Years From Now: The Hammer

[A'na]

Hanna City, Chandrila

The infected were slow to return to the place they had been massacred. After the children and the Jedi had left, the main promenade of the Hanna City spaceport was empty and still.

A lone woman sat propped against a toppled tree, her back against the pot it had been planted in. She was sitting in a puddle of her own blood, a blaster clutched in her hand and lying in her lap.

She looked dead.

Yet, a glimmer of life still clung to her body, as her chest rose and fell slightly and with irregularity. The blaster twitched in her hand as the sound of running feet bounced through the empty halls of the spaceport.

Soon it would no longer matter if she had the strength to hold off the slavering infected. The Imperials would bombard the capitol city of Chandrila from orbit, to contain this breakout of disease and keep it from spreading to other parts of the planet. If it had not already.

The patter of feet seemed to be coming from all around her. A'na struggled to care, struggled to open her eyes. She peered out, trying to make sense of what she could see, and aiming the blaster at the figures starting to move towards her.

[Emperor Ave]

“My Emperor, the streets are far too dangerous. You should remain-”

The black-clad figure of Salem Ave whirled around, his cloak whipping at the air, and pinned his guardsman in place with a cold glare.

“Don't... tell me what I should do, Captain. You have your orders. Search the city. All of you. I want one of the infected captured. Now.”

“Y-yes, sir.” The captain of the guard saluted and after a moments hesitation signalled for his comrades to follow as he began to move into the streets of Hanna City. Their mandate was clear: the Emperor desired a still-living carrier of the plague, and they were to deliver one such specimen to him.

In the end, however, Ave suspected it was a task he would have to complete himself. The men were fiercely loyal to him, their was no disputing that, but the communications channels were flooded with news of squadrons lost to the infected, of Imperial soldiers rising from the dead to claim their former allies as victims. It had put the fear into everyone of them, no matter how loyal they were, and whilst they were not of the belief that the condition could be cured, they would continue to be ineffective.

Salem moved through the empty streets like a phantom. With the Force, he could move as silently and swiftly as the wind. In truth, there was more than just the promise of a cure driving him onwards. He had sensed something – someone – on Chandrila that he had not expected to find there. It was something he had misplaced, something which had - infuriatingly - slipped through his grasp.

Now, it was time to take it back.

[A'na]

Three shots, three dead infected. Drawing on the Force, A'na lowered the blaster, wearily checking the power cell one last time as the corpses near her still smoked from holes in their heads.

The sounds of footsteps seemed louder. More were coming. And she only had enough juice for four or five more bolts. The woman sighed, green eyes closing as she rested her chin on her chest.

She'd covered the childrens' escape. The Jedi were long gone. And yet she still lived.

What do you want of me? She pleaded mentally with the Force, but there was no answer. No sign to tell her it was okay to die. A'na opened her eyes, trying to look around and see what was coming up on her.

She shot another infected, a posh looking woman in a buisness suit who was drooling mightily and lurching towards her. The creature shrieked and fell backwards, clawing at its face. A'na had missed, only blowing off the woman's cheek and ear instead of plugging her in the brain. Other infected leapt on their companion, tearing it to pieces in their maddening hunger.

A'na checked the power cell one last time. She'd save the last bolt for herself. Exhausted and weak, her life pooling sanguinely beneath her, the woman waited for the infected to come closer. She didn't want to miss.

Three more shots, three more infected down. A'na put the blaster to her head, closed her green eyes, and pulled the trigger.

[Emperor Ave]

He saw her press the trigger.

He felt the recoil.

... but the shot had never fired. The power-cell was dead. With its energy depleted, the blaster was now a useless shell. Cruelly, he thought how fitting a companion it was for her, in her final moments, how alike she and it were – but there was no time to think now.

The Emperor's arrival had drawn some attention from the infected who remained. One of them ran, arms flailing, towards him. In a single fluid motion, Salem took a step to the side and removed a slim, metallic hilt from his hip. Its blue blade crackled to life, and the mindless infected charged right into the beam, effectively cut itself in half at the middle. Salem staggered back quickly, careful to avoid any possibility of contamination.

There was a groan and Salem looked up sharply, hawk-like eyes honing in on the rest of the group. There were five of them left, and only one was shambling towards him. The others were still intent upon feasting on A'na. A scowl contorted his features. Bending at the knees, he threw his lightsaber out into the crowd, the twisting and arcing blade cutting a bloody arc through three of the infected.

[A'na]

If she'd had the strength she would have cursed, but A'na merely let the blaster fall as she lost the strength to hold up her arm. Everything started getting muddled, as people began bending towards her, hands outstretched, fingers grasping...

