Red light cut through the darkness.
Malgus's lightsaber ignited beside him.
Khan drew his own weapon.
The golden blade came alive with a heavy hum. Light-blue sparks moved around it, illuminating the darkness pressing against them.
The Emperor's fragment looked toward Malgus.
Its anger filled the chamber.
The purple flames bent toward its shadowed form. Darkness gathered around both of its hands.
Then lightning erupted from them.
Malgus stepped forward.
He raised his lightsaber with one hand and extended the other.
The red blade caught the center of the attack.
The Force gathered around his open palm.
Purple lightning split between them.
The impact drove Malgus backward.
Stone cracked beneath his boots.
Lightning spread across his armor and struck the ground around him. Pieces of the floor broke apart beneath the pressure.
Malgus did not fall.
He turned his head toward Khan.
"You will deal with the holocron."
Khan looked toward the artifact.
The red object continued rotating above the pedestal.
Darkness pulsed from within it.
Khan did not know how he was supposed to seal something carrying that much power.
The Emperor's fragment followed his gaze.
Its faceless head turned toward him.
One shadowed hand lifted.
Lightning gathered around its fingers.
Malgus pushed forward.
The first attack broke apart.
Purple energy struck the walls and shattered several statues.
Malgus charged.
His lightsaber passed through the darkness surrounding the Emperor and struck its center.
The fragment released a scream.
The chamber shook.
A wave of Force energy erupted between them.
Khan raised his arm as the shockwave struck him. His feet slid across the floor, but he remained standing.
Malgus was thrown backward.
He turned in the air and landed upon one knee.
The Emperor extended both arms.
Shadowy tendrils rose from the floor and rushed toward him.
Malgus cut through the first.
The second wrapped around his arm.
He pulled it toward him.
The Emperor's fragment moved with it.
Malgus drove his lightsaber through the center of its chest.
Darkness exploded from its back.
The wraith screamed again.
Its hand struck Malgus's armor.
A wave of power threw him across the chamber.
He crashed through a stone pillar.
The structure collapsed around him.
Khan moved.
The holocron waited across the room.
He ran toward it.
Lightning struck the floor behind him.
The impact threw pieces of stone past his head.
Khan did not look back.
Another explosion shook the chamber.
Red light moved across the walls.
Malgus emerged from the fallen pillar and attacked again.
Khan reached the center of the room.
The closer he came to the artifact, the heavier the darkness became.
Every pulse pressed against his body.
Khan raised one hand.
The Force gathered around him.
Darkness pushed back.
The golden blade remained in his other hand. Blue sparks moved across its surface, drawing small pieces of energy away from the holocron.
Khan took another step.
The Emperor felt him approaching.
A shadow appeared between Khan and the pedestal.
It took the shape of a hooded figure and reached toward him.
Khan swung his lightsaber.
The golden blade passed through its body.
Blue lightning erupted from the crystal.
The shadow broke apart.
Khan continued forward.
More shapes rose around the pedestal.
Faces appeared within them.
Some belonged to people Khan had never seen.
Others wore the robes of ancient Sith.
They reached toward him.
Khan turned his blade.
Golden light passed through the first figure.
He stepped beneath the arms of another and cut through its center.
The shadows collapsed.
More began forming.
Khan looked toward the holocron.
Destroying the apparitions would accomplish nothing.
They were coming from the artifact.
He deactivated his lightsaber and secured it at his side.
The shadows moved closer.
Khan reached through them.
His fingers closed around the holocron.
The chamber disappeared.
Silence replaced the battle.
Khan opened his eyes.
He stood within endless darkness.
There were no walls.
No floor.
No light from his weapon.
The holocron remained in his hand, but its red glow had disappeared.
A shape moved ahead of him.
The Emperor's fragment stepped from the darkness.
Its form appeared more human than the wraith within the chamber. Long robes covered its body. Its hands remained hidden within its sleeves.
Its face refused to take one shape.
Features appeared and changed whenever Khan attempted to see them.
Old.
Young.
Scarred.
Untouched.
Human.
Something else.
Every face disappeared before he could understand it.
The figure looked at him.
"So…"
Its voice came from every direction.
"You are the weapon Malgus forged to assist him."
Khan released the holocron.
It remained floating beside him.
