AN: I know it should have been out yesterday. I did have the chapter ready, but I was just quite busy and didn't get round to it.
On that note, I feel like because my workload has increased by two or three hours each day now, I obviously have less time to write, so I will probably upload every other Sunday now, so I can stay on top of things.
Also, Darth Salek is my own character - I don't know who trained Darth Plagueis, and I can't think of where it might be mentioned in cannon apart from in the darth plagueis book, which I haven't read :(

Perspective

VI

"Dex, calm yourself!" Master Windu ordered.

Mace had found the Shilerrian Jedi basically running up to him, followed closely by Master Prize, whilst he walked with Master Yoda, and couldn't understand what he was so panicky about.

"Masters, the group on Tatooine..." he panted, trying to calm himself, "They're in danger. I can sense it."

"Always danger when dealing with the dark side, there is," Master Yoda told him, "Competent Jedi they are, and careful they will be. Worry about them, do not."

Dex was panting less now, having now composed himself more fully. "I meant more than usual. I feel like something very bad is going to happen if we do nothing. I feel like they are dealing with something we don't know about."

"Are you certain?" asked Mace, narrowing his eyes. They had been checking in daily, each Tatooine evening, and he was aware of their plan to track the darksider today. When dealing with the dark side, they were bound to be in danger, as Master Yoda had rightfully said. But if Dex was right…

Dex nodded. "And my padawan is trying to reach me through the force, but it is really supressed, as though trying to fight through a blanket of darkness. You know what I mean, don't you?"

Mace nodded. He had had powerful padawans before. "Yes, I do. Don't worry, Master Keen – continue on your mission, and don't do anything rash. We will contact Master Koon shortly and check everything is ok. Master Prize, I want you to keep your former master from doing anything...stupid." Stupid was a kind word, considering what happened last time he went after the bounty hunter.

"Yes Master," she said, nodding. They were her first words since Dex had run after Master Windu, and they had come later than she expected.

Darth Phobos was a tall, lithe man, with pale skin, long black hair and burning red Sith eyes. He wore the long black robes of the Sith, tied tight to his body with a black belt at his waist, accompanied by a hood (which he mostly kept down, due to his long hair) and cloak.

He had been trained since birth in the dark side, along with his twin, by what he believed to be the most powerful Sith Lord to have ever lived, Darth Salek. He believed his master to be more powerful than the legendary Darth Bane, or the great Darth Vitiate. He wore the long black robes of the Sith, tied tight to his body with a black belt at his waist, accompanied by a hood and cloak.

His Master had broken the rule of two long ago, believing it to be outdated and no longer necessary. His apprentice at the time, however, disagreed, and the two had fought in an almighty clash.

Or so he had heard. However, his Master had lost, and almost died. Darth Plagueis indeed did believe Salek to be dead. But he had brewed in the darkness, training a group of potential Jedi killers, letting the weak be killed by the more powerful, so now there were only five of the strongest.

Darth Phobos was one of the more powerful. So when he fought the Jedi after returning to Tatooine, he incapacitated the tall ginger Jedi with ease, and was not afraid to run after the young Jedi girl when she fled. Coward. He had been surprised by her skill – how could a young girl have the skill to hold off himself and another Sith acolyte for even those brief moments?

Admittedly, said Sith acolyte was weak. Venture, or whatever her name was, appeared all talk and very little actual competence. She had been more in the way and a distraction, if anything. He expected that young Jedi could slay her.

Chasing through the streets of Mos Espa, he closed in on the girl, tracking her through the force. She tried everything – weaving through small backstreets where he could just run faster than her, running through thick crowds of people where he could push through more easily due to being taller and stronger...she had no chance.

Was that someone following him?

Glancing behind him as he ran through a bar and out to the other side, he couldn't be sure. He thought he felt someone keeping the measure on him. Dashing through a meat market (the girl was in sight now) he glanced behind him again, and saw no one except the ordinary civilians, staring at them as they sped through the streets.

The girl took a left turn, running into another alleyway between two more buildings. Darth Phobos followed her in, slowing down to stop, his grim features forming a malicious grin. The alleyway ended with a tall, hard wall.