No... Jade... I love you... A'na could see a blue light beyond her eyelids, and gasped for air. With all that she could muster she contained the anger within her soul and blew it out in one last Force fueled blast. The infected that surrounded her disappeared in the onslaught, but the light remained.

A'na swooned into blissful darkness.

[Emperor Ave]

“No!”

Powerful steps carried Salem over the bodies of the fallen, his polished boots crushing tattered flesh beneath them. The blade of his lightsaber snarled as it swept down towards A'na, the tip levelled straight at her heart. One of the infected, who had somehow survived, moaned somewhere to the left of his feet – but with a vexed gesture, deadly lightning arcing from his fingertips, he silenced it. His white eyes did not leave A'na.

“You cannot die, not like this. Do you hear me?! I forbid it!”

[A'na]

The light shifted and changed, the blue glow becoming brighter and a loud voice brought her back to consciousness. A'na's eyes rolled up from the back of her head, unfocused and full of pain.

"Let me die," she rasped, her mouth dry. "Or... do you want to do it yourself?"

She stared up at him, her head leaning awkwardly on her shoulder. "You... you cannot hurt her... Darth Malleus... she is safe..." A'na's eyes rolled back as she continued to mumble nonsense. "Cannot have her... the hammer fell... I died... you cannot find me..."

[Emperor Ave]

His teeth became hard set, as he glared at her down the length of his nose. What was this, this rambling? The first signs of the infection? They knew so little of the virus and its symptoms. Perhaps she had fallen to it already.

“Speak sense, Malleus. Your Master commands you.”

[A'na]

"I hoped to never see you again, Salem." Her eyes fluttered. "I..."

He had broken her heart at the same instant as he had remade it. She had fallen in love with him in a sense, though as time went by she had convinced herself that all she had cared for was the power he had promised her.

Darth Malleus. The Hammer. She had been a blunt instrument in his hands, carving the galaxy into one he could rule. And she had been successful. A'na... no, that was not her name. Had never been her name. She took it to hide from him, hide far away and burrow down deep so that he could not find her.

Even now he did not suspect the fullness of her deceit. "I suppose you are upset about... how I left..."

Lilaena De'Ville coughed painfully. "Just let me die."

[Emperor Ave]

It was a tempting offer. A part of him greatly wished to see her dead, but not so easily – he wanted her to suffer. It had been a long time since they had last met, and though his anger had cooled in their time apart, now it was renewed tenfold. The saber blade trembled for an instant, but – with a deep breath - his composure was soon regained, at least to the naked eye.

“Eight years...” he rasped, the mask of Callidus flickering onto his features for a moment, the death-head fragmented like the shards of a broken mirror. “Where have you been hiding, Lilaena? You must have burrowed deep.”

[A'na]

"Oh... you know..." she waved her hand weakly, "here and there..." Lilaena closed her eyes, her life hanging in the balance as her pulse continued to weaken. "I had to go... Anxia would have... she would have killed her..."

[Emperor Ave]

“Anxia would not defy me. She would not... touch... you.”

Salem hesistated. The swell of arrogance, of certainty, that had briefly risen inside of him was quickly vanishing. Utter and undisguised confusion began to spread across his features. He had overlooked some piece of the puzzle, he could feel it now with absolute certainty.

“You're... hiding something from me.”

Offence, outrage, pain, anger. Whatever he felt, it was difficult to say. The more Salem mastered his public appearance, the less control he seemed to have over his private self. The immense power he could command ran rampage with his emotions.

“What is it?” He was bent on one knee now, one gloved hand taking hold of her jaw.

“Tell me!”

[A'na]

She met his egg-white eyes, sorrow reflected in her emerald irises. Salem touched her face, no trace of the tenderness that once had marked his touch, and twisted her head around to face him.

"She is out of her reach now. Out of your reach... our.. daughter. The Jedi... she is safe with the Jedi." Lilaena's eyes welled up with tears, remembering sending Jade away with the Jedi Master. "I would never have left you, Master..."

[Emperor Ave]

The sight of tears might have inspired an equally emotional reaction in any normal man – but Salem Ave was not any man. His nostrils flared as he inhaled, his lips tightly pursed together. Betrayal was not something he could abide, and this treachery was layered; it cut to the heart of him. It was unlike anything he had ever felt before. In her dazed state, Lilaena might not have noticed, but the thumb and finger he held her with had begun to shake now.

“But you did – and now my child, the Emperor's child, is in the hands of the Jedi. Why?!”