"I am no one's weapon."
The distorted face shifted.
"I answer only to myself."
The Emperor laughed.
The sound passed through the darkness.
"Yes."
It began walking toward Khan.
"Of course."
Another voice whispered behind him.
I make my own choices.
A different voice answered from his left.
I shape my own destiny.
More voices surrounded him.
No one commands me.
No one controls me.
The Emperor stopped.
"That is what they all say."
The darkness beneath Khan's feet moved.
"The words of slaves who have not yet recognized their chains."
Khan reached for his lightsaber.
The weapon was not at his side.
The Emperor noticed.
"Even here, you reach for the power another gave you."
"I forged that weapon."
"With materials chosen by Malgus."
The figure moved closer.
"A crystal he led you toward."
The darkness changed.
The mountain appeared around them.
Khan saw himself reaching for the golden crystal.
"A trial he prepared."
The mountain disappeared.
The creature beneath the waterfall charged through the darkness.
"A path he decided."
The beast collapsed beneath Khan's power.
"And you still believe your choices belong to you."
Khan looked toward the Emperor.
"I chose to follow him."
"You chose nothing."
The figure raised one hand.
Images moved through the darkness.
Naboo appeared.
Khan saw himself standing inside the palace.
The battle unfolded around him.
Dooku fell.
Khan's body refused to move.
He watched it happen again.
The Emperor walked through the memory.
"Interesting."
Khan turned toward it.
"An era of peace."
The figure studied the palace.
"Or what once passed for peace."
"What do you mean?"
The Emperor looked toward him.
"I have seen what you have seen."
The memory changed.
Yoda's lifeless body lay before Khan.
"The fall of a Jedi."
Another image appeared beside it.
Dooku lying beyond Khan's reach.
"The death of your master."
The Emperor walked between them.
The cultists surrounded Khan at the edge of the pit.
His blue lightsaber fell into the darkness.
Malgus crushed Dooku's weapon.
The broken pieces struck the cave floor.
"And in every memory…"
The distorted face turned toward Khan.
"You were weak."
Khan's hands closed into fists.
"Pathetic."
The Emperor stepped closer.
"Nothing but wasted potential watching greater beings decide the fate of everything around you."
The images surrounded Khan.
Dooku falling.
Yoda dead.
The children kneeling around the pit.
His weapons lost.
His body broken.
"That is why you allowed another dead man to manipulate you."
Malgus appeared among the memories.
His ancient armor remained still while everything around him moved.
"You sought strength because you could not bear what you were."
The Emperor stood beside him.
"And yet…"
The darkness closed around Khan.
"Here you are."
The holocron appeared above the Emperor's hand.
"At my mercy."
Khan stared at it.
"I chose my path."
The Emperor tilted its head.
"Malgus only showed me how to walk it."
"Foolish boy."
Power gathered around the figure.
"What Malgus has given you is but a fragment of what I possess."
The darkness behind it opened.
Khan saw worlds.
Thousands of them.
Some burned.
Others stood untouched beneath darkened skies.
"When I return, you will become my first apprentice."
The Emperor extended one hand.
"Your enemies will fall."
The image of the Sith Lord from Naboo appeared within the darkness.
"You will avenge your master."
Dooku stood behind him.
"You will never watch helplessly again."
The Emperor's hand remained open.
"Then you will understand true power."
Khan looked toward Dooku.
His master's image stood silently.
It was not real.
None of this was.
Khan faced the Emperor.
"It does not matter whether it is you or Malgus."
The distorted face became still.
"I will take hold of my destiny through my own power."
Khan reached toward the darkness.
His new lightsaber entered his hand.
The golden blade ignited.
Blue sparks moved around its light.
"You will be defeated."
Khan raised the weapon.
"And your power will disappear with you."
The Emperor lowered its hand.
The image of Malgus remained between them.
The Emperor looked toward it.
"You still believe he is alive."
Khan's blade remained raised.
"He is standing in that chamber."
"So am I."
The Emperor moved around Malgus's image.
"Do you believe this shape makes me whole?"
The darkness changed.
Kaas City appeared around them.
Not the ruins Khan had entered.
The city stood complete.
Towers rose into a storm-filled sky. Imperial banners hung from enormous structures. Ships moved above the streets.
