I do not mind admitting that I stared at the specter of Darth Imperius for several seconds in nothing less than absolute shock. Then reason reasserted itself, and I glanced at Khayon and Nefertari, who were looking equally surprised.
Right, first things first. Deal with the acolytes before the Sith Lord – a principle which applied as much on the battlefield as it did now.
"You have done well to bring this to me," I told them sincerely enough. It wasn't their fault that they'd just caused me a great number of headaches in the coming days, and they prevented a lot of trouble by stopping Samus from getting out of the Temple. "Now, leave, and tell no one of what you just saw."
"Yes, Lord," the two acolytes replied in unison. I felt Khayon's reluctance – he knew Imperius' reputation of old, and was no doubt as curious as I was to learn what the kark his Holocron had been doing in my vault. But the pureblooded Sith obeyed my order without challenge. I gave the same order to the guards lining the chamber, then turned to my aide.
"JURG-N, please go find Knight Vail and tell her I require her presence at her earliest convenience," I told him.
Thanks to our long association, I knew Amberley would correctly translate it to 'please come right now, something just karked up and while nothing is on fire, I need to talk with you about handling the fallout'. I could have been more direct, but Amberley was unlikely to be alone when JURG-N found her, and I had an image to maintain.
"Right away, sir," my aide nodded, and left.
I gestured with my hand, called on the Force, and slammed the doors of the audience chamber shut. Finally, I was alone in the room with the projected image of one of the most powerful and iconoclastic members of the Dark Council I had ever known, who was looking down at me, having mercifully remained silent.
I considered tossing the Holocron back into the vault and forgetting that this had ever happened, but dismissed the thought almost immediately. For one thing, Khayon and Nefertari already knew about it, and would wonder why I would do such a thing; for another, I owed Imperius too much to treat his legacy with such disrespect.
But I was sorely tempted, let me tell you.
"You broke into my vault while I was gone, didn't you," I said after mentally fortifying myself for what promised to be a very edifying conversation.
"I did," the projected image agreed cheerfully and without a hint of shame, before cocking his head to the side quizzically. "Or at least I suppose I did. I don't have those memories, for obvious reasons, but that was the plan, yes."
I had never been clear on the exact mechanics of Holocron creation. Erebus hadn't been interested in teaching those to his apprentices, though I knew for a fact the old monster had known the secrets of creating imprints of his mind and memories in Force-sensitive crystal. I had gone through a great deal of effort to make sure all of the resulting creations were destroyed, with the help of people from both sides of the Galactic War. Nobody, whether Jedi or Sith, had wanted my Master to pop up again – except maybe the Emperor. But he hadn't pulled one even when we'd cornered the last remnants of his Cult on Molech, so I felt reasonably safe in assuming every Holocron of the Vile One had been destroyed.
Nor had I ever been interested in creating one myself. The chances that someone would use it to figure out the truth behind the legend of Darth Cain, the Lord of Terror, was too great to risk it – hells, the remote possibility that the object might actually end up with the personality I'd faked since being dragged out of the ruins of Sicarus by Lord Scourge was too terrifying to contemplate.
But I had interacted with enough of the things to understand Imperius' point. Since the Holocron had been created before being put inside the vault, obviously it wouldn't contain the memories of how it had gotten inside my collection of horrors.
"Yes, I know," I said. "Still, you must know what your original self's plan was. What the kark were you thinking, opening Samus' cage to put your Holocron inside ? What if it had gotten out ? Are you mad ?!"
The moment the words left my lips, I knew how stupid of a question that had been. This was the man who had thought binding himself to several ancient Force ghosts was a perfectly reasonable way to increase his power, and that genetically modifying himself with Colicoid traits was the correct answer to having to wade through industrial run-off – instead of, you know, investing in a biohazard suit resilient enough to withstand the stuff for a few minutes.
"I can only assume my living self took all the appropriate precautions," he replied with a shrug. "Samus was still inside when the robbers opened it, wasn't it ?"
"Yes," I said between gritted teeth, "and it broke out the moment that happened. Luckily two of my acolytes were having a tryst in the lower levels and neutralized its host before it could escape the Temple. Damn it, Imperius, you know how dangerous that wraith is and how much damage it did before I bound it !"
"Ah. Sorry about that," he said, with the same level of concern as if he were apologizing for accidentally spilling alcohol on my coat. "I tried to contact you when you came down to the vault some time ago, but you were guarding your mind too well."
Well, of course I had been. I knew exactly what kind of horrors lurked within the many cells I had ordered carved into the stone by droid crews (after the first few incidents of a living worker succumbing to the influence of the artefacts already sealed down there, I had pivoted to an entirely mechanized workforce). From the moment I had passed the warning arch with the message I had personally engraved in the somewhat foolish hope it'd keep at least some robbers at bay, I had kept my mental defenses up.
The deeper into the vault I went to make sure the seals on each cell were still in place, the more I'd strengthened them. Then, I had checked on the reality-warping properties I had infused into the vault using some of the less questionable knowledge I'd gained during my apprenticeship, once it had become clear I wouldn't be able to get rid of its contents.
It had taken me an entire day before I was satisfied, and during that time, I had felt the more dangerous pieces of the vault's contents (I tried very hard not to use the term 'inmates' to refer to them, even in my thoughts) try to break into my mind. None of them had succeeded, but if Imperius' voice had been among them, I wasn't surprised to have completely missed it – the first rule of interacting with Dark Side artefacts was that you did not listen to the voices.
"Anyway !" the holographic image clapped his hands. "I see you're back from your little hyperspace misadventure. How long did it take you to finish your jump in the end ?"
"Three and a half thousand years," I told him, not even bothering to try softening the blow.
"Ah." The specter paused. "That's … longer than I expected. Our technical experts only had the vaguest figures to give us, using the data from the sensors of the rest of the Molech coalition fleet which witnessed your departure, but those who didn't think you had simply disintegrated across several dozens light-years thought you'd return within a handful of decades at most."
