A Great Setback and A Great Triumph

A few days had passed since Darth Acina's messengers delivered her words to Darth Nox. As Nox had predicted, the two Sith he had let escape delivered their report, including Nox's reply, to Darth Acina via holo-transmitter and then never returned to her again. They had gone into hiding. Acina was livid. Her servant was murdered by Darth Nox, and those two vanished without a trace…

Acina fumed aloud, "...and without even trying to lift a finger against that Nox!"

Darth Acina seethed as she thought, "It all started with that blasted failure of a servant, Komo!" Aloud, she said, "I want him dead. Dead! Kill him. I don't care what it takes! Kill Darth Komo!" She screamed out in utter fury, "That traitor!"

Two of her apprentices quietly left her presence, after taking it upon themselves to carry out her will.

Acina was furious. She'd gotten the notice, almost a week before, from Darth Marr about the additional items to be discussed at the upcoming Dark Council meeting. Nox had beaten her to the punch with his proposal to place him in charge of Taris because of her mishandling of the planet.

She realized that to the other dark councilors her allegations, which she leveled against Nox, and her claims of his unfitness to remain on the Dark Council, was perceived as a weak counter to the actions Nox took against her. In fact, one of the dark lords on the Dark Council, with whom she had been in talks about her plans to take Nox down, stopped answering her communications on the matter. He'd grown cold feet, leaving her on her own against Darth Nox.

Acina thought caustically, "Darth Aruk, you coward!"

To make matters worse was Komo's report to the Dark Council, via Darth Nox, a copy of which she received this very morning from Nox. Nox had included a short note attached to Komo's report.

It read, "Acina, this is how you pacify a rebellion and rule a world." He signed his attached note, "Darth Nox."

Komo had begun reporting to him instead of reporting to her. Komo had stopped sending regular reports to Acina and had stopped answering her communications.

Acina Thought to herself, "The Dark Council has not even met over this farce, and that blasted Komo is already making the Taris takeover a reality!" She screamed out again, "Komo, you traitor! I want you dead!"

Acina's position on the Dark Council was already tenuous. She had suffered a terrible humiliation, just over one year back, when one of her apprentices betrayed her to the Dread Masters and led their servants into the Emperor's vaults aboard a secret space station containing powerful Sith relics and technologies. Now she suffered a new humiliating betrayal at the hands of one of her other servants.

She furiously screamed out again, "Kooommooo!"

Darth Acina let loose a terrible torrent of Force Lightning into one of her military-grade guardian droids, blasting it into flaming pieces with a single brief bolt. However, her fury was not sated, and she continued pouring lightning into what was left of the already ruined war droid, as her remaining apprentices quietly, and quickly, excused themselves from her presence.

Darth Nox sat on a couch in his study aboard the space station laughing and smiling. He had just relayed a report from Darth Komo to the Dark Council about the progress that had been made since Darth Nox took matters into his own hands on Taris and put down a rebellion that was threatening to explode out of control. Komo's report made Nox's involvement seem like a miracle that had brought order back to a troubled world, and ruined the Republic's efforts against the Empire on Taris.

There was even an attachment containing a citation from General Riiy'enni'sansa recommending Darth Nox be awarded the Sith Empire's Medal of Heroes, for his role in almost single handedly destroying five elite commando squads, the killing of two Jedi Masters, and the bringing of a third Jedi Master into the service of the Sith Empire, all while leading the effort to quell a brewing rebellion. Nox knew the Dark Council would likely not authorize the award, but neither would they be able to ignore his accomplishments on Taris as recorded in an official military citation.

Nox thought smugly to himself, "Acina's case to discredit me will fall flat."

From this, he knew without a doubt that he could trust Darth Komo. Komo had, without any doubt, abandoned Acina and turned to him for leadership, as well as for protection against her. Nox decided to send more Sith to protect Komo. He knew Acina would likely strike against Komo very soon.

Komo had given Nox potent ammunition to use against Acina in the upcoming Dark Council meeting. There was no way she could explain why one of her servants abandoned her leadership and her policies for his. He was going to win Taris.

Nox laughed smugly, "Heh, heh, heh..."

