3,996 BBY
Sith Citadel, Empress Teta

"My Lord, your flagship is ready." The Krath soldier bowed low before Darth Caries as he delivered the announcement.

"Will none of the others join me?" Caries asked quietly, glaring down at the bowed man from beneath the drawn hood of his robes. He added casually, "You may rise."

Shaking his head, the soldier rose. "No, my Lord. They are of the consensus that it is impossible for Master Kun to be in any danger from the Republic forces."

"Fools." The Sith Lord muttered before turning away and purposefully striding towards the open balcony doors. Gripping the railing, he gazed out over the courtyard of the citadel, painted gold in the light of the setting sun, and toyed briefly with the thought of sending this fool soldier hurtling towards it. "Are they really that blind?"

Behind him a wave of fear came rippling out from the soldier. Caries grinned wickedly at it, such delicious fear from one who rightfully feared the power of the Dark Side. But there were more important things at stake now; Exar Kun's life, and quite possibly his power as well. "Signal my flagship and its escorts, we depart for Yavin IV the moment my shuttle arrives."

"Yes, my Lord." There was a definite tone of relief in the soldier's voice as he bowed once more and left the Sith's presence.

Darth Caries looked into the far-off setting sun. The wind stilled and in the dead space the hum of lightsabers clashing rose to his ears: warriors sparring in the courtyard. For a moment, Caries reflected on the saber at his own hip, remembering hunting down his former master at Exar Kun's command. The duel had nearly claimed his life, it had only been through the Dark Side's power that he had emerged victorious. Caries closed his eyes and smiled, relishing the memory of raw power rushing out from him to spear the old fool, using the Force to drain the life and power from her until she fell to the ground little more than an empty husk.

His eyes snapped open and he pivoted on his heel, robes billowing behind him like an angry storm as he strode back into his quarters, then on into the hallway and towards the launch bay. As he walked, the Force spoke to him.

"You are strong." The voice of the Dark Side whispered to him. "And soon you shall become stronger. First the Brotherhood, then the Jedi, then the Republic, and then the whole galaxy will bow before your power."

Such glory, such power, such ecstasy that would bring. Him, Darth Caries, the unopposed Dark Lord of the Sith. No, of the Galaxy. Dark Lord of the Galaxy: the Sith'ari. He would destroy this ill-managed rabble and rebuild it into the image of perfection. How blind he had been as a Jedi, how limited he had been before Exar Kun had come and shown him the truth, shown him real power. Caries lit the flame of passion within his heart and let it burn, opening himself to the Dark Side of the Force, bathing in its power, might, and fury.

His meditation of sorts carried him to the launch bay and to the deck of his flagship, the Corrupter. It was only after the boarding ramp lowered and the cruiser lurched into hyperspace. Descending the ramp, Darth Caries indicated for his personal guard to go ahead of him to secure the command deck and ensure that the cruiser was traveling as fast as it could, then went to his meditation chamber.

The holocrons welcomed him with a chorus of dark voices. More than a dozen of the pyramid-shaped devices stood on pedestals around the edge of the chamber, almost like sentries for the lone one that sat in the center of the chamber: his own. All of the artifacts had been secretly collected from worlds across the Republic and brought here. Together they had taught him much about darkness, how to control it, and how to use it for his own ends. And in true form, he had fashioned his own, passing his dark knowledge into the metal and crystal structure that would one day stand as a glorious testament to his own greatness.

But there would be time to reflect later. For now, he must discover what lay ahead at Yavin. Wth a casual motion, Caries nearly extinguished the chamber's light, then kneeled on the floor and stretched out his senses into the Force.

Faintly, dimly he could feel the confrontation between the Jedi and his Master. Exar Kun's anger and hate burned like a nova in the channels of the Force, a sharp contrast to the serenity (however forced and controlled) that radiated from the Jedi who approached Yavin. There was something new, though. Something Caries had never thought he would encounter: fear. It subtly tainted the distant Force-enabled knowledge of the Yavin system. Astonishingly enough, it came from his Master. However, in further evidence of Exar Kun's mastery of the Dark Side, the fear fueled his rage, turning it into a most fearsome weapon.

