Star Wars: Darklight
by AB
Chapter 15
Death
Lavos Kenofi landed in the cruiser's indicated hangar bay and got out of the Jedi Starfighter. An Officer and some soldiers were there to greet him.
"You must be Lavos Kenofi? Jedi Padawan?" The Officer asked him. "You… are young." Lavos' grinned.
"And you are old. What does that have to do with anything? Can you do this?" Lavos closed his eyes for a moment and opened them extending his open hands. The Officer's and soldiers' blasters "flew" to his hands. "Because I can. Now where do I report for duty?"
"You're only a kid." One of the soldiers said.
Lavos let the blasters fall down and Force-pulling his lightsaber from his belt he powered it up. A green blade appeared. "Kid or not I can wield this and I can help you defeat the Sith a lot more than staying in that sterile Order… now where do I report to?"
Lavos powered down his lightsaber.
The Officer pressed some buttons on his communicator. "I've transferred the latest coordinates we received from Cyra, the main Coalition fleet is heading there. Head there after refueling. We'll send the fleet a message to await you."
Lavos nodded and cleared the hair from his eyes. He gave the officer a wink and boarded the Starfighter.
He left the cruiser's hangar bay and Hyperspaced out.
"You convened an urgent Conclave meeting, Darth Novus. Why is that?" Darth Gubernare asked him. Darth Novus had convened an urgent meeting of the Conclave. It was well past midnight in Moraband.
They were in the Conclave room, seated in their chairs.
"I have learned some unsettling news my fellow Lords of the Conclave and I wished to inform you all, for we must all decide what to do next." Darth Novus spoke calmly, deliberately. The Conclave meeting may have been a surprise to most but it was quite pre-planned between Darth Novus, Darth Drakus and a few others they had managed to recruit so far. Darth Novus had wanted to prolong the "allies-gathering" period but Darth Drakus had insisted they move forward faster. Darth Novus had come up with the urgent Conclave meeting.
Darth Novus had no delusions as to the probable outcomes of what was going to happen this night.
Darth Novus had moved their allies into key positions in Moraband, the Sith fleet and the Sith planets like Dromund Kaas, Khar Delba, Nicht Ka and Ziost.
Darth Novus had wanted to wait, not to go up against their Master as of yet but he knew that once you kindle a spark and it becomes a fire you can either burn along with it or be burned by it. He could not oppose his collaborators so he had to make sure they survived this.
"What unsettling news warrants waking us up in the middle of the fucking night?" Darth Venom asked irritated. Darth Novus knew he had a short temper and he also knew he did not like Darth Gubernare in the slightest. He also knew Darth Gubernare had allied himself with Darth Insidious. Sith alliances were a fragile, ever changing beast, one of the reasons Darth Bane had abolished the old system and instituted the rule of two had been this. All the scheming had been the Sith Order's downfall. Darth Vitus had broken the rule of two re-instituting the old ways. The rule of two had stood for almost twenty thousand years, had managed to defeat the Jedi with Darth Sidious and Darth Vader and one single person had undone it in a single day.
Darth Novus knew some of the Sith Lords in this new Sith Order did not like this and he knew how to manipulate this dislike of theirs to bring about his plans to fruition. He of course had no intention of re-instituting the rule of two.
"Yes, very unsettling news indeed." Darth Novus placed a data-crystal in the terminal in front of him. The holographic projector in the center of the room displayed the Galaxy then zoomed in the Core displaying Tython, Balmora and a planet well inside Jedi space.
"How many of you knew our Leader had ordered our fleet to attack Tython? To eradicate all life on it?" Darth Novus asked. He saw much the reactions he was expecting to see and some he wanted to see.
"What? Impossible!" Darth Gore jumped out of his seat. "Did this Conclave not vote for a continued offensive against the galaxy? What does Darth Incendius think she's doing?" Darth Novus could see he was pissed.
"Our Glorious leader does as she pleases. She is the leader of the Sith Order after all." Darth Gubernare said on cue.
"She is there to facilitate the decisions of this Conclave, not to act out on her own will." Darth Rancor protested.
"She is the most powerful Sith in existence, she is not a mere facilitator of your faulty will." Darth Gubernare continued to dig his own grave.
"Most powerful… what now?" Darth Zilo stood up from her seat looking quite upset.
"She sent her apprentice Darth Solus to fire the Life-Eradicator weapon on Tython, instead he saw fit to disobey her orders and launch an attack on the Coalition fleet attacking Balmora. She is not powerful enough to control her own apprentice, what right does she have to lead us?" Darth Drakus fanned the flames. "If Darth Solus was to follow her irresponsible orders he would Eradicate all life in Tython. It would undoubtedly create a wound in the Force… do we really want to take the risk of creating another Darth Nihilus?"
"And where is our Leader? Off to Jedi space again?" Darth Novus threw in his bit.
"Again? What do you mean again?" Darth Gore asked increasingly agitated.
