-I have seen you, imposter-
This voice. It's not one I've heard before....
-What do you hope to achieve by taking the title of Sith? What right did you claim that by-
Right? Did there have to be a right for such a thing? There wasn't for anything else in the universe. Most just took what they wanted.
-You think you are wise but you are not. You are like a child just learning how to ride a speeder. I will see to it that you crash and burn. Your fall is inevitable-
If it's inevitable, then there shouldn't be a need for any threats...
-.....-
My eyes opened and I took in the scene around me. It was some type of fancy office overlooking buildings that literally touched the skyline. Airspeeders traveled outside the wall length window, they soon became blurry like my eyes could no longer focus on them. All the details of the room started to lose focus as I turned in a circle to take them in. It looked like murky water had settled in the air and kept me from correctly seeing what was around me.
-How did you get here-
I turned around, seeing a shadowy figure with their hood drawn up obscuring the face. Only two yellows eyes peered at me from beneath it. Behind them was the projection of a sphere with some type of indent on one side. The dimensions of it were huge if the projection was anything to go by.
-I demand you answer!-
I don't even know who you are much less how I got here. But I know I'll be seeing this place again. You want to fill me in on all of this stuff or—
-SILENCE-
I finally, finally, really awoke to the sound of alarms blaring everywhere. It seemed different than when the pirates borded us but still not as good. I felt the ship lurch forward like it's done so many times before and settle for a moment before it slammed back. Apparently they still haven't found a safe route back to the Core Worlds if these constant jumps were anything to tell by. I steadied myself on with one hand on the ceiling of my bunk—
My eyes snapped open as I sat up.
I wasn't in chains.
I wasn't bound to the floor of the starship.
I was still free.....
I clenched and unclenched my hands a few times, turning my wrists this way and that just to make sure. I stood up quickly, doing every stretch I could think of(against the wall of whatever sleeping quarters I was in since we went into lightspeed two more times) just to confirm it. I really wasn't imagining it or having another kind of vision. This was real.
I took a deep breath in and slowly let it out to get my raging heart under control. I didn't know what it meant or how I should take it that I was not put into chains after getting back aboard the Royal Siren—it comes up again—but I couldn't keep the excitement or the burning desire of it from happening again, out of my system. This newfound freedom was going to be mine and I would hold onto it forever.
-Through Power, I gain Victory
Through Victory, my Chains are Broken-
I shook my head, clearing it of the past. Now wasn't the time to remember lessons of my former Master. More important things needed to be figured out.
After I finished my light workout I stepped outside into the hallway. I could hear the raised voices of the group and started towards them before I stopped. I looked back in my room, searching it from the doorway since the spartan living quarters left no hiding places. When I scanned the whole area and didn't find what I was looking for, my blood boiled. Rage filled me completely and I stormed back out into the hallway and to the common area where the voices were.
When I arrived I didn't even hesitate in unleashing the raw control of the Force that I had. Knowing it was there, I ripped my lightsaber from Master Shaddoc's waist and gripped it tightly to my chest, almost turning away like I was protecting it.
"YOU HAD NO RIGHT!!" I screamed at the man, the Dark Side swirling around me like a uncontrollable maelstrom. The room started to shake and rumble from my outburst which caught the Jedi off guard at first.
They recovered quickly and ignited their sabers, bathing the room in green and blue hues while standing to protect the Padawan and each other. In my fury I ignited mine as well, the yellow clashing with theirs and making shadows dance everywhere. The Padawan scrambled under the table and started screaming, I raised my hand high preparing to strike at all three of them, our brief alliance from before be damned.
Suddenly, it felt like time slowed to a crawl. Everything became hyper focused in my mind and a brief ghostly image superimposed itself over the group. It was for an instant, but it shattered my rage with a sound akin to broken glass. As fast as it was there it was gone, and I was back in the common area. My hand lowered in.....I don't really know what kind of emotion it was, but it mattered little.
I had a Jedi Master leaping at me.
Before I could blink Master Shaddoc was in my face, his blue lightsaber bearing down on my head. I had just enough time to throw my hand up defensively before our blades clashed and the jarring sound of two lightsabers connecting filled my ears. Suddenly a foot was in my side, striking me fiercely and pushing me away from Shaddoc. The air left my lungs, and I doubled over, sliding backwards until I struck the bulkhead wall behind me.
"Shaddoc wait!"
