Dark Destiny

Edelweiss woke with a pained whine. She coughed, flinched from the pain in her ribs, and then coughed again. She sensed that the ritual had been a success, though the pain and weakness she suffered afterward were not according to plain. Either the Sith Lords had made an error, or Voldemort had been naughty with his essence. They had assumed four parts—her, two vessels, and Voldemort. They had underestimated him, and so she suffered the burden.

The price of victory, she thought, trying to sit up. Her eyes opened to find the sterile white of the Hospital Wing around her. The ever-present specter of Madam Pomfrey descended upon her before she could rise more than a couple inches from the bed.

"Down, you fool girl! Down!" The nurse huffed before waving her wand over Edelweiss. It flashed several colors in swift succession. "I do not know what you were trying to do, drowning in that much basilisk venom! You should consider yourself lucky you failed to kill yourself!"

"I'm too… too power…ful for… that," Edelweiss growled, hating how weak she sounded. This should be a moment of glory and triumph for her, for she had in one swift stroke rendered Voldemort permanently mortal. She opened herself to the dark side and felt its cold, wonderful power fill her bones.

"Bah!" grumbled Madam Pomfrey. "Power? You fool girl! It's a shame seeing what you did to yourself. You're going to have a difficult time once everyone sees those strange tattoos on your face."

"Oh, so those worked as well?" she murmured with awe. She tried to sit up again. Her limbs felt weak, filled with jelly. Edelweiss slumped back onto the bed, staring up at the nurse. "Could you fetch me a mirror so that I can see myself? And some pillows as well."

Several long, uncomfortable seconds passed before Madam Pomfrey sighed and bustled away. She returned shortly after and handed over a large handheld mirror. Edelweiss turned its polished surface toward her face and nearly gasped.

Edelweiss had felt the paste on her face before initiating the ritual, but had only glimpsed those on her body. She had gone into a trance, fueled by the dark side, as she applied them. Now, however, she could make out every black marking that distinguished her face. Across her forehead were five triangular markings that started thick at her hairline and streaked down, thinning to needle points around her brow; the central one followed the slope of her nose and ended upon a black bead that dotted the tip. Black bars ran from her temples to her eyes. The skin around the sockets was black as well. There was a pair of stripes like those on her forehead across each cheek, rising from the upper part of her jaw, along with black filling the narrow strip between septum and lip. Her lips were mostly black, with the top completely covered and the bottom split by a thick stripe down the center. At the bottom was her chin, which bore two triangular blocks that rose from the darkness swirling around her neck.

"Oh," she breathed, enthralled by her new markings. All that was missing were the sickly yellow eyes of a Sith Lord. "They look better than I hoped."

Madam Pomfrey sighed loudly. "That was a very foolish thing to do, Miss Potter. Is there a reason you risked your life?"

Edelweiss glanced around the Hospital Wing. There was nobody else present. Her housemates must be sleeping off the euphoria of yesterday's game, dulled as it was by the Twins being banned and Ron's poor showing. The absence of Headmaster Dumbledore surprised her some, though she had learned well enough that the man was capable of moving around invisible when it suited his needs.

Best she err on the side of caution.

"I'm afraid I cannot tell you. All you need to know is that I accomplished what I set out to do."

Madam Pomfrey glowered, unimpressed by her answer. Edelweiss wondered briefly if the nurse would try to force out an answer. There were ways, as she had learned the previous June. She had been present when Dumbledore had Barty Crouch Junior dosed with that truth serum Snape had scrounged up. Could that overcome the power of the Force? She did not think so, but she was in no mood to risk discovering otherwise.

"Though, I guess I can tell you it will help defeat him," admitted Edelweiss with a soft whisper. "Voldemort."

She nearly laughed at how the nurse flinched back. Madam Pomfrey scurried off a moment later, most certainly so she could report back to Dumbledore. Edelweiss was fine with him learning this much. She might be able to use it against him. Her secrets would be preserved for now. There were magical ways to explain her methods to purge herself of the Dark Lord's tainted essence.

