"I'm old… so very old already…"
Dull eyes look through one of the many windows of the mansion he called The Home. It wasn't a name he came up with himself, it was a name used centuries ago by the asteroid's previous inhabitants. Looking out the window, the old man could see the planet Bimmiel, far away. How much he despised and loved that planet. He despised it for its beauty from up his home, and loved it for the harsh conditions on the planet itself. Even though he could withstand the influence of the Dark Side, which would drive him to violence and lust for power, he did change a little, became a little more violent. Luckily, he hadn't changed as much to the suspicion of his family and friends. Not that it mattered now, most of his friends were dead, and his family has been thinned out as well.
"We've still got Ghal, Jo and Frey, the rest died on me."
Pondering on his family, the man slowly turned around. His eyes gazed on his very soft looking bed, that bed where he was lying not so long ago, ill and weak. It made him remember.
"I need to go. I need it."
Slowly, the man doddered through his bedroom. The large, dark room was filled by iron statues, each one of them having a story and a special significance to the Dark Lord. Some were the likes of his brother and sister, whom passed away not so long ago. His father and mother, friends, even business partners were among those depicted as statues. The abundance of iron and the even greater amount of time, made it possible for Vagos to sculpture his loved ones.
"They must be remembered, always," was the thought behind all this. It was the decision Vagos made when his father died.
The doors opened automatically, Vagos, leaning against the wall, proceeded to hobble down the gallery, which was a piece of art on its own, down the stairs. The main hall led to the hangar, but before Vagos reached it, he gestured his hand towards a rack. Without any effort, using the Force, a cane and a black cloak, flowed into his hands. Leaning on the cane, cladding himself in the black cloak, the Sith Lord continued his slow walk towards the hangar, where his ship was waiting. Even though Mine Eight Eleven B had shut down long ago, Roh Vagos still owned a Jonex Mine Corporation ship. It was not a great or luxurious ship, but it was all Vagos needed. He sat down, in front of the controls.
"Where to go…? Where does one find one… Outer Rim? No, Core Worlds? Yes, but dangerous. Many Jedi there… Can mask myself, no? Yes, but a gamble nevertheless. Must go!"
The hangar depressurized, the doors opened. Vagos counted down in his mind from ten to one. The engines started with a blast of fire coming from the main thruster. In space, Vagos looked back for one more time at his home, then proceeded to enter hyperspace. His old bones screamed as he pulled the handle back, Vagos bit through his pain, trying to ignore it. In hyperspace, he rubbed his sore arm. He was shocked to find out his skin had gone completely pale. He hadn't been paying attention to his appearance since he had been ill. He still wondered how he could have gotten ill, no one had come to visit him in the last few months, he hadn't been in the outside world for years and he hadn't changed his diet as well. Corruption crossed his mind, but he shook that off. He was too resilient to be corrupted by the Dark Side. He knew that his body was giving up upon him, but mentally… he had never been so strong. Due to his illness, Vagos had lost a lot of weight. He used to be a bit stout, but now he looked more like a walking skeleton. His face had changed as well, it showed a lot more wrinkles than before. They framed his yellow eyes, the sign that Vagos was a Sith Lord. Even though his sight was deteriorating and his eyes were looking dull more and more often, sometimes they would light up, fire would burn in his eyes, they would look more golden than yellow at such moments. At such moments, his eyes could be seen from under the shadow cast by the black hooded cloak he was wearing. Underneath the cloak, Vagos wore a black suit, the suits he liked to wear when he still was a businessman. He still liked to wear them. Now on his last mission, he wore a suit again. This last mission, a mission that must succeed in order to ensure the continued existence of the Sith as an order, had a simple goal, but was so complex to execute. He had postponed this mission for so long, but now he must fulfill it: finding an apprentice, the danger for every Sith Lord. It had been Vagos' tactic however, postponing it for so long. Once an apprentice feels he has learned everything from his master, he will kill the master, or try to do so. Vagos didn't feel much like dying, so that is why he didn't train an apprentice for so long. Without an apprentice however, the Sith Order would cease to exist. Vagos, took his disease as a sign, a signal from the Sith Lords of old to start the training of an apprentice, because the end of his life was nearing. He swore to do so, lying sick in his bed, old as he was, if he was to survive. Thus he was on his journey to the Core Worlds, seeking a worthy apprentice. He thought back to his own apprenticeship under his master and how he eventually killed his master. Unlike a lot of Sith Lords from the past, he killed his master without backstabbing or scheming. He challenged his master and defeated her; above all, he withstood his master when she tried to take control of his body.
"Now where should I go… Coruscant? Corellia? Selonia…?"
He sat immobile, pondering on his options.
"Or go back to the Outer Rim, to Muunilinst?"