Thousands of people walked beneath them.
Then the image flickered.
The city vanished.
Only its memory remained.
"The Force remembers."
The Emperor's voice passed through the empty streets.
"Pain."
Figures appeared and disappeared.
"Hatred."
Battles moved across the city.
"Ambition."
Sith Lords walked through the Citadel.
"Power."
The holocron rose above them.
Red light spread from it.
The memories became clearer.
Solid.
Real.
"The artifact magnified what remained."
The Emperor appeared beside the holocron.
"My will endured within it."
Its shadow spread across the city.
"My hunger gave memory form."
A second presence emerged.
Malgus.
His armored body slowly took shape.
"At first, it was only an echo."
Malgus opened his eyes.
"Then the echo remembered its hatred."
The Emperor's image turned toward him.
"And refused to kneel."
Chains rose from the ground.
They wrapped around Malgus's arms, legs, and chest.
The city disappeared.
The ruins where Khan discovered him formed around them.
Malgus was pulled into the stone.
"He rose from the same memories that sustained me."
The Emperor looked toward Khan.
"So I made him a prisoner of them."
Khan watched Malgus strain against the chains.
"He knew."
"Of course he knew."
The Emperor moved closer.
"He remembers his death."
Malgus's mask turned toward them.
"He remembers his failures."
The chains tightened.
"He knows every breath he takes belongs to the power of this artifact."
Khan thought of the way Malgus moved through Kaas City.
He had not simply remembered its roads.
He was part of their memory.
"The Malgus you followed is no more alive than I am."
The Emperor's face shifted again.
"He is an impression left upon the Force."
It pointed toward Khan.
"A weapon shaped from another age."
The ruins disappeared.
"Just like you."
Khan's focus wavered.
The Emperor attacked.
Darkness crashed into him.
Khan raised his lightsaber.
The golden blade cut through the first wave.
The shadows separated around it.
Then they returned.
They wrapped around Khan's wrist.
He turned his blade and cut through them.
More rose from below.
One closed around his leg.
Another caught his free arm.
Khan reached into the Force.
Anger answered.
Power erupted from his body.
The first chains broke.
The others tightened.
Khan pushed harder.
Darkness spread across his chest.
The Emperor watched him struggle.
"Yes."
The chains pulled Khan downward.
"Use it."
Khan released another wave of power.
The darkness absorbed it.
"Give me more."
The chains climbed across his shoulders.
Khan tried to move.
His body refused to answer.
The Emperor appeared before him.
"As long as you depend upon the darkness…"
The chains closed around Khan's neck.
"You will never defeat me."
The distorted face moved closer.
"I am the source of your power."
The golden lightsaber disappeared from Khan's hand.
Everything became black.
Khan could no longer feel the holocron.
He could no longer hear the physical battle.
The chains pulled him deeper.
Images appeared within the darkness.
Kit stood alone before the Emperor's shadow.
Lightning passed through his body.
He fell.
Aayla appeared next.
Darkness wrapped around her until nothing remained.
Coleman.
Yarael.
Xavier.
The children.
One after another.
Khan watched them die.
He attempted to close his eyes.
The images remained.
You are still weak.
The voice came from inside him.
The training changed nothing.
Khan saw himself kneeling before Malgus.
You were only his weapon.
The Emperor appeared behind him.
Now you will become mine.
Khan pulled against the chains.
They did not move.
The power he had gained on this planet was gone.
No.
It had not disappeared.
It had become the very thing binding him.
Khan felt it within every chain.
His anger.
His hatred.
His fear.
The dark side he had used to become stronger now belonged to the Emperor.
Perhaps Malgus had manipulated him.
Perhaps every choice Khan made had brought him exactly where the Emperor wanted.
Perhaps he had never taken control of anything.
His thoughts slowed.
The darkness closed around him.
One final chain moved toward his mind.
Then a voice reached him.
Small.
Distant.
"Observe."
Khan's eyes moved beneath the darkness.
The voice did not belong to a spirit.
It carried no presence within the Force.
It was a memory.
"Listen."
Dooku stood within a training hall.
Khan could barely see him.
"Trust your instincts."
The words had followed every lesson.
Every mission.
Every failure.
Khan had stopped listening to them.
After Naboo, he no longer trusted what his instincts told him.