Edelweiss knew she had gotten lucky. Had the ritual not expanded and amplified its power in reaction to multiple sources of Voldemort's essence away from his body, she would likely have to go out and hunt them down, bit by bit. She couldn't fathom how wasteful that process would be. Worse, she suspected that Dumbledore would be integral to that hunt. He had known Tom Riddle, after all.

Madam Pomfrey returned, escorting Dumbledore, Snape, Umbridge, and Professor McGonagall. She frowned, looking over her four visitors. Edelweiss understood why Dumbledore and McGonagall were present, but what reason was there for Snape and Umbridge to be present as well?

"It is good to see you are awake, dear girl," said Dumbledore, as if nothing had changed since last June. "You gave us a terrible fright."

Edelweiss peered out the nearest window. Golden sunlight poked through the heavy grey clouds of the Scottish autumn. Something about that sight felt like an omen. But for what? The Force told her nothing. Perhaps she was only looking for a sign to confirm that she had gained power through her ritual.

"Miss Potter!" shrieked Professor Umbridge. Edelweiss slowly turned to face the professors. She nearly smirked at their annoyance and discomfort. "What were you thinking? Experimenting with unknown runes! Engaging in blood rituals! Why, were it not for the Headmaster, I would have summoned aurors to arrest you and take you to Azkaban!"

"Without a trial?"

Umbridge glowered as if sucking upon a prune. McGonagall, surprisingly, looked on the verge of laughing. Snape looked away, clearly wishing he could be anywhere else. Dumbledore maintained a cordial look.

"Why you—!"

"Apologies if this sounds forward," interrupted Edelweiss, "but is there a reason the four of you are present? I understand two, but not all four."

"It's because all of us got pulled into your foolishness, girl!" snarled Snape, managing to surprise her. "Professor Umbridge happened to be the one who found you. I do not know when she set it up, but she over a ward around some of the less frequented parts of the castle. It detected your ritual because somehow you slipped past it."

Edelweiss shrugged, as if she were posed a question. She had not noticed any special wards set around the part of the castle she chose for her ritual. Now that she thought of it, though, she should have set up a mechanism to handle her body upon finishing the ritual. It would have been immensely embarrassing to drown while cleansing herself of the Dark Lord's taint. Then again, it would be fitting for her arrogance to bring about her end. The Dark Lord had attempted so many times to strike her down, and it could have been her foolishness that brought about her undoing then.

"I assume the ward drew you to the room I repurposed?"

"Indeed," said Umbridge. She smiled widely and it was most certainly not because Edelweiss had recovered from her ritual. "I nearly summoned aurors and Unspeakables to the castle after coming upon what you had done to yourself. It was bad enough, having to remove you from the depths of your own arrogance."

Edelweiss clenched her jaw. She was caught between amusement and frustration over how Umbridge reflected Edelweiss's thoughts with her words.

"Instead, I summoned the Headmaster and Professor Snape. Once they said it was fine to move you, we brought you here," continued Umbridge as if Edelweiss were an inconvenience. "They were almost as quick to respond as myself. Only Professor McGonagall had to be summoned to the Hospital Wing and be informed of your actions."

Edelweiss glanced at the woman in question and raised a curious eyebrow.

"You know why I was summoned, Miss Potter. When you should have been asleep in Gryffindor Tower, you were halfway across the castle doing Merlin knows what!"

She hummed as she scanned the four before her. All possessed a mix of concern and frustration on their faces. Snape and Umbridge shared something malicious, as if they would have been overjoyed by her accidentally dying. Professor McGonagall almost had something akin to a terrible fear, though it felt weak in the Force. The Headmaster, for his part, regarded her like a mystifying puzzle.

"What I wish to know," said Dumbledore, drawing attention to him, "is why you told Madam Pomfrey what you have done will help defeat Voldemort."

Edelweiss watched with amusement at how the other adults reacted to Dumbledore uttering Voldemort's assumed name. Professor McGonagall, like most, swore and flinched. Snape paled to the point veins across his face were visible. Professor Umbridge, as usual, appeared ready to burn the castle to cinders. Then again, she was firmly in Minister Fudge's "He cannot be back!" camp.

