I don't own the Star War.
After the bodies were placed in cold storage, Flayseno argued with Luminara about piloting the shuttle, the Sith insisting he had no reason to trust the Jedi to keep their word and not drag him to Coruscant in chains and the Jedi arguing likewise for the Sith. Barriss was too busy tending to the surviving men's injuries to participate in the yelling match but could eventually feel the engines starting up. Assuming they had reached a conclusion, she got up to doublecheck the security on the collected lightsabers and other minor artifacts, patting her purple and pink astromech's dome as she walked past. Jedi were forbidden from having pets, but an assigned R-series droid was basically a pet. Maybe one day she would ask Anakin or Ahsoka to teach her how to understand the little beeps and whistles they make. Yes, she should continue to think about how maintenance droids are essentially pets and not the absolute insanity of what was currently aboard the ship right now of an ancient Sith Lord who they were knowingly taxiing to the epicenter of the Dark Side and birthplace of the Sith Order just to slightly amuse her Master, who has most definitely not lost her kriffing mind. Sensing the two presences, one light and one, not quite dark, rapidly approaching, she whirled around to face the door of the storage room to see the Jedi and Sith entering the room.
Her Master had an annoyed scowl on her face while the Dark Lord bore a smile, or at least what passed for one given the respirator. His eyes were smiling, and his short dark hair was neatly pushed back in a dated fashion, probably popular around the age of the old Empire. "What ho, small Jedi!"
A flash of anger rushed into the Padawan. "What did you just call me?!" Barriss snapped, confusing the Sith again, who tilted his head and furrowed his brow.
"Small?" he answered questioningly, determining the height difference between Barriss and Luminara, while measuring Luminara with a hand over her head, reaching up to his shoulders. "Aye, ye art quite small," he declared with a nod.
Luminara put up a hand to calm her student, "I think that was supposed to be a greeting."
Still feeling insulted, albeit less so, Barriss crossed her arms and glared at Flayseno before pointedly turning towards Luminara, "Is there anything I can do for you, Master?"
Luminara looked at the Sith Lord and released a long-suffering sigh, "The Sith and I came to an agreement. All three of us are going to lock away our sabers until we reach Moraband-"
"Korriban," the Sith corrected, earning an annoyed glare from the Jedi, who continued.
"We will set the code for the locker containing his saber and he will set the code for the locker containing ours."
"As such is fair," the Sith finished. "Verily, I shalt trust thou wilt not attempt to murder me in mine slumber, and thou shalt trust me not to attempt the same."
Barriss was slightly regretful that she had missed the opportunity to listen to these two different, yet mutually intelligible forms of Basic arguing with each other, like an audience member arguing with a character from an ancient play, but got a feeling that such a thing would be happening again in the very near future. "Master, are you sure that's a good idea?"
Luminara narrowed her eyes at the Sith Lord, "It gets him disarmed."
"And thee," Flayseno noted, with but a hint of suspicion in his voice, but more so amusement. Did he think this was all just an elaborate joke? "If 't be true, that being unarmed is the price to payeth to meeteth mine beloved jointress again then so beest 't. I can dudgeon a minor inconvenience, especially on a fair and equal ground."
Barriss was still unsure, but relinquished her lightsaber as her Master said, putting it next to Luminara's on the table bolted to the wall. Flayseno, for his part, did the same. Unclipping his lightsaber from his belt and placing it on the other end of the table. Followed by another, then another, then another. He reached into pockets hidden within the red lining of his black cape and pulled out three more, then another one, then one from each boot, followed by a knife from each sleeve, and a blaster on the back of his belt. Finally, he dumped out from his pockets a kyber crystal and an assortment of spare parts that looked like they were enough to build yet another lightsaber. Then a pouch on his belt filled with thermal detonators.
"Is that it?" the Master asked while the Padawan was more and more dumbstruck by each new weapon.
Flayseno then took off his gloves, making a point to push on the fingertips of them to demonstrate a retractable metal claw on each one. "Anon, yond is everything."
Gree, a man who, as his name implied, was fascinated by ancient cultures and alien species, stood watching this go down from outside the room with a datapad, hurriedly typed in a note, Old Sith = Mandalorians? Our Sith Mandalorian? Likes weapons. Need to hit the library later, when we're back on Coruscant.
Giving a curt nod, he took the Jedis' sabers and locked them away on the far-right side of the room before declaring, "I shalt wend meditate. Notify me at which hour we arrive."
