Buffy XIV - Apology Not Accepted
Buffy strode hastily up the tunnel towards the central cavern of the Dark Killik Hive, eager to get there and get out as quickly as possible. The Rakata ruin had shaken her even further after her earlier encounter with Servant Six of the Emperor's Hand.
Darkness was something that Buffy could handle without a problem, and for all their evident evil, the Rakata were clearly passionate and eager for revenge. The Emperor was cold and unfeeling, which wouldn't be so terrifying if it wasn't so obvious that he had more than enough power to rule his Empire unchallenged for over a thousand years and then some.
The chill of the cavern grew stronger as Buffy approached. She could sense Dalen and Thriss racing to keep up with her, but she wasn't about to slow down and wait for them. Fear was driving her faster than she could remember it ever driving her before.
The relative brightness of the bioluminescent lighting of the central cavern was a stark contrast to the darkness she felt in the Force. Standing at the precipice, Buffy decided to wait for her friends. She didn't think she'd be able to cross the threshold in front of her without them.
Dalen was panting as he came up, hurrying from behind Buffy while Thriss strode calmly forward with her eyes part-way shut. Buffy sensed the Chiss calling on the Force to revitalize herself and Dalen so as to keep up with Lord Sunhome.
"Okay then," Buffy said nervously. "Are we sure we want to do this?"
"If we do not proceed forward, Buffy, we will simply die of thirst and starvation," Thriss said reasonably. "Master your fears, Buffy. Do not let them master you. Is that not what the Sith teach?"
"You are right in theory, Thriss," Dalen said after catching his breath. "I envy your calm right now."
"I find that keeping a calm exterior reassures others, regardless of how I feel internally," Thriss retorted. "We should keep moving."
Buffy nodded. "All right, then. Let's go."
Lord Sunhome stepped into the central cavern and tried to turn her fear into some sort of anger that she could use to embolden herself, but the act was far more difficult than she remembered it being in the past.
Before she could take more than a few steps into the cavern, Buffy noticed that the throne in the center of the room had shifted so that it was now facing towards her. Servant Six sat upon the throne, looking every bit the Master of the Empire, even if Buffy knew he was just a very high-placed minion. Despite Servant Six's presence, it was impossible to ignore the walls lined with hundreds of insectoid Killiks from floor to ceiling.
"I sense that you have succeeded in your task," the cavern spoke. "Have you calculated the Purge Engine's location yet?"
Buffy forced herself to speak. "N-not yet, Master," she said, hating herself for submitting to the man in front of her. "We were going to use our ship's computer to find it."
"I am not your Master, Lord Sunhome," the cavern boomed emotionlessly. "I merely convey and carry out His wishes. And His wish is for you to rendezvous with the Expeditionary Fleet, which is being recalled from its current assignments as we speak. The Republic and the Jedi are very likely aware of the Purge Engine's location, so the commanders of the Expeditionary Fleet will secure the surrounding space.
"You, Lord Sunhome, will command when the time comes to manifest a Sith presence within the weapon itself."
Buffy was stunned into silence. The word 'command' kept repeating itself over and over in her head.
"How do you know that?" Thriss spoke up. "How do you know that the Purge Engine is of a size to support the movements of standard-sized people?"
Buffy felt hundreds of pairs of eyes shift to her apprentice and lover, and she suddenly felt very afraid for Thriss's life.
"My Master has foreseen it," the cavern said slowly. "Just as he has foreseen a great many things."
The fear Buffy had felt for Thriss's life now became a fear for her own life as she felt every eye in the cave refocus on her.
"You will no longer take orders from Darth Thanaton. His demeanor of control and civility is a façade to hide his waning power base. His obsession with a pointless grudge is consuming him more and more each day, and he will be more of a hindrance to the Emperor's goals. Darth Marr, also of the Dark Council, will be in contact with you going forward to relay my Master's wishes.
"Events are now in motion and cannot be slowed by anyone. You will keep up or you will die painfully. Go now, Lord Sunhome, and see that the Emperor's will is done."
Buffy found herself nodding dumbly and then running out of the central cavern and sprinting upwards towards the surface of Alderaan. After getting far enough away from the cumulative darkness of the Rakata ruin and Servant Six, she stopped at a forked path to wait for Dalen and Thriss to catch up to her.