"That is what I said. Tell me, Dumbledore: Did you know that some of his essence was bound to mine, or were you in the dark about events that transpired on that fateful night?"

Dumbledore sighed as the professors gave him disturbed looks. Umbridge would certainly be reporting this full conversation to the Minister. Edelweiss wondered if she should trouble interfering or if Dumbledore would keep the news from slipping out of the castle.

"I had my suspicions, Miss Potter, but nothing else to work off. Not until you gave me that diary at the end of your second year."

She breathed out slowly. "So you understand why I acted as I did."

"I do," said Dumbledore. He appeared to age thirty years in a heartbeat. "But to see you so weak? So close to death for the fourth time?" He sighed and shook his head, beard wobbling. "I have seen too much death in my many, many years, Edelweiss. I do not wish to add your name to that list."

Edelweiss wanted to doubt his words, yet they were said with such sincerity she was left uncertain. It was annoying how he could still inspire emotions beyond fury and hatred within her. She wanted to feel only those two toward Dumbledore. And yet at the same time, she struggled to name all four incidents the Headmaster referred to. The fourth was her ritual, regardless of the danger she was actually in. The first, she assumed, had followed her encounter with Voldemort at the end of her first year. The second was probably from her third year, when she was laid low by the dementors during that infamous Quidditch game. But the third incident?

"What were they?" she asked, wanting to know. Needing to know. "The ritual. Quirrell. The dementors on the pitch. What is the last one?"

Dumbledore stared at her for a long while with those solemn blue eyes of his. Eventually, he murmured, "The night you first cheated death, Miss Potter. When you got your scar."

Her mouth went dry. Suddenly, she no longer wanted this confrontation. Edelweiss knew the easiest way out. She leaned back, closed her eyes, and fell back asleep.

The afternoon had arrived and settled when Edelweiss woke again. She yawned, sat up with arms raised in a high stretch, and found a plethora of flowers, candies, and cards at her bedside. She blinked at the sight; after several months of slander in the papers, she had assumed most students would want nothing of her. More so, she was surprised by how quickly all of this had been gathered. None of this had been present when she awoke earlier. She had received a similar amount following her encounter with Quirrell; she had been unconscious for three days on that particular occasion. Somehow, a similar quantity had been gathered in several hours.

A moment later, she noticed the blonde-haired girl sitting by her bed, barefoot and reading from a glossy, upside-down magazine. Edelweiss frowned as she tried to read the title. Best she could tell, the title began with a Q. She did not know of any wizarding publications that started so.

"Hello, Lady Gladiolus," the girl said without looking up from her magazine. Edelweiss tensed. "Worry not. I won't tell anyone, though they wouldn't believe me." She looked up, soft blue eyes staring blankly at her. "I'm Luna Lovegood, though most people call me Loony Lovegood."

"Loony," repeated Edelweiss. "You."

Luna nodded.

Edelweiss snorted and then smiled. Of course, the first who might learn her secret was a kook. "Best you say nothing of my other name, for nobody would believe you if you told them."

"Indeed. It's better than the alternative."

Visions of the girl engulfed in Force lightning flashed in Edelweiss's mind. It was a pleasant sight, and one completely unnecessary.

"Still, I wish to know how you discovered the name 'Gladiolus'."

Luna tilted her head. It reminded Edelweiss of a cat "There's something that floats around you. They grow stronger whenever you're angry or embroiled in… passion? It's so odd. I don't know what they are, though they whispered to me that soon you'll be Lady Gladiolus."

"Lord Gladiolus," she corrected softly, befuddled by Luna Lovegood. How could this strange girl see so much when even her friends were blind to the truth? "There are no Sith Ladies," she continued carefully. "Only Sith Lords."

"How strange," said Luna, who was quite strange in her own right. "Why would there not be Ladies as well as Lords?"

Edelweiss pursed her lips. How had she allowed this girl to draw so much from her so easily? Was it that she already had one foot in the door? She could very well be Force-sensitive, perfect to be molded into a Sith apprentice. Though she did not seem affected by the Sith markings upon Edelweiss's face. "It's a tradition. That is all I can tell you."

