Webs Betwixt Stars: Interlude 1 (Patreon)

Darth Sidious had not missed the fact that something had angered his Apprentice. The Lord of the Sith wouldn’t be shocked if every individual with Force sensitivity greater than a rock had felt the wave that Vader had sent through the Dark Side a scant four days prior. It was unlike anything that Sidious had ever felt before, even from his own master, Darth Plagueis.

The feeling of rage emanating from his apprentice had been so strong and so powerful that it had nearly knocked him unconscious. He had never experienced anything like this during his time under Plagueis's tutelage. Even with all his hatred for the old muun, Sidious had never felt the emotions his apprentice was.

If he survived the upcoming conflict, he’d need to find the one responsible, both to thank them for breaking Vader out of his melancholy, and to kill them for enabling Vader to become so powerful so quickly. But, even with the last four years being spent entirely on Vader adjusting to his cybernetics and his armored life support suit rather than learning anything more than the basics of the Dark Side, Sidious was honestly unsure if he would survive the battle when Vader arrived.

As it was, Sidious breathed deeply, feeding on the lingering aroma of death that permeated what was once the Jedi Temple. Sending Vader to wipe them out during Order 66 had been for more than just testing his new apprentice and wiping out the ancient enemies of the Sith. It had been to stain their temple with the Dark Side, in such a way that even if they managed to survive, like they had in the past when the Sith came close to victory, they would never be able to restore it to the Light.

The Dark Side was strong here now, and Sidious was going to need every scrap of strength available to him.

“You lied,” a rasping, mechanical voice growled, the wheezing that had been announcing Vader’s presence for the last four years absent. “You told me she was dead.”

“I’d thought she was,” Sidious told Vader honestly, turning around, seeing the Dark clinging to Vader, masking his presence. It was an incredibly simple technique, a much more basic version of the Force Mask that he’d worn for decades, yet Sidious hadn’t realized that Vader had entered the room until he spoke. “What made you think she isn’t?”

The question was part genuine curiosity, part a bid to stall for time. But Vader seemed disinclined to answer. Shame. With a flick of his wrist, Sidious brought his lightsaber to hand, the red blade lighting up the room, followed immediately by Vader’s. Much as Sidious disliked the weapon, he could sense that he would need it.

Vader stalked forward, his mind already set on killing Sidious, on tearing the Empire from his Master and utilizing its vast resources in finding the one who had inspired such rage, hate, and passion within him. Sidious raised his free hand, unleashing a torrent of lightning at Vader, something that, were Vader not empowered beyond what Sidious had ever seen, would have instantly crippled the younger Sith.

Now, however, it barely slowed him down. His lightsaber snapped up, catching the barrage of energy and deflecting it away. It wasn't enough to stop the onslaught, but it did buy Sidious some time. That was all he needed. He held his ground, parrying a sweep with a quick swipe of his own blade, then stepped back. The raw strength behind that deflected blow had left his arm throbbing, even bolstered by the Dark Side, and it told him that to lock blades with Vader would be a death sentence.

That was fine. Sidious wasn't trying to best Vader. Not now. He only wanted to make sure he could get away. But Vader seemed disinclined to allow that, he came forward again, his sword flashing, and Sidious ducked under the strike, stepping aside, allowing Vader to follow. Vader swung again, Sidious ducked, but Vader didn't follow, instead letting the blade cut through a nearby table.

Sidious threw himself backward, rolling away, dodging another sweeping strike, then gathering his legs underneath him, leaping straight up, the Force propelling him upward, high above Vader's head. As he rose, he heard Vader give a wordless snarl, and the next thing he knew, a blast of telekinetic energy slammed into his chest, knocking him off-balance. He landed hard on his shoulder, the impact sending sharp pains throughout his body.

“I'm disappointed,” Sidious said, rising slowly, suppressing a wince at the pain, though he doubted it was anywhere near as bad as it could have been. “Here I was thinking you’d managed to learn the secrets of the Sith without my knowing, yet you are throwing nothing more than the most basic of techniques at me. You honestly expect to kill me like that?”

He wouldn't admit it aloud, but privately Sidious had to admit that, based on the ease and amount of power that Vader was using, there was a very real chance that he would. Regardless, Vader didn't answer, instead lifting a hand, palm up and fingers raised like the claws of a bird of prey. The room rumbled and the sound of fracturing stone echoed around them, and Sidious spared a brief glance at the room surrounding the dueling Dark Lords.

Despite himself, Sidious found himself freezing in surprise. Vader had done more than tear apart large portions of the room around them, the walls, ceiling, columns, and even a large portion of the floor had been torn free. The section of the ground floor they were standing on had been reduced to a mere thirty meter diameter arena, held in place by nothing but Vader’s use of the Force.

The temple above them broke apart, splintering into hundreds of pieces no larger than a wookiee, leaving the two Sith exposed to the Coruscant night air. The 501st had formed a perimeter, keeping any citizens from approaching. Sidious narrowed his eyes at Vader, no matter how this duel ended, it would take a great deal of effort to keep it quiet.

Something that Vader didn’t need to concern himself with, should he win. A rather blunt political maneuver, but effective nonetheless, something that seemed to be in line with his use of the Force thus far in this battle.

