A/N: Well here it is Chapter 41: Another Mission!


Chapter 41: Another Mission


Barely a week had passed since the attack on Waldstahl at the hands of the treacherous Republic. The ruins of the once proud structure had been demolished to the foundation though leaving the lower levels such as the hanger and the archive intact. This was necessary as Malserik wanted this fortress to be even bigger and grander than before. Malserik was having a competition to redesign Waldstahl, and numerous architects and designers from around Drommund Kaas were applying for the high-class Hiskal residency that was the prize for the winning design. Though, Malserik himself was already drawing up plans for new better Waldstahl's defenses and other potential internal details for his new fortress.

Looking out towards Hiskal, Malserik sighed, He loved his city and they loved him, he would have to explain what happened eventually to them, as a matter of fact, he had scheduled to speak to them soon as they deserved to know the state of Waldstahl. Looking back he saw the scraps and ruins of his old home. He clenched the grip of Sturmkrieg for what he was going to do. Just as he turned around to face this ruined fortress, the door it slid open.

Walking out onto the overlook was the four knights of Hiskal all clad in their cloaks with Anderon Alik-zander. The once-proud Jedi healer was broken and chained, his mind frayed from Ruby, Nora, and Pyrrha's methods of interrogation. Ruby had aggressively mined him for information over the past week, While Pyrrha used her mind corruption to weaken his resolve. They were both unleashing their anger and hatred on the captive Jedi. Their techniques netted a massive load of information about the Jedi and how they operated. Though the information they were interested in was those of spies and other forms of espionage. While ripping through his subconscious, Ruby found the location of various republic spies on Drommund Kaas and Korriban something that at the time made her smile wickedly.

This painful and invasive technique Ruby, Nora, and Pyrrha employed destroyed the Jedi Master's mind to a form of psychosis. He was shaking and babbling on about the Sith being 'Heathens that need to die.' The look of insanity on his face would scare even the most hardened and veteran Sith if he was free. Pyrrha and Nora buckled his knees from behind with a sharp kick as Ruby and Weiss grabbed his shoulders and slammed him down to make the deranged Jedi kneel before the Baron of Hiskal. Backing off to the side, Ruby and her team Ignited their sabers in case the Jedi got any funny ideas. Malserik kneeled down to the Jedi with SturmKrieg in hand.

"Anderon, say hello to your master for me," Malserik said with a smirk as he stood back up to a volley of curses and swearing coming from the Jedi. Malserik found himself wanting to put the insane Jedi out of his misery. With this in mind, he ignited his sabers green blade and quickly decapitated the madman. There was a part of Malserik that felt sad about having to do this, as the former padawan of the man who killed his family was now dead. Though, he didn't focus on this for long as there was business for him to attend to, mainly concerning one thing that Malserik asked about, promptly after the body fell limp.

"Ruby, your report?" Malserik asked after a moment after the headless Jedi fell limp on the ground.

"I put it on your desk, it's quite a nice chunk of information, For a healer, he sure knew a lot," Ruby replied with a smirk beneath her hood towards the burned side of her face, as she disengaged her lightsaber, she was still quite shocked at how much he knew, and the fact the Jedi didn't seemingly care about operational security.

"Good work, you four I will look over the information you gained, Now please Ruby go take a break, you need it," Malserik said as Ruby had pushed herself hard in the interrogations of the Jedi as it took her a few days just to break down all of the mental barriers the Jedi possessed. Malserik and Weiss over watched the process. it was horrifying as Ruby had to have Pyrrha assist in breaking him mentally, while Nora committed to the physical torture. With all three of them attacking from different fronts, it shattered the Jedi.

After the break Ruby endured after the night of the battle for Waldstahl, Weiss had expressed concerns dealing with Ruby handling the interrogations, as Ruby had directed all of her anger and hatred into that one task. Weiss didn't even see a glimmer of mercy in Ruby's heart as she took on the task. Though, she managed to break the Jedi quite quickly, enough so Ruby even shocked Imperious with how she broke the Jedi to her own will. Though after the fact Imperious seemed more proud afterward than anything.

"Alright Malserik," Ruby said nonchalantly as she walked back into what remained of Waldstahl followed by Weiss. As Nora and Pyrrha started to follow Malserik called back to them.

