Epilogue: New Allies & New Enemies

When Suria finally arrived on Hutta, having spent days tracking where Nomen Karr's ship had gone, she was disgusted by what she found.

Nomen Karr's bloody and headless corpse lay sprawled across the floor. She could feel it all around her, the bone chilling echo of the dark side.

It was so strong here, Suria had only ever felt it stronger in one place before. Aboard Darth Angral's warship, the Oppressor. But not from Darth Angral himself, no from her own Padawan, Kira Carsen.

When the Emperor had taken control of her.

"Just how powerful is this Arkunov?" Suria wondered aloud.

She put that thought from her mind and continued her search of the room. She was more disturbed by what she found, or rather what she didn't find. There was no sign of what happened to Jaesa.

There were no other bodies and no obvious signs of anyone else being killed. Suria couldn't sense the death of anyone else, only that of Nomen Karr's echoed in the force. So there was a chance, however slim, that Jaesa still lived.

Suria shuddered, that was not a fate worth thinking about. Jaesa had either been taken away and was now being tortured for sport or, and this was what truly worried Suria, Jaesa had chosen to leave with Arkunov.

That didn't bear thinking about and Suria refused to consider it, even as a slim possibility.

Steeling her resolve, Suria promised, "I will find you, Jaesa."

Jaesa could feel the raw dark side power emanating from Dromund Kaas, the moment that the Ruination entered the planet's orbit. There must have been thousands of Sith on the planet, and beyond them something else. Something even darker.

She'd asked her new master about it.

He'd given two words in answer, "The Emperor."

Jaesa's surprise must have been visible at that, because Arkunov laughed and said, "You get used to it. Eventually it just fades into the background."

Somehow, Jaesa doubted that would ever be the case.

Once they had landed, Jaesa did her best to push the ice cold echo of the Emperor to the back of her mind. Instead focusing on her sheltering from the ever present rain of the Sith homeworld. The spare robe Arkunov had lent her, even if it was far too big for her, helped somewhat and truthfully she was glad of the warmth it provided.

Not to mention the... other benefits.

Jaesa suspected that it would have been a bad idea to wear her old Jedi robes here. If she had, it was likely she would have been killed on the spot.

Once in Kaas city, they had made Jaesa, Vette and Arkunov had made their way to the latter's apartments. While Captain Quinn had gone to quarter himself in a local barracks.

Leaving them to get settled, Arkunov had left to take care of some personal business in the city. He hadn't offered an explanation, and Jaesa hadn't asked one from her new master, she wasn't sure of the boundaries of their relationship yet.

She suspected that it was something to do with his recent promotion to Sith Lord. Which Darth Baras had given him with almost casual disregard, when she had first come aboard the Ruination. It was quite unlike how the Jedi did things, as far as she knew, from what Jaesa had been told it was a rather grand ceremony overseen by the Jedi Council.

Jaesa turned to Vette and asked, "Do you know what he's doing?"

The Twi'lek girl shrugged, "No idea. He only tells me what I need to know. Besides he gave me another job."

"What?"

"I'm taking you shopping," Vette grinned, "We've got to pick up some training equipment and we've got to get you looking all nice and Sithy!"

Jaesa frowned, she understood the necessity of the task, after all she couldn't wear Arkunov's handmedowns forever, for obvious reasons.

But Vette seemed rather... soft, if Jaesa was being honest. Not the sort of person you'd think to find serving directly under a Sith. She'd have to ask her Master about that later.

Mentally, she shrugged and then nodded at the Twi'lek in affirmation.

"Fine," Jaesa said, "let's get going."

Behind his mask, Lord Grathan's eyes narrowed as he looked down at the figure on the surgical table.

She had been screaming for hours, as the cybernetics were grafted to her flesh.

The young Sith had been offered anesthetic but had refused. The pain would make her stronger, at least that was what she'd claimed.

Grathan respected that. It was a good attitude for a Sith to have.

She was a useful weapon, though she had almost been lost entirely. The thin girl, missing an arm and requiring a respirator to breathe, had been discarded as a failure on Korriban. Until Grathan's agents had found her. The girl's connection to his son's assassin had drawn him initially, but when he'd learned of the hate she felt for him, that was when Grathan knew he could user her.

The surgical droid turned to face him.

"She is ready, my Lord."

"Leave us."

The droid awkwardly shuffled out of the room. Once it was gone, Grathan said, "Can you speak?"

"Yes," she replied, her voice a mechanical rasp from behind her respirator.

"Good. I trust you are ready for the task ahead?"

"Yes."

"Excellent. Bring me the head of Arkunov, and we shall both have our revenge."

Behind her respirator, Phyne gave a sadistic grin.

"I can't wait to get started."

Darth Baras was pleased with the results of the mission, for the most part.

He was glad to rid of Nomen Karr, especially since he hadn't wanted to face the Jedi himself. But that didn't matter, the only thing that did was that the man would no longer be a thorn in his side and now Baras' plans could proceed as intended.

However, there was one potential element that could disrupt them.

Arkunov.

Baras had not anticipated that his apprentice would take Jaesa Willsaam under his wing. The Darth's assessments and Quinn's reports, had indicated that his bloodthirsty apprentice would just kill everyone in his way. After all, that was what he'd done to everyone who had crossed his path so far. However, Arkunov had made a completely different choice this time.

If Baras was honest with himself, he admired the decision. After all, the girl's power would be a great asset. So long as it wasn't used against him, but he couldn't count on that happening. No matter, Arkunov would wear out his usefulness eventually, but until that moment Baras would use him.

Baras turned, raising an eyebrow behind his mask, as he heard his holoterminal chime.

Once he activated it and the caller's image resolved, Baras dropped to one knee.

"Darth Vengean, my master. How may I serve you?"

When Arkunov had landed on Dromund Kaas, an encrypted message had been sent to his holonet address. Arkunov had been suspicious when he saw it, but sensed there was something interesting that would come with it.

The only thing on it was an address, for a small cantina in the backstreets of Kaas city. It was a shabby thing, far from the comparatively polished excellence of the more popular Nexus Room. It wasn't the sort of place that you went to socialise, it was the place for clandestine dealings. As such, he kept his face hidden with a cloak. He was far from the only one.

In the moment that he entered, Arkunov was directed to a small back room. The few patrons he walked past ignored him, concentrating fiercely on their own drinks.

The room he entered had one long rectangular table, around which several Sith were sat. Each one had some sort of hood or mask concealing their identity.

These were removed when the door was shut and there was no chance that they could be observed.

He only recognised two of them, one he had met and the other he knew only by his illustrious reputation. Arkunov turned to face the woman that he knew.

"Dethree," he said, to the Zabrak Sith.

"It's Lord Kallig now," She grinned, her tattoos twisting into bizzare fangs. "You're not the only one who got promoted."

"Congratulations are in order for both of you," the second Sith said, his voice distorted by a respirator.

Arkunov turned to face the Sith and said, "Darth Malgus, what do you want?"

Though he couldn't see it, Arkunov could sense the grin behind Malgus' respirator.

"Lord Arkunov, welcome to the Evolving Sith Paradigm."

And that is the epilogue done!

Thank you everyone for your support and reviews on this story and I'll see you in the next one!

I'll post an update on this story when the next one is up.

See you in book two, Sith Warrior: Plan Zero!