Gallow Willow stood on the command deck of the Verdugo, looking out over the open vastness of space. The Praexys Pillars glowed brightly in the background, but the colors had begun to fade. Unseen, hiding behind the pillars, was a blackhole, an invisible mass of dark energy slowly eating away at the creative gases, sucking them into an endless darkness.
If Gallow were any other type of person he would enjoy watching the rare cosmic display. But Gallow Willow was not just any type of person. He knew no joy. He knew no laughter. Only pain and heartache were his constant companions. And hate. One could not overlook the hate which emitted by his personage. A personage of darkness.
Gallow watched the blackhole with his steel blue cold eyes as it ate away the pillars, just as he would eat away the Republic, the entire galaxy, in darkness. Gallow Willow, the Dark Lord of the Sith, would soon bring the universe into the same darkness, the same pain he felt every minute of every day. The Jedi could no longer stand up to him. They knew it, and he knew that they knew it. He could feel the devastation in the inklings of the force. He could feel the Masters pain and worry as they waited for their destruction to come.
Gallow had learned long ago that the most painful death is a slow and steady one, wrought in patience. A talent he had learned to develop in the years of training first Jedi and then sith. And the sith apprentices required more patience, it seemed, than those of the Jedi.
Gallow sensed him coming before he arrived, and knew what he wanted before he spoke. Gantus, the correlian bounty hunter, stood behind him now. "Look, I already told you the Tusken Raiders killed him before I could, we had an agreement that…" Gallow brought his blood-red lightsaber from within his cloak out into the open, ignited it, and plunged the searing crimson blade into Gantus' abdomen. "The agreement was that you would kill him. Not the Tusken Raiders," Gallow said in a quiet cold voice. "This is your payment for failure."
Gantus fell to the floor at the feet of a young woman clad in the black attire of the sith. Lilil, Gallow's apprentice, stood looking over the scene with a hint of glee in her beautiful green eyes. She knew better than to show Gallow that she was enjoying life too much, but at times she couldn't help but succumb to her emotions. "Darth Muridian calls us to counsel. Our plan is about to take effect master," she said, studying the man she could not help but love. She knew better than to indulge upon that emotion.
Gallow said nothing, but returned his lightsaber to its hidden place within his cloak, and walked passed Lilil. "And those?" Lilil asked nodding to the Praexys Pillars. Gallow stopped, but did not turn. Lilil looked at the pillars, but even more interesting was what she saw behind them. A huge blackness rose from the coldness of space, blocking the light of everything in its path. It rose and thickened until finally it engulfed the pillars and they were no more. Then just as suddenly as it had come, it disappeared.
Lilil turned to look at Gallow. He stood still with his back to her and the observation window. "So shall be the fate of the universe once I have found Kalifex," he said, and walked out the room. Lilil felt a small half smile curl on the edges of her mouth. Gallow Willow, her master and the most powerful Sith Lord or Jedi Master to ever traverse the universe, was for a few precious seconds content.