"Try seeing it from my perspective," I said drily. "I arrived right in time to find Perlia besieged by a pirate fleet. The galaxy is a very different place from when we left it."
"Oh ? Sounds like there is a story there," said Imperius, leaning forward and radiating curiosity. "Well, go on, then. Get me up to speed. What did I miss ?"
I had many questions I wanted to ask myself, mostly about what had happened after the Invincible's disappearance. The archives of the Republic from that time period were painfully scarce, at least according to the historians who had flocked to Perlia once it'd become clear the ancient Sith who had taken over the place weren't going to butcher them all for intruding. Even the Perlians remembered little of the details of that period, their history having long since faded into myth and legend, as proven by the way in which they'd welcomed the return of their ancient Sith overlord with open arms and what I had been forced to recognize was genuine joy rather than the abject terror I would have expected.
But I knew better than to try to refuse Imperius when he wanted to know something. If this Holocron had even a fraction of his stubbornness, then I was better served simply telling him what he wanted to know and then ask my own questions. So, for the next ten minutes or so, I did my best to sum up what I'd been told by Trevellyan, and then Agent Malden and the rest of our Intelligence contingent in the months since my arrival.
By the time I was finished, Imperius looked about as serious as I'd ever seen him.
"So the Empire collapsed, and then, after two and a half millennia of minor skirmishes, the Darksiders united to bring about these 'New Sith Wars' …" He sighed. "I suppose it was too much to hope that our brethren would see the writing on the wall and stop perpetuating the cycle of violence without Vitiate to pull the strings."
"If you really thought that would happen, then you were more optimistic than I ever took you to be," I replied. "The Emperor might have manipulated our people, but to lay all the blame on his shoulders for the Empire's flaws would be ignoring how many of our peers gleefully enabled and benefited from them."
"I know, I know. It really was more of a forlorn hope," he shook his head, then immediately perked up, and I braced myself instinctively. "By the way, I noticed you told JURG-N to get Knight Vail. Is dear Amberley here too ? I knew she was aboard the Invincible when it was lost, but I didn't expect her to stick around on Perlia."
"Yes," I said. "She is here, as part of the Republic's diplomatic mission. The Jedi Order were very curious to meet with one of the legendary Knights of the Old Republic."
The mask of Lord Kallig stared at me for several seconds, and then Imperius started laughing like a madman.
"Oh, that's brilliant," he chuckled once he was done. "I always liked her, and she was very good for you. What else have you been up to ?"
"I have been waging war against the Hutt Cartels to eliminate slavery from the Outer Rim," I said, eager to shift the subject from my relationship with Amberley.
Out of all the Sith Lords with whom I was acquainted, Imperius had been the only one to suspect the truth of my bond with her, but he'd never said anything about it in public. With anyone else, I would have seen that as a potential danger, but I was equally aware that he was secretly married to his own ex-Padawan 'Apprentice'. That relationship got a lot less questionable when you knew Imperius' true character, as the man was possibly the one Sith in the entire Empire whose reputation was more different from his true nature than myself, even if he was still incredibly dangerous.
"So far, it's been going well, mostly because they don't seem used to the people fighting back against them not being hopelessly outmatched and outnumbered by their minions," I continued. "We've liberated Tatooine – apparently the Republic let it fall into their hands a few centuries ago – and crushed their first attempt at gathering an army from mercenaries and pirates."
"Good !" he said, with the edge of bloodlust I'd expected in his voice. "It's well past time someone did something about them. If it has truly been a thousand years since the Jedi defeated our distant descendants once and for all, I can hardly believe they've left the slugs alone for so long."
"About that," I said, "I've reason to believe the Jedi's belief that they wiped out the Sith at the end of the New Sith Wars is mistaken. That, or someone stumbled upon a cache of Sith knowledge in the centuries since and decided to name themselves Sith."
"What do you mean ?"
"The raiding fleet I found in the system when I arrived was led by a Dark Side acolyte," I explained. "The wretch wouldn't have qualified as a student of the Academy, but he had a knack for mental manipulation and enslaved his entire bridge crew to his will. I killed him, but before he died, he tried to warn me off by claiming to have been sent by one 'Darth Sidious'. I've had Malden try to find out more about this individual, but he's been busy rebuilding his spy networks across the Outer Rim and hasn't found anything yet."
"I see," said Imperius. "Then, between the Hutts and this hidden enemy, you are going to love the other little surprise I left for you."
My guard, which had begun to relax as I briefed the Holocron's ghost, immediately went back up again. In my experience, Imperius' 'surprises' never ended well. Sure, they often ended up working out to his advantage one way or another, but that was because the Sith Lord had gleefully danced on the line between genius and sanity for years, much to the annoyance of everyone who interacted with him, be they Imperials or Republicans.
"What surprise are you talking about, exactly ?" I asked, dreading the answer but knowing there was no point delaying the inevitable.
"Oh, you know, just a little thing." He paused, then shook his head, and continued, this time with more seriousness than I was used to hear from him, a fact which immediately made me even more worried. "It will take a while to explain, though."
"I expect it'll still take some time for JURG-N to find Amberley and come back." I also expected I would want Amberley with me once Imperius was done, either to help me plan a response or just to hold me while I sobbed uncontrollably. "We have time. Speak."
"Very well," he replied. "It won't surprise you to hear that, after your disappearance, it didn't take long for the war between the Empire and the Republic to restart."
"Of course not," I groaned. "Fear of the Emperor returning was the only thing that made us unite to attack Molech."
"True, and suspicions that the Republic was to blame for your disappearance didn't help the matter, although to be honest, another excuse would have been found in any case."
