CHAPTER 11: VERYK

The Vergence Scatter

When Veryk emerged through the portal into the World Between Worlds, Morai was circling overhead, squawking in shock.

Bendu floated over. "What is the matter, Morai?"

{"Your blasted Jedi attacked us!"} Veryk's voice screamed. He ran his paws over his chest fur to brush the unpleasantness away.

"He did what?!" Bendu asked in alarm.

{"It is true,"} Morai said solemnly, calming down as she landed on the ground. {"I have never seen a Jedi with such a poor disposition."}

{"Poor disposition,"} Veryk snorted. {"That's the understatement of all time."}

"Enough arguing," Bendu ordered, landing on the transparent pathway with an authoritative thud. "We need a new plan… Perhaps an intermediary to interact with the crew of the Kestrel."

{"We could just warn Ahsoka,"} Morai suggested. {"We could find a spot Palpatine has not surveilled and warn her."}

{"Easier said than done."} Veryk faced away from Bendu and Morai, staring off into the starry darkness. {"Even if we successfully warn Ahsoka, she's too embedded on Coruscant. Any action she does will be countered by Palpatine. Hell, this is probably how he will become so powerful."}

"What do you mean 'will become' so powerful?" Bendu demanded. "Veryk, what haven't you told me?"

The Savrit Cat paced back and forth. {"It's just a feeling you know. When I heard Dume disappeared, I just had a feeling a human must be behind it. Besides Palpatine, what other human will ever gain such knowledge of Bothan consciousness transfer? Then when I got to Naboo this morning, I felt certain."}

Bendu folded his bony arms in front of his red beard. "Certain of what?"

{"Certain that…"} Veryk paused, then began looking around in every direction. The fur on the back of his neck bristled with static. His danger sense was blaring. {"Does anyone else feel that?"}

Morai's voice echoed in his mind. {"Feel what?"}

{Sense… Something dangerous. Something new."}

"I don't feel anything. Maybe it's—"

—Terrified yelps and snarls murmured in the distance from the platform two levels below. It was the path the Loth-Wolves had been searching. Bendu and Morai exchanged a worried look, then took off.

Veryk once again let off an angry screech. {"WAIT FOR ME!"}

"Get on!" Bendu yelled, floating in place beneath the platform.

With a squeak, Veryk leapt through the air, landing in a tuft of mangy red fur behind Bendu's antlers. He gripped on for dear life as Bendu descended quickly through the air.

On the pathway below, it was clear something was very wrong. Veryk could sense the fear from the Loth-Wolves as they snarled and barked at a strange cloaked figure standing in their midst. The figure seemed, to Veryk, to have no Force presence at all. Yet, that was impossible. He must be disguising himself. That's how he snuck up on Vitnir.

Vitnir and the other Loth-Wolves would jump forward, snarling, then leap back too afraid to get any closer.

Bendu drew nearer, but the face was still too distant to make out. Veryk did not need a history lesson to know who this was though. There was only one logical possibility. {"Sidious…"}

"He doesn't seem like the Sidious I know of," Bendu cautioned.

An icy horrifying cackle cut through the air. "I did not expect this place to be so… Populous."

"Who are you?" Vitnir demanded. "Why did you sneak up on us? How did you get to this place?"

"That is a question with a most interesting answer."

Bendu landed behind the Loth-Wolves. "Get behind me!"

At this distance, the human's face was possible for Veryk to make out. He looked like Palpatine, but younger, with a full head of light brown hair, intelligent eyes, and a sharp nose.

{"How is this possible?"} Veryk gasped.

{"Cloning…"} Morai speculated, circling overhead like the bird of prey she was. {"Through Ahsoka's actions, Sidious not only gained Bothan Consciousness Transfer and Kaminoan Cloning technology, like he did in our timeline, but also the ability to come here."}

"Well, answer my question!" Vitnir snarled. "How did you get here, Sith?"

"Through a combination of hard-work, creativity, and belief in my own destiny," Sidious remarked dryly. "How is it that you are so surprised?"

Vitnir froze. Her eyes began glowing white. "For your own safety, Sith, I am going to have to ask you to return to the portal from whence you came while we investigate this incursion further."

"While you investigate this incursion further?" Sidious spat. "How ironic! To think, I traveled through time—broke the laws of physics, only to be lectured at by a bureaucrat assuming the form of a mangy wolf."

"That's enough," Bendu grunted, standing as tall as he could. "Go back to where you came from. Vitnir, get behind me."

"I am not assuming this form," Vitnir snarled, baring her fangs. "This is who I am."

"Well, we'll see about that," Sidious laughed. Before Veryk, Bendu, or the Loth Wolves could react, a pair of crimson lightsaber blades glowed in the darkness.

Veryk's snout hung open in shock as Sidious leapt through the air with a horrific screech, closing the distance between himself and Vitnir in an instant. As Vitnir collapsed to the ground, Sidious dashed forwards, slicing through her mate, Kawlish. The surviving Loth-Wolves ran towards Bendu, yelping in terror.

