“ISB has been tasked with appeasing the unrest within the Mandalore system going forward.” Emperor Palpatine said without mirth nor aggression, his hands folded in among themselves through the folds of his robes as he glared out the stately windows toward the Coruscanti sunset, “the factions that once had seemed to have coalesced into a united effort, we must take care in those negotiations.”
“If they have united their efforts Master they expose themselves as a greater threat.” Lord Vader announced from behind his old master, his own arms crossed before his chest as he heaved through his inhales and exhales. “Audenhoen will have his work cut out for him.” He added after a silent moment of pause.
Palpatine swiveled slightly, shifting the dark hood toward his apprentice, revealing nothing but the crook of his deformed nose, “A strong allegiance you have shown toward the man Lord Vader.”
“Only one of respect Master, we were wise to endorse his ascension.” Vader replied immediately.
“To what end I ask you apprentice? The position is tenuous at best and without any form of true power.” Palpatine responded, shifting his own gaze back toward the dying sun over the western monads, the sprinkling of Coruscanti night life blooming in full effect below them.
“It is not power the man seeks Master, only truth.” Vader intoned a deeper form of the expected baritone with an empowering sense of satisfaction.
“Which brings us to Ambria apprentice, a topic that has been evaded far too long.” Palpatine turned himself fully from the stratospheric view and directly into the mirror like orbs of Vaders mask. “The task was simple enough in its own parameters, yet catastrophic, nonetheless. Sylde’s reports have been nothing but confusing and your silence on the matter only confounds the conflict within.”
Vader shifted his stance, dropping his arms to his waist only to remain silent as he walked right past his master and up to the view before them both, the sun dying completely for the day as its final rays were swallowed whole by the encroaching darkness, “there is no conflict within, only questions my Master.”
“Then speak them plainly so we may be over the matter Lord Vader.” Palpatine almost spat the words from his mouth yet maintained enough control over his fueled aggression to keep the apprentice from pushing him beyond the measured oversight he had deemed worthy of the effort.
“What was Thana doing on Ambria?” Darth Vader said to the view before him, offering his master only the back of his cape.
“My bidding and nothing more apprentice.” Palpatine responded simply, yet his mind found hundreds of opposing responses that spoke closer to the truth he was adamant to protect.
“Why do you insist on delving into topics that you refuse to deliver truth upon? Do not ask me questions you are not prepared to contend with.” Vader responded, bracing himself for the delicately worded rebuttal with intent to nullify his own inquiries, but none came, “visions Master. That place is saturated with a chaos borne from the eternal conflict and one that could not be contended with by any form of tangibility.”
“Visions you say.” Palpatine worked the phrase over a few times as he repeated himself, “in what form?”
Vader turned slowly from the view to look directly upon his master, “Tano. A Keno refugee, Anakin’s former Captain, and Thana. A dragon that twisted itself loose from the very lake bed you had intended to agitate, a dragon that would not die.” The words echoed through the room, finally whisking themselves into oblivion as Palpatine stood motionless before his apprentice. Each admission from the man brought with it avenues that he himself had foreseen despite any discrepancy they may have taken in actuality. Palpatine could feel his mind distancing itself from the conversation at hand toward the endeavors he and 11-4D had been mired in for far too long. ‘Dragon,’ could refer to many elements he had delved into specifically, but his attention quickly snapped to the source at hand.
“A dragon that will not die….” Palpatine trailed off, his visual focus losing itself as he glared beyond the form of his apprentice, swallowed up by the peripheral motion of passing Coruscanti traffic outside the stately windows. ‘Tano,’ seemed to fit that particular thought in the flesh, the woman could not be killed it would appear, but she was no more a threat than the man standing before him, the Force itself had prognosticated as much. “There is more Lord Vader.” He said with conviction, refocusing his sickly yellow eyes upon the mechanical instrument of death.
Vader let the question that was not a question hang between them for a long moment, cycling his breath as he worked out his own experiences through a meticulous retrace of action, “spirits my Master, old and new, granting purpose to an undertaking eons in the making. I sensed Jedi and Sith alike, ancient yet renewed in resolve. Something is happening, something is coming.” He paused briefly, letting the sonorous inhales and exhales fill the chamber atop the former Jedi temple, taking a partial heed from his own subconscious, he continued staring into the eyes of his master, “and you know what it is.”
