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It had been years since the council last gathered. It had been years since they spoke. They were the Sith, the dark rulers of the galaxy, those who moved, who shook the galaxy with their secret dealings. Now the galaxy was once more teetering on the brink of war, the Brotherhood of Darkness had gathered once more in the black tower of the Sith.
Darth Fey adjusted her robes as she took her place at the table. They were comfortable, the most luxurious clothing money could buy. Their status required no less. The dark glyphs embroidered on the soft fabric glowed with the force, with power, and on her chest hung the symbol of her cult. The flaming skull marking her lineage, her right to power. She was Sith, and she had been ever since she took over the family business.
Next to her sat down a tall fellow, covered entirely in an ink-black cloak, exposing only a pale death mask to the world. According to legend, he'd once been a Muun when he was still alive, and the death mask was long and slim enough to lend that theory credence... If that was his real face.
"Got a new body these last decades?" Fey callously asked, sparing the cloak but a single glance, "You look shorter."
"My last died," Darth Damnatus said, "couldn't find another willing body of my preferred species, and the unwilling tend to struggle too much. The ritual is too much of a hassle to perform without a volunteer."
"Don't you just need to place your mask on your victim?" Fey asked, sipping a glass of the finest Alderanian wine, something Damnatus couldn't. Damnatus was an undead, a lost sentience tied to his mask, without a true body of his own, except for one he took. Fey was familiar with the concept. Allegedly the last queens of her cult had done the same, but no one knew the truth. Too much of their past had been lost in the Sith wars, before they took up the masquerade.
"If need be, but the process leaves me far too weak to not take precautions," Damnatus answered, "I'd hoped to use Damask, the boy was useful, but he died recently."
"Wasn't that a decade ago?"
Damnatus tapped his chin with a black-gloved hand that wasn't his, "I suppose that wouldn't be as recent for the ones tied to flesh."
Fey clicked her tongue. "Business still booming though?"
"As always," Damnatus replied, "everyone needs the banks stable, and stability keeps me comfortable. That Jedi is being a bit of an annoyance though. A risk."
Count Dooku Serenno. He was a risk, he was a risk to everything. His separatist movement was a threat to the stability of the republic they'd slowly made theirs. Where once Sith emperors had ruled the galaxy through an iron fist, now the Sith ruled though subtler means, yet still their power was uncontested. Dooku was threatening that rule though, he was threatening the stability that was the foundation of their rule.
"Do you think Egol wants us to finally take care of that count?" Damnatus asked.
"He's only ever calls us together for a blood hunt," Fey answered, "last time it wasn't necessary, the Jedi saw to that, but this time... I don't know of a Sith who breached the masquerade this time."
"He better have a good reason," Damnatus hissed, a cold breath of air escaping from behind his mask, "I have finances to organise and obsess over."
Fey chuckled. Damnatus was always like that, obsessed over his banks and the ever growing number that was his total net worth. Even among the Brotherhood he was the wealthiest, and he always wanted more.
"Leave some for the rest of us," she teased, "I only have a dozen planets to my name, and my direct acolytes only one each."
"Never!" Damnatus angrily replied, "I would buy your business if it wouldn't breach the law of domains!"
Fey rolled her eyes, "please, second tradition aside, don't you think the peasants might ask questions if the intergalactic banking clan wants to buy a dozen different starfighter companies? That's why people are getting suspicious of Dooku and his separatist movement."
Another cold breath from Damnatus. "I have subordinates who seek to align the banks with the separatists. I am considering their promises of regulatory freedom, but the instability would threaten my numbers."
"Always your numbers," Fey scoffed, "I'm just having fun designing my-"
Suddenly the ringing of a tiny spoon against a crystal glass interrupted them. Fey focused her attention to the front again. All around their round table Sith were paying attention now, all of it focused on Darth Egol, prince of Exegol. Egol was a Sith from Moraband, chair of the council of dark lords. He was diminutive but powerful, and he was the one calling together the council, the one to make sure no Sith would attempt to murder another. Fey wondered what reason he had now.
"The masquerade is in danger," Egol spoke, his voice carrying across the hall, full of his dominance over the force, "once more a Sith has breached our rules, once more a Sith who has not submitted to their dark masters has risked spilling the great secret!"
