فصل 12

SEDUCED BY THE DARK SIDE OF THE FORCE

The obedient orphan stood shivering in swirling snow. Around him rose ice pinnacles shaped like jagged teeth a glacial wind howled through them. Plagueis stood nearby, flakes of snow and ice gyrating around him but never lighting on him, melting before they reached him. Unlike Sidious, who was outfitted in a thin enviro-suit, the Sith Lord was wearing only a cloak, narrow trousers, and a skullcap.

It was on this world that I first became aware of my Force powers and dark impulses, he said, loudly enough to be heard over the wind. Compared with temperate Muunilinst, Mygeeto is ruthless and uncompromising, but I learned to adapt to its harsh conditions, and before the age of eight I could venture out into the most violent storm dressed in less than you wear now. But I havent brought you here to acquaint you with my past, Sidious. If you were of a species acclimatized to these conditions, I would have brought you instead to a desert world. If you were an aquatic being, I would have stranded you on dry land. The divide between the ways of the Force as practiced by the Sith and the Jedi has less to do with the distinction between darkness or the presence of light than between—in your case—naked cold and the presence of warmth. Between distress and comfort, entropy and predictability.

Plagueis paused to regard Sidious. Your blood is close to frozen. Too much time here and you will die. That is what you will think at the beginning, when the dark side has sniffed you out and sidled up to you. You will think I will die the dark side will kill me. And its true, you will die, but only to be reborn. You must take deeply into yourself the knowledge of what it means to be removed you must feel it in the marrow of your bones, because it will ever be thus. Plagueis laughed shortly. Perhaps I sound like some professor of philosophy in that fine college of yours in Theed. But this isnt a lecture, nor should you think of it as physical conditioning. We need instead to prepare you for what awaits you should the dark side opt to take an interest in you. The comingling of fear and joy of being humbled and empowered of being escalated while at the same time used, as if an instrument. To be singled out and yet subsumed by an overarching grandness.

A predatory look came to his wan face as he advanced on Sidious.

Now tell me again, apprentice. And in greater detail.

Once more Sidious allowed his memories to unfold, and he relived the crime —the event, as he had at last come to think of it. His fathers limp and bloodied body. The smashed skulls of the bodyguards. His hands clenched around his mothers slender throat—but not really, only in his mind, strangling her with his thoughts. The lifeless forms of his siblings, slumped here and there … In telling and retelling it, in reliving it, he had finally gained a kind of authority over it, the ability to see the event merely for what it was, without emotion, without judgment. It was as if the event had occurred years rather than months earlier, and as if someone else had authored the crime. When that defining moment had come, a transforming power had curled up inside him, as dark as space without stars, born of hated and fear but one he could now draw upon.

Very good, Plagueis said, after the recounted tale had forced itself between Sidiouss blue and trembling lips. I can feel your remove, and sense your increasing power. He continued to appraise Sidious while the snow whirled between them. I cant have your will tempered by feelings of regret or compassion. You were brought into being to lead. Therefore you must see every living thing as nothing more than a tool to elevate you, to move you to your destined place. This is our galaxy, Sidious, our reality.

In this pitiless place, your power is forged.

Propelled by fear or hatred, even a Jedi can pass beyond the constraints of the Orders teachings and discover power of a more profound sort. But no Jedi who arrives at that place, who has risen above his or her allegiance to peace and justice, who kills in anger or out of desire, can lay real claim to the dark side of the Force. Their attempts to convince themselves that they fell to the dark side, or that the dark side compelled their actions, are nothing more than pitiful rationalizations. That is why the Sith embrace the dark from the start, focusing on the acquistion of power. We make no excuses. The actions of a Sith begin from the self and flow outward. We stalk the Force like hunters, rather than surrender like prey to its enigmatic whims.

I understand, Master, Sidious managed in a stuttering voice.

Plagueis showed him a malevolent smile. I once said as much to my Master, when in fact I understood nothing. I merely wanted to put an end to the pain. In a blur of motion, he tore open the front of Sidiouss enviro-suit. I am your torturer, Sidious. Soon you will make every effort to appease me, and with each lie you tell, with each attempt you make to reverse our roles, you will make yourself as shiny as an aurodium coin to the dark side.

So appease me, Sidious. Tell me again how you killed them. Sidious steadied himself on the scree slope, the jagged stones beneath his bloody palms, elbows and knees quivering, as if yearning to immerse themselves in the frigid waters of the crystalline blue lake at the base of the near sheer incline. A few meters above sat Plagueis, cross-legged atop a flat-topped outcropping, his back turned to Sidious and his gaze seemingly fixed on the blinding snowfields that blanketed the mountains summit.

