Chapter 37: Betrayal (19 BBY)

"This is interesting," Naomi commented. The room which they entered was fully decorated with handcrafted furniture, paintings and rugs yet everything in the room had a thick layer of dust.

"It is," Cindo replied, walking around the room. The paintings had Mandalorian warriors on them mostly, showing their victories and showcasing their culture. The others were just paintings of landscapes from various planets.

"Can we get out of here please," HK said, shaking his head violently. "This dust is clogging up various things which in me which I would like to stay unnamed." Cindo and Naomi shared grins of amusement as the droid continued trembling and hitting its head.

Cindo opened the door. It led to a wide and tall hallway with luxurious chandeliers on the ceiling. The hallway was lined with small coffee tables with dead plants in pots. There were also many statuettes and busts lining the hallway. The air was very heavy and filled with dust just as everything else but there was also a new sensation. A stench worse than the one they witnessed in the sewers. Cindo gagged slightly as he caught the smell even through his helmet.

Naomi started coughing violently as she entered the hallway behind Cindo. "Smells like a pile of dead Bantha," she commented, pulling her black scarf over her nose.

"Sometimes I really appreciate being a droid," HK said to himself, walking in last.

"I think we should investigate it," Cindo proposed.

"We don't have time for that. The assault's already begun," Naomi protested.

"Look if it's a door in this hallway we'll investigate it otherwise we will let it slide okay?" Cindo said, his hand on her shoulder. She let out an exasperated sigh. "Fine."

This part of the palace seemed to have been abandoned quite a while ago. Around a month HK calculated.

They slowly and carefully made their way down the hallway while making sure that there were no traps. The further they moved the stronger the stench became. They were heading right for the source. Cindo felt a sharp pain in his head when they passed a door. It was different than any other in the hall. It was made of metal.

Cindo stopped when the pain hit him and looked towards the door. "I felt that too," Naomi said, turning towards the door.

"I don't want to destroy the suspense but do you two have one of those bond things?" HK asked intriguingly.

Cindo's eyes locked onto him. "How do you know about that?" he asked him with a raised brow.

"My old master used to have one," HK said.

"Yes, we have a force bond," Cindo answered with a sigh. He always forgot that the droid belonged to Myria, so it naturally knew a lot about the Force. And the bond he spoke about was probably between Myria and Keira. Unless it was something else but Cindo didn't have time to think about that now. When he finally dragged himself out of his thoughts he saw that Naomi was already cutting through the metal with her lightsaber. Cindo joined her and soon they cut an almost perfect circle into the door.

"I don't think I'm ready for this," she commented looking at the door. They pushed the cut-out piece of the door inwards. As soon as there was enough room for the air to leave the room the full extent of the stench hit their face.

Naomi was knocked down to her knees, her eyes began to water, and she started to cough and gag. Cindo experience much the same only that he leaned on the wall to support himself.

HK in the meantime just kept swinging his head around from Cindo to Naomi, looking confused. A few moments later he just shrugged it off and entered the darkness of the room.

It took a whole minute for Cindo and Naomi to recover but even then they did not recover fully. The stench was way too overwhelming for that to be possible.

"If I may ask… Why don't you just breathe through your mouth?" HK asked them, his head turned towards them.

"The heat of the air wouldn't really help, and I could probably taste the smell," Cindo explained, leaning on the frame of the hole in the door. "Is there a light switch somewhere?" he asked, feeling the wall.

"Don't worry about that," HK said. A second passed and his light flickered a few times before finally lighting up revealing… "Bodies," Cindo said, air leaving his body.

Bodies clad in light gray armor were piled up in the middle of the small room. The room was only equipped with 4 chairs, one of them broken. Flies and maggots lurching all around the pile and the stain of dried blood underneath. Naomi ran out of the room past Cindo and a few moments later she could be heard throwing up somewhere in the hallway. "Mandalorian Protector Guards," Cindo muttered quietly.

The few female bodies there were, were stripped of their armor and some of them stripped of everything else as well, their armor randomly dispersed around the room.

"What happened here?" Naomi asked, outside of the room.

"I don't know but I think I can figure it out," Cindo said, as he began scouring the ground with his eyes.