Which was mildly reassuring, as it meant the fault in my flagship's hyperdrive hadn't been responsible for restarting the decades-long conflict between galactic superpowers. Not that I really cared about it, seeing that everyone involved was long since dead, but the soldiers under my command might have blamed my flagship's mechanics, and I needed them to keep the Invincible flying when Skywalker wasn't around to magically fix everything.
"The Dark Council failed to stay united without an Emperor to keep us in line through sheer power," Imperius continued, "which made our war effort lack even the modicum of cohesion we were capable of in previous conflicts. Soon, nobody could deny we were going to lose, even if few dared to voice the truth in public."
Again, that was only to be expected. Patriotism had been one of the Empire's most lauded virtues, in the sense that anyone perceived to lack it could expect to be severely punished for it at any time. Contrary to expectations, the dissolution of Imperial Intelligence hadn't improved things there, as the all-seeing eyes of the dreaded agency had been replaced with rumor-mongering and mob justice, to say nothing of the Sith Lords who'd taken it upon themselves to enforce the loyalty of their subjects, using methods which inevitably led to more rebellion further down the track.
Even beyond the fear of punishment for seeming to lack dedication to the Empire, though, there was no denying the fact that many Imperial citizens had genuinely believed in the Emperor's rhetoric. For all his many, many flaws, Vitiate had been a genius manipulator, and his complete and utter lack of empathy hadn't extended to not realizing that a population motivated by pride and fear could accomplish more than one motivated by fear alone.
It was one of the few ways in which he'd differed from Erebus.
"There were a few morons who suggested we use the contents of your vault against the Republic," Imperius went on, "but those of us with a modicum of sanity shut down that idea fast. I must admit, the thought of your collection being let loose made for some strange voting alliances on the Dark Council."
"I would damn well hope so," I muttered under my breath, though of course he heard me anyway.
Imperius had known exactly the kind of things I kept locked under the Temple : he had handed me a few himself which he didn't think could be trusted to the Ministry of Ancient Knowledge. Which, considering what he had entrusted to his subordinates, was evidence enough of the utter insanity of the idea. Trying to use the contents of the vault against the Republic would have been incredibly stupid, but unfortunately that didn't mean I couldn't believe some of my peers wouldn't have wanted to try anyway. For all his eccentricity, Imperius could be downright calm and rational compared to the rest of the Empire's Force-wielding elite.
"Thanks to the times we'd joined forces against a common enemy, there were still diplomatic channels open with the Republic," Imperius went on. "Me and a few others were willing to consider surrender, but other members of the Council wanted to fight to the death. We would have just killed them all, but the sentiment was shared by a significant portion of the military, and killing them all would have been counterproductive, and taken too much time besides."
"Of course," I sighed. Given my own experience with the Imperial Army, I wasn't even surprised.
"So I came up with a plan to satisfy the warmongers and let them surrender without 'sacrificing their honor'," Imperius revealed, finally getting to the heart of the matter. "If they thought there was still a chance that the Sith Empire would return someday, then they could accept defeat now rather than fight to the last man."
"What," I asked slowly, "did you do ?"
"We built a hidden fortress, and stored an entire army's worth of soldiers, equipment, and ships in it," he announced. "We used the Carbonite tech developed by the Republic on Belsavis to freeze the soldiers, and set up maintenance droids to keep the whole place running for as long as it took. By that time, the entire Empire was in shambles. Between three galactic wars, the Zakuul invasion and more internal conflicts than even a Cyborg could keep track of, nobody was sure how many ships and soldiers we still had in total. In the chaos, making an entire fleet disappear wasn't that difficult. Only the members of the Dark Council were told of its existence, along with a handful of Moffs, but that was enough to convince the warhawks that stopping the war and 'preserving our resources' for when this army returned decades or even centuries in the future, led by the Lord of Terror, whose martial prowess was respected by all, was our best course of action."
I stared at the projection, struggling to process what I had heard. It was an insane plan, but unfortunately that hardly meant the Sith Empire I'd spent my entire life in wouldn't have considered it. If anything, the fact it was all designed to convince the rest of the Empire to surrender to the Republic made it a notch saner than most.
"And it worked ?" I asked.
Again, the Holocron projection shrugged. "Presumably ? You would have to check historical records to see how exactly the rest of the Empire fell. I know that the Dark Council was withdrawing the remaining Imperial forces from contested systems and messages were being sent to demand parley, but not how it ended. For myself, the plan was to fake my death and disappear right after dropping my Holocron into your vault. I hoped to retire to some tropical beach with Ashara and enough credits not to ever have to work for the rest of my life."
"The Republic's records of that time period aren't the most detailed, unfortunately. And weren't you supposed to be immortal after that business on Rishi ?" I frowned, fairly sure I was remembering that particular debriefing nightmare correctly.
"Nobody is immortal, Cain," he said not without kindness. "We all learned that lesson on Molech, me more than most. Really, it's a miracle I made it off that accursed world alive at all. I may have lived longer than the rest of our contemporaries, but wherever my body lies, it is little more than dust now. My abilities are a fraction of what they once were, but enough of them remains that I can feel my original self passed into the Force a long, long time ago."
The words hit me harder than I had expected. I realized that, upon seeing his image, some part of me had hoped that he might have survived all these centuries – that one small part of my life that, despite all the trouble he'd brought me, I looked on with something approaching fondness, might have endured.
I should have known better. Three and half thousand years were far too long for any sentient to live through, even the Empire's famed Keeper of Knowledge – and I had seen the wounds he'd suffered on Molech, fighting the last slaves of the Emperor. They'd been even more severe than Amberley's : that he'd survived at all was testament to how much he'd altered himself in the course of his adventures.
"I see," I said simply, silently mourning the passing of one of the few beings in the galaxy whom, for all that he'd been an infuriating madman, had been my friend.
After a moment, I took a deep breath. The past was the past, and I had the future to worry about, especially in light of Imperius' 'surprise'. "And where exactly is this army ?"
