“Fine then, Audy it is. It is quite refreshing to be honest.” Ysanne Isard admitted over her steaming mug of Sykka tea, deciding whether to focus on the view beyond Audenhoen’s shoulder or the steely cool blue of the man’s eyes.
“What is Madam Director?” Audenhoen responded, his voice austere yet casual in nature.
“Audy, please, Ysanne is fine. This is what I mean, moving past the pretense of power and title and into the realm of actual progress.” She replied.
“I could not agree on that particular point any more nor phrase it any better, Ysanne.” He said smiling slightly.
Ysanne set her mug upon the Directors desk after he nodded his approval, “now, Audy, you must understand the sensitivity of the topics discussed in the hearing, particularly why I could not divulge certain elements pertaining to your very particular questions.”
“Of course I understand that, make no mistake Ysanne, those questions had nothing to do with you at all. There have been certain elements without confinement by orchestrated association, that have found reason to merge into collectively similar ideals pursuant to multiple levels of active investigation.” Audenhoen rallied his musings into something almost tangible, something he could package up and solely lay the finger of blame upon, although he was the only one that thought that way. “It is to the other members of the council, to the Emperor himself, those questions were asked. You were there Ysanne, nobody had answers.”
“That does not mean they don’t have answers Audy, it simply means they were unwilling to divulge what they knew.” Ysanne argued the counterpoint politely, “case in point.” She added pointing a delicate finger toward herself.
“Of course, I know that your right…” He said in return, rising from his seat and tugging at the hem of his uniform. Audenhoen crossed his arms behind his back as he turned from her, staring out the enormous window the office boasted. “I am simply trying to find a way to make progress where progress is doomed from inception.” He whirled around to face the woman again, resting his meaty hands on the back of his seat, “you and I can make that happen Ysanne.”
“Audy, before you go any further, understand that many have voiced these same concerns.” Ysanne said with her hand open toward him.
“I know, I know.” Audenhoen admitted.
“Then what drives such ferocity?” She replied, Audenhoen doing his best to negate his own view of the woman’s exotic eyes as she brushed a silver streak of hair from her cheek with flourish.
“Raada.” Audenhoen conceded immediately.
“What of it? I’ve read your report. Another insurgent group that slipped through our fingers.”
Audenhoen smiled briefly wondering if the woman was simply toying with him or was naive enough to believe the document at face value. “Correction Ysanne, two separate insurgent groups that had nothing in common a day before our arrival yet found reason to converge over and on Ambria. Look at the facts.”
“Facts that some would consider a stretch Audy, most of your findings are supposition or contingent upon ongoing narratives that very few on the counsel would even entertain.”
“Precisely my argument!” Audenhoen said with a rare display of enthusiasm, “Ysanne, this galaxy, throughout its history has endured the rise and fall of countless Empires, some spanning millennia and beyond. Why is this one different?”
Ysanne Isard considered the question but remained hesitant to offer any of the numerous opinions she herself had courted regarding Imperial legacy. Audenhoen read her reaction perfectly however and rephrased his question, “What makes our Galactic Empire different from what history has already shown is possible? To nail down a specific train of thought, consider the amount of hours we have amassed solely for the purpose of maintaining order.”
“I can follow that Audy, and I will concede that point to you, It has only been a matter of decades after all.” She replied, twisting a silvery lock between two delicate fingers, her eyes fixated on his every word.
“And then there is Raada itself. For an insurgent group to put the energy into staging a scene speaks to the incredible lack of proper inspection on our part from beginning to end.” Audenhoen returned to his stance before the massive windows, the view beyond entirely out of focus as he let his mind wander down various paths his oration presented. “Had it not been for an ISB presence or, I can’t believe I am saying this, Sylde’s command, that trail may have very well gone cold from the start, everyone believing that settlement had been nullified by Imperial forces.”
“I was under the impression you loathed the man?” Ysanne begged for continuation.
“He is a pompous ass, and more arrogant than Thrawn could ever have been, but he is quick and demonstrates remarkable intelligence. If you’re asking me if I like the man, my answer is no.” Audenhoen had been waiting weeks to remove that from his chest.
“But do you respect him?” Ysanne pressed for more, trailing a finger nail over her bottom lip as she stare at Audenhoen’s back.
He turned around to look her in the eyes, “what would have ever given you the impression I loathed Sylde?”
Ysanne smiled sheepishly as she batted her eyes, “Captain’s log from Tagata Taia, at least that was his impression.”
