It had been more than a month since Mirta and Quoreal had walked through this Dathomiri jungle alone. Hours had passed with neither saying a word to the other. On their first expedition, they had questioned each other's relevance on the mission. Now there was quiet, at least to an observer. Mirta's mind however was full of questions about this mysterious Yuuzhan Vong.
On their second night here, he'd accused her of murder. She was, in fact, guilty of one, but not the one Quoreal or his angry mob had accused her of. If it hadn't been for Samedi, the mob would have killed her. Now Samedi, her defender, would not take the Sith as a serious threat, and Quoreal, her would-be killer, was now her closest ally—a Yuuzhan Vong warrior no less. She'd spent the war fighting his kind. Most had retreated from the more heavily explored systems of the galaxy and settled on the sentient world Zonama Sekot.
Mirta had wondered why a Yuuzhan Vong would be in the wider galaxy at all since their first meeting.
She now had to ask him, in the midst of this anxious quiet, "Why are you in this part of the galaxy in the first place?"
Quoreal exhaled in what could be either a cough or an ironic laugh. "My story begins as these stories often do. I was a warrior in love with a shaper. Normally a union between different castes was forbidden, though such things had been approved in the past." Everything he said so far was dispassionate, detached, but emotion, not all sadness, anger, or disappointment—but something containing all three—"When we learned the truth about our origins from Zonama Sekot, the seed of our homeworld Yuuzhan'taar, that our many gods and the castes devoted to each were all our own inventions—it should've meant she and I were free to be together! But she was already dead! The Republic had destroyed her research facility and everyone there!" He turned his head violently away in the opposite direction from Mirta. "It was all some cosmic joke, so I went searching for something in the Galaxy to fill the whole in my heart. And here, on this world," his tone which had started relatively calm turned sad again and his head turned to face Mirta, "I thought I found it."
Mirta knitted her eyebrows.
"Claudelle. There was something about her, and before I could even know if she felt the same way…I lost her before I even had her." Suddenly, he lost the sad tone and look. Anger and determination replaced them. "The Sith took her from me."
Mirta was confused again. She blamed herself for what happened when she ducked but—
"Tala Doneeta pulled the trigger."
Quoreal scoffed.
"She was following you because we had been looking for the Sith. She was a criminal with ties to Black Sun which is run by Darth Shadow's public face, Sizhran Savazh. The Sith are responsible for all the problems on this planet, and most in the galaxy."
Rapuung said this with utter conviction. That was good to Mirta, because the person they were going to had more reason to hate the Sith than anyone else in 130 years.
They made their way to the rundown gray ship with the cracked cockpit glass. Mirta walked in front of Quoreal and around to the rectangular ship's door and banged loudly, calling the Chiss bounty hunter by her family name.
"Thrawn! Thrawn!"
Silence greeted her.
She slowly turned to face Quoreal, with evident disappointment.
"I guess she's not here," Mirta said.
The lines on Quoreal's face grew ever more tense.
"She had better be around here somewhere." His voice was more irritated than anything else.
Mirta stared out into the jungle and called out her target's full name with the top of her lungs.
"V'thraw'nusaya!"
After what seemed like an eternity of waiting a familiar Chiss female stepped out of the bush with a medium sized reptile slung over her shoulders. Oddly enough, she was smiling.
"So, the people who wouldn't believe me before have come back to seek my aide."
Mirta quickly adopted a submissive persona, slightly bowing and saying humbly, "You were right; the Sith are here. We've lost people to them."
"And what would you have me do? I'm only one woman." These words were hard to read. Quoreal could tell she hadn't given up, but she was expecting something to work with. Very well, he would give her that.
"Remember the wormhole?"
Gradually the look on Thrawn's face changed. She had recognized something.
"The purple light that flickers on and off in the sky? So, that is the wormhole you mentioned after all." She had clearly been thinking this since she had first seen it.
Quoreal verified it for her in the next sentence.
"Its creators have left hidden laboratories scattered across this planet that can control it. They come from another galaxy. We know these beings still exist, because certain members of our camp are from their galaxy."
That comment came as real surprise to Thrawn.
"What are you saying?"
Mirta tried to speak, but Quoreal was too quick for her.
"Our ship didn't crash here by itself. The wormhole briefly opened and a ship entered our galaxy from the other side. It collided with ours and that was why we crashed here."
Thrawn looked away as she tried to piece everything that Quoreal was saying together. Finally, she looked back at Quoreal with what looked like hope.
"These beings who made the wormhole…they sent your friends here?"
Quoreal answered before Mirta again.
"They did not think so, but after they became aware of the labs and we found out that one member of our group was sent here by the Quintessons," Quoreal paused for Thrawn to take note of the new species, "the ones who made the Wormhole. They have plans for this world, but right now the Sith are standing in their way."
Thrawn stood silent for a minute, running these things through her head, before saying, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Darth Shadow watched from one end of his Falleen-style garden as his daughter, and intended successor, Sizhran Sura, was parrying the lightsaber blows of his Mon Calamari underling Ibsim. Her movements were the essence of gracefulness: swift, yet subtle. She had only slightly shifted weight on one foot to avoided an incoming diagonal blow to the right side of her smoothly scaled blue head. The Chiss blue skin and red eyes were her most prominent features, though her Falleen scales were present. As was common with females of mixed ancestry, she had no vestigial Zabrak horns. Darth Maul had left her only his Force-ability. With her top-knot ponytail, she was all Falleen and Chiss to the eyes from the lineages of Xizor and Thrawn.
