Chapter 16: Darkness in the Desert Part 2

Darth Rhal was hating Tatooine more and more as the days went by.

Despite going almost nonstop on their speeder bikes for the last three days, neither Rhal nor Ralesk had seen or sensed any other signs of life anywhere around them. The only thing they had seen in all that time was sand stretching as far as the eye could see.

Yet, while the two Sith might have been lost in the Dune Sea, they were not wandering completely aimlessly. Rhal had been sensing some sort of disturbance near the start of the second day and, with no other options, had been attempting to follow the disturbance to its source and so far, they were making slow but steady progress.

Rhal looked behind him and saw Ralesk following closely behind on his own speeder bike, his jaw clenched in what was likely pain as well as anger. All their medical supplies had been destroyed with the ship so Ralesk's leg had gone mostly untreated, the wrappings on it protecting the wound from the elements somewhat but little else.

A part of Rhal wanted to say that Ralesk deserved the wound and the suffering it caused, believing that the Sith assassin wouldn't have been injured in the first place if he'd just kept his guard up. But another part of him knew that the little Sith should probably be glad that a blaster shot to the leg was the only injury he received.

In his life, Rhal had fought many different enemies. In several of the missions he'd completed for his father, Rhal had fought trained soldiers, mercenaries, and thugs that were willing to do anything in order to kill him. He'd fought bloodthirsty beasts on both Dromund Kaas and Korriban that saw him as nothing but food. He'd faced off against multiple acolytes during his time learning at the Sith Academy, all of whom were desperate to kill him and prove themselves worthy of becoming Sith. He'd even fought and killed Jedi, warriors trained in the force who could combat him in ways many others could not even dream of.

The assassins he'd fought in the village were nothing like any of his previous opponents.

Every living thing in the galaxy was connected to the force in some way, but only a select few were able to use and manipulate it like the Sith and Jedi. The assassins hadn't been force sensitive, Rhal was sure of that much, but he had no idea how non-force sensitives had managed to hide their presence in the force so well that even he, a fully trained Lord of the Sith, hadn't been able to sense them even when he was looking right at them. They had been trained, no question, but who had trained them?

According to Cipher Nine's report, someone known only as the Old Man had been the group's leader and the one who'd trained all the members, but the Intelligence agent had made no mention of the man being force sensitive. 'Even if he was, how could he have taught non-force sensitives such an advanced technique? Still, this explains how the Eagle was able to kill my father. No one, not even the mighty Darth Jadus would have been prepared for assassins like those. Hm, the Eagle will likely know more. I'll need to make sure Keeper knows I want him captured alive if possible. Although I'm sure he was already planning that.'

Keeper. Since assuming his father's seat, Rhal hadn't interacted much with the overseer of Intelligence operations and he suspected the aging man was highly grateful for that. The old Keeper had served him and his father well and Rhal knew the man's loyalty was beyond question, but he also knew his true loyalty was to the Empire and not the Sith. His true feelings had shown themselves more than once, but he was still smart enough to follow whatever orders he and his father had given him while keeping his disrespect from showing. For the most part.

In truth, the young Dark Council member thought Keeper was excellent when it came to doing his duties, completing his assignments, and retrieving valuable information. If his agents managed to successfully tear down the terrorist cells and capture the Eagle, then Rhal would likely name Keeper the new Minister of Intelligence. The current Minister needed to be replaced soon regardless. His will had been broken by his father long ago and now the man was little more than a shell that could just barely operate on his own and, without Jadus to give him his orders, what was left of the Minister's mind had been deteriorating even further without his master's guidance. 'Even if I don't promote Keeper, I'll still need to find someone to take over before the fool's mind shuts down completely.'

As his speeder bike jumped over a rather large sand dune and landed roughly in the sand before continuing onward, Rhal found himself snapped out of his thoughts. While he had spent the majority of the last three days thinking, Rhal wasn't getting lost in his thoughts.

Despite how much he hated being stuck on the wasteland called Tatooine, he had found one advantage to it. Rhal now had plenty of time to think and plan with little to no distractions able to bother him. Keeper's possible promotion in the future was just the latest of ideas to go through his head and his eyes remained fixed on the horizon, trying to spot something, anything, that wasn't endless waves of sand.

