Chapter Text
When a man dies, he should be without regret so that his soul may find peace in the afterlife and the Living Force.
As he fell through down the reactor shaft, after 88 years of living what lesser men wouldn’t experience in their entire lifetimes and if one believed in reincarnation, next lives or any life after death in their religions. Sheev Cosinga Palpatine, Darth Sidious or also known as the Emperor to the Galaxy as large was fuming in anger, no he was rampaging as he fell to his doom.
How could he had not foreseen the possibility that Vader was plotting something even after his punishment. To think that the broken mix of machine and a man would have gathered enough courage or perhaps insanity to cast off his shackles. To think that the greatest cause of his failure was the apprentice he had almost considered a friend.
While he may or may not have killed his wife, blamed poor little Anakin for it and then rubbed salt into the wound until Vader had fully emerged from the broken Jedi Knight as a splendid creation of the Dark Side. Palpatine considered that he had done considerably well as his poor broken apprentice, who still continued to punish himself for his own lapses of judgement. If only the former Jedi had accepted his actions and moved on as it was for a proper Sith.
Darth Sidious had done the same after killing his entire family by his own hands, but that had been on their own shoulders. Surely everyone else, but his father, the wretch, hadn’t deserved their lives taken, but they would have told, and he would have been ruined.
Strangely enough as he kept falling, his mind turned to the light. Not the Light side of the Force, benign and choking, but the literal glow of hyperspace-blue transition that was something of an indicator that things weren’t as they supposed to be.
“Damn you Vader” he refused to call him Anakin.
The Dark side sang to him, no longer a soothing lullaby, instead she was an aria of suffering and pleasure as she delighted in his rage. Like a sadistic lover she tore into the Emperor of the Galaxy cackling in his ears, feeding off the Sith’ari. He knew that this wouldn’t be the end, contingencies had been set for this precise moment.
Gallius Rax awaited on Jakku with his fleet and with Operation Cinder, the slate would have been wiped clear and then they would return! His subjects had betrayed him and the empire had failed in protecting him. Now it deserved damnation in return.
Why would he care about the trillions of ants that inhabited the Galaxy when he had been a Krayth Dragon?! His plans had been absolute and why had the Force failed him then? The howling laughter and whispers of the Dark Side was his only answer while the Light was soaring above, casting judgement that would never come.
It ensnared his every being, filled his eyes, his nostrils and mouth so that the former emperor couldn’t scream. As Palpatine’s vision was consumed by the light, the Dark of the Force whispered to him hungrily.
Smite the pretenders, ruin them. Summon storms and tear all asunder. My master, what splendid monster you have become- I am only yours.
On Korriban in the tomb of Marka Ragnos, four Sith stood clad in dark crimson robes, their lightsabres casting shadow upon the altar painted in blood of the chamber, while a bound human male writhed in barbed chains that bit into his skin. The Dark Side of the Force was strong here, its touch, burning. Each second spent in the chamber tried to erode their will and surrender to its siren call, more and more power was needed to keep it bay.
“Lord Ragnos the Horned we beckon thee!” called One of the North as his sabre cut signs of destruction into the air.
“Master of the Dark we seek thee” One of the South hissed, through the force pressing the chains of slavery into the sacrifice that roared in pain as its barbs drew more blood.
“Pretenders sully thine name” One of the East said before singing hymns of treachery.
“Return to claim what is rightfully yours, o master of masters” One of the West shouted and surrendered himself to the Dark Side of the Force.
His peers followed suit. Letting the Force flow through them, the four Sith rose into air surrendering to its dark purpose. Drunk on Boga’s promise they felt not how their limbs twist from their sockets, the blood flowing through their veins started flowing backwards or how their bones shatter, for they felt the touch of the Dark Side and its jubilation as the sacrifice writhed in their chains upon the sacrificial altar.
The Sith knew not what it was, but the fact that the vaguely human resembling creature had been a Jedi, now living as a hermit since the Mandalorian wars, where it had followed the Pretender and her crony that merely played at the darkness and followed their flawed understanding of the subtle art of Sith. Glowing crimson the chains now remained the sole source of light in the adjacent chambers as a gale of wind blew out all blue flames from the braziers.
