Lords of the Old Republic
Chapter III: The Desire to be Free
In the year 3945 BBY, the Dark Lord Revan was captured by the Jedi Order. For some time, the deposed Sith Lord was held in captivity while the Jedi deliberated on a course of action. Eventually, it was decided that Revan would be subject to a memory wipe and his mind would be reprogrammed with a new identity. However, Revan's already damaged mind had begun to repair itself and the new identity was placed over his old one. In time, memories of his old life resurfaced and Darth Revan was born again. One of Revan's companions, a pilot who had served on the front lines of the war effort, managed to escape and start a resistance effort until the day when the Dark Lord disappeared. The resistance movement never truly believed that the threat was gone and went into hiding. Many have tried to uncover their secrets, though none have.
269 ABY – Korriban – Jedi Academy
Mina Takhisis was smiled a pair of strong arms wrap around her stomach and pull her into the body behind her. Her own arms fell over those of her lover as she looked down at the woman who whimpered on the ground before her. The crimson and black robes she wore simmered with smoke. They were tattered in many places and her veil had fallen away. Her lightsaber had fallen to the ground. The shell was scorched now. The Sith etchings and designs that had been carved into it were indistinguishable from one another. Shards of red crystal littered the ground around the weapon.
"Shall we let her go now, my love?" Mical Tarde whispered into Mina's ear softly. She reached up behind her and slid her hand along his neck. It found its way through his white hair and wrapped around his skull.
"No," she replied. "I want to see you hurt her."
Mical shrugged and lifted one of his hands. Sparks crackled at the tips of his fingers. Bolts of bronze electricity engulfed his victim. Her body shuddered violently, but she forced herself not to cry out. Visas would not give Mina the satisfaction of seeing her scream. Besides, the Dark Lady had personally tortured her before in the past. Compared to that, Mical's attempts weren't so bad.
"Beg for mercy," Mina ordered.
"I am a Sith Lord," Visas said as she forced herself to look up at her master. "I do not beg!"
"Beg before me!" Mina screamed. The Force exploded towards Visas. She was flung into the brick walls, causing many of them to break. She dropped down to the ground and slumped over.
"Do as your master commands!" Mical ordered as he used the Force to draw Visas's very life energy away from her.
Mina turned her head so that she was facing Mical's neck. She began to nibble at his earlobe, causing him to grin. "Leave us!" He ordered.
Visas nodded. She stood up as quickly as possible, though it caused her a great deal of pain, and fled the room.
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The door to her master's personal chambers opened and Kit Tara's head shot towards it. Visas Marr stumbled out of the room and collapsed on the ground just outside the door. She writhed in pain and began to shiver. The Sith Lady approached the fallen Miraluka, causing all of the Sith that had stopped to stare away. She pulled Visas to her feet and pulled her arm around her shoulder.
Visas groaned as her lover guided her through the halls of the former Jedi Academy. She was completely unaware of where she was being taken. More than likely, Kit would take her back to one of their bedrooms where they could be alone. This was not the first time that Kit had been forced to sit by whilst her master tortured the woman she loved. It was always the same. Mina and occasionally Mical would hurt her. She would crawl from the room with less than an inch of her life intact. Kit would take her back to the room, heal her, and give her comfort. It had been this way for centuries now. Neither of them could see away to change it. Mina was too powerful to be fought. There was only one other in the galaxy who could challenge her.
"Kit," Visas whispered once she was sitting on her lover's bed. The other Sith was in the fresher, one room over, preparing the drugs that would null the Miraluka's pain. She came back into the room with a syringe in her hand and walked up to the blind Sith. She gave her a look of acknowledgment, urging Visas to continue as she drew up the Miraluka's sleeve. It took her a moment to find the vein and inject the meds, during which time Visas was silent. Once the needle was out, she began. "I can't continue like this," she murmured.
"Shhh," Kit whispered as she cradled Visas in her arms. She pulled the other Sith apprentice close, allowing the Miralukla's head to rest on her bosom. "It'll be alright. We'll find a way soon."
