Chapter 70: Interrupted
A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!
... This is fine.
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By the time Tylo and Aayla make it back to the laboratory’s central room, the doors that lead to the hidden base’s entrance hall are already beginning to open. A spike of anger shoots up out of Tylo’s mind at the idea that Darth Plagueis’ shade just… let these ‘guests’ in without forcing them to go through the same bullshit that Tylo had to. He has to take a moment to get himself back under control.
Unfortunately, he can’t just release his feelings into the Force, even now. He’s still holding the holocron after all, and if he did things the Jedi way for even a second, the fragment of a Sith Lord in his hands would know immediately. The Dark Side isn’t just all around him after several hours of meditating upon it. It permeates him, leaving him feeling powerful… but also in a very weird head state.
Like for instance, as he and Aayla come to a stop in the center of the main laboratory, Tylo sees Maris off in the corner, crouched over a terminal and typing away. His first thought is ‘good, I hope she’s making progress’. His second thought is to go over there, bend her over the terminal, and incentivize her to hack faster by fucking her from behind. She was his, after all. His Zabrak pet. His alien fuck toy. His-… his comrade and ally.
Tamping down on those dark, obsessive feelings, Tylo shudders. Maris looks back over her shoulder as they step in, a small smile alighting upon her face. She even gives them a nod that Tylo takes to mean she’s making good progress. Only, she freezes up partway through the motion, her gaze widening as she looks Tylo directly in the eye.
His eyes…
The thought causes his brow to furrow. His eyes? Tylo didn’t understand, but he also didn’t have time to question it. The doors from the entrance hallway have finished opening and their ‘guests’ have stepped through them. Instantly, Tylo finds himself on edge as he recognizes the two intruders. But then to be fair… the feeling is mutual.
“Jedi!”
Asajj Ventress immediately has her lightsabers in hand, an angry sneer on her face as she sees him and Aayla standing there. Likewise, a Mandalorian who’s wearing what looks to be Janga Fett’s armor draws her blasters at the same exact time. Unlike Asajj, who hesitates, the Mandalorian does not. She immediately fires, lunging forward as she does so with a snarl coming from her helmet.
Tylo’s reaction is to let his own saber leap into his hands, igniting it and deflecting the blaster bolts before they can hit him or the currently unarmed Twi’lek standing at his side. Then, with a snarl of possessive anger that this Mandalorian would dare to try and harm his pet, Tylo’s other hand comes up and finally lets loose the power that he’s been building inside of himself for hours.
Sith Lightning springs forth from Tylo’s fingertips, racing out of him faster than anyone can react to. It leaps forward and strikes the Mandalorian front and center, causing the armored female to let out a cry as she’s thrown backwards in an instant. For some reason, the lightning concentrates especially on her hands, until something in the fingers pops and fizzles and they flex wildly and involuntarily. Her pistols go flying from her grasp as she skids across the laboratory floor, propelled back by the Sith Lightning until Tylo finally lets up.
Ventress has frozen in place… but then, so have the other two women in the room. Aayla beside him and Maris over at the terminal… both are staring at him as Tylo heaves out a breath.
“Very well done, my apprentice. Very well done.”
From the ground where he’d had to discard it in order to defend himself, Plagueis’ voice speaks up out of the holocron. The Sith Lord’s shade doesn’t seem to be overly concerned about being dropped to the floor like an unnecessary paperweight, but Tylo still reaches down and picks up the holocron, setting it on the nearest table. Feeling more than a little self-conscious, he reins in the Dark Side as best he can. He pulls it inward and… and dominates it, doing his level best to control the corruptive, twisted power it offers, rather than letting it control him.
Tylo’s gaze is still on the smoking Mandalorian in that moment, which is why he finally picks up on her thoughts.
B-Bastard… fried my hands. Can’t… can’t let him win. Have to… have to find Boba…
His eyes widen in shock as he realizes the Mandalorian dressed like Janga Fett isn’t just dressed like her… she IS her. She’s shockingly alive for a dead woman, but it all makes sense. Her hands would have to be prosthetics, given he’d cut off her biological hands. And with her holding her pistols out in front of her like that, the very first thing the Sith Lightning had jumped to had been her weapons and then her hands.
Still, how did she survive? Tylo’s eyes snap to Asajj next, the Sith Assassin frozen in place, her yellow gaze wide as she stares at him in shock.
What the fuck is going on? He’s a Jedi, isn’t he? That’s Jedi Master Aayla Secura right next to him! And yet… and yet, his eyes are Sith Yellow!