Thankfully, Thriss managed to maintain her own vitality along with Dalen's, and the three Sith were out of the Dark Hive minutes later.
Dalen spoke first. "That was… That was unthinkable! All of it! I like to think that I am fairly well-read in the history of the Dark Side of the Force, but living in such a moment…"
"Take it easy, Shar," Buffy said gently, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Breathe, think, then talk."
"Thank you, Buffy," Dalen said as he caught himself. "That experience was quite harrowing. More and more I wish you had killed me months ago."
"Why is that, Lord Dalen?" Thriss asked kindly. "Surely you don't believe that Buffy would kill a friend?"
"I do not know, and I am uncertain as to what answer would please me greater," Dalen confessed. "No, I fear I have failed as a Sith. I spoke up for myself not once back there, and that Servant did not deign to recognize me in any form. It is in you, Buffy, that the Emperor has personally entrusted one of his most personal designs. I was too much in awe of and afraid of the power in that cave to do anything to actively claim it."
Buffy resisted the urge to smack her former Master upside the head. "Shar, get over it. This is the Emperor of all Sith. Who's to even guess at his logic? Immortality does strange things to people. I get that you're better with the books than with the actual fighting, but just because your god doesn't pick you out of all the Lords of the Sith, that doesn't make you weak. That makes you just like any other Sith out there who didn't get the short straw."
"Short straw?" Thriss asked. "What do you mean by that?"
"Ugh! Stupid new galaxy!" Buffy cursed. "I just got chosen by a higher power to carry out some great destiny. That means that everything that happens, good and bad, is entirely on me. If everything goes smoothly, the world will go on without noticing whatever great things I might have done. If it doesn't go well, I'll be the one to die most painfully."
Buffy had to resist the urge to shout the word 'again' at the end of each of her sentences. If only Faith was still here to share in the misery.
"It doesn't really matter," Buffy said after taking a moment to compose herself. Dwelling on Faith would do her no good, nor would dwelling on things she couldn't change. "Things are what they are. Now then… Loslar!" she called. "Where did you run off to, little nothing?"
The scrawny red Sith scurried out from behind the speeder that he had parked hours earlier and rushed to prostrate himself before Buffy. "I am here, Master."
"Good boy. Get out your holocomm and patch us through to Dalton Thul. It'd be polite to let him know that we aren't dead."
"As you say, Master," Loslar said as he fished a flat metal cylinder out of his pocket and activated the device.
Dalton Thul's hideous face shimmered into existence. "Ah, you've made it out alive. I was told that you had already received your new orders. Am I wrong?"
"No, you're right," Buffy said carefully. "Who told you?"
"Forgive my lack of manners," the Thul lord said politely. "I was just contacted by Darth Marr of the Dark Council, who informed me that Darth Thanaton had become otherwise occupied, and that your mission was now under his purview. Aside from that, all I know is that your ship is to be cleared for departure as soon as possible. Your destination is not my concern, but I would like to know if your business at the Dark Hive will be impacting Alderaanian affairs any further."
"I don't think it will," Buffy said neutrally, "but consider the Hive to be a place of… How do I put this… It's strong with the Dark Side, and I don't think the ones inside it will play nice if anyone interrupts them."
"Understood, my Lord. Is there anything else you require?" Dalton asked.
"I don't think so," Buffy said. "But thanks for the thought. We'll be back soon."
"Very good, my Lord. Thul out."
The communication disengaged, and Loslar replaced the holocom in his pocket.
"Now, before we leave, Loslar, tell me everything you know of what happened down there," Buffy said with quiet venom.
Loslar squirmed under the gaze of his Master. "A-all I know is what I heard you talk about when you came out of the Hive, I swear!"
"I see," Buffy said with a nod of her head. "So you overheard everything the three of us talked about when we got out of there?"
Loslar nodded. "Yes, Master."
Buffy looked to Dalen and Thriss. "Someone this weak with this kind of information is a risk we can't afford. Do you agree?"
Thriss arched a curious eyebrow. "Should he not be safe within the confines of House Thul?"
"You misunderstand, Thriss," Dalen said softly. "Loslar could seek to leverage knowledge of this sort with rivals within the Empire or with other noble houses of Alderaan. House Thul itself is known for its schemes and deceptions. I believe that Buffy is right."