She turned, panting, and he knew he had won. She could fight, but tired from running, she would not be able to compete with the power of the dark side. But as they stared at each other, he heard another set of running footsteps coming to a stop, behind and above to his left. Someone was on the roof, it seemed.

The girl glanced up at the source of the sound. She frowned, and Phobos glanced up too, sensing a presence he faintly recognised, but not one he could place.

He saw a tall man – at least he assumed it to be man, as he could only see his eyes and forhead – wearing similar dark robes to himself. However, his hood was up, working with another cloth to hide the bottom half of his face. Slightly pale skin of the forhead and eye area was all that was revealed, with a mismatching pair of eyes – one blue, one mostly purple. Two blasters hung in black holsters at his hips.

He knew this person. Even though they had never met, everyone knew what was he doing here?

He looked back to the girl, her face empty of emotion. Only her brown eyes and set jaw revealed a grim determination. Neither of them said anything, the silence growing more awkward by the second.

Eventually, Seron Rin spoke.

"What brings you both to Tatooine?"

Far away, travelling through hyperspace, all alone, sat the Jedi Master Shaak Ti, meditating.

Once again, she found her thoughts were drifting towards Seron Rin.

They knew so little about him. Did he have any family? Where was he from? How old is he? They couldn't even be sure of his real name.

One might suggest he came from Shilerria, as his name did have Shilerrian meaning, but Shaak could think of no one who would name a child like that. The word 'seron' meant 'star' - not unusual in itself – but the adjective 'rin' could translate to any of 'blemished', 'damaged', 'ugly', 'torn' or 'scarred'. Who would include ugly or scarred in a name? Shaak thought it more likely they took it later on, but what kind of person would choose a name like that?

Seron Rin, whoever he was, had first taken the notice of the Jedi about seven or eight years ago, when Master Plynith had been investigating the smuggling of weapons into Coruscant. After finding out who was in charge of the operation, they had been able to find the names of everyone involved, and had been able to successfully capture everyone. Except for a character the smugglers' database listed as 'Seron Rin'. Both Master Plynith and Master Keen – the only Shilerrian Jedi in the order at the time (with the exception of Eela Vasaway, who was only a youngling back then) – both quickly translated the name, revealing that it probably wasn't his original.

The name cropped up more and more over the years, and numerous attempts at capturing him were made by the Republic – even the Jedi launched their own mission, but Seron Rin was never caught. They had come close, but the mission ended horribly, with all a member of the mission dying, and the other two coming very close.

She shivered, remembering what had happened afterwards, as a result.

And now Dex was coming after him again? She shook her head. Why had they let him?

Eela stared at the being on the roof, fear coursing through her body. Something about this man touched something locked away in the depths of her mind, and it froze her, chilling her to the bone.

She couldn't remember actually meeting the man. She guessed he was Seron Rin – he matched the description Obi-Wan had given her when she had asked what he like like a couple of days ago. But something about him scared her. He made her want to curl up in a hole and never wake up. But why?

She couldn't remember being so scared in her life. Which said a lot, considering she was trapped by someone who could – and would – kill her mercilessly.

There was movement in front of her. She hadn't been focusing. She tried to move, but her legs were frozen. Something heavy collided with her, knocking her to the floor.

She realised that the Sith which had trapped her had actually grabbed the bounty hunter with the force and thrown him at her, sending them both sprawling.

She tried to get up, only to see the tip of a red lightsaber directly in front of her eyes.

"If you try anything, Seron Rin, she will die." The Sith was looking at the bounty hunter, making sure he didn't try anything.

Rin climbed to his feet a couple of metres away, brushing sand from his dark robes. She saw an eyebrow above a purple eye – at least most of it was purple, the last quarter of the iris being a bright green – raise, and a voice coming from a mouth covered by his mask said, "You think I care for the Jedi? It's you I want to know about, Darth Phobos."

"Well then, you won't mind..." he raised his blade.

Panic gripped her. Her heart stopped – she was going to die, had the hands of this Sith, of this Darth Phobos, lying on the floor, tired and defenceless and no one would ever know, except Seron Rin. But as no one could catch him anyway, the Jedi wouldn't find out anytime soon.

But the bounty hunter did something which surprised both her and the Sith. In one smooth motion, he stepped forward raising his right, gloved hand, summoning Eela's lightsaber from her belt, igniting it, the tip inches away from Phobos's neck.