"Soon? I may not be alive much longer."
"Don't say that!" Kit ordered. "Mina will have to kill me before I let her touch you."
Visas looked up at her. Though her eyes were closed, Kit could still see the obvious expression on her face. "You cannot stop Mina by yourself. We need help."
"There is no one," the young looking woman complained. Visas stood up, breaking away from Kit's embrace. She walked over to the medical table that stood by her wall and picked up a pack of bacta patches. The Miraluka shed her robes before her lover. Kit turned away. Visas was a beautiful woman and her form was perfect. Her body had been toned into a wonderful shape by four thousand years worth of training, yet there was a flaw. The Miraluka's pale white skin was adorned with countless scars. Various types covered her from head to toe. Mina had mutilated her body in every way possible since they had met. Some of the wounds were fresh. Blood still oozed from a cut on her shoulder and there were several marks indicating where the tendrils of Force lightning had struck her.
"Then I would rather die than be forced to endure torture such as this for all eternity!"
"Stop it!" Kit snapped. "For every pain Mina has inflicted on you, I have bestowed pleasure ten fold!"
The Miraluka grinned. "You have no idea what you're talking about. Even as you and I have gone to bed with one another, I have feared that woman. I have felt you asleep in my arms, while I lie awake in terror that she will discover us! The happiness we should feel is hindered by fear of a woman we have both come to hate!" Kit stared at her lover dumbfounded. She had never seen this side of the woman and it was rather surprising, considering the fact that she rarely displayed any outward emotions.
"There is nothing we can do! Even if we were both to attack her together, we would be killed!"
"I'm not saying we fight her. We need help and there are people would."
"Who?" Kit demanded as she stood up. "The Republic or Alliance or whatever you want to call it? The Independence who is sending a ship to come kill us? The Jedi?" Visas was silent and looked into Kit's acid colored eyes. "No!" Kit screamed. "The Jedi? Are you out of your mind?"
Visas began to redress herself quickly without a word. Kit stood up and put her hands on the Miraluka's shoulder. "Listen to me," she said soothingly.
The Miraluka knocked her hands away and pulled her veil back on. She stalked towards the door. Kit went after her and forced her to turn around. Visas growled angrily and slapped her girlfriend clean across the face. "Don't touch me!" She ordered. The Miraluka gathered the Force into her hands and flung it at the Sith apprentice. Kit was thrown backwards and crashed into the dressed, which collapsed and fell on top of her. Kit was buried beneath the splintered wreckage of the furniture piece. Visas hesitated a moment, guilt causing her to stop. Her fist clenched and she forced herself to turn away, praying that she had not hurt Kit.
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The door to Kit Tara's bedroom slid open and two Sith Lords entered the room. The first was Mina and the other Mical. The male Sith surveyed the scene and saw the wreckage at the other end of the room, but there were no other signs of struggle. "She's under there," he pointed out.
Mina walked towards the spot where her fallen apprentice lay, using the Force to fling the wooden remains away. She saw Kit lying face up on the ground, paler than usual. Her face was covered in her own blood and a wooden stake had pierced her stomach. She was between consciousnesses. Her master sighed wearily before she wrenched the stake out. The pain brought Kit around. She howled in agony, causing Mical to smile in the back of the room.
Mina tapped the wound with a healing hand. The flesh instantly began to repair itself at a remarkable speed. Within moments, Kit was healed and the pain was gone. She sat up and looked around. Recognizing Mina, she instantly began to panic.
"What happened?" Mical demanded.
"I was attacked," she muttered as she stood up.
"By whom," the older Sith Lord urged.
Kit clenched her fist and stormed out of the room, completely ignoring her superiors. She walked out into the main hall of the Korriban academy, where numerous Sith had gathered. She looked about, searching for Visas. She was relieved to see that the Miraluka was not nearby, but angered all the same. Mina and Mical had followed her and were watching her scan the contents of the crowd.
"Who attacked you?" Mical repeated.
