"There should be a guide to vacation destinations lying around this ship somewhere."
"On a ship formerly belonging to Darth Revan?" Falya laughed. "Are you kidding me? It's more likely to have the leg bone of a Wookie lying around, I think!"
"That'd make a pretty good souvenir. And c'mon, the guy had to want to go on vacations once in a while."
"Hey, we're approaching Iziz space port. We should be landing in a few minutes," Lussk popped out of the doorway and looked over the passengers. All eyes were on him, some confused, some burning with fury, and one pair smiling. "Anyways..." The Trandoshan casually eyed the two younger passengers. I guess that's what human mating rituals are like, at least the courtship. Always thought they'd be a bit closer to how Vogga's dancers acted.
Threepwood felt nervous when Lussk's eyes lingered on him and Falya, and was relieved when he finally turned away.
"So what do you think he gave us?"
"What do you mean?" Falya asked curiously.
"I forgot, you weren't awake yet. Anyway, Elron woke up, then I did, then that guy gave all of us some poison that knocked us out again."
Falya glanced at Lussk and pretended to be uninterested. "Why would he do something like that?" Her voice had quieted and she leaned closer to Threepwood, still smiling.
"I have no idea. And now he seems in charge."
"Great..." Falya muttered. "I'd much rather Tadrick... or Syscha being in charge... or Elron, for that matter! Hell, I'd even take you being in charge over..." she stopped. "Too bad you aren't in charge... Who says he has to be?"
"You're right I should be in charge. I don't know, we were knocked out when he was put in charge, remember?"
"Well who put him there?" Falya asked quietly. "Did he knock us out so he could take charge? What's going on here?"
Lussk chuckled. "Trandoshan ears are quite sharp you know, and since the ship's on autopilot anyway... Me, in charge? Tch, I haven't been in 'charge' of anything since my time as Claw lea-. Anyways, no. If anyone is in charge here, it's the Exile. Now, I'll be on my way, they'll probably ask for a landing permit or something."
"Exile?" Threepwood looked over at Falya, then Elron, then Syscha, and finally Tadrick.
Falya blushed and turned, hoping Lussk wouldn't see. When she had gotten her color under control, she turned to Lussk. "So when did you join our little company?"
As Lussk left the room, he heard the girl ask her question. He stopped for a moment, then replied, "When you were unconscious. Well, not exactly." Falya opened her mouth to ask another question, but Lussk had already left for the cockpit.
"So.....who is this exile?"
From Revan's throneroom on Ziost, a large ancient holovid, activated, a Sith officer stood before the two Sith lords. "My lord Revan, our fleet is assembled, the troops are eager to attack, all we are waiting for, is your command, and the invasion will commence."
Revan smiled under his cape and mask. "Good...Good, you have done well admiral. everything is proceeding according to my designs." Turns to Sion. "You see Lord Sion, everything comes to he who waits, and I have waited so very long for this moment."
"Indeed." Sion responded quickly. Revan pushed a small button on his throne room chair, and a new holo image appeared before him, The Mandalore, and his clans. "Ah my old friend, tell me is your army ready for our final assault on the galaxy?"
"Yes Revan....I have done all you asked, and without the knowledge of the Republic, I have rebuilt my people on DXUN, we wait on for your word, and your fleet, before we assault Onderon."
"You have done well Canderous. Await my arrival." Turns to Sion. "Can you not feel the force of our victory my friend? It grows ever nearer."
"As I have said before, My victory will be complete only after Every single Jedi lies dead at my feet, followed by THe EXILE."
"The time to mask our presence is over Sion....to your shuttle, set a course for DXUN, Mandalore awaits us." The two Sith promptly rise, and make their way to Sion's ship.
"Will you two shut UP!!!!" Elron said, having heard enough of the two's conversation.
"We'll be at Onderon in a few minutes, you can talk there. For now, just shut up."
In reality, he needed silence to figure out what the sudden burst of dark energy meant. Suddenly, it seemed that half the galaxy was encloaked in the energy of the Dark Side...but where had it come from? Even Sion wasn't that strong...
Falya fell silent for a moment, staring at Elron in surprise. Then, she burst into laughter. "Somebody's cranky!" she exclaimed. Turning back to Threepwood, she explained. "Tysyacha Dvukhsotnaya... Syscha, is the Exile, though I'm not entirely sure why..."
"Why does everyone insist on having nicknames? The Exile, the kid, darth whatever. Your parents choose your original name carefully, stick with it."
"ARGH!" Elron groaned, "I honestly didn't know that it was possible for someone to talk so much! My god!!!
"Obviously you don't have much experience with teenagers."
"No, you think??" Elron said sarcastically. "You know what? No, I'm just going to leave because its obvious that I'm fighting a losing battle."