Thriss's face remained calm and impassive, but Buffy felt her rage and fury just under the surface. "Make it fast, Buffy. Don't make him suffer, or you will find your apprentice ready to challenge her Master."
Loslar's dark red skin visibly paled, which Buffy thought was no small feat. "No! N-no!" he cried as he ran away as fast as he could.
Buffy casually unhooked her lightsaber from her belt and tossed it after Loslar. She triggered the activation switch with the Force while the hilt was in midair, and the arc of the blade lopped off Loslar's head before he even realized he was under attack. He was dead before he hit the ground, and he didn't hit the ground until after Buffy's lightsaber disengaged and returned to her outstretched hand.
Thriss let out a small breath. "Thank you, Buffy," she said. "Shall I pilot the speeder back to Thul territory?"
"Actually," Buffy said carefully, weighing her options, "would you mind taking the driver's seat, Dalen? I want to have a bit of a talk with Thriss."
Dalen's anger was palpable at Buffy's slight, but he obeyed without a word. His silence told Buffy more than any fit of anger could have done.
Buffy opened the passenger door. "After you, Thriss."
The Chiss apprentice entered the vehicle and slid over to allow Buffy to get in after her.
Buffy closed the door behind her and suddenly realized just what sort of error she had made with Dalen. Loslar had been of no consequence on the ride over, and so she had paid him no heed. This oversight had prevented Buffy from realizing that the passenger compartment of the speeder was sealed off from the driver's compartment, akin to a limousine from back on Earth.
"You wanted to speak with me, Buffy?" Thriss said coldly as the speeder took off.
"Yeah, I did," Buffy said calmly, hoping to clear the air between them. "I just wanted to make sure that things are okay between us. And did that sound as pathetic to you as it sounded to me?"
Thriss shook her head gently. "You are many things, Buffy, but pathetic will likely never be one of them. I fear I am at fault for expecting you to be the kind of person that you simply are not."
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Buffy asked with crossed arms.
"It means," Thriss said angrily, "that I thought you were a decent person, Buffy! I thought you were a noble warrior who fought for what she believed in, not because she enjoyed killing and torture! I thought you were someone that I could love!"
Thriss had all but shouted that last bit, and now was on the verge of tears.
Buffy recoiled from Thriss's words as if struck by lightning. Did she really come across as a pre-prison Faith?
Buffy shook thoughts of her sister Slayer out of her head and tried to gather her apprentice into her arms for comfort, but she was rebuffed.
"No, don't pretend to care," Thriss said through clenched teeth.
"I do care," Buffy protested. "Look, the thing with Loslar… You never knew him, but he threatened friends of mine for no other reason than because he had the power to do so. He wanted to rise on the backs of others through fear and lies and treachery, and I hated him for it. The people he bossed around became my friends, and then Darth Arctis ordered me to kill them, and I obeyed before I even realized I had done it."
It was now Buffy who was breathing heavily. "I hated them both after that. It was easier to blame Arctis, but Loslar had made my friends suffer even more than Arctis did, and this was before I had ever met them! They could have been great Sith, but they died because I wasn't strong enough to stop truly evil men like Loslar and Arctis."
Thriss looked up at Buffy, her breathing a bit steadier. "You managed to take your revenge on both of them."
"We have a concept where I come from," Buffy explained. "Karma is a philosophy of balance. If you do something good, it will come back to you in the form of someone else being good to you. The same goes for bad deeds. What happened to both Loslar and Arctis was nothing more than karma catching up to them."
"It's more than just the violence," Thriss protested, but she did not stop Buffy from holding her hand this time. "You are more and more favoring Lord Dalen's way of thinking when it comes to how you should be as a Sith. The notion of you following that man's guidance instead of…"
"Instead of yours?" Buffy said pointedly as everything became clear. "You know that I've found both you and Shar attractive, and you were afraid I would leave you for him. Is that it?"
"It's true, isn't it?" Thriss sobbed, all pretense gone.
Buffy had to bite back a laugh. "No, Thriss, it's not true at all. And I'll tell you why: You're stronger than him."
"How? How can I possibly be stronger than a Lord of the Sith?" Thriss asked through tears, but Buffy sensed her hunger for a favorable answer.
"Shar Dalen is above all else a scholar. He likes to study and to read and to learn, and that's all good. As a fighter, he's okay. I'd trust him to have my back in a fight. It's his will that's no longer what it used to be. He's started deferring to me more and more over the past few months, and while that's nice and makes things easier, it also tells me that he's stopped trying to break at least a few of his chains.
