ADAS KALLIG

When I saw Satine and Talzinn coming back to us, I knew my follower was able to succeed in her task. Satine was walking more confidently now, while mother Talzin had a small smile on her face, suggesting that they were able to reach an agreement. When they approached our group, mother Talzin spoke to her subordinates, who were still pointing their weapons and magicks at us, just waiting to attack.

"Stand down, my children. They are our guests and future allies, we must treat them as such" zabraks looked at her dubiously, surprised by her words, but they listened. Males lowered their weapons, while females stopped casting spells. It appeared that Mother Talzin had a full loyalty of her people. It was good to know, as it would make our cooperation much easier in the future.

She then walked to me, approaching me with a smile on her face, without any hostility. It seemed that Satine had quite a talent. Convincing a leader of the community of dark siders wasn't an easy task, especially when they were so secluded. Now that she completed the first step, I only had to do the second one to secure long-term cooperation with nightsisters.

"Mother Talzin, I am happy to see you decided to accept my offer" I said, happy to see that everything ended peacefully. Such a situation was actually quite rare for dark siders. More often than not negotiations would break down, either by an outside force or the fact that one of the sides decided to kill the other, using the meeting as an opportunity. Don't get me wrong, these kinds of negotiations were fun, like the one with Acina where we ended stranded in Dormund Kaas wilderness thanks to the outside sabotage, but I really wanted to recruit these people, so I was quite happy with the peaceful result.

"You can thank your mandalorian follower. She has quite a gift when it comes to words. She told me about many benefits I would gain by working with you and I just couldn't waste the opportunity" She replied. Interesting, I thought Satine seemed more like a person who would threaten other side instead of promising boons, but it was great she was able to control her murderous impulses, instead helping me.

"Yes, her talent would be wasted on Mandalore, so I am glad I recruited her" then I extended my hand to Talzin. There was just one thing to do and I would get my first force users. It was so great! I couldn't wait! "Now that everything is settled, let's cement our alliance" I said cheerfully, waiting for her to shake my hand.

She looked at it, before smiling mysteriously and shaking it. She looked quite smug with the whole ordeal. I was a little sad that I had to dampen her mood, but it was necessary for our future relations.

She wanted to let go of my hand, but I didn't let her do it. She looked at me questioningly, but before she was able to tell anything, I started to channel my power through her hand into her body. Panicked by this development she tried to rip her hand free, but I held it steadily. More and more of my power was flowing into her, trying to suppress her own power and subjugate her.

Talzin was a powerful and experienced witch though, so she was trying to resist it. Sweat started to appear on her face, showing her growing exhaustion, as she was trying to stop the flow of the force.

"What.. are...you doing?" She asked with a strained voice, barely standing. Zabraks were looking at us confused. They knew something was going on, but they didn't understand what, so for now they were watching our exchange, not knowing if they should try to stop me. My own followers were watching us as well, but they didn't do anything, probably trusting that I knew what I was doing.

"That's easy" I said with a light voice, showing her that I didn't have to spend any effort to subdue her, being able to talk casually while doing so. I usually didn't like to flaunt my power, but in this case it was necessary.

"You are a dark side witch, one extremely powerful and influential. And It's great, it really is. But I learned that most of the powerful dark siders have a common flaw. The sad truth is that we don't like working with others. We always think that it would be better for us to rule alone, instead of wasting time cooperating with others. That's why we often try to improve our position by scheming against our allies, eventually betraying them" I sent even more energy, finally bringing her to her knees, making her release a scream of pain. Zabraks were growing more and more agitated, wanting to attack, but fearing they would accidentally hurt Talzin.

Mother Talzin was now looking at me in open fear, seeing the true difference in our strength and how powerless she was right now.

"And I don't want something like that to happen between us. That's why I needed you to understand the situation fully, so that you wouldn't do anything rash, without knowing a full picture" She was having trouble breathing now, almost hanging on my arm, no longer even trying to free herself.

"I also want you to know that I don't do it because I don't trust you. It's quite the opposite in fact. I can see that you think of your subordinates fondly, treating them like your children, making you a good leader. I also know that you agreed to our alliance willingly, which brings me joy" I looked her into her eyes

"Now you know about things I bring to the table and consequences of going against me. Your every future decision will thus be made with all facts in mind. It was my gift to you, as a welcome to our alliance. Now we know everything about each other, we can truly work together!" I smiled, releasing her hand, happy that this unpleasant step was behind us, letting us start our alliance in earnest.

