Naturally the moment the Christmas vacation begins I get extremely sick, almost to the point of forgetting what day it is and failing to post the next chapter... Ah well, this is why I make sure to have chapters prepared well in advanced... so enjoy, I'm going back to sleep... ~F

Chapter Twenty Seven

The Quandary of Betrayals

Zhar carefully watched as Johell worked on his blast bolt deflection. It had been quite a long time since the boy had finally submitted, and Zhar was willing to take the risk of the boy finally having a true weapon of the Sith at his side, and had presented the boy with a training Lightsaber. Not powerful enough to contend with a fully powered weapon, to be sure, but enough to at least look the part and give a sense of accomplishment that he was winning his Master's limited trust.

Seven different, orb-like remote droids were hovering around the boy in a deep chamber of the academy, all randomly firing stun bolts at the dark side apprentice, as he did his best to concentrate his anger and hatred to anticipate the shots. It was somewhat similar to the Jedi method, but naturally with the usage of the Dark Side it felt like a completely different exercise.

Zhar was about to add an eighth orb to the swarm, when he received a communications request on his personal communicator. Deactivating the other droids, which floated in the air like strangely silent mines, he held up a hand for Johell to stop and activated the devise. There was only one that had authority to interrupt him while he was training his apprentice.

"Admiral, there is something important that you need me to know, I trust," he said.

"Indeed, my Lord." Admiral Setis replied, stiffening nonetheless from the sparsely veiled threat. "There is a long range communication that came to the ship just now, and the person demands to be patched through to you directly."

Now, that was something interesting. He may be the High Prophet of Korriban, and a great influential figure in the governing council of the Neo-Sith Empire, but as of yet none had deferred to him regarding any matters yet, preferring to work directly with Supreme Prophet Dass'in instead. So who could be wishing to speak with him specifically?

"Put them through…" he ordered, and the admiral nodded, before pressing a button on the command dais just before sight of the communication.

The face that appeared next was quite the surprise, albeit not an unfamiliar one. "High Prophet Zhar…" said Septin Aranis, or as he was called by his new moniker of Lord Fury of the Marauders.

"Ah, my old Apprentice… what brought the sudden desire for contact? Ready to call me out and try to kill me in public…" Zhar said, only slightly tauntingly, but knowing that there had to be a massively important reason for this one of all Dark Adepts to be contacting him.

"As much as I'd like to, currently you're the only one that I can turn to with this information. I just received a reassignment from the new war council, before my current mission from the Emperor was completed, and they have handed that mission off to another…"

"…and you're upset that they took some glorious prize from you?" Zhar asked, uncertain as to what Septin was referring to.

"No…" Fury growled, barring his teeth slightly in annoyance, "I am concerned that this council might be refuting the wishes and commands of the Emperor in their desire to see the war run more along the lines of what they see it needing, rather than trusting in the power of his Majesty. You are the only High Prophet that I am… familiar… with, that may be able to contact the Emperor and confirm that these people have authority to override his commands, such as the one that I was to claim all of the territory surrounding the sector of the Sith capitol worlds."

And now Zhar understood. Fury was not so much angry about his reassignment, if anything he seemed pleased by it, but he was afraid that the Emperor might be displeased by his will be flouted by his underlings, and like any good adept, he was making sure that the Dark Lord of the Sith was indeed behind these changes.

"I see," he said, "then I will oblige your concerns and bring them to the Emperor himself. Continue with what the war council has instructed, until you receive word from the Emperor or myself. Is that all that you have to tell us regarding the matter?"

"Yes, High Prophet," Septin replied, again acting extremely formally, probably to distance himself from speaking to Zhar in a humane manner. He nodded then, and cut the communication, before contacting the orbiting fleet once again, "Admiral, place through a communication to the fleet of the Apex, Emperor Veneficus will want to know of the news that has been uncovered on the home front."

"As you command, my Lord." Liam replied, before the screen went to static for several moments, before another, higher ranked commander appeared.

