Reciprocity

[Varyn Rask]

Complete silence filled the throne room, and had for nearly an hour. The Royal Guards flanking the throne and the ones at the other entrances didn't say a word of move a muscle. The pinnacle of discipline and skill, they hadn't so much as flinched in the hour that Varyn had spent meditating.

Pieces of his beloved saber, and most importantly, its crystal floated around the throne and around the Sith Lord who sat on it. His mind was stretched out in many places across the planet and throughout the temple. Somehow he was in multiple places at once, as much feeling as seeing what was going on around him. His schedule had been cleared for this next meeting, and he wanted clarity of mind for it.

He felt a presence approaching, and the pieces of the saber began to amalgamate once more, snapping into a single hilt and floating before the Emperor. His right hand snatched the saber out of the air and replaced it on his belt just as the door slid open to reveal one of the Emperor's Sith Lords. One of his two Sith Lords.

Varyn waited for him to approach but said nothing. @Nefieslab

 

[Darth Tagus]

Darth Tagus had come straight from his collection of the gauntlet back to the Sith Temple on Korriban.

He wasn't about to run and hide from the actions he had taken and he certainly wasn't about to lie about them. As far as Tagus was concerned, he had done the act so he would face what came of the act. With the gauntlet firmly in place on his left arm and The First Blade still holstered at his side, he approached the throne room.

The Dark Side was coiled tightly around this place and for good reason - the Emperor himself sat upon his throne and he had been meditating if Tagus had to guess. The air felt heavy with his presence in the Force.

Doors opened to admit him entrance and Tagus approached.

Stopping some 20 meters from the throne, Tagus knelt down on his right knee. His left hand rested atop his left knee as he bowed his head briefly before looking up at the Emperor on his throne.

"My Emperor." he greeted the highest authority in the Empire, "I come before you today as the owner of The Zageti Antgal Gauntlet - and as the killer of Darth Parox."

There was no pride in his voice as he spoke because he felt none. What he had done, he had done. There was no pride in it, it was nothing more, nothing less, than a fact, plain and simple. Of course there was more to it than that but first and foremost was his duty to his Emperor - and his duty was to report and expand upon the facts if and when asked.

@Phoenix

 

[Varyn Rask]

Varyn took careful note of the man's posture as he entered and approached. Even now, he didn't move. His mask revealed nothing, but his presence in the Force didn't exude joy. He noted the distance the Sith Lord stopped, the gauntlet on his hand, and the apparent preparation for combat. If he was concerned about it, he didn't show it. With the Royal Guards in the room, it would be suicide for him to attack Varyn. Not on home turf, but still he filed the thought away in his mind. Overconfidence had been a weakness of many Emperors before him.

At least the Sith Lord admitted what he had done, though Varyn was baffled as to why it had happened. The Emperor - who time and again had demonstrated his disdain for infighting while there was a war going on - wasn't sure why Tagus thought murdering one of the Empire's only Sith Lords was going to go over well.

We're fighting a losing war with more and more dead every day, and you thought you should go and kill one of the highest ranking and most powerful members in the Order? he reprimanded. Do you have anything to say for yourself? he asked. He couldn't imagine there was any justification or excuse that would appease his fury, but he would give the Sith Lord the opportunity to speak. Varyn had never made it any secret since unifying the Empires how he felt about Sith killing Sith, and there was little excuse until the wars with their real enemies were over. @Nefieslab

 

[Darth Tagus]

Walking into the throne room of the Emperor and telling him that you killed one of her servants was never advisable but it was something he had to do because it was the truth of the matter. He had killed a servant and he would be held accountable for that. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly as he spoke again.

"I killed Darth Parox because he failed." he told his Emperor, "We are Sith and we respect strength and we gain strength through the Dark Side of the Force. Parox failed a test by the Dark Side of the Force itself and I was his punishment."

He looked up at his Emperor.

"There was no village. No villagers. No chieftain of the Red Sith." he gritted his teeth, "It was the Dark Side of the Force - manifesting to test us. It asked us to engage in combat, to prove ourselves just as the Sith of old did and the coward replied by attacking the manifestation of the Dark Side, refusing to prove himself."

