Chapter Twenty-Three
For three months, Savage Opress and his brother Feral had been living on their own. Feral still bitched about their parents not returning while Savage had been coming up with survival plans. "But Mom and Dad told us to wait; they told us they would be back!" Feral complained. "They told us to wait no more than two weeks and it's been three months, Feral!" Savage shouted before telling him to quit acting like a baby and help him.
"What can I do Savage, you're the strong guy with the brains?" Feral asked. Savage was stumped on that question and he had to admit that Feral was right: there wasn't really anything he could do since Deimos had only taught Savage how to survive. If it were up to me, you would have been left to die but Deimos taught me better and my real father would have despised me for it Savage thought. "For now, you can quit complaining and keep watch for anyone coming towards our camp," he said at last.
"Like I have been doing the last two months or so, right?" Feral asked. Savage nodded and told Feral to use the same signal he always did when someone was close. "How long can we keep doing this Savage before someone finds us and brings us before Mother Talzin?" Feral asked before resuming his sentry duty. "If we can get to the caves before we're spotted, we might last a while considering that the caves are considered cursed but are survivable if you're willing to surround yourself in deep darkness," Savage answered.
"But will there be anything we can eat in there?" Feral inquired. "Plenty, it's just a matter of distinguishing the edible stuff from the poisonous stuff. There's also the problem of beating our neighbors to the food in question and we will need to return to the light every now and then just in case food is an issue in the caves," Savage explained. "Aren't they all connected as well?" Feral added.
Savage nodded and stated that because of that, they could make several escaped routes and even set up booby-traps for food and unwanted intruders. "Then why don't we go to the caves right now instead of just waiting?" Feral asked. "Because the Nightbrothers have several scouts that patrol this area at night and if they see us making the climb towards the caves now, we wouldn't stand a chance," Savage told him.
That was when something of an unknown sort hit Savage: he saw a vision of an arrow flying towards him and from its clearness, it would happen soon. And he turned around just in time to see the same arrow flying toward him and positioned himself to dodge and catch it. Feral wisely ducked just in case Savage failed but he didn't and he even broke the arrow in two when he caught it as if to prove the point. "All right, I think you were right about us heading to the caves now; let's go!" he shouted before he and Feral started running once again.
Kycina and Deimos fought with the ferocity of parents who had nothing left to lose except for their lives and each other. After all, their children were either dead or having a hard time eking out a living beyond the borders of the Nightbrothers' village, never again to see their mother and father if they failed to kill Talzin. And as if that wasn't bad enough, the hag was not going down easy; in fact, it seemed as though Talzin was… defeating them though Kycina hated to admit it. This realization distracted Kycina from a kick Talzin delivered to her face which caused her to back up several steps and force her to temporarily put up a defense stance to recuperate.
In the meantime, Talzin was in an attack position and ready to kill Kycina but Deimos launched an aggressive assault upon her, hailing her with spins, twirls, and slashes from his zhaboka. Kycina recovered from the kick that nearly took out a couple of teeth and started a nose bleed just in time to watch as Talzin blocked a downward blow to her head with one blade. She became enraged when she watched as the other was pointed at Deimos' stomach and stuck through when he tried to deflect it with another side of his weapon. For several brief moments, Talzin and Deimos stood in that lock and Kycina began to twitch with rage as she watched a man she loved die before her very eyes.
Then Talzin yanked her blade out of his gut hard enough for him to bend backwards and fall on his back hard. Using more of her magic, Talzin's bloodied sword glowed a green light that cleansed the metal of Deimos' blood well enough to where not a single drop remained. "You will pay for that, Talzin!" Kycina screamed. "Please, even after using the Spell of Undoing and creating my armor and weapons from magic, I am still more than capable of ending your blind, futile crusade," Talzin replied without remorse.
Talzin absorbed one of the swords back into her being and readied herself into a fighting stance, asking her younger opponent if they would continue. "I grow bored quickly by useless chatter," she added. And they did for a long while afterwards, Kycina putting up a good fight with the rage that slowly consumed her and the hatred for Talzin born out of a rebellious love for Mathayus. "Impressive, the mothers at the Valley have trained you beyond any expectations even I could hold for you," Talzin complimented.
"I thought you got bored by useless chatter," Kycina stated. "Only when it comes from you," Talzin replied. "I will kill you and then you won't have to hear my boring speeches ever again," Kycina said. "You foolish little girl, this is my hour!" Talzin boomed.
Then she raised her sword high in the air and began to glow the familiar green light while gathering energy for a brighter glow. Kycina moved in for the kill when Talzin plunged the glowing weapon into the ground, causing a massive explosion of energy that knocked Kycina off her feet. As if that wasn't bad enough, the explosion shattered her blade into bits as though a powerful thermal detonator had been thrown at it rather than magic.
"Sisters, seize the traitor and keep her immobilized so she can watch as I begin the next stage of my plan: the conquest of Dathomir through the use of undead soldiers. Daka, you may rise from your cave and begin the spell of resurrection so the traitor can see the beginning of my ultimate victory," Talzin ordered immediately. As commanded, Karis and Naa'leth grabbed Kycina's arms and held her back as Old Daka came out of the cave and began chanting the chant of resurrection for the fallen warriors who served Talzin.
