Darth Acina's Messenger

Juuldis didn't quite understand Khem Val's relationship with her new master, but she saw that even her senior apprentice, Shahn Lunn, showed him some deference. She'd only read about Dashades and seen holo-vids depicting them while at the Jedi temple on Tython during her days there as a Padawan. Dashades were a very rare, sentient species in danger of becoming extinct – not that that wasn't a good thing.

Juuldis' skin crawled as she thought, "The sooner they become extinct, the better!"

She had never imagined that she would actually see one in person. However, Juuldis was doing more than seeing one in person. She was actually living with the beast, and actually working for it.

She shocked herself, again, with the realization, "He might actually really eat me!"

She'd caught him staring at her, or at Shahn, more than a few times as he wiped drool from his mouth. The only thing barely keeping him from making an attempt at making her or Shahn into a meal was Darth Nox's caution to the Dashade.

Nox had told him, "Khem, these are not your food. They are my apprentices."

After settling in on the space dock, on the first day, Khem Val gave Juuldis an order. She was to keep careful and covert watch of the corridor leading to Nox's suites on the space station.

He told her, "Our master's enemy will send powerful assassins against him. Anyone, not summoned by our master is an assassin. Kill him without fail."

Juuldis strongly protested, and tried to put Khem Val in his place.

She told him, "I don't take orders from beasts!"

Khem Val rephrased his order in the form of a suggestion, although menacingly and with a little drool seeping from the corner of his mouth.

He warned her, "I have not hunted on this space station, yet. If you do not wish to become my food, then I strongly suggest you do as you are told. It is for our master's sake that I make this suggestion."

Later that day, while on watch, Juuldis had destroyed four utility droids and killed two utility repairmen. A security team, not assigned to Nox's security detail, came to investigate the murders. She killed them, too.

After speaking to Khem Val about this, he thought for a moment, and then said, "I shall tell the station security chief to seek permission before sending anymore of their people into our master's corridor."

Juuldis only nodded her agreement; she didn't want to unnecessarily antagonize him by criticizing his oversight. She could plainly hear Khem's belly growling, and it unnerved her.

Three days had passed, since then, without further killings. It had become excruciatingly boring for her. She thought to calm herself and settle down her mind. That thought reminded her of the Jedi Code.

"There is no emotion, only peace." She laughed silently, at herself, and then barely whispered to herself, "Peace is a lie; there is only passion."

At that instant she felt it, the presence of a very powerful and unfamiliar malevolence. She quickly reached into her tunic pocket and pressed the button of a small transmitter. All it did was transmit a series of beeps over a short range audio frequency, but it was a signal to everyone in Darth Nox's service on the station, that a powerful enemy was approaching.

In Nox's suites, Captain Talos Drellik donned his battle armor and armed himself with a powerful blaster Rifle. He had 2V-R8 set up several barricades as a protective barrier facing the entrance to the suites using the heavy tables that were already in the main common room. Talos took up his battle station there and directed the Imperial soldiers, assigned to Nox's security detail, to take up positions behind the other barricades arrayed in the common room. Then he waited.

Shahn ran towards Nox's personal quarters within the suites and waited outside his door as Khem had ordered. Meanwhile, Khem Val rushed past Talos and his security detail, and then out the main entrance. He made his way down the long narrow corridor to where Juuldis stood watch.

Juuldis watched as three Sith approached the entrance to Nox's private corridor. They were not hidden, nor did they seem to be in any hurry. The sound of Khem Val's heavy foot falls entered Juuldis' consciousness as he approached from behind. He passed ahead of her a few paces and stopped at the center of the entrance of the corridor. There, he stood with his arms crossed, waiting. Juuldis remained shrouded in The Force, hidden from perception.

The three Sith stopped about ten paces from where Khem stood blocking their path. The Sith, in the middle, spoke first.

He snarled at Khem in a condescending tone, "Out of my way, mongrel! I have business with Darth Nox."

Khem Val taunted the Sith, "If you wish to become my food, loud-mouth, then come closer. I will gladly feast on your corpse."

Khem watched the Sith slightly behind and to the left of loud-mouth, as he moved his hand slightly. He grasped his lightsaber hilt, but left it attached to his belt. Juuldis remained silently still the entire time. She had her eyes on the diminutive hooded female Human Sith to the right of the leader. She was looking right at Juuldis.

