Star Wars: The Old Republic - Acclivity - Chapter 2
In the early morning of Desiderium's eighteenth birthday, Darth Brade knocked on his son's door.
"Come in," came the young man's voice from within.
"Couldn't sleep last night, Desiderium?" asked Brade as he stepped in.
"Not even a wink," his son replied.
The young man had developed much over five years. He was as tall as his father and was built like a tank, all muscle and not an ounce of fat to be seen. He stood up from his bed and gathered all of the belongings he would be allowed to have for the next year of training on the hostile planet of Korriban. Desiderium felt a tinge of sadness as he looked around his parent's mansion for what he knew would be the last time for a while. He also felt something else. Something he couldn't quite put his finger on. It felt cold within him, as if the Force was trying to tell him something.
"Are you alright, son?" inquired his father.
"I feel a little...off, Father."
"I don't sense a thing at all. All preparations have been made. We'll pick up Tristesza and set off. There's no way anything could go wrong," consoled Brade.
The two men walked out of their house and into Brade's gleaming, silver starship where Brade's wife was waiting.
"Oh honey, you look so handsome. I'm going to miss you so much, little Desi," his mother sobbed as he walked up the ramp.
"Mother, it's only for a year, then I'll see you again," answered the young man. "Plus, we still have a few more hours together until we reach Korriban."
"Speaking of which, we should be going," said Brade. "Tristesza is expecting us soon."
The chrome ship rose gently off the ground and made way for Naboo's capital, Theed. The ship set down at the spaceport and its ramp lowered. Tristesza and her mother walked up the ramp briskly and sat in the middle of the ship, in the same area as Desiderium. The young man could not believe his eyes. The girl he knew five years ago looked even more beautiful than before. What did he say? His father had taught him how to send massive telekinetic blasts using only his mastery of the Force, how to leap massive distances, and fight flawlessly with a lightsaber. However, he did not mention one word about how to talk to a beautiful woman. The ship lifted high into the atmosphere. He paced in his mind about what to say to his friend that he hadn't seen in ages. He couldn't believe that even after five years he was still this shy. Suddenly, Desiderium felt his heart sink. He looked out of the viewport to see a missle streaming toward the front of the ship. His father tried to bank the ship into an evasive maneuver, but it was too late. The missile detonated and destroyed the front half of the ship along with Desideriums parents. As soon as they passed, Desiderium felt that familiar cold feeling within him, only stronger this time. Reacting quickly, the young man reached out to the force and pulled Tristesza and her mother toward him. He held each with his massive arms and yelled, "Hold on!" He pushed off of what remained of the once-beautiful starship and began to fall toward the planet. Desiderium placed himself in a stasis and called upon the force to shield the young lady and her mother from the atmosphere that would have surely disintegrated them. As they fell, Desiderium's body ignited into a fireball, though the women were protected by his shield of the Force. Tristesza could see the agony in his face and reached out to the force to take over for him. Desiderium was tumbling too much and too quickly for Tristesza to hold onto either physically or with the Force. Desiderium motioned that he would land on his own.
"Just make sure you land safely!" she yelled as she grabbed her mother telekinetically. The now badly burnt man tumbled to the Earth. He drifted in and out of consciousness from the massive G-forces he was experiencing. He used his remaining energy to strain the muscles around his face to stay conscious. When he was a hundred meters from the ground, he focused on the Force and slowed his descent to a non-fatal one. He thudded to the ground and was knocked unconscious.
Desiderium awoke in a dark room. The only thing he could see was a screen with numbers and lines. The only thing audible was the ping of his heartbeat on the monitor. A nurse walked in and checked his IV. She was startled to see him awake.
"How are you feeling?" she asked.
"Nevermind that, how long have I been out?" retorted Desiderium.
"About a week and a half," she replied.
Desiderium let out a sigh of relief. He hadn't lost too much time and could still make it to the academy in time for his session to begin. But first, he had other matters to attend to. He ripped out the IV and stood up. The man suddenly noticed his skin felt very different. It was more taut and rigid than before. He looked down and saw pale, scarred flesh all over his body. He walked to a small mirror in the corner of the room. In his face were cybernetic implants that wrapped around his jaw and cheeks. The left side of his face was much darker than the other half. It was severely disfigured.
"Why the cybernetics?" he asked.
"Your impact with the ground damaged your lower jaw to an extend that it had to be held together with metal and it be moved with cybernetics from now on," calmly replied the nurse.
Desiderium clenched his fists. Who did this to him? Was Tristesza alright?
"Thank you nurse for your care and patience. May I have some robes?"
The nurse opened a cabinet and handed the large man a set of black robes. As soon as he had them on, Desiderium left the hospital and began connecting to the Force again. He quickly sensed Tristesza's and her mother's presence nearby. The young dark side user followed the trail to a hotel on the end of the block. Surely enough, the two young ladies were at a table in the dining area near the lobby. Tristesza was taken aback by his appearance.
"I can't believe you're alive. I thought you...I couldn't sense your presence in the Force. We have no idea where to start in looking for your parents' murderer. No one here seems to know a thing about it."
