A/N Sorry for the long wait, life was life and I could not find time to write in the later months of the semester, so for that, I apologize also Happy two years of Dark Side of Rose without further ado, Chapter 52: Semblance.

(4/22/22 note) This is not a new chapter of the story, that is Chapter 56. I added 5 chapters to the start of the story and that caused an offset.


Chapter 52: Semblance


Returning to the cityscape moon of Nar Shaddaa, the cityscape was blazing and burning, wisps of flames escaping from every window or port they could. Smoke and smoldering ash filled the sky. The Grimm filled the streets and flooded the skies. Screams echoing off most of the surfaces that they could, filling the urban cityscape with there echoes.

Before the emergence of the Grimm, in a world going about it's daily business, a human Sith Lord by the name of Vakor LeSark, his loving apprentice; Jaesa Willsaam, and another allied human Sith; Lyeroka Berlisa were enjoying an evening on the crime world, as Nar Shaddaa was known for its nightlife. They were all clad in the standard for Sith fashion, black robes, and armor. Though Lyeroka was more dressed in her role as a Sith Sorceress., celebrating a victory they had just achieved on Nal Hutta to Further there causes. They had found themselves in a shadier cantina establishment. Sitting in a dark corner booth the trio relaxed. They were laughing and having a good time. Though their rest and relaxation was met with a harsh and sadly abrupt end. Their night was ruined by a traumatizing pulse that hinted that the Force seemed to be in upheaval.

The non-force users felt unease, though the force users were almost incapacitated by this pulse. To a force user, it felt like an eruption in the Darkside, though to those force users on the world, it was more than that. They felt something being burned into their being, tethering to the force, like something new was there. This connection caused an intense pain to engulf their bodies as the world fell into chaos around them. When the pain stopped, the three Sith stood to find the door caved in and a large hulking masked beast before them.


Nearby in another Hutt's Palace, there was a Miriluka Jedi Consular by the Name Sitar Howulf of negotiating with the crime lord. They were clad in their elegant robes, that where a palette of browns, whites, and blues. He was there to see if they could acquire information on the Sith and their movements due to the recent silence of most Republic Intelligence in the Sith Empire.

Much to the Jedi's disappointment, the Hutt refused to cooperate, rightfully fearing a retaliation of Imperial Intelligence. Walking out of the Hutt's palace, onto the streets, the stench of decay and other depravities Nar Shaddaa, hit blinded Jedi's nose. He sighed, he wished to be on Tython, away from the dark nature of this world. Though as he stood observing the environment through the force, a pulse flashed out. Effectively blinding the Jedi in a wave of searing hot pain. This turmoil was unlike nothing he had ever felt, especially focused on his vestigial eyes. Truly blinded by this pulse, the Jedi felt the torrent of fear and dread, flowing from its epicenter. To one that walked the path of the light, this was a truly dark event.

Though as the wave washed over him, he could feel something. Something new, something bright. It felt like the force, but different. Neither inherently dark nor light but it was something to note as the wave passed into the darkness of the starry void. Though as it passed and the Jedi could get back on his feet, he could already feel the chaos unleashing itself as inky black rivers flowed through the cityscape, and it moved and pulsated with unnatural life, something that made Jedi feel uneasy as it felt like the world had just became a wound in the force.


Back in the cantina, The trio of Sith engaged the beast as numerous blasters were absorbed by the wolf-like creatures bony armor. Leaping forth the three tore down using the force to accelerate their attack. Vakor ignited his crimson blade, his sulfuric yellow eyes glowing with rage as he lashed out. Though his blade had no effect on the bony plate, This caused him to be whipped away by the dark creature in shock.

Seeing her lover get thrown like a rag-doll, Jaesa darted forth, she could feel nothing from these creatures, minus the empty void that was their presence. As she darted up, she charged up a torrent of force lightning. Once released onto the savage beast, it seemed unfazed, no it seemed almost content as it grew in size and mass. Causing Jaesa to look at the beast in shock as it looked at her with its glowing orange eyes peering out of its bony white mask. Though as the creature swiped at Jaesa, the Black haired and Red-eyed, sorceress intercepted the attack using the force to enhance her strength as she let out a roaring force enhance scream. It was something so potent that all of the Glassware in the cantina shattered upon its release as she elegantly a parried the attack and force pushed Jaesa out of the way.