“Had that fool listened, he could be seated at your side, telling me this himself.”
Audenhoen glazed over with an icy defense, the cool blue within his eyes turning gray before Ysanne’s own. “Yes, I respect Sylde, and I feel it best to leave it at that. The point is the task this office operates within, securing the order of law is impossible when there are multiple incarnations of that law to begin with. What suits the fancy of one Sector Governor may not be equal the requisites for the next. The Imperial Senate, while imperfect, at least gave the citizens within each Sector a voice to be heard, if even in name only. The moment that was taken from them our charge became an impossible undertaking.” He was certain he said far too much but where would the admission take him? Was it treasonous to defend the stability of their Empire? ‘No.’ He thought to himself, ‘let it come to another tribunal if it pleases the council.’ He answered his own nagging questions while watching the ridiculous antics of the woman seated in his office. Did she genuinely believe any flirtatious endeavor would benefit her own cause, ‘surely not from this office.’
“Why don’t we spend some time going over Ambria if you don’t mind. Your own report was meticulously confusing at best.” Ysanne offered as she knelt forward to renew her assault on the mug of tea.
“Certainly, as long as an even trade is available concerning Praxius.” Audenhoen gestured politely with a gracious palm forward, seating himself at his desk once again.
“Fair enough.”
“Truth in point Ysanne, discussing Ambria will be a two-sided conversation, I assure you.” He pursed his lips tight in a gentle smile that Ysanne found hard to read, finding out already that her strategy wasn’t proceeding as she had planned. “The aforementioned insurgent groups collected themselves above and on Ambria, myself aboard Tagata Taia, witnessed several assault groups from what I believe are a much larger Outer Rim threat than Grand Admiral Tethys had documented.” Audenhoen began, pausing only to add the addendum that framed the core of his own arguments, “this particular group does not seem to have any affiliation with the documented Rebel Alliance, although one of their vessels was in proximity.” He paused to assure himself that she was following the narrative, noting the erect nature of her posture and her attentive gaze, he continued, “Sylde’s fortunate arrival, in my opinion, saved Executor from assured destruction, but only through the aggressive tactics employed by one of the insurgent Captains. Ysanne, whatever lies at the heart of the dynamic shift has been felt by all across the galaxy. That Captain, although doomed the moment Ravager pressed command, will stand as a beacon to something greater in the eyes of the people that cry out.” Audenhoen braced himself for the resounding lecture he was certain should come, but found the woman seemingly enthralled with his firsthand account.
“I can accurately bridge your concerns in relation to your witness testimony Audy. If there are more active groups, the widespread fear of insurgency is warranted.” Ysanne admitted, setting aside her previous strategies to take a rare approach and speak her mind freely. “If there are two, there are more.”
“Which leads me to my first question for you Ysanne, that weaponized hotel was no accident was it.” He stated rather than asked. “Regardless whether we were in possession of related plans at some point, what I saw...what I witnessed was reality.” He stammered through the conclusion as if lost to the memory itself.
Ysanne stared at him for a long moment as she weighed several options regarding the truth as she knew it, deciding, eventually, that the blame should rest on those responsible, and in particular because neither man continued drawing breath. “The plans themselves were forged through a conglomeration of engineering projects spearheaded by my father initially but given directly to the late Lieutenant Commander Orson Krennic for procurement, assessment and appropriations.” She admitted to herself how good it felt to get that off her chest while reminding herself to delete that particular entry at a later date.
“Then why not simply state that at the hearing? Why go through the trouble of manipulating evidence to cover up something you didn’t even do?” Audenhoen was baffled.
“Because I wanted your job Audy!” Ysanne admitted, continuing the recent trend of truthful statements, far removed as they were from the ears of those that would weaponize them. “I fear you underestimate the gravity of the politics around you.” She continued since the ball was already rolling, rising to her feet in the process.
“The politics are what have brought this Empire to a screeching halt to begin with Ysanne!” Audenhoen felt his temper flare, although he did his best to mitigate any outward signs.
“What are you saying exactly?” Ysanne narrowed her eyes as she bore into the man’s steel gray eyes.
“To be perfectly frank, what I witness around me is an Emperor with no designs whatsoever on leading an Empire, amidst a battlefield spanning this galaxy from end to end rife with utter chaos and outright confusion.” Audenhoen blasted as he slammed his hand down upon his desk.
Ysanne pulled back from her stance, taking an immediate seat on the chair that seemed to have crept up right under her, “That is treasonous Audy.” She remarked coldly as she crossed her arms over her chest.