Barriss and Luminara looked at each other uncertainly.
Flayseno looked back at them, "This is a peaceful solution, Jedi. Prithee honor 't."
While Luminara may have agreed to the arrangement, this Flayseno was far too at ease for either of their likings. One by one, each Sith saber was placed into the locker on the furthest left from the door, both Jedi making certain to read each crystal as its weapon was stored. The one surrendered first, the same one they saw him use to fight Grievous, sang courage honor pride. The second, veracity loyalty desire. The third, discipline heart chivalry. Each weapon, more and more confusing, particularly one of the knives; it wasn't by any means particularly remarkable, of standard Ryloth design with a few words carved in Archaic Twi'leki that neither of them could read, but despite lacking a kyber crystal it too sang out in the Force, although understandably weaker: Love. They could sense memories of bloodshed and suffering the weapons had caused, battles they had been fought in, but the songs of the crystals contradicted what normally came from the blades of other Dark Siders like Ventress or how Obi-Wan had described Dooku's crimson blade's song. The Jedi pair would have to meditate as well.
Flayseno sat in the corner of a spare closet, he had always preferred smaller, enclosed spaces to meditate in, and sat on his knees, legs folded under him, and reached out into the Force:
Peace is nought but deception, there is only Passion.
The words held far deeper meaning than the Jedi would admit, or even most Sith acknowledged. He had little time to ponder this, aiming solely to delve deep enough to figure out where everyone is. His wife should be at their estate on Alderaan, but depending on how long he had been frozen the Republic may have forced her and any other Imperial citizens to flee. The thought of his beautiful wife, either pregnant or having just given birth, alone on a refugee transport broke his heart.
Through Passion, I shalt gain Strength.
Banishing the image from his mind, praying such a travesty had not occurred, he focused. Pining over possibilities would not answer his questions. His wife, his apprentice, his companions, where were they?
Through Strength I shalt gain Power.
Reaching out across the galaxy, trying to feel out the ever so distant, faint cords of the force to try and find the other ends, to find the Bonds he had forged. He could find nothing. Not even his Master, Kaelon, their bond never truly severed, as much as both parties wished it to be. Where was that traitorous son of a bitch?
Through Power, I shalt gain Victory.
He felt… nothing. Nothing and no one. At the very least, nothing important. It was as if the galaxy had been turned off. A few small skirmishes here and there, a birth there. Was that one Elara having their baby? No, there was no connection. That one? No.
Through Victory, mine chains art broken.
His Apprentice. Surely, she would be an easy one to find, right? Maris was always eager to connect with him after she left the Jedi following her Master's betrayal. She would be able to pick up the tendrils reaching across the galaxy and confirm her safety at least. Then they could meet on Korriban or Dromund Kaas and figure out this nonsense.
The Force shalt free me.
Nothing.
He felt nothing. His apprentice, his wife, their unborn baby, nothing. It was if they had all disappeared, been totally severed from the Force, even- No, that was an unacceptable possibility. Clearly, Kaelon had tried to hunt them down and kill them after trapping him, so Maris was using her abilities to cloak them as he had taught her. Yes, that must be it. She was always such a good student, a bright young girl.
If Kaelon did anything to them…
The two Jedi felt a wave of Dark energy crash across the shuttle like a typhoon, and as soon as it came, it was gone. Luminara furrowed her brow before crossing her legs on the floor and closing her eyes to meditate, her padawan following suit. Just what was this Sith Lord?
Flayseno couldn't breathe. He felt he was being strangled by Kaelon. He ripped off the respirator he used as an air filter to suck in as much air as possible. He had to calm down. There had to be an explanation for this. "There is one," came a thought, unbidden, "Everyone you know is-"
"SILENCE!"he shouted, throwing out a Force Push and blasting the closet door off its hinges. The sooner they got to Korriban, the better. Then he could come up with an action plan., he could find his allies and get into contact with the rest of the Dark Council on Dromund Kaas. Get to Korriban, find his family, find his Apprentice, brutally destroy everything Kaelon has ever known and loved while forcing him to watch, cut down his master for escaping his imprisonment for treason, forget these Jedi ever existed, live happily ever after with his wife, his baby, maybe have more babies with her, train his Apprentice to her full potential and guide her as she takes on a student of her own. That was what was going to happen. That was how it was meant to be.