As if on cue, something appeared in the distance.

Turning sharply and bringing his speeder bike to a stop, Rhal made an adjustment to his goggles that he'd looted from one of the corpses back in the village. He'd originally just grabbed them to shield his eyes from the elements, but quickly discovered they were modified to also act as macrobinoculars. Using them, he zoomed in to try and get a better view of the first object he'd seen in days that wasn't sand. He was so focused on the unknown object in the distance that he almost missed how Ralesk had nearly flown from his own speeder bike when he was surprised by his master's rather abrupt stop and had disabled his own bike's repulsorlift to avoid flying ahead of him and the Sith assassin cursed and grabbed his leg when he stopped.

Rhal paid no attention to his wounded assassin as he focused on the object in the distance. On closer inspection, Rhal realized that he was looking at what appeared to be a small mountain some ways off in the distance. But what really caught his eye was the reflection of something metallic next to it that he couldn't make out. Still, it was the first sign of life he'd seen in days and it was in the direction of the disturbance so it wasn't hard to make a decision and a moment later he was speeding towards the mountain with Ralesk following a moment later.

…

Despite going full speed towards the mountain, it still took over an hour before the two Sith arrived at their destination and it was not what either Sith had expected to find.

What had appeared to be just a mountain was actually part mountain and part massive bones. Rhal recognized the remains of Tatooine's largest predator, a krayt dragon, going around the stone mountain. There were also many other smaller remains nearby which, if the young Sith had to guess, likely meant that the dragon's former lair was somewhere in the area. However, Rhal's full attention was on the massive metallic object that had caught his attention before.

It was a ship, but not just any ship. Slightly larger than a shuttle, the ship had a white and red paint job with glowing blue energy lines running throughout the ship. The front of the ship had a viewport for the bridge as well as two laser cannons on each end of the bow, while the rear had four engines, two primary and two secondary, and a boarding ramp that was currently down.

Rhal recognized it as a Jedi Defender instantly.

Ralesk obviously recognized the ship as well, since Rhal could feel the anticipation coming of the little Sith in waves. Turning, and seemingly forgetting about his wounded leg, Ralesk turned to him and asked, "Well master, shall we introduce ourselves?"

"To who?" Rhal questioned with mild annoyance. He'd sensed immediately that no Jedi was actually onboard the ship. Reaching out, he was able to notice that there was a trained force sensitive some distance away from them and the light in them was plain to see. But Rhal had also noted that the Jedi was nowhere near the ship, a fact Ralesk should have noticed on his own if he'd also reached out with the Force. 'But he didn't. That's sloppy. Is it the pain in his leg or is the heat getting to him?'

Ignoring his assassin, Rhal approached the ship's lowered ramp and made his way up to the ship's entrance hatch and was almost shocked when the door slid open at his approach. 'I suppose I shouldn't be surprised a Jedi would feel it's unnecessary to lock down their ship when landing in the middle of a wasteland.' He thought with a shake of his head as entered the ship's interior.

Rhal actually had to fight to suppress a sigh of relief as he felt the ship's cool air wash over him and he realized the desert heat must have taken more of a toll on him than he'd first thought. Another sigh had him look back and see Ralesk had also entered the ship and was wearing a pleased expression, not even trying to hide how happy he was to finally escape the scorching sun.

Making their way through the ship, both of the Sith were quick to note just how empty the vessel was. Aside from about a month's supply of food, most of the items onboard the ship had likely come with the vessel itself and almost nothing had been added since save a few Jedi texts in the ship's bedroom. 'Definitely a Jedi's ship. Nothing but the necessities. Incredible, they're allowed nothing and yet those so-called 'Masters' of theirs still don't understand why so many of their students fall when offered a taste of true power.' Rhal thought with a shake of his head as he continued to search the ship.

While Ralesk used the ship's medical supplies to properly tend to his leg, Rhal made his way to the ship's cockpit and found a datapad sitting in front of the ship's viewport and started looking through it. It quickly became clear it was a holodiary, likely belonging to the Jedi who owned the ship, and while most of it was filled with typical Jedi nonsense, the final entry caught the young Sith's attention.

