ACT I: APPRENTICE
A sigh echoed from the chambers on Dromund Kaas, from a red-headed young Sith. His green eyes focused intensely on the task before him, stroking his strip-goatee'd chin. Darth Imperius was fiddling with a device of his creation – a new holocron, within which he could store his knowledge of the Force for future review and use – but the going was incredibly slow. Shaping the crystalline energy source, fitting it into the shell he'd made, perfecting the AI that would serve as the interface – all of it was far more difficult than he'd have thought.
It wasn't merely the careful finesse of craftsmanship, but also the power in the Force that he had trouble with. Not for the first time, the Darth wished he hadn't simply purified the Force Ghosts he'd "eaten" for their power, after he'd killed off Thanaton. Still, there was nothing for it now – they'd passed on, and they would not be back. He could seek another Force Ghost, but to rely on another's power rankled with him a bit, now that he really could stand on his own.
Even with his convictions, though, the thought was still tempting at times to find a ghost and bind it.
"My Lord?" he heard, and looked up from his desk's work. Ashara Zavros, the Jedi Padawan he'd "turned to the Dark Side" was standing there. The yellow-and-blue Togruta smiled hesitantly at him, looking at the holocron-to-be from her standing position. "Do you want help?"
"I need it, certainly," the Dark Councillor grumbled, before putting on a smile. "Any ideas?" he asked, now more pleasant in tone. He was always a bit grumpy when things weren't going well, but he usually only let it shine through for a moment before going to be at least polite.
"Not sure – may I?" she asked, extending her hand. The Darth nodded and handed her the parts, watching as she puzzled over them, meditating and focusing. "Oh. You uh," she said, then hesitated. As prideful as she'd been in the past, Darth Imperius had taught her the value of humility, often by example. She didn't want to sound arrogant when he said what the problem was.
Still, he didn't like it when people wasted time, either, so she pressed on. "I think you screwed up the power crystal. Irreparably."
"How so?" Imperius asked, more concerned than annoyed.
"Looks like you broke it when you were charging it with the Force."
The man took in a breath, hissing out a curse in a long sigh. "I should have known that crack wasn't it fitting into place," he muttered. "So I'll have to start over?"
"Yeah, I think so," Ashara nodded.
"Sounds like you need a vacation," a deep, gruff voice teased.
Imperius snorted. "Andronikos, I can't drop everything for a vacation," he said, "much as it would be appreciated. How is the Fury, by the way?"
"Still in need of a proper name," the dark-skinned pilot grinned. "Other'n that, she's in as bad a shape as Twovee'll let her get to."
"I need to have that droid given a once-over, maybe an outright memory wipe at this rate," Imperius sighed. "Poor thing'll probably overheat again in a month or two."
"Well, where we're going for your vacation, we won't be able to get supplies for the ship droid, I'm afraid," Andronikos said with a smirk.
"You're really going to press-gang me?" Imperius grinned.
"You're gonna wanna see this," the ex-pirate said, his expression and tone rapidly turning serious. "I was dickin' around in Thanatos's archives with Talos. He wanted help sorting through stuff. Anyway, I found a star chart that updates itself pretty constantly for astrogation. Got a few systems on it that I didn't find marked anywhere else. And one of 'em's in Wild Space."
Imperius frowned. "And?"
"And he had notes on 'the unusual properties of the Force' in that Wild Space system. Said the locals called it Medius."
"...unusual how?"
"Apparently, some can use Force Lightning without its corruptive properties – or even much Force sensitivity."
Imperius stood up rapidly, knocking his seat over, eyes wide, and Ashara went stock-straight. That was a huge discovery, and for Thanaton to just sit on it was almost wasteful. "Bantha shit," he managed.
"No joke, captain. That's what his private logs all say. Even humans there, though everything's all super-low tech. They barely have coal trains."
Ashara blinked at that, recovering her composure. The low tech made it vulnerable to predation – did Thanaton simply not see a point? "Does he have holo-images?" she asked.
"Yeah, Drellik's lookin' it all over now. He and I were working on making sure the charts were up-to-date enough, and that we could predict it good enough otherwise. We wanna see this place – me for just plain curiosity, him because he's fascinated. Wants to find out about their cultures an' stuff."
"So why there?" Imperius asked.
"Because I thought you'd be interested," Andronikos grinned.
"I am, but why as a vacation?"
"Hey, when I'm stressed about a project, I drop it for a while, come back with a fresh mind. It helps me every time."
The human once known as Sepith Veilcurse, the scion of Kallig, tapped his chin. "I think you might have a point. Ashara, go get Khem. Andronikos, you find Xalek. We'll meet at the Fury in an hour; I'll requisition our supplies for the trip."