"The coordinates and command codes of the fortress are stored in the Holocron," Imperius explained. "It's somewhere in the Outer Rim, far from any occupied or valuable system, and reaching it requires navigating a dangerous and complex hyperspace route. Without the Holocron's guidance, it's possible, but dangerous, and the fortress has its own security systems which should still be running, even now."
I questioned the feasibility of any security system remaining operational after thousands of years, but figured that if anyone knew how to make it happen, it would be the man who'd spent years breaking into the tombs of ancient Sith Lords and plundering their treasures regardless of how many deadly traps they left to guard them.
"What if the Invincible had just been destroyed, like most of your scientists believed ?" I asked, deciding to address the most obvious flaw in the whole mad scheme I could think of. "What if I'd never come back ?"
"We were aware of the possibility, even if I personally was convinced you would return," said Imperius. "To that end, while the recording of my knowledge and personality can only be accessed by you or your apprentice, anyone with the ability to open a Sith Holocron can get the coordinates and access codes. Sooner or later, someone would have figured it out, and there are few Darksiders who would be able to resist the temptation of an entire Sith army waiting to be reawakened, even if their chances of simply taking control of it and using it for their own ambitions would have been … slim."
With a suppressed shudder, I realized that was more true than Imperius thought. If the Invincible hadn't returned to the galaxy when it did, Perlia would have been ransacked by that little wretch Varan, and the Holocron, along with the other artefacts in the vault, would've been stolen – although I shivered to imagine what would've been left of the planet afterwards, since there was no way that petty dabbler would've managed to suppress the horrors locked away in the Temple's depths.
Most likely the world and the pirate fleet would have been wiped out, reduced to one more ghost story of the Outer Rim. But the Holocron would have been out, and a treasure of such value wouldn't have gone unnoticed for long, especially with Varan's master, the elusive Darth Sidious, searching the ruins for treasures. Logically, such a small artefact could have gotten lost and never be found again, or even destroyed before its secrets could be uncovered, but I was far too familiar with the Force's twisted sense of humor to believe it would have let such a thing come to pass.
"Also," Imperius dragged me out of my dark imaginings with barely-suppressed hilarity, "I think you're going to like who we chose to lead the frozen forces in case they were reawakened by someone other than you or your apprentice."
"And who is that ?" I asked before I could stop myself.
Imperius told me. Not for the first time, and probably not for the last, I regretted that, for various reasons, I couldn't strangle him.
***
Bane was surprised to wake up – and more than a bit worried. He'd fully expected to be killed while unconscious : the look on that Twi'lek face had been one he'd seen before, and never in good circumstances. The red-skinned tall guy she'd been with must have been something, to be able to keep her from finishing him off while he was unconscious.
Still, this wasn't his first rodeo, and once his headache had faded enough for him to think clearly, he took stock of his surroundings. He was in a cell, his wrists and ankles chained to the wall by thick bands of metal. The light from the ceiling was weak, but enough for him to notice the restraints lacked anything resembling a keyhole : he'd a feeling they could only be opened by someone capable of wielding the Force.
He'd been stripped of his clothes and gear, and was clad only in a drab prisoner uniform that protected his modesty and little else. He didn't feel any bruises that couldn't be attributed to his panicked flight through the Temple; in fact, he could see the healing patches and bandages that had been applied to his injuries. Even the stumps where his hands had been were properly bandaged, and he barely felt the pain of his missing extremities, meaning some kind of numbing agent had been applied.
Cute. If his captors thought that was going to convince him to talk, they were wrong. He wasn't going to tell them anything. The longer he lasted, the greater his chances that Sidious would try to get him out. Of course, he was equally likely to just kill him to silence him, but keeping quiet was still his best chance of survival.
Even if Sidious had given up on him, Bane still held another card : the fact that it'd been Count Dooku who had helped his team get on Perlia in the first place. If the Count knew Bane had been captured, then he would be desperate to get him out – or, again, kill him, but he'd to take his chance.
After some time – short enough that he must have been under surveillance, though he couldn't see any cameras in the cell – the door swung open, and Darth Cain stepped in, his pet droid following before the door closed. The Sith Lord looked down at Bane like he was something disgusting he'd found on his boot, and Bane had to admit he was nailing the look : the bounty hunter had met plenty of people in position of power before, and none of them had quite managed it that well.
"The head honcho himself," Bane rasped. His throat was starting to get uncomfortably dry, but that was rather low on his list of priorities at the moment. "I'm flattered. I would bow, but I'm afraid I'm a bit tied up at the moment."
"I have questions for you," said the Sith Lord.
"I'm sure you do," the bounty hunter chuckled. "But I'm not –"
Abruptly, the Duros stopped talking, as the light in the cell seemed to dim, until there was only the cold, yellow gaze of the Lord of Terror pinning him in place like an insect.
Bane knew fear. As his skills and reputation grew, he had used it more and more as a tool, but there'd been a time when he'd been afraid of everyone bigger and meaner than him, just like everyone else. That'd been a long time ago, though, and nothing compared to what he felt now. Back then, he'd used the fear to motivate himself to get better, to rise above those who frightened him, and until now, he'd thought he'd mostly succeeded. Sure, he worried about Sidious deciding to kill him, but there was a difference between worry and fear.
He knew the fear was fake, that it was caused by Darth Cain's mystical abilities. But knowing didn't help. When he'd heard about Darth Cain's ability, he'd thought he could fight through it if he ever got close to the Sith Lord (even if the plan had been to stay far, far out of his way). He had been wrong. In that moment, Cad Bane would say and do anything if it meant the source of the horrible feeling just went away away away away –
"What is your name ?" asked Darth Cain, his words cutting through the fog of terror that was swallowing Bane's mind.
"Cad Bane," he replied immediately, and the horrible pressure relaxed ever so slightly.