Bendu roared in fury, setting his massive hands onto the ground in an Earth-shattering crash.

Unbalanced, Veryk tumbled from Bendu's back, groaning as he slammed into the hard transparent floor. The rage emanating from Bendu was palpable. It made the air itself feel stormy.

Lying on his back, Veryk whimpered in terror and shock. If it weren't for Bendu's rage, the Viverrid would not have believed his own senses. Intellectually, he knew lightsabers could kill Veil Dwellers like himself.

To witness it so suddenly, to feel a presence he had known for eons pass away, was stunning.

"It was telling the truth after all," Sidious uttered in a surprised tone. "It really was a dog."

Bright white light cut through the void. While the surviving Loth-Wolves cowered behind Bendu, the Sith Lord's position was nailed by lightning. Thunder and static noises crackled in the air.

Sidious let off a gasp of surprise, then returned his own shot of lightning in Bendu's direction. Whatever he expected to happen, this was certainly not it. The Veil Dwellers on all of the levels stopped their searches, turning to stare at the fight brewing below.

The two combatants moved closer to each other, faces scrunched in fury. Electricity arced through the air, licking the event horizon of the nearest portal.

Teary-eyed, Bendu wailed in anger. The width of the lightning bolts increased, overwhelming Sidious's defenses as the Dark Side surged around them. "BEGONE WITH YOU!"

A white glow appeared under Morai's talons, then dropped onto Sidious like a bomb. Raging wind erupted from around Sidious as he twirled through the air, spiralling out of range of the explosion.

Seeming to realize how much danger he was in, the Sith Lord sprinted with surprising speed, moving in a near-blur towards the portals leading to the past. The pathway glowed brightly under his feet with every footstep.

With an ominous deep growl, Bendu seemed to dissolve into clouds. The storm grew in size to the point it obscured the stars. A few drops of water fell from the sky, followed by a torrential downpour.

Normally, Veryk would have complained, but there was far more to worry about than a downpour of Bendu. As Morai soared after Sidious, throwing down balls of plasma, lightning bolts struck down from the sky, narrowly missing the retreating Sith Lord.

Yet, Veryk was not in pursuit. He scurried up to Vitnir, screeching in alarm. The Loth-Wolves Zoltan, Ito, and Triya circled around the eviscerated bodies of Vitnir and Kawlish, howling in misery.

As Bendu rain poured down, soaking everyone and everything, Veryk had difficulty believing his own senses. Vitnir can't be dead. She just can't... Sniffling, he looked past-wards at Sidious in disgust. This was completely pointless. If we don't stop him now he will travel through time, killing us off one at a time.

In the distance, Sidious was now standing his ground, doing the only thing he could under such conditions—filling the sky with lightning. Morai dodged his blasts, screeching as she continued to throw down fireballs. One of the Webweavers clung to the underside of the pathway, scurrying towards Sidious's position.

A barrier seemed to form over Sidious's head, holding back the rain and deflecting the onslaught of fire and lightning.

"It seems we are evenly matched with the Force! And yet I still have so much to learn!" the Sith Lord cackled mockingly.

Two orange eyes appeared in the stormcloud while, simultaneously, the Webweaver climbed her web up to the top of the platform, spitting threads of silk from her abdomen onto Sidious's foot.

Sidious screamed angrily, maintaining the forcefield with one hand as he swung his saber with the other, narrowly missing the spider.

"Morai, Esfer," Bendu's voice boomed to the Convor and Webweaver, "get out of the way."

Veryk scowled, wiping the rain off his snout. {"Bendu, what are you planning."}

Esfer slipped away, dangling from the bottom of the platform from a web. Morai flew back along the opposite way, retreating back towards Veryk and the surviving Loth-Wolves.

Bendu's eyes glowed red, something Veryk had never seen. {"Bendu! This is probably a bad idea!"}

Sidious cut the web from his boot, then leapt towards the nearest portal with a terrified moan.

{"BENDU!"} Veryk shrieked in terror, his danger sense blaring.

The Loth-Wolves howled along worriedly as well "BENDUUUU! NOOO!"

Just as Sidious disappeared into one of the portals, a bolt of bright red lightning, bigger than any Veryk had ever seen, slammed into the gateway. For a moment, the World Between Worlds was bathed in a dim red light. The water from Bendu's rain glistened blood red, reflecting off every previously invisible surface.

Veryk could see things he had never seen before—structures beyond the faintly illuminated pathways he regularly walked on. Suspended in mid-air, or perhaps floating in space, were thousands of otherwise invisible spheres, inactive portals whose pathways had long since crumbled. Further out, was what appeared to be a wall.

This place is inside of something, Veryk realized for the first time.

For several seconds, the Viverrid forgot about the battle between Bendu, Morai, and Sidious.

