3.18 Tremors of the Ancient Past 3

  … …

  As had been a common occurrence over the last few days, I found myself standing in the centre of the Dark Council Chamber. It had only been in the last two days that I had paid enough attention to notice the pattern. Given I’d been passing through the Chamber several times a day since claiming domain over the Sphere of Military Command, it wasn’t shocking I lingered here. However, even considering how often I found myself back in my new private domain, I did linger in the Chamber more than Dooku and Maul, who spent as much time in their new domains as I did in mine.

  I smirked as I thought back to the domains we’d claimed when we’d first entered the Chamber, and how each of the Spheres we’d taken control of had suited us remarkably well. It was almost as if the Force and whatever remained of the long-dead Sith Lords who had once ruled the Empire from here had guided us to the seats we were meant to claim.

  Dooku had gained control over the Sphere of Galactic Influence, which held control of the old Spheres of Imperial Intelligence and Expansion and Diplomacy. That Sphere, and the ones it encapsulated before the Dark Council were reduced from twelve to five by Empress Acina, were areas to which Dooku had a natural inclination toward. His poise, grace, and nobility suited a diplomat or statesman, while having control over any espionage elements was something natural to those in the diplomatic circle. At least those who understood the game was played by more than just what one said to others or in front of a camera.

  I’d stood at the entrance to his domain and noted the difference in the walls between it and those of Military Command. Instead of the firm, functional, and precise form of the corridor leading to my private chambers – or, at least, what would be my private chambers if I were actually serving on the Dark Council of the old Sith Empire – his were lavishly decorated with an elegant but ominous style and lighting. Much of the layout, at least what I had seen of that entrance corridor, would not have looked out of place in the halls of the Galactic Senate or one of the more upmarket skyscrapers like 500 Republica that dominated the Senate district and the surrounding area on Coruscant.

  Within his chamber, Dooku had stated he felt at ease, finding the place reminiscent of the status and luxury he expected in his life. I’d even noticed that he’d changed the cloak he regularly wore to one he had found there that he felt better suited him. Given it was made from silk that was no longer manufactured in the Republic – the planet it had come from had been scorched during the New Sith Wars – the regal rarity of it seemed to only enhance Dooku’s natural, sophisticated grandeur.

  That cloak hadn’t been the only find from within his private domain. Unlike me, where everything was geared towards war – be that in defence of the Empire or in striking down its enemies – Dooku’s domain focused on exactly what his Sphere oversaw. Beyond several dozen holocrons that he said contained records of the various diplomatic actions the Empire had taken – legal or otherwise – over its existence, he had found tomes, as in actual physical books of the kind rarely seen in the galaxy outside of those few people who preferred the tactile sensation of reading over the ease of a datapad, covering a multitude of ways in which one could influence individuals, groups, planets, and even entire sectors in directions that they would feel were serving their goals when they were truly serving the Empire.

  He had found a handful of holocrons, most belonging to former Dark Lords who had held his seat before him. A few, however, were made before the Empire existed, or created by Lords loyal to the Council who had shown great aptitude with diplomacy, subversion, coercion, or subterfuge. Just as I was studying several of the holocrons I’d located in my private domain, Dooku was evaluating his for knowledge that he could use.

  Most of the other items found were, as with my discovery of the various locations of shipyards or fleets that would either no longer exist or have been converted or scrapped by the Republic in the intervening millennia since the Empire fell, of far less present value. Masks designed to allow the Dark Lord of the Sphere to speak directly with agents dozens of sectors away, along with records of the various Senators, officials, business figures, criminal organisations, and everything and everyone else who had been bribed, coerced, or outright threatened into secretly serving the Empire, were at his fingertips. The names were useless, but there were accounts listed that might still be active and, most importantly, claimable. While many of those account codes matched ones taken from the Treasury Bureau, over a hundred were new accounts. Until we departed the system and Sith Space, however, we wouldn’t be able to confirm if the codes linked to still active accounts and if the security clearances he had located would still be effective.

  Maul had gained control over the Sphere of Sith Doctrine, which incorporated the former Spheres of Ancient Knowledge, Mysteries, and Sith Philosophy. I suspected that if the original twelve seats on the Dark Council had remained, then he would’ve taken one of the military seats, particularly if he hadn’t evolved after I had defeated him on Naboo. However, he had changed since then, and in the short time I’d known him since I had bested him in a duel and gained his allegiance, he had displayed far more focus, control, and insight than I had expected for the former Sith Assassin.

  From what I’d seen of the corridor leading to the chambers for that Sphere, the entrance had a more natural look than either Dooku’s domain or mine. The walls were jagged and raw, as if one were entering the maw of some ancient beast. They were covered with Sith glyphs that glowed the same colour as those in the Sphere of Military Command, but with a more chaotic nature.

  According to Maul, the main room of his domain continued that aesthetic, though the walls had the shapes of what he believed were ancient Sith lords. From the records he’d provided, rather amusingly, I’d seen one of the statutes – the one closest to the entrance to that room from the Dark Council Chamber – was that of King Adas. The one next to it wasn’t anyone I recognised, but was another member of the Sith species.

  The room held a large, central holographic projector, as my domain did. However, instead of being part of a table to allow command and oversight of every military operation inside and out of the empire’s domain, the projector in Maul’s domain allowed access to the teachings stored within a repository deeper within the private chambers. These teachings and concepts – some of which Maul claimed challenged or even outright conflicted with what Sidious had taught him – dated back to the time of King Adas, though the majority were from after the first Dark Jedi arrived on Korriban and took control of the Sith species.

  Unlike myself or Dooku, the items Maul had found were still, in theory of use. Of those included manuscripts, some were made of the flesh of countless species, likely the skin of defeated enemies. They were covered in ancient Sith glyphs and runes, a few of which Maul could recognise from his training with Sidious, but not nearly as many as I felt he should. That was another small moment where it was confirmed to Maul that Sidious restricted some of his teachings. While the Zabrak had not vocalised it, I felt he believed that it was a further sign that Sidious never had any intention of making Maul his true Apprentice once Plagueis was killed.

  The repository of Maul’s domain also contained dozens of holocrons. While Maul had only managed to access one of them, he already believed they were focused on teaching and guiding Sith who followed in their footsteps, ensuring their knowledge, influence, and insights would not be lost to the ashes of time. There was one holocron that had been displayed more centrally than any other, and when Maul had shown it to me, I had felt the power and legacy of its creator swarming into the Force, almost as if it sought to reshape the very air into something different. That holocron, along with all the others and everything else found by the three of us, had been transported to the Vhett and stored in one of the cargo holds.

  Said hold was off-limits to Anakin for obvious reasons, but he already said he felt a pull towards something inside it. When he was older, I would see about allowing him access to the growing collection of Sith artefacts that we were gathering, but he was far from ready for that. I had sensed he disliked being denied the chance to see what we’d procured from the Council chambers. Thankfully, with his work on understanding, repairing, and likely even upgrading the three potentially salvageable ships of the era this Empire had existed in, he was content to obey my rule on the matter, at least for the time being.

  The collection from each of our domains was stored in one spot in the hold. Each pile was impressive for the number of items it contained. Though if the repositories Dooku and Maul had within their domains were as lacking as mine was, then what we had gathered from them was but a fraction of what would’ve been stored here during the apex of the empire’s rule.

  There were five collections in total in the hold, as we had eventually managed to gain access to the domains of the other two Spheres that currently sat empty. It had taken us most of the third day in the Chamber to determine how we could access those domains and then overcome the various mechanisms to unlock them. The mechanical controls, which Maul had discovered were built into our thrones, had been relatively easy to activate and then disable. The real challenge had lain in proving that there was currently no Dark Lord for the Spheres of Scientific Advancement and Civil Administration.

  We had been tested by the Dark Council Chamber to prove we were capable of unlocking the currently unaligned Spheres. Beyond once more having to confirm our power and domination over our chosen Spheres, we had to work together to activate what Dooku had come to call the Seal of the Dark Council. A giant Sith rune, one etched into the ground before the dais on which our thrones rested, had to be empowered by our control and might. Without the presence of two other Dark Lords, it had been a challenge, requiring us to use almost all our reserves of the Force to activate it. It only took place after we learnt how to empower the Seal in the first place and then, through trial and error, discovered how to combine our power to ignite the Seal.

  Once it had been empowered by our unified will, the Seal had engulfed the Chamber in a brilliant and ominous light that burnt the colour of a crystal from a Sith lightsaber. The entire Chamber had been flooded in that light to the point where it, even with the HUD working to dull the brightness without costing me vision, had been hard to see anything. Haran, the HUD had probably made it worse for me as it struggled to understand and process what was happening, as it failed to confine to any programmed parameters the armour’s inbuilt system had.

  Through the Force, we had all felt the Seal reach out to the throne of the Emperor – or Empress, depending on the era – as if seeking permission to grant our request, or the right to strike us down for our arrogance. When the throne had glowed with a dark power that seemed to swallow the light, air, and even the Force within the Chamber, I swore my heart had stopped. For the few moments before the Imperial Throne responded, I had feared we had overstepped so badly that the Citadel, obeying the last legacy of the final Emperor, would strike us down for our pride in trying to assume control over the unseated Spheres.

  The Throne hadn’t done that, thank the Force, but during those moments when the world seemed to stop, I’d felt something unexpected. A pull to the Throne, one that seemed to echo through the Force and my blood. I’d ignored the sensation at the time, concerned it was a trap designed to prove my inferiority for sitting on the Dark Council, and prepared myself for the Throne to challenge our intentions, and challenge us, or at least me, it had.

  My mind had been assaulted by something far older and more powerful than anything I’d ever experienced before. It was as if, during those long seconds – for that was all the HUD confirmed to have been –the Throne was using the Force to rip the deepest parts of my soul from my body and pull them apart to find something. What it had been looking for, I still had no idea a day later, but when the moment had passed, and the Throne’s will had released me, I had almost fallen from my chair.

  When I recovered, I found both Dooku and Maul had come over, though the Zabrak was less concerned by my reaction than my former Master. The seal on the floor had darkened again while I had recovered from my ordeal, and after confirming to Dooku that I was well, I realised the doors to the other corridors had opened. Not just to the two remaining Spheres, but also the others that were linked to the seven Spheres that no longer existed.

  Those seven corridors led to rooms controlled by one of the five later Spheres that Empress Acina had created, and while the central room and the systems there remained intact, the other rooms were empty. It seemed that in reforming the Council, Acina had ensured that all the items and knowledge of the old, abandoned Spheres were transferred to the new Spheres. Still, that left the Spheres of Scientific Advancement and Civil Administration for us to explore, which was something we had done yesterday, with both Spheres having considerable overlap with the Spheres that Dooku and I had gained control over. Hells, even Maul’s Sphere shared some common ground with them, though to a far less extent than Dooku or me.

