Author's Note:
I've been reading a lot of great fan fics here over the past couple of years, and as a career change has afforded me some extra time, I feel brave enough to devote the time to putting out some work of my own. I hope you all enjoy it, reviews and constructive criticism are definitely welcome!
Children of Circumstance
Chapter 1
Dathomir's Orphans
Preschaet sat down and felt the dirt beneath him. Shade, it seemed, was a rare commodity back on Korriban where the young acolyte had recently completed 3 years of training. The Jungles of Dromund Kaas had proved to be a welcomed sight upon his return to the planet he had known as home for the 11 years prior to his admission into the Academy on Korriban.
Good Apprentice. Now breath deeply and reach out through the Force... Listen to what the soil has to say. Open your senses to the beasts of the jungle around you. Reach forward towards the Temple. What do you hear? Hearing the voice of his master within his mind was no longer unsettling to the young Zabrak apprentice.
It doesn't hurt that Darth Zash is easy on the eyes, either.
The 21 year old Zabrak drew a shallow and startled breath at the sudden tightness in his throat, his master's reach through the force, her measured application of the force choke tempered and released a mere few seconds later, as abruptly as it began. His master sensed the embrassment flushing over the apprentice had served as an adequate reprimand for his momentary lapse of focus and discipline. She still chose to put context and meaning to the action.
Remember this lesson child, always guard your thoughts. Do not be ashamed of your emotions, but do not let them consume you either. If you had fed your lust for fleshly desires on your recent birthday as much as you are rumored to have fed your lust for Corellian Ale, then perhaps you would not be so easily distracted by what you see on the surface.
His attention restored, Preschaet to a slow measured breathe and returned to his meditation, listening for the whispers from the soil beneath him. He felt the ebb and flow of the ancient world surround him. He began to taste the coppery note of the blood soaked soil from the innumerable apprentices that have trod the path ahead of him before, and failed. He felt the hundreds, now thousands of spirits consuming the now possessed vessels in the near distance.
What do you hear, apprentice? Can you sense what awaits you? Zash's calm voice inside his mind encouraged him to reach farther into the Dark Temple.
I hear the whispers and screams of all that have failed before me, my lady. They are still alive in body, but their minds consumed with the restless, bodyless spirits of the ancient Sith inside.
Slowly he exhaled the rest of his breathe and drew another. Reaching further he sensed the location of his objective, the tomb of an ancient Sith lord. The young apprentice felt a chill descend his spine, and uneasy presence stirring in the tomb he would soon be entering.
Master, I sense it's presence. It knows I am coming. This will not be easy, yet I sense I will come through this in one piece.
Very well, Apprentice. I leave you to your task. Bring me that artifact.
Preschaet opened his eyes and rose, still uncertain of how this spirit knew of his pending arrival. He thought back to the words his Father had shared with him as he was dying on Nar Shaddaa, shortly after they arrived.
We do not live until we have no fear of Death. We are not free so long as we yield to fear.
In the fallout of a disagreement over the share of a smuggling ran, a random blaster bolt had pierced his father's gut. As his mother shrieked in terror, clutching her dead husband and their infant daughter in her arms, he felt all the immense rage and anger well up inside him, as he rose and focused his rage at the man who inadvertently shot his father and roared. The rage within him rippled through the force, exploding the mans head. The surge of rage and power waned as quickly as the thugs head was replaced by a void in the air, full of viscera and pink mist.
Yet his actions sent a ripple out through the Force that anyone in the surrounding sector could feel. Strong enough was the boys rage to catch the notice of a young Sith lord named Vloek, who in turn followed the young boy for the next 3 years his duties kept him on the curiously felt some connection to his thoughts of his father and the premonition that the Sith spirit ahead was aware of his coming. "Fear has never been my pace before, and I don't intend to start slowing now," he mused aloud as he began walking towards the Dark Temple.