"You will not defy our leader!" Darth Gubernare held his hand close to his lightsaber.
"I propose we elect a new Leader." Darth Venom did what Darth Novus did not want to have to do. He smiled inwards.
"Let me show you then, how Sith conducted their elections in the Elden days." Darth Rancor powered up his lightsaber and attacked Darth Venom.
All hell broke loose.
Tern opened his eyes, feeling very heavy. He tried moving finding it impossible. His eyes focused. He must have been thrown every which way when the cruiser crashed and fragmented. Currently he was pinned below some steel plates that had fallen on him.
He coughed and pushed the steel plates off him using the Force.
"That… hurt." He declared to himself and searched round with his eyes. It was then he noticed one more thing. It was frigid cold. He found an opening in the ship's hull. There were no other survivors in the room he was in, only bodies of dead troopers. Tern jumped on a metal plate outside, and kept jumping from ledge to plate to ledge until with one final jump his feet touched the ice surface of the planet.
"Who would build a Shrine to the Dark Side on this planet?" He wondered to himself and started walking away from the wreckage. Yes, the cruiser's wreckage could provide him shelter from the elements but if Darth Solus or any of the ten thousand troopers on board Charon had survived the crash they'd be looking for him. He knew The Pilgrim had to be around somewhere, Kaa'ara had told him his friends were "outside" and firing on Charon when they had jumped to Hyperspace before and that it was only one ship. Only thing that made sense was The Pilgrim being that lone ship firing on a cruiser a thousand times its size.
"Cyra? Volun? Can anyone… hear me?" Tern spoke in his communicator in all frequencies.
He repeated three times until he heard Volun's voice coming from the com.
"Tern? Oh by the Force it's so good hearing your voice, I was so worried… Follow this signal and you'll find us." Tern locked in the signal and displayed it in the holo-projector. Ten minutes later he saw the outline of The Pilgrim in the distance, next to a chasm in the glacier.
He saw two figures standing just in the rear ramp. A tall one and a shorter one. Cyra and Volun.
He ran at them as fast as he could, wanting to leave the planet, when he froze dead in his tracks having remembered of Kaa'ara. He continued running until he reached the ship.
"We have to search the wreckage… we must find her!" He told Cyra and Volun who looked at him quizzically.
"Find who?" Volun asked.
"My… my genetic sister… long story but we must find Kaa'ara before Darth Solus does." Tern felt increasingly worried.
"Bragus is still alive?" Cyra asked retrieving her lightsaber from her belt.
"Yes, mother. Disappointed?" A dry cold voice said behind them.
Tern turned his head to see Darth Solus in the flesh for the first time. He was slightly taller than him, his head and body covered by a black hooded robe, his face covered by a white and black mask. It looked to be made of white bone which was coloured black in some areas under the eyes and cheeks.
"Time to end this, my son." Cyra powered up her lightsaber. Tern powered his.
"Darth Typhus… take care of the pest, my apprentice, while I deliver her who gave life to me unto death." Darth Solus told someone. Tern could not see anyone else at first, until a much smaller figure walked out from behind Darth Solus. Tern felt the blood drain from his face.
There before him stood Karek, the boy Padawan from Tython who he had gone out with that fateful night the academy got attacked.
"Karek? You… you live?" Tern asked dumbfounded.
"Yes, who do you think pierced your shoulder that night in Tython? My initiation to the Dark Side. What we were doing, what I was feeling was not natural… my Master showed me the path to… removing those feelings from inside my mind. I will now finish what I started in Tython." Karek powered up his red-bladed lightsaber and launched himself at Tern who jumped back.
Darth Solus looked at his mother and brought his lightsaber in front of his torso and powered it up. At first it looked like a staff-blade which would have blades emanating from each end but when Darth Solus fired it up the blades powered up perpendicular to the hilt and body of the blade and in opposite way of each other forming a lightsaber scythe with a blade on each end.
"Fight me, mother, I want your soul, your blood." Darth Solus' voice made the hair on the back of Volun's head stand erect, tense and with a knot in his stomach.
"First remove your mask, I wish to see the face of the boy I brought into this world… before I remove you from this world." Cyra replied emotionless.
Darth Solus chuckled and removed his mask revealing his face.
"Very well. Now we fight." Cyra brought her lightsaber in front and to the side of her face crouching her back slightly.
Darth Solus started spinning his scythe-blade with a grin on his face.
Their blades connected. The battle was on.
Just then a voice came through his communicator, a fleet had arrived on top of them, in orbit around the planet.
"Darth Gore sends his regards. We're sending a Shuttle down to retrieve you my Lord."
"Not going to be that easy, my son. My fleet will arrive shortly." They continued to exchange blade hits.
"Why? Why did you betray the Jedi Order?" Tern asked Darth Typhus, the boy he knew as Karek as he parried one of his blade attacks launching an attack of his own.
"You were seducing me to commit acts of abomination… I am an abomination and only through the Dark Side can I kill that part of me off." Karek replied strained. Their lightsabers impacted sending off sparks.