"How?"

"Back when I first arrived at Odessen I found a blaster, centuries old. When I picked it up and focused on it with the Force I got a vision of the person who used it," he explained. He found what he was looking for. On the ground was a blood-soaked baton. He picked it up and focused on it with the Force.

His vision was dark. All he could hear was screaming and cries of pain. It was not silent for a moment. Blunt objects hitting bodies could be heard alongside blaster bolts being fired and some sort of shock device sending pulses of electricity.

"They were tortured," Cindo said as he came out of the vision. "Maul's Mandalorians must've capture them and brought them here."

"Why would they do something like this?" Naomi asked.

"I-I don't know," Cindo said, dumbfounded by the situation. The people that did this must've had mental issues. Nobody in their right mind would do something like this.

"Can we move on?" Naomi asked. She was still nowhere to be seen.

"Yeah, let's get out of here," Cindo said, exiting the room with HK in tow. "We need to keep moving."

They kept on running down the hallway until they were stopped by a barricaded door. The barricade wasn't very sturdy as it appeared as if it was set up just to remind people not to go there. They cut through it with ease and entered a large open room. It was the central room and they were on the upper floor. They could see many more barricaded doors probably leading to other hallways. It seemed like the current occupants didn't really need all the space.

Cindo looked over the railing and spotted several Mandalorians wearing black and red armor. He reached out with the Force to see where the dark side energy he felt before resided. The conclusion made sense. It was in the direction of the throne room.

The problem was that the only stairs that led down were guarded, so they would have to find another way. Cindo had another quick look around the bottom part. A plan started formulating in his head.

"You ready?" Cindo asked Naomi. They were on the opposite sides of the second-floor walkway. It didn't go all the way around the second floor, being cut off where the entrance to the throne room was. Two guards were right below that part.

Naomi nodded, and they dropped down on the guards, silently taking them out. Once they dragged the bodies to the small outcrop, Cindo signaled HK to jump and softened his landing with the Force. Their way to the throne room was now open.

The corridor that led to the throne room was narrower than the hallway where they found the bodies, but it was just as if not more decorated than it or at least it looked more alive. No dust and no dead plants. Then suddenly the ground shook violently, almost throwing Naomi off her feet. Ahsoka's forces were close. "We need to hurry up before this place plummets into chaos."

Cindo could sense multiple force signatures approaching them. "Hide," he told Naomi and HK, who both hid behind a wall where the hallway got even narrower. Cindo moved to the side and got down on his knees and making himself invisible with the Force. It was still a hard thing to do fast even after all the years of meditation. The group of six armed Mandalorians ran past them towards the entrance of the palace.

"You need to teach me that," Namoi said, her eyes shining with amazement.

"You still have a ways to go before that. Let's keep moving," he replied.

Luckily for them no more Mandalorians came their way and they arrived at the door to the throne room unscathed. The door was slightly open so Cindo put his ear close to it.

"My lord, Republic forces have reached the palace perimeter," a man said, his voice slightly muffled by his helmet. A second later the sound of metal hitting a wall violently echoed through the palace.

"Useless. Keep this safe. If anything happens to it I will personally disassemble your body, piece by piece," a clear and dark voice said.

Loud metallic footsteps began approaching the door. Cindo nervously looked around the corridor looking for a place to hide again. There was nothing. The person was closer and closer to the door. Cindo made a decision. He pushed the door with as much force as he could, knocking whoever was on the other side back.

Cindo entered the room moments later with both of his sabers in his hands, ignited. Then he saw him. Dart Maul.

"What is this?" he asked irritably as he got up. He ignited his lightsaber and observed them angrily. Naomi was on Cindo's right side while HK was on his left. The Mandalorians that were in the room raised their weapons and aimed them at the group.

"You get them, I'll get Maul," Cindo instructed Naomi. HK did not need such an instruction. He knew he was no match for a Sith so he would automatically start going for the Mandalorians. The two ran past Maul whose gaze was fixated on Cindo for some reason.

"Hmm… You seem familiar," Maul said. Cindo didn't understand how the Sith lord even knew he existed. They hadn't even seen each other before.