He shook his head, grumbling out of anger. He was irritated by the fact he couldn't choose where to go. The Force wasn't giving him a clear message. He used to be so closely connected with the Force that he could feel what the answer was to his questions, but now he had one dire question, he didn't receive anything at all. It annoyed, no it angered him. He dedicated his life to study the Force, to strengthen the connection he established with the Force when he started to experience the Dark Side. He even had to defy his former master, who grew concerned about the way he viewed the Force and handled it.
"The Force is a weapon at your disposal Vectivus!" she scolded when Vagos told her about his theories on the Force and how to use it. It was the way the Sith saw the Force, as a weapon to achieve the goals set by a Sith Lord. It was expected from a Sith to carry the Force, unlike a Jedi, who was expected to be carried by the Force. Fact is, as history often showed, that both expectations could sometimes not be met. Some Sith had Jedi-like relations with the Force, some Jedi had Sith-like relations to the Force, it sometimes resulted into turning from Dark to Light, or the other way around. It was that fact that made Vectivus realize that maybe both previous Sith and Jedi had been wrong about what one's relation to the Force should be. That is why Vectivus viewed the Force more like a friend, a partner, a supportive entity in his actions, well, the Dark Side that is. The Light Side of the Force, he viewed as an enemy on its own. He viewed not the Jedi as the ultimate enemy, but the Light Side of the Force. Even though he viewed the Force as a partner, it was a partner to be manipulated. In that way it functioned as a weapon, but was not a weapon itself. That thought was something he had tried to explain earlier in his holocron, but he refrained from doing so, not having totally figured his theory out for himself. It is why he resented his former master. His master should have functioned, in his perspective, as someone to elaborate on the thoughts of her apprentice in order to persuade him otherwise, or to explain why that thought occurred in his mind and explain its meaning. Instead he was always met with the same rant of how one should carry the Force and use it as a weapon. It is not that she was a bad master. She was just a bad thinker, she was more like a doer, no questions asked. Sith philosophy didn't really develop under her rule, she dedicated herself to what she called more 'practical' matters. She was always drilling herself, and her apprentice, focusing all her energy on improving her skills with a lightsaber. She believed she would never die as long as she could best every living soul in the universe in lightsaber combat. It was a belief Vectivus questioned often, usually angering his master. Not long, however, before she came to her… unfortunate end, she explained her belief to her apprentice. She said that as long as she would carry the Force as her source of life, she would, like the Force, never cease to exist. The only possible way she could come to her end, she therefore believed, was to be violently slain. It is why she never slept; it is why she never allowed herself to be caught off-guard. Even though Vectivus understood her view, and at first thought it to be the right view, thus discouraging him from his initial plan to kill his master, since it would be futile anyway to oppose such a lightsaber goddess, he started to find flaws in both her theory and her 'practical' ways. The latter would prove to be her undoing a few months later.
Her final words came to Vectivus' mind. It was proof of how little his master had learned from her defeat by her apprentice's hand. Still holding on to her stubborn belief that practicality must go before everything else. It is true that she had defeated, killed and succeeded one of the greatest Sith Lords of all time due to her practicality, but the way she took it to the extreme proved to be unwise and… unpractical. In her determination to become an undefeatable opponent in lightsaber combat, she overlooked her apprentice's strengths. Even though she despised Vectivus' view on the Force, it proved to be an effective way for him to grow more powerful in the Force. Due to her stubborn views on the Force, she ignored his obvious explosive growth. While Vectivus became more and more knowledgeable, she started to ignore her own Force Powers, allowing them to deteriorate. She made herself become an easy target; the more she tried to become an invincible being. A few months after having their conversation about immortality and invincibility, Vectivus felt confident enough to defy his master for the last time, to fulfill his destiny. Her reddish eyes, hued gold, assumed the likeness of numerous ignited lightsabers, her anger taking the energetic proportions of several exploding stars, her pride assuming the same stature. Her apprentice trying to overthrow her indicated she had successfully done her job as master, her death would prove she had fulfilled her destiny as Sith Lord in the lineage of Darth Bane. Yet that moment of total satisfaction suddenly became so very paradoxical. A Sith can only be successful in Bane's lineage if he or she were to die at the hand of his or her apprentice, proving successful training and the ensured continuation of Bane's line. Yet the ultimate goal of the Sith, besides ridding the galaxy of the Jedi Order, is to achieve immortality. To achieve immortality would mean failing at successfully training an apprentice, but successfully training an apprentice would lead to one's own demise. Essence Transfer came to mind, but was followed by the realization that she was not near powerful enough to penetrate the mind of her apprentice. She had to count on her superior lightsaber skills, even though she knew this fight was already lost. She saw it, her death; her death at the hand of Vectivus, her apprentice.
Vectivus' thoughts jumped back to reality, how long he had been sunken into thoughts, he didn't know. He noticed though that he had already left hyperspace, but not at the coordinates he had previously entered. He looked into space, in front of his ship, not too far away a planet loomed up, a planet Vectivus recognized. He smirked, the Force had, without him noticing, led him to this place.
"Time to find an apprentice…"