"Pyrrha, Nora, hold for a second, I have a mission for you two," Malserik said getting the two knights to look back at him, "There is a potential threat to the order's security that must be dealt with," The two looked at each other, then looked back at Malserik with a smile, giving him a wordless response "Good, Imperious and I will brief you and you will be on your way Nar Shaddaa," Malserik smiled as he wanted to get the two less well known of the two knights something to do, along with that, he also wanted to see how they operated independently of Ruby and Weiss, and so did Imperious.


Inside, after dismissing Pyrrha and Nora to get their things together Malserik was back in his office. He was smirking as he read Ruby's report, it turned out the healer knew a lot more than what he was supposed to. As Malserik cross-referenced the information to Imperial records and known leaked files. As he began to piece it all together he started to chuckle, though the more matching names he saw the more he laughed and laughed, going till he was in a deep maniacal cackle. In his mind, Malserik thought by the force this is perfect, I could eliminate so many infiltrators with this list. maybe I could stab the Jedi again while I am at it!Malserik was thinking of how he could deal another blow of vengeance to the Jedi for an attack on his home. Due to his belting laughter along with his thoughts, Malserik failed to note the door to his study open.

Imperious walked in on this sight, she saw Malserik bent over clutching his gut as he laughed like a mad man. Though he did not react to the door opening which made Imperious notice that he was unaware of her presence, she got a very playful idea. Imperious had become somewhat distant after the attack though this gave her, even more of a reason to do this. Slipping behind him with a wide grin on her face she waited on him to calm down and compose himself. As he calmed down, she was right behind him. Wrapping her arms around him from behind she asked,

"So Viridian, what's so funny?"

Malserik jumped at the contact from Imperious as a chill ran up his spine and his heart stuttered. His voice quaked in his reply, "Not much, this report, it's perfect for our cause, also how long have you been here?"

"Not long, good to hear you laugh like that, though. It's much more appealing than your dull chuckles," Imperious said with a genuine smile. She was happy to hear Malserik enjoying himself in such a way. She continued to rest on the seated Viridian. "So what did the order's red gem find?" Imperious asked playfully.

"Enough Republic agents and spies that could really clean out the empire," Malserik said with a big grin, that could make Neo look sane, as he tapped his finger on the desk nervously before he asked, "Also I would like your approval on an idea I had."

"Oh, I am going to love this!" Imperious smiled brightly leaning further on her friend to listen with a smile, as when Malserik had an idea, they usually were good ones, and whenever he said that phrase, She was reminded of all the fun things that happened because he said that phrase during her rise to power.

"We request a that the Jedi pay us to keep quiet, I find it fair after their attack on our home," Malserik said with a malicious grin. This suggestion was one Imperious liked a lot, as it showed he was willing to take advantage of the Jedi for their actions and extort them. This made Imperious smile with delight as she responded,

"you really want to piss them off," Imperious smirked, she knew that Malserik loved tormenting the Jedi, ensuring his title as arch traitor stayed true "I think that is a great idea though how would they pay us? Credits are useless to us." Imperious inquired, curious as to how the Jedi would pay them. Malserik looked at her with a look that said 'I know that the Jedi have other things to pay us with you know?' it was at that moment it hit her, resources and holocrons, "you wicked bastard," Imperious muttered in that realization as her face showed faint blush. Though she had seen Malserik like this once before and that was when he volunteered to go to Coruscant to partake in the sacking. The look in his eye matched that day. He wanted to remind the Jedi he was still there, waiting to put the metaphoric lightsaber to their throats and watch them squirm.

"Glad to see you approve," Malserik said calmly, "Now my next question is on this information on the spies should I hand it over?"

"Yes, that would put you in a good position with the Dark Council and finally convince them of your loyalty to the Empire. After you submit the information I want you to wait to hear back on the reports." Imperious explained calmly as Malserik took mental notes of her orders. "Then once all of these spies have been eliminated I want you to submit your equipment to Imperial trials. Then you go on harass the Jedi, got it?" Malserik smiled as he finally had gotten the designs working with some assistance from Ruby and Weiss.