"Why did you break into the vault ?"
"I'm a bounty hunter," Bane said, the words almost tripping each other on his tongue. "I was hired for the job. Gather a team, get into the vault, steal as much valuable artefacts as possible, with Holocrons taking priority. Then get out and hand over the goods in exchange for more money than I could spend in a dozen lifetimes."
"Letting greed blind you was a poor decision," the Sith Lord chided him. "Who hired you ?"
Even in his current state, Bane knew that answering this question was dangerous, but he couldn't remember why. He tried to think, but the pressure increased back to its initial level, and he nearly howled the answer :
"Darth Sidious ! His name is Darth Sidious ! He contacts by holocall, looks and sounds like a Human male, always pays well, never been able to track the credits past the first few intermediaries ! That's all I know, I swear !"
Instead of decreasing, the feeling of unnatural terror suddenly spiked, and the Duros shook in his restraints, his heart beating far faster than was healthy. Somehow, Cain wasn't happy with what Bane had said, and in that moment, the bounty hunter felt absolutely certain he was going to die for it.
"Wait, wait !" For the first time in decades, Bane outright begged. If he could tell Cain about Dooku, maybe, just maybe, it would be enough to save his life ? "There's something I know that you –"
Bane stopped talking, but not because he wanted to. Something was wrong. He tried to speak, but he couldn't. Then he realized that he couldn't breathe. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't breathe –
"JURG-N," he heard Darth Cain say, but the words were fading, as if they were coming from far, far away. "Call the medic –"
And then, darkness.
***
Count Dooku took a deep breath as he felt the spark of Cad Bane's life go dark.
When the bounty hunter had contacted him using Sidious' channel, he had taken precautions, of course. One didn't build something like the Separatist Movement while being a secret Sith Lord without knowing a few tricks to keep people from spreading secrets.
So, when the thieves were aboard the transport that had brought them to Perlia, their food had been spiked with microscopic droids, which had then taken root in their brain stem, waiting for their activation signal. It was a crude, imperfect method : the droids could only survive on their own for a few days, and the activation signal could only be sent by someone gifted in the Force and close enough to reach out and trigger them. Add to that the fact Bane had been held in the Sith Temple, and had been in Darth Cain's own presence, and it had taken all of Dooku's focus to kill Bane in time to keep him from revealing his own involvement.
Not that he believed the Lord of Terror hadn't sensed someone was responsible for Bane's abrupt demise. An autopsy would reveal the presence of the nano-droids, but Cain had been in the damn room : Dooku had to assume he knew someone had used the Force to activate them. In truth, the Count of Serenno was surprised his desperate ploy had worked at all : when he'd sensed the presence of the Lord of Terror, he'd fully expected to be stopped before he could silence the bounty hunter. Surely, Darth Cain could stop another Force user from manipulating his surroundings – and yet, for some unknowable reason, he hadn't done so.
Dooku knew he'd only delayed the inevitable. The operatives from Imperial Intelligence who had arrived with the Invincible were still in the process of rebuilding their influence, but here on Perlia, very little escaped their attention. For all his skill at intrigue, Dooku was under no illusion than he was little more than a talented amateur compared to them, and his participation in smuggling Bane's team onto the planet was all but certain to be discovered in time. If Cain had held back from arresting him because he thought he needed evidence to avoid damaging his relationship to the Separatists or the Republic, perhaps that was the reason.
The Count considered simply leaving Perlia. Officially, there was nothing keeping him here : he had come as an ex-Jedi and as the representative of the Separatist Movement, but there were other diplomatic envoys on Perlia now, though they stayed in the capital and didn't come to the Sith Temple. He could claim his responsibilities on Serenno demanded that he return home, and it was unlikely the Invincible would shoot his ship to pieces on the way out.
But Sidious wanted him to infiltrate himself into the ranks of Cain's growing alliance, and Dooku's Master wouldn't take kindly to him abandoning his mission. So he was stuck here. Ironically, Perlia was probably the planet where he was safest from his Master, as the same security which watched him would make it more difficult for any hired killer to reach him.
If Cain confronted him, Dooku would have no choice but to admit everything and beg the Lord of Terror for mercy. But he had a feeling Cain, who had sharpened his fangs in the deadly court of the Sith Empire, was too cunning for such a blatant move. There was some deeper game at play here, and Dooku decided that, if nothing else, he would do all he could to figure it out before the end.
He still had his pride, after all.
***
In Obi-Wan's opinion, being asked to attend the Lord of Terror in his throneroom wasn't an experience that got less stressful the more times it happened. Maybe it was because every time, the Sith Lord dropped some galaxy-shaking announcement, whose repercussions would be felt and studied for years to come.
He and his Padawan had been helping out in the refugee camps when the summon had come. Despite all the doubts Obi-Wan had about Darth Cain's motives, there was no denying the work was good for the soul : helping assemble prefabricated houses for the new arrivals was simple, tiring, honest and unquestionable work, which the Jedi Knight really needed after being surrounded by politics and diplomacy.
And Anakin absolutely loved it, of course, especially since it gave him more time with his mother. Shmi Skywalker-Lars hadn't quite become the unofficial mayor of the growing town, but you wouldn't believe it looking at the small, thin woman ordering around members of a dozen species and more – or the way the Sith soldiers who had come to pick the Jedi up had respectfully greeted her before telling Obi-Wan the Lord of Terror requested his and his Padawan's presence at once.
Knight Vail was already in the room when they arrived, and Darth Cain's apprentice stood at his side, opposite his droid aide.
"As you may have heard," began the Sith Lord, "there was an … incident, yesterday. A party of thieves attempted to break into the vault beneath the Temple. It went extremely poorly for them : only one survived, and fled pursued by the possessed corpse of another until they were intercepted by two of my acolytes, who dealt with the issue."