  From Civil Administration, I was able to fill in many of the gaps regarding where the components of literally everything and anything the Empire had used were created, and the process of getting them to the various shipyards, factories, and training facilities throughout Imperial space. There were huge datafiles containing every law enacted, struck off, altered, or overridden for the entire history of the Empire, along with records of every crime, no matter how minor, that had been brought before any official in the Empire from the lowliest governor of a small backwater mining facility to those punished by the Dark Council itself. Most of that data was highly unlikely to ever be of use, but I did intend to go over the laws of the Empire. Given the insane list of files, I now had to examine and read, to say nothing of the various holocrons and other artefacts, there was a good chance that some might be adaptable in the future. Perhaps not for the Mando’ade, but for others who wished to join the forces I intended to build in preparation for galactic war and then whatever lay on the other side once the Banite Sith, Jedi, and Republic were defeated.

  From Scientific Advancement, I gained access to the schematics of almost everything the Empire had ever designed, crafted, or used. From advanced concepts to improve blaster efficiency to ways to improve firing speeds without increasing the breakdown of the weapons, it was all there.

  Now, there was a good chance that much of this information was now common in the galaxy, or perhaps more unfortunately, had been replaced by other methods. However, there was a chance that some of the information might’ve been lost to the modern era. Such data was the only thing taken from any of the Spheres that I intended for Anakin to browse once we left Dromund Kaas, though Maul had already begun going over some of the research when he wasn’t busy with what he had learnt from the Sphere he controlled.

  One rather unnerving place in the corridors belonging to the Sphere of Scientific Advancement was a vault. One containing genetic samples of a variety of creatures from across the galaxy. Some of the creatures stored there were ones I recognised. All that was functionally left was the data that had their genetic structure recorded, as any viable samples had long since degraded when the general power of the Citadel had failed millennia ago. Kath hounds, gundarks, rancors, sarlaccs, and others had their makeup recorded in the datafiles. Even, in an odd throwback for me, that of the krayt dragons of Tatooine. However, many other creatures were ones I’d never heard of. Maul and Dooku had, at least for some, confirmed they were long rumoured to be Sithspawn; beasts created by Force Alchemy, or perhaps more accurately, Sith Alchemy, using the Dark Side. Creatures such as tuk’ata like Fenrir.

  Regarding my companion, I could still sense him through the Force. He was well and enjoying the new locations he could explore, claim, and hunt in. Well, bar one moment yesterday when it had felt as if he’d been in danger. Whatever had threatened him hadn’t wounded him, at least not in any meaningful way. Fenrir hadn’t killed it, as I’d never felt the rush of joy and demand for adulation that accompanied any truly worthy kill of his. Since we weren’t planning on leaving the Citadel, or at least Kaas City, for a few more days, I was comfortable letting him spend time away from us, though, at the first sensations of him being in danger that threatened to kill him, I’d shatter a path to reach him and help him emerge victorious from whatever dared to challenge him.

  For both Spheres that were unclaimed, the corridors leading from their central rooms were sealed. Dooku, Maul, and I had considered trying to force them open, but had decided against it. The Force shifted violently as we approached one of the internal doors inside the domain of the Sphere of Scientific Advancement, and without an understanding as to what lay beyond, or the danger we might face in trying to breach the inner rooms of the Sphere, we had wisely decided not to push further.

  However, just as when the Seal had activated and opened the other corridors leading from the Dark Council Chamber, I felt the Imperial Throne held the key. Whoever led the Empire at a given time would be able to override any locks one of their Dark Council had placed on their domains and knowledge. They served at the pleasure of the Emperor after all. Add in the odd sensation that had lingered ever since the Seal had activated that seemed to draw me towards the Throne while making clear I wasn’t yet capable of claiming it, and I’d often found myself standing in the Chamber looking at the Imperial Throne in the hopes that whatever was connecting me to it would grant me the answers I demanded but continually failed to rip from the Force.

  Moving around the Throne, my eyes once again examined the design for any clue that I might have somehow missed when I’d looked over the imposing chair before. Beyond sitting on a slightly higher elevation than those of the Dark Council chairs and having the central location, the Throne demanded attention.

  At nearly three metres high at the back, crafted from a strain of obsidian that was darker than anything I’d ever seen. Now that the power was restored to the Chamber pulsing with crimson energy that reached into the Force and stole any hint of warmth or light from the surroundings, it was impossible to ignore. The back of the chair was crafted in the image of a single figure, who I was all but certain was the first Emperor, Vitiate. I had no proof of that, yet I knew it. Almost as if the Force wanted me to know who had once sat here, as it teased and tormented me with the offer to claim the Throne, yet the clear pressure within to make clear it wasn’t time for me to take my rightful place.

  Behind the Throne, the massive, sealed doorway to the Emperor’s Chamber also teased and tormented me. The metal the door was composed of defied my armour’s ability to classify. There was durasteel, obsidian, and a dozen other alloys, metals, and gemstones within it, yet the HUD could neither explain how the doors were crafted from what was within it, nor why it resisted all attempts of my armour’s sensors to scan it.

  I felt as though I understood why. The door was a creation of Sith Alchemy, and the magnitude and power of the Force user who’d created it ensured none but one worthy of claiming the Imperial Throne could make the doors open. It was the only location within the Citadel that we had yet to enter, ignoring sections that were ruined to the extent that no entry was possible.

  While the Citadel had stood undisturbed for millennia, during the fall of the Empire, Kaas City had been bombarded by a massive Republic fleet. The Jedi had led ground forces against the city, killing anyone and everyone they found. An act that proved the failings and hypocrisy of the Order and Republic. Not so much in trying to exterminate a threat that had loomed over them for centuries and had done so many times in the past, but in their inability to do what was truly needed.

  They had ransacked the city, obliterated every meaningful building and location, yet the Citadel had been left almost entirely intact. It was as if they either wished it to become a monument to the failure of the Sith, or that even their greatest warriors were unwilling to enter the building, and specifically this chamber, and destroy the legacy of knowledge of the Sith. Haran, they could’ve simply committed to glassing the planet from orbit with their fleet, ensuring the knowledge on the planet was destroyed forever, and the world, and the Dark Side Nexus that it was, was rendered inert and devoid of any hint of anything of use. They hadn’t, and the Sith had returned several times over the millennia since the fall of this Empire and almost brought down the Republic and Jedi on occasion.

  While the Banite Sith would soon ensure the Republic fell, and take the Jedi with them, it was the failure on this world untold years ago that might have been one of the Jedi’s greatest mistakes. The knowledge, history, and power that the Sith Empire had once wielded had lingered, and now, along with Dooku and Maul, I had control over it. Now, if I could only claim the final challenge the Citadel presented to me, I could leave here satisfied.

  “I suspected that I would find you here.” I didn’t need to turn to know who the speaker was. I had sensed Maul’s approach for a while, his presence one I was now extensively familiar with as it was one of only three Force signatures that existed within Kaas City. Well, signatures of a sentient, at any rate, as at the very edges of my senses, if I pushed them out as far as I dared go, I could feel the tremors of bestial danger within the Force that lingered from all manner of creatures that now considered the city their home and hunting grounds. While none that had come close to the Citadel would be something I considered a true threat, to avoid having to deal with any such creatures becoming distractions, the entrance that we had located on the ground had been sealed again. This time, in a way that only someone with high explosives or true command over the Force could overcome.

  “Can you blame me?” I replied to the Zabrak as he climbed the steps of the dais to the Dark Council seats and the Imperial Throne. “We both know this represents power on a scale beyond anything we’ve encountered so far on this world.”

  “It does, but it seems that it only wishes for you to claim it.”

  I glanced at the Zabrak, flashing a smile that he would see as my helmet rested upon my seat within this chamber. “It might wish for me to claim it, but it also denies me the chance to approach, never mind rest upon it.” I looked at Maul, catching a flicker of irritation from him through the Force. “Does it anger you that I’m drawn to the throne and not you?”

  “Yes.” The answer was quick and truthful. “I can hear the whispers of the Force; those voices we all endure that offer power while hiding the consequences of listening to them. As they do with Dooku, they whisper to me that I should assume the throne, not you. That I’m the worthy one.”

  “And will you try?” I asked, challenging him even as I failed to sense the potential shifting of the Force that indicated a threat was at hand.

  “No,” He replied simply. “I gave you my word to stand as your ally as we move against my former Master, the Republic, and the Jedi, so long as you proved yourself worthy. So far, you have not disappointed.” His lips twitched upwards into a smile that exposed his sharp teeth. “In fact, if I was feeling generous, I might say you have exceeded my expectations. Not just by insisting that I accompany you and others on this mission, but in how you have handled the power and danger that lurks ready to strike if we show the slightest hint of weakness or become unworthy of the power we have gained.”

  I chuckled. “I’m glad I impress you.”

  “Impress is far too strong a word,” Maul shot back, his smile growing as he moved to my side. “As I said, you have exceeded expectations. For you to impress me…” his words trailed off, and his gaze moved to the Throne.

  “I don’t wish to become an Emperor,” I said honestly, drawing his attention back to me. “Don’t get me wrong, I intend to become the leader of the Mando’ade and any others who flock to my banner and are worthy of joining me. However, this throne, for all the power it represents, is a legacy of the Sith. A lineage that carries with it power but also failure. The Sith, no matter how powerful any single member grows, or how close they come to toppling the Jedi and Republic, always fail. Their code, much like that of the Jedi, is flawed. I admit that I don’t truly understand how or why, but I know that it is. The Sith, at least the vast majority of them that have ever existed, lack the honour and conviction to truly be more than their code wishes them to be. They tie themselves to an ideal that cannot help them break free of their chains.”

  Maul stood beside me, silent as if pondering my words, as I returned my focus to the Throne. That lingering connection I felt to it, the draw within the Force that tugged at my mind and challenged me to claim the seat while taunting me that I wasn’t ready, grew stronger. As if my words to Maul had been understood by it, the Dark Side swirled around this chamber, waiting to be harnessed and unleashed.

  “You do not consider yourself Sith?”

  “No.”

  “Yet you draw upon and control it as a Sith would.”

  “Because that is how one uses the Dark Side. To do otherwise with its power is to see yourself carried away into the depthless eddies that exist in the maelstrom of the Force. However, I cannot simply stand by and allow the Force to decide for me what is best, as those who draw upon the Light Side for aid do. Nor, as much as I might once have considered it an option, do I seek a path between the two sides of the Force. That path… leads only to madness. No matter what those who cannot understand the Force might say, the Force is always in conflict. Each side is a current that moves around in the greater whole, seeking dominance over the other so its ideals and goals, however foreign to our minds they might be, shape the galaxy.”

  “You are not the one I faced on Naboo.” I turned to face him, seeking clarification. “Not within the Force, not in how you fight, nor in how you think. I admit, however, to not studying your thoughts as deeply as I might have. My former Master was more intent on ensuring I was capable of defeating you. Something, in your then limited form, I would have done so easily if not for your armour.”

  “A flaw I was aware of and prepared for, and while it did help me survive against you on Naboo, we can both agree that I only just did so.”

  Maul nodded. “Indeed. Yet when we faced each other on Mandalore, you proved that you had grown stronger since then, while I had not. At least not as a direct combatant.”

  “I assure you that the outcome will not be different the next time we duel,” I said, sliding that into the void as he finished, the challenge he would present me not needing to be vocalised, “though I look forward to your attempt. Not because I seek to enjoy your defeat but because one can only grow stronger when challenged by those worthy of standing beside them as equals.”

