Darth Vader: Hero of Naboo

Chapter 24

Ki-Adi-Mundi and Oppo Rancisis were justifiably tense; behind them stood Depa, Bemic and Sahdett. The verpine Sahdett's insect-like body was coiled and anxious while holding the amputated body of Jekram over his shoulder. The klatooinian Bemic held the small body of Evan Piell in one arm, almost like an infant, his lightsaber in the other. Depa was holding Gallia up with the uninjured arm over her neck, and trying to do some minor healing techniques on the blast wounds.

All three of them kept glancing to the opening, preparing to make a break for it while Mundi and Rancisis stood in front of them, lightsaber held up defensively...which was contrasted by Sidious, standing over the corpse of Luminara, both of his sabers pointed downward and his shoulders deceptively at ease.

The standoff was obvious. The moment they ran, he would be shooting lightning or otherwise attack the fleeing Jedi in the back. If the two masters charged him and he managed to get around them before the injured could be taken out...

Rancisis and Mundi shared a glance. While they couldn't abandon their comrades, it wasn't clear what was more dangerous for them all: Trying to save the injured now or if the five combat-ready Jedi all tried to deal with this enemy first.

"Hmm, that worked out better than I had hoped," Sidious remarked idly.

No one spoke, no one replied, knowing not to entertain this Sith's words.

"The Animated Sealant," Sidious elaborated, nodding towards the now seal hole, a notable bulge having formed where Yoda attempted to keep it open. "Amazing what happens if you find a way to mix that with something as superconductive as ultrachrome. Add in a bit of liquid carbonite and you have an instant anti-lightsaber wall," he commented calmly, as if they were his peers that were reviewing his work. "Albeit, a bit of Sith Alchemy smoothed over the kinks. You wouldn't believe how it used to balloon when I made the first prototypes. By the moons, that was terrible to clean up."

Mundi raised an eyebrow, realizing something. "It was a fake," he deduced with a scowl. Sidious didn't comment, as if waiting for an elaboration. "The gas, there was never anything in it. You wouldn't be rambling, waiting to die with us otherwise."

"Are you sure, Jedi?" Sidious asked with a smirk. "Completely? Perhaps I've already cured myself or am simply immune to the poison creeping towards your lungs," he taunted sinisterly.

Rancisis conceded that possibility. More to the point, Sidious was rambling, as if stalling. If the gas was fake, why stall like this?

"Is it wrong to gloat about my creations?" Sidious asked, making Oppo tense at being read so easily. "After all, sometimes enemies are the only beings that can truly appreciate one another's work," Sidious paused before snorting. "I suppose that is why I have no appreciation for you Jedi. In a thousand years, your progress has been rather...minor, at best," he mused darkly. "You have no idea how dedicated to your destruction we are, do you?"

"I'm sure you'll tell us," Rancisis stated.

"Not really," Sidious answered with a shrug. "I will say that a past Master of our Order did have a rather...ingenious idea: To create a deadly virus that could target Jedi."

There was a horrified instant of silence at that.

"You're lying," Depa stated with a frown. "There is no possible way you could create something like that without risking yourselves being infected as well."

"Perhaps, perhaps not," Sidious said with a haunting chuckle. "But whether it's true or not, the fact is...you believed, if only for an instant, it could exist."

Mundi felt sweat form on his head, recalling Vader's words: Don't listen to Sidious. Loathed as he was to take the advice of a Sith, he admitted that the cyborg was completely and utterly correct in that point.