The tremors started small, barely ripples in the currents of the Force. But they grew quickly into great pulses of terror and pain that emanated from the whole of the moon as quite literally all of the lifeforce of Yavin IV was being drawn into Exar Kun. His Master was transcending! He was becoming a being of pure energy, pure Dark Side power, carried on the combined essence of what used to be the biosphere of the moon. The sheer force of it all was astounding.

Then it vanished abruptly, or rather, was overshadowed by a blinding outpouring of power from the Jedi. Some sort of wall of light enveloped the moon, reflecting Exar Kun's power back on him. For a moment it seemed as if there would be a standoff, a balancing of power that would enable him, Darth Caries, to come and rescue his Master, establishing a place as the true apprentice of this incarnation of the Dark Side of the Force. Then Exar Kun faltered. Was flung back against Yavin IV and suffered what only moments before had seemed impossible: death. Exar Kun was dead.

Caries cried out in pain as the full impact of the death swept over him in both Force and mind. "Impossible!" He yelled, trying to convince himself that this was just a Jedi trick, that his Master would rise from the ashes and strike the Jedi down and establish a true Sith Empire in place of the Republic. But the sheer elation and joy that echoed from the Republic forces was the damning evidence. Exar Kun was dead. It was up to him now to exact revenge.

Then a most curious thing happened: the world changed. He suddenly remembered that day, years before when he and nineteen other Jedi had followed Exar Kun to Yavin IV to stop a dark presence that had been sensed on the moon. They had confronted Kun on his apparent involvement, in response to which he had smashed the holocron he carried. Then... then they had joined him. They had suddenly abandoned the Jedi code and followed the ways of the Sith.

"And you have become strong!" The Dark Side whispered to Caries. "You have grasped power which few have ever dreamed of. You are a Dark Lord, the most powerful of those left behind. Seize what your former Master left behind and rule the galaxy!"

"I..." Conflict raged within him. Was he truly Darth Caries, Dark Lord of the Sith, or was he a fallen Jedi, one who needed to redeem himself. "I don't know."

However, other thoughts pushed to the forefront of his mind. The crew. The Mandalorians who were aboard, and more importantly, the Krath cultists who were aboard would take advantage of this moment of weakness to claim his knowledge and position. That was not acceptable. He had to collect the holocrons, had to collect what he could and escape before this weakness was discovered. Thinking rapidly, Caries reached out through the force and summoned his personal guard. They arrived within minutes.

"Collect the holocrons, all of them, and bring them to my shuttle."

The guards bowed and set to work without a word, gathering the holocrons and marching out of the meditation chamber. Caries followed them, grim-faced and feeling the comfortable weight of his lightsaber in his palm. He had removed it from his belt after calling for his guard and after reaching out through the Force to control the minds of several engineers on bother this ship and the ones accompanying it. It would be a shame to lose these trained crews, but he could always find another later, after he had regained his confidence and strength. Best to let the others of the Brotherhood think that he had been killed by the Republic along with Exar Kun. It would make things simpler, whichever way his path took him now.

"Do you wish us to accompany you, my Lord?" The commander of the guard asked after they had finished placing the holocrons aboard the shuttle.

"Unfortunately, no." The words were spoken without emotion and gave no hint of what was on Caries' mind.

His lightsaber's red blade, however, did.

Three strokes, he reflected hours later as the shuttle raced through hyperspace. Three stroked was all it took to kill all fifteen of them. An unsettling thought, seeing as how they were to have guarded him against any of his fellow Brotherhood who would have tried to kill him. At any rate, he now had all the time he would need to resolve this conflict within himself.

- - - - - -

Carry on my wayward son,
There'll be peace when you are done.
Lay your weary head to rest,
Don't you cry no more.