CHAPTER TWELVE
Snow blanketed the vacant valley ahead of Tera and her coven. Fresh powder gleamed upon mammoth pyramidal structures that dotted across the vast expanse. Icy tentacles latticed across dead trees that appeared to have never bloomed in millennia. Harsh winds howled across the faces of the women biting against them with reddened faces. Their bleak clothes did not prepare them for this weather; this was the icy cold bitterness that reflected upon her Master's heart.
The group proceeded through the valley, covering themselves with their arms against their chests. Ice crystals formed against Tera's lips as she shivered uncontrollably. She had made it this far, she would not fail she would remind herself. Most who sought to gain the untold knowledge died in orbit, others were lost in the disruption of navcomputers caused by the proximity to the Galactic Black Hole. She landed, that much she could be grateful for.
They continued past the bleak trees glittering with fresh ice. They whispered to Tera. Screams of cold breaths filtered across her path as the tortured souls wailed for her attention. They were the lost Sith'ari, those who failed in the eyes of their master being defeated by their own creations. These souls failed to properly fulfill their conquering ways and allowed the Korriban and Rakatan slaves to destroy them. These souls were forever blasted by the icy breaths rolling off of the mountains. Promises broken, the fate of torture close to their Master's dark heart was their ultimate demise.
Tera surmised it can only get worse. Mandin followed close to her, sheltering each other for warmth as Cresta and Hol'en hovered close behind. All four marched in a close square, relying on each other's body heat for warmth. Through the snow, Tera could make out their destination; the magnificent crystalline pyramid broadcasting its omniscience in the distance. Through the pathway, they were led to the opening markers signifying the beginning of the ancient city.
Similar hieroglyphs as etched in Tera's book had been scarred upon the primordial, forever silent stones. She could not understand them, nor did she choose too. Tera only understood that her treasure lay beyond in the ancient temple. As she approached the entrance to the ghost town, the pulses of power coursed through her veins giving her a renewed sense of strength and for a moment she neglected her body temperature. Cold death waited. She sought guidance in the Force, finding comfort in the dark side to show no fear.
The caps on the stepped pyramids showed signs of wear and decay; most remained intact others showed no signs of completion as the tops had been rotted away. Tera counted dozens of these structures, all modeled similarly with massive stones raised for their construction with a single staircase stretching towards the precipice facing inward toward their respective pathways. An unnerving familiarity engulfed Tera's soul; a disturbing déjà vu to which Tera could vaguely place.
She observed across the ancient valley of death-ridden ice, collecting the sight of the massive pyramidal structures that composed the primordial civilization. Then, it struck her. She recalled the layout of the lines, the buildings, the roads and pathways. In her years of study at the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin Four, she had come to familiarize herself with the layout of the ancient Massassi temples that predated Luke and the modern Republic. Fashioned by Naga Sadow, utilizing his Massassi warriors to construct the massive structures, the temples on Yavin Four reflected upon a ceremonial function to the domination of the Sith and their culture on Korriban. Sadow constructed them in a unique pattern and layout that at the time held some form of significance that had been lost in the flow of time.
The Force guided Tera to the significance as the layout of this rotting city mirrored that of the temples of Yavin Four. Guided by the Force, Tera surmised that Naga Sadow fashioned the layout of his grand spectacle to mirror that of the aging city plan before her. Perhaps, through some arcane rituals lost in time, Sadow hoped to harness the powers of the ancient Sith gods through his glorious temples in bizarre spells and incantations. The group continued toward the stone markers that signified the entrance and were greeted as coldly as the weather surrounding them.
A ghostly apparition materialized at the stone gateway, garbed in foreboding raven robes manifested in an aura of shadow. The form showed no face save for a single pair of glowing crimson eyes that seemed to resemble a tall Jawa. Whereas Jawas generally were pushy, yet backed off when cornered; this being hovered at the entrance of the pyramid city as Tera calmly approached ahead of her sisters.
In a whispering tone, the being spoke, "Namen ek Babalon, gavkap'irn. Ni'ckar su komar wom Ab' Ysikar?"
The words coursed through Tera's ears as her Basic brain could not decipher as she heard. The speech reverberated through her DNA to a base language her human species could decode, an ancient tongue that seemed to manifest into her brain as an instinctual response as roughly translated into Basic. My name is Babalon, gatekeeper. What do you seek from the Abyss Womb?
Tera hesitated to answer clutching the ancient grimoire close to her chest. Her frozen lips emptied a response, "We seek the knowledge from our Master, The Ancient One: Tomen Kylaka."
