Disclaimer: This story heavily uses ideas and concepts from the James Luceno book 'Darth Plagueis'. I highly advise you read the book if you want to know, catch on, and understand this fanfic story. Wookiepedia can get you only so far.
I do not own any of the Star Wars and DC characters and ideas represented in this work.
Teaming with uninhabited islands within its warm waters, the Adriatic Sea was known for its stunning and awe-inspiring waters and was not only a great market for fishing but also a source of year-round tourism. Attention on the region has been focused on the bigger islands and other known locations in Croatia and Italy.
The smaller archipelago islands have been largely ignored; very few have actually taken any consideration and thought of these islands. But when the time comes when local, international authorities and hero groups realize the significance of one of these islands that housed a far sinister secret, it would be far too little, far too late to do anything.
Hego Damask had purchased one of these secluded islands during the era of the 1990's when the focus in Europe had been cast on the ethnic conflicts in Yugoslavia and Kaznia. Focus wouldn't be drawn to the young Hungarian man procuring a small, forgettable aisle for whatever purpose he desired.
Finding the island would be difficult but not impossible, however, avoiding detection would be a greater feat. Locating the isolated island through Satellite GPS would only be a waste of time, as Plagueis had a digital scrambler capable of subverting any prying eyes around orbit.
If one would find the island, one would only find a humble villa with a supporting dock and a well-placed helipad. A closer inspection of the most minute detail could reveal an integrated entrance to an elevator shaft that leads a mile down underground that only Plagueis and Mercy Graves knew. Even then, Mercy had not been consulted on the work her employer do within the underground tunnels.
The work in question was the renewed continuation of Plagueis' research of his previous life as a Muun. However, due to the fact that all of his previous testing breakthroughs had stayed at Aborah and Sojurn in his Galaxy, Plagueis managed to pick up the pieces by memory and continue on the search for mysteries in the realm of the Force. Yes, the ancient texts and artifacts that he had safeguarded at Aborah were now irretrievable, his years as Hego Damask and the lurking figure of Plagueis managed to gather Earth's ancient artifacts and texts that intrigued him.
With Mercy Graves in the villa on the upside, doing whatever gratifying R & R a cybernetic enhanced human is capable of, Plagueis resided within his main laboratory. In a cool and dark chamber, he surrounded himself with test subjects and experiments no different than his previous life works.
Though the pool of creatures to be tested was limited due to Earth still in its pre-FTL phase, the planet's native animals had been sufficient for his goals, from the lowest bugs and mammals to adult primates, pigs, and the few humans he has obtained. Like before, he had manipulated them in ways, surgically and through their midichlorians. If one were to gaze at his work and see the containment tanks that housed these people and organisms, cages of surgical abominations, then one might consider the tests of Joseph Mengele or Sergei Brukhonenko to be the stuff of amateurs.
Furnished in a white, flame-retardant lab coat, Plagueis put his wanted attention through the lens of a microscope, observing cellular activity. Close by, in a protective area in a crib and other monitoring equipment, laid a sleeping baby, Cassandra—his most cherished, profitable, and dangerous experiment.
Having a baby occupy a Frankenstein-like lab environment such as this might be considered monstrous by many, and by a small concession on Plagueis' part, he would agree. Yet, it was not to traumatize the child for wicked purposes, it was a way to condition the young baby in the dark miasma that flowed in the area. The dark side, much like Aborah and Sojurn, festered and crept within the dark confines of the underground lab. Consuming the pains and torment of several creatures and beings, the dark side's notice of the lab gave an opportunity for Plagueis to saturate his child in the dark energies that lingered in the shadows.
The two year old child had cried and sobbed out of primordial fear, but only in the early time of coming here when the chance came up. Now, the dark side taking a liking to her, the cold presence of the lab became more a comforting one.
As specified, Cassandra has a deeper connection to the force and the dark side than Plagueis did when he was a youngster on Muunilinst. He was not but five years old when his powers started to reveal for him, Cassandra's powers, however, kicked in half a year ago.
During a stay at his Athens villa with Cassandra, the baby girl desired a sweet within the kitchen, which she saw presenting itself like a forbidden object. With Plagueis not paying attention to the wants of his child and the morsel of food beyond her reach, Cassandra got into a fit of screaming rage that demanded the sweet come to her grasp. Unknown to the child, her desire came into reality when the sweet landed in her hand, with herself satisfied and Plagueis dazzled by his daughter's awake force powers.
While unlocking the force may differ from force user to force user by age and it might not truly confer that she has great potential, her midichlorian said otherwise. Before the conception of Cassandra, Damask had tested her mother's midichlorian count, Sandra, by a blood test. In any other context, Sandra would have been a worthy student in the ways of the Sith due to her admirable M-count and latent force talents. Remarkably, Cassandra's count was higher than Plagueis' and Sandra's midichlorian count, relaying the possibility that Cassdrana, if properly trained and motivated, could surpass Plagueis.
It did not come as a complete shock to Plagueis; his daughter is the product of eugenics and Muun calculations to create a child strong in the force and easily summon the dark side. In a way, he is proud of the achievement of such a potentially powerful being and only he deserves the credit for her creation. But knowing the past mistakes that brought him to his death, he knew that caution and planning must prevail first when dealing with the child.
In an effort to curtail the making of another Sidious, Plagueis planned to teach Cassandra the dark arts. However, he would refrain from giving her the title of Darth, or even mention the Sith altogether. Telling her the ways of the Sith and their history might encourage the girl to think that she would be the Sith successor and override Plagueis with her raw force power. Even the fact that she is his daughter might not deter those rebellious thoughts. Still wanting to extend her usefulness without unintentionally creating a future enemy, teaching her force abilities, skills, and strategies to achieve her task while not sabotaging his rule with unique gifts would be the best path.