"This is Commander Tobias Jhetc of the Apex, who contacts the fleet of the Emperor?" the man said rigidly, in full control of his manner and seeming all the part that he claimed. Zhar silently approved of the military commander that Veneficus had hand selected to lead his fleet.

"High Prophet Zhar Quelmok calls upon the wisdom of his Majesty, and wishes to speak with the Emperor privately." Zhar responded, bringing his own formality and rank to bear. Technically he and the Commander would be considered equal in ranking as far as the war was concerned, but overall Zhar would be considered a higher authority due to his position in planetary governing as a member of the Dark Council.

"Ah, welcome my Lord," the commander replied, "I believe the Emperor is in his meditation chamber, I will patch you through at your own risk."

"I understand the risks of disturbing his Majesty, but this is something that he will want to be included in." Zhar replied coolly, knowing that he was indeed in the right to disturb the Dark Lord of the Sith with this matter of possible betrayal.

The screen flashed black for a moment, before reopening onto the long dark chamber of the Sith Master. "Who disturbs my meditations?" came the eerie voice of the Lord of all Dark Lords, sounding ever as intimidating and impressive as it needed for any random person who may be contacting the Emperor for any reason.

"High Prophet Zhar Quelmok, my Lord, with grave news." Zhar replied.

"I hope for your sake that it is indeed…" Veneficus replied.

"I have received a report from Lord Fury, my Lord, that the War Council you have assigned to run things while you were away has reassigned him contrary to your original commands, before he had finished with the homeward campaign."

There was a terrible long pause on the other end of the line, before the Emperor spoke. "This is most disturbing…" Veneficus said, stepping forward out of the shadows, looking slightly worn but otherwise fitly shrouded in the power of the Dark Side. "I left specific instruction that my will was not to be contradicted in anything I had previously decreed."

"Nevertheless my Lord, this is what has occurred, what are your orders regarding these direct betrayals of your commands…" Zhar affirmed.

Veneficus was silent for a long moment, and Zhar could see even Johell becoming unnerved by the lack of immediate action in the supreme leader of the Empire. "I can foresee no problems allowing Fury's reassignment, but the war council needs to be put back in their place. Normally I would send Diábolis or Dass'in, but both are working on their own mission, so the next I would trust to go in my name to correct this is you, High Prophet Zhar. As your Emperor I order you to take care of this personally, and make sure that the guilty party is thoroughly punished for defying me."

"It will be as you say, your Majesty." Zhar said, pride surging through him at the faith placed upon him by the Sith Lord.

"Make sure that the entire Empire knows that treason against the Emperor will never be tolerated, and show no mercy in their punishments." Veneficus declared, already his consciousness slipping to another topic, Zhar could see it in the lamp-like yellow eyes of the Sith Lord. "I will finish this part of the campaign soon enough, and return to take direct command of the Empire once more, until the time for my direct involvement is needed. I suppose the fault is mine for wanting a small taste of the glory of battle before the end game, but alas, it was not to be… Go and do my will, Lord Zhar…"

"Yes, my Lord." Zhar replied again, cutting the communication and heralding his fleet a third time, "Admiral, we have orders from the Emperor to go to the Imperial command station; there are matters of treason that must be dealt with, personally. Send a shuttle for myself and my apprentice, we wish to leave within the hour."

"As you command, my Lord," Setis replied, and Zhar put away the communicator at last.

"Now you will see why the Emperor's will must be obeyed to the letter, my young apprentice," Zhar said with a merciless cold smile. Johell was quiet, but seemed eager to be off of Korriban. Normally that would concern Zhar, but he decided to overlook it for just this one moment, as there was a larger goal than manipulating his apprentice at play right now.

The shuttle arrived within the hour, and the two Dark Adepts took to their fleet, bound for the Imperial Center and the bottom of a case of treasonous acts. Zhar wondered how problematic this would be, and how long it would take before he would return to his governed world, although it was indeed odd that he thought of the little dustball as home now, so long after claiming the world once again in the name of the Emperor.