Shadowy smoke billowed from below the creature's floating form encompassing Babalon in an ethereal eeriness. His form contradicted the icy glaze that blanketed across the valley and intruding pyramids as he hovered above the ancient marker stones. Cresta attempted to gain Tera's attention to tap on her shoulder, Tera rudely shrugged her off. The being looked down upon Cresta who returned his icy stare with one of her own manifested with the icicles forming upon her eyelids. He could read the girls' thoughts and returned an answer formed in the native language of his confronters.
Babalon spoke in a whispering hiss that seemed to faintly growl, "No one passes, save I will it. Your feeble act of defiance would be your undoing. The knowledge of the Ancient One is permitted to those I deem worthy. Do you will yourself to the Gates?"
"Whatever gets us past," Tera answered reluctantly. Her Master's guidance never acknowledged this obstacle in her meditations.
"The Gates of Babalon deem your answer unworthy."
"This is ridiculous!" Tera cursed, "Master did not prepare me for this!"
A surge of violent electrical pulses coursed through Tera's body starting at the base of her spine arcing through her limbs and extremities within her torso. Within her brain a vibrating hum surged through her eardrums torturing her with audible assaults. Her sisters stepped away with expressions on their faces of shock and disbelief. Cresta and Hol'en proceeded to clutch one another in fear as Mandin looked on unable to save her friend. As the lightning surged through Tera's body, the ancient volume collapsed to the ground. Wisps of ice dust plumed from the impact.
"By the Force," Tera began as blood trickled from her nostrils tickling the ice formed on her upper lip. She clutched her temples as the intense echoes of ancient ghosts boiled through her mind.
"I submit!" Tera screamed. Instantly her torture ceased as she collapsed to the snowy grounds to all fours. She breathed heavily as vermillion blood stained the fresh snows below her face. She wiped her face from the icy liquids.
"Do you will yourself to the Gates?" Babalon demanded a second time. His eyes glowed brighter as his whispery voice boomed from impatience. Mandin, Hol'en and Cresta answered with a resounding yes fearing the same fate as their leader. Any doubts washed away from their minds as Tera begrudgingly lifted from the ground and answered in suit.
"You are the will of the dark side made manifest. You possess the Liber'um Ab' Ysikar as Master has foreseen. To pass, you must break your physical self into a spiritual awareness. Only pure hatred of the darkest of hearts will please Master."
Tera bowed onto one knee to the ancient spirit, her sisters followed behind her ignoring the bitter cold biting at the skin through their sheer clothes. The dark side required its followers to destroy their past selves and submit to their deepest of fears. No dark sider in histories recorded had ever performed the purification ritual required at the gates of the Abyss as Tera stood before.
Dark Purification, the most arcane of rituals, had never been observed by any dark sider past or present. Many Sith have embraced the dark side, and metaphorically killed their pasts in a collective cleansing, yet none had ever experienced the pains of the act from its source. Spiritually, Sith entered the realms of Chaos through their minds and hearts, but none dare physically enter the true origins of death. Tera embraced her fate.
As if in a collective mind, the four uttered in unison, "Our souls follow the will of the dark side; it is by our will we submit to a higher authority of spiritual awareness. We have offered ourselves to become our Master's will. We open our hearts and our bodies to the will of our Master."
A flush of energies blanketed the foursome as Babalon erupted in a flurry of cerulean violet bursts of ethereal display. Through the will of the dark side, their souls became bound to their fate. The baptism continued unabated until each of the four women glowed and sparked with vermilion arcs of pure dark side energy form. Their eyes and orifices glistened, Hol'en's lekku glittered, and static shocks pulsated through the human's hairs. As the pyrotechnics occurred, Babalon's form had been replaced by a shapely, feminine form.
The woman had been garbed in ancient attire that Tera concluded had been a priestess of the defunct culture. A golden headdress adorned her shining scarlet locks that had flowed along her spine to the small of her back. The helmet covered the sides of the priestess' ears and a golden necklace with a heavy amulet adorned with the ancient hieroglyphs slipped across her clavicles. Silky robes clothed her body to her ankles made of a sheer material that exposed the naked, ample body underneath. Elaborately inked tattoos encircled along her thighs and arms in a seductively tribal design. Jeweled bracelets covered her wrists as she held a body-length scepter in her left hand. The crest of the scepter had been adorned with a red stone that shimmered amongst the faint light from the fading star above.
The priestess' pale skin reflected the light of the icy valley as she stood almost a half meter taller than Tera. In her, Tera saw a reflection of herself sharing emerald-green eyes and similar physical features. To Tera, it was like looking in a mirror. Babalon had manifested into her true form and spoke in a humanly, feminine octave.
