Chapter Eighty Six

For once since becoming a Sith, Sidious was angry with himself rather than with the universe at large. The reason for this was simple. Thanks to his eagerness to remove his former master and take command of the Veil, Sidious had made mistakes. First, he had overlooked the fact that Yoda would have felt his former padawan's death. Second, he was not on Coruscant, in order to further distance himself from the event.

This had served him in numerous ways, and he was certainly going to use his time abroad to good effect, but Sidious would not be on hand to attempt to steer or influence the Jedi's initial push to investigate the Banking Clan, and unfortunately he had not left any orders to that regard with Pestage. That was bad, as while there was nothing there to point to any Sith involvement, he had no agents of his own in the Banking Clan, Plagueis having handled them entirely on his own up to this point.

This left Sidious in the uncomfortable position of truly being blind to what could occur. Nothing to lead the Jedi back to me or to the Order of Two, but what else will they discover? How much will this set back our plans to continue to gather the opposition forces for our war?

The Veil also had weakened slightly as it shifted from his former master to Sidious. But that aspect did not matter much. It would grow stronger even than its previous incarnation soon enough. Further, now that it answered to Sidious alone, he would start to receive some of the power up from it that was part of the design.

No, it was the mistake with Yoda that was going to cost Sidious. I wanted to move on the Banking Clan and my former master's personal holdings quickly, but now I can't! The Jedi will be watching it, and if I make any move to consolidate the clan's holdings or even look as if I have any previous connection to them, they will begin to be suspicious of me far too early in this game.

Still, the Jedi will not be in a position to take that power for themselves. That would go directly against the laws set down at the Reformation. The Banking Clan will have to deal with being watched by the Jedi more closely, but even that can be turned to my advantage, Sidious thought.

There was a slight beeping noise to one side, and Sidious came out of his meditation, turning in that direction. His droid pilot's face appeared there. "Master, we are coming out of hyperspace over Wayland."

Sidious nodded, saying nothing. The droid had its orders, having come this way before, and, after all, who would waste pleasantries on a droid? Now to see what my master has been working on out here and if any of it can be turned to my purposes.

The ship, the same ship that he had given to his former apprentice, slowly descended towards the planet, a planet that appeared on no system charts in a system that appeared on no intergalactic map. A planet that had little to no sign of any inhabitants, save for a few scattered, extremely low-tech settlements. All of those were well away from the ship's target: a large mountain standing alone well away from any other.

Despite the fact that there was no visible sign of any technology, the ship was suddenly locked on by various targeting systems as they closed. Sidious quickly input a command control code, and they all shut down in sequence, one after another. A moment later a small portion of the mountainside opened, revealing that it had been artificial. The Scimitar glided in, where it was caught quickly by a few small tractor beams, which helped to guide it to a gentle landing.

Exiting his ship, Sidious swiftly moved deeper into the mountain of Wayland, his black cloak billowing behind him as he moved.

First, Sidious checked on the projects he had known about going in, all of which seems to be puttering along nicely. None of them, however, were why he was really here. The ones he didn't know much about were: the ones his master had mentioned, the new experiments begun since the invasion of Naboo.

Plagueis had been his usual organized self, installing the new experiment on the highest levels of the mountain with the known experiments on the levels below. This included the storage facility for the original cloning cylinders they had purchased and then squirreled away from the Kaminoans. They were there waiting to be used in the future, but Sidious quickly saw that half them were missing. I wonder what he has done with them? Well, I will find out soon enough.

Ascending to the topmost level of the hidden facility, Sidious was stopped by several automated defense systems coming online. "Halt and be recognized. Further attempts to move forward will result in your destruction and the destruction of this facility," droned a robotic voice out of a nearby speaker.

"I am Darth Sidious, Lord of the Sith, as you well know," Sidious intoned coldly. "This is my mountain. Let me pass or be destroyed."

"Where is Master Plagueis?" the same droid voice replied.

"Master Plagueis is dead," Sidious intoned, becoming angrier by the second but keeping a firm rein on it through the ease of a lifetime's practice. "I alone rule the Sith now. You have two seconds to turn off these defenses and get out of my way, or I will rip them and you asunder, IG-42."