"The trip there might take a while," Andronikos noted. "Get at least three months of stuff, just in case something goes wrong."
"I'll get four months for extra security," Sepith nodded.
Within an hour, everyone was prepared for the trip. The Fury was practically stuffed with supplies, and the crew had been assembled. Khem Val, staring at the ship's walls as he walked on board, grumbled, [I do not want to be stuck in this ship for months on end. Not again.]
"Neither do I," Darth Imperius said, "but the trip should take just over a month. The backup supplies are for any accidents or the like. We've got it plotted out for a stop a week for the first couple of weeks, assuming we're not off in our calculations for the astrogation."
[Good,] the Dashade growled.
As first order of business, once out of the atmosphere and into hyperspace, Imperius called everyone to the conference room. "What can you tell me about the xenoforms and civilization on this Medius, Talos?" he asked the scholarly lieutenant.
"Culturally, not a lot, other than the worship of three gods," Talos replied, bringing out a datapad. "The xenoforms are very interesting, however – several species on the same planet, of fairly wide variety, and including humans, strangely enough. One species on a second planet. And an extremely varied species on the third."
"Three planets in the same system, all with their own basic civilizations?" Imperius asked, surprised. "That might almost speak to Rakata influence."
Finally, several holovids came up – there were humans, or something very much like them, along with smaller, fuzzy creatures labeled "Jakkai," shelled beings called "Khamega," tiny flying insect-men described as "Fairies," and piscine xenoforms known as "Merfolk." "That's just on the main planet of Medius," Talos noted. "The others are labeled 'Heaven' and 'Hell' and are literally populated by 'Angels' and 'Demons' – the latter being the varied creatures."
The holovids showed the Angels, then several samples of Demon. Imperius blinked repeatedly, a bit disturbed by the species' names. "That can't be good for racial relations, if I know the galactic myths of such beings. Then again, how do any of them know of each other?"
"Interplanetary travel is apparently possible through decently-known rituals," Talos noted. "The planets of Heaven and Hell also have an unusual property that apparently draws the deceased to them in their old forms – and those on these worlds do not seem to require sustenance. He also noted that Heaven is fairly orderly, with buildings of white stone and strong wood, while Hell is basically a red desert world."
Xalek seemed to start, having been silently observing this entire time. "Is there a problem, Xalek?" Imperius asked him.
"Master," Xalek stated, "This seems familiar somehow."
"What do you mean?" his master asked, surprised.
"I had a dream the night before," the Kaleesh replied. "A world of pain and suffering, and a world of healing and rest. A world of life, and a world of death and stasis. Four worlds in all."
"Is there a fourth, Talos?" Imperius asked.
"There is, but Thanaton didn't spend any great time on it – his notes said it was merely like the first."
"Odd," Imperius muttered. "Anything else?" he asked his Sith apprentice.
"A vision of an angel trapped in a demon's body," Xalek continued, "golden horned and purple of body. He was strong in the Force, yet trapped in a red desert, with no family, no allies, no enemies."
Imperius nodded. "I see. A red desert – were there any clues as to the exact location?"
"There was a great black wall in my vision, but the demon was nowhere near it. It was far closer to a series of mountains, and a great river of glowing green."
Imperius nodded. "We'll start there, I suppose. These visions rarely happen for no reason."
"Indeed."
"An angel in a demon's body?" Ashara asked. "Weird...but then, with literal angel and demon people in this system, maybe that's a clue too."
"We can hope," Imperius said quietly.
After four jumps to other worlds, the crew took another week to reach the Medius system. Andronikos flew the Fury towards the red planet, Hell, and began running scans. "There's life forms down there, though hell if I know how," he muttered.
"Exactly," Imperius said, smirking as Andronikos stared at him.
The ex-pirate got the idea in a moment and began to laugh at the pun. "That's a bad one, captain," he grinned. "I love it."
As the Fury touched down, the group set up a perimeter and camp in the area. When that was completed, Imperius decided to drag Talos along with him. The archaeologist was pleased to see the planet up-close, but he did seem a bit jumpy. "There's no sign of life anywhere, not even trees or flowers," he muttered. "It's rather eerie."
"Agreed," the Darth nodded. "And I have a strong impression that we're being watched." He glanced towards a small group of stones, and he finally nodded. "Come on out, little one. We won't hurt you, I promise."
Talos blinked. "What I wouldn't give at times," he muttered, smiling in his jealousy of the sensory powers of the Force.
Finally, out came a small purple form, clothed only in a white shirt that was perhaps eight sizes too big and what looked like a large white-gold pendant in the shape of a star. Its wide red eyes were fearful, yet curious, and it had goldenrod horns, black claws instead of fingers, and a spaded tail-tip. Talos strode a bit forward of Imperius and knelt, smiling. "Come on, little one," he said, pulling out a wrapped taffy and untwisting the ends.