Standing up on his hind legs, he marvelled at the ghastly glistening blood-like beauty of the realm, a place clearly constructed by someone. Then, the portal through which Sidious had vanished exploded under Bendu's lightning. All surrounding portals glowed red hot as lightning now arced from one to another, engulfing everything in a terrifying red inferno of electricity. Several portals near to the one Sidious had entered exploded too, each with the same ominous boom.

Veryk, Morai, the Loth-Wolves, and every other sentient being in the Vergence Scatter cried out in horror.

{"BENDU!"}

"BENDUUU! BENDUUUUUUU!"

{"BENDU! YOU ARE BREAKING IT! STOP!"}

As if the Force itself were angered, a white lightning bolt arced from the empty sphere nearest to the destroyed portal, striking upwards into the heart of the storm.

With a thunderous wail, Bendu emerged from the bottom of the clouds, dropping through the air until he landed in a puddle of his own rain with a sickening splosh.

As quickly as it began, the rainfall abruptly ceased.

The portals leading to much of the events predating the Clone Wars shut down almost in unison, blacking out more than half of the observable World Between Worlds. With the ambient stars obscured by the clouds above and below the platform, the only light around where Bendu had fallen was the dim glow of the pathway he laid upon.

Screeching, howling, chittering, and squawking, dozens of Veil Dwellers ran, flew, crawled, slithered, and scuttled towards Bendu. Overwhelming panic and confusion pierced the abyss.

Veryk slipped in a puddle of Bendu, falling flat on his face. He gasped in alarm as one of the panicked Loth-Wolves nearly stepped on him. {"Wait! Stop, you're going to—OOOF!"}

Triya picked Veryk up, biting the loose skin on the back of his neck, and carried the Viverrid as if he were a puppy. A short distance later, Veryk was set down next to Bendu amidst the ruined portals.

"Bendu, you broke it!" Zoltan whimpered, spinning in place as he surveyed the damage. "You broke everything!"

"Vitnir warned me," Bendu croaked.

Losko the Mythosaur landed gingerly at Bendu's side, folding his wings down. "Warned you about Palpatine?"

Bendu gulped, sitting up as he glanced in the direction of Vitnir's body. "No. That if I fail to control my emotions, my actions could have unexpected consequences in this realm. Now she's really gone."

{"That is not your fault,"} Morai said consolingly, landing on Bendu's shoulder. {"Palpatine killed her, not you."}

"I know," Bendu sniffled. "But the portals…"

The mood of the area was completely downcast and hopeless. Not only had one of their oldest and wisest been murdered, but they had no way of pursuing the killer.

No way to stop Palpatine from doing this again, Veryk thought helplessly. While he was certain even Bendu would now have agreed to his plan to kill Palpatine as an infant, with the portals to times before the Clone Wars deactivated, it was impossible to stop Palaptine before this happened.

It's completely hopeless… We are doomed—WAIT. The Viverrid gasped. {"At least Palpatine can't return. He's stuck in—Stuck in… Wait, where and when does that portal lead?"}

{"Xagobah,"} Morai answered. {"Three years before the Clone Wars—But I have no idea what effect the surge of lightning may have had. It's possible he was sent further back in time than that."}

"Then he's stuck," Zoltan growled, turning the opposite way towards the lit portals. "Good riddance. We won't see him until after… After…"

{"That looks like… Well I can't tell from here,"} Morai answered, {"but some months before Order 66."}

"What happens to those of us who were behind portals which are now shut down?" Losko asked worriedly.

"They're stuck," Bendu sighed. "Many of us are stuck behind portals. Stuck until time progresses towards a point where the portals are active. Just like Palaptine."

{"So, we are now stuck too,"} Veryk thought aloud, pacing as he counted tasks with his tiny Savrit Cat claws. {"We can only stop Palpatine's schemes in the year Order 66 occurs, cannot travel back in time before that, and have to stop Palpatine to save Vitnir and Kawlish."}

{"Save Vitnir and Kawlish…"} Morai hooted in agreement. {"While we cannot stop Ahsoka's arrival, if we stop Palpatine at the end of the Clone Wars, then he will never live long enough to discover this realm."}

"I don't know if it works that way," Bendu sniffled, standing to his feet. "I have never witnessed anyone die in this realm. Since changes to the timeline don't seem to affect us, it might be that Vitnir cannot be saved… We don't have time to grieve right now, but we do have time to send Vitnir and Kawlish somewhere else."

A general murmur of agreement rang out from the crowd.

o.o.o.o.o

The miserable crowd of Veil Dwellers walked or flew forward slowly through the darkness. At the centre of the group, Bendu carried the bodies of Kawlish and Vitnir, one Loth-Wolf in each hand. After a hundred meters or so, they passed by the first lit portal. Under these circumstances, that portal might as well have been the dawn of time or the Big Bang itself.

Veryk paused, gazing into the event horizon as the procession continued on, Veryk saw a familiar ashy furred Bothan standing on the snow, wearing a yellow vest and matching construction hat.

{"We cannot lay Vitnir and Kawlish to rest there just because it is the first portal,"} Morai's voice spoke impatiently.

{"No, it's not that…"}