They were? Well… shit. That explained Maris’ reaction. Fuck him… but no. He couldn’t let himself be distracted. Fett and Ventress were both out for blood right now. And while his own emotions were running rampant… well, fortunately the short ‘lesson’ that Darth Plagueis’ holocron had given him was based more on controlling his emotions over giving into them. Marshalling himself, Tylo sets his jaw as he holds his blue lightsaber out in front of him. If nothing else, the Sith Lighting and Yellow Eyes would be enough to ward off any accusations that he was Jedi solely based off of saber color, right?
“Janga Fett. Boba is alive and well. You have my word.”
The Mandalorian woman isn’t smoking anymore, but she is still sprawling out on the ground, twitching and suffering from the loss of her hands. Again.
“Tch. Jetii Bastard… I’ll kill you if you’ve touched a hair on her head.”
Tylo can’t help it. A smile spreads across his face that is not at all a nice smile. His eyes flick to Asajj, who freezes up under his gaze.
“I haven’t harmed your daughter, Janga. In fact, I saved her. From Death Watch.”
Wait, what?!
Janga’s confusion is great, but Ventress’ reaction is even better. Tylo probably shouldn’t take so much satisfaction or enjoyment in this, but as her eyes widen in horror and she launches herself forward, he’s undeniably amused.
No! Have to shut him up before he turns Fett against me!
As Ventress’ lightsabers flash out, she does so with a fear and a rage that Tylo finds himself reaching out and feeding upon. The Sith Assassin has not been trained to control her emotions. And so they control her. Disappointing, but also preferable, all things considered. She reaches for the Dark Side in a way that Tylo finds almost too easy to usurp, and as she brings her sabers down on him, he’s able to position himself so that his single blade blocks both of hers.
Then, he shoots her with more Sith Lightning.
“AAAAAHHHHH~”
Asajj crumbles a this feet, shaking and spasming under the barrage of electricity coursing through her body. The bald Sith shudders as Tylo puts on the hurt, reveling in her despairing, but also aroused screaming. Wait… aroused? Tylo blinks and cuts out the Lightning, leaving Ventress smoking much the same way as Janga was. Except there’s one major key difference. The Sith Assassin is turned on, absurd as that sounds. She was getting off on being electrocuted.
F-Fuck… just as… just as powerful as my Master. So good… nnngh~
Tylo really didn’t know how to feel about that. On the one hand, it swelled his pride, making the Dark Side he’d let permeate him churn with happiness at her acknowledgment of his power and strength. On the other hand, Ventress was his enemy, not his slave. But then… she could be easily enough, couldn’t she?
“Enough.”
Plagueis’ voice suddenly cuts through the din, the shade having projected himself from the top of the holocron. Suddenly, the laboratory comes alive with defenses, turrets cycling out of the wall and a pressure building within the room. Tylo stiffens because the turrets don’t just point at Ventress and Janga… they also point at him and Aayla.
“As lovely as it is to see you progressing swiftly through my lessons, apprentice, I will have answers now. Who are these two? One of them has the mark of MY apprentice in her training. A step removed perhaps, but I sense Sidious’ touch on her all the same. Meanwhile, you clearly know the Mandalorian. Explain.”
Tylo opens his mouth to do exactly that, but before he can, Ventress speaks up, teeth chattering as she forces the words out all the same.
“M-My M-Master… is Count Dooku. A-Apprentice to D-Darth Sidious…”
He’s very tempted to subject Asajj to more Sith Lightning, regardless of how much she enjoys it or not, but with the turrets trained on him, he doesn’t dare risk turning Plagueis against him and his allies entirely. Even if he feels powerful enough to survive whatever the fragment of a Sith Lord could throw at him right now, he won’t risk Aayla or Maris. They’re his after all, and he’s feeling VERY possessive at the moment.
“… So then, Sidious’ line did continue after his defeat?”
Asajj’s face scrunches up in confusion and she readily shakes her bald head, making Tylo’s teeth clench in annoyance.
“N-No… my Master’s M-Master… still l-lives as far as I k-know…”
Tylo isn’t surprised when the flickering, spectral Muun turns a piercing gaze in his direction. He also isn’t cowed. Fine then. Ventress had revealed the lie, so it’s time for the fucking truth, he supposed. Anything to buy time at this point really.
