Chapter XXIX

Titus dismissed himself from the group in the Council Chamber to take an incoming transmission from his holodisk. Ahsoka remained silent while Titus was in the group, she waited for him to leave the room before approaching Callan.

The group talks amongst themselves telling of each sides story up to the battle. Zallar tells Shila of Cassian's impressive sniper shot on a recon trooper, while Ondar tells how the Thakwaash accidently shot him the night they laid mines out. Cassian tells Callan of how his clumsy mistake stepping on a flash mine left him blind while Callan tells of being held up as Saw's prisoner.

Ahsoka takes Callan's arm and pulls him aside.

"Excuse us." She says to Cassian.

Once they are out of earshot from the group, Ahsoka starts talking, "Something's not right with Titus. I have a bad feeling about him, I think he has a much more sinister agenda."

"Your sure about this?"

Ahsoka nods, "I can sense it." She applies to the Force.

Callan has always known better than to question a Jedi - or, er, former Jedi - he takes her word for it. "What can I do?"

Ahsoka takes out a comlink and hands it to Callan.

"This comlink is linked to the one in my wrist. If I find anything I'll let you know."

"Got it. What are you going to do now?"

Ahsoka looks out of the corner of her eye towards a doorway adjacent to them. "I'm going to have a look around."

Callan nods as he returns to the group acting as if his talk with Ahsoka was just a casual conversation. Ahsoka waits until he returns and no one is watching as she quickly moves, without running, towards the doorway.

She rests her hands on it's two aged wooden doors. She can't sense anyone's presence on the other side. With a gentle push, the door swings open and she swiftly steps through before closing it quietly behind her. Overhead lights flicker on, there must a sensor that detected her. Through the light, she looks around the room, and is baffled by the magnitude of writings and pictographs lining the walls.

A holotable rests in the center of the room which she walks past to get a look at an illustration on the wall. The image is a pyramid in shape, surrounded by columns and magnificent facades at its base. A temple perhaps. Ahsoka notices the words of a bizarre language that form a frame around the pyramid.

Ahsoka traces her fingertips over the writing as she tries to make it out. She recognizes the language. The last time she saw it was on Mortis with her Master and Master Kenobi, she can remember seeing carved into the temple walls of the Brother. The language, she remembers now, is written in Kittât; the ancient language of the Sith.

Ahsoka's suspicions of Titus are escalated.

What is he planning? Ahsoka thinks to herself.

She looks closely at the hyroglifics located at the pyramids base. After what happened on Mortis, Ahsoka tried to study as much Kittât the Jedi Archives had in it's database. Through her self teaching, she can make out a name at in it's writing.

Malachor.

Ahsoka's heard of such a place, such a planet. Stories and legends she'd vaguely heard of during her time in the Order. She knows the planet has a deep connection with the Dark Side of the Force, and it was once a battleground between good and evil. However, the planet has been abandoned, left barren after centuries of inhabitants.

Ahsoka tries to wrap her head around this new information and previous unanswered questions.

Why? What is Titus's interests in Malachor? What is the purpose of this rebellion, and where does his allegiance lie?

A sudden, cruel voice, breaks the rooms silence. "It seems your curiosity and persistence never died."

Titus.

Ahsoka spins around quickly to find her "ally", standing in the doorway to the Council Chamber, blocking her escape. The silver rings of his respirator shine in the light, and his red optics glow bright that offer a look at the fury within him.

There is no point in hiding her actions now, she has seen what Titus has tried to keep hidden.

"Who are you?" Ahsoka asks knowing there can only be one of two people who can answer truthfully. The Jedi, Brejik Ular, she came to know long ago in the Jedi Temple, or the vengeful and murderous Sith she has come to fear, Darth Titus.

Ahsoka feels she already knows who he is.

Titus crosses his arms, "I know you wish for me to say Brejik Ular is still alive. But he is no more, he was weak, he was destroyed."

Ahsoka bows her head in sorrow, "Then it's as I feared from the start, you are, and always have been, Darth Titus." Ahsoka looks up and across the holotable at Darth Titus. "I had my suspicions since our reunion. The cold and empty aura that surrounds you, I felt it the moment I stepped foot in this temple. Your use of the Force as a weapon rather than defense was the second clue. Then your willingness to sacrifice lives was the third, the Jedi put the lives of others before their own, never the other way around. Even now, I can feel the conflict and hate building within you. Your right, Brejik Ular, is dead."

Titus turns around and walks up to the chamber's far wall. The wall's reflective plating shows a cloudy image of Titus.

With his back towards Ahsoka, Titus cunningly asks, "Bandura never told you or Skywalker how I was trained in the Dark Side, did he?"
Ahsoka says nothing, but slowly reaches behind her and hits her wrist comlink. Titus, turns around to face her, staring through her with his glowing red eyes.
"The Force guided me to Korriban, where I was trained by the Lord of Hate, Darth Hord. My Master showed me the true nature of the Force and helped me unleash the full power within me. It was then, I used that power to destroy what was left of Brejik Ular, and my connection to the Light."
Ahsoka still says nothing.
"He instructed me to find the robes of the late Darth Nihilus, Lord of Hunger." Titus presents his dark attire as if showing it off. "These very robes hold within its fabric, the spirit of Darth Nihilus, and through them, the Sith Lord gives me more strength and power."
Ahsoka steps back into a defensive position, with her hands on her lightsabers. "But why Malachor? Why start a rebellion?"
Titus holds up his hand, gesturing for Ahsoka to wait, "Patience, Tano, patience. Didn't your Master ever teach you patience?" Titus pauses before saying in the best sarcastic tone his dilators can manage, "Oh, but patience wasn't necessarily Skywalker's forte was it?" If Titus could grin, Ahsoka knows he would.
Another memory of Master Sinube comes back to Ahsoka as well as other flash memories of Obi Wan telling Anakin to have patience. But she pushes those thoughts aside not wanting to lose focus on the situation at hand.
"What if I told you there is more to this plan than you understand? What if I told you there is another who assumes himself to be my new Master?"
"Impossible." Ahsoka blatantly says. She knows the rumors of how the Jedi were destroyed, how once the Clones turned they were led by the Sith Lord she has come to know as being called: Darth Vader. "There is only one Sith, Vader."
Titus chuckles, "And what of the Emperor? Do you really believe that a Sith Lord as powerful as Vader has been acclaimed to be, would bow down to a politician as Palpatine?"
Ahsoka briefly thinks about it. An image surfaces in her mind of the unknown figure dressed in a black cloak from her nightmare. Was that the Sith Lord?