Tagus let out a breath.

"So I killed him - no doubt his dragon returned with his corpse and my spare lightsaber - and I was transported by the Darkness. I stood before the creature that was slain to obtain the gauntlet in another time and I stood in a chamber miles away from where we had traveled to." he unlatched the gauntlet and set it down on the ground, "I took the gauntlet from above the dragon that was slain over 500 years ago. This was no illusion by some chieftain - this was far beyond my power and beyond even yours. The Dark Side of Korriban itself tested us both and I was left in a barren stretch of desert, devoid of life, village or anything else. All that remained was the gauntlet and the blood."

He took a breath and looked up at his Emperor.

"I killed the man for his failure and his attempt to strong arm the source of power for all Sith. I submit myself to your judgement as you are my Emperor, having laid out my reason for the crime I committed." he declared, closing his eyes in acceptance, "Knowing that I would do it again to remove such cowardice, failure and sacrilege from the ranks of the Sith Lords."

@Phoenix

 

[Varyn Rask]

Varyn's silence only deepened as Tagus spoke. The revelations certainly filled in the remaining gaps in his knowledge, though it did little to change his decision. Even as he had told the Crusader who brought him the news: managing the Sith Lords was the responsibility of the Emperor. It wasn't about ego or power, it was about order, and Varyn couldn't abide chaos. Not in an Empire he had worked so hard to build.

To put aside the rules of the Empire - his own prohibitions against murdering the Empire's own - would perpetuate this further. He had no choice in his decision.

Finally after a long moment, he spoke. You've broken the laws of the Empire, and that is not something I can overlook, he began. The outcome of this was not going to be pleasant for either of them, but it was the Dark Side that Tagus cited serving. Varyn had to be sure that this was true, and not a self-serving murder.

You took a Sith Lord from the Empire, and the Empire requires its pound of flesh. Blood for blood, he said, standing. The gaze of his mask didn't break, and he didn't let his voice waver.

But I can't afford to lose another of my Sith Lords, so the pound of flesh will come from your other half. You've come this far in the Dark Side, but it's time for you to show your true dedication. In tradition of the Sith, she will be your sacrifice. The demonstration that your loyalty is to the Dark Side and the Empire rather than yourself, he said, and stopped dead. The news would not be taken well, and the Emperor was attentive to every movement, every thought, every action of the room. He had invoked his own loyalty to the Dark Side, and now that would be put to the ultimate test. @Nefieslab

 

[Darth Tagus]

Tagus took in a slow breath as the Emperor spoke, confirming what he already knew. There would be a punishment for his actions because he had broken the laws of the Empire. In his heart he knew he had obeyed the laws of the Dark Side and of the Sith but the men and women of the Empire were held accountable to the laws of the Empire as well. To disobey the laws of the Empire, to ignore them, was a slippery slope.

Without them there would be no Empire - they had their place to be sure. The punishment was to be blood for blood? He suspected as much if he was honest. If he was to suffer then he would take it gladly. Should he survive the suffering it would make him a greater Sith than he had ever been before.

He paused.

His breath caught and he froze almost solid for a few seconds before he seemingly remembered that he needed to breathe to live. Swallowing thickly, Tagus opened his yellow eyes to look at his Emperor.

There was anger in his eyes.

Perhaps even hatred.

At the Emperor, at himself, at Nikka, at the pathetic waste of space he had killed, at the Galaxy as a whole - it was directionless and it felt endless. For a few seconds he felt like he was drowning in it before he took a deep breath. His hands were fists, his fingernails digging into his flesh hard.

He forced them to open.

"My wife has use to the Empire - she is almost ready to become one of us." he spoke quietly but he had no doubt that the Emperor heard him, "Strength was lost but it can be replaced. She can fill the void left behind in the wake of my actions and I may suffer in another way. A limb. My sister."

He closed his eyes again.

"... but I made a pledge to you before, my Emperor. I pledged that I would kill her if you demanded it. If the Dark Side demanded it. If you wish it - so shall it be done."

And didn't his stomach feel like it was full of rocks?

