Author's Notes
Holy shit this blew up!
I honestly wasn't expecting this to blow up as quickly as it did.
Sorry about the wait but this next chapter took a while to write. I had to rewrite it several times over the past few weeks, but I finally got it to a point where I'm happy with it. Here's hoping the next chapter doesn't take too long to get out.
Also fair warning, this chapter is going to get a little dark so just keep that in mind when you're reading this. This chapter was inspired by a scene in book one of the Bane trilogy where Bane was dueling another acolyte on Korriban. This should be around the same level but in case it's not, keep this warning in mind.
Anyway, here's chapter two of Prince of Darkness.
And of course, the usual disclaimer. I do not own Star Wars, or the old republic and they are owned by Lucasfilm and Bioware.
Chapter 2: One Month Later
As I stood on the wide roof at the top of the academy, the only sounds that broke up the cold winds of Korriban were the swings of swords and staffs wielded by a group of acolytes. "Again" a cold indifferent voice called out over the cacophony of wind and swinging blades.
For the past month Overseer Mirai, the pureblood Sith that had captured me, had assigned me to a mandatory class with the other recent acolytes to teach us the basics of lightsaber combat. Training began at dawn and usually lasted a couple of hours. During those two hours, he would teach us sequences from various forms to not only figure out which form fit us, but to familiarize ourselves with our new weapons.
My weapon of choice had been a saber staff. Originally, I had thought to simply go back to the single blade, but the staff was what I had trained with on Zakuul and I was more familiar with it than your traditional sword. That and the double blade offered more options as not only could you easily transition between a singular blade or the original staff. Plus, there were some users who were able to split the weapon and turn the singular weapon into two separate ones. In other words, it would give me options when dealing with opponents regardless of how many there were. Given how effective it was in the hands of Exar Kun or even a novice like Cal Kestis, the choice had been obvious.
As I was working my way once again through the chaotic sequences of Juyo, a form that I had taken to like a fish to water, Mirai's voice rang out once again. A single "Enough" was all it took to bring a stop to the end our latest training session. With that, I wiped off the sweat on my forehead with my sleeve and made my way to the circle of acolytes that had begun to form around the Overseer.
These little battle circles were a common occurrence after these training sessions. During them, acolytes were allowed to challenge anyone they wanted with the person being challenged unable to refuse. According to Overseer Mirai, and from my own experience, dueling in the ring was a far better way to test one's skills and see where both combatants needed to improve instead of mindlessly going through sequences.
Like most sessions over the past few weeks, the overseer didn't have the time to say anything as a pale blue skinned alien with red eyes stepped forward. "Acolyte Laavak, who do you wish to challenge?" At this point, the words were merely a formality as Overseer Mirai barely had enough time to finish his sentence before Laavak silently raised a pale blue finger in my direction.
Laavak was, of all things, a Chiss. His full name was Codala'av'akl but to make things easier, everyone called him by his core name Laavak. According to the academy's very active rumor mill, Laavak hailed from the world of Csilla, the capital of the Chiss Ascendency and had held a grudge against me from day one. When the story as to how I had gotten into the academy had reached him, he challenged me on my first day. As a species they were typically cold and calculating but Laavak seemed to be the opposite as after half a year of being here, Laavak was all but indistinguishable from the stereotypical Sith. I found that out when I had delivered him one of the greatest insults one can deliver to a Chiss who was as egotistic as Laavak.
By beating him.
It was no easy feat, mind you. I was hardly an expert in using a sword, much less using one that had been created to mimic the infamous double-bladed lightsaber. Memories of a past life where I had trained with something similar on Zakuul were one thing, but I had very little experience that I could truly call my own. Calling that duel a victory in my favor was exaggerating it as I was barely standing afterwards. That didn't matter to the blue-skinned humanoid as to him a defeat was still a defeat and we had been developing a little rivalry ever since.
It had even gotten to the point where other acolytes were betting on which of us would win the daily challenge. After a month of dealing with this little brat, I had finally had enough.
It was time for our rivalry to end.
By any means necessary.
As I stepped into the ring, rage began to consume my entire being. I don't know how true this is, but I've heard that for most people, rage causes them to go red hot and fly off the handle at the slightest provocation. That being said, there were quite a few acolytes that I've encountered here would fit that description. As for me? Most of the time I just let bygones be bygone but if there's something that really pisses me off, then I get ice cold and go out of my way to meticulously plan their demise.
Overseer Mirai officially began the challenge, and our final duel began.
The two of us circled each other, waiting for the other to initiate the first strike. During these duels, anything was fair game so long as it wasn't fatal. Our weapons weren't dulled and so long as both of us followed the rules of engagement, the worst that an opponent would walk away with was a few scars.
