Space Wizard

or

Yer a Space Wizard, Harry!

12

Sitting at the workshop/lab table I'd set up, I looked at my armor. It had served me well so far, but only truly been put to the test once—against Exal, in our first encounter. With my new and expanding knowledge of alchemy, I wanted to make something better before this shit show kicked off.

Reaching out with the Force, I began pulling the bones off of the leather, moving them to the side. Crude stitches were removed, the leather set aside and vines moved into a pile to get rid of later. Holes made in the leather to put in those stitches joined together, sealing up with a small application of alchemy, and I smiled seeing my new skill in action.

There was just one problem. It felt wrong. I had experimented with it a bit and every time I used it, it just felt wrong. Not 'blasphemous' or something like the Jedi had labeled it in Syn's book, just… like I was doing it incorrectly. Like there was a better way.

All alchemy, it be 'Force Alchemy,' 'Sith Alchemy,' or Syn's perfected alchemy used the dark side to force one's will onto the universe and the materials one was working with. It was exclusively a dark side ability in that regard. But that just felt wrong to me. I felt like there was a better way. I had access to both the light and the dark sides, was entirely balanced in fact, and it felt like my best approach would be to try to strive for balance in my own alchemy the same way I did when I was using what one of the holocrons, this one containing a repository of collected Jedi and Sith Force abilities from Syn's time, identified as mechu-deru—which was also supposed to be a dark side ability.

So, moving the section of ribs I wanted to work on in front of me along with one of the bars of beskar and another of phrik, I tried to feel it out the same way. The dark side to reshape the materials as I wanted, the light side to guide my hand in doing it. That felt better, but still not quite right.

It took a couple of days to figure it out, actually. I spent hours at a time in the workshop bashing my head against what felt like a wall, before going back to study more of the Syn Holocron, or take a break and delve into one of the other holocrons I'd collected. But eventually, I did figure it out. The technique I was looking for required that perfect balance, but it worked and it felt right. It actually worked a bit better than Syn's notes on the subject said traditional alchemy should.

So, I began building new armor.

But first, I had to actually test how effective what I wanted to do was. That meant a stop on a planet to prevent accidents in the ship, making samples, and live fire testing. Tests were very good even with small amounts of beskar and phrik, so I went ahead with the armor after picking up a few more supplies to play with for chemical testing.

Taking the bones from the tigers I'd killed, I used alchemy to reshape them—smoothing them out into armor plates as guided by the Force; but only after collecting a bone marrow sample for later use. Those plates were wrapped in a layer of phrik, over which was a layer of beskar. Taking some of the leftover krayt dragon leather, along with a set of the light not-silk cloth uses to make my clothes, I reshaped and combined it into armor for my upper and lower body, before fusing the new armored plates to the outside of it. When I was done, I had a set of armor that would cover everything from wrists to ankles. Then I modified a set of gloves, boots, and made a new helmet for full coverage—complete with rebreather, atmospheric filter, and voice modulator for that 'scary Sith' effect.

New belts were added to hold my weapons and a few new toys. Namely, thermal detonators. Because grenades are too handy not to have. Next, I took the rough tiger cloak and fixed it up, joining the places that needed to be bound. With that done, I took my old tiger pearl necklace and replaced the chain and material holding the pearl for beskar, then added a sliver of the ghostfire crystal so I wouldn't have to carry the whole thing with me.

My next project was enhancing my arm.

I took apart one of the spares I'd bought and replaced each component piece by piece with beskar while modifying the inside to accommodate a surprise. In the center of the arm, I added a small lightsaber with a ghostfire crystal. It only had one power cell, so it wasn't going to last forever in a fight, but I wasn't making it for protracted combat. All the wiring and circuitry was replaced by cortosis.

Room temperature superconductor and some idiots will try anything to make armor and weapons out of it, even when it's brittle compared to other metals. How retarded do you have to fucking be?

I upgraded the hand to increase its grip strength, allow it to rotate fully around the wrist, and the fingers to bend fully in any direction. Finally, I applied a coat of phrik on the outer layer beneath the synthskin, after discovering that phrik blocked scanners—meaning my holdout saber wouldn't show up on anyone's scans.

