When awareness finally returned to Kam, he found that he still couldn't see anything; the world was still as black as it was when he fell into that coma. And there were no distinct sounds or smells in his environment, so all he knew through touch alone was that he was lying down on his back on the metal deck of a room at an optimal temperature.
"You should have about three hours before you regain your eyesight, Master Solusar," the voice of an old man—most likely human—said to him. "Side effect of being thawed out of carbonite, as I understand. In the meantime, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Darish Vol."
"Darish Vol?" Kam asked with a spike of alarm. From what he remembered about what Darth Judicar told the Jedi Order, that was the name of the Lost Tribe of the Sith's Grand Lord, the man who could be said to be equal to Luke Skywalker in terms of sheer Force-power.
"Ah, I see by the look on your face that you are familiar with my name," Vol said. "Then you must know that even for one with your skill, it would be folly to-"
The Grand Lord was cut off from saying anything else as Kam threw out his hand in the direction that he sensed the Sith to be as he cast a Force-wave. He heard the sound of creaking metal, but a mere second later, he was pinned to the deck by what was no doubt a Force-hold by Vol.
"As I was saying," the Sith continued in a slightly annoyed tone, "it would be folly to try to resist me. And I am aware from what Saber Khai told me about your history as a dark sider before you became a Jedi. No doubt you had sworn that off, never to return to it for as long as you live, yes? Well... I assure you, that's all about to change."
Kam stiffened in agony as a torrent of Force-lightning—it couldn't have been anything else, he thought—enveloped his whole being.
When the lightning ceased and Kam was allowed to pant in pain along the deck without Vol's Force-pinning him there, the Sith continued with, "Khai also told me that he had killed your wife. Surely, that would be something to look forward to? Revenge for Tionne's loss?"
Kam paused for a long moment as he continued to seethe through the lingering pain from the lightning attack. A part of him wanted to laugh in Vol's face and explain that Tionne wasn't dead; she was just placed in a coma just like he was (it was strange, he thought idly, how they both ended up in their own comas very close to each other). But if he explained that, he feared that the Lost Tribe would put a target on her back; it would be better, Kam thought, if they really did think she was-
Suddenly, his limbs were pinned to the deck by another Force-hold, and Vol's voice said, "Well, well. Your thoughts betray you as you recover, Master Solusar. I can feel your confidence, your lack of grief. Now while I may not know how exactly your wife still lives, rest assured... the Lost Tribe can remedy that."
"Good luck," Kam countered bitterly. "After your people's attack on Shedu Maad, the rest of the Jedi Order will have flocked back there. And security from the Hapes Consortium will be doubled and-"
He was cut off as a great pressure was exerted upon his trachea. As Kam struggled for breath, Vol said, "We will find a way to get to your wife, Master Solusar. We will find a way."
Then the pressure on Kam's neck was released, allowing him to cough for breath. When he was done, Vol said, "But on the hypothetical off-chance that Tionne remains out of our reach, there are still ways we can make you turn to us, even with all of your years of added experience as a Jedi."
"Oh, yeah?" Kam retorted. "Like what?"
"I would imagine that the lives of the Jedi children we took from Shedu Maad might be an incentive?"
Kam's temporarily-blinded eyes widened in shock.
"Don't believe me?" Vol asked. "Reach out with your senses and feel for yourself."
Reluctantly, Kam stretched out with his senses; he could sense that he was aboard a ship of some kind, probably one of the Lost Tribe's ChaseMasterX frigates. And among the dozens of Sith on this vessel alone, he could also sense a congregation of familiar presences, all children, in one area, and his heart sank in fear.
"That is correct, Master Solusar," Vol spoke up. "We do, indeed, have several of the children whom you had failed to save from being captured by Saber Khai's forces. The others, by the way, were all slaughtered."