She would be powerful, and if need be, powerful enough to contend with most heroes and superpowered beings on this planet, but not strong enough to defeat him, not unless another Sith Lord happens to secretly train her. He strongly doubts that will happen any time soon.
But with her training schedule within a couple of years, Plagueis realized that he would not have all the time to fully train her. Teaching her the ways of the force would be already a daunting and time consuming process, one that, if he pursued any more skills beyond what he was willing to provide, would be difficult with his schedule. Therefore, a skilled trainer would be required to teach the rest of the skills Cassandra would need.
Plagueis, when the concept of having Cassandra with Sandra Wu-San was in its starting stage, considered having her train their Daughter. Yet, after heavy critical thinking, he went against it.
Sandra was indeed skilled and talented enough in the martial arts to be able to train Cassandra, however, due to their relationship of mother and daughter, it wasn't a guarantee that Cassandra wouldn't tell Sandra her learned knowledge of the force. As Sandra had untapped power in the force and Plagueis knowing full well that she has a pride and determination of her own, she could convince Cassandra as a mother to combine their full might together in a future confrontation against Plagueis. And that would be a fight he would not be able to win, not with the emotional attachment to Cassandra and to a lesser extent, Sandra and their powers brought to bear.
But Plagueis was not at a loss; there were other candidates to serve as martial artist masters to Cassandra other than her mother. While Mercy Graves was trained respectfully, her role as Hego Damask's assistant and bodyguard would be her main and only role. Having to be his bodyguard and his daughter's teacher would not be an ideal schedule.
A woman by the name of Whisper A'Daire had been a nominee as Cassandra's martial arts mentor. Miss A'Daire was a skilled assassin and thief who was then hired by Hego Damask to act as an agent of carrying out jobs to help his nefarious schemes globally. While a prized agent within his network, Plagueis had plans to expand her contract with him by having her be a lackey under Bruno Mannheim in order to help Intergang operations. A hefty paycheck included, A'Daire would no doubt say yes to the arrangement, and her contract wouldn't leave room for training the girl.
One notable and exceptional person who could be a perfect candidate for Cassandra would be the mercenary known as Deathstroke. A highly skilled assassin well-versed in firearms, bladed weapons, and many fighting forms, Deathstroke, or The Terminator, is known in the criminal underworld as one of the best and deadliest assassins in the world. Sparse rumors circulated that once he was a US soldier who was involved in a super soldier program sponsored by the US military. True or not, Deathstroke could be a good teacher, but the man is known for his ego and ambitions, traits that Plagueis doesn't want Cassandra to copy.
There is one more candidate that Plagueis could hire for reliable results, one from past dealings and contracts. A man by the name of David Cain. Hego Damask had hired Mister Cain before as an assassin to permanently deal with officials and other politicians whose passing would benefit his cause. However, Plagueis had made sure that he kept the persona of Hego Damask when he had hired Cain and had Hego's ambitions align to an image of a greedy businessman rather than a man wanting to secretly undermine the world's governments for a new world order.
A well-rounded fighter in most arts of killing, David Cain can be depended on doing the job accordingly, say the moments of alcoholism and chasing after women. An ego for sure, but one that Plagueis can manage and one that shouldn't be able to affect Cassandra. There is word that David Cain has past involvement with a cult of assassins that hide within the shadows with their own agenda. Hego had asked Cain about this but the assassin had denied anything with vulgar language.
While Cain was in his own little world and sometime when Plagueis actually hired the man, the Sith was confident in commissioning the assassin, sparing no expense.
Satisfied with his observation under the microscope, Plagueis started the necessary preparations for his upcoming experiment with the meta-gene. After staging the restraining table and machinery, he procured a tranquilized chimpanzee and strapped the unconscious primate to an operating table. Constraining the chimp, he then went to the lab's freezer, where past and current test subjects, organs, and blood were cryogenically stored. He searched the section of the freezing chamber that contained the bodies and found what he was looking for.
A click from a nearby panel opened the cryo-tube and began warming the body for the extraction of blood. The blood unfroze itself and went back to its liquid form. The extracting tube embedded in the arm started to take the crimson liquid out into a sealed container that buzzed with monitoring screens.
The body before Plagueis was in the name of Amos Monroe out of New Orleans. The old man was in his sixties, with a shiny bald head, a chocolate complexion due to his African-American heritage, and a bushy white goatee and eyebrows. The former self-possessed con artist had conducted a career of robbing and skimming money from low-level mobsters in his faulty money laundering schemes. In one opportunity that showed up on his feet, he had taken a considerable amount of cash from one of Mandragora's associates.
[Note: The reference is taken from Invasion! #1 out of 1988]
When the albino mob boss found out about the robbery, he had kidnapped the man, tortured him for weeks, and was planning on dropping the con artist into a pit of deliberately starved hogs. Plagueis, as Hego Damask, just so happened to visit Mandragora at the time and sensed the old man's dormant meta-gene was within him. In a roundabout way, he purchased the man's life in exchange for Mandragora not dumping him into a fleshing-eating demise. Mandragora, took the money and didn't ask questions, not when he himself was in a shady business that could lead one to death if asked the wrong questions.
In his previous life, Plagueis had developed the ability to sense midichlorians within a being, which was the basis of his retained talent to control not only his own, but others as well. After his rebirth and the creation of this main laboratory, Plagueis continued pressing on and developing those abilities even further, pushing the boundaries of life and death—pressing his will onto creation itself.
Before then, with his skill to have authority over midichlorians, he was able to undermine one's resolve, resurrect the dead and keep others alive, make the force-organelles evacuate a host's body, challenge death itself with immortality, and the boldest and most dangerous of them all, creating life itself from nothing. Since then, he didn't practice the latter again, as he now recognized that was an act the Force was willing to intervene within the material realm and punish for his crimes of rebellion.