"I'm fine now. I must have been cut off from the Force while I was in a coma. Thank you for at least trying to find this monster. I just can't believe my parents are gone..."
Suddenly, Desiderium's mind flashed back to the impact of the missile. The familiar coldness crept in his body once again. Desiderium now knew what it was. It was the Dark Side creeping into his body, being fueled by his turmoil and passion.
"We must find the one responsible for this!" shouted Desiderium.
"I'm coming with you," said Tristesza. "Mother, please go back home. I'll be gone for a long time. I'm going to help Desiderium avenge his parents, then I'm off to the academy. I'll come back when things are sorted out."
Tristesza gave her mother a tearful hug goodbye. The duo left the hotel and began their search around Theed.
"Who would want us dead?" inquired Tristesza.
"Who else but the disgusting Jedi?!" Desiderium spat. "We'll find him if it means turning over every rock on this planet."
The two asked around the massive city if there were visits by the Jedi recently. They asked almost everyone in town fro days with no success. Finally, their search proved fruitful. A young Jedi Padawan was doing research on wildlife on the plains just West of the city. Desiderium and Tristesza felt a rush and sense of excitement knowing that they would have their revenge. They rented a speeder and took it to the fields. As the speeder came to a halt near an area in which the Jedi was last seen, Tristesza handed Desiderium something wrapped in cloth.
"It was the only thing that survived the crash. I made sure to recover it so nobody would know of our true identities. But now that I know you're alive, you should definitely have it."
The man took the cloth and unwrapped it gently. Inside, lay a charred, metal tube: his father's lightsaber. He ignited the crimson blade of energy and performed a series of precise movements and swings, just as his father had taught him how.
"Thank you so much," the man whispered as a tear rolled down his cheek. "Let's find this scoundrel and end him."
The two Sith acolytes closed their eyes and felt the Force around them. They felt an irregular center of warmth ahead of them, a beacon in the Light Side. They got into the speeder and traveled for a mile or so when they stumbled upon a makeshift cabin built into the side of a hill made of massive stones.
"No regular human or gungan could erect something like that without heavy machinery," analyzed Tristesza.
"Precisely," Desiderium replied.
The duo stopped the speeder far enough away that the engine would not give away their approach. The two masked themselves in the Force. They silently circled the house, which had no door to speak of, and approached from behind. Tristesza whispered in Desiderium's ear, "I'll blast away the roof and you can constrain him."
Desiderium nodded. It was a sound plan. A Padawan would not be expecting anyone to bother him out here in the plains. Tristesza focused her power and released a massive shockwave unlike anything Desiderium had seen, even from his father. The young Sith lept into the small space and saw a young, scrawny man in a tunic. The man was petrified and frozen. Desiderium rushed forward, grabbed him by the throat, and lifted him in the air.
"Why are you here?!" the young Sith acolyte hissed.
"I...I'm here to...study..." the man gasped out.
Desiderium brought his unused hand back and drew it in a fist. He slammed the Padawan in the face with all his might. Teeth and blood spewed from the man's mouth as he wheezed.
"Tell me the truth!" bellowed Desiderium.
Both Desiderium and Tristesza fed off of the man's fear. The more afraid he was, the more powerful the Dark Side was.
"Fine! I was told to scout the land and launch a defensive satellite turret into space from here. They told me to fire on a specific ship if it were to leave orbit," the man sputtered out.
Desiderium's blood boiled. "And who sent you?"
"The Jedi Council..."
The man didn't finish the sentence before Desiderium reached for the lightsaber on his belt. The Padawan did the same. Both blades ignited. Red and blue blades clashed one another in a flurry of parries and strikes. This man is lanky but he can absolutely wield a saber, Desiderium thought to himself. Tristesza drew a blaster she kept on her hip and squared it to the Jedi's head. She fired, but in a swift twirling motion, the Padawan deflected the bolt while also managing to parry Desiderium's onslaught of attacks. The bolt traveled back and grazed Tristesza's ribs. She fell over in pain. Desiderium felt his friend's pain and used it to fuel his attack. He batted the Padawan's saber aside and prepared a killing blow. In the last possible second, however, the Padawan, slashed the hilt of Desiderium's saber, disabling it completely. Not to be defeated so easily, Desiderium used the force to yank the Padawan's saber from his hands. The Jedi backreeled, tripping over the toppled stones from his hideout.
"No!" he pleaded "Please, I didn't mean to kill anyone!"
"Didn't mean to kill anyone?" Desiderium spat. "Tell that to my parents when you become one with the Force!"
Desiderium slashed downward and bisected the helpless man. He glared at his pathetic corpse and was disgusted that such a weak mongrel killed his beloved parents. He tossed aside the Jedi weapon and walked to Tristesza, who had already healed her own wounds.
"Well done," they said to each other at the same time. The two gathered themselves and walked back to the speeder. On the drive back to Theed, they agreed to steal a shuttle and head to Korriban as soon as possible.