Darth Marr was incredibly annoyed. He had been sitting with the fellow Council memebers for nearly two hours, yet they were still far from a general concensus.
"The republic could never have an interest in an alliance," Proclaimed Darth Ravage. "We should continue our advance in the outer rim and take full control of tatooine.
"You can't possibly believe that we are capable of that." Darth Mortis said in response. "How could we possibly do so. My spies claim that they have twenty Jedi posted at Outpost Thorazan alone. Then there's reinforcements from around the planet. And Reinforcements from the entire rest of the galaxy. They are winning in the hyperspace race. We've recorded them to have ships going at one and a half times the speed of ours. They'd be able to transport a hundred masters all the way from Hoth to Tatooine in minutes."
"The Hutt's can help. An allegiance with them is an easy goal. We have the money. They have entire armies to themselves."
"The Hutt's are sniveling excuses for allies" Darth Nox cut in. "A species like that is not worthy of being allies with the Sith."
"Shocking words to come from one such as yourself with an apprentice who used to be a Jedi Padawan. You would do well not to bring your theories of what a 'true Sith' is to this council unless you're willing to say something reasonable." Said Darth Marr, beginning to lose his patience.
"My lord; I apologize. I will not do so again." She responded.
"Do not address me as 'Lord' either. You are new here, but we are equal's."
Nox was beginning to think Marr wasn't a true Sith, but she kept that theory to herself. He would probably kill her instantly. Thanaton may have been a member of the Dark Council, but he was an old man. Darth Marr was- Well she wasn't quite sure of his age.
"An alliance with the republic can't be achieved if we are to remain as an Empire. Hutt's or not, we can't give in to the wishes of the weak. Even if the empire would fall we should continue our press forward". Ravage rejoined the conversation.
"An interesting view, Ravage." Darth Baras agreed. "But perhaps not quite what should happen. We have a moderate enough amount of control. Why not move to the mid-rim?"
"A terrible idea." Nox shouted. "We can't expect to move further into the galaxy without having a firm grip on the outer rim."
"What if a battle is unnecessary to fully claim Tatooine," Darth Vowrawn suggested. "At least at first. Republic settlements are as sparse as Imperial, but the locals have maintained a surprising level of neutrality. The Jawa may have the technology, and the larger sentient species may provide the manpower. We may also be able to obtain mounts from hunting and taming the wildlife. It's a simple matter of being able to convince them that the empire is the correct way to go. We may also be able to supply them with weapons, if the Jawa are unwilling to cooperate."
"An excellent idea suggestion, Vowrawn," Darth Decimus said. "But we can't supply weapon's. After the republic took Balmorra, we havn't been able to produce anywhere near as many weapons as we used to. We can barely arm the troopers, and they are needed to help in the battle. Citizen's alone can't take over the republic."
"Consider this," Boomed a deep voice coming from everywhere at once. "The republic is winnig this war. We have very little manpower to fight back." A cloud of purple formed in the center of the room, lightning raining down onto it. "In an entire galaxy of thousands of planet's housing aligned citizen's, we have merely two hundred." A humanoid shape began to take form within the cloud. "Chances of survival without alliance are bleak. So why has only one of you," The figure, which had now taken shape looked to Darth Acheron. "Even considered this alliance."
Darth Nox could see the figure as it spun around the room, taking in every detail of every member. She could see his pale skin as his face passed hers. See the deep wrinkles of age on his face. But above all else, the thing she remembered for the rest of her very long life, were The Emperor's eyes. They were the color of blood. Dark beyond conception, corrupted by what seem so much more than even the dark side, she could see something more than merely there color though. What she saw was that they could see. They saw more than what light allowed them to. They could look at person and instantly know the darkest, most terrible, deeply buried secret that person kept. She knew that he knew about Andronikos. A sith making friends with a pirate. But how could a man with eye's so powerful have eyes so sad. She could see that too. A deep scar ran behind them, a scar that had festered for hundreds of years of solitude.
