On the outskirts of the city.

As they strolled on the ascendant walkways that overlooked the forests underneath them, Mathorn, who had forgotten how long they had to walk to reach their parked speeders, got bored and decided to ask a question. "By the way sis? Are you able to use force lightning?"

"Do you want to find out?" Briza replied in a menacing tone. Mostly because he called her sis in public, despite nobody else being around.

"Do you have to make it sound like a threat? I only asked." Mathorn commented, with a hint of a complaint.

"No, I don't have to. But what's the fun in that?" Briza asked mischievously.

Mathorn sighed. "Suddenly I'm reminded that my sister is a sith lord."

"For your information, all sith lords know how to use lighting. Some just dedicate much of their training to perfecting it's destructive force." Briza told, as she figured it was best he knew about their adversary.

Mathorn thought for a moment. "Since I have never seen you use it. Does that mean you don't train in it anymore?"

"Not much anyway. To make lightning effective, requires the user to focus a lot of energy. I'll rather use my time to practice more sustainable force powers, such as Force Drain." Briza elaborated.

"I assume it's that particular ability you used on that eager unfortunate human earlier tonight?" Terrow asked with a small grin.

"Correct." Briza replied, making a grin of her own.

As they neared their parked speeder bike, Terrow noticed another speeder bike right next to it. He turned to his sister and sighed. "Let me guess, you stole that bike to get here."

"I would prefer the term borrowed." Briza nonchalantly replied.

"You know Sis, stealing is very bad, you should know that by now..." Mathorn pointed out, for the fun of it.

Briza sighed and replied. "Shut up Mathorn. When we are done here, they can have it back."

"Okay sis." Mathorn mumbled, as he and Terrow seated themselves in their stolen speeder, started the engine and set the course for their ship, with Briza following right behind them.


In the meantime back at the ship, Tikala had been occupied with reading news from the war and meditating on recent events. Lately the empire had attempted to conquer Corellia having only mixed success, much to her concern as that meant the empire could now threaten the core worlds. As she read the reports, she sensed her kin were returning. So when the ramp lowered to let the party people enter, Tikala stood in the entrance hall with a smile as she asked them. "So did you have a good night out?"

With a wide smile, Mathorn replied. "It was fun! You should have been there with us."

"Have anything turned up while we were gone?" Briza asked, as they ascended the ramp.

"Nothing of importance." Tikala replied. She sensed they were all tired, despite their good spirit.

"Thank you for keeping an eye on things Sister." Terrow said as they entered their ship.

"Your welcome, that was the least I could do." Tikala smiled in turn, as the ramp retracted and closed the opening.


Terrow was seated at his work desk, as a high priority call appeared on the screen. He only needed to notice the sender to know he had to act immediately. He found Briza and Mathorn in a conference room having a late night snack, and busted out, "Imperious wants to talk to you!"

"Tell Tikala to cloak herself and relay his call to this room!" Briza commanded hastily.

Tikala, who had heard the command, quickly cloaked herself in the force and shouted, "Clear." As Terrow rerouted the call to the conference room.

Briza and Mathorn quickly bowed as the hologram of Imperious appeared. Briza then quickly said in a tone of surprise. "My Lord? It's an honor-"

"Save it, I have little time for pleasantries, so listen up." Imperious cut her off and began speaking. "As you have seen first hand, Psiron can manifest his presents into his minions, no matter where they may be."

"I have learned that Psiron, together with his former master, have been gathering a rich collection of ancient sith artifacts. One in particular of importance is a small golden fountain called the Threads Of Souls. I believe Psiron has found out how to use it in an ancient sith blood ritual whereas to link himself to his mindless servants; he can freely choose if they should keep some of their personality intact or permanently brainwashed."

Briza pondered those words. "So he can't control anyone strong in the force just at his own will, he needs this fountain to complete his dominance over people?"

"Don't be too hasty in your assumptions. His mind dominating abilities can corrupt and alter anyone's perception almost instantly, even as a child unskilled force users would be an easy target to him. His former master needed to constantly train her mind to keep free of his influence, not that it did her much good in the end. If you should face him in person, remember to keep strong willed people at your side at all time." Imperious told, as he looked at Mathorn while uttering the last words, giving the zabrak an icy chill in the process.

Briza nodded and replied. "I shall heed your wisdom."

"I have given Darth Deedrah the order of adding you directly, when the opportunity to engage Psiron reveals itself. She should have a team assembled at that point." Imperious unraveled, then he added in a less foreboding tone. "Did he talk to you? Before you fought him I mean?"

Briza was strangely curious about the sudden shift in tone, as she replied politely. "He was trying to convert me to his side, but he did not speak of much else."

"What did he offer you?" Imperious really wanted to know.