  The Zabrak’s head inclined slightly as if accepting the praise of his ability, even if I knew he felt he would win our next duel. “My former Master believed that we proved our might, our power, by killing any who stood in our way. The manner did not matter so long as the threat was removed. From the moment he began my training, that mantra was driven into my head, in manners that would break lesser beings.”

  “A flawed perspective.”

  “Two years ago, I would have struck you down for such a remark.”

  “Perhaps,” I replied with a chuckle, one Maul matched. “And now?”

  “Now, I find myself, as I do with almost everything related to my former Master, questioning his words and ideals. If one kills all those who might present a challenge, how is one able to continue to improve? How can a warrior do anything but dull their edge if no trial stands before them?”

  “Judge a man by the quality of his enemies,” I muttered, drawing a look from Maul. “It was an expression I heard when I was much, much younger.” I chuckled at my private joke as the saying had come from my old life. “One that I didn’t understand for a long time. Not until I faced my enemies. First on Zonama Sekot and then on Naboo.”

  Maul nodded, accepting the comment. “Yet you have turned this enemy into… an acquaintance.”

  “I hope to turn you into an ally, Maul,” I countered with a smirk. “For what greater power can one have than to make those who would stand against them turn and fight at their side in full awareness of the truth? Sidious plans to use the Jedi as pawns in the war for the Grand Plan; to throw them into the fires of war, and while they think they are fighting to defend the Republic, he will turn the people against them. A bold plan, and one that I feel will work, but what good is it to stand alone in a galaxy turned to ash? What honour or value can one find when one has no enemies, no way to be challenged to grow and increase one’s power?”

  “Not all who face you will be willing, as I am, to listen to your words. Nor have the… opportunity to be open to understanding your meaning.”

  “Then that is their failing, not mine.” I turned back to the Throne. “When I lead, I want those at my side who wish to be there. Not because they seek fame or fortune, or hope to indulge their passion for anarchy and carnage. What I want, what I perhaps even need, is for others to fight with me because they see what I wish to build from the coming chaos and wish to see it given form as well.”

  Maul stared at me intently as I continued to look at the Throne, feeling the almost mocking amusement of the Force that was layered around that seat so tightly that it was as if I was gazing into the event horizon of a black hole. “If not for where we stood, and having felt the truth of your power and how you wield it, I might consider such words akin to what a Jedi might say. Or at least a Jedi that understood that each day was meant to be a battle.”

  “Good thing I’m not a Jedi then.”

  Maul barking laughed at my comment. “It is indeed. Yet the more time I spend around you, Shan, the more I find myself questioning if you ever were one. Or how the Order ever tolerated your… proclivity for bringing forth disorder.”

  “For the latter, they believed, I suspect, that they could change me, and that my potential with the Force was too great to be ignored.” I glanced at him for a moment. “The Jedi, or at least their senior members, know of the changes Sidious and Plagueis brought forth within the Force, Maul. They have been aware of the renewed potential threat of the Sith for over a decade. That I arrived, as if gifted to them by the Force, from an ancient time with a name linked to their past, was taken by some to mean I was their Chosen One.”

  Maul scoffed, dismissing that idea. I knew of the Sith ideal of the Sith’ari. Adas had been that in his era, as had others throughout history. Both he and Malgus felt the Jedi concept of a Chosen One was simply them copying – as they claimed was often the case – Sith ideas and corrupting them to their flawed mentality. Perhaps there was truth to that, perhaps not. What mattered was that both Sith and Jedi believed there would come some saviour, visionary, or champion to bring balance to the Force.

  The Force didn’t care about us; it never had. It cared about itself and sought balance within whatever passed for its sentience. To think that it would use one being out of an uncountable number that existed within this galaxy, to say nothing of other galaxies, to achieve that was insanity and delusion. When it came to the Force and how it saw us, we were dust in the wind or dirt in the current. Nothing more, nothing less.

  “As for the former, you might well be right. The idea of sitting back and letting some, quote-unquote higher power, guide my actions, that I should ignore the deep, systemic issues that raged in the galaxy and clashed against what I believed because it was ‘what the Force wills’ never sat well with me.” I laughed softly and shook my head. “Probably because I didn’t grow up in the Temple for them to brainwash me with their ideology.”

  “Now, I’m not saying every Jedi drinks from the same fountain, but the majority know no other way. They cannot see the truth of how the galaxy views them or the Force. They remain blind to the realities of the Republic, yet cling to its coattails like Kath hounds raised in captivity.”

  “That is one of the reasons why I never told them what I knew of Sidious, Plagueis and the Grand Plan. I see the benefit in them enacting it and doing away with the Jedi and Republic. Not because what the Banite Sith have planned will be better.” I raised my hands and indicated the chamber we stood in. “We can see how the Sith ideology always ends. No, I support the Grand Plan because it will, I hope, remove the blindfold from the eyes of many, both inside and out of the Jedi.”

  “You speak of the girl from Naboo?”

  “Among others,” I confirmed. Maul knew my connection to Serra, though not the true depth of it. Well, not unless Anakin had blabbed something he shouldn’t. “Vos and Secura, the Kiffar and Twi’lek I have spoken about with Dooku, are two others whom I might be able to free from their shackles. Something I won’t deny will be easier given the memory loss they suffered. However, I know they won’t be the only ones. Many in the Order will turn against it, and those who come to understand that the Force doesn’t care for us and that we should use its power for greater causes than seeking balance, have the potential to be worthwhile allies.”

  “Until the Grand Plan begins, none will understand the truth.” Maul’s tone was flat, but I felt the kernel of uncertainty from him. Not at his words but at my goals.

  I smiled. One that, if any in the Jedi Council or even the Banite Sith saw, they would instantly recognise as a threat to their way of life. “I have plans for that, don’t worry.”

  … …

  … …

  I piloted the Vhett through the skies above Kaas City, staying low enough that we avoided lifting into the storm clouds that engulfed the skies. As had been the case ever since we had arrived on Dromund Kaas, the sky was ablaze with a thunderous storm, one that roared within the Force and unleashed its fury regularly through lightning strikes against the ground.

  While much of the city was in ruins, bar the Imperial Citadel that we had left this morning, many of the spires that had once sat on top of the buildings remained, drawing the strikes to them. Normally, that would make flying in the storm easier as the spires would conduct the fury of the strikes away from our vessel. However, many of the spires either lay at odd angles as the buildings they sat on had toppled over, or had fallen to the ground or into other buildings during the millennia of neglect the city and planet had undergone since the collapse of the Sith Empire that had once ruled half the known galaxy from this world.

  Sensing an incoming strike before the ship’s systems alerted me to it, I drove the Vhett down, swooping us under the remains of one building that had fallen into another, making it appear as some gigantic but forgotten bridge crossing the chasm of the jungle-covered streets below. Vines hung down from the toppled building, though they offered little resistance to our ships as we smashed through them, the thick stems of the plants bouncing hopefully harmlessly off the upper hull.

  “Woo-hoo!” Anakin shouted from the gunner’s station behind me, his enjoyment of the sudden shift in vector feeding his enjoyment of the chaotic flight we were taking this morning.

  “I would prefer if you did not act as if this ship were a pod racer.”

  The comment came from Dooku who sat at the sensor station in the cockpit, while Simvyl sat at the co-pilot’s seats monitoring the various power readings of the Vhett as pushed her to her limits for atmospheric flight as we banked hard to the left to avoid a rumble falling from above; no doubt broken loose by the very lightning strike I’d made us duck under the fallen building to avoid.

  “Systems normal. Barely.”

  I ignored the report from Simvyl as I pushed the nose of the Vhett up, lifting us upwards again, though not above the tops of any building still standing. Normally, flying as recklessly as I appeared to be through the high-rise buildings of a city was a dangerous proposition, even more so given the damage Kaas City has suffered in the thousands of years since it was last inhabited. Thanks to files from the Bureau of Transportation, we had a full layout of the city which was programmed into the Vhett’s computer and my armour. The HUD was displaying the map for me, plotting out the most expedient route to our destination, though I wasn’t trusting it entirely as we’d already been forced to swerve down different streets due to debris and fallen buildings.

  “I assure you, Master,” I replied to Dooku even as the Vhett turned on its axis, “that I’m only taking the most expedient route to our destination.” The ship had turned on its side so we could fly between two buildings that had crumbled and fallen into each other, almost entirely blocking the narrow space that had once existed between them. “If I wanted this to be a podrace, I’d have let Anakin take the controls.”

  “Really?” “Please no.”

  The second comment had come from Simvyl under his breath, and I felt his fear at having to endure Anakin’s piloting skills again. My son and Apprentice had managed to repair one of the two Sith vessels – the one the records classed as a Fury-Class and its systems registered it as the Starblade – and had taken it out for a test flight the day before with Simvyl and R2. Of course, Anakin being Anakin had decided that once it passed the basic checks, to push the envelope and put the ancient vessel through its paces.

  By the time the Starblade and the trio had returned, smoke was billowing from three points on the hull, while there was a large section of the underbelly that had been seemingly dug out by whatever they had grazed against. Anakin hadn’t been concerned and almost bounced down the ship’s ramp, wanting to fix the damage and go out again. Simvyl, however, had looked a little worse for wear while R2 had, much to my continuing amusement, reached the floor of the landing bay and then, with a painful-sounding whine, fallen over as if he was drunk or about to be sick.

  I’d asked him not to push the ships too hard in future, as we were going to be taking them when we left, and I didn’t want any to be unable to be capable of hyperspace flight because of him taking a joyride. Anakin had accepted my order reluctantly, though once I told him that he could push them to his heart’s content once we were back on Mandalore, he had brightened up and begun assaulting me with suggested upgrades he wanted to apply to the trio of vessels in the bay. Much of it went over my head, but it was clear he’d found another project to satisfy his technical interests. I just hoped that he would wait to start these ones until the droid he’d been designing was ready for construction.

  “The majority of us would prefer if your Apprentice did not assume control, Cameron. Certainly not while we are on this world and subject to the seemingly never-ending storms.”

  “Yes, Master,” I replied with a chuckle that he couldn’t see but would undoubtedly sense through the Force. Much of the rest of the conversation faded away there as I focused on piloting the vessel, guiding us ever closer to our destination. I ignored it and focused on what I knew lay ahead of us.

  Even without the maps of Kaas City’s layout, or even the scans taken with the Vhett when we’d first approached, I’d know where we were going. The entire planet was blanketed in the Dark Side of the Force to an almost tyrannical degree. Yet, within the boundaries of Kaas City, two places echoed into that oppression like beacons to those attuned to the Force. One had been the Citadel, or more accurately, the still unclaimed Imperial Throne and the chamber that lay behind it in the Dark Council Chambers. The other was our destination today, the Imperial Palace. A place that had for hundreds of years been the home of the first Emperor, and one whose reign was longer than every other Emperor and Empress combined, Vitiate.

