Stellar Search
Darth Tenebrous and Darth Plagueis flew their starship for nearly ten thousand kilometers to get to where they sensed the dark side nexus to be located. The nexus grew stronger as they got closer, but it still only emitted faint echoes through the Force. Whatever remained of its power will likely disappear entirely in a little more than a year.
Finally arriving at their destination, Tenebrous banked the Mundane to the right and circled around the site of the nexus—Bane and Zannah's "Sith Sanctum". Plagueis deactivated the ship's stealth system while the landing gear lowered towards the deep snow outside the estate perimeter. Tenebrous shut down the engines once the starship was fully stable on the somewhat soft earth. The two Sith descended the ramp and used the Force to blow a path through the snow that layered a few meters thick. Once they arrived at the perimeter walls, Plagueis nodded in acknowledgement of his initial conclusion.
"Just as I suspected from above," said Plagueis. "There's nothing left here."
The Sith Sanctum was in ruins. Shortly after Bane and Zannah left the Underworld, some mythological beings traveled to the Sith Sanctum and burnt it to the ground. They used whatever magical powers at their disposal to annihilate the central castle, collapse the outer walls, and bury the subterranean level under tons of rubble. Only two corners of the defense walls remained standing, but they too are close to collapsing. Whoever destroyed the fortress must have really hated Bane and Zannah, and they sought to remove the site that reminded the Underworld of their existence.
Tenebrous looked around with calculating eyes. "Just because everything around here is eradicated doesn't mean there's nothing worth salvaging."
Tenebrous walked off in one direction and began searching through the debris for anything useful. Plagueis went his own way and flipped over some chunks of rubble as he passed by. The Muun wasn't looking for anything to salvage, instead he was searching for the presence that laid at the opposite end of the ruins.
The Sith Lords sensed someone at the site of the nexus when they arrived in the Mundane. Tenebrous seemed to have no interest in this person, but Plagueis was curious to see who or what it was. As the Muun climbed over another hill of debris, he could see someone sitting down on a large boulder in the distance. Plagueis walked closer towards the man, who was staring out at the natural split in the dense forest, until he stood four meters away from the boulder.
The man said without turning his head, "Let me guess…you are a descendent of Darth Bane and Darth Zannah."
"How did you know?" Plagueis asked.
"Only Darths would come here," the male devil replied. "Everyone else would rather forget that the Sith ever existed."
"If that's the case, then why are you here?" Plagueis questioned.
The devil continued to stare out in the distance. "I was once Bane and Zannah's head guard—the captain of their estate security forces. Five years ago when the mythological leaders stormed the fortress, my men died trying to fend them off. I commanded my men from inside the castle, and sometimes I wish I died in battle with them. I come here once a month to honor them for their service and bravery."
Plagueis walked around the side of the rock and asked, "Why did the mythological leaders invade the castle?"
The guard captain finally looked at the person he was talking to. He was greatly startled by the Muun's face and body since he was expecting to lay his eyes upon a human or human-looking person. Plagueis, with his elongated head, tall frame and gaunt limbs, is barely humanoid.
The captain shuffled and blinked. "Bane never said anything about the existence of aliens…"
"That's because he had no obligation to tell you," Plagueis replied. "Now tell me why the mythological leaders ransacked the fortress."
The captain recomposed himself and explained, "I don't know the exact reason behind it, but I believe it was because Bane destroyed Heaven and killed most of the angels. That event was all over the news when it happened, and I guess the other mythologies took desperate measures out of fear."
"I see," Plagueis replied. "And I suppose the leaders demolished the castle once Bane and Zannah left?"
"I'm not sure if it was them," the devil responded. "Rumors went around saying it was a group of religious fanatics from different mythologies that destroyed the estate. Nobody knew exactly who did it, and the Underworld law enforcement never seemed to have investigated the incident. I guess many people just wanted to keep their minds off the Darths."