"Why," He repeated. "What drives you to continue to defy a force clearly so much stronger than one man." He gestured to himself. "Why do none of you leave this room? Take a ship to Coruscant. Give your lives to the Jedi. Why not?"
A silence took over the room. The Emperor, the great lord of the sith stood, all eyes on him, his eyes on all.
"We stay because of our code" Said Darth Nox. "We swore since the moment we became Sith that we believed in everything it stood for. And we will continue to believe it. Peace is a lie. There is only Passion. Through Passion, we gain Strength. Through Strength, we gain Power. Through Power, we gain Victory, and through Victory," Tears welled at her eyes. She blinked, and when she reopened her eyes, they were gone. "Our chains are BROKEN!" She yelled. "THE FORCE SHALL SET US FREE!" She hadn't realized she'd stood up until then, and sat down again. "We stay, we fight, because if we joined the republic, our code would be broken. Our mission would be over, and we would be slaves. I will never surrender to them. Should every Sith, and every soldier in the Empire break away, I will remain. I will remain because that is what a Sith does."
The Emperor gave her an approving nod. "My life span's Millenia. Legion's have risen to test me. Every single one has failed. I have lost much to cause it though. My power has drained. I am a mere shadow to what once I was. But I will continue to give myself, for the Empire and the Sith. But it'll take more than me. There once was a force spawn of unimaginable power. Armies fell before it as if they were merely the toys of children. Until a woman was born. She was trained her entire life to fight, her body honed as an unbeatable killing machine, her mind an indestructible fortress. She confronted this force spawn alone. It was long before the creation of the lightsaber, and her only weapon's were herself, a simple sword, and the force. Their battle lasted for hours, neither tiring, for they both had great endurance. But the creature began to weaken. After so long, the creature had finally met the one that would take him. So it died willingly, knowing that there was no hope." The entire council gasped, believing Their Emperor was telling them to give up. "But when she killed it, she witnessed a movement within it's belly. She cut it open, and within it she found it's child. In her anger towards everything the beast represented, she killed the infant as well and left.
But she didn't know how the infant could be an ally. It was prophesied that both woman and beast would return. I could see instantly that the woman has returned." All eyes turned to Darth Nox. "Now it is time for the beast"
He raised his arms above his head, a purple orb forming between his two hands. A torrent of lightning came down to him. It lasted for perhaps five seconds and the orb swelled to considerable size. He brought his arms down, still holding the orb, and pushed them together. As he pushed the orb gradually got smaller, until it seemed that it was the size of his eyes, very small yet very large. And then it tore open, and the entire world exploded. Blinding light filled the room, making everyone cover their eyes. Darth Nox could see no one, except the light, and a small black figure in the distance. She walked towards it. As she got closer the strange pinprick of darkness got bigger and bigger, until it was clearly the figure of the Emperor. He spoke once again in his voice that could be heard everywhere.
"The woman has returned. Now it is time for the creature. Go to the nightmare lands, on the planet Voss. There you will find your quest. You must slay the creature. Take the child from the womb and bring it back to Korriban. Lord Renning will nurse it into it's necessity, feeding it off of anger and your loyalty to the Empire. When it is ready, then the Empire will be able to take the Galaxy. You are my successor. You are the empress." Crack's began to form along his skin. From them came a bright magenta light, threatening to take over everything once again. All that happened was a flash, and Darth Nox was back in her seat, back in the Dark Council chambers, back on Korriban.
But something was different. She could feel more weight, bearing down on her shoulders, her chest, her back, even her head. She looked down at her clothes and was amazed to find that she was wearing something different. Instead of the gold armor she had stolen from Raptus, the leader of the Dread Masters, she was wearing what the Emperor had been wearing. He was nowhere to be seen.
"We will follow you to Voss, and go through the nightmare lands," Said a deep voice. It was Marr. "We will follow you, Empress."