Oh, no. The partial list of the vault's contents Knight Vail had delivered to the Order had been some of the worst reading material Obi-Wan had ever seen, and he had once been forced to go through the correspondence of a politician enamoured of a local celebrity – it was a long story, and one he would take to his grave before letting Anakin know about.
"We were aware that something had occurred within the Temple," said Master Plo Koon. "It would have been difficult to miss the sudden flurry of activity among the troopers stationed here."
"Yes, I expected as much. But one of the reasons why I asked you to come is that the remaining thief was carrying this when he was captured," said the Lord of Terror, holding up a small pyramid of red crystal and golden furnishings.
There was a flare of energy from the Force, and a life-sized projection of a humanoid wearing an extremely creepy mask appeared above the device. Obi-Wan nearly choked in surprise as he realized that it must be a Sith Holocron. He'd never seen one of these before : supposedly, the Order had a number of them sealed away in the deepest recesses of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, but he'd never needed to go there, thank the Force.
"Hello, everyone," said the image, waggling his fingers in a greeting entirely at odds with his sinister appearance.
"This is Darth Imperius, an old friend of mine who decided to leave his Holocron in my vault," explained Darth Cain. "Given that he's going to serve on my council for the foreseeable future, I thought it best to introduce you all to him. Imperius, these are the Jedi envoys I mentioned earlier : Master Plo Koon, Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Padawan Anakin Skywalker. You're already familiar with Knight Vail, of course."
"Of course," Darth Imperius nodded. "Greetings, Jedi. I must say, it is a pleasant difference to be able to talk to members of your Order without needing to cut my way through a company or two of Republic troopers trying to kill me first."
Obi-Wan and Plo Koon didn't know how to respond to that. Fortunately, or perhaps not, Anakin wasn't as restrained as them.
"Are you the old friend he mentioned in his speech ?" Obi-Wan's Padawan asked excitedly.
"Which speech ?" asked the Holocron's projection.
"The one where he said you inspired him to declare war against slavery," Obi-Wan's Padawan helpfully replied.
Somehow, despite wearing a mask that completely covered his head, the Holocron projection managed to be very expressive. Obi-Wan could hear the grin as he turned toward the Lord of Terror :
"Cai, you scoundrel ! You never told me that !"
"No," said the Sith Lord with what Obi-Wan could only describe as a resigned expression. "I didn't."
"Aaaw, look at you. Are you feeling shy ?"
Darth Cain remained resolutely silent, staring into the distance with the look of someone wilfully ignoring an annoying friend. It made him look a lot more Human, and Obi-Wan wasn't sure how to process that.
"I have to say," Master Plo Koon ventured, addressing the Holocron, "you aren't anything at all like how I imagined one of Darth Cain's contemporaries."
"Back in the days of the Old Republic, Darth Imperius was known to be … eccentric, shall we say, for a member of the Dark Council," said Knight Vail.
"That's certainly one word for it," agreed the Holocron ghost. "Another would be 'crazy', although I personally prefer 'differently rational'."
Among the records of the Old Republic Chief Librarian Jocasta Nu had compiled for the Jedi envoys before their departure from Coruscant had been a biography of Darth Imperius, member of the Dark Council and Holder of the Sphere of Ancient Knowledge. The list of deeds attributed to him had been … concerning, and Obi-Wan remembered feeling quite intimidated that Darth Cain had been a contemporary, and apparently peer and ally, to such a figure.
He reminded himself that, as a Holocron, there wasn't much harm the ancient Sith Lord could do, and ignored what felt suspiciously like laughter from the Force at the thought.
"I thought the vault was impregnable ?" asked Anakin.
"I have plenty of experience breaking into well-defended places containing dangerous artefacts," replied the Holocron. "I started when I was a student at the Academy on Korriban. Back then, my teacher was trying to get me killed; instead, I ended up making it a career."
"The thieves were sent by Darth Sidious, a Sith Lord also responsible for sending Varan and his pirate fleet to Perlia months ago. Unfortunately, the sole survivor died during interrogation, from what I believe to have been a kill-switch placed by Sidious to ensure he couldn't reveal too much in the event of capture."
"I am, of course, aware that it is the Republic's position that, prior to the Invincible's return, the Sith had been extinct for the past millennia. However, I have been reliably informed that there has been evidence to the contrary in recent years. Isn't that correct, Knight Kenobi ?"
"Yes, Lord Cain. Me and my Master, Qui-Gon Jinn, did encounter a Sith warrior during the Naboo Crisis six years ago. According to the Trade Federation, he was called Maul."
"I believe Sidious has been hiding in the Outer Rim, beyond the reach of the Republic and the Jedi Order. Given the lawlessness that reigns there, a Master-Apprentice lineage with enough resources could have concealed its existence for a thousand years."
"You think there's a Sith Lord behind the Cartels ?"
"No, but I do believe Sidious will ally himself with them, if he hasn't already. He doesn't have a choice, after all."
Ah, right. Of course. What a terrifyingly casual reminder that Cain would absolutely kill this other Sith Lord the moment he had the chance in order to remove a rival and avenge the insult of daring to attack Perlia in the first place.
"Given your own connection to these modern Sith," Darth Cain looked at Obi-Wan, "I felt it was only right to inform you. There is no doubt in my mind that as our war against the Hutt Cartels continue, we will encounter more pawns of Sidious, and I would be remiss not to offer you the opportunity to avenge your Master by taking down the Sith Lord who orchestrated his death."
"Revenge is not the Jedi way," Obi-Wan replied automatically. "And I did kill the Sith responsible for my Master's death on Naboo."
"You killed the acolyte who wielded the lightsaber, but he wasn't there by his own choice. Sidious sent him to Naboo, which indicates he was involved in this whole Trade Federation business I have been informed about. Come to think of it, Senator Amidala was Queen of Naboo at the time, was she not ? I will need to speak with her on the matter. If Sidious targeted her planet once, he might involve her people in his schemes again."