[A'na]

Why indeed?

In her muddled state, Lilaena could scarely put into words the torment that she had gone through in her training as a young child. But Salem knew... he had touched the scars on her back. A'na Eldhil, the master she had loved and adored, had viciously abused her and brainwashed her, and turned her loose on the galaxy as an instrument of destruction to avenge the death of the Jedi Order.

Salem, her second master, had used her strength as a weapon for his own ends as well, but his touch had not been abusive. He had been seductive, the power she craved given to her bit by bit. He had broken her of the notion that she was a Jedi, and Lilaena knew that A'na Eldhil had not been a Jedi either.

She had not wanted Jade to suffer as she had, but the girl's latent Force potential could have attracted all kinds of unwanted attention. Anxia would always be a threat, no matter what Salem thought. Only the Jedi could train her... keep her safe.

She wanted Jade to have the chance that she had never had as a child. The chance to be good.

But instead of explaining this, she trembled and whispered, "I... I don't know..." Her body stiffened, and Lilaena moaned in pain. The footsteps were starting again.

[Emperor Ave]

What was she even doing on Chandrila? Had there been a secret cell of Jedi there all along? Surely not – he had scoured the Galaxy for them, with a Purge that made Palpatine seem inefficient. A hundred and one questions came to mind, but there simply wasn't time enough for any of it. Yet, still words came – hurrying off his lips, in a tone that was quieter but no less demanding.

“Which Jedi? Who has my child? Where are they taking her?”

Even as he spoke, he heard them advancing on him. He could only feel them, barely, yet he knew they were close by. The infected did not see him as their Emperor, but simply as another yet to be claimed piece of flesh.

[A'na]

She could hear him questioning her, but she had lost too much blood. Lilaena saw the darkness encroaching on her, and welcomed it. Anything to get away from this hell that she was living in.

The darkness offered a release from the pain, and she embraced it, passing into unconsciousness again.

[Emperor Ave]

As she slipped into darkness, Salem cursed the frailty of the human body. It was responsible for all of this – after all, it was biological weakness that had allowed the Morbus virus to spread so quickly. Rising to his feet, the Emperor turned to meet the mob of infected that were lurching their way towards him. His eyes narrowed.

“Come, then, if you are so eager to die.”

- and come they did. The corpses of their fallen peers he attracted the infected in even greater number, so that with each one killed another handful would arrive as if to replace it. Salem, however, worked with efficiency. Heads rolled, as one by one the infected fell to their knees before the Emperor and bowed, beheaded.

“My Lord! We're picking up activity in Zone 6!”

The voice buzzing in his ear was the Captain of the Guard, stating what Salem already knew to be true – he was the activity in Zone 6. The signal meant that his soldiers were en route. It was fortunate he thought, as he methodically decapitated another body, that he could defend himself without the assistance of the guard.

Sure enough, they arrived minutes later to find their leader standing amidst a circle of corpses. The Captain was sickened and quite terrified, though he hid it well.

“My Lord - what are your orders?”

Ordinary circumstances might have demanded that the bodies were identified, but this situation was far from ordinary.

“Take blood and tissue samples.. and then burn them. Burn the city to the ground.”

As he spoke, the Captain thought he glimpsed a flicker of fire behind the Emperor's eyes, and quickly averted his gaze. A brisk salute was given, and the men began to ready themselves for the task of purifying Hanna City. Salem glanced back towards Lilaena, and motioned for two of the soldiers to retrieve her body.

“I have what I came for... let's go.”

[A'na]

She fell in the darkness for an eternity. This is what death is, Lilaena thought. A screaming nothingness that went on forever.

Gradually she became aware of a light, and though she tried to avoid it the source grew brighter and closer, swallowing her up. She protested, and realized that her throat was clogged. She was choking.

The irony of choking to death while already dead was not lost on her. Lilaena opened her eyes to life and a new day.

Staring through runny, greenish goo, Lilaena could not see anything except a diffuse light. Her mouth was the entry point for a variety of tubes, all responsible for a different part of keeping her alive and breathing. Suspended in the bacta, she floated for several minutes, waiting for a medical droid to appear.

Her heart thudded loudly in her chest, reverberating through her body and sounding like a tribal drum to her ears. Salem must have saved her. He was healing her so that he could break her and get the information he wanted.

Or, even slightly more terrifying, he would let Anxia be in charge of her torture.

She had once suffered at the hands of the Imperial Inquisition and their monstor, Y'roth Helgast, but Lilaena was certain that whatever the Sith knight could come up with would be much, much worse. She squirmed in the bacta, confused by the lack of any movement beyond the tank, even though she had been awakened. Floating towards the top, the former dark Jedi found that there was a lid in place and it was sealed shut. The tank did not release her.