They had not saved Dooku.
They had not saved Yoda.
They had not prevented the Sith from escaping.
But Dooku had never taught him that instincts made him incapable of failure.
He taught Khan how to act when certainty was impossible.
Observe.
Khan stopped pulling against the chains.
He looked at them.
The darkness did not come from everywhere.
Each chain carried the same current.
Each one flowed toward a single point.
The holocron.
The Emperor was not the darkness.
It was using it.
Listen.
The voices surrounding Khan contradicted themselves.
The Emperor called Khan a slave while promising him freedom through servitude.
It called Malgus a prisoner while depending upon Malgus's memory to sustain its own manifestation.
It called itself eternal while desperately seeking revival.
A truly eternal being would have no reason to return.
Trust your instincts.
Khan thought of Xavier and the children.
He had given Xavier the communicator without knowing whether he could survive the cultists.
He had trusted him.
He thought of Kit and Aayla.
Even now, every step he took was meant to return to them.
He thought of the golden blade he forged.
It did not belong to Malgus.
The Emperor's words could not change that.
Another memory appeared.
Dooku stood behind Khan and adjusted the position of his wrist.
"It does not matter how strong your swing is if it is not precise."
A training blade moved through the air.
"Without precision, strength is merely wasted energy."
Khan understood.
He had been trying to break every chain at once.
He did not need to overpower the Emperor.
He needed to sever its control.
Khan stopped reaching toward the darkness surrounding him.
He focused upon one chain.
Then one point within it.
The place where the Emperor's will entered his own.
Khan reached for everything he possessed.
The strength Malgus taught him to channel.
The power he claimed from the storm.
The discipline Dooku spent years building within him.
The Emperor felt the change.
"What are you doing?"
Golden light appeared within the darkness.
Khan's lightsaber returned to his hand.
Blue sparks moved across its blade.
The chain tightened.
Khan swung once.
The golden blade struck the point he had chosen.
The chain shattered.
Light passed through the mindscape.
The remaining bindings weakened.
Khan turned his weapon.
A second chain broke.
Then a third.
The Emperor's figure appeared before him.
"No."
Khan tore his arm free.
The darkness moved to stop him.
He raised his open hand.
The current flowing through the chains changed direction.
It began returning to the holocron.
The Emperor staggered.
"This power does not belong to you," Khan said.
The distorted face twisted.
"It belongs to the dark side."
"No."
Khan tightened his hold.
"It belongs to whoever possesses the strength to command it."
The darkness rushed toward him.
Khan stood his ground.
His anger became focus.
His grief became purpose.
His love gave him something to protect.
His hope gave him a path forward.
The golden blade illuminated everything around him.
Khan pulled.
The mindscape shattered.
Sound returned first.
Lightning.
Stone breaking.
Malgus roaring.
Khan opened his eyes.
His hand remained wrapped around the holocron.
Power erupted from his body.
Khan screamed.
Golden light passed through the red artifact.
Blue lightning spread across its surfaces.
The holocron stopped rotating.
Its separate sides began moving inward.
Across the chamber, Malgus and the Emperor's wraith remained locked in battle.
Much of Malgus's armor had been destroyed.
Part of his mask was broken. Dark energy moved beneath the damaged metal.
The Emperor's manifestation towered over him.
Its body had expanded, stretching toward the ceiling. Purple flames moved within its shadowed form.
Malgus's lightsaber struck its side.
The red blade tore through the darkness.
The wraith turned and caught Malgus with one hand.
Its fingers closed around him.
Malgus was lifted from the floor.
Lightning passed through his body.
The chamber shook beneath his scream.
The Emperor looked toward Khan.
It felt the holocron closing.
"No!"
The wraith threw Malgus aside.
He struck the floor and rolled across the stone.
The Emperor moved toward Khan.
Its body crossed the chamber without touching the ground.
Khan tightened his grip around the holocron.
The artifact resisted.
Its surfaces attempted to reopen.
The Emperor extended one hand.
Darkness gathered around Khan.
Malgus rose.
His armor smoked.
His body wavered for a moment.
Then he charged.
The red blade passed through the Emperor's back and emerged from its chest.
The wraith stopped.
Malgus pulled his lightsaber free and struck again.
The Emperor turned.
