Drainar sat at his massive table, staring blankly at the door. He could feel the woman he held captive for days as she walked closer to his door. A pang of guilt washed over him for a fleeting second. He was a Darth, why would he even have an inkling of guilt when taking a republic soldier, a Colonel at that. Someone who knew the Republic's forces like the back of her hand. He could have had her tortured for all her secrets and taken over the republic once and for all. But bigger stakes were at hand. The Emperor was looking for this unborn child she was carrying, to use it as a new body to take over and reign supreme over the galaxy, sucking the life for all it was worth and leaving it to conquer another galaxy far far away.
He needed to be stopped by any means, even if it meant partnering up with the Republic. The Emperor with all his power, even diminished, must be stopped before all of man-kind, and those who were not, were destroyed. Rubbing his one good eye, he forced the doors open as he pulled his guest in already wanting this "meeting" to be over.
"Sit down, we have much to discuss." His voice wheezed, shaking Nalondra's bones right to their core. She sat, placing her hands on the table in front of her, as she watched the man in front of her lean on one arm of his massive chair rubbing his eyes seeming and focusing intently on the future events with the Emperor and her child. Clearing his throat, though it did not help the wheezing sound through his mask, he offered her drink and food. "Surely you're starving."
"I am." With a glance at the door, Jaesa brought a plate full of meats and hearty vegetables for her to eat and water to drink.
Her voice growling at the Colonel, Jaesa spoke, "I should have killed you when I had the chance."
"Enough Jaesa. Leave us. Now."
Bowing, she left the two of them along in her master's chambers aboard the ship. As the sith held a glass of wine to his mask, he spoke, "I see the Quinn has told you of the Emperor's plan with your child. Do you know what this would mean for everyone, not just your unborn daughter?"
"Not exactly, but then again-"
"Do not talk. I wanted an answer to my question that was all. I do not wish for you to take up my time with your pointless thoughts on how you think the Emperor is "defeated" and "no longer a threat". You simple fools, not able to understand the true power of the Sith and The Emperor. If you had the slightest idea what you were up against, you would have stopped fighting long ago."
"It seems that you aren't as powerful as you think, seeing as the Republic is holding its own against your forces on various planets. Do you really think we are that simple? Surely you can not be toying with us, other wise you would have made a move to get rid of us long ago and taken the galaxy under your control. Do not try to play me as a simple fool, Drainar. You obviously brought me here, to protect my daughter, for the sole reason that you, the Emperor's Wrath, do not want the Emperor to take over what he has built and destroy everything in this universe. We know what we are up against, do not underestimate the power of the Republic just because we are not Sith, and have different ways of doing things. Right now, we have a common enemy that needs to be dealt with. For now, we are at each other's mercy.
"Are you quite done with your little speech, Colonel? As I said before, we do not have time to waste talking."
With a glare through we glass of water, Nalondra paused letting the sith in front of her continue. "The jedi master that defeated the Emperor into submission, casting him to the furthest part of the galaxy, is with your husband, aboard a ship trying desperately to find us. Little do they know that they are right in front of us. With all of these powerful forces coming together in a single space, we will attract the attention the Emperor. When that time comes, you must not give in. You have to fight against it, or else everything you've known, everything you hated and loved will be destroyed. Your daughter will suffer the most out of anyone in the event of your weak mind being taken over. She will serve him until he needs her no more. He will cast her out of his universe, take all of her knowledge and power, use it against everyone that would still be alive after his relentless onslaught. Everything will be dead and he will move on to the next unsuspecting universe, those just barely touching ours, sucking up all its power before it is destroyed. He will continue this until nothing is left. Nothing but emptiness. And your daughter, Nalondra, is at the very center of his plan. The key to his success." She did not say a word as the the sith in front of her stopped talking. How could she? Her daughter was in the most danger, her unborn child, the key to the most evil in the known universe. How was this possible? She was just a little tiny thing, barely making herself known to those who were around her mother, showing everyone just how small she was as she pushed against her mother's stomach.
A single tear ran down her face as she rubbed her tiny child. Her heart was heavy with pain and fear. Was this really the life her daughter was going to live?
Her voice was quiet in time and space. Everything was dark, trying its best to take over her every thought and every sight. She was scared in this darkness, seeming to be alone. Her spirit was just floating around, being chased by horrible and overwhelming loathing and despair. She was crying out, desperate for anyone at all to hear her pleas of help. Her face was tear-stained, she no longer bothering wiping away the tears. "Hello?!" she called out, almost hysterically. Part of her felt like it was missing in this darkness that was swallowing her whole. She was incomplete, alone, so very alone here.
It seemed that she had been here for ages, not knowing where she was going or what was happening but she felt so much in this dark space. There was nothing yet everything all at once, and it terrified her completely. "Is anyone there?!" she cried out again and again, holding herself in a fetal position.
A deep rumbling came from all around her, "No one is here," it spoke, "You have been abandoned by everyone and everything. All your callings for help are for not. No one is coming to help you."
"W-who are you?" She asked taking her head out of her chest, looking around in the vast emptiness around her.
The voice chuckled in the darkness, "I am everything you are feeling in the moment; the terror that keeps you awake, the darkness that makes you blind to everything around you, the abandonment of being all alone."
"Who are you?!" She asked again, holding her body closer and closer until she could hardly breathe. She felt the dark crush against her frail body. She began to cry out, asking anyone to hear her and to come to her rescue. It was all she could to as she struggled to fight against this invisible enemy that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere in between.
"In due time. You will learn of who I am and what I can do to you or for you. Until then, remember these feelings of helplessness and pain. Keep them buried deep within your heart and allow it to break through to make you stronger."
"No," she whimpered.
"You can not fight against it, it is your destiny." She was quiet as she tried to listen to her heart. It had been silent for so long, not being able to comfort her in this hole of existence. But she continued to listen for any thing that would sound like her heart was speaking to her, just as the voice instructed her to do. As she listened, faintly, she heard crying. Terror of this voice and everything it said. Her heart was afraid of it, but why? This voice was trying to help her find her way out of this nightmare, so why would it be afraid?
Taking a deep breath and struggling to trust her heart, she spoke out into the void, hoping that the voice she had heard was still there, "It tells me not to trust you. It's crying and afraid of you..." She was sobbing as she screamed, raising her head, "I will not be afraid of you!"
Silence. The voice that had just begun to plague her seemed to vanish at her defiance, but she was still alone. So very alone. Her scream had taken everything out of her as she cried alone in the silence, once again in her tight ball. Through her tears, her pain, and loneliness, she felt a warmth inside of herself, calming her til she fell asleep.
Nalondra sat in front of the sith, taking in all he had told her about what to come, unaware that the battle had already begun. Instinctually, she rubbed her small belly, calming the child inside of her. Her daughter had been moving quiet a bit, as if she was trying to fight off the events that were just days away. But as Nalondra rubbed her belly and cooing to her daughter, she stopped moving about, relaxing at her mother's touch.