"Ah, I remember now," he said, his orange eyes lighting up with anger.

"What are you talking about? I've never seen you in my life," Cindo said. Maybe the Sith was trying to confuse him so he would drop his guard, but Cindo knew better.

"You wouldn't remember. You were too young back then and I wasn't personally there," Maul said. "But look at you now. A Jedi. Such a waste." He took a brief pause. "You could have been so much more," he said with a disappointed shake of his head. "Such potential yet you limit yourself intentionally by following some old reli…" The Sith barely managed to block the short stream of lightning Cindo sent his way.

"Oh, so you are a Sith," Maul said. He seemed to immediately notice Cindo's annoyance and anger at that word. He began laughing. "Or perhaps you are something else entirely but let me tell you something child – many have tried to play both sides. All of them failed."

Cindo had enough. He didn't have time for games. He attacked the Zabrak with a fast swing of his right saber. Maul met his blade easily but he was immediately attacked from the other side, forcing him to react quickly. He took a few steps back. "Aren't you a fast one."

He jumped forwards, putting his prosthetic legs to use. The speed and power with which Mauls' blade clashed with Cindo's was so powerful that it almost forced it out of Cindo's hand. Seeing an opportunity, Maul swung quickly again, this time being blocked by Cindo's other lightsaber. The two kept exchanging swings repeatedly with no clear victor while there were blaster bolts flying in all directions.

Maul used his anger and rage to empower and keep himself going. He kept on attacking relentlessly while Cindo precisely blocked his attacks, trying to conserve the least energy possible. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted a thermal detonator landing beside HK. The droid didn't notice it and kept on firing. Maul slashed horizontally at Cindo who blocked the attack and then immediately put in a quick counter swing, forcing Maul to backstep. That gave Cindo enough time to use the Force to push the thermal detonator away from HK.

Maul was unlike any Sith Cindo fought before. It seemed as if Dooku purposely trained most of the Sith under his command poorly. They purely relied on raw power and their emotions, but Maul was different. Sure, he relied on those things, but his technique was refined and precise which made it that much harder to create opportunities to attack.

It was time to switch up his strategy. He took a few steps back, but Maul was instantly on him again. He blew him away with the Force, but the Zabrak immediately recovered from the push. Cindo found himself blocking a flurry of attacks once again. Forcing Maul into a blade lock he had a few moments to scan his surroundings. He spotted a chandelier right on top of them. He extended his free hand and with the Force he managed to free the chandelier sending it down towards them. They both jumped into opposite directions just before the crystal chandelier hit the ground and shattered.

The second-long reprieve was enough time for him to put his two lightsabers into one. He readied himself for Maul's inevitable attack. It came a second later after Maul jumped over the chandelier, headed right for him. Maul seemed a bit surprised when he attacked at first, expecting two lightsabers instead of one but he soon adapted. They went back into a stalemate.

Cindo kept on blocking until Maul gave him a very short window of opportunity. He released the lightsaber with one hand and sent a surge of force lightning Maul's way. The former Sith lord absorbed it but he couldn't recover in time to block a telekinetic blast that hit him only moments after the lightning. He was sent through the air and hit the chandelier. He shook off the pain and with an angry growl propelled himself towards Cindo once again.

"I should've come for you personally," he remarked with breaks in between words as he struck at Cindo. Cindo paid him no attention. He didn't care about the past, the only thing that mattered was this moment. He baited Maul into another blade lock. With a fierce grin of craziness on his face he began pushing down Cindo's blade but unknown to him that was Cindo's plan all along. Both hands firmly placed on the hilt, Cindo sent out imbued his weapon with lightning. The lightning went from his saber over to Maul's and finally to Maul's body. As the Zabrak's body shook and his strength faded, Cindo got out of the blade lock by pushing Maul's lightsaber to the side. He then hit him in the face with the hilt as hard as he could.

Maul stumbled back with his hands on his nose. He removed his hands and blood began dripping from his nose. His gaze only darkened, and his teeth were clenched. Then all of the sudden Naomi and HK walked up behind him. He looked at each of them for a second before looking back at Cindo. He began running at him with full force. Cindo tightened his grip on his lightsaber, preparing for an attack, but to his surprise the attack never came. Instead the former Sith propelled himself over him with the Force.

