What the Sith Would Say

The Assembly hall resembled a large hollow egg with a flat base, sixteen metres long and ten metres wide. Again, Its walls and floor were made of a glassy black material, obscuring its true shape and size from the visitor. At one tip of the egg was the semicircular entrance, which led out into a dark passage way. The other tip was truncated into a flat wall that leaned in slightly at the top. In the middle of this wall was red glowing symbol that comprised of a two metre wide disc flanked by three spikes on each side connected at their bases, which conformed to the curvature of the disc.

A similar red glow was emitted by another red disc in the middle of the floor with a the words "Peace is a lie, there is only passion !" inscribed in black near in a circle within its edge. From this disc, three bands of glowing red, a wavy one representing cunning, a straight one made up of parallel stripes representing discipline, and one made up of arches stacked with curves facing forward representing loyalty, stretched towards the sides and entrance of the hall, up the walls, and converged into a third red disc in the ceiling, with the phrase, "The Force shall set us free !" inscribed in black within it.

A forth straight featureless band stretched towards the bottom of the flat wall opposite the entrance, and ended beneath a semicircular platform set into the wall below the Sith symbol, with its curved edge facing out and terraced into four steps. The latter's vertical faces glowed red and were inscribed with the words "strength", "power", "victory" and "deliverance" one above the last in the middle.

And on top of this platform was the Dark Lord himself, sitting comfortably in one of three black cushioned seats. Below the platform, at either side, stood Darth Maul and Gaya. All three silently faced the entrance of the hall.

Small by common standards, the hall was normally used to hold a congregation of the secret army of the Sith, but at the moment there was no one else in the hall. Not even a droid.

Darth Maul had little idea what his master was planning. However, he would serve and obey the greater Sith Lord, though not entirely out of love or respect. The Dark Lord's power bordered on omniscience, and he wanted that power for himself. To that end he must stay in his Master's favour, and learn all he could, until he could safely challenge Darth Sidious, do away with the old man, and take over as Dark Lord of the Sith.

Yet now all that seemed far away. Aside from Darth Sidious's penchant for secrecy and knowing everything, there was now the issue of the Master's new favourite Dark Jedi.

Darth Maul glanced over at Gaya, then glared at her fiercely as he caught her staring at him for a second as well. The latter shifted her gaze nervously. Was she plotting the same things ? Why, she was not even a true Sith ! And now she presumed to compete with him ? She had to be removed, he told himself, one way or another.

"Here they are !" Darth Sidious announced heartily as if a guest had just arrived. "There is no need to hide from us, my friends. We are all alike."

"I beg to differ." A low resounding voice.

The air in the middle of the entrance shimmered, then seemingly out of nowhere, two figures faded into view. One a Jedi Padawan in brown robes. The other, a tall lean humanoid warrior with digitigrade feet, wrapped in black and red cloth.

"Sith Lord !" Kart activated his blade and pointed it forward at Darth Sidious. "You will all pay for your crimes."

At this, the Dark Lord sat back and laughed. The sinister quality of his voice, as well as his piercing yellow glare, sent chills down everyone else's spine.

Zeratul stepped forward and pointed his own weapon at the figure in the black cloak. "Where is the Artifact ?"

Now Darth Sidious stopped laughing. He tilted his head, faced his palm forward, and replied sarcastically, "I do not remember having anything called 'the Artifact' in my possession."

"We have no time for your jokes." Zeratul knew, Sidious was totally aware of everything that was going on.

The Artifact was here somewhere, he was sure. Even if the Sith Lord refused to hand it over, he could still find it himself. The problem, was that he probably had to fight the Dark Lord to get to it, and he had little idea how powerful the head of the Sith Order really was. True, Farid did manage to stand up to Sidious back in the cave, but then he could tell, the Sith Lord had not really gone all out. The latter kept Farid occupied, and stole the Artifact, without even stepping away from the doorway. Had Sidious unleashed his true powers …

Zeratul hoped it would never come to that. Yet if it did, he was prepared.

Fortunately, Sidious did not appear eager to display his prowess at all. He relaxed in his simple throne, and stared down amusedly at Zeratul and Kart.

"Hahaha. Of course, of course." Darth Sidious leaned forward. His yellow eyes appeared to glow in the shadow of his hood as they widened. "I believe, I do have what you want … but I must tell you, it is no longer worth your while. It will no longer achieve what you expected it to achieve. "

"You speak as if you know what it is." Zeratul raised a brow ridge. "I do seriously doubt that. Whatever you say. I will retrieve it, one way or the other."

"Indeed you will," Darth Sidious eyes seemed to glow even more strongly. "For you see, our purposes are not that different. The fact that we were both after this … Artifact, proves that ! Join me ! Let us work together to fulfill our goals !"

"And what would those goals be ?" Zeratul raised a hand, facing its palm upwards. "To wipe out all life from entire planets ? To achieve domination over the galaxy ?"