A story that did not much influence Plagueis, but once reading the Old Testament of the Bible, he considered his story of challenging the force's sovereignty over the universe and creation similar to the one of the Tower of Babel. He supposed he got too prideful and too arrogant in his works, and the force—god—had to destroy his creation so that Plagueis would not be able to have celestial power.
Regardless, though dropping possibly the most gifted path of his ability out of risk that the force might retaliate again, he had still used his control over midichlorians on other forms of life and gained new skills in it. His research reopened, and he had better control and ways of manipulating the midichlorians even better and more effectively. He had started to gain the skill of manipulating the midichlorians to alter and rearrange a being's cellular structure and sense any chemical and biological abnormalities they might possess.
Though the process will need to be refined more, with mental concentration, he can command the midichlorians to perform in ways one might not think possible. In his thoughts, he could demand a being's midichlorians to change their DNA and genetic makeup; render them in a comatose state and uplift them when he wants it; add or remove cellular indeficiencies like cancer, tumors, and other abnormalities; and he can alter their brain structures to the point of nearly changing their entire behavior and personality.
While most of those abilities can be replicated through traditional methods and practices in the forceful and Sith arts, Plagueis believes that one day, he will be able to do all of this as easily as a snap of a finger.
Mister Monroe was part of the meta-human section of Plagueis' storage collection. He and a few others who have the meta-gene had been caught by the Sith and safeguarded in the depths of his lab. A notable few had already activated their meta-genes as they were former participants of Roulette's meta brawls. Unfortunately for them, either they didn't make the cut, owed Roulette a large sum of cash, or were broken beyond healing due to the fights, they were now at his lab, helping Plagueis further his study and learn the secrets of the meta-gene.
But the meta-human arm of his human subjects were few in short, and Plaguies would not be able to freely test them on a regular basis. Others like Monroe had been used as a sort of blood bank—utilized to create blood from their unconscious bodies and extract it when Plaguies needed it for his experimental projects. He had put them in a coma through the force and had no real plan to wake them unless that was the intent for a future experiment.
When the amount of extracted blood was at a sufficient level, Plagueis disconnected the hose to Monroe, returned the old man back to his cryogenic sleep and re-entered the operating theater. Bringing the container of blood and transferring it into an inbuilt, custom-made, blood transfusion machine, all of the equipment and supplies were in place to start the experiment.
Unlike force users, where their powers might show themselves in a stressful situation or whenever the force thought it was necessary, the only time metahumans would unlock their powers is when a stressful event causes a chromosomal response to awaken the dormant gene.
Extending his reach into the force, he released the chimp's comatose sleep and forced himself to awake. The black-haired chimp lazily opened his brown eyes and immediately started to try breaking out of its alloyed restraints. It screamed, hollered, and hissed at nearby Plagueis—peeling back its lips to show its teeth—still, the primate's attempt to escape by brute force was fruitless. The metal constraints that were embedded in its table were one of the finest high-grade metals that was not known to the open market; the chimpanzee was NOT going to break it, not if it suddenly gained the strength to lift a car.
Sensing the chimpanzee's state was at a high of fear, anger, and confusion, Plaguies started the blood transfusion machine to begin the experiment. A clear, narrow hose sucked up blood from the container and made it flow to its ends, where it led into the chimp. The chimp's reaction was instant; its screaming got louder, more intense; its desperate breakout attempts became more violent, trying to rattle out of the metal restraints.
Plagueis watched for a few minutes, taking notes of everything, from the readout of the machines to the sounds of the primates' cries. As the echoes of the chimpanzee's screams continued to reverberate throughout the cool, aired lab, baby Cassandra lay unaffected, and dozed into a deep sleep.
Any other child would have started to cry out due to the high disturbance the animal made, but Cassandra wasn't any other child. The dark side was a far more disturbing and terrifying noise many cannot endure, not because of its darker tendencies, far from it. The darker aspects of it may seem horrific to others only because it reveals the truth of us all. Where groups like the Jedi hide those impulses and desires, the Sith embrace it and, therefore, are more truthful than the Jedi can ever be.
Casandra is unaware of the barbarity beyond her sleep only because what is there to be aware of? She was anchored in the dark side and so forth, reality.
With the experiment underway, sure that no emergency could arise from it, and multiple cameras trained at the operating theater for future analysis, Plaguies left the laboratory and entered another room within the underground facility. Sparkling some semblance of his former study and library in Aborah, the smaller hall contained various books, ancient texts, and artifacts from around Earth.
From many cultures, writers, and time periods, the library was an impressive size compared to the ones on this backwater planet. But as described before, they nonetheless interested him, wild stories or not.
Lost in thought about his current and future experiments and how they could lead to the eventual success of containing the meta-human population. Given time, the Sith sharpening his skills over midichlorians; he could one day order the midichlorians in a meta-human's cells to deactivate the meta-gene, rendering the superhuman's power inert.
Supplied with more practice, he could do the nullification of anyone gifted with powers by ordering their midichlorians to do the same. To do this to anomalous beings such as Superman, Wonder Woman, Captain Atom, the Flash, and the Lanterns would be a massive achievement and would break the idea that these "gods among men" or nothing but mere mortals playing dress up.
It is said that the ancient Jedi and Sith had a similar ability against practitioners of the dark side, that of sever force. Using the force to cut off another's force sensitivity and, therefore, preventing their usage of it, it is said Nomi Sunrider used it on Ulic Qel-Droma, Sith Lords like Nihilus stripping the powers of Darth Traya when her usefulness had expired. It had even been claimed that there were those who've done it to themselves as it was thought that Meetra Surk once did.
That day when he strips the powers of these so-called heroes will come when he furthers his important work here, however.
Once that ability arrives, while it would be a powerful one, the difficulty was how he would be able to implement the effect on the entire human population to get rid of any superhumans. It's possible that a long and intensive ritual of meditation like the one he performed with Sidious when tipping the scales of balance could be a way to expand his reach and destroy all powers. But there was no saying that he could work, especially how he could be the only one in existence to be able to manipulate midichlorians at this scale.
