The Shadows of the Past Trilogy
Episode 9: Nemesis of the Force Part 4
On a remote world in the Unknown
Regions, Uratsixo, the last two surviving Knights of Ren step into a dark,
ancient alien fortress. They march
through the main hall at a brisk pace. Both
are dressed once more in their Knights of Ren armor.
Then the scene cuts to the two
of them entering an eerily lit chamber.
There are four, emerald green fires burning, one on each of four pedestals
set at symmetric points around the square chamber. The ceiling is pyramid-shaped, and a central
dais sits below the peak, dead center in the room. There is a strange, glowing, green fire
hovering in mid-air above the dais. The
two knights kneel before the central dais, heads bowed.
“Master,” says Altaria, her
voice quivering with fear and shame. “We
have failed you. Please forgive us. Kylo Ren lives, and…"
The fire speaks, cutting her
off. It sounds strange at first, but by the time it is finished speaking, the voice is
Snoke’s. “I know. I know.
The Knights of Ren are dead. Leia
Organa was in the hands of Darth Saydra.
Rey has escaped yet again, and you are my last two disciples.”
The flame suddenly begins to
swirl and take form. The form becomes
almost human. Then it begins to change
colors as flames turn to red skin. In
the end, a male member of the Sith race stands before them, well-defined and powerful
looking. He is seen from the waist up
wearing no clothing. Altaria looks up at
him, is alarmed by what she sees, and bows her head once more in
embarrassment. “Master! Please forgive!”
The figure steps off of the dais
and strides up to her, placing his hand upon her head. He reaches down and lifts her head so that
she looks up at him. Then, with both
hands, he reaches under her helmet and strips it off of her, tossing it behind
him. “ALL of the Knights of Ren are now
dead,” he comments. “You do not need
these masks any longer.” He gestures to
Gnoza, and the brutish, male Barabel removes his helmet as well, tossing it
away from him into the darkness. He has
gray scales, white eyes with black pupils that are vertical slits, like cat’s
eyes.
“Fear not,” continues the
Sith. “Everything is proceeding as I
have desired it.”
“But, Master, how could that
be?” asks Altaria. “You have lost
control of the First Order. Kylo Ren and
Rey both continue to elude us. The New
Republic gains in strength, as do all of the factions. We have no army, no navy… It is now only the
three of us. How can we even hope to
conquer the galaxy?”
He chuckles a bit, an amused
grin playing across his face. “My Dear
Altaria, you make the same mistake that so many others have made before you, to
their detriment. You assume that
everyone’s objective is conquest.” He
then waves the thought away, as if it annoys him. “Bah!
Ruling the galaxy publicly is quite over-rated.
Much better to rule from the shadows; to control and manipulate without
anyone being the wiser. THAT is why I
allowed Kylo Ren to kill my previous form.
THAT is why I take a new form now.”
He then turns from her and walks
over to a gray robe hanging from a peg on the far wall. Donning the robe, he continues speaking as he
comes back once again to stand over them, both acolytes simply looking up at him now, giving him their undivided
attention. “Ruling requires boring and
tedious work; all that paperwork and so many stressful decisions. You have to balance people’s emotions and
their petty problems to keep them happy or they might rebel against
you - another of Palpatine’s mistakes.”
“No. The Force has been out of
balance for over a thousand years. That
is why I came. The others would do
nothing but watch and record the meaningless events of a peaceful galaxy. They are content with a galaxy that is dull
and tiresome.”
He becomes passionate, then, as
he continues his speech, pacing back and forth.
It is almost as if he is an actor on a grand stage with thousands
watching. “No! The Jedi understood nothing about the
Force. They believed that the Force was
like a machine. If all of the parts work
together in unity then everything is at peace and is prosperous. If the Force is out of balance, and the Dark
Side has grown too strong, then it is like a machine with parts that are
malfunctioning. Everything begins to
fall apart and the universe begins to crumble and burn.”
“But the Force is a single
entity; the Dark Side, and the Light. To
serve the Force is to serve both aspects equally in complete balance. THAT is why I had so much hope and faith in
Kylo Ren, your former master. He could have been a true
disciple of the Force. That is what once made him so special. He was the
perfect balance between the Light and Dark Sides. He exemplified the true essence of the
Force. But not now.” He seems saddened by this.
