Interlude
One Year Ago…
Shaping, an art practiced within the Yuuzhan Vong, had now been reworked by Asharr towards a new purpose.
The term Shaping applied to genetic manipulation, which was how the Yuuzhan Vong created their organic machines. As their practices evolved, the word had come to include a new meaning: mental manipulation of the highest level, the shaper's goal being to mentally reprogram a living being. Asharr had learned that they had attempted to alter the personality of a captured Jedi during the Vong War, with partial success. That Jedi had ultimately been forced to merge the dual personalities, but had remained a Jedi at heart, ultimately rendering the Vong's crude methods a failure.
Intrigued by the Vong's experiments, Asharr had conducted her own studies. Tau Skywalker had sought a means to peacefully convert unwilling Jedi or Imperial Knights, should they resist his new ideology, and encouraged Asharr's experiments, ignorant of the true depths she had taken to. First she had perfected her technique on individual test subjects: civilians and mercenaries, the survivors had become her first spies. Then she had turned it towards her enemies: certain influential politicians on worlds she desired, and now a small number of Jedi and Imperial Knights. With Shaping, they were no longer a threat. Instead, they were now Asharr's agents, activated with her word. The perfection of this process would play a crucial role in Tau Skywalker's plan. And it could also be the key for Asharr to fulfill her own mission and subsequently kill him.
Shaping had transcended the machine, biological or mechanical, and the Force had provided the key.
Asharr had used it to great effect, her skill perhaps rivaling that of the Yuuzhan Vong Shapers. The methods used by the Vong were limited, working around altering the crude matter of the brain structure. Asharr targeted the mind and the soul itself.
Her next victim entered the chamber. The prisoner was a Jedi Padawan named Ghroi, who himself was a rare case: a Yuuzhan Vong who had become a Jedi! The species as a whole had lost their connection to the Force, the product of the sheer amount of death and pain they had unleashed upon the galaxy millennia ago. Asharr regarded them as a cautionary tale, a warning of the dangers of a Dark Side that lacked a light to test itself against. Yet, after a time, life itself seemed to always recover, and perhaps Ghroi's sensitivity heralded a recovery for the Vong people.
He had been captured attempting to find his master, Kemnoa Wallis, who herself had disappeared investigating matters she shouldn't have. Wallis, an amphibious Selkath female with a manta-like head and a stubborn temperament, now escorted him into Asharr's presence.
Ghroi maintained a sense of composure, but his eyes darted across the room. Asharr could feel his panic in the Force. This apprentice would be easy to break.
"Leave us, won't you Kemnoa?" Asharr asked. She lazily gestured to the lightsaber on her belt, a simple tool she only used when necessary, "Your ward is quite safe in my care."
"Yes, my lady," Kemnoa bowed. As she departed, Ghroi's gaze followed his master, silently pleading for her to stay, until Wallis sealed the door behind her. Ghroi then turned to face Asharr.
"Do you know why you are here, Jedi?" Asharr arose to her feet, the billowing of her dark cloak evoking a shadow.
Ghroi swallowed, his eyes fixed upon the red photoreceptors of Asharr's featureless mask. Yet, the boy attempted to stand tall, hiding his fear behind a facade of strength, "You've taken Jedi and Imperial Knights. Why did you take my master?"
"That is why you are here." Asharr began to gather the Dark Side about her, drawing from the great, raging ocean within herself and the fear and pain barely concealed by the padawan.
Externally, the apprentice's facade held, though Asharr sensed his terror grow.
"Why don't you come and follow me into the void?"
"No," Ghroi tried to remain brave, "I won't…"
Asharr sprung, and the physical world receded as she delved into the Jedi's psyche, his fear a vector. Ghroi attempted to shield himself, Asharr tore through his mental shields with a lightsaber's precision. She sensed the depths of Ghroi's greatest convictions, hidden desires, and suppressed fears typical of a Jedi, a clear imprint of his most defining experiences, big and small. Then, with the imprint of Ghroi she gleaned, she crafted a new mind within Ghroi's own. This was the beautiful part. This new creation was her, and it was Ghroi, and yet it was neither. It was its own construct, yet it was intimately tied to her.
Asharr implanted her new creation deep within his mind, and ordered the nascent entity to sleep. She sealed it with code words that, once spoken, would activate the proxy.
Asharr finished. She returned to the physical world, and looked down to find Ghroi lying on the floor, clutching his head with his hands, sobbing. Asharr felt horror, confusion, panic, fear, and many other emotions flooding the Jedi's mind. She drank it in eagerly.
"What did you do?" Ghroi asked.
Asharr replied with one word, "Jen'Jidai."
In the Sith tongue, this word translated into "Dark Jedi." It seemed like a fitting code word.
The Jedi stopped thrashing. His expression calmed. Something in his eyes shifted.
Asharr analyzed her new servant's mind as this process occurred. She felt Ghroi's pain and horror as the implanted mind took root and activated. The mind spread and formed a fortress around Ghroi, suppressing him, cutting him off from everything. Ghroi mentally shrieked, attempting to resist, and then his mind was adrift, lost in the void.
Asharr looked at Ghroi's weak resistance with contempt. The Jedi was feeble and blind; they all were, in the end.
Asharr ended her moment of private gloating, it was time to test the new mind.
"What is your purpose?" Asharr asked.
The new agent kneeled before her, declaring, "I serve you, Lord Asharr."
Asharr smiled. Now it was time to restore Ghroi's original mind.
She spoke one word, "Jidai." Jedi.
