Rude Awakening

Darth Plagueis slowly opened his eyes, waiting for the blurriness to subside. He gazed upon the overhead control panels above his seat, then fixed his stare at the consoles and screens in front of his torso. The Muun was sitting in the co-pilot seat of a high-tech spacecraft built by his Master, Darth Tenebrous. Plagueis never recalled falling asleep during the hyperspace jump to Muunilinst, in fact he remembered being wide awake and full of energy. Plagueis looked to his left and saw Darth Tenebrous unconscious in the pilot seat, his head reclined back against the seat's headrest. Something must have happened for Tenebrous to be unconscious, since Bith have evolved to forgo the need for sleep, requiring only a few hours of light meditation instead. Wondering what else had happened, Plagueis focused his attention on the computers in front of him.

While conducting a basic systems check, a warning alarm went off above Plagueis's head. The red flashing light indicated "upcoming terrain" within the flight path. Plagueis figured it was a system malfunction, so he attempted to turn off the alarm, but something told him that he should look out the cockpit windows with his own eyes. He deactivated the window tints and was able to see the blackness outside. For a moment Plagueis expected to see that the ship was still in hyperspace, but his eyes quickly spotted a fast approaching mountain peak. The Muun immediately pulled back on his control column to take the starship into a rapid climb, narrowly missing the mountain peak. The quick change in momentum brought Tenebrous back to a conscious state, but he wasn't fully alert yet.

Plagueis looked over at his drowsy mentor. "Master, wake up!"

Tenebrous jolted upright, now fully alert. He looked to the right and observed his apprentice disabling several alarms in the cabin.

"What happened?" Tenebrous asked.

"I just avoided a mountain," Plagueis replied. "My navigation systems indicate that we are out of hyperspace above an unknown planet. Ten thousand meters and climbing."

Tenebrous rushed through the inputs and commands on his own consoles, analyzing the ship log, hyperspace drive and current trajectory. He blinked in confusion.

"How did we exit hyperspace? The ship log does not show any accounts of altered intersystem course," said Tenebrous.

"I don't know," Plagueis responded. "You and I somehow fell into unconsciousness, and I am positive that we didn't change hyperspace lanes along the way."

Tenebrous shook his head. "Check how far we are from Muunilinst."

While Tenebrous checked the hyperspace systems again, Plagueis opened the destinations and coordinates log on his console. He tapped a series of commands over and over, but each attempt failed with a message that said "ERROR".

"The log can't pick up Muunilinst. Did the ship receive any damage?" Plagueis said while leveling out the altitude of the starship.

Tenebrous pushed a few buttons. "No damage."

Both Sith Lords sat in silence for several moments, trying to think of what could have brought them to this unknown planet.

"I did not design this ship to have a mind of its own," Tenebrous huffed. "Are there any settlements on this planet?"

Plagueis activated the ship's surface scanner. "The nearest settlement is 290 kilometers away."

"Take us there," Tenebrous ordered.

While Plagueis flew the starship, Tenebrous looked at the coordinates log for himself. Shifting forward in the captain's seat, the Bith rebooted the system and tried to lock onto Muunilinst. After the failed attempt, he tried locking onto the coordinates of important planets like Kuat, Alderaan, Nar Shaddaa and even Coruscant. Each set of coordinates failed to load. Tenebrous flipped many switches and overrode some commands to set the system into an alternate frequency mode that few beings in the galaxy knew how to operate. Despite his efforts, the computer failed to pick up any of the planets on its scanner.

Frustrated, Tenebrous put his forehead to his hand. "We may have to delay the meeting with the Banking Clan."

Plagueis glanced over his shoulder and said, "There's no need to get too disappointed, Master. We can use the ship's log to show them proof of a hyperspace anomaly that delayed us. Or I can pull a few strings with Larsh Hill and the Chairman."

"That will do," Tenebrous acknowledged.

Tenebrous and Plagueis were on their way to Muunilinst to meet with the Chairman and other Muun associates of the InterGalactic Banking Clan (IGBC), as Rugess Nome and Hego Damask, to get funding and production rights for Tenebrous's new starship design. The design is a high-quality exploration/transport vessel that will cater to rich individuals; it is not ridiculously expensive, but a buyer would still need some deep pockets to purchase the ship. An upgrade to Tenebrous's Sailor-class transport for middle-class buyers, the new design could take a wealthy family on a trip across the galaxy at low fuel costs and with revolutionary hyperspace jump accuracy. Tenebrous was hoping to make a good profit off this design, but now he and Plagueis must deal with this unexpected situation.