He had considered creating a midichlorian-orientated virus to target any abnormalities in the gene pool, just like how Tenebrous and his Twi'lek master planned to do the same against the Jedi. While Plagueis, in his earlier life, thought it would be impossible to command the organelle to attack specific individuals in a larger population without backfiring against them, now, with his near-mastery of the new art, it could be an option. If he would not be able to fully destroy metas, then commanding the midichlorians to make the population infertile would also suffice.
Force potential could be transferred to one's offspring if strong enough in the force, though this varies greatly. The meta-gene seemed to apply the same principle, yet the meta-gene isn't thinking unlike the studies on midichlorians had been described as. Using midichlorians rich blood and injecting it into a host's body is a crude process of developing force powers, but the results would be dire, to say the least. At least in Plagueis' point of view, there was no evidence that meta-gene could be transmitted to one host that lacked it and obtained its powers.
In this case, Plagueis was going to find out that riddle with a specific Chimpanzee. It would also be a helpful way of knowing if the option of creating a virus capable of destroying superhumans was still available.
Nonetheless, he was confident in the fact that Meta-humans and enhanced beings on this planet had their days numbered as their powers, skills, weapons, and teams would not be able to challenge Plagueis with his supreme mastery of the force and over the midichlorians. A nuisance for sure, but like any other pest, they will be found out, rounded up, and exterminated.
Metas will be dealt with and were no real rivals to the Sith, but there was a group that could challenge Plagueis, even with his force talents. One that defies what he knew about the material realm and higher mysteries of the universe. The group he refers to are the Magic users, Homo Magi.
In the Skyriver galaxy, there are those amongst the masses that, when observing the powers of the Jedi, Sith, and other forceful groups to be "magic users" and the force itself to be "magic". There have even been primitive, forceful peoples that have talents in the force but consider it a form of magical power. Of course, this was far from the truth, and all of these perceptions were based on these beings lacking imagination and intelligence. However, living in this world for almost thirty standard years, those ignorant insights resurfaced in Plagueis, and he detested that there was no real explanation for its existence; that was this so-called "magic".
Plagueis had discovered these magicians when learning about one of them, Doctor Fate. The magical hero was part of the Justice League's predecessors, the Justice Society of America and there were documents and old-reel films of them and their flashy exlpoits. A recluse, even today, not much information is public about the Sorcerer, say for the little accounts made by members of the society that worked with him. Supposedly, by their word, Doctor Fate is actually made up of two beings in a symbiotic relationship: the helmet, a sentient and powerful object named Nabu and the host, where the helmet needs a vessel to carry out its will. A type of possession that appears more parasitic than a mutual partnership, as it seems to be the case when there was very little evidence showing the host having any say.
There were tales in his galaxy that regarded ancient Sith techniques that enabled powerful Sith lords to imbue their essence into objects. Such was the case for the legend of the Muur Talisman, created by the original Dark Jedi exiles in Korriban. There were also weapons like the ancient Darkstaff, which was said to be one of the most powerful objects in the universe yet could heavily control and manipulate the user.
Plagueis wondered, was this Nabu really a powerful being embedded within the golden helmet or was that just how the texts and manuscripts described him? Was the name Nabu actually a title much like Darth is to the Sith, passed on to generation and generation as an engraved role as sorceress supreme? In the sparse texts that he has, this "Lord of Order", supposedly, Nabu was the son of an ancient being known as Vandar Adg, a primordial immortal speculated to have helped construct ancient civilizations, including Atlantis, and is theorized to live amongst man to this day.
Needless to say, Plagueis wasn't confident in the texts he had acquired and their authenticity. He especially doubted their legitimacy when they described the Lords of Chaos and Order, Celestial forces that play a part in the natural balance of the Universe.
Just like the theories that suggest that the ancient celestials of his own galaxy have transcended to the force and perform key roles in balancing and maintaining the light and dark sides of the force, the texts written by practitioners of Earth's magics said that these cosmic lords are indeed real. What is more audacious was the notion from these writers that even claim that the gods of worship on Earth are, in fact, real.
Plagueis can't help but be astounded by these ideas and their ignorant creators.
He had admitted the belief that this Earth Magic was indeed real but not deduced that it was entirely different from force powers. Seeing the footage of Doctor Fate and, to a lesser extent, John Zatara, he had seen that their ways of using this strange power were indeed complex but did not entirely find it foreign.
They have been shown using abilities of energy and power manipulation, object control and conjuring, teleportation, and other techniques that might as well be a different take on telekinesis. Most of those abilities Plagueis had used except for teleporting and material manipulation, but ancient force users had been noted to have those same skills that most Jedi and Sith lacked. The Nightsisters of Dathomir come up as an example. Just like any other forceful group, their practices in the force might differ from those of Sith and Jedi practitioners in terms of usage and visual sight, they still, however draw from the same source of infinite energy.
And yet…
Cloaked in the mundane years ago, Plagueis, as a random citizen and not the rich and powerful Hego Damask, bought admission to one of John Zatara's magic shows as the magician hero staged as an actual showtime magician. Not expecting anything as it would have been Plagueis' first experience with magic, he found himself concealing his shock when sensing the strange performance of Zatara. Lifting rabbits off from hats, making individuals turn small and big, and teleporting show assistants, all in a theatrical manner.
Sensing the Italian-American's power and illusions and in an effort to decipher them, Plagueis openly let himself be consumed by the force, letting his presence over the magician be felt, if not faintly, for a test. The magician slightly paused the intrusion, but only momentarily. He must've perceived it as a simple breeze of wind, then heaved his shoulders and continued the show.
