Fanfic / Unite Descent: A Siri Tachi Tale

Fan Cover art by Nerdman3000

"39 BBY, Darth Sidious by chance discovers a Jedi mission to protect a young genius, Talesan Fry. Interested, he decides to test Maul's training, dispatching him from the Orsis Academy to retrieve the boy in order to further the Sith's machinations. He follows in quiet observation, watching as Maul subtly separates the two pairs of Jedi guarding the boy. He expected a clean kill, a dead Jedi Master and Padawan. What he got? A dead apprentice, a dead Jedi Master, and a fallen Jedi Padawan whose anger proved most enticing... most enticing indeed...

Starts eight years before the Phantom Menace and follows the story of a Fallen Siri Tachi all the way to the Vuuzhan Vong invasion, focusing on how this one change ripples out and affects the Star Wars universe."

— Archive of Our Own summary.

Unite Descent: A Siri Tachi Tale is a Star Wars fanfic by Wavesblade (the author of A Wound in Time, which also has its own page) that diverges from the middle of the first half of the Star Wars Legends novel, Secrets of the Jedi by Jude Watson. An Alternate Universe story who stars Siri Tachi (a major character from Jude Watson’s Jedi Apprentice book series and a Love Interest to Obi-Wan Kenobi from the Legends continuity), this story explores a Fallen Hero scenario where a split-second decision by Darth Sidious to send his apprentice Darth Maul to intercept and kidnap Talesan Fry on Rondai-2 leads to Maul’s much earlier death and Sidious unwittingly gaining a new apprentice in the form of a now fallen former Jedi, Siri Tachi.

Lots of butterflies ensue as the story goes on to showcase the decades long consequences of this major change to Star Wars Legends history, as Siri’s continued descent toward the dark side and the huge effects her apprenticeship to Darth Sidious have huge ramifications on the fate of the galaxy as a whole.

The story can be found on both Fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own.

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This Fan Fic provides examples of the following tropes, which may include unmarked spoilers:

• Adaptational Heroism: Unlike his canon and Legends counterpart, Dooku never leaves the Jedi Order or turns to the dark side. He even manages to fix his estranged relationship to his former apprentice Qui-Gon and even grows extremely fond of Obi-Wan.
• Adaptational Villainy: Siri Tachi, who in the original Legends continuity never turns to the dark side and remained a Jedi all the way up until her death. Here though, not so much.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Siri Tachi, a relatively minor character from the Star Wars Legends expanded universe, is made much more prominent in this story and serves as The Protagonist.
  • Various other obscure or small Legends characters show up with larger roles than they did in Legends canon, such as:
    • Jedi Master Fay, who temporarily replaces Yoda as Grandmaster of the Jedi Order after the later goes on a sabbatical to reflect on the Sith’s return and their actions in the galaxy.
    • Jorus C'baoth and Pong Krell, whom Sidious turns to as potential dark side pawn’s after Siri betrays him and Dooku no longer becomes available as an apprentice.
    • Alexi Garyn and the Nightsister Mighella, who both survive due to Maul not killing them. Here they end up becoming allies of Siri.
    • Jorus C'baoth’s apprentice Lorana Jinzler from Outbound Flight also ends up having a bigger role, but for a different reason. After C’baoth decides to leave the Jedi Order, she’s caught having been abused by C’baoth, as well as having secretly been secretly taught the dark side by him by Obi-Wan. This leads to C’baoth outright being kicked out of the Jedi Temple before he can retrieve her, and leads to Lorana becoming Obi-Wan’s first padawan.
• Assassin Outclassin': Sidious sends Komari Vosa to kill Anakin after he managed to temporarily drag Siri away from the dark side. She fails, gets her ass kicked by Siri, and is captured.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: Obi-Wan uses this to get to try to get through to Siri after she wounds Qui-Gon and is on the cusp of ascending to being a true Sith. Since he (and Qui-Gon) kept her Falling to the Dark Side a secret and she reciprocates, it works.
• Awful Truth: With nothing but words and the truthful revelations on the Sith’s activities and the ways they had deceived the Jedi the past thousand years, Siri is able to sew so much chaos in the Jedi Order following her capture that not only can Sidious feel the fear of the entire Jedi Order from the Chancellor’s office, but Yoda goes on a sabbatical, and a new schism is threatening to cause a civil war within the Jedi Order.
• Big Bad: Darth Sidious, otherwise known as Sheev Palpatine, is still very much the ultimate evil of the story. Siri’s main motivation in becoming his apprentice is so that she can later kill him.
• Beyond the Impossible: Anakin arguably straight up does this by, after Siri lets him into her mind, straight up pull her from the dark side. It’s not permanent of course, but it sure shocks everyone, Sidious included.
• The Cameo: Duchess Satine has (so far) been mentioned only in passing. And due to Obi-Wan never burying his feelings for Siri and still mourning over her supposed death, he doesn't fall for Satine like in the canon continuity.
• Dating Catwoman: Siri Tachi, a Sith Apprentice and Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Jedi Padawan. No more doomed to fail a case of forbidden romance if there ever was one.
  • See also Star-Crossed Lovers.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Palpatine, like in canon, has visions of the future which play into his hands. Part of the reason with sending Maul to Rondai-2 was due to one of these visions.
  • Later, Sidious has a vision of Siri’s possible future, where she’s training Leia as her apprentice.
  • Siri herself also has a massive sneak peek into the future when Anakin meditates with her, lets her get a taste of his power, and temporarily forcibly pulls her from the dark side through sheer power in the force.
  • Another case where this is somewhat played with, but with a twist, Obi-Wan is given a brief glimpse of the future at one point, but it’s the future that could have been of the Star Wars canon timeline, not the timeline of this story.
• Duel to the Death: Unlike in canon, Darth Sidious is eventually forced to have a duel to the death with his own Sith Master, Darth Plagueis, in order to finally claim the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith.
• Eldritch Abomination: Sidious practically considers Anakin this after he manages to do the seemingly impossible and forcibly use the force to drag Siri from the dark side, even if only temporarily. This view even leads him to straight up send Komari Vosa to try to assassinate Anakin.
• Evil Mentor: There are so far three cases of this:

  • Siri has two Evil Mentor’s, in the forms of Darth Sidious and the holocron of Darth Zannah.
  • There’s also the case of Jorus C’baoth, specifically towards his padawan Lorana Jinzler, whom he both abuses and starts secretly teaching to use the dark side of the force. Thankfully for Lorana, she later gets a new mentor and Parental Substitute in the form of Obi-Wan.