"You have willed yourself to our Master, go now and fulfill destiny," her voice spoke softly. Babalon gracefully motioned her right hand in an elegant manner sweeping from her left ribs to the direction of the central pyramid that signaled to the foursome that it was safe to pass. Tera reclaimed the ancient tome from the ground. The group began to march beyond the marker stones trailing their footprints behind in the snow. The test of fealty marked a scar in Tera's soul. She questioned her purpose, and for that she was tortured. She was put in her place as an inferior apprentice by the one she owed her allegiance to.
The way of the Sith; master and apprentice, one to hold the power the other to crave it. The Ancient One did not hold any honor on the Rule of Two for his way was the Rule of One. One Sith to rule and none shall hold rank equal, none would live. The Rule existed to serve only the Ancient One, and there would be no subjects just death existing with the One. All would die, and the galaxy would be void to mold as the Ancient One saw fit. Tera was not only an apprentice, but a lesser being to him worthy only of the ultimate fate. He was immortal and to his methodology, none shall crave that save he. All others were unworthy and deemed as inferior objects.
Marching past the mammoth structures, Cresta gazed behind her shoulders through her violet locks at the gates that tested them and the female form that once motioned them inward had vanished with no traces. Was the test a figment of her imagination she wondered? She glanced at her exposed flesh and the scars of electrical burns that still smoked of burnt carbon and ozone confirmed her suspicions. There was no turning back. The sins of the coven would follow them and their ultimate fate would end here.
The central pyramid temple loomed in the distance nearly two kilometers. The violet toned facade shone brilliantly upon the bleak snowdrifts that surrounded it. The snows were unnatural to the nearby sulfuric atmosphere and Cresta believed that the anomaly was testament to the powers of Tera's master. An eerie still hovered among the surrounding structures of the city as if any civilization had long died eons ago.
Mandin and Tera continued ahead as Cresta and Hol'en slowed behind them. Echoes of a lost time slithered among the pyramid temples in the forms of dark shadows and faint whispers seemed to discuss rumors and curses. Cresta picked her ears with a single finger hoping she was the only one that heard them, but Hol'en confirmed the noises too. A shadowy form snaked across the snow behind the coven. Whispers grew louder and more sinister as the form loomed closer.
Hol'en spotted the figure first approaching from the South. She glanced over her left shoulder as the estrich form flowed across the blankets of snow as a snake would slither across the ground. No sooner than she spotted the frightful apparition it disappeared upon sensing her gaze upon the shadow. The group migrated closer to the looming temple, only for the whispers to grow louder with each step.
An uneasy feeling of looming death frightened Hol'en as she tapped on Cresta's shoulders. The pair signaled to Tera who ignored their pleas. Again as they marched, the ominous whispers continued to carve into their eardrums.
"Not now, Hol'en. We are close. I can feel our Master's touch. Skywalker and his cult will meet their suffering soon."
Tera's ignorant confidence did little to comfort Hol'en. The pyramid drew closer, but Hol'en grew ever more frightful of the haunting premonitions surrounding the party. Deep down Hol'en knew the journey was nearly over and Tera's obsession with the demise of the Jedi would come to an end. Would this be all a bad dream, an illusion perhaps? Would she awake in her soiled mattress on Nal Hutta, fresh from a nightly violation of her drunken step-father? No, she reminded herself. That Hol'en was killed, murdered by the commitments that Babalon had blessed them. The empty darkness that filled her soul reminded her that since the murder of her mother's husband back on Nal Hutta she has been one with Tera, one with the dark side of the Force. She glanced over toward her confidant.
Cresta glanced toward her through her violet locks shorn with ice and snow flurries. Cresta always comforted her as the two were the least experienced of the coven. Anything they encountered through Tera's vengeful lust, they reminded each other of solace comforting. The past few days seemed like an eternity to Hol'en, little did she realize that ten standard years have passed since their arrival on Roth.
Hol'en felt that their bodies weathered through ten days worth of marching and stench. Ten days without hygiene was not normal for her. Daily she would wash the odor of her customers from her body. Cresta, beautiful as she was, appeared distraught and baneful as the journey wore on. The toll manifested in their slowed gaits and limps as the blisters pierced upon the balls of their feet. Tera showed no signs of physical wear despite her desperation to reach this goal.
