The Weaving Force: Chapter 120 (Patreon)

Taylor:

It was… rare to feel that a planet, the actual orb as a whole, felt… malicious. Something almost tangible in the air. Something that sank down to the marrow of your bones  as you stood on its surface.

But… Dathomir had these things.

Beyond the very pungent envelopment of the Dark Side over this world’s entire surface; this place felt primal. 

To put it in very simple terms; It’s an evil, fucking world. 

We scanned the planet from orbit; sent down ships to land near the detected manmade structures- with me leading them not my Padawan- regardless of their protests- And almost immediately things began to go wrong.  

Scouting bands of the 212th and the 501rst that slipped beyond my range were savaged by predators if they were able to return at all; men who stayed too long away from me began to show signs of hearing things that weren’t there- equipment malfunctioned, animals attacked. Obi-Wan and Anakin reported worrying similarities in the ships in orbit.

I myself could feel something clawing at the edges of my mind. A thing scratching at the walls; trying to find its way in. 

If I were younger, I might’ve listened. 

But I’m not.

I adapted as quickly as I could, spreading out as much of ‘myself’ through the force as I could to protect my men; defend them  from these insidious ghosts and phantoms that lingered in this tomb of a world.

We set up camp on the first day. When it was time for me to sleep; I asked Anakin to come down; explaining things. He did of course. And took up shielding the men while I rested. 

Around the second day; Obi-Wan had scheduled a rotational duty schedule; to not keep men on this rock for too long.

Two days was the allotted time for Clones. Four for any of the Jedi/ Anything more would need to be approved of by him- as the commanding officer of the fleet and ranking Council member. 

I didn’t blame him for the precautions; as it was… four days seemed like a long while to stay and endure; even as we investigated. 

Dathomir was a world dotted with ruins; fragments of long lost civilizations- its ancient halls and arcades desiccated and preserved in shattered corpses of masonry and… dare I say it- Sith history.

The ruins were hidden; carved into crags and valleys between sheer canyon walls and cliff faces. 

The clones searched for days; cycling from planet to ship and back again. Obi-Wan, Karla and Iskt replaced me and Anakin on the world as needed, cycling in and out alongside the clones.

Even when I rested in the ships the incessant scratching- though further away was still there clawing at the back of my mind.

Then; finally- as the days began to blur together- one of the scouting parties called a broadcast.

‘Generals; found something.’

—

The -something- was a massacre.

Or at least the remains of one. 

 I’d been on the ships when the call came in, Iskt, Karla and Obi-Wan down on the surface.

Anakin; Ahsoka and I went to join them.

By the time we arrived, the Legions descended on the site; clone troopers becoming crime scene investigators; marking the spots where Droids or corpses were found, using droids to holographically begin reconstructing the site.

I could sense Iskt and Karla elsewhere in the ruins; Noble was with them. The two Padawans were watching the proceedings; with Asimov and Pratchett directing most of the actual field work amongst their brothers- their expertise easily being deferred to.

Instead of going to them; I made my way to Obi-Wan, who’s feelings in the Force were a disquieted mix of concern, anxiety and… I’d almost say dread.

As Anakin; Ahsoka and I drew close, we passed by the marked corpses of droids; and what looked like  Zabrak warriors. Marked with blackened tattoos and wielding crude weaponry; spears, swords and the like -some were even made of stone- but each was infused with a clear Darkside signature; clinging to the weapons like a lingering smoke. 

As far as I knew; these practices had been abandoned or lost long ago.

Evidently whoever these people were, they hadn’t gotten the memo.

“Hmmm?”

I turned at the sound; finding Anakin looking at one of the corpses of the marked Zabrak  with a knit to his brow and a curious frown on his lips.

“What is it?” I asked.

Anakin’s mouth twisted like he was tasting something nasty- “I think I know what’s bothering Master Obi-Wan.” He said, beginning to move again. 

I marched beside him; Ahsoka behind us. “Should we be worried?”

Anakin shook his head; hands folding themselves into his sleeves. “Not yet I think.”

The answer wasn’t satisfying; but I trusted Anakin enough to let him be cryptic if he wanted to be. Besides, I could ask Obi-Wan in a bit.

When we finally found the senior Council member  he was standing over several bodies, the Clones around him scanning, cataloguing and marking as needed.

There were about a dozen of the Zabrak warriors that I could see about three times as many shattered B-1 and B-2 droids. 

The way the bodies were arrayed- clearly they’d been fighting eachother here. Some desperate last stand. I could almost hear the lingering echoes of their wrathful battlecries. Their fear and rage, clinging to the place like smoky ghosts. 

“Obi-Wan.” I called and my friend seemed to actually start where he stood; jerked out of his thoughts. 

“Hmm? Oh. Taylor.” He said; as if just remembering that I existed at all on this deployment. He shook his head. “Forgive me. I was miles away.”

“I can see that.” I nodded; the words may have been accusatory, but I didn’t mean it that way honestly. “What’s bothering you?”

I saw the man toss a look towards the marked and heavily tattooed Zabrak at his feet. “Its nothing- old memories mostly.” He answered and I sensed… mostly truth in the statement. 

Then he continued, looking far more grave than forlorn. “But there is something-” He gestured for us to follow, marching past the corpses into the hallway along the far side of the chamber- apparently what these men had all died trying to defend. 

Anakin gestured for Ahsoka to stay behind- much to the girl’s protests. I agreed with the decision- at this point, it said nothing good of the fact that they’d become so desensitized to the sight of corpses that I didn’t even bat an eyelash at them even overseeing parts of this catalogue process in the first place. 

