DROMUND KAAS: Briza's skyscraper, in the dining hall.

There wasn't much talk around the table as lunch was served, only Briza and Donira conversed. Donira had plenty of ambitious ideas as to how Briza could gain favors from powerful people and easily climb the ladder and achieve even more power and status than she had already gained. She even proposed a long term plan to out seat Darth Mortis and become the next dark council member to hold the sphere of law and order.

Terrow just tried to keep the peace, while giving the impression that he was memorizing the latest recipe for greatness. Personally he thought it would be wiser to gain Darth Imperious' personal favor instead and stay right under his more lawful umbrella, than begin a scheming campaign that easily could cost them everything that they had achieved, over an afternoon.

Mathorn on the other hand tried his best to look interested, without looking at the lady in an inappropriate manner. "I wonder how she meet dad… maybe she knows where he is now?" He pondered and swallowed the urge to ask directly.

While the lunch certainly was good, it was nothing to write home about. The dessert however was something out of a child's fantasy. It was special selections of exotic fruits, mixed in sweet ice, making it look like a frozen rainbow. Accompanying the ice was dried berries that had been compressed together into some kind of soft dark green bread, that just like the sweet ice, could easily be sliced by a simple spoon.

Mathorn had problems containing himself, as the taste made him overjoyed with delight, which was hard not to notice. He promised himself he would make sure his younger sister also got to taste this delicious treat, before it was all gone.


UNKNOWN SPACE: Underneath the Red Mountain, Inside the Temple Complex.

After wandering downwards in a spiral for some time, they came to a T-junction. The corridors at this level was much larger than the ones above. These were large enough that six men could walk side by side, which was a significant step up from the two men wide corridor they had just come from. The three remaining acolytes looked up at their lord, awaiting his decision.

"We go left." Imperious ordered without elaborating. He sensed the source of the dark waves clearer in that direction.

They came to a huge door, made of stone and metal. Again the acolytes turned their attention to their lord. Imperious could feel the power was nearby, possibly behind that door. He began to probe the door, to see if he could sense any traps on it or around it. His search came up empty, but the cloud of dark energy enveloping the planet had, at this point, thickened to such a degree, that he wasn't confident that his senses could be completely trusted on this matter. "Be on your guard, I intent to open it." He ordered as he reached out with the force to open the door.

Lanyzz and her two comrades prepared themselves, lightsabers at the ready, as the door slowly opened up.

The chamber was completely dark, but as they carefully looked around, it was revealed to be an ancient laboratory, a place where ancient science and sith sorcery were combined.

As they searched, Lanyss noticed something strange. While she did see a few transparisteel cylinders and other things used in lab, it did seem like there was something missing. "The room was clearly used as a lab. But! If that is indeed the case, then where is all the equipment they most have used to take note of their research and report their findings?"

"They must have moved it off world." Imperious concluded, while he focused on locating where the energy came from. "It had felt like it was right here, but it clearly was not... No not right here... around me." Realized this, Imperious began to look closely at the floor and ceiling. "Look at the floor and ceilings, I can feel the source is close at hand!"

Lanyss nodded in acknowledgement, as another acolyte, a slender sith male, did likewise. The third acolyte however, a human female, remained still, looking completely inanimate. It was as if she had been frozen down in carbonite, while standing up straight in the middle of the room, not able to sense or feel anything.

"Did you not hear!" Lanyss schooled the human for failing to respond.

But it did nothing to change the frozen look on the human's face. Then she began to speak in shuttering voice. "This... one... has... fallen... to... me."

"Kill her!" Imperious yelled instantly, at the same time as he unleashed dark-side lightning, shocking the human to the floor, where she spasmed helplessly while deadly jolts passed through her body.

Both the Twi'lek and the male Sith acolyte quickly realized what was going on and unleashed their own lightning on the now crispy burned human, who was laughing maniacally, as if the pain amused her.