  With each second that passed as we neared our destination, the Force seemed to pulse with expectancy. Vitiate was long dead; the records obtained from the Dark Council Chambers confirmed that beyond any doubt. His very essence had been obliterated when he had gone too far and been challenged by Jedi, Sith, and even supposedly Force Ghosts, yet I could feel his presence. As if somehow, even after being obliterated and expelled from existence, some small part of him had managed to linger on, clinging to the Force on this world in the hope of… something.

  I shook my head slightly, clearing thoughts of Vitiate from them. I had no proof of it, but I was certain it was his presence I felt around the Imperial Throne. The one that challenged me to claim the mantle of Emperor and yet laughed at me for being unready.

  Enduring that every time I entered the Dark Council Chambers over the last nine days had pushed my control in ways I’d never expected to experience. I had resisted the mocking challenge each time it was given, but the constant certainty of it had grated at me each time. Perhaps it was making me stronger, more able to resist false temptations, but I couldn’t be sure of that, and, while we would return to the Citadel once the Imperial Palace was explored and raided for what items of value we could gather, I was glad to be away from that chair.

  As the Vhett emerged from the last building before the Imperial Palace, the systems bleeped for attention even as the HUD of my armour blinked. “Bloody hell,” I muttered as I saw what lay before us.

  What I had expected to see was the grounds of the Palace with the main building further on. Even from the Citadel, once I realised that there was a connection between what I felt from the Force and the Palace, I had felt a pull towards the Palace. Add in that the Force seemed to be bending inwards there as if using the Dark Side to draw the attention of anyone strong in the Force while simultaneously creating a foreboding sense of danger and death that only a fool would consider approaching, and I had been oddly excited to see the Palace up close. Yet what greeted my sight, and what had caused the sensors of the ship and my armour to go crazy, was the storm that appeared almost impenetrable.

  The storm seemed to engulf every inch of ground that was considered part of the Imperial Palace, with lightning crackling inside dark, ominous clouds, threatening to strike at any who dared approach. The crack of one chain through the air burnt a vicious purple and seemed to laugh at me through the Force. I snarled at the challenge, as I felt the Force raging not just within the Palace but in the storm as well, as if this was no ordinary act of nature but a physical manifestation of the most dangerous and twisted sordid depths of the Dark Side of the Force.

  “I do not recall this storm being present when we first landed on the planet.”

  “It wasn’t,” Simvyl replied to Dooku as I focused on the storm and the readings from the Vhett’s scanners that were being fed into my HUD. “At least not anything like… whatever this is.”

  Each time the scanners detected the potential for a path that led deeper into the raging maelstrom before us, the route closed, and flickers of violent power snarled across the sky. No, not just in the sky, I realised, but within the Force. Whatever lingered of the first Emperor was controlling and directing the flurry that lay before us.

  “It’s the Force,” I commented as I brought the ship to a halt, having us float close to the ground to avoid any strikes from the natural storm above us while staying high enough that no beast might get the insane idea to attempt to jump or fly up to us. “Something in the Palace is challenging our right to approach.”

  The door to the cockpit opened, and, without turning, I knew Maul was entering. “Magnificent,” the Zabrak muttered as the door closed behind him.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Perhaps not the word many would use, but I can see why you chose it,” Dooku commented.

  I remained silent as I watched the Force Storm that raged over the Palace and its surrounding grounds. Each crackle of power that snapped through the clouds caused alerts to flare on the Vhett’s consoles. The energy readings were concerning. Enough that only a few strikes would be capable of overloading the shields, which weren’t currently engaged as they drew the attention of lightning or at least natural lightning. I had no concept of what might draw the fury of the Dark Side storm that seethed before us.

  “What are we to do?”

  I ignored Simvyl’s question, closed my eyes, and, after gathering the Force around me to my command, reached out for the storm. A gasp slipped from my lips as I sensed the remnants of something ancient, powerful, and malevolent. The lingering presence of the Sith who had once ruled an empire from this world. Now, I had no proof that what I was sensing, what was clashing against my probe and seeking to destroy, consume, and control me, was Vitiate, but there was no other entity that I felt it could be. This was his palace, and while it was far stronger here, the taste, for lack of a better word, of the Force that spread into and subjugated the Force around the Imperial Palace was the same as what I’d felt from the Throne back at the Citadel.

  Just like the Throne, even within the turmoil of power that promised death to any who dared approach while unprepared for the challenge, I felt something call to me and beckon me forward. That if I could overcome the challenge of the Force-imbued storm and reach the Palace, that in its depths lay power that was mine to claim, along with answers to questions I wasn’t sure I knew to ask.

  Even though it couldn’t be, my body seemed unnaturally cold, yet my skin felt as if it was on fire while a throb of unknown origin built within my replacement limb. I growled as the remnant of Vitiate within the storm pushed against my probe, trying to torment and crush my will. I pushed back, driving the sensations from my mind. They weren’t real, nor was I being challenged by the Emperor, but the echo of him that somehow lingered and was centred around his palace.

  Before I could fully recover, my mind was assaulted by images. Memories that weren’t mine. I saw Sith fighting Jedi and each other. Wars against other groups of Force users, warriors, scholars, and scientists. Civilians, children, and anyone and everyone cut down in pain. Their terror, rage, sadness, disbelief and every other emotion under the stars flooded into my thoughts, attempting to overwhelm and consume everything that made me who I was. Screams of lives that were snuffed out by a wave that moved to engulf a planet. Anguished snarls as energy infused with the Dark Side ravaged their bodies and shattered their minds. Soul consumed by a monster with the power to end life on any world it touched.

  Yet, within the swarming insanity that washed over me, I felt something pull me deeper, drawing me further into the bedlam that I was experiencing. It felt as if this was where I was meant to be, as if this was my purpose to exist, and all I had to do was claim my destiny and embrace my desires to see the galaxy tremble at my feet. Even as I felt those tempting moments of triumph, it felt as if I was being pulled asunder, that everything that made me what I was being obliterated in the madding eddies that lay at the darkest, most vile nadirs of the Dark Side.

  The lure of it all, of power beyond anything I could ever imagine, while losing myself, assaulted my mind, trying to render me limb from limb or shatter my mind into countless fractions of what I was while becoming something greater and grander than the galaxy had ever known was an elixir and poison merged into one.

  As the insanity my mind was enduring continued, I heard whispers in tongues I couldn’t understa… no, I knew what they said, I could comprehend their word. The language of the ancient Sith was flooding into my mind even as I fought to retain my sense of self. The voices whispered of the power I could claim; that I would hold if I only accepted who I was. What I was. If I acknowledged the might of the emperor and let him in.

  The offer enticed and tempted me, showing me my deepest desires and secrets. Of the chance to have everything and anything I wished. All I had to do was accept what was being offered. Yet I felt myself snarling at the offer, my fury rising from the innermost points of my soul to challenge the whispers, to reject their false promises.

  There was something about what I was experiencing that was inviting, yet it would cost me everything to have it. That was a price I would not and could not pay. My path was one I would determine. Not that of one who had failed and fallen thousands of years ago.

  The voices shifted, threatening me with the pain and suffering I would endure for failing to obey. Of the death, carnage, and violence rejecting the offers would bring, however, I pushed them back. My mind was mine, my future mine. No one and nothing would decide it for me. Not the Force, not the ghosts of long-dead Sith, not my bloodline. Nothing.

  Within the Force, I pushed back against the snarling voices and the attempts to distract, divert, and divide my attention and being. The echo of the Emperor seemed to almost snarl back at me, and the whispered offers in the voices of a thousand dead Sith grew louder as if trying to drown out who I was with their intensity, but I was having none of it. No one but myself would determine my path forward.

  Suddenly, I felt the presence of another in the Force with me and the echo. One of cold, refined, precise iron that could withstand the heat of the brightest sun. That, I realised, as I wasn’t the only one being challenged by the echo, was Dooku, standing with me both as a friend and ally, ready to shape the path to the future. A moment later, I felt Maul’s presence, one of controlled, intense fury, as well as he too resisted the offer and insanity rippling through the Force enough that I could sense him over the madness.

  Yet, even as whatever lingering remnant of the Emperor that resided within the Palace pulled back, I suffered a moment of panic. We were not the only three Force users present. Opening my eyes and barely registering that the Force storm over the Palace had pulled back slightly, I turned and looked at Anakin.

  His face was pale, and he shivered as I shifted from my seat to move to him. Moving across the cockpit, Maul shifted to one side to clear a path. I pushed my fury at what the echo was trying to do to the boy into the Force. My rage burnt back the lingering sense of it within the room enough that I could reach Anakin through the Force.

  [Resist the voices, Anakin. You are better and stronger than any of them.] I said directly into his mind, hoping my voice would cut through the chaos he was enduring. I could feel the Dark Side latching onto him, trying to drag him down into its depths. The faintest of voices, offering the power to secure his revenge against those who had hurt him and his family, became clear to me. [This is not the path to power,] I continued as I placed my hand on his shoulder, grasping the collar of his armour. [This is not the path you are destined for, nor the one your mother would wish you to take.]

  My words, perhaps specifically the mention of his mother, cut through to him. His eyes opened and locked on mine. “Cam.” His voice was weak, as if just recovering from a plague. “What?”

  “The Dark Side is strong here, Anakin. Stronger than I realised. It wants to draw you in through the offer of promises of power. It lies,” I added with a snarl that had him blinking. “What it offers only leads to madness. If you take that path, you’ll be lost to the Dark Side, unable to claim your path or revenge.”

  As I felt him push back against the Force, he blinked, the action a fraction of a second slower than normal. “I… it wouldn’t let me avenge my mother?”

  “It would not.” That came from Maul. “It will promise you the power to do that, but in the end, it will take everything from you and make you worse than those who killed her. You would become no better than a rampaging beast.”

  Anakin’s eyes had shifted to the Zabrak as he spoke before returning to me. When they did, I saw a fire in them that I’d never seen before. Before I could say anything, I felt Anakin’s presence in the Force shifting and, for arguably the first time, I felt a true hint of the power he had. The air around him seemed to come alive as he pushed back against the echoes with all his might. There was little control to his actions, far less than I would want to see after two years of training, but it didn’t matter. The sheer intensity of his will to not succumb to the offers of the remnant voices, or to fail to avenge his mother, was enough that any lingering touch of whatever remained of Emperor Vitiate was burnt away.

  I reached into the Force, adding my will to his, pushing the Force back further. Dooku and Maul joined us as well, and our combination easily cleansed the area around us of the insanity of the worst elements of the Dark Side. It still filled the air, so to speak, as the trio of us with full training drew on that side of it to enact our wills. However, the echo of Vitiate did not influence the space around us. There was no opening to attempt to distract or disorientate us.

  My hand moved from Anakin’s shoulder to his cheek. “Well done,” I said to him softly, earning a small smile from him. His skin was still pale, but the colour was returning, as was his inquisitive nature that I always felt within the Force. Even when he was shielding his presence from others in a natural way that few could ever hope to match, I couldn’t miss something so deeply ingrained in him.

  As I turned to return to my seat, I caught Maul’s eyes. There was a flicker of respect there for Anakin, along with a hint of interest, more interest than I’d seen before. Understandable, as this was the first moment that he would’ve truly glimpsed the power Anakin could wield, and would one day use to help me reshape the galaxy into a better place.