Plagueis was intrigued at how their society seemed to have forbidden any sort of talk about Bane and Zannah. Though when he and Tenebrous hacked into the Underworld news broadcasts and listened to them on the Mundane's audio system, they discovered that the Underworld has a substantial number of rebels who praise Bane and Zannah. Perhaps they could be of use to him and his Master one day.
Plagueis scratched his chin in thought. "I wonder how Bane and Zannah returned to my home galaxy…"
"No clue," the devil shrugged. "When I served them, they were constantly in and out of the fortress, and they were sometimes gone for days at a time. I think they were searching for something, but they refused to tell me what their task was."
"Hold on a second," the captain added in sudden realization, "you said that they were from another galaxy? And you as well?"
Plagueis nodded. "What brought Bane, Zannah, my Master and I to your world remains a mystery. But we will return home one way or another."
The devil raised his eyebrows in curiosity. "Who's your Master?"
Plagueis turned around at the sense of his Master approaching from behind. "Did you find anything?"
"Yes," Tenebrous replied while revealing a damaged book in each hand. "Here are two journals written by Darth Bane himself."
Tenebrous handed over both journals to his apprentice. One book had its entire back cover blown off and half of its pages missing, but the other one was fully intact with some minor burns and dents. Plagueis flipped through some of the pages in each journal and saw that each journal entry ended with the Dark Lord's signature that simply said "Bane".
"Marvelous," Plagueis commented.
The devil captain's mouth hung half-open; he never expected anyone or anything to ever look as foreign and evolved as Tenebrous. By the looks of the Bith's huge and bulbous cranium, the captain speculated that Tenebrous is an immensely intelligent being with incredible brain processing power. The captain remained silent in bewilderment.
"Who is this man you were speaking to, apprentice?" Tenebrous asked.
"He was the captain of Bane and Zannah's fortress guards," Plagueis replied.
The Muun then looked at the devil. "I didn't catch your name though."
"Herman Krause," said the man.
"Herman," Plagueis repeated. "I am Darth Plagueis, and this is my Master, Darth Tenebrous."
Herman bowed his head slightly in greeting.
Tenebrous became interested in Herman. "Are you affiliated with any of the mythological factions?"
"Well, I'm a devil from the Underworld's Forneus clan territory, but I currently live as a solitary traveler," Herman replied. "I'm not very involved in devil society anymore, but I still have some connections."
Tenebrous and Plagueis saw the potential use they could get out of this devil.
"Come with us," said Tenebrous. "We can use someone like you on our quest."
Herman was about to say no, but he held back his words. From his experiences and dealings with Bane and Zannah, the Sith seem to find ways to utilize others that most would hardly think of, and when they want to use someone or something for their own benefit, they go at it with relentless effort. Herman realized that if he refused, his life and well-being may be at serious risk. And unknowing to Herman, his declared refusal would force the two alien Sith Lords to kill him, for they would rather not have witnesses spreading information about them.
Herman stood up and asked, "Where are we going?"
"We will tell you once we return to our starship," Plagueis responded.
[…]
Back inside the Mundane, Plagueis turned on the engines and thrusters while Tenebrous booted up the ship's flight control systems. At the back of the large cockpit, Herman was sitting in one of the two passenger seats that were positioned adjacently to the vacant operator chair behind Plagueis. He looked around in awe at the level of technology and engineering put into the ship; it was unlike anything Herman had ever seen before.
"Where are we going again?" Herman reminded the Sith Lords.
"Earth," Tenebrous replied, not saying the true destination.
"Do you guys have a way to get to Earth? It's outside of this realm," Herman noted.
"We were planning on having you take us there," Plagueis spoke. "Can you create a teleportation circle large enough to transport the entire ship?"
Herman pondered with uncertainty. "I possibly could, but it will take every bit of magical energy I have. I probably won't be able to teleport this ship to any specific location on Earth, such teleportation precision for a huge object like this would require Satan-level magic."
"That's fine, just teleport us somewhere above the planet's surface," Plagueis said.
"Alright, I will create the magic circle now," Herman announced.