Darth Nox relished sending Darth Acina her copy of the report, with his own comments attached. He knew his attached note would rankle her. He'd begun enjoying turning her games and ploys, to undermine his rule, on their heads. Nox likened it to giving a nexu a good yank of its tail, and then laughing at its surprised indignation as it scampered off, with its tail tucked protectively at it's side.

Naturally, the nexu would recover its dignity and come back to attack, but he would always easily kill it afterwards. Then a thought occurred to him.

He thought aloud, "I wonder if I could get away with killing her...?"

As much as he wanted to kill her, he knew that he didn't have just cause. She hadn't done enough to warrant her death at his hands. Besides, he had already retaliated, and rather spectacularly at that.

He couldn't kill her without reaping the consequences. The rest of the Dark Council would join forces against him, to destroy him. He knew they feared him, and were all waiting for just such an excuse to come after him.

They feared how fast he'd risen. In just under five years, he went from a pathetic and obscure slave named Kallig, to one of the twelve rulers of the Sith Empire. A few years more saw Darth Nox among the top four most influential members of the Dark Council.

The outcome of his conflict with Acina, namely his takeover of Taris, would also mark him as one of the strongest on the Dark Council. As stupid and weak as Nox thought her to be, he had to admit, Acina was ambitious and daring. He knew this matter was not over. Nox expected her to make her next move. He resolved to be ready for whatever she threw his way.

His troubles with Acina aside, Nox regarded Darths Marr, Ravage, and Mortis to be his greatest threats on the Dark Council. He recognized, that while they probably regarded him with some interest now, that after destroying Acina's credibility and successfully taking Taris from her, they would likely regard him the same way that he saw them, as a great threat. To Nox, that likely meant those three would work to maneuver the other dark counselors to undermine his position, not to remove him, but to defang him.

Nox didn't believe his taking of a planet and embarrassing Acina before the Dark Council would be enough to have her removed from her post, but her influence would drop greatly, and eventually one of her servants would rise against her and kill her, to take her seat on the Dark Council. Her decline and eventual fall would propel him even higher, bringing him even greater power and influence. Darth Nox would have to avoid any pitfalls Marr, Ravage, and Mortis would set against him, while capitalizing on Acina's eventual demise.

All of this brought Nox to his next train of thought, and that was what to do with his increased power and influence over the other dark counselors. In fact, Darth Nox had been thinking of precisely that for the last several months. He believed he had discovered an inroad to greater power and influence, through the Sith Emperor's apparent apathy. Since the Emperor had kept silent all the time Nox had sat on the Dark Council, Nox had come to believe that he had pretty much given the dark councilors a free hand in managing their own affairs within the Dark Council.

Darth Nox believed this was how Darth Marr had grown to have such power over his peers and had become the de facto leader of the Dark Council, but Nox didn't want Marr to wield any power over him. However, Nox knew that, as influential and as powerful as he'd become (his influence and power could only grow even more with Acina's diminished influence and her eventual death), he wasn't strong enough to displace Marr as the de facto leader, by himself.

Instead, Darth Nox envisioned luring Darth Ravage and Darth Mortis into helping him to create a new leadership structure that comprised, Nox, Marr, Mortis, and Ravage at the top to form a power sharing quartet, with the rest of the Dark Council forming ranks below them. Nox believed that subduing the other dark councilors could be done with the unified front of the quartet. However, convincing Marr would take the considerable efforts of Ravage, Mortis, and himself working together.

It was Nox's plan to eventually cause factions to form among the other eight dark counselors, and the most influential of the quartet, over those factions, would be the one to wield the most power. Darth Nox intended to be that one.

However, there was also the matter of the Emperor's Hand and the Emperor's Wrath to take into account. The Hand and The Wrath, were the Emperor's agents. They directly carried out his will. From time to time they would appear in the Dark Council chambers to warn the dark councilors whenever they were dangerously close to displeasing the Emperor.

Darth Nox knew they might take exception to such a restructuring of the Dark Council. The Emperor very likely wouldn't care, so long as no one tried to supplant him, but his Hand and his Wrath might see things differently.

Nox thought to himself, "That will be dealt with when the time comes."