All he could hear was the wind. It was always the wind, and the long gaping abyss below. He fell. He always fell, tumbling through the darkness.
Why did he always fall?
YOU HAVE TAKEN EVERYTHING FROM ME!
The voice was his. He fell further, accelerating to some unseen bottom. He usually saw nothing save the darkness, but sometimes, when he least expected it, he saw his face, his teacher, his mentor.
"Lord Marek?"
He stopped falling and found himself kneeling, low and there were a pale of sickly yellow eyes looking on him like a predator.
"Lord Marek?"
He looked up. The yellow eyes flashed and a smile appeared beneath them under the dark hood.
"Rise then, my young apprentice, rise Lord Darth Marek and bask in the shadow of the Dark Side." The Emperor spoke in that soft whisper of his.
"Lord Marek, are you alright?"
There was something else. A sound, the deep bass rumble of a respirator. He wanted to turn around, to look and see. Always the breathing, always the cold monotone. He wanted to look upon him with his Sith eyes and see the truth.
Lord Marek awoke.
Mara Jade was leaning in close, her face wrinkled in worry. His hand flashed to her throat and held it. Mara's eyes widened but she did nothing else. She instinctively knew that if she said a word, struggled in anyway he would snap her neck with ease. Instead she controlled her breathing and her fear as she was taught and stared into his eyes, silent.
Marek stared at her, fighting the panic in his heart, the fear was quickly replaced with anger. He squeezed and she gasped but remained still.
"Have you come to kill me?" He asked softly.
Mara shook her head very slowly, fighting against the unyielding hand at her throat.
"Why are you here?" he asked.
She tried to speak but only strangled gasps came out. Marek slowly eased his grip on her throat and the rage within him slowly subsided. He held on to part of it, fanning it and feeling the cold grip at his heart. He would need the rage. It made him powerful.
"I've come to tell you that we are only an hour from Federation space. Our long range sensors have detected three ships close to our hyperspace emergence point. They match the Borg description of Federation vessels." She reported evenly, not betraying a whit of her anger and fear.
"What is the Admiral's threat assessment of these ships? Are they superior to the Borg vessels we've encountered?" he asked and completely released her from his grip. He slowly rose from his meditation chamber and wrapped his cape around his shoulder as he walked away from it.
Mara followed, watching him closely. He had been sleeping, not meditating and unless she was completely mistaken it looked like he was having a nightmare.
"Actually, they are far inferior. Their power generation seems to be less than 10% of a Borg cube, and that is combined. Weapons are hard to tell at this range."
"We should not assume too much. Arrogance is a flaw, one that endemic of our Empire."
"There's every reason to be arrogant when you are the premier power in the galaxy." Mara replied.
Marek smiled softly.
"Indeed. Well, tell the Admiral that I want one of those ships captured, their crew brought on board and interrogated. I want to know all that there is to know about this United Federation of Planets. I want any information on wormholes and these so called spatial anomalies."
"Understood, my Lord." She replied.
He his tunic, taking his lightsabers and walking towards the back of his quarters. She knew that his workout room was built in behind the meditation chamber. He did not say another word as the doors hissed open and he entered. She followed.
She watched as he stood in a calm pose for a moment.
"If you are going to watch, you can at least make yourself useful." He stated and indicated the table on the far side of the room. She nodded and moved over to it.
She stopped at the table and saw four remotes sitting on the table top.
"How many do you want to train with today?" she asked, turning her head to face him.
"All of them."
She smirked.
"Showing off?"
"Just turn them on." He replied.
She shrugged and activated the remotes. The cold black orbs leaped away and buzzed towards Marek like a pack of wolves. Both of Marek's lightsabers activated with a snap hiss and the two ruby red blades went up in the high guard position between the blinks of an eye. The orbs paused just out of his reach and they slowly fanned out around him, encircling him.
She watched his foot play, as he expertly positioned himself with the blade at chest level, his eyes weren't really watching the remotes.
They fired. Four needle like beams flashed at him and he whirled round, flashing his blades across and deflecting each bolt with ease. He flipped over one of the remotes and as he passed overhead he slapped it with one of his lightsabers, the crimson blade neatly bisecting it.
He landed and turned at his waist, bringing his other saber around and blocked the next three bolts. The saber made a quick vroom sound as he back flipped gracefully, the green needle bolts chopping up on the floor one second behind him. She watched him in motion and was awed by his pure speed and agility. She had seen Vader in action a few times and he was powerful and unstoppable. This was different. There was a grace and speed that she had never seen before.
He stopped, flicking his wrist out, the other blade hummed loudly as it flashed out of his grip and took out one of the remotes in mid-flight. The blade swung back towards him but he was already in motion again, racing beneath the two remotes which stopped and spun on their axis as they tracked him, their green bolts missing him by a hairsbreadth. One suddenly zoomed out ahead of him in an effort to cut him off.
It had forgotten about the other lightsaber. It sliced right through the remote and Marek leaped up into the air, catching his lightsaber and as he flipped in a tight ball his second lightsaber blade out at an angle caught another volley of shots.
He landed and stood in the classic guard position.
He was not breathing hard. Her eyes narrowed on him. There was something on his face she had not seen before. Joy.
The last remote ducked in fast, almost a blur of motion and fired off a series of shots low then high in quick succession so it looked like a wall of laser shots. Marek's smile broadened and his crimson blades flashed into a wall of light, the bolts all bounced away save one. The last one he casually flicked away from him and it struck the remote, bringing it down at his feet with a crash.
She clapped.
He seemed to notice her again at the sound. He smiled, some sweat beading on his forehead but no other sign of exertion.
"That is what we Sith call a warm up." He said and there was a hint of the boy that he most obviously still was in his voice. Mara cocked up an eyebrow at the remark.
"Oh?"
Marek touched a control at his wrist and twelve remotes hissed out from behind Mara. They floated hungrily around him.
"You have got to be kidding."
"I recommend you leave, and see to the capture of the Federation ships. I want you to bring me the passengers and I want them alive."
"Of course." She replied and started to walk out, paused by his side and eyed one of his sabers. She ignored the heat coming off of him.
"Your other saber, that's an odd design, it doesn't look like your old saber, or Lord Vader's." she commented and looked up into his eyes. He returned the gaze steadily for a moment.
"It is my own design."
"Oh?" she replied curiously. His face softened for a moment as his memories crept into his mind like timid children. He almost smiled. But then there was the betrayal and his smile turned into a sneer.
"Call it a reminder of how the light side is pitiful, weak and lies." He added darkly. He brought both sabers up to his face at a classic en garde position and Mara felt the chill settle over her as he closed up.
"See to the capture personally Mara. Consider it your first test." He ordered.
"Of course, my lord." She bowed slightly and left the room, wondering what memories she had dredged up.