Vader pressed forward, still maintaining a constant barrage of attacks against Sidious, forcing Sidious to block, parry, dodge, or otherwise avoid every move. Without Sidious's greater experience, Vader would have undoubtedly won. But, as he had said, the Emperor's apprentice was no fool. He had been trained by Sidious, and while he might not have had the same level of mastery as his Master, he certainly knew how to fight.

Vader's attack grew more vicious, and Sidious began to feel the strain of trying to defend himself from his opponent. With a hint of desperation that Sidious wouldn’t admit to, the older Sith unleashed a blast of Force energy, a rapidly expanding sphere of raw force and crackling electricity that caught Vader off guard.

Sidious took advantage, lunging forward, his lightsaber carving a path through the air, promising death. Vader tried to catch him, but Sidious was too fast, the Dark Side and no small amount of panic feeding his speed, cutting past Vader's defenses, and plunging his blade deep into the Sith Lord's chest.

Sidious let out an exultant cackle as the blade sank home, but was silenced when Vader's hand shot outward, fingers splayed wide, and a wave of telekinetic energy slammed into him, shoving him backward. The world around him rippled and blurred, and before he could gather his senses, Vader had him by the throat, lifting him off the ground. Sidious watched as his lightsaber fell to the ground, the blade deactivated, and the wound in Vader's chest still smoking. Vader's own lightsaber flashed three times, severing Sidious's arms and his legs at the waist, before he let go of his former Master.

Despite no longer touching him physically, Vader’s grip on Sidious with the Force was just as strong, if not stronger. With the hand that had been clenched around Sidious’s throat, Vader reached out towards the clones forming a cordon. One clone was torn off his feet flying through the air towards Vader.

Once again, despite himself, Sidious was surprised by Vader. The Dark Side allowed one to endure tremendous pain and physical trauma, as well as siphon the very life from others. The former was such a simple ability that most who utilized the Dark Side did so without being trained in it, while the latter was slightly more complicated, but tricky to use in combat if one wasn’t skilled in its use.

Sidious hadn’t taught Vader to drain life, yet by the time the clone soldier had reached his outstretched hand, it was little more than a withered husk within its armor. That wasn’t what had shocked Sidious though, it was what Vader was doing with the stolen life essence. Either he’d been studying Sith lore without Sidious being aware, or he had simultaneously reinvented and combined two esoteric Sith arts in a bizarre combination of Mechu-deru and Sith Alchemy.

The drained life from the clone was being used to heal the wound from Sidious’s lightsaber, forcing the flesh to knit itself closed and restore itself to working health. But more than that, the various systems within Vader’s armored suit were growing as well, interweaving with Vader’s body in a way that was simultaneously seamless and utterly disturbing to witness.

Then, Sidious knew no more, his life ending to an apprentice who knew no Sith lore, and all of his knowledge was lost with him.

[hr][/hr]

Three days after killing Sidious and assuming the role of Emperor, Vader glowered under his helmet. Everything that Imperial Intelligence had been able to find on the man that had dared to touch Padme could be summed up as ‘Nothing Useful’. An analysis of the location utilized in the recording indicated that it was made in a location that followed the design philosophy of the Old Sith Empire, which Sidious had subtly guided the Galactic Empire into adopting over decades.

That was the single largest piece of information that the Empire’s “finest” had been able to obtain, and the galaxy was so vast that a single scrap of information was essentially worthless. He needed more, more information, more competent underlings, more…

His head snapped up, staring at the near-human alien that had appeared in front of the desk he was using. Vader didn’t recognize his species, but he had dull orange skin, was built like a houk, had shoulder guards made of some sort of white horn and was otherwise topless. The intruder was staring at Vader, his tusked mouth twisted into a smirk, his mouth from his lower lip down tattooed a solid black.

“So you’re the local that’s got the higher ups in a tizzy,” the intruder had a rough, gravelly voice as he spoke. Much as Vader’s first instinct was to crush him like a bug, something made him stay his hand.

“Who are you?” he instead asked.

“You don’t need to know my name, and even if you did I am physically incapable of speaking it, you may call me O̵f͢e̷r͠b̨r͢a̕e͢d́e̢l͠s̵. All you need to know is that we have a common target,” the intruder answered, something about the offered name sounding unnatural. “My boss has a quarrel with the Patron of the man who had his way with your wife and then drunkenly sent you a recording of their time together. While I can’t give you his precise location, I can give you a few...gifts.”

Vader’s hatred seethed at the reminder, but still, he maintained his outward calm. There was something about this...O̵f͢e̷r͠b̨r͢a̕e͢d́e̢l͠s̵ that made Vader uneasy, and his presence in the Force was...wrong. It was there, but the way it felt was… Vader didn’t have the words to describe how it felt.

Still, if it would aid him in recovering his wife, “What manner of gifts?”

The grin on his visitor’s face seemed impossibly wide, the very shadows behind him seemed to writhe and twist like the tendrils of a great beast, as he answered, “Vader, allow me to give you your first taste of the É̡̡̢̛́̀͘͝l̶̡͘͘͘͟͠͝͠ḑ̴̷̨͘͟͜͢͝ŗ̷̸̡̧́͜͡͠ì̴̸̧́̕͜͡͡t̵̸͏̶̀͜͏͏̧c̷̵̸̸̛̀̕͠͞h҉̧̛́͟͜͠҉҉.”