Kit selected a dark skinned Sith who was in the middle of a duel with a younger student. The balding man was wielding a double-bladed saber and was playing games with his opponent. The younger woman could barely stop the sweeping Force of his attacks with her vibroblade.
Kit stormed into the midst of the duel and hurled the girl away with the Force. She had removed her arm blades when she had been nursing Visas, but it was of no consequence. The Sith apprentice laid her hands on the Sith warrior's lightsaber and using augmented strength, wrenched it from his hands. A flurry of swift sweeps with the saberstaff ended the dark man's life.
She threw down the saberstaff and looked around the room. Everyone was staring at her with somewhat wide eyes, except for Mina who remained impassive. "Is there any particular reason you felt the need to kill one of my top warlords?" The Dark Lady inquired as she came up to her apprentice.
"These children," she gestured at every Sith in the room, some of them being older than her. "need to be taught the consequences of failing to execute someone as powerful as me."
"Ulrich attacked you?" Mina sounded surprised as she looked at the dead Sith's body. "I would have thought him smarter."
"So would I," Kit agreed absently. "Now, I have work to do."
"Just a question before you do," Mina interrupted. "Did you order the Miraluka to leave Korriban?"
Kit gasped, causing Mina to raise an eyebrow. The Sith apprentice realized her mistake and shook her head. "She'll ruin everything!"
"She's your responsibility now," Mical said with a snicker. "Find her and stop her!"
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269 ABY – Dantooine – Jedi Enclave
"What's going on?" Elaine Skywalker whispered to her friend, Arren Tay'nal, as she came up to the back of a crowd of gathered Jedi outside of the courtyard where the Jedi Council of the Old Republic once convened.
Arren, a girl in her early twenties with shimmering blond hair and bright green eyes turned to her friend with a worried expression. "A starfighter just landed in the coliseum," she replied. "The pilot claims that she knows who orchestrated the attack."
Elaine's eyes widened as she looked at her friend. "What are the masters doing?"
"They've locked themselves away out in the old council courtyard with her. She's a dark Jedi!"
"Dark Jedi?" The Jedi Knight repeated. "Why is the council trusting her?"
"Your mother performed a mind meld. They say she can be trusted," the younger knight replied.
Elaine unconsciously reached down and touched the spot where her skin had been penetrated by a blaster bolt. There was still a large scorch mark where she had been hit and it pained her daily. A feeling of resentment began to well up inside of her. "Make way!" She ordered.
The wounded Jedi began to shove and push through the crowd, receiving several rude comments in the process until she reached the door. It was locked, but she didn't care. She grabbed a lightsaber from a nearby student, her own weapon having been destroyed in the attack, and pierced the stone door where the lock met. Once the seal was broken, the door slid open and she stormed into the room. She saw her mother and three other Jedi Masters standing in front of the dark Jedi Arren had told her of. The veiled woman turned to see what was going on. She was surprised when the Jedi attempted to bring her lightsaber down on her in a large sweeping motion.
"Elaine!" Master Kol screamed.
Jade Skywalker was the only one fast enough to react. She drew her own lightsaber and intercepted her daughter's path. The dark Jedi had regained her composition and no longer seemed to be in the least bit unnerved by the attempt on her life. All that was visible of her face was her ashen lips and white skinned jaw, but her mouth gave no indication of surprise. Jade Skywalker on the other hand seemed furious. "What are you doing?" She cried angrily. "Have you lost your mind?"
"Have you?" Elaine demanded. The knight broke the grapple with her mother, pulling her borrowed green saber away, but keeping it held firm. Her mother however seemed to feel confident enough to close hers down. Elaine was now distinctly aware that the entire mass of gathered Jedi had moved into the room and all eyes were on her. It was a tad stressful. Nonetheless, she held to her belief and stated her opinion. "Look at this woman!" She cried. "Can you not feel the dark side that radiates within her? Are you so blind?"
"Do not criticize this council," Master Kol Cade ordered as he approached her angrily.
"Elaine," Master Illendy, a female Cathar said as she approached. "What is bothering you? This woman can help us find our missing padawans!"