Laavak eventually lunged forward with his single blade and made a series of quick and precise strikes aiming for my neck and other parts of my upper body. I batted away what I could and dodged what I couldn't. After our brief exchange, I immediately backed away to try and stall his follow up.
Laavak's style was rather unique. The older warrior had managed to combine the precise strikes of Makashi with the powerful slashes of Djem So. This combination was rather effective and allowed him to pick away an opponent's defense and brutally exploit any opening given with any attempt to counter only providing him another opportunity to go on the offensive.
In other words, it was a near perfect counter to my preferred method of pure offense.
The brief lull in combat ended as Laavak lunged forward and we once again engaged in a furious exchange of strikes, parries, and slashes. Each blade would have been a killing blow if it weren't for the force warning us. The cold anger I felt at the beginning of our match continued to burn throughout my very being as our duel continued as neither one of us could gain an advantage over the other.
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
As we stepped back to catch our breaths, the Sith code echoing in my head. It had acted as a sort of guideline this past month, ensuring that I had the strength and the will that was necessary to not go down within the first thirty seconds. Now I needed that strange clarity it brought me if I was going to finally end this rivalry, the one that I would need to see the plan I had come up with succeed.
Normally, after these recovery sessions I would go pure offense. I had tried to incorporate some defense to try and slow down the Chiss but he would always manage to find a way to launch a counterattack and exploit a weakness that I hadn't thought of. After nearly four days of continuous losses, I needed to come up with a new approach.
Today, the plan was to exhaust my opponent by stalling for as long as I could and use any lull in combat I could to throw him off balance. To that end, I took one hand off my staff and fired off a bolt of blue lightning. He, along with the unfortunate few who were behind him, dodged it quite easily. It had never been my intention for him to be defeated by something so simple, but as a distraction.
Through passion, I gain strength.
My time at the academy had not been wasted by spending every waking moment learning every aspect of the lightsaber. While it would be helpful to do so, especially considering how I would more than likely be facing knights and masters far more skilled than I was, placing all your eggs in one basket was never a good idea. During this past month I had begun to experiment with the mysterious and dangerous world of Sith sorcery. Like Palpatine said, the dark side of the force was a pathway to many abilities and during my time studying these unnatural aspects of the force, I had found the secret that would finally end our rivalry.
Through strength, I gain power.
As Laavak dodged out of the way of the bolt, I used that brief opportunity to call upon the darkness that permeated Korriban to unleash a brief but powerful spell on his mind. Over the millennia, the dark side of the force had become so concentrated here that the entire planet had become a dark side nexus. It had been trying to expert what little influence it could on me by continuously pawing at my mind, but I had resisted using the vast power it offered. If I wanted my rivalry with the Chiss to end today, then I would need to use the full power Korriban had to offer. The familiar darkness eagerly answered my call and while I didn't have enough time for its full effects of the spell to play out, it would be more than enough for what I needed it to do. It would only throw him off his balance and cause the world to blur rather than cause full hallucinations it was supposed to create but that was all I needed.
Through power, I gain victory.
As Laavak stumbled across our makeshift arena, desperately trying to throw the effects of my spell from his mind, I lunged forward so fast that he just barely had time to block it. I didn't let up and brought up the lower half of my staff to hit him in the stomach before attempting to knock his blade out of his hands. The attempt was unsuccessful as all it did was knock his sword arm to the side, but it was more than enough for me to use the lower half of the staff to hit his chest.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
Even though I had hit him with the flat side of the blade, my strike must have landed with more force than I thought as he began to cough with some specks of blood splattering on the ground. Taking advantage, I kicked the lower half of the staff so that it was parallel to the ground and quickly threw it at the Chiss warrior with all the strength and speed that the force would allow. A foolish move, as one could easily step aside or block it with their own blade, but in this instance the makeshift spear struck true.
My only weapon impaled him in his right shoulder and he acolytes behind him barely had enough time to duck to avoid the improvised spear from impaling them as well. As it sailed into the valley behind us, the Chiss collapsed to his knees. Grasping at the wound in a vain attempt to halt the bleeding, he managed to get to his feet and sluggishly charged at me, raising his weapon as much as his injured sword-arm would allow. Sighing at just how stubborn this Chiss could be, I opened both palms out towards him and watched as lightning arced towards him. Even as he screamed and writhed on the floor in agony, I refused to stop. The barrage continued for what for felt like several minutes and it was only until Mirai raised his voice and yelled "Enough!" that the lightning finally ceased.
The force shall set me free.