"Never underestimate the power of teenagers" he said to Falya
Sion...what do you think you're doing? Elron thought as he meditated. A Dark Aura had gathered around him as he searched the galaxy, looking for a clue as to what was causing the sudden Shadow to fall across them. Where are you?
Giving up for a moment, he turned his attention to the other passangers on the ship.
Tadrick was sitting quietly, gathering himself to his core as he meditated as well. The kid was busy talking to her new 'boyfriend' and for a moment, their annoying, incesent talking wafted through his conciousness. Until he blocked it. He then moved on to the Trandoshan. Not much but a lot of hissing and words in the tongues of old there. And finally, the Exile. She was much calmer than before...yet he could still sense her fear. Her fear fed the darkness inside her, making her feel desperate. Indeed she was. He could sense that she would do anything and everything within her power to defeat Sion and protect the others, including him.
Come to me, Exile, and I shall show you the path. Come.
The Sith know no Pain, the Sith know no Fear, the Sith shall reign Supreme.
Sion, and Darth revan sat in the cockpit, of Sion's small shuttle, enroute to DXUN, to rendesvous with the Mandalorian army. Revan speaks firmly into his comlink. "Commander, send our Sith fleet to the far side of DXUN, there it shall stay, until called for."
Sion stared intently out his cockpit window, watching the stars streak by. His thoughts dwelled upon one thing.......REVENGE. Revenge against the exile, and the entire Jedi order, revenge on the galaxy which he blamed for turning him into the monster he had become. His black irredeemable heart pulsing with hatred and his eyes filled with cruelty and Malice. He yearned to send volts of lightning coursing through The Exile's body, to slowly watch as his assault seered her flesh, and melted away her humanity. He longed to Break her, and show here how far one can fall, then slowly.....kill her. He knew that the exile cared deeply for her companions, and those that she traveled with. Kreia had told him long ago about how the exile formed deep connections with others through the force, and he knew that the way to get to her, and torture her was to do to her companions, what he planned to do to her. The lord of pain was no fool, he understood that physical pain, and torment was not the only means of causing pain. He would strike her on a mental and emotional level as well. While Revan conquered the Republic, and ruled the Galaxy, he would search and destroy every single jedi knight, feeding upon their pain and suffering. Vengeance was all that mattered to Darth Sion.
Revan knew that Sion was the greatest weapon he could wield. A weapon that cannot be killed, a weapon who will not sleep, nor die, nor quit, until his terrible bloodlust had been quenched. Revan also knew that Sion's lust for vengeance and causing suffering could not be satisfied. As long as there is life in the universe, Sion would be there to cause it pain, and deal death to all those in his path. But Revan also knew that if Sion ever had the will to rule, that he could not stop him, after all the sith code demands that the strongest must rule.
Sion knew what thoughts bounced through Revan's brain, but he did not care, being the Dark Lord Of The Sith, and Emperor of the Sith Empire, never appealed to him, they were just titles, to justify the darkness he served. He was quite content following the ways of Pain, and destroying all those who would oppose The Sith empire.
His mind could not be bothered with plotting, and the thoughts of ruling the universe, for those things were not his destiny....they were Revan's....but not his. His only Destiny was Vengeance, a never ending quest for Revenge.
Falya laughed. "Indeed, teenagers are dangerous when it's necessary... and annoying most other times."
"So we scared him off. Or annoyed him off. Maybe soon we'll be annoying enough to drive Sion off."
"Either that or we'll be annoying enough to get our heads lopped off," Falya laughed.
(OOC: ROFL, Falya and Threepwood! I bet you're all wondering where
the crap I was yesterday. I was at an outdoor music festival, but I'm
very glad to be back now. And now...the Exile surrenders...)
Tysyacha knew she had a ton of explaining to do after her little
"experiment" prompted by Darth Traya. Turning to the teenagers,
Tadrick, and Lussk, she smiled ruefully and spoke of the Vy'takht Trial.
"Wait, wait, wait! No, you don't. I bet your heads are still
pounding after what I did, as is mine. What I did to you was
cast a powerful variant of Death Field upon you for a bit.
It sends both the user of this Power and his or her victims
into an instantaneous coma. The reason I did it was to find out
who would awaken first. He or she would defeat Sion and Darth
Revan in their final duel. Here's a clue--it's not me. After all the
trouble I've caused, the echoes I've made in the Force, and
the trail of death and destruction I've left in my wake, it doesn't
deserve to be me. Elron awoke first, and so I must go now and
speak with him."
She paused. "You may wonder who taught me the power of the
Vy'takht Trial. You may even think me a fool for accepting her aid,
but it was the soul of the former Darth Traya. She has no one and
nothing left to betray, now being one with the Force, and she has
pledged herself to my side again. I almost helped her achieve victory,
and hopefully, her goals and mine will at last be compatible. We both
want to stop Sion." Syscha bowed low at the waist and turned to leave.