"You are all strong in the force." The human uttered to the best of her ability, as her mouth had been deformed and her lips burned away. "Soon however, your minds will all be mine." With the last of her strength, she used the force to flip a switch. "This should keep you occupied until then." As these last words were spoken, the sound of a horde of beings rushing towards them could be heard, as screams and roars were heard from beyond the door.

Imperious quickly used the force to break the human acolyte's neck. He knew full well that the beings they had seen earlier outside on the plains at the foot of the mountain, was now storming the temple outpost. "Keep the door shut! Let none enter!" Imperious ordered, as he began to quicken his search for a way to reach the cause of their peril.

In mere moments the door was under heavy assault, the sound of several dozen indigenous creatures slamming and hammering the stone in rapid succession at high velocity. So far the acolytes' combined force powers was managing to keep the mutated sith's from slamming the door open, but it was impossible to say for how long they would be able to keep it up before the door itself was smashed to rubble.

The combinations of the deafeningly loud hammering noises and the dark waves seeking to enter their minds, made concentration a severe challenge for the acolytes.

A red bloodied fist, bones visible broken, smashed through the stone door. "My lord! They are breaking through!" Lanizz cried out, her frustration audible in her voice.

"This is impossible!" The sith male added in a frightened tone.

Realizing that time was running out for them all, Imperious abandoned his search and began using what was left of the interior, constructing barricades to make their position more defensible and hinder the creatures in surrounding them, before the gate was no more. As holes were become large enough for the creatures to get through, Imperious ordered his remaining acolytes to his side. "Gather around me! Blades at the ready!" He ignited two red lightsabers and got into a defensive position.

Hearing the order loud and clear, the two Acolytes subsided their effort to hold the door and took up a defensive position alongside their lord, with red bladed lightsabers at the ready.

One of the sith creatures broke through a section, making a hole large enough for it to crawl through, and with several severely bleeding injuries, it charged at the three intruders and was cut down instantly. Soon after the door was barely holding together, with multiple holes large enough for them to rush through with little hindrances.

Two dozen monsters spronge upon the sith intruders, but were cut to shreds with little effort, the attack was soon followed up by five times that many however.

Lanizz used the dark side of the force to corrupt the creatures closest to her, making them substantially slower and weaker, easy to cleave with simple cross cuts.

The male sith primarily made use of his blade to dispatch the monsters with swings and stabs, but did occasionally used force to throw the nearest creatures off balance, making it harder to overwhelm him.

Being the only one with dual fencing mastery, as well as force enhanced movement, Imperious two blades were a blur of red motion, as they severed limbs faster than even his two acolytes could keep track off.

Then the entire door collapsed and the advancing horde swarmed in unhindered. With the pressure rising, it took all their focus and efforts to deal with the horrific mutations of siths. It felt like the dark waves tearing at Lanizz mental defenses began changing, taking a new shape, separating, and from out of the relentless waves a dark present began directly probing at her mind. She diverted some of her energy to keep out the nuisance, but that made her susceptible to errors in the fight. One of monstrous beings managed to make a deep scratch in her arm with its claws, before being cut down by her lightsaber. Blood poured out of her arm and the pain was beginning to intensify. She accepted the pain as fuel for her rage, but as the battle went on, her continuous loss of blood started to take its toll.

Imperious likewise felt the dark presence probing at his mind, but his blade work showed no sign of slowing down, as the presence was easily kept at bay. It was just as well, since if that hadn't been the case, then he would have been headless mere moments later, when a red lightsaber abruptly shifted direction towards his neck. He quickly blocked it with his right blade and leaning his head slightly to the side saw that a wide maniacal grin had emaged on the male sith's face. "You as well..." He hissed through clenched teeth and with a swift elegantly motion, he stabbed his now former acolyte in the heart and force pushed him into the oncoming horde of mutants.

Lanizz winced at seeing how quickly her lord and master ended the life of his own sith acolyte, but paid it no further heat, as her old comrade had been shown to be too weak to resist the powers they were personally selected to deal with.