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Onderon had fallen without little in the way of a campaign against the might of the Sith Empire, and with that the crew of the Terentatek made their way to reinforce the massive battle that was brewing on the forest world of Kashyyyk. The proud race of Wookiees that lives in the high branches of the tree covered world seemed to be powerful fighters, able to go toe to toe with even Dark Side adepts with effort, and the battle there had become extremely fierce.

Their shuttles came in for a landing on the war ravaged villages that the Sith Empire had claimed for themselves, having effectively pushed out the natives to other villages or to the forest floor, called the Shadowlands, where dark predators and other creatures of strange origins dwelled and hunted.

Kelrek was unsure about how long they may be here fighting this battle on the forest world, but their reinforcements were met with a great deal of praise and high hopes from the veterans who had been here fighting since they parted to sack Onderon.

As the commanders of the other fleets met with Jenah, Kelrek went to inspect the front lines with Srilis, wondering how badly the fighting was going thus far, and how such a primitive species could so effectively hold back their world from the might of the Neo-Sith Empire.

Finding someone who looked rather important, the officer pauldron signifying him as a high ranking trooper with some elite training, Kelrek approached, "How goes the fight trooper?" he asked coolly, still looking over the large flat platforms that linked the trees into a large communal settlement.

"Not good, my Lord," the man replied honestly, "the big hairy fur-balls know well how to fire a blaster, and how to reverse engineer anything that we throw at them. And let's not mention what happens if you get too close to those claws. They say that the Wookiees consider using them as weapons to be rather heinous, but clearly that only applies to using them on each other, as they seem to have no qualms about gouging off a trooper's helmet and ripping them limb from limb as they please."

"And where are the Dark Side Adepts that are supposed to be helping protect you from them getting close?" Srilis asked pointedly.

"Well, we're not terribly sure at the moment." The officer replied, "several fell at the hands of a mob of the beasts, and even more have recently vanished on some sort of mission into the Shadowlands, but a few of the Stalkers remain I think, keeping watch out in the field and picking off the Wookiees in ones and twos where they can, but by and large they've abandoned the front lines for their own ideas."

Kelrek clicked his tongue distastefully, "disgraceful… to let our soldiers fight and die on their own when the glory of the Emperor is on the line. I can understand those that have a mission down below, but I presume they were to have returned by now, yes?"

"You are most correct, my Lord." The trooper replied, growing grimmer. "And it's almost about time that the Wookiees start attacking again." he added, as a massive war cry far in the distance was heard.

Looking at the Stalker at his side, Kelrek could read the same lust for battle, but at the same time cool composure that spoke volumes to him. They would be standing their ground here, with the troopers, and try to win back some of the moral that the other Adepts had lost in their selfishness and foolhardiness.

"I want a full battle fine of cannons on this platform now," Kelrek said to his comlink, which was linked back to the officers at the main part of the onsite base. "And three regiments of fresh soldiers to the front. These men need the help, we will be taking up post here for a time, and we need those supplies and men here on the double."

"As you command, my Lord!" the trooper on the other end said before the link was broken. The officer before them looked surprised, "You're standing and fighting with us here, my Lord?" he asked, confused.

"And why would I abandon the soldiers of the Empire when they are in need?" Kelrek replied, readying himself and withdrawing his saber as the howling and raging grew closer.

"Alright boys!" the officer yelled out to his men, who steeled themselves and faces out across the empty plaza, "We've got us a real fight coming, let these bastards eat plasma, and run crying home!"

"For the Empire!" the men shouted, just as the first raging Wookiees appeared out of the far side of the village, waving swords and other makeshift weapons, with the occasional blaster or even some custom Wookiee made ranged weapons. The plaza erupted into battle, and Srilis vanished into the chaos of the fight, while Kelrek stood tall and proud among the warriors of the Empire, conjuring blasts of lightning to singe fur and knock the hairy beasts backward.