"Fifty kilometers and closing," Plagueis updated to his Master.

Plagueis put the ship on a slow descent while Tenebrous fiddled with the surface scanner. The computer showed him that there are many other settlements across the world, but none of them are recognizable to the ship's coordinates log. In fact, the entire planet was unknown to the coordinates system.

Plagueis activated the ship's stealth system as he flew over the city's infrastructure, effectively rendering the vessel virtually invisible to the naked eye and undetectable to radar. He circled the city once, then found a secluded spot in a forest just outside the city limits. Plagueis slowed the vessel down as he descended it towards the open patch of grass. Tenebrous looked at his altimeter, then Plagueis's own on the first officer side, just as the Muun deployed the ship's landing gear.

Tenebrous read the altitude to his apprentice. "Two hundred meters…one hundred meters…fifty meters."

The ship landed gracefully in the tall grass with a soft 'thud' of the landing gear. Plagueis decloaked the ship and shut down several systems, then turned off the main thrusters. Tenebrous was out of his seat checking over their personal equipment, and once he was done Tenebrous hit the switch that descended the ship's ventral exit ramp. Plagueis approached his Master, and with a slight turn, retrieved his lightsaber hilt from Tenebrous's hand. The two Sith walked down the ramp, closing the airlock behind them, and set foot on the damp grass. It was the apex of night, pitch-black everywhere, but the Force heightened their senses as they strode across the open spot of plains. The Sith Lords activated their lightsabers so they can have a little extra light to see, with each one's single blade illuminating the immediate area with a red glow.

Tenebrous glanced back at his ship for a moment before passing the threshold into the woods. A fifty-meter long starship designed by Tenebrous himself, the Mundane is a Midpoint-class interdictor. As an interdictor, it has an advanced stealth cloak, radar, and electronic countermeasure (ECM) system that allows it to operate deep within hostile territory. And as the ship name and class name suggests, the ship also serves as a multi-purpose ship that is quite average at everything: two large laser cannons and a proton torpedo launcher for decent offense, good shielding and lightweight armor plating, okay speed and maneuverability, and sufficient cargo space and logistics. Tenebrous designed the ship with the main purpose of versatility in mind; a ship that can sneak him into restricted or private locations, carry some cargo and fend off some pirates or mercenaries. The ship is sleek and streamlined, similar to many Naboo starships, indicating that Tenebrous invested a lot of time and resources into the ship. The Mundane is also the only ship of its kind in existence, serving as Tenebrous's secret go-to ship that he sometimes lends to Plagueis.

Now walking around trees, the Sith Lords scanned their surroundings while heading in the direction of the city. They walked for a few kilometers, then Plagueis suddenly stopped. The Muun had reached out with the Force for the first time since he awoke, being so caught up with the bizarre situation that he neglected the contents of the current solar system and beyond. Something was wrong…very wrong.

Tenebrous looked back at his apprentice who stood meters behind him. "What's the matter, Plagueis?"

Plagueis was sensing the nearby solar systems, noting how unrecognizable they were. Wary about giving off too much of his presence and powers to the Jedi across the galaxy, he extended his awareness bit by bit, feeling how each star system was unfamiliar. Plagueis eventually scanned the entire galaxy, coming to an alarming conclusion while doing so. He couldn't sense any major star systems and their planets; Muunilinst, Corellia, Fondor, Coruscant…they weren't there!

A chill went down Plagueis's spine. "We're not in the right galaxy…"

"Don't be ridicu-" Tenebrous cut himself off as he finally paid attention to the current star system.

Darth Tenebrous was too preoccupied with his rude awakening to be all that aware of the galaxy around him, but now he went through the same process as Plagueis, sensing the nearby stars and extending out slowly with the precaution of not alerting any Jedi. He then came to the same disturbing realization as Plagueis, and that realization hit Tenebrous hard like a wrecking ball.

The Bith looked down at the ground and lowered his lightsaber hand, and his left hand was clenched together so tightly that it shook. Plagueis saw the devastation on his Master's face; he had never seen Tenebrous so distraught in his entire life. Concerned, Plagueis approached the motionless Bith.