For a moment there was nothing, than the automated guns shut down, pulling back into their recesses, while the door on the far side of them opened. On the other side was a large medical droid of a type found throughout the Republic. Its normally gray or white body had been painted a deep matte black, its eyes glowing not the normal yellow or white of such droids, but orange. Its grill, too, had been replaced by a narrower version.

All in all it looked the most sinister example of its basic design that Sidious had ever seen, though he was immune to the effect. He stared, a single millisecond away from rendering the droid down into pieces.

The droid's new words, however, caused him to pause. "Forgive me, Lord Sidious; Master Plagueis left instructions to keep the security on this level and his new experiments on high during his absence. He also left no orders in regards to what I should do in the event that you came here before he did."

"And do you have any orders in the event of his death?" Sidious asked, still cold. This droid irritated him for some reason. It always had. But it was too good at its job to simply do away with it without having a replacement available.

"Should the master be declared dead, I am to obey your commands as if you were him unless evidence suggests that you had anything to do with his death. As I have no connection to any off world Internet connection or Hypercom device, that portion of my programming is mute," IG-42 replied.

Sidious debated cutting the droid in half immediately, but decided against it. It might have been wired into some kind of doomsday device, the droid no longer being part of the loop perhaps activating said program. "Show me Plagueis' latest experiments, then."

"This way." The droid nodded its head and clumped down the corridor. They stopped at the first door, opening it. "These are the master's newest experiments. Would you like a running commentary? I have induced in my databanks verbal records of the former master's activities."

Inside were some of the missing cloning cylinders. Sidious swiftly counted five, which left forty still missing. "How many experiments was Plagueis running that had to do with cloning? And then yes, tell me the details of this experiment," he asked aloud, stepping forward and staring into the cloning cylinder. Inside was a human boy who looked perfectly normal, at least in the first cylinder. In the second…was something else entirely.

"Three out of his five newest experiments had to do with cloning and genetics, master. This particular experiment had to deal with genetic meshing." An instant later the droid continued in Plagueis' voice. "Subject number two-zero-zero-five. A genetically modified clone based upon mixing the genetics of Jango Fett and Sidious' assassin Maul. Through manipulation of the Force I have made certain that his connection to the Force will not fade. Zabraks and Humans can breed to a certain extent; however, the impact of my manipulations might have a detrimental effect on his mental stability. It should be interesting to see if he becomes more or less than the sum of its parts."

"Details, droid!" Sidious ordered. "What exactly was done to this one? What indoctrination is being inputted into its programming?"

"The programming is a mix that Master Plagueis devised himself, master. The clone will believe that it is a Mandalorian who has been taken and trained in the ways of the Sith. In this manner the clone should be able to call on the best of both worlds. As for further genetic modification, Plagueis felt that doing so would add to the chances that it would be mentally unstable, which currently has a possibility of 43.00987 percent."

The droid continued, becoming more animated as it described how it and Plagueis had manipulated the genetic codes of two men into creating the clone in the cylinder. It had been a very difficult operation, but Plagueis had been as mush scientist as Sith, and IG-42 had the programming to be the equal of the original clone masters.

Sidious said nothing as he moved through the room, looking at the three other cylinders. In two of them were Maul clones, barely toddlers at the moment, while in the third and last cylinder was another unmodified clone of Jango Fett. "And this one?"

At that question the droid once more replayed a verbal recording of Plagueis, something that Sidious was not pleased to hear but could do nothing about at the moment. "Subject two-zero-zero-two. This subject is the original unmodified clone promised to Jango Fett as his payment for allowing himself to be cloned in the first place. A completely unmodified, or indoctrinated or programmed clone, for now, at any rate. That might change, but at present he serves more as a source of fresh genetic material than in any capacity on its own."

"That implies that this other one is modified in some way?" Sidious mused. This cylinder contained a baby, very obviously not nearly as far along in the growing process as the first, but with no visible difference beside that. "And answer in your own words, droid."

"Affirmative," the droid replied, accepting the order, though Sidious might have heard a tone of derision or irritation there. "That one has been modified via scientific methods. It will be faster, stronger, and more docile, though its life expectancy after reaching its full growth will be measured in years rather than decades."

