NOVEL NEXT Chapter 10: Heavy is the Crown
{picture in end comments}
In the universe, the worlds who call themselves kings and queens were the first to burn…. As war, reached every corner and every cesspit… Oh…How I saw it all… locked between stone and ether…
from Empress Teta war on the stars for unification…. To the times of peace… that were bought and sold through back channels. I SAW IT ALL! Locked within the force… and unable to change it… I watched my father die again and again… I watched world after world… sold… to believe in the illusion of balance and peace…
oh! Foolish warrior empress... She should have known… there must have been signs… of the Jedi's faults… but Odan-urr and his apprentice were just that convincing… and in those one hundred and seventy-five years of her reign she never noticed… or she chose not to see it… perhaps she was too busy chasing 'shadows' steps…
But even I have to admit… that his creations in alchemy are worth dying for… maybe I should pay a visit to Yavin 4… after all, the man held many secrets!
→Excerpt by Lucifron's personal journal←
With feathers soaked in black and blood, Lucifron stared at the blood-stained window of the ship, as the escape pods fled from him! Their engines burning like small stars on the run. A sight that put on a great smile on Lucifrons as he looked at the cosmos.
[are you sure about this Lucifron… should we have let them go? They will tell others of this…]
{hmm…. Excellent! That's exactly what I want! Leon…Their stories won't change anything in the long run… whether believed or not! It makes no difference! They are but small fireflies for the grander picture I have envisioned!}
[and if I may ask… lord… what is this grander picture? Is it not just vengeance on the republic?]
{hmm… Leon, vengeance is good, but that alone won't satiate my true pain… in any case, I remember you saying something about how this ship is an aspiration to the republic... Is it not?} replied Lucfiron as he continued to stare off into space.
[dodging my question huh? I guess he doesn't trust me… meh whatever…] thought Leon before replying:
[yes… as I stated before this ship is a type of symbol to the republic... Is that important?]
{only just…. As this will be a perfect opportunity to turn one of their beloved symbols of power or 'peace' into a symbol of fear and mistrust!}
[oh! So, what's the plan then? Are we going to crash the ship into an important place, or just get rid of it with an audience?]
{all good choices… but no Leon... we will be doing neither of those… no… no... in fact… I think our new friends in hut space will love this type of ship don't you think…}
[Ah…. I see… I think I get it…]
{do you now?}
[no…]
{sigh, Leon}
[yeah!]
{Just... is there anything else on this ship that can be of use?}
[hmm… Oh! They're still the droid problem… we can't exactly take them with us to Varl]
{Ah! Yes… the little trinkets humans like to make… what of them? Anything useful out of the lot?}
[I don't know, maybe information on the republic but I'm not sure we have the time to go through all that right now… might be better to just off the lot of them if you get my meaning… after all even just one of them, could lead the republic force to our doorstep on Varl if left unchecked.]
{good point… very well! toss them into deep space then… after smashing in their head of course…}
[it will be done, my lord... But there is one I thought you should take a look at… you might find this one interesting…] replied Leon as he handed over a datasheet showing the droid in question.
Glancing over the datasheet, Lucifron's brows folded, as he looked over the droid image.
{your right… I'm very interested in this little guy…} said Lucifron but thought:
{But why would this vessel even have a droid like that on board? That doesn't make sense... It's not a type to…}
But while Lucifron was staring at an image of a sleeping droid, Ahsoka was staring at a mirage of images as the world around her T-6 sank into a swirl of twisting horrors!
As Ghostly hands and faces reached through her shuttle windows and screens, while radios played songs of begging pleas from clones she didn't save! To reform her body back to the form of a child in war! To the backdrop of a voice calling out whispers…. [snips!]
[Anakin!] She called but to no reply
Only silence as Geonosian eyes ran with blood! While a queen lay buried under stone and rock… where a traitorous friend's voice echoed in laughter as a backdrop… and within that laughter came out the sounds of two twin red-light sabers, paired with the echos of a dark breath!
With a quick turn and a strike, the figure holding the saber turned from a cloaked figure into Vader and then Barriss Offee in quick secession with each strike made! Ahsoka blocked each strike, but the fighting wouldn't end even as the background kept swapping to old battlefields she had fought on before.
But as the fighting continued, she began to notice, that they all shared one common aspect… one common theme…and that theme… was that the places where areas in which her opponent was either killed or a place, she herself had lost to! It was like a flashing memory of her past… of her mistakes… her nightmare she had to live with…
For as her opponent would strike her, the world theme would be on fire as the souls she conquered would hate her! The machines that no one thought had a soul reached for her in a zombie-like manner! The townspeople she thought she saved blamed her for their slavery under the empire!
As her foe turned into an Inquisitor bathed in fog and flame! A man she knew not his name but killed him anyway. And while he lay there dissolving away in defeat, the flames turned ice cold as the world spun, to a saber bursting through Ashoka's chest from the back!