Luna nodded. "Okay. I wanted to ask you a question, though. Could I join your group?"

"What group?"

"The defense one." Luna glanced around the Hospital Wing before leaning forward to softly whisper, "I've noticed people coming and going at strange hours. It's the only thing that makes sense. Your heliopath told me. You must be very powerful, to have one at your beck and call before your majority."

"My… heliopath?"

"Oh, yes. They're spirits of fire. Powerful ones. Most can't see them, though if you know where to look, they're brighter than the sun and move obvious than dawn."

"Could that be what you saw? How you learned my other name?"

Luna shook her head firmly. "They're different. Trust me."

"I… will."

Before Luna could say something half-absurd or half-mad, or worse, completely true, the Hospital Wing doors were shoved open. Hermione and Ron barely made it over the threshold before they froze and gawked at Edelweiss. She stared at them, and they flinched. Apparently, nobody had warned them about her new appearance, for they stood there for several seconds. Eventually, their shock broke. They stormed forward, horror in their eyes. Fear and confusion rippled off them through the Force.

Hermione reached her bedside first, a befuddled Ron trailing behind her. Luna took their approach as her signal to leave, though she winked at Edelweiss before stepping out and closing the doors behind her.

"What were you thinking?" demanded Hermione. "Performing strange rituals on your own? Risking your life—"

"To achieve a greater purpose," said Edelweiss, scowling. Her marks highlighted the darkness of her expression, causing her friends to skitter back. Ron was the steadier of the two, retreating less from her dark gaze. "I did what I must. Anything else risks defeat. Our enemy is one who relies upon the frail morality of his foes." She scoffed and shook her head. "The two of you need not worry about me. If you are unwilling to fight—and kill—then step back. Leave me to what I must do. I… I understand."

Edelweiss nearly growled when she felt their shock and horror. They knew she had come to the conclusion she would need to kill her enemies long ago. Destroying Quirrell, for as horrifying as it had been at the time, had not scarred her as Dumbledore assumed. She had struggled to process it then, but that was because of his foolish morality affecting her mind. She would do as she must. Her Sith training confirmed her beliefs, solidifying them to the point she viewed those completely unwilling to shed blood in wartime as fools and cowards who deserved their wretched fate.

"You're speaking mad," said Ron, his face so pale she could count every freckle upon his face. "Edie, you can't be serious about… about killing people! That isn't done!"

"Well maybe it should be," she said, voice thick with her bitterness. "How many lives could have been saved if only the Order had been willing to permanently stop Death Eaters? How many families would still be intact if those crazed monsters had been put down like the deranged beasts they are? I take no pleasure from the thought of killing. I will do it because it must be done. My decision has been stripped from me because of Dumbledore's cowardice and the failures of those who followed him during the first war."

Hermione scowled and crossed her arms. "Your parents—"

"Are. Dead!" Edelweiss felt the dark side well within her. That cold power begged for release. She bound it tightly within her. Let it be her strength while she told her friends truths they had been sheltered from. "My parents are dead because they trusted a coward during a time of war. They fought for the losing side not because it was the wrong side to fight for, but because they were unwilling to do what had to be done. Had either of them the strength or courage to end the rotten creatures under those skull-white masks, perhaps Pettigrew would have remained true instead of betraying them. I could have been raised in a loving family instead of with the Dursleys!"

Edelweiss was left panting. Her anger had escaped her, poured into words previously unsaid. The dark side was still there, but it was not as strong as it had been moments ago. She drew in slow, deep breaths, allowing more of the Force to fill her. It renewed her, restored her purpose and strength. She glanced between her friends, waiting for their response.

Hermione and Ron exchanged a look that sent fury racing through Edelweiss. She could taste their worry and confusion.

"You know that killing people isn't right," began Ron, sounding very nervous. Edelweiss nearly rolled her eyes. "We're worried about you, Edie. This talk about killing people, fighting a war…this"—he gestured toward her face. She briefly wondered how they would react, seeing the markings that extended across her limbs and body. Not even her hands and feet were free of them—"whatever it is you've done to yourself," he continued, starting to ramble. Ron could be a good friend most of the time, but he would never be a good speaker. "We just want you to know we'll always be there for you."