The devil closed his eyes and gathered all the magical power he could muster. Up in the air roughly two hundred meters away from the starship, a large magical circle formed and grew in size to complement the dimensions of the Mundane. Once the rotating disc of Forneus clan symbols was of sufficient size, Tenebrous lifted the ship off the ground and brought it towards the circle on low throttle. Tenebrous and Plagueis saw nothing but darkness for a few moments when the nose of the fifty-meter-long starship passed through the circle's threshold.
The Mundane then emerged a kilometer above the Earth's Pacific Ocean. They were at a random location about four thousand kilometers away from the coast of Japan. Plagueis immediately activated the ship's stealth cloak while Tenebrous increased the ship's speed to gain altitude.
Herman was panting and sweating out of exhaustion. "So, where were you guys planning on going? China? The United States?"
"Deep space," Tenebrous answered.
Herman was stunned. "Wait, what?"
The devil was then compressed to the back of his seat when Tenebrous increased the throttle and brought the nose of the ship to a seventy-degree angle towards the sky. Plagueis monitored the ship's altimeter and flight trajectory.
The Muun called out the numbers, "30,000 meters…60,000 meters…90,000 meters…"
After passing 100 km (62 mi) above sea level, Tenebrous activated the sublight engines to speed the ship away from the planet. Within a matter of minutes, the Mundane cleared the Earth's gravity well and entered interplanetary space within the Sol system.
Herman was curled up in a ball, stressed out over the fact that he's in space. He thought he should be floating, but the ship's gravity generator made his mind more confused. Tenebrous and Plagueis studied through the astrogation scanner to find a suitable star for their Force experiment that would, hopefully, at least give them some insight on how to return to their home galaxy. The system can scan a star's size, mass, chemical composition and other components with pinpoint accuracy up to 5,000 light years away, and 10,000 light years with less accurate results. The Sith Lords browsed through the list of stellar coordinates until one star caught their attention: VY Canis Majoris. A red hypergiant star 3,900 light years away from Earth, VY Canis Majoris came up in an Underworld astronomy book as one of the largest known stars in their galaxy.
The system showed it's coordinates and generated a random name for it: UNKNOWN 158-89 G. Plagueis replaced the name with "VY CANIS MAJORIS" and locked the hyperspace computer onto it's coordinates. They won't be able to take a single, direct jump to the star because using hyperspace through unknown and uncharted space is dangerous. As such, the navigation computer calculated a jagged route that had several other stars as hyperspace checkpoints.
"Systems calibrated," Tenebrous looked at the navigation computer and hit some buttons. "Confirm system inputs and commands."
Plagueis double checked all the required systems for the hyperspace journey. "All systems green."
Herman, still shivering, asked, "Are we going to Mars?"
"No," Plagueis replied, "we're leaving this star system."
"WHAT?!" Herman cried.
Tenebrous pushed forward on the jump throttle and entered the ship into hyperspace.
Lilith, Underworld
Sirzechs Lucifer fixed his posture when the door to his office opened. Azazel, Issei, Rias, Sona Sitri and their respective devil peerages looked around the massive office room that was large enough to easily fit a hundred people. Around the room laid antique furniture, paintings, rugs and vases; the room did not lack any luxury whatsoever. They were all in Sirzechs's personal office at the upper section of one of Lilith's tallest skyscrapers.
"Welcome everyone," Sirzechs greeted. "I know I requested you all on short notice, but this is a matter of utmost urgency."
"Things have escalated, haven't they?" Azazel assumed.
Sirzechs nodded. "We all figured this global catastrophe was caused by the Darths, but the visions of Shiva and his brothers are never one hundred percent accurate. Now we have physical proof that the Sith have returned."
Sirzechs opened a file folder and took out some crime scene documents. "Take a look at this evidence."
Azazel walked to the front of the Satan's large desk and looked at the three documents on the table. Each one had crime scene and autopsy analyses along with photos of dismembered bodies.
"Cauterized lacerations…" Azazel read from the documents.