Stunned at the man's laxed reaction and near stupidity, Plagueis becoming more bolder in the quick test, submerged himself within Zatara to the point where any trained force sensitive would have been horrifically alarmed. Finally, the stage magician caught wind of the protrusion, though it was more of a surprising startle than the man actually detecting the probe. Plagueis quickly retreated and quietly left the scene before Zatara could perhaps cast a "spell" over the crowd to discover who had performed the act on him.
Afterward, the Dark Lord in secret made a sudden theory on these Homo Magi and Earth's magic.
Firstly, Plagueis has flatly refused to call this new power as "Magic"; if he did, he would be unintentionally admitting his ignorance over the unknown energy while giving these wizardly Earth scholars praise to their self-deception they think themselves deserve due to their vaunted arcane knowledge. Instead, he had designated new terms as materia, anything but Magic.
Going further, Plagueis theorized that Earth's Materia energies are a different branch outgoing from the force—a bifurcated stream of energy much like how a creek or river can be birthed from a larger source of water. Unlike how different force using groups can produce different results when using the force, materia users utilize these energies from a source different but not entirely disconnected from the force. Plagueis might have information to provide his theory further.
Scanning his library, Plagueis retrieved a withered book originating from Arthurian England. Made in old leather, engraved in delicate letters, and well worn pages; he opened its covers and turned it's yellow papers, its dark ages tomes filled his attention.
The book's author was the mythical Merlin, a powerful sorcerer and scholar under King Aruthur's England. A practitioner of Materia, Merlin has been said to battle against witches like the dreadful Morgaine le Fey and cast unbreakable hexes which entailed imbuing demonic spirits into every day men.
A sage within that mythical era of when supposedly dragons and witches scoured the land, Merlin was an academic, and one that did impress Plagueis, as the long dead wizard had research that might suggest that he was the only few beings on this planet to know about the force. Though the wizard's knowledge is rather pathetic to even the most basic knowledge that any average force user from Plagueis' Galaxy would have, still, Merlin's understanding of the source of all life intrigued the Sith.
In his notes, Merlin had the basic idea that the force—Vim Vitae or in another description, that its origins have been lost to time, the Source—was an all present energy field produced by life and in turn, enables life itself with its unlimited energy. A continuous cycle of life and death—rebirth or a different form of reincarnation. Merlin had stated in this book that all forms of materia, whether from the turbulent realm of Chaos or the serenity of Order, owes its power to the force. With materia drawing power from Vim Vitae, like a narrow stream, this is only so much a materia user can control with the limited passage of potential they can draw upon to the unlimited pool of force energy.
However, despite his claims over his vast ability to control the wizardry arts, any attempt to influence and study this Vim Vitae had been unsuccessful. Remarkly, Merlin had theorized that Vim Vitate had some form of sentience, much how a tree thinks, and it had not kindly liked his intrusion. He also went on to say that it was possible that Vim Vitate had two opposing sides much like Order and Chaos—one that embodies life and that capitalizes on death. And unlike materia, which is balanced by the Lords of Chaos and Order, the balance of power in the force is determined by the users of it.
But afterward, much of Merlin's speculations were faulty and inconsistent, Plagueis also noted the man's lacking awareness of Midichlorians though did not scold him too much. Unless he was Plaguies, he wouldn't be able to sense one's midichlorians and the technology in those times would simply not be advanced to even scope a cell, less so an organelle that was elusive to even the most advanced civilizations.
It was unknown to Plagueis if the current practitioners of materia were largely aware of the force; with the test on Zatara years ago, he wholly doubted it. If Zatara was reported to be one of the best materia users currently, only second to Nabu, and failed to register Plagueis and his force probe, that made the Sith believe that materia practitioners have a difficult time understanding and interacting with the force. The texts of Merlin and his failed experiments with Vim Vitate only adds to Plaguies' case.
Drawing comparisons with the limited data and evidence he has, Plaguies noted a few key differences and similarities between Materia and the force. Materia, drawing its energies from the wider force, was possibly a byproduct of a long-ago event that caused its forking direction from the force. Whether by a fraction of a second after the Big Bang or, referring to the theory of the disappearance of the ancient Celestials, their transcendence into the force caused a rippling so intense that it caused a lesser stream of power to bifurcate. Finding the origins would be an impossible task, and one Plaguies might not be able to solve, it was a question that was low on his priority list.
Materia can manipulate reality far better than life itself, while the force can better influence life but has a harder time dealing with reality and material bending. The force requires a great mental capacity and fortitude, the case for Materia differs. Materia doesn't seem to influence the body that much while the force can deliver the user's body the ability to do impossible tasks. There are instances of force users to use words, texts, and incantations to cast spells and other powers, but were not required. Materia users, on the other hand, seemed shackled to saying words to utilize the most basic powers, say for the most powerful like Nabu.
In Plagueis' previous studies as a Muun, he has categorized sections of how the force interacts and influences the physical universe into three categories: the Aperion, the Anima, and the Pneuma.
[Note: References of this aspect of Plagueis' studies is taken from page 130 of Book of the Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side]
The Aperion was the unifying energy that binded the universe together. The Anima was the arm of the force that allowed life to exist through the midichlorians, yet is not responsible for sentience. Lastly, the pneuma was sentience that gives beings thought and individuality. It seems that Materia heavily draws energies from the Aperion part of the force, while normal force users have better abilities in the Anima.
What makes this galaxy, no, this planet, so different from Plagueis' own galaxy? Why had the force in this section of the universe allowed this Materia to exist? Or has Materia made a mistake that the force didn't make or originally plan?
If it is true about a few celestials' own transubstantiation, and if Plagueis would believe the dubious claims of these cosmic Lords exist, could there be a connection? As with the theories around a few celestials maintaining balance in the force, could these Lords be these maintainers—the group of celestials that left his galaxy and the material world?
Referring back to Plagueis' theory of Materia's separation from the force, was it possible that another group of celestials had caused this detachment in a plan to become the universe's driving force? An act of defiance and rebellion to become the universe's ultimate power that reminds Plagueis of the tale of Lucifer warring against God.