"Even when I plan to face my enemies, intent on leaving corpses in my wake?" she asked, purposeful with her words. "You know how events always come to pass with me. Come June, I shall face Voldemort and his Death Eaters once more. There shall be blood, and none shed will be mind."

Their faces barely masked shades of green by the time Edelweiss finished speaking. She sighed through her nose, already exhausted by their moralizing. After several seconds of pained silence, she muttered, "Leave me. I have no patience to argue about my methods when we have fought this war many times already."

They departed shortly after, their mutters drifting to her even after the door slammed close behind them. Edelweiss sighed and shook her head. They thought time would lead her around to their opinion. She had hoped for understanding from them. Instead, all she received were two stone walls unable to grasp her point.

Edelweiss flopped back onto the bed, raising a hand marked with crossing fangs akin to the marks over her cheeks. They would regret their choices one day. Of that she was certain.

Two days passed before Edelweiss was finally released from the Hospital Wing. It was done in the early morning, allowing her time to return to Gryffindor Tower before breakfast. She passed by the Fat Lady with ease and snuck up to the fifth-grade girl's dorm. Hermione was gone, for she had always been the early bird among them. The others were still abed, though Fay Dunbar's choking snorts suggested she would wake soon. Edelweiss passed through like a breeze, snatching up clothes for the day as she went to the showers.

While she stood under the steaming hot waters, Edelweiss admired her bodily handiwork. Swirling lines, interspaced with jagged barbs, coated most of her form. They flowed across her arms and legs, ending at flame-like points upon the back of her hand and on the tops of her feet. The lines upon her body were fewer: a handful that swooped downward, starting beneath her breasts, following her ribs; there they met with a number of knife-like lines that pointed to her naval. Her groin was free of markings, though there was a diamond over each ovary.

She viewed herself as intimidating. Perhaps edging on monstrous. Yes, few would see most of these lines, but that was not what mattered. What mattered was that she knew they were there. It was power for her sake, a reminder of the pain she suffered to bring Voldemort closer to death. She had risked her own death, courting it as a lover might, and achieved her first great goal.

"Through strength, I gain victory," she whispered in the Sith tongue, lathering her hair. "The Force shall free me."

Edelweiss finished and dried herself before the others came stumbling in. They had risen from their beads, yawning and stretching. They froze, noticing her. Lavender Brown squeaked when she spotted the black lines and swirls across Edelweiss's exposed form.

"They—they released you already?" asked Parvati. Her face was paled, drained of her usually warm complexion.

"Barely an hour ago. I had grown tired of lying in bed all day. There was never anything wrong with me."

The three girls stared at Edelweiss's face, boggle-eyed, before exchanging knowing looks. When she felt their pity, she glowered. They drew back as she just named Voldemort in their company. She wished she could outright read their minds, for their emotions become too mixed to fully make sense of.

"Now, if you three could stop staring, I wish to get ready for the day."

They did as she asked, though Lavender added a belated, "Everyone's been gossiping about your face! You know they're going to stare!"

Edelweiss rolled her eyes as she stepped past them. She wanted the gossip. These markings were her power writ large upon her form, a masked proclamation of the station she would ascend to when her time arrived. June, she suspected. It would be in June, as always. She had told her friends so. It was always then when she came face to face with the Dark Lord's might.

And he would fall to Darth Gladiolus.

Her entrance into the Great Hall sparked a flurry of furious whispers. Edelweiss's skin crawled as she approached the center of the Gryffindor table. Few seats were occupied. One, near the end, was where Hermione had chosen to sit with a dozen books set haphazardly around her. She was attempting to read from whichever tome she had propped open while shoveling porridge into her mouth. Edelweiss took the best seat for staring at Hermione. She filled her plate and waited to be noticed.