I swapped my hand out for the new one and tested it a bit, finding it superior to the old one in every way. But just as I was about to call it done, an idea came to mind. -Giggling- Chuckling to myself, I broke out the metal case full of sex toys. In the case were half a dozen of the little 'pleasure spheres,' in addition to some other toys. I took one of those back to the workshop after closing up the case and hiding it away.

Swapping hands again, I opened it back up and took apart the pleasure sphere. Incorporating parts from the sphere into my hand and running (cortosis) lines up through each finger and through my palm would allow me to use every digit and my palm to do the same thing the pleasure spheres could do—that is, stimulate nerves in nearly every sentient species in a way that the brain interpreted as pleasure. Focusing on my eye, I tied the new toy into it using a bit of mechu-deru, before closing the hand back up and putting it back on.

Needless to say, that particular improvement was a big hit with Exal.

"So, this is Dromund Kaas," I muttered as we left the Dying Light and the spaceport, riding my new 'speeder bike.' Behind us, a freight hauler followed, carrying the sarcophagus of Sorzus Syn.

The planet was beautiful. Dark and deadly, but beautiful. Overhead, clouds billowed and lightning popped and crackled. A light rain fell and mist covered everything. And of course, there was the jungle below, absolutely teeming with life. And all of it painted in the colors of the dark side of the force. There was just one problem. This wasn't the dark side of the hell planet—the pure dark side. No, like Korriban, it was tainted with feelings of hate, sadism, and all of the worst sorts of things. So as pretty as it was to look at, I wanted off world ASAP.

"Not what you were expecting, apprentice?"

"No, actually pretty close to expectations," I admitted. "Are you ready for this?"

I felt her steel herself. "As ready as one can be."

We fell into silence at that as we considered the battle to come. After a while, Kaas City came into view—all dark skyscrapers in the center, with smaller outlying buildings, and in the center what looked to be a palace or temple, maybe both. Following Exal's directions, I flew us towards a high rise building on the west side of the palace/temple. She pointed to a roof area with a landing pad and a garden, with a door leading inside.

"That's it. She will be here soon, apprentice."

Scanning the surrounding buildings, I hummed. "Alright, I'm going to drop you off here and get ready."

I set us down on the landing pad and cloaked myself in the Force, then covered myself with an illusion. Both of us slid off the speeder and Exal moved away a bit. Using my eye, I remote controlled the speeder drone and sent it away, before circling back and landing on top of a nearby rooftop with a view on this one. Then, I began deploying sniper drones to buildings further away, but still in line of sight. Those drones were rectangular and roughly two feet long each. Once they reached their destinations, they deployed legs to stabilize themselves and opened up, extendable sniper barrels protruding from their bodies as they took aim at the roof. As for myself, I laid out flat in the garden and hid amongst the foliage, waiting for our target to arrive.

The cargo vehicle landed and a pair of men moved the sarcophagus out of the truck and into the center of the garden, where Exal waved them off. They left and Exal placed a quick holo-call to Darth Labes, letting her know she had arrived with the package. Then, we settled in to wait. While we did, I synced my drones to Exal's cybernetic eye as well so we could coordinate when the shooting started.

Thena was right. The waiting is awful.

Finally, after a little over half an hour by my chronometer, a fancy black speeder driven by a protocol droid pulled in and set down on the landing platform. The droid got out and moved around the vehicle, opening the back door and a woman stepped out. She had the red skin typical of a Sith but with the addition of two sets of facial ridges on her jawline that protruded a bit into tentacles, red eyes, and long red hair pulled back into a fancy braided style. She wore long robes that hid most of her figure, and wore a lightsaber on her belt.

Darth Labes was beautiful, no doubt. And young. In fact, she looked about Exal's age. Which went a long way towards explaining things—she had apparently gotten by on her family connections and been promoted long before she should have.

"Well? Let's see it, apprentice." The woman's voice dripped condescension and she practically spat the word, in no way with the respectful and more often fond tone Exal used with me.

"Of course." Reaching out to the sarcophagus, she touched the controls hidden on the top and the thing hissed as the seal broke again. Labes moved closer, radiating interest as the lid rose. Seeing the old woman inside, she smirked. I designated my target and armed the bots to fire.

"And with this, I shall surpass—"

Whatever she was going to say was lost to time. Ten sniper rifles fired at the same time, from different ranges, elevations, and angles. And then twitched their aims and fired again a half second after, into every predicted path she could move through.

