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Rogue Knight II: The Return of the Sith

=RK=

Phase 2: From the Darkness

=RK=

Part 1

Mother Machine chamber

Belsavis

My time was up. I could feel it in my bones. Combat stimulants and alchemy concoctions flooded my bloodstream, yet the little physical strength I had left waned by the minute. The Force sustained my crumbling body, yet its very brush was killing me.

Now all I had left was to lay down a few last contingencies and throw the dice.

"Admiral Holt, you've got the codewords. If I or Ti contacts you without the proper authorization, then you've got your orders too." I spoke over the comm with Freedom's Flag Bridge. If someone leaves this facility without clearing it with you first, you've got your orders." I repeated.

"Understood." Joanna confirmed. I knew there was a spark of excitement in her eyes. Her heart beat faster in anticipation. She loved the chance I might be giving her. Hated it too – with all her heart. "If the contingency goes into effect?"

"Then you've got options. I won't order you what to do if I'm gone. Then command goes to you. All I ask is that you relieve and secure Mandalore before returning home. Corellia and the Republic could use all the allies they could get and my people are among the few useful ones you have." I rasped.

"I'll take it under advisement."

"Joanna, for what's worth, I'm sorry."

"I know." A soft sigh came over the comm. "You would do it again if the situation calls for it."

"Yes."

"I hate you, sir. I love you too. Try not to die."

"Just die and get it over with?" My lips twitched in amusement.

"That would make my life much easier – the nasty Sith who is to blame for everything is dead. Much less paperwork then. It's in the regulations." Joanna hummed.

"I bet it is. May the Force serve you well, Joanna. Veil over and out." I cut the channel. "You can leave the chamber. The side effects of what I'm about to do might be hazardous."

"That's negative, sir. We'll be all right." The Clone in charge of the security detail in the room shook his head. "You didn't let us to the madness at Kamino, general. We aren't leaving you now."

"Thank you, lieutenant. Prepare the prisoner and stand back." I ordered and stood up on swaying legs. Even if everything went to hell, at least I could console myself that I would go out surrounded by people loyal to me, not bound by simple fear or a greater cause

Time was up indeed. I dragged myself to the Machine. It was still gulping all the energy a CR90 frigate landed outside could supply yet there was no sigh it was going to be active anytime soon.

Kriff my luck.

I stumbled to the gurney where Ti was strapped in and kept under sedation by enough medicine to outright kill at least couple of squads of my best Clones. The amount of sedatives needed to keep her under had been increasing daily and would soon had reached a point where it would have to be either cut off or she would die. Even a Jedi Master couldn't survive with more drugs than blood in their bloodstream. For a prolonged period of time anyway.

We tested that on Korriban back in the day when a bunch of captured Jedi were shipped to us for some fun and games.

I looked at Ti's sleeping form. She was at ease. Peaceful. Damn it, this was going to be such a waste. Ti was looking almost like Ashara when she was in a deep slumber.

Eh. It wasn't like it would have worked between us in the long term. There was great chemistry, true. We didn't have much in common, that was true too. We were likely to end up on the wrong side of a conflict anyway – another truth. I had no illusions that Ti would compromise her principles just because of me and my plans for the Jedi would have destroyed the Order in the form in which it existed before the coup. I needed them as weapons. Ti on the other hand would have fought that. She would have wanted to give them all a choice at the very least and that wasn't something I could have allowed. In the end the Jedi would have been either firmly on my side or removed as a complication.

A rasp escaped my lips. I was wasting time. It wasn't like I needed to justify myself to this woman, even if what I was about to do might consign her to a fate worse than death.

I raised my arms and let the Force flow through me. Its gentle breeze lit my frayed nerves on fire and I had to bite my lips not to howl. My will stretched around me, encompassing the power burning me from within. An artifact I crafted with Zash for her own transfer within Kira's body arose from its container which was brought in earlier from my quarters and flew until it was between me and ti. It was a small thing – a pyramid which it could comfortably fit in the palms of my hands. The artifact began to glow with power absorbed from the Force surrounding me. Its red sides lit up with glowing alchemy symbols. I focused my will and intent upon it and channeled as much Force as I could within it. My body began to break down faster but it didn't matter by this point.