"You… what? No you're not! We fooled around some, so what? Nothing wrong with that. Please… I forgive you, abandon the Dark Side and join the Coalition."
Above them the two fleets were doing battle of their own. Karos was blasting cross-ties while Hara and their Masters had joined their power to Force – battle meditation, sending off Light Side Force energy to aid their soldiers.
Lavos jumped in. "Whooaahhh!!" He shook his sticks to the right avoiding a tie-bomber in his path.
"You must be Lavos… introductions later, now kill the fuckers!" Karos told him through the com.
"You… you sound no older than me?" Lavos asked shaking off a tie-fighter. He pushed the breaks reducing speed. He found himself behind the tie-fighter and started firing. Four shots later the tie-fighter exploded.
"Woah nice move there!" Karos cheered him. "Yeah I'm fourteen… "
"Fighters, they're sending a shuttle down to the planet. Stop them."
"Race ya!" Karos yelled and pushed the throttle.
Kaa'ara woke up opening her eyes for the first time since she had been placed in the weapon's core thirteen years ago. She could barely feel her legs, her muscles having atrophied after all this time of inactivity. She crawled out of the weapon's core, through all the bodies of the other Force-Sensitives who had been placed in there to power the Life-Eradication laser and kept crawling using her hands until she saw a tear in the ship's hull. She let herself fall down to the ice surface and positioned herself in a meditation position. Using the Force, she sped up her muscles' recovery until she could walk properly.
"Lies! You lie!" Karek screamed pushing him back. "Liking what I like… I must stop that, find a way I must." Tern jumped back doing a circle, landing on his feet.
"Liking what you like… you like boys? So what? I love Volun." Tern countered. He feigned an attack to the left and changed direction last minute attacking right. Karek tried to block him but Tern's lightsaber cut his in half.
Tern grabbed his hand twisting it violently. In order for his wrist not to break Karek followed the direction Tern was twisting his hand. He fell on the floor with Tern holding his lightsaber to his throat.
"Go on then! End me! I deserve to die!" Karek screamed at him teary-eyed.
"No, you don't." Tern used Force-push knocking Karek out.
Tern pivoted around and ran to where Darth Solus was fighting Cyra. Cyra was sweating, blocking his attacks one after another. Volun fired a laser shot at him, he deflected it with ease to the ground.
Tern slashed at his head with his lightsaber. Darth Solus Force-pushed his mother back sending her almost over the chasm and turned around blocking Tern's lightsaber with his.
They pivoted around, their lightsabers locked in, sending sparks everywhere.
"That saber belongs to me you know." Darth Solus told him with a glee in his voice. "I get to kill both you and my… "family" in one fell swoop… " He burst out laughing maniacally.
"Come and get it then." Tern replied defiantly.
"You think you can best me, boy?" Darth Solus grabbed his wrist, the one holding the lightsaber and twisted it to the left. Tern jumped on his axis and used his free hand to blast Darth Solus with a Force-wave.
Darth Solus absorbed it and when Tern landed he fired it back at him sending him ten meters back near the chasm. Cyra attacked Darth Solus, their blades locking above their heads.
"You know mother… I killed my father years ago, he was a weakling who couldn't hold on to his bitch. Then I killed his father shortly after you abandoned me. That, I have to admit felt good. Now I will kill you and your bastard son before killing the failed Sith'ari."
"I cannot allow you to do that, my son." Cyra parried his blades. She launched an attack at him and their blades locked again.
"You know mother… you always liked leaving your lower body unprotected… " Darth Solus held his scythe-blade with one hand and Force pulled the lightsaber Tern had been using powering it up mid-air.
A groan left Cyra's lips, the blue blade extruding from behind her back.
"DIIIEEEEE!!! AHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHA!!" Darth Solus roared at the top of his lungs. Cyra's hands fell to her sides, her lightsaber fell to the floor. Darth Solus powered off the lightsaber that used to be his allowing Cyra to fall on the ice floor on her knees. He brought his scythe-blade above his head and brought it down on her slicing at her twice before he was pushed off her by a furious Tern.
Tern Force-pulled his and Cyra's blades powering them up and launched himself at Darth Solus. Somewhere in the background his ears registered Volun's wail of sheer despair and agony.
Darth Solus Force-pushed him again near the chasm and launched himself at the boy who would defy his will.
Tern parried his attack and with a twist of his body brought one blade up blocking Darth Solus' blade and the other in an arch upwards severing Darth Solus' arm from above his elbow.
Darth Solus screamed in pain, dropped his scythe-blade and Force-choked Tern.
"YOU DARE INJURE ME!? YOU PATHETIC EXCUSE OF A FAILED EXPERIMENT! DIE!" Without relinquishing control of Tern's throat an enraged Darth Solus used the Force to levitate and power up his blade then he pierced Tern's stomach.
He stopped Force-choking Tern. Tern fell to his knees before plummeting into the chasm feeling the life drain from him.
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