"And in any case, revenge is most definitely the Sith way," Imperius cut in. "Cai will have to punish Sidious for daring to mess with his vault."
"First off, don't start calling me that," said the Lord of Terror. "Secondly, you aren't exactly qualified to talk about others 'messing with my vault'."
Obi-Wan spent the next few minutes increasingly convinced he was having some kind of fever dream as Darth Cain and Darth Imperius bickered like two old friends, completely ignoring everyone else in the room, until JURG-N made a noise that, in an organic, would have been a deliberate clearing of one's throat to draw attention. The two Sith Lords stopped talking at once.
"Right," sighed Cain. "My apologies for this. In any case, as I was saying, hunting down this Darth Sidious is going to be another of our objectives in our war against the Cartels. Back during the pirate attack on Perlia, the leader of the flotilla, Varan, actually claimed to be a servant of Sidious as well before I killed him. That's twice Sidious has struck against what is mine; there will not be a third time."
As the Lord of Terror spoke, the temperature in the audience chamber dropped again, frost forming on the walls and floor as freezing cold radiated from the enthroned Sith Lord. Revenge might not be the Jedi way, but Obi-Wan wouldn't lie to himself about his own emotions : part of him hoped to be present when Darth Cain finally confronted the Sith Lord who had orchestrated Qui-Gon's death.
***
The war council of Vaylin's Teacher met in a room several levels beneath the audience chamber, a couple of hours after the meeting with the Jedi envoys.
In addition to Teacher and JURG-N, Commanders Broklaw and Sulla and Agent Malden were also physically present, while Admiral Kasteen attended by holocall. With their conflict with the Hutts ongoing, the Admiral couldn't leave the Invincible : the chances that the Cartels would do something as stupid as attack the system were low, but not non-existent.
Finally, for the first time since their return to Perlia, there was a new member of the war council. Darth Imperius' Holocron was projected to Teacher's right, opposite where Vaylin herself sat. The specter of the Dark Councillor looked completely at ease in the meeting, which made sense, given the role he had occupied in life as one of the most powerful Sith of the Empire (although if membership of the Twelve had been an exact mark of being among the most powerful Imperial Sith Lords, then Teacher would have been a member).
The circular chamber, which was built in the same brutal architecture as most of the Temple, had been refitted by the Invincible's technicians : the black stone table around which they were all seated had been equipped with a holographic display, and the channel to the Invincible was as secure as centuries of paranoid Imperial engineering could manage. At present, the table was displaying a map of the Outer Rim, with several star systems outlined in different colors marking the territory claimed by the returned Sith, that of their tentative allies in the Separatist Movement, and the vast swathes of the galaxy controlled by the Hutt Cartels and their criminal vassals.
One system in particular was singled out among the latter : Rattatak, far beyond the nominal border that marked the end of the Republic's influence.
"With the intelligence Knight Narec and Padawan Ventress have given us, our next move is clear," opened Darth Cain. "Marlo the Hutt, the leader of the Cartels' efforts against us, seeks to replace the blaster fodder he lost on Savareen by recruiting the feuding clans of Rattatak to his banner. While I've no doubt our forces would prove superior, it would be far more efficient to prevent the recruitment in the first place, especially if we can bring the Rattataki to our side instead. Admiral Kasteen, what is the status of the fleet ?"
"The Invincible is ready for deployment," Kasteen saluted crisply. "The hyperdrive engines show no sign of malfunction or wear. If we take a small escort with us, the rest of the seized ships should be sufficient to defend Perlia, Tatooine and Savareen against opportunistic pirate fleets long enough for us to return."
"Excellent. Tell Chief Engineer Tyber and her crew to keep up the good work. Malden ?"
The Chiss cleared his throat. "The debriefing of our new friends has provided us with a wealth of information about the situation on Rattatak. There is no doubt in our mind that the Rattataki warriors are of a much higher calibre than the opposition you faced on Savareen, or at least will be once the Hutts provide them with modern equipment, which is well within their capabilities. While the political situation will no doubt have evolved by the time we arrive, we'll be able to provide you with multiple plans of attack within hours of our arrival."
"Thank you. Remember that we need our actions to be, if not legal according to Republican law, then at least palatable to the common Republic citizen." Teacher waited for Malden to nod his understanding before turning to the next member of the war council. "Commander Broklaw, what is the status of the Legion ?"
"Ready for battle as ever, Lord," replied Broklaw, banging his fist on his armored chest. "We won't disappoint you."
"I know you won't." The slightest smile appeared on Teacher's face. "What about the volunteers ?"
Since Teacher had made his speech following Perlia's official secession, the system had seen a small but steady flow of sentients willing to join the war against the Cartels. Most of them were civilians with little to no combat experience : members of philanthropic groups from the Middle Rim and the Core, who had spent years trying in vain to rally political support to help the most vulnerable populations of the Outer Rim. They had joined the work in the refugee city near the Temple, helping former slaves deal with their trauma and the various injuries and sicknesses that plagued them, along with a myriad other small but nonetheless important things.
But there were a few who, like Narec and Ventress, had fought to free slaves from their masters. Against the might of the Cartels, there'd never been anything like a unified liberation network in the Outer Rim, but countless small groups of freedom fighters had flared up over the millennia. Most had ended up crushed by the Hutts, killed by their minions or dragged before the slugs by bounty hunters to be subjected to horrible fates as a warning to others who might share their tender consciences.
Those who remained and who were willing to trust the word of a Sith had come to Perlia to offer their services – or, as they saw it, use the strength of the ancient Sith against their hated foe. Spies, slicers, pilots, medics, technicians : they had all come, aboard anonymous ships which hung in orbit far from the Invincible, like wary herbivores not quite trusting the krayt dragon truly meant them no harm.