Without her lightsaber, she felt even more defenseless against the two force users standing over her. And why would he do this? Why did he want her alive?

Darth Phobos just smiled. "Ah, I thought you would..." he said, lowering his lightsaber back to Eela's neck, "Do you have anything to say to your girlfriend before I kill her?"

Seron Rin looked down at her, his mismatching eyes showing a trace of amusement. Looking back up to Phobos, he asked, "Jealous?"

"You wish. Anyway..." Phobos brushed some of his hair away from his face with his left, gloved hand, "I was wondering where you picked up that party trick with her lightsaber?"

His eyes flickered. "The same place you picekd up the STD you ran crying back to your master for."

If those words had been spoken in a different place by a different person at a different time, Eela may have found it funny, but as it was, she had a lightsaber at her throat and two deadly killers standing over her. Not to mention that she still felt great fear at Seron Rin, almost as if he had tortured her in another life.

Darth Phobos certainly didn't think it was funny. The expression disappeared from his face as if he had been slapped, his red eyes narrowing. He growled, swinging his lightsaber at the bounty hunter.

The two started duelling, and Eela couldn't help but be impressed at the display, guessing that the Sith had barely been trying earlier. Darth Phobos savagely attacked the bounty hunter, driving him back with a hailstorm of fast blows. With the green lightsaber he had taken from her, Seron Rin responded with incredible speed, blocking and dodging, trying to force an opening to counterattack.

Eela remembered once she had watched the Grandmaster Yoda spar with Master Windu. This was just as fast, the lightsabers little more than a blur. Like then, she could only marvel at their incredible skill.

Where had Seron Rin learnt to wield a lightsaber? You couldn't just pick one up and use it like a demon right away.

Suddenly realising there was no longer any lightsaber at her throat, and silently cursing herself for being so slow to react, she climbed to her feet. What to do now? The two duelling figures had crossed out of the alleyway and into the street now, leaving her free to go. Exiting the alley, she spared them one more glance, seeing Seron Rin push the Sith into a fountain with the force.

Then she ran, not quite believing she was still alive.

From the darkness of a little-known planet in a little-known area of the unknown regions, Darth Salek, the great and powerful Sith Lord who had trained Darth Plagueis The Wise, sat in his personal meditation chamber.

As with most of his fortress, the meditation chamber contained no sources of light. A little light attempted to come in from the small window, but that was covered by a thick curtain, leaving the room in darkness. Who needed light? Salek had the force. He could feel his way around more than well enough.

Sat on the cold, stone floor, deep in meditation, Salek watched everything. He could see and everything in the galaxy – Senate meetings, various battles between clones and droids, even meetings of the Jedi High Council. He could see everything which happened in the galaxy. He even branded his apprentices with his symbol – the logo of the Sith order, with a curling snake inside – which he marked, so that he could always know where they were, even when he wasn't meditating.

So they couldn't try escaping and betraying him. Many had tried. None of them made it.

So he saw Seron Rin arrive on Tatooine, and the Jedi's feeble attempts at tracking him weeks later. He saw his apprentice negotiate with Darth Sidious, and whispered in Phobos's ear to make sure he said the right things. He saw the Jedi walk into the Sith trap, and saw Seron Rin struggling with himself. He saw him chase Darth Phobos who was chasing the girl, the bounty hunter running along the rooftops, saving much more energy than the girl and his apprentice, not having to push past people or weave through the backstreets.

He heard his remark about his apprentice's STD, and inwardly grinned at the memory. Phobos was such a fool, getting as angry as he did about it. However, Darth Salek did not find himself grinning at Phobos's reaction, becoming completely blinded with rage, attacking Rin and forgetting about the girl, so she could run and blabber to her Council, revealing his secret Sith order. Not to mention that Phobos was actually losing. Where had Seron Rin learnt the ways of the force? Was he a fallen Jedi?

He hoped so. Darth Salek hoped so very much. Seron Rin could be put to good use.

But fortunately not all of his apprentices were so thoughtless as Phobos – one had opted to remain behind whilst the others went to capture the Jedi. Whispering in Darth Kreya's ear, he knew all he had worked so hard to build could be saved.