Some kind of Monster (LV)

[Darth Vader]

<center><font size=-2>Metallica - King Nothing

Wish I may
Wish I might
Have this I wish tonight
Are you satisfied?
Dig for gold
Dig for fame
You dig to make your name
Are you pacified?

All the wants you waste
All the things you’ve chased
Then it all crashes down
And you break your crown
And you point your finger, but there’s no one around
Just want one thing
Just to play the king
But the castle’s crumbled and you’re left with just a name
Where’s your crown, King Nothing?
Where’s your crown?

Hot and cold
Bought and sold
A heart as hard as gold
Yeah! are you satisfied?
Wish I might, wish I may
You wish your life away
Are you pacified?

All the wants you waste
All the things you’ve chased
Then it all crashes down
And you break your crown
And you point your finger, but there’s no one around
Just want one thing
Just to play the king
But the castle’s crumbled and you’re left with just a name
Where’s your crown, King Nothing?
Where’s your crown?

Huh!

Wish I may, wish I might
Have this wish, I wish tonight
I want that star, I want it now
I want it all and I don’t care how

Careful what you wish
Careful what you say
Careful what you wish you may regret it
Careful what you wish you just may get it

Then it all crashes down
And you break your crown
And you point your finger, but there’s no one around
Just want one thing
Just to play the king
But the castle’s crumbled and you’re left with just a name
Where’s your crown, King Nothing?
Where’s your crown?

Oh, you’re just nothing
Where’s your crown King Nothing?
Oh, you’re just nothing
Absolutely nothing
Off to never, never land</font></center>

In the heart of it's lair, the beast stirred.

-hisssssss-

The pressurized interlocks released from Darth Vader's mask. A mechanical arm gripped the angular edges of the Death's Head, and peeled it back from the Dark Lord's face. The man inside, cloned from the essence of Anbira Hicchoru, and twisted to the full extent of evil, squinted his yellow eyes against the harsh white light of his meditation chamber.

Something malevolent had befallen him. He was never Anbira Hicchoru, but further still never was he Darth Vader. His cloned blood boiled with unnatural hatred in his veins, and his evil will alone had threatened to undo him.

A medical droid approached the Dark Lord, and inserted a tube in his neck. With another appendage, it prodded an open sore on the side of his face with a needle, injecting medical nanodroids onto the wound. They would bind his flesh, and patch the harm he wrought upon his own body. It was a temporary fix. A finger plugged into a bursting dam.

The Dark Lord's skin was blanched. Dark blue veins spidered across his temples, and his once full black hair was beginning to recede. Such was the sacrifice he was willing to make to truly drink from the Dark Side. His body was destroying himself, to fulfill his obsession with power. His cloned genes were being ripped apart, causing cancer to ravage him.

It would be unwelcome news to most, but the Dark Lord was unfettered. It was worth it all to command the power he held. If nanotechnology was required to stitch the seams together, so be it! It would not be the first means taken to perpetuate himself, nor would it be the last.

As the medical droids worked on his immediate treatment, Vader reached to a nearby keypad, sending an encrypted message to his consort, Lady Vader. He had many things to ask of her now.

[Lady Vader]

LV had been reading over some reports the Mayor had sent her, mostly about how negotiations were proceeding with Drall. Selonia had all but come to their side, wanting to be a part of the Corellian system as a whole under the TSO flag. But Drall was proving a bit more difficult. Never the less, LV had complete confidence in their Mayor.

Still nestled in her comm chair, the consule to her left beeped with an incoming encrypted code. That particular consule was only used by certain individuals, and it rarely came to life.

Swiveling her chair to face it, the reports on the negotiations with rall temporarily forgotten, LV punched a key comand to bring the message up on the screen. It was at first a garbled mess, but after a few more key strokes, the encryption was deciphered by the computer, and Darth Vader's message became readable.

[Darth Vader]

The message was a simple one.

"I must speak with you in private."

[Lady Vader]

LV finished reading the message and uncurled herself from the comm chair, rising, and heading out of her room. Iesis stood from the spot she had found where the setting sun was bathing the room with light, and plodded behind LV.

LV made her way down the corridor to a single door at the end of the hallway. There were no rooms near it, and it was a stark contrast of bare metal compared to the rest of the ornate wooden doors in the wallway.

At the door, LV reached to the right, pressing a button, announcing her arrival to the occupant within.

[Darth Vader]

The door opened in front of LV, allowing her clearance into Vader's main chamber. At the center of the room lay the large durasteel meditation sphere. As the doors slid closed behind LV, the sphere split open in a whine of servomechanisms, with the upper hemisphere rising to the ceiling, while the lower unfolded like some sinister flower.