"We will meet again," he said through his clenched teeth, before he ran out of the throne room.

The room was finally silent. "Did you find the mask?" Cindo asked Naomi after he made sure that Maul wasn't returning.

"I saw one of the Mandalorians by the throne handling it when we busted in. It should be around there," she said. They turned and started heading towards the throne. The room was lined with bodies of Mandalorians.

"You guys sure did well," Cindo commented as they were passing the bodies. Naomi's face had a sad expression on it. Seeing what was in that room will probably leave some marks and she would probably never look at another death lightly.

The temperature in the room suddenly began dropping. In front of them a black and purple vortex began forming. It was the abyss. Somehow it got here. The abyss energy slowly kept building up until there was a large manifestation of it. Cindo kicked over a table. The other two took the hint and hid behind it just as the manifestation exploded. There were marks of the abyss everywhere around the room.

Cindo peeked over. The thing standing there didn't even look like Kyle anymore. The cracks in his skin that used to be orange were now seeping dark energy. He had his hood over his head and his face was replaced with pure moving darkness. His deep and slow breaths echoed around the room.

Cindo stood up, jumped over the table, and ignited his lightsaber. Kyle was still standing there, his body slouched forward. He bent his knees and ignited his blue lightsaber, putting it at his side. Then all of the sudden he let out a howl so loud that Cindo felt slightly nauseous as a result. When he howled the darkness where his face is emitted more visible abyss energy.

Kyle began slowly walking towards Cindo, leaving abyss markings as he walked. Instead of swinging his lightsaber, he surprised the three of them by throwing abyss energy at them. Cindo and Naomi managed to evade it but HK wasn't so lucky. He got hit directly in the chest and as a result his chest area began to smoke and deteriorate. Seconds later he fell to the floor.

"No!" Cindo cried out as the droid hit the floor. His eyes met Kyle's face in an angry gaze. "You'll pay for that."

"Find the mask," he said to Naomi, who nodded. As she began running Kyle jumped towards her with speed that surpassed Maul. She barely managed to block his first attack. Cindo reacted fast, running at him and swinging from behind. Kyle's focus now shifted, Naomi had the chance to run and find the mask.

Cindo knew from the first few attack that he wouldn't be able to hold out for long. Kyle's constant swinging wasn't a problem it was what followed – even more dark abyss energy. With every swing of his hand, a lot of it flew towards Cindo and he was barely avoiding it.

Naomi found the mask under the body of the man who Maul entrusted it to. As soon as she touched it, Kyle's head swung around and he ran at her with full speed. "Behind you," Cindo called out over the bond, not a moment too soon. She managed to sidestep his attack and push him back with the Force.

"What do I do?" she called out as she was slowly retreating towards Cindo.

"Destroy it," Cindo said. She threw the mask on the ground and lifted her arms, ready to impale it with her lightsaber. But before she could she was blasted away by a powerful blast of force energy. Cindo found himself in the same situation a moment later, only that he hit the wall and was unable to recover fast. He could see Kyle approaching Naomi as she was dragging herself to her now deactivated saber. He was dragging his blade behind him, leaving burn marks around the floor.

As he got close he lifted his blade. Cindo finally got up but he would be too late. Kyle was already standing by her ready to swing. Cindo's heart stopped.

Just as he was about to swing a red blaster bolt passed through Kyle's shoulder, preventing him from swinging his saber. He turned his head around violently and spotted the target. It was HK. His chest was corroded. Kyle lifted him with the Force and pulled him towards himself. Cindo wanted to help. He was running towards Kyle the entire time. He couldn't rely on the Force since he was still dizzy and couldn't completely focus. The only thing that kept him going was adrenaline.

But he was too late. Before he could reach Kyle, the droid got impaled in the head and thrown against the floor. Cindo felt what he felt all those years ago when his parents were murdered in front of him. But he remembered his code. "There is no meaning to a life without passion, yet I will not let passion destroy me," he kept repeating to himself. He would mourn his good friend later, but he had to focus on Kyle first. He would use his death to empower himself.