Bel'lia strode down the corridor towards the acolyte quarters, pausing only for a second as she passed her master's office. She knew that soon her would be sending her on her first off world trials, back to their adopted home world of Dromund Kaas, just as her older brother would be receiving such an assignment from his master, Darth Zash.
She chose to take the rare opportunity of having an evening free to dedicate the time to meditation. She felt an unsteady presence in the force. Something she couldn't put her finger on, but something that she sensed had an importance to both she and her brother, Preschaet. Where they finally close to finding the answer they spent so long in search of?
4 hours and a peculiar family reunion later, Preschaet let his mind wander as he dismounted his speeder in front of The Citadel. The descendants of an Ancient Lord named Kallig and rival of the Great Tulak Hord himself... He remember his childhood, how his father always skirted the question of their family's ancestry whenever he and his brother would ask. Perhaps he never knew himself that we had apparently fallen from greatness. Or perhaps he knew of our family's history of force sensitivities and wished to shield us from the past...
"Master, I return, again bearing the fruits of success." The apprentice grinned as he passed another artifact of Tulak Hord, The Lord of Hate.
"And yet again you prove to surpass my hopes for you, apprentice. Tell me, what is come of the ghost that wandered the tomb? How did you placate it?" Darth Zash intently waited to the tale of her apprentice's latest exploit.
"Well my Lady, apparently, this time my mere birth served all I'd needed. According to this ghost from the days of Tulak Hord himself, this Lord Kallig believes I am his heir. He claims to have sensed me through the force as my powers have grown."
"Remarkable child. Truly remarkable. This would certainly explain the depth of your connection to the force and the power that radiates within you. But alas, we have work yet to achieve my dear apprentice. Our work here is now done, and I have need of you to go to Balmorra. But as my apprentice, you will need your own way about the galaxy. I have a ship waiting for you at the spaceport. Contact me by holo once you arrive at Balmorra."
"Yes, my Lady." Preschaet immediately turned and started jogging to his speeder, eager to inspect his newly acquired ship.
As he strode into the hangar, his Dashade descended the ramp, having already arrived at his ship. "Come Little Sith, I hunger."
"Patience Khem, my dear friend, our feast is only begun, and we have a galaxy of enemies for you to satiate yourself with."
As he jogged up the ramp, Preschaet, still guarding his thoughts, remembered the warnings of his ancestor and his Dashade. And he smirked to himself. Zash has already slipped, I saw her blink of fear. She knows of my ancestor, and she knows the potential of facing me. When the day comes, I will be ready. Little did he know the irony of Zash's earlier lesson would have in store for him.
As he settled into meditation as the hyperdrive hummed from across the ship, Preshcaet focused back on the events of his youth. The one thought that always ate at him. His brother. Mordecar was taken by the Jedi when Preschaet was only 4. His parents fled to Nar Shaddaa in hopes to elude the Jedi taking their remaining children. Most of his native village was slaughtered when they resisted the commandos taking away their children to be taken to Coruscant.
Only Preschaet, his parents, his sister, and his Mother's midwife survived. He reached through the force and readily found Bel'lia, his sister, newly apprenticed to Darth Maledictum. The recently promoted Sith being the very Lord Vloek that first felt their presence in the force on Nar Shaddaa all those years ago, it was of little surprise to many that at least one of the siblings was apprenticed to their rescuers.
Sister.
Brother.
Shall we try again? We must find Mordecar. We must have some closure. Even after 17 unsuccessful years Preschaet refused to give up hope of a reunion with their elder sibling.
And we one day shall, I just wish it would be today. Though it gives me strength, this wound affects us both. It serves as a festering hole in us, preventing us from giving our full attention each day.
Normally he would be angered with his sister's lack of faith, but something in him was changing as of late. He now found himself inclined to agree that indeed the void of their brother's absence cost them a portion of focus and strength. He isolated himself back into a deep state of introspection at the days events and discoveries while his ship continued it's flight through hyperspace. Something new crept into the young Sith's mind as his thoughts reached further... something he still hadn't considered about his brother... If Mordecar ever finished the trials and became a Jedi, what if he leaves us no choice... What if Bel'lia and I must face him in battle? What can we do to sway him?