Exal may have thought Labes was weak, but she was still a Sith and still had that precognitive danger sense. She leapt back and ignited her lightsaber—as did Exal. The initial shots all passed through the space Labes had occupied, while the follow-ups missed or were batted negligently out of the way. Not that it mattered, because the rifles were now firing continuously, forcing the woman to weave through the shots.

"Really, apprentice? Betrayal?! Have I not been good to you?"

Exal leapt to close the gap between them, her red lightsaber clashing with that of her soon-to-be former master. "You're an entitled, corrupt, weak excuse for a Sith and everything wrong with the system!" my feisty master roared in answer as their blades clashed, spitting and hissing as they rebounded off each other. Exal hounded the other Sith relentlessly, forcing the other woman on the defensive under her onslaught—and it was clear that she was beyond pressed to keep up.

"You ungrateful little bitch!" Labes screeched as she was driven back, nearly catching a sniper round to the head.

Phase two. Activating the speeder bike/drone, it rose up from the building across the way and opened up, the seats sliding to the side to reveal a six barreled blaster cannon nearly the length of the speeder's body. Angling down, it took aim and opened fire as it began to circle closer, providing close air support. A BRRT filled the air, along with a stream of blaster bolts. Expecting it, Exal leapt away.

Darth Labes turned and looked up, mouthing a quiet curse as she dove to the side, out of the line of fire. Blaster bolts tore up the roof around her as the spray followed her, while the sniper drones continued to hound her. With no cover on the roof beyond the speeder she arrived in and the closest buildings too far to jump to, along with traffic now avoiding this area entirely, she was low on options. Which was exactly what I wanted. I slipped out of the garden, staying low and behind her as I pulled my assassination saber.

The pureblood jumped behind the car, right where I wanted her, as it left her pinned down and with nowhere to go. The sniper drones took potshots every time she poked her head up or tried anything, forcing her to use her lightsaber to deflect bolts that came from her front, while the big drone circled, pouring shot after shot into the speeder and quickly starting to melt its way through.

Just as I closed in on her flank, the woman flipped her lightsaber over and stabbed into the roof. She shifted minutely, taking a blaster bolt to the shoulder that should have hit her chest, and spun a quick circle. The roof fell out from under her. Some yards away, Exal did the same. I had the drones aim lower and start putting shots through the windows, breaking the glass and further hounding Labes and chasing her towards Exal.

Giving her a moment to move away, I dove down the hole after her, where I found her and Exal locked in a Force lightning duel. I didn't think, just reacted, reaching out and casting my own Force lighting and hitting her from behind with bright, white lightning. The woman howled in pain, losing her grip on Exal's own lightning, only to catch it on her lightsaber a moment later while holding up her hand and catching my lightning with her own. The drones outside stopped firing in with a simple command, to keep from distracting Exal and myself.

The woman panted, smoke wafting off of her as we kept up the attack. Then, I reached out and grabbed her with the Force with my free hand, lifting her into the air and trying to crush her like a grape. She strangled and choked, her eyes going wide as she realized she was about to lose.

And then, something strange happened.

The amulet Exal wore glowed brightly, before leaping off of her body and flying towards Labes. It smacked into her chest, just above the valley of her breasts, and something on it moved. Labes howled as the amulet dug into her flesh and latched on, before an almost overwhelming Force presence and power filled the room. A sphere of Force exploded off of her, disrupting our lightning and my hold on her body, sending her dropping to the floor. Her entire presence in the Force changed, growing much stronger—and no longer fueled by spite, petty hatred, and sadism but rather by an indomitable will.

She pushed herself to her feet and looked around, her eyes glowing golden now.

[spoiler=Sorzus Syn]

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[/spoiler]

Those eyes swept over myself and Exal, before dismissing us and looking at herself. "Not bad," she murmured. "I would have preferred the later model, but this isn't bad at all."

To my surprise, Exal took a knee and bowed her head. "Lord Syn."

Somehow, I wasn't exactly surprised. A bit annoyed that Exal didn't tell me there was an ancient Sith lord inhabiting her amulet just as I said there might be, but not surprised.

"Oh do get up," Sorzus Syn waved negligently at Exal. "I need allies, not worshipers. I made that mistake once before, and never again." Her eyes cutting to me, she eyed my lightsaber. "Turn it on or put it away."

