67 Vizier Gentis

He gracefully removed his son, Caul Gentis, from the conference room table and back into his arms as his feet finally rested upon the plate. He knew in his previous life he had failed, he had lost everything and everyone.

The gaze of General Gentis stared down upon his son's face. Memories of when he was just a little boy, an infant, a rebellious teen.

He closed his eyes slowly as his chest expanded and collapsed in a depressing manner. He was aware that Valad could not only see this, but feel it as well. He was a hero in the Clone Wars, he had met plenty of Jedi and knew what they were taught to do through the force.

"Vizier Gentis," Valad gave the man a title akin to his position as Grand Vizier. This immediately took the man's attention. "You will be installed into office within a few weeks. Take your time to grief and then prepare yourself for office."

The former republic general could only nod slightly and then continue to look down at his son. He sat in one of the conference chairs at the elongated trapezoid shaped table.

The smell of burning ozone could reach Valad's nose. The hole which had ripped through the boy's stomach was scorched. He cringed slightly at the odor before looking over towards the door and unlocking it.

Immediately as he did so there was Ahsoka, on Casey's shoulders, standing in front of the door as it opened without warning. Ahsoka's eyes immediately locked onto Gentis for a few moments, before looking at the dead body. She covered her mouth with her hand, before gazing over to Valad who was staring right through her, as if he didn't expect her to be there.

Though he very much knew she was there. He felt her presence rather easily.

With a movement of her leg, Casey stepped forward like a horse being drawn by its rider. "Roger, roger." The droid stepped into the room and the door slid closed behind them. The droid then made its way over towards Valad and stood beside the table.

"Sit her down in a chair," Valad said with a light huff of air, the droid did as it was told, it had no real choice other than to follow this direct command.

Ahsoka found herself plucked off the droid's shoulders by the collar of her shirt and plopped into the chair beside Valad. "Wha~" She nonverbally complained, before looking up at him with curious eyes, practically asking him what was going on.

She didn't feel as if she should speak right now, considering the circumstances of the two across from her.

'His son was murdered, murdered by one of his own friends.' Valad sent her a telepathic explanation of what happened to the boy in the older gentleman's arms. 'He is going to help me run the Empire.'

Ahsoka didn't entirely understand, other than the murdering part, what he was talking about. He needed help running the Empire? Then why didn't he just ask her? She didn't exactly know how much of an undertaking the people on top had to take to run a government. Yet it wouldn't scare her either way even though she didn't have enough education to do the job just yet.

He could only chuckle inwardly, 'You're already helping me.' He said as he could sense her confusion on the topic. He then looked over towards Gentis.

"We can arrange a military funeral and the viewing. He was a Filial son, a perfect example of family." Valad offered only to see the man nod slowly in response.

He looked over to the droid who was standing there and raised a brow as it was standing by Ahsoka Tano. "Casey, please arrange quarters for Gentis through the proper channels."

"Roger, roger." Casey responded as a typical commando droid and walked over towards the door. Pausing before it exited as it gave Ahsoka a glance, who was innocently smiling and waving after the droid.

If Casey could smile, it would. With that, Casey left the room without another word.

Gentis glanced up as he finally acknowledged the girl across from him at the table. She looked familiar? His eyes traced over all the parts visible to him. His face seemed to become longer, his eyes darting over towards Valad.

"Jedi?" He asked curiously, almost glaring through the skull of Valad.

Despite being a hero of the clone wars, Gentis had slain three Jedi on his own when he was informed of their so called betrayal.

With a sharp inhale, Valad said, "No, Imperial Knight initiate." This made the man rather puzzled. He knew the Emperor had Inquisitors, which were essentially force wielding Jedi Killers.

"What are Imperial Knights?" He asked as he looked at the boy in the largest chair in the room. Gentis grasped at the fabric of his son's uniform.

"The Imperial Knights are a force-based organization which is exclusively loyal to the Emperor of the Imperial Federation, myself." Valad glanced over at Ahsoka with a smile, she was smiling at him has he spoke. He'd return his attention to Gentis, "Their main purpose is to defend and preserve the Federation, they will act as my personal generals that operate outside of the normal military command structure."

Gentis slowly nodded, easily comprehending this. It was much like Darth Vader and the Jedi Order during the Clone Wars and rise of the Galactic Empire. They operated on top and outside of the normal command operations.

"You will be briefed on more in depth information once you assume office," Valad said with a light smile of condolences written all over his lips.

The only person who he had lost was his grandparent, one he barely knew. Yet he could understand the pain of loss. The sense that something was missing, or was taken away from you. He knew what loneliness was, he knew what hatred and anger felt like. He knew emotions, he knew what they did.

"You can't bring him back?" Gentis suddenly asked with a sullen tone, his eyes didn't leave his son's limp expression of lifelessness.

A force ability known as Dark Transfer immediately came to mind, a power which could bring back people from the brink of death, or even death itself. It could be used by both users of the dark and of the light aspects depending on their medium.

Valad had no love for Caul, bit he knew Gentis had plenty. He closed his eyes, accessed the shop and purchased the force ability. A warmth appeared in the back of his head, as his perspective began to change with part of the ability active.