Palpatine had prepared himself for the multiple avenues the conversation could take, but was not prepared for the accusation itself, deciding, in the moment, to venture down branches of conversation that had nothing to do with the Empire.
“Lord Vader, you have worked meticulously to distance yourself from Anakin Skywalker. Now, before you placate your Master with oaths to the contrary, the direction I wish to proceed at the moment is quite the opposite.” Palpatine offered an open hand toward Vader, something he rarely did toward anyone. “This particular conversation is one I have eagerly anticipated for some time.” He continued as he sharpened his verbal toolkit, “what do you remember of Mortis?”
Darth Vader shifted uncomfortably as he glared at his master, the question held no meaning for him whatsoever, “what is there to know my Master, what is Mortis?”
“Come now Lord Vader, you have been to a place few have even heard of, and those that have qualify as legend and nothing more. If even as Anakin Skywalker, you should remember.” Palpatine was finely dancing between pure excitement and gravid frustration. “An encounter during the Clone Wars in the Chreylithium system…..” again, he let the words trail off, letting them find their mark in due course. “Even Anakin’s former Captain retained some recollection.”
Vader finally stole his gaze from his masters’ eyes and swiveled himself toward the windows once again. He knew he had no choice but to tread carefully if he were to continue relating the truth as he remembered it, so as not to convey the more recent secrets he wished to retain.
“Lord Vader, the trials of contention appear to run unhindered to your very core.” Palpatine offered as a melodious lament, the raspiness of his voice overtaken by the depth the words conveyed. Vader shuttered himself as he felt the tendrils of his masters probing mind flank the mental defenses he would always erect around the man, closing off all avenues of inquisition. He could feel his master’s ire, a disdain that would never settle itself between them as he closed what were left of his eyes behind the mask. Despite the nature of the conversation for what it was in the moment, the irascibility of consequence had asserted itself long ago.
“Your resolve has been tested as of late apprentice. It pleases me that we still find ourselves aligned in purpose.” The raspiness that would only be outdone by the baritone on most occasions was without its bite and venom as the words left the wrinkled lips. “The disdain you’ve spent significant effort to distance yourself from will burgeon with or without your direct involvement Lord Vader. It will manifest the denizens of your own demise without the attention given to direct it toward a just cause.”
“And what cause would that be Master?” Vader mustered as he turned from the view outside to gather in the shuffling form of robes silently drifting toward the high-backed chair on the opposing side of the room.
“The only cause the Sith Masters had ever envisioned Lord Vader.” Palpatine responded, descending onto the lightly padded seat. “Progress.”
Vader felt a warmth course through the living parts within, complicit with the sum of his own sentiments regarding his involvement in action decidedly Imperial in totality. The notion that his master, now, would venture into the realm of the Force produced more questions than excitement. “Now you choose to discuss such maters?” He reigned in enough of his constant anger to keep from dismissing the man’s words through vitriolic statement. “You don’t feel the need to address the growing threats across this galaxy?”
“Threats that pale in comparison to the power of what is to come apprentice.” Palpatine countered with a defiant resolve of his own, his lips twisting into themselves to form a sneer that swore an oath in and of itself. “The battle station was a beacon of hope for those groups compelled to rebel against the order that we have established, but hope is a tool Lord Vader, one that can occupy the actions of a group controlled by their own fears.”
“And of the battle over Ambria? Many assets were lost to one of these groups as you claim.” Vader interjected without reservation.
“But so much more was gained Lord Vader.” Palpatine continued his sneer, elation conveyed without effort given to the task, “officers, ships, munitions...these things can be replaced.” He continued leaning ever so slightly forward in his seat. “No, Lord Vader, what took place on and over Ambria served two purposes. One for our Empire and one for the Sith.”
Darth Vader had no means at his disposal to convey the confusion that had rooted itself deeply within his mind. He considered the possibility that the aged man had knowingly manipulated his defenses through contrived means to purge the information Vader would die to protect but found that the probing had ceased altogether. He could think of nothing, then, beyond the very things that had driven him for the last two decades that would elicit such degree of emotion from his master, as far removed from anger as he’d ever witnessed. ‘There can be no commitment to anything greater than the sum of Master and Apprentice.’ He told himself as he fixed his gaze on the crooked smile of the man he called master. “You speak in riddles Master.”