I raised my head up and my hand was already moving, somehow knowing to block the sideways slash that would have bisected me. Again the clash of our blades rang out and Shaddoc was in my face again. His fury was raging in the Force now, utterly encompassing me. I was so shocked that I wasn't even able to try and turn it on him and soak it in, so frightened from my ghostly vision and mental backlash that I was almost completely frozen.
The Force warped the air around us, ripping Master Shaddoc away from me and letting me have a breather from it all. When I saw that he was being physically pushed away from me by Master Wamo I finally crashed to my knees and gulped in air, the events that all lead to this finally catching up to me. I turned off my lightsaber and clutched it to my chest, trying to use it to push away the rising hysteria and anxiety.
"He attacked us first!!"
"He only took his lightsaber from you, you're the one that attacked first!"
"He is the enemy Wamo! Why can't you see that!? We have found the Sith that the Council has been talking about and you want to treat it like it's done no harm to this galaxy!"
"Look at him Shaddoc!! Really look at him! Does he look like the type that has caused the Separtist Movement and the Clone Wars to begin? He is barely in his adulthood! He would have only been a child just before the Separtists left the Republic! There is no way he could conduct such elaborate schemes at such a young age!" Master Wamo was looming over Shaddoc now, even though he was physically taller than her her presence overshadowed his.
"Look at this young man and tell me that he looks like the evil Sith Lord the Council warned us all about!"
"You had no right to take this from me! Before and now!" I moaned out to them all. "This is mine!"
"Oh shut up Sith! We're dealing with something now."
"What is your problem!!" I screamed at them, finally having enough of it.
"Our problem is you!" Master Shaddoc started to advance on me but was blocked by Wamo.
"But why!? I've literally done nothing to you! I didn't even know I had a problem with you before you kidnapped me! I've never seen you, Jedi were only whispered among my city since we were so far from Republic space, so what problem could you possibly have with me!?"
"It's because you're Sith!" Shaddoc spat out at me, spittle flinging in the air.
"Why is that such a problem!?"
This brought them both up short. Master Shaddoc literally recoiled and his face was the most surprised I've ever seen. Internally I was glad to have the upper hand in this argument and I was going to run with it.
I needed answers.
"What does being Sith have anything to do with you attacking me out of nowhere, almost killing me multiple times, your massive amounts of anger, and kidnapping me from my home!? I was living in the far reaches of no where and you both just come in and destroy it all! No warning, no pretense, nothing at all! It's-it's like you thought I'd kill someone first—"
"Do you really not know?"
My voice caught in my throat. I looked at Master Wamo now, she had a weird expression, like she didn't know whether or not a certain food was good. I looked back at Master Shaddoc, and he had a vastly different expression than he had before. Genuine shock was all I saw, nothing else could even come close to describing his face. My whole argument died before I could get more steam under it.
"What am I supposed to know?"
Master Wamo glanced at Shaddoc and her face turned into one giving news of a death in the family. This was turning more and more against what my thought process was going.
"Please, sit. It seems we have much to talk about."
"After I just accused you of attacking and kidnapping me, you want to....talk?"
"Please, Sith."
This threw me for a loop. This was the first time either of them had used my Title and it sounded so.....sorrowful. Goosebumps raised on my skin and made me shiver.
"My name is Zavart."
"Then please, will you sit Zavart?"
I felt lost now. I felt my body move on it's own, not like before when I stopped to defend us on the pirate ship, but almost like I had become emotionally detached. I tried to think of a way to regain control of the situation and muster some rage again but I couldn't and had already sat down. Masters Shaddoc and Wamo then slowly slid into some seats on the other side of the table and began after getting comfortable. The Padawan had scrambled out from under it long ago and hid in a corner.
"Do you know what a Sith is Zavart?" Wamo asked, starting somewhere.
"Of course I do. It's what I am. Where are you going with this?"
Wamo looked like she had to forcibly swallow her frustration with me.
"The Sith are the immortal enemy of the Jedi."
I leaned back in the bench then. That was news to me. It wasn't like you learned a lot about the Force Sensitive people of the galaxy if you didn't live in the Core Worlds, especially if you didn't live on Coruscant the base of the Jedi. Wamo could tell that this got my attention and continued on.
"Jedi and Sith have battled and killed each other for thousands of generations. Before there were Starships, before there were blasters, before even lightsabers, the war between the Light and Dark started. Some have theorized that the birthplace of the Jedi and Sith, originally one group, was on one of the Inner Core Worlds; when we could no longer keep the balance between us, we expanded. One group went one way and one group went the other. It's led to what we know as the Dark and Light Side of the Force."
She took a breath and let me take this all in.