"Interesting." Plagueis didn't mention that one, but I suppose since it matches to the commando type clone the cloners are creating for us it hardly matters. "And do you have further unaltered genetic data from Fett?"

When the droid answered in the affirmative, indicating several small freezer units set to the other side of the lab, Sidious smiled grimly. "Then the unaltered clone is redundant." Activating his lightsaber, Sidious stabbed the red plasma beam through the cloning cylinder. It seared through the boy's chest and out the other side, burning his heart out.

The clone boy gasped, coming awake only to die, and Sidious smiled as he felt his death through the Force, however slightly. After all, while the death occurred right in front of him, the boy had not been a Force sensitive. But still, that brief flare of agony was delicious. Feeling it, Sidious further wrapped himself in the Dark Side, much of his anger at his miscalculation fading as he allowed his sadism a moment of free rein, something he could rarely do.

Quickly pulling his lightsaber out, he did not deactivate it as he turned to the droid, the red of the blade adding to the red of a series of alarms as the monitors on the cylinder behind him screamed out a warning, quickly silenced by IG-42. "Do you have any issues with what I just did?"

"Negative," IG-42 intoned. "You are the Master of Wayland and the Sith. You can do with these experiments what you wish. I would prefer you not to destroy them all. My primary mission at present is to watch over them and to take notes on their progress. But if you wish to get rid of one test subject or many, that is well within your rights as Master."

"Good," Sidious said simply, deactivating his lightsaber and hanging it openly on his waist now rather than under his cloak. "Show me the experiments that don't have to do with cloning. We'll come back to those in a moment. These four, at least, I will allow to continue to grow for now."

The other two experiments IG-42 was in charge of had to deal with Sith alchemy. Sidious found Sith alchemy fascinating, but he had never shown any aptitude towards it, something that angered him, but which he could not do anything about. He could manipulate minds, but not the bodies of people to this extent.

Two of these experiments had to deal with the effects of Sith alchemy on the human body, making it tougher, stronger, more susceptible to control. The third had to deal with creating monsters through Sith Alchemy. His master had attempted to reproduce some of the ancient beasts that the Sith had used in their long ago wars against the Jedi Order.

Those experiments Sidious dealt with quickly, ending their tortured existence personally before ordering the droid to activate the emergency flamethrowers each cage had installed, burning their bodies all to ash. If a beast such as that could not be controlled effectively, Sidious had no place for it in his designs for the future. It was control that was key, not creating chaos like these things seemed to revel in.

The others, however, were interesting and Sidious ordered the droid to keep track of their growth. The effect of Sith alchemy on the human body, a series of experiments that Sidious found fascinating. Of course, continuing those experiments would take a dedicated individual here to keep the experiments going.

Following that line of thought, he turned to IG-42. "Tell me, droid: if I was to install someone else in this mountain with the specific orders to follow up on these Sith alchemic experiments of Plagueis', what could you do to halt him from any attempts to do anything beyond that specific sanction?"

"I could do much, master," IG-42 said, and it might have been Sidious' imagination but for a moment its eyes seemed to glow slightly brighter at the very idea. "For one thing, each of these rooms is programmed with bombs underneath them should any subject attempt to escape. For another, they cannot be deactivated and are rather on a dead droid's switch. If I am not present and online in the room when someone is in here, the bombs will go off instantly. Further, the former master implanted in me numerous devices which allow me some combat capability."

"Define that," Sidious ordered.

The droid took two steps backwards away from Sidious, and suddenly a shield glowed around it. "As I am not made of flesh and blood, the radiation of the shield matters not to me. It is based upon the shield the droidekas use."

One of its arms transformed slowly into a large blaster cannon, while an iris on his leg opened, revealing a lightsaber. "While I am in no way able to use the Force, I have programmed within me several different combat methodologies."

Plagueis, you were a magnificent planner. In many ways you are simply building upon what came before, but you did so in such an amazingly annotated manner. "Good," Sidious said aloud. "I will possibly be sending you an individual to serve as scientist for these experiments in Sith Alchemy. But you will still retain overall command of this facility under my orders. When I have decided on who to send, I will send you detailed instructions along those lines before he arrives." The prophets will be more help here than wallowing away in their hidden isolation.

