Brotherhood

Chapter 46 - Interlude

They think she's loyal to Sidious, and they aren't exactly wrong. She is. Barriss won't regret that either. When she was here on Rattatak, after she was first captured by Skywalker, she had been resistant. She hadn't wanted to listen to him, to let his words manipulate her. But she couldn't deny the seeds of doubt which he had planted in her mind. She couldn't unhear what she had heard. When he put the Sith mask on her, any attempt at reaching out to the Force was met with the Dark Side and visions of terror and death.

Barriss knows that what she saw wasn't really real, but it's jarring all the same. Sometimes, she wakes up from nightmares even now, mind replaying things that she witnessed while there. The most effective way of breaking a Jedi is by breaking their mind not their body. She does not think of herself as broken. She is not broken. She is complete. The Dark Side is merciless and unforgiving, but it also shows the truth. There are no comforting lies in it, only the cold, harsh truth, and she has become accustomed to it by now.

While imprisoned, she had seen visions of her master dying at the hands of the Sith, of the Jedi falling to their own army, of the Sith rising supreme and drowning the galaxy in darkness. And Barriss knew that while the Sith mask on her face had been intentionally dredging up her deepest fears and insecurities, it had not lied to her. It only shown her a reality which could have been. By joining the Sith, by Falling the way she did, she averted the possible future she had seen, or so she hopes.

Even if she didn't, it doesn't matter to her anymore. The Jedi are complacent and corrupt. They are no longer the beacons of light and peace and hope which they once were. They are... arrogant. They think themselves infallible, and they are blind to the truth that they are already falling. By obeying the Senate, they have fallen victim to the manipulations of Sidious himself. They can't back out anymore, and their ever action draws them irrevocably deeper into the web.

Their best option would be to back out entirely and do something drastic, but Barriss already knows that they'll never do that. There will be no peace so long as the Jedi continue to exist. They are an evil which needs to be eradicated and destroyed. They are lost. She is not, though. She can still act. She can still make a difference and being in Sidious' favor will only make it easier for her. In time, she can become his apprentice, and from there, she can usurp him and take the throne of the galaxy for herself. Empress Barriss Offee has a nice ring to it, and she won't misuse her power the way the Jedi are, the way Sidious is and will.

No, she will bring peace, true peace, to the galaxy. That is still a long way off, of course, so in the meantime, she will bide her time and be patient. She will earn the Dark Side and become powerful. She will learn all of her new master's teachings, and she will turn them against his disloyal followers, especially the ringleaders: Dooku and Skywalker. Ahsoka, perhaps, she might leave alive. Ahsoka is young, and she still has much to learn about the galaxy. It is not at all impossible that Barriss might be able to convince her once-friend of the truth. Ahsoka can join her. They can rule together. Supreme.

In the meantime, until her dreams and aspirations can become a reality, Barriss will wait. Sidious wants her to torture and break Windu, so she will. It will be a challenge for her, of course, because Windu is a Jedi Master. He won't break easily. Sidious means this to be a test, and she won't fail it. She won't let him down. What the Sith Master wants with the Jedi, she doesn't know, and nor is it her place to ask.

Still, she has her suspicions. Time may prove her right, or it may prove her wrong. Sidious has always seemed to be one step ahead of everyone else. That's why he's alive, despite Dooku and Skywalker's planned treachery. She can continue to spy on them all as she has been – though she has admittedly found little of note – and she'll continue to wonder why Sidious is even leaving them alive when he knows what they're planning. He has his reasons, and it is not her place to question him, not now and not when he had her murder Mina Bonteri in her sleep.