Kycina watched in horror as Old Daka chanted the chant and a field of green energy rained upon the dead bodies of the tribes of Dathomir. Worse still, upon contact with the bodies, the flakes of magic did their work by engulfing the bodies in green magic for a brief moment than fading away. The reanimated bodies slowly arose and when they finally stood up, Kycina could see that their eyes were filled with the same green energy. "Disperse them in accordance with their tribe and kill of the ones that are from ours; they will prove useful another time but not right now," Talzin ordered.
Daka nodded and did just that, leaving the living Nightsisters to collect the bodies of their dead comrades while the zombies of the Eastern and Southern tribes marched. "I will conduct my conquest in the form of appearing neutral in the destruction of these tribes but I am the one initiating this conquest. And now for your punishment, your treason will not look well on me unless I punish it while I still have a chance," Talzin stated with an enthusiastic smile. She turned to Kycina, absorbed the other sword back into her being and used the magic to change her clothes back into the robes of Motherhood for this special occasion.
"Kycina of the Nightsisters, you have been found guilty of the crime of treason. You have spirited your firstborn son away from Dathomir with the intent of having him avoid the same fate as his fellow Nightbrothers. Because of this and your rebellion against my will, you are hereby sentenced to exile, you will be cast to Felucia without possibility of absolution of your sins unless I say decree otherwise," Talzin said. Then she grabbed Kycina's head and wrapped her in a cocoon of green lightning until she was nothing more than a casket of light and then, just like that, the traitor was gone.
With the verdict delivered upon her greatest enemy, Talzin decided to head back to her inner sanctum to meditate and regenerate her power. Old Daka would keep up the vigil with conducting the conquest they had planned and that could take weeks. So Talzin told the other sisters to finish preparing their dead comrades for the ceremonial cocoons that would be suspended in the trees. When she herself arrived into her sanctum, she cast a spell on the crystal ball in front of her chair and watched as Kycina dropped onto the floor of the deep forests of Felucia.
She already wished she could just kill Kycina but she knew that she would prove useful and would be left on Felucia until Talzin figured out how she would be useful. But even now, she wondered if by exiling Kycina she had set the wheels in motion for her own undoing rather than salvaged her plans for Dathomir and the rest of the galaxy. Now, all she had to do was protect the tribe against threat from the Daughters of Allya and the Singing Mountain Clans. The Jedi being sent here would act as her diplomats and her mediators between the tribes and one they wouldn't take lightly either.
That was all she could count on them to throw these same tribes off the scent of her schemes with the undead soldiers. And since the Spiderclan had no interest save in wiping out their rivals, one of the Jedi could help the Singing Mountain Clan temporarily destroy them. Smiling, Talzin was glad to know that the Jedi's philosophy of being servants would prove most useful to her cause of planetary conquest. Plagueis had delivered a great tool upon her hands and she knew she would use them most wisely while they were on loan from the Jedi Council; perhaps the one called Dooku would do that for her.
Additionally, the Muun had taken extra precautions to make sure the Jedi were also thrown off her scent as well as the scent of the Sith's return into the galaxy outside Dathomir. It was a relationship that though symbiotic at times, proved most beneficial for both of them. Talzin was not counting on it lasting forever but she did want to keep Plagueis around long enough for him and his apprentice to bow down before her when she completed her plans for the entirety of the universe. And when he screamed in horror for the defeat he had allowed himself to wander into, she would split his narrow skull before turning her destructive energies on his apprentice, Sidious.
Kycina looked around and recognized where she was almost immediately. She was in the deepest and darkest part of the forests of Felucia. The victory she had dreamed of and reveled in at night now turned into horror and bitter defeat. She had lost Deimos, she could never return to her sons, and Maul would be in danger of being returned to Dathomir without her there to aid him. All she could do now was drop to her knees and weep with the anger and sadness of her defeat at the hands of her archrival, Mother Talzin.
"I am so sorry Maul, I am so sorry Savage, and I am so sorry Feral! What have I done to us all?" she shrieked as she cried. She continued to scream and cry, even beating her breasts and tearing at her hair, as she realized the reality of her banishment to this infernal jungle planet. And when she could find the strength to stop crying even if she could not remove her sadness, she headed for an ideal spot to make a hut. If she was going to be living here a long time, she might as well get comfortable and find a place safe to live and gather resources for the duration of her exile.
"You know the rest of my story from there Maul. I went loony tunes while alone out there and made the dolls of you, Savage, and Feral as an attempt to reprieve myself of the madness. Instead, they became a part of it for one can run away from any sin without eventually paying the price. Even if they do manage to find temporary solace in something with the likeness of their loved ones," Kycina said.
"And here I thought that the reasons for my brothers and I being abandoned were not that good. I am so sorry mother," Maul said to his mother. "It's not your fault Maul, I gave you away as a baby like some common whore. I guess I should have expected some anger from you when we had a chance to sit down and talk about our lives like mother and son should," Kycina replied.
"You have told enough of your life for one night, mother. I think you should get some rest now; we're going to be here on Ruusan for a long time," he said. "I know son, I know," she replied in agreement with him. When she finally got comfortable in the bed he had made for her, he decided to go outside.
His mind was too filled with the details she had delivered about the origins of their family for him to rest just as she had decided to do. With his lightsaber in tow, he decided to go to the arena he had made for himself and practice some sequences of his favorite form of combat.