"When the Phenex clan's search team went silent, Lord Phenex thought it was just a communications malfunction," Sirzechs explained, "but it turned out that they were slaughtered. The wounds they suffered could have only been caused by a Sith's blade."
"Do you think it was Bane and Zannah who did this?" Sona asked.
"I doubt it," said Sirzechs. "Shiva told me that he envisioned ghostly, unidentifiable figures with oddly shaped heads, so I think we're dealing with different Darths."
"What do we do now?" Rias asked her older brother.
"We deploy all our available forces, including most of the peerages," Sirzechs replied. "I have already dispatched Sairaorg and Seekvaira's peerages, and the rest of our available peerages are on standby."
The Satan rose out of his seat. "All of you will accompany the 5th and 8th battalions of the devil army, where you will run scouting missions in Quadrant 4 of the Underworld."
Sirzechs then looked at Azazel and said, "I was planning on having you lead the peerage team and help command the battalions, unless Grigori needs you instead."
Azazel waved his hand. "Shemhazai and Baraqiel have got things covered."
"Well that settles it," said Sirzechs. "Also, all upcoming Rating Games and other events have been cancelled until further notice, so none of you have to worry about missing anything important."
The Satan looked at the three peerages behind Azazel. "Are there any questions?"
Everyone remained silent.
Sirzechs continued, "I want you all to head down to the first floor and talk with the managers at the front desk, they will get you guys set up with the battalions."
Everyone including Azazel turned around and walked towards the door at the back wall.
"Stay here Issei. I'd like to talk with you in private for a few minutes," Sirzechs requested.
Issei halted while everyone else walked out the door and into the hallway. The young devil approached the Satan and stopped five feet away.
"What's up?" Issei asked.
"You've been acting very different lately. Is there something bothering you?" Sirzechs questioned.
Issei tensed up and looked away with sadness and pain in his expression.
"You still think of her, don't you?" Sirzechs said in a mellow tone.
"Yes…" Issei replied with heartache.
Issei never got over the death of Rossweisse; after five years he thought he had moved on, but his grief still lingered. The weather phenomena and everyone's speculation of the return of the Sith made Issei's grim memories resurface. The young man looked down at his right hand and recalled when Darth Bane severed his arm and knocked him out with a Force push. The Gremory family was able to reattach his arm using their emergency supply of Phoenix Tears, and thankfully it was his right arm because if it was his left arm that was severed, the removal of Issei's Sacred Gear would have killed him that day. Ever since that encounter, Issei suffered from survivor's guilt because he believed he was the reason why Rossweisse died.
Sirzechs stepped forward and placed his hands on Issei's shoulders. "It's not your fault that she died, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it. I promise you that nothing like that will ever happen again…this time we are prepared to fight off the Sith."
Issei looked into Sirzechs's eyes and said, "I just want this to be over as soon as possible."
VY Canis Majoris system, Milky Way Galaxy
After four hours of carefully traveling to stellar checkpoints and scanning foreign space, the Mundane exited hyperspace in the VY Canis Majoris system 3,900 light years from Earth. Tenebrous flew the starship towards the star while Plagueis conducted a close-range scan of the red hypergiant.
"The star has a radius of 987.89 million kilometers and a weight of 25.3 solar masses in reference to the Sol system's sun," Plagueis analyzed.
"Perfect," Tenebrous acknowledged.
Herman marveled at the monstrous size of the red hypergiant star with so much passion that it brought tears to his eyes.
"Never in a million years would I have imagined being so close to a faraway star…" Herman mumbled.
Tenebrous slowed the ship down and reoriented its flight path so that it now orbited the star 2 billion kilometers away from its surface. Once the orbit was stabilized, Tenebrous put the engines on low power mode while Plagueis turned off some of the ship's secondary systems. Both Sith Lords then stood up and walked towards the cockpit door.
"Do not touch anything while we do our work," Tenebrous warned the devil.
"O-Of course, sir," Herman replied.