“She is correct. Sidious… or rather, Sheev Palpatine is still alive and Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic. Which is still at war with the Separatists, battles between Clone Troopers and their Jedi Generals fought against droids battalions on the daily all across the galaxy.”
The shade’s eyes narrow.
“… I see. But I am dead. This holocron would not have activated if the true Darth Plagueis were still alive.”
It’s a small thing, but Ventress’ breath hitches at the name ‘Plagueis’. This is enough. The spectre of the Sith Lord immediately swivels around, his eyes focusing on the sprawled Sith Assassin.
“You know of me.”
When Ventress stays quiet, more of the turrets in the laboratory swing around to her direction, the threat clear. Not all of them though, making Tylo’s lips thin out as he avoids so much as glancing over at Maris, all forgotten in her own little corner of the lab.
“Elaborate. Now.”
Fuck. Fuck me, I’m so fucking fucked. Sithspit, this is the fucking worst. How the hell am I supposed to get out of here?
In the end, her panicked thoughts provide her with no method of escape. Trapped and cornered, and in no physical state to make a run for it thanks to the lightning treatment Tylo gave her, Ventress bows her head submissively towards the holocron.
“… My Master, Count Dooku, mentioned you only once. He spoke of you in… respectful terms, my Lord.”
“Quit prevaricating child. Tell me. Now.”
“… He said that Sidious slew you in your sleep. That for all your power, you never even saw it coming. It was… a lesson, I think. To never let my guard down. Ever.”
Wow. Well, that explained exactly how Hego Damask died, Tylo supposed. Slain by his own apprentice. That was rough. Hopefully it would turn Plagueis’s fragment against Sidious and they could get out of this intact. Hell, maybe the shade would even be willing to just give them Order Zero after all of this? Tylo feels a tendril of hope rising within his chest… only for it to be ruthlessly crushed by the next words out of the holocron.
“Heh. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. Treachery IS the way of the Sith.”
Then, he turns to Tylo and Aayla, more of the laboratory’s turrets turning with him.
“And the way of the Jedi too, it would seem. Lies upon lies. You truly had me fooled, but in the end all you desired was a way to stop the Grand Plan, isn’t that right? You wished to use Order Zero to halt my and my apprentice’s work in its tracks.”
Tylo’s jaw clenches and the shade of Darth Plagueis lets out a humorless laugh.
“What? Did you think I might be swayed from the path just because Sidious killed the real Plagueis? The Sith have been working towards this revenge for a THOUSAND years. You Jedi are to be applauded for getting this close to stopping us, but this is where-!”
Much like back in the meditation chamber, the spectral Plagueis cuts himself off again. His head twitches to the side, and his eyes widen as he looks over at one Maris Brood, having been typing away at her terminal all this time, access granted hours ago by the Sith Lord himself.
“What?! What have you done?”
Grinning a truly savage, satisfied grin, Maris presses a button… and the laboratory’s defenses cycle back into the walls, the turrets disappearing in an instant. Looking mightily pleased with herself, Maris shrugs and gives Tylo an explanation, not Plagueis.
“I thought he was an AI at first or at least partially. That he was hardwired into the system or something. But no. He’s a spirit tied to his holocron, isn’t he? Meaning his access actually isn’t any different from any biological’s access. So I took away his admin rights, and removed his login credentials from the system completely. I’m the admin of this laboratory now.”
Now please Tylo… please say you can fight this. Those eyes… please don’t be too far gone.
Slowly, Tylo looks to the holocron. For the first time since they’ve ‘met’, the shade of Darth Plagueis looks absolutely flummoxed. If nothing else, it’s another sign that this fragment of the Sith Lord is only a facsimile of what once was. The real Darth Plagueis wouldn’t have been so blind to what Maris was doing… or so Tylo assumed. But from the very beginning, the holocron hadn’t seen Maris as anything but a worthless pet.
Even Aayla had rated as more than Maris. Though Tylo supposed that it made sense. A Jedi Padawan would barely register for a Sith Lord’s Holocron when the other options where a Jedi Knight and a Jedi Master who had both touched the Dark Side before.
And yet, it was that Jedi Padawan who had turned the tables on Darth Plagueis’ shade and left him powerless within his own laboratory. Smiling at the spectral figure, Tylo chuckles darkly.
“What did you say before, ‘Master’? Treachery is the way of the Sith.”
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[X] Tylo destroys the holocron... with his lightsaber - 57%[ ] Tylo destroys the holocron... with Sith Lightning - 9%[ ] Tylo thinks better of it and decides to keep the holocron for now - 34%
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