"I was offered to be his apprentice, and something about giving me a life after death." Briza told the truth, remembering the warning she felt in her mind as she received the offer.

Imperious pondered for a moment. "A life after death,'' he said. It sounds like he could be experimenting with animated dead tissue."

"There is no end to what this madman wouldn't do." Briza proclaimed her beliefs.

Imperious nodded and spoke again in a foreboding tone. "Agree. If left alone, he could destabilize our systems in the outer rim."

"The sooner Imperial intelligence finds him, the better." Briza added.

Imperious looked livid when he spoke. "The dark council decided to dismantle Imperial Intelligence." He told her flat out.

"Why?!" Briza asked in shock, this made no sense to her. Imperial intelligence has always been a vital part of the sith war-machine, dismantling it now seems almost unreal.

"Indeed why!" Imperious made no hint of concealing this fact frustrated him greatly. "Apparently, they want to split their resources. After the betrayal of Darth Jadus, half of the council now mistrust imperial intelligence leadership, no one would risk a single being controlling THAT sphere of influence again."

Briza felt a hint of regard in his tone. She could easily imagine Imperious would have loved that position for himself, now that she thought of it, he would properly be good at it too.

"While something new is certainly going to take its place. In the meantime I have tasked Deedrah with the mission of recruiting as many Imperial intelligence's original staff, we need a temporary intelligence unit of our own." Imperious proclaimed his intent.

Briza sighed in relief. "That at least is good to hear."

"I sense you have become a lot stronger, since we last spoke. The force is flowing through you like a tidal wave." Imperious said, sounding almost impressed.

"Yes My lord, I have indeed improved." Briza replied with a hint of flattery. She was quite sure it was the training she did with her siblings that made her so open to the force as a whole.

"Lord Briza, you have proven to be a strong and loyal asset to the empire. Continue to meet our expectations and you will be allowed to extend your powerbase." Imperious told in a firm, but satisfied voice.

This told Briza that she was finally on the dark lord's good side. "Thank you my lord. Your expectation is my highest priority." She was trying her best to keep a smile at bay.

"Good. We shall speak again." Imperious uttered and ended the connection.

Briza sank back in her chair, as she contemplated what he had told them and how they should proceed.

Mathorn, who had been silent throughout the conversation, spoke again. "As much as my republic friends are loving the fact that Imp IN is being killed off... We kinda need them right now."

"This is bad. We need information on Psiron's whereabouts." Briza cursed, rose up and left the room.

Terrow was reading a message from his former boss, when Briza came to speak with him. They only had to share one look to know what the other had just found out. "Yes, we have a problem." He uttered, while thinking to himself. "I'm so glad I work for my sister now, or I don't know where I would have ended up."

While Terrow had read reports on the Dark council members who disapproved of the Imperial Intelligence's somewhat independent way of operating. But just to dissolve it so utterly without an immediate replacement, seemed... surreal. He looked at his sister as he spoke. "After you helped me escape from Korriban. My adult life has mostly been centret around working as a fixer in Imperial Intelligence... Soon it's all gone."

"What is all gone?" Tikala asked, as she could easily sense something was wrong.

"Imperial Intelligence is being dismantled... We are sitting blind as of now." Briza complained to no one in particular.

Tikala thought for a moment before she carefully suggested. "I know this would be a long stretch, but I could get some support from SIS, I am a Jedi after all." She was not sure if her words would even be considered.

Briza turned it down by a single look, but spoke regardless. "Just by having jedi paid with info, we already need to tread carefully. Adding daily conversations with SIS to our traffic stream would definitely make us suspicious."

"At the moment, we are waiting for confirmation from Darth Deedrah on how to precede, she is our only reliable source of info at the moment." Terrow concluded.

Briza just looked at them with a tired expression. "At the moment, we can only wait... I suggest we all get some rest."

Mathorn shrugged. "With all the spark our night out had to offer... sure sis."

"I'm just happy we weren't out partying when Imperious called us." Terrow pointed out.

Briza nodded. "Had I known he would call us directly, I would have stayed here."

"We will just have Tikala tell him that she has kidnapped us and wants to trade us for ransom." Mathorn suggested with a grin.

Both his sisters just shook their heads and said in unison. "Good night gentlemen."

"Good night ladies." Terrow politely replied. Afterwards he looked at Mathorn with a raised eyebrow. "I'm glad you aren't the leader."

"Properly... I am too crazy anyway." Mathorn had to agree.

Terrow smiled as he uttered. "It's good to know you have some self reflection. But as our leader said, let's go to bed since we have nothing more to do right now."

"Will do little bro, no bedtime story needed." Mathorn smiled in return.

Terrow chuckled a little. "Good night Mathorn, I need to finish a few things, then I'll hit the bunk too."