The mechanized door slid open to allow the Sith Lords through, then slid shut a moment later. Herman had no clue what they meant by "work" or why they felt the need to travel nearly 4,000 light years away from Earth, and the unprecedented level of technology they used to bring themselves here left Herman even more confused. The devil had no mental energy to process all that information, so his mind was instead caught up in praising the unbelievable view of the red star.
Not too long after Tenebrous and Plagueis left the cockpit, a portion of the star's surface began to protrude outwards. The fiery mass of superheated matter extended and narrowed into an elongated cone millions of kilometers long. At its tip, the star plasma compressed and squeezed together so tight that it looked as though another small star was forming. The point shined brighter and brighter, and its luminosity began to rival that of VY Canis Majoris itself.
Two more cones formed on the star's surface, one in the northern hemisphere and the other in the southern hemisphere. The plasma masses extended and contorted until they eventually curved to the compressed point. The three arms fed the immensely bright pseudo-star and remained this way for a while. Herman stared in utter bewilderment at the unnatural plasma arms, noting to himself that some greater force of the universe is at work.
In the cargo hold, Tenebrous and Plagueis sat on the floor cross-legged in a meditative trance. They were the ones responsible for the fiery arms protruding from the hypergiant's surface. They used their power in the dark side to keep up the act for a while before Tenebrous broke out of his trance.
"We won't be able to create a singularity at this rate," said Tenebrous. "We will need to form it through more conventional means."
Plagueis looked at his Master. "Core collapse?"
Tenebrous nodded. "Return to the cockpit, I will destroy the star."
"As you say," Plagueis replied.
The Muun got up and left the cargo hold. Herman watched Plagueis sit down in the co-pilot seat on the right side of the cockpit.
"W-Were you two the ones manipulating the star?" Herman stuttered.
"Of course," Plagueis answered. "Who or what else could have done that?"
While increasing the engine power, Plagueis could see the bright tip growing dimmer and the plasma arms retracting back to the star's surface. Giving one last look at the hundreds of millions of kilometers long protrusions, Plagueis turned the starship around and flew away from the star at maximum sublight speed.
Not too long after he set the engines to full thrust, Plagueis saw the computer schematics of the star change. The screen projection showed the different layers of VY Canis Majoris including the core, and the layers were building up with heavy metals at a very rapid pace until iron (Fe) began to form in the core. Plagueis was studying the event with his Force senses, and through the Force he heard Tenebrous give a loud clap of his hands. The Bith had just ended the star's life.
The star rapidly collapsed in on itself and exploded as a hypernova. The explosion was an order of magnitude higher than most supernovae, and two masses ejected out the sides of the collapsed star at 99% the speed of light as gamma ray bursts (GRBs). This type of explosion is second only to the Big Bang and can shine as bright as a galaxy.
Plagueis put the Mundane in hyperspace well before the hypernova had a chance to annihilate their ship. The faster-than-light jump was very brief; Plagueis exited hyperspace at a safe 5 light years from the explosion. The next thing to do now was wait for the hypernova event to progress.
A FEW DAYS LATER
Tenebrous, Plagueis and Herman had done different things over the past few days while waiting for most of the stellar explosion to unfold. Tenebrous worked on the ship systems and played with some of his mathematical equations while meditating during resting hours; Plagueis studied some more mythological texts while secretly using his keen Force senses to observe the devil's midi-chlorians and cells; Herman simply had nothing to do and was bored out of his mind. The Mundane had plenty of food and supplies to comfortably live without any problems.
The Sith Lords were now in their respective cockpit seats while the ship made its way through the short hyperspace jump back to the site of the hypernova. The reason they came to VY Canis Majoris in the first place was to form a black hole which, in their opinion, could give them insight on how to return to their home galaxy. They knew that Darths Bane and Zannah found a way back to their galaxy, but what they found in the Underworld so far isn't helping them very much. Perhaps they could have spent more time and effort on finding people who worked with their predecessors, but the Bith and the Muun wanted to see if they could develop their own way back to their galaxy.