She fell on the ground, exhausted. She was trembling, shaken by remnants of my power still flowing through her body. Other zabraks were about to attack me, trying to make me regret hurting their beloved clan mother, but Mother Talzin raised her hand, stopping them in their tracks. She then slowly raised to her feet, before looking me in the eyes.

"You have so much power. You could have subjugated me and the nightsisters without any effort. Yet you didn't. Why?" she said, looking at me questioningly, as if not understanding why I decided to negotiate instead. She was still afraid, but she saw something so irrational from her point of view that he had to know the answer. Well, it was understandable. Dark siders were heavily individualistic, negotiating only as a last resort, and even then, it was rarely in good faith. Because why bother when you can just force others into service, right? During my time as a sith I learned it was not a great long-term solution though.

Yes, I could have forced people to work for me by force. I could have made Talzin my slave, forcing her to serve under me by threatening to kill her and her people. But then she would probably try to ally with someone, like other sith or even jedi, deciding that my death was the only way to her freedom.

That way I would end up like that asshole Tenebrae, with everyone working together to kill me, united by a common foe. I could of course defeat Talzin easily, but Talzin with, for example, Palpatine, Yoda, Windu and at least two wise-cracking rouges with a heart of gold? That would be quite troublesome for me.

That was why I prefered my own approach (well, I originally stole it from Selleana Myr, seeing as it was working quite well with her rift alliance, but that was not the point).

"I told you. I want to become allies with you. I have no intention of subjugating you" I said honestly. She must have sensed that I was serious, because she frowned heavily, looking at me with an incredulous look .

"You are insane" she said with certainty, shocked to realize I truly intended to go through with an alliance in good faith.

"I prefer 'differently rational'" I replied "So, what do you say? Do we have an agreement?"

She fell silent, thinking how to answer. Then she slowly replied, looking like she wasn't able to believe what she was saying herself.

"...not agreeing now would make my situation worse in the future, wouldn't it?" She sighed heavily "I accept your terms, Darth Imperius. As long as the promises made by your follower will be honored, nightsisters will aid you"

I didn't know why she looked so defeated, but I was glad we reached a happy ending.

Me and my followers spent the next week in the village, discussing our future cooperation with Mother Talzin. Now that she was fully committed to join us, she found newfound determination to make the terms of the agreement as beneficial for her and her followers as possible. It was weird she didn't try to do that during her negotiations with Satine, but maybe Satine was just much more aggressive in her negotiations than me. Lana was always telling me that I was too nice for a sith lord.

I was just relaxing after one of the meetings, when I saw a ship flying in the direction of the village. I could sense some dark presence coming from there, so I watched it with some interest, waiting to see how the situation would develop. Mother Talzin came out of her hut, probably sensing the presence as well.

I looked at her, watching what she would do, but she just sighed.

"It would appear my prodigal daughter returns" she said, before starting to walk towards the place where the ship was about to land. With nothing else to do I decided to follow her, wanting to see what it was all about.

When I arrived at the landing site, I saw a bald zabrak woman getting out of the spaceship. Her two lightsabers and faint dark energy around her suggested that she was a sith or a dark jedi who decided to visit a village, though Talzin's words and newcomer being a Zabrak suggested that she was just a former nightsister, returning to her home after a rebellious phase.

She certainly looked like a rebellious teen, with shaved head and resting bitch face, so the second option made more sense.

The first thing she did after exiting the ship was to approach Talzin. Reaching her, the newcomer fell on her knees.

"Mother Talzin, forgive me. I wasn't able to kill Dooku, even with all the help you gave me. And Savage..." She started to say, indicating that a serious conversation was about to take place, When she stopped, as she noticed that Mother Talzin wasn't alone. Moving her gaze, her eyes rested on me. SHe didn't say a word for a few seconds, just looking at me.

She then got on her feet hurriedly and pointed her finger at me.

"It's you!" She shouted, apparently extremely shocked to see me, slightly shaking and moving her hand to one of her lightsabers.

"It's me!" I exclaimed, deciding to humor her. Seriously, who was she?