"Understood, master, but I must bring to mind a caveat, a fact hardwired into my programming. This facility cannot withstand orbital bombardment for any length of time. It is secrecy more than anything else that has served us." For a moment its voice had shifted again to that of Plagueis.

"Do not lecture me, droid. I know all too well how vulnerable we still are," Sidious retorted with a scowl. "I will need to take some serious thought about how to make certain that Wayland's exact location remains unknown even to the individual I send to follow up on these experiments."

Again Sidious looked down at the three dead bodies on their tables, smiling at the excruciating pain their faces all showed. The pain and fear they must have felt still echoed in the Force of this room, and he drank in its heady tonic. But it was the notes on how pliable Sith Alchemy had made them which made them far more interesting. Like an individual doped up on 'Slaught and a hallucinogenic, but without any downside or visible effects, unless it is taken too far.

Sidious ordered the droid to give him a copy of the stages of the alchemic experiments for him to look over, and once the droid had done so he gestured back to the hallway. "Now, let us return to the cloning experiments."

"Yes, master." IG-42 led the way through the darkened corridors to the room nearest to the Sith alchemy room. This was the largest room on this level and contained thirty of the missing cylinders, lining the room.

Yet when Sidious made to enter, IG-42 held out a hand. "A warning, master: this cloning experiment was built around an effect from an animal which impacts the Force in a negative manner. You will feel some discomfort if you enter the room."

"I am Sith," Sidious said coldly. "Discomfort is nothing."

With that he pushed the droid's arm aside and opened the door, entering quickly, only to gasp as the Force, the Dark Side which fueled his body, which surrounded him at all times even when he was hidden under his Stealth, left him utterly. "What?! What is…?"

Stumbling back out the doorway, he felt the Force return, his strength and certainty likewise returning, and the Veil covering him once more. "What was that?" he said, looking to the droid who seemed somehow darkly amused by his reaction.

"I do not know how the master found them," IG-42 said. "That information is not in my archives. But do you see several little animals stuck on various trees in there?"

Sidious looked and spotted the animals in question. "I see them. And…?"

For a moment the droid fell silent, and then when it spoke again it had once more assumed Plagueis' voice. "These animals have a most fascinating ability to actually push back the Force. They are the first animal that I have ever discovered that use this ability. It is a truly astonishing find, though it is obviously an evolutionary necessity given that the dominant animal on their planet hunts via detecting the Force. I will have to return to that planet at some point for more in depth study.

"But more importantly, this ability has some implications, one of which I believe could be connected to the clone madness. The clone madness, as anyone who has studied cloning should know, is a symptom which clones that are grown too quickly fall prey to within months of being decanted. This is regardless of species. There has never been any real in depth study done on why this could be, as there is very little in terms of genetic code which would carry over between all the species who have attempted cloning in the past. But I have long believed that it was because of a connection through the Force from one clone to the original. If we can cut off that connection, it then supposes that we will be able to grow a clone from youth to maturity far faster."

At that Sidious nodded, once more remembering the conversation he'd had with his master on that score. The implications were huge, both for the war effort and for Sidious' secret projects.

"However, this will have a negative effect on indoctrination, both in efficiency and the amount. For example, this would probably not work on clones that must have secret orders," the voice said, dust dry, "or who are supposed to act independently beyond a certain point. However, for the purposes of this experiment, Yinchorri hunting packs could be perfect. And what better tools to use to send against Master Windu and remove him before he is able to influence the vergence?"

Seeing the Yinchorri young growing in the cloning cylinders, Sidious nodded, remembering the conversation he and his master had on that topic. While not as obsessed with the vergence as his master, Sidious knew that removing Windu, as he had Dooku, was a necessity in the long term.

Despite his interest in the Yinchorri clones, however, Sidious did not try to enter the room once more. That feeling of being disconnected from the Force was a terrible one. It made him feel normal, mortal, and fallible, and he had hated the very idea.

Then a small, sinister smirk came to him. "Droid, I am about to perform some experiments. Begin recording."

The droid accepted command, a small iris on one side of its head opening and a video recorder coming out. "Ready, master."