"It's a trap! Why would a dark Jedi help this order? Have you forgotten our history? Have you forgotten how we exiled the first of the dark Jedi? Have you forgotten how they bred with the ancient Sith, spawning an empire of terrible power. Has it slipped your memories that you millennia, the dark Jedi and the Sith have been bent on the destruction of our order? Have the acts of Darth Sidious and Darth Krayt really been forgotten in such a short time?" Elaine raged on moving the minds of several students behind her, but the masters remained firm in their decision.
"There are hundreds of Jedi missing, young lady!" Jade snapped at her daughter. "You do not know why this Sith would help us, but we do!" The Jedi Master noticed the amazed look on her daughter's face. "Yes, Sith! She is of the Sith, yet this council feels that she may be trusted. Will you question our decision?"
"Yes," Elaine snapped.
That answered shocked everyone. Eyes widened. Jaws dropped. The most respected and high ranked Jedi Knight in the enclave was not only disagreeing with the council, but openly intervening in their affairs. Elaine's hard amethyst eyes met her mother's emerald ones. There was a pleading look to each other in both their eyes, but neither would give ground.
Finally, the Sith woman stepped forward. "Master Skywalker, allow me," she requested calmly.
"Stay out of this!" Elaine sneered, brandishing the borrowed lightsaber.
The veiled Sith raised her hands to indicate that she was at the Jedi's mercy. "I am surrounded by three Jedi Masters and the most gifted swordswoman in the galaxy. Listen to my words, for I am no threat to you."
Elaine couldn't argue with the logic in that statement. "Kol, Illendy, the students," Jade warned.
Kol Cade turned to face the myriad of faces that were staring at the council with burning curiosity. "This is a matter of the Jedi Council. If any others wish to disobey our orders and risk expulsion from the order, you may stay. Otherwise, return to quarters and do not leave until further notice is given.
Elaine watched as all of the Jedi filed away and proceeded towards their rooms. Only one Jedi remained; a dark skinned girl in her late teens. She stayed unsurely and refused to meet anyone's glance.
"Padawan Dorme?" Kol said with an angered tone.
"No Master Kol, it's not that. It's just…" she trailed off and glanced at Elaine, somewhat frightened by the harsh gaze that she was now facing.
"Elaine," Jade said firmly. "Return her lightsaber."
Elaine looked down at the weapon and tightened her grasp on it. She needed to be able to defend herself. This could be exactly what the Sith woman wanted. Disarming her would end all threat. On the other hand though, withholding the weapon was against her moral code. She had forged a strong bond with her own lightsaber and was devastated to find it destroyed. She had no right to force that feeling onto another.
"Fine," she sighed as she closed down the weapon. She threw the weapon to its owner who caught it deftly. "Get out!" Dorme fled the room, leaving the three masters, the Jedi Knight, and the Sith alone. "Speak you peace."
The Sith woman nodded. "My name is Visas Marr," she began. "I was born on the planet of Katarr in a small settlement of the Miraluka people. You've probably never heard of them, for I am the last of there kind. We were wiped out nearly four thousand years ago by the Sith."
"So you joined the ones who killed you," Elaine muttered.
"Elaine," her mother snapped.
"You don't know just how right you are, Jedi," the Miraluka replied. "You clearly misunderstood me. I am not the last descendent of a dying race. I am only survivor of a massacre that took place more than four millennia ago."
Everyone raised an eyebrow, bidding for an explanation. "I was seventeen when it happened. My life had known little peace. I was betrothed to a man by my family who repulsed me, but in retrospect it shouldn't have been a concern. The day of our wedding, he came."
"Who?" Elaine asked.
"Darth Nihilus," she replied.
Everyone in the room exchanged glances, but none of them seemed to recognize the name. "Records were probably purged when Sidious took over the Republic," Jade explained. "Please, continue."