"We are training the fighters among them in the combat style of the Clans," said Sulla. "Discipline is a bit of an issue, but I will say this for them : they are all very motivated."
"And the rest are being integrated in our operations," said Malden. "Collating all the intelligence they have brought us on the Cartels is going to take time, but I believe it will be well worth the effort in the long run. These people might lack formal training in tradecraft, but the ones who're coming to us are those who have managed to survive in Hutt territory for years : frankly, some of them are impressing even my people with their skills."
"Good," said Imperius approvingly. "Their determination isn't surprising : apart from a few hopeless idealists, I've no doubt most of them never expected to do any large-scale difference, just save a few souls from bondage before dying in action. And yet, they were willing to risk their lives all the same. Now that they have the opportunity to see the Cartels themselves fall, I expect there are very few things in the galaxy which could break their resolve."
There was a moment of silence as they all absorbed the words of the ghostly lord. Nobody had been surprised that Darth Imperius supported Teacher's crusade against the Cartels : the former Dark Councillor's past as a slave himself was nearly as well-known as his eccentricity. It had made him many enemies in the Empire, few of whom had survived past their first clash with Imperius – and those who did only lived as an example to the rest.
"Then we will depart Perlia in three days, once I have spoken with our foreign visitors and ensured we're covered on the diplomatic front. You all know your duties," said Teacher, dismissing the gathering. "Vaylin, stay behind, please."
One by one, the others filed out, sending curious glances back, no doubt wondering why their lord needed to speak to his apprentice as much as Vaylin herself was. Once only Vaylin, her Teacher, JURG-N, and the echo of Darth Imperius were left in the room and the thick doors had been sealed again, Darth Cain said :
"Vaylin, you will not accompany us to Rattatak. I have another task for you." Before she could protest, he raised his hand, silently telling her not to interrupt him until he was done. "Make no mistake : stopping the Cartels from recruiting the Rattataki warlords and bringing order to the world is of vital importance. But it will also draw the attention of everyone watching us, and serve as the perfect distraction for you to do something which will be even more important, not just our conflict with the Hutts, but our place in the current galaxy as well."
With that, Teacher proceeded to tell her what Darth Imperius' Holocron had revealed to him. By the time he was finished, Vaylin's mind was reeling with the tale's implications. An entire other army from the Sith Empire, frozen out of time for over thirty-five centuries. One powerful enough that the Dark Council and the top of the Imperial Army's leadership could be convinced that, along with the Invincible, it could feasibly battle the entire Republic following the Empire's surrender.
The Republic would absolutely freak out if it learned of it, Vaylin was certain of that. But in the war against the Cartels, it would be invaluable. Nothing the Hutts could throw at them could match the Legion and its auxiliaries, but there were only so many of them.
"I need you to take Imperius' Holocron with you aboard the Dread Son, go to the coordinates it contains, and awaken the frozen army," continued Teacher. "Much as I wish I could do so myself, I cannot : the Carbonite Army will be vulnerable during re-awakening. I could park the Invincible in the system while it wakes up, but that would leave the rest of our territory undefended : even with the new ships added to our fleet, it is the threat of the Invincible that keeps the Cartels and their minions at bay."
"So instead, the Invincible will be visible in the Rattatak system, ready to respond to any assault on your domain," Vaylin realized, following her Teacher's reasoning. She wasn't a great general like her brothers : she'd never received the same formal education in military matters they had. But she'd learned a lot in her years as Darth Cain's sole apprentice. "Leaving me free to journey there with the support personel I'll need to manage who knows how many soldiers freshly taken out of Carbonite. And while people will wonder why your apprentice isn't at your side, they'll probably think you've sent me on another liberation mission like on Tatooine … which will make the Cartels' wary of me and unwilling to send reinforcements to Rattatak while I might strike at them directly and send them to join Jabba."
It was a masterful scheme, which would serve multiple goals all at once – exactly what Vaylin would have expected from the one man she'd chosen to follow of her own free will.
"Precisely," her Teacher nodded.
While part of Vaylin was anxious to be separated from her Teacher again, a larger part of her preened at the trust he was showing her.
"One last thing," said Teacher. He looked hesitant, which was a rare thing indeed. "It's about the Sith who was selected to lead the Carbonite Army."
"Do I know them ?" she asked. She couldn't imagine another reason for his hesitation.
"Yes," replied Teacher. "You do."
He told her. And, for the first time in a long while, Vaylin had to fight back the urge to curse in front of her Teacher.
***
AN : For the probably large number of you who are confused about the Carbonite Sith Army, this is not something I pulled out of a thin air, but a real thing from Legends. Specifically, it comes from the video game Star Wars : Empire at War : Forces of Corruption, where it is mentioned/revealed in the final cutscene of the campaign ... and then is never brought up again, ever, in any SW media. I didn't know about it when I started writing this story, but it was mentioned to me on the SB thread, and I decided this had too much potential for shenanigans not to use.
I'm having a lot of fun writing Imperius. I'm using my own playthrough of a Light-Sided Sith Inquisitor as inspiration, adding in an extra dose of craziness and the fact that Cain's presence meant the timeline got messed up so canon events didn't happen exactly as they did in SWTOR.
I think I've finally figured out the plan for Dooku. Right now, the Count is rather confused and conflicted, for obvious reasons. Like with the identity of the Carbonite Army's leader, Cain's reasoning where the identity of Bane's killer is concerned will be revealed in an upcoming chapter, and you are welcome to share your theories.
Thank to everyone who wrote Omakes for this story. They really help get the Muse focused, so keep them coming ! And many, many thanks to GoatBane for the truly excellent comic panels he's made, which I recommend everyone check out.
As always, I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter, and I look forward to your thoughts, comments and wild theories.
Zahariel outLast edited: Yesterday at 5:38 PMLike Award Quote Reply1338