Chapter Thirteen
"General, is your team ready for their special mission?" Dooku asked Grievous. "Yes my lord, they simply wait for your command and they will accompany me behind enemy lines," Grievous answered. "Then send them now, I will engage Kaan in Battle Meditation and will do my best to help you but I make no promises as to the extent of the help," Dooku warned. "I only need enough to reach the ship and find Kaan before he destroys you and that is help enough to me, my lord," Grievous replied.
"Then board your shuttle and deploy when ready," Dooku ordered. "Yes master," Grievous answered. The General left and Dooku watched as his only true hope of defeating Maul marched off the bridge and to his possible doom outside the safety of their CIS Dreadnaught. After that, he sat down, crossed his legs, and remembered what Sora had taught him in engaging the Battle Meditation.
Concentrating his power within himself, he came to that point where he thought of the battle as a board game that whose tide he could change. After that, he took the pieces that belonged to both the CIS and the Republic and began placing them where he could make the strongest moves against Maul's exotic fleet. Then suddenly, the vision of the board became blurred and even distorted by the intruding presence of Lord Kaan into his mind. "You will never achieve victory over my power you fake, perverted sham of the Sith!" Kaan shouted through the Force.
"I am far more real and far more powerful than you could possibly imagine or comprehend, you fool! Prepare to feel the true power of the Dark Side," Dooku replied via the same means. "How can you show me the true power if you don't even know it for yourself?" Kaan asked. "By destroying you while engaged in Battle Meditation with you," Dooku answered shortly before their battle of powers began.
Maul watched as Kaan was occasionally jerked by Dooku's first surges of power and wondered if Kaan had what it took to fight him. He knew from experience that if someone did not give up soon, it could keep the tide at a stalemate for the entire battle. Or else it could become not a struggle of greater use of Battle Meditation so much as a battle for the superiority of one over the other. Though he didn't want that to happen, he knew there was nothing he could do to change it if it did.
Next to him, Savage stood staring with the same intense evil look Maul was accustomed to seeing lately. "Lighten the mood a little bit Savage," Kycina told her youngest son. "I have no means by which to do that, mother," Savage replied. "Such a big and well grown man such as yourself can't even tell a joke?" Githany asked. Savage shook his head and admitted he wouldn't know how to tell one even if he wanted to.
"How tragic you cannot tell a joke but I guess it suits the fact that we're in the middle of a battle instead of in peace time," Githany stated. "Indeed we are but the question we must ask ourselves is this: are we indeed fighting an enemy we can call ours or are we instead fighting ourselves?" Kycina asked. "Do not heed the words of my mother, of course we are fighting an enemy we can call our own. Make that two enemies we can call our own!" Savage declared sincerely.
"That isn't what she means Savage," Maul said. "Then what does she mean, brother?" Savage asked. "She means that we must never stray away from our goals and must keep in mind that we are facing two powerful organizations that mean to kill us. Isn't that right, mother?" Maul answered.
"Partly but not quite spot on, my son. Perhaps you will learn at a later time, perhaps even when this battle's over," Kycina said. No one said a word after that, pondering at any hidden meanings Kycina might have left in her words if not barking orders to troops flying in space on the Brotherhood's ancient but powerful designs. But only two kept their reserve in the crowd while the others were rampant in doing something for the battle: Maul and Kycina, mother and son.
The battle as the stalemate it was becoming was overwhelming to Dooku. When he realized he could not make it so that the tide turned in favor of the alliance he had made with Obi-Wan, he decided to make it a battle of powers between himself and Kaan. It was the only way their battle could not affect his forces and the forces of the Jedi while still battling him. Bit by painful bit, he lured Kaan away from concentrating on the battle and solely on attempting to break him.
"This battle is too great to be allowed to affect more than our two minds. Let us duel it out via the power of the Force and see who is the greatest," Dooku called through the Force. "Very well, shall we begin?" Kaan asked in reply. Dooku began by making the first surge of power that was aimed for the defenses set in Kaan's otherwise fragile mind.
Though he did not completely bust through, he did come almost halfway on that first try at the job. When he recovered, Kaan responded by sending a surge of his own that shook Dooku but did little to actually penetrate his mental defenses. Dooku realized Kaan was making this a game of who can hold on to their sanity the longest before their minds broke before the power of the Dark Side and smiled with his actual mouth. Then he returned the favor and threw an even greater surge that came even closer to reaching Kaan's mind.
Kaan fired another surge that was barely more powerful than the first one and didn't even penetrate halfway through the Count's mental defenses. Smiling, Dooku returned with yet another blast that was only a few millimeters short of penetrating Kaan's fragile mind. Then Dooku hatched up an idea on the fly: instead of seeing if he could break Kaan's sanity (something Darth Bane managed to do a thousand years before), he would see if he could kill him through these surges of Force power. But either out of sheer desperation or because he sensed Dooku was up to something sinister, Kaan sent another weak blast that merely threw him off but did little damage to his regenerating defenses.
