RWBY is the property of Rooster Teeth.
Star Wars is the property of Lucasfilm.
Chapter 7: Cold Cruelty
Palpatine sat in the cockpit of his sleek Naboo starcruiser. It's chrome hull reflected the pale light of Mygeeto's star as it drifted towards the planet's uninhabited region. Through the shielded trasnparesteel, he watched the ball of plasma that anchored the celestial bodies of the system in their orbit. When he jumped in system, the sight of it brought back memories of his time on this frozen hell with Plagueis.
He recalled weeks of hell the Muun forced him through. How he couldn't feel his limbs at certain moments. How his blood nearly froze solid. The intense hunger pains that plagued him. The intentional mockery from Plagueis as Sidious failed time and time again to murder him.
Those days were some of the most grueling moments of his life. But they were also some of the most rewarding. As he suffered. As he screamed from within his own mind for the pain to end, he felt his power skyrocket. That first instance of when he tapped into that dark wellspring of energy that has forever been by his side. Beautiful as a nebula and as powerful as a supernova. The first time he had truly tapped into the power of the Dark Side. It was a moment he would never forget.
That was thirteen years ago if he recalled correctly. Now he had to simulate the experience from Plagueis' perspective. Which would be a challenge. Not in any small part to the fact that he was still getting used to being an active teacher when it came to matters of the Force.
Until today, his role had been that of a mentor and advisor. Guiding the girl in how she should perceive the world and act within it. From this point on his role in her development would be direct and honest. Two things he was highly unaccustomed to, outside of murder. Plagueis was far better at this and that was only because he enjoyed demonstrating his fearsome intellect and political acumen.
Palpatine was the reverse. He displayed his wits through a veil of humility. A lesson he planned to impart onto his student. But right now, he had to do his best to break the habit. He needed to project a sense of being at the absolute pinnacle for her. She could not be allowed to perceive a single flaw. If he planned to mold her into the ideal Sith Apprentice, he needed to appear as the ideal master. Powerful, wise, cunning, admirable, ruthless and ambitious. He was all of these things, but that was not what she saw.
For the past two years she had seen him as her kind father. A man who saved her from the fate of a miserable life. Who dazzled her with tales of ancient heroes and villains. Giving her nothing but encouragement and praise.
Now he had to break the illusion and he could not be more excited. The only part that made him feel the slightest bit of trepidation was his execution.
He needed to reignite that same hatred she felt in the Grann Residential. The girl had the capacity to hate. He felt it as he stood before her within that cell. It washed over him in all its dark glory. There was even a semblance of sadism. Raw unfiltered rage died out quickly and was often indiscriminate. Killing the object of that anger in a torrent of fury and then reaching for anything that could be used to further vent its ire. What happened to those Dugs was an act of hate and the desire to make them suffer, all the while deliberately avoiding the Echani woman. A good sign. A very good sign indeed.
All the more reason for him to perform this breaking of the child flawlessly.
He needed this to go his way. When the day comes that he finally does away with Plagueis, he will need her at his side. She was powerful. Supremely strong with the Force. Sidious doubted he would ever find another like her in the galaxy.
Sidious looked to Mygeeto's star once more as he pondered how things could have been different had he not found her on the Trandoshan Slave barge. How she might have developed had the Jedi found her. Would he be different now? Would she be in the temple now? Learning all their useless platitudes and committing the crime of limiting her true potential? Standing around with a blinder helmet on her head, battling a flimsy floating orb with a training lightsaber. Then there would be Maul? Would Sidious still take him as a serious apprentice or just a placeholder until someone more powerful came along? Then again, he didn't know about the Zabrak's potential yet. Everything was still in the developing stages, and he was working to build it. To build them.
He discarded this train of thought. It was pointless to focus on what could have been. Better to focus on what could be and what he wanted to be so he could make it happen.
Then he focused his senses on the girl who rested in the passenger quarters below. He felt her warmth through the tides of the Force. It was something he noticed in the early months after he had officially adopted her. The emotions she let off could be felt through the Force. At least when she wasn't trying to bury them.
This warmth was the most commonly felt emotion. It burned and infected those around her with its warmth. Only now it felt different. As of the last three months it has changed. It still held that same positivity, but on occasion it shifts. It turns from a gentle flame to a raging wildfire. But only in certain instances.
A smile donned his lips has he contemplated. He knew what this was. It was the reason why he felt the Dark Side following her now. It wanted her. Just as it wanted him during his youth. He just never noticed. It knew what she would become should she embrace it. Her anger burned hot, and it begged to grow in intensity. Like a star that could be fed fresh plasma from a nearby nebula.
That thought reminded Sidious of a conversation he had with Plagueis during their training together. On the nature of the Sith and their power over the galaxy and its denizens.
"The Sith are not placid stars but singularities." Came the words of his master. "Rather than burn with muted purpose, we warp space and time to twist the galaxy to our own design."
In response to this memory Sidious felt a need to add to it.
"What celestial body is luminous than a singularity?" He murmured the quote from Darth Guile. "Hiding in plain sight, but more powerful than all."
Yes. He realized. That was the Sith. For the past one thousand years it has been thus. Since the coming of Darth Bane, it has ever been thus. Instead of burning like a star, Bane forced the order to die in a supernova, blinding all to the truth. That the Sith had not died at all; but had been transformed. And in their new, dark form, the Order of the Sith had become far more dangerous than ever before.