“Perhaps, yes, but tell me I am wrong.” Audenhoen drove his point home, cupping his other hand into the desk for emphasis.
Ysanne could only stare at the man, his facial expressions contorting through various phases of stoic resolve, understanding, then, as she viewed the matter objectively, Audenhoen was right. ‘This presents new opportunities…’ She thought to herself, being mindful to freeze her own expression for fear of showing too much enthusiasm. ‘Better to agree and let the unknown qualities let themselves play out as they will.’ She advised herself with the benchmark of caution, “I can’t Audy.” She said finally, blowing out a breath as she turned her gaze downward, counting the seconds mentally with which she deemed the feign appropriate.
Audenhoen blew out his breath as he lifted his gaze to stare in absence at the wall over Ysanne’s shoulder, “It’s as if we’re fighting the Clone Wars all over again….” He trailed off in obvious frustration, letting the crimson-colored walls play delicate illusory tricks on his imagination.
Ysanne tightened her features and narrowed her eyes once again, the silver locks of hair framing the confused look to perfection, “how so?”
Audenhoen refocused on the admittedly attractive Director of Imperial Military Intelligence, noting that he would have fallen prey to the sultry games the woman played some twenty years prior, “A war no one is meant to win.”
✦
“No complaints, Sidious? It seems you’ve learned something at least.” Plagueis intoned from his seated position atop a large porous boulder, waiting patiently for his charge to ascend the last meter of the sharp volcanic remnants, of which the cliff wall was comprised entirely. “Like Mygeeto had beheld you within its frozen embrace, so too will Acrux forge you in its oppressive and torrid clutch, the heat sweltering as it drains both your energy and your body’s fluids without reproach.” He continued, staring into the dull set eyes of his apprentice, observing the tenuous grip the human’s left hand had as it trembled precariously from the weight of the body that relied upon it. Cuts from the unforgiving stone that had bit deep streamed rivulets of blood down each finger, mingling with the sweat that profused from every pore. “With but a single thought, the course of your ascendancy can be cast aside, your efforts all for naught while you believe yourself victim to the forces around you.”
“Master….help...me...too weak….” Sidious stammered, the effort to speak stealing the oxygen from his wavering muscles.
“Appealing to some perceived notion that I possess sympathy for your plight?” Plagueis twisted his head to view the strained look of anguish gripping the features of his young apprentice, “or empathy perhaps?”
“Master….please…” Sidious labored, the strain upon his shoulder beginning to cramp from the complete lack of hydration.
“You will die, Sidious. Your muscles are already refusing to obey as you waste the very oxygen they need to support you. Yet, you field the temperament to assuage your own mind that I will reach out to save you.” Plagueis stated, a delicate thin-lipped smile spreading across his narrow mouth. “I will do nothing of the sort. I will watch as the last ounce of strength is consumed by the tenuous grip of your fingers. I will watch as the stones surface underneath them slickens with your pitiful blood. And I will watch as you plummet to your inevitable death. And then I will begin my search anew for an apprentice worthy of my time.” Plagueis shook his head, mocking his own disappointment as he pushed himself to his feet, reached his arms behind his back to fold them together lightly and glared at his apprentice with his glowing yellow eyes.
Sidious began to believe the prognostication as a finger slipped from its precarious perch, leaving only three left to support his dangling weight. The heat was oppressive as it meticulously bore deeper into his bones, leeching the life-giving fluids from his very marrow. ‘Mygeeto….what had been the lesson? Sustaining natural elements? Endearing himself to the harshest of extremes?’ The thoughts were many and bordered on some illusory version of insanity as he swayed lightly from the furnace like breeze that buffeted the canyon at random intervals. Sidious knew his Master well enough to understand that he would not be in this predicament if there wasn’t something to be learned from it. He also knew his Master did not mince words and would most certainly not intervene. The Muun would watch him slip and only observe as he flail his arms about him as he plummeted to the harsh abrasive stone floor of the canyon. “Mygeeto…” Sidious uttered foolishly, expending even more of the precious oxygen that was in short supply. The thought struck him without reservation as it rang true to the very fiber of his core. ‘The will to overpower what threatened to destroy me came from within, an internal focus of the Force itself.’ The answer was so simply evasive he hadn’t even thought it. ‘Reverse the course...reroute the eddy.’ “Become the….aggressor.” Sidious said through clenching teeth, his eyes beginning to glow through the lens of absolution as they melted away the vision of dread he knew they clearly shown. He sensed the structure of the rock under his finger tips, the unforgiving strength they possessed becoming slightly more impartial to their unforgiving lethality far below with each passing second.