Suspended in the air, the four bodies started to speak. No longer their voices sounded their own, but bestial and completely alien to all of existence. From this guttural snarling a word spoken would send a pacifist in a mountain shattering rage, but to the prisoner it meant very little as whatever had remained from its senses, that had been overwhelmed by the pain he had been subjected to.
Everyone in the room were corpses, whether they knew it or not, for their sacrifice had torn a hole in the space and time, bringing the Force with them. Darkness of future to come and the darkness of that was now, mingled in joyous reunion, like two old friends meeting, yet the moment of their joining was brief as this hole had been opened for a single purpose only.
To bring forth the Lord of Darkness, the one who would shroud the Galaxy into the twilight of the Sith for eternity- the Sith’ari.
As if all water was wrought from the participants of this gruesome ritual, their shrivelled husks dropped unceremoniously onto the ground, robes and armour becoming their funeral shrouds. Only the prisoner remained untouched upon the altar screaming their mind out as the Sith alchemy under the guidance of the Force shaped the living flesh like clay. The bones snapped and moulded under the touch of its virtuoso. Skin stretched over the exposed muscle, that rapidly changed to be suited for their next incarnation and before they knew it, a new man was standing in the middle of the chamber: disoriented, dazzled and puzzled of all that had happened.
Sheev Palpatine, Darth Sidious, looked down in the pool of blood surrounding him and his eyes widened at seeing his naked form. No older than that of twenty-five standard years, his unblemished body looked back at the Dark Lord of the Sith from the reflection in the blood. For first time in decades the former emperor was rendered speechless.
However, he took it as somewhat of a blessing.
Meanwhile a storm of the force shook the galaxy. On Dantooine, the Jedi masters, fell on their knees from the powerful tear in the force that sang of destruction and despair. The Dark Side’s grip seemed almost nigh unstoppable and even their enclaves of light could barely resist the tendrils of darkness. Dantooine, Alderaan, Coruscant, all felt the unnatural change that had appeared. As Master Vrook and his follow councillors reeled from the tonal shift in the force, they could only ask just what monstrosity Darth Malak would unleash on the galaxy.
In the Forests of Kashyk, Jolee Bindo with wobbling knees knew that whatever was happening now would make the war much harder.
On the Bridge of Leviathan, Malak clenched his fist to calm his breathing as the Dark Side of the Force filled his every being, overflowing his system with what felt like the combat stims back in the Mandalorian wars. Immediately he tried to sense what had just happened, questioning if it was his master returning or something awakening in the Sith tombs on Korriban. He tried to seek his answers in the Darkness of the force, but was only answered with silent laughter that taunted him. The nearby console cracked with lightning and Darth Malak wouldn’t allow anyone to contest his right to rule the galaxy. While he was needed elsewhere, Korriban would take the utmost priority. He would head there personally with Brandon and destroy this source of darkness and then he would have it all. Under his metal jaw, the cyborg was smiling and slowly walked towards Admiral Saul, his eyes shining with gold.
Darth Tenebrae scowled as the Dark side for the first time in over many centuries fell silent to him. the Emperor of the Sith had fallen deep into meditation and once clear future like a mirror now was clouded once more, this time by a darkness that wasn’t his. Like a scorned lover Vitiate fell into ungovernable rage and focused his malice into the Force, trying to find this source of darkness that had stolen the favour bestowed upon him. Was it his puppets using the Star Forge wrongly? Was it some long forgotten Sith spirit gaining incarnation? the Sith Emperor needed to know, for a wild card in Dejariik was the last thing he wanted before his goals could be enacted. So, he used his arts of sorcery to scry this source. As soon as he reached Korriban, Vitiate’s vision faded to black. It was like staring at a black hole in the force, of course this was not something new or unforeseen, but this Darkness seemed to be…different…living, even.
His yellow eyes gazed at raining Dromund Kaas and his thin mouth was set in a thin line.