Sidious raised a hand, pointing his palms out into the room, creating a bolt of Sith Lightning towards one of the animals within on its tree branch. Yet the technique failed almost instantly after crossing into the room, the lightning dissipating instantly. Scowling, Sidious then grabbed up a small rock and launched it forward as hard as he could hurl it with the Force. That worked, the momentum of the rock carrying it forward after it entered the field the animals were creating.

Smiling, Sidious reveled in the animal's squeals as it died, watching the others shift in their places. That is good. At least I know there will still be a way for me to deal with those animals if need be.

But none of them made a move to try and leave. When he asked the droid why, he learned that they become almost symbiotically connected to the tree, their claws digging into the tree in such a way that they could no longer pull them out. Ignoring the still smoking creature, Sidious looked over at the droid. "Next?"

The next experiment proved to be a series of Darth Maul's clones, ten of them, in fact. And again, they were ensconced in an anti-Force field created by the animals. Or rather, eight of them were. The remaining two were normal clones outside the range of the animals' effect. According to the droid, Plagueis was trying to discern what the effect of the anti-Force field would be on a pure Force-using clone.

Very good Plagueis, very good indeed. Now here is an experiment which will be the equivalent of the gift which keeps on giving, Sidious thought, darkly amused by the turn of phrase his mind had come up with, unbidden.

Of course, Sidious didn't trust the droid to have told him about everything, though it did in fact turn out that it had. Even after Sidious had searched the mountain of Wayland from top to bottom over the next few days, he found no sign of any secret experiments being kept from him, no sign of any secret hidden away by his master to be used against him.

Plagueis, Sidious thought as he once more returned to the control room of the mountain, this time with the medical droid next to him. It turns out you did fully trust me and, in that, proved that you were not worthy of being Sith. Still, I cannot say I am sorry for it. It certainly has benefited me, and it will certainly benefit the Sith Order going into the future.

Sidious sat down in the throne room cum control center of Wayland, thinking hard for a moment as he stared at the readouts all around him. "Tell me, droid: can you extrapolate from known data?"

"I am far better at doing so on a medical and genetic model, master. If you're asking me for a psychological analysis of future events, I can at best give you an educated guess," IG-42 replied.

"What would the psychological impact be on an individual forced to fight a clone of himself?"

For a moment the droid was still, and then it is body language seemed to shift into an almost sadistic seeming stance. "Master, are you speaking of two parallel clones? That is, two clones of the same experimental branch?"

"I am."

"In that case, master, it would depend both on the individual in question and whether both of them knew that they were clones or thought that the other was simply a clone and that they were the original."

"Extrapolate that it is two Darth Maul clones and that both will be indoctrinated to believe that they are the original, facing a clone of themselves," Sidious ordered.

"Anger, master. Great anger, mistrust, and fury. It will force them to push themselves to a far greater degree than anything else I can think of and will make them more pliable for further mental manipulation.

"Excellent. How long until the clones that are part of the anti-Force experiments are finished growing?"

"They will not be finished growing for four more months, master. Their indoctrination, however, will not match the clones that are being grown in the slower manner, which will have an impact on their individual skills," the droid cautioned.

"Hmm. I would not be able to return that soon the event. Slow their growth process down to half of the normal amount. Proceed with the indoctrination of all the skills and abilities that my former apprentice had accumulated. Can you do that?"

The droid answered in the affirmative.

"Good. When that process is done, release them into a fighting arena, two at a time, and have them fight one another. Record the events and then welcome the winners as Darth Maul, one after another. Keep them separate. By that time I might have enough ships to send them all out on individual missions."

"Query, master: will the individual you will be placing here to oversee the Sith alchemy experiment arrive before or after this event?"

"After. I do not want that individual in any way involved with the cloning experiments. When will you have the first batch of Yinchorri ready to go?" Sidious asked.

"Two months, master, no later. Further, thanks to their simpler physiology and genetic imperatives, the indoctrination on them will be far more effective than it would be on humans. Though I will warn you that Lord Plagueis had not decided what background story to program them with."

Sidious thought for a moment, and then nodded slowly. "Here is the background story which we will feed them. It will be simple, but will answer their questions for certain. Getting them off planet and somewhere useful without their knowing anything of Wayland will be more difficult, but still feasible. For now, I have more questions before I must leave to head back out into the universe at large…"