Her left foot positioned behind her, she leaned back, blocking Ibsim's blade with her own. Suddenly, she moved forward and with a Force-push followed by a Force-grab she disarmed the Mon Cal and took his weapon in addition to her own. Holding the two blades like pincers she moved forward. He began scurrying away on his backside and clawing into the ground behind him.
A jolt of force lightening froze him for a moment.
"Ibsim!" Shadow commanded.
The frightened Mon Cal looked to his master.
"Don't ruin my garden in your escape."
The Mon Cal stood, dusted himself off, clasped his hands to beg for his master's pardon, and departed.
The Dark Lord stood and walked toward his daughter. She herself bowed like one of his acolytes, but she was more. Not his daughter, but his apprentice. One day she would be the first Dark Lady of the Sith in nearly a thousand years.
"Your style was impressive…for a novice."
The comment stung.
"What more do you expect? You won't allow me to kill—"
She was silenced with her father's Force choke.
"You could have entered his mind, preyed upon his fears. Why didn't you?" He released the choke.
"I've already demonstrated those skills on Breylia, and he has greater mental discipline than any of your acolytes." Her voice was impatient and angry, but not really hurt. There could be no tender feelings between Sith master and apprentice, nor should there be between Falleen Prince and heir.
"You are not allowed to kill here. Only I can determine when someone is of no further use to us, but you will soon have to kill on Falleen." Sura remained with her knees on the ground as her father began ranting about her half-brothers. "Arban spends all his time in bed with whores, Zika drinking until brain or liver failure. Neither of them can inherit my throne on Falleen, and their Sith training has been entirely wasted!" The rant ended. "Soon, you will leave for the homeworld, cut these gangrenous limbs off our family. Then and only then will I take you for my apprentice and give you your true Sith name."
Sura nodded. Every Sith apprentice had to pass an initiation to be given the title "Darth." Killing her brothers would be hers. They lack self-control, but being, three-quarters Falleen, they had loyal followers. Being Force-users, they were dangerous in and off themselves.
"I accept my trial, Master."
Shadow nodded. He had no doubt Sura would succeed, but his other apprentice worried him. He turned his gaze to the blue-roofed yellow brick building farthest from himself and his daughter.
Veratil was training Muni Patel there. Shadow told his daughter to continue her studies and walked to said building.
Upon his tapping at the wooden doorframe, it slid open to reveal Veratil. This Sith acolyte was a Ti'landa Til, a quadrupedal mammal from Nal Hutta with tough grey skin, a long horn between his eyes, and two cartilaginous hands on his neck. Krang had taken to calling him "Rocksteady" for some reason.
"Master Shadow," he bowed while speaking in a surprisingly high voice for his size.
"How is the boy?"
"Prehaps my master had best see for himself."
Shadow entered the house, and Veratil led him to the spartan living room.
"Muni, get in here!" The Ti'landa Til bellowed. It was time for the good cop bad cop routine.
There was a sound of a door sliding open.
"Yes, Master Veratil," came an extremely annoyed voice as the human boy entered the room. Suddenly he realized the grandmaster of the entire order was here and his knees began to shake.
"What are you doing standing there like some pathetic Hutt larvae? The Dark Lord of the Sith is here!"
Muni was incredibly nervous. He only just now processed the fact and bowed quickly.
"Please forgive my disrespect, Lord Shadow."
The Dark Lord moved slowly and spoke softly to the boy putting an affectionate arm on his shoulder.
"It's quite all right, Veratil. Young Patel is still new here and can't be expected to know all our rules."
This validation from the grandmaster was enough for Muni who smiled in defiance at the Ti'lanada Til. Veratil grimaced back. Shadow read the emotions in Muni…Veratil was doing his job perfectly. Now it was time for Shadow to do his.
"Muni, I promised you that I'd reunite you with your father," Shadow said softly, "I meant that, and wish that I could keep that promise…"
Muni froze and said "No…" His universe had just ended.
"Control yourself, human!" Veratil shouted.
"Control yourself, you ignorant old Ti'landa Til!" Shadow shot back.
Tears were now streaming involuntarily from Muni's eyes.
"We have the man who killed him. We're still interrogating him."
"What are we going to do to him?" Muni asked, wiping away his tears.
"Muni, as your father probably told you, we won't always be there to protect you. We are trying to teach you to protect yourself and those you care about, and when you can't…" Shadow let the sentence hang.
"To avenge them!" Muni finished.
"Exactly," Shadow said, "Even if the guilty is someone you care about. "
"Who is it?" There was hesitation in Muni's voice.
"Remember, Muni, justice cannot allow mercy!" This was the first time that Shadow had spoken to Muni in angry tone.
"Who is it?" Muni demanded. Shadow could feel that Muni would kill but would not think he was doing it from a place of selflessness. The Sith couldn't have that. Shadow decided on a high-risk gamble.
"Cody Jones."
"No…why would…how could he do this?!" Disbelief turned to confusion which turned to anger.
"Because I tried to bring your father here."
Pure hatred radiated from the human boy.
"I want to kill him!"
Shadow smiled.
"And when I'm done with him, so you shall."
Everything was going perfectly with young Patel, but Shadow was finished with his day's agenda. If his daughter passed her trial she would be the One Sith of their native galaxy, but the One Sith should always be the most powerful Dark Side user in a galaxy. There was someone from the Milky Way stronger than Muni. Tonight, Shadow would send a message to the Trishreddatron.