The twelve combed the nightmare lands for weeks, slowly descending into madness, despite their incredible power in the force. Ravage was the first to go. Then went Vowrawn. Decimus. Acheron. By the time they finally came to the great creature only two members of the Dark Council remained. Darth Acina and Darth Marr. The creature was terrifying. It was of a dark color, but had orange around it's entire body similar to lava. It's mouth was a gaping hole, tongue, gums and uvula all coal black. It balanced on two legs and swung it's arms wide as it walked. The Empress knew she had seen it before. It was the same creature as Gharj, the guard of the eternity vault. But this wasn't Gharj. It was at least twice as large, and she could feel the violent nature radiating off of it like waves of heat. That was when it turned to see them. And as soon as it did, it charged as fast as a ship in hyperspace. The creature brought it's fists down fast, Darth Acina narrowly dodging the boulders of fists it had. With the time it took to come back up, the Empress was able to jump onto it's back an bring her lightsaber down into it. It attempted to reach behind itself and swat her like a fly. She jumped off long before it even made it halfway around. It hit the spot where she had stabbed and let out a roar of pain. Darth Marr was jumping off the trees, attempting to gain height and speed. He jumped forward as soon as he knew he would make it to the eyes and lunged, his lightsaber out in front of him like a spear. It didn't matter. The creature put up it's arm to block. It got even luckier. It ignored the pain when Marr's lightsaber cut through it's hand. He didn't matter. It gripped him in his hand, tightening and tightening. The bones cracking were audible. So ended the life of Darth Marr, one of the most well known and respected Sith of all time. Darth Nox knew then that Marr was a true Sith. It leaned it's head back and raised the corpse to it's mouth. The gaping cavern opened. Darth Nox saw her opportunity. She jumped around the trees in a fashion similar to Marr, but much faster. She also got higher. Right as Marr's body fell into the creature's mouth, she entered it too with her lightsaber held out in front of her. It cut through the tongue. Severed the uvula. A scream rose up from the darkness, but the thing even more noticeable was the terrible smell. The Empress had her way illuminated by the lightsaber. She could tell she was in the esophagus now. As soon as she got herself angled, she stabbed through, cutting out of the thing, and coming out through it's chest. When she hit the ground she turned and saw it sway. She saw it fall. She saw it Die. Using the force she picked up the corpse and flipped it over. There was a stirring in it's stomach. This was where she knew she would have to be careful. With the skill of qualified surgeon, she performed a ceasarian section on the creature. Within she found the baby. All of the lives were'nt for nothing. She had achieved her goal. She took out the small animal and turned to Darth Acina.
"We've done it" she said.
"Yes we have, Empress. We've won."
Darth Nox and Darth Acina walked away from the beast and back to their ship together, hand in hand.
"Well, my lord. It's a strange gift you have given me," Said Lord Renning. "I will try to do as you have said. Malora! Come here!"
A girl with Black hair tied up came to Renning. Her face had scars and dirt accumulated from years of torture. When she saw the Empress, she looked at her with fear and Hatred. Darth Nox laughed in her mind at this, and the fact that Malora thought she hadn't noticed.
"Yes, my lord?"
"Take this creature to a pen. Feed it. Keep it safe, don't get any of your filth on it." Renning handed her the still small creature.
"Yes my lord" She ran away to avoid her masters lightning.
"I'll be back to check on it soon. You're doing a great thing Renning. Take pride in knowing that you're aiding the empire." And with that The Empress left. She was never seen again by anyone except the members of the Dark Council and a select few companions, but not Lord Renning. No one ever considered the possibility of her death, even hundreds of years after the last Emperor.
Tatooine was taken over by the Empire two years after. They spread across the galaxy until ten years later, the only planets remaining to the republic were Coruscant, Tython, Ord Mantell, and Corellia. Fifteen years later, the republic was disbanded and only a handful of Jedi and still loyal republic citizens remained to go into hiding. The creature was set free on Hoth, where several Talz villages were found destroyed after it's release. It was eventually decided as a danger to the Empire, and led to a ravine where it starved to death. Darth Nox's rule lasted for nearly two thousand year, until she was killed by her Dashade servant, whom during interrogation claimed to have been doing the will of a Sith called Tulak Hord. It remains a mystery as to how a being could accumulate enough power to kill the Empress, which has also led to several theories of suicide.