"Elron..." whispered Syscha in a tiny compartment of the escape pod.
"I heard you through the Force. You awakened first from the depths
of the Vy'takht Trial, and Darth Traya, who taught it to me, commanded
that I pledge myself to the one who had that much strength and power.
You do." Syscha knelt down before her future Master. "Not long ago,
I wished I was still a Padawan. You can take me back again, if you
so choose. We will defeat Sion and Revan together or die trying!"
After Syscha left, Falya turned back to Threepwood. "What's a Death Field?"
"Do I look like the type of guy who knows what something called a Death Field is?"
Secretly Threepwood wondered if there was some importance to having woken up second.
"Well..." Falya shrugged. "Ya know, appearances can be deceiving..."
Threepwood laughed. "Well, no I don't know what a death field is. Do you think it's a bad thing that the leader of the group just pledged herself to the guy we just pissed off?"
Sion's shuttle had come out of hyperspace, and was landing on the jungle moon of DXUN. Sion touched down at the Mandalorian Base. He and Revan descended the ramp, and as they did, he noticed the entire Mandalorian army was there, lined up at full attention, there thousands if not millions of them. A lone mandalorian approached, covered in silver body armor from head to toe, his face shielded by a mask. "Revan welcome back." He said as he bowed. "You may rise my friend." revan exclaimed. The three began walking, and inspecting the troops, Revan began discussing battle plans with the mandalore, Sion really wasn't paying attention, battle plans and attack strategies bored him. All that interested him was vengeance. "She is close....I can feel her." He muttered to himself. Sion was impressed however, that the Mandalorians had assembled such a huge army without the knowledge of the republic.
"This time Revan, you are not on the side of the republic, and they will not stand against us for long." Mandalore stated.
"This time you fight for me Canderous, Together we shall make this galaxy mine." Revan gloated.
"I'd follow you to hell Revan." Canderous said.
Sion followed the two, into the command center. continued to half listen, to their ruminations. His thoughts still dwelling upon his terrible quest for revenge. "I am here now exile, I know you can feel me, I am coming, and noone can protect you from me."
"That could be a problem, I suppose," Falya laughed. "That escape pod is beginning to look pretty good."
"Yeah, what help would we be anyway, against someone a group of sith and jedi are having trouble with."
"Well we could resort to being annoying," Falya joked. "And have our heads lopped off... but I'm not sure I like the sound of that..."
"If it's any comfort, I swear to do everything I can to protect you."
((Tysyacha, check your PM folder...))
Lussk sighed. Sometimes Trandoshan ears weren't so useful. The hunter creeped over into the room and hissed, "Ugh, you humans are so annoying in your words. Anyways, strap in, we're setting down."
The Trandoshan returned to the cockpit, and after having a few words with the landing patrol, he dropped the "ship" onto a landing pad. "EVERYONE OUT!"
(OOC: Tomorrow is Labor Day! Yay! But I'm not gonna be working on this RP as much as I'd like :O So don't progress too much tomorrow. :P)
Elron looked at the kneeling Exile in mild surprise. He had always thought that she would take this path...just never pledging herself willingly and fully to him.
He stood, looking down at her.
"Tell me, Daughter of the Light, do you have any second thoughts about this? Any at all? Should you join me, you will need to foresaken all that you have already been taught. My path is one that not many follow, and when they do, if they are not sure-footed, they fall. My teachings will take you down a path where only the strong and determind survive. So I ask you again: do you have any second thoughts?"
(OOC: Jeez, Wintersong hasn't posted in two days. And yes, I realize he lives in the UK, but still. Tadrick's just become a guy who just stands there, never speaking... .-.)
Tysyacha gasped. "You're a Sith! I should have seen it coming, should
have felt it through the Force, I suppose, but I did not. I believed that
since you wanted to defeat Darth Sion as much as I did, then you were
on the side of the Light as well. Now--I guess I know better, too late."
She paused, her body feeling hot and trembling. "Yes, Elron,
I am having second thoughts. Wouldn't I be betraying Falya
and Tadrick and Kent Threepwood if I joined you? Falya has
been with me from the start, and if I become a Dark Jedi, she
might turn against me. I don't want to have to kill her, or any
of the others in this pod. Does Tadrick know that you're a Sith?"
Elron seemed to nod slightly, and Tysyacha continued, "Wait...
if we both turn to the Dark Side of the Force, and Darth Sion
and Revan are already there, then--darkness divided against
itself cannot stand. Could that be the key to defeating them?"
Elron paused before responding. So, his facade has fallen. The truth is out in the open. He was afraid that this would happen. Slowly, he began.