"But you, Thriss," Buffy said huskily as she ran a hand over her apprentice's blue face, "you have never lost your fierceness of spirit. You are independent and entirely your own person. You follow me for now, but you don't do so out of submissiveness. You do so to learn and further your own power. Back in that cave with Servant Six, you proved to me that you're more worthy than Dalen of being Sith."
"Tell me how I am worthy," Thriss demanded, her lust for Buffy and her hunger for appreciation almost totally uninhibited.
"You questioned Servant Six. You asked him how he knew about the inside of the Purge Engine. That was more than just a simple question, Thriss. That was a challenge to an extension of the Emperor's will, and you did it with the same cool-headedness that's gotten you this far. You keep cool under pressure, and you let that pressure build up until you're ready to use it to its best effect."
As she described Thriss's very true nature, Buffy couldn't help but think of Faith once again.
"And right now," Buffy said softly with the sexiest smile she could muster, "I want you to take all that pent up pressure and show me exactly how much you want me."
Thriss, ever the good apprentice, obeyed her Master's command without a second thought, and all of the fear and tension of the day was forgotten in the throes of heat and passion.
For a brief moment, Buffy mused on how she missed her sister Slayer, but the heat of the moment quickly drove away all thoughts of Faith from Buffy's mind as she and Thriss immersed themselves in each other.
The trip through hyperspace had been entirely uneventful. Buffy and Thriss had decided not to rub things in Dalen's face by publicly acknowledging what had transpired in the back of the speeder on Alderaan, while Dalen himself was quietly seething with anger and jealousy over what he knew to be true but was too polite to voice aloud.
Dalen and Thriss had each retired to their own berths, leaving Buffy to supervise the 2V-series droid that was piloting the ship through hyperspace towards the rendezvous point. For whatever reason, Buffy found the bluish-white waves of hyperspace soothing. For all of her passion with Thriss, Buffy felt bad for leaving Dalen out to dry, so to speak. Watching the ship travel took her mind away from things for the short term.
Said short term came to an abrupt end as the droid pushed a lever upward, bringing the ship back into realspace, where the sight of at least a dozen Harrower-class dreadnoughts and about fifty smaller ships of varying sizes and shapes awaited them. Buffy found it easier to refer to the large arrowhead-shaped ships – among the most powerful in the Imperial Navy – by their colloquial nickname of 'star destroyers.' It had more flair and was easier to remember than the technical name.
The droid flipped a switch near a small light that had started to blink, opening a communications channel.
"This is Expeditionary Fleet flight control to Fury-class transport: Please transmit clearance codes and state your identity," an Imperial-accented woman said from the fleet.
Buffy nodded to the droid, which flipped another switch and then keyed a number of buttons in a sequence.
"This is Lord Sunhome on the transport Bronze," Buffy said. "You should be getting our codes right now. I've also got Lord Dalen and my apprentice with me. She's a Chiss whose full name I honestly have trouble with, but her core name is Thriss, if that helps."
"Thank you, my Lord," the officer said professionally. "Clearance codes and identities confirmed. Welcome to the Expeditionary Fleet, Lord Sunhome. Darth Malgus and Grand Moff Regus expect you to join them on the bridge of Flame's Shadow as soon as possible. Docking protocols are being transmitted to your ship. Do you require a tractor beam to guide you into dock?"
Buffy thought about it. "I have a droid flying the ship, but a human touch can't hurt, just to be safe. The tractor beam would be much appreciated."
"Understood, my Lord. Please hold."
There was a pause of no more than five seconds before the ship started to buckle slightly. The droid killed the engines and let the tractor beam pull them in.
"We have you, Lord Sunhome. Darth Malgus has ordered an escort for you to ensure your arrival meets with no obstructions. Please follow their instructions."
Buffy didn't know who Darth Malgus was, but she did know that one did not earn the title of 'Darth' without significant power and experience. "We hear you loud and clear," Buffy said, attempting to mimic the tone she'd heard in various movies from back home on Earth.
"Very good, my Lord. Flight control out."
The 2V-series droid flipped a switch and cut the communications feed. Buffy watched as the massive dreadnought drew the Bronze into its forward hangar bay, which rested in the middle of the split halves of the fore section of the star destroyer.
