Clouded by the Dark Side

Epilogue

Author's Note: This is the end of the third book, but don't worry, you don't need to wait for the beginning of the fourth one. We've already posted the prologue for the sequel, When Paths Collide. :)

Thank you all so much for reading, voting, and/or commenting on this story! :D

PS.  My sisters wrote this in third person, and they were too lazy to make it first person like everything else. Whatever. *shrugs* It's cool like this. ^-^

~ Amina Gila

Ever since the start of the Clone Wars, the Force has been out of balance. Instead of the constant, flowing energy, it's tinged with an artificial darkness, caused by the many deaths and destruction.

Despite the unnatural darkness filling the Force – it doesn't bother him, seeing as he was raised on a Dark Side planet – Maul feels the disturbance. It's a sudden flux of darkness, a disturbance more than what he's felt before.

Something happened, something revolving around the Skywalkers. Their journey towards the Dark Side is nearing completion, rapidly. Something must have happened to them, to create a ripple this big.

This, likely, is one of Sidious' final steps before his endgame. Time is running short, very short. Whatever he and Savage do, they must move quickly.

***

On the other side of the galaxy, on Serenno, he hears about it almost immediately. He can't remember the last time he was this furious with the Jedi. Sidious may have let it happen, he may have planned for it, but it was the Jedi who chose to walk this path. Now, Dooku has very little doubt the Skywalker twins will Fall. It will be easy, and he can only be grateful they haven't walked away from the Order. He's surprised, if he's being honest. Most would have.

Had they left, Dooku is certain Sidious would make his move immediately, or give Dooku the order to turn them himself.

It's not what he wants. He doesn't want them to Fall. He doesn't want them harmed, certainly not for them to be turned into the mindless slaves Sidious wants.

They're powerful, and if Sidious succeeds in turning them, there will be very little hope of destroying him. Dooku knows little about Plagueis, but he knows enough. It will be almost impossible to stop them, as is.

Dooku is certain the twins will have little loyalty to him. They would, no doubt, choose Sidious, if they had the choice.

What shocks him, though, is the little regard with which the Order treats their so-called Chosen Ones. How far have the Jedi fallen, to turn their backs on their own simply because the Senate asked them to do so? Qui-Gon will see what Dooku means now, what he tried to say on Geonosis.

There is little choice, Dooku realizes. There is no longer hope for the Order. He knew it, and has for a long time, but this is another proof. Sidious is right about one thing: the time for the Jedi has passed. A new Order must take its place.

Only, Sidious will not be the head of it. Dooku will make sure of that, or he'll die trying.

***

"It is done," Darth Sidious says, standing before a hologram of his master. "It will not be long before the Skywalkers are ours."

"Good. Bring them to me."

"I want them alive," Sidious snaps. "I have not spent this much time with them for naught."

"And alive, they will be," he promises. "Turn them. Rule your Empire. Then bring them to me. I want to see your... creations."

"It will take time." With their padawans gone, and their faith in the Order shaken. Perhaps it will only take another half-year. All Sidious needs now, is to give the twins a reason to Fall. Their attachment to their friends is their greatest weakness, one he will use against them. It will need to be something great enough for which they will follow him without question.

Likely, their children. Tano and Syndulla were their greatest weaknesses, and now with their departure, it will leave them more vulnerable. If they believe they failed to care for their padawans alone, they will be more likely to seek Sidious' help if they believe one of their children to be in danger.

It will be simple, surprisingly so. Convince the Council to give the Skywalkers a reasonable amount of leave-time – with the darkness he senses in the girl, it would be understandable – and they will spend it with Senator Amidala and her brother, trying to stay as far from the Temple as possible.

It was unintentional, but not unwelcome, when the girl was caught in the middle. He had planned for Tano to be executed, and to let the suspicion expand enough to include Syndulla too, but this is perhaps even better. Having experienced the betrayal first-hand, they are far more inclined to turn their backs on the Order.

Only hours afterwards, they'd whipped up a Force-storm. It's only further proof as to their power.

Day by day, their darkness is growing. Soon, very soon, it will be time to make his move.

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