Juuldis thought to herself, "She sees me!"

Juuldis realized that female was the strongest one among the three, but she was hiding behind the weaker and obnoxious man in front to her left.

No sooner did she wonder if Khem Val was aware of this, than the Dashade spoke out.

"You! Quiet little Sith! Stop hiding behind this weak loud-mouth and tell me your business with my master."

Loud-mouth drew and activated his lightsaber and took a step towards Khem Val, who reacted by drawing and activating his oversized vibrosword from it's bracket on the back of his body armor.

Khem Val taunted loud-mouth, "Come to me, my food!"

The diminutive and quiet female uttered a single worded command.

"Stop."

Loud-mouth halted dead in his tracks. Stepping back, he deactivated his weapon, and returned it to his belt. The female stepped forward, smiling in amusement.

She said, so that all nearby her could hear, "The Dashade has sniffed me out."

She giggled at the thought of Khem Val sniffing around like a hound, and began to mimic a hound sniffing about. She laughed at Khem Val. Khem Val remained silent, and remained at the ready with his vibrosword. He could sense her strength, and knew she would not be easy prey.

She tired of the games, and finally got around to announcing herself, and her message.

She told Khem Val, "I am Darth Acrimous. I am the servant of Darth Acina, Dark Lord of The Sith. Tell your master that Darth Acina is terribly displeased. She is furious that Darth Nox has dared to interfere with her powerbase, and that he has slandered her good name with his lies. Tell your master that she will have her vengeance for this insult."

Suddenly, the deep red beam of a lightsaber grew out from her chest, then shrank back again as she collapsed, dead, onto the floor. Juuldis watched Darth Nox materialize as though an apparition. He stood silent and still behind Darth Acrimous' two apprentices, who'd watched in horror as their master collapsed to the floor of the space station's main corridor, dead.

Turning only their heads to look behind them, they saw him, within arm's reach of them both. The dark lord barely turned his head, shifting his eyes, as he regarded each man, in turn. Neither man moved, as they waited for their inevitable deaths.

On a whim, Nox told them, "Tell Darth Acina that I've received her message. Tell her that it is I who am counter-striking for her interference with my own powerbase. Tell her it is she who will fall from her post on the Dark Council, and not I."

Looking over their shoulders, the two Sith saw their chance to remain alive. Without turning their bodies to face him, they wordlessly, politely, bowed their heads and then quickly left Nox's presence. They were in a terrible rush as they walked away, leaving the same way that they'd come.

Khem Val was terribly dissatisfied.

He ranted, "Master, let me kill those two! They should not be allowed to live! They came into your presence with such disrespect!"

Nox said calmly, "Leave them be. Those two are no threat to me nor to my apprentices. They will not even dare show their faces before Acina."

Then, poking at Darth Acrimous' corpse with the toe of his boot, Nox added, "She, on the other hand, was a threat to my apprentices, and I just eliminated that threat." Nox looked up from the corpse to his servant and asked, "Are you hungry, Khem?"

Khem instantly forgot the two Sith that had got off so easy.

Laughing in delight for his coming meal, he said, "Thanks to my master, I will not need to hunt on this space station!" Turning to where Juuldis remained shrouded in The Force, Khem teased, "Aren't you glad, apprentice of my master? You shall tremble no more at the sound of my grumbling belly, because it shall become full! Ha! Ha!"

Juuldis knew humiliation and fear. She was humiliated that Khem Val, while mocking her, revealed that he had known all along exactly where she'd hid. And she was in fear of how her master had gotten past her, completely undetected. Juuldis surmised that Darth Nox had somehow crept past her and Khem Val and then snuck around behind those three, striking down that Darth by complete surprise.

She wondered to herself, "How did he get past me without me feeling even a shred of his presence?!"

She watched with a mix of revulsion and depraved fascination as Khem Val picked up the corpse of the dead Sith and then made his way back into the suites.

"He will feast well," she thought to herself. Then she observed, "Khem likes saying that."

Juuldis dropped her Force Shroud as Darth Nox approached, and bowing to her master, said to him, "I'd like to ask a couple of questions, Master."

Nox replied to his pupil, as he walk past her, "Talk as we walk."

Juuldis asked, as she fell into step beside her master, "How did you get passed me, Khem Val, and those three without even the slightest indication you were here all along, Master?"