Slammed into the corner by the mighty attack, Vakor felt no injury to his body or his armor. That new feeling in the force was welling within as he looked at that beast. He almost could have sworn that he saw his body pulse with a storm grey field. On the attack, he launched himself forward. Aiming his crimson blade for a gap in the bony plate. Though the best opening presented itself for the Sith to exploit, its open maw. He plunged the blade up into its skull cutting into the soft tissue was inside. His crimson blade pierced the brain of the creature killing it instantly.

As it fell limp, it did the most unusual thing the Sith had seen a creature do, it faded into an inky black smoke. Before the trio could respond, they could hear the screams, the agony, and the pain, both with their ears and the force. The turmoil in the force was great, almost overwhelming as hundreds of thousands of souls were seemingly being slaughtered by these null creatures.


The Miriluka Jedi recovered from the upheaval in the force, his vision through the force restored he searched the environment, he felt cold like the force itself on the world was being sapped through a festering wound. It was a feeling that made Sitar very uneasy. Though as he continued to look with his sight through the force, he saw something that chilled his soul to the very core. He saw null entities, creatures that were empty voids in the force, null entities. Then he saw the flowing rivers of null from which these creatures were being birthed. Just by the way, they felt he could tell that they would feed on the force to power themselves.

Screams of the damned filled his ears, from his location he could see these newly formed beasts leap from the flowing null rivers and slice apart any of the populations that found themselves to be in the range of these voidly creatures. Grabbing his lightsaber off his belt, even his experienced hands were clammy with sweat with this new threat that had revealed themselves. Though as he felt the sky-lanes he saw the insectile form launching stingers from their abdomen to rip speeders and ships from the air as other aerial nulls shredded their hulls, pulling the contents of life inside out to eviscerate them.

Igniting his green blade, the Jedi knew he couldn't defend himself easily with the force as these creatures would consume it. He could feel the strife and the pain of the inhabitants, their anguish was making his sight hazy as he felt the turmoil in the cityscape. Feeling one of these null creatures approach, he tightened the grasp on the carved wooden hilt of the weapon he possessed. Slowly he nervously brought it up in a combat stance as he felt his surroundings, it was scaling the structure. Pressing his thumb into the ignition stud, he felt the lime green blade jump to life in his hands.

That is when he heard it, the howl of aggression as the beast climbed up in front of him. With it, this close the Jedi felt quite unnerved by the null presence as it stared him down. He could see the bony plates that covered its body, he could feel that they were something to be avoided and due to their null nature, mind tricks would be ineffective. Sitar used the force to increase his speed as he leaped forward in attack. He lined up the blade with a gap in the plates of boney armor. He felt his blade connect with its flesh. Feeling the wolfish creature go limp with death, he withdrew his lime blade as he felt more of the creatures beginning to rally towards his location. He knew he was in for a fight, so he stood ready as he took breaths to remain calm and not panic with the thought of his potential death on this night.

It was with that thought he felt something new, a new entity that was shielding him. Standing there his blade in hand, he felt himself coated in a lime green field that would protect him as more of the creatures readied to attack. Though as he felt the environment he could see more of these wolfish creatures approaching, though as he did he could feel another new element to him, an ability that he never knew he had. As they leaped forward in attack, the Jedi vanished in a flash of lime green.


The trio of Sith had left the cantina behind themselves as the walked the inflamed streets with these awful creatures. Even by sith standards, these beasts were disturbing and unnatural. Though the three of them felt off-kilter as they walked, as they seemingly had a field protecting their bodies from harm, each a different color. While being attacked by a boar-like creature Lyeroka discovered that her field was a deep crimson. Jaesa, while under attack from a quadrupedal bird-like creature found her shield to be a yellow-orange. As they fought their way through these hoards of beasts they found themselves. This was something that confused the sith as it was something rooted in the force yet not directly connected or at least that is how they saw it.