Even still, the mad drive that these animals had was enough that they were soon upon the front most lines, howling with rage as they attack with their melee weapons, and even though he was lacking in skill with his weapon, Kelrek threw himself, lightning forming a solid globe around him, into the melee. The cross guard of his saber flashed and spun in tight arcs as he broke weapons and severed limbs with abandon.

Meanwhile, Srilis dived down from the top of one of the nearby high branches, skewering a charging Wookiee before twisting sharply to take out the legs of another, amid the hail of blaster bolts that were flung from the troopers. "Hold the line!" Kelrek shouted, wielding the Force like a battering ram to knock back a large knot of Wookiees, even as he had to deflect several powerful bolts that managed to knock him back several steps as they ricocheted off his saber.

A trooper nearby was not so lucky, and was launched back as the bolts from the modified weapons blasted him in the chest plate, scoring deep through the armor. Kelrek actually wasn't too sure, with the large number of massive hairy bodies that kept charging the line, whether they would be able to hold for much longer, when the whine of powerful engines started up behind them, and he smiled.

Reinforcements had arrived. The shouts of the troopers on the front lines changed from panic to joy as a fresh wave of soldiers came, weapons blazing a new path through the assaulting Wookiees, who were forced back when the massive automated turrets came online, firing with a deafening explosion of sound as the send packets of the massive creatures flying.

Soon the attackers were in full retreat, and Kelrek breathed a sigh of relief. They had lost quite a few of the veterans here at the front, but with the new supply of fresh reinforcements, they would hold out quite a bit longer, and the auto cannons would go far in helping keep this line even as they pushed forward into the village further.

Srilis reappeared, sporting a massive cut with blood trickling down her side, but otherwise no worse for wear. Kelrek knew that he looked rather beaten and bruised himself, but it was a victory hard earned through their struggle, and the strength of the Force only flowed through such conflict. And so, it was a glorious battle, and even more so for victory.

The officer had also survived the battle, and approached the two weary Dark Adepts, "Well, I certainly have to thank the pair of you; we would have been overrun if not for your timely arrival and the reinforcements that you've provided."

"We do what we must for the Empire," Kelrek said, even as his comlink beeped. That was the signal that they were needed by Jenah back in the command area for their assignments and to report on their findings. She was not going to be pleased by the lack of support that these warriors were being given, and it was likely that the three of them would be going off to the Shadowlands to find the missing Dark Adepts.

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Luna personally was mildly surprised that she had been able to find Colin at all, with all the chaos that was raging in the Force throughout the Galaxy, but the closer they got, the more certain she was that it was indeed him that they were after. The kidnapper was closing in on another world, and unknowingly had led the Jedi duo right to him.

The world they were led to was a small, remote place tucked away in the side arm of the edge of wild space, quite unremarkable in its appearance or placement, but the fact remains that this is where Colin had come to steal another Force sensitive child.

Luna brought their craft low through the atmosphere, hoping to keep track of wherever the presence in the Force went. She knew that Leon was rather concerned, and to be honest with herself, if she wasn't already experiencing it, she wouldn't be willing to trust her ability to track a faint aura from across the Galaxy either. But with her unique circumstance of knowing Colin before, as well as some strange lingering power from channeling the Light Side of the Force to Grandmaster Coven, she was confident in her ability.

"He's slowing down there, in that crude village." She announced, bringing the ship to land in a cover of trees just outside the limits of the community, close enough to walk effectively, but far enough to discourage those who might be too inquisitive.

"That's a long way to walk," Leon said, looking out from the trees to the village in the distance.

"We'll have to hurry if we want to catch Colin before he escapes to his own ship then…" Luna commented, fueling herself with the Force and taking off at a sprint. Leon stumbled a moment before catching up with her. She was continually impressed that her Padawan was so gifted with the Force, but for the moment Luna concerned herself with just reaching the village before Colin could make off with another child.