A supposed War in Heaven?
Just like Lucifer's failed coup, these bold celestials failed miserably and didn't become the embodying force that animated the cosmos. Instead, they, either as a result of the otherworldly struggle or by the force's design, were cast into Materia's pool of energy. Exiled into a watered-down version of the force.
That would explain this story of ethereal powers beyond the mortal realm.
Evidence of materia users' relationship with Midichlorians has not been established by any sources that Plagueis has himself. The failure to mention the special organelles provides a clear confirmation of their ignorance. Plagueis' side of the equation has been a strange mystery.
He theorized, just like force sensitives connection to the force's intermediaries, that materia users would be in the same position, yet when sensing Zatara's midichlorian count, it was shockingly low. The same can be said with metahumans when he sensed Queen Bee's midichlorians to be low on his trip to Bialya two months ago.
The Sith's attempt to reveal this enigma of the materia users and Midichlorians had led to failure as the community is an isolated and withdrawn one. The outside world has little knowledge of this existence, say for Zatara, Fate, and the few criminals apprehended by the League being materia users. Fishing for any Homo Magi ,unlike Metas, was an effort he found fruitless for any study and dissection.
However, there was an opportunity to obtain a Homo Magi in the past, but Plagueis had thought against it, as he wouldn't be able to contain the consequences. John's life was a private one, and his family life didn't differ, but with his spy network, Plagueis managed to gather information that the stage magician had a daughter born with his wife in the name of Zatanna.
Born nearly a decade ago and the daughter of Sindella Zatara, Zatanna's early life so far has been private. Undercover agents showed Plagueis that the girl's father had the current host of Nabu, Kent Nelson, occasionally watch over the girl while Zatara was busy with hero facades. Meaning, that the stage Magician and the sorcerer supreme of Earth have a close relationship.
The Dark Lord had conceptualized the idea of kidnapping the girl for his experiments and study, a test subject in order to unlock Homo Magis' biology and their relations to midichlorians. But to do so would not only make the magician resort to an emotional hunt for her kidnappers, he would also include the Justice League and the Doctor Fate.
With Palgueis still having to come up with more efficient ways of combating Materia usage, a hypothetical hunt for Plagueis by the Sorcerer Supreme might come to the latter's victory. Due to him being a Lord of Order himself, Nabu would not only see Plagueis as an existential threat, but he could consider Cassandra too, as she was a potentially strong and dangerous Dark sider that would pose a serious challenge to the Lord of Order if properly trained.
With two unknown creatures of the dark that can change the balance of power, Nabu might just step out of the general rule of "no killing" so beloved and precious to the hero community, and the lord might just execute them both on the spot.
From a certain point of view, Plagueis couldn't put fault on Nabu's actions.
However, Plagueis is sure that the dark side wouldn't just easily let Nabu capture and destroy Plagueis and his daughter. As it was clear by Plaguies' rebirth, the dark side of the force has decided that his work within its shadowy miasma must continue and will aid the Sith when an inevitable confrontation with Nabu occurs.
With his power still expanding, midichlorians within him increasing, and confident that in the future he will have a better understanding of Materia, Plaguies believes he will be capable of defeating the Lord of Order. If not, then he will have Cassandra when she, too, becomes a great controller of the dark side. With forecasted predictions of her potential due to his blood, she, too, will not be easily given up by the dark side.
As Father and Daughter, with their combined might to bear and the dark side unleashed in all of its terrible power, Lord Nabu will have no chance of winning the future battle. When killing the host of Nabu, Plagueis will take the helmet for himself, and its secrets will be his.
That time will come when he and the dark side wills it, as well as his daughter being able to handle the full power of the force. Time will tell, but victory, like immortality, will be achieved.
And just like Midichlorians, he will learn and possibly even master materia. He will need to find a materia user, however, one that will not arouse attention to other users but is strong enough to be sufficient in his projects. Other races like the Amazons and Atlantians were also sought after prizes lacking in his lab.
Placing the book back to its original spot, Plaguies gazed at his underground sanctorum that contained other wild tales within many passages. There were authors who claimed that there were lands that existed within the core of the Earth that escaped the notice of the upper world. Supposed myths of an ancient race of serpent men that were moon worshippers, practiced dark magics, and ruled the world with ancient men as slaves.
Conspiracies of clandestine cabals of assassins that keep their leaders immortal and have global agendas of their own. Prophecies and warnings like the one of tridimensional demonic warlords that impregnate mortal women and use the offsprings as anchor points in the physical realm.
Plagueis, like the wild fairy tales of his own galaxy, found these fables as laughable. Though he knew some could be truthful, others would be highly exaggerated. And just like his galaxy, people here didn't stop the accounts of supposed spirits and deities that exist among them.
Grabbing a book next to him, the pages recalled the events, tales, survivor stories, and warnings of a ravenous spirit named Klarion, or the Witch Boy, by other people's words. A speculated Chaos Lord within the domain of the living, Klarion, accompanied by a brown-orangish house cat, has been recalled by many cultures and societies to enjoy bringing utter chaos and destruction to mortal folk throughout the ages.
As specified before, wizard scholars have professed that the deities, spirits, and other entities that man worshiped as gods do, in fact, exist. None of their evidence, however, has convinced Plagueis of their existence. By their logic, the conflicting creation myths and other fables of every religion of these gods somehow coexist, as if these prideful deities are tolerant of one another. To believe that the Greek Pantheon, Germanic and Nordic gods, the Hindu deities, Native American spirits, Japanese celestials, and other deities exist at the same time was complete lunacy, especially considering that today nothing shows their existence.