"Master?" Plagueis called out.

Left unanswered, Plagueis shouted louder. "Tenebrous?!"

Tenebrous still didn't reply. The reason that he was so troubled is because Tenebrous knew the future in an incredibly accurate manner. Unbeknown to Plagueis, Tenebrous can calculate the future using formulas and equations. A while ago, when Tenebrous injected himself with his maxi-chlorian invention, the retrovirus took away his Force ability to read the distant future, but that didn't matter because Bith science allowed him to calculate the future in a significantly more accurate manner. Tenebrous knew every major event of his future, and knew the likelihood percentages of certain risks or outcomes as his life went on. Whereas Plagueis's Force precognition only gave him vague and unclear images of the distant future, Tenebrous's formulas allowed him to know everything about the future…or so he thought. The Bith couldn't understand how such a bizarre, life-changing event like this could magically appear out of nowhere. Why didn't it show up in his calculations?

Plagueis halted right next to his Master. "I didn't sense any of the Jedi either. The light side of the Force feels empty."

Tenebrous raised his head and looked at Plagueis. The Bith's large, black, lidless, irisless eyes now glowed fiery orange in the center, emitting like apparitions in a sea of black.

"Which means we do not have to conceal or suppress our powers," Tenebrous said with what might have been a smile under his respirator.

Plagueis pondered on that statement, then, in agreement, the Muun allowed the dark side to make his eyes glow too.

"We need to gather information about this planet…or about anything really. Perhaps we should ask one of the locals," Plagueis suggested.

Tenebrous deactivated his lightsaber and clipped the hilt to his belt. "Yes, a sound plan."

In a quick burst, Tenebrous spontaneously used Force speed to accelerate towards the city, departing so swiftly that he nearly knocked Plagueis over. Regaining his balance, Plagueis turned off his lightsaber and followed Tenebrous with Force enhanced speed. Running around trees and avoiding low branches, Tenebrous closed the gap between him and the city, and it took Plagueis great effort to keep up with the Bith; while Plagueis had slightly better agility, Tenebrous had slightly greater running speed. The Sith Lords had covered the remaining kilometers to the center of the city with unbelievable speed, invisible to every city resident they passed. The two Sith stopped at the base of the Phenex Castle, standing near the very bottom of the rear tower.

"Who better to ask than the nobles?" said Tenebrous.

Looking up at the open window many meters above their heads, Tenebrous and Plagueis attached themselves to the stone tower with their hands and feet, climbing up the wall like spiders. After a decent climb, the Sith Lords entered through the window sill and began to sneak their way through the castle.

[…]

"I'm going to bed now," said Riser Phenex.

"Okay, good night," replied Riser's mother, Lady Phenex.

Riser exited the main lounge and made his way to the stairs where he saw some of his peerage members walking down to the first floor. He spotted his queen, Yubelluna, as he walked up the stairs, passing by to give her a playful smack on the butt. Yubelluna blushed as she glanced back at Riser who was smirking at her. Riser continued up the flights of stairs until he reached the second highest floor of the castle, where he then turned left down the hall. Just as he turned right at the next hallway, Riser suffered a strike to the back of the head that knocked him out. His body was dragged down the opposite hallway and was brought to the nearest outdoor walkway.

A little over a minute after losing consciousness, Riser opened his eyes and saw the legs of two figures standing a few meters away. When he looked up at them, he thought he was dreaming. Riser sometimes had dreams about aliens, and when he was lucid dreaming, he would confirm their false presence by doing dream checks such as checking the time and touching his palm. As such, Riser proceeded to check the time on his watch by checking once and looking away, then checking again. The time stayed the exact same and was perfectly readable. A bit worried, Riser tried to put his finger through the palm of his opposite hand, expecting it to phase through like in all his other lucid dreams. But when the tip of his finger stopped against solid flesh, an overwhelming rush of anxiety and terror seized his body.

He wasn't dreaming…

Riser's bewildered gaze was locked on the two ugliest human-shaped things he had ever seen. The one on the left, Plagueis, had a very elongated head that was over twice as tall as it was wide. The Muun's pale skin made his brow a lot more prominent just above the eyes, supplementing his hateful frown that seemed like a permanent feature. And Plagueis's long and flat nose hardly extended from his face, maybe a centimeter or two, and his tiny ears can only be seen from a side-on angle.