*True to his word, Plagueis only observed, moving not a muscle as he stood motionless, not a drop of sweat beading his brow in the torrid heat of Acrux. He sensed the change within his apprentice, the resolution of a horrifying and certain death transform into a mental curiosity extending beyond the human’s frail weaknesses. Plagueis watched as the young man contorted his facial features into complete absolution, defiant of deaths gaze and embrace, the furious focus within his eyes that told the tale of lessons imparted. ‘The furnace of Acrux has forged you Sidious, you need but to steal back what it has already taken from you.’ Plagueis said to himself, staring with growing interest as the knuckles on the humans’ hand began whitening, his grip tearing anew at the unyielding stone.*
*‘I am Darth Sidious, apprentice to Darth Plagueis. We are Dark Lords of the Sith, and I will rise.’ Sidious told himself with a renewed surge of adrenaline. He consumed the strength of the rocks around him, drank greedily from the flows of Force energies that stemmed from every facet the cliff wall projected. Sidious became the rock as he snapped his cramping shoulder with a hard crack and forced his dangling free hand up onto the same small ledge his left was occupying. He directed the Force into his aching limbs as he prepared to propel himself upward with the massive leverage under his fingertips. With a final surge, he opened himself fully to the Force around him, drawing upon it in its entirety as it flooded his tendons and ligaments, saturating his muscles with all the power they would need, then launched himself into the air with a bellowed throaty scream and a snap of both hands. With a crouched landing upon left knee and right foot, he remained unmoving for a long moment, breathing in and out with labored breaths at his Master’s feet. Each inhale igniting the fury within as the fiery air singed the inner flesh of his lungs, yet each exhale brought with it an exhalant wave of finality, a renewing sense of victory that made him oblivious to the harshness of his surroundings.*
“It is good that you understood the clue left for you, Sidious. The search for a new apprentice would have been laborious indeed.” Plagueis said, amid the hot dry wind that perpetually buffeted the canyon summit.
“I endeavor...to delete the thought...from your very mind….Master.” Sidious said between the labored breaths.
“In time you will learn to turn the very things that wish to destroy you into tools of your own device, Sidious. The very air that scorches flesh from bones, the unforgiving remains of volcanic activity long since dormant and even the inhabitants that have evolved through adaptation, that call this hellscape home, will, as one, become your ally.” Plagueis replied, ignoring the pacification outright, “on the precipice of death, your stubbornness provided the insight your mind needed to defy the will of Acrux, so too will your resolve govern the very power of the stars themselves.”
Sidious labored to rise to his feet as he looked toward his bloodied fingers, noting the effects his Master referred as each laceration had already clotted and scabbed over. He continued to raise his chin to consume the blasted landscape around them both, one that would have taken him without thought or concern. A windswept wasteland of ancient volcanic refuse that carried intense variations of crimson striations in all directions, obscured only by the debris littered winds that refused to cede to anything less than their own fury. To the skies directly above him, Sidious turned his gaze. The clouds barreling past, as if possessed by the very fires that had forged the planet long ago, burst frequently with chaotic webs of red lightning, slamming the harsh ground with bone crunching force. “I refuse to abide by any precept that simply allows itself to be governed by simple extraction Master.”
Plagueis turned his gaze toward his apprentice with a quizzical display of outright interest, “to what then would you abide apprentice?” He began, his eyes glowing with a genuine curiosity and surprise he himself had not expected. “What laws of nature would you break, what perversion of the natural cycle would you infuse your will, Sidious?”
Sidious turned to frame his Masters head within the cyclonic hell of the areal threat above them both, “I would not rely on the availability of the power of the stars themselves, once I have mastered the art of forging them outright….”
