Chapter 3
I entered the dark cavern that I remembered so well from my earlier explorations. But this time it was different. I was no longer training my armies within these halls anymore and had taken or hidden almost everything of value in my own little home where I lived.
The dust had not had proper time to settle yet before he arrived here. He followed me, using my footsteps as a trail I suppose while he tracked a way here through the Force.
I entered the dueling stage and crossed the long span of distance and stood there in the alcove facing him in the center of the room.
"It's been a long time, Trevor." I said; my voice quiet and soft yet loud enough to be heard and powerful enough to give him pause in any thoughts of fighting me that instance.
He couldn't speak.
Not properly like he used to be able to when he was younger; the Force had made its mark on him as well, though for the better or the worse, I do not know. He growled in the ancient Sith language and even then it was horribly garbled and mangled as he tried to speak.
"My answer remains the same as ever, Nihilus… I have things I must do now and my knowledge of the boy you were as a child, will not affect me." I raised my gloved hands up and removed my mask, letting the hood fall down to look at him with my own eyes, no mask in front of them.
"Take your mask off, Nihilus. I will not look away, no matter what you have done to yourself with the Force."
He howled and raged then. His power in the Force was powerful and the full strength it showed then and I was watching with that cold calculating manner that I had learned to covet during the war.
He was powerful; there was no denying that but as powerful as me, he was not. Our strengths and weaknesses lie in different paths than the other's and he had nothing left but hate and anger within his soul.
Finally he stopped and just stood there, facing me. I had no doubt he was just staring at me like he used to, when we were younger but I could not tell. He removed his mask and I was blasted from all sides by what he had done to himself and from the Force.
I was unsure as how to gauge my reactions then, sadness and sympathy were holding a warring battle in my heart. The boy I once knew, his pale unnatural face was gone, replaced with something different, something new that no one would be able to face.
He replaced his mask swiftly as I raised a hand up to shield my eyes and gestured at me almost angrily.
"No." I said again, "I will not join you. I did not need help to rule the galaxy then; I would not need it twice. I also have no interest in ruling like you would as well, Nihilus."
A long moan, almost the word no rumbled from inside of him somewhere and I shook my head sadly.
"I am sorry for you. I would end the pain, but it is not my place to give it to you."
"Good-bye, Trevor; May these halls give you what you were seeking here…" I turned around at that point and left the planet, leaving Malchor V behind me as I went to search for my old friend. She was going to be pushed to the point of her limits and beyond if she was to win the battle against the Sith lords now.