Whether it was out of logic, curiosity or pride, Tenebrous and Plagueis always tried to do things solely on their own first before seeking help from others. They felt that experimenting with a black hole through the Force will give them more answers than what they received so far, and if possible, they will try to use the dark side to return to their galaxy. There's only one way to find out…
The Mundane exited hyperspace at the edge of the VY Canis Majoris system. Right away, Tenebrous and Plagueis sensed the existence of a black hole in the middle of the incredibly hot nebula that still continued to expand. The presence of the black hole was unmistakable: it is a portion of space completely void of the Force, and its strange gravitational effects are so disturbing that it had Tenebrous and Plagueis on edge.
The remnant gas clouds of the hypernova explosion continued to expand at a rapid rate, and the area still boiled at many tens of millions of degrees. As the starship approached the explosion site, the Sith Lords knew they had to cool down the area to prevent their ship and themselves from being vaporized. With a gathering of power and concentration, Tenebrous and Plagueis used the Force to push the colossal nebula and tremendous heat away from the black hole. Some clouds of gas were consumed by the black hole while the rest was pushed "behind" the singularity and away from the Mundane. Tenebrous and Plagueis continuously pushed gas and heat aside while their starship traveled closer to the black hole at sublight speed.
By the time they arrived 100,000 kilometers away from the black hole, most of the gas and heat was purged from the area. The space outside the Mundane was still hot at 3000 degrees, but the ship's deflector shields protected the hull from the scorching heat.
The entire time, Herman was in a world of his own trying to understand the innerworkings of the aliens' powers. He had watched the nebula of gas and dust magically move itself to the side as the starship approached its destination, and as a being of average intelligence, it was hard for the devil to process the true scope of the Sith Lords' power. They had manipulated a star, destroyed it and pushed its explosion leftovers out of the way…what were they about to do now?
Now just thousands of kilometers away from the black hole, Tenebrous and Plagueis peered their awareness into it. For them, the experience was both soothing and horrifying; they respected and welcomed the power of the strongest astrophysical phenomenon in the universe, but they were terrified by it being void of the Force and its effects of disrupting the space-time continuum. The black hole itself is 150 kilometers in diameter, and just beyond the event horizon was a thick ring of gas and dust that orbited at very high speeds.
The Sith Lords couldn't sense or see anything within the black hole whatsoever. They were looking to see if the singularity led to somewhere else, sort of like a gateway, seeing that it may be possible that white holes exist. But either the singularity is the end of the universe itself or the "other end" is too disrupted by the insane gravitational forces. A lot of the stuff they sensed from the black hole is new to them, and anyone in general, because even the Banite Sith Lords before them wouldn't dare get close to a black hole.
"I can't sense anything other than the end of the Force itself," Plagueis said in disappointment. "Let's turn back."
"Not yet," Tenebrous opposed.
Plagueis glanced at his Master with a confused look. Herman was in the passenger seat in complete silence, and he did nothing but stare at the black hole in a sort of hypnotized state. His mouth hung open while his mind was filled with wonders and nightmares about the reality before him; he found the glowing disc of superheated matter absolutely beautiful, but the blackness within the event horizon looked a thousand times worse than death itself. The devil couldn't help but shake and sweat profusely in his seat.
Tenebrous was thinking hard about what to do next, and he eventually came up with a crazy plan.
"I want you to help me widen the black hole," Tenebrous said to his apprentice.
Plagueis initially had a stunned look on his face, but he then realized what they could learn by committing such an act.
"It's worth a try," Plagueis acknowledged his Master's point of view.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Herman jumped out his seat with trembling legs, "that's impossible! L-Listen, we've been here long enough…t-t-there's no need to do anything else. W-We shouldn't be playing with a black hole!"
Herman then came to his own horrifying conclusions. "If you widen the black hole, it will suck us in!"
"That's not how black holes work," said Plagueis.
"And if you don't shut up, we will eject you into space," Tenebrous stated harshly.
Herman gulped, then retreated to his seat in a cowardly manner.
