of your 'broken' body. It could be used to return you to as you were." That made Vader eyes widen slightly as he took an unnoticeable step back.

"However-" Exar let it fall to the floor again, and quickly stomped on it, and Vader watched as a smoke like substance came forth and then quickly blew away in an unseen gust of wind. "I am not going to go back on my end of the bargain. when our deal is done I will fight and defeat you with my power, and my strength as is." Exar said with a smirk of pride on his face and arrogance for his power in his voice.

"So…partners?" Exar asked and extended his right hand, and Vader with a now seeable smirk, and chuckle grabbed Kun's extended hand.

"Partners."

Authors Note: Oh boy this one was hard to write, but I think it came out pretty good. How about you guys? I know everyone has been DYING to see this chapter come forth, and so here it is! tell me what you think, and await the next chapter which is already in development! :D

Also, yes the alchemy is all off the top of my head, but i believe that alchemy is pretty open to interpretation, even in Star wars canon, so please don't take too much issue with my alchemy please! As usual, please point out, or excuse all grammatical errors, and enjoy!