In it, the Jedi stated that they'd received a mission from the Jedi Council to locate and apprehend a dangerous Sith who'd been spotted on Tatooine. No other details and no mention of the Sith's mission. The only thing mentioned was the Sith's name:

Vaverone Zare.

The name wasn't one Rhal was familiar with and, after Ralesk admitted he also hadn't heard of her, the young Dark Councillor was intrigued. If the Jedi had sent one of their own to deal with Zare, then she was likely a Lord or close to becoming one. After assuming his seat on the Council, Rhal had made a point of familiarizing himself with the names of the most powerful Sith and some of their more powerful agents. So either he'd missed Zare's name somehow or someone had taken steps to keep her existence hidden from him.

The thought infuriated him and Rhal immediately started trying to figure out who would have been able to hide such information and why.

His sister's name passed through his mind for a moment but Rhal dismissed that thought as quickly as it came. Zhorrid was many things but subtle certainly wasn't one of them and, even if she was, she definitely wasn't careful enough to successfully hide the names of her spies and informants without him learning about them, especially since he still had his own agents keeping close tabs on her and their last report only mentioned that she was behaving no different than normal. With her angry and insane rantings that seemed to be endless.

The culprit was almost certainly one of the other Dark Council members, but which one? Rhal knew that he could safely rule out several of them.

Marr, Decimus, Ravage, and Acharon were all warriors who wanted battles, victories, and dead foes above all else and none of them would have had a reason to send one of their agents to Tatooine. Vengean was dismissed for the same reasons though Rhal did consider his apprentice, Darth Baras, for a few moments before dismissing him as well. 'Baras just sent his best apprentice to this planet less than a month ago. If he wanted something from this wasteland that was important enough for him that he felt he needed to hide the identity of one of his agents, then he most likely would have just used his current apprentice to get it while he was still here. He could have used his apprentice's other task here to cover him doing whatever this Zare was sent to do.' Rhal thought, deciding that it was unlikely Baras was behind this cover up. This time.

That left six members: Hadra, Vowrawn, Mortis, Arctis, Aruk, and Rictus. Rhal doubted it was Hadra. She specialized in advanced forms of technology, which was very unlikely to be found on Tatooine. He also doubted Mortis was involved, seeing as he was well known to be very focused on making sure the Treaty of Coruscant stayed in place and there was nothing happening on Tatooine that would in any way affect the Treaty. 'Still, I can't rule either of them out completely. I'll need to check in with my spies watching them when I return to Dromund Kaas.'

Despite that thought, Rhal felt much more confident that Zare's master was one of the other four Sith. The problem was that he didn't have enough information to rule any of them out. All four could have had reasons to send one of their agents or apprentices here and, without knowing Zare's mission or anything else about her, he couldn't know which one was more likely than the others.

Vowrawn and he were on good terms at the moment, but Rhal knew the old Pureblood had his secrets and would surely try to keep certain things hidden from him. Still, that didn't explain why he would send one of his agents to Tatooine. Vowrawn enjoyed his games among the Sith but Rhal didn't let himself underestimate him as many of his past rivals and enemies had. It's possible there was a reason the Pureblood had sent someone here, but the why eluded him.

If Aruk had sent her, it could explain how Zare had been spotted by the Jedi. Even among the Sith, Darth Aruk held a deeper hatred of the Jedi than most, viewing their ways and teachings as a stain upon the galaxy that had to be wiped out at all costs. It's possible he'd sent Zare to Tatooine and instructed her to make sure she was noticed by someone who would report her presence back to the Jedi, knowing they'd send one of their own to deal with her. If that was the case, then perhaps this Zare was being tested. Aruk could be using her as bait to draw out a Jedi so the two would eventually meet and do battle. If Zare killed the Jedi, she passed her test. If the Jedi killed Zare, then she was too weak to serve him. 'Not a bad theory, but unfortunately I have no evidence to support it.'

Arctis having sent her was a good possibility. The head of the Pyramid of Ancient Knowledge was always searching for lost Sith artifacts and one or more ending up on Tatooine wasn't as unlikely as some might believe. Many artifacts and relics had been found on similar wasteland worlds, either hidden there by their creators long ago or stolen and found in the possession of the looters who raided their owners' tombs. So there was a good chance Arctis had sent Zare to retrieve one such relic but, as with the others, he didn't have enough information to be certain.