The Amazons are reported to worship the Greek Pantheon, and their fantastical powers are due to their patronage of the Pantheon. With Diana of Themyscira being an Amazon and playing as hero in a colorful, skimpy costume, she proves that the Themyscrian might possibly have abilities beyond the natural. In that case, with their gods blessing them and proving their existence, then certainly they would appear before the mortal world, dispelling any discredit to their status. Especially if some of these gods have some moral compass and are truly omnipotent, then they would see Plagueis as diabolical. In that case, why haven't they appeared before him, stopping his schemes?
But unlike the stories of the ancient Hellenic world, where gods appear to men, none of these so-called gods have announced their existence as reality. However, that still doesn't explain how these Amazons and other supernatural creatures might exist, but Plaguies had a theory.
Like his Galaxy, many forceful groups have had pantheon deities and believed some of them to exist in the force. There were also stories of force users having the talents to transcend death and leave their essence in the material plane. The most powerful Sith were said to put their spirit on objects and tombs, while the greatest Jedi were reported to disappear from thin air after their deaths, leaving no trace of their bodies.
Remembering his trip to Korriban in his last life, he tried to find these ancient Sith ghosts within the Valley of the Dark Lords. A pilgrimage of sorts similar to the one of Darth Bane's venture to the valley after feeling disillusioned with the teachings of the Brotherhood of Darkness, only to find nothing within the valley, and that was what Plagueis found too.
Thinking that the myths and legends were hearsay, Plaguies was about to board his ship when he felt a coil of the dark side grip him, and the form of Marka Ragnos appeared in an apparition. The spirit wasted no time and went into a rage-filled diatribe towards Plagueis on how he was unfit for the name of Sith, and his teachings would undo the order.
Curious about the anomaly before him, Plagues asked the apparition questions that only the Sith Lords knew in that era, as well as other inquiries. The spirit snarled in annoyance at Plagueis and, like a fart in the wind, disappeared in front of Plagueis.
At the time, the Munn Sith had thought of the interaction as nothing sort of a hallucination—his subconscious attempting to please his search by willing a vision through his eyes—after more time and with some time in thought in this new body, it was possible that the spirit was indeed real.
A leading theory on spirits and other celestial entities was that possibly their existence owes to powerful force users, or Materia users for that matter, who were so strong that when death came to them, fragments of their consciousness lingered even when the body was no more. Though not solely their entire consciousness, memories and other personalities, a part of what they used to be become ethereal entities with no physical form.
It was possible then, that Plagueis truly did meet Marka Ragnos, however not the entire spirit. It would also explain the stories of Jedi disappearing after death and coming back into the physical world through ghostly spirits.
If he were to take an educational guess on these Earth "Gods" and other entities, it is possible that they could have been fragments of past Force or Materia users. After their deaths and a facet of their consciousness being able to have limited interactions with the mortal realm, their otherworldly vestiges might be confused with godly beings by past peoples.
Ajunta Pull—one of the most powerful out of the Dark Jedi exiles to Korriban—was worshiped by the ancient Sith peoples as one of their gods—Typhojem—making him the first Dark Lord of the Sith. It wouldn't be a stretch to Plagueis that other figureheads in religions such as Zeus, Odin, Jesus, Buddha, and other deities were powerful mortals before their deaths, and a fraction of their Pneuma fields were worshiped as heavenly gods. The same can be theorized with entities like the one that entails the legend of Klarion the Witch Boy and the rest of the supernatural creatures.
Another theory, though this was more speculative, is that these otherworldly entities somehow gain power from the worship and acknowledgment of their existence from the collected minds of sentients. Parasites of a cosmic sort. This would explain how, in ancient times, there were many interactions due to their worshippers being so large. But centuries later, either their religions being eradicated, replaced, or slowly dying into obscurity, their power and control of the mortal realm has diminished as well.
He wondered if the same applies to these Chaos and Order Lords, if they do exist. Entities that leach off the works and labors of common folk while silently enslaving them so they themselves can conduct an ethereal war.
Plagueis felt a sharp sense of foreboding enter him. Quickly putting back the book, he registered the warning as something terrible was going to happen: a misfortune that would cast upon his daughter if action would not happen now. Rushing out of the sanctum, he came to a halt when the feeling of danger led him back to the main laboratory. Doors slid upon, and Plagueis' face went cold when the lab was in disarray.
Tables flipped over; some animals in those cages ripped apart, others howling; lights in the ceiling skewed or out of order; equipment smashed, it appeared as if an angry twister rampaged through the laboratory. Plagueis did not fail to notice that the chimpanzee that he had hooked up to the operating table was gone, as well as the table itself being crushed and torn up.
His gaze snapped to Cassandra, still sleeping, unarmed, and unaware of the situation they were in. Before he could even run and inspect her health visually, a metal, heavy table flew out of the gloomy darkness toward him. Plagueis reacted, commanding the force to bat away the airborne object to crash against a wall. The assailant who chucked the table at Plagueis revealed himself by jumping out of the shadows that concealed half of the lab and landed on a table, warping the metal under its feet.
Shock and wonder wove into Plagueis' face.
Instead of the dark-haired primate, he left to have the meta-infused blood transfered into it, the Chimpanzee's entire body was in a reflective coat of facets of diamond-like material. Its angular body shined from whatever artificial light was left. The meta-chimpanzee had wild blue translucent eyes, relaying his intent of wanting to rip Plagueis' limbs from his body.
Amazed by the experiment working though now ruined with its escape, Plagueis brought up his hand and summoned indigo lightning from his fingertips in order to subdue the beast. The low burst of electric energy danced out of his hand and targeted the chimp. Remarkably, when the crackling electricity impacted the chimp, its diamond skin made the lightning ricochet. Spears of electricity went around the lab, striking at anything it could get its blue hands on. Equipment, walls, tables, and even some lab animals weren't safe from its energy barrage.
A straying bolt would have hit the child, but Plagueis forced it to halt by a quick force barrier, and the energy discharge faded away within the blink of an eye. Distracted by protecting his greatest experiment, Plagueis was a fraction of a second slower to evade the chimp when it attacked him by hurling itself at him, claws and teeth open in their diamond form.