• Fallen Hero: Siri Tachi, who’s fall to the dark side drives much of the story’s plot.
• Femme Fatale: Darth Zannah, or at least her holocron’s gatekeeper.
• For Want Of A Nail: Sidious’s decision to send his apprentice Darth Maul to kidnap Talesan Fry, all during Siri Tachi, Adi Gallia, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Qui-Gon Jinn’s mission to protect said boy. The result is Maul and Adi Gallia dying, Siri falling to the dark side, and Sidious being left with a now suddenly fallen Siri Tachi to take on as his new apprentice to replace Maul.
• Genre Blind: Siri is incredulous to learn that Darth Plagueis honestly believes Sidious is completely loyal to him and would never betray him, despite being the head of a religious order whose guiding principle is to kill your master and take their place.
• Hated by All: Following the revelation of her survival and fall, Siri becomes this to most of the Jedi Order, with the exception of Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, Anakin, Yoda, and Bant.
  • Jorus C’baoth, following the discovery that he was abusing his padawan and secretly teaching her to use the dark side of the force, is viewed by the Jedi Order and Siri. It doesn’t help either that right before this, he outright started a Jedi Schism.
• Hero-Worshipper: Both Siri and Darth Zannah idolize Freedon Nadd, as he was the forebearer of the art of Sith sorcery that both women have mastered. Siri also empathizes with him on a personal level, deeming the test his former Jedi masters subjected him to that led to his fall to darkness in the first place to be cruel and unwarranted.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Despite all she has done since her fall, Obi-Wan continues to believe that there’s good in Siri, even during their duel on Naboo.
  • It would seem that as of Chapter 67, he has given up hope on her returning to the light, but continues to care for her.
• Impossible Task: Obi-Wan’s quest to bring Siri back to the light side is viewed by many in the Jedi as this. As of Chapter 67, he seems to have given up.
• In Spite of a Nail: Anakin still loses an arm, only to Komari Vosa instead of Dooku.
• I've Come Too Far: Other than the fact that her Sith teachings and her experiences of the galaxy's poverty and corruption have left her disillusioned with the Jedi Order, Siri feels that what she did makes it impossible for her to return to the light.
  • In a meta sense, the author said that after Ur Manka failed to redeem her, the last chance for Siri to return to the light side proper has come and gone, and the best she can hope for afterwards would be a "dark-gray" alignment.
• Meaningful Rename: Siri’s Sith name, which is at one point given to her by Sidious, is Darth Tyrosus.
• Morality Chain: Obi-Wan serves as this to Siri throughout much of the story.
  • Feemor explicitly states that the Jedi, and more specifically those in the Order that he cares for, are this to Anakin. That while he does have his own personal beliefs as to what constitutes Good and Evil, he is willing to let the Jedi restrict him because of his attachments to his fellow Jedi.
• Oblivious to His Own Description: Palpatine of all people falls victim to this when he receives a vision of a Dark Side-aligned Leia ranting about how she wants to kill a "decrepit old bastard" for what he did to her family. At first he doesn't really have any context, but later he presumes that Leia is the offspring of Siri and Obi-Wan and it's OBI-WAN that he thinks is the "decrepit old bastard".
• Redemption Failure: Despite being sent to kill him, Jedi Master Ur Manka nearly manages to draw Siri back to the light side of the force. Unfortunately he screws up when he contacts the Jedi, despite his promise to Siri not too, resulting in her falling even further down to the dark side. The author even explicitly states that this was the only chance Siri had to return to the light, at best she'd be dark-gray in her alignment.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Siri Tachi and Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Sith and a Jedi. As the divergence in the timeline happens after the two fell in love during the mission to protect Talesan Fry in Legends continuity, but before they get the talk from their respective Jedi Masters and Yoda that forced the two to end the potential relationship before it really even began. As a result of the talk never happening, the two’s feelings for each other remain strong even after Obi-Wan finds out Siri is alive and she gets captured by the Jedi.
  • See also Dating Catwoman.
• Villain Protagonist: Siri, as a Sith, is a villain, even as she also serves as the story’s protagonist.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Darth Maul and Adi Gallia, who both die much, much earlier than in Legends Canon. About seven years before the events of the Phantom Menace to be exact.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Obi-Wan. For much of the first half of the fic, he wholesomely believes in the positive aspects of the Jedi and the infallibility of their teachings. Meeting Siri after she has become a Sith Lord and learning everything about the history of the Sith, from the origins of its various members to their views on the dark side, as well as the schism by Jorus C'baoth and Pong Krell really shake him up. He also begins to see just how flawed the Republic is over the course of the story, and begins to understand why people like Siri and Anakin are the way they are.
• Yellow Eyes, Take Warning: Surprisingly, largely Averted. Sidious grows gradually more and more frustrated over the fact that, despite Siri delving deeper in the dark side and doing many immoral things, and making her Sith sacrifice (killing a friend of hers from her Jedi days), her eyes remain blue, for which he derisively calls her "my blue-eyed apprentice".
  • Briefly Played Straight during the duel on Naboo, when Siri finally convinces herself to kill Obi-Wan and dispose of her 'weakness', and finally gets her dark side-affected eyes, symbolising her becoming a true Sith. When Obi-Wan managed to snap her out of it shortly after, her eyes return blue.