Could Palpatine be the Sith Lord?
"Can't you see Palpatine is the real Sith Master? Vader is just the apprentice as I am to my Master, and our power is taken for granted by them."
Ahsoka knows Titus is implying something, "What are you getting at?"
"Malachor. Since my exile, Darth Nihilus has been subtly guiding me the ancient planet."
"And you hope to find there?"
"Knowledge and power of course. So much so, I will be far more powerful than my Master, the Emperor, and his puppet, Vader."
Ahsoka glares at him, "Then your going to have to kill me and this rebellion." She says more as a statement than as a question.
Titus laughs again, "Actually, Ahsoka, I have greater plans for you and the rebellion. The rebellion serves at my whim under the illusion of freedom from the Empire, little do they know they are just a pawn to get me to my proper place of power, as Ruler of the Galaxy. Once I am there and my enemies are destroyed, I will have them as my newly appointed military."
"And what of me? What are your plans for me?"
Titus's voice dilators hum, "You will play one of my key roles, Ahsoka, I believe you will reconsider my offer years ago on Don Har, and become my apprentice. Together, we will destroy my Master on Malachor and you will lead my rebellion into battle against the Empire!" Titus pauses before calmly saying, "Together, we will bring back the Sith as its rightful place as Ruler of the Galaxy."
Ahsoka takes her lightsabers off her belt, "And just as I said years ago." She activates them. "I'm going to have to pass."
Titus shakes his head, "Pity it had to be this way, but not unexpected. If you will not conform to the Darkside willingly, then I will have to show you its full power until I break your defiance!" Immediately as Titus finishes his sentence, he hits Ahsoka with Force lightning and violently throws her into the wall.
Ahsoka crumples to the floor with sparks of electricity still running across her body. She looks up, trying to catch her breath, and sees Titus walking towards her with his hands up and ready to strike her again. Ahsoka calls onto the Force, rips the holotable from its foundation, and throws it at Titus.
Titus activates his red lightsabers and slices the hurtling table in two, evading the blow. Ahsoka springs up from the ground, retrieves her blades, launches herself in the air, and kicks Titus across the face on her fall back to the ground.
Titus slumps over one of the destroyed holotable halves as Ahsoka regains her footing and tries to ignore the pain in her foot from hitting Titus's metallic face.
"You've gotten stronger since last we met." Titus compliments, "Indeed you will be a powerful apprentice to me and a skilled assassin to my Master."
"Not if I can help it." Ahsoka counters as she crosses her blades in front of her face.
Titus puts his blades together to form one double bladed lightsaber, then charges Ahsoka. Titus twirls the blades above his head and at Ahsoka's montrals, not wanting to aim for her neck in a kill blow. Ahsoka, side steps backwards and dodges the attack.
She pushes her arms out in front of Titus and shoves him back with the Force.
Titus recovers quickly and counters Ahsokas attack by bringing her blades down over him. With their lightsabers crossed, Titus forces the bottom blade to just graze Ahsoka's thigh. She lets out a small scream in agony.
With her un-injured leg, Ahsoka pushes herself back and away from her opponent. She desperately wants to grab at the bloodied wound, but she knows it will only make it worse. It's a minor flesh wound, it will heal as she is aware, but it will hurt in the meantime.
"Give in, apprentice." Titus distinctively pronounces 'apprentice'. "There is no sense in continuing this fight."
Ahsoka looks up at Titus, recalling what it was like the last time she faced him, "You will just have to kill me."
Titus says nothing for what seems like forever, "If that is your fate."
Titus reaches out with his good hand and barley pinches his thumb and forefinger together as if he is holding an invisible cup in his hand. In doing so, Ahsoka can feel his hands around her throats as they squeeze tighter. She feels herself being lifted off the ground as she is strangled by the Force.
Ahsoka claws at her throat, letting go of her lightsabers in doing so, as she gasps for air. Her lightsabers clatter to the floor as Titus rears back and throws Ahsoka through the wooden control room door with a roar of anger. Ahsoka wasn't ready to brace herself as she hit the Council floor past the doorway, and rolled onto her stomach at the feet of her friends.
"Ahsoka!" Callan yells in disregard of using Ahsoka's other name 'Ashla'.
Ahsoka moans as she brings herself up on one knee, the cut on her head from Thakwaa reopened. She looks up to see Titus walking out of the doorway - she just broke through - with his lightsaber still drawn. Ahsoka reaches out to the Force and commands for her lightsabers to return to her. They blades fly past Titus and into her hands to be activated.
Shila looks from behind Callan at the beautiful white blades, "So it is true, you are a Jedi."
Ahsoka rises to her feet, "Go, get out of here."
"What about you?" Cassian immediately counters.
"I'll hold Titus off, I'll meet you outside of the temple. Now go!"