Now he had to create a microcosm of that transformation within his apprentice. As of this moment, she was a little star. His little star. One that now contained the fires of rage withing its core. While this might make her into a useful tool on its own, it was simply not enough to qualify as a Sith. It needed to go further. She had anger, but now she needed to learn to hate. And that hatred needed to be directed towards him. He had to push her. To break her. To make her want to kill him.
The star that burned within her heart had to implode and become a black hole. Then and only then would she become Sith.
Red lights flashed from the control console, alerting Sidious that they were entering the planet's stormy atmosphere. Taking the controls, Sidious deactivated the autopilot. There would be no smooth landings to be had with that active, not without a completely flat landing pad.
As the viewing shield paled white with snow, he angled the ship low to avoid any scanners in the area. He could not afford to tip off the local authorities. If they found him here, then they would need to die, and he would need to depart before their deaths could be reported.
The ship glided through the low valleys between the mountains. Its smooth body navigated their bends and turns like an arrow headed serpent. Then he found it.
A large open plateau skirting the edge of a frozen blue lake surrounded by the snowcapped mountains. This was the place. This was where the breaking would continue. This was where she would find the Dark, or more accurately, it would find her.
Ruby shivered as she walked in the cold snow that swirled around her in sudden bursts of frost. Looking up, she saw the peaks of the mountains all around her. They all looked like the jagged teeth of some colossal monster that had her in its maw. They both frightened and amazed her. How unfortunate that she could not properly appreciate it due to the glacial wind that crashed into her every few seconds.
Her master was dressed in a black robe that covered his body like a shadow, giving him a sharp contrast to the pale white environment they were in. Despite the constant flapping of his cloak, he didn't even flinch from the cold.
Ruby was better dressed for the environment than he was yet their reactions to it were the complete reverse to what you would expect. She was dressed in an envirosuit. Tailored for her small body and diverse climate conditions. But even with it on, the cold still bit into her bones.
Her master just walked on, completely unbothered. In fact, the frigid wind seemed to be avoiding him. The snowflakes either moving around him or evaporating into steam around his body.
Ruby's stiff eyes managed to widen. Was this the power of the Force? She wanted to know, but she had been ordered to remain quiet. She was not allowed to speak unless he commanded it.
They had been walking for hours. The ship was long gone and now all that remained was the peaks, the frozen lake and them.
Her master had been very quiet since they arrived. But he wasn't upset. Even with his face hidden under his hood, she could tell he wasn't upset.
"Apprentice." Said her master. "Stop here."
As he came to a halt, Ruby begrudgingly obeyed. It irritated her, the constant movement helped offset the cold. Now, she had nothing to compensate.
Turning to her, Sidious stared down at her with those glowing yellow eyes. Ruby had wanted to ask about those eyes. She had only seen them once before. When the Gran had kidnapped her.
"This is where your training in the ways of the Sith begins, my apprentice." He said, with a hint of enjoyment. "Do you know why I have chosen this place?"
"No, master." She answered quickly, hoping to end this as soon as possible. The envirosuit was not enough for such extreme weather.
Sidious turned to look at the lake over the plateau's edge. "This was where my master brought me at the start of my own training. This was where I learned to truly touch the Force. Do you know why?"
"No, master." Ruby again answered quickly, her irritation growing. Was he doing this on purpose?
Her master looked down at her. A malefic smile on his face. "He did it to torture me."
Ruby's eyes widened in surprise. She wanted to inquire as to why. Her mouth was halfway open, but she caught the action and clamped it shut. Sidious saw the action and his grin widened for a moment.
"I already know what you wish to say. Why would my master do that to me? To subject me to this place?" Sidious leaned down to her, looming above her like a phantom. "The answer is simple. Because he had to. As I shall now do the same to you."
Ruby did not know how to respond to that. She never expected to hear her father figure admit to wanting to torture her, let alone is such casual a fashion.
"Why?" She couldn't help herself and bit down on her tongue right after the word left her mouth.
Her master did not show disapproval. Instead, he chuckled. "It is a part of the process, my apprentice. As the Jedi are followers of the Light, we by contrast follow the Dark. And in order to tap into the Dark Side of the Force, one must first know pain. True pain."
He began to pace before her. "Understand this my apprentice. The Force is not some energy that one can simply use as some thermal generator providing warmth. Or a blaster pistol. It is vast and unquantifiable. And it can feel you, just as we who are able, can feel it. As such, I must prepare you for when the Dark Side comes to claim you."
The Dark Side. She had heard of this in her studies before she came here. It spoke of a dichotomy within the Force. One where there were two sides that constantly vied for supremacy while remaining locked in a form of stalemate with one another. In the notes her master provided, it stated that it was the action of those who used the Force that tipped this stalemate in one direction or the other.
But why did that mean she had to go through this intense pressure on her body? Her toes felt numb, and the cold made all her muscles ache. Was all this necessary?
"I can feel your uncertainty." He said, making her flinch. How did he know?
"You are thinking, I am in pain. I do not want to be here. It's dangerous. I could freeze to death. The Dark Side won't help me. It wants to kill me, and you would be right. The Dark Side does want to kill you. It wishes to destroy you, so you may be reborn in its umbral embrace."
He turned away again. "I doubt my words can convince you of anything as you shiver there. But I do not need to convince you. Only prepare you. For to become one with the Dark Side is to be chosen by it. To be singled out among the thousands in the galaxy who are just as capable of drawing its notice. Yet to also be subsumed by it. To know that you are a part of something grand and beyond countenance. It brings you a sense of fear and joy does it not?"