Though as they walked the streets they found themselves under siege from these creatures of nothing. They were trying to make their way to the spaceport if it wasn't already in flames. With these creatures attacking, one of the wolf-like ones tore out of an alley still gnawing on a severed limb. Vakor handled this creature swiftly as when it attacked. Dashing forward into a lunge he readied to swing his lightsaber. Though when his blade connected with the creature he could feel the new field channeling into his weapon. As it hit he saw the blade flare out in a concussive blast detonated the air in the direction of the strike. The blast wave tore apart the beast at its middle as his blade followed through. His eyes went wide with the destruction, it was a beautiful sight as black shreds flew in a cloud of viscera.

Though as Vakor found this, his companion Jaesa, found herself facing another boar-like creature charged her. Her sulfuric eyes locked in the creature, dashing forth into battle she felt her skin tingle as she felt light shift around her. As the light bent around her, she disappeared from view. Evading the creature, she could not maintain the distortion for long, only long enough to deal with the inbound threat. As the distortion of light passed she reappeared her lightsaber impaling the pitch like the flesh of the beast.

Engaging one of the odd bird headed winged variants of the nulls Lyeroka like the rest felt her ability be unlocked. She could feel her ability like it wanted to stretch out like her arms could reach out to the flyer. Reaching out, she saw out of her arm formed tendrils of crimson energy that ensnared the half bird monstrosity. Ripping it from the sky, the Sith threw it to the ground as she drew it closer to slay it with her saber.

With these new abilities unveiled to the trio of Sith, they tore through the lines of these beasts trying to push across the cityscape to reach their Fury, a ship that was unresponsive to any form of communications. Leaving them very few options the trio of Sith chose to fight, cutting swaths through the beasts before too long they found themselves surrounded by larger and larger numbers of said creatures. New forms revealing themselves with heavier and heavier armor along the way. Vakor was the one pushing the front as his explosive impact ability had a nasty habit of finishing the beasts off with one hit. The human Sith found himself sweating profusely as the combat dragged on. As he slammed his saber it another one of the wolfish creature's skulls, detonating it. He grunted as he felt the soreness in his muscles as each impact rattled his bones. Focusing on the distortion of light while cutting through these null creatures, as much as she was enjoying the combat, her head had began to throb with the overuse of her ability. While Lyeroka felt her tendrils weakening with each use as she controlled the flying nulls.

In the middle of a writhing mass of the black null creatures, the Sith embraced their pains and kept fighting. With each dead null, they could see two take its place. Unsure of how to fight their way out of this, Vakor yelled out to his two allies, "Any ideas on how to get us out of here?"

Lyeroka was the first to respond as she caught the claws of one of the wolfish nulls on her blade, "No damned clue, unless you want to run?" to the other Sith that had not responded, the last word that came out of Lyeroka's mouth was a heresy, a word almost as repugnant as they enemy that they faced. Jaesa looking over at Lyeroka as they got pushed closer and closer together gave her response.

"And lose out on such good battle, you really are a coward Lyeroka!" She yelled as the ecstasy of battle still flooded her body, despite its weariness of battle. Though her Master Vakor looked back at the two of them, as much as he wanted to agree with Jaesa, he could not, Lyeroka was right there was no other option, though any window of escape that they had was by this point sealed by a horde of black writhing nulls. glancing around they had worked their way close to the spaceport but they were way too far and now the spaceport looked to be a blaze of an orange inferno. The way they came was now ablaze and filled with null beasts. LeSark knew he could not repulse this many of these unnatural beasts he knew he could not give up, he had to live. He had to fight this new enemy. He turned his fear and hopelessness into a vengeful anger and kept fighting.

Lyeroka on the hand kept fighting, she knew their boss would kill her if she abandoned them, but she also knew this was a hopeless battle, not worth their lives. Though she saw all that Vakor did as she did she looked over to Jaesa, who was still seemingly enjoying her feast of violence, though even she could tell thatVakor's apprentice was wearing down. The Inquisitor however saw no outs to the situation, they were well and truly surrounded but, to spite these beasts she was going to take as many of them to the grave with her if possible if no method of escape showed itself.