"We serve a higher purpose than that." Darth Sidious spread his arms.

"Don't bother arguing with him, Zeratul." Kart stepped forward. "We'll do everyone a favour by cutting off his head. And then we will talk about higher purpose."

Gaya turned to face Sidious. "Allow me, Master."

Her Master nodded. "Show me your devotion to the Dark Side, little one."

"Yes, Master." Gaya walked towards Kart, as the latter approached her as well, Zeratul following behind. They stopped three metres from each other, in the middle of the hall.

"Don't interfere." Kart spoke. "I'm not fighting you."

"I killed your Master's friend." Gaya lowered her head slightly and stared forward. "Aren't you going to do something about that ? Or are the Jedi so detached that they don't really care about each other's lives ?"

"The Jedi do not take lives unless they have to." Kart replied calmly. "Step aside, sister. I will not fight you."

"Oh, that's cold." Gaya smirked. "I was hoping we could do something exciting together."

"Coldness is my weapon." Kart darted forward, and reached towards Gaya's forehead with his non weapon hand.

"Barehanded huh ?" Gaya shot one hand up and caught Kart's outstretched arm, forcefully twisting outwards.

Kart yelped and leaned over to his left.

"Oh, does it hurt, little brother ?" Gaya brought her face close to Kart's. "Aren't you going to beg ? Whenever I caught you doing something wrong, you'd beg me to let you go, but you never changed."

"I obviously look different now." Kart replied sarcastically. "And about my wrist, no, it doesn't hurt actually."

Gaya felt the wrist that she was gripping in her hand go cold like a stone. Cold as ice. Cold as …

Stunned, Gaya relaxed her grip. She felt a bone cracking chill shoot up her arm all the way past her elbow. And then it went numb. She frantically checked her hand for signs of frostbite, and saw to her relief that there was none.

Kart staggered back and chuckled. "I told you, the cold is my weapon." The air around his hand was shimmering and rippling, and a faint orange red glow flickered among his fingers , palm and wrist. He had hoped to completely paralyze Gaya by channeling the energies of the Void into her head. Now that he had missed, he had shown his sister what he was capable of. She would not fall for that again.

And indeed she would not, for she switched on her light sabre, holding it in her normal hand, and leapt towards him. "Come, show me what else you can do !"

Kart hurriedly brought his blade up to block Gaya's downward swipe. To his surprise, the latter dropped down and then dashed forward, pulling her light sabre forward from under Kart's blade and making a superficial, but painful slash along the side of Kart's chest.

Kart covered his wound with his non-weapon hand and bent over in pain.

"Come on, you can do better than that !" Gaya taunted from behind him.

"Kart !" Zeratul shouted and prepared to rush to his aid.

"I can handle this, Zeratul. Go kick some Sith Lord ass." Kart forced a smile at the Protoss warrior.

Ignoring Kart's words, Zeratul pointed a warp blade at Gaya's throat. "Throw your weapon away, or lose your head. I am not Jedi. I have no qualms about killing."

"As you say, Scaly." Gaya threw her light sabre, still active, towards the walls.

Then, to Zeratul's surprise, the weapon circled towards the entrance, and stabbed towards him from behind.

Zeratul leapt to one side to avoid the flying light sabre.

Gaya backed away and caught the hilt of her weapon, and then while Zeratul was still steadying himself, dashed at the Grey templar, swinging her weapon around in broad lethal arcs.

Zeratul's plasma shield hissed and sparked in protest.

…

Kart cursed, then looked up at Darth Sidious. "Alright, now you are mine."

Sidious laughed. "Come and get me then, little one."

Darth Maul stepped forward and turned on his light sabre. "You will speak to the Master with proper respect."

"Go away, Spiky." Kart yelled, then coughed. As he did so, fresh jolts of pain tore through his chest. He felt something warm flow over the fingers that were covering his wound. Focus, Kart, focus.

The air around him shimmered, and rippled, breaking up his appearance.

"Hmph." Darth Maul closed his eyes and reached out through the Force. Feeling the presence of another being was child's play for a Sith Lord, especially when it was in the same room as he was.

At the far end of the hall, there was a tall humanoid figure defending against savage blows from a smaller female figure. And in front of him, blurred yet easily discernible, was the figure of an injured young man slowly standing up while clutching his wounds.

And now this figure was running silently towards him.

"I see you !" Darth Maul held up his light sabre and grinned as he felt something pushing it forcefully against him. The air in front of him shimmered.

"Your powers are useless against me."

"Oh really ?" Kart said as he faded back into view. His psi blade extended by a metre and wrapped itself in blue flames.

Instinctively, Darth Maul leapt back.

Kart charged forward without hesitation.