"The Dark is generous. Its first gift, is comforting Illusion: the ease of gentle dreams in Night's embrace, the beauty that imagination brings to what would repel in Day's harsh Light. But the greatest of its comforts is the illusion that the Dark is temporary: that every Night brings a new Day. Because it is Day that is temporary. Day is the Illusion.
"Its second gift is concealment: our True Faces lie in the Dark beneath our skins, our True Hearts remain shadowed deeper still. But the greatest Concealment lies not in protecting our secret truths, but hiding from us the truths of others. The Dark protects us from what we dare not know.
"Its third gift is the Light itself: days are defined by the Night that divides them, as stars are defined by the infinent black through which they wheel, the Dark embraces the Light, and brings forth from the center of its own self. With each victory of the Light, it is the Dark that wins."
Elron paused for a moment, looking at the Exile. He let the words seep in for a moment, before continuing.
"You see, the Dark isn't all that its made out to be. They say that the end of all life comes from the Dark. While that is true, all life comes from the Dark as well. They believe Light to be the source of life, yet a single wind," he clapped his hands, and the lights in the room flickered, and went out, "can blow out the candle. And then what? There is nothing but black. To many people, the path of the Light became too hard, to difficult. They tried and tried, yet it seemed no matter what they did, they made things worse. Their candles had gone out. Instead of stumbling blindly, many of them chose to embrace the black, embrace the Darkness.
"Many ask, 'why did I fall? Why couldn't I follow the Light and be the warrior I wanted to be?' The answer is simple, You cannot. The Jedi teachings are flawed in many ways. They teach you compassion, yet forbid love. They teach you the ways of the Lightsaber, yet they dissuade violence. They teach you that the Force is not to be trifled with, yet they teach you to manipulate it. They say it is dangerous, yet they show you secrets that could lead to the destruction of entire systems! You saw what the Dark Lords can do with the Dark Side. However, they walked down the path of the New Sith, the followers of the idea. The path sought out by those who love power and need more of it. What I can teach you is different.
"These Sith Lords have claimed to have traveled beyond the Outer Rim, yet they learned nothing from it. I on the other hand, found what they could not. The teachings of the Ancient Sith. The very same power that could create life, and stop death. The very same that could allow us to defeat Sion and release the galaxy from his grip. Please, Syscha," he knelt down, threw back his hood, and held her chin so that she was forced to look into his brilliant blue eyes, "Please, trust me. My title does not change who I am. Jedi, Sith, two names for the same ideas. I am who I am, my beliefs cannot change that."
Syscha's heart pounded, throbbing with passion, not only for
this man before her, her future Master, but also for the truth
of the ideas he'd proposed to her. "You...make sense," the
Exile said slowly, "more sense than anyone has made to me
ever since Kreia, or Darth Traya, and Visas Marr. I've always
known that both Light and Darkness were within me, and I've
tried so hard not to fall--but do I have to fall, Elron? Must I?
"I deplore senseless killing, the kind of murders that HK-47
and the mad Wookiee Hanharr were pleased with. The Jedi
have always taught me that the Dark Side embraces and
condones such things, encourages them. Yet even Darth
Traya, or Kreia, glanced at me in disgust when she knew
I was thinking of killing the innocent. You've shown me
that power and violence are not what the true Dark Side
and the true Sith must exhibit. Am I right...Master?"
Elron's smile was kind, and he nodded slightly.
She continued, "Why does the Jedi Council forbid love, or
at least the kind of love that occurs between a man and a
woman? Surely they know that this is a human desire. I
don't know which Jedi Master told me that the Knights
must strive to conquer and deny themselves, but I've
always had an aching need to have a partner in the Force."
She tilted her face up toward Elron's. "What does Sion
want with me besides revenge, and what about Revan?
I can't shake the feeling that both want me dead, and
yet a tiny echo in the Force tells me gently that I'm wrong.
What's true? Tell me, Master, before you hand me my saber..."
"Sounds like our lives' length has just been cut." Said Kent to Falya on their way out
Again, Elron paused. He had been taken by a new emotion...one that he could sense echoing in the Exile.
"It is difficult to say...from what I can see, Sion desires revenge. However, that revenge would not include killing you, I don't think. As Kreia, or Traya, had seen, you are an asset to the Force, your choices will, perhaps one day, decide the fate of the Force. As the Council had thought, this was dangerous and you needed to be killed. However, I disagree. It is not your fault what happened to you, and you are stronger than any for being dealt this wound and still being able to walk. I think...I think that Sion and Revan, if he still lives, would take you as their own apprentice, should you give them the chance. Should that happen, you would be forced to become the very thing which you hate the most.
"And so again, I ask of you to trust in me. Let me teach you. Let me help you." and he added in a near whipser, "Let me protect you."