Standing on a ledge of one of the taller structures in the local area, Sitar could see the entire cityscape through the force, it was being decimated. The sounds of roaring flames whipping on the duracrete buildings, the clattering echoes of falling debris, the roars of the nulls, and the screams of their dying victims filled the air. The turmoil in the force was nauseating but, the Miraluka knew he had to remain strong, that he had to find his way back to Tython to warn the Republic. Though he saw the main spaceport was in flames, and sadly that is where his ship was so alternative methods of escape were what were required to get off of this planet as if these nulls were to spread, it would be crisis that would rival the Galactic War that had was just waged over a decade ago. He sighed, keeping calm as he scanned the sky for any ships he could board with his new found ability. Looking around he saw on the route he would have taken by foot to the Spaceport a massive horde of the null beasts seemingly swarming they were nothing to supremely large, just the smaller forms and some aerial forms. In the middle of the cluster, he could feel the presence of three Sith.

He could see the Darkness in their hearts, as he turned his back to them as they were his enemies, he looked back. Under normal circumstances, Sitar would never consider helping them but they were in need, he could tell they would die if he did nothing to save them. Though he alone could not save the populous he could save the Sith who could seek aid for the survivors. He knew the council's thoughts on the matter, but this was a new enemy, an entirely new treat, one that did not distinguish between the two factions. If such a thing were to spread, surely the Sith Empire would have to fight too. Conjuring up his new ability, Sitar flashed out of existence.

Back in the brawl with the trio of Sith, they only had by this point mere inches between them, as they were holding off so many attacks from all angles. The Null's white bony claws had scathed their colorful fields numerous times, they had no hope of escaping, none what so ever. But in a flash of green, they found themselves being ripped from the fight. Looking around the three Sith saw themselves on the walkway that connected two buildings that seemed to be unscathed. Falling to the metal floor, they collapsed panting unsure of what saved them or if they were already dead. Vakor rolling onto his back saw their savior, clad in brown and white accented with blue, he stood his eyes covered by a porcelain mask, giving his race of Miriluka away quickly while his clothing told him all about who this man was, he was a Jedi.

"Who the hell are you?" The brawny Sith asked as he leaped back to his feet. Locking eyes with the mask of the Jedi he raised his lightsaber toward him. He was quickly followed by Jaesa along with Lyeroka. The Jedi could feel all of them, as they pointed their blades at his body but he gave his response quickly and concisely.

"Despite our past grudges and feuds we must put those behind us and work to get off of this world." He explained not making any movement but his lips. Continuing by saying, "As this threat is something we have not faced before and we must unite if we wish to warn our respective people." though they heard the approaching roar of starship approaching. All of their attention shifted to the burning craft. Which was blacked out BT-7 Thunderclap covered in a swarm of flying nulls coming right for the gap between the buildings, right toward them as they dove out of the way.


A/N: Once again I'm deeply sorry for the delay, school, life, and pretty much everything else made it finding time to write hard to come by, I also would've liked this chapter to be longer but I wanted to get something out for the 18th as this is the second year Dark Side of a Rose has been on the site. Also, I would've preferred it to be a different chapter than this one but the sidetracking happened. All in all this chapter was to show how Star Wars characters would be reacting to the new Grimm infestation Along with a few other interesting details.

Review responses:

Piggyslayer1235: I have no clue what her theme would be probably something along the lines of Imperial March but probably a bit more melodically evil.

TheLatiKing: we shall see.

Minnidog118: Yes it is definitely lining up to be something very interesting.

TheFishKing: I wondered if anyone would catch that little detail.

Guest: I think I get what you're saying here use them as a weapon more than a force of their own.

With all of that out of the way, Thank you all for reading, if you have any comments, critique, suggestions or corrections, feel free to leave a review or PM me if you can, anything can help the Story. Now then, please everyone be safe and may the force be with you all and thank you all for reading, reviewing, following, favoriting, and sharing RWBY: Dark Side of a Rose! So here's to another upcoming year of RWBY: Dark Side of a Rose!

Blitzing Raptor