Find the source of this darkness and kill it.
Was his single command to the Galaxy and most of his servants, who had already felt the disturbance in the force, silently set out to destroy whoever dared to stand against their lord.
On the Ship Ebon Hawk, Bastila Shan cried out in agony as she too sensed the Dark Side of the Force growing in strength, she could only hold onto the railings as their ship fled the destroyed planet of Taris, outshooting any Sith ships on their way to the hyperspace jump. With slow and agonized steps, the brunette reached into the force with her mind and tried to sense what was the cause of such darkness. Immediately she turned to Revan or Raven as was her new identity, but perplexingly like before felt her walk the line between both dark and the light, while showing no memories of being the Lady of the Sith.
As she crept with much difficulty into the room, she found the raven-haired woman, who was sitting on the bunk of her bed, head clutched in agony as tears streamed from her face. Bastila pitied the woman before her, even though she was responsible for the many atrocities that had happened in these short few years.
“Hey, are you alright?” she asked, leaning on the doorframe, looking on as Revan lifted her head up to look at her with clear green eyes. With some effort she struggled to get these words out of her mouth.
“W-What’s happening?” she asked, and the Jedi knew that her companion had just reopened her connection to the force, with all the benefits and drawbacks that came to the ones blessed by the Force. The other woman tried offer her a placating smile, yet the headache that came with the shift in the force, made it look more like a pained grimace.
“I had a feeling about you” the battle meditation practitioner said “That you might be like me. It’s a wonder the Jedi temple didn’t find you before then”
“I think the Jedi had more problems than finding too old padawans” she grimaced and through the Force Bastila felt the tremors in the Force slowly vanish as if the sudden surge of the Dark side were just to announce that it had arrived with as much pomp possible.
“Say Bas” while she didn’t like the nickname, the jedi would let it slide “What just happened? I mean my eyes suddenly got all dark and I experienced the worst hangover in my life. As you know this much better, your Jedi-ness, maybe you would probably know something about it…”
“Well something bad happened in the Force and it may be terrible for the Jedi”
She had no idea how true it rang, for at the moment dozens of ships were en route to Korriban at the behest of the Emperor of the Sith to kill the new challenger, while the Leviathan with Darth Malak approached to gauge this occurrence by himself.
Poor saps, they had no idea just how many souls they had consigned to oblivion, for Sheev Palpatine had long been the favourite of the Bogan and the heir of all the knowledge of the Sith. He had been the Sith who had single handily broken the back of the Jedi Order.
Grabbing a robe from one of the fallen cultists, Palpatine donned the blood-soaked garments with no small distaste and summoned the two lightsabres to his hand. Looking at the blades of the dead and felt a certain amount of irony.
A crude blade made of little better than scrap in exchange for a body gifted by the Force itself, maybe it was a sign of providence as looking at the massive design changes from his own time, these blades looked positively ancient, yet younger than the proton pack variant that fell out of fashion even longer ago. Asking for the Dark Side for clarification, Sidious saw the visions of mandalorians in armour fighting the Jedi, then followed by the brief lull of silence.
Smile blossomed on his face, revealing pearly white teeth and his eyes now shone with the very Force itself. So, he was thrust into the Galactic Civil war, years before Rusaan reformation, in the time of uncertainty, of war, where savage Sith Lords and arrogant Jedi fought in open.
He ignited the lightsabre and with small distaste saw that the blade was much longer than he would have preferred, but a Sith’s true weapon was never the lightsabre. It was their emotions, their determination and will of power that had guided them this far.
Thrown into millennia past, Darth Sidious would thrive, of course there would be obstacles to be faced. The human Sith Lord sensed multitude of beings rushing in the upper levels, murder and violence on their minds, while some shared an unguarded curiosity. To any other being in his situation, this might have seemed extremely dangerous.
However, Sidious had faced worse odds and it was a perfect time to test this new body. These fools would not know just whom they were facing. The chamber was bathed into crimson light as a gust of Wind extinguished the braziers and Darth Sidious became one with the shadows, spelling doom to those that had dared to enter the tomb.