Ruby waiting for him to look at her before nodding again. The idea of being a part of something like that was exciting, but also frightening. How would she accomplish that? How could she keep herself in that place? What would happen should she fail?
"Now let us begin. We shall start with something simple. Do you remember those Dugs from Coruscant? The ones you killed for harming Miluka?"
Ruby flinched, then hesitantly nodded again. She did remember them, but for all her hatred of them, she didn't want to relive the memory. She didn't want to remember what she did.
"Tell me what happened."
Ruby stared at him, wondering if he was serious. Was he asking her to retell one of the worst moments of her life?
"Master, I…"
"Tell me what happened." He said again with a threatening undertone. That was when she realized that he was serious. "Tell me how they died. Spare no details. I want everything."
Ruby shivered but not from the cold. A feeling crawled up her spine. A sense of danger radiated off of him. And the smile he had on while he spoke only heightened the alarm in her mind.
Then she submitted. It was an order and she had to obey, no matter how badly she wanted not to. Taking a deep breath, she relived the moment. Telling him how it happened as she recalled it.
The world was red. Her mind was consumed with fury, but her vision was far from impaired. On the contrary, she could perceive the world so clearly that it was as though she had truly opened her eyes for the first time after a life of being blind.
She was back in the cell, her hands bound and weighed down to the floor. But she was also standing. Standing tall and proud before the Dug guard that had beaten Miluka just a second earlier. Her height had increased to the point where she stood higher than the alien. Her hands clamped around his slender neck. Crushing it between her palms.
Only she wasn't doing any of this. Not physically. She did it with the power of her mind. Her will. Something answered to the power of her will and it was choking the Dug.
But she didn't care. Consumed by sorrow at the thought of her father's reported demise and outrage at the harming of her mentor, she pressed on heedless of the true ramifications of her actions.
With a sickening crunch, the Dug's neck snapped, and he fell limp as he levitated in the air.
She snarled in dissatisfaction. This was not enough. Far from it.
That was when she remembered the other Dug. He stared in horror at the scene that played out before them all.
Dropping the body like a sack of broken twigs, she reached for the second Dug, who almost made it to the door. Before he touched the access panel, she seized his throat. His weapon clattered to the ground as she reached for hands that were not there while gasping for air.
Slowly, she picked him up and brought him to the center of the cell. Thrashing about like an insect caught in an arachnoid's silk trap, he begged and pleaded, but she couldn't hear him, or she didn't want to.
She did it slowly this time, drinking it the desperate fear he felt as his normally flexible neck gave way under her power. It wasn't enough for her to simply crush them. She wanted them to know how it felt. What it felt like to be powerless. To be completely useless in the face of an uncaring universe, just as she had been. To be enslaved to their own weakness and to die by it.
His neck snapped so easily. She felt as though she could warp the very room around her with her power. But the anger was still there, hazing her thoughts.
Then the door opened, and two more Dugs marched inside. Both set their sights on Miluka, believing her to be somehow responsible. By the time they were halfway across the room, she had them in her grip.
Instead of simply repeating the act, she treated them as she would treat a disposable object meant to incite amusement. Swinging them around like wet rags. Their screams interrupted by their impacts against the walls and against each other. They continued to flail about in the air as if they were in the hands of a giant invisible toddler, excitedly playing with new toys.
Momentarily satisfied, she let the bodies fall. But then she realized that she still felt angry. It wouldn't go away. Her father was gone and Miluka was hurt.
She was not satisfied anymore. Far from it.
Sidious hummed as she finished recounting her story. It was exactly as he hoped. Better in fact. He knew she had lashed out in anger, but given what she just described, it almost sounded like she had indulged herself. Tasting the emotions of other beings for the first time.
He also noticed the hesitancy behind her retelling. As if she were afraid of her own growing power.
He frowned. That was unacceptable. A Sith is meant to embrace their power, not fear it. Then he sighed. After the murder of his own family, his reaction was not too dissimilar, only he was more afraid of getting caught and incarcerated for simply being that dangerous.
Looking down at her small form as it shivered in the snow, he recalled something. The Dugs in the cell were mangled. Bent in ways that were not possible unless done deliberately.
She had left that part out.
"Why did you stop?" He asked, knowing she would try to lie to him.
"I-I…" She said stuttering as she went. The cold was getting through the suite. "I-I finished because that's what happened."
Sidious narrowed his eyes. "I was in that room, apprentice. I saw what you did to those bodies. Better yet. I felt it. Your desire to rend them to pieces. There is more that you are not telling me."
She stayed silent. Not wanting to continue, bound by her fear. A chain holding her in place as much as the cold.
With a theatrical sigh, he turned away from her. And began to walk away. "If you won't tell me, then I guess you are not fit to become a Sith after all. What a disappointment."
He could hear her rushing behind him, desperately trying to keep up with his deliberately fast stride, made to look like he had been frustrated with her obstinance.
"Wa-wait! I'm sorry! I'll tell you the rest, I promise! I'm good enough to be a Sith!"
"Clearly not." Sidious said, halting his march to face her. "With all the promise you've shown me up till now, here at the very beginning you falter due to your fear. Worse still, it is a fear of yourself."
She looked down at the snow covered stone. Chastened by his words she muttered. "I'm sorry."