She could feel the force flowing through her, as a training droid attacked her head on. She stopped it's movements with the force alone and with a force push it was blown back into a wall. She stood unarmed in this dark room, the only lumination coming from the yellow training sabers that a dozen droids were equipped with.

She could sense her classmates cheering her on in silence, as two more droids were coming at her. With the force she angled the droid's trajectory quickly enough that they couldn't correct themselves before colliding into each other and falling to the floor with an audible clunk. She followed up by remotely unplugging the wires to the droid's heads, with just a quick wave of the hand.

Then five more droids came at her. With the palm of her right hand facing upwards, she raised her hand high, levitating all five droids up into the air. She tried to remain calm while focusing on the droids, now hanging in midair.

As she was occupied with the five droids, seven more droids rushed towards her. She tried to make all the droids hover in midair, but one of the droids managed to reach her and slashed her shoulder with a yellow nonlethal lightsaber. Though the pain was bearable, it did break her concentration and the sudden loss of control made her panic. Without thinking, she instinctively unleashed a powerful shock wave that sent all the droids flying in all directions.

The droids flew into the ceiling above and exploded, causing the ceiling to crack. To her horror, large pieces of the ceiling fell right down on her frightened fellow jedi friends.


Briza awoke from this weird nightmare, as she could still hear the screaming jedi children ringing in her head. She looked at her younger sister who was still in deep meditation and asked directly. "Tikala... did you kill your jedi comrades when you were little?"

Those words caught Tikala by surprise and distracted her meditation. "...No. No, they were all saved by my master... I sometimes had trouble controlling my force abilities as a child."

Briza was still drowsy when she replied. "So not all of your memories are going to be sunshine and happiness."

"...I was devastated the following weeks. It's... one of my darker memoirs." Tikala murmured in a sad voice.

Briza raised an eyebrow, with a hint of chuckle in her voice, as she replied sarcastically. "Your... Darker memories? You don't want to know ours then."

"I... I can only imagine life in the academy… must have been gruesome at times." Tikala said in a somber tone, while remembering what Terrow had told her.

Briza chuckled a bit. "You have no idea what some had to endure to survive day to day life. I wonder how you would have fared as a sith acolyte?"

Tikala really couldn't picture herself as a lady of the sith. "Hard to tell. I most likely wouldn't be the same person."

"Not likely, no." Briza nodded, then added in a lighter tone. "You really weren't very tall as a kid."

Tikala was kinda glad of the change in topic, so she smiled as she replied. "I was one of the shortest zabraks in the entire temple. Also when I eventually became an adult, some confused me for a teen, and as a teen they thought of me as a child."

"At least you did have a slight element of surprise." Briza pointed out.

Tikala chuckled a bit. "And that is one of the reasons I decided to change my path and become a Jedi shadow."

"You weren't always a jedi shadow?" Briza asked, it seemed the only logical career.

"I was originally going to be a jedi consular or a jedi sage, as this was the path my Master had taken. But I wasn't very good in the peace talking process, and I never got a good feel for the art of force healing. Plus the counsel suggested that I should pursue a path where my speed and levitation abilities could come into play more often."

"A wise decision. You never seemed much of the persuasive type anyway." Briza pointed out in agreement.

Tikala thought for a moment before commenting in return. "Not without using the force that is. Which my Master constantly forbade me to use when we were on diplomatic missions."

"That's a stupid waste of resources." Briza proclaimed, despite knowing that the Jedi prohibited such behavior.

Again Tikala had to think a bit before replying. "Having an overly reliance on the force, makes you susceptible to miss-use of the force."

"Miss-use of the force? Which you constantly seem to be reliant on. You use it to get things your way, or have a say in anything." Briza counter argued. "Think about it, what are you without the force?"

Tikala just smiled in return. "A normal girl, a normal woman."

"I don't think you understand the point." Briza pressed on. But it seemed her sister was calming herself.

Tikala was slowly reentering her meditation, as she muttered a few words. "Maybe not."

Briza sighed as she went back to bed, this could wait.


Next morning at the dinner table in the living quarters.

Mathorn as the last arriving, found his sibling already up and mostly looked to be finished with their meal.

Briza was in the midst of describing another dream from Tikala's memories. "I believe it must have been Grandmaster Shan before she became the Grand Master. But who are the two elders lecturing you lot?"

"One of them is master Tol Braga and the other is master Ginnati Odoum." Tikala explained.

"Morning." Mathorn mumbled in a drowsy tone, as he took a seat.

Tikala turned to reply. "Good morning Mathorn. Did you also see any of my past events in your sleep?"

"I guess... Not that I remember much." Mathorn muttered under his breath.

"Force link makes sleeping strangely eventful, we are definitely getting closer together as a result." Briza casually pointed out.