If you dont already want to murder me, you will before Im through with you, he was saying. The urge to kill ones superior is intrinsic to the nature of our enterprise. My unassailable strength gives rise to your envy my wisdom fuels your desire my achievements incite your craving. Thus has it been for one thousand years, and so it must endure until Ive guided you to parity. Then, Sidious, we must do our best to sabotage the dynamic Darth Bane set in motion, because we will need each other if were to realize our ultimate goals. In the end there can be no secrets between us no jealousy or mistrust. From us the future of the Sith will fountain, and the diverse beings of the galaxy will be better for it.

Until then, however, you must strive you must demonstrate your worthiness, not merely to me but to the dark side. You must take the hatred you feel for me and transform it into power—the power to overcome, to forbid anything from standing in your path, to surmount whatever obstacle the dark side designs to test you.

Scarcely listening, Sidious moved with utmost care, his hands and knees seeking firm purchase on the stones. For weeks Darth Plagueis had deprived him of sleep, food, and water. Now if only he could reach the Muun, his thirst would be slaked, his hunger sated, his contusions healed. Countless times the broad expanse of rock debris had slipped and hed had to ride the slide almost to the shore of the lake, tumbling, surfing on his front and back, abrading his ruddy skin, bruising nearly every part of himself. Only to have to pick his way back to the top.

Seething in silence, he managed to scale a meter more of the slope, calling on the Force to ensure his balance, to render him weightless.

Fool, Plagueis derided him. Success doesnt come from summoning help from the Force, but from taking control of it and generating the power from within yourself. He sighed theatrically. Still, Im somewhat encouraged by the progress youve made. Mere centimeters from me now, almost within arms reach. Soon Ill be able to feel your breath on my neck and perceive the heat of your rage—your desire to kill me, as if by doing so, you could lay claim to the authority I embody. He paused but didnt move, much less glance over his shoulder. You want to strangle me, like you did your poor, misunderstood mother tear me limb from limb as you did the bodyguards. Fair enough. But to do so you will have to make a greater effort, Apprentice.

Like a feline, Sidious leapt from the scree, his curled fingers aimed for Plagueis. But instead of vising themselves around the Muuns slender neck, his hands went through thin air and met each other, leaving him to collapse face-first atop the outcropping. Off to one side he heard his Master laugh in scorn. Either Plagueis had moved faster than Sidious could discern or, worse yet, he had never been there to begin with.

So easily tricked, Plagueis said, confirming the latter. You waste my time.

More of this and the dark side will never take an interest in you. Sidious whirled, flinging himself at Plagueis, only to meet an irresistible force and be hurled backward to the frozen ground.

The Muuns shadow fell over him. Arms folded across his chest, Plagueis loomed.

If youre to succeed in inhabiting both realms, Sidious—the profane world and that of the Force—you need to learn how to use guile to your advantage, and to recognize when others are employing it. Without extending a hand, Plagueis tugged him to his feet. If you can survive a few more days without sustenance or rest, I may be inclined to teach you.

Clawing his way across the tundra, his body rashed with lightsaber burns, Sidious looked up at Plagueis, imploringly.

How much longer, Master?

Plagueis deactivated his weapons crimson blade and scowled. Perhaps a moment, perhaps an eternity. Stop thinking of the future, and anchor yourself in the present. A Sith apprentice is the antithesis of a Jedi youngling nurtured in the Temple, battling a floating remote with a training lightsaber. A Sith acquaints himself with pain from the start, and inflicts it, as well. A Sith goes for the throat, just as you did on your familys starship.

Sidious continued to gaze at him. I meant, how much longer will it take me to learn?

The Muun sized him up with a look. Hard to tell. Humans are their own worst enemies. Your body isnt meant to withstand real punishment. It is easily injured and slow to heal. Your olfactory and tactile senses are relatively acute, but your auditory and visual senses are extremely limited.

Have I no strengths, Master?

Plagueis dropped to one knee in front of him. You have the Force, apprentice, and the talent to lead. More, you have the bloodlust of a serial killer, though we need to hold that in reserve unless violence serves some extraordinary purpose.

We are not butchers, Sidious, like some past Sith Lords. We are architects of the future.

Sidious swallowed and found his voice. How long?

Plagueis stood, reigniting the lightsaber as he did so. Not a standard day sooner than a decade.