They reached the village in a surprisingly short amount of time. From there it took only a few pointed questions to locate another figure in brown Jedi attire, and a few more minutes to track down said individual, even as he was enticing a woman into handing over her child.

"Stop right there, Colin!" Luna said, dashing toward the man, who turned, and kicking the mother away as she tried to snatch back her baby, ran from them.

The Jedi launched after him like a shot, Leon already drawing his lightsaber, the viridian blade shining as he ran, however Luna's primary thoughts were getting the child safely away from Colin before capturing him.

The man rounded a sharp corner, and Luna heard the pointed clink of metal bouncing off of the ground. A trap? It must be, and she hurtled herself around, the Force coiled about her like a whip, just in time to see the grenade that the man had dropped flashing in a darkened corner.

Latching onto it with her abilities, Lune hurled the explosive high into the air, where it detonated harmlessly, although probably shocking everyone in the small rural village to the core, but she couldn't be concerned about that now. Even as Luna threw herself once more into the chase, she knew that something would have to tip the scales between her and Colin is she was to catch him before he slipped away.

And somehow, miraculously, that something appeared in the form of her Padawan, leaping from the roof of a nearby building, and landing heavily on the pretend Jedi, his lightsaber stowed and the young Jedi instinctively snatching the child away, simultaneously kicking Colin several times as he broke apart from the older man.

Luna leapt into action, cutting off Colin's escape route before the man could even turn in that direction. "It is over, Colin, surrender." She said, hoping that the man would comply, but knowing from the wild look in the wizard's eyes that he wouldn't.

There seemed to be a strange amount of conflict within the wizard that Luna couldn't quite place, as though he wanted to flee, but something was holding him back, something dark in nature.

"I… can't do that…" he said haltingly, withdrawing an oversized lightsaber hilt and igniting the azure blade. What Luna wasn't prepared for however, was when the wizard snapped his other arm up and launch a blast of flames from a hidden devise on his arm.

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Colin had known that his paranoia would pay off in time, and when he found himself cornered by two Jedi, he was ready to give his all to fight them in the name of the Emperor, but at the same time he was somewhat confused. Wasn't his mission something that required a priority of him, even above fighting openly for the Empire? But then his mind grew foggy and he could only think about how he needed to kill these Jedi to prove his loyalty to Veneficus.

The dead Jedi's lightsaber felt cold in his hand, but it s was a bluff, as he had little intention to try and use it against the far more skilled opponents with the weapon, as Lovegood wouldn't be expecting a wizard to be so used to fighting with the technology of the Galaxy as Colin was. Launching his flamethrower at close range, Colin kicked the runt of a boy in the legs as he dodged back, and the younger Jedi had to dodge backward or risk falling with the small child in his arms.

There would be little fight coming from that one for a time, which allowed him a free opening to escape if he needed… to… but he needed to kill the pair of Jedi before him instead, and he could start with the defenseless boy before him, as well as the screaming child if need be. What was one less Dark Adept in training? Veneficus wouldn't miss just one child, right?

Colin raised the lightsaber high, advancing on the smaller Jedi, when Luna flew back into his way, her own violet weapon clashing strongly with the downswing of the blue saber, knocking it painfully from Colin's hand. The oversized hilt deactivated as it skittered across the ground.

But the Assassin had plenty of other tools in his arsenal, even discounting his wand for the moment, and his holdout blasters found their way into his hands, even as he leapt back with all the acrobatics he could muster to dodge the threatening blade, firing a quick salvo that he knew would be easily parried and blocked by the Jedi.

He wasn't disappointed, as the bolts went flying in all directions, but neither did he let up, as he knew that the Jedi had to focus to keep the shots from getting through their defenses, and so long as he wasn't hit by any return fire, he would have time to collect his thoughts and escape… no kill them both… why was it so hard to focus!?