"You never shared with me," Imperius whined jokingly. Talos chuckled, while the little creature stumbled forward, sniffing the candy and gently picking it up.
As he opened his mouth, filled with fangs and ready to bite, Talos said, "You don't chew it, little one. It'd get your teeth all gummed up. You just let it rest in your mouth, you'll see." The boy stared at Talos, then did so, sucking on the taffy and blinking at the sweet flavor. "Good, ah?" the Imperial man smiled. "Come on, then," he said, gently picking the child up. "Where are your parents?"
The boy winced, looking away. "Oh, I'm sorry," Talos sighed. "Come on, it'll be alright." He hauled the child along behind Imperius, who kept glancing back at the child. "Is everything alright, my Lord?"
"Just...curious," Imperius said. "The boy's got a lot of power in the Force...even at such a young age. He can't even be four years old yet."
Talos grimaced. "Poor thing," he sighed, gently stroking the child's head.
Back at camp, Xalek backed away from the child, almost reverent in his respect. "It is the one from my vision," he murmured. "Master...as much as I do not wish to be replaced, you must train him," he said bitterly.
"You're not being replaced," Imperius smiled. "I didn't replace Ashara with you, now did I?"
"...no," Xalek murmured. "Still...three apprentices is a lot to keep track of, is it not?"
"True," Imperius said, "but I'm sure I can handle it, for now."
A week went by as Buwaro – the Demon child – familiarized himself with the rest of the Fury's crew, and began to learn how to read Basic. Once he was comfortable with them, Imperius decided to head to Tatooine for a time, and instruct the boy privately at his stronghold.
Another two weeks of travel brought them to the great base in the desert. The group developed a schedule to help care for Buwaro's needs and began to do so, making sure he ate well, trained in the Force, and was kept learning and entertained.
Talos's main duty was to educate him in the basic knowledge any citizen should have, but he often gave the boy puzzles and games to help grow his mind as well. There was no reason to make him simply able to regurgitate information, after all.
Ashara was in charge of his physical conditioning and diet. Buwaro had developed a strong love for food, since for the first three and a half years of his life it was unnecessary and unavailable. She constantly had to make sure he didn't just gorge himself, and worked off those extra calories he did consume.
Xalek helped him with combat training when he was old enough to start learning to use his fists – and his claws. While Buwaro had been afraid of the Kaleesh at first, the once-murderous warrior softened up to Buwaro's heart and, in time, Buwaro learned not to fear the well-toned fighter. This eventually brought Xalek to begin to claw away from the Dark Side, much to everyone's surprise – the care of a young living being had softened his heart.
On the other hand, Buwaro would have almost nothing to do with Khem Val – between the Dashade's desire to eat his power and Buwaro's ability to sense the beast's malice, the two avoided each other, since Imperius would have none of Khem's hunger pangs coming out.
Andronikos wasn't around often, at first – but when Buwaro developed an interest in learning mechanics, he decided to teach the boy how to repair a starship, and the skills needed to fly one. Buwaro wasn't so good at the latter, but the boy quickly learned how to bring the Fury to top shape, and even learned how to do basic astrogation calculations.
Once Buwaro was eight or so, Imperius truly undertook his training, teaching him the art of the Sith Inquisitor as he had learned. Initially, Buwaro's strongest skill was the ability to sense, so they delved deep into that. His mind grew to accept the thoughts of others, and he began to master the basics of the Force before he was thirteen.
His skill in the Force even gave him the ability to resist the Berserker state caused by losing his Star Pendant, though never for very long. The discovery of this wild state – and its final implications of death – had concerned Imperius greatly, so he requested that Buwaro keep the pendant on whenever possible. The boy didn't argue.
It was a few days after Buwaro turned thirteen that Imperius and crew returned to the Medius system, and to Hell specifically. Buwaro remembered the place fairly well despite the decade away. Once they had landed, Imperius began Buwaro's first mission. "In short," Imperius said, "you are to infiltrate Hell's wall and give me reports on what you find once a month or so. I'll contact you by your holocommunicator. I wish to try and set up a power base in the form of a cult here."
"Yes sir," Buwaro nodded, bowing his head. "What should I do if the worst should happen?"
"If you are somehow discovered as an outsider, you should only be ostracized at most," Imperius replied. "If things get ugly, for whatever reason, contact me and we'll pick you up as soon as we can."
"As you wish, Master," Buwaro said, bowing at the waist. He could do this, he knew it.
It was just a matter of proving it to himself.