However as the mind probing began to intensify, Imperious likewise became able to sense exactly where it was coming from. He noticed that a small indentation had been made in sealing, as if the sealing was made to open up. "On my command! Break open the sealing right above us!"

Lanizz spotted the point in sealing where the seal was and prepared herself to instantly change her focus.

"NOW!" Imperious commanded, and simultaneously stepped in front of Lanizz, dropped both his lightsabers, spread out his hands and unleashed a storm of blue dark side lightning. The storm engulfed all the mutants that had entered the chamber, scorching them all alive and burning them to a crisp.

Lanizz yanked the seal apart with the might of her force ability and began the monumental task of opening the heavy, jammed hatch doors, that had remained closed for centuries.

The powerful lightning strikes were fast becoming too taxing for Imperious to keep up for much longer, but more mutant sith kept pouring in, replace the fallen ones that lay fried before him. He glanced upwards to see how much the hatch doors had been opened and to his disapproval, his apprentice had not even gotten it open enough to jump through yet. "GET THAT SEALING OPENED! OR WE'LL DIE HERE!" He yelled as he used the force to pull his lightsabers back into his hands to continue the defence against the relentless waves of enemies.

At this point Lanizz was so focused on opening the sealing little by little, that the voice of her master was barely audible and fading from her perception, all the while she felt the pressure increasing from the dark waves that constantly threatens to overwhelm her. She felt weaker and weaker, her surroundings were becoming more and more blurry. "Open. The. Roof... The. Roof. Must. Be. Opened."She mumbled inaudible in a trance like state.

"When I say jump! We jump together." Imperious ordered without looking back at her, as the mutants keep him too occupied to get a proper sense of his apprentice state of mind. As soon as the hatch doors were opened just wide enough for a person to go through, he shouted the command. "JUMP!" And jumped up through the rift in the sealing.

The voice of her lord and master was like a faint echo flowing away in the wind, it no longer mattered to her, she was no longer apart of this body... this chamber... this planet... this world.

Before Imperious had even touched down on the chamber above, he had noticed Lanizz hadn't followed him. He spun around to witness his apprentice be slashed, bitten and chewed into by razor sharp claws and teeth, blood splattering all over chamber in a horrendous display of carnage. He quickly used the force to lift her up, but... Her life force had already left her mangled body.

Alone in the dark, with only the humming of the incessant dark-side waves to keep him company, Imperious ignited his lightsaber to look around in the upper chamber. Hundreds of chairs radiating in several circles around the retractable roof became visible in the red glow of the lightsaber. Imperious got the distinct impression that they had been placed with the specific purpose of observation, as in a fighting arena, but instead of pit fighters, whatever hideous science operations had been done beneath in the lab below had taken centrestage.

But the thing that stole his attention, was what looked to be a mutated human female strapped and bolted against an alter looking mechanical device. The female's face was obscured by an ornately etched mask made from an onyx like material.

Sensing that the powerful waves were coming from the mutant, Imperious used the force to violently rip the mutant off the altar and slam her down on the floor tiles in front of him.

The dark side waves stopped immediately when the mutant was disconnected from the altar. To Imperious, it felt like clean air was finally entering his mind, after struggling to keep the waves at bay for what felt like weeks.

The woman in front of Imperious bleed heavily, but remained alive for the time being. This being looked almost human, unlike the rest of the sith mutants. She did however look unnaturally old and tortured, from the look of her skin which looked like it had been torn apart a dozen times and put back together again. Perhaps in madness of some mutational experiment.

In his rage he used the force, grabbing her in a force choke and held her up in front of him, his eyes burrowing into hers. "Who are you!" He uttered threateningly.

The mutant only gave an empty looked in return, like nothing mattered anymore... then little by little she woke up. "Please... kill... me." Was the only reply that came.