  Settling into the seat, I noticed that, while the Force storm remained over the Palace and no clear path existed through it, the Vhett’s scanners could now determine details of the location. The outer grounds had been overgrown by the planet, but the main complex of the Palace was free of overgrowth. In particular, the part of the Palace that remained standing and rose like a dark monolith into the storm-filled sky was only framed by the storms above, painting an ominous yet powerful scene.

  A good section of the complex, perhaps up to half the outer section, had been reduced to rubble, destroyed in some unknown calamity that had taken place here thousands of years ago. The jungle had reclaimed that area, but at the very point where the damage seemed to have ended, no vines extended. As if the echo of the Emperor that generated the Force-storm over the palace radiated such vile, empowered fury that the plant life of the planet knew to stay back, otherwise it would wither and die.

  Even at the distance we were, with the storm pulled back, the design of the Palace was unmistakable. Sharp, angular shapes rose towards the sky with what appeared to be the central and highest section of the Palace. It was undoubtedly the location of the Emperor’s quarters and the remnant of his legacy, which clearly seemed to be able to influence the Force around the complex.

  There was no doubt in my mind that what we had to explore for the quest was how the Emperor’s echo could linger here so long after his destruction. On a personal level, I needed to know why I felt some form of pull towards both the Palace and the Throne in the Citadel, both within that central section, one framed in a twisted form of a ziggurat. Yet, what we would find inside and how we would even gain entrance was unknown, save that the Dark Side would challenge us further the closer we came to the source.

  Easing the Vhett forward, I aimed us towards a section of the grounds that, while now covered in growth, was meant to have once been a large, open area. A section designed for those rare times when anyone was summoned to the Palace to speak with the Emperor if he was not present in the Citadel. As the ship responded to my command, I steadied myself, preparing for the trials that lay before us. Trials that I knew would test us in as yet unknown ways.

  … …

  I moved down the ramp slowly, my lightsaber in my hand and ignited. The Dark Side of the Force swirled around the area heavily, seemingly strengthened by the echo of Emperor Vitiate that had managed to linger for thousands of years after his death. The landing area had been cleared with blaster fire before we landed, driving back the overgrowth of the jungle, yet at the edges of the area where the foliage remained thick, I sensed movement. Whatever creatures considered the swamp of Dromund Kaas home were watching us cautiously, trying to determine if we were predator or prey.

  I wished Fenrir were present; his hulking, primal form would’ve dissuaded whatever was hiding in the brush and behind trees from approaching. However, he was still busy exploring, hunting, and generally doing what any alpha predator would do when dropped into a new environment, particularly one he was designed to flourish within.

  I could easily push whatever was in the jungle back, making clear that I and those with me were more dangerous than anything that lurked in the undergrowth. Doing that, however, would mean opening myself up to the Force and pushing my fatal intent out around us. Normally, that wouldn’t be a challenge, but with the way the Dark Side was threateningly swirling as I took my first careful steps on the grounds of the Imperial Palace and with the echoes of ancient Sith still whispering ominously at the edge of my perception, I felt better to keep my focus close at hand.

  Turning to face the palace, I had to crane my neck back to take in the full size of the central ziggurat. From the air, it had looked massive, but standing as we were a couple of kilometres from the main entrance, it already looked far larger than that. Designed, no doubt, to remind any approaching of their inconsequential insignificance in the face of the Emperor.

  I didn’t need to look back to ensure the others were following me off the Vhett. Beyond the HUD providing locations for everyone, I could sense them all through the Force. As HK stepped off last, his rifle moving around with his optical sensors seeking a target, the ramp rose. R2 remained behind to ensure the vessel wasn’t attacked or boarded by whatever lurked in the jungle, and also to ensure the engines remained hot on the chance we were forced to make a quick evac.

  Ideally, I’d have left Anakin behind as well, not wanting to risk my son and Apprentice against whatever lay before us in the Temple. However, beyond his insistence that he felt he had to come – something I had snarled about when I felt the Force wished for it as well – and that I sensed both Dooku and Maul expected me to bring him along, I knew that if I left him he’d simply find a way off the Vhett when I wasn’t present and stumble into a situation that might endanger his life. Or at least in a greater way than whatever lay before us in the Palace.

  While all of us felt the challenge that lay before us within the Palace would be immense, I alone seemed to feel a draw to the place. As with the Throne in the Dark Council Chambers, it was as if part of my soul, or what connected me to the Force on the most basic and instinctual of levels, needed to enter the Palace and discover something that had been missing that I only now knew about. I was wary that this was some form of trap designed by the Emperor for me because of my bloodline.

  Revan had supposedly fought against Vitiate at one point, according to the legends from that era. Some of them said it was Vitiate who turned Revan and Malak to the Dark Side before a connection formed with Bastila restored his soul to the light. Others stated that Revan and Malak had turned after barely escaping the Sith Empire and knew that the only way the galaxy could stand against the Emperor was if it united under his rule. I had no idea if any of those legends were entirely true, as not even HK seemed to know the full truth, or at least he wasn’t willing to reveal them to me because of some final order from his Creator. However, whatever the reason for the pull I was experiencing to places drowning in the echo of the first Emperor of this Sith Empire, I knew in my bones that the answer lay within the Palace. The challenge was going to be not just discovering that answer, or even gaining access to the building, but getting to the front door.

  Before me lay a bridge, one a good half kilometre long that stretched from the landing area to what appeared to be a courtyard before the first steps to the palace. The bridge was wide, easily able to see a dozen sentients walk side by side along it, yet, for all the grandeur and terror the bridge had likely generated in those forced to walk along it when this Empire stood, now it was barely hanging together by a thread.

  Based on the few that remained, and the pedestals that had once housed others, the bridge had been flanked by giant statues of Sith, each one forty or fifty metres high. Each pair of statues had been about ten metres from the last, and all would’ve once faced inward and downwards at those crossing before them. As if the ancestors of the Sith who’d helped forge the Empire were judging those who now carried its legacy into the future. Those Sith, be it those the statues had been based on, or those who had served during its reign, were gone now, nothing more than dust on the wind. Yet, the imposing spectacle of the statues of those that still stood remained.

  A far larger problem was that, of what should be a thousand statues that had once lined the bridge, the HUD was only detecting about two dozen still standing. About the same number lay shattered on the bridge; the force with which they’d crashed into the elevated path had either shattered the stone used in the statues' construction or destroyed sections of the bridge, sending those sections and what remained of the statues into an abyss below.

  That abyss, according to the Vhett’s scanners, went down at least three kilometres. What lay down there, or where the actual bottom was, the scanners couldn’t say. The intense Force-imbued storm that still raged over the Palace interfered with the electronics of the ship, which was part of the reason why I’d chosen to land where we had. The other was that even with the storm having retreated to only cover the central complex of the Palace grounds, there still appeared to be no way through it. Not without the Vhett taking significant damage and potentially leaving us forced to hike back to the Imperial Citadel.

  Normally, the damage suffered by the bridge would be minor, at least for those with the right equipment, strong in the Force, or both. However, the HUD was reporting winds over the bridge sweeping by at somewhere north of eighty kilometres per hour. That sort of wind speed, combined with unstable ground, was going to make advancing far trickier than it needed to be, and I was certain the wind was being caused by the Force storm. Not least, as the initial winds the Vhett had detected were less than a third of its current minimum velocity and that the area covering the landing fields was only enduring winds about a sixth of what was assaulting the bridge.

  “HK, secure Anakin to your frame,” I ordered the droid through the Battlenet. The order was heard by everyone as Maul and Dooku were wearing secure communication headsets. Without those, I’d be forced to speak with them through the Force while commanding HK and Simvyl with the Battlenet. That sort of split communication structure created potential pitfalls that could be fatal at the wrong moment.

  Stepping onto the bridge, I braced as the winds snapped at me from the right. Even with the Force active to protect me, and the boots in my armour grasping into the tiles beneath me, I grunted. The wind struck with a vengeance while the whispers in the Force roared at me to go back. That I wasn’t worthy of coming any closer. That I was nothing but an imposter.

  I pushed back at the voices, driving them from my mind as I grasped the Force around me, twisting it to my will and ripping control of it from whatever echo of the Emperor lingered in the Palace. The winds died down drastically, falling to about half their previous velocity, which, while an improvement, still left me getting buffeted as I took my next few steps.

  Moving slowly, I stepped around the first fallen statue, noting the armoured head that looked up at me with indignity at now being little more than a shattered ruin. There was nothing in the Force from the statue, yet I felt an odd connection to the warrior that this statue had been carved in honour of. To see the last link to whatever their legacy was reduced to nothing more than rubble was an injustice, but one I could do little about.

  Once I passed that statue, I looked at the bridge ahead. With the wind now nowhere near as strong as it had been, plotting a path was easier. The threat of being caught unawares by hurricane-strength winds and risking falling over the edge of the bridge or into one of the hundreds of holes and breaks in the path and careening into the abyss below was lowered, yet it remained. Each step was taken cautiously, every reading from the armour’s sensors along with faint movement in the Force registered and processed by my mind to avoid making a mistake that might cost me my life.

  Behind me, the others followed, guided by the path I was crafting over the ruined bridge. My eyes continually flicked to Anakin’s marker in the HUD, noting and confirming every minute or so that he was still there, secured to HK and close to Dooku.

  Time passed without care as I moved. There was no rush to reach the other side of the bridge, no arbitrary time limit forcing us to race against it. The only threat, seemingly neutered as it was, came from the lingering remnant of Emperor Vitiate, but it felt as if he wished for us, or perhaps just me, to come closer. To step into what remained of his Palace and experience his power and enduring legacy in one of his last bastions of influence. Already, I could sense the Dark Side growing heavy. As if it understood something was slowly coming closer, a confrontation between my will and that of the spirit that somehow remained even after Vitiate was supposedly reduced to nothing by dozens of Jedi and Sith.

  About halfway across, I jerked my foot back and the Force screamed a warning. A quick leap back then saved me as the section of the bridge I’d been standing on, one flanked by three still-standing statues, had buckled. The wind had kicked up unexpectedly, and one of the statues on the side of the bridge enduring the buffeting, had buckled. As I kept moving back carefully, I watched as the stone legs of the statue cracked and gave. The entire section of the bridge shook violently as the body and head of the statue struck the walkway, and as some of the tiles fell into a freshly made hole, a statue on the far side toppled as well. Thankfully, that one fell harmlessly into the abyss.

  I stayed still, letting the ground in front of me settle, scanning the area with the armour’s sensors and using the Force to check for potential further damage that might pose a risk. Once certain there was a relatively safe path forward, I resumed my hike over the bridge, the HUD counting down the metres until I reached the entrance proper to the Imperial Palace.

  Once at the other side, as the wind now assaulted me with nothing to offer any protection, I dug my boots into the ground, cracking some of the tiles as I secured my footing. Before me, standing a good thirty metres high, was a massive durasteel gate. The bars of the gate were engraved, like many of the more important locations I’d encountered on this world so far, with Sith runes and glyphs. Interestingly, these didn’t glow with power; instead, they lay dormant. The gate rattled as the wind swirled past it and me, though even after thousands of years, I didn’t feel they would fall. At least not to the assault of the elements.