"I say this to you so that you can understand our, hesitant and somewhat aggressive behavior. There are, Legends, if you will. Accounts of the past, back in the Old Republic, that talk of a galaxy spanning war between the Republic's Jedi and the Sith's Empire. It tells us of the Jedi almost being wiped out. The Force was out of balance and trillions died in the battles that waged everywhere. The Sith wanted to conquer all. They killed, pillaged, and stripped people and planets alike with no regard to who was there or what was essential to the life of a system. No one knows how but obviously the Jedi and Republic won which brought thousands of generations of peace for everyone, but still, we the Jedi believed that the Sith were still out in the universe; hiding and biding their time until they amassed enough power to conquer everything again."
"The Jedi have stood for thousands of years. Slowly collecting or destroying any Sith artifacts or areas that had any presence in the Force or cleansing them. To practice anything Sith like has been outlawed in the Republic and is punishable by imprisonment or death. We are the Light that shines on the universe and uncovers the evil in it," Master Shaddoc cut in. His tone was as cold as some frost planets I've heard talk of and he wanted to know exactly where I stood with him.
"And now you fucked it all up."
Everyone turned to the voice and saw the Captain standing in another corridor that lead to the cockpit. Her being there was a shock to everyone since the constant jumps in and out of hyperspace had almost become accustomed to.
"What makes you say that Captain?" Master Shaddoc said with less ice in his tone.
"Because the Jedi are traitors to the Republic," which she accompanied with turning on the Holo News that was going on right then.
"The remaining Jedi will be hunted down and defeated!"
"The attempt on my life...has left me scarred...and deformed."
"But I assure you. My resolve has never been stronger!"
Applause broke out which kept anything from being said for some time. It was loud enough to even come over the mans microphone.
"In order to ensure the security...and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized...into the first Galactic Empire!"
"For a safe...and secure society!"
Applause and cheering were now and it seemed the actual Holo was vibrating to the level it got to. It then switched over to the anchors voice.
"If you're one of the many denizens of the universe just tuning in what you just heard was the new Galactic Emperor Palpatine declaring the end of the Clone Wars and the start of the 'Great Purge' of the Jedi traitors. Emperor Palpatine, who has seen us through the entirety of the Clone Wars and brought about its victory, had an assassination attempt made on his life just prior his announcement to the Senate. If you have any news on Jedi or think you have sighted one, please, do not hesitate to contact your local garrison of Clone Troopers for assistance."
"We are also being notified that if you'd like to help and join the Galactic Imperial Army you can sign up at your local—"
The Holo was flipped off then and the room went extremely quiet. Everyone's emotions were all over the place and the Force was in a maelstrom of anger.
"It's him."
It came out as a whisper, but in the confines of the common area it might as well have been a thunder clap.
"Palpatine, he's the one."
"What are you talking about Zavart?" Master Wamo cautiously asked me.
"What the hell is a Zavart?" The Captain asked in a low voice.
"That man, Palpatine. He's the Sith Lord you're looking for."
It took them all a heart beat to take in my words.
"You're joking, right?"
Unsurprisingly Master Shaddoc was the first to argue with me.
"Chancellor Palpatine, a Sith Lord. You must be out of your mind if you think we should really believe that. You must really think we're fools and we would be if we even entertained that."
"I saw him. In a dream, or a vision—I'm still trying to understand it. But a man talked to me. Called me an Imposter. Said I had no right to claim the title Sith and basically said he'd destroy me. And he looked exactly as Palpatine did."
"Zavart are you sure? If you're wrong about this—"
"Of course he's wrong about it Wamo! Chancellor Palpatine would never turn against the Republic or the Jedi because he's not a—"
"You just heard his announcement," I cut Master Shaddoc off. "You heard what he said, the Jedi attempted to assassinate him and he's telling the new Galactic Empire to hunt them all down. And he's no longer the Chancellor, he made an Empire now. He's Emperor Palpatine and he has a clone army coming for you. Anyone that is a Jedi is as much of a criminal as you say Sith are."
"So then what's our plan? Because right now I still have my ship heading towards Coruscant and we'll be there within the hour. That pirate attack and course corrections I had to make are putting us way behind schedule. And now I don't know if I'll need new registrations for this Galactic Empire or not so we could be detained and searched as soon as we enter the system."
Everyone stayed quiet then. With the current mood post galaxy wide announcement that Jedi were to be killed on sight, the two Masters with us were still coming to terms with being the new Public Enemy Number One.
The destruction and still smoking ruins of the now unusable Jedi Temple made it all believable though.