"Noted, so about that conversation we had a while back, I think bringing Khem into this would be a bad idea, especially as a potential counter to Ruby. I do truly believe that it was my actions that caused that issue and that it won't happen again," Malserik explained calmly, the look on his face made it known that this issue had dragged on the former Jedi greatly. "If she betrayed us I feel not even Khem could stop her. I know I damn well couldn't, not easily." He admitted as the one terrifying thought was that of if Ruby went the entire group of them would go.

"Malserik about that prophecy that told you about them, you don't think it meant they will kill us and take our place?" Imperious asked concerned, pondering a very disturbing notion, and Malserik could tell she was very worried about this, "I don't want to end up like those Sith in my visions. They were artists of a grand plan but they always got betrayed by their apprentices. I want to live to see my plan through, Viridian."

"Well I don't know what to say Ceres, except to talk to Ruby maybe," Malserik replied he was genuinely unsure of what to say to calm her, "Though we can discuss this later we need to brief Nora and Pyrrha for that mission. Then you can help me write that speech for the people of Hiskal," Viridian smiled at the pale, blue eyed woman. Who by this point had moved off of his shoulders and was looking out the window into the City of Hiskal.


It was at this moment, she slipped away into a vision of what could be, she saw a massive central spire-like palace connected to smaller spires throughout the city, the architecture was Gothic in nature, a type of architecture Ruby herself quite enjoyed. she saw the entire city was remodeled like this, black and gold buildings with red flowing banners flying on the struts. She saw the city extended up the slope of the valley. golden light pouring up from the streets. Imperious gasped at the sight of this on the crater-like valley she saw more fortresses like Waldstahl though with larger guns and a Gothic spire towering over the structure with a long bridge connected to the central spire of the city. The city was a sight to behold in its majesty. As her perspective elevated she saw Hiskal had grown and the city spanned the entirety of the Hiskal region. Saw more sprawling cities like Hiskal in the area around it. she saw figured with the amount growth that had occurred, in one hundred years Drommund Kaas would be like Coruscant. It was beautiful she didn't want to look away from it. Though realizing she was looking out a window of a low-flying starship made her look away. Behind her, she heard Ruby's voice say,

"This is what trust can build."

Turning around she saw all the members of the Visorium order along with the Knights and some sith she didn't recognize, with a long mane of hair. It was at this point, her vision faded to black.


Though like all of the visions she had received in her life there was always an another to them, blinking her eyes she saw a sight that horrified her. The city was leveled, skeletons and bones dotting the rubble and ruins. Ash coating the crater as the snow fell. Looking around, she saw a black-cloaked figure at the center kneeling before something. As her vision and hearing focused on this figure she could hear sobbing and she could see a shallow grave in the center in the ash. The person's clothes were torn. The cloak shredded, Imperious found herself walking towards this figure, as she stepped forward the sobbing stopped and the figure turned to face her. Under the cloak, she could see two glowing blue irises surrounded by black sclera and a bone white face.

"Oh it's you, this is all your fault!" The figure spoke, her voice in pain and sorrow as it escalated to a yell as she drew a black crossguard lightsaber hilt and ignited it with an unstable blue blade. "You did this, you killed everyone! I will end you, then I can return to my love!" as the figure sliced at her neck she saw the face what she thought was Weiss at a glance, but as the blade began its cut she saw it was Ruby. With that, the vision came to a traumatic end.


Malserik had caught Imperious as she fell into a vision. It was one problem with her, if she fell into vision, she went unconscious, almost appearing dead as her breathing slowed along with her heart rate. Over the course of her time living at Waldstahl, Ruby grew used to her going into her vision state, though the first time was always a major shock to who witnessed it. Though this was her curse for being a Visorium, she couldn't see the future while conscious. To Malserik Visorium force users were an interesting topic, they all could see glimpses of what is to come by themselves, but if enough gathered together, the force would reveal onto them, the ability to knowledge on how to manipulate the future.

While he was sitting on the ground with Ceres, Malserik had rested her on the floor. For a while she looked peaceful, her pale face a had small content smile on her lips. Though half way through her face reflected that of a nightmare. Ceres always received two visions, usually one good, the other more traumatic. Seeing her enter a vision state like this always concerned Malserik as he wanted to know what she saw.

When Ceres awoke, she was gasping for air as she returned to life. "Are you okay?" Viridian asked calmly as he helped her to sit up. He knew she was probably physically alright, though he knew her visions had traumatic tendencies.