  Turning around, I watched as Maul joined me before the gate, the others no more than fifteen metres further back on the bridge. I watched quietly as they all moved forward, not turning back to the gate until HK, with Anakin still attached to him, stepped onto the ground near me.

  Looking back at the gate, I moved forward slowly, lifting my free arm towards it. I could feel the Force fluctuating around the metal, yet there was no hint of danger. At least not beyond the general, all-encompassing, almost suffocating dread, and oddly encouraging teasing that had slowly risen with each step I’d taken over the bridge.

  Not wanting to risk directly touching the gate, the odds of there being some form of trap here far too great to risk it, I summoned the Force to my palm and sent forth a blast. The gate snapped open, its hinges protesting loudly enough at the sudden, violent assault that even over the howl of the wind around my armour, the audio receptors picked it up.

  I stood ready, mindful of any potential danger that might emerge from breaching the gate, my lightsaber ignited and prepared to strike. Yet nothing emerged that triggered a warning from the armour’s sensors, nor was there a shift in the Force suggesting imminent danger. Oh, there was a looming threat that existed all around us, one focused on the Palace, but that had been the case ever since we’d begun the slow, perilous walk over the bridge.

  Taking the lead again, I moved forward slowly, mindful of my steps and that anything might be hiding behind the walls of the Palace that shielded the insides from view. The first thing that greeted my sight was a large open pathway that led directly to the main doors of the Palace. The doors were easily twenty metres high and engraved, as was becoming the norm, with Sith runes and glyphs. The walkway to the Palace entrance was lined by statues like the bridge, but these remained standing, untouched by the passage of time, the planet’s weather, or the rage of the Dark Side.

  Above us, the Force-imbued storm raged and, as I watched, a bolt of purple energy snapped down from the heavens, striking one of the statues. The monument lit up, the until now unseen sigils carved into it in the alien script of the Sith. For a moment, I was concerned they might somehow become a threat, as if the lightning would cause them to wake from an eternal slumber.

  That did not prove to be the case, and before the runes upon them dulled again, the HUD was able to translate a handful of them. The program had been developed over the last few days, starting from what little Maul knew of the script and then working to extrapolate where he could with the hundreds of seemingly unimportant documents he’d been provided with. The astromech was making good progress; however, with few of the files he was using having direct translations already available, it was an arduous process even for a droid.

  We moved forward slowly, my eyes alert to anything the HUD or the Force might miss. Above us, the storm grew stronger; the sky ablaze with fury as energy danced among the clouds. Each moment, I wondered if the echo that seemed to be enhancing the storm might attempt to direct the furious power of the sky against us. However, as I led us near the end of the pavilion that ended at the base of the stairs that led to the main entrance of the Palace, no such strike came. That said, the Force was tensing, the air thickening, and the temperature around us dropping in a devilish manner that made clear a threat lay nearby, ready to strike.

  As I placed one foot on the first step that led to the grand doors of the Palace, I took in the sight of the entrance. They were massive, composed of what the armour was reporting was blackened durasteel and some unknown alloy. One that the scanners were struggling to understand, never mind probe beyond. I could feel the Force in the doors, harshly pressed into them during the creation of the entrance. On either side of the doors stood another statue of a warrior. Each held the hilt of a lightsaber in their hands, the blade made from stone and rising in front of them. They stood like the final guardians of the Palace. The last defence of the Emperor before one stepped in to face his wrath.

  Further along the wall, with lines of Sith glyphs running above and below them as they seemed to resonate with dark energy, were murals. They showed what appeared to be the defeat of an army, the death of a race, only for one figure to step forward. That figure was engulfed in the crimson light of the glyphs, and later sections of the mural showed him leading the broken, battered remains of the people to a new world.

  It didn’t take much to realise this was the story of how Vitiate had taken the survivors of the Great Hyperspace War and brought them to Dromund Kaas. A reminder to any brought before the Emperor of his glory and might.

  I returned my focus to the doors, seeking any sign of how to open them. Save for the inlaid Sith markings and gems, they were smooth. No visible means to open them existed. I felt perhaps that they, along with the stone guardians that stood on either side of the doors, were somehow Force-activated. However, before I could focus on that idea, a roar filled the air. One that rattled through my bones and seemed to draw the Force with it.

  Turning quickly to the source of the roar, I braced as a shape formed in the shadows from the destroyed section of the palace. As Dooku and Maul moved to my side, the others dropping back behind us, I watched as the shape moved forward. It towered over us, perhaps five metres in height. As the sharp edges of its form came into view, along with the razor-sharp claws and monstrous maw, I snarled in fury.

  Of all the kriffing beasts to find awaiting us here, why did it have to be a Sith-spawned Terentatek?

  The giant beast moved forward; its maw filled with rows of sharp, deadly teeth, snarling as it saw us. “HK, Simvyl, stay back and cover Anakin!” I ordered through the Battlenet, my tone making clear I wasn’t going to let them, or more importantly, Anakin, argue.

  I stepped forward, my free hand pulling my beskad from my hip as I quickly reviewed everything I knew about these great beasts crafted by the Sith aeons ago. Their natural armour was resistant to lightsabers, with even sustained contact doing little but annoying and angering the beasts. Its claws were soaked in a fast-acting poison that even those who could call upon the Force for power struggled to purge before it overwhelmed their bodies, and even if you could counter that venom, the claws themselves were capable of slashing through durasteel, according to the files I’d read.

  To make matters worse, as a creature born of the Dark Side, it had gained a natural resistance that bordered on immunity to direct Force attacks. No attempted Force push or pull, no matter how powerful the Force user, was going to concern it. Add in that it could draw on the Dark Side, and it was an almost perfect hunter to be deployed against Jedi or Sith. Haran, every time the Jedi had launched Great Hunts where they worked in small teams to exterminate the beasts from across the galaxy, less than half of the successful Jedi returned.

  About the only upside was that the armour of a Terentatek wasn’t perfect. Much as with the armour I wore, or that knights might’ve worn in the history of my former life, there were weak points at the joints. Add in that its underbelly was supposedly less heavily armoured and that its eyes and mouth were glaring, if extremely difficult to reach, places lacking armour, and there were at least a few targets to aim for. Though I knew that, as Maul and Dooku moved up beside me, lightsabers blazing as we prepared to face off against this beast, knowing where to strike was only the first step. Landing blows there would be a challenge, to say nothing of something that would be fatal.

  I latched onto the Force around me, bending it to my will. It resisted for a moment, the echo of the Emperor trying to weaken me as I faced this guardian of his palace. However, I wouldn’t allow anyone, alive or not, Jedi or Sith, to deny me the power I had earned and wielded.

  The air grew cooler, the storm fading into the background as my focus narrowed to the threat before me. The great beast, one larger than the records stated they should be – no doubt empowered by running wild in the jungles of Dromund Kaas – stared back at us, realising we were a challenge to its dominance. After a roar that seemed to shake the ground beneath us, it charged.

  I pushed forward, taking point and drawing the beast’s focus. My armour granted me more protection against the creature’s claws and poison, though I wasn’t naive enough to believe there wasn’t a chance the creature born of the Dark Side might be able to damage beskar. Still, it was more protection than Maul or Dooku had, and the tools in my gauntlet, at my belt, and even in my Inventory were mainly suited for close-quarters combat.

  At my sides, I knew Maul and Dooku were moving, and while we had yet to fight together as one, there would be no better challenge than a creature capable of defeating groups of Jedi with ease. No words were exchanged between us, either over the Battlenet or through the Force as we moved forward, but already I could sense the beginnings of understanding within the Force so that our actions wouldn’t be as unaligned as they might otherwise be.

  A bolt of lightning struck somewhere to my right, the burst of light reflecting off my armour, ensuring the great beast’s focus was on me. One massive arm rose into the air as we raced at each other, the claws – each longer than my forearm – extending for a brutal strike intended to rend the torso asunder. With the Force aiding my actions, I shifted mid-stride and angled my body.

  The claws slashed through the air, the bottom one just barely clipping the front of my armour before my lightsaber came up and pushed it away. Not by much, as the beast was incredibly strong, but enough that the claw wouldn’t catch my helmet as I ducked under the attack.

  As the claw and arm swung beyond me, I was correcting my stance, already aware that it was turning back to face me, enraged that its initial attack had failed. As its eyes locked on my helmet, Maul appeared behind it, his dual-bladed lightsaber slashing the beast’s hide.

  The Terentatek roared, one arm slapping out at the annoyance. Maul darted back, avoiding the strike, though the response of the beast created an opening. My lightsaber came up, sliding over the stomach of the creature. Its natural armour held, though I was pleased to see that as my blade dragged over the belly, the scales there shifted colour.

  I had no time to savour the knowledge that its belly might be pierceable as the Terentatek roared at the strike and flung its massive head around. I danced back, the Ataru footwork I’d adopted into my form enabling me to avoid one of the beast’s large, vicious-looking tusks. A leap back lifted me high over the arm that came after that as the creature refocused on me.

  I landed a few metres away; my feet already set for battle. A smirk came to my lips as I felt the beast’s rage. My blow hadn’t wounded it, but the sting to its pride was a delicious appetiser for when the creature fell to my blade. The air shifted, and the beast roared at me. As it rushed towards me, its head lowered as it aimed its massive skull, from which three long, thick spikes extended that protected the back of its neck.

  I braced, waiting as time slowed and the beast rushed at me. As it neared, I timed my movements. Its head dropped at the last second, costing it sight of me, which was when I moved.

  The Force boosted my leap, and after using one foot to push off from the ground, the other crashed against the beast’s skull. Before it could react, I was leaping clear, sailing high above it.

  As I turned in the air, rotating to land, ready to engage it again, a simple command to my armour had the blaster in my gauntlet fire. The shots missed their mark, striking one of the spikes at the back of the beast’s skull and not the exposed neck.

  While my feet landed gracefully on the ground, readying me to continue the battle, I again felt the beast’s fury. The anger at being struck three times now enraged it further. It turned, one massive claw swiping out to ensure Maul remained back. The Zabrak easily weaved around the strike, though he was unable to counter as the arm smashed through the legs of one of the statues that lined the pavilion leading to the Palace entrance.

  The Terentatek took a step towards me only to stumble as a large boulder slammed into the side of its head. With a monstrous roar, it turned to where the strike had come from, locking eyes on Dooku. Before it could even prepare to charge my former Master, another boulder, levitated by Dooku, hurtled at the beast.

  It raised one arm, the stone shattering against the limb. The force of the strike caused the beast to stumble back a single step. Before it could recover, I had closed the distance on it.

  My lightsaber came around, crashing against the beast’s other arm, drawing its attention. As that arm moved to swat aside my strike, I danced around the claws. My feet shifted fluidly to ensure that I wasn’t struck but remained close. With that arm missing me, and the other not yet ready to strike, I had an opening.

  My beskad thrust forward, aiming for the inside of the elbow of the arm that had blocked Dooku’s attack. The beast roared, and I savoured the moment as the tip of my blade slipped between two thinner plates and entered the creature’s flesh.