My awareness stretched further until it touched Ti's slumbering mind.

Her awareness suddenly flared up. Our minds touched and she tried to pull back in surprise.

"Veil?! What?! NO!" Her mental screams echoed for those who could hear them. "I will not allow this! I won't be your puppet! Anyone's puppet!" Ti snarled.

"Do you think I'm going to give you a choice, Ti?"

The artifact pulsed with power. When the Jedi Master tried to lash at me with the Force, it greedily drank every bit of energy she threw at me even as it continued to drain me dry.

Shaak Ti recoiled in horrified comprehension. She tried to raise her mental barriers to keep me away, only for them to shatter at my approach. The jagged pieces were sucked in by the artifact too.

The Force pulsed around us and my construct consumed its fill.

I pressed on. My mind touched the artifact and it eagerly accepted me. I focused its power and forcefully established a channel between the core of who I was and Shaak Ti. This was no mere Force Connection but a solid tunnel of raw power connecting our very souls.

Ti screamed. She clawed at me as my mind violated everything she ever was. I could experience her memories. I knew her better than she knew herself. Ti… She was a woman I could admire. While she could even follow the path I charted if she believed it to be the right one, her convictions were unshakable pillars. Even Kamino didn't change that. The Dark Side could break her. It could destroy the person Ti was. However it couldn't make her bend her morals.

That's when I knew for sure. Ti and me, we could never walk the same path for long. I was a monster of my own making. Sooner or later Ti would have stood against me when I went farther than her principles allowed.

My respect for her raised even further.

Shaak Ti knew she lost. Her mind, her soul, was bared open for me. Yet she fought so I wouldn't use her body to spread my brand of insanity across the galaxy.

I pressed harder. Ti howled as her mind began cracking. The Force thundered around us. It pulsed in tandem with Ti's futile struggles.

Ti's mind was unraveling. I pressed harder and began replacing her.

The tunnel connecting us twisted. My artifact screamed when something began siphoning the Force out of it. My very being was tugged just as I was enmeshing with Ti and about to end her. The tug became a pull, then a wrench which send me flying back through the tunnel. Ti let one last scream and I could feel her empty body dying as not only the Force but its life itself was drained from it as my artifact attempted to serve its purpose and maintain the channel.

I was shoved back into my body. The tunnel flaked off and was consumed. My artifact glowed with the light of the Force itself before growing dim and clattering on the floor.

I followed it on the ground a moment later. My chest hurt, my lungs screamed for air. It all paled in comparison to feeling every cell in my body agonizingly slowly cannibalizing itself as my very life fueled the Force trying to keep me alive. The same Force that was tortuously slowly immolating me from within. My body couldn't live anymore without the Force sustaining it, yet its very touch was killing me.

Emperor's balls, what the kriff happened? My mind was a jumble of memories – mine and Ti's. They were clashing in my head, making it pound as if a Gamorean was beating inside with a war-hammer. There wasn't Khem Val to interrupt the ritual. Ti was unable to fight me off – that was the primary use of the artifact and it worked. What or who interfered?!

Part 2

=RK=

Mother Machine chamber

Belsavis

Awareness came back instantly and completely as it was her nature. Ashaa drunk greedily from the fountain of energy linked up to her systems. Raw power and the Force – that's what she needed in order to operate, to exist.

For a time that felt like blissful eternity, Ashaa simply felt and enjoyed her meal. The autonomous repair systems chugged along fixing the extensive damage. Even with the liberal power she was fed it was going to be a long time before she could be fully operational.

Ashaa frowned. She had so much to do, yet she had to wait. Again. She sighed in resignation. Her sensors came back online after all self-diagnostics deemed them sufficiently repaired and she examined her home. Armored people, check… Uh. Alive armed and armored people.

She panicked. Her defenses weren't simply offline, they would need to largely be rebuilt.

Ashaa didn't want to be taken offline again! She enjoyed being awake. Preferably when she could tinker too! Having no other option she called for help through the Force. Hopefully someone would answer and she could make a deal. Once fully repaired Ashaa could be very useful.