Lastly was Rictus and, of all the Dark Council members, he was the one Rhal was the most uncertain about. This was natural seeing as Rictus was the Keeper of Mysteries and had held the title for decades. Even his father had known little about Rictus despite the fact that Darth Rictus was the oldest living member of the Dark Council and had been for some time. Rhal knew what most knew, that the old Sith was responsible for protecting Sith secrets and other lore that was considered too dangerous to use and that he used assassins to remove high-risk targets to the Empire.

Rictus would certainly go to great lengths to keep the identities of his followers secret but, while he could have had the most reason to send one of his operatives to Tatooine, it's also just as likely that he could have had the least. The elderly Darth was just too much of an unknown and Rhal didn't know any of his desires or motivations.

There was also the slight possibility that none of the Dark Council members had been the one to hide Zare's existence from him, but Rhal doubted that. Only someone with very high clearance would have had access to those files and he highly doubted that anyone other than a Dark Council member would have been able to delete Zare's files.

Rhal's head shot up and turned in a seemingly random direction. The Jedi, or the individual he assumed was a Jedi, was moving back towards the ship and quickly. Smiling, the young Sith stood and made his way out of the Jedi ship to go out and stand under the shade of the ship, facing the direction he could feel the force-sensitive approaching from.

A few moments later, Ralesk also exited the ship and came to stand at his master's side. His bloodlust grew stronger with each passing moment. "Master, please allow me to deal with this Jedi when they arrive."

Rhal considered the request for a few moments before nodding. "Very well." He permitted, causing the joy and bloodlust within Ralesk to reach new heights. He had been planning on dealing with the Jedi himself. The time spent crossing the desert had empowered him with a great deal of anger he wanted to unleash, but he realized that this was also an opportunity.

Ralesk was a useful agent, a decent warrior, and a capable assassin. He was strong in the Dark Side and knew how to use it to crush his enemies. However, Rhal had never seen the full extent of his assassin's abilities. But now, he'd be facing a Jedi of unknown strength and he was still wounded. Such circumstances would force him to show his true strength and Rhal saw the value in knowing just how strong his minion was. 'And if he fails, then I lose little since I can just replace him with Seake.'

So the two Sith stood in the ship's shadows and awaited the return of its owner.

…

Nariel Pridence, gliding across the sands on her personal speeder bike, made her way back to her ship so she could return to Tython to report the success of her mission. A mission that had turned out to be more complicated than the young Jedi Knight had expected. 'Well, perhaps complicated isn't the right word. Unusual seems much more appropriate.'

She'd figured out quickly that Tatooine was very different compared to Tython. Not just the environment, but the people as well. Both were harsh and often unforgiving. It was nothing like she had ever experienced before, having only known the beauty of Tython and the calming presence of her fellow Jedi practitioners.

Still, she knew the importance of her task. Vaverone Zare was a serious threat and had to be stopped. Even before she discovered what it was that Zare had been after, she had been confident that whatever had brought Zare to Tatooine would likely be just as dangerous as the Sith herself, if not even moreso.

Locating her had proven to be a surprisingly difficult task considering that this planet was noted to be among the more sparsely populated planets in the galaxy. It didn't help that most of the locals weren't willing to answer her questions, with most simply ignoring her and a few even attacking her for reasons that were frankly beyond her. 'Like those men in the bar.' She thought, remembering the Weequay and his companions who attacked her simply because she hadn't left when they asked her to.

The memory brought with it a slight feeling of unease. As a Jedi, Nariel did not like any situation that forced her to take the life of another. She understood that sometimes such situations were unavoidable, but that didn't mean she enjoyed them. 'Not like Zare.'

Zare had been every bit the monster Nariel had expected and more when she had finally tracked her down to Diago Hixan's hideout in the Dune Sea. She would never forget the smile on Zare's face as the Sith impaled the crime lord from behind with her lightsaber while the gangster had been distracted fighting the Captain.