I glanced at Exal, who nodded and put away her own blade. Seeing that the situation had changed, I did as well.

"Good. Now, remove your helmet, please." Raising an eyebrow, I did so, pressing it to my side where it magnetized to my belt. Syn's red lips pulled into a leer as she eyed me up and down, her eyes lingering briefly on the scars over my eye as, for just a moment, I felt a surge of lust roll off of her. "Much better."

Turning away, she surveyed the home and clicked her tongue. "This isn't going to do at all. You three made quite the mess here. Who do we call to have this cleaned?"

"I'll make the call," Exal volunteered, and Syn nodded.

"Very well," the woman agreed. "Now, as promised, I'll have you elevated to a lord. Darth… Finis. And you," she turned to me, "made a Sith officially and acknowledged as apprentice to Darth Finis."

"And what are we to do, in the meantime?" Exal asked.

Syn hummed quietly before answering. "I need someone to help me familiarize myself with this time. I can rip the memories from Labes, but they're far from useful. It would be best to consolidate my power base and establish you as my ally. For that, I would ask that you stay here on Dromund Kaas with me until we're properly established. Darth Labes' plan wasn't a bad one, even if the woman is a blithering idiot and exactly as weak as you said she would be. Establishing Labes' relation to Sorzus Syn should boost my reputation within the dark council, and I can leverage her family's assets to begin building up resources. As the one who discovered Sorzus Syn's tomb, you will also gain some measure of favor with the dark council.

"I can claim to have uncovered a holocron and ancient knowledge, which should explain Labes' sudden increase in competency. Then eventually, I will claim the name Darth Syn—and by then, Labes will be but a bad memory. As soon as you are prepared, we can begin gutting them of the stupid, lazy, and weak. If this current council is anything like it was in my time, then it won't be long before someone moves against me—and you, by association, as my former apprentice."

Then, she turned her golden eyed gaze on me. "As for you, apprentice… Continue as you have been, for now. Seek out the tombs of the ancient Sith lords and take what you can. Learn and grow strong. I would very much like it if you could find any holocrons containing alchemical knowledge and bring them to me."

Nodding at that, Exal said, "We recovered your own holocrons from your tomb."

Syn nodded. "Good. I have no need for them—I've long since memorized their contents. Study them and put them to good use." Looking at me, my armor specifically, she raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Though, I believe you have already started. Not a bad start at all."

"Thanks," I said, still unsure how to deal with her.

With a sigh, she waved her hand and began to straighten the place up. "In the meantime, I'll need to see about new housing until this is repaired."

"I'll take care of it," Exal assured. "Please excuse us…" She hesitated on what to call the ancient Sith lord.

"Syn is fine, in private. Darth Syn in public. We hold the same rank at the moment and you have done me a great service. I would rather nurture this relationship and see it grow, than stifle it with needless self-aggrandizement—especially as we will be working closely in the coming months and years. If I want someone to call me master, I'll get a slave."

"Very well… Syn," she tried the name out, before turning back to me. "I wish to see Harry off. I'll return shortly. Come, apprentice."

"Finis," Syn called, making Exal pause. "The Jedi aren't entirely wrong about attachments being a weakness. They can make you strong, but so too are they a vulnerability. If you don't wish to have yours used against you, ensure that no one who makes the attempt will live to regret it."

"I understand."

We made our way up to the roof, where the speeder had picked up all the drones and shifted back into travel mode.

Exal relaxed. She breathed a sigh of relief and laughed, before latching onto me, clinging to me with arms and legs both. "Finally!"

Grabbing her under the ass, I held her there. "Congratulations, Darth Finis."

Exal leaned back and pouted at me. "You don't call me, that, apprentice. To you, it will always be Exal."

"Well, I think this calls for a celebration."

"It does, doesn't it?" she murmured. "Let's return to the ship, for now."

We left the city, Exal placing a holo-call to have repairs made to Syn's new abode as we made our way back to the Dying Light. Once we were aboard, I took Exal back to her quarters and spent the rest of the afternoon making love to her.

"What are we going to do?" I asked, as we lay holding each other after, night having long since fallen.