Darth Sidious watched in interest. He knew that Darth Maul was more skilled in lightsabre combat, but the young Jedi was not using a common lightsabre. Rather than block it, Darth Maul avoided it altogether. Knowing that he had the superior weapon, the young Jedi pressed his attack, driving the lesser Sith Lord towards the side of the hall, until the latter had his back up against the wall.

"Impressive, little one !" Darth Sidious clapped as Kart pointed his psi-blade at Darth Maul's chest, taking advantage of its longer reach to pin the lesser Sith Lord down.

Darth Maul raised an eyebrow. "What are you waiting for ? Finish it !"

"This is your end !" Kart roared, stepped in, then stopped himself. He closed his eyes and shook his head in frustration. "No, this is not right."

"No, of course not !" Darth Maul Laughed.

Kart gasped as he saw bright blue bolts of lightning shoot forth from Darth Maul's hands and strike him all over his body.

The sheer power of the Sith Lord's Force lightning sent the young Jedi back several metres, writhing and screaming in agony. A faint red mist poured out from his wound together with a wisp of smoke.

Darth Maul approached Kart and raised his lightsabre above him.

Darth Sidious shook his head, and look down Kart disappointedly. "And here I thought you were something. You do not have the resolve to delve into the Dark Side."

At this, Darth Maul swung his weapon down onto his hapless victim.

As the rod of red light was a mere one foot above Dart's neck, another rod of red light shot out from the side and blocked its descent.

Darth Maul frowned and looked towards the source of this obstacle, and saw Gaya half kneeling next to her brother, with a determined expression on her face, her light sabre locked with Darth Maul's own weapon.

"Traitor !" Darth Maul scowled. He pointed a hand towards Gaya and blasted her with Force lightning.

Taking this attack at almost point blank range threw Gaya all the way across the hall till she bumped against the far wall and collapsed onto the floor. She felt as if her insides were being boiled away. Her skin felt like it was being stung all over by venomous insects. The pain overwhelmed her, causing her to gasp. Her face, the parts not tattooed, was sheet white, her mouth agape, her eyes wide as if staring at death itself. She tensed her whole body, and then slipped out of consciousness.

"Gaya !" Kart screamed in horror.

"Scream for yourself !" Darth Maul prepared to decapitate the young Jedi again. The latter struggled to roll himself away.

"Indeed !" Came the low, resounding reply from behind him.

Darth Maul froze. Orange sparks jumped around him like fish leaping in and out of water. His eyes stared down blankly.

A largish, scaly hand with four clawed digits reached down and confiscated his lightsabre.

Zeratul switched off the lightsabre and removed his other hand from the lesser Sith Lord's back. "He will not be moving for a very long time. Go look at your sister, Kart."

Kart stood and staggered over to where Gaya lay. "Hey…"Kart called gently, "are you alright ?"

Gaya opened her eyes slightly. "I'm sorry, brother."

"You can talk." Kart assured her. "You'll be fine."

"I'm sorry, "Gaya whispered. "for the things I have done."

"You did what you believed was right." Kart placed a hand lightly on his sister's forehead. "Rest."

"Hmm…" Gaya closed her eyes again.

…

"Seems I underestimated the strength of their bond with each other." Darth Sidious folded his arms. "Interesting."

"Do you feel no remorse for all the lives that you have taken ?" Zeratul stared angrily at the Dark Lord.

"Remorse is only a hindrance, as is kinship." Darth Sidious replied. "That is what a Sith would say."

"Where is the artifact ?" Zeratul pointed a warp blade at the greater Sith Lord.

"You still need it ?" Sidious laughed. "Here !" He reached behind his seat and grabbed a black stone object which he threw at Zeratul.

Zeratul grabbed the object and inspected it. Indeed, it was the Artifact he was looking for. The carapace of the trilobite statue. The segmented body. The articulated claw like limbs. The oval blue crystal held between them.

The crystal.

Zeratul glared at the crystal. There was something wrong with it, he was sure. Something had changed since the last time he saw it.

"Something missing ?" Darth Sidious tilted his hooded head.

"The last time I saw it, the crystal was glowing brightly. I felt something drawing me towards it." Zeratul threw the Artifact onto the platform. "Now, this is nothing but an ordinary stone sculpture with a large gem in it."

"Indeed." Darth Sidious stood up. His voice changed from that of a laughing old man to a deep, unnerving bellow that reverberated throughout the hall, and even in Zeratul's head. "For what you were looking for was not the physical object itself, but the essence transmitted in the object … an essence that now resides in this frail form before you." He spread his arms and grinned. "You have fought well, First Born, but your journey ends here."

"You !" Zeratul exclaimed, eyes wide. "You are no Sith Lord. You are the Ancient One !"

-

( OMG, Is Darth Sidious really a XN ?

Tune in this coming Friday/Saturday for the final chapter of the Grey Templar 2.

Thanks, GreyPezzola, for your continued support :)

and also to others who have reviewed or read the story.

- Star )