"Maybe we all will become one and the same person." Mathorn commented with a grin, but his words got completely ignored. He elaborated on Tikala's question, as the memory of his dream became clearer. "I only remember seeing you walking through a sewer system. I mostly recall the terrible smell."

"I'm sorry you had to witness that. It's the byproduct of our force-link, especially if we continue using it this way. I can only recommend that you meditate instead of sleeping." Tikala told as a matter of fact, but followed in a lighter tone. "I just don't hope you experience more of my bad memories."

"Speaking of bad memories. Where were you when the sacking of Coruscant began?" Briza asked... As she was given some puzzled expressions from her family, she elaborated her motive. "I was just curious to know if any of you were present on Alderaan at the peace talks? As it was where I happened to be on that day."

"Socorro academy, me and Jonathan were watching it all unfold on the holonet. Damn! We wanted to be there to beat Malgus and save Master Ven Zallow from death." Mathorn just revealed without a second thought.

Briza doubted Mathorn and his friend could have done much to turn the fate of Coruscant. Not that she felt it would be wise to tell him that now.

"I was on a mission on Malastare at that time. I received the news a day late." Tikala told, without revealing too much. "I know Mile'giko was training on H'ratth. She was devastated when I talked to her days later." She was mostly looking at her brothers, when she said those words with a sad voice.

"That's the same place Urr'tah went. Darn I miss those guys." Mathorn muttered mostly to himself.

Terrow really didn't want them to know, but felt he ought to tell them anyhow. "I... Unfortunately was involved in the logistic part of the whole invasion process. I swear I didn't like doing it... Unlike so many of my peers."

Tikala sensed this bothered him. "We know you aren't a killer, this is just part of the dark reality we live in." She said in a soft and calming voice.

"At least we didn't have to fight each other in any of the war zones." Briza pointed out with a smile, which her siblings mimicked.

"I think that war would have been extremely epic... And very tragic." Mathorn added the last part, as his younger siblings looked at him with disapproving eyes.

Briza on the other hand found it a bit more humorous. "If you by epic mean a baradium bomb landing on your face, then fine by me."

Mathorn was about to reply, when they heard the central comm unit beeping and displayed an incoming priority call from Darth Deedrah.

Before Briza could even answer, Tikala had already removed any traces of her ever being in the room, and retired to the bedroom to meditate and cloak herself in the force.

The holo-projector lit up and flickered a bit before Darth Deedrah appeared in front of them all. "Greetings Lord Briza." She said politely.

Briza bowed and spoke in a humble tone. "How can we be of assistance, my lord."

"We want your team to scout an asteroid belt at the edge of the outer rim, Lord Imperious has had a vision that something of importance is hidden there." Deedrah ordered firmly, but added in a calm and apologetic voice. "Sorry for sending you away from your current scenery. I've heard it's very beautiful this time of the year."

"We understand perfectly, we will depart within the hour." Briza replied and bowed.

"Darth Imperious would like to add the importance that you remain cloaked at all times. Stealth is a priority until receiving further orders." Deedrah relaid her master's words.

"If I may ask." As soon as Terrow got a nod to continue, he did so politely. "Is there any further information on what we are searching for?"

Deedrah took a moment to double check the orders she had received. "We aren't sure, but I suggest looking for something that could fit in a small crate. Though you should all be able to sense its presence in the force."

"So we are looking for Sith artifacts? Sounds fun, I like treasure hunting." Mathorn cheerfully commented.

"I can hear we have a volunteer to go outside in space, to explore an asteroid or two." Briza smiled mischievously.

"Anything for you... master." Mathorn said in a worried tone. "Please lend me a spacesuit."

Briza was pretending to think it over, and reluctantly agreed. "Terrow, give my apprentice a space suit. I believe he at least deserves this much."

Mathorn made a sigh of relief. "Thank you my lord. Dying in space wasn't exactly my idea of a nice sith life."

To Deedrah, it seemed they had all grown very fond of each other, however she also noticed that they were trying to mask some kind of kinship. Especially her long time ally, who appeared too mellow and jokingly for one that should command respect.

Briza noticed Deedrah looked at her with a hint of suspicion, she instantly returned to the seriousness of the situation. "Excuse myself and my apprentice. I promise we will see this mission through to its proper end."

"I have no doubt you will." Deedrah replied in kind. "Reestablish contact when you have the artifact in hand. May the force serve you all." She said, right before her holographic image flicked out.

Briza was the first to rise and utter the order. "We leave now!"

Followed by Terrow, who made a quick nod and went to work to get the ship airborne.

"Do I actually have to go out in a spacesuit to browse asteroids?" Mathorn asked, he really hoped it was all a joke.

"You may have to, but we will see when we arrive." Briza replied indifferently. As she headed to the bridge, to see it lift off the planet and fly out into space.