The Force worked in mysterious ways, Nariel had learned this lesson very early on in her Jedi training, but she would never have expected it to send her such an unusual ally. The Captain, whose name to her shame she never actually learned, only knowing his title because of the woman who'd contacted him during his brief conversation with Diago, seemed to find humor in almost any situation. Nariel had thought him incapable of taking a situation seriously until seeing him fight back at the hideout.

At first she hadn't even noticed him, being too focused on her duel with Zare. She was just as deadly with a lightsaber as Nariel had expected and it had taken everything she'd had just to defend herself. Then, without warning, Zare had broken off from the battle and rushed towards Diago, who'd turned his back to them to focus on the Captain. Nariel didn't have any time to shout a warning before Zare stabbed her lightsaber into his back and through his heart, ending his life in an instant and letting the body fall to the ground a moment later. Zare's smile when she'd turned back to her made the Sith's evil and madness plain to see.

However, that smile had vanished quickly when Zare suddenly spun around to a deflect blaster shot fired at her from the Captain. The focus and seriousness of his eyes had surprised Nariel greatly, having only seen them relaxed and amused up until that point.

Her surprise faded quickly when the Captain started firing more blaster bolts at Zare, who deflected each one with ease while she began advancing towards him. Nariel rushed forward, hoping to take advantage of Zare's distraction to finish the battle quickly, but her attack failed as Zare spun and blocked her lightsaber right before it could make contact.

Zare had smirked up at her, opened her mouth to say something, only for her to cry out in pain and use the force to push her back. Nariel saw what had happened when she landed as Zare had turned back towards the Captain, revealing a still smoking blaster wound on the Sith's back. She might have failed to take advantage of Zare's distraction, but the Captain hadn't.

Zare responded by unleashing a blast of force lightning, which the Captain avoided by taking cover behind one of the larger supply crates that littered the cave. Nariel attempted to strike Zare again but, just as before, Zare moved quickly enough to block her attack. She was also prepared for the Captain's attack as well and, when the shots were fired, she sent the shots back towards him before coming at Nariel with a ferocity that the young Jedi had never encountered before.

However, despite her fierce attacks, Nariel had realized that Zare was weakening and growing increasingly desperate. It quickly became clear that the Sith wasn't used to fighting multiple opponents at the same time. The Captain resumed firing while Nariel kept looking for openings that would allow her to end the fight and the battle slowly began to turn in their favor as Zare was forced to go on the defensive to protect herself from her two attackers.

Finally the Captain managed to hit Zare in the back twice more, causing the Sith to drop to her knees and for her red lightsaber to fall from her hands. Before Nariel could even offer her a chance to surrender, Zare screamed, stood up, pointed both hands towards the young Jedi, and unleashed a massive blast of force lightning. Nariel had barely managed to bring her lightsaber up in time to block the unexpected attack, but the lightning was so powerful it still managed to push her back several feet.

Then, as quickly as it had come, the lighting just stopped. Looking, Nariel saw that Zare's face was a mix of shock and confusion. A small smoking hole in her neck. The Sith reached a hand up to cover the hole and slowly turned to face the one who had caused it. The moment the two locked eyes, the Captain didn't hesitate.

One final blaster shot to the head ended the life of Vaverone Zare.

Nariel was a talented force user and skilled with her lightsaber, but she knew that Zare had been more powerful than her. As Nariel looked down at her fallen foe, she had briefly wondered what would have happened if the Captain had listened to her warning and hadn't followed her into the desert. A light shake of her head had banished such thoughts from her mind. There was no purpose dwelling on what could have happened and she still had her mission to think about.

A mission that had suddenly become far more important when she realized exactly what it was that Zare had been after.

A holocron.

One created by one of the most dangerous Sith Lords who had ever lived.

She departed after retrieving it, but the Captain had stayed behind to "see what kind of treasures Diago left just laying around". Nariel couldn't help but smile when she heard that. The Captain was a very strange man, but he was also a good person in his own way. She hoped one day their paths would cross again.

Going over another sand dune, Nariel's ship came into view and the young Jedi was pleased to know that her mission had been a success and soon she'd be returning to the Jedi Temple on Tython. The Jedi Council would likely be pleased as well knowing that the Sith had failed to get their hands on a source of such dark secrets.