Exal sighed. "Exactly as she said. We're… in a precarious position right now, Harry. Syn could crush us on a whim, or she could be the best thing that could happen to us. It all depends on how willing we are to support her, and how grateful she feels."

"And having to hope she's not feeling capricious," I muttered, earning a nod.

"That is true," she agreed. Reaching up, she stroked my cheek, before leaning in and kissing my lips. "It will be difficult, but I know we will make it through this. We'll only be apart for a few months—less, if you find something worth bringing back sooner."

"Yeah, I suppose so."

Pressing her forehead into mine, her golden eyes staring into my green, Exal murmured, "I have come to love you and if you do not return to me quickly, I will be very upset, Harry."

Reaching out for her with the Force, I found it to be true. And I remembered what Exal had said, when we first started flirting around each other—that Sith, as a species, are a very passionate people and tend to fall hard and fast. Searching my own feelings, I realized that at some point, I had come to depend on her. I liked her. Maybe even more. But I was dragging my feet on putting a name or words to it, out of caution and experience from many a failed relationship in the past.

Bundling up all of my feelings, I pushed them back towards her. Exal gasped quietly, blinking as she processed. "Oh," she whispered, before smiling. "I see." Squeezing me tighter, she said, "Take as much time as you need, but I believe we both know how this ends."

Then, she pushed me over onto my back and straddled my waist. "I have to go soon, but let us enjoy each other's company just a bit longer, my Harry."

Reaching up, I took her hands in my own as she adjusted herself in my lap and hilted me inside her, her tentacles welcoming me in. "Sounds good to me."

Upto beeped as I left the cockpit. "What's up, bud?" He beeped again and I raised an eyebrow. "You sweet talked a droid in ImpSec and got the details? Alright, hit me with it."

The droid sent the data to my eye as I made my way to my quarters to collect some things to work on. Looking it over, I frowned at what I found there.

The people I'd encountered briefly on Nar Shaddaa were, in fact, Jedi—just as I'd suspected. The human man was Duron Qel-Droma, the woman was Shaela Nuur, and the Twi'lek man was Guun Han Saresh. All three were Jedi Knights, and all three were fairly infamous in the Empire for being badasses and taking a hardline stance against Sith—basically killing any Sith they came across.

Immediately after reading that, as I carried Syn's holocron and my crystals to the workshop area, something else popped into my eye—a hastily made recording from Exal, sitting in a taxi as it flew over Dromund Kaas.

"Apprentice, your little droid just shared the information he gathered with me. Whatever you've done to draw the attention of these three, lose it, immediately. Do not pursue them, do not confront them. If confronted by them, flee. However… it is somewhat strange that they would be on Nar Shaddaa in force, around that time. This, combined with recent rumblings I've heard have made me wary. I suspect something is going on within the Republic. If you have the time, see what you can dig up about what's going on. Carefully, mind you. Do not put yourself in danger for this."

She looked away from the communicator in her hand for a moment before adding, "I know you aren't ready to say the words yet, but I am. Happily. I love you. Stay safe, Harry. Goodbye."

I sighed as I dropped into my seat in front of the work bench, the recording ended. "Damnit, as if I didn't miss her already," I muttered. Beside me, Upto chirped. "You'll understand one day when you find a nice, cute droid booty you want to chase." He bleeted and I chuckled. "Go make sure we don't run into anything."

Upto rolled away and I turned my attention to the crystals I'd laid out before me. Emerald green, bright violet, transparent, crimson, scarlet, and bright orange. Each of them were roughly the size of both of my fists together, minus the shards I'd taken from a few of them for use in lightsabers and gear.

Reaching out to them with the Force, I carefully split each crystal down the middle, keeping one half for future weapons and the other half for what I was about to do. The halves I wanted to use for weapons later, I moved off to the side. Pulling the green one closer, I grabbed the Syn Holocron and went over the lessons on making a focus for meditation—on the spells to carve into a focus to draw in the Force and help it connect to the greater Force. Spells that would sharpen the mind and open the senses, and otherwise aid in meditation. And on protective spells, that would strip emotions and intent from the Force around the one meditating, which would prevent corruptive influences.