When that last sentence sank into Kam's horrified mind, he shouted, "You monsters! How could you-"
Once again, the pressure to his trachea returned, cutting him off from saying anymore, before Vol exclaimed, "I could say the same for you Jedi! How many of our own had fallen?! How many of our own children died in that attack on Kesh so many months ago?! Hmm?!" Kam's head was knocked back against the deck, and Vol continued with, "What your Order lost in our attack on Shedu Maad was a mere pittance in comparison to what the Lost Tribe lost!"
After a long moment, Vol's voice returned to a calm, deceptively civil tone as he said, "But rest assured, Master Solusar, that the Tribe will become the dominant force of this galaxy, as is the ultimate destiny of the Sith. And when that happens, the Jedi will be destroyed as they should have been millennia ago, and you and whoever else remains from your pathetic Order will be a part of ours. Heh. Perhaps your wife may even live long enough to see you as a Sith; perhaps she may even join us herself. That would be better than death, after all."
Kam screamed and, for a very brief moment, felt Vol's Force-hold over him broken. He launched a Force-wave with both hands, and he actually heard a strained grunt from the Grand Lord; Kam must have gotten him, he thought with some satisfaction.
Still, that still left him blind as he pushed himself to his feet, and as soon as he stood up to his full height, he felt a shadow suddenly fall over Vol's Force-presence. Kam reached out to try to probe the room he was in to see if he could find that Sith and-
The Jedi's thoughts were cut off as he suddenly felt as if a landspeeder plowed into him from behind and dropped him to his stomach. And before he could get a chance to pick himself back up, his limbs were Force-pinned there yet again.
"Oh, you are powerful," Vol said. "Indeed, Khai was right about that. You will be a challenge to turn, that is for sure, but one that can be overcome. Oh, yes."
And at that last word, another torrent of Force-lightning wracked Kam's body with pure pain.
. . .
For the past two days, after they were all placed aboard this ChaseMasterX frigate, the Jedi children taken from Shedu Maad were placed in this ship's sizable cargo hold. Periodically, they would each be given food and water by a different Sith Saber, and sometimes, one of them would escort one of the children out of the bay to use a refresher; but when that happened, each child was always blindfolded until they returned with the others.
Ben Skywalker was, of course, no exception to this rule, even after his ready agreement to join the Sith upon his capture from Shedu Maad. Still, the fact that he was in the same situation as the seventeen other children didn't prompt him to join any of them in sharing their thoughts or fears through conversation; and what few times any of his fellow students from the Jedi Temple tried to approach him were instantly shot down by his gruff and outright rude attitude toward them.
"Kriff off," was usually what he would say as an opener. And in those fewer times when any of them tried to press him, he would resort to more colorful and creative insults. And in the two times those didn't work, he actually shoved two of his fellow students—a male Zeltron named Hopul and a female Chadra-Fan named Gevka—away from him; and when Gevka actually twisted her ankle upon falling to the deck, no one bothered Ben anymore.
Thus, after only an hour after the incident with the Chadra-Fan, the door to the cargo bay opened. But instead of the male Keshiri Sith Saber who stood at the threshold providing food, water, or access to a refresher, he simply pointed at Ben and said, "You. Come with me."
The young human wordlessly responded without hesitation. But once he approached the threshold, he was only mildly surprised by the fact that the Keshiri didn't place a blindfold over his eyes before the door closed behind him.
From there, the Saber guided Ben through a few turns in the corridor ahead of him before they arrived at a turbolift. A short ride later, they were brought out into an identical corridor that, after a thirty-second walk, brought them to a door.
The Keshiri pressed a button that emitted a soft chime. Then the voice of an old but strong man from inside the room said, "Come." The Saber pressed another button and he guided Ben inside.
Before the door closed behind him, Ben found himself in a well-appointed room with various photographs—not holoimages, but photographs—and antics and relics from a civilization with which he was unfamiliar. And that was all before his attention was brought to the ancient human who sat behind the desk in front of him.
"Welcome to the Shikkar's Edge, Ben Skywalker," the old man greeted pleasantly. "I hope your stay so far hasn't been... too unpleasant?"
Warily, Ben asked, "If I said it could have been better, will I be punished for my honesty?"