"Ah, stuff it, Egol!" A Sith from across the table called, slamming his fist on the table. He was Darth Hutt, the Sith who secretly ruled Hutt space, and allegedly who was ancestor to the entire Hutt council. "We know your little speech!" He shouted, "We all remember the Zabrak on Naboo, ten years ago. Who is it this time?"
Egol glared at Hutt. "The Jedi-" he spat the word, "-believe him related to the Zabrak. The same old line of trouble, Bane."
A rumble went through the Sith. The line of Bane had occasionally attempted to make trouble, and the Zabrak on Naboo was just their latest trace. They had known about the Banites since the end of the Sith wars. The histories said Darth Bane tried to betray the brotherhood but failed, leading to all Sith being slaughtered by the Jedi, except for the elders, the continuation in the new order. They'd killed a few Banites through the centuries, apprentices who'd broken the masquerade, but they'd never managed to find the master.
"Silence!" Egol cried, "Our acolytes have traced the line of Bane again! We will kill this Sith, like we have many times before, and we will continue our stable, controlled rule."
"Who is it?" Damnatus demanded, "Let us kill this Sith and be done with it."
"I hereby pronounce a blood hunt on count Dooku Serenno for endangering the masquerade shielding our rightful reign from the blinded galaxy beyond. His name is inked on the list of the dead, and may only be crossed out in blood."
Shock and surprise echoed through the force as Egol declared the hunt. Dooku? The Jedi?? He'd been gathering allies for a war for a decade by now. Since the last hunt. Dooku had secretly been a Banite hiding from the brotherhoods immense network of spies and acolytes.
"We discovered who this was because the law of hospitality was broken," Egol continued, "another Sith has set foot on Exegol without following the fifth tradition. Know that these Banite Sith do not know our laws or respect them. This Sith is publicly known as Sheev Palpatine."
Fey nervously swallowed in shock. The supreme chancellor of the republic... This was trouble. Sure, they could easily kill him, but would the masquerade survive such terrible intervention? The Jedi would surely have to realize the brotherhood's existence if they killed the supreme chancellor of almost the entire galaxy. They couldn't be that stupid.
Darth Egol took a deep breath. "I hereby pronounce a blood hunt on Sheev Palpatine for endangering the masquerade shielding our rightful reign from the blinded galaxy beyond. His name is inked on the list of the dead, and may only be crossed out in blood." Once again he made the same proclamation, sealing Palpatine's fate in ink and blood. The Sith would kill him, but surely even he would have to realize what this meant.
"I understand your worries, the force tells me all," Egol drawled, "a blood hunt of this prominence will require not just violence, but care. We must not be discovered by the Jedi."
"What is Palpatine playing at??" Darth Indul called from next to Egol. The damn hedonist never left his pleasure planet, but despite that he was one of the most revered lords on the council. "We've been buying the senate for centuries, we made the republic ours! Why couldn't he and that Banite trash join us??"
"They do not respect the masquerade!" Hutt shot back, "We must kill them both and set our acolytes in the senate to put things right again! I cannot have a war next to my domain. My Hutt empire will be endangered if those fools set the republic on fire!"
"Your empire??" Damnatus shouted, "This will light my whole economy on fire! Galactic recessions! My numbers will drop!"
"Shut up about your damn stocks," another Sith called, "we need to fix this. How?"
For the first time, Fey spoke up. "It's simple, we use the Jedi."
All the Sith stared at her. "Sending the Jedi after a fellow Sith, you truly are cruel," Egol laughed, "how do you suggest we do this, Darth Fey?"
"I know one of my companies is contracted by Dooku for something on Kamino," Fey replied, "I know another is contracted by Dooku for battle droids on Geonosis. We lead the Jedi there, they discover what Dooku has been up to and kill him, and we quietly get rid of Palpatine after. Or we find a way to expose him to the Jedi too. Have our acolytes found a secret lair of his?"
"Evidence of teachings," Egol answered.
"Then we lead the Jedi to that," Fey replied, "we expose them without exposing ourselves, and the Jedi do the cleanup."