We walked past even more droids; these blackened and charred their metal frames were warped and twisted by neither blaster nor weaponry.

A Force user had done this. .

We entered through a high arched doorway; its near crumbling masonry scarred by Blaster bolts and lightsaber marks; blackened stonework threatened to crumble like sand stone at the slightest disturbance.

More clones were inside; but all of them were giving the bodies at the center of the ancient chamber a wide wide berth. 

These were not Zabraks.

The bodies were dressed in thick, heavy robes of scarlet red- four of them and each-

“They look… mummified.” Anakin half whispered, half gasped.

The other bodies had decayed already; having long since begun the process of decomposing but there was still wet remains of flesh on them even as maggots and flies nested on the bodies.

But these bodies… 

They looked dried out.

More than that-

“Feel them.” Obi-Wan demanded with a nod. “In the Force.”

Anakin’s features twisted with a smidge of concentration. Then his eyes went wide. “I… cant”

I didn’t blame Anakin for his shock- even as someone who had come ‘late’ into the Force; by now I was more than accustomed to it. How it passed through and bound together all aspects of life- even the dead. Its sudden absence was like I’d woken up to a missing sense of taste or touch. Even my training with Karla, where she suppressed her emotions into absolute stillness and made herself and others around her near invisible there was still something. Some  trace vestige.

But this?

I was staring at four voids; four empty blank spaces of nothing. 

“Its like-” Anakin struggled for words. “Its like the Force has just been removed.”

“Or drained.” I corrected. Many a Jedi had dedicated themselves in recent years to scouring the archives for ancient Sith practices and techniques- not to use them no. But to figure out just what methods Sidious might be using to keep himself hidden from them.

All of those archivists and researchers tended to talk- share their findings. 

Which meant I got to listen to them.

There were quite a few techniques in the ancient legends that told of Sith draining the essence of others. Be it life to extend their own lifespans- or raw force power to bloat themselves on raw destructive potential.

If that was the case… well… 

‘Lets hope not.” Obi-Wan declared. “The Sith Master is already powerful enough if he did such then I can only imagine it can only be for the worse.”

“He might’ve overstepped.” I said; almost thinking aloud rather than trying to simply reassure. “If it happened and; depending on how much power he took- it might be easier to find him. Such a raw influx and increase can’t be contained easily.”

“How did he even know about this place?” Obi-Wan rubbed at his forehead, the crease of his brow showing concern. “Dathomir has been a hidden world for centuries. The Jedi archives and Republic databases have it sealed in every record.”

“We’ve already established that he has insider access to Republic records-” Anakin noted.

But Obi-Wan shook his head. “No. No. In order for you to look for something you have to know the thing even exists. Historically; Dathomir and other Dark Side worlds have all but been purged. How did he even know it existed?”

I offered a shrug. “If there has been a surviving ‘Sith Order’ who’s to say they didn’t keep records; or even Holocrons.”

Just because villains were… well… villains; that didn’t mean they didn’t do their own book keeping.

The senior Master shook his head.

“Nothing for it now I suppose.” He sighed. “There are obviously more sites of battle across the entire… I hesitate to call it settlement. But as far as we can tell everyone here was wiped out. The males killed- and the females-” He gestured towards the red robed bodies. Bodies who’s gender I couldn’t identify given the dessicated state of them. “Each one has been found just like this.”

“How many?” I demanded.

“As of now we’ve found a little over twenty of them. And that’s not even factoring in if they captured any and took them off world.”

I glanced around the chamber; the remains of droids the dead bodies.

“This was sloppy.”

Anakin’s eyebrows hiked into his hairline. “What?” He let out a nervous chuckle. “They weren’t thorough enough for you? Should they have glassed the planet.”

“Anakin!” Obi-Wan chided with a sigh. 

I shook my head. “Not like that. But think about it. He had the Seps attack a no name planet of no strategic importance with sheer brute force tactics. Grievous hasn’t been seen in nearly three months so he might’ve been here leading the charge against an army of force users. And then the bodies are left where they are; evidence everywhere and the remnants of the Force users-” I gestured towards the red corpses again. “-left behind for us to examine and determine exactly what was done to them. Compared to how he usually operates- where we barely have anything to go off of this wasn’t planned. Not in any detail. It was brute force. It was fast.”

“It was sloppy.” Obi-Wan repeated.

I nodded.

“Okay- so the question is why.” Anakin answered. “Why do this like this? Why do things this fast?”

“Criminals only act like this when they’re trying to seize a golden opportunity; or when they’re trying to cover up evidence.” I noted, old experience serving me well with its parallels now. “So which was this?”

As if to answer our question Obi-Wan’s comms suddenly crackled.

The  General pressed his fingers to his ear. “Commander Cody?”

I heard Cody’s voice through the earpiece. 

“General- we found something.”

—

What the Clones found amidst all of the carnage and ruin… was a lightsaber. 

To be specific, the top half of what had once been a saber staff; its lower half shorn clean off at the crystal focus lens. 

It had no great significance; not to me. It just proved someone with a lightsaber had been here. It could have been any number of people; Grievous with his collection, Komari, one of the fallen Jedi. Or even Sidious himself.

But whereas I didn’t recognize it- I did recognize that at the sight of it Obi-Wan went as white as a ghost, a look of pure horror flashing across his face as he whispered a single word.

“Maul.”