Buffy exited the cockpit and headed into the central area of the ship. Thriss's door was slightly ajar, and Buffy sensed that her apprentice was sleeping.
Dalen's door was wide open, and Buffy knocked gently on it, rousing her former Master from a flimsiplast tome he was perusing.
"What is it, Lord Sunhome?" he asked curtly.
Buffy sighed resignedly. "Mind if I come in for a moment?"
Dalen closed his book and set it back on a shelf. "The door is open, is it not?"
Buffy smiled at the minor lesson from home that Dalen seemed to have taken to heart. "I wanted to apologize for how I treated you back on Alderaan," Buffy said. "I know how it must have seemed, but I didn't-"
"Don't apologize to me, Buffy," Dalen said sharply. "A Sith does not justify herself to anyone beneath her. You have your role, and I have mine. That is as it should be."
"Shar!" Buffy groaned, growing increasingly irritated. "Get over yourself! You taught me that the Sith seek out conflict to test themselves against the toughest foes so that they can become strong and powerful in order to break their chains. You're acting far more like a Jedi than a Sith right now, and it's pitiful to watch."
Dalen rose to his feet and stood nose-to-nose with his former apprentice. Rather, he would if they were of an equal height, but Buffy was a good few inches shorter than he was.
"You have some nerve to say such a thing," Dalen hissed slowly. "After all that I have done for you, I expected to be treated with more respect than this!"
Buffy almost slapped Dalen. "You. Are. Sith!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. "Sith do not accept their place beneath others. They study their enemies, exploit their weaknesses, and rise to greatness on the backs of their corpses. Jedi believe that there is a place for everything in the order that they see in the Force.
"You are Sith!" Buffy shouted again, and Dalen recoiled. "If you want respect and power, then take it! You're my friend, Shar. I won't hurt you, but don't expect me to enable your complacency. It's become a chain. Break it before you fall behind."
Dalen's eyes widened and he sat back down on his bed. "You are right, of course," he said with a small laugh. "It seems I have forgotten how to be a student and assumed that as a Lord, I would be an equal to other Sith. You were right that I have become complacent. Equality is a myth that the Republic and the Jedi perpetuate, and I feel ashamed to have fallen for that lure."
"Don't apologize," Buffy reminded him. "Sith don't do that," she said with a twinkle in her eye.
Dalen smiled back. "Right you are, Buffy. Right you are."
The ship shuddered briefly.
"We must have docked. Thriss! Are you awake?" Buffy called.
"Yes," Thriss said groggily. "I'm sorry," she said as she emerged from her cabin.
"Don't apologize," Buffy said with a smile. "Just wake yourself up quickly before the airlock pressurizes."
Thriss smoothed out her clothes and steadied her breathing. "Yes. You are right, of course," she said uneasily.
Buffy stepped closer to her apprentice. "Are you all right?" she asked quietly.
"What?" Thriss said with mild surprise. "Oh, yes. I'm fine. I just had an unsettling dream about that cave full of Killiks, with all of them looking at me all at once."
"I know," Buffy said. "It's freaky, isn't it?"
Thriss arched a curious brow. "That is one way of putting it. Yes, 'freaky' is an accurate term for the sensation."
A single harsh klaxon sounded to indicate that the airlock had been pressurized.
"All right. Get ready, both of you," Buffy said more curtly than she meant. "We're about to get an escort to meet with some Darth and another guy. Grand Moff something or other."
"Grand Moff Regus is the senior most member of the entire Imperial Navy," Dalen said coolly. "He might not be Sith, but he is about as close to the height of Imperial power as one can be without the gift of the Force. He is relatively new to the position, and the previous Grand Moff – Rycus Kilran – has raised the bar significantly. His death is the Empire's loss. Do you remember the Darth's name?"
"Ugh! Why can't Sith have regular names," Buffy complained. "It was Darth Me Gusta or something like that."
"Me Gusta?" Dalen questioned with an arched eyebrow.
"No, that wasn't it. I want to say it was 'Malice,' but I don't think that's right."
"You wouldn't be referring to Darth Malgus, would you?" Dalen asked.
Buffy snapped her fingers. "That's it!"
"Fascinating," Dalen said. "Darth Malgus is one of the most celebrated heroes of the last war. He was there at the beginning, when the Empire retook Korriban, and also at the end where he led the Sacking of Coruscant and personally destroyed the Jedi Temple there. He is not a man to be trifled with."
