“What kind of ship is this?” Allen peered around the scout ship’s bridge, his single eye wide. “This technology is comparable to the Coalition!”
“Comparable my ass,” Dan rolled his eyes. The FTL tech from Nolan’s memory was abysmal, slower than even hyperspace. “Let’s hurry this up, I have business of my own…”
He pressed a button and the scout leapt from Earth’s solar system, across the galaxy in an instant. The kryptonian vessel slipped from the phantom zone and into orbit around a red star. Alarms blared in series, mechanical tones that warned of multiple target locks.
“What just happened…” Allen squinted at the system, displayed on the bridge monitors. His jaw fell slack and he glanced at Dan. “Is this Talescria?”
“You got it,” Dan frowned and cancelled the alarms. “Now hail your friends , or they’ll scratch the paint on my ship.”
A dozen warships had surrounded the smaller scout, weapons charged and ready to fire. The scans showed his shields would likely repel a salvo or two, but the numbers were too uneven. They could all survive in space, but he’d rather spare the trouble of calling a new ship.
“Right away!” Allen fumbled for a communicator on his belt and began a conversation in another language. Dan settled the scout into a stable orbit and motioned for the others to follow to the airlocks.
“Let go, say hello and hand out some gifts,” Dan held out a hand to Atom Eve and let Venom release a symbiote. “Take this, it will let you breathe in space and boost your strength.”
“This is what you and Mark are wearing?” Eve squinted at the tar coloured blob with a sceptical eye. “It’s kind of gross…”
“It’s a symbiotic life form,” Dan placed the clone on the ground and let it snake toward the girl's feet. “It fortifies its host in exchange for nutrients it can't collect on its own.”
“Are you sure it’s safe?” Eve collected the clone inside a sphere of pink light and held it up for inspection. “It looks awfully hungry.”
“You just need to feed it a lot of chocolate and it won't be tempted to eat anything else,” Dan shrugged and turned to Allen as the alien wrapped up his call. “What’s the word, big man?”
“The Great Thaedus wants to meet with you all personally,” Allen leaned in to examine Eve’s trapped symbiote clone. “Can this thing boost anyone's power?”
Dan tossed the alien a cloned Venom of his own and turned back to Eve, hand on the airlock controls. Eyebrow raised, he motioned for her to wear the symbiote.
“Fine,” Eve dispelled her construct and let the black ooze reach out and embrace her. “But it still creeps me out…”
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“It’s time,” Doom tapped the stone under his feet and drew Darth Maul from his meditations. “Your Master stands in the haze of victory and Utron has begun to move.” Victor held out a helmet, crafted from an alloy of his own creation. “Will you take the mantle of Secret Mandalore? Once Jango retires as the public face of their empire, you alone will command their armies.”
Maul gazed at the helmet, conflicted in his heart. Acceptance would bring him a large step closer to his destiny, an empire that answered to only him. Doom’s mysterious Master held the reins for now, but Maul believed in his promised fate. A press of his well toned muscles brought him to his feet, hand extended to seize the Helm of Mandalore.
“I’ll accept your offer, but I won’t serve your - or any - Master, ever again,” Maul placed the helmet on his head and reached for the rest of the armour, stacked neatly on the floor beside him. No one else would decide his path from now on. “I’ll deal with you and him as equals, nothing else is acceptable.”
“Very good,” Doom smiled and unclipped the Darksaber from his belt. He tossed the relic to Maul and clapped his hands. “Let’s go, your old Master's dreams won't bury themselves.”
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‘The time is now… he is asleep, defenceless… take what is yours, or live forever in his shadow…’
The cold whisper of the dark side trickled in his mind as he stood in the doorway of his study. Plagueis had joined him for celebratory drinks, a true expression of camaraderie that Sidious almost enjoyed. His Master lay, deep in slumber, and the force sang.
‘There is only one Sith Lord… his era has come and gone… rise up and claim the mantle of Lord…’
Sidious let the door close, cold eyes almost mechanical. Every moment of his life, ever since he first heard the voice of the force, had been aimed toward this. The empty hunger that sat in place of his soul cried out in ecstasy. Everything would be his. The galaxy would move to his will, set beneath him as he evolved beyond frail mortality.
The room blurred and he stood at his Master’s side, lighting on the tips of his fingers. Thick bolts of raw power, directed at the rebreather on Plagueis’ neck. The ruthless cascade fried the mask and began a countdown on the Sith Lord’s life.
“Unnn…” Plagueis’s orange-red eyes snapped open, but the man didn’t move. He met Sidious’ gaze, a challenge. Plagueis was the master of life and death, deluded into the belief he was beyond it.
“Let’s go over the second part of my Chancellor acceptance speech, shall we?” Sidious mocked as his master suffocated. He reached into the pit of shadows that was his heart and let the dark side fill him. More power than he’d ever channelled before, all directed into a wave of force-lightning. “You lost the game the very first day you chose to train me to rule by your Empire as a puppet king…”
Sidious peered at his Master through the force, even as he reached out and gripped his neck in a mental chokehold. The old fool still sought to gather his midichlorians and stave off the end, but a body that stood on the edge of death impeded the effort.
“Now you can see your experiments from the other side,” a flex of his will and Plagueis was dragged into the air. Sidious smiled, an expression of true joy that actually managed to reach his soulless eyes. “Without air, in a body that steps further from the living force with every moment, the task of holding onto life becomes an impossible task…”
A flick of his wrist and a force-storm manifested around his ‘master,’ a halo of chaotic energy that gnawed at the edges of reality. Hands of unrestrained electricity swarmed Plagueis, each one a push closer to the end. An end for one, but a beginning for the other. Sidious shook his head as the captured Sith’s eyes bulged.
“If you’re wondering, ‘When did he change,’ I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint,” Sidious chuckled as the light began to dim in his old master’s gaze. “The truth is, I haven’t changed… as we blocked the vision of the Jedi, I granted you the same privilege and fed you an illusion of the future you desired.”
A clench of Sidious’ fist and a final gasp flowed from Plagueis’ lungs, a death rattle that echoed into the force. The legacy of the rule of two, the might of Bane and every true Sith after, roared in satisfaction and rampaged into Lord Sidious like a welcome storm.
“I will be crowned emperor, and the revenge of the Sith shall be complete,” Sidious opened new eyes to the world, black holes that choked life from the air. “Power… infinite power…” A glance of disgust for his fallen master as he revelled in the changes within his body and soul. “It was wasted on you, so I’ll take it for myself.”
His mind expanded, beyond the shackles of this flesh. The hole at the core of his being collapsed, reborn as an ink-black singularity. A cheshire grin forced its way onto Sidious’ face. The stars themselves trembled as he completed his true coronation, remade as the new Lord of the Sith.