Chapter Twenty-Three
Upon seeing the seal shatter, Talzin waited for her mother to register it for a moment causing her heart to pick up speed. Then she saw the green eyes of the Goddess slowly shine into existence once more, a rumble in the ground signifying her return to life. Smiling, Talzin knelt in respect for this woman who once had mothered her millennia before in the darkness of Chaos' defeat. At first, the female form of her mother was still trapped in the stone but then it would begin to weaken and break before her might.
It weakened enough for her to wrench her head free from the entombment and the clenching of one of her hands caused even more stone to break. A chain reaction caused her arms to be freed which in turn served to help pull her lower body from where it was placed in the stone like a pole on cement. However, she didn't do that but instead, began to transform into her true form of the snake. Her arms shrunk and added to the length of the coils, her head changed into the shape of a snake with a foldable hood and the transformation was completed when her legs joined and shrunk to add to the length of her scaly body.
She drilled her way into the stony floor with her head and after several seconds, rose out again before diving back into the earth beneath her once again. The Goddess did this several more times until her head was barely much higher than the mountain on which Talzin was kneeling to her powerful mother. We have been waiting for you, my daughter and now you have returned to our fold Hecate said through the Force. And long have I struggled to find the means to return back into your glorious threshold, mother Talzin replied.
Kycina and Maul had barely arrived at base of the tower and the summit of the pyramid it lied on top of when they encountered their first set of perils. Once more, the souls of the damned of KaiSu Lak'Ton met them but looked even more wretched than they had earlier. Not only did they have the same deformities as they did before but they also had burn marks that were very fresh. As a result, chunks of scorched flesh could be found in the blood trails as they either walked or crawled towards their living enemies.
However, both Kycina and Maul noticed something strange about the scorch marks on the undead souls. Instead of the normal orange-red burns that flames left in flesh, these wounds were green like the magic of the Nightsisters. "KaiSu Lak'Ton is probably the place where the origin of our power lies, if it is destroyed then I may lose all my power," Kycina warned her son. "But you have the Force, my mother, it is more than enough to start again if that ever happens to you," he replied.
And he reminded her that if Talzin survived the destruction of the Goddess, she too would lose her powers and be even more vulnerable to their wrath. "Let's see if we can destroy her before that happens though, what do you say?" she asked with a teasing smile. Maul agreed and when Kycina's magic failed to stop the advance of the damned souls, she gave clearance for Maul to finish them. It was all they could do to fight and destroy those who got in their way whilst they searched for Talzin, the scourge of the galaxy with a mother out to destroy it.
"Why are you so accepting of their demise now when earlier you had prevented me from destroying them?" Maul asked when there were no more to fight. "Because I realized that the only life that should matter to me more than the lives of the people in this galaxy is yours. Savage's too though he will probably never believe it nor do I think I'd expect him to," she answered. "So if everything I became is all because you chose to send me away from Dathomir, why did you choose me instead of Savage or even Feral?" he continued.
"I didn't Maul, the Will of The Force did and a divine thing like that should ever be questioned. Only accepted for though its will sometimes seems harsh, there is a reason for everything. There is a counterattack for every plan should it go wrong and that's what makes the Force perfect. Not because it doesn't make mistakes, it does, but unlike many people in this galaxy it seeks to correct all mistakes it makes," she explained.
Maul had been to enough versions of the galaxy he lived in to know that was true. Kings could be considered counterattacks to the powers of Chaos and his people the counterattack to his power becoming too great. The Jedi could be considered the counterattack to the threat of Sith dominance in the galaxy or even vice versa. As he thought about what organizations countered each other by will of the Force, he noticed something odd.
His hands and feet began to glow with a strange fire, lighter green than the one that had badly scorched his enemies. Deactivating his lightsaber, he decided to test out his martial arts with this fire but found it simple to just punch one of them. What had been a light hit, sent the creature flying right into the ceiling where it stayed for several seconds, only to fall back down and burn up and fade from existence. This is a neat trick, let's try it with the rest of these things Maul thought.
He decided to employ Terra Käsi with it and saw that the effects were much more permanent than wielding his lightsaber could be since they came back up every time he hacked them down. Worse, Kycina's magic hardly changed a thing despite her best efforts to help her son by healing the torture within the damned souls of KaiSu Lak'Ton. As he busied himself with this new power, Kycina stopped using her magic to aid him and observed him in action. Though no longer sinister in its intent, she sensed a darkness that she recognized as only one thing and it wasn't anything from his time with the Sith.