Dooku knew Kaan's were also regenerating as was necessary when defending against any attempts by those powerful enough to invade their vulnerable little minds. After recovering from that blast, Dooku dove deep into the power of the Dark Side, concentrated it into a killing blast, then let it build until he felt absolutely sure it would get the job done. It doubled, tripled, even quadrupled its power before he was confident it would kill Kaan, something that pleased him immediately. Then he shot it into Kaan's mind and watched as it tore through his mental defenses and cut deep into his brain, rupturing it, causing hemorrhages, and other unimagined forms of damage in his enemy's head before collapsing on the ship's cold steel floor and falling into a healing trance.
Savage watched, cross-armed as Kaan battled Dooku through the Force and sensed Kaan was losing. "Something troubles you, son. What could it be?" Kycina asked. "Just sensing probably the same thing you do: Kaan is losing his battle of powers with Count Dooku," Savage answered.
"You're not alone brother, I sense it too," Maul agreed. Kycina admitted she sensed it and Githany reluctantly confessed that she too sensed Kaan's weakening against Dooku's power. Then the worst thing possible occurred: Kaan opened his eyes and screamed in pain shortly before his eyeballs popped, causing two of three gushes of blood to pour with the third and largest one being from his mouth. The impact of whatever force had caused that also knocked Kaan onto his back, making the blood turn back into his body and causing him to drown in his carnage.
"Holy shit! How is this possible?" Githany shouted, utterly shocked by her master's end. "Savage, you said you fought Dooku before?" Maul asked his younger brother. "Yes but I never saw power like this when I did," Savage told him.
"He may be more of an honorable match than I had thought he would be with the information you gave me about him. Most impressive, if I may say so," Maul stated. "What is your intention, my son?" Kycina asked. "To duel with and kill Dooku, forcing my Master to come from whatever lair he has buried himself in and face me," Maul answered.
"But you'll most certainly die if your master does as you wish!" she exclaimed. "The least I can do is be a thorn in his side before that happens to me," he assured her. While they debated whether Maul should or should not go to confront Sidious after killing Dooku, Savage kept quiet and waited for Talzin's signal. Dooku's slave, General Grievous, will be boarding the ship soon but I do not want you involved in that fight Talzin told the Nightbrother.
I will gladly fade into the background when that fight begins. Or will it be time to betray Maul beforehand? Savage asked his mistress. As Kaan has been killed, it will be only a little longer then Grievous will infiltrate the ship and duel with Maul. If Maul survives and returns from the duel, then and only then can you betray and murder him Talzin answered.
Smiling, Savage knew what to do now and simply waited patiently for this General Grievous character to arrive. As fate would have it, the wait was thankfully not very long for anyone of them. "Lord Maul, an unidentified shuttle has just landed in the main hangar bay. We're tracking the passengers deploying from the ship now," said Kopecz from one of the many sensor screens on the ship.
One of the passengers was a warrior Maul immediately recognized as a Kaleesh and guessed immediately as Dooku. "I will go to face him but I will need eight squads of Sith soldiers and four Dark Lords to come with me to face him. Who will volunteer to help me repel this threat from our ship?" Maul asked. "Qordis and I will both aid you in this matter," Kopecz answered.
"I will lend my services to you as well, Maul," Githany added. Smiling, Maul leaned his head towards the door and led his volunteers to where he would handpick the squads with their help. Savage stayed on the bridge and waited until they were gone before he issued some orders of his own. "Transfer all the ships controls and programs into my mechanical arm," he said.
"But with all due respect, isn't that illegal? Not to mention the fact your arm may lack the capacity to hold that much information?" one of the Sith soldiers asked him curiously. "Just do as I say, grunt!" Savage boomed. The Sith around him immediately obeyed and soon, he had total access to the ship's controls.
Smiling, he thanked the minions of the Brotherhood for obeying his orders. Then he activated his blade and slaughtered them all violently. He didn't even spare the women in the crew as he hacked and slashed down soldier after soldier all while the door was closed and ray shielded from the inside. Well done Savage, it is almost time Talzin told him.
He thanked her then remembered his mother was still alive and he saw that she had witnessed what he did. She raised her staff to put a spell on him but he used the Force to snag it off her. "Not so fast, you will not use any of your magic on me, this time," he told her. Chuckling, he threw the staff aside and made for the kill on his mother. But before he could, she managed to recover the staff and teleport closer to the door.
"What has she done to you to make you this way, Savage?" Kycina asked. "She liberated me from the bondage of being a Nightbrother responsible for a weakling like Feral," Savage replied. "At the price of your soul," she stated before walking out of the door and possibly out of his life. He ran to follow her so as to make sure she didn't compromise his plans but she had already teleported out of his sight.