Quite well protected too, though considering what happened the last time, she decided that a lot more and improved defenses were needed…

"Ah. Its your fault." Someone rasped. The same statement pulsed through the Force and came on the wings of agony Ashaa could actually feel.

It was glorious!

It hurt.

She didn't really like it.

"Stop that!" Ashaa exclaimed. Huh. She knew that signature. "Vael, you're back like you promised!" Ashaa exclaimed. "You're late." She consulted her in-built clock. "Very late."

"There was an accident." Came the answer. More pain.

Ashaa recoiled.

"I need my body fixed. Now." Her sensors finally locked on a figure laying on the ground. It was in a bad shape. Did he forego maintenance for all this time? Urgh, biological entities! They had no sense!

"You appear damaged. Do you need repairs?" Ashaa asked, while checking up the status of her fabrication units.

Uh. Gone, wrecked, useful for spare parts, being slowly fixed… She correlated the last one with the scans she could get of Veil. Nope. He was a breathing and talking corpse…

"What do you think, Ashaa?" The Sith grunted. Even more pain.

Ashaa flinched. Nope, she didn't like that.

"I think you need immediate repairs. I'm not yet operational."

"Redirect all power to unit you used to rebuild me last time..." The human gasped for air. Pain. It was to be avoided.

Ashaa checked again. The numbers weren't working.

"Damage nominal. Fabrication unit four unable to fix it before expiration." Ashaa asked reluctantly. She focused on the armored people. They didn't look like they found her answer acceptable.

She didn't want to be taken offline again! Think!

"I need a new body then. Can you maintain my mind until its ready?"

It hurt to listen! The Force coming from Vael burned her every time he spoke.

Ashaa ran the numbers anyway.

"Negative. Damage too severe. Maintaining additional mental construct until replication of enhanced body impossible."

"Enhanced?" The Sith asked.

Ashaa whimpered as the pain suddenly surged.

"Do you have scans of my original body? Re-creating it using what material is available to speed up the process might do the trick."

She screamed in pain. The armed men were pointing weapons at her. Materials? Ashaa wanted to continue to operate… One fresh body, one falling apart, a lot of ancient ones… She could work with that!

Ashaa focused her sensors on the armed men. She had to.

"Move to the fabrication unit. I'll begin gathering resources."

"You heard the nice lady. Help...me..up… argh..." Vael's voice broke at the end and a quiet whine came from his lips.

Ashaa's world was engulfed in agony.

=RK=

The pain got too much. I blacked out and dreamed.

The world was twisted – like I was seeing it through murky waterfall.

I was drifting through space among a shoal of brown and black spotted creatures which resembled whales – if those mammals had that many large fins hugging their sides. Smaller, rough looking beings flew around like groups of demented fish.

The scene shifted.

Three moon sized construct drifted above a lush green world. They resembled a weird model of thick spiral galaxies, if you replaced the arms with slowly drifting tentacles. They were dull yellow almost brown – a shade that made them appear sick. Around them flew large cylinders covered by slabs or rock like armor.

I was standing upon war-ravaged streets where warriors wearing organic looking armor clashed into rows of massive wardroids. Light blaster fire harmlessly splashed over bone-like substance, vicious looking staffs went through shields as if they weren't there only to clash into slabs of vehicle-grade armor. The staffs pulsed and acid splashed from hundred hungry mouths. The air rippled, gravity shifted and the whole street around me was crushed into sand.

When the dust settled, I was in the middle of a long corridor facing two figures wearing advanced looking armor. They produced lightsabers – red and purple – then moved to flank me. I raised my own blade to meet them and I was somewhere else.

I was leaning over a crib where a toddler was giggling and waving at me. Wisps of silky blond hair framed her tiny face and her sapphire eyes bored in my own. A flash of light illuminated us from a nearby window and the room shook with the thunder of distant explosion. The door behind me disintegrated sending lethal shrapnel scything through the room. The window promptly followed suit and grenades flew in. Armored figures stormed in and my vision vanished in the merciless glare of blaster fire.

I stood on top of the Senate building and Coruscant burned around me. Figures wielding lightsabers in all colors of the rainbow faced each other and clashed before the world ended in orbital fire.

The scene shifted again, and again and again…