But Tenebrous, on the right, made Riser's skin crawl even more. Plagueis's face at least somewhat resembled a human face, while Tenebrous's own looked like it came straight out of a science-fiction movie. The Bith's black and ghostly dark side eyes were the size of golf balls, and them being lidless made them look even more creepy. Tenebrous's bulbous cranium made it seem like his brain was about to burst, and the multiple skin flaps on his cheeks looked like fish gills. Also, the respirator over his mouth and the absence of a conventional nose further enhanced his non-human appearance.

For their attire, Plagueis was wearing a long-sleeve shirt with what seemed to be a flak vest of personal design over it. Silver armor plates covered his arms from his shoulders down to his wrists, and silver knee guards gave him some lower body protection. The Muun also wore copper-colored pelvic armor with a utility belt over it, both supplementing his skin-tight pants and boots. Overall, Plagueis's outfit really showed off his tall and gaunt frame.

Tenebrous's clothes, while still practical, were more stylish than those of Plagueis. Silver-colored armor covered the Bith's chest, stomach, back, shoulders and arms, and the two sturdy cords of his respirator attached to his chest plate that housed other respiratory components. Tenebrous also had on black gloves that went halfway up his forearms, and a black cape with a high collar that covered the entire back of his neck. The purple sash at his waist gave some background style to his utility belt, and his black kilt worked as a good ornament to his black pants and boots. Unlike Plagueis's tall and overly thin frame, Tenebrous's body had the shape and proportions of those of an average human.

Riser struggled to find any words to speak. "W-Who are you?"

"Who we are is not important," replied Tenebrous, "but what you know about this world is."

Riser then caught sight of their lightsaber hilts attached to their belts. "Are you Darths?"

If Tenebrous had the ability to widen his eyes, they would have grown to twice their original size. The right side of Plagueis's mouth twitched, and his eyes seemed to glow brighter.

The Muun held out a hand to Force choke Riser. "How do you know that term?!"

"Darth Bane used to…live here in the…Underworld," Riser muttered. "Him and…Darth Zannah."

Upon hearing those words, Plagueis let the young man free from his deadly choke.

Tenebrous walked a few steps closer. "Bane and Zannah used to live here? On this world?"

"Y-Yes," Riser said, shivering in fear. "They ruled in a territory of one of the extinct devil clans. Did they not tell you?"

When Darth Bane and Darth Zannah found a way back to Ambria, Zannah defeated Bane in a duel to the death for the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith. Afterwards, Zannah wrote down brief excerpts of her and her former Master's experiences in the Underworld, compiled into her personal manifesto. The Dark Lords who lived after Zannah's apprentice, Darth Cognus, were skeptical of her accounts that claimed she lived in another galaxy or universe. They didn't think she was crazy, but they took her words with a grain of salt. Even Darth Cognus, who had witnessed Zannah and Bane's disappearance, was a bit dubious about the existence of the Underworld and the "mythological factions". Besides, Zannah had written her accounts in such a brief and vague manner that it sounded more like a legend than an actual experience, and she intentionally wrote it that way. She wanted her successors to focus on the Sith teachings and the Grand Plan, for those were hard enough to learn, and not get distracted by a world/dimension that was irrelevant to the goals of the Banite lineage.

Centuries after Zannah wrote her claims, her manifesto was destroyed when Darth Gravid swayed to the light side of the Force and tried to sabotage the Sith teachings. Although Zannah's dark side journal was lost, Gravid's apprentice, Darth Gean, verbally passed on Zannah's notes to her own apprentice. Generations later, that verbal legend now rested in the minds of Tenebrous and Plagueis. Being the most intelligent and powerful Sith Lords of the Banite lineage and in all of galactic history, Tenebrous and Plagueis were the biggest skeptics of Zannah's accounts, deeming that she possibly had a bad case of psychosis at the time she wrote her journal.

But now the Bith and Muun realized that the legend was true.

"I thought Zannah's story was just a myth," Plagueis shook his head.

Tenebrous probed Riser's mind with the Force, and sensed that he is in fact telling the truth.

"So did I," Tenebrous responded, "but this one speaks the truth."

Plagueis looked back down at the devil. "What else did Bane and Zannah do in this 'Underworld'? Did they leave anything behind?"