"Stop apologizing!" He snapped, making her back away in fright.
The frightened look on her face gave him pause. That look was not the same one of defiance that Miluka had described her giving Pax Teem and his guards when they were captured.
With a deep breath, Sidious calmed himself as he realized his own foolishness. When he had undergone this training, he was a full standard decade older than her. Unlike her he was nearing the end of his adolescence and to add to that, defiant at birth.
The reason he followed Plagueis was because Sidious new he could not openly defy the Muun without meeting a quick end. Plagueis was patient but unless that patience served a purpose it could become dangerously short. But still, the defiance and desire to kill was innate in Sidious.
Looking at the shivering child before him, he remembered that not only was she a decade younger, but also that she was not a younger version of him. The past two years had deluded him into thinking that she and him shared the same innate qualities because they both wielded the Force and that she was deemed to be his heir.
He had to take a different approach to that of his master. Most of it would still work, but he had no true way to spark her anger. She cared for him, admired him, feared him, but she did not hate him, she did not want to despise him. Therefore, she could not kill him.
He had to think of another way to fan the flames he had witnessed of Coruscant. His yellow eyes widened has the epiphany came to him.
The Zabrak.
Shifting his posture and expression, he displayed a neutral mood, ready to impart wisdom as the Echani had done during the many practice sessions he had spied on.
"You must not apologize to me." He said evenly. "To apologize is to admit guilt. Weakness. That is unbecoming of a Sith."
Ruby's posture straightened as she fell into the safety of her routine.
Pleased by this reaction, he continued. "Do you know why the Sith are more powerful than the Jedi, apprentice?"
Ruby's eye's glanced around, he could see her bite her lip as she tried to come up with an answer divined from the various texts, he had provided for her. With a defeated sigh, she answered. "No, master."
"It is because we are not afraid to feel." He said, waiting for the confusion to become clear on her face. When it did, he continued. "We embrace the full spectrum of emotion. Whether joy, hate, fear, or despair. We accept whatever path the Dark Side sets us on and forge it into our own through the power it provides."
He stepped forward and got on one knee to be at eye level with her. Once more, shining silver met golden fire. "That includes accepting the consequences of our actions."
Ruby broke eye contact, almost making him sneer with irritation. This was the first time she had ever been so difficult with him. For a moment, he wondered if this was what it was like for his father having to deal with him. He blinked at the mental query and smiled.
"Do you know what the Jedi say when one of their own does something similar to what you did in that cell?"
Ruby looked at him, curiosity showing through the strain of the frost forming on her bangs.
"They call it 'falling to the Dark Side.'" Sidious said with mocking derision. "They treat it as if it were an uncontrollable incident. As if the Dark Side had infected their thoughts like a virus and compelled them to act outside of their own free will. Such pitiful rationales are nothing but excuses for them to cope with the reality their actions and those of their fellows. To try and shift the blame away from themselves and the failures of their order and lay it at the feet of the Dark Side."
He reached out and cupped her right cheek with his left hand. "That is why the Sith embrace the Dark from the start. Because we know the truth. It all begins from the self."
He removed his palm and gave her a gentle jab in the chest with his index finger. "What you did in that cell was not an accident that you can just ignore. Everything that happened in there, happened because that was what you desired. It was not a mistake. If you allow yourself to believe that it was, then the Dark Side will forever be beyond your reach. So long as it remains that way, you shall never become Sith."
Sidious relished the look of panic in her eyes. How she stared at him, imploring him to aid her, to help her overcome this weakness. It was close to what he needed for her to throw away her shackles of caution, but she needed one final push.
Standing, he turned to the side, showing her his shoulder as a sign of lost interest. "Still, it is not a total loss I suppose. Not everyone passes these trials. It would be a shame for you to die here."
He could feel her panic rise as the Force around them began to stir in response to her agitation.
"I'll… I'll die here if I fail?" She asked, finally disobeying his order to remain silent.
"Did I not say that a few minutes ago? It would seem you are not paying attention anymore." He chided turning away fully. "Raising you in my home was a mistake. It has made you weak. Comfortable, complacent, lazy."
He felt the anger behind him, it lit up like dry timber struck by a lightning bolt.
"I'm not weak." She said in a low voice that he heard clearly through the arctic winds.
"Your actions say otherwise." He shot back and with a theatrical sigh he continued. "I can only hope your replacement performs better."
A shudder ran through the Force as his words hit home. "What?" Ruby gasped in a disbelieving tone.
He knew this was his only opportunity, so he hammered the point home. "Are you still not listening, child? I am referring to the one I intend to replace you with should you fail me here."
"You…" She started with a hiccup. "You're going to replace me? You… you're going to throw me away?"
He faced her and what he received was perfect. She looked terrified and betrayed. Tears were starting to well up in her eyes and freeze into small crystals that fell to the snow.
He gave her a cruel smile, fully displaying that he was completely serious. "Yes."
"Wh-Why?" She asked and then the anger returned to her voice. "WHY!?"
He did not respond to her raging emotions. "Did you really think I saved you from those slavers all those years ago because I wanted a daughter? If I did, I would have adopted one long before then. I chose you as my heir. The one who would inherit the legacy of the Sith. It would appear that I chose wrong."
She was shaking now, not from the cold but from outrage. Perfect.
"Do you believe differently, child?" He asked, goading her to challenge him, which she did.
