The Youngest and the Strongest

by Trado

Valkorion originally had three children. For this story however, he has four. Two sets of twins with two boys, then one girl and one boy. These children are named Thexan, Arcann, Vaylin, and Kayden. Rated M just to be safe. Story starts a little before KOTFE and the story will be different than what happens in the game. ABANDONED.

6. Chapter 6: Lost

A.N.

I don't really have much to say except thank you to those who have decided to favorite, follow, and review this story. So, let's continue!

Chapter 6: Lost, Senya 2

Senya, once again, found herself staring at the stars from her viewport. She often considered taking a new posting where she might actually be able to do something other than sit around and wait for a routine drill or inspection.

She knew that she wouldn't. All the postings with more assignments were closer to Zakuul, the heart of the empire. 'The home of my husband and children.'

She doubted she actually had anything to fear from Valkorion at this point. If he wanted, he could order her back to Zakuul at any time. But of course he hadn't done that, he hadn't tried to stop her from leaving and taking her new post, in fact, she didn't think he would even notice she was gone.

She thought back on how different Valkorion used to be. He used to be some she'd admired and looked up to, a living example of everything that she could only over hope to become. 'How foolish I was.'

She'd actually believed that things would only get better once Arcann and Thexan were born, but it turned out to be the opposite. It was like their birth had been the moment caused Valkorion to close himself off from them. He wasn't the man she'd fallen in love with after that. 'Of course, things just got even worse once Vaylin and Kayden were born.'

Her two youngest children had both returned Senya's love in the beginning, but her mistakes caused her to lose both of them. Vaylin was lost when Valkorion sealed her mind and powers away, and Kayden was lost when she'd failed to protect Vaylin. 'Kayden…'

Her youngest son still caused so many emotions to rise within Senya. In many ways, she'd come to realize that she'd never truly seen just how strong the bond between him and Vaylin was, and it still seemed to be strong to this day.

Just an hour earlier, she'd watched the newest report of Kayden's activities in the Old World. Apparently, he'd located a kidnapping operation being run by the heralds of Zildrog and had freed the kidnapped victims and killed the heralds running the operation with Vaylin's help, which had brought a smile to Senya's face.

Senya had wanted to do something about all the crime and corruption in the Old World, especially when it came to dealing with delusional thugs like the heralds, but her other duties always made that impossible.

Vaylin herself had actually made an appearance on Kayden's report and her daughter's appearance only served to sadden Senya. The darkness she'd gained from Nathema was still clearly present, especially when she'd described the heralds as being 'slaughtered like the snakes they were' with a frightening cheerfulness.

One thing about her appearance that did give Senya hope for her daughter was when she'd finished speaking, she turned and looked at Kayden with a smile. The smile wasn't like the one she'd seen on Vaylin when she was reporting on the heralds, dark and full of malice, the smile she'd given her twin brother was genuine, soft, and kind. 'That was my daughter. In that short moment, that was Vaylin's true self.'

Senya's thoughts were loudly interrupted by the ship's alarm blaring, alerting her to an emergency situation. She moved quickly, like the trained knight she was, and immediately made her way to the bridge where the other knights would be gathering.

It didn't take her long to reach the bridge. Most of the crew was moving around quickly, but Senya and the other knights that had gathered stood completely still and at attention while waiting for the Captain to explain the situation. They didn't need to wait long.

"All right listen up!" The Captain shouted over the ship alarms. "We have several unidentified ships entering our sector and, by our Immortal Emperor's orders, we will be treating all unidentified ships as hostile!"

Senya was surprised. It was rare for even a single ship to appear in their sector but for several to appear at once, that never happened. 'Maybe this is a result of Arcann and Thexan's attacks on the core worlds.'

Senya had been shocked when she'd first learned that Arcann and Thexan were leading raids on the core worlds. She had never gone to war before, but she had seen the results of battles against enemies of the throne and they were never good.

Knights and troopers being killed one after another with the ones that weren't killed immediately falling to the ground and screaming in pain, and war was said to be a thousand times worse. 'At least Vaylin and Kayden stayed out of those raids.' Senya thought while refocusing on the Captain.

