Ben found himself in a new place this time and once again he was bare to the sight of those nearby and ironically – once again – only one person was there to witness his nakedness, once again it was the youth: Dhor Kutla, this place they found themselves projecting themselves into was dark and only lightened by craters of blood red fire and these were reflected by pools of sickly purple water.
"This is Chaos, a level of the Afterlife – the beginning and end of the Dark side and its users, here is where all life sprang from and will one day return to be destroyed. You already know this," announced Dhor, a cunning smirk on his shadowed face. "If you truly are whom you appear to be, not a Skywalker but something else entirely, then you have a feeling of homeliness here."
"And if I do? What about it?" questioned Ben, glaring at Dhor.
Dhor motioned with his hand and in the distance on the horizon where an ebony sea was located cyclones of blackened water rose up into the air, with a wave of his hand the cyclones fell back into the sea and made a large splash as they did so but to express his point further he clicked his fingers causing the air to ripple as though he controlled the air itself but then ceased the action, he smirked as he made his way towards Ben and caused Ben to gasp as he placed his cool hand on Ben's warm chest – right over his heart. Then, with a sly smirk, Ben felt himself being Force Pushed down the crater behind him and collapsing in a wall of blood red.
Ben gave a roar of outrage at this treatment and seemingly the coloured wall of blood red – the Pyres of Blood red flames – shot up like a volcanic eruption and launched boulders into the sky to Ben's surprise, Dhor seemed unbothered as he descended down into the crater and smirked when Ben raised himself to his feet expecting a confrontation between the seeming… equals, Dhor laughed lightly as he grabbed Ben's face and tilted it before lowering his face to look into Ben's eyes. That, and the feeling of lips on his own, was the last thing he saw or felt before awakening from his meditation.
Zekk growled lightly as the Jedi Knight ducked under a swing by a Lightsaber wielder on the planet Belsavis, this planet had been the dirty little secret of the Old Republic, New Republic and now even the Galactic Alliance. On this world were countless held criminals, some being so dangerous or even Force-sensitive that they had to be contained within stasis fields or Carbonite to make sure that they were not a threat however this came at the price of them lasting the ages unchanging and alive as they were even centuries before, yet now an unnamed Force Order – Dark Jedi or Sith by the glow of their Red Lightsabers – had mustered an army of Droids and was now raiding the prison world.
And all Zekk could do, was to aid the Hapes Forces and Galactic Alliance Forces here, as long as he possibly could.
The gathered Dark Lords of the Sith sat at their respective positions in the meeting room aboard the Foundry, those that could not make it were in the form of Holograms and many seat still remained empty of their rightful Rank holders, despite this Darth Stygius had thought it prudent to have the first official meeting with the beginnings of his personal Dark Council. At the Head of the Table was a chair in which Stygius sat on, down either side of the table was six further chairs each, and finally there was a chair at the far end apparently for the final Lord of Chaos once he joined their party. This wasn't so much what the future meetings would be like, eventually Stygius would retire from politics and allow his Dark Council to lead while only interfering via his Voice or when the Dark Lords came before him, this meeting room was a temporary necessity but if everything went as planned then by the year the Citadel on Dromund Kaas would be the first official base of the Dark Council.
"Our Forces have begun to siege Belsavis, cutting off all communication from the planet," announced Darth Marr, as he sat calmly at his spot at the long table.
"We still have no location where the Mother Machine is on the planet," commented Stygius with an annoyed sigh. "To keep this body, rather than burn out of it after the Drinking and Bathing ceremony at the Font of Power and Pool of Knowledge, I will need to harden this body in preparation for it becoming linked intimately with the full power of the Force!"
"We have Belsavis, and we also having retrieved from that prison planet a Nightsister that knows where the Holocron is hidden, she will be forced to lead us to the location or give up the Holocron. Her death will follow shortly," interjected Darth Marr, with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Hopefully it is that Holocron which will lead us to Darth Nox's Son and Successor, who rumors have it, not only followed his father's path during his own rise to become a Dark Lord of the Sith but was a follower of the Lords of Chaos prophecy and placed himself into Carbonite with an entire army in preparation for that day."
"And you assume this Holocron will lead you to him or at least to a similar Sith aligned to us," commented Stygius, with a nod, before glancing at the Hologram of Darth Temero as she could not be here in person. "What reports from the Dromund system?"
"The Star Harvester is completed and is producing a massive amount of matter and energy, enough to turn Coruscant dark for a few centuries, if we were to drain energy from the surface of that planet. Better yet, we found an ancient Rakatan method to nurture matter out of the sun without having to exhaust vital matter required to continue it's the Star's life," announced Darth Temero's Hologram, which sat with a leg crossed. "We have also received the schematics of the Imperial Modernization Program Vessels, which we are now using to produce Vessels for the Navy."
"Excellent we will need those Vessels immediately; we must blockade the Belsavis sector. Hopefully, before the Republic or Hapes gets an incline of what is going on there," added Darth Marr, as he glanced at Temero's Hologram. "As well as the Nightsister, the Mother Machine is on Belsavis, and in addition, the number of Dark Jedi and Sith that have been kept in stasis throughout the ages would greatly bolster our numbers."
"And give us a chance to find the final Lord of Chaos…" started Darth Plagueis' Hologram, who was busy recruiting another Dark Lord of the Sith on Korriban, he stopped talking when Stygius made a dismissive wave of his right hand.