"Yes!" She almost shouted as he felt the first inklings of the Dark Side make itself known. "All that studying I did. All those hours of training. All those bruises, sprains. Day after day, I studied and trained. Practicing and getting ready for this day and now you say I'm not good enough!"
No longer hindered by the cold, her fear forgotten and controlled by rage, she leapt at him. Sidious did not move. Even with the Force empowering her actions she was no threat to him.
With an outstretched palm, he caught her in his telekinetic grasp. When her momentum suddenly stopped, she looked around in confusion. Seeing that she was suspended in the air, she thrashed around, trying to alter the forced momentum he had imposed upon her.
With dark joy, he let out a cruel laugh. "Good! But sadly, not enough."
He sent her flying into the white frost. Screaming in fright as she went. With an almost casual gate, he stepped after her.
When he found the girl, he witnessed her holding on for dear life on a rocky outcrop at the edge of the plateau. Already hallway over the edge, she clung to the closest rock she could find.
When she spotted him, she tried reaching out to him, only to reaffirm her grip with two hands a second later.
"Master! Help me!" She cried as her small fingers repeatedly lost their grip and needing to be reasserted every few seconds.
He made no move to assist her, instead he walked up to the cliffs edge and stared down at her. Weak. Just as when he first met her. But the potential was still there, and it was bubbling to the surface after two years of preparation.
"Master! Please!" She cried as she franticly tossed snow over the edge in her attempt to climb up.
He saw her clenching her eyes shut as she finally managed to gain a proper grasp on the rocks. It was clear she was using all her strength to hold herself up. Had they not been in this freezing environment, he would have been disappointed.
"Remember the Dugs, apprentice." He said, loud enough for her to hear. "Think back to that day. Remember how it felt."
She grunted from the strain in her arms, and the pressure from the rocks pressing against her small body.
"Think of Miluka. Think of the pain you felt at the sight of her beating. Her broken legs. Remember how you felt."
She cried out as one of the sleeves on her envirosuit tore against the rocks, fully exposing her arm to the biting cold.
"Do not fight the memory, my apprentice. Embrace it. Embrace your pain. Embrace what you have done and overcome it. If you do not, then you will die."
He felt a shift in the Force. It was subtle, but he knew it came from her as her cried went silent.
"And if I die, you'll just replace me? Right? Like I was never here?" She gasped through rapid breaths.
"Yes."
He waited to see if his words had their intended effect. This was it; this was the moment. A defining event within the flow of the Force. A state in time where the choice of one affected all from then on. A shatterpoint.
While Sidious had impressive foresight, he could not always predict what people would do in these critical moments. At this moment, all he could do was the one thing he absolutely hated doing. He had to trust another being. But this time, he did not mind trusting her. While her trepidation was an annoyance, it was not an outright failure. She was young and had yet to truly disappoint him yet.
He chose to believe she would succeed because she was his apprentice.
So, he waited. With his senses open to the currents of the Force, he watched as the tumult grew. He saw the whirlwind of emotions coalesce around her. Then his heart sang with dark joy. He witnessed the glory of the Dark Side sidling up to her. Growing interested in her thanks to the rage building within her, it surrounded her.
She took the power it offered without hesitation, directing it inward, enhancing her physical strength. With this revitalizing energy, she pulled herself back over the edge.
He smiled wickedly as his apprentice pulled herself up and trudged towards him. "I'll do better, master." She said the strain leaving her voice as she channeled the power of the Force.
Still shivering, she stood before him, she looked him in the eyes, and he swore he saw a hint of yellow in those silver irises. "I won't be afraid anymore. I won't be weak. I won't die."
He chuckled, and that chuckle turned into full blown laughter. He howled into the icy valley below, letting all the native fauna within know of his triumph.
When it died down, he looked at her. She was watching him expectantly, awaiting his command as if this were simply another day of training. He took this as a challenge, time to raise the bar.
"Good! Good!" He cheered with a clap. "That is the attitude of a Sith. This is a lesson you'll not soon forget."
"Thank you, master."
"Can you feel it now? The power of the Dark Side?"
She closed her eyes and took a breath. He knew she was savoring this moment. Taking in the full spectrum of her newly awakened sense of being. For the first time, fully touching the ethereal realm in which they were destined to reside.
"I do." She said with a hint of wonder, an ambitious excitement shone in her eyes when she opened them. "It's amazing, master."
"This is only the start." He kneeled again and placed an affectionate hand on her head. "My apprentice."
Ruby beamed with pride at his praise and stood slightly taller.
"Now you see." Sidious said, knowing she would hang on to his every word. "This is why the Jedi fail to comprehend the true nature of the Force. Where you accept your rage and anger, and turn it into power, the Jedi blunt themselves and limit their potential."
"That sounds like a bunch of Bantha poodoo." Ruby said with her own form of derision.
Sidious gave a short laugh. "I thought the same."
"Is the lesson over, master?" She asked as her exposed arm began to change in coloration.
He looked her dead in the eye and smirked. "Not even close."
In a blur, he tore open the envirosuit. Leaving her standing in the snow, clad in nothing but her training attire. Sidious watched with satisfaction as her fear returned and the feeling of her anger rose again.
"You still have not told me the entire story." He chided before she could voice her complaints. "And remember this well. Any attempt to reverse our roles in this will make you irresistible to the Dark Side. But that does not mean you won't be punished. If you wish to survive this, unswerving obedience is your only hope."