"Viridian, I am fine" Imperious spoke quickly, "ask for answers, and you shall receive." Imperious blurted out quickly, her lips quickly forming a light smile.

"Answers for what?" Malserik asked, unsure of what the pale Darth meant.

"The Ruby situation, I am going to trust her, got it Malserik," Ceres spoke softly, as if her trusting Ruby created an empire like that, what did she have to fear from her? "Alright let's get Nora and Pyrrha briefed and on their way Viridian, then I can help you with that speech. After that we should have dinner," the blonde Smiled

"Alright Ceres," Malserik smiled as he helped her to her feet, "Let's get them on their way to Nar Shaddaa, just let me get this packet of info off to Imperial Intelligence."


As Malserik walked over to the terminal, he sent the data packet to Imperial Intelligence as Ceres took out something Malserik had given her, one of the first scrolls produced in the Sith Empire. Using the new device she pinged off messages to Pyrrha, Nora, and Winter's scrolls telling them 'It was time,'

After a few moments, the two Knights enter the room followed by the newly appointed chief of security. As they entered Malserik brought up a holographic display behind him. What it displayed reminded the three Remnants of a slide show slide. On the slide the saw an image of what looked like a morbidly obese slug. To the trio, this creature was quite repulsive and hideous.

At which point Malserik stood up and said "This is Hinjac the Hutt," His voice sounded like it contained a large amount of disgust. "He controls the the Aleron District on Nar Shaddaa, I have dealt with this particular slug on a few occasions, though this time he found an artifact that could be vital to the Visorium order," Malserik explained, his voice hinting at the fact, he had a very colorful opinion of Hinjac.

"Before Malserik gets to carried away, we have received word from one of our contacts that, Hinjac has set up a deal with the Jedi to sell them this artifact, and if it is the one I think it is. We cannot let them have it." After this point was made perfectly clear, Malserik and Imperious continued with their briefing of the knights on their mission, giving them maps, and intelligence on what they could face once planetside.


After being briefed, Nora, Pyrrha, and Winter gathered their things and were on their way to Nar Shaddaa aboard the Whispering Spectre. Pyrrha and Nora were excited that they were going to another world, an alien world, a world covered in a crime-ridden city instead if barren deserts. The Smuggler's Moon they were told it was called, was the definition of a hive of scum and villainy, and their caution could be the difference between life and death. As part of this caution, Pyrrha and Nora were told not to wear their cloaks or standard equipment mainly for fear of association with Hiskal.

Going over their equipment, Pyrrha was wearing a sleeveless light gray tunic and pants that almost made her look like a Jedi minus her retrosaber on her belt with the Scepter of Ragnos on her back. While, on the other hand, Nora wore a heavy dark gray trench coat along with her old brown leather sand people bandoleer with her saber suspended from the bandoleer. Winter was in her combat gear despite the fact she wouldn't be touching down, instead, she would be flying the Whispering Spectre for this operation. Their appearance was not going to be masked as they did for the 'Pride of Alderaan' as Nar Shaddaa was a neutral world, and both Republic and Imperial forces were on the planet. Though, unlike the 'Pride of Alderaan,' this was to be a direct assault, with no disguises or infiltration, just violence.

The goal of this operation was to retrieve an artifact that had fallen into a Hutt gangster's hands. Along with this, the Hutt gangster had three very dangerous people serving them two were reported force sensitives. Which was most concerning to find force sensitives outside of the Sith or Jedi. Though according to the rumors they could be Remnants, so Viridian and Ceres told them to kill if needed and recruit if possible, And their orders pertaining to the Hutt were, to kill if possible. Though that was an order strictly given by Malserik himself, Imperious did not seem to care that much if the Hutt survived or not.


While Pyrrha and Nora were preparing to leave Ruby and Weiss were training out in the courtyard, practicing with their augmented force and aura based abilities. Before the attack on Hiskal their Aura and the Force were seemingly separate entities that they could use together, now it was combined their Aura fed their force abilities while their semblance and aura were augmented by the power of the Dark Side of the Force. They had been practicing with these abilities for the past week since they had unlocked them, in the battle for Waldstahl.