@Phoenix

 

[Varyn Rask]

Varyn watched the rage that flashed in his eyes, and he knew that this would result in an unstoppable avalanche and a downward spiral into the Dark Side for his Sith Lord. He also knew that it meant he needed to watch his back against one more "ally" who could now almost as easily be counted as an enemy.

Varyn could feel the hatred, anger, and fear swirling from the other man. He didn't know the exact situation that the other man was experiencing for he had never loved another enough to marry them, but he knew of sacrifice. He had given up everything to be where he stood, and he lived a life of suspicion and solitude as a result. No, Varyn knew that Darth Tagus would never be the same again. And that was the point. The Sith sacrifice was about transforming your very being in order to make a permanent difference even at the cost of yourself.

The proposal was something that Varyn had considered, but he knew that it would be the easier path. It would make the penalty too bearable, and furthermore there was another element: Your sister who has faithfully served the Empire? he asked. She had been a loyal servant, fighting on the front lines and bringing worlds into the Empire. She had demonstrated her loyalty, and to take her life would only discourage loyalty.

You will do as you promised, he said. He took no pleasure - not even a bit - in giving the order, but it was done. Thousands if not millions had died at his orders to launch attacks and execute military campaigns, but there was something far more surreal about taking a single life. It was how Varyn had begun his career, and it would continue until he died.

Let it be done quickly, he said. It would be torturous enough to kill her, Varyn cared not for how it was done. It could be as merciful as he could imagine, but the Emperor knew the longer he pondered it, the more difficult it would be. @Nefieslab

 

[Darth Tagus]

He knew his sister would never be an acceptable trade - his sister was a loyal Sith, a frontline fighter and someone who Tagus would cheerfully kill himself. No, his sister would never work as his sacrifice because she honestly didn't mean anything to him. No, the only option was his wife.

His wife.

Tagus had never believed in love and he had never thought he ever had any business with the emotion. It was something that fools had and it was something that could be used as a weakness. It was just another pressure point to be used, to be exploited. When he had first met her it had been purely a strange notion to let her live.

Then he told himself that the meetings, the physical intimacy and even the marriage had all been a means to an end - it had all been to bring her to the Dark Side. To use her to strike at the Galactic Alliance and their Jedi. To reduce the numbers of the wretched Jedi in the Galaxy, even just a little.

But it had been a lie to himself - a plate of armour to cover a weakness in himself.

He had welcomed the weakness of love into himself and it had latched on and it held on fiercely. It warred and raged against everything he had ever been taught and everything he had ever done or thought about doing with his life. Such a fragile thing, something he had hesitated to even acknowledge existed, and it threatened to hold against the onslaught of his anger, his hatred... and his ambition.

Tagus rose from his kneeling position.

When he spoke his voice wavered despite himself. He hated it. He hated how it stank of weakness and of how it spoke of how deep the arrow of love had actually managed to pierce him.

"By your leave, My Emperor, I shall see it done."

@Phoenix

 

[Varyn Rask]

They both knew what had to be done, and there was no shaking it off. They both knew that he would have to go take his own wife's life. There was no other acceptable sacrifice for what had happened. He could feel the anger and fear pouring out of the man, and it mixed with the darkness of the planet and the throne. This world was filled with violence and death. Heinous actions had tainted it for generations, and it leeched the evils from each person. It would feed off of this darkness as it did many others.

And the Emperor allowed it all. He wouldn't and couldn't stop what was going to happen, for the Empire demanded it.

The Emperor nodded his head in dismissal and he watched the Sith Lord leave, even now hearing the slight weakness in his voice. Varyn knew this would transform him as a person, and part of the reason Varyn knew this was because he could already feel it gnawing at his own soul. He could feel the darkness sinking long talons in as he ordered the death of another innocent person. He remembered of a quote he'd heard from one of the Emperors who came long before him. Reasons of state have nothing to do with justice. Varyn wondered which this fell into. The woman to be killed wasn't guilty, but then she was a Jedi. That made her guilty of a great many things.

He knew they were questions that he would ponder long after tonight, but he also knew something else: he wouldn't back down from his decision. Each choice he made was absolute and without doubt. To do anything less would invite chaos, disorder, and the death of the Empire.

No life - not even his own - was worth that.

-Fin-​