"We're already jamming the unidentified ships transmissions so we shouldn't need to worry about reinforcements, but we still need to eliminate the enemy forces on the ships so they can't flee." The Captain shouts before pointing at Senya and her fellow knights. "All knights will report to the boarding ships! Skytroopers will be sent in the first wave, Knights will join the second wave. Primary orders are to eliminate all enemy forces on board the unidentified ships, secondary orders are to retrieve any and all information from their on board computers."

'Basically we eliminate them and then find out why they were here.' Senya thinks while marching off the bridge with the other knights.

Something about this situation felt strange to Senya. These ships showing up out of nowhere was clearly strange, but their orders were the same as they would have been otherwise. Yet, for some reason Senya couldn't help but feel their was more to this and she didn't know why.

Putting such thoughts to the side, she approached and entered one for the boarding pods that was preparing to launch. It took her only a moment to adjust herself in the pod, but she still felt the unmistakable vibrations of several other pods being launched. 'The skytroopers have been sent in, meaning we'll be joining them shortly.'

Sure enough, just a few moments later, Senya felt her own pod launch and impact the enemy ship. It only took another moment for the hatch on her pod to open and for her to jump out and activate her lightsaber.

She had been expecting immediate resistance, but it seems the skytroopers had done their job and had already cleared out the immediate enemy defenders. So Senya took a moment to look at the fallen enemy troops.

The enemy troops were wearing gray and black armor that had an intimidating appearance to it. There were also several bodies that were wearing black robes and had lightsabers in their hands. Senya noticed that those bodies had more destroyed skytroopers around them than any of the other enemies. 'So these forces have their own version of knights. Although if skytroopers, even a large number of them, were able to defeat these 'dark knights', then they clearly aren't as well trained as our own forces.'

Senya hadn't participated on the raids that her sons launched into the core worlds, but she knew from the few reports she'd read on the battles and the enemy forces that these were most likely forces from the Sith Empire.

Senya didn't know much of anything about how the Sith Empire operated compared to the Eternal Empire, not due to a lack of understanding, but due to a lack of interest. She was a knight, not a scholar, she didn't care to learn more about their enemy. All she needed to know was how they fought and the best ways to defeat them.

Several other pods quickly appeared by Senya's position and, in a few moments, she was standing side by side with several other knights, one of which she was pleased to see, or rather sense, was Dara.

Senya's force abilities were strong in battle, but outside of combat her control was lacking. Though she was still skilled enough to pick up and notice familiar presences, such as Dara who she wouldn't be able to tell apart from any other female knight since she, like Senya, was fully equipped in the armor of a Zakuul knight. The only difference was that both Senya and Dara were wearing white armor instead of the usual gold to show their elite status.

It also gave them the authority to issue commands, which Dara started to do. "You three, head to the engine room and disable their hyperdrive." Three of the knights nodded and ran off. "You three are with me, we're going to disable the ship's communications." Dara said to the three knights closest to her before turning to Senya and the remaining three knights around her. "You four, head to the bridge and kill the commanders leading this force." She said before sprinting off with her three chosen knights.

Senya and the three knights with her immediately made their way towards the bridge, but they started to encounter resistance along the way. The first set was a group of five of the armored troopers with blaster rifles and one of the dark knights in a black robe that snarled when he noticed Senya and her knights approaching.

"For the Sith!" The now identified Sith shouted before launching himself at Senya and her group like some sort of rabid animal. 'He's like a wild beast. Do these Sith not understand a thing about discipline and patience?'

The Sith engaged Senya while her knights worked on dealing with the enemy troopers who had started opening fire. Senya would admit that the Sith's attacks were quick and powerful, but his form was sloppy and his footwork was especially bad. 'He's only focused on attacking, he has no guard whatsoever.'

Senya guessed that this Sith at least was trying to tire her out with his attacks so it would be easier to land a killing blow, but Senya had trained her entire life to be an effective and powerful knight and knew exactly how she would be able to defeat her wild enemy.