"Darth Nihilus was an abomination to the Force," she went on. "I am sure you have heard of the Mandalorian Wars." They all nodded. "Darth Nihilus was one of the Jedi who betrayed the Jedi and went to war. As the Mass Shadow Generator was about to consume the planet of Malachor V, he used the Force to raise a fallen warship into space and escape the blast. The hole in the Force that was created when the planet died caused him to go insane. He began to hunger for the Force, causing him to drain it out of other sentient beings, which led him to my planet. My people were all sensitive to the Force and there was a secret conclave of Jedi Masters gathering there. He drained the life out of my planet and killed everyone… except me."
"Why?"
"A Force bond formed between us. He could not kill me without destroying himself. I was tortured by it for years. Then one day we felt something; a disturbance in the Force. I was sent to investigate and discovered a woman who had been exiled from the Jedi Order. She spared my life and took me as one of several apprentices. I served her loyally, even betraying my old master and slaying him for her. Once the Jedi who had exiled my master were dead, along with the Sith who hunted her, she began to focus on her own ambition. Our crew went into unknown space and hunted. In time, we found a giant space station where the dark side was strong. The technology aboard this craft surpasses any that I have seen since."
"What was it?" Elaine asked.
"It's called the Star Forge," she replied. "It had belonged to an ancient race of galactic conquerors of the Rakatan Empire. My master decided to take it for ourselves. Something happened though; something my master had not expected. The Star Forge was inhabited by Sith whom she recognized. They had served with her in the Mandalorian Wars and the man who controlled everything had been her master before the war ended. His name was Darth Revan."
"I've heard the name," Kol interjected. "He vanished at the height of his power. No one knows what happened to him or how he died."
"He didn't die," Visas replied. "Revan is still alive. The Star Forge granted us immunity to the passage of time. I have not aged in over four thousand years, nor have any of the Sith who have visited the Forge."
"That's impossible," Elaine barked.
"It's true. We have spent four thousand years building up our strength and becoming stronger. While our ability to actually become even more powerful in the Force than we are had become limited, our resources and numbers have never been greater."
"Becoming stronger in the Force has become limited?"
"An organic body can only sustain so much Force energy. Our bodies began to reject more power long ago, but we are still the most powerful Force users in the galaxy."
"So believe yourselves to be the greatest and most powerful? Then why come to us?"
Visas sighed and shook her head. "Because power isn't what I want anymore."
"What is?"
"Freedom," she replied simply. "My master has found satisfaction and pleasure in torturing me for the last four thousand years. Pain brings her joy and I had been the scapegoat she uses."
"It took four thousand years for you to understand that you don't like being hurt?"
"Mind yourself, Elaine," Jade ordered.
"Something changed recently," Visas replied. "My master took on an official apprentice nearly three thousand years ago. She is an amazing woman and incredibly powerful but she wants her freedom as I do. The Sith need to be destroyed in order for us to be at peace."
"So you have support?" Kol asked for clarification.
Did she? Visas wondered to herself if she did. She had attacked Kit in an open act of rage. Could she be forgiven? Could Kit put that aside and join her? Was their love for one another that strong?
"Your apprentices are being kept on Nar Shadda. My master has systematically bought the entire moon. They're in the warehouse district, barely alive. They are tortured daily and it is likely that some have already succumbed to the dark side. Two Jedi were sent elsewhere though. They were knights taken from this very enclave. They are on Rakata Prime, where the Star Forge was built."
"Jacen and Rouge!" Elaine gasped.
"Are they alright?" Jade cried.
"I have had no word on the Jedi captured during the attack since the initial reports. All I know is that they're alive and where they were taken. Knowing the man who is running Nar Shadda, their stay has not been pleasant."
"Mother," Elaine interjected. "How do we know that this woman tells the truth? We need proof before we act!"
"This is a matter we must discuss," Jade agreed. "Masters, will you please confine her to quarters until we have reached a decision. My daughter and I need to speak with one another alone."
The two other Jedi Masters nodded and turned to Visas. The Miraluka nodded and followed the two of them out of the room, leaving Elaine and her mother alone together. The two Skywalkers locked eyes and stared at each other angrily.
"You are unbelievable!" they roared at one another.