The man inside was likewise uncovered. He sat in a stainless steel chair, adjacent to his armor which hung on a rack. The medical droids continued to whir around him, tending to several biomechanical ports that had recently been grafted on to help combat his cancer.

"Welcome, Sel'arra." The un-armored clone spoke in a baleful purr as he watched the Sith Mistress approach.

[Lady Vader]

"Hello, Anbiraa." As LV approached the clone, she made a slight motion with her hand towards Iesis, indicating the panther should stay by the door. The feline did as she was told, and lay at the foot of the large metal entryway.

She stopped at the edge of the chamber, watching the droid momentarily as it went about it's medical programing. Anbiraa had changed since his "birth". The Dark Side had done a number on his cloned body, and it was beginning to show physically.

Yet mentally, he was still sound; albiet hungry with power.

"You wished to speak with me?"

[Darth Vader]

"That I did."

With a slight gesture, a large metal chair was pulled across the room with the Force, coming to rest just behind LV.

"Sit."

The medical droid inserted another needle, this time into the clone's right shoulder. Anbiraa payed it no attention.

"It seems that I am paying the price of my ambitions. My abuse of the Dark Side is tearing at the seams of my genetic structure, or so my assistant says."

Anbiraa makes a vague gesture to the droid tending to him.

"I find this amusing."

[Lady Vader]

LV sat down and listened to Anbiraa as he spoke, gesturing slightly towards the floating droid going about it's business. A corner of her lip quirked upward.

"You find it amusing that your genetic structure is falling apart, or that a small medical droid told you so?"

The amused smile faded. It was very apparent the Dark Side had done a number on him. She'd known that a cloned body could not withstand the awesome powers the Dark Side held. Hell, even an uncloned body suffered due to the drain the Dark Side put upon it. Such was the price of power.

There really was no cure for Anbiraa's ailment. The only solution would be to reclone him. Such was the vicious cycle the technology of cloning plus the power of the Dark Side afflicted upon it's users.

She cleared her throat quietly.

"How long did your assistant say you could go on like this in your current body?"

[Darth Vader]

"I find it amusing to see myself in this state. It is not wholly unexpected."

He could see that the news was uncomfortable to LV, but it was of little consequence. He was not shaken in the slightest.

"Perhaps two months before the side effects are terminal. Unless my genetic stucture is infused with stable material, the cancer will destroy me.

I do not intend to allow this. I still have much left to do."

[Lady Vader]

"So then, what is your plan of action? Has a new body been prepared for your use?"

She cocked her head slightly. "Or did you have something else in mind?"

[Darth Vader]

"I won't hop from body to body like some parasite!"

Anbiraa's voice raised with anger, which he reluctantly caged. Sliding back into his seat, he allowed his eyes to meet LV's again.

"It would make little difference. My quest for power comes at the expense of my health. No matter what body I would inhabit, I would destroy it. No, I must improve the body I have. I must become even more powerful. More powerful than ever before."

Anbiraa smiled a mirthless smile.

"I need your help in this task."

[Lady Vader]

LV frowned as Vader's voice was raised. She didn't like to be yelled at, and while her annoyance remained, she let her facial features become smooth of any irritation.

"What help do you require of me?"

[Darth Vader]

"My genetic structure will continue to destabilize. The only way to guarantee genetic integrity is if fresh genetic code is used to bridge the gaps. No doubt it will leave me changed to some degree, but my health will be restored. Can you possibly imagine the power at my disposal, if even the corruption of my own cells cannot defeat me?

My request of you, Sel'arra, is that my love contributes that which I desire."

[Lady Vader]

She blinked.

"You want some of my DNA?"

If that was truely what he was asking for, then it would add fresh genetic structuring to his ailing body. But at the same time... what kind of a mix would that be?

[Darth Vader]

Anbiraa nodded.

"Such an infusion would make me whole...for now. The destructive power I desire exacts a heavy price. I can pay it with this gift."

[Lady Vader]

She looked at him for a moment, her eyes straying and following the medical droid and it hovered nearby working on what it had been programed to do.

"I have no problem with giving you some of my DNA, though I do wonder what kind of impact that would have when mixed with yours..."

[Darth Vader]

"That does not matter." The clone replied stubbornly.

"Who I am is beyond this wretched body, or the confines of this armor. I must have this power."

[Lady Vader]

"Very well."

LV stood and approached the clone, daring to step just inside the egg-shaped chamber. She let a claw run slowly down his bare arm. "I will give you what you want..." She applied a slight preassure, opening a thin line that let small droplets of blood escape. "So long as you do not forget your place at my side."

She retracted the claw and back-stepped once again outside of the chamber. The medical droid fluttered to life again, zipping to the newly created cut and injecting more nanodroids to seal the thin wound.