"Count Dooku, if it is truly you it is an honor to finally face the so-called apprentice of my former master," Maul stated when he managed to stop the infiltration team sent by the CIS. "Oh no, I am not Dooku. Allow me the honor of introducing myself as his apprentice: General Grievous," the Kaleesh replied enthusiastically.
I sense no Force power in him, this should be very easy Maul thought to himself. "Killing you will bring Dooku to me, I know that for certain. If you are high on his list of favorite servants," he said aloud. "Higher than any other he has had before or after me," Grievous replied.
Then the General reached for his lightsabers but that wasn't what caught Maul off guard. What did was when his arms split from two to four and he activated four lightsabers simultaneously. Okay, this may be more difficult than I anticipated but I shouldn't have trouble finding a way to overcome this he thought, making sure not to give into his surprise. Igniting his own lightsaber, Maul engaged him directly while his companions fought the droids Grievous had brought along.
In an attempt to conserve her magic power, Kycina ran as fast as she could to reach her son in the hangar and tell him of his brother's treason. "Leaving so soon, Kycina?" a familiar voice asked. "Mother Talzin, what do you want?" Kycina replied after she turned to see the ominous figure of the head of the Nightsisters. "Simply for you to not intervene in the beginning fight between your sons, it is precisely what I have been planning for," Talzin said.
"If you intend to use them to bring back your homeworld, I will not allow it!" Kycina said before attacking her enemy. She shot a green orb of energy at Talzin, who merely scoffed and grabbed it when it came. Absorbing the impact, Talzin crushed the ball until it exploded and at first, flinched from the pain of doing so. "Your magic has improved since last we fought each other but it is still not powerful enough to stop me," she stated before using the Force to throw Kycina against a wall.
Her staff left her hand and she knew Talzin would give her no time to recover it before she finished her off. "No way I would expect my own daughter to treat me but it doesn't matter now," Talzin stated very randomly. "What are you talking about, Talzin?" Kycina inquired. "By blood, you are my daughter; besides the fact that they were easy to manipulate, why else would I take such an interest in your sons after I banished you?" Talzin replied.
"No it can't be true!" Kycina shouted in despair. "Oh but it is Kycina, much as I hate to confirm it to you. I remember the day I made my own Selection with a Nightbrother scum. Like you, I had been very young then and like you, I loved him deeply after I fought him and earned control over his pathetic life," Talzin began.
"Then what the hell happened to him if you loved him so much?" Kycina interjected. "Easy enough, the then-head of our clan ordered me to kill him though she was unknowingly talking to a daughter of the Goddess herself. Yes Kycina, I am a daughter of the Goddess who dwells on KaiSu Lak'Ton and have dwelled in this dimension before both Ashla and Bogan respectively became the Jedi and the Sith. I was here before either of Ashla and Bogan even existed but of course, that is irrelevant to our little story," Talzin explained.
"Then please go on before I puke," Kycina told her. Ignoring that derogatory comment to her demeanor, Talzin did precisely that. "In accordance with custom, I did kill him but not in a way you would think. Instead of simply taking his life, I took his soul and absorbed it into my being thus explaining this masculine voice you hear when I speak.
"But to you, that Nightbrother would likely have been just another Nightbrother sharing the fate of his comrades were it not for one small detail. That Nightbrother was your father and grandfather to your sons as I am their grandmother," Talzin said, concluding her tale with that. Kycina could barely hold back the tears heating up in her eyes at knowing that Talzin, her sworn enemy since she had been banished, was her biological mother. "Whether you found out the truth or not, did you really think you could take me on all by yourself?" Talzin asked after a moment of sinister silence.
"Actually yes, but in the off chance I was wrong…" Kycina answered before indicating to her glowing staff. The glowing light began to flash and Talzin didn't need much time to realize what it could mean for her. With her face frozen with sheer fear of what it could do, she teleported away from the fight almost immediately. When she was gone, Kycina giggled and gloated aloud about how everyone always fell for the bluff of her staff exploding itself.
Talzin could not believe her daughter would dare insult her so badly as to attempt to assassinate her. One would have thought she'd have taught Kycina to have more respect for her superior than that. Nonetheless, it didn't matter now that she was farther up the ship for her rendezvous with Savage and she had not died in the explosion Kycina attempted to create with her staff. Once Savage had betrayed Maul by trapping him on his own ship and setting it for self-destruct, her plans for the galaxy would continue unhindered by Kycina's rebellious disposition for the Nightsisters. But to have lived for millennia and come that close to death was something Talzin didn't want to forget soon nor would she allow herself to underestimate Kycina's cunning again. After making that vow, she walked inside the bridge and saw Savage already waiting for her inside it.