It only took a few moments of deflecting the Sith's attacks when Senya saw it. On his last thrust, the Sith overextended and left himself open, an opening Senya quickly seized as she brought her lightsaber past her opponent's blade and decapitated her enemy in one move.

Not wasting a moment, she spun to assist her fellow knights against the Sith's troops, only to find that wasn't necessary. All of the enemy troops had been killed and her knights were all uninjured. Without any words needing to be spoken, Senya and her group advances towards the bridge once more.

They engage two more groups of enemies along the way and one of the knights in Senya's group is struck down by another Sith, who is in turn struck down by Senya. Soon, Senya and her two remaining knights arrive at the large door which they know leads to the bridge.

Nodding to her two companions, Senya and the two knights all use their lightsabers to slowly cut a hole open on the door that will be large enough for them all to fit through. In just a few moments, they've cut the hole open and, on Senya's command, use a powerful force push to send the door flying inwards.

The door, or rather part of the door, impacts and kills one of the enemy troopers with the others taking cover where they can and opening fire. Senya and her fellow knights deal with the troopers easily enough when the rest of the bridge crew starts to open fire, though they are clearly not as well trained as the armored troopers since they only have blaster pistols and their shots are all over the place. Senya and her knights deal with them easily.

Finally, Senya and her two knights are facing the Sith that is clearly the leader of these forces judging by how he'd been standing at the front of the bridge with his hands behind his back watching the fight, though Senya wasn't sure why this Sith had just been watching the battle with his two dark robed companions instead of trying to save his crew.

"You are all clearly very skilled, but none of you are Jedi. So who are you?" The Sith questioned and Senya took a moment to examine the Sith leader. His skin was pale, extremely pale to the point it was actually a grayish white with dark veins around his eyes and mouth, and running over his mouth were two vertical scars. But it was his red eyes that really stood out to Senya.

When neither Senya or her knights spoke, the Sith leader became visibly angered. "So be it. I hope, at least, you understand what an honor it is to fall at the hand of Lord Kancen." The now identified Lord Kancen spoke while activating a blood red lightsaber along with his two companions and leaping forward to attack.

Lord Kancen engaged Senya while his two Sith companions attacked Senya's knights. It only took a few moves for Senya to realize that this Lord Kancen was much more skilled than the previous Sith she'd faced. He still held a lot of the wildness that she'd seen in the other Sith but, unlike those Sith, Lord Kancen had much better control and a much more solid defense than any of the others.

A few passes later and Senya was still trying to find a weakness in the Sith leader's defenses when she hears someone cry out behind her and she knows that one of her knights just cut down one of Kancen's Sith and when the Sith Lord takes his attention off her for a moment she thinks she has her opening and strikes.

But Lord Kancen proves why he's this force's leader since, right before Senya's blade can end his life, he steps back and evades the blade at the very last second and raises his free hand to strike Senya in the chest with a blast of Force Lightning that sends her flying back several feet.

Senya just barely registers one of her knights calling out to her before she hears the unmistakable sound of that knight crying out in pain from what Senya can see is a lightsaber going through his chest before he falls to the ground dead.

Senya's last remaining knight takes advantage of the opening and quickly kills Lord Kancen's last Sith follower before facing off against the Sith Lord himself. Even though Senya is still on her knees from the pain, she can easily tell that Lord Kancen is stronger with how much her knight is struggling to block his attacks. 'I need to get back in the battle!'

It takes a bit of effort, but Senya manages to rise to her feet and charge towards the Sith Lord once more. She's just a little too slow however, since Kancen is able to get past her final knight's guard and carve a large slash across the knight's chest as he cries out in pain before falling motionless to the floor.

Senya doesn't allow the Sith leader to rest for even a moment before she reengages him and both force users go back and forth trading blows. 'He's very strong this Lord Kancen, but everyone has a weakness.'

It takes several more minutes of attacking and defending before Senya finally spots it. When their sabers lock, Senya can see that Kancen has put his front foot too far forward and she takes advantage of this by using her own front foot to hit him hard in his knee.