However, as she neared her ship, Nariel noticed two figures standing under it. One was over a head taller than the other but she couldn't make out any other details. Both were wearing what looked like worn traveling cloaks and each had heads down and their hoods up, concealing their faces. Nariel wondered briefly if they'd been traversing the desert and had gotten lost.

Reaching her ship, she brought her speeder bike to a stop and stepped off it. Neither of the two individuals had looked up at her arrival, despite having surely heard her. "Greetings travelers. Are you in need of any assistance?" Nariel asked.

For a moment, the two strangers said nothing. Then, the shorter of the two stepped forward and threw back his hood. The face that was revealed caused Nariel's eyes to widen in shock and alarm. The clear signs of dark side corruption, red eyes, and crazed smile that was so similar to Zare's told Nariel exactly who the two strangers were. "Sith." She said while using the force to call her lightsaber to her hand and activate it.

The small Sith before her chuckled before removing his cloak and letting it drop into the sand. "Jedi." He said while drawing his own weapon. "My master has allowed me the pleasure of ending your life, but please try not to die too quickly." Then the red blade in his hand came to life and he launched forward.

The new Sith's fighting style was nothing like Zare's. Her strikes had been controlled while this Sith's strikes were wild and all over the place. As was the Sith himself, moving quickly and using his small size to his advantage. As much as he could anyway. Nariel noted that one of the Sith's legs had medical wrapping so his injuries were likely slowing his movements slightly.

However, the Sith was still very quick and, after blocking three quick slashes, the Sith jumped over her head and tried to slash across her back as he was landing. But Nariel had anticipated the attack and, calling on the force to give her a little more strength, she spun and met the Sith's lightsaber with her own.

With the Sith still being in the air he had no way to absorb the blow and was sent flying back and landed on his back somewhat roughly in the sand. The Sith got back to his feet quickly though, but Nariel noticed a slight wince when he put more weight on his injured leg.

An idea forming in her mind, Nariel advanced and began using more powerful blows to push the Sith back. When he stepped back on his injured leg, Nariel caught another faint wince flash across his face and her idea began to take shape. The Sith growled and used the force to push her back slightly, but this only gave Nariel the space she needed to execute her plan.

Using the force to strengthen her whole body, Nariel leapt towards the Sith and brought her lightsaber down towards his head. Having no time to dodge, the Sith blocked the incoming blow, likely hoping to follow up with a counterattack, only to grimace and hiss in pain as the force of the blow put pressure on his injured leg. Taking advantage of her foe's momentary distraction, Nariel kept moving and quickly crouched low and aimed a horizontal slash right at her opponent's injured leg.

The Sith proved faster than she expected though and stepped back quickly enough to avoid losing his limb, but not quickly enough to completely avoid the blade as it still managed to cut into the Sith's leg just above the knee and right below the medical wrapping. As the Sith cried out in pain and fell to a knee, Nariel couldn't help the slight feeling of pity she felt seeing yet another servant of the dark side fall due to their arrogance and overconfidence.

Stepping forward, she raised her lightsaber to end the Sith's life. As much as she would rather accept the Sith's surrender, there was still another Sith present that she'd likely need to deal with and she couldn't be certain that her fallen opponent wouldn't rejoin the battle while she was distracted. "May you find peace in the force." She said before she brought her lightsaber down.

Only to strike nothing but air as the Sith disappeared.

Nariel was stunned for only a moment before her eyes widened in shock as a red blade erupted from her chest. She would have gasped if a hand hadn't seized her tightly by the throat.

"Peace is a lie, Jedi." The Sith whispered in her ear, the last word spat like the vilest of curses before the hand around her throat released her and the red lightsaber in her chest disappeared.

Nariel, despite having been impaled with a burning lightsaber just a moment ago, suddenly felt very cold. The heat of the desert no longer even present in her mind and, as she fell to her knees, Nariel knew she was about to die.

Yet, the realization didn't cause her to feel despair or anger. Only acceptance. And so, as she felt the last flickers of life leaving her, the Jedi Knight simply closed her eyes and reminded herself that this was the force's will. 'There is no death, there is only the force.'

With that final thought, Nariel Pridence fell into the sand.