Edelweiss nearly finished her plate when Hermione finally glanced over. She paused; her gaze returned to whichever tome she was reading, and then she looked again. They stared at each other for a while—and then Hermione suddenly squeaked. She swallowed suddenly, coughed several times, and had to chug down several gulps of water before rasping out, "When did Madam Pomfrey release you?"

"An hour ago. Maybe a little more." Edelweiss snatched up a slice of treacle tart. Given there was only a single slice, she assumed it was Dobby's doing. The elf really wanted the best socks for Christmas. "You were busy, reading and eating. I didn't have the heart to interrupt you."

"But still," began Hermione with a frown. "I would have preferred you tell me you just arrived. Or maybe a warning you were being released from the Hospital Wing."

"You haven't come to visit since when I woke up, Hermione. Anyways, I didn't have a chance to warn anyone before being released."

Hermione pursed her lips as the shadow of doubt crossed her face. Her brandy-brown eyes lingered upon the markings Edelweiss bore upon her face; the emotions in her changed by the second. They fluttered and flittered about, a mess of contradictions that leaked confusion and horror into the Force. Her emotions were so loud Edelweiss suspected that odd Luna Lovegood girl would notice.

And then Hermione's emotions became fear. It sparked anger low in her gut. She had known her friends would not understand, but to be afraid of her? She had assumed they were stronger than that. Yes, she enjoyed the fear she would inspire in others. Edelweiss was training to become a Sith Lord. Fear was part of the bargain. But she had not expected that fear from her friends. Perhaps they were finally reaching the moment when that friendship would be irrevocably broken.

"I don't know how to handle the person you're becoming, Edie," admitted Hermione. "When you speak about killing as though it were some foregone conclusion… It scared me. I'm terrified by what you're becoming. I want to help you."

"Then accept who I am becoming, for it was thrust upon me. I did not choose this path because I desired it. I chose it out of need."

Hermione's expression lightened, though she did not appear relieved. Her inner turmoil was unchanged. "Why not ask for our help, instead? What about Dumbledor—"

"He is half the reason I must approach the war as I must," Edelweiss hissed, leaning across the table. "Half the reason I must kill is because of his failures." Hermione drew back as if bitten. "I… I will not speak of my childhood here. However, the plainest terms I can use to describe it would be abusive. I understand why he put me with the Dursleys, but it was a grave mistake on his part. Whatever magical defenses it granted me was not worth the price inflicted upon my psyche."

Something akin to pity bloomed in Hermione. Edelweiss sensed the depth of that emotion, stained with regret over the ignorance of not noticing. She felt a twinge of pride at the fact she had hidden the worst of the hell she suffered as a girl. Perhaps that was why it had been so easy for her to embrace the ways of the Sith. She had witnessed the cruel heart of men and knew what was required to face it without showing weakness.

"I don't want your pity, Hermione."

"But you shouldn't have gone through that!" she said with the passion that usually accompanied her studies or odd little interest. "Somebody should have noticed something!"

"They probably did. And then accepted what the Dursleys said about me." Edelweiss clamped her jaw shut. She had said too much, and Hermione appeared to notice, for she leaned forward as well. "It matters no longer, Hermione. That is all in the past. I can only affect my present and thus influence the future."

"Edie… There's still something that could be done. You don't have to shoulder all of your burdens yourself."

Edelweiss sighed and shook her head. "If you won't listen to what I say, then I should go. I have long made it clear what you must understand."

With that, she stuffed the remnant of her treacle tart into her mouth. She stood and stormed out of the Great Hall, chewing and swallowing as she went. Hermione shouted after her; Edelweiss ignored those calls. She was too irate to deal with her friend. Thankfully there was a perfect way to clear her mind.

Edelweiss growled as a blaster bolt stung her left hip. She wore a blast helmet that blocked her vision entirely. She could hear the thrum of the training saber she held, along with the light hiss of the training droid that floated around her head. Her feet repositioned as the droid tried to get behind her. She made certain to keep the blade of her weapon away from her skin. It might not slice through her limbs as a proper lightsaber was supposed to, but it was still a weapon—and thus deserving of her respect. Plus, bad habits now could mean a premature death in the future.

