On the Wings of Valkyrie

Chapter CXLII

"There's more than just general research about mini-chlorians in this," Padmé muttered as she paged through the loose papers that Luna had stored between the pages of the Book of Sith. "There's theories on time travel and space bending here too."

"It would seem Plagueis's research touched but did not explore the concept," Vader answered from where he was going over the journal itself. "Luna must have focused on that area when we first showed up on Earth."

"Makes sense."

"Indeed.... I think I may have found something relevant."

"Oh?" Padmé asked, looking up from where she was trying to locate the correct notes.

"Jedi and Sith," Vader began, reading over the passage, "have high midi-chlorian counts at the moments of their births. Breeding between two Force-sensitive parents is an option as the pairings generally result in Force-sensitive offspring. On the other hand, genetic defects have been a concern since the inbreeding among the royals of Viun during their mad chase for extraordinary powers. A simple blood transfusion is the obvious answer, but I have found the subject's native midi-chlorians will reject the influx of foreign cells."

"So Plaguies had the idea," she muttered, moving to look at the book for herself. Luna appeared to have been more interested in an earlier passage on this particular page, underlining the words negative emotions such as the loss of hope can induce cellular necrosis and drawing an arrow down to where there was more writing room to comment How real is this? It's a symbiotic relationship according to these journals, hope or not, living is a good thing. There'd have to be a higher death toll with the war if this were the case. Keep in mind regardless. Possible circumventing solution: encouragement via existence of the twins and hope for their future?

"That said, he doesn't seem to have been interested in discovering the reason behind the failure in blood transfusions," Vader stated. "Plaguies focused on using his will and power to override the midi-chlorians in test subjects. The fact that his midi-chlorians attempted to resist the action brings to mind how the Emperor's Hands feel through the Force. The Force is actively trying to be rid of Palpatine's abominations."

"Then why is it permitted if the Force itself disagrees?"

"How would I know?" the Sith asked as he turned the page. "Plaguies's conclusion with his experiments were that midi-chlorians could be controlled, at least on the level of halting tissue decay. It seems after a point, he either mastered that particular ability or the Force decided to accept it in some fashion as he moved on to inventing new life. Luna's notes give the impression that he was unable to do this with his power alone, thus draining the life forces of others, though I think it's safe to say this is more conceptual theory."

"A theory that makes a degree of sense. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, so it had to have come from somewhere. But does that mean Palpatine hasn't managed to make his Hands acceptable because he is acting against universal laws of physics?" She sounded as skeptical and confused as she felt.

"I have no idea. If so, it does beg the question of why Luna is the only artificial Force sensitive that was fully accepted. As far as I am aware, there were no active sacrifices being made to keep the experiment going. Besides, if live sacrifices were the only issue, there would be far more like her and they would have been active long before now." He went back to page 130. "To use Plaguies's jargon, the only real change in Luna was with the anima while the Hands have been influenced by both anima and pneuma."

"What does that even mean?" Padmé questioned, looking at Vader with evident confusion.

"Plagueis classified the Force into three rather than two categories: aperion, anima, and pneuma. The anima and pneuma seem to be the living Force traditionally. In his world, anima gave life and was thus closely related to midi-chlorians which he believed were responsible for inducing and sustaining said life. The pneuma was the existence of conscious thought and self-awareness."

"So his studies were focused on the anima considering his obsession with life."

"Yes. According to the notes in this book, Sidious doesn't appear all that interested in the experiments, but there is some obvious overlap. If he applied a similar willpower to midi-chlorians of a subject and forced them to accept foreign cells during a blood transfusion...."

"But we know Palpatine hasn't spent all his time the past twenty years doing that."

"And we know his presence isn't exactly necessary for the creation of the Hands. There is Sith Alchemy involved as well as other factors. The Hands also seem to be placed in red bacta for an extended time which Luna never experienced while she was being experimented on. I also know Palpatine was present during stages during her experiment, but not extensively nor often."

"Did you do anything in particular when in contact with her?"

"Only attempts to stop or otherwise assist her with the pain," Vader answered, "but that was both from a distance and infrequent."

"I feel like we're missing something...." Padmé said, thinking aloud. "Do you think the origin of the blood transfusions have any effect?"

"They would have to. The bond between myself and Luna grew while she was undergoing the experiment. Palpatine appears to have had something similar between himself and all his creations. He uses the bond to treat his Hands as puppets. As I said, that version influences both the anima and pneuma as they don't seem to have much independent thought."

"Like workers in a colony of insects?"

"Precisely."

"And you don't have that in any form over Luna."

"For the most part," Vader began, causing Padmé to give him a look of incredulousness, "I certainly have no control over her independence or her thoughts, but I have found that it is easier to circumvent her shields and enter her mind while she is unconscious when compared to others. When deep enough, I do have an unprecedented degree of access to both her emotions and memories. Similarly, I can take temporary control over her body when she is otherwise occupied without her immediately realizing it, though I would not be able to maintain such action any longer than a handful of moments without her permission. In either case, it would be much more difficult if not near impossible under normal circumstances unless the other party was willing."

"So it would be safe to say that is a byproduct of the experiment, much like how Luna falls ill whenever you are injured."

"From what little I know, yes."