A shadowed arm caught Malgus across the chest.
He was thrown backward.
Malgus remained on his feet.
The Emperor attacked with lightning.
Malgus raised his blade.
Purple energy struck the red light.
The impact drove him backward.
Khan felt the holocron pulling away from him.
He reached into it.
The connection between the artifact and the Emperor became visible through the Force.
Thousands of strands extended from the holocron.
They passed through the chamber and entered the wraith.
Memories.
Hatred.
Hunger.
Everything giving the fragment form.
Khan closed his hand.
The holocron pulled.
The Emperor's body shifted toward it.
Its lightning stopped.
Malgus saw the opening.
He deactivated his lightsaber.
Then he extended both hands.
The Force struck the Emperor.
The wraith moved backward.
Its body stretched between Malgus and the holocron.
"You cannot destroy me!"
The Emperor's voice shook the chamber.
Darkness poured from the walls and wrapped around Malgus.
"I am eternal!"
Malgus pushed harder.
"You are a memory."
The Emperor resisted.
Purple flames tore themselves from the walls and struck Malgus.
His armor burned.
He did not release his hold.
Khan pulled through the holocron.
The artifact grew heavier within his grasp.
Its edges cut into his palm.
The Emperor's manifestation moved closer.
Only a small distance.
But it moved.
The wraith turned toward Khan.
Images entered his mind.
Kit lying dead.
Aayla reaching toward him.
Xavier and the children trapped inside the cave.
"You will lose everything!"
Khan's arm trembled.
The holocron began opening.
He remembered the chains.
The images were not real.
Khan focused.
"Then I will face that loss as myself."
Golden light erupted from the weapon at his side.
Blue lightning traveled across Khan's body and entered the holocron.
The Emperor screamed.
Its form collapsed inward.
Malgus advanced.
Every step drove the wraith closer to the artifact.
The Emperor looked toward him.
Its voice changed.
The anger disappeared.
Temptation replaced it.
"Without me, you will cease to exist."
Malgus stopped.
Khan looked toward him.
The Emperor's shadow reached outward.
"Release me, and the memory will endure."
Malgus's hands remained extended.
"I will restore everything you were."
The broken mask hid most of his expression.
The Emperor moved slightly away from the holocron.
"You will live again."
Malgus lowered his head.
For a moment, the pressure weakened.
Then his hands closed.
The Force struck the Emperor with greater power than before.
"Then nothing is what I choose."
The wraith was torn from the floor.
The Emperor screamed.
Darkness spread across the chamber.
Every purple flame rose at once.
Khan pulled.
Malgus pushed.
The threads connecting the Emperor to the planet began breaking.
One after another.
The chamber shook.
Stone fell from the ceiling.
Cracks spread through the walls.
The Emperor's form stretched toward the holocron.
Its hands reached for Malgus.
Then Khan.
Then the chamber itself.
The faces of countless people appeared within its body.
Every memory the artifact had consumed.
Every life touched by its darkness.
The Emperor attempted to hold onto all of them.
Malgus roared.
Power erupted from his body.
The remaining threads snapped.
The Emperor's manifestation flew toward Khan.
The wraith collapsed into a torrent of darkness.
Khan held the holocron before him.
The artifact pulled everything inside.
The Emperor's distorted face appeared within the storm.
Its mouth opened.
"You cannot contain me!"
Khan forced the sides of the holocron together.
The first locked into place.
The Emperor's voice weakened.
"I will return!"
Another side closed.
The darkness narrowed.
"The galaxy is mine to consume!"
Khan gathered everything he had left.
His power.
His strength.
His will.
His purpose.
He commanded the holocron.
The final side closed.
The Emperor's scream vanished.
Silence filled the chamber.
The purple flames went out.
Darkness withdrew from the walls.
The pressure surrounding the planet passed through Khan's hand and disappeared into the artifact.
The red holocron floated above his open palm.
Its light had dimmed.
Khan remained standing for several seconds.
Then his legs failed him.
He dropped onto one knee.
His arms trembled.
The golden lightsaber at his side deactivated.
Across the chamber, Malgus lowered his hands.
His armor was broken.
Smoke rose from his body.
Neither spoke.
Khan looked toward the sealed holocron.
For the first time since arriving on this world…
The whispers had stopped.