Tenebrous and Plagueis entered a meditative trance and drew deeply on the dark side. Their awareness focused around the border of the event horizon with such intensity that they felt they had departed their bodies and transcended to another plane of existence. And with their incredible powers in the dark side, Tenebrous and Plagueis pulled on the borders of the black hole and stretched it open.
It was a monumental effort, but the Sith Lords were able to maintain their defiance of the impossible. The black hole slowly expanded until its diameter had grown an extra 50 kilometers in size, now resting at 200 kilometers in width. The aliens hoped that by expanding the black hole, they could finally sense what laid on the other side of the singularity, if there was another side to it. And if there was another side, perhaps in the form of a white hole, then maybe it could lead back to their home galaxy.
Their efforts were done in vain. Tenebrous and Plagueis could not peer any further than the singularity within the event horizon. Maybe the infinitely small point was the end of the universe after all…
The Sith Lords let go of the black hole and allowed it to retract back to its original diameter. Had they expanded it any further or held it open any longer, the sheer effort may have rendered them unconscious. Herman's anxiety and fear were pushed to the max: the man was as white as a ghost and his body was so tense that he could hardly move. When the black hole had expanded, his mind went blank; the act was so ridiculously beyond imagination and comprehension that he refused to believe it actually happened.
A few moments later, the ship shook a bit and the hull began to groan. Warning alarms went off in the cockpit indicating that the starship is getting close to the point of no return. The Mundane had drifted quite the distance due to the black hole's strong gravity, and any stable orbit around the black hole at such a close distance would have required a speed that may have torn the ship apart. They were still 200 kilometers from the event horizon, but the gravity has beginning to have an effect on the ship.
"We should turn the ship around, Master!" Plagueis shouted.
Tenebrous banked the starship hard to the left and boosted the engines to maximum thrust. While the Bith handled the flight controls, the hull of the ship groaned louder and new alarms went off.
"We're going to die…we're going to die…we're going to FUCKING DIE!" Herman screamed.
The ship's hull groaned again.
"GET ME OUT OF HERE!" the devil cried.
Tenebrous looked at his apprentice. "Silence that screaming child, please."
Plagueis reached back with his left arm and shot a brief stream of Force lightning from his hand. The blue lightning forks were only spawned at low intensity, but they were strong enough to torture the devil and knock him out.
The Mundane was now thousands of kilometers away from the black hole and free from any more gravitational effects. Tenebrous flew the starship at sublight speed to the edge of the system before jumping into hyperspace back to Earth.
North American forest, Earth
It had only taken them an hour to return back to Earth since the Sith Lords didn't have to scan the unknown space regions with their navigation computer, but they still took their time through their saved stellar checkpoints. They now had the Mundane resting at the edge of a vast forest somewhere on the continent of North America, waiting for the weak and traumatized devil to regain his strength and teleport them back to the Underworld.
"I'll do anything you want. Anything!" Herman begged on the floor of the cockpit.
"You plead to us as though you had done something wrong," Plagueis mentioned.
The devil looked up at the godly Sith Lords and said, "I don't want to go back to space, it's too dark and scary and cold. I-I've seen enough things that I don't understand, it's too much for me to handle."
Tenebrous had his back to the devil while he looked over the video footage of their stellar journey recorded by the starship's external cameras. The Bith turned around and stared at the lesser being on the floor before him.
"You said you will do anything for us," Tenebrous recalled. "Would you go as far as kill, sabotage and kidnap for the Sith cause?"
"Yes!" Herman replied.
Herman used to hate the Sith, especially after Darth Zannah took out his eye as punishment for his failure to properly secure the Sith Sanctum during an assassination attempt on Darth Bane. But now he both feared and praised the Sith after he saw the impossible feats that Tenebrous and Plagueis pulled off. He wouldn't dare oppose or anger these godlike aliens, and he felt that he could learn many valuable things from them. They are, after all, more powerful than anyone could ever imagine, and deep down, Herman always respected strength and boldness.
"If that's the case, then we will put you to good use," Plagueis assured.