Wounds, physical weakness. He could see them as red lines, similar to how Cade Skywalker had described a couple hundred years from now. It reminded him of shatterpoint, Mace Windu's main rare ability to see shatterpoints in things and people.

Although he wasn't force sensitive, he could feel a strange change in that of Valad, his new found Emperor. Ahsoka also seemed to be rather interested in the sudden change as well, her eyelids peeled back and her big irises homing in on him.

Valad's eyes laid upon the dead boy in his arms and frowned. This ability wouldn't work on the cadet and he slowly shook his head inwardly, something that wasn't visible to Gentis. "I could try transferring his spirit into your 'grandson,' but I don't know if that'll work." Pretty much saying he could try, Gentis seemed to appreciate this thought which had been handed to him.

At least this had given him reason to acquire a rare force ability which would definitely come in handy at some point in the future. For some reason he was beginning to believe that his road was going to be a bit bumper as he continued to expand.

About an hour later, after a lot of talk of how Caul might be able to be brought back coupled with what the Vizier's responsibilities would be, Casey returned to the room.

"Emperor Valad, The quarters for Vizier Gentis has been arranged." The droid said with a modulated voice, its eyes looking at the visor, though its sensors were mainly paying attention to Ahsoka.

Ahsoka had been bewildered with what the Emperor could do with the force, she didn't find that it was dark or evil as she wasn't taught by the Jedi. She didn't even find it controversial, instead she found it more of a miracle than anything else.

To be able to bring someone back from the brink of death, to be able to bring someone back who had been deceased into a body of a newborn clone. Did this mean no one ever had to die?

This fantasy made thoughts appear throughout her mind. Her childish infatuation surrounded Valad with stares and smiles of belief and perseverance. She wanted to be like him, to be as powerful as him. She wanted to make sure everyone she loved, or was to love, would never have to die as long as she was around.

However the more she thought about it, the more selfish it seemed to feel. She knew the cycle of life and death, but not what happens after death or before life. The four year old's expression twisted into confusion within minutes. Completely blocking out the fact that Gentis and Casey had left the room with the boys body in hand. She came back into reality as soon as she heard the pocket door close and she was alone in the room with the Emperor who had saved her.

"Vlad," she called him by the first name she heard him be called by a few times by the other girls whom were often in his presence. "You're really going to try to bring him back?" Her eyes sparkled, as despite her selfish thoughts, she believed what he was doing was selfless.

"There is no 'try,' there is only do." Valad said with a light snicker as he reached over and ruffled the top of her head. "Now I just have to figure out what kind of people I want on my council..." His eyes gazed over the empty padded seats. Imagining silhouettes seated at each one of varying size and sex.

He imagined Thrawn sitting beside him and Leonia Tavira adjacent to Thrawn. He would have liked to pull Amidala to this table, but he knew how much her people meant to her.

Valad envisioned that Amidala would lead an Enlightened Kingdom in the center of his Empire. The question was though, just how enlightened was she going to be? If she saw what he was creating, would she put up arms against him? She trusted him, her advisors and guards trusted him. He was wondering what the 'Lady of Liberty' would see in him.

"Hm.. Rinetta is a good person." Ahsoka suggested, not really picking up that the Princess was technically already on the council as his strategic advisor.

"Rin Gan..." Valad said to himself before reaching out with the force and pulling a communicator over to his hand from his pocket. He then paged Rin to come to the conference room.

Moments passed and Rin herself came running in through the door. She was panting, her hair and face were wet. She was wearing a blue-white double breasted tunic, black trousers and knee length boots. However the tunic looked like it would peel itself right off of her as it wasn't completely fastened. The right shoulder had a Scan-Com themed patch printed on it, which blatantly had the words Imperial Strategy Department, printed on it in white along a deep blue circle that surrounded the black and white embroidered patch.

Both Valad and Ahsoka stared at her with wide eyes as she put up a finger for them to wait a moment as she caught her breath.

"Were you just taking a shower?" Ahsoka, innocently yet shamelessly, asked as she stretched her arms out on the table in front of her.

Rin blinked a few times as she stared at the four year old before gazing over towards the Emperor of the nation who had summoned her. "Y-yes..." She said admittedly with a flushing red face as she made her way over and sat around the table, opposite of Ahsoka.

Valad looked over at Ahsoka and smirked a little. 'Did you...?' He went to telepathically ask her if she knew that Rin was taking a shower at the time. This was met with the girl shaking her head rapidly.

Rin narrowed her eyes on the Emperor as she watched him eye Ahsoka who was now shaking her head and trying not to laugh. "What are you two talking about?" She figured they were communicating with the force.

Valad brushed it off however, dismissing with a slight wave of his fingers. "Nothing, nothing. Anyways, sorry to disturb your shower." He snickered as he watched part of her tunic droop a bit.

"Then... Why am I here?" She raised a brow as she looked at him.

"Just felt like calling you on a whim," He winked which made her turn a shade of red once more. She couldn't tell what he was thinking, but she had a hunch that he knew she had seen him and the Zabrak girl together.

"R-right..." She said, not believing a world he had just said.