The ship soon exited hyperspace, entering the orbit of Moraband/Korriban. The Jedi felt a shiver crawl up their spines, the cold fingers of the Dark Side trying to caress their bodies and minds, flooding them with every unpleasant memory they had ever had: a drunk Senator coming up behind her and groping a padawan Luminara's chest and laughing when she screamed (she cried for a week after that), another padawan making lewd comments about Barriss's rear end (she wanted to punch his teeth down his throat), the first time Barriss had seen a speeder wreck injury in the Halls of Healing (legs did not bend in the middle of a shin like that), Luminara's master backhanding her across the face for being a disappointment again and breaking her nose ("You tell them you tripped and fell down the stairs, do you understand me?! Or else I'll make you wish it was just your nose that was broken!"), the first battle of Geonosis (the day the Jedi became mortal), the second battle of Geonosis (just as much a catastrophe as the first and Luminara was still reeling with guilt over abandoning her Padawan to die), the brain worms (both still had nightmares about their various experiences), the first time a clone died under their command (he hadn't even been named yet. CT-8529), and the coldness they felt when they realized they had stopped counting how many followed. Everyone an attempt to sway and seduce, "Come to me, my pretty," it beckoned, "Don't let the monsters get away. You can make everything right. Come to me." Luminara felt sick, Barriss was shivering.
Flayseno looked out the front windows, air filter put back into place and looking quite worried. "Whence art the other ships?" he muttered, "Korriban is not Dromund Kaas but 't shouldst still hath activity. Korriban shouldst beest a living world." He would not let his fears dictate to him, there had to be a logical explanation. An epidemic perhaps, yes. Any moment now the Imperial authorities would demand their identification codes and why they were breaking the quarantine. Yes, any moment now… he sensed barely any life on the planet at all. "Nary a matter. Korriban did hath't a bawbling population anyway," he reminded himself, in a vain attempt to comfort himself. He refused to believe anything he was sensing until he could see it with his own eyes, anything could be faked by a particularly cunning or vengeful Sith like Kaelon, or even a particularly sadistic and cruel Jedi like the ones he may be travelling with.
He entered the coordinates for the Sith Academy, surely somebody would hail them before landing, and went to pace the length of the shuttle. No such contact ever came.
The shuttle landed and Flayseno stood at the entry ramp, waiting with apprehension for it to open and descend, his hands shaking. He could feel his heart beating in his throat and no amount of sending his anxiety to the Force would calm him as the doors hissed open. He closed his eyes, praying that what he had feared had not come to pass. He breathed the air of Korriban and opened his eyes, wanting to run but his legs turning to jelly at what lay before him: ruins. Empty, cold, dead ruins of a forgotten civilization. The Academy he arrived at as an Acolyte, where he had given one-off lectures to prospective students, where he had wanted to teach at when retiring from the Dark Council and hanging up the mantle of the Wroth. Where he had met his beloved Elara when she was still a kitchen slave and when he first felt compelled to end the practice.
Tears formed in his eyes as he fell to his knees, letting loose an agonized roar of suffering and pain. Everything he had ever known. Everything he had ever fought for. Everything he had ever believed in. Everyone he had ever loved. Gone. Kaelon, Maris, Elara, their unborn- no… the baby had been born long ago. He had missed the entire life of their child.
He had never even known if they had had a son or a daughter, she wasn't far enough along for them to find out. He never would know. The greatest joy of his life, to be a doting husband and eager father, ripped away from him by Kaelon. He couldn't even visit their graves, their bones, even their tombs, would have long crumbled to naught but dust. He had nothing. He had been stolen away from them. The Dark Lord wept.
"Sir," one of the troopers said to him with a twinge of that damnable emotion, pity, in his voice. Apparently, a pair of troopers had descended the ramps shortly after him to collect him, neither Jedi bold or stupid enough to do so themselves. "It's time for us to leave."
"Prithee… killest me. I shalt not resist. I desire only to be with mine own wife once more."
"I'm sorry sir, I can't do that."
"Wherefore canst thee not?" Flayseno's voice broke. "Canst ye verily deny a broken man a warrior's death?"
"Please sir, don't make this harder than it has to be."
Flayseno took a deep, shaking breath, a few tears breaking free of his cheeks and falling to the sands beneath him. Finally, he stood, shaking, his heart shattered, his spirit gone. "Aye," he replied, barely above a whisper. "I am sorry, Elara. I am so sorry, my Heart."
