Darth Tenebrous, reigning Dark Lord of the Sith, Heir of the Rule of Two and the Order of the Sith Lords, formed and founded by Darth Bane and Darth Zannah following the loss of the New Sith Wars, was currently in a meditative trance. As a Bith, Tenebrous's people didn't sleep; they had evolved past that point, and whenever they needed rest, they entered a trance and got more rest out of 4 hours and then most races got in over 7 or 8.
As a Sith and a Force-sensitive, Tenebrous had merged both the need to meditate as a Force-sensitive with the completely different sleep trance of a Bith.
Tenebrous used these moments to further submerge himself into the Dark Side; here, he was able to create a whirlpool of dark side energy created out of rage, pain, jealousy, fear, and aggression and he was able to tap himself into the Force and gain an understanding few Jedi Masters could ever reach in their lifetimes. Tenebrous used this knowledge to help him keep watch over the galaxy, to look into the future while casting his mind over the possibilities of what could be done to further the Grand Plan; all Sith and Jedi had a way of looking into the future, some were better at it than others, but given he had a scientific intellect, he had a greater than average ability to mathematically work on the possibilities while trying to discern if there was anything, any new crisis, any new keys and plans to the future of the Sith.
On his desk in his office was a report from his acolyte on Muunilist. His disciple, the mother of his future apprentice, had sent a new report, describing how the boy had shown even greater ability with using the Force while adding a secondary report about her manipulations of the rest of the Damask family so the boy wouldn't be favoured and would be bullied. Tenebrous would take custody of the boy in a few more years from now, but by that time, he wanted an apprentice willing to become a Sith apprentice. He had long since had a strong connection with the Damask family and everything in him told him it was the right thing to do.
At the same time, he had made sure his acolytes and minions on Muunilist made sure the Damask family and any outsiders did not alert the Jedi to the boy's existence. He had not only worked long and hard on making sure his Muun disciple, strong in the Force, seduced Damask to produce a Force-sensitive child strong enough to become his apprentice.
Tenebrous had no idea if the Jedi would even accept him or not; the boy was too old, and if they discovered he was already touching the Dark Side, they might decide to end him now as the Dark Side was becoming increasingly powerful ever since that small hole he and his own master had torn into the Force all those years ago.
But Tenebrous didn't take any satisfaction in knowing Hego Damask II was well on his way to becoming his apprentice. He was troubled enough as it was.
A few weeks ago, during one of his meditations like this, Tenebrous had cast his mind throughout the galaxy, surfing the Dark side like solar winds journeying through the cosmos, when he had found himself in the archives of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. At first, the Sith Lord instantly tried to escape knowing if the Jedi sensed his presence, they would track down his location. But to his surprise, he found himself conversing with the trapped spirit inside a mask. The moment Tenebrous had sensed it, the Bith Sith Lord instantly became aware of just how strong the Dark Side was in the mask.
And there was a Sith Lord trapped inside it, a Sith Lord known as Darth Momin.
Tenebrous had played the encounter in his mind, turning it over and over all over again….
Xxxxxx
"How is it possible that the mind of a Sith can break into the archives of the Jedi Temple?" Momin's voice, low and menacing, echoed into Tenebrous's mind.
The Bith himself struggled to understand that himself, and he speculated the hole torn in the Force long ago might have made him stronger as a result.
"You tore a hole in the fabric of the Force?" Momin's rhetorical question was both surprising and angry at the same time. "Why?"
"As part of the plan to cast a shroud over the Jedi Order, resulting in their destruction," Tenebrous replied.
"Ah, a typical response. The destruction of the Jedi. How predictable. I take it many empires have risen and collapsed over the years. Time has little meaning here."
"What year did you put yourself into that mask, Lord Momin?" Tenebrous was now determined to get answers, and quickly. At the same time, he did his best to keep his innermost thoughts hidden.
Momin sighed dramatically before he gave the year. Tenebrous was stunned. "I have never heard of you."
"I suspect you haven't, many Sith found my methods and my ideals…disgusting. From a young age, I was a sculptor. I preferred learning and creating, even when I was found by Darth Shaa, who took me as her apprentice. Unlike others of our noble Order, I didn't care for power or self-gratification. Judging from urgency, the Sith have failed to end the Jedi."
Tenebrous said nothing. He felt enraged by the thought of the Sith failing. But what he couldn't stand was being in the presence of a Sith who had not cared enough to ensure Sith's dominance of the galaxy, and yet at the same time his curiosity was growing more.
"What do you mean by disgusting? You said that before," the Bith said.
Momin was silent for a moment. "I believed the Sith should serve the Dark Side, it would grant me eternal life."
"I've never heard of you."
"I'm not surprised," Momin's voice was full of amusement. "Many Jedi and Sith found my actions too extreme."
Tenebrous was curious about what that meant.
"I created a superweapon," Momin boasted, "a weapon that had enough power to destroy an entire city. What I planned to do was to pour the Force, the whole power of the Dark Side, into the weapon itself and use it to slow time down and freeze their reactions as their city was destroyed. However the Jedi interfered, and the presence of the Light Side disrupted my concentration. When I lost my physical body in the confrontation, I transferred my essence to my mask."
Tenebrous was unsure whether or not to applaud Momin's creativity. Such a weapon was easily worthy of the Sith, and he knew if it fell into his own hands, he could be invincible.