Nox looked askance at his apprentice as they walked and saw a chance for mischief. He told her truthfully, "Would you believe me if I'd told you, I learned something about Force Persuasion from my battles with you?"

Juuldis was surprised to hear that, and looked at Nox to see if perhaps he was toying with her.

Nox continued speaking, "I shrouded my presence from all of you; I used Force Persuasion to cloud your thoughts so that all of you focused deeply on the greatest threat before each of you. This was how you hid your presence from me at the spaceport on Taris. When you realized my deep concern for that crate, you had me so focused on it, that I did not sense your presence until it was almost too late."

Technically speaking, that was all true. However, Juuldis was slightly disappointed at hearing that.

She thought, "That was it? I already knew that." However, Juuldis had to confess to herself, "Yet, I've never had my thoughts so completely clouded as that..." Commenting to her master, she observed, "Your proficiency with Force Shroud is quite masterful. You could have used it to defeat me easily." Then she asked, "Why didn't you, Master?"

Nox said matter-of-factly, "When you find your opponents are no real match for you, then you don't really go all out. Battles are more fun for me if I hold back. However, in the case of the late Darth Acrimous, I wanted to impress her weakling apprentices and use them to send a message to Darth Acina."

That was also the truth.

Although Nox did not actually lie to her, neither did he explain to Juuldis that he didn't actually creep past her and Khem Val as she had imagined. In fact, Nox was not in his suit of rooms when Acina's servants had approached. He'd actually been in a lounge for V.I.P.'s enjoying an exquisitely prepared Alderaanian style broiled nerf steak, with roasted vegetables, and a carafe of very fine Corelian Merlot.

Nox chewed on the succulent meat. Half way through chewing, he took another sip of the very fine wine. Then the device, attached to his utility belt, began to beep incessantly. He'd shut it off and, after charging the cost his half eaten dinner to his estate, left the V.I.P. lounge. He vanished from view as he exited the doors of the lounge.

What Nox had told her wasn't quite the answer she'd expected, but it revealed a couple of interesting points.

She thought to herself, "So, Darth Nox thinks I'm weak."

That angered her, as she had to concede that Nox didn't seem to give it his all, in her battles with him while on Taris, first in the Forests and later at the Spaceport. However, she had another concern.

She asked Nox, "Why is Khem Val giving your apprentices orders? Why do I have to take orders from him?"

Nox said simply, "When you become stronger than Khem Val, then you can stop taking orders from him."

Juuldis became incensed. She thought to herself, "He thinks I'm that weak? He thinks Khem is that much stronger than I…?"

However, Juuldis furiously admitted to herself that she did fear him. She became determined to change that.

Juuldis declared to Nox, "Master, I don't intend to let that Dashade continue to think he's stronger than me. Soon, I will teach him that I am his superior."

Darth Nox misunderstood. He stopped and turned to face Juuldis. He spoke with a menacing warning in his tone.

"Do not seek to subvert my followers. It will only end with your own destruction."

Juuldis was taken aback. She quickly clarified.

"No Master! That's not what I meant! What I meant was that Khem looks at me as food. I mean to teach him to respect my power, and to treat me as his superior."

Nox, satisfied that she did not mean to openly challenge his authority, burst her bubble when he told her, "Khem looks upon all Sith and Jedi as food, even me. He looks at no one as his superior.

"He sees himself as my equal, but has submitted himself to me alone. He will never serve another. If you challenge him, it will only end up in your death or his, and if you kill him. I'll destroy you."

Darth Nox resumed walking to his suite of rooms, with Juuldis resuming her steps beside her master.

He spoke after a few paces down his private corridor, "If you become stronger, you won't need to fear him any more. Just focus on becoming stronger. Khem knows his limits. He gave up trying to eat me long ago."

As the two walked silently the rest of the way to Nox's suites, Juuldis thought to herself, "I am being looked down upon! Does he think I'm really that weak?!"

She found that terribly insulting, but kept her thoughts about it to herself. Furiously, she had to admit to herself, that she was weaker than Khem Val.

Juuldis vowed to herself, "I will gain the knowledge that is in that relic, and I will become stronger than that Dashade, and even stronger than you, Darth Nox!"

Nox felt her anger surge, but said nothing. It pleased him that his Jedi apprentice had abandoned the nonsense that was the Jedi Code.

Nox thought to himself, "Ashara was so stubborn..."