"The Force, you stupid girl!" her trainer shouted. She had sorted through Lord Salazar's holocrons and chose one at random from the group labeled "for lightsaber training". "Use the Force to know where the blasts will be!"

With teeth gritted, Edelweiss did as commanded. She found the droid swiftly. Instead of waiting for it to fire upon her, she ripped it from the sky with the Force and tossed it to the ground. It bounced once, twice, and then came to a roll. She was dearly tempted to kick the remote or crush it. But this droid was the sole one in Lord Salazar's stores. Without it, she'd have to risk being shot at by a real blaster and not the droid's programmed bolts. The thought of being fried hard enough to have her nerves shot and seared was enough to hold her back from lashing out.

"You do not appear to appreciate my lesson."

Edelweiss growled and ripped the helmet off her head. "I do not understand what you want from me in this scenario! Blasters do not exist on Earth! The closest we have is the magic of my realm, and neither of us knows if spells and blaster bolts react the same to a lightsaber. Maybe I can deflect spells. Maybe I can't."

The long-dead Sith made a rough scoffing sound. "You will not remain on this backwater forever. We both know you will leave one day." He then rubbed his pointed jaw with lithe fingers. "Have you considered bringing another into the fold? No Sith works in complete isolation. The Jedi, for all the humanity they sacrifice, do not work in solitude. They take on students, slowly growing their order like a plague. We are meant to cull them. That task cannot be done alone."

"I cannot trust anyone with this secret," Edelweiss muttered, pushing damp hair away from her eyes. "Two people cannot keep a secret."

"Yet someone knows. I can feel it."

Edelweiss recalled that strange girl—Luna Lovegood, Loony Lovegood, estranged within her own house—who had called her "Lady Gladiolus". She still fumed at the error in title and remained frustrated someone had learned of that name. The how remained unknown, but then Edelweiss had yet to hunt down Lovegood and question her completely. From what she had picked up between departing the Great Hall and coming down to Ziost Hangar, the girl was either half-mad or particularly Force-sensitive. That explained the strange creatures the girl claimed to see better than any theory Ravenclaws proposed before concluding that their callous dismissal was appropriate.

"I cannot say if she is trustworthy, for I do not know her. All I know is that I have only made it this far in my training because it has been kept secret."

Her lightsaber tutor hummed thoughtfully. "Perhaps that was the wise course of action to begin, but you are swiftly approaching the point where you can no longer work alone. Another must be brought into the fold or your growth shall be stunted."

Edelweiss huffed, a doubtful scowl upon her face. She vaguely understood the man's logic. She liked it naught and feared what fate might befall her, should she follow his advice and choose poorly. It was a troubling thought—and one she could not escape.

And yet, she could not find fault in his point. Another Sith apprentice—and one beneath her—could boost her acquisition of power. The fact any knew the name Gladiolus and could connect it to her sent a tremor of paranoia through her. She should hunt down the Lovegood girl and subvert her to her eventual banner. She might even discover a potential apprentice in the loony girl. Edelweiss did not think herself truly prepared to take on a student, but one day she would. That was the way of the Sith; to take on an apprentice and train them to be powerful. She did not approve of slaying one's master, though. Perhaps the Sith of Lady Bastila's age was a barbaric lot. Or perhaps there was a reason Lord Salazar had fled to Earth, for the Sith of his era may have been utterly destroyed.

"I shall take your advice under consideration," she said. Edelweiss tried to clear her mind of unnecessary thoughts as she drew the helmet back on. She had to achieve mastery over the first form if she was to convince Lord Malgus to train her. Part of that mastery came with being able to deflect bolts. As far as her trainer was concerned, it was a skill of vital necessity. She did not agree, but then Earth was "a fallow backwater that somehow supports human life" in their merciful opinion.

She had to build up her power now. Her true trials waited in the future. Edelweiss needed to gain any advantage she could grasp before her fateful hour of ascension. If that meant she would consider accepting an early apprentice or learning how to deflect the weapons of a civilization halfway across the cosmos, then so be it. She would face the future head-on.

She would ascend, her head high, and become Darth Gladiolus.