“You see, without light, there
is only darkness. Without darkness,
there is only light. Without
destruction, there is no room for new life.
Without new life, there is nothing to destroy. In the same way, no one likes a story that
has no conflict. All the best stories
contain both good and evil, love and hate, trust and betrayal, honesty and lies,
destruction and new life, light and darkness.
Anything else is boring and dull.”
“War has always raged in the
galaxy, but peace has also reigned as well.
In ancient times, the first Jedi began to rise, tipping the scales
towards the Light, but then there were those who saw the Jedi ways as weak and
crippling. The two factions fought, and
the scales tipped towards the Dark Side.
The Jedi won, and the Rogue Jedi were exiled. Balance to the Force was restored. Peace reigned in the Republic while the Sith Order
was born in the outer reaches of space, forging an empire of blood and
war.”
“Then, as the Republic and Sith
grew in size, their two forces collided, and the Force was out of balance again
as the Dark Side grew in strength and power.
The war crippled both sides, and balance was restored again; for neither
side was victorious. A cold war ensued
with both sides inflicting border skirmishes against one another.”
“It was glorious! Conflict!
Drama mixed with peace and love.
It was the stuff of legends and myths.
Theirs were the stories everyone wanted to experience. All of the Whills observed, for none could
contain their excitement. All wanted to
see what would come next.”
“But the galaxy that the Jedi
and Sith had given us for over a thousand years,” he continues, and his voice
quivers with disgust, “it was unbalanced.
It began with an all-out war.
Both sides were once again decimated, but the Jedi had won. The Old Republic was reformed into the
Galactic Republic that Palpatine overthrew.
Only one Sith had survived that great conflict, for the Sith were
defeated because they foolishly turned on one another.”
“It was Darth Bane. He is appropriately named for he was the bane
of my existence. He did the unthinkable
and forced the Dark Side into hiding and seclusion where it simply festered for
over a thousand years.”
Then he growls violently. “A THOUSAND YEARS!” he gags in disgust. “What a boring and disgusting and vile time
that was! Peace and justice were
supreme. The Light Side had won and was
overinflated while the fool Sith carried this tiny spark of the Dark Side from
generation to boring generation. There
were no great deeds of excellence. There
were no tales of great heroism. Blah!”
There is a moment of silence as
he recovers. He seems to subside, and a
picture of ecstasy is painted on his face.
“But now…ah! Now we have war and peace again, both at once. THAT is why I manipulated Plageuis and
Sidious and Vader. THAT is why the
Galactic Republic and the Jedi fell; those abhorred institutions that had
destroyed the Balance. ALL of this has
been to bring us to this moment. The
Balance has almost been completely restored.”
“Seven factions now rule the
galaxy. There is the New Republic,
trying to regain in strength. They are striving to be the champions of the Light. Then there
is the First Order, wasted away because of our dear friend, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren.” He says “Supreme Leader” with intense
sarcasm. “Neither is strong enough, now,
to conquer anything."
"On the side of the
New Republic was Rey, a Paragon of the Light Side of the Force. On the other was Kylo Ren, who had, at least
temporarily because of Snoke’s death, given himself to become the Paragon of
the Dark Side. Now both have left their
perspective positions, striking out together.
They will soon find, together, that they will attune to one another and
draw each other into that perfect balance; neither being Light or Dark; only
Paragons of the All-Inclusive Force. A
perfect pair, or so I hope. Where one will gravitate
more towards the Light, the other will gravitate more towards the Dark, yet
they both will commit to neither and yet to one another.”
“Then there is the Hutt Cartel,
Black Sun, the Hapes Consortium, and the Corporate Sector Alliance. All have carved out their little kingdoms,
and now they hope to simply maintain their territories and their
businesses. They will maybe try to
conquer a few more worlds here or there, but nothing too serious will transpire between them. They are now too focused on trying to ally
themselves with other governments in an attempt to restore trade routes to
increase their revenues and line their own pockets. Border skirmishes erupt throughout the
galaxy, keeping all sides relatively even and allowing no one in particular to
gain in strength over anyone else.”