Darth Kancen's leg bends at an unnatural angle and makes a loud cracking sound, followed quickly by Kancen letting out a pained scream and dropping his guard so that Senya is able to break their saber lock and drive her lightsaber into his chest. Kancen opens his mouth like he's about to scream again, but his face just freezes into one of silent shock as his life leaves him and he dies before his body can hit the floor.

Senya quickly glances around the bridge to check for any remaining enemies. Finding none, she activates her comlink. "The bridge is secure, repeat, the bridge is secure."

She only has to wait a moment before getting a reply. "Engine room is secure and the Communication center is also secure."Dara reports over the comlink.

"Skytrooper units report all enemy forces have been eliminated." The ship Captain reports before adding. "All scans confirm, the ship is ours. A scanning crew will be coming aboard momentarily to collect any data available from the enemy computers. Skytroopers will escort them, all knights return to the ship immediately, your work is finished."

Senya deactivates her comlink and, while she wants to take her fellow knights bodies back herself, she follows her orders and makes her way back to her own ship. She is somewhat content knowing that the skytroopers will be gathering up the bodies of their fallen later after the scanning crew is finished with their work but still feels some shame for not being able to save the knights that had followed her. 'They followed their orders and fell in the line of duty. There was nothing more I could have done.' She thought, trying to ease the pain caused by their deaths. It is only partially successful.

…

A short while later, Senya finds herself back in her chambers after submitting her report and listening to a short debriefing from the Captain.

She learned that they had lost six knights taking the enemy ship, the three that were in Senya's group had all perished, two of the knights in Dara's group had been killed by Sith they'd encountered, and one of the knights sent to disable the hyperdrive had been killed by blaster fire. Overall, their losses were nothing compared to their enemies, but they still weren't good to Senya.

Her group had suffered the most casualties and, despite knowing they'd faced the enemies leader, she wasn't happy that those under her command had suffered the most. It reminded her far too much of how she'd failed her children.

Her door beeping broke Senya's line of thought and she opened it to reveal Dara on the other side, only now she, like Senya, had removed her armor which showed the concerned look on the other woman's face. "What's wrong?" She asked, causing Senya to blink. 'Is it really that obvious?'

Her thoughts must have shown on her face since Dara continued. "You haven't said a single word since the mission outside of giving your report. Usually after a mission you'd go to the mess to grab something to eat and chat with myself and the others but you just came and basically locked yourself in here after everything was finished."

Senya was surprised, both at how much Dara knew about her routine and how concerned the female knight seemed to be. "Why does it matter what I do Dara?" She said more harshly than she'd intended, making the other woman look somewhat uncomfortable.

"Senya, the Captain spoke to me privately after I gave him my report." She pauses for a moment before continuing. "He said it was very likely that I'll be promoted and transferred back to Zakuul due to this victory as well as all my previous accomplishments."

Senya wasn't surprised by the announcement. Dara was easily the most skilled knight aboard the ship besides Senya herself and, in a few more years, Senya knew Dara would likely earn a place in Valkorion's elite guard. Though Senya knew it would probably be best if Dara stayed away from Valkorion, but she'd never voice that thought. "Why tell me?" She asked, not sure how it had anything to do with her.

Dara looked slightly surprised by the question. "You're my friend, I figured I should at least let you know I'd be leaving."

Senya's eyes widened slightly as she realized why Dara had come to see her. The other woman knew she was struggling with the recent mission and had been worried that the possibility of her leaving would just make Senya feel even worse.

"Thank you for your concern Dara, but I'm happy for you. A skilled knight like yourself does deserve to serve in the heart of the empire, so I think your promotion is well earned." Senya says with what she hopes is a pleased tone.

Dara gives Senya a smile, but it's clearly forced and there's a sadness in the other woman's eyes. "Thank you Senya. I'm glad you're happy." She says in what sounds like a kind tone but is clearly anything except for that since, as soon as she says the words, she turns around and walks away.