Bel'lia rose from her meditation, the drawn out conversation with her brother and the revelation that they are the descendants of an ancient Lord leaving more questions than ever about her life. For the soon to be 18 year old apprentice, her family life was a tumultuous one, from her very first year.
She was left without her elder brother after the Jedi claimed him to be a youngling. She was left without a father after merely arriving in the Nar Shaddaa spaceport at the wrong time. Left without their mother after they were taken to Dromund Kaas as children by the man she know called Master, Darth Maledictum. The Sith deserved credit though.
He made sure their mother and her midwife, who was essentially an aunt to Bel'lia and Preschaet, were safely returned to their home world of Dathomir. He made sure their presence on Dathomir remained hidden from the Jedi and the Hutts, several of whom he had personally killed to prevent the only family his apprentice had left from a life of slavery and abuse. He even sent the occasional messenger to Dathomir with holos of the children and updates on how they were.
Just turned 32, Darth Maledictum was unusual and rare coming amongst the Sith. Already more powerful than his contemporaries, he was at least 30 years the junior of even the youngest Sith in consideration to take Darth Malgus's seat on the Dark Council. The ambitious young human ran a hand through his prematurely graying hair, a side effect of his deep meditation and self imposed stasis several months before taking on his newest apprentice. Darths Zash and Thanaton still goaded him daily in their attempts to learn the rituals that allowed him to survive in his self imposed stasis in the vacuum of deep space for 3 months after the betrayal and the self-destruction of Malgus's the Betrayer's Fortress, his late master.
The young Darth had a slight chuckle to himself at his first and only response and the groan the Darths gave when he said it. One does not rise to greatness by divulging his resources to placate the whimsical curiosity of others. One must have knowledge of the void,to survive it one must become devoid.
His eyes, piercing orbs of amber, a distinctive trait common of Sith truly in communion with the Dark Side, turned to the sound of his apprentice nervously clearing her throat. He already sensed she wanted to asked a personal question of him. "Out with it my apprentice. You know my first and permanent demand of you is to seek knowledge, without reservation. Understanding others, Sith, Jedi, non-sensitives, the Force, knowledge of everything, the greatest understanding comes from asking the right questions."
She mustered the courage to ask her master why he went to such lengths to protect her family. "Apprentice, I was not much older than you brother when my siblings were taken from me. I saw the pain it caused my mother everyday until she gave up the will for life. That day I came to Dromund Kaas in search of a shuttle to Korriban." The Darth paused for a second to relish the rage he still felt when thinking of the years his mother languished in pain. "The day I felt your brother's scream through the force... that much rage..."
She did not wait for him to continue. "I see Preschaet and I have more in common with you than just our strength in the Force my Lord. Thank you."
The young Darth had long thought of his new apprentice and her brother as though they were his adopted siblings. He turned his head back to his apprentice to ensure she felt the weight of his next words, the rage for his mother's pain, the anguish of his own lost siblings, and the empathy and love he felt for his apprentice and her family. It all fed his power, now radiating from him with such heat and intensity Bel'lia thought she was standing between the twin Suns of Tattooine. "Emotions are a tool, apprentice. To master them is the greatest strength a Sith can have. To master the Force, one must master both their emotions, and the true nature of the Force itself. The time is right, you will have your first trial on Dromund Kaas."
30 minutes later the two Sith settled into the lounge of the young Darth's ship, now leaving Korriban's atmosphere. "Quinn," barked the Lord, "Set a course for Dromund Kaas and jump to hyperspace immediately. My apprentice has a trial to begin and I must speak to an old friend at the Archives." The Captain quickly began his turn to the bridge to execute his orders at the same time he began to vocally affirm them with a speedy "Asyouwish, My Lord."
Darth Maledictum then turned and asked a question that would change his apprentice's, and her brothers' paths forever. "Tell me Bel'lia, what do you know of the life and philosophy of Revan?"