Momin read his mind, as his next words were full of disdain. "You're pathetic, Darth Tenebrous. You believe that the Dark Side serves you, that only you matter. You believe that everything your Sith Order is working towards will succeed. Yes, I read it in your mind. I know the history of your Rule of Two, set down by Bane. I know everything about this Grand Plan. All Sith must serve the Dark Side, instead you pervert it. If you have such opinions of the Force, many of which match my own despite your best efforts to cloud your mind, then why have you not become victorious?"
Tenebrous was stunned by the question.
"It sickens me that so much of the Grand Plan was devised by a weakling; Bane was obsessed with creating a strategy where the Jedi would be whittled down, wiped out, and hunted. Instead of furthering your connection to the Dark Side, you will fail to see the future. You will lose. Your great empire…. I have likely lived inside my mask, barely feeling the decades pass as Sith Empires try to conquer the galaxy, forcing itself on the Republic, and destroying the Jedi. I was likely one of the few Sith to see the way we were destined to go. The Rule of Two is weak. You focus so much on the Jedi, on the Republic, but you, Darth Tenebrous will only make the Sith weaker by default, and you will lose your empire until it's but ashes in your mouths!"
Tenebrous wanted to pull away, to banish himself back to his body, but to his shock, Momin yanked his mind back and showed Tenebrous something he had never imagined.
The power of the Dark Side. He showed him the truth.
Xxxxxx
For years, Tenebrous had assumed the Force was not a mystical entity governing life and events, but an ambient energy source throughout the cosmos. But his experiences with Momin had shocked him, and they had made him wonder if the Rule of Two would even survive and prosper.
Especially his plans.
Tenebrous had formed a plan a long time ago after he and his master, Darth Aegir had discovered information about the 'Chosen One,' a being who would unravel the last thousand years of planning and work to ensure Sith dominance through war and politics. Aegir had been a fool. The Twi'lek Sith Lord had wanted to create a virus, aimed at the Jedi which would remove their connection to the Force. Despite his misgivings and his wonders if such a weapon could work, Tenebrous had seen the possibilities. That was why he'd helped, that and the fact the Sith Lord would have tortured Tenebrous if he refused or argued.
His doubts had just doubled each year work failed to produce the virus, and by the time Aegir called it quits Tenebrous had become so deeply disgusted and annoyed by his foolish master especially since he was so fixated on biological weapon research rather than guiding the Grand Plan, and he'd left it up to Tenebrous, who'd been more than up to the job. It had been a pleasure to murder Aegir after they'd torn the hole in the Force.
Momin's words had struck a chord with the Bith Sith Lord. He had always had misgivings and doubts, and as a result, he had spent a long time looking for ways of taking advantage of the Chosen One, especially after learning they'd bring balance to the Force. Tenebrous had planned to take over the Chosen One's body, easier said than done since the secret of essence transfer had been lost when Darth Gravid went insane, and he'd planned on manipulating the Force to provide for the whole galaxy, so the Jedi Order would be whittled down until they were but a memory.
The plan had been in his mind for a long time, now, but Momin was not the only ghost from the Sith's past to suddenly come back to haunt the Sith Lord…..
Shortly after the encounter with Momin, where his beliefs in the Force had been shattered although technically he had been scouring the galaxy with his mind, Darth Tenebrous had encountered a pull towards a world, a rogue planet, inhabited by the Prophets of the Dark Side. When he arrived, he found himself confronted with a holocron created by Darth Millennial.
Millennial, it turned out, had been a one-time apprentice of Darth Cognus, and like her was a powerful seer. But during their meeting, and upon learning that Tenebrous was the newest master of the Rule of Two, Millennial became disgusted and disdainful. He said the Rule of Two was weakening and it was doomed to fail. He had planned on defying and rejecting the Rule of Two for good, and launching attacks on the Jedi, and the Republic.
Cognus stopped and maimed him, but when he had spoken to the holocron guardian, Tenebrous had learnt the three-eyed mutant Sith Lord had been a seer of great power, perhaps even greater than Darth Cognus and Darth Prophroah combined, he was able to look further into the future, see alternatives. The guardian had shared a vision with Tenebrous, a vision where the Sith triumphed. And then failed.
The Jedi would be destroyed after being whittled down by a war so devastating worlds were left scarred and burnt in the wake, but they would be destroyed, but they'd be hounded and hunted down by the Sith.
And Tenebrous was not the Sith Lord in charge of the galaxy, someone else was, someone that he saw through the visions as someone who loved basking in power to the point of ignoring the signs of rebellion and a Jedi resurgence…until it was too late.
But the fact was, Darth Tenebrous had already known for a long time a shadow would emerge in the galaxy. The shadow would usher in the end of the Jedi, but it would also usher in the end of the Banite Sith Order as Tenebrous knew it. Tenebrous was not like some of his predecessors, he wasn't a seer who threw his mind into the future. He used his Bith rationality and genius with mathematics. And numbers never lied.
Already shaken by the revelations of Darth Momin who had given him some cause to think, Darth Tenebrous was forced to look at the Banite plans, disgusted that a future Sith would destroy everything that their order had spent a thousand years building. Tenebrous had already sought to change all of that, by working on a way to possess the body of the Chosen One, trying to rediscover the long-lost secrets of essence transfer, positive and confident he could find a way, but now he had to think of a way around all of this. No matter what, Tenebrous just could not fight the compelling aspects of what Momin had said.
Tenebrous had spent a lot of time in meditation recently, his Bith brain already calculating the different permutations. Tenebrous started to wonder if Momin had brought him to his presence, just to let him know he was making a mistake.
Tenebrous continued to meditate, knowing he would need to dedicate many hours of his time and energy in trying to come up with a formula that would ensure the Sith's dominion forever. He could not allow the Sith to die out.