Tera was strong in the Force, this much Hol'en ascertained. She and Cresta had sparse training in the ways of the Force since joining with Tera. Tera taught them little, just enough to overcome physical obstacles their bodies could encounter through extended sensory and nutrient deprivation. Tera's appearance faded little the past few days. She still appeared clean and sultry, perhaps invigorated with the close proximity to her Master's presence, or merely natural beauty. Mandin, the ever loyal slave exhibited similar traits likely feeding off of Tera's energies.
Hol'en lost track of time as the group approached the courtyard of the mammoth central structure. Within the courtyard, Hol'en eyed a sight of the most horrific. Lined along the center of the courtyard leading to the central staircase were rows of stakes stabbed into the snowy grounds. Upon these stakes were bodies tied to the palisades upside down naked upon their perches exposed to the harsh elements. Hol'en did not recognize the beings tied to the poles, however Tera expressed discontent at the outcomes of these individuals.
These were the souls of the truly damned; Sith Masters forever punished for their shortcomings to the Sith Order. Tera recognized one in particular, the apparition that coerced her powers back on Naboo. Suspended with his head facing toward the ground, icicles crusting upon his empty eye sockets recently plucked by a carnivorous beast hung the soul of a young Palpatine. His hair slicked back in a perfect widow's peak as he appeared in his youth. The skin surrounding his empty oculars had been scarred and consumed as ice-dried blood formed rivers along his forehead toward the ground, causing his head to appear in a bloated state as blood coalesced with gravity. Other Sith Masters were suspended in similar manner; Exar Kun, Naga Sadow, and others of which Tera had not learned, each of them tortured by the elements and various beasts that snacked on the living souls.
The courtyard was eclipsed by the polyhedron building towering into the atmosphere at least a kilometer high. The capstone shone of a brilliant electrum alloy vibrating with the intense energies manifesting from within. The ethereal vibrations were felt by all four sisters despite the majority having little to no training in the Force. It was a natural hum ebbing across time and space transcending through the very fabric of the DNA each woman possessed.
Violet colored facades lined the edges of the towering complex which seemed to imprint into the soil many thousands of feet in circumference. A staircase spanning hundreds of feet along the height of the pyramid had been carved into the quartz-like stone that faced the massive, ancient city. Tera paused as fresh snows drifted upon her face while she gazed and awed at the massive size. Raven locks of ice-drenched hair flowed upon her face as she smiled in a wicked glee. The culmination of a lifetime of servitude was soon to be realized.
"Sisters, we have arrived."
"You owe me, Skywalker," an aging template voice scolded, "The service of the Mandalores do not come cheap."
"Consider us even, Fett. My niece sends her regards," Luke answered.
Luke closed the transmission broadcast on the console in front of him. He seated himself at the librarian desk, brainstorming on the information that downloaded in front of him from Boba Fett.
Boba Fett and his Mandalore clans scoured the galaxy for the information that Luke requested; the final transaction of The Red Dawn. Through various scouting networks and connections, Boba Fett was able to confirm the ownership belonged to a Toydarian named Zordo. This much Luke already knew, yet the final transaction took place for a mysterious client that was dubbed Rothcorp. Through various records, no such organization was found but Luke determined it was a fictitious name as a front.
The final destination was uncharted. Records of Zordo's clients logged an indeterminate coordinate location for the final jump of Zayne's ship. As required by GAG standards ten years ago, all records of ship jumps were required to be logged by the noted registrar on record and handed over to the GAG in a timely fashion. Zordo never logged the ship missing, for fear of retribution from the client, the GAG never hunted for the craft.
Luke poured over the entire list of clients Zordo's company charged. Most were recorded as false shipments to various locales that Luke figured was to keep the GAG off of his business; internal shipments logged under his company name with a simple cargo manifest of supplies. The final transaction however, listed an odd occurrence. The transport did not consist of a single jump, but a multitude of jumps crisscrossing the galaxy from Nal Hutta to Tatooine on to Naboo then Byss. The next jump ended in Corulag space for a layover of twenty four standard hours. Another couple jumps sent The Red Dawn to Ilum and Fondor, only to cross again to Felucia and Wayland.
Why the deception, Luke wondered. After Wayland, the ship jumped a final time to a coordinate that existed beyond known lanes, deep into the Galactic Deep Core where hyperspace routes were dangerous and deadly and any records of the ship would be lost due to gravitational forces interfering with the hyperdrive. It was from this point that Luke meditated on the Force.
The Force provided his answers as he followed the path of The Red Dawn from Wayland into the Deep Core. Luke now had a reference, having touched upon the pilot with the Force he could envision the final moments he had while sane. Luke saw death as the ship left hyperspace into unchartered regions.