"The Hutts, the CSA, and Black Sun are more corrupt while the Hapes Consortium strives to be the new ideal. Though the Consortium is somewhat allied with the Republic, they have lost faith in them, so they maintain their own sovereignty. Thus, in truth, there is one Bastion of Light and one Bastion of Dark; the New Republic versus the First Order. All the others are gray."
Then he grows a bit
serious. “And finally, we have the Zyn
Empire.” He pauses from his
pacing. He is once more subdued. “Saydra and the Empress are like Kylo Ren and
Rey. While Saydra is mostly consumed by
the Sith teachings that she had acquired thirty years ago from Palpatine’s
secret vaults, Amelia clings more to the light, for she abhors Saydra’s
teachings and has rejected them. Neither
is totally lost to their side, for each shares a bond with the other that
they cannot escape. Saydra is always
being tempted by the Light Side, because of Amelia, and Amelia is always being
tempted by the Dark Side, because of Saydra.
Both, again, Paragons of the All-Inclusive Force, but only if they are together.”
“Nevertheless, there are a few
things that stand between the galaxy and the Balance of the Force once
more. Saydra's New Sith Order is too ambitious, as is Hux and many of the leaders of the First Order. Likewise, Organa and Dameron, who lead the
New Republic forces, will not rest until the First Order and the Zyn
Empire are destroyed or at least crippled and the New Republic takes control once more.
These are our final targets. Then
the Balance will be fully restored.”
“Saydra’s New Sith Order,
especially, must be destroyed. It grows
too powerful with each star system they conquer, and like Bane, Saydra has
become the archenemy of the Balance. She
replaces free-willed people who are full of drama and passion with heartless,
soul-less clones who are worse than droids.
They have no ambitions. They have
no egos to damage, no wits to outsmart... They are like living zombies! I cannot abide them. And Amelia is too soft and unwilling to
strike back against Saydra. The Empress
hates what her Chief Enforcer is doing, but she is afraid of her and afraid of
disappointing her most of all. Amelia is
torn by her desire to save lives and by her desire to gain Saydra’s approval.”
“But I thought you and Saydra
were allies,” Gnoza replies, his voice dark and gravelly. “She was in the throne room aboard the Supremacy
almost to the end. Now you want to
destroy her?”
The Sith male who was once known as
Snoke smirks. “Saydra and I had an
arrangement. She helped me, and I helped
her. Both of us desired to destroy
Skywalker, for he was the greatest threat to us both. We worked together to keep Skywalker
busy and out of the way, supplying him with artifacts that he hunted with an
almost feverish obsession. He hoped they
would give him the power to “Bring Balance once again to the Force”, or at
least the Jedi’s version of it. Saydra
and I parted ways, for we both knew how the incident on the Supremacy would
end. We had one final deal. She would not tell anyone about what I
am. In exchange, I would not interfere
with the Zyn Empire.”
“You could have killed her then
and there, and then she wouldn’t be a threat to us now,” Altaria says, her
voice strong and confident once more.
The Sith shakes his head. “No.
Saydra is far too clever for that.
Her droid, the black one known as Stalker…it is only one of many units
connected to a centralized system. That mother
computer, which is well hidden, contains all of Saydra’s vast wealth of
knowledge. She threatened me that if I
did anything to her, to her Empress, her computer would spread my identity
across the galaxy. All of my secrets
would be exposed, for she figured them out; all because of Plageius and Sidious.”
“You see, my identity was
unfortunately exposed to Plageius, and he recorded it in his secret
records. He knew of me, and so Sidious,
who killed Plageius and took all of his knowledge, also knew of me. Ah, but Sidious did not know how to find me
nor how to stop me, for I had at least been able to obscure that information
before Sidious got his hands on it. In fact, one of the primary reasons Palpatine was so obsessed with exploring the Unknown Regions was to find me. Now,
because of them, Saydra knows about me as well, and more. And THAT is most
unfortunate.”
“So how can we go against her
without exposing you?” Gnoza asks.
The Sith grins. “THAT is why I summoned you here.”
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