He had read the signs, seen the inevitable diminution. Could he rule such a galaxy? Perhaps. But it would break him to try, and he would not permit this. Remaining in the shadows too would be pointless. Instead, he would travel to a most secluded vault, hidden on a planet deep within the Stygian Caldera, the dense and treacherous nebula that had once protected the Sith Empire. Deep in the dead rock of a barren world, he would find his seclusion.
He left final gifts to his most faithful, and then sealed himself in, alone. His armor joined with the machines within. Cold, stinging fumes hissed into his mask, and every breath came slower. His heart beat twenty times in a minute.
Twelve.
Two.
None.
His mind persisted. It was almost free of his body, almost what it should be, but the cold still touched it as well, slowing his thoughts to the scale of decades. The galaxy seemed to roil with life and pain and fear, shimmering with ceaseless change. At first, it was overwhelming.
But there were patterns. He could not yet describe their form nor predict their course. They were intriguing. And he had so much time to study them.
He was oblivious to the smaller, briefer things around him. He stared unblinking through brief decades. His presence in the Force seemed to almost have melded with the land itself, his presence had so thoroughly tainted it over the centuries. But he remained at its center, deathly still yet somehow living.
No one had entered the vault since his servants had departed. Those few unlucky creatures that sought refuge amongst the rocks were gone too fast for him to become aware of them, starving as their minds unpeeled or returning to the galaxy as mad prophets. When more came, the vault stole their voices and whispered to them, and to their foes, bringing conflict and ruin to the bare rock above. And so undisturbed, his meditation could persist for eons more.
In this century, a new speck of nothingness swallowed the foundations of Light and Dark alike, returning them to primordial flux. He watched the remains, but there were few stirrings in the darkness to explain it. An event in passing. But it slowed his thoughts with consideration. He had seen something in the brief flash.
In this decade, he watched the formless Light rise in brittle spires, rot through, and suddenly shatter. A mass of Dark spilled forth, a wave crashing over the galaxy, and he waited for it to draw back. Against it, he could see faint outlines.
In this year, something died. It did not collapse into void, it did not let out the long cry of grinding, cruel downfall. It flashed, its scream so brief he only heard its echoes. The Dark around it fed mindlessly on it, but there was no will to shape it further. He was now so vast and uncaring, but even he could reach out with slow sieving grasp and catch those echoes, draw them out into filaments of pure, glimmering fire. In its glimmering, he saw the shape of great and terrible things, a form stretched across ages.
In this month, the shock of seeing had been too much to sustain. He reeled back into cold, into something forgotten.
And in these lengthening days, he grew to dim awareness: something crawled along his surfaces.
He was in a single point. He had a singular presence. Something was there beside him.
He had not felt a presence like this since his old Master. It was powerful, yes, and though he felt the darkness, it was also something he had not felt before.
The Death Star had been destroyed but the Empire had still made an example out of Alderaan. There would be retaliation, of course. They would wipe out what remained of the Rebel Alliance and restore peace to the galaxy once more. That part of his plans did not concern him. He sent Vader off to deal with the rebels- this was something that he wanted to do alone.
He would summon this presence to him- a command through the Dark Side to join him. If he had to seek this mysterious being, he would not be so generous.
The galaxy no longer seethed as if boiling, it had frozen into this instant. All was still, save for his heart. It beat so loudly to his deprived ears, a repulsive sound that he could not stop.
His mind turned to the interloper, grasping, diffuse, re-learning focus. What was it? Where? He could not yet see, for he had blissfully forgotten how.
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I DID NOT FORGET THIS
Date: 2019-04-30 05:28 pm (UTC)He left final gifts to his most faithful, and then sealed himself in, alone. His armor joined with the machines within. Cold, stinging fumes hissed into his mask, and every breath came slower. His heart beat twenty times in a minute.
Twelve.
Two.
None.
His mind persisted. It was almost free of his body, almost what it should be, but the cold still touched it as well, slowing his thoughts to the scale of decades. The galaxy seemed to roil with life and pain and fear, shimmering with ceaseless change. At first, it was overwhelming.
But there were patterns. He could not yet describe their form nor predict their course. They were intriguing. And he had so much time to study them.
He was oblivious to the smaller, briefer things around him. He stared unblinking through brief decades. His presence in the Force seemed to almost have melded with the land itself, his presence had so thoroughly tainted it over the centuries. But he remained at its center, deathly still yet somehow living.
No one had entered the vault since his servants had departed. Those few unlucky creatures that sought refuge amongst the rocks were gone too fast for him to become aware of them, starving as their minds unpeeled or returning to the galaxy as mad prophets. When more came, the vault stole their voices and whispered to them, and to their foes, bringing conflict and ruin to the bare rock above. And so undisturbed, his meditation could persist for eons more.
In this century, a new speck of nothingness swallowed the foundations of Light and Dark alike, returning them to primordial flux. He watched the remains, but there were few stirrings in the darkness to explain it. An event in passing. But it slowed his thoughts with consideration. He had seen something in the brief flash.
In this decade, he watched the formless Light rise in brittle spires, rot through, and suddenly shatter. A mass of Dark spilled forth, a wave crashing over the galaxy, and he waited for it to draw back. Against it, he could see faint outlines.
In this year, something died. It did not collapse into void, it did not let out the long cry of grinding, cruel downfall. It flashed, its scream so brief he only heard its echoes. The Dark around it fed mindlessly on it, but there was no will to shape it further. He was now so vast and uncaring, but even he could reach out with slow sieving grasp and catch those echoes, draw them out into filaments of pure, glimmering fire. In its glimmering, he saw the shape of great and terrible things, a form stretched across ages.
In this month, the shock of seeing had been too much to sustain. He reeled back into cold, into something forgotten.
And in these lengthening days, he grew to dim awareness: something crawled along his surfaces.
He was in a single point. He had a singular presence. Something was there beside him.
<3
Date: 2019-05-05 04:20 am (UTC)The Death Star had been destroyed but the Empire had still made an example out of Alderaan. There would be retaliation, of course. They would wipe out what remained of the Rebel Alliance and restore peace to the galaxy once more. That part of his plans did not concern him. He sent Vader off to deal with the rebels- this was something that he wanted to do alone.
He would summon this presence to him- a command through the Dark Side to join him. If he had to seek this mysterious being, he would not be so generous.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-05 01:20 pm (UTC)His mind turned to the interloper, grasping, diffuse, re-learning focus. What was it? Where? He could not yet see, for he had blissfully forgotten how.