…

Rhal watched the Jedi collapse and his eyes soon drifted towards Ralesk. The Sith assassin was breathing heavily, both due to pain and exhaustion. He had one of his hands covering the new wound on his leg and his other hand still held his now deactivated lightsaber tightly.

Disappointment was all the young Dark Council member felt after witnessing that duel. Yes, the Jedi was dead, but she hadn't been very strong yet Ralesk had struggled from start to finish. He'd even allowed her to take advantage of a clear weakness when she forced him to use his injured leg when blocking her strike and, if it weren't for the force and his reflexes, Rhal was certain he would have lost his leg as well as his life instead of simply having to deal with the slight wound he now had.

Still, the duel had served its purpose in revealing Ralesk's true strength and, while Rhal was displeased at discovering just how weak his assassin was, it was an important reminder that he needed to secure stronger allies and servants. Securing Grathan's powerbase for himself had been a good start and Rhal was confident that, given time, Seake would prove to be far more useful than Ralesk, but he still needed more powerful forces of his own. 'And find new loyal bodyguards as well. If for no other reason than to avoid looking weak.'

Rhal walked forward and approached the now dead Jedi. He didn't bother looking at Ralesk. He'd already seen everything he wanted and he wasn't going to bother offering aid. The assassin could do as he did before and patch himself up.

No, he was far more interested in the dark side artifact he knew the Jedi was carrying. He'd sensed it as soon as she'd gotten closer and was certain that whatever the Jedi had was also what Zare had been after and, seeing as the Jedi was the one who possessed it, Rhal assumed this meant that Zare was no more. Which was more than a little irritating to the young Sith since he'd hoped to question her and discover her master's identity. However, all thoughts of Zare quickly left Rhal's mind as he pulled his prize out of the small pouch the Jedi had kept on her belt.

A Sith holocron. For it could be nothing else. Rhal's previous feelings of anger and frustration were quickly replaced by excitement. There were few things in the galaxy more valuable than lost knowledge and dark secrets and a holocron promised both.

Oh, it wasn't the first holocron he'd ever seen. Darth Jadus had kept several that he'd been permitted to study over the years and they'd all come into his possession after his father's death but, like the holocrons used on Korriban, Rhal had long since learned all their secrets. This new holocron however, was one he didn't recognize. He looked very forward to unlocking all its secrets when he returned to Dromund Kaas. 'And, seeing as the Jedi no longer needs it, her ship can get us back there much sooner.' Rhal thought as he made his way back towards the ship, confident that he'd gotten what the force had sent him here for.

However, after taking a single step up the ship's boarding ramp, Rhal felt a familiar tug on his senses. Turning around, he looked off into the distance where the pull had come from. The desert somehow managed to look even less inviting then it did when he'd first set out from the terrorist village.

"Master?" Ralesk questioned. The assassin had been following his master back towards the Jedi's ship, limping all the way, but stopped when his master did the same.

At first, Rhal just continued staring into the distance. Ralesk wondered if his master had heard him and was about to ask again but Rhal spoke first. "Take the Jedi's ship back to the Overlord and Admiral Kalmic." He ordered, knowing that a Jedi ship could be a useful thing to hold onto.

"Master, will you not be returning as well?" Ralesk asked, clearly confused as Rhal walked back down the ramp and made his way towards the dead Jedi once more and, after a moment, retrieved her communicator before making his way towards the speeder bikes.

"Your time here is over. Take the ship, return to Dromund Kaas, and await my orders." Rhal commanded before settling himself on one of the speeder bikes and engaging the engines, flying off into the distance and leaving behind a very confused Sith assassin.

Ralesk just stood there for a few moments as he watched his master disappear into the distance. Then he shrugged, made his way up the ship's ramp, and after a few moments the ramp went up and the former Jedi ship ascended and flew off into space, leaving the desert planet behind it.

A.N.

I know it's been quite a while since the last update and I'm sorry about that. This chapter fought me from start to finish. I changed the whole thing several times and I'm still not all that happy about it, but it's done and I'm looking forward to what's coming next so hopefully it will go at least a little bit more smoothly. As always, PLEASE REVIEW! It is and always will be great encouragement for me to continue and I always want to hear any and all thoughts you have. Thank you very much for taking the time to read this and I'll see you all next time!