As soon as the door closes, Senya immediately feels guilt as she understands what she'd just done. Dara had come trying to help a friend, and that same friend had not only rejected that help, but she'd also made it sound like she was happy to have her gone. 'I'll need to find a way to fix this. I'd rather not part with Dara on bad terms.'

Before Senya can start thinking of a way to correct her mistake, she senses something shift in the force. An odd feeling since she's not used to feeling anything from the force that doesn't involve combat, but the rippling sensation is too clear to be her imagination. 'What was that?'

Senya glanced around her chambers for anything unusual. Seeing nothing out of place, she reached out with the force to probe her surroundings and, even though her probings are clumsy, she still senses enough to know that she isn't in any immediate danger. So instead, she waits a few moments to see if anything will happen.

Nothing does.

Which only makes Senya even more uneasy.

She knows her mind wasn't playing tricks on her and that the shift in the force was real, but for nothing else to happen and there being no obvious sign of what caused the shift only served to confuse Senya.

She was a warrior, a knight, she'd learned how to use the force for combat as a knight would. She knew of course that the Scions were able to use the force to see visions to help guide Zakuul, but she'd never seen any visions before nor tried to use the force for much outside of battle. 'Maybe a scion would know what I just felt.'

She goes over to her holoterminal to contact the scions. It wasn't unheard of for those who were force sensitive in the Eternal Empire to reach out to the scions for help with any sort of strange feelings or visions in the force that they may have since the scions were the best at interpreting said visions.

She doesn't need to wait long before a scion appears, but Senya is very surprised that the one who greets her is the Scion's leader Heskal. "Senya." He greets simply.

"Heskal." She greets right back before continuing. "I'll assume you already know what the strange rippling I felt in the force was?"

The scion blinks and actually looks slightly surprised. "I didn't think anyone besides the scions and our Immortal Emperor would've been able to experience what we've just experienced, but it seems a new thread is weaving through fate's tapestry."

Senya decides to voice her confusion. "What do you mean?"

"The scions have witnessed a great catastrophe that will impact Zakuul. Our empire will be shrouded in darkness and many will suffer until that veil is lifted." Heskal says with complete certainty.

Senya is still confused. "I saw nothing. I only sensed something shift in the force."

Heskal nodded. "That's because you have a role to play in this catastrophe Senya. The force is merely warning you now so that you will be able to prepare for when your time comes."

"But what am I preparing for? A war?" Senya questions with no small amount of dread.

"All will be revealed in time Senya, just do not forget that everything happens as fate demands." Heskal says before his image vanishes. 'Very vague. I would have preferred a more direct answer, though I suppose I should have expected no less from the scions.'

Senya knew that many people, her own sons included, didn't appreciate the scions abilities because many of their answers could be vague and hard to understand. However, Senya herself knew that the scions saw things differently than other force users and that they weren't purposefully trying to be frustrating, they were just interpreting their visions in a way that made sense to them.

Still, Heskal's words only made Senya feel more uneasy than she had been before. She knew now that what she'd felt had been the force giving her a warning for something terrible that would happen in the future, but what exactly the force was trying to warn her about and even when this tragedy would occur she still didn't know.

Senya then considered another possibility. Perhaps this catastrophe involved Valkorion and, if that was the case, it would most likely involve her children as well. 'Is that what Heskal said I need to prepare for? I'm destined to face my children and husband again regardless of whether or not I want to?'

She knew that this was just what her mind considered the worst case scenario, but she also knew that this was more than likely what would happen to her. 'Everything else has gone wrong up to this point, why assume things will start getting better now?' She thought with no small amount of bitterness.

Still, Senya didn't give up hope that this could be an opportunity to correct her wrongs. If she truly was going to be forced to confront Valkorion and her children again, then when that time came, she would be ready for when it did.

'The real question is: Will they be ready for that confrontation?'

A.N.

Another chapter done. I will admit that I struggled with this one a little bit after the battle with Lord Kancen and I'm not really happy with it overall but I still think it's decent. As always, let me know what you think in the reviews, I hope you are all enjoying this story, and I hope you'll all join me I the next chapter when it's finished.