Carefully, I used alchemy to begin carving the spells into the green crystal, rearranging the crystal's mass to leave small trenches for the carvings. I discovered, in doing so, that I could reshape the crystal in my hands pretty much how I saw fit, so long as the internal crystal lattice remained the same. A little bit of playing with it, with the Force guiding my hand, made the crystal much stronger and gave it a much deeper connection to the Force, just by removing some impurities and fixing some imperfections—and that was before finishing the spells on it. As for the shape, I settled on a simple sphere, carved to look like the Earth.

When I was finished, everything just seemed to click into place and the crystal felt right. Just holding it, I felt my Force perception extend outwards—to the point where Exal felt right next to me despite the distance between us.

"Very nice," I murmured, before setting the completed focus aside and moving on to the rest.

Once I finished, I tested each meditation crystal and found that each one helped bring a different element to the fore when using it. In the case of the light-imbued crystals, this was deeper elements of the Force. In the case of the darker crystals, some inner part of myself. In other words, light aligned crystals were for meditation upon the greater Force, while dark aligned crystals were for self-reflection.

To break it down:

The green crystal was most aligned with what I'd come to know, through lessons with Exal, as the greater Cosmic Force. With this crystal, I gained greater understanding of how the Force affected reality and everything in it, including myself, and how I affected the Force and created changes around myself. This led me to a deeper understanding of all of my Force abilities overall, but especially the light-aligned ones. I also occasionally caught glimpses of the future—or rather, possible futures. However, because I believed in self-fulfilling prophecies, I didn't go chasing after those.

The violet crystal was more in tune with the present, the Force in the moment. It was this crystal that tended to show me visions of the present, happening elsewhere in the wider galaxy. People and events I had never seen before, but which felt important—critical. As though these would shape the future for years to come, but I wasn't entirely sure how.

The ghostfire crystal was all about anything that altered mental state or confused the senses—and seeing through such techniques. Illusions, yes, but also other techniques like mind trick or mind control, memory manipulation, mind probe, sleep, certain aspects of Force senses such as detecting emotional state and intent, increasing one's awareness, acuity, or memory. This crystal seemed to be especially prone to showing me visions of places that should be hidden in the Force, but which weren't for something whose entire purview was basically 'perception' in the Force.

Scarlet was just as focused on hunting and conquest as it was before, but it was much clearer—much sharper now. It wasn't about going out and needlessly killing things and subjugating everything in one's path. No, it was… pure, concentrated will to live. To survive, by any means necessary. To go out and explore, to secure the places, resources, and means of survival. And to destroy any threats to that survival. Meditating on this crystal showed me alien worlds and vistas, garden worlds that I wasn't sure were actually inhabited. It also showed me potential threats—Jedi, Sith, and a lot of other people and aliens I couldn't readily identify. Whether they were a general threat, or a threat to myself specifically, I couldn't say yet.

When I actually got the crimson properly focused and attuned, it only got worse. I had said before that it was concentrated horni energons. I had used it to tease Exal, driving her slowly to distraction. With it focused, all of that expanded and became so much more. The crystal wasn't just about sex, lust, greed (for mates), and possessiveness. If scarlet was concentrated will to live, then crimson was concentrated life—of which, procreation was an astoundingly large part. It was all about finding the best, most fit mates, putting children in them, making a family, and killing the shit out of anything that threatened them. Most often, this crystal showed me visions of Exal and greatly increased my connection to her, to the point that we could feel each other's emotions and thoughts clearly across the great distance separating us. Sometimes, it liked to show me women I'd gotten to know—Ikari, Thena, the slaves whose names I hadn't asked and they hadn't volunteered. Other times, it would settle on one woman or another of near-human species—always exactly the sort I'd find attractive. I was pretty sure this thing was trying to convince me to either make myself a harem, or to go out and sow a lot of wild oats.

Orange was exactly as I'd called it when I first picked it up. All retribution and payback, punishment, recompense, and even reward—though not entirely divorced from the concept of justice. This crystal liked to show me visions of the past—people, events, and places long dead and gone or locations associated with them. Places like the Valley of Dark Lords and the various tombs found therein, or a random sand dune on Korriban where I felt a strong connection to Exal for some reason.

Needless to say, I spent many hours when I wasn't studying the Syn Holocron and learning alchemy meditating. I had thought I understood why Jedi and Sith did it before, but with these new tools at my disposal, I felt like I truly understood for the first time.

Such was life. Learn something new, only to learn how little you truly knew, move on to learn more and discover still more to learn.