Trying not to panic, Lilaena kicked her legs and thrust with her arms, attempting to trigger the tank's failsafes so she could get out.

[Emperor Ave]

Something in the room outside of the tank moved.

Suddenly, the light was gone. The something stood in front of it, its shadow almost consuming the length of the tube that contained Lilaena. It watched as she raged against the rejuvenation chamber, the very thing that had saved her, had made her strong again. Would she never learn?

With a sneer, Salem turned his back to the vulgar sight of her flailing.

[A'na]

As the light disappeared, Lilaena felt her fear nearly overcome her, the smothering sensation of the tank closing in, confining and suffocating her. She bumped her head on the tank's lid, sank back down into the center of the bacta, and slowly regained some of her senses.

She would not drown in the bacta. It was healing her. The tubes in her throat were uncomfortable, but if she would just relax...

It took a supreme effort to loosen the muscles that had tightened in her sudden panic after her surprise awakening, but she managed it. Lilaena peered out towards where the light had been and could just make out the silhouette of a man.

Not a doctor, she guessed. Suspended in the healing goo, her nakedness only slightly covered, Lilaena knew that the man outside the tank was Salem. As much as she now feared him, she was overwhelmed by a sense of loss.

The former apprentice placed her hand against the inside of the plexiglass, palm towards the dark shadow.

[Emperor Ave]

His head moved ever so slightly, so that out of the corner of his eye Salem saw her floating there, watching him. He turned slowly and began to walk towards the tank. Her hand was still pressed against the glass, as if reaching out to him. It was a tender gesture, a cry of longing. Ever so tentatively, his own hand began to lift and-

BAM!

Salem's fist struck the wall between them, not breaking the tank but sending a shock-wave of energy throughout. Seen through the bacta, the Emperor's face was distorted, his features as amorphous and indistinct as the mask he had once worn.

Did you think escaping me would be that easy?!

[A'na]

The sound of his fist hitting was muffled by the bacta, but the energy it imparted to the goo buffeted her body. Lilaena snatched her hand back from the glass, floating backwards away from him as he looked in at her.

She was exposed before him, a specimen on display, and he was as far away and imperious as he had been when they had first met. He had always been able to see down into the darkest places of her heart. Salem had drawn out the hatred inside her, pushed down the walls of her psyche that had been put in place by her former master A'na Eldhil.

He had torn her down, and built her back up again.

Did you think escaping me would be that easy?!

Lilaena's eyes widened as Salem's telepathic voice slammed into her mind, and she clutched at her head and screamed at the incredible pain. Under the weight of the bacta she made no noise, but then the tubes were dislodged and she began to choke in earnest.

[Emperor Ave]

Her pain struck him for an instant, and then his mind was closed against it. With a roar of frustration, he slammed his palm against the emergency shut-down. In a matter of moments, the tank would be empty and Lilaena would be fully exposed to him. Like a caged animal, Salem stalked suddenly away from the machinery, a brief grimace crossing his features as he thought he heard her retching up the fluids that had been pumped inside of her.

[A'na]

The levels in the tank began to drop rapidly, and in a few moments Lilaena found herself at the bottom of the tank, kneeling and gagging. Her hands found the face mask and she pulled it out, vomiting up bacta as the long tubes were withdrawn.

She did not have long to remain in that position, as a large droid arm descended into the now empty tank and grasped her slick body firmly. Drawing her up and out, it placed her gently in the rinsing station that was on the platform that surrounded the tank. Cool water cascaded down on her, but all she could do was curl up on the floor and shake.

That was not how one was supposed to exit a bacta tank. She thought she could hear footsteps, and tried to get to her feet, but she was as weak as a newborn nerf. Lilaena stumbled and grabbed for support, finding it as a medical droid finally appeared to help her.

Without a word it held her up and scrubbed off the remaining bacta. The rinsing station shut off, and the droid assisted her in climbing down from the platform. Her legs shook, but she knew from experience that the shock would soon pass.

Salem's anger, on the other hand, was not likely to fade. She glanced around, trying to find him in the semi-darkness of the medical facility as she and the droid reached the ground.

[Emperor Ave]

He came at her from out of the shadows, though not in a frantic rush of movement. Instead, his steps were even and calm. Whilst he had called upon the stoic façade that served him well as Emperor, the shadows clung to him hungrily, a sign of the emotion that was concealed beneath the surface. He came to a stop a few feet from where she waited, shaking. By contrasting, he stood as cold and unyielding as steel.