"I know who he is and where he is, it is only a matter of time before he joins us," announced Stygius calmly, as he stood from his chair when he heard a beep from his personal communicator. "This meeting is adjourned, continue as you have been, and complete the resurrection of the Sith Empire!"
The various Dark Lords of the Sith either also stood and left the room or turned off their Holograms from their side of the transmission, after everyone had left the meeting room however Stygius pressed in a code and activated the large Hologram projector in the centre of the table, the hologram of Abeloth appeared with evident mobility behind her from people moving back and forth rapidly doing their task.
"What news from the Unknown Regions and the Killiks, Abeloth?" asked Stygius, as he sat back down.
"They have begun producing the Space Station and Flagship you required, the Killiks may not have infinite resources but they make amazing progress, however it isn't enough. We need more supplies and workforce," announced Abeloth, via Holocommunication. "That is, if we are to reach your imposed deadline, it would be a difficult race otherwise and may catch the attention of the Chiss and Alliance."
"I'll create a supply chain of Construction Droids and raw resources, now… if that is all you have to report," announced Stygius, once again standing. "I have to dissect something from the Force, something Piras wishes to tell me."
Bowing Abeloth cut off her side of the communication, and after making sure that the supply line to the Unknown Regions had been forged, Stygius stood and marched out of the meeting room to retreat to the Station's Inner Sanctum to meditate. Wondering, what the spirit of the collective second Lord of Chaos, had to tell him that was so important that it could not wait until the second Lord fully awakened as Darth Piras.
Ben felt himself glaring as he return from his unconsciousness and his Healing meditations which had healed the wounds from the crash, now he had awakened to find himself in a Stasis chamber with a number of Sith and new Battle droids standing around the shuttle he was being placed into, a woman stepped forwards with her hair tied back in a bun and smirked at his contained form while all he could do was glare.
"Now that we have you, the one named Dhor Kutla, will be putty in our hands. Thank you, for obeying the Jedi so completely," announced Aprepeia, with a smirk. "You can thank them, in time, for every quiver of agony and searing pain I will deliver to you."
'I see, thank you, Piras. I will be sure to act on your information,' announced Stygius, mentally, to the projected apparition in his mind.
'The true Darth Temero has not sat at your table, not heard your commands, and not been on this Fortress. Be warned! You are betrayed!" warned Piras, directly into Stygius' mind, causing Stygius to smirk as Piras withdrew.
Stygius remained in that meditative state for another few moments before he span around and blocked a descending Lightsaber set to cleave him in two, a smirk wide on his masked face as he looked upon the woman who had claimed to be Darth Temero since the first time he had met her before pushing her back with a Force Push, the woman growled as she righted herself and her face covered over in shock as Stygius didn't raise himself to question her but instead watched as he calmly entered a Soresu form stance.
"Yes. I know that you are not Darth Temero, I know that you are the apprentice of Sith Lady Aprepeia," announced Stygius calmly, his smirk becoming a smile. "This is not a position of betrayal…"
"This… is an entrapment," announced a man behind her, pointing a Model 434 heavy blaster pistol into her back with his right hand, while also holding a Bent-handle Lightsaber held in his left hand. "I am – Apprentice Shelia Vhem – Darth Illusio, descendant of Captain Malavai Quinn of the Sith Empire and Dark Councillor of the Sphere of Imperial Intelligence, and we have known about you and your Master's plot for some time."
"It doesn't matter, I have an open communication channel on me to my Master, she now knows everything that has occurred here and will murder the reborn Piras!" snarled Shelia, she moved to slice at Stygius.
But the Sith Empire sidestepped her and with a single slice, chopped off her hand and sent that limb still clutching the Lightsaber spinning off through the Force field above and into open space where it would be probably smashed ironically between two Asteroids in the field beyond the Foundry. Her incapability to have dodged Stygius slash, coming from her stumbling from being shot in the shoulder by Illusio, hence leaving her open to Stygius' attack.
"I hate to disappoint you, no wait… that's a lie; I have no quarrel with it. I have been jamming all communications from this system since you landed," announced Illusio, as Droid reinforcements arrived led by HK-80, an upgraded design of HK-47 with the Protocol/Assassin personality of the original HK-47 that was destroyed on Mustafar. "Your master knows nothing!"
"Ah… your failure is now complete!" sneered Stygius, arms wide. "And now… so is your death."
Turning and followed by the Droids, Stygius glanced over his shoulder and saw a moment of Fold Space as Abeloth appeared from the rip in time-space, smirking as the screaming began he motioned with his hand and telekinetically closed the doors to the Inner Sanctum as Abeloth enjoyed her meal.
"The traitors did try to mislead you also, my Lord, the Star Harvester is actually in the Ziost system. I know this, because my Commandos managed to secure it and destroy Lady Aprepeia's forces before they could report to her," explained Illusio, pacing calmly. "But my Lord, I have to inquire what we shall do now about Lady Aprepeia."
"I will send my apprentice, and this shall be his crafting moment, the moment when he forges himself in Fire. The moment, when he becomes my Wrath and executes my enemies throughout the Galaxy," commanded Stygius, before stopping. "I have a mission for you and HK-80, with the coordinates and information I will program into K-Eighty, you will retrieve something of absolute importance to me."
"Is it something from your conversation with the spirit of Lord Piras?" asked Illusio, and Stygius gave him a blank glare.
"You'll find out when you get there, but let me promise you, it will change the Galaxy!" announced Stygius with glee, his senses going out to the Felucia system, where his executioner waited.