Despite her every desire to put it out of her mind, she now realized what her son truly was. He was the Arras Käsi, the prophesied son of Dathomir who would save her from destruction and bring about the destruction of the Nightbrothers or else their salvation. Yes she did indeed pity the Nightbrothers for their fate which was why she saved Maul from it. However, she did still agree with fellow Nightsisters that they were near-uncontrollable animals and could relate from her own experiences with them.
Including Maul's father who had not only defeated her in combat via the powerful willpower she had mentioned to her son but also forced himself on her immediately after. It was like he had nothing else to live for and the sooner he completed that purpose in life, the better for him. Though she saw no sign of that same thing in her son, she did decide it was best to be weary for his sake as well as her own.
Savage realized he had arrived too late to have any real fun judging by the piles of burned flesh and blood stains on the stone floor. However, he decided not to think to hard on that but instead, let Maul and their mother do the work while he simply trailed behind and waited for the ample opportunity. Then he would step in and take the credit of destroying Talzin for himself and only himself. But not only would he take the credit, he would also be the one who did the deed and sent that damn bitch off to oblivion where her new life waited.
After that, he would take revenge against his brother and mother and kill them thus proving his worth to the Goddess forever. It would make him immortal and give him the power to command the Nightbrothers for his own gain against Dooku and Ventress. They would pay for what they did to him, turning him into the monster he was becoming now with Talzin's aid. However, they would also pay for taking everything that mattered to him including his brother Feral who Ventress had him kill with his bare hand.
As Talzin kept kneeling before her mother, the Goddess instructed her daughter in what was to be done now. Our army shall be risen out of the stone by your hand. You will guide it to the space bridge where it will then descend onto Dathomir and conquer it in our glorious cause before we expand into the rest of the forsaken universe she explained. "I can do that right now if you wish, mother," Talzin said.
I shall bless you with my power which will allow to control and guide them to the space bridge and begin our conquest her mother replied. Her green, glowing eyes suddenly shot out bolts of green lightning that struck Talzin and began to change her. The red robes of her rank turned into grayish-blue plates of spiked armor, the shoulder pads turning into deadly blades in the process. Her turban turned into a helmet whose crest was sharp to the touch like the spikes on her armor and shoulder pads.
The process was concluded when an ax similar to the one Talzin had once made for her grandson Savage was conjured from nothing by the Goddess. Your most proficient weapon has been returned for your use against our enemies for what is a leader if not the crème de la crème of my army? the Goddess asked her. "Thank you mother, your words raise me up to the standard necessary to lead your armies while you fuel our power here. Unless you wish to join us in the conquest of the universe," Talzin answered.
In a universe I do not know, you are no longer my observer. I am now yours for the best learning is always done through observation her mother replied to her. "Never fear mother, I will make you proud of me," Talzin assured her. But you already have, there is a reason I have always looked upon you with greater favor than the rest of my immortal children the Goddess told her.
Smiling, Talzin went about restoring her victorious army to life with the power her mother had given her. Tapping her ax against the ground and chanting, she watched as her spell began to take effect on the stone statues that now turned to flesh and blood. Entire mountains crumbled to reveal ships that carried hundreds of thousands more soldiers than the already several million strong armada below her. Then she pointed to the portal through which the soldiers and the ships were to step into Dathomir and the galaxy beyond.
"We've arrived at the space bridge," Kycina said. "And just in time, it looks like something is happening from the other side. Something we need to stop before it can come to pass in this galaxy we love dearly," Maul agreed. Kycina nodded and stepped into the light of the space bridge first before instructing Maul to do the same when she starting levitating upwards.
"I've never been in one of these before, are they safe?" he asked her. "I don't know because neither have I," Kycina admitted glumly. "That's a comforting thought to know mother, why not think that while eating some sugary sweets from Coruscant?" he teased. "Your skills in sarcasm need work, clearly your master didn't teach you deception before Obi-Wan defeated you," she snapped back before silence consumed the rest of their journey in the space bridge.
Savage quickened his pace as he sensed he was getting closer and closer to the space bridge. "Where are you going in such a hurry, my former servant Savage?" the familiar voice of Ventress asked. "To exact revenge on Talzin for her treachery, you will not be in the way of that while you carry my spawn in you," he answered.
Before she could ask him what he was talking about, he used the Force to push her into a wall and down a shaft below her. With no opposition from the bitch who would mother his child, he continued until at last, he was within sights of the top of the tower once more. This time however, the space bridge was activated and he could use it to find Talzin and take his revenge. And if the will of the Force was kind to him, perhaps he could end his feud with his brother and mother while he was it as well.