  For a moment, I considered pushing forward to drive the blade deeper and wound the arm properly; however, the chance never came. The Force, obeying my will, alerted me to danger and as I pulled the blade free, I spun away.

  The spot where I’d just been standing now contained the maw of the beast, its jaw having clamped violently shut on air that filled my former location. Under my helmet, I felt my smirk grow as the beast’s rage increased. That smirk was driven from my face as the Terentatek thrust out one arm, the claws balled into a fist aimed at my head.

  I barely managed to shift away, the knuckles of the fist filling the entirety of my vision for a brief moment. My feet danced around, guiding me further back, avoiding an open-clawed swipe from the other arm as I shifted to the defensive.

  My lightsaber came out, clipping the side of one claw on the beast’s right arm before I ducked out and then spun away from an attack from the left arm. The creature roared in my face, its spittle splashing against my armour before its head snapped forward seeking to bite off my skull. I flipped back, the Force boosting my leap to grant me extra distance.

  As I landed, I saw Maul and Dooku behind the beast. The Zabrak came in from my left, his blade swirling around as he unleashed a flurry of powerful blows against the Terentatek’s hide. The beast roared as his strikes landed, and it swiped back with one arm even as Maul swooped away, avoiding the reprisal.

  That, however, left the beast unbalanced, and into that opening, Dooku moved. His blade, still burning blue as a link to his former life, moved with precise, controlled action. The tip danced around the natural armour and spikes that protected the beast’s back as he sought to strike a weaker section of its hide.

  A roar burst from the beast as I felt a moment of satisfaction emanate from Dooku. With more fury and speed than it had so far shown, the Terentatek turned, shifting its rage towards my former Master. As it did, I moved in, the Force guiding me to the small wound Dooku had caused on the beast.

  As like with my beskad strike, the cut was minor, and because it was caused by a lightsaber, it was already cauterised. However, the glow from the strike remained, acting as a beacon for my attack.

  While Dooku shifted back, drawing the focus on the beast for the moment, I swooped in, my beskad slashing at the wound. The beast shuddered to a halt in its pursuit of Dooku as Mandalorian Iron dug into its flesh just above the back of its knee.

  Any enjoyment I had at drawing blood from the beast was short-lived. The angle of my attack meant I was close to the beast’s back, and as I turned, I moved to avoid the spikes. In doing so, I was unable to avoid its arm as it came flying around.

  A grunt of pain, one brought forth even with my armour, erupted from my mouth as the Terentatek’s forearm crashed into my gut. I was sent hurtling back, crashing to the ground and then rolling from the blow. As the Force bent to my will and ensured my roll ended with me ready to rush forward at the insult of being struck, I saw the beast charging me, eyes filled with bestial fury at being wounded enough for blood to flow from a wound.

  The Force rushed to me, acquiescing to my demands as I prepared to meet the beast’s charge head-on. It might be enraged that it had suffered a wound, but for daring to strike me, I would ensure its death was painful.

  I took a step forward, my blades ready to strike as I rushed at the beast, only to hesitate. Within the Force, I sensed one of the others was up to something. A moment later, the red blur of Maul rushed in, crashing against the beast’s side. Even as it turned to face the new threat, Maul’s blade swooping around with fury, one of the Terentatek’s legs buckled.

  I smirked as a large section of debris slammed into the back of the beast’s unwounded knee. As it lost its balance, that knee crashed into the ground, shattering several of the tiles beneath it, while Maul’s strikes struck against the creature’s other side, keeping its focus split.

  I pushed forward, offering Dooku a moment’s look as he prepared another boulder to hurl at the beast with the Force. Even on one knee, the Terentatek was a ferocious beast. The arm near Maul swiped out, forcing the Zabrak back, while the other pressed into the ground, pushing it back to its feet.

  That was when I came into range. With its arms occupied, it could only snarl as it realised I was there. My lightsaber thrust forward, slashing the inside of the elbow on the arm that was pressed against the ground. Shifting to the other side of its body, my beskad came up, targeting the same spot I’d struck earlier.

  The blade slashed the inside of that elbow, even as I kept moving. As I slid under the arm, the Terentatek snapped its maw towards me, seeking to crush my body with its teeth. My beskad trailed behind, catching in the beast’s flesh, and I used that to rotate my body.

  As the blade slipped free and blood dripped from the edge and the wound, I found myself standing beside Maul as the Terentatek rose, turning to face us with a roar that kicked up the dust around us.

  I shifted to my right, Maul to the left as the beast rushed at us, its good arm sweeping around with claws fully extended. I could sense its base instincts, how it wanted to rip our flesh from our bones and feast on our flesh. Yet the attack found no purchase, as had been the case most of the time so far.

  As it readied another attack, its focus remained on me and its blood dripping from the edge of my beskad. Dooku’s next attack came in, taking advantage of the beast's inattention towards him.

  The boulder he’d prepared struck the beast’s back, causing it to stumble forward. Into that moment of confusion, Maul and I rushed. Maul’s blade danced around the good arm, seeking to find an opening while I targeted the already wounded one.

  A roar of disbelief and pain filled the air as my lightsaber found the bleeding wound and burned deeper into the creature’s flesh. Another roar slipped from it as Maul’s blade found a weak point and cauterised more flesh. It was then driven to a knee as Dooku rushed in from behind, driving the point of his blade into the back of its knee.

  As the beast stumbled, once more driven to a knee, Maul and I continued our attack. Our blades danced around, swiping at its arms, aiming for the joints even as it tried to swat us away. As Maul’s lightsaber slipped under its arm and drove into the flesh where the limb met its body, the beast roared again.

  Dooku’s blade twisted and was withdrawn from the wounded knee, furthering the damage there and within the Force, I felt the first tremor of fear from the beast. It understood it was outmatched. That the seemingly easy prey were anything but.

  Maul pulled back as the beast’s maw swung its way, razor-sharp teeth snapping at the air in the vain hope it might find purchase against my ally’s body. The move failed, but it left me with an opening; one the Force begged me to take.

  I thrust my beskad forward. The beast roared as the metal found its neck and sank into the flesh. Its arm near me came up, trying to swat me away, but I was prepared. My feet used the arm to shift to the Terentatek’s back, the metal dragging through the flesh and widening the wound.

  As the beast dropped forward, its arm crashing into the tiles of the pavilion to prevent it from falling face-first, I pulled my beskad from the wound. My lightsaber drove into the opening, and I pushed down hard.

  The body resisted the plasma of my blade, suggesting even its internal flesh had some ability to withstand a lightsaber. However, it was nowhere near that of its hide, and I felt the blade sink deeper. As the pressure against the plasma suddenly weakened, I pulled my blade to my right.

  The lightsaber burnt a path through the beast’s neck, slicing towards the other side from where my beskad had first struck. The roar of the beast turned into a gargled cry. A second later, the sound ended with a whimper before my blade burst free from the neck.

  The body slumped forward as I leapt clear. As I landed, I turned and looked at the creature, and how the massive head of the Terentatek fell clear of the body. I looked at Dooku and Maul, sharing in the moment as the around us, The Force submitted to our might.

  Even as the enjoyment of the moment ended, and I turned my focus back to the Imperial Palace and whatever lay inside, I couldn’t help but enjoy this victory. Not only had we defeated a beast bred to kill Jedi, but we’d worked well together, easily slipping into roles that suited our styles.

  I glanced at the body, noting how the body and head remained there, the only blood seeping from the remains coming from the damage done by the beskad. “We’re taking that with us,” I stated. I wasn’t a game hunter, nor someone who needed to marvel at remains of a defeated threat, but this was a kriffing Terentatek. It deserved to be remembered for what it was and not simply cast aside and forgotten by the wider galaxy.

  “That would be wise,” Dooku commented. “Beyond examining the creature’s armour to see if its resistance to lightsabers could be replicated, the poison it secretes on its claws may have—”

  “That was awesome!” The shout, which cut into Dooku’s comment, came from Anakin as he rushed forward, having slipped free of the protection of HK and Simvyl. The HUD confirmed that it had happened only after the Terentatek was beheaded, so it was excusable. This time. “You were awesome!”

  I chuckled at the excitement rolling off my son and Apprentice. “And you obeyed well to stay back,” I replied. “A Terentatek is not something an apprentice or child should face.”

  “Says the man who killed a krayt dragon.”

  I glared at Simvyl, though the look was partially lost because of my helmet. “Greater Krayt Dragon,” I corrected.

  “An impressive kill list,” Maul cut in with a hint of approval radiating from him. “Along with the Vong, who I had the pleasure of defeating once in single combat, a krayt dragon is something few can claim to have killed.” I turned to him, curious how and when he had encountered a Vong. As far as I knew, the war on Zonama Sekot was the only time they’d been located.

  “He did it by himself and with just a vibroknife as well!” Anakin added excitedly before I could ask about Maul’s fight with a Vong.

  Maul focused on me carefully. “My former Master told me of this trial you faced. An impressive victory, however, I have yet to see proof of the battle.”

  “Commentary: I can assure you, red meatbag, that while you do not believe it to have happened, we have all seen the recording of it.”

  Maul’s gaze narrowed as he stared at me, which had me chuckling. “Once we’ve cleared the Palace, I think we have stories to share,” I said, pushing the matter aside for the moment.

  “Indeed, we do.”

  “You know, the skeleton’s kept on Mandalore,” Anakin offered, in what I assumed was meant to be a helpful manner. “Duke Adonai wants Cam to hang it for others to see once we’ve set up a clan building.”

  I smirked, already certain where the skeleton of the great beast would hang once I was Mand'alor. The remains of the Terentatek, now that I thought on the matter, would make a suitable additional skeleton for display in my throne room. “While I’m reluctant to leave the corpse here, I suspect that it was the dominant predator in the Palace grounds, and should thus be safe from any other creatures attempting to loot the flesh.”

  “A logical assumption. Still, I would suggest dragging the remains closer to the Palace. The radiant energy of the Dark Side would add as an additional protection against unwanted poachers.”

  I nodded at Dooku’s suggestion and, after securing my beskad to my side, reached out with my free hand. The Force did as I demanded, lifting the body and head of the great beast and then carrying it closer to the entrance. I placed it down near one of the large statues that stood guard on either side of the doors.

  With that, I returned my focus to the giant doors that barred entry to the Palace. In the time the battle against the Terentatek had taken, the HUD had examined the data from its scans. However, there was still no obvious method of entry. That had me refocusing on the glyphs and runes that covered the surface of the door. They were the key to gaining entry. I could feel it.

  Above, the storm continued to rage, almost as if it was taunting us, knowing that there was no clear way for us to gain entry beyond the doors, and learn what secrets the Palace contained. I could almost feel the amusement of the echo of the long-dead Emperor as he taunted us from beyond the grave. Dooku and Maul came to my sides, each of them peering like me into the Force, seeking to rip an answer from it on how we could get past this barrier.

  Around us, the Force shuddered, and the air grew thicker as the echo of the Emperor fought to resist our attempts at domination over the Force. Yet, as powerful as Vitiate might once have been, what existed here was but an echo, and against the power, fury, and will we controlled, the outcome was inevitable.