The old man chuckled lightly. "Not at all, young one. I actually appreciate honesty at times. And this is one of them." He stood up and slowly rounded his desk to approach Ben. He stopped less than a meter away from him and said, "I hope you understand that we had to be sure about you. Though young Vestara had vouched for your breakaway from the Jedi Order, we had to be cautious with you. We couldn't just let a Jedi youngling freely roam our ship pretending that he was one of us but still remaining faithful to his Order in secret."
"I understand," Ben said simply.
The old man tilted his head in one direction as he regarded the child. "Of course you do. You understand more than you should for your age. And no wonder, after what our Sith Meditation Sphere told us about your experiences on the world of Ziost."
Ben repressed a shudder of trauma from the reminder of his time on Ziost. He could still hear the screams of the Bothan mercenaries and the howls of their dogs that he had to kill just to survive there. And in place of that trauma that would have reduced him to a blubbering, crying mess, Ben had transformed it into a hot rage that the Saber at his side and the old man could no doubt feel through his Force-presence.
"Oh, yes," the latter Sith said. "That time is still very much with you in this moment, young Skywalker. But since then, you haven't been able to properly channel it into anything... substantive, you would say? Oh, no. The Jedi, your father, would not allow you to embrace the dark side of the Force, to make use of that anger instead of pressing it deep down where nobody could see.
"Well, among us, Ben, you would no longer have to push any of that anger down. You could use it. You could use it to heal yourself. Contrary to what the Jedi say, the dark side is something that can heal the soul. More than that, it can empower the soul to something truly transcendental. And with our help, Ben, you will not only be able to do that, but you will be among a people where you can truly feel like you belong. You would not be punished for embracing your darker desires; you would be rewarded for it."
Despite the words and the soothing, almost calming tone with which the old man delivered these words, Ben still couldn't help but raise an eyebrow up at him.
"So if I were to hurt another Sith child here, out of anger, I really wouldn't be punished for it?" he asked skeptically.
The soft grin that the old man had plastered on his face dropped into something more quizzical. "Well... that would depend on the nature of your conflict with this hypothetical Tyro, young Ben."
"But I still could be punished for it?" Ben inquired.
The old man sighed. "Well, there are times when rules must still be followed, even among the Sith, Ben."
"So what's the difference between the Jedi and the Sith?" Ben asked.
For that, the Saber beside him smacked Ben alongside the head via a backhand; the child sprawled to his side upon the deck.
The old man shouted something at the Keshiri in a language with which Ben was unfamiliar. A moment later, as Ben lay there nursing the spot on his head where he was struck, the old man walked over to the fallen child and helped him to his feet.
The elder human looked over at the Keshiri, said something else in the strange language, and the alien simply nodded before he left the room. Then the old man looked down at Ben and said, "I apologize on his behalf. It is just that there are many among our kind who do not take kindly to being compared to the Jedi. To us, they are a truly hated enemy. Will you be okay?"
Ben nodded wordlessly as he continued to rub at his head.
"Very well then," the old man replied. "But in answer to your last question, young Ben, the difference between us and the Jedi is that we are not afraid to embrace our darker emotions. However, to answer your first question, I suppose I should say I misspoke, I can see that now. There are times when we can embrace those emotions, but not among ourselves. We do it to others."
"Like the Jedi?" Ben asked just as he stopped rubbing his head.
"Like the Jedi," the old man echoed with an affirming nod.
A moment of silence passed between them before Ben asked, "Why are you so interested in me especially?"
A winning smile returned to the old man's face. "Because I see great potential in you, Ben, and I want you to realize it all. Just with fewer restrictions than the Jedi had imposed on you."
Yet another silent moment passed before Ben said slowly, "Well, sir, I look forward to being trained as a Sith. Because I am tired of being raised like a Jedi, like my father before me."
The old man's smile deepened. "Good," he said with a silky slide in his tone. "Good. Then allow me to introduce myself. I am Grand Lord Vol of the Lost Tribe of the Sith, and just as I welcomed you to my ship, I welcome you to my people, young Ben Skywalker."