[and this is your reward!] said the voice fading with the fog of his body with a smile.
Dropping to her knees she hears a voice she faintly remembers…
{sister… why do you fight me so? In the end, you know you can't change anything… you can't save this era any more than you couldn't him or him…} said the son as the images of Anakin and Lux Bonteri appeared.
Refusing to believe the son's lies, Ahsoka stood on her feet, ignoring the pain and the hole in her chest, she stared into his eyes and said:
[this is what you show me… ghost and whispers of my past... To what end? Umm! Is this why you escaped your prison world? To try to strip me of what? Hope! To make me feel despair? The era isn't set in stone yet! I can still stop you!]
{...}
[what! You have nothing else left to say!]
{ha! No dear sister… it's just… you're as spunky as I remember… it's a shame we can't keep talking like this… as this galaxy is at its end… whether you stop me or not, that is the future set in stone…}
[what do you mean? Brother!] said Ashoka in a voice not her own
{I see your pet still follows your chosen prison… like you, I've also chosen a prison for myself… to change the future…} said the brother as a vulture and an owl flew in a circle above their heads.
[change it? But didn't you just say…]
{I know what I said, SISTER! I still believe by its 'nature the future can be changed' and because of that belief, I will do what I have to!} screamed the brother as a clock in the shape of planets and stars moves an hourglass.
[if what you say is true brother… then I will have to stop you! I can't let you remake the galaxy in your image!]
{my image is better than the alternative sister…. And you know it…. I never wanted to be the force… just to be like it… sister even you can see them coming… Can't you?}
To those words, Ashoka regained control of her conscience as the world behind the brother, turned to that of ships of an alien kind! In hundreds of thousands! Alive in beast and hungry to devour! As the earth Ahsoka stood on changed to that of Coruscant! While its sky burned and the planet screamed in the force!
{ha…take a good look sister… this is your reward…} said the brother as he vanished in smoke.
With scenes of fire and blood, with beast brutality, the aliens conquered world after world! In such cruelty that even had Ahsoka wishing for the empire to still be in charge! And with that wish the void claimed the vision as a vulture alien stood in front of her in chains made of stars and black blood!
[who are you…] said Ahsoka as she slowly approached the chained alien
{*huh* I'm…I'm the one who will open the door!}
[you! You would have these aliens destroy our galaxy!]
{what they do matters not to me… let them quench this galaxy in fire! All that matters is that I claim what I wish!}
Hearing the alien talking about a wish, had Ahsoka thinking about all the visions she had until now and came to a conclusion…
[all this… For vengeance… you would plunge our home to destruction for something so petty…]
[petty… you say... HA! Hah! Petty you say! You think I'll do all this just for something like Vengeance! Sure, it's a huge part of it I can't lie… but… it's not what I crave… what I desire…]
[then what do you desire…]
{he. Hā…heaven…my heaven…that I was denied and kicked out of!} screamed Lucifron as red and black energy swirled to the sky around many bones of fallen creatures.
[and to enter your so-called 'heaven' you would break the galaxy?] replied Ahsoka while wincing from the power display.
{I would do worse than break it! If that is what it took! A creature such as you would never understand! Ahsoka! You still have your heaven… how nice… how fortunate…}
[what happened to your people was a mistake… it shouldn't have happened… and I know these words hold no weight… heck, they may even sound insulting to you, but I can't let you doom the galaxy just so you can go to this 'heaven'.]
{ha… hahaaa! Ahsoka you may think you control the winds like some god! But in the end, you will blow my sails! Home! The sea of stars are waiting! Calling to me…}
[they can call all they want! But once I tell others about this, the republic will stand in your way!]
{ha! The republic has gotten fat and rotted! You know as much as I do, they will not chase after that in which they believe to be fairy tales! Peace has made you weak! Sure, you may gather a few, maybe even fellow Jedi… Oh! Right, you're not a Jedi… I wonder if they will even believe you… such a child she is… in the force… so much power yet so blinded to the obvious… she still doesn't even know yet…. How laughable is that! Grandmaster of the Jedi! Haha! What a fool!}
[that's because you're clouding the force with the dark side!]
{ha... Hahaha! Clouding the force! ha! I don't even have to… such is the fate of those who lack the knowledge…. Ha… of all your master's success that is the one thing he did right! He destroyed their pillars! And now they are left to wonder alone in the dark… who knows what they will find? Haha!}
Hearing such insults infuriated Ahsoka but she had to admit that this alien had a point, though her voice did hold weight, how much did it really… in a galaxy that has known peace for decades…
{come then! Ahsoka! Try to stop me! I welcome the challenge!}
With those words, Ahsoka felt the vision ending, collapsing even as glass shatters, prompting her to ask:
[what is your name…]
{ha…sister… how can you not know the name of your brother?}
With those words as his finale, the chained alien was pulled under the bloody mirror waters, to be replaced by the image of the son! And by simply looking at him Ahsoka whispered the name… Lucifron!