In that week Ruby and Weiss had developed some new techniques mainly revolving around what Ruby called a saber petal storm. Practicing with this both Weiss and Ruby targeted a droid that was marked to be scrapped and decommissioned. Both of them focused their semblances into their saber as they moved them in a circle in front of them Weiss's blade flaming blue with the addition of fire dust. While Ruby's blade hummed with power. As the duo moved their blades along the track of a forming glyph, filling the said glyph with glowing petals of red and blue respectively.

Once they complete the formation of the glyph they shot out the petals using the glyph infused with the force. The Swarm of blue and red petals morphed into bright lines that decimated the droid, as the petals carved it up like a shotgun blast. This droid was not the only droid to suffer that fate as a small pile had been accumulating on the side of the courtyard. Though after the droid fell Weiss's covered left eye twinged with pain.

She was still adjusting to her eye, her depth perception was wrecked due to her not being able to use her left eye. Covering the patch with her hand Weiss wondered, Is this what Malserik deals with? Does he get pains like this? Weiss asked herself, she saw how disgusting the eye looked with the burning orange Iris and the blood-red sclera, and then the dark side corruption around her eye, it looked hideous. Ruby looked over to see Weiss holding her eye patch. She knew that Weiss and Malserik shared the same curse but seeing what it had done to Weiss over the past week made Ruby empathize with Malserik, as she could now understand his struggle with keeping his eye hidden, as Weiss had to do the same.

"Hey Weiss, get some rest if your eye is bugging you," Ruby suggested in a tender and soothing tone to a distraught and in pain Weiss as she walked over to her lover and rested her hands on her shoulders to let Weiss know she was there for her along with she could feel her pain. Weiss looked up into Ruby's gilded eyes that were shaded by her peaked hood. Her one exposed eye locked with Ruby's left. She had seen Ruby's burns, but it seemed like she was hiding them from the heiress as she responded with,

"Yeah I think that may not be a bad idea," Weiss admitted, as her eye had really started to get annoyingly painful, as the longer it was covered, the more it started to hurt. Though as she clicked her lightsaber onto her belt Weiss suggested a topic for the next day's training if they were up for it. As they had neglected to try since they were on Remnant and something that Weiss apparently did when Malserik attacked her.

"Tomorrow, let's attempt summoning again," Weiss suggested, as they had put off the training long enough, she thought, as she clamped down on her eye as she walked toward the entrance to the ruined structure. While Ruby decided to stay outside in the cold while Weiss retired inside to take a shower and relax with her eye uncovered, while Ruby continued training.


While she walked back into the fortress's ruins, Weiss pondered, is Ruby really that ashamed of those burns, I mean she didn't seem to care that much before? She hoped that wasn't the case as Weiss quite liked how confident Ruby was nowadays, and something like those burns seemed quite trivial to who Ruby had become. Though after that night Ruby wore her cloak with the hood up constantly, to the point of which Imperious, who was still getting used to the scroll she had sent Weiss a message of concern to her about Ruby hiding her burns, to which she responded 'I hope she isn't', as she truly hoped that was not the case, Weiss just figured that Ruby would just need time to adapt to her new appearance as she needs to adapt to her cursed eye. Though, ever since the laughing fit Ruby had in the bathroom. She felt both pain and despair mixed with an odd sense of Joy. Weirdly, this feeling continued into the interrogation, where Weiss couldn't help but be concerned for her lover. As she worried that she could become like all those other Sith.


A/N: Ah set up for the events that will take place on Nar Shaddaa, a planet I quite like in the lore of Star Wars. I didn't really change that much this chapter minus adding the Ruby and Weiss training section along with a few other additions here and there. With that in mind, I really don't have much to say, once again minus I am having fun writing this! Also, we are seemingly on track for the 200k milestone! With that out of the way, Review responses.

hornofdesolation: Thank you once again!

ToxicGentleman: I am deeply flattered, I quite liked how that scene came out myself, and the Weiss sensing Ruby's laughing I fixed in this chapter. As for Darth Vader, he is a very tragic character, and that is one thing I do like about writing him at times is I don't see him being a brutal sith at all times, I can see him actually wanting to help someone, like in this case, Ruby.

(ctrl+C then ctrl+V) Now, with that out of the way, feel free to ask any questions if you have them, or give suggestions or corrections once again if you have any please give them or leave a review. Alright everyone, be safe, have fun, and may the force be with you!

Blitzing Raptor