He was too slow, and the confusion hindered his agility, as one of his own blaster shots hit one of his weapons, shattering it and sending it flying from his hand. Immediately he plunged the same hand into his overlarge brown robe covering his normal gear, and pulled out a detonator, keeping his free blaster trained full auto on the Jedi, and hurled the explosive with all his might, sprinting for better cover as he heard the pair of Jedi leap out of the way of the bomb.

The ally shuddered with the force of the explosion, and Colin quickly pulled out a few more devises, small floating droids that would back him up with extra blaster fire, as well as some proximity mines to strew about as he backed away from this place. Let the Jedi either pursue him, or save the baby, their choice, but he needed to get away as quickly as possible… but, no, he needed to fight and kill them.

His head was pounding with the effort of trying to think too hard over escape, but why was it so painful? Throwing the mines in a large arc around him, which would prevent the Jedi from getting too close, he drew his wand. He had precious seconds before the Jedi returned, and he chose the most useful shield charms for the moment, which would deflect even the blade of their weapons for a short moment, giving him split second advantages in the coming fight.

Soon the pounding of feet across the packed earth rent his ears, and he knew that not just Lovegood, but her runty apprentice were back, both weapons drawn and the baby conspicuously absent. Irrelevant, one or more of them would die, here and now if he had anything to say about it. But it would be so much easier to escape…

The pain in his skull at the thought was staggering, and he pressed a hand to his temple in agony. "Colin, you're in pain, clearly. Please let us help you." Luna said, stepping forward and attempting diplomacy. Such a typical Jedi response, Colin laughed.

"You cannot stop what is to come, Jedi…" he laughed, half hissing through the pain in his head, which had been building over the moments he had mentally been screaming to run from this place and continue his work for the Emperor. But… no, he would give glory to the Empire in slaying two Jedi this moment, and there would be none to question how he was the most loyal, the most perfect assassin of the Empire, willing to put all on the line for his master.

Spells unleashed themselves from his wand, adding to the barrage of blaster bolts as his trigger finger twitched rapidly, trying to encase both Jedi in a cocoon of plasma. He rapidly detached and kicked over a gas grenade, watching the fumes waft over the area as it flew toward the jedi, only to be blasted upward by their mysterious power.

If only he hadn't lost the element of surprise by being followed. He was such a failure in that regard, but he would make it right by killing these two, and proving that he was indeed the very best. None would ever remember him as the poor muggleborn son of a milkman, just as the Emperor had promised him when Dennis had died.

Gritting his teeth, Colin kept fighting, backing slowly away from his little nest of explosives, drawing the pair of Jedi into his trap. It would only be a few more steps, if he allowed them to push him back just a bit more; meanwhile he reached toward the remote detonator on his bracer with a small smiled on his face as he kept firing his blaster.

Once the Jedi had foolishly stepped right in the middle of his improvised trap, Colin shouted in triumph as he pressed the detonation button.

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Leon felt the surge of warning in the Force moments before the false Jedi shouted out and pressed some button on his arm. "Jump!" Luna shouted, and Leon reacted instinctively, leaping to the side as areas around them exploded with hidden bombs.

Even with his advanced warning, and leaping, Leon only managed to cushion the worst of the blast, but was still thrown roughly into a nearby building. The man was laughing at this point, still fighting with Luna, who had recovered far faster than Leon had, blaster bolts flying off the violet blade as Luna continued to push the other figure back away from the town and the spot where they had hidden the child to be able to capture the wizard.

Still, Leon hadn't presumed that anyone, even a wizard, would be able to put this much of a fight up against two Jedi, and yet it was happening that the man, Colin if he remembered correctly from his master, was holding them both off as he slowly made his way out of the village, and causing great destruction in his wake to the rather low-level technology buildings.

They had to stop him quickly, if they were to spare the village any more devastation, and to do that they had to bring Colin down as quickly as possible. Shakily getting to his feet, Leon lurched as spell fire flashed over his head, and he realized that Luna had brought her own wand to bear, and spells were dancing between the witch Jedi and wizard assassin.