Asharr observed as the new mind retreated and Ghroi's took prominence again. But Asharr had programmed additional behaviors. The boy fell unconscious, and would hold no memory of his possession as the agent would take his recent memories. He was ready to be sent back to the Jedi, just as Harkaq Oqeiro had been sent back to the Imperial Knights, and a dozen others as well. Asharr's army was growing, one agent at a time.
The shaping of minds and souls was the greatest power of all. This was the key to Asharr's victory.
Suddenly, an indicator beeped on Asharr's wrist, in a familiar one-two-three-four-five sequence. Asharr knew what this meant all too well. Tau Skywalker was contacting her.
She engaged the comm, and a holoimage of the so-called Jedi Master appeared before her, the signal encrypted and redirected across sectors.
"Master," Asharr greeted. Though her face was hidden, it too was a mask as she smiled warmly. Any who sensed her in the Force would perceive her as welcoming and gracious.
"Asharr," Tau replied somewhat curtly. Ever since the ambush on Orîlla, he had started to suspect Asharr ever so slightly. Her acolytes, a team of her first agents, had made quite an impression.
"I have a task for you," he explained, "You're about to be infiltrated."
This was worthy of Asharr's attention. Two days prior, a mercenary working under the alias Val Fett had broken into a Consortium stronghold and stolen crucial records, including an encrypted transmission which would expose Tau's alliance with Asharr.
"Who are the Jedi sending to save their proxy?" Asharr asked.
Just from the subtle shift in Tau's body language, the hint of relief and anxiety, Asharr knew who those sent on the mission would be. Bao-Sklar Pierce – Tau's former apprentice and skilled Jedi Knight with connections to the Underworld – would be the obvious choice. Given her age, level of training, and the timing of this mission, it wouldn't be out of the question for Jade Skywalker to accompany him on this mission. Officially, Asharr was not privy to the secret of Tau's relationship and Jade's true identity as the Imperial heir, but one only required a focused mind to come to that understanding.
"My former apprentice, Bao-Sklar Pierce," Tau confirmed every one of Asharr's suppositions, "He has been in contact with the Red Slash. He will be taking his own apprentices, Riko Nai-Jal and my daughter Jade as well."
"I see your daughter's embarking on her first mission," Asharr said with wiry amusement, "She must be very skilled, for you to trust her with a mission like this."
"Indeed," Tau smiled, only to return to business, "They are en route to be captured by one of your mercenary ships. Their plan is to seize control of it, rendezvous with the proxy and retrieve the information he stole from you."
So, the Council had uncovered the link. It was only a matter of time until they discovered Tau's true nature, then.
"My research is far from complete," Asharr lied, then asked, "Shall our plans be adjusted, then?"
Tau's shoulders slumped with a heavy sorrow. Asharr already knew the answer.
"Yes," Tau said with a sad acceptance, "We have run out of time, and now we are on the verge of being discovered."
"Make sure that does not happen," he ordered, "Capture them, hold them until the time has passed. Keep them busy if they escape, do not let them return to the Temple. They must stay away until my work here is done."
Asharr found it almost difficult to hide the disgust his words invoked in her. Tau intended to spare his loved ones the pain of knowing who he truly was – something he did not even allow himself to truly comprehend. Only Asharr knew who Tau Skywalker was and what he was destined to become.
"I will do so, Master Skywalker," Asharr replied, "May the Force guide you to balance and peace."
"To balance and peace," Tau agreed. He sighed, and the great weight that he always carried manifested itself.
"All these long years, we have worked to change the galaxy for the better. To heal divisions and turn machines of greed, exploitation, and war into tools of peace. The Jedi and the Triumvirate had let the galaxy fall to the brink of war, and we stopped it."
No, Tau had not stopped it at all. He had only given Asharr the tools needed to wage it once more.
"Honestly, I'm saddened that history will not remember our efforts to bring about balance, Asharr. But I am grateful that we could bring forth this new age. We are on the cusp of changing the galaxy eternally."
Those words were truer than Tau would ever realize.
"I am thankful that you did this with me, Asharr. You are one of the few who understand the sacrifices we've made, and who have been able to stand by me. Thank you."
"I am happy to play my part in restoring the natural order," Asharr wasn't even lying, "Master."
Tau nodded, "May the Force be with you."
The hologram vanished, and Asharr felt such elation as to rival the heat and energy of a sun. Tau had just handed her the perfect tools to enact her vengeance.
Bao-Sklar Pierce would be a very challenging opponent to overcome, and the raw power of Jade Skywalker was not to be underestimated either. Asharr remembered Riko Nai-Jal's name: he was Míranda's son, the child she had given to Kali'sto. Asharr knew little else of him, but he was clearly skilled if he was embarking on a mission like this. Nevertheless, Asharr was confident that with the right strategy and the right timing and the proper forces, she would easily be able to capture them all.
Breaking them would be more challenging, especially in Bao's case. Still, Asharr had shaped Imperial Knights and Jedi of a similar caliber, she was certain she could break Bao-Sklar Pierce as well. Perhaps she would tell him the truth about his old master, and use the resulting pain as a vector into his soul. She would find a way to break him, and this Riko, and Jade.
Jade. Tau Skywalker and Thalia Fel's flesh and blood. The scion of the Fel Dynasty and the heir of the Skywalker lineage. Oh, to see Tau as he watches his changed daughter turn on him…
Perhaps Tau didn't even need to live. Perhaps Asharr had the perfect Chosen One in his daughter, a new heir to the mantle of the Dark Side.
Under Asharr's thrall, a Skywalker would indeed overturn the domination of the Jedi, create a new order, and restore balance. A new war would begin, reshaping the galaxy into one ruled by the natural order — by the eternal war, the true war.
They stood on the cusp, now. The galaxy teetered on the fulcrum, on the brink of a new age, and Asharr would guide it towards the natural order.