  Pulling back from the Force, I looked at the other two. “We cannot open the door with ease,” I said, stating something we all know.

  “Observation: Master, I believe that I could damage the doors significantly so that we could gain entry. However, that might risk damaging whatever lies beyond them.”

  “We will not be using such inelegant methods to gain access,” Dooku countered HK as he lifted a hand to his chin. “I feel there may be a way we can… force the issue.” I waited for him to detail his thoughts even as I ignored what I hoped was an unintended pun. “The Emperor clearly never intended for anyone but him to ever open these doors. However, while a remnant of what he once was lingers, it is not powerful enough to deny us entry if we join our power together.”

  “What are you proposing?” Maul asked tentatively, his eyes narrowing slightly even as Anakin moved closer, seemingly curious about how we were to gain access as well.

  “In theory, one of us could augment their power and control by having the others channel their power into them. That person would then, potentially, have the boost needed to overcome the resistance of the door that radiates within the Dark Side of the Force and thus have their control yield to our demands.”

  I took a moment to consider his words. I had heard of Jedi working in tandem – in anything from pairs to large groups of several dozen – where they aligned themselves in the Force so that they could carry out actions that they might not otherwise be able to do. A sort of greater than the sum of their parts deal. However, what Dooku was proposing was something more brutal than that. Having two of us – there was no way that Anakin was going to help with this if I could avoid it – pushing our domination over the Force into the third carried an inherent risk that the third person would be overwhelmed by the power that would be at their fingertips. Their control would have to be immense, which made it clear who would be the focal point of this plan.

  “Are you sure about this?” I asked my old Master calmly. “If you cannot handle the power we would be channelling into you, your mind would be in danger of being consumed by the Dark Side.”

  “I am aware of the dangers. However, of the three of us, if I might be so bold, I am the one with the greatest control and refinement in my domination over the Force. You, Cameron, have the greatest ability of the three of us to summon the Force, and you, Maul,” he turned to the Zabrak, “are the one most comfortable dominating and using the Dark Side. Yet, while my life has until recently been that of a Jedi, I easily have more control over my connection with the Force than both of you combined.”

  I chuckled under my helmet even as Maul responded. “Arrogance is a dangerous trait for one using the Force. However, I can acknowledge that even with several years to reconsider how I used and interacted with the Force, my ability to manipulate in the manner you are suggesting we need to attempt is lacking.”

  Dooku lowered his head slightly, taking the compliment from Maul that was half-buried in his words.

  “I want to help!”

  I turned Anakin and placed a hand on his shoulder. “While we are grateful for the offer, you’re not ready for this. Not only are we going to have to gather the Force into ourselves, but as we fight to retain our domination over it, we’ll need to shunt it towards Master Dooku without pushing too much of our power, or doing so too fast that he might lose control of himself and what he is trying to accomplish.”

  “You have considerable power, Anakin. However, you are not ready for the challenge that we are about to undertake,” Dooku added in support of my words. “That said, we thank you for the offer and the bravery you show in making it.”

  I felt my eyes widen slightly under my helmet. Dooku wasn’t one to be gentle with his words, yet he had chosen to be here. It was unlikely that his leaving the Order had caused him to soften his more blunt and sharp behaviour, so I suspected he felt showing a hint of compassion towards my apprentice was the correct path to take.

  Dooku turned there and walked up the final few steps so that he was standing directly before the massive doors. I felt him reach into the Force, drawing it under his command and wresting control of some of the area around us from the echo of Vitiate.

  I gave Anakin a nod and a gentle squeeze of his shoulder – he wouldn’t feel it, but his armour would report the pressure change – before I moved with Maul to join Dooku. We stood a step behind him, and as I closed my eyes, I reached inward to first ensure I retained control of my emotions and the Force that flowed through me. Once that was assured, I pushed my presence into the Force, mindful of the similar actions taken by Maul and Dooku, and started asserting my control over it as it swirled around us, thick like a fog that one couldn’t see more than a few metres into.

  I felt the whispers at the edges of my perception. The promises of the power and domination that would be mine if I simply ignored, or better yet, struck down Maul and Dooku, and took what lay within the Palace for myself. I ignored those voices, knowing well that what they offered was a lie and would only lead to me becoming little more than a raging beast lost to the madness that lies at the depths of the Dark Side. As the voices quietened, and my dominance over the Force grew more assured, I sensed something new. Yet at the same time, it felt familiar. As if a part of me lay somewhere within the Temple, calling upon me to reclaim it.

  I frowned at the sensation, wondering if this was part of the pull I’ve felt to the Palace, and the draw I retain towards the Imperial Throne in the Dark Council Chambers. Yet even as I considered that there might be something to this idea, I dismissed it. Vitiate was a Sith, a supposed pureblood of the species and not Human. I could not share any connection with him. Beyond my mother making it clear in her holocron that my father was Human, I had selected that as my species when I chose this rebirth.

  In retrospect, that was perhaps not the wisest of choices. Humans were little more than average in almost every way in this galaxy. However, I had made my choice based on a limited understanding of where I was heading, and there was nothing I could do about that choice now.

  My mind refocused on the task at hand, and I felt the Force bend to my will. Once I was certain of my influence over it, I reached out with one hand and gripped Dooku’s shoulder with my gauntlet-covered limb. I then pushed the power I possessed towards him through our Force bond.

  For the first time, I felt his presence in the Force truly shift. The influx of power I was slowly granting him, and that Maul was now also providing, caused a faint but distinct tremor in Dooku’s force presence. The refined, polished but cold durasteel that I always thought of when sensing his Force signature shifted. The surface rippled where my power flowed into him, granting me a momentary deeper connection with him.

  There was a desire to push into this opening, to seek answers to many things I wondered about Dooku. Even if those voices that whispered false promises from the depths of the Dark Side of the Force were to be believed, of implanting a dominating influence over Dooku’s mind. I rejected all of that. Beyond Dooku being an ally and one of those who trained me in my earlier life, he was family and even with now committing to using the Force for the power I needed for the coming decades, I would not turn on my family. It was one line I would never cross.

  Even with my eyes closed and my focus on ensuring the power I was pushing to Dooku remained constant but never too much for him to focus, I could sense his movements. His hand lifted slowly as he pushed into the Force with just his power. Through our connection, I felt the door resist as he, presumably, traced his fingers over the glyphs upon it.

  A snarl of rage pushed back against his probing. I felt Dooku draw on the extra power Maul and I were offering him, and as the rage from within the door tried to stand against the combined might of our authority, I sent more of what I could draw from the Force to Dooku.

  [The spirit of Vitiate lingers,] Dooku said through our minds. [He seeks to protect this last bastion of his power.] Part of me wondered why he still had such power here. Had none of those who claimed the Throne after him even tried to take over the Palace? Had his impression, even in death, been so strong on the psyche of the Sith of this empire that they never dared to attempt to claim supremacy over what lingering echo remained of him?

  Those questions, and dozens of others, are pushed aside as I sense Dooku gathering the energy flowing from Maul and me into him. With nothing more than the faintest of shifts, Dooku pushes the gathered power out of himself and through his hand, smashing our combined might against the wards of the door and the echo of the Emperor.

  Around us, the Force grew thick and heavy. As if the weight of the planet, its past, present, and future, suddenly rested on our shoulders. The Dark Side flared with rage, a swelling force that could collapse a star. Yet Dooku remained still, his focus unwavering against the challenge facing him.

  Time ceased to exist as I sent every ounce of power I dared push to Dooku through our bond, feeling Maul doing the same. The door, the power engraved into its Sith runes, combining with what remained of Vitiate’s power, resisted. In my mind’s eye, I saw tendrils of the Force rising from the Door, slapping and slashing against Dooku’s stance in the Force. Yet, nothing the Force did could change him. Nothing even scratched the surface of the distinguished, superior control that Dooku projected.

  Slowly, I felt the resistance of the door slacken. It was infinitesimal at first, but as this moment stretched on, the strength of the Emperor’s rage weakened, and I knew Dooku felt it also. With a roar of his own within the Force, Dooku pushed every ounce of supremacy that currently flowed through him into the door. Sensing the moment was at hand, I sent everything I dared to transfer of my own immense power to him, aiding his action.

  The door seemed to scream within the Force, and then the presence of the Emperor fell back. The echo of Vitiate wasn’t gone. No, it was merely retreating inwards, seeking the next line of defence against our assault on this legacy.

  I saw cracks form in the mental projection of the door and then registered a deep, resonating groan echoing in my ears. Opening my eyes, I saw that the door was alight, every rune, sigil, and glyph upon it glowing with fury. With a further moment to consider it, I realised that the light emanating from the door was growing weaker. A visible sign of its slow submission to our combined might.

  Seconds passed slowly as I watched the door dull while in the Force, I felt the power within it weaken, slipping from the control of the Emperor’s echo to Dooku. Suddenly, one of the glyphs flickered and then died out. It was followed by others nearby, the effect setting off a cascading reaction across the surface of the door.

  Once all the runes had fallen silent, they suddenly pulsed again as one. This time, however, they weren’t obeying whatever remained of Vitiate’s legacy. No, now they obey us with Dooku, the one who commanded them directly.

  A boom of thunder rushed outward from the door with the strength of a hurricane. My feet remained secure as dust and rubble were kicked up and blasted away. I vaguely saw the HUD report that the remains of the Terentatek were bouncing down the stairs, yet my focus remained on the doors.

  I watched in amazement as the slit between them, one that was almost impossible to see mere moments before, blazed for a second. The next, the door shuddered, and as I lifted my hand from Dooku’s shoulder, I watched as they swung inwards, daring us to enter the shadows that lurked within the Palace.

  “That,” Dooku began, stopping after the single word to take a deep breath, “proved itself more taxing than I expected.”

  “We are facing whatever remains of a Sith who ruled for centuries,” Maul countered as he moved up the steps to stand with Dooku before the gaping maw that led into the Palace. “Even with him long dead and our power combined, he fights well.”

  “Indeed,” Dooku replied as he recentred himself after the ordeal of forcing the door open. “Though while I am pleased we managed to overcome this challenge, I know others await us.” He paused and turned to face me as I joined them on the precipice of entry. “Challenges that we all know seem to centre around you.”

  I nodded at his words, aware of the clarion’s call that beckoned me forward, into the realm of shadows in which lay whatever remained of an ancient Sith Emperor. After taking a calming breath and pulling the Force around me as a barrier against whatever dangers awaited, I took the lead, taking the first step inside this palace in thousands of years.

  … …

  … …

  This story is cross-posted on , , and .

  ...

  Due to recent changes in Royal Road's policies, links to joining the story's server, and other servers where I and semi-active, along with methods to support my writing, cannot be directly added. However, if you would be interested in joining the server (those who are active enough get a chapter ~3 weeks in advance) or wish to support my writing (and gain access to 1 to 6 chapters in advance), then please use the link below:

  Regardless if you join the discord or support my writing, I hope you enjoy the story and suggestions, valid criticisms, and ideas are always welcome.

  And of course;

  Until next time,

  May the Force be with you. Always.