The cold darkness of the Galactic Abyss encircled The Red Dawn as it passed long dead planetoids and moons toward a planet looping around a detached white dwarf. Luke reached out with the Force, as intense magnetic pulses pulled upon his being. This system should not exist, he thought. Through the Force, the intense black hole in the center of the galaxy tugged at Luke's thoughts, it was through here that all life began and would cycle to end.
Luke paused, and sensed the icy heart of a planet bubbling with a caustic mix of sulfur and methane in the atmosphere. The Force flowed from the orb with an intensity that Luke had not known. The planet existed outside of the natural flow of life, beyond time and space. What was this place, he inquired. His inquiry proved painful.
Before Luke could touch out with the Force to feel the planet, an intensely sharp twinge pierced inside his skull pounding it into a blinding submission. Luke's face cringed in agony as he collapsed to the floor clutching his temples with an intensity he had not felt since Palpatine's lightning onboard the Second Death Star. He reached through the Force to calm his senses to remove the torture only to hear a dark voice echo through his brain.
Ju e'ind dra gal'xi ardru min, Je'dai Sk'wrakar
The sinister command rushed through Luke's brain as his ears could not audibly distinguish the ancient tone, yet it resonated throughout his DNA as an instinctual doctrine; you and your galaxy are mine, Jedi Skywalker.
This voice caused his brain to tremble with a rush of Force energies; an ancient voice he'd heard only days earlier when Zayne attacked him. This Ancient Sith did not want to be found, and having distracted Luke long enough, the scrutinizing agony subsided moments later. Luke sensed that the Ancient Being constantly presided over him. The pain was enough for Luke to notice the stream of blood trickling from his nose as the intense pulses broke capillaries inside his sinus cavities. He wiped the crimson rivers away, smearing across his upper lip as he stumbled back to his feet.
Luke knew through prior visions that Tera had taken control of an ancient book he once possessed from Palpatine. If it was Tera that hired Zayne to take her to this ancient planet, then that is where he would find her. He added the clues together; the ancient Sith, Zayne's death-like trance, and the Force attacks that he and Bna'hai had experienced. As Bna'hai drew closer to discovering the ancient planet, she too was attacked. But how, Luke wondered, would he venture to this planet?
Did it exist outside of time? Would hyperspace coordinates apply to this place? Somehow Tera got there, but only through the Force or sheer blind luck could one find an unchartered hyperspace route. There were reasons the Deep Core remained largely unexplored, but as Luke discovered, this planet travelled dangerously close to the Galactic Center to the point that hyperspace navigation equipment rendered useless resulting in eternal displacement only to be succumbed by the immense gravities of the black hole.
Luke realized the planet was a dark, lost world of death surrounded by the very rips of the fabric of space-time. This is why Zayne did not age, Luke concluded. Zayne existed in a plane of time separate from Galactic Standard. As the galaxy aged a year, Zayne aged a day. Luke calculated that this must be the time reference that the dark planet resided within. No physics could explain this, and neither, Luke thought could the Force for this system should not live, but only through arcane measures employed by this powerful Ancient Sith could the Force permit its existence.
Luke hobbled from the floor using the table as aide as he seated himself into his plasteel chair. He slumped over, his head folded within his arms as he continued in deep thought and meditations. This time, he dare not attempt to find the lost planet, but instead focused on the more subtle aspects of the Force; connecting with his wife and others he once loved. The surrounding lamps illuminating the ceiling of this library flickered in and out of luminescence as Luke communed with Jedi he once knew.
Who was this Ancient Sith that attacked him and why had ne never heard of them? Luke was versed in the history of the Galaxy and the empires that rose and fell. Jedi scrolls told him of the ancient Rakatan Empire that existed thousands of years prior to the Old Republic his father had served. Jedi records ended there; only to describe that living civilizations adhered to the technologies the Rakatan possessed. Other civilizations existed that travelled through space, but nothing outdating further than one hundred thousand years before the Old Republic.
The most ancient of Sith that the scrolls described was a Prakith named Darth Andeddu, but Luke knew he had long since buried never to bother the galaxy again. But, Luke concluded, this ancient one predated Andeddu from a civilization long forgotten and erased from the annals of history.
"Palpatine's sacred book," he thought aloud, "that is the key to the mystery. Tera must have retrieved the information from them and hired Zayne to take her there."
Luke's heart dropped. He sensed failure, his blue eyes retreated inside his eyelids as his aged face sulked as a rattling sigh blurted.
"I failed her masters. I failed the galaxy."