He stood up but maintained eye contact. Her eyes were still silver but for brief instances, he noticed hints of yellow. He was getting there. She had the anger now. All that was left was to inflict pain.
"How long?" She asked biting back another shiver. "How long before we can go home?"
"That is for me to decide. Now tell me again; from the start and in full, how you killed them."
Ruby took a ragged breath as she climbed the mountainside. Her roughened hands clutched at exposed stones for purchase. Her worn-out feet landed on whatever stable surface she could find. The howling winds cut through her, once again taking away what little warmth she had built up. Her toes and finger had gone numb it and she had resorted to slapping them repeatedly in order to get feeling back to them.
It stung. Every time she got a feeling back to her limbs she was greeted with pain. But she had adapted to it. Pain was better than feeling nothing.
However, it wasn't just physical pain she was experiencing. Hunger gnawed at her whole body. It had been weeks since she'd eaten anything. If she had the mental capacity, she would ask how she was even alive at this point but the mental toll this was taking on her prevented it. The fact that she hadn't slept either did not help.
Looking up at the slope she had been scaling, she saw her master. Perched on a flat ledge, his back turned to her. Her gaze hardened as she set her sights on him. This was his fault. Everything she was going through was because of him. Climbing with grim purpose, she closed the distance.
When she reached the ledge, she kept her silence. This was her chance, if she managed to hurt him, the pain would end. That was what he promised. The way to end the exercise and return home was to hurt him.
His words expressing this bounced around in her head like a ghost refusing to leave. "If you don't want to kill me now, you will once I'm through with you. Your desire to overthrow me is crucial to our relationship. Such as it has been for every Sith since the Rule of Two was founded."
Ruby didn't understand why she needed to kill her master in order to be a Sith. But she didn't care enough to ponder it anymore. Because he was right. She did want to kill him. To put an end to all of this.
For the past few weeks, he had been subjecting her to constant agony. He had taken her to the shore of the lake and ordered her to climb up to him before bounding up the mountain as if he had antigrav units on his feet.
She did as she was ordered. Climbing up the slope. When she reached him, she was forced to recite the story once again. It had become so tedious at this point. She had told him everything over two dozen times by now.
It felt odd when she had the mental capacity to spare a thought for it. She felt so removed from it now. Like it wasn't even her committing the act, but someone else playing the role she had set. But everything had become so clear. The dissatisfaction she felt with the Dugs' easy deaths. How she just wanted to break something, anything. So, she broke them. Over and over again. Not stopping. She even counted the bones she snapped at first just for fun. She witnessed everything her past self-did with a detachment that would have been alarming. Not even Miluka's frightened expression caused a stir in her anymore.
What was happening to her?
Shaking her head, she refocused on the moment. Bracing her legs, she lunged at her master, only to hit cold snow.
"You won't get me that easily." She heard him chide.
Looking up, she saw that he was gone. It was impossible. He moved so fast that she couldn't even see him when he took action. Or had he even been there at all?
Standing on her shaking knees, she turned around and saw her master. Looking down at her with sick amusement.
"I could feel your malice. You really were trying to kill me, weren't you?" He said with enough excitement to make her think that he had won some sort of prize.
Ruby felt some sort of power enclosed around her body. Lifting her off the ground. It took her a moment to realize that her master was using the Force to levitate her as he had done with the lightsaber when he had revealed his secret to her.
Then without a word, he tossed her over the edge, sending her tumbling down the rocky slope. Her body became wracked with new pains, as bruises and abrasions dotted her skin. Sliding to a stop at the shore, she lay there for a moment.
Ruby wondered why she was doing this. Why was she going through this nightmare when she could be at home with Aluum and Miluka or studying in Theed with Greg?
Then she remembered. It was so she could become strong. Because she could not help anyone if she was weak. Weak people never get anything done in this galaxy.
Getting back on her feet, she looked up at the dark shape in the hills above. Her master watched her expectantly.
He was strong. And he wanted her to be strong as well. Even if that meant she needed to kill him. It bothered her at first. So many questions ran through her mind. How would she become a Sith if he was dead? Then she remembered the holocron he gave her.
Ruby realized that the holocron had a mental scanner of sorts built into it. Or some form of Force scanner. If she killed her master, then she might be able to get it open. Then all the knowledge inside could be her guide. But still, she preferred to have someone to make the journey with her.
With a short sigh, she started the process again. Becoming a Sith was going to be so much harder than she thought. Even as she took her first steps up the hill, she pondered one question.
Why does she have to kill her own father?
Back on the plateau Sidious walked along the plains. It was time for the final test. For it had to be thus.
Stretching his senses out through the Force, he could feel she was reaching her limit. So, much so that he had deliberately slowed his already casual gait for her to be able to keep up.
"Ma-ma-master?" Ruby squeaked from behind him in a cowed voice.
Sidious stopped and regarded her. The anger was still there. The Dark Side had become her steadfast companion now. But still, she knew she was in no condition to even think of challenging him unless her life depended on it. Even then, he knew she wouldn't. She was smarter than that.
"Speak, apprentice."
"Why does the Rule of Two say I have to kill you?" Ruby asked, actively shivering as her skin lost its pale coloring. With her ability to channel the Force reaching its limit, the cold was now enacting its true effect on her body. This would have to end soon.
"Because it is the way of the Sith." Sidious said plainly. "The Dark Side offers power and with that power comes the challenge of holding onto it. Throughout history, the constant battling of the Sith served a necessary purpose. Can you tell me what that is?"
