As Vinden's personal shuttle entered the Dathomir system, the duo carefully flew through a previously unmarked asteroid field that didn't appear on their scanners, a sudden shiver engulfed the agent's body. A sense of dread enveloped him as he frantically looked around the ships systems for anything that could be wrong, but he saw nothing. He then looked through the cockpit at the asteroids themselves and saw one in particular that caught his attention.

A two hundred meter long asteroid almost perfectly circular in shape, if not slightly oval in appearance with clear layers of what looked to be sedimentary rock covering the few heightened peaks. These peaks were also completely covered in cracks that resembled rocky veins or growths for lack of a better word. As the ship soon passed the asteroid, the feeling was gone.

He looked over to Leroy who had just finished putting on his phase 1 armour and noticed him physically shake in his place. Leroy then quickly shook his head, let out an audible noise from his mouth as his inner cheeks smacked his teeth. "Brr! What was that? The heating systems fail or something?" He asked.

Vinden brought up the ships live systems report, everything was registering green for normal just as he figured. "Hmm, report says we're fine. I'd assume that it's the planet or even the asteroids giving off a strange aura."

"Aura? Didn't realise the RBI had Jedi working as agents." The clone tried to joke to cover his unease.

Vinden rolled his eyes at the clone's lack of experience, he couldn't blame him, really. "Don't have to be a Jedi to sense when something doesn't feel right. You felt it yourself, there's a complete void, an emptiness as we entered the atmosphere... Best guess? Witch magic."

Leroy took a mental note of his partner's theory and made the descent. The blood red skies of Dathomir set the tone for the entire planet inside and out, it would be almost beautiful if it didn't create a sense of dread. What with the witches, the savage night brothers, colossal bat like creatures, dangerous spiders, any horror you can think of.

The landing struts extended, planting firmly into the ground, digging up the blackened soil, disturbing the local fauna beneath. Leroy attached his external headlamps to his helmet before being the first to depart the shuttle, Vinden followed close behind. As soon as the duo stepped foot onto Dathomiri soil, an array of purple lights surrounded them.

Both looked to each other, then back at their captors. Dark red robes, pale white skin, intricate tattoos. They were surrounded by nightsisters.

"Your weapons." The closest female demanded, holding out her hands.

Leroy was hesitant at first, but a quick nod from his partner reassured him that they would be fine. The clone relented and gave up his pistol as did Vinden.

"Wear these." Another demand as she handed them both dark red ribbons.

The clone then took off his helmet. "Do what you must." Leroy insisted as Vinden covered his eyes.


'Seventy eight, seventy nine. Thirty degrees left. Eighty, eighty one, eighty two. One, two, three steps.' Leroy's inner voice spoke as he counted every step, pace and turn in the darkness should he have to make his way back to the ship. His thoughts were then interrupted by the sound of wood scraping against stone followed by a pair of firm hands pressing him downwards. He didn't have time to process what was happening, thus didn't give himself time to prepare for his legs giving in as he fell into the chair that had been laid for him.

When the blindfold had finally been lifted, he was met with Vinden right beside him. In front of the both of them, was an older pale skinned woman with black marking around her eyes. Upon a second glance, she was wearing the same red robes as the nightsisters, only hers appeared to be more ceremonial in appearance, broad shoulder pieces, a small white stone tablet upon her forehead and a large blood red headpiece, giving off the illusion of uncomfortable height. Leroy squinted his eyes at the headpiece and couldn't determine whether it was made of fine cloth or if it was even her own hair, the distinction was too difficult for him to make out.

"Mother Talzin." Vinden bowed his head while making eye contact.

"Detective." The great mother spoke with multiple hallowed voices as she addressed the man back before continuing. "To what do we owe this unexpected visit?"

Vinden leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table as he interlocked his fingers, relaxing his posture as he did so, trying his best to appear as casual and non-threatening as possible. "Just some questions regarding a black-market item we believe to be of your planet. A Dathomiri scroll."

Despite her ancient and wise appearance on the surface, Mother Talzin's eyes darted ever so slightly at the mention of the artifact. Upon realising her own giveaway glance, she sighed. "Have you come to return our sacred scroll?" She asked, cautiously.

"I'm afraid it's not mine to hand back. It is currently in the possession of Grakkus the Hutt on Nar Shaddaa. What I'm more interested in is who traded it with him... More importantly, how they came to possess it."

Talzin examined the man and the clone, their intentions seemed genuine. She then looked to all but one of her nightsisters and instructed them. "Leave us." She demanded.

The great mother then nodded to the lone young witch next to her, instructing her to retrieve something. "Detective... What I'm about to tell you is not a tape to be taken lightly... It's true, the scroll came from this very room. It was stolen under the cover of darkness, yet the perpetrator was covered by something much more sinister."

Leroy was the next to lean forward and rest his arms on the table, this time with intrigue as Mother Talzin continued.

"Nightsisters have a natural affinity to the force, just as your Jedi and Sith. Our strength, minds and senses are heightened as a result. Yet even I, with all my years of training, could not sense what entered our sanctuary. As if there was a void in the force itself, something that was simply... Undetectable."

"She can't seriously be talking about Morei as if he's some sort of ghost." Leroy insisted to his partner.

Vinden quickly raised his hand to instruct the clone to be silenced before giving an apologetic nod to their host to continue.

"He moved through our home as if it were his own, moving freely without concern. Kerys and Meldor guarded this very room two nights ago, it was only when their bodies tumbled to the floor could I sense something was very very wrong. I conjured mists to shine light on our intruder, and in that green fog I saw a silhouette of a man, so very faint, the room blended with his skin. It was only after a jolt of my dark lightning did his cover disappear. Burning holes near his heart gave the smell of cooked meat as he ripped the burning skin from his body, the skin emitting a shriek unlike any I have heard before as he tore it away like a lizard."

Leroy's intrigue evolved into disgust with every word of the story. What he was hearing reminded him much of numerous horror novels that his brothers had snuck into the barracks back on Kamino.

"In the confusion of what I witnessed; he ran into the jungle. Leaving behind this monstrosity." Talzin finished as she gestured to the young witch who had returned with a stone platter. The pungent smell of rotting fish and meat was the first assault that the pair met when the aforementioned monstrosity was placed before them.

A cobbled together mess of flesh and bone, reshaped into an unnatural gun. Something so small that it could be held in one hand, not that either of them were willing to touch it. The bones themselves formed an acute angle; one end shorter than the other. On the large end of the sharp curve was the long-spiked claw from some sort of crustacean creature, tightly compact within itself as if ready to strike. On the short end was a firmly wrapped tentacle facing outwards, multiple suckers surrounding it as it spiralled up what could best be described as the handle of the weapon, before twisting back around at the very tip and latching on to the underside of the bend. Between the overlapping tentacle was an outward facing set of small bent limbs, that of some sort of insect resembling a trigger for the weapon. At the top of the angle was a throbbing mass of muscle and cartilage, something that could only ever be described as a beating heart, pumping blood throughout this unholy creation.

"By the force..." Was all Vinden could say, his stomach churning as he spoke.

"Never in all my years have I seen something so..." Mother Talzin trailed off, struggling to find the words. Even a being of her great power was taken aback by this discovery.

"Alien..." Leroy finished her sentence.


End of chapter

This is just a short chapter for now. I'm trying to get back into the groove of writing again since becoming a parent. Not alot of free time. Maybe when my daughter is old enough to go to school, I'll have time to finish Home and the Far Outsiders.