“Then let me be clear Lord Vader.” Sidious emerged from the cowl, his eyes glowing within the concealing shadows, “what transpired over Ambria was nothing short of a presentation. A demonstration of a destructive power conceived within our own consortium, yet on such a miniscule scale as to seem paltry by design. Ilum is the intended benefactor Lord Vader.” Sidious cackled, his voice conveying a directness Vader found most compelling. “Ah...I sense the familiarity within.” Sidious found reason for interlude as he sensed his apprentice eliminate the gaps of his own contention. “Good….good. Then you begin to understand the magnitude of possibility once Kyber extraction is finalized.”
Darth Vader had not expected the depth of inclusion beyond his own agenda, or even that of the Sith as his master continued to relay pertinent details he could never have imagined in wild fantasy, all taking place without his knowledge for the better part of five years.
“I sense distraction in you still apprentice.” Sidious relayed immediately, his voice beginning to ooze with mirth and disdain, something Vader had grown quite used to.
“Distraction is all I’ve been shown Master.” Vader grumbled into his vocater, the words sonorous and echoing through the chamber.
“And, conversely, all that I’ve been Lord Vader.” Sidious responded as he gently rose to his feet. “Your incessant need to reunite with the dead has clouded your own view of purpose, and yet you find reason to convey your anger toward me?” He continued, walking closer to his apprentice, the fingers of his right hand splayed open as he raised his arm. Vader prepared for the jolt of energy that would inevitably shock through his system, igniting internal fires that only aggravated the constant and torturous pain. “If you wish to pursue that agenda, then do so. Do not expect me to prolong my own agenda, however, just to placate your sense of belonging Lord Vader.” He admonished, turning his hand over, palm up, as if pleading for cohesion despite the tone he employed.
Vader felt abashed in the wake of the statement, knowing there would be no rebuttal or rebuke. There couldn’t be, yet he would not yield to the gestures engaged before him, his master walking directly up to him to turn the palm over once again and place it upon the breadth of his own chest, “be at ease Lord Vader, this is no condemnation. It is in this time that we find ourselves intertwined with genuine and true purpose.” Sidious intoned, Vader assuring himself the action was nothing more than manufactured condescension as the man’s eyes opened wide in mock sorrow he found disturbing at best. “It is the actions upon Ambria that draw the interest of the Sith, Lord Vader. And to what I refer.” He added, lowering his hand and turning away again for the view the windows provided upon the city scape beyond them. “You have felt contained within the precepts of arbiter, enforcer of my own agenda.” Sidious intoned after a long moment of silence between them. “That is the role of the apprentice.” He began anew as several speeders careened through the expanse between monads stories removed from their lofty perch, “to execute the Masters bidding unilaterally and willingly for any length of time the Master deems. It was the same for me Lord Vader.” He mused with a softer tone, “although the bidding of my Master consisted of lengthy debate, mingling with the galactic elite and listening to the plights of those far beneath my own station.” Sidious continued, Vader soaking in every word with mixed amusement and aggravation.
“It was only years later as we conferred on Sojourn, that I began to understand the importance of the implied lessons, although I didn’t see it at the time of execution. It taught me the patience necessary for galactic politics, the resolve to unrelentingly drive my own ambition toward the needed abilities to cause this galaxy conflict on scales it hadn’t seen in millennia. And the fortitude necessary to carry it toward the order it so desperately craves.” He concluded, turning to face his apprentice once again. “We do not stand as the harbinger of chaos, the Dark Side of the Force does not deal in matters of such frivolity.” He let the words hang in the air between them, expecting no answer nor musings. Vader had nothing to say as he ingested the totality of the revelation, the relaxed nature of the suits breathing conveying as much.
“I have allowed your endeavors into the occult Lord Vader, if for other reason than to enforce the only lesson such actions could teach.” Sidious said quietly, his eyes bright with anticipation. “Mastery of the Dark Side is not mastery over death, despite what the Jedi once taught in earnest. It is quite the opposite in fact.”
Vader perked up, his suit betraying the fact with a sharp intake of breath.
“Ah, yes, we are coming to the point. Your thoughts finally take shape despite your efforts to keep them from me.” Sidious calmly relayed as he twisted his lips yet again into a crooked smile. “Tano.” He almost said cheerfully as he folded his hands in upon one another within his robes. “Lord Vader, the Dark Side is a bridge to mastery over life itself. In conjunction with certain locations inviolate to the laws of nature, the Dark Side is the only conveyance that will bring about the partnership we share unto limitless potential.”