Ruby looked to the ground, contemplating what his words might mean before looking up at him. Her beautiful eyes showed her revelation. "It got rid of the weak. They would die against the strong and worthy. It made sure only the strongest stayed."
Sidious nodded approvingly. "Good. Rivalry and strife are our greatest strengths. It ensures the power of the Dark Side remains only with those who are worthy of it. The Rule of Two was made so that the weak could not band together and overwhelm the strong. Thus, weakening the order."
"Peace is a lie. There is only passion." Ruby recited, the words sounding truer than ever coming from her lips. "Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken."
Sidious grinned. "I see now that you understand. In a way, my apprentice, I too am a chain. But a necessary one. I am here to shackle you to my will until you become strong enough to break free. But only while a remain useful. When the day comes that I have nothing left to offer you, you will challenge me for the right to claim my mantle as your own."
Ruby looked down as if in solemn acceptance. "And if I fail. I will be because I was simply too weak to begin with. But I still don't want to."
Sidious furrowed his brow. Was she lying? Or were all those attempts just an act? That malice he felt just a trick he conjured up to trick himself into believing that she was becoming what he wanted her to be. Or was it simply that she still feared her own power on some level? "Do you not wish for freedom? To have no one decide your fate?"
"I do, but…" She looked away in clear conflict.
The Sith's closed in realization. Ruby wanted what he was offering but was hesitant about the price. She still cared. "So, that is how it is going to be."
Sidious mentally prepared himself for what he was going to commit himself to doing and let out a long misty breath. "I see you still need one final lesson."
Before Ruby could comprehend what he meant, Sidious sent out a strong wave of Force energy with his outstretched hand. The girl was once again hurled backwards, but this time she managed to land on her feet.
Considering his options of attack, he decided to try something new. Lifting large chunks of snow from the stone surface around him. Sidious focused his will into compressing them into hardened spheres. Within seconds, a swarm of fist sized white balls orbited his body like a cluster of moons around a gas giant.
Ruby stared at the sight in both wonder and trepidation. Both clearly expressed on her face even through the fatigue.
"Fool! If you are unwilling to strike me down, then you cannot succeed me." Sidious snarled and with the twitch of a single finger, he sent one of the snowballs hurtling towards her.
It impacted her stomach, putting her on her knees.
"If you cannot succeed me, then you are of no use to me!" Sidious raised his hand and sent a dozen more in her direction. He would beat the lesson into her core this time. No more games.
Ruby got onto her feet quickly, bending and twisting her small body with sluggish movements to do her best at avoiding the projectiles sent her way. While she was mostly successful, she was still hit in the shoulder, hip and left cheek. Knocking her over and leaving her flat on her stomach facing away from him.
Sidious decided to make her position crystal clear. That she did not have a choice anymore. Either she commits or she dies.
Gathering the Force, he formed a snowball twice his height and held it above him as if in some primitive display of strength like the ancient gladiators from before space travel was even conceived.
"Since you are of no use to me, at the very least your replacement will learn from your failure."
Sidious felt a slight shift in the Force. Different from the many the girl had generated during their weeks long exercise here. It felt profound.
"I won't be replaced." He heard her say as she shuffled to her feet. With her back to him, he felt her power building into a crescendo. "I won't let you."
Sidious watched her with a feral smile. With a laugh of triumph, he challenged her. "Then do it. Strike at me with all of your hatred. Claim your destiny at my side!"
He hurled the giant snowball at her. At first, he anticipated that the girl would dodge the projectile and make one last desperate charge at him. But when he felt the swirling torrent of power pulsing out from her, he instinctively raised a Force barrier to defend himself.
With a wrathful cry, Ruby bawled her hands into fists and made to punch the snow boulder flying at her. The resulting shockwave obliterated it and cleared all the snow in front of her.
Sidious watched this with fascination. His black cloak flittering as the shockwave buffeted the winds. He was about to drop his guard when he saw her taking a second swing at him. While unhurt, he was pushed back. It was only mere centimeters, but still it was impressive. To be so young and yet so powerful.
Ruby threw another Force Punch at him. Then another, and another. Each one becoming gradually weaker as the child vented her rage.
By the sixth swing, she fell to one knee and collapsed to the stone. Her power finally spent after weeks of suffering.
Sidious made his way to her in a blur of motion. Now that she was completely exposed, he had to get her to the ship.
Picking up the prone body of his apprentice, he wrapped her in his cloak and began walking.
"Ma-master." She croaked as she shivered in his arms. "I'll prove it to you. I'll prove I'm a Sith. Just… just don't throw me away."
Sidious did not reply as he quickened his pace.
Within moments, Sidious reached his ship. The alabaster interior contrasted with the dark cloak he had wrapped his apprentice in. Laying her frozen form in the lounge, he opened the emergency cabinet he had custom installed into the walls for just such an event. Curtesy of Plagueis after the incident of Saleucami that had nearly left half his back completely irrecoverable.
The inbuilt bacta chamber emerged from the wall, reconfiguring itself to spread out horizontally before him like a hospital bed with a viewing glass.
Returning to his apprentice, he took the girl into his arms and unwrapped the cloak. Seeing that her skin beginning to turn blue, he moved in a blur, ignoring her discomfort. Her blood vessels were narrowing, and as a result she was becoming hypothermic. There was no time to waste.
Placing her in the tank, he placed the breather over her mouth and closed the trasnparesteel canopy before activating the machine.