"Answer me, crone!" Imperious yelled, demanding a proper answer. His patience with this planet and everything on it, spent a long time ago.

"Drenas.. I was once called. I will share everything... If you but promise me... To end my life, once your curiosity has been sated." She pleaded, her body weak and limbless.

"Talk! And I might grant your request..." He commanded menacingly, simultaneously releasing his hold on her.

"Connect with me through the force, my will is already broken." she weakly replied, while moving her head towards him.

Sensing no danger from her, Imperious lay a hand on her foul head, and concentrated on her mind, and true to her word, her mind was wide open, like it had been ripped open by sinister and unnatural means.

Imperious was being flooded by a whirlpool of events, he staggered a bit, as his brain receiving the enormous amount of info all at once. Because of this beings shattered mind, everything was a chaos of images, expanding over a lifetime of experiences. First he saw a small boy, surrounded by corpses to all sides, in the middle of the carnage. He was smiling with pure madness in his eyes. This was quickly followed by some of scattered events of training this boy in the art of the sith. But in the end, a clear and unbroken event came to him...


DROMUND KAAS: Briza's skyscraper

A few hours later, after the mother of Terrow and Briza had left the building.

"How's it going with the Twi'leks?" Terrow asked, as Tikala entered the living room, now that the coast was clear.

"Just fine, the droids you programmed are a great help to their tutoring. Some of them have great capacity for learning and have begun to study cooking, science, math and engineering. Just to name a few." Tikala happily informed of their progress.

Terrow was pleased that they finally gained the will to learn on their own. "Great! That means we can begin to train them properly for various tasks."

Hearing them speaking of the former slaves, Briza entered the conversation with a single question. "Does that mean we could train them for something useful, like field commandos or starfighter pilots?"

Tikala's eyes narrowed, as teaching them in war time activities was not to her liking.

Terrow thought about it for a moment before uttering. "We don't have the facilities to conduct military training in this building alone. We would require areas for field training first... I do however believe that I can make a bolt-star fighter simulator, to instruct them in it's simple piloting. If that is your wish lord Briza?"

"That sounds wonderful." Briza's mood brightened as she thought of the possibility. "Feel free to use my resources to build a few of such consoles. I always wanted my own squadron of pilots."

"As long as we are not forcing them into military service, I will not object." Tikala added, as she did see the value in having some personal air support, but it still gave her a bitter taste.

"You know sister, I would like to know more about these, so called, threads we share. I wondered if I could use them too?" Briza asked curious. "I have only experienced it as a weapon used against myself, but did it have to be that way?" She had pondered this for most of the day.

Tikala took a deep breath, before uttering. "To be honest, I do not completely understand it myself either. I just naturally use the current of power that comes to me."

Briza raised an eyebrow. "You're saying that you can't teach me? Despite being connected to me?"

"That was not what I meant. I just don't know exactly how it works, but if you are up for it, we could try together?" Tikala offered as a polite gesture.

"Follow me to my chamber, there we can train and meditate in peace." Briza softly half offered, half demanded, for her sister to come with her.

With no hint of resistance on her part, Tikala followed her much taller sister through the series of chambers and hallways.


After having used the refresher for some time, as a result of eating too much dessert, which of course in Mathorn's world was all worth it, he found Terrow sitting at his desk, typing something on the view screen. "What's ya doing bro?"

"Ordering a few starfighter simulators. We decided to train our Twi'lek in flight combat." Terrow informed calmly.

"Cool. I want to try them out when they arrive." Mathorn replied.

"I shall remember." Terrow replied and made a small note in his mind. "Anyway, was there something you wanted?"

"Not really, was just wondering where you had hidden sis One and Two." Mathorn asked and added. "I can't sense them at the moment."

"It sounded like they wanted to test their force connection, but that's all I heard." Terrow told truthfully.

"Okay. Well if they call for me, I'll be in my room." Mathorn replied and wandered away, with Terrow continuing his ordering.