As I looked down on Laavak, all I saw was his body barely moving as the smoke and the smell of burnt flesh began to rise into the air. Even as Overseer Mirai dismissed the group, I couldn't help but stare. Yes, I had defeated him before as had he, and the two of us had left the other with injuries of varying degrees after defeating the other but neither of us had come so close to killing each other before.
I didn't even need to use the force to see that he was close to, if not at, death's door.
In the past minute or so that I had been staring at his near lifeless body, smoke had been rising from it almost nonstop and was still going strong. The wound from the improvised spear that I had thrown at him might have had caused him to bleed out had it not been for the sheer amount of lightning that had been sent his way. Yes, bacta and the force could do amazing things, but neither could bring people back from the dead.
I had thought that seeing him so thoroughly defeated would bring me some semblance of excitement but all I felt during that moment was a certain sense of … emptiness. Barely half an hour ago, this rivalry of ours was nothing but personal. Now it felt like it was a job to be completed and I was getting stressed over finishing it before the assigned deadline.
"I don't know if you've heard me during the admiration of your handiwork acolyte, but this class has been dismissed" Overseer Mirai's cold, indifferent voice was enough to snap me back to reality. Turning towards him, I give the pureblood Sith a slight bow before heading down into the academy but not before glancing at Laavak's body one more time. I could sense that the Chiss warrior was still alive but just barely. By some miracle, if he did make a full recovery, it was more than likely he wouldn't challenge me again.
If he did, I might have to kill him, consequences be damned.
Guess Korriban has affected me more than I thought.
Shaking my head, I made my way down to the heart of the academy. The other acolytes had already dispersed and went their separate ways and those who weren't in the class had yet to get out of bed, leaving the academy virtually empty. I liked it this way. I could pursue the secrets of Sith long dead without anyone being the wiser. No overseers looming over my shoulders or acolytes throwing themselves at my feet (sometimes literally) for any scrap of knowledge they could gain. It was my own little slice of paradise on this hellish world.
Humming a mindless tune, I ran my fingers along the spines of the various tomes and plucked the one I had been looking for off the shelf. Tucking the tome underneath my shoulder, I began working my way through the endless maze of twists and turns that made up the academy archives. Eventually, I found the little room I had been looking for and made my way inside.
I placed the massive book on the singular table but as I began to flip through each page the words just seemed to blur together no matter how hard I focused on them. Not wanting to risk imminent death over a single mispronounced word, I closed the book with a sigh. I had wanted to make some more progress translating the text but with happened in Mirai's class today, there was simply too much distracting me. Sighing, I closed the ancient book. As much as I wanted to work on translating the complete works of Ajunta Pall, there was another thing I could work on so I moved the book to the side, powered up a datapad and began to write.
Writing had always been a good way for me to clear my mind and organize my thoughts. During my first few days here on Korriban, meditating in either the traditional way the Jedi used, or the anger fueled version that the Sith used wasn't really as effective. Instead, I had turned to writing as that had always been a good way for me to clear my thoughts. Normally, I would just write down what had been troubling me or random things from what happened that day, but this was a world where every little secret could be used against me. I had instead used it for a more constructive purpose. There were many things that the force could be used for and one of the lesser-known techniques was wiping and/or altering a person's memories. That being said, it could also be used to enhance particular memories, like a particular book or movie someone only saw that one time. Since the majority of the classic books and movies from my original reality had never been produced here, why not try and recreate them?
The life of a Sith was a dangerous yes, but if one was successful and powerful enough, it could grant you more wealth and influence than the richest nobleman.
If one had the funding to maintain it.
The tales I had decided to start with were various myths and legends that prior to my untimely death, I found myself obsessed with. Odysseus and his famous Odyssey, Leonidas and his 300 Spartans, the destruction of Troy and all the events surrounding the Trojan war, etc. etc. Tales of bravery and heroism that anyone in this galaxy could relate to no matter their species. I had already recreated Zack Snyder's 300 as a novel and it had proven to be rather popular. it had gained traction amongst Mandalorians (no surprise there) but what had really surprised me was the near universal acclaim from both the empire AND the republic.
Turns out some stories really are universal.
"So, this is where you been disappearing to" a new yet familiar condescending voice said, interrupting my latest attempt to introduce the Star Wars galaxy to Homer's Iliad. Turning around, I came face to face with none other than Overseer Tremel. The man who, in the MMO, had accelerated the career for the young acolyte who would go on to become the apprentice of Darth Baras and eventually, the Emperor's wrath.
What was he doing down here?
I didn't have to wait for long for my answer. "Meet me in my office acolyte, we have much to discuss about your future" the middle-aged man said curtly. He turned on his heels and walked out the door, giving no indication as to what awaited me.
All thoughts, whether they were related to the day's events or not, vanished from my head save for one.
I have a bad feeling about this…