Thriss nodded and looked like she was composing herself. "Of course, Buffy," she said in a clear effort to appear calm.
Buffy looked at her apprentice with mild concern, but she didn't want to seem like a mother hen. "Okay, then. Let's go."
Dalen and Thriss fell in behind Buffy as they exited their ship and entered the hallways of the Flame's Shadow. A quartet of black-armored soldiers was waiting at the airlock. "This way, my Lord," one of them said.
Buffy nodded her assent to the troopers, and they got underway.
Two soldiers marched in front of her while the other two took up the rear behind Dalen and Thriss.
After traversing a lengthy corridor, they rode a turbolift that seemed to take forever while traveling in every which direction on any given axis at a time.
The lift finally deposited the three Sith on what was obviously the bridge of the mighty warship. The room was massive with dozens if not hundreds of crew stations in tight clusters on the main deck as well as a sub-tier accessible by metal staircases.
The soldiers guided Buffy, Dalen, and Thriss straight forward, past all of the crew stations, to the massive transparisteel window at the front of the room. There stood two people, their backs turned to Buffy. One was an unassuming-looking man who might have been fifty or sixty years old or so. He was dressed in a perfectly-pressed military uniform, and Buffy sensed a sharp resolve in him despite no sensitivity to the Force.
The other man stood in stark contrast to the officer. He had to be over six feet tall, and he wore an imposing black cloak over heavy-looking black armor. His head was completely bald and horrifically scarred. As he turned to face the approaching group, Buffy saw that his lower jaw was covered in some sort of mask that extended upward to cover his nose and mouth.
"That will be all, soldier," the officer said to the armored troops. He had a grey beard that was as neatly trimmed as his suit was smooth.
"My Lords, welcome to the Flame's Shadow, the officer said. "I'm Grand Moff Regus. I'll be commanding the naval activity for the upcoming operation. Darth Marr said that you would have the coordinates?"
Buffy nodded and fished the datapad with the map's information out of her pocket. "Right here," she said.
"I will take that," Darth Malgus said. His voice was harsh and coarse even through the synthesizer that he wore over his mouth. Buffy could tell that he had seen more than his share of action, and she sensed that he enjoyed battle a great deal. The yellowish tint of his eyes also told her that he was incredibly strong in the Dark Side of the Force.
"Here you are then, Darth Malgus," she said politely as she handed him the pad.
"You've been told who we are. Good. That will leave more time for planning the assault. What can you tell us about the Purge Engine itself?" Malgus asked.
"Not a lot," Buffy said. Despite Malgus's immense physical presence, she was not intimidated. Compared with the cavern of the Dark Hive back on Alderaan, this man was nothing. "I know that it's big enough to have an inside to it that people can walk around in. So, maybe it's a space station?"
"That is quite possible. Probable, even," Malgus said coolly as a crewman appeared quickly to take the pad from the Sith Lord's hand. "Input this data and extrapolate a location, then send three scout ships to the destination for a class-five reconnaissance mission. Time is of the essence."
The crewman simply bowed with a 'Yes, my Lord,' and walked back to his post. These people were obviously professionals, Buffy realized, and had probably served with Malgus long enough to know to simply do as they were told without question.
"Word of your deeds precedes you all," Malgus said neutrally. "It is rare to find a Sith so young and so small who possesses such power as I sense in you," Malgus said to Buffy. "It shows in your actions. Your ascension to Lordship has come far more quickly than most, Sunhome. Your choice of a Chiss apprentice also does you credit."
Thriss took a small step forward. "You are not opposed to 'aliens' becoming Sith, Darth Malgus?" she asked
"On the contrary," Malgus said to Buffy's great surprise. "If the Empire is to succeed, it will need to accept whatever weapons it can use against its enemies. I sense great power in all of you, and I cannot imagine any worthy Sith taking an apprentice who could not surpass her one day. Regardless of your species or birth station, all three of you are worthy servants of the Empire."
"Forgive me, my Lord," Dalen said carefully, "but why do you believe that the Purge Engine is likely to be a space station?"
Malgus did not answer immediately. "Grand Moff, if you would resume your normal duties?"
Buffy sensed minor frustration from the Moff, but he bowed crisply all the same. "As you wish, my Lord," he said before walking away calmly.