He jumped at Kyle with a cry. Fueled by rage, his attacks were stronger. Even a being made of dark had trouble blocking his attacks, and found himself being force back towards a wall. "Naomi, get the mask," he told her over the bond. Fueled by adrenaline and his anger he kept the being of the abyss away for long enough for Naomi to put a lightsaber through it. The being began screaming and contorting in pain as it finally dropped to the floor. Moments later it began falling apart until there was only a pile of ash left.

Cindo ran over to Naomi. "You okay?" he asked her. She nodded and then looked at HK. Cindo followed her gaze with a sad expression. There laying on his back was HK, his head smoking and his chest area now black and burned through. For the first time in forever Cindo felt a tear run down his face. He lost a good companion and friend. The moment was ruined when Cindo's wrist comm began beeping. It was Razer.

"Yes, Razer?" Cindo said into the comm, his other arm around Naomi's shoulder as they mourned their friend.

"I have to make this brief, so listen. Do not go outside. Go where we came from and do not go close to the clones," Razer said, his words being separated by hisses of pain.

"Razer what's happening?" CIndo asked nervously. Something was happening outside.

"They betrayed us Cindo. You have to escape Mandalore," Razer said. Blaster bolts could be heard in the background. The transmission the suddenly cut off.

"Razer? Razer?" Cindo kept saying into the comm, but there was no response. "We need to go," he said to Naomi pulling her by her hand.

Curses could be heard being uttered where they first entered the sewers.

"Would you shut up!" a soft female voice said.

Cindo and Naomi turned the corner and immediately three blaster rifles were pointed at their direction. "It's us calm down," Cindo said, his arms raised just in case. Fisk, Glitch and Lek lowered their weapons.

"Thank the Force you made it," Glitch said.

"What's happening out there?" Cindo asked.

"The clones. They betrayed us and the Jedi," Fisk said. Cindo could sense his anger.

"How? What happened?"

"We were completing our objective," Lek began explaining. "And we managed to capture Maul with the help of the general but then all of the clones turned their guns against her except for Rex. We went in to try and protect her and talk some sense into them, but they just began shooting at us. We got separated from Ahsoka and Rex, so Razer and Hawker went after them and ordered us to come here and wait for you."

"And I'm guessing since they aren't with you I'm guessing they're…" Glitch said, unable to finish the sentence.

"They're probably dead," Cindo said, looking at the ground. He brought up his head to face the three of them. "I'm sorry."

"This can't be happening," Fisk said, hitting the wall with his fist.

"Calm down. We need to get out of here," Lek said.

"Almost all of the clones participated in the attack right?" Cindo asked and Lek nodded. "So, that means we can probably hijack a ship from camp."

"But there's a star destroyer in orbit," Fisk warned.

"Well if we do it without making noise we can transmit the codes and escape. So, what do you say?"

"There's nothing else we can do really. Let's go," Fisk said.

Luckily for them the camp was mostly empty and they managed to easily hijack a ship and take off. They transmitted the clearance codes and were given an all clear. They jumped to hyperspace not knowing what awaited them on the other side and how the galaxy has just changed forever.

The end.

That's it for the first volume. I would like to thank all of you who read, followed, reviewed this story. It really is a thing I poured a lot of time and effort into.

The next volume will be called The Forgotten Order and it will take place directly after this one. I haven't completely decided what I want to focus on yet but you'll get more of what I hope you liked here. And I will also simultaneously be writing a story about Viper squad called Heroes of The Republic: Viper Squad.

I will be hopefully releasing a chapter once a week/ 2 weeks depending on a lot of factors which I will not name.

Now to address a few things quickly.

Are Viper squad members special clones? No, they're all unique beings.

Why does Cindo never participate in a large battle? It's very simple really. The Jedi Order denies any use of the dark side at all and seeing as Cindo uses it they didn't trust him with commanding troops and attending war changing battles.

The Nihilus thing might've been a bit unexplained. His only intention was to feed himself. He knew that even when he got enough Force energy to satiate his hunger he would keep on going until there would be none left and without the Force there can't be life.