"I-I don't know if they left anything behind," said Riser, "but they caused more than enough havoc to the Underworld. Soon after they left, nearly half the devil population rebelled against the noble houses. For the past five years, it has been nothing but civil war between the rebels and the loyalists. The rebels saw Bane and Zannah as symbols of hope and power, a glorious excuse to justify their low status and supposed suffering in our society. Only my clan and a few others are free from being involved in the war. I think the other mythological factions are facing their own problems too, but I'm not entirely sure."

"Bane and Zannah left the Underworld five years ago?" Plagueis questioned.

"Yes," replied the young devil.

Five years ago? How could that be? It's been nearly a thousand years since Bane's era, Tenebrous and Plagueis thought.

Neither Sith Lord said a thing, then a moment later, Riser stood up from his supine position.

"Another thing to add…" Riser continued. "If you two plan on escaping this world, I suggest you do it very soon, because the factions will hunt you down endlessly if their scouts ever find you."

"I appreciate the warning," Plagueis nodded.

Tenebrous swiped his hand from one side to the other. "You will forget everything about this encounter, we were never here."

Riser's gaze changed, and he repeated, "I will forget everything about this encounter, you were never here."

Riser marched off while the mind trick distorted his memory.

Tenebrous then looked at his apprentice with a disappointed stare. "You waste your words."

[…]

Tenebrous and Plagueis were now in the library of the Phenex Castle. Shuffling through different book genres along the shelves, the Sith Lords searched for journals and documents that would help them to better understand the world they are on. They gathered, in their opinion, what seemed to be the most important and interesting books on the Underworld and other mythologies: geography, sociology, law, history, religion, biology, technology and magic books filled their medium-sized sacks that they found in a nearby cabinet.

The Phenex library is by no means a notable place of vast knowledge, but it does contain common information pivotal to Underworld culture; and the Sith Lords did find some texts that were, unknown to them, quite rare and valuable.

Tenebrous flipped through the pages of a technology textbook. "Much of their technology is millennia, perhaps tens of millennia, behind those of most Republic worlds. They do not have any vessels that can enable them to colonize other worlds, nor do they even have the capability to depart their own star system. Pathetic."

Plagueis looked at the multiple magic books in his bag. "Something tells me they channeled most of their effort into mystical practices."

"Hopefully their magical arts are not as pitiful as their technology," Tenebrous mocked.

Not quite a minute later, the Dark Lords sensed a person walking down the hallway towards the library door. They both looked at each other, then a scheming expression took hold of Plagueis's facial muscles.

The devil servant entered the library and closed the door behind him. It took a few strides before he noticed the two aliens at the back end of the room with bags at their feet. After a moment trying to comprehend what he was seeing, the servant's body vanished into nothingness. Loose pages went flying and some books scattered across the floor, but other than that, the room was left unscathed.

Darth Bane had the power to disintegrate his enemies with his Force waves, but Plagueis can atomize his targets with his telekinetic powers. Not only that, but the Muun also had far more control over the applications of his telekinesis, such as being able to confine tremendous amounts of power into a small area while doing minimal damage to the surrounding environment. As such, Plagueis had unleashed a Force wave that ripped the servant's body apart at the molecular level, and did nothing more to the room than knock around some loose objects. From an onlooker's perspective, the wave was all too similar to a strong gust of wind.

"The servant ran off with the library books, forever abandoning his duties for his own personal interests," Plagueis said cunningly.

Tenebrous cocked his head to the side, signifying the need for elaboration.

Plagueis explained, "Some servants may feel the need to free themselves from their masters, and perhaps steal the landlord's belongings and sell them for their own profit."

"Most servants are too weak and ignorant to leave their masters, but a brilliant idea nonetheless," Tenebrous acknowledged.

The two Sith grabbed their bags and exited the library. Avoiding some devil guards roaming the hallways, Tenebrous and Plagueis leapt from the same window sill they used to enter the castle, using the Force to slow their descent to the ground meters below.

As they sped across the terrain back towards their starship, Tenebrous couldn't help but wonder how drastically the future could have changed due to this unexpected situation. Will he still die on Bal'demnic two years from now? Once they returned to their ship, Tenebrous knew he would need to reassess his calculations and hope that his destiny did not change.