But, something was rather off about their opponent. Leon noticed that, despite his desperate fight that he was putting up, Colin seemed to be trying to escape, but he himself was preventing it. The aura of the Dark Side would swell around him from time to time, and at these times is when he would attempt to press the attack by casting more spells or firing his blaster.

Trying desperately to locate the source of this aura, Leon opened himself to the Light Side of the Force, piercing through the shadows of the Dark, and spotted it, the small medallion or amulet that the wizard wore, bouncing on his chest with a dark stone in the center. Dashing forward, Leon ignited his weapon, dodging and slipped through the barrage of spells and plasma bolts that were being exchanged between the assailant and his master.

Colin barely had time to react as Leon appeared before him, slashing upward through the small metallic pendant even as the wizard instinctively flinched away. The item broke apart upon contact with the Lightsaber, and Colin shrieked in pain even as he fell to the ground, convulsing oddly.

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Gor-lak walked upon the surface of the planet Junction, and where he went fire and blood quickly followed. True to his word to the planetary governor, he would enter a vastly populated area, slaughter every living being that resisted his presence and bombard the location from orbit afterward.

It didn't take more than three large settlements to burn in like manner before Gor-lak had to stop the army mid march as he received an urgent call from the fleet in orbit. "My, Lord," greeted Admiral Uardnon as the Ork spirit activated the communication item. "We have a communication from the leaders of Junction that you may be interested to see…"

"Put it through…" Gor-lak said, concealing the satisfied smirk that he felt at the idea that the fools had finally seen reason. Once more the Duro appeared before Gor-lak, looking far less elegant or well dressed than before.

"Enough! Stop this madness, you win, just spare my people!" he was blathering at this point, and the smirk split through Black's face as Gor-lak laughed at his foolishness. "You know my terms, and you threw them away, and now you balk at the consequences of your actions… what weakness!" he shouted, glancing around as even his closest officers started to laugh at the situation.

"Well, perhaps I can find it in my heart to suspend attacks on the rest of your world… if…" he said, letting the sentence hang and the Duro to look frightened at the demand.

"If what?!" he said quickly, jumping at the bait.

"If you deliver yourself to my custody to discuss the full and complete surrender of your world to the Sith Empire," Gor-lak said smoothly, watching as the Duro blanched even paler than normal, and his officers and generals roared with laughter at the being's expense.

"You may have two hours to think on it, and if I do not hear anything in that time, I will recommence my attacks on you world, I believe I might be able to widen this large black mark to about three times the length in half a rotation if we make good time. My best regards to you then…" Gor-lak said sickeningly sweetly, before cutting the Governor off by shutting down the communicator.

"While that fool is deciding whether his life is worth that on his world, we can camp here and let the soldiers rest for a time…" he commanded, much to the pleasure of the troopers nearest to him. They had been marching nonstop from settlement to settlement, and fighting once they arrived, so any chance to break formation and rest was welcomed without a doubt.

"What are the chances that the fool will come forward and allow himself to be sacrificed?" one of the generals asked.

"Of his own accord, zero…" Gor-lak replied, "The man is a coward, pure and simple, but those around him heard the same message, and they might be more reasonable with their loyalty to their planet than he. I do not doubt that he will appear before us within two hours, at gunpoint by his own countrymen, and we will take that as their desire to survive this war."

And so they waited. The generals and officers remained alert, ready to move out at Gor-lak's command, but the ork spirit in a human's body was confident in his assumption, and was totally relaxed, even nursing an old earth wine that he had brought with him from the planet, as a memento of where he had come from.

Then, at roughly an hour and a half after he issued the demand, just as he had expected, a group of individuals appeared at the outskirts of their makeshift camp, forcing a rather self important looking Duro ahead of them at blaster point.

The ever-present smirk that Gor-lak wore during the communication returned as his human eyes landed on the Duro, and the scrawny creature seemed to wither even more once he spotted who was waiting for him. "Welcome… You're somewhat earlier than expected…" Gor-lak said mockingly, bypassing the Duro captive and turning to the Human that seemed to be in charge of those who were guiding the annoying being to the Imperial camp.