"Now then," Malgus said slowly as he affixed his unnatural yellow eyes on Dalen, "the reason I believe the Purge Engine to be a space station is because I have encountered another space station built by the Rakatan Infinite Empire in recent months. The Emperor had been keeping a captive Jedi Master in stasis for three centuries, seeking to break his will over time. To the Jedi's credit, he managed to withstand the Emperor for all that time until a Republic strike team infiltrated the prison and freed him.
"The Jedi Master then fled to the Rakatan space station I mentioned. It is known as the Foundry, and it is capable of producing war droids en masse purely through the power of the Force, requiring minimal to zero base construction materials. The Jedi Master intended to use the Foundry to make an army large enough to topple the Empire."
"I'm guessing that this Jedi isn't still a problem?" Buffy asked inquired.
"You guess correctly," Malgus said calmly. "I handpicked a strike team to assault the Foundry and its Master. While the mission was a success, the Jedi Master's fate is a mystery. By all reports, Revan vanished in a flash of light as he was struck down, leaving no body to be recovered."
Buffy recognized the name instantly, and she looked to Dalen to see him struggling to keep his face neutral.
"Your thoughts betray you, Lord Dalen," Malgus said coolly. "The so-called Revanite cult on Dromund Kaas has been dismantled since you last visited the compound there. While the leaders were executed, too many Sith and Imperial forces were and are in vital roles, serving throughout the entirety of the Empire. The Dark Council decided that with a soon-to-come declaration of Revan's death, his followers will simply be fully integrated back into the greater whole of the Empire. Those that don't will be killed, but those who prove themselves will be allowed to live."
Dalen's face had gone pale, but he was managing to keep up a calm exterior.
"Count yourself fortunate that you still live, Lord Dalen," Malgus said. "Had the Emperor perceived an actual threat of any sort from the Revanites, we would both be dead now."
Now Buffy's head whirled around to face Malgus again. "You were a… What did you call them? You were a Revanite?"
"Only so far as I learned from and admired Darth Revan's example," Malgus elaborated. "He was no divine entity as some believed, but merely a very powerful individual with a rare understanding of both the light and dark sides of the Force.
"And now, the time for idle conversation is over, Lord Sunhome," Malgus said ominously. "I have been told that you will lead the strike team that will secure the Purge Engine. There will be thirty other Sith under your command, excepting Lord Dalen and your apprentice, along with a large complement of Imperial troopers. The size of that force will be dependent on what our scouts report regarding the size of the installation."
Buffy's jaw dropped open at the notion that she would be commanding an army of Sith. She hadn't personally led a force that size since the collapse of Sunnydale, and the thought of a similar battle approaching had her anxious. She could work with anxiety and turn it into anger to use against her enemies.
"I suggest you take the time to meet with those you will be commanding," Malgus added. "Learn their strengths and their weaknesses. Spar with them if you must, but waste not another minute. I will have someone show you to the training area of the ship. Go now."
Buffy nodded and turned around to find a uniformed man with a single red officer's bar waiting for her.
"This way, my Lord."
"Lead on," Buffy said as she fell in behind her escort.
While they walked, Buffy gently took Dalen's hand. "Are you going to be all right, Shar?"
"I hope so, Buffy," he said carefully. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Between the Emperor and now Revan, I really should stop believing in legends and accept reality for what it is."
"Legends have power," Thriss said sagely. "You taught me that a Sith's power is as much how others perceive him as it is anything else. If you appear strong, then you become strong in the minds of others. Having actual strength to back it up, of course, is entirely helpful."
Dalen nodded his understanding. "You are right, of course. We're about to do battle at the personal bequest of the Emperor. This is no time for doubts or second thoughts."
"This is no time for much of anything at all," Buffy countered. "I have a feeling that this is going to be bigger than any of us are seeing right now. If we were back home, I'd say it was May."
"What do you mean?" Thriss inquired. "What is 'May?'"
"May," Buffy said carefully, "is a time of the year back home on Earth when powerful forces come together to do battle, and the fate of the entire world is at stake."
Buffy felt Dalen's anticipation build inside of him. "You believe this coming battle to be of such great importance."
"Something like that," Buffy said. "Without a doubt, there will be a huge showdown at the Purge Engine, and whatever happens there, I don't think anything will ever be the same again."