The impact sent tremors throughout Plagueis' body as the crash sent them both onto a table that was still upright. The momentum, strength, and speed were so strong from the collision that they made the alloyed table collapse to the floor. There was also lab equipment, metal and glass alike, that was found unbothered until Plagueis' backside crushed them after the impact. Shards of glass and metal pieces hit his back.
The multiple stabs piercing his back stunned Plagueis momentarily, just enough time for the Meta-chimp to lift its arms and bring them down, intending to pummel and maul the Sith's face. Plagueis countered head-on, funneling his pain through the dark side, granting him pain resiliency and greater strength to wrestle against the monkey's fists. Holding back the meta's arm from going down was like holding long-multi faceted diamonds. The chimp's strength was now twentyfold, astoundingly and was pushing back Plagueis' arms closer towards him.
Plagueis' arms busy holding back the chimp's, the Chimpanzee thought he could use the opening to bring down his head and bite Plagueis' face off, but the Sith saw this and quickly surged force energy that blasted back the meta-chimp. The diamond beast crashed against the lab wall, denting it, but didn't seem to stagger that much.
Realizing that the animal was more trouble than worth more now with its escape, Plaguies made the decision to end its life before any more damage could occur. He summoned his lightsaber to his right hand, the red-colored energy blade crackling out of the hilt. Then he dashed so quickly that he practically appeared in front of the chimp. Plagueis arched his blood hued lightsaber at the chimp's side while it was still unaware of Plagueis force imbue blitz.
But instead of the lightsaber cutting the animal into two, it didn't leave an impression on the diamond skin when the connection was made. The diamond skin must've been so tough and strong that not even a heavy strike of a lightsaber would penetrate it. Worse yet, Plagueis wasn't inspecting the primate's diamond skin to be invulnerable, the amount of speed and strength that went into the failed strike repulsed it so hard that it flew out of his hand. The lightsaber's blade winked out, and its trajectory out of Plagueis' grasp entered the darkened part of the lab—swallowed by shadow.
The Sith extended his hand to recall it back to him, but as the hilt was in mid-flight, the meta-chimp recovered and sent a rageful punch to Plagueis' chest. The connecting hard punch lunged Plagueis backward to the floor, with the addition of some cracked ribs and internal bleeding. By the time he did hit the floor, the lightsaber landed next to the crib, clattering onto the floor until it hit the floor.
Almost stuck to the sterile lab floor, Plagueis wouldn't be able to marshal his body in time or instruct his midichlorians to heal his body fast enough before the monkey renewed its attacks, and it did. The diamond-skinned monkey had its full attention at Plagueis and planned to shred his damaged body, but Cassandra's cry made it turn its blue-colored head to her crib. Cassandra, sensing that her father was damaged, was in visible distress while saying incomprehensible words at the primate. The primate showed its teeth in a wicked smile and ran towards the child.
Plagueis, detecting what was about to happen despite his vision blurring, suddenly had a daunting sense of urgency and fear overcome him. He had never felt this amount of emotion before since he left his true parents or the suffocating fear of what lies after death. A storm of dark side energies swirled and cascaded within his bleeding body, removing any semblance of pain and feeling and replacing his composed mind with boiling anger. This feeling of power was even more overwhelming than his disposal of his master and the dark side consuming him.
Eyes now stained in a radiating yellow, he grabbed the primate into a powerful, forceful grip. The meta-ape was arm's length from grabbing Cassandra but was flung backward and floated away from the child. In an invisible hand in dark-infused energies held the screaming diamond-skinned primate, the animal tried to escape but to no avail.
Cassandra, though possibly not comprehending the situation, smiled and giggled at her father, who put extreme amounts of pressure on the chimpanzee. Then, imaging the hand to close, Plagueis closed his own. The reflective skin of the chimp started to fissure and spider web-like braking class. If a normal animal, it would already be a mess of gore and blood.
The cracks and screaming grew in tandem together until the chimp's hardened body failed it, and the animal's diamond body cracked and broke into millions of tiny shards. The shards of diamond then quickly turned into dust that fell to the floor.
The animal that threatened him and his daughter turned into dust, the dark side that fueled Plagueis' body left him like escaping water, and he collapsed to the floor. Blood pooling from his back and breathing becoming heavily difficult, Plagueis would not be able to recall Mercy down here. Though the commotion would have been difficult to hear a mile away, the fact that inside of the lab's walls held sound-proofing material wouldn't help Plaguies, not if he had a Thermal-nuclear device to detonate.
If he had not hardened his body with force, then several of the blows from the meta-powered chimpanzee would have assuredly gone through Plagueis or crushed his bones. He would have entered into a healing trance that would have commanded his midichlorians to perform the slow healing of his body, but the cries of Cassandra stopped him.
Gathering whatever strength he had left, he crawled towards the child, meanwhile pulling out shards of glass and metal bits from his back with the force. He also trailed a good amount of blood too. By the time he reached Cassandra, leaning against her crib while on the floor, and placed a hand into it with Cassandra finding comfort in his embrace, his skin color had gone pale.
As he was slowly going into his healing coma, he had thought of several things in his tired mind.
The question of whether the meta-gene can be conferred to other beings has been answered, the experiment was a successful and a failure.
A normal child would have been absolutely terrified of what transpired, yet Cassandra was now reaffirmed under his cold grasp. With his daughter in his mind, she herself was sleeping on his hand while he too was losing consciousness to a trance, his last thought before going into darkness was: how will his daughter handle the dark?
[In the next part of The Plagueis Way, we will see how his question will be answered when the story will shortly be in a time skip centered around a Cassandra who is now trained and skilled enough to fulfill her father's first task for her. In this mission, she will find it easy at first, but afterward, complications will arise when a certain group of bats make it difficult for the daughter of the Dark Lord.]