Vader shifted unwittingly as he tried in vain to connect the facets of conversation into a unifying whole. The vastness of the statement meant little to him as he clearly lacked the foresight Sidious held mastery over. “Of what importance is Tano?” The question was valid in his own mind as he stretched his thoughts back to Ambria, “she implied that you seek immortality and nothing more.”
“Two very separate answers are required for you to understand my response Lord Vader.” Sidious replied after a moment of deliberate thought, “Tano is a linchpin for what is coming and has been since I tasked Pestage with her apprehension some time ago. She is the catalyst, the link in all matters that we are currently discussing.” He continued with a thought laced tone, one that relayed the intricacies of his own design through the framework of his premonition. “Again, I ask you, what do remember of Mortis Lord Vader. And before you answer, remember that there is significance even in retaining nothing at all.”
Darth Vader let his guard down completely as he engaged in the decidedly foolhardy practice of absolute trust in his master. He closed the eyes behind the mask and pushed his conscious into the realms he had sworn internally to never revisit, and as they often did when he lost control of the floodgates of emotion, he was immediately assailed by the memories that had been damned from recognition. Working to piece them out of the chaos from which they bombarded his psyche, he couldn’t even differentiate between faces let alone a particular mission. Waves of pain, grief and sorrow threatened to steal his gravid stance upon the stone floor beneath his feet as those memories advanced through his mind like a forgotten army of the betrayed.
“Mortis!” Sidious shouted through the conflagration Vaders mind was becoming, “Mortis!” He continued to punch through the fogginess as every face through Anakin’s memories shed tears of unabashed sorrow and shame, the looks in their eyes full of hatred and loathing. “MORTIS!” Sidious shouted again, the voice resounding off the chamber’s walls of stone and thick set transparisteel windows. Finally, Vader saw what Sidious had intended but only through the lens of the previously mentioned system.
“Chreylithium….” Vader said weakly as he fought the offending memories and the battalions of specters and haunts that came with them. “Rex!”
“Very good….very good.” Sidious responded, placing a hand on Vaders shoulder, one that materialized from nowhere it seemed as his master hadn’t even been facing him prior to the question. “Even through the haze of forgotten insight you have answered the call of the Dark Side Lord Vader. You have bridged the event with regards to the admission of your former master, the countenance of your former Captain and the truth of your former padawan. Although you may not retain anything further, that in itself proves the importance of that which we seek!” Sidious barked in his own excitement, Vader, oblivious to the outburst even through the diminishing onslaught the retrieval of memory elicited, felt a certain measure of assistive strength flow from his master’s touch. The voices in his mind dying out their exhaustive echoes as the gates of memory closed with finality at Sidious’ assistance. The suit was notably loud in his ears with the pinging of the breathing apparatus, screaming its rush to provide him air to breathe.
As he felt the calming waves of control flow through him unhindered, Vader canted his head to look up and into his master’s gaze, unaware that he had taken a knee to the mental anguish. “We seek a place that defies the laws of time and space Lord Vader, it is to this place that Mortis is tied.” Sidious said, giving his apprentice a moment to compose himself. “It is there that the true heir to the Sith be granted title, and to what I’ve endeavored for some time.” Sidious added as Vader rose again to his feet. “A place with no name. A place your former padawan has already traveled, and with a modicum of encouragement, a realm in which she will again reside.”
His mind again under his own control, Vader found himself more confused with the ongoing admissions than he thought possible, admitting to himself that he had misguidedly underestimated his master’s ambition. A defiance of sorts that his memories had warned him of through the voiced overtones of Jedi masters he knew to be dead.
“You see Lord Vader...now? The sum of your anguish, your ire and frustration? Through the lessons imparted, you’ve grown beyond the controlled means by which the Force was introduced and into a being to whom the Force now allies with genuflection and reverence.” Sidious worked the situation to his advantage as he swarmed his apprentice with truth and promise he knew would be taken as they were served, mingling into the desperation of countenance and the dedication of reserved power the likes of which could only be imagined.