Three years later, Darth Fey was not a happy Sith. The Brotherhood of darkness had kept the galaxy stable and compliant for a thousand years, but the Banite Sith had thrown all of that into chaos in just three years. And to Fey's annoyance, they had played a major role in that. The Jedi had found an army on Kamino and brought it to Geonosis to fight the Sith. Fey's suggestion had worked perfectly, except the Jedi had failed to kill Dooku and hadn't even tried to kill Palpatine. At least Anakin Skywalker had recently managed to kill Dooku, but three years late, and they were still no closer to Palpatine.
They should've just done it themselves.
Now Darth Fey stood before the supreme chancellor's office, together with Darth Damnatus and Darth Indul, in public for the first time in living memory. Or what went for living memory for most sentients at least. They would do the job themselves. A blood hunt lasting more than a few days was a disgrace for the Sith order, one they would wipe away in death.
Beyond that door laid four dead Jedi, and the Sith who had killed them all, and one new dark servant. Fey wondered what exactly had happened there, how Palpatine had killed them all, but his power was clear. Well, until they'd kill him.
Fey was in first, Damnatus and Indul at her back as she kicked down the door. The Jedi hero, Anakin Skywalker sat kneeling before Palpatine, the Sith they were after. How wonderful, a baptism, she thought. They were interrupting something here.
"Henceforth, you shall be know as Darth-"
"Good evening, supreme chancellor," Fey interrupted, her voice a cold drawl, "we have some policy matters to discuss with you tonight."
"And who might you be?" The old man asked, his voice as rough as a sarlacc maw.
"The Brotherhood of Darkness has called for a blood hunt," Damnatus spoke, cold and deadly, "please die quietly, and I can return to my numbers. They have gone down a lot recently, and that makes me very very angry."
"You are Sith." Suddenly Palpatine seemed frightened. He realized the threat he was facing then, and so did the boy, Skywalker. He jumped to his feet, intoxicated by the force and Palpatine's baptism. "You shouldn't exist," Palpatine hissed, "a mask, a fat old man, and a little girl claiming to be Sith..."
"I am Darth Fey, named by Darth Morrigan, last of the fanatics of the dreaded skull," Fey proudly declared, her words chains in the force, "name yourself, Banite, claim your legacy and see it undone by our hands!"
Palpatine scowled, yet the binding words Fey wove could not be denied. It was the meaning of Darth, to claim the name Sith, and her challenge would either be answered, or it would be his death.
"I am Darth Sidious, named by Darth Plagueis, named by Darth Tenebrous, last of the line of Bane," the Sith declared, his words unbinding the spell that compelled his answer, "I am the one true dark lord of the Sith and I will not be challenged like that!"
"The ancient oaths of our order still compel you," Fey laughed, "those you cannot deny, Sidious, even if you have broken every law of the Sith in our era."
"I have no laws," Sidious growled, raising his hands and gathering his hate, "I will rule this galaxy and you will not stand in my way!" Electric blue lightning shot forth from his hands, full of cruelty, full of hatred, but the force was Fey's domain. She would not be so easily cowed.
"The galaxy already belongs to the Sith," Fey replied, raising her hand and causing the lightning to harmlessly vanish into nothing, "you are merely in the way." She aimed a finger at him in turn, and released a blast of black lightning of her own. Sidious dodged, and Fey deemed him weak. "You Moraband were always so focused on the physical, and never on the force..."
"Hey, I reject that, Fanatic!" Indul spat at her, "We Moraband do not claim the Banite. He is merely trash, even if Darth Bane originated from the home planet."
"Too much talking," Damnatus hissed, a cold breath escaping his mask as he drew his blood-red lightsaber, "we kill the Banite and finish the blood hunt, and then I can finally see my numbers go up again!"
Fey laughed, but as Damnatus launched himself into a lethal strike, Skywalker interfered. He stood with his blue lightsaber lit, his eyes wide as if obsessed, as if insane, and Fey saw his despair. She saw the desperation of one who was to be embraced by the loving arms of the Sith, baptised with a new name. "I need him," Skywalker begged, and Fey recognised his need.
"Of course you do," Fey replied, motioning for Damnatus to step back, "he promised you help, didn't he? I sense your fear, your desperation... You crossed a line here, and only he would welcome you."
"I won't let you kill him," Skywalker answered.