*The gleam within the apprentices’ yellow eyes confirmed authenticity enough to the Masters hearing, Plagueis canting his head ever so slightly while divining their reality. ‘There will be nothing to stop this ambition, if it is the will of the Dark Side….’ He thought to himself, observing the apprentice as he cast a glance from side to side. Plagueis could feel the Force being yanked from its flows, untethered from their natural courses as they were re-routed and forcefully guided toward his apprentice. He stepped back a few paces and crouched to a knee as his observations took on new life with new initiative and perspective and watched as Sidious took his lesson and proverbially, ran with it. The man was channeling the Force as he sapped it from every conceivable flow around them both, from the distant heights of the aerial flows that stemmed from the cosmic channels themselves to the subterranean extremes orginating in the planets core, the human wrenched them free and guided them toward himself with more force and velocity than Plagueis felt possible. *
A thunderous crash that stole the hearing from Plagueis with its suddenness and piercing resonance caused him to backpedal involuntarily only a second before his vision was stolen from him by twin red rockets of lightning that slammed the very spot his apprentice stood. Plagueis’ feet betrayed him as they were taken from under his body with a concussive force he couldn’t have anticipated, splintering rocks turned shrapnel ripped across his face before he could raise an arm to shield himself from them, cutting slim lacerations that trailed immediate serpents of blood in their wake. With a depleting oomph, he landed on his back, left to stare blankly at the open sky above him. It took only seconds for Plagueis to recover as he flipped himself back to his feet and narrowed his eyes to stare beyond the clouds of smoke and debris, searching as they were for the corpse his apprentice had surely become.
Plagueis was taken aback by the unnatural changes around him. The air was decidedly cooler, the winds still and silent as he waited for some form of regularity to return to both his senses and the altered world around him. Whether by force or by chance, Acrux had either willingly given itself openly or defied the will of his apprentice outright, diminishing the frail human to the carbon remnants from where he began. A cold laughter suddenly breeched the stillness between Plagueis and the settling dusts, still too thick a blanket of obfuscation to identify its source. It sounded as a melody, its chords the birthright of a child at play or entertained beyond reason but grew through its own transcendence as it aged itself, further removed from the inceptions of playthings or youthful innocence. The laughter resounded with more authority as it measured the aftereffect of ludicrous notions and the faint escape of brushes with death, the ping of insanity weaving itself between those innocent chords. Plagueis stood to his full height as the dust itself began to drop its shroud, revealing the dark hunched form at its center, bobbing up and down with unnatural rhythm. ‘He...lives….’ Plagueis thought, the sight before him defying what he thought possible as the laughter evolved yet again into a hideous cackle that mocked with shame everything it touched, Plagueis himself feeling its effect as his knees began to buckle unwillingly.
Darth Sidious opened his eyes to the darkness of his chamber, a red thought orb the only source of dull light within its confines. The meditation was as crystal clear as it had been the day that shroud of dust had fallen, the day he had pressed his own lessons upon his master. “The day the Master became the apprentice…” Sidious said lightly upon the dry stale air before him.
“And what will Darth Sidious the Cunning do when that day arrives between he and his own?” Plagueis’ voice continued to resound through his mind.
Sidious looked about him furtively, assuring himself that he had successfully removed himself from the meditation.
“Sidious, you will never be absolutely free of me. So it is with all apprentices that have yet to learn their final lessons.” Plagueis said again.
“Your spirit is persistent I will grant you that...but nothing more Lord Plagueis.” Sidious responded with passive interest.
“Oh, but Sidious, I am so much more than a simple spirit.” Plagueis balked, almost losing composure to Sidious’ ears with the twang of a horrifying laugh of his own. “My own will guided by the tether you refuse to relinquish.”
“What is it then? Out with it! The diatribes grow exhausting…” Sidious began before the Muun’s voice boomed through the small chamber.
“Only this Lord Sidious. What price is worth the cost of the very order you wished to establish, what element of your agenda have you reserved for yourself and you alone that would risk the peace the Grand Plan would achieve?” Plagueis barked the questions in quick succession.
“Peace?” Sidious fought back the laugh that would have been his initial response, “of what use is something so clearly defined as nothing more than a lie Lord Plagueis? Peace…” He shook his head in disbelief, “even in death, a projection of my own memories, you are absent the deliverance of your own ambition.”
“And it is yours then to defile the teachings of a millennia of Sith before you? I have warned against the provocation of elements beyond your knowledge, lest those outside of your control, but here we are.”
“And you, Lord Plagueis, Dark Lord of the Sith, have remained as far distant from your own lesson on Acrux have you?” Sidious barked back, unwilling to concede anything beyond his own agenda.
“Be that as it may, Sidious, any heeding’s for future action would be wasted venture. May the Whills spin their tales through your tragic narrative my old friend. You have spent so much of yourself but only to find in the end that the Sithari himself has both come and gone, traces of his teachings and findings both forgotten and lost.” Plagueis scolded, the spectral voice finally voicing what Sidious own subconscious was willing to accept.
Again, through the throes of the unexpected, the cackling laughter reverberated through the room, “perhaps in this world my very near-sighted Master...but not for those with the ambition to look where most dare not.”