Vader looked beyond his master, to the lights of the city beyond and the bustle of its denizens that would continue to operate blindly as the fate of the galaxy was decided in their blissful ignorance. He began to sense and feel the power of his masters’ words as the renewed promises of unimaginable dominion and dominance began to mold themselves into thoughts of sovereignty and outright mastery itself. Vader quickly scolded himself for adherence to the underestimation that had unwittingly guided him to this point thus far but felt the overwhelming compulsion to see his master’s plan to fruition, nonetheless. “You do seek immortality.” Vader gasped the words, ‘she was right.’ He admitted to himself.
“I seek...I seek. No, Lord Vader. We seek. We will conclude what was begun millennia before we drew breath.” Sidious responded, fondly recalling the elation and excitement he himself had embraced within the confines of similar conversations with his own master decades prior. ‘I will snatch victory from the very core of your demise Plagueis. Where you mocked the fragility of your own mortality, I will cement my own legacy.’ He thought to himself as he bore his gaze into the reflective orbs of his apprentice’s mask.
“These are the ramblings of greed and envy Master.” Vader boomed through the chamber, willfully defying the narrative that had been laid out between them. “I was right to make my claim Darth Sidious, the Dark Side moves against your own intentions as you blissfully ignore the only precept it demands of itself.” He continued, empowered through an unintentional connection to the Dark Side he could not explain. Vader watched as the man’s face turned upon itself before his eyes, the yellow orbs widening the betrayal he clearly felt. He knew it was dangerous in the man’s presence to proceed down this particular path, but it was the only one before him with both legitimacy and truth. Vader extended his hand toward his master, raising a finger in defiance, “it demands obedience above all else lest you bring about its wrath. Was the battle station not a warning you chose to ignore? Ambria?” He continued without abandon, racing the equipment within the suit to a frantic pace.
“Both a means to an end Lord Vader. Now lower your hand and learn your place!” Sidious scowled as the words boomed over Vaders, the echoes of which slaughtered the remnants of Vaders own in short order. With incredible speed, Sidious raised both of his hands before the apprentice, pulled his lips up into a sneer and let loose a crackling volley of purple lightning from his fingertips. The pain was instant and intense, yet Vader did not waver from his stance as the room burst into varying shades of purple and blue all around him. He channeled the searing agony into the lament of his own soul, the place he formed the words to the tragic song that began on Mustafar all those years ago. He felt the agony mingle with the constant pain and torment that defined his very existence as he pushed through torture, heat, and failing circuitry before finding the very thing he was looking for within his redoubled connection to the Dark Side. Vader splayed the fingers of his left hand as he shot his arm out from his side, diverting the breadth of conjured lightning into the palm of his hand.
Sidious broke off the assault immediately as he watched the impossible unfold before his eyes. ‘This cannot be.’ He thought to himself as his mind spun through the incredulousness of his own eye’s perception. The suit was designed specifically to allow the particular act to immobilize its inhabitant, yet the opposite had just taken place.
“Because you demand reverence from a Force you seek to control Master.” Vader mustered as he gasped his breathing, the regulator on the cycler damaged through the exchange. “So, it provides for itself through a vessel of its own creation.” He said with ragged and contrived effort.
Sidious adopted a frantic expression, torn between redoubling his efforts and killing the apprentice outright and the reality of the situation from its onset. ‘Whom was this lesson for?’ He asked himself as he watched Darth Vader lower his arm in unison with the man standing fully erect before him. ‘He doesn’t understand what is at stake,’ “then you are the Master in this exchange Lord Vader?”
“No.” Vader responded immediately, “only the messenger. It was in this very chamber that this discussion began months prior Master, punctuated by the most unlikely of sources as I confronted her on Ambria.” Vader continued as his breathing regained its own measure of composure. “You seek to confront the end through the beginning and have convinced yourself the Dark Side complicit. There is only one that could provide you with the only thing you do not yet possess.”
Sidious teetered on the brink of complete loss of control, the rage built to its deadly froth and intent squarely fixed on the black clad machine standing before him yet could not bring himself to end their partnership without hearing the conclusion of the Dark Lords tirade.
“The Dragon that will not die Master. He has what you seek, and you will not rest until his power is yours, the Dark Side be damned.” Vader boomed loud enough through the room to elicit creaks and squeals from items not fastened outright to the floor below his feet. The unwavering loyalty the Dark Side had imbued him with stood with its benefactor in the face of certain death as it spoke its whispers into Vaders soul. “You are no Sithari Master, only Darth Bane held that title. The Dragon that will not die.”