"What if I told you that you don't need him?" Fey drawled, lading her voice with the force, with power and charm, "He told you that only he would accept you, but he's a liar. He lied to you all along, he lied to the galaxy... Why serve him when you could have so much more?"
"Don't listen to her, Anakin," Sidious cried, "only I can help you save Padmé!"
Skywalker's head flicked to the old man, but Fey saw the cracks. She saw how Sidious had lured him in, and she knew how to exploit it. Skywalker would listen to her.
"Padmé Amidala," she breathed, "we will help her. We will protect her. We will save her. Everything in this galaxy is ours, and it can be yours too. She will be yours, safe, whole, happy... You only need to ask. We help each other."
Indul giggled, the sound annoying Fey as she tried her best to seduce the Jedi to their side. "Padmé Amidala, the senator of Naboo... My boy, you are wonderful!" He laughed, "You picked well for your first apprentice, Fey, this Jedi will be great under your tutelage."
"You will... Save Padmé?" Skywalker asked, staring at Fey as desperation made place for forbidden hope.
"Of course, we are friends now," Fey smiled a dangerous smile, "and I take care of my friends."
"How can I trust you?"
"You can't," Sidious hissed, "don't trust them, Anakin, only I can-"
"Damnatus, shut him up if you please," Fey interrupted, and the hooded Sith threw him into the wall, holding him there with the force.
Fey took off the Sith necklace she always wore and placed it in his hand. "In my legacy, this is the mark of a master taking an apprentice. My mother handed me hers until I forged my own and returned it. I now pass it to you, until you forge your own and return it."
"You will teach me how to save Padmé?" He closed his fingers around the chain. There was a spark of recognition in his eyes, of acceptance.
"I will," Fey answered, "I will name you Darth... Vader, and through the force you will break your chains."
"Through the force my chains are broken," Damnatus and Indul intoned.
"Through the force my chains are broken," Anakin Skywalker, now Darth Vader repeated.
With that his fate was sealed. Anakin Skywalker was inducted into the Sith, a part of the masquerade, and Damnatus immediately gave a demonstration of the importance of law and the price of transgression. A moment later Sidious was dead, and Damnatus was siphoning off his last remaining life energy to feed the enchantments on his mask. Fey sensed it and his peculiar use of the dark side always made her feel a little too curious for her own good. She'd rather keep her own body than live as a cursed being chained to a piece of armour.
"I'll deal with any recordings," Indul grunted, sitting down at the chancellor's desk, "now what's the cover story. How do we sell murdering the chancellor?"
"Vader will take the credit," Damnatus said, carefully fixing a few wrinkles in his robes, "with our presence here erased, he is in prime position to benefit."
"Congratulations," Fey teased, "Sith for only a couple moments and already you get to taste the fruits of a blood hunt. Anakin Skywalker, hero of the republic will rise in fame!"
"What do you need me to do?" Skywalker asked, staring at the emaciated corpse of Sidious.
"Dooku Serenno has broken the masquerade so thoroughly it must be reestablished," Indul instructed, "we will establish the Sith as dead again, and you will be the hero who killed them."
"You want me to take credit for killing Palpatine?" Skywalker asked. For a moment he fell silent, but then Fey was proud to see him work that brain of his, "Palpatine... Windu duelled him and almost defeated him. Let the records show that, but he died just as I arrived. I finished him off. Just before that is where the recordings need to end"
"Well done, creative," Fey said, "the Jedi will believe you, and the senate them. They will all listen to you, and you can guide the galaxy from there."
"And we will have peace!" Damnatus cried, "I can finally get back to making money!"
"Get your numbers back up," Indul teased with a chuckle, "I'm just going back to my little paradise. I have not had a good Serennian wine since the embargoes went up!"
"Temptations of flesh," Damnatus scoffed, "nothing like the mathematical purity of a big number getting bigger."
"But you will help Padmé?" Skywalker asked Fey, "You will save my wife?"
"First thing tomorrow," Fey replied with a smile, "I have a penthouse on Coruscant, come see me in the morning, and I will divine what threatens her. We will help her, Anakin, we will save her."
"Thank you, master Fey," Skywalker, now named Darth Vader reverently said.