The clear blue liquid began to flood the chamber. Ruby flinched as it touched her. Bacta was heated to a nominal temperature and regulated to suit the lifeform the chamber was set to. Fortunately, Sidious had the foresight to predict this outcome.
She was powerful for her age, but that did not change the fact that she was still only seven.
After a minute of silence, the girl was floating within the tank. Those black and red locks spreading out in slow motion.
For the longest time, he did nothing but watch her. Feeling her through the Force. The machine displayed her vitals, but he ignored them.
Then her eyes opened again. They still looked fatigued, but that hardly mattered to Sidious.
He placed his open palm on the trasnparesteel to see if she was responsive. Slowly, Ruby moved her hand and managed to place it against his.
Pleased, Sidious decided that he would give his apprentice one final gift before he let sleep take her. Another cabinet opened, and a small handheld mirror floated out from it and into his hand.
Raising it over his apprentice, he angled the glass towards her head, giving the girl a full view of herself. Her face was battered and worn, bruises and cut covered her to the point where he nearly gave her permanent scarring. But what was most surprising to the little girl was her eyes.
They shone, bright and fierce as if a fire had been lit within her. The shining silver she had grown accustomed to had been replaced by the fire of the Dark Side.
When she noticed this, her whole body jerked within the liquid, causing the machine to beep, attempting to alert anyone that might be nearby that the patient within might be uncooperative.
Ruby looked at him. Then back to the mirror, then back to him again. She managed to move her hand towards her face, gesturing to her eyes. Then she pointed ponderously at him.
All he did was give a proud nod, to show his congratulations. She had been this way for the entirety of the last week, but she did not need to know that. Better to let her have this small prize.
Ruby looked elated. Ready to jump into his arms were she not restrained and beaten into submission.
Then the excitement died. The light in her eyes dulled and glazed over as the fatigue finally caught up with her and was enhanced by the healing liquid allowing her to relax after a perceived eternity of torment.
Her eyes slowly shut and then she merely floated there. In contented stasis, waiting for her master to release her.
Sidious stayed a moment longer. Watching his little star. Then he left to return to the cockpit. It was time to return to Naboo, then back to business in the Senate. He had been gone long enough.
Ruby walked through the snow. Its winds whipping against her body, doing their best to suppress her, to force her to her knees. But she defied them.
Forging onward, she heard a voice calling out to her. It had been calling her since she came to this place.
Stepping carefully to avoid any stones, she marched on. The chill seeped into her skin, trying to steal the life from her again.
The voice came again, louder, clearer. "Help me!"
Alarmed, Ruby ran forward. This was without thought, without contemplation. Just instinct as if it were ingrained in her bones. Her desire to help whoever had called out spurred her on.
"Someone help!" Ruby could almost make out the voice. It sounded familiar.
"Please!" It was female. A girl's voice.
Ruby's sprint came to a sudden halt as found herself at the edge of a cliff. A cliff she recognized. It was the exact one she had nearly fallen off.
But that was not what held her attention. What dominated her focus was the person in her sights.
"Save me!" The carbon copy of Ruby cried out with her voice.
The person that looked like Ruby clung on for her life as she held on to a large rock with both hands.
Ruby looked on in bewilderment. Wondering why this person looked exactly like her. Was this some sort of test from her master? A trick?
She didn't have any sisters that she knew of. If she did, they would have found her thanks to the popularity of her father. Afterall, she had been there when the media took their pictures of him after his opening statement to the Senate.
So, what was this?
Looking down at the girl, Ruby examined her closely. Same face, same pale skin, same black and red hair, same silver eyes.
The only thing she didn't recognize was the expression. It was a look of desperation and panic.
It looked wrong to her. It irked something inside her.
For a moment she felt the urge to step forward and grab the girl's hand.
But then she stopped herself midway through her stride. What was she doing? Why was she helping this person?
Looking down, she saw the hope in the girl's eyes. But why was she so desperate? Couldn't she climb up on her own as Ruby did?
Then it came to her. This Ruby couldn't climb up because she was weak. So weak that she could not pull herself back up.
Stepping closer, the girl who looked like Ruby smiled brightly. Expecting aid.
What Ruby did instead was deliver a hard kick to the arms holding the rock. The girl screamed in pain.
"What are you doing?" She cried. "Help me!"
Ruby gave the imposter another kick. Completely ignoring her pleas. As one of her arms came loose.
"Aahh! Please! Don't do this!" She screamed as she dangled from the cliff. "We can still fix this! You don't have to go down this path!"
Ruby quirked an eyebrow. What was she talking about?
Then she shrugged. It didn't matter anymore. With a powerful stomp, she snapped the bones of the last arm and sent the girl shrieking into the white mists below. Crying in pain and sorrow.
Ruby stood there, tall and proud as she contemplated her actions. She didn't feel anything. Not even the cold. Her master had taught her well. He thought she wouldn't notice, but she did.
She had found the secret lesson he had planned to teach her.
Life was pain, the universe was pain. Everyone suffers and inflicts suffering in turn.
Ruby had made a choice. If suffering was inevitable, it would be better to be the one to inflict it than bear the pain.
There we go. The first part of Ruby's Sith training is done. I hope you all enjoy it.
Also, the time is drawing near that her Sith name will be chosen. I have narrowed it down to three. None of which I will spoil for you, but if you feel you have a good one, let me know.
Have a great day everyone.