“So... how does it feel to rise from the dead, to be born again?”

[A'na]

The medical droid stopped walking her as the Emperor approached, keeping her standing in place as he questioned her. Lilaena guessed that there would be no warm bed and a medical robe for her this time.

She also knew better than to answer Salem glibly. Taking a moment, she thought the question over.

"Disappointing," Lilaena sighed, her legs finally beginning to cease their tremors. "I look forward to my death." Clad only in damp underwear, she leaned heavily on the droid who seemed to have turned into stone.

[Emperor Ave]

“You will be waiting a very long time for it's arrival.”

They stood in silence, with Salem looking over her body. There were scars there that had not been present before, and some old wounds had almost vanished with time. Some reverie of the past called to him but he shut out the memory before it could come to life before his eyes.

“Eights years... there is so much you have to tell me.”

[A'na]

As he looked at her, Lilaena felt old. Her body was still in good shape and the room was dark, but she felt ashamed to be standing in front of his probing eyes.

He had not changed much in the years that had passed. When she had left, his hair had only a sprinkling of grey at the temples. Now Salem was nearly completely grey, but still as handsome as ever. More handsome, if it were possible.

She could see Jade in the shape of his face... his nose and his lips... A pang of sorrow hit her, followed quickly by fear and hope as she thought of the Jedi who she'd entrusted her greatest accomplishment to. Her life meant nothing. Her daughter was all that mattered.

"I... I wish it had been different," she faltered.

[Emperor Ave]

“It was within your power to make it different, but you refused.”

She was at his mercy now, that much was certain. Stripped physically, perhaps even emotionally, and laid bare before him. There was some small satisfaction in it, but ultimately it only lead him to feel disgust - at her, and himself.

“I never thought you were a coward, Lilaena... but I see now that I must have been wrong about you, all along.”

[A'na]

A surge of anger welled up inside her at his words, and she snapped before she could stop herself. "I am no coward! Everything I did was for the safety of my daughter."

The anger warmed her limbs and she felt stronger as it did so. "If you had never entangled yourself with Anxia in the first place this never would have happened."

[Emperor Ave]

He didn't move, didn't shift an inch. His eyes were still fixed on hers, unwavering and when he spoke, his voice was low.

“What makes you think you have the right to judge her? Anxia never ran away. Anxia never betrayed my confidence and my trust in her...”

[A'na]

"She doesn't have anything in her head that you did not place there." Lilaena looked deep into his eyes, meeting his piercing gaze. "And if you'd admit it to yourself, you always appreciated the fact that I had a mind of my own."

It was why you had your dalliances with me in the first place, Master. I was an obedient and respectful apprentice, but I was never tamed. Whether what she thought of Anxia was true or not, Lilaena believed her opinion of the other woman to be correct. And she still feared what Salem's wife would do to Jade once she found out she existed. Once she found out that her beloved had loved another.

The Force strengthened her as she filled with anger, and Lilaena lifted her chin defiantly. "I betrayed you, and I suffered for it. I imagine that I have yet to suffer fully for it. I..." she stumbled over her words, remembering the day she'd discovered that she was carrying Salem Ave's child. He had been the Emperor for two years, and they had been carrying on behind Anxia's back for at least that long.

It had been a glorious time for Lilaena, with all the power she had long desired at her fingertips. She'd imagined that she loved Salem, and that he returned the affection. And it had all come crashing down on her with one simple medical test.

She'd packed in the night, slipped out of the palace and left Imperial Center before sunrise. The only thing she'd left behind was a small jade ring that Salem had given her months earlier.

"I panicked. And then it was too late to return."

[Emperor Ave]

He listened, and as Salem Ave so often did, he betrayed little of his emotional response to what she had said. It had always been Salem's way to try and understand the minds of those he surrounded himself with. In the case of his apprentices, he had formed a powerful bond with each of them – becoming receptive to their thoughts and feelings. In their years apart the connection between Callidus and this apprentice had weakened, but a flicker of it still remained. Feeling its presence again was... unsettling.

“That child was not yours to keep. If you had made the right choice then, perhaps... by now you could have had everything you had ever wanted.”

[A'na]

She squared her shoulders against him. "Perhaps. Or perhaps our child would be dead."

Better to be in the hands of the Jedi. Lilaena had been sure she was making the right choice, but somehow Salem always knew what to say... how to make her doubt herself. She shivered suddenly, realizing that the medical facility was cool and she was nearly naked. "May I have some clothing... Master?"