"We've brought him," the human said, gesturing at the Duro, "Now will you spare our system your madness and death?"

"Gladly," Gor-lak said, "on the condition of your surrender to the Sith Empire naturally…"

The man seemed to flinch, but otherwise seemed to accept that this was the likely outcome of their meeting. "So long as we're spared from this nightmare of destruction, we will do as you ask…"

"Good, then first bear witness to what this fool's leadership has cost him personally…" Gor-lak said sinisterly, advancing on the Duro and dragging a hand casually through the air, allowing the green magic of his birthright to conjure the flaming blade of an orkish Sorcerer. The Duro attempted to run, but Gor-lak was already upon him, the flames of his weapon dancing as he swung it with great force, severing the Duro's legs at the knees, and proceeding to hack and slash his way up the nonvital areas of its body, the shrieks of the creature quickly giving way to the gurgle of blood as it filled the Duro's mouth. Eventually, the old Governor of Junction expired, in many pieces scattered in a cauterized and quite sulfuric mess.

The others who had brought him looked ready to be sick, as well as a handful of the officers from Gor-lak's own camp, but all knew that the Ork spirit truly had meant what he had said to the Duro before attacking the planet. "I always keep my promises," he reaffirmed to the gathered groups, smirking as he swiped sweaty hair from before his eyes, and dismissed the sword back to the æther.

"Commander, find the one who is next to be in charge, and prepare the formal documents of surrender for this world, meanwhile let's get the rest of the men back to the shuttles and into orbit. I have a strong feeling that we will be done here quite soon now…" Gor-lak said, turning and departing as his generals quickly obeyed his commands. While there was time for him to experiment with gaining the loyalty of his men, sometimes the old methods were the best.

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Colin reared back in pain and confusion as a plethora of suppressed emotions and fears came crashing down on him. Amidst all the agony and blood retching horror of the amulets destruction, he had the presence of mind to recall and cling to one idea. 'Draco has betrayed me. He knew that the pendant had this flaw, or he did something to it.' there was no other explanation. He rolled and screamed, but somehow he was momentarily separated from the pain of his body, and able to think quite clearly.

His own will was being suppressed by the amulet, giving him a mad desire to prove himself, or pushing his already present need to prove himself to a level that betrayed his other, more important values, such as survival. But then on top of that, there was an added layer of some other magic that had been placed upon the amulet that was created to locate the Jedi Master who held the Kyber Crystal, something that carried a grave curse if it was broken, and in making it tied to an item rather than whatever it was originally, it transferred the curse to Colin upon him wearing the amulet.

The magic rang in his ears, slowly dragging him back to the consciousness of his pain, and Colin, in his long and thorough study of magic, suddenly had a burst of knowledge and knew what curse was killing him.

A Loyalty Oath, something that was deep and powerful magic, that would shatter the skeleton of an oath breaker instantly on the failure to comply to the terms of the oath. But the question was, what part had he broken? Colin couldn't think of any possible way in which he had betrayed Lord Veneficus, he had obeyed everything to the letter, and beyond.

Draco had done this to him, or possible… dare he consider the possibility that Lord Veneficus had never truly trusted him, and had planned this from the beginning?

In his final moments, even as ribs pierced his lings and hearts, and Colin Creevey slowly bled out, gasping for breath, a compulsion on his mind broke at last, and he remembered at last the full memory of when Dennis was killed.

He was horrified, and in his final moments he realized at last that he should not have worshipped Lord Veneficus as a benevolent leader, but hated the monster as a murderous fiend, who had used Colin his entire life, only to discard him for reasons that Colin still didn't understand why.

